#he has no right to be this moe in the anime's second season

[one-bunny-a-day]

14/07/2023

[livwritesstuff]

dedicated to my absolute storm of a day today

Today was one of those days where nothing stopped.

For the first time ever, all three of Steve and Eddie’s daughters are in different schools - Moe a freshman in high school, Robbie a sixth-grader at the middle school, and Hazel still at the elementary school in fourth grade, so their morning is non-stop from when Moe has to be up if she’s gonna get out the door in time to make the school bus (which is 5:30, meaning that Steve and Ed need to be up at 5:30 to make sure that she’s up at 5:30) all the way to when Hazel gets on her own bus at 7:45.

Most of the time, Hazel’s bus pulling away leads to a brief moment of respite for Steve and Eddie before their own days have to continue, just enough time for them to take a breather and spend a second together just the two of them and maybe make out against the kitchen counter like they’re twenty-six and had just started dating instead of nearly fifty and married for over a decade.

That day, though, Steve has a client for a therapy session at 8am (the first for a day of back-to-back-to-back sessions), so he’s out the door even before Robbie is on her bus, and then Eddie has to drive into Boston for a meeting about his book that he’s trying to get made into a movie (an animation of some kind, he’s thinking, stop-motion ideally like Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas), and while he’s on his way back home, he gets a call from the elementary school that Hazel is sick and needs to be picked up (goddamn flu season), and by the time he picks her up and brings her home, Moe is out of school needing a ride to her club basketball practice, and Steve’s work day wraps up just in time to get Robbie to her violin lesson (he picks Moe up from basketball on their way back), and even once they’re all home again, it’s still a whirlwind of getting dinner on the table while making sure all the girls get their homework done and instruments practiced, and keeping an eye on Hazel who is either “sick” or “not sick” when it serves her to be so (she’s sick when homework time begins, not so sick anymore when the baskets of Halloween candy are brought out of their hiding spot as a treat after dinner), before they’re getting Hazel and Robbie corralled upstairs for bedtime and making sure Moe is making her own progress in that regard, and then once the girls are all tucked soundly into bed for the night, Steve and Eddie still have to clean up the kitchen and prep for the next day’s mayhem and get themselves ready for bed, and in the end, it’s not until Eddie is sliding into bed beside Steve that they’re to exchange anything more than a glance.

“Thought about you all day today, Stevie,” Eddie says with a grin as he tugs him in close.

Steve hums his agreement, shuffling until he’s sitting in the space between Eddie’s legs, his back against his husband’s chest.

“How was the meeting?” he asks him.

“Doesn’t matter,” Ed shakes his head, “Ask me tomorrow. Just hold me.”

“You’re holding me.”

“Shut up.”

Ed wraps his arms around Steve’s middle, slipping a hand underneath his t-shirt to splay over his stomach.

Steve tips his head back against Eddie’s shoulder, relishing in the way Eddie is holding him – his grip just firm enough to feel secure and safe, tight in a covetous way, a way that says that Steve is his.

Steve likes being Eddie’s. Something about it has his heart swooping even all these years later.

The love between him and Eddie is the old kind of love now. Not old as in old news, but old as in worn-in and reliable and familiar and comfortable. It’s the kind of love he’d been aching for when he was younger, the kind of love that has him knowing exactly why it didn’t work out with all the other people he’d dated before.

“I love you so damn much, Stevie,” Eddie tells him, ”I’m just as obsessed with you today as I was twenty years ago.”

“I know – crazy, right?”

Eddie shakes his head again, “Inevitable. Just wanted to say it before it slipped through the cracks.”

Steve nods, but doesn’t say anything more, content to bask in a rare moment of peace and quiet with Eddie – his husband, his person, the love of his life.

Eddie presses a kiss to the side of his neck, blunt nails idling dragging back and forth over Steve’s soft stomach. 

The moment is fleeting, as they tend to be these days, because Hazel calls for them from her bedroom saying that her tummy hurts.

Steve groans and moves to get up, but Eddie tightens his arms around Steve.

“She’ll be fine. Nine is definitely old enough to learn how to puke and rally.”

“Definitely,” Steve agrees as he pulls himself out of Eddie’s hold.

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Finished! Score in a few days - I have a friend I've been talking about these with every week and I kinda wanna talk to him first. He's not choosing my score or anything, but I think the back-and-forth will help me get my thoughts in order and decide where to leave it. Because as it stands I think I'm between 6 and 7 - and 6 sounds low after all the praise I've given (and am about to give) but then part of me wonders if it isn't just that I'm surprised how much it improved over the first season, like if that surprise factor isn't the main reason I'd want to score it a 7. We'll see where I end up with.

Anyway, good last episode. It had an extra 5 minutes in length which really benefited it, because it meant we got to see quite a lot of plot points and character moments come to nice resolutions with wiggle room for cute scenes as well. Felt really fucking bad for the twins though man, the dead one's corpse being puppeted around by Gates was fucked up, and the sister not being strong enough to even enact revenge and going down in seconds actually made me upset. We get to see Kaname restore Sousuke's faith in himself more or less, that was pretty nice, although honestly I could've done with at least less of the slapstick. The ensuing fight between Sousuke and all the Venoms is pretty dope, I haven't spoken about it much but yeah no KyoAni mecha action is really good lol. The final setpiece is really sick - Gates in his own Venom is holding another AS hostage, and Sousuke charges up this insanely sick looking punch, stops right in front of the hostage, and then Lambda Driver fuckin makes the punch go through the hostage completely safe. It's absolutely dope as shit. A level of excitement I never thought this series could offer me. Just really good all around.

And then yeah, Sousuke's back in action, knows what he wants, and all the villains are dead. Couple scenes of various emotional catharses, Sousuke's still staying with Mithril because we wouldn't have much of a show otherwise but he lays down the law, has the full support of Tessa, her moe anime waifu scene here is actually earned because she's been a character up to this point, it's all just pretty good. If I can be honest I was actually thinking about watching Invisible Victory and I still might - but Second Raid so neatly wrapping up most of its stuff makes me think I'll be fine even if I don't. It's really just Tessa's brother that's a variable here, but we'll see what I decide to do.

But yeah, that's me done. Mostly. I'll watch the OVA tomorrow. That was definitely good - I don't think I have too much to say that isn't just spread throughout the other posts I've made, but I mostly had fun here. The series takes itself seriously and has pretty strong plotting and lots of good character moments, which is all you can really ask for. Villains weren't great this time around, I didn't really talk about him ever but I don't think I liked Gates at all, him jacking it to small animals is almost too bizarre an inclusion for the series, but hey. Craziest thing I can say by far is that I am largely endeared to the characters now, which was an unfathomable concept to me back when I finished the first season. Even Fumoffu only got me liking Sousuke, Kaname and the like still pissed me off. Actually being able to point to the characters and say "yeah I liked them" goes so hard. I think I'll call that the end of the post. Like I said, OVA tomorrow, Invisible Victory is a maybe, and then uhhh I mean that's it. Although as one final sidenote, the OVA is the last Kyoto Animation thing for me. Insane.

[cospinol]

spring 2024 isekai log☆ we very, very narrowly missed a 1-2 isekai finish in my overall seasonal ranking this time around (thanks to tadaima okaeri stealing second place by finally deciding to lean into the sleazy side of its setting a little at the eleventh hour) so i think the takeaway of this season might be that i have bad taste in anime. anyways, highs and lows!

can you believe it, a season where the isekai log hosts the season's best show by a mile???!!! kantei skill is really, actually almost perfect in every way - neatly plotted, thoughtful in its theming, and absolutely bursting at the seams with delicious little character dramas. every single member of the main cast is good enough to carry an entire series on their own (as is appropriate to a plot about acquiring really good personnel), and the mock-battle arc that the season ends with once the whole cast's been brought together is not only a delight in its own right but a confirmation that this series both intends to commit to and is very clever at coming up with military strategy plots - basically all of its priorities are exactly what i want them to be ,and it executes them almost perfectly all the time. i haven't mentioned the isekai aspect at all yet because it's a classic case of 'we put tensei in the title to increase the viewcount of this standard fantasy series' and it almost never comes up in the series at all, except one random reference ars makes to hattori hanzo late in the series that came so out of left field that it made me laugh out loud. i can't overstate what a selling point ars is a protagonist, too, the rare case where his being a little plain and clumsy in some respects and highly competent in select others functions as *incredible* gap moe, he is so cute!!! nothing but respect for MY future emperor... this is a preliminary 8/10 but if next season continues to deliver while raising the stakes i'll increase the whole package to a 9

dainana ouji is structurally and tonally a lot more conventional - it's a goofy comedy about joining the adventurers' guild and killing demons and so on, it's just also insanely good on a technical level, understated but incredibly stylish with an excellent sense of comedic timing; its pacing is breezy and its cast is endearing, and the tournament arc in the manga (which it convinced me to read ahead in because i was enjoying it so much) promises even more. this series is a lesson in simple excellence, that's all!

after that of course there's nowhere to go but down, so we're immediately dropping down to the 'basically average on a normal isekai scale' sector with the new gate, which is really... generally pretty Fine for a normal isekai. it's hard to praise much about it when it has such stiff competition but while its writing is always thin and basic it's got close enough to an idea of what a story should look like to spare it from a lower score, and it never made me angry, so (<- a sad glance back at my usual standards for the genre). the only thing of any note at all about this show, unfortunately, is that it's incredibly ugly on a 'something went very wrong very early in production' level such that all of the characters look wildly off-model at all times; please look at what the protagonist's design already looks like on the poster and then imagine how the show's faring by episode eight

madome (not an isekai, but it's a basic fantasy LN with maou in the title, so) earns about an equivalent middling-four that i did also lightly consider bumping up just a little because its approximate competence in most respects eventually gets it to a pretty cute and decently well-earned no-harm-no-foul slice of life status quo by the very last episode, but ultimately for all this show's extensive parade of gimmicks and light-novel flights-of-fancy it never came up with anything that i cared enough about to give it an extra affection point. also, critically, i think the single most important aspect of the show (the romance between the two leads) is just nothing to write home about; it's not actively irritating but their respective neuroses don't interact in a particularly interesting or cute way - and i know they could, because this show is extremely similar to last fall's ikenaikyo (which has the exact same 'lol it sounds sleazy conceptually but it's actually fluff' premise (as well as just about the exact same protagonists), but which i didn't review at the time because it didn't put the demon lord part in the title, natch) and fares very poorly in comparison -- and as much as i liked that romance, i only gave that show a five, so. them's the breaks!

one level down, from 'nothing special here' to 'no, i mean there's literally nothing here', is dekisoko, where... there is nothing. the gimmick is kind of that it's not really an isekai because he was reincarnated in the same world, i guess, but it can't actually commit to it enough to give us any indication of when/where his first life took place relative to the current setting, which might give you some indication as to the care and consideration put into this series's writing. of course the premise is just a basic veneer and a justification for mc-kun's op abilities and what it's actually dedicated to is absolutely fucking nothing; it listlessly goes through some basic isekai motions (dad possessed by a demon! evil but not evil holy knights! elf forest! and other greatest hits), looks extremely bad the whole time, and then stops. the only character of note is the goddess (??) from the protagonist's previous life who also was reincarnated along with him(??), who has Two character traits (kinda goofy and speaks in the third person), which is twice as much as the rest of the harem, and a few cute interactions with the mc over their shared history, but then of course she's not even the main girl/actual fiancee, even though she's the redhead with twintails! the state of the genre, honestly...

and finally re:monster. this fucking show...... okay, so this show is pretty clear about what it is from the get-go; it's a basic tensura-like where the protagonist makes the most of being reborn as a low-level monster by using his random unrelated hax. the first few episodes of the show cover his early levelling-up as a small child whose peers are barely sentient, and instead of choosing to have very little dialogue it features a constant voice-over where the mc describes the events that happened to him, in first-person past tense, clearly almost verbatim from the light novel. it was around the fourth episode, when the protagonist was fully grown and now clearly having conversations with the other characters that we'd occasionally hear a line or two of between stretches of the same narration that had been going since the beginning in exactly the same overbearing quantity, that it hit me...... that this was going to be the entire thing. yeah, technically this is a television show; it's got pictures, and occasionally it trusts that you can understand that the protagonist is fighting a monster right now without having it explained to you, but for the most part what the experience of watching this series is actually equivalent to is reading a series of detailed episode summaries on a dedicated fan wiki, or possibly listening to someone read you a light novel!!! i swear could count on one hand the number of scenes where two characters exchange more than five lines of dialogue before the narration swoops back in to explain 'that scene happened to me' and shuffle us on to the next set-piece; we are never in ogurou's head in real-time; nothing happens in this show, it's all already happened. then we did this, then we did that. it never stops!!!!!

i did a little poking around to see if any other reviewers were as bothered by this as i was but it seems that i'm the only person in the world who this format drove out of their fucking mind - every time the 'next day' sound effect plays it's a drop of water on my forehead, slowly bringing me towards the brink. this fucking show... of course the plot's also atrocious even for a tensura-like and the tone (insofar as it's possible to set a tone in a wikipedia plot summary) is incredibly broken; in particular it's flippant about (and full of) sexual violence on a level that's shocking even for the genre and in a particular way that's downright nasty, given the fluff piece(????!!) that it generally seems to want to be when it gets down to character interactions; there's also all sorts of miscellaneous stupid crap like the names of the female characters not being revealed until after they've given birth to the protagonist's babies(??????????!!!!!!). i did ultimately just keep watching in the end to see if it would ever actually become a real show. it did not

and that's isekai for you. oh, i dropped tsukimichi 2 in the end; i'm only about eight episodes away from the finale but all of those episodes are the same showpiece-arc that i don't like the premise of lol. the moral of the season is that 'let's make a village for monsters' premise is the real evil and all the other subgenres should gang up on it and kill it

[alastgoodnight]

"Remember to always say goodnight to the ones who love you, even if you don't think you need to. Everyone deserves a goodnight."

Indie RP blog for Naomi Joy Sato, reclusive podcaster and caretaker of a strange and lonely library. A study in grief, found family, telling stories and learning to be loved again, through the lens of 90's/2000's children's shows. Mun is over 21, but blog is SFW. Highly selective. No minors, please. Penned by Esme. Takes place during the summer of 2023. Scary things may happen, but this is not a horror blog.

Quick Note: Posts tagged with 'Chapter #: Chapter Title' (replace appropriately) are story posts. They're meant to be treated as the 'source material' of this blog, and inform her progress and behavior in threads. They are not opens. I will not respond to any interactions with them.

Trigger warnings: Surrealist imagery, death of family/a child (in backstory), survivor's guilt, metaphorical body horror (mild), revisiting the same nightmare over and over and over again.

The Story So Far: Naom has accepted that she wants to stay in the Library. There is still work to be done, though, on both the building and herself, before that can be made official. The first thing to do is deliver some bouquets.

Current Library Residents:

Naomi Sato, the only human resident. She has agoraphobia, and needs an umbrella in order to feel comfortable going outside during the day.

Teddy, her goldfish stuffed animal. Not alive.

About 14 dust bunnies, including Buster and Wexel; Eenie, Meenie, Minie and Moe; and 'the class', a group of 8 dust bunnies always seen together.

Willa the Wallaphant, a felt elephant that resides in a series of tapestries decorating the library building.

Ragamonster/Rags: A quadrupedal puppet made of blue, green and yellow scraps and yarn, Ragamonster is the monster under Naomi's bed. Very large but easily frightened, Rags is as sweet as he is skittish, and prefers to be close to Naomi or under a small roof.

Arlo: The Sandman of Slumber Hill, Arlo is a ram puppet/costume who wears dark, glittering robes and bells on his horns. He acts as a voice of reason and comfort, and only appears at night, right before bedtime. He is always accompanied by his flock of sheep, which you can count to fall asleep.

The Flock: Arlo's sheepy, so sleepy. They hop fences.

Current Library Anomalies:

Blue Dreams: A series of dreams in which Naomi finds herself in an enclosed space filled with matte blue something. After the incident with the Blue Mirror, the dreams have come to a halt, due to Naomi drawing a hard boundary with the Library.

Three Goldfish: A new addition to the Blue Dream phenomenon, these three goldfish come in varying sizes and are noted for their solid colors of Orange, Yellow and White. They represent Naomi's memories of her father, mother, and sister respectively.

Blue Umbrella: An umbrella of clear blue vinyl, decorated with big, matte white raindrops and clouds. It appears to have no magical qualities, but is an effective aide in helping Naomi go outside without experiencing vertigo, due to its visual distortion of the sky.

Newspaper: A changing, self-updating newspaper consisting mostly of blocks of ink. Currently legible are the following passages: "HOROSCOPE: YOU SHOULD PICK A BOUQUET FOR THEM", a panel that says "Weather prediction: Surely it will rain eventually?", and an announcement for "FIREFLY SHOW TONIGHT, FOLLOWED BY FIRST SHEEP COUNTING OF SEASON". It is apparent that whatever entity the library is, this is its best medium for communicating through words.

Closet Mirror: A full-length mirror at the end of the second floor's walk-in closet. It depicts a strange metal lump floating in front of Naomi's chest that leaks a matte blue liquid. A particularly intense sequence of blue dreams has led Naomi to realize this is a manifestation of her (emotional) heart, and its "blue love" will continue to flood and stain everything in her life until she understands what it's trying to tell her. Currently flipped to face the wall.

Mirror Door: The mirror can transform into a door, which leads Naomi into a currently undefined space. Within it, the Library can show her memories and dreams with more interaction and clarity.

Roadside Ditch: A ditch across from the library and the road leading to it. Naomi and Arlo have picked all the flowers from it.

The Red Shape: Naomi sometimes sees a red shape far down the road, obscured by distance and the wavering of hot air. Its most recent appearance caused her to fall into the ditch, for fear of it striking Ragamonster. She now believes this to be a figment of her own memory, rather than part of Lullaby Lane.

Letterbox: A magic letterbox which can teleport any written message put through its slot to its intended recipient. It sits on the desk upstairs. (If you want to send or get asks, this is a great medium for them!)

