#i have not watched watched the dub just heard some clips and just knowing the english language i personally feel like

[threadmonster]

Do you ever think about how if a person got into a series/fandom after peak popularity they totally missed out? Not in a bad way, I just think getting to experience and participate in the explosion of a fandom is a totally fun and insane thing that might only happen to a person once. It's not just "a fandom" it's when the fandom of a series you totally love and resonate with happens.

[nico-di-genova]

i come to your inbox with Heavily Researched News™ (i listened to off track and did some quick googling) containing info for your 'a lesson in braking' alex.

so, in 2022 there was a huge prank pulled on conor daly on day one of the indy500 (dubbed Beadgate), where someone filled his hot tub with what he estimated was 400,000 orbeez. his top list of suspects were josef newgarden, callum ilott, tony kanaan, colton herta, kyle kirkwood and scott mclaughlin.

in hindsight, daly thought he'd heard some noise outside his trailer

'there was a lot of guilty faces in the paddock this morning, and i can’t figure out which one is the culprit,' daly said. 'it’s a tough scene. i think the primary suspects are the dads of the indycar community, too, because apparently children like to fill up these little fake guns with water balls and shoot them at people.'

newgarden called daly that night 'in a very scared manner' to try to convince daly that he wasn't guilty of the prank. daly suspected callum of being involved 'cause he was hanging out with him a lot as he was looking for the culprit and wondered if callum is keeping himself close to the situation to throw daly off.

callum meanwhile, claimed he’s innocent because he wasn’t prepared for the shenanigans to ensue so quickly. (but as a rookie, he was fully prepared for being pranked himself and had bought supplies to retaliate if that was the case)

ilott said that it was a genius and clever prank and wondered why daly was considering him a prime suspect and why alexander rossi wasn’t being considered at all.

kirkwood said he spent $40 on chlorine and test tubes to keep the hot tub running properly so why would he ruin it?

marco andretti also wondered why nobody was considering rossi, as well as james hinchcliffe.

'I’m so busy worrying about my race car right now, but it is funny to look at on social media,' andretti said. 'hinch has some time on his hands. rossi is always a culprit, isn’t he?'

but rossi claimed to have an alibi 'cause he and hinch was with daly as it happened on monday night, so he couldn't have done it... right?

wrong. guess what?? turns out he really should have listened to callum and andretti 'cause it very much was alex (with the help of sage karam) who filled daly's hot tub with 1.76 million orbeez (which cost him 483 dollars which was almost as much as the hot tub itself btw). he just didn't do it on monday night, he did it on tuesday morning.

and this is how he confessed:

daly's reaction to finding out btw:

and alex explained it all in detail on the 'off track' (don't know which episode, i watched the youtube clip titled 'the hot tub prank') where he claimed to have done legitimate research into how many orbeez it would take to fill a 242 gallon portable hot tub (which is apparently how large daly's hot tub is), which honestly? very believeable to me.

the cherry on top of it all? the way daly found out about the prank to begin with. 'cause daly had guests over and he wanted to show them his brand new hot tub.... cue him lifting the lid on the hot tub and finding 1.75 million orbeez instead of water.

and the reason behind this hilarious prank??? daly did this to rossi TWO YEARS EARLIER in 2020:

so essentially, when it comes to pranking alexander rossi? fuck around and find out.

…so when I said alib Alex breaking the water pump in the fountain at school…where he dumped a fuck ton of soap in there senior year…after researching which brand of soap would produce the most bubbles…I was actually underestimating the lengths he would go to?

Jasmine honest to god this is the best possible Alexander lore dump you could have given me. I am absolutely in tears. What the actual FUCK goes on in his brain??? He plotted, he planned, he did THE MATH to figure out how many fucking orbeez he would need to fill this thing? Because…the wheels were taken off his golf cart TWO YEARS PRIOR??!!

He’s so insane, he’s so absolutely crazy insane. Nearly $500 on orbeez beads…I love him. I opened this ask with absolutely no idea where tf it was going and now I am sitting here laughing so hard I am actually in tears. I can’t get over the image of him researching this. He absolutely was not fucking around.

And not only did he own up to it, he shows the actual receipts. My respect for his commitment is through the roof rn. When people say race car drivers are competitive this is actually what they mean. I am now also a little scared of him and his unwavering resolve to finish what is started.

What I’ve gathered from this is you should probably never engage in a prank war with Alexander Rossi. It is a guaranteed loss and he will decimate you to the point that you are preparing to proudly show off your brand new possession, only to find it has been broken by toxic water balls.

[farasen]

DWK Iceberg

Tried to make it as full as I can, but there could be stuff that I'm missing or simply can't remember, but I hope it's good enough

I think first two layers are clear: the sky is for general information that most people expect to see when finding this media, and the top is for those who watched the series. I think I should break down some points in the rest.

Layer 3

Book version of s1. That's all it is. It has a map and character descriptions, but nothing interesting beside that.

