#but if you want other options the DVDs and Blu-Rays are still available

[black-klok-youth-pastor]

Two days left to watch it on HBO Max folks. Probably gonna watch Doomstar Requiem at least one more time, seems oddly appropriate with the title.

[major-comet]

The Best Red vs Blue Watch Order Guide Ever. Of All Time.

So. You want to watch Red vs Blue, huh? Maybe you read my long post about how it's so weirdly incredible yet impossible to recommend and now you want to give it a shot. Or maybe you have seen the show before, but it's been a long time and/or you didn't watch any of the mini-series or anything and want to give it another go. Either way, looking at a show with a 21 year history is kind of daunting, and you have no idea where to start.

Well luckily for you, I've done the work for you.

This watch guide will cover all 19 seasons of the main show, most of the mini-series, and some of the PSA's and other such bonus content. There will be links provided for where you can watch everything I talk about. This Google Drive (from reddit u/Exitity, unsure if they also have a tumblr) has all of the individual episode uploads, and most of the stuff I'm going to be talking about, although I'm trying to use YouTube links wherever I can. Any links will be colored in light blue for additional visibility.

Couple of quick things before we begin.

When possible, watch the individual episode uploads rather than the "complete" editions. The "Completes", while they may provide a more streamlined viewing experience by cutting out all of the bumpers and outros and such, accomplish this by cutting out a lot of jokes. RvB has a lot of jokes that happen during the fade to black at the end of an episode, and a lot of those get lost in the edits. There's also some things that just straight up get cut for seemingly no reason. Side note, the DvD/Blu-Ray versions seem perfectly fine, and honestly are even better to watch than the individual episodes if you have them. They're like a best of both worlds - adding some extra music and such (ESPECIALLY in the first 5 seasons) that really helps make a nice presentation of the show. If that's an option available to you, I recommend it. Otherwise, stick with the individual episodes.

At the end of each entry in the list, I may present a Side Quest section. This will include anything I feel you should watch that isn't necessarily canon, but helps add some extra life to the series. This may include some behind the scenes stuff or a selection of the PSA's and the non-canon mini-series. This stuff can be really great for building out the characters in a way that doesn't necessarily affect the greater story, and can especially be good for interactions between characters that maybe don't interact much in the main show. Anything I put in a Side Quest is strictly optional, but will add to your viewing experience. Obviously, there's a lot more bonus material than what I'm putting here. I'm just putting down some of the highlights. And if you end up liking the PSAs and such then just know: there's so much more for you to explore.

Early RvB is very much a product of it's time, and sometimes you'll get hit with a line that stops you dead in your tracks. Adult-oriented comedies can always be a minefield, and RVB's roots as a show made for Halo fans in 2003 definitely don't help. However, while this is the most common in the first five seasons, it never really stops being an issue. The purpose of this guide is simply for watch order, but if you have any specific trigger-related questions about any season of rvb please feel free to shoot me an ask or even a DM - i'm more than happy to help.

Okay, let's begin, breaking it down by arc.

The Blood Gulch Chronicles

You may hear people telling you to skip the first five seasons of the show and just pick up with Season 6. Those people are lying to you and do not have your best interests at heart. The first five seasons are pretty much strictly comedy, and from Season 6 onward the show starts to explore deeper themes and stories while still falling back on that comedic foundation. Skipping straight to the deeper stuff doesn't work very well IMO, because those five seasons are spent getting to know the characters we're going to be following for the rest of the show. The stuff that happens in Blood Gulch never stops being important - whether it's side characters showing back up again later on, or laying the foundation for a lot of the moments and story lines that make some of the later seasons so special.

Anyways, the watch order.

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Out of Mind - Mini-series

Season 5

Blood Gulch Side Quests

Tattoo Point/Counterpoint - Season 1 PSA

A Message to the Science Community - Season 2 PSA

Real Life VS. The Internet - Season 2 PSA

All of the deleted scenes, honestly, but This One in particular because asphodel and I quote it all the time.

The Outtakes/Bloopers - I'm not gonna put the link for these and the deleted scenes for every arc, but just know that you should watch them after every season/arc. There's some great stuff in there.

The Season 5 Alternate Endings

Either watch it Now, or after you watch the finale, but I highly recommend the 2003 Season 1 DVD Commentary. It's just Burnie (Church/Lopez/Vic) and Geoff (Grif), and it's really nice.

If you've ever watched any behind the scenes stuff for RvB or even rooster teeth as a whole, you have almost certainly seen This Clip, which is a behind the scenes of the voice recording for Grif and Simmons' lines in episode 1.

The Recollection

Recovery One - Mini-series

Season 6 - Reconstruction

Relocated - Mini-series

Season 7 - Recreation

Season 8 - Revelation

Recollection Side Quests

First! - Season 6 PSA

Small Rewards - Season 6 PSA

Rock the Vote and Rock the Veto - PSAs made to encourage RvB viewers to register to vote. Which at the time you could do on your xbox 360. These are here mostly as a "wtf" historical piece.

Halo-Ween - Season 7 PSA

Valentine's Day - Season 7 PSA

Fire Safety: Where There's Smoke... - Season 7 PSA. genuinely one of the best.

Holiday Plans - Mini-series

The Reach PSA series - Three parts total, only part one is linked.

Project Freelancer Saga

Season 9

Technically there's two mini-series that take place during Season 9 - being M.I.A. and Where There's a Will, There's a Wall. I really love them, and would recommend watching them after S9, but if you really want to roll into S10 you won't miss much. Weirdly there's a place later on that would be a great spot to circle back to these, but I'll save that for later.

Season 10

Project Freelancer Side Quests

This is a great spot to circle back to older side quests you may have skipped, btw.

The Season 10 Table Read BTS - Season 10 was the first time they ever did a full cast table read for the show, and it's cool to see a few snippets from it and hear the crew talk about it.

Matt Hullum Talks to Himself - watch this after M.I.A. it's a live table read of part of the script, with a focus on a conversation between Sarge and Doc (who have the same voice actor)

This 10 Year Retrospective that was put out around Season 10. Watching it now, knowing that they were about halfway through the lifespan of the show / company gives it a whole new perspective.

RT Oz - PSA

Remember Not to Forget and Voting Fever - PSAs made to promote the launch of Halo 4. Voting Fever is one of the Best Ever (and listen to the full version of That's How Voting Works afterwards!)

This Interview between Burnie and Trocadero talking about the music the band has done for the show. This playlist also has a bunch of other behind the scenes and other such bonus stuff from the DVDs and Blu-Rays, it's great to keep around.

The Chorus Trilogy

Season 11

The Chorus Journal Entries - Only three have fully machinimated versions, the last one is just the log entry. Bridges the gap between 11 and 12

Season 12

Season 13

Chorus Trilogy Side Quests

#1 Movie in the Galaxy - PSA

Getting Away From it All - PSA

#1 Movie in the Galaxy: 2 - PSA

Uh. I think the RvB Holiday Special goes here

Matt Hullum (Sarge) reading an excerpt from 50 Shades of Gray at a book signing.

Season 14 - Anthology

I get it: not everyone loves the Anthology format. I truly do recommend watching all of it at least once - or if you haven't in a long time. My only Side Quests are to say that this is the perfect time to go back to M.I.A. and WTAWTAW if you skipped them after season 9, and that if you skipped the #1 Movie In the Galaxy PSAs during Chorus, watch them now before the third one, which is in this season.

The Shisno Trilogy (seasons 15, 16, and 17)

Season 15

Season 16 - The Shisno Paradox

Season 17 - Singularity

Shisno Side Quests (this is taken from our survey data because it's been so long since I've watched much of any shisno-related stuff)

Hard Truths - PSA

Diversity - PSA

Cultural Appreciation - PSA

Lopez's Technical Guide to Empathy - PSA

Unreal Estate - PSA

Caboose's Guide to Finding Your Home - sequel to the Guide to Making Friends from season 14

RvB: Zero + Family Shatters

okay so here's the deal. If by this point, you're really just interested in the characters you've been watching for the past 17 seasons and not so much the story or anything - you may not get much from watching Zero. I do think it's interesting to watch, if only because I think it's got a lot of missed potential. Zero is not served well by being a season of RvB, I think I would have liked it a lot more if it were stand-alone, though that doesn't fix all of my issues with it. If you wanna jump straight to the series finale, you absolutely can. It's a pretty short watch, though, and I've heard that Family Shatters was better. I'll watch that one at some point.

Zero

Family Shatters - spinoff

Restoration

This is it! The series finale.

I'm not doing this with an other season (though I do recommend going back and watching all the teasers and trailers at some point), but before you watch the finale you should watch The First Trailer For It. I think it sets up the season really well, and helps make some of the rushed set-up exposition in Restoration make a little bit more sense. honestly this should just be considered the first scene of the finale. Then watch the finale, and then you are done with all of the main show of Red VS Blue. Go forth, and be free.

Final Side Quest

I'm putting anything that came out in the nebulous time between Zero and the finale in here. I'll come back and edit this once we find out what on earth is going to be on the Blu-Ray.

Offensive Driving

First Person Tutor

Moving Out

The Video RT Made to Announce Master Chief and Blood Gulch Were Coming To Fortnite. This played at the game awards and my soul almost left my body

This is also where I'll put QvsA, which is the Grimmons mini-series, though I haven't actually watched it myself yet. They're all on youtube.

My all-time favorite RvB fan edit - doesn't actually have any clips post-anthology, but I think the end is a great time to watch it.

If none of this makes sense, or you just have any questions at all - I am More than happy to help answer your queries. I hope this helps :) Also if any of the links are broken please let me know.

[getvalentined]

What’s your opinions of the various ffvii compilation games?

Oh I am a huge proponent of the Compilation as a whole; I know that opinion is rare for someone who's been in the fandom from the beginning, but I'm an insufferable lore gremlin and I just eat up everything the series has to offer. I have three different copies of Advent Children (the original on DVD, ACC on DVD, and ACC on blu-ray) and even still watch Last Order on occasion.

The series itself is really fascinating and staggeringly consistent (I've talked about how the implied timeline of the Jenova Project as presented in-game is so consistent that it matches up with real-world human gestational science), with the exception of the FF7Re series—which I can deal with, since it's canonically on a different timeline and therefore any retcons there are literal in-universe retcons, which is pretty brilliant.

That said, I'mma put ratings for the pieces of the Compilation individually under a cut!

OG FF7: 9/10. would be 10/10 if the English localization were better. Where it all started, still one of my favorite games of all time.

