#anyone else watch that cartoon back then in toonami?

[tsukikoayanosuke]

Kero, Kero, Ganbatte, Tsukasa-kun! - Ruikasa Week 2024

Day 2: First Date

(ft. Sanrio collab & mentioned of Zozotown 1)

Today Tenma Tsukasa was in panic.

Shocking truly. To think that the great Tenma Tsukasa, future star, partner of Keroppi, and owner of the Rainy Frog Cafe, managed to get himself in such peril was something out of this world. 

And what is this so-called 'peril' you might ask?

This answer was straightforward really: he has a date in just fifteen minutes with one Kamishiro Rui.

Keroppi didn't really understand it at first. He had seen Tsukasa and Rui hanging around together. Ever since Rui and Hangyodon finally moved into the lighthouse by the coast, he has been visiting the cafe for breakfast and lunch. To say Tsukasa and Rui connect right off the bat was an understatement. It was as if they were always friends since tadpoles.

"They're great together, aren't they?" Hangyodon said before slurping the noodles he ordered.

Keroppi turned to him. "They are good friend."

Hangyodon shook his head. "More."

"More?"

"More."

Keroppi looked back at Rui and Tsukasa. Rui had his telescope in his hand and he chattered animatedly about the recent marine life he came up during his daily sail. Tsukasa meanwhile didn't say anything only listening with an elbow on his counter and chin on his palm, staring at Rui with a familiar gentle gaze. Keroppi only had seen that gentleness aimed toward his siblings, Saki and Touya. But…

Keroppi squinted.

Now that he looked closer…it wasn't the same. 

There’s adoration. Longings.

Love.

"Oh."

"Yep. Oh." Hangyodon spoke like he had realized it a long time ago. He did mention that Rui often made silly faces when rambling about Tsukasa, so it wouldn't be a surprise to him. Tsukasa also often talks about Rui, but Keroppi always thought it was about friendship. He kinda felt bad for not realizing it sooner.

That was why a few days later he decided to do a good deed for the both of them.

"You two should go out on a date sometimes." It was just a simple sentence, but it managed to make Rui spit his milkshake like they were in a cartoon.

"Keroppi!" Tsukasa yelled, high-pitched. More embarrassed than angry. "Where did that come from?!"

"You like each other, right?" Rui coughed. Tsukasa squeaked. Hangyodon nodded in agreement. "So, you should date at least once."

"You can't just say that!" Tsukasa pulled and squeezed his cheeks.

"I..." Rui cleared his throat. "I don't mind."

"E-Eh?" Tsukasa turned to him. "Y-You don't?"

Rui let out a flustered chuckle. "I would love to go on a date with Tsukasa."

"A--a-a-a-a-ahhhh ha ha HA HA HAHAHA" Tsukasa's cheeks were still bright red, but he managed to put his hands on his hips in an attempt to pull his usual pose. "Alright then!" He pointed at Rui. "Be prepared for the most exciting d-date in your life, Rui!"

Rui giggled. "I can't wait."

Which brought us to today with Tsukasa working his way to burn the carpet below him with his back and forth.

"You'll be fine, Tsukasa!" Keroppi said from his nightstand. "Rui would never be mad at you."

"But it has to be perfect, Keroppi!" Tsukasa yelled, more to himself than to his frog partner. His pacing somehow became even faster. "What if I screw up? What if Rui became so embarrassed that he didn't want to go out with me anymore? What if other people see us and laugh and then Rui doesn't want to go out with me anymore? What if I say something bad? What if I hurt his feelings? What if he enjoys none of this? What if-"

"Tsukasa!" Keroppi leaped and landed on Tsukasa's head, forcing him to stop.

He leaned down and stared at his human straight in the eyes despite being upside down. "You'll be fine. The fact that you're worrying means that you really care about Rui. There's no way Rui would leave you if this something turns bad, just like how I know you won't leave Rui."

Tsukasa went silent for a few seconds before sighing. "I just... I just want him to be happy with me."

"And he will." Keroppi patted Tsukasa's forehead. "Rui cares about you. Hangyodon told me so."

"He does?"

"Really, really does."

Tsukasa sighed and smiled. "Thanks, Keroppi." Which he answered with a double nod. "Okay..." Tsukasa slapped his cheeks twice, wincing at how hard he accidentally hit before shaking his head. "Okay. Keroppi, roll check!"

"Yes, Sir!" The frog leaped toward the desk where the long list had been placed. He picked up a pen. "Flower?"

"Check!" Tsukasa picked up the bouquet of vervain, masterworks, and hypericum erectum.

"Ticket to the movie?" 

"Check!" Tsukasa took out two tickets from his pocket and put it back.

"Hair and glasses?"

Tsukasa hair was fluffier. He usually uses gel to straighten up, but Rui requested not to use it for today to 'see Tsukasa-kun's authentic self'. The same goes with the contact lenses, instead preferring to the glasses. "Check! And check!"

"Coat?"

Tsukasa pulled out a coat and with a twirl, he put it on. "Check!"

"You're all set!" Keroppi then leaped into Tsukasa's coat pocket for one last look at the mirror: white collared top underneath a brown vest coat, along with the checkered outer coat, green pants, and white shoes. It wasn't like anything Tsukasa would wear, more mellow and elegant than his eccentric waiter uniform.

Tsukasa fixed his hair once again, mostly to calm himself before taking a deep breath. "Alright. I'm ready."

"You can do it!" Keroppi cheered, hands in the air. 

Tsukasa giggled and patted his partner. As he looked at the clock, his eyes widened. "Crap! We're going to be late!"

It was still 30 minutes away from the agreed-upon time, but Keroppi would let it slide.

*****

Tsukasa and Rui agreed to meet up by the fountain at the town square. Rui had arrived, already sitting on the edge with Hangyodon on his knees. Keroppi could see the fish creature reach his hand to pat Rui's cheeks, a gesture of reassurance. Rui let out a chuckle but his foot didn't stop tapping. Could it be that Rui was nervous as well? Huh. Curious.

"Rui!" Tsukasa shouted as he ran toward him. In response, Rui immediately stood up as Hangyodon leaped into his satchel. There was a blush on Rui's cheek and a wobbly smile from nervousness.

"You came, Tsukasa-kun." Like Tsukasa, Rui was dressing fancy: a green jacket over a brown top and red tie, brown pants, and shoes.

"Of course, I came! There's no way I'm breaking my own words!" Tsukasa grinned. Keroppi tapped Tsukasa's, a signal. "O-Oh." And the shyness returned as Tsukasa offered his bouquet. "For you..."

"O-Oh..." Rui took the flower, blush became more apparent. "My favorites."

"Of course they are." Tsukasa cleared his throat. "So. Are you ready to go?" And Rui nodded in response.

Nobody was really talking during the walk which was strange in Keroppi's opinion. The two were the 'weirdo combo' of the town, yet here they are, not 'weird'-ing out. It seemed like Hangyodon also noticed this as he tapped Rui's hand. When the purplenette noticed him, Hangyodon tapped his fins together. Rui blinked, glanced at Tsukasa, then back at Hangyodon with a blush. Hangyodon tapped Rui's hand again as if pushing it to touch Tsukasa's. Rui mouthed, "I know, I know!" before looking back at Tsukasa who was ignorant of his turmoil.

"T-Tsukasa-kun."

Tsukasa turned back to him. "Yeah?"

"Umm..." Rui averted his gaze. Then he reached for Tsukasa's hand, shyly holding it.

Tsukasa was blushing but he squeezed his hand back.

Both of them had the funny smile on their face, but Keroppi and Hangyodon knew they would be fine.

[decimadragonoid]

Here's some more Dragonball Z fanart featuring some of my favorite characters: Guldo, Chiaotzu, and Gohan. However, this art piece isn't exactly a happy one. You probably might get the hint as to why I say this already, but I'll give you some details.

As a lifelong fan of Dragonball, I was shocked to hear that the creator of the series, Akira Toriyama, had passed away roughly over a week ago. It was like reading news articles about how Toriyama-san was about to announce some new projects and spinoff works he was working on; then, suddenly, the next day, I found out that he was gone. According to official reports, Toriyama-san's cause of death was acute subdural hematoma.  Basically, this is a form of severe head injury in which bleeding fills up the brain area and causes brain tissue to compress. I will leave a hyperlink in case anyone wants to know more about it, but anyway, back to Toriyama...

When I was much younger, I would watch Dragonball and Dragonball Z on Cartoon Network's Toonami and Miguzi segments. Sometimes I would find myself hurrying back home or to my grandma's house from school and my afterschool program to catch the latest episode. I would watch Goku's adventures religiously and see what kind of friends, rivals, and enemies he'd make along the way. I was also a big fan of the Dragonball Z video games, including DBZ: Budokai, The Legacy of Goku, Dragonball FighterZ, Super Dragonball Heroes: World Mission, and DBZ: Kakarot. I would play DBZ: Budokai 3 non-stop with my cousin whenever I went to his house to play his PS2 with him. I still wish I had my PS2 so I could relive my DBZ gaming memories, but I still have Dragonball FighterZ, Super Dragonball Heroes, and DBZ: Kakarot. Matter of fact, I want to return to Dragonball FighterZ at some point since the online modes have been overhauled with rollback netcode. I also want to go back to DBZ: Kakarot at some point to finish playing the game and DLCs!

Fast-forward several years later, I remember not too long ago that during the COVID pandemic, I would binge-watch the original Dragonball series and a portion of the Dragonball Z series while exercising on a machine in the comfort of my home. It was my favorite pastime and a great way for me to lose weight while doing so. In fact, I plan on continuing to binge-watch the original Dragonball Z series with the Kikuchi musical score real soon.

I'm still very shocked and saddened by the fact that Toriyama-san is no longer with us, but as a Dragonball fan and appreciator of his works, I will always keep his stories close to my heart. Dragonball is a series that has given me a reason to never give up on life and everything that I do. It's something that helps me get pumped to exercise, become a better person, and never stop improving myself in the long run. So, to give Toriyama-san a proper sendoff, I'm going to refrain from trying to collect the Dragon Balls to bring him back to life, salute him for all his hard work and his efforts to make my childhood the best childhood I've ever had, and keep his memories and works alive!

Thank you so much for the memories, Toriyama-san. May you rest in peace.

========

Akira Toriyama:

April 5th, 1955-March 1st, 2024

========

Please leave your thoughts and critique in the comment section, as it really helps me think about and improve my style! Be sure to reblog this and spread this around to your fellow Dragonball fans too!

