#but he's still enjoyable and charming to watch and has ton of fun moments

[sweettjrose]

When people act like the Rudish shorts are the only time Mickey has been a funny and entertaining character.

[consumeronionbulletin]

Hospital Playlist (2020, 2021)

This show was great! Some of the medical stuff was a little too real (for my taste), but the characters were the best! It's great TV, where you just get to follow around these interesting people with cool jobs for a year or two of their life. What's not to enjoy?

What Worked

The scenes with the band. All the friendships. Most of the romance stuff. The thoughtful approach to medical issues. The fact that they avoided most of the typical medical drama tropes. The cute little kids (especially the actor that played Lee Ik-jun's son). All the scenes with the five just hanging out!

What Didn't Work

The pacing was a little slow sometimes, which I didn't have a problem with, but I know bothered some people. Some of the medical stuff, but again that's more of a preference.

The Performances

This is a show with a huge ensemble cast and lots of guest stars. And the writers are good, so they make sure and give each of them a few moments, at least, to shine. There's no way to cover everything without writing a huge novel. So I'll stick to my favorites.

Jo Jung-suk as Lee Ik-jun. This guy was just so much fun to watch. All of the funniest moments on the show were centered around him. All of the cringiest dad jokes also featured him. I never got tired of watching him.

Jeon Mi-do as Chae Song-hwa. I loved this character, and this actress. The biggest "in-joke" this show ever did was hire an experienced musical theatre actor and make her pretend she couldn't sing for two seasons. And it was still charming to watch! She was the heart of the show, and we need more smart, goofy, nerdy characters like this on TV.

Yoo Yeon-seok as Ahn Jeong-win (Andrea). It took awhile for me to warm up to this character, because he felt too good to be believed. But once we got to know him, and saw more about his point of view, he became one of my favorites.

Junk Kyung-ho as Kim Jun-wan. It took longer for me to warm up to this character, but that was mostly the writing. By the end of the first season, I really enjoyed watching him be the grumpy straight-man for all the antics going on. I also really liked his relationship with Lee Ik-sun, even though the arc felt a little manufactured.

Kim Dae-myung as Yang Seok-hyeong. The show did really good on the medical stuff with this character, but less good with the everyday life stuff. He had to deal with some of the most sensitive and heartbreaking situations and the actor and the writers handled them all very well. Worth watching because of this.

Kwak Sun-young as Lee Ik-sun. I saw her in Encounter and she was really enjoyable, especially when they let her break out some of her comedy skills, but she wasn't particularly memorable. She was great in this role. Lots of good chemistry with both her romantic arc and with her family stories. Just charming and funny and the show did a good job of letting her shine. The romantic arc had a little fake drama added, but the actors still made it work.

Shin Hyun-been as Jang Gyeo-ul. The show took its time with this character, and didn't really bring her to the front until season two. But I liked her interactions with the other characters, and her romantic arc was really good too. She handled the family drama stuff in it particularly well.

Ahn Eun-jin as Chu Min-ha. I feel like the character is kind of a mirror for her romantic interest in the show (Seok-hyeong). She got a ton of character stuff and was forced to stand to the side in alot of the medical stuff. Ahn Eun-jin basically carried the romance arc for season two (which is partly on the writers), but she made it fun to watch.

Ha Yoon-kyung as Heo Sun-bin. This was one of the actor's earlier roles, but she did a good job with what they writers gave her. You can see why they started giving her bigger roles later on (especially Extraordinary Attorney Woo), though she was definitely a minor character here.

Everyone else: Again, there are so many people and the guest stars / "patients" show up occasionally later on, which is nice when you can remember who they are. The two med-student twins were fun to watch. The old people antics were enjoyable, and the actors for them did a good job with the drama when it was called for. There were lots of adorable child actors that rarely got annoying. Just alot of good talent showing up when needed.

TL; DR:

I'm not usually a fan of medical dramas. The last one that really hooked me was maybe ER and that was such a long time ago it may as well be the stone age. But I loved this one. The actors were great, the show was serious when it needed to be, but was not afraid to joke around and that created a really good balance.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/21/22

i never have to go back to the high school or possibly the town where i went to high school Ever Again bc my youngest sibling has graduated and im going to ride that high as long as possible

VERY long mobile game review, tried to be objective about quality of life stuff and how successful certain mechanics were but (spoiler) didn't like this one very much

listening i am being true to the original concept of this section, which was "what song have i had on loop this week bc it does something to my brain, even if it's kind of goofy or cheesy, instead of cherrypicking my shuffle for an indie song i think more people should listen to."

anyway this is lion by saint mesa, which was not originally written for a tv show as i first surmised but has been featured in several. if i can imagine some sort of long-anticipated trading caravan lumbering toward a watering hole somewhere in a blasted wasteland (even if it is extremely not the story the lyrics are telling me) i'm going to put that song on loop, perhaps for an entire hour of a six-hour drive.

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reading fallow week

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watching i watched Legend (1985, dir. Scott) in two chunks, about half last week and then the rest when i got back from traveling this week. i find myself consistently intrigued but lightly disappointed by scott's films. however, his films' visuals are fun in a way i appreciate. more of this please. "oooh the noir enjoyer likes heavy use of light and shadow and literally this exact framing in anything" thank you i am already aware

tom cruise would have been better served as the puckish but amoral fairy prince The Gump, i feel. like sure. he's a prettyboy and also a feral wild boy, and he does do the early parts of the movie when he doesn't talk very much very well... that felt a bit mean. he does a very good person who lives just outside of civilization and regard it all with some bemusement and feels no particular need to follow it. the film quickly snaps him into the mold of a silver-tongued rogue who can charm or squirm out of anything, which feels off. bring back feral tom cruise. the princess also has an odd moment of wits, which is an odd contrast with a very clumsy lie in her earliest scene, where she steals cookies from her old nursemaid and then tells baby tom cruise oh no she absolutely made them herself :) there isn't much on-screen character development for her between these two scenes, just being dragged away and kidnapped.

i chilled the fuck out a lot after realizing this movie was far more interested in the costumes/sets/visuals than any theme more complex than light vs dark. most irritatingly, the ending does not seem like our loving pair learned a single goddamn thing from this whole escapade or that it changed them in any way, she's still a spoilt irresponsible princess, he's still head over heels for her. this movie is not interested in the corrupting force of monarchies vs the corrupting force of i think the literal devil??? simply not what i am looking for in a film, and i did not see this at a formative enough age for the campiness to really nest itself into my soul, although i do appreciate it.

love a good Waltz that Corrupts. the visual language of tim curry’s lair is quite striking- the use of light and shadow is doing a ton of work to suggest more detail than there actually is, and make sets look more complex and larger than they actually are. you simply do not get fantastic grandiose sets like eighties fantasy movie sets any more.

tim curry was terrific, the creature design was terrific, everyone is always slightly sweaty and covered in glitter, i liked guessing how the costumes were put together. there are worse films to spend two hours with.

how'd i come across this: watched it as an edgy teen

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playing it's time to dissect another mobile game that almost worked for me but didn't. i've tried to be objective and really get down into why the mechanics made choices i didn't like, even though i don't play a ton of this genre. the last big collectible trading card gacha-ish games i played on mobile were dragalia lost, something that was very similar to panzer waltz but i can no longer find the name of, world flipper, and sinoalice. not my very favorite genre of game, but i do dabble.

anyway i came across dislyte bc they got an investment recently and have an extremely aggressive and kind of shady marketing campaign.

here's the good: it's extremely fucking pretty. the character design and costuming/props are great, there are so many unique animations! the soundtrack and background music are fun, if in a slightly generic clubby top radio hit kind of way they're probably going for on purpose, and the little schtick of the menu music being announced by "dislyte excerpts radio" is funny to me. an interesting thing is "reviews" of characters that anyone can leave in their own separate little menu (which are all thirst comments basically, y'all down CATASTROPHIC for the jackal man), and the little "% of people chose this!" when you get points to assign to attributes. i think that specifically is a neat touch that will iron itself out eventually and be more representative of what people over time pick, but also: sometimes the favored build isn't very good for what you're trying to do with a character.

the bad: incredibly poor tutorials and menu design, it's a glorified autobattler.

tutorials, quality of life kvetches: i still do not understand very basic things such as "how to change who attacks first" and "what the fuck Does elemental strategy like Actually Do". weird fuckin things are overly complicated, like levelling up the little trinkets you can equip to a character that are a mechanic in every collectible gacha card game ever. there's a lot of different materials. there's a lot of different kinds of trinkets. there's some suggested trinket builds but heavy reliance on percentages AND percent of a change, which i fucking hate. tell me in simple words like "3x damage if this effect is active". i don't want to do mental math for your game and i do video game stats for a living.

on a related note, like many other collectible card games, this is "menus the game" but the "main" menu is laid out across four goddamn different screens.

on a related note to that related note, these menus are DEEP. you can get four or five menus deep on the character pages (i am not redownloading to double check). i should never be five menus deep into anything at any point. combine shit.

point three or whatever, everything is so fucking tiny. i have an iphone 12, which is a reasonably large modern smartphone. many many phones are smaller. i should not be holding my phone four inches in front of my face trying to make out which glyph is which because i can't zoom. (image)

actually point four bc this screenshot compilation reminded me: you have two different types of menus and ways to open them just on the individual card page: the bottom bar, and the tiny icons on the side. that's not even all the tiny icons, you have to hit the arrow to expand and see them all. that's simply too many options and it's confusing and hard to find things.

combat: again this feels like it started out life as an autobattler and then pivoted really late. fighting is simply tapping a button to activate an ability. there's no timing element, there's no real strategy behind saving up your abilities and gaming the cooldowns. you also start off with no cooldown on any abilities, which is very weird and makes it so you can just fucking mulch a level without being touched once if you're levelled up enough. if you're not levelled up enough, you die Extremely quickly. i truly don’t understand if i'm supposed to have a strategy? this video if i've timestamped it right should let you watch the first actual team battle. thrilling!

length of time for combat: everything in this game has a fancy little animation that is very pretty but takes forever. the game itself suggests enabling 2X battle speed. this is not a game you can bust out and play a level in line for groceries or something, and it's not really meant to be, but the length of time it takes to get through a level is on the upper limit of what i expected from a collectible card game and often strained my patience, especially in multi-stage battles. there doesn't seem to be a way to auto-run through the levels yet. i also don't find that kind of game intrinsically fun to play, so it's unlikely the inclusion would make me want to continue playing, but it's odd that there isn't that option when it's there in so many other games like this.

conclusion: i seem to have slammed into a hard pay to play cap at the end of chapter eight after three days/idk ten hours of on and off play. so this is where I leave it i think. for the next Big Update i would expect the menus to be radically overhauled and significant quality of life improvements to be made, especially with regards to inventory, but the art and music is not enough to make me keep playing until then. mostly because i didn't pull a hot butch-of-center lady i fell in love with, unlike genshin which almost immediately gave me beidou.

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making lemon garlic paprika chicken. slightly too heavy on the lemon. no pics all gone.

after some vigorous discussion with my sister about saturation and hue, swapped a bunch of shit in and out of frames and hung up some shit in my living room. they are on either side of the front windows, which makes this awkward bc my view is very doxxable.

anyway, because i think i'm funny and isn't that really the most important thing in life when you think about it, amusing yourself, red for port: an 8x10 photograph acquired at my favorite used bookstore/ephemera/florist in the world, a black canary poster acquired from a free comic book day Several years ago, a terminator: dark fate poster i grabbed on the way to go see the charlie's angels reboot but never actually got around to seeing terminator: dark fate until last year.

blue for starboard: flyer from a show i went to matted Much bigger than it actually is, signed poster from my favorite roommate's cousin's band, poster from a show i did Not go to bc i ended up having to work but i do think it's one of the better posters wmua ever did

[monkey-network]

The Odyssey of Spongebob Squarepants

A lot can happen as you grow up. Your tastes will change, you will have more responsibilities, and unless you can literally live under a rock, you can’t turn things back for yourself. So... after over 20 years, when the time keeps going in spite of yourself, does your past evolve and how should you feel about it? Spongebob Squarepants is a show so many have noted as the greatest of all time, but has grown to not be wholly beloved as its later years have not been as well received as it’s golden era. But I’m one to think: how has Spongebob evolved over time? What of this show makes it the greatest in my eyes despite thinking more about those vaunted first three seasons with its movie? Well, let’s roll back...

Back to the Past, To Remember Episodes that Sucked Ass

Despite what some may say, I don’t believe season 4 and 5 was where Spongebob started losing its mojo. There were definitely stinkers like Good Neighbors and Driven to Tears but the good ones definitely outweighed the bad. Not like the quality Golden Era didn’t have its duds, I really don’t like I’m With Stupid, Party Pooper Pants, and Spongeguard on Duty. Season 6 is where I say things surely falter, where for a good amount of time more episodes became unpleasant in retrospect. I noticed it’s more season 6 through 8 that people really take issue with. The Splinter, Boating Buddies, Pet Sitter Pat, the many we call the worst are some good time after the first movie. The first movie came out in 2004, season 6 was spring 2008 so it’s fair to say we had a grace period.

But it begs the bucking question: why did Spongebob stop being good? Numerous people have tried wrapping their heads around the decline citing reasons from flanderization, creative fallout and changes. Emplemon believed in his Spongebob video that the spirit of what connected the show to adults was severed due to merely become a cartoon for children, especially when Spongebob and Squidward’s dichotomy as adults was broken in later seasons. But you know what? I think I truly have the answer. It’s not so much production wise, but it certainly explains the many differing bad episodes that many have covered. It explains why I don’t like Sponge on the Run but we’ll get to that later. But a truth I’ve noticed, remembering and looking at Spongebob in its seperated eras is one I haven’t seen anybody talk about when it comes to why it could be considered bad:

The Plot Drives the Characters Too Much

The greatest episodes of Spongebob, I’m talking Band Geeks, Pizza Delivery, Ripped Pants, Chocolate w/ Nuts, Karate Choppers, etc., don’t have the premise take over the characters. Meanwhile the worst episodes always have the plot push the characters in noticeably different directions because it demands it. Spongebob is strictly a character based cartoon, and when you have episodes that, while can appear fitting on paper, force the cast to be somebody they’re not, people aren’t gonna be on board. Take the episode A Pal for Gary where Spongebob gets Gary a new pet that dangerously hates other pets only for him to be completely ignorant of Gary’s pleas and blames him in the end for banishing the monstrous Puffy Fluffy away. Reasonably, Spongebob is very much the asshole but unfortunately has to or else the plot would need to be seriously reworked. We can chock it up to poor direction but this is indeed a common occurrence for when Spongebob gets bad, not just in post first movie era. I’m With Stupid is a great classic era example where yeah, Patrick becomes an ignorant jerk but on paper, it works with the plot of him trying to please his parents. It does the job at the visible cost of the characters. We generally say the characters are bad but I’ve hardly seen people say the plots are bad like Family Guy where, despite also being character focused, the plots they have can go off the rails in favor of trying to get laughs and the sake of a status quo. The highlight of this problem lies with the coined ‘Squidward Torture Porn’

Squidward Tentacles can be a jerk. A real cynic, a character that’ll gladly try to bring down Spongebob’s childlike wonder in favor of giving him a dose of reality. The most memorable episodes of him are where him and Spongebob are in the same situation but have their clash of outlooks, with Squidward ultimately understanding Spongebob’s POV enough to have a moment of genuine happiness or a modest bit of karma. He’s indeed the most important character because adults grow to see where he’s coming from but at the same time wants to be on Spongebob’s side. The best provide Squidward the chance to understand differently and potentially enjoy a new perspective. The worst punishes him for simply wanting to live.