Advent Children (+Complete): 8/10. Not a game, but part of the Compilation! Anyone who says the plot makes no sense doesn't realize that they're watching a sequel that relies very heavily on people understanding the history and characterization of every single character shown.

Last Order: 6.5/10. Also not a game, also part of the Compilation. Love that this is implied to literally be Tseng's coverup of what happened with Zack, presented in anime form. Makes no sense in multiple places as a result, but if you know that's what it is then you can 100% see why it's portrayed that way! Honestly I really enjoyed it and wish more people would appreciate it for what it is.

Dirge of Cerberus: 7/10. The gameplay kinda sucks but honestly the storyline is super good—or it would be, if the entire fucking prologue hadn't been cut from any release outside Japan, thereby leaving the entire issue with DeepGround completely unexplained to all other audiences. Once you know what is going on, the storyline here is fantastic, and I've never really forgiven SE for not releasing the rest of it. I love that Dirge fills in the lore for Vincent that was cut when he was relegated to "optional" in the OG, and that it also helps to clarify why Midgar could have 9 functional mako reactors while every other reactor in the world is either sputtering to nothing or exploding. (It's Omega. Midgar is built over Omega. It's the place where all lines of the Lifestream converge so that Omega can draw it all in and carry it away at the end of the world, and Shinra never discovered that's why the mako well there is so expansive. I love good worldbuilding, and Dirge is a beautiful example of that.)

Before Crisis: N/A. I want this game so bad man where is it give it to meeeee. Honestly tho I've watched playthroughs and read scripts where available, and while I don't think it looks like much fun from a modern gameplay perspective, I have huge respect for it as far as development goes. This is one of the first really mainstream mobile games ever made, it was made for flip phones, and it's super extensive! Also it gave me Veld, who is one half of my favorite ship ever, which means it automatically gets a 7/10 even if I've never played it.

Crisis Core (+Reunion): 9/10. As fun to play as the OG. When I first played this on PSP over a decade ago, it hit me with such an intense feeling of nostalgia that it almost took me off my feet. In spite of the dramatic difference between game mechanics in CC versus the OG, it felt exactly like playing the OG again, and that feeling never really left. Humanized Sephiroth in a beautiful way that pissed off a bunch of fanboys and made me fall in love with him all over again. Also introduced my second favorite FF7 character ever, Genesis, who is one half of one of my core FF7 ships, so A+ on that too!

FF7 Remake (+InterMISSION): 8/10. Had a lot of fun with this one, and it's beautiful, but it doesn't have a lot of replayability in my experience, which is a shame. Would have been 6 or 7/10 if not for InterMISSION, which was a fucking delight.

FF7 First SOLDIER: 6/10. This applies to both the Battle Royale and the title in Ever Crisis. I am not a fan of Glenn & Co. but I love 14 year old Sephiroth and really appreciate that extension of lore and worldbuilding, so it's a decent balance. I love that the opening cutscene for the battle royale literally filled a 20+ year old plot hole in under two minutes.

FF7 Rebirth: 9.5/10. The only things that could make me like this game more would be if Vincent were playable (although I understand why he's not and, in spite of him being my favorite fictional character ever, I agree with this decision), and fewer required minigames. Just cut like one or two. Or fix the controls, maybe. Glide de Chocobo is even more broken now that it's been patched.

[roguemaki]

Thank you for sharing the materials from the Fest BluRay!! Now I actually want to get it but do you happen to know if I order it now from Amazon Japan would I still get the Sulemio poster or was it only for the preorders? Thank you again!

Hey, you're welcome! ^-^

The BD edition with the Amazon exclusive SuleMio poster is still available:

Just make sure you pick the Amazon.co.jp限定特装限定版 (Amazon.co.jp Limited Special Edition) option. You should see the poster in the preview thumbnails along with the other package contents and the title of the item should contain スレッタ＆ミオリネ 使用A3クリアポスター付き (A3-size Suletta & Miorine clear poster included).

Enjoy - it's a really nicely put together package. 👍

[coolstrawberriesandchocolatebars]

So, Roku doesn't have Heathers The Musical anymore.

I saw something on TikTok about it no longer being there, so I went to double check for myself, and that video was right.

Currently, there is a DVD/Blu-ray available for the ProShot, which is good, people can still watch it. However, there's a problem with that. From what I see, it's region locked so it won't play on certain DVD players.

I could tell because it wanted me to go to UK Amazon and when I said no, I didn't get a listing, plus the cover has the UK rating system on it. This is good for UK fans of Heather's The Musical who want to watch the West End production because tickets are either out of their price range or no longer sold/not touring in their area.

However for everyone else outside of the UK who really like this musical, they don't have that luxury, and will have to settle for "Slime Tutorials"; and while that'll be an option, it's not a permanent fix as copyright could claim the video, it could be split up into multiple parts, audio/visual quality could be pretty bad, etc.

So, I really do hope that either :

A) it's put back on Roku/any other streaming service in ALL regions, so everyone can access it much like Hamilton on Disney plus (with minor censorship of two f-bombs as... it's Disney and back then by the time of Hamilton's release, the highest rating was a PG-13, but luckily you can mute the TV and play the soundtrack at the same time to hear it fully).

And/Or B) the DVD is produced in every other region/is region free so anyone can buy it and watch it.

Making stuff unavailable towards certain audiences isn't the way to draw in both old and new fans. Not everyone can afford to see shows live, especially if it's in another country, and much like Phantom of The Opera, we don't know how long the show can go on.

[alexisnoir]

I ordered something out of curiosity

Okay, so I'm not a stranger to fakes. I have being sold a few of those in my time, usually popular box sets or Disney movies. The biggest fake was Game of Thrones S1-S7 Boxset. Those usually have a official release that is copied and sold as authentic one.

With this TV-Show we only have one original release for season 1.

Season 2 has not yet being released. It's only available on streaming platform.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT SUPPORT THIS IN ANY WAY. THIS WAS BOUGHT FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. IN OTHER WORDS - HOW GOOD FAKE IS IT. I'M STILL WAITING FOR AN OFFICIAL RELEASE!!!

What you're about to see is probably - most likely not news to anyone who simply knows of this kind of thing existing.

Below you'll see pictures and screenshots. I do have a video taken of the MENU but due to a copyrighted video and music I won't post it here. I simply took the video so I could do screenshots since PowerDVD won't let me do it in the program itself.

The first and second picture shows the front and the back of the Blu-ray box with plastic covering.

The third picture shows the inside of the box with the plastic covering taken off. The discs are numbered but you can tell instantly they are home made. Not just the picture on the discs but the readable part. It's as if you took a Blu-ray and burned a TV show on it yourself.

As you can see in the first picture of the "MENU", we have a big grammatical error. Instead of SETUP we have SUTEP. After we are redirected to that part of the menu, we have languages and subtitles available. They work.

When we click on EPISODE we are redirected to the menu with 3 episodes that have only Chinese titles without English equivalent. However you can easily tell by the moving miniatures which episode is which. Also there is an option, play all which simply starts Season 2 with episode 1.

The title screen for Amazon Prime pops up, obviously, and then the episode starts.

You will notice the timestamp on the last picture: 2 hours and 26 minutes. Yep, they are merged as a one big episode but don't worry. They have their Amazon Prime and post credits included so you won't have to watch it as a one big episode.

They work and that is the most surprising thing because I was sure I'd be contacting the seller or the platform to request a refund. I still will since as you know selling a illegal copy is - illegal!

Conclusion:

This is a bootleg, illegal copy that I bought simply because I was curious. I don't need it since I do have Amazon Prime membership, MAX, Netflix and Disney, Apple TV+. I have all of them subscribed.

I do buy DVD's and Blu-rays because I want to have a copy in case a show or a movie gets pulled from any of those platforms. So I hope Amazon Prime learns from this and simply releases the show officially.

That won't stop those who copy the discs. They will do that no matter what but I don't want to pay THEM to have the show on my shelf and to watch it whenever I want and in my old years in 50+ years!

I want to pay Amazon to have my show on the shelf. Same with MAX. Release the KRAKEN - Our Flag Means Death 2 seasons on DVD and Blu-ray.

[iwaizumisbabe]

EX-GIRLFRIEND; Sugawara K.

NAVIGATION | RULES | MAIN MASTERLIST

← HAIKYUU MASTERLIST

→ in which Kōshi thinks that you are cheating on him because of bad experience with his ex-girlfriend

→ Sugawara Kōshi x gn!Reader

→ hurt/comfort; drama; happy ending/fluff

→ cheating(?), to be used

→ 2k

»Well, Suga? Do you already know when (y/n) is coming?«, asked the captain, who was also his best friend.

»They wanted to be there 15 minutes ago, but you know what the traffic is like at that time …«, Kōshi answered him.

»Yes you are right. I hope they’ll find a little time for me on the weekend, after all, we haven’t seen each other in ages. I want to know what happened to the little one«, laughing and with a goodbye on his lips he left the changing room and Sugawar finally started to change. His thoughts, which revolved around Daichi and (y/n), left him no peace.

As the student left the locker room he could hear roaring laughter from the hall. So he turned his face to the source of the noise to see his partner with his best friend. Daichis arm was wrapped around their shoulders and (y/n)'s hand was around his waist for support. This image burned into Kōshi's brain like no other before. He stopped in the middle of his movement. Damn it, what’s that supposed to be? How can they do that?

Terrible memories flickered in his mind’s eye and there was only one option left in his head: Get away from here!

↳ time skip 𖦹

»(Y/n)-senpai, what are you doing here? We haven’t seen each other in ages!«, a very familiar voice called from across the hall.

»Tanaka, how often? You should let go of this idiotic politeness!«, you turned to him.

»Holy kami-sama; stand by me! Tanaka Ryūnosuke, what the hell did you do with your hair?«, the brown-haired next to you had to laugh.

»Right, you didn’t know anything about it. Shortly after you switched schools, Tanaka shaved off his hair and has been doing it ever since«, you had to recover from your brief shock, but then you took a closer look at the younger student.

»You shocked me. But on second glance, you look really good with it«, you smiled slightly at him, »To get back to your question … I’m waiting for Kōshi, he’s still changing.«

A confused look spreads across Tanaka’s face: »Are you sure? On the way here he ran towards me; towards the parking lot«, Daichi and yourself exchanged looks and started running at the same time.

»Thanks Tanaka. We’ll definitely see each other again at the training camp with Nekoma!«, you screamed before you finally left the hall.

