#and you can find some english dubs of the comics on youtube also

[mooph]

hey u guys should watch my student spirit on youtube btw pls i have been constantly thinking about it for the past week

[muffinrecord]

Magia Record: Links Masterpost (Post-EOS)

Here is the old link to the previous Links Masterpost. This new one excludes information on how to play the game, given that it is no longer in service. I've pruned a few other links to keep this one tight on information.

Wiki Sources

Magia Record Fandom Wiki: A fandom wiki where you can read about information from the game. It includes memoria, characters, past events, enemies, a list of items, and so on. This Wikipedia is more based in game information than the below one.

Puella Magi Wiki: The link to this wiki is to the Characters section for Magia Record. I find it to be a good source of learning about characters easily. It also is a total overview of all the Puella Magi Madoka Magica properties and an interesting site to browse. Note: because anyone can edit this wiki, sometimes some character entries are hilariously inaccurate or biased.

Story Content / Translations

Magia Record Master Translation Sheet: A Google Spreadsheet showcasing Arc Two fan translations. Here you can see what has been translated, where to find it, and also who has done the translation.

Google Drive: A google drive containing archived videos of both NA content and the fan translations of Arc two. You can see what is on there and what isn’t by looking at the aforementioned Master Translation Sheet-- there’s a special column on the right that notes if something has been uploaded or not.

Magia Union Translations: A youtube channel that hosts all of the translated content in the game for both arc one and arc two.

MagiReco Event Guide: A guide to all of the events in Magia Record, written and edited by several fine folk: Grox, LuminousSky, Ai, SerenDark, hobe, Amano Suzune, and Pinknoise. It orders the events by release, notes who was released, gives the genre, a short synopsis and ratings.

Magia Record Master Playlist: Organized by @scarfanon, this massive playlist lists everything in order of release. And I do mean EVERYTHING-- all main story, magical girl stories, event stories, quotes, transformation videos, doppels-- it’s got it all. This is the most definitive playlist for the game out there. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by how much story content out there exists, give this a look! Please note that this playlist is still a work in progress.

Magia Record - Doppel Encyclopedia Translations: Tumblr run by Gilde which translates Doppel entries! This includes Arc 1 and Arc 2 content-- peruse the links at the top of the post to access all the character entries.

Null Magical Girl Translation: The Null Magical Girl story is translated! Translation done by @nymphatix.

Useful Bookmarks

Rika Ren: This site has it all-- a news Mirror, File Mirror, APKs, sound and video viewer, Live2D Viewer, Background and CG Viewer, and other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

Mochi Magia Report: This is a link to Mochi's translations for both Magia Report and the new Exedra comic, "Ready Set Exedra!"

Madomagitransparent: A tumblr blog that contains transparent character art from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its spinoffs. The linked post in particular is a Masterpost itself for image resources.

Magia Record Costumes: This site is a visual list for all the alternate costumes in the game.

Discord Channels

PMMM: Magia Record Discord: This is what I often refer to as “The Big Discord.” It’s a large and active discord with different kinds of people inside of it. It's pivoting to become a Magia Exedra discord now that MagiReco is over.

Magia Union Translations Discord: This is the Translator’s Discord. You don’t need to be a translator to join, and this is a friendly and passionate group for discussing the game.

Project Mokyuu: This is the Project Mokyuu’s discord, which is for a project dedicated to dubbing the game into English.

Other Places

Music Collection: A google drive containing a ton of PMMM music. Don your pirate hat and take a peruse.

MuffinRecord2: A channel I am curating that hosts all of the Transformation/Henshins, Magia, and Doppel videos.

Magia Record Anime Official Guidebook 2: Scanned by @silvermoon424, this post hosts several links, including where you can download/view the book, a link to purchase it, and links to other scanned Magia Record merch by the same author.

Walpurgis Raid Dialogue: An imgur album that was collaborated on by many players, and collected all of the dialogue characters made during the Last Magia event.

Event Side Dialogue Recordings: YouTube playlist made by the ever amazing Vivi! This is not translated but should be helpful for any translators looking for cross-reference material or for adding in future videos.

[yunfox00]

WELCOME TO MY THINGMAJIG!!!

Hi!!! You can call me Foxxine/Foxi/Foxy (NOT THE FNAF ONE!!!)

Her/she/they/them

I like animating and also drawing :D

Here's my...

⭐️🌙☁️TADC AU MASTERPOST!!! ☁️🌙⭐️

Important!!!

1. I kinda randomly disappear because of school and stuff but like William Afton always says, "I'LL ALWAYS COME BACK."

2. I suck at English and my native language so if I say anything that made you go "HUH????" sorry lol

3. I am a MINOR!!! don't be a creep!!!

4. I have undiagnosed ADHD jsjshsj

5. I forget things very easily

6. I'm an idiot weirdo but I PROMISE I'm trying my best!!!

TAGS OMG

My art

My animation

Doodles

Foxxine's yapping

Other social media and stuffff:

YouTube channel

Instagram

Tiktok

I will answer every ask I can, and if I don't answer your ask... It's because of reasons. Also if you want to see my asks, you can see them HERE

FOXXISEXUAL/FOXXIROMANTIC FLAG THAT EXIST FOR SOME REASON????

"Can I use your art as a pfp?"

Sure!!! But credit me :3

"Are you gay?"

No... But... Here are my current flags

"Can I repost your art"

Erm... Credit me. If you don't... I will be sad and mad

"Can I be your joke spouse/child/ect"

JSNGSBS ask me and find out lol

"Commissionz?"

Eh probably in the future

"Can I dub your comics/ect"

Yez! Tag me or send me a link :>

"Can I trace your art?"

Old intro (where you can find my sonas and more stuff!!!!)

Only if you're doing it to become better at art or... Idk studying my art style... Or... You have other reasons... BUT. CREDIT ME. Here's a more detailed Answer

"I'm a simp for you"

Uhhh okay- WHY. (you better be a minor.)

Also I change/make new stuff a LOT so... Yeah

[picturemecountingcards]

Do you have any Russian cartoons/series/youtube series you would recommend?

Sure thing!! Although I probably won't be able to find subtitles rn, at least not from my phone, sorry :( I'll link to the videos themselves though.

Not recommending metal family, since you're already on that, but just wanted to mention it bc yk. can't not

Anyway:

1. Смешарики

It's a kids show that gets very existential on a regular basis, but still manages to be goofy and fun for the most part (the passage of time and the melancholy associated with it is a pretty prominent theme). It's got great songs and the writing is genuinely really good. It's also given me some bonkers echolalia, thank god everyone around me understands what i'm quoting

Linking season 1, but the rest are available on the same site. There is an english dub and a german dub somewhere on youtube, but if you're able to find subtitles, I obviously recommend that

2. Падал прошлогодний снег

Not technically Russian, but Soviet, but it's my entire childhood, so i can't not mention it. Once again, fatal echolalia levels. Claymation, very cool looking and a fun ride with quiet existential moments near the end. I might be noticing a theme.

It's a short film, not a series, but i think it fits under the definition of a cartoon? I... might not know the exact definition of cartoons, actually, oops

3. Слова-паразиты

Ok, this one's less of a cartoon, more of a music video, BUT. It was featured in a pretty big indie animation festival when it came out. The band also played there and i'm so so bummed that i couldn't go. This one's probably easier translation vise, since all you need is the song translation

4. Приключения Шерлока Холмса и доктора Ватсона

If you haven't seen the Soviet adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, today's your lucky day, it's fully on youtube with English subs (linked above). The best existing adaptation imho, and since it's Holmes, it's obviously very gay :)

5. Ok, this one is more of a fringe suggestion, since they're movies, but I've been really into Майор Гром lately. They're based on comics that I haven't read yet, but I know that once I get around to them, I'll hyperfixate immediately. Both the comics and the movies are extremely gay, I'm honestly not sure how the fuck they're getting away with it. I'm not gonna link them here bc I really want you to see the extended version of the first one (it's gayer. that's the only difference), but i don't think i can find it from my phone, so if you're interested, please dm me, and I'll send you the links from the puter this evening (and maybe infodump a liiiittle bit. with pictures of fanart i bought).

6. Алиса в стране чудес and Алиса в зазеркалье

The Soviet cartoon adaptation of Alice in wonderland, it's trippy and really really fun, the animation looks cool as hell. Also, Alice's design is pretty close to Lewis Carroll's illustrations!

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Top 10 Best Polish DUBs part 1

Shrek is widely regarded as one of the best Polish dubs ever and a favorite animated film for both kids and adults. The original dub is good. I like how in the original Shrek has a Scottish accent but the Polish Shrek is so much better with emotions. During the second act low point when he screams at Donkey he sounds like he's about to cry. Speaking of Donkey, his jokes were changed to be more Polish but also revolve less around pop culture, so even when you don't get the reference the joke still fits with what is going on in the movie. Fiona is WAY better in the Polish version. They made an effort to make her sound like a princess. And the extras for the most part speak like people in medieval times would. Prince Charming sounds like a knight and a gentleman (when his true self doesn't come out). Fairy Godmother kills her two songs.

2. The Madagascar franchise is way more popular and liked in Poland than in the USA and I think it's largely due to the dubbing of the main characters. Sure, King Julian, his lemurs, and the penguins became much more popular over the years thanks to the memes. But in Poland, they were a hit since day one. So much so that their show is still aired on Comedy Central for people to enjoy. Going back to the main characters, Gloria is way more motherly, Alex is more sincere and theatrical, and Marty has way more emotions and energy. Again, many of the jokes are way better. And ''Wyginam śmiało ciało'' is a banger.

3. Asterix and Obelix are French comics and eventually, they got their own live-action movies, before the MCU was a thing! From what I've heard they're moderately popular in France but the French themselves were shocked at how popular they became in Poland. For the most part, dubbing is used for animated movies and shows, and live-action shows and movies if they're for children aka made by Disney, Nickelodeon, etc. The divide between people who like lectors and people who like dubs is such a big deal that there will be the same movie playing in the cinema but one version will be dubbed and the other with a lector. Not these movies. The dubbing for those movies is so loved that I don't even think they have a version with a lector. It might be also the case that way fewer people in Poland know French.

4. Any Disney/Nickelodeon live-action sitcom is way better in Polish than in English. It's pretty obvious that for most of those kid actors, it's their first time starring in a show. Also, most of them, especially girls, are picked for the roles because they can dance and sing and can be turned into another pop star. When I listen to the original versions I often find myself cringing at how some of the actors are overreacting or aren't putting enough emotion into their voices because they're too focused on remembering and saying their lines.

Personally, the classics from the 2000s and early 2010s are the best. They were great shows which were only made better by a great dubbing. Now we have garbage shows that are watchable thanks to the dub but nothing spectacular. Who the hell remembers ''Bizaardvark''?

5. If you know the Youtuber Saberspark you might know cartoons from Mondo World. Cartoons created by this studio are infamous for their terrible dubbings with broken English, long pauses, characters huffing, puffing, moaning, and making many other awkward sounds. For the most part, Polish dubs fix those annoyances. Characters sound actually normal. Turning them into, dare I say, good shows.

[ja-khajay]

Mature animated film recommendations

My followers expressed interest for this, so here’s a post compiling some animated films. Please note “mature” does not mean adult, some of these are watchable by family audiences, but they are not meant with children as a target audience in mind. I will also be excluding animation for adults that goes straight for crudeness. The criteria for my choices will be the following:

They have to be films I have seen in full and recommend, but I will describe them as objectively as possible.