The plots of the worst Squidward episodes have Spongebob and/or Patrick actively antagonize Squidward because on paper, it makes sense to make someone like Squidward the punching bag like Elmer Fudd to Bugs Bunny or an egotistical asshole to the Warner Siblings from Animaniacs. But in the effort to do so, they never give Squidward the chance to fight back. It’s like they took the whole “No One Wants to be a Squidward” line and utilized that to make him the go to for misery based comedy without giving him any upside. Cephalopod Lodge, Good Neighbors, Choir Boys are stories designed around Spongebob ruining Squid’s life because... what? He doesn’t want Spongebob to be around every time of day? As a child, it can be some fun just seeing Squid get punished but for an adult, it can definitely be a turn-off. Some people see themselves in Squidward, for better or worse, so what’s it to them when Squidward is basically forced to suffer for no reason other than the plot demands it? Later stories give Squidward far more of a break, even some successes, but the idea of making him the butt of life’s joke is still leftover from the episodes that called for him to casually suffer.

The worst plots of the show can be the safest, the simplest, and pretty predictable because unlike the best where the characters are just allowed to make things happen, the story has to contain the characters in a way that’s fitting to who they can be but notably sacrifices who they were before. Why they got made is very up in the air, I’d have to listen to a ton of commentary to potentially pick that apart and I don’t have that much time. 

But it doesn’t the change the fact that the plots were never what made Spongebob good. And it doesn’t mean all those bad episodes make for bad seasons either. We could say there was a decline but that would mean giving up on the show merely because it lost it’s footing with more bad episodes than good for a few seasons. Because I believe 4 to 5 years after season 6, things got back on track even if things weren’t exactly the same.

Return to Form, Change in Energy

I don’t believe that Stephen Hillenburg’s departure was what proposed the decline, I’d say the show never really declined, just had some real potholes within three particular seasons. But I say it’s clear that the direction of the show shifted because you gotta understand, with or without Stephen the show has to be unique, has to have fresh ideas in the midst of potential competition despite being the most popular of the network. Even the trusted of Hillenburg’s team might’ve figured Spongebob couldn’t make lightning strike so rough patches might be expected. This is where Spongebob’s 2nd film, Sponge Out Of Water comes in.

I wasn’t as into this film with my first watch. I know it wouldn’t compare to the first film, but things felt segmented to where it hardly felt like a structured movie. Going back to it again, it kinda showed how Spongebob was going to evolve as a series. A lot of Sponge Out of Water lies in the characters getting into a more chaotic adventure than before. Spongey’s dream sequence, the whole Mad Max apocalypse, inter-dimensional dolphins, really told that the show post 2nd film would follow in its footsteps both in the stories and in animation.

It’s to say the golden era of Spongebob was more... grounded with itself. The charm of the characters was what made the plots unpredictable in nature but mostly not to a visible extent. Idiot Box, one of the greatest episodes, literally have moments where we see nothing but a box but the episode’s carried by the performances. Modern Spongebob, post 2nd movie, started to run all over the place. That’s not a bad thing but clearly a change of pace. I think it’s befitting to say the modern era got more cartoon-y where it’s way more expressive and the plots themselves go in unpredictable places in a way that all feels refreshing. It’s not the same as before, but well enough in it’s own time. It’s like Teen Titans ‘03 vs Teen Titans GO! The two have their clearly different tones but they’re appealing in their own way, only Spongebob isn’t trying to poke fun at its older audience like a snarky ass motherfu-

That is the thing as well that I haven’t seen many people consider when it comes to the modern era: it always tries to be fun. I can say an episode’s bad, but there are times where a bad Spongebob episode was enjoyable at least. It isn’t like modern Simpsons where you could tell they’ve been running out of steam and you’d just wish it died. It feels like the staff were given some time and space to make Spongebob back into as intended, even when most moments aren’t as strong or memorable as before. It can appear as just another cartoon for children but it never felt like it wasn’t Spongebob anymore, especially after the 2nd film and with Stephen Hillenburg’s consulting return. Unfortunately, only after a few more years is where say Spongebob’s going in a direction that I’m admittedly not fond off. It isn’t on par with The Simpsons, but it’s not as comfortable a fate.

A Spongebob Cinematic Universe

I enjoyed Sponge on the Run, but I don’t like it what it stands for. Many say it’s a poor backdoor for the spin-off Kamp Koral and I can’t help but agree. I’m not speaking for Stephen’s behalf nor will I shame everyone who comes to love this mini-series when it comes out, but I can definitely see where he was coming from with his abstain of spin-offs. Spongebob is a show that works, always worked, on its own. It has many characters that, to this day, they’re bouncing with to create new adventures and jokes. Now, I’m actually okay with giving some spin-offs revolving around the other characters; a show for Squidward would be hype as all hell. 

But Kamp Koral, by extension Sponge on the Run, feels less like a creator’s passion and more like a marketed decision. The fact that they scrapped a potential alien cat invasion movie all for a visually pleasing yet heavily derivative story tells quite a bit. It’s a movie that, compared to the previous, is just hitting certain beats; the plot again driving the characters instead of the other way around which leads to really off-putting moments. There’s fun to be had, but it feels superficial. And while I don’t think this’ll affect the next generation of Spongebob, the most recent episodes are good, but I have a bad feeling that it’ll be morphed into something Stephen genuinely didn’t want for the series and they do it because regardless of what the fans don’t want, they truly own the show now.

I was okay with Spongebob having its merchandise and a Broadway musical because the show helped make them work. After seeing SCOOB! and countless talks of making cinematic universes thanks not only to the MCU but stuff like Spider-Verse and Lego Movie though, it’s starting to feel more like an corporate sanctioned omen that I fear too much becoming a reality. But really, it begs one more question...

What Do I See in Spongebob?

I’ve said this when talking about the 1st Spongebob movie: “[It] works so well was because, speaking for adults, it is about embracing the you that you love as opposed to trying to be someone you aren't. You can grow up for taking that journey, but you don't have to be grown up all the time.” Even with its not so great history, Spongebob personally never comes off as a show that’s lost its identity. If there’s anything learned from the likes of Steven Universe and Family Guy, yeah, it’s that bad episodes or changes in tone doesn’t make for a buried series. Vast majority will definitely notice the difference between classic and modern Spongebob, but I don’t believe they’ll say it isn’t Spongebob anymore. I keep bringing it up, but it doesn’t feel like the Simpsons where you notice the burnout, the age of its existence in the late late seasons. Not that Viacom/Nickelodeon won’t hesitate the same fate because they can be fucking scum, but otherwise the show has run out of steam yet. 

What mostly concerns me though is that the charm of the show falls by the wayside with trying to expand it outside the show. Bog down the love by making unnecessary spin-offs that try to do what fanworks like the Spongebob Anime do for the hell of it in order to retain that all age appeal. They’ll feel like memes that age horrifically the moment it’s trending on Twitter. Again I don’t wanna speak over Stephen Hillenburg’s behalf but it feels like Nickelodeon gets potentially too ambitious with something that should be simple enough at the same time. We got some good hype back thanks to the Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, but that only could boost our spirits so far this year.

To me, Spongebob was certainly a game changer and now, while still popular, it is very much among the crowd. It’s not a show we’re worrying about compared to stuff like Infinity Train, Glitch Techs, the Animaniacs reboot, Primal, shows that are continually changing the metagame in what people want for a cartoon. We might notice stand out moments and we’ll continue making memes, but it’s fair to say we aren’t as invested in Spongebob socially as back then when, as I remember, new episodes or specials felt like an event and it was considered the best out here in our friend circles. Now when we say it’s the best, it’s asterisked. Many love Spongebob Squarepants, but notably aren’t too keen with all of it nowadays.

But to truly conclude, I say for everyone who reads all of this, 1st thank you, and secondly to give modern Spongebob a chance. I can’t recommend Sponge On the Run but these later seasons (nine to recently) actually feel like the show cleaned up itself after many touted that bad episode era was what made Spongebob fall. I don’t believe the show’s fallen because I shouldn’t have expected this show to be flawless. Not every episode’s a hit, but there is not only still good variety but episodes that feel right at home. Mimic Madness, Boo-kini Bottom, Squid Noir, Moving Bubble Bass, One Trick Sponge, and any episode with Plankton are actual joys to see and rewatch if I’m in the mood. The episode premieres are all over the place nowadays but it feels like the crew are given their time at least. And I think this is the path is where I’m content with about Spongebob: it just gets to be a cartoon.

I see so many people try to prop up shows as more than meets the eye. I mention Infinity Train and Steven Universe as the new game changers but I hardly see people just recommend shows that are simple, clean, knows what they are without trying to be anything more premise wise. We just get some quality entertainment with characters we’ve come to know, just for the sake of it. We get a cartoon in its bare essence. Spongebob gets to do its thing like it always has these past 20 years and I’m grateful for that. I’ve seen a variety of shows, but Spongebob always felt like a show worth sticking with even when I feel I’ve “outgrown” it. Not because I want to regress in growth, but as an adult I see now why Spongebob worked so well as it did and why it’s worth sticking with. Even after everything, the show’s made it it’s sole passage to provide us the core reason why we love Spongebob: the show always wanted to love itself for what it was as Spongebob Squarepants always loved to be himself.

And there will never ever be another show like it.

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Tiff of the Titans

Uh-Oh, Gizmoduck Comes to town! In the first of a series of reviews building up to Just Us Justice Ducks,  the dopey, arrogant, anti-charasmatic, national embarrassment heads to St. Canard to guard a super weapon from F.O.W.L. Naturally, he ends up being more of a problem for our hero than the actual bad guys. Also a look at Tad Stone’s claims the series isn’t in the same universe as Ducktales.  Full review and recap commissioned by @weirdkev27​ under the cut

This review, much like Death, Taxes and Thanos, was inevitable. I’d been planning to watch and review the first appearances of each of the justice ducks and fearsome five as my next step in watching Darkwing duck anyway, and while I’ve already got one member’s appearance in the wings anyway, I’ll get to that tomorrow or Saturday just in time for Halloween, hint hint, Kev pushed this one into the queue with a commission and I  was happy to take the side trip to see just what the Darkwing version of Gizmoduck and Steelbeak, two of my favorites in the reboot, were like originally. So welcome folks to the build to the greatest superhero team made up of ducks of all time, let’s get quackin. 

We open, here in Duckburg, where the Eggmen are breaking in. Sadly they do not have the master plan, but they are here to steel the Comarant, a super powerful land, sea and air device the military is storing there. They instead find Gizmoduck! Who makes a good first impression, being a hoaky superman parody in iron man’s costume in this continuity, but it’s a nice way to contrast to Darkwing’s batman parody with a touch of Sandman.. the pulp one not the neil gaiman one.  Sadly he doesn’t have a cool gas mask but the Darkwing Duck costume is iconic without it. 

Point is the eggmen are easily repelled, though they do get away by blasting Gizmo with a tank. The General in charge is thankful for Gizmoduck’s help, but notes the Comarant will be heading to St. Canard soon for a demonstration at the big air show, and asks that Giz go over and protect it, maybe even work with Darkwing to protect it. Though Gizmo shoots that down, and not only insults Darkwing but says he’s not sure if he’s good or bad. While the latter comment did sour me on the guy.. research bears out Darkwing has been framed once or twice, and my own experience with the pilot saw him you know breaking out of jail and basically clamming superheroes are above the law, so I COULD get why someone wouldn’t trust him, even if Giz’s attitude about it still isn’t great. So fenton quick changes behind a sign and heads off to see his old buddy Launchpad.  A quick aside before we get going this episode doesn’t so much torch Tad Stone’s retroactive claim this isn’t the same universe as Ducktales, as burn it to ashes, take a whiz on those ashes and send each separate ash on a seperate probe to the farthest reaches of space. This episode not only has a cameo by Scrooge on a billboard.. but it’s one for DUCKBURG. Where Gizmoduck is said to be from. He also knows launchpad well, and vice versa, and outright mentions McDuck Manor. the episode couldn’t be saying “this is the same universe as ducktales’ harder if Scrooge himself showed up and started ranting about a Sea Monster eating his ice cream. I do like and respect Tad Stones, but I will never like or respect this claim of his and even if HE had that idea in his head during production of the show, it’s very clear everyone else including Disney who greenlit the Darkwing Duck comics explicitly connecting the two universes, felt it was a shared universe, and there’s really no reason they can’t coexist. 

If it’s because “Well launchpad wouldn’t leave scrooge”.. besides the fact Scrooge tried to fire him MULTIPLE times, it’s not farfetched Scrooge would put him in charge of a hangar both because he trusts him.. and to get rid of him since he doesn’t like Launchpad very much. Plus Donald has to come back from his tour of duty sometime and likely could easily do Launchpad’s job as pilot, as he did in the source material. My point is there’s tons of ways to write the man out easily, and he could just as easily be doing both jobs like in the reboot. This feels like a weird, unnecessary retcon no one wanted and everyone just politely ignores, like the creators of Doug saying he and Patti didn’t end up together after High School. Which even then makes more sense than this claim, since at least there I get the creators not thinking a high school romance would last forever. That’s fair.. it’s just not something fans really wanted to hear after spending two separate series and a movie getting them together. It would be like if Girl Meets World had revealed Cory and Topanga had divorced. Yes it’d be possible since they’d broken up twice over the course of the series, but no one wanted that, why would you do that. I’m getting off topic, the point is a few breakups aside Doug and Patti clearly married eventually, and Darkwing Duck and Ducktales are in the same universe. Sometimes you just have to ignore Word of God for your own sanity.

Back at the actual episode we cut to Steelbeak’s Bowling Alley Hideout... and I do love a job that allows me to say things like that. But in a really fantastic bit Steelbeak is bowling his minions over as punishment for failure.. even though they have a valid reason but eh he’s the bad guy and he has to get his bowling average up for FOWL’s bowling team somehow. Their insurance covers evil punishment related accidents anyways, they’ll be fine. 

