#i have never watched the 2005 anime so i might do that

[glitter-garbage]

so i watched mononoke.........

[redrose10]

Sorry this has taken so long…Here is #10 from the picture game. I hope it’s okay!

Warnings: Angst, slightly suggestive, hints of loosing virginity, small mentions of death and seeing a therapist as well as mental health struggles, cheating , swearing, mention of divorce

September 8th, 2003

To Whomever It May Concern,

My name is Min Yoongi. I live in Daegu. I am in the fifth grade. My hobbies include basketball, music, and sleeping. My teacher said that we have to write a letter that will be sent to a random pen pal. I think it’s a dumb idea but it’s mandatory. So here it is.

September 15th, 2003

Dear Yoongi,

My name is L/N Y/N. I received your letter. I also think this is dumb but I need the extra credit so here I am. I am also in the fifth grade. I like to cook with my grandma. I love animals and purple is my favorite color. I look forward to hearing from you again.

You laughed as you read over the wrinkled faded letters one by one. At the time you did think that writing to a pen pal was the dumbest idea that your teacher came up with specifically to torture you. The guy you were writing was cute at least. The attached school photo showing a gummy smile and beautiful eyes. At the time you didn’t know how much that letter would become a part of your life.

November 1st, 2003

Dear Y/N,

What do you like to cook? I don’t cook much but I love when my mom makes kimchi stew. It’s starting to get cold. I hope that you are able to stay warm.

November 12th, 2003

Dear Yoongi,

It is getting colder which makes it the perfect weather for kimchi stew. It’s almost time for Christmas. That’s my favorite time of the year. Do you have a favorite Christmas Movie? Mine is Home Alone.

December 11th, 2003

Dear Y/N,

My favorite Christmas movie is also Home Alone. I prefer to listen to Christmas music but I will deny it if anyone asks. Do you have a favorite song?

August 14, 2005

Dear Yoongi

I’m sorry that I never wrote you back. We moved and I lost your address. I just found it again though, if you even still live here. You don’t have to write me back if you don’t want to. I just always felt bad for leaving you hanging without an explanation.

By the way…my favorite Christmas song is Jingle Bell Rock.

You remembered that time of your life. Your parents got divorced and you moved in with your mom. Your grandma suddenly passed away not long after. Your best friend moved across the country too. It felt like your life was falling apart and you wanted some sense of normalcy so when you came across Yoongi’s address you decided to write him even if you thought you might die from embarrassment. You folded those letters back up and gently put them back at the bottom white wooden chest in front of you.

September 9th, 2005

Dear Y/N,

I wondered what happened to you. I didn’t mind. They didn’t make me write letters any more at least haha. I’m glad you’re okay though. I just got back from my cousins wedding. It was very boring. If I ever get married I’m going to wear a blue kangaroo onesie or something, ya know to spice it up a little. Have you ever thought about getting married?

October 12th, 2005

Dear Yoongi,

Oh my god, I’m sure your mother will be thrilled to watch you get married in a blue kangaroo suit. Weddings aren’t too bad but I’ve only ever been to my Aunt’s wedding. Her maid of honor got super drunk and started dancing on a table until it collapsed. It was pretty funny. I’ve never really thought about my wedding. I think I’d want to elope but I know my mom would cry if I did that. As long as I marry my best friend I don’t care though.

December 17th, 2005

Dear Y/N,

Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy the holiday and break from school.

February 26th, 2006

Dear Yoongi,

I hope you had a great holiday! We went to visit my grandpa. It was really nice. I’m sorry I didn’t write sooner. I’ve been busy packing. We’re moving again in a couple months. My parents said I can finish this year with my friends but I’ll have to start a new school next grade. I’m scared.

March 3rd, 2006

Dear Y/N,

I think it would be exciting to start over somewhere new. Don’t be scared. I’m sure it’ll all be okay. You can still write to me if you want. I’ll always be your friend.

You were scared. Your mom had accepted a job a few hours away. Your parents agreed to to let you live with your dad for the remainder of the school year but then you’d have to move back with your mom and start at a new school the following semester. It was terrifying until you realized something as you were addressing a new letter to Yoongi.

April 8th, 2006

Dear Yoongi,

Thank you for being my friend. That is comforting knowing that I can always write to you. I just realized we’ll be going to the same school though. Maybe we can meet up some time and be friends in person. Is that weird? Anyways I hope to see you in a few months.

August 2nd, 2006

Dear Y/N,

Sorry it was a crazy busy summer. I had to work on my grandparents farm. Wow yeah it looks like we’re going to the same high school. We should meet up! Meet me underneath the maple tree at the front of the school before first period.

That was the most nervous you had ever been. Your heart rate increased as you walked towards the guy waiting underneath the tree. He was even cuter in person. Part of you didn’t want to meet him. Part of you didn’t want the letters to stop as you were sure they would now that you were at the same school. But you pushed forward greeting him with a shy smile which he quickly returned. Your friendship really evolved that day.

September 18th, 2006

Dear Y/N,

I know it’s kind of silly to write you a letter when we already spend almost every day together but I miss it. I really hate our algebra class. I swear Mr. Park is trying to make sure I never graduate. I think I’m going to try out for the basketball team. I might really have a shot at making it. If I do I hope you come to all of my games!

October 1st, 2006

Dear Yoongi,

Mr. Park is not trying to force you to fail. Maybe if you actually paid attention instead of staring at me the whole time you’d actually learn something… I know you’ll make the team, they’d be dumb not to take you. And of course I’ll be in the front row at every game!

And you were there. Yoongi was the star player. You attended every game cheering for him as loud as you could. You were shocked when after the championship game Yoongi pulled you in for a kiss. Neither of you mentioned it again after that night though.

August 21st, 2007

Dear Y/N,

Can you believe we’re in our second year of high school already? I know we haven’t written letters in a while but it seemed right. I’m excited for this year!

September 3rd, 2007

Dear Yoongi,

I was wondering when I’d get a letter… I’m ready for this year. I can’t wait for another basketball season too. I might look into drama club or something. That sounds fun. I’ll see you at Taehyung’s on Friday right?!

September 8th, 2007

Dear Y/N,

I’m sorry I didn’t come up to you at Taehyung’s party. I saw that you were getting pretty cozy with Hoseok and didn’t want to interrupt, anything going on between you two by the way? Not that I really care or anything but as your best friend I think I deserve to know.

September 8th, 2007

Dear Yoongi,

I’m literally sitting right next to you at the lunch table. We can just talk. But no nothing is going on between me and Hobi. I was actually asking him if he knew when you were going to show up.

September 8th, 2007

Dear Y/N,

Okay cool because I wanted to ask if you would go out with me. I’m sorry I don’t have the courage to say it to your face and have to ask you in a letter.

September 8th, 2007

Dear Yoongi,

Yes I will go out with you...but only if you promise to wear a blue kangaroo onesie at our wedding.

September 8th, 2007

Dear Y/N,

I will wear whatever kind of suit you want me too, birthday suit included ;)

You could still remember how hot your face felt that day. You had a huge crush on Yoongi and were planning to confess to him at the party but he never showed up. You were over the moon excited when he confessed first.

The next several letters were just little bits and pieces here and there. Yoongi took a vacation with his family. You got a part time job at an ice cream parlor. They were all important to you in their own ways but you were looking for one in particular and after some searching you found it.

July 11th, 2008

Dear Y/N,

I can’t believe we’re going to be going into our senior year of high school. Last night was amazing. I hope you’re not too sore. I’m sorry if I did or said anything dumb. I was so nervous but I’m thankful that my first time could be with someone that I love so much. You’ve gotten me through so much and I’m excited to see where the rest of our lives takes us.

July 11th, 2008

Dear Yoongi,

You were nothing but gentle and sweet and amazing. I’m glad I could share my first with you too. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I love you Yoongi.

That night was one that you would never forget as long as you lived. The love that you two felt for each other was overwhelming and you never thought it would ever change.

January 22nd, 2009

Dear Yoongi,

You are a meanie boo beanie. That is all.

January 23rd, 2009

Dear Y/N,

I am a meanie boo beanie but I’m your meanie boo beanie. I’m sorry I forgot that I was supposed to drive you and your sister to the concert. I really am and I promise I’ll make it up to you both. I love you.

