#and the overly cartoony look

[yakourinka]

hmm

[sudsy-2oap]

GUYS I LITERALLY LOVE HIM.. HE'S ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, FROM HIS ROSY CHEEKS TO HIS SUIT- AND REALLY, THE SUIT?? I THINK IT REMINDS ME OF A MAGICIAN, MAYBE BUT JUST LOOK AT IT?? I ESPECIALLY ADORE TGE PATTERNED OME ANS OHMYDOD OLAY TAKE BACK WHAT I SAID ABOUT OT REMINDING ME OF A MAGICIAN, HE IS DRESSED AT A MAGICIAN !!! HES GOT A WAND IN THE SECONF AND THIRD PHOTO IN HIS LEFT HAND (OUR RIGHT) OKAY AND ALSO I MENTIONED HIS ROSY CHEEKS AND I JUST HAVE TO GO ON ABOUT THEM BECAUSE HIS EXPRESSION IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT??? I ADORE HIS SMILE AND HIS CHEEKS, THE DARK AROUND HIS EYES ALMOST LOOKS LIKE MAKEUP BUT ITS SO CUTE, SND HIS EYEBROWS ARE BIG AND ARCHED AND MAKE HIM LOOK ALL THE MORE FRIENDLIER. AND I JUST WANNA MENTION HOW SOFT HE LOOKS TO? THE NICE ROUNDNESS TO HIS EARS? HIS POSITIONING? ALSO THE CHAMGE IN SUIT FROM THE 2 AND 3RD PJOTOS TO TGE DIRST, YOU CAN TELL FROM THE BACKGROUND HE HAD BEEN NOVED TO TGE MAIN STAGE WITH THE REST OF TGE BANDN

I JUST OUGHHHH..

(These are from CEC Mobile, Al)

[adeadratiswatching]

Did we learn nothing from the tell tale games Minecraft story mode?

Boys I think we've flown too close to the sun and I don't think we can recover from this.

Minecraft movie trailer dropped this thing looks awful my skin itches just looking at these things

[readwritealldayallnight]

“But what if you hate it?”

“I can tell ya I wouldn’t, because it’d be yours.”

“Okay but what if you actually do really hate it, and you can’t tell me because you just said that?”

“Love, ya don’ have to do this. I didn’t wan’ this to stress ya-”

“No! No, Simon I want to do it. It’s such a sweet idea you had, I’ll do another one.” You finally decide, putting the pen back to paper, unable to bring yourself to actually draw.

“Could always take any o’ the ones from the bin.” He offers, nodding his head over towards the overflowing waste basket surrounded by crumbled up pieces of paper, evidence of your many previous attempts.

When SImon had brought up the idea of you drawing something for him to add to his sleeve to represent you, you’d jumped at the opportunity, loving the idea. However, you’d all too quickly discovered that you were having issues committing to the idea of what to draw, and Simon was refusing to offer any ideas, wanting the idea and design to be entirely yours.

Appropriate to his call sign, your first instinct had been to try drawing different versions of ghosts, but each one felt too cartoony, too childish, and you passed on that idea.

Then you thought you would draw your own little skull, something that could more easily be incorporated into the images and not be totally out of theme. But the next issue to come to light though, was when the connection between you brain and your hand apparently forgot entirely how to draw a skull, and you hated everything that came up on paper.

“S’that a lightbulb?” He’d asked at one point, and the skull idea was quickly out the window too.

From there, you were worried he wouldn’t like any of your drawings, as you couldn’t bring yourself to like any them either. You’d both agreed to put a pin in it for the time being, and as the weeks passed, you nearly forgot about his request.

That was until, he came home with a plastic wrapping around his forearm.

“You hurt?” You ask him, immediately spotting the darker bandages peeking out from the edges of his sleeve as he removes his jacket.

“Nah, just got somethin’ done.” He replies, sauntering over to you, slowly folding up his sleeve to reveal more of his pale skin.

“Huh?

Instead of answering, he carefully unravels the outer layer of bandages, before slowly peeling back the bandage to show you the skin underneath, an overly pleased grin stretching across his face, chuckle bursting through as your stunned gasp echoes through your shared flat.

Forever on his skin, Simon has tattooed something you’d drawn in the first birthday card you ever gave him. In your handwriting, he can always glance down at himself and see both your and his initial with a plus sign between them, surrounded by a little heart with an arrow going through it. When you’d drawn it for him, never in a million years had you thought he would be etching the corny doodle onto himself permanently, but now, that same doodle is his favourite thing to look at when away on deployment.

