#but both versions! from the 1999 and 2011 respectively

[i-heart-hxh]

Hi! I have a question, between the two versions of the anime, which one do you think was more faithful to the manga when it comes to the personalities of Gon and Killua? I've recently finished watching the 99 anime and I really enjoyed it, but idk if this is an unpopular opinion, but sometimes i felt like some of the characters were a little bit ooc, people usually talk about how the Killua of the 99 anime is so different to the Killua from 2011, but I also felt that Gon was really different in both animes, in the 99 version sometimes he was kinda shy or doubtful, like he was too passive, where as in the 2011 anime he seems overall more confident except for the times where he doubts about his self-worth, like after Hisoka didn't take the tag back during the hunter exam, in the 2011 version it also feels like when they are doing something even if the plan wasn't his, like going to Heaven's Arena, Gon is the one taking the lead and deciding how he is going to do things, idk if I'm making sense lol, the point is that he is a little bit more assertive while still being a sweet boy in the 2011 version while in the 99 version he is mostly just a sweet boy at least to me, I'm really interested in getting your thoughts about this topic, sorry for the long post 😅.

Thank you for sending this, it's definitely an interesting thing to discuss and something I've thought about quite a bit myself! Going to go on for a bit right back at you, haha.

Gon and Killua's characterization is actually a major reason for why I have mixed feelings about the 1999 anime. It has some wonderful strengths--like the beautiful cel animation, creative visual direction, more realistic character designs, unique (and darker) atmosphere, some great OPs/EDs, and a lovely soundtrack, among other things. But there are a few different aspects that I'm not a big fan of, and the changes to Gon and Killua's characters are at the top of my list.

First off, I want to say that to an extent I understand why Gon and Killua are characterized differently. Not much of the manga was out when 1999 was made, so the staff could only work with (essentially) the first impressions of the characters, and the anime had to expand into filler/anime-only material to prevent it from catching up with the manga and running out of things to adapt, so to a degree the staff had no choice but to get creative. The artistic liberties they took aren't always a bad thing. I even like some of the additions they made. But I do think some of the choices they made to deviate from the source material--and some of them were definitely not necessary--lead to them being much flatter characters in 1999 than in the manga itself.

This whole paragraph requires some oversimplification so bear with me, but I feel like in 1999, Gon is characterized as too much of a "good boy," while with Killua they lean too much into his "bad boy" side. Leaning into these stereotypes runs counter to what I love about these two, which is that they're both complex and have mixed lighter/darker attributes that feel somewhat "balanced" between them ultimately, and by the end of CAA they have essentially switched positions with regards to their respective light and darkness. They both have strong light sides and strong dark sides contained within them, which is part of why they get along so well even when they're as different as they are. To make Gon more passive and sweet (as you said, which I agree with) and Killua more edgy and bratty makes the relationship feel much more unequal and, to me, uninteresting.

I love Gon's assertiveness, strong-willed nature, and feral and scary sides, and Killua's softer, more vulnerable, and more childish sides, as well as other sides to them we see in canon, so having those toned down makes me sad.

One small example of a change that has always bothered me in 1999 is that they had Gon introduce himself to Killua when they first meet, and Killua even ignores him initially when he tries to introduce himself. While the scene isn't drastically different, I think it's incredibly important in establishing Killua's character that he introduces himself first and is so eager to get to know Gon. He desperately wants a friend! This is a vital basis for his character and motivations! There are a number of decisions in 1999 like this, where some deviation is made to make the characters more straightforward/fitting an archetype, and it would just be a small thing if not for how carefully constructed and extremely intentional Togashi's writing is, and how delicate the balance is with their characterization in the original series.

I'm personally not a fan of how much bigger and older Killua seems in 1999 compared to Gon as well--at times it feels like there must be an age gap of 3-4 years, which is weird to me with two characters where an important aspect of their relationship is that they're the same age. In the early parts of the manga, there was a bigger height gap between them as well (though it gets less and less with time), but even taking that into consideration, the strongly emphasized size difference is odd to me. (I know some people find it cute and that's fine, this is just my own preference!)

That said, I still do enjoy a lot of their scenes in 1999, even some of the added ones! I just don't think the way their characters are portrayed comes off nearly as layered/fascinating/well-balanced as in the manga and therefore in 2011 (which more-or-less closely follows the manga, with some exceptions). I consider 1999 its own alternate canon and any changes/additions only canon within that universe. (Though some of the additions I like can go under "Headcanon accepted!" status for me, LOL.)

2011 does have some small deviations from the manga too, and I do think there are subtle differences in the characterization vs the manga, but 2011 and the manga are much closer to each other overall and the characters are essentially the same at least, with only small exceptions.

So anyway, I definitely agree with what you said about their respective characterizations, and it's something that bugs me, too. There are a lot of aspects I appreciate about 1999, but I'm actually glad I didn't start with it for multiple reasons, and it's a pretty mixed bag for me overall.

[imgibbon]

have had a ton of fun at the Atari booth at PAX, reveling in all the Yars Rising goodness

They were really promoting the game hard, the whole booth done up in Yars branding, a comic book givaway and signing from WayForward reps, and trading cards collectable by playing at each of the demo booths in the station.

My first console was the 2600, and while Yars' Revenge wasn't my first game (that was Donkey Kong, natch), it was one of the early ones, and I've followed the series through Atari's various attempts at revivals over the years—in 1999 with the GBC port of Yars' Revenge that had new "story scenes" added; in 2005 with the GBA port, the rom-hackey sequel Yars' Return, and finally releasing the original Yars sequel Saboteur for the first time; in 2011 with the facebook game and the XBLA rail shooter version of Yar's Revenge; and most recently 2022 with Yars Recharged and the neon techno version of Yars' Revenge Enhanced included in the Atari 50 collection.

I played through the whole demo and chatted with both Atari and WayForward devs about Rising, its influences, how it respects and references the past and paves a way forward for the series. Really looking forward to the full game's release next week!

[kinsdura]

Full piece for the pinup calendar for @hxhladieszine! I really enjoyed participating in this event and was glad I finally got to draw Siper a whole bunch!

Thanks to the mods for organizing this, it was a lot of fun!

[prokopetz]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I’m genuinely extremely confused. I’m intrigued by all the stuff you and others post about Glitch/Nobilis, but I’m so bewildered by the publication history of the whole thing. I literally don’t know what book I should be buying to understand the first thing about the setting. Or is there, like, a wiki or something? Can you suggest an end of the ball of yarn?

Okay, so.

The Editions

Nobilis has had three major editions to date, plus a couple of spin-offs.

Nobilis 1st Edition (1999; also known as the Pharos Press or "little pink book" edition): Produced as a digest-size limited edition hardcover, this version of the game has never been made available in any digital format, and is now considered a collector's item.

Nobilis 2nd Edition (2002; also known as the Hogshead or "great white book" edition): Produced as an 11"x11" coffee table art book, which was an eccentric format for a tabletop RPG even at the time – the author basically looked at the game’s budding reputation for being insufferably artsy and said “okay, you know what?”, and it shows!

This edition’s first printing proved to be immensely popular, and is where most older fans were first introduced to the game; the second printing was lost and presumed destroyed due to fraud and criminal negligence on the part of its distributor, and no digital edition could be made available due to licensing problems with the illustrations. The latter issue was finally cleared up in the mid 2010s, allowing the author to self-publish a digital version which can be obtained here.

Nobilis 3rd Edition (2011; also known as "Nobilis: The Essentials"): A crowdfunded edition with a new publisher, this edition was plagued with problems right from the start; shortly before publication, several pieces of art commissioned by the publisher turned out to be traced Touhou fanart, forcing the author to have the offending pieces replaced at the last minute and at her own expense.

It was subsequently withdrawn from sale entirely, after the publisher was caught misappropriating Kickstarter funds for personal use and vanished from the face of the Internet. Fortunately, the author retained ownership of the text, and was eventually able to put forth a self-published digital version with completely new art and layout here.

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (2014): A spin-off game set in a post-apocalyptic alternative timeline, using a different set of mechanics which are not compatible with the core game. Owing to their shared setting history up until the point where their respective timelines diverge, you’ll often see folks citing material from Chuubo’s in the context of Nobilis discussions, and vice versa, but they’re very much separate beasts.

The publishing history of Chuubo’s is a big gnarly mess in its own right, both because it’s split across about a million different books, and because it switched publishers mid-production owing to the aforementioned crowdfunding malfeasance – going into it is well beyond the scope of this post; suffice it to say that the author’s self-published version can be obtained here.

Glitch (2020): Another spin-off game, this one taking place in the same setting and timeline as Nobilis, but focusing on one of the core game's villainous factions. The system is a prototype toward an eventual Nobilis 4th Edition, however, so it's of interest to those who keenly follow the game's development.

This is the first version of the game to be entirely self-published, the author having evidently come to the reasonable conclusion that if you want something done right, you've gotta do it yourself! Available here.

Which One You Should Get

Broadly speaking, all versions of Nobilis fall into the category of “diceless god-games”. You play as conditionally omnipotent avatars of various aspects of reality, charged with defending the borders of the cosmos from the world-devouring god-monsters who dwell in the Lands Beyond. The latter have a notable tendency to take the form of anime pretty boys dressed up like fascist mall goths, for reasons that are far too complicated to explain here. The spin-off games change this formula up a little.

The first and second editions are mostly compatible rules-wise, differing mainly in terms the breadth of their setting lore and the content of their examples of play. There’s no reason to chase down the little pink book unless you’re trying to complete a collection. (And if you are, good luck!)

The second edition, though considered a classic, is no longer widely played, partly because it was stuck in publishing hell for over a decade, but also because the mechanics have some fairly specific baked-in assumptions about the shape of play that a lot of folks don’t vibe with – it basically wants player characters to act like corrupt politicians who spend most of their time wrangling with dysfunctional family drama and bullshitting their monstrously evil superiors rather than going out and having adventures. (And if that’s what you’re into, more power to you!) The setting is also very much a product of 1990s grimdark, which can be a plus or a minus depending on your tastes.

The third edition is the one you’re most likely to run into in online discussions – if no edition is specified, assuming folks mean 3E is a good bet. It reconfigures the mechanics to be more flexible (i.e., more amenable to Scooby-Doo bullshit) and presents a considerably more whimsical take on the setting.

Reactions to the mechanical revisions have been almost universally positive. Reactions to the setting revisions have been more split, with many players feeling that it errs too much on the side of whimsy. It’s sometimes jokingly been described as “Nobilis: Anime Edition”, which can be either criticism or praise depending on context.

(One facet that it’s generally agreed is a step back from the second edition is the near-total lack of worked examples of play, which can make the rules harder to puzzle out.)

The premise of Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is that the bad guys in Nobilis won and destroyed reality, but also accidentally destroyed their own realm in the process. The game is a pastoral fantasy about teenage gods growing up and coming into their power in a Ghibli-esque small town that’s all that remains of the former cosmos; what’s left of the game’s formerly antagonistic factions co-exist there in relative peace because, well, it’s not like they’ve got much choice!

The mechanics broadly gesture toward Nobilis 3rd Edition, but are not compatible, being more concerned with rigorous, fine-grained mechanical modelling of plot beats and story arcs and such than with resolving fights. There’s a lot of stuff in Chuubo’s that it straight up wouldn’t occur to nearly any other game to have mechanics for at all.

In spite of the system being both diceless and very nearly mathless, character creation in Chuubo’s is so complicated that most folks use the pre-generated PCs included in the campaign books. If you’re inclined to roll your own characters, you may wish to look elsewhere.

Finally, Glitch flips the script, retaining the same setting and continuity as the core game, but it has you playing as the aforementioned world-devouring god-monsters – or, more specifically, as a heretical splinter faction that’s retired from the War On Reality for various personal reasons. In practice, you’re mostly a support group for terminally ill anti-gods that sometimes solves crimes.

Glitch splits the difference between the second edition’s grimdark and the third edition’s whimsy, though a big part of that change in focus is due to who you’re playing as – the text pretty pointedly implies that a hypothetical game about Creation’s gods would be a lot lighter in tone.

As mentioned above, the rules can be considered a preview of Nobilis 4th Edition, though they currently lack the specific bits and bobs you’d need to play as anything other than the baddies, unless you’re willing to do a lot of homebrewing.

