#best ultraman for a few seasons for me

[delightfullybritishgoldar]

[h3arts4strs]

Birds of a Feather

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K. Sato x fem!Reader

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01 ᯓ★ After years of not seeing or hearing from your old friend, Kenji Sato, it’s announced the player would be making a return to Japan. Although you have decided to leave that life behind, an unexpected encounter is made.

WORD COUNTᯓ★ 1.2K

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“Western baseball sensation, Kenji Sato, is finally coming home.” My attention immediately shifted from what was meant to be a crochet sweater but rather resembled a Thneed from The Lorax, to reach for the TV remote to increase the volume. “It's reported that the famous baseball player will be returning home and joining the Japanese Giants this season! Pretty exciting-“, it was at that point I switched off the TV and let out a sigh. It has been years.

Ken and I had a strong bond in the past, one bound together through child wonder, the thought of something lasting forever and a shared love for Ultraman. I still remember the first day we met, sometimes shamelessly catching myself thinking about the incident. It was a summer afternoon at a primary school baseball game. Due to the sport being newly established at my school and the few numbers at the time, the boy and girl teams had been conjoined to make up for the numbers. I could still recall the lush grass underneath my shoes as I gripped the baseball bat, ready to swing and woo the crowd of students who had stayed after school. The pitcher, a dark-haired boy whose head was too big for his shoulder was getting in position, waiting for the signal from the coach. One, two, three, ball! The ball was hurdling towards me, its speed picking up as it got closer and closer. I kept my eye on the ball then, smack!

I dropped my bat and my hands immediately flew to my right eye, gently applying pressure in a poor attempt to alleviate the pain I felt. How embarrassing. Members of my team were flocking to check my condition as I was still in shock. The team surrounded me as the coach gently removed my hands from my eye, revealing the dark ring that had started to form from where the ball hit me. It was that day that I had met the boy who hit me with the ball, it was that day I had met Kenji Sato.

It was through the baseball incident we started talking and quickly became the best of friends, often going out after all baseball games to get delicious frozen treats or play superheroes in the park. One of my favourite memories with Kenji was, the time he gave me the best advice, something I carry with me every day. It stemmed from primary school and how I would be alienated or made fun of for how I looked. Whether it was for my skin colour, hair, or how I sounded, especially when speaking in broken Japanese, I became the talk of the school. I hated it. I hated how my name was an inside joke to many cliques. I hated myself. The relentless teasing led to me always begging my mom to let me straighten my hair, in an attempt to fit in. Kenji noticed this, prompting the best advice he has ever told me, something that will forever stick with me, ‘kids will talk no matter what, so give them something good to talk about’. It was moments like that that had us stuck at the hip until a forceful separation was made a few months later, Ken was moving to America. 

At that point in time, it felt as if the world had ended at the fruitful age of 11, unbeknownst to what awaited me in my years of adolescence. My best friend would be moving across the North Pacific, to the world of the west, leaving Japan and me behind. We then made it a mission to keep contact, not allowing our friendship to falter and for the first year and a half we did just that. The strength of our bond could not be questioned as it was that strong and not once had I ever been left to wonder are we still friends. It was only until I noticed he messaged less and less and took longer to reply and when he did, it seemed forced. I was naive to think that we would stay the same, to believe that he would get tired of this distance. We were like two slow dancers, experiencing each other's comforting embrace until the song's ending would inevitably force us to part. I can��t blame him. Life happened and we unfortunately never spoke again, leading me up to my present, one where I sit snuggled up in a warm blanket as I attempt to crochet while having the ambience of the TV fill my luxury apartment.

I would love to meet up with Kenji again and see how he’s been doing after all these years but the thought of it being an interaction is nothing short of that awkward tension with constant “oooh”, “That’s cool” and “By the way, sorry for not messaging you anymore out of the blue, I was feeling a bit silly” so it would be best I leave that chapter behind, continue living life as I have been. After coming to my conclusion I decide to retire for the night, getting ready for a busy day as a KDF fighter pilot.

. . . 

As the sun shines through my blinds, I slowly rise, stretching until a satisfying pop noise escapes my back. I go about my regular morning routine and change into my fitness wear which consists of sweatpants, a compression jacket and some trainers. After battling with my hair, I managed to put it into an updo, practical yet adorable. I grab my headphones, phone and house keys and go out for a morning run. 

I had started incorporating morning runs on weekends as a way to remain active when I was not able to surf and enjoy other water activities. As my body carried me on the boardwalk at a steady pace, I listened to my favourite artist and mentally planned out my day, I was going to go home, freshen up and explore the city, discover small shops that hid in the crooks and crannies of the city, have lunch at a cute cafe then return home, it would be the perfect self-care day. 

I continued to run, enjoying the salty breeze that gently blew on my face, the rising sun that warmed me up and the sound of crashing waves I could hear over my music. My mind and body felt amazing, being able to reconnect with nature after a long week of flying and capturing was therapeutic.

After running my routine 5km, I headed towards the nearest smoothie bar to get myself the tasty treat I deserved after doing my run and beating my previous time constraint. I walk into the shop, enjoying the feeling of the AC cooling down my body. I analysed the options on the menu and decided to go with a simple berry smoothie. Once my order had been prepared and I reached over the counter to receive my drink, I felt someone tap my shoulder. When I turned around to see who was behind what they needed, “Hey, it's been a while."

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✮chérie

[bobbinfire]

Transformers One - Animation Student Analysis

(Aka why TFHypeGuy is right and you need to make this a #TFWeekend)

Disclaimer: This is a Review by an animation student based on the first viewing alone. I will not be giving the same quality of analysis of a film like a seasoned animation professional. However, I still have tons of knowledge by the years I have spent personally studying animated films and the new information learned through my academics. If you are still here, with that out of the way let’s begin.

(As requested by @serotoninisheldinkiwis)

((Spoilers below- quick non spoiler version here))

Transformers one is the peak example of what a brand such as the transformers franchise could accomplish when fans and talented artists work together to make a piece of art. The phrase of “could accomplish” is even over written as they “have accomplished” this. Both seasoned and newly furnished transformers fans seem to concur this as a fact.

All animation fans (you could even get the same from any of my fellow animation classmates) agree the Spider-Man Into/Across the Spider-verse movies are the best amongst the vast pool of the animated film medium. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022) was my favorite animated film, for both story and animation. But when compared to the artistry that is the Spider-verse, I knew that it still couldn’t compare in terms of mastery. No matter how much a film has your love, you are more likely than not to agree with the concept that Spider-verse saga is the best. And I used to agree. That was until the night of Friday September 20, when Transformers One single handily took the scepter of victory and waved it high for the awaiting crowds to see. The controversy I may get from this will probably be immense, but the statement I am willing to scream from the rooftops is that Transformers One has officially surpassed Spider-Verse movies as the top animated film. 

But what actually makes an animated film the “best” when compared to the variety of competitors flooding the market on a bi-monthly basis? What makes this film so better when it could be just the current hyper fixation coded bias of a long time transformers kid who just got handed a shiny new toy to play with and will eventually forget about once the next film releases. Well my friends…and random people of the internet, here is an analysis made by an animation student (me *cough *cough) that breaks down the answer to that question. 

Animation

As with any quality animated film, the animation itself will make or break a film as it is the core part of the film. Transformers One’s animation was handled by the company Industrial Lights and Magic. While not a large competitor in terms of feature film animation, they have produced films that have pushed past known boundaries of both animation and story as seen in their few animated feature films: Rango (2011), Strange Magic (2015), and Ultraman Rising (2024). Their work in the industry is primarily known in reference to their special effects work with Jurassic Park (1993) and Star Wars (1977). ILM’s animation in Transformers One manages to bring to life a world many have tried to do before, but not as elegantly or dare I say brilliant as this. The animation itself seems to stay on a constant frame rate, the beauty of special movements or actions being more defined by hard cuts or continuously moving shots. Each movement has purpose even ones that seem more throw away because it adds to the personality of the characters/environment. Specialty/new techniques are not as important for this film, which is perfectly okay considering they managed to hit each one of the 12 principles of animation when it counted most. An animation coming from a special effects studio in general is very good because they tend to pay major attention to any animation related to special effects, even if it’s just for a cartoon. Details can range from giant Quintesson ship slowly descending to the tiny sparks cause from a hit to a metal face. The animation in general is smooth as well as robotic only when it needs to be.

Environments

There have been a variety of environments in both animated and live action films that have help suck the audience into the story. When an animated pulls it off successfully it is even more noteworthy worthy. However, one must note the limited use of environments when it comes to how much we see past the establishing shots. Most times the best of environmental shots are primarily used to help set up a location or scene, then the rest of that is limited to a small corner (more often than not for budgetary reasons). Transformers One leans into the almost constant use of environments, not only for location, but for story as well. There is a variety of scenes that are carried through meticulously crafted sets and allow for you to not only finally get to know the world of Cybertron, but we travel through the environments almost fully as we progress the story alongside the characters. Minor details play a large role in the environment. Between the polished textures, the detailed individual blades of alien vegetation, the different background characters, and the hidden easter eggs within the framework of the designs themselves allow for a new thing for you eyes to feast upon with each viewing.

Textures

The use of textures in both environment and character design is on another level when compared to other 3D animated films. Speaking from experience the process of applying basic textures to a 3D model already requires hours of hard work, dedication, and patience that you will be very low on by the end of the whole ordeal. So when you analyze the detail and complexity of the work the team at ILM brought to the table it is truly extraordinary, even more so when you realize the time it would take to fight the UV layout and unwrap the mesh of a complicated figure like a cybertronian, especially one that has to transform. If you are confused on my alien language look up basic uv layout and texturing tutorial for maya on YouTube and generate a heart attack for yourself. Good luck sleeping tonight. Transformers one works itself down to the individual grains in the sand, the cracks in the ground, the glitter speckled plating on Elita-One’s head; even the length and deepness of scratches in armor can be measured. The effort put forth creates an effect of feeling you can touch the textures just by looking at them. Of course textures can only go so far without the correct use of the next subject. 

