#anime roundup: fall 2016

[mononohke-archive]

Anime Roundup Pt.1 - Fall 2016 [Spoilers]

It’s that time of the season again where I get to write thousands of words nitpicking whatever anime I happened to watch! For the first time, I want to add a SPOILER warning because although I don’t go out of my way to spoil plot points, I will bring them up if necessary. This is late once again, and honestly I don’t have much of an excuse. I did have some writers’ block, but I also just procrastinated a lot. It’s a good thing no one cares about my opinions in the first place! :D 

Also, I had to split this into two parts because apparently there is a word limit of 5000 on text posts. 

Overall: This was a really damn good season. The were a couple of disappointments, yes, but it still mostly good and there were a few amazing, Anime of the Year contenders too.

Total Anime: 11 | Average Score: 7.5 | Word Count: 5058

- (DIRECT) SEQUELS -

Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season [7/10]

Oh... Bungou Stray Dogs. How dare you do that to me? How dare you get so damn good you made me cry, then a few episodes later, take it all away? That’s what the first 4-episode, completely unrelated flashback arc of this second season did. Meaning: it switches protagonists (focusing on a character/friend from Dazai’s past in Port Mafia), switches tone, and switches... um, quality of writing to be perfectly honest. This whole 4-episode arc is like a masterpiece compared to the rest of the show before and after. I need to talk about why I like it better so much.

#1) The main character is someone I ended up really caring about. Oda Sakunosuke (voiced by the great Jun Suwabe) is a Port Mafia hitman who is unwilling to actually kill people. Despite his job, he takes care of a few adopted kids and tries so hard to do what’s right and follow his principles. He is a protagonist which I rarely see, and I fell in love with him instantly. Compare him to Atsushi who is... just okay... nothing special... kind of boring by comparison, actually. I have issues with being invested with the characters in the main storyline.

Of all the people in the Agency, I only like Kunikida and the boss, Yuki. Collectively, they don’t get much screen time, especially compared to Dazai, but even I did not have a problem with Dazai in this arc. His stupid suicide jokes and tomfoolery are severely toned down and frankly, he’s a lot more likable like this. The other side characters were great too, like the villain, Gide (voiced by another one of my favorite seiyuu, Shinichirou Miki).

#2) Total difference. If you haven’t seen BSD, you won’t know that it is full of humorous moments. A lot of it is... hit and miss. And sure, it’s not overall or primarily a comedy, but the comedy elements are pretty strong and frequent, especially in the first season. In this arc though, there was almost no humor. It was a serious gangster drama with a few supernatural elements. It’s almost comparable to last season’s 91 Days, which I personally enjoyed a lot.

#3) Genre shift. This is related to the previous number and to reiterate, the first arc of BSD season 2 is a dead serious gangster action/drama. The rest of the show is highly comedic with a lot of anime tropes/cliches, but the flashback arc had none of that. It almost didn’t feel like an anime. It was a legitimate crime drama (with the focus on the criminals instead of the police) which is actually really damn rare in anime. I praised 91 Days a lot for this in the previous season, so BSD gave me another taste of that and it was beautifully done. The bleak, but still beautiful color grading, the 1930s aesthetic despite it taking place in modern times, the soundtrack, everything was on point.

Aaand that’s why I upped the score by one point compared to the first season. This flashback arc did it for me. It made me desperately wish that BSD was about Odasaku and Port Mafia instead of Atsushi and the Agency. If this arc was released alone as an OVA, I would’ve given it a 9 for sure.

To be fair though, this season was also genuinely better than the first in a few ways. Namely, the introduction of the overseas/foreign group of specialists full of familiar Western authors like Mark Twain and H.P. Lovecraft. The leader of The Guild, F. Scott Fitzgerald (played by another one of my faves, Takahiro Sakurai), in particular is a delight to watch as he pulls the strings of his evil plans. Generally, all the new additions to the cast, including the extra focus on Port Mafia, are highly entertaining to follow, much better than the Agency alone. Although the Guild arc is a little bit rushed because of the flashback arc, the pacing and everything just felt a lot more exciting than the previous season.

Other than that, I can’t say I have any new criticisms or appraisals. Most of the things I mentioned in my first review of Bungou Stray Dogs carries over. I do want to praise the production values again because this show genuinely has top-tier animation and sound design (because Production I.G.). Forget what I previously said about the direction because that and the cinematography are beautiful. Some of the shots in the show are worthy of being framed. Even the soundtrack was good, even if it isn’t particularly memorable. The biggest, and pretty much only, flaws that this show has is in the writing/plot and characters and those are really important things. Great writing can often make up for a lack of production values, but it usually does work the other way around.

Haikyuu!! 3rd Season [8/10]

I was kind of surprised that for the next sequel of Haikyuu!!, they would dedicate an entire (10 episode) season just to one match. Even now, I question that decision. Don’t get me wrong, Haikyuu!! is still as good as it ever was in terms of production values, writing, voice acting*, etc buuut having 10 episodes dedicated to one match and nothing else? I’m not a fan of it.

Part of that is because as far as sports anime goes, I tend to favor training arcs and down time in-between matches, more than actual matches themselves (and I also prefer shorter matches). This “season” is one rather lengthy match, with nothing after it or before it like in the previous seasons. I’m sure I would’ve been fine with it if it was part of a full 25 episode season. That’s why I actually dropped it one point instead of being a 9/10 like the first two seasons.

Other than that, I don’t really have any complaints... I mean, yes, my preference for shorter matches is a thing, but it’s not at all badly paced like Diamond no Ace. But looking back, I might’ve preferred marathoning it than watching it week-to-week like I did...

*RIP to the original voice actor of Ukai, Kazunari Tanaka.

Natsume Yuujinchou Go [10/10]

Watching this new season of Natsume Yuujinchou was like meeting and old friend. It was like going home. With the exception of a slight change in art style, there is no difference at all between this and the last season that aired back in 2012. My biggest complaint, honestly, is that Go only had 11 episodes rather than 13 like every other season does. Thankfully, another season is guaranteed next year, so it’s not over!

Now, I don’t want to discuss every reason why I love Natsume Yuujinchou so much because I plan to do that one day in a proper review of the series as a whole, but let’s just say that this series is really important to me. This season gave me what I wanted: more fun, heartwarming, and emotional anecdotes of Natsume’s everyday life interacting with youkai and humans alike as well as a bit more backstory of Natsume, Natori, Matoba, and Natsume’s family/friends and the slight moving forward of an overarching plot. Further character development for some few characters also happened in the usual subtle way.

I’m so happy Natsume has maintained its level of quality, even with the studio change. All the original voice actors and most of the original production crew came back. Thank god for this consistency because not all shows get it (*coughsdgmcoughs*).

- INDIRECT SEQUELS & NON-SEQUELS -

Days [7/10]

This is a sports anime. Just a regular sports anime which hits all the beats of every other sports anime. The production values are pretty decent, although the CGI players in long shots are somewhat distracting, but they are nothing special.

So why did I like this one? Well, aside from how I generally favor sports anime (albeit for shallow reasons like good yaoi art/doujins/fanfiction), I did get invested in the characters, that much is undeniable. What helps is that the voice cast is incredible, with Takahiro Sakurai, Daisuke Ono, Tomokazu Seki, Daisuke Namikawa, etc etc. Yes, despite the sameyness of this sports anime, I took a liking to it. It entertained me and it’s good enough for a sports anime, which I rate relative to each other, not other anime of different genres.

Days, in all actuality, is pretty average, but I liked the characters a lot and that’s enough for me.

Drifters [7/10]

Before I start talking about this one, I am not familiar with Hellsing (yet, but it is on my plan-to-watch list), so I can’t really use that as a comparison. Now then, Drifters is a little strange to me because on one hand, it really plays to some of my base desires/guilty pleasures and overall I found it fun to watch. For example, It’s incredibly gorey and violent, which I appreciate. It’s a massive crossover story with famous historical figures and takes place in a very Lord of the Rings-esque (almost like a cliffnotes version) alternate universe. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and has plenty of hilarious and cool moments.

On the other hand, there’s a lot of unfunny “offensive” humor/etc that really takes me out of the viewing experience. How can I properly enjoy something when I’m always lowkey uncomfortable? Some of the sexism and homophobia/transphobia is so bad it feels like an 80s anime. (If you’ve seen an older anime, you know how much more blatant they are.) How is this writer still stuck so far in the past? Get a clue, man, most modern anime is usually at least subtle about it.

Anyway, aside from that, I did also have some problems with other things, which I can only describe vaguely because sometimes I zoned out while watching the show. Well, regardless, I still thought Drifters was pretty good, and I liked it, but it sure as hell is flawed. Looking forward to the second season though.

Fune wo Amu [5/10]

If I had to pick the most disappointing anime of the season, it would be this one. Not that Fune wo Amu/The Great Passage is actually bad, per se, but I expected much more. Granted, it was probably my fault in the first place. I made a lot of assumptions about what it would be like because I heard Haruko Kumota was attached to the project and thought it would be a masterpiece drama like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (written/drawn by Kumota) earlier this year. Turns out that Fune no Amu is actually based off of a novel written by someone else and Haruko Kumota is merely the character designer for the anime and is currently drawing the manga adaptation.

Even so, this anime looked promising. The whole premise centering around an adult cast working on the production of a dictionary (a somewhat mundane job) is exceedingly rare in anime. Sooo... maybe it would give a unique experience since there would be little-to-no anime cliches and tropes, right? Um, well, yeah that’s the thing. While is succeeded in not having that many of anime’s typical pitfalls, it did not succeed in making the characters or dictionaries in general interesting.

The biggest problem with Fune wo Amu is the complete lack of focus. It kind of goes all over the place and tries to cover everything, but instead it spreads the narrative thin. The only exception is Majime (the main character)’s connection to dictionary making, but even that is marred by a different issue (which I’ll get to after this). There are other things which are subplots or otherwise brought up, but never get properly explored or resolved.

For example: the romance between Majime and Kaguya. For a few episodes, they interact a little bit, Majime has a crush on her, halfway through he writes a cheesy love letter to her and bam! 10+ year time skip and they’re happily married. As someone who hates romance in general, it’s really weird for me to say that I wanted more focus on the romance. (On a sidenote, can I just say that Kaguya’s career of becoming a chef and restaurant owner in an extremely male dominated/sexist industry is about hundred times more interesting than Majime faffing about with dictionaries? Makes me wish the anime was about her instead.)

And that’s not the only thing ofc... the friendship between Majime and Nishioka was not really resolved. The old man and his dedication to making the dictionary was there in the beginning and brought back only at the very end as he’s about to pass away. Almost everything felt like it didn’t get enough attention.

As for Majime’s character development and his relationship with dictionary making. The problem with that is not really the writing, but with the imagery. The symbolism in this show is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. A character says something like “a sea of words” to describe making a dictionary and then later in the episode, Majime has a dream where he’s literally in a sea of words. Not only is it distracting as hell, but it feels unfitting for this kind of anime. Yes, there is some media where big and bold imagery is the way to go (Gurren Lagann, anyone?), but Fune wo Amu is not it. If the symbolism was more subtle or abstract, it definitely would’ve worked in its favor. Instead, it’s hamfisted and corny. If you want a good example of subtle, interesting, and effective imagery from a show with a similar vibe, watch Rakugo Shinjuu (which is in my top 3 best anime of 2016).

I also have to quickly mention the music, even though it’s not visual, because it also suffers the problem of being too obvious and distracting. It’s not a good thing when the main theme kicks in and I groan because it annoys me that much. Again, a more subtle soundtrack would’ve been better. Other than those major problems, there’s nothing really of note to mention. The animation itself is decent and the voice acting is fine as usual. Nothing standout though, despite the cast full of veterans.

So in the end, I struggled between giving this an anime a 5 or 6. I originally settled on a 6, but then lowered it back down to a 5 because I was being too forgiving.

[carolinesiede]

My 2019 Writing Roundup

Not to get too New Age-y, but 2019 felt like a very ~transformative~ year for me. I turned 30, got a literary agent, and became a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. After feeling like I’d hit a plateau in my late 20s, it was nice to experience a sense of forward momentum again, even if the lack of financial stability in this career is a constant background stress. Still, on the whole my sixth year as a full-time freelancer felt like a time where I kinda, sorta figured out what I’m doing. Instead of struggling in murky waters, I’m at least actively swimming in them.

I continued to write for The A.V. Club, The Spool, and Consequence of Sound, plus took on new outlets in The Verge and Polygon. I also had an article about romantic comedies published in Southwest Airline’s in-flight magazine and was asked to talk about Hallmark Channel Christmas rom-coms on Canadian radio. Speaking of rom-coms, 2019 was the second year (and first full-year) for When Romance Met Comedy, and I feel like the column really came into its own this year. It’s by far the biggest undertaking of my career (I’ve covered 47 films in total so far!), and I’m really excited to continue shaping its voice in 2020.

Beyond finding a regular fitness routine and seeing Cats onstage for the first time, the biggest personal project I undertook in 2019 was immersing myself in the world of film and film criticism—something I started in mid-2018 and really amped up this year. My goal was to watch 300 new-to-me movies this year, and I wound up watching 355! (Including 129 new releases.) Regular access to CFCA screenings and screeners allowed me to be a bigger part of the film critic conversation than I’ve been in the past, which was exciting. I also tackled a bunch of blindspots from the past decade and put together a list of my 50 favorite films of the 2010s, which you can see right here:

Over on the TV side of things, I bid farewell to the Netflix Defenders universe with binge-review coverage of the final seasons of The Punisher and Jessica Jones. Those Marvel binge-reviews were a big part of my early career, so seeing that universe come to a close was bittersweet. It’s always nerve-wracking when a semi-regular assignment ends, but I’m hopeful that new projects will pop up to take its place.

Putting together this year-end retrospective also made me realize I was on a lot of podcasts in 2019, including jumping in as a regular guest on the Cinematic Universe podcast in the latter half of the year. Podcasting is something I really enjoy (I find talking so much easier than writing!), and I’d love to do more of it in the future.

With that, I’ll leave you with wishes for a Happy New Year and a roundup of all the major writing I did in 2019. If you enjoyed my work this year, it would mean a lot if you would support me on either Kofi or PayPal. Or just share some of your favorite pieces with your friends!

My 15 favorite TV shows of 2019

My 15 favorite films of 2019

Op-eds and Features

“Rom-Com Revival” for Southwest The Magazine

Avengers: Endgame doesn’t earn its big “girl power” moment

An MCU breakup could be a terrific step forward for Spider-Man

“What is a weekend?”: A catch-up guide to Downton Abbey’s cast and characters

Nope, seeing Cats the musical will not help you understand Cats the movie

Let’s talk about the ending of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women

TV Coverage

Doctor Who’s 2019 New Year’s Special

The Punisher S2

Jessica Jones S3

The Crown S3

This Is Us S3 and S4

Supergirl S4 and S5

Rent: Live

Jane The Virgin fill-in

The Tony Awards

The Little Mermaid Live! 

When Romance Met Comedy

27 Dresses doesn’t deserve your hate and neither does Katherine Heigl

Bride & Prejudice weaves an impressive cultural critique into a Bollywood-inspired Jane Austen update

How does the original What Women Want hold up two decades later?

In 1990, Pretty Woman changed romantic comedies forever

For one brief, wonderful moment, Eddie Murphy reinvented himself as a romantic-comedy star

20 years later, 10 Things I Hate About You remains a model for how to do the teen rom-com right

Lloyd Dobler is Cameron Crowe’s original manic pixie dream date

We're just not that into He’s Just Not That Into You

Romance is the weakest aspect of one of the most celebrated rom-coms of the ’90s

To All The Boys and Netflix reminded the world why it’s smitten with rom-coms

Imagine Me & You gives a lesbian love story the classic rom-com treatment

Queer resilience thrives in this rom-com about love in the time of the AIDS crisis

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is bubbly and smart, just like Marilyn Monroe

The Best Man capped off one decade of black rom-coms and inspired another

Nicolas Cage romanced Cher in one of the weirdest rom-coms ever made

After a decade of discourse, (500) Days Of Summer is basically the Fight Club of rom-coms

It’s No Strings Attached versus Friends With Benefits in a rom-com showdown

Adam Sandler’s sweetness makes The Wedding Singer a rom-com worth growing old with

The Philadelphia Story delivered one of the most star-studded love triangles ever

13 Going On 30 made Jennifer Garner a rom-com star—and gave tween girls a sleepover staple

Celebrate Halloween with Warm Bodies, the film that tried to make zom-rom-coms a thing

In the 2010s, rom-coms went indie and saved themselves in the process

Sandra Bullock became a rom-com star with a cozy love story about crushing loneliness

With just two storylines, The Holiday paid tribute to the entire rom-com genre

The A.V. Club

The maudlin Five Feet Apart anoints a new pair of winning young stars

After thinks it’s beautiful, that’s what makes it tiresome

Teen Spirit has plenty of it

Ramy is a Muslim millennial comedy with impressively big questions on its mind

Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson’s new comedy The Hustle pulls an inelegant con

The Sun Is Also A Star turns a compelling premise into a lackluster teen romance

The Art Of Racing In The Rain is a doggone mess

You don’t need to love Springsteen to like the thoughtful crowd-pleaser Blinded By The Light

The well-meaning Brittany Runs A Marathon can’t quite go the distance

Renée Zellweger zings in a Judy Garland biopic that clangs

The Downton Abbey movie is as pleasant as a cozy cup of tea

Tall Girl’s familiar teen love story fails to reach new heights

The new Lady And The Tramp feels like a ’90s update of a ’50s classic

The Verge/Polygon

Tigers Are Not Afraid puts a Pan’s Labyrinth spin on a poignant Mexican drug war story

The gloriously surreal space epic Ad Astra is half a great movie

An AI affair fuels a midlife crisis in the eerie science fiction drama Auggie

The painfully generic new animated Addams Family deserves no snaps

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is boldly bonkers

Netflix’s apocalyptic teen comedy Daybreak is an exhausting sugar rush

The Current War is basically Amadeus for electricity

Is Playmobil: The Movie just a reskinned Lego Movie?

