#anime tropes out the wazoo

[pixelgrotto]

D&D Deconstruction, via Goblins

Around the end of last year I made the decision to get into Goblin Slayer, and I've now gone through every chapter of the manga released in English, including all of the spin-offs. I've also skimmed parts of the light novels and anime, and I even did a readthrough of the Goblin Slayer roleplaying game with my buddy Daniel of Asians Represent, mostly to see how well it translated bits and pieces of Sword World, the most popular fantasy TTRPG in Japan.

In short, I know the franchise well by this point, and I like it, which is not what I expected. In fact, I steered clear of Goblin Slayer for years because of its reputation. If you're unaware, when the anime adaptation came out in 2018, it turned heads for depicting sexual violence in the very first episode. Basically, newbie adventurers go down into a dungeon, attempt to fight some goblins, and suffer terrible consequences, with the women of the party facing the sort of fate you might expect. It's a plot point intended to communicate to the viewer how awful goblins are in this world, and it also offers justification for the titular Goblin Slayer to show up on the scene to save the only survivor, Priestess. Goblin Slayer kills all of the goblins responsible for the attack, and he even goes the extra mile to unearth a hiding spot of goblin children. When Priestess shows some reservations at slaughtering kids, Goblin Slayer remarks that there's no such thing as a good goblin before stomping the little ones to bits.

In case you didn't know, Goblin Slayer is based on Kumo Kagyu's Dungeons & Dragons adventures. There's probably some influence sneaking in from Sword World, Tunnels & Trolls, and Wizardry, since those are the often-cited building blocks of Western fantasy tropes in Japan, but D&D is definitely at the forefront of the recipe. And knowing that Goblin Slayer evolved from D&D is what made me want to read it. (Well, that and the main character's armor design - dare I say that GobSlayer possesses one of the simplest yet coolest armors in all of existence.)

However, when I run D&D myself, I always say that all three of the things that this franchise begins with (bioessentialism, sexual violence, and violence against kids) are off-limits. So why does Goblin Slayer get a begrudging pass from me?

It's probably because I see the series as a meta analysis of D&D, right down to the tendency of most Dungeon Masters to get needlessly edgy with their campaign story arcs. Put another way, this is a 3.5e campaign where the star player has min/maxed himself around only one thing: the best possible build required to kill goblins. He's somehow managed to gain 15 levels by doing this, and he comes up with incredible battle strategies that the rest of his party quickly fall in line with. Every time I see GobSlayer pull off some ridiculous tactic to take down a foe, like the time when he links a portal scroll to the bottom of the ocean and proceeds to unleash the raging tides of the sea against an ogre, I can't help but shake my head and mutter to myself, "Damn, that's cool."

Then there's the more obvious fan service. And I don't mean "fan service" in the sense of pantsu shots or big boobed femmes, though Goblin Slayer does have a lot of that. (Hi, Cow Girl, childhood friend of the main character.) No, I'm talking about the fantasy roleplaying fan service. For instance, GobSlayer and his buddies fight creatures out of every edition of the Monster Manual. There are obviously goblins up the wazoo, but you can also expect beholders, drow, liches, oni, and even a mythologically-accurate tarasque, which shows up in Goblin Slayer: Year One.

There’s also a dungeon crawling aspect as GobSlayer and his party systematically plan out their roles and tactics everytime they delve into a hole in the ground. There's constant talk of who needs to be in the "frontline" and "backline," which are terms right out of Sword World, and Dwarf Shaman and Priestess are often chatting about how they can only use their spells a select number of times a day, which is that Vancian magic we all know and love/hate. Dai Katana, a franchise prequel that tells the story of a samurai and his comrades, outright feels like Etrian Odyssey in how it systemically shows the party tackling a megadungeon level by level, mapping as they go. (This does get repetitive over time, and I liked Dai Katana the least out of all the Goblin Slayer spinoffs. The characters have cool designs though, especially the mantis-like myrmidon dude.)

Finally, there's the idea that GobSlayer's realm, the Four-Cornered World, is a literal four-cornered game board lorded over by "gods" who are just enjoying a cosmic tabletop campaign. The more you read, the more this becomes clear. Everyone's referred to by their class or job titles rather than their names, after all, and a major arc in Year One involves GobSlayer assisting a mage who wants to enter the realm of the gods and "travel beyond the game board." After the pair ascend to the top of a seemingly endless tower (I do dig a reverse dungeon crawl that goes skyward rather than downwards), the mage disappears as her role in the campaign narrative that the "gods" have developed presumably ends. And last but not least, GobSlayer himself is constantly referred to as an average miniature on the battle map who somehow took on a life of his own by surviving whatever threats the cosmic GMs tossed at him. "He does not let anyone roll the dice," the tagline for the franchise goes.

I love all of this stuff. Maybe I'm giving Goblin Slayer too much credit, but I see this series as a deconstruction of what it means to sit at a table and imagine lives and stories for a diverse cast of characters, riffing off of fantasy concepts first assembled by Gary Gygax and his contemporaries back in the 70s. I can't be that off-base with this assumption, seeing as how characters in Goblin Slayer regularly "curse Gygax" when stuff goes wrong.

But just as Gary Gygax had questionable views when it came to a wide variety of things (like women, for instance), Goblin Slayer's got icky bits that can't be swept under the rug. This is a franchise that depicts female victims in titillating poses when they’re being abused. Goblin Slayer isn't alone in this regard - plenty of other seinen manga exhibit this nasty habit, including fan-favorites like Berserk - but it feels all the more annoying here because Goblin Slayer presents its assault scenes mostly at the very beginning for the sheer sake of shock value. As the series goes on, sexual violence disappears from the narrative almost entirely, as if Kumo Kagyu and his collaborators realized that it shouldn't have been emphasized in the first place. Instead, we're left with an interesting tale about GobSlayer moving through trauma (his family was killed by goblins when he was a kid, you see) and slowly learning how to feel again as he surrounds himself with the found family that is an RPG party. That's a good story, and a heartwarming one. Unfortunately, it's buried under a veneer that will likely turn many away.

I can't blame anyone for noping out of Goblin Slayer due to the sexual violence. I also can't blame anyone who doesn't play TTRPGs for not fully understanding the appeal of witnessing GobSlayer and his buddies strategize about the best way to defeat hobgoblins. But personally speaking, Goblin Slayer hit me in some good places, warts and all. I was fully prepared to write the franchise off as grimdark schlock, but it surprised me - and after reading up on some of its contemporaries, like Redo of Healer (which really is schlock) I'm further convinced that the series is smarter than it appears. It's just a shame that the smart bits are held back by the same problematic tropes that often cause D&D itself to falter. (Remember that whole orc discourse from 2020?)

For better or for worse, Goblin Slayer is representative of all sides of traditional tabletop roleplaying: the critical successes that celebrate imagination and comraderie, the critical failures that dehumanize women and veer too far into edgelord territory, and everything in between. The franchise has its problems, for sure, but there are moments when it shines - just like the glint of a well-painted miniature resting on the edge of a four-cornered game board.

[gnar-slabdash]

I know some otherwise intelligent people that can't seem to appreciate "Leverage". How can this be?

I mean I feel like mostly the answer is "because different intelligent people naturally have different tastes" and also "one does not control the special interest." But here's a few possible answers just for kicks: 1. If you can't get them to START watching, are you sure you're meeting them on their level? I've been telling my bff about Leverage for years and he's never been interested. Then I remembered that he was never interested in MCR either until I showed him the Danger Days music videos, because what he IS into is apocalypse stories and comics and classic anime. BAM, he was obsessed. So I told him about all the people from STAR TREK who work on Leverage and he was like "WHY did you never tell me this before???" He still hasn't actually WATCHED it because he's just become a full-fledged Ivy League professor and also has ADHD up the wazoo, but now it's actually on his radar because I started where he's at.

2. If they've started watching and aren't getting into it, make sure they're watching in the CORRECT ORDER. As with a certain other halcyon 2000s show, the episodes were originally aired in the wrong order, and that's the order that streaming services usually retain (I believe the DVDs have the intended order). You can just google to find the right order, I usually find it in imdb's trivia section. How big a difference the change makes will vary by person, but for me watching int he wrong order made the emotional storylines make a lot less sense. Episode 3, for example, was SUPPOSED to be the Wedding Job, not the Two Horse Job. So it feels like she's really jumping the gun when Eliot's ex tells him he has a new family now -- really, he's known these people for like a month?? Well, that was supposed to come later. And likewise, this was supposed to be the point where Sophie freaks out because she doesn't know where her relationship with Nate was going. But because they moved THAT to later, it feels like she's happily settled into the status quo and then blows up out of nowhere. I legitimately didn't like Sophie at all when I first watched the first season, and it's NOT HER FAULT -- it's because they fucked up her emotional storyline by putting the episodes in the wrong places.

3. A lot of people fucking hate that the main character is a white male tortured asshole genius trope. Yeah there are lots of other characters they can focus on, but Nate is kind of a lot if that's not what you're into. I will never in my life UNDERSTAND not being into it because that trope is literally what got me into the show, but I realize I'm in the minority there.

4. Gotta get a little more serious now. One thing I appreciate about the Leverage fandom is we usually don't get hung up in arguments about what's problematic about the show and what issues people "should be talking about." We realize it's a show from the late 2000s created by a couple of white guys and it's not perfect, and then we focus on all the great stuff it was able to accomplish anyway. I LIKE that. BUT. It means when we go to recommend it to people, we sometimes oversell it. "It's a queer poly band of thieves trying to take down capitalism!" Well, no, it actually isn't. Just because JR likes to talk about how the OT3 is so totally canon actually doesn't make it true. He says he did everything the network allowed him to do, but now that he's making Redemption the way it is, we can guess that's not entirely true either. I think there are actually no canon gays except that one lady cop. And speaking of cops, there are a lot of those, and they're sometimes corrupt but they're very often good guys and sending the bad guys to jail is very often written as a major win, and that is understandably a problem for a lot of people. And finally, they are not actually trying to take down capitalism. I think it was Latimer who told them that they were actually just trying to REGULATE the system, not take it down -- and HE WAS RIGHT. They're trying to fix the system by taking down the Bad CEOS and replacing them with Good CEOS, which is an easier sell on 2000s network TV than it is to a new watcher today. There are other issues that might be more problematic to some people, I'm just using these ones to make my point that some of the most commonly mentioned selling points of Leverage aren't entirely accurate. So just be realistic when recommending it to avoid some serious sticker shock.

[caffeineandsociety]

Speaking of how people use accusations of pedophilia as a thought-terminating cliche, we need to have a conversation about how blatantly fucking racist the internet's current lolicon panic is.

Like - and I DESPISE that I have to include this preface - I don't like that it's a staple of harem and harem-adjacent games and anime to have the token edgelord little sister and looks-like-a-prepubescent-child romance options either. In my personal opinion it's uncomfortable at best and ruins the entire damned piece with its out-of-place bad-kind-of-weirdness at worst, and I think it's at least mildly irresponsible to sell taboo fetishism in the mainstream, as a side element in pieces that are decidedly not about the taboo fetish, to lonely people without caring if some of them are inclined to forget that some taboos exist for DAMNED GOOD REASONS, because "eh, not my problem, they have disposable income."

You know. Just like how it's irresponsible at best for adult-ish, dark-ish high fantasy to insist on having gratuitous sexual assault scenes out the wazoo for "historical accuracy" in a universe with dragons and absolutely no racial diversity despite ample evidence of trade networks that expand beyond these homogeneously white bubbles we focus on.