Blue Love Poem: A poem Naomi has been struggling to write. She is starting to understand what Blue Love means.

The Story: Not an anomaly. A story Naomi tells herself but has never finished. She can very easily get stuck saying one or two sentences over and over. This followed her to the Library.

Table of Contents:

Preproduction (Prologue) - (chrono)

Pilot Episode (Chapter 1) - (chrono)

Casting Call (Chapter 2) - (chrono)

Set Design (Chapter 3) - (chrono)

Prop Development (Chapter 4) - (chrono)

Costume Fittings (Chapter 5) - (chrono)

Table Readings (Chapter 6) - (chrono)

Script Revisions (Chapter 7)

Naomi's Dream Log - (chrono)

[notheroverthinker]

I JUST FINISHED THE LIVE ACTION ATLA.

It was perfect. I loved it!!!

I do NOT get why this ver of atla even gets hate AT ALLLL IT WAS THAT GOOD OMG. I'm late to the party but. I loved everything about the series!!! Everything like everything, really!!!

First we get some real good Zuko characterization (he was bratty and petty and spoiled in season 1 lets be real yall) AND!!! WE GET MORE AZULLAAAAAA YIPPEEEEE let me tell you that their Azula was so good it made me, who has a Azula/Ozais Angels centric fic with more than 50k words (with most of them being Azula my insane bbg i love me some crazy princess <3) DOUBT and RETHINK my Azula characterization.

It was good. I just don't get why any of you disliked her at all! First of all let me tell you that the actress did a SPECTACULAR job at it! You could tell me she was actually Azula in another universe and I would've totes believe that because. Badass it girl can and will act. Second of all, the script nailed Azula to a t, like, so bad it was humbling. They didn't need to slay this hard with it like sheesh.

Like! Azula's entire arc of feeling like she isn't good enough compared to what Zuko supposedly did during the entire series and her sort of making everything about her because she could get away with it in Ty and Mai's friendship with her to fill the hole Ozai makes sure she has? Slayed and left me gagged. Her rejecting Ozai's entire thing and forcing him to take her seriously by bending lighting when the big boy didn't accept her 'no'? I CHOKED ON AIR OUT OF SHOCK. Her also sort of being too blank around everything specially tasking emotionally because she can't, she was never really taught the 'right' way of doing things so she never really understood the emotional weight behind the action and why it was so taunting to see Zuko's scarring? I SCREAMED BECAUSE THEY ATE AND LEFT NO CRUMBS.

I could seriously have an ENTIREEE book out of how I simply loved their Azula characterization and how they nailed the entire point of her character with what? Three to five scenes with some very rare pop ups time to time. I could've never do that. And that honestly earned my respect for the team behind it.

Okay, sure, they did a LITTLE bit worse, like just a little eeny meeine moe with Aang but hey, he's by far one of the smallest Aang assassinations I've seen out there with fanfiction and what ive seen some of you think (with all due respect ofc) so it was very actually iconic what they did with his arc.

Especially the 'I'm actually the fucking avatar not some random ass child' thing. Like, not saying animated canon wasn't that horrible about it but they sure had different focus on what they wanted to convey with the story and that's okay. The live-action decided to take 'Aang needs a slap on his face to have a reality check' and the animated series thought 'lets make it really subtle so Aang needs to actually think about the consequences of his actions'. They're both awesome on their own. I honestly prefer the way the live-action handled Aang in this FIRST season really well.

I overall enjoyed Aang's arc really well.

What had me puzzled at the start but now, after watching the entire season on one go, I get why they did what they did was Katara. She was, in this situation series thing, REALLY shockingly different from the animated series and it had everyone really confused about things. I personally was '😟😟😟WHAT THEY DID TO YOU MY BBG SLAYER QUEEN KATARA????' But honestly now? I can certainly nod and think that they did a good job at portraying a PART of Katara's personality and character that wasn't really portrayed that much in the og show.

Her caring, calm and restraining nature. Let's be real here she was THE calmest gaang member besides Aang himself, when she wanted to ofc. She always understood intuitively what was like to be in someone else's shoes and comprehended what was like to be a girl in a majority really masculine and boy ish place. Idc what yall say but the Southern Water Tribe wasn't all that equalitary in its traditions. Never was tbh. If it was, Sokka being a lowkey machist and thinking that women 'weren't build' to be warriors wouldn't even be a slight dot in his character arc like it is on the og show.

But ahem, continuing.

That intuitiveness, that empathy, was always a HUGE part of Katara's self and we KNOW. We've all been known since the very beginning. To be a waterbender, a prodigy at that, you don't need just the skill, you have to be emotionally connected to what the bending even is. We know that because we heard Aang say that feeling is one of the motivating factors of bending to KATARA HERSELF.

Girl. If that doesn't make sense idk what else to tell you. We also can have the entire Jet situation as solid ass proof of that intuitiveness and all these feelings stuff (btw, I'm a Jet apologist in the live action, he's not ENTIRELYYY wrong about things. Besides blowing up a mountain and Omashu stuff) because she was there for him. She was there in both series and idk about you but sometimes I think that THAT ep when Katara decided to invade a prison to help a earthbender dude was a collective fever dream. Either way. They focused better on the emotional maturity of Katara and well. It worked.

I still miss my impulsive, easily angry and always pissed off Katara but I'm not really that upset about the live action ver tbh. Yeah, yeah, if they don't do something about it Katara's personal arc is going to be ass if we were to follow the original timeline (and character arc) but hey. We have two more seasons to go. Which means way more screen time for Katara to go apeshit. Which we've already even seen seeds of it when she decided to kick Zuko's ass.

I was honestly really surprised at how well thought out the live action was. Like, with some reviews I've read here on Tumblr, this was sort of like the movie. And I've watched the movie myself. It was fucking ass.

I thought it was like, the new coming of the bubonic plague in series version. That's one of the main reasons why I was to hesitant to sit down and properly watch it tbh.

I just need to mention one thing. Everyone. The Live Action is going to be just that. They're not going to deliver line by line scene by scene of what the animated series did. Because it ISN'T THE ANIMATED SERIES. YOU CANT REALLY THINK THAT THERES ONLY ONE WAY TO REPRESENT THE SHOW.

Because. Korra exists. And most of the live action haters I've seen all LOVE Korra (me too I love the show and the Avatar she was an icon) so I don't really get what isn't clicking but anyways.

I said it now I'm light. Okay byeeee

[sourwormsaresour]

Headcanons on the type of pets La Squadra would own?

Holy shit this was too fun to make, especially with giving the pets names.

Sorbet and Gelato have their own Crusty-White-Dog™ that's a Maltese Terrier named Armani. The dog hates and barks nonstop at everything deemed threatening (aka, everyone and particularly the rest of La Squadra) and yet those two will claim she's the sweetest thing in the world. True to her name, they deck her with Armani branded clothes, either specially made dog fashion or they had a DIY done to make it look like an Armani outfit- down to the bright pink leash she wears dripping in the Armani logo. She eats the finest dry kibble and only drinks Ferrarelle Sparkling water; she will know the difference if you switch it up. She's the epitome of "I demand pets but only do so with your eyes" to everyone. Despite loving Sorbet and Gelato the most, she demands all their attention on her and she will cockblock those two if she catches them being affectionate to each other instead. Despite having a nice bed, she always sleeps between the two of them and will whimper if they kick her out of the bedroom so they can get intimate. Those tear-stained eyes always look like they've seen everything, despite being constantly babied by her owners. If Armani could, she would kill everyone.

Risotto, the biggest man in Vento Aureo, has a little Syrian hamster he called Ace. He thought that a pet with a shorter lifespan would allow him the perfect balance of having a pet but not being very attached to it compared to pets that live longer- he was wrong. If you ever come into Risotto's office as he worked, either you are greeted with Ace running around in his green hamster ball, walking around Risotto's desk as he worked, or running in the hamster wheel behind the desk. Ace's tank is an old Aquarium tank Pesci gave to Risotto that is now full of soft bedding, toys, and Risotto frequently cleans it. There are days where Risotto just spends hours watching his hamster walk around the room, eating little treats, and staring at Risotto with its beady eyes. It's gotten to the point where you can't walk into Risotto's office without noticing a lone sunflower seed or piece of bedding on the ground that Risotto didn't notice until you pointed it out. Every time Ace passes from old age, Risotto buys a new Syrian hamster and calls that one Ace. He hasn't kept track of how many hamsters that came and went so far, but treated every one of them as if they were the first Ace. He takes pictures of Ace doing the most relatively boring things and will share them with his members.

Illuso got a Sulphur-crested cockatoo named Scapino as a joke. He thought they didn’t require much attention but later felt bad when he found out that they need specific proper care. He proceeds to care for it as if it was his child. Illuso taught his bird how to speak and swear at people, specifically swearing at Formaggio and occasionally at Ghiaccio. This man will shower his bird with the best treats (expensive nuts, dried fruit, chicken bones) and has a special bar for it to perch on when they're in the shower together. This bird has free reign all over Illuso's place and wears a little anklet thing to verify that it has an owner should it escape. The two of them have spa days together and it’s one of the most wholesome things in the world to witness. Scapino will actually join Illuso on missions too, staying in the mirror world the whole time, and it provides him some comfort from his social anxiety. Sometimes Scapino sits on his shoulder as he walks. Illuso trained it to stay and hide in the mirror world so that it wouldn’t fly away or blow his cover when he’s working. But the bird will fly around in there and will watch anyone that’s getting murked in front of him with no remorse and commenting on it too. Imagine you’re dying in the mirror world and your last moment is this fucking bird looming over you going “night night, motherfucker”. JESUS CHRIST. 

Prosciutto used to be on the whole “pets are unnecessary” train but he had considered looking at breeders for the best quality dog. And then one rainy day he found an abandoned Portuguese Water Dog puppy in an alleyway and at Pesci’s insistence took it in. Turns out the puppy was bought by a rich family for their kid but then abandoned when the kid wasn't interested in it anymore. Prosciutto insisted that the dog was going to stay for one night and then sent to the pound first thing in the morning. It's been years now and the little dog is now a big fluffy good boy named Pon Pon. The second biggest chunk of Prosciutto's paycheck is for this dog; I'm talking grooming services with paw-ticures, an all-organic raw diet, the nicest beds that even a human would wish they can sleep on. Pon Pon is properly trained with all the basics and tricks, because Prosciutto doesn't want to deal with a misbehaving dog, but it will use puppy eyes against the old man now and then. He give you the best smiles if you call him a good boy and if you glance at the right time you can see Prosciutto smile for a brief moment. Had he lived longer, he would have made Pon Pon famous on Facebook like Boo the Dog. Prosciutto will also not admit that this dog has helped him get laid a few times, because every person he did bring home always got a kick out of Pon Pon.

Ghiaccio has a pet snake- an albino ball python named Bianco. Ghiaccio was also on the “pets are unnecessary” train too but mainly because he can't stand loud pets (i.e. Illuso and Sorbet and Gelato’s pets). When Risotto suggested he get a snake, Ghiaccio looked into it, researching and meticulously setting up the proper enclosure  and found himself going to a local reptile expo to find Bianco for sale. He’s fascinated by his snake to say the least, and would use leftover containers or Tupperware for Bianco to spend more money on proper equipment or food. Ghiaccio is really involved in online reptile forums and frequently debates with people on topics such as the best substrates to use, whether live rodents are better than frozen, ethics of breeding certain species, etc. He often gets worried when Bianco becomes picky and Ghiaccio would spend sleepless nights trying to get his baby to eat. Ghiaccio would walk around with his ball python wrapped around his neck or lets him slither around in his room under supervision but he mostly leaves him alone in the enclosure. There are times where he would claim he has the best, smartest pet and everyone just rolls their eyes like “yes the white fettuccine that got stuck in a toilet paper roll an hour ago is so smart”. But they let him rant about it. It’s kind of cute to say the least.

Pesci is the definition of people whose entire LIVELIHOOD is making his room into an aquarium. His room is full of strictly maintained, cleaned, and decorated tanks full of various types of aquatic animals. I’m talking Dwarf Puffers (Antonio, Portia, Jessica, Bassiano, and Solanio), Albino Gold Axolotls (Moe, Larry, and Curly), Red Ear Sliders (Franco and Ciccio), Clown Fishes (Browser, Mario, Toadstool, and Koopa), Brazilian Sea Horses (Tom and Jerry), a Blue Betta Fish named Valentina in a 30+ gallon aquaponics tank that grows a variety of plants each season- to name a few. He rebuilt his entire room to keep everything running and even had Melone help him set up timers for lighting and temperature control. Pesci will cry if you somehow made the pH level off by 1 or did not care for his animals properly when he’s away. He’ll even lecture you about bad tank setup. He's a prominent member of the aquarium  community in Italy and will regularly redecorate each tank to suit the year and mood. This is where he’s spending his cut on the 20 million lira job: caring for his mini aquarium room. He occasionally gives away his pets’ offsprings for extra money (he doesn’t breed but sometimes he ends up having a ton of baby animals he can’t take care of) and would have been a YouTuber for his fish content. Now that I think about it, Pesci reminds me of my mutual @nexter2nd. Please go follow them.

Melone has a Holland Lop bunny and you cannot change my mind. He actually had a pet bunny growing up, another Holland Lop named Echo and Grep, and his current one is named Sudo; all three are named after UNIX commands. He has a large dog crate he diy-ed to be a roomy enclosure in his room for her that he cleans frequently but also allows Sudo free reign of the room when she wants to go out. Because of his job, he makes sure all his wires are covered so his bunny isn't tempted to chew them and watches his bunny diligently whenever she roams around. Easter time is when the denim jacket, pastel bows, and flower crowns come out and Melone makes sure to take a lot of photos. He also housetrained his bunny and taught her a few tricks, similar to how he trained Echo and Grep years ago. Sudo is spoiled in terms of getting a lot of pets, new toys, and feasts on the finest veggies and delicious hay. Melone also makes sure the first thing he teaches his Juniors is to not harm the bunny. Surprisingly, he's against breeding Sudo and has her neutered. This is mainly because he doesn't have the time to breed and raise more bunnies but also he hates the idea of selling the grown bunnies off afterward. 

You know that Formaggio has a cat: the little Russian Blue cat named Sweetie Baby. Sweetie Baby was a kitten that he found outside his home. The little thing was the sole survivor of its litter and nearly starving to death, so he took her in thinking he will bring her to the shelter when she recovers; that cat now lets him live in HER apartment rent-free. Despite feeding her cheap dry food and constantly shoving her into bottles, he treats her like a queen otherwise. He will dress her up in little outfits (much to her annoyance) and often would be too aggressively affectionate towards her. Still, there are moments where she would cuddle with him during the later nights and allow him to put on one iced-out bow he just spent a quarter of his paycheck on. Walking to his apartment and even the backdoor of La Squadra’s HQ means carefully walking through the stray cats mewling at your feet, because Formaggio will feed any cat he sees. Initially, Risotto wanted the cats gone, but then he finds out the cats doubled as security when he watched some robber attempting to break in but getting their eyes scratched off instead.

[lunammoon]

The Problem With Hetalia (As told by someone who actually in the fandom until like, 2016)

I'm hoping this post will explain to people who are still into Hetalia why a lot of people have an issue with from the perspective of someone who knows a lot about the show. 

TL;DR: By making the WW2 axis powers come across as a lovable idiot, his serious friend, and the stoic voice of reason, it downplays the serious nature of what the Axis did and seeing as the real-life Axis harmed real-life people, many people have a justifiable huge issue with this. 

I will go more into depth about this under the cut.

A lot of people are talking about how Hetalia is coming back after 5 years and a lot of people are rightfully annoyed at the show. But what I'm seeing is that a lot of the people who are upset are people who clearly haven't watched the show and therefore are unable to explain to people who have watched it why it’s bad. The most that you hear is:

"it glorifies the Axis Powers" (which isn't 100% accurate although the assessment that they are portrayed in a way that makes them seem less bad is accurate) 

"Hetalia Cosplayers wore Nazi uniforms in front of a Holocaust memorial" (which I'd say is more of an issue with fans than the show). 

That is not to say that there isn't an issue with the show, because there really is. But these observations are unlikely to mean much to someone who watches Hetalia. So, in this thread, I'm going to explain why Hetalia is Problematic with the added context perspective of someone who was into the show during most of middle school and until Freshman year of high school. 

I knew the human names, used to jam to "Always With You" and "Pub and Go" and “It’ll Settle Itself Somehow” and “Light my Heart” and “Absolute British Gentleman” and “Mein Gott” and “World Rondo” and “Excuse Me, I’m Sorry” and so, so many more. 

I lost my shit with everyone else when the season 6 ep dropped and Italy danced like he was possessed by a demon. When I hear “ACE” family, I don’t think of Youtubers. I actually took a side on the FruUK vs UsUk debate and if you look in my archive, you can probably find some Hetalia posts that I’m too lazy to delete.

The point here being, I’ve actually seen the show so I know what I’m talking about. This isn’t an outsiders perspective is what I’m saying.

So, let’s get right into it. While technically only seasons 1-2 are officially actually called "Axis Powers" (Seasons 3-4 are called "World Series" Season 5 is "Beautiful World" and Season 6 is called "World Twinkle") WW2 and things relating to the Axis Powers are an important part of every season and appear prominently.

While Hetalia has covered many things from all different time periods, the two most common periods covered are the modern-day and of course, the second World War. The show is Japanese and (I assume) because Japan was on the Axis side, these portions focus more on the Axis Powers of Italy, Japan, and Germany. The Allies do come into play. And while the Allies aren't directly like, evil, which would've been FAR WORSE they've got a kind of Team Rocket-esque thing going on? They're not exactly mustache-twirling villains but they're clear antagonists. Make no mistakes.

I think the deserted Island arc is the best example of the problems many people have with the show.

Take for example, that beach fight. If you've watched Hetalia, you'll know the one I'm talking about. The one that they reused like, 50 times. The Allies are clearly shown as the antagonists/aggressors while the Axis are literally just vibing on a (kinda) deserted island and defending themselves. 

