#and my storyboard for the one shot is shit and I have just 2 shots in my mind

[kurv4]

do I really want to watch 10 different tutorials on how to move cube blocks in a 3D program..,

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 1

Pages 1-30

We are introduced to the man who ruined my life:

Currently nameless night guard with pale as fuck skin and pretty dead inside eyes. Weirdly grey hair for how youthful he is and blonde eyebrows.

Bro dyes his hair grey for some unexplainable reason.

forgive the art looking goofy it is over 2 years old lmfao.

I was too lazy to draw shit on a lot of the walls. I hate drawing backgrounds. Still do they are annoying. So BGs barely exist in Creations. It allows a lot more character focused shots but it is also very annoying looking back. X'DDDD

Though it means if I bothered with a background thing it's IMPORTANT.

Mike suspiciously eyes the things I bothered to draw on the wall because: Oop Springtrap.

Which you think would be a plot hole but this comic fucks with your sense of what reality is in the comic's own logic.

Mr. Nightguard still refuses to talk, but is intrigued by the robots on his cameras.

You'll notice: I tend to draw a LOT of panels for smaller details.

My comics have now been compared to "Storyboards" and I feel like that is more accurate. Like a lot of comics STUFF dialogue and actions into tight panels but as an indie comic creator: I don't have page limits lmao.

So I can make them do smaller actions and have the pace be a little slower.

I think this is why a lot of people get impeccant with my comics but I kinda like showing off more small simple actions.

Freddy appears!

And Mr. Nightguard is flabbergasted and checks his cams. Sure enough Chica and Freddy are both gone.

There's an error in this page lmfao but we're not gonna talk about that.

Freddy seems friendly enough...Maybe TOO friendly...

Freddy wants to fuck the nightguard lmfao and makes it very obvious.

So this is a running gag in Creations: you think a character will be one way and they just...Aren't. (Because of pre-established AU concepts like..."Freddy's a good leader")

This Freddy, is distinctly "a hoe". And I love him.

If it isn't extremally obvious...but just for those who are REALLY dumb: Most of the robots aren't possessed by kids.

This AU takes ideas from the FNAF series and ignores a lot.

Because it's an AU.

And I can do whatever I want lmfao.

People accepted Freddy was a slut but then got REALLY ANGRY about random semantics like what a certain character's name was.

And I'll never understand how you could accept Freddy being HIMSELF here, but would get mad about like...NAMES.

Someone explain that to me???? X'D

Either way Mr. Nightguard isn't ready for Freddy and locks him out of the office.

Freddy responds rather childishly by getting angry and proclaiming he is the most important person here.

Mr. Nightguard just points to the camera wordlessly as if to say "I am watching the place/you"

Freddy gets pissy and decides to go to SOMEONE to sort the nightguard's rude behavior out.

Freddy is seemingly more bothered about the Nightguard being rude than the rejection itself.

Bonnie the Bunny is a smoking tough guy in this comic.

Why?

Because the most accepted Fannon Bonnie was a weak little shithead that didn't do much so I made mine a tough guy. X'D

He's a stoner because comedy.

Distinctly one of his eyes are busted and he is not a fan of Freddy plowing into him.

We learn immediately Freddy whining to Bonnie is normal and while Bonnie acts annoyed he goes to sort things out immediately showing his loyalties do lie with the bear.

Also bonnie is huge if Freddy's height is anything to go off of.

He yanks off Mr. Nightguard's hat and is generally a rude fellow himself.

Asking bluntly if Mike has a second to hear what he has to say.

Mr. Nightguard stares blankly at this action.

Bonnie has no clue what personal space is, getting more and more into Mr. Nightguard's face and doesn't even let him respond.

Bonnie's the one who seemingly keeps the peace around here via thinly vailed threats of violence.

Freddy's whining fest is again linked to the rude behavior of slamming the door and Bonnie isn't a fan of hearing it.

Bonnie continues not to let Mr. Nightguard get a word in and is ready to leave getting ready to smoke another cigarette.

Mr. Nightguard recognizes Bonnie prompting my favorite lines from any character in this comic:

"What a freak"

because Mike being considered a freak is a running gag in this comic for reasons that become VERY apparent.

Bonnie's eyes shift a different color too. How odd. :)

I was lazy with this one lmao.

Someone with the initials "F.S" is a big fan of Freddy.

And other doodles have a lot of references to broken hearts.

Mr. Nightguard can hear Mike coming, he DID something that pissed Bonnie off. This presumably had to do with Freddy Mr. Nightguard seems unphazed and rather silly in his mannerisms and dialogue despite his blank expression.

Saying "Boop" as he presses the button and obviously lying when he claims he doesn't know how to use a knife in a fight.

Why is Mr. Nightguard carrying a suspiciously large kitchen knife around on him exactly?

Bonnie is ready and WANTS a fight, but Mr Nightguard is very hesitant to do so.

Bonnie is rude and blows cigarette smoke into Mr. Nightguard's face, repeating he is pissed off.

asking if Mr. Nightguard knows how people die there.

Golly gee. I can finally stop calling him "Mr Night guard"

This is Mike Schmidt. We are introduced to the idea there is ANOTHER Mike in the building... If you are familiar with FNAF lore you know exactly who that is.

Bonnie proclaims Mike Schmidt's new name is "Baby boy"

a very rude and condescending nickname for a grown man.

Bonnie has an odd device in the back of his throat when he opens his mouth wider. If you've noticed up until this point: Bonnie doesn't open his mouth to speak, that thing in the back of his throat is an air filter and he keeps his mouth shut until the air he smokes is clear.

This is never stated directly in the comic, rather smth you gotta infer yourself at some point. Which lead to MANY people asking "Wtf is that thing in Bonnie's mouth"

It's an air filter.

Mike gets tossed into the backroom area.

There's a cheeky reference to my OC comic Falling Cards with some art on the wall. There's a LOT of Falling Cards references in at least a few of my FNAF animations I know that for sure. X'D

Mike is disturbed by the blood on the spare empty Freddy suit.

Bonnie not so subtly threatens "That's where he's going"

Implying someone has most certainly DIED in there.

I have joked with just about everyone that scene is kinky.

And that joke only gets funnier when smth about Bonnie is revealed later buuuut I digress.

Mike is prepped for death.

Mike actually shows some emotion here being disturbed as the suit is tossed besides him and Bonnie lifts up the Freddy head.

Mike shows off a package of SOMETHING that captures Bonnie's attention.

People assumed that was chocolate.

But considering we've seen Bonnie obsessed with ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY...you can kinda infer what that packet is...

Mike's attitude intimidates even Bonnie.

This kinda gives the vibe nobody's been this aggressive, at least in this particular manor towards the animatronics before.

Mike comes off as an incredibly unstable individual given what we know about him so far:

He carries around a kitchen knife and will quickly snap if you act in a way he deems inappropriate.

It's revealed in case you didn't realize: This was a package of cigarettes.

Which leads to the fun question: Does Mike smoke?

This would seem silly on first glance. He HAS a pack of cigarettes of COURSE he smokes...Right?

Notice: He doesn't use the previously mentioned knife through this scene but would rather use bribery...

This shows Mike would rather manipulate/intimidate than actually fight physically. Which makes sense considering Bonnie's size and strength.

Or perhaps he is avoiding a fight with Bonnie for emotional reasons. As it's implied Mike has some connection.

Either way he cuts a deal with Bonnie that he will give Bonnie a few cigarettes for work. And Bonnie agrees.

We start off in the office, it is unclear if this is a new day or the same night.

Bonnie happily has his cigarette and Mike remarks he didn't think Bonnie NEEDED to smoke.

Bonnie just responds Freddy's bots are weird.

There's a help wanted easter egg here with the faz token in the lockers.

Mike is searching for "anything of interest" and establishes he's interested in the bloody suit.

Bonnie seems amused by this outright stating he just wanted to scare Mike. Delighted in getting a reaction out of our so far very stoic night guard.

Bonnie seems clueless about the actual death surrounding that suit, just that he knows SOMEONE died in it at SOME POINT. But can we really trust his word at this point?

Bonnie also says ANOTHER favorite line of mine, because it's so stupid

"Hah...Blunt"

get it. because weed-

Anyway Mike mentions a person named "Jeremy" to Bonnie and Bonnie confuses this person with another Jeremy in a different department.

This evidently isn't who Mike is talking about.

Bonnie's SHOCKED Mike would DARE leave the office but Mike's full of sass and says as long as he has the tablet to watch the cameras he IS doing his job.

Bonnie shows an odd level of concern, voicing Mike is putting himself in danger.

Mike not so slyly brings up he can bring Bonnie more cigarettes as a way to keep himself safe.

Bonnie's vision gltiches as Mike smiles and Bonnie is very freaked out by this, weirdly apologizing for nothing.

Bonnie has a moment of clarity realizing he has seen Mike before somewhere too.

Something about this man is FIMILAR.

Bonnie catches on Mike's method of self preservation: His blank expression.

It's a lie.

One Bonnie can see through easily as Mike's actions don't reflect a state of someone who is calm.

Asking Bonnie to stay close and holding his hand, coming to the realization Mike feels safer with Bonnie for whatever reason.

He purposely does a creepy at the cameras freaking out Jeremy Fitzgerald, who isn't interested in "Being a witness".

A hand pokes out from behind Mike. One that isn't Bonnie's.

OH HI GOLDEN FREDDY'S MASSIVE BLEEDING FLOATING HEAD. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU!?

Mike and Jeremy seem to not notice their presence.

Jeremy is terrified of Bonnie however. Mike reassures Bonnie is a non issue as Bonnie pats Mike's head firmly mockingly saying "Hi Jeremy"

Bonnie continues to mess with Mike's hair rather childishly while Mike seems unphased. Bonnie's antics aren't something he really seems to mind.

He bribes Bonnie with more cigarettes to watch the cams while he discusses things with Jeremy. Jeremy himself lamenting Mike is WEIRD.

Jeremy quickly realizes Mike isn't completely insane and starts rambling about his terrible experiences at Freddy's.

Noting the Nightguards are really redundant considering the robot security.

His comment about the robots being "Evil" pisses Bonnie off.

The person who shares Mike's name is brought up again we now know him as "Michael". Jeremy is eager to get onto dayshift with this individual and Mike also wants to get in touch with him.

This "Michael" figure apparently works in the rental place below the main building and not much is known what goes on down there...how odd. Jeremy seems a bit upset by this fact.