[melancholic-fig]

What I loved about the Substance was that it took impossible body standards imposed on women seriously. It didn't treat me like a kid throwing a temper tantrum about not being sexy. It didn't try to tell me "everyone is beautiful" and "every body is a beach body" in a pitiable voice that makes it all worse. There's no one singing to me about how "I cannot see my own beauty", as if validation from men will ever be enough to cover the black hole in my stomach drilled by years of self-loathing, binging-purging cycles and appetite-suppression pills. It haven't stopped for a second to congratulate itself for platitudes.

The substance threw an ice bucket on my head, grabbed me by the shoulders, dragged me to the mirror and told me "look at what violence you're inflicting on yourself!". It showed me a perfect body, the carrot on the stick, and then it hit it with a sledgehammer in white neon light. Is it worth it? Aren't you mad? Look at how he eats shrimp and doesn't wash his hands - is this the person you want to be liked by? Is this what you deserve for being human, really?

I've seen this movie on Friday and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I haven't looked in the mirror the same again. Somehow this made me kinder to myself.

I've seen reviewers say that this movie counts as "male gaze" and "violence against women" but I think they don't see the forest from the trees here.

First the male gaze: it felt like a deconstruction, in the best way. Sue's butt was the least erotic thing ever put to screen. The soft porn dance studio was shot in a lifeless manner, I felt like my mom was reading the browse history. Personally, I'd never want to have Sue's job. Even the sexist dudes that watch the movie seem to "get it", that their overly sexual media diet looks embarassing under the microscope. The medium is the message, and the sound and visual cues are all there to make sex appeal look very unappealing and immature. There's nothing sexy in "Pump it up", it's catchy and fun and has sexual undertones, but not a hint of sensuality.

Then the violence against women: there is only one scene where a man attacks a woman, and I'll not spoil it, but i'll say it's so bizzare it feels too cartoony to count. The rest of the violence is all self-inflicted. Every step of the way. Women don't just suffer abuse under patriarchy from men, they self-inflict and reenforce the structures of their own suffering onto others. Elizabeth is a fitness coach actively making bank off of other women's fears, and in the process of telling everyone over x kg to skip lunch she's grown her own self-loathing too. It wasn't really the horny men watching the fitness show, isn't it? Sue is even worse, she goes on talk shows to tell women her looks come from being kind, a silly statement considering she injects herself daily with an old woman's spine liquid while loathing her for existing. Elizabeth and Sue are both victims and perpetuators of violence, and it's gruesome because it's not a silly feminine thing, it's all-encompassing and a matter of life and death. Without violence, what would be the message of the movie? "It kinda sucks to be a woman hating your body". Doesn't sting, isn't it? This is not chopping women and putting them in refrigerators to give the good guy a reason to kill the baddie, this has to be violent to show the depth of pain of the protagonist. It's necessary. And I like it, because crying and wallowing in pain is not the behaviour you want to see on screens, it feels lethargic and leads to the problem not being taken as seriously.

[calowlmitygoddess]

i love cientific fantasy, i wanna add more cience in my stories but i also just love making things cool for the sake of being cool and making fantasy critters that have apendages that have no functional purpose other than being cool

[lightbluetown]

i saw some people say ed and zheng are master strategists while stede is just some guy with ridiculous luck, but i think that's unfair. sure stede's ideas are insane, but they fit the looney tunes ass universe of ofmd perfectly. they're mostly well-thought-out, well-executed and they showcase stede's strengths and growth! so allow me to talk about them:

1- ghost of the forest - 1x02

a fuckery™ before stede even knows what a fuckery™ is! this is amateurish and stupid in every way. he's not even threatening izzy with a real dagger-- that's a letter opener. does izzy actually believe that stede has a huge crew hiding behind the bushes? doubt it! but this weird little act is enough to establish stede as a (ridiculous) pirate figure to the legendary izzy hands and to accomplish his goal of taking a hostage back

2- lighthouse - 1x04

imagine coming up with the exact same idea at the exact same time as the most brilliant tactician of the seven seas! we don't know who came up with which parts of the plan (honestly it was probably mostly ed) but this is still bloody impressive

3- stark revelations - 1x05

stede's first big success! he uses his knowledge of the aristocratic world to get a shipful of rich assholes to destroy each other, but he's also showcasing what sets him apart from them: this plan only comes to fruition because stede talks to frenchie, olu and abshir as equals. as people he can learn from, as sources of inspiration

