#half of these guys are based off either high school improv skits

[grogblog]

All of these guys are insane hope this helps <3

[mst3kproject]

520: Radar Secret Service

So here’s a challenge.  My stated goal for this blog is to watch and find something halfway intelligent to say about each and every movie the show ever featured. I’m not sure I can say anything intelligent about Radar Secret Service.  I’m not sure I can say anything stupid about Radar Secret Service.

I don’t know if I can even describe the plot. The introduction is pretty straightforward, explaining to us that the men of the Radar Secret Service can find just about anything, from a school of fish to a hidden murder weapon.  I wonder if anybody’s asked them about the g-spot.  With a tool like that, they could go looking for the Ark of the Covenant or Jimmy Hoffa or something, but instead they’re keeping an eye on a shipment of radioactive material.  Some crooks manage to steal the stuff despite the high-tech surveillance… and that’s where the movie starts to lose me.  I can pay attention to this for about ten minutes, and then my brain just shuts the fuck down.

I mean, I keep trying to watch, I really do.  I don’t know why I can’t.  Radar Secret Service is only sixty minutes long, for crying out loud, surely I can pay attention to something dull and stupid for sixty measly minutes!  I watched the sandstorm sequence in Hercules Against the Moon Men.  I sat through the Rock Climbing in Lost Continent.  Hell, last Thanksgiving I listened to my Dad and my brother-in-law talk about their unfinished home improvement projects for what felt like six days.  Surely Radar Secret Service cannot be the thing that defeats me.  I get myself a snack and my knitting and settle down, but without fail, by that ten minute mark I’ve lost track of who any of the characters are or what they’re supposed to be doing.  My knitting’s on the floor and I’m playing Marvel Puzzle Quest.  Shit.

I start over and try again.  This time I turn off my phone.  I close the blinds.  I do my best to remove all distractions.  I still can’t focus.  The walls of my living room are more interesting than this movie.  I find myself looking at them and wondering what happened to that National Geographic solar system poster I had when I was a kid, the one that showed all the moons to scale.  I mean, it’s horrendously out of date now but it was my favourite poster for ages.  Twelve-year-old me named all the characters in half a dozen unfinished fantasy novels after those moons.  Out of sheer curiosity I googled, and found out that holy shit, you can still buy it! Well, damn, that’s kind of tempting, just for nostalgia’s sake.

Okay, no.  I have to watch the movie.  By twenty minutes in, I still don’t know any of the characters’ names but ‘radar’ no longer sounds like a real word.  In fact, it’s not a real word.  It’s an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging.  In the UK it’s also the Royal Association for Dis-Ability Rights, and the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago has the Research on Adverse Drug events And Reports committee.  I bet either of those would make a better movie.

Wait, I’ve gotten distracted again. This isn’t working.  Maybe I can watch it in MST3K form.  Radar Secret Service is so short that almost all of it got into the episode.  I could cheat and do a review based on just that. I do remember snickering at the skit about the Quinn Martin nature preserve.  I should look up some of those people on IMDB.  Maybe I can find some material for Episodes that Never Were.  It says Lee Meriwether was in a mad science movie called The 4-D Man, which looks remarkably bad.  I definitely need to see that…

God damn it.

Okay, clearly having a computer at all is too much distraction for me to watch this movie.  I’m gonna have to pop the disk into an actual DVD player and watch it that way.  Some kind of drastic measures are definitely needed here because I’ve written almost an entire page of this review and I have not yet actually managed to watch the fucking movie right through in one sitting.  There’s nothing there to watch.  Where are these people?  Who are they?  They all look and dress and sound alike.  They all have identical mustaches and drive indistinguishable cars – I can’t even tell which is the Radarmobile unless we’re in a wide shot that shows the Christmas ornament on top.  The only reason I’m sure that Waitress and Leopard Lady are two different characters is because they had a scene together at the beginning.  Are they both wearing the same wig?  They’re so alike that when one of them shoots the other I’m tempted to say it counts as suicide.

The characters have no character.  The script imparts nothing to us besides minimal so-called plot information and the performances are dismally bland.  The music is boring.  The direction is listless.  It’s no wonder they picked Oh!! There’s a dead man there!!! as the stinger because it’s literally the only memorable moment in the whole film. I’m not using literally to mean emphatically, either.  I’m using it to mean literally.