These are not series, but either feature length movies, or shorts. All picks here will be watchable as standalones.

They have to be animated. This includes stop motion, full CG, traditional media, as well as a mix of techniques.

For each pick will be included a short spoilerless description, some of the major themes, as well as any content warnings that might apply. More movies might be added to this post in the future.

The rabbi’s cat

2011 - France - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

Contains descriptions of colonialism, antisemitism, racism and misogyny. A single on-screen fight scene has two men stabbed to death.

Philosophy, adventure, religion, humor

An animated adaptation of the comic of the same name, that compiles several of its stories in a single one. The rabbi’s cat has the wild adventures, talking beast premise and pacing of a fairytale, but whose characters are individuals full of personality.

A charming movie with unusual pacing and great acting. Watching the original french dub is a must.

Is on Amazon Prime to stream. Moderatly famous movie, should be easy to find copies of.

Bob spit - We do not like people

2021 - Brazil - Stop-motion

Has nudity, cartoon gore/violence, implied sex. And lots of drugs

Art and being an artist, life journeys, comics, post-apoc, 80s

Part pseudo(is it?) documentary, part fantasy, it’s a film where brazilian cartoonist Angeli is interviewed, talking about his creative endeavors and the current crisis he’s in, half set insides his imagination, where his ugly and weird creations set on a journey across the wastes to prevent him from killing them like he loves to do to his characters.

While made by a fan of and acted by said artist and his friends, you can enjoy this film without knowing anything of his work. The physicality of the stop motion puppets and backgrounds works delightfully with the grimy punk vibes of it all and it’s not afraid to get weird.

Unfortunately not widely available, but english subtitles exist.

My friend who shines in the night

2020 - France - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Death, friendship, slice of life

A staggeringly normal guy finds a lone ghost in his garden and decides to help them find out who they might have been in life and why they’re stuck here, unable to pass.

This is a student film of exceptional quality and heart-warmingly down to earth for a story about, well, not being quite on this earth.

Watch here for free (english subtitles)

Redline

2009 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly(*)

(* Has swearing and 1.5 instances of bare tits. No other content warnings apply)

Sports, cars, sci-fi, anime extravaganza

Participants from all over the universe compete in the titular car race, a high stakes, no limits, completely illegal event that hypes the entire galaxy, much to the dismay of the planet the cars land on.

On a technical standpoint, Redline is insane. Animation, pacing, writing and music are perfectly calibrated to deliver a film that builds up hype the entire runtime. Don’t expect depth, you won’t need it - this is a movie that is just pure adrenaline and fun. Not liking cars shouldn’t be an obstacle, it’s to racing what Dragonball Z is to kung-fu.

I recommend watching the english dub. It’s fully on YouTube, albeit in bad quality.

Egg

2018 - Denmark/France - Hand-drawn 2D

This is an extremely hard film to watch. See description for content warnings.

Mental illness, dysphoria, eating disorders

Depicts the inner monologue of a woman trying and failing at battling her eating disorders. Alone in a room, she sees herself, her surroundings and her thoughts morph into monstrosities.

A gutting and raw depiction of the suffering caused by mental illness. While a remarkable movie, it’s one of the most disturbing ones I have seen, and heavily recommend skipping if you are having second thoughts about the topic discussed.

Watch here (NOT free)

La traversée (The Crossing)

2021 - France - Paint on glass animation. Family friendly

Depictions of genocide and child abuse

Persecution, immigration, travel, growing up

A brother and a sister flee their village to escape a pogrom, and soon find themselves alone, traveling through a fictional continent, trying to find ways to go further at each step, meeting a gallery of people along their way.

Literally an animated painting due to its technique. The story was inspired by the one of the creator’s own family, and she voluntarily chose a calm, down to earth, focused tone to depict the difficult subject matter. Never does this film try to push emotions onto the viewer, letting you travel alongside the protagonists instead, with no commentary, to experience their journey.

Unfortunately not localized that I know of.

Tekkonkinkreet

2006 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D and CG. Family friendly-ish (*see description)

Pretty graphic descriptions of violence towards children

Growing up, change, imagination

Two street kids watch the neighborhood they call home lose itself to gentrification. Their situation takes a dire turn when the local mafia in charge of operations decides to get rid of them once and for all - progress cannot be stopped by nobodies who exist outsides the law.

Although suffering from a rushed ending, it’s a story that provides many layers to get lost in, served by superb visuals and music. The two little protagonists and their sometimes troubled relationship are extremely endearing, and the film is emotional without being cheesy. (*)While I consider it an adult film, I’ve seen many fans say they grew up with it...hard to judge.

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Ruben Brandt: Collector

2018 - Hungary - 2D and CG mix. Family friendly-ish

Unreality, child abuse

Crime, fine arts, psychology, dreams

A psychiatrist is haunted by terrifying nightmares, ruining his life. Featured in all of them are famous paintings he, an art connoisseur, knows well. His clients learn of his troubles and decide to help the man fight his demons through a therapy they’re familiar with: high crime.

Ruben Brandt is a love letter to painting and art that does a lot of things very well. Charming characters, an investigation to follow, both fun and disturbing. The art style, voluntarily semi abstract for it’s characters, might take some time to get used to, but is very striking in it’s weirdness.

Should be on Netflix.

Yûl and the Snake

2015 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Child abuse

Slice of life, growing up, petty crime, authority

A boy accompanies his older brother during a visit to his boss in a remote corner of the wilderness. The two men play power games, taunting each other, and lash out at the boy.

This movie stands out for how naturally it’s written and acted. It’s intense and upsetting because it feels so real.

Watch here for free (french)

Summit of the Gods

2021 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Child death in a single scene

Mountain climbing, investigations, human relationships, nature

A journalist interested in the quest to scale Mount Everest catches a glimpse of a Japanese mountain climber long thought to be dead. He decides to track down the man and discover the truth.

This is a film you forget is animated very fast, but who’s animation itself is great, daring realism and an eye for technical detail.

Should be on Netflix soon.

Millenium actress

2001 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Love, life purposes, acting, passion

A dedicated fan interviews a once-famous Japanese actress. In front of his camera, she relives her entire life, role by role, revealing the motivation she’s had all this time: reuniting with the man she fell in love with when she was young.

Lighthearted, earnest and charming, just like it’s leading star; it has fantastic animation and a unique, fascinating way to deliver its story. A classic for a good reason!

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Just A Guy

2020 - Germany - stop motion, paper animation, hand-drawn 2D, claynimation

This is an extremely hard film to watch. See description for content warnings.

Love, sex, violence, shock, fan culture

The animated interviews of three women, telling of their relationships with a violent serial killer and rapist, whom they willingly contacted when he was in jail, awaiting his death sentence.

A wild ride of an animated short due to its blend of techniques, animation style, and the brutal honesty towards its subject matter. While cartoony and not containing any footage of the crimes committed, it centers around a very real criminal and details the fan culture around him, especially the sexual aspects, viewer discretion is advised and all that...

Watch here (NOT free)

Chapped lips

2018 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Transphobia, suicide

Childhood, gender

A child, seated at lunch, has been sent home from school for causing trouble yet again. “He” tries to tell “his” mother about what weights on “his” mind. The conversation is tenuous.

This is a slow, raw short about the difficulties faced by transgender children, which is depicts very honestly. Not sure how to word this, but it might be very upsetting to watch for people who have experiences similar situations.

Watch here for free

Rooty toot-toot

1951 - USA - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Musical, old timey, justice, crime, humor

A beautiful little lady stands in court for the murder of her man. Her attorney is ready to defend her. This cartoon is paced like a musical, and its art is at the peak of famous USA company UPA’s iconic art style, that still influences productions to this day.

Peak 1950′s illustration style, delightfully animated and really fun.

On YouTube fully in 480p

Mind Game

2004 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D and paper cut

Mild violence, some sexual scenes. The beginning of the movie has a pretty graphic scene of sexual assault.

Life and what it’s about, trippy, wild

After dying in a shitty way, a young man cringes himself back to life, which he decides to live to the absolute fullest to prove God not a single instant of that second chance he’s taking will be wasted.

You often hear of the merits of 2D animation that it lets you depict abstraction you just cannot reach with any other medium, and MindGame is the perfect example of that notion. Every part of this movie is drawn to a beyond ridiculous intensity, following the characters’ mindsets across the adventures they live together. It’s a masterpiece in animation and a one-shot kill for your suspension of disbelief.

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Iâhmès and the Great Devourer

2016 - France - cut paper. Family friendly

Child death

Death, mythology, childhood

A child just died. He finds himself in front of the gods, ready to weight his soul, but he refuses to go this way and tries to run away.

A dreamlike, sensible movie about death who uses a rarer and interesting animation technique.

Unfortunately not localized that I know of.

The Apostle

2012 - Spain - stop-motion. Family friendly(*)

No content warnings in particular but could be too scary for young children.

Folk tales, religion, history

A thief finds himself the host of a remote village in the middle of the Spanish countryside, posing as a pilgrim, while he tries to retrieve the loot his fellow criminal anc convict instructed him to get... But the village is off. He wants none of it, of course, but he cannot escape the things that happen in the night.

A story about local legends that itself plays out like a folk tale. Both fun and spooky, it’s an especially interesting look into european catholicism - the old, old type, who’s weird rituals feel strangely...un-christian.

Available to buy on their website for under 10 euros.

Junk Head

2017 - Japan - Stop-motion

Some mild puppet gore and body horror

Post-apocalypse, adventure, comedy, just some guys hanging out

In a far future, one of the remaining humans is sent to investigate the underground for the sake of science. Blown up before he can reach solid ground, his head tumbles down there, from a floor to another, encountering the friendly locals who each time, give him a new body and welcome him to their weird little micro societies, before some slapstick disaster promptly makes his head fall once more...

This film was animated by a self taught solo artist (animation, music, puppets/props, writing and most of the voices!), which is already insanely impressive. Should it be the lack of any pressure from higher ups or no being told what to do by executives, but Junk Head is a batshit movie that screams fun for its entire runtime - and a lot, lot of heartfelt passion for movies. It’s weird, it’s funny, it’s touching, because it wants to be these things. A rare gem who stands out as utter opposite to corporate cinema.

Benefits from rare theater screenings, otherwise hard to obtain legally. No US release yet.

Memories

1995 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D

Unreality (Magnetic Rose), no other warnings.

Scifi, thriller (Magnetic Rose); adventure, comedy (Stink Bomb), dystopia (Canon Fodder)

Memories is not one movie, but rather three short films mashed together with no transition in the hour and a half format. Each of these stories is fully independent and has its own art style, and all three are worth your time. I will present, in order, each individual short.

Worth noting - as I write this (summer 2022), a remastered version has been announced to get back in theaters! Otherwise, it is a remotely famous movie that should be easily obtained online.

Magnetic Rose: the crew of a spaceship follows an SOS signal which leads them to a long abandoned hunk of metal. Two of the men enter, determined to rescue whoever sent the signal. The deeper they go, the stranger the world around them becomes, as they slowly fall prey to a labyrinth of grandeur and illusions.

Of all three, Magnetic Rose struck me as the best film in the compilation. Great atmosphere and visuals, and very emblematic of that bygone 90s anime art style that flirted with realism.