Yet way too much of the internet is out here, subtly or not, subconsciously or not, acting like this one shitty trope means Japan is just some den of degenerate men and gleefully submissive women, this perverted land that will sexualize anything and everything and in fact takes it as a challenge to cross every line and thinks child molestation is fun for the whole family because their age of consent is 14-

Which is. You know. Hm.

First of all, it can be argued that the age of consent in Japan is 14 in the same sense that the age of consent in the US is 12 or even nonexistent - that is to say, that's the youngest any prefecture is allowed to permit, and the only time it's actually used is in the case of close-in-age cases ("Romeo and Juliet laws") - i.e., the kind of legal codes that make it harder for homophobic parents to have their 15-year old children's same-age same-sex partners arrested and labeled as sex offenders. For no-strings-attached age of consent it's 16-18 depending on prefecture, exactly like it is in the US. The fact that even people who really try not to be racist or xenophobic will end up parroting this myth is...alarming.

Second, again, it's not like anime and Japanese games are the only things that have really uncomfortably sexualized genre staples, or that treat extremely young girls like sex-objects-in-training. It's not an anime-only thing that if we want a female character to have a ~dark~ backstory, it almost always involves sexual violence, as if women can't have any other kind of fear or traumatic experience (or as if men can't have sexual trauma except as an excuse to pay it forward, for that matter). Child actresses are often expected to wear fashionable, form-fitting clothes from damned near the moment they start walking, whereas young boys on screen generally get to just dress like kids. Western kids' media, especially that aimed at girls, is often glutted with obvious creator fetishes meant to fly over the kids' heads - and, okay, some of the breakdowns of this pattern are unfair and themselves the ones doing the sexualizing, the overlap between "things adults semi-often have fetishes for" and "things kids giggle at and/or may enjoy as sensory play" is...A Lot, but it is often framed in a weirdly sexual way, never mind that foot guy at Nickelodeon who got caught fetish mining from his audience of children.

Yet, for some reason, we only care about those cases when they're in the headlines, but when it's anime, we have to be on the lookout for it 24/7 and call it out EVERY time it shows up in ANYTHING we see and complain LOUDLY about it ALL the time or else we're child abuse enablers?

It's. It's xenophobia and racism. Full stop. And I'm sick to death of seeing it.

[noneatnonedotcom]

Wait. Am I The Winner? (sequel to wait are we the baddies)

this was all done useing dice rolls and is based off of a quest on space battles. everything you are about to read was random chance that i gave flavor to

Jaune base stats: 2.62 (limit break 4.19 stat difference=+60) Pyrrha base stats: 2.62

Shielding for jaune =2779 (alright so maybe a bit more than normal) armor 295 (a bit more manageable)

Shielding for pyrrha=253

Jaune rolls: 1d100+10 (two-handed weapon)

Pyrrha rolls: 1d100 Off hand 1d100+10 (sheild)

The third match between Pyrrha and jaune would take place in the vale arena, much like minstrel vale also prized it’s fighters though in recent years Pyrrha had taken much of the attention away from their more homegrown champions. But one man had changed that.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT’S TIME FOR THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!”

The roar of the crowd was defining, there was more than just blood on the line here. This was the two best of their generation one representing minstrel and the other vale. National pride was on the line and whether the fighters had been informed or not the losers country would be dealing with an influx of Grimm from all the negativity they’d be generating.

Minstrel couldn’t afford that. Not in its current state and so Pyrrha had no choice but to win.

But jaune couldn’t afford to lose either.

“IN THIS CORNER REPRESENTING THE KINGDOM OF VALE, MAY I PRESENT TO YOU THE COUNT OF PATCH, THE KNIGHT OF VALE, THE BIG BAD WOLF OF SIGNAL!”

The vale half of the audience went wild. But jaune’s ears picked out his girls easily, his aura enhanced senses cutting through the noise. To focus on them

That’s why he had to win, winning meant power, power could be used to gain whatever he wanted. And what he wanted was to make a better world for everyone. It was his duty as not only the last descendant of the royal line of vale.

“JAUNE ARRRRRRRRC!” But as jaune arc, lover and boyfriend to both ruby rose and yang xiao-long. So long as he was fighting for them he’d win.

He had to.

“AND IN THIS CORNER, REPRESENTING MINSTREL, THE INVINCIBLE GIRL! PYRRHA NIKKOS!”

Both fighters came out to the octagon armor on their bodies and weapons in hand.

Jaune carried eternal luminosity, a lance forged to act as a replacement weapon to crocea mors. It was a fine weapon, ruby had made it for him. Though in reality, it was more of a banner than anything else. The weapon folded out into a deployable banner woven with gravity dust. Useful when he wanted to make a statement and force others to kneel before him.

It had come up a few times in his fights against the organized crime of vale.

The real advantage was that it was highly visible. Making giving orders on a chaotic battlefield just that much easier.

The same was the case with his armor, custos solis. Made with yang in mind, and named accordingly. It was a vibrant set of armor, made up of golds, dark blues, and whites. It’s advantage so far had been that it hid his true power. His semblance having expanded his aura pool into the three-millions at this point. And there was still room to grow.

Without the armor, he’d seem utterly invincible and that’s the main reason why he wore it and compressed his aura as much as he physically could. It tricked the sensors at the very least. When he was ready he’d show the world his true power. But he needed just a little more time.

His third weapon lay on his hip, blackthorn, a sword forged of the purest hard light dust he could find. It wasn’t quite ready yet. He’d been told the purification of the metal had not been completed so it’s true power was diminished, never the less it was an exceptionally powerful tool. If somewhat costly in terms of aura usage. The thing would drain a normal person dry in a matter of seconds.

Jaune could use it all day and never get tired.

“AND NOW, WITH BOTH FIGHTERS READY LET’S SEE IT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY! LET THE FIGHT COMMENCE!”

Roll 1

Jaune: 64+10= 74 Pyrrha: 100 (Pyrrha came for fucking play!” +20=120

Jaune takes 46 damage

Jaune armor reduced to 249

She was on him immediately, her form perfect, her spear striking him from all over, though his armor took the brunt of the assault. He tried to fight back but she was like water bouncing on the balls of her feet jabbing him with her spear like a boxer.

He was sure that a normal fighter would be unable to mount a defense against her but jaune did mitigate the damage she was able to inflict with his own footwork, waiting for the opportunity to strike

Roll2 Jaune: 18+10=28 Pyrrha: 92 (get that weak shit outta here jaune, you’re fighting the champ!)

Jaune takes 64 damage

Armor= 185

She upped her game then, moving faster and fire in her eyes focusing into a single point, she was here to beat him, utterly. Perhaps to show him the power of friendship after their last fight, perhaps simply because her kingdom depended on her. It didn’t matter she had landed blow after blow, jaune needed to do something

Roll 3 Jaune: 94+10= 104 Pyrrha: 80 Offhand: 17+10

Pyrrha takes 24 damage

Shield reduced to 226

THERE!

Jaune saw an opportunity and for the first time since their last fight, the people of the world saw the invincible girl take a blow. Not a major one, but solid as her aura flashed to protect her. Under his helmet jaune sensed the aura she’d used, it was strong. Perhaps one of the stronger ones he’d ever felt. Even in comparison to qrow. But nothing more than a drop in the ocean to him

She was on him again in an instant

Roll 3

Jaune:18+10=28 Pyrrha:45 Jaune takes 17 damage Armor =168

Jaune becomes annoyed activates dust tattoos +20 to combat rolls

And she was somehow faster and stronger than before, gritting his teeth jaune pushed his aura into the dust based tattoos on his body, an unimaginable pain flowed through him but he pushed through using the extra power to thrust into Pyrrha

Roll 4

Jaune: 81+30= 111 Pyrrha: 42 Offhand: 69 (of course can’t have a jaune fight without this (._.) )+10= 79

Pyrrha takes 32 damage, jaune’s armor is removed for the rest of the fight due to 69 roll Pyrrha takes a -25 to rolls due to distraction

Pyrrha’s shielding= 194

The blow landed but to Pyrrha’s credit she managed to bring her shield against him as he hit her. The crowd went wild for some reason but jaune didn’t pay attention to them. Only to the red-faced Pyrrha in front of him. He went after her again”

Roll 5 Jaune:69 (WTF JAUNE!) +30=99 Pyrrha:93-25=68 Offhand: 90+10-25=75

Pyrrha takes 24 damage armor destroyed by the force of jaune’s blow. Jaune takes -20 from distraction, Pyrrha takes -10 from embarrassment

Pyrrha’s shield =170 She wasn’t ready for it for some reason and when the blow connected it hit one of the straps holding up her armor, jaune cursed his luck as the beautiful redhead was stripped naked before him only her boots and weapons to cover her. Trying to shake off the distraction jaune went after her again as the crowd went crazier!

Roll 6 Jaune:75+10= 85 Pyrrha:90-35= 55 Off hand:61-25= 36

Pyrrha takes 30 damage, pyrrha has had enough! Activates semblance +50 to rolls -50 to jaune’s rolls Pyrrha’s shield = 140

The blow struck well as the beautiful woman seemed more concerned with covering herself from the looks of the crowd than from his weapon. He felt bad, he really did but this was for the good of everyone. And she was a warrior she’d understand.

There was no gender on the battlefield

Apparently she agreed because she suddenly glowed with power moving faster than he could track while he felt somehow slower just by watching.

By this point, they were little more than blurs to most people and her nakedness was forgotten in favor of raw aggression!

Roll 7

Jaune:30-40=-10 Pyrrha:74+15=89 Jaune takes 99 damage Jaune’s sheild=2680

A blow that would fell lesser men slammed into him. His eyes unfocused as the flash of his own aura blinded him. He had no time to react to the now greater pain coursing through his body from both inside and outside as she rained down blow after blow on him the crowd having grown silent with awe watching the two pinnacles of humanity battling it out in the arena

Roll 8 Jaune:85-40=45 pyrrha:75+15=90

Jaune takes 45 damage

Jaune’s sheild= 2635

More and more blows hammered into him and he was being pushed back even if he was finally starting to get his guard up it wasn’t enough, he wasn’t enough to fight this goddess on the battlefield

.Roll 9 Jaune:14-40=-26 pyrrha:41+15=56

Jaune takes 82 damage

Jaune’s shield= 2553

Jaune’s angry activates limit break +60 to rolls stat difference

Was this the end? No one could doubt his power as blows that shook the stadium hammered into him both combatants were beyond human, the crowd could see it but for all of jaune’s raw power, it was no match for the skill of the invincible girl. Even so, they felt honored to be able to see this fight. Neither had ever been pushed this far before and even veteran huntsmen were shocked at the levels of power on display.

Jaune’s eyes snapped open, the wolf of signal, that animalistic part of his brain that couldn’t accept defeat that kept going no matter what the cost to himself, equal parts pride and protectiveness. genius, and stupidity.

That’s what looked at Pyrrha when those deep blue eyes opened. And Pyrrha felt small for a moment, the entire world felt small looking at the unrestrained power coming from the boy

This was the apex hunter, the thing that even the Grimm learned to fear.

This was the big bad wolf of signal and he howled his rage as he rushed her his lance thrown aside in the madness his pain brought on. His fist flying for her head

Roll 10

Jaune:1+20=21 (alright not the best way to show off your next to final powerup) Pyrrha:25+15=40

Jaune takes 19 damage

Jaune’s shield =2534

Jaune throws away his lance, draws blackthorn +25 to rolls

Mussels tore as fast as they healed as jaune no longer limited himself by how much pain he was willing to endure and the force from his punch cratered the ground where pyrrha was but a second ago.

Ultimate power vs ultimate skill

The invincible girl vs the apex predator

For a moment skill seemed to win out as she danced around the raging monster his wild swings destroying the arena as he missed. Inching closer and closer to his prey mindless of the damage and pain he was inflicting on himself, his mad howls echoing in the now stunned silent arena

And then she landed and blow

One big enough to snap jaune back to himself and for a moment he simply stood there, his mussels twitching finally aware that Pyrrha had stripped him as well at some point.