Any questions?

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 19

Noragami Aragoto - Halfway through the season with the last two episodes of the Bishamon arc. I felt so terrible for Bishamon here and while at first I wanted Kazuma to face heavier consequences for the trauma he’d caused her in the past, having to live with his mistakes and atone for them is the better option. And I got soooo much satisfaction out of how things with Kuguha played out. Like Unalaq from The Legend of Korra, his compensation for being such an incredibly boring and unpopular antagonist is being so utterly loathsome, like somewhere between Tonpa from Hunter x Hunter (1999) and Takaoka from Assassination Classroom level of loathing. So watching him just lose his composure, throw a big tantrum like a whiny, attention-deprived child, and get forcibly cast out of his Regalia status as he’s screaming for mercy was cathartic as hell. While all seems well for not just Bishamon and her remaining Regalia family, but our main trio of Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori (who lived through this, thank God!), Nora answering a call from her father means that she’s far from done creating trouble for them to deal with.

Hunter x Hunter - Watched the final phase of the Hunter Exam to its (seeming) conclusion in both adaptations.

1999 - I thought the way things were depicted here were far less effective compared to the 2011 anime. Killua stating his one desire is to be friends with Gon is meant to reveal the sincerity of how he feels about Gon, but this anime already had him reveal that in the interview with Netero so this now has much less of an impact, not to mention he and Gon’s friendship feels a little understated in this version to start with. There is then a pointless skirmish between Gon and Illumi, followed by an equally pointless fake-out of Gon, Leorio. and Kurapika having to separate, which just felt like a time waster.

2011 - Thankfully those pitfalls were avoided in this adaptation. Moving the part where Satotz remarks that the true final phase of the Hunter Exam isn’t quite over yet to the very last scene was a great call, and Hisoka talking to Illumi about waiting “for the fruits to ripen” (in reference to Gon and Killua) was disturbing and scary as fuck here! If I’ve got one criticism, it’s with the dub, as I feel like Chris Hackney was rather miscast as Illumi’s voice. The voice he has in the Blue Water dub of the 1999 anime fits the character far better.

Fruits Basket - 2022 is halfway over and the characters in this series are already celebrating the coming of a New Year!

2001 - The first half of this episode was not particularly strong as yet again we’re treated to zany shennanigans around Shigure’s house that didn’t happen in the original manga. Most of it wasn’t that funny and I just felt bad for poor Mitsuru by the end. When the second half actually got to telling the proper story, it got much better, even though some of the stylistic and tonal choices admitedly still felt off at points.

2019 - Much improved all around, but one part did raise an issue - Yuki and Kyo not looking forward to meeting with Akito and Kagura respectively at the Sohma Family New Years gathering was brought up quite a bit, like those two are the abusive family members the two boys are most wanting to avoid. But the equivalence falls flat when you remember that Akito exploding with rage, screaming and lashing out with violence at their loved ones is played dead seriously while Kagura behaving the exact same way was played for laughs! It just reinforces what a disaster the writing for Kagura is, and we can’t even say this is a double standard based on “girls abusing guys is funny, but guys abusing girls and other guys isn’t” ‘cause, spoiler alert, Akito isn’t a guy! So it’s just an all around failure in the writing.

Rozen Maiden - The two episodes about Suiseiseki’s twin sister and the old man she lives with and how he’s slipped into madness due to the tragic loss of his son and his wife being comatose were, as can be inferred by just that description, the heaviest that this show has gotten to date in terms of how fucking sad that story is, and if that really was the boy’s ghost inside the mother’s dreamscape then that makes it all the heavier. Suiseiseki’s whining at Souseiseki got a bit old, but I like that they both have a new home and family now.

Fate/Stay Night - Gilgamesh got dealt with rather anticlimactically by Shirou and Saber’s combined power, so of course he’s not done yet and we’re going to have to face him at his full power later. But far more distressingly than that? At the very end of the episode, Shirou comes upon some dark secrets being kept by Kirei at his church.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - That Wakaba and Saionji episode, and their whole relationship, didn’t go the way I’d expected. While Saionji isn’t a total sociopath like Touga and is more capable of sincerity and decency regarding how he feels, his narcissism and constant want for status that matters and could take him out of Touga’s shadow made giving into temptation too easy for him when Mikage gets his expulsion reversed, at which point he totally disregards Wakaba again and leaves her feeling like nothing special. Poor Wakaba!

Love Live! Nijigasaki School Idol Club S2 - This second season continues to be a glowing step up from the first in its next two episodes, with Lanzhu reaffirming her stance on performing solo and being the center of attention, finding out more about Mia regarding her background and relationship with Lanzhu, Yu struggling with her composition assignment, and the total delight of Kasumi, Kanata, Emma and Rina stalking Lanzhu throughout a daily routine. The second episode also did something no previous Love Live! anime did by actually incorporating a “subunit” group into the show itself, as the four girls I mentioned there form Q4RTZ and make their big debut. The show is even starting to sound more like Love Live! than before. The opening song, Lanzhu’s songs, and Q4RTZ songs - all bangers!

MAR - Jack’s first fight in the War Games took an incredibly mean-spirited turn. All the demonstration of how strong he’s gotten and how well he can hold his own in a fight even when at a disadvantage, while his mother, the now reformed Rougilo brothers, and this mysterious delivery man are watching from back at Jack’s farm home, only for a single wrong move to turn it into a humiliating loss for Jack as he’s mistaken for being a no good pervert! Felt real bad for him, but I do have to give Pano props for her quick thinking there.

AMC: Gintama - 3 episodes of this show this time, one where Odd Jobs met the Gendo Ikari-looking government guy and had to retrieve and then kill the pet octopus of an alien prince, one where the Chief of the Shinsengumi doggedly pursues Shinpachi’s sister until Gin beats him in a fight all while the rest of the Shinsengumi’s exploits are being followed documentary style, and the last being sort of an immediate followup where Gin does battle with Vice Chief Hijikata when he comes after him during a job. Still such an insanely fun cartoon, and from all I’ve heard it can only keep getting better.

AND

Belle - This movie came out last year and now I finally got to see it. It drew me in with Suzu’s personal story and how she channeled all of her painful emotions over the tragic loss of her mother and her desire to sing into the online virtual metaverse of U and then totally changed gears from anywhere I’d been expecting that story to go by turning into a modern day Beauty & The Beast retelling. Honestly, I didn’t really get that into U itself, it’s kind of an eyesore at points, so playing out a compelling enough story with it definitely helped to keep me engaged. The biggest point of contention for me is that like Weathering With You, this is a movie that sort of falls apart in its final act. The idea that damn near the entire world, online AND offline, had gone bonkers over the mystery of the Beast’s true identity, the unfortunate implications behind who the Beast really is and why he is the Beast, and the sheer amount of narrative contrivances that even launch the story into a second climax right after a legit phenomenal sequence that seemed like the big climax already, broke a good deal of my immersion in the film and made me ready to see it just end already. But admittedly, the overall film and the high points it hit even in that final third were beautiful, and well worth the watch.

[laurasimonsdaughter]

I’ve started reading the Inuit folklore books I got from Inhabit Media and one of the things I was looking out for was the story of how the sun and the moon came to exist, because that’s one of the few tales from Inuit tradition I have seen in several other books I have. Turns out there are different versions! That’s not too surprising, of course, but one of them differed a lot. So I’m gonna put some of the ones I found side by side.

All these creation stories have one thing in common: a brother and sister at the heart of the story, with more focus on the sister, who both end up being lifted into the sky as the moon and the sun respectively. The exact details, however, differ.

I’ll put the rest under the cut. (And give a content warning for sibling incest and self-mutilation just in case.]

Starting with the first new book, compiled by Neil Christopher (2011), here the story goes that there is a woman who lives alone in a hut. While others are enjoying themselves in the dancing house, she is alone and is visited by a mysterious suitor who turns off her lamps before approaching her. This happens several times. Wanting to know who he is, since he never speaks a word, she marks the left side of his face with soot from a lamp. When he leaves she follows him to the dancing house. Inside she hears people laugh and when she enters, she sees they are laughing at the soot marks on her own brother’s face. The sister reacts by cutting off one of her breasts and ordering him to eat it, which he does not. She then takes a piece of wood meant to trim lamps with and lights it, running outside. So does he, and he chases her round the dancing house. He trips, however, so his light goes out, while hers burns bright. They are both “wafted up to the sky”, where she becomes the sun and he the moon.

The book adds the note that this version of the story is from the South Baffin region and that: “The story of how the sun and the moon came to exist varies slightly from region to region. Most versions involve a brother and sister, and the breaking of a taboo: incest.”

Most versions, but not all. The only ones I’ve ever seen in my older compilation books are very much like the story above, though:

Franz Boaz (1888) says the sister was also at the dancing (or singing) house, not at her own hut. In this version there is a full on assault that the sister tries to fight off and she blackens her hands with soot the next time it happens so she can smear her attackers back with it. When the lamps are lit she sees it is her own brother and is furious, cutting off both her breasts and telling them that if he desires her he should eat them. Her brother then chases her out of the house “in a passion”, and she grabs a burning lamp-trimming stick. From there the story ends as above.

This more violent version seems less common though, or perhaps it’s up to the storyteller to fill that in.

Another version (Parragon, 1999) stars the same as Christopher’s, but states specifically that the sister marks her brother’s forehead with the soot. Here she also cuts off both breasts, offering them to him on a platter as a taunt. Instead of sticks meant for trimming lamps both siblings light a clump of moss. Once they are the sun and the moon in the sky, this story adds that the moon wanes because he is slowly starving to death, but that the sun feeds him with her breasts until he is full again.

This extra explanation of how the sun and moon work at the end of the story is interestingly different. In a collection from Heinz Barüske (1969) there is also such a post-script to the story and the initial setup of the situation is also rather different:

The story starts with a game the people like to play, where they all turn off their lights and find partners in the dark. Afterwards everyone goes outside and lights a torch, to see who their playmate was. Moon and Sun (who already have their name) see that they have been with each other. In her shame Sun cuts off her breasts and throws them at his feet. (It is unclear here if Moon knew what he was doing or if he is just as shocked.) Both start running with their lit torches. Hers stays lit, but his simmers down to only a glow. They become the moon and the sun in the sky, where they have a house with two parts. It is explained that in the summer sun never goes into the house, while in winter summer shuts herself in and leaves the moon outside. In this version new moon means that the moon has gone to fetch hunting prey for the humans, because he cannot warm the earth like his sister and he still wants to do something to help them.

The introduction of a game in this version is significant, because in the second new book I got, there is a version that is completely different in setup to all the ones above and that is the reason I wanted to write this post: 

This story, retold by Rachel and Sean Qitsuali-Tinsley (2015) is also sourced as from the Baffin region, but it describes the brother and sister as the closest of siblings in an unbreakable bond kind of way. They always have each other’s back, also when they play games with the other young people of the village. One of the games is all roaming around a dark hut together to try and mark each other on the nose with soot. The siblings never lose. Until one day the sister feels she is marked on the nose. When the lights go on everyone laughs at her, because both her nose and her brother’s fingers are black. The sister feels so betrayed by her own brother that she storms outside, furious and full of shame. She takes a lit torch and since this is in the old time when humans were still so strong of will that they could make things become real, her spirit mingles with the fire and she lifts off the ground. Her brother calls for her to come down and gives chase, chasing her all the way into the sky. Whether to apologise or force her back to earth no one can say. He has no torch, only some smouldering coals and he cannot catch her, she always runs from him for she is as proud as he is stubborn.

Now that is a wildly different story. No incest, no mutilation, and an explanation for how exactly these two were made into the sun and the moon. Because, when compared to for instance Greek Mythology, there is a clear absence of a godly being deciding these two should be turned into celestial bodies as either a punishment or a solution. It’s very clear that that is not what happened here, but only the last version of the story gives the reason.

I don’t suspect the Qitsuali-Tinsleys of deliberately choosing a “less adult” version of the story to include in their collection, because there are plenty of dark themes in the other tales. It isn’t very surprising either that this version would be passed over in European collections, if they ever found it at all. Compared to the others the reason for turning into the moon seems thinner here, when taken at face value. But, in most of the stories, it is implied that the emotions of the siblings caused them to transform. Whether it be shame or rage or other passion. And this last story makes it very clear that it’s the humiliation and frantic reaction of basically two teenagers that causes all this. Plenty of boiled over emotion to will yourself into the sky.