Also, feel free to share some of your fondest memories of Akira Toriyama's works, whether it be Dragonball Z or anything else that comes to mind. I'd love to hear your fondest memories!

========

Dragonball Z © Akira Toriyama

Fanart by DecimaDragonoid

[angelofbenignmalevolence]

8 & 9? 💕

8. Talk about your first experience with queerness in fandom.

Oooft this takes me back. My first experience with queerness in fandom was back in the day when I was little and Sailor Moon was still on the afternoon Toonami block on Cartoon Network. And I think I have to explain my answer a little bit.

As I started watching Sailor Moon in the English dub, many changes were made. Zoicite was female, Amara and Michelle were cousins, etc. It had been very heavily edited to conceal many of the queer characters or tone them down to make them more "palatable" to an American audience who was not welcoming to any kind of queer content at the time. (I'm old 🥲).

With that disclaimer, my first experience with queerness came in the form of Amara, who was very much a non-binary icon. The way that her character broke the stereotype that a woman had to be overly feminine was a breath of fresh air in the world of cartoons for girls that were all pink and glitter and rainbows.

When I started to dig deeper into the lore and learn more about the source material and engage with other fandoms, I fell headfirst into an all out war over how to engage with the characters "correctly." As a young woman was wasn't traditionally feminine and wasn't interested in dating, the fact that Amara as a character was (at least in the dub when I was watching) a bit of a badass while still being able to be both feminine when she wanted to be and masculine when she wanted to be was very much a comfort. To be told that I was 100% unequivocally WRONG for engaging with a character that "wasn't a true representation of the source character" and that the only way to appreciate the character was as they were originally written put me off of queerness in fandom for awhile. Only within the last 5-10 years have I really gotten back into exploring headcanons that are different from the source material.

Which is a reminder for all of us to be kind. You don't know how what you do and say will affect the person on the other side of that.

9. What inspires you to make queer content?

Well, I guess my own journey of discovery (and exclusion in some spaces). As a romantic/sexual alignment that is often considered on the fringes of queer space (or outright denied as existing), it's a way for me to explore different sexualities and identities and learn more about the community to help build a more welcoming place. While I have not shared much (or any) of my queer stories, I am hoping to start branching out and posting more about what I care about and caring less about what others think of that content. It's a journey <3

Thanks for the question. If anyone else is interested in questions for Thunderpride, check out the list here.

[kyrodo]

I'm sure plenty of people got confused when I didn't know famous movies and things. I tell people I'm not cultured enough to know certain things, old or recent. References, famous lines, celebrities, lives of celebreties, the must watch movies that I never watched, whatever. Despite how old I am now, some things have never changed.

If you turn back time far enough, you will find me playing n64, ps2, or gamecube games, or whatever point and click, or campaign fps my dad finished playing on pc. You will find me watching redwall tv, cartoon Network, toonami, or adult swim, and SyFy, skipping over certain shows that seemed too dumb for me unless I had nothing better to do. Movies I watched when my family watched them unless it was too boring. That is why.

I didn't have the convenience of steam or 500 games. I was in a very isolated and controlled environment where I practically had to beg to get a new game. Internet wasn't widespread or a requirement until late jr high. So yeah I was and still am sheltered, never cared about certain cultures that don't fit my personality. I tend to bury myself in a game then stay up to date on recent events. Meme culture, rap culture, anything that's too off-putting for me I tend to not indulge myself in. I liked who's line, while shows like the Simpsons and family guy and Futurama felt so samey every episode that I only really watched enough here and there to get a feel for it. Unlike Red. Unless there was more to it like Megas XLR, avatar, samurai jack, I just didn't really get into comedy cartoons, live action even less so.

My sister knows a bunch of stuff on the otaku end of things, I tend to be halfway there. It never feels like I know enough about anything. And you won't catch me marathoning shows like House or The Office. I just don't care for them. I can be very picky. I'll enjoy doctor who up to a point or similar syfy like stargate. I tried to like star trek, but I just don't get constantly wowed by watching the same scenes over and over like Red does and there isn't enough going on that isn't too high brow for me to care. My information is going to be spotty about pretty much everything. I can work with what I have in a reference based environment, but I would eventually get stressed out by all the stuff I didn't get. Obviously I'm happier when people sit down and work with me instead of bombarding me with trivia that's clearly outside of my understanding.

Whether it's music, whether it's games shows or movies, I will always be at a disadvantage. I will always feel like stuff is flying over my head that I'm "supposed to" know that I just don't. And perhaps that is another reason I'm glad it's over. It was fun to hide messages in tweets when I was able to. Lyrics and all. But it wasn't going to last with what little I have. I don't like not knowing stuff. I don't like the idea that all these things being communicated are flying passed me and I don't have the resources to catch them. I don't want to have to Google every little thing just to keep up with someone. I just wanted to sit down and calm the fuck down, have a nice conversation about anything and feel good about it afterwards that we had a positive interaction. Bare minimum and we couldn't do it. Your culture was too alien to me, too new to me and I wasn't prepared for it. And there isn't a single timeline where I naturally would have been able to. Not a single thing about our encounter felt natural. It always felt like I was somewhere I shouldn't be.

I was not relaxed around you at all during a time that was quite literally what I needed most. Only Freedy and Valerian provided me anything close to that, but unfortunately that's not where my feelings went. That's not where all my time and energy went. I wish I had chosen anyone else, but when I was ranting you seemed like the only new person who would listen. And I didn't want that to be temporary. That's why I focused on you. That's why I crushed on you. When I was having my one sided self recycled drama against kay, against my long standing friend circle, the unfamiliar was more welcoming to me than the familiar, because it felt like the only option. I couldn't accept that it was only going to be me and Red from then on in the middle of utah away from everyone I grew up with. I couldn't accept that I wasn't going to have people to hang out with anymore. You were my one chance to get a fresh start.

And I was hyper aware of how our circle shrunk. Belle moving away. Mew went away because of his breakup with kay. Hallet, odi, etc drifted away. We just had omi and kay left and I was having a problem with one of them. I couldn't stay like that anymore. My social life was dying. I blamed myself for not being active enough with them, not being assertive enough, always leaving it to Red to do all the talking for me. Always being quiet, reserved, just being by Red's side and acting cute, that was my only role to play. So in some twisted way you were my answer to that. The other extreme I never tried. I wanted to be the point of contact for once instead of being codependent on Red for everything. Though obviously I fucked that up in a lot of ways that don't work.

Actions of desperation rarely make sense. They are an attempt to answer a problem when just having an answer at all matters more than whether or not it is a sensible answer. Valerie and Freedy embraced me with open arms when times were dark. But there was a very heavy preference for you to also be there. I let my heart do its thing. I didn't do a very good job of internalizing it. And the times I chose to let my feelings out were poorly timed. Ideally never but then we wouldn't have ever talked would we?

I didn't know the right way to approach someone on Twitter but frankly I don't think there is a right way. It is next to impossible to have legitimate interactions on twitter especially with someone you like. And clearly you thought so too or you wouldn't have rummaged through my things. But yeah "pre-existing conditions" and people I don't know, how is that ever going to go well? I might as well just run up and say please rip my heart to shreds and call it a life. And you wonder why I was so quick to give up on you all the time. The feasibility and logistics issue didn't quite line up with what I felt. And half the time I was still trying to figure out if you liked me or hated me.

And if it wasn't for us stalking each other, if it wasn't for the fact that I was already emotionally unstable before I got those feelings, it would have been easier to call it quits and just let that be the final decision. Even moreso if people weren't heckling me for lurking wherever I could still do so, while digging deep into my fa journals to figure out if I was still lurking or not. Perhaps I shouldn't have made my bios and such a platform for saying stuff I can't directly. But I really wish you made some better choices there.

Fuck I need to stop. I'm not gluing myself to someone who will ruin my life again. Imagine ripping yourself in half over someone who never does anything good for you. If I wanted to pick someone who would make life a living hell for me I picked the right person. I don't mind having someone who will listen to my problems now and then, but I don't want to always have to do it 10 feet away. I wish we had more freedom than that, I wish we could share stuff and talk about things without instantly feeling like I'm about to be shoved out every single time we speak. It always felt like that, and that's why I was so afraid. I barked and I barked at you but to me one moment it felt like we were about to be friends and the next we would never be on each other's good side again. And I constantly have to remind myself why it fell apart.

I don't live comfortably with the fact I was kinda acting out like a retard the whole time. But I've paid more than my share for it. I paid far more than I ever should have. I paid every time I let you lure me into messaging you.

Also how do I just know things here and there? Some things I can Google, got mentioned somewhere, got found somewhere. But emotions, intentions, if I can read cum to mean yes, then I think I can read the room even without seeing it. I am perceptive in a way that doesn't require me to hack people. Your ad, I mean you had an orange cat icon on there that wasn't hard to figure out. Tsprinkles 15 small list of people he followed was enough to go on. And then I made a lot of stupid guesses but the stuff I get right is a what would I do or what would they do kinda thing. I'm more perceptive than Luke anyway but anybody can pull that off with one thumb up their ass.

But I mean how many times have I waited for Choskey to finish a sentence when I already knew the word he was going to finish it with? That's just an example, but I can do a lot more than that. The times where me and my sister would say something at the exact same time, sometimes I do it on purpose. I just know, and sometimes I don't even need to grow up with someone to do that. I had to read minds practically through text and memes alone, I had to read between the lines, dig for relevant lyrics in full length songs, I have the skill.

[darkcrowprincess]

Fandoms I have been in(I only count the ones where I watched or read all the media for it, looked at fanfiction/fanart for it, and or go back to it because my adhd hyper fixations on things):

*warning this is going to be a big super essay to read. I apologize 😔 😅*

Books:

Harry Potter: I loved the books, loved the movies. Saw the last movie with my ex boyfriend when it first came out. It was the Fandom that opened my eyes to fanfiction. Yes I read fics on muggle net.com. I was a big Harmony shipper till I had a big brain moment were I realized I could ship Harry with guys! 😈 And yeah I went down a deep hole of Drarry or Tomarry fics. Luna Lovegood was my favorite female character(she was my spirit animal). I also had an obsession with Snape and reading fics where him and Harry became a found family. Right now I have a tiny obsession with Jegulus. God do I love Regulus Black and the drama of him and James Potter's doomed relationship.