[hollow-lime-green]

have you seen the 6 floating pages of 271? because i wanted to say something but i also don't wanna spoil it for you

okay SO good ask. no, and actually i'm making an effort to stay off of socmed until Saturday probably. (also i'm slammed until then because my good friend defended her masters this morning and we are Doing Celebration).

i get back pretty late from my d&d stuff on wednesdays, so usually the leaks have started, and i'll either stay up or just get the full vers in the morning. so when i checked in and saw that it was a partial leak and the translations weren't there yet, i decided i'd rather wait for the full thing.

i didn't like the whole leak experience with yuji being the unborn twin - wait no actually jin is the unborn twin. incomplete translations for me just aren't how i want to see the story for the first time, so for this one i'm gonna wait. if the leaks proceeded like normal i'd probably go for it, but eh, i'll chill.

i cannot think of any way that this final chapter will be fully satisfying, but i will give it its best shot.

one semi-spoiled thought under the cut-

so the only thing i've been 'spoiled' on is that i opened my fucking phone web browser to get to a university website lmao, and one of the recommended 'news articles' thingies was like "jjk leaks reveal a big realization and maybe part 2???" which isn't really a spoiler lmao. but also fuck you article writer, i should be able to avoid leaks if i want and that shit was annoying.

but anyway. without any googling to confirm it or anything like that, i don't really think that a part 2 drop is a huge spoiler if that's the case? i think no matter how the story ends, you could have a part 2 if you wanted. like, everyone dies - easy part 2. everyone lives - also easy part 2 because there's a lot of things yet to be addressed (like new shadow school... i guess. god i hate you for that greg).

the only thing that makes a part 2 surprising is what gege's attitude has been on the series/continuing it/moving on, but even all of that is just what i've heard/read secondhand, and it's not surprising if he would want to continue based on jjk's success, although if that is the case then i hope he can take a break and storyboard a little better to create something he feels a bit more solid on narratively

anyway, i am really looking forward to the chapter, and if i break and go find leaks then i will likely post my thoughts with some spoiler tags

[istherewifiinhell]

okay just gonna link a bunch of the es story boards videos (i started this with the mind of curation but ended up in a place of COLLECTION. whoops)

and ONE FUN BONUS at the end which u could just skip to the bottom for if (website popup voice) YOU DONT LIKE COOL ANIMATION. (joking lmao. this is for me interact however u like). The bonus is BOTH a fun fact and a fun vid.

i could not be any more clear at ALL TIMES. that i want ppl to watch es but lol either way. <3 story boards. (note also the rise turtles like swag (crossover staff) and see why i say this show looks so good cause u can tell their doing the 3d like its 2d)

notes: scratch track (the non VA audio in theses) so charming. yay u get to see them actually use purple rain. u can really clock mandroid flubbed a punch cause he DIDNT want to punch alex (inch resting) LOOK how extra expressive twitches alt mode is in 2d tho RIP. (crys about the little bird moment for the five hundredth time). Hashtag <3 fucking lmao.

this scene is one of those first DAMN thats crazy in the show i feel like and oh lol. would u look at that. DAMN THATS CRAZY.

AND THEN. this is the part with the meg move i love so much and the meg.op battle couple AND THE AND THE. (passes out) its sooooo cool.

notes: deleted scene, explains WHY shock wave got out during the megs field trip ep. gayass. CUTE KITTY. #3 son mug. this shits literally just so funny. she/her rav pronoun drop fjgbdfjg.

notes: altered version from the final ep they moved night shade around. they all have their final mode colours in the boards aw lol. ALSO. little like. adopted kids moment that i doooo get why they cut but u ALSO GET how it would emotional payoff in the ep with NS protecting their parents Oughhh (rolls on the ground)

notes: JUST A LITTLE MORE emotional oumph to the megs flash back but not that different. hes handsome tho i like to see him. like the scratch tracks impression of shock wave its cute. i can hear the vocal quality their going for.

oh hey also GAY CARS. i just found these/am seeing them first time today

Neat!

NOT THE SAD SHIP VIDEO VIBES.... OH GOD OH GOD... NOT THE SAD ASS PIANO MUSIC..... WHAT THE HELL. THIS IS DEVASTATING. watching bd tanking those shots for bee and crumbling APART. awesome. what the fuck. HELLO.

finale stuff

kids fighting oppie at the train yard. just COOL

fight on the bridge. ALSO COOL.

BIG finale scene stuff in 3 diff parts

scary shit and visuals that FUCK

THE MEGS ANGST. im KILLS ME that it didnt get a way in there. tho would have killed me to see also. no really tho this shit is so visually insane god damn. seeing this DID also help me understand how the screamer save happened better. EVIL SPIDER MAN. also in the group that comes saves em. was not in the final ep but we must pray hes still safe maybe just doing smth else.... (hes with swin and his bro busting in. the brother is the car. lol). twitch doing megs move!!! (propelling herself with her canon). mandroid going full fucking beast mode.... etc.

urghh u can really vibe out how bad those injuries are. and emotionally. bwah.. and. THIS SHOW. god. okay.

okay this one isnt the bonus but ill give it anyway

song from the tf the movie and also my alarm for several months (yes it HAS stopped working thanks for asking) BWAH. my loves. (weeping gently)

OKAY HERE IS THE FUN BONUS VIDEO

REALLY funny really goofy really fucking delightful. the mean girl trio seekers energy is supreme. god i love gay ppl. anyway. hey. doesnt that screamer look.... familiar...... WHY YES. YOU MAY NOTE THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL... SAME PERSON. THEY GOT A FUCKING JOB. ON THE SHOW. (unsure if its causally related) THATS SO FUCKING CRAZY the world is wonderful. es seeker trio THE mean girls seeker trio of all time. even if their barely in it. cause like. wow. (gets stuck in my loop of watching this forever and ever again) BWAH

[lizardinkart]

Lizard Reads Ward

Arc 1: Daybreak

Lizard’s Cry Counter: 2

TL;DR: A Victoria-focused arc that dragged a bit in places but ultimately felt like everything we needed to know about her (and more). I wished it’d started closer to the fight but having the fight, the trauma, and the family drama laid out felt like the groundwork that was missing from the prologue, especially with the shifted role of Amy. Wish that we had a little more about the other characters introduced in the prologue tho. 8/10 Aight! Let’s get wormin’!

So in my brain I’ve split the arc in to 3 parts, pre-fight, fight, and post-fight, so I’ll talk about the arc in terms of those mini-arcs. Mini-Arc 1: Pre-Fight (Victoria, not Glory Girl)

Ok the fact that the city is Gold colored is hilarious to me. This is Children’s Hospital Red™ levels of awful design choices, somebody really just said color theory in context is fake. I also appreciate the later indications that most of The City is in fact shittily built but hey shitty shelter is better than no shelter I guess (also relatable as someone looking at apartments). Other worldbuilding things I was thinking about since Wildbow really wants us to see the cool world he built (but it’s not really about the world tbh)- the technology of post-GM is so weird. Like you have dial-up internet but it also works perfectly fine and technology works when you need it to. Like I’m sorry but Reddit-AOL would be so much buggier. But all that being said, it’s really funny to see the irl jump in technology from when WB was writing Worm to when he was writing Ward, because Taylor’s flip phone vs smartphone drama was so real and relatable, and now dial-up internet just works on smartphones...I’m baffled. anywho! Onto Victoria lol. So Victoria is working with the new kiddie PRT- awesome, very cool. I appreciate the focus on her wanting to still feel heroic even if she gets that massive body dysmorphic/dysphoric (yes, both) feeling from actually using her powers. Though I also appreciate the small touches we see when she’s on her way to work with a much better mirror scene than the opening of Worm, her interactions with the one hero during the obelisk incident show that she still gets heroes and feels bad for the shit being thrown their way (idk, it gave me big closeted queer energy, queer-to-queer communication in a queerphobic environment one might say). “Nice response time” really is the dorkiest shit to say tho and I appreciate it. Victoria is a dork.  I also appreciate the setup with her parents, laying the groundwork for what’s to come later. Also that she enjoys working with the disillusioned and directionless kids/teens, cause that really is a thing that is the kind of selfless-selfish pull that I think Victoria is shown to be struggling with (finding the balance in the healing process is difficult!). While I felt like this part really did drag the most in the arc, I think there were some really good parts that make it worth it. And it leads into the first Wildbow fight of the story! Woohoo!  Mini Arc 2: The Fight (The Trauma Hammer)

Oh boy I do love me some Wildbow fights. I felt my little storyboarder brain light up because there were some God-tier moments in here that I wanted to draw sooooo bad. But alas, too many, not enough time. 

Crystalclear is cool as hell and I think he may be one of my faves of the new powers so far, he’s a very Wildbow-concept hero and I do really appreciate the man’s flare for the complex and flashy. Tempera is also cool, and Fume Hood is a snarky bitch and I love her. What a queen. She did not deserve to get shot (maybe a little tho).  

But overall there was some great tension in the ticking clock leading up to the fight, and seeing how shit played out was super fun as always, I was not expecting the 18-wheeler to come out of nowhere but it was a very fun time. I gotta say tho, I know Lord of Loss and Snag are important, but I for the life of me could not keep them straight in my brain since Snag made Victoria feel Loss, but like, that’s LoL’s name lmao. 

And on the topic of loss: oof. I did not call this the Trauma Hammer for nothing lol. This is where things went from meh to great for me in this arc, because since Victoria’s story was so ancillary to Worm, I had 1) forgotten how she triggered, and 2) didn’t really remember too much about the specifics of her story outside of the hospital interlude. But god, just sitting in her shoes through falling in love with Dean, losing him, losing her family, feeling inadequate to the rest of her family, and the ever-present looming threat of Her (that we will get to, don’t worry lol), it was just so helpful in really honing in on Victoria’s entire ish that is rattling around in the background. As someone who does characters like this, esp in TTRPGs, having that context of someone’s thought process really is helpful to have in understanding how you’re supposed to interpret the character, even if you’re already in their head (since characters and people lie to themselves, see: Taylor). But yeah, since Victoria avoids those thoughts anyway, it was clever to give them to us up front. And the fact that it happened while she was being a hero again? Kickass. Loved it. 