You chuckled as you folded up those letters. Teenage you had no self control sometimes. You probably called him twenty five times and sent who knows how many texts. He stayed calm through it all and apologized to both you and your sister. He got you guys flowers and took you both out to dinner. It was probably super hard on his wallet as a teenager but he still did it without even a frown. You never realized how much that meant to you.

August 21st 2010

Dear Y/ N,

It sucks we ended up at different colleges. I really really miss you. Sometimes I regret our decision. I hope you’re doing well and everyone is treating you good. If anyone tried anything let me know and I’ll be there so fast. I love you Y/N.

September 5th, 2010

Dear Yoongi,

I know I miss you too. I hate that you’re six hours away from me. I’m already counting down the days until winter break when we can finally be in each others arms again. Be safe and make good choices. I love you Yoongi.

January 3rd, 2011

Dear Y/N,

I know you just left but I miss you so much already. Your friends seem really nice, but I’m super suspicious of that Namjoon. I’m keeping an eye on him (just kidding…not really though). Before you know it summer break will be here and we can be together again. I love you Y/N.

January 9th, 2011

Dear Yoongi,

Leaving was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was so warm and comfy in your arms. Summer break can’t come soon enough.

PS. You don’t have to keep an eye on Namjoon. He’s nice and all but you’re then only one I want to be with. I’m more worried about all of those women constantly following you around…I love you Yoongi.

Oh boy you sighed to yourself. If you’d both only known the weight of your words in those letters at the time. The next few letters were thankfully light hearted and sweet. Yoongi made the basketball team. You surprised him by driving all day to make it in time for his first home game. Algebra was once again kicking your ass and Yoongi had a particularly hard time in Organic Chemistry. He got a job at a record store and you worked part time at the campus book store. You spent the summer break together before returning to your respective colleges. All normal and nothing upsetting. Then things quickly went south.

November 8th, 2011

Dear Y/N

I miss you like usual. Sometimes I really think about switching school. I’d give up all that I have here to be with you. I love you Y/N.

January 13th, 2012

Dear Y/N,

Christmas was nice wasn’t it? My mom loves that sweater you got her. She wears it almost every day. My brothers coming to visit for a couple days. It’ll be nice to see him since he couldn’t make it home for Christmas. I hope everything’s good on your end. I love you Y/N.

March 7th, 2012

Dear Y/N

It’s starting to warm up just a little. I’m glad because I hate the cold. The only thing it’s good for is cuddling. I miss seeing your face and kissing you. I know we text and call each other like every day but I miss your letters too. I hope all is well. I heard from your mom that you and Namjoon are working on some huge research project together. I’d love to hear about that sometime. Like maybe when we get together over spring break? I love you Y/N.

March 18th, 2012

Dear Yoongi,

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing as much. Things have just been so crazy that I feel like I have no time to even breathe. I’m so sorry I can’t make it for spring break. You sounded so heartbroken over the phone and it kills me. At least summer break is right around the corner right?! This research project is gonna be the death of me. Tell your brother I said he’s a doofus!! I love you Yoongi.

July 21st, 2012

Dear Y/N,

I’m sorry I had to cancel our summer plans. Coach is just so worried about this upcoming season but I didn’t expect him to hold a mandatory summer camp. I know you said you weren’t crying but I could hear it in your voice m and it’s been killing me ever since. At least we had those few days together. You ready for the next semester? You’re gonna kill it!

August 26th, 2012

Dear Yoongi,

How are your classes so far? I heard you got a job at a record label. I’m sorry if you told me that over the phone. I must’ve missed it. How’s that going? I bet you’re impressing all of them.

November 1st, 2012

Dear Y/N,

It’s getting cold again. I hate it but at least the trees look pretty. I’m sorry I missed your birthday party. I got the invite so last minute and I couldn’t get time away from work. I’m going to make it up to you, I promise. They have me working with this singer, Mia. I’m producing one of her songs. It’s my first solo project. She’s so talented. I think she has the ability to really go places. Anyways, I sent you a gift. I hope it got to you in time.

November 15th, 2012

Dear Yoongi,

I got it. Thank you. It’s a beautiful necklace. It would’ve been nicer to have you there with me though. I’m really proud of you and I can’t wait to hear the song. We’re planning a trip to the mountains. Namjoon’s parents have a cabin up there. Let me know if you’d like to join us. It would be nice to see you.

You took a deep breath trying to forcefully stop tears from falling and ruining your makeup. Yoongi in fact did not join you guys at the cabin. He didn’t even mention it. That was also the worst birthday you had ever had. And you knew his excuse of getting the invite too late was complete bullshit because your best friend told you she sent it to him three months in advance and he agreed to come but then cancelled the night before the surprise party. You never told him that you knew that. You also never told him that you spent that night crying into Namjoons chest. It was that moment that you knew your relationship was changing but you had no idea just how much.

The letters stopped for quite a while after that, for both of you. Truth be told the calls and texts slowed down too. When you pulled the next letter out of the box you took a long deep breath. You had wanted to rip this letter to shreds but you knew that would make you quite the hypocrite given what was written in your own letter beneath it.

May 11th, 2013

Dear Y/N,

I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. I’m really sorry that there is a disappointing reason for me to write this letter. I’m also sorry that I’m too much of a coward to tell you this myself……I’m so sorry Y/N. I fucked up so bad. There was this girl…Mia. I can’t remember if I’ve ever told you about her. But she’s signed to the record label and we’ve been working together a lot and FUCK…I’m sorry Y/N. We were both drunk and I just miss you so much and one thing lead to another. I know that’s the oldest, sleaziest excuse in the book but it’s true. I regret it so much. She doesn’t mean anything like that to me. I just needed to release some stress and frustration and it just happened. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m sorry again Y/N. I know I’ve said that like a million times already. I know we can get past this but I also know that if I never hear from you again that it was all my fault and I deserve it and I understand. I love you Y/N.

May 21st, 2013

Dear Yoongi,

Reading that letter did hurt. It hurt for many reasons I guess. But…I have my own confession to make. I kind of cheated on you too. Or I guess I did cheat on you? I made out with Namjoon. I stopped it before it went past kissing and some grinding but I won’t lie and say I didn’t want it to go farther than that. Maybe this long distance thing just isn’t going to work any more. We’ve really grown apart over the last few years and I think our relationship has ran its course. I will always have love for you Yoongi. Take care of yourself and I wish you nothing but success and happiness.

Ripping up those letters crossed your mind even now. Those were moments in your relationship, in your life, that you never wanted to remember again. Ultimately though they were apart of you so you folded them up and set them aside.

Understandably the letters stopped completely after that. You definitely had a few letters stored away in a drawer at home that you wrote but could never bring yourself to send.

And then two years ago you saw a familiar name in your mail box.

October 8th, 2022

Dear Y/N,

Wow it’s been a while since I wrote that…or at least wrote it with the true intention to actually mail the letter. I ran into your mom at the grocery store the other day and she gave me your address. I didn’t ask for it. I promise I won’t be weird and randomly show up one day or something.

I wasn’t even going to write this but my therapist said it would be good for me. I hope things are going well for you. Your mom also mentioned that you were engaged. Congratulations! I hope he’s treating you well. She also said you’re like some big shot at a research organization. That’s really cool. I always knew you’d do something important like that. I hope to hear from you again but I will completely understand if I don’t. No pressure or anything. I miss you Y/N.

You wrote him back. Nothing crazy. Just some info about your job and he told you about the music he was working on. How he got married and unfortunately divorced later the same year which you already knew but you didn’t tell him that. He opened up to you about his mental health concerns and starting therapy and you told him about your struggles as well. The two of you exchanged numbers and talked more that way too. Even after all those years and everything that happened he still felt like home to you.

You stared at the last letter you had written him. You were a mess while writing it. You were questioning your choices, you were exhausted and maybe a little drunk. If you’d known it would be the last letter you ever wrote to him you might’ve been a little more cheerful in your words.

June 16th, 2023

Dear Yoongi

I’m supposed to get married tomorrow but I don’t know if I can…I can’t do it. It just doesn’t feel right and feel like I’m stringing him along and he doesn’t deserve that. I don’t know what to do. I wish you were going to be there, even if you were wearing a stupid blue kangaroo onesie. It would make me feel better...especially if I was in a pink matching one just like we planned. Remember that? You were supposed to be the one I married. My best friend. We promised. But you’re not here. You’re probably in LA right now for your album release party. I hope you’re having the best time. I’m so proud of you and everything that you have achieved. I love you Yoongi.