Why did they make this movie?  I don’t understand.  It���s not an action flick because there’s no action.  It’s not a drama because there’s no drama.  It’s not a comedy because nothing’s funny.  It’s not sci-fi because there’s no science.  What are we supposed to take away from this experience?  What are we supposed to learn?  The movie is like a black hole, sucking in our hopes for entertainment and hiding them away behind an event horizon of boredom and confusion, from whence they can never be retrieved.  I feel actively stupider for having seen even part of it.

Even if I were to make myself watch it all the way through, from the finding of the gun to the final arrest, in a single sitting, even if I were to force my unwilling brain to recognize every frame of it, what could I possibly say?  There’s nothing to analyze here, no meaning, no metaphor. Even on a technical level, there’s not much I could add to what Mike and the Bots already said.  Yes, everybody looks the same.  No, I have no idea which side most of these identical gray suits with meaty 50’s men in them are on.  No, the people who made this movie have no idea what radar is or what it’s used for.  The Radar Men from the Moon were more relevant to radar than this movie and I don’t think they ever even used the word.

I could just talk about the short.  The short!  A shining beacon of something I can actually pay attention to!  Sadly, the very fact that I could fill a review with my thoughts on Last Clear Chance is surely a sign it deserves an entry of its own.  Where does that leave me?

It leaves me sitting on the sofa, realizing I haven’t paid any attention for the last few minutes because I zoned out dreaming up flowery metaphors for my struggle.  I’m starting to think the only way I could actually watch this is to strap myself into a chair with my head locked in place and tape my eyes open, like something out of A Clockwork Orange.  Even then, I might still manage to get distracted. My entire body is rejecting this movie.  I think I’m making antibodies to it.

I cannot tell you how much I’d rather be watching A Clockwork Orange than Radar Secret Service.  Hell, I’d rather be watching Caligula.  Caligula had stuff to look at.  It had characters with names.

Maybe… wait.  What if Radar Secret Service is actually a brilliant work of art and I’m missing it because I can’t pay attention for long enough?  Maybe it’s a satire of 50’s futurism and tedious moviemaking!  Maybe the ultimate-spy-tool-radar premise is a comment on the erosion of our privacy in an increasingly technological society!  Maybe the reason it’s so hard to tell the heroes from the villains is because the modern world has rendered both concepts irrelevant!  There is no good or evil anymore, just men in suits either giving or obeying orders, no one individual identifiable as the reason why something happens!  Maybe the two women are identical because the filmmakers are trying to point out that patriarchal society turns women against each other and ultimately against themselves!  Of course!  It all makes sense!  How did I not see it before?

I have no memory of typing that last paragraph. What’s going on?

Oh my god.  Oh shit. I know what this is.  It’s the hypno-helio-static-stasis!  I’m already in its clutches!  The world is fading.  I need to inject something thoughtful and entertaining directly into my eyeballs immediately.  There may still be time if I can only reach Netflix…

And suddenly, there it is, looming over me like a glittering spaceship above Devil’s Tower National Monument… like a saving angel… could it really be?  It is!  It’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind!  I reach out for it.  I can already hear its dulcet tones ringing in my ears like a siren song… doo-doo-DAH-doo-DAH…

And then the ship wavers and fades away, leaving only a brushed chrome ball.  My browser’s not even on Netflix.  It’s on DailyMotion, and all that’s playing is a shitty print of Radar Secret Service.

I hope you guys enjoyed my mental disintegration because it’s all the review you’re gonna get.  See you next week.  Fuck this movie.

[sklminho]

Soulmate!Seungmin

we’re 5/9 of the way done, who’s next? 

hey ho let’s go

we back with another soulmate au fam

you’ve got a black stain where your soulmate is supposed to touch you for the first time and it turns into millions of colors the day they do

many people have them on their palms, waiting for that fated handshake

people have them on their knuckles, afraid that their first meeting with their soulmate is a violent encounter while others are afraid they’ll never notice the blooming of colors when they knuckles brush each other and they missed meeting their other half

while you on the other hand have a whole other problem

your black stain is on your cheek

you were told by your peers for years that your soulmate was going to slap you when you first met

as to why you believed them, you didn’t understand

you’ve had this whole scenario playing in your head ever since you could remember

you getting slapped by your soulmate and the colors forming and somehow just because your soulmate did it it meant that the slap didn’t mean anything

your parents tried to convince you that someone was just going to touch your cheek

but caressing someone’s cheek when you first meet them?

