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stusalgus · 9 months ago

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Chicago

4 April

Helen dropped us at the airport. Thanks Helen!

Our original plan was to fly Auckland to Chicago on Air NZ, which would have been delightful. Almost non-stop! Sadly, Air NZ cancelled its Chicago route four weeks before our flight dates, and we had to fly Auckland to Houston and Houston to Chicago. The flight to Houston (~13 hours) was relatively tolerable, but the slog through TSA (Transportation Safety Authority) took a lot out of us. On our United Airlines flight (~2.4 hours) to Chicago, first the captain was late, then we arrived late, which meant we were banished to what seemed to be the furthest most arrival gate at the airport.

After quarter of an hour trying to buy a train pass (only for the nice ticket man to take pity on us and wave us through), we were about an hour on the train from O'Hare airport to the centre of Chicago, which felt like an aeon. With the jetlag, we were befuddled by a residual sense of NZ time (it should have been mid afternoon) vs our exhaustion, vs local Chicago time (getting on for 10PM). It was also approximately 0 degrees (in mid Spring? What is this place, Siberia?), which was a bit hard to take.

But you know, that's travel. Our hotel, is called Stay Pineapple (an Iconic (TM) hotel, apparently), is an old-fashioned Chicago building, right in the middle of the downtime city. Now it's time to sleep.

5 April

The beds at the Pineapple were magnificent. So soft… my only complaint is that sleep comes so quickly it's impossible to properly enjoy them.

Our first item of business was to visit the Wildberry waffle house not far from the shore of Lake Michigan. On the way there we saw the world-famous Bean, a giant mirror-coated sculpture that enables tourists to photograph themselves on its surface. It was closed for renovation, which Sally chose to take personally.

At the Wildberry we went ape. I ordered the French Toast, Sally the strawberry chocolate Belgian waffles, and Angus the Oreo pancakes. Angus' pancakes were garnished with so much Oreo and white chocolate chip shrapnel that it turned out to be the most formidable meal. The food was tasty but the quantity of it made the consumption a bit heavy going.

After breakfast we caught a bus up to Lincoln Zoo. The zoo looked quite small from the oustide, but had plenty of inmates. Angus' highlight was probably the squirrels outside the zoo, but he did like the Madagascar hissing cockroaches inside it too. Sally was definitely not a fan of the cockroaches, instead preferring the polar bears. Other animals of note: zebras, lowland gorillas, a Bactrian camel, a rattlesnake or two, and a kookaburra. Animals that didn't come outside: two species of rhino, a pygmy hippo, and half an anteater. Also MIA was the sloth Angus had been very much looking forward to seeing.

Lunch was another novelty: all you can eat sushi. It went reasonably well with small pieces of tuna and salmon but when we ordered the "Godzilla" sushi (tempura outside and cream cheesy center) I hit a bit of a wall, esp after the waffle house.

We caught the bus back into town. Jetlag had caught up with us, so we had a bit of a nap. At 5 we ventured out. In the chill of the morning the sky had been overcast, but it was now a bright blue, and the setting sun on the skyscrapers was very attractive indeed. We walked along the river path and took quie a few photos, all of which we were very happy to be posing for.

After sugar for breakfast and protein for lunch, dinner was sandwiches out of a Walgreens, along with a bag of mandarins and Magnolia bakery's banana pudding.

6 April

Today we set out late morning to Wilmette, in the north of Chicago. To get there we needed to travel to the end of the Red Line, and then the extent of the Purple Line of Chicago's "L" (elevated) train service.

Along the way we passed Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Generally the cityscape was dominated by midrise brick apartment blocks, with the odd mall sprinkled in. On the purple line, however, the housing grew more suburban, and the houses increasingly grand.

We'd come to visit the Ba'hai faith Temple, an imposing piece of 20th century architecture. I was a bit leery of Ba'hai as one of our neighbours once fell in to it and ran away from her husband (so my mother told me in hushed tones). So as we approached the visitors' centre I was a bit suspicious. But to be honest the tone of the place was pretty benign; the main message being all religions are one, and all humans are equal. In any event I found their bathroom very relaxing, so I'll say I'm a fan, if not a convert.

The Ba'hai temple was built over 50 years in the first part of the 20th century. It's an imposing building of white concrete studded with quartz chips to make it glitter. Although the building was festooned with the symbols of all the world's great religions, it was most reminiscent of a mosque. I guess the most similar building I've been to would be the Haghia Sophia in Constantinople. The inside of the temple was austere like a Prostestant church, but the dome was again exquisitely carved with patterns like concentric waves.

After visiting the temple we pottered around on the beach of Lake Michigan, enjoying the novelty of looking out over what looks like the sea, but is actually a freshwater lake.

We trundled back to Chicago the way we came. We got out at Chinatown, where we collected a series of snacks from a Cantonese bakery called Chiu Quon. We then caught a water taxi up the Chicago river. It was Golden Hour and we took numerous photos of numerous skyscrapers, before coming home for the night.

7 April

Today was rainy, so it was museum day. The first thing we did was catch a bus to Lou Mitchell's, a hundred year old diner. Gus had pancakes, Sally had a salmon bagel, and I had toast, Sally's bagel, and Gus' pancakes. Gus also got a chocolate shake so thick that it was practically concrete, but much tastier, and half the price of a Starbucks frappe.

From there we caught the 146 bus on to the Field museum, one of the world's greats. The Field's most famous specimen is Sue the T-Rex, the largest of all the Tyrannosaurus skellingtons. It's a sprawling museum, with its Natural History exhibits being the best, though it also has collections of Egyptian, Chinese, and Native American arts.

After several hours at the museum we caught a bus back to town. It was raining heavily and we got quite drenched. Our next stop was a Lou Malnati's Pizzeria (another Lou!) to consume Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. Given the quantities of food we'd been served already I was a bit perturbed we were going to be given portions we couldn't possibly consume, but they turned out to be plausible. As for deep dish pizzas, well I'd liken them to quiches where the egg is replaced with cheese. We had ordered four adult portions, and I managed to eat one portion, but Sally and Gus were well off the pace, and we took home only slightly less than we consumed.

(On the subject of meals, we found that two meals a day in Chicago were sufficient to keep us going.)

The rain had eased, so we decided to wander back to our hotel room. I found downtown Chicago's streets on a rainy Sunday afternoon to be quite peaceful. We came back to our hotel and got to packing and blogging.

8 April

Today was eclipse day! The shadow of the moon was set to wander across the United States. Appropriately, our first port of call in the morning was the Adler Planetarium, a magnificent Art Deco, polished granite construction. Outside it is a heroic statue of Nicolas Copernicus.

We got inside, bought our eclipse glasses, and got Gus an eclipse souvenir t-shirt, before taking a look around at the planetarium proper. The most interesting exhibit for me was centred around astronaut Jim Lovell, who went to the moon twice, but didn't land there because his Apollo 13 mission got into a bit of bother. The exhibit included his earlier two-man Gemini 12 capsule, which was very, very small. He flew for three days with moon-walker Buzz Aldrin, which seems an awfully long time to be stuck in a tin can with another man!

We then went to a planetarium session. Over the years I've been to a few at the Carter Observatory, and I can say Adler's one is a lot more slick (sorry Space Place!). The auditorium was pretty large too.

After that it was time for the eclipse itself. A large collection of people and TV trucks had gathered along the Michigan lakefront adjacent to the Adler. We found a seat by a small beach and peered up through our eclipse glasses. It was my first time seeing the sun through these, and I was impressed by how strongly defined the sun was against the (relative) darkness around it. Eventually Gus spotted a small dimple in the right lower limb of the sun, which marked the moon's presence. The eclipse proceeded to its maximum extent over about two hours, allowing us to do other things while occasionally peering skywards to check the moon's progress. One thing we were able to do was buy several Chicago-style hotdogs. Distinct from their New York cousins, these sandwiches include pickle and peppers. I thought they were pretty good, and I joked to Sally that there was more vegetable matter in these hotdogs that in anything else we'd eaten in Chicago. No offence!

Just after 2pm the eclipse reached its maximum. In Chicago that was 94% of the sun's surface only. On paper that feels like "good enough", and there was only a tiny fingernail clipping still visiable, but suprisingly 6% of the sun's brightness makes a big difference. The sky was still blue, for example. and although the sky was much dimmmer a casual observer might not have noticed the eclipse was happening.

Once we reached maximum, the rest was just what we'd already been through except in reverse, and we had a plane to catch. So we skipped the rest of the cosmic marvel and hurried back to our hotel to collect our bags. On the way we caught a section of the L train that is actually elevated above the streets rather than trundling beneath them. Bags collected, we caught the blue line back to O'Hare airport for an early evening flight to Iceland.

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fictionz · 1 year ago

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New Fiction 2023 - December

"Ezekiel" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Ezekiel had a lot to prophesy, and none of it good news.

"Daniel" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

We're really just there for lions and Susanna.

Revenant by Alex White (2021)

I like that I can hop around between DS9 stories that are part of the post-show timeline and the various stories that just take place at some point during or prior to the show. Also good to see the designers stepping up that cover art! And let me tell ya, this story delivers on that cover. Half of it is a Jadzia and Kira adventure with mysteries, heists, danger, and a lot of really good background on the Dax symbiont. Loved that! Then Kira tagged out for Worf and Bashir, and that was alright. I wish it had been Jadzia and Kira all the way though.

Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2023)

It's a nerds' tale through and through. Film nerds, occult nerds, horror nerds, and Moreno-Garcia blends it all skillfully. It doesn't hit as strongly as Mexican Gothic, but mysteries tend to be like that when they take place in a metropolis instead of the confines of a creepy mansion.

The Men by Sandra Newman (2023)

I liked the setup, and the premise, and I was mostly onboard until the finale really let me down. Maybe the idea is depressing to people, like it is to most characters in the story, but I saw hope in sticking with the reality of most of the book and making a better world of it. You grieve, you build anew. There was also some hand-wringing around race and gender tension from the main character that feels like it's meant to be considerate but is just channeling white anxiety about the optics of appearing racist instead recognizing racial bias and making changes to address it.

Aftermath by Christopher L. Bennett (2003)

Whoops, one more Star Trek book before the end of the year. I’d been meaning to read it for about a year and finally found some time with the digital copy from Open Library. Like the other SCE stories, it’s a short and sweet little tale. The thematic elements about a civilization’s collapse and hope for the future were just what I needed after reading some more downbeat stories.

Jekyll and Heidi by R.L. Stine (1999)

It was... okay. Not the strongest plot or twist, although notably darker in terms of setting up the main character's predicament. Kinda Dahlesque but without his absurdity.

"> THE JESTER" by Margaut Shorjian (2023)

Do it.

The Simpsons: Bart vs. Homersaurus dev. Tiger Electronics (1994)

These level-based LCD games are never as strong as the endless loops of their Game & Watch progenitors, but the tech is neat. Voice clips must've been an expensive proposition.

Dream Scenario dir. Kristoffer Borgli (2023)

You know, it is a weird movie, but the part where it digs into cancel culture felt off. Too real maybe. And even then, I just don't think it'll stick around in my brain.

Godzilla Minus One dir. Takashi Yamazaki (2023)

A great Godzilla story with a good balance of humans and monster. It's a big deal when I can care about the human side of a monster attack.

The Boy and the Heron dir. Hayao Miyazaki (2023)

It meanders and contemplates, kinda like The Wind Rises, but it's so beautiful and weird that it's easy to just roll with it.

The Abyss dir. James Cameron (1989)

So did Cameron just establish the genre of scifi that is working class stiffs who aren't trained for this being sent out into the deep end?

Eileen dir. William Oldroyd (2023)

It has that short story quality I can never quite describe. Like something unsettling I'd read in The New Yorker.

A Christmas Story dir. Bob Clark (1983)

1983?! This feels so ancient. Well, I'm glad I finally watched it all through instead of bits and pieces on TV.

Wonka dir. Paul King (2023)

I should watch a Paddington sometime.

Monster dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda (2023)

I wanna say it's a perfect movie. It has some dread but still has a hopeful vibe in the end.

Leave the World Behind dir. Sam Esmail (2023)

I guess I see why people responded to it, but I found it too bleak, and that's saying something. I guess I prefer these things to be a little further removed from the current timeline. *hugs The Outer Limits 1995*

The Polar Express dir. Robert Zemeckis (2004)

My nephew straight up performs the movie as he watches it, and that's about as memorable as a viewing can get.

The Muppet Christmas Carol dir. Brian Henson (1992)

Pretty good, but it can't top Muppet Treasure Island in my brain. The effects for some of those scenes are mighty impressive though.

Velvet Buzzsaw dir. Dan Gilroy (2019)

No one told me this was a horror movie! I'd have watched it sooner. It's an excellent high-budget version of an episode of Tales from the Crypt.

The 100 - "Perverse Instantiation – Part One" (2016)

I sorta picked up what the show is throwing down, but coming into at this late stage is not the way to watch an episode.

The 100 - "Perverse Instantiation – Part Two" (2016)

This episode was a little more clear as a season finale with defined stakes. It was enough that I'd watch this series at some point in the future.

The Crown - "Ipatiev House" (2022)

Sorta tuned in here, and it has big House of Cards vibes. I guess all this stuff about royals is the original HoC.

The Crown - "No Woman's Land" (2022)

Elizabeth Debicki is a great Diana. I don't know if I'm in the mood for sociopolitical interpersonal drama anytime soon, but this show seems to manage it all with aplomb.

The Outer Limits - "The Galaxy Being" (1963)

A bit snoozy I'll admit, but that's most TV of the era. Things really pick up when the well-designed alien kicks in. Those effects are impressive.

Night Gallery - "Pilot" (1969)

Whoa! This first episode is real good. I've heard the show has its ups and down since Serling didn't have the same level of creative control, but the pilot is just a great horror anthology film.

Babylon 5 - "The Gathering" (1993)

Hokey VFX and 90s-era production values aside, I can see the appeal of the show. I'll be fighting my instinct to go back and watch Star Trek the whole time but I'm glad to finally get into the show.