The Spool

The LEGO Movie 2: Everything is About Half as Awesome

Isn’t It Romantic: An Instant Postmodern Rom-Com Classic

The Aftermath: Sumptuous but Surface-Level Melodrama

Late Night: A Sparkling Comedy With a Lot On Its Mind

Plus One: An Indie Millennial When Harry Met Sally

The Farewell is A Poignantly Funny Goodbye

Where’d You Go, Bernadette: A whimsical mid-life crisis

After the Wedding: A grown-up drama that doesn’t trust its own story

Falling Inn Love: Love, New Zealand Style

Paradise Hills: Harajuku Gossip Girls

Consequence of Sound

Brexit Takes An Engaging But Ultimately Shallow Look At the 2016 Vote

What Men Want Flips the Script and Finds Mixed Results

Dumbo Delights Without Ever Fully Taking Flight

Someone Great Continues Netflix’s Romantic Comedy Revival

Aladdin Has the Animated Classic’s Songs, But Less of Its Personality

MindMeet Interviews

Nadine Hack and Global Citizens Circle: Creating Connectedness

Podcast Appearances

Filmography: When Harry Met Sally

Filmography: Tim Burton’s mature films (Ed Wood, Sweeney Todd, Big Fish, Big Eyes)

Debating Doctor Who MCU Edition: Avengers: Endgame

Cinematic Universe: Alita: Battle Angel

Hall of Faces: Friends

Cinematic Universe: Joker

Hall of Faces: The West Wing

CBC Radio: Hallmark Christmas movies

Cinematic Universe: The Wolverine

Cinematic Universe: Awards Special—The Cuppies 2019 (Part One)

And here are similar year-end wrap-ups I did in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

[toospicy4tungl]

Spiteful Flagged Content Roundup, winter 2015-16 edition

Wound up falling off of the wagon for a bit while I finished slogging through my main archive but I’m BACK ON MY SHIT so time to start trying to get things appealed again.

Will be messaging people individually as necessary but basically if you’re one of the people pinged here, it means I’ve found a post you made that’s been flagged as explicit by Tumblr and hidden. There’s also posts here and here with some helpful tips for finding and getting your content appealed, AND a post here with instructions for what to do if your flagged post doesn’t have an appeal button for you to click.

FEBRUARY 2016

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/139774827932/disneyisforall-big-shoes-to-fill ORIGINAL URL: http://disneyisforall.tumblr.com/post/139759846335 DESCRIPTION: Animated gifs from Disney's "The Lion King", showing Simba stepping into his father's pawprint. SFW. Posted by @disneyisforall. NOTED?: not yet.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/139055967067/orcdatingsim-tusks-the-orc-dating-sim ORIGINAL URL: http://orcdatingsim.tumblr.com/post/128291123876 DESCRIPTION: An advertisement for "Tusks", an indie dating sim game based around orcs. SFW. Posted by @orcdatingsim. NOTED?: not yet, but they've posted about closing their blog in the wake of the policy changes. :(

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/139055732717/flowers-warm-winds-tontonmichel ORIGINAL URL: deactivated DESCRIPTION: Photos of a young black woman athlete, who has long green braided hair and a flower crown. She is breathtaking. SFW. NOTED?: blog deactivated, will probably repost.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/139046948242/citydin-abandoned-caved-in-brickyard-a-big ORIGINAL URL: http://citydin.tumblr.com/post/132303377810 DESCRIPTION: A photoset of an abandoned building, taken by my friend @citydin while exploring with her group. SFW. NOTED?: yes, replied, appealed, now it’s back!

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138778673977/aquatic-oneirologist-flip-glass-animals ORIGINAL URL: post deleted DESCRIPTION: Cover art and tracklist for a "Twin Peaks" fanmix-- the art features a deer's body twisted at an unnatural angle. SFW. NOTED?: post and 8tracks mix are deleted. :( will find the music later.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138768022717/yango86-envy-you-die ORIGINAL URL: http://yango86.tumblr.com/post/136599637152 DESCRIPTION: Fanart of Envy from "Fullmetal Alchemist", by @yango86. SFW NOTED?: no need, they appealed and it’s back!

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138740370262 ORIGINAL URL: no op listed DESCRIPTION: Stills from "Silent Hill" from the end of the game, featuring Harry confronting Dahlia and the two Alessas (one on the floor and one in the wheelchair). SFW. NOTED?: source is the wiki, will repost.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138662713402/aqueenofpromise-happy-fma-week-a-great-big ORIGINAL URL: http://viktorniliforv.tumblr.com/post/114711022699/happy-fma-week-a-great-big-thanks-to DESCRIPTION: Photos of a set of fan-made "Fullmetal Alchemist" dolls of Alphonse, Wrath, and Envy. SFW. Posted by @viktorniliforv. NOTED?: not yet

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138592215827/hkrieg-my-hourlies-for-2015-this-was-the-first ORIGINAL URL: http://hkrieg.tumblr.com/post/138549020379 DESCRIPTION: Hourly autobio pencil comics drawn by @hkrieg. SFW. NOTED?: not yet.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138589068382 ORIGINAL URL: no source DESCRIPTION: Photo of someone with a hand holding a gun coming out of the zipper of their fly. Hilarious and also sfw. NOTED?: no source. will repost.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/138514977232/hotbutterpopcorn-highlandvalley-this ORIGINAL URL: http://highlandvalley.tumblr.com/post/138408773284 DESCRIPTION: A video and accompanying tweets of someone's roomba-style robot they made out of the dislocated face of a "Thomas the Tank Engine" toy. Horrifying but SFW. NOTED?: no need, they appealed and now it’s back!

JANUARY 2016

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/110622265617/sculpturesspooky-shitphantastus-you-know-me-so ORIGINAL URL: http://daniel-gamelas.tumblr.com/post/29129980838 DESCRIPTION: Sculpture of a goatskull-headed nude figure by @daniel-gamelas. Breasts are visible, but as a sculpture should fall within Tumblr's own guidelines for acceptable nudity. NOTED?: not yet.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136935543452/last-heroine-posing-practice ORIGINAL URL: http://daddyschlongleg.tumblr.com/post/136919146075/posing-practice DESCRIPTION: Two inked drawings of Envy from "Fullmetal Alchemist" by @daddyschlongleg. SFW. NOTED?: no need, they appealed and now it’s back!

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136728977852/pottermore-fan-forum-lohrien-illustrations ORIGINAL URL: http://lohrien.tumblr.com/post/112152193380 DESCRIPTION: A series of "Harry Potter" moleskine illustrations by Gabriel Picolo. SFW. Posted by @lohrien. NOTED?: no need, they appealed and now it’s back!

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136599161122/bogleech-qadmonster-whats-that-scraping ORIGINAL URL: deactivated DESCRIPTION: A strange fleshy monster with nothing but a small upper jaw for a head. Resembles a nude human figure but is not one and nothing is visible, so SFW. Posted by deactivated account @qadmonster. NOTED?: deactivated account.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136395020547/laurellynnleake ORIGINAL URL: deactivated DESCRIPTION: Photoset of artists of Entertainment Effects Group creating the miniature cityscape backgrounds used in "Bladerunner". SFW. NOTED?: deactivated account, will repost.

DECEMBER 2015

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136317480462/vintagegal-betty-boops-animated-short-snow ORIGINAL URL: deactivated DESCRIPTION: Rotoscoped animation from the Betty Boop short "Snow White" (1933). Posted by deactivated account @vintagegal. SFW. NOTED?: deactivated account, will repost.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136274476122/anotherlesbianandwhat-xxx ORIGINAL URL: http://scaredofsilence.tumblr.com/post/97338584811/l%C3%A9a-sophie DESCRIPTION: Gifset of two women in bed snuggling and playfully bantering. They are implied to be nude but nothing is showing, so SFW. Posted by @scaredofsilence. NOTED?: tumblr let me appeal it myself, but “reviewed” it and decided it was adult content despite not showing any genitalia, nipples, or sexual acts. This is the first time something I’ve tried to appeal has been rejected lmao.

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/136057773387/xfiles9302-water-gun-fight-between-david ORIGINAL URL: deactivated DESCRIPTION: Video of a water gun fight between Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny on the set of "The X Files". SFW. NOTED?: deactivated account. I'M REALLY MAD ABOUT LOSING THIS ONE IT'S SO CUTE i will find it and repost it mark my words

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/135121844782/why-i-love-comics-deadpool-2-the-more-we ORIGINAL URL: http://why-i-love-comics.tumblr.com/post/133749188024 DESCRIPTION: Pages from a Marvel comic depicting Deadpool attacking an abusive father to save a young boy and his mother. SFW. Posted by @why-i-love-comics NOTED?: no need, they appealed and now it’s back!

REBLOG URL: http://phantastus.tumblr.com/post/134586663077 ORIGINAL URL: deleted post DESCRIPTION: Still from the set of "Fire Walk With Me" showing Laura and Ronette sitting on a bed and laughing. Both are in lingerie but nothing is showing, so sfw. NOTED?: post deleted, will repost.

[jennycalendar]

2017 fic roundup

tagged by the incredible @catty-words!! which is a delight bc 1) cori is amazing and 2) i LOVE talking about my writing. so here goes

Total 2017 Word Count: 252,499 (.......that’s a lot wow) Total 2017 Hits: 7,515 Other 2017 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 653; Comment threads: 197; Bookmarks: 76; Subscriptions: 49.

Total 2016 Word Count: 61,766 (oh my GOD in COMPARISON i wrote. so much this year) Total 2016 Hits: 4,651 Other 2016 AO3 Stats: Kudos: 360; Comment threads: 55; Bookmarks: 38; Subscriptions: 15.

links and titles to 2017 works

i wrote. um. a lot. like a lot. didn’t realize how much until i had to compile an actual list and now it’s like....wow.

orpheus (4,721 words) that one time i wrote a giles/jenny orpheus & eurydice au. set during....s5-ish? i had fun with this

determination unmatched (1,576 words) set during school hard; ft. giles and jenny in the library and jenny panicking over her Commitment Issues.

the sunnydale high mortality rate (1,722 words) i’m PRETTY sure i wrote this in 2016 for jenny calendar day, but i posted it again as a standalone in january so. still counts sort of. jenny’s musings on life and death in sunnydale.

on gambles (5,577 words) a tara/faith au of the office; tara is a shy receptionist and faith is a flirty paper salesgirl.

bravery (50,445 words) IM GETTING NOSTALGIC because last time i did this fic roundup thing my goal for 2017 was to finish bravery??? and then i did??? and it was beautiful??? fjsfsdljk do i even need to summarize this fic; u all heard me talking about it at Some point or another....it’s a giles/jenny becoming au. i reread it recently and i feel like i’ve really improved since then, but it was a landmark fic for me and the first multi-chapter fic with a complex plot that i actually finished (and last lmao whoops). i love it still

first steps (5,740 words) the follow-up to bravery!! set during dead man’s party. kinda fluffy & pointless but it was still super fun to write

second chances (9,371 words) oh boy this fic is the only one from early 2017 that i’m still genuinely really proud of. set during s6; jenny comes back as a ghost, and only anya can see her.

impromptu vigil for the dead scooby mom (3,226 words) jenny dies in chosen instead of in passion, and giles copes.

missing (13,402 words) s3 jenny, from a world where giles died, forms an accidental supernatural connection with s3 giles.

conscious choices (6,708 words) MY CHEESY ROM-COM FIC. i love this one so much so much so much. told through emails, phone calls, and texts, giles and jenny fall in love (again, sort of) in s4 when jenny comes back into town.

mermaid magic (13,140 words) some anon sent me an ask once upon a time re: jenny as a mermaid and that ask spiraled into a lot of asks and then a tag on my blog and finally this fic. it was inevitable, really.

grand romantic gestures (10,558 words) this was without a doubt my secret masterpiece of 2017. femslash calendiles, set after passion. while attempting to cope with jenny’s death, gil stumbles across something surprising, and then things just start spiraling from there.

restraint (4,305 words) a prequel to on gambles, though they could be read in any order. faith attends the dundies and pines over tara (though she definitely doesn’t want to call it pining). also there is of course some jenny/giles content because i’m Me

forever (4,031 words) kind of still in progress?? various femslash oneshots (faith/tara, willow/buffy, and willow just being a lesbian in general)

irredeemable evil (5,919 words) jenny tries to get used to being a vampire. giles is desperately in love.

on heroes (6,054 words) look i GET that slayers have to be the one-girl-in-all-the-world thing but i hate the cpr scene with romantic undertones so like. i wrote this. with semi-gratuitous mostly-platonic jenny/giles because i’m Me.

fortune favors the bold (2,768 words) jackaby fic!!!! for my traumatized ghost girl and her mess of a paranormal detective boyfriend, who both very clearly have no idea how functioning relationships work, but they love each other so they muddle through. written before i read book 4 bc i was afraid jackaby and jenny wouldn’t get a canonical love declaration & kiss. everyone please read jackaby 4 me

loving parents (6,259 words) am i ever going to finish this? who knows? giles and jenny are expecting a baby in some alternate v happy s5. literally just scooby shenanigans and wish fulfillment.

closeness (1,532 words) my headcanon for giles and jenny’s first kiss!! soft and tentative.

friends with extras (788 words) leverage; sophie/nate and pillow talk. not my best work and i don’t think i really Got their dynamic, but i think someday i might return to write fic for them? maybe? canon gave me so much already so i don’t really feel the need. 

many kinds of magic (2,394 words) my favorite thing about this fic is the fact that i felt 0 need to explain why jenny was alive. she’s just There. willow and tara fall in love, aided gently by jenny. except not really bc lbr willow and tara need NO help to fall in love, so jenny just listens and offers advice.

imperfections (76,843 words) someday i really will come back to this. maybe. hopefully. i wrote it while i was sorting through Sad Feelings and i don’t......have.....those feelings anymore, which is Excellent for me but kinda bad for this fic. anyway. faith and jenny form a friendship in s3 (or: a braveryverse rewrite of season 3 where jenny is alive).

pint-size potential (7,212 words) the first fic in what will hopefully be a series of short fics!! giles is charged with the care of baby buffy summers, a potential who isn’t likely to become a slayer (according to the council).

adapting (3,327 words) sequel to pint-size potential! giles adjusts to his life in sunnydale; buffy throws things and gets excited about animals

inevitability (4,881 words) post-chosen faith/buffy; soft and hesitant and frightened but both of them are still determined to try.

Favorite Fic: DEFINITELY grand romantic gestures. like i love all these fics (and i feel like the calendiles day fics were some of my best. jenny as a sarcastic smitten mermaid??? giles and jenny passive-aggressively emailing?? jenny and buffy forming a tentative friendship over the fact that they both loved giles???) but grand romantic gestures was swoony and gorgeous and sapphic and incredibly romantic. i’m so so proud of it and i want it to get Lots of attention but it. does not. so like...please go read & review

Hardest Fic: definitely missing, because i was writing it under time constraints and i felt like it wasn’t good enough the whole time. but it surprised me by turning out to be really nice!! i went back and reread it and. solid work celia.

Do You Plan to Take Prompts in 2018? oh totally!! i don’t know if i’ll Complete them but i’m definitely down to take them.

What was the best thing about 2017? wow this is hard. this is hard and i really like that this is hard. the best thing about 2017 is 100% that i cannot decide what the best thing about 2017 is. i have a lot of options and a lot of friends and a lot of happy things that i did not have last year. i feel very good about that.

What was the worst thing about 2017? that i didn’t Actually meet robia. but there were so many good things that balanced it out!!

Any last thoughts for 2017? i’ve been saying for a while that 2017 felt like a stepping-stone year towards something better for me, but i think it was actually a damn good year as a whole. i think i need to stop thinking of things as a journey towards happiness and start just...enjoying whatever journey i’m on.

Goals for 2017

FINISH THE TOP-SECRET DETECTIVE AU and find a title and start posting it!! it’s intricate and gorgeous and i can't wait to show it to u all

write more femslash!!!!

stop telling myself i’m not writing enough. i was telling myself that all this year aND I WROTE OVER 250,000 words SO CLEARLY I AM DOING PRETTY DAMN WELL WHEN I’M NOT EVEN TRYING

tagging @regenderate and um i’m not sure if i can think of other people that cori didn’t tag?? i love my small corner of the buffy fandom but it’s. difficult 4 tagging people. so like if u see this ur tagged congrats

[theneulithium]

2020.12.08 - Renaissance TV + SAIC’s Film, Video, New Media, Animation and Sound Festival

// Nicky Ni

This past weekend, my party was to feast on the Renaissance Society’s 24-hour online screening program, Renaissance TV, which coincides the institution’s benefit auction, RenBen: Wildcard 2020.

Without doubt, Renaissance TV was an ephemeral TV renaissance. Selecting artworks that straddle between critically interesting and cleverly easy-to-digest, Renaissance TV put together a 24-hour nonstop program that was meant for incomplete viewing. Of course, it was only so unless you would binge watch on gallons of coffee or tailor your bio-clock to the program schedule in order to watch in full videos in which nothing much happens. This exciting threesome involving the film festival (where works are screened intensively within only few days), the television (which has a 24-hour air time), and the Internet (where many works come from and are meant to be shown on) has given birth to a new curatorial format, let’s call it for now the “Internet-TV-Film-Festival Complex,” which emphasizes less on presenting each individual work than on how these works as a whole speak about this specific medium of presentation. It flirts with the viewer’s insatiable desire for a holistic viewing but in reality offers works that, how should I put it, you only need to watch absent-minded. 