4- duel with izzy - 1x06

this one was absolutely unhinged, but its success was far from dumb luck. only stede could think of using a brazillian cherry wood mast and ed's weird stabbing lesson to win a duel, and that's what makes this plan so undeniably stede and brilliant

5- faking his death - 1x10

i love that he just had to "die" in the most dramatic way possible. a heroic fight (tiger), a realistic accident (carriage) and the most cartoony death in the book (piano)... not only is his triple-death able to convince everyone in barbados that he's dead for good, it also allows him to have closure with his family. it's filled with stede's ridiculous unique flair, but it's designed to be a fuckery™ through and through. ed would be SO proud

6- stealing jackie's indigo dye - 2x01

quick little stealth mission. did ricky manipulate stede into trying this out? sure. did ricky also ruin it? absolutely. but it was working until then! the swede isn't part of stede's crew at this point, but his respect for stede is what gets him to cooperate and risk his relationship with his beautiful wife. also, it's thanks to his love for fine things that stede immediately recognizes the value of "blue dirt"

7- prison break - 2x03

in my eyes no scene depicts stede's growth better than this one. knocking zheng's entire crew out with tea is the most stede thing out there, and this plan uses the cherry wood mast as well! this plan relies on stede's (unrealistic) tea knowledge, overly-fancy ship and ability to coordinate his crew. what makes it breathtaking is that he secretly sets this plan into motion while actively mourning the "death" of the love of his life. he's putting his life on the line to rescue ed's "killers" because he's emotionally mature enough to look at things from their perspective and forgive them

8- inciting a mutiny - 2x06

yet another brilliant plan that could only be executed by stede. this entire episode revolves around his idea of "turning poison into positivity" and here he, well, fights poison with positivity. stede captains his pirates with respect and care (best he can) which just so happens to be the opposite of ned. he exploits this and gently gets ned's crew to turn on him. he singlehandedly saves himself and his entire crew from a notorious pirate! oh he also literally invents walking the plank right after this

9- "it's only suicide if we die" - 2x08

okay, yes, this one didn't go that well (sorry iz). but it's not like ed, zheng or anyone else had any other ideas! stede's weird suicide mission, for the most part, worked. they needed to get through british soldiers to reach their ship and they did exactly that. if only they'd remembered to check if ricky had his gun... oh well, you live and you learn

sure, ed and zheng are legends and stede is a silly newbie with wild luck. but he's also quick-witted, creative, confident and brave! he's a damn good captain and he deserves to be recognized as a good strategist!

[maretriarch]

its a sliding scale of acceptability though

good | fine | absolutely not

if winghands have 0 haters i am dead

[bulbabutt]

ok so now ive seen earthspark i can say for sure this is 100% the best arcee design

she's this beautiful retro 50s car

they take note of those leia space buns and complete it by giving her this 50s sci fi look complete with blaster

she's full of these rounded shapes but she's not overly curvy, her face looks less cartoony than the other characters which really add to her vintage aesthetic.

like compare her face to elita they have widely different facial proportions. its cool because its cohesive to the standards of the era she's homaging. the 50s hollywood starlet: small eyes, arched brows high cheek bones. think disney princesses pre 90s.

the ever present backpack that usually contains her entire alt mode as a shell even gets to look just like a vintage jetpack!

it takes aspects of her character design that usually make her feel out of place and lets her own them. it feels more like a choice of her's then it ever has.

so all this to say im just so enchanted by the care that went into designing her in every aspect 10/10 no notes

[lynnemoonsong]

you know what? I don't miss the old character models or the goofy-as-fuck horse designs, actually.

sorry to everyone nostalgic for the old SSO graphics, but I could not take the overly cartoony designs seriously and the old horse models were Not Great.

the conformations were all off for various breeds, and I'd played different horse games dating from 2004 - 2006 with better horse models that actually looked like horses.

[tainted-heartz]

Can I ask for a Yandere Wally with a Reader who is trapped in his world in his human form, maybe the reader is confused and asks and asks wally for help to get back to his world or adapt…

Now a little cuteness maybe the reader she was distracted and didn't notice Wally's presence so she fell on top of him and accidentally kissed him (sorry cliché romance scene, maybe this is wally's first kiss on the mouth?)

| cliché romance is my favorite so YES OFC!! to clarify I'm gonna use partycoffins official human version of wally! (also I adore the pokemon au this design is from) |

- wally is aware you were stuck this is what he wanted after all. to allow you top adapt easier he made himself look more human and did a few little tricks to make the rest of the neighbors look human as well but the neighborhood still looked overly cartoony.