I really hope I’ll find another source with this version in it sometime!

[itsclydebitches]

Ok hold on there Clyde. Been a fan for years, but I have some issues with your last answer. Do you think My hero is filled with white characters? They are Japanese. That was my point. Japanese media characters are overwhelming Japanese or meant to be Japanese in the case of fantasy stories. From manga, to anime to live action. Ichigo for example is not white, he's Japanese. Goku is well not white or Japanese. He's a made up race that is seen as Japanese by the main audience.

Oh no, I didn't mean it like that. Sorry if that was confusing! I just mean that we have need for more diversity and that diversity is going to mean something different for each culture. The need for representation isn't just pit against white casts. As you say, the stories are overwhelmingly Japanese, but how is Japan being represented here? "Japanese" is not in-and-of-itself a homogenous term. What skin tones are represented? Are there any biracial characters? People of color? Adopted characters? etc.? The diversity that the U.S. needs is going to differ in many very significant ways from the diversity that Japan needs, but they're also going to overlap in some respects. One overlap is colorism and how no, certain stories may not be white in terms of their racial cast makeup, but they're predominantly light-skinned in a way that intersects with other diversity concerns. Going back to BNHA, we can ask not only why Rock Lee is the only (to my knowledge) dark-skinned character in an incredibly large cast - going back to that issue of fantasy and how the people with horns and tails don't need to look like irl Japan - but also why the anime's subtitles had his wife comment on genetics "going too far in one direction" when their child turned out dark-skinned like him, with large lips and textured hair, rather than light-skinned and blonde like her. There's an intersection there between Japanese and U.S. diversity concerns in the form of, "Why are certain physical traits seen as more desirable than others?"

And then throwing something like Witcher into the conversation complicates it all horrendously lol. The nuances attached to a Polish series with a popular American adaptation is a whole other thing, though with intersections of its own.

However, the complications of all of this aside, I don't think we can ignore any criticism minority fans might have with an acknowledgment that a range of people identity with these characters. Of course they do! We identify with characters for reasons far beyond their race and even if we didn't... what other option is there? That's the problem. There isn't enough diversity to just ignore the most common representations and still have enough media to enjoy life with. Sure, we can provide a list of stories that meet any individual's criteria, but how many texts is that list actually going to have? Of media that was received well? In genres the individual likes? Stuff people are talking about and developing sizable fandoms for? If someone in the U.S. said, "I want a beloved action film, but with a black lead" well, the list of Top 100 action films isn't really going to provide much and going, "But Black Panther!" doesn't fix the underlying problem. People loving white (or light-skinned, or male, or able-bodied, or straight, etc.) characters doesn't erase the need for more diversity in these industries. Fans can identify with/love characters like Goku and simultaneously want to see more dark-skinned/black/brown characters in their media. The question isn't whether Goku is a great character (he is), or whether fans love him as he is (we do), but rather why so many creators look at the fictional, alien species they created and decide that they need to look this particular way. It's never on one author to shoulder all the criticism, nor to personally fix the problem, but by repeating these trends they do become a part of that conversation of how we might do better.

And, to be frank, I'm only on the periphery of that conversation. I'm not Japanese, nor am I a person of color, so I apologize for any ignorance that's seeping through. What I do know though is that diversity of any sort isn't a one size fits all situation and what's one person's "I don't care" might be another's "I'm very passionate about this." People need different things from their stories and I don't think we should ignore those needs just because others don't share them. I remember back in the day there was a ton of HxH conversations about Canary's redesign for the 2011 anime. All these questions bouncing around the fandom: Is she black? Is she Japanese? Can't she be both? Isn't the redesign more respectful? Was the original whitewashed? Is the 1999 version a caricature? But it's closer to the manga, so it that a caricature? Is that just Togashi's art style? Does a faithful adaptation trump the discomfort that design caused? But not everyone had a problem with it, so who gets to decide when some in the fandom say they care and others say they don't? Obviously no one settled on clear cut answers, but the mere fact that there was such passion attached to these conversations demonstrates how important they are.

[olliya]

How popular is MadaSaku in context of other Madara’s and Sakura’s ships? Part 2

@madasakuweek​

I am honestly shocked how many people liked my ship popularity analysis. Well, prepared for the second part - Fanfiction.net. It’s even longer!!! But imo more interesting.

Finding the popularity of ships on ff.net is both easier and more complicated, depending how do you approach the problem.

Let’s break up the task into two parts.

Approach 1

FF.net has a Pairing Option that was introduced in October 2013. This function makes the names of characters appear in square bracket, for example: [Madara U., Sakura H.] indicating that those characters form a romantic pair in a given fic.

When using Filters (Figure 1.a.) after choosing the character of interest, one can tick the Pairing Option, and then browse (using up and down arrows) through all the characters of the fandom. The number of fics tagged with Pairing Option between the character of interest (here: Madara) and every character B (here: Sakura) appear on the bottom of the panel (Figure 1.b.).

Data gathered through browsing through all of the Naruto characters with Pairing Option On give unequivocal results. The only limitations of this method is the relatively late introduction time point of Pairing Option (introduced in 2013, while Naruto started publishing in 1999), and sometimes peculiar definitions of “Characters” on ff.net (example: Naruko as a separate character, “Team 7” as a “Character”).

Results for Madara and Sakura are presented below (Figures 2. and 3.) For clarity, ships with four or more fics are shown for Madara. In case of Sakura, all the ships with >4 fics in a graph would blur the picture. Therefore, her Top 20 ships are presented in Figure 3., and the rest is summarized in the Table 1. The analysis was performed on 22.10.2019.

However, ff.net was launched on 15.10.1998 (which precedes publication of Naruto by one year) so there is a 14 year-worth of fic creation when the Pairing Option wasn’t available. To get the complete overview of ship popularity it is necessary to include the body of work created in the earlier years of ff.net.

This issue was addressed through Approach 2.

Approach 2

During the period of 1998-2013 fics were labelled with ship names in the summaries, and readers would look for ships of interest typing ship name into the search box. During those times certain conventional phrases were coined for the ships, and putting those in the summary allowed potential readers to find the story. Searching ff.net using selected phrases and collecting the corresponding fic numbers gives insight into those part of fanworks. Employment of search engine is shown in Figure 4. on the example of phrase “madasaku”.

I performed searches for common ships, basing the list on the ships with 4 or more fics as found using Pairing Option (see: section above).

I searched for the phrases that were and still are still commonly used ship names in Naruto fandom.

In general, there are three common ways to indicate a ship:

a)      Merger of names, usually using first two syllables of both names, usually (but not always) with male name being first part of the phrase. Example: madasaku, and (less commonly used) sakumada. For the M/M and F/F couples, both orders are used, and it is impossible to predict which form is more common. Example: sakuhina and hinasaku would be used with similar frequency.

In case of names composed of two syllables or shorter, one syllable is often used.

b)     Name_1xName_2 – complete names of characters separated by letter “x”, without spaces in between. There is no strict preference as to which name goes first more frequently, i.e. sakuraxmadara is equally plausible as madaraxsakura.

c)      A combination of the above, i.e. shortened versions of names connected with an “x”, without spaces (example: madaxsaku)

Search engine of ff.net is case-insensitive, i.e. searching for “madasaku” will bring the same results as searching for “Madasaku” and “MadaSaku” (thank gods).

Other possible naming convention, even if there are/were used, aren’t correctly recognized by the search engine of ff.net. If there are spaces between the words of the phrase (example: “Madara x Sakura”) the search results in all fics containing words “Madara”, “x” and “Sakura” in summary, but not necessary together. Separating character names with slash “/”, even without usage of spaces (example: “Madara/Sakura”) results in list of fic containing “Madara” and “Sakura”, not necessary together (slash symbol gets ignored).

Therefore, the ship names of the kinds described above weren’t included in this analysis.

Other potential ship names variations (using “*”, using “&”, and surely a multitude of others variants that I couldn’t think of) were not included due to their relative infrequency (and limits to capacity and imagination).

For every ship included in the results of Approach 1 (total 43 searches for Sakura’s ships, and 12 searches for Madara’s ships), I searched for the following phrases (on example of MadaSaku ship):

madasaku

sakumada 

madaraxsakura 

sakuraxmadara 

madaxsaku 

sakuxmada

Certain ship names don’t follow the usual rules and/ or required special treatment. For example, for the ship Gaara/Haruno Sakura the common names merger is GaaSaku (and not GaaraSaku). Tsunade/ Haruno Sakura is equally often (or rarely, because it is very rare) abbreviated to TsuSaku and Tsunasaku. Fics tagged with TobiSaku name merger may mean Senju Tobirama/Haruno Sakura as well as Tobi (Obito’s persona)/Haruno Sakura – in this case, fics were manually inspected, and assigned to correct categories. Ship with Naruko (which scored relatively high in Pairing Option analysis), was not really possible to assess, because the merger name “narusaku” is identical for the merger of Uzumaki Naruto/Haruno Sakura (for good reasons).

All the fics for given pair were summed up (i.e. for Uchiha Madara/Haruno Sakura ship the fic numbers retrieved through searches for “madasaku”, “sakumada”, “madaraxsakura”, “sakuraxmadara”, “madaxsaku” and “sakuxmada” were added together).

Results for Madara and Sakura are presented below (Figures 5. and 6.). In case of Sakura, including all the examined ships in a graph would blur the picture. Therefore, her Top 20 ships are presented in Figure 6., and the rest is summarized in the Table 2. The analysis was performed on 22.10.2019.

This list presented in Table 2 is not a comprehensive one. There are certainly more ships with <10 fics that were not included. One prominent, detected example is Chōji, who has 13 fics in as a ship partner of Sakura, but was not included in Table 2 because according to the Pairing Option he had no fics with Sakura.

 Limitations of the method

Employed method depends on performing six independent searches and summing up the numbers from those searches. A fic tagged with more than one of the searched phrases will be counted multiple times. For example: if a fic contained phrases “MadaSaku” and “MadaraxSakura” in its summary, it was counted twice. In extreme case, one fic would generate six data points: one real, and five false.

Nevertheless, since the same treatment was applied to all the pairings, the errors should be distributed in the same way across all the ships. Therefore, even if the numerical values obtained through this analysis don’t necessarily correspond to reality, the results should reflect respective relations between the ships (i.e. “ranking” should be correct). This assumption is true however only if all the subdivisions of the fandom follow the same customs and tagging etiquette. I.e. if creators writing for SasuSaku followed a habit of including only one Ship Name in their summaries, while creators of MadaSaku tended to include multiple Ship Names, then my method of analysis would overestimate the significance of MadaSaku ship. However, I am not aware of such trends existing in Naruto fandom.

Additionally, Ship Name tagging system allows for tagging infinite number of ships in one fic, therefore certain fics have been counted multiple times.

 Discussion

When considering fics tagged with Pairing Option, Sakura ranks as Madara’s second most popular ship partner, after Hashirama and before Tobirama. As on AO3, it is telling that a relatively “exotic” pairing with OC ranks 4th among Madara’s ships.

Madara is the 9th most popular ship partner of Sakura. Comparing and contrasting Sakura’s data between ff.net and AO3 would be an interesting analysis in its own right, but here I will only point out the switch of positions between Naruto and Kakashi as Sakura’s ship partners (Naruto is a strong 2nd on ff.net, while Kakashi takes this position on AO3); and relatively low, 7th place of Ino (strong 4th on AO3).

When taking into account data gathered though Ship Names Searches, Sakura ranks as Madara’s 2nd most popular ship partner (after Hashirama and before OC).

Madara, on the other hand is Sakura’s 15th most popular ship partner. Since Ship Names Searches results are mostly derived from fics published in earlier years in Naruto fandom, his lower place can be explained by his very late appearance in the franchise (on-panel in February 2008 - almost 9 years after Naruto started publishing and in person in the story in October 2011 - 12 years after begin of publishing).

Data gathered in this analysis present a unique opportunity for looking into the development of ship popularity over time.