Now, if this was three dudes chilling on the beach and they suddenly got attacked by another five dudes also on the beach who they then fought off until the five attackers ran away that’s be one thing.

The issue is that this is supposed to be a representation of WW2. It's basically saying "oh, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy were literally just vibing, not bothering anyone when suddenly, the Allies attacked for no reason. Luckily, they (the Allies) retreated because the Allies are Cowardly but they keep coming back and bothering them,". Do you see the issue there? Most of the beach arc seems to be the writer forgetting that these are supposed to be Nations, not a random Italian dude, a German dude, and a Japanese dude.

“Oh, but they don’t glorify Nazi Germany. They don’t really even talk about what Germany was doing! Look at this pic of Germany in a lab coat holding a dandelion :)“

That’s not the defense that you think it is and it’s actually a main part of the issue that I, and many other people have with Hetalia.

I think the scene where this issue is the most obvious is the one where they are gathering around a campfire and talking and one of them comes up with the name "the Axis". The whole scene has the same energy characters in a moe anime coming up with a band name.

They’re sitting on a beach at night. I think there might’ve been a campfire, the stars are out, and the three of them talk about their dream of making a world that revolved around them. One of them comes up with the name “the axis” and then they all talk about how you would translate "axis" in their language. It’s all very found family-esque. The way the scene is framed is to encourage you to route for them to reach their goal. It’s the same kind of tone you’d see in a shoujo with a girl telling her friends about how she wants to win the singing competition no matter what or in Sword Art Online when Kirito talks about saving Asuna.

The issue is that their goal isn’t to win some competition or to save someone they care about. It’s to spread facism, imperialism, and bring about genocide.

There of course don’t SAY that that’s their goal, and outside of a one off line in the English dub that’s been since censored, they don’t really bring up what Germany was up to during WW2 vis-a-vie the Holocaust and if they did bring it up, I either wasn’t paying attention, it was in the manga, or it was in one of Germany’s character songs.

The issue is that during WW2 the show seems to at best forget and at worst, gloss over it that the main trio that they're focusing on are the villains. And not like, fantasy villains. Actual real-life villains that hurt real people in the real world. Imagine if instead of Ludwig Beilschmidt and Feliciano Vargas, it was Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. 

Are you seeing the problem yet?

I get why people like to watch the show. Ignoring the WW2 bits, it’s actually pretty good. I, as an American, really like Alfred F. Jones and the way he’s portrayed.

If Hetalia had stuck to non-WW2 related things such as that episode where the nations all talk about how horror movies differ in their nations, or they talked about their Christmas traditions. Or the ones where America and Japan are roommates. Or when they showed that time when America airdropped XL condoms on Russia labeling them as "small" for intimidation reasons. Or that series of episodes where they talked about Micronations. Or that time they all had to come together to fight aliens. Or the bit where they talked about the WW1 Christmas Armistice. Then it would be fine.

The issue is that they didn’t.

If they kept WW2 stuff for SOME reason. They had two options. 

Make the axis as proper villains

 Be explicit in showing that the nations will doesn't reflect what their leader wants. 

The first option wouldn’t be ideal if they wanted to cover any time period other than World War 2. The axis would be too unlikable and I doubt that an anime where Japan is the villain would appeal much to Japanese audiences.

But what about the second option. Have a bit where Ludwig is passing out White Rose pamphlets or smuggling people to safety.

Have Kiku (Japan for people who don’t watch Hetalia) purposefully looking the other way as Sugihara writes visas to get people to safety and covering for him against his boss. SOMETHING!

But instead of doing either of those, they took the bad third option which was, their choice to instead make the axis seem like likable individuals who are a group of three good friends who work together will in contrast with the “bumbling Allies” who are barely cohesive and constantly fight and argue. At best, makes it seem like both sides had a point and at worst, makes it seem like the Axis was a better than the Allies.

All of this is to say that liking Hetalia does not make you inherently a bad person, but you need to be more critical of what you watch and understand that there is a reason that some people have a genuine issue with it and they have a very good reason for that. You can still watch it the show, but do keep this information in the back of your brain as you do

[liquidstar]

I'd love to hear some of your recommendations! And I'm good without any content warnings, but since you're posting this for all your followers to see probably best to add them

Alright sure! I’ll be general then and since you’re just starting out this will sort of be bringing up a lot of really popular ones, the really good ones where the general consensus is “you gotta see this!”, but I’ll also try to give ones from different genres so you have a variety of things to pick from, so this isn’t really a list of personal favorites but I’ll throw in a couple of those too lol, but generally think of this as a handy beginners guide with just a little personal bias.

I wrote a lot so I'm gonna put them under the cut here.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist is a franchise that’s considered a must-watch, it takes place in a world where alchemy is a borderline magical power, but is considered scientific in-universe and follows scientific laws, namely the law of equivalent exchange. Something can’t be made from nothing, to gain something of equal value must be lost. The story follows the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who at the ages of 10 and 11 committed alchemy’s one and only unforgivable sin, human transmutation, in an attempt to bring their mother back to life. As a result, one brother lost his arm and leg and the other lost his entire body, leaving his soul bound to a suit of armor. However the brothers are resolute to regain their original bodies, and the older brother, Edward, joins the State Alchemists, a branch of the military, to try to gain access to research materials to help them achieve their goal. But was that really such a good idea?

Fullmetal Alchemist can be a bit confusing to get into due to the fact that there are two series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009). The latter is a reboot with a different story that follows the original manga. They both have the same beginning, but diverge paths and tell very different stories. My recommendation for how to watch this show is: Watch 2003 first, and Brotherhood second. Everyone has a different opinion about which is better, but everyone agrees that 2003 has better backstory but a contrived ending, and Brotherhood has a rushed beginning (Because it works off the assumption that you’ve seen 2003) with a great and fulfilling ending. If you can’t do both I say just watch Brotherhood because it will leave you more satisfied and you don’t have to watch 03 to get into it.

For both series the biggest trigger warnings are: Parental death, child death, pet death, war, genocide, dismemberment, religious themes, and miscarriage. For brotherhood specifically: on-screen suicide, and for 2003 specifically: rape (not on-screen) and pregnancy from it. The 2003 series is also a lot darker than Brotherhood which has a more optimistic tone, so that’s worth noting too.

Soul Eater

A show I think is incredibly fun, and a good one for an October watch if you wanna save it. It takes place in a world where certain people have the ability to transform into weapons, and they team up with other people who become their meisters. The characters often travel around, but the main setting is Death City, a fictional city in Nevada based off of Las Vegas but with a huge Halloweentown vibe, and a school right at the top of it called the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) where a bunch of kids that turn into weapons learn how to hunt down witches and kishins (Beings that consume human souls). The school, of course, is run by the grim reaper, Lord Death himself.

Our main characters for the series are a group of 7 students. Our protagonist Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul “Eater” Evans, a scythe. A loud mouth assassin named Black✰Star and his weapon partner Tsubaki, who has many weapon forms. And the son of the grim reaper, Death The Kid, and his two weapon partners Liz and Patty Thompson, who are twin pistols. There are also a bunch of really lively colorful background characters and antagonists, and the cast of the show being as insane as it is really makes it, on top of the great atmosphere and of course the plot, which just builds more and more as the series progresses. Also Crona is there and we all love Crona.

Trigger warnings for this show include: Child abuse (Mental and physical), manipulation, snakes and spiders (The motifs of two major villains), some very surreal moments that can verge on unreality. Also, in the dub and most subs: misgendering of a canonically trans character. Crona is a character who is non-binary, but the dub and subs use gendered pronouns for them due to general ignorance about neutral pronouns in 2008, though this isn’t the fault of the original series and falls on the translators hands.

Also it’s important to note: that the first 3 episodes are prologues and they take themselves less seriously, there’s more fanservice in them than there is in the rest of the series (Except for Blair she stays the fanservice character :pensive:)

Zombieland Saga

Idol anime is really prevalent as a genre, the most popular being Love Live, but my personal favorite is Zombieland Saga. It’s an idol anime, but it’s also a comedy about zombie girls who become idols. It sounds ridiculous but there’s an insane amount of heart in it regardless, it wasn’t a show I expected to get emotional at but I did! It also made me laugh a lot too. The series itself can serve as a bit of a subversion on what idols are, not just because they’re literally zombies, but because of who the characters are.

Sakura Minamoto is a character who starts off as a more typical idol, a peppy pure girl, as the series continues her struggle with depression gets highlighted. Saki Nikaido serves as her initial foil, a delinquent girl with a criminal record who subvers the idea of pure perfect idols. Ai Mizuno, a former idol who has since undergone severe trauma (The way she died). Junko Konno who has ideals that seem very different on what idols “should” be due to the time period she died. Lily Hoshikawa, an explicitly transgender idol. Yugiri nolastname, a former high ranking courtesan, subvering the pure image of an idol by being a sex worker. And Tae Yamada, a completely nonverbal idol who’s still treated with the same amount of importance as the rest of the team. The premise here really is just that these girls don’t fit the incredibly rigid mold of what idols should be and yet they still all deserve love and they gain a fanbase by being their earnest selves.

Trigger warnings for this series aren’t incredibly severe but since they’re zombies there’s still talks about death and they way they died (Including motorcycle/car accidents, plane crashes, getting struck by lightning, and a heart attack), there’s also comedic dismemberment, as in their arms just sort of pop on and off and stuff like that. The most notable thing is the deadnaming of Lily, the trans idol, by her father, but it doesn’t appear to be malicious in any way.

Note: this series is in the middle of it’s second season right now, if you want to wait until it’s over it should be 12 episodes long and just aired it’s 3rd, so about 9 more weeks.

Death Note

This is also absolutely another series that gets recommended to people right off the bat, and for good reason, this show is an intricate game of chess between a serial killer and a detective trying to catch him, and it’s incredibly easy to get super invested in the suspense of what happens next. The story begins when a shinigami, a god of death, drops his “Death Note” into the human world out of pure boredom. A Death Note is simply a notebook where if you write someone's name in it… They die! And who better to pick up such a powerful object than Light Yagami, a prodigy praised for his genius and academy accomplishments as well as his charm and popularity, and with a very strong but juvenile black-and-white sense of justice, likely due to being raised by a cop.

So naturally Light begins his power trip as soon as he finds the notebook, he intends to “fix” the world by cleansing it of all the bad people, but truly he intends to become the world’s new god. Or the “God of the new world” as he puts it. But there’s one thing standing in his way, a detective resolute on catching him with the codename L. The series entire crux is a game of cat and mouse between these two, as they try to outsmart each other and the murders continue, Light loses more and more of his humanity, L becomes more resolute on catching him. There are more twists and turns than a cheetah race, and it’s honestly pretty addictive to see what happens next.

Trigger warnings here obviously include a lot of death and murder, including suicide, but in some cases it’s a forced suicide at Light’s hands. Also abuse, as Light loses his humanity he isn’t above manipulating and discarding people who love him. And one instance of near-rape on screen fairly early on, but the purpitrator dies before it happens and the victim escapes.

K-On!

Slice-of-life is an incredibly popular genre, and K-On! is the quintessential example of it. It’s a series that not everyone will like, because not a lot truly happens, and it can be overly saccharine or “moe” for a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I personally think that despite not a lot happening, the story has genuine substance, more than you may gather at first glance. It’s true that not much in the way of big plot really happens, it’s mostly life events, that’s why it's a slice-of-life. But it’s not about nothing. The real theme of the show is the fleeting nature of youth. It’s about how important the friendships you form at that time are, how they’ll stick with you for a lifetime, and how everything comes to an end. It’s sweetness even becomes a little bittersweet because you knew their after school tea time would end come graduation, and as they realize this it breaks their hearts a little, but they continue on, because they’re still After School Tea Time!

The series itself is simply about 5 girls in a band, Yui Hirasawa on lead guitar, Mio Akiyama on the bass, Ritsu Tainaka on the Drums, Tsumugi Kotobuki on the Keyboard, and Azusa Nakano on Rhythm Guitar (Who shows up later). They’re in a club at school called the light music club where they waste a lot of their time just drinking tea and eating cake, but they’re having fun and that’s what counts! The series has a lot of really great direction and expressive animation despite the fact that a lot of it is just sitting around and talking, it’s incredibly visually interesting so you don’t get bored.

I honestly don’t think there are any big trigger warnings I can give for this series, maybe that Sawa-chan can be a little too forceful when she wants to dress up the girls in cute outfits sometimes but it’s usually not presented as too creepy especially after season 1 where they tone it down due to straying from the manga.

Mob Psycho 100

This series is an absolute love letter to the art of animation as a whole, the artstyle itself may not seem like much to look at but the animation is some of the most expressive, fluid, creative, and vibrant out there right now, it’s the type of series that you can tell was made with a real passion for its medium and it’s story. It’s protagonist is Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed “Mob”, a term that literally means “Background character”. Mob is a middle school kid and an incredibly powerful psychic, like, insanely overpowered, but he’s currently working part time for a shady conman, Reigen Arataka. Though it may seem as if Reigen is just using Mob for his powers, their bond is actually a very sweet one and you can tell they care for each other, it’s a very important one at the heart of the series.

The core themes of the series itself are what really make it shine, it’s message is stated as clearly as possible in the opening songs, “your life is your own” and “if everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”. Put simply, you’re the protagonist of your own life, but the other important message of the series is that all the supposed background characters are just as important. The friends you make, the connections you have with other people and the way they impact you, they’re what make you strong. No one is born special, everyone is just a normal person, and everyone deserves kindness. It’s a series that I recommend incredibly strongly for just how powerfully it portrays this message.

Trigger warnings for this series include kidnapping, possession, a scene with a “man in a dress” joke, and a racist design for a background character. Also (spoilers) a scene where it seems like a child was murdered and a scene where it seems like Mob’s entire family was murdered.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War!

Hey, speaking of amazing animation, Kaguya-Sama is a romantic comedy series centered around the premise of two incredibly arrogant people falling in love. Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are the vice president and president of the student council at the prestigious Shuchi'in Academy, they eventually develop feelings for each other but they’re both simultaneously too proud and too insecure to admit it, so the real crux of the series is the 3D chess they play with each other to try and get the other to confess first. Along with the scatterbrained secretary, Chika Fujiawara, the treasurer in desperate need of Prozac Yu Ishigami, the cast is incredibly fun and they all fit into the comedy great. Every single little game of “do you like me?” that they play is written like the most intense thing in the world, the insane animation absolutely adds to it, making it seem almost like a psychological thriller, the comedy comes from the absurdity of just how much they hyperbolize it.

It’s not pure comedy though, due to a lot of the series being set up around mindgames, the characters are actually fairly psychologically complex with a lot of genuine development stemming from their childhood to explain why they are the way they are. The series may be about mindgames, but the actual narrative frames them as a juvenile way to go about relationships, a way to try to protect yourself from getting hurt because you’re afraid to trust. The entire core theme is that communication in relationships of any kind is the most important thing and you cant replace it with clever little tricks, so the main pair only ever make actual progress when they’re actually upfront with each other. Even if it’s scary to be that vulnerable with someone, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past like they have, the relationships you build off of mutual trust and openness will be worth the risk, and they can help heal you. And one of the things I love about the series is that this doesn’t just apply to the main pair, but it places equal emphasis on the importance of friendship. All the characters' relationships with each other are unique and interesting and they all develop the same way, with trust and openness, and they become better because of each other.

Despite being generally a comedy, a lot of the characters deal with some really heavy things too so trigger warning for: child abuse (not on-screen), child abandonment (again not on screen), anxiety and panic attacks, suicidal ideation- initionally played off as a joke but it becomes very obvious the character in question is legitimately suicidal and in the manga he nearly attempts it but is stopped, this plotpoint will most likely be in the anime at some point as it’s also not complete.

Your Lie In April

Alright I gave you a funny show now I’m going to make you cry. In fact it’s hard for me to type this synopsis because I’m an absolute crybaby and thinking about this show gets me, but I think it’s absolutely worth checking out because it’s a very beautiful sadness. Your Lie In April is a series that follows the stress and trauma young musical prodigies face in their lives, as well as the people around them, and it’s a series about the beauty of music and art, and just how much it affects people. The music in the show is absolutely gorgeous, the way that they convey emotion through it is so beautiful and intricate that it just sticks with you. You feel the music, and you understand.

I’m actually going to give the trigger warnings right now instead of at the end because in order to explain the plot I’ll have to talk about them so tw for: Child abuse (phsyical and mental, on-screen), terminal illness, death, in depth depictions of PTSD, vomiting, panic attacks, the works.

The series follows Kousei Arima, a formal piano prodigy who hasn’t performed since the death of his mother two years ago. Kousei's mother was terminally ill, but she was also incredibly abusive. Kousei has incredibly complex feelings about his mother because of this. The trauma she instilled in him is severe, but because he was a child, he still is a child, and he loved his mom a lot, as any child would, and he didn’t want her to die and he blames himself for not being good enough. He wanted to make her happy, and the only way he knew how to do that was to play the piano. So he played and played and practiced until he was perfect, they called him the human metronome. But he would still get severely punished for being anything less than perfect. He had lost all the passion he once had, and after his mother died it was the final nail in the coffin, his trauma manifests now in a way that makes him unable to play. But all that changes one day in April when he meets a violinist named Kaori Miyazono, a girl full of life and passion for music, she’s someone who according to Kousei “Exists in springtime.” and she’s going to help him play again and refined that love for music whether he wants to or not! Teen drama happens of course, but there are much bigger roadblocks ahead.

Assassination Classroom

This series is thankfully generally more lighthearted… Most of the time at least. The premise is pretty simple, but incredibly ridiculous. An incredibly powerful octopus-like creature is the teacher of a classroom of middle school students tasked with the assignment of assassinating him in order to save the world. The series starts off very slice-of-life as it focuses on introducing the very large cast of characters inside of Class E, also known as the “end class”, but it quickly gains traction and gets a lot more intense as time goes on.

