#but I’m certain they spent most of the budget on animation and cgi

[corvikari]

real quick I saw Sonic 3 and did anyone else get the impression that some parts of the script were written by ai???

[makdynasty]

Thoughts on the Future of the TF Movie Franchise.

I have to say, after watching BumbleBee and closely examining the status of the franchise, I must say... I don't really have much confidence for the franchise moving forward. These are just my thoughts on the matter though. I"ll briefly do a review of some sorts for the movie as I segway into my main topic of discussion.

Now, I'm not saying that I think the movie is bad or anything, but it was very dry and lukewarm for me. Unpopular opinion, I know. The thing is though, for a movie that is supposedly going to be a "reboot" to a movie franchise that has been standing the test of time for over a decade, it wasn't a very strong start. Pretty much the main thing that it has going for it is the whole G1 appeal that they feel the need to constantly stress along with the fact that this is not a movie directed by Micheal Bay.

Now, unlike some people who I've discussed the movie with, I'm not going to give the movie a ruff time for it's lack of action in comparison to the original 5. I understand that they wanted to tell a more calmer and down to Earth story and I like small number of Decepticons that BumbleBee faced on Earth as well as the battle back on Cybertron was sufficient enough. I also liked how the action was cleaner without too many explosions going on as well as being mostly one-take without the weird jump cuts in movies like TF 4 and TF 5. I am however going to talk about the movies large cast of dry and one note characters.

For a movie that takes pride in how it's story is supposed to be deeper then the past few movies, and how it has a substantial amount of "heart" that the previous movies lacked, apparently, it all feels pretty artificial at times. Most of the characters that are showcased in this movie (Not including the characters that made cameo appearances.) are very one note without much of anything defining them aside from: Charlie, BumbleBee, Dropkick and Shatter, and maybe Optimus. I didn't include John Cena because the dude pretty much played himself, so I'm not exactly sure how to critique his performance. This movie shouldn't even really be called BumbleBee seeing as how most of the movie is spent focusing on her struggles above the struggles of the actual main character that the movie is named after. A common complaint from people who watched the other movies that is conveniently swept under the rug this time around like most of the films flaws.

Next is the how the movie handles emotion. For a movie of it's nature, it handles the subject pretty well. Charlie is by far the best character in the movie with great development and progression making her easily one of the most developed human characters in the movieverse. However, this of course has it's fair share of flaws as well. Most of the emotional appeal is focused on her and her solely to the point where other emotional moments in the film don't feel at all important like Cliffjumper's death for instance. That along with BumbleBee's supposed death midway through. Not only that, but the movie at times feels like it's trying too hard to get a reaction out of you with how it constantly brings up Charlies dead father. I can understand the movie constantly reminding us of his death in order to emphasis that she's constantly thinking about him, but it could've been handled much better if the movie didn't feel the need to have her emotions feel so exaggerated. 

It follows in line with how many modern day t.v. shows nowadays try appeal to audiences by making them feel heavily for the characters. It may be charming at first, but over time it starts to feel disingenuous with how much the characters struggles are constantly shoved in front of our faces as if we don't realize that these characters are going through hard times. This issue is especially prevalent in the later seasons of shows like Steven Universe where the feeling has noticeably dipped down for some people because the over-exaggerated emotions eventually leave people out and end up making the characters seem whinny above all else. 

BumbleBee is a low budget live action movie and it shows in several cases. Clearly a lot of the design work went into BumbleBee and maybe even Dropkick and Shatter. The CGI while nice enough with G1 designs and realistic looking enough, is noticeably toned down, a little too fluid to the point where every movement made by the Transformers feels oddly floaty and not very grounded, and a lot less detailed than the previous films. For ancient sentient alien robots that have been fighting in a war that has been ravaging their entire planet, they look a little too clean in comparison to how they looked in some of the previous films. Aside from some casual rustware and scratches on all other Transformers that aren't BumbleBee, which you may not even notice unless you were looking hard for these details like I was, there isn't much battle damage or carnage displayed afterwards. 

The CGI effects in general seem lackluster at times. It's clear that a majority of the budget went into the Cybertron war scene, though it feels as though that's where the CGI begins to look the most cartoony. In fact, many elements of the Cybertron war scene look suspiciously animated to the point where it feels almost like an odd design choice as a homage to the G1 show and movie. Wouldn't put it past them and it would admittedly make for in interesting design choice if that were the case, yet I feel as though that sacrifices a lot of the believability of the movie for that particular scene. Prime example (No pun intended.), the scene where Ravage was ejected out of Soundwave's chest. That whole transition always look off to me. It was smooth, but very noticeably off in terms of movement. This is just a personal complaint however as I am more used to the realistic movements as well as designs and atmosphere of the previous films.