- he acted obvious when you came up to him and asked for help to leave but he just smiled. “ what do you mean , neighbor? you belong here. ” but clearly this responses wasn't the one you wanted. you sighed and asked if you could live with him for a while and adapt to your new life because wally clearly wasn't going to let you leave.

- over time you gained more romantic feelings towards the small painter by the day. he seemed to get not as..stalkerish around you but clearly was possessive over you even around his close friend barnaby.

- he even trusted you enough eventually to style his hair for him but by god his hair was either silky or fluffy. brushing it was a hastle but him rambling did make it a little bit more tolerable.

- speaking of rambling , he ends up rambling about how much he loves you and how long he's watched you which you hoped was a joke but..wasn't. he was being honest about how much he watched you before you were dragged into his world but you just shrugged it off.(stockholm syndrome™)

- one day you were just casually cleaning up home after you did some dishes since wally and you had split chores around the house. at least he tried to make it fair. as you were picking up his art supplies and cleaning up some left up canvases you bumped right into him. you could blame it on his height but everything was sudden as you two fell to the ground with you on top of him. of course it had to be an accident kiss- as you quickly pulled away from him you panicked and apologized PROFUSELY.

- wally was silent before he muttered “ that was my first kiss.. ” that left you in shock as you went almost as red as he was. “ ha. ha. it was nice even if it was..accidental. ” he smiled at you before sitting up to give you a gentle kiss on your lips before standing up and staring at your still shocked expression. he helped you up and picked up his canvases. “ thank you for the help , dearest. you know where to put my brushes. ” its almost so funny how pleased he was and also acting like it never happened..

[mad-raptorzzz]

[ID: A drawing of a purple NightWing dragon named Fatespeaker from Wings of Fire. She is sitting with her back to the viewer looking down at her right hand. She has medium purple scales with darker purple spots throughout. Down her neck and tail she has brighter light purple star-like speckles in a row. She also has bright light purple speckles around her right wrist. The tip of her tail ends in a blunt arrow head. Her belly is pink-purple and has some fluff to it. Her nose and ear are bright pink and she has a few whiskers sticking out. There is a heart shaped grey-purple scale at the corner of her purple eye. She has tears in her eye and holds a tear drop in her hand. The background is light purple. Above her head there are three light grey stars, each with a crack. /.End ID]

"Is this a vision..."

Fatespeaker's story is probably so sad. She is a very kind dragon and all of the dragons she considered friends were right jerks. And her caretakers were horrid. It's a miracle she turned out kind at all. I think her overly up-beat personality is a coping mechanism for this. However, I do think in quiet moments she would sit and cry softly to herself and wouldn't quite know why. There were so many negative emotions around her at all times and, her being an empath, she must have felt them all. Anyway, she's my favorite false DoD.

The wings are way too small but that's ok. I like how they look structurally. Also, Fatespeaker is chubby and I will fight anyone over this. I'm also considering trying out a more cartoony style too. Just for making designs that are going to be easier to animate as I try to animate things.

[amwilburn]

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

*Mild* spoiler only (What's *not* in the film as opposed to what surprises are in it).

What can I say? I haven't laughed this hard at the theaters in a while; if anyone remembers Airplane & Blazing Saddles, this is the same level of fun; hectic rapid fire action, and all the jokes landed for me (no eye roll inducing dad jokes).

But this comes at a cost to actual plot; they didn't want an overly long movie, yet ironically this is a film that would benefit from an extended cut, fully fleshing out the story.

For example, Vanessa was Deadpool's raison d'etre in both the first 2 films, yet was reduced to only a couple minutes of screen time. In fact most of the characters from DP 1 & 2 are essentially relegated to cameos, some major characters not even making an appearance at all. I found this disappointing, as they really had an opportunity to make the best MCU film here.

Despite this being a triumph of style over substance, it is highly entertaining, and will be worth re-watching. Everything looks great, with visceral action and non-stop R rated comedy (that appears to take slight inspiration from "The Boys") and the performances are actually great, in particular Emma Carrie's Cassandra was entertainingly diabolical without being too cartoony. Everyone was really good, including 1 surprise that had me in stitches throughout their screen time.