Lighting

When used to its fullest extent lighting not only lights the cast and their environment but it helps extend storytelling capabilities. Things such as mood, emotions, atmosphere, movement and location are brought out through simple artificial particles. The darkness of the mines contrast with the bright fantasy lighting of Iacon, which in its own way contrast the calm natural lighting of the surface. The carefully crafted textures of a surface could not be fully realized without the full use of directed light bouncing off it. During the final sequence of fights the change of D-16 to Megatron is not only conveyed through the change in the lighted color of his eyes but the waves of light flowing from them as he battles his way through opponents. The trail of light allows our eyes to not only follow Megaton’s movements but his descent into his dark path, with his blood red rage clouding his vision and being all that he can see.

And finally the most important point to cover with any animated film besides animation:

Story

Recently Dreamworks employee Rick  Rickdel gave a lecture on my campus. Out of all he talked about one of my major takeaways was when he said: “a story only connects with the felt needs of your audience”. Transformers fans have been wanting a movie like Transformers One for a long time. Even the smallest fans wanted to know what happens between Optimus and Megatron. And that’s the true beauty of this movie. We already know basically what happened between them, we know the overall story. Going into the theater we already knew how it was going to officially end and based on the lore we knew how it was going to start even. So the most important thing for Transformers One was how they connected the two and carried out the main part of the story. And what they did not only managed to meet expectations, but surprised us multiple points along the way. Voice actors poured their souls into these characters, leaving behind their celebrity personalities and bringing the characters to life. Each character themselves that had a relatively good chunk of screen time had a role in the story and were not just throw away side characters. With each one it’s set up for an almost domino like effect for the plot. Bee is not just a goofy side character, he assists in the journey, helps them get to new locations, and even provides relief from the typical dark undertones. Darkwing is a side character that ends through one quick mean spirited action kicks off the rising action at break neck speed. The quintessions show briefly, but provide enough of a threat without overstepping the plot’s boundaries that it is okay they are not there for long, but there may be a chance they can come again. Sentinel is at first glance a stereotypical egocentric villain, but take away his power and status and he will crumble in your hands (quite literally). He is not designed to be redeemable, but he is also not evil just for the sake of being evil. He has goals, he has factors that push him to evil things, but he very clearly has gone far enough that he no longer cares. His overall actions that are not super specifically targeted end up affecting what were originally minor threats to the point it results in his demise. And because of how his character was designed we rejoice even if actual justice wasn’t delivered. For a film have good storytelling it needs to have two factors: the story (the lore and information the audience receives in order to understand the film’s world) and plot (the events that play out in the films timeframe). The movie uses both of these to their proper extent allowing people like my friend was never watched any Transformers media before to watch it with understanding and enjoy it. It plays out what we expect of transformers media while taking on its own persona. What I find most enjoyable about the movies plot is the fact it is similar to a slow burn romance, but in reverse. We take this strongly built brotherly bond that can be shaken, yet once the match gets struck we can do nothing but watch as all these ties melt to heartache before our very eyes. And the audience’s vision eats it up without blinking once. We watch as D-16 goes to catch Orion, only to slowly realize he can’t undo what he’s done to the point of of diluting his mind to making it Orion’s’ on fault. We watch orions spark break through the emotions in his eyes as he begs D-16 not to…but it’s not about not dropping him, it’s about not becoming what he has watched him slowly come into to the point a flip is switch and D-16 is gone. @sephirose explained the summary of this movie best:

“D-16 reached out and caught Orion.

Megatron dropped him.

Orion Pax held onto D-16.

Optimus Prime let him go.”

Even the soundtrack tells a story. “The Fall” it only plays an emotional heartstrings of former Transformers Prime fans, but encapsulates “the actual physical fall of Orion and the metaphorical one of D-16 as he kills Sentinel” (@firebunnylover). Even if the end of the film is just a quick hit of Megatron being banished and forming the Deceptioncons while Orion ascends and becomes robot Jesus, it is what we were expecting. 

And that is the culmination of these factors. It manages to astound and amaze, but in the end it was a Transformers movie meant to be satisfactory. It is satisfying to the transformers soul, and in turn we should do our part like TFOneGuy says and give it the appreciation it deserves.

Anyways, sorry this took so long (I say to the single person who asked for this) to get out but in order to be able to give an in-depth animation student analysis I have to do well in my animation classes.

[eliasdrid]

you keep putting these tokusatsu shows on my dash for months and I have less than zero context what they're about. what's the cliffnotes version to get me interested in whatever these odd looking robots or perhaps creatures are doing?

Alright I'll try my best but it might get long.

To me, the most appealing thing about them is that the suits are very much suits, they often try to use practical effects where they can and there's a lot of neat choreographed fights. There's also often sci-fi elements (which I'm a fan of). Each season of each show seems to be made with love and passion for the genre* too and I've read/seen a few interviews which support this. There's also some very talented actors and it's amazing to watch them play pretend the colorful plastic weapons are real and can hurt you (they really sell it to you if you can suspend your disbelief a little and have some fun).

*edited - I wrote labor of love but forgot it is a specific thing and might not apply very well here?

Anyway. I'll give you the basics. The three big tokusatsu shows you may often see around are: Kamen Rider and Super Sentai (both from Toei) and Ultraman (from Tsuburaya).

Screenshots from: Kamen Rider OOO (2010), Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger (2021) and Ultraman Blazar (2023)

There's others! like Dogengers (screenshot below) - but I'll try to focus on those three.

In general these shows are aimed at young audiences so you have to watch with that in mind. Also, like any superhero show, they will want to sell you merch (figures, toys, plushies, etc).

Another important thing to know is that the seasons of these shows are usually self contained, and each have their own theme, so you can pick any season that catches your eye to check out with no previous knowledge. There are crossovers events (movies and especials) and anniversary seasons which will explore and/or showcase previous content too! I personally really enjoyed Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger (2021) which is a 45th Anniversary Sentai season and I had watched only two other sentais before it.

Now, some differences! so you can tell the shows apart and also know what you will potentially have in store if you decide to watch any. I'll put a read more because this is getting long 👍

Kamen Rider and Super Sentai air all year long, for this reason, seasons usually have 45-50 episodes. All the Ultraman shows I've watched have 25 episodes per season. Meanwhile Dogengers has kept a 12 episodes per season formula so far. Spin offs, specials and reboots have no defined number of episodes (to my knowledge).

I feel like I should mention that (especially in the case of 45-50 episodes shows) the episodes might feel a bit off sometimes? Be aware there's often release schedules with toylines involved* From what I've noticed this usually happens past the mid-season point the closer you get to finale territory. My guess is that, generally at that point, the writing team (or writer) was trying to do things they forgot to properly set up before, tie loose ends and/or finish arcs quickly. *Sometimes other things affect production, like COVID or an actor suddenly not being able to continue with their role.

All shows value The Power Of Love and Friendship and usually feature a team of heroes (or allies) fighting against an enemy faction. There's also, almost always, some sort of transformation device involved and in all these shows the heroes must collect some season-themed item to get power ups. The key difference between each show will be how they decide to play with these things.

Super Sentai is what Power Rangers is based on. If that tells you nothing: there's a team of heroes ("rangers"), color coded suits that are generally not too complex in design and one giant mech vs. giant monster fight per episode (on average). I've not seen too much Sentai so that's all I got for you.

Kamen Rider gives its heroes more complex suit designs and (usually) multiple forms (ascending in strength/skill). Kamen Rider's signature elements are probably: the drivers (belts), the henshins (transformation scenes) and the fact that they often have motorbikes (they gotta ride something).

Ultraman has more of a shared universe between seasons situation going on than the previous two so there's recurring lore. I won't explain that lore to keep this as short as possible. Either there's a host-alien situation (to varying degrees) or the protagonist has the ability to transform. In this show there's always an almost guaranteed Titular Ultraman vs. giant monster fight per episode.

More visuals that might help you tell them apart:

Screenshots from Ohsama Sentai King Ohger (2023)

Screenshots from Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002), Kamen Rider Den-O (2007), Kamen Rider OOO (2010), Kamen Rider Build (2017)

Screenshots from Ultraman Orb (2016), Ultraman Geed (2017) and Ultraman Blazar (2023)

I hope this was helpful! sorry it got long!

[tyrantisterror]

Which Ultraman kaiju are your personal favorites and why?

The only Ultraman series I've seen in full is the original - I've seen, like, a third of Ultraseven, several episodes of Ultraman Cosmos, the first season of Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, and scattered episodes from some of the others - so this is a very skewed/poorly researched answer that's likely to change. But also there's hundreds of these fuckers to choose from so narrowing it down would always be difficult.

Gomora is my absolute favorite Ultra monster. His debut two-parter is one of the best in the original series, and he really pushed Ultraman to his limit. He's got a killer design that has that beautiful simplicity you get from the best kaiju out there - that Showa Tsuburaya house style. And he got to be a hero more than a few times! Gomora fucking rules.

Red King is my second favorite. I love his distinct scales, pin-headed body, and the gleeful malice he exudes. There's even a great aspect to his name - you can't help but wonder why this bone-white monster is called "Red King" until he starts tearing lesser monsters limb from limb. He's "Red King" because he's a king bathed in cherry red blood. A wonderful heel who, like Gomora, had enough star power to get some sympathetic moments later in the franchise.

The Baltans had me when, in their debut episode, they were asked why they couldn't colonize Mars instead of Earth, and answered, "We don't like Mars! We don't want to live there! We'll take Earth!" Maybe it was just a silly translation, but it felt so petty and irrational, this civilization of bug people who could easily avoid conflict by just taking an empty planet, but decide they want to fight humanity instead because they think Earth looks more fun. And another killer design to boot!