Anime:

Sailor Moon: One of my first animes before I fully realized what anime was. Had the white sailor moon vhs tapes that I would watch all the time. Watch it on toonami whenever it was on. Had a huge crush on Tuxedo Mask. My big day dreams were of me imagining I was like Usagi and I got to be a moon/outer space princess. The fanart for this Fandom was beautiful. Love the cosplay for this fandom. Reason I remember the planets so easily was because of the English Dub theme song.

Fullmetal Alchemist: What made me really love anime. And shipping. Just over all this whole Fandom is everything for me. Edward was my favorite character. Love him so much and related to a lot of his issues. Especially his Daddy and abandonment issues. Royed was my ship, my otp for this Fandom. I remember getting into this because of a friend of mines in my group thearpy gave me the full series of brotherhood on DVD. The rest is history.

Cartoons:

Avatar the last Airbender: Saw this show on Nicktoons growing up. Why did I love it? Honestly because of Zuko. I love Zuko. He's my favorite thing about avatar. And I was so hell of excited when saw the episodes of where he finally joins the gaang! I love season 3! I love the aesthic of the fire nation. Beaches, firebending, political drama!! Learning that not all of the fire nation was evil. The show was so gray and I love that. Ships, any ships with Zuko was the pull(except Mai. Sorry she was my least favorite character. I really didn't like her very much). Honestly I'll read any fic with Zuko as the main character. Just he's my special boy and I love him.

The Owl House: Like Harry Potter, I at first I didn't know if I'd like this show when I gave it a chance. Fortunately I did and God do I love this cartoon! Yes it has tons of problems(mainly the Fandom when it comes to shipping and being toxic when you don't share the same headcanons about ships or found family) but over all I love the characters Luz, King, Eda, Hunter, and Belos. Especially Luz Noceda( she was basically me as as kid so I feel so protective of her. Honestly I do not trust anyone who does not like her). I love the hidden dark family drama between the Wittebanes and Clawthornes. I love Belos as a villian. I love the glyph magic and the idea of Palismans. I love Bad girl rebel Mom Eda and King the titan prince. I love the dark reveal about the golden guards and Hunter. I love the animation. Everything else about the show, including its other forms of magic, other characters(Amity mainly) the romance. Are honestly a big let down compared to everything else. But at least baby gays/younger lgbtq kids can have this show. They can grow up with this representation(even though I personally don't like lumity). I over all have a love hate relationship with this show. I love Luz and ship her with Hunter(my bi otp couple 😍) but over all the show had so much potential that I feel like it kept wasting over stupid ship.

Shera the princes of power: This cartoon is just my happy place. I love Catradora. I love all the girl power, feminism, magic, girly girlness. The silly names. The princesses. Entrapta!!!(my spirit animal and having a cute beauty and the beast type romance!) The angst, the drama, the trauma! The romance!!! The animation! It's just this cartoon is everything to me. I love the fanart for this Fandom and if i had to pick a favorite character it be tied between Catra and Entrapta. My favorite Episode is ' Save the Cat'.

TV Shows:

Criminal Minds: I love this show. This show is what got me into horror movies and true crime. This show was like everything to me as a kid. I've seen all the seasons. This show spiked my interest and fears about the human mind. This show made me seriously wish a male character was actually physically real so I could marry him! Love you Spencer Reid my bisexual nerd you. But in great contrast to the horror of the show, I love how much of a found family the bau team is. I love their banter. It it's just these guys just bring me soo much comfort. Ships I love Emily x any female character because my woman deserves a girlfriend. Spencer x Happiness(or me I'd gladly take him) Morgan x Garcia(they soooo should have been canon). Sometimes I ship Hotch x Rossi, or Hotch and Reid. But over all Hotch deserves some happiness too. Fanfiction for this Fandom I just like reading a few here or there with the bau team being friends in other settings. Mostly college. I'll read any ship as long as it stays in character. Though id read anything with Spencer as the main focus.

(that's it for now. Didn't put Movies because the list for that is complicated. Considering a lot of the Movies I watch are connected to books and or other movies/comics that I haven't all read)

[doubleddenden]

It's time for another look at

The Timeline

As always, I am your little gremlin host. Today we simply look at the last 2 months to see wtf's goin on in the world in my attempt to guage the stability of our timeline.

If anyone lives in the middle of the fucking Atlantic Ocean and wants a porche and a VW, great news! There's apparently a cargo ship called Felicity Ace that is ON FIRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WET ASS LIQUID OCEAN. The crew safely abandoned it, and under Maritime law, the ship is now Finders Keepers TM. I'm sure that whatever life forms arise from this latest environmental disaster will appreciate being able to drive in style

Nintendo has announced they are shutting down the 3DS and Wii U e stores in March 2023, and some people say they've already hit the Wii U store. Because nothing stops piracy like making games even harder to come by, obviously. Titles such as Xenoblade Chronicles X, Twilight Princess HD, Wind Waker HD, the entire catalog of the 3ds Pokémon games, and more are gonna be harder to find soon, much like my will to live

Kirby doesn't chew and vores things far too big for his precious little adorable nightmare body. He has ascended to many new nightmarish forms, including KARBY

Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard. Good, keep the annoying CoD and LoL players on Xbox

Sony bought Bungie, which is great for the current 2 games Bungie has worked on in the last 10 years.

Platinum Games is open to BEING bought. Maybe *you* can become their new sugar daddy

Attack on Titan started its final season- er, the second half of it, which is totally different from being a season, I'm sure. I for one am very excited to finally see the day weebs shut the fuck up about Attack on Titan and finally watch and talk about something else. HiS wHoLe sQUaD!!!!!

Shenmue, the game from the SEGA Dreamcast, has an anime now. Now you too can experience a game from the 90s set in the 80s by watching an anime from the 20s that looks like it came from the 10s. Catch it on Toonami Saturday nights, or Crunchyroll

Jurassic World has another movie coming out, proving that everyone most definitely learned their lesson from the original movies and stopped bringing back mutated versions of ancient murder machines

Pokemon has released Legends Arceus, a game where everything wants to kill you, and for the first time since the Switch era started, most fans agree that it rocks, but needs more polish. Finally, some good fucking food after 6 (really 3) garbage fire games

Chip n Dale has a new live action movie in the works based on the amazing Rescue Rangers cartoon show. Of course, what Disney crypt raid or franchise revisit would be complete without making fun of very iconic and beloved voices they themselves made, and what live action adaptation would be complete without replacing those iconic voices with some generic guy's boring ass voice?

There are truckers in Ottowa being annoying and protesting over vaccine mandates, because they can't just be annoying everywhere else. It's okay to be afraid of needles, guys, I swear it doesn't hurt! I've been jabbed 3 times and the 5g microchips doesn't interfere much with the government tracking devices in literally everything else.

Futurama is in talks about getting another season on Hulu, once again proving Matt Groening is some sort of necromancer but for cartoons. Of course the biggest news from this is that the voice of Bender- aka arguably the most popular character from the show- John DiMaggio, does not want to come back unless they can negotiate his contract better and open the floor to give him and his fellow voice actors a raise. This very reasonable act of ensuring everyone is paid fairly is apparently one of the evilest things you can do to the fans, according to like, 5 guys on Twitter. But sure, I'm so certain replacing the show's most iconic character's very iconic voice will go over very well with everyone, like replacing Mario's Charles Martinet with Chris Pratt.

Norway got 15 gold medals in the Olympics! Holy shit! They beat their own record from 2010 where they earned 14, shared with Canada. There's nothing to make fun of here, that's just cool

Apparently a lot of Catholic baptisms are suddenly being invalidated due to the usage of "we" instead of "I," which has thrown many of the religion into a frenzy due to having similarly worded Baptisms. Basically, imagine you've lived your whole life by the book, helped countless unfortunates, gave away your riches, confessed every sin, served your god dutifully and worshipped him every hour of every day and attended each and every church session no matter what, gave a kidney to the little girl with an extremely rare blood type that you happen to match, you are a genuinely good person and an excellent example of Christianity and have never asked nor expected anything in return, and you STILL don't get into Heaven because St Pete asked for RC Cola and you were given Sam's Cola, and couldn't tell the difference once the guy poured it into your red solo cup. That's about the situation a lot of people seriously think they are in.

The following has to do with politics and war. If that's not your vibe, scroll on. I should also mention I am just an ordinary Joe with a hardly a penny to his name. I am not a news reporter, I'm not a journalist, or anything of the sort. However, most of this can be found by Google, so take that as you will

The Trumps apparently aren't cooperating with subpoenas, and Trump apparently got pissy about them going after "children" like his 40 year old daughter Ivanka. 40, that's barely out of diapers! Hey, remember when he said on live TV that he'd date his own daughter if he could?

Speaking of, apparently the horse's ass is keeping very important TOP SECRET docs at Mar-A-Lago, including love letters (as he called them) to Kim Jong-un and President Obama's presidential letter to him. Hey, at least he didn't violate the Presidential Records Act- oh wait, HE DID, and much like last time, he probably won't get punished for it.

Rudy Giuliani, aka Mr "LETS HAVE TRIAL BY COMBAT," was also subpoenaed. He claims its illegal. I wonder how legal inciting violence and an attempted coup is?

Just a personal opinion, I'm very tired of hearing anything about the Trumps or any of their cronies. Follow the example of the Dodo bird: Look stupid, go away, and never be heard from again. Please.

And in a very serious turn of events, Russia is trying to invade Ukraine. I don't want to frighten anyone, so you can Google if you need more info, but things are looking pretty grim. But if you have anxiety or depression, try not to doom scroll, okay?

Here's a pic of a Lemur to help calm your nerves. Look at it. Beautiful creature. Call him whatever you want, he's here to be your friend.

Anyway, see yall again in like a month or two

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Author Interview

I was tagged by the lovely @ianandmickeygallavich1​ 

(Throwing a read more in here because this bitch got LONG!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 136 works across 45 fandoms, just to give you an idea of what a shameless fandom hopping multishipper I actually am.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

My total WC is 676,938.