You couldn’t find your boyfriend in the parking spot, the same could be said of his car. You tried to reach him on his phone, but to no avail; he just let the phone ring - all the way to his mailbox.

»What’s going on with Kōshi all of a sudden? Why does he just leave me here - without saying anything?«, Daichi shrugged, »I have no Idea…«

»And what do I do now?«, it came out of your mouth.

»You come to me first. I’m sure, my parents don’t mind. Apparently something upset him. It must have been really bad when he just ran away without a word… I’ll drive you to him tomorrow, okay? When he has cooled down a bit.«

»Thank you, Daichi. What would I do without you?«, you smiled at him.

»For you always, small-chan«, he returned.

»Sometimes I really hate you I’m not that small at all, asshole!«, you mumbled.

»Did you say something I understand you so badly from up here«, apparently he thought his joke was so good that he doubled over to laugh.

»Idiot, and he became captain…«

↳ time skip 𖦹

»Look, I found some ice cream in the freezer«, grinning, the volleyball player almost held the cup in your face.

»Thank you, Daichi. That’s exactly what I need now…«

»What movie do you want to see?«, he went to the shelf with the DVDs and Blu-rays, »Wait, let me guess… (y/fav movie)?«, you rolled my eyes demonstratively.

»How did you know?«, together you watched the film that you had already seen as children with Kōshi… Kōshi..., it went through your head. I hope he’s fine, maybe I should… so he knows I’m fine.

Why am I so nice? He just left me there…

You picked up your phone, which was on the dresser next to the couch and took a picture of Daichi’s television in front of which he was sitting. You also tagged the volleyball player and wrote Childhood memories on it before you posted it. During the movie you both were gossiping a bit and Daichi told you all that you had missed. Shortly before the end of the film, you fell asleep - your thoughts on Sugawara.

↳ time skip 𖦹

»Hey, (y/n). Wake up!«, you just grumbled.

»Come on, Crackhead. It’s already 10 o'clock and I promised Kiyoko that I would help her with the papers from the club, so get up. We still have half an hour«, you remembered where you was and why. Kōshi, right… There was something.

Together you both got ready, ate breakfast and went to Daichi’s car.

»You know, Daichi… I was rather worried yesterday, but now I’m angry again. I mean, how can he just leave me like that? I’m his partner and haven’t seen him in over a month; I missed him, really. And he just runs away… What did I do that he left me like this?«

»Since the Akki thing, I just don’t know what’s going on in his head. But I’m sure he had a good reason for it. He loves you, he would never leave you just like that for no reason«, although Daichi had never found out what exactly had happened between Sugawara and Akki, he had always an inkling that it was nothing good.

»Yes, you’re right… maybe…«, so the conversation was over and the rest of the ride was in silence.

↳ time skip 𖦹

»So here we are!«, the closer the car got to the house, the angrier you got again. You didn’t even really know why. Surely Kōshi had a reasonable explanation for his behavior - at least you hoped.

»Thanks for driving, Daichi!«, you got out, »I hope to see you again soon«, with that you closed the door of the car and ran up the four flights of stairs to the front porch of the house. From the left jacket pocket you took your key ring on which the key to the Kōshi’s front door was hanging. Your emotional chaos had gone down a bit again. God, do I have mood swings or something?

You opened the door, took off your jacket, street shoes and the slippers that were meant for you, on. Then you went into the living room in which you found your boyfriend. Wrapped in a blanket with deep, dark circles under the eyes and a half-empty bottle of sake next to him.

»What’s going on here?! Besides, tell me, what are you thinking about letting me stand all alone at this goddamn gym at night?!«, you shouted at him, completely disconcerted. Sugawara, however, just looked at you monotonously.

»Do you think I wanted to watch Daichi and you flirt, or what?«, he asked quietly, starting in front of him on the black screen of the television.

»Kōshi, what the fuck are you talking about?«, you asked pissed off and sat down on the other end of the couch.

»In the end you slept with him too, didn’t you? That was your fucking plan from the start!«, now you didn’t understand anything anymore. Did I say anything to Daichi yesterday that Kōshi could have misunderstood?

»You just wanted to get to him, didn’t you? You got what you wanted so go back to him again! Get lost!«, an idea occurred to you, you were pretty sure what caused his behavior. You moved closer to him so that your knees were almost touching, which made him look even more annoyed.

»Did he reject you, or why are you here, (y/n)?«, his words were getting really ugly.

»Kōshi, stop saying that… you know this is not true«, now he looked at you a little confused, as if Suga didn’t know how to react.

»Come here and we’ll talk«, he wouldn’t refuse your offer, you were sure of that. Kōshi hated arguments and if he was honest with himself he also knew that you were never hitting on Daichi.

After a moment he came out of the blanket and you took him in your arms. You slowly let yourself fall back while you gently ran a hand through his hair.

»Is it because of Akki?«, you asked directly.

Akki was Suga’s girlfriend in there third year of middle school and still a little in there first year of high school. The problem was, none of you all had seen that this little bitch was really only interested in Daichi.

Even in the first year of middle school she was into him, but couldn’t get close, so she tried to make friends with me, which unfortunately worked. When Daichi still showed no interest, she just turned to Kōshi. At some point, the gray-haired one and you noticed that Akki was almost drooling after Daichi… Of course, Suga confronted her with the hope that everything was okay after all. Well, it wasn’t.

She yelled at him. Said she would hate him and find him disgusting. How naive and stupid he could be, she asked him. Akki said things like: I was only taking advantage of you, no one will ever love you if they can have Daichi and so on. I noticed a few things, but not a lot, because I just came into the house with the spare key.

Suga had changed a lot since then. At first he felt betrayed by Daichi, but after a short time he understood that it was not his best friend’s fault.

Lost in your thoughts, you hardly noticed your boyfriend nod.

»Damn, Suga! I am not your ex…«, you grumbled at him. I really don’t want to be compared to this weird lunatic.

»I know, I don’t want to say that either, but yesterday… Everything just came up, (y/n). I don’t know what was going on either… You both suddenly looked so close. It wasn’t up to you, I… I…«, he was slowly beginning to realize how stupid his reaction was.

»Suga, Daichi and I are friends. I’ve known him a lot longer than you do. If I had feelings for him, I shouldn’t have used you for it. I haven’t seen him in a long time. We just talked to each other and laughed a little«, you explained to him and ran your hand down to his back because you knew exactly how much Kōshi liked that.

»You had your arm like this and then he had…«, he suddenly fell silent to take a short breath, »I just don’t want this to happen again. I really love you. And I know you’re not Akki, but somehow it got so stuck in my head… I can’t help it, I’m sorry, honestly. Please don’t go back to him, don’t be mad«, now Kōshi pulled you down and closer to him.

»Hey, Suga. Everything is fine. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. It’s okay, really! Next time you get this panic, talk to me, yeah? I would never leave you for Daichi. Not just because he’s not my type, but because I love you, Kōshi. Honest and sincere. And even if Daichi was into me, or whatever, I would stay with you. I’ve never used you to get to Daichi, after all, I’ve known him longer than you. Besides, I wouldn’t even throw that at you if we argued a lot, right? Because, firstly, it would be a lie and, secondly, your feelings are important to me«, you tried to make it clear to him, apparently it worked too, because he nodded.

»I’m really sorry for all of this, (y/n). I really don’t know where that came from all of a sudden…«, he apologized again.

»Stop apologizing, it’s not your fault. You can’t help that Akki is such a psycho!«, you smiled and snuggled a little closer to his chest.

»The weekend isn’t over yet, let’s enjoy the rest of it, okay?«

© 2022 | @iwaizumisbabe

IT’S NOT ALLOWED TO COPY/REPOST/TRANSLATE MY WORKS ON OTHER PLATFORMS!

[voxbrini]

I'm somewhat late to the party (bcus I never check my Amazon). I've noticed I'm given the option to pre-order. And I gotta say, the price kind of caught me off-guard for a DVD collection with only 66 episodes. (and to be fair, some beloved special features.) A bit expensive there, CN. Seems like early reviewers are disgruntled by this as well.

I know we should just be grateful that we're finally getting a physical release, but the reviews ain't wrong. This isn't the complete series.

Specials, that (most) have never been officially released, are missing.

Big Picture Show, the movie that acts as the LITERAL SERIES FINALE, is missing. It's not in there. THE FINALE ISN'T IN THERE. HUH??? FOR THE COMPLETE SERIES???? GIRL HELP - WHERE'S THE ENDING?!

A reviewer also pointed out that language options are limited for all seasons. Do I need to elaborate on this?

I'm gonna throw this under a cut as to not crowd anyone's feed with my salt. Just know that I'm not mad, CN. I'm disappointed.

I feel as if a ball has been dropped somewhere. This series is still well-loved to this day. Just maybe not as much as it once was. Yet, it was arguably one of CN's strongest and held the #1 spot for many years.

Like fine, they wanted something to release CN30 and they were aware of past requests. I don't want to call this a straight-up cash grab. But, I have this tiny feeling Foster's has been given the same treatment. Which somehow makes it a lot more bittersweet, as I'm sure Foster's fans feel the same.

Part of me is struggling to justify spending the money on this. Like, I've paid less for series that are larger (and actually complete!!!). Maybe I would've expected that price for a Blu-ray series? Though, I'd happily throw my money at it if it had everything.

One could argue these aren't major losses and that purchasing official physical media communicates that it is something very much desired. Hell, something that is very much necessary for animation as a whole. However, one could also argue this feels incomplete and half-assed. Especially in celebration of a major milestone.

Maybe the final product will be different. Or maybe not, and you could go grab a fan-made collection that does it better for less money. Serious collectors could grab the official on sale. Save it for a rainy day, when you're feelin' a bit goofy with your funds.

Please take this only as a rambling. There are other ways to officially watch (most) of this show. Though, I understand it's not available to everyone outside of the US/CA. Which, seriously, still a bummer. But, there are also plenty of unofficial ways.

I have nothing against anyone involved in the release of this project. And, I have nothing but deep respect for those who originally worked on this show.

Maybe that's why I'm so frazzled. It deserves better. Animation deserves better. These shows were massively important to CN. Show them some respect.

[pastafossa]

With Netflix removing Daredevil do you have the dvds? Do you have a good source for getting copies of the dvds? I’m just concerned I won’t be able to finish the show before they take it down. I’m only halfway through season two :(

II know that feeling friend anon, it sucks. I was just as freaked since while yes, I've watched it left and right and up and down and side to side, I still like to rewatch both for comfort and for fic research. I ran out immediately to go see what the options are, and the unfortunate news is the Netflix Marvel shows were never treated with as much care after airing as the other Marvel stuff, so your options are limited.