Results from Pairing Option reflect mostly the state of fandom in years 2013-2019, while the results from Ship Names Search show the status from the earlier years. The exact division is however somewhat blurred as some fics published before October 2013 has been retroactively tagged using Pairing Option (even if the majority of older fics remain untagged). The reverse is also true – many fics published after introduction of Pairing Option, even as recently as end of 2019, fail to use it. Additionally, many fics are tagged using both systems: the Pairing Option and Ship Name in summary.

Nevertheless one can tentatively regard Pairing Option results as “new”, or “current” ones, while the ones coming from the Ship Names Searches as “older” ones.

Figure 7. presents position changes in Top 12 Madara’s ships. Ranking from Pairing Option analysis was regarded as current and compared to the “older” ranking composed from all the fics tagged with Ship Names (regardless their publishing date). A positive value in the Figure 7. indicates a gain of popularity, for example: Tobirama gained 2 positions among Madara’s ships when comparing the “current” and “older” results.

This analysis reveals that certain ships (with Tobirama, Naruto and Hinata) gained, while ships with OC and Itachi lost on popularity. Dramatic loss of Itachi ship popularity is very interesting and one can speculated that it could be caused by Tobi/Obito reveal.

The same analysis was performed for Sakura’s ships and is presented in Figure 8.

Inspecting changes in Sakura ships’ rankings allows for several interesting observations. Minato, Shisui, Madara and Sasori are among greatest winners. It is symptomatic that all, except Sasori, are characters that appeared (or became relevant) later during the franchise. Among the characters losing in popularity as Sakura’s ship partners are members of Konoha Eleven (Lee, Kiba, Sai, Neji), an Akatsuki member (Deidara) and OC. It should also be noted that five top positions (Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Itachi and Gaara) remained unchanged.

To further examine the “current” and “older” state of fandom, upon harvesting Ship Names data I sorted the fics according to publication date and took note of how many fics were published before and how many after 01.10.2013 (approximate date of introduction of Pairing Option tool).

If one repeats the analysis from Figures 7. and 8. considering only fics published before 01.10.2013 as “older” ones, the following pictures appears (Figure 9. and 10.):

Using this definition of “older” fics (i.e. fics tagged with Ship Names that were published until October 2013), the gain of popularity of Tobirama ship becomes even mor evident (gain of 7 positions). Ships with Itachi (as in the previous analysis) and Sasuke (undetected in the previous analysis) lost on popularity.

Sakura ships’ dynamics according to this definition of “older” fics show even more pronounced position gains of Minato and Shisui, but otherwise similar trends to previous analysis.

Analysis of ship popularity on ff.net is a challenging one, but since this platform was, and still is main archive for Naruto fandom (407 thousands fics vs 49 thousand on AO3) it is important to address this issue even if methodology is far from perfect.

I am open to all the comments, suggestions and hints, as the data collection was a major effort and I’m sure that this data can be used in many other different ways.

[paulisweeabootrash]

2020 mini-review pack

Di Gi Charat (1999)

Episodes watched: 7

Platform: VRV (Hidive)

Di Gi Charat (pronounced like “carrot”) is a series of fast-paced 4-ish-minute shorts nominally about Dejiko and Rabi-en-Rose, rivals trying to be Earth’s greatest idol.  Who are, respectively, a catgirl and a bunnygirl.  Oh, and also they’re aliens?  That’s... uh... certainly a premise, I guess.  The actual show consists of self-contained gag-filled episodes with no ongoing story, in almost a sitcom kind of way, throwing the characters into situations without context, but with a stable “baseline” situation (unlike, say, Pop Team Epic, where the characters serve more as stock personalities playing different roles in different sketches).  Dejiko is a snarky schemer.  Rabi-en-Rose is a snarky schemer whose main activity seems to be bothering Dejiko at work.  Puchiko is a small and quiet child and behaves accordingly.  And Gema is... something?  I have no clue, honestly, and neither does the fan wiki.  Other recurring characters fill stock roles such as “manager” and “otaku”.  A lot of the humor centers around poking fun at fandom.  It’s a show by, for, and about otaku from an era before our current internet culture, and since I’m a millennial and not from Japan, that makes it unusually hard to evaluate.

W/A/S: 8/2?/5?

Weeb: Chibis.  Catgirls.  Idols.  Kappas.  Kawaii verbal tics.  Akihabara.  Low-detail background characters who look like blobs or thumbs with faces.  Kanji left on-screen but untranslated.  Particular sorts of highly-exaggerated facial expressions we may have become familiar with through emoji, but which still haven’t made their way into American media generally.  This is ludicrously Japanese.

Ass: This really isn't that kind of show.  Although it is certainly designed for adults, as evidenced by the presence of phrases like “naughty doujinshi”.

Shit: The art is fun.  It has style shifts from comic strip to watercolor painting to mainstream 90s anime, and looks better than some of its contemporaries that were, uh, “real” shows.  The opening takes up about a quarter of the total runtime and gets annoying quickly (but that's because it’s clearly designed for being part of a broadcast block, not binge-watching).  Still, unless I’m missing hidden cleverness on account of not having the background knowledge, there’s not much to it.  It’s just okay.

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First Astronomical Velocity (band, active 2011-present)

Platform: Spotify, surprisingly

Okay, this one is a bit different, and I’m jettisoning the whole format for it.  Remember how I said the music-centered episodes of SoniAni were actually pretty good, even though the modeling-centered episodes were so offputting I never finished the show?  Well it turns out that First Astronomical Velocity, Sonico’s band, has released several IRL albums.  Physical copies may be a little hard to come by, but official uploads of a lot of their music can be found on Youtube and Spotify.  Do your musical interests include at least two of: string arrangements that would be at home in a particularly sappy movie soundtrack, 90s-00s alternative rock, synthesizer beep-boops, and that constricted cutesy Japanese women’s vocal style (you know the one I mean)?  Then this is for you.  They’re a pretty good... uh... alt-pop-rock band, I guess is what I’d call them.

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Interspecies Reviewers (2020)

Episodes watched: the entire 12-episode season

Platform: I plead the 5th.  But it’s getting a video release soon, so it will finally be legitimately available in English!

I started this year with a plot-light fanservicey animal-people show, and now I’m ending the year with... a��plot-light fanservicey animal-people show.  But unlike Nekopara, this show had me cracking up, eagerly clicking “next episode”, and not complaining about the premise.  I’m sure a lot of people do have a problem with this show’s premise -- which centers almost entirely on various forms of sex work -- and I understand and respect that they will want to skip this show.

But for the rest of you: Interspecies Reviewers is a wildly-NSFW comedy about a group of fantasy world adventurers who gain fame and fortune reviewing brothels of different species.  I expected excessive nudity and fantasy tropes, but I didn’t expect to also get serious thoughts.  Like showing, in the golem and Magic Metropolis episodes, some of the unsettling problems that are looming IRL as deepfakes and sex robots are in development -- note especially the contrast between consensually and non-consensually basing automata on real people in those episodes.  Or the discussion in the last episode of how much riskier sex would be in a world without magic (i.e., ours).  This is a much smarter and more interesting show than you’d expect, considering that it has so much sexual content that it got dropped by two of the networks airing it and even its US distributor.

W/A/S: 5/10/4

Weeb: Although heavily influenced by the Western fantasy media canon of European mythology and Tolkien and tabletop RPGs, familiarity with the tropes of fantasy anime will help you “get” this too, as will familiarity with the -sigh- character dynamics and censorship practices of hentai.  Especially because it’s a comedy, there are probably also instances where I have completely missed topical references or wordplay that a Japanese person would get, but I can’t think of any specific instances right now of “there was clearly supposed to be a joke but I missed it”.

Ass: Look, this could not possibly have more sexual content without unambiguously becoming porn.  Genitals are (almost) always carefully hidden by viewing angle or conveniently-placed glowing (something lampshaded in one episode as an actual feature of one of the species they review), but otherwise, expect lots of nudity and almost nonstop crude humor.  Do not watch this with children.  Do not watch this with your parents.  Do not watch this with friends you don’t know well enough to know how they’ll react to something like this.

Shit: This show is better-made than it deserves to be.  It’s pretty dumb at points, but it’s fun enough to make up for it.  The art is consistent and pleasant, and the opening and ending themes are extremely fun, but it’s not a serious standout in any of those departments.  Also, I swear the background music is stock music, but I don’t remember what other show(s) I’ve heard it in before.

Stray thought: Crim is a precious and relatable cinnamon roll and I love them.

-----

OreSuki OVA (2020)

Platform: Crunchyroll

So, I know I didn’t cover the whole season in my initial review, but I still want to mention the hour-ish-long finale of this show, which was released straight to streaming.  Short version of the rest of the season: Joro starts to actually fall for Pansy, but a new challenger, Hose, appears.  He is irritatingly attractive and effortless at maintaining the right persona for the situation, leading Joro to describe him as “the main character”.  Hose is the sociopathic manipulator Joro wishes he could be, and Pansy, who has a bad past with him, clearly wants nothing more than for Joro to stand up to him.  But, since this is OreSuki, it’s not going to be handled simply.  No, instead, strap in for a grand finale of Joro and Hose competing in, and trying to manipulate through rules-lawyering, an absolutely ludicrous competition to win the right to date Pansy.  And, on top of it, we also get to finally see how Sun-chan got to be the way he is and what happened at that pivotal baseball game that set off the whole plot.  What has Joro learned from the experiences of the past season?  You’ll see!  And you’ll facepalm about it!

Really, you must watch this if you watched the regular season.

W/A/S: 6/5(!)/4ish

Weeb: Basically the same as I said before.  Gags referencing other Japanese media, anime and otherwise, and it's better if you’re familiar with the high school romcoms and harem comedies Joro thinks in terms of.

Ass (and slight content note): -sigh- Why does the camera need to be there?  Also, Joro, you just committed a little bit of sexual assault for the sake of this contest.  Stop.

Shit: I want to rate this overall better than I did the regular season because I think it’s an excellent finale overall because, even though it ends in a very “let’s leave everything unresolved” way that’s common in media that rely on absurd relationships to propel the plot, it does so in a way that makes sense in character.  I personally think it would’ve been stronger if it had, well, confirmed its title, and at least some of the other “challengers” had lost interest in Joro, but I guess they probably want a Season 2, since they have so much more source material to work from.  There are... oh god 14 light novels?!  That is too many.

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Your Name. (2016)

Platform: DVD

Two high schoolers -- small-town girl Mitsuha, from Itomori, and big-city boy Taki, from Tokyo -- find themselves in each other’s bodies for a day.  They both think at first it must be a very vivid dream, but when it happens again, and they start finding clues like notes they don’t remember writing and comments by friends and relatives about their out-of-character behavior, they realize the body swap is real.  This begins a relationship of mutual understanding that nobody else can really understand -- or would even believe (except Mitsuha’s grandmother, who is... familiar with this phenomenon) -- and the plot then pivots to a tense adventure where they use their connection, some crucial information Taki has, the skills of Mitsuha’s friends, and the intervention of Itomori’s patron deity, to save the town from an impending disaster.

And that’s all I’ll say about that, because I really do think this is something you should go into blind.  My only remaining comments are that (1) the red string of fate is critically important imagery, and is particularly interesting to me here because, if I took a particular scene correctly, Mitsuha made her own red string of fate from sheer necessity, which is a very different twist on that trope, and (2) I am now curious about the history of the body-swapping phenomenon in-universe.

W/A/S: 4?/2/2

Weeb: As mentioned above, symbolism of the Red String of Fate shows up throughout the movie, as do the occasional distinctly Japanese quirk like a wildly out-of-place vending machine or a café with dogs, and but for the most part it’s a cross-cultural story of understanding and dealing with someone else’s life, and of forming a connection other people don’t -- can’t -- truly understand, and to some extent of divides between urban and rural and modern and traditional that I think could play out in any country with just the local symbolism tweaked.  The significance and content of Shinto beliefs and practices depicted, particularly kuchikamizake, are made pretty explicit, so although foreign to the vast majority of the non-Japanese audience, I feel like this movie also has nearly no barrier to entry for people not familiar with the cultural context, so I don’t want to rate it very high on this scale.

Ass: Look.  It involves teenagers switching bodies.  What do you think they do?  Especially Taki?  But it’s played for laughs, not titillation.