Mini Arc 3: Post- Fight (Her)

Oh my god this family is messy. I have essays I could write on Carol Dallon and just the Dallons in general but I think I’ll get the chance to eventually cause this is already too long lol. But oh my GOD I truly was thinking “yeah this is gonna go poorly, maybe some passive-aggressive family stuff, getting overwhelmed, getting pie and then leaving”, but holy SHIT the fact that Carol really just ambushed Victoria with lawyer speak and finessed the entire narrative of what was going on- jesus. Manipulative ass snake, but in such a relatable way. 

Once again, have been in that situation before and the way that Victoria goes from like a 2 to 1000 in 0.2 seconds when all the pieces come together- holy shit if that is not the exact feeling of trauma. I know the “#triggered” discourse is old hat at this point, but man I could feel myself get short of breath and panicky when Vicky got trauma triggered in this chapter (this is the spiritual Cry Point). It was so convincingly written that I wanna hold Wildbow in my hands to make sure he’s good.

But I’m proud of how Victoria handled herself, definitely snaps for that therapy working its magic, but man. The Amy Ambush (an Am(y)bush if you will, yes haha joke away), was so something I did not see coming this early, but I’m glad that it did because holy fuck. Victoria talking about moving on and then her family (mom) “moving on” but in a “forgive with an emphasis on forget” kinda way really does leave Victoria in a place that proves all that feeling of inadequacy right, and it’s crushing. But it provides that big stumbling block for her to overcome esp when she finds her new group. 

And seeing how many times she was forced to confront her worst moments and she still actively avoided Amy... oh baby. As an Amy Enjoyer (less “condoning her actions” more “study her like a bug”) I am highly intrigued in how this is gonna go. This is 7 levels of Fucked Up. 

I screamed with joy when Dr. Yamada showed up, I am in love with her and think she is wonderful, and also a great addition to the central cast of this story (esp in a story about healing from trauma? YES get the therapist in there). Also Crystal is wonderful and a good ally for Victoria, and I appreciate Victoria’s need to scrutinize both public and private Aesthetic (shoutout to me and Crystal vibing as 2 fun ADHD individuals). 

Also a shoutout for Gilpatrick because he’s cool and funky and a good boss. Get u someone like Gilpatrick. 

Bonus: The Interlude!

I would give my left kidney for Moose. I’m kicking Prancer’s ass, and I hope Velvet keeps her truck forever and ever. A better love story than her and Prancer tbfh. Also Nursery is so cool guys, she’s so neat. I love the weird shit being done with powers so far in Ward. 

AND A MARQUIS CAMEO HELLO???? HUSBAND?????? Sorry I really like Marquis lol. 

Final Thoughts

The only things I would criticize this arc for that lowered it a bit in my eyes is that the prologue really didn’t do a fantastic job of prepping us to only focus on Victoria. I wished we had sped things along a bit with getting to the others from PHO, even with little PHO interludes interspersed in to let us know what these guys were up to. Bc like, this really did feel like 3 arcs so I feel like we could have used another interlude or 2, just for spice and to break things up a little. Like a commercial break!

The other thing is Wildbow’s uh... underlying ish breaking through. I know Ward was written in the shadow of Worm for him, but there are some parts of these chapters that just feel very mean-spirited and pointed towards people who enjoyed certain parts of Worm. Mainly stuff that could be construed as “fandom” things, or things that fandom would like, that Wildbow seems to be very overt in saying “hey, fuck you for liking/engaging with this.” I dunno, it may just be me, but that kinda attitude cropping up often enough for me to notice the pissed-off hand of the author was off-putting and distracting from I think the greatest parts of this arc. Because it is a good story, it just feels like the occasional potshots WB takes are more coming from his own bitterness than Victoria’s, and are ultimately detrimental to the story as a whole. Idk, I will try not to bring it up so often, but it’s definitely something that’s running in the back of my head and I hope that it subsides soon-ish. 

But all of that to say, I enjoyed the arc! It was a solid opening that’s got me really excited to read more (which by this point, I have, and I will be writing up my arc 2 thoughts shortly lol), and the Trauma Hammer really hit home in a way that felt earnest and really earned. 

That’s all for now tho! As always, I’m happy to discuss stuff wherever, so let me know what you thought of the arc if you’ve read Ward! 

Until next time: Ward out ✨

[444lpblue]

Ishura #1 - Soujiro the Willow-Sword

Screenplay: Kenta Ihara Storyboard: Takeo Takahashi Episode Direction: Takuya Asaoka Chief Animation Direction: Yuka Takashina Animation Direction: Jun Yoshida, Shintarou Matsushima, Osamu Sakata, Norikatsu Nakano, Genichirou Kondou, Minami Sakura, Tatsuya Fukushima (Assistant AD: Keiichi Ishida, Eiji Shirai, Yuuki Ogawa) Key Animation: Hiroshi Yoneda, Tatsuya Takahashi, Hiroya Iijima, Jun Yoshida, Tsutomu Shibuya, Seiji Handa, Norikatsu Nakano, Yousuke Murata, Tatsuya Fukushima, Shintarou Matsushima, Osamu Sakata, Yasutoshi Iwasaki (Eyecatch F島)

Ishura was going to be a bit of a challenging anime to get right. Its well-woven and descriptive action in the novel would be difficult for a rough production to cover. The constant shift of perspectives and the slow pace at the beginning would likely make it hard to adapt. Now, we'll have to wait to see the latter part, but as for the action? I think they did a pretty damn good job.

I'm literally in school for computer animation, so I have nothing against CG, but in anime, they tend to be admittedly hit or miss. Even from the trailer, especially in specific cases like Shalk (skeleton bro), I could tell it was going to be pretty good. However, a lot of the shots of the golem in the PVs, I wasn't an extremely huge fan of, but they really do blend in a lot better than I expected in the actual episode.

I think it's mostly because of the way they did it; our 2D characters kinda look shiny themselves, they sorta have a 3D shading look to them. While opinions on this will be mixed, I think it was smart to seemingly work the other way around—getting the characters to blend in with the 3D models. It really does allow the show to have a more cohesive look, and I believe the 3D models/animation will save them from production issues later on.

I actually enjoyed this premiere significantly more than its light novel counterpart. I feel like it gave me a better liking to Sojirou, who, in my opinion, had the weakest introduction chapter by far. Seeing his excellent voice acting by Yuuki Kaji and all the mannerisms executed so well really sell his 'I don't really give a shit' attitude that greatly infuriates Yuno. I'm very excited to see more.

It would be very curious to see if the action can keep up. The episode was directly boarded by the chief director, Takeo Takahashi who did an amazing job here, but I'm doubtful that he will return just because he has Spice and Wolf to manage April of this year. So we'll have to see how the action flow without him. I'm eager to know the episode count because there's no way they can keep up with this one-episode-per-introduction pace unless it's a 2-cour series. Either way, I enjoyed the debut episode a lot as a light novel reader, and I'll be here next week for more.

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 2,626

[S] ACT 5 ACT 2 ==>

Song used: Homestuck by Mark Hadley

Song commentary:

Mark Hadley:

Plazmataz came up with a melody to use as an anthem for Homestuck, which they then used in Homestuck Anthem. While that was a very driving melody, I opted to come up with something that might be more suitable for credits (opening or end) or a title screen. I really like how this came out; it sounds a bit moody, but still optimistic, which is what I was aiming for.

Storyboards: http://readmspa.org/storyboards/02625.swf.html

Author commentary:

Here it is, yet another book hopelessly clogged with your favorite webtoon series, Homestuck. It's Book 5, which covers Act 5 Act 2. So in other words, a rare moment where the book number coincides with the act number. Don't worry though, that won't last long since this volume covers only half of Act 5 Act 2. So I guess it's…Act 5 Act 2 Part 1? I think I'm already getting a headache. Hey, is it too late to cancel these books? What's that? You're telling me it's too late for everything? We're all going down on this ship together? I see people in the crowd nodding their heads. Is what I'm doing by making jokes down here tantamount to what those guys were doing in playing classical music on the deck of the Titanic? Wait, I'm being handed a note from offstage. It says…yes. Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. It also says I should keep it up, if I know what's good for me, Joke Boy. Joke Boy?? Come on, guys. This book is 480 pages long, so I've got my work cut out for me. Maybe jokes are overrated. Maybe I'll start with a poem instead. Here goes: Curtains are red. Curtains are blue. Here's some more curtains. Instead of one, there are two. /Bows, ducking under brick thrown at head./

Can we start over? The note on the first page probably sounded a bit unhinged. Time to pull my shit together, splash a glass of cold water on my face, and add some fucking VALUE to this book. I promise I will do my very best to be coherent, articulate, and funny on every single page from now on. Oh, what's that? NOW you start laughing? Here's an idea. I'll start making some remarks about Homestuck, and you can all chill out. Deal? A5A2 opens with a stately, low-key animation reintroducing us to all the plot threads and characters we put on hold for what must have seemed like an eternity but in truth was only a few months of real-time updating. It's a piece conveying narrative integration, a montage of transmission, redirecting the energy just generated by the engine of Hivebent into torque, which then begins turning the wheels of the greater plot. When this animation ends, we finally take our foot off the brake and peel outta here. Since we just took such a long detour, we need little reminders of where we left off, which was [S] Descend. One such reminder is delivered by showing direct evidence that baby John has, in fact, literally murdered his grandmother with the huge joke book he rode down from space after getting shot through a portal during the Reckoning. Perhaps I should add that ending the life of another human being via a vast collection of corny jokes is a proposition I can identify with on a very personal level.

The old threads we're being reminded of wind into the new threads we just caught up with, by way of reviewing the life and times of John Egbert through the eyes of our new and favorite buddy, Karkat. The old and the new coming together like this lets us know what we're in for over the remainder of Act 5, which by now we can infer is a Whopper Act by previous standards, because we've just been modestly informed that the rest of this act is labeled with an entirely new subdivision called Act 2. Layering acts within acts is a thing that we didn't even know Homestuck could do. But really, we should have known, because Homestuck is always trying to let us know it can do anything it wants, but we just keep not listening. When I do things like drop the label "Act 5 Act 2" on readers, maybe it seems like I'm just clowning on you as usual. Maybe it's all a big goof. If you think that, fair. But there's real purpose here. By signaling that this is the beginning of an entirely new act unto itself, yet one still contained within another act, I'm letting you know the remainder of the arc is likely to be substantial. The process of merging two major narrative rivers into one huge river is itself going to be a very substantial narrative undertaking, and the story isn't going to bother pretending otherwise. Fooling around with the story's partitioning system in this whimsical way is actually a direct, totally up-front mechanism for dropping that pretense. It is literally using bullshit in order to stop bullshitting you.