But yeah let’s talk about Steelbeak for a second. I honestly hadn’t seen any of the original version so I was curious.. and he’s really damn awesome. Rob Paulsen always does a great job though and is always a pleasure, but he really does a good job here and with the contrast in him: He’d seem like a dumb thug, what with his gangster accent and general cockiness and swagger.. but he backs it up with great combat and even greater planning. He’s a schemer, a fighter and damn if he isn’t fun to watch.  It also makes me love the reboot version even more. While I already loved him for being played by Jason Mantzokus, being enjoyably dim, while also still enough of a threat to be freaking cool, it’s even cooler knowing he’s still fundamentally the same character. Much like Drake he’s simply been tweaked a bit. For drake it was softening the edges since Ducktales isn’t as broad a show, and neither will the darkwing reboot i’m betting, so his ego and selfishness is sanded down considerably. For Steelbeak it’s giving him an actual origin: Instead of starting at the top of FOWL, he’s starting as a very competent but very wet behind the ears and full of himself agent, working his way up to becoming justifably full of himself like the original show. He has the same swagger and badassery, he’s just not a master planner yet and he’ll get there. Like many of the reboot characters, he’s simply an already great character given some extra depth and rounding out. I love both and can’t wait to see him again next ep and hopefully he’ll show up in the Darkwing reboot so they can go for round 2. 

So with that out of the way, Darkwing naturally interrupts, and cleans house with his gas gun, forcing Steelbeak and his crew to literally go underground into the sewers. This successfully fools drake, and Steelbeak bemoans how both Darkwing and Gizmoduck have been thwarting his plans.. until he gets a great idea; pit them against each other so he can pilfer the comerant while their too busy fighting. It’s a classic supervillain tactic, and one that works perfectly because one of them’s an egotist and a dick and the other is also that but with more style and likeability.  Back at Drake’s place, Gosalyn and Honker are watching a horror movie they clearly aren’t supposed to till Drake and launchpad come back in via their easy chairs flipping them in from Darkwing Tower which is just.. really cool. I like it. I also like that much like the Shakespeare bust in Wayne Manor, Darkwing has his own neat statue to provide acess to his lair... a tiny bronze statue of Basil from the Great Mouse Detective.. I REALLY need to fucking watch that film but it’s a nice nod. But yeah Launchpad brought them back because he feels drake could use a break while Drake refuses to stop because crime never stops and he doesn’t have time for it and your usual self destructive bollocks. It’s interrupted by a knock at the door? 

It’s Fenton! Whose stopped in to see his old buddy launchpad, who is happy to see his old friend and the two catch up, though Drake dosen’t like the interuption because Classic Drake is kind of a grumpus. Fenton naturally is here because Gizmoduck is but says he’s doing a job for the military.. which makes no sense but given Drake doesn’t know what he does and Launchpad dares to be stupid, if not nearly as stupid as his reboot version, no one questions it. When Fenton says he needs to find a hotel Launchpad, being Launchpad, invites him to stay and while Fenton watches the movie with the kids, Drake wants him gone because you know he has a secret identity to keep and a case to work on and they don’t know if they can trust him with it. It’s fair.. but since this is Drake he almost handles it with the subtly of a howitzer. But before he can try to literally throw Fenton out on his ass, a news report comes on about an attack at a local theater and both head off to take care of it.. we also get a nice moment where both react to it with the same words at the same time.  Fenton.. is actually really likeable. He’s a bit awkward, more in that he sort of barges in and makes himself comfy.. but it’s very easy to see from this and the one Ducktales episode of his i’ve seen where the utterly marvelous reboot version gets some traits from: his nervousness, his pluckness, his lack of thinking things through ocasionally when he’s not overthinking them. Fenton is charming. The issue is once he switches on the costume he goes from utterly charming to punchable REALLL quick. I’ll explain my problems with his alter ego in a sec. 

At the theater Steelbeak fakes it to look like Darkwing’s doing the bombing, if half haphazardly and leaves Darkwing with the bomb so when Gizmo shows up he thinks he’s responsible. Darkwing naturally says it wasn’t him, but Gizmo dosen’t buy it and asks if he’s so good how come he wears a mask... says the guy in a helmeted visor’s whose only defense when that’s pointed out is it came with the suit. Which yes is a joke.. but it fails to land and instead of being funny just makes Gizmo look like a hypocritical dick whose assuming someone is evil based on flimsy evidence, and what’s very obviously a setup. it makes him come off as the biggest dumbass alive instead of this world’s superman and that is annoying. More ranting about him in a minute. We do end up getting an incredibly funny bit where the two end up arguing over who gets to defuse a bomb, with both wrestling over it till Gizmoduck takes care of it and both fall into the theater. Gizmoduck tries to arrest Darkwing who ignores him and runs off.  The next day the Mallard family, including Honker naturally, watches Gizmoduck get a parade, a key to the city and other good stuff on the news while Drake sulks before turning it off. And yeah i’ve waited long enough let’s talk about this version of Gizmoduck and why he does not work. I get in theory he’s supposed to be “The Cape”, minus the cape: The big cheese that everyone looks up to and loves to Darkwing’s  dark avenger of the night, a parody of that whose also really dumb. The issue is two fold. The first is .. the classic archtypical cape type chracter has been parodied to hell and back by 2020. He’s been a monster, an asshole and as with here an idiot. And even for then a superman parody, if not in apperance or powers but in treatment, whose really dumb wasn’t very new. 

And you CAN parody a big silver age type hero: Justice League International did so well without being too overt, having most of the team either annoyed or actively hostile to Shazam/Captain Marvel. But it was done well there because well.. billy’s a very corny very earnest and likeable kid in an adult’s body. To us he’s charming and loveable. But to a bunch of actual adults he’d be offputting at best and annoying at worst. While some have been annoyed at how he was handled, I a fan of both JLI and Shazam liked it and thought it was an interesting take. Another REALLY good and REALLY hilarious take on this is from fellow superhero action comedy Danny Phantom, one of my favorites and one I need to revisit. One episode had Danny split himself in two so he could crimefight and have fun with his friends resulting in one self whose a burnt out slacker, and another whose an over the top crimefighter who says things like “you Felonious fiend!” And “This looks like a job for the vacuum cleaner!”. It’s a damn good episode. My point is it’s been better done before and since. 

What doesn’t help is the episode tries to paint it as equal, since Darkwing’s problem in part is Gizmoduck stealing his thunder.. but it doesn’t work. Darkwing is a fully fleshed out character we know and love who despite his huge ego and rampant jackassery, is a decent person whose fought hard for St. Canard, loves his daughter and most damingly... is entertainingly sickish. Gizmoduck’s dickery just makes him come off less likeable and incredibly dense, while Darkwing’s is part of his charm and, along with his ego, has backfired enough to balance it out. Gizmo just doesn’t get comeuppance for his behavior, and instead gets rewarded with a parade, a key to the city, cheerleaders and Gosalyn looking up to him just for having powers in his gadgets. And really his methods aren’t that different from dark wing: While Darkwing is secretive, a loner and uses gadgets.. Gizmoduck’s suit is basically one BIG gadget, and he refuses to see. And I get that’s probably the joke but it just. doesn’t. LAND. It just makes him insufferable. And as far as I can tell in the original show he wasn’t: he was an awkward dork we root for like in the reboot, not a gloryhogging jackass whose squandered his good will long before he gets Darkwing isn’t evil and tries working with him to the point I don’t care by the time that happens: He’s already been so obnoxious it dosen’t make up for it. Maybe later appearances are better but he’s just a chore to watch in costume here. And that’s WITHOUT comparing him to the 2017 version, one of my favorites there, one of the best animated superheroes i’ve seen in a long time, and a toughly likeable character who struggles due to his superhero identity but took it up for exactly the right reasons and wants to help people. Darkwing Gizmoduck thinks he’s the cape and an inspiration when a good guy when he’s worse than the guy he hates at times. Reboot Gizmo is an honest, decent guy who simply wants to help people and use the gizmotech as a way to do that, to help change the world for the better and save the helpless, and only clashes with Darkwing due to his ego and lack of understanding that Gizmoduck and him really aren’t that different. Finally if THIS is why Tad Stones wants them to be different universes, because this Fenton is different from the Ducktales one in personality.. then that’s on HIM. That’s on him for writing this version poorly or letting him get written so poorly and not on the fans who had no reason not to connect a dot. God this character was disappointing and hopefully when I watch more of him at work in Ducktales, he isn’t this obnoxious, nor will he hopefully be in his sequel episodes.  Thankfully moving on Darkwing gets to work, because you know he has experience, and finds Steelbeak trying to pilfer the cormorant but Captain Clueless interrupts and tries to arrest him. The two then finally fight and while it’s sadly short, it’s a fun clash and I genuinely hope the reboot has it’s own fight with them, as given how damn good they are at fight scenes, it’s bound to be even more awesome. But Steelbeak gets away, and uses the comarant’s secret weapon.. a giant fake egg that drops a giant pile of yolk to drown them. Gizmo finally realizes he’s been fighting the wrong guy but our hero's are now running out of time. Darkwing , being the actually capable one here, has Gizmo uses his propeller to beat the eggs and the two head off.. though after a funny bit where Gizmo breaks the Ratcatcher’s sidecar Darkwing lets him use his spare tier, which is huge and likely intended for the main vehicle. Good stuff.  The two get after Steelbeak and while Gizmo makes me pray for death but death won’t come we get a fun battle with Steelbeak including Steelbeak using his beak to bite down and destroy the gas gun. It’s a damn fun bit I must say. But eventually the good guys win, disable the comarant and Darkwing beats Steelbeak. The day is save, FOWL is foiled, our heroes are on shaky but better terms, and Drake and Fenton depart on good if equally shaky terms, before arguing about which of them is better. And we’re out.  Final Thoughts: This.. was a disappointingly mixed bag. Gizmoduck REALLY drug down what was otherwise a good episode with a great concept: Bringing in a hero whose stronger and more popular than Darkwing.. but mostly uses it to make Darkwing look good, which he didn’t need, and make Gizmoduck look REALLY bad, intentionally or otherwise. Steelbeak is a delight and his plan, and the egg trap, are really good, and as mentioned there are enough good set pieces to prevent this from being a terrible episode.. but as an old friend says for me time and time again...

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

paris/doyle and lane/zach for the ship thing?

Paris/Doyle: Obviously I always look at Paris and see, first and foremost, Rory’s future wife, but I like Paris and Doyle together a lot! They’re a great comedic team, and they’ve got a ton of super fun storylines together that I cherish. I’m so glad that Paris wound up with someone who matches her intense side, rather than someone dull like Jamie (sorry, Jamie! You didn’t deserve the way Paris treated you, but you were just so boring!) or creepy and old like Asher. The rational part of me is indignant that they were randomly divorcing in the revival just so ASP could slyly allude to Danny Strong’s screenwriting career. NOT WORTH IT! (The irrational, Raris-y part is obviously thrilled that it Makes Way For Raris.)

Lane/Zach: Here’s perhaps my most controversial GG opinion: I like Lane/Zach a lot and I like Zach as a partner for Lane! (And just in general, I find him very hilarious. Stupid characters are my beloved kryptonite!) The thing that fuels this the most is that, again, I think the actors are really fun together and very enjoyable to watch as a duo, and I love, like, Zach’s interactions with Mrs. Kim and the way they slowly bond, etc. I like that Lane’s whimsical marriage feels a little rock and roll in a way that I, personally, don’t think it would’ve with Dave. They definitely have some storylines I don’t like -- the breadcrumbs of Lane’s feelings for Zach could’ve been scattered way better in season five, since her crush on him seems kinda out of nowhere (then again, sometimes it be that way!), and them having kids in season 7 was ROUGH in a lot of ways, even though I also think that storyline has some great humorous and sweet moments for them as a couple. Anyway: I love Lane and Zach, I’m glad they’re still going strong in the revival as far as we know, and I definitely wouldn’t trade them for an AU where Dave had stuck around! I think Dave is just too square for Lane. I get that he’s the very model of a perfect teenage boyfriend, and of course he’s very charming, but just ... meh! No thanks! I’m so sorry, but hey, I’m supposed to be brutally honest here! (I also LOVE that Zach looks a lot like that dude from “Double Date” who’s friends with Dean that Lane is smitten with without knowing anything about him in season one. It’s like Lane got her dream high school dude, but with a personality she actually likes! I enjoy that.)

Send me a ship and I’ll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it

[aseriesofvariousevents]

The Mysterious Benedict Society Series

This series was one I really enjoyed when I was younger (though before recently I’d only read the original three). Some of the charm had worn off with age but it was still fun to revisit. I would recommend reading the books in the order they were published in (which is the order I reviewed them below) and I would definitely recommend making sure you’ve read the prequel before the fourth book because there are some fun references in it that you’d miss if you didn’t know. 

This book is so fun. I read it forever ago when I was a kid and decided to revisit it this year. Something is always happening in this book and though it is "simpler" than most books I tend to read, it was really fun to delve into a book I had loved so much as a kid again. Despite it's younger age audience, the characters were still well-rounded and fun (I especially loved S.Q.). It was really cute to watch the kids create a family between themselves after feeling so alone for so long. I'm really excited to revisit the other books after enjoying this one so much!

Favorite Quote: You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn't depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.

I really enjoyed this book, but it didn't quite replicate the magic of the first book, in my opinion. It was still a very enjoyable book, but at times I felt like it took itself too seriously, which seemed at odds with the overall vibe of the story. I thought Constance's admiration of Reynie was really cute to watch and I liked Cannonball's exuberance. Sticky seemed almost tossed to the sidelines for a lot of this book and at times I forgot he was even there. It was cool to watch them on their journey, but I was kind of annoyed when they found Milligan because even though I really like his character, it seemed less whimsical at that point and more down-to-earth. This book was less memorable to me than the first part (the only section I remember from when I read this book years ago was Reynie remarking on how fast Sticky can read), but it was a fun book nonetheless.

Favorite Quote: You know what I like about buttons? They're very small things that hold bigger things together. Awfully important, buttons—little but strong.

This book seemed to have lost some of the magic that had permeated every aspect of the first book, and a large bit of the second. The kids seemed almost too perfect, with Kate's super-speed and Constance's literal superpowers. It was still fun but it seemed more like an action book rather than a big puzzle, which is what I had thought made the first book so good. The real plot of the book didn't even really start until halfway through and there was a distinct lack of mysteries and clues for the society to solve. It was still fun and there were some sweet moments, but it overall felt lacking to me.

Favorite Quote: Books had been her means of escape; now they would be her refuge.

My expectations for this book were low. I didn't expect it to be bad, but often times prequels can go either way, but boy was I wrong. The book started out slow, and for a while, I was certain my assumptions about the book had been correct, but the story quickly became a really touching story about friendship that made me tear up on more than one occasion. Nicholas's character had always seemed a bit flat and not fully developed in the original trilogy, but here you get to see some of the origins of his quirks and meet the people that made him the man he became later on. Violet and John were really amazing characters and I loved all the different, witty names of the staff. I found the ending to be rather perfect for the book and seemed fitting for a person like Mr. Benedict. I think this book might be the strongest book in the series with an eclectic cast of characters and a plot that I found to really pick up pace as the book went along. I would definitely recommend reading this book after the original books (or at least the first book in the series) because I found it really fun to see so many references to his older self. All in all a really good book.

Favorite Quote: I see that some things are hard to do but that you can’t live with yourself if you don’t do them. I see that the best way to help myself is to help the people I care about. The rest will sort itself out—it has to, right?