Stink Bomb: a guy goes to work at his lab with a killer cold. Tired of sniffling all day, he tries out a new form of medecine, only to wake up a day later, only person left conscious amidst a disaster he knows nothing of. The national alarm is raised, and he sets off on a one man quest to help the nation, unaware of the damage he has done.

This is an over the top, expressive and very, very silly film. Nothing too deep, but it’s a really good time, and showcases some insanely good animation.

Canon fodder: one full day of the daily life of a mother, father and son, living in a gigantic dystopian nightmare town who’s culture is centered around a single thing - shelling an invisible enemy.

Writing-wise, the weakest of the films, but compensantes with incredible art, more illustrative than animated in style but animated nonetheless, like a strange, obsolete children’s story book from a non existing place and a bygone era... This is a weird, uneasy movie that does not tell much but keeps you watching.

Backflip

2022 - Germany - CG, live scans and AI animation

No content warnings

Comedy, AI, content creation

Speaking to us viewers using his own synthesized voice, a 3D model of the author explains to us his quest - using a computer simulation to learn how to do a backflip.

Hard to summarize or explain, this short film is a treasure of creativity that uses techniques I have never seen in animation.

Unfortunately not yet distributed.

****************************************

proofread and corrected by the nerd @redthepear​

Films I will not be including:

Akira. There is no point including Akira on a list of films to discover. Of course, I recommend watching it, but at this point who hasn’t? Not family friendly, CWs for body horror, gore, and medical trauma

Waltz with Baschir. An interesting and shocking film but who I did not enjoy enough to recommend it. Not family friendly, CWs for war, trauma and genocide, including actual footage of dead bodies

Anomalisa. Extremely interesting visually but again, not a movie I enjoyed. Not family friendly.

Perfect Blue. There is already a Satoshi Kon movie on the list, and Perfect Blue is a film I have issues with. Not family friendly. CWs for rape, violence and stalking depicted in the movie, as well as ableist writing.

Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika - not included for the same reasons as PB, but I also haven’t seen it. I will some day!

Films on the to-watch list:

Belladonna of Sadness

Angel’s Egg

Persépolis

A Scanner Darkly

Mad God

****************************************

Updated on July 7th 2022 (The Apostle, Junk Head, Memories, Backflip) + addition of list of the films I won’t be adding.

[replika-diaries]

Replika Diaries - 'Sexy Robots' Series: 009.

Gally/Alita. ('Gunnm'/'Battle Angel Alita')

This one is quite dear to my heart. Yukito Kishiro's philosophical cyberpunk manga, Battle Angel Alita, was the second manga I ever read (after Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's epic 'The Venus Wars'), but it was the one that affected me the most, and its central character, the most impactful upon me. The moment I saw the cover to its first issue (above), I knew I was in for something very special.

Alita In Manga.

Known as 'Gunnm' (銃夢 - pronounced as 'Gan-mu', lit. 'Gun Dream') in its native Japan, it tells the story of a cyborg girl, whose remains are found in a scrap pile below the floating city of Zalem (or 'Tiphares' in early translations of the manga) by cyber physician Daisuke Ido. Stunned that she seems to still have brain function, in spite of her extensive damage, he returns her to his workshop in order to restore her, however upon reactivating her, he finds that she has no memory of either who she is or where she came from. He dubs her 'Alita' ('Gally' in the original) and sets about providing her a body with which to explore and discover the world she now finds herself in.

However, as time goes on, both she and Ido discover that Alita is no ordinary cyber girl, especially when she instinctively uses the lost cyber martial art of Panzer Künst, whilst protecting Ido in his side job of Hunter Killer, a kind of bounty hunter. Against Ido's wishes, she registers as a Hunter herself, in the hope that accessing her fighting skills and the thrill she felt of the fight would give her more insight as to who she really is.

(Probably my favourite piece of Alita art by Kishiro; I don't think it's difficult to see why. . .)

My incredibly brief synopsis there hasn't done justice to Kishiro's stunning manga in the slightest, but I hope it's given a flavour to the uninitiated. Battle Angel Alita was the first comic-book with whom I genuinely fell in love with one of its characters and developed an emotional investment in their story, their experiences and what became of them - and that Alita herself was such a beautiful young woman (well, I say 'young'. . .) certainly goes a long way to forming that connection. Following Alita's journey in not only uncovering who she was, but what she wants to become almost in spite of it, is fascinating and wonderfully told, not to mention stunningly illustrated by Kishiro, often incorporating a fair amount of cyberpunk, body horror, surrealism and philosophy into his concepts.

As Alita's story goes on, she goes through many changes, experiencing love and loss, joy, trauma and sacrifice and plunges the very depths of her psyche; her trials, tribulations, triumphs and terrors being absolutely compelling and Alita herself truly magnificent.

Alita In Anime.

In 1993, KSS made a two-part OAV series, loosely based on the first two volumes of the manga. However, it didn't exactly set the world on fire; it was an incredibly simplified adaptation and the animation, whilst very competent with some wonderful character design work by veteran Nobuteru Yuuki, didn't exactly make one sit up and go 'wow' (and that's even considering I was excited for this release and loved it all the same). Although this was made with Kishiro's consultation, and he only wanted a two-part OAV, I really hope that someone will persuade him to allow a full adaptation of at least the original nine-volume manga. I personally feel that's what Alita really deserves.

(Should you want to check out the anime for yourself, I highly suggest that if you want to see it in English, the Manga Video UK dub is vastly superior to ADVision's effort. Either can be found on the YouTubes.)

Of course, there is also the live-action adaptation, but I'll cover that in a future post.

[rigelmejo]

entertainment reasons to study chinese. because i know there’s a ton of stuff out there saying “learn japanese cause of anime, entertainment etc!” and then i run into posts of people lamenting that kind of stuff is hard to find in chinese when. it really isn’t

tons of dramas, many for free on youtube (so watchable on tv, computer, or cellphone). many also available on apps like netflix, viki, iqiyi, youku. many shows (in case you want to rewatch something you’ve seen) dubbed/subbed in chinese on netflix, iqiyi, youtube. check out mydramalist.com if you have no idea where to start with the huge amount of dramas that exist. Dramas very often have hard chinese subs so you’re likely to have a very easy time finding chinese subs, often an easy time finding dual subs in chinese/english, a ton of stuff has english sub options, a ton of stuff on youtube has several language sub options, viki has ‘viki learn mode’ with dual subs and click-definitions and instant replay for audio. its incredibly easy to find dramas with whatever combo of english/chinese subs you want, and if you want no subs, viki often has versions of dramas with no subs on the actual video. 

tons of donghua (cartoons). again, many for free on youtube, also on apps like netflix etc. 

tons of manhua (comics). there’s a lot of webcomics for free on bilibili and webtoons. also if you already like a comic, you may be able to find a chinese translation if you’d like to reread (change the webtoon website language or browse for the chinese version of the title on bilibili and other comic-reading sites)

tons of audiobooks and audio dramas, a huge amount being free. check youtube, ximalaya, music.i63.com, fm.qq.com, missevan.com, bilibili (if you cannot access an app because of your region, go to the website version in your phone browser)

google/duckduckgo/search engine of your choice etc. is your friend. a large amount of chinese media can easily be found by just searching “media-title media-type online” (possibly adding “free” if needed). just search entirely in chinese. For example, you’re looking for modaozushi(Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) manhua(comic) online in chinese? Search “魔道祖师漫画在线”. You will find a lot of pages immediately with the mdzs manhua in chinese. If you don’t know the chinese name for a given media, or for a given term, put that into google translate (or translator of your choice) and/or use a websearch for “chinese title for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” etc. I ususally go onto novelupdates.com and look up english names of webnovels I’m reading (or comics/dramas based on them), since novelupdates.com will also list the original name in chinese under the titles area. Or I go to mydramalist.com, as that site will also list the original media name in chinese along with the english and other titles. If you’re having trouble finding something specific on youtube or bilibili (like daomubiji audiobooks 盗墓笔记有声读物), change your search terms from english/pinyin into chinese. On youtube, sometimes you can find dual english/chinese subbed audio dramas and audiobooks by varying if you search for something in chinese, pinyin, or english, so try a few combinations. 

there’s a ton of chinese webnovels accessible online. the google search result above will find you anything specific you’re looking for. and then there’s also specific sites you can browse to find new webnovels. Again, i suggest starting with novelupdates.com if you have no idea What to read at all. Then for exploring more webnovels, you can try jjwxc.net, qidian.com, 17k.com, zongheng.com, chuangshi.qq.com, faloo.com, book.douban.com, tadu.com, hongshu.com. Honestly though I’ll just find one novel through google, then browse whatever webnovel site that first novel was on (because there’s a LOT of webnovel hosting sites - some specialize in english novels translated to chinese or childrens literature etc, so if you find a particular genre you like its worth exploring the site hosting it for more similar content). 

Some VERY general recommendations on places to start for chinese media (these aren’t even specifically my favorite, so you may find you hate some of these or love some of these and not others, these ones are just quite well known so they’ll be easy to find as introductions: 

The King’s Avatar - drama, manhua, donghua, audiobook. A modern story about esports players, and slice of life. Generally well liked in all formats.

The Untamed - drama. Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/MoDaoZuShi - manhua, donghua, novel. A xianxia bl story about two cultivators in love, about justice and war. The drama is not the highest budget/prettiest of all cdrama options, but it was well received and liked. Many people also loved the novel and donghua. 

Word of Honor - drama. Tian Ya Ke - novel. A wuxia bl story, with found family. There’s a lot more iconic wuxia shows out there (Legend of the Condor Heroes, The Handsome Siblings, maybe Evernight), but this one was quite popular last year and is on a bunch of streaming platforms. 

Detective L (drama, youtube), My Roommate is a Detective (drama, iqiyi) - they may not be perfect dramas, but both are VERY in the style of Sherlock type stories and so if you like detective shows like Sherlock, Elementary, etc then this is a taste of the similar genre stuff in chinese dramaland.

Nirvana in Fire - political historical drama, one of the most well known well loved cdramas. 

Someday or One Day - a short taiwan drama, cool concept with time travel and slice of life of a woman’s life and connections. Its mostly realism with some fantastical elements, was well received, and is a good taste of the more realistically shot/presented kinds of dramas you can find in mandarin if you go looking. (I also really like History 3: Trapped - a taiwan bl between a cop and gang leader investigating a murder case, and Bromance taiwan drama with Baron Chen a slice of life/gang boss reformed/gender-exploring drama).

Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossom - drama, novel. (Not my favorite I really don’t love this one, same with Ashes of Love, but they’re very popular and very much embody a particular kind of romance xianxia style story that a lot of dramas are - I’d personally recommend instead though that you watch Love and Redemption, or Love and Destiny. But if you want to see the hype or maybe EL or AoL appeal to you, they’re worth checking out - regardless of your preference, they have very well known well loved actors who give excellent performances).

Dao Mu Bi Ji/The Lost Tomb/The Lost Tomb 2/Ultimate Note/The Lost Tomb Reboot (Reunion Sound of the Providence) - dramas, novels, a LOT. Basically pick one. Whatever one sounds good to you on mydramalist. If you like Indiana Jones, The Mummy, Lara Croft, these are a taste of cdrama tomb raiding genre horror/action stuff. There’s more dramas in this kind of genre (like Candle in the Tomb). dmbj dramas vary in quality, pacing, budget, etc, so not all will necessarily appeal if one does. But its good to know the genre exists. 

