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wearejapanese · 5 years ago

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A Japanese person's perspective on the mini-series. Let's discuss!

As a naturalized Japanese-American who was born in Japan, speaks Japanese with family, and has lived in Japan for 10 years growing up, this mini-season was the absolute best thing I could have asked for. Binging it made my weekend!

Going into this, I immediately had this feeling in my gut knowing that there is an extremely large cultural difference between Japan and America, and was curious how effectively the show was going to explain that to the audience or if they were going to take a more shallow, "JAPAN IS SO KAWAII and COOL" route. People in Japan are EXTREMELY accustomed to the concept of "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down"; you should not be different or stand out, because you will be bullied and conforming is for your sake. Modesty, conforming, gender roles, being indirect and roundabout, and not being emotionally expressive are extremely big concepts in the Japanese psyche. Mental health, therapy, LGBT acceptance, being sexual, "doing me", straightforward emotional expression, embracing your curves, loving your body, etc. are not as prevalent in the general population as they are in America.

Kiko Mizuhara (who I've adored since I was a teenager living in Japan, she is so gorgeous and is in so many commercials in Japan) did a good job explaining and clarifying things to the Fab 5, although I wish she was featured a little bit more in each episode breaking things down more. The whole concept of a "guide" was really great, as she is decent at English and explained well, but I think the show could have done more with her.

1: Yoko was a fantastic hero to start off the season. The fact that she was spunkier than the average 50-year-old Japanese woman helped keep the episode lighthearted and appealing. She was so receptive and warm to the Fab 5 and it was a really feel-good episode overall. I think her episode helps viewers who are unfamiliar with Japanese social norms to get a taste of concepts like "throwing away your womanhood". I think the first slot was appropriate for this episode, as opposed to later. I was a bit sad that Bobby covered up a lot of the traditional Japanese interior of the community center, but I have to say the place ended up looking like it'd really be useful. I loved her transformation. It was really refreshing but still age-appropriate. In Japan, it'd be embarrassing to be talking about things like "How do you like the new me?", "I learned to have more self-confidence", etc. But the way she delivered her speech was soooooo...Japanese, so un-self-centered, it made her experience more digestible for the people there.

2: LGBT acceptance is really lacking in Japan compared to in the U.S. As soon as I saw the preview blurb on Netflix for this episode, I knew we were in for a doozy. Sure, there are still ignorant people anywhere, and still accepting people anywhere. But, as Kan expressed, it's extremely difficult to live "out and proud" in Japan with all of the social norms we grow up indoctrinated with. I thought Kan was the sweetest, most endearing lead, and he was also super receptive to the Fab 5, and I think it helped tremendously that he knew English so he could understand what they were saying. I also thought Kan was so brave to be so open on TV about his sexuality and I have so much gratitude for that. The scene with the monk and Kan breaking down about how he couldn't find support abroad or at home made me bawl my eyes out. I also really appreciated JVN telling Kan in the hair salon that it's radical and brave to love yourself and that's enough, you don't have to dress like him to be radical. Finally, sleeping on the floor is totally normal, and that is what a real futon is. The flat thing on the floor.

3: This was my second-favorite episode for a reason. It was so nuanced and definitely not the bubbliest or most happy. First of all, the mom haunts me. I am 100% Japanese, and my parents are both Japanese, live in Japan, only speak Japanese. They were traditional Asian Tiger parents growing up, and did a lot of things to me that I wouldn't ever do to my future kids. I don't talk to them about anything personal. I don't feel close to them. But, we get along decently in person, and they aren't bad people. Personally, in my opinion, something about Kae's mom gave me the heebie-jeebies. I got so much anxiety every time she came up on screen. There's obviously way more that has to be unpacked here. The pure, still rage on the mother's face when Kae said to Antoni that "she told me not to be in the kitchen so I felt uncomfortable to", the way the mom stirred the stuff in the pan with that blank stare, I felt extremely uncomfortable the whole cooking scene. And Antoni tried his hardest to get them to connect, but it just was a bit too "direct" to work well in Japan. I appreciated that Antoni heard out the mom when she said that saying "I love you" isn't normal in Japan, which is definitely true. The fact that the mother didn't recognize that bullying was a big deal literally floored me. The way she said "I think we're similar in that we both tend to not express our pain to our parents" really rubbed me the wrong way. That may be a fact, but it's not something to be content about or use as an excuse, it's something to improve upon. Sorry, I have a lot of thoughts on this topic from personal experience and also analyzing their body language and stuff from a Japanese perspective. Finally, I love JVN so much, but that hair was horrible. I wished he kept it pink or at least a dark burgundy. Also, loved seeing Naomi Watanabe in this episode and I think she was a great choice to inspire Kae - someone who can turn any situation into something lighthearted which will help Kae feel comfortable, while also being straight up, and with major star power! I don't know why tf Kiko got the drawing in the end, when she didn't even help, but oh well. Tan is so nice.

4: I knew guys kind of like Makoto growing up in Japan. Getting by in life, not openly into girls or dating, watching out for themselves, extremely introverted. Really fitting into the mold of what society accepts, because that's all they know how to do, think will be appreciated, and think is the right thing to do/think is enough. The way that Makoto's boss made that comment about how Makoto's wife is more out-spoken, saying what she wants, reflected the traditional gender roles and sexism that Japan still has. It had this undertone of like, women usually aren't like that. I really enjoyed this episode because it was honestly so...interesting. The dynamic between Makoto and Yasuko was really mind-boggling, right? I was so thrown off by all the things that were divulged about their marriage. I don't want to come across as disrespectful, but I honestly had a few moments in that episode where I thought Makoto was in the closet or something. Maybe it was editing. Did anyone else think that? However, I think that there are a ton of different types of people in the world - different personalities, ways of expressing themselves, childhoods, parenting styles that affect adult personality, all that stuff. Clearly, being from Japan where emotional expression is minimal and extremely indirect to begin with, along with maybe having a sad (?) childhood, and not being the most experienced with dating or relationships, I can see how Makoto and Yasuko unfortunately settled into this sibling-like relationship for 4 or so years. I think that they have a great shot at improving their relationship over time, and I think Karamo helped them so much with the yoga conversation where they finally opened up about their insecurities and unspoken worries. Also, I'm pretty sure they translated a bit wrong. Makoto is referring to Yasuko as the superhuman, not himself. He says to her, "Just the fact that you exist makes you a superhuman to me". Very sweet! His makeover also looked amazing, my favorite transformation of the season.

Overall, I'd rank the episodes in terms of how much I enjoyed them: 2, 3, 4, 1. How about you?

I think this mini-season excellently touched on a lot of really real social issues in Japan and presented how different things are in Japan compared to in the U.S. Do you have any questions about certain things that came up in an episode? I'd love to discuss with you and share my perspective.

(Reddit Conversation)

#Reddit #Queer Eye #Representation #LGBT #lgbtqia #japanese #Japanese American

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benisasoftboi · 6 years ago

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So on Friday night I made this post:

Which I expected that maybe ten, twenty people would see? I didn’t think anyone would really care about a joke about something so old and obscure, and it would just get lost in all the Detective Pikachu stuff. Instead, within five hours, it had become my most popular post.

I know it’s still not a huge number, but it’s still way more attention than I’ve ever received for anything... ever, so I’ve been thinking about Pokemon Live a lot since. Which has been bad, because this morning I had to take a very important political economy exam, and instead of thinking about Bretton Woods or Marx, I was thinking about Pokemon. I nearly referred to my country’s former Prime Minister as ‘David Camerupt’. It wasn’t good.

I need to expunge my thoughts. Specifically, my thoughts on one topic in particular - the way this show treats, or rather mistreats, the character of James. Because I truly, truly love Pokemon Live. I do. It’s one of the most glorious dumpster fires I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching a poor quality recording of. But this is the one thing I definitely don’t love.

I don’t expect anyone to read this. I mean, I said that last time, but this time I really don’t. It’s a long essay on a niche topic, and it isn’t even funny. But on the off chance it’ll get you to stick with me, I promise that there will be pictures of Andrew Rannells cuddling puppies at the end.