Every little morsel of John's life, no matter how mundane or foolish, is absorbed by an absolutely captivated Karkat. Every tiny increment of this strange and exciting alien boy's journey through childhood is feeding into Karkat's brewing hatred just a little bit more. We coast through a few endearing moments we hadn't seen before, such as when John met Jade for the first time. As one might expect, it was a simple "hi im jade! hi i'm john!" type of transaction that got their friendship rolling. We also get a peek at John's ludicrous Harry Anderson wallpaper. A few weeks before I typed this note, Harry Anderson tragically passed away. R.I.P. to this magician guy who barely anyone knows of, or cares about. We hardly knew ye, or cared about ye.

The gag here—okay wait, this isn't even a gag, it's serious as hell… Whatever this is, here's what's up with it. Basically, when Karkat discovers John for the first time, when he connects the dots and decides that this is the boy who is directly responsible for all his failures and problems, it's "hate at first sight." Even though this may not be a gag, it does serve as a pretty good punchline of sorts to all the buildup we just went through: getting to know Karkat through a long detour/review of his journey, learning about troll romance and how that system works, etc. Then we finally return to the A-plot, and we see the spades in Karkat's eyes, and…ah, yes. We get it now. This is why Karkat is infatuated with John and spews impotent rage through a clumsy reverse-linear deluge of hate-flirting. In a way, this is something readers can relate to, since we've had a similar experience in following John's journey and growing to love him. But for Karkat, that love transmutes into hate, due to his displaced anger and his culture. It must be very confusing for love and hate to be almost interchangeable emotions. When you add being a stupid teen to the equation, it's no wonder all the trolls are such hot disasters. And now we know all this, and so have valuable context for fully appreciating the A5A2 arc. It only took getting steamrolled by hundreds of pages of Hivebent to enjoy these dividends.

[enniewritesathing]

I just looked at the poll result (that button was for me really) and uhm.

(i guess spoilers for the result under the cut and also cut to spare yall w/e I’m gonna say)

out of 20 (it was 20 bc i voted, but it’s 19... rounding it up is easier because i can’t do math woth shit lol)

no one voted for any of my early stuff. which, valid I guess because I was absolutely horrendous on formatting it -- not even ‘script’ style. lots of blanks in between shots. the only reason I didn’t go back an edit it is because I guess I wanted to keep it as a progress thing. Started from here, now I’m here, etc. That said, I can probably see someone skipping over them completely bc of that. (or maybe I’m just projecting a little bit idk). On the other hand, idk John fighting a literal demon?? how can you not vote for that lol

5 voted for The Werewolf 4 for The Incident (which I am surprised because that story as a whole has the least amount of notes... granted the CWs and subject matter(s)-- and it’s the only story I have that doesn’t have any sort of dialogue. Kind of a fill in the blank sort of deal. 1 each for the proposal and country side, 2 for multiple/other, 4 haven’t read any/or didnt like anything in particular, and 2 (minus me) wanted to see results.

I’m trying to think of a takeway here. I was shocked that I got 19 votes and usually when I poll things, the turn out is very low for the amount of followers that I have (that’s if they did it bc obviously anyone can vote). Let me put it this way, only 2.5% voted. (I think.) idk how many are actually active, lurking, or abandoned.

as a story teller (on/off), it’s... hm. I don’t know what to feel about it. I got ideas and half the time, I go through with it because I think it’s interesting. (that and putting the boys in A Situation is fun). but I also think they’re just niche (or I should say it’s not aesthetic enough with reshade and whathaveyou and I gave my thoughts in the post via tags; it’s not that far back).

It’s pretty rare i get a message about any of it and I guess the lack of feedback/comments is getting to me (or even rarer, an ask that’s a follow up question to what i posted). like yes, I want to talk about things!! future things! speculation even. anon’s on! links have the posts in chronological order! everything’s finished! i put nav links in each story post so in the off chance someone rb’s it, you can start from the beginning!

maybe it’s because of how i do things that work for me. parts are long. there’s a fair amount of reading. it’s in script (storyboard?) format. i’ve tried being short with things but it never plays out. i even went textless once -- what you see is what you get. it’s like ‘oh, i’m not reading all of that’. i have a sneaking suspicion that’s why. it’s too long. no words on pics. or maybe it’s not interesting. (visually or otherwise)

it feels like this when I’m RBing my own work

it feels bad, yall!! it’s like im begging and that sucks. sometimes I ask, why do I bother. why do I bother with tags, why do i bother with anything. rarely a story post will leave here. like, is it not worthy of like ‘hey check out this cool thing’ (or a rec list of sort? does anyone still do that?)

. . .

on the other hand, i don’t think there’s a takeaway here and i’m really way too much into this and hurt my own feelings. (ofc 🙄) it is what it is and I should just let this go and go to sleep it’s 330 in the morning

[2d-3danimationworkbookdump]

2D Animation Final Project

We then moved on to our main project for 2D animation. This was a very rocky process for me, but I'm so happy with how it turned out despite this. Here is the brainstorming for what I originally had in mind: A duck giving a tour of his home to his YouTube fans as a subscriber special, interrupted by the visitation of aliens.

After receiving critique, my idea shifted. -Aliens visit to research farm life -Ducks give aliens a tour of the farm By the storyboard stage, this changed into two ducks meeting up and having a conversation about aliens. Which was then interrupted by aliens. I had three main plans for this. Two were very similar, simply changing the ending to leave one duck in shock, the other in panic. The third idea had the aliens visiting all being imagined by one of the ducks.

Once I imported my chosen storyboard into photoshop, it suddenly occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to work on my animation at home. I couldn't import my project into any of my own animation programs, so instead I got to work creating a new storyboard in Krita, a similar program and free alternative. This storyboard used the song "Shit" by Bo Burnham. This became my final 2D animation. After almost 2 weeks of staying up late, I managed to finish the animation. I definitely bit off a lot, but I managed to chew it. Only just. it was a stressful but rewarding experience, and my skills evolves. To save myself time, I went through several design iterations to simplify the main character. You can also see my notes, crossing off every completed shot. I focused on the more complicated shots first. Prioritizing scenes helped ease a little bit of stress.

Aside from the duck/alien stories, I had an extra idea. This one was about Puddle, a spirit of dreams, chasing down Nit, a spirit of nightmares. This would have been a remake of one of my old animations "Weird Dog", which had the same plot.

Apologies for low image quality.

[dragonwysper]

So I think I am gonna torture myself by creating an AMV for this song. I have been up for the past five and a half hours (as of 9 am) working on a rough conceptual outline for this.

I'm also gonna post this in its WIP state, because I'm eepy and I also want y'all's input. I'm a little unsure on where to go from what I have so far and how to structure my very loose ideas for the rest.

Page break because this is really fucking long.

So the song is divided into ten main parts: the intro¹, a dialogue line², verse 1 (4 lines)³, chorus 1 (4 repeated lines, 4 different alternating repeated lines)⁴, verse 2 (5 lines)⁵, chorus 2 (4 lines, 8 lines)⁶, a bridge (3 distinct segments)⁷, verse 3 (4 lines)⁸, chorus 3 (4 lines, 8 lines)⁹, and the outro¹⁰.

I'm gonna write out my notes here, but, warning, they will be very simple, very brief, and highly specific to the lore of one of my character projects. I have a few bonus details at the bottom that might provide some context, but I don't know how understandable any of them are. I still wanna share this though, so y'all get to see it. I'll draw up a rough storyboard soon.

1: INTRO

Title card stuff (song credits, programs used, maybe my socials, etc). Exterior (only during beginning of credits) and interior shots of the base, probably with shots of the main gang playing a board game. Gravel gets up to find an Uno deck. If I go this route, I must show it holding the deck of cards while walking out into the hallway. Cut here.

2: DIALOGUE LINE

" Liberty this is Freedom. Do you read me?"

Fed speaking into a radio (lipsync).

Note: I can't make out what's said here. None of the lyric transcriptions I found had it. I am. A little upset.

Note #2: A FRIEND FIGURED IT OUT !!!

2.5

Feds surrounding the base (a little far off, behind and a little above. Mostly shapes in the shadows).

3: VERSE 1

"Circling overhead as the shadow hits the ground."

Upwards shot of the building and some surveillance drones hovering above.

"Renegade insurgents surround the compound."

Feds closing in (shot right up at one's face. Pointing right). Cut and slight slow zoom to door.

"Murderous intentions, a mission of ill reprieve."

Fed steps through the doorway. Cut to staircase. Cut back to a close up of his face (expression hardens).

"Complex situation, undone by evil deeds."

Cut to fed stepping onto the bottom few steps. Looks up and sees Gravel.

3.5

Fed quickly raises his gun. Others behind him also ready themselves.

4: CHORUS 1

"Don't take him alive."

Lipsync of lyrics (by main fed to his lackeys) (3/4 side, facing right).

"Don't take him alive."

Gravel tenses up (3/4 front from slightly below, facing left).

"Don't take him alive."

Gun raised. Fed begins advancing (face/gun close-up, directly to the side, facing right). Cuts to Gravel slowly backing up (bottom of shot is just below torso, directly to the side, facing left).

"Don't take him alive."

Gravel hits the wall (pan as if cameraman was standing still from their point previously. Now shot is a more frontal view of Gravel. Tip of the fed's gun comes into view on the left side). Gravel looks down/to its left side anxiously, sees button. It sneers.

Cut to close up of Gravel's hand (left side). It forms a fist and slams the button hard.

"Paralyzed."

Gravel transforms into its VP form and spreads its wings.

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

Cut to the rest of the gang in a room. Vincenc is to the side tinkering with some small machinery; Seo-Joon is in a chair researching; Asilia, Xiomara, and Zashil are on the floor playing a board game. All shoot up as they feel their VP powers kick on.

"Paralyzed."

Xiomara and Asilia usher Zashil to a small room in the back. Meanwhile, Seo-Joon heads for a computer screen to the side to check the cameras. Xiomara and Asilia crowd around to look. Cuts to camera view. Gravel is beating the shit out of the feds, but is losing. It runs.

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

Vincenc enters a dim storage room (shot from just outside the doorway, Vincenc facing right). He picks up some protective gear from the right side and a bomb from just next to the view (shot is stationary, from a shelf facing just right of the doorway and up enough to see Vincenc's face).