Shit: This movie is beautiful and punched me in the feels and was very satisfying.  The closest I have to a complaint about any aspect of it is that the musical breaks that I guess are supposed to mark acts of the movie almost make it feel like binge-watching a short series instead of watching a single self-contained movie.

[blackkudos]

Martin Lawrence

Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence (born April 16, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, talk show host, writer, and former Golden Gloves boxer. Lawrence came to fame during the 1990s, establishing a Hollywood career as a leading actor, most notably in the Fox television sitcom Martin and the films House Party, Boomerang, Bad Boys, Wild Hogs, Nothing to Lose, Blue Streak, Life, Big Momma's House, and A Thin Line Between Love and Hate.

Early life

The fourth of six children, Martin Fitzgerald Lawrence was born on April 16, 1965, in Frankfurt, West Germany, to American parents. His father, John Lawrence, was serving in the U.S. military at the time. Lawrence was named after civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and U.S. President John F. Kennedy. When Lawrence was seven, his father left the military, and the family moved from Germany back to the United States, settling in Landover, Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., area. After his parents divorced in 1973, Lawrence rarely saw his father, who was a police officer. His mother, Chlora (née Bailey), worked several jobs, including as a sales representative and cashier at various department stores to support her family.

During his teen years, Lawrence excelled at boxing.

While living in Maryland, Lawrence attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and Friendly High School, and he lived in Apple Grove, becoming a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves boxing contender.

Career

In his early days, Lawrence did comedy shows in the Washington, D.C., area and supported himself through odd jobs. Comedian, Ritch Snyder saw his act and suggested Lawrence make connections in New York. Lawrence ended up moving to New York City and found his way to the legendary The Improv. Shortly after appearing at The Improv, Lawrence won a performance spot on Star Search. He did well on the show and made it to the final round, but did not win. However, executives at Columbia Pictures Television saw Martin's performance and offered him the role of Maurice Warfield in What's Happening Now!!; this was his first acting job. Upon cancellation of that show, Lawrence found bit parts in various films and television series. His breakthrough role was as Cee in Do the Right Thing. Other roles followed in films such as the House Party series, Talkin' Dirty After Dark, and the Eddie Murphy vehicle Boomerang. During this period, entertainment mogul Russell Simmons selected him to host the groundbreaking series Def Comedy Jam on HBO. Def Comedy Jam gave many comedians (including Chris Tucker, Dave Chappelle, Mike Epps, Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer) mainstream exposure.

During his stint with Def Comedy Jam, Lawrence appeared in his own hit series, Martin, which aired on Fox. The show ran from 1992 to 1997 and was an enormous success. Martin was the flagship of Fox's Thursday-night line-up, which drew millions of viewers away from NBC's "Must See TV" line-up. He hosted Saturday Night Live on February 19, 1994, where he made crude remarks about women's genitalia and personal hygiene; the monologue was completely edited out of NBC reruns and syndicated versions, and Lawrence was banned from the show for life. Martin's ratings continued to skyrocket so much that Fox became more of a contender against NBC and came closer to being considered among the top television networks.

After Martin ended its run in 1997, Lawrence found work in comedy films. He often starred as the second lead opposite actors including Eddie Murphy, Danny DeVito, and Tim Robbins. Many of his films were blockbusters at the box office, including Nothing to Lose, Life, Blue Streak, and Big Momma's House. He also starred in critical- and box-office failures, including Black Knight and National Security. Regardless, his salary steadily increased to over $10 million per film role. He continues to work in film, with such films as Big Momma's House 2, which opened at No. 1 at North American box office and grossed almost $28 million its first weekend, and Wild Hogs (2007), in which he played a bored suburbanite seeking adventure on the open road in a biker comedy alongside John Travolta, Tim Allen and William H. Macy.

In 2006, Lawrence appeared on Inside the Actors Studio, during which Lawrence briefly brought back to life some of the characters he had portrayed on Martin. He also appeared in Open Season as Boog, one of the main characters of the film. The movie also starred Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing, and Gary Sinise.

In 2008, Lawrence starred in Disney's College Road Trip co-starring with Raven-Symoné. It was his first G-rated film, but not his first appearance in a children's film: he supplied a voice for Open Season (2006) opposite Ashton Kutcher.

At the 2009 BET Awards he appeared in a spoof movie trailer with Jamie Foxx for a fictional movie, The Skank Robbers, that featured their respective television characters Sheneneh Jenkins and Ugly Wanda. In 2010, Fox announced that it was producing a film based on the sketch, featuring Foxx, Lawrence, and actress Halle Berry.

In 2011, Lawrence reprised his role as FBI agent Malcolm Turner in Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, the third film in the Big Momma series.

In January 2013, it was announced that Lawrence and Kelsey Grammer were considering pairing up to star in a comedy for Lionsgate TV. Partners, paired the two actors as Chicago lawyers from "vastly different backgrounds who unexpectedly meet in court on the worst day of their lives." The show premiered August 4, 2014, but was cancelled after one season after receiving poor reviews.

In 2020, Lawrence reprised his role as Detective Marcus Burnett in the third installment of the Bad Boys franchise, Bad Boys for Life, again alongside Will Smith. The film was considered a financial success, grossing $112 million in its first four days of release.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Lawrence was engaged to actress Lark Voorhies in 1993. He married Miss Virginia USA, Patricia Southall, in 1995. Lawrence and Southall have a daughter, Jasmine Page (born January 15, 1996). They divorced in 1997. In 1997, Lawrence began a relationship with Shamicka Gibbs. They married on July 10, 2010, at Lawrence's Beverly Hills home. Actors Eddie Murphy and Denzel Washington were among the 120 wedding guests; Lawrence and Gibbs have two daughters, Iyanna Faith (born November 9, 2000) and Amara Trinity (born August 20, 2002). Lawrence filed for divorce from Gibbs on April 25, 2012, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for joint legal and physical custody of the children.

Lawrence owns a farm near Purcellville, Virginia. For several years, he owned a large mansion in the Beverly Park community in Beverly Hills, where he wedded Gibbs. However, following their divorce, the property was available for lease at $200,000 per month in June 2012. In 2013, the property was up for sale for $26.5 million, and eventually he sold it for $17.2 million to Bruce Makowsky, buying an Encino, Los Angeles property for $6.63 million.

Arrests, lawsuits and health problems

In July 1995, while on the set filming A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Lawrence lashed out in a violent rage and was then hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

On May 8, 1996, he became increasingly erratic and was arrested after he brandished a pistol in the middle of an intersection on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, screaming, "They're trying to kill me!" He was again hospitalized, with his public-relations agent citing exhaustion and dehydration as the reasons for this episode.

In January 1997, Lawrence's Martin co-star Tisha Campbell-Martin filed a lawsuit against him, alleging sexual harassment and abuse both on and off set. By April 1997, Campbell had settled the lawsuit, and returned to appear in the last two episodes of the series.

In March 1997, Lawrence was arrested after punching a man in a Hollywood nightclub.

During August 1999, Lawrence slipped into a three-day coma after collapsing from heat exhaustion while jogging in 100 °F (38 °C) heat in preparation for Big Momma's House while wearing heavy clothing and a "plastic suit." He recovered in the hospital after nearly dying due to a body temperature of 107 °F (42 °C), his breathing assisted by a ventilator.

Filmography

FilmTelevision

Discography

Awards and nominations

Blockbuster Entertainment Award

NAACP Image Award

Kids' Choice Award

MTV Movie Award

ShoWest – Male Star of Tomorrow (1995)

Teen Choice Award – nominated for Wipeout Scene of the Summer (2000) for the movie Big Momma's House

BET Comedy Award – won Icon Comedy Award (2005)

nominated with Eddie Murphy for Favorite Comedy Team (2000) for the movie Life

nominated for Favorite Actor (2001) for the movie Big Momma's House

won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1995) for the series Martin

won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1996) for the series Martin

nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1997) for the series Martin

nominated for Favorite Television Actor (1995) for the series Martin

nominated for Favorite Television Actor (1996) for the series Martin

nominated for Favorite Movie Actor (2001) for the movie Big Momma's House

nominated with Will Smith for Best On-Screen Duo (1996) for the movie Bad Boys

nominated for the movie Big Momma's House

nominated with Will Smith for Best On-Screen Team (2003) for the movie Bad Boys II

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Pixar Films

I dislike Disney as an entity; it is an evil corporate conglomerate that makes focus-grouped schlock to appeal to as wide an audience as possible at the detriment of story.  That said, Pixar was once the greatest animation studio on the planet.

Keep in mind, these are movies for kids, so anything negative I say will almost certainly be rebutted with “you’re just old and you don’t like Disney because it’s popular and you’re a hipster and you’re not even the target audience anyway so shut up.”  I’m just giving my two cents, whatever that’s worth.

I’m not gonna rate them on a number scale, I’ll just tell you how much I would or would not recommend watching them.  Some are must-see-cinema, others are bland and skippable affairs that you should not feel obligated to watch just because it has the Pixar brand on it.

Let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start)

Toy Story (1995) Groundbreaking, the first feature length 3D animated movie, spectacular cast, great story, though a little wonky by today’s standards both in the visuals (though that’s just a product of the times) and in the characterization (Woody is kinda of a jerk in this one; he was worse during pre-production, so this is the tame version).  Pixar started off on the right foot.  Would Recommend

A Bug’s Life (1998) This has some flaws, but is still a really fun movie.  Not as good as Toy Story, but infinitely better than Dreamworks’ knockoff Antz.  Great ensemble, memorable characters and set pieces, really funny.  Would Probably Recommend

Toy Story 2 (1999) An excellent sequel, they knocked it out of the park with this one.  It’s surprisingly deep, exploring concepts like the inevitability of change; nothing lasts forever, you can’t keep kicking the can down the road forever.  The journey is finite, but that doesn’t make it worthless.  Would Definitely Recommend.

Monsters, Inc. (2001) To date, their best original movie, maybe even better than Toy Story 2.  Everything about it is perfect; John Goodman and Billy Crystal have great chemistry, Steve Buscemi plays the perfect sleaze, Boo is just adorable, it’s an excellent movie.  Would Definitely Recommend.

Finding Nemo (2003) This is a beautiful movie; they had to invent new animation techniques to make it look this good, new ways for light to bounce and diffuse through the fishy medium.  Amazing story, absolutely heart wrenching at points, hilarious at others, without feeling tonally dissonant.  Would Definitely Recommend.

The Incredibles (2004) Another home run, they’re just showing off at this point.  This is a much deeper and arguably darker story than any of their previous films.  It doesn’t pull any punches and explores adult concepts like mid-life crises, extramarital affairs, death (oh, so much death; red shirt mooks and civilians alike).  This may be my favorite (definitely top 3; I’ll expand the list below).  Would Definitely Recommend.

Cars (2006) A competent movie, though by Pixar standards it’s not quite up to snuff.  Not bad, by any means, but this one is the most blatant cash grab of them all, just a commercial for hot wheels and die-cast toys.  I have a soft spot for it because this is the one I’ve seen the most; my mom would turn on this DVD to keep my baby sisters occupied, so it was literally always playing in our house.  That said, I’m not nostalgia blind; it has good parts, but it’s not great.  Would Probably Not Recommend.

Ratatouille (2007) C’est Magnifique!  Patton Oswalt does a fantastic job, I identify with Linguini on a spiritual level, the human characters are all perfectly demented and the rats are equally so.  I love this moral; anyone can be successful, it’s about who you are not where you come from.  Funny and relatable, an all around feel-good movie.  Would Definitely Recommend.

WALL-E (2008) Top 3, hands down, this is a true work of art, a modern masterpiece.  A film mostly devoid of dialogue, it expresses so much emotion from how the characters carry themselves and react physically to their surroundings.  The body language, the color choices, the camera work (especially in the space dance sequence), just how RAW everything is, how grounded it feels, how fleshed out these little robots are..  I Cannot Recommend This Enough, Watch it Right Now. Now. Why Are You Still Reading This?  Now! Go Watch it Then Come Back.  Even if You’ve Already Seen it, Go Watch it Again.