...I don't need to explain why Camearra is on this list, right? We all know why she's here, right? Right. Moving on.

I feel the original Mephilas design is kind of at odds with his characterization - he's too cute and cuddly looking! But Shin Mephilas really hits a good spot for me, still recognizable but a bit more sinister for a faustian tempter figure.

Jamilla is one of the most tragic kaiju in all of Ultra canon, and has a suitably messed up design to match. It's like if Belial from Basket Case was built to play basketball.

Finally, let's end with Veron, the alcoholic kaiju who is defeated in part by what I think might be a 1960's Japanese meme?

[biomic]

Finally saw Shin Ultraman a few days ago, my first time watching anything in the Ultra series besides a few eps of Ultra Q. I really loved it. I know people jokingly compare Dr Who to toku, but honestly, I felt what makes the Doctor such a fantastic character was very much present in Ultraman. This powerful alien being, who experiences the universe in a way incomprehension to us, who's willing to rebel against his home planet because he sees so much beauty and potential in humanity... Needless to say I loved his character. Are those same aspects in the rest of the Ultra series, or is that something that Shin did uniquely? Because I'm definitely interested in trying out a full season if there's one's with that same idea

hmm... well i haven't seen the original series so i can't comment on how that compares to shin's reimagining of things, but a lot of those themes are definitely baked into ultra's DNA, albeit without the rebelling part. the land of light, from what i've seen anyway, is typically depicted as very noble and altruistic as opposed to the feckless bureaucracy of the time lords or shin zoffy's cold indifference

broadly speaking, i'd say ultraman orb has some shades of doctor who if you're looking at it from that angle. gai is an enigmatic alien implied to have been on a whole host of grand adventures in his past and has adopted earth as a second home due to the bonds he's made there. slightly unrelated but his relationship with juggler is very much in the same vein of "best friends who are rivals who are lovers who are so monumentally, unspeakably, cataclysmically divorced" as the doctor and the master so that's fun

also, everything i've heard about mebius and tiga leads me to believe that it's probably a safe bet that shin fans will enjoy those as well, but i haven't seen them yet so i can't say for sure

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Speaking of Death Battle thoughts on the 2000000000000000000000th repeat of Goku vs Superman? Good? Bad? Or exists?

//Ok, I have a lot to say about it:

//You know how I said that Scooby Vs Courage was my favourite episode of this season?

//It is genuinely at risk of losing it's title, and it's because of Goku Vs Superman 3. Let me break it down:

//Now, I did kind of mention this when I recapped Rick Vs Doctor, but even from the beginning, I was a big defender of the match. When Ben explained why they were doing this again, he made some really great points and convinced me that they had something good in the works.

//And for the people who say that the rerun was pointless, especially since Goku lost again, I need to point out that the SECOND fight was pointless. It happened one series after the first one and seemed to just be made of scrapped notes from the first episode, which, to its credit, I still think holds up today. The controversy surrounding the second episode was a bit intense, but sort of deserved, since the really only good thing about the second fight was Brandon Yates' "Alive".

//As for what makes the most recent episode so great, the analyses for both Goku and Superman are really well done and very respectful to both characters, much unlike the second fight where Goku just got fucked over and Superman got decharacterized like a motherfucker. They do a good job at bringing out both characters best sides and this is what is translated into the fight.

//Unlike the previous two times the two fought on Death Battle, Superman actually plays along with Goku's battle hungry enthusiasm, and the two are pretty chummy throughout the fight despite how they're trying to kill each other. I love it when there's no real animosity between fighters in DB and that they're just trying to test out each other's strength. I also think this shift in motives for Superman is great, because it brings out what I believe is his best side, that being his humility. Whereas in the previous two episodes he was kind of no-nonsense, overly stern and serious and just gave Goku shit for...being Goku, Superman is really nice to Goku in this episode and respects him right until the end, even agreeing to go round 2 with him. So even though the fight ends with Goku losing again, I saw this coming, and I'm at least glad it wasn't a fuck-you death like the last two times.

//Also, what helps is that the voice acting is amazing. Michael Kovach and Xander Mobus are two guys who I respect IMMENSELY, and this episode highlights why. They break off each other well, and Michael's final Kamehameha when Goku goes Ultra Instinct is incredible.

//The animation is the best of the season, bar-none, or at least the best 3D animation. If I talked about everything I liked about it, we'd be here forever, but you can tell the animators pulled out all the stops. The one scene I will draw attention to is when Superman starts to get serious and punches so hard, reality breaks and we see alternate versions of Goku and Superman fighting, like Goku Black fighting Ultraman. I think that was really cool and really clever and paid good attention to the legacy of both the characters.

//Lastly, the post-analysis was very well done. It seems to me that Death Battle really wanted to explain why Superman wins this time instead of just saying, "ugh, he's fucking strong and goku sucks" so they broke it down into categories, and Goku even outmatched Superman in skill. I liked that the fight wasn't a complete and total one-sided beatdown since Goku had a few edges, and that's enough for me.

//If I had to say there were any disappointments with the episode, I have two, and they are extremely minor. For one, I was really hoping that the battle track would be a remaster of Alive from the second fight, but upon reflection, Alive was more of a nitty and gritty and edgy track that suited the more savage mood of the second episode, whereas in this one it's more upbeat and powerful to show just how fun the two were having. So while my expectations were subverted, they were succeeded.

//The other thing I didn't like was how the episode ended. Wiz starts going on a panic and questioning what they're doing before Boomstick snaps him out of it. And the reason this makes me sad is because it feels like Death Battle is trying to justify it's reason for existing to it's audience, which...it shouldn't HAVE to do that. Death Battle exists to paint and show a picture of what would happen if the characters you love were to fight to the death using every ability they have in their arsenal, and use math, science and research to decide who. The people who right the show, in spite of what many people will tell you, are not biased against anybody, and even though they rely on facts to reach their verdicts, it's all about having fun and seeing these crossover fights with two powerful combatants duking it out. That's all there is to it and that's all there needs to be, and it makes me sad and angry to think about how these guys are getting chronic hate for their verdicts from toxic people, since it DOESN'T MATTER who wins! Oh, your fav lost? How sad! MOVE ON! You've got a life to live and if it pisses you off, watch a different series. It just made me sad, that's all.

//Anyway, in summary, top tier episode. 10/10.

//And for those who are curious, here's my current ranking of the Season 10 episodes from best to worst, not including Galactus Vs Unicron (which by the way, I have no say in, I'm not particularly invested in either character, so I don't really care who wins. Subtly rooting for Galactus though.) This season has been absolute fire from start to finish and I love every single episode so far though:

Scooby Vs Courage

Goku Vs Superman

Frieza Vs Megatron

Rick Vs the Doctor

Cole Vs Alex

Bill Vs Discord

Guts Vs Dimitri

Ant-Man Vs Atom

Gojo Vs Makima

Skyrim Vs Dark Souls

Phoenix Vs Raven

Martian Manhunter Vs Silver Surfer

Vader Vs Obito

Stitch Vs Rocket

Killua Vs Misaka.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Color Timer

We seem to be in a bit of a Kaiju renaissance. Goji x Monkee is just over the horizon, much to my chagrin, but the Monarch show was exquisite and Goji Minus One is out here quietly being the best Godzilla content since the very first entry. Beyond that, Kaiju no. Eight is poised to be something special and, considering how slim the pickings anime has been for the past season or two, i am absolutely salivating for that sh*t. Thoroughly expect a big ass Kaiju boom in the genre any minute, kind of like how we've had nothing but Isekai after SAO got unduly popular. Honestly, i want that more than anything. I love Kaiju sh*t almost as much as i love Cyberpunk content. Godzilla is one of the three pillars of my childhood. While my assumption of a great Kaiju boom might be presumptive, there are hints of that sh*t happening. I've come across a few manga that feel very "proto-Kaiju" in nature.

Semelparous feels like that but it's a bit more adult than my usual recommendations. Worth a read, sure, but chock full of titties so, you know, be prepared if you venture in that direction. Otome Kaijuu Caramelize is another solid entry that i enjoy reading. it's a cute, slice of life, with dope ass Kaiju battles and an interesting transformation situation. One of the greatest regrets i have is the fact Ziga was canceled before it even had the opportunity to get going. That sh*t had exceptional art, a rather compelling Shonen story, and a fantastic world to explore. It, apparently, didn't connect with audiences at the time, sh9t was released at the height of the Isekai craze, and was unceremoniously canceled It was kind of Kaiju no. Eight before Kaiju no. Eight. So much potential, lost to the ages, because it was about five years too early. Sh*t sucks, man. It's one of those great "What Ifs", like Psyren. I mourn Ziga, for sure, but that's not what this post is about. No, this one is a celebration.

I wanted to bring a fledgling narrative to everyone's attention, a Kaiju story that is ramping up into something special, 70 Meter Girl! I stumbled across this one by accident. It was during one of my manic, middle of the night, weekend search binges, for something new. I remember coming across that Cursificer manga and Girl around the same time and, while the latter had more chapters, the former was a more compelling read to me. Obviously, it hit all of buttons. Great action, beautiful art, a world that was ever expansion, and an attention to detail that you only see in the most auteur of manga. It definitely feels like a throwback to the Nineties type of storytelling, an homage to things like Escaflowne, Ultraman: Towards the Future, and EVA. It follows the misadventures of Hinako Kurobe, as she maneuvers her daily, civilian life, while balancing her job as Nanamaru, the first line of Kaiju defense and the titular Seventy Meter Girl.