Just leave your computer screen on the whole time. We have legit TV programs for people like you who have a short attention span, for example, an episode from Cécile B. Evans’s mock TV series Amos’ World, another one from Liv Schulman’s TV show, Control, and Carolyn Lazard’s A Recipe for Disaster that’s based on Julia Child’s popular cooking show The French Chef. May we interest you with some Friday night party music? There is 132 BPM by Torbjorn Rødland on repeat for three times followed by an hour-long electronic music set by Lawrence Abu Hamdan (aka. DJ Business Class). After that, you could fall asleep on Oliver Laric’s mesmerizing animation, and wake up to have your Saturday brunch and zone out on some absolutely bored, off-duty animals from the Jungle Book in David Claerbout’s The Pure Necessity. 

It is brilliant. 

David Claerbout, The Pure Necessity (2016). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

***

The second half of this week’s roundup is dedicated to some of the noticeable student works in SAIC’s virtual FVNMA and Sound Festival this year, which is programed to make sure that you take time and watch attentively and fully. 

Fragmentation, banality and self-reflection are some of the key elements that I observed in this year’s  festival. Affected by the pandemic or not, many works seem to be very introspective and contemplative. Like how painters turn to themselves as the most convenient and cost-efficient models, it is natural for film and video makers to investigate their own memories and the genealogy of their family for one of their first major moving-image projects. 

In The Dependents, Sofia Brockenshire quilts together a beautiful essay composed of family photographs, interviews, radio archives and newly shot footage that evokes a sense of transition and displacement. There are scenes where the camera tracks an airplane in the sky or slowly pans across the photograph of a desert, like how the finger moves over a map, tracing the lines of the rivers and the ridges of the mountains. We learn that Brockenshire’s father is a geographer, and that his family, including the filmmaker herself, travelled with him from one country to another, as migrants, as guests, but also as dependents. Beneath the quiet, dreamy images, there’s a lurking disquiet and unease, where the filmmaker carefully alludes to all the imaginable sacrifices that one family member has done for the other.  

Sofia Brockenshire, The Dependents (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

The Dependents has glitchy sound scores, which vividly speaks to the aesthetics of works by Nat Wood and Jada-Amina. Deeply self-reflective, both works also turn to home videos and family history as main sources of inspiration. Wood made Forever Bound Together (By the Experience We May or May Not Have Shared) entirely by editing together digitalized VHS footage. Beginning by a recording of a young mother singing a lullaby to her new born son (or Wood’s older brother), Forever Bound Together follows a loose storyline from before the filmmaker was born to her later childhood. However, as the video progresses, the images become increasingly glitchy, preserving the inevitable imprint of the recording device and how such unpredictable technological interventions will also be forever bound together with her own memory. 

Nat Wood, Forever Bound Together (By the Experience We May or May Not Have Shared) (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot. 

On the other hand, Jada-Amina’s video I’m Not Going to Die, I’m Going Home Like A Shooting Star splices and sews back together stories of three generations of matriarch and footage of beloved Black cultural icons. With images that are decades apart, this video is not only an oeuvre by an avid family genealogist and empowered feminist, but also inevitably that of a media archeologist who delves into the messages that the mediums bring. 

The festival’s switching to virtual screening this year due to the pandemic would undoubtedly have upset many cinema purists; however, it certainly works for the benefit of other computer-based artists. Vesper Guo’s ******.com, an enigmatic video-performance of which the title shall not be pronounced finds your computer screen the ideal place for viewing. Taking off on a fictional journey to a darknet website bearing the URL ******.com,  an anonymous user, presumably the artist herself, manages to access various surveillance cameras located in unspecified places in different parts of the world, noticeably Japan and China. Scrolling through a series low-res, moiréed out video footage of empty hallways, offices, and parking lots, the voyeuristic user gradually becomes an omnipotent puppeteer who can somehow orchestrate at the click of a mouse the humans and animals that are unknowingly under surveillance, as if it were a computer game in real life. 

Vesper Guo, ******.com (2020). Nicky Ni’s screenshot.

The voyeurism, eeriness and tension found in Guo’s video murmurs with the short, mostly black-and-white animation, What are you doing?, by Qiyun Kang, a story in which the protagonist tries to hide a yellow envelope from another person of the household. The gender and age of neither character is visibly specified, allowing bifurcation of meaning and interpretation. Borrowing cinematic tactics such as surveillance camera angle, manga-style close-ups, and deploying classic montage techniques, Kang dexterously visualizes anxiety, stealth, and control that can be seen as a metaphor for the censorship that is happening at a national scale in China.

Last but not least, and in the form of a confession, I have only watched the intro portion of Ben Creech’s SELF & other Early Works and it seems very promising. 

[entireoranges]

3PN Ultimate Guide

Episode / Playlist Guide To Perfect Pairs Podcast Shows!

Please note that on the Perfect Pair listings the episodes will be listed Newest to Oldest, while everything the order Oldest to Newest

3PN Specials - 2017 Holiday Special - 300 Podcast Special - Quiz - Where Is Jason? - Jason Is Here!

Arkadia Chat - Season 1 - Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2 - Season 4 Episode 3 - Season 4 Episode 4 - Season 4 Episode 5 - Season 4 Episode 6 - Season 4 Episode 7 - Season 4 Episode 8 - Season 4 Episode 9 - Season 4 Episode 10 - Season 4 Episode 11 - Season 4 Episode 12 - Season 4 Episode 13

Arkadia Chat - Season 2 - Eden Episode Review - Red Queen Episode Review - Sleeping Giants Episode Review - Pandora Box and Shifting Sands Episode Review

Box Of Hot Air - Season 1 - Show Explanation Planned Parenthood Pro-Life Or Pro-Choice - Immigration And Languages - Racial And Cultural Sensitivity - Black Lives Matter - Welfare And Religion - Trump - PETA, Greenpeace, And Drugs - Lack Of Reality In Politics And War For Oil - Hardcore Trump Supporters, Obesity In America, And Media Bias - 13th - Terroism And Healthcare - Election 2016 - UFO's And Voting Reform - Jason's Commentary - Conspiracy Theories & Mass Shootings - Vegan Vegatarianism And Vaccines

Box Of Hot Air - Season 2 - The First Few Days - Rogue Agencies, Climate Change, And Science - VP's, Protesting, And History - Border Walls - Tensions On The Korean Penisula - Climate Change And Rideshare vs. Taxi - Legal Gambling, Ex-Presidents Critical Of Trump, Defunding NPR And PBS - Intolerance In America And Technology - Take A Knee And Las Vegas Shooting - Winter Olympics - Gun Control And School Shootings - Law Enforcement Reality TV - The Psychology Of Cannibalism

Box Of Hot Air - Season 3 - Handicap Discrimination And Access - Personal Experiences With Death - Cost Of Education - Internet Retails Effect On Brick & Mortar - #Metoo Movement, Social Justice, And Women's Rights - Transportation

Enter My Microwaves - Season 1 - (Spoilers) A Year In The Life - Top Gear And Grand Tour - Revisionist History - Law & Order Characters Round 1 (Part 1) - Law & Order Characters Round 1 (Part 2) - Law & Order Characters Rounds 2-6 - Harry Potter Personality Test - Star Trek Bracket Challenge (Part 1) - Star Trek Bracket Challenge (Part 2) - Star Trek Bracket Challenge (Part 3) - MASH Bracket Challenge - XFiles Monsters Of The Week Bracket Challenge - Top Gear UK Specials

Enter My Microwaves - Season 2 - The 100 Bracket Challenge (Part 1) - The 100 Bracket Challenge (Part 2) - Grab Bag - Vacation Bracket - Reboots, Sequels, & Prequels - Catfish & Catfishing - (Spoilers) American Ripper - Criminal Minds Bracket

Enter My Microwaves - Season 3 - Burritos! - Art Of All Sorts - Winter Olympic Events - 7 Random Questions - Social Media Revolution - Privacy Concerns (Scott Moir x Tessa Virtue & Others) - Tabetha Plays Random Songs - Fast Food Signature Item Bracket - The Inevitable March Of Time - Fan Creations - Catalog Shopping And Oversized Furniture

Enter My Microwaves - Season 4 - Sort That (Part 1) - Random Internet Shopping - 7 Music Related Questions - Biographical Films - Discussing TV Shows From 82-83 TV Season

Next Best Podcast - Season 1 - Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 4 - Week 5 - Week 6 - Week 7 - Week 8 - Week 9 - Week 10 - Week 11 - Week 12 - Week 13 - Week 14 - Week 15 - Week 16 - Week 17 - Playoff Round 2

Next Best Podcast - Season 2 - Week 1 - Week 2 - Week 3 - Week 3 Review - Week 4 Picks - Week 4 Review - Week 5 Picks - Week 5 Review - Week 6 Picks - Week 6 Review & Week 7 Picks - Week 7 Review & Week 8 Picks - Week 8 Review & Week 9 Picks - Week 9 Review & Week 10 Picks - Week 10 Review & Week 11 Picks - Week 11 Review & Week 12 Picks - Week 13 Review & Week 14 Picks

On A Plane On A Plate - Season 1 - 2017 Peeps Flavors - Feel The Burn (Pepsi Fire) - Mystery Oreos - Salted Caramel Pepsi And Candies - Pizza - Cincinnati Chili - Burgers And Hotdogs - Frozen Party Foods - Cookie Trio Taste Test - What Foods Does Jason Like?

On A Plate - Season 2 - Gummies And Sour Candy - Snack Food Haul (Part 1) - Candy Bracket

Perfect Pairs - Season 1 - Maksyl Special - Valdaya Special Part 2 - Valdaya Special - Finals Post - Show - Finals Pre Show - Semifinals Post Show - Week 10 Pre Show Special - Week 9 Post Show - Week 8 Post Show - Week 7 Post Show - Sway Special Edition - Week 6 Post Show - Week 5 Switch Up Review - Week 4 Post - Show Review - Switch Up Special + Q & A - Weeks 1 - 3 Part 2 Week 4 Preshow - Weeks 1 - 3 Part 1 - Pre Show 09/15/14 - Ships And News - Season 16 Review

Perfect Pairs - Season 2 - Free Ballin It 2 - Emergency Episode - Pro Reveal Season 20 + Theories - Top 10 Val Dances (A Retrospective) Part 4 - Top 10 Val Dances (A Retrospective) Part 3 - Las Vegas Special - Top 10 Val Dances (A Retrospective) Part 2 - Top 10 Val Dances (A Retrospective) Part 1 - Hate In Ships - Free Ballin It - Pro Appreciation Q & A - It's All In The Numbers (Part 2) - It's All In The Numbers (Part 1) - Dream Cast - Mixed Bag - Think Before Posting

Perfect Pairs - Season 3 - Post Finals And Season Finale - Before The Finals - Semi-Finals - Choice And Trios Weeks - Eras Week - Spring Break Week - Shredder - Disney Week - Just Another Thursday Episode - Week 4 - Latin (Anger) Week - Solo Thursday - Week 2 - Red Room, Hallway Chatter, Confessions - Week 1 (Part 2) - Week 1 (Part 1) - More DWTS Confessions - DWTS Confessions - DWTS Drama - Season 20 Cast Reveal (Part 2) - Zendaya Red Carpet & Season 20 Cast Reveal

Perfect Pairs - Season 4 - Special Message From Jason - Weeks 4 & 5 - Weeks 2 & 3 - Week 1 - Casting Rumors And Controversies

Perfect Pairs - Season 5 - Season Finale - Trios Week - Judges Team Up Week - Icons Week - Famous Dances Week - Quick Take On Switch Up Week - Q & A Special - Disney Week Review - 20 Question Special - Week 3 Review - Weeks 1 And 2 Review

Perfect Pairs - Season 6 - Finals Part II - Finals Part I - Semi-Finals Week - Showstoppers Night - Halloween Night & Danceoffs - Eras Week And News - Latin Week - Propsal And Results - Cirque Du Solei Night - Faceoff Week - 100th Soundcloud Episode Special (Valdaya) - TV Week - Week 1 - SYTYCD Special - Cast Reveal Show - Rumors And Conjecture

Perfect Pairs - Season 7 - Finale (Part 2) / Future Ideas - Finals (Part 1) / Production Opinions - Semifinals - Quarterfinals (Trios Week) - A Night At The Movies - Boy Band/Girl Group Night - Disney Night - Most Memorable Year Week - Las Vegas Week Review - Week 2 Review - Week 1 Review - Pros Bracket Challenge - Cast Rumors And Thoughts On Season 24

Perfect Pairs - Season 8 - Finals Part 2 - Finals Part 1 - Semifinals - Trio Night - Halloween Night - Night At The Movies - Most Memorable Year Night - Guilty Pleasures Night - Latin Night - Ballroom Night - Week 1 Dance - Thoughts On S25 Cast - Before The 25th Season

Perfect Pairs - Season 9 - Pre Show Analysis And Thoughts - Opening Week (Part 1) - Opening Week (Part 2) - New York Night - Las Vegas Night - Week 1 (Juniors) - Most Memorable Year Night - Birth Year Dances (Juniors) - Trios Night - Disney Night (Juniors) - Disney Night - Halloween Night (Juniors) - Halloween Night - Country Night & Team Dances - Juniors Choice (Juniors) - Semifinals - Finals - Time Machine Night (Juniors) - Semifinals (Juniors) - Finals (Juniors)

Random Articles Season 1 - Cities - Ghost Partner And Canada 91 - Lucas And Jacqueline - Stars And Welsh Cinema - Women Pilots And 1958 Belgium - Ore Mountains And Just Legal - Manor And Doctor - Ukraine U19 Football Team And Hubert Tully - Coffee And Books And Flowers - Flower People and 52nd Berlin FF - Hadres And Dinosaur Discovery - Hixon And Faulkner - Season Finale

Random Articles Season 2 - Amps/Russian Finance/Gymnastic Album - Engal Selvi DPT Craig Pruess Middlethrope Hall - Three People And A River In Germany - A Village, A Philanthropist, A Cabinet Member, 1991 In Taiwan - Baroness, Public Transit, Expensive Artist, Ice Piers - Guy Who Likes Old Stuff, A Thai District, Greek Poet, Cardiff Arena - Well Known Irish Folk Song, Live Album, HK Acttion Flick, 3 Game NFL Player - Hockey Player Treaty Threatened Plant NZ Air School - Villages In Croatia And Laos Austrilian MP And Song - Race Car Driver 70's Computer Stuff Governor Of NM Ruler Of Cordoba - Football Fireflies Neurosurgeon 2 Cities Tennis - Education Times Two Korean Waterpark Jazz Album And Video Games - TV Episode Greek Settlement Historic Road Error Small Town And Ruler - Random Quotes - Random Quotes #2 - Random Questions - Tabetha Solo Random

The Sci-Fi Shuttle - Season 1 - Star Trek 50th Anniversary - What Makes Good Sci-Fi - Ensemble Casts - Sci Fi Horror And Fantasy - Star Trek The Animated Series - Doctor Who - Paranornal Reality TV - Stargate Franchise - Doctor Who Christmas Specials - 100 or 1,000 Years Question & Sci Fi Acceptance - X Files - Captain Pike And Proto Trek

The Sci-Fi Shuttle - Season 2 - The 100 Season 2 Review (Encoding Issue - Read Description) - RPG's - The 100 Season 3 Recap - Discussion (The 100) News (Star Trek) - VR Sci-Fi Gaming - Mythbusters And Mythbusters: The Search - Captain And XO Switcheroo - Alterate Realities - Doctor Who (Current Series And Theories) - The Master (Doctor Who) - 3 Questions 1 Answer - Fall/Spring TV Roundup & Subscription Services - (Spoilers) Ten Highly Rated Star Trek Episodes - (Spoilers) Star Trek Discovery Thoughts

The Sci-Fi Shuttle - Season 3 - Destination Truth And Expedition Unknown - Doctor Who Male Companions - (Spoilers) Star Trek Discovery S1 Reviews - (Spoilers) The Worst Of Trek - Three Questions About Trek - Picard Plus 4 Other Topics - Star Trek Quiz - 25 Sci-Fi Films - 13th Doctor Thoughts - Sci-Fi Horror Quiz - Star Trek Top 32 Episode Bracket - Sci-Fi Character Personality Quiz

The Solution Shirt - Season 1 - Bucket Of Doom #1 - Bucket Of Doom #2 - The Metagame #1 - The Metagame #2 - Snake Oil #1 - Bucket Of Doom #3 - The Metagame #3 - Bucket Of Angsty Manatees #1 - Cards Against Humanity - Snake Oil #2 - The Metagame #4 - 5 Second Rule

The Solution Shirt - Season 2 - Cards Against Humanity/Pretend You're Xyzzy #1 - Bucket Of Doom #4 - The Metagame #5 - 4 Card Story - Step Up - The Metagame #6

The Solution Shirt - Season 3 - Superfight - Superfight #2 - Joe Name It - Snake Oil (With A Twist) - Joe Name It 2 - Utter Nonsense! - Utter Nonsense!#2 - Joe Name It #3 - Puzzle Prime Brainteasers

Strummed Plucked Amped - Season 1 - Pilot - Under $100 Deals, Worst Effects, And The ES-335 - Iconic Instruments And More - The Latency Files - Review Extravaganza! - Beginner Guitars, Boutique Equipment, & Dream Guitars - Where Have All The Guitar Gods Gone? - Selling Hierarchy And More

Strummed Plucked Amped - Season 2 - Refurbished Guitars And More - Vox Super Beetle And More

T-10-T Season 1 - If I Left Zoo - The Unforgettable Fire - Revolver

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 11.10.2017

It’s that time of a week again where I prove to be nothing if not a complete glutton for punishment, which apparently includes having way too many trades preordered on the same week by magical coincidence. It’s like the old saying, when it rain it pours. And sometimes it’s just ridiculous. 