I found the third book to be a satisfying conclusion to the series, though that's not to say I didn't still enjoy this book to some extent. Some of it felt rather awkward since the characters were supposed to be significantly older but still acted in a rather juvenile fashion. I was also confused as to how old the characters were supposed to be. Constance was two in the first book and she's described to be a pre-teen (so at least 9) here which would make the other characters 18 or so. The age was odd though because even though it made sense that Sticky and Kate were exceptionally young for their paths, Reynie was said to be one of the youngest to attend this college, which if my assumptions are correct, he wouldn't be very young at all. I felt the end wrapped up rather quickly and it seemed like it had been decided on rather suddenly without many actual clues leading up to it in the rest of the book. Tai's character was cute but wholly unnecessary. There were some cute references to the prequel which I appreciated since I finished that book just the other day, but the book felt kind of messy as a whole. I also thought this book relied much too heavily on mind-reading and such. It was kind of interesting sometimes, but other times it just felt like a cheap plot device to explain how the society was able to constantly be successful. There were some fun and sweet moments but overall I was just struck by how unnecessary the book seemed as a whole and how the personal struggles the characters were facing about growing up and moving on were the same issues they'd been dealing with for books.

Favorite Quote: He said that he doesn’t believe we become different people as we age. No, he says he believes that we become more people. We’re still the kids we were, but we’re also the people who’ve lived all the different ages since that time.

Overall I enjoyed the series, but I thought the series got worse as it got on (with the exception of the prequel). Definitely fun books but the characters honestly don’t evolve a ton from the first book. The series isn’t my favorite but I think it’s great for kids who could really see themselves as those characters. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Books in Series: The Mysterious Benedict Society; TMBS and The Perilous Journey; TMBS and The Prisoner’s Dilemma; The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict; TMBS and The Riddle of Ages

Author: Trenton Lee Stewart

[marshmallowgoop]

Goop Plays Kill la Kill the Game: IF (Ryuko Episodes 5-8)

It’s been a while.

Episode 5

Writing about these episodes has been a struggle. I wouldn’t be able to narrow down a single reason for my eight-month hiatus from IF’s story mode, but I can say that it’s difficult to talk about content that is overwhelmingly—and disappointingly—a rehash of scenes I’d already watched before.

Ryuko’s fifth episode especially feels like a game of “spot the difference.” Segments of Satsuki’s story are repeated with astonishingly minor changes, and while this has been an issue with earlier Ryuko episodes (1 and 3), by episode 5, it’s starting to feel very tedious.

I won’t deny that the slight alterations are charming—they very much are! Mako’s contribution to Ryuko and Senketsu’s fight against Nui, for example, is adorable:

Mako: My dad says, “When you’re outnumbered, get more weapons!” An eye for an eye, a blade for a blade!

However, such minimal additions feel like a dishearteningly poor use of the player’s time. If I hadn’t already questioned it before, these chapters really made me question the choice of a two-campaign story mode. 

It’s not that I don’t see the appeal of such a structure; there’s something fun in telling one side of a story and then changing the perception of that story by telling another side of it. Plus, with IF in particular, I think there was a goal—at least to some extent—of confounding players with Satsuki’s ending. I could see Ryuko’s campaign as a means of making the plot more interactive, which is of course fitting for a video game. By not spelling everything out right away, players are encouraged to unravel the mystery and put the pieces together. 

Satsuki: I had a bad dream....

But... there’s just too much overlap for me to feel that the two-campaign structure was the most effective storytelling decision. The choice perhaps makes more sense from a gaming standpoint; it’s easier to focus on one playable character rather than jump around between two. But I don’t know—perhaps it could have been fun to give players a feel for more of this game’s roster all at once. Maybe we could have played as the Elite Four or Ragyo or Nui, too.

Because from a story standpoint? One major letdown of Ryuko’s fifth episode is that actually fighting Nui completely lacks the power that the cutscene in Satsuki’s campaign has.

Sure, that scene certainly doesn’t have the impact of similar moments in the anime (episodes 18 and 21/22), but you can’t really expect it to, and it works well within the context of IF. Ryuko and Senketsu haven’t been through as much together, but Ryuko still keeps her temper under control to prevent a repeat of hurting Senketsu from it again, they burst into battle with “Before my body is dry” playing, and though the animations in the game can be stiff and limited, it’s still sweet. 

Ryuko: Won’t know ‘til I try! So let’s do this!

They sparkle! Their hearts are as one! They’re uniting to take down this threat.

But in Ryuko’s story? You just fight the fight. You miss out on Ryuko shit-talking Nui, you miss out on the song (seriously, was it just the struggling Steam port, or does “Before my body is dry” really not play during the fight?), and most importantly, the emotion I get from the cutscene is largely lost.

Don’t get me wrong—skipping a repetitive scene is appreciated. But at the same time, the omission makes me long for a single story mode. Players could have fought Nui with “Before my body is dry” playing and watched the Satsuki-story cutscene upon victory. That bit of “Satsuki’s” story already focuses so much on Ryuko that in some ways, it honestly feels more “Ryuko” than Ryuko’s story! Why not just have a unified story mode?

Ryuko’s episodes shine when they significantly differ from what players already witnessed in Satsuki’s campaign. The very beginning of episode 5 is charming because seeing Ryuko just wanting to smash things is legitimately amusing.

Ryuko: Oh! So, I just gotta smack ‘em all in the head.

But this could have easily fit into a single story that switched perspectives. And in fact, moving into episode 6...

Episode 6

It’s almost humorous that Satsuki’s story has purposeful omissions to “justify” the existence of Ryuko’s campaign. I am astounded at how Mako literally does not exist in the Satsuki equivalent of Ryuko’s sixth episode:

Seriously, what? This reminds me of Kingdom Hearts jokes about how it’s rude of Disney movies to totally edit out Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

But jokes aside, the Kingdom Hearts comparison actually has some real weight in regards to IF. In Kingdom Hearts, the Disney worlds are—at least, in my opinion—the most fun and engaging when they do more than simply rehash the films they’re based on with Sora, Donald, and Goofy added. In the same way, Ryuko’s campaign in IF is the most fun and engaging when it does more than simply rehash Satsuki’s campaign with Mako added.

And why was Mako even literally edited out of Satsuki’s cutscenes in the first place? It’s really a bigger discussion, but this choice only adds to my frustrations with how Kill la Kill handles Mako’s character. I’ve already written about my beef with the anime in that regard, but IF is even worse. Mako’s so inconsequential to the story (at least thus far) that she can be totally cut out and have absolutely nothing change. For goodness’ sake, she sleeps for a good chunk of her screentime!

Which... is actually an issue I have with the Grand Summoners crossover game, too....

Ryuko: She’s [Mako’s] already asleep!

But in any case, Mako’s presence in the IF story seems to be purely because she’s a popular character. It’s disappointing to me that Kazuki Nakashima couldn’t find more things for her to do.

And it’s sad that she’s literally edited out of Satsuki’s scenes. I really cannot get over that. What the what.

More to the actual content of Ryuko’s sixth episode, the first part is just old hash browns (plus Mako), but the second part is much more intriguing. I find it curious that Senketsu knows right away what the Primordial Life Fiber is, but Ryuko doesn’t. Does he have a connection with it that Ryuko lacks because her Life Fibers haven’t been awoken yet?

Senketsu: That... is what’s known as the Primordial Life Fiber.

Also, same, Mako, same. I also call Nui and Ragyo’s Primordial Life Fiber-y attacks in this game “meatballs.”

Mako: Ooooh! It looks like a big ol’ meatball!

I feel like my previous write-ups on IF already express a lot of what I could say regarding this episode, but I will again reiterate that the character interactions are charming. It’s nice to hear Ryuko laugh (even if in a taunting way), and the Elite Four are absolutely adorable.

Ryuko: Ha! Whatever. I’d like to see you try!

Houka: Oh, my God. Do they have to be so loud? Our enemies can hear us from a mile away.

And since this is a video game and all, in regards to the one fight in episode 6, it’s a bit of a pain; battling multiple enemies doesn’t make for the most enjoyable experience because of the camera and inability to properly lock on to targets. But IF excels in the little details. The dialogue when other characters join you for the fight is as amusing as always. 

There really should be subtitles, though. It’s super poor accessibility.

Episode 6 also briefly questions the nature of the world. Earlier episodes of Ryuko’s campaign had Senketsu—and Nui—note that something felt off about time. Here, Senketsu outright says that time in the Fiber Palace is “seems unstable,” and interestingly, the camera focuses on Ryuko when he wonders if it’s the location or “something else” that’s causing the abnormality.

Senketsu: The flow of time here seems unstable. Is this place causing it to happen...? Or... is something else triggering it....

It’s not in this episode, but given that Ragyo later describes Ryuko as “the singularity,” perhaps she is the one messing up the world.

I think Ryuko sums up my thoughts, though.

Ryuko: I don’t get what’s goin’ on.

Of course, probably the most notable aspect of episode 6 is the ending, and while I could see right through what was happening, I have to admit that Ryuko going at Mako with the Scissor Blades is a stellar finish.

Ryuko: I still gotta get revenge for my dad.

Senketsu: What are you doing, Ryuko?!

Episode 7

However...

Ryuko: Oh, blow it out yer ass... Nui Harime!

I got some issues with this.

For those who have been Kill la Kill-ing for as long as I have, you might remember that there was a flood of Mako-is-Nui theories immediately after the show’s finale. Amusingly, character designer Sushio outright denied the idea in a Tweet, and a Studio Trigger panel at Anime Expo 2014 (6th post from the top) also shot the notion down.

aranbeik: is it [the Mako-is-Nui theory] true????

Sushio: It is no relationship at all

But fake Makos actually ain’t absent from Kill la Kill. In the official Drama CDs that came packaged with Japanese releases of the anime, there are two instances of fake Makos. The first happens in CD 1, where Maiko Ogure impersonates Mako for a huge portion of the runtime. The second happens in CD 4, where—“funnily” enough—Nui herself impersonates Mako after Ryuko has her heart brutally ripped out of her chest by her own mother.

And here’s my issue with IF’s portrayal: in both of these Drama CD cases, Ryuko is fooled. Mako isn’t Mako for tons of the first CD, and Ryuko doesn’t notice. And, in the Nui situation, it’s Senketsu who has to tell her that the “Mako” before them is not actually Mako. Which goes completely counter to what IF does!

It’s not that I’m against Ryuko recognizing a fraud, but her inability to in the Drama CDs lends insight into her character that I find fitting. Ryuko fails to identify the fake Makos in the CDs because Ryuko initially closes her heart off to the girl—something she outright admits in episode 22 (and which the English dub makes particularly prominent).

Ryuko: Yeah, you [Mako] too! You’re like the most persistent chick I ever met! You didn’t care if I pushed you away! You kept coming back and coming back like a yo-yo!

However, after ripping Junketsu from her body, Ryuko becomes far more open, and it’d be really powerful for her to correctly identify a fake Mako then. It’d show how their relationship has grown and become stronger.

In IF, Mako and Ryuko have hardly had the development they undergo in the anime, and further, Ryuko’s explanation for how she knew it was Nui doesn’t make a lick of sense!

Nui-Mako: How’d you know it was me?

Ryuko: Easy! After Mako wakes up, she’s always got drool on her face.

As Ryuko seemed to have already deduced that “Mako” was Nui before even looking at her, how in the world does this work?

Episode 7 has more questionable character writing for Ryuko later on, too. I’ve already written at great lengths about how I find her attitude regarding murder totally OOC, but Nui’s death scene also has such a strange line regarding Ryuko’s feelings towards Satsuki:

Nui: Guess who ordered me to take the Rending Scissors from your daddy! Give up? It was Satsuki!

Ryuko: If she did, she musta had a good reason for it.

As sweet as the sentiment is, and as much as I understand that it’s there to point out how not even Nui can tear apart Ryuko and Satsuki’s bond, it leaves me totally baffled. Satsuki must have had a good reason to issue the order that killed her father, and Ryuko’s chill with that? At this point in the story, the kind of unwavering faith in Satsuki that Ryuko displays here is completely unearned. I could see Ryuko at the end of the anime feeling this way, but IF Ryuko? Not at all! She barely knows Satsuki!

But for all my gripes regarding the storyline, we Kill la Kill fans are starving. (Well, at least I am, anyway.) Even if Ryuko’s words to Nui make no sense, it is something I would have liked the anime to explore more, and the character interactions here are undeniably sweet. I love Ryuko and Senketsu’s banter and how it shows how comfortable and in tune with each other they are. I love Ryuko’s silly dialogue to Satsuki and how Satsuki smiles at it, telling us that even the “ice-cold” Student Council President can’t help but get a bit soft at this dorky shounen protagonist.

Ryuko: I hate family drama. But I said I’d save Satsuki, sooo...

Senketsu: I had a feeling you’d say that.

Ryuko: Looks like you’re having a really shitty day, Satsuki!

The battle that finishes up this episode, with “Blumenkranz” playing in the background and the Elite Four and Satsuki joining the fight with cute dialogue, is a joy, too. There are a lot of little details that I really appreciate.

(I also realized this time around that you can stop Ragyo’s Instant Kill and didn’t get obliterated by Shinra-Kouketsu like I did in Satsuki’s story.) 

Ragyo: Your sins shall be purged along with your pathetic body!

Episode 8

But in regards to the plot of IF, Ryuko’s eighth episode finally starts dropping some more answers. As the ending of Satsuki’s story had implied, the world is outright said here to be her dream, created from Junketsu:

Ragyo: Junketsu took your [Satsuki’s] dreams and made them tangible. That is the distorted world we see now.

However, I still can’t say I get it. When Satsuki wakes up at the end of her story, it’s the start of episode 1 of the anime. She hasn’t come into contact with Junketsu yet, so how has this distorted world even been created in the first place? I guess Life Fibers can just mess with time?

I’m also kinda amused that the world is said to be what Satsuki wants to happen, yet she describes it as a “bad dream” when she wakes up.

But the big “new” information is Ragyo’s assertion that Ryuko is “the singularity”:

Ragyo: I knew it. You were the singularity, Ryuko Matoi.

As Ragyo explains, she could have taken over this fake world (and perhaps merged it with the real one, judging by her comment in Satsuki’s story about how such a world “can even be spun into a single yarn with the Primordial Life Fiber”), but Ryuko got in the way:

Ragyo: Since my Life Fibers are much more powerful than Junketsu’s, I could’ve taken this planet over. Then, I could’ve enslaved humanity and begun the process of turning it... into a Cocoon Sphere. Yes, I could’ve. If it wasn’t for your existence, Ryuko Matoi.

Now, there have been hints that something’s up with Ryuko all throughout IF, but I can’t say I really know what to make of it. Senketsu remarks that Ryuko’s oddly strong in the first episode of her campaign, Ragyo adds to this and suggests that Ryuko’s affecting the Primordial Life Fiber in the same episode, and then, there also seems to be the implication that Ryuko is triggering the weird sense of time in her sixth episode. The final episode of Satsuki’s story seems to feature Ryuko absorbing Life Fibers, too.