I mentioned the throwback nature of this book before, but a lot of that has to do with the art. It's almost like how SSSS.Gridman captured that weirdly stiff, jerky, Tokusatsu type of movement, the sheer scale and actual weight of it, in anime, but Girl does it on the page. It's hard to articulate but, seeing those action panels and the dynamic nature of their flow, really hammers home that Iwata Nawoya really understands the genre. His Kaiju design is top tier, crazy detailed, and hearkens back to those Seventies classics. The one in the first chapter smacks of Toho's Baragon or Tsubaraya's Gomora. It was odd seeing this still image and knowing exactly how it moved, how methodical and destructive the thing was. More than that, the art, itself, felt like a throwback to the stuff i grew up with. I'm saying it was giving me flashbacks to old school Shirow and Kishiro. It has this weirdly nostalgic style, the would fit right into that transitional period between the Eighties and Nineties. I kind of love it. That, alone, keeps me coming back but the narrative is absolutely compelling. The narrative, itself, is only five chapters deep, but I'd be lying if i said it was just packed with detail. You learn a lot about hat world in those scant entries but it's more than enough to keep you coming back for more. Nawoya is also the author of this series so you know that this book is all him. he has a plan and, as long as the thing gets enough eyes on it, he'll be bale to execute beautifully.

Seventy Meter girl is wonderful. It's a little young in the tooth and can easily go sideways as the story develops, but i trust Nawoya. The strength of his art, alone, is worth a gander but it's not like he sucks at storytelling. Kaze no Stra made it to forty-three chapters and saw a decent amount of success. I've never read it, myself, but i might pick up based on Girl's first few chapters. You have to keep in mind, not everyo0ne finds their stride right out of the gate. Even Kubo kind of flopped with Zombie Powder so Girl might be Nawoya's big hit. It certainly has all the trappings for one. We'll see where this thing goes, especially with Kaiju no. Eight poised to absolutely ruin the industry in the way Naruto and FMA did back in the day. I'm sure there'll be a rush for content like this, probably under the guise of the "Superhero" genre but make no mistake: This sh*t is Kaiju at it's finest. Or maybe it's all just wishful thinking on my part. Maybe i want Girl to succeed because the wound of Ziga's failure is still weeping from my heart. Oh, what could have been...

[smokeybrand]

Color Timer

We seem to be in a bit of a Kaiju renaissance. Goji x Monkee is just over the horizon, much to my chagrin, but the Monarch show was exquisite and Goji Minus One is out here quietly being the best Godzilla content since the very first entry. Beyond that, Kaiju no. Eight is poised to be something special and, considering how slim the pickings anime has been for the past season or two, i am absolutely salivating for that sh*t. Thoroughly expect a big ass Kaiju boom in the genre any minute, kind of like how we've had nothing but Isekai after SAO got unduly popular. Honestly, i want that more than anything. I love Kaiju sh*t almost as much as i love Cyberpunk content. Godzilla is one of the three pillars of my childhood. While my assumption of a great Kaiju boom might be presumptive, there are hints of that sh*t happening. I've come across a few manga that feel very "proto-Kaiju" in nature.

Semelparous feels like that but it's a bit more adult than my usual recommendations. Worth a read, sure, but chock full of titties so, you know, be prepared if you venture in that direction. Otome Kaijuu Caramelize is another solid entry that i enjoy reading. it's a cute, slice of life, with dope ass Kaiju battles and an interesting transformation situation. One of the greatest regrets i have is the fact Ziga was canceled before it even had the opportunity to get going. That sh*t had exceptional art, a rather compelling Shonen story, and a fantastic world to explore. It, apparently, didn't connect with audiences at the time, sh*t was released at the height of the Isekai craze, and was unceremoniously canceled It was kind of Kaiju no. Eight before Kaiju no. Eight. So much potential, lost to the ages, because it was about five years too early. Sh*t sucks, man. It's one of those great "What Ifs", like Psyren. I mourn Ziga, for sure, but that's not what this post is about. No, this one is a celebration.

I wanted to bring a fledgling narrative to everyone's attention, a Kaiju story that is ramping up into something special, 70 Meter Girl! I stumbled across this one by accident. It was during one of my manic, middle of the night, weekend search binges, for something new. I remember coming across that Cursificer manga and Girl around the same time and, while the latter had more chapters, the former was a more compelling read to me. Obviously, it hit all of buttons. Great action, beautiful art, a world that was ever expansion, and an attention to detail that you only see in the most auteur of manga. It definitely feels like a throwback to the Nineties type of storytelling, an homage to things like Escaflowne, Ultraman: Towards the Future, and EVA. It follows the misadventures of Hinako Kurobe, as she maneuvers her daily, civilian life, while balancing her job as Nanamaru, the first line of Kaiju defense and the titular Seventy Meter Girl.

I mentioned the throwback nature of this book before, but a lot of that has to do with the art. It's almost like how SSSS.Gridman captured that weirdly stiff, jerky, Tokusatsu type of movement, the sheer scale and actual weight of it, in anime, but Girl does it on the page. It's hard to articulate but, seeing those action panels and the dynamic nature of their flow, really hammers home that Iwata Nawoya really understands the genre. His Kaiju design is top tier, crazy detailed, and hearkens back to those Seventies classics. The one in the first chapter smacks of Toho's Baragon or Tsubaraya's Gomora. It was odd seeing this still image and knowing exactly how it moved, how methodical and destructive the thing was. More than that, the art, itself, felt like a throwback to the stuff i grew up with. I'm saying it was giving me flashbacks to old school Shirow and Kishiro. It has this weirdly nostalgic style, the would fit right into that transitional period between the Eighties and Nineties. I kind of love it. That, alone, keeps me coming back but the narrative is absolutely compelling. The narrative, itself, is only five chapters deep, but I'd be lying if i said it was just packed with detail. You learn a lot about hat world in those scant entries but it's more than enough to keep you coming back for more. Nawoya is also the author of this series so you know that this book is all him. he has a plan and, as long as the thing gets enough eyes on it, he'll be bale to execute beautifully.

Seventy Meter girl is wonderful. It's a little young in the tooth and can easily go sideways as the story develops, but i trust Nawoya. The strength of his art, alone, is worth a gander but it's not like he sucks at storytelling. Kaze no Stra made it to forty-three chapters and saw a decent amount of success. I've never read it, myself, but i might pick up based on Girl's first few chapters. You have to keep in mind, not everyo0ne finds their stride right out of the gate. Even Kubo kind of flopped with Zombie Powder so Girl might be Nawoya's big hit. It certainly has all the trappings for one. We'll see where this thing goes, especially with Kaiju no. Eight poised to absolutely ruin the industry in the way Naruto and FMA did back in the day. I'm sure there'll be a rush for content like this, probably under the guise of the "Superhero" genre but make no mistake: This sh*t is Kaiju at it's finest. Or maybe it's all just wishful thinking on my part. Maybe i want Girl to succeed because the wound of Ziga's failure is still weeping from my heart. Oh, what could have been...

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

I’m taking a semi-hiatus

(LINK TO THE MASTERPOST)

The last few days weren’t the best for me, and I understand I went way too far with my criticisms of Adrien. While I felt like I needed to make my points clear, I am fully aware that my own personal bias got in the way, and in a way, made me no better than Astruc himself. I just feel like I need a little break from all the negativity surrounding the stuff I talk about.

This isn’t the end, however. Something I’ve been thinking about these past few months is starting a different sideblog focused more on tokusatsu, something I’m just as passionate about, and a topic I can be more positive making posts on. My plan is to start that side blog and run it for a few weeks to maybe a month or two, and hopefully by then, I can be in a better state of mind to talk about Miraculous Ladybug again.

Of course, you might have a few questions floating through your head about the future.

"Can you specify what you've genuinely regretted saying in the drama?"

Mainly just how hard I’ve been on Adrien and his fans compared to Marinette, showing some double standards on my part.

"What will be covered on your new sideblog?"

Tokusatsu shows. I’m still working on the specifics of it, but my plan is to cover stuff like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, and Ultraman.

"Will things beyond tokusatsu be covered there as well?" 

Probably not. Maybe I’ll review a Precure season or two there, but tokusatsu is going to be the main subject there. It’s just something I’m a huge fan of.

"Will Miraculous Ladybug be mentioned there on occasion or do you wish to keep it out of the blog until further notice?" 

I might make a passing reference to it here and there (the current Super Sentai season also has a black animal-themed hero who’s unintentionally kept out of the loop, so there’ll probably be jokes there), but I’m not going to make any serious criticisms or potshots against the show.

"Are you still going to follow new episodes of Miraculous Ladybug during the hiatus or will those be avoided as well?"

I’ll probably keep up with them to take notes on before I come back, but I won’t outright be avoiding them.

"Will your inbox still be open?"

It will. When I come back, I plan to go through any asks I get.

"Will this mean that the Season 4 rewrite will be delayed?"

Unfortunately, yes. I’m sorry to anyone who was looking forward to it, but I feel like this is for the best.

"Are you sure you'll be able come back to doing IOTA? When or if the hiatus ends, what do you think you'll do with both blogs?"

I’ll probably focus on longer-term projects for the sideblog, like reviewing longer shows compared to the episode-by-episode reviews I do for Miraculous Ladybug.

"Should we do something about this debate you've gone through? "Shouldn't we call out Adrien fans for this?"

Please don’t. This was clearly my fault for snapping, and I don’t want to blame anyone for this. I made this decision based on snapping at Adrien fans, and I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistakes I did.

Just to be clear, this isn’t goodbye, and I’m not running away. I just need a little time to clear my head so I can be better at covering this kind of content.

[cc-mr-vip]

- ℂ𝔸𝕄ℙ ℂℝ𝔼𝕋𝔸ℂ𝔼𝕆𝕌𝕊 𝕊ℙ𝕆𝕀𝕃𝔼ℝ𝕊 𝔸ℍ𝔼𝔸𝔻- 

I bloody love Camp Cretaceous. 