The pinnacles of humanity stared each other down nothing between them, perfection for the world to see. The audience held their breath and

Jaune started to laugh

He laughed and laughed seemingly amused at the situation

“Alright Pyrrha, I admit it, you’re more skilled then I think I’ll ever be, you’ve done it you’ve mastered yourself to a point beyond human limits.” he stalked forward and something about the confidence in him made the women (and some men) swoon at the sight.

“You’ve earned a reward,” he said as he picked up the sword that had fallen off him earlier in the fight “something that I’ve never had to do for anyone else, of course, you’ve already seen more of me than I’ve shown to anyone other than my girlfriends so that question is what to show you now,” he said with a wink and a smirk

His eyes grew dark as his sword glowed with golden beauty. A smile like the bared teeth of a predator shown almost as brightly

“Let me show you what true power looks like!”

And they were on each other again. Perfection in motion as far as the audience was concerned. A golden blade fought against the invincible girl and eventually there was only flashes of color as they danced around the arena until finally

The two stopped fighting mid-swing as the alarm signaling the aura of Pyrrha had dipped below 25%

Could she have won if this were a real battle? perhaps, perhaps not. All that could be said in this moment was that the battle was over. Jaune calmly re-sheathed his sword and picked up his lance. The two combatants shook hands both smiling though jaune’s seemed more a smirk

And then they walked out leaving the stunned audience to collect themselves.

It was five minutes before anyone had the presence of mind to cheer

It would be two hours till they stopped.

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In the back room Pyrrha smiled as she listened to her friends gush about the fight, yes it truly was something she supposed. The main difference between jaune and her was the amount of aura they could bring to bear, she would have to look into being more efficient in the future. But later, she wanted to spend time with her friends.

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In the back room jaune coughed up blood as his abused body and soul finally gave in, he struggled not to cry in pain as it felt like his body was being ripped apart from the inside. There was a price for power, always. He could reach levels of strength that none could match but it didn’t mean he could survive using those powers. His anguish was lessened as ruby placed his head in her lap and yang gently rubbed his back

He passed out shortly after.

He wouldn’t wake up for a week.

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The world was shocked in the wake of their fight, overnight jaune and Pyrrha became legends. The fact that they accidentally stripped each other was morphed in the minds of all the watchers to be the fact that both fought with only their weapons and souls. That they had no added advantages or disadvantages. It was pure combat.

Something that came to be common later on as fighters sought to emulate them. Fighting naked against your opponent became a way of declaring your own power.

Jaune’s tattoos became something to emulate as well though obviously no one made their out of dust, the process was immensely painful after all. The world was divided on who was more impressive, jaune, or Pyrrha.

For his part jaune spent most of his time doing paperwork recuperating and spending time with his girls. There would be time to capitalize on his newfound popularity to advance his political career. But later. For now, jaune lay in a field of flowers watching his sister, yang and ruby play with Zwei

Life was good

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Ozpin subtly played with a knight piece as he studied the board, as well as a queen. The arcs were descendants of the bastards of the royal line of vale. The very same line he’d thought he’d ended with his life as the last king of vale during the great war.

He was powerful and would be a key to winning the war, as would Pyrrha

The only question was who’s piece was he?

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here’s the next chapter of accidental villain jaune, based off of the dice rolling system for a quest on space battles. it was all random chance and i think i did pretty good with what the dice gave me. what do you think?

[godnerfedmetoohard]

So I watched House of Wax 2005 for the first time last night and I have Thoughts

(Spoilers follow)

First of all, the premise is pretty obviously heavily ableist—even with the twist of “oh the ‘deformed’ one isn’t actually the evil one,” it still pretty heavily leans into the “evil from birth” trope, and still used Vincent’s appearance, autistic-coded behavior, and mutism for shock/horror value. But, this movie for me is like with queer coded villains: yes, it’s intended in a way that would be offensive, but I identify enough with the characters that I like it anyway, even if I wasn’t *meant* to identify with or like them.

Alright, so with that disclaimer out of the way:

What is the actual backstory of the Sinclair brothers? I’ve read a fair bit of meta this morning and much of it is discussing the disconnect between Bo’s story and the actual funeral setup, as well as pointing out that Bo is *probably* lying at least a bit, just because I really don’t think he’s the type of character who would tell the full truth about anything. And he doesn’t even mention Lester, which also points to him misrepresenting the real story.

The way I see it, I think there are a few elements of truth in his story. Doc Sinclair was an actual medical doctor, who did perform the surgery on Bo and Vincent. Doc Sinclair did die from a gunshot wound. Trudy was an actual semi-famous wax sculptor. I think she likely was indeed chained to her bed at some point, and is definitely now dead.

We see that Trudy and Doc were physically abusive towards Bo. I mean, Jesus. Poor kid is having a meltdown and you force him into and strap him to a chair and hit him? I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Trudy, whatever happened later.

I think Bo did become physically violent as a kid, and I think he ended up killing Doc when he was a teenager. Which might well have been in self-defense, and so have been justified. But Trudy, who always saw him as a monster, would have sent him to an asylum for it, and so he drugged her heavily using some of Doc’s supplies and chained her to a bed in her room, like how she had chained him so many times.

He told Vincent that she had developed a brain cyst and that their father had killed himself upon finding out. Since Trudy was drugged and unable to speak coherently, it was easy for Vincent to believe Bo that she did have a degenerative brain cyst and needed to be kept chained for her own safety. They kept her like that for many years, as the twins grew into adults and Trudy grew old, eventually dying. Vincent at first cared for her quite tenderly, feeding her and providing palliative care. Bo would be much crueler to her when Vincent wasn’t around, and I think that’s part of what led him further down the path of violence-for-fun—-you have this woman who was abusive to you your whole life, now a prone victim. Of course he took out his frustration on her. And learned that he enjoyed doing that.

Meanwhile, poor Lester was only a couple of years old when this first happened, and so he grew up very neglected and spent a lot of time wandering through the woods. The Sinclair twins took care of him as best they could, which frankly wasn’t very well. He always was a nice enough kid (well, relatively speaking), and he identified a lot more with animals than with people, since Bo and Vincent were the only living people he knew for very long growing up.

All three of them have trauma out the wazoo, with Vincent growing up believing that being quiet and perfectly compliant are the only ways to be loved (after all, look what happened to his brother who wasn’t quiet and well-behaved), Bo growing up believing that he was a monster and would always be hated no matter what he did so he might as well act out and give people a reason to hate him, at least that way he’d have *some* control over it, and Lester growing up with some truly terrible role models and probably believing that if he ever got sick or became a nuisance to his brothers he would be chained up just like his mom was.

As for whether Trudy started killing people before she herself was chained up and eventually died—I don’t think so, no. But she did have plans for a “town of wax” tourist attraction—which is actually why Ambrose is so deserted now, she bought the entire dang town to turn into a wax theme park of sorts and everyone who had lived there had to move away (rich people, yikes). Bo figured the best way to keep Vincent loyal to him was to convince Vincent that by helping Bo kill people, he was actually helping his mother create her dream of a town of wax. Vincent wasn’t the one who first started killing people—at first he just helped Bo to cover them with wax and pose them around town. I actually think the first person they did this to was Doc Sinclair, after Bo had shot him and framed it as a suicide, and Bo framed this as a way to honor his memory. As time went on, Vincent began to care more and more about his art and “finishing his mother’s dream” until he was every bit an equal participant in the murders with Bo, and even enjoyed them, in an artistic/scientific way. I don’t think he’s quite the sweet innocent victim that fandom sometimes sees him as—that takes away his agency and infantilizes him a bit, and he is an adult who is capable of making his own choices. I think he chooses to keep killing, because it satisfies him, and making the sculptures from their bodies provides him with a purpose in life. He’s not as culpable as Bo, but he’s hardly innocent. Of course, I think Trudy is the real villain in all of this, but I’m sure she had her own reasons for acting like a shitbag, too. The question of blame is muddy in this movie, like in most good horror movies (and in real life, honestly). But regardless, there’s one thing we can all agree on:

Sinclair twins hot 😳

[carriagelamp]

Since it’s Pride Month, I decided this year I wanted to raid the library for a bunch of different queer books to read. Mostly graphic novels in this case, because I’ve had a hard time settling into much reading lately... thought hopefully now that it’s summer and I finally have my second shot I’ll be able to relax a bit more and dig into some heavier novels again. For now, enjoy some light, queer reads that I indulged in this June.

A Wolf Called Wander

A beautiful novel I had been hearing lots about. This story follows the young wolf Swift, who grows up knowing that he and his pack are the mountains, and the mountains are them. It’s in those mountains that he grows and learns and loves… until disaster strikes and he finds himself viciously torn apart from his family and forced out of the mountains that have always meant home to him. Forced to survive on his own. Swift then begins a gruelling journey that makes him face injury, starvation, and the everpresent danger of humans as he seeks a new place he can call home, and new people with whom he can form a pack.

This is all based on the true story of a tagged wolf known as OR-7, following the unbelievable route he took through Oregon and northern California! It was a very neat read, and I’d definitely recommend it if you enjoy stories told from an animal’s perspective because this book is a master class in it.

Bloom

I decided for June to try to read a handful of different queer books, and this was one of the first graphic novels I picked up. It is a super sweet story and the art is lovely. It’s about Ari, a boy who has just graduated high school and is now desperate to move away from his small town and his family’s struggling bakery, to join his band in the city where they hope to make it big. An agreement is finally reached: Ari’s father will let him leave, if he can find someone who can replace him in the bakery, which is how Ari meets Hector, someone who sees artistry and peace in baking. For anyone that’s read Check, Please, it gives off those types of vibes!

Boule et Bill: Bill est Maboul

Another book of Dupuis comics, because I can’t get enough of them! This one I just stumbled across and ended up reading on a whim but it was very cute. Geared younger than the others I’ve read, but still quite funny. It’s the charming hijinks of a young boy, his dog, and the family they live with. Each page or so is a different stand alone joke, a bit like Calvin and Hobbes except expanded beyond a single strip.

Chicken Run: Chicken Pies for the Soul

This was a ridiculous urge I got and had to follow. I recently rewatched Chicken Run (which is, of course, one of the best movies ever made) and felt the need to see if it had ever been novelized. Well, I found something better than a novelization! This is a chapter book with “advice” and stories written by the various characters, post-movie. It really does a good job with grasping the different characters’ voices and making something simple and funny out of it. It was very cute (and available on The Internet Archive if anyone else feels like reading something ridiculous!)

Doodleville

I picked this up on a whim and honestly, I shouldn’t have bothered. It was not very impressive. Very mediocre, awkward feeling artwork, and a story that only slightly manages to redeem it. The concept was kind of neat, and I did like how the ending came about, the rest was rather… plodding. I did not like the main character at all, her friends felt very Intentionally Quirky Aren’t We Cute :3 in a way that just tries too hard, and… yeah. Meh. It technically gets the “queer graphic novel flag” but it’s so in-passing that it feels rather excessive to give it that.

If you are interested, it’s about a world were doodles actually exist as living creatures that can be drawn into existence (the rather unsettling implications of which is never fully explored). This is all well and good, until the main character draws a monster and takes it with her to her art club... where it begins ravanging not only her doodles, but those of her friends. Together they need to work together to figure out how to stop this menace.

FRNCK v4

Phenomenal. I adore the FRNCK series, and book four wrapped up the first “cycle”, revealing several of the big secrets dogging the series so far, and changing how things are going to be able to run in the future.