that’s not normal

as for your soulmate

he hated his black stain

it was in the most inconvenient of places and wasn’t pleasing to the eye (at least in his opinion)

he hoped one day when he met his soulmate they wouldn’t mind

and that the colors would at least make it pretty

and his friends would tease him about it day after day

as if they hadn’t been seeing it for years now

where this mark is, is a tale for another day ;)

so, you need an fine arts credit to pass high school

you were a bit excited because you decided to take theater

that was until you realized the embarrassment the class would entail

you were forced to do mimes and improve skits and monologues and make up your own play based on a fairy tale and perform it for little kids

you weren’t one to get embarrassed too easily but you’d never been so embarrassed in one class before

and it’s not like you were a terrible actor

sure, you weren’t the best the class had but at least you tried

it’s just having to stand in front of your whole class and do things you’ve never done before was a bit mortifying

there was one kid, Seungmin, who you began to take notice of ever since he did his monologue for the class

you could tell he was extremely shy by the way his cheeks turned a bright red when he went up

but all his emotions were clear and it was like he was actually the character

as time went on and you did even more things, his acting got better and better

like for being in theater 1 the kid was amazing

even your other classmates were impressed even if they didn’t care for the class or were never paying attention

and don’t even get you started with the fairy tale play you had to do or little kids

his group did a play about Goldilocks and the three bears

he was so happy about being able to perform in front of the children, he made sure to greet each and every one before they began

and not to even mention how cute he was as papa bear

you literally wanted to squish his cheeks but instead you settled on taking a video of the whole thing and watching it when you’re sad because you’re lame

is that creepy? i don’t think it’s creepy?

anyways

your teacher announces that your doing a play involving the entire class and you’re super excited to see how it goes

which you shouldn’t be because anything involving your classmates Jisung and Felix and acting was going to be a disaster

but that meant you were finally in a group with Seungmin which you’d been waiting for this whole year

he just had such a presence that made you want to know more and more

everyone encouraged him to try out for the part of the main lead but he kept saying he wasn’t good enough blah blah blah

but he ended up doing it anyway because Jisung forced him

and that’s what prompted you to try out for the other main lead

you don’t know how you did it but you got the part as well as Seungmin

honestly speaking you didn’t read through the whole play only about the first half

so during your first read-through of the play you found out that you and Seungmin had a kiss scene which completely caught you both off guard

when finding out, the two of you were blushing messes who couldn’t even finish reading the rest of your lines

your teacher just said to do a stage kiss but that didn’t help calm your nerves

all your friends were teasing you while Seungmin’s friends were congratulating him which didn’t help either of you in the slightest

for a good while it made you think about your black stain that was on your cheek

making up different scenarios that Seungmin was going to kiss you and your colors were going to finally come into view

which made sense considering the boy’s stain was on his lips

oh, haha, did I forget to mention that?

that's what you found most intriguing at first

the color took up about ¾ of his lips and every so slightly found its way onto his face

you could only imagine how pretty it was going to be when it turned into millions of colors

you found yourself a bit jealous of whoever he was destined to be with

he seemed like such an interesting kid and you kept finding yourself thinking about him and wanting to know more about him

but sadly, stage kisses just meant hiding your faces or putting your thumbs against the others lips so they don’t actually touch

you both agreed that you could leave the whole kissing scene to opening night so you wouldn’t have to keep doing it over and over again when you rehearsed

after countless hours of practicing and countless times you've laid in bed thinking about how the kiss scene was going to go it was finally opening night

you were extremely nervous you were going to mess up but Seungmin, even though you could tell the kid was more nervous than you, kept reassuring you that you’d be great and all your practice was going to pay off

you got through the first half of the play fine, only forgetting one line but thankfully it wasn’t noticeable

which left the second half of the play and you were  s t r e s s i n g

how was the kiss going to go?

are we really just going to hide our face and pretend nothing is happening?

or wait, am I putting my thumbs on his lips and pretending?

you realized that you never actually agreed on what you were going to do before it was too late and you were already on stage

finally the kiss scene was coming up

all your peers in the audience had their cameras out

all your fellow actors on stage were evidently ready as well

‘well, i guess this only means one thing’

‘can i kiss you?’