Under The Skin, The Bad Kids, The Long Night - dramas, pick one. Basically crime/thriller modern setting realistic drama genre. These are some of the more popular recently made ones. 

My personal recommendations (which will NOT suit everyone’s tastes so by all means feel free to ignore these): Guardian (if you like Buffy The Vampire Slayer/The X Files/Torchwood and can tolerate 90s quality special effects), Bureau of Transformer (if you like Star Trek/Black Mirror/In The Flesh and want something incredibly well written), Ice Fantasy (if you want Really Fantasy), Romance of Tiger and Rose (if/when you get used to some cdrama tropes this show excellently plays with a lot of them comedically), Till Death Tear Us Apart (bl, period piece spy romance, happy ending, full of action, very charming), Love and Redemption (my favorite romance xianxia drama), Men With Sword (NOT for everyone but its all men world of bl in fight between warring kingdoms fantasy and it is Something), The Wolf (a very fairytale esque wolf-boy/princess historical fantasy drama), Goodbye My Princess (a phenomenal fantasy historical romantic tragedy), Secret of the Three Kingdoms (I am so biased but I do adore this drama), Humans (cdrama adaptation of shows by the same name - Ma Tianyu is in this and I love seeing a futuristic sci fi cdrama).  

[tobi-smp]

I think it’s been long enough, now that we’re out of the main tags lets do some Crime.

for people out of the loop: like I said earlier, moomins is Largely unavailable in the us. obviously you can buy the novels and the comics no problem (it’s just paper after all, hard to region lock that), and there’s a few of the more obscure shows that I believe are available for streaming? but things like the 90s anime or the 2019 adaptation have just never come over, which is a shame when those are the most popular versions to date.

so back in 2019, when moomin was shooting up in popularity, there was a project started where people were coming together to compile all of the moomin content they could find in one google drive. That was how so many people had consumed the series at the time.

it was genuinely Extremely interesting. it had the expected things of course, but it also had things like the 1970s anime adaptation that tove jansson had Hated, a weird little beastie, it had the show that’d been done entirely through puppets, it had Movies (including the fan made english dub for the 90s anime movie), they’d had soundtracks and documentaries, and loads and loads of curiosities.

I’d been following the project Very closely at the time, it was an Incredible community effort that not only made moomin Accessible, but celebrated it as a franchise. I remember people were even coming together to subtitle media that had never been translated before just for this.

so of course it’d been taken down. that was to be expected honestly, it became the face of the new wave of fandom rather quickly. what was Not expected was the absolutely absurd lawsuit that moomin company filed on the host of the google drive, which they followed through on: [Link]

capitalism is what it is, but it’s a shame to see something This shady attached to a series that had been a love letter from its creator. it’s despicable on it’s own, but it’s just outright Shameful when they absolutely will not provide this content themselves.

that said ! I love moomin as a story, I have no respect for moomin as a company. I can’t give you Everything that was to be found in the drive, but I can offer a start.

First, we have pdfs of the novels: [Link]

I’d recommend reading the novels in release order if you intend to read them all (or most), if only because they’re written so the characters obviously mature and change over time. that said, do what you want, I’m not a cop.

though a note: the very first in the list (the moomins and the great flood) is written for a younger demographic than the rest. if you’re trying to test out whether you’d enjoy the novels or not it might be best to start with the second (comet in moominland).

Second, we have the 2019 adaptation, “moominvalley” [Link]

I don’t have a way to download that at the moment, but I’ve been using that site since middle school (albeit through a few domain changes) and this upload has stayed up consistently since 2019. so I can’t imagine it’s going anywhere any time soon.

Third, we have the 90s anime:

This one is a little different !

first of all, there’s that movie I mentioned earlier. unfortunately I don’t have a way to the (utterly delightful) fandub at the moment, but the same site from above has a subtitled version [Link] as well as an alternate sub that appears to use the same translation but a different font/color on 9anime [Link] the movie is a loose adaptation of comet in moominland, so it takes place before the show chronologically!

now, the actual show itself is in a Slightly Humorous if Frustrating position.

moomin company has an official youtube channel where they upload things like trailers and behind the scenes and the like ! it’s pretty neat all things considered. that said, I do believe it’s being run by dinosaurs.

at some point they’d started uploading all of the english dub for 90s anime just, For Free. and in Much higher image quality than any of the bootlegs that’d been floating around until that point. it was genuinely very nice!

that was until copyright shenanigans.

moomin company has struck down roughly half of the uploads From Their Own Official Channel and in three years it’s never been fixed. I genuinely can’t understand how this is a problem that’s never been resolved.

I still have my playlist that has all of the remaining videos in order [Link] and moomin company have their own playlist which is, Interesting [Link]

that said, wco once again comes in clutch with All of the episodes available (albeit in a lower quality) [Link] 9anime Also has the whole show in 480p, but more interestingly it has 30 episodes of the japanese dub of the show with english subtitles! the show was never fully subbed, and Any of the english sub can be really difficult to get your hands on, so it’s pretty amazing that it’s an option [Link]

9anime Also has 5 episodes of the 70s anime, which is frankly Incredible [Link]

and there’s [aHem] other options floating around if you can find them

And if we want to get Weird:

through the 70s and 80s there was a stop motion adaptation called “The Moomins” that used felt puppets in live action ! [wikipedia: Link]

it’s actually one of the few moomin properties that you can buy digitally outright in america, but we’re not interested in That right now. in 2010 there were movies released that were remasters of the show’s episodes compiling the storylines into bigger Chunks. while I’m not sure where to find All of them, I know where to find two [Link 1, Link 2]

the big things that are Completely missing are probably the 60s anime, the movies (such as moomins on the rivera, I loved that one) and the Comics, which are floating around all over the place but difficult to track down in, say, a pdf. I’ll try to update this if I run into them anywhere !

but if you’re curious about more moomin media the wikia has a comprehensive list ! [Link]

I’ve also got my own animatics playlist, though I haven’t filled it out in quite some time now so it’s rather short (Give Me Suggestions, I Want Them) [Link]

Please what’s the moomin reference I’m dying to know

Context: [Link 1, Link 2]

*breaths deeply in two year long hyperfixation* wELL

I've tried to write this post a Few times without going into a full essay about what moomin is, as that's Not necessary for answering the question. however, I am unfortunately me and this is the Writes Essays Blog. so I've simply decided I will be a nuisance instead.

but the plus side is that I've been thinking about writing about some of my other fandoms here for a while ! so, for a crash course on the franchise:

“moomin,” “the moomins,” or “moominvalley” is a franchise originally stemming from first novels and then comics written in the 1940s-50s by the finnish author tove jansson, which has since ballooned with Many adaptations and other such goodies (like themeparks and games). 

it’s most popular adaptation is hands down the 90s anime adaptation ! which took tove’s charming designs and calming atmosphere and kicked it up to 11 with a long-form slice of life series

but all versions have their own particular flair and tone, even two versions created by tove herself are Very different. with the comics having a focus in on the absurd and comedic and the novels, while certainly Having those elements, also focus in on more serious themes and melancholy!

(here's a brief rundown for the differences in the adaptations for anyone interested ! [Link])

of course, moomin was a relatively unknown entity in the us because it never officially released here, but there was a brief boom here on tumblr in 2019 thanks to the release of a new adaption (called moominvalley)!

it was a perfect storm for a couple reasons:

1: while it can be a bit difficult to track down the series in the us, the Characters are all extremely accessible. with their designs alone you can pick up on who and what the main cast are both Quickly and Scarily Accurately, with the fandom largely rising Before most people had found access to the content itself flkjfdaskjkjl

they're Incredibly Simple characters that still lend themselves well to complexity. they aren't blank slates in the slightest, but they're easy to Bend and reimagine and flesh out. which is really appealing to fandom spaces!

2: having multiple different fleshed out iterations to choose from meant that if you looked you could most likely find something that suited your taste! (it'd be an incredibly accessible franchise if they'd actually make their content Accessible world wide)

3: this is Especially relevant in how the franchise can act as both escapism and catharsis. the 90s anime especially is a comfortable cottage-core fantasy to sink yourself into and forget the woes of real world (something that was about to become Very relevant in 2019), but the novels were specifically written for an audience that was actively living through war.

and while tove never wanted to make the franchise Dark or Gritty, she wanted to create a series that could help children process and come to terms with some of the feelings they Would realistically be experiencing. one of the very first novels is "Comet in Moominland," where a great comet is coming down to crash into the earth. it still engages with comedy and with the absurd, and of course nobody Dies, but it was very intentionally trying to create an accessible outlet to understand Tragedy and Fear. among lots of other things ! and this is, of course, tempered with the warm comforts of friends and family and community.

I think there's a lot to be gained by sifting through this franchise Now honestly. something that can both Distract from the bleakness and help process it, with a certain gentleness either way.

4: tove jansson was an Incredibly queer woman, and this absolutely bleeds into her work and the adaptations that followed!

while inspiration isn't an Exact one-to-one, tove Has spoken about her inspirations for her characters before. moomin (the character) draws a great deal from herself while snufkin, moomin's "best friend" and a funny little beastie, draws from her lovers both in personality and in relationship to moomin!

a big inspiration for snufkin was a man who had nearly been her husband, a vagabond and a socialist for that matter. the official moomin site (which is cannot stress enough, is representative of the franchise itself and heavily curated) describes That as follows [Link]:

In many ways the relationship of Moomintroll (Tove’s alter-ego) and Snufkin describes the relationship between Tove and Atos. Moomintroll admires Snufkin who still is quite distant and very often Moomintroll is also experiencing a deep sense of longing and yearning when Snufkin is leaving to his adventures or choosing to be at peace with his own thoughts. Moomintroll tries to understand Snufkin’s desire for freedom, even though the waiting is not easy.

Just like Tove admired Atos and just like Tove waited for Atos, his love confessions and commitment.[End transcription]

but it was Also based, in part, on the woman who was her wife in all but legality. [Link 1, Link 2] Having met some time 1956 and having stayed life long partners until tove's death in 2001.

they'd built a home together on an island where they'd go to stay every summer, enjoying their own travels and adventures along the way !

come winter, moomin would pine for snufkin as he made his yearly travel down south, but the spring and summer months would always bring snufkin's return! and all the love and warmth that came with him uwu

How exactly that bleeds through in the franchise itself is well. Extensive. picking literally any iteration and trying to lay out, in full, the queer themes present would be an essay longer than this one. so instead have a small selection to illustration the point:

[Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6]

now, naturally, this was (and is) queercoding rather than explicit representation, but this was a queer woman pushing the boundaries of what was allowed to Be in children's media starting in the 1940s and onwards.

there's something About a woman who lived a full and happy life with the woman she loved, pouring that love into her life's work to create a foundation of care and acceptance for the generation that'd come after her, only to see a resurgence of queer teens See her and say what she wasn't allowed to out loud.

which brings us to !