#new fiction #2023 #december

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heyitsyn · 4 years ago

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Manager!Seijoh IWA ROUTE

a/n: uwuwuwuwuwu my mans iwa chan :’)

IM A SIMP FOR IWAIZUMI HAJIME (27) ATHLETE TRAINER

uwu filo!iwa in this :)

and also, listen to lauv while reading this since i wrote this and that song was playing on repeat O_O and also this song

this is my self-request uwu

HES SUCH A POUTY BABIE BLS LOVE ON HIM

onwards we goooo

hihihihihihi yey im so excited for this yall dont even know

ANYWAYS

so,,,,

when iwa first saw you, he thought you were just a cute little thing

your shorter height, your puffy cheeks, and the wide eyes you had whenever you saw someone, or him, do a really cool spiking move

he initially thought of you as a cute little sister hes never had

ehehe that finna change

then the,,,, bullying thing happened

if youd like to read this part, its right here

when he saw you bloodied, all battered,

dear lordie he was finna break some ankles

ONG I WAS JUST TALKING ABOUT SANGWOO YET HERE I AM

like that image of you will probably stay in his memory until he dies of the ripe age of 200

ngl it kinda traumatized him a little bit of how tired and pained you look with the tears rolling down your face and the blood that was escaping your body through your wounds

god you didnt deserve any of that

you deserved the world and the universe yet some people dared to take away your worth

ooo he was so mad

miyo was,,,, hurt??

can i say that??

i dont wanna,,,, explain bara arms iwa hurting a girl so youre gonna have to imagine that for yourselves

but at the end when they said slap, he didnt just ✨S L A P ✨ her

he ✨ B R O K E S O M E A N K L E S ✨

oiks is actually scared of him after that

like oiks had to peel him off of her and towards the infirmary where you and the team were

‘IWAIZUMI HAJIME, STOP!’

oof the first and last time oikawa tooru ever said that full name

he was breathing heavy and he was so ✨ A N G R Y ✨ with what she did to you yet he hears your soft scoldings, telling him off for hurting a girl

he wanted to see you

like right now

iwa tore himself from oikawa’s grasp and ✨ N Y O O M E D ✨ himself to the nurse’s office

there, you sat on the bed with the others scattered either on other beds or on the floor

you smiled at the sight of him and he walked towards you and engulfed you in his arms

‘youre okay now. im here’

he whispered and you buried your face into his chest, breathing in his unique scent

lavender mixed with peppermint

he refused to leave your side so he ✨ M A D E ✨ some room on the bed beside you to sit and he wrapped his arm around your waist, holding you close

you held his hand while oikawa talked to you and as you shamefully bowed your head

but you were forgiven and everything was all good until the third years really got into plan

makki and mattsun promised to handle it all as they had family in the justice field while oikawa would go and get the girl suspended

‘but what about me?! i want-’

‘iwaizumi, you literally hit her. it’d be best if you’re not involved right now as you were the only one who physically touched her in a harmful manner like that’

ong when it come to y/n, the meme team is replaced by the assassin team

he tried to fight but in the end, 3 overpowered 1 and he was forced to sit back and opted to comfort you instead

he made sure you were safe to walk home but that day, you were the one who asked him to spend time with him

just you two

like after seeing him seethingly enter back into the room, you reached out and held his hand in yours, eyes trained on your fingers fiddling with his

‘iwa-san,,,, you said you downloaded the new godzilla movie?’

you whispered but he could still hear you and his heart swelled at your meek voice

‘yea, i did. and my mom bought those chips you like’

your eyes flitted up to meet his eyes and a soft smile spread on your lips and there was this thumping in his heart

maybe that was the first time that iwaizumi hajime felt differently towards you

a smile that seemed to be differently perceived than the rest

and it wasnt for the whole team

it was for him

and him alone

the trek to his house was quiet but you would hum nursery rhymes or the songs you heard earlier in the radio while skipping every few steps and tightly holding on to his hand

iwaizumi’s olive eyes watched you still radiate energy despite being so hurt for a long time

they then trailed to your linked hands and he unintentionally squeezed it, only figuring out he did it when you looked up to him and squeezed it back with a smile

he wanted to do something to make you forget of what happened

he didnt want you to think about the cruelty and pain so he was going to make sure you would continue smiling

thankfully, his parents werent home so he wouldnt have to explain why he has a bandage-covered girl with him

iwa led you upstairs to where his room was and your eyes widened when you saw what was inside

tiny action figurines of animes like bakugo from boku no hero academia or a tiny pikachu on his desk

there was a large country flag that you didnt recognize and a few godzilla posters and volleyball players decorating beside it

however, besides those normal things you wouldve expected,

there were many polaroids

polaroid pictures that were everywhere with no specific layout pattern and just placed anywhere that had room

iwa watched as you dazedly walked forward and entered the room to move towards the wall by his desk that had the most pictures against it

from pictures of him and oikawa to the third years to him and his parents or just the sunrise and human silhouettes

your fingers reached forward and traced the picture of him and the third years when they were still first years and took a spontaneous trip to the beach

‘mattsun stole his dad’s car and drove us to the beach without a license’

iwaizumi’s voice answered your questions and you looked back, shimmering eyes

this room,,, wasnt just a normal, teenage boy’s room

this was a room that represented iwaizumi hajime

from his natural character description like his love for volleyball evident in the volleyball player posters to the underneath description that was hidden like his love for godzilla and his love of taking pictures of the people he cares about the most

it was all that made up iwaizumi hajime

your feet took you to stand in front of him, still standing at the doorway, and you stood on your toes to try and be eye-level with him

‘youre really cool, iwa-san’

you whispered and his ears turned red, not from the compliment, but by the close distance between you two

iwa clearedhis throat and ruffled your hair roughly, pushing you down slightly back to the balls of your feet

‘i already knew that, brat. now go and sit over there and be comfortable or whatever while i go get the food’

he hurriedly turned to hide his growing red face but you stopped him

‘iwa-san,,, ano,,, can,, i borrow a hoodie?’

you mumbled, nervously thinking he might refuse

but he grunted a response, not bothering to turn around

‘take your pick’

you smiled and thanked him before bounding over to the wardrobe that was pushed against the wall across his bed that was against the corner by his window

inside had so many hoodies and there were also shirts that were hung up on the other half

they were all graphic tees that either had american bands or anime or game references

opting for a mint green hoodie that says ‘SONIC NYOOM’, you had an undershirt under your button up and as you slipped the bloodied long sleeve off, he swung the door open, eyes focused on the tray of coke filled glasses

then he looked up and almost dropped it at the sight of you,,, like that

‘OH MY GOD SORRY’

he shrieked and carefully but hurriedly backtracked back to the hallway

ofc you were shocked too but you quickly put the hoodie on and went to get him

iwaizumi’s heart was hammering in his chest and he was VERY red with embarrassment

how could he see you like that?!

a girl who wasnt his shouldnt be seen like that by his eyes!

a touch on his arm reminded him of his position and he was still holding the tray but it was clear from the liquid in the cups that he was shaking slightly

‘iwa-san, its okay. i still had a shirt on so dont misunderstand’

you reasoned and he nodded, still not looking at you

the beginning of the movie was quite awkward as you both were sitting next to each other on the floor, backs against his mattress while the laptop played godzilla in front of yall

but it seems it was just him who was feeling this way bc you were intrigued at this weird monster that was squshing building under its foot and you continued munching on the food

iwa stood up and coughed

‘im going to take a shower’

you paused it and stared up at him, a chip halfway in your mouth

‘oh? you want me to wait for you?’

he agressively shook his head

‘no! its okay i watched it already. just,,,, watch it’

at the end, his words came out jumbled in his hurry to go and calm his heart down

you shrugged and unpaused the movie to continue watching

iwa spent his time in the shower, thinking and trying to think of stupid thoughts like the time oikawa almost choked on a peanut when they were in middle school to distract him of thoughts of how adorable you were

ONG HE WAS JUST SHOWERING AND INNOCENTLY DOING SHOWER THINGS

‘no, i said she was like a sister to me. and a sister she’ll remain’

okay ngl even though theyre not related, im worried yall would be like ‘iNcESt’ but bls a lot of people have tried to sibling-zoned people yet realized they liked them in THAT way

as he wrapped himself with a towel, he then realized

oh my god he didnt bring clothes

LMAO NOOOO IWAAAAA

iwa frantically looked around and he saw his mother’s sakura themed robe and he paused, arguing silently with him if he should wear it

well, it was either that or he went back into the room and showed you,,,,,, this

sucking in a sharp breath, he kept the towel around his waist and slipped his arms through the tight arm holes and he awkwardly tried to keep it tied since he was so much bigger than his tiny mom

what is happening

you saw the door opening and excitedly turned to tell him about this one scene when your voice died down in your throat at the sight of him

here was iwaizumi hajime, ultra muscle buff man who gets abs with a simple glance of the gym, wearing an all too-tight pink, cherry blossom print robe that was so tight the tie around it was shaking to keep it together

‘dont’

he whispered and that snapped your remaining surprise to double over in laughter

‘its so cute! iwa-san, youre so cute!’

you shrieked and he growled and hurriedly went to to grab grey sweatpants and a shirt before running straight back to the bathroom

when he finally came back out, his face was still red and he was pouting as he sat next to you back to his seat

he could feel you staring at him while looking constipated as you held your laugh in and the second your eyes met, your giggles fell out

iwa rolled his eyes

‘yes yes let it out’

‘hehe, iwa-san, i didnt know you had that style’

‘it isnt! i didnt want to walk in here practically naked with you in the room!’

he growled and you nodded, still not quite believing it

‘hai hai. just say you like pink, i wont tell’

you waved and iwa felt offended

‘what do you mean ‘hai hai’?! its really not!’

your lips pursed to keep more giggles in and iwa growled again before lunging to grab your sides and tickling you

of course being careful to not touch your wounds

you shrieked at the ticklish feeling and iwa laughed as you made weak attempts to push him off

‘huh? what was that? whatd you say? cant talk anymore, can ya?’

he teased

‘NO!!!! IWA-SAAAAN!!!!!’

you shouted in between your laughter and he finally let up when you squealed out your apologies and promised to never say it again

you breathed air into your lungs and sat back up to recollect yourselves

iwa saw the strands that escaped your bun and they were scattered everywhere looking messy with your flushed cheeks and teary eyes

oh my god you were beautiful

he was so happy that you still kept that smile despite what happened and he was going to fight to keep it there

forever

it was about nearly the end when you finally realized how different iwaizumi’s hair looked

‘oi, iwa-san, your hair is not naturally spiky?’

he continued eating the chips while still watching the movie

‘what would you expect? even shittykawa’s hair is like this. did ya know that he wakes up extra early to curl it into that shitty mess?’

your jaw dropped

‘EEEHHHH???!!!!!!!’

later, you asked him how he does his hair for school and he blindly reached for the gel that was resting on his desk before tossing it to you

‘here’

you looked at it and flickered over to his hair and then you had the greatest realization

‘GODZILLA-SAMA!’

you pointed and he stopped eating, turning to give you a confused look

‘ha?’

you shrieked in an another round of laughter

‘IWA-SAN LIKES GODZILLA-SAMA SO MUCH HE DOES HIS HAIR AFTER HIM!!!!’

you doubled over to the floor, clutching your stomach and iwaizumi’s flustered expression made you laugh harder

he knew you were smart but,,, not this smart

you figured out his secret

the secret he’s hidden since he was practically a toddler

even his best friend, the guy hes known since he was born, never made the connection

yet here you are, figuring it out not even a year of knowing him

was this part of the many reasons he,, felt his heart beat for you?

oikawa was relieved that you had the bright twinkle in your eyes the next time he saw you and you were actively talking to iwaizumi in that early morning practice

‘oh? y/n-chan, is iwa-chan your best friend now?’

he tried not to sound jealous for his own best friend’s closeness to you and he added a teasing smile for extra measure

okay that hurted me a bit

iwaizumi snarled and blasted the volleyball towards his face before he could even yell or shout

‘iwa-san, dont do that’

you chided softly, small hands wrapping around his muscly arm

but iwa patted your head

‘deserving people deserve things to happen to them’

you rolled your eyes but smiled at him

‘hai hai’

the next week, iwa still kept a close eye on you in case someone else decided to mess with you

but you told him that you swear youd tell him if someone did and he trusts you so he backed off a little

one day, he was eating lunch with the other third years in their classroom when you busted through the door, excitedly holding your phone

‘iwa-san! i figured out what country your flag was!’

he was halfway of shoving rice in his mouth when iwa looked at you

‘oh? you couldve just asked me though?’

you pouted and went to pull a chair from another desk to sit beside him

‘nooo. i wanted to work for that information. so you’re from the philippines, iwa-san?’

he nodded proudly

‘yep’

your eyes shone with interest

‘really?! you look japanese so it must be one of your parents. hey, iwa-san, which island are you from? i read about them and they have like 7641 islands-’

the others watched as you read through the article in your phone and iwa wasnt even following your words, instead staring at you with a dazed look and a lovesick smile

mattsun, makki, and oikawa exchanged looks of surprise because in all the years theyve known him especially oikawa, iwa was never interested in girls and such

he was a straight forward man with goals and straight sight to get them done with no distractions like relationships or love

yet here he was

slowly falling in love with you without even knowing he is

he continued to fall with the simplest things about you

from the perfume that you wore everyday to the way you would tuck your hair behind your ear when you were talking to someone

little quirks he used to miss was now being noticed even if you were right behind him and not in his line of vision

now, the boys were starting to see the difference of their precious ace

it was as if when he started to like you, they knew immediately by how he was acting

then one day during practice, you were late and they were all looking around for you and when they couldnt find you, they met back in the gym with nervous looks

iwa was already pacing around, a scary aura radiating off of him, and kindaichi, who went with him to look around the school, warned the others of iwaizumi’s worry

‘he was slamming doors open and he was walking so fast i had to run to even keep up with him’

then you busted through the gym door

you were actually picking up food for the team and sweets and you were held up when makki’s puffs were still being cooked

they rallied around you to make sure you werent hurt and you assured them but iwa pulled them away like picked them up and threw them off to the side and took you in his arms

iwa thought you were hurt and he was so worried something happened to you again

the hug was bone-crushing with how hard he was squeezing you but you felt his worry though and you freed your arms to wrap them around his neck

‘im okay, iwa-san’

you whispered in his ear and he nodded

‘let me hold you for a second’

he mumbled and you nodded

‘oi, theres food in the bags so make sure you eat it all. coach paid for it all so dont leave behind anything’

the mention of the food distracted them from you and iwa and they piled on top of each other to reach their food first

iwa was grateful that you distracted the others from seeing him being vulnerable towards you

‘i thought-’

‘shh,,, you have me right here, right now. safe and sound’

you knew how much seeing you all battered messed him up and his attempt of making you forget about it has been

and his worry of you being gone without no sign of where you went will forever be there and he will always have that thought in the back ofhis mind

the next time you came over, you actually met his parents

since you went home early before, you didnt catch his parents when they came home around 10 minutes after you left

but this time, they were already home with his mom cooking dinner while his father was sitting on the dining chair reading a newspaper

iwa walked through the door, shouting he was home, and you did the same thing to be customary

oof his parents were surprised

his mom turned around to share a look of surprise with her husband

sure they havent seen tooru in a while but they were pretty sure his voice wasnt that high pitched

right?

‘hajime, did you hit tooru so much you ruined his-’

then his mother stopped talking at the sight of you holding iwa’s hand tightly when yall stepped around the corner

you sheepishly smiled at them and bowed your head in greeting

oh my

so this was why iwaizumi hajime-san was really really really handsome

his parents were freaking good looking

like his mother was aphrodite with her flawless melanin skin and doe shaped eyes with a mole under her left eye

and his father was like ares, so handsome yet still manly and his appearance was a special type of good-looking with his buffness and ruffed appearance

‘iwa-san, i didnt know your parents were gods’

you mumbled, still staring at them

iwaizumi choked and coughed, flustered

‘oh my!’

his mother placed a hand over her mouth

‘hello’

his father stood up to walk in front of you and held his hand out

‘i’m hajime’s father’

you let go of hajime’s hand to shake his own with both of your hands

‘really nice to meet you! i’m l/n y/n! seijoh volleyball manager! first year!’

you introduced then stepped aside to fully bow 90 degrees

iwaizumi thought it was so cute of how flustered you were at meeting his parents

‘ay nako! nak, i didnt know you had such a beautiful girlfriend!’

she squealed and hurriedly went to stand in front of you and gently grasped your arms to stand you back straight and took a good look at you

‘youre so beautiful, iha. nice skin, pretty eyes, ang ganda!’

even with your research of tagalog, you didnt quite understand what she was saying

iwa noticed your slightly confused expression and he laughed, tucking his hands in his pockets

‘sorry, my nay speaks in taganese when she gets excited’

‘t-taganese?’