Seungmin realized then and there you hadn’t decided what you were going to do either

you leaned forward while he leaned to the side, both thinking too opposite things

and that led to his lips brushing against your cheek

surprise surprise

both of you felt your stains begin to heat up and looked at each other as the black color began transforming into million of beautiful colors

it was like nothing you had ever seen or imagined before

something like this wasn’t possible to describe, it was magically really

you both stood there completely speechless, forgetting to go on with the ending of the play

the audience was quiet for a few moments too before they began to crazily cheer at the scene before them

the teacher from the sidelines was telling you guys to go on but neither of you could move from your spots

without properly finishing, the curtains closed and the room fell into whispers about how amazing the play was and questioning if it was real or not

you and Seungmin finally came back into reality

red-cheeked and nervous smiles

the plays that continued for the next few days never did amount to the first one but when the audience watched Seungmin kiss your cheek they realized that the pair of you were soulmates

it completed the play more than the ending did for many

you were glad your friends got the first night on video so you could watch that instead for as long as you wanted

after the plays were finished you and Seungmin began got more comfortable with each other and finally began to understand your fascination with one another

slowly but surely, kisses on the cheek were your favorite thing and Seungmin began to love the mark that he once hated

with a little extra reassurance from you of course

fate works in funny ways

even if it seems like an accident

[kihocrystal]

Winter 2018 Final Impressions

I’m a month late, as usual (whoops!), but here’s my final thoughts on the animes I watched this past season! 

The “reviews” will be in alphabetical order!

3-gatsu no Lion S2 - 9.0 / 10 (A)

This second season of 3-gatsu was great! It’s just… a really great drama show about fighting depression (& a bunch of other character storylines)!

First off... THE BULLYING ARC WAS REALLY GOOD

extremely complicated, emotionally complex… this arc brings all sorts of emotions & angles into the forefront

multiple perspectives too: Hina’s, Rei’s, the bullied girl’s, the bully’s, the teachers’, and Akari too!

The art style can pull off both thick-outlined / bright colored style and watercolor-esque style incredibly well

it really is beautiful how it can visually portray both light-hearted and emotionally intense scenes

This season continues to show how good it is at character development for characters both main & supporting!

We get to see Rei moving through the ranks as a shogi player

and also moving through the ranks of conquering his depression! He’s improved more than ever before!

We get to learn about the white-haired master player (Souya); I liked how he has his own quicks and challenges he has in his daily life

Along with the other head shogi guy (Yanagihara)! (& how he shoulders his legacy for his friends)

Even the last episode offered some perspective from the foster mom about Rei & her kids

this show is just… really good at making normally-hated characters sympathetic, hot damn

Aside from bullying arc, this season also showed Hina preparing for the transition to high school

The finale episode was nice and sweet, with Hina saying goodbye to Takahashi and even getting a haircut!

This continues to be one of the best drama anime in recent years! Not to mention SHAFT’s best show since Madoka Magica :3

Cardfight!! Vanguard G: Z - 7.5 - 8.0 / 10 (C+)

And so ends the G series of Cardfight Vanguard… this final season I’ll say though is kind of a mixed bag

The plot had interesting ideas and moments at times, but the execution and pacing left a bit to be desired

though I will say it was definitely better than last season (CFV G NEXT)

This season didn’t waste any time getting to the main plot, as Chrono has to face off against a Diffrider right away

the diffrider stuff is continued from last season, but for the most part, it’s a new plot kicking off!

The rollout of all the new Diffrider Apostles (& them showing their strength) definitely made them look like powerful foes

not to mention the Zeroth Dragons, which were also shown to be powerful and very risky to use

Also knowing that anyone in the main cast could end up being The Vessel added some intrigue as well

the reveal that Kazuma would be the vessel definitely was a well executed twist imo~

However the pacing in places felt a bit too fast for me… the Relics subplot felt like it wrapped up too quickly, for example

the final fight against Gyze also kinda felt rushed… Gyze didn’t even have any dying words after his defeat :/

As a final season specifically, I feel like it kinda pales in comparison to Stride Gate, unfortunately

The cast was also kinda hit and miss in terms of how well they were utilized in the plot

some of the apostles definitely had more screen time than others (gredora only got like… two episodes)

plus gastille (the supposed apostle leader) got beaten sooner than like 3 other ones???

some villains carry over from last season too, such as Noa (Chaos Breaker) and the red-head punk kid

I liked all the new villains this season, personality-wise! (Also Yukari Tamura in there is a plus)

also no Am and Luna this season, really…

the previously established OG cast were integrated fine, for the most part

including Aichi and Kai getting the kill against Chaos Breaker Dragon

but the final episodes kinda just shoe-horn in a bunch of cameos that just didn’t feel natural :/

it just felt like “OH SHIT, this is the last season actually! Quick, throw in a bunch of cameos!”