The octopus creature in question, Korosensei, is actually a very kind and genuinely good teacher to all his students. The real crux of the series is that it’s sort of a critique on the educational system, the students in the end class are there because they’ve been ostracized from the rest of the campus, far away in the mountains, to be made examples of. Why? Because they’re students that are considered worthless, instead of getting help they’re only pushed back further down in the system and left to struggle within it fruitlessly. They’re given up on, despite being children with so much potential, because they don’t fit a very rigid mold. That’s what Korosensei wants to help them with, and they’re able to grow as people together. As the series progresses you feel such a great sense of unity for the class, they’re like a family, they stick together and it’s very heartwarming. And watching them work as a team of assassins is so fun!

However the series can get heavy at times too, it doesn’t stray from heavier subject matter at all and i found myself incredibly shocked by it a few times, so trigger warning for: Child abuse (on-screen and off), both at the hands of a parent and a teacher and in one case a parent who is also the principal, misgendering of a character, sometimes as a “joke” but other times played dead serious at the hands of his mother, child death- specifically suicide, a successful one as well as 3 assassination attempts that doubled as suicide attempts by the main 3 characters (weird parallel they all got there huh)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Honestly this is a series that is good to go in blind for if you need to tws, it’s a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but if you don’t want to know more than that you can stop reading here. If you want to know more, it’s a series that starts off very light-hearted and in tune with typical magical girl conventions at first, however by episode 3 it’s made painfully clear that these girls are being led to sign up into something they shouldn’t. It’s heavy, though not incredibly so, but it’s also a lot to explain in a summary. Madoka magica is… It’s Faust with magical girls.

I’ll explain as much as I can without giving too much away. The story begins when Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a creature who calls itself Kyubey, who says it can grant a wish of theirs and in exchange they have to become magical girls and fight witches. Both the girls are hesitant, but Sayaka wants to wish for her childhood friend’s injuries to be cured so he can play violin again, while Madoka is content as she is and can’t think of a wish. Luckily they have a mentor, a magical girl named Mami Tomoe who helps introduce them to everything. However something is stopping Madoka from becoming a magical girl, a mysterious new student who is also one herself, Homura Akemi, is resolute on keeping Madoka from becoming a magical girl by all means possible, for reasons Madoka doesn’t understand. Things get even more complicated when a rival magical girl shows up, Kyoko Sakura, who becomes Sayaka’s new rival. As things get more heated between those two they discover a terrible secret about the nature of magical girls, and what they truly signed up for.

Spoilers ahead but trigger warning for: Child death, parental death (backstory only), decapitation (off-screen), needles, incredibly surreal imagery inside the witch’s labyrinths that may feel unreal, mind control, suicide, depression and despair expressed by young characters. Also don't bother with Magia Record

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Alright something lighthearted now, there are a lot of comedy anime I enjoy, a lot of series that have made me laugh, but none has made me bust a gut like this series has, it’s absolutely hilarious. It follows the life of a boy named Saiki Kusuo who has psychic powers. His powers are incredibly overpowered, and he absolutely hates them, in his eyes they cause him nothing but trouble. There’s not much in the way of a plot to describe, because there isn’t any, the series is comprised of 5 minute segments surrounding Saiki and an incredibly vast and colorful cast of characters that are just all completely insane, many serve as parodies as types of anime tropes because the series as a whole is very self aware and doesn’t shy from breaking the fourth wall a lot, but the characters surrounding Saiki are what make his life… Disastrous.

Like I said there’s not really a plot to describe but like FMA people may get confused with this one, there are 3 seasons but one of them is titled “The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K: Reawakened” as is a continuation of the first two with just 6 episodes in it. Also for some reason only the second season isn’t dubbed so if you’re planning on watching it that way you’d have to either stop or switch to subs for season 2

The only major tw I can give here is an ongoing joke about a character being into his sister, he’s treated as disgusting for it of course because he’s a parody of that trope but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable, luckily he doesn’t show up much.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is a series I personally just adore, it takes place in a world where witches are common and well-known among the people, but the era of witches is over and magic is dying out. However that doesn’t mean passion of magic doesn’t exist, the protagonist is a young girl named Atsuko Kagari, or Akko for short. She’s resolute on being just like her icon, a witch known as Shiny Chariot, as she attends the same magic school: Luna Nova! Unfortunately Akko isn’t exactly a magical prodigy, in fact she can’t even fly a broom, but that’s not gonna stop her, nothing will. Just like Chariot said, believing in yourself is your magic.

Once at school Akko gets into all types of crazy shenanigans with her with her two roommates, Lotte Yanson and Sucy Manbavaran, and occasionally her rival, Diana Cavendish. Akko still struggles a lot in school, in fact her inability with magic is pretty explicitly handled as a metaphor for a learning disability, and though this makes it harder for her she’s still resolute. Though the series is generally episodic, a concrete plot starts to form by the second core. Along with the help of her guidance counselor, Professor Ursula, Akko learns that she needs to unlock 7 “words” to bring magic back to the world, each time she learns a new one it comes with an important lesson to her and ultimately relates back to each of the core themes of the series

The series is pretty lighthearted so the biggest trigger warning I can give is one for bullying, two characters in particular tend to target Akko for not being a good witch and it can really sting to watch. Other than that none come to mind

[translationandbetrayals]

Junnosuke Miyamoto and the Evil Line of Music Production

What’s the role of a producer? The answer to this question might depend on the field we’re approaching or the scope of the work itself, but for the purpose of anime analysis, as in most forms of artistic media, we could broadly say a producer is the person in charge of making the connections and agreements required to keep a project ongoing. At first glance, the job of producer might not seem like the most interesting or creative role in artistic production, but I have a counterargument in the form of a name: Junnosuke Miyamoto. Never heard of him? Let’s see what the deal is with this man.

The cute Miyamoto

Junnosuke Miyamoto’s longtime relationship with anime production started in 2007, when he was working as an employee for the now defunct Starchild. Starchild was a sub label of the music firm King Records, one of the biggest in Japan. It was specifically made to produce anime and its soundtracks, contemplating both scores and associated music (such as OPs, EDs, insert songs, and even promotional or image songs). Though merely starting as an assistant producer, Miyamoto quickly rose in importance within Starchild, becoming one of the head producers until 2014, year in which he became head of the newly founded Evil Line Records sub label, another subdivision of King Records that we’ll address later.

During that time, Miyamoto cultivated a sort of authorship or artistic character, as the work he produced shared certain characteristics and differentiated itself from most of the anime music of those years. The truth is, Junnosuke Miyamoto brought total weirdos to the anime sphere, artists who nobody would’ve thought to pair with that market, and formed partnerships that not only brought a breath of fresh air to the scene, but matched perfectly the kind of works Starchild was producing. It was an era of experimentation within the anime industry, and anime music was getting a bit behind. Miyamoto broke that comfort zone.

We might start reviewing what was the first anime Miyamoto worked on. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, in which Miyamoto was assistant producer, is one of the first (of many) Shaft masterpieces, and the first example of the prolific relationship Miyamoto would have with the studio, followed by almost every collaboration between Starchild and Shaft until their partnership was dropped (we don’t know the details, but perhaps it was due to the success of Madoka and Monogatari Series, both produced by Sony’s Aniplex).

Zetsubou Sensei is relevant to Miyamoto’s career for a number of reasons. Namely, it was one of the first contacts made in anime between artists that would later become staples of Starchild and even Miyamoto’s own Evil Line. The first OP of the series, Hito Toshite Jiku ga Bureteiru, is easily one of the most memorable OPs in anime history to this date, both in its intriguing visuals directed by Shaft’s Tatsuya Oishi and the crazy song that accompanied them. Sung by an unexpected combination, the unit was composed by the already legendary rock and metal singer Kenji Ohtsuki, best known by his classic band Kinniku Shoujo Tai or King-Show, but also famous on his own; in addition to the female seiyuu of the series.

Bure bure bure bure

But this mixture of moe vocals and metal vocals wasn’t casual, as it had a precedent in one of the players at hand. Narasaki, composer and arranger of the song, was already known in the alternative music scene through his band Coaltar of the Deepers, which mixed shoegaze, metal, punk, electronic, and pop influences, often alternating between harsh and soft vocals. They were backed by Tokusatsu, a band formed by Ohtsuki (in vocals) and Narasaki (in guitar), as well as Arimatsu as drummer and King-Show’s Satoshi Mishiba as keyboardist. Tokusatsu would later become part of the Evil Line Records repertoire, and while this is outside the anime sphere, Miyamoto also produced the film Nuigulumar Z, based on a novel written by Ohtsuki and musicalized by Tokusatsu. And the title might also be related to a fixation with the letter Z in Miyamoto that we’ll discuss later.

Miyamoto would continue to work as an assistant producer in the 2nd season of Zetsubou Sensei, and, finally, in 2009, he was assigned main production roles for the 3rd season of the series. Both featured Kenji Ohtsuki and the Zetsubou girls with the Tokusatsu backing band as well, with the theme of the last season being Ringo Mogire Beam, a now classic OP. He repeated his role as a producer in 2011 for Katte ni Kaizou, another Shaft adaptation of Koji Kumeta, the author of Zetsubou Sensei. The OP, surprising nobody, was done by Tokusatsu, but this time it also featured the legendary anison singer Ichiro Mizuki, also known as Aniki (big bro). Mizuki sang many classic anime and tokusatsu OPs, including the original Mazinger Z theme. In that way, Miyamoto brought the nerdy spirits of Tokusatsu, Mizuki, Kumeta, and Shaft together. The OP animation, just like anything from Kumeta, is full of references to anime and tokusatsu, and the song even has a choir of children that’s reminiscent of the themes from the ‘70s and ‘60s.

It’s even cooler with Aniki

Other important works by Miyamoto during that era include Toradora, in which he directly worked as music manager, and A&R director (artists and repertoire, a job which mostly contemplates scouting and guidance of the artists). Toradora is characteristic for being the first show to be scored by Yukari Hashimoto, who would go on to have an amazing and prolific career in anime, including two works produced by Miyamoto. Hashimoto was already known as a composer and arranger of anime themes, such as the EDs for Shaft’s Tsukuyomi Moon Phase and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, but this brought her career to a different level, proving she was more than capable of handling an entire score by herself.

Toradora also features what are, in my (not so) humble opinion, some of the best, most memorable, and emotional themes in all of anime history. All four of the original songs that work as OP and ED for Toradora are each a masterpiece in their own right, so much that it almost feels like cheating to put all of them in the same show. That feeling right there is something you will often get if you check any of the anime Miyamoto produced. The Toradora OPs were composed by the veterans Kaoru Okubo (in the 1st) and Miki Fujisue (in the 2nd), but it’s perhaps the EDs that carry the most power themselves. They were each composed by one of the members of the duo Funta, forerunners of the denpa style, that also had its roots in some of the King-Show music. Take note of that denpa thing because we’ll return to that later. Orange might be my favorite of the 4, and that one was specifically also arranged by Hashimoto. 

So sweet

In 2009, after Toradora ended, Miyamoto moved on to his next project, now consolidated as a lead producer in Starchild. Again in Shaft, it would be Natsu no Arashi!, an adaptation of the manga by Jin Kobayashi, also author of School Rumble. This time, he brought a band that had never been featured in anime before, and wouldn’t appear again either. As a sort of oddity within the anime song records, Omokage Lucky Hole’s Atashi Dake ni Kakete brought the funky fusion style of this alternative band to anime, in a song that while having a retro feel to it also predated the similarly styled Kaguya-sama’s themes by nearly a decade. Now part of this is lost in translation, but OLH is a band that’s characterized by their acid and sometimes vulgar lyrics, so it was quite brave of the production staff to even contact such a band for an anime tie-in, and we probably can thank Miyamoto for that. As a side note, the animation is again flexing the level of culture at Shaft by being entirely composed by references to classic Japanese cover arts. 

This is not casual

Now there’s a link that we will discuss further as we advance through Miyamoto’s work, but it’s relevant to note there was another feature in Arashi’s OP, albeit minor. It’s the voice of Mariko Goto, who sings the chorus and even screams a little at the end of the song. And this right here is a connection that blew my mind, because when I found out about the credits I already knew about Goto. I knew her very well. Starting in the band Usagi, her career took a spike when she formed Midori in 2003. A very eclectic project, Midori fused punk, jazz, and some traces of metal to form a completely unique and original sound that became a success within the alternative scene, even inspiring other female fronted groups to come out with similar styles, such as 385 and Bokutachi no Iru Tokoro. After 7 intense years of playing, Midori disbanded in 2010, not without releasing a farewell album, a bit tamer than their usual style but reaching new levels of subtlety while also being quite emotional. In a way, the style of Shinsekai (their final album) would be an anticipation of the following steps in Mariko’s career: her first solo run. And we’ll let the rest in suspense, as her way would cross with Miyamoto’s again.

The second season of Natsu no Arashi! was also released in 2009, with Miyamoto returning as producer. It was quite the landmark, as that was the first time Etsuko Yakushimaru had a part in anime, performing the OP theme in what would be her debut single as a solo artist, Oyasumi Paradox. For those who don’t know Yakushimaru’s career, she first made a name out of herself as the lead vocalist in the band Soutaiseiriron, an amazing band in its own right, but the scope of her career is much wider: aside from her solo career and her band, she has recorded poetry readings and recitation, presented art installations, and even created her own original instruments, which she sometimes uses in her music. In 2017, her song “I’m Humanity” won the international STARTS Prize for Artistic Exploration between science and technology. It was the first song to be converted to DNA and reproduced through a microorganism, in a complete innovation for recorded media and music history. And it’s a freaking great song as well. I’m nuts for Etsuko and I’m not ashamed to admit my bias here. Since the first time I heard her music I immediately fell in love with her. But while Oyasumi Paradox is a good theme, it wasn’t personally my first.

An I’m Humanity exhibit

That moment would come with a later show, whose music coincidentally (or not) was produced by Miyamoto. I would argue it’s also a turning point in Miyamoto’s career, as it’s placed in between his initial Shaft years and the subsequent Evil Line era. It was also a point of reunion between some of the actors we’ve mentioned so far.

The anime is Mawaru Penguindrum. And I will disclose, it’s my favorite anime, though regardless of any bias I might have, I think the merits of its music speak for themselves. After all, it was precisely through the music of the show that I was initially captivated and brought to the side of the director Kunihiko Ikuhara, now an idol of mine. The score was composed by Yukari Hashimoto, who we already reviewed by her work in Toradora, and it’s here where, to my view, she steps up her act, going from being a good composer to becoming one of the best in the entire anime scene. In fact, her soundtrack in Penguindrum was so fitting that Ikuhara has continued to work with her since, with the scores to the follow ups Yuri Kuma Arashi and Sarazanmai being just as good. Her work in Sangatsu no Lion, one of the Shaft adaptations in the last decade, is also worth noting, even though that title bears no relationship to Miyamoto whatsoever, nor do the rest of Ikuhara works.

This was a one time occasion, but Miyamoto exploited it to the max, helping this become a landmark in anime production. Because the charm of the music wasn’t only on Hashimoto’s. The themes of the series are just as memorable and special, and perhaps even more. The two opening themes are both by Etsuko Yakushimaru, this time under the name of Etsuko Yakushimaru Orchestra. And it’s not an exaggeration, as an actual orchestra was recorded to accompany the magnificent Etsuko vocal performances, which in both OPs, Nornir and Boys, Come Back to Me, are just some of her best. And we can be sure Miyamoto had a hand on that, as he’s even credited in the CD as A&R director for King Records. 

I get chills everytime

The ED, on the other hand, is handled by another character we’ve discussed before, Narasaki from Coaltar of the Deepers, who for the first and only time had his own band perform an anime theme. It was also special for the band, because for a long time it was the only song they released in years. Since their album Yukari Telepath in 2007, the band took a break from publishing with sporadic live shows, until returning in 2018 with their long anticipated Rabbit EP. The Penguindrum ED Dear Future, released in 2011, was the only recording of the band during that time. Just as in the OP single, Miyamoto held the role of A&R in representation of King Records, which specially published the band even though they were then signed to the independent label Music Mine (which has totally cool artists that you should check).

But that was not all of Penguindrum’s music. If you’re anywhere familiar with Ikuhara’s body of work you might be aware that Penguindrum was his first directed series in some time, more than a decade after finishing his latest, Shoujo Kakumei Utena. And one thing that characterized Utena was its music. It combined a traditional score by Shinkichi Mitsumune with fusion pieces of choral music for the duels, which featured a new theme in almost every episode. That part of the soundtrack was composed by J. A. Seazer, a renowned Japanese prog extraordinaire, who was part of the avant-garde and revolutionary counterculture of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and musicalized the films of the influential film and theatre director Shuji Terayama, a marked influence in Ikuhara himself.

So, what would replace the charge of Seazer? The shoes from Ikuhara’s latest work would prove hard to fill, but one solution was found. Perhaps not in such a revolutionary character, but adequate enough for the kind of work Penguindrum presented, and an update to modern styles of music. They resolved to provide cover versions of the rock band ARB, mostly popular during the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. The interesting part is that they would be rearranged by the composer Yukari Hashimoto, and sung by a seiyuu unit. The idea was to create a fictional group within the show, Double H (once being triple), that would sing the themes. 

Himari on her Triple H outfit

Some of them were featured as insert songs, such as the unforgettable Rock Over Japan, that played over the transformation sequences in the Crystal World. But most of the songs were used as additional ED themes, each of them being assigned to a specific episode. This structure mimicked that of the duels in Utena and gave an extra element of engagement while maintaining the EDs fresh, also creating some of the most memorable moments in the show through the juxtaposition within the music and the scenes. I think of episodes such as 10, 15, 20, and 23 with special regard, and this is partly because of the way music is used to enhance them (I know for sure I will never forget the saa omoidashite…).

It has recently been confirmed that Penguindrum will indeed return for a cinematographic project, but it’s unlikely Miyamoto or Evil Line will participate. Ikuhara has stopped working with King Records in his last few projects, and he seems pretty comfortable with the group of people he’s working with since the creation of his own studio Lapin Track. Regardless of what happens, the mark Penguindrum left for both will never be erased. That project was the representation of a perfect time and space synchronicity, and we must be grateful it happened. Of course, here’s hoping for the best for the individual projects of the two of them, who gladly haven’t stopped, and still have lots to offer.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the concept of denpa. I mentioned it earlier in relation to Funta, which was one of the kickstarters of denpa music. However, denpa is more than a music genre. It’s perhaps better described as a social category, such as otaku or weirdo. It refers to the idea of paranoid and schizophrenic people imagining they’re being controlled by electromagnetic waves.