4.5

Sneaking, scheming, etc. View of Asilia and Xiomara staring at the cameras with concern. Cut to Seo-Joon with a determined expression.

Asilia and Xiomara travel together, peeking around corners. Cut to shot from next to the abandoned Uno deck (pointing up and at the two). Cut to Vincenc placing and rigging bombs of various kinds around the base (far off shot, maybe a pan through a wall from previous shot. Slows briefly to show Vincenc and then continues. Blacks out at next wall).

Pan up onto Zashil (facing left) sitting behind some furniture. He's anxious and knows he should stay put, but really wants to help. He stands. Cut to him exiting the doorway. Pan to another hallway (right at a corner). Gravel turns the corner, shaken, somewhat frantic, speedwalking through (frontal shot, zoom slightly into face).

5: VERSE 2 ¹

"A killing ground for tyrants. Get down on your knees."

Cut to same shot but of the main fed, storming through the halls. He's bruised, disheveled, and pissed.

"A gun in your mouth will fill all your needs."

"Brainwashed solutions, torture and disease."

"Final retribution for everyone to see."

6: CHORUS 2 ²

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

7: BRIDGE ³

8: VERSE 3 ⁴

"Captivate, captivate."

"Captivate, captivate."

"Obliterate, obliterate."

"Incinerate, incinerate."

9: CHORUS 3 ⁵

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Don't take him alive."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

"Paralyzed."

"Kill zone red, shoot the eye."

10: OUTRO ⁶

Extra scattered notes for potential scenes:

¹ thinking somewhere around here, Zashil runs out in front of the feds, and they try to shoot him. Asilia sees this, runs over, flashbangs the feds, grabs Zashil, and books it.

² the feds in all their chaos step on a bomb of some kind (smoke or explosive, not sure yet). Xiomara should absolutely create a massive fireball and just beat the shit out of them. Seo-Joon probably helps fan the flames.

³ action shit and transitional scenes. Feds probably beat the shit out of the gang, and they have to fall back to the portal room (the thing they're trying to defend). Shenanigans ensue.

⁴ thinking this should be like the climax of the fight. Everybody's pissed and desperate and fighting with everything they've got. Lots and lots of action here. Anyway, the VP gang turns the tides around the last verse, and they know it.

⁵ this one I think would be cool if it was like a similar scene to Chorus 1. Gravel says, "Don't take him alive," and they advance on the last dude, who should probably be the OG main fed. They threaten him, probably try to kill him, he runs and escapes into the night.

⁶ probably the gang just kinda looking out into the streets.

Bonus context:

This is a super dystopian, cyberpunk type thing. There's like this group of people who have certain powers, which are 'activated' via a specific sound frequency that kinda wakes up the part of their brain that deals with that power. This is easiest to do in the Virtual Plane (name is still in the works), which is sort of an alternate reality, but in an empty world that kindof automatically emits this frequency. The people who found this place built a bunch of stuff for folks to exist and chill. It takes a fuckton of energy to run though, so it's not open too often. The government doesn't really know anything, but they've heard rumors of people developing powers and have like seen some shit to suggest that's true, so they're looking into it. They do not like it, because it gives power to anarchists (who make up most of the folks in this superpowered in-group, since it's all a very well-kept secret). It's a whole thing. The concept in this AMV is that the feds tracked down one of the portals and are doing a raid to figure out what's going on, and also probably destroy anything that enables folks' superpowers.

As for the gang itself, I've posted drawings of them before. They're very strongly based on my friends, especially my internet found family. They are also in some ways based on different aspects of myself, especially at different times in my life. They're all still in progress, but I love them a lot. Anyway, their powers and such are as follows:

Gravel (18, it/its) has physical enhancements, and essentially has an alternate form. Vincenc (19, he/him) has electricity powers. Asilia (22, she/her) has light powers. Seo-Joon (26, he/him) has wind/air powers. Xiomara (20, she/they) has fire powers. And Zashil (13, he/him) levitates.

I am going to test something. Hold on.

[foreveralwaysanauthor]

Upcoming Writing Plans

Before anything else, I would like to say that I now have 2 new novels in the works which have taken up a lot of my time and I’m sure you’ve probably seen a few Pinterest boards for lmao. One of them (The Golden Facade) is based in New York and is about a girl (Mia Ellison) finding out that she's not who her parents raised her to be. The other novel (Zinnia Beach) is me taking all of my fanfiction and its fleshed-out characters and making it into a proper novel, changing the base plot ever so slightly so that it works out without running into copyright issues. I'm super excited about them both and will be posting more about them as time goes on.

Sadly, I will be taking a little bit of a break from the AUs so that I can wrap my head around both of my novels and my stories on here, but I do have some ideas for what's to come when I get around to them. Some of my Golden Facade characters have Pinterest boards already, but I do have some that I’ll be sharing soon that will be for Zinnia Beach. Zinnia Beach will include my OCs like Mick, Vivien, and the Murphy brothers as well as maybe Xander’s crew, and will be a bit different in a few ways because I’m taking a fanfiction and altering it, but I’m keeping it as similar as possible. Honestly, I can’t wait to publish that novel since I’ve wanted to make this story into an actual book for ages now and, the more I work on it, the happier I am with how far it’s come since 2015.

Now, aside from my novels, here are some of the story ideas I’ll be working on/posting here soon:

This first one probably isn’t much of a surprise, but I’m including it anyway. Most of these deleted scenes will probably be on the short side and won’t take long to get through, but there are a few that I’ll compile into one post since they all revolve around the same concepts or timing. Through the Valley was one AU that had a lot of things taken out for whatever reason and I can’t wait to share them with you!

Summer Lovin’ probably won't happen for a while since I have to do a lot of research and stuff for it, but the ideas and some of the storyboarding are there and I have been working on scenes here and there. Some things you'll see include Royce, Vivien, and Bentley being little shits, everyone being in love and refusing to admit it, and high-school drama that I'm so glad I was never a part of in school lmao.

Based on the song Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes, this one-shot has been boiling in my brain for literal months now and is basically a compilation of a couple of my OCs (not spoiling as to who) telling their parents about the person they've fallen in love with, despite their parents not being alive to hear it - hence the title.

Same Trailer, Different Park is basically a mini-series of one-shots that I've wanted to do to flesh out the relationships between certain characters. Most of these circle around the idea of Vivien visiting 1962 for the summer, but there will probably be some that will add more of a backstory to other characters. Anyway, I have quite a few ideas for this already that I haven't started on, but this is more likely to appear sooner than anything else.

As you could probably guess from my Spotify playlist, my brain has compiled a list of story ideas just because of songs, lyrics, or even songs that I heard on TikTok that I just had to use for some reason. There are some theatre-related ideas, some that I can see if I switch the gender of the singer, and a few that I heard while playing a game and came up with a complete idea for. There are a handful of songs that aren't on the playlist either because I just haven't gotten around to adding them or the version I want to add just isn't on Spotify.

Finally, we have Scattered Screams. With a title like that, be very concerned. This is an AU in the same strand as Glory and Gore, but where Miles is too old to volunteer and the same goes for Mick. It will be a completely different arena and the other tributes will be different I will not be holding back in this story and, chances are, we'll see some beloved characters die off in some awful ways. Consider this a warning 🙃

For now, that’s all that I have, but I do have my mini-series of snippets I took out of Through the Valley that I’ll be trying to work on before some of these come out. Let me know what you think of these, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them 😊

[void-inked-pen]

SO!

2012 TMNT... I have some words~

I figured I might as well make a post on tumblr about it since my analysis might interest a few people who are into fight sequences and action like I am or starting out animators...

FIRST OFF: THE FIGHTING IN TMNT 2012 IS INCORRECT!!!

let me start off by saying I am only talking about season 1 rn because I haven't seen anything beyond that yet but from what I could see there were many glaring issues.

now, 3D animation has it’s limitations and that’s understandable. HOWEVER, you would think a show centered around fighting and martial arts would do a bit more research on the subject when animating 3D models doing said actions.

I’ll talk about one of the most glaring issues I saw: Donnie isn’t using his bo staff correctly in several shots

Now, I can somewhat excuse this because it’s early animation and the first season’s of any show tend to be a bit off with how they animate... but what they kept doing with him was so basic it was irritating.

1. He’s not holding his staff right.

When wielding a bo staff, there are specific positions you should always hold it at. Narrow, normal (3rds) or wide. Donnie seems to always hold his staff at the wide stance or normal stance for the most part but several times he’s swung his staff like a baseball bat and YOU NEVER DO THAT!!!

Holding a Bo staff like a bat is unstable and prone to be knocked out of the user’s hands. you loose your balance that way and it’s not something a proficient bo staff wielder would do! The ONLY time you would do that is if you were sweeping someone’s feet so they fall, never for a mid shot to the body.

It’s either the storyboard artist didn’t know how to plan out his attacks correctly or the writers didn’t do enough research and used that hand hold as an excuse to make Donnie go down easier... which is stupid.

(ALSO NEVER HOLD A STAFF WITH A BLADE LIKE THIS YOU SHOULD POSITION YOUR HAND UNDER SO YOU DON”T ACCIDENTALLY CUT YOURSELF!!!)

2. DONNIE USING AN OVERHEAD ATTACK IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA!!!

an overhead attack with ANY weapon is risky unless your opponent is prone or incapacitated. the fact that I’ve seen them animate Donnie doing that move so often is irritating enough but its even MORE infuriating because he USES IT AS HIS FIRST ATTACK AND GETS KNOCKED OUT OF THE AIR IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Donnie should be very well versed in his bo staff to know that that kind of attack is never a good idea! He’s literally supposed to be smarter than that but they keep animating him doing stupid mistakes that a beginner would constantly make!

3. Donnie hardly uses actual bo staff attacks

Sure it’s cool to see Donnie spin his bo staff around all over the place but you never use a spin in combat unless your winding up a strike. He uses it so often it literally bugs the shit out of me. You want a good example of proper bo staff form? LOOK AT DONNIE FROM RISE IN THE FIRST EPISODE AGAINST DRAXUM!

you’re supposed to use thrusts, swift movements, blocks, and in general your form should always be stable. you tend to hit your shoulders a lot with a bo staff and the fact that I’ve barely seen 2012 Donnie use literally beginner level moves..... It irritates me so much because it doesnt show off how versitile the bo staff is and how deadly it can actually be.