But we’re seeing the closing a few storylines, the beginning of a few, and just a general large array of comics at our disposal, including more of the Marvel Primers. So I say we just dig right into it. 

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Marvel’s Captain America, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists, DC’s New Super-Man, Image’s Rat Queens, DC’s Red Hood and the Outlaws, Marvel’s Runaways, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #25 Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard

Will I ever run out of good things to say about All-New Wolverine? No? Good. I wouldn’t want to be dishonest and that would be the only way I’d have negative things to say about my love for this series.

Story: So believe it or not, the relationship between Daken and Laura is something I have desperately wanted to see more of. In the Daken/X-23 crossover they had a few years ago, I really felt like we got somewhere with their relationship, and the bits and pieces since then have really helped my attitude only grow stronger on the subject. So seeing Taylor hint at it growing more in the last arc, and knowing it would be delivered on in this arc has me SO excited about what is to come. 

You know. When Daken is around for more than an awesome bar fight that... leads to his dismembered arm being hung from a bridge. THAT old plot device. I’m a little sad to see that Gabby is being left behind (especially since her outfits never cease being adorable and hilarious) but knowing that we’re dealing with Mutant Bigots this time around somewhat made me appreciate that decision. I worry way too much about Gabby to take that at face value.

And then that cliffhanger hits like a freight train and it’s like WHAAAAT. But no like what. Oh my god. Is this real? I know we have to wait a month but. uh. Kudos, Tom Taylor. I am not often surprised by characters seemingly returning from the dead anymore. To say this was not expected is VASTLY underplaying my shock.

Art: There have been a lot of great artists on this title and I don’t think Juann Cabal is an exception to that rule. He has solid character art, lots of good control of backgrounds and paneling, and got pretty inventive with combining flashbacks with Laura’s current travels and actions. And the bar scene with Daken was just fantastic all around like, a simple but highly effective action sequence and I’m really excited to see what action he’ll draw Laura herself in as we carry on. 

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #12 Ryan Stegman, Brian Level, Jesus Aburtov

We wrap up another storyline of what has quickly become my favorite Spidey series of the ‘10s and it comes with highest of highs and lowest of lows. And lots and lots of adorable hugs.

Story: I was concerned that with the pacing we had had for this storyline up to this point that there would be a lot of things that would have to be knitted together a bit too tight or not at all, and that definitely seemed to be the case. We flew through this issue with revelations hitting in waves. Ms. January was the villain all along, Normie is suddenly a perfectly normal kid who was just misled, the symbiote is removed from MJ using sonic waves, Annie saves her parents, and just overall there was a lot that happened within this single comic. It all made emotional sense, and the hug between Annie and Normie at the end, bringing their family feud at last to an end, felt completely right. 

I liked small callouts like having Liz be the parent Normie needed, the X-Men coming to help the Parker family, and the amazing banter between MJ and Peter, but I think because there was so much fit into this last issue there felt like a bit of continuity bending to make logical sense where the emotions didn’t quite carry us. Like Normie’s... complete change in character. And Ms. January’s apparent obsession/love of Harry and need to avenge him. These things make sense if they fed into each other -- Ms. January’s influence inspiring Normie to cut his mother out of his life even more than she had been already and then feeding him more and more hatred toward Spider-Man by saying that it was his fault. But that doesn’t make so much sense with what we read in the issues before, specifically the issue where Normie took up arms to protect his company and revealed his backstory through his own internal monologue and flashbacks. 

So while this confrontation has been 12 issues in the build up, the resolution mostly came... only from this issue. Maybe the last two issues, too, if we’re being generous. 

The epilogue confuses me. It feels like Renew Your Vows is trying to wrap itself up and yet I know from solicits that it’s not, but we are justifying a timeskip to eight years in the future so that artists have an excuse to draw a teenage girl in a tighter costume --  I MEAN BECAUSE THEY WANT TO TELL MORE TEEN ORIENTED STORIES OBVIOUSLY. But I worry that this change is going to make what has been a unique take on the Parker-Watson family and turn it into Sider-Girl Lite, which is unfair to everyone all around. Also were they... not operating for those eight years? Why is the new costume a big deal for her eighteenth birthday? How much sense would it make for them to just... suddenly find a way to stop Annie from going out as a superhero with them when the whole point of the past 12 issues is that they couldn’t. 

What about Dr. Connors and his son? What about Annie’s additional precognitive powers? Did she end up going to the Xavier institute? 

I feel like I was asked to bite off a bit too much in this issue, and as much as I enjoyed it and enjoyed this series, I feel this is a rare storyline where I actually would have preferred an extra issue to set all of this up.

Art: The art is beautiful. Soft and textured but also sweeping and animatic like you would want for any good Spidey story. And considering that there has been a fair rotation of art teams on this book since the first issue, I really appreciate how much they worked toward giving the book a consistent style of its own. It was neat and helped even artist style changes feel coherent still and I’m really interested to see if this dedication to that continues, especially since the epilogue appeared to have a different feel to it. 

It’ll be interesting to see next month either way. 

DC’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey (2016-present) #15 Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Roge Antonio, Marcelo Maiolo

Well, I’m sure for 99% of you this is an unexpected addition to the roster. For those unaware, I have put the first volume of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey on blast on my personal blog @renaroo for having some things I consider to be insufferable in regards to the handling of Barbara and specifically the consistent villainization of Oracle. Which you know, I’m about sick of. 

So why am I picking up BoP now? Simple: Cass is going to start appearing regularly beginning with this particular storyline and I will support her here since for finances I’ve had to move ‘Tec to trade wait. 

and oh boy. This is. Something.

Story: So there’s this old episode of the animated Justice League series where an Amazon OC standing in for Donna Troy unleashed a plague on Earth that only affected men and it was putting all men in comas and the such and it left the only two women of a seven-person Justice League because of course there were only two women to deal with it and save the world... well half of it. It was broad strokes of feminism as written by men which included Diana being the strawwoman feminist who couldn’t understand if losing men (including her friends???) would doom society and Hawkgirl being the relatable cool egalitarian alien bird woman to be all “guuurrrrrlllll you need to respect men more”. It’s like. The episode i remember the most from my childhood and I hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns. 

Apparently I’m not the only one who remembers it however because that... that is the plot of this storyline. I don’t know why they couldn’t just bring back the ebola plague from Batman: Contagion which was a legitimately good storyline I like but we’re doing the... gender specific plague. 

Are they going to address trans men and women? How is this disease preying specifically on men? Is it magical in origin and that why it follows no rules? Why is Lois here? Is Wonder Woman here just because of that Justice League episode? 

I don’t know. 

I appreciate that we didn’t waste a whole lot of time with Batwoman’s squad duking it out with Babsgirl’s squad over whether or not antiheroes who.... one of which she’s worked with before and... another of which she knows for a fact is... engaged to her cousin. But whatever. Also Steph in her post-Belfry uniform is... going along with this okay. I’m picking too much but there’s a lot of what in those four pages.

I do appreciate that the dialogue seemed to match everyone’s character very well, and Oliver and Dinah were hysterical and lovable together. .... But damn is it difficult to wrap my head around Babs’ character anymore. Like literally falling to her knees and tearing up begging Poison Ivy (who she was friends with in the previous BoP???? which is sitll canon bc they bring it up???) to help because “people she loves” are affected by the disease like. It’s the antithesis of the Babs I knew and was familiar with and admired in the day but. I guess that’s the Babs we have now. And I’m just... supposed to roll with it I guess. 

Also enjoyed Helena being a teacher again, that was awesome. Even if her calling up Dick instead of Babs was... still difficult to process but whatever. 

Art: It’s good! Really consistent, the lineart was sometimes a little softer than I prefer, but there were varied bodytypes and lots of good action sequences handled concisely enough that it didn’t feel like panel space was wasted. I really enjoyed it overall.

Marvel’s Captain America - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Valerio Schiti

I have been pretty vocal in my disdain for how Marvel has handled Cap for the last two years and I join pretty much everyone in a chorus of “how can you misunderstand something so bad” but at the same time I’m... just tired. And it’s hard to even be excited at the fact that the reign of Spencer is over because it feels like the enjoyment and interest I’ve felt for Cap for all this time is simply used up. which is why a primer like this is really something that I needed. I needed to see a reminder that Cap punches Nazis and Hydra and Marvel -- or at least some people at Marvel remember that still. I don’t want that history gone, cosmic cubed or otherwise. And given Waid and Samnee’s interviews it seems they’re going to push for just that. 

Here’s hoping they accomplish it because even these three pages of Cap acting like Cap again was enough to make me smile at least a little. 

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Marcus To

If I was going for snark and snark alone here I would begin and end this with “why is Scott Lang here” because no really why is Scott Lang with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And it’s something I shouldn’t be asking because I really have still -- even in liking the movies as much as I do -- not found myself any more persuaded to read into the space opera stuff over at Marvel. It’s just not something I want in my life right now. 

Marcus To’s art is very nice, though, and usually worth it on its own. Even if I’m beginning to notice a touch of samefaceness in the art style At least it’s a very pretty face. 

Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists (2017) #6 (of 6) Kaare Andrews, Afu Chan, Shelly Ghen

Immortal Iron Fists has come to an end and I’m both saddened and yet incredibly enthusiastic about how everything turned out!

Story: So I feel like it should not have taken the better part of 5 issues for me learn that Pei and her friends are sixteen and not... middle schoolers despite how they were drawn and how they acted as way way younger than that. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that... it’s not that they’re drawn or written younger, it’s that it’s that unusual to find an American comic that actually shows teenagers appropriately and that helped me gain a whole new respect for a series that I was already very much enjoying.

Everyone coming together and remembering Pei for the impact we have seen her make in their lives, Pei fully realizing her power as Iron Fist, and the general fun of a huge climactic battle that was a three way fight between Pei, demons, and the Mother of All Dragons is probably one of the most bombastic that can be asked for. And I love that Brenda made a comeback after her truly terrible exit from the finale of Immortal Iron Fist under Andrews, but at the same time don’t... really care for how it wasn’t set until last issue. 

All the positives of this story almost make me overlook the unnecessary, though appreciably subverted, kiss of life Pei gives her guy friend and I love that Danny, man serial dater that he is, is flumexed by this turn of events. 

Everything is fun and delightful and I really really appreciate how dedicated this comic was from beginning to end to be Pei’s story and not letting that focus escape it the entirety of the six issues. 

Also Brenda flying off on the Mother of All Dragons at the end and being like stfu Danny you ruined a good thing was hysterical and I loved it.

Art: There was definitely more production in this finale There seemed to be a lot more variation in coloring and textures, and even the characters seemed to keep almost perfectly on model the entire time. The one distraction of note, though, was that Pei... developed more into a traditional teenager look by the end... by which I mean.... boobs are now a thing and I’m not sure if it was just that she wore thicker clothes throughout the story or if it was because much like myself, the art team realized last issue for the first time that Pei was a sixteen year old and not... twelve. Anyway. It was a little distracting, but the increase in panel variation and high number of action sequences definitely made the story far more fulfilling in my view. 

DC’s New Super-Man (2016-present) Vol. 2: Coming to America Gene Luen Yang, Billy Tan, Viktor Bogdanovic

After what felt like a long wait, we join Kenan and the rest of the Justice League of China once more on a bombastic quest as written by Gene Luen Yang. And much like last time, the results are rather unexpected and honestly kind of remarkable.

Story: Going off of my experiences with Yang’s work, I really feel like his passion in storytelling lies in finding the balance between the question of identity and how identity is formed by the cultures that nurtured us and how it is formed by the influences of the cultures around us. I think that was the main focus of American Born Chinese but it really is beginning to shine through Kenan’s adventures here as the New Super-Man and how much of the titular’s character is being drawn from the two huge influences he is feeling -- the pressures and dangers of the Chinese government and culture, and the admiration and sometimes oppressive shadows of the American culture that he is both attempting to copy as Super-Man and attempting to circumvent by finding the focus of his powers in Chinese philosophies and values. 

And I think that’s where his supporting cast -- Wonder-Woman and Bat-Man and now also Avery Ho’s take on the Flash -- are really coming into play. While Kenan is being torn back and forth by his responsibilities and his bombastic self-absorption both in his internal conflict and his external conflict of learning the truth of his parents, we are getting a broader exposure to what being a superhero in China means as opposed to the normalcy we’ve come to expect from Western comics. 

Bat-Man is just as influenced by his family as Batman, but the pressures are more in the focus on building his exceptionalism and in differing from his sister on whether to stay within a system that robs children of their childhoods and individuals of their sense of self, or to find purpose within that system and excel based upon the traits which only he can bring. 

Wonder-Woman, like Wonder Woman, is derived from myth and legend but instead of a Western legacy, it is purely Chinese and her alienation and stand offish nature initially toward the rest of her team only makes that much more sense given what has brought her to her current state. She is a myth, a legend herself, but she is nearly forgotten by the current times -- Kenan even has to be told the story of her origins by Bat-Man -- and her finding the will to fit into a China that is so influenced by external cultures and influences are a struggle we’re only now beginning to appreciate. 

And finally, with Flash, a Chinese-American, we’re going to receive yet another wild perspective, and considering Kenan’s already developing friendship with Avery I imagine that this is a perspective that will only receive more focus in stories to come. And I perceive that Yang’s inclinations to reference the struggles of culture and self-identity are going to be explored further here.

All around i greatly enjoyed this volume and am looking forward to the continuation now that Kenan has finally learned the truth about his family. There are a lot of interesting new angles to explore and I hope we do just that.

Art: The art is really reminiscent of Greg Capullo’s run on Batman, but has a whole lot more color and variety breathed into it which I personally really appreciate. The colors do a good job of presenting the differences in everyone’s base personalities and also makes the action sequences easier to follow even as the action itself becomes increasingly complex. The page layouts were fairly reserved considering the DC standard lately, but I personally appreciated it because it kept the focus on the storytelling and in doing so enhanced the nuances therein. 

Great work all around, and yet another enjoyable volume. 

Image’s Rat Queens (2013-present) Vol. 4: High Fantasies Kurtis J. Wiebe, Owen Gieni, Ryan Ferrier

I only recently jumped on the barge for Rat Queens and I’ve been more than happy with the results of caving to the advice of many friends. Because what is better than female-full cast of hilarious and dramatic DnD like adventures with more swearing than a naval ship? I gotta say, not much!

Story: So compared to the previous volumes, I actually found High Fantasies to feel like it had a lot less at stake. Although part of that may just be that I was somewhat anticipating a Betty-centric volume finally to elevate her out of being the shroom eating comic relief and bring more of the assassination attempts and her outlaw past into the forefront. And that’s clearly a problem of my own expectations and not necessarily the story’s fault itself. That said, the focus on Vol. 4 being on a gender bent loser version of the Rat Queens was pretty funny but also not something I would have thought carried enough weight to pivot as the main plot, but that would be just me. 

I do appreciate Braga being in a larger role this time around, and really I wish we could see more less human creatures on the roster in general. It was also a huge heartwarming feeling to have Hannah more comfortable around her Queens and even showing some horns now and then in public. It feels like a huge progression of her character, even as she spends a fair amount of time earning the girls’ ire and.... walking in on naked mayors. As you do.

Basically Vol. 4 isn’t as character centric as the previous volumes have been, but it is a great adventure that feels like a good ol’ fashion DnD campaign with the friends you love at the helm and for fantasy nerds like me that’s more than enough to bring me back into the story.

Art: The art is always spectacular with Rat Queens, but I did find  that this volume -- mostly as a result of not going to as many unestablished and important/original locations, did have a significant lack f inventive background use. That’s not always a slam on art, really the art was very good, and I actually am just... happy to not have Upchurch as the artist, honestly. That alone is worth three and a half gold stars. Though the whole controversy there is still my largest apprehension with the series at this point. 

DC’s Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016-present) Vol. 2: Who is Artemis? Scott Lobdell, Dexter Soy, Kenneth Rocafort

Okay who authorized this? Who made this comic exist and who made it be actually good?? Because I didn’t and I feel offended at the amount of emotions that were forced upon me in this single volume of a comic written by Scott friggin’ Lobdell of all people. You couldn’t have told me a month ago that I would be enjoying anything that was remotely connected to Scott Lobdell and expect me not to laugh hard enough I’d bring myself to tears. 

And yet here we are.

Story: Having learned a bit from how lackluster the attempts of balancing the concentration of the narrative was for his previous incarnations of the Outlaws, Lobdell somehow learned how to, y’know, write an ensemble narrative that is still heavily Jason Todd’s perspective, but does not lose any opportunities to expand on or even concentrate on the stories and character development of Bizarro and Artemis. oth of which are shockingly well handled and shockingly controlled, well paced, and interwoven into each other’s stories. 

Like legitimately, did someone nab the Lobdell who wrote decent 90s Marvel comics and put him on this project? Because that feels like the kind of bizarre logic that would seem acceptable at this point.