As best I can tell, your ONLY option to have all three seasons (not counting Defenders) is to buy it to stream on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube. If you add in Defenders, which includes Matt in everything, takes place between S2 and S3, and sets up everything in S3, then your options seem to be Apple TV (no sub required) and Vudu (no sub required) if you're looking to buy it and stream. I ended up going this way for S1 and S2. Considering doing the same for the others.

As mentioned above, if you're looking for DVDs/Blu-rays, then your options get cut down further in an infuriating fashion. The netflix Marvel shows, despite being amazing, never got the same amount of love merchandise-wise. The only dvds/blu-rays available to us involving Daredevil are Season 1 and Season 2. You will not be able to find Defenders or Season 3 despite Season 3 being incredibly popular, well-made, and well received (in part because Netflix pulled the plug so quickly after S3 came out that there was never time to make any S3 dvds/blu-rays). There are a bunch of S1 and S2 copies floating around on amazon if this is the way you want to go. Keep an eye out for region locks, and I like to use things like fakespot to make sure the seller is reputable.

As far as I can tell there are no other options and you'd know I'd tell you every option for informational purposes only woops my hand coincidentally slipped on the gif bar

...that was weird. anyway!

So yeah, basically, they've made it damn near impossible to get ahold of S3 or Defenders outside of purchasing to stream on Vudu or Apple, which... pisses me the fuck off tbh. Short of these three two options, we're essentially left to wait and see if the Mousey Overlords will pop DD and Defenders onto Hulu/Disney+, which is what I'm hoping for.

[princessbatears]

For Casa Werewolf! ✨ HC Of my Choice: do you have any HCs about family game or movie nights? What do the triplets think of Javi’s movie room? Cause you know he has an epic one with like a legit soda fountain or popcorn machine 👀

Heather, thank you soooo much for sending in this ask! ❤️ Also, many thanks to @aerynwrites for requesting a movie night HC! This was so, so fun to to explore.

🎞 Game/movie night:

Javi’s home has an absolutely incredible media and game room. A giant projector screen on one wall. The most comfortable squishy leather sofas and reclining chairs (with attached tray tables and cupholders, of course). Built-in bookshelves to hold DVDs, Blu-rays and VHS tapes. A pool table AND a board game table.

Then, there are the readily available snack options, like a soda fountain, slushy machine, small wine and beer fridge, vintage-style movie theater popcorn maker, and a stash of various candies.

While your triplets are very physical little beings that don’t like to sit still, they do manage it one night a week to play games or watch movies with you and Javi.

When they’re in the mood for a game, the five of you sit at the gaming table. Drinks have to have lids because wild gesticulating has led to some spills (and not just caused by the kids). Then, whichever child gets to choose this time, does so.

Tallulah’s favorite is Clue/Cluedo. She adores the mystery aspect and everyone gets a thrill when someone finally makes the first guess. “Miss Scarlet in the study with the candlestick!”

Bo’s go-to is Candyland. With his major sweet tooth and love for racing boarding games, it’s no surprise he’s drawn to it. Javi’s also a huge fan of these kinds of games, so he and Bo go all-in to beat each other.

Astrid’s favorite is Pictionary. She’s the artist of the family and everyone wants to be on her team, which is a much-needed confidence boost for her. She makes you all roll a dice to see who the lucky person is because fairness is very important to her. Then, it’s an hour of giggling as the teams attempt to guess what the drawings are supposed to represent.

On the nights the pups want to watch a movie, there’s a plethora of family-friendly ones in Javi’s library. He’s been stocking up ever since you all came into his life.

Of course, he makes sure to introduce ‘National Treasure,’ ‘Paddington 2’, and the ‘Croods’ films. You hadn’t realized Nic Cage had made so many movies for kids.

Pixar and Disney, of course, feature heavily, as do some of the older adventure movies from the 50s and 60s.

Your favorite thing about these nights isn’t the movies themselves, but it’s all of you piling on one of the sofas. You and Javi sit hip-to-hip while the kiddos lay across you, snuggled up together. Knowing there’s only so long left before they outgrow this phase, you treasure every minute of it.

Inevitably, they fall asleep by the end, so warm and safe. You and Javi smile at each other as he picks up the girls, one in each arm, and you cradle Bo to you. Then, you carry them upstairs and tuck them into their beds.

“This is all I’ve ever wanted,” Javi whispers to you nearly every time it happens.

“Me, too,” you smile.

Send me a prompt for my Casa Werewolf series with Javi G! 🐺

Find out more about Javi's romance with the werewolf single mom here!

[yeonchi]

The state of tokusatsu in the West in 2021

The events of the past few weeks have taken the Western toku fanbase by storm. Amidst the shitstorm of spergs and a-logs who think they’re being rational but are really low-key spergs, unexpected turns in events are heralding the death knell for tokusatsu fansubs (that was going to be the name of this post initially). In addition, these events have also exposed the state of tokusatsu in the West in 2021, whether it be in regards to fansubs and streaming or Shirakura and the fanbase.

An update on the current situation

This is an update to the two posts I made in the past few weeks regarding the subject.

So some Indonesian wrote a Twitter thread about tokusatsu in general and in one of those tweets, he mentions Shirakura and the recent fansub scandal in a passing manner. Another Indonesian quote retweets him and tags Shirakura and this is what he got:

A few hours later, Shirakura wrote a few tweets about the situation (which are after the break):

(Tweets 1 and 3 translated by killadelfo, tweets 2, 4 and 5 translated by me because Shirakura and other a-logs won’t do it)

Some context:

Tweet 1 - 「雉も鳴かずば打たれまい」 directly translates to "If the pheasant didn't ring, then it wouldn't have been hit". At a stretch, it sounds like victim-blaming in rape culture. Also, the “semi-official streaming site” Shirakura is referring to is TokuHD, who are currently streaming Kamen Rider Agito and 555 with abysmal subtitle translation quality (Honshin and Olfenok) and were apparently licenced by an unknown third-party (if anyone knows, please tell me and I’ll update this).

Tweet 2 - The North Wind and the Sun, one of Aesop’s fables that teaches the superiority of persuasion over force. You can read the story here if you’re too infantile to read Wikipedia.

Later on, TV-Nihon officially announced that they have decided to stop subbing Saber and Zenkaiger, softsubs or hardsubs alike, with Takenoko stating that he doesn’t want to worry about legal trouble on their team. Whether or not they will sub future series is still unknown at the moment. Nothing has come back regarding the apparent C&D from Toei, particularly as NewZect and KRDL haven’t received anything else from them apart from one email (and KRDL received theirs in 2019 apparently).

Despite this, Shirakura has expressed his gratitude for fans across the world who watch Toei’s shows, no matter how they watch them. It’s a far cry from “I believe there’s no fanbase of Kamen Rider in the west practically.”

So now, let’s dissect the whole situation, from fansubbing, streaming and official releases to Shirakura and the Western fanbase.

Fansubbing, streaming and official releases: le Happy Merchant intensifies

There was a time when TV-Nihon held a monopoly in tokusatsu fansubbing, subbing series that other people normally wouldn’t have cared about, including the Chouseishin and Tomica Hero series. They were known for their mistakes in translation and extensive use of different fonts and effects, which led to groups like Over-Time springing up over the past decade in an effort to diversify the fansubbing scene and break up TV-Nihon’s monopoly. (It’s time to #ReleaseTheFonts, TV-Nihon. Get that hashtag trending.) Though TV-Nihon seem to have this unspoken rule to not mention other sub groups on their forums, the recent C&D debacle has resulted in a truce of sorts between them.

Many tokusatsu fans outside of Japan will have known of the genre through fansubs and I am no exception. It’s very likely that for a long time, Japanese executives thought the only toku Westerners liked was Power Rangers, but in recent years, the increasing popularity of tokusatsu in the West has led to companies like Toei and Tsuburaya drawing up plans to release their series in the West. Presumably due to the two companies’ different attitudes to copyright, their IPs are being treated differently, as I will detail.

Tsuburaya - Based and redpilled For some reason, Ultraman is a franchise that very few fansub groups have cared about over the years, which makes Tsuburaya’s Western expansion that much more special.

Before 2018, Crunchyroll streamed Leo, 80, Gaia, Nexus, Max, Mebius, Ginga (S), X, Orb and Geed, but they have now been removed from the platform as Mill Creek Blu-rays, TokuHD, TokuSHOUTsu and Tsuburaya’s YouTube channel became more prolific.

Tsuburaya has been streaming the newest episodes of Ultraman weekly on their YouTube channel since 2012, presumably because their coverage on TV Tokyo and their affiliates don’t cover all of Japan. They have added Chinese subtitles to their episodes since either Geed or R/B and even though their translations of some names can be a bit autistic, they have added English subtitles to their episodes since Z following the release of Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation Heroes with dual audio and multi-language subtitles (including English). Alongside reruns of older series, Tsuburaya releases episodes on YouTube every week, which are then available for two weeks. In addition, they also have separate channels where they publish dubs for Ultraman episodes in Mandarin, Korean and even Cantonese (official TVB Tiga-Mebius dub release when), which is pretty based if you ask me.

Tsuburaya doesn’t seem to do takedowns of their materials on YouTube, though they do claim ownership of the material posted by other channels so that ad revenue goes to them. It’s the reason why whole series of Ultraman and various compilations using footage from various episodes are still surviving on YouTube today. Cynically though, I suspect that the main reason they don’t do takedowns is because they can’t afford to following years of financial problems and their decades-long conflict with Chaiyo Productions. They probably thought that it wouldn’t be worth it.

Toei - Cringe and bluepilled Is it any wonder that the one company with the more popular series amongst a niche fanbase would be so Jewish with their copyrights? While entire series and various compilations have been taken down by Toei over the years (which they technically have the right to do), they don’t give fans (particularly outside of the US) a lot of options to support them officially, so they only dug this hole for themselves. It’s also very naive of people to presume that Toei doesn’t know about fansubs; it would be fair to say that it’s an open secret that neither Toei nor fansub groups can acknowledge for fear of legal retribution.

From 2015 to 2019, Shout! Factory have released Super Sentai series from Jetman (the first pre-Mighty Morphin series to be released in the West) to Hurricaneger, but since Power Rangers was sold from Saban to Hasbro, Shout! Factory have not regained the rights to distribute any further series and Toei hasn’t done much lobbying in that regard. However, Shout! Factory have begun streaming some Kamen Rider series from 2020 on TokuSHOUTsu (Shout! Factory TV) and Tubi (in addition to the Super Sentai series they had already licenced), namely the original series, Kuuga, Ryuki, Zero-One and the Heisei Generations FOREVER movie. Agito and 555 are streaming on TokuHD (as I mentioned before) and Amazons is streaming on Amazon Prime.