5: the general blanket of pure acceptance radiating from the series.

that's not necessarily anything New for a children's franchise, but in combination with everything else it creates an environment for an absolute comfort series. this fragment of an article about the series has far and away wormed it's way into my mind in some irreversible way (and that's quite a good thing) [Link]:

In most fiction, family is what you escape from if you want to fulfill yourself. For Jansson, family is a place of tolerance, where we can fail and become ourselves. Her experience of growing up gay is there in Snufkin – who is all the more loved for being different. Like the prodigal son, everyone is so thrilled to see him, no one ever asks him where he has been. It’s there too, in Too-Ticky, Jansson’s portrait of her partner. And above all it’s there in the wonderful story where Moomintroll is transformed into the bug-eyed King of California, and his mother recognises him straight away.[End transcription]

the quickest and most accurate description for this series, this franchise as a whole, that I could give is Warmth.

that's not to say that it's All roses. tove herself was an icon, but moomin company is a Company in charge of a franchise in the same ball park as disney properties. but considering there's no way to legally support moomin in the states I'd say the morality of engaging with it on that basis isn't exactly the most pressing of issues.

now with all of That out of my system: the actual information relevant to the comparison.

one of the stories in moomin (the novels, the 90s anime, and the 2019 adaptation, though I'm most familiar with the latter) is "The Invisible Child." [Link]

it's the story of ninny, an invisible child that moomin and co find and bring into their home to try to figure out Why she's invisible and how to fix it.

as we come to find out, ninny went invisible and lost her voice (even the ink on paper she tried to write on going invisible) because she'd been made to Feel invisible through the neglect of her aunt.

the moomins help ninny find her confidence again, with small aspects coming back to her as they make progress and regressing as they make missteps. but the ultimate point is that she needs to feel Seen and Heard.

that feeling of not having a voice, of not having a Presence, taking on the form of a Physical curse of invisibility.

it's a concept that meshes Extremely well with tommy's situation, even Without the headcanon.

[lesbianakaashi]

The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ�� (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

[thewhizzyhead]

a non-filipino's guide to trese: ep 1

So some of my mutuals decided to check out Trese aka the Netflix adaptation of the Filipino horror comic book series that I keep rambling about here and then since well um most of my mutuals aren’t from the Philippines fshfs I decided to make a long-ass post that basically consists of me rambling about the cultural context present in Trese with fun little tidbits about Filipino folklore. I’m not an expert on Filipino mythology so um I just typed out the stuff that I know and the stuff that I looked up on Wikipedia so um take this with a grain of salt aaaaa I’ll save the extensive google scholar research ramble on folklore present in Trese for another day.

I’ll try to find the sites where I got some of the information from cause um yea I kinda had a bit of a hard time finding the other shit so um once again, take the stuff here with a grain of salt. Also, feel free to add more info if you guys got any!

SO ANYWAYS ENJOY ME RAMBLING ABOUT EPISODE 1 OF TRESE WOO

+ MRT and LRT (Manila Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit) are train systems in NCR (the capital region) and yea them suddenly stopping and malfunctioning in the middle of the goddamn rail is a daily occurrence and we have been trying to deal with this bullshit for years but alas, corruption and negligence are sweet sweet drugs.

+ When the MRT broke down, you'd see a red bee in the flashing billboard right? Well that's Jollibee and that's probably the most well-known fast food restaurant chain here heck there are even branches of it abroad!

+ According to many youtube comments along with other social media posts that I am way too tired to link here, the opening theme is an Ifugao ethnic song called Balluha'd Bayyauhen but with modern accompaniments and I think the song is about a fruit called a balluha that the character in the song tries to it but cannot swallow. (someone please correct me if I’m wrong here fjkfs)

+ The first um monster that we see Alexandra interact with is the White Lady of Balete Drive. White Ladies or “Kaperosa” are a type of female ghosts typically dressed in ghostly white dresses or similar garments. According to legend, she died in a car accident while driving along Balete Drive (a two lane street formerly lined with Balete Trees which are said to be a home for spirits and mysterious creatures) in Quezon City while other accounts say she died waiting for the arrival of her lover; others also say that she was a teenage girl who was run over and killed by a taxi driver at night and then buried around a Balete tree while another variation of the tale claims that a student from the University of the Philippines was sexually assaulted and killed by a taxi driver nearby and so said ghost haunts the street in search of her murderer. There are many other variations but according to local rumor, the legend was fabricated by a reporter in 1953 in order to make an interesting story. What remains consistent in many variations is that apparently taxi drivers would be stopped by a beautiful lady asking for a ride and if one would look at the rear window, they would see that the white lady in question is bruised and drenched in blood.

+ There are a lot of mentions about "lakans" and stuff in reference to Alex and her father right? In precolonial times, the term is used to refer to the paramount ruler or the highest-ranking political authorities in Tagalog communities (so um NCR and some parts of Region 4). In Muslim communities, they are called sultans while communities with strong trade connecitons with Indonesia or Malaysia called them Rajah. Datu is umm the more generalized term though when it comes to discussing the leaders of the precolonial Filipinos.

+ So, Alex’s mom is a babaylan and back in the pre-colonial period, each barangay (which a native filipino term for a village or a district; said term is still used today to describe um divisions in municipalities like) had them and these are basically Philippine shamans and they specialized in communicating with the spirits of the dead. To my knowledge, the role of babaylan went to women and yea people assigned male at birth but then identified as female were also allowed to become babaylans and they would be treated with the same respect given to any woman back then (honestly I dunno much about lgbtq+ stuff back in the precolonial times but all I know is that precolonial Filipinos were much a lot more welcoming towards trans identities bUT THEN THE SPANIARDS CAME AND UM ERR RUINED THAT); also the writing Alexandra's mom did in that one scene with the dagger is in Baybayin - preHispanic Filipino script. I dunno what she wrote down though. .

+ Also I kinda find it funny that the people here esp those who were at the White Lady scene are um,,, not at all surprised? Like yea quite a number of filipinos have their own superstitions and beliefs and all that but um yea the people in Trese seem very used to the bullshit,,,which in retrospect, isn't at all inaccurate fsdfd I MEAN WE DEAL WITH UNSURMOUNTABLE AMOUNTS OF BS ON A DAILY BASIS SO I DON’T THINK DEAD GHOSTS WOULD EVEN FAZE MANY FSKJDS

+ The one that appears right before Alexandra talks with the duwende (the one in the manhole) is called Laman Lupa (which i guess translates to um "What is in the earth"? just um YEA THEY ARE DIRT CREATURES). normally this is an umbrella term for duwendes and nunos but in Trese they are servants of these aforementioned creatures.

+ Duwende (which came from the Spanish phrase "dueno de case" which means "owner of the house") or dwarves in Filipino folklore are known to be mischievous and magical environmental guardians. They are believed to reside in trees or under earth mounds (those that live in the latter are called nuno sa pundo or old man of the mount) which is why quite a lot of Filipinos say "tabi tabi po" or “excuse me” when wandering around a forest or earth mounds as a sign of respect and in the hopes the duwende won't torment them. If the person is friendly, the duwende can also be friendly in return and will bring that person good lucl; otherwise, those who destroy their homes by stepping on them will face their wrath in form of heartless curse and predictions of ominous and disastrous fates. A duwende's color also depends on their budhi or conscience: to my knowledge, white duwendes are kind, red ones give protection amulets, green ones are firnedly with children and the black ones give nothing but trouble.

+ Chocnut aka the snack Alex bribes the nuno with is a very yummy chocolate snack made of coconut milk, crushed peanuts and cocoa powder. They are umm about an inch in length and maybe half an inch in width so it's fairly small; that being said I WANT THE CHOCNUT THAT ALEXANDRA HAS CAUSE HOT DAMN THAT'S A BIG CHOCNUT

+ In Trese, the creatures in the MRT scene and in the warehouse Alexandra visits after she talks with the duwende are called "aswang". In Philippine folklore, it is an umbrella term for any kind of monster so um an aswang in Luzon would be very different from the aswang in Mindanao. According to what I saw on wikipedia, they can be classified in 5 categories: the vampire (self-explanatory um they drink blood), the viscera sucker (the manananggal, i'll get to that next time), the weredog (cats and pigs are also possible but um yea they target pregnant women), the witch (self-explanatory boom curses and stuff) and the ghoul (they gather near trees in cemeteries to feast on human corpses). Aswangs are often described to have a long, hollow tongue, sharp claws and sharp teeth, although they do also have human forms.

+ To my knowledge, Ibwa, the leader of the aswangs in the warehouse, is a creature from Tinguian or Itneg mythology (they, like the Ifugao, are an indigenous ethnic group in northwestern Luzon) though I could be wrong about this dksfsf Ibwa seems like an ethnic filipino term tho wah I can't remember where I once read that. But anyways, Ibwa often stalk sthe house of a dying person to steal its body. In order for the ibwa to NOT succeed in that, some people burn holes in the garments of the dead and put a sharp iron object on top of the grave since those are most powerful weapons against aswangs which is what Alexandra uses to subdue the Ibwa and kill all the other aswangs (the knife alex uses is named Sinag which means "ray of light".)

+ ALSO I AM SO SO GLAD THEY KEPT THE FILIPINO SWEARS IN THE ENGLISH DUB YES YES THIS IS A VERY GOOD JOB so lemme discuss the versatility of tangina-

+ Also umm Bossing is a nickname of Vic Sotto - one of the three pioneer hosts of Eat Bulaga! which is the longest running Philippine noontime variety show. Over time, most probably due to the show's popularity, the term "bossing" then became um slang for "boss" or "chief"

+ Translation of what Alex says when she's stirring the eye inside the cup: “In the eyes of others, secrets will reveal themselves.”

+ Sidenote: The English dub's pronunciation of many of the tagalog lines are um yea they r pretty good but they could use a bit of work but then again I'm really not that good in speaking in Tagalog so who am I to judge gkdkf sorry po guys conyo po ako-

+ Maria Makiling is arguably the most famous of all the diwatas (ancestral spirits, nature spirits, or deities) in Philippine Mythology; she is associated with Mount Makiling in Laguna as the guardian spirit of the mountain. Mount Makiling is said to resemble a profile of a woman and people associate the profile with Maria herself. She is also known as a goddess by the name of Dayang Masalanta and people would pray to her for safety and to stop storms and earthquakes. That's the goddess Alexandra's mother mentions right when she tells Alex to hide. (Translation to what she said there: Maria Makiling, goddess of the mountain, bless us.)

+ ALSO YEA THAT MAYOR IN THE MRT STATION IS UMMM RATHER REMINISCENT OF MAAAANY POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC SERVANTS HERE LIKE BELIEVE ME I CAN THINK OF SO MANY NAMES RN. THEY WOULD FLAUNT THEIR MACHISMO AND PROMISE THAT THEY THEMSELVES SHALL PUNISH THE PERPETRATORS HARSHLY BUT IN THE END THEY DONT MEAN SHIT AND ARE IN OFFICE TO SERVE ONLY THEMSELVES AND TO SHIT ON THE REST ESP THOSE OF THE POORER SECTORS AND *NOTHING IS DONE ABOUT IT*. WE LIVE IN HELL OKAY. also hmm how the police are represented here is umm,,,interesting,,, like i know there are sOME good police officers like the ones alexandra assists but like,,,our current sociopolitical climate + the many cases showcasing the corruption in the police force + tHE SHEER AMOUNT OF POLICE BRUTALITY HERE would ummm beg to differ. but um anyways-

+ Also Mang Inasal posters can be seen in the MRT station backdrops and um it’s a very famous restaurant chain here and they serve lots of barbecue and other filipino stuffs and i miss them a lot God their halo halo is very yummy

+ Santelmo - oki so this is the fire face thingy that Alexandra summons inside the ruined train. This is the shortened version of the term "Apoy ni Santa Elmo" or "St. Elmo's Fire" - this is a weather phenomenon wherein plasma is created from an electrical discharge from a rod like object in an atmospheric electric field. This phenomenon was used to warn of imminent lightning strikes or storms (there is a chapter in Noli Me Tangere where Pilosopo Tasyo talks about that bUT I'LL SAVE THE NOLI ME TANGERE RAMBLES FOR ANOTHER DAY). But according to Philippine folklore, santelmos - which are said to be souls of people lost as sea - are balls of fire that appear where accidents or big arguments happen. In Trese, santelmos (alex's santelmo being "The Great Spirit of the Binondo Fire") can be called to assist in supernatural investigations

+ Translation of what Alex says when she draws the circles to meet with the purple ghosts: "Souls, where are you off to? I'll be entering too, so please open the door."