If you haven’t seen me talk about it before, FRNCK is a graphic novel (a franco-belgian bande dessinée) about a young orphan, Franck, who’s chafing under the constant parade of uninterested foster parents that visit the orphanage he lives in. Determined to learn about his mysterious abandonment instead, he flees the orphanage… but finds himself tumbling through time, landing among a family of cave-people who rather reluctantly take him in and ensure this modern boy doesn’t die in the strange, dangerous new surroundings he finds himself in. You can get these ones in English as e-books, so if you want a really kickass graphic novel series to read please try these.

Haikyu!!

I’ve heard so much about Haikyu!! that I finally gave in and picked up the first book from the library. And I gotta say, it’s well worth the hype! This series really does capture the best parts of a good sports manga -- which is to say the team is filled with interesting, enjoyable character who all need to learn to pull together, boost each other’s strengths, and cover for each other’s weaknesses. Love me some found family tropes and this series oozes it in the best possible way. And then you also get some very cool action scenes as it makes high school volleyball seem like the most intense thing on earth. I can’t wait to continue it

Queer Eye

I haven’t been keeping up with Queer Eye but I was watching it ravenously when it first came out, and this seemed like a very cathartic book to read… and it really was. It had the same gentle, loving encouragement as the show. It doesn’t expect you to change your entire life, but to learn to embrace who you are, and take small steps to enhance those things. There a segment written (presumably) by each member of the Fab Five, explaining the mentality behind what they do on the show and how you can grow in those areas too. It’s very zen.

Spinning

I got this graphic novel out at the same time as Bloom, but it was the one that interested me less of the two... though that’s just because I have less interest in “real world” slice of life as a genre and this one is meant to be autobiographical. If you’re into that, you’ll probably love this because it really is stunning. Very pretty, and the format and pacing is all really well done. It’s a coming of age story for Tillie as she grows up dealing with a crosscountry move, complicated friendships, a burgeoning attraction to girls, and attending competitive figure skating classes.

This Place: 150 Years Retold

A stunning and heart-wrenching graphic novel told by a collection of different First Nation’s authors/artists, recounting oral histories about the 150 years since the colonialist formation of the country known as “Canada”. In other words, this is a post-apocalypse story, but one that really happened and that entire peoples are still fighting to survive. It’s very eye opening and beautifully told. Very strongly recommend the read, especially if you’re at all interested in history.

Torchwood: Serenity

Whoops, not technically a book. I had thought these were technically audiobooks at first, but rather they’re audio dramas that were played on the radio. Still, I decided to include one because I’ve been listening to them like a person possessed and they’re too fun not to at least mention. Let me indulge in my obsessions.

If you don’t know Torchwood, it’s a BBC series that spins-off from Doctor Who, focusing on the enigmatic and flirtatious Captain Jack Harkness, who is running the covert organization known as Torchwood, which is tasked to protect humanity from and prepare them for alien contact. It’s goofy and campy but also more adult and heavy than Doctor Who tends to get, so it is (in my opinion) a really fascinating series. Though it also has content warnings coming out the wazoo so maybe make sure it’s for you before delving in.

Serenity specifically is possibly one of the best Torchwood stories I’ve ever experienced. The Torchwood team concludes that there’s an undercover alien hiding in the idyllic gated community Serenity Plaza, and so that means it’s up to Jack and Ianto to go undercover as a happily married couple and flush out the alien without being discovered first. Even if it means being sickly sweet together, pretending to care about the local neighbourhood barbecues, and actually caring a bit too much about the Best Front Lawn competition. What is truly magical about this one, is that it manages to make it a Fake Dating AU despite the fact that Jack and Ianto are actually dating in canon. But they’re both used to dating as a pair of alien hunters with insanely dysfunctional lives, and who now need to figure out how to deal with domesticity. It is marvellous.

Wilderlore: The Accidental Apprentice

A middle grade novel that felt a bit like a cross between Harry Potter and Pokemon. It’s about orphan Barclay Thorne who wants nothing more than to be accepted in the rule-bound village of Dullshire, and live up to his apprenticeship as a mushroom farmer. He certainly wants nothing to do with the fearsome Beasts who live beyond the village, deep in the Woods or the sinister Lorekeepers that bond with them. It was, after all, a Beast that had killed his parents all those years ago. But when he finds himself at the very edge of the forest, hunting for an elusive mushroom, he is suddenly unable to avoid any of that. Not when a wild girl and her bonded dragon appear to summon a horrible Beast and end up getting Barclay bonded to it instead. Now, if Barclay ever wants to be welcomed back into his home, he has no choice but to venture into the Woods and find a way to sever the bond imprisoning him to the massive, monstrous wolf now imprinted on his body as a living tattoo.

I honestly can’t decide how I felt about this one. I feel like it’d be a really fun read for maybe a grade 5 to 7 student? I was a bit more meh about it. It was fine, but it was very hard not to draw unfavourable parallels to Harry Potter. But for a kid who’s never read Harry Potter? Or even an adult that has but is looking for something different to scratch that itch, this might be a good book to try. I’ll probably try reading the second book when it comes out.

[cricketnationrise]

quarantine reads part 4

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

76. The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan: book 3 of the brothers sinister romance series. you absolutely DO NOT need to read these in order. i certainly didn’t. also. its a romance novel. there is sex.

77. Joy: And 52 Other Very Short Stories by Erin McGraw: short story collection. some of these are less than a page long. ideal reading for only having like 5 mins.

78. One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean: did i get this from the library because of the title? yes. is it a fantastic story? also yes. book 2 in the rules of scoundrels series. romance novel. there is sex.

79. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman: magical library world at the heart of multiple universe has agents that retrieve unique works. featured universe is a sort of victorian england plus elves and werewolves and vampires and dragons and magic and this book is FANTASTIC. still need to get the others because IT IS A SERIES BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP

80. The Rogue Pirate’s Bride by Shana Galen: book 3 of the sons of the revolution series. look i like romance novels. i especially like that you don’t have to read them in order. its a romance novel. there is sex. also PIRATES and the leads saving each other’s lives.

81. The Queens of Animation: The Untold Story of the Women Who Transformed the World of Disney and Made Cinematic History by Nathalia Holt: non-fiction look at the history of disney animation via the women who worked there. lots of details i didn’t know. chapters are movies rather than years.

82. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett: bit of a misnomer since the guy is straight up stealing rare books with credit card fraud. he just thinks he’s being gentlemanly by amassing these books. it started off as a feature article and it shows.

83. We’re Here, We’re Here by KM Szpara: tor.com short story, 2 members of a boy band fall in love. management doesn’t like that so starts to control/manipulate the implants they put iN THEIR VOICE BOXES AHHH

84. The Night Soil Salvagers by Gregory Norman Bossert: tor.com short story, cool story telling form with in-world songs/poetry/recipes, very poetic writing

85. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt: two brothers are hitmen get hired for a job. one of the brothers is really excited, the other starts to contemplate a different life, gold rush era california/western USA, horses, violent, seriously at least one person is killed in every chapter. at one point they burn down a whole lodge. cw: harm to animals, murder, starvation

86. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin: classic piece of writing about the Black Male experience in the united states

87. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick: lonely old man goes on scavenger hunt to find the meanings behind the charms on a bracelet he finds in his dead wife’s closet. travels all around UK and paris and makes friends near and far.

88. The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by HG Parry: some people can read characters out of books. i repeat. CHARACTERS CAN COME OUT OF THEIR BOOKS. theres a whole diagonalley esq space that houses characters that can’t go back. chaos and danger ensue when uriah heep refuses to go back into his book. magic!

89. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett: #11 in the discworld series, DEATH gets tired of doing all the things and decides to retire.

90. Death and What Comes Next by Terry Pratchett:  discworld short story

91. Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan: girls life is about to change when her sister is proposed to, very gifted, coming of age, crush on her teacher, endgame is her/her best friend who is a guy and has clearly been pining THE WHOLE TIME

92. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder:  i love the little house books and this was the first non-fictionalized account of her life i’ve read. the introduction by the editor was especially cool/helpful to read, lots of photos and drawings

93. Exhalation by Ted Chiang: this might be my favorite book of all quarantine. and i read a lot of books. a collection of short stories that all fucked me up, but in a good way? title story contains the sentence, “It’s no coincidence that “aspiration” means both hope and the act of breathing.” which like, how dare you sir

94. Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell: book 2 in the simon snow series, which is a fantasy series created by rowell in her novel Fangirl. She then proceeded to write fanfic of this already fictional series. i’m in love with the meta. 3rd book out in 2021.

95. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward: set in mississippi before/during/after hurricane katrina hits, follows one family through the eyes of the daughter. tw: sexual assault, dog fighting, harm to dogs, death of dog

96. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce: was still doing my Emelan reread. 4 protags reunite to help out Sandry as she goes to Namorn to deal with her estate and her cousin the empress. whether they will be allowed to leave is another story

97. The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner: book 3 in the queen’s thief series, seriously, go back and read from the beginning. political machinations of the king from a (Mostly) outside POV. the gods are always closer than you think

98. The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson: a very Spanish vibe fantasy novel. book 1 in a series. chosen one trope. new queen stumbles into the resistance. magic!

99. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley: first book in a mystery series. a young teen girl is super into chemistry in 1950′s england countryside. someone is murdered in her garden. she tries to figure out what happened because her dad is still shell shocked. cw: kidnapping, harm to children

100. A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White: first in the salvagers trilogy. motley crew turns into found family on a space ship. in this world almost everyone has magic. older female protagonist. queer representation out the wazoo, SPACE. boots just wants to brew her beer and be left alone.

[protagonistheavy]

I only really liked vtubing when it was new... aka just Kizuna Ai. What even happened to her? Does she still make videos? I never see her now in the flood that is a ton of awkward, overly-produced characters with gimmicks coming out the wazoo, all of which are necessary to make their character stand out within the flood of highly-eccentric, niche-oriented vtubers.

I think what I want out of vtubing is for it to become more accessible and more diverse. God I’ve just really become a total sjw at this point in my evolution, huh? But it’s true and I think it would give the scene some more lasting power than what it looks to have -- as it is now, vtuber success is based heavily on an entertainment branch picking them up as contract workers, or flash-in-the-pan meme-like successes that attract enough attention to keep them relevant for the year. I can’t say for sure how this trend will curve since it’s so new and all, and I’m not exactly invested in the scene either, but it’s hard for me to see these personalities retaining attention deep into 2021. Once people have their “preferred” vtubers that appeal directly to them and whose quirks are to their palette, there’ll be a lot less openness towards newer vtubers that don’t bring anything new to the table.

The novelty of vtubing is really impressive. I have to admit that SOME of my ill-regards with vtubing stems from jealousy; I really want to join in on this, it looks fun! It’s avatar building, an aspect of the internet that I kinda really love -- the ability to create your idealized self within the Matrix, complete with your own quirks and fascinations. But when the whole scene is a mixed bag of... every single overused anime trope randomly distributed across 100+ otaku dudes... it’s just not very gripping, I don’t feel the potential that I’m able to imagine.

And I can’t brush over the fact that it is overused anime tropes that make up everything you’d ever need to know about a given vtuber. You have every animal-eared girl you can imagine, your bodytype diversity is strictly a binary between loli and Tig Ol Bitties, personality quirks consist of only the most subtly-erotic anime girl traits like absentmindedness, eagerness to do spontaneous things, and a craving for attention. And since only one of those traits is genuine at all to the actor, you’re often watching what is just obviously a male otaku pretending to be a 10 year-old girl that conveniently doesn’t mind being looked at religiously by an all-male audience.