As I conclude this brief overview of the BumbleBee movie and transition into my main thoughts and feelings towards the future of the Transformers movies, I want to talk about the biggest issue I have with the direction of these new movies. Aside from the people behind these movies not at all knowing whether or not they want these movies to be a fully reboot or not, BumbleBee felt like it was meant to appeal to nobody, but G1ers, people who didn't like the previous films, or just casuals in general really. I feel like this is a big step backwards personally. What made the previous films so special was that they were a thorough rejection of all of the things that defined how Transformers are "supposed" to be. In a time where the franchise was dying out and people where constantly saying that nothing outside of G1 works, these movies came along and proved those statements wrong. In return, the changed the mythology and way we all perceived the Transformers forever. The movies were able to appeal to all forms of Transformers fans because they didn't stand for one single mythology and acted as an amalgamation of many different forms of the franchise. Had they gone with there original plans for The Last Knight, they would have even incorporated Optimus Primal somehow, and that would've in turn appealed to the Beast Wars fans. G1, as good as it is, on it's own does not appeal to everyone which is something that Hasbro doesn't seem to understand. I'm not a G1er, so aside from some semblance of odd nostalgia as well as making it easier to spot out some fan favorites, these designs just don't do much of anything for me personally.

BumbleBee was a good movie, not a great movie imo. It doesn't do anything to try and shake up the formula and feels mainly like it was just meant to cater to fanfare without any proper intentions of being the start of a new generation of Transformers movies. Budget issues aside, the movie plays itself far to safe even for what they had intended for their story to be. It isn't at all perfect and yet it could have been so much more.  

...

So with all that said and done, how exactly does this translate into me worrying about the future of this movie franchise???

This personally makes me feel a tad bit worried for the future of the franchise. The franchise now lacks a sense of direction because it's being seemingly forced to transition into this new form without a proper plan of action. As much as I liked what Travis Knight did with BumbleBee, I would prefer if a more experienced director took the wheel from here on out. 

As far as money goes, the franchise is also on a step decline with BumbleBee being the lowest performing movie yet. You may say that money doesn't matter in this case seeing as how the movie made back a significant amount of money, it's still considered a financial flop in comparison to the other films, and rightfully so. Transformers is a multi-billion dollar franchise and as such should be expected to make as much money with it's big projects like these. BumbleBee was expected to bring in huge numbers regardless of it's low budget, but didn't. However, because it was well received, it's getting a sequel, but the numbers have to start rising or else.

They also don't seem to know what they want to do with the sequel aside from making it a buddy movie of some sorts with Optimus Prime. At least the director recognizes the importance of staying true to the previous movies to a certain degree to go as far as to include "Bayhem" into the movies going forward. 

All in all, the future of the franchise while promising, is by no means going to be guaranteed success. It's very easy to see how they can potentially mess this up without proper direction and focus. That's all for now.

[animorphsfanfic]

Animorphs TV Series

This is something that comes up often enough, and I’ve talked about it on Facebook and Reddit, but I figured I’d post my thoughts on a new series here.

1. It has to be a series.

There are 62 books in the series. Now I’m not expecting a series to necessarily cover the totality of the books, but there is almost no way to compress the books to a point that works for cinema. Even if they were somehow able to lock in for multiple films, it would really impact the pacing of stories and still cut out a ton of source material.

2. It should probably be animated.

There’s a fairly considerable schism in the fandom regarding live-action adaptation, and I get that temptation. I would love to see some of these scenes as live action, too. But realistically, this series is extremely effects heavy. Between the morphing scenes, the CGI aliens and the necessarily CGI animals, and the whole budget would be spent on effects. Animation is fairly flat rate for that. We could debate on 2D vs 3D, but the budget could go further on an animated series than live action. Between Young Justice, Batman: Under the Red Hood, and even the team behind Avatar: The Last Airbender, there are a lot of examples of high-end animated series.

3. We need to have realistic expectations.

When I started writing my fan fiction reboot, I went through the book list and condensed certain plots while dropping some of the more ridiculous stories. For example, my reboot is not going to have Helmacrons or addictive oatmeal. Some fans like those stories, others don’t. But any time a story changes format, the adaptation is going to make some continuity changes. And any studio willing to back an Animorphs series is going to tweak it. I deliberately wrote my reboot with adaptation in mind. I made the kids 16 rather than 13, I set it in the modern day rather than the ‘90s, and I chose to write it in a narrative that can appeal to an audience that never read the original series but not alienate fans of the originals. In the last twenty years, we’ve gone through three actors as Bruce Banner, two actors as Bruce Wayne, and in July we will have our third actor play Peter Parker.

