#fantasy and non anime

[wystful]

I’m not dead, just being digested by balding gate.

[chimeride]

Grand Bailla, the 247th Known One.

[prokopetz]

The one bracket I'd love to do on Tumblr but would never work in practice is 1980s Star Wars bandwagon-jumpers – both because we'd end up with a situation where about 80% of the people voting have never actually seen any of the films in question and are just going with the one they've heard of/the one with the most fanfic on AO3/the one with the coolest-sounding title, and because I'm reasonably certain that asking 80s kids to choose between The Last Starfighter and Krull would result in actual, physical violence.

[dandhisdolls]

"Why won't you look at me when I'm talking to you?... Oh. Oh, I didn't realize you were..."

"What, tall? Rugged? Handsome?"

"Blind."

"Heh, you know, I always forget that one."

The way Garrett, a animated 2d man, had me in a chokehold, it's not even funny 😩❤️

Quest for camelot custom dolls!

[ruckis-vandalizes]

Perfectly Sweet | OC Animation / Animatic

[Content Warnings: Flashing Lights | Glitching Visuals | Stylized blood | Agression/violence | Murder/character death]

YT vers. (x)

Tiktok vers. (x)

🔁Reblogs are highly appreciated!♡🔁

Info/Story:

This serves as a prequel of sorts to THIS video

It goes more in depth with what happened in Gera's past. How the old fates were replaced with chance, how he lost someone beloved to him. How he inevitably came to resent his old adventuring party and how he came to prefer being more of a solo act. The Old Fates neglected the problem at hand, making an already hard adventure into a tragedy to rival The Odyssey. Misfortune followed the party wherever they went because of them. Gera, at the time in a weakened state and not having yet unlocked his god powers again, went on a suicide mission for revenge. Because of how carelessly they had handled the lives of his friends. Even as they were adventuring they were enduring immense despair. They thought it amusing to use these mortals as play things. He

insisted that he go alone, as most of the rest of the adventuring party called him daft and refused to help. All but one, who followed him in secret. Sindile had managed to block a blow that would have otherwise killed Gera on the spot, at the cost of her own life. Distraught, Gera prepares to give them the lecture and butt kicking of a lifetime as the misery felt by Sindile's death was enough to reawaken his dormant powers. They plead for mercy, promising better fortune and fair treatment for all, but it was far too late. If they weren't so careless and arrogant they would have fixed the problem years ago. Instead he decides to encase and preserve them in death, eventually taken somewhere they'll be forgotten to time.

All this before he inevitably has to bury a friend and get blamed for her death by his has-been friends. Allies that also get turned into trophies to collect dust with the fates in the basement.

[3gremlins]

you might have thought the best bit of bg3 is all the hot, romanceable people with intriguing personal trauma but actually that's just the 2nd best thing. the best thing is being able to befriend and adopt almost? every animal/baby monster you come across and then PET THEM (you can throw a ball for the dog now and also summon him as a familiar, kinda like the cat in divinity! also i just like talking to the owlbear cub, it's soo cute, they added some more scenes with it from the EA)

[baltharino]

Gensou Mangekyou ~ The Memories of Phantasm | 01

[spectvs]

first sketches of a fae character that i made back in june >:)

[styxisms]

『 This is the 𝑭𝑨𝑻𝑬 that brought us here to watch my 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓』 ©

[fallloverfic]

I've seen some very odd takes about certain language used in the scene where Mizrak rebukes Olrox at the end of Castlevania: Nocturne, which I think might be due to lack of knowledge about the historical context of certain things.

CW: historical racism against First Nation groups

I know reading academic articles isn't for everyone, but I have to wonder if a lot of people in the Castlevania: Nocturne fandom have not watched things like, say, Disney's 1995 animated Pocahontas, which, for all its many, many flaws, features the song, Savages. I'm not going to quote it in full here, you can find the song lyrics elsewhere (though the European colonizers do use the lines "vermin" and "barely even human", among other epithets). It's not a great song for a lot of reasons (among them being it tries to "both sides" things). But to look at the scene in CN where Mizrak, a Christian working in a European Christian church with at least some Europeans, calls Olrox, a First Nation man, an animal without the understanding of how Christian European colonizers (typically as part of or at least backed by some Christian churches) have viewed First Nation peoples and treated them, and certain epithets used for them, and how European Christian dehumanization of "new world" groups and non-Christians generally worked/works?

Well.

[elliwoods]

a little BEAST

[chimerafeathers]

thinking about Frieren and Dungeon Meshi today and just remembered seeing a post/comment or two saying that people have no reason to compare the two stories since they have nothing in common except being non-isekai fantasy. different tones, different pacing, different themes, etc.

i don't know if whoever said that were dunmesh manga readers or not, but i kinda assume they were making judgments based purely on however much of the anime was released at the time, because i think about how similar these stories are a LOT, actually.