While Toei does have an official tokusatsu YouTube channel, where they stream their library of series similar to how Tsuburaya does with their YouTube channel, it is only available in Japan. In April 2020, Toei began uploading their series on Toei Tokusatsu World, a separate YouTube channel created specifically for their Western fans that immediately got taken down by copyright strikes on their own content. Aside from streaming Metal Hero series and other toku series nobody cares about, they’ve only bothered to upload the first two episodes of every Kamen Rider series on there, with no plans to follow through with the rest of the episodes (Super Sentai is only available in Asia because of the last paragraph). Apparently, the official subtitled release of the first two Kamen Rider episodes was funded by the J-LOD scheme (Japan Content LOcalisation and Distribution) established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and that they hope that fans would provide subtitles for the rest of the episodes. The only problem is that YouTube discontinued its community captions feature last year and I have been unable to find any evidence of Toei suggesting such a thing from their fans, so I can only assume that they either weren’t transparent about it or had no intention of doing so at all. You can see why I prefer Tsuburaya’s approach better. Frankly, I think Toei should have just uploaded TV-Nihon’s releases and called it a day.

There’s a Europoor sperg on Twitter (and the TV-Nihon forums) by the name of HowlingSnail who always complains about tokusatsu series only being licensed in the US. Like him or not, you’ve got to admit that he does have a point. Even in the age of VPNs and multi-region DVD players, the entire world has to be considered when it comes to international licencing and expansion because believe it or not, the “West” isn’t made up of just the US alone. Things shouldn’t have to be like this, and yet, things are the way they are.

Around the time that TV-Nihon (apparently) got C&D’d, Western fans were pissed that The Tokusatsu Network posted news of Toei streaming Kamen Rider Drive on their Japanese-exclusive channel, rubbing salt into their wounds, while also not saying anything about the current situation with fansubs. In TokuNet’s defence, I can understand why they wouldn’t do that; on top of being based in Japan, they’ve done interviews with various actors and producers on their YouTube channel, plus their senior editor, Tom Constantine, has made cameo appearances on a few episodes and movies. So if anything, TokuNet are closer to Toei than any other news site covering tokusatsu.

In summary, Toei are complicit in enabling this shitstorm that could have been preventable if they weren’t so incompetent and out-of-touch with their Western fanbase. If more scrutiny was exercised during the negotiation of Western licencing, we probably wouldn’t have had the TokuHD disaster. If Toei were more transparent with their intentions for streaming their toku series in the West, fansub groups would be more than happy to contribute to the official subtitles and/or take their (unofficial) releases down (though I don’t necessarily agree with this practice entirely). Or maybe if Toei actually made a media release saying that it was actually them who sent the C&D’s to KRDL, NewZect and TV-Nihon, we wouldn’t have had this debacle and this post would just be me talking about the death knell for tokusatsu fansubs (which would probably be just this section of the post).

In the lack of free and easily accessible means to access media protected behind paywalls and geoblocks, people will always turn to things like “illegal” streaming sites and torrenting, particularly when they believe that multi-million dollar companies don’t deserve their hard-earned money just because they keep bugging everyone to give it all to them.

(Also, I know someone called me out in one of my linked posts where I described Toei’s attitude to copyright as “Jewish”, but fuck you, my stance doesn’t change just because a few people got their fee-fees hurt from poking their noses into other people’s business. If Toei changes their attitude and gives us a plan for international distribution, then I might soften my stance.)

Shirakura and the Western fanbase: lolcows in their own right

So it’s been established that it’s a bad idea to tag Shirakura or anyone affiliated with Toei regarding this situation with the TV-Nihon C&D (or fansubs or leaks or whatever in general) because we don’t have the full details and they probably have no idea of what’s going on. Look, I know Shirakura is worthy of criticism for some things, but this is not one of them because he is the director of planning and production at Toei - he’s not responsible for international distribution or copyright takedowns. All that these spergs on TokuTwitter have done is prove that Shirakura has no idea what is going on and made Japanese fans aware (to some extent) that spergs like them exist. The irony behind Shirakura’s actions as the producer of some Kamen Rider series and his interactions with Western fans is the reason why I lovingly coin “The Shirakura Paradox” as a phrase to describe it.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people on TokuTwitter are very paranoid and reactionary. They believe in conspiracy theories like “TV-Nihon actually got C&D’d” and “Over-Time got C&D’d as well” when 1) the notice they got wasn’t a C&D per se or even a DMCA and 2) Over-Time never got C&D’d, though they did help TV-Nihon analyse the email and decided to stop posting about their releases when they were convinced that the email was somewhat legit (because a Toei email can’t be faked due to the Sender Policy Framework, or SPF).

With regards to the “reactionary” part, the main example relating to this is twt_tokusatsu, who has been blamed for causing this debacle with fansubs because Shirakura replied to her tweets (that did NOT mention fansubs) with a joke. However, another big example is WeiWenn and Ichi of the Castranger podcast. “What?”, I hear you ask in a surprised tone, “What do they have to do with all this?” If you want to know the story behind them, take a look at my Shirakura Paradox post under “You are supposed not to know about Trinity���.

I know this debacle was two years ago and that Ichi has deserved enough blame (and apologised) for posting scans from a toy catalog targeted at distributors and not consumers, but why the hell is WeiWenn being blamed when he only mentioned “Trinity” (in verbatim) possibly referring to Agito Trinity and not Zi-O Trinity? WeiWenn has been sent death threats because entitled manbabies with gunts can never read the latest leaks about new toys. As a result, WeiWenn has deleted his Twitter account, claiming that Shirakura’s joke was the last straw (Ichi has also deleted his Twitter account as well). Anyone who blames WeiWenn (or Ichi) for somehow causing the TV-Nihon C&D’s is just as retarded, if not more, than the people who still blame twt_tokusatsu, especially when the damage has already been done and the debacle is already two years old. As such, I stand behind #RespectWeiWenn and #RespectIchi. For more information, check out this Twitter thread and the below video.

Things like this are the reason why the tokusatsu fanbase in the West is seemingly on thin ice with Toei. If you ask me, TokuTwitter as a whole deserves to be discussed and mocked on sites like 4chan and Kiwi Farms, because some individuals seem to act in a manner resembling lolcows. On top of that, I wish that tokusatsu fans in Japan would talk more about this retardation and join in the circlejerking with their Western counterparts who are more sophisticated and logical.

In conclusion, the whole debacle with Toei and TV-Nihon has been a ticking time bomb fuelled by Toei’s incompetence and lack of awareness of their Western fanbase, who are no saints either with their lolcow attitudes. Tsuburaya is pretty based with their international distribution and TV-Nihon’s typesetters should #ReleaseTheFonts.

[chacerider]

I want to get into Ultraman but I don't know where to start any recommendations

tl;dr version: It’s tricky, but Mebius might be a good place if you’re not going to just start with the original Ultraman and proceed chronologically. You could also just jump into New Generations Ultraman with Ginga and go from there, with only minor confusion (and you might want to watch Zero’s movies before watching X or especially Geed). “Canon” is very loose and rarely required knowledge between seasons (though there are exceptions; hi, Orb’s Jugglus Juggler being a major character in Z! Hi, Geed showing up there as well!), so really, you can jump in anywhere.

  expansive version, w/ reasoning and some discussion of official sources to watch Ultraman at:

  Okay, so, here's the bad news: With only a few exceptions, just about every Ultraman series is at least going to LIGHTLY reference past seasons. (The OG Ultraman obv doesn't, and Cosmos doesn't as well -- I think a lot of the early 00s seasons don't, but I can't confirm that myself.)

Now, here's the good news: in MOST seasons, any references WILL be light and fairly well-explained for newcomers. (The largest part of their audience is young children, after all!) If you go in with an open heart and a bit of a detective attitude ("ah, so that's how it is? So, then, it works like this?") you shouldn't have any problems just jumping in-- mostly.

With that being said...

Obviously, you could just start with the original Ultraman and go forward chronologically from there, but since you're asking me instead of doing that, I'm guessing you're not necessarily into 1960s/1970s TV. Which is fair! There's a lot to love in that era, especially Ultraman-wise, but I too have trouble getting into it as much as I get into newer shows. So, skipping forward, my next recommendation would be...

Mebius is a fairly good place to jump in if you can find it -- it's a mid-2000s anniversary season, but it does a really thorough job of explaining/establishing worldbuilding & lore that's still considered mostly-canon today, and as an anniversary it'll introduce you to major recurring characters (the Ultra Brothers, among others). It's also genuinely REALLY REALLY good, and it's a full-length season so there's plenty of content.

After that... Ultraman Zero and his main villain Belial come up a LOT in modern Ultraman, and Zero's super fun, BUT -- he doesn't actually have a season. What he DOES have are a string of movies and DVD specials, so if you can track down those, I'd highly highly recommend them. The watch order goes Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, Revenge of Belial, Killer The Beat Star, Ultraman Saga, then Ultra Zero Fight finishes it off. There's a TV anthology (Zero Chronicles) that cuts the movies up for broadcast, but the editing's awkward and they do NOT follow the chronological release order for... some reason, idk. (They put Zero's first movie in the middle of the anthology! They spread the first half of Ultra Zero Fight over the end of several episodes! I do not know why!!) So if it's the only thing you can find, it's there, but... It's a mess, ye be forewarned. (The host segments are cute, though.)

At that point you're very well set for New Generations Ultraman (the current modern seasons) -- everything from Ginga onwards, though you could also just start with Ginga! It's a bit of a weird (and low-budget) one, but hey... it's where I started and here I am many seasons later, lol. I've loved every single NewGen Ultra I've watched, though I should mention that Z (the current one) very heavily references Orb and minorly Zero, and Geed also features Zero (though in a very good way!). I should also mention these seasons are shorter than older seasons -- about 24 episodes apiece. (Budget reasons.)

Long story short, though? Just jump in. It's a little tough to start out, but the more you watch, the more you'll get out of it. And hey, there's always the internet for looking up lore you don't know!