4. It should still preserve the core of the series.

Animorphs was celebrated for its characteristic black-and-grey morality, and just because I see the series more likely to be animated doesn’t mean the series needs to be Disney-fied or kid-gloved. Young Justice was similarly celebrated for its mature tone. In my opinion, one of the greatest animated series was a show with similar thematics: the anime FullMetal Alchemist. Artistically, I prefer American animation, but anime has much darker stories and complex narratives.

5. It should not be marketed as kid fare.

Many of us read the original series as kids, myself included. But since most of the fandom is comprised of adults, the series should market to that. I would split the difference and market it as a teen series, something with an MA-14 rating. My reboot for example has casual profanity because I envisioned it as a mix of South Park, Doctor Who, and Stranger Things.

6. The network matters.

A lot of people consider Netflix or Hulu as being the best option for this kind of series, and I can really see that. But on the other hand, there are other venues for adult-marketed animation. I could see a few networks that would be interested. One of my friends suggested MTV, comparing some elements of Animorphs to Teen Wolf. I’m hesitant on that, but the idea isn’t totally void of merit. I just worry MTV would muck it up. My suggestion was actually Cartoon Network or possibly its mature Adult Swim imprint. If it were the final CN program or first AS program, say with an airtime at 8pm EAT, I think a dark animated sci fi drama could find an audience. And since Hulu has some kind of contract with Cartoon Network, Hulu might still be heavily involved.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Angolmois 2 - 3 | BnHA 52 - 54 | Lord of Vermilion 1 | Angels of Death 2 | Cells at Work! 2 - 4 | Planet With 2 - 4 | Phantom in the Twilight 2 - 3 | Holmes of Kyoto 2 | Tsukumogami Kashimasu 1

The lineup isn’t set until Muhyo and Roji’s comes along later on...

Angolmois 2

Ah, I got that explanation of what “Angolmois” is from ANN earlier but now I see how they learnt it.

Someone on ANN showed me the way to a Wikipedia page…which says Sou Sukekuni will die and the Mongols will invade.

Kemari.

There’s something silly about how straightfaced everyone is about chucking Kuchii out…haha.

This mut be the period Kimetsu no Yaiba is set in…because that shiitake boy seems to be similar to Tanjiro (of that series).

“Ah, even the great Jinzaburou-dono is weak at the knees for a pretty princess”…at least, that’s a fairly cliched line if it’s coming from the mouths of one of the characters.

Dang, this man is too much of a shonen hero for a show involving chopping heads off enemies.

There’s a small spotted cat (?) on the roof of one of the houses (?).

“The older you are when you have children, the more you love them.” – Uh, and the more likely it is that they’ll have genetic abnormalities. Just sayin’…

Okay, so Gontarou is the one with the small black moustache. Got it.

The lines on the filter move with the camera! Yikes! That’s going to be a bit distracting…

Oh, Sou Sukekuni’s middle name means “on top of a horse” if I’m guessing the right kanji. That’s exacty where he is now.

I see…so that strategy (shooting arrows straight into the air) would require minimal training and not that much time to pass around verbally.

Uh, was it just me, or did some soldiers look like they were in CGI?

Oh, so Yajirou is the one in the purplish armour. Okay. Update: Nope, Umajirou is his name.

Welp, historical records said Sou Sukekuni  would die (like I said at the start of the episode). I just didn’t know it was going to be so soon.

BnHA 52

After a 1 week break, let’s get back into the fray!

I love this OP already! It’s much better than “I keep my ideals! Sorezore no jinsei (etc. etc.)…” at the very minimum already! (Peace Sign is my favourite BnHA OP, by the way, after listening to it a bunch on Spotify.) Interesting how you see Deku through Tooru though…

Iida’s waving in his usual way, I see…(LOL)

Interesting that they call their gyms “alpha”, “beta”, “gamma” etc. At least, that’s the assumption from seeing “gym gamma” in the subs.

The D in TDL stands for daidokoro (kitchen) in Japanese. Alternatively, it could refer to Tokyo Disneyland, which is why Deku refers to a certain mouse.

Ashido was so doing a Kamehameha…or a hadouken…one of them, anyway. I’m not that well-versed in Dragon Ball, y’know.

There’s something kind of sad about how All Might goes “I am here…because I didn’t have anything else to do today!” now that he no longer can retain that muscle form for too long.

“…ask an expert.” – Y’mean…Hatsume, right?

I…can’t believe I’m laughing at this stupid boob joke…(LOL…?)

“Likes: Steampunk” – I was reading a non-fiction book on steampunk and apparently the main appeal for some people is the ability to make everything yourself, as a form of “raging against materialism” and whatnot. Never thought I’d have to mention that in the commentary, but here we are.