To be completely honest, I had the bar set pretty low when I first heard of this show. I expected this to be sort of a Rescue Riders version of Jurassic World, a fun dino kid friendly adventure. My opinion changed a little bit when I found out it took the same place and time as the first JW movie, but I thought it would like be ‘before the accident’ type of thing. So after watching the pretty heavy ULTRAMAN (2019) show with friends, we wanted to watch something fun and light, something we could make fun of to wash down the angst. We picked Camp Cretaceous.

And boy did the show lull my friends and I into a false sense of security. The beginning took it’s time to introduce the characters and all that. The first few episode did have a ‘haha fun dinosaur times’ with some scary parts in between. But boy, when the events of the movie started taking place, shit hit the fan real fast. 

I think like one of the darkest moments was when Eddie abandoned the kids and then got eaten alive by the I-Rex. Then what happened to Ben, I wasn’t even sure he was alive. Like damn, it felt almost too dark for a kids show. At that point, my friends and I were fully invested in what was going on. 

The best part about this show is how real the kids are acting. They’re not just going ‘aaaaa! scary dinosaur!’, some of them are whimpering, crying out, shrieking, just terrified out of their minds. These are just kids struggling to survive. I think the part that really resonated with me the most is Kenji practically having a mental breakdown in the tunnels in the last episode. He was still reeling over what happened to Ben and Bumpy, under so much pressure to lead them the right way; he just started cracking and that panicking...that felt a little too real to me. 

The worst part about it all is that they didn’t end up succeeding. They might have all survived, but they ware now stuck on the island. And are forced to survive in more. God damn, I just feel so bad for these kids. And now they have at least 1 more season of pain and struggles.

I think probably the “worst” part of this show is the human character designs compared to the dinosaur. The human characters are fine on their own, but next to the pretty realistic dinosaur, it gets a little weird. I got used to it pretty quick though, I’m a Kingdom Hearts fan.

So I made this sideblog so I can keep talking about the show and it’s characters (my favorite is Kenji btw). Can’t wait for Season 2!

[wits-writing]

Ultraman Z Ep. 22: “Individual Tomorrows” (TV Review)

(Original Air Date: November 28, 2020, Director: Koichi Sakamoto, Writer Sotaro Hayashi)

With STORAGE disassembled in the wake of the previous episode, Haruki and Yoko hang out during their down time to discuss what their next steps will be if they can’t fight to protect people anymore. The answer turns out to be that they’ll do it anyway as another Space Pirate Barossa arrives to get revenge for his brothers.

“Individual Tomorrows” is a simultaneously comforting and energetic episode as we see the dynamic between the ensemble cast of Ultraman Z at its best, even without their usual resources to back them up.

[Full Review Under the Cut]

Opening the episode on Haruki in the middle of another workout and flashbacks montage sets the tone for the rest of the episode. As with the other time this happened, the flashbacks are accompanied by a slow piano cover of the opening theme, but the moments Haruki’s remembering are quite different. Rather than moments of regret, it’s a collection of all the silly moments he’s had with the rest of Team STORAGE. On the surface, it’s a reminder of what Haruki will miss now that the organization has been dismantled. Below that surface lies the heart of this episode, that the team bonding through these moments made them an effective monster fighting unit. An idea that bears out through the rest of the episode as we see them work together to stop an alien threat, even when it’s not their job and with zero hesitation.

Before they spring into action, we get to see a bit of how everyone on the team is dealing with being on leave. Yoko inviting Haruki to hang out gets implied to be her not having much life outside of her dedication to her job as a pilot. She points out that she hasn’t kept up with new trends in a while when she tries her first boba tea while hanging out with Haruki. There’s also an enjoyable bit where she asks Haruki pay for his movie ticket, even though she won two free passes, after he loses another arm-wrestling bet.

On their way to the theater, they end up coming across a friend we haven’t seen in a while; the one and only Sevenger!

STORAGE’s original giant robot has been relegated to a museum piece with the secondary function of promoting the operation of robots like him to the public. Overseeing Sevenger’s display are two more friends from STORAGE; Yuka and Bako, working in PR and maintenance on Sevenger, respectively. Even if we only briefly see the four of them together outside of a work environment, it’s still a refreshing change of setup. I hadn’t grown tired of STORAGE or the characters’ roles within it at all, but sometimes you don’t know how much a change of pace can add to a series until you get one. They’re all taking advantage of this interlude in their lives their own ways before figuring out what their individual tomorrows will hold.

However, their time together does leave one member of Team STORAGE doing his own thing the whole episode, Juggler. He skulks around the former STORAGE base, rechristened Special Airborne and Armored Group (SAAG), while disguised as a pizza delivery guy. Juggler’s investigation leads him to what the GAF’s plan is to replace and “improve” on the robots of STORAGE, a machine called “Ultroid Zero” modeled after Ultraman Zero. He ends up overhearing Mai Yuki talk about how they need data on Ultraman Z’s energy blasts before the new machine can be combat ready. Since he’s the type to stir the pot whichever way will keep things most interesting to him, Juggler goes off to make sure SAAG gets what they need. He even stops Zett from defeating Barossa too quickly to make sure the fight goes on long enough that the Ultra will resort to stronger attacks.

Everything in this episode converges once Barossa makes the scene and the action starts. This is another Koichi Sakamoto episode, so the fights all have his specific energy. We get to see Haruki, Yoko, and even Bako take their turns fighting against the space pirate. While the two pilots get tossed aside quickly, the senior engineer’s fighting skills actually intimidate the alien into running away. Seeing them all work together against a threat outside of the usual pattern of STORAGE operations displays how they’re personal bonds defined their dynamic more than their official positions.

As the fighting escalates to giant scale we get a two of my favorite things in the episode, seeing Zett grow to giant size from the outside rather than through a transformation sequence and Yoko piloting Sevenger once more to join the fight. A few more complications get added between one of SAAG’s new pilots showing up in King Joe to stop Yoko from using Sevenger and Juggler transforming into Tri/Five-King once it’s clear Barossa’s not enough to get Zett to use his strongest attacks. Tri-King even retains the sky darkening power it had in “The Mystic Power” as it emerges from a cloud of smoke in one of my favorite shots this episode. When Zett and Haruki do finally resort to a beam attack, Juggler uses Joe as a shield so Mai can gather the data she needs to complete Ultroid Zero. (Though the attack leaves Joe broken down into its component vehicles.) The fight ends on another high note for the episode as Zett finishes off the fight with Gamma Futures powers, if only because it’s nice for older forms to still feel like they matter in a show like this after the hero already obtained a final powerup like Delta Rise Claw.

However, the unparalleled pinnacle of this episode goes to Yoko and Sevenger, the comeback kid. One of the funnier bits of the episode feeds into their highlight, as Ultraman Z’s talking sword, Beliarok, gets excited to fight against Five-King until Haruki mentions they fought the monster before. The mouthy blade being so particular with how it’s used opens the opportunity for Sevenger to wield it. Though not before Yoko taunts Beliarok for being too cowardly to fight Barossa. Sword in hand and with Yuka controlling King Joe’s monster transport platform, Sevenger lands a skateboarding sword slash finisher against the space pirate. After episode upon episode of Yoko jobbing against every monster of the week while piloting Joe on top of Sevenger’s lengthy absence, seeing them get any win (let alone one this stylish) was phenomenal.

Everyone in Team STORAGE contributing to one victory or another this episode will probably make it rank highly when I’m thinking back on Ultraman Z as a series after it wraps up in a few weeks. Even if Juggler’s main contribution was to be one of the defeated monsters. Though he does also get a nice moment as Hebikura when he says his farewells to them, since everyone is no longer part of the GAF’s robot division with the exception of Yoko, a candidate to pilot Ultroid Zero after Mai saw what she could do with Sevenger. When Haruki expresses his sadness at how everything they worked for and he’s defined himself by have been torn away, Hebikura tells him to prove everyone who underestimated STORAGE wrong. Once more demonstrating how, even if he’s hiding his true self, Juggler does care about his team.

Ultraman Z’s final arc continues to impress me. Seeing the main ensemble operate in a new context and Sakamoto’s stylish action made this a great step along the last stretch of episodes. I’d be more than happy if this warm energy hung around the rest of the season. But given the next episode is called “Prelude to a Nightmare”, I kind of doubt that will be the case.

If you like what you’ve read here, please like/reblog or share elsewhere online, follow me on Twitter (@WC_WIT), and consider throwing some support my way at either Ko-Fi.com or Patreon.com at the extension “/witswriting”

[isitreallyok]

Super Hero Time and My Very Own Kamen Rider Club

[A quick note before we get started here.  In this post and likely in all posts to come names of people in my personal life have been changed to maintain anonymity.] After last week’s heavy topic regarding the pressures of positivity, I thought it would be better to at least start this week off lighthearted. It’s very likely that the vast majority of the readers of this are going to be from the US and as such likely have grown up with or at least seen an episode of Power Rangers. While there are a lot of things that the Power Rangers franchise does that are beyond silly and seem absolutely ridiculous to many of us that see them as adults, the things that are presented in these shows seem absolutely incredible to their target audience. These shows are marketed towards children in case that wasn’t obvious.

Power Rangers is a nostalgic thing to watch for me and I still greatly enjoy it!

Well dear reader, I am glad we agree on that. I grew up watching Power Rangers and as time has gone on I have found that I still enjoy the monster fighting, transforming, masked heroes presented therein. There are even a number of series in the franchise that I have enjoyed even as an adult. Though as I have grown older, and in turn begun to use subtitles on everything I watch, I have developed a fascination with Asian television as a whole since it tends to feel vastly different from most of what is made available in the US. This fascination extends to tokusatsu television shows including but not limited to Super Sentai and Kamen Rider.