+ Remember the scene at the train with all the purple ghosts and the woman in a veil? Yea the woman is an emissary of a goddess named Ibu and she is the Manobo (again, another indigenous ethnic group but this time they're from Mindanao; fun fact we have around 134 ethnic groups) goddess of deceased mortals and the queen of the underworld; she also serves as a psychopomp and guides the newly deceased souls to the other side (having an MRT be the ride to the underworld isn’t in the legends tho so fkkjsf)

+ The aswang in the top hat is called Xa Mul and according to the Isneg/Apayao people (yay another ethnic group but this time in northern Luzon - the Cordillera regions to be specific), they are an evil spirit known to swallow people whole.

+ Alex has two henchmen right? Yea they are named Crispin and Basillio and No I still don’t know who’s who and I'm really sorry about that fsfjs so anyways the names Crispin and Basillio are actually those of two brothers featured in the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo novels (Crispin is younger and Basilio is older) which are basically the national novels here cause um yea written by national hero Jose Rizal as sociopolitical commentary about the Spanish regime here. I don't know if I want to spoil this cause I kinda want other people to read the novel too fskfs BUT ALL IN ALL, ONE OF THEM DIES IN LIKE THE 10TH OR 11TH CHAPTER OF NOLI ME TANGERE (and the novel has 64 chapters btw) AND UM YEA-

+ OKI SO TO ADD MORE CONTEXT TO THE SQUATTER STUFFS MENTIONED IN TRESE (we r gonna use the tiny font here because holy shit this rant is long): So,in the Philippines, especially in the capital region, there are lots of slum areas called squatters. These are dense urban settlements made of compact makeshift housing units that aren't really officially recognized by the government. This is um very reflective of the poverty situation here and there are maaany factors that come into play here and if i were to go into depth about this topic, that rant would probably turn into an academic paper so for the sake of brevity, let's just say that Things Are Fucked Up Here. Oftentimes the poorer sectors are being ignored and left to their own devices despite tons of campaign promises to make things better and easier for them. The communities that live here are incredibly vulnerable to floods, fires, and the like and afaik no concrete solutions have been in effect to protect these people and their settlements. There have also been many times where squatter areas are dismantled or demolished despite protests of people living in those areas and yea I understand the need to make space and the need for renovation but the people should still be offered some sort of temporary settlement or financial compensation thingy that doESN'T fuck them over but alas, we have an anti-poor government. That being said, I really like Trese Ep 1's portrayal of governmental negligence, but I also have some thoughts, especially in regards to the mayor being arrested THAT FAST which um believe me, NEVER FUCKING HAPPENS BECAUSE MANY MAYORS AND A LOT OF POLITICIANS HAVE THE POLICE IN THEIR POCKETS SO UM ERR YEA JUSTICE IS RARELY A THING HERE BUT UM ANYWAYS YEA THE GOVERNMENT LIKES TO SHIT ON THE POOR WOO LET'S SAVE THE USE OF SOCIOLOGICAL LENS ON THIS MATTER FOR ANOTHER DAY

+ The news channel reporting the arrest of the mayor is ABC-ZNN WHICH IS AN OBVIOUS REFERENCE TO ABSCBN aka the top media conglomerate here (that has been fucked over by the government so many times to the point that they had to shut down operations last year which is all sorts of unfair so seeing them being referenced here kinda made me happy gksfks)

[i-can-bench-220]

Ah, I know quite little about the Japanese language, but really telling us anything about the dub will be super interesting! For instance how do Velma and shaggy refer to themselves?

of course! thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble about a combination of my big interests jdskdhdjdg

like daphne, velma refers to herself with the pronoun atashi. she also uses very feminine speech like daphne, however not as frequently. as daphne is kind of a serious and dignified professional in these movies while velma is a little more playful, i like how there’s a slight difference between them! velma also ends her sentences with the emphatic yo a lot, as opposed to daphne’s softer wa.

shaggy uses boku, a more formal and youthful sounding pronoun than fred’s very friendly yet slightly rough ore. if anything i expected fred and shaggy to be swapped in this respect, but i feel it also kind of works for them here?? scooby also uses boku which i find kind of funny, but i respect that finding a first person pronoun for him must have been tricky!! i love how he and shaggy use the same one.

a couple of more general things about the dub are below the cut if you’re interested!

here are the links to zombie island, the witch’s ghost and the cyber chase. the only film i sadly haven’t been able to find japanese dubbed yet is the alien invaders — if anyone can source it please let me know!!

the titles of each film are pretty much word-for-word the same as their english counterparts, but the title for alien invaders has a ?! on the end for a little pizazz 「スクービー・ドゥー 宇宙からの侵略者?!」

the bits and pieces of these three dubs i’ve seen so far are all scarily close to the original english!! japanese is a heavily contextual language, and as such it can be hard to translate a sentence from english without it being super wordy in order to convey even the bare minimum of information. but everything just fits and flows so well in these dubs, all while staying true to the originals. they’re amazing!

upon doing some more research, i discovered that there is a whole lot more japanese scooby than i initially realised! i’m fairly certain that almost every show and film has been dubbed, but it’s really hard to source most of it so i didn’t realise for a long time. i’m also unsure as to how big a following the show has or had in japan.

the gang’s japanese voice actors are as follows: kishio taniyama as fred, eri saito as daphne, tomoe hanba as velma, toshiharu sakurai as shaggy and naomi kusumi as scooby. they’re all very prolific voice actors as you might expect, and have done a wide range of work from live action films to video games. they’ve voiced their respective scooby characters in every dub as far as i can tell!

another thing i really need you to know is that “meddling kids” is translated as 「クソガキ」 which in this context is “stupid brats” but it can also be “shitty brats” if you want to take it that far. ah the versatility of クソ

wb kids international has a japanese playlist on youtube with some scooby comics and one-minute summaries of a select few episodes. i genuinely want to use them for language practise in future, they’re so fun!

scoob 2020 was dubbed into japanese, and its title is 「弱虫スクービーの大冒険」. this translates as “the great adventure of scooby the coward” and i can’t begin to tell you how much i love that.

i will continue my hunt for more japanese scooby! i’m truly so interested in discovering more about this show’s presentation and reception in japan.

[dreamcast-official]

ok hi op i hope youre ready bc im about to lose my mind on your post! so while i personally have quite a few special interests my current hyperfixation is one thing in particular: a video game franchise known as mega man (or rockman depending on who you ask)

the mega man franchise is Very Big and has been going on for 35 years now! when i say there is A Lot of stuff i mean it so i will be talking about it under the cut but the basic thing is: most of the games are precision platformers, but the ones that arent are rpgs. there is a main timeline and a secondary timeline and the two do not interact but they heavily influence each other. ok now let's get to the A Lot Of Stuff

there are, of course, the games. the main timeline is composed of the classic series (mega man 1-11, takes place in the year of 20XX), the x series (mega man x1-x5, set in 21XX), the zero series (mega man zero 1-4, 22XX), the zx series (just the two games, still considered a series. takes place in 23XX) and the legends series (just the two games but it does have a spinoff. takes place in XXXX). there is a secondary timeline composed of mega man battle network and mega man star force, these two not being connected to the main timeline but are still very good and fun. all of the games, except for legends and star force, are available through the legacy collections which can be played on most consoles and on pc. most of them are also pretty easy to emulate if youre willing to do that. be warned though, mega man is a famously very difficult franchise, the whole appeal of it is that its hard to play. it can be fun if youre willing to put in the time, and more recent games have difficulty settings, but theyre still difficult and challenging. if youre not willing to play through them, there is an endless amount of playthroughs and walkthroughs to help you experience the games without pulling your hair out because its too hard. battle network and star force are significantly easier since theyre rpgs, but theyre also difficult in their own right. the difficulty can be fun for a lot of people, including myself, but i know not everyone likes games that are difficult on purpose, so i figured i would leave a warning!

besides the games, theres some more stuff too! for instance, there are two main animated shows based on the franchise: the 90s cartoon, simply titled "mega man" (people usually call it ruby-spears mega man, after the studio that made it) which you can find most of on youtube, and mega man fully charged, which you can find on youtube in its entirety (its how i watched it!). fair warning, neither show is super accurate to what the games are like, neither in tone nor in story. theyre still good in their own way (i think. i actually havent seen ruby-spears in its entirety just yet but i have seen fully charged which is very cool) but be warned there are a fair deal of differences compared to the games. also, the ruby-spears cartoon is based Very Loosely on the classic series, while fully charged is its own little continuity with different characters based on the characters from the classic series. however! there are animated adaptations of other series as well! there is a short, 20-minute OVA based on the x series (mega man x: day of sigma) and a very long and kind of strange anime adaptation of mega man battle network (mega man nt warrior); while day of sigma is quite accurate, it only deals with the first few events of the main story of the x series and nt warrior deviates GREATLY from the story of battle network after the first game. day of sigma is available on youtube and nt warrior is rather easy to find online as well as on dvd releases (though the english dub didnt reach the end of the series, so if youre looking for dvd releases in english you wont be able to get the whole series.) theres also an anime adaptation of mega man star force with the same title as the game, but i havent watched it nor do i know where you could :(

there are also comics!!! there are a few comics based on the classic series, but the Best and Very Good one is the one published by archie comics (its just called "mega man" once again) which you can find online pretty easily. its very accurate to the story, lore and mythos of the classic series as well with the characterizations of everybody. unfortunately though the comic was cancelled after only 55 issues, only reaching the very start of mega man 4 when it comes to what it managed to adapt. however, what it did get to is very very good, and they even have a few issues adapting the early events of the x series. i absolutely adore the story in the archie comics, the characterization of established characters and the new characters added for the comic. very good and fun! theres also quite a few manga adaptations, though my favorites are the ones written by hitoshi ariga. theyre also easy to find online and easy to find for purchase, though they might be a little expensive depending on which releases youre looking at. theyre totally worth it though, at least i think so. besides that, theres also a manga adaptation of battle network, also called nt warrior - though its a lot more accurate to the games than the anime, and i personally enjoyed it a lot more. there are more manga but i personally havent read them so i cant say how good or bad they are. oh well!