“Y/N are you ready? He’s waiting outside with the photographer to get your first looks.”, your maid of honor smiled from just outside the door.

“Okay yeah be right there!”, you said quickly shuffling all of the letters back into the little white box.

Standing just outside the double doors trying to calm your nerves you heard your future husband laughing at something the photographer said which helped to bring some sense of comfort to your shaking nerves.

You gave the official okay and the doors were opened allowing you to walk out into the open courtyard.

Your future husband looked up breaking out into a huge gummy smile at the sight of you in a pink kangaroo onesie.

You couldn’t contain your laughter at the sight of him in a matching blue kangaroo onesie, baby kangaroo included.

“Oh my god Yoongi.”, you managed to cough out in between fits of laughter.

“My mom threatened me that if I wore this for the wedding she’d disown me so this was the best I could do.”, he said in between his own fits of laughter, “I’m glad you had the same idea.”

The photographer couldn’t help but smile as she snapped some photos of you before you quickly changed into your actual dress and Yoongi into his tux so she could get some photos that your mothers wouldn’t complain about.

“Five minutes til show time.”, the wedding planner announced.

“I’ve got to go get in place but I wanted you to have this.”, Yoongi said handing you a folded piece of paper before walking away.

You scoffed irritated because you could already feel tears begin to threaten your makeup artists hard work as you read,

August 15, 2024

Dear Lovely Wife,

We have come so far haven’t we? I never would’ve thought that the random letter I was forced to write in the fifth grade would lead me here but I’m glad that it did. I know we’ve made mistakes and have done things we wish we could change but we have been able to move forward from that and I promise to never hurt you in any way ever again. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life as your husband. I love you more than I can really write into words.

PS. I’m definitely bringing the kangaroo onesie on the honeymoon. I have some ideas that may or may not also involve binoculars, rope, and a suspiciously fluffy pair of handcuffs…

[pochqmqri]

I was thinking about this Tweet HIDIVE made two years ago when they were streaming the first season of Tokyo Mew Mew New, and how that basically amounted to nothing since we now have both seasons of the anime for home release (via Sentai Filmworks) and they only have the Japanese audio.

It's a bit peculiar because there was a strong public interest in having a dub of the remake, but HIDIVE never followed through on that, which indicates that something happened along the way, such as a lack of interest from the higher-ups.

That's not to say that dubs of HIDIVE/Sentai shows can't happen after they are initially put out for home release, (ex. To-Love Ru, Insomniacs After School), but if TMMN never gets dubbed, I think there might be a reason why.

So, most people who heard of Tokyo Mew Mew in the west watched it when it was dubbed by 4Kids as Mew Mew Power, so it has a strong nostalgic factor to it. HIDIVE likely wanted to get most of the original 4Kids cast to come back and reprise their roles for the remake.

Something similar happened when Shaman King, another anime dubbed by 4Kids, also got an anime remake, and when it was to be dubbed, Netflix got most of the 4Kids cast to reprise their roles.

However, the main issue is that, unlike Tokyo Mew Mew, most of the actors for Shaman King were still active in the industry. Here's a list of the main voice cast from Mew Mew Power:

Ichigo/Zoey — Amanda Lipitz, has not done voice work since 2005, moved onto directing

Mint/Corrina — Andi Whaley, has not done voice work since 2006

Lettuce/Bridget — Erica Schroeder, continues to do voice work to this day

Pudding/Kiki — Kether Donohue, continues to voice work, but mostly for western productions

Zakuro/Renee — Mollie Weaver, has not done voice work since 2005

Masaya/Mark — Scottie Ray, continues to do voice work to this day

Ryou/Grant — Sean Schemmel, continues to do voice work to this day

Keiichiro/Wesley and Kisshu/Dren — Andrew Rannells, has moved onto Broadway, similarly this is why he did not reprise Len in the Shaman King remake

Tart/Tarb — James Carter Cathcart, retired from the voice acting industry in 2023

Pai/Sardon — Oliver Wyman, continues to do voice work to this day

So, of the main cast, only half of the voice actors would still be available, and of just the Mew team, only 2/5 of them would be reasonably available to come back.

I think what HIDIVE thought was that, if they couldn't get a majority of the 4Kids dub cast back, there would be "no point" in their eyes to doing a dub, because a dub with mostly new actors would not have the same impact in terms of nostalgia. Of course, I absolutely disagree with that notion.

[littleclosetofbyler]

it was me, i was mike

Hello world.

So I got around the byler rabbit hole around 13 days ago (backed up by a comment on the first byler yt video i watched, kinda crazy), and everything went downhill from there until two or three days ago when i realized something extremelly curious: I was Mike Wheeler once.

Now, you might be asking yourself "the f is this woman into" but hear me out: everyone has a past.

So I will tell you a little bit about myself and my first friend crush.

I was around 15-16 when it started, year 2005, she was two years younger than me and my best friend. We went to the same school, she was really really smart, we would hang out because we both liked anime and books and games. Basically I asked her to be my friend during recess one day, of course when you are 15 the interaction goes more like "hey i heard you like anime, me too, wanna hang out after this?"

And hang out we did. A lot.

Fast forward a few years we are in full friendship with me being around 18 and dumb as f. We would go everywhere together and all was great, until I met one of her friends, a guy who was just kind of cool, but I actually just liked his name.

I started dating him, because I had nothing better to do, and my friend and I were okay for around a week, and then this guy asked my friend how he could make me kiss him... and my friend cut me off.

Like that. No longer friends.

In january was her 16th birthday, I called her on the phone and asked why we were no longer hanging out, I told her I missed her and she gave me the answer that has been with me for over 15 years already: "Our age gap is too big".

At the moment I was sad and weirded out, we were friends, best friends, what the hell happened. Until a few weeks later I talked with another friend, a wise dumb kind of guy who told me the second answer that has been with me for years: "She liked you".

I was 19 when I understood my feelings for women were more than platonic, I was 19-20 when I had my first everything with women. I was 19-20 when i came out of the closet.

But when I was 18 and she liked me, I was just... oblivious.

I used to make jokes about gay people, I had a lot of internalized homophobia, I thought things were not very logical at all. It took me years to realize that my "looking up to X older girl" was not a common universally straight experience, not in the way I used to do it. It took me even more years to realize that my first idealization of a "wet dream" was not the man, but the woman in the blue dress and high hair.

A few years more, of should I say, many years more, is what it took me to realize a lot of other things; looking back, my relationship with her was never completely "normal", not for two girls in my country at that age in the year 2007.

Hidden messages, special presents, a folder full of drawings, german music, a little too close in all the photos, sleepless nights on her bed, ice cold tea specially for me, holding hands while watching anime in the darkness of a movie theater, almost hugging while a kiss happened in those movies, sleeping on my shoulder, except that she was never really sleeping.

We were everything and we were nothing, platonic friends only.

Today I am 34, and an openly not straight woman (lesbian? bisexual? I don't know, i don't care).

When I lost her I did not only lost my best friend, I lost so so much more, and it was probably the cathalist for everything that came after.

I miss her to this day.

So I understand the universal not straight experience of the crush on a friend as well as the being the crush of said friend, and let me tell you, I was Mike Wheeler, remember that guy I told you about? Well, I told him I loved him (can´t actually even remember if this happened exactly like this), because he insisted I never said it.

I have never been in love with a man, I am not sure I even ever feel anything for a man beyond platonic whatever.

So, whenever I see people say that Mike Wheeler just can't be gay, or be or anything... oh my sweet summer child, he can be, because I was, at the same age, in a not conservative contry, in 2008; why do you think it might be impossible in the 80's in a conservative town in a pretty conservative country?

Dunno, just asking.

[versegm]

What is Fate/Stay Night?

Fate/Stay Night is a visual novel that came out in 2004. It features three routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel. It is also the first installment of the Fate serie.

If you are familiar with that serie (and if you follow me I think I can safely bet you do,) it's the one game all the other games keep referencing.

If you are not familiar with that serie, it's the game this blonde anime chick you can see everywhere since 2005 is from.

Oooh nifty. What's it about?