This notion was massified by the precedent of a murderer, Kawamata Gunji, who in 1981 killed 4 random bystanders, injuring many others. In court he claimed he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves during the murders. Curiously, Kinniku Shoujo Tai, the Kenji Ohtsuki band, made songs about the incident, and some assert those are some of the first examples of denpa music. In general, denpa is associated with mental illness, psychosis, a psychedelic state or just plain weird or strange behavior. It’s a word that, just like otaku, might have different connotations depending on who’s using it. During the 2000s, the wave of denpa music acts such as Funta, Under17 or Mosaic.wav associated denpa with otaku subculture, sometimes even separating it from its original psychotic meaning.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, a 2011 light novel adaptation by Shaft, is in the middle of both sides. On one hand, it displays the delusions of a teenage girl who claims that she’s an alien, isolating herself from the external world. On the other hand, it’s also pretty lighthearted, and in the end, the characters learn to integrate themselves to the world around them. It might be better described as a coming of age drama with romance and comedy elements.

The music, however, is pretty crazy, at the very least in its OP (The ED is by Etsuko, representing the softer side of the series and the moe in the protagonist Erio). I think it’s one of the OP songs that really broke the mold of what was supposed to play on television. And this is almost 100% due to the band behind it: Shinsei Kamattechan. Now they are popular worldwide thanks to the Youtube algorithm and their Shingeki no Kyojin themes, but back in 2011 they were still a new band that had just signed with a major label. They found unprecedented success however, and the songs from their debut EP quickly became standards of Japanese rock. It was around this time that they held a double concert with Midori, right in time before the disbandment. There was a serious craze about Kamattechan, very much so that their label, WMG, basically let them do what they wanted, putting out truly noisy and hysterical music to disc. And it worked fantastically. So it just made sense to feature them in anime. The song wasn’t performed by their main vocalist Noko, however, but it did feature the manic band that accompanied and Noko’s crazy compositions, along with his voice as chorus for the vocalist Asuka Ogame, the seiyuu that voices the main protagonist of the series. She sounds pretty crazy to be a professional seiyuu, so the loss of Noko isn’t that sad. Her high pitched voice fits the song and even adds to the feeling of it. For this recording, Miyamoto reprised the role of A&R.

It looks as good as it sounds

What follows might just be the weirdest I’ve encountered in anime music. It’s not bad at all, actually, it’s quite great, but I’m perplexed at how the producers allowed it. Perhaps, it’s due to the nature of the show itself, which ended up alienating a lot of viewers through its rather ugly style. I see it as an artistic choice, but it’s odd nonetheless. Anyway, the series is Aku no Hana, an adaptation of the manga by Shuzo Ozimi that was characterized by using rotoscoping, in a rather disturbing way (probably intentionally so). Miyamoto was again involved in music production, specifically the theme songs. Aku no Hana has four opening themes, all of them being backed by the band Uchuujin, that would become part of the Evil Line label for a brief period of time. They would dissolve in 2014, the same year the label was founded. A special thing about the OP themes is that each featured a different singer. The first one was Noko, the vocalist from Shinsei Kamattechan that we mentioned earlier. The second one was Mariko Goto, and this was significant. We already talked about her Midori career, and teased about her solo career. That career was started at Defstar, a Sony sublabel, but when Evil Line launched, she switched there. She didn’t last long, however, as she took a break from music in 2015 after her lack of success as a solo artist. She has since come back to music, but only through indie and self published imprints.

The third one is Shiho Nanba, a singer for which I honestly don’t know much about, other than the fact that she sang a Fairy Tail ED. She also performed in 18if, an anime project that didn’t have direct participation of Miyamoto, but was produced by Evil Line. The fourth OP was sung by the vocalist of Uchuujin. The Uchuujin songs are pretty original and unique for anime song standards, they might be melodic but there’s a feeling of borderline mania about to crack out, which is a pretty powerful effect. The EDs are much more overtly avant-garde. they’re seriously the most uncommon tracks I’ve heard as an OP or ED. The songs are not completely new, but rather reinterpretations of Hana, a song released in 2001 by the duo of experimental electronics Asa-Chang & Junray. It would be pointless to try to explain the experience of listening to it, it’s something you have to try for yourself. Even if you end up hating you’ll have to recognize the uniqueness of it.

Pretty haunting huh?

Dragon Crisis, released in 2010, is relevant for two reasons. First, the OP, sung by Yui Horie. Horie, a seiyuu and singer, was already a King Records star by the time Dragon Crisis came out. She had performed amazing themes such as the Love Hina Again OP, in my registered opinion even better than the first one, and the first School Rumble OP (remember the Arashi author?). In fact, Horie was one of the voices behind the already praised themes of Toradora, singing by herself the first ED and the second OP, and getting by herself pretty well. But while those songs were good, the Dragon Crisis OP was at another level, perhaps not necessarily in composition but definitely in arrangements and sophistication. It sounds experimental and artistic, even though it’s a commissioned work to tie in a voice actress with a theme song. That sort of innovation is always welcomed, and the explanation to this phenomena would be in the name of the composer: Ryuujin Kiyoshi, aided by King Record’s Go Takahashi.

I didn’t watch this

The authorship of Kiyoshi can be attributed to the fact it was his first participation in anime music, while Takahashi was a veteran and had a different, already established style. But this track was something unheard of even within King Records, which by that time was already somewhat more experimental and daring. And this would be confirmed by following participations of Kiyoshi in anime music, most of them being collaborations with Horie, who became sort of an art pop star through his help. The latest proof of this is in the recent Shaman King ED sung by Horie, and produced of course by Ryuujin. Even more than a decade after Immoralist, Kiyoshi’s style hasn’t grown stale, and he will hopefully continue exploring new territories along with Horie, as they definitely make a great duo. Another example of the pairing, a little older, and unrelated to Miyamoto whatsoever, but nonetheless outstanding, would be the 2nd Golden Time OP, one of the heaviest pop songs I’ve heard that never stops being pop, albeit a carefully crafted one. Hearing it makes me feel goosebumps to this day.

That was the OP. Now on the ED there runs a deeper relationship with Miyamoto that goes through his past and future work. On one hand, the ED, Mirai Bowl, is arranged by Miyamoto’s now longtime collaborator Narasaki, but on the other, perhaps more important side, it was performed by the idol group then known as Momoiro Clover (without the Z, we will soon get to that), which Miyamoto started producing that very year. As a part of the Momoiro Clover staff, he also participated as A&R in the recording of the Yosuga no Sora ED Pinky Jones, composed and arranged by Narasaki, though for whatever reason he wasn’t credited in the production of the anime.

Something for sure is that Momoiro Clover had weird music, more so for a group of idols, which are supposed to have a clean or safe sound. It’s also important to note this was before the success of groups such as Babymetal and BiS, so there wasn’t a clear alt-idol scene formed yet, at least within the mainstream and major labels. This was helped by the fact that they often collaborated with out there composers such as the all so mentioned Narasaki and also by Kenichi Maeyamada, also known as Hyadain and someone I hadn’t had the opportunity to address yet, as his collaboration with Miyamoto would increase in the following years. In fact, it was Hyadain who composed Mirai Bowl, alongside Tomotaka Osumi. The presence of so many people in only one song really makes itself feel, as the song constantly switches styles. But that instability isn’t an issue but rather a strength of Momoiro Clover as a group, who prove themselves gracefully managing the style changes.

Them on the Mirai Bowl times

However, with the departure of member Akari Hayami, Momoiro Clover would end. And by that, I mean the first formation of the group. It would reform with the remaining members with a different name. And this time, their name was suggested by none other than our own Junnosuke Miyamoto: Momoiro Clover Z. Perhaps in a remembrance of classic anime such as Dragon Ball Z, Gundam Z, and Mazinger Z, Miyamoto wasn’t mistaken by renaming the group. It gave Momoclo an edge that allowed them to grow even more, as they developed their distinct personality, inspired by tokusatsu and action shows. In fact, they would do a theme song for a Dragon Ball film, composed by would-you-guess-who (it starts with an N and it ends with arasaki...). This advancement of the Momoclo brand and Miyamoto’s growth in importance within the management of the group, further advanced him towards his own label and perhaps his most successful times.

In 2014, Junnosuke produced the music of the new Sailor Moon adaptation, Sailor Moon Crystal, which, of course, featured his star group Momoclo. In fact, this is technically the first Evil Line production, as the label had just been founded by the time Crystal’s 1st season was released. The OP theme, Moon Pride, was this time composed by Revo of Sound Horizon and mostly Linked Horizon fame. As a curiosity, it even featured the ex-Megadeth Marty Friedman on guitar. This was not the first collaboration between Marty and Momoclo, as he also provided guitars for the Mouretsu Pirates OP performed by them. But the flirtings between Momoclo and hard rock/metal don’t end there. They would also famously collaborate with Kiss, the union being immortalized by a great video animated by Trigger. And this is relevant to our assessment of Miyamoto’s career, as it was through him that the contact between Kiss and Momoclo was done. In fact, it was Kiss management that approached him, recognizing the similarities between Kiss’ and Momoclo’s staging.

The last work I’ll cover is where I originally thought of starting this post, as one of its themes has become insanely popular in the last months, so much that it surprises me as a longtime fan of it. And it’s from a series that I’ve teased for a while. Joshiraku, a manga written by, take note, the same Koji Kumeta of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Katte ni Kaizou. The art of the manga, however, is not done by Kumeta, but Yasu. And who is that Yasu?, you might be wondering. It’s the illustrator and original character designer of the Toradora novels. So it all circles back yet again. But wait, there’s more. The so popular theme I’ve mentioned before is Nippon Egao Hyakkei, a song performed by none other than the already reformed Momoiro Clover Z, though this time they’re adopting the Momokurotei Ichimon moniker. It is also the work I’ve insisted so much on being retrospectively produced by Evil Line. Joshiraku aired in 2012, 2 years before the label was officially founded, but it still can be found in the Evil Line site and it’s also credited as such in the subsequent BD releases. But let’s talk a bit about this song, shall we? While astonished at its sudden success in platforms such as TikTok, I do understand the reasons behind this. It’s a very unique and fun song, and the mixture of rap and dance music with more traditional Japanese instrumentation, as well as the style of Rakugo, create an effect of fascination, perhaps due to certain exoticism and most precisely, weirdness. Weird things tend to catch our attention, and I think this is why the career of Miyamoto is one of success. He didn’t fear to deal with weirdness but rather embraced it and saw its true potential, and I think that sort of attitude is really what makes a good producer. Someone who’s willing to take risks in order to deliver a new, interesting product. Thankfully, he now runs a full Evil Line of it.

Why is this a meme in tiktok

Salvador González Turrientes

Sources and more!:

A video connecting Narasaki and Ohtsuki with Babymetal (in Spanish) 

A blog post about Omokage Lucky Hole (in English)  

A video explaining denpa (in Spanish)

The main denpa source (in English)  

Explanation of the A&R role by a professional of the field (in Spanish) 

Junnosuke Miyamoto's credits in VGMDB 

Junnosuke Miyamoto in Discogs 

The Momoiro Clover Z own wiki (in English) 

The Wiki article for the Momoclo and Kiss collaboration song (in English)

[simpsonsnight]

Episode #700

Manger Things Season 32 - Episode 16 | March 21, 2021

Well, well, well. If it isn’t Episode 700. A couple years ago I thought to myself “I bet if I started doing bad reviews of Simpsons episodes in a weird fucked up order that I could cover episode 700 in realish time, and won’t that be cool? That could be the coolest fucking thing in the world, if you think about it.

Well, I did it. Do I feel special? NO! Does this episode feel special? NO! In a weird way this entire blog lead up to this, and it wasn’t terribly great. Not that I was expecting much from a season 32 episode. But good lord, they sure played it safe with this. This is one of them flashback episodes where you get pissed off that 6 years ago *actually* does mean 6 years ago in real time, so you see a young Homer family being in ubers, owning flatscreen TVs, using YouTube to deliver a baby, etc (SPOILER ALERT, Homer gives birth) Homer gets kicked out of the house for drinking at his office Christmas party. Everyone’s hair is kinda different, which is how you can tell. Homer stays at Ned’s where they are expecting the birth of Todd. Maude demands Homer get kicked out. From there, Homer goes into the little room above the garage, which the show has never shown before. Moe is the only one that knows about it because he’s been renting it out to Irish immigrants. Funny? How many jokes has the Simpsons told about renting out unconventional living spaces anyway? Like... 4?? 5??? I mean, Jeez! This all leads to Homer heroically delivering Maude Flanders’ baby, which Marge inexplicably witnesses and takes Homer back. And that’s the episode! It takes place at Christmas even though it’s currently March, and now we get two pieces of Simpsons trivia about who delivered Todd and what’s up in that space above the Garage? The answer to the second one is “Nothing, really.”, so isn’t that cool? So the episode kinda sucked. The Simpsons kinda sucks. This write-up kinda sucks. This blog kinda sucks. I kinda suck. What else is fucking new? Well, I guess that formally ends the stated goal of this blog. Scheduled updates covering episodes of the Simpsons on a daily basis will cease. Will I use the blog to review new episodes as they come out? Yeah, maybe. Will I review other episodes of other non-simpsons shows? I guess I COULD. Will I let this fade away in favor of a new blog about a different topic? Like, I don’t know, maybe Family Guy or the Spike TV animated block or Dragonball Z or... MAIL BAG

well look at that another tree house of horror and you didn't do my good idea. in fact, you wrote too much about the b-sodes. who needs that? oh well. I'll find a way to make you wince.

SHUT UP! You’re getting in the way of my cool announcement!

This blog is pretty snazzy but waht if you did a blog where you talked about other kinds of TV. Say...Adult Swim?

Oh, you mean... THIS BLOG??

Two Ideas for what you can do when you run out of Simpsons episodes on the blog:  [NUMBER ONE] Pimp My B-sode! B-sodes are back baby and we are breaking all the rules! Basically you go back to episodes you didnt do a b-sode or had a particularly bad b-sode and do them. BUT, you remove the rule that they have to be contemporary with the episode and heck break the rule it has to be a cartoon. Make it any tv show: live action, anime, PORNO! Just make sure to censor out the goodies ;)

[NUMBER TWO] And this one more of a hiatus filler idea but it's called MY SPORTS SCHOOL, I take it from your write-ups that you don't paticularly care for "the game" and are kind of a flabby nerd. That's fine. #MeToo BUT, basically you just go through a list of sports and then take your family out the the park and try to play one of them for 3-4 minutes then review the experience. If you need equipment just check thrift stores or local ads, and I got a pair of balls you can use right here. OHH!

I don’t believe in the $MeToo movement and I don’t believe in MOVEMENT! Get the hell out of here and get out of town!

fuck! no! is this really the end of the blog! NO! fuck you! surely you missed an episode or two? what about the movie? what about virtual springfield. you can't just leave you a-hole! fuck you!

Oh yeah. I guess I never did formally review the movie. Okay, I guess I’ll review the movie. STAY TUNED FOR A REVIEW OF THE MOVIE. But until then. PEACE OUT :bartsmokingablunt:

[charmspoint]

fr tho hmmm, ok since ur bingeing alot of anime lately, top 5 anime youve watched recently (u can include ongoing stuff if u want ily)

For this ask meme

I havent binged that much anime recently ;;; Just a few, a lil few.

Long list with pictures ahead, this is not list by quality but by joy factor

5. Jujutsu Kaisen

It’s weird that the anime I’ve been talking about the most is so low on the list but that’s mainly because I’m mostly hyperfocused on the manga rn. The arc the anime is in rn is where I got really invested when I was reading the manga and it only got better since then, would probs rank very high in my fav manga list rn. I’m feral for the next season and I would like to know when it’s coming out hehe~

4. My Next Life as a Villainess 

Catarina vs my exam slump, who will win? The answer may surprise you.

This show brought so much happiness in my life when I needed it the most, I just enjoyed it a whole lot and on a few occasions it even made me laugh at loud. Catarina is a fucking dumbass but in a way that makes her lovable instead of frustrating...or at least lovably frustrating lmao! And I’ve already said my peace on the rest of the cast. The only way it could be better is if it went gay all the way 

3. Skate the infinity 

Can you imagine that I almost didn’t watch this anime? The only reason I started it because I looked at the op cuz ‘skating anime is bound to have some good tunes’ (it has), but truth to be told from the amount of it I see on my dash I would have probably got into it anime. I love these characters (except Adam but Adam falls straight into the sort of villain trope I dislike the most so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) But honestly has some of the best and most lovable characters these season and Reki’s arc is goddamn heartbreaking to watch. This is the kind of show with a beating heart you know, I love it.

2. Dr Stone

Funny how I watched this after you complained endlessly about it and then ended up enjoying it so much. I’m not much of a science buff and there are times I just zone out when Senku is explaining shit but as I’ve said countless times before it’s the characters that make or break the show for me and I love every single one. I just like how full of passion it is and how obvious it is that this is the author just nerding out. Senku is very interesting protagonist because he wasn’t supposed to be the protagonist at all and it’s great how passionate he can be while completely avoiding the passionate shonen youth trope. Also I ranted to you constantly about how nice is to see a character with who has such a prominent way of showing love exclusively by his actions. Also the emotional moments hit so hard despite it being a nerd out show. Also just Gen, as a concept. This show feels like someone is constantly ranting to you about the thing they are passionate about and as someone who loves to listen to ppl rant about things they love, it’s just great. Also I get to share in with something you really like and that always makes it better <3

1. Talentless Nana

Didn’t we calculate that I finished the entire anime and then the manga start to finish in two days flat?

Yeah I think that says it all.