I’m sorry but I have to say it, I think more than anything it’s the loli vtubers that drive me furthest away from the vtubing scene. The whole idea of that is just obscenely creepy to me and I can’t help but imagine how this will be used to further groom minors in the same vein that loli culture already has for the past three decades. It really does seem like the next logical step in that world...

And in general, I guess vtubing is, in a lot of ways, the next logical step. It’s an expansive way of building up one’s internet avatar, letting people create the image of themselves they want others to acknowledge them as. There’s so much potential for fun and great things here, but it feels like it’s being squandered big time by otaku-types who are neither particularly creative nor entertaining. Much of what’s out there in the vtube market are trend-chasers that entertainment syndicates have invested thousands of dollars into, and it frankly shows.

But again, maybe I’m just a major shitty pisser. I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, I just personally have these wrestlings with myself in trying to understand why I happen to feel so negative about an idea I would otherwise be over the moon for.

[atamascolily]

Enough folks recommended Puella Magi Madoka Magica to me that I finally got around to watching it. I tend to hate first episodes, but let me tell you, I knew right away that this show was for me, and it took all my self-control not to immediately binge the other eleven episodes on the spot.

(The title is long and kinda annoying - it's "Magical Schoolgirl Madoka” in Latin because... it just is? I got nothing.)

My first thought was, Wow, this is so good, why didn't I know about it back in 2005-2009 when I was watching a lot of anime? And the answer is that it came out in 2011 when I was more or less off-grid for several years, and so I completely missed it when it was first out, and I haven't watched much anime since.

Anyway, PMMM is a deconstruction of the classic magical girl (mahou shoujo) genre, sort of like Princess Tutu or Revolutionary Girl Utena, except even darker and more brutal (Utena is pretty damn brutal but the violence is more subtle, with less on-screen blood and death than in PMMM). It reminds me the most of Bokurano, which does a similar deconstruction of mecha shows--both are ensemble pieces where a lot is happening under the surface and making uninformed contracts with alien entities with questionable motives is a terrible idea.

It's really hard to talk about PMMM without spoilers, but I think I can safely say the show initially disguises itself as a standard magical girl series--only to abruptly switch gears with a WHAM that managed to catch me off guard even when I was expecting it. Once I was braced for pain, I realized the biggest plot twist several episodes before it happened, but the reveal was so well done, I loved it. Not only was it even worse than I envisioned, there were several other bits of masterful storytelling later on that made my jaw drop.

Here's what I can say, though:

Ordinary eighth grader Madoka Kaname has a great life, but she's always yearned to be special. She gets her chance when she rescues Kyubey, a cat-alien telepath creature, from new transfer student Houmura Akemi, who is attempting to murder them. Kyubey reveals they have the power to grant wishes, but the price of granting your heart's desire is to become a magical girl and fight witches, spectral creatures who steal humanity's hopes and dreams.

Madoka is intrigued, especially since Kyubey hints Madoka has the potential to be the most powerful magical girl ever... but Houmura cryptically warns Madoka that all is not as it seems, and she will lose everything that matters--her family, her friends, even her life--if she makes a contract with Kyubey. Who should Madoka believe? And what will she wish for if and when she makes a contract?  

Suffice to say, it takes a lot going wrong for everything to be right-- and even then, it's bittersweet.

That’s Houmura (left) fighting Mami, another magical girl. Because defeated witches drop magical power-ups, most magical girls are fiercely territorial and don’t appreciate interlopers on their hunting grounds. Yes, they went there, and it’s exactly as brutal as you’d expect.

Things I love about this show, in no particular order:

The animation is GORGEOUS. I love all of the character designs and battle sequences, but my favorite part is how the animation shifts from three to two-dimensional to indicate reality warping, and all of the witches are trippy existential nightmares with surreal, dream-like logic and beauty.

Aside from Madoka's father and brother, who appear in a few episodes, one classmate and a few background extras, every character is female. (Kyubey is gendered as "he" in the English dub, but I'm pretty sure they're non-binary.) The show passes the Bechdel test with flying colors -- Madoka has a lot of intense conversations with her mom about growing up, and there's also a great sequence where Madoka's mother and her teacher talk about their fears for the kids in their care that was so refreshing to see on-screen.

Magical girls using their powers for both epic and mundane things - like when Kyoko plays DDR in an arcade.

Female friendship is the heart and soul of PMMM, but there's also a lovely queer romance if you care to interpret it in that way (and the last episode offers plenty of shipping fuel).

“Cute” definitely doesn’t equal “harmless”, YES GOOD.

You know that trope where you watch an episode, and then later you get that exact same episode again, only it's different now because you know more than you did at the beginning, and you can see all the things you missed the first time around? This show does THAT and it's absolutely amazing.

This show has literally all of my favorite tropes: discussion of ethics and morality; training sequences; priming the audience to dislike a character only to force them to care about them before the end; call-backs up the wazoo; identity issues and [spoiler spoiler spoiler]. 

The shift in the end credits when shit hits the fan--and how the opening credits don't change at all, but what they MEAN shifts as our understanding deepens. AAAAAAAAAA so good.

10/10, would definitely watch again.

[fizzingwizard]

I did an utena rewatch at last, I can’t remember when the last time I watched it was, but I was shocked at the amount of stuff I forgot... though I guess I should rather be impressed with the amount I remembered.

It’s just, I really, REALLY love Utena, always have, and I wish I had it freaking memorized, because I love to think about it. I know it’s loved for having different sexualities and ambiguous gender presentations. It’s also got literary tropes that I adore, like unreliable narrator, imperfect memory, parallel and paradox, nonlinear storytelling, folktale references, and motifs and metaphors out the wazoo. Although probably not the exact definition, I think of a lot of it as being part of a stream of consciousness as well - an emotional stream of consciousness. A stream of emotion, I guess.

And that’s the literary side - the artistic style is a feast for the eyes. I don’t mean the animation itself, but the backgrounds, the symbolism, the way scenes are framed to avoid anything dead center, the designs of architecture, the way everything is used to a purpose - like, if you can’t afford animating a scene, you make really good use of stills, gosh darn it. Stills and repetition in Utena are like nothing else. They help the tragicomic bits, as well as a horror aspect that doesn’t much get talked about. Everything after arc 1 is a slowly building horror story - sometimes I expect an Itou Junji creation to suddenly appear.

I mean, in other words, watching Utena is just always interesting. There’s always something to Notice. As weird as this show can be, it all gathers together at the end of each arc. You never really know who to believe until the last second.

But still, it’s an anime with a pink-haired protagonist and rainbow-colored student council members. I don’t think it deserves to be shoved in with other similar anime - I feel like if I say, “I like Utena,” the reaction shouldn’t be, “isn’t that anime?” I mean, it is. But it feels like an intricate stage play. Or a Marquez novel. Actually, I thought about Marquez a LOT this time around. Utena is anime, for sure, it’s just really GOOD anime.

But a lot of people seem really resistant to it, because of its weird factor? It IS weird. As art, as anime, as a story, it’s weird, and that doesn’t even touch on all the taboo themes it gets into. Yeah, it’s not safe and familiar. Utena is not a ‘safe’ story, every episode inhabits danger. And now it’s so old (the show uses 電子計算機 instead of コンピュター and the art is a total holdover from the 80s, so!) I feel like it’s out of reach for new viewers... so I guess I hope the way a couple modern shows referenced Utena will inspire some new fans. I suppose they’ll come at it expecting cool lesbians, and leave having an existential crisis xD It’s absolutely about cool lesbians (or bisexuals, or whatever you want them to be!), it’s just they also turn into cars sometimes. so there’s that

can we just make utena an honorary autobot and be done with it

[tskumoyuuma]

my roommate and I binge watched the lost village / mayoiga and we really werent prepared for that kind of ending. it was so good we didnt kno what to say when it was over. then we found out the majority of people hated the anime n wer dumbfounded. my guess is that they didnt watch it to the end / didnt get the point of it. so, in response, I just had to write a review on crunchyroll explaining exactly why people need to give the anime a chance n watch all 12 episodes. pasted under the cut cause it's a bit long :

[[MORE]]

let me preface this with the fact that my roommate and I started watching this as a joke. I had never heard of this anime before, but they had because of the stupid hippopotamus song in the first episode. we were bored and put this on because, like many reviewers on here, we expected a bloodbath. with so many characters thrown at you in the beginning, who wouldnt ? and yet, at the end of our bingewatch, my roommate and i, unlike the majority of reviewers, were dumbfounded by how satisfying and emotionally deep the ending was, how everything was wrapped up. I dont really write reviews, but seeing all the other ones, I am compelled to write this one.

now let me say that if you're also here for a bloodbath, turn away. this is not the anime for you. I feel that most of the negative reviews come from people angry that there was no extreme gore or violence. that is not the point of this anime. in fact, the point lies in the emphasis of those who lived

but before I get deeper into that, let's break down the different aspects of this anime :

animation

the general animation of this anime is average. the only thing worth noting is how the monsters are animated, at times even using real life footage if eyes to really bring out the horror and monstrosity of the things chasing this group of people. there are also some monsters that were so horrifying that I gagged a bit, so props to the animation team for that. everything else is all right; typical of a short unknown anime of this length

characters

a thing I noticed in the negative reviews for this anime is that there are too many characters who are too worthless to keep around. I, however, disagree. yes, you'll only really remember the main characters names and you will forget everyone elses, but you dont need to remember them. I was able to distinguish all important characters from each other even if I couldnt remember some names and that's what matters. people are also angry because we learn next to nothing about these side characters. this is a good thing in my opinion because with a cast this large, focusing on every character that is introduced in the first five minutes of the anime would only distract from the plot and main characters. they give you enough backstory on characters to understand them and their actions, and that's enough. and, to be clear, none of the backstory they give excuses the characters bad actions; they only serve to explain them. the anime even emphasizes that these kinds of actions are wrong. and, yes, you will get angry at peoples stupid decisions, but that's because theyr human and young and scared, of course they wouldnt make the right and sensible decisions. even I was yelling at the screen at times, but if you can get past that, then the characters are, unlike what most people say, watchable (unless of course your taste in characters is wildly different than mine, then I say to that fair enough. I still believe the anime ending is worth enduring annoying characters for either way).

pacing

I'll be the first one to admit that the pacing, especially in the first few episodes, is not good. the first episode feels rushed as heck and starting it off with a flash round of self introductions didnt help me get into it and only served to confuse me with so many names and faces. but as I've explained, you dont need to memorize everyone's name to kno who is who; you'll kno who's important enough to remember by the second or third episode. the pacing, however, (in my opinion) gets better as you go on. yes, it does bait you along for answers until the second to last and last episodes, but that's to be expected in an anime like this. they're not gonna reveal everything before its over ! and the actual reveals themselves are definitely worth the wait and mystery

plot

I'll be honest and say I didnt kno exactly what was happening for most of the anime. I had questions up the wazoo and no real answers for a long time. however, once they started getting those answers, everything began to piece together. yes, it is confusing at first, especially because they only give you a little bit at a time. however, by episode 11, a lot of things are either explained or just on the verge of being explained. the rest is wrapped up almost perfectly in the last episode, where it answers all the questions I had and also hits you with an ending so deep that my roommate and I didnt kno what to say once it was over. it presents trauma and how to deal with it in a new and refreshing light that I dont believe I've seen before, especially not in a 12 episode anime. I also feel satisfied in a way I've never been before with a 12 episode anime, with the way everything is wrapped up. for me, I dont need another episode showing what happens to the characters and how theyv chosen to deal with their respective traumas. I cant think of a better way to end the anime.

conclusion

i can say with confidence that this anime has thoroughly subverted my expectations, not by making fun of tropes in the horror anime genre and somehow making them worse, but by expanding on what horror means and how people deal with it. everyone is different and deals with trauma in their own way. there is no right way for everyone, only a right way for you.

now, I need to emphasize that in order for everything to come together, make sense, and potentially impact you the way it did for my roommate and I, you need to watch the entire thing. you cant watch the first half and call it a bad anime for not giving answers. answers will come. I can promise that. whether you can accept those answers in the end is, of course, up to you

[demonicpiano]

give me some unpopular opinions (like 13-15 on the ask meme whichever you wanna answer or all of them if youre feeling WILD)

Giving me headscratchers, Tema! That's good. I won't go through all of them in one go, but I'll answer 13, 14, and 15 for the Salty Ask List.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

America is not sexy. He's not. He tries too hard to make it legit. He's cunning, he has book smarts, he's curious and imaginative, but he's much cuter and exasperating than 'sexy.' People see the noisiest blue-eyed, blond anime boy in a line-up and start sweating in their jimmies. You're falling for the most basic thing on the menu. I still adore the man, nonetheless, but those overly hip pictures where he's ripped to the wazoo and winking just makes me chuckle.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

It's lovely. There, I said it. I love the Hetalia fandom. What of the Ship Wars, the obsessed fanpeople, and all the cringe of yesteryear? Spoilers: That's every fandom. Every fandom has that. Hetalia is no different just because a bunch of teeny-boppers spread ship-propaganda all over the internet and got into arguments about who looks better with who. I never saw myself spending more than a half of a decade in a fandom, but here I am and still going strong. It's hilarious, there's tons of AUs, therefore tons of content that never seems to stop. There's still so much left to explore many years later.