Just cause a weapon doesnt have a blade, doesnt mean it wont be effective against an opponent. in my opinion, its better to have a solid framework for a weapon rather than a blade, because its better to know how to block and use your opponents equilibrium against them instead of cutting them up...

Anyway my Martial Arts rant is done for now... if you guys want to hear more stuff like this from me I will gladly do so

[shimmershae]

So.  Thanks to my new anonymous friend, this is going to become a thing.

Shae’s thinky thoughts about the latest episode--Acheron:  Part 2--beneath a cut. 

Because spoilers, however vague they might be.  

Let’s be real here.  This is more a stream of consciousness than anything else so if that’s not your thing, you are most welcome to nope right on out of this post.  Trust me.  I’ll completely understand, lol.  Sometimes?  I wish I could nope right on out of my own brain and the way it operates.  

That said?  Without further ado--

Episode 2′s opening, though.  Maggie trapped with hungry Walkers converging?  It totally gives me Glenn under the dumpster vibes.  I don’t know if that was intentional or just happy coincidence but way to link Maggie to her dearly departed better half, show.  

Is it just me or has Father G had more OOMPH to him these last few seasons?  Again, I have to ask--Rosita’s influence or no?  Regardless, I bet Seth Gilliam is loving the job these days.  

Side note:  am I gonna have to go to bed early every Saturday night from now until the end just so I that I might be able to SEE?  Something?  Anything?  My curtains are flimsy-ass.  I admit it.  But this is more frustrating than TXF.  Angela, WTF?  

No, seriously.  It’s like complete guess work who’s in these subway scenes.  Some of that has to do with them being overly populated by redshirts and the rest of it has to do with me having to squint and turn sideways to make out their facial features. 

Look at Daryl busting through concrete walls!  Should I call him the Kool-Aid Man considering NR has once again allowed himself to be led right into a biased, shipper trap?  Hmm.  I might.  

Imagine seeking refuge in those dark, filthy subways.  Any second now I expect to hear the skittering of rats.  Will Dog lose his effing mind a la Divergence?  He’s been shown to go off half-cocked that way, lol.  Oh well.  Guess it’ll be in character if he does.  

Impressive graffiti storyboards.  Does it mean something that it immediately cuts to the Commonwealth storm troopers afterward?  Maybe.  Who really knows at this point?  They been trying to gaslight us forever.  

LOL at Princess yet again.  Yumiko is just like da fuq is this person?  

No, really.  LMAO.  “That was her.  From last night.  Did you see how she was looking at us?”  

Then you have Eugene, hahaha.  “Oh God.  Why did he tell off the big guy?”  Like the man is totally me in this type of situation.  Not even gonna lie.  

“That’s right.  We want to talk to the manager.”  

I literally cannot wait ‘til Carol and Daryl meet Princess.  Can.  Not.  Wait.  

How sad is that note on that $100 bill?  Small moment but it totally gives me Season 4 vibes when they were on their way to Terminus seeking sanctuary.  

Hmm.  Remember how that place wasn’t what they thought it was?  I’m sure neither is the Commonwealth.  But I feel like what’s left of Team Family is totally going to do Rick proud, lol, and prove they’re messing with the wrong people if they try something.  

Daryl, Man.  You gonna have to get a better handle on your headstrong Fur Son.  I wonder if Dog would listen better to his mama?  Things to ponder.  

Sounds like Miko has this group’s number.  Or does she?  

Princess and Eugene totally look like they’re waiting their turn for the Principal’s office, LOL.  

“Stop moving!  You’re taking my nerves over the edge to a proverbial 11 on a scale of 10.”  I feel you, Eugene.  I do.  Also you, Princess.  Two of the most relatable TWD characters right there, I’m telling you.  

Princess is me when I really, really, really have to pee.  TMI?  Sorry, lovelies.  LOL.  I just...she’s so relatable.  

LMAO.  “If that fine ass dude in the orange suit...”  Princess and Mercer incoming in 3-2-----

Princess’s excitement over the toilet paper=PRICELESS.  

Eugene, Man.  You desperately need to develop a poker face.  

There’s Daryl getting another cool camera shot.  Angela?  You playing favorites again?  

Carol’s claustrophobia could have never.  I bet that’s in the back of Pookie’s mind.  You can’t tell me it’s not because Carol lives in there rent-free.  

Ohhh.  Back to the subway car.  Looks like we got the Maggie redshirts leading the way.  First sacrificial “lambs”?  

Maggie pistol-whipping Negan was kinda deserved, but he wasn’t all wrong so.  

Damn.  I’m no Gage fan.  He can fuck all the way off for what he did to my baby Lydia.  But Maggie over there with ice in her veins.  

Yep.  I think the dude just got one of the most gruesome deaths in a while.  Yuck.  

I think Alden’s faith in Maggie definitely took several hits.  I feel like he kind of had her on some sort of pedestal dating back to Hilltop times.  Father G, though?  The man is continuing to show himself a SAVAGE MFer.  

Josh gives Eugene such believable tics and mannerisms.  He IS Eugene.  

Thank you, Maggie, for lighting that flare.  I could not see a damn thing.  

What are these bad memories Negan alludes to?  Hmm?  Him being a shit husband to Lucille back when he was still taking her for granted?  

Father G on Gage’s Walker--”All that is, is a shell of a man, who died a coward.”  Kind of ironic considering Father G’s own origins, huh?  Has he any warmth in there for anybody but Rosita and Coco?  Does he equate it with weakness?  

“There are worse ways.”  And Maggie proceeds to paint us a horror story with mere words.  

Dark Maggie really surpasses anything certain fans have ever accused Carol of being.  Is she too far gone?  Who the hell knows?  I think it’s clear that she and Carol are both on a sliding scale of sorts when it comes to being able to compartmentalize shit to survive.  Personally?  I feel like Maggie might have leap-frogged Carol in this episode but it matters none because of the double standards so deeply entrenched in this fandom.  Both women have endured and had to do some horrific things.  It’s not a contest.  But it’s probably going to be turned into a season-long one.  

It’s almost like Kang was like, “Ya’ll bitches think Carol’s dark?  I’ll show you DARK.  Check and mate.”  

Whatever the reasoning, Maggie just got exponentially more interesting to me if not likable.  And before anybody out there comes at me, it’s entirely possible to be on a character’s side in some things and not be all up their ass in love with them, lol.  Like I’m attached to her because she’s family and Glenn loved her.  There’s a loyalty there and she absolutely is justified in her hatred of Negan.  But I’m not going to pretend her shit don’t stink like everybody else’s.  

Speaking of my baby Glenn.  What would he think of this version of Maggie?  I think he would be gutted and heart stricken that events led to her being like this but he’d understand because he’s pure like that.  Don’t mean he’d be A-OK with it all.  

Dog must be protected at all costs.  

Confession.  I know not the fuck who Pony Boy is, but I know him because all my fandom friends have pointed him out to me, lol.  RIP, Man.  I think you’re number’s up or close to it.  

Okay, though.  I admit it.  I am kinda LOVING Badass Father G.  

That scene in the subway car with all of them working to take all the Walkers out was already badass.  Then Daryl arrived and made it, in @freefromthecocoon’s words, HAWT.  LOL.  

Eugene staring at that little black book like it contains torture tools, hehehe.  

“Processed?  As in administratively?  Processed as in bologna or other meat stuffs?  This inquiring (enquiring?) mind needs to know.”  OMG, Eugene.  I admit it.  Even if it makes me look like a lunatic, LOL.  I straight up LMAO at that one.  I mean, ten years later and Terminus still fresh on the man’s mind.  

“You like feeling nervous?”  Well, no.  None of us that do, Mercer?  Do.  

Then he proceeds to make me howl with his “You can’t lie for shit” to Eugene.  

Josh McDermitt?  I love you, Man.  40 year old virgin, LOL.  

All this talk over the seasons of Daryl’s virginity and we have Eugene, hahaha.  But was he telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?  

Finally.  Some daylight.  Where I can see.  

Eugene’s relief at seeing his friends safe and sound was such a beautiful thing to see.  I loved those hugs.  

Mercer’s face when he snarled “beat cop” in disdain to Ezekiel.  I think I’m gonna love this dude.  

“I went to West Point.  Asshole.”  Yeah.  I am.  

I know they probably catfishing Eugene right here because spoilers tell us that ain’t Stephanie.  But my heart still did a little d’aww.  Angela.  Don’t play with his poor heart like that.  

What’s got Daryl so pensive, huh?  Is it that the note reminds him of kids being lost or taken from their family? Or separated from their family?  Is he thinking of those Grimes babies and wondering if Michonne will ever make it back and why and how she was able to leave them behind?  Tell me it ain’t that Find Me nonsense.  

“This place sure has gone to shit since the last time I was here.”  LMAO, JDM.  I mean Negan.  Sorry.  Sorry.  I still hate Negan, but JDM has me entertained at least since they gave the asshole some shades of gray.  And speaking of shades of gray.  I’m loving the gray beard.  JDM’s looking GOOD (hear that NR?  Embrace the gray).  Negan can still kick rocks, lol.  

Anyway.  That scene was CREEPY AF.  Not even gonna lie.  

The Reapers strutting right on up to our group like it’s The Purge:  ZA.  

My bad, Pony Boy. Now RIP.  

Dark, dark episode with loads of tension broken up by some welcome humor by Princess.  The girl is fast becoming a fave of mine.  

My baby’s back next week!!!

I’m just going to plug my ears and pretend they’re trying to capture/recapture the horses because they’re pets.  Not because they’re starving so bad they feel the need to eat them.  La la la la la.  I can’t hear you.  

[fencer-x]

Fencer’s Big Eva Review

Just got done watching the Eva finale, so it’s time to get out thoughts while they’re fresh! Caveat: Eva is difficult to understand for native speakers, and I’m definitely not a native speaker XD I feel like I got maybe half, and got the rough gist of like 10% of the rest, and the remaining was just no friggin’ clue. Would’ve gone better if there’d at least been JP subs, but you’ll have to deal with what I’ve got for now!

It should be obvious, but there’ll be HELLA MAJOR SPOILERS for the final Evangelion movie. Ready? Let’s go.

The movie very helpfully starts off with a ~2 min recap of the movies thus far. This was great because I didn’t have time to rewatch the previous three before going, and while I’ve seen them a few times, it took me a second the recall what had happened at the very end of Q, so I was glad to get a very brief recap.