[spoilers for the dungeon meshi manga below, and a little bit of frieren manga]

i think that's a pretty fair assessment to make based JUST on the "prologue"/setup arc leading up to the red dragon. while some of the main themes are very in-your-face, others are still being woven into the characters and established much more subtly, and we don't get the full weight and payoff for that early work until later into the story.

Frieren establishes its identity within the first episodes and never drastically deviates from that first impression. on the other hand, dunmesh takes its time to build its foundation...but instead of using it as groundwork to build a house above, it then leads you into the depths of the dungeon below.

the stuff about conflicts between long-lived and short-lived races seem like just jokes/banter and a touch of political worldbuilding, in the beginning, but that tension is absolutely central to both Marcille and Kabru's arcs. both Frieren and dunmesh are about elves facing their (near) immortality in contrast with the brief mortality of their companions.

I think about the ways Frieren, with a thousand years of life behind her, carries the memories of those she's outlived along with her and all the ways she emulates them to preserve their lives and values. I think about the way Marcille, with a thousand years of life ahead of her, clings so tightly to the people she holds dear and fears the future she sees beyond their deaths.

I think about the way Serie talks about training Flamme on a whim, casually dismissive of short human lifespans. I think of the way Kabru resents the way elves treat short-lived species like children and fights so desperately for their agency and right to speak on the same level as the rest, fully informed of the dangers that threaten them all instead of being left in the dark.

beyond that, too--you can really feel that these series come from a place of love for the genres that inspired them. dunmeshi's speculative biology for the monsters and the ecosystem they're a part of, the exploration of how and why different races get different "stat" bonuses (dwarven constitution, half-foot perception, tall-man versatility, elven/gnomish magical affinity), the side comic about "Grease" as a starter spell--all obviously come from deep knowledge and affection for D&D and/or similar rpgs.

meanwhile, Himmel gives thoughtful weight to doing "side quests" for paltry rewards--they help because they're heroes, but they accept scraps and useless items for rewards because no one wants to feel pitied or indebted to anyone. he says they "went the wrong way" if they find the stairs to the next floor in a dungeon, because the "right" way is to explore every nook and cranny first before you progress. it would be very easy to mock how annoying fetch quests are, or make the dungeon bit a pure joke--but this is a story that relishes the process and the journey of it all, down to the smallest detail and silliest quest.

flashbacks to Falin being achingly kind and gentle, and also strange and awkward. flashbacks to Himmel being blindingly heroic and noble, and also vain and goofy.

these are both stories about the weight of death and loss and the things we'll do to see our loved ones one last time, when we are destined and doomed to outlive them. they're about the joy of the journey even when it's painful, thriving on silliness even when things are "serious," and loving the people in your life knowing you will lose them, and how you carry them with you when they're gone. dunmeshi is heavier on the comedy side of things, but both have their fair share of emotional gutpunches, and their themes and values mirror each other.

all this to say, these stories are holding hands.

[thefigureresource]

Pop Up Parade Usada Pekora [Hololive] non scale from Max Factory will be re-released August 2024.

[ruckis-vandalizes]

ah yes my favorite anime, Order of the Stars

[l8tof1]

.

[boinin]

I finally finished Frieren, which is up there with my favourite anime series of all time.

It's really hard to pin down why. The best I can articulate is that it's a fantasy series driven nearly entirely by its characters, each of which has their own personalities, histories and drive. I enjoy the plot (and will argue it has one, despite this being the main criticism I've seen about the show)—but the reason it hooked me is the way it dwells on how Frieren sees things in the present day, and how experiences in the past shaped that outlook. It's melancholy, thought-provoking, and honestly? Life affirming. Some of the themes have made me think twice about my own life, and how I choose to spend my time.

It just blew me away. I don't think I can do it justice in writing, but I still need to sing its praises.

Admittedly it's not for everyone. My partner for one ruled out watching it, on the basis it's too slow moving for their taste. That's valid. With how stacked every season is, we all have to curate what gets our attention and interest. But I'd recommend it as a tonic to anyone experiencing shounen burnout.

The pacing was one of the biggest draws for me, once I leaned into it. I could sit down and watch 2-3 episodes, and feel satisfied with that for a while. As a result, I savoured the animation and what happened in each individual episode a lot more than I typically would with something more punchy. It's sort of Bebop-like in that way—vibes over plot, even though it executes its plot well.

As for me, I'll be nursing an anime hangover now I'm caught up. Although there's always the manga...