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

By a Thread, By a String, By a Rope The Magnificent Seven (2016), WIP, Kudos: 987

Matinee Suits, 5125 words, Kudos: 947

Careful Application of External Pressure Grimm, WIP, Kudos: 876

This Night Ain’t for the Holy Man The Magnificent Seven (2016), 5578 words, Kudos: 875

Catch It Like a Butterfly Leverage, 1497 words, Kudos: 658

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try really hard to respond to every comment, but sometimes they pile up and the anxiety of seeing the number gets to me and I just mark them all read and start over with a clean slate. So, apologies if I skipped you. I promise it was nothing personal, just me trying to practice some fumbling self-care.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Probably Curtain Call, which is a Roy Harper-centric DCU fic exploring his feelings in the aftermath of the 2015 Red Hood/Arsenal run.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Pretty much all my fic have happy endings, so I’m not sure which one is the happiest. I feel like that’s a subjective question, haha.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I do write crossovers! I love crossovers and crack fic premises and wild “okay but just go with me here” scenarios, haha. They’re the most fun to figure out, imo. The craziest one I’ve ever written is probably the Shameless-meets-Ducktales crossover I did for Tumblr Jukebox a little while back, though the one I picked up as a pinch hit for the Crossworks Fandom Exchange just last month, crossing over Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Dragon Age: Inquisition is definitely a contender for that spot.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I received a couple of snide comments on a Matt/Foggy Daredevil fic I did under a different name back when I was in college, but that’s about it.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! I don’t think I’m particularly bad at it, though I do find it very difficult. I’m not sure what the “what kind” question is asking, exactly, but I actually do a smut writing challenge called Monday, Slutty Monday that includes a list of kinks I’m willing to write. You can give it a gander here, if you’re curious.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, though I have had someone ask if they could use the concept of the lover’s noose from By a Thread, By a String, By a Rope for their original works. I said no, largely because it’s a concept I intend to use in my own original works, though I welcome transformative, not-for-profit works to remix or reimagine or play in any of my sandboxes.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! I was lucky enough to have Doomed to Play, a Magnificent Seven werewolf/vampire AU, translated into Russian several years back!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! I am extremely interested, though, as I’m a huge fan of old-school, forum-style roleplaying and I really, really love collaborating on projects, so if you’re interested, please feel free to reach out to me and ask! I can’t promise anything, because I’m lucky enough to live a very full and busy life, but who knows!

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I am not really sure that I have an all-time favorite ship. I have a few oldies but goodies that I revisit pretty regularly, including Harry/Draco, which was baby’s first ship, and Fraser/Kowalski of Due South fame, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a true OTP.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

God, so many of them, haha. I’m terrible about finishing WIPs because I have a very short attention span, but I’m not fully willing to write any of them off because I do periodically poke at the GDocs for a lot of them, even if they haven’t been updated in years. The only one I truly don’t foresee finishing is So Let Us Not Be Lonesome, which is a Magnificent Seven ghost/medium AU, and the only reason I don’t foresee finishing it is because I hope to one day revisit it as an original work.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I’m pretty routinely cheered in comments for writing true-to-character dialogue, really lush sensory descriptions, and tempting food descriptions, so I’ll go with those.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I tend to overwrite and I really fucking love adverbs, haha. I was a big reader of doorstopper fantasy in my youth, which tend to be really, really purple in their prose, so I lean in that direction. I have a lot of betas whose opinions I trust tell me I go too purple quite often, but I love my descriptive language so I’m not sure it’s a weakness I’ll ever overcome. Let’s call it a stylistic choice, for now, haha.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I do it all the time, and I really enjoy it in other folks’ fic, so long as the dialogue is something that a non-speaker can still understand from context. I think I probably wasn’t great with that when I first started writing Spanish-speaking characters into my fic, but I like to think I’ve gotten a better handle on it since then.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think it was honestly Ronin Warriors, an anime that used be on Cartoon Network’s Toonami block way back in the day. I had a lengthy and involved Mary Sue self-insert fic that got be like, a few hundred pages long, though it never saw the light of day.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

The two currently at the top of my list are Ted Lasso and 9-1-1, though I can hardly watch a piece of media these days without seeing something in it I want to explore that the creators didn’t have the time or inclination to explore, or that didn’t fit their narrative.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Oh, this is so hard! I honestly don’t know. I don’t tend to go back and re-read my own fic too terribly often, so I’m really not sure, but I will say that one of the ones I think is underrated is The Lady and the Knife, which is a Luther/BBC Sherlock fic that came about because I got tired of Sherlock stans claiming his behavior should be forgiven because he was a high-functioning sociopath and thought it would be fun to see what happened if he ever crossed paths with someone who was actually a high-functioning sociopath and not just a dick. (Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the early BBC Sherlock and some of the fic is chefkissingfingers.gif, I just really hate it when people require their characters to be morally upright at all times. Let them be villains! Let them be dicks! Don’t apologize for finding that interesting!)

I am tagging @thesummoningdark, @blahblahblahclintnickiscanon, @townhulls, @ksansart @rubinecorvus @persipneiwrites @irolltwenties and anyone else who feels like participating! I have a lot of mutuals who write fic and I’m really bad at remembering everyone’s various handles, so please, if you want to participate but I didn’t tag you, go ahead and do it and @ my ass anyway!

Luh ya bbs.

[despairedhope]

So is toonami out for anyone else?

I'm trying to watch it hulu live, but I just have the cartoon Network will be back screen

Tried downloading adult swim app and it's just forever on wait too wtf

[chapter-17]

Not quite 10 years of pony

Well I feel like since we’re here at the decade mark since Friendship is Magic first aired I should probably say SOMETHING in my usual effort to pretend I’m even remotely close to being someone anyone would want to listen to!

I don’t know what it was about Friendship is Magic. It was a good show but there had been good shows before and there will be plenty of good shows to come, but I think what clicked the MOST is that when it came out I had recently moved out of my parent’s house for the second time at age 23, and for the first time I could just... do what I WANTED to do, stress free.

Flashback way further to when we first got satellite TV when I was at the tail end of grade school. Prior to that TV was just our antenna, and let me tell you, that was the crappest of shoots. At least 50% of the time there would be too much signal interference. We got the joy of picking between the channel with no sound, the channel with sound but no picture, or the channel with maybe 25% of each but we could KINDA detect something coherent in it. I’d wait all week for episodes of Dragonball Z to air at 6 AM on Saturday only to have my kid heart crushed by the entire episode being in varying states of chaotic viewability... not that things HAPPENED that much. You dang kids are spoiled with your DBZ Kai! (Shakes cane!)

 But then, satellite TV! My GOD it was amazing. Not only could we SEE AND HEAR THINGS BESIDES STATIC, we got a guide with a menu and everything so we could see upcoming shows! But then also, Cartoon Network... and Toonami... and DBZ EPISODES EVERY NIGHT HOLY FUUUUUCK also this other show called Gundam Wing or whatever I don’t think anyone paid any attention to that one.

...

(Discretely adjusts camera away from shelf full of Gundam models in the background)

Anyway another couple Cartoon Network/Toonami shows I remember actually watching for the first time was The Powerpuff Girls and Sailor Moon... but I watched them HESITANTLY, and in secret. We had two TVs set up and if mom and dad were watching something I didn’t want to watch I’d be fine going to the other side of the house to chill and watch the other connected set on a different channel. This was stress incarnate. I’d split my attention between watching the show at low volume and listening for footsteps getting even REMOTELY CLOSE so I could hit the previous channel button before they could hear what I was watching. There are grown adults who watch outright pornography at their workplace office with less caution than barely teen kid me watched perfectly harmless CARTOON SHOWS. I was thoroughly ashamed of watching these shows but in spite of this I watched them anyway and came to really like them, Powerpuff Girls in particular.

Now of course this was a big nothing burger to worry about, my parents wound up really liking Powerpuff Girls too, but this is a trend for me. I’m internally terrified of anyone in real life finding out I LIKE... well, anything. At some point when I was a kid it became cool to hate Power Rangers, and I didn’t hate Power Rangers, but if I ever said I didn’t hate Power Rangers I would get absolutely shit on for it. I took away the lesson that you shouldn’t outwardly LIKE THINGS.

Basically just Rainbow Dash realizing she likes to read Daring Do books and keeping it a secret with the same fervor a murderer would employ to hide a corpse, but it’s for DECADES instead of 22 minutes. Frankly, I still feel this way. All my shirts are monotone with no art or anything, and I even feel a slight cringe whenever I bring out my wallet to pay for stuff because my wallet has a Nuka-Cola logo on it. I go out of my way to make sure you know nothing concrete about my interests just by looking at me.

So then decades later I’m living on my own for the first real time with a job and everything and one of my WoW buddies keeps linking me stuff related to a MY LITTLE PONY show of all things. Eventually he gives me a link to watch the, then latest, episode called Call of the Cutie and I begrudgingly watch it. Then I say “...god damn it” and start looking for episode 1. I never would have done that if I were still living with my parents, no fucking WAY. Friendship is Magic was the first show I realized I could just WATCH without perpetual existential terror clawing at my brain because I was alone, and it was genuinely positive at a time in my life where I thought about suicide way too much without thinking it was a PROBLEM.

Then something WEIRD happened.

See somewhere in my mid teen years I made a personal vow to never write fanfiction again after writing a small chunk of fanfiction. My teen self thought that fanfiction was an uncreative endeavor, and that people who wrote it were foolishly wasting their time with something that could never legally make them any money when they could be writing original fiction instead, and potentially getting published! But for some reason, for the first time in like a DECADE, Friendship is Magic actually got me to read fanfiction from other people. Not just fanfiction, but cringy crossover fanfiction with genres that couldn’t POSSIBLY work for something like My Little Pony!

Then for SOME reason I got the idea to write a sequel to someone else’s crossover fanfiction and crossover MLP fanfiction now accounts for basically ALL of my online writing material what the fuck happened.

But yeah here we are a decade later. I still haven’t finished Reunion, I’ve taken the better part of three years to write what I have of this miniseries, dad’s dead, I had to move back in with my parents, my dogs are dead, grandma’s dead, Friendship is Magic is over and done with and I likely missed all opportunity to get a readership from my inaction and mental issues, most of my friends have little to no interest remaining for the show so the thing that got me friends in the first place is now ISOLATING ME due to my continued interest, I’ve been diagnosed with severe depressive disorder and since I lost my job I have no reasonable access to medication, a conversation with a friend recently made me consider that I might have undiagnosed ADHD but, again, no access to medical care, I’m trapped in a situation I see no way out of short of basically leaving my loved ones to die without my help, I have little to no privacy anymore so my introverted ass gets NO MENTAL REPRIEVE and it’s so... fucking... tiring.

I’m TIRED. I feel at 33 the way I assume someone would feel at 63 and I never ever ever see it getting any better than it was for me around the time season 5 was still airing.