Up (2009) Another near perfect installment under Pixar’s belt.  They’ve really nailed the art of opening scenes; Carl and Ellie’s love story moves me to tears, it is so beautifully portrayed.  Some of the characters can be a tad annoying and overly cutesy to sell merchandise, but the story never suffers from it.  The villain actually feels like a threat, there are stakes, and the image of a house sitting by a waterfall and the story connotations thereof are indescribably bittersweet.  Would Definitely Recommend

Toy Story 3 (2010) This is is sort of hit or miss.  It’s a very well made movie, and an excellent CONCLUSION to the Toy Story franchise (Conclusion: noun, the end or finish of an event or process).  I liked it, felt it really wrapped things up in a satisfactory way, but it’s not better than Toy Story 2 in my mind.  I feel like this was a turning point for Pixar; after this, they were never quite the same, never really bounced back.  May or May Not Recommend, I’m on the Fence

Cars 2 (2011) You don’t give the comedy relief their own movie.  That’s storytelling 101; the comic relief bit-character can rarely stand on their own and meaningfully carry a story, though corporations are laughing all the way to the bank as I say this because these types of movies keep making boatloads of money even if they suck.  Minions made bookoo bucks, the Pirates of the Caribbean series is still ongoing despite the loss of Bloom and Knightly (and bringing them back for the last one doesn’t really count because Depp is still the main character), Cars 2 is a corporate cash grab, and devoid of artistic merit; this is my first hard no.  Would NOT Recommend.

Brave (2012) This is not a Pixar film, it is a Disney film that they decided to make under Pixar’s name instead because they knew Pixar had enough good will and positive connotations to get people into seats regardless of story.  It’s not terrible, but it’s not great.  That’s the story of modern Disney; not terrible, not great, just okay because that’s all it needs to be.  People will watch it no matter what, so they put in the bare minimum amount of effort so nobody can say they suck at making movies again (because for the longest time in the early 2000s, they did suck; Dinosaurs, Home on the Range, Chicken Little).  Would Not Recommend.

Monsters University (2013)  Why did you do this, Pixar?  Why did you take one of your best movies and do this specifically to it? Nobody asked for this, nobody wanted this.  I can only applaud them for having integrity enough to NOT give people what they wanted; people wanted a sequel, and that would have bee terrible.  You can’t follow up on Monsters, Inc, it had a perfect ending, it was hopeful and heart warming and definitive.  A prequel is the only thing they could have made without messing up the ending of the original, so I’ll give them some credit for that.  It’s not good.  Would Not Recommend.

Inside Out (2015) Their best one since Toy Story 3.  Not terrible, I actually liked a lot of things about this one.  I like it when Pixar takes on more serious subject matter, and I thought they did a good job exploring how a kid would react to such a drastic lifestyle change.  The cast was good, the animation was fun (inside Riley’s head; outside was generic and samey).  Not bad Pixar, not bad at all.  Would Probably Recommend.

The Good Dinosaur (2015) It doesn’t matter what i think because this movie still made hundreds of millions of dollars.  Disney is losing no sleep over this.  Would NOT Recommend.

Finding Dory (2016) Again with the continuations!  This was better than Monsters University, but the original was still such a hard act to follow.  It had potential, and I liked how it respectably handled mental illness in a way that was easy for kids to understand without dumbing it down and underplaying its significance in the lives of those who it effects.  I think Marlin kinda regressed, having to relearn what he already learned in the first one. The hardest I laughed was during the climax, the truck chase scene, “It’s a Wonderful World,” just amazing.  Would Probably Not Recommend

Cars 3 (2017) I hope Disney was happy with this end product.  I hope the producers really enjoyed cashing their toy checks for this one.  I thought it was worse than Cars 2, but I can see why some people might like it more.  Either way, it’s worse than Cars 1, which wasn’t particularly great anyway.  Would NOT Recommend.

Coco (2017) I’m on the fence with this one.  It was beautifully made, and the songs made me cry, but it’s hard for me to look at this movie without judging it as a product made by a focus group of mostly white people.  By itself it’s a good movie, but when you know how the Disney sausage is made it feels disingenuous and calculated.  Might Recommend, But it Had Some Baggage

The Incredibles 2 (2018)  I am Boo Boo the Fool, Pixar suckered me and I fell for it.  I was legitimately enthusiastic for this one because the original is one of their best, and unlike Monsters, Inc it actually left room for a sequel.  It had so much potential, and big shoes to fill, and it did so in the most generic Disney way it could.  Like Brave it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either.  Middle of the road, some things were fun, others made little sense, it was “appealing” in that it literally appealed to as wide an audience as it could without alienating anyone by doing anything particularly risky.  I liked Voyd, I liked how Helen became the main character, I liked the villain twist; I did not like how easy it was to make superheroes legal again.  It felt like it was tacked on at the end, like he just says “and there we have it, they’re legal again, congratulations,” like he was announcing the winner of the Price is Right.  Would Probably Not Recommend

Toy Story 4 (2019) I want to be clear that I made a point not to pay money to see many of the previous films on this list.  If I thought they were going to suck, I waited until a friend bought it and saw it with them for free.  This one, though, I was forced to pay for because my mom insisted on seeing it in theaters as a family.  It wasn’t terrible.  Wasn’t great.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  It was the same villain again; Stinky Pete, Lotso, Gabby-Gabby... I can’t wait for the fifth one where the villain is an old toy who is mad because they weren’t played with.  Buzz was made much dumber for this one, and I felt they didn’t do enough with Forky.  I was excited to see how they handled the existential aspects of the series; what makes a toy? How are toys sentient? Why are toys sentient? In the first movie Woody implied that there were rules that toys were honor bound to follow, so what is stopping Forky from blowing their cover on accident?  None of these questions were answered.  I liked Keanu Reeves, I didn’t like Key and Peele.  Would Probably Not Recommend.

The mighty have fallen.  It’s just sad. 

”Onward” looks kinda dumb, like a kiddy version of the flop Will Smith movie “Bright.”  I have no faith in this production company anymore, but I’m sure it will make hundreds of millions of dollars; the cast are fan favorites, including Disney’s favorite topical pet celebrities (because let’s be honest, Disney basically owns Tom Holland at this point.  Whether they own Spider-Man or not, they own Tom Holland, he is theirs, his soul contractually belongs to them).

Speaking of souls, ”Soul” will probably go over well with critics, though I can’t help but notice that their main character of color is transformed into a non-human for most of the movie.  Again.  I’m also not a fan of this one-word naming convention Disney has fallen into in the last decade.  “Brave” was originally titled “the Bear and the Bow,” but one-word titles seem to test well with kids.  Hopefully this will pass, but I’m not holding my breath.

I’m swearing off Disney movies, firsthand.  I might catch them second hand, through friends or other means, but I refuse to give this corporate conglomerate one more penny.  They basically own Hollywood, so my money will eventually make my way into their pockets, I just want to put as much distance between them and myself as possible.  No more Pixar, no more Star Wars, no more Marvel, no more Disney.  I am one drop in the bucket, I will not be missed, and they will not be affected in the slightest by my absence, but I need to prove to myself that I have integrity enough not to keep funneling my hard earned cash into a trillion dollar snack company.

Disney movies are snacks, not meals.  And I’m going on a diet.

Anyway, here’s my top three:

Monsters, Inc

The Incredibles

WALL-E

[scifigeneration]

Avengers: Endgame and the relentless march of Hollywood franchise movies

by Daniel White

Jeremy Renner and Robert Downey Jr. as Hawkeye and Iron Man Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK

Avengers: Endgame smashed box office records in the days following its release, becoming the quickest film ever to break the $2bn barrier and ranking as the second-highest-grossing film in history after only 11 days. The Marvel epic is still creeping towards Avatar’s top spot and, with the recent announcement of a strategic theatrical re-release including unseen footage, looks very likely to overtake it any time now.

The culmination of the 22-film “Infinity Saga”, Endgame represents an impressive accomplishment – not only for Marvel but also for the franchising trend in Hollywood, which shows no signs of slowing down either.

I’ve been researching how the landscape of Western cinema has been undeniably transformed by a shift towards the production of film sequels. Looking at the raw data, I found that box office takings of the most economically successful films of the past 17 years are a good way to understand the dominance of franchising on the film industry.

Of the 100 highest-grossing films worldwide since 2001, 86 are part of a cinematic franchise (all figures taken from Box Office Mojo). Of this 86, eight were the first installments of their respective franchises, meaning 78% of the most economically successful films since 2001 have been sequels, follow-ups or new installments to existing series.

The number of franchises represented among these 86 films is 32, so each franchise has on average two or three episodes to its name within the top 100, though the Marvel Cinematic Universe boasts 12 films, the wizarding world of JK Rowling has nine (Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts) and Middle Earth has six (Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit).

Of the 14 non-franchise films within the top 100, three have sequels in planning or production (Avatar, Frozen and Maleficent), while two have had sequels rumoured (Zootopia and Coco). Three more of this 14 are remakes or live-action versions of existing films (Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book).

This leaves just six of the 100 most successful films since 2001 that are entirely original and not being franchised, extended or added to – Inception, Gravity, 2012, Inside Out, Up and Bohemian Rhapsody.

Look familiar?

These statistics indicate the extent to which major film studios may have defaulted to repackaging existing films for their audiences, following the same recipes and changing only one or two ingredients, or extending successful film series by creating sequels, prequels, midquels (filling a chronological gap in a previous film) and paraquels (happening simultaneously to a previous film) to keep cinemas filling up.

The economic motivations behind the move to franchise productions are clear – the risks involved in creating, marketing and releasing another story within a familiar world, with well-loved characters and reliable narrative structures, are significantly smaller than those in the creation of new and unknown film stories.

Producer Lynda Obst places some of the onus on the American writers’ strike, recognising that “the new projects, the big action franchises that could sell worldwide, were studio-generated, not writer-generated”. But did this shift coincide with the writers strike or has it always been this way?

The flooding of the market with franchise films. All data from www.boxofficemojo.com and true at time of writing.

This graph shows the increasing success of franchise films over the past few decades. Looking at the 20 highest-grossing films worldwide each year since 1989, the graph shows two clear spikes and a gradual increase in franchise films since 2001.

Although series such as Star Wars were already being reinvigorated prior to 2001, with Phantom Menace hitting the big screen in 1999, the large gap between the two lines at 2001 displays the high number of franchises introduced in that year (eight), including most notably Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

The increasing trend in the blue line in particular shows the gradual saturation of the market with sequels – peaking in 2011 when 18 of the 20 most successful films worldwide were part of a franchise. This 2011 spike may well be a delayed result of both the writers strike and financial crash of 2008, showing the studios’ increased reliance on franchise films for more secure revenue.

Clearly the global film industry, catered for predominantly by a closed group of powerful media conglomerates, has become dominated by the presence of tried-and-tested franchises.

Is originality disappearing?

In 2018 the failed introduction of a “Best Popular Film” Oscar showed an attempt to boost public interest after ratings for the Academy Awards night had dropped, which may also indicate a reduction of public interest in award-winning films themselves.

The more important question, though, is that of why we are going to the cinema. If we watched films in order to be challenged, moved or even confused, the Best Picture nominees would likely top the box office lists . But we don’t – we go to the movies to be reunited with friends, to return to places that feel like home, and to find out what happens next to Tony Stark and the gang.

In an era of increased social anxiety and political turmoil, is it any wonder that we might seek a sense of home and refuge in the film worlds we have grown to love and inhabit? The success of Endgame and the predominance of the film franchise is indicative of a shift in the mindset of the studios, but also in our minds as consumers. And if a 23rd Marvel film garners no critical acclaim, but provides a moment of joyful escape for its audiences, is that such a bad thing?

About The Author:

Daniel White is an Assistant Lecturer in Music at the University of Manchester

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

[joyandeggs]

For the Character ask: Shoot, Kastro, Kite, Illumi, Knuckle (HxH) and Sonic, Metal Bat, Genos, and Iaian (OPM)! (I have no apologies, you requested lots 😂)

Meve, you always go above and beyond when sending me asks. I love you so much. ❤ So many boys!!! I will talk about them all!! Actually, I'll split this ask into two parts. You may have accidentally sent this ask twice, but no worries! I'll use this as part one for the Hunter x Hunter boys. 💓

Shoot

Favorite thing about them: What can I say about Shoot that I haven't already gushed about constantly? 💓 One of my favorite things is his Nen, and how he uses it. I love his hands, and Hotel Raffelasia is such an interesting ability. Speaking of his hands...I love all of his features. His eyes, his face, his hair, his muscles... Getting distracted. There's so much that I can say. I love everything about him.