The story follows SHIROU EMIYA, a perfectly ordinary teenager with small magic abilities, as he gets dragged in a mage battle royale where the winner gets to fulfill one of their wish. During that battle royale, mages are aided by Heroic Spirits, aka historical and/or mythological figures as summons to fight. As you can imagine, the question of what makes a hero? is a major one in the story, along with What makes a villain? What makes a victim? How does one uphold their ideals?

Cool. Should I play it?

Well that depends on what you're looking for in a story, but if you enjoy strong thematic writing, balls to the wall concepts, and commitment to any worldbuilding implications (be they really silly or deeply horrifying) then yeah you should def go for it! Also, as a visual novel, it is extremely well-made and it fucks with the medium in ways I have rarely seen before.

I'm already familiar with other Fate games and I know the tl;dr of the plot. Do I really need to play it?

Yeah you should!! As I said in the intro, every Fate entry out there references fsn in some way, be in directly by making references to plot elements, or indirectly by echoing and building on its themes. Trust me no amount of knowing what would happen could have prepared me from actually reading it.

Isn't it a porn game?

The original is an eroge, yes, so it did contain sex scenes. The remake, Fate/Stay Night: Realta Nua, replaced the sex scenes with sfw ones. I can give you my personal opinion on which version of these scenes is best if you need me but really it's up to you as to which one you'd rather read.

I tried playing the game a while back but I thought the protag was a cunt.

Yeah I getcha the first route is a bit clumsy by today's standards and it's easy to read the protagonist as a bitchy chauvinist at first. Still he gets better (and in fact never acts even remotely like that in the other routes) so I would ask you to grind your teeth and keep going.

"The first route"? Is there an order to the routes?

There is! In the original game you had to go Fate route -> UBW route -> HF route. Iirc you can play them in any order in the remake, but I strongly advise you to play these routes in this order regardless, because they were very much built with the assumption that this is the way you'd experience things. (A very basic exemple is that the Fate route has a lot more explanations on the worldbuilding and the rules of the battle royales, while the other routes assume you already know this shit and ellipses it up.)

Ohhh. Ok I'm kinda interested. Where can I play it?

Well funny story! This game is like, the ONE fate game that never got any official release in the West whatsoever! So you're gonna have to go with fantranslations. You can play the sfw remake over here, or you can download the og eroge over there.

I'm gonna be real with you bestie I am not committing to a 70 hours-long vn when I don't even know if I'll like it.

Understandable! Perhaps you'd be interested in the anime adaptation of one of the routes then? I'm told the Unlimited Blade Works anime is a good introduction to the Fate serie, its vibes, and therefore whether it might be your thing or not. That being said disclaimer that I have not watched it (<- not an anime watcher) so I can't personally back it up.

Hey why are there like twenty versions of that blonde anime chick

That would require me to make a separate 2k long post king.

Anyways.

[knightotoc]

ranking all the scary movies/shorts/TV I saw and the scary books/stories I read this spooky season (August - October)

Mr. Vampire (hilarious 80s kung fu-jiangshi-ghost bride movie from Hong Kong)

The Innocents (rewatched this beloved 60s British ghost movie about abandonment vs smothering, grief vs insanity)

Carrie (iconic 70s tragi-goofy sexploitation-turned-bloodbath movie)

The Beast in the Jungle (Henry James short story about the horror of missed opportunity, a la I Saw The TV Glow) (which would have been #1 but I saw it before my arbitrary cut off date)

Dracula + Spanish Dracula 1931 (rewatched beloved Dwight Frye vehicle + finally watched its filmed-by-night Spanish counterpart, and learned you gotta see them together)

The Curse of Frankenstein (finally watched some 50s Hammer horror with Peter Cushing as the nastiest Frankenstein ever and Christopher Lee as a pathetic wet cat)

Dracula (más Hammer with da boys)

The Way It Came (another Henry James that I especially liked for being strangely funny)

The Haunting of Bly Manor (rewatched beloved TV show and found more flaws in it this time, oops🙃 but it got me to read these Henry Jameses so 👏 and it still got me to cry 👏)

Boogeyman (free YouTube movie from 2005 that everyone thinks is terrible except for me, I thought it was absolutely fantastic, though that might have to do with all the parallels I was seeing to Attack of the Clones)

Personal Shopper (heartbreaking and beautiful Kristen Stewart vehicle)

American Psycho (the most disturbing book I've ever read, by far the most fucked thing here)

The Exorcist III (I never saw the first one but I skipped to part 3 for my man Brad Dourif and Blatty's always relatable spiritual torment)

Viy (super fun 60s Soviet man vs ghost lady movie)

Weeping Woman Way (I found a new Junji Ito at the library and this was my favorite story, as someone who used to cry all the fucking time)

The Romance of Certain Old Clothes (Henry James story about envy and repression, if you can believe it)

The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa (brilliant Canadian animation short from the 70s made by pushing sand around to give a swirling, wiggly feeling)

The Last Man on Earth (bleak and quite accurate Vincent Price adaptation of the Matheson novella)

Nightbreed (really fun Clive Barker "mean humans vs nice monsters" movie)

Dead Ringers (beautifully sad Cronenberg about the tragedy of utter codependence)

Scanners (an earlier Cronenberg about psychic connections, which is one of my favorite themes)

Society (fun rich people body horror cult movie with a fabulous finale; I thought the rest of it was quite touching too)

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker (👏camp👏)

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (terrifying short story from the 60s about a demon kidnapper by Joyce Carol Oates from Twitter)

The Spirit Flow of Aokigahara (another great one from the Junji Ito book which has an evil mlm makeout and a totally fucked Logan Paul reference)

Minnie the Moocher (very very good Betty Boop, featuring rotoscoped Cab Calloway)

The Lord of the Rings (speaking of rotoscoped, Bakshi's wacky 70s animation which PJ kind of ripped off, kind of improved, but has its own fabulous character that had me weeping the nerdiest tears I've shed since like 2017)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (weird and beautiful Thai movie from 2010 that definitely counts as existential horror)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (people seem very critical of this 2018 adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novella, but I loved it, especially the way it so often keeps the camera on the fiercely protected ground)

Possession (weird European-y movie that is really good but I had a bit of a hard time getting into)

Isle of the Dead (slow 40s Boris Karloff movie with some fantastic agnostic angst)

The Curse of Dracular (very cute new claymation short a guy made for his dad)

Slumber (another Junji Ito, another on the theme of a psychic connection)

The Jolly Corner (really cool Henry James story, also about missed opportunity, specifically a dissolute ex-pat fighting his mean and greedy remained-in-America-sona)

Audition (nasty Japanese time-bendy anti-romance)

The Uninvited (40s movie with a very similar ghost effect to Personal Shopper; I watched it twice and enjoyed the second time more since there's a big twist that reframes everything; saddest ghost crying I've ever heard)

Rope (the gay Hitchcock one; makes me want to see a stage production where the Jimmy Stewart character is actually fruity)

Train to Busan (fun and emotional Korean zombie movie with a kinda stupid ending)

Blade (90s comic book vampire movie with the Volturi if they were Protestant)

Hellboy (romantic and transgender-ish comic book movie from 2004)

Perfect Blue (90s anime movie that predicted internet parasocial relationships; very good but I have some beef with it)

Never Open That Door (50s Argentine anthology movie that goes great with Black Sabbath and Shadow of a Doubt)

Dead of Night (40s British anthology movie with a brilliant framing device)

The Phantom of the Monastery (30s Mexican movie that really understands how horrifyingly effective Catholicism is at preserving stuff)

Eyes of Laura Mars (faboo 70s fashion slasher with another psychic connection)

Nosferatu (rewatched with the Radiohead soundtrack being shown at indie theaters, I thought it was awesome)

Madonna (Junji Ito vs Catholicism feat. pillars of salt)

An American Werewolf in London (very funny Landis movie with a really annoying romance)

The Alter of the Dead (Henry James anti-romance with a kinda weak ending)

The Ruins (silly plant horror movie that feels like the Hunger Games extended universe)

The Ruins (I preferred the movie because the plants just get too smart in the book)

Darth Plagueis (Star Wars at its coldest and meanest!)

Let the Right One In (creative Swedish vampire movie with some great ideas and some really stupid ones)

Hell Followed With Us (ig I'm too old for YA, but I appreciated the representation)

Don't Look Under the Bed (the scariest DCOM; pretty fun lore)

The Legend of Hell House (horny 70s movie that keeps turning me off then winning me back, feat. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing's boyfriend Michael Gough)

The Happening (the Shyamalan that's bad ... on purpose?)