So,

How Pokemon Live Mistreats James, and Why It Matters:

The Mandatory Mentioning of The Actor

I’m guessing anyone who knows anything about Pokemon Live also knows that now highly successful, Tony-nominated Broadway and television actor Andrew Rannells was in it playing James. And if you didn’t, now you know why I’ve mentioned him twice now. I’m a big fan of this guy.

He hated this role. Absolutely despised it. Apparently the show was a miserable environment to work in for everyone. The costumes were uncomfortable. The audiences were unbearable. There’s a making of for this show, which can be viewed on YouTube in its entirety - I’ve watched the whole thing more than once and you can see in every cast member’s eyes - there’s no light there. They’re all dead inside. It’s almost heartbreaking.

To be clear - he’s the only one of these people I, or anyone else I’ve seen, ever makes fun of for this show. And that’s because he’s fine. He’s fine! He’s done very well for himself and talking about it won’t hurt his career, and there’s just always something really hilarious about seeing very successful people in terrible things, isn’t there? Chris Hemsworth in Saddle Club, Zach Braff in Babysitter’s Club, literally everyone in Foodfight. It’s not malicious or in any way intended to be punching down - just poking fun at a really good actor’s really bad early work. It’s not even really making fun of him, more that he was in this.

But there is one reason he hated the role that I don’t find so funny, and that’s that he felt the people that wrote the thing had made James a grossly over-the-top, borderline-to-over-the-line (depending on your tolerance) homophobic stereotype. And... yeah. They undeniably did that.

Rannells understandably dislikes the character, and to be honest - that makes me a little sad. Knowing that musical!James is probably the only version of the character he (and likely a lot of parents who saw the show, and other cast members) ever really encountered, that’s a huge shame. Because if we go back to the anime the musical’s based on, the one I, and many others, grew up on, James is quite different. In fact, I personally consider anime!James to be the best character in the entire Pokemon franchise.

Why We Love Team Rocket

Just want to quickly note that I can only discuss the anime up to about halfway through the Sinnoh seasons - I’ve seen basically nothing after that. My childhood was some original series, a lot of Hoenn, and a fair bit of early Sinnoh (somehow skipped over Johto almost entirely, don’t really know how that happened). If any of this is now not accurate, well - it’s not really relevant for this discussion anyway, but I still apologise.

The Team Rocket trio, James especially, is, pretty queer-coded. This is not unusual for villainous characters in children’s media before the 2010s, so much so that I would guess that a lot of the time it wasn’t even being done deliberately - it was just that common a trope that it was all but expected your show would have at least one flamboyantly effeminate, villainous bloke. And James - especially early James - has no qualms about showing his feminine side:

Notice that Jessie adopts masculine attire to match - she doesn’t always do this, but I like that they have her at least do it sometimes.

Team Rocket’s disguises became less and less likely to involve cross dressing as the show went on, but it’s one of the things best remembered about them. James also has a strong association with roses, and possesses several other feminine mannerisms. Arguably he’s far more downplayed than most other villains of the type (even more so than others present in Pokemon - Harley’s a great example, who was also, coincidentally, played by Andrew Rannells), but it’s present. And while yes, obviously in real life none of those things should be taken as definitive indication of a person’s orientation, and straight men are perfectly capable of twirling around in pretty dresses - in fact, I fully endorse it - this is fiction. Specifically fiction from the early 2000s. And in fiction, certain things are intended as visual cues and shorthand.

So I really, really doubt we were supposed to think James is entirely straight (I personally have always thought that he’s actually bi, but I’m not opposed to alternatives). You could make the case, but like. Come on.

But how is this different from musical!James? And how is this different than any other villain like him? Very simple. Anime!James has depth.

Not a tremendous amount. It’s a children’s cartoon made to cash in on a popular video game. But he, and Jessie and Meowth, are among the most well-rounded characters in the show’s cast, in a way that’s actually very relatable. It helps that they aren’t actually very villainous people most of the time. I know so many people who grew up with the show that loved, rooted for, and identified with them over the actual protagonists, by a mile. Myself included - I can remember two separate James-centered episodes that made me cry as a kid.

And these three are particularly beloved by young LGBT adults. We know from their backstories that they all came from rough circumstances - Jessie desperately poor and struggling to get anywhere or be recognised, Meowth having changed a fundamental part of himself in attempt to gain love and instead being ostracised for it, and James running away from an abusive household. They’re three people (/Pokemon) who felt alone in the world, that have now found each other. And whether you view Jessie and James’s relationship as romantic, friendship, or found family, it’s far more compelling than any other relationship in the show, at least to me. They may be criminals, but it’s not hard to see why some kids - especially the kids who might already feel like they’re just a bit different - would latch on to them.

Even if you didn’t know James’s backstory, he still has a character. He’s frequently shown to be the most moral of the trio, he has a stronger bond with Pokemon than honestly even Ash - even more of a running gag than his flamboyance is the fact that his pets love him so much that they just wanna hug him all the time, with inevitable slapstick consequences - he has dorky hobbies like bottle cap collecting, and he’s even occasionally shown to be a bit of an environmentalist. Yes he is in many ways a stereotypical camp villain - but he’s also more. And that’s why we love him.

And I’d bet anything there probably were some little boys who watched the show and saw James and thought ‘that guy’s like me!’. And yeah, that guy is a villain, because god forbid a maybe-gay character also be a good guy. But more than any other character like him that I’ve seen, he’s also always been a person. And considering how most of the other options kids like that had at the time were either one-note villains or nothing (and even now it’s sparse pickings) - that’s valuable.

And then there’s Pokemon Live.

*long, long sigh*

Oh, Pokemon Live. You beautiful disaster.

What did you do to my boy?

Is there nothing that better encapsulates it than the bit where James asks Giovanni where Mecha MewTwo (...I know) “stands on campaign finance reform, social security and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”?

First off, I like that James is politically engaged! Good for him! Completely out of character, but still!

And I do find this line incredibly funny, but I want to be very clear about why I find it funny. The line is funny because referencing a real world American discriminatory military policy in a Pokemon musical is just... so completely absurd. It’s super jarring and when I first watched it, I had to pause it so I could stop laughing about the possible implications of Pokemon Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Is there a Pokemon American military then? Pokemon Democrats and Pokemon Republicans? Pokemon Bill Clinton? POKEMONICA LEWINSKY???

It just raises so many questions.

Also Rannells’s delivery is incredible.

But the thing is, that’s not the joke here, is it? The actual ‘joke’ is ‘HA HA HE’S GAY! HE SAID THAT BECAUSE HE’S GAY!’. Which gets even worse when you think about it and realise that this situation is really just a gay man (I don’t think there’s any doubt about it in this particular incarnation, is there) asking his boss whether or not he thinks people like him should be discriminated against. How is that a joke? (The answer is that it isn’t.)

Which makes it that much more inappropriate for a children’s Pokemon musical, which is sort of, in a dark way, almost funnier. It’s that juxtaposition of something kiddy and cute with something that definitely isn’t.

But hilarious as I find it, given the chance to I would go back and get rid of that line. I dislike what it implies - that being a gay man is nothing more than a punchline - more than I like the absurdist humour.

And that’s the whole problem with how they chose to write James for this whole thing. They took a really good example of how you can have this type of villain while also making him a good character, and they turned him into nothing more than a stereotype.

You could say ‘but it’s a much shorter story than a TV show! They wouldn’t have time to make him nuanced!’, to which I would say 1. He doesn’t have to be nuanced, he just has to be slightly more than I’M GAY and 2. There have been 21 Pokemon movies at time of writing, two of which came out before Pokemon Live did. None of them, at least of the ones I’ve seen, committed any character assassinations like this. The first one even had another baffling reference to real world America:

That’s so out of nowhere and silly that I laugh every time I think about it (the Minnesota Vikings are an American football team, if you didn’t know). See, Pokemon Live! It’s possible to do jokes like that which aren’t at the expense of a minority group! Wow!