Oh, and finally: I didn't really mention where to find this stuff, because, well... It's all over the place. Some of it's on VRV/Crunchyroll! Some of it's on Amazon's Toku channel! Some of it's on Blu-Ray through Mill Creek Entertainment! (I love those Blu-Rays, very much recommend them if they're an option for you.) Some of it you're only going to find fan-subbed, for now at least. If you need a pointer towards something specific, I can try to help you, but... Google. Google is your friend.

(Also: Ultraman Z has been simulcasting on Youtube with English subs... however, episodes are only available on Youtube for a couple weeks, so at this point you’d have to find another source for the first few episodes in order to catch up. After that, though, Z’s great and it’s wild being able to experience it as it airs!)

Hope that helped!

[visionfox102]

Mac Disk Maker

Disk Maker For Mac

Mac Install Disk Maker

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Since 1998, DiskWarrior has won more awards than any other Mac disk utility. A Macworld Eddy, an Apple Design Award, a PC Mag Editors' Choice Award, a MacUser Magazine Editors' Choice Award and many more from around the world. Check out our Awards and Reviews. Developed just for Mac. Design and print custom CD, DVD or Blu Ray labels and covers with Disketch disc label software. Free to download. Quick to install, easy to use CD label maker software for PC or Mac.

Summary :

Want to format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC? Do you know how to do this work easily? This MiniTool article will show you specific methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, which are easy and safe to complete.

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As we know, external hard drives are widely used to backup data or interchange files among different computers. Well, is there an external hard drive that could be shared between Mac and Windows PC? Of course, there is. Actually, most external hard disks could be compatible with Mac and PC as long as you format them correctly.

Why Need to Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

To put it simply, if you want to share external hard drive between Mac and PC, you need to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.

Currently, hard drives for Windows PC are always formatted with NTFS, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect a NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't allow us to write files to the drive neither edit files, though it can read a NTFS drive. Similarly, Windows OS will ask us to format the HFS+ formatted drive when we connecting such a disk, let along edit files saved on HFS+ formatted hard disks unless we resort to third party programs.

But luckily, there are file systems well supported by both Mac and Windows PC, and they are FAT32 (it might be called MS-DOS on Mac) and exFAT. As long as we format the external hard drive to one of these 2 file systems, it can be shared between Mac and Windows.

Further Reading

Both FAT32 and exFAT have advantages and disadvantages.

FAT32: FAT32 works with all versions of Windows, Mac OS, Linux, game consoles, etc.

However, single files on a FAT32 drive can't be larger than 4GB. If your external drive saves files larger than 4GB or you plan to save larger files to this drive, converting to FAT32 is not recommended.

In addition, a FAT32 partition must be not more than 32GB if you create it in Windows Disk Management. Of course, there is free partition manager that can help create a FAT32 volume up to 2TB, which also functions correctly.

exFAT: exFAT has very large file size and partition size limits, which means it's a good idea to format your external hard drive to exFAT.

Nevertheless, a lot of users complained that exFAT is slow, and they highly suggest using FAT32 if you can avoid file size constraints.

Three Options for Accessing NTFS Drives on Mac

Paid Third-Party Drivers

Some paid third-party NTFS drivers for Mac can be used to access NTFS drives on Mac. They work well and they have better performance than the free solutions which will be mentioned in the following part. Paragon NTFS for Mac is such a driver.

Besides, you can also use the paid third-party file system converters to convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT which are compatible with both Mac and PC. MiniTool Partition Wizard is one representative.

Free Third-Party Drivers

FUSE for macOS is a free and open-source NTFS driver that can enable write support. But, this solution is slower relatively. And the automatically mounting NTFS partitions in read-write mode can be a security risk for your Mac computer.

Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Write Support

The Mac OS has an experimental support for writing to NTFS drives. Usually, it is disabled by default and needs some messing around in the Mac terminal to enable it.

It doesn’t work properly all the time and could lead to potential issues with your NTFS file system. For example, it had corrupted data before. Thus, we don’t suggest using this tool and we believe it is disabled by this reason.

Here, we recommend using the paid third-party tools since they are easy-to-use and can do good work for you.

Then, we will introduce these three options for you in the following content.

The Best Paid Third-Party Driver: Paragon NTFS for Mac

Paragon NTFS for Mac can write, edit, delete, copy, or move files on NTFS volumes from your Mac computer. It offers a 10-day free trial. If you want to use it all the time, you need to pay for it.

With it, you don’t have to fiddle with terminal commands to mount partitions manually. Additionally, it can mount partitions automatically and safely. More importantly, it can code with the potential corruption. If you purchase a Seagate drive, you can even get a free download of Paragon NTFS for Mac.

All in all, it does its works well and gives you good user’s experience.

The Best Free Third-Party Drivers: FUSE for macOS

FUSE for macOS is a free solution to access NTFS on Mac. But it is less secure.

If you want to make automatically mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode on Mac, you need to temporarily disable the System Integrity Protection and replace one of Apple’s built-in tools with a binary that is more vulnerable to attack. Thus, your Mac is in danger when using this driver.

However, you can use it to manually mount NTFS partitions in read-write mode if you never mind using the Terminal. This will be safer, but you need to do more work. You can go to google the steps and see how complex they are.

Apple’s Experimental NTFS-Writing Support: Don’t Do This, Seriously

Although we mentioned this method in our article, we still don’t recommend it because it is the least tested. It is just for educational purposes, and it is available on Mac OS 10.12 Sierra. Perhaps, it will be unstable forever.

How to Quickly Format External Hard Drive for Mac and PC without Losing Data

Another way to access NTFS drive on Mac is to convert the NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT. Then, the drive can be used on both Mac and PC.

There should be some important data on the drive. To keep it safe, you can choose this best NTFS/HFS+ to FAT/exFAT converter: MiniTool Partition Wizard.

How to Convert NTFS to FAT32 or exFAT Without Data Loss

To format hard drive for Mac and Windows without data loss, we suggest using MiniTool Partition Wizard and its 'Convert NTFS to FATS32' function. If you are a personal user, you can try its Professional Edition.

Step 1: Run MiniTool Partition Wizard

Download this software to your computer. Then, you can open the software and input the license key to the pop-out window to get its Professional Edition.

Step 2: Convert NTFS to FAT32 with This Software

After running the program successfully, we can see its main interface as follows:

Here, please select the NTFS partition of external hard drive and choose 'Convert NTFS to FAT' feature from the left action pane. If there is more than one NTFS partition, convert all of them one by one.

At last, click 'Apply' button to make the change executed.

When MiniTool Partition Wizard shows it applies the change successfully, the original NTFS will finally become a FAT32 partition.

By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and PC without losing any data. Then, you can share external hard drive between Mac and PC

You Can Convert NTFS to exFAT in 3 Steps

However, if you want to convert NTFS to exFAT to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC, 3 steps are required.

Step 1: Transfer Data out from External Hard Drive

You can choose to copy and paste those files to other external devices or internal hard disk of Windows, but it will cost much time. Instead, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition to create a copy for your external drive, which is faster.

If there is only one NTFS partition on external hard drive, refer to the tutorial Copy Partition to get instructions. However, if there is more than one NTFS partition, view Copy Disk to get specific operations.

Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard

The Free Edition of this software also enables you to do this job.

Firstly, you need to delete the partition by using this software. Just open the software to enter its main interface. Then, choose the target partition and click 'Delete Partition' from the left action pane. After that, you should click 'Apply' to keep this change.

Secondly, the target partition will become unallocated. Here, you need to choose that partition and click on 'Create Partition' from the left action pane.

Thirdly, you will see a pop-out window. Here, you can choose 'exFAT' from the 'File System' setting option. At the same time, you can also set some other parameters for this partition, including 'Partition Label', 'Drive Letter', 'Size And Location'. After that, please click on 'OK'.

Fourthly, you will go back to the main interface. Then, please click on 'Apply' to save these changes.

Finally, an exFAT partition will be created on your external hard disk so that it could be shared between Mac and Windows PC

Step 3: Transfer Data back to External Drive

If you want to share files that you have backed up between Mac and PC, now please transfer these files back to external hard drive.

How to Convert HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without Losing Data

Besides, you can format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows by converting HFS+ to FAT32 or exFAT without losing any data.

Step 1: Backup Data in HFS+ Partition on Mac

Just transfer all useful files out from the external hard drive to other devices on Mac. Of course, if you have a backup already, ignore this step.

Step 2: Create a FAT32 or exFAT Partition on Windows PC

Some people may ask why create such partitions on Windows rather than Mac. That is because there are cases reporting FAT32 (MS-DOS) or exFAT partitions created on Mac did not work well on Windows.

Please skip to Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive to FAT32 to get steps to create a FAT32 partitions or go back to Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard to get operations to create an exFAT partition.

How to Make an Empty External Drive Compatible with Mac and PC

If there is no file saved on your external hard drive, how to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?

It's very easy to share it between Mac and PC and you also need a Windows computer, a Mac machine, and the free partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.

There are 3 solutions for this case, so please choose the one you like most to format external hard drive Windows 10/8/7.

Solution 1: Format External Hard Drive Windows 10/8/7 to FAT32

Since users are unable to create a FAT32 partition larger than 32GB in Windows Disk Management, they need to use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free.

Note: when you connect an external hard drive which is formatted with HFS+ with computer, Windows may ask you to format the drive. Please choose Cancel.

Please download and install this program on your Windows computer to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC.

Firstly, open the software to enter its main interface as follows. Here, please select the NTFS partition or HFS+ partition of external hard drive, and click 'Delete Partition' feature from the left action pane. If there are multiple partitions on the external disk, please select the disk and click 'Delete All Partitions' feature instead. After that, an unallocated space will be released.

Secondly, you can create one or more FAT32 partitions in unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left side.

Then, you should choose 'FAT32' from the 'File System' option in the pop-out window. Meanwhile, you can set properties for this new partition and click 'OK' to go back to the main window of Partition Wizard.

At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

Solution 2: Format External Hard Drive Windows 7/8/10 to exFAT

Firstly, please delete the NTFS or HFS+ partition in either MiniTool Partition Wizard or Windows Disk Management to release unallocated space. Then, you can create an exFAT partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition by following steps introduced in the section Step 2: Create exFAT Partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Once a FAT32 or exFAT partition is created on your external hard drive, you can share it on both Mac and Windows PC.

Solution 3: Create One HFS+ Partition for Mac and One NTFS Partition for Windows

Alternatively, you can create 2 partitions on the external hard drive: one is for Mac, and the other is for Windows. As to size for each partition, it depends on your own demands. By this way, you can easily format an external hard drive for Mac and Windows.