Nana turned out to be such a niche show and it really deserves more. I’ve seen people compare it to Death Note but it’s really not like Death Note when you get past the cat and mouse game that isn’t even it’s core more like a bait to lure you in to the real thing. Like this isn’t a show that is going to vow you with it’s mindgames but I do like it better than Death Note just because it has infinently more interesting and lovable characters and Nana could kick Lights ass any day. Nana has bits of BNHA in it and bits of Death Note in it but what it’s really about for me is abuse and how it can break and remold a person and how hard it’s to get out of it and start acting against what you’ve been conditioned to believe is the right thing, no matter how much you want to do better. That message is more thoroughly explored in the manga though and since it ended up so niche I doubt we’ll be getting second season ;-; But damn don’t I love Nana’s arc. She makes for an amazing protagonist that you just love despite everything she does and then you start to understand her better and how she ended up like this and you just really want to root for her to figure out what happened. And when she does it’s not an instant switch, she doesn’t immediately go ‘oh ok i know what teh good is now ill do that’. It’s a struggle to go against what she’s been taught to believe, it’s a struggle to turn her back on the only safe person she knows in her life (who is very very abusive but abusers can still be safe places that’s why abuse is so hard to leave) and try to join in with people who are very likely to refuse her just because she knows that’s the right thing to do. Watching Nana go from mindless drone to a girl struggling to leave an abusive situation and make up for all the wrongs she did is just amazing. One day I wanna go through the manga and detailly document Nana’s journey. I hope she finds stability soon my girl ;-; 

This has turned into a Talentless Nana rant but I just love how seriously the story takes the topic of abuse, how much it can impact you, your actions and your view of the world and how hard it is to leave. How much easier it would be for Nana to just stay where she is and ignore everything despite knowing leaving would be the best choice. Recently the manga updated with a chapter on Moe and it showed so well how much abuse can impact and persist even when a child is in a safe situation and ;-; MOE I’M SORRY I SAID I DONT LIKE YOU AAAA. 

Anyway if anyone aside from Peter made it to the end of the list uhhh read Talentless Nana, it’s really good and I would like more please

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: What You Need To Know Before Dr. STONE Season 2

  Dr. STONE is back! The second season, Stone Wars, is set to start January 14, 2021. 

  Science will always prevail, but how can it work in a world where technology has been lost to time? There’s a lot to take in, so here’s a recap for anyone who needs a refresher!

  Spoilers for Dr. STONE Season 1 below.

    Plot Summary

  A flash of mysterious light has petrified the modern world until 3,700 years later when Senku awakens. He intends to fully revive the world with the power of science, only to come to a head with the superhuman Tsukasa, who revives only those of his choosing to prevent corruption in the rebuilt society. Strength or science, who will win? 

  Senku finds some allies in the descendants of humanity, the inhabitants of the Ishigami Village, and with his mind at the helm, the village shoots through invention after invention with the power of science. In successfully winning the title of village chief through a tournament of brawn and wits, and successfully curing the priestess Ruri of her pneumonia, Senku comes to realize that the village isn’t all it seems. They are all, in fact, descendants of the only people in the past to escape the petrification ray from the modern world: the team of six international astronauts including Senku’s father, Ishigami Byakuya. Using the final piece that his father left him, Senku is ready to formulate a plan to stop Tsukasa in his tracks. 

    Scientific Progress

  Dr. STONE focuses less on direct combat but on how science is able to progress from near-scratch. As a result, a lot of inventions aren’t just featured in how they can potentially be remade, but also in how they build off each other to make more complex ideas than previously seen in society. For example, harvesting iron and creating a lightning rod allows them to make electricity, which then leads to power generators and far in the future, lightbulbs. So far, science has recreated: 

  Power Sources: electricity (generators and lightbulbs), gears, water wheels, batteries

Modern Foods: ramen, cola, cotton candy

Medicine: antibiotics and painkillers

Weaponry: gunpowder, katana

Communication: microphones, radios, phonographs

Miscellaneous: gas masks, glass, beakers, magnets

  However, the all-important revival formula isn’t in Senku’s hands just yet, but is instead overseen by Tsukasa. That is the key to reviving the world fully, and the battle is brewing to see who controls it. 

    Characters

  Kingdom of Science

  Ishigami village is now united under Senku, and thanks to his title as village chief, he is able to mobilize the village. Everyone is moved by the power of science, and it’s much easier to move as a single front rather than it being fractured into multiple pieces. 

  Science Squad

Senku: The master scientist with the knowledge and skills to recreate the modern world. 

Chrome: One of humanity’s descendants who’s inherited the soul and passion for science. 

Kaseki: An old craftsman of the village. Invaluable for making Senku’s creations come to life. 

  Of course, there isn’t any way to survive in the stone world without the use of force. On that end is:

  Kohaku: A warrior woman, the strongest in Ishigami Village. 

Kinro: One of the bridge guards. Now fully equipped with eyeglasses. 

Ginro: The other bridge guard. Cowardly, but will do what’s right in a pinch. 

Magma: Formerly an enemy, but has come to an understanding with Senku and Chrome. 

  Naturally, there are those who don’t fit into the above categories, but it’s hard to see the team without them. 

  Gen: A snakelike mentalist who knows exactly what to do or say to get people to move the way he wants. Formerly on Tsukasa’s side, but now has a strong bond with Senku and the team. 

Suika: A young girl with her signature watermelon helmet. Quick on her feet, excellent as a scout.

Ruri: The priestess of Ishigami Village. Now cured of her sickness, she is the keeper of the Hundred Tales, the stories passed down from the modern world. 

    Tsukasa Empire

  Tsukasa stated that he intends to rule the new world with force, and he means it. While Tsukasa doesn’t come off as dishonorable, he is certainly ruthless. Those he revives are loyal to his cause and have been handpicked by him for being the best at what they do. We don’t yet know the full capacities of the empire, but who we’ve seen so far has been trouble for sure. 

  Tsukasa: The warrior himself. Unmatched on the field. 

Hyoga: A spear-wielding fighter with a cold-blooded side. 

Homura: A gymnast and a spy. Loyal to Hyoga. 

  Last but not least, these two undercover in the empire currently, are loyal to Senku, but it has been over a year since they parted ways with Senku. 

Taiju: Senku’s childhood friend. Not very smart, but has the endurance and heart to make up for it. 

Yuzuriha: Taiju’s love interest. Good at crafts and quick on the uptake. 

  With the battle between two philosophies upcoming, there’s a lot to catch up with. One thing we know for certain: more inventions are surely on the horizon. Catch up on the first season here!

  What are you excited for in the next season of Dr. STONE? Let us know in the comments!

        Noelle Ogawa is a contributor to Bubbleblabber and Cup of Moe. She can be found on Twitter @noelleogawa.

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

By: Noelle Ogawa

[natsspammityspamspamham]

Dino Watches Anime (Oct 26)

Recently Completed!

Tokyo Godfathers

Score: 10/10

There’s a reason why I gave this such a rare high rating. When I was watching it, I was internally like, “*excitement noises* I have not been this excited over an anime in such a long time, let alone for an anime movie. EVERYONE SHUT UP SO I CAN WATCH THIS EVEN IF I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE SAYING.”

It’s not often that you come across really good movies, let alone masterpieces like this movie. The art is so good, the story made me feel like it was Christmas in October, and the characters really made me connect. 

I know the subtitles used a whole lot of gay slurs and things like that, but Hana (the trans character in this tale) is treated well if we get past that huge hurdle. She truly owns up to herself. She doesn’t care what she’s called. She gets mad at people who misgender her. She gets mad if she’s forced to go to a men’s facility. She wants people to call her “an old hag” rather than “an old coot”. She just wants to be a mother even if she isn’t “biologically a woman” who can bear children. So when she comes across this kid, she thinks, “I will finally be a mother!” These are issues that real people face. These are issues that cisgendered people take for granted.

Madhouse really knocked it out of the park. Satoshi Kon is one of the biggest creators and directors in anime history. He’s known for horror and psychological works like Perfect Blue, Paprika, and Millennium Actress. I never expected him to be this good at making a movie that could move my soul like this. The characters were so far from perfect, yet I wanted the best for each of them. The way it handled everything was masterful. The dialogue worked so well and was witty, the voice actors (despite the main three not being in anything else for the most part) were so good at giving life to their characters, and the art blew me away in 2019 even though this was released in 2003. The only thing I didn’t quite like as much was the score during some parts of the movie, but it was subjectively good and just wasn’t to my taste (the Noragami soundtrack wasn’t a fav of mine either). 

Just... watch the movie. If you can watch it around Christmas. It’s good for you.

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Score: 7.4/10 

Yes, I binge-watched all 39 episodes in two days, what’s it to ya?! In reality, I just boosted the speed of the video.

Me throughout this show: Why do you all have triangle heads? What’s with that?

Okay, it’s the art style, and a lot of shoujo anime go with the concept that it looks good. Once you get over the art hurdle making me believe this was created in the early 2000s despite it being 3 years younger than Tokyo Godfathers, this turns out to be a really nice show. I just can’t believe they’re BOTH from Madhouse. 

Remember Snow White with the Red Hair? Remember Akatsuki no Yona? If you liked those shows, you’re going to like this one... except it relies more on the political plot. It’s mostly about a woman wanting to pursue her dreams of being a politician in a male-dominated world. She’s entasked with helping this mess of a king to get his act together, and as much as I can try to prove that it’s surprisingly progressive (given the art and genre), I think that’d be spoiling it a little. The only character that actually bothered me was the prince who was voiced by Tomokazu Seki who honestly was a bit annoying and sounded so fake for me. However, this anime made me appreciate Hikaru Midorikawa’s voice as well as Houko Kuwashima who I’ve only heard voicing dead moms and only a few good characters here and there. Seriously, both of their voices are great. Toshiyuki Morikawa sounds good too, but we already knew that. I don’t like the OP or ED (or a whole lot of the music), but that’s the case for a lot of these 2005-era anime. Just like a lot of the anime on MAL, I do think this is an underrated show, but it does have its pitfalls if you’re just craving for a quick shoujo without any politics.

Full Metal Panic: Second Raid

Score: 7/10

I binge-watched this entire season while my parents were out for dinner and something else. It only took me a couple of hours because I boosted the speed.

I wanted to get a gif specifically from this season, so this one will have to do. So much wasted potential will this character (who’s one of two twins). I know they were trying to play the whole “twincest” thing, but I’m personally not a fan. They provided some cool fight scenes even at a certain cringe cost. The fact that Kyoto Animation animated this bumped the art from a 3 to an 8. It’s crazy how much the quality jumped after a new studio took over. Unfortunately, they didn’t take care of the next season. I know the main ship in the series is pretty clear, but this season made it closer to canon (too bad it took around 13 years to make the next season).

Kara no Kyoukai (movies: 5, 6, 7)

Score:  Part Five: 7.5/10 Part Six: 5.8/10 Part Seven: 8.2/10

Not gonna lie, I watched the first four movies over a year ago and retained nothing. I had to read the Wikia to assist me and to begin with, I watched this to get into the “Type-Moon” universe (which consists of this and the Fate nonsense stuff), Yuki Kajiura’s score, and Maaya Sakamoto and Kenichi Suzumura voicing a couple. The score would probably change if I’d watched them regularly, but I digress because I watched movies 5-7 in one afternoon. Ufotable was pretty good at animating this and the voice acting worked really well. Yuki Kajiura’s music didn’t hit well at first when I was first watching the first few movies over a year ago because it wasn’t what I envisioned the score being, but once you get into the mood and mindset, it adds so much to the story. Although, I still really didn’t like part six. I thought it was a complete flop because I just want to get rid of anyone who believes i*cest is an okay thing. This isn’t Alabama. Go home. Not else to say here because this took so much commitment that I doubt anyone would watch it.

Paranoia Agent

Score: 8.6/10

With spoopy month coming to a close (already?!) I watched this anime earlier this month, but I forgot to write about it. That’s partly because there’s so much to unpack here. This was a thriller, psychological, horror anime by Satoshi Kon. That’s right, the first anime above was also done with him in the director’s seat. This anime was smart. There’s a reason why Robin Williams likes it! It was scary in the best of ways. It revealed a part of society that we see all the time but don’t talk about (especially in Japanese society where emotions are better kept concealed). Just the opening alone made me feel uneasy. The OP and ED were simplistic yet worked. I binge-watched the whole series because it was that gripping. 

It was a little confusing at times, but that’s also because that’s just a common thing with horror anime. That suspense keeps us going. It keeps us on the edge of our seats. Who’s going to be the next victim of Shounen Bat? Episode 8 came out of nowhere for me, and I liked it. There were several scenes that sent shivers down my spine in the best way possible. It isn’t always “scary”, but it gives suspense.

Aoi Bungaku

This one is going to be reviewed a little differently. Since it has specific arcs, I’m going to review them as such!

Ningen Shikkaku: 8.2/10

We start off with a bang. Osamu Dazai was a man of suffering. This story really shows that. In this story, we see a man who’s desperate to know what makes him human. We see this through the eyes of a fictional character, but I personally view this as a semi-autobiography.

The art was chilling. The voice acting from Masato Sakai was surprisingly good. A lot of the time, voice acting from live-action actors just aren’t that great. Every time you think this character will get back on his feet, he falls deeper and deeper. It truly did make me wonder what made me human.

Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita: 3.9/10

That moment when the only thing that saves this arc is Nana Mizuki’s singing. Seriously, her jazz songs were awesome. Can’t say that about the rest. I mean, the art is good, but it’s Madhouse so most of their stuff is already good. The story wasn’t that original. Mind you, this was probably during a period where foreign influence was strong, and I haven’t read the original story, but... this is basically Salome (the opera) with some differences. Both have a crazy woman with a fixation over lifeless decapitated heads. Both have men that are captivated with her beauty so they give her what she wants because of that reason alone, they both murder religious people (monk/shrine maiden and a prophet), and both eventually realize that women can be crazy when they demand a lifeless head because you know, that’s just a red flag. Above all, it suffers from tonal shifts. You can’t have a woman turning moe then demand you bring her another head to play with. You can’t have Masato Sakai playing another main character that doesn’t fit him! Seriously, he doesn’t have the voice of a brute and just couldn’t do it. Overall, this arc was a mess, and I’m glad it was one of the shorter ones.

Kokoro: 7.6/10

This looked like a masterpiece compared to the last arc. I haven’t read Kokoro, but this made me go, “Huh, I don’t remember this happening.” That’s because they chose a certain part of the book (near the end apparently) and just went off that and created its own anime-original episode. Despite that, it was pretty good! There were some screaming discrepancies which did hurt its impression (because it made it feel out of place to the point where even I, as an uneducated anime viewer, could clearly see).

(I think this is from Kokoro but I might be wrong)

Hashire, Melos!: 8.9/10

Would you look at that? It’s the best arc of the series. Hashire, Melos was great. It had me going from beginning to end, and it’s the only arc that doesn’t have Masato Sakai playing the lead character. The art, the pacing, the storytelling, the story, the sound, the voice acting, and the art direction complemented each other so well. It made me far more interested in the original. 

The Spider’s Thread: 6.6/10

If you look really close, you’ll notice that the creator of Bleach took over character design for this! It was okay. I found that it was a little cliche and lacklustre. Mamo is around so much that you probably have to do more than that to keep my attention, and this had the art going for it too. It just wasn’t that interesting. A heartless murderer is sent to hell after being executed. Moral of the story: Don’t be an asshole. Alright. Nice. I do understand that Ryuunosuke Akutagawa was one of the main establishers of the whole “Japanese Short Story” thing, but after seeing it so many times, I just didn’t get that same chill.

Hell Screen: 6.9/10 

Another Akutagawa short story! This one had far more of an impact because this one hit closer to Akutagawa’s heart. Knowing the history of this piece of writing, you can see his desperation to stay relevant and true to his craft. It’s about a painter who wants to paint the town but finds out the city isn’t the bright light he sees in his mind. Everything goes ablaze. The art for this is stunning. I probably would’ve enjoyed this story more if it was placed in the middle of the series run rather than being the last story. 

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Africa no Salaryman

The animation for this is terrible. There is no way around it. However, at least it’s funny. Still, close to being on the chopping block. It has the papa lion who’s played by Akio Ohtsuka, the straight-man middle lizard played by Kenjirou Tsuda, and the scumbag toucan played by Hiro Shimono. Yes, they all play Hero Academia villains. The jokes are pretty good for me.

Given

Oh, would you look at that? It’s a music anime. *inhales* Music anime is a double-edged sword for me. I like having music interpreted and portrayed through one of my favourite mediums, but I don’t like them playing off music as some sort of easy gimmick and a joke. It’s like a shonen montage. “Let’s just have this guy train for two minutes and become a demigod”. But when you put an instrument into someone’s hand and demand the same, it sends me to another plane of angriness.  So far, the romance is kind of cute... but Mafuyu kind of annoys me since his role in the BL dynamic is so clear just by his voice. Same with Uchida. You can only play so many thugs a season. Kyou? Good. Chika? Good. This guy? Good, but don’t do them all back-to-back! I don’t like the BL dynamic being so basic. However, my mind can be changed if done right.

Shinsekai Yori

Very interesting premise, their eyes are cute, and I’m a sucker for these so I’m gonna stick with it.

[rsocancer]

Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) for Cancer: Does It Work?

Nobody might have anticipated that the rough drawings of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson on the sketch satire program, "The Tracey Ullman Show" would turn into a colossally well known faction hit among watchers, all things considered, and foundations rso cancer. As the longest running enlivened arrangement throughout the entire existence of TV, it is additionally one of the most darling. "The Simpsons" scenes are normally themed around recent developments – even disputable subjects, for example, gay marriage and religion in government funded schools. There is nothing of the sort as no-no topic on "The Simpsons." Topics on the show are taken care of with humor that is equitably focused on all ages, races, sexual orientations and religions.

Maker and leader maker, Matt Groening is credited with taking the movement satire back to early evening TV with the presentation of "The Simpson's" arrangement on Fox in 1989. Chief maker James L. Streams is an Emmy and Academy grant winning essayist and maker of movies that incorporate Terms of Endearment and As Good as it Gets. Al Jean is the third chief maker and furthermore head author (Simpsons, 2006). As an intriguing little truth, staff essayist, Daniel Chun is the more youthful sibling of a kid this writer dated in secondary school. Al Jean and Mike Scully are additionally two essential scholars.