Friday the 13th (fun to watch but man it is not good)

Practical Magic (frustrating cozy 90s witch movie)

Creature from the Haunted Sea (Corman parody with one or two good jokes: "Little did they know that I, Sparks Moran, was an American agent... My real name was XK150")

Carrie (the boring remake with Ansel Elgort, boo!)

Son of Dracula (dreadful 70s Ringo Starr thing with potentially interesting lore and a kinda iconic blood transfusion scene)

Hearts and Flowers (creepy 1930 stop motion that is pretty cool and imaginative but also racist af)

[pastamansta]

🔥 Tim Burton (him as a person or his aesthetic, your choice!)

"Beetlejuice" (1988) reminds me a lot of another film I watched recently; "Tombstone" (1993). Sold by an aesthetic and a FANTASTIC performance from a side character, audiences were conned into loving a mediocre film. I'm not Lindsey Ellis, so don't expect me to talk about the cartoon.

"Batman" (1989) and its sequel is proof that Burton will not be giving up his aesthetic for God or money. Gotham is heavily disconnected from both the film and its source material, with little reason other than its director. There's a reason no one calls these "Keaton's Batmans," they call them "Burton's Batmans." Jack Nicholson is great as The Joker, but that's no hot take. The hot take is that Devito is too horny as The Penguin, and it makes me uncomfortable for a film that's already so sexual.

"Edward Scissorhands" (1990) is a bitter, bitter film where artist finally meets muse. Not, like, in the plot, but in the production. Depp and Burton were made for eachother... or at least that's what I'm supposed to think. This movie's just too messy, however, and can't decide where its focal point lies and leaves me wishing I had just watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (2000) instead.

"Sleepy Hollow" (1999) leaves me, a fan of the original text, I know that's probably a weird thing to say, miffed, even if understanding. Outside of some pacing issues, it's a bold reimagining that feels like Burton attempting to get out of his comfort zone... but I just didn't need this story to be turned into an homage to B-horror. Go watch that Disney short, eh?

"Big Fish" (2003) is his best film. I am hardly qualified to speak on it, and even if I did, I would cry. So, you know, just go watch that shit.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005) is destined to be compared to "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971), and why wouldn't it? In thirty-four years since the making of the original, not a single person worth listening to said "i need this done right," including Burton himself, which is why he tries to add so much, but no amount of additions changes the fact that he casted his muse instead of someone who could, you know, act like Wonka? So, you know, destined for failure and to be loved by everyone who won't watch movies made before 1987.

"Corpse Bride" (2005) is one of only two claymation films that Burton would actually direct, and he uses this time to steal a Jewish story and make it less Jewish. I don't like the ending or the songs and it feels like it could be cut in half and achieve the same effect.

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007) literally doesn't have the iconic opening number from the stage play??? Overall, there's rarely a pairing of source material and director that works as well as this one... If only I enjoyed the source material, eh? So dark, so bitter, so edgy, so... nothing. I never think about this movie. When I do, I think of Mrs. Lovett's dream sequence and remember the good old days of "Big Fish" (2003) when Burton liked to use color.

"Alice in Wonderland" (2010) is one of my guiltiest pleasures in all of film. It is the reason why every time Disney announces a live-action remake, my ears perk up. If all of them were as wild, unhinged, original, creative, and inspired as this one... Well, I think Disney might not be fucking bleeding money right now. No one ever even mentions that it's a sequel to the original animated film. A SEQUEL, not a remake. Sometime movie-goers surprise me with how little they think.

"Frankenweenie" (2012) blows. I don't care how unique it is, I do not like it.

"Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" (2016) is one of the funniest remnants of the teen dystopia genre. Like, it hardly applies, but is trying SO HARD that it's unbelievable. Also, props to Mr. "Black People Aren't My Aesthetic" for casting Samuel L. Jackson as a dude who eats white babies. (I do not mean that.) Seriously, this is proof that Burton, as a modern director, should no longer be taken seriously.

"Dumbo" (2019) is AAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHA I FUCKING HATE THIS DUDE HOLY SHIT

If I didn't mention, I haven't seen it. Yes, I know I skipped some big ones. I may watch them one day, but I am in no rush.

[hanasnx]

Which bruce wayne is ur favourite? (ex. Christian Bale, Robert Patterson) and follow up question why? -🐰

bunny, im so glad you asked. how much time do you have

i don't care about robert pattinson, i did not care about the batman (2022). i'm sure i'll do a full analysis once i'm able to establish my credentials as a lifelong batman fan, but there was a lot that fell so short for me.

christian bale was an exceptional bruce wayne, which is arguably as impossible a role to fill as the role of batman is. i loved bale's aloof and smug nature as bruce, his confidence and faults, but i can not stand his portrayal of batman. not only is the suit design egregious and unflattering, whoever helped him develop his bat-voice was a terrible guide. bale did his best, don't get me wrong, truly i can hear him giving his all and shredding his vocal chords in the process, but it was simply awful to listen to. the dark knight (2008) is still a rewatch-worthy movie of course, but batman begins (2005) & the dark knight rises (2012) was not memorable nor revolutionary. they pale in comparison to the middle of the trilogy.

more (and a TDLR at the bottom) under the cut:

i thought michael keaton's portrayal of both bruce and batman in batman (1989) and batman returns (1992) was boring. any personality he may have tried to bring to batman was washed out by tim burton trying to fit so much of... well... tim burton into something that didn't need any more of that injection. don't get me wrong, stylistically it's appealing, but if you told me that keaton just showed up and started acting as michael keaton instead of bruce wayne i'd believe you because there is no clear distinction between the two. the second movie was way more enjoyable to watch but it was because of elements that had... virtually nothing to do with bruce/batman. it was devito's penguin, and pfieffer's catwoman (and her subplot) that held my attention. i think it's definitely a burton movie, which is fine, and his morbid takes on those characters are interesting, but it was not a defining movie for bruce/batman. it honestly could've been better without batman entirely or benched as a side character / the antagonist.

batman forever (1995) is my secret favorite live action portrayal. val kilmer had bale's charisma when it came to bruce wayne, and gave batman a unique personality that i adored. he didn't shred his vocal chords to give batman a deeper voice either, instead gave himself an elegant yet commanding edge that reminded me of what i admired about kevin conroy's batman voice. as campy as it is, i love so much of what they did with this movie. i often think of it as a standalone vs it being actually a part of the "burtonverse." especially because batman & robin (1997) is supposed to be part of that franchise and i cannot tell you a single thing that happened in that movie besides maybe uma thurman.

another secret live-action favorite of mine was the foundational movie of adam west's portrayal in batman: the movie (1966) and i will elaborate on that another time either by someone's solicitation or my own hyperfixation driven wills.

now that the live-action shit is out of the way, let's get to the real winners.

the dcau or "timmverse" (bruce timm) or "diniverse" (paul dini) is the name for the dc animated universe franchise during 1992 - 2006 which includes loads of favorite shows/movies of mine. which leads me to say: my favorite portrayals of bruce wayne and batman of all time, is kevin conroy's from justice league (2001 - 2004) and justice league unlimited (2004 - 2006). those two might not be as solid as a legend like batman: the animated series (1992 - 1995) where conroy made his debut, but they were one of my introductory pieces to his portrayal and are a source of a lot of love and nostalgia that still hold up today as a twenty-one year old vs elementary school when i first discovered them. i stayed up til the AM watching them which i had never done before that (it was 7am). i would rewatch my favorite episodes over and over again which i have never done for any other show.

as many have already agreed, conroy was the definitive voice of batman for decades. his beginnings in the legendary batman: the animated series (1991 - 1995) put him on the map as bruce's most recognizable VA, and he went on to voice him in many adaptations that i also adore. a few examples are batman beyond (1999 - 2001) and the rocksteady arkham video game series (2009 - 2015). not only did he form a dynamic duo with mark hamill's joker (who is also so important for the joker's character, but i can't elaborate on that here without a terrific tangent) which employed one of the most potent examples of chemistry i've ever seen in media, but i would've trusted conroy's expertise on bruce/batman to the ends of the earth. he cared about that character, and he showed it in every faithful adaptation he performed. trustworthy and admirable, conroy is hands down the best batman by far, and did justice to his characterization that defined my love for the character. without conroy who brought him alive, i doubt i'd be into batman as much as i am or for as long as i have.

i knew that writing this post i'd get emotional. it's been a year since conroy's death in november 2022. i still remember the night before the news and how i had coincidentally imagined a world without him, come to find out the very next day that he had passed away. i remember exactly where i was when i found out, i remember exactly what i did after. he had honestly been a part of life through batman for almost the entirety of it. he was the celebrity i always wanted to meet, no one was important enough to me to go through that trouble. but conroy was worth it to me, and i missed out on the chance before he passed away. i heard he was always so personable and so kind, and who could ask for better from batman, you know? god there's so much more i could say, but i dont want to be disrespectful to his family who i'm sure miss him terribly, and are the ones that experienced that loss. in the grand scheme of things, i was nothing to him and that's fine, but i'm just very proud of him.