Now, of course, it’s not perfect. Far from it. But at the end of the day we got an intriguing ongoing story, a team building exercise, Jason’s internal struggle personified both through his inner monologue and flashbacks, but also moments like his sparing of Bizarro whic not only didn’t have overly wordy exposition bringing attention to it, but was strong enough and meaningfully enough that from it alone we could see what Jason couldn’t: he is not as lost, he is not as amoral, and he’s not as cold as he has tried desperately to prove himself to be.

I actually found the take on Artemis and the Bana Mighdall pretty interesting in this retelling, and I like that we have a rogue Amazon as a new enemy for the team. 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m super excited to see what will come after this. 

Art: There was a range of artists, which is fine, the industry standard of pushing out these comics with the turnaround that they do does cause some disconnect, but for the most part an artist stayed for at least the completionof their storyline and then she was. And overall the trade still fel tconsistent, with some artists just standing out more than other. 

Marvel’s Runaways (2017-present) #2 Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson

The new run of Runaways absolutely blew me away last month by shooting any and all expectations I had right through the skylight and beyond, so a good premise with beloved characters and a set in conflict really leads to a question of how do the pieces fall in order?

Story: I absolutely adore how Gert being the heart and glue of the family is being so blatantly emphasized throughout this (and that Old Lace is back). I also love that... honestly the trauma and lingering horrors Chase and Nico have survived in particular are being treated as real and damning in the eyes of someone who knew them only two years ago already. But most of all I love the emotional balance. Gert’s anger and disappointment are justified, but her crudeness and accusatory nature are also clearly shown as being wrong and too subjective. The important thing to her, and thus to the group, is to come together again. And I love that it is her prime motivation through and through. 

That all being said, after such a bombastic first issue, it was a little difficult to have the momentum come to a halt so quickly. I don’t want to be taken wrong, I love issues where comics take their time and really meditate on the characters, their reactions to evens former and to come, and really develop relationships and the such. But it does feel a little unnatural to have that only two issues in when the previous issue was SO incredibly packed. 

I’m still fascinated with where we can go from here and very excited to see that Victor, Xavin, and Klara might not be destined to eternal obsecurity like I assumed when the book was first announced. 

Art: Honestly I’m still amazed at just how fantastic the art really is in this comci. .It’s SO good and the designs for all the characters are simply gorgeous. Though probably the best thing about all of it is the great coloring we see done here. Top notch. 

Marvel’s Spider-Man - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Valerio Schiti

I think I know less about what Marvel plans to do with Miles these days than Marvel knows what to do with Miles, which is horrifying because I just set that bar about as low as it could possibly have gone. But we.... have Rio Morales back which is the big reason I stopped keeping up with Miles to begin with so yay? I don’t know. 

I feel like this primer is actually aimed at fans like me who got off the wagon back when the Ultimate title lost most of its steam both from killing off too many of Miles’ personal supporting cast and becoming too much about tertiary cast’s origins and then Peter Parker returning to life and stuff’s weird. This feels like a big neon sign that says “Things are back! The origin’s the same! Do not look behind the curtain!” It makes me curious but also apprehensive at the same time. 

also can we get robbie thompson to write miles’ book and bendis let someone else write some books already jfc this was such a relief. 

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe (2016-present) Vol. 2 Nick Pitarra, John Lees, Brahm Revel, Ryan Ferrier, Adam Gorham, Sophie Campbell, Bobby Curnow, Pablo Tunica

So unlike the rest of the reviews, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe doesn’t really fit my review format since it’s more like a collection of vignettes across the TMNT universe that feed into the main book and each story is written and drawn by a different team, so it wouldn’t have that same cohesion. 

As the giant Ninja Turtle fan that I am and probably always will be, I can’t get enough of the mythos and the characters in TMNT, so having a book that has a solid, even meditative point of just exploring smaller stories and little character developments that wouldn’t fit in the very tight and controlled narrative of the main title is something of a perfect godsend to me. I love it in concept and in execution.

One thing I worry about, however, is that there definitely seems to be a lot of stories here that feel necessary to keeping up with the main series. Such as the story of how Alopex and Angel ran into the Toad Baron and escaped -- that was a pretty crucial piece of information for the Eternals storyline a few issues back in the main book. So it feels like more and more, because of how tight and concentrated the main book is, they’re using books like Universe to fill in everything else, including buildup to larger more important narratives. And while that’s fine and even something I enjoy, it’s a move that will really push people to start being more choosy with their books. It’s much like keeping up with Transformers right now, and that tends to lead to some mixed bags. But I suppose we’ll trust and see.

At the end of the day, I have to pick the comics that really stuck with me the most. And while I was a little disappointed by a few titles this week, there was a pretty intense competition between the ones that genuinely caught me and made me really feel while reading them. And I think by that measurement I have to give the Pick of the Week this time around to the conclusion of Immortal Iron Fists. I was so worried about how this story could wrap everything up and it’s with mother flipping dragons that’s how. I love it. I love Pei and I love her being officially adopted by Danny who is TOTAL ridiculous dad now. This is the kind of Immortal Iron Fist I am happy to support. 

As far as trades go... wow I for some reason was not anticipating getting slammed as much as I did, but I really didn’t feel like any of the books let me down. They were all pretty amazing and I felt like I also managed to incidentally cover the entire span of comic book genres and types in a matter of two days, which let’s admit it, pretty impressive. I feel like the new releases this week are honestly a harder competition than the single issues but twist my arm, surprising no one nearly as much as I’m surprising myself here, I have to pick Red Hood and the Outlaws for managing to be a comic that... is unexpectedly good and unexpectedly sincere and unexpectedly emotionally motivating in ways that I wish... more comics... were? I just. have a real hard time complimenting Lobdell after tearing his books a new one for..... six years straight now.  But... thank you? for writing well? And making me feel things? For Jason Todd, Bizarro, and Artemis? Am I doing this right?

And those are the comics for this week! Did you happen to agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed out on picking up a comic that was good? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

But before I let you go, I have to (yes have to) plug once more:

I have exactly a month to pack up everything I own and move halfway across the country again which is not helping those financial crunches I mentioned before either.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

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Anime Roundup Pt.2 - Fall 2016 [Spoilers]

More rambling~

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable [8/10]

Another season of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has come and gone, and it’s been quite a wild ride. Personally, I think it was about on par with the first season of JJBA. I liked it better than Stardust Crusaders because I liked the main characters better and the plot was not as much of a repetitive “monster of the week” affair, but unfortunately, it seems like they didn’t put as much effort into the animation and production values. This 39 episode season was also a full 11 episodes shorter than the two 25 episode seasons of SDC, despite the manga being slightly longer. It definitely felt a little rushed, and I’ve had my manga reader friends inform me that some of their favorite parts were cut out.

But there were a lot of things I really loved about DiU as well. Josuke quickly became my favorite Jojo after Joseph, and I like Jotaro more in this part than I ever did in SDC. The villain, Kira, is also one of my favorite characters period and so is Rohan Kishibe, played brilliantly by Takahiro Sakurai as usual. Many of the stands are hilarious and creative in this part too. I also loved the whole Scooby Doo-esque mystery of a serial killer in the town and the slice of life elements. The scale was brought down from “evil villains try to take over the world” to one serial killer who “just wants to live a normal life”... and kill women and take their hands to satisfy his compulsions, of course. It was a really refreshing change from the typical formula.

The only thing or character that I didn’t like is Koichi - partially because he gets more attention than Josuke, kind of like Polnareff in SDC (except much less likable) and partially because his voice actor, Yuki Kaji, is fucking annoying as him. Unfortunately, on top of that, he’s the character who spends most of his screen time yelling exactly what’s happening, like Polnareff and Speedwagon before him, except his voice is literally ear-splittingly irritating.

I sincerely hope that in the next part, they don’t take shortcuts like they did with this part. JJBA is one of my favorites, so I will still be waiting for it eagerly.

Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru [5/10]

I wasn’t expecting much from this anime and it still disappointed me lol. Touken Ranbu is basically a moe anime (but with a diversity in character designs that moeblobs wish they had), except the characters are male. Some of it was sort of mildly entertaining and cute, but for the most part, it was pretty boring.

... Maybe I’m just peeved because they didn’t focus that much on characters I personally find attractive, like Kogitsunemaru. You know the only reason I watched this show in the first place was because I’ve seen a ridiculous amount of yaoi for it on pixiv? The porn was nice, but I would never play the game itself, so I figured the anime would give me a little more insight into the characters and their relationships. The anime did, but it still failed at entertaining me.

So, yeah, this anime perfectly average and forgettable. Only watch if you’re super dedicated to the game.

Poco’s Udon World [9/10]

The biggest surprise of this season for me was this show. Yes, this show is my AotS (by about .2 points) over that other anime which got super popular and had a ton of praise. Well, we all go against the grain sometimes and this is my turn. Poco’s Udon World is an underrated masterpiece in my opinion. This show came off the heels of the much more popular Sweetness and Lightning, which came out the previous season. Both shows have a similar premise - a young man in his early 30s with black haired (voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura) becomes a single father due to sudden circumstances and has to take care of an adorable toddler-aged child. There are some key differences, of course, but they are still similar enough to be comparable.

Personally I think Poco’s Udon World is far superior (for reasons I will discuss), and it saddens me that it hasn’t got half the popularity of S&L. (Probably because there isn’t a cute waifu character as one of the mains, heh.) So what makes PUW so good to me? Well, besides all the cute and the incredibly heartwarming/touching nature of the show, it’s also just very well-written. The characters and their development, as well as a plethora of themes I don’t see being portrayed very often in anime or when they are brought up, are handled in ways that make me uncomfortable.

Here is just a short list of themes PUW manages to masterfully cover in a 12-episode, single cour season:

career vs family

career and family separately

fatherhood

grief and nostalgia

growing up

love

And those are just the main themes? There are other things that are covered on a more subtle level. See, I explained in my review of S&L that it was lacking an exploration of its themes and was constrained by its repetitive slice of life format. Most of the supporting characters were not very fleshed out either. PUW fixes all or most of these problems.

Every episode brings something new to the table and there is no set episode format. I also absolutely love that every character outside of Poco and Souta feels like they could be a real person, instead of being a plot device or 2-dimensional character. They all have lives outside of their interactions with the main characters, so that even when they don't get much screen time, they feel fleshed out. All of them represent a different sort of family or different sort of lifestyle or different sort of mindset, which you can easily compare to Souta's situation because they all serve as foils to him. A lot of supporting characters even get their own character development like Nakaji and Rin (Souta' sister).

And... okay, I want to analyze this show in-depth one day, but I need to rewatch it (maybe several times) before I do. Trust me, it’s cute and all, but it’s much more than that too. You might be surprised at how high it is on my Top 10 Anime of 2016 list.

Kiss Him, Not Me [7/10]

After watching two absolutely terrible otome/harem anime that really pissed me off (Uta no Prince Sama and Kamigami no Asobi), I went back on my decision to never watch an otome because this one was about a fujoshi and written by a yaoi mangaka. Somehow... it paid off. I came out of this pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this show.

Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty that annoyed me (the fatshaming, how Serinuma’s voice changes, the shoujo cliches, etc), but overall I enjoyed it more than I disliked it. Although I was only rooting for two of the love interests, Mutsumi-senpai (who is mild mannered, friendly, genuine, liked her when she was fat) and Nishina (the gay option™, also a fujoshi and otaku who has a lot in common with Serinuma, also liked her even when she was fat), I didn’t really mind or hate the others either. All of them still treated her more respectfully than LIs in the other otome I watched.

The ending was brilliant too, and if they make a second season, I would still watch it for the characters and humor.

Yuri!!! on Ice [9/10]

How do I even begin to tackle Yuri!!! on Ice? This is the AoTS for sure (in general, not to me personally) and is by far the runaway smash hit in terms of both popularity and ratings. This anime is a game changer, to put it lightly. It did something no other popular anime has done before, and the praise is honestly well deserved. But, hey, remember that it’s still not perfect. In fact, up until the very last episode, I was debating on whether it deserved an 8 or a 9 on MAL. I settled on a 9 (a low nine by my standards) only because I cried a whole lot the last episode and realized that the overall impact of the show is bigger than my minor gripes. What are those minor gripes?

#1) Off-model/inconsistent animation. I will give a slight break to the animators because I know that animating ice skating is very complex and intricate, especially if you consider just how much ice skating there is in almost every episode. There are about a dozen ice skaters, each with two different 2-minute routines. Yes, many of them are reused multiple times, but regardless it’s still a lot of work. Unfortunately, YoI missed the chance to be stunning all the way through and join the other always-praised animation greats like Cowboy Bebop and much more recently, Mob Psycho 100. Only the first episode truly impressed me with how perfect and fluid the animation was, and I was dearly hoping that they would keep up that level of quality all the way through. Sadly they don’t, but we should all thank the writing of this show for being so damn good and making up for it. Besides, aside from a few, rather obvious off-model shots, it didn’t ever get too bad, not like Cheer Danshi!! from the Summer season.

#2) Slightly rushed pacing. Yeah, some of the events of this anime just go by too fast, especially the beginning few episodes where months pass between Victor arriving in Japan and Yuuri beginning his journey to the Grand Prix Final. It’s not really made clear to the viewers how much time has passed, and even I didn’t realize until I read a tumblr post on it. Originally, I wanted a whole other cour so that I could see the ice skaters interact more outside of work, but I think that would be too much as well. One more episode (a full 13 episode cour) would’ve been perfect, imo. Thankfully, we are getting another season, so there will definitely be more time to develop the other side characters and resolve some of the remaining threads! But seriously, I hope they do slow down a little bit in season 2.

Other than that...? Gripes so minor that they’re not even worth mentioning. The amount of good that YoI has done is overwhelming my comparison. I’ll just go through them like a list again because why not?

#1) Viktor and Yuuri’s relationship. A healthy canon gay interracial relationship in a non-yaoi anime. That is just shy of revolutionary in terms of LGBT representation in an anime. “We are born to make history”, indeed. Yes, some other anime have done it too like No.6 and Revolutionary Girl Utena. But was No.6, the other one where the main couple is M/M, popular like YoI is? Not particularly. Most of the viewership comes from yaoi fangirls or LGBT anime fans seeking an anime with a canon gay ship in it. What about Utena? Well, Utena didn’t have a happy ending, not for the canon lesbian character and not for the main F/F relationship of the show. Nothing is also explicitly stated like it is in YoI. Ofc, Utena by the very nature of the show, explicitly states very little but still. There’s also a goddamn kiss!

The best part of this is that Viktor and Yuuri is that, despite their happy ending, they don’t sacrifice depth or conflict between them and the drama doesn’t feel forced either. That balance is hard to achieve and it takes writing talent to pull it off. Every action and reaction feels natural and in-character. The writing featuring them is as good as any well-written romantic drama with a hetero couple! The other great thing is that even though Viktor and Yuuri’s relationship is incredibly important to the narrative and is the main relationship overall, romance is still not the primary genre. It equally shares genres with sports, comedy, and drama.

TL:DR; Their relationship is important. It sets a precedent that a gay couple can be the main couple of an anime and still be wildly successful. Now future manga and anime writers can take risks knowing that they won’t end up being financially compromised due the lgbtphobic culture of Japan.

2) Yuri on Ice perfectly balances its genres. This may not seem that important, but it kind of is and ties into the last point about how romance is not the main genre. If romance were the main genre, then this would be a yaoi/shounen-ai anime and it wouldn’t have gotten nearly as popular as it did. Yuuri’s evolution as an athlete and his desire to win the gold for the first time is just as important as his relationship with Viktor. Yurio, Viktor, and the other skaters’ relationships with each other and ice skating is also given a lot of attention. The love and dedication to ice skating in general is prominent and that passion has attracted the attention of countless professional ice skaters. (In fact, It’s like the anime singlehandedly brought attention to a niche sport that doesn’t get a whole lot of industry unlike American football and soccer/European football.)

There’s also a lot of comedy, which may be hit and miss for some people, but I found it pretty damn hilarious when it happens. Of all the sports anime I’ve seen, only a few others try others bringing in other genres. Most are pure sports because pure sports are usually the most successful (Haikyuu!! and Kuroko no Basket). So far for me, only YoI has successfully melded together all the genres it attempts.

3) Characters. It is said that sports anime highly depends on its characters to be good and set itself apart from other sports anime... and that’s pretty true. Most sports anime follow a rigid, predictable plot structure that doesn’t allow for much creativity on that front, so aside from technical aspects like the production values, the characters’ likability are the only things that it can rely on for originality. Of course, as I’ve already discussed, YoI blends genres and isn’t just pure sports so it has more freedom, but even it follows the same basic plot structure: main character is an underdog (they’re usually underdogs) who wants to win the finals.

So, what about the characters? Honestly, they’re fucking great. The problem with sports anime characters in most cases is that authors will fall back on tired stereotypes. Even the best of sports anime tends to have really obvious archetype characters you can recognize instantly. YoI doesn’t really have that. Yes, some of the characters do follow archetypes a litte, but even in the short amount of time they are given, they end up having miles more depth than the average sports anime character. It helps that we get to see them interacting with each other off the ice too. YoI is a character driven show much more than it is a plot-driven one. The plot is fairly simple, but the characters and their development are the most important part, particularly the main character, Yuuri Katsuki. He is relatable but also very believably talented and multifaceted. Viktor comes off as kind of a passive aggressive jerk at first, but he is one of the kindest and most caring characters in the show. Yurio comes off like an aggressive little brat (and he is still a little shit, I hope he gets more development in s2), but he’s genuinely a prodigy and he cares about Yuuri’s career. Listen, I could keep going and list another 5 characters that I like, but that’s not the point of this review.