It makes sense for Ryuko to affect Satsuki’s dream world, of course; Ryuko has Life Fibers in her, and she’s also the sister whom Satsuki is ultimately fighting for. I’ve seen theories that the Primordial Life Fiber takes on the shape of a baby to represent the baby sister Satsuki thought she’d lost (and at least in the English dub, Ryuko does refer to the baby as a “she,” further connecting the baby to the lost sister); so perhaps, even if Satsuki doesn’t recognize her connection to Ryuko, maybe the Life Fibers do. Ryuko has power in the dream world because, in a lot of ways, Ryuko is Satsuki’s dream. Maybe that’s the reason that Satsuki only gets flashes of scenes between her and Ryuko in the anime when the baby connects with her, too.

Who knows? I can only hope that episodes 9 and 10 will clear this story up.

I’ve obviously got a lot of questions, but I know this is basically the end. I’m not sure how much explanation to expect going forward, and I’m still wondering about things that don’t even necessarily (?) have to do with the dream world, too. Like, whatever was the point of that moment with Ragyo and one of Senketsu’s scraps? And what was bothering Shiro?

Shiro: There’s just one thing that bothers me...

I said in the beginning of this tl;dr report that I couldn’t pinpoint a single reason for my inability to write it for eight months. But maybe part of the reason is that it’s kind of nice to not know the ending. As long as I don’t play it, there’s still some official Kill la Kill content that I haven’t experienced yet, and it could be anything.

But at the same time, I don’t know how much longer I can go without seeing Senketsu-Kisaragi, so.

The thing—i.e., this monstrous essay—that was holding me back from playing through to the end is now complete! And I’m ready to finally finish this game.

Here’s to hoping that the finale is satisfying 🤞

[sandalaris]

10 for 10 for 10

I’ve been tagged by @yossariandawn Thanks for thinking of me! and for all the great questions! (and sorry it took so long. I had a hard time thinking of 10 questions of my own.)

Answer 10 questions, ask 10 questions, tag 10 people.

1. If you could learn a new skill instantly, what would you choose? I’m not sure. I think that if it’s a skill you really enjoy than taking the time to learn becomes part of the enjoyment, so it’d have to be a skill I either only kind of wanted or that I felt was a need over a want. Oo, MMA, good exercise and the ability to defend myself or someone else if I ever need to, and it’s not something I feel really passionately about going through the process of learning.

2. What part of the world (that you’ve never been to) would you choose to live in for a month? Hyère, France. Don’t even have to think about it. About eight years ago I was planning a move and it was on the short list of places I was considering going to. The climate seemed the most ideal to what I wanted to live in and all the pictures were beautiful. 

3. Favorite kind of sandwich or wrap? Grilled cheese? I don’t like sandwiches (or wraps) typically.

4. Show swap! Bring back 3 shows you love, but you also have to choose 3 you like to cancel instead. Oo, gotta think about this one. I don’t want to bring back a show that was already past its peak and I don’t want to say to cancel a show that isn’t ready to end.

Cancel: (I stuck only with shows that I watch and enjoy so I’m not digging at any show just because it’s not my personal preference)

NCIS – I love the show, seen every last episode and will continue watching it until the end, but it’s time for it to wrap up. It well past its prime.

Lucifer – Listen, I love this show, and there’s a ton of great characters and material here to make a long running series, but they have started going in circles with it and that’s making it feel old. How many times can the same characters learn the same lessons before it just feels like the writers are just forcing things back into the same ol’ mold? Let the story grow or move on.

Shameless – It’s a stretch because the finale season has already been declared, but it’s a show that I don’t really need that finale season, even if I will watch and enjoy it, because it’s reached its natural end.

Bring back:

From Dusk till Dawn: the series – I debated on this one. It wrapped everything up so nicely and I’m quite happy with how it ended, but at the same time the writers had plans for the next season and it was never officially cancelled and there’s so much more story that could be told.

Firefly – Although it’s been enough time that it might have to be more of a reboot maybe? Or are we doing the impossible and it’s coming back shortly after it was canceled? Either way, that show was cancelled way too soon.

The Gifted – Yes, it was a bit cheesy but it’s just as good, if not better than, a lot of the comicbook shows still going AND it ended on a cliffhanger. It needed to continue

5. What fandom would you want to get into, but haven’t yet? I don’t know. I feel like I don’t exactly pick my fandoms. I start watching a show or go see a movie or read a book and then if I feel like looking up fandom stuff after I do.  

6. What show or movie do you watch to cheer you up? Probably Community. It’s a good show that has that nice balance of being a ridiculous comedy, but not too silly at the same time. And it hits so many of my favorite tropes. (Leverage could also count.)

7. Favorite condiments? ….salt? That’s technically a seasoning, but I am not a condiment fan. They are mostly gross and just cover up the flavor the food with their grossness.

8. What characters (from different universes) do you think would love hanging out together? Pick as many as you want. I wrote for fun a Kisa (FDtD) and Troy (Community) scene and discovered I really like them interacting (there was other people in the scene, but they stole all my attention in a matter of moments). They connected in a weird way and I loved writing Kisa’s bizarre and confused reactions to Troy. Britta (Community) and Richie (FDtD) would get along well I think. They’d click in that odd way that Richie has with random people and Britta would be a little too oblivious to Richie’s more social flaws/creepy nature, as is her way when it comes to guys with even the tiniest bit of charm and intelligence. Not gonna lie, I kind of ship them now.

I would also put Shawn from Psych with the entire Leverage crew. Sophie is the only one I feel would find him a bit much at times, mainly because she can spot a grift a mile away and Shawn’s kind of always “on” and think it would mess with her trust issues too much for her to be entirely comfortable around him. Nate sees his potential, especially if Shawn’s been brought in to help on a job, and the guy is ultimately one of the Good Guys, and he would go a long way to helping put Sophie at ease. Because Nate’s too smart to be taken in by someone like Shawn and Sophie wouldn’t feel like she’s the only one who sees him for the conartist he is. Eliot would groan and grumble for show, but in the end Shawn’s like a combination of  his two favorite people in the world; Parker and Hardison. Plus, I headcanon Shawn and Eliot as cousins. I think Hardison might find Shawn a little too like himself to ever be best buddies with the guy, but overall they’d get along just fine. As for Parker... I feel like they’d be almost like two kids on the playground who both found out they like the same obscure cartoon none of the other kids have seen. 

I have a little headcanon about Parker (Leverage) and Clint Barton (MCU) having been in the same foster home as kids and having this kind of a past-sibling-esque connection. I like to think that with both their careers they don’t meet up often, but whenever they realize they are in the same place at the same time, it’s a given that they’ll hang out while there.

My roommate keeps yelling over my shoulder Starlord and Micheal (from the movie starring John Travolta) until I agreed to put them. They would get along in a weird sort of fun way that would be fun to watch but hard to be a part of, but since I haven’t see that movie since I was a kid it’s not one I think of.

9. What’s the most underrated show or movie or book or artist that you love and people should really check out?

Ilona Andrews is an amazing author and more people should check their works out. But the most underrated show I think I’ve ever gotten into… honestly would probably be From Dusk till Dawn. I feel like most of my followers are at least aware of it though because I post enough about it, but it was just really good and sort of cut off before its time. A really close second would be Leverage. It’s still the number one show I recommend when people ask me and I just adore it to pieces.

10. What were you obsessed with as a kid?

So many things, but probably Jasmine from Disney’s Aladdin the most. Pretty sure I named more than one stuffed animal after her.

My questions:

1.      What was your first fandom? Are you still a part of it?

2.      Current self care method(s)?

3.      What are three (3) shows you keep meaning to binge watch but haven’t yet?

4.      Do you stay active in fandoms after a new one catches your eye, or are you more a one at a time person?

5.      What was the last movie you saw with someone else? What would you rate it?

6.      Favorite guilty pleasure?

7.      What’s a highly underrated show/movie/book series that you would recommend?

8.      Any new hobbies you’ve started during quarantine? Any you want to start?

9.      What meme do you wish would just die already?

10.  Spread the love to your followers and post at least one link to a fic you’re reading/have read/wish to read/you’ve written yourself/etc. 

I tag: @shyesplease @valeskaj @ithoughtiwasflying @c-sand @mygutsforgarters @bethanyactually @crystallinee-waters @evanberries @nevergonnabemuchmorethanweather @katwithlove and anyone else who wants to do answer! Seriously, I love having people respond even if I didn’t tag someone. 

[recentanimenews]

How Many Cups of Tea Do They Drink In K-ON!?

  This article is part of Crunchyroll News' KyoAni Month celebration. Check out the rest of our KyoAni features HERE.

  Early on in K-ON! The Movie, Yui has a simple thought about how After-School Tea Time has spent its past three years of high school. She says, “I wonder how much tea we’ve consumed in 3 years.” Mugi thinks that they’ve easily drunk over 1,000 cups, which given how often they drink tea, isn’t too wild of a guess. Yui’s initial thought is also something I was wondering. Just how many cups of tea do they drink throughout the course of K-ON!’s run? Through the course of figuring that out, it also led me to another realization. All of these moments of having tea together truly are the heart and soul of this show.

  It’s easy to joke about how many tea scenes are scattered throughout K-ON!, but even I was shocked after seeing the final total. It makes Mugi’s guess seem not at all outlandish by the time we get there. All of the times when After-School Tea Time gathers together and sometimes with others to drink tea showcase the soft and subdued nature of the show. There’s serious moments, goofy moments, quiet moments, and emotional moments all baked into having a cup of tea with your friends. They’re not only a great way to see how these characters interact with one another, but it gives you a chance to truly learn and understand who each character is. By the time you’re done with the whole series, it’s like you’ve been friends with these girls all along, which I think is a reason why this is not only my favorite Kyoto Animation series but one of my favorite series period.

    So, let’s figure out just how much tea they drink throughout the first season. With only 14 episodes to its name, Season 1 is able to pack in a lot of tea to drink. Over the course of the 12 episodes and two OVAs, there’s a total of 180 cups of tea drank, which averages out to about 13 cups an episode. Every episode doesn’t quite reach that mark since two episodes only have three cups consumed while the OVA, “Live House!” has the most with 30. I knew there was going to be a lot when through the first three episodes, there were 54 cups, which was startling. Still, that’s a lot of time to get to know these characters early on which helps as we move through the season.

  One of my favorite tea scenes in Season 1 is actually in the second OVA, “Live House!” After-School Tea Time is invited to perform their first show outside of a school event and have to get acclimated with learning how to deal with sound checks, stage lighting, and also interacting with the other bands. The girls are energetic and nervous throughout the day, but they seem to calm down once Mugi suggests they have some tea. It also allows them to have a chance to hang out with the other bands once the others smell tea and join them.

    You’re easily able to see how quickly their nervousness for their forthcoming performance and being around other bands washes away just by this brief moment of hanging out. They’re able to learn the other groups’ motivations for the future and break the ice in a way they were struggling to figure out earlier. It also lets you see again how well the dynamic of the group works. Mugi’s gentleness and charm is able to invite the other groups over, Ritsu and Yui are able to use their extroverted nature to discuss goals and aspirations, and Mio is quiet which allows her to observe just how well their group is able to overcome these kinds of anxieties. This small session leads to the other bands being able to ease the anxieties of After-School Tea Time during their rehearsal, and it shows the kind of comradery that goes into small gigs such as this.

  Often, we think of Kyoto Animation as a true powerhouse when it comes to exquisite animation. There are certainly moments you can point to in K-ON! that have that, but they’re also so good at creating stories that emphasize slow and methodical storytelling while also capturing fantastic character moments. It’s certainly something that series director Naoko Yamada excels at, which she puts to use constantly throughout all of K-ON! If you took this series and made it less about all of these small, intimate moments that the characters have, I don’t know if it would be as good or enjoyable to watch through over and over again. Those moments highlight why these girls work so well together and also how the show is able to keep you engaged even in a show where at times, they only talk over tea.

    Season 2 ups the ante with more episodes and 311 instances of drinking tea, which makes amber the color of the tea they drink. That comes out to about 12 cups of tea per episode, one less than Season 1, but it makes sense given there are actually two episodes where they don’t drink tea at all. It might seem sacrilegious to not drink tea in K-ON!, but it actually works in the context of those two episodes. Still, that’s a whole lot of tea to drink in a season that is a single year in the timeline of the series.

  There are a lot of great tea moments throughout Season 2 to choose from. It’d be hard to pick against the final time they have tea in the club room in the series finale. It’s probably one of the best cases of framing an emotional moment around their daily tea since we see Azusa feeling confident about finding new members next year, but only a few short moments later, breaking down into tears because she doesn’t want the other members to graduate and leave her. The lead up into all of that feels melancholic before anything even happens since you know this is the last time they’ll ever have tea like this together. Even with the whole episode revolving around graduation, it truly adds a weight of finality to the episode that this is truly it.

    On the opposite side of the spectrum are their planning meetings for a new recruitment video in the OVA, “Planning Discussion!” This shows the comedic side of what can happen when the group gets together to drink tea when they attempt to come up with the best idea to help Azusa get more members next year. It also allows you to see some of the strange nature of the group with ideas such as Sawako’s Hollywood movie trailer, Mio wanting to have Ton-chan narrate a video, Ritsu wanting to embellish her successes, Yui wanting everyone to dress up in animal costumes, and Mugi coming up with a murder mystery. Tea time for After-School Tea Time is truly the essence of youth.

  Now, let’s find out once and for all the grand total of tea that is consumed throughout the whole series. Will it be as much as you thought? Adding up everything together from the TV anime, the movie, and the openings and endings, we get a grand total of 544 cups of tea drank over the course of K-ON! Since we don’t get to see every day of their three years of high school, I think it’d be safe to say Mugi’s thought of at least 1000 cups can’t be too far off. Through the use of some quick math, I’ve also estimated how much liquid that is. This isn’t an exact measurement because it’s impossible to do that with how often they’re switching tea sets, but through the entire series, they roughly drank about 107 liters of tea. To put that into perspective, that’s about twice as much liquid as the average car can hold in its gas tank. So, yeah, they drank A LOT of tea in K-ON! but it’s also why this show is so great and continues to hold up with every repeated viewing. All of that tea gives you the quiet, fun, emotional, silly, and relaxing moments you’d come to expect from this series. It’s also why this is one of Kyoto Animation’s masterpieces.

  Was your guess of how much tea they drink close to the actual number? What are some of your favorite tea moments in K-ON!? Let us know down in the comments below!

    Jared Clemons is a writer and podcaster for Seasonal Anime Checkup where he can be found always wanting to talk about Love Live! Sunshine!! or whatever else he's into at the moment. He can be found on Twitter @ragbag.