this also applies to G characters, which makes less utilized characters (like Am & Luna, as mentioned before) look out of place :(

Sure, I’m saying a bunch of negative stuff right now, but I REALLY LOVE THIS CAST… I JUST WANT THE BEST FOR THEM

It’s the main reason I love CFV G, after all~

This season was definitely an improvement over NEXT for sure! The plot was interesting, I just wish the conclusion was better

The final episode basically just felt like an OVA, really… aside from the last scene, it didn’t really feel like an epilogue at all

I guess it just bums me out bc the original series got a good epilogue episode, so I know they could do it here, too…

In any case, I’M GONNA MISS THIS CAST, BIG TIME ;A;

In any case, this was a decent season to end the G series with! Not the strongest, but not the weakest either.

I’m gonna look back on my time with CFV G fondly for sure, if for nothing else than the great ensemble cast :’)

It’s gonna be weird going back to the OG cast for sure… I arguably liked the G cast better than the OG one :’D

Osomatsu-san S2 - 8.0  / 10 (B)

The consensus among fans seems to be that this season wasn’t as good as the first season

As for me, I… probably agree with that (though I still enjoyed this season!)

As with most comedy anime, whether the jokes land is pretty subjective. I feel like I didn’t laugh as hard this season? IDK

There were more “seasonal/holiday”-based episodes this time around (i.e. summer, new year’s, etc.)

What stays the same though is that this show is at its best when featuring the main brothers themselves

Skits involving the side characters (like Iyami, Dayon, etc.) didn’t make me laugh much…

I will say though that I enjoyed the second half of the season more than the first half~

Enough about the negatives, let’s talk about this season’s memorable skits / episodes!

The premiere was really good, as it poked fun at the huge popularity the show unexpectedly got xD

plus a bunch of references that *aren’t* gonna get them removed from streaming sites this time!

Jyushimatsu getting an “apprentice” with a little kid was also pretty funny~

The Karamatsu taxi skit, the spooky inn, & all the characters being stuck on an island were also good skits!

Ep. 18 (Iyami, Alone in the Wind) was also a crowd favorite, since it brought the feels for a change :’)

The finale 2-parter pulled a bait-and-switch yet again!

Part 1 was actually pretty serious, but the actual finale just has them trying to break out of hell xD

OH YEAH, I still really like the live-action stuff they do during the ending sequences

the first half’s ED was my favorite (the stop-motion of the brothers riding in the car)

I don’t have much to say about comedies generally, but Osomatsu-san is still my favorite in recent years ^^

Even though this season didn’t hit as hard as S1, it still provided some fun laughs~

Pop Team Epic - 7.5 / 10 (C+)

What can I really say about this show? It kind of defies description ^^;

Ok, yeah, it’s a sketch comedy, but it’s a really… crazy and random sketch comedy

The jokes are hit and miss (and in my experience was a bit more… miss than hit)

I never really laughed out loud at this show either

but then again, the humor here is more “being confused at what’s going on, but going along with it anyway”

There’s also a lot of modern anime references, so you might not get those jokes if you don’t follow most recent anime

Each episode has a long skit in it, plus a bunch of bite-size skits

I personally preferred the short skits over the long ones

There were a couple song parodies which I enjoyed (including the Earth Wind & Fire parody)

Also, this series definitely benefits from having an English simuldub! Some skits I found funnier in English!

OH YEAH, the voice actors (in both languages) change every episode, with female and male VAs in each episode

that enhanced the enjoyability of the sketches too, since I liked hearing favorite VAs do silly dialogue and performances!

I wouldn’t say this ranks among my favorite anime comedies, but it’s definitely unlike any other I’ve seen! ^^;

Your mileage will *definitely* vary with this one, so give it a try and see if it’s for you!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride (Mahoutsukai no Yome) - 8.5 - 9 / 10 (A-)

This was a very enjoyable fantasy drama show! Some people feel this show was overhyped, but I still thought it was really good!

I really liked the cast overall, especially Chise

She has really good character development throughout the show! She really becomes more strong and confident!

Seeing the fantastical world through her eyes was interesting as well!