For those who aren’t aware, Power Rangers is actually based on the long standing Super Sentai franchise in Japan. Each week on Sunday mornings, similarly to the Saturday morning cartoons of yore, a television block called Super Hero Time airs. This consists of the most recent annual series for both Super Sentai and the annual series of another long standing series called Kamen Rider. Both of these play into the gimmick of transforming masked heroes that have a different theme with each season. Of late I have been enjoying watching episodes of each of these series with a small group of folks on Discord and let me tell you all about the joy of finally finding a group of lovely people that are interested in these series the same way I am.

Sounds like it’s time for a story. Shall we queue the “Long Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away…” scrawl?

You know what. That sounds fun. Lets imagine this as an opening to a cinematic experience. Lets travel back to June of the COVID times, a mere six months that feels like it is 87 years ago . At this point depression had grabbed a hold of me and thrown me so deep into the pits of despair that I wasn’t sure where I was going to find a light at the end of the tunnel. I had just been through a breakup with my first girlfriend in four years, I was living at an extended stay with my father taking care of him as best as I was capable, all while sacrificing my own ability to take of myself and cope with the emotional break down that was happening as my social life and many of my friendships were falling to shambles.

Enter Kenshiro. I started interacting with Kenshiro on Twitter earlier in 2020 and saw that he posted a lot about One Piece (which I was actively catching up on at the time) and things in the tokusatsu genre. Eventually I noticed that he had posted about a small group of folx who ended up getting together on Tuesday nights to watch Sentai together. I managed to quickly, and very temporarily, overcome my social anxiety and asked if it would be possible for an invite to this group. Kenshiro had a “the more the merrier style” approach to this group and I was welcomed in with open arms. Thus beginning a journey that has lasted six months and is still going today.

I think it’s wonderful that you managed to overcome your social anxiety to get into the group, but don’t social interactions overwhelm you regardless?

Though I was able to get an invite into the server and start enjoying these watch parties with the crew, the social impact was still quite overwhelming. On any given night that we were watching Sentai shows there were between 14 and 20 people all typing (we mute our mics when we watch) at the same time and the wall of text that forms while there are four to six different discussions going on about the show was really overwhelming at first. I struggled to really feel like I belonged even though people were engaged and encouraging me with everything that I was talking about.

That all changed when Ex-Aid started up Rider Time on Thursdays. When I first joined up we were watching intermittent episodes of both Carranger and Gokaiger on Tuesdays and it was a blast. Carranger, the series that Power Rangers Turbo was based on, was easily the most 80s nonsense I’ve seen in a long time with multicolored jobber baddies that ended up being completely over the top and I loved every second of it. Eventually though we moved towards watching Gokaiger, a pirate themed anniversary season of Sentai, in its entirety. Once we moved to the stick to a single series and watch it all the way through it only made sense that someone would start up a different night for us to watch Kamen Rider.

This was originally an effort spearheaded by Ex-Aid to further the scope of the tokusatsu shows that we were watching as a group. We were running Sentai on Tuesdays, Kamen Rider on Thursdays, and Ultraman on Fridays. It was a wonderful time to have such an incredible community to surround myself with even if I was a little bit intimidated by the amount of interaction on some of the busier nights.

It sounds like a really nice time. How did you manage to overcome your social anxiety though?

Oddly enough, it came pretty natural to me when I started actually plugging myself into the Thursday night crowd. When we first began the Thursday night watch parties it started off with Kamen Rider Drive. This was a series that I had tried to get into before but never really managed to enjoy so I was a little hesitant to go through it because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. Since we were only watching 3 episodes a week I figured I could carve out an hour and a half of my time to watch some stuff with like minded individuals even if I wasn’t the biggest fan of what we were watching. Guess what, it turns out that my gut reaction to the series was completely wrong and now I absolutely love it and am excited to revisit it when the show is a little less fresh in my mind.

The first few times I tuned in on Thursdays I was a little bit shy. I didn’t say much, I didn’t want to really engage because of the smaller atmosphere, and I sure wasn’t willing to divulge anything going on in my personal life to this new found group. Within two weeks that all changed. I began to joke around with people and participate in the call and response type stuff that we now do during opening and endings even if it’s just typing in all caps the English lyrics in the opening song.

I think the small environment really did wonders for my anxiety because since I wasn’t heavily invested at the start if I felt like I butted heads with any of the group I could have just politely backed out and stopped watching with that small group. By having this group of four to six other people instead of the routine fifteen to twenty that we were drawing on Tuesdays, in time, I felt much more comfortable putting myself out there and letting my voice and opinions be heard. In a very short time, I managed to get very comfortable with this small group and even was more confident and open during the Sentai streaming on Tuesdays with the larger group as well.

Though I absolutely adore the entirety of this community that has been built surrounding both One Piece and tokusatsu shows as a whole, I particularly enjoy the time that I’ve spent with my very own Kamen Rider Club!

Kamen Rider Club?! Frankly that sounds a little childish when worded like that.

It kind of does, doesn’t it? It is what we in the Thursday night crew call ourselves. It is also a reference to what the main cast of Kamen Rider Fourze call themselves. One thing that this weekly gathering of the fans has taught me it is that its okay to enjoy childish things. I’ve even bought myself some of the toys that have come from various Kamen Rider series as I have seen them during our very own show and tell segment where we all showed off our collectibles and various toys. So while yes show and tell is a bit of a childish thing to do it brought joy to our little group. The amount of serotonin I have generated in the last few weeks by playing with the aforementioned toys is astounding. Getting in touch with my inner child and remembering that it is actually rather fun to play pretend has been a real delight.

As adults, we often work ourselves day in and day out to take care of mundane tasks that are essential to our survival. We wake up, go to work, come home, make or order some dinner, eat, and then get ready for bed. I’ve chosen to add finding happiness in doing the things I wasn’t able to do as a kid to the list. Staying up late to find that next save point in a game, buying toys neither myself or my family could afford as a kid, watching nostalgic b movies that brought me some joy as a child, and following along with all the tokusatsu shows my heart can desire are just a few ways I’ve managed to embrace my inner child and cater to my own personal and emotional needs in doing so. There is nothing wrong with being a little childish from time to time. Doing this has introduced me to so many people that I never would have met otherwise.

It really does sound like you’ve managed to build yourself a group of friends here. Isn’t it pretty cool what can happen when you trust that others aren’t going to have your worst interest in mind.

You’re right. I let some people in and was actually surprised with the results. I absolutely adore this little crowd I’ve got. They have all done so much for me without ever realizing it and I am beyond appreciative. Ex-Aid started the KRC on Thursday nights and drops some incredible trivia all over the place. OOO and I have a ton in common and they are an absolute delight to talk to. I am always excited to see them pop into a conversation on the Discord because we tend to have a similar line of thought and form of humor we do have some differences in personal taste that account for unique perspectives and I absolutely love hearing about them. Epsilon and I both are not afraid to make lewd jokes about what we are watching. Tastefully of course. … Most of the time. Epsilon has also offered to be a conversation partner as I continue to get back to my study of the Japanese language! Zi-O has managed to convince me to revisit series I had otherwise written off because I didn’t think they would be of interest, but they managed to sell me on them so I now have an expansive list of series that I want to watch and a planned order to revisit them. Kiva and I aren’t particularly close as I haven’t done much to actually talk to them, but I’m excited to see things develop more in that regard because they seem like a really fun person to talk to. Finally there is Chaser. They are our newest member of our Thursday night group and they have managed to have me laugh so hard I’ve done spit takes. I appreciate each and every one of our little Kamen Rider Club more than words can ever say.

Quick aside and mushy feelings bit here, but if any the KRC are reading this I want you to know that you all have absolutely made 2020 better for me. We’ve had an incredible amount of laughs together. We’ve seen each other through being both happy and sad. Frankly, you all have reminded me that I do have people who I can call friends on days where I didn’t think there was anyone who wanted anything to do with me. I appreciate you, I absolutely adore each of you, and words can not express my gratitude for the warm welcome that I have received into this lovely community. You all have helped me grow as a person in ways that I didn’t expect going into this group. Shaking off my depression blues and finding confidence to embrace my love of these silly kids shows has been in large part thanks to you all. I love you all. Thank you.

Outside of our usual Thursday crew there are so many more people in this community that have put a smile on my face and some joy in my heart, but there is one other person that I would like to take a moment to express some gratitude for. Scipio was one of the first people I actually felt comfortable bantering with in the Tuesday community before the creation of our Rider Time segment on Thursday. They had an incredibly warm and friendly demeanor about them and naturally I didn’t mind bantering with them during the Sentai watch parties. After a while I followed them on Twitter and recently I reached out to them there and they were willing and able to listen to me when I was feeling overwhelmed about the state of chaos in my life and that alone solidified my feeling of being appreciated inside of this community. Thank you Scipio for taking the time to support a stranger and make them feel like they are a part of something bigger.

I’m so glad that you managed to find these people. It seems like they are really helping you in a lot of ways.

They truly are. The joy of it is that they aren’t even doing anything special. They are simply treating me like a comrade and that alone has done wonders for my self esteem. This year has been among the most challenging in my entire life for a myriad of reasons and just having this community to be a part of has honestly saved my life. I don’t know where I would be without them, but I do know that I would be a lot worse off.

So to wrap things up here for today I want to challenge my readers to do two things. Firstly take a moment to appreciate the people in your life that make you happy. If you feel inclined to tell them how much you appreciate them that’s great. If you just take a moment to reflect on it that’s great too. Secondly, I want to challenge everyone to embrace the things that might embarrass you if you talked about it to your friends with more conservative interests. Embrace the wild things that you enjoy. Don’t let anyone take the joy that these things bring you away. Finally as a reminder to all of you, you are stronger than you think, you are beautiful, and by goodness you are worth it. Lets go into this week ready to kick some butt and join some fandoms.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2019 Part 1: git gud

I was trying to wait until something really good came along. This ran into a problem. Yes this is a day behind but not because of... that.