The actual movie itself opens on...Paris! Or Paris post-Near-Third-Impact (Third Impact?), which is a red and black wasteland. It seems that Wille has been developing these things that look like Entry Plugs that they shove into the ground and restore everything to pre-all-impacts (so like, blue water and everything); couldn’t get HOW it managed that, but they had them and were attempting to restore Paris.

Would have been a walk in the park except for weird Eva-Angel-Machine hybrids that were trying to prevent them from activating the plugs. Lots of fighting happens, with Mari piloting her Eva to give them cover while the Wille staff set everything up. Eventually they manage it, and Euro Nerv is restored.

Then we switch over to right where Q left off: Asuka, Clone!Rei, and a catatonic Shinji wandering around trying to go who knows where. They eventually get picked up by...Touji! Yes, an older Touji now who lives in a commune of survivors, scraping out a semblance of a life in one of the areas protected by the aforementioned plugs (they had another name but I couldn’t get it).

In this community, Touji is the local doctor--and he’s married with a kid! He married Hikari, and they have an infant daughter named Tsubame. 

Now, let’s check in how our main three do when introduced to this relatively normal life they get to enjoy for a few weeks:

Asuka: Still in ‘fight mode’, ready to go at a moment’s notice. How she thinks she’s gonna fight when she has no Eva idk, but for this entire little bit, she’s either naked or in her plugsuit. She stays with Aida Kensuke, who’s kind of the handyman, and is generally just rude af.

Shinji: For 90% of this bit, he’s totally shut off. He’s incredibly fucked up from having JUST watched Kaworu die, essentially because of him, and Asuka has on a DSS choker, and every time he sees it, he collapses and begins vomiting violently. He stays with the Suzuharas at first but is quickly sent to stay with Asuka and Kensuke because they don’t really know how to deal with him. Kensuke manages to get him to open up a little bit, but eventually it’s Rei who gets him started on the path back to being himself. At one point he runs away and ‘lives’ alone for a while in what I think was either the building where he first met Kaworu playing the piano or one that looked a lot like it. He goes out to do odd jobs with Kensuke a lot, and on one occasion he’s taken to an ‘outdoor lab’ where some workers are experimenting with new gardening techniques. It’s here he’s meets...Kaji Ryouji. No, not that Kaji Ryouji. That Kaji DIED. This is the son he had with Misato (named after him).

Rei: Now, let me say I’ve never been super interested in Rei. I didn’t dislike her, like I did Asuka, but I wasn’t really interested in her either. She was just there. Guys.....I LOVED REI IN THIS MOVIE. I would have watched 2.5 hours of the Rei Learns To Be A Human show and been happy for the $20 I paid. Rei spends her time in the commune learning to be an individual. She stays with the Suzuharas and learns what different words mean, like “Good morning” and “Good night” and “Thank you” and “Goodbye”, she gets super close with a bunch of old ladies who essentially adopt her and teach her how to plant turnips and what a bath is, and she becomes her own person. When she first arrives, the Suzuharas think she’s “Ayanami Rei”, but she explains that she isn’t, so they call her “Sokkuri-san” instead (”Miss Spitting Image” essentially), and the old ladies find it amusing at first but then encourage her to choose her own name, and when she can’t think of one, they tell her to have someone choose one for her, so she asks the Uber-Depressed Shinji to choose one. These interactions are what eventually pull him back to himself, but ultimately he’s unable to come up with one, because “Ayanami is Ayanami”. She thanks him for trying anyway, returns his SD player to him..............................and then dissolves into a pile of LCL fluid, as apparently all clones eventually return to LCL. Fantastic, because Shinji didn’t need EVEN MORE TRAUMA.

Somehow, the above doesn’t break Shinji, and he resolves to go back to Wille and face his father I guess?? I’m not entirely clear on why (gotta go read some reports of my own I guess lol). Back on the ship with Misato et al., Shinji isn’t forced to wear a choker but he’s put in a cell with like explosives in it I guess. He starts having visions of Kaworu helping him accept things.

At this point it’s getting close to the climax, and Wille are going after Nerv/Gendo once and for all. During the final fight, Asuka tried to take out Unit 13′s core, and then she’s not managing it, she rips off her eyepatch, and we see that the patch was keeping the 9th angel bound within her eye, so she decides to throw away her humanity and let it take over to destroy Unit 13. Unfortunately, she’s killed in the end--how? She’s approached by a vision of her ‘original’. Yup, Asuka was a clone herself, like Rei, and she turns back into LCL and she and unit 02 are absorbed by Unit 13.

Eventually the fight comes down to Shinji vs. Gendo, who has thrown away his own humanity and bonded with Unit 13 in the hopes of completing the Human Instrumentality Project. He and Shinji go head to head as Shinji summons (???) Unit 01 from inside Unit 13, and there’s a really REALLY WEIRD final fight between the two that involves some weird animation choices. Lots of storyboards and overly CGI’d CGI, and some bits that seem to take them through the different incarnations of the Eva series.

We also get Gendo backstory by the boatload as he and Shinji have an actual goddamn conversation for once. Mari features prominently in Gendo’s flashbacks so she was definitely one of his classmates it seems, who introduced him to Fuyutsuki. I’m still not entirely clear on who she is/was.

However, through this conversation, Shinji gives the people he’s interacted with most closely/been closest with closure I guess? Gendo, Asuka...Kaworu.

So about Kaworu. Their conversation was VERY VERY WEIRD; it’s made clear that Shinji is also now aware of all the different iterations of their meeting. When they talk, it’s set at the beach where they first met in the TV series, and Shinji says he remembers all the times they’ve met before. Shinji mentions that Kaworu reminds him a lot of his father, and then there are some very strange flashbacks (????) of Kaworu’s that I feel like imply he’s to Gendo as Rei is to Yui. At one point, he’s seen talking to Fuyutsuki, trying to decide on a name for himself and settling on ‘Nagisa’ as it means ‘beach’, where the ocean meets the land. Fuyutsuki later addresses Kaworu, who’s sitting in Gendo’s desk, as “Commander Nagisa”. Kaworu reflects to Shinji that he failed so many times to make Shinji happy, but he’s realized now that that’s because he doesn’t know what would make Shinji happy and it was arrogant to think he knew better. He was looking for his own happiness all along.

In the end, after all these goodbyes, Shinji is left with the decision of what to do with, well, reality. He decides, in a conversation with Rei, that he’ll reset everything--create a ‘neon genesis’--to a world without Eva or Angels.

Our last shot is an older Shinji meeting his (presumed??) girlfriend Mari on a train platform. On the opposite platform waiting for their own train are Kaworu, Asuka, and Rei. Shinji and Mari hold hands and run, laughing, from the train station.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION GOT A HAPPY ENDING. 2021 REALLY BE OUT HERE WILDING.

My final thoughts:

Okay I’ll say it: the fuck with Shinji/Mari endgame? Believe me, it was completely out of left field even in this movie. They just happened to be the only final survivors. Mari flirted a hell of a lot more with ASUKA and was distraught at her death than she did with Shinji. They were a kind of cute couple in the end, but very ????? 

I’m disappointed Shinji wasn’t the one to give Kaworu his happiness in the end, after Kaworu spent so long and so many lives and realities trying to make him happy and failing. I’m choosing to believe, since these multiple realities/resets are canon now, that he did it in one of them. They all deserve the happiness of their choosing, not just Shinji’s, and Kaworu showed us time and time again that his happiness definitively involves being with Shinji.

I’m sure I missed a lot, because yanno, Eva, and it was long enough as is, but gosh I wish I could’ve understood more of everything that was going on, cause there was SO MUCH WEIRD SHIT.

If I watch this movie again, I will 500% just be watching those “Rei learns to be human with the help of a bunch of old cackling biddies” bits :> Those were THE BEST PARTS OF THE MOVIE.

[garfieldandmeblog]

Garfield: The Movie

AM: There’s an interesting writing choice in Garfield: The Movie regarding the setting. It begins in a cul-de-sac, just a few miles from a large city. For Garfield, the cul de sac is safe; he knows the ins and outs, all of the neighboring cats and dogs, and it’s where he always gets his way. Anything beyond the cul de sac, however, is dangerous, unknown, even hostile, and that’s not even mentioning the city. With all of this emphasis placed on place, one begins to wonder where exactly the film takes place. One would assume that it takes place in Garfield creator Jim Davis’ home state of Indiana. Wikipedia, however, claims that it takes place in Los Angeles of all places. What’s interesting, though, is that the movie does everything its power to obscure the actual setting from the viewer. There are no signs anywhere in this film that say “Los Angeles,” no one mentions living in L.A., and there’s just no defining characteristics. It’s not even a matter of the camera crew just choosing not to shoot things that screamed L.A.; things are deliberately edited to obscure that fact. There’s a scene towards the end of Act 2 where Garfield has to go to the city to rescue Odie from the clutches of an evil infomercial personailty. On the freeway, we get a shot of the city skyline and a freeway exit sign—which reads, not Los Angeles, but “The City.” A bus’s destination sign reads “City Center.” The so-called “Los Angeles” looks more like a movie set for a film taking place in New York. You would think that, taking place in L.A., the movie would have taken the golden opportunity to take Garfield to L.A.’s iconic locales. Garfield in front of the Grauman Theatre. Garfield at the Hollywood sign. Garfield at Dodger’s Stadium. But no, none of that.

Garfield: The Movie’s setting is strange because they don’t utilize it for what you might expect. The effort the filmmakers went through to hide the truth about the setting is rather impressive, I’ll say that. It doesn’t seem like it ultimately accomplished anything though. And so, ultimately, the choices made regarding the setting resulted in an affect that is neither good, nor bad, just… there. Much like the film itself.

I give this movie 5 out of 10 lasagnas.

JK: For my final official critique here at Garfieldandme.com LLC, I will be reviewing Garfield the Movie. How did it make me feel? How does Garfield make me feel at this point? I thought I knew, but as of right now… It’s mixed.

I thought I didn’t like Garfield. I thought it would be funny to employ irony against the fat cat. When I began writing about Garfield, the original mission was to find a way in, primarily through cruel joking and punching down, every week and that was it; that was going to be the focus of this project.

But finding a way through… It requires energy. It requires an actual interest in whatever you’re writing about, whatever you’re exploring. And as the project went on and on, my interest and energy waned. It became increasingly difficult to talk Garf. The ratio of good ideas/fun writing sessions to phoning it in grew smaller and smaller. Part of the fun, at first, was acknowledging the pure magnitude of syndication Garfield has amassed. But, diving into it, getting deep, it’s hard to keep a smiling face when the material brings so little to you. Life is short, and Garf is long.