Notwithstanding the several superstar visitor stars who have voiced different vivid characters on the show, it is the voices of the principle characters that are indispensable and fundamental to the show's proceeded with progress. Most popular for relegating the very much coordinated "D'oh!" as Homer Simpson, Dan Castallaneta previous Tracey Ullman cast part, is additionally Mayor Quimby, Grandpa Simpson and Groundskeeper Willie among others. Additionally a Tracey Ullman alumna, Julie Kavner loans her voice to Marge Simpson and her two irritable Homer-despising, MacGyver fixated, chain smoking sisters Patty and Selma. Nancy Cartwright is the voice of long term old Bart Simpson, in addition to Ralph Wiggum, Nelson Muntz and Todd Flanders. Center youngster, long term old Lisa Simpson is depicted by Yeardley Smith. Both Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer give voices to many Springfield's essential characters (Simpsons, 2006).

In its right on time to mid-'90s brilliance days, "The Simpsons" was not just at the tallness of prevalence and evaluations, yet the show was rounding up several millions in authorized item deals. Crowds couldn't get enough rich Homers that slobbered "Mmmm… doughnuts" or battery worked Barts shouting "Affirmative carumba!" at the push of his paunch, in addition to video games, attire, home goods thus considerably more. Bart's expressions which included "Don't have a dairy animals man!" and "Eat my shorts" were heard all over. Alongside the appraisals, deals of Simpsons authorized things have declined as of late, however the essayists' and makers' endeavors to keep the show new and interesting have not gone unnoticed by numerous watchers who have stayed faithful to the occupants of Springfield, USA.

The way that the show is set in an obscure state demonstrates an exertion with respect to the authors to reflect American culture generally in every scene. This has empowered the show to draw watchers from everywhere the nation. For example, a show like "Sex and the City" may have a particularly enormous after of New York watchers, while "The Simpsons" with its unidentified setting can speak to all Americans. The two-story Simpson home on Evergreen Terrace intently takes after an ordinary home in an American suburb – less the bazaar like intense tones.

The show is based around the Simpson family unit model of two guardians, 2.5 youngsters (Maggie could be considered the .5 in view of her powerlessness to talk) in addition to felines, Snowball I, II and III and safeguarded greyhound, Santa's Little Helper. The family structure and character characters reflect conventional American standards. While the Simpsons are fairly broken, (as proven by one of the prior scenes where the family experienced stun treatment with Dr. Marvin Monroe to overcome their issues), eventually, we as a whole have issues, however by the day's end, there is a lot of adoration and solidarity in many families. This is obviously, in the event that you overlook the regular showcases of youngster misuse where Homer stifles Bart until his eyes swell off of his mind and the way that infant Maggie is by all accounts oftentimes ventured out from home alone.

Committed spouse and mother Marge is a recognition for dedicated American mothers. She is the heart, soul and paste of the Simpson family. In contrast to her significant other, Marge doesn't have any companions or time to be social as she is excessively bustling keeping an eye on her better half and children. Homer, who has a lot of washout companions, is the blundering nitwit of a spouse and father. What he needs keenness, he makes up in lager utilization at his #1 watering opening, Moe's Tavern. He isn't in every case totally gave to his family and is regularly childish and imprudent, yet at the end of most scenes, he makes the best choice – and that is the place we see the soul of the American dad.

Bart is the naughty, free energetic most seasoned youngster who staggers on inconvenience all over, in any case, similar to his dad, typically discovers reclamation and a daily existence exercise before the finish of a scene. Lisa is the absolutely real still, small voice of the Simpson family. A very much read, caring young lady who follows Buddhism and recent developments, Lisa can likewise chuckle with Bart at the particularly abhorrent scenes of the feline and mouse enemies, Itchy and Scratchy. Infant Maggie, while the littlest and calmest character, says a lot with the sucking of her pacifier. Scholars have consistently given Maggie an undeniable shrewdness and mindfulness that supplants her young age. She even has a uni-browed infant adversary.

Notwithstanding the Simpson family focal characters, the show highlights handfuls and many Springfield occupants with special biographies and important characters, all of which speak to the common characters the majority of us will experience in the course of our lives. For example, our nation is loaded with slanted legislators and Mayor Quimby speaks to a definitive shabby political figure. He is frequently trapped in bargaining positions selling out Springfield and horsing around with young ladies, yet he stays in power and nobody in the town appears to flutter an eyelash. When he even addresses the residents as "inept hicks" and they are not staged by it.

Jabbing fun of the police framework, The Simpsons highlights Police Chief Clancy Wiggum, maybe the second greatest bozo on the show close to Homer. He is responsible for Springfield's wellbeing and prosperity with his two side-kicks who outperform Wiggum in knowledge. His ineptitude is incredible and the town would be lucky to be gone over to fear monger barbarians with admittance to weapons of mass annihilation. Any police boss who says "Aww, wouldn't anybody be able to in this town go rogue?" may not be the top contender for the work (Simpsons, 2006).

The show additionally downplays the difficult issue of older disregard. Homer's dad, Grandpa Simpson, lives in the Springfield Retirement Castle. A resigned war saint, Grandpa was extremely hard on Homer in his childhood. As maybe a sort of subliminal retribution, Homer put Grandpa in a home where his personal satisfaction is poor. Unmistakably Grandpa and different inhabitants are dealt with gravely. His disregard is clear when in one example, Grandpa will not let Homer pick up the telephone so he can "relish the rings." Yet Grandpa shows up in numerous scenes as an energetic, intriguing character who loans his one of a kind, grouchy humor to the show. Maybe the authors are attempting to represent that numerous old actually have a lot to contribute and ought not be discarded as aggravations.

The late Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live popularity loaned his voice to two cliché Simpsons characters: shabby legal advisor Lionel Hutz and enlightening film star, Troy McClure. Troy McClure would for the most part make his passageway by saying something like "Howdy, I'm Troy McClure! You may recall me from such open assistance recordings as 'Assigned Drivers, the Lifesaving Nerds' and 'Fake Tornado Alarms Reduce Readiness'" (Troymcclurepage, 2006). Troy was a distortion of a character a large number of us found in our childhood in maybe many state funded school films that once in a while held any instructive worth.

Legal advisor Lionel Hutz was a deceptive, rescue vehicle pursuing, entrepreneur who frequently out of nowhere showed up in a circumstance where his lawful "aptitude" may have helped him benefit some way or another. His lawful practice was named "I Can't Believe it's a Law Firm!" and offered customers motivators, for example, a free pizza if their settlements were not taken care of shortly or less (Lionel Hutz, 2006). Lionel's character hilariously exemplified the generalization of the avaricious, cash grubbing attorney.

Numerous American educators are not genuinely made up for the significant work they do. Edna Krabappel speaks to this thought as Bart's negative, come up short on, overlooked, overemphasized fourth grade instructor. Bart is the most despicable aspect of Edna's presence regularly, yet periodically the two foes agree. Janitors and support staff can likewise be disregarded for their work in keeping schools running easily. Groundkeeper Willie is the unruly Scotsman who is regularly ridiculed by the children of Springfield Elementary and given the most exceedingly awful, most disturbing undertakings comprehensible to do. They even keep him stayed in a little, smudged shack. He is treated as a below average person not deserving of better and Willie's sharpness is self-evident. School transport driver and occupant stoner, Otto, is answerable for the lives of the understudies at Springfield Elementary. He speaks to each parent's most noticeably awful bad dream.

Making jokes about the American clinical and protection framework, the essayists made Dr. Hibbert who likes to poke wrong fun at his patients in any event, when they are in a bad way. In a 2005 scene he tells Homer, "The insurance agency says you're just as they're going to pay for." This is constantly trailed by

[masaru2042]

King of the Monsters is the Best Season of Game of Thrones Ever!

When I came out of the theater, I hadn't had warm and fuzzies about a movie in...I can't tell you how long.  And this movie gave me warm and fuzzies.  And this is despite the nay-sayers and the idiot critics who are slamming this movie.  Just a little FYI here, Godzilla beat out Aladdin for the #1 spot.  Godzilla pimp-slapped the Mouse into second place opening weekend.  And I approve of this.

But despite all the critics REEEEING over Godzilla and calling it garbage, I'm gonna tell you this movie is awesome and is worth your money.  And if you have a $5 dollar Tuesday like me because you have a Cinemark Cinema in your town...and you're worried about shelling out too much money for something you think you might not like...go see it on Tuesday, pay the 5 bucks, and then see why I said it's worth every cent.  And then go back and see it again full price if you want to.

So like any review I've done, usually I review a movie that I found bad and wanna shit all over it.  It is my thing, after all.  I mean see what all I've said about Godzilla Final Wars and everyone got pissy at me for hating on Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and why I said I like GMK so much better...

And of course me shitting on Minya every time I mention Godzilla, because I hate that shit stain...I'm gonna actually give a positive review.

I mean the last movie review I did was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and...well...

It’s safe to say I really hated that movie.

But this one, I didn’t.

Just remember, this movie is worth every cent of your money.   You did it!  You did it, Hollywood!  You finally made a REAL GODZILLA MOVIE!  COMPLETE WITH THE ACTUAL GODZILLA THEME SONG!  And the Blue Oyster's Go, Go, Godzilla at the end.  And yes, there's even Mothra's theme song.  And I was singing it during the movie.  To anyone out there who said it couldn't be done...Cough-Steven Spielberg-Cough...we did it!  America has finally made a real Godzilla movie!  You also made the first Godzilla movie that actually gave a proper jump scare...and Godzilla was the one who did it, and I actually jumped!  10/10!  You made me jump at a jump scare and I don't usually jump at jump scares.   And yes, there was one, and it's at the beginning but...it's good.   First Godzilla movie to have a genuine jump scare that actually made me jump.  Thank you, movie! So, how does it start out. Well, it starts out in 2014 and we're following a family called the Russel Family.  No sign of the Brody family, but that's probably because they finally got eaten by sharks because...JAWS, damn it!  And also the Brody family was dull, save for Brian Cranston, and why the fuck didn't G2014 keep Brian Cranston in there? Anyway, we have Mark Russel, Emma Russel, and their daughter Madison Russel...who is played by the actress from Stranger Things...Millie Bobby Brown. I'm gonna refer to her as Eleven from here on out because that's who I know her the most as.  And yes, next month, Stranger Things is coming back to Netflix, and I'm gonna be watching that.  There's also Eleven's little brother, but he only appears in photographs because he ended up getting squashed by Godzilla's foot in San Francisco...so...I'm not gonna bother to learn his name.  Interesting to note, the actor who plays Mark...played Bruce Baxter from King Kong 2005.  But I barely recognize him...so, he doesn't get a quirky name. We do have Ken Watanabe returning as Ishiro Serizawa.  Who I suspect is actually the sun of Daisuke Serizawa...though Daisuke is a completely different kind of person in the MonsterVerse than what he was in the original Gojira.

Okay, so, we cut to about 5 years later, so 2019 and we meet up with Eleven and her mom and El is contacting her dad who is not with them.  He's studying wolves.  And they have a little email convo, Dad's worried about his wife, El is worried about Dad, and so on.  And I like how they build things up here because we don't realize that Eleven and her mom are in China studying Mothra's egg.  Until we hear Mothra's call, and yes it is very recognizable.  I suspect that there weren't veteran Godzilla fans like myself in the theater with me, so, pretty much every fan moment in this movie was something I would recognize but would mostly fall flat on most viewers.  The monster calls and the music.   Except for King Ghidorah's call...they were trying to do his call but...to be honest, it sounded like a bad mix of Heisei Ghidorah and the version they used in Final Wars.  With a little Showa in there.  The most perfect Ghidorah call was done in GMK.  It made him sound powerful, big, and kept the iconic call.  However, King Ghidorah's design looks rather interesting.  It's more of an updated version of Heisei Ghidorah than any of the other Ghidorahs.  Even more interesting is that the three heads all have their own separate personalities.   How can I explain them?  This fan art done by Michael J Larson just might help.

I present to you, Moe, Larry, and Curly.  Legendary turned King Ghidorah into the Three Stooges.  And here's the funny bit, Moe is the middle head, while Curly is the one on the right, and Larry is the one on the left.  And just like in Three Stooges fashion, Moe hates Curly a lot.  He even bops Curly a few times to pretty much make a point on just who these thee heads represent.

Rodan's call didn't sound much like Rodan's call either, but, I'm not a big Rodan fan, so I forgave it.

So, Eleven and Mom here goes down into a cave where Mothra's egg is so they can witness Mothra being born.  And of course call the giant moth-like creature...Mothra.  Because yeah.  We need to state that.  Complete with Mothra's theme!

Well Mom's got a gadget that seems to be able to create a signal that makes the monster docile, and lo and behold it works! And then Tywin Lannister shows up!

This is Charles Dance's character Alan Jonah...you know, like the whale...however, I'm gonna stick with Tywin Lannister.  Because that's who he is!  Well, Tywin kidnaps mom and Eleven.  Tywin actually is trying to be a little nice to Eleven, even making a silly face at her.   Which I thought was cute.  Until she flipped Tywin off...because yes, Eleven can do that to Tywin!  She's probably the only person who can flip Tywin Lannister the bird!  Anyone else would have been beheaded.

Apparently Tywin now runs an eco-terrorist group who are a bunch of nihilists.   And they wanna release King Ghidorah for the purpose of ending the suffering that man has caused the planet.  So...Anime Godzilla Xaliens? Really, Tywin?  The Dragon has three heads, but apparently you merely wanted to end the Targaryan dynasty just to set up the new Ghidorah dynasty.  Well, to tell you the truth, King Ghidorah would make a better ruler than Bran the Broken, so he has my vote on that.  Honestly, this whole movie is like the best Game of Thrones climax ever!  With a little Stranger Things mixed in for good measure.

And King Ghidorah...or rather Ghidorah as they call him in the movie...is actually located in Antarctica.  Because of course he is.  How did he get there?  We don't know.  He is a space monster just like he usually is, and he also wants to fuck over everything on planet Earth, like usual.  But this time...it's him doing it, and not someone controlling him...or rather...that device they call Orca sends out a call at first controls him, but the he's like "Naw, man, I'm my own boss."  And really fucks over Tywin's plans.  Because King Ghidorah at least listened to Olena Tyrell's suggestion of "Be a Dragon."  And he pretty much shows how much he is a dragon, rather than what Danaerys did until the very last minute.  Yes, I won't stop the Game of Thrones comparisons, shut up!  So, apparently, Ghidorah has the Queen of Thorns on his side and she's been talking into his ear more than Mamma Russel's Orca's machine has.  And to show Olena how much of a dragon he is, King Ghidorah eats a few humans as he is freed.

No, I'm serious, King Ghidorah eats people!  Olena would be proud.

He also doesn't listen to Tywin Lannister.  And neither did Aerys, but that's only because Aerys didn't want Cercei to marry Rhaegar.  So, Tywin pretty much gave that dragon a middle finger and decided to get with another three headed dragon...a literal three headed dragon, and they're gonna fuck up the planet, yo!  Until Olena Tyrell started talking to King Ghidorah about playing the Game of Thrones, and now King Ghidorah uses his magic monster call to literally "Call the Banners!"   I'm fucking serious!  There is a reason why the Game of Thrones references will not stop!  King Ghidorah pulls a Rob Stark and turns to Maester Lewin.

King Ghidorah: "Maester Lewin..."

Lewin: "Yes, your Grace."

King Ghidorah: "Call the banners."

Lewin: "All of them?"

King Ghidorah: "All of them."

And the ravens fly!

Meanwhile, Daddy Russel got wind of his wife and daughter being kidnapped, as well as Orca being used to summon King Ghidorah and well, he seems to have a big beef with the monsters in general.  Apparently, he has a bone to pick with Godzilla for the death of his son.   And he wants to Inigo Montoya Godzilla's ass.  The problem is, he's about the size of Godzilla's talon, so I don't think that duel is gonna work very well.  However, it's here where we get to the jump scare that works and why I loved it.  You see, in this scene, we're in an underwater Monarch base where they discuss what they want to do with Godzilla.  Russel is on the "let's kill the bastard" boat along with the American military, and Serizawa is more on the boat of...we becoming Godzilla's adopted children in which he protects from other threats out there.  Or rather...his pets.  Which of course doesn't go very well over with the Americans.  Because...

You honestly think we're gonna be Godzilla's little pet humans, Serizawa?  HELL NO!

But I chock that up to poor translation since English isn't Serizawa's first language.  And maybe that came out wrong.  Anyhoo...yeah, Godzilla's pets.  No.  I like you, big guy, but I ain't gonna be your cat.

So, while we're in this underwater base, Godzilla decides to show up!  And they start pointing their guns at him...which kinda pisses him off.   While Russel here hates Godzilla, even he knows it's not wise to go and pick a fight with him without a plan, so he even tells the guys to stand down, which they do.  And then we have a moment where Godzilla slowly inches close to the glass and Russel and the King of the Monsters have some kind of moment.  And to tell you the truth, it's a better moment than what we had with Brody and Godzilla.  Well, Godzilla at first slinks back into the darkness...and everything seems fine.  And this is where the jump scare happens.  They don't draw it out to where you expect a jump scare to happen, like...most jump scares do.  That's how you know it's a bad jump scare, they draw it out for so long that you know it's gonna jump out and get you.   You're just waiting for it to happen.  Here?  Nope, the moment you think everything is okay, Godzilla jump scares you by just suddenly swimming by the glass.

And that's it.

And I did not expect it at all!

That's how you jump scare people!  Again, this shows why Godzilla is King of the Jump Scares! There is no lingering shot, there is no "he's still there, he's still there, he's still there...he's still there..."  It just comes right out of nowhere like a jump scare does.  And I did jump.  So again, good work, movie.