Amazing Stranger

What: Otaku dipshit buys a figurine that turns out to be an alien robot girl from an anime.

❌❌ Otaku dipshit nonsense about perving on a figurine-sized robot girl. It’s bad, yo.

❌ Execution is as questionable as the content. I’ll give it a star for using 3DCG and 2D animation where they respectively make sense.

♎ Only ⅓ runtime so it ended before I could get mad.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai

What: Overachiever gets conned into tutoring a bunch of girls with specialized talents and general uselessness. The twist is that they don’t look identical.

♎ Basic ass harem setup with little to distinguish itself. And if it’s not a real harem it’s just a lacklaughter comedy.

♎ Characters aren’t terrible but sort of just there. Their talents are also too cartoonish to take seriously but not outlandish enough to be funny.

♎ You guessed it, production is workmanlike/undistinguished as well.

❌ Didn’t I just watch this? In any case, this lacks Quintuplet’s trademark sass so it’s just painfully mediocre.

Fruits Basket

What: Poor but optimistic high school girl gets involved with a harem of supernatural critters.

♎ This seems incredibly derivative and unoriginal. Seems of course, because Fruits Basket is the OG so all the others ripped it off in the first place. Doesn’t change the fact that I’ve sampled and discarded dozens of otome harems exactly like this.

✅ The production is aware that they’re adapting a classic over here, so the production values are high. It looks nice.

✅ It’s directed quite competently as well, especially the comic bits have the right timing.

❌ I don’t like the characters much. Tohru is a little annoying and the boyz are a big nothing. That’s not good for a romantic comedy. Side characters fare much better but hey, side characters in a show like this don’t matter.

♎ I have no attachment to Fruits Basket so this will have to stand on its own. So far it looks watchable, but very middle of the road.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu

What: Kiraralike about a class of middle school girls that are all named after their personality. The main character (Bocchi Hitori, natch) is lonely and made of social anxiety.

❌ Dealing with #relatable topics is always sketchy, but Bocchi talking to herself for the majority of the episode just gets really old no matter what.

✅ However, once she starts actually talking to other people it gets better. Slightly above average for a show like this, which means inoffensively cute and very mildly comedic.

♎ This is a Kiraralike where all the characters are named after their personality, so I wouldn’t expect any depth. Not that that’s unusual for the genre.

♎ I’ll probably give this 3 episodes because these shows live and die by the cast, which we haven’t seen much of so far. If Bocchi’s character development sticks and we get a few good support characters, it might be fun.

Joshikausei

What: the sound of one thigh slapping

❌ but

✅✅ though

Kimetsu no Yaiba / DEMON SLAYER

What: Edgy shounen about a dude whose family gets KILL BY DEMONS (no, he isn’t the demons (his sister is the demons)).

✅ Actually better than that sounds, it’s pretty serious with its approach to the whole revenge thing. The edginess is also only apparent on the margins, so tonally it’s more or less fine.

✅ The main guy isn’t terrible and his superpower (a superlative sense of smell) is fairly subdued for the genre. You could tell a story with this.

✅✅ This is ufotable and it looks REALLY good. ufotable shows are always very elaborate, but their aesthetics can be questionable. This, however, keeps the postprocessing to a minimum and uses CG only where appropriate. I’d say it rivals Emiya-san for the best looking thing they’ve ever done.

❌ The OP shows a bunch of supercool superdudes fighting like they're in a shounen anime, just in case you’re wondering.

❌❌ Three words: Weekly Shounen Jump. This is an instant death sentence for the long run, since it will be stretched until nobody cares anymore, then get swiftly killed - with some lipservice to closure, if you’re lucky.

❌❌ In case you’re willing to take your chances, WSJ is still a magazine for babies and imbeciles, so get ready for its “distinctive” writing style. Here it isn’t quite as bad as in Promised Neverland, but you’re still getting 100% wall-to-wall voiceover coverage explaining things that you either don’t need to know or are blindingly obvious. 

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO

What: 90s eroge protagonist starts hopping dimensions to look for his dad or something.

❌❌ Those 90s eroge protagonists sure were hilarious, what with their lechery etc. Rest of the cast fills the genre template nicely as well, which is to say they suck.

❌ Doesn’t look outright terrible so far, but it already shows signs of slight jankiness that would lead me to suspect this is a candidate for a production collapse in the future.

❌ Story? Surely you jest. All that happens in the first episode is vague exposition and naked girls falling from the sky. I hear the game gets real good 100 hours in, btw.

❌ This isn’t just some 90s eroge, it is the 90s eroge. You know, before KEY came along and made them all respectable (ostensibly). In any case, YU-NO is regarded as some stone cold classic of epic feels. I have experience with those, and they usually are only great for as long as you can’t read them.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai

What: High school girls hates men because her father happens to be one. Understandable, since he’s also a tiny dirty old man caricature from the 60s. Can love bloom on the ecchifield?

♎ This is mostly inoffensive...

❌ ...except when it isn’t, of course. Which isn’t that often but still too often.

❌ It would also be appreciated if it could be less offensive in those instances because hot damn.

❌ Even if it removed the main source of irritation it would still be nothing much. Something like Hitoribocchi or Benkyou ga Dekinai has at least some potential, this doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere.

❌❌ My man Kenjiro Tsuda is wasting his time on this goblin’s comedy voice.

Mix - Meisei Story

What: Some kids play baseball, very slowly. You’re supposed to care because you presumably cared about Touch (which Mix is a very far removed sequel to).

❌ I did not in fact care about Touch. Nor about baseball, for that matter.

❌ Seriously, the entire selling point for this is “Sequel. To. Touch.” It cares not for your indifference towards Touch and would rather you go away.

❌❌ The languid pace is a killer. I know baseball is a boring sport but Mix doesn’t even attempt to make it interesting. This could work as an iyashikei-type show but in that case it would need different hooks, such as characters whose personality goes beyond “good at THIS aspect of baseball”. Maybe they’ll get to that but with this pace it’ll take a few seasons.

✅ I think the 80s design with a few contemporary animation frills looks quite nice. They’re probably doing their job right over there.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma

What: One “Oda Nobunaga” is an otaku and somehow also a teacher. Girls looking for his better known ancestor approach him with marriage plans, and since they’re looking for a Sengoku warlord, they come with era appropriate sensibilities.

❌ Do not care much for anime about 14 year old time travellers falling onto some dork’s dick, sorry. Unless they’re real good. Which this isn’t.

❌ I suppose i should be thankful this isn’t an all-out ecchi show, but unlike the characters, “lmao they can’t fuck” gets old.

❌ Besides the obvious, this fails at pacing, comedy, heartwarming, production, etc. I’m getting tired of spelling it all out again, this season definitely has an overabundance of not-quite-terrible-but-subpar-in-every-way romantic comedies.

Senryuu Shoujo

What: Senryuu is poetry that’s pretty much a haiku, but not hella deep. A quiet weirdo girl and a delinquent type write some of those.

✅ This has low ambitions, but manages to meet them. It’s chill and cute and the characters are likeable.

✅ Half length, which is the correct runtime for something as slight as this.

♎ It’s cheap but not to the degree that it detracts from the experience.

✅ It’s the second coming of Go Go 575 and I’m all about that. Check it out!

ULTRAMAN

What: uLtRaMaN is an ultrasequel to UlTrAmAn in which Ultraman is now Ultradad and has to take care of his Ultrason.

♎ Decent looking by CG TV anime standards, though the amount of action is so low that it raises the question why it isn’t just live action, especially since it’s partially mocapped already. I would have expected more pizzazz, especially with Kenji Kamiyama AND Shinji Aramaki directing.

♎ Old man superhero has some charm, but the show suggests and Wikipedia confirms: He’s about to get his ass kicked and his much more standard progeny takes over. There goes your selling point.

♎ Apart from that, this appears to be a competent but not especially engaging sequel to Ultraman (i.e., it’s most definitely not SSSS.Gridman). I have no special affinity for Ultraman.

[tokupedia]

Good Riddance 2018, Hello 2019

2018 wasn’t kind to me. I lost the nice rented suburban home near a park early in the year and got shoved into what best can be described as a rural slum with slumlord overpriced rent, nearly lost my father to a flesh eating bacteria infection, nearly put myself into bad credit to keep things afloat and gave in to whatever impulse buy my parents wanted (I just FINALLY got around to getting that taken care of fully) and had a stress induced mental breakdown that resulted in continuous therapy sessions. So... to wax nostalgically on such a year is understandably not for me.

Even Tokusatsu in the 2018 year had a few disappointments, Amazons: The Movie was incredibly boring (How can you make a villain who has a chainsaw/machine gun combo weapon so underwhelming Toei? HOW?), Lupinranger vs. Patranger managed to become the first Sentai I dropped viewing due to the series meandering about in its story leading to nowhere for a large span of episodes. Zi-O is a series I really want to like, but have some issues with, but managing to stay engaged regardless.

2019 is full of good things for the genre and geek fandom in general and will hopefully lift this tired fox’s spirits a bit as well as all of those who had a bad year too. 

First and foremost, we have a birthday boy to celebrate as Godzilla is turning 65! This year will no doubt be filled to the brim with events and merchandise that celebrate the King of the Monsters as well as fans kaiju stomping to the theaters for his US Summer Blockbuster sequel in May! Godzilla is also seemingly taking over Japan World Heroes 2 for his birthday, as the ads and first guests announced are all Godzilla related.

The new era will start in April with the abdication of Emperor Akihito to his son Prince Naruhito. Which will mean new labeling to arrange future seasons of toku and possibly a new era of politics for Japan.