Especially since those mystical elements were also responsible for her terrible childhood…

Elias was also an interesting guy… he and Chise have an interesting relationship together

Their relationship definitely has aspects that are unhealthy, but they do grow closer to each other by the end

If people can’t get past the whole premise of “him buying Chise to be his bride” though, I totally understand ^^;

They help each other learn too, which I liked to see

The supporting cast was also enjoyable! Not much to say about them individually though

The dragon keeper was nice and we got to learn about Elias’ origins through him

The dragons in general were great! Especially the old one that turned into a tree :’)

He gives Chise some good sage advice, even after death :’)

Angelica, Silky, and Stella (among others, like the other anti-hero duo) were good support characters too~

I liked Stella’s role of “normal girl who learns of the supernatural’s existence”

Cartaphilus was an… okay villain, I guess (though his methods were quite creepy indeed, which added some intrigue)

Some character designs are a bit questionable though… like who approved the vampire’s design? ^^;

Another large appeal of this was the world building of the fantastical elements!

I liked seeing all the different types of locales & supernatural creatures, both good and bad

As a low-fantasy show, this show does a Dang Good Job with the fantasy!

Chise learning more about herself and gaining confidence through these experiences were a highlight as well

I enjoyed each story arc as well, even though most of them were more explorative and introspective

This show can be dang beautiful sometimes, through both its art/animation and its stories (Thanks, Studio WIT!)

Some were better than others, but they all deliver either a heartwarming (or a dark) story

Some favorites of mine were the dragon-based ones, and the vampire loving the old man

The finale was good too! It’s unknown whether this conclusion is anime-original or not, but it was definitely a good S1 ending~

If you love low-fantasy shows, this is definitely one to check out!

Violet Evergarden - 8.5 - 9.0 / 10 (A-)

Best *new* anime (that I watched) of this past season, hands down~

Though to be fair, I still need to watch A Place Farther than the Universe… and Yuru Camp… and After the Rain…

Going into this season, this show was hyped and back and somehow… a lot of people were *disappointed* with this show?

I think it had to do with expecting a different show than what we got; as for me, I knew it’d be an episodic drama the whole time :P

But yes, this show has a (mostly) episodic plot with an overarching character arc. If that’s too slow for you, then you probably won’t like this show.

In any case, back to the positives! The first one being how good this show looks visually… as expected from KyoAni~

there’s so much detail in the backgrounds and the character elements (especially the lighting on objects like Violet’s metal hands)

this aspect is one thing *everyone* agrees on regardless, so… yeah, this show’s really pretty!

The main star (and focus) of this show was Violet herself… you can really see how she changes for the better from beginning to end

You get to see how “robot-like” she was at the start of the show, but she slowly learns about dealing with emotions of others… and herself

This character arc is definitely the “main” plot of the show, along with her coming to terms with Gilbert’s death and her war killings

The episodic plots were good in their own right, too!

Ranging from Violet’s start as a Memoir Doll to the different clients she works with, they all teach her something along the way

These sometimes focus on the side characters working at the Doll Agency too, so we get to learn more about them as well

The one that comes to mind first is Iris’ episode, where she (messily) reconnects with a former lover

Not all of them get a full episode in the spotlight, but they do get some focus scenes from time to time

Violet’s clientele episodes were the most memorable out of this lot IMO

ESPECIALLY EPISODE 10… that was the BIGGEST feels trip

I knew exactly how the episode was going to end, but I still teared up at that ending!

The finale was action packed, but also was a beautiful way to show how far Violet has come

I know some people’s issue with this show is that “it doesn’t know what show it wants to be” re: the action stuff, but I was fine with it personally

in any case, it was a pretty good book-end for Violet’s development, since she finally understands (a least a little) what “I love you” means :’)

I understand certain people’s gripes with this show, but this really is a great little drama show that *will* deliver the feels~

P.S. I also watched Fate/Extra: Last Encore this season. It hasn’t technically ended yet, so I can’t give final impressions on it right now. However, my current score for it is a 7.5/10 (C+).

[yahoo-shutdown-corner-blog]

Tom Brady's 40 greatest moments: Nos. 40-31

(Yahoo Sports graphic by Amber Matsumoto)

Tom Brady has had one of the most storied careers in NFL history. With Brady set to turn 40 on Aug. 3, Shutdown Corner is counting down the 40 most memorable moments from Brady’s career, on and off the field.

40. The infamous courtroom sketch

It’s not often Brady looks bad. But when scenes from Brady’s August 2015 appearance in federal court over the deflate-gate case appeared online, it was hard to tell the man sitting at the courtroom table was supposed to be Brady; his hair was disheveled, his eyes were sunken, his cheekbones sharper.