‘tagalog and japanese’

you nodded in understanding

it was time to put your basic reserach to test

‘hello po’

you greeted her and nervously took her hand and pressed the back of it to your forehead before slowly lowering it down and letting go

her wide eyes made you think you did something bad or even offensive!

‘i-i’

‘HAY NAKO, HAJIMEE~!’

she shrieked

‘YUNG-!!! YUNG-!!!’

okay im terrified

iwa noticed his mother’s malfunction and gently wrapped his arm around her shoulder and veered her back to her kitchen

‘sorry about her, l/n-chan. its just,,,, hajime hasnt brought home a girl before. and you doing that mustve done it in for her’

you worriedly watched hajime calm his mom down with a smile and talking to her hushed

in their perspective,,,

��shes so nice, nak! marry her, okay? shes very pretty and she made an effort to please your nanay, so go and marry her!’

ohmylord im nervous

initially, iwa only wanted to go and hang out with you and watch a movie

not have a full dinner with his family

lmao i shouldve told you that youve been friends for months now

his mother cooked sinigang and adobo and more filipino dishes, adding even more when she saw you were joining them

the dining table was covered with a large plate full of food and you were so fascinated because this was a side of iwa that you wanted to know more about

‘wow!’

you said, not thinking, at the deep-fried fish that still had its eyeballs intact

iwa genuinely thought you would’ve shyed away from it in disgust but your eyes were glistening with genuine interest

‘iwa-san! youre so lucky you get to eat this stuff!’

you told him, looking over at his direction

while mrs iwaizumi was lading in the soup into the big bowl, mr iwaizumi was sitting at the dining table, watching your interaction and hajime telling you what each food was and your noises of surprise

he watched his son laugh when you said the palabok reminded you of the orange boy hinata

and he also watched his son look at you so lovestruck and exactly like how he looks at his wife

soon, his mother finished and they rounded the table before saying a quick prayer to bless the food and digging in

‘so, what do you want to start with, iha?’

mrs iwaizumi asked and your wide eyes looked around

‘hm, im not sure. whats your favorite iwa-san?’

you looked to your right towards hajime who was busy eating and stopped before pointing his lips towards a direction

‘that one’

‘hah?’

you asked

mrs iwaizumi laughed at her son’s actions

‘sorry, l/n-chan, my son has adapted my traits. he was pointing to this, adobo. do you want some?’

‘yes please’

the smell made your mouth water and you started to tuck in

maybe it was your managerial instincts, but you used your napkin to wipe hajime’s lips and he was also used to this and turned his head to make it easier for you then he went to grab the water jug and re-fill your glass

once it was done, you both silently went back to eating

his parents watched his exchange and it was like watching a married couple taking care of each other

‘so, l/n-chan, you said you were their manager’

mr iwaizumi started and you nodded, wiping your lips

‘yes. i have been for a while now and please, call me y/n’

‘hajime actually told us he had a new manager for his team and tooru told us too. but we didnt know you were a girl. its just so interesting for hajime to bring you home as he has never really had any female friends’

mrs iwaizumi’s comment made you chuckle and iwa’s eyes widened in embarassment

‘nay! of course ive had female friends! ive had friends from all genders!’

he reasoned but you teasingly smiled at him

‘ah, im not really surprised. iwa-san doesnt exactly have the appearance that girls are brave enough to approach’

he sent you a betrayed glance

‘hah?! what’s that supposed to mean?!’

you shrugged, going back to your food

‘im just saying that you always have this intense look in your eyes and youre always frowning. but its cute so its fine. and besides, i dont think theyve seen you laugh since you dont really smile a lot, iwa-san’

‘but you’ve seen me smile!’

‘eung. but its only to me. if they knew the stuff i knew like you being a godzilla fan or your collection of succelents, theyd see you like oikawa-san’

‘HAH?! YOU SEE ME LIKE SHITTYKAWA?!’

mrs iwaizumi held her husband’s hand on the table as they watched you both bicker and tease each other with a smile

hajime has always been on the rougher side of things and he doesnt really have many close friends other than the team and even then, tooru is the only one he can really be himself around

yet here you are, bringing out the boy hajime really is and making him laugh, a sound his parents dont really hear outside the house

and your eyes

god, your eyes held admiration, life,,,, and you might not know this yet,, but love

her eyes trailed her son who teasingly headbutted you and you faking a surprise and doing the same

then you heard his father’s cough which brought you back to where you were and the situation and the people that were there

you felt embarrassment creeping up inside you and you bowed

‘im sorry for acting like that, iwaizumi-san. i-’

‘no, dont apologize, darling. please, dont’

her soft smile made the nerves in you ease and hajime’s father winked at him and he knew exactly what his father was trying to say

after dinner, you volunteered to wash the plates but they veered you away from there and towards the living room

‘oh my god, pops! stop her!’

hajime whined because he knows what his mother was going to do

she was going to show him his baby pictures

you sat on the beige couch and watched as she reached under the coffee table and revealed a few albums that had iwaizumi hajime written on the cover

‘now, y/n-chan, hajime wasnt always this pouty. in fact, he used to always have a smile on his face and laughed at the littlest things! like right here! a leaf fell on him and he-’

stories of his childhood was exchanged throughout the night and you were laughing so hard that tears were falling out of your eyes while hajime wrapped your shoulders with his arm and he would squeeze you tightly whenever you made fun of him

‘oh dear! iwa-san! you-!’

you didnt finished as you continued to laugh and he sighed

‘nay, can we go eat dessert now?’

he asked his mother and she was beginning to feel sorry for him so she smiled and nodded

‘okay. hajime, come help me’

‘iwaizumi-san, i can-’

‘no, y/n-chan. dont you worry your pretty little head about anything and just look through more of these pictures’

hajime followed his mother to their kitchen before she stopped and turned around

his mother’s height was around 5′1 so she had to look up to meet his eyes and her hands were clasped around his biceps

she is definitely beautiful and he cursed at how little he got from his mother other than her skin color

mrs iwaizumi married her husband and immigrated to japan to have a family and your polite action from earlier moved her as she hasnt experienced that in nearly 2 decades

‘nay, shes,,,, just a friend’

he reasoned, a wobbly smile to cover up his want for that title to change

yet mothers def knows best and saw right through it

she gave him a firm look with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips

‘nak, dont lie to yourself. i raised you to never tell a lie and lying to yourself is considered lying to someone. she’s not your KAibigan, shes your kaIBIGan’

now, hajime knew a little bit of tagalog as his mother made sure he was able to at least speak to his relatives back home

so he got a hint of what she was saying yet was confused

then he realized it

his blush creeped up his neck and he chuckled, ducking his head low to avoid his mother’s eyes

‘nak, listen to me. papunta ka pa lang, pabalik na ako. youre still growing and you may be confused right now, but make sure to think wisely and dont live with regrets. nanay doesnt want you to go through it all by yourself since she knows how hard it was. so please, listen to me and pursue her. shes special, hajime. she makes you so, so happy. i see it in your eyes, her eyes, god has fated you together. i feel it’

now if a filipino mother actually tells their son to go after a girl, thats a pretty big thing as its known that mothers are the hardest to convince and are fiercely protective of their sons, especially if its an only son, but mrs iwaizumi literally tells hajime to go court you because she sees how happy you make him and is willing to let hajime go to you

definitely his mother’s words stuck to him and as he walked you home, he was busy thinking that he was quiet and you were worried as he would be talking right now

‘iwa-san? you okay?’

you asked and he blinked, taken back to reality from his daydream

‘hm, yea’

he answered to look at you

hes been pining for months now and he slipped his hand into yours, holding it tightly

uwu if you want to see iwa moments with y/n, read through the seijoh manager series as theres a lot of them in there

he wanted you yet, he knew it would be selfish of him to keep you in the future

he would be a college student while you’re in your 2nd year

would you want to be so far away from him?

could you handle it?

‘yanno, iwa-san, your dad told me something interesting’

you suddenly said, squeezing his hand and kicking rocks while looking up at the night sky

‘what was it? something embarrassing?’

he immediately feared that they told you that story when he was still potty training and he fell straight into the toilet

‘hmm,,, no. he told me that he met your nanay when she was a high school student and he was a in an intern at your lolo’s company’

iwa listened and he had a smile at how you said the tagalog word for grandfather

‘he said she almost ran him over by her bike and she fled but they met again when she visited your lolo. through that, they became friends and then she confessed to him. apparently, he declined because she was younger than him, although just 3 years, and he was leaving for his own country in a few months so he didnt know if she would wait for him’

were,,,, you reading his mind?

iwa knew of his parents story yet with you telling it, it sounded a million times more interesting

‘yet she promised him. thats it, just a promise. that she would remain faithful to him, she would keep herself for him and when she finally graduates, she would go and find him and they could be happy together. he said it was the longest 3 years of his life yet when he saw in the airport, he felt like the wait was worth it. because he gets to hold the embodiment of happiness in his arms for the rest of his life’

you finished and he hummed

‘times have changed, y/n’

‘even you?’

you stopped walking and he naturally stopped too

‘would you wait for me like he did if i promised myself to you? if i promised you that despite the few years of waiting, i would still be yours and remain yours until we’re ready to be together?’

WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!!!!!

iwa’s heart was drumming in his chest and he wanted so desparately to look at you in the eyes but you were making that impossible as your head was bowed and your eyes were fixed on the concrete you both stood on

‘of course, i would’

your head snapped up and e/c clashed with olive eyes

‘i would wait for you. we may,,, be young right now. and they might think we’re,,, being impulsive. but i dont care. because right now, all that matters, is you and me. we can think about the consequences later, but right now, i just want to kiss you’

he admitted, red ears seen by the moonlight

your body shook

‘do it, no balls’

well,,,, he has the balls

and under the moon, at 8:34 pm, iwaizumi hajime kissed you

OML THIS REMINDS ME OF THAT SEIJOH SHORT WHEN HE WAS TALKING TO OIKAWA AND HIS NEIGHBORS ARE LIKE ‘AH SHITE HERE WE GO AGAIN’

it didnt come as a surprise to the team when yall announced your relationship

well,, you both actually didnt tell them outright until like weeks later

what can you say?

you and iwa are very private people and you dont really like to show off in public

even though yall lit rally are stuck to the hip and he does things that he doesnt even think hes doing but he is totally doing

you were only caught by,,, guess who

mrs iwaizumi

it was weeks when she met up with mrs oikawa bc theyre totally best friends and thats why their sons are best friends

she told her of her son’s girlfriend and how sweet you were and how mrs oikawa should be jealous that her son doesnt have a girlfriend like that and the standards for oikawa’s future girlfriend was raised just by that teasing

oikawa literally came into after school practice after a phone call with his mother, fuming

you were talking to kindaichi and yahaba with iwa beside you, arm around your waist totally not obvious guys

and yall just saw an angry oikawa stomping towards yall

‘y/n-chan, iwa-chan, why the hell did my mom just call me and tell me that im not allowed to bring home a girl if she doesnt have h/c with s/c (skin color) and e/c and h/m (height measurement)?’

you shrugged

‘oikawa-san, i’ve never even met your mom before’

but iwa had a hunch

‘ahh,,,, my mom mustve been bragging to your mom. yanno how they are’

oikawa shot him a disbelieving look

‘IWA-CHAN! ITS BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU GOT A GIRLFRIEND AND I DONT! BUT ITS WORSE THAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS AFFECTING MY FUTURE ONE!’

he ranted, completely unaware that he just outed your entire relationship to the team

tbh they werent even surprised

like they were all ‘damn now shes taken. but cant say i didnt see that coming’

they took it pretty well too

they know how iwa is and they literally respect this mans and if anything, out of the whole team, he is the best candidate for your boyfriend

dating iwa is totally normal and yall just have increased touches?? like i dont know how to explain like he’s constantly holding your hand or arm around your waist or shoulder etc

literally nothing changed

you still have dinners at his house and iwa also knows your family and all that

and the most important thing is,

he kept that promise

even when he was literally at the other side of the world,

he still remained yours and you kept your own promise and waited patiently for his return

OOOOO TIMESKIP IWAIZUMI HAJIME (27) ATHLETE TRAINER

a little girl with bouncing dark brown hair was giggling as she maneuvered herself around the tall people

a shout from her parents and little sister was only making her run faster until she crashed into the legs of the person she’s been looking for

his blue jersey was similar to hers and she raised her arms up with a bright smile

‘uncle!’

she yelled and he chuckled before hoisting her up to his arms

‘ah, reyna-chan, didnt mom and dad tell you to wait for them? look! tala-chan is crying because you left her’

she followed his finger to her little sister, who was in her father’s arms, crying and reaching out for her

‘nee-chan!’

she screeched

finally, her parents were there and you were scolding her for running off

‘reyna, just dont do that again’

you said and she nodded, pouting and holding her uncle’s thumb

‘thank you, tooru-san. i dont know what i would do if she got lost’

oikawa grinned then gently patted the hat-covered head of the newborn baby girl that was strapped to your chest

‘hehe, its okay, y/n-chan. after all! uncle is always there to save reyna-chan!’

she shrieked when he held her up and hajime shook his head in his antics

‘where’s the others? i saw them in the stands but-’

he was cut off when he heard the shouts and yells from the other side that could only belong to your boys

‘woooo!!!!’

kindaichi’s voice echoed through the place and mattsuhana were rushing to greet their goddaughters

tala shyly accepted the arms of mattsun while makki was squealing quietly when darna was holding his finger tightly as she slept

‘taka-san, wanna hold her? she’s easier to hold when she’s sleeping’

‘oh can i?’

his eyes held the stars as the 11-month-old raised her fist then lowered it back down, sleep still heavy on her

‘waaa~ darna-chan is growing really quickly’

kunimi whispered, peering over his senpai to look at the baby whos eyes kept fluttering

you chuckled while looking at oikawa and him playfully bouncing reyna

‘tooru-san, congratulations on your win. it seems you’ve beaten hajime this time’

you complimented and the brunette smiled brightly at you, adjusting the little girls in his arms

‘ei, y/n-chan, i’ll beat him next time, and next time and the next time!’

every time he said ‘next’ he gave his goddaughter a kiss on her cheek making her giggle

your husband was pouting at the reminder of japan’s loss and you reached over to wrap your arms around him causing hajime to turn his head away from you

‘aww, my 4th baby is sad now’

you cooed and cupped his face delicately on your hands making him sulk and whine

the others, watching the scene, continue to be surprised at this side of their captain that remains to only be caused by you

‘ugh, nearly a decade later and theyre still sappy’

yahaba gagged and watari slapped his back

‘let them be happy’

‘come on! im in the mood for spaghetti! you like spaghetti, tala-chan?’