About the only thing that feels good anymore is knowing how much weight I lost this year.

So yeah... I miss Friendship is Magic, sure, but I also just miss WHEN Friendship is Magic was airing, because it may likely end up being the best time in my entire life.

Sad. 

[vivisarts]

Your art is so beautiful! Do you think you could list off some of your artistic inspirations?

Thank you! I have a few that I can think of right off the top of my head. I’m mostly inspired by animators and cartoons. I have a few people from Calarts who inspired me and I have a few Famous artists throughout history but mostly it’s cartoonists. I don’t know how many know this but I hope to go to school for animation soon.

To start, Obviously, I love Rebecca Sugar. They’re one of my biggest inspirations and I’ve always wanted to work at Cartoon Network. It’s is my dream job and if I could work with them, I’d die happy. I’ve been watching CN since I was a little kid and I think my favorites were PPG, Ed, Edd, N Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack. I liked just about everything on CN but I found myself watching those the most. 

I learned that Genndy Tartakovsky worked on most of the shows I grew up watching. He would be another artist/animator who inspires me. He knows what he likes and has always done animation for himself. It really shows. 

I also went through a Disney Phase. I grew up on Disney like a lot of children. I have so much respect for Disney’s Nine Old Men. Their skill and innovation pushed animation to an all-new level. They’ll always have a place in my heart.  There is also Glenn Keane, Chris Sanders, who draw girls so beautifully. Chris Sanders was one of my animator crushes. I just idolized him when I was a teenager haha. I couldn’t get enough of the girls he drew.  

I also started to watch anime when I was maybe twelve or thirteen. Specifically, Studio Ghibli films. I’ve watched them all numerous times. I came across Hayao Miyazaki’s work and I can say out of everyone I just listed, he is my number one inspiration. I’ve never seen anyone as passionate about animation.  Each film is an art piece to me. I admire him and his studio more than anyone else. I love other animes of course but there is something different about his films. I watched whatever anime that was on adult swim and whatever I could on Toonami. I think Inuyasha was my favorite. The first anime TV show I ever watched. Rumiko Takahashi's art style was so adorable and I loved her sense of humor. I used to laugh and cry reading her manga. 

As for Calarts, it wasn’t just all the famous Alumni, it was these three people in particular. McKenna Harris. I used to follow her on Deviantart back in the day and sort of grew up with her. I followed along her journey. I remember her getting accepted at Calarts and how her art improved so quickly. I was so happy for her. I loved her student films. Definitely check her out. Merry was my favorite of hers. I cried. 

Second would be Michelle lam aka Mewtripled. I just think she's incredible and beautiful. Her art has this sort of Panty & Stocking vibe that I dig. Not only is she super talented, but shes also gives really good advice to aspiring animators.

The third person is the Elasmosaurus. She always had this sort of Disney style to me. I thought it was so freaking amazing. She would draw Kingdom Hearts all the time and I just freaking loved it even though I never played Kingdom Hearts she made me obsessed. I lost her for a while when she deleted her account on DA but I finally found her on Tumblr. She’s still kicking ass and her art is incredible.

As for famous artists, I’ve been told by my art teacher that my life drawings look like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Honoré Daumier had a baby. I like their work it's very loose and alive. 

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #182

Wed Aug 21 2019 [11:24 PM] Wack'd: Strap in because we've got seven straight issues of Len Wein [11:24 PM] Bocaj: The LenWeinening [11:26 PM] Wack'd: So when last we saw our heroes Counter-Reed, who is Reed from Counter-Earth, had stranded Reed, who is Counter-Reed from Earth, in the Negative Zone, and then Annihilus was like "hey we need to team up" so he and Reed teamed up against the Mad Thinker who is some kind of green lion now [11:26 PM] Wack'd: Also Sue is on to Counter-Reed so she and Alicia have teamed up to find a plan to counter Counter-Reed [11:27 PM] Wack'd: Also according to the letters page, which I neglected to mention, the Editor-in-Chief door with all the names crossed out? A real thing that hung on Archie Goodwin's door for a while. The more you knoooooooow [11:28 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Ben, Tigra, Thundra, Impossible Man, and Johnny come back with the hot robot from last issue and try to get Counter-Reed to figure out who's behind it [11:29 PM] maxwellelvis: That's "hot" as in wanted or possibly stolen [11:29 PM] maxwellelvis: they don't, like, find the robot physically attractive. [11:29 PM] Wack'd: No, that's "hot" as in "generates a fuckton of heat" [11:29 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [11:29 PM] Umbramatic: why not both [11:29 PM] Bocaj: Por que no- dammit [11:29 PM] Umbramatic: or all three [11:29 PM] Wack'd: But also it might've been stolen because last issue the government was demanding to hold onto it, so [11:30 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Counter-Reed covers for his inadequacies by ordering Thundra, Greer (trying to use given names), and Impy to go double-check the bank for clues. As they leave Greer is like "hey, did anyone else notice we don't work for him, what the fuck is going on" [11:31 PM] Wack'd: She also had suspected Counter-Reed is not Reed but is in fact Counter-Reed [11:31 PM] Wack'd: God I hate imposter plots [11:31 PM] Bocaj: This is a lot smarter than people tend to be in imposter plots [11:31 PM] Bocaj: Like three people already onto him [11:31 PM] Wack'd: True [11:32 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Counter-Reed then tells Johnny and Ben that actually he's positive the robot came from the Negative Zone and they should go check it out [11:33 PM] Wack'd: In what I think is the biggest sign Roy Thomas' attempt to rehabilitate Reed has gone horribly wrong, Ben immediately leaps to the conclusion Counter-Reed shooed out Thundra and Greer because he's a patriarchal git [11:33 PM] Wack'd: And didn't want to send them on a dangerous mission [11:34 PM] Wack'd: To Ben's credit, he's also noticed Counter-Reed incessantly watching the Negative Zone monitor, but thinks it's because he wants to rescue his doppleganger because he's such a nice guy [11:34 PM] KarkatTheDalek: Does Ben this that’s good or bad? [11:34 PM] Wack'd: He does not make a judgement call, only acknowledges it as a known facet of Reed's character [11:34 PM] KarkatTheDalek: Ah [11:34 PM] KarkatTheDalek: Neutral Guy Ben Grimm [11:35 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Agatha also kidnapped Franklin recently. Remember that? We have like fifteen plots going on right now [11:36 PM] Bocaj: I do remember [11:36 PM] Wack'd: So apparently Agatha needs Franklin's powers to deal with something otherworldly invading her home [11:36 PM] Bocaj: Sure [11:37 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Franklin is like "I won't let anyone hurt you, Auntie Agatha" which is usually the part where the adult would say something patronizing about how brave they're being [11:37 PM] Wack'd: But Agatha is like "yes, obviously, that's the entire reason you're here" [11:38 PM] Bocaj: Agatha Harkness has always been patronizing but in a different way [11:38 PM] Bocaj: She's older than everyone and knows everyone is dumber than she is [11:38 PM] maxwellelvis: In the same way Animated Madame Webb is [11:38 PM] Bocaj: Also sometimes she's a ghost. And everybody knows ghosts are jerks [11:38 PM] Wack'd: ONLY. TOONAMI.

[11:39 PM] maxwellelvis: You thought that sounded like a soundbyte they'd grab for one of those rad promos, eh? [11:39 PM] Bocaj: They had that one about not being intimidated that played all the time [11:39 PM] Bocaj: I don't even remember what show it was from [11:39 PM] Wack'd: The joke is "we won't be intimidated by criminal threats" from the Fleischer Superman cartoons [11:39 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [11:39 PM] Wack'd: That soundbyte far outlived those cartoons, duration-on-Toonami-wise [11:40 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Agatha tries to do a magic battle with these shadowy figures but one of them has a gun that when fired locks Agatha's hands in heavy metal gauntlets [11:41 PM] Wack'd: And by the time Sue and Agatha arrive to collect Franklin, whoever these shadowy figures are teleport away with Agatha and Franklin [11:41 PM] Wack'd: They kidnapped a kidnapping [11:41 PM] Wack'd: Some kind of kidnap turducken [11:41 PM] Bocaj: Guns that shoot handcuffs? [11:41 PM] Bocaj: Ridiculous [11:41 PM] Bocaj: Only arrows can shoot handcuffs [11:41 PM] Wack'd: Not just handcuffs, they're like--I really should screencap this [11:41 PM] Wack'd:

[11:42 PM] maxwellelvis: He has a MAGIC GUN! [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Where'd he purchase that [11:42 PM] maxwellelvis: (Where'd he - dammit [11:42 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile! Ben and Johnny finally catch up with the rest of the plot [11:43 PM] Wack'd: See, back in issue 51, Reed designed a thing that was basically just a rope attached to a belt to tether folks to the...Positive Zone?...while they were in the Negative Zone [11:43 PM] Wack'd: But he nearly got stranded, decided they were too dangerous, and replaced them with a more Kirbyish full-body rig [11:44 PM] Wack'd: Ben and Johnny are well inside the Negative Zone by the time they realize haha, whoops! Reed strapped them into the early version [11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: "Roy's not the only one who can pull out ancient continuity, I'll show him!" -- Len Wein, probably [11:45 PM] Wack'd: So yeah, Ben and Johnny are about to turn back around and kick Counter-Reed's ass, but by miraculous coincidence, just as they figure out the plot, they find Reed and Annihilus [11:46 PM] Wack'd: Mad Thinker must've been thrilled when he found out he could possess a monster in the Negative Zone with his exact facial hair

[11:46 PM] Wack'd: I wonder if that's true for all Negative Zone beings. Maybe that's why Reed has a beard now [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: You know, Kiko wasn't anywhere near as tall as his old man, technically speaking. [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: I wonder if Ben's throwing that out there because Dino DeLaurentiis' King Kong had come out in the previous year. [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Probably [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Also, yes, "Kiko" is the name of the Son of Kong. [11:48 PM] Wack'd: So Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Annihilus beat a hasty retreat, and Ben and Johnny are like "hm, our Reed would never team up with Annihilus, maybe we were wrong" [11:48 PM] Wack'd: And then it turns out their tether cables have been cut [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Which settles the issue [11:50 PM] Wack'd: OKAY SO [11:50 PM] Wack'd: You wanna talk ancient continuity? [11:50 PM] Wack'd: This giant beast is not, in fact, a native of the Negative Zone, but one of Mad Thinker's robots that got chucked in there back in #69 and got mutated or something [11:51 PM] Wack'd: ...why did I think Mad Thinker had a beard?