Jane Rosenberg, who drew the viral Tom Brady courtroom sketch, drew another one on Monday: http://t.co/n2m7d8gXRW pic.twitter.com/UWzViT6lVI

— Shutdown Corner (@YShutdownCorner) August 31, 2015

Sketch artist Jane Rosenberg apologized, which was unnecessary, but her work launched a thousand memes. Our favorite? The one that put Courtroom Brady into the iconic Edvard Munch painting “The Scream.”

The Scream by Tom Brady #TomBradySketch #deflategate #tombrady pic.twitter.com/12VlM9pI01

— Davey Min Sun Kim (@Turbolaserdavey) August 13, 2015

  39. When he grew his hair out. And the Uggs. Ugh.

Speaking of Brady looking bad …

Brady has never been shy about changing his hairstyle – in early 2002, when he led the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the first time, it was pretty typical early-2000s young guy look: gelled and spiked in the front. A few years later, he sported a buzz cut, and at one point his hair was almost blonde. But in 2010, he let it grow.

And grow.

And grew a beard too.

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And let’s just say, there may have been more words written about Brady’s hair that season than his play.

Tom Brady experimented with a new hairstyle in 2010. (AP)

(YouTube.com/NFLFilms)

(Thankfully, it was gone by the 2011 season.)

About the same time, he signed an endorsement deal with UGG Australia, which was previously known mostly for its ubiquitous shearling-lined suede boots seen on teenagers and their moms all over the U.S. But Brady made men’s UGG boots cool, and he also made sure his teammates benefited: everyone in the locker room started getting a pair of boots and a pair of slippers left at his stall at Christmastime.

38. Brady’s almost-perfect 2007 playoff game vs. Jacksonville

Brady was great during the 2007 regular season, then he was nearly perfect in New England’s postseason opener. In a divisional playoff game against the Jacksonville Jaguars he completed 26-of-28 passes – an unreal 92.9 completion percentage that’s the highest ever in a playoff game. He was perfect in the first half, not recording an incompletion until there was 10:32 left in the third quarter, on a pass intended for Ben Watson; he second miss came with 6:46 left in the game, on a short pass for Wes Welker.

It was the continuation of a stellar season for Brady, who won his first NFL Most Valuable Player award after his 50-touchdown 2007 regular-season performance.

37. Brady ends QB competition with Drew Henson with comeback over MSU 

While he was head coach at Michigan, Lloyd Carr’s rule was that in the event of a tie between players in terms of who was better, the playing time went to the upperclassman. That was all well and good until the 1999 season, when Carr welcomed highly-recruited local star Drew Henson to Ann Arbor. Henson was a standout prep quarterback and baseball player, and despite Brady winning 10 games the season before and being chosen a team captain, Carr decided to have to freshman split time with the fifth-year senior. The fear was that if Henson didn’t play, he’d leave the Wolverines for baseball, since he’d been a third-round draft pick of the Yankees coming out of high school.

In the sixth game of the season against rival Michigan State and with Henson under center, Michigan fell behind by 17 points. With the Wolverines’ undefeated record on the line, Carr turned to his senior and asked him to bring them back.

Brady nearly did, throwing for 241 yards over the final 18 minutes, but Michigan fell 34-31. Still, Brady had made his point. He was the starter.

He ended his Michigan career with a brilliant performance against Alabama in the Orange Bowl, bringing the Wolverines back from a 14-point deficit twice – 14-0 and 28-14 – to win in overtime.

36. Brady and Bill O’Brien have a heated sideline exchange

By the start of the 2011 season, Brady had long been entrenched as the Patriots’ starter. Bill O’Brien was in his first official year as offensive coordinator, though he’d been de facto coordinator the previous two years.

But outside of New England fans, O’Brien was basically unknown.

That changed in a big way during a December game against Washington, when CBS cameras caught Brady and O’Brien in an expletive-filled shouting match on the bench. The reaction of many NFL fans was, “who the heck is that guy screaming at Tom Brady?”

It was O’Brien, whom Brady and backup Brian Hoyer had nicknamed “Teapot�� because of how he boils over. O’Brien, now the head coach of the Houston Texans, laid into Brady after the quarterback’s fourth quarter end-zone interception, when he tried to get the ball to a well-covered Tiquan Underwood and the ball was picked off by Josh Wilson.