And I will say I like Russel as well.  Yeah, he's in the "I hate Godzilla and I wanna see him dead" boat, but it's not taken to ridiculous extremes like you'd think it would be.  He's smart, he knows when to fold them if he has to, which in Godzilla movies...is a good thing.  You see, Godzilla movies tend to have characters like Russel be so over the top moronic in their hatred...you just wanna skip right over them and get to the monster fight.  Russel is not one of these characters.  His wife on the other hand...is an idiot, and I might as well address her.

She's flawed, and I'm glad we have for once a flawed female character in a world of female protagonists have to be perfect awesome people so that the feminazis can relate to them.

 Apparently, the SJWs didn't really affect this movie much, and I'm grateful for that.  Yeah, I had one guy tell me how he hated that Ghidorah wasn't called King and that he wasn't really a he...but an it.  But I had to remind him that pretty much that's all the monsters.  Including Godzilla.  And Ghidorah's first movie was Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster in which this movie is a bit of a remake of.  But not quite.  In fact, I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a remake of that movie.  Right down to Eleven being maybe a person possessed by some supernatural being who wanted to warn everyone about King Ghidorah's coming.  She wasn't at all.  I half expected Tywin to be some guy trying to assassinate her and he wasn't.  And I thought Rodan would team up with Mothra and Godzilla against King Ghidorah after Mothra smacked their asses around and talked about friendship and the heart of the cards and shit, but he didn't and neither did Mothra.  Mothra was on Godzilla's side, but not Rodan.   Rodan was on King Ghidorah's side!  He was one of the banners Ghidorah had Maester Lewin send a raven to.  And another one of those ravens went to Nevada of all places and to...and I'm shocked to say this...Kumonga!   Yes, our giant spider from the 60's Showa era has returned in the American reboot!  And much like his Final Wars counterpart, he decided to be in the American Southwest.  Maybe he liked Cowboys or something.   We also had a giant mammoth creature rising out of Wyoming.  And another MUTO.  Why, Legendary?  Why another MUTO?  I guess we needed to reuse an asset or something.  Well, it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if we didn't.  So...you're checking off the marks here, Legendary.  We even have stock footage in the form of clips!  They are checking off all the Showa marks!

So, while King Ghidorah is flying around in a hurricane he created (totally awesome) and telling Lewin to call his Banners, we suddenly find out that Mamma Russel was actually the mastermind behind this whole "the Dragon has Three Heads" thing.  Yeah, Tywin Lannister wasn't the guy in charge, it was Ma Russel.  And she managed to convince Eleven that this is for the well being of mankind.  You see, she wants the monsters to basically cull the humans and our evil technology, and return the world to a more peaceful time where we were subsistence farmers worshiping giant monsters as gods?  Because that was a more peaceful time?

And this is why she's an idiot.  And her ideas is batshit crazy!  The world has never been more at peace now than any other era.  I'm not kidding about that.  Yeah, we're polluting the planet, and we need to cut back our carbon footprint, but to be honest here...the planet was much warmer during the time of the Dinosaurs than it is currently NOW.   And while I've touted about the lessons of the P-T Extinction Event, aka the Great Dying, in which a flood basalt in Siberia started an out of control greenhouse that resulted in nearly 90% of all life on the planet dying, including the life in the oceans, and set our planet in a biological to be resetted in a way...and that was caused by just the temperature rising on top of all the nasty gasses put into the atmosphere by said flood basalt...I don't think that just going back to subsistence farming is gonna solve the problem, lady.  In fact, it's stated even if we just stop all the polluting now, the damage has already been done.  There is no stopping it.  And NO!  Suddenly causing the entire planet to just become more radioactive is not gonna solve your problem either.  She honestly believed that radiation is some miracle grow fertilizer.  When, no it isn't.   And Carl Sagan can tell you why!  Did you not listen to Threads?  Did you not watch that movie, lady?  I feel like I need to sit you and Final Wars Godzilla down and you both watch that movie together to see why just pumping a bunch of radiation into the atmosphere is not gonna help things.  Final Wars Godzilla needs to learn that we understand the message of nuclear war.  Threads has told us that.  And you, you moronic bitch, need to learn the lesson of radiation will make farming HARDER!

And apparently for a scientist, she's never heard of the Red Forest of Chernobyl.

If you want to know what it looks like to an entire ecosystem when it's been bombarded by radiation...just radiation alone...

See those red trees?  That is caused by massive amounts of radiation being released upon a forest.

Again, I prove why I know more about radiation than anyone who makes a Godzilla movie.  But this time, I will forgive it because this lady is actually stupid and everyone else is far more intelligent in regards to dealing with radiation.  Seriously, how did this woman get a doctorate in which she ended up working for an organization built to study monsters from a time when the Earth was "more radioactive" as it's was stated in this universe's past? And unless you wanna die from cancer or bleeding out your ass, you need to sit your ass down and shut the fuck up.   But thank god this woman is basically the villain and a stupid one at that.  Even Tywin Lannister got tired of her shit.   And Eleven just figured out her mother is a loon.

Basically, Tywin Lannister makes more sense than crazy lady, because well, he at least just wants to release the monsters and wipe out humanity as a whole.  In which the radiation will certainly do that.  So, he's pretty much on the bar on the consequences of what will actually happen more than the idiot bitch.  He just wants to make it happen because he's seen enough evidence of what humans are like, and he's tired of it.  Which I can respect.  Not the whole genocide thing, but the whole...I'm not doing this to "save humanity from itself thing" like crazy moron had pretty much talked herself into...to the point of stupidity and forgetting what radiation actually will do to humans and the ecosystem. Sure, maybe the ecosystem was actually more hardy against radiation in this universe than in our own...but still...that doesn't resolve the issue that TODAY'S plants and animals are not hardy against it! Well our Monarch heroes show up to where Rodan was popping out of that volcano like in the trailer, and we finally get to the first fight.   Monarch leads Rodan to the storm and King Ghidorah, hoping to just have the two fight...but they don't.  Because Rodan is on Ghidorah's side.   So, it's up to Godzilla to take this false king down.  And he does!  He literally pulls a Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and decapitates Ghidorah's head!

Well...the United States has a plan to finally put all three monsters down and it's....

The Oxygen Destroyer

Okay, this is where I'm gonna have to gripe.  Because this thing is the single most stupid idea ever!  But at least it does have a pay off in the stinger at the end when everyone basically states that the Gulf of Mexico is now devoid of fish.  However, the existence of this weapon in this movie is uncalled for.  But I suppose it's meant to set up the scene where Serizawa decides to sacrifice himself to bring Godzilla back onto the field.  And to be honest, it's not needed. King Ghidorah could just be enough to knock Godzilla out for a few rounds while he goes on his little mayhem run and Serizawa can still sacrifice his life to revive Godzilla from that horrid beating.  You don't need this thing in this movie, guys!  You don't!  You put it in there because you had that little teaser a few years back showing the Oxygen Destroyer in an old Monarch location and people were speculating it.   So, you had to give us something.

And people wonder why my Game of Thrones references are happening in this review...because...this is Clegane Bowl, people.  This is Clegane Bowl and how stupid Dumb and Dumber made it.  It comes out of nowhere because the fans were expecting it, and you didn't even bother to set it in the Dragon pits and fill it to the brim with chickens.  We are disappointed with you!

However, I did get a laugh out of it.   Military guy: "We have this weapon we've been developing.  It's called the Oxygen Destroyer!  We're gonna use it on these monsters."

Thanks, America, you just killed all the fish in the Gulf.  You morons!

And it didn't work on King Ghidorah because he's an alien. Tell Kiryuu Knight that!  He managed to stick his Oxygen Destroyer into King Ghidorah and it worked like magic.

However, I will say that you're not the only ones who did something stupid with the Oxygen Destroyer, Legendary.  Kiryuu did to in Halo 3 Different.  He had the thing with him, took it to High Charity, and then forgot that he had it.  Yeah, I'm capable of my idiot moments in writing as well.   But I noticed that no reader really noticed the Oxygen Destroyer was even mentioned in that story...so, can't complain.

Well the Oxygen Destroyer also didn't really kill Godzilla, however it did wound him enough that he retreated to the bowels of the Earth to recover.  Basically Hollow Earth theory.  Or rather, not really.  They call it Hollow Earth Theory, but it really isn't.  I know Hollow Earth Theory because I love poking fun at morons who claim stupid shit.   Hollow Earth Theory looks like this.

See that?  That's a sun instead of a molten core.  This is the theory touted by racists like Hitler and Lewis Farakhan.   The thing the MonsterVerse came up with is more like...the crust is made out of Swiss cheese.  Rather than the Earth being hollow.  Basically, the Earth is Tennessee.  Tennessee's crust is made out of Swiss cheese, and now these guys applied that to the entire planet.  But no, the Earth isn't really hollow in the MonsterVerse, not the way the actual Hollow Earth Theory states.  And that has been my biggest problem with the nomenclature they use for this theory in this universe.  but I guess Swiss cheese Earth didn't really catch on as good as Hollow Earth.   So Godzilla falls through one of these Swiss cheese holes and King Ghidorah regrows his head.  Holy shit!  However, I noticed, to regrow his head, he had to be sitting on a volcano with his storm raging over him.  So...he's drawing power from somewhere to regrow that head, which is why he probably can't regrow his entire body from a single severed head in the totally not gonna make Mecha-King Ghidorah with Tywin Lannister as the pilot stinger. And he's calling his banners.

So this is where we have our Serizawa sacrifice scene.  They go into one of the Swiss cheese holes after Mothra in her full glory appears and starts raining down her prettiness on top of the water to guide them to where Godzilla is...complete with her theme of course...and the guys find out some very ancient ruins of a civilization long gone.  These ruins appear to be a hodgepodge of Egyptian, Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian, Eutruscan, Celtic creation.  Why are they down there, why haven't we seen these things before, and is this the Lost City of Atlantis...I'm banking it's Atlantis.  And the Atlantians worshiped Godzilla...before they all moved to Georgia and built the greatest airport mankind has ever seen.

It's all connected, I tell you!

LAX has nothing on Atlanta!

And the closer to where Godzilla is sleeping, the more radioactive it becomes.  They decide to deliver a nuke to him to wake him up because nukes feed Godzilla.  But the battle with Rodan and King Ghidorah damaged the sub's launching bay and they have to deliver it manually.   So Serizawa draws the short straw, gives Papa Russel his notes on Godzilla, and decides to go in and give Godzilla the pick me up he needs.  But not before Serizawa boops the Goji snoot.  Which is cute. And going back to think on it.  At least Serizawa gave Godzilla much deserved pats.  Because he's a good boi, damn it!  Unlike Jon who...only gave Ghost pats at the last second!

Why you so mean, Jon?!

It seems Godzilla is very much aware of our existence.  As he's shown even in the 2014 film to notice those tiny ants under his feet.  He is very much aware of the humans, and even after he awakens...to the sound of this...

Since when did we import Akira Ifukube into this thing?

Okay, are you trying to show how awesome you are to us G-fans, movie, because we get it!  We get it!  You are awesome.   Thank you for that.

Alright, so Goji theme going on and Godzilla starts heading to where King Ghidorah is.

Meanwhile, Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions along with crazy bitch and Eleven are in Boston of all places.  While King Ghidorah is making a mess out of Washington DC.

But he is making a mess out of the place and according to the scientists, he's also trying to reformat the planet to suit his needs. In Boston, Eleven decides to steal the Orca and head into Red Sox Stadium.  She hooks it up to the massive broadcaster speakers to signal to King Ghidorah to come to Boston.  And it works.  Unfortunately.   Godzilla also gets that signal and he heads for it too.   Papa Russel then gets the idea of rather than letting the Gods duke it out in the Red Sox stadium, it's probably time for the humans to show Godzilla that they are on his team.  And so...by the power of Akira Ifukue...Godzilla and Monarch charge into battle.  And no, not kidding about that either.  They charge in with Godzilla's theme song playing in the background.  And yes, Godzilla knows they are on his team.  You can tell.  You can seriously tell.  Godzilla is surrounded by military planes and he's like "These guys are with me!"

I'm literally getting Godzilla vs. Hedorah vibes from this because Godzilla and the military actually did team up to defeat Hedorah.  And not only that, but Godzilla acknowledged humans several times in that movie.  And yes, this movie is actually dedicated to Banno, who was the director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah.  So, I approve.  And so would he.  And it's explained in the movie why Godzilla recognizes the humans as his allies.  The Orca's signal is not only mixed with the call of an alpha "titan" as the kaiju are called in the movie, but also the voice of humans.  Because we're the alpha predators of this planet!  So, Godzilla, obviously hearing not only that sound, but also seeing human dominance all over the place has pretty much recognized humanity as a partner species.  And apparently he also recognizes Mothra as a fellow partner species that helps him keep the order, so he now has "imprinted" that status onto humans as well.   We're not his pets, Serizawa, we're his partner.  I knew the Serizawa's English was off on that.  But it reaches the coexistence he is trying to achieve. Mothra also joins the fight, but a bit later when Rodan starts fucking Godzilla's shit over.  Meanwhile, Godzilla is building up for a finishing move on Ghidorah...and because of that, there's a timer.  Papa Russel wants to go in and save Eleven before that timer runs out.  And I'm suspecting Godzilla knows this because he's actually holding back a bit.  It's severely hinted that Godzilla knows this.  At least to me it is.  Like Russel shot Godzilla a message or something.

Russel: "Can you keep that thing busy, Godzilla?  I gotta save my daughter!"

Godzilla: "Sure, but not for long.  I'll give you 10 minutes, tops!  But after that, I gotta unleash this nuclear pulse, or else I might blow myself up if I don't."

Russel: "Ten minutes! Got it!"

Again, not that I mind, but Eleven has Arya Stark plot armor, so...she'll be fine.  However, the plot armor is a staple of Godzilla.  So, not that gripey about it either.  Honestly, when dealing with Godzilla, no character, not even the main ones, should have plot armor.   Unless they are so far away from the fight it wouldn't matter.

That rule goes for you as well, Toho!  Especially with that whole 24 week long half life thing you had in Shin-Godzilla!  Plot armor was the only thing keeping those boring characters alive, because it sure wasn't their hazmat suits.  Those things looked like they were made out of tissue paper.  Which wouldn't help in dealing with rads that high.  Even my mother would know that!

So, if 24 week long half life could get a pass on not killing characters in that shit of a movie, this much better one can get a pass on Eleven not dying.

Meanwhile, crazy bitch Russel finally decides to do something of actual merit and go after her daughter.  And Tywin lets her.  Because that's not his problem.  Just as long as she doesn't take his men with her...he doesn't give a shit. 

He really doesn't give a shit.

So that's it for Tywin, we don't see him again until the Stinger, but I've revealed that already.   So crazy bitch goes after her daughter, Papa goes after his daughter, and they end up finding the Orca all smashed up.  And Godzilla is not doing very well in the fight.  He is obviously holding that nuclear pulse in. And yes, it is a nuclear pulse.  He's like: "Russel, hurry up! I can't hold this fart in!"

Mothra punctures Rodan in the chest with her stinger.  And honestly, she's GMK Mothra.  Which is cool.  However, she does end up dying during this fight in the attempt to help Godzilla get back on his feet.  But like always, she is basically a phoenix and will rise from the ashes through another egg. King Ghidorah is kicking Godzilla's ass all over the place.  And when the Russels finally reunite and fix the damned Orca, they turned it on and lead King Ghidorah away from Godzilla long enough for Godzilla to unleash his secret weapon that I spoiled.  The nuclear pulse!  And it is glorious!  He goes red like Burning Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Destroyah, but...it's so much cooler.  This red burning look isn't because he's gonna die, it's him charging up his new weapon.  And that nuclear pulse is...basically like an atomic blast!  Right down to the shearing of flesh from bones!  Unfortunately, crazy bitch basically dies in the fire, leaving Russel and Eleven to watch from a distance as Godzilla incinerates King Ghidorah.

And for good measure to make sure Ghidorah doesn't come back...GODZILLA EATS KING GHIDORAH!  That has never happened in any Godzilla movie.   EVER.  Clap!  This Godzilla is just the most brutal of any Godzilla.  I think GMK Goji might have to bow to this king since he EATS his foes!

And Godzilla stands over a demolished Boston, roars in triumphant.  And as the other kaiju show up, he pretty much pulls a Robert Baratheon.

As if the Game of Thrones references couldn't stop there. So, Godzilla reveals himself to be King Robert Baratheon, which works out because Tywin Lannister is wanting to take him down.   So, I'll describe the stinger at the end of the movie.  We show Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions walking into a bunker and the guy is explaining that after the Oxygen Destroyer, the fishing in the Gulf is shit now.  Because yeah.  It would be.  It's the Oxygen Destroyer.   Well, as he walks into a large room, we see King Ghidorah's only remaining head with flies buzzing around it. And it looks exactly like the scene from Godzilla vs. Mecahgodzilla 1993 when General Aso and a team of scientists come into a room with Mecha-King Ghidorah's head in it...saying "We have it now, a robot to kill Godzilla."

And this is why I think Tywin Lannister is gonna build himself Mecha-King Ghidorah...and take over Westeros.

So all in all, I really look forward to Game of Thrones season 10.  It really is shaping up to probably the best season we're ever gonna get.   And Season 9 of Game of Thrones ended with a huge bang.  I was really satisfied with what they did.  Tywin's back!  And he's backing the real Dragon...with the Three Heads.  I don't think Maester Aemon thought the dragon having three heads meant King Ghidorah, but as George RR Martin stated...prophesies do end up biting your prick off.

So, what do you all think Season 10 of Game of Thrones is gonna be like?

All joking aside, I loved this movie.  I really did.

And continuing the Game of Thrones comparisons, the night fight shots in this film...10 times better than The Long Night of Season 8 of Game of Thrones.  Why?  BECAUSE YOU COULD ACTUALLY SEE FIGHT! But if I have one true gripe to say about it...aside from the Oxygen Destroyer...it's that this movie happened BEFORE Godzilla vs. Kong.

No, I'm serious on this.  This movie sounds like it should have been done after Godzilla vs. Kong.   And I did kinda hated that King Ghidorah had to die in this movie, rather than return as an actual threat again later.

But who knows....we do have that head left over, so anything can happen.