Power Loader seems a tad small in comparison to Iida (and probably All Might as well), huh?

Wait…this powered suit…reminds me of a Gundam first and then Wallace’s pants next. *starts humming Wallace and Gromit theme tune*

I kind of read ahead because of my duties on the BnHA wiki, but Deku’s going to end up using a kicking move, right? Right?! The only thing better than a punching move is a kicking move!

I really like Long Hope Philia already…but what is a “philia”, though? Update: It’s the opposite of phobia. It means “brotherly love”.

Lord of Vermilion 1

Also known as “Dude of Red: The Red Dude”. According to the opinions I’ve seen around, this show is probably going to the drop pile, but on the offhand chance it does survive, I’ll have to probably put it on hold anyway…

There’s something funky about those designs…like someone tried too hard to be edgy with the red lines.

Where’d the bubbles come from? Oh wait, he trapped her in the big bubble and that’s how there are smaller bubbles…ohh. Okay.

“Cut the bullshit!” – Welp, you read my mind. How the heck did we get here???

…and Tokyo Tower. Just because we can go there too.

Why is Chiyu monologuing when she has a weapon pierced through her body???

Okay, why are these guys implying there’s a nationalist slant to all this?

Wait, explosion butterflies? C’mon, Buso Renkin did that better!

“A secret arrow. I see.” – For some…reason…I can’t stop myself from laughing! Hahaha, he’s been impaled in the eye and yet he says, “I see,” wahaha!...okay. I’m calm now.

Something tells me someone wasted Dude of Red: The Red Dude’s budget on the OP. Also, all of their storytelling ability went there too…

The ep title clearly ends in a ka, so it’s a question. It should be “Are Our Lives the Debt We Pay to Our Enemies?”, then.

Kote and men appear to be two different strikes in kendo, but also their strike areas...? I’m not sure…

C’mon, if the show started with the high frequency noise, then we wouldn’t have to have suffered through the in medias res segment going too long!

No wonder they call this Dude of Red: The Red Dude…this fog is very red!

“Don’t tell me you have amnesia.” – Oh, great. That’s at least the third amnesiac this season…Island, Planet With and now this! Update: Nope, it was jumping to conclusions…

Jokei…is there a Keijo Uni? (Not to be confused with the T & A sport.)…Nope, the closest thing I got was in Korea…

How do Chihiro and Kotetsu even know Kakihara, anyway?

LOL, somehow that was so chuuni. I feel like I want more but there’s too much of a talent gap between this and the other shows, so it’s going on hold.

Angels of Death 2

Hanebado went on hold since Dude of Red ranked above it.

Isaac Foster, huh? Is that Bandage Man’s name?

I swear the rainbow puke is the most colorful thing in this anime…

Lemme guess…this passage is from the Bible. The show’s holding my interest, it’s just that it’s kind of waning because Satsuriku no Tenshi has been getting some real bad talk all around and yet it’s pretty popular. At least, that’s according to Prattle…

The comedic beats seem out of line with the rest of the show. Like someone was trying too hard to make the show “mainstream”. I’m finally able to put my finger on what I think Satsuriku reminds me of now – it reminds me of The Dog Island, a much more relaxing game. Then again, this is because of all the talk about finding triggers – that game is all “find to complete quests”, so it’s easy to see how the comparison came about.

Gloves? Was someone here earlier?

From far away, the dots on the grave blueprint seem to be Chinese or Japanese, but up close…they’re just dots.

Alright, I get it already…*eyeroll* this is based on a game, Rachel’s said she’s going to die about 4 times already, this scene with the red background is a cutscene yada yada yada…

Oh. Y’know what? This reminds me of ol’ Nancy Drew CD-ROM games! I love those! Plus the banshee scare scene in one of them is poised like a huge jumpscare, that probably would make a better anime than this…

I headcanon Zack is ADHD or something of the sort.

Wellllllll…if there’s one thing I agree with this show on, it’s that suicide is bad.

“You can cry…or something, can’t you?” – Come to think of it, Rachel does come off as a bit of a Rei Ayanami sometimes.

How the heck is he dry enough to be tromping around like that in front of the graves when he just stood in water for so long??? Isn’t he drenched?

There’s something vaguely nostalgic about this show and yet I don’t think it’s good enough to keep on the commentary, so on hold it goes…

Cells at Work 2

Is it just me, or are the background characters CGI…? (Oh man, last time I complained about this was Tsukigakirei…that didn’t go down well, let’s just say that…)

This is a joke from Plyasm, but…don’t lewd the platelets!

It’s the Abyss from Made in Abyss!