Just like with every fandom, you must curate your experiences, what you want to see, and find like-minded people to share your thoughts and ideas but keep an open mind to others. Liberally use block features. The back button is free to use. Close out of the site that is upsetting you. Deep breath. It's an anime. It'll be okay.

15. Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

The Musicals' personalities are more engaging considering they're not stuffed full of typical anime-tropes. I'm not sure if that's entirely unpopular, but I spend a lot of my fandom time in AU's so I don't have a crazy number of straying opinions about the source material.

~

You also sent me another ask if there's a popular character I hate, so I'll answer that here—I do not hate any said character, just specific fandom portrayals of them.

[lastgenpodcast]

The Incredibles - A Women Centered Film, Written by a Man

Fourteen years ago, a superhero movie was released and has been one of the best family superhero movies to date - The Incredibles.  While the film is very much centered on Mr. Incredible's journey, there is also an element in the film that may be overlooked- that of female roles.  Despite being written by a man and coming out in 2004, The Incredibles is very much a woman-centric film. Let’s dig in a bit.

One of the main issues this movie tackles is gender equality and it does this better than most animated movies.  At the start of the movie we see Mrs. Incredible, aka Elastigirl, as a superhero in her own right. The movie demonstrates that it is possible for her keep her own identity even while wearing additional hats as a wife and mother - she never allows those hats to overtake who she was in the opening of the film- they simply add to who she is. This can be a tough thing for women, as it is so easy to put your family’s needs before your own (even down to the simple act of not putting makeup on to leave the house because the kids/the schedule won’t allow you to).  We see that Mrs. Incredible keeps the family together - the kids are taken care of, the house is unpacked and cleaned, and she even tries to make sure her husband is involved in the kids’ lives. You get the impression that if Mrs. Incredible were out of the picture, the family would crumble into chaos (which makes the premise for Incredibles 2 very interesting). She is the epitome of the strength that Mr. Incredible is so fearful of not having enough of, which makes his fear of losing his family or having them injured so crippling to his actions.  Mrs. Incredible only has one moment of vulnerability, which she is quickly snapped out of by her friend Edna Mode (a true girlfriend indeed). While the situation of tracking down her husband (and having her children stow away on the plane heading into danger) would typically be one to send many of us into a panic attack with anxiety up the wazoo, she is calm and collected. The writers don’t put her into the “typical” woman mold - thankfully.  Instead, she is shown that she was, in fact, stronger than her husband - demonstrating that physical strength will not always be enough.

The movie also addresses other themes facing girls/women, including being confident in yourself, as we learn from Violet.  She is like many females, especially young teens, who don’t necessarily like who they are and/or are not comfortable with who they are because they don’t fit a certain mold (the pretty popular type). Of course once she accepts who she is, she excels as both a superhero, a sister, a daughter, and even a teenager (date with Tony). While this is not necessarily a theme only for the modern age, it is quite appropriate for the modern female.  It seems that only recently have girls been encouraged to be themselves, whether this pertains to body shape/appearance or being comfortable pursuing a career or a family. Violet is shown that it is important to love herself and embrace her “flaws” as these are not necessarily things to hide, but things to embrace. Once she allows herself to do this, she is free to just be herself, which is more than good enough.

Additionally, the movie has your typical woman side-kick in Mirage, but she does not stay in that "typical" role for very long. While she initially does what Syndrome wants, at the first turn where he shows his true colors, she is willing to give up on him and side with The Incredibles.  The film does not let this woman become another dumb female, made stupid by her feelings towards a man in power. This small, simple role shows the greater depths of how a female character can be better written and better handled. 

So as you can see, while The Incredibles has many themes, many of them that are focused on strong women embracing themselves and their choices - which is very interesting as this movie was written by a man.  This same man is the force behind the sequel. Interestingly, the sequel also has many female leads and themes centered around these female characters. I want to briefly discuss The Incredibles 2 here- I’ll try to avoid major spoilers but if you haven’t seen it, you should do that first. 

The Incredibles 2 begins where the first one left off, so the audience doesn’t have to spend time playing catch up in our characters’ lives- which also means that the characters haven’t had time to grow/change without the viewer knowing. This movie, as shown in previews, focuses on Mrs. Incredible, or as she is more frequently called throughout the movie - Elastigirl - and her own dealings of being a working mother. While the movie plays on many parenting tropes, we see how things were handled quite well by Mrs. Incredible.  Now, I’m sure I will hear the comment that, well, she didn’t have to deal with Jack Jack’s emerging powers as well.  However, she was able to handle Dash’s school issues (a bit more since he was a more of a troublemaker in the first movie), Violet’s constant insecurity, and Jack Jack, who was younger, thus needing more attention. She also had to contend with the issue of her husband’s possible infidelity/secretive nature.  I think it’s fair to say that both parents had their stay-at-home parenting job equally as difficult; yet, Mrs. Incredible never seemed as ruined as Mr. Incredible does in this movie.  Once again we are shown Mrs. Incredible’s extraordinary inner strength- in the first movie, it was her ability to handle the switch from superhero to stay at home mom; now it’s from stay at home mom back to superhero, but one with a family to think of and worry about while she is out on her missions. The movie once again emphasizes how well Mrs. Incredible can handle multiple responsibilities.

Another component to this movie is Edna Mode. She embodies those women who focus on career over family - something she clearly indicates is her own decision. However, we are also given the glimpse into her life where she is able to have her chance to babysit Jack Jack. Despite having little-to-no maternal instincts, she is able to succeed in both competently taking care of the baby, as well as designing a very unique supersuit for him (in one night as she emphasizes). Here we are given the character who is able to enjoy her career life, as well as some of the mothering that is inherent in every woman. She is not simply a character for quippy phrases and humor - she is an example of how a woman can pursue her career without feeling that she lost something because she decided not to become a mother.

We can't discuss this movie without going back to Violet. Just a moment before this movie, she had grown so much and developed into a, somewhat, confident teenager. Yet, much of that is tossed into the wind once the second movie starts and she is back to being this awkward girl trying to find her place in the world. What makes Violet's character great is that she does not revert back to being the shy wall-flower, but now has to grow even more. I find she is one of the most relatable characters because she has so much thrown at her, yet she does not back down and retreat. She continues to stand up and face the world, as crazy as it is. Perhaps this is because of who her mother is and the qualities she has learned from watching Helen throughout her life.

Speaking of watching Helen, we also get introduced to another female character Voyd. And while we don't get to know much about her beyond her superpowers, we do get the glimpse into what happens when females have strong, powerful females to look up to. Voyd was in a similar situation as Violet- she has powers but cannot use them for fear of being called out as a super.  Having Elastigirl once again come forward and show how great being a super can be gives Voyd the confidence to be her true self. I feel like this character is there not only for women, but for anyone out there who is uncomfortable in their own skin and only becomes confident once they see someone else like them become successful and loved. Again, not something solely for the females in the audience, but something they can connect with very deeply. 

Overall, these movies are superb. I think the closer you look at them, the more it becomes spectacular that they are able to say so much about society, particularly about women, despite the fact that they were both written by a man.  Fourteen years is quite a long time for a sequel, but it was worth the wait as we are able to continue this journey with our favorite superheroes - especially our favorite super mom.

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 7/5/21

Boys Run the Riot, Vol. 1 | By Keito Gaku | Kodansha Comics – This was well-acclaimed when it was first licensed, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a great look at transgender and genderqueer characters, showing both the difficulties and triumphs that they experience. The art is also terrific, popping off the page, particularly in the art that Ryo creates. I also enjoyed how Ryo and Jin became fast friends, and despite a few misunderstandings (mostly as their classmates see them in a different way) stay that way, especially as they’re both outsiders in a way. Oh yes, and the title itself, as well as its derivation towards the end of this volume, is brilliant in its layered meanings. I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens next, and hope that the fashion they’ve designed takes off. – Sean Gaffney

Kageki Shojo!! The Curtain Rises | By Kumiko Saiki | Seven Seas – I had read this when it first came out last year, but forgot to review it. Which is dumb, as it’s fantastic, and also it has not only an anime that debuted last week, but also a manga “sequel” that starts this week. The story of an all-girls school aiming to be the top stars in their not-Takarazuka-because-of-legal-reasons troupe, we meet Ai, a girl with a troubled and abusive past who is small and doesn’t trust easily, as well as Sarasa, a girl who also has a troubled past (that we don’t see as much of in this omnibus) but who is very tall and trusts very easily. Yes, it’s shiny peppy girl meets dark grumpy girl, and we all love that type of relationship to bits. The supporting cast are also very good, and this volume ends openly, which is good, as the story continues. – Sean Gaffney

Let’s Not Talk Anymore | By Weng Pixin | Drawn & Quarterly – Having enjoyed Weng Pixin’s collection Sweet Time, I was happy to discover that another volume of her work had recently been released. Let’s Not Talk Anymore is a beautifully painted, captivating comic that explores five generations of matrilineal family history, both real and imagined. The narrative is cyclical in nature, repeatedly shifting from 1908 to 1947 to 1972 to 1998 to 2032 and back again while following the lives of Weng’s great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, the creator herself, and her imaginary daughter as fifteen-year-olds. While not always readily apparent to the young women themselves, readers soon begin to see patterns and parallels emerge from the telling of their stories. The similarities and differences between their generational traumas and personal experiences inform who they are as individuals as well as in relationship to one another. Let’s Not Talk Anymore deftly and elegantly captures the complexities of the inherited realities connecting mothers and daughters through multiple generations. – Ash Brown

My Hero Academia, Vol. 28 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – Things continue to be absolutely terrible for the heroes, and we’re starting to get an actual body count on their side, though it’s not any of the major characters… so far. Unfortunately, the big plan to stop the resurrection of Shigaraki is a disaster of epic proportions, though it’s nice to see that he seems to know the narrative tropes of this sort of thing and is headed right towards Deku. Fortunately, Gran Torino, also familiar with these narrative tropes, is there to stop Deku rushing in and killing himself. There’s not really a lot to talk about here as it’s just a massive, city-destroying chaotic battle, but it’s rare that you see a Jump title like this go so far in having its good guys lose over and over again. It’s chilling. – Sean Gaffney