Least favorite thing about them: That we don't know more about him.

Favorite line: I have a lot of faves from him. One of them is when he tells Gon "I will live to thank you!" ❤

brOTP: Him and Knuckle, of course! 💓

OTP: I enjoy Nashuu from time to time. I think they're quite cute together.

nOTP: None that I can think of.

Random headcanon: I have a lot, but one of the biggest ones is that he'll use his Nen hands for everyday things when he's feeling lazy.

Unpopular opinion: He is definitely underrated. Even though I've been finding others that genuinely love him more and more everyday, which really warms my heart that I'm not the only one who does.

Song I associate with them: There's actually a lot of songs I associate with Shoot, which are mostly songs by Yuuji Ueda. 💓 This one, if I had to pick just one, and it is a song I hold very close to me and in my heart. For many reasons. Shine by The Northern Hues make me think of him, too.

Favorite picture of them: Oh Meve, there's too many to choose from, I love so many. Here's a few that I share all the time.

❤💍

Kastro

Favorite thing about them: He just seems so...eloquent and respectful. Kastro has this lovely energy about him that I really can't put into words well enough.

Least favorite thing about them: We don't know anything about him really. Too short lived of a character.

Favorite line: I love it when he asks Killua "So, what do you think of me?" ❤ It was so cute.

brOTP: I'm going to go on a whim and say that he would get along with Flashy Flash from One Punch Man.

OTP: I don't have any.

nOTP: None that I can think of.

Random headcanon: Off the top of my head, to make something up on the spot...he really loves the shoreline of the ocean. An ideal spot for him to live if he weren't focusing on living it up in the tournament tower. Actually now that I think about it...maybe he focused on being in the tower so he could live comfortably. Maybe he was struggling growing up, so he wanted to try and have a better life.

Unpopular opinion: Even though...he does look like the typical pretty boy, he had potential to be more of a solid character.

Song I associate with them: Why is he making me think of Legend Of Zelda? He reminds me of Link too much.

Favorite picture of them:

💕

Kite

Favorite thing about them: It's really hard to explain why I love Kite so much. He's just such a unique character in the series. He's so different. I guess I could say specifically how he is as a hunter. He's seen as someone so memorable, especially with Gon but with his little group he works with. Someone who is not only a hard working, respectful hunter but also a big hearted, kind and warm person towards others.

Least favorite thing about them: How in the world does he look up to someone like Ging, I will never understand. Get away from him, I will come over there, shoo.

Favorite line: When he lets out the softest "O-Oji-san?" at Gon when they reunite...is the cutest thing in the world.

brOTP: I genuinely would see him being good friends with Morel, or even Shoot!

OTP: I don't ship him with anyone.

nOTP: Ging and Kite.

Random headcanon: He's so use to wearing his hat to where if he has to take it off or can't find it at the time, he feels naked without it.

Unpopular opinion: He did not deserve what happened to him. At all. 💔 None of it.

Song I associate with them: Hm. I have never thought about this before. He actually gives me Animal Crossing vibes. A specific song would have to be one of the nighttime tracks in New Leaf while it's raining. Or maybe the nighttime tracks in the original AC. Which that specific one is heavily nostalgic for me. Relistening to all of the Animal Crossing music makes me cry. 💗

Favorite picture of them: I actually love the ones from 1999 Hunter x Hunter. 💓

He's so pretty! 💓💓💓

I do love both versions of him though. I love the 2011 Hunter x Hunter him just as much. Look at that smile. ❤ He's precious.

Illumi

Favorite thing about them: I just love the way he looks. He's pretty, yet scary. I also love his voice. Masaya Matsukaze is so good voicing him.

Least favorite thing about them: The way that he treats Killua. It just hurts me.

Favorite line: I honestly had to look back up on episodes, it's been so long since I watched him in episodes. Oh my gosh I still love the scene during the exams where he tells Hisoka "Okay, I'll be sleeping if you need me, good luck." LOL

brOTP: Illumi and Hisoka. They have a good dynamic, even though that might not be the best word to use.

OTP: I've seen Illumi and Hisoka together, and I honestly do like the idea of it sometimes.

nOTP: None that I'm aware of.

Random headcanon: I honestly can't think of any other than the obvious... When he does smile or laugh, he actually looks very sweet. Don't let that sweetness fool you though.

Unpopular opinion: Even though I like him to an extent, I did get tired of seeing him in the series. That was at the beginning of Hunter x Hunter when I watched it for the first time though. I don't have the same opinion anymore.

Song I associate with them: I can't think of any at all. He does remind me of what haunted house music sounds like.

Favorite picture of them: I just realized how much I love this panel, along with how Madhouse animated it in the show.

Illumi is very pretty during the beginning of Hunter x Hunter. What is he so pretty for?

Knuckle

Favorite thing about them: Everything! 💘💘💘 Literally everything, ugh, he is just perfect. His smile is easily my most favorite. His eyes are super pretty. His strength, his kindness, and his knowledge. I truthfully admire how smart he is. Uhm. His voice!! Oh my god his voice is just 💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞 So so sexy. Wataru Takagi is a gem. His physique... An endless list of things. He really is the perfect man to me. On top of being the typical Japanese delinquent, everyone knows at this point that they are my weakness, of course that makes all of Knuckle my favorite. He makes me melt into a puddle.

Least favorite thing about them: Nothing at all. Aside from not knowing more about his story.

Favorite line: Oh, too many. "Everyone has a heart. That's what I want to believe." ❤ This actually made me cry when he said it. I also really...really love his inner monologue during the Chimera Ant Arc. The entire thing. Perfect.

brOTP: Knuckle and Shoot, of course! 💓

OTP: I like Nashuu from time to time. Like I said, they can be quite cute together.

nOTP: None that I can think of.

Random headcanon: I have way too many for him. Hm... I do see him around his mid twenties, if not just a year younger than Shoot. There's no way this man could be younger than 23 or 24.

Unpopular opinion: It is a huge bummer we never got to see him with his hair down ever. Could you imagine. 💓💓💓💓💓

Song I associate with them: Everytime I listen to Generous Dimentions by TWRP, or Over Your Shoulder by Chromeo...it actually makes me think of him. 💘 Now I'm embarrassed, oh my goodness.

Favorite picture of them: Meve, there's too many I absolutely love, help

💘

[scum-belina]

Aight, since you're on such a movie binge lately, and since I usually love your recommendations, what are your top 10 movies?

Upon being asked this nearly 48 hours ago, my brain, despite having watched probably 1000 movies of all different genres and from multiple countries was like "the only movies you can remember is shrek 1 2 and 3" but after digging through my memory I THINK I have managed to find some of my top favorites movies. My favorites are defined solely on how much they managed to impact me and inspire me so here we go in no particular order!

1. “The Best Offer” (2013) by Giuseppe Tornatore. This is the most recent film I’ve seen and is by far one of my all-time favorites. It is at least 96% of everything I’ve ever wanted in a movie and I’m still reeling from the borderline perfection of the whole thing. Unsurprisingly I got interested in it bc of the older man/ younger woman thing, but nothing about their relationship development was cliche or shallow, so much so that it pleasantly surprised me, and then threw me through 25000 emotional roller coasters that were also on fire. It’s a drama, romance, comedy, mystery, thriller, and tragedy without being an absolute mess and idk if I will ever get over it I love it so much.

2. “Melancholia” (2011) by Lars Von Trier. A film that portrays severe depression through an apocalyptic metaphor and actually manages to skillfully get away with it. I love this movie as much as I hate it for being so raw and painful yet beautiful at the same time. Everyone in this is great but Kirsten Dunst truly is a formidable actress. This is the only LVT film I’ve fully enjoyed also bc all of his others have too much of a pretentious assholeishness to them and he just tries too damn hard to be edgy and it wastes the entire storyline. 

3. “The Phantom Of the Opera” (2004) by Joel Schumacher. A classic in every respect of the word. It’s got the twisted love tale that I’m an eternal sucker for PLUS they burst out into song abt such matters all the time??? LOVES IT. Everyone with even the slightest taste for the dramatic should watch it at least once.

4. “The Red Violin” (1998) By  François Girard. I Don’t even know how to describe this film. I just remember it from my childhood bc my dad was fascinated by it and I was too. It has an entirely foreign, mostly Italian cast which makes it somehow feel like even more of an authentic story. It really helped shaped me to realize just how important music and musical instruments are to humanity and how they are another way to express our innermost thoughts and feelings.

5. Moulin Rouge! (2001) by Baz Lurhmann. I will NEVER forget the first time I saw this. I was around 7 or 8 and my parents had rented it from blockbuster, and all 3 of us watched it in awe. Baz Lurhmann is nothing but a genius the way he integrated multiple modern songs into this musical and they FIT. The moulin rouge version of “Roxanne” knocks the original by The Police out of the park, out of the world, and out into another dimension. And then the original songs like “come what may” are all 10/10. It’s theatrical, it’s romantic, it’s funny, it’s tragic. Those are the 4 things that almost always cause me to love a movie. Also Ewan McGregor is absurdly hot in it and HIS SINGING  VOICE??? HHHHHOOOOOOO BBBBOOOOOYYYYYYYYY

6. “Phantom Thread” (2017) by Paul Thomas Anderson. I’m not gonna lie, I hopped onto this movie solely bc of the older man/younger woman romance theme that I am always a slut for, but much like The Best Offer it was SO MUCH more like??? This isn’t even about their age it’s about who THEY ARE and their differences yet their love for each other  and how can they balance their lives, who THEY ARE without hating one another as much as they love one another??? BOY I LOVE THAT TORTURED LOVE. This movie was almost NOTHING of what I expected from it and I loved every surprise it gave me. 

7. “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006)  by Tom Tykwer. Idek WHAT to say about this film other than it’s so good!!! It’s so fucked up!!! I’M so fucked up!!! I love it so much!!! You know how me be!!! Love that nasty artsy badness!!! Go watch it and then message me asking me what the fuck is wrong with me!!!

8. “V for Vendetta” (2005) by James McTeigue. I know this movie has been overhyped at times, but it truly is incredible. Both the left and right seem to claim this movie as their own, but my libertarian ass just loves it for its anti-tyranny theme and ofc for the development of Evey and V’s relationship. It’s definitely worth at least one watch. 

9. Pirates of the Caribbean (2003-2007 so only the original trilogy bc those are the only ones that really exist and matter ok) by Gore Verbinski. I was around 9-10 when I saw the first potc, and it changed me and inspired me for life. Immediately I found Elizabeth Swann so relatable not just bc we have the same first name, but because she had the same intense desire for freedom and adventure as I had/ still do tbh. She liked the “bad guys” and wanted to be one of them and ultimately became “King” of them without sacrificing her own femininity and OHHH I LOVE THAT. The original potc trilogy has the perfect blend of adventure, fantasy, horror, and romance for me (although I will always wish Elizabeth had ended up with Jack in the end I will DIE for this ship).Mind you, The Mummy (1999) Came EXTREMELY close to taking potc’s place, but the mummy never managed to make a good or even rewatchable trilogy like potc did so potc wins this.

10. This is Spinal Tap (1984) by Rob Reiner. The only complete comedy on this list, I cannot even begin to describe how genius this film is. I have watched it so many times since childhood and I STILL find new jokes in it that I had never noticed before. Anyone who has had even the slightest bit of an interest in music should find this hilarious. The Stonehenge mishap scene alone makes this one of the greatest comedies of all time.

These are some of the few that I’ve been able to come back to mind from memory rn but I’m sure I’ll think of other faves later. but all of these are some definite top  faves of mine that impho (in my personal humble/horny opinion) everyone should watch at least once

[riffs-music-notebook-part-2]

Jason Eli Becker (1969 - )

Eddie Van Halen's visit with Jason - August 31, 1996

Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet [Film Trailer] Jan 13, 2011

Jason is an American musician, songwriter and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Shrapnel Records-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released the albums Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988. Cacophony broke up in 1989 and Becker began doing solo work, having released his first album Perpetual Burn in 1988, also through Shrapnel. He later joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded one album with him, A Little Ain't Enough.