That about covers the major things... I could go on, but then I might never shut up. To summarize, YoI is not perfect, but it is still so important for the gains in made for gay representation and besides that, it’s a rich, funny, heartwarming, and interesting portrayal of figure skating. I am sincerely looking forward to season 2 and hope that it’s just as good or even better than season 1.

[crookedspoonfic]

Half-year roundup

Because I love stats, here are some for the first six months of 2016 and 2017:

Word count 2016: 27,896

Word count 2017: 46,254

Number of fics 2016: 23

Number of fics 2017: 36

Falling into new fandoms surely is a huge boost to my creativity. But so is encouragement! I’ve seen a huge increase of comments and have already received as many on the fics I’ve written this year as I got on the entire fics I’ve posted last year. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Truly. You guys are so awesome! :D

Of course I also want to thank anyone who’s ever left a kudo, because it lets me know you didn’t hate the work, which is very important to me and my ongoing battle with crippling self-doubt. Kudos e-mails are often the highlight of my day, especially when they are long and I see people enjoying half the fics I wrote for a specific pairing or fandom. I’m really grateful for that!

Links to my previous roundups:

January (2 fics; Batman, The Raven Cycle)

February (12 fics; Batman, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Assault on Arkham, Gintama, Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Raven Cycle; Marvel/Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters/Suicide Squad)

March (6 fics; The Raven Cycle)

April (5 fics; Batman: Arkham Knight, Injustice: Gods Among Us, The Raven Cycle)

May (8 fics; Batman: Arkham Knight, The Handmaid’s Tale (TV), The Raven Cycle, The Walking Dead)

June (3 fics; Gotham, The Raven Cycle, Wonder Woman)

crookedspoon does not at all have a new fandom obsession, ahem.

[jerrytackettca]

EU Infiltrated by Pesticide Industry Plagiarizes Safety Study

Controversy over glyphosate has reached an all-time high in the European Union (EU), after researchers accused the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) of plagiarizing a report supporting its safety. The plagiarized sections were largely lifted from a paper written by the pesticide industry, raising serious concerns about the legitimacy of the findings.

The scandal asserts that the German risk assessment of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, contains sections "copy pasted" from industry contributions, which likely influenced the EU's favorable vote to renew the chemical's license.

Questions Surrounding EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment First Surfaced in 2015

Concerns over glyphosate's toxicity have been mounting since the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) 2015 determination that glyphosate is a "probable carcinogen." In the EU, European Commission leaders met in March 2016 to vote on whether to renew a 15-year license for glyphosate, which was set to expire in June of that year.

The decision was tabled amid mounting opposition, as more than 180,000 Europeans signed a petition calling for glyphosate to be banned outright. Ultimately, more than 2 million signatures were collected against relicensing the chemical. In June 2016, however, the European Commission granted an 18-month extension to glyphosate while they continued the review.

In November 2017, EU countries voted to renew glyphosate's license for another five years, amid intense debate from opposition who warned the chemical may cause cancer and harm soil health. The decision was said to be largely the result of a BfR (EU-commissioned) risk assessment,1 which essentially found that glyphosate is safe and "classification and labeling [of glyphosate] for carcinogenicity is not warranted."2

Concerns over whether the assessment was truly an independent review surfaced almost immediately. The Guardian reported at the time that much of the assessment was not actually written by independent scientists but rather "by the European Glyphosate Task Force, a consortium of agrochemical firms."3

BfR responded, stating that there was too much evidence for them to report on the original studies in-depth so instead they commented on descriptions provided by the industry. "BfR regulators commented, in italics, on the industry text, but this falls well short of what most people would understand as an independent review," The Guardian noted in 2015.4

German Toxicologist Also Criticized BfR's Glyphosate Assessment

Peter Clausing, Ph.D., a former industry toxicologist who is now in the employ of Pesticide Action Network Germany, also criticized the BfR assessment and claimed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) committed scientific fraud when they contradicted the IARC, concluding that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.

According to Clausing, BfR and EFSA included five mouse studies in their evaluation — all of which actually showed that male mice experienced a statistically significant increase in one or more types of cancer.

Clausing also noted that these findings alone exceed the EU's criterion for the classification of glyphosate as a 1B carcinogen (substances presumed to have carcinogenic potential for humans), which would result in an automatic ban. He also showed that Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for industry testing of chemicals had been violated. GM Watch wrote:5

"Interestingly, the IARC reviewed the available animal studies and concluded, like Clausing, that they showed that glyphosate caused an increase in cancer. Why the difference of opinion between IARC and the German authorities?

The answer is given in BfR's own report on IARC's findings. Unlike the German authorities, IARC applied the superior statistical analysis — the trend test. Also unlike the German authorities, IARC did not violate OECD guidelines by claiming that a second type of statistical analysis canceled out the findings of the first."

EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment Report Plagiarized From Industry Paper

The most condemning evidence of all comes from Stefan Weber and Helmut Burtscher of the German environmental nongovernmental organization (NGO) Global 2000, who again brought up the curious fact that the EU gave glyphosate a clean bill of health, in contrast to the IARC finding. They explained:6

"The question arose as to whether relevant parts of the risk assessment of glyphosate were not actually written by scientists working for Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), but by the European Glyphosate Task Force (GTF) — the coalition of pesticide companies submitting the application.

This suspicion could not be satisfactorily cleared up during the hearings of the European Parliament's Special Committee on the Union's authorization procedure for pesticides (PEST). Therefore in response, a group of parliamentarians with different political affiliations commissioned the present study."

The researchers used computer software to compare the BfR assessment with one submitted to the EU by Monsanto and other GTF members. Extensive plagiarism was uncovered, particularly in the chapters assessing published studies on health risks related to glyphosate.

In those chapters, 50.1 percent of the content was plagiarized, including "whole paragraphs and entire pages of running text describing the design and outcome of the studies and assessing their relevance and reliability."

Even evaluations of published studies in the BfR report "were copy pasted from the application for approval and presented as the assessments of the authorities," Weber and Burtscher wrote. Further, in what they described as "one of their most remarkable findings," even the BfR's explanation of how they assessed the published literature was plagiarized from GTF:7

"The BfR had thus copied Monsanto's explanation of Monsanto's approach in evaluating the published literature, yet had presented it as the approach of the authority. This is a striking example of deception regarding true authorship."

Plagiarism Influenced EU's Conclusions on Glyphosate Safety

The ultimate question, then, is whether BfR's plagiarism influenced their assessment of glyphosate's safety, including its potential to cause cancer, to which Weber and Burtscher said the answer is a "clear yes," adding:8

"The IARC based its cancer classification on 'limited evidence in humans,' 'sufficient evidence in animals' and 'strong evidence for genotoxicity' as possible molecular mechanisms for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. The GTF, however, classified published studies that link glyphosate to genotoxicity and an increased risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans as 'not reliable.'"

One study in question was conducted by Gilles-Eric Séralini. The lifetime feeding study, published in 2012, revealed numerous shocking problems in rats fed GMO corn, including massive tumors and early death. Rats given glyphosate in their drinking water also developed tumors.

The following year, the publisher retracted the study saying it "did not meet scientific standards," even though a long and careful investigation found no errors or misrepresentation of data. Follow-up research by Séralini showed that long-term exposure to even ultralow amounts of Roundup may cause tumors, along with liver and kidney damage in rats.

In this study, the dose used was "environmentally relevant in terms of human, domesticated animals and wildlife levels of exposure," prompting the authors to suggest Roundup may have significant health implications.9,10 However, because the original study was "retracted," it was excluded from the EU glyphosate assessment. GTF even said it was "not considered reliable anymore."

In 2017, Hans Muilerman of consumer group Pesticide Action Network (PAN) sent letters to EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis and EFSA, stating that the study's exclusion amounts to "a very serious case of manipulation" of science.11

In addition to influencing the ultimate EU recommendation in favor of the safety of glyphosate, Weber and Burtscher concluded that BfR also acted deceptively in their actions: "In our opinion, the question of whether the BfR intended to deceive the reader must be answered with a clear 'yes.' Clear indications of deception were found."12

Glyphosate Residues Widespread in Food Supply

Definitively answering the question of whether glyphosate causes cancer is an urgent one, as people are being exposed to it daily. As the most widely used pesticide in the world,13 you can guess that it's showing up virtually everywhere, and research has detected residues in everything from cereal and granola bars14 to wine and beer.15

While the chemical is widely sprayed on genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops (to the tune of more than 250 million pounds annually in the U.S. alone16), preharvest spraying of glyphosate,17 known as desiccation, is another problem.

About two weeks prior to harvest of grain crops like wheat, oats and barley, glyphosate is sprayed onto the crop, which accelerates the drying process, allowing for earlier harvest. It's believed that spraying the chemical on crops so close to harvest results in much higher residues and is a major contributing factor to the rising levels of glyphosate in Americans.18

Four Seed Companies Control Majority of Global Market

Chemical company Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, is the largest of four companies that now control more than 60 percent of the global seed market.19 Corteva (a company created out of the recent merger of Dow and DuPont), Chem-China (which recently acquired Syngenta) and BASF make up the other three.

Philip Howard of Michigan State University created the seed industry consolidation chart below, which shows the monopoly these four companies have over the food supply.20

While the industry claims that mergers pave the way for greater innovation and growth, the reality is fewer choices and higher prices for farmers. As just one example, the price of a bag of seed corn has risen from $80 to $300 over the past decade alone — a price hike attributed to the consolidation of seed companies and reduced competition.21

Bayer even announced plans to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce after acquiring Monsanto, after making promises of job growth. Further, Civil Eats reported:22

"These companies also aggressively protect their IP rights, which means less innovation and more restrictions on how seed is used and exchanged, including for seed saving and research purposes.

These restrictions affect conventional and organic agriculture alike by making a large pool of plant genetics inaccessible to public researchers, farmers and independent breeders, which in turn limits the diversity of seed in our landscapes and marketplace and weakens our food security.

A number of studies suggest increased market domination removes companies' incentive to innovate."

Moving Toward a Safer, Sustainable Food Supply

With the cozy ties between government regulators and pesticide companies becoming more brazen every day, and the continued consolidation of these companies leading to a virtual takeover of the food supply, what can you do to opt out of the madness?

At the very basic level, refuse to eat foods that are grown using toxic chemicals like glyphosate. Support local farmers growing grass fed and organic foods, and avoid GE foods as well as those desiccated with glyphosate.

As for whether glyphosate causes cancer, in August 2018 a jury ruled in favor of plaintiff Dewayne Johnson in a truly historic case against Monsanto. Johnson — the first of over 8,000 cases pending against the chemical company — claimed Monsanto's Roundup caused his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the court agreed.

Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages to Johnson, and they vowed to appeal, but the appeal was rejected by the judge in October 2018.23 Then, Johnson accepted a $78 million settlement24 after the same judge lowered the punitive damages the jury had awarded him. Although it was considerably less than the original judgment, it was still a major blow to the industry.

As for BfR, they've posted a rebuttal to the plagiarism accusations, assuring their assessment is quality-assured and independent, and stating that industry reports are "routinely" part of such assessments.25

The fact remains, though, that it's unknown what health risks will eventually be revealed from eating food contaminated with low levels of glyphosate. Eating organic as much as possible and investing in a good water filtration system for your home are among the best ways to lower your exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides, as well as not using such chemicals around your home or garden.

If you're concerned about glyphosate residues in your food, you can help to prompt change by reaching out to the companies that make your food. Let them know that you prefer foods without glyphosate residues — and are prepared to switch brands if necessary to find them.

In addition to voicing your opinion to food companies, contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and encourage them to restrict preharvest applications of glyphosate in order to reduce the amount of this toxic chemical entering the food supply.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has petitioned the EPA to reduce the amount of glyphosate residues allowed in oats as well as prohibit the use of glyphosate as a preharvest desiccant,26 but as it stands, neither the EPA nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) monitors for glyphosate levels on most food crops, even as studies suggest Americans' exposure levels are increasing.

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/29/eu-glyphosate-risk-assessment-plagiarized.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/eu-infiltrated-by-pesticide-industry-plagiarizes-safety-study

[paullassiterca]

EU Infiltrated by Pesticide Industry Plagiarizes Safety Study

Controversy over glyphosate has reached an all-time high in the European Union (EU), after researchers accused the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) of plagiarizing a report supporting its safety. The plagiarized sections were largely lifted from a paper written by the pesticide industry, raising serious concerns about the legitimacy of the findings.

The scandal asserts that the German risk assessment of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, contains sections “copy pasted” from industry contributions, which likely influenced the EU’s favorable vote to renew the chemical’s license.

Questions Surrounding EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment First Surfaced in 2015

Concerns over glyphosate’s toxicity have been mounting since the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) 2015 determination that glyphosate is a “probable carcinogen.” In the EU, European Commission leaders met in March 2016 to vote on whether to renew a 15-year license for glyphosate, which was set to expire in June of that year.

The decision was tabled amid mounting opposition, as more than 180,000 Europeans signed a petition calling for glyphosate to be banned outright. Ultimately, more than 2 million signatures were collected against relicensing the chemical. In June 2016, however, the European Commission granted an 18-month extension to glyphosate while they continued the review.

In November 2017, EU countries voted to renew glyphosate’s license for another five years, amid intense debate from opposition who warned the chemical may cause cancer and harm soil health. The decision was said to be largely the result of a BfR (EU-commissioned) risk assessment,1 which essentially found that glyphosate is safe and “classification and labeling [of glyphosate] for carcinogenicity is not warranted.”2

Concerns over whether the assessment was truly an independent review surfaced almost immediately. The Guardian reported at the time that much of the assessment was not actually written by independent scientists but rather “by the European Glyphosate Task Force, a consortium of agrochemical firms.”3

BfR responded, stating that there was too much evidence for them to report on the original studies in-depth so instead they commented on descriptions provided by the industry. “BfR regulators commented, in italics, on the industry text, but this falls well short of what most people would understand as an independent review,” The Guardian noted in 2015.4

German Toxicologist Also Criticized BfR’s Glyphosate Assessment

Peter Clausing, Ph.D., a former industry toxicologist who is now in the employ of Pesticide Action Network Germany, also criticized the BfR assessment and claimed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) committed scientific fraud when they contradicted the IARC, concluding that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.

According to Clausing, BfR and EFSA included five mouse studies in their evaluation — all of which actually showed that male mice experienced a statistically significant increase in one or more types of cancer.

Clausing also noted that these findings alone exceed the EU’s criterion for the classification of glyphosate as a 1B carcinogen (substances presumed to have carcinogenic potential for humans), which would result in an automatic ban. He also showed that Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for industry testing of chemicals had been violated. GM Watch wrote:5

“Interestingly, the IARC reviewed the available animal studies and concluded, like Clausing, that they showed that glyphosate caused an increase in cancer. Why the difference of opinion between IARC and the German authorities?

The answer is given in BfR’s own report on IARC’s findings. Unlike the German authorities, IARC applied the superior statistical analysis — the trend test. Also unlike the German authorities, IARC did not violate OECD guidelines by claiming that a second type of statistical analysis canceled out the findings of the first.”

EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment Report Plagiarized From Industry Paper

The most condemning evidence of all comes from Stefan Weber and Helmut Burtscher of the German environmental nongovernmental organization (NGO) Global 2000, who again brought up the curious fact that the EU gave glyphosate a clean bill of health, in contrast to the IARC finding. They explained:6

“The question arose as to whether relevant parts of the risk assessment of glyphosate were not actually written by scientists working for Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), but by the European Glyphosate Task Force (GTF) — the coalition of pesticide companies submitting the application.

This suspicion could not be satisfactorily cleared up during the hearings of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on the Union’s authorization procedure for pesticides (PEST). Therefore in response, a group of parliamentarians with different political affiliations commissioned the present study.”

The researchers used computer software to compare the BfR assessment with one submitted to the EU by Monsanto and other GTF members. Extensive plagiarism was uncovered, particularly in the chapters assessing published studies on health risks related to glyphosate.

In those chapters, 50.1 percent of the content was plagiarized, including “whole paragraphs and entire pages of running text describing the design and outcome of the studies and assessing their relevance and reliability.”

Even evaluations of published studies in the BfR report “were copy pasted from the application for approval and presented as the assessments of the authorities,” Weber and Burtscher wrote. Further, in what they described as “one of their most remarkable findings,” even the BfR’s explanation of how they assessed the published literature was plagiarized from GTF:7

“The BfR had thus copied Monsanto’s explanation of Monsanto’s approach in evaluating the published literature, yet had presented it as the approach of the authority. This is a striking example of deception regarding true authorship.”

Plagiarism Influenced EU’s Conclusions on Glyphosate Safety

The ultimate question, then, is whether BfR’s plagiarism influenced their assessment of glyphosate’s safety, including its potential to cause cancer, to which Weber and Burtscher said the answer is a “clear yes,” adding:8

“The IARC based its cancer classification on ‘limited evidence in humans,’ 'sufficient evidence in animals’ and 'strong evidence for genotoxicity’ as possible molecular mechanisms for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. The GTF, however, classified published studies that link glyphosate to genotoxicity and an increased risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans as 'not reliable.’”

One study in question was conducted by Gilles-Eric Séralini. The lifetime feeding study, published in 2012, revealed numerous shocking problems in rats fed GMO corn, including massive tumors and early death. Rats given glyphosate in their drinking water also developed tumors.

The following year, the publisher retracted the study saying it “did not meet scientific standards,” even though a long and careful investigation found no errors or misrepresentation of data. Follow-up research by Séralini showed that long-term exposure to even ultralow amounts of Roundup may cause tumors, along with liver and kidney damage in rats.