The Cinematic equivalent of delicious, but empty calories. While I'd hope for a more fleshed out extended cut (like the Snider Cut of Justice League), the fact is, being nothing but a series of jokes and action fits the character of Deadpool. Indeed, if we ask Ryan Reynolds for a directors cut, I'd wager instead of an extra 45 minutes of story we'd get an extra 45 minutes of jokes.

9.3/10, A-

[tossawary]

The AVALANCHE group in "Final Fantasy 7: Remake" keeps cracking me up. They're not wearing any face masks to hide their identities when busting into secure SHINRA facilities full of surveillance cameras??? They don't even change outfits when they're not running missions??? It's killing me.

Assuming that they are not outright killing every SHINRA trooper they encounter (maybe they are, idk), even if they weren't being caught on a bunch of surveillance cameras (the opening mission shows this happening), there's like dozens of people who should be able to give relatively detailed descriptions of them??? (Also, I laugh every time the screen says that Cloud has "defeated" a SHINRA trooper. If he's a super soldier swinging that much sharp metal around at high speeds, he should (realistically) be cutting people in half. It is amusing to me to see the people enemies just fall over and the machine enemies get trashed. I find it very cartoony.)

(I am still failing to properly watch my way through this series during work. I personally don't super love the hyperrealistic dolls design style and I don't think it jives all that well with the incredibly cartoony world building, clumsy "as you know" exposition, and wacky gameplay execution so far. It's just not my thing. Yet I found "Ace Attorney" utterly intolerable to watch but very fun to actually play through the wackiness, so I'll give FF7 the benefit of the doubt there and say, "Sure, I assume this is still really fun to actually play and that the world is immersive enough that way.")

This game is a "AAA" remake of a super popular game in a super popular franchise, but they apparently couldn't be bothered to make secondary "civilian" models for Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge? What is this? A cheaply made cartoon series? These characters are waltzing around the slums in their matching bright red bandanas and Jessie, who is apparently a former performer and therefore especially recognizable, is always wearing her silly tit-sculpted armor. AVALANCHE took a crowded passenger train home from their opening terrorist mission when they should rightfully all smell and look awfully beat-up and suspicious after fleeing a massive reactor explosion???

Like, I don't really care if the characters think they're hacking the camera systems here or if the game wants pretty character faces to be visible at all times. I also don't really care about faithfulness to the original setup. They could yank facemasks down during specific cutscenes? Cloud could lose his facemask at a dramatic moment during a cutscene? And Jessie could exclaim over how cute Cloud is at the end of the mission or whatever; you can frame all of their faces as a rewarding reveal at the end of the opener. I know that character models removing clothing is super hard in 3D animation, especially games, but there are storyboarding and model swap tricks for that. You can fake ripping off a facemask relatively easily.

If the point is for SHINRA to know it's them all along and to set them up to take the fall for something later, then AVALANCHE taking greater precautions and the Turks catching them out anyway could be used to make both AVALANCHE and the Turks look more competent / dangerous. Maybe you could generously interpret SHINRA's apparent failure to catch our protagonists out as the corporation being a bloated wreck of greed and incompetent, overly reliant on their technology and wealth, but that still doesn't really excuse for me making the AVALANCHE characters look this reckless. Jessie later visits her SHINRA employees PARENTS' HOUSE in her TERRORIST UNIFORM??? JESSIE, NO!!! That's so dangerous.

There's so much detail in the backgrounds here already! If it's a matter of resources, surely some random mob NPC models could be cut so that I could see Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge in cute civilian wear outside of their missions! I am already suspending so much disbelief for so much of FF7's wacky worldbuilding, but these little details are what's really tripping me up for some reason, like, come on. SHOW ME that these characters are good at what they do by having them take some basic precautions.

I laughingly shared these thoughts with someone and they said (jokingly critical of the game as well) that Barret probably doesn't bother with secrecy because he's already apparently the only big black guy around and almost certainly the only big black guy with a gun for an arm. Which is a point! But also, BARRET!!! YOU'RE A FATHER!!! SUNGLASSES ARE NOT SUFFICIENT ANONYMITY HERE!!! THINK OF MARLENE, MAN!!!

[galacticspaceguy]

((Definitely didn't rewrite this ask like 8 different times pshhhh u don't know what ur talking about-))

First things first, I'm 1000000% agreeing with your post about there not being enough platonic Spiderverse x Reader content. I am literally STARVING for platonic Spiderverse PLEASE,,,, there were only like 10 posts when I searched it up last and AO3 was so empty when I checked,,,,

Secondly, I rewatched the first Spiderverse two days ago ((& watched the new one earlier today)), but something about rewatching the original triggered some dormant part of me that has decided that Noir would be SUCH A GOOD PARENTAL / MENTOR FIGURE!!!