‘eung!’

mattsun cheered with kindaichi and she raised her hands to share the same energy

once everyone was situated in a restaurant and ordered, small talks were shared around the table of the past

‘haha, spaghetti is how your baba found out about you, tala-chan’

yahaba’s comment made the walking group laugh at the memory of seeing the video you sent in the seijoh group chat

‘i wanted to be creative with my second child since my firstborn was revealed by this loudmouth’

oikawa winced at the indirect diss at him

‘y/n-chan! i was really excited to find out i was going to be an uncle!’

‘youre already an uncle, bakakawa!’

hajime has toned down the insults to keep it pg for the children

‘but-!’

they started to argue, the oldest daughter looking disinterested as she sees this happening or hearing it whenever her dad and uncle video chat

‘it took me forever to find a ‘prego’ pasta sauce in the grocery store like i dont know why. was there a shortage?’

you complained, remembering the frustration

your fellow first years snickered at you and kindaichi prodded fun at you

‘is that why you just outright told him you were pregnant the day you found out?’

you rolled your eyes and watched makki and mattsun and tala watch the youngest as she wiggled her fists in the air and was awake enough to babble ‘makki’ over and over again

that was her first word and although she is now able to say a few words, she still repeats her first word over and over again

‘we had a fight and it just came out so of course i didnt have time to prepare!’

you defended and hajime finished his antics with oikawa just as you said that

‘what-what was your words again? ‘i really want to push you off the roof right now but i want my baby to meet their bastard father first?’‘

you gasped at that regretful statement and punched him in the arm

‘hajime! stop!’

you whined and covered your face with the sleeves of your his hoodie

‘hehe, y/n, you should do that again’

kyotani teased and you glared at him

‘shut up kyotani’

eyebrows were raised

‘eh? are you more hormonal?’

‘do you realize you already have 3 daughters?’

‘iwaizumi-san really wants to have a volleyball team family’

‘at least wait a year and a half, you animals’

‘so,, like hes that good huh?’

hajime growled and leaned over to intimidate but you snarled and jumped on your feet, being held back by the arms by kindaichi and hajime to stop yourself from leaping across the table to kill yahaba

‘keep talking like shite and i’ll make sure none of you become the godfather of this baby’

okay what

one, did you just curse

and two, this baby?!

‘im big sister again?!’

reyna ruined the surprised silence and then chaos ensued

‘WHAT!’

‘BABY?!’

‘THIS BABY?!’

you just realized what you said and smirked at the chaos you created and sat back down, leaning on the back of the chair and smugly taking a sip of your water

‘oh the power i hold in my hands’

you teased and oikawa pointed at you

‘when! how long!’

you looked at hajime who was so shocked that his eyes glazed over and a passerby wouldve thought he was dead

‘apparently 3 months’

oikawa started counting and his eyes widened at that thought

‘you-! you stayed in argentina! in my house! my house-!’

‘yep. both of them created under your house’

what

!!!!!

hajime fainted

oikawa screamed

a/n: okay i admit i got a little too carried away with this one. i just love filo!iwa and this was mostly written in his pov bc cmon we all know we love iwa and fell in love w him the moment we saw him

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erictmason · 4 years ago

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The Road To “Godzilla VS. Kong”, Day Four

(Sorry for the delay on this one, Life proved just a bit too busy the other day to finish it; my “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” review is gonna be pushed back as a result too. But! No worries, on we go. ^_^)

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Writers: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly, John Gatins

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly

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Technically speaking, Gareth Edwards’ “Godzila” from 2014 was the first entry in what is now generally referred to as “The Monsterverse”, an attempt by Warner Bros. Studios and Legendary Pictures to do a Marvel Studios-style series of various interconnected movies (and which, like most such attempts to cash in on that particular trend, hasn’t really panned out; “Godzilla VS. Kong” seems likely to be its grand finale as far as movies are concerned, the only two “names” it had going for it are Godzilla and Kong themselves, and even at its most successful it was never exactly a Powerhouse Franchise). But the thing is, when that movie was made, the idea of a “Monsterverse” did not yet exist; it was only well after the fact that Legendary and Warner Bros. got the idea to turn a new “Kong” project into the building block of a Shared Universe of their own that they could connect with the 2014 “Godzilla”, with a clear eye on getting to remake one of the most singularly iconic (and profitable) Giant Monster Movies of all time. As you might guess from that description, however, said “Kong” project also had not originally been intended for such a purpose; it would not be until 2016 that it would be retooled from its original purpose (a prequel to the original “King Kong” titled simply “Skull Island”) into its present form, which goes out of its way to reference Monarch, the monster-tracking Science organization seen over in 2014’s “Godzilla” and which includes a very obviously Marvel-inspired post-credits stinger explicitly tying Kong and Godzilla’s existences together.

The resulting film is fun enough, all things told, but that graft is also really, distractingly obvious.

Honestly, I wish I knew why I’m not, generally, fonder of “Skull Island” than I am. It’s not as if, taken as a whole, it does anything especially bad; indeed it does a great deal that is actively good. Consider, for example, the rather unique choice to make it a Period Piece; that’s decently rare for a Monster Movie as it is (indeed one of the only other examples that springs to mind for me is Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of “King Kong”, which chose to retain the original’s 1933 setting), and it’s rarer still that the era it chooses to inhabit is an immediately-post-Vietnam 1970’s. Aesthetically speaking, the movie takes a decent amount of fairly-obvious influence from that most classic of Vietnam-era films, “Apocalypse Now” (a fact that director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was always fairly open about), and it results in some of the movie’s strongest overall imagery (in particular a shot of Kong, cast in stark silhouette, standing against the burning sun on the horizon with a fleet of helicopters approaching him, one of a surprisingly small number of times the movie plays with visual scale to quite the same degree or with quite the same success as “Godzilla” 2014). It also means the movie is decked out in warm, lush colors that really do bring out all the personality of its Jungle setting in the most compelling way and, given how important the setting is to the film as a whole, that proves key; Skull Island maybe doesn’t become a character in its own right the way the best settings should (too much of our time is spent in fairly indistinct forests especially), but it does manage to feel exciting and unusual in the right ways more often than not. The “Apocalypse Now” influence also extends to our human cast, which is sizeable enough here (in terms of major characters we need to pay attention to played by notable actors, “Skull Island” dwarfs “Godzilla” 2014 by a significant margin) that the framework it provides-a mismatched group defined by various interpersonal/intergenerational tensions trying to make their way through an inhospitable wilderness, ostensibly in search of a lost comrade-is decently necessary. Though here we already run into one of those aspects of “Skull Island” that doesn’t quite land for me. Taken as a whole, it sure feels like the human characters here should be decently interesting; certainly, our leads are all much better defined and more engagingly performed than Ford Brody, to draw the most immediately obvious point of comparison. Brie Larson (as journalistic Anti-War photographer Mason Weaver), Tom Hiddleston (as former British Army officer turned Gun For Hire James Conrad), and John C. Reilly (as Hank Marlow, a World War II soldier stranded on Skull Island years ago) definitely turn in decently strong performances; I wouldn’t call it Career Best work for any of them (Hiddleston especially feels like he’s on auto-pilot half the time, while Larson has to struggle mightily against how little the script actually gives her to work with when you stop and look at it) but they at least prove decently enjoyable to watch (Reilly especially does a solid job of making his character funny without quite pushing him over the edge into Total Cartoon Territory). I likewise feel like Samuel L. Jackson’s Preston Packard has the potential to be a genuinely-great character; his lingering resentment at the way the Vietnam War played out and the way that feeds into his determination to find and defeat Kong is, again, a clever and compelling use of the 70’s period setting, it gives us a good, believable motivation with a clear and strong Arc to it, and Jackson does a really solid job of playing his Anger as genuine and poignant rather than simply petulant or crazed. But there’s just too much chaff amongst the wheat, too much time and energy devoted to characters and ideas that don’t have any real pay-off. This feels especially true of John Goodman’s Bill Randa, the Monarch scientist who arranges the whole expedition; the Monarch stuff in general mostly feels out of place, but Randa in particular gets all of these little notes and beats that seem meant to go somewhere and then just kind of don’t. Which is kind of what happens with most of the characters in the movie, is the thing; we spend a lot of screen-time dwelling on certain aspects of their backstories or personalities, and then those things effectively stop mattering at all after a certain point, even Packard’s motivations. A Weak Human Element was one of the problems in “Godzilla” 2014 as well, though, and you’ll recall I quite liked that movie. There, though, the human stuff was honestly only ever important for how it fed into the monster stuff; it was the connective tissue meant to get us from sequence to sequence and not much more. Here, though, it forms the heart and soul of the story, and that means its deficiencies feel a lot more harmful to the whole.

Still, those deficiencies really aren’t that severe, and moreover, like I was saying before, there’s a lot about “Skull Island” to actively enjoy. The Monsters themselves do remain the central draw, after all, and for the most part the movie does a solid job with that aspect of things. It does not, perhaps, recreate “Godzilla” 2014’s attempt to make believable animals out of them (even as it does design most of them with even more obvious, overt Real World Animal elements), but there is a certain playful energy that informs them at a conceptual level that I appreciate. Buffalos with horns that look like giant logs with huge strands of moss and grass hanging off their edges, spiders whose legs are adapted to look like tree trunks, stick bugs so big that their camouflage makes them look like fallen trees…the designs feel physically plausible (especially thanks to some strong effects work that makes them feel well inserted into the real environments), but there’s a slightly-humorous tilt to a lot of them that I appreciate, especially since it never outright winks at the audience in a way that would undercut the stakes of the story. Kong too is very well done; rather than the heavily realistic approach taken by the Peter Jackson version from 2005, this Kong is instead very much ape-like but also very clearly his own creature (in particular he stands fully erect most of the time), with a strong sense of Personality to him as well; some of the best parts of the movie are those times where we simply peek in on Kong simply living his life, even when that life is one that is, by nature, violent and dangerous. Less successful, sadly, are his nemeses, the Skullcrawlers; very much like “Godzilla” 2014, Kong is here envisioned as a Natural Protection against a potentially-dangerous species that threatens humanity (or in this case the Iwi Tribe who live on Skull Island, but we’ll talk more about them later), and while they’re hardly bad designs (the way their snake-like lower bodies give them a lot of neat tricks to play against their enemies in battle are genuinely fun in the right sort of Scary Way), they’re also pretty bland and forgettable, even compared to the MUTOS. That said, they serve their purpose well enough, and their big Action Scene showdowns with Kong are genuinely solid. Indeed, the movie’s big climactic brawl between Kong and the biggest of the Skullcrawlers has a lot of good pulpy energy to it (particularly with how Kong winds up using various tools picked up from all around the battlefield to give himself an edge), likewise there’s a certain Wild Fun to the sequence where our hapless humans have to try and survive a trek through the Crawlers’ home-turf.

Where things get a bit tricky again is when the movie attempts to put its own spin on “Godzilla”’s conception of its monsters as part of their own kind of unique ancient eco-system. The sense of Grandeur that gave a lot of that aspect such weight there is mostly absent here, especially; there are instances where some of that feeling comes through (Kong’s interactions with some of the non-Crawler species, for example, do a good job giving us an endearing sense of how Kong fits into this world), but far more often it treats the monsters as Big Set-Piece Attractions. Which is fine as far as it goes, it just also means a lot of them aren’t as memorable or impactful as I might like. Meanwhile, the way the Iwis have built their home to accommodate, interact with, and protect themselves from the island’s bestiary feels like a well-designed concept that manages to suggest a lot of History without having to spell it out for us in a way that I appreciated (I would also be inclined to apply this to the very neat multi-layered stone-art used to portray Kong and the Crawlers except that the sequence where we see them is the most overt “let’s stop and do some world-building” exposition dump in the whole movie). But the Iwis in general are one of the more difficult elements of the movie to process, too; it seems really clear there was a deliberate effort here to avoid the most grossly racist stuff that has been present in prior attempts to portray the Natives of Skull Island, and as far as it goes I do think those efforts bear some fruit; we are, at the very least, very far away from the Scary Ooga-Booga tone of, say, “King Kong VS. Godzilla”, and that feels like it counts for something. I just also feel like there’s some dehumanizing touches to their portrayal (in particular they never speak; I don’t mean to imply that Not Speaking equals Inhuman, but the fact that we are not made privy to how exactly they do communicate means we’re very much kept at arm’s length from them in a way that seems at least somewhat meant to alienate us from them), especially given their role in the story as a whole is relatively minor.

At the end of the day, though, all the movie’s elements, good and bad, don’t really feel like they add up together coherently enough to make an impact. And I think if I had to try and guess why, even as I find it wholly enjoyable with a lot to genuinely recommend it by, I don’t find myself especially enamored by “Skull Island”. It has a lot of different ideas of how to approach its story-70’s pastiche, worldbuilding exercise, Monster Mash-but doesn’t seem to quite succeed at realizing any of them fully, indeed often allowing them to get in each other’s ways. It isn’t, again, a bad movie as a result of that; there really isn’t any stretch of it where I found myself bored or particularly unentertained. But I did paradoxically find myself frequently wanting more, even as by rights the movie delivers on basically what I was looking for from it.

#king kong #kong: skull island #godzilla vs. kong #movies #theroadtogvk #review #ericthemason #my writing

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keyofjetwolf · 4 years ago

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Pitch Me your thing!

HELLO HELLO MY SUNBEAMS. For most every category, there was an impressive turn-out for pitches, so I thought we’d utilize the weirdness of this year’s GIFTENING to give something new a try. The popular vote winner for each category will happen on the first day, but on the second, the winner will be chosen from YOUR PITCHES. Mostly those pitches will be to me. The exception is in Miscellaneous, where you’ll be pitching to my family, because what I want to do and what is most entertaining isn’t necessarily the same thing.

So! How will we do this thing? GLAD YOU ASKED. I’ll link you to a form in a minute with space for one pitch. Once you fill it out, you’ll be asked if you want to do another. There’s no limit to the number of pitches you can send in! But remember that if you submit multiple entries for the same category, you’ll basically be competing against yourself.

NOW WE’VE GOT SOME RULES FOR DOING THIS (which I mostly stole from Holligay, because I have no creativity this year). Please read them carefully! I’ll toss pitches that break any of these, and I’d rather your hard work not go to waste.

Pitch Me is open for your submissions from RIGHT NOW (22 December) through the very last day of this hellyear (31 December) at 11:59pm MT.

The thing you pitch must have come from what was nominated for THE GIFTENING 2020. (Full list of those nominations in every category below the cut on this post.)

Entries must be unsigned! I’m looking to chose based on the pitch alone, regardless of who submitted it.

The pitch itself must be 100 words or less. HAVE PITY ON ME I CAN ONLY CONSUME SO MUCH.

If you’d like to get some help, ideas, feedback, all that good stuff, the Discord is a FANTASTIC resource I encourage you to use.