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, Vol. 12 | By Izumi Tsubaki | Yen Press – I tried something a little different with this twelfth volume of Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun. Instead of reading it straight through, I read a chapter a day. I think that helped a lot in terms of appreciating the wacky episodic humor, which in this installment involves things like Nozaki trying to help Seo figure out her feelings for Wakamatsu by loaning her shoujo manga and later making a Wakamatsu doll, Nozaki owning in a competition amongst classmates to see who can write the best love confession, and Sakura’s ill-fated attempts to embody a cool girl to help Nozaki with a story. As ever, though, my favorite parts involve Hori and Kashima, whose relationship has evolved a little since his confession, though they’re still far away from becoming an official couple. Nothing here made me laugh out loud, but plenty made me smile. I look forward to the next one! – Michelle Smith

Species Domain, Vol. 10 | By Shunsuke Noro | Seven Seas – Ohki is the big focus of this volume, and not in a good way. After a fun, cute date with the girl who’s crushing hard on him, he shuts her down, saying that he’s “in love with science.” It’s not clear if this is meant to be a sign of asexuality or simply narrow focus, but it’s clearly rude to the girl, as everyone else notes. Then we get another elf showing up as a transfer student, only this one is a full-blown elf with magic out the wazoo, which he demonstrates in class. Now Ohta’s interested, having seen actual magic in action, which deals a devastating blow to Kazanori. Elsewhere, we probably get FAR more information about icaruses and how they get pregnant than we’d really like, much to Hanei’s horror and embarrassment. This is ending soon, but is still fun. – Sean Gaffney

Sweat and Soap, Vol. 6 | By Kintetsu Yamada | Kodansha Comics – Our sweet couple finally moves in together, will all the issues that you tend to see when that happens. It means we get their first fight, as Kotaro is trying to do everything himself so that Asako doesn’t have to, which annoys her as they’re supposed to have a partnership. She also badly handles a guy blatantly hitting on her while Kotaro is away, taking his business card even though she’s clearly not interested. That said, these things are fairly easily resolved, and the majority of the time we get to see what these two do best, as we watch them working, eating, making soap, and making love. (Even the fight is adorable, as passersby whisper that he’s getting dumped, which she angrily—and loudly—denies.) Read this; you won’t regret it. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

[redxcted]

V Long Extensive Headcanon Meme!!!

RULES.  Repost, do not reblog !  Tag 10 !  Good  luck ! Tagged by: @radxrand​ Tagging: everyone ♥

BASICS. FULL  NAME :  Matthew Michael Murdock NICKNAME/S :  Matt, Matty, Murdock, Angel, Murdick (and then there’s a ll the Daredevil related nicknames, mostly given to him by Frank.) AGE :  29/30ish? BIRTHDAY :  October 30th ETHNIC  GROUP :  Irish NATIONALITY :   American LANGUAGE/S :   English, Spanish SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  Pansexual *cough leaningtowardsdudes cough* ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :   Panromantic RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :  Verse dependent but mostly he’s with someone CLASS :   Middle HOME TOWN / AREA :  Hell’s Kitchen, New York CURRENT  HOME :   Hell’s Kitchen, New York PROFESSION :  It’s either N&M lawyer or lawyer????? trying to keep his shit together (failing) job hunting, doing consultations with people but like at cafes lmao. 

PHYSICAL. HAIR : Dark brown/reddish. Short, nothing too distinctive about it except that it’s thick EYES :  Light brown, kept hidden by red tinted circular glasses a lot of the time NOSE :  A cute nose.  FACE :  Reminiscent of a puppy sometimes, almost always has stubble, not overly angular but not round per se either (is that oval shape?)  LIPS :   R E D especially when he’s crying COMPLEXION :  Fair BLEMISHES :  None SCARS : All over tbh; a few on his back, two big ones on his chest, a couple more  at his sides, burns at his hip/thigh area TATTOOS :  Damn I have so many ideas b/c of that meme about this but I kinda think he just hasn’t gotten any yet?  PIERCINGS:  None HEIGHT :  5′10″ WEIGHT :  *whispers* don’t make me spatially reason BUILD :  Toned af  FEATURES :  Abs out the wazoo but thicc thighs  ALLERGIES :  None, but he’s v sensitive to smells so certain perfumes, colognes, lotions, shampoo, soaps will bother him a lot. Also cotton’s apparently not his thing. USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :  Short, parted to the side.  USUAL  FACE  LOOK :  Tense maybe? There’s usually some injury going on too. USUAL  CLOTHING :  Either a suit or sweats with his pants tucked into his socks, there’s very little in-between. 

PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR/S :  Not being good enough <-- also a big one, flying, abandonment ASPIRATION/S :  Most of the time it’s stuff like ‘make it through the day’ in one piece but ultimately he’s here to fight for justice and he just wants to be good at that.  POSITIVE  TRAITS :  Resilient mf’er, will keep your secrets, cares a lot, quick-witted, amazing in bed, loves hard and fights hard especially for what he believes in, charming, loves making people feel good. NEGATIVE  TRAITS :  Not above lying a lot, stubborn, gets lost in his own head sometimes, past infidelity issues, hates asking for help, either gets distant or clings tight, bad at taking care of himself.  MBTI :  ISFJ ZODIAC :  Scorpio  TEMPERAMENT :  Introvert definitely, choleric with melancholic tendencies tbh SOUL  TYPE / S :  i think priest?  ANIMALS :  i’m not really sure?  VICE  HABIT/S :  Probably too much whiskey, Daredeviling,  FAITH :  Catholicism but he’s not always good at it. GHOSTS ? :  Oh yeah AFTERLIFE ? :  Yeah  REINCARNATION ? :  he’s unsure; maybe?  ALIENS ? :  Yeah!! POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :  Votes Democrat  ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE :  uhhhh not picky?  SOCIOPOLITICAL  POSITION :  verse dependent I guess?  EDUCATION  LEVEL :  graduated colombia law school (i guess that gives him a JD?)

FAMILY. FATHER :  Jack Murdock MOTHER :  Maggie Murdock SIBLINGS :  none EXTENDED  FAMILY :  FOGGY NELSON NAME  MEANING/S : apparently one of the twelve apostles! HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? :  english form of the greek word for the hebrew name  מַתִּתְיָהוּ (Mattityahu) (interesting) 

FAVOURITES. DEITY :  God MONTH :  January SEASON :  fall but winter has its place PLACE :  either Josie’s or his roof at night WEATHER :  Snow, because it makes everything quiet SOUND :  his partner’s heartbeat, their voice. SCENT/S :  the saccharine smell of Sunday Mass, churches in general tbh, his partner ahaha, coffee TASTE/S :  coffee, his partner FEEL/S :  silk, face ANIMAL/S :  cats? NUMBER :  4 COLOUR :  lmao he knows he looks damn good in red

EXTRA. TALENTS :  keeping it together in some respects, parkour BAD  AT :  keeping it together in a lot of respects, color coordination TURN  ONS :  neck kisses, neck bites, being possessive over him especially with marks (love bites, back scratches, etc), dirty talk, hair pulling TURN  OFFS : body odor tbh, cumming on face/hair HOBBIES : Daredevil ahaha, boxing stuff, reading TROPES :  crusading lawyer /  hurting hero AESTHETIC  TAGS :  i think it’s just ‘aesthetic’

FC INFO. MAIN  FC/S :  Charlie Cox ALT  FC/S :  i haven’t given it much thought?  OLDER  FC/S :  see above YOUNGER  FC/S :  Nicholas Hoult as Tony Stonem b/c of an inside joke that got taken too far VOICE  CLAIM/S :  Charlie Cox

[knightofbalance-13]

Gainax Retrospective Review 2: NGE, a step back.

Usually when a creator uses one of their pre existing works as a basis for a new one, you'd think that the new work would be an improvement right? I mean, how hard can it be for a creator to improve upon their previous work with how much more experience they have now than back then, especially when they have an even more experienced team, more money, more people and an already established name for themselves. How hard can it be?

Well, harder than one would think considering a genius like Hideaki Anno who created the subject of the first Gainax Retrospective Review, GunBuster, went onto create another mecha anime by the name of Neon Genesis Evangelion which can only be described as “A half baked GunBuster stretched into a full length anime and two movies.” Except that doesn't even begin to explain what is wrong with this anime. A plot that slowly deteriorates into philosophical musing that is either too boring or too basic, characters that are likeable only because they take after GunBuster's at best and vile pieces of shit that deserve a severe beating at worst with some of the worst execution of deconstruction and themes I have ever seen. So, let's dive into this broken down mess of an anime and let's see how it failed despite in Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The anime takes place in the distant future of 2015, twenty years after a near apocalyptic event known as Second Impact which has left humanity in rather shitty state but they are beginning to recover. However, an alien...esque? race known as Angels who have come to finish off humanity with the Third Impact and it's up to the organization known as NERV to stop them. How do they go about this? By using giant robots piloted by teenagers of course! … Well, that's what the story makes you believe. It's actually a psychological study of the characters and the archtypes they fall into using the mechas as prerequisite for using said archtypes.

Here's the problem: the transition from being a slightly dark but normal Super Robot anime to a full blown fuck everyone deconstruction is about as smooth of a road made of glass shards and jagged rocks. Around the sixteenth or eighteenth episode the show flips onto it's head and completely switches gears. Yeah there are some psychological elements in the beginning but they get dropped part way through only to return and steal the show and not in a good way. This sudden switch leaves a lot of people with whiplash, being thrusted into an almost completely different show without warning. Not to mention the actual mecha part of the fucking show starts disappearing so people who came for the awesome mecha fights Gaianx had been known for at the time was replaced by nonsensical and poorly explained looks into the mental state of the characters and the philosophy of the show (which I'll tear apart later). This doesn't work on a casual level because most casual viewers will be confused and pissed off by this dribble, especially as it replaces a main drive for watching the show. And on a critical level this doesn't work as the pyscological aspects are either poorly portrayed (like Shinji's overcoming of his depression) or are constantly being contradicted (like Shinji's case of running away which is tretaed mostly as his fault but psychologically anyone can say that's anything but) thus making it fail on both levels.

But let's move on. A central problem with Neon Genesis Evangelion is the fact that the show refuses to show anything good about the world, the themes or the characters. Let's take for instance Evangelion's theme of the bonds between humans. This is a great concept, especially in a genre so full of comradery and friendship. However, like many of the things in Evangelion, the execution is botched like all hell because it's refusal to show the good. This is a problem here because since Evangelion refuses to show anything positive it not only comes across as very depressing and not entertaining to most at all but it ruins the deconstruction by destroying any semblance of realism and the entertainment value of the trope is ruined because it's neither portrayed in the previously entertaining way that it had in the original state nor is it competently broken down as to be fascinated by it's mechanics like in a deconstructive state. It's just a giant mess.

This is a severe contrast to how GunBuster worked in which the show achieved a delicate balance of realism and fantasy to allow unrealistic and realistic things to happen in the show without great contradictions. The situations the characters faced could be as fantasical as fighting an army of aliens or as close to home as becoming distant to everyone you know or suffering the pressure of everyone despising you and it still made sense in the context of the world because it showed the good and bad of everything, allowing it to play tropes straight, deconstruct them and even reconstruct them. GunBuster, by having a balanced view and world, could show everything within the human experience. Evangelion limited itself to showing only the bad, not only disgracing GunBuster but also doing a bad job of it as it's nowhere near close to reality to be considered insightful.