TDLR the character bruce wayne / batman portrayals in any live action adaptations fell short when it comes to animated adaptations of his character. batman forever (1995) is my favorite live-action movie, but it's nothing compared to my love for the voice acting of kevin conroy's bruce wayne / batman in justice league (2001 - 2004) / justice league unlimited (2004 - 2006).

[june16th2018]

things i deeply hate in tokyo revengers (and its fandom)

tw opinions

(disclaimer: tkr is one of my fav manga ever)

1 • the animation

the anime adaptation is absolutely hideous and extremely offensive bc what the fuck?? this is so bad and yet yall are eating it up.

everytime i see an edit of the anime i just start shaking and sobbing uncontrollably (especially the takemichi ones bc how can you guys find him handsome in the anime when he's even uglier than kiyomasa)

my friends and i have this really fun challenge where we have to watch a tokyo revengers episode without laughing at the animation (we always end up failing after like 3 minutes)

2 • those dumb kokonui shippers 🤓

don't get me wrong, i love this ship sm i want them to get married and have kids

i just hate ppl who enjoy this ship for this exact panel :

it wasn't romantic shut the fuck up

koko is a really well-written character who is clearly in pain after losing a girl he was in love with (as silly and childish his crush on her might have seemed) and with a very visible mental instability, and yall are choosing to close your 12 years old ass eyes on that just so you can have ship content, gross

again, i love kokonui, but stfu

3 • the toxic y/n/ocs enjoyers

i don't see the point of calling shippers weird if you are yourself a characterxreader enjoyer or an oc creator 🤓

4 • most likely to be a pedo 😇

those weird grown ass ppl drawing or writing the characters in a very sexual way?? if it's a fanart/fanfiction of their adult version then i guess it's okay but the ones when they keep the design of the 2005-6 timeline?? hello??

same goes for grown ass ppl enjoying this content

5 • mischaracterization

chifuyu isn't a soft baby 🥺 stop treating him and drawing him like a goddamn baby it's just embarrassing as hell. same goes for takemichi, yall are wild 💀💀

sanzu isn't canonically a crackhead (i still eat this hc up but just bc we saw him take a pill ONCE doesn't mean he's an actual drug addict like what if he just had a headache and needed aspirin)

koko isn't a sad and exhausted workaholic in bonten, the only panel of his bonten version we got was his wide goofy sassy ass smile and he was saying smth about killing ppl i don't quite remember 💀

draken is in love with emma, i'm tired of seeing drakey shippers in denial, like yes he does give a fuck about her, stop saying he doesn't 💀 also their ship is awesome i love them sm

btw little reminder to every kisanma/hankisa enjoyers : kisaki is homophobic

6 • "takemichi x all"

this might actually be the worst thing ever

takemichi isn't the ultimate rizzler yall

this is embarrassing and yall need to grow up 😐

7 • the way yall are sleeping on naoto

this man is so fine plus he's so determined to save his sister i know my brother would never do the same 💀

8 • the neverending bajifuyu vs ryufuyu war

why

[the-master-of-space-and-time]

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We’re here!!!!!!! Look, I’ve got a hat!!!!

🎩

🐍

Omg, I figured out how to hack the CIA account! What shall we post?

-Zerlan

[sunekichi]

Unpopular Opinions On Doraemon

if we take into account all the long 2d doraemon movies (so, excluding stand by me & its sequel), nobita and the windmasters (2003) is the best one by far. although i haven't watched them all yet, none of the others i have watched comes close to this one.

in general, i'm not a big fan of these movies where they go on adventures (the only one i absolutely loved and would watch again with no issues is nobita and the windmasters, maybe nobita's dorabian nights too). this is one of the reasons why i have watched stand by me 2 at least 7 times, despite its flaws. they should bring back short movies like dorami-chan: mini-dora sos!!! and nobita's night before a wedding (but possibly come up with new stories, that take place in the future, considering we already know this one by heart).

the art style they use for the 2005 anime is atrocious, they should have sticked with the one they used in the late 90s and early 2000s, it was so polished. well, with the 2018 animation update things only got worse. at least many of the episodes that came out between 2005 and 2017 were fun, but the recent ones are boring as fuck and most are just bad remakes of classic episodes.

saved the most important for last: some of the grown ass men in this fandom call shizuka a gold digger and they don't even know they're talking about. you've probably seen this image already, now tell me: what kinda power does gian have? because nowadays you have more chances of solving your problems with money, not violence (that's gonna get u in jail if anything). she didn't even need dekisugi's help with homework since her grades were pretty good as well. it's actually common for students to enjoy studying with their friends. and who are her other friends? exactly, 3 kids who couldn't care less about school, so no wonder she'd rather do her hw with dekisugi. also, what's wrong with a rich kid inviting his friends to his family trips? cuz if i recall correctly suneo always invited shizuka AND gian, never only shizuka. and that's bc those 2 are his closest friends. and let's not forget she married the guy who wasn't rich or good at school, which says a lot about her. mind u they got married when they were 24-25, doraemon had prolly been gone for a decade by that time (so she did not marry nobita for the fucking gadgets). she chose him over dekisugi, who had also proposed to her (the others hadn't, which makes sense bc it was always platonic what they had going on with her). this speaks volumes on her character i think, she could have had a flawless guy who works as a fucking astronaut (=💸) but she said no.

i would like to know if y'all agree, especially abt the last one. my other opinions i know are quite controversial: idgaf. and i might make a part 2 cuz why not!

[albertonykus]

The storylines in the Doraemon anime (both the 1979 series and the 2005 series) come from a variety of sources. Naturally, most are adaptations of chapters from the manga, and they’re generally pretty faithful to the source material. (One might wonder, with the anime having been on the air in one form or another for over 40 years, are there any stories from the manga that have still never been adapted into either series? The answer is yes.)

Others, however, are often entirely new stories created for the anime, and these can be a whole different beast. Recently, I caught one of these anime exclusives, the 1993 episode “人生やりなおし計画” (approximate translation: “Life Do-over Plan”), and it was... interesting.

Only a handful of stories in the manga depict Nobita and his friends’ lives prior to the start of the series, before Doraemon entered the picture. The anime, on the other hand, has explored this period of time a little more often. In this episode, Nobita thinks about when Gian and Suneo started bullying him, and traces their behavior back to a specific incident that occurred when they were in kindergarten, during which the two made him take their backpacks back to their homes for them. He regrets having caved in so easily to their coercion at the time, so Doraemon brings out a gadget that returns Nobita to kindergarten age, while allowing him to keep his current mental and physical capabilities. Nobita and Doraemon then take the Time Machine into the past and witness the event as it happened.

After past Nobita runs away from Gian and Suneo, present Nobita retrieves the backpacks and confronts them, turning down their demands. Gian tries to force him to cooperate, but Nobita is able to handle him easily due to retaining his strength as a 10-year-old.

Yet when past Shizuka hears that Nobita used violence against Gian, she gets angry with past Nobita (much to his confusion). Shizuka takes Nobita to clear things up with Gian and Suneo, only for the bullies to gift Nobita a mystery box containing a spring-loaded fist as retribution.

Seeing all of this, present Nobita catches up to Gian and Suneo as they depart, intent on teaching them another lesson. However, Shizuka asks him to stop, so he relents and lets Gian and Suneo make fun of him some more before they run off again. Shizuka praises him for doing the right thing, whereas Doraemon, watching from above, laments that they weren’t able to alter the past after all, but appreciates that Shizuka was always the one who knew Nobita best.