[11:51 PM] Wack'd: Dude still dresses like a high school track coach, I remembered that much right [11:51 PM] Bocaj: He might look less ridiculous with a beard [11:51 PM] Wack'd: He might! [11:51 PM] Bocaj: His hair sure is a decision he made [11:51 PM] Bocaj: And continues to make [11:51 PM] maxwellelvis: He's still built like a high school track coach, too. [11:53 PM] Wack'd: I enjoy the fact that back when Buscema and Buckler were revising everyone's hair styles Mad Thinker wasn't around and so now he's stuck like this [11:54 PM] Wack'd: Back in...I'm just gonna keep calling it the Positive Zone until someone objects [11:54 PM] Wack'd: Back in the Positive Zone Sue tells Reed that their son has been double-abducted [11:54 PM] Wack'd: And he takes a long. Long time to figure out how he should react to that. [11:54 PM] Wack'd: So now the gig is officially up. Sue's worst fears are confirmed [11:55 PM] Wack'd: So Counter-Reed goes into Brute mode because now he has no choice but to kick Sue's ass [11:55 PM] Wack'd: He also calls her "the weakest member of the Fantastic Four" and you know whenever anyone says that with a straight face, and are not written by Stan Lee, a major ass-kicking is about to happen [11:56 PM] Bocaj: Look, Lincoln had a mom [11:56 PM] Bocaj: and therefore now slavery is illegal [11:56 PM] Wack'd: Right, yes [11:56 PM] Wack'd: ...oh goddammit [11:56 PM] Wack'd: So instead Counter-Reed kicks Sue's ass thoroughly and tosses her out the top-story window of the Baxter [11:56 PM] Bocaj: 😐 [11:57 PM] Wack'd: I forgot this was "Cripple the B****" Wein we were dealing with for a moment [11:57 PM] Bocaj: OH SHIT [11:57 PM] Bocaj: THATS WHERE I KNOW THE NAME FROM?? [11:57 PM] Wack'd: Yeeeeeeeeeeep [11:59 PM] Wack'd: In the letters page: someone tries to puzzle out what Ben is made of ("I miss when everyone assumed it was 'orange rocks'," moans Thomas); and apparently Len Wein plans to explain why there's not a much greater mass of cosmic-ray-powered superbeings now that space travel is business as usual [12:00 AM] Wack'd: Oh! And an ad for Ms Marvel's first ongoing. Exciting! [12:01 AM] Wack'd: Somehow I can't imagine Kamala Khan being hyped to wear this

[12:01 AM] Bocaj: Love Kamala [12:01 AM] Bocaj: Ew they changed her costume [12:02 AM] Bocaj: I took too long to type and now my joke misunderstanding your words is belated to oblivion [12:02 AM] Bocaj: "Never before has a FIGHTING FEMALE cpatured the imagination of the reading public so DRAMATICALLY" [12:02 AM] Bocaj: why are you like this, comics

[novarasalas]

Second Look Review: Lion’s Pride 1 & 2

Part 1

So, this is it. The final battle for Earth. Everything that’s happened this season has been preparing us for this very moment.

I’m sweating, guys.

This is nonstop action. So many things are happening at once. So many bad things are happening to the protagonists at once.

I’ve heard the showrunners say several times now that this series is a call back to all the mecha shows from the past, and that’s it’s made for the fans of those shows. I’ve heard plenty of people talk about how nostalgic it makes them, and how it reminds them of watching the shows they used to love.

I was too young for the original run of Voltron, though, and I never really had access to other shows like Macross.

So, I understood in principle, but that same feeling didn’t hit me until these two episodes.

And now I'm’ going to talk about myself for a bit.

---

I can’t even tell you the feeling I was overcome with the first time I watched The Power Rangers. It’s 1993, I’ve been 7 years old for three days, it’s Saturday, and my mind has just been blown. I can’t tell you what it was about the show, but all I knew was that I wanted to be a Power Ranger very, very badly. I can’t, though. But at least I can make believe every Saturday morning.

Difficulty: I’m a girl. Girls aren’t supposed to like things like that. Martial arts, weapons, fighting? Inappropriate!

So, as my first act of rebellion, I became a wholly dedicated fan to this weirdly , edited-for-american-audiences sentai show.

I still have that guitar riff stuck in my head. It plays for me when I do things that my parents would find...unladylike.

So, from that day on, my love of mecha shows was on. My parents eventually relented, and I treasured the one action figure we could afford. It was the pink ranger, of course.

But I eventually grew out of my Power Rangers phase, and for years that love lay dormant. Sure, there were other shows out there, animated and live action, but I had no way of getting to them.

Then we got cable, which had Cartoon Network. And Cartoon Network had Toonami.

I was 13 years old, staying up past midnight to watch only-lightly-censored anime, and every night my mind was blown.

Gundam Wing was my drug of choice.

And if my parents hated me watching the Power Rangers, they absolutely despised me watching this.

Despite the protagonists all being 15 years old, Gundam Wing was a mature story. It told of the hells of war, sacrifice, desperation, politics, romance?, and so many other things. It was so very cool.

My parents eventually relented on this, too. I still have the models they bought me.

I was waaaaayyy too into Gundam Wing. I threw myself headlong into the fandom, consuming every fanwork I possibly could. I spent hours going through Geocities web rings trying to find worthwhile fanfiction and fan art (my fave pairing was 1x2, btw.)

Eventually, I came to realize: this show is actually kinda boring. there’s no humor in it. It just...wasn't interesting to me anymore. It was my thing for years, and then suddenly...I was over it.

But it still holds a special place in my heart.

And I told you all of that to tell you this:

The space battles in these episodes remind of of the finale of Gundam Wing.

I felt a good bit of nostalgia, something that doesn't hit me very often. It was nice.

And that nostalgia reminded me of my first rebellion, when I as a girl liked epic space battles and giant combining mechs and nothing was going to take that away from me.

In a way, I still feel like I’m rebelling. And you know what? Being bad still feels so good.

I’m happy to have this show.

- - -

Atlas, known in Greek mythology, held the Earth upon his shoulders. That’s the story these days, anyway. The original myth is that he held up the celestial spheres, in which the stars and planets resided. He’s holding it all up, is what I’m saying.

It’s very easy to see Shiro in all of this. He’s the leader of Earth’s forces, and is part of the last line of defense against Sendak. That’s a lot of responsibility. And he takes it all upon himself. He doesn’t hesitate to go to Sendak’s ship to disable it.

...could this guy be any more of a hero?

But we can’t forget about the ship Atlas, or it’s crew

This thing is a beast, and has no right being so powerful. And without the ship, and without the crew to maneuver it into position to block the cannons, the Earth would have been done for. They didn’t do this because Shiro ordered them to.

Shiro may be the face of the Atlas, but the ship would be nothing without it’s crew.

-

Back to Shiro now.

This fight he has with Sendak is...just insane. It’s so raw and personal, I almost felt like maybe I should avert my eyes.

But I won’t, for reasons.

Quick question: How are either of them surviving this fall? They’re on the outside of a ship thats falling through the atmosphere, without helmets, and fighting. It’s a sight to behold, for sure, but it’s a bit much.

I’ll let it go, thought, just like I’ll let go the fact that the falling ship hit terminal velocity and didn’t leave a 100 mile wide crater.

I have to ignore that, because Shiro is defeated. And then this happens:

Keith first killed the two pirates in the third episode, then Macidus in the sixth. Before that, none of the Paladins had been shown to kill anyone. I’m still sad about it, in a way. But...better Sendak, than Shiro.

This all seems very symbolic. Everyone seems to have their own ideas about what exactly it means.

In part, I would say this is another moment of Keith never giving up on Shiro. It’s not even about repaying his debt to him; you could argue that that debt was paid in full with interest a long time ago.

Keith knows how much Shiro has been hurt. From here on out, he’s going to make sure that no one ever hurts Shiro again.

As for people saying that Shiro should have been to one to kill Sendak….

I think that the less he has to fight, to kill, to call back those days in the arena, the more he can heal from the trauma of being The Champion.

- - -

So that’s dealt with. Sendak’s dead. Earth is safe.

How’s everyone feeling?

….ugh...stop that...lol.

Ok, whatever. Let’s go home.

Mmm..yeah. This may as well happen.

Part 2

This fight is really something.

First off, I couldn’t help but think that this mech looks like Livia sas Junius from Final Fantasy XIV.

Everything about this fight is terrifying and frustrating. They just won, and for the first time this season, too! And now they’re losing again.

We see now again what was proven in season 6: Voltron was once the most powerful thing in the universe. But time does this funny thing of marching on, and things tend to change along the way.

-

Speaking of changing…

Shiro experiences stress-induced-mech building.

This whole process is amazing. The animation, the music, the timing...everything! Paired with the fact that I had no idea this was going to happen, I was blown away.

And we have no idea how or why this is happening. Could it be the Castleship crystal they installed in the ship? Is it the gem powering his arm? Could it be both? We definitely get some centering shots on those two items as the transformation happens.

Before, we’d been told that the comet ore had be the catalyst for Voltron’s indescribable abilities. But the Atlas is made from Earth materials, save for the new crystal.

Is it Shiro himself?

We don’t know what’s really happening with him. From Haggar’s experiments on him, to being trapped within Voltron’s quintessence, to being pulled away from the Black Lion and placed into a new physical form, a lot of magical hoodoo voodoo has been happening to him.

And let’s not forget: Haggar was most likely using him, in someway, to enter Oriande.

So, why did the Atlas transform? Because Shiro. I don’t know why, or how, but it couldn’t have happened with anyone else.

And with this new creation, he’s going to save his friends. Or...he’ll try to.

Now, for as much as I love the concept of the Atlas, I have a bit of a complaint.

So, I’m watching this thing transform, and everything is light and wonder. And then..I saw it:

Shiro, probably: Fine! I’ll make my own Voltron! With blackjack! And hookers!

….

Have you ever been watching something and you feel all things at once?

That’s how I felt.

At first, it was like:

then I was like 

and then it was back to

Then I paused the show and did the dishes.

Friends, I hate to say this, but...I don’t like how the Atlas looks. At all.

That transformation sequence had me high on wonder, but when it finished, I crashed back down, hard.

No amount of “ooo she thicc” jokes are gonna save me on this one.

...look at it’s legs!