So, If you're cool with it, could I get some headcanons or a oneshot ((whatever you're feeling I'm starving here please-)) with him and a reader who's an older teen (like 17-19) and became Spiderman/woman/person when they were in their mid-teens (15/16)? It would probably work best with the context of the reader being a part of the events of the first movie, but in my head, reader has lived their entire life without close friends or anyone they could really talk to about their problems ((especially after they got bit)), so they closed themself off from others. Noir seems like the type that would be able to push someone like them to interact with others more, while also being entirely willing and eager to act as a support system. Maybe the oneshot/headcanon would involve reader getting hurt and Noir patching them up and letting them know that they do have other spider-people available to support them? Preferably gender-neutral but I don't mind either way! :]

((sorry but kinda not sorry for the kinda longish ask ((I did cut it down tho so hopefully it's a bit better)), rewatching Spiderverse triggered something in me that deeply desires parental! Noir so when I saw your post I immediately needed to send in an ask lol))

“You don’t have to shut everything out, you know.”

His words confused you for a moment, until you realized it was gonna be one of those sentimental, overly-emotional, trying to break your walls down, conversations.

“I don’t know what you mean.” You said, rather nonchalantly. You winced when he tightened the bandages around your arms.

You had insisted on going off on your own, resulting in you getting your ass beat- injured.

And apparently Noir was a doctor, so you got stuck with the black and white spiderman variant.

Everyone had tried to engage with you, the pig was very persistent in getting you to crack a smile with his cheesy, cartoony jokes. Their efforts proved to be fruitless.

You lived your entire like without needing anyone, and you weren’t about to change that. It was better that way. You were safer.

“You’re rather cut off for a kid?” It was said like a question, but you knew Noir knew it was a fact.

You acknowledged this was a huff as you cradled you injured arm.

“Could I, uh, see your hand?” Noir held out his own hand. You hesitated, looking between his hand and his masked face. You placed your hand in his.

He began to wrap your bruised hand in bandages that were provided by Mile’s universes Aunt May.

“I know being Spider-Man is hard, but it’s nice knowing there are other spider… people.”

You stayed silent, your answers coming out in hums or little noises, never taking your eyes off of his hands. You stiffened as his fingers touched one of the bruises.

“You’re allowed to talk, kid.” He said, looking you dead in the eye.

“I know that.” You replied, yanking your neatly bandaged hand away from him. “Just don’t see the need for it.”

Noir slightly tilted his head to the side. He hummed after hearing your answer.

“That’s a shame, I quite like the sound of your voice.

Now he was just trying to butter you up.

“Really?” Your tone of voice proved you didn’t believe him.

“Of course. I can only imagine the type of things you’ve got to say.” He leaned back in his chair in Aunt May’s living room. “What’s it like in your world? It’s obvious all our worlds are different.”

You sighed, a bit frustrated. “Look, I swing around, fight the bad guys, get bashed for it on the news, thats my life, nothing more to it.” You pulled your knees closer to your chest as you sat in an armchair.

“Well, if you ever wanna get more… in-depth about it, I haven’t quite lost my hearing yet.” He got up and sent two finger guns your way. It took everything in you not to let a small smile break free.

He left the room, leaving you by yourself. It was quiet and empty.

Suddenly, you didn’t like being alone.

[shinneth]

My souring sentiments on Sailor Moon's manga

It'll be a surprise to no one who knows me even remotely that Sailor Moon was my everything back in my childhood. From the age of 9, I was utterly obsessed with it.

That was just a couple of years shy of 30 years ago.

Since then, I've often revisited the series. I watched the entirety of the Viz dub of the classic anime; all 200 episodes.

And I loved it all the same, if not more so than before. Because now I have context for why exactly the anime was the way it was, including its gradual diversion from the manga source material. And I respect the hell out of the staff who poured their life into this work, while concurrently running with the manga and doing whatever it could to not completely outpace it in the narrative.

Are there a lot of fillers in the OG anime? Yes. Too many? Well, not so from a functional standpoint (this show had to run weekly for 5 years), but there are definitely some fillers you could skip and miss nothing in doing so.

But a story like Sailor Moon honestly needed some breathing room in order to properly flesh out the cast.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the live-action reimagining of the show, was phenomenal back then (despite looking low-budget even by 2003 standards), and having re-watched the whole series recently, I can safely say PGSM more than holds up and deserves way more love and respect than it gets. It's THE perfect example of reimagining the story of Sailor Moon while still respecting its roots and maintaining the soul of the franchise.