Batman, a hero who inspired manga artist designs of certain J-Heroes, will be celebrating his 80th anniversary this year. Love in heaven to Mr. Finger and Mr. Kane for this creation!

Ryusoulger, the 43rd Super Sentai season, is a show that may be do-or-die for the franchise as ratings and toy sales have simultaneously plummeted last season to a level not seen since Fiveman. So it is crucial that Toei and Bandai get things right this time. The production crew are hiring a new staff of writers and directors to try and liven things up and get Sentai back on track. The Knight motif is an interesting idea and the Lego brick building theming of the Megazords is definitely an unusual and unique quirk, now we just need to see the Rangers to get a good gauge of how this season will play out. This dino-knight adventure starts in March!

Kamen Rider will enter its 30th season in the fall!

Tokusatsu GaGaGa’s live action drama adaptation will air this month in January on the 18th! Don’t miss a story that is totally relatable about the pains of being a Tokusatsu fan in their adulthood!

According to Keita Amemiya, more Garo is on the way at some point.

Hasbro will fully own the rights to Power Rangers on April 1st, Beast Morphers will debut and the toy company will enjoy other former Saban licenses as well such as Pretty Cure, Beetleborgs and VR Troopers! 

The Boom! Studios comics will conclude the Beyond the Grid story arc at some point while expanding the lore of Power Rangers by explaining the Morphin Grid, the origin of the Dragon Power Coin and more twists, turns and comic exclusive surprises along the way!

Tsuburaya Productions gears up for an aggressive international marketing leap forward as ULTRAMAN debuts on Netflix and possibly more shows arriving for digital streaming on TOKU in the future!

Japanese Spider-Man will likely return to the pages of Marvel Comics at some point since Spider-Geddon was left open ended for a possible follow-up mega event as the evil Morlun escaped as the sole survivor of the Inheritors.

The city of San Diego will celebrate its 50th annual Comic Con this summer! (Sadly, I missed out on tickets again last November due to being flat broke. Hope some toku fans got lucky and will proudly represent us all at the show!)

Hoping for the best, Have a happy new year everyone!

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

SSSS.GRIDMAN - Thoughts

I finished that whirlwind of an anime! On my quest to finish a lot of anime I missed in 2018, Gridman was at the top of my list! My brother recommended it after finishing it, and I can say that *ahem* I actually enjoyed it. I usually do not like mecha, and even though this show is far from original (it’s a parody of the original Ultraman) I found myself admiring the world they built. 

I can say that if you don’t like fanservice, this is not the anime for you. I’m not a fan of fanservice, but I am not deterred so easily. Let me put it this way, the director (forget the exact position) requested thicc ass and thighs and boobs just go without saying at this point. It wasn’t disgusting like some ecchi out there, but they will make their presence known. I found that it got in the way sometimes though. If it means anything, the female characters have a lot of good moments together, and this anime (in its entirety) does pass the Bechdel test.

Bechdel Test:

The work has to have at least two women in it,

who talk to each other,

about something besides a man.

Story and Characters

Yuuta Hibiki is a first-year student in high school living in Tsutsujidai who wakes up without his memories. Yuuta later meets Hyper Agent GRIDMAN who is inside an old computer. Yuuta's quest to fight Kaiju and to discover the meaning behind these events along with finding his memories begins.

The synopsis I made was a bit vague, but that’s what it’s about essentially. In terms of the story, it seems quite light and not that deep, but it doesn’t stay that way for too long. The fights aren’t meaningless, and it’s not a “my power is greater than yours” type of thing. It slowly builds up until a few episodes from the end. While I think the plot twists they pulled were cliche, I still found it exciting. I think I’m going to stop treading around spoilers and just say the plot twists very vaguely. It has to do with creation itself, the meaning of existence, and what is humanity, what is the world, and who are these characters exactly? It will have you questioning everything at times because they don’t answer all the questions they set up (leaving viewers to theorize for themselves). I will include my personal two cents below. But hopefully, that explains enough without spoiling everything. And if you don’t like plot, there are giant robots and fanservice (I say this sarcastically, but I know there are people out there). 

In terms of characters, we have a likeable cast for the most part. I think I wanted the female characters NOT to be overshadowed by the fanservice, but *shrugs* it was inevitable. They both contributed a lot to the show besides the camera angles and sexualized shots. It’s a shame that the focus was taken off that. Besides that, the cast is nice, and I didn’t have any character that I hated enough to say, “TAKE THEM OUT”. In fact, the character I didn’t like still ended up playing a large role and was still cool overall. 

I feel like they could’ve done more with best girl Rikka, but that’s just my opinion.

Art

Studio Trigger is known for its fluid animation, awesome fight scenes, and fanservice. With its main series being Kill La Kill and the notorious Darling in the FranXX (seriously, their robot design is whack), this isn’t too surprising that they took this on. Both are essentially known for fanservice everywhere, and DITF is known for its *ahem* big robots. But this studio is also known for Little Witch Academia, Inferno Cop, and Kiznaiver which aren’t as sexualized from what I hear. Although it's not that old, Trigger has made their presence known. 

The animation in this was pretty darn good. It did everything I wanted (I AM NOT REFERRING TO THE DARN FANSERVICE. I AM TALKING ABOUT FIGHT SCENES). The robots were awesome-looking, and the fights were over-the-top explosive and fun to watch. I’m not a fan of mecha but watching these detailed human-like machines fight and battle each other was exciting!

[”GET ‘EM!!!” - me in the background]

But yeah, the fanservice is heavy to the point where it overshadows the female characters’ actions and sometimes what they’re saying even if it’s important to plot. I don’t mind giving the characters idealic bodies. I just mind the extent of the animators going, “Hey! Did we mention this character has great [insert body part]? Let’s do a pan(ty) shot! How about some yuri baiting?” Ships are built on the actions and what people say and the relationship, not by bait. Most of the gifs that pop up when I search “ssss.gridman” has to do with these shots. There’s even a thing up that’s promoting the body pillow covers with these characters-- I’ll leave it at that. Just a reminder that these are first-year high schoolers. Let’s enjoy some non-sexualized gifs that respect these girls but also pay respect to their design (look at those eyes).

Gridman himself says that he wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. She provides good reasoning and insight. She isn’t afraid to speak up and has more connections than the two other characters. She’s also quite capable and smart just like the other characters. She’s the most normal and down-to-earth. In that way, she reminds me of Hiyori from Noragami.

She is one of the main characters too! She’s mysterious and works her magic behind the scenes. She’s crafty, witty, idealistic, and she’s really creative. She has unique interests that truly drive the series.

Sound

THE OP AND THE ED ARE BOTH AMAZING! I REALLY LIKE OP AND ED. I DOWNLOADED BOTH.

The score provides a lot too! I can’t say it’s the type where I say, “I’m downloading the OST” but for twelve episodes, I sure got hyped when the OST took flight.

I really liked the voice acting for this. Both Yuuya Hirose and Yume Miyamoto are new to voice acting, but Yume has been acting for a long time since she’s in the large famous group called the Himawari Theatre Group which seems to farm talented youth like Kouki Uchiyama, Miyu Irino, Mamoru Miyano, Ryohei Kimura, Yuuto Uemura, and Sumire Morohoshi just to name some off the top of my head. Yume has range, but I really liked the voice she used for Rikka. I really want to hear her take on more roles. Hikaru Midorikawa playing Gridman was also great because it was like a senior leading the youth. Soma Saito was in the main cast too! He was in a few anime that season. He was good comic relief, and he fits the character so well. Reina Ueda has impressed me with her performances in supporting roles in anime like ReLife and Net-juu no Susume, but this was even better. I really look forward to seeing her in more roles soon. The rest of the cast was filled with people I’ve heard before with exception to Ryousuke Takahashi as Calibur. Everything else worked out great, but as much as I like Kenichi Suzumura... I think a newbie would’ve fit the role a lot better. That was a bit of a slip-up.

Spoiler Zone

But what do I think happened at the end? Besides leaving us hanging with no reasoning or any sign of a sequel, here’s my hot take:

I think Akane comes from the real world, goes to this world because she's tired of real life and wants to control a setting. She takes this alternative universe and wreaks havoc with the help of the main bad guy. She alters things to the point of no return, but after the disorder has reached its peak, Gridman is called in. She is sent back to her own world with only a select few keeping the memories of this ever happening. She isn't a god, but she was a human given the abilities of one by the villain who represents disorder and corruption himself. Gridman is a being who restores order.

But what about the ships?

As much as there is a ton of material for both Akane x Rikka and Yuuta x Rikka respectively, I think the fact that Akane no longer being around ultimately makes me prefer the other one. Hey, Rikka can be bisexual and still choose Yuuta. They’re good together too.

It’s implied in the end that Gridman chose Yuuta because he sat beside Akane and also because he likes Rikka, and Gridman is also wingman. He worked so hard to get them together. He even said to her in the end that Yuuta will remember his feelings for her (not said whether it’s romantic). 

In the video below, you can see why I ship it because he says he likes her, her main love interest is gone anyway (Akane is no longer in that universe), and I was good with either with me leaning more towards this one anyway because the other ship was a little too allusive, not as straight-forward, and just look at the look on Yuuta’s face. Do you want to break him? Do you want to break his soul? My heart goes out to the poor guy.

The last scene cuts out before you see the true heartbreak on his face. He invites her out for dinner, and she’s like, “Sure!” He does a small “yatta!” then she says, “But fitting all of us would be difficult.”

Me: I’m sorry for your loss. (+f = I have paid my respects)

For these scenes, I don’t think Yuuta was fully asleep or Gridman was really that determined to play wingman.

Edit: @italiantea commented this link which explains a lot of the leftover things! It’s a bit long, but if you’re confused about the ending, you might find this a good read!

https://mobile.twitter.com/i/moments/1076999602388299776