HERE IS YOUR PITCH SUBMISSION LINK

And, as promised, below the cut you’ll find the list of all the nominees in every category you guys sent in this year. IT’S A LONG LIST HAVE FUN WITH THAT

Anime

A Place Further Than The Universe/Sora Yori mo Toi Basho Ace Attorney (Gyakuten Saiban) Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Aggretsuko Aho Girl Air Master Akuma No Riddle Alien Nine Angel Beats! Angelic Layer Appare-Ranman Aria Aria the Animation Arrietty/ The Secret World of Arrietty (Ghibli film) Ascendance of a Bookworm Azumamga Daioh Baccano! Beastars Black Cat Blood + (the series) Bloom Into You Blue Drop/Tenshitachino Gikyoku Bodacious Space Pirates (starting right where you left off) BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense Boku no hero academia Bubblegum Crisis Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Cardcaptor Sakura Castlevania the Animated Series Cells at Work Chaos; Head Chihayafuru Code Geass cowboy Bebop Cyborg 009 Death Note Death Parade Deca-Dence Demon Girl Next Door Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) Diebuster: Aim For the Top 2 Dog Days dorohedoro Dot Hack//SIGN Dr. Stone Elfen Lied Erased (Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi) Escaflowne Excel Saga Fantastic Children Fate/Zero Flip Flappers Fresh Precure Fruits Basket 2019 Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Ga rei Zero GaoGaiGar gekkan shoujo nozaki-kun Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex Ghost Stories (dubbed) Girls' Last Tour Great Pretender Hoseki no Kuni/ Land of the Lustrous House of Five Leaves/ Saraiya Goyou Inari konkon koi iroha Interviews with Monster Girls Inuyasha Isekai Izakaya "Nobu" Jellyfish Princess/ Kuragehime JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable Kaguya-sama Love Is War Kaleido Star Kannazuki no Miko Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Kemono Friends Kiki's Delivery Service Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You Kino's Journey/Kino no Tabi (2003) Land of the Lustrous (Houseki no Kuni) Little Witch Academia Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files EP0 {"A Grave Keeper") Love is Hard for an Otaku Love Live! Sunshine!! lupin the 3rd part 4 Madoka: The Rebellion Movie Magic knight rayearth Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha March Comes in Like a Lion Mardock Scramble Master of Martial Hearts Mawaru Penguindrum Megalobox Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Mob Psycho 100 Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) Monster Mushishi My Bride is a Mermaid (Seto No Hanayome) My Love Story!!! My Neighbor Totoro My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom My Roommate is a Cat NANA Naruto Natsume’s Book of Friends Neon Genesis Evangelion (hateblog) New Cutey Honey Nichijou Ōban Star-Racers One Piece Ouran High school Host club Outlaw Star Paranoia Agent Perfect Blue Please Save My Earth Pop Team Epic Pretty Cure Fresh Princess Jellyfish/ Kuragehime Princess Mononoke Princess Principal Princess Tutu Project A-Ko promised neverland (/yakusoku no neverland) Psycho-Pass Ranma 1/2 Re: Cutie Honey Re:Creators Read or Die (OAV) Red Garden relife Revolutionalry Girl Utena Rose of Versailles Ruroni Kenshin Sailor Moon Sailor Moon (viz dub) Samurai Champloo (english dub) Sarazanmai School Days School-Live! Scum's Wish Senki Zesshou Symphogear (listed as just "Symphogear" on Crunchyroll.) Serei no Moribito (Guardian of the Spirit) Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) Shirobako Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle Smile Pretty Cure (Japanese original)/ Glitter Force (english adaptation) Snow White with the Red Hair Sound Euphonium Strawberry Panic (yuri) Sweetness and Lightning The Devil is a Part-timer The Devil Lady The disasterous life of saiki k (saiki kusuo no Sai Nan) The End of Evangelion (movie) the Promised Neverland The Twelve Kingdoms Tiger & Bunny Tokimeki Tonight ToraDora Tsubasa Chronicle Umineko When They Cry Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Vinland Saga Violet Evergarden Whispered Words (Sasameki Koto) With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun Yona of the Dawn Yu Yu Hakusho Yugioh Duel Monster Yuki Yuna is a Hero Yuri Kuma Arashi Yuri On Ice!!! Zoids: Chaotic Century Zombie Land Saga

Non-Anime Animated

Adventure Time Amphibia Animainiacs (Original) Animaniacs (Reboot) Archie's Weird Mysteries As Told By Ginger Barbie Life in The Dreamhouse Batman the Animated Series Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot Big Mouth Bob's Burgers Bojack Horseman Bravest Warriors Captain N: the Game Master Carmen Sandiego (1994) Carmen Sandiego (2019) Castlevania (Netflix) Cats Don't Dance Coco Courage the Cowardly Dog Craig of the Creek Cyber Six Daria Darkwing Duck Dragon Booster Dragons: Riders of Berk DuckTales (2017) Exo-Squad Fern Gully Fillmore! Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Futurama Gargoyles Glitch Techs Godzilla: The Animated Series Green Lantern the Animated Series Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане) Hey Arnold Hilda Infinity Train Iron Giant JEM Kim Possible Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts Legend of Zelda animated series (1989) Legion of Super-Heroes Liberty Kids Magical Girl Friendship Squad Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart The Legend of Korra Moominvalley Motorcity My Little Pony (Classic, NOT FiM) My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks Onyx Equinox Over the Garden Wall Over the Moon (2020 film) Owl House Primal Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Redwall Rise of the TMNT Roco's Modern Life Rugrats RWBY Samurai Jack Seis Manos She-Ra (1985) She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Sonic Boom Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Star vs. the Forces of Evil Strange Magic Super Mario Brothers Super Show Superman: The Animated Series Teen Titans The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo The Animals of Farthing Wood The Dragon Prince The Hollow The Legend of Tarzan (TV series) The Magic School Bus (1994) The Mysterious Cities of Gold The Pirate Fairy (Disney Fairies) The Powerpuff Girls (1998) The Real Ghostbusters Thundercats (1985) Thundercats (2011) Transformers: Prime Tuca and Bertie Twelve Forever Undone Venture Bros Wakko's Wish Wakfu Wander Over Yonder We Bare Bears (TV) Winx Club Wreck-It Ralph (2012) X-Men Evolution X-Men: The Animated Series Xiaolin Showdown

Live Action

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea 28 Days Later 3rd Rock from the Sun A Series of Unfortunate Events American Horror Story: Asylum Babysitter's Club (2020) Batman (the old Adam West version) Better Call Saul Black Mirror Blackbeard's Ghost (Peter Ustinov) Boston Legal Boy Meets World Boys Over Flowers Bromance (Taiwanese tv series) Brooklyn 99 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Cadfael Cagney and Lacey Charmed (2018) Chopped Cleopatra 2525 Cloak and Dagger Clue (1985) Community Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Dead Like Me Dead To Me Deadwood Death Note (Netflix) Derry Girls Dimension 20 - The Unsleeping City Doctor Who (New) Doom Patrol Dracula's Daughter (1936) Escape to the Chateau Farscape Fingersmith Galavant Godzilla (2014) Gokushufudo (2020 Japanese TV drama) Golden Girls Good Omens H20: Just Add Water (somewhere in seasons 1-2) Happy New Year Harley Quinn movie Hateblog a REALLY STRAIGHT soap opera. Haunting of Bly Manor His Dark Materials (HBO series) Holes Hot Fuzz House Inception Inside No. 9 Iron Chef America Joan of Arcadia Julie and the Phantoms Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Kamen Rider Build Kamen Rider Ex-Aid Kamen Rider Fourze Killing Eve Knives Out Letterkenny Leverage Little Women (2019) Lucifer Matlock Majisuka Gakuen MASH Merlin Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Money Talks (1997 film) Motherland: Fort Salem Murder She Wrote Mythbusters Nailed It! Never Have I Ever Once Upon a Time Orphan Black Pen 15 PGSM Pi (1998) Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) Pride and Prejudice: A New Musical Puppy Bowl Pushing Daisies Rome (hateblog) Russian Doll Sabrina Sense8 Sera Myu: Un Nouveau Voyage Shameless Sierra Burgess Smallville So Weird Star Trek: TOS (or their films) Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Stargate Atlantis Suckerpunch Supernatural (out of context speedrun the last three episodes) Sweetheart Switched at Birth Tall Girl Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles The Addams Family (1964) The Big Flower Fight The Booth at the End The Bride With White Hair The Crown The Fresh Prince of Bel Air The Good Place The Kissing Booth The L Word The Librarians The Magicians The Muppet Show The Pregnancy Pact The Room The Steve Harvey Show The Stranded The Untamed The Witcher The Wolfman (1941) Torchwood Twilight Zone (original) Twin Peaks Ultraman Nexus Umbrella Academy Van Helsing Warehouse 13 Warrior Nun What We Do In The Shadows (tv show) Will & Grace Wynonna Earp X-Men 2: X-Men United Xena: Warrior Princess

Miscellaneous

Alpha Flight #41-62 Anime music dance party, the logistics of which are to be determined! Ask Hot Pocket and/or Mina-pup AskSharknado: Giftening Edition Attempt to make French macaroons Commentary on old Goggles Critical Role Crowdsourced: A Black Mirror-style day where Jetty has to ask what her choices are of the audience for everything! I give you a menu, you decide what she has for dinner? What does she wear? Does she walk on the track or do the eliptical? Does she go to a movie with Doc or play a video game with Mike? Can be done alongside other stuff. Doodle Day Dramatic readings of fan fiction! Drunk History (or whatever your favorite subject would be) with Jet Wolf! Drunk Sailor Moon Exorcising Closet Ghost Fic Prompts Day Figuarts Day! (Not specifically freeing anyone, just various fun poses and such) Guess the plot of a show based on its opening Her Shim-Cheong (manhwa) House of X/Powers of X Hubby's Choice IDW Jem comics liveblog Intros Only (watch show openings, give commentary, guess what show is about, etc.) Jackbox Games Jet Wolf paints along with Bob Ross Jet and Doc go to Heaven/Hell, respectively: Jet gets to write reams of words about the awesomeness of Rei Hino and Doc has to read all of them and say ONLY NICE THINGS. Jet does Tiktok dances Jet Liveblogs Holligay: A Nature Documentary Jet Ranks Sailor Moon Image Songs Jet Reads Goosebumps Jet Reads Legion of Super-Heroes Jet redesigns the Wolf and Gay offices! Jet shows off her knitting Jet Wolf attempts to recreate scenes from Sailor Moon with Mina and Hot Pocket and/or whatever is in the house Jet Wolf reacts to Sailor Moon tiktoks (in blog form) Jet Wolf reads Love and Rockets. Jet Wolf reads the Jem comics by IDW Jet Wolf reviews her old top 100 Sailor Moon moments list Jet Wolf talks about Archie Comics Jet Wolf talks about each cel she owns and why they are so awesome. Jet Wolf writes Poetry Jet Wolf's Top 5's Jet, Hubby and/or family play board games Jetty Rants and Raves Jet Wolf tries to crack the Gravity Falls Codes Kiwi Blitz on Hiveworks Let's Play on Webtoon Liveblog: Favorite X-Men comic book arcs Livestream Pathfinder one-shot LOONA (Collection of music videos with an ongoing story/universe about GIRLS who are FRIENDS and SAVE THE UNIVERSE) Lore Olympus on Webtoon Mike regales us with "the story of your love" while you get increasingly embarrassed Mina and Hot Pocket day - liveblog like a nature documentary Mister Tsukino Does His Taxes and the Household Budget (Sailor Moon fan comic by Shadowjack) Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake Not So Shoujo Love Story on Webtoon Pitch Mishaps for Untitled Senshi Game (it is a lovely day in Juuban, and you are a Horrible Minako.) Pitching hubby's favorite media at (readers/holligay/jill/momigay) Playing with dolls (because how could 3 women not have any dolls between them) Re-Take By Studio Kimigabuchi (All Ages Version) Real or Fake Anime (people submit descriptions of anime you guess if it is an anime that actually exists or not) Reviewing succulents Scavenger hunt! Not entirely sure how it would work, maybe folks could send in asks for you to show things like your favorite Rei Hino object, or the thing that's been with you the longest, etc. sewing/knitting/baking tutorial Share or rant about a Roman history topic Sleepless Domain on Hiveworks Talking to Docholligay 2: Doc Harder (basically you talking to Doc's future womb evictee while still in there and telling them stuff like say the greatness of Rei Hino) The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess (manhwa) The Polar Bear Plunge--I take Jetty to our finest Lake Elmo in January, and she jumps in! Note: THIS IS NOT DANGEROUS, WORRYWARTS. I'll bring a life preserver, I've done it before, and I would do it with her if I weren't pregnant. The Senshi Helpline--The Senshi, taking your advice questions, here and now! The World of Moral Reversal Virtual knitting/crafting circle! Let us craft and chat with you! What-If #24 Gwen Stacy Lived Worm the web serial Write an explanation for a drawing we send you! Yuri Hell's Kitchen

#THE GIFTENING 2020 #THE GIFTENING 2020 admin stuff

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chasingnewdawn · 5 years ago

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"Chasing New Dawn" influences

As I shared Chasing New Dawn in various writing groups, I realized that the vast majority of people in those groups had no idea what tropes I was referencing, because they didn’t grow up on things like Sailor Moon and Power Rangers, or the teen dramas I watched and shojo manga I read. So, just for fun, I decided to put together some of the major influences. Some influences were more direct than others, and, in a lot of cases, it was more about being influenced by themes, aesthetics and world-building than any plot points or characters. And I’m well aware that several of the things on this list are a bit obscure (if not completely unknown) in the West - but then, I would be surprised if there’s anyone who would recognize everything atop of their heads.

In cases where there’s more than one version of a work (like a book and a TV adaptation). In cases like that, I listed it under whichever version I’m most familiar with/inspired by.