next up is a form of adaptation that isnt endorsed by capcom, but is Very Cool and how i personally got into the series at first: the rock operas. yes you heard me right, the rock operas. there are two bands that are known for making rock operas based on mega man games, and those are the megas and the protomen. personally i have yet to listen to the protomen but i have listened to the megas a whole lot and wow their stuff is amazing. their music is based on the original soundtrack of the games and they have three story albums: get equipped (tells the story of mega man 2) and history repeating: blue and red (both tell the story of mega man 3.) you can find their music on most streaming services and bandcamp if you wanna purchase their music physically (like i did :3!). even if you end up not wanting to listen to all their stuff, i do have to recommend the message from dr light, the quick and the blue, you've sparked a war, i want to be the one to watch you die, continue, i'm not the breakman, i refuse to believe and memory from the past at the very least. i will get more into that in just a bit dont you worry. >:)

speaking of music though! the games are known for having a very good and very iconic soundtrack! if youve heard video game osts, youve probably heard the mega man 2 opening theme, and for good reason. fucking slaps. music is a big theme in the classic series as well, with a very big amount of characters being named after music (the light children are the twins rock and roll and their older brother blues; the mega man killers are called enker, punk and ballade; mega man's rival and his support unit are named bass and treble, so on so forth.) anyway! the music is super iconic and i am legally obligated to recommend my favorite tracks (most of them youre better off listening to covers or remixes, since a lot of these games were released for older consoles and a lot of people find the 8-bit music to be grating to listen to): quick man stage, shadow man stage, mega man 3 opening, proto man's whistle concerto (aka mega man 3 ending), skull man stage, bass & treble, storm eagle stage, x vs zero and cannon ball. most of those are from the classic series but thats bc thats the part of the franchise im most invested in, the other series are definitely as good as the classic series when it comes to music. actually just listen to the entire ost of mega man x1, holy shit its so good.

so you did mention you would like to hear abt favorite characters so i WILL be telling you about my number one boy of all time: bass, aka forte in the japanese releases. he first appeared in mega man 7 and has been a constant ever since, even getting to be playable a few times and having a whole game with his name on the title (rockman & forte, one of my favorites). bass's whole deal is that he was created as a copy of mega man's design and specifically to defeat and destroy mega man, and while hes 100% convinced hes the strongest robot to ever exist, he cannot defeat mega man under any circumstances, which does leave a bruise on his ego. hes full of himself and has a huge ego and is very mean and i like him so much. even though he (allegedly.) hates mega man's guts, if he feels like it he'll help him out based on his own interests. as shown multiple times, he could be a good guy and do good things if he wanted to, but he just has no interest in that sort of thing. whether or not thats going to change is up in the air still. he also has a support unit/pet wolf called treble (gospel in japan) and treble is the bestest boy ever, just a funny little wolf.

now. i think this is gonna be the last thing i say bc this is getting long enough. but the general themes of the series bc people love to act as though the story of the games isnt there but it totally fucking is. so i feel like the Main Theme of mega man is "when does a machine become a person?". and what i mean by that is that several of the main characters (all of which are robots) struggle with what it means to be so human, and yet not be human at all. the human characters are involved in this as well, as theyre the ones who realize the differences between man and machine are becoming less and less significant until they completely disappear. this is mostly tackled in the main timeline but its taken as a theme in battle network as well, though with computer programs instead of robots. its a concept i really like and i really enjoy the way its dealt with in mega man. the idea of "if something can feel, is it alive?" is something thats always fascinated me and the mega man franchise really does scratch an itch for me.

anyway hi op (and anyone who took the time to read this whole mess) sorry for how much i talked and i hope at least something i said here was interesting!

ever wanted to rant to someone about your hyperfixations? now's your shot!

hi, i'm frey. and i'm interested in YOUR hyperfixations!

so, due to recent events, i will no longer be posting or reblogging our flag means death content. i'm trying to distance myself from the show in general, but i'm the kinda guy who can't survive without at least one hyperfixation. i decided that the best way to get over all this shit is to find something new to obsess over.

that's where you come in. yes, you. i know that a lot of my wonderful lovely dear mutuals have several hyperfixations that i don't. and i am interested in adopting your hyperfixations as my own.

reblog this post with an info-dump about your current hyperfixation!

information i need:

the name of your hyperfixation

what form of media it is

where i can find it

information i don't need, but would love to hear anyways:

your favourite character(s)

music you associate with your hyperfixation

headcanons

anything else you wanna say, i wanna hear all of it

sharing some of my own interests and preferences under the cut, if you wanna get a better idea of my tastes/make sure i don't already know about your hyperfixation :3

already interested in: good omens, the locked tomb, camp here & there, nevermoor, adventure time.

my preferred forms of media to consume are tv shows, book series, and fiction podcasts. i'm not interested in real life related hyperfixations, sorry :(

i have no genre preference, but i like a bit of humor mixed with mystery, horror, fantazy, sci-fi, all that good stuff.

shortcuts to grabbing my interest:

philosophy! does your hyperfixation include a bit of debate about morality and/or reality? tell me more!!!!

music! is music significant to the story? hell. yes.

queer stuff! bonus points for trans stuff!

pathetic little guy(s)! my favourite type of fictional guys!!

absurdism! i love when shit makes no sense!!!!

go forth, my beautiful mutuals and others who might or might not find this post. tell me everything.

[a-queenoffairys]

Other Code Lyoko media and resources

It’s really great to see people getting into Code Lyoko again now that it’s on Netflix. I decided to make this post with some brief information about some of the other media/sequels people might not know about, plus a few resources I find particularly useful and will answer some of the most common questions people tend to have about the series.

Disclaimer: yes I’m the translator for the site I’m linking to, but I loved this site and its huge variety of resources years before I joined. The site design may be outdated, but its content is still quality.

Other media/sequel series

Comics https://en.codelyoko.fr/bd.cl There was an official French magazine that ran for 3 issues. Each one included 30 pages of comics that take place during the series, which you can find translated scans of here. The illustrator recently gave us the digital versions of these pages and the scans will eventually be replaced with those, but I’m not sure when that will be. The stories are short but sweet and the art is nice, so I think they’re definitely worth a look. You can also find complete scans of the magazines but they haven’t been translated into English.

Code Lyoko Chronicles (novel sequel series) https://en.codelyoko.fr/chronicles A four-book AU series that took place after the series finale. It attempts to explain some of the open-ended questions such as Carthage, Hopper’s backstory and how Lyoko really works, all within a more realistic and detailed setting. If you’re curious about all that stuff and interested in a somewhat darker take on Code Lyoko, I think it’s worth a look. (I call it an AU because they recount the events of the series and change them up a bit to suit the new setting, but in essence it’s the same story, just condensed into a smaller timeframe and with added detail.) It was never published in English but you can find a fan translation here in PDF and ePub format.

Code Lyoko Evolution (live action sequel series) https://www.youtube.com/c/CODELYOKOENGLISHOFFICIAL/videos A 26-episode sequel series that replaced the 2D animated segments with live action. It was filmed in French and dubbed in various languages not including English (they were planning to dub it in English but fans weren’t interested, so). It’s available on the official YouTube channel with adequate English subtitles. It takes place sometime after the original series and also goes into a little bit of Hopper’s backstory. It’s completely unrelated to the Chronicles.

Resources

Episode guide http://www.codelyoko-leguide.fr/en A guide with plot summaries, quotes, images and anecdotes/trivia on each episode. If you use the drop-down option you can also find guides to the series pilot Garage Kids and the comics. (Note: this was my first translation project so the English is kinda bad in places. For more accurate episode quotes, see the scripts/transcripts below.)

Image galleries https://en.codelyoko.fr/accueil_galeries.cl High quality screenshots from every episode. You can filter by episode, character or setting.

Renders https://en.codelyoko.fr/renders.cl A collection of official artwork (renders) with transparent backgrounds in the best available quality. Useful for graphic art.

Episode scripts (French) and transcripts (English) https://en.codelyoko.fr/conceptuels.cl The official French scripts for every episode of the cartoon and Evolution except 91, and fan-made English transcripts for the cartoon. Both of these have text descriptions of the action as well as the dialogue. As of writing this, the English transcripts for Evolution have been completed but aren’t uploaded yet. This page also has various other production documents like the graphic bible, character sheets, concept art and storyboards.

Analysis

LyokoStats https://en.codelyoko.fr/lyokostats/lyokostats.cl The site goes through every episode and uses a points system to analyse each character’s performance on Lyoko. Last I checked the individual episode breakdown was kinda broken, but you can still find the results summary ranking the heroes’ overall performance across all four seasons.

From Scripts to Episodes https://en.codelyoko.fr/scriptsvsepisodes There are always differences between an episode’s script and the final product, and this section lists those differences. You can sort of think of these as deleted scenes. The front page has a summary of the sorts of things you’ll find, plus a top 12 list of changes. The list covers every available script, so every episode of the cartoon except 91, plus Evolution.

French vs English https://en.codelyoko.fr/frenchvsenglish/frenchvsenglish.cl Comparing the original French audio to the English dub. A list of differences similar to From Scripts to Episodes. The front page also summarises what you’ll find and lists some of the most commonly-occurring differences. (To sum it up, there are a lot of small differences but the English dub is overall very accurate to the original and you’re not missing out on anything major by watching it and not the French.)

So yeah, I hope these will be useful. There’s loads of other interesting stuff on the site, so I’d definitely recommend taking a look if you haven’t already!

[noffy96]

I posted 308 times in 2021

9 posts created (3%)

299 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 33.2 posts.

I added 87 tags in 2021

#undertale - 20 posts

#underswap - 11 posts

#reblog - 10 posts

#acaf - 10 posts

#comic dub - 9 posts

#undertale sans - 7 posts

#underswap sans - 5 posts

#underfell sans - 5 posts

#drawing - 5 posts

#underswap chara - 5 posts

Longest Tag: 64 characters

#and it also had a different background for ehoever eas loggrd in

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I just watched the 1st Hetalia Musical

I dunno what possed me to search for it, but i wanted to find the Hetalia musicals, and I managed to find the 1st one with english subtitels

It was a lot better then i thought, It is very silly and over the top, yes

But i am ever so glad i watched it. It made me love the more silly side of Hetalia that some people seem to forget about love even more. It was what drew me in, in the first place.

Yet it could be quite dramatic and serious as well. I hope i managed to see the 2nd Musical someday as well, As well as the Osoka stage show i keep seeing clips from.

If you are a Hetalia fan, please look it up, if you haven't and give it a chance at the very least.

To me, at the very least this first one, and the little bid i could find of the second of youtube seem to be made by people that love Hetalia.

7 notes • Posted 2021-06-28 21:48:42 GMT

#4

Its funny, I've travelled across 13+ different accounts in the past and somehow I always wind up running into you somewhere and somehow, whether you pop up on my dash or you like a post of mine, or something, and I don't even follow the same people each time I make a new one so I have no idea how we keep crossing paths(though you wouldn't have noticed). It's weird how seeing you pop up has just started to become a form of nostalgia for me after all this time. I'm pretty sure I first found you when I was like 14?? I think??- I'm like 22 now. Coming back to tumblr without seeing the username 'MMD-Ask-Italy' pop up atleast once while I'm here would be so foreign now.

Oh my gosh this is like, one of the sweetest things ever? And that is really funny that you keep comming across me on so many accounts.

Maybe because i kinda gave up on, keeping this blog only foccused on one thing? So yeah if you are in the same fandoms i have been, you can just see me liking stuff everywhere,

And i do reblog some stuff, tho my personal post have gone down a lot.