The anime even has examples of how you can do the gay jokes and make them funny. They are very rare in the show (beyond the humour of James’s personality), but remember the whole Flaming Moltres joke? It’s actually great. It’s a couple of good puns, it’s possibly Rachael Lillis’s best delivery in the whole show, and, just for confirmation, I’ve shown the clip to a few actual gay men in my life, who all said that they think that it’s very funny, and totally non-offensive. The joke is still ‘lol he gay’, but it’s also a neat play on words, it feels very in character for both of them, and it doesn’t have the same malicious, taunt-y feel of the Pokemon Live ‘joke’.

Look, the Pokemon anime is far from perfect. There are lots of moments where you have to grit your teeth and remember when it came out. But it still gave us a really, really wonderful character, and he absolutely deserved better than this.

Do I Still Love Pokemon Live?

Yes.

Even with all of this, it’s still an absolute masterpiece of unintentional hilarity. In some ways, this makes it funnier. Of course, of course, it couldn’t just have terrible costumes and a nonsense plot and really, really bad rapping - of course it’s also kind of offensive. Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it be.

And I would love to talk about all the things I genuinely love about it, and maybe I will one day.

But the thing is, it’s also representative of everything that was wrong with gay-coded characters at the time, something that the show it’s based on came way closer to handling well than most other stuff of its time, no less. And that, as a whole, isn’t funny at all.

So I want to be clear. I love laughing at this show because it’s a weirdly earnest cash-in musical for something that definitely shouldn’t be a musical, with endless bizarre, quotable moments - not because the way it warped this character is actually funny. I love laughing at the character’s lines because they’re absurd choices for a Pokemon musical - not because they’re in any way funny on their own. And I love laughing at the fact that Andrew Rannells was in it because he is so much better than this - not because this is what I think he should be reduced to.

And speaking of, here’s those pictures I promised:

I love one man.

#pokemon #pokemon live #andrew rannells #james pokemon #team rocket #musicals #long post #i cant believe how long i spent on this #ive written academic essays shorter #i think this is probably longer than all my exam answers from this morning combined #long essays about niche topics

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chaoticoconut · 5 years ago

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1, 6, and 18! 💛

💛💛💛

these will be long as hell I'm sorry lmao

1. for as long as I can remember I've felt attracted to women and drawn to the community. I grew up watching Saturday Night Live with my parents, which I think is where I first encountered homosexuality but a close second was on this other skit show (whose name I can't find for whatever reason) where girl a was getting engaged to her boyfriend and girl b, the best friend and roommate, was freaking out and it ended with girl b kissing her and I don't know why its stuck with me for over a decade but I used to spend so much time up late at night thinking about what love was or why we kiss each other but I never once considered I was anything other than normal until elementary school. Everytime my friend and I stumbled across two girls kissing in pop culture or really any gay representation for that matter we'd tell each other about it and it became this weird fixation of ours until an older girl overheard us and called us weird and gay and I remember I went home and cried and cried because being weird and gay were obviously synonymous at my Texas charter elementary school and would have a negative impact on my life if people found out.

I didn't start taking those "am I gay" quizzes till about 5th or 6th grade. I had forced all homosexuality into a very taboo box for me and when I didn't like this one (very creepy, I might add) boy back in 6th grade and I told my parents, I remember getting this really adverse reaction from my mother ("well then what are you?") that perpetually kept me fully closeted for another year. That being said, I knew I was attracted to boys too. I think I had my first real crush on a boy in 3rd grade, but before that I had liked Wilbur Robinson and Peter Pan and Justin Bieber and Taylor Lautner for Christ's sake so I had it in my mind that even if I weren't fully straight I could pass as everyone else's normal and not face the repercussions of being weird and gay. I'd still marry a man and have kids like every other female role model I my life at the time. I felt a lot of guilt during puberty and had tremendous gay panic thinking I had to be one thing or another or even one thing in secret and I was lying to myself in some way about my feelings and then my dad's friend (or my self appointed aunt actually) came out to everyone after having been married to a man for several years. As 7th grade rolled around one of my friends came out as transgender. And the internet finally seemed to really give a shit about the LGBT+ community, and the world felt bigger, and I felt more comfortable giving myself exceptions ("maybe you could have a girlfriend in college but still marry a man"). I discovered flannels, I had gay ships (Harley and Ivy saved my whole life), all my friends were coming out at an increasing rate, and suddenly all sorts of people were attractive to me. The quizzes called what I was bisexual. A pretty girl I knew identified as bi/pan (I can't remember what it was at the time, she changed labels a lot those days) I had met at a birthday party just a few days before asked me over breakfast if I liked girls.

I damn near choked on my toast.

And against every voice screaming in my head to just say no and that it wasn't worth it, I told her the truth and within a few days we were dating. Granted, it was only about 3 days the first time, I finally had one thing straight: I was a legitimate bisexual (pardon the pun).

Then everyone found out and called me a lesbian and I was back in the hole. I didn't want to be a lesbian, not because somehow that was more weird and gay than being a bisexual, but because that wasn't who I was. And I knew that much about myself. I had a lot of internalized oppressive tendencies to confront but at least I had some solid footing in my identity. According to my friends my energy was much gayer in middle school and freshman year and I "struggled" with that (I didn't want to shoo away any cute guys but had to accept that even my bisexual identity was polarizing for some) and now I'm here. I'm 16. I'm very confident in my identity. I'm out to almost all of my friends (except for most of my elementary school pals (including the girl who talked about wlw stuff w me bc she's really homophobic now)), some of their families, and one other adult (she was my counselor in the hospital and after like 5 minutes she was like "and are you LGBT or am I mistaken?" and I had to make sure my mom wasn't lurking around the corner before I said yes, honestly my big gay energy is so powerful), and I may or may not tell my dad before I move out (probably not. I've never been very open with my parents about my social or romantic life. Telling him would probably only make things weird or harder for him to trust me going out and doing things lmao). I felt a part of the community for real when my friend came out to me as bisexual for the first time last month and told me my embrace of it helped her come to terms with her own feelings.

6. I don't know how popular of an opinion this is but finding a label that fit me was really empowering. I played around with the idea of pansexuality and demiromanticism and found that in my specific case they held me back more than they defined me. I felt pansexuality was an unnecessary title to hold with the updated and more fluid and forgiving definition of bisexuality and the biphobic tendencies the community had when trying to empower their base but at the same time who am I to tell someone that their label of choice isn't vaild. I don't give a shit. If it is part of you do you. Have your own normal. Everyone else is weird to everyone else anyway. It won't help to reduce yourself to something you aren't. If labels aren't your shit, splendid for you. If they are, that rocks too. Queer is another label I particularly love. It enforces this no confirmative ideal I have. I didn't even begin to rant about Gender & I. I find the word queer the most empowering label of all in the community, because in whole, we are queer, but we're queer together.

18. I love the memes. Lmao. I love feeling connected enough we can laugh about it together. Growing Up Gay memes in particular made me feel so much better about myself. Those memes where both the guy and gal are attractive. I love the sense of style/lack thereof too. There's this lez senior I already have a crush on who just wears whatever the fuck she wants and idk why but I love it and am so inspired.

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ladyloveandjustice · 6 years ago

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Fall 2018 Anime Overview: Double Decker! Doug & Kirill

Double Decker! Doug and Kirill follows a special police force devoted to dealing with cases involving “Anthem”, a highly dangerous super-drug that can be both fatal and grant uncontrollable superpowers. The squad is divided into three pairs of partners. The eponymous Kirill is a enthusiastic newbie who partners with a deadpan, “kind of an asshole” veteran named Doug.

It’s hard to say when a show crosses the line from “dumb in a fun way” to “just mind numbingly dumb” but I’d say Double Decker crossed that threshold around about the midpoint of the series. Which is a shame, because I was rooting for it. It seemed like an anime with a lot of potential- it was humorous, irreverent and bombastic, it seemed fun and colorful with a varied cast, it had a nice variety of ladies in the squad, and two of the ladies, Max and Yuri, were heavily coded as a couple right off the bat-

-with Max (on the left) in particular going putting off some Impressive Lesbian Energy with her aesthetic...and early on Doug announced that his life goal was to “eliminate poverty and class”, indicating the series intended to deal with social issues.