There was a segment on the news about how deadly sepsis was recently, so…I’m kind of scared of that bacteria now…

I guess you never wanted to ask for WBC fighting a shark…well, it’s just as weird as Sharknado, only…it’s happening.

*sees “brachial artery”* - This particular RBC likes working near the lungs, huh?

I don’t think we’ve seen the eyecatch for this show before, so…that’s an interesting way of handling things.

Don’t tell me…it’s those adorable lil’ platelets, right??? This is an abrasion, they’ll surely come!

Von Willebrand factor.

The serious WBC made a joke! Amazing!

Planet With 2

I’m calling it now – secretary woman with green-blue hair is the real bad guy! (You can tell by the enthusiasm in my voice that it’s Epileptic Trees time!)

*cue cat faces and masks* - Imagine if they used that censorship in 18+ material…it would be a riot just to look at…

But blue-green haired lady, aren’t there 7 Nebula Soldiers???

…Oh, so that’s what happened to the money Takezo spent…haha.

Geesh, enough with the panties, Sensei…also, couldn’t Souya just go and nick some money, then use it to purchase some meat? Or just beg for food money or ask for an allowance or something in order to get real meat?

Hmm, come to think of it, most of the people have colours in their names – even Souya – but Sensei doesn’t and same with Hideo. But Hideo has the character for “wisdom” in his name and the character for “tiger”, which is the theme of his mecha.

Those meat buns are huge! The size of an adult’s palm! Then again, I’ve been having a bunch of meat buns for breakfast lately and they are that size…sorry, false alarm.

Oh my gosh, this pig Weapon’s even weirder than the bear one!

(muffled laughter in the background) – They wasted perfectly good art on a one-off gag about bean jam…not that I minded, of course, but…hahaha…

Phantom in the Twilight 2

The sign’s Tahoma font is…kind of awkward, actually. I thought that last episode, but haven’t said it in these notes until now.

“You’re such a lazy count.” – Hmm…now if someone removed one of the Os in that sentence…that would be a sketchy sentence indeed.

Notably, Luke’s surname is Bowen.

Toryu was a jiangshi. Called it!

There’s something on Ton’s phone that says “picture”, I’d presume it’s the Chinese and/or Japanese equivalent to the “Pictures” app or folder.

This guy with the glasses – Haysin, I think the guy with the partially-shaved head called him – looks like Chopin from Classicaloid…

To be honest, I’d never actually heard of vampires needing to be invited into places until Shiki came along, so this is only the second time I’ve witnessed it, so to speak.

Who knew a ghost was good enough to be a hacker in the modern age? (smirks with how inventive this is)

All that blue text is definitely not any coding language I know. In fact, it’s mostly gibberish…

Mhmm…a mingling of the supernatural with the technological. Me likey.

…What the heck did Ton just tackle?

Oh my gosh! I’m laughing so hard! A vampire doing karate! I love it!

Is this the beginning of a Haysin x Shinyao ship? Update: His name is Chris, not Haysin. Haysin is the other dude.

Garfunkel though…what a stupid name. Sounds like a cartoonist (Arbuckle), a cartoon cat (Garfield) or a singer (Simon and Garfunkle) though…

I didn’t realise this at first, but Vlad has two spots on the side of his face. Probably beauty spots.

I love how they only put the grainy filter on Vlad while he was reminiscing.

Angolmois 3

I find it interesting that Kuchii uses the armour as the thing the Tsushima people should follow, rather than following him. They probably revere the armour more than the man…

Where’d Kano go, anyway?

The reliance on panning over stills is kind of annoying…

Welp, there’s Kano, right when the plot needs her…or is that one of the exiles…? Kano looked pretty boyish to me.

Koorogi means “cricket”, methinks.

Holmes of Kyoto 2

This is the lowest ranking show right now, so its spot is currently being threatened by the late debuts…not to mention I’m currently one spot over capacity, so something has to go.

The Saio-dai is like a May Queen, apparently. Not that I really know what that means…Update: Oh, there’s an explanation, just when I thought they wouldn’t give it…

“There’s lots of things named Aoi here!” – That’s what I said…last episode.

Saori and Kaori…I’m going to get so confused between these two…

Hmm…well, obviously, if the person were physically close to Saori, that might mean they know each other.

“Sissy” is an insult to me, so I’m surprised to hear it being used as a substitute for “sister” here. (It’s probably “nee-san” in Japanese, or “ane”.)

Hanamura, LOL. (Hanamura = “flower garden”.)

I find it funny that Holmes has LINE stickers of his own. Plus that Aoi’s got his number in as “Holmes-san”.

There is quite clearly some sort of romantic subplot here. Also, why is it that Aoi only ever seems to be motivated by either personal matters or romantic ones???