Which is exactly why I couldn't stand Sailor Moon Crystal. We knew from the off that it was supposed to be completely faithful to the manga, but one look through @crystalvsmanga will show you Crystal took shitloads of "creative liberties", and the amount of changes I could dare to call "good"? I could count them on one hand.

The animation is low-hanging fruit, because everyone and their dog knows how godawful it was for the first two story arcs. But more than that, I actually loathed the general art design. Yukie Sakou's style DID NOT closely resemble Naoko Takeuchi's. People kept saying it, but I couldn't really see it. The eyes especially are a far cry from Takeuchi's style. And Sakou's style did NOT facilitate the OTT cartoony expressions that were definitely present in Takeuchi's manga; everyone looked so goddamn soulless, like overly-expensive porcelain dolls.

My biggest gripe with Crystal was the story, of course. While a great deal came from just being from the manga (which I'll get to in a bit), the changes they made went a long way to actively make the manga's story worse. My main takeaway from Crystal S1-2 is that it took itself waaaaay too seriously.

That being said, I did like Crystal's third season a lot better BECAUSE Chiaki Kon had way more competence and held a lot more respect for Sailor Moon. Like, my god, for once it felt like there was a soul in this show! It can actually take the piss every now and then!

Some silly things kinda broke my immersion (such as the Senshi just being able to fuckin' fly and Chibi-Moon in particular was literally sky-stepping), but most of that can be blamed on the source material it was adapting. While I was fine with Crystal3, I definitely didn't feel it was anywhere near as good as Sailor Moon S. Outside of Hotaru/Sailor Saturn having more of a presence, there wasn't really much in Crystal's take on Infinity that I liked better than S.

But most of that comes down to the fact that I liked S more than manga's Infinity arc to begin with.

Which is a good segue to talk about the manga proper.

I have not yet watched Eternal or Cosmos. the movies that adapted the last two manga arcs, but it'd be redundant since I know ahead of time what they're going to be about, and so far I haven't heard about any of them deviating from the source material, so it'd be moot to talk about them even if I had watched.

When I first got my hands on the manga, which was when I was around 12-13 and thus got the crappy MiXxZine translations, I was fine enough with it. Thought it was too fast-paced and didn't care for 99% of the villains being one-and-done jobbers, but I was also reading it with my impressions of the 90's anime characters still intact. I was reading the manga like an extension of the anime, rather than the other way around.

It wasn't until many years later when I grew older, when the manga was properly translated, when I acquired the wisdom my teenaged-ass self lacked, and learned to look at the manga as a completely separate entity that I started to see the cracks in the manga's narrative.

Further rereads have left me in something of a mindfuck, as I experienced the manga the proper way. And I realized:

The more I read the manga, the more I disliked it.

The manga is lauded for having an infinitely better depiction of Mamoru, as well as his ~Miracle Romance~ with Usagi.

Objectively, the manga definitely spends lots more time giving UsaMamo attention as a couple than any other aspect of the story...

I'd say they're also more developed as individuals in the manga too, but usually the beats, uh...

... let's say they usually ring hollow, when these two (and sometimes their daughter) are the only ones who consistently get shit done across the series. Hell, on the rare occasion that the Inner Senshi weren't rendered into street pizza, Neo Queen Serenity basically told them to fuck off and let her daughter, past self, and past hubby take on motherfucking DEATH PHANTOM/NEMESIS BY THEMSELVES.

It's likely because my first exposure to Sailor Moon was via the 90s anime, which had more of a focus on friendship and comradery between Usagi and her friends than it did her romance with Mamoru. I mean, romance was DEFINITELY a prominent thing even in that iteration of the story, but that wasn't where my interest lied. I was, am currently, and always will be more interested in Usagi's galpals than I'll ever be interested in her love life.

And, well, I'm sure this qualifies as a hot take, but...

This one moment with Usagi and Mamoru in the elevator (hell, their interaction across this entire episode was great) resonated with me far more than any ultra-romantic declarations of eternal devotion that Usagi and Mamoru kept regurgitating at each other in the manga.

Granted, the manga had a FEW moments early on where their dynamic was more playful, but they were pretty much confined to the early chapters and this element of their chemistry pretty much died not long after this.