After the game, Brady admitted that he deserved the tongue lashing after a “stupid” play, and quarterback and coach moved on. It wasn’t the first time the two had butted heads.

35. Tom knows baseball? Brady selected in MLB Draft by the Montreal Expos

Brady started working with a personal quarterback coach to improve his throwing mechanics when he was 15, but he played other sports, baseball among them. At Junipero Serra High (alma mater of Barry Bonds) Brady was a catcher, and was good enough that the now-defunct Expos drafted the tall, left-handed backstop in the 18th round of the 1995 draft.

It sounds like hyperbole now, more than 20 years later, but former Expos general manager Kevin Malone told Bleacher Report this year that believes Brady “could have been one of the greatest catchers ever. I know that’s quite a statement, but the projections were based on the fact that we had a left-handed-hitting catcher, with arm strength and who was athletic,” Malone said. “But his first love was football.”

Funny: Brady the NFL player has always been mocked for his lack of athleticism, but Malone saw otherwise.

34. Live from New York, it’s Tom Brady hosting “Saturday Night Live” 

Hosting “Saturday Night Live” is a sign  you’ve made it in American pop culture, but NFL players don’t get to host that often: there have been fewer than 10 in the show’s 42-year history. Brady got to add his name to that list in 2005, and he did a pretty good job.

Among the skits Brady was part of was a trip to the carnival with friends that saw everyone – including an old woman in a motorized wheelchair – able to throw a football through a hole and win a giant teddy bear, except the football star.

Brady was also in a send-up of an old school employee instructional video, “Sexual Harassment and You” in which we learn it’s ok to be incredibly inappropriate with co-workers as long as you’re as good looking as Brady.

33. Brady arrives with his dominant big NFL game

After taking over for injured Drew Bledsoe early in the 2001 season, Brady’s first two starts can be kindly described as unspectacular; against the Colts and in Miami, he was a combined 25-for-47 (53.2 percent) for 254 yards and had no touchdowns and no picks. But his third start gave the outside world a glimpse of what Patriots players had been seeing on the practice field.

Against San Diego, New England was down 26-16 with 8:48 to play and Brady brought them back for an overtime win. In staging the first of his 39 (and counting) fourth-quarter comebacks, Brady was 10-of-16 for 110 yards and a touchdown to Jermaine Wiggins that forced overtime.

The Patriots got help in overtime – the Chargers’ Alex Molden was flagged for a 37-yard defensive pass interference on New England’s first offensive play, putting Brady and his bunch in San Diego territory – but Brady got them in field-goal range for Adam Vinatieri, who converted the winning kick.

On the day, Brady was 33-of-54 for 364 yards and two touchdowns. The win was the start of a 10-2 finish for New England, an AFC East title and a postseason appearance that ended with a Super Bowl crown.

32. Brady the prankster takes the wheels off Matt Cassel’s car

In front of cameras and notebooks, Brady is generally reserved. But that isn’t always the case when he’s away from the spotlight.

One day during the 2006 season, reporters who walked into the Patriots’ locker room were amused to see three large car tires stacked in front of backup quarterback Matt Cassel’s locker. Turns out, they were the tires off Cassel’s car.

Brady and Cassel, then a rookie, had been engaged in an escalating prank war. According to Cassel, when he wouldn’t apologize for dumping trash on Brady’s car, Brady paid someone to put Cassel’s car on blocks, remove the tires, and put three of them in the locker room.

The fourth one was hidden, and Cassel couldn’t put his car back together until he found it.

31. Steelers DB Anthony Smith guarantees win over Pats .. and Brady torches him

Everyone has something they regret saying, the knee-jerk insult or misguided boast that ends up either making you feel bad – or look bad.

The latter was the case for Pittsburgh Steelers Anthony Smith in 2007. In the days leading up to the Steelers’ December visit to New England, Smith, a second-year safety, told reporters that his team would be the one to end the Patriots’ bid to go 16-0.

To say Brady and the offense picked on Smith is an understatement. Randy Moss torched him for a 63-yard touchdown, and to add insult to injury, the Patriots ran a double-pass trick play in the third quarter: Brady threw a long lateral to Moss, who threw it back to Brady, who launched a long ball to Jabar Gaffney … who had blown past Smith.

Brady made sure to get in Anthony’s face after that play, but wouldn’t repeat his message postgame, saying his mom wouldn’t be very happy if she read what her son said.

CLICK HERE TO READ TOM BRADY’S GREATEST MOMENTS NOS. 30-21

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