Anime and Cartoons

Clémentine

Code Geass

Digimon (mostly seasons 1-2)

Final Fantasy: Advent Children

Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still

Godzilla: the Series

Gundam Wing

Sailor Moon

Sym-Bionic Titan

Transformers:Masterforce

Vision of Escaflowne

X (the TV series)

Books

Airplane Named Seryozha By Vladislav Krapivin

Animorphs by K.A. Applegate

Genome trilogy by Sergey Lukyanenko

“In the Depths of the Great Crystal” series by Vladislav Krapivin

A Princess is Worth Dying For by Sergey Lukyanenko

The Reluctant King and its sequels by L. Sprague de Camp

“Watchers” series by Peter Lerangis

Comic books and Manga

Astro City by Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson

Babel II by Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Danger Club by Landry Walker and Eric Jones

“Lost World” (a Planet Comics serial)

Majin Devil by Oh! Great

Miracleman by Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and various artists

Neon Genesis Evangelion manga adaptation

Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Oeming

Scott Pilgrim by Brian O’Malley

Shadow Star/Narutaru by Mohiro Kitoh

Wildcats 3.0 by Joe Casey and

X-Day by Setona Mizushiro

X-Men

Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

Live-Action

The Adventures of the Elektronic mini-series

Doctor Who (mostly Series 1-3 of the 2004 revival)

Kamen RIder franchise (especially the original series, Kamen RIder Kabuto and Kamen RIder Dragon Knight)

Lizzie McGuire

The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo

Power Rangers (especially Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers in Space, Power Rangers Dino Thunder and Power Rangers RPM seasons)

Super Sentai

Victorious

Zoey 101

Other

Channel Awesome meta

Persona 4-5

SCP Foundation

#CND Inspiration #CND Behind the Scenes #nickelodeon #animorphs #Giant Robo The Animation #Power Rangers #kamen rider #Zoey 101 #victorious #astro city #В глубине великого кристалла #super sentai #Clémentine #CLAMP #hunt bowman

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thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 6 years ago

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Movies, Smells & CRISPR

Movies coming in May - https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/04/30/movies-arriving-may-2019/#6

Bad sense of smell predicts early death - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2201021-a-bad-sense-of-smell-predicts-early-death-but-we-dont-know-why/

CRISPR storing GIFS - https://www.alphr.com/bioscience/1006302/scientists-have-used-crispr-to-store-a-gif-inside-the-dna-of-a-living-cell

Games currently playing

Buck

– Assassin’s Creed Unity - https://store.steampowered.com/app/289650/Assassins_Creed_Unity/

Professor

– Minecraft - https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/

– Mortal Kombat 11 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/976310/Mortal_Kombat11/

Other topics discussed

A Dog’s Journey (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dog%27s_Journey_(film)

Isle of Dogs (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Dogs_(film)

The Professor (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Professor_(2018_film)

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wick:_Chapter_3_%E2%80%93_Parabellum

Clara (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_(film)

The Professor & the Madman (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Professor_and_the_Madman_(film)

Aladdin (2019 disney film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aladdin_(2019_film)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2019 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(film)

Tolkien (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_(film)

Rock of Ages (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Ages_(2012_film)

Bohemian Rhapsody (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody_(film)

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019 film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla:_King_of_the_Monsters_(2019_film)

Plucking nose hairs is not a good idea

- https://www.businessinsider.com.au/why-you-shouldnt-pluck-your-nose-hairs-2016-7?r=US&IR=T

How to pronounce GIF

- https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/battle-over-gif-pronunciation-erupts/

Ways to add CRISPR into the body

- https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608898/five-ways-to-get-crispr-into-the-body/

A New World Order podcast

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/anewworldorder

Big Fat Liar (film)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Fat_Liar

Y2K of GPS

- https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-04-05/gps-rollover-global-positioning-system-receivers-satellites/10966218

Gal Gadot’s stunt double in Wonder Woman movie

- http://www.espn.com/espnw/culture/article/19510724/stunt-double-caitlin-dechelle-wonder-woman-real-life-superpowers

Maxwell Klinger (M*A*S*H character)

- https://mash.fandom.com/wiki/Maxwell_Q._Klinger

Shoutouts

27 Apr 1922 – Record breaking Sheila Scott was born, she later in life went on to become an accomplished female pilot. In 1966, Sheila made her first around-the-world flight, covering about 31,000 miles in 189 flying hours. It was the first such solo flight by a British subject, the longest-distance solo flight, and only the third around-the-world flight by a woman. Then records began to tumble: between London and Cape Town in 1967; across the North Atlantic the same year; across the South Atlantic in 1969; from equator to equator over the North Pole in 1971, becoming the first woman to pilot a flight circling the world by way of the North Pole in a light aircraft. After her record polar flight, she made a third around-the-world flight, earning her 100th world-class record, including a new time from Darwin, Australia, to London of three and a half days, beating the previous record by one and a half days. In 1967, she set 23 world records in just one year. - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/record-breaking-sheila-the-high-flying-aviator

29 Apr 2019 - Dragon Ball Creator Akira Toriyama has been nominated in the "Voters Choice" category for the Eisner Hall of Fame awards - https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/04/29/dragon-ball-akira-toriyama-eisner-award-nomination-2019/

30 Apr 1888 – 1888 Moradabad hailstorm: hail stones allegedly as big as oranges kill 246 people and some 1600 sheep and cattle in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1888_Moradabad_hailstorm

30 Apr 1989 - World Wide Web (WWW) is first launched in the public domain by CERN scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee - https://www.onthisday.com/people/tim-berners-lee

Remembrances

29 Apr 2019 – John Singleton, American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was best known for directing Boyz n the Hood (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award. Singleton was a native of South Los Angeles, and many of his films, such as Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), had themes which resonated with the contemporary urban population. He also directed the drama Rosewood (1997) and the action films Shaft (2000), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005). He co-created the television crime drama Snowfall. He died of a stroke at 51 in Los Angeles, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Singleton

29 Apr 2019 – Les Murray, Australian poet, anthologist and critic. His career spanned over 40 years and he published nearly 30 volumes of poetry as well as two verse novels and collections of his prose writings. His poetry won many awards and he is regarded as "the leading Australian poet of his generation". He was rated by the National Trust of Australia as one of the 100 Australian Living Treasures. He died at 80 in Taree, New South Wales. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Murray_(poet)

30 Apr 1792 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. During his life, he held various military and political offices, including Postmaster General, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He is also known for the claim that he was the eponymous inventor of the sandwich. He died at 73 in Chiswick,England - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Montagu,_4th_Earl_of_Sandwich

30 Apr 1974 - Agnes Moorehead, American actress whose 41-year career included work in radio, stage, film, and television. She is best known for her role as Endora on the television series Bewitched, but she also has notable roles in films, including Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Dark Passage, All That Heaven Allows, Show Boat, and Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Moorehead rarely played lead roles, but her skill at character development and range earned her one Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards and six Emmy Awards. She was the first woman to host the Oscars ceremony. Her transition to television won acclaim for drama and comedy. She could play many different types, but often portrayed haughty, arrogant characters. She died of uterine cancer at 73 in Rochester, Minnesota - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Moorehead

Famous Birthdays

30 Apr 1921 - Roger L. Easton, American scientist/physicist who was the principal inventor and designer of the Global Positioning System (GPS), along with Ivan A. Getting and Bradford Parkinson. He was born in Craftsbury, Vermont - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_L._Easton

30 Apr 1985 – Gal Gadot, Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat instructor, and began studying law and international relations at IDC Herzliya college while building up her modeling and acting careers. Gadot's first international film role came as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a role she reprised in subsequent installments of the film franchise. She went on to earn worldwide fame for portraying Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), followed by the solo film Wonder Woman and the ensemble Justice League (both 2017). In 2018, Gadot was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and was listed among the highest-paid actresses in the world. She was born in Petah Tikva, Israel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal_Gadot

1 May 1738 - Kamehameha 1, Hawaiian conqueror who united the Hawaiian Islands and formally established the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1810. He was born in Kohala, Hawaii

- https://www.onthisday.com/people/kamehameha-i

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I

1 May 1923 - Joseph Heller, American author of novels, short stories, plays and screenplays. His best-known work is the novel Catch-22, a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice. He was born in Brooklyn, New York - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Heller

Events of Interest

1 May 1786 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera "Marriage of Figaro" premieres in Vienna with Mozart himself directing - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mozarts-le-nozze-di-figaro-premieres-in-vienna

1 May 1840 - The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system was first issued. It was not valid for use until 6 May. The Penny Black features a profile of Queen Victoria. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black

1 May 1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident whilst leading the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ayrton_Senna

1 May 1999 - SpongeBob SquarePants premiere on Nickelodeon after the 1999 Kids' Choice Awards. It has received worldwide critical acclaim since its premiere and gained enormous popularity by its second season. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spongebob_squarepants

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Email - [email protected]

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

#movies #nerd #pop culture #aladdin #minecraft #movie news #events of interest #biology #internet #science and tech #human biology

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draconesmundi · 3 years ago

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For those curious, I have compiled a list of the books in the images of Godzilla Read's collections under the cut:

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame (short story about a dragon and knight who agree to fake a battle)

A Book of Dragons by Ruth Manning-Sanders (collection of 14 fairy tale stories featuring dragons)

The Dragon’s Egg and Other Stories by W J Corbert (a sick dragon takes refuge at a boy’s house and tells him a collection of short stories, illustrated by Wayne Anderson)

Year of the Dragon (published by Friedman/Fairfax – can find no info on this online)

Natural History of Dragons by Dr Karl Shuker (dragons in folklore, mythology and cryptozoology)

The Dragon: Fear and Power by Martin Arnold (history of dragon mythology)

A Town Called Dragon by Judd Winick and Geoff Shaw (graphic novel about an American town near the last dragon’s egg, which hatches)

The Book of Dragons by Micheal Hague (collection of short stories about dragons)

Dragon by Wayne Anderson (picture book about a dragon hatching from its egg then going to find its mother)

Little Lost Dragon by Wayne Anderson (picture book about a dragon hatching from its egg then going to find its homeland)

A Practical Guide to Dragons by Nina Hess (dragon facts set in the Dragonlance universe, a Dungeons and Dragons setting)

A Practical Guide to Dragon Magic by Susan Morris (a guide to the Darastrix Academy, a wizard and dragon school, set in the Dragonlance universe, a Dungeons and Dragons setting)

How to Raise and Keep a Dragon by Joseph Nigg (a fictional guide to real world mythology, reimagining mythological dragons as pets with some educational notes on world myths – a complete guide for caring for dragons)

Dragonart Collector’s Edition by Jessica Peffer (Peffer is most famous as the artist who draws the dragons in the Flight Rising online game – her Dragonart books are instructional books on how to draw dragons)

The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson (a boy discovers some dragons and builds a machine to help them return to the dragon homeland)

The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson (illustrated by Wayne Anderson, a look at dragon speculative evolution, hypothesising that dragons use hydrogen as both a buoyancy aid and a fire ignition source)

Dragons: Truth, Myth and Legend by David Passes (illustrated by Wayne Anderson, a collection of dragon myths from around the world)

The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbit (collection of short stories about dragons)

The Dragons are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky (collection of dragon poems for children)

The Ice Dragon by George R R Martin (children’s short story about people living in an icy land, where a girl and an ice dragon must defend their home from fire dragons)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M Valente (book one of the Fairyland series, a girl called September must journey to Fairyland and save it, accompanied by a book loving wyvern named A-through-L)

Hatching Magic by Ann Downer-Hazell (fantasy novel where a wizard follows his pet wyvern through a time portal to modern day America where he meets a girl and together they must locate his broody wyvern – the sequel is The Dragon of Never-Was)

The Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp (three children find a three-headed dragon in a sea cave who tells them stories)

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons etc. – Princess Cimorene volunteers to become a dragon’s captive to escape her boring life, and helps save the dragons from evil wizards)

Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan (A Natural History of Dragons, The Tropic of Serpents, In the Labyrinth of Drakes etc. – set in an alternative history where a 19th century lady scientist goes on adventures to study dragons in different locations)

Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (cannot find much information on plot aside from this is a collection of three dragon stories for children)

The Dragon and the George by Gordon R Dickson (a man from our world finds himself in a fantasy land, accidentally changed into a dragon. He meets other dragons, who tell him to beware of ‘georges’, which is their name for knights)

Kenneth and the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi (retelling of Kenneth Grahame’s Reluctant Dragon, but with rabbits instead of people – still involves a battle between a dragon and a knight. In reference to Kenneth Grahame, one rabbit is called Kenneth and the dragon is called Grahame)

The Book of Dragons edited by Jonathan Strahan (dragon short story collection by many contemporary fantasy writers)

The InComplete Book of Dragons by Cressida Cowell (companion book to the How to Train Your Dragon books, guide to dragons within that series)

Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (science fiction novel set on a planet with dragon riders)

A Dragon-Lover’s Treasury of the Fantastic edited by Margaret Weis (collection of short stories about dragons by fantasy authors)

Dragons: The Myths, Legends and Lore by Doug Niles (anthology and informative guide of both mythological dragons and pop culture dragons)

How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell (book 1 of the series, about a small boy trying to train a mischievous dragon so he can complete the initiation trial to become a viking)

The Dragon Codices by R D Henham (set in the Dragonlance Dungeons and Dragons universe, a series of fantasy novels centred on dragons)

A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner (a dragon protects a book as his treasure, and recounts a series of stories of things he has seen over the centuries)

Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (His Majesty’s Dragon, Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles, Tongues of Serpents, Crucible of Gold, Blood of Tyrants, League of Dragons – set in an alternative history of the Napoleonic Wars with dragon rider battles alongside naval battles, focussing on a dragon named Temeraire)

Dragon Mountain by Kate and Kevin Tsang (book 1 of the Dragon Realms series, children team up with dragon warriors to save the world from dark forces)

Wings of Fire by Tui T Sutherland (The Dragonet Prophecy, the Hidden Kingdom, The Lost Heir – series of books set in a fantasy land ruled by seven dragon tribes. Each dragon tribe is fighting eachother, but there is a prophecy that says some young dragons can band together and end the war)

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke (book 1 of the Dragon Rider Trilogy – a group of dragons are in danger of being discovered by humans, so they send out the youngest among them to travel the world and find a safe haven for the dragons to hide in. He is accompanied by a human boy who becomes ‘the dragon rider’ and his friend the kobold/brownie called Sorrel)(kobold in original German, brownie in English translation – a catperson in both!)

Dragons: Your Celestial Guardians by Diana Cooper (spiritual and esoteric book about spiritual dragons)

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (Eragon, Eldest and Inheritance – book 3, Brisingr, is not pictured)(fantasy novels about a boy discovering a dragon egg and becoming a dragon rider to defeat a corrupt king)

February 24, 2022

I had to totally rearrange my shelves, but I have almost all of my dragon books up. There’s still some missing but we’re working on it 🐲

#Dragon Books #Books #Godzilla Reads #let me know if I overstepped a boundary here I just thought that people may want to look up the cool books #There are so many illustrated by Wayne Anderson I'm jealous #A wonderful collection of books here thank you for sharing Godzilla Reads!

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kaijuzilla · 6 years ago

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MOD Review: Kong Skull Island

“What is a King...

(!WARNING! It contain spoilers if you haven’t seen it or play it don’t read!)

This is a good Kong movie which Peter Jackson King Kong film is one my favorite which I also have the game too. When they announce this movie I was confuse on the title and got not interested in it but when shown again I’m now interest! Kong now is more bigger and cooler too. From this type of movie I sometimes guess who’s gonna die in the movie and some I got it right like somehow I usually do these things in Jurassic Park movies but in Kong Skull Island is kind of easy to see. We the guy who see Kong as the enemy, some random soldiers leaving some to live, the guy with the camera, the one guy who is news reporter maybe, the blonde girl, and 3 random people who is with the camera guy but we also bring in in this movie the old guy who was there during world war with Japan that crash her and stuck on island with the natives for many years. Also this is really different from previous Kong movies which this one doesn’t have like dinosaurs or stuff in the movie just some animals that live there that are dangerous and gentle giants but still keep the Kong stuff in the movie which is still good. I even got to read that Skull Island comic and it goes along with the movie which is good.