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

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[gffa]

Scattered Star Wars thoughts: - 16 more things to go and I will have ACCOMPLISHED! my 2019 Resolutions!  Okay, sure, I got a huge boost from finishing my JFO playthrough, which I estimated was probably about 25 hours total for me and right now I’m at 85% completion for the game, but I’m not sure how much I want to back to finish.  Mostly because the least explored one is Zeffo at 75% and I hate that place, I just cannot get a sense of the levels and it’s such a huge world that I’m not sure it would actually be fun. I might pick up Kashyyyk or Dathomir again later--well, Dathomir anyway (it really is the most beautifully designed world in the game) because Kashyyyk has a lot of underwater corners I haven’t fully explored and the swimming controls are kind of touchy which sets off my motion sickness hard.  I’m sad to have not completed Cal’s Ugly Poncho Collection, though.  ): Overall, I loved this game so very much.  The story was incredibly dear to me and I legitimately enjoyed the game mechanics and style of play!  I’m not usually one for platforming, but I found it honestly enjoyable here.  Even some of the more lengthy runs--running across six walls, jump higher each time because they’re staggered, swing on two ropes but you have to Force Pull them to you, then land on this small platform!--that I had to try over and over to get through were actually pretty fun.  I want to complain about the slides not having rails, which meant I kept falling off, but honestly that’s part of the appeal now, because it took me time to really get the hang of some, which made it more satisfying to finish them. I do wish there’d been a little more in terms of side-quests to do or things in-game to collect, something more than ponchos, lightsaber parts, BD-1 skins and Mantis skins to get me to want to go back to some of the worlds, but that’s a pretty minor quibble. I’m mostly so pleased that they seemed to really care about not just the lore of Star Wars but the THEMES of Star Wars, especially the Jedi themes and teachings.  I watched several interviews with the devs and, more than once, I heard them say that they really wanted you to feel like a Jedi in this game and I love that it wasn’t just in terms of lightsaber combat or Force combat, but about what it really meant to be a Jedi.  To face the fears inside yourself and work through them to finally let them go.  To keep helping people and finding the good and finding the light within yourself. - I also watched the TROS premiere and I really enjoyed it, the cast interviews were a DELIGHT, especially the Mark Hamill one and the Kelly Marie Tran/Naomi Ackie one.  Mark’s love for Star Wars and his embracing of the themes of it, that you don’t give up and you keep working to be selfless to help others, to be compassionate, really were touching.  His joke about, if you don’t like the movie, just keep it to yourself, was HILARIOUS, I swear, he even could have meant it 100% seriously (he clearly didn’t) and I’d have been charmed as hell by him. Also, oh my god, Kelly and Naomi just fawning over each other (because they both looked GORGEOUS) was the cutest damn thing, I felt like I was in a sunbeam the entire interview because they were so delighted by each other and being here and being part of this and just happy. Ahmed Best got some great moments to talk a little about what being part of Star Wars is to him now versus what it was, acknowledging that pain without bringing down the mood, as well as I thought it was really sweet that he obviously is very happy to be a part of the upcoming Jedi Temple show and to put a lot of work and care into his character again. John Boyega is just charming as all get out, him crashing Anthony Daniels’ interview was DELIGHTFUL and I would love to see those two do interviews together a few more times.  Anthony Daniels vs Anthony Carboni continues to make me laugh, they’re just so clearly having a blast and making this endless press junket fun for both of them, that it’s a delight to watch.  Daisy was completely adorable, too! I wish there had been more prequels actors there, I mean, we know Ewan’s going to have a show coming up, it’d make sense for him to be there!  And I’m sad that George wasn’t there, either, but I think maybe it probably still isn’t time yet.  It’s not like he’s totally gone, he visited the set of The Mandalorian after all, but I think this being a JJ movie, after his feelings about The Force Awakens, yeah, I guess I’m not that sad about it, for either of them.  (And it’s not like JJ hasn’t talked about how he had long conversations with George about TROS, either.) Anyway, the premiere event was fun to have on in the background for a couple of hours and the interviews were totally worth watching, I enjoyed it a ton.  ♥

Scattered Star Wars Thoughts/2019 Resolutions Update: - Star Wars Rebels s02e01-15 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars s1e05 - Star Wars: The Clone Wars s2e11-17 - Jedi: Fallen Order playthrough - The Mandalorian chapter 6 - The Star Wars Show 2019.12.04 - 2019.12.11 - Live From The Red Carpet Of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Current total:  504/520

[slo-liveblog]

Witch’s Heart Final Thoughts

Hellooo! It’s been a bit! I figured I’d go ahead and post that big ol’ thoughts and rambles post before I went ahead and started the Bonus Stage. I’ll probably be doing some similarly styled things in the future... anyways, I hope you’ve all been doing well, and don’t mind the long post! 

CHARACTERS

Claire: Oh my god. I would give my life for Claire in a heartbeat. I was honestly expecting to not care for her much, not that RPG maker games don’t have plenty of female protagonists I like but they’re almost exclusively children. On the adult side of things, not so much. I was expecting a mostly silent audience insert at best and an annoying, shallowly written protagonist at worst. Thankfully I was 100% wrong and ended up absolutely loving her and rooting for her all the way. I probably said at some point but she reminds me of Hiyoko Tohsaka, the protagonist from Hatoful Boyfriend... yes, the bird dating simulator, don’t even get me started. Maybe a little bit like Emma from The Promised Neverland, too. Pure of heart, dumb of ass female characters that could beat the shit out of anyone AND are incredibly compassionate and enjoyable to watch are just too damn rare. The ways in which she interacted with the other mains felt completely organic and I was never skeptical as to why she was spending time with them, which is something I tend to take issue with in games with a scenario/route structure. On the flip side, the reactions the mains had to her were completely understandable- as far as they were meant to be, anyway- and I found myself at least somewhat identifying with their thoughts on her. Like Leon, I too am in love with Claire. 

Ashe: Oh Ashe. Fuck Ashe. In terms of livening up any situation he’s in, for better or for worse, he’s an absolutely perfect abomination of nature. Every time he enters a scene I either laugh or am filled with pure, unfiltered rage, which I guess is a good sign. He’s definitely an excellent wild card that makes the experience better no matter what way you look at it. However.... in hindsight I think he might actually be the character we understand the least at this point, despite being the first person you meet and the first to get a scenario (if you play it in the order I did, anyway). Even Wiwardo, who’s silent 90% of the damn time, does have a pretty clear motivation. It seems likely that Ashe’s wish is to bring back his family, but not only do we not know anything about them or how they died, we also don’t have any context as to how Ashe became the sort of person he did. So it’s hard to really have a full grasp on him... I appreciate his character for what it is, but I’m not quite as enthusiastic about him as I am some of the others... yet.

Reynaldo: Reynaldo makes me want to start throwing things, in a good thing. I didn’t liveblog the beginning of the game, but I distinctly remember telling my friends he was my favorite initially- the bizarre name, the gun sprite that inexplicably makes me laugh, seems like just a sexi guy. I adore the reveal of what the curse/his wish was, and I think despite not knowing much about the particulars yet it says enough about why he is the way he is that it works perfectly even without the missing information. He’s a fascinating character and has a TON of the best moments in the game, for me personally anyway. My one major complaint would just be like... c’mon, I know he’s the stoic type but I would’ve liked just a liiiiittle bit more reaction from him in some of the bigger scenes, such as when Claire confronted Invective. Also I hate him and I’m gonna beat him up

Sirius: Baby boy. Baby. I want to hold his hand. He’s the character that I think is the easiest to understand at this point in the game, as his cards are almost all on the table. We’ve seen snippets of his childhood, gotten him to reveal pretty much all his thoughts and relevant knowledge to Claire, we’ve literally seen him go to hell, all the good stuff. Male tsunderes, at least ones that are still generally nice people like Sirius, are sooort of my weakness. There’s not a lot to say about him that I haven’t already said but he deserves the world.

Leon: BABY BOY. BABY. Okay, granted, I don’t... really care about Leon that much. Don’t get me wrong, I love him and nothing bad should ever happen to him ever again. But since he didn’t really get to be present in the other’s scenarios, I don’t feel as connected to him as I do the others. BUT with that said, now that the ball has finally dropped and his whole deal isn’t a secret anymore, at least not entirely, I’m hopeful that him not being around enough’ll be rectified by the bonus stage and final endings. He’s never done anything wrong in his entire life.

Charlotte: Charlotte’s in a weird place for me where I’m intrigued but not quite into her yet. I feel like we’ve only really scratched the surface, so I’m interested to see where she goes from here. She got so many interesting scenes like the one with Noel, Fiona, and Lime in her backstory that REALLY hit the mark for me. 

Zizel: Not a lot to say about Zizel, just that her interactions with Claire were absolutely adorable no matter how morbid the context. Love her.

Lime: Lime.... oh boy. I have some. Emotions. About Lime. She definitely seemed like the most one-note out of the demons when she first appeared, just sort of a cutesy masochist anime girl, but wow. I love her relationship with Charlotte and her fascination with Leon is really interesting. I kind of hope going forward that she develops more of a relationship with Claire? I dunno, feels like there’s just some untapped potential there, with Claire being as empathetic as she is and Lime being... as confused about emotions as she is.

Rouge: Again, not a ton to say about her, but her relationship with Leon ended up being way more interesting and heart-wrenching than I expected despite how little we saw of it. I appreciate that she really does care. 

Overall & Final Score The characters were fucking fantastic. My only complaint is that I haven’t seen enough of them yet. 9/10

STORY

Ashe’s Route: My least favorite route, I think, though that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. It does have the advantage of being completely new (if you played it first like I did) and Claire and Ashe’s relationship was so fucking cute and entertaining to watch. It does really feel like an introductory route though- it was mostly setup, which isn’t bad. Just not as gripping as the other routes. And the ending is... a little anticlimactic, considering you can see Ashe’s murderous tendencies coming a mile away. But there’s nothing in particular I think I would change, solid but not incredible.

Wiwardo’s Route: My second favorite route, which... I have a feeling will be an unpopular opinion. I dunno, I just really enjoyed it from start to finish. The partner swapping was hilarious and did a lot to flesh out the dynamics between the characters, Invective was really fun and fleshed out Claire’s personality as well as a lot of demon lore, and I think Reynaldo’s conclusion might be my favorite in the whole game. I was really questioning where any of it was going towards the end, it definitely had me on the edge of my seat. The main complaint I have about it though is that we... don’t actually see that much of Reynaldo. Like, at all. I mean, he’s THERE, but as I mentioned prior he doesn’t... react to much. Of course he doesn’t need to be overly emotional, that’s just not in his nature, but a few more moments where he actually had any sort of stake in what was going on might’ve been nice. The majority of the scenes he’s in prior to the boss battle hardly get any dialogue out of him at all. But like I said, the ending really made it worth it. Fighting Ashe was probably THE most cathartic boss battle in the game and the realization about what Reynaldo was going to do moments before it happened gave me chills. 

Sirius’s Route: My favorite! Love my boy!! God Sirius’s route was incredible. Definitely the one that was the most consistently gripping. Exploring hell was such a cool way to make the route continue after Claire’s death and Sirius’s character development was top notch. It really felt like we were finally getting some answers, too, which was satisfying. I will say, despite being my favorite, it probably has the weakest actual conclusion. Like, the confrontation with the monster made me Feel Things, but since we don’t actually know who or what it is there’s not really as much weight as the other routes that end with Claire’s death. Still, the juicy plot revelations and character development more than made up for it.

Leon’s Route: It may not be one of my favorites but this shit fucked me up. Definitely elicited the most tears, the whole goddamn thing’s miserable. Leon’s route feels slightly lacking in the charm department for me, which probably sounds weird but... I guess it’s cause the whole thing is so laser focused on Claire. Like, obviously Leon is primarily concerned with her, so it feels like there’s less emotional or interesting moments with everyone else and the ones that ARE there aren’t as impactful as they could be since, y’know, he’s really only here for her. But that’s mostly just a personal preference and since that was the whole point I can’t really complain. Leon’s relationship with Claire was wonderfully executed and I really appreciate this poor boy. 

Torch Backstories: Like. They didn’t HAVE to add all this stuff in but they sure did and wow does it pack a punch. I was always super excited to see the next one after finishing a scenario. I do wish we had a little more variety instead of half of them being Lime though, as much as I adore her character.

Overall & Final Score My only real issue with the story is, again, I haven’t seen enough of it yet, and that it sliiightly dragged in some places. Plus there were some small elements I took issue with, like the use of the ??? character, but nothing major. 9/10 

GAMEPLAY

Fighting: No major complaints with the fighting mechanics, it was actually a really nice change of pace since most RPG maker games I’ve played don’t have battles. I do wish Leon had something a little different to set him apart from Claire, since he essentially has the exact same fighting style, albeit with a knife this time. 

Demon Requests: This was a mixed bag. I liked the concept, especially how it wraps in a little bit of lore and everything. But some of the requests, like the ones that involved fishing, were just tedious. I probably would’ve preferred if demon requests were either just a liiiiittle less frequent or had more lore sprinkled in to keep me interested. 

Scenario Mechanics & New Items: The whole idea of the scenarios is... good, but not flawless. I think giving the option of doing Reynaldo’s scenario first probably wouldn’t work very well and giving the illusion of choice only for it to just be which of the two you play first is a little redundant. But that aside, I really love the way they’re strung together with the hell room and all the things you can do there. Setting up a routine in this kind of game was a really good idea. I also looooved the new items you get each scenario, the lighter doesn’t do much but the wand and broom really feel like they broaden your horizons. 

Gift Giving & Minigames: Not super into the affection system to be honest. Like, the plushies are super cute, but the gifts and minigames feel pointless and tedious. I would’ve liked if there was some sort of scene, or even multiple, per character that you get when you max their affection, you know? Obviously this is a small complaint considering the absurd amount of content in the game but I was a little disappointed by how underwhelming the gift giving was. 

Other Puzzles I didn’t take issue with any particular puzzle, they were all reasonably easy and fun to do. I really enjoyed the majority of them and if I didn’t they were either over quickly or optional, such as Ashe’s damn slider puzzle.

Overall, Final Score The gameplay isn’t anything crazy, but it does what it’s meant to do. 6/10

ART & SOUND

Character Design: I don’t have a ton to say about the designs, I think they’re all really effective and well thought out, especially for the demons. No two characters look too similar despite the simplistic art style making it very easy for that to happen, and I thoroughly enjoy everyone’s outfits. 

Sprites and BGs: There are a few wonky sprites here and there but for an RPG maker game I was pleasantly surprised by their overall quality. And ability to make me feel things. And quantity! Like damn, there’s so many sprites for each character, I never feel like I’m seeing too much of the same one. 

OST and Sound Effects: I know none of the songs were composed for the game itself, which is common in these sorts of games, but the selection was excellent regardless. I still listen to the soundtrack a lot just for fun. The sound effects are really cute too, no complaints there either. 

Overall, Final Score It’s crude at times, but the art and music is perfect for what it wants to be and elicits a hell of a lot of emotion. 7/10

I adore this game and I can’t WAIT to start Bonus Stage!