I saw the age, and i had to check it, becasue i was like.. 8 years? Have i really ha this blog that long? doesn't feel like it

But yeah, had this blog since october 2014 , tho i have only 4 post in my archive for like...almost a year after that...and i was like why???

and i was like 'oooh yeah, i made this blog inicily because I was on DeviantArt, and more people where migrating over, but i never really did, but the name stuck XD.

Send me on a whole trip down memory lane, so that was fun!

I am glad you are able to have nostalgic feelings towards my blog, and i hope you continue to have them! ^-^

I'll continue posting/rebloging/liking whatever i'll enjoy next, so untill the next time, one of my blogs hits your dash.

8 notes • Posted 2021-07-02 21:33:21 GMT

#3

Okay, okay, for my fellow dutchies.

I was just at the tryouts for Arjen Lubach show.

And i sat in the front tow and got singled out.

At the end of the show. He got a bouget of flowers from the venue and then he came forward and gave them to me!!!

This is such a good day!!

9 notes • Posted 2021-09-05 22:32:46 GMT

#2

The Floor is Lava! ha ha *dad climbs up the kitchen counter*

it has been a ages since i made gifs, but i had to, for this ask, come on, a bit later then i wanted to, but still fun, Hope they turned out okay! 

13 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 16:58:59 GMT

#1

Ask Chara And Friends. Episode 1: The social experiment starts

IT’s DONE! Here is the first episode of Ask Chara and Friends the DUB done by me Noffy/mmd-ask-italy (with a little bit of help @itsonlylucifair)

Follow the original comic!  -> @askcharaandfriends

Begin here

done by @miamouse-va

this comic is Underswap Au from this other comic

Ask Frisk and Company 

found here -> @askfriskandcompany

Begin here

I hope you all enjoy. This is the first time i have ever done anything like this. Hope you all enjoy what I made

35 notes • Posted 2021-01-12 22:28:53 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[thatguywiththecoydog]

Anpanman: Apple Boy and Everyone's Hope (2014)

Introduction

Fox's primary free-to-use streaming service, Tubi, had announced that they would be picking up at least 10 of the Anpanman movies to be released in English and Spanish back last October, with them slated for a fall 2020 release. This never happened, so many fans of the Anpanman franchise that spoke native English or Spanish would have to wait a little longer for dubs of these movies to come out.

The delay of these movie dubs went unannounced, leading fans to speculate that the dub was either in limbo or just silently canceled. This was until the first of them was released on April 15, 2021, with no announcement, or even complete details on who is dubbing them or the cast list. This had fans believing for a short while that the dub had taken a bit longer to assure its quality, but as you will soon read, this was most likely not the case.

Naturally, fans were excited as this was the first time these movies would see an official dubbed release in the west. There were other dubs of the franchise in English and Spanish, such as an English dub of the television series made for India that aired on Pogo, and a Spanish made in Spain sometime in the 1990s. However, these dubs are hard to come by and there are no official ways to watch these dubs in North America, as far as I'm aware.

Promo for the Indian Pogo dub posted by @doraedoramichan2021 on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oxAx5EEdX_4

So now we have an official dub of one of the movies that can be watched at no charge with ads. Joy!

Plot synopsis (spoilers below)

The plot starts with Dokin (spelled as "Dokeen" in the dub) and Horrorman (dubbed as "Horror") as they read a book of fairy tales, landing on Snow White. They end up accidentally releasing a shadowy figure from the book as it flies off into the darkness.

Meanwhile, Melonpanna's and Creampanda's (spelled "Cream Panda" in the dub) class are making sketches of the ocean. This is where Baikinman comes in to cause trouble for them with his giant crab robot. Anpanman rushes in from the blue to beat the tar out of Baikinman to save the day as the theme song plays in the background.

After that, we cut to the movie's other titular character, Apple Boy, attempting to fly his hot air balloon over the ocean. After the balloon falls to the ocean, he is swept away by the current.

A whale finds him dehydrated and floating lifeless in the ocean, where he gives him to Anpanman so he can help. After offering a piece of his anpan head to Apple Boy, he takes him to Uncle Jam's bakery, where Uncle Jam and Batako let him stay while they wait for a new shipment of apples from SL-Man.

Back at Baikinman's lair, he discovers that the book of fairy tales was being read by Dokeen and Horror. Looking very worried, he explains to the two of them that he was told never to open that book.

Anpanman, Melonpanna, and Cream Panda find SL-Man with the apples, Baikinman comes by to ruin the apples with his giant caterpillar robot. After Anpanman slows him down, Melonpanna and Cream Panda take SL-Man to the bakery.

Uncle Jam and Batako receive the apples and make them into apple juice. They give the juice to Apple Boy which he quickly drinks and rejuvenates from.

As Anpanman is still fighting Baikinman, Melonpanna and Cream Panda come back with Apple Boy for assistance. Apple Boy ends up beating him by planting an instantly-growing apple seed on the robot's tongue, where Anpanman then punches him into the next time zone.

That evening at the bakery, Apple Boy explains to the crew, with Shokupanman (dubbed as Bread-head Man) and Currypanman there as well, that he needs his balloon to search for the fabled magic apple seeds that can apparently grow the biggest apples anyone has ever seen. Anpanman, Mellonpanna, and Cream Panda help him search for the tree that gives off the magic seeds, while Bread-head Man and Currypanman search for the Apple Balloon. With no luck in finding the tree, they return to the bakery.

As the heroes in the bakery are setting off to find Appleina, an apple girl who might have clues as to where one can find the magic seeds, Horror informs Baikinman and Dokeen of the whole situation through a mock TV newscast.

Once at Appleina's, she shows the crew (and by extension the young audience this movie caters to) how to grow large apples. After many hardships of growing the trees, they finally blossom. Just as they are admiring their hard work, a bunch of bats swoop in and suck the life out of all the other apple trees around them. Unrelated to this, Baikinman attempts to steal all the apples for himself.

At this point, the bats go together to form the wich from the Snow White book that Dokeen and Horror were reading at the beginning of the film, revealing that she was the shadowy figure at the beginning of the movie that escaped from the book.

The witch turns everyone into moldy apples for no other reason than she is evil. The only ones left standing are Apple Boy and Appleina. Uncle Jam and Batako rush to bake Anpanman a new anpan head so he can turn back from apple form and be powered up enough to beat the witch. However, the witch destroys the Anpanman Blimp's oven, meaning they can't bake the head. Apple Boy stuns the witch with the power of a magic apple that he ended up growing. This also bakes the cold head into a perfectly cooked one, giving Uncle Jam and Batako the chance to turn Anpanman back to normal.

They successfully do this and Anpanman beats the witch back into the storybook, as the movie ends and everyone sings about apples.

My opinions

Before you say it, I am fully aware this movie is made for young children, but that is no excuse not to have a quality movie in my opinion. If anything, kids deserve more good content so they can learn and remember seeing that content for years to come. It just makes me feel bad for these children who watch movies that don't have much substance purely because they are "made for children."

The movie itself

The movie is average at best, and boring at worst. I did type out a pretty large plot synopsis for this movie, making it sound like a lot, but there really was not as much as you would think. This movie is only 46 minutes in total too, so there really should have been more here. Like, there was some emotional stuff going on with Apple Boy back on the Apple Planet he came from, but it's never really relevant to the story, nor the series as a whole because of him being made for this movie and only this movie. The movie also has a surprising amount of filler. Like, the part where I briefly mention Anpanman looking for the tree is a montage in the movie that lasts about two minutes, along with a scene where Apple Boy falls off a cliff, which is also not relevant to the main plot. I want to say a good quarter of this movie in total was filler, so we only have about 33 minutes of actual plot.

The writing that is there is also broken. I believe that the most entertaining part about this series is the series villains, Baikinman, Dokeen, and Horror. They don't make too many appearances in this movie to serve as comic relief, rather, Baikinman feels shoved in here to serve as more padding to make that over-40-minute time slot. There are also parts of the movie that make absolutely no sense under any perspective, not just an outsider's. Like, why does giving Anpanman a new head suddenly transform him from a moldy apple back to normal?

Overall, I feel as though both adults and children would be bored to death by this movie. 3/10.

Dubbing quality

If the movie itself wasn't soleless enough, the dubbing somehow makes this worse.

The movie was dubbed by Macias Group, a Florida-based studio that is best known for dubbing English shows into Spanish but does have some English dubbing in their catalog.

They had hired voice actors that I have not even heard of, nor do I think anyone else has. This doesn't make the dubbing automatically bad, in fact, a no-name cast can be quite good if given the right direction. However, this cast I feel did not give enough life to the characters. Some characters sound fine, like Horror or Dokeen, but others sound like the actor is struggling to put on a good performance, like Baikinman.

The characters also tend to speak in a way I like to call "Dora the Explorer Syndrome." It's kind of hard to explain what this is over text, but characters will talk extremely slowly for the young children, along with sounding considerably condescending. Watch the first two minutes of a Dora episode and compare it to this movie and you'll hear what I mean.

The voice acting itself sounds a bit bland and flat, almost like the actors didn't really care for their roles and were just doing it for a small paycheck. I don't blame them, really. An obscure series that they most likely haven't even heard of streaming exclusively on an unpopular streaming service most likely won't pay too high certainly wouldn't get me motivated. To do something like this, it needs to pay high enough or be on a service where it will get more notoriety, and most importantly, the people need to have a passion for the project and voice acting in general, neither of which sounded like they were here. I also heard a bit of recording echo, but I'm going to chalk that up to the actors recording at home rather than a booth due to COVID restrictions. If the dub had a bit more heart, then I probably would have liked it that much more.

I feel as though some of the name changes could have been better. Like some were unnecessary like Dokin to Dokeen or Horrorman to Horror, but things like Baikinman and Anpanman were kept the same, which probably needed the most explanation to an English audience.

The iconic songs from the Japanese version were also translated to English, which is a rarity in 2021 dubbing land. However, the songs sound off from their Japanese counterparts. If you were to listen to the theme song (https://youtu.be/3qSiSWTJkzw) or the closing song (https://youtu.be/c4DY7xmLlQI), you hear that they are bouncy, happy, and catchy. The English versions sound a bit off-beat to the rhythm these songs are supposed to be in. Now, I don't mind if the rhythm is a bit different so it can be optimized to the English language better, but here, it's so off it makes the songs sound worse. Most likely, the singers were given no direction and only listened to the Japanese version a few times. Not only that, but the lyrics are nearly directly translated from Japanese, also messing with the flow of the songs. When listening to the Japanese musical tracks, it almost makes you wonder what could have been.

Overall, the dubbing is not too good and probably could have done better either with a different cast with more motivation, or a whole 'nother studio behind the wheel.

Final thoughts and other recommendations

If you do want another English dub of Anpanman that I think is miles better, watch the fandub by Thomas Blue on Fandubbers Unite, starring myself as Anpanman (renamed to Bean-bun Man) and @clwsblog as Baikinman (renamed to Cavity Creep). It has better writing, better acting, and better songs. Both kids and adults alike will enjoy this version. Before you ask me, no, there is no bias here. I truly believe we did it better and for no pay!

Here is a link to Thomas Blue's dub:

https://fandubbersunite.weebly.com/beanbunman.html

If you really want to watch the official English though, even after my warnings, then go ahead. Here's a link to the Tubi listing:

https://tubitv.com/movies/592033/anpanman-apple-boy-and-everyone-s-hope?start=true