And what really gets me is that it threw me off so much, that I kinda checked out for the rest of the episode. That’s why these are the Second Look Reviews; because I was being too ridiculous the first time to appreciate them.

I’ve gotten over it at this point, but I was feeling an all consuming “what the hell did I just witness?” at the time.

--- -

Back to it, though.

Shiro transformed that whole damn ship on his own. He saw his friends in danger and he just...did that.

And it was enough to distract the enemy, but not enough.

Thankfully, Voltron was there to save the day.

And then…

Look, this was stressful. You know they’re going to make it; there’s another season left, for god’s sake! And Voltron, while dramatic and sometimes sad, is a hopeful story.

Our heroes can’t die, not now, not like this.

But they don’t know that.

The transition to the funeral, with the lions in the background, was a cruel, cruel fakeout. The emotion in Shiro’s voice here really made me think for a second that maybe they’d actual, ya know...done it.

But it’s ok.

Everyones ok.

And now, there’s the hope.

The entire universe is coming together to help the Paladins rebuild their home. The team has done so much for the universe, and have nearly sacrificed everything doing so (several times at this point).

This is the good ending. It’s happy, it’s uplifting.

It’s not ending.

---

In summary:

It’s all intense battles and wild nostalgia. These episodes were beautifully put together, from scripting to animation to voice acting.

But just when things were nice and understandable, we get more questions. Questions that I can only hope we get answers to.

Next up: I’ve got a review summary coming up. I’ll talk about my thoughts on this season, the series as a whole, and discuss a few things about next season.

And I took this screenshot

it doesn't have anything to do with my review, but I noticed that curl on the side of Lance’s face. It’s cute. I wanted to share.

[annunakichan]

Random thought #9: I remember when being an otaku was uncool and people used to make fun of us for loving video games, anime, manga and cartoons. Now that all this “nerdy” stuff is cool, there seems to be a lot of infighting among the nerds, geeks, and weebs about who’s a “real” nerd and who isn’t.

So to all you trolls, jackasses and jerkwads, do us all a favor and take the same advice the normies gave you decades ago: GET A FUCKING LIFE.

Everybody fangirls/fanboys in their own unique way. You don’t need to memorize every line in a series. You don’t have to own every single collector’s item. You don’t need to blow your life savings trying to prove yourself. The whole point of being a geek is to HAVE FUN. If you’re constantly trying to call people out and act like you’re superior because you know more, have more merch, have watched the series every day on repeat for years, spend all your free time moderating a social media-based fan club for it, masturbate to your custom-made body pillow of it, you are the WORST. It’s because of nerds like YOU that people ridiculed us back then, and you’re scaring off all the newbs.

YES, there are going to be newbies, of course there are. Kids are still BORN, for God’s sake. Some kids are going to grow up watching Cartoon Network and turn on Toonami one day and go, “Hey Mom and Dad, what is THIS, it’s AWESOME”, and their parents will shrug, because they weren’t into that when they were kids themselves. So let’s HELP THEM OUT and welcome these teenage and young adult nerds into the fold and reassure them that yes, they can enjoy this stuff their WHOLE LIVES and there is an adulthood waiting for them that doesn’t involve discarding all the fun stuff they love.

YES, there are even going to be adults our age who didn’t get into this stuff as kids, but now they’re intrigued because it’s more mainstream and easier to find. Don’t turn them off of the scene because they didn’t watch Sailor Moon or play Nintendo when they were little. When they want to know more, HELP THEM OUT.

If there were never any new fans, ALL THIS STUFF WOULD CEASE TO EXIST. Video games, anime, movies, cartoons, entertainment in general is a BUSINESS, and no business will last if it isn’t making money.

But most importantly, we all need a happy place sometimes. We all need a safe space to geek out to our favorite things from time to time. So stop trying to ruin someone else’s joy because you’re a miserable twat. I don’t feel the need to correct a Zelda fan who has only played two games and doesn’t know how to pronounce “Bokoblin” and “Kakariko”; I’m just happy you know what Zelda even is and want to talk about it with me. I don’t care if you didn’t read the entire series of Tokyo Ghoul or watch every episode; you like one of my faves, so I will be more than happy to listen to which characters you crushed on and which parts made you cry.

So if anyone ever reads this, I want you to know that my space is a safe space. There is no bullying or shaming here, because all of it is make-believe in the first place. Be kind and let your imagination run free. You are welcome to nerd out with me any time.

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll All-Stars: Ifeadi Odenigbo on How Anime Helped Him in Philosophy Class

  Anime fans come from all walks of life and in all shapes and sizes. Some are students, some are scientists, some are doctors, some are artists, and some are even well-known musicians! Crunchyroll All-Stars is a series of interviews highlighting elite professionals who harbor a passion both for their art and for anime. 

  Today’s profile is on Ifeadi Odenigbo, a Defensive End who currently plays for the Minnesota Vikings. Odenigbo's anime journey began by watching Toonami and led to him using the lessons he learned both on the field and eventually in his philosophy classes at Northwestern University! We spoke with Odenigbo about his trips to Japan, learning about different perspectives through all the shows he has watched, and more! Also be sure to check out Odennigbo’s player card which includes added details representing his Nigerian heritage!

    When did you become an anime fan?  Was there a specific moment that affected you or changed the way you felt about something?

  It really started with Toonami and Adult Swim when I was young, and I fell in love with YuYu Hakasho. It would come on Adult Swim at night and I was like, “Man, what is this?!” I remember seeing Yusuke Urameshi with his spirit gun and I just remember thinking, “This isn’t a normal cartoon...this is some insightful thinking.” Shows like YuYu Hakasho and Rurouni Kenshin got me into anime, but I really didn’t have anyone to talk to about it. I kept to myself about it. There were people who watched more popular anime in the United States like Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon, but, aside from my little brother who watched these shows with me, I really didn't have anyone to talk to about the anime we enjoyed.


  I always wanted to go to Japan as a kid growing up — it is safe to say anime sparked my interest in and curiosity about Japanese culture. With normal cartoons, you encounter the classic good guy/bad guy tropes, but with anime, there’s always that gray area — that humanizing effect — with the villain. You see many different perspectives and are able to discover how a “villain” may have become nefarious. Watching anime helped me develop stronger emotional intelligence and empathy.


    Are there any ways you engage with your favorite anime series or characters aside from watching them?

  I come from a Nigerian family and my parents weren’t big on us watching TV. We had to watch anime in secrecy.
 Thinking about collectibles, I remember Naruto had the frog purse with the coins, and I remember ordering that when I was younger, keeping all my money in it and thinking I was so cool.


  As I got older, I started collecting more merchandise. I also went to Tokyo with some of my teammates two years ago and got 2-3 handmade Gundams, which are pretty cool. I got my little brother a Hunter x Hunter figure as well.


  Have you ever bonded with someone else over anime?

  During my freshman year at college at Northwestern University, I remember being in the dorms with all of the freshman football players, and one of the players was always on his laptop watching videos. So, I went over to him to see what he was watching, and he closed his laptop. It turned out he was watching anime. I was like “Yo, I know how it is, but I love anime!” He was watching Inuyasha, and I remember us bonding over that.


    What’s your favorite anime series of all time?

  It’s got to be YuYu Hakasho. I’ll still go back and watch it, with the dark tournament! To be from the 90s and still be that great with the production and look...crazy. In my opinion, I feel like it really paved the way for so many anime.


  Who’s your favorite anime character of all time?

  Rurouni Kenshin was the first time I watched a story about a samurai, a wanderer, a man with a mysterious past. He killed a lot of people in his past and realized he wanted to change, so he found his loved ones and turned his life around. That has always resonated with me.


    Who would you rank as the top anime hero ever?

  All Might. He’s a symbol of hope and peace. Always keeps smiling.


  Who would you rank as the top anime villain ever?

  I would say Light from Death Note. Man, that whole plot twist was crazy! To have a main character who was kind of a genius...that whole show was a mind twist. He was so methodical about it, and the fact that he erased his own mind to help him look innocent...it was just genius.


  Have you ever taken any elements or learnings from anime and implemented them into your daily life?

  Northwestern is a top-ranked school in the country academically, and I definitely struggled at first.  One class I did well in, though, was Philosophy, and I credit doing well in it to anime. It really helped me put myself in different people’s shoes. I try to be open-minded and not be biased, and that's because of anime.


    It feels like more and more athletes are showcasing their love for anime — what’s anime fandom like in NFL culture? And what do you think it is about anime that attracts athletes? 

  A lot of anime classics like Dragon Ball Z have characters with superpowers, and in our society, professional athletes are often perceived as having extraordinary speed, strength, and mobility, which to some, may be the closest thing to superpowers.


  I believe that the way we’ve been conditioned to see superpowers as incredible physical and mental skill relates to the way many athletes feel about the abilities they’ve developed through intense and dedicated training. This has really made me gravitate towards anime where the characters have unique powers since when I’m on the field, I feel like I have to activate my powers to excel.
  

What would your message be to someone who recently discovered anime and was thinking about getting into it?

  For the people who are newer to anime and thinking about getting into it, I think they should start with something like a My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan. You’ll likely get into it and start to explore other anime that fits what you’re into. I’ll also say, in general, once you start an anime you have to finish it! Towards the end of seasons, there's always a mind twist you didn't see coming.

By: Guest Author

[yumeka36]

Being bullied for your hobbies

I didn’t experience any kind of teasing or bullying for my hobbies in school until my second year of middle school, which is, ironically, the same year my Pokemon fandom began. Unfortunately I went to a private and snobby middle school, and none of my classmates shared my interest in it. One reason could be that I got into Pokemon at an older age than most kids at that time; the majority of kids getting into it were around 7-10 years old while I was 13-14. So many of the younger boys at my school were into it, so of course, being in middle school where peer pressure is rampant, you were considered a nerd if you were older than them but liked the same things. All the girls my age were into boys, glamour, dating, the latest hit movies and TV shows, and other teenager stuff. So liking Pokemon and cartoons at my age was out of the question! As far as actual incidents of bullying, there was one girl in particular who would always mock my Pokemon obsession. She wouldn’t attack me directly per se, but she’d do it by making subtle comments in my presence. For example, she had a 6 year old brother who also liked Pokemon and one day when I brought my Poke-Dex toy to school, she said something like “Oh, my brother has that, but he’s 6 years old…the right age.” And another time when I brought a magazine to school that had Pokemon fan art drawn by artists in their late teens and I showed it to her, trying to prove to her that older teenagers like Pokemon too, she said “Well, they must have no life.” Then another time when I took a Pokemon book out of my locker, she tried to take it away from me and give me a fashion magazine instead.