Some say 90s anime Mamoru was far too mean-spirited in his teasing of Usagi. And I mean, sure, he was kind of a douche at times, but he usually got some karmic blowback from it (I remember one time he made Usagi cry without even really meaning to, and she cried so loud in public that randos nearby were giving Mamoru the evil-eye or a scolding). But honestly, after R, Mamoru kinda became a bland, generic love interest, just as he almost always was in the manga. The only difference was that anime Mamoru was never granted powers that were literally equal to Usagi's. The manga gave him a GOLDEN FUCKING CRYSTAL.

There was that infamous break-up arc in R that, yes, was shitty in concept and execution. But if I had anything positive to say about it, it at least shook up the status quo. It didn't make him immediately fall into the bland, generic love interest he would soon become. And it gave us some of the most emotionally-charged Usagi moments in the entire anime.

Conversely, in the manga, we had THIS shit for our UsaMamo "drama":

(the former incident with Usagi literally accusing her boyfriend of falling in love with a kid, by the way, happened while MOST OF HER FRIENDS WERE KIDNAPPED BY THE ENEMY AND COULD'VE BEEN DEAD FOR ALL SHE KNEW AND YET SHE FUCKING HAD TIME FOR THIS STUPID SHIT)

Everything seemed to revolve around Usagi and Mamoru (sometimes Chibiusa too). It lowkey came off that way at times even in the 90s anime, but in the manga or Crystal? You'd be hard-pressed to find the girls engaging in their stated hobbies at most points in time, because they're usually all together and talking about their prince and princess.

Hell, even Haruka - Sailor Uranus herself - seemed much more interested in Usagi than she ever did in Michiru, her actual girlfriend.

So... am I just missing something? I've seen people say that as they grow older, they prefer the manga/Crystal to the 90s anime. But I've never seen anyone other than myself express the opposite sentiment.

But it's true - unless I completely leave my brain at the door, I have a hard time enjoying the manga for what it is. The characters I'm most interested in or attached to quickly get swept aside for the characters I have the least interest in. No more does that ring true than the Stars arc of the manga, where Naoko Takeuchi basically speedruns killing off literally the entire cast until Sailor Moon's the only one left standing. Most characters don't even get to go out in a blaze of glory or anything - it's got nothing on the finale of the 90s anime's first season in that regard. If you're lucky, you'll get a single panel where your entire existence is ripped to shreds - but sometimes you'll be killed literally off-screen!!

There's a number of questionable manga-exclusive aspects that rubbed me the wrong way as well, such as poor Sailor Pluto being assigned as a child to guard the Door of Time in complete and total solitude. While I appreciate more Silver Millennium lore that the manga provided (the anime hardly mentioned it past the first arc), it was more than a little uncomfortable knowing the OG Queen Serenity conscripted the Inner Senshi as small children to become Princess Serenity's guardians. Really casts Queen Serenity and her Moon Kingdom in a much darker light - like maybe Queen Beryl and Queen Nehelenia had a point in trying to take them down (though the manga I believe retcons all past villains as incarnations of Chaos, so that arguably removes all prior villains' agency?). Lots of little things that I didn't think twice about, but now that I look at them again, I'm wondering WTF Naoko Takeuchi was thinking.

Though I don't want to be too hard on her. Poor girl was working under stress far longer than she'd planned to (she'd intended on ending the story either by the Dark Kingdom or Black Moon arc), so it's no surprise there's a lot of clunk and clutter in the narrative.

I often wondered if Naoko Takeuchi really wanted to make Sailor Moon with a Super Sentai-esque setup in the first place. After all, her first big hit was Sailor V, which was exclusively Minako and Artemis fighting evil with Minako having her own masked love interest she ended up being at odds with and he eventually died. With a scant few secondary characters here and there.

It led to me thinking about what Sailor Moon would be like if Naoko kept the cast to a more Sailor V-like size. That, perhaps, the Sailor Moon she really wanted to make would be quite a different beast from how we know it to be today.

So this lengthy diatribe about my personal conflicts with my waning fondness for the manga versus my strengthened love for the OG anime and live-action show was actually a preamble to a bizarre AU I wrote an outline for over a year ago but never posted in public. I had considered posting it to Sailor Moon's Reddit back then, but I (probably wisely) held off, as my musing went way off the rails.

But I figured now's a good time as any to share it here, at least. Though it'll need to be its own post since I wrote so goddamn much in this post alone, wow.

On that note, I'll end with this: The only iteration of UsaMamo that I unironically enjoyed and rooted for is...