There are hidden gems in the bog of never-ending Mondays. There are glimpses of Jim Davis giving a shit. And those moments, when they come up, are worth cherishing. It compelled me to write knowing the cat was acting in an interesting way. It gave me material to work with. It gave me hope.

And then, we’d get another week of duds. Then, another. It’d go on, and I’d feel frustration, apathy, devastation, etc. over and over again. It became routine.

So, Garfield the Movie. What makes Garfield the Movie interesting? It’s Garfield’s first live-action adaptation. It stars… movie stars. Garfield is CGI. These elements are all fine. The whole movie is just fine. And that complete milquetoast quality makes the film, ironically, a great Garfield adaptation. There were times I was watching the screen and I hoped the movie would be worse, more blatantly disgusting or bold. Maybe then I could write about it.  But no, from start time to end, this movie is okay.

Bill Murray sounds like the voice Davis and Co. settled on when they brought Garf to the home television. Jon is whatever. You can have a discarded Chik Fil A wrapper replace Jon in this movie and nothing would change. Odie is lovable and fun (maybe the highlight). Jennifer Love Hewitt.. I mean, c’mon. Liz was hot already, but…

…

There’s nothing really deep here.

The only redeeming portion of the whole film is the credits. I’m serious. There, it tells another story. Comics and largely comic strips are a medium of sole ownership. Charles Schultz storyboards, Schultz draws, he signs his name in the bottom left corner. And that’s it. Film, in this critic’s opinion, is one of the most collaborative mediums of expression out there. On even the worst films (and I’m not saying Garfield runs in this camp), there are probably five or more people who gave up hours of their lives in an attempt to make you smile, to entertain you for a little bit. It’s interesting to see this many people interpreting Davis’s cat. This bird’s eye view perspective, however, does not negate how bored I felt during the film. And my opinion doesn’t really matter. The best of them, working on this project, hopefully made this to make a child (or the rare Garf fan) happy. Or they were miserable. Regardless, they all made the film. I spent an hour of my life watching. We are in this together.

We reflect whatever we spend time with. If you spend hours with the cat, you become the cat. You spend time working overtime at a job you hate, and suddenly you hate yourself. You spend the night out, maybe drinking wine with friends on a weekend, at a little bar on the outside of town. It’s August. The night is air is warm, and it looks like no one is on Wilshire tonight. Except you and people you love. You laugh and really feel it in your chest, in your stomach. You look at everyone and, maybe it’s the light, maybe it’s the Merlot, but they emanate a soft golden glow covering their forearms to their rears to their legs to their feet. You look down at yourself, and you’re glowing too.

Was it Anne Dillard who wrote “How we spend our days, of course, is how we spend our lives”? Am I remembering that correctly? What year is it? What was I doing about this? How does Garfield make me feel? How am I feeling right now? Stepping away from the cat is not easy, and in a sense, this gesture feels like stepping away from this past year in its good and nasty. I want to change my life, and so I’ll change my relationship with him. It’s small, but why not. Life is short, and Garf is long. Thanks for spending this time with me, I’ll never forget it.

Two lasagnas out of five.

[365days365movies]

March 1, 2021: The Hobbit (Review)

Is “quaint” a good word here?

Maybe its the beautiful backgrounds, maybe it’s the stylized designs that make me think of Christmas specials, maybe it’s the faithful take on a classic story that I loved as a kid, but...I dunno. Quaint’s the first thing that comes to mind here for me, for whatever reason.

All I know is that I did enjoy this movie well-enough...even if it’s not my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, this is still a great story, and I do love the original Tolkien tale very much...but I don’t know if I can say this was my favorite adaptation or not.

Now, it got some things right that the Jackson movies didn’t, at last as far as I’m concerned. Thorin’s pretty good in this film, Gollum is great (as always), and it accurately sums up the story in a single movie without too much omitted (I do miss Beorn, though). But here’s the thing: the things that I think Jackson’s movies did wrong outnumber what this film did right.

You know, the weird addition of Tauriel and Legolas, the added Lake Town plot with fuckin’ Alfrid, the entire Azog thing, the fucking NECROMANCER thing, Rada...well, actually, I like Radagast. He was fun.

And that’s not to say that Jackson’s movies did nothing right. Quite the contrary! I mean, Martin Freeman is a PERFECT Bilbo Baggins, and basically everybody is perfectly cast, to be honest. And that includes what I think is the best part of the films: Smaug, as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. And yeah, that motion capture footage is hilarious, but it pays the fuck OFF, what can I tell ya? I mean...come on.

Smaug in these movies is fucking AMAZING, and I genuinely love him. And...well, you know what, let’s actually get into the Review. Enough navel-gazing here. Here’s the Recap (Parts 1, 2, and 3), if you’d like to read that first! OK, let’s get this done and Reviewed!

Review

Cast and Acting: 7/10

Given that this is an animated film, this is an interesting category to grade. I’ll be doing so based on their vocal performances, and...eh. For a Rankin-Bass movie, the vocal performances are a little standard. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some standouts. Orson Bean plays a kind and contemplative Bilbo, and while I don’t know that I like him quite as much as Martin Freeman, I do still like his performance. John Huston is likewise good as Gandalf, although Ian McKellen is...well, Ian McKellen, even in The Hobbit films. And then...there’s Brother Theodore. And, boy oh boy, do I love his Gollum a lot! I think he’s legitimately fantastic as this version of the character, and specifically as this version of the character. Andy Serkis is still the better Gollum, I think, but I do think that Theodore handles Gollum’s last line in this film better than Serkis did. However, I can see Serkis becoming the devious little monster he eventually becomes a lot more.

Also, Hans Conried plays Thorin, and all I could hear was Captain Hook, like, the entire time. There are actually a lot of voice actors from the time period in here, like Don Messick, Paul Frees, and Thurl Ravenscroft, and they’re all fine. There’s also Richard Boone as Smaug, and...he’s OK. Not saying he’s great, but...he’s all right. His deep booming voice does work well for the role, and some of his line deliveries are pretty goddamn solid, but...I dunno, he just doesn’t bring the same gravelly gravitas that I expect of, well, a goddamn dragon, let’s be frank here.

Plot and Writing: 9/10

What can I say? It’s Tolkien! And they’re pretty exact with their adaptation of the original work, as adapted and written by Romeo Muller. And yeah, Muller does a good job...but he also writes this similar to how he wrote all of the other Rank Bass specials. If there’s any problem, it’s that. But even then...I don’t know if I can call that a real problem. Still, I’ll take a point off for it, even though it’s really closer to half a point. If anything, I’m upset that Beorn was completely absent. You coulda worked him in, Romeo!

Directing and Cinematography: 7/10

This is essentially judging the storyboarding, and how shots were positioned in the artistic process. And yeah, it’s...mostly good. Unfortunately, true to form for Rankin-Bass production, it often feels just a little too stiff in places. Makes sense since Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass are the directors. Not as bad as some of their other productions, but still definitely a notable quality of the film. So, points off for that, but the rest of it is honestly fine, especially for animation of the era. What came out from Disney that year?

Oh, damn, the Rescuers? Yeah...shit, yeah, that looked WAY better, and that wasn’t even one of Disney’s best looking film up to that point. Although, different budgets should probably be taken into account. OK, moving on.

Production and Art Design: 8/10

I like the backgrounds in this film a LOT, lemme tell you. They were done by Minoru Nishida, who’s done a hell of a lot of animation stuff, but was also the art director for Kill Bill Vol 1! Neat! But yeah, the backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous here. How about the rest of the art design? Characters were designed by Lester Abrams, then redesigned a bit by the Topcraft guys (specifically  Tsuguyuki Kubo), giving it the very stereotypical Rankin-Bass style that the movie is known for. And does it work? I mean...kinda. The good news is that the different races of Middle Earth are pretty goddamn distinguishable from each other, and creatively designed at that. The bad news...sorry, I never did get used to Smaug, I genuinely don’t like his design in this. Like...why the dog head? By all accounts, Smaug was a stereotypical wyrm-style dragon, with the reptilian features and I. I just...I don’t get it. Sorry, but Jackson’s Smaug wins here, hands down. But that said...I do like Gollum. It’s different, yeah, but I think his design works pretty well. After all, according to Tolkien, we’re not really supposed to know what Gollum is. And I think it works pretty goddamn well!

Music and Editing: 7/10

Glenn Yarbrough. I love ya. I SWEAR, I do actually like you and your main contribution to this movie, The Greatest Adventure. But if I have to hear that song ONE MORE GODDAMN TIME in this movie, I swear...because they chop up the song and use it in EVERY AVAILABLE INSTANCE with Bilbo. And I guess it’s his leitmotif, but they use that song...A LOT. And not instrumentally, I mean with the goddamn lyrics. Just...tone it down a little, OK? But OK, what about the other music, by Maury Laws? I like it! There are some songs in here that are very catchy, and I might actually get “Down, Down, to Goblin Town” on my playlist. Not that it’s all great, but it works for the setting and for the tone of the movie. And what about the editing? Eh. Visual editing is pretty good, bu7t the sound editing is...it’s 1970s animation editing. Hell, even the Rescuers sound editing wasn’t amazing, when I think about it. It’s fine, but it isn’t great most of the time.

Y’know...I think I can gel with a 76% here.

Yeah, I know, it’s low, but that’s because this movie was...good, but OK. I’m not necessarily saying that it was better or worse than the Jackson movies, because I think they compliment each other in some weird ways. I like Thorin as a character more here, but Smaug MUCH more in the Jackson films. While there definitely don’t need to be three Jackson movies...I’ll admit that I think this one is too short, coming in at only an hour and 18 minutes. And I gotta say, I love the fact that it’s animated...but the live-action films also look fantastic, I can never fault them for how they look (except for Dain...ugh). I think they’re similar, but different, at least for me.

But OK, here’s a question: is it just because it’s a property that I really like, and I have my own internal vision of it, which might be influenced by the live-action films? Entirely a possibility. Watch this movie yourself, make your own score! See what you think. Meanwhile, I’m going to try an experiment.

Fantasy movie, same production company, same directors, same animators, also based off of a fantasy book. And, uh...I dunno, a unicorn, maybe?

March 2, 2021: The Last Unicorn (1982)