This is a curious story for a few reasons. Bullying can be a tricky subject matter to handle in children’s media, and the implication that Nobita never could have stood up to his bullies without losing Shizuka’s friendship is pretty depressing! Shizuka in the manga doesn’t approve of initiating aggression, but she is not a proponent of taking it lying down either.

On a few occasions, she even takes action herself.

Just another example of the anime watering down her personality, I suppose (even if in this case, one could speculate that her perspective changed between kindergarten and the present day).

[nova-appleade]

I promised this like forever ago and I'm finally posting it now:

Me and My sister's collective ranking of all the Winnie the Pooh animated movies

(That are available on Disney Plus)

Before I start I am completely aware that I probably have a bias to some of these, as I grew up with a few. I tried to look subjectively at each movie and take into account both characterization as well as how the movie feels as a whole and it's plot.

I'll try my best to avoid any spoilers, as well.

9) A Valentine for you (1999): 3.5/10

Starting with the obvious outlier here: I know this is technically a short and not a movie. The fact of the matter is though that I watched it and hated it. It felt... cheap. Rushed. I felt no love or care was put into this while I was watching it. What plot it has makes little sense. Though I understand what they were going for, it doesnt feel fitting for Winnie the Pooh canon. The only reason it has a 3.5 is because the song Tigger and Rabbit sing, while short, is actually kinda cute and catchy.

8) A Very Merry Pooh Year (2002): 5.5/10

I don't have a lot to say about this one, either. It was very cute, for what it was! I enjoyed myself watching this, unlike the previous entry. The split apart plot threw me off, though, and it felt more fitting for multiple shorts rather than trying to make those two plot ideas fit together in some way. Felt very disconnected as a whole.

That being said, I did enjoy the second story way more than the first. I love it when the characters show such genuine care for each other.

7) Springtime with Roo (2004): 6/10

It does pain me to put this movie so low. I mean, a quarter of it is Tigbit FanFiction. That's like one of my favorite things. The conversation Tigger and Rabbit have halfway through always hits me in the heart. You never see them actually have a sit down talk and try to understand each other, and I love that about this movie.

There are just certain things that bother me. Perhaps I'm picky. The movie just didn't stand out to me in a way that the ones above it have. There's no real story. Just felt like Rabbit being hurt for an hour or so.

That being said there is genuine charm here I can see why some might rank it higher.

6) Winnie the Pooh (2011): 6.5/10

I also like this movie. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Tom Kenny as Rabbit is hilarious. This is probably the funniest movie in the whole series. (To me)

My problem with it is also the thing I like about it. The comedy, while funny, also comes as a detriment to the characterization. I feel as if they play up the characters' traits to the point they feel hollow and one note. Rabbit is over the top, Piglet is a kiss ass to Pooh, Pooh is... kind of self centered?? They don't feel like themselves. These characters do not feel like they would genuinely care for each other as true family. The Tigger Movie would never happen in this universe.

Like I said, I think the movie is funny. It's entertaining in its own way. But I can't see it being canon in any way shape or form and that stops me from putting it higher.

5) The Heffalump Movie (2005): 7/10

This is a really sweet movie. It has such a wonderful message, and I love the change they made to the Heffalumps as a whole. I think it really expands the universe.

Roo and Lumpy have such a sweet friendship. I can't very well speak on the messages in this movie aside from "don't judge a book by its cover", but I do think they do a good job of conveying the lesson simple enough for children to understand, while not treating them like they're stupid.

I have no real problems with this movie. I just think the ones I ranked higher are better than it.

4) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977): 8/10

I feel like this was a perfect introduction to the characters and their personalities. There's something so charming about how it's aged.

I know my bias is showing through with this entry, but even as an adult I truly appreciate everything about it. I think, for the time it was made, it did what it wanted to just right. It didn't want to tell a big story, so it didn't. I don't feel like it needed to, either. I think the stories flow nicely into one another and fit well in the universe.

3) Piglet's Big Movie (2003): 8.5/10

I'll be honest, I grew up with this movie. It's so beautifully charming and heartfelt.

I actually don't have too much to say about it, either, though. I love the characterization and the lesson it tells. I love how the characters feel as if they've known each other for their whole lives and truly love and care for each other like family. It's warm and even when they're fighting you can tell they only do it out of a place of genuine care.

2) The Tigger Movie (2000): 9.5/10

I realize this might be a controversial(?) place to put this movie. I can completely understand why some would put it at their number 1 spots.

That being said, I love this movie with every fiber of my being. And believe it or not, no, I didn't ever see it when I was a kid. I only watched it for the first time a few years ago.

The Tigger Movie is beautiful and gut-wrenching. Most definitely the saddest of all of the movies on this list. I could go on and on about it forever. I love seeing Tigger in the spotlight of anything and I love seeing his emotions and thoughts. The themes of love and family are unmatched. Not to mention the songs! There isn't a single bad one.

The only thing that keeps it from being a 10/10 for me is Rabbit’s role in this movie. I realize I am being picky with that and I don't want to elaborate purely on the fact that it isn't anything but a very minor complaint for me.

1) Pooh's Grand Adventure (1997): 10/10

Literally the perfect Winnie the Pooh film in my eyes.

The songs are catchy and filled with wonder. Each character feels like they were torn from the page of the book. You understand where everyone is coming from in their point of view and you can't help but smile and laugh and cry with them during each moment.

Their family dynamic is so beautiful and innocent. There's nothing I would change about any of it. I still get emotional watching this and the Tigger Movie both.

Hell, Pooh's Grand Adventure is one of the reasons I have been into storytelling since I was young. It is still one of the stories I look back on and aspire to write something as whimsical and pure as.

If you got this far, thank you! These are of course just my personal opinions and I'd love to hear your own rankings! 😊✌️

[kop-mischief]

The Spider-Verse animated films are so fricken gorgeous it reminds my cold dead heart that media is still capable of making me feel pure fucking joy. I mean the visuals are an artistic and technological feat on their own. Then add writing with the balance of heart, humor, pain along with a soundtrack lining up with shots that completely emerse and wrap the film around your entire being. Even the most ridiculous of characters (looking at you Peter Porker) are are given the respectful amount of depth for their role in the film. I'll never say a movie is "perfect" but shit... Into the Spider-Verse was the closest to perfection I thought you could possibly get. Then Across the Spider-Verse 1 up'd it.

I love how nerd culture has reached to point where it's given the financial resources like never before but unfortunately we've also seen it broken down into megacorp studio formulated soulless cash grabs. I just want to feel man. Look what Disney did to Star Wars. Lucas may have made it...not great but Disney made it boring. Which might be worse. BORING! (cept you Andor. You keep doing you).

It was my birthday and I picked seeing Across the Spider-Verse as the birthday meet up. A few weren't thrilled with my pick but they tagged along to hang. One of those peeps told me after the movie - "I didn't know half these characters since I only ever seen 1 Spider-Man movie years go cuz I'm not a nerd like you guys (Just a different kinda of nerd who's gears more towards Star Trek lol) but that was a fantastic fucking movie." Not seeing the previous Into the Spider-Verse she really appreciated that this one made the Spider-Man mythos easily translatable for those who are unfamiliar. It's a testament to everyone who made these movies possible to how much love and thought went into these.

I switched majors to animation in 2005 focusing on experimental 3D. Much if what I tried to do was bringing my 2D illustrations and incorporating them in a stylized fashion. Shortly after and doing a small stint in post production I watched the craft partially devolve into low risk cookie cutter digital noise as 3D got cheaper and easier to utilize. (Video games fortunately still inspired me) Considering my job and my team relied on digital VFX its kinda bad when digital artists are wishing for the return of more practical effects. Hit us especially hard after Mad Max Fury Road came out.

So yeah. Not kidding when I say I nearly cried in the theater with both movies. I'm almost wanting to open AE and play around with animation again. Pixar can pump out beauty and pluck heart strings like no one else but the Spider-Verses are like walking through a museum of different art installations depicting eras across media history, culture and artists. This is the potential for 3D I've been dreaming of since 2005.

[pbandjesse]

Me and James are at Jess's house! None of us are tired but we have to wake up at 5 to go to the airport so we are going to try our best to get some sleep.

Today was a restful day. Like I did my best to not make myself crazy. I slept in even! I actually wanted to keep sleeping past 930 but I knew it would actually make me feel worse so I slowly worked on waking up.