Noticeably, Kaori’s the only one of the trio which is wearing pants…

The backgrounds in this show are so pretty! Too bad there’s credits over the top…

Mt Kurama is known for its tengu legend…but the “you may meet a handsome man filled with overwhelming arrogance” made me LOL hard.

The thing about this show is that it’s giving me flashbacks to Detective Conan, both good and bad, which makes it hard to comment on. On hold it goes.

BnHA 53

Why is the title “THE Shiken”, though? (Emphasis on “the”, since having the title half in English doesn’t seem to make sense…)

The different characters that appear on the screen are variants of koi, which is one of 3 ways to say “love”. However, the three are different types of love.

Inasa is to enthusiasm like Bakugo is to anger…uh…

Oh dear…is this another Christmas cake lady???

This black spikyhead is You Shindo, right? He and Midoriya looks kind of similar…

1540 divided by 2 is 770…yowch, 770??? That’s kind of small when it’s one of 3 locations for Japanese students, plus whoever else in the state is training to be a hero.

Cells at Work 3

Naïve…? Oh, it’s a naïve T cell! I forgot about those guys!

I love how the naïve T cell is actually naïve, plus the zombies have hats that aren’t brains, but bits of cells.

100 degrees…C or F???

Why does this T cell give me RBC flashbacks???

Cyotoxic T cells…man, those words bring back memories. I had to memorise stuff about T cells and B cells for biology way back when. In fact, I think I learnt this entire process. If only I had Cells at Work then…

Would the normal person even know what a dendrite is, though??? They wouldn’t know it has protrusions if they don’t know what a dendrite is!!!

Aw, the Naïve T Cell’s gotta be protected. Not as much as the platelets, but still…

Helper T Commander is eating dango! That’s too cute!

Ohmigosh, it’s like Gon from HxH, you know, the meme version of him with the long hair? It’s so silly and yet so perfect for this purpose!

The Effector T Cell’s face looks familiar…Then again, this is David Production so that would explain part of it…(For those who don’t get it: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.)

Apparently the eccrine sweat glands are the major sweat glands…

2/10. Platelets only appeared for 2 seconds at the end (LOL).

Tsukumogami Kashimasu 1

You probably didn’t know this, but I became a fan of Lily Hoshino through Kigurumi Guardians…

Ooh, I like the titlecards already! By the way, obiage is something used to hide the obi.

Netsuke.

What’s with this song…? It sounds like someone put traditional music into a pop music blender and put female vocals over the top…oh, Miyavi. That might explain something.

Well, there you go…I didn’t need to Google netsukes after all.

That flower there is a morning glory…the one with the white centre.

Why does there seem to be a vibe that the sister likes the brother in ~that~ way???

This is kind of like Toy Story…isn’t it?

The transitions are kind of disorienting…I almost felt dizzy right there…

Koku.

“So the letters Sanae-sama was receiving are from someone else that she loved before getting betrothed…?” – No duh. That’s how it always goes in Detective Conan.

“So he believes that ultimately humans never cherish us curios.” – There were your Deep Themes of the day, folks.

Hmm…that’s a tough one. On the one hand, I’m kind of squicked out by potential romance between Seiji and his “nee-san”. On the other hand, there was a lot of talking (which I don’t mind), but the logic behind these mysteries didn’t quite make sense because the emphasis for this show is the supernatural (also not a dealbreaker). The narrator’s helpful, but a tad intrusive to the story’s flow, plus it’s kind of hard to see where conclusions were made due to even more problems explaning logic (in parts that are meant to explain the logic) than Holmes of Kyoto. It’s meant to be charming, but if I keep going through the show with not that much emotion, it’s probably destined fo the drop pile…

Planet With 3

Kumashiro…panda in Japanese is “panda”, but kuma = bear and shiro = white…if not castle, that is. Update: This “shiro” is neither of those...

Kigurumian, huh? Kigurumi = mascot suit, so…uh…

Who was the girl with the blue dress…? Another Mizukami heroine, I presume?

These bathroom jokes are bad…but I’m laughing at them…

So Nezuya…is just a chuuni??? Wuh???

It’s a parody of Mu again…? Is that magazine really that popular in Japan?

The other girl (not Nozomi) has a senbei rice cracker in her mouth.

Moleke-mbembe.

Phantom 2

I love how Wayne detaches his hand to scratch his head. It reminds me of zaShunina frim Kado and what he’d do with his hands…*gets flashbacks to zaShunina strangling Shindou* Uh, yeah, maybe that’s not the best comparison though…

Fought Dracula? Wasn’t he from Romania though?

Wayne King everywhere…it’s more like self-wan-oh, I’ll spare you the dirty joke, okay?

Wait, are the Twilights meant to stand in for something in the real world if they have government and international support? Refugees, maybe?