Becker's performing career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 1996, Becker lost the ability to speak, and he now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Despite his disability, he continues composing by using a computer and has since released with Shrapnel Collection, a "best of" album of his favorite songs and three new songs. Becker is now the longest currently living person with ALS, since the death of Stephen Hawking in 2018.

Source: Wikipedia

Jason and his many stringed instruments

Becker started out playing alongside Marty Friedman in the Mike Varney-produced duo, Cacophony. Together, they put out an album, and toured Japan and the U.S. While they never went mainstream in the U.S., they proved popular enough in Europe to sell out almost every performance. [2] In 1989 Friedman left to join Megadeth and Becker began to pursue a solo career, having released his first solo album titled Perpetual Burn in 1988. He has since released the albums Perspective and Collection, as well as two albums of demos, entitled The Raspberry Jams and The Blackberry Jams.

Source: Wikipedia

Marty Friedman on Jason Becker and Cacophony 2011

Jason and Marty in the studio

Speed Metal Symphony - Cacophony  ℗ 1987 Shrapnel Records, Inc.

Shrapnel Records was founded in 1980 by Mike Varney at the age of 22. It was the first record company in the USA strictly dedicated to Heavy Metal. As other labels followed suit, Shrapnel set itself apart from the pack by focusing on bands featuring guitarists of extraordinary ability and was at the forefront of the neo-classical electric guitar and shred movements. Shrapnel Records was the first label to bring renowned guitarists to world attention such as Yngwie Malmsteen (Steeler ), Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert, Racer X, Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Greg Howe, Richie Kotzen and many others. Today Shrapnel continues to record guitarists of extraordinary ability and has also returned a bit to its metal roots in releasing some classic metal and hard rock records. The turn of the new millennium has brought a resurgent interest in virtuoso guitar work and this groundswell continues to build you can continue to look to Shrapnel to be at the forefront of a whole new generation of guitar excellence.

Source: shrapnelrecords.com

At the age of 20, he joined David Lee Roth's band to work on Roth's album A Little Ain't Enough, replacing Steve Vai, who had joined Whitesnake. In 1990 Becker won the coveted Best New Guitarist award from Guitar Magazine. While preparing for the album, Becker began to feel what he called a "lazy limp" in his left leg. He was soon diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's disease) and was given three to five years to live. He finished the recording using lighter (thinner) gauge guitar strings and other techniques, which made it easier for him to play with his weakening hands. Although he managed to finish the album, which was released in 1991, he did not join the supporting tour due to his inability to perform on stage; former Lizzy Borden guitarist Joe Holmes took Becker's place on tour.

His ALS gradually robbed him of his ability to play guitar, to walk, and eventually his ability to speak. He now communicates with his eyes via a system developed by his father. Due to the nature of the disease, he remains mentally sharp and, with the aid of a computer, continues composing. In the back of the Perspective CD case, Becker states "I have Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It has crippled my body and speech, but not my mind." His medical condition has remained stable since 1997. In 2003, Becker posted on his website that he was feeling better and had gained some weight, while the folder for his 2008 album Collection also mentions an upcoming book.

Source: Wikipedia

At first it was really hard for him to adjust to life after the ALS took total control of his body.

But that never really stopped him from being happy.

Jason Becker - Perspective released in 1996

I highly recommend checking out End of the Beginning!

In 1996, Becker released an album entitled Perspective, an instrumental album composed by him (with the exception of Bob Dylan's song "Meet Me in the Morning"). The writing of the music had been started before ALS completely crippled his abilities. By using guitar, and, later, when he was unable to use both hands, a keyboard, he continued to compose while his disease worsened. However, when Becker could no longer physically play even a keyboard, his friend and music producer Mike Bemesderfer helped him with a music-composing computer program that reads movements of his head and eyes, enabling Becker to continue to compose after he lost control of the rest of his body.

Several years later, Becker released Raspberry Jams (1999) and Blackberry Jams (2003); the first contained various unreleased demo-tracks, and the latter contained demo-tracks and alternate versions of songs that were later reworked and published into other albums.

Two tribute albums to Jason Becker have been issued. Respectively entitled Warmth in the Wilderness I and Warmth in the Wilderness II, they feature guitarists such as Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Joe Becker, Rusty Cooley, and Mattias Eklundh. The album profits were sent to Becker to help him with his medical finances.

Source: Wikipedia

Prior to the ALS, Jason had done a few clinic tours which consisted of him teaching his style and mannerisms of playing guitar. Featuring demonstrations and playing parts of songs he wrote. 

Jason Becker's Air Covered By Konstantin Kokourov

In the beginning of 2019 the young classical composer Konstantin Kokourov will release his first album Notes. The composition Air will be the first single. It is a cover version of Jason Becker’s composition from the album Perpetual Burn, which was released 30 years ago. Konstantin grew up on Becker’s music. His art and thirst for life is a guiding star for the composer. The American guitarist has been suffering from a serious affliction - Lou Gehrig's disease for many years. Jason can communicate and compose music only by moving his eyes. “Jason Becker’s compositions have helped me to live to the fullest, to work, to make music, and not to squander precious time over the past ten years,” explains Konstantin Kokourov. Jason and Konstantin stay in touch. The guitar player has already heard the final version of Air, recorded with orchestra in Berlin, and Jason gave his approval. “It’s amazing! It’s hard to find words to say how happy I am to hear such a beautiful version of Air. Absolutely fantastic!” says the musician. Konstantin’s album was recorded in Berlin at Teldex Studio and performed by the Scoring Berlin Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bernhard Wünsch. Tobias Lehmann - a three-time Grammy Award winner – was the sound engineer. The release is scheduled for February-March 2019.

Source: YouTube description

In October 2016, Becker launched a campaign to fund an album, which was initially estimated for release in July 2017. The campaign raised more than $100,000. The album, Triumphant Hearts was released on December 7, 2018.

Source: Wikipedia

Jason Becker - Hold On To Love (feat. Codany Holiday) (Official Music Video) 2018

Mr. Shades

Eddie Van Halen and Jason

Cacophony 

The famous Yo-Yo guitar solo

The “Sexiest Man Alive” - Jason https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN3Gn8W4ZvA

Eddie Van Halen's visit with Jason - August 31, 1996

Via Jason Becker‘s official YouTube channel

[wariofranchisefanblog]

All appearences and references of Wario characters in non-Wario games

I love Wario’s supporting cast, so this was only a matter of time. Also apologies for the long and picture heavy post, but I’m not risking Tumblr messing up a Read More by falsely flagging it again.

Mario's Super Picross (1995)

Several mooks from Wario Land 1 appear as puzzles.

Game & Watch Gallery 2 (1997)

A Wandering Goom appears in Wario's Modern version of Ball.

Game & Watch Gallery 3 (1999)

A Seagull from Wario Land 2, appears in the second stage of Modern Donkey Kong Jr.

Picross NP Vol.7 (2000)

The game includes a set of Wario Land 2 based puzzles, featuring several mooks and even Captain Syrup!

Dr. Mario 64 (2001)

The roster is almost exclusively Wario Land 3 characters, additionally a Para-Goom hosts the menus.

Super Smash Bros Melee (2001)

The description for the Mario & Wario Bucket trophy mentions Wanda by name.

Game & Watch Gallery 4 (2002)

The game features a update of G&W3's DK Jr. remake, meaning the Seagull is back too and Hen appears alongside Wario in Modern Fire Attack.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003)

Bobo's name can show up on the scoreboard.

Daigasso! Band Brothers (2004)

Ashley's theme is one of the songs in this game.

Donkey Konga 3 (2005)

The Mona Pizza theme is in the game, which doubles as a reference to Mona and a vocal cameo for Sal Out and the Pizza Dinosaur mooks.

Mario Kart Arcade GP/GP 2 (2005/”007)

While the Diamond City tracks of the Arcade GP games sadly did not bother to include any character cameos, it did have Dribble and Spitz’s taxi place, along with some buildings that may be nods to locations introduced in the first WarioWare and it’s respective characters.

There’s a Gelateria (Mona), a old fashioned japanese castle (Kat & Ana) and a building with the Club Sugar logo on it (Jimmy).

Mario Superstar Baseball (2005)

Weathervanes from Wario World appear in Wario Palace. And yeah, they are more of a mechansim then characters, but I wouldn't feel complete without counting them.

Rhythm Tengoku (2006/7)

In the GBA version the Alien Bunnies appear in in Remix 7 and 8 as cadets in Marching Orders, while the Arcade version gives them a cameo on the congratulations screen.

Rhythm Heaven (2008)

The Alien Bunnies make a cameo on the moon in Remix 2, and they also appear on the Superb end screen of Remix 9.

Super Smash Bros Brawl (2008)

Kat & Ana appear as a Assist Trophy and Jimmy and some Fronks appear in microgames on the WarioWare Inc. stage.

Much of the WarioWare cast also appears as stickers, namely Wario, Mona, 9-Volt, Jimmy, Kat, Ana, Dribble, Spitz, Orbulon, Dr.Crygor, 18-Volt, Ashley, Penny and Young Cricket. Mike makes no visible appearence, but his theme song has a remix.

Additionally JIMYT, MONA and 9VOLT are some of the names that can be gotten when using the Random Name button.

Jam with the Band (2008)

Ashley's theme was DLC for this game.

Rhythm Heaven Fever (2011)

The Alien Bunnies are at it again, making an appearence in Working Dough 2 and even Young Cricket get's to make an appearence, as the male protagonist of Kung-Fu Ball.

Fortune Street (2011)

Wario mentions both Rudy and the Black Jewel from Wario World by name.

Mario Party 9 (2012)

The friends in question that are mentioned here could very well be the WarioWare crew, I like to think so at least.

Mario Kart 8 (2014)

I'm going to be a bit daring with that claim, but Mount Wario really does make me think of Jimmy's minigame in Game & Wario and having Waluigi serve as the staff ghost for the track heavily strikes me as a nod to ol' Jimmy.

NES Remix 2 (2014)

Wario's Woods is one of the games featured here, so several Woods characters appear in a bit of a different context due to the objective structure, namely the Sprouts, Wanda, Fauster, Boom and Mad.

Nintendo Badge Arcade (2014)

The Badge Arcade pretty much used Ashley as a mascot, but even beyond that there was a WarioWare set, featuring the whole main cast of WarioWare + Joe and a Majora's Mask set.

Additionally there were quite a lot of Wario game cartridge badges, which do technically contain Dangerous Duck, Wandering Goom, Wanda and Sprout cameos, but they are so pixelated and small that it's very hard to tell.

Super Smash Bros For (2014)

Ashley now joins Kat & Ana as an AT and 5-Volt serves as the major obstacle of the Gamer stage.

WarioWare Inc. returns in the 3DS version and Jimmy and the Fronks are still there, while the Gamer stage has it's own cameos. Said cameos are Ana, 9-Volt, 18-Volt, 5-Volt, Ashley, Mona, Jimmy, Young Cricket, Spitz, Pyoro and the yellow people from Shutter (Mona's Game & Wario microgame).

Lastly Kat, Ana, Ashley, Mona, Dr. Crygor, 5-Volt and 9-Volt all have trophies.

Art Academy: Home Studio (2015)

A drawing of Ashley appeared in a promo video for the game.

Daigasso! Band Brothers P (2015)

Ashley's theme along with a music video are DLC for this game.

On top of that there is the WarioWare x Band Brothers collab contest, we still don't know which entries won, but we do know that these remixes and relevant character cameos will follow as DLC.

Rhythm Heaven Megamix (2015)

Working Dough 2 is back and thus so are the Alien Bunnies, there is also a plush cameo of Ashley and the entire main cast (at the time) appearing in the Wario...Where? challenge sets. Wario, Mona and Dr. Crygor even make two appearences each.

Super Mario Maker (2015)

Ashley appears as a Mystery Suit, along with Wario.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate (2018)

The spirit selection covers a very healthy selection of Wario characters, Kat and Ana even serve as a Master Spirit in World of Light, while Ashley retains her AT role.

All stage cameos are still there except for Young Cricket, who is replaced by Penny. Mike still has no direct appearence, but he is referenced in Crygor's spirit battle and his theme is back. Additionally, Bobo is referenced in Captain Syrup's spirit battle.