Dad had texted me not long before I woke up so I asked if I could call him at 10. And when I did I put him on speaker so I could continue to lay there. But it was so nice to talk to him. He told me a story about when he first bought my childhood home and how he got hurt. I didn't know that! They told him he would never work construction again, but we know now that he got better. But that must have been so scary for him.

He wished me and Jess a good time on our trip and we said goodbye. And I finally actually got up.

I decided to take a shower and shave my legs. Which we never have enough hot water for. But I made it work. I did not wash my hair so I will have to do that Sunday night. At the hotel. Which is not my favorite thing but it fine. I got dressed and felt really cool. This was a good look.

I spent the morning cleaning a bit. It was more organizing then like swiffering and wiping things. I made the bed. And shook out the rugs. And then rolled them up to pack them away. I had leftover Indian food for breakfast with tortilla chips. And I watched some videos. I packed a few more boxes and took down all my miniatures from my wall of house frames. I could not take down the houses because our drill is at the house. So that will have to be done later but I made great progress and it felt good.

I sat down to catch up on all my knitting. Which took about an hour. I just watched a video and did all the attachments and I am very pleased with January so far. I'll finish this month and start the next next weekend after we are back.

Once I was done I put on some shoes to walk to Walgreens. I got some gum and a cliff bar and a new nail file. I wandered around and hugged the stuffed animals. And then walked home. I found a really cute basket in the alley that I took home and packed all my 2005 and 2012 furbies in with my mom furby robots. It was a good time. Felt really productive.

I went through my packing for Disney again. I wrote down every item in an inventory. And double and triple checked that I wasn't missing anything. And there were things so could have added for sure. But I really wanted to be streamlined, so I can have room for any souvenirs, and so I wouldn't have to carry to much. And I think I did an excellent job. I feel like this might be the best packing I've done since me and Jess's road trip.

By the late afternoon I just wanted to lay in bed with sweetp. He was being very very needy. I was filing my nails and he was biting the file and being a menace. But I would get up to sweep the studio because after I moved the rugs I discovered how much junk was under the rugs and dirt and pins and junk. So I went to borrow the broom from the hallway and discovered I had some packages. Amazing.

After is wept I opened my packages and it was some house stuff. The window clings. Some contact paper. Things like that. I also got a new hair clip that looks like a bird and a little bow ring that I think it so darling. Like a little reminder on your finger.

I had some Mac and cheese and chilled with sweetp until around 330. And then I decided to get some snails out of the frog tanks, something I have let fall by the wayside. And then refill the water and feed everyone. Because then it was time to go. I said goodbye to Sweetp and told him I would be back in less then a week. And then I was off.

I struggled to the car a bit. But mostly because things kept falling out of my pocket. But I was able to collect everything and things were okay. And then I was off to the museum to meet James.

I would come inside after rearranging my bags in the backseat in the parking lot. James ran out the door to point at me and we were both smiling and laughing so big. I hung out inside with them and other Jesse for a little bit. Talking about wedding venue prices and how James wants the crane to get big googly eyes to become a new mascot for the museum. Which I think is a great idea.

We had to leave though. And after a quick stop for fries and nuggets at McDonald's we were off. And it was a nice ride. We had a nice conversation about life and names we like and being together. It was really good.

We made one more stop at a rest stop. Where I looked at the claw machines but did not play. And then pretty quickly we were at Jess's!!

I was really excited to see her. And quickly we were all piling in her car to go get Thai food for dinner.

This place was a hole in the wall but the food was great. We had some very silly conversations about our childhood meals and things we like or don't like and there were lots of laughs and it was just really lovely. Two nights this week I got to have dinner with my favorite people. I'm so lucky.

We got back here and I tried to help Jess with her packing. But she wants to bring three pairs of sneakers so there was only so much I could do to help consolidate. I think in the end we did a pretty good job. And we were able to get two pieces of outerwear cut from the suitcase and that freed up a bit of space. Jess said she hated me that I was only bringing my one fleece. But my black fleece has been all I want to wear since I got it so I just lucked out!! I didn't even bring a sweatshirt, figuring I will buy one in Disney probably. It's not my fault she wanted to bring a fleece, a crew neck, two cardigans, a zip up hoodie, a rain coat, and a denim jacket! She wanted to be prepared for every weather. I decided to just love with the consequences of bringing just this one.

We would do what we could though. And after switching some of my trading pins to her lanyard and moving a few things around I feel like we are ready and will have to do very little in the morning. Excellent.

That whole time James was in the couch working on editing their podcast. It was nice to have their energy there. I am going to miss them being there this week!!! It will be very hard being away for so long.

We would all start getting ready for bed. Against our wills. But James is winding down now. Despite an annoying cough they keep having at night. And I am ready to try and sleep too. I am going to go grab my water from the other room and turn off the light. I hope I can get some sleep.

Tomorrow we will fly to Florida in the morning and spend the day at Disney springs and exploring our hotel/resort. I'm very excited. I am going into this with an open mind and open heart and just going to lean into every experience I can. I think it's going to be wonderful.

I hope you all sleep well tonight. Wish us luck and safe travels! Tomorrow I will be writing from Disney World! Goodnight!

[moveslikeanape]

yes, i remember hearing that about disney having the rights for tarzan until around 2005 as well! i wonder if kingdom hearts being a collaboration between disney and a completely different company may have complicated things further for them. the second game "chain of memories" was released in 2004 and has a plot where sora revisits every single disney world he visited in the first game, in the form of essentially replicas of those worlds created out of his own memories... except the tarzan world (deep jungle) is inexplicably missing. there is, however, an early development image from that game that indicates it was planned to appear at one point and was removed. it's a shame, i would've loved a chance to see more parts of the world and interact more with tarzan and jane.

this reminds me, there's been quite a few other disney crossover projects over the years that tarzan characters have never appeared in and i'm sure it must be because of the copyright issues. the mobile game "disney magic kingdoms", for example, features nearly any disney movie and any character from said movies that you could think of except of course for tarzan! and i wish something could be done to allow them to appear. i don't know if you've heard of the disney lorcana trading card game, but the cards from it have some gorgeous art and even though it's still pretty new, it's done a good job so far of representing some of disney's more neglected properties. but obviously there's no tarzan cards and i fear that eventually it'll be the only movie in the disney animated canon to not have any. i am glad that the characters were allowed to show up in the recent once upon a studio short, at least. ooh, yeah, i've never been to the festival of the arts either but i've seen videos and pictures from it online! i would love to be able to go and see all of the beautiful art and the disney on broadway concerts in person. i'm actually not very familiar with the tarzan musical, but i love several of the other musicals disney has done. also, i'll definitely have to check out those artists you mentioned! i highly agree with you about howard ashman. i don't know if you've seen the documentary about him, simply titled "howard", but i definitely recommend it. another one of my favorite things about beauty and the beast is the way that belle and the beast are both people who have been ostracized from society in different ways but who are able to connect and find happiness with each other. and when i think about how howard was a gay man with HIV who poured so much of himself into the lyrics he wrote and all of the ideas he contributed to the movie, it just breaks my heart that he never got to see it completed. he and alan were such a perfect team. -🌟

That's a good point, that probably did make things more difficult. The more companies involved, the more legal stuff to work out. I'm so glad Tarzan was included in the first one, but so sad they never brought him back, especially when it looks like they wanted to.

Disney Magic Kingdoms is the only game I actually do play! I've never had any hope we'd get Tarzan in that, even with how good they are with rarer movies… they even just added the Black Cauldron!!! But I've often dreamed of what could be. The thought of what the tokens might look like, and the attractions they could do?! Obviously the Treehouse, but maybe one based on Trashin' the Camp, or a "tree surfing" roller coaster?

I haven't really looked into Lorcana, but I have seen some of the artwork, everything I've seeing looks so incredible!! Would be so amazing to see Tarzan characters included. Darn that copyright!

Once Upon a Studio was so amazing. I watched "knowing" there would be no Tarzan, but they took so much pity on us. Still incredibly short, but there was so many Tarzan characters in it!!

I've seen Howard a couple of times, it was so well done and so worth the wait for it. I agree with you about Belle and the Beast. Howard really brought that out in a way no one else could. It's so unfair he never got to see the masterpiece he helped create, but what a gift he gave to the world.