Hmm? Luke’s pasta…? What’s this (owo)?

Luke reminds me of Impey from Code:Realise…I think this is the second time he’s done that.

I love how Ton takes Shinyao’s rescue into her own hands. It shows how strong their friendship is.

*Luke howls* - What is that idiot doing now???

*sees burnt cookies* - Welp, at least we don’t have ourselves an invincible heroine who can do everything, either.

Is it just me, or when Ton runs out to protect Luke, are her booty shorts longer??? Update: When I looked at them later, they seemed to be the same length…

When did Chris get rid of his glasses???

Toryu’s raison d etre is “more dakka”, as they say.

Okayyyyyyyy…”jumping across water” is just a bit over the limit of what I think a werewolf can do…

Toryu’s plait seems to move with his emotions…and was that an eye I saw glowing in that fringe of his? Ooh…interesting.

Angolmois 4

Why do all Mongolians in media sport the Fu Manchu moustache, anyway…? Either that or the Chinese (the official in Mulan had a similar kind of moustache)…

Matouqin. It looked like a Chinese word, but it was actually Mongolian…

There seems to be unrest among the Mongols, huh. Jurchen…seems to be racial discrimination of some variety.

Dantsuke mochi. The link is to an academic PDF which discusses the Mongol invasion.

Huh? Apparently Holmes of Kyoto references sashimo grass…but apparently in English the grass is called “moxa” or “mugwort”.

Oh, post-credits segment. Keep watching…

Oh, wow…you can really see the parallels between Teruhi and Sasamaru now…when everything burns to the ground.

BnHA 54

Ite means “archer”, IIRC.

Shindou = oscillation, tremor, vibration (different kanji though). Once he released that earthquake, that made me realise why You Shindou’s powers make a lot of sense. Plus the “You” matches the yu in yurasu (Vibrate).

Oh! The “arashi” in Yoarashi means “storm”…ah! I understand now!

This Camie lady is bascally Catwoman with sludge…

Cells at Work 4

I bet the segment at the start of this episode is the same as every other episode’s…

You can see a female platelet checking out how food is dissolved…she’s so adorable!

Capriccio…then again, why does the basophil speak in riddles???

Those two platelets staring at the basophil with his umbrella…LOL!

Emesis = vomiting.

Seriously though. This basophil’s so chuuni, it’s pretentious…

This was probably the least funny of the episodes so far due to the threat level…and of course, platelets were only in the background this time.

Planet With 4

Who was it that wanted a harem of high school girls again? Actually, that’s Imamura from Grand Blue, isn’t it…?

Mont St Michel. Heard of it before (I think it’s in Lupin III even), but it didn’t ring a bell for a second…

Seriously, how self-centred is Nezuya, anyway?

Hmm…this team-up reminds me of when Team Rocket would team up with Ash (Pokémon) somehow…but that’s because the “good” and “bad” guys (as much as we can call either side that) are joining forces.

“What’s a hangover?” – LOL, Souya really is such a kid…

*dragon eats Ginko and Miu* - Wow…’tis the season for vore…  

Even Souya got a hangover, LOL!

[recentanimenews]

The 6 Things We Need From A Live Action One Piece Series

  In July 2017, it was announced that Tomorrow Studios was planning to produce a live action One Piece series. Then, in March 2019, a synopsis for an American adaptation of One Piece was found on Netflix (though it was later removed.) This led to a reaction of equal parts excitement and anxiety: "Yay, more One Piece!" and "Ehhhh, maybe not like this." Live action American adaptations of anime have gotten, to put it extremely gently, a mixed response. We haven't really nailed down the formula for making them consistently good yet, so by leaping ahead to adapt One Piece, it's kind of like we made a sandwich out of rotten ham and some old tires and now we think that we're ready to open our own restaurant. 

  But I have hope. I really want One Piece to be good, and it usually is! So I'm not gonna stick my fingers in my ears and "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" to the sounds of Hollywood trying desperately to figure out what a Luffy is. Instead, I'm gonna offer advice of sorts. In translating the manga/anime to a live action format, there are a few major things that need to be worked out, and one of the most important ones is....

  1) Luffy's Stretching Powers Have To Look The Best In History

  We can create such true-to-life looking video games that you'd swear the latest Call of Duty was a documentary. We can create borderline photorealistic special effects that, for a few hours, turn our superhero epics into living, breathing worlds. But for some reason, we can't create a man's stretching powers in a way that doesn't look A) Awful, or B) Absolutely horrifying. And if you haven't noticed, stretching is like 90% of what the main character of One Piece does when he's not eating. 