It IS possible to be a cheesy, fun show that is also inclusive and deals with social ills, but Double Decker’s clumsy, simplistic attempts to balance this with the larger goofy plot ultimately meant it fell short of being an truly entertaining romp AND was utterly disastrous at being socially aware.

Double Decker acts like it wants to say something about tolerance at points, but is ultimately gutless, toothless and halfhearted, sometimes verging on offensive. It became apparent the show wasn’t going to be truly LGBT inclusive with a character’s uh, “gender reveal” scene midseries that is a just...a mess. Some characters reactions to the “revelation” are just blatantly transphobic (thinking its hilarious, saying the character in question should “tell the truth" about their sex, etc) and this was never called out or challenged. It’s finally explained (baffllngly late in the series) that rather than actually being trans, this character is a cis man who just disguised himself as a woman for flimsy plot reasons, it doesn’t make how the reveal scene was handled and how it was painted as being “funny” any better. It’s not my lane so I won’t really go into it, but this article at Anime Herald covers the whole mess in detail. The whole thing is SO stupid and honestly there was no reason for it to be a plot at all.

If that “reveal” episode had me feeling wary about the show, the episode following sunk any hopes I had for it. Double Decker didn’t even have the guts to have Max and Yuri be explicitly romantically involved, instead just giving vague, baity hints. What’s worse, the episode focusing on Max was boring as sin. It was painfully bland and on the nose “critique” of high school proms SO rote it even had the girl who wanted to be popular transform into a literal “queen bee” (GET IT). The only thing we actually learn about Max in her supposed focus episode is that she hates proms because a bunch of kids rejected her trans friend at one which caused her friend to turn to drugs and disappear forever. Yep, not only can the show not bother to give us actual lesbians, trans people are just tragic props (and the attempt to say a thing about how trans people are treated badly would have felt a LOT more sincere if transness hadn’t been treated as a joke in THE EPISODE JUST BEFORE THIS ONE).

Doug also only became aware of poverty existing because of a tragic prop- his backstory amounts to a dead little shoe-shining street girl so one dimensional and cliche I’m surprised she wasn’t found frozen in an alley clutching a book of matches, and that one incident made him realize Poor People Shouldn’t Be a Thing so now he’s, uh....well, he’s not really doing anything about it, but he says he wants to, and that’s good enough right?

Yeah, that’s about the level of nuance we’re dealing with here. It’s nice that Double Decker tried, I guess, but if this was going to be the level of its effort, I wish it had just stuck to being a goofy sci-fi show. As it was, even the “goofy buddy cop” aspect felt really hollow because the show didn’t give us a reason to be invested in these partnerships or these characters.

I wanted to be invested! I was SO ready to appreciate the punk butch and her robot girlfriend, but instead we barely learn anything about them or see them interact. I was READY to be tremendously invested in the straightlaced office girl and her vulgar pink haired partner, but we didn’t learn anything beyond their surface personalities- nothing substantial about what drives them or where they come from or anything. Doug had his eye-rolly dead-little-girl backstory and admittedly sometimes amusing snarky asshole personality, but he spends so much time being insincere there wasn’t much to latch onto with him.

Kirill was pretty much the only one in this show who felt like an Actual Character, and I did find him extremely likable- he was utterly sincere in everything he did, full of heart, dumb and enthusiastic in a fun way, and incredibly sweet and supportive to his friends and loved ones (he was also the only one who was chill and accepting about the not-really-trans character too so that earned him some points) but all the stuff going around him was so empty it didn’t matter.

(ending spoilers here)

The show didn’t put the work into making you connect with these characters, but it DID still expect you to be invested in them. One of the kinda-lesbians appears to have died at one point in the show, but it makes zero impact because you knew basically nothing about that character anyway- it instead just feels annoying, like “wow, you’re just gonna kill that gay without bothering to develop her huh” but the show clearly expects you to be devastated. Then when it’s revealed at the end “PSYCH she’s alive for this ridiculous jokey contrived reason haha really pranked you huh” it’s just even more annoying. Just because I’m relieved you didn’t actually bury the gay doesn’t mean you pretending to bury her wasn’t insulting and pointless. All you did was bring my attention to how little you bothered to develop this character and how willing you are to use her and her kinda-girlfriend’s pain as a plot device, so thanks?

(spoilers end)

The humor of the show basically followed “you thought THIS thing was gonna happen but instead WACKY TWIST haha now the narrator makes a snarky comment about it” and while that was fun at first it just got old without anything going on besides that. And as for the plot, it’s...generous... to call it a plot. At the end it jumps straight to “AND SUDDENLY THERE WERE ALIENS” with almost zero foreshadowing and it just gets stupider from there. Such a ridiculous development would work on a show that was either a) a pure farce or b) something super wacky but with enough heart, drama and character to keep you invested, but DD was neither of those things. It was an anime that wanted you to care, but gave no fucks itself.

(Also this show is supposed to be related to Tiger and Bunny but I honestly have no idea how these two anime are connected in-universe. Is this a prequel? sequel? Are they happening at the same time? WHO KNOWS, THE CREATORS SURE DON’T)

The animation was also nothing to write home about, with a lot of awkward CGI shots and pretty ugly clothing designs- it was colorful enough to distract from it a lot of the time, but definitely not winning any aesthetics awards.

So yeah, Double Decker is very far from the worst anime I’ve ever watched, and I like the concept I think it was GOING for- but what we ended up with was something completely mediocre. The first couple episodes were fun, but by the end it was a chore to watch. I finished it because “well I’ve come this far might as well” rather than any real investment in the show. It wasn’t painful (except for the clumsy attempts at dealing with trans issues), but it was so completely stupid and forgettable, which is sad, because it seemed like it had so much potential at the start.

#double decker #double decker! doug & kirill #double decker doug and kirill #anime #fall 2018 anime #anime overview #my reviews

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outoftheready · 5 years ago

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Let’s Get Started (Originally posted elsewhere on June 13, 2019)

Music is a big part of my life. A majority of people (at least those I know) would say the same thing. A favorite band or a song that someone feels defines a part of them. Songs can help you through a rough time. A song can lift your mood. Songs create this narrative for us that we sometimes can’t explain ourselves. We create playlists, in our phones, iPods, Spotify, Apple Music, whatever your favorite platform is. Some even still make a mix in CD form. We can share these songs, keep them to ourselves, even force these songs on others. “Listen to this song. It’s so me. This is my life!” I have tried to share songs quietly by sharing them on Facebook or slipping into a mix I’ve given to someone hoping something in the lyrics would click with them and hear me in the song.

I’m also big into story. I once made a 3 CD mix for a girl, taking lyrics from the songs and turning them into a story for her. I never gave it to her. It would have been weird and possibly inappropriate. I’ll reveal why in a minute. I find songs all the time where maybe one line resounds with me, and it brings out a little bit of my life. I have a playlist of those songs and one day while listening to that playlist a thought came to mind and wondered if I should take those bits of songs and do something with them. Should I start a blog? I used to have a Tumblr, but that might not be the best place. That Tumblr hasn’t been active in about four years though. There are some people who know/knew about it and I’m not ready for some of them to know what I’m going through.

All my life I’ve never liked who I am. It all started to hit pretty hard over the past year. Some friends were able to tell and had many people asking if I was alright. I would tell them I was fine or had just a little anxiety. Never once in my life did I feel normal. I always hated myself, my body. I was considered a tomboy, probably thought to be a phase by most. Once one of my great-aunts had asked my mom, “What if she is a lesbian?” I was pretty young when my mom told me that and I knew then that I wasn’t. I knew that I felt like a boy. In my heart, I was a boy. Being gay would probably be a whole lot easier than being transgender. There are so many things that will change and everyone will have to get used to it or just not be part of my life. Someone one day posted or liked a tweet by this guy with a goofy profile picture of him wearing tiny sunglasses, I was intrigued. I looked to see what he was about and found out he was this transgender guy, I may have hesitated a little but followed him immediately. There was a lot of wondering on my part if I should continue to follow him. What if my Christian friends looked at who I follow? What if I liked one of his tweets, or responded, or even worse felt compelled to retweet something? What will happen if I get found out? By following him I have found other trans guys and a watched a bunch of videos. I have found out so many things. There is more than just testosterone injections, getting top surgery to remove these things on my chest I carry around, more than just a voice change.