Step 1: Create a NTFS Partition and a FAT32 Partition

Please run MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, then delete all the original NTFS or HFS+ partition(s), and create a new NTFS partition as well as a FAT32 partition, and the latter will be formatted to HFS+ in Mac machine.

Then, select the external hard drive and choose 'Delete All Partitions' to create an unallocated space.

Here, select the unallocated space and choose 'Create Partition' feature from the left action pane.

Now, please specify partition label (Windows is recommended), partition type (primary or logical), drive letter, file system (NTFS), cluster size, and partition size (you can change the length of the handle to adjust partition size). Then, click 'OK' to continue.

Now, you can see a NTFS partition is created. Please use the same way to create a FAT32 partition labeled with Mac. At last, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

Step 2: Format the FAT32 Partition to HFS+ Partition on Mac

Please go to Utilities → Disk Utility.

Then, select the external hard drive and click 'Partition' tab on the top.

Now, find the FAT32 partition and format it to OS X Extended (Journaled), which is the desired HFS+. Finally, click 'Apply' button to make all changes performed.

Tip: You may receive the prompt 'The volume 'MAC' is not journaled. As a result it can not be resized'. Just ignore the message and click 'OK' button to continue.

After NTFS partition and HFS+ partition are created on your external hard drive, it can be shared between Mac and Windows PC.

Note: You might be unable to share all files saved on external drive since Windows doesn't support HFS+ partition while Mac doesn't support NTFS partition completely.

Bottom Line

Are you planning to format an external hard drive for Mac and PC? If yes, now try one of our methods to make external hard drive compatible with Mac and PC.

Should you have any problem, just feel free to leave us a message in comment part below or send an email to (email protected).

Format Hard Drive for Mac and PC FAQ

How do I make my hard drive compatible with Mac and PC?

Disk Maker For Mac

If you want your hard drive to be compatible with both Mac and PC, you should format the hard drive to the file system that is supported by both of these two operating systems. FAT32 and exFAT can meet your requirements.

What is the best hard drive format for Mac and PC?

Although both FAT32 and exFAT are compatible with Mac and PC, exFAT is a much better choice because it has fewer limitations. For example, it has a larger file size and partition size limits.

Mac Install Disk Maker

If you formatted your hard drive to exFAT with Apple's HFS Plus, Windows will not recognize the exFAT drive. You can consider using a third-party partition tool to format your hard drive to exFAT.

Mac Os Boot Disk Maker

Windows can only read a Mac hard drive that is formatted to FAT32 or exFAT using third-party software. If the file system of the Mac hard drive is HFS+ or APFS, the drive will become unreadable in Windows.

[sakurasakiyama]

How to Support Actors and Stage/Musical Brands During This Current Crisis

Although the topic of COVID-19 is something I wanted to avoid personally, unfortunately it’s something the entertainment business around the world can’t avoid. Especially for us who love the 2.5D genre. 

Over the past month, we have seen stages/musicals get some or all performances cancelled, or even postponed. But, there have been some that have tried to push on and perform during this difficult time, only for them having to cancel performances along the way. Especially tonight with Herosute having to cancel all of it’s Osaka performances, after cancelling their performances on the 28th and 29th of March three days ago, to having to cancel their opening performance on the 6th until the 14th of March five days from their opening performance. To then finally having to cancel performances until the 19th of March three days after that. Meaning they only got to perform 6 times out of the whole 35 performances they had originally planned. 

But, this is just an example. There are heaps of other performances falling victim to partial or all cancellations or postponements. And due to these musical/stage brands having to give refunds of tickets to those who couldn’t go, the brands and actors are loosing money. And I know there are people around the world loosing their jobs, money and livelihoods too, but if there’s some of us who aren’t struggling can help in some small way, it’ll make things better for them as well as ourselves in the long run. @leenaevilin has been keeping track of most stages/musicals that are having to cancel or postpone performances during this crisis. 

You can find her posts about which shows are cancelled: HERE & HERE

So, the real question is, what can we do to support the actors and/or stage/musical brands in this difficult time? The methods are very simple, and even if you can do one of these things, it will mean a lot to the actors and the people behind the stage/musical brands. 

Buy the DVD/Blu-Ray’s if possible! I know this may be a bit hard for some to do that can’t afford it, but the money you put into buying the DVD/Blu-Ray’s, it will go towards the musical/stage brands, so then they are able to make up some of the money from lost revenue. If needing a hand in finding if any of the performances (that had a small run, not the ones that had their runs completely cancelled/postponed) will be releasing a DVD, send me an ask and I will help you find them.

Buy DMM/NicoNico Streams! If the performances decide to have a recorded live stream of their performances, please try to buy them and watch them. It’s a lot more cheaper than buying the DVD/Blu-Ray’s, so if any of them have streams that are still going ahead, please do support them by watching them this way. Again, if needing help find any, or unsure of how to buy streams, send me an ask and I will help you. 

Buy the official goods from official sites OR ask proxies to get them for you from official shops in Japan that have them available! There may be some performances who have their goods available online, and if they do, please do try to get any of the official merchandise, even if it’s bromides of a specific actor/character that you love! As the sale of those bromides goes back to that specific actor as well, so you would be supporting the brand and actor. But if they’re not online but in a store in Japan, a personal proxy may be able to assist you. 

Join Actors AND/OR Stage/Musical Fansites! This is something that can help both actors and musical/stage brands directly. Although not all brands have fansites, you can still try to support one or all of the actors that have fansites by joining them instead. You also get exclusive content from these fansites as well, and the monthly/yearly fees are quite cheap. International credit cards are accepted by the majority of them, but may need a Japanese address & phone number for some.

Buy any DVD/Blu-ray/CD’s/Photobooks/Goods/etc. from older performances related to your favourite actor! If there happens to be no DVD/Streams/Goods from any of the cancelled performances, DVD/Blu-Ray’s/Goods from older performances or fan events will still put some money into the actors pockets to help them survive. Some are having to dig into their savings already, so buying older performance items, photobooks or from fan events, it will help them still get some form of income during this crisis. Although I’m unsure if they get any profits from magazine’s sold, but they’re cheap to buy. 

As of course, there’s a debate on whether to keep your tickets (which helps the brand/actors keep revenue) or get them refunded, but that decision is up to you. So I will leave that option out as it’s your choice. But by doing at least one of these things, it’ll help the brands and actors stay on their feet during this crisis. 

I’m also worried about whether Tsubasa’s upcoming stage my be cancelled too alongside everything else, so I will be doing by best to support him from here. We’re all in this together, and together in this community, we can try to help one another during this time of need ♥

[dalegoldberg]

Will movie theaters be relevant in a post-pandemic world? It's now up to you.

On Monday, the beloved Arclight and Pacific Theaters announced they’re closing for good. ArcLight Cinemas is arguably Hollywood's most cherished theater and Pacific has been a mainstay in Los Angeles since 1946. The announcement of their closing shocked many as another casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the company announcement, they said "This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward." One can understand how a movie theater might go under in the middle of a pandemic but I did find it interesting that they felt there was truly no way forward.

One might've expected some members of the Hollywood elite to come clamoring forward with a bucket of cash to at least front the company long enough to sustain it through the pandemic so that it could reopen when the time was right.

Back in 2014, Kodak faced a similarly dire situation (for different reasons, obviously) and was ready to close its doors. That was until J.J. Abrams, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow and other filmmakers banded together to save the floundering company. Their shared love of film compelled them to save the dying medium and, thanks to those filmmakers and their studio backers, the company is still alive today.

But that hasn’t happened with these theaters. I'm not saying that can't happen, of course. The announcement just came this week so time will tell. I will say, however, it sounds like the company may have already exhausted their options (in light of the no "viable way forward" statement).

The death of ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters may not just signify another casualty of the pandemic but may actually be a sign of the times. Even prior to the pandemic many were wondering, amongst cord cutting and increasing interest in streaming content, how much longer would movie theaters stay relevant?

The pandemic has shifted the world in general, of course, and one of those big changes coming post-pandemic may be a world where movie theaters have a drastically different business model. Perhaps, one that makes them unrecognizable to us as we know them today.

Does that seem like too bold a claim? Perhaps. Let's just look at the state of the business now.

The state of the business pre-Covid

Prior to the pandemic, movie studios were beholden to the theaters to release their movies in theaters for a certain period of time. So if Warner Brothers wanted to release "Godzilla vs Kong" in theaters, they would have had to wait 90 days before releasing the film on Blu-Ray or to a streaming platform. There was a bit of flexibility on this when it came to digital rentals but otherwise 90 days was the standard. Now, movie studios did have the option of by-passing the theatrical exhibition altogether if they wanted and just going straight to people's homes. Why didn't they?

One reason might've been the Paramount Consent Decrees. The Consent Decrees date back to 1948 when the Supreme Court ruled that movie studios had to separate their distribution operations from their exhibition operations. Essentially, studios were barred from owning movie theaters as it was seen as a monopolistic practice and not fair to consumers. At the time, the only way you could see a movie was in a theater. Gradually, over time, of course, that changed and technology enabled us to watch movies at home. We got VHS, then DVD's, then Blu-Rays, then iTunes Movies, then Netflix and so on. But the theaters remained as a mainstay. Why?

I know many of my friends would argue it's because there's no better way to see a movie than in a theater. If you said that twenty years ago I would have agreed. But today, I'd say that's become largely subjective given the technology available at home. From a purely business oriented perspective, though, there's a host of little reasons theaters remained important such as films not being eligible for Oscar nominations without a theatrical release and, possibly, because studios worried that bypassing theaters would result in further regulations by the courts.

But mostly, it's because we, the audience, were accustomed to theaters. It gave a film legitimacy when it was presented in a theater. It used to be that if a movie went “straight to home video” it was considered cheap and probably low budget. Because of that, even though the studios were giving up 50% of their revenue to the theaters, their gross still was greater than what home distribution netted them in the initial release window.

Even after the invention of Blu-Rays and iTunes Movies, studios were still sending movies to theaters (1) because it was a huge source of revenue and (2) because it helped market the movie. The movie’s success at the box office gave us a reason to want that movie at home.

A shift in Public perceptions

There's a growing number of people that no longer think that way. If a movie goes to streaming now (the new home video), we no longer assume the movie is cheap or low budget. The content on streaming is just as good as the stuff we're seeing in theaters. There’s been a massive shift in our perception of what great “cinema” is. Yeah, you might still wanna' see some things in theaters but it doesn’t cheapen the movie for you if you don't.