In this study, the dose used was “environmentally relevant in terms of human, domesticated animals and wildlife levels of exposure,” prompting the authors to suggest Roundup may have significant health implications.9,10 However, because the original study was “retracted,” it was excluded from the EU glyphosate assessment. GTF even said it was “not considered reliable anymore.”

In 2017, Hans Muilerman of consumer group Pesticide Action Network (PAN) sent letters to EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis and EFSA, stating that the study’s exclusion amounts to “a very serious case of manipulation” of science.11

In addition to influencing the ultimate EU recommendation in favor of the safety of glyphosate, Weber and Burtscher concluded that BfR also acted deceptively in their actions: “In our opinion, the question of whether the BfR intended to deceive the reader must be answered with a clear 'yes.’ Clear indications of deception were found.”12

Glyphosate Residues Widespread in Food Supply

Definitively answering the question of whether glyphosate causes cancer is an urgent one, as people are being exposed to it daily. As the most widely used pesticide in the world,13 you can guess that it’s showing up virtually everywhere, and research has detected residues in everything from cereal and granola bars14 to wine and beer.15

While the chemical is widely sprayed on genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops (to the tune of more than 250 million pounds annually in the U.S. alone16), preharvest spraying of glyphosate,17 known as desiccation, is another problem.

About two weeks prior to harvest of grain crops like wheat, oats and barley, glyphosate is sprayed onto the crop, which accelerates the drying process, allowing for earlier harvest. It’s believed that spraying the chemical on crops so close to harvest results in much higher residues and is a major contributing factor to the rising levels of glyphosate in Americans.18

Four Seed Companies Control Majority of Global Market

Chemical company Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, is the largest of four companies that now control more than 60 percent of the global seed market.19 Corteva (a company created out of the recent merger of Dow and DuPont), Chem-China (which recently acquired Syngenta) and BASF make up the other three.

Philip Howard of Michigan State University created the seed industry consolidation chart below, which shows the monopoly these four companies have over the food supply.20

While the industry claims that mergers pave the way for greater innovation and growth, the reality is fewer choices and higher prices for farmers. As just one example, the price of a bag of seed corn has risen from $80 to $300 over the past decade alone — a price hike attributed to the consolidation of seed companies and reduced competition.21

Bayer even announced plans to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce after acquiring Monsanto, after making promises of job growth. Further, Civil Eats reported:22

“These companies also aggressively protect their IP rights, which means less innovation and more restrictions on how seed is used and exchanged, including for seed saving and research purposes.

These restrictions affect conventional and organic agriculture alike by making a large pool of plant genetics inaccessible to public researchers, farmers and independent breeders, which in turn limits the diversity of seed in our landscapes and marketplace and weakens our food security.

A number of studies suggest increased market domination removes companies’ incentive to innovate.”

Moving Toward a Safer, Sustainable Food Supply

With the cozy ties between government regulators and pesticide companies becoming more brazen every day, and the continued consolidation of these companies leading to a virtual takeover of the food supply, what can you do to opt out of the madness?

At the very basic level, refuse to eat foods that are grown using toxic chemicals like glyphosate. Support local farmers growing grass fed and organic foods, and avoid GE foods as well as those desiccated with glyphosate.

As for whether glyphosate causes cancer, in August 2018 a jury ruled in favor of plaintiff Dewayne Johnson in a truly historic case against Monsanto. Johnson — the first of over 8,000 cases pending against the chemical company — claimed Monsanto’s Roundup caused his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the court agreed.

Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages to Johnson, and they vowed to appeal, but the appeal was rejected by the judge in October 2018.23 Then, Johnson accepted a $78 million settlement24 after the same judge lowered the punitive damages the jury had awarded him. Although it was considerably less than the original judgment, it was still a major blow to the industry.

As for BfR, they’ve posted a rebuttal to the plagiarism accusations, assuring their assessment is quality-assured and independent, and stating that industry reports are “routinely” part of such assessments.25

The fact remains, though, that it’s unknown what health risks will eventually be revealed from eating food contaminated with low levels of glyphosate. Eating organic as much as possible and investing in a good water filtration system for your home are among the best ways to lower your exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides, as well as not using such chemicals around your home or garden.

If you’re concerned about glyphosate residues in your food, you can help to prompt change by reaching out to the companies that make your food. Let them know that you prefer foods without glyphosate residues — and are prepared to switch brands if necessary to find them.

In addition to voicing your opinion to food companies, contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and encourage them to restrict preharvest applications of glyphosate in order to reduce the amount of this toxic chemical entering the food supply.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has petitioned the EPA to reduce the amount of glyphosate residues allowed in oats as well as prohibit the use of glyphosate as a preharvest desiccant,26 but as it stands, neither the EPA nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) monitors for glyphosate levels on most food crops, even as studies suggest Americans’ exposure levels are increasing.

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/29/eu-glyphosate-risk-assessment-plagiarized.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/182391544136

[jakehglover]

EU Infiltrated by Pesticide Industry Plagiarizes Safety Study

Controversy over glyphosate has reached an all-time high in the European Union (EU), after researchers accused the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) of plagiarizing a report supporting its safety. The plagiarized sections were largely lifted from a paper written by the pesticide industry, raising serious concerns about the legitimacy of the findings.

The scandal asserts that the German risk assessment of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, contains sections "copy pasted" from industry contributions, which likely influenced the EU's favorable vote to renew the chemical's license.

Questions Surrounding EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment First Surfaced in 2015

Concerns over glyphosate's toxicity have been mounting since the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) 2015 determination that glyphosate is a "probable carcinogen." In the EU, European Commission leaders met in March 2016 to vote on whether to renew a 15-year license for glyphosate, which was set to expire in June of that year.

The decision was tabled amid mounting opposition, as more than 180,000 Europeans signed a petition calling for glyphosate to be banned outright. Ultimately, more than 2 million signatures were collected against relicensing the chemical. In June 2016, however, the European Commission granted an 18-month extension to glyphosate while they continued the review.

In November 2017, EU countries voted to renew glyphosate's license for another five years, amid intense debate from opposition who warned the chemical may cause cancer and harm soil health. The decision was said to be largely the result of a BfR (EU-commissioned) risk assessment,1 which essentially found that glyphosate is safe and "classification and labeling [of glyphosate] for carcinogenicity is not warranted."2

Concerns over whether the assessment was truly an independent review surfaced almost immediately. The Guardian reported at the time that much of the assessment was not actually written by independent scientists but rather "by the European Glyphosate Task Force, a consortium of agrochemical firms."3

BfR responded, stating that there was too much evidence for them to report on the original studies in-depth so instead they commented on descriptions provided by the industry. "BfR regulators commented, in italics, on the industry text, but this falls well short of what most people would understand as an independent review," The Guardian noted in 2015.4

German Toxicologist Also Criticized BfR's Glyphosate Assessment

Peter Clausing, Ph.D., a former industry toxicologist who is now in the employ of Pesticide Action Network Germany, also criticized the BfR assessment and claimed the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) committed scientific fraud when they contradicted the IARC, concluding that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.

According to Clausing, BfR and EFSA included five mouse studies in their evaluation — all of which actually showed that male mice experienced a statistically significant increase in one or more types of cancer.

Clausing also noted that these findings alone exceed the EU's criterion for the classification of glyphosate as a 1B carcinogen (substances presumed to have carcinogenic potential for humans), which would result in an automatic ban. He also showed that Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for industry testing of chemicals had been violated. GM Watch wrote:5

"Interestingly, the IARC reviewed the available animal studies and concluded, like Clausing, that they showed that glyphosate caused an increase in cancer. Why the difference of opinion between IARC and the German authorities?

The answer is given in BfR's own report on IARC's findings. Unlike the German authorities, IARC applied the superior statistical analysis — the trend test. Also unlike the German authorities, IARC did not violate OECD guidelines by claiming that a second type of statistical analysis canceled out the findings of the first."

EU Glyphosate Risk Assessment Report Plagiarized From Industry Paper

The most condemning evidence of all comes from Stefan Weber and Helmut Burtscher of the German environmental nongovernmental organization (NGO) Global 2000, who again brought up the curious fact that the EU gave glyphosate a clean bill of health, in contrast to the IARC finding. They explained:6

"The question arose as to whether relevant parts of the risk assessment of glyphosate were not actually written by scientists working for Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), but by the European Glyphosate Task Force (GTF) — the coalition of pesticide companies submitting the application.

This suspicion could not be satisfactorily cleared up during the hearings of the European Parliament's Special Committee on the Union's authorization procedure for pesticides (PEST). Therefore in response, a group of parliamentarians with different political affiliations commissioned the present study."

The researchers used computer software to compare the BfR assessment with one submitted to the EU by Monsanto and other GTF members. Extensive plagiarism was uncovered, particularly in the chapters assessing published studies on health risks related to glyphosate.

In those chapters, 50.1 percent of the content was plagiarized, including "whole paragraphs and entire pages of running text describing the design and outcome of the studies and assessing their relevance and reliability."

Even evaluations of published studies in the BfR report "were copy pasted from the application for approval and presented as the assessments of the authorities," Weber and Burtscher wrote. Further, in what they described as "one of their most remarkable findings," even the BfR's explanation of how they assessed the published literature was plagiarized from GTF:7

"The BfR had thus copied Monsanto's explanation of Monsanto's approach in evaluating the published literature, yet had presented it as the approach of the authority. This is a striking example of deception regarding true authorship."

Plagiarism Influenced EU's Conclusions on Glyphosate Safety

The ultimate question, then, is whether BfR's plagiarism influenced their assessment of glyphosate's safety, including its potential to cause cancer, to which Weber and Burtscher said the answer is a "clear yes," adding:8

"The IARC based its cancer classification on 'limited evidence in humans,' 'sufficient evidence in animals' and 'strong evidence for genotoxicity' as possible molecular mechanisms for the carcinogenicity of glyphosate. The GTF, however, classified published studies that link glyphosate to genotoxicity and an increased risk of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in humans as 'not reliable.'"

One study in question was conducted by Gilles-Eric Séralini. The lifetime feeding study, published in 2012, revealed numerous shocking problems in rats fed GMO corn, including massive tumors and early death. Rats given glyphosate in their drinking water also developed tumors.

The following year, the publisher retracted the study saying it "did not meet scientific standards," even though a long and careful investigation found no errors or misrepresentation of data. Follow-up research by Séralini showed that long-term exposure to even ultralow amounts of Roundup may cause tumors, along with liver and kidney damage in rats.

In this study, the dose used was "environmentally relevant in terms of human, domesticated animals and wildlife levels of exposure," prompting the authors to suggest Roundup may have significant health implications.9,10 However, because the original study was "retracted," it was excluded from the EU glyphosate assessment. GTF even said it was "not considered reliable anymore."

In 2017, Hans Muilerman of consumer group Pesticide Action Network (PAN) sent letters to EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis and EFSA, stating that the study's exclusion amounts to "a very serious case of manipulation" of science.11

In addition to influencing the ultimate EU recommendation in favor of the safety of glyphosate, Weber and Burtscher concluded that BfR also acted deceptively in their actions: "In our opinion, the question of whether the BfR intended to deceive the reader must be answered with a clear 'yes.' Clear indications of deception were found."12

Glyphosate Residues Widespread in Food Supply

Definitively answering the question of whether glyphosate causes cancer is an urgent one, as people are being exposed to it daily. As the most widely used pesticide in the world,13 you can guess that it's showing up virtually everywhere, and research has detected residues in everything from cereal and granola bars14 to wine and beer.15

While the chemical is widely sprayed on genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops (to the tune of more than 250 million pounds annually in the U.S. alone16), preharvest spraying of glyphosate,17 known as desiccation, is another problem.

About two weeks prior to harvest of grain crops like wheat, oats and barley, glyphosate is sprayed onto the crop, which accelerates the drying process, allowing for earlier harvest. It's believed that spraying the chemical on crops so close to harvest results in much higher residues and is a major contributing factor to the rising levels of glyphosate in Americans.18

Four Seed Companies Control Majority of Global Market

Chemical company Bayer, which now owns Monsanto, is the largest of four companies that now control more than 60 percent of the global seed market.19 Corteva (a company created out of the recent merger of Dow and DuPont), Chem-China (which recently acquired Syngenta) and BASF make up the other three.

Philip Howard of Michigan State University created the seed industry consolidation chart below, which shows the monopoly these four companies have over the food supply.20

While the industry claims that mergers pave the way for greater innovation and growth, the reality is fewer choices and higher prices for farmers. As just one example, the price of a bag of seed corn has risen from $80 to $300 over the past decade alone — a price hike attributed to the consolidation of seed companies and reduced competition.21

Bayer even announced plans to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce after acquiring Monsanto, after making promises of job growth. Further, Civil Eats reported:22

"These companies also aggressively protect their IP rights, which means less innovation and more restrictions on how seed is used and exchanged, including for seed saving and research purposes.

These restrictions affect conventional and organic agriculture alike by making a large pool of plant genetics inaccessible to public researchers, farmers and independent breeders, which in turn limits the diversity of seed in our landscapes and marketplace and weakens our food security.

A number of studies suggest increased market domination removes companies' incentive to innovate."

Moving Toward a Safer, Sustainable Food Supply

With the cozy ties between government regulators and pesticide companies becoming more brazen every day, and the continued consolidation of these companies leading to a virtual takeover of the food supply, what can you do to opt out of the madness?

At the very basic level, refuse to eat foods that are grown using toxic chemicals like glyphosate. Support local farmers growing grass fed and organic foods, and avoid GE foods as well as those desiccated with glyphosate.

As for whether glyphosate causes cancer, in August 2018 a jury ruled in favor of plaintiff Dewayne Johnson in a truly historic case against Monsanto. Johnson — the first of over 8,000 cases pending against the chemical company — claimed Monsanto's Roundup caused his Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the court agreed.

Monsanto was ordered to pay $289 million in damages to Johnson, and they vowed to appeal, but the appeal was rejected by the judge in October 2018.23 Then, Johnson accepted a $78 million settlement24 after the same judge lowered the punitive damages the jury had awarded him. Although it was considerably less than the original judgment, it was still a major blow to the industry.

As for BfR, they've posted a rebuttal to the plagiarism accusations, assuring their assessment is quality-assured and independent, and stating that industry reports are "routinely" part of such assessments.25

The fact remains, though, that it's unknown what health risks will eventually be revealed from eating food contaminated with low levels of glyphosate. Eating organic as much as possible and investing in a good water filtration system for your home are among the best ways to lower your exposure to glyphosate and other pesticides, as well as not using such chemicals around your home or garden.

If you're concerned about glyphosate residues in your food, you can help to prompt change by reaching out to the companies that make your food. Let them know that you prefer foods without glyphosate residues — and are prepared to switch brands if necessary to find them.

In addition to voicing your opinion to food companies, contact the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and encourage them to restrict preharvest applications of glyphosate in order to reduce the amount of this toxic chemical entering the food supply.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has petitioned the EPA to reduce the amount of glyphosate residues allowed in oats as well as prohibit the use of glyphosate as a preharvest desiccant,26 but as it stands, neither the EPA nor the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) monitors for glyphosate levels on most food crops, even as studies suggest Americans' exposure levels are increasing.

from HealthyLife via Jake Glover on Inoreader http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/01/29/eu-glyphosate-risk-assessment-plagiarized.aspx

[aligxrous-blog]

ONE

name: Madysun nickname: Monster, Derp, Mady, Red zodiac sign: Cancer height:  5′5″ orientation: Hetero ethnicity: White favorite fruit: Clementines favorite season: Fall favorite books: Cell by Stephen King favorite flower: shrugs loudly favorite scent: Camp fire favorite animal: Hammerhead Shark coffee, tea, or hot cocoa ? Depends average hours of sleep: 7+ cats or dogs ? Dogs favorite fictional character: Handsome Jack dream trip: Scuba diving and seeing Manta Rays or Migrating Hammerheads when was your blog created ? December 2016 (but shes had two before) what do you post about ? RP and Milo things do you get asks on a regular basis ? Nah aesthetic: Depends on which blog I’m on favorite band/artist ? Imagine Dragons / Arctic Monkeys / Muse / The Killers / RHCP / Pink Floyd fictional characters i’d date: A lot hogwarts house: Hufflepuff

TWO

countries i’ve lived in: America favorite fandom: My own languages you speak: English and a little bit of spanish favorite film of 2016: Deadpool last article you read: Uhm…..I wanna say it was about that Rattlesnake Roundup in Texas :c shuffle your music library and put your first three songs here:

1) Run ~ AWOLNATION 2) Dust in the Wind ~ Kansas 3) Don’t Threaten Me With a Good Time ~ Panic! at the disco last thing you bought online: @dustysixshooter‘s wedding gift how would your enemies describe you ? Bitchy who would you take a bullet for? Anyone I consider family

tagged by :  @dustysixshooter  & @shortstoutandswedish tagging : Anyone

[guildquarters]

Okay, so if you’re not aware, Joey (TheAnimeMan on YouTube) has recently posted his Summer & Fall anime roundup for 2016. Click for rant below if you want. Cause I talk about a whoooole bunch of shit.

Take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt, because despite everything, I still love Joey. A lot, he’s very entertaining and I love watching his videos. However, there is something that needs to be said about this video, around 15:30 with how he starts addressing our “beloved” Yuri!!! On Ice. I’m sorry, but I dunno if there is anyone who will want to read all of this, since it’s just me ranting a whole lot. If you don’t want to listen to my rant (which is actually the better option tbh) just begin watching at 15:30, and see for yourself.