  I mean, we've nailed it down in horror movies. Films like The Thing prove that we're totally able to stretch a dude out as long as we're gonna eventually turn him into a hideous monster. But look at any Fantastic Four film, whether it's the two from the mid 2000s or the 2015 reboot, and get ready for a buffet of awkward transitions between an actor and his CGI rubber-ness.  If One Piece is able to smooth this process out, it will frankly be a special effects miracle. Even if the show is terrible, it will be lauded for finally being able to make a man extending his limbs look adequate.

  2) It Needs A Diverse Cast

    There's no reason that a show about a strong, goofy dude that sails around the world making friends and has no second job shouldn't have the most diverse cast, like, ever. It would honestly feel weird if it didn't. But while most people would probably be pretty cool with this, there's always a subsection of people that say things like "NO. THAT WOULDN'T BE ACCURATE TO THE MANGA AND IT WOULD RUIN EVERYTHING!" But even Eiichiro Oda, the creator of the whole thing, has listed out what countries the Straw Hat Crew most represent. So them being a diverse crew is pretty canon. 

  3) It Doesn't Need To Be 100% Devoted To The Source Material

    There's a certain rush that comes out of seeing something that you've loved in one medium displayed in another. When we saw all of the Avengers in a group shot in The Avengers, we went nuts because for decades, that image had only existed in comic books and cartoons. So I do expect the live action One Piece to try and replicate some of the story's bigger moments - the walk to Arlong Park, the raising of the hands to signify the relationship with Vivi, Caesar Clown's laugh. Ya know, the important stuff.

  But do we need it all? No. The best adaptations in history have rarely been 1:1 with the source material. Look at Jurassic Park. Decent novel that would make for a terrible movie if adapted directly from the page to the screen. Steven Spielberg and David Koepp knew what to cut, and what to add, and the same needs to go for One Piece. As long as it holds true to the spirit of the story and doesn't stray too far from the backbone of the plot by doing crazy things like removing all the boats or making Sanji likable, I'm not sure I care if it does its own thing. Honestly, I'd be more interested in seeing it if it DID decide to go off the trail every once in a while. 

  4) It Needs A Heart

    I just mentioned that it needs to embody the spirit of One Piece and by that, I mean it needs to have One Piece's heart. And One Piece's heart is more than just keeping all of the names the same and all of the islands in order. Beneath the gags and the punches, One Piece tells a story about adventure and about finding a family when the idea of that formerly seemed impossible. It does have dark moments, but it's not a cynical show. It's about good people helping good people, and as long as the Netflix adaptation adheres to that, it will be doing something very right.

  5) Train The Actors And Actresses In Combat Classes

  I don't mean that every performer needs to learn MMA (though that would be rad). I mean that every main actor needs to be able to have a convincing brawl. And this is mostly for budget reasons. The amount of powers in the One Piece world means that A LOT of money is gonna be spent on effectively showing off everyone's lasers. In the TV streaming world, where they don't have Marvel/Disney money to throw behind every episode, they're gonna need to balance this out with human moments and with the cast getting in more realistic fights.

  And I don't think that's a bad thing. First of all, I've always wanted to see Nico Robin throw down. She's an assassin. She should be breaking necks left and right, both with her powers and without. But also, guys like Zoro are practically made for well choreographed battles. Remember all of the brutal fights in The Raid and movies like it? Now imagine that with your favorite sleepy, direction-less swordsman. See, I've already sold myself on this show.

  6) The One Piece Must Remain A Mystery Until The End

  Ya ever watch Twin Peaks? It's pretty good and you should give it a chance if you haven't. Anyway, the show kind of lost its appeal when the mystery at the center of it got revealed. And that's honestly my biggest fear for a One Piece TV show: Some executive who thinks that manga is a type of hibachi sauce is gonna pressure them into giving away the secret of the One Piece too early. One Piece can't get Twin Peak'd.

  What some don't get is that the best part of the mystery isn't the reveal. It's how well the journey is concocted. We don't think M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable is a great movie because at the end, it's revealed that Mr. Glass caused all the accidents. Any screenwriter could reveal that. We think it's great because the lead-up provides such a fascinating glimpse into how people would feel to find out that superheroes actually exist in the real world.

  The best part of One Piece isn't us scrabbling over ourselves to figure out what it is. It's us falling in love with characters and enemies and locations and plot lines that are all based around the quest to find the One Piece. To quote Miley Cyrus, "It's the climb." 

  Anyway, until it comes out, you can always enjoy One Piece on Crunchyroll. Always. Until the end of time. Probably.

  Are you excited for a live action One Piece series? What storylines would you most like to see adapted? Let us know in the comments!

    ---------------------

  Daniel Dockery is a writer for Crunchyroll and a huge One Piece fan. You can find him on Twitter. 

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com