And that’s a big problem for theaters. The leverage they’ve had over the studios up till now has been the Consent Decrees and our perception of what great cinema is. Significant, no doubt, but those two things have changed. In August of last year, the Paramount Consent Decrees were terminated with a two-year sunset period on certain aspects of the Decrees all but ensuring that studios could now vertically integrate if they wanted to. Or just bypass the theaters altogether - as some studios already have been experimenting with.

Even at the start of the pandemic, many movies were removed from theaters and sent straight to streaming with studios reporting that the revenue gained from VOD and online rentals rivaled the profit gained from theatrical distribution. As various studios like Paramount and Warner Brothers enter the streaming game alongside Disney (Disney Plus, Hulu) and Netflix, they too are experimenting. As you may have heard, Warner Bros. is releasing all their movies this year on their streaming platform HBOMax on the same day the films are released in theaters (a practice known as "day and date"). No doubt, the bean counters at Warner Bros. will be looking to see if this is a practice that should stay. It’d be fair to say that these experiments are not true representations of reality given the state of the world we’re testing this new distribution model with. But it is changing our perception of how important movie theaters are.

Studios are altering the deal

During the pandemic, theaters have been brought to their knees and have been forced to renegotiate certain terms with the studios including the release window between theatrical and home distribution. Most studios now have negotiated a home release date that comes just 17 days after the movie debuts in theaters - far shorter than the original 90 days.

This, of course, can be argued to just be a by-product of the pandemic. Theaters don't have leverage now but once the pandemic is over they will and they'll renegotiate. Right?

That really hinges on whether or not audiences still think a movie has more value if it was presented in a theater before they got to see it at home. Does it enhance the movie for me if it gets shown in a theater or am I just as interested (or maybe even more interested) in seeing it if it is sent straight to my home?

Other big changes are happening

There's other factors to consider as well. One might be the massive shift of homeowners into the suburbs and away from the city during the pandemic. Many employers are making it possible to work from home (a trend that will likely continue post-pandemic as the internet improves and more businesses see the benefits of a remote workforce) resulting in a mass exodus from cities to suburbs. Living in the suburbs means you don’t have the same pull of massive audiences in large gatherings the way you used to. We’re also investing more in our homes to make them enjoyable places to not only live but play as well. It’s a shift in our culture.

Another factor is that our perception of long form content has changed. Episodic television used to be where big movie stars went to end their careers after a career starring in movies. Now, it’s the reverse. A lot of stars are starting in television rather than finishing there because we (the audience) love binging on serialized content and when we’re not binging episodes we’re watching four hour movies (The Irishman, Zack Snyder's Justice League). Those experiences don’t work well in theaters where you’re stuck sitting in the same place and can’t hit the pause button.

Ultimately, the biggest factor might be what it usually comes down to - money. Before the pandemic audiences were already lamenting about the cost of movie tickets. A single afternoon of me taking my wife and kids to see the latest Disney movie in a theater could cost me $50 - $60 just for admission (not to mention the cost of food and drinks). But during the pandemic I was able to rent “Mulan” for $30 from comfort of my own home. Or, if I wanted, I could just wait three months and then see it as part of my regular Disney Plus subscription (which I was already paying for anyways so I could watch “The Mandalorian”).

As things open back up, many people are not necessarily swimming in money and, while I think the Covid relief packages have probably helped, a lot of people are still hurting and will be looking for any which way to save money. It seems unlikely that theaters will be able to lower their costs at this point given the need to recoup their losses from the pandemic and the probable need to make new investments in their facilities to stay competitive. They will need to get creative to show real value to audiences that might be reluctant to rush back in to theaters.

So what will happen to theaters post-pandemic?

For those of you worried I’m predicting doomsday for theaters - relax. I think theaters are probably here to stay regardless of what happens. They’re too much a part of what movies are to simply disappear. That said, they are a business and, currently, a failing one. What they look like post-pandemic doesn’t look great, from my perspective, unless the business model changes.

One possible scenario is that theaters become like playhouses or music festivals. In other words, they’ll still exist but in fewer quantities and will become more niche, featuring elevated experiences centered around tentpole movie properties which audiences are willing to pay a premium for (think “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Godzilla vs Kong”). I can see this form of adaptation working well in everyone’s favor.

Another possibility is that the studios buy out the movie theaters. The termination of the consent decrees has made that a real possibility. And then, once they’ve purchased them, build brand experiences centered around their properties. Something like miniature Disney Lands. They would most likely close a significant number of locations leaving only the flagships they felt would bring in a large audience and use them to promote the movies on their slate. A company like Disney with a large library of films could also use the theaters as a means of re-presenting old films from their library, borrowing a tactic from LucasFilm, and refresh old content to make it new again for theatrical. In essense, the net effect would be the same as in the first scenario: fewer theaters, more niche experiences.

I say this because it is somewhat unclear, to me at least, how the current model can persist if studios own theaters. Yes, they’d control theatrical distribution but they’d likely only be purchasing a theater to distribute their own movies. Would a company like Paramount, who’s only releasing seven movies this year, see the value of owning a theater chain? Even Disney’s slate only consists of 14 movies. To make the business viable (at least as it exists now), they would have to present movies from other studios. Would one studio trust that the studio in ownership of the theater was giving them a fair number of screens for presentation? It seems untenable under the current model.

What happens next is really up to you

The biggest change from the pandemic is that we as audiences have changed the way we look at movies. We’re ok with watching movies at home and, thus, the leverage theaters have to negotiate longer release windows between theatrical and home distribution has all but disappeared. The artificial pillars that made theaters a necessity are all but gone. And yes, the Oscars will likely still require that movies be released in theaters to be eligible for nomination but the standards of what a "theatrical release" means do not require as vast a distribution as you might think (see page 2, sub-section D of the General Entry rules). Plus, let's be honest - not all movies are meant to be Oscar contenders.

So really, the only thing to keep theaters relevant now is you - the audience. My prediction is that we’ll initially see some high demand for theaters as cities are re-opened and we try to return to our regular lives. But after we get back to a sense of normalcy (whatever that means in the future) we’ll see how much audiences really want to keep paying $20 per ticket to see a movie when they could just pay $30 once to rent it at home with the entire family or binge the new hot show on Netflix / Amazon / Apple TV/ Paramount Plus / Disney Plus / Hulu / Peacock / whatever else is out there.

At that point, the studios will do some math and if the profit they’re making from streaming outweighs the profit from the box office, theaters won’t have much of a leg to stand on. That is, unless audiences continue to demand theaters be a relevant part of the movie watching experience. Without considerable innovation on behalf of the theaters, though, I question how likely that is to happen.

[christmas-offers-blog1]

Best Christmas Deals Today

Best Christmas Deals Today With Online Best Offers

best christmas deals today falls on the second Monday of December — that's December 9 in 2020 — and has become a big day for online sales. Most discounts typically aren't as big as those on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but you can still save 20% to 40% at clothing, electronics, and other types of retailers. The Body Shop took 50% off during its Green Monday sale, with all orders receiving free shipping. And Eddie Bauer took 50% off sitewide, plus it boasted a free shipping offer. Levi's, Belk, NFL Shop, and Dockers have also hosted solid best christmas deals today.

DVDs and Blu-Rays

Whether you're looking for stocking stuffers or just stocking up your own home video collection, you can expect December to have more than twice as many deals on DVDs and Blu-ray discs as January. Early December deals are plentiful, and they focus on sets — from James Bond to Seinfeld — at up to 60% off. These tend to be the best buys for anyone looking to beef up their home library. Expect to score up to 60% off on DVD and Blu-ray sets — from James Bond to Seinfeld. You'll likely still find deals after the holidays, with a grab bag of individual Blu-rays for as little as $1 each. They should still be good deals, but expect a lot less of them, and it's hard to say if you'll find anything you really want in the mix.

Gift Cards

December has particularly good gift card deals, with sales offering up to 40% off face value. While you'll likely find sales throughout the month, more than 75% of them were before Christmas last year, so they're an excellent gift option for anyone who's a little hard to shop for. The most common offers on gift cards last year were for clothes, but there were also deals for Target (10% off), Lowe's (10% off), Google Play (20% off), and Starbucks (30% off) cards. Almost all gift card offers are only available for specific denominations, and around half of those deals last December were for $50 gift cards. However, if you're shopping for stocking stuffers (or easy gifts for the office holiday party), know that sales started on gift cards worth as little as $15.

Jewelry

December is the time to jump on jewelry deals. You're likely to find a few more sales than in November, along with more Staff Pick deals, which are our "best of the best" offers. If you're planning ahead for Valentine's Day, don't count on finding this many sales in January, so it may pay to shop early. Expect many of these sales to be on modestly priced pieces that would make good stocking stuffers or small gifts, like Alex and Ani for up to 70% off. But you'll probably find sales on higher-end pieces, too: last year we saw up to 40% off Helzberg Diamonds jewelry at Amazon, and up to 25% off from Larson Jewelers.

Headphones

While Black Friday season — which encompasses most of November — has a slew of tech deals, headphones can be a special case. Last year we saw similar numbers of headphone sales in November and December, but December had more Staff Pick sales. Look for steals on big brands like Beats, Bose, and Sennheiser. And if you're on more of a budget, you'll likely be able to find headphones from Panasonic or JBL for under $10. Look for steals on big headphone brands like Beats, Bose, and Sennheiser. The timing of the best headphone deals can vary, though. Last year, the vast majority of them arrived before Christmas, but we have seen excellent buys just after Christmas. If you're in the market for headphones, keep your eyes open and jump on a good deal when you see it.

What to Buy After ChristmasVictoria's Secret Sale Items

Victoria's Secret offers up its semi-annual sale twice a year, and in 2019 the winter event started on December 28. Assuming this trend continues, the next Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale will begin on December 27, 2020. For two to four weeks, you can expect big discounts on bras, panties, and clothing such as pajamas and loungewear. It's worth checking out the goods at the beginning of the sale, too, before many sizes sell out. Look for the lingerie retailer to take 40% to 60% off a wide variety of items when the sale starts. Bras will almost certainly drop to $10 each (depending on the style), and other clothing items may also be that cheap. Last year, we saw leggings and a bow-back tank top drop to $10 each, and the tank fell to $7 later in the sale, best deals after christmas.

All Toys, but Particularly Video Games

December has a massive number of toy sales: last year we counted almost 600 gaming and toy deals, and 47% of those were Staff Picks. That's a lot of toys at some of the best prices we saw all year. You'll find particularly good sales on video games, consoles, and accessories — about 60% of the video game sales we listed last December were Staff Picks.