Now, I will say this. Objectively, I recognize the flaws that YOI has, and that it didn’t flesh out as much as it could have. I’m in no way saying that YOI is the greatest anime of all time, and perhaps it didn’t need to win all of the awards that it did win. Now regarding that, let me address something. The Crunchyroll Anime Awards weren’t even remotely a serious awards show, so stop with all that bull shit about “wtf there were so much better anime out there”. And to add to that, they gave ridiculous choices to vote for. So come on, you know full well that the way the anime awards were handled was severely flawed, you shouldn’t take them that seriously. Hell, I know I didn’t. I just voted what I liked, not what I thought was objectively the best. And anyone who says they voted objectively on this thing, I don’t care who you are, you’re lying. So really, the bitterness of the anime awards is out of place, and overall, exaggerated. I would sort of understand if this was a more formal and serious awards show, like say the Academy Awards. That I would understand. But it wasn’t, so stop. Save your venting for something like that, and not for something so petty. (And let the record show that I don’t care whether or not someone likes YOI or not. What some random stranger has to say about a show that I like has nothing to do with me, so there’s that. I’m simply addressing the ridiculousness that is the Crunchyroll Anime Awards. Thanks) So, going head first into it, I know for a fact that i’m going to leave feeling somewhat disappointed, since I knew that he wasn’t the biggest fan of it. So I decided to see anyway what his thoughts were about it. But, I never thought that I would leave feeling as pissed off as I was. Not because he didn’t like it, no no, as I have stated before, I knew he wasn’t the biggest fan, so I knew what I was getting into. So, at the beginning of this I got what I had expected, which was “Let me just say that this show definitely looked good” Now, this is what I expected, so I was prepared to see why he thought this way, but nope, not what I got at all. He then goes on to say: “It quenches the thirst of yaoi fan-girls and ice skating enthusiasts who want some of that sweet sweet sword fighting action.” ............ Okay, first problem I already see here. Yuri!!! On Ice is not, and let me repeat, not a yaoi. Not even remotely. If it were a yaoi, the entire show would be centered around an unhealthy, fetishized gay relationship. (Hell, I wouldn’t even call it a relationship, given that yaoi mostly revolve around the sexuality, if not totally) Which it’s not. It revolves around the sport Figure Skating? Hell, honestly I’ve seen a lot people who were disappointed by it, claiming YOI ‘not being gay enough’. I rest my case, next.

  “But, if you’re neither one of these target audiences, then this show is pretty fucking bad”

And then he proceeds to say “And there go all my female viewers, who’s up for a sausage fest?!?!?! Well, Yuri on Ice certainly is up for it because that’s all this show fucking is.” First of all Joey, I still love you. Forever and always. But, I’ma rip you to fucking shreds. Second of all, to your first statement about the show being bad with different audiences, let me just say that my best friend, who is 1. a man 2. straight as a damn pole and 3. knew next to nothing of figure skating, actually genuinely enjoys the anime for what it is, and hasn’t even finished it yet. So, fuck off with that. To me, it just sounds like you didn’t even give this show a fucking chance, or even pay any remote attention to what else this show offered other than the Victuuri ship.(I also heard bitterness in your voice regarding the anime awards, which I already addressed) It seems to me that that’s all you paid any attention to and nothing else. Because the fact stands: Yuri!!! On Ice is NOT about the Victuuri ship, although it certainly is a strong sub-plot. Yuri!!! On Ice is about a man who suffers from self-worth anxiety and his growth not only as a skater, but as a person. It is also about finding the real meaning of love (And not just relating to Victuuri. There are tons of other examples of love within the series) That is what Yuri!!! On Ice is about. Next. “From the first episode, I could tell this show wasn’t going to show any level of quality, whatsoever.” Hoooooo boy. Welcome to Highway to Hell my friends! Cause that’s where we’re headed. Honestly, I think this quote is self explanatory, so I’m not going to give my two cents, other than, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Joey, I still love you, but seriously, your exaggeration is really showing. “Because Yuri on Ice took the concept of all of that, replaced it with shoe horned homoerotic tensions, solving all the problems in the world. What’s that? You have a nervous breakdown because you feel pressured to win this match? Have a hug from behind! Fuck anti-depressant drugs! GAY LOVE SOLVES ALL” I really like you kinda just skipped the parking garage scene in episode 7, where Victor was literally denied this very thing. You choose to include all the moments where the Victuuri sub-plot surfaced, and then completely disregard all the other genuinely meaningful scenes that were in the fucking show. And let me just say this. I don’t have personal experience with anti-depressants or anxiety medicine, but I’ve had close friends who have taken medication, and let me just say: They. Are. Not. Reliable. Yes, they work for some people, but they don’t work for everyone, so stop with that. “It’s boring, it’s cliché, and the only way i can enjoy this show is if I were a yaoi fan-girl pleb, who’ll watch anything with half naked Russian bishies going to town on idiots on skates. ALL HAIL SHITTY YAOI SPORTS.” Man Joey when will you learn? YOI ain’t no yaoi, get it right man. All in all though, I just found this entire section of the video very dramatic and very exaggerated. Whether this is for comedy’s sake or if it’s his actual opinion, I don’t know. All I know is that it was horribly uncalled for, and just extremely over the top. What I thought was going to be objective critiquing, turned in to an extremely biased rant about how ‘horrible’ this show was, without any actual evidence to back it up. Let me just say for the record that Yuri on Ice was an extremely low-budget anime that was put on a 3:00 AM Japan time slot because no one thought it would take off like it did. Even though it shouldn’t be an excuse, there is only so much you can do with a shitty ass budget. Not to mention all of the time and research that Mitsurō Kubo and Sayo Yamamoto went through to put this show together. That’s all I have to say about this. If you made it this far, you 1. are a Yuri on Ice enthusiast 2. like reading ridiculous rants (honestly wasted a lot of time doing this) 3. fucking crazy and I’m so sorry. Why did you read all of this shit omg, prolly didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Anyways, that’s it for me. Laters! (Btw, still love you Joey) @raven-gowing @borntomake @sil-lyn

[bethevenyc]

Is Faux Fur Becoming as Covetable as Real?

One of the luxurious faux furs in Stella McCartney’s Pre-Fall 2017 collection. (Photo courtesy of Stella McCartney)

While many celebs and normal folks alike still unapologetically wear real fur (hello, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, Melania Trump, etc…), a not-so-quiet takeover has also been underway — one led by folks who eschew the real thing for cruelty-free versions, whether on the red carpet or the streets. And the beauty is not only philosophical, due to the pile of high-quality faux furs that have hit the market.

“I think what’s happened is fake fur has become so sophisticated and so popular that it’s impossible to tell whether someone is wearing real or fake fur,” Dan Mathews, PETA’s senior vice president of campaigns and the creative force behind its “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” ads, tells Yahoo Style. “Stella McCartney always avoided fake fur because she didn’t want anyone to confuse it with the real thing. But recently she decided to go for it, realizing that her brand is so established that people would know.”

It’s true that in recent celebs-wear-fur roundups, including Yahoo Style’s recent take on Sundance, many in fact wore faux, while a majority of the coats and vests were not easily identifiable either way. And McCartney did indeed go for it with her Pre-Fall 2017 collection, with ethical furry pieces including a long vest of brown fur patches and a similarly hued, cropped jacket (above).

British brand Shrimps has also found success with its line of proudly faux-fur scarves and accessories, which are coveted by the fashion set (and widely imitated by other retailers). Meanwhile, longtime animal activist Pamela Anderson recently announced she’d release her own line of faux fur coats, and that she’d love to gift one to the new FLOTUS.

A photo posted by The Pamela Anderson Foundation (@pamelaanderson) on Feb 1, 2017 at 1:27am PST

  Meanwhile, shots of folks in fake fur, carefully labeled as such, pop up in a constant stream on social media.

Let’s just say it takes a lot more than a few zombies to scare me.. and yes I have the biggest faux fur collection known to man. pic.twitter.com/IUSSolrXGS

— Ruby Rose (@RubyRose) January 24, 2017

I can easily live in this #fauxfur jacket ???? @urbancodelondon #urbancode #carolinaogliaro #fashion #streetstyle #FashionWeek #Fashionista pic.twitter.com/Crsni8TyzV

— Carolina Ogliaro (@CarolinaOgliaro) January 23, 2017

A photo posted by Olivia Munn (@oliviamunn) on Dec 8, 2016 at 11:07am PST

  “I like driving in my car” to quote ‘Madness,’ another great British band.???? #SelfieSaturday #Fauxfur

A photo posted by Catherine Zeta-Jones (@catherinezetajones) on Feb 4, 2017 at 9:37am PST

  A video posted by MICAH GIANNELI (@micahgianneli) on Feb 5, 2017 at 3:20am PST

  But it can feel, at times, that real fur is still ever-present — particularly in the form of hood trim on a particularly popular brand of goose-down parkas, which were the recent target of spirited protests, led by PETA and other organizations, in New York City and Toronto.

“We decided to focus on Canada Goose because of the huge numbers of jackets that use fur collars and trim,” Mathews explains. “They use a lot of coyote that are trapped in the wild and wind up gnawing their legs off out in the freezing cold, and getting separated form their families. That is the tragedy behind the story of Canada Goose jackets.”

The company has responded to pressure — both to its use of coyote fur and the plucked down of geese — through a statement on its website. “We understand and respect that some people think animal products should never be used in any consumer products, however we do not share that view,” it reads in part. The company also claims that it “can certify that our down only comes as a by-product from the poultry industry and has not come from live-plucked or force-fed birds.”

Animal rights activists marched to the Canada Goose store in New York City to protest in January. (Photo: Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Regarding the use of fur trim, the website notes that it both has a purpose beyond decoration because it “disrupts airflow and creates turbulent air which helps protect the face from frostbite,” and also could be doing the world a favor by killing the animals. “In fact, in many regions of North America, coyotes are considered a pest as they attack livestock, endangered prey species, pets and sometimes even people,” it asserts.

Mathews calls the stance “pretty appalling,” and believes Canada Goose “will be compelled to change” as more and more people learn about their practices — just as the Berlin Film Festival 2017 did when it dropped the jacket provider as a sponsor after receiving coyote-trapping information from PETA.

Such knowledge, Mathews believes, will continue to change buying practices, despite the current popularity of the parkas as well as other authentic furs.

Taraji P. Henson’s anti-fur ad. (Photo: PETA)

“We write people all the time [to educate them on their furs] and we are frequently told it’s fake,” he says, noting that wearing faux that looks so real can indeed spread a confusing message. But then, he says, “there are other people who hadn’t thought about it.” And those people often have a change of heart when confronted with the realities of animal cruelty — to the point where they want to be featured in the “I’d Rather Go Naked” campaign.

“Ava Mendez and Taraji P. Henson, for example — they used to wear real fur, and we sent them videos and information about how the animals were drowned, electrocuted, and had their necks snapped, and in both situations they wrote back saying they had avoided seeing the information but now that they had, they not only stopped wearing fur, but wanted to be a part of our campaign,” Mathews says.

So while there will always be people “who are heartless about animal suffering and will wear fur, they’re a small minority,” he notes. I think the real trend is people [giving up] fur, and then speaking out against it.” Here’s hoping.

Related: Pamela Anderson Wants to Give Melania Trump a Faux Fur Coat

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

[kiritokun]

2016 Anime in Review

Holy hell, if I’m right, this is now my fourth year writing up one of these bad boys. Yep you read that right, I’ve been putting myself through this ritual for four years. Man time flies doesn’t it. You’d think after all this time I’d ask someone to proof read these to make sure I don’t get any silly mistakes in here like usual, but I won’t, cause that’s part of my charm. Lol. Anyways, sorry its a day late, New Years Eve got the better of me.But now, time for the anime! Here are my top 12 in alphabetical order!

Boku dake ga Inai Machi

Oh man, while I did come into this anime late and watched it all in one sitting it was still a wonderfully suspense ride. It was stressful as the episodes went on, but the mystery wasn’t very deep. My assumptions slowly proved correct and how horrible it was to be proven right. While it comes to a relatively peaceful conclusion, it was still tense up to the end, but it was a great ride all the same.

D.Gray-man Hallow

A long awaited sequel to D.Gray-Man. If you had been reading the manga, you were not surprised by the anime at all, and were more than likely pleased that they followed it to the letter. The only real tragic part is that the anime and manga are basically caught up and we have no more of this wonderful series to watch or read. Its terrible considering where we are is the most intense and suspenseful part of the series yet and so many questions are open that need answers.

Dimension W

A sleeper hit for me, but one I am glade I watched. It was a thrilling ride, packed with action, story telling, and beautiful visuals. If you are into action and conspiracy with a twist of sci-fi and retro-fitting, you are in luck since that is what this series literally is all about. If the art isn’t your cup of tea give it a few episodes before you give it up, because beneath that is an amazing world and narrative that leads up to a relatively satisfying end.

Durarara!!x2 Ketsu

Now, last year I wasn’t able to give a spot to Durarara because it wasn’t that great the first two seasons, but its final season this year was the climax to those two seasons and man oh man was it a wonderful showing. Everything wraps up, the action kicks off into high gear, all the psychopaths in this show start clashing, and good ol’ Mikado is far off the deep end. It was a wonderfully twisted season that redeemed the rough start of the two first seasons, by showing us why all the set up was needed in the end to understand everything.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar

Oh Grimgar, you brutal mistress, you made death such a real and painful threat real quickly. You were hated for your slow pacing and the fact that the characters were “weak”. But in reality Grimgar was a much more real interpretation on if you drop someone into a “game” world; they will not quickly pick up fighting. It will take time and effort to become competent enough to survive and make a living as a “monster” slayer. I for one found this approach to the genre very refreshing, and while it started to show that old trope of “here’s the limit break” at the end, it wasn’t in an overtly obvious fashion. So while many scorned you, I enjoyed you to the fullest Grimgar.

Kiznaiver

Here’s the thing, Kiznaiver was a great anime. The story was fantastic, the music was grand, the animation and art direction was top notch, it was all very good. But the problem I still have with it is that they crammed this new girl bullshit down our throats. Now I got some shit for saying that in my prior review on the series, since Agata knew Sonozaki for longer since they knew each other as kids. But that was a short period during the Kizna beginning trials. It’s shown that Chidori has known Agata longer. God damn it. I’m tangenting again. Kiznaiver, great anime, hated the pairing finale.

Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!

KonoBitsu is honestly one of my favorite animes this year, if not my favorite, normally the bias isn’t so clear, but this was just a really fun anime for me to watch. The art was beautiful, the story was nice and lighthearted, and the characters were all well written and executed. Sure they tug us around with if the two mains will get together, but it’s a short anime, it wasn’t gonna give us a resolution when the manga itself hasn’t either. (Though I want that resolution so bad, come on Usa-chan deserves it.)

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!

Man, KonoSuba… What a shit show. Not a bad shit show mind you! It was just a chaotic ride of glory. While I just thought it was neet going to op savior of fantasy world, it quickly goes to neet goes to neet with adventurer title, level up nerd. This gave it such a unique flavor to this dense genre that it stood out as a shining beacon of glory and hilarity. I swear the sobs this anime brought out from me due to oxygen deprivation are the closest I ever came to fainting from laughter. Thanks KonoSuba, you were great.

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?

I knew from the moment I started watching this anime that it was gonna be good. The premise was hilarious. I love the MMO scene personally. Art style was also right down my strike zone. Story might have seemed to go nowhere but that’s slice of life for you.

New Game!

New Game was a great anime series. As a manga adaptation it can be a scary time waiting for it to come out. But it came out and was a very faithful adaptation; the art style was perfectly in sync with the manga style, overall a wonderful slice of life experience.

Occultic;Nine

I just talked about Occultic;Nine in my fall roundup, but that series was a wonderful brain twister. Most people say it had pacing issues. And I’ll agree that it would have probably benefited from getting two cours, it was still a great series that was expecting you to keep up. I’m glad to have watched it and hope the cold reception toward it changes.

Rewrite

As I’ve said before, I haven’t played the visual novels so to me Rewrite seemed fine, especially since it is getting another season which I expect will clarify some of the outstanding questions that season 1 left. And if not, well my opinion my change on the series after that. But as it stands, I enjoyed what I got.

HONORABLE MENTIONS- We are going back to honorable mentions this year instead of just me rambling about the rest of the anime I watched this year because I have been doing the quarterly reviews per season of anime and rounding up my impressions on everything I watch there. So if you want a bit more depth or whining look for those on my tumblr by looking for the anime roundups.

 Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Ilya 3rei!!

As I’ve said before, Ilya was a glorious seasonal anime this year. It struck hard and fast and it was quite a brutal story as it made a little girl decide between the world or her friend. Not cool world. Reason it didn’t make it to the top anime of the year was because it was a sequel and other things seemed more worthy

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk 2nd Season

In all senses the second season of Gakusen was better than the first. It got rid of the handicaps the first season was full of and it made for a great watch. That being said, it wasn’t revolutionarily different from season 1.

Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri 2nd Season

Less humor, more action, more drama. It goes from a funny journey in a fantasy world to a harsh reality of what would happen if earth got their hands on another planet or world and had to dispute how to divide said place and how to deal with the inhabitants. Same reason as Gakusen for being here, just a sequel and other things were better or more deserving.

World Trigger

World Trigger was almost in the top 12 list, but then fucking that anime original arc struck and it was very very bad and soured the entire anime series for me. Other than that the anime was okay.

And there you have it. Another year, another list. I have absolutely no clue what I’m watching in a few weeks, been too busy with the holidays too look. I think Rewrite season 2 hits this Jan so I’ll be watching that for sure. Otherwise I gotta go look. Maybe I’ll do that now! Anyways, see you around March-April when the season ends!