It starts off with a war going on in 1944 (midst WW II)with the American and Japanese who crash on the island which Kong is like “Ok which one of you fuckers just crash their metal birds and blew up during my nap.”

Which skip to 1973 with a tracking excerpt with Monarch to go and search a mysterious island that was found in the satellites to see whats on it along side with some military soldiers, Samuel L Jackson, Some dude with the briefcase, and 2 random people who just suddenly join in this project to go to the island.

As they get to the Island with alot of helicopters they just started to bomb the island with napalm bombs but one of them get hit by a tree like a javelin like HOLY SHIT! which arise from the cool sun scene is Kong who just go and destroying, stomping, and ate one soldiers and helicopters which Jackson sees him as a threat to mankind and angry cause he kill his men. The gang got separated trying to find each other which Jackson ask “Where are we and don’t dare say What to me” to the camera man who said that they’re on an island filled with monsters meaning there are dangerous more here.

(One of the soldier who friend with the photographer is lost in wood where he see kong fighting and ate a giant squid, a wood log mantis thing but also die from a skull crawler.) Along the way Gang 1 find skull island native and the surviving soldier from the beginning of this film who learn that these people build this wall too keep out predators from killing them and threats which Kong fights. They see Kong Protector of Skull Island and god too which he protect the native from Skull Crawlers which are replacement for the usual carnivore dinosaur rival but they’re more dangerous and the Kong family been at war with them over many years and Kong is the last and youngest of his kind and was born during the war as his parents die in it. So after all that the blonde girl go out and see a giant buffalo trap under the crash helicopter and she try to push it off but Kong from out of nowhere came and pick up the chopper and stares down at her then leaves.

The Gang began to leave the village waving goodbye till along the way the briefcase guy got taken away by some flying bird creature with some knife head crest using it to cut limbs off of him in the air which is just wow. Meanwhile Gang 2 got caught in some spider leg thing which brutally kill one soldier and almost ate one but they kill it. But they regroup with them at Kong parent resting place meaning graveyard where they fight the bird things and Skullcrawlers that ate the camera man by blowing it up.

Night time Jackson have plan to lure Kong to the lake which is covered in some liquid thing that can set the whole lake on fire to burn Kong down when it’s bonding with the blonde girl. He said “I have it with these mother fucking monkey on this monkey Friday island!!!” But soldiers said he’s crazy and tells him to stop cause doing that can unleashed a bigger Skullcrawler. This then kill Jackson before he can blew up Kong when Kong slam his fist down on him but pin down by the Skullcrawler. So the Skullcrawler chases them down Kong comes in and fight it then humans back him up and Kong fight more on the big serpent kaiju which is the coolest fight scene I seen in any Kong movie. He use a whole tree as a baseball bat and the propeller of the boat as a mace like weapon and use that to cut it’s throat which is so badass!!!

But that didn’t kill it when Kong accidentally hurt the girl and the Skullcrawler got her in his hand so he like “know what fuck this!” and just pull it’s tounges and guts out which is now 100% dead! Oh and also the girl still alive in Kong hand too somehow. After that they finally escape Skull Island and the old man finally return home to his family which he can get his baseball game, hot dogs, and beer for the longest time...

But before we say it’s over The two monarch agent show the girl and photo guy that Kong isn’t the only King which bring us the sequel to King of the Monsters!

So the movie is really great and good too. The year it take place in is very interesting cause to tell you guys Kong is still young and he still growing meaning till 2020 he will fight Godzilla in the next movie after King of the Monsters. Kong has amazing design and thing so weird in the movie is that he comes in like a full on ninja like how does no one feel the ground shake when he walk like how? But the final fight scene takes the cake too. The actors are good and easy to remember too. We got to know some stuff about Skull Island more too. I bet they just have fun thinking of the fight scene or something cause that’s just so good! Though some part still weird place like some characters are interesting and they just get kill in the movie when we thought they’re gonna live the whole movie I’ll give this movie..

8/10

#King Kong #kong skull island #kaiju #mod review #review

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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MonsterVerse Movies Ranked: From Godzilla vs. Kong to King of the Monsters

https://ift.tt/3rKR3LK

When Hollywood’s history in the 2010s is written, it will be called the era of the big, extravagant shared universes. There were superheroes, yes, from Marvel Studios to DC Films; but there was also the failure to launch the Universal Monsters into the “Dark Universe,” and Star Wars going to TV. And then there was the MonsterVerse. Pound for pound, there was nothing bigger in scale (particularly when it came to protagonists’ height) than this Americanized vision of the kaiju. It’s the wild concept that brought Godzilla back to the West and put him in a death match with King Kong.

While currently only four films in length, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ MonsterVerse has produced four remarkably different visions of giant monsters (or “Titans”) doing battle in the ruins of our major cities. Starting stark and somber with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla (2014), this “universe” reached an unapologetically goofy crescendo this week with Godzilla vs. Kong. Each film between them has had a different director and a sharply unique aesthetic. So our staff of monster fanatics and Godzilla geeks has taken it on themselves to debate, vote, and rank every one of them. Below is the definitive list.

4. Godzilla (2014)

Gareth Edwards’ film, which kick-started this whole crazy thing, is arguably still the only one to get the “human drama” right. For about 40 minutes. The first act of the movie is a solid, tantalizing build-up to the realization there’s a giant lizard out there running amok. Equal parts Toho’s Gojira (1954) and a Christopher Nolan knockoff, Godzilla (2014) plays it straight, even incorporating the recent horrors of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 2011 into its tale of a family man (Bryan Cranston) driven to madness by the sight of beasts of unusual size.

… It then kills Cranston’s character off and leaves the film to his son, a cipher of an action hero who Aaron Taylor-Johnson had the unenviable task of making interesting. He did not succeed. More unfortunate is that a movie called Godzilla barely features the Big G. Content to focus on Cloverfield-esque monsters while teasing the action instead of showing it, Edwards’ film becomes a two-hour exercise in delayed gratification. When that gratification finally comes in the movie’s last 20 minutes, it’s too little too late.

There’s still a lot of stuff to like, however. The director’s sense of scale is used to visceral effect every brief moment Godzilla is on screen. The lizard’s first reveal, and then later a parachute HALO jump which travels the length of his body, are both visually breathtaking. Never before has Godzilla felt so enormous. And Ken Watanabe brings a great deal of gravitas to a role that in lesser hands would’ve been easily forgettable. Nevertheless, the movie would’ve benefitted taking to heart what Watanabe’s character tells the Americans: Let them fight. – David Crow

3. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Billed as the culmination of the MonsterVerse (for now, at least), Godzilla vs. Kong certainly delivers on its title in two lengthy major battles between the legendary stars. Director Adam Wingard’s first picture of this size shows that he has a good eye for scope and spectacle: one can follow the titanic action, and Wingard is confident enough to shoot much of it in broad daylight, a refreshing change from the previous American Godzilla films. And speaking of Godzilla and his co-star, the big guys have more personality here than in previous entries, with Kong in particular coming as close to a well-rounded character as an ancient, 300-foot-tall gorilla can get.

It’s just too bad that the rest of the movie somewhat falls down. The plot and characters here are perhaps the most shallowly conceived yet for this series, and while no one is paying for Shakespearean human drama, at least there was something interesting going on with Vera Farmiga’s misguided scientist in KOTM. Even sadder is the lack of context and the absence of any development in some of the more interesting world-building of the previous films, leading to a noticeable stack of unanswered questions throughout the film. As for Mechagodzilla, it’s a cool bit of third act fan-service, but little else.

Godzilla vs. Kong does offer some knockout moments and one can’t deny the sheer nostalgic fun of seeing these two icons punch each other’s lights out, but the movie is also the narratively thinnest yet of this shared universe. – Don Kaye

2. Kong: Skull Island (2017)

After the mixed response to 2014’s Godzilla and its slow burn approach to introducing the iconic title monster, Kong: Skull Island was clearly a course correction—and it succeeds as such. While it still runs into the same problems Godzilla (and, indeed, all these movies) have faced in creating somewhat interesting human characters, no one could accuse this old-fashioned pulp adventure story of skimping when it came to a satisfying reinvention of its own legendary star, as well as plenty of awe-inspiring monster battles.

The film’s period setting of 1973 allows for much more humor than its predecessor, not to mention some terrific music cues. Similarly, the cast—including Marvel stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Tom Hiddleston, along with John Goodman and a walk-off-with-the-movie John C. Reilly—at least seems to be having fun under the direction of Jordan Vogt-Roberts, confidently handling his first tentpole-sized picture. Meanwhile the title character, who clearly dwarfs all previous iterations of the beast, wanders his domain like a lonely king, ready for battle instantly, but more interested in finding a nice big spot to sit and relax.

The plot finds most of the cast trying to make their way across a creature-infested Skull Island after Kong swats their helicopters out of the sky in a thrilling first act sequence, and you can tell who will survive based largely on their billing. But Vogt-Roberts keeps a playful, swashbuckling tone throughout, and the combination of monsterfest, old-fashioned jungle romp, and Apocalypse Now aesthetics somehow all works. – DK

1. Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

A contentious choice to some, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was given top marks by all of our staff who voted. That’s because to a certain breed of Godzilla fan, Michael Dougherty’s majestically silly vision is terrific. Big, gaudy, and knowingly ridiculous, King of the Monsters eschews the grounded approach of Edwards’ 2014 movie in favor of sweeping grandeur.

Each of the four A-list Toho monsters in this film—Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah—is filmed with the awe and reverence of the crucifixion, and as evidenced by Ghidorah’s hellish roar before a fallen cross in the film, this is deliberate. King of the Monsters positions the kaiju as the original gods who’ve risen back to take their rightful place as rulers of the Earth, and the amount of fanboy love in each frame is infectious.

Movies

Godzilla vs. Kong: Where The MonsterVerse Should Go Next

By David Crow

Movies

From Skull Island to Godzilla vs. Kong: A Complete MonsterVerse Timeline

By David Crow

For those already converted to this faith, the film’s endless series of still frames, where Godzilla or Mothra flex for unseen painters, is joyous. King of the Monsters also reduces the humans to essentially comic book characters going on a breathless series of Saturday morning cartoon adventures. They act in service to the monsters’ film instead of leading it, with the best you can hope for from this peanut gallery being some Watanabe wisdom or scene-stealing comic relief by Bradley Whitford.

This might’ve been a deal breaker to audiences who wanted compelling human drama or full-fledged character arcs. But to kaiju aficionados who long ago understood that humans are the least interesting part, King of the Monsters strikes the right balance with affable archetypes (or sinister eco villains) who help Godzilla where possible and then get out of the way as the camera bows before the lizard for another hymn. This truly is the gonzo monster mash-up every child dreams of when they look at Godzilla toys. – DC

Mike Cecchini and Gavin Jasper also contributed to this feature.

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tyrantisterror · 7 years ago

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An Almost Completely Uninformed Person’s Reaction to the Netflix Death Note Adaptation

I never read/watched all of Death Note so most of my understanding is from, like, two episodes I saw at Youmacon and shit I gleaned from my more anime-loving friends, but I have thoughts on the Netflix adaptation anyway because fuck you.

Also I’m putting it in bullet points because fuck you

Willem Dafoe as Ryuk is fucking great. The fact that they used practical effects (with some CGI touchups) really helps, but also it’s Willem Dafoe. It’s good Willem Dafoe, too - Willem Dafoe giving a shit and enjoying himself at the same time. This is, like, Premium Willem Dafoe. Premium Willem Dafoe in a fucking monster costume being unnerving and weird and compelling all at the same time. Good shit. Good Willem Dafoe.

L is really good too. Like, the guy they got to play him has this really great nervous intensity that’s weird but in a nice understated way. I hope the actor who plays him, Keith Stanfield, gets cast in more weird genre shit like this because I would be sold on seeing him in, like, anything, but especially monster shit. Put this guy in Godzilla vs. King Kong or something for the love of god.

The actor who plays Cole from Kong: Skull Island plays Light’s dad and he does a good job but I keep waiting for him to say some weird shit and he never does.

The movie embraces the weird fucking shit in Death Note way more than I thought it would. Other adaptations would try to “ground” it in “realism” and instead this movie bends over backwards to include as much bizarre shit as possible. It’s admirable and works in a lot of respects (Ryuk and L being the primary ones), but...

Because it’s only a movie, and not a Manga/TV series, Netflix’s Death Note feels... rushed. Like, it’s packing a LOT of shit into its run time, and as a result a lot of its plot doesn’t have time to breath. There should have been a slow build up to Light becoming Kira, Kira becoming a worldwide sensation, and the police being so baffled that they call in eccentric weirdo L to help them out. Instead, it compresses Light’s rise to power and the escalation to, like, twenty minutes basically so we can focus on the Light vs. L stuff for most of the movie - which, granted, is the best part of Death Note as far as my uninformed ass can tell, but even as a person who hasn’t read/watched the series in full, I can tell this needed build up. We needed a slower, tenser pace so we could feel the escalation, so the whole Kira identity could feel plausible, and so L’s arrival in the plot could feel, I dunno, bigger. Instead, L feels almost normal because all the - and I hate to say this - realistic aspects of the plot have been drained to just leave the weird parts. It gets right to the fun, but the fun is more fun as a contrast. Kira’s evolution into something bigger than a normal serial killer, L arriving as a way for the police to become less mundane so as to deal with a supernatural threat, all of that needs room to breath so we can be taken out of our reality and into the fantasy more completely.

What I’m saying is they should have made this, like, a five to ten episode miniseries instead of a movie.

Light is a bit too... nice? good? in this. Like, what I gleaned of Light is that he’s an arrogant prick who thinks the world would be better if he was in charge of it - a smug little fucker who has a literal god complex. He claims he’s working for the greater good, but only because he thinks he is the greatest good of all. Netflix Light has, y’know, a conscience, and is actually trying to make the world better rather than trying to elevate himself and believing that’s the same thing. There’s not a lot of hubris to him. Again, I’m uninformed here and maybe the anime/manga is much different than my perception of it, but it sort of feels like that’s an important point of characterization - Light’s altruism should be false, and his “justice” is actually just a method of deifying himself. Instead Netflix Light is, like, a good guy who got in over his head, and that’s... I dunno, I guess I just dislike that. I like my Faustian Bargain makers to be assholes who deserve what they get.

Mia, by contrast, seems more evil than her manga counterpart, though to be fair all I know of Manga/Anime Misa is that she’s Light’s fangirl sidekick, whereas in this movie she’s presented as a more ruthless,evil person than Light is who encourages him to kill more people. I dunno, maybe this is faithful and the fandom downplayed her nefariousness - again, uninformed guy.

Ok not to go back to an old point but its weird to me how much modern horror movies seem to have trouble with, like, building tension/pace. I mean, pacing problems have existed since stories existed, so I might just be an angry old man right now, but it feels like modern horror has forgotten how to take its damn time, outside of rare exceptions like The VVitch and The Babadook.

Needs more Ryuk

But also, like, watch it for Ryuk and L because they’re really good

Spoilery thoughts on the ending after the cut

The movie instead just kinda... ends ambiguously? It maybe kinda implies that L will write his name in the book I think, but other than that it seems like Light just sorta gets away with it and quits. Maybe they’re planning on a sequel or something, I dunno. It doesn’t end so much as it just quits.