I wrote this horrible Cliff’s Notes version of my life and let a few friends read it. I even came clean with a now former friend of some feelings I had for her. I’m sure I must have done something else other than revealing that to make that friendship end the way it did. Parts of that week are kind of a blur. It was so stressful finally getting all this bottled up mess out. It’s a little embarrassing actually. Maybe it shouldn’t be. I wish I knew what it was that I did. I had to write my story. I had to let her know. I had to get it all out. If I didn’t I knew I would get more anxious. I know I would get even more depressed. I knew I would begin to completely loathe who I am and everything about my life. I didn’t want that. I don’t think I could deal with that. I knew I needed to get better, to not hate myself any longer. To feel like a person.

One of the hardest parts of going through this is that I’m in my late 30’s and have never talked about this until 9 months ago. The other hard part is I work at a church. That’s where I met the girl I made the 3 CD/story mix for, and that was yeaaaaaarrrrrrrrrssss ago. I’m not a pastor or leader of any sort really. Recently the church (more like that pastor) has been softly going after gender identity and it hurts-they don’t understand. I heard someone once say something along the lines of, “If you feel upset about it in your spirit it’s the conviction of the Holy Spirit.” I used to just roll my eyes when they would speak out against homosexuality because I knew they didn’t understand and/or didn’t want to. Now that it seems like they are losing that fight, the religious Christians are gunning for those who struggle with gender identity. It hurts. It feels so hate driven. Maybe they don’t mean to be that way. Maybe they don’t know they sound that way. And with every “amen” I hear it tares me down. I can feel the disgust. I can imagine the look of disappointment in the faces of those who used to be so happy to see me and want to hug me. Or the fake love they will give. And, the discomfort I feel is not the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it’s that lack of their understanding. It’s that judgment I feel from the tone of their words. The discomfort I feel is their unease for those like me and all the other types of people in the LGBT community.

For over 30 years I’ve struggled with who I am. For nearly 30 years I’ve had kids asking if I were a boy or a girl. I knew I hated who I was from an early age. Those many birthday candle blowouts or first star I see tonight wishes to be a boy. In kindergarten never playing dolls or house with girls on the other side of the room. Except for that one time I tried and that probably lasted all of two minutes, then went right back to playing on the slide and painting on the easel on the other side of the room with the boys. In first grade stealing a baby bottle nipple and fixing it to where it would need to be for me to stand up and pee. It worked surprisingly well. I then didn’t know what to do with it because I tried it in school during a restroom break and threw the bottle nipple in some random corner of the girls bathroom. Somehow one of the girls saw my feet facing the toilet and for years would tell me that she saw me peeing standing up. It was always when there were other kids around and I would get so embarrassed. For years I’ve been holding in this sadness. Holding in my fears. Letting it develop into a painful anxiety and depression. And to be honest I never thought I would make it this far in progress and in life. I used to pray that if this was all wrong that God would give me cancer so that I could die. I’m still here.

I’m in therapy now. It’s been helping me tremendously. But writing things down has always been a way for me to really get things out because I can think about how I want to say things. I’m not always good at getting things out while talking, I shut down. Recently though, after being open about things, it’s a little easier to talk. And, what the fuck is up with all the damn crying that comes with it. Fuck me. I have cried more in the past year than I have in probably the past 15 years. I guess I’m finally finding my way out.

Being a very scattered thought person, I am writing multiple posts at the same time. I will try my best to not repeat things and if anything is ever confusing I apologize beforehand. The girl I am no longer friends with, in our last texting conversation she said something like I was just trying to get attention and acting like a middle schooler, I almost didn’t do this out of fear that it would look like I was trying to seek attention. I’m not. I’m just trying to get better. And I’m not sure if every post will have a relatable song or if every post will have a song, but I’ll try. If there is ever a song you think fits with a post or maybe a song you think I would enjoy go ahead a let me know. Please ask me questions. Even the dumbest questions. And If your a friend of mine keep on me about getting this stuff out. I kind of hate that I’m finally posting this during Pride Month. Mostly because I don’t want it to seem like that is why I’m starting this. It’s merely a coincidence that this is getting posted now.

I’ve always struggled at the root of the problem Has it been absence or my constant lack of defense? I’ve never spent a lot on finding a remedy I guess I figured that it hurts for a reason I guess that’s why I’ve always turned to writing it down Not just in stories but the letters in between And I guess that’s why it haunts the pages of everything To self-examine I think the thing is that I shut off from everything From friends and family and my own ambitions From having fun I just shut off from everything Self-defeating? Yeah, probably

“A Letter” by La Dispute

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My friend, don’t look down

You’ve got to face what’s in front of you now

Don’t waste your time making excuses

Cause son you’re about to find out

You might just figure out

What you’re made of

“Not Fair” by Bayside

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Don’t let them break you.

Don’t let them tell you who you are

“Bamboo Bones” by Against Me!

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#ftm #ftm blog #christian ftm #la dispute #bayside #aginst me!#trans christian

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thisiswhatwereupagainst · 8 years ago

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FIVE UNDERAPPRECIATED CHARACTERS (and five runners up)

A few caveats before we begin. Firstly, the difference between underused and underappreciated. An underused character is one that the writers haven't done much with at all. An underappreciated character is one that fandom doesn't pay much attention or give credit to despite what the writers have done with them already as is that should warrant more attention. Secondly is that this list is biased as fuck. The only person on it who isn't one of my special favorites is Moira MacTaggert. I tried for that not to be the case, but the fact is, the Marvel Universe is really, REALLY big, and there are soooo many characters that I can really only get to know a specific few. And so of course the ones I know best are the ones that I know have done stuff that should be more widely appreciated by fandom. So if your under-rated favorite isn't on here and you think they deserve to be, it's not that I looked at them and said "what a loser" and deliberately left them off, I just probably don't know who they are and what they accomplished to deserve to be on this list. I'm sure that the characters who deserve to be on it could fill a book. That's why I just put "five underappreciated characters" instead of "top five", because I don't think these are objectively the TOP underrated characters, they're just five of the ones that I know and like best. Thirdly, my definition of "underappreciated" is based solely on what *I* have seen of fandom in *my* experience with it...and I am not someone deeply involved in fandom. I largely stay out of it, only venturing in when looking for info on a preferred character, or just happening on stuff by chance. So I might be totally wrong in how I've gauged the popularity level, or lack thereof, of a character. Thus, one or more of these might actually not be "underappreciated" at all. Which, hey, would be great! Anyway, on to the list...