There were countless other incidents like that with her, and a few with other students too. When we were talking about going to high school one day in class, and this other girl found out I like Pokemon, she was like “You’re going to high school? Drop the Pokemon” (wish I could tell her now how Pokemon is what helped me make friends in high school!) Then I remember another time Pokemon somehow came up in the topic the teacher was discussing and some boy blurted out “Isn’t Pokemon for preschoolers or something?” and the whole class laughed while I just sat there feeling awkward. I even recall a couple of my teachers saying Pokemon is stupid, and one time, when I had brought my Pokemon Red version to play on the bus when we were on a school trip, one of my teachers noticed it and, after confirming that it was Pokemon I was playing, he asked the girl next to me “You like Pokemon too?” and she said “No, I hate Pokemon!” Then he turned back to me and said, “Hear that? She HATES Pokemon!” I don’t think I responded at all and just continued to feel bad.

As you can see, compared to extreme bullying cases you hear about, this is pretty mild. I wasn’t being verbally or physically abused and no one was vandalizing my stuff or anything like that. It was just a lot of hurtful remarks which, at that impressionable age, inhibited my self-esteem and made me keep thinking something was wrong with me for not being like everyone else. Luckily I had a couple of friends outside of school who liked Pokemon and I could share my hobby with.

Thankfully I went to a public high school with thousands of students, so there were plenty of “nerds” like me who liked anime and video games. That, together with the fact that during those years, anime was becoming more well known as a form of entertainment for adults too, with anime DVDs becoming available everywhere and anime airing on TV via Adult Swim and Toonami, so that helped make it more acceptable to like by the time I got to high school. Surprisingly, despite covering my school notebook in anime pictures and wearing anime shirts to school, I don’t recall being put down about it at all. Everyone just ignored it, or, if they were anime fans too, they’d compliment my stuff. That’s how I made a lot of friends in high school actually. It was also around this time that I started learning how lucky I was in terms of having a mom who supported my anime fandom and didn’t put me down for liking so-called childish things. A couple of my friends in high school weren’t so lucky and were constantly being harassed by their parents for liking “cartoons” at their age. While my mom was always buying me the anime stuff I wanted, it baffled me how my friends’ parents would never buy them anime stuff for their birthday, Christmas, etc., even though that’s what they really liked. Some years later when I was in college and I was telling one of these friends how my other friends who like anime got accepted to these prestigious universities, she said she had to tell her mom about that – that she had to prove to her mom that you could be an anime fan and still be smart and do well in school. It made me sad to think that people were that ignorant.

Luckily my only account of bullying in school was when I was into Pokemon in middle school, and luckily I never had any family members put me down about liking the stuff I like either (since my family is basically just my mom and she has total respect for it, and the 2-3 other family members I have I’m hardly in touch with, but they don’t mind either). But besides school and home, there is another place where you have no choice but to interact with people who might not approve of your tastes: the workplace. At my first job at a greeting card/gift store, a few of the girls working there would tease me about liking anime, insisting that it was all hentai and I was watching perverted stuff. Of course I would try to tell them that not all anime is hentai, but they wouldn’t listen. I would even fantasize about how I would someday get up the nerve to tell them about the stories of good anime series I was watching at the time, like Nana and Fullmetal Alchemist, so they couldn’t keep saying all anime is hentai and may even get interested in watching it themselves (I never did get up the nerve though). But it wasn’t anything serious, just a few remarks here and there, and unlike being teased for liking Pokemon as a kid, I was an adult by then and I didn’t let it get me down at all. It was just a little annoyance.

Looking back on these incidents now, I have to say that it’s true that people act differently as a group than by themselves. Back in middle school, most of the girls acted alright when it was just me and them. Even that one girl who always teased me about Pokemon acted nice to me when it was just me and her. I remember we used to both get dropped off early to school before most of the other kids and so we’d hang out together and I’d be playing Pokemon and she wouldn’t have any snide remarks. Sometimes she’d even talk to me about it in a friendly way. But once the other girls were around, she changed her tune. Another girl even went so far as to act like she liked Pokemon too when it was just me and her, saying how she would have certain Pokemon cards I would tell her about. But then she’d make fun of it as soon as the other kids were around. And even among the adults at my first job, they wouldn’t make any hentai comments when it was just me and one of them, only when they were in a group. It really is interesting how people can be persuaded to act differently than they normally would when they’re in a group and they don’t have enough self-confidence to overcome peer pressure. Which is why I’ve always felt that “I like individuals, but not people so much.” Unless the thing that someone likes is immoral and by taking part in it they’re causing actual harm to others, I don’t think anyone should be put down for the things they enjoy.

Anyway, I guess I’m lucky that my mom always respected my hobbies, and once I got away from that snobby middle school, I met a ton of fellow anime fans throughout the rest of my school years, many of which I’m still friends with today. And at my last job and the one I’m currently at, I haven’t had any teasing. In fact, I’ve met many coworkers with the same interests. I even have a group of coworkers from my old job that I get together with sometimes outside of work to play Pokemon and talk about anime. And at my current job, I completely decorated my office desk with Disney, Pokemon, and other cartoon/game pictures and figures and nobody cares – most of my coworkers think it’s cool actually =) I really feel that during the past several years it’s becoming more and more acceptable for the adults of the new generations to like these kinds of things. If that’s the case, I’m very glad for it ^_^

*This is a revision of a previous post I wrote on my old anime blog. You can also comment on the revised post here*

*Crossposted from my main blog, Yume Dimension*

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

Can u further elaborate on the South Park to Samurai Jack post? did I miss some info from an interview somewhere?

Naw, it’s just simply me noticing a chain of events that have lead to a bigger picture.

I’m just speculating because it lines up in my brain, I could very well be wrong, tho…

It’s worth noting that because of South Park and its impact on Adult animation as a whole (one could say that it was among the first widely known true Adult animation, as “The Simpsons” is a bit more family oriented in the sense that the Simpsons can be marketed to kids more readily, or rather, it WAS in the 90s), that you can say that it’s existence is why we allow for a greater creative control on animation content, and the existence of Adult animation in its current form.

While South Park is in no way similar to the Samurai Jack (except maybe comparisons to how both programs boasts a sort of “cut out” paper/edgeless style that was digitized in later episodes), we have South Park to thank for the fact that certain restrictions are no longer enforced in animated stuff. Have you noticed that some words are no longer bleeped out adult programs? South Park helped in that, there’s whole episodes around the idea that censorship is really pointless sometimes.

I doubt that programming like “Rick and Morty” would have a stable foothold had it been created and aired about a decade ago. Adult Swim exists as a sort of programming time block to air a lot of adult oriented programs late at night, many of the original Adult Swim cartoons took inspiration from the likes of South Park, Simpsons and Family Guy, the latter of which is a regular program there that is often aired mildly edited compared to its syndicated airings. One can’t forget Robot Chicken, either, a show built upon satirical parody that has grown over the years to be more witty (although just as immature at times)

Adult Swim’s existence began around the time many of us current viewers were children, and I’d be lying if I said didn’t defy the rules every now and then to watch some adult cartoons as a kid. I used to stay up late to tune into these bizzare shows, and they often aired after Cartoon Network closed up for the night after showing some Samurai Jack and Dragon Ball Z reruns, and of course you know that I enjoyed those two shows.

When Toonami was initially axed almost a decade ago, it was essentially an amalgamation of CN and AS at the time, a sort of time block geared towards the teens in between the kids and adults.

Toonami was also an avid airing platform for episodes of Samurai Jack, and was in fact rerunning the show until the very last original broadcast, before TOM shut down the Absolution and flew off into space.

Years later, those teens would grow up into adults, many of whom moved onto Adult Swim more regularly and with less fear of being caught, because we were adults. Every year, Adult Swim would air “The Room” for April Fools, but one year, they decided to revive Toonami for us as a sort of fun prank. A full night of nostalgia, wow.

The reception was tremendous and it didn’t take long for Adult Swim to announce a special Saturday night block for Toonami to take place during the usual AS hours, and it was made with us original fans and new fans in mind.

They aired not only popular Anime, but they also brought back “Symbiotic Titan”, which was a popular but short lived animated children’s series by none other than Genndy Tartokovsky, creator of Samurai Jack. This opened many doors, and requested nostalgic programing flooded the mailbag. I think I recall them running the newer Thundercats too, and they certainly brought back DBZ as well as found a platform for the new Dragon Ball Super.

That in mind, it was only a matter of time before the people at CN Studios got the word that we wanted Samurai Jack as one of the more requested shows to be rerun on the block, despite the original series being TV-Y7 FV.

The block would come to run it as a test, and it garnered a lot of positive responses. Before you know it, the green light for the long awaited (I mean, like, the time waited is almost as old as my cat is, and my cat is old for a cat) Season 5 and/or Movie was given, and within a couple years, we were finally given a final closure we had waited so long for as children.

See, while CN is the original block for Jack, the original demographic had long since moved on, and the current kids already have thier beloved series. Also, by the looks of it, much of the original series has been reevaluated, and it’s been deemed as “Unrated” on the DVDs I have, probably due to content matter and unnerving visuals from time to time. It would not be a series that could be produced for today’s kids, I don’t think, as values and stuff have changed.

That said, Season 5 being created for and airing on Adult Swim is perfect in itself, because the children who watched Jack and his adventures have now aged and while we love whimsical tales as much as anyone else, we also like some food action. Jack has aged with us, and the new season was smart to take advantage of the new freedom of control without going overboard.

Which brings me back to South Park.

Had it not been for that show pushing the envelope, and daring to cross the line in what can be deemed as acceptable or not, while also growing as show and eventually gaining a sort of strange charm to it, thus becoming so popular, then we likely wouldn’t have had a separate genre for adult animation, nor would we have even had enough programming to garner a new separate channel that is so experimental and bold.

That very same channel that knows how to listen to its audience and knows what we’re there for.

A channel that knows what the audience grew up with, and knows what to satirize, and knows that the viewers are what keeps it afloat.

No South Park means No Adult Swim.

No Adult Swim means No New Toonami.

No New Toonami means there wouldn’t have been Samurai Jack Season 5.

But hey, that’s just my theory. I’m basing it all off of observation and years of being a consumer of Cartoon Network Studios. :P