I know the Manga/Anime ends with one of Light’s plans fucking up, getting Light cornered and forcing him to ask Ryuk for help, only for Ryuk to write Light’s name in the Death Note and call Light a punkass little turd. This movie better have a sequel because I covet that moment.

Also Light never says “Just as planned” and I feel cheated because of it.

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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How Dragon Ball And Godzilla Reinvented Themselves At The Same Time

Towards the end of its run, the ratings for the original Dragon Ball were lacking. According to Kazuhiko Torishima, who was Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama's editor at Weekly Shonen Jump for awhile, it was because the producer for the anime at the time wasn't exactly creating the "serious tone" that Torishima wanted, the tone that had been developing in the manga. At the same time, Toriyama requested that he be able to change Goku's stature. See, for a lot of OG Dragon Ball, he'd had to distort Goku's appearance in order to have him effectively battle opponents that were way bigger than him. So to draw the "serious" battles that Torishima wanted, it made total sense to make Goku super jacked.

Eventually, the producer was changed, Goku's proportions were altered to make him more bicep-ey, and the seeds for Dragon Ball Z (The new producer said that a new show and new title would bring newly invigorated ratings) were planted. All of this would change what we think of Dragon Ball forever.

Meanwhile, the producers of the Godzilla series faced a similar problem. Their big return for the King of the Monsters hadn't exactly broken the bank. Despite having "improved" special effects and a darker tone than the films of the late 60s and early 70s, the 1984 Godzilla was nowhere near the grand return that producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had wanted. But he decided to hold a public contest for a story idea for a sequel, focusing on the "monster vs monster" thing that had brought the series so much prior success (Godzilla 1984 had seen the Big G as a solo act.) Eventually, they chose a story by Shinichiro Kobayashi which not only looked at themes of death and bio-technology, but also introduced the terrifying plant crocodile, Biollante.

So the story (which became Godzilla vs Biollante) was not only a return to the classic image of Godzilla beating the snot out of another building-sized creature but it also launched an entire new series of Godzilla Vs installments. And though Biollante wouldn't exactly kill it at the box office either, the change was made and a new era of Godzilla truly began.

So, aside from both being given a sort of "rebirth" in 1989, what do these two series and their new incarnations have in common? Well, first off, their tones are a sharp change from what came before. Dragon Ball Z, while still funny, doesn't exactly give us a cavalcade of goofy antagonists for Goku. Instead, we're presented with world-ending villains and monsters, creatures whose power is only matched by their malevolence. The tone becomes darker and more desperate, and the fights become drag-out, brutal affairs. For everyone that watched the original Dragon Ball and thought "Gosh, I just wish Goku could have, like, every single one of his bones broken more often," Z was for you.

Godzilla adjusted similarly. While there's definitely blood in Godzilla's 1970s output (Director Jun Fukuda was not averse to having Godzilla gush red from the head like a 150-foot-tall Ric Flair), it was countered by the series' continuing attempt to appeal to kids. But here, Godzilla is treated like a serious threat, even when he's just moseying through Japan. He's not evil, nor is he out to get anyone or anything specific. He's just an animal, and his size makes it hard for him to not bring doom wherever he goes.

I mentioned earlier that the later portions of Dragon Ball saw Goku becoming more swole and the same goes for Godzilla. The new special effects director Koichi Kawakita wanted a more "animalistic" Godzilla, and he definitely got that, at least when it came to Godzilla's appearance. His size was nearly doubled and his head took on a sharper, more reptilian look. This Godzilla does not look like someone that's eager to pal around with children, or other monsters, or, well, anything.

With new looks came new focuses in battle. Dragon Ball Z has always been lauded for its intense, hand-to-hand combat, but the number of lasers being fired between combatants increased, too. The new Godzilla series saw a similar increase in lasers, as nearly every new enemy monster had some version of Kamehameha to display. And while this could sometimes be to the series' detriment if you liked the more wrasslin' focused brawls of the 60s and 70s movies, there's something awe-inspiring about Kawakita's ability to display an explosive fight between titanic beasts.

Finally, both Dragon Ball Z and the new Godzilla series saw an increase in the amount of transformations. Goku finds himself able to achieve various levels of Super Saiyan, and most of his major villains (Frieza, Cell and Buu all go through various forms, each seemingly stronger than the last) all get bad guy glow-ups.

Meanwhile, Godzilla's atomic breath gets an upgrade at the end of Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla II, and he becomes the meltdown-friendly Burning Godzilla in Godzilla Vs Destoroyah. And Godzilla's villains? Biollante goes from being a big flower to the aforementioned plant crocodile, King Ghidorah goes from a triple threat of tiny, cute Dorats to a more "classic" form to Mecha King Ghidorah, Mothra and Battra each have worm, cocoon, and moth stages, and Desotroyah changes with every act of the film. And that's not even all of them.

Overall, both Dragon Ball and Godzilla found a new way to refresh their lead characters and the stories they told with them, creating new fans in the process. And it's hard to imagine Goku without Z, and Godzilla's design in the Heisei series is so iconic that the character is still being promoted with it to this day. So maybe change is for the best. But you know what's also for the best? Adding more lasers. So thank you MOSTLY for that, Dragon Ball and Godzilla. Your genius has been noted.

Who's your favorite Dragon Ball villain? Who's your favorite monster in the Godzilla series? Let us know in the comments!

---------------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer and editor for Crunchyroll. You should follow him on Twitter!

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

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hpoelzig · 7 years ago

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Four Reviews—Kong: Skull Island, Sausage Party, Wonder Woman, Shin Godzilla

KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Legendary’s Monsterverse series gets its second installment, following Gareth Edwards’ somber and successful resurrection of GODZILLA (2014). Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts blends sensibilities from the original KING KONG (1933) with APOCALYPSE NOW and some sly nods to the Conrad novel HEART OF DARKNESS that inspired that indelible war film to skillfully craft an action-packed tour of Kong’s homeland. Here, in a hidden island surrounded by perpetual storms which serves as a graveyard of lost ships, serene, mute indigenous people revere the massive ape as a protector deity. And rightly so, as this adolescent fellow primate lost his parents to the ravening reptilian Skull Crawlers who emerge from the underground world—likely be a plot point for future films in this series.

MONARCH (the secretive government research agency) scientists and military men invade on helicopters and drop bombs to perform seismic surveys, but this rouses Kong to swat them from the sky and provokes the arrival of the devils from below. Not the typical “beauty and the beast” tale told in the best two prior Kong films—the Cooper original and the Jackson 2005 loving homage to it—this one brings mankind up against creatures whose god-like size and strength question the dominion of our species of this planet, which in the Monsterverse mythology has long been the territory of ancient Daijkaiju.

In an homage to Boorman’s HELL IN THE PACIFIC, the film begins in 1944 with an American and a Japanese pilot crashing on the island. They continue their aerial battle hand to hand, but are halted by the arrival of Kong, who is less a giant gorilla and more an evolutionary step between gorilla and human. John C. Reilly as Lieutenant Hank Marlow steals the film as the aged pilot who has survived almost three decades on that dangerous ground and thus plays a pivotal role in making certain some of the Monarch group can reach the rendezvous point to be rescued. The redoubtable Samuel L. Jackson as Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard puts on his Ahab boots to avenge his fellow soldiers who befell Kong’s wrath. You can guess how that plays out.

As you would want, there are many fascinating oversized beasts and the humans fare ill in some of their confrontations with them. There are dramatic encounters between Kong and the humans as well as his subterranean enemies and the film concludes with a sweet resolution for Hank, and, post credits, some revelations by the MONARCH survivors revealing the creature cast of the currently filming GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS directed by Michael Dougherty, due in 2019. Kong will clash with Godzilla in 2020 under the enthusiastic direction of Adam Wingard. I await both with much anticipation!

SAUSAGE PARTY

I was sent this animated film as a gift by a friend who said not a word as to why it had been selected for me. He has an earthy sense of humor and is a talented artist as well as keen observer of the human animal, so I was prepared for something that might embody those aspects to some degree. I was not disappointed! Seth Rogen and his cohorts have crafted a devastating critique of the human foolishness of believing that some form of supernatural entities have their well-being as a primary concern. The various anthropomorphic foodstuffs in the supermarket have faith that the humans who purchase them will be bringing them somewhere better, a “Great Beyond” transcending their current existence on the shelves. But of course in time they learn the truth that being eaten awaits them and that their “gods” are but shabby, shallow, self-absorbed consumers.

Humor is broadly derived from the various ethnic food products conjuring outrageous stereotypes, and no holds are barred in that department—harking back to how such products were once advertised, though without the foul language and sexual behavior included here, making for an R rating. Most amusing for me is the Woody Allen-esque bisexual bagel voiced with manic exuberance by Edward Norton. For secularists not infected by the virus of political correctness, SAUSAGE PARTY is a ribald, raunchy hilarious feast. SJW pantywaists afraid of being triggered might want to stay away, as they’ll not find a safe space here.

WONDER WOMAN

The origin tale of Diana Prince, daughter of Zeus, is told with the proper amount of spectacle, humor, and gravity by Patty Jenkins and the eponymous character portayed with elegance and strength by Gal Gadot. Set during World War I, the visuals of the normal humans’ struggle are depicted in sepia tones shot through with fire, while Diana’s sheltered Themyscira is a lush, colorful island retreat with sophisticated art and architecture. There seemed to me a bit of a callback to Lucy Lawless’ Xena, Warrior Princess in the garb and martial techniques employed by the women of this hidden land.

What struck me as wonderfully Satanic is the philosophical outcome of this journey. Diana leaves her island as an idealist, holding love as a primary value and she has a rather simplistic view of her mission. In the course of her conflict with her brother Ares, who proclaims he is not the god of war, but of truth, he reveals to her the venality and mindless hatred of humanity in the global conflict he has cultivated. Diana witnesses horrors that are not simply conjured by Ares, but which are part of human nature. Yet the love she shares with Captain Steve Trevor—a charming Chris Pine—and his ultimate heroic sacrifice show her a broader range of human capabilities. Before dispatching Ares, as her father intended, Diana declares her embrace of humanity now with a full grasp of its spectrum of faults and glories—a third side perspective that we Satanists have proclaimed since Anton LaVey founded our philosophy in 1966. This is certainly one of the better DC films and should entertain those who enjoy these comic-derived larger-than-life beings as an embodiment of our propensity for embracing inspirational heroic mythology.

SHIN GOJIRA (SHIN GODZILLA / GODZILLA RESURGENCE)

While Edwards’ GODZILLA was in production, Toho hedged their bets by developing a live action GOJIRA film under the guidance of Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, both fans and skilled contributors to Japanese fantastic cinema. Legendary had contracted to do three Godzilla films, but apparently because they delayed the sequel to the 2014 film, ostensibly waiting for Edwards to complete ROGUE ONE, Toho completed and released their live-action film in 2016, SHIN GOJIRA. Much like Kaneko’s wonderful one-off 2001 film, GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: DAIKAJI SOKOUGEKI, this is an original take on Gojira that has no links to the other films Toho produced in its three prior series.

Anno wrote and directed and he’s known for the high weirdness of NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, so with Higuchi handling the SPFX (he did masterful work for Kaneko’s 90s GAMERA trilogy) this duo has wrought a political satire depicting governmental hesitancy to deal with the threat of a constantly evolving giant monster rising from the sea to lay waste to Japan. For the Japanese who have in recent memory dealt with tidal waves, earthquakes and the Fukushima disaster, they fully grasp this mockery of their own government.

Rather than being some form of prehistoric monster roused by H bomb detonations, this monstrosity is a new life form evolving from a deep sea creature, possibly kin to a frill shark, that consumed nuclear waste dumped on the ocean bottom by the American government. Shin Godzilla—the name loosely implies deity much as the American term for Gojira includes the word God—is first witnessed as a gigantic tail lashing about in Tokyo bay (the first form). When it comes inland via waterways as a slithering, rubbery google-eyed intruder, leaking red fluid from its gill slits (Kamata-kun), the Prime Minister and his cabinet and advisors are continually paralyzed through fear of committing errors that will end their political careers, taking endless, fruitless meetings in numerous governmental chambers. It takes the intervention of Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Rando Yaguchi, a maverick who wants to get things done, to assemble a crew of outsiders and misfits who seek to understand and find a way to defeat this threat arising from mutated nature.

Kamata-kun seizes-up at one point, falling to the ground, but rouses to shift itsself into a red-hued, upright standing 50 meter beast (Shinagawa-kun) whose roar is the same as that of the original Gojira, and he’s accompanied by Ifukube’s score for that 1954 film. With glowing red patches surrounding his dorsal fins indicating some sort of overheating, Shinagawa-kun smashes through buildings and dives back into the bay. The hovering military ‘copters had yet to attack, hindered by the Prime Minister’s fear of harming civilians. Yaguchi’s team gathers and analyzes info, aided by a Japanese American beauty who shares secret data from the US authorities whom she represents. And then the full-sized bizarre golem Shin Gojira arises and begins a rampage.

As is traditional, the Japanese military, aided by American stealth bombers, prove ineffectual against this particularly hideous incarnation of Gojira. With a profusion of snuggle-teeth, seemingly sightless eyes, stunted forearms and an insanely long tail, Anno’s vision of a nightmare monster with bizarre powers is well-realized by Higuchi and his team. For the first time Toho went with CGI (aided by some motion capture) to render the majority of the effects and they are primarily very effective. This Gojira is magma-black with glowing red patches from within, much like the Burning Godzilla of 1995. But his wildly overpowered breath weapon, which goes from firestorm to purple laser beam, accompanied by similar bursts from his dorsal plates and mangled tail end are unique to this rendition. The film uses classic Ifukube score excerpts and evocative new music by Shiro Sagisu and even employs sound effects from Toho’s stock library, most dating to the original Showa series of Gojira films (1954-1975).

Under the threat of the US deploying nuclear weapons, Yaguchi rallies his team and they find a means to immobilize Gojira, aided by waves of US drones meant to distract it while attacks by explosive-laden train cars and finally tanker trucks filled with freezing chemicals ultimately cause Gojira to become a colossal statue as part of the Tokyo skyline. The last shot shows us that Gojira was willing forth a fifth form, as humanoid Godzillian beings had begun to emerge from the tip of its tail. This film was immensely successful both critically and financially in Japan, though a possible sequel cannot be released until after Legendary’s films emerge. However, Toho is currently producing an animated sci-fi trilogy set in the far future, GODZILLA: MONSTER PLANET, and the first of these will screen for US audiences on Netflix at the end of 2017, with the next two installments to be released in 2018. There’s a coming wealth of Godzilla to enjoy!

We are in a golden age of giant monsters which I’m celebrating in the third installment of the book and exhibition series I curate for HOWL gallery titled THE DEVILS REIGN: DAIKAIJU, to be released towards the end of this year.

—Magus Peter H. Gilmore

#kong skull island #sausage party #wonder woman #shin gojira #shin godzilla #film review #Magus Peter H. Gilmore

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