FIVE UNDERAPPRECIATED CHARACTERS

- Moira MacTaggert: If you're imagining a sexy young American CIA agent, stop it right now. I'm talking about comics Moira. Comics Moira is around Charle's age, very Scottish, and she is actually DOCTOR MacTaggert, a world-renowned leading geneticist whose area of specialty is mutants. She's badass, she's smart, she calls Charles out on his shit when no one else does, she has dark issues of her own, and she goes after a kelpie with a giant gun. She's a longtime ally of the X-Men, she lives at the mansion and forms a relationship with each team member of the time, and even forms/leads her own team of X-Men on Muir Island (the site of her research center) when it appears the original team has been killed. Moira debuts at an early point in the comics, and is an important player in numerous stories for years to come up until her death at the hands of Mystique, but not before she discovered the cure to the Legacy Virus, saving the lives of countless mutants. If you remember no one else on this list, remember Moira MacTaggert. - The Hellions: During the 80s when Emma Frost was still a villain, she ran a school of her own and the Hellions were her teenage proteges. They were rivals to the New Mutants, but with the exception of Empath and maybe Roulette, not evil at all. They were just mutant kids that Emma had gotten to before Xavier did. Some of them formed friendships with the New Mutants, and their clashes were more like contests than real battles. They all had distinct personalities, most of which were quite likeable and interesting, but were never used to their full potential. They might have had big futures ahead of them, but when the 90s came along, they were all wiped out in a mass slaughter (except, ironically, Empath, the one character I don't think anyone WANTED to survive) which prompted Emma Frost to join the X-Men, as she felt her future students would have a better chance of surviving if she were with them. While the Hellions are still beloved and mourned to this day by a small but devoted number of comic fans, their fascinating and unique personalities make them worthy of so much more remembrance. - Destiny: I see more fanart of Mystique and Azazel than I do Mystique and Destiny, and I think that's a damn shame. Azazel was just a dude who knocked Mystique up. Destiny was a woman she had a lifelong relationship, never leaving her side even when she grew old while Mystique stayed young. Historically, same-sex relationships in comic books and other movies were used to show how evil and depraved a villain was to engage in such a thing, but Mystique's love for Destiny was used to humanize her instead. While they could never actually be called lovers on-panel, they pushed the envelope as much as possible for the time, living together and even raising an adopted child (Rogue) together. How is fandom not all over that? God knows there's a fuck ton of fanart of Charles and Erik raising the latter's kids together, and that didn't even happen! But she's more than just Mystique's wife or Rogue's mother. She's an enigmatic but influential force in the Marvel universe who affected all of the X-Men even long after her own death. She was far less malicious and malevolent than the rest of the Brotherhood, yet her predictions are what steered their actions. Did she really want to achieve their cause of mutant supremacy? Or was she manipulating them to shape the future in a larger way? And the diaries she left behind recording her visions both predicted and moved plots in the 2000s, making her a more important character post-mortem than she was alive. She's also neat in that not only in that she was one of the first LGBT mutants (and represented positively, no less, despite her villainy) but also in that she wasn't a hot sexy villainess, she was an elderly woman and neither she nor her relationship with another woman was sexualized at all. That's very rare. It's even more rare to see older gay people represented; the 'face' of the LGBT community is typically portrayed as people around 30 or less, seldom over 50. Therefore, I think she deserves more recognition both in terms of being a diversity milestone and for just who she was and what she did. - Fabian Cortez: Yes, there's a little personal bias here, but I really do think Fabian deserves more spotlight in fandom than he gets. This dude showed up at the beginning of the 90s, expertly manipulated the retired Magneto back into villainy for his own purposes, then orchestrated his death for the same reason, framing humanity for it. He then used Magneto's image as a martyr to gather a cult called the Acolytes that numbered far more than any incarnation of the Brotherhood ever had. They were vicious, they were bloodthirsty, and they did anything Fabian said. Fabian manipulated heroes and villains alike, attempted to sway Quicksilver to his side. When that failed, he became his nemesis of the era, and during Blood Ties he even kidnapped Quicksilver's daughter to hold hostage as he deliberately plunged the nation of Genosha into a bloody civil war. After the return of Magneto and addition of Exodus, Fabian loses his badass status and gets put more in a "Toad" role as the slimy subordinate who is abused by his superiors as he secretly schemes against him. But while he ceases to be important in the OVERALL story, he remains important in relation to Magneto and Quicksilver, as there's obviously still a lot of animosity between them. This animosity remains right up until Magneto kills him once his use for him runs out. So, what makes Fabian Cortez unappreciated? Well, when's the last time you met a fan who knew who he is? Did you even know who he was before you read this blog? He's a major player for the first half of the 90s, then attached to a major player through the next half (and one that is IMMENSELY popular in fandom), yet no one knows who he is. Even fans of Magneto and Quicksilver, whose stories he was very important in during the entire decade, don't know this guy. Then there's his personality. Fabian is the WORST and it's AMAZING. It's not just that he's a manipulative liar who will do anything for power, it's not just that he abuses and even sacrifices his followers for his own gain, it's not just that he's a major egomaniac, he's also a tremendous sexist and tremendously thirsty, with goals of forming a harem. He even causes a 15 year unexplained mystery because he was staring at a woman's butt! He's threatening and competent, yet at the same time, utterly hilarious in his sex-crazed misogynistic pompous cowardly assholery. He also has some fantastic lines, such as MY WILL BE DONE SO SAYETH ME in the animated series, and telling Quicksilver that he scream his name very well. He's also in some hilarious scenes, like vanishing even faster than QUICKSILVER can see when Quicksilver says he has explaining to do. Seriously, if you don't recognize him for his importance to plot as a villain or for his role as an enemy to Magneto and Quicksilver, recognize him for his epic doucheyness and epic hilarity. - Kwannon: If you love Psylocke, you need to love Kwannon, or at least know her, because everything Psylocke is today is due to Kwannon. In both the 90s cartoon and the X-Men movies, Psylocke has always been depicted as Asian, but in fact, she's not---Kwannon was. And in many regards, she was who Betsy has been since. You see, Psylocke originally was a well-mannered little lady from England. Her time with the X-Men made her want to be a fighter very much...and she got her wish when she was body-swapped with Kwannon, a Japanese ninja assassin, in order to save the latter's life. The swap was done by the Mojoworld villainess Spiral, but arranged by Japanese crimelords Mastu'o Tsurayaba and Lord Nyoirin. Once it was done, each of them attempted to manipulate the two mentally confused women into both their loves and personal weapons. The swap also resulted in their minds merging to a degree as well, so that they absorbed skills, memories, and personality traits from each other. For Psylocke, she gained Kwannon's ninja abilities, and a much more brutal personality. The latter was only exacerbated by her rage at how she had been used and victimized, how her agency had been taken from her to the point her body literally was not her own, of what these men had done to her. This was the beginning of the Psylocke as we know her now. As for Kwannon, she suffered an identity crisis. Thanks to absorbing some of Betsy's memories during the swap and the manipulating lies of Nyoirin, she believed herself to be the REAL Betsy Braddock, mentally as well as physically, and accused Psylocke of being an imposter. Due to their scrambled psyches, this could not be worked out for some time, and it was not until the time that Kwannon was on death's door with the Legacy Virus that she was finally able to realize the truth of who she was and what had been done to her. She perished in the white body of Betsy Braddock, while Betsy lived on in her Asian body, which is now the appearance most associated with her today. Kwannon deserves to be remembered both for what Betsy gained from her, and as a character in her own right.