[lia-nikiforov]

Spring 2018 Anime Final Review

So, uh, this is six months late. I’ve had half of this post in my drafts forever. To make it short, as I’ve mentioned previously, mom lost her job, which has not only been a heavy hit to my sense of stability for the last six months, but also means my time to watch anime was seriously reduced and even now a slight change of plans fucks up my whole schedule and sets me back for a full week. Anyway, nobody cares about any of these shows anymore so let’s get straight to it? I’m gonna ommit the two-cours that continued into the Summer - hopefully I’ll be able to make that post soonish? idk. Worst to best, same as usual

The crappy gender politics pit of shame

Darling in the FRANXX: I think everyone has ripped this show to threads at this point and there isn’t much I could add to that. It is quite funny to me to see how many people flipped out when the show went completely bananas in its last few episodes. Feels a bit like KADO, I’ve been telling y’all this was a ton of empty crap since episode 2, it just took the writing to completely self-destruct for everyone else to notice. A part of me feels tempted to do a long post breaking down just how badly the show collapsed in its final shebang, specifically how every single twist and turn completely nulled any remote kind of message or central thesis the show may have had, but at the same time it doesn’t seem worth the time. In the end, I may have given What is Internal Consistency, The anime way too much credit. It’s not hateful antigay propaganda, it’s just dumb as shits, with a writer and creators who didn’t think for half a second of the implications of what they were doing, and who were so incompetent they couldn’t even conserve the minimal plot and character coherency within a single episode, let alone 24. In other words, Darling isn’t saying “gays shouldn’t exist” but “I have no idea of anything regarding gay people”. What makes it egregious is that the show spent so much time acting like it was “meaningful” and “important” and yet it ended saying absolutely fucking nothing. Except mayb “have babies”. Down to oblivion you go, along with the likes of KADO, to the void of shows that couldn’t even be offensively bad and no one will remember a year from now. Bonus garbage points for the half-assed “bury your gays”.

Nil of Libra Admirari or whatever this show was called: I’m not trying to diss on the show, I just genuinely never remember the title because I have the JP and EN all mixed up. Not that it matters much, as far as I could tell, the show could call Shalabalabatuna and it would have the same significance in regard to the content. But the title isn’t important. In fact, it may be a bit unfair to have this show in this section. For the most part, Main Girl is very self-determined and has an active role in the story.... but then the last two episodes heavily featured a lot of rape threats or rape themes and forced pregnancy (real and threat) and I don’t really understand why they’d go there all of a sudden. One of them was treated relatively well, even empowering the victim in the process, but when the ikemen bad guy was rambling endlessly about how he wanted to impregnate the protagonist it really turned me off :/ I’m also not a fan of “main boy was her secret fiancé all along”, but at least they also handled that somewhat decently. It’s a very disposable series, but since I watched all of Amnesia, I think I owe every otoge adaptation at least the smallest chance to clear that very low bar, and Libra of Nil does it, more competently than most other stuff in the same genre.

Hisone to Masotan: I really, really wanted to love this show. Even now, as I put it in the pit of shame category, I’m pained. There was a good show in this, and a lot of it made it to the screen: an adorable, charming little story about a woman finding her place in the world, making new friends, finding her calling and bonding with an adorable dragon. Unfortunately, it got buried down under this opressing, horrendous gender politics that tried to do something with bringing attention to sexism in the military only to cancel it out making the one dude that embodied that sexism getting rewarded with the affections of a girl he explicitly tried to crush. It also called back on the virgin or whore fallacy and even managed to shove in a “bury your gays” trope. Even though Hisone challenges the ritual bullshit, it’s too little, too late, and she does end up carrying it out anyway, so the defiance to the status quo is of little importance in terms of problematizing the ritual itself. Sorry BONES, it wasn’t meant to be this time. 

The ni fu ni fa section

Ni fu ni fa is a Mexican colloquialism for “It was okay but it didn’t change my life.”

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu HAPPY KISS: This soft reboot of the franchise had some really great episodes and did an actually good job of developping its characters. For the most part, it achieved what its predecessor did in terms of satirical comedy and I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, what bunked it down so low in the list was the final episode. At some point, the writers forgot they were doing a parody and made the show somewhat self-serious, way closer in tone to the magical girl anime it was supposed to be making fun of, rather than the satire its predecessor was. Whereas S1 ended with the whole Magical boy stuff being revealed as a crappy space reality TV show, this one ended with a real cheesy conflict about happiness and family and blablabla. Which is not bad by itself if this were a Precure show, but that kind of self-serious plot development just didn’t work for this series. I still enjoyed it, and the fanservice episode is one of the best of the whole franchise, but I’m a bit sad the finale missed the mark so badly.

Hinamatsuri: Hinamatsuri was very hit-or-miss for me. There were some truly brilliant episodes, a lot of funny vignettes and heart-warming stories, and then there was some stuff that made me uncomfortable -like every single Hitomi story- or felt unnecessary and dry. It also threw me off that the superpower dynamic completely disappeared in the second half of the show, especially in Anzu’s part of the story. It was okay but I feel like I needed something that felt like a closing, and choosing to end it with Mao who featured very minimally in the show overall didn’t cut it. It’s a fun show, I’d reccommend people check it out, but it felt a bit too disjointed for me

Persona 5: The Animation: This is a hard show to place because I love the looks of it and I think the concept is interesting and pretty cool, but there is something that’s keeping me from connecting emotionally to the story. The part where changing the villains’ heart makes them repent from their sins and become “good” feels very artificial and very tasteless when you’re dealing with rapists and abusers. I ended dropping it at episode 16, I just couldn’t find the motivation to catch up with the 6 episodes i’d fallen behind on because my schedule is a tragedy

Tokyo Ghoul: Re: I guess it’s fair to say I’ve kind of outgrown Tokyo Ghoul. There’s something messy and confusing about how this season panned out, and there comes a point in which misery porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. I still watch because Ishida has a way to make every single goddamn character extremely sympathetic, which makes for an emotionally engaging viewing even when you’re not sure of what the plot is supposed to be or who you should be rooting for. I tried picking up the new season that just started airing and immediately found I had no idea of what was going on, who was on who’s side and in general, who the fuck were 90% of the characters, so I dropped it.

Nanatsu no Taizai: Imashime no Fukkatsu: I’ve mentioned it before, this second season had the opposite problem than the first one: the pace was too slow. It took more than half of it to get to Escanor, and then the season ends at a kind of random spot. I really thought we’d get further along on the story, since Gowther’s backstory was hinted at in the openings, but no such thing happened. They did manage to give us a variety of cool moments and fights, and I love Ban so his scenes with Zhivago and Elaine made me quite happy, though I really wish the romance between Elizabeth and Meliodas wasn’t su dubious and cringy. In light of some revelations that take place further along the manga, going out of their way to emphasize that Meliodas was a sort of mentor figure for Elizabeth when she was a toddler seems unncessary and just very squeamish. I do hope we get a third season though, and an OVA of the Vampires of whatever side story would be great too.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: I was pleasantly surprised by this show, and it’s closer to being one of my top of the season than it is to “meh”. It had some weaker, cheesier segments, but it also managed great whacky moments and a genuine soothing atmosphere. What surprised me most is that the vanilla looking cast of moderately handsome dudes managed to develop into interesting, funny individuals with a dynamic that made every episode enjoyable. A solid reccommendation for anyone wanting to see delicious looking food and moderately handsome dudes being ridiculous. Also, the cat episode is the best episode of anime ever produced.

The I’m probably the only person alive who enjoys these shows

Mahou Shoujo Ore: This is a difficult show to place because it wasn’t quite as great as I wanted it to be and its parodic nature took me by surprise, but somehow I was still seriously entertained more often than not. The twists in the final quarter and the absolutely bonkers finale was a total riot, but I definitely advise caution before going in, given that some of the jokes may seem insensitive or in poor taste in regards to gender presentation, sexuality and there are even some mild harrassment jokes that certainly made me roll my eyes.

Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line: I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I think through half of the show’s 25 episode run, I was convinced the title was actually Glory Road. It’s kind of anticlimactic that it’s called Glory Line if they don’t actually reach the final Goal btw. Anyway, I feel I say this a lot, but really, if you didn’t like the previous Yowapeda seasons, there’s nothing here for you, and if you did, you’re probably not gonna hop off this late in the game. This season does suffer from the same dragging than its predecessors, with the added issue of being quite pessimistic for no reason in about half the episodes, and a diminished presence for Onoda. I really wish they hadn’t dragged the Day 2 goal so long, I really hoped we’d see the end of the race, but no such luck I guess. Still love most of it and hope we get one more season or a movie to complete the story.

The favorites of the season

Golden Kamuy: In spite of its pacing issues, terrible animation and general clunkiness, I can’t help but love this show. When season 1 ended my feelings for it had mellowed quite a bit, but as soon as I picked up season 2 this Fall I just fell in love all over again. It’s fun, unique, over-the-top in some ways, incredibly grounded in others, and the dynamics between the characters are incredibly charming. 

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s hard to talk about this one because it feels repetitive, given how tonally the show remains just the same across its three seasons. It could’ve very well been a one-season, 36 episode show, for how little it changes in spite of the time that transpired between the first season and the second. But in short, the comedy continues to be as spot on as always, the Zashikiwarashi twins are the best addition to the cast. It’s definitely a show I could watch endless episodes off, and the rare case of an episodic series with no overarching plot that I can enjoy wholeheartedly. 

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card arc: Over the course of the series, I’ve expressed a few concerns and misgivings about how the story of this 20th anniversary sequel was playing out. The final episode was particularly troublesome in that it left the story unfinished in spite of deviating from the manga. In spite of this, more than anything I’m very happy that this continuation still retains what made the original so special, that they captured the magic behind Sakura’s “everything will be alright” spell and gave us the chance to spend more time with these beloved characters and see their stories continue. The slow but sweet development of Sakura and Syaoran’s puppy love is a definite highlight. Needs more Touya/Yukito and Yue in general.

Piano no Mori: This show got heavily overlooked because it was kidnapped by Netflix (pls stop immediately), and then when it was finally unceremoniously dumped a month or two ago, it came under fire for the wonky CGI during the piano scenes -and it is indeed very wonky-. But beyond that, I found the story very engaging, especially because Kai is such a fascinating protagonist, his intense rivalry-friendship with Megane-kun (sorry, it’s been six months, i can’t remember names) is exactly the type I can’t help but root for. Kai’s participation in the final episode gave me goosebumps. I’m very happy we’re getting a continuation,  can’t wait to see how the Chopin competition develops.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: Sweet, funny and absolutely delightful from start to finish, Wotakoi was easily one of the highlights of the season. Although there were some aspects about Cosplayer-senpai and Yuri Otaku-senpai’s (I’m really trying to remember the names, I’m sorry!! ;---;) that didn’t work for me -namely the izakaya segment- Narumi and Hirotaka more than made up for it with their clumsy yet adorable romance. I spent the entirety of the amusement park episode screeching. I really hope we get a continuation -and get a chance to see more of Hirotaka’s brother and his gamer friend too- and that in general we can get more anime about adult stories

Megalobox: Who would’ve thought that a show that wasn’t even in my radar before the season started would’ve end as one of my favorites, possibly of the year? Even as someone who’s only marginally acquainted with Ashita no Joe and has no interst in the sport of boxing, I was completely enthralled by the style and passion of this production. As I said a bit above, intense rivalries are very appealing to me, and the build up in the tension between Joe and Yuri was almost palpable, their mutual respect gave me chills. Definitely the surprise of the season, made even better by its optimistic happy ending to contrast with its predecessor’s tragedy. Megalobox is a unique anniversary project that is closer to an homage and it works perfectly. Definitely check it out.

That’s it for the Spring season! I hope i can do the summer season this weekend and maaaybe even my watchlist for the Fall season. Fingers crossed i won’t get swallowed up in other stuff :’D 

[popwasabi]

“Spider-man: Far From Home” Review: Spidey’s Euro Trip Keeps MCU Hype Alive

Directed by Jon Watts

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jacob Batalon

Considering “Spider-man: Far From Home” had the unenviable task of following up perhaps the greatest blockbuster/finale of all-time in “Avengers: Endgame” it’s shocking how great this film is from start to finish.

It has no right to be as endlessly entertaining without feeling like an afterthought in the wake of “Endgame’s” glorious finale yet here I am shocked at how much I loved this movie.

(Yeah own that shit, Spidey.)

It’s more than just a fun Spider-man romp, it’s genuinely a well-executed and engrossing superhero flick that will suck you in with its charm, thrills, and teenage rom-com joy.

“Spider-man: Far From Home” takes place not long after the events of “Endgame” as an inverse of the snap has occurred throughout Earth known as simply “the blip” where everyone who was snapped has suddenly come back into existence exactly as they were while those who weren’t snapped aged normally. Conveniently of course Peter Parker’s classmates, including his crush MJ, were snapped and subsequently blipped back and now they find themselves on a field trip to Europe where Peter hopes he can tell the girl he loves how he’s feeling. Of course things are never that simple as creatures known as The Elementals are wreaking havoc on planet and when a super powered man from another dimension named Quentin Beck shows up to stop them, Peter joins forces to help save the world once again.

“Spider-man: Homecoming” was a decent rebirth for the webslinger back in 2017, especially in the wake of the wretched “Amazing” series but even though elements of Peter Parker and Spider-man were there in Tom Holland’s portrayal I never felt he truly became either of them. He was a little too prone to quips, pop culture references and frankly had more in common with Miles Morales Spidey right down his fat Asian American best friend (which is a bit problematic). This isn’t to say “Homecoming” was a bad movie, in fact its easily a top 10 for the MCU, but it still felt like a Spidey flick that was just a bit off.

In “Far From Home” we finally, in my mind at least, get to see Holland really become your friendly neighborhood Spider-man but more importantly Peter Parker. Holland is more believably awkward in this film but nonetheless earnest and sincere, not reducing his lines to simple catchy one-liners but showing off more of the character’s personal emotional range. We even see more of the tech savy side that made the character one of the brightest young minds in the comic book. 

Peter becomes less of a joke machine in this film, understandably given that his surrogate father figure in Stark has died, and we get to see how this teenager grows into these huge shoes left behind. Its obviously a lot to live up to and the film plays off these emotions of the character well but though he doesn’t go as far as saving the universe he still has a hugely satisfying arc by the end of the film.

(I mean it’s a lot of pressure to live up to the mantle of a billionaire, playboy, philanthropist who just saved the universe.)

This is all happening of course while Peter is just trying to be a kid understandably and get closer to the girl he likes only complicating the teenage angst and often comedic emotions that are playing out in the story. The film balances all this perfectly though as it juggles being both a cute teen rom-com, a Spidey flick and a worthy follow-up to “Endgame” all in one.

It’s kind of nuts how well all these elements work in harmony with one another but the film is just plain delightful, exciting and even tense all the way through.