Oh and did I mention there are plotholes out the ass in this show? No? Well there is! There moments where the characters will act out of character for the sake of plot, powers get introduced out of nowhere, reveals get screwed by massive forshadowing and there are several questions that the series has never answered like why the kids don't have therapists, why the Evaneglions can't be piloted by adults, why they needed to build a city above their fucking fortress, why they can't just use regular mechas (oh yes, there is regular mechas) and why the villians would give their enemy giant ass robots that regenerate and cannot be harmed? Just one of those is enough to break a show and I just listed five of them. Talk about a crappy job.

Speaking of crappy jobs, lets talk about the characters. In all truthfulness, I will only talk in depth about four characters: Shinji Ikari, the main hero and our Noriko in this story/ Asuka Langley Soryu, his love interest/rival and the Jung Freud of Evangelion; Misato a woman of...questionable quality and sadly the Kazumi of our story and Gendo Ikari, honestly a personal favorite of mine.

Let's talk about Shinji Ikari AKA the first successor to Noriko Tayaka. Shinji Ikari is a fourteen year old boy with anxiety and fear issues up the wazoo, has a dead mom and a neglectful dad which comes with that whole bunch of problems, is mentally dependent on other's approval of him, constantly wants to run away and has just about the worst luck possible. He was brought to NERV by his father Gendo to pilot Eva Unit 01 to save the world from the Angels and understandably he freaks out. So throughout the series he fighst against the Angels while slowly breaking down from the fear and pressure he's under which causes him to fuck up and make things worse. So again, he's like Noriko who was also wounded from her father's demise, was constantly pressured to save the world, freaked out a lot and ended up fucking up and making things worse. The problem with Shinji?

There's actually a few. One, Shinji doesn't feel like he messes up of his own accord. When Noriko screwed up, it was because of her own personal failings as a person and thus it was the right thing to happen that she gets punished for that. Every time she screwed up, it was because there was something she could have done better. And because of that fault, Noriko was able to grow as a character and become stronger as a result, not to mention it was immensely satisfying when she did grow. With Shinji, many of the times he screws up it's because of forces he cannot control like his massive psychosis that not even Sigmund Freud could help him with or forces he could not see coming so it feels more like the world is beating him down rather than him actually screwing up. It means he never really has to answer for his flaws in a realsitic and constructive, rather he just keeps getting beaten down by everyone and every thing in sight which is just pisses off the viewer. It also causes an even bigger problem but we'll talk about it later.

The second problem comes in the form of the fact that the show cannot decide whether or not Shinji's condition is suppose to be sympathetic or not. The show's characters constantly switch between feeling bad for Shinji to telling him to get up off his lazy ass to go save the world. Now if each character had a fixed reaction to Shinji's situation like one person would tell Shinji to tough it out while another would be more gentle and kind to him. This would serve to give something of a view of who the character really is. Hwoever, since all the characters have such varying reactions to his situations despite most of them being the same basic thing, we can't get a proper reading. This wasn't a problem with Noriko who had people who were critical of her (Coach and Jung) and people who were kind to her (Kazumi and Toren). This showed that Noriko was a person who held a lot of potential within her and was understandably scared but still needed to get stronger. With Shinji, this characterization doesn't work since there are so many contradictions in the show. One character will go from encouraging Shinji to berating him in nearly identical situations. So you either have to hate Shinji in which you hate it that he gets so much focus and wish he'd die already or you like him and watch him get beaten down. There is no in between.

And the final problem is as such: Shinji never truly develops as a character. Shinji will occasionally display feats or courage and strength but at the same time he'll either go back to being scared some other time or be forced back to square one at best by a tramuatic event. This is a problem because Shinji never develops as a character, his flaws remain within him as the anime goes on and even gets worse, effectively devolving him as a character. This can work in some cases like with Guts from the brilliant Berserk Manga as his flaws make him a complex character but Shinji is nowhere near as developed as Guts nor is his basic character structured in a way that more flaws makes him complex as they all result from area thus he has one flaw. Another problem with this is that since Shinji never fails on his own terms, which would give him a chance to evolve and grow, he can't grow truly and just enters into a short of developpmental circle where he regularly grows and devolves as a character, eventually ending up as the same guy we started with. Noriko did not have this flaw, she failed on her own terms and she grew as acharacter, which increased our love and respect for the show. And just as well, since Shinji never grows, we lose respect and love for the series.

Now, let's move onto our second subject: Asuka Langley Soryu. A brash, confident, arrogant redheaded girl around Shinji's age who acts as his rival/love interest by the virtue of being a much more skilled pilot than he is. So yeah, she's this show's Jung Freud down to both being red headed foreigners. Now I like Asuka due to the fact that her character is a very well done compare and contrast with Shinji. Contrast due to their outward personalities being total opposites: Shinji being a quiet, modest and scared introvert and Asuka being a loud, prideful and reckless extrovert. Compare because their psychological wounds are very similar but their coping mechanisms are different. The problem with Asuka? Much of the same with Shinji: Never allowed to grow, rarely failing of her own accord and constantly being beaten down. Except there are more problems. The shows could have used Asuka and Shinji to show the positive and negative aspects of human bonding by showing them equally be good and bad for each other and kind of does so to an extent as Shinji becomes bolder when Asuka shows up and Asuka becomes less prideful and kinder with Shinji. However, Episode 16 onward and the show completely cuts out the good part and ramps the bad up to a million, showing a toxic relationship when it started out so well written. This screw up seriously damages the series as it's pretty much the only good example of relationships in the series and it barely lasts. Another problem lies in the fact that Asuka is an Expy of Jung Freud but she lacks the crucial aspect of Jung: her loyalty. No matter what Jung did or say, tehre was no doubt that she was a friend to Noriko and Kazumi and went as far as to try and die for them. Asuka never showed such loyalty which brings into question just how friendly she is with Shinji and just how much she actually enjoys his company. Had the anime showed Asuka displaying great feats of loyalty to Shinji or the others than it would have made for a better conflict for her and her pride as well as fully cement her as an ally to Shinji and given her a way to show the good side of her relationship with him. Such a waste.

Our next subject is Misato and oh boy, have I been waiting to dig into Misato. Out of all the iterations of Kazumi I have seen with Gainax and Trigger, Misato is the absolute worst version. Misato is portrayed as the guardian/mentor figure to Shinji, is silly, drunk, childish, short tempered and shorted sighted but is capable of being smart and atctical at times. At first she supports Shinji and wants what's best for him but as things continue, she eitehr doesn't care about Shinji or acts like he's a whiny brat and nota psychologically damaged, fourteen year old CHILD SOLDIER! Misatos flaws are different but easier to talk about. She is way too childish to act as a proper mentor to Shinji as she witholds crucial information from him when it would have benefited him (like Asuka's mental faults or what the hell is going on behind the scenes or how to interact with people!) She is too selfish to be a proper mentor or guardian to Shinni as he will shatter into dust in front of her while she goes off trying to unravel whatever the hell is going on behind the scenes and she is too temperamental to be a proper anything to Shinji as she KNOWS he's two steps away from blowing his brains out and tells him to “quit moping” which is incredibly offensive to a depressed person! In essence, Misato lacks a lot of things that make her likable at all but what she lacks from Kazumi is her cool, kind nature and wisdom.

And finally, we reach Gendo Ikari. Gendo Ikari acts as a sort of antagonist as he uses his son Shinji for his goals and screws over a lot of people for his own gain. He's cold, detached, somewhat heartless and incredibly dangerous due to his intelligence and drive. Gendo acts as the Coach Ohta of this anime and I think Hideaki Anno was his most lucid when writing Gendo because hes actually a good deconstruction of Coach. The main thing about Coach was that while he was gruff and mean, he had a good heart as even as his motive is selfish it was still beneficial to humanity. Gendo is very much the same character except that his selfish goal is detrimental to humanity as it would overall harm them and only benefit him and while it's hinted Gendo had a good heart, he eventually lost it and became the cold bastrad we see him as. But that's not the end of it. Gendo is actually a complex character as his goal is related to his family and is extremely relateable to anyone who has lost a loved one but goes to show how far some people will go. And best of all: He is depicted as a direct comparison as Shinji. Many of Shinji's actions are similar to that of his father's and in the end, Gendo expressed the same self hatred, inability to connect to humanity and reliance on others that defined Shinji. I would love to see a spin off or fanfic consisting of Gendo and Shinji living together instead of with Misato and seeing them fight and argue but eventually bond with each other. But that is only one interesting character and much of what I have said is my own interruption of the character as many thinsg about him are left in the air or buried under philosophical nonsense.

The other characters are...barely that. Rei has no personality whatsoever and I less a main character than a walking plot device. Kaji is a better Kazumi than the fucking Kazumi stand in but of course he dies. Ritsuko's character boils down to “Love Gendo/Hate Mom”, Toji is barely around and only acts as anotehr bludgeon for Shinji, Kensuke gets dropped clsoe to the end and is just a military geek and SEELE is so under characterized and boringt that I imagined one of them was Grampa Freeman from the Boondocks and is the only one I bothered to remember...There is like seven others BTW.

And thsu ends my exaimnation of the characters and now I talk about the sound! Forunately for me there is an English Dub of Evangelion so I can talk about the vocie acting! Unforunately, it's shit. Shinji's voice is way too low, Misato's voice is forgetable, Rei's volume setting is apparently a 0.2, Asuka's voice is a bit too whiny and everyone outside of these guys have nenever heard of the word “emote” as their voices barely change. The music used is...bland and forgetable. They use orchastral music for it and while it does get the job done, I can't for the life of me name a single piece of msuic from the soundtrack beyond basic classical msuic they occasionally throw in and Cruel Angel's Thesis, which is an oddly poppy song which while good is completely out of place for a show like this! Contrast this to GunBuster which used several genres and made a massive impact like Sky High! The opening and GunBuster March!, this is a huge disappointment. So the sound sucks the big one.

And finally we talk about the animation and art design. Now surely the animation must have improved, especially if everything else has taken a massive hit right? Well, in a very specific and narrow way yes. Sometimes the mecha fights can be considered better than the ones found in GunBuster but the problem is that the mecha fights get dropped for the most part in the second part of the show, only occasionally will they get better than GunBuster, the animation is used to through unnecessary disturbing shit in your face and tehre are several points in which the screen locks onto one still scene and stays there for almost a minute. Not to mention the fact that NGE ran out of the budget in the last two episodes and they were forced to slap some stuff together from the previous episodes, thus essentially boring the audience at the finish line. This does get fixed with EOE but if an anime needs a thertrical budget to end properly then it probably sucks. Also, the good animation only shows up in the fight scenes so if you're like em and don't give a shit about them anymore, they're wasted on you. Contrast this with GunBuster which had consistently impressive animation and awesome fight scenes. The actual art itself is..different from GunBuster. The eyes aren't as large anymore which I kind of miss and everything is just short of scaled down to be closer to what we see today. SO I'll call that breaking even...which is as good as Evangelion will ever get and even that is generous.

The problem with Evangelion is that it's a Gainax anime that lacks love and respect for it's medium. Evangelion feels like it is full of hate towards everything: the world, the characters, the audience and even it's ancestor. What made GunBuster so special was the overflowing love and respect it had for the mecha genre which it used to explore and improve itself, making each aspect of it shine like the sun. Evagelion tried to explore it through hate and confusion, unable to comprehend what GunBuster did and only managed to go halfway before collapsing in on itself. From the core of the show to it's characters, everything feels incomplete and half baked while acting like it did something great. If I were to describe these anime as people, GunBuster would be the kind Matirach who groomed her son to be her successor but once he was given the chance, Evangelion smashed everything GunBuster held dear and left it like that. It was born in GunBuster's shadow and it fell in GunBuster's shadow, despite beeing smarter and better equipped.

You know, I think we need to lighten the mood with a little music. And that's exactly what's up next on our little review series as we take a look at the work built to be Evangelion's counterpart, FLCL!

GunBuster Review