FIVE RUNNERS UP

These are the characters that I think deserve more recognition for whatever reason, but also aren't truly what I would call underappreciated either . Sebastian Shaw: Sebastian Shaw has been a big name in the comics fandom since his first appearance, and for very good reason. He's a major baddie, and he's very good at it, though admittedly he's never managed to top his first story. Poor guy peaked too early. But he's still managed to be a pretty cool villain, and a fairly consistent one, though his role wanes more with every decade. Still, he's always been at least B-list in fandom. Maybe not everyone's favorite, but at least everyone knows who he is, what he does, and the basic reasons why he does it. The evil billionaire who just wants more money and power and will do anything to get it isn't new or original, but Shaw does it very well, and with a mindset that makes him more realistic than the stock stereotype and with a flair very distinct to him...also, he takes his shirt off every chance he gets and it's hilarious. He's great, and even fans who don't love him have generally still recognized his importance as a good villain. But with the rise of movie fandom, that's changed. The movies have far overtaken the comics in reach and popularity, and while I don't think that's a good or bad thing, it does mean that now most people think Nazi Kevin Bacon when they hear the name Sebastian Shaw, who has nothing in common with comics Shaw. The fact he hasn't done any proper villainy in the comics for like ten years doesn't help. And I think Shaw deserves better. He's not a sympathetic villain, he's not even a particularly complex one, but he's interesting in his own way, and he's both threatening and fun. Threatening because of his ruthlessness, how he uses political and economic power as much as punches, his willingness to throw all of mutantkind under the bus for his own gain, and his incorrigible perseverance. He's also got a pretty fleshed-out past which could easily have been used to make him tragic to the point of cliche, but isn't, which I find neat. He's not tragic in the SLIGHTEST at all, actually, he's so self-interested and awful it's kind of hilarious. And he has some great dynamics with other characters. So, why would I only make him a runner-up? Because I think that while he's not getting as much credit as he used to, and that he does deserve a little more spotlight, he's not totally deprived of it either. There are still plenty of comic fans out there who know he is, and who say, yeah, that dude was pretty cool. He's not as big a name as he used to be or as he could be, and he probably is never going to get out of Movie Shaw's shadow ever again, but he's hardly forgotten either. I think if the comics find cool new things to do with this fucker, he'll start gaining back some of his former glory from the classic days ASAP in fandom. He's a character in All New All Different right now, and they do seem to have SOMETHING planned with him, so here's hoping! Madelyne Pryor: As with Shaw, the rise of the movie fandom overtaking the comic fandom has made her name more obscure, but lots of comics fan still know her. But I think the underappreciation factor is that many only really know her as the Goblyn Queen, the insane villain, the evil ex-wife, the Jean Grey clone gone wrong. The fact that she was good guy character for six years, and even a member of the X-Men in addition to their friend, goes forgotten. Before she was the Goblyn Queen, she was just Maddy, and she had a lot of adventures with the X-Men where she was a hero, and a strong character in her own right for reasons that had nothing to do with being Jean's clone or Sinister's creation or the rest of that stuff. I think that the original Maddy, the real Maddy she was at heart before everything went so wrong, needs to be remembered too. But I've never seen so much as a single piece of fanart where she wasn't in her villain garb. That said, I can't call her underappreciated altogether just because one aspect of her is overlooked. Many fans still know who she is and recognize the tragedy of who she became, even if they don't really know who she used to be, and there's a lot of sympathy for her in comic fandom to this day...and skimpy fanart, of course. Haven: Haven is a big-time favorite of mine, that's no secret. Other villains, I love because they're nasty, but Haven, I love because she's good. She's really, really good. And while I've seen villains who are good people before, I've never seen a villain that was a pacifist, and who not only never harmed the heroes, and barely even threatened to, but even healed them and helped them and rescued them. It's a really unusual decision, and a risky one (TV Tropes says she was killed off because readers refused to root against her) and it can be interesting to the point of distressing to read her comics, because it gets really hard to tell who should be seen as the bad guy. Because in spite of all the bad things we're told that her cult is doing offscreen, all that's shown onscreen is the heroes attacking a gentle compassionate woman who doesn't want to fight and doesn't hurt them back even though she could. It's such a unique dynamic, and brings conflict not only to the story but the reader. Haven also brought other unique ideas to the scene as well. For one thing, she wasn't a mutant herself, but her unborn child was, and she could access its great powers (hence why the Adversary probably chose her) That's a really neat idea, and it also puts her in a unique position of not really being human or mutant but sort of both, and having lived half her life as one, half as the other. She brings up the perspective this gives her at one point, and I really would have liked to see that expanded on. Another thing I'd liked to have learned more about is her books and lectures; in addition to being a supervillain and a charity worker, she was a best-selling author and lecturer who promoted mutant/human peace. Even though she's little-known to fans, she was apparently pretty prominent in-universe, and I think having a voice in the mutant/human debate that for the first time wasn't white, male, and Western was neat. I would have liked to know more about her perspectives and arguments and how they compared and contrasted with those of others, from Graydon Creed to Professor X himself, and how the public viewed her. Also, she's just endearing. Again, TV Tropes says that fans of the day refused to root against her, and I can see why. She heals the sick, she feeds the hungry, she cares for orphans, and she tells X-Factor she loves them. How do you bring yourself to fight someone like that? It's easy to stand against bad guys who are mean and nasty, who doesn't wanna punch Fabian Cortez in his smug gross creeper face, but Haven creates the dilemma of making the heroes (at least some of them) very reticent to apprehend her or even believe the accusations against her. It's a much more complex setup than is typical, and as I said, I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it anywhere else. The fact that the reader finds out she's not really doing this of her own free will (though the heroes never discover this) makes her all the more sympathetic. Ultimately, though, I don't think she counts as truly underappreciated because that word implies she deserves much more recognition than she gets, and I think she simply wasn't major enough to the story to warrant that (unlike, say, Fabian Cortez, who was VERY relevant). And unlike the Hellions, I don't think she had potential to go on to become a lasting character. Her story could only end one of two ways. Either she died tragically (as she did), or she was saved from possession and went on to live a normal life as a normal human. Either way, she would be removed from the scene. I guess they could have had her stay on as part of the team or something like that but...I can't see that happening at all. What would she even do? And would she want to? I mean, can you seriously see HAVEN as part of a government strike force? No way. Haven simply is not cut out to be a major character in an action comic, and once you take away the Adversary forcing her into conflict, she's out. And she just...didn't do much while she was in. Consequence of refusing to hurt anybody, I guess. I think she's definitely worth looking into for fans who are interested in seeing an unusual type of character like her, but she's far from being a "must-know" little-known. Zaladane: Magneto's family has been a point of interest in canon and fandom for a long time, and the rise of the movies has only increased that. There's fanart GALORE of the Magneto clan, most prominently him and the Maximoffs but also Polaris, Speed, Wiccan, and Luna (Magda and Anya tend to be forgotten...) And now there's a kid named Nina from XMA, apparently? And yet, there's nothing to be seen of poor Zaladane. Few people even know who she is, let alone that she is almost certainly a child of our favorite iron-controlling helmet-head as well, or at least was until recent continuity changes fucked up that possibility. So, who was she? She's a sorceress from the Savage Land that the X-Men faced as a foe more than once. On one occasion, she kidnapped Lorna Dane aka Polaris. She revealed that her real name wasn't Zaladane, it was Zala Dane, and Lorna was her long-list sister. She then proceeded to use a machine to transfer Lorna's magnetic powers to herself. Lorna had no memories of Zala and dismissed her claims of sisterhood as a crock, but Moira MacTaggert confirmed that the machine required that the two people in worked on be genetically related in order for the transfer to take place. In other words, Zala was indeed related to Lorna, either as her sister or some other connection. Not content to steal the powers of Lorna alone, Zala later went after Magneto, and successfully took his as well using the same machine. So, if the machine requires the people involved have similiar genes, to be family, to work...and she could use it on Magneto....it follows he and she are related as well. And if Zala is Lorna's sister...and Magneto, as we now know, is Lorna's father...well, the math does itself. Zala is Magneto's daughter too. Though Zala must surely have worked this out, she never mentioned it to him, and Magneto killed her without ever knowing their likely connection. Unlike many X-villains, she has yet to make a resurrection. This all went down during the 80s and 90s. During the 2000s, writers who had either forgotten Zaladane or simply didn't care made alterations to Lorna's history that make any relation between Zala and Magneto impossible. But me, I think that could be easily explained---just say she came from another universe! She sure wouldn't be the first alt-dimensional child of a character to come to 616, and it might help explain how the hell she got to the Savage Land, as well as why Lorna had no knowledge of her.I think Zaladane should get more attention because, well, Magneto's other kids get so much love. However, there's really nothing about her besides her potential pedigree that makes her stick out enough that I think she's truly "unappreciated" aside from this. Hence her only having a runner-up status. Shinobi Shaw: There's really nothing important about Shinobi. He wasn't in any big stories, he didn't do anything major, he barely did anything at all. Calling him "underappreciated" would in no way be justified. There is no reason he deserves appreciation and recognition. But you know what? He's funny. He's really, really funny. He's ridiculous, and that's my entire reason for reading him, and I think the outlandish shit he manages to get up in his 20something issues of existence is enough that he bears warrant as an honorable mention. There's no real reason you NEED to know who he is, but I think you'll be get a lot of laughs if you do look into him. He's basically the Emperor Kuzco of D-list X-villains, and I wouldn't have him any other way. Seriously, bless this vain selfish lazy wine-loving bisexual idiot, I love him so much.