It’s the pitch perfect cast that gels all these elements together in symphonic tune. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon return and play their parts exquisitely between MJ and Ned respectively. Batalon does a a great job again playing Peter’s best friend delivering some of the film’s most humorous moments and their onscreen dynamic is a ton of fun to watch. There’s undeniable chemistry though between Zendaya and Holland who’s pairing will remind you of plenty of your favorite John Hughes movies. The two help make the whimsical teen rom-com element of the story function at pitch perfect frequency as the “will they, won’t they” dynamic between MJ and Peter is both cute and plenty of times equally hilarious. It might be the most believable teen romance depicted in a major blockbuster to date right down to the awkwardness and dry humored dialogue.

(OTP! OTP! OTP! #ImTrash)

It’s Jake Gyllenhaal’s turn as Quentin Beck aka Mysterio who (SPOILER, if you’ve been living under a rock) continues the new upward trend of quality MCU villains. Gyllenhaal’s Beck is charismatic as hell as the spurned ex-Stark Industries engineer looking to take revenge on the legacy of the late Iron Man. The way his character manipulates Peter, playing on his insecurities and emotions, is at times tense to watch in the best way. It’s nice to have a villain in these films that isn’t just a dark mirror of the hero and Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio, even with low bar set by older films in the franchise, goes above and beyond in this role.

The action is of course fun as always is still very much enjoyable here. The finale is definitely in the top tier of the MCU. The way Mysterio uses his illusion tech in the movie to fight Peter is probably the most imaginative this series has gotten when it comes to these big hero vs villain fights. Holland and Gyllenhaal do great here and viewers will likely enjoy every minute of their exchanges.

(Daaaaww, he isn’t so bad.)

There are no major criticisms I have here, other than perhaps the film still recycles a bunch of old ideas and themes from previous movies but the movie still finds a way to keep it mostly refreshing and the new setting for Spidey certainly helps as well. It’s a Spider-man film at the end of the day though and your enjoyment will probably be gauged on how much you care about seeing another movie starring the webslinger or if the MCU’s franchise fatigue has set in for you yet. Though after “Endgame” I was certainly expecting this movie to be merely just a fun but forgettable in the shadow of “Endgame” but much like this film’s hero it rises to the challenge and helps fill the big shoes left behind.

There’s a joy and energy that’s palpable in the script and the cast playing it out from start to finish that’ll be hard for even the most burnt out movie-goer to ignore. It’s a popcorn flick that rises well above the average and that should be more than enough for most viewers.

After “Endgame” it was hard to imagine how this series could possibly continue without feeling stale but somehow even just two months after its release it still feels like the MCU has plenty of stories left and energy to tell them too.

So amazingly the MCU still has a pulse even after its Iron hearted God father passed on and there is no reason for fans to believe, yet, that this series will run out of ways to entertain us anytime soon.

Not that will stop Disney from churning these films out until the end of time of course...huhah...

 VERDICT:

4.5 out of 5

Keep making dad proud, Spidey

[ladyloveandjustice]

Summer 2018 Anime I watched ranked from weakest to strongest

I watched six anime during the Summer 2018 anime season and I’ve now written full length reviews for each of them! So here my personal rankings of what I watched from weakest to strongest. Each anime title links to my in-depth review of said series, so feel free to click! For all the reviews at once, please see my anime overview tag here.

I wouldn’t call any of the anime on this list bad, nor would I give any a blanket anti-recommendation for any of them. It’s just some of these series were weaker than others in my opinion and there’s ups and downs and things to warn for. Hope you enjoy and find it useful!

Banana Fish (episodes 1-12)

Eiji meets a seventeen-year-old gangster named Ash Lynx on a trip to New York and is quickly pulled into a world of violence and conspiracies.

When we judge this series as an adaptation, its definitely the weakest thing I watched, because the modern update of this 80s manga is almost entirely superficial and that can be quite jarring. We’re supposed to believe this is set today, but the narrative is extremely 80s and some of the conversations the characters have don’t make much sense in a modern setting. Though the story is something that’s fascinating and valuable taken in the context of its place in the history of shoujo manga, removing it from that context doesn’t do it any favors.

There’s charm to both the characters and the sweetness of the romantic relationship between Ash and Eiji, but a lot of the content is both endlessly and melodramatically tragic and also potentially triggering. Definitely be prepared for a TON of rape, csa, abuse, violence and murder if you watch this. 

Phantom in the Twilight

Bailieu Ton arrives in London expecting an exciting college life, but instead ends up on a quest to rescue her best friend who has been kidnapped by demons. She finds allies in a gang of supernatural young men who were acquainted with her magically powerful great-grandmother.

While the plot is mediocre and the animation even moreso, this series shows its value in being an otome story that has a truly awesome leading lady. Ton is dynamic, self-possessed, has a strong friendship with another girl and she kicks a TON of ass. She has a fun relationship with her squad of boy-toys and is always on equal footing with them and the few times any of them try to act controlling they are called out hard.. So if you want a reverse-harem story/paranormal romance that features a more active heroine and jettisons the more toxic tropes that pervade the genre, this is a good choice, even if the narrative itself is nothing to write home about.

My Hero Academia (episodes 52-63)

Izuku Midoriya continues his quest to become the greatest superhero and takes his hero provisional license exams.

This is probably among the weakest arcs MHA has had so far, though it still has its fair share of entertaining and worthwhile moments, not to mention one truly excellent episode. The characters introduced at the very end of the season have potential too. Mostly it was an enjoyable enough watch, but definitely didn’t live up to the high-stakes thrills of the arc before it.

Cell at Work!

Anthropomorphized cells do their best to keep the body they inhabit alive and well. 

This is an extremely cute edutainment show. It’s nothing mindblowing, and the narration can be a bit much, but if you want an adorable, fun time that teaches you a little something about the human body, this is a good choice. Also I want to marry NK Cell.

Planet With

Soya Kuroi is an amnesiac boy living with with a weird cat monster and a cheerful but mysterious girl dressed like a maid and his life gets even stranger when he’s told to jump in a giant robot and  fight the local superheroes.

These 12 episodes contained more plot and climatic moments than a lot of anime has in 50 episodes and despite the breakneck pace and huge amount of events packed in, it was extremely cohesive and solid story throughout. The characters were lovable and varied, there was a loft of thematic heft to the series exploration of pacifism and freedom vs justice and security, it was goofy and weird while also being emotional heartbreaking at times...I definitely recommend this show. It’s the full Wacky Space Mecha Anime experience in a compact package. Also, it has cool ladies.

Revue Starlight

Karen Aijou is doing her best at her Takarazuka theatre school, only for everything to change when her childhood friend Hikari suddenly transfers in. She follows Hikari down a mysterious elevator and discovers her friend is engaged in a bizarre swordfight competition to become the “Top Star”, preceeded over by a talking giraffe.

If you love Takarazuka, theatre, sword fights,lesbians, weird metaphors, Revolutionary Girl Utena and other Ikuhara work or all of the above, I definitely recommend this show.. The series surreally and smartly explores Takarazuka, show biz and adolescence with lots of creative, beautifully animated musical fight scenes and contains a lot of twists and turns along the way. While I think it could have stood to be a bit longer, more in-depth and bit stronger with its characters, it’s definitely a series that’s fun to analyze and I’ve enjoyed a lot of the discussion that’s come out of it (see some linked in my review). Strap in for a wild ride and enjoy one of the Top Stars of the season.

[ryanmeft]

Ranking the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Part 1

The culmination of the superhero ride that started with Iron Man back in 2008 is almost here. Avengers: Endgame tickets are selling out fast even though the movie is nearly three weeks away, and speculation as to how this stage of Marvel’s box office juggernaut will all end is at a fever pitch. What better time to rank the movies that have brought us here? Now, no one with even a tiny bit of objectivity sincerely believes Marvel had a ten year plan and executed it precisely according to a grand vision. Looking back through these movies makes it clearer than ever that, more often than not, they made it up as they went along. In fact, considering all the retcons, changed minds, dropped plot threads and unexpected surprises, it’s amazing the continuity holds together at all. It mostly does...but the bottom part of this list contains the few movies even Marvel’s PR team probably wishes they could have a mulligan on, as well as some good-but-not-quite-lighting-the-world-on-fire fare. Let’s get to it. Warning: this article contains spoilers for nearly every movie in the MCU.

21. Iron Man 2

The red-headed stepchild of the MCU. After the surprise success of the original Iron Man, Marvel Studios apparently forgot that the strength of that film was allowing Jon Favreau and the writing team to put heart before brand synergy, and decided to make a movie that was half marketing for their planned Avengers crossover. Dropping Black Widow in here felt completely jarring, and it didn’t help that her role just added to the jumble of plot threads that didn’t seem to add up to anything; at the time, many saw it as proof that Marvel was putting a little too much faith in their ability to pull off this whole crossover thing. That’s only part of the sordid story, though, because the movie is also a mess in nearly every other way. Rather than the tight plotting of the original, this one sees Tony, Rhodey, Pepper and the rest speeding from random situation to random situation---a car race, an unhinged party, a spy caper---with only the barest of plot threads holding it all together. The movie’s only saving graces are the villains played by Sam Rockwell and Mickey Rourke. Each of them deliciously devours every scene they are in, providing the film’s lone moments of enjoyment, but they’re also squandered on what feels like an extremely low stakes plan. Iron Man so well proved that superhero movies can have a soul that it even managed to make some critical best-of lists for 2008. The sequel made us wonder if that might have been a tad premature.

20. The Incredible Hulk

There are some genuinely creative moments in this action-oriented “apology” for the in-reality-pretty-good Ang Lee Hulk movie. The opening sequence showing how Hulk’s blood travels, a chase through a Brazilian favela, tossing Bruce out of a helicopter to incite his other half, and the almost-love scene aborted by the alter ego were signs of how clever the movie could have been if it were not focused on cramming in as much smashing as possible. Nick Nolte’s complex antagonist is replaced with William Hurt chewing a little too much scenery, the new super-villain played by Tim Roth is a dull waste of the actor’s talent, the finale is listless, and the entire movie is just one long excuse to show Hulk ‘roiding out as much as possible. The camera work of skilled action veteran Peter Menzies Jr. and some excellent CG on the title character make it more fun to look at than many of the tights flicks of the time, which is something. As a general rule, things that are made to chase fleeting audience sentiments don’t stand the test of time, and there’s been a quiet reversal since 2008 in which Lee’s more original and creative vision for the character has come to be re-evaluated, while this one has been almost forgotten and relegated to endless TNT re-runs. Maybe with Mark Ruffalo having one more movie on his contract, he’ll get a crack at doing it right post-Endgame.

19. Thor: The Dark World At the time, this movie served as iron-clad proof that the only reason the Thor character worked at all was Loki. The god of mischief is at his delicious then-best here, conniving from a prison cell, partnering with his brother out of genuine concern, and eventually managing to actually take the throne. Sure, that latter development was quickly undone in the next film, but what a parting shot. He’s the only aspect of the movie that fully works, and if you pop it in today you sit patiently waiting for his scenes and snoring through the second, Loki-free half of the movie. Thor himself is lifeless when Loki’s not on screen. The Warriors Three are still nowhere near the right balance of humor and bravery. Natalie Portman remains wasted on a supposedly genius scientist who can nevertheless be stunned into immediate silence by Thor’s golden locks, while Sif is still 100% unnecessary in every way. Perhaps worst of all, the underrated Christopher Eccleston is miscast as a villain who always seems to be doing bad Shakespeare. We all tried hard to forgive it at the time (and director Alan Taylor claims it was made “a different movie” in the editing room, not at all implausible) but thankfully we’ve since admitted this is mostly a misfire.

18. Ant-Man

If you were to judge Ant-Man entirely by the size-changing shenanigans, it would be one of the best Marvel movies. Peyton Reed, building off a script by departing director Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish (and tidied up by Rudd and Adam McKay) gets a ton of mileage out of the novelty of being the size of an insect, from outrunning a flood in a bathtub to that rather brilliant final confrontation in a child’s playroom, using toys as ammo. Further, Paul “I Am Immortal” Rudd is pitch-perfect in the title role, while Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly bring a lot to the picture. It’s in the details where Ant-Man falls a bit short (pun intended). To start, we have a single major Hispanic character in the MCU, played by the frankly more-legendary-than-you-think Michael Pena, and he’s reduced to a fast-talking stereotype. Judy Greer and Bobby Cannavale are also worlds better than their roles, which are, respectively, a cliche shrewish ex-wife and a cliche over-suspicious cop. What really drags things down, though, is the lackluster villain, who may be the most inert black hole in the MCU’s rogues gallery. He is neither good enough to engage us, nor bad enough to hate. He could have been played by a grip, for all the personality he’s allowed. The core of the film is delightful. The hill around it is crumbly.

17. Captain Marvel

Marvel’s first female-led flick is understandably a phenomenon, pulling down the sixth-largest opening weekend of all time and serving as inspiration to young girls and target to the kind of people who don’t want women in their clubhouse. So what about the movie that’s causing all this hullabaloo? It’s pretty decent. The movie can be summed up very succinctly as “safe”. It takes few chances and is more like one small step than one giant leap for womankind. Had it been released during the early superhero boom, it would still be fondly remembered as a major link in the genre’s evolution. As it is, it borrows from the buddy-cop subgenre to create what is essentially an adventure/sci-fi movie between Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. It stands out more as a callback to the kind of action pics made in the 90’s (when it is set) than the heavily marketed shared universe of the MCU, and includes standout performances from Annette Bening, Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn. It meets expectations; it does not exceed them, and if you are a fan of the distinctive style practiced by directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, you won’t find it here. It’s only a month old, and it may be too soon to definitely say how it will be seen as time goes on. Right now, it feels more like a solid first step for the character than a fully realized final destination.

16. Thor

The original Thor has some completely solid, indisputable charms. Chris Hemsworth does physical comedy much more skillfully than he is ever given credit for, it is the debut of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the third act is a rare-at-the-time case of inventiveness in an MCU finale, and it’s always great to see Stellan Skarsgard in literally anything. I would watch two hours of Stellan Skarsgard eating lunch, with a clone of Stellan Skarsgard. His drinking scene with Thor is a seriously underrated bit of awesome. It helps make up for the fact that the movie has no idea what to do with most of the supporting cast, including in part Loki, who at this stage seems to flail around between personalities, having crazy forced on him in time for the final duel despite it not even being hinted at earlier. It’s as if director Kenneth Branagh just let him do his own thing, and Hiddleston’s not 100% sure what that should be yet. The mirror scene is objectively amazing, but he won’t really come into his own until Avengers. The Warriors Three are utterly wasted; Branaugh and the writers just never nail the right combo of comedy and camaraderie needed to pull them off. Sif is superfluous. Natalie Portman is one of the finest actors of our generation, here reduced to goggling over Thor’s pecs. It’s not bad, especially compared to some of the dreck that gets pumped out of the blockbuster machine. It’s just rather inert.

That’s it for part 1. I’m  going to be doing some Marvel/Superhero/General Nerd content leading up to Endgame’s release. Check back next Friday for part 2 of this list, and pop by Monday for part 1 of my predictions on the fate of each character in Endgame. Part 2: https://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/184208179827/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-part-2 Part 3: https://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/184372777282/ranking-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-part-3