#xmen #x men #x-men #list

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lindyhunt · 6 years ago

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Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story Premieres In Toronto

I bought my first Kevyn Aucoin books, Making Faces and Face Forward, at Costco (!!) in the late 90s/2000. It was the gateway to a world of makeup that left me in awe, in which I’d be flipping past pages of transformations that I would stare at and study at length. At the time, there was no makeup artist more seminal than him; he had a monthly column in Allure, did the makeup for every A-lister of the time and he even had a cameo on Sex & The City. But it all came to an end when Aucoin died at the age of 40 in 2002 from kidney and liver failure due to acetaminophen toxicity; he had been taking the painkillers to deal with acromegaly, a tumour on the pituitary gland that continues to produce growth hormones throughout adulthood.

For anyone who either remembers him fondly or doesn’t know about him (and you should, if you consider yourself a beauty historian), you need to see Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story, a documentary about his life that started making the rounds at festivals in the U.S. last fall. It’s finally premiering in Toronto at Inside Out, the city’s LGBT film festival this Saturday. We spoke to director Tiffany Bartok leading up to the screening.

One of things that prompted you to make this film was that during a production meeting for a different project, Kevyn’s name came up and a millennial didn’t know who he was.

That’s right. She was like ‘Who’s Kevyn?’ and I was like ‘Oh no, this is really happening? What are we going to do?’ I hear from makeup artists who have assistants who get on set and they say let’s do it like this Penn picture. And they don’t know what that means. They don’t know who Avedon is. But they know anything Kardashian related. Not their fault really, because it’s so well documented. Many people think Mario D invented contour. And I don’t blame them for thinking that but Mario himself credits Kevyn. He’s hell bent on people knowing where he got it from.

I was surprised to see Mario in the film. What’s this Kardashian guy doing in here? But how did you know he was a fan of Kevyn?

That was Kemi, our groomer on our set. She’s like 26. And she would always say, ‘you’ve got to get Mario in here or nobody’s going to watch. People need to hear these stories, but people our age.’ Troy (Surratt, Aucoin’s former assistant, now makeup artist and also producer on the film) and I were talking about it and we were like ‘should we do this?’ So finally I just emailed Mario and he was like ‘When and where? I would love to be part of this’.

I was blown away by the people you had interviews with. Was it fairly easy to get them on board?

It was Troy’s reputation and we have a reputation with the agents. I mean it wasn’t easy, since they have fierce gatekeepers. But everyone was excited to talk about Kevyn. It was just the scheduling that was a nightmare. We went to L.A. for a couple and we went to London for Kate Moss and we went to Nashville for a bunch.

Was there anyone that you wanted to include that you just couldn’t get?

Yeah, Winona Ryder. She probably has a restraining order on me. I wanted to talk to her so badly. She said no over and over. Some people are just uncomfortable. It’s hard to trust people. I’m not sure what the reason was but I was just really bummed. I tried everything. She just was not down.

Elizabeth Taylor would have turned 86 today. Kevyn created this look on Winona Ryder to pay homage to Taylor's character Maggie from 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. Of the look, Kevyn said "the main objective was to take Elizabeth Taylor's signature brow, eye, and lip shapes and merge them with Winona's features". For a more in-depth description of this look, turn to page 115 of Kevyn's book 'Face Forward'. #MakeupByKevyn #WinonaRyder #ElizabethTaylor

A post shared by Kevyn Aucoin Beauty (@kevynaucoin) on Feb 27, 2018 at 5:25am PST

One person I was glad to see, even though it was just for a tiny, tiny second, was Orlando Pita.

Oh my God, I know. Orlando was a huge get for me because it meant so much that he would trust me to talk to me. And Serge Normant as well. They both were interviewed. It was heartbreaking to cut anyone.

I noticed Kevyn talking about diversity in the film which I found so interesting since it’s a word you hear all the time now and here he was pushing for that like 20 years ago.

He spoke a tremendous amount about the lack of diversity. It was really a problem with him and that’s why Naomi Campbell loved him so much, and Karen Alexander and Veronica Webb. You know, he would advocate for these girls. Like, ‘Hi, put them in your show, put them on your cover,’ and certain magazines were compliant with that and certain magazines are scared of that. It was really, really a fight, but he fought hard.

There was also so much footage which was probably a goldmine for you. Like stuff of him on set and and other behind the scenes footage, that in an age before phones, you wouldn’t have expected to have been documented.

He documented every day of his life. He always had a huge camera with him and handed it to whoever had a free hand. People gave up their tapes and everyone was just excited to share. He just wanted every day to be completely solidified. He wanted to validate every day, just like we do with Instagram.

One thing that I remember about him is that he liked to put makeup on people when they were lying down. Obviously he wasn’t doing that all the time on set, but what do you know about that?

It would take so long that he would lay them down. There were certain clients that remember it clearly and certain clients that say I don’t know what people are talking about when we say lie down. I know Janet [Jackson] was often laid down. That was just like the ultimate luxury.

In the film, he talked about how he saw the beauty in everyone which makes it sounds like his approach would be to make people look like themselves but better. But at the same time, he was also incredible at transformations. So I feel like there’s a little bit of a dichotomy there too. Do you agree with that?

Oh completely. He had this saying that I always live by: if someone’s complimenting the makeup, I didn’t do my job. That’s because they should just be so taken aback with the face. However, he was an artist and given the opportunity to transform someone he was gonna take it. So the fact that he could do both is so rare. That’s what is so great about him.

Did anyone mention if he had any key techniques? What were his signature moves?

That’s such a funny question because in the editing room, that’s what we would look for. I did 60 interviews and no one can tell you what it was. We went through hours of transcripts and looked at who speaks to that, to the technique. The closest thing that we could find, to explain the entire process, was what Isabella Rosellini said where she describes the shoot word for word. It was truly magic, like it was an otherworldly thing, like no one can really say. A lot of people would talk about how he would use his fingers instead of brushes a lot. He was changing all the time. Cindy Crawford will say at first he erased your face, but not everyone says that. It’s really all over the place. Everything was customized to that person.

The film is a celebration of his life but you also don’t shy away from the darkness that he was dealing with. Why did you want to do that?

That’s just not going to help anybody and it was so important to me and his sister too. We wanted everyone to know how he died. A lot of people think it’s AIDS, a lot of people still think it’s all these different things. I just didn’t really want to make any judgment. I didn’t want to blame anybody. So I just wanted to change the narrative from what everybody else was carrying around with them about this story. I wanted to go straight to the source and play it out. It’s happening so much now that I know that Kevyn would want a cautionary tale. The importance of just really taking time for yourself and making sure you’re healthy and happy. Otherwise, it would all be for nothing if you didn’t really know what happened to him.

Based on what you know of his final months, do you think he knew that he was nearing the end or that he was in this really dark place and he wasn’t coming back?

I asked everybody that same question. I personally do. I don’t want to put what I think happened on anybody, but just from what I see and feel and how I would feel myself is that he had done every face. The only one left was his own. He couldn’t and didn’t want to look at his. I think he was just really tired and how do you get off that hamster wheel? I think that he did not know how to rest. If he wasn’t working, what was he? It was sad to see but this is like an addictive personality. This is a super high octane, emotional guy. There’s no ‘I’m gonna take it easy’. I think that he didn’t know how to do that. He would kind of slow down. Jeremy (Aucoin’s husband) would take him to rehab and he would try all these things but I don’t think he truly knew how to take a break.

What do you think Kevyn would have thought of Instagram makeup? He definitely was a fan of a lot of makeup but he did it in a way that is so different from what’s on Instagram. It really is awful.

(Laughs) I know, it basically is illustration. He would laugh. I think he would just keep going. I don’t know what he would say. I would die to know what he would say about all these things. Of course he was a fan of education. He wanted everyone to do it themselves.

What would he think of YouTubers? Or just people that decide they’re a makeup artist and are teaching people techniques that are not even appropriate for real life?

You know what it would be about for him? The intention. So if it was a 10-year-old kid who like nailed it, it’s about the intention. If he felt like it was for self promotion and stuff like that, I don’t know that he would like it. But if he thought it was truly celebrating life with makeup? That was what he loved.

Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story premieres in Toronto on Saturday, June 2nd. Head here for tickets.

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