Level 2.0 books. Haven't read them, so I can't tell what's happening there. I'm not sure if it's even based off the animated series, I think it bases on the original books, but it uses the series characters designs.

Markus' mother, Raban's aunt. In s1e5 you can see Markus' mother, Tamara. Raban's aunt is mentioned in s2e4, she lives in Höchstadt.

Surnames. Only a few characters have canon surnames in the series, the rest are taken from books and movies.

Layer 4

Map. From the book that I've mentioned in layer 3.

Beta designs. Honestly, I have no idea what that is and where it came from. I assume it's old designs, but I'm not sure.

Absence of s1e10 in Finnish dub. I heard it was banned due to depiction of cruel bullying.

Spanish Deniz. So they've changed his name to Rico Perez in eng version and now many Russians and probably English viewers who don't know about the original think he has spanish roots instead of turkish.

Layer 5

Marlon without dredlocks. There's merch where Marlon is depicted with loose hair.

Nerv and others in lvl 2 books. They're litteraly on the cover. Also would like to mention a different cover for that book that I've found.

Arabic intro. Nothing special, you just get to see this lil thing at the beginning.

April. A girl from lvl 2 books that seems to be Marlon's love interest or something???

Layer 6

Conny had alcoholism. A theory about the reason why Jojo ended up in a orphanage. It appears to be canon in the books, as far as I know.

Surnames. Natasha's surname comes from the 6th film I think, there was a niece of Mickey with that surname.

The holy apple vodka. A local meme in Russian community from, like, 2019 or 2020 I guess.

Censorship. You can see the full clip here.

Shimeji Leon. This guy.

Layer 7

Weird implications. It's just... The Mayer thing.

Franz is Jojo's dad. I mean look at them.

Refences to serial killers. In s1e10 you can see doorbells with the names of some serial killers/rapists, cult leaders and tyrants. Why would they put that in a kids show? Idk

Deleted animation meme. ''Untrust us'' meme based off Benz' dark AU and created by her as well.

Layer 8

Here assembled things I think very few people know about or seen??? Even I don't know what are some of those.

The play. No Idea what this is, but maybe a play of some kind...

DWK website. Or a game?? Idk, I just found this pic like 5 years ago or so.

Deleted tributes. Clips that I've made at the age of 11, inspired by those mlp slideshows and posted it on YouTube. You never gonna see it tho.

Mettaton Markus. Yeah, that happened.

Leon/Sailor Moon. Oh, deviantart, thank you for having people that do these edits.

[bird-inacage]

CALL ME BY FIRE (SEASON 3): Participation of Jeff Satur

Now this has been the most uncanny crossover I never saw coming. A show I've been watching for years, and my introduction to thai BL which initially put Jeff's name on my radar. Here's some context for any fans who have heard of his participation and want to know more.

Call Me by Fire is a mainland Chinese TV competition show. They invite 33 established male celebrities with the goal to form an ultimate "boy band" by the show's conclusion. What tends to be the incredible pulling factor is they'll invite a combination of singers, musicians, actors, dancers, idols, presenters - incredibly well known faces in the industry - many of them hugely respected OGs in their field. (The demographic is usually late 20s+) so there's an intentional sense of maturity, experience and wisdom amongst the ensemble. The emphasis isn't really on forming this 'fictional' boy band, it acts as a mechanism for us to get more up close and personal with these artists. Allowing viewers to appreciate their creative genius, as well as who they are as people.

This show came as a spin off of another series 'Sisters Who Make Waves' which has the exact same premise but for female celebrities. Because it became such an instant hit, they made a male version shortly after.

As a Chinese speaker, I've been watching both shows since they started in 2020. Both are in their third season (with Call Me by Fire broadcasting right now). This year they've decided to include more participants (of mainly Chinese/Asian descent) from America, Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand - along with the majority from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Why I find this show both incredibly entertaining and compelling is because you get to watch spectacular collaborations between some of the most talented artists of this generation, and witness them embark on a journey of brotherhood through a shared love for performance (they live, work and perform together for the duration of the show). For me, theres also a massive nostalgia factor, because a large portion of these artists will be people I grew up watching.

There will be a lot of new attention on this show due to the Jeff's involvement (whose dubbed ‘Luo Jie Fu’ in Chinese). We’re only on Episode 2, and he's already making a huge impression, earning one of two MVPs spots after their first live performance - his group ranking 2nd out of 8, and his personal ranking being 7th overall (based on the live audience popularity vote).

The show is uploaded onto Youtube in full (post-broadcast on a Saturday). Just to warn you, the episodes are usually very, very long (sometimes between 2-3 hours in total), but I personally really enjoy that. There are English subtitles but the translations don’t always capture the nuances.

Jeff is doing a superb job so far and he's very brave for taking this on. He brings something distinctly unique in his showmanship and personal sense of style. It's a daunting prospect for someone who can't speak or understand Chinese, but the other brothers are doing their best to help him feel as welcome and settled in as possible.

If anyone has any questions about the show or clips featuring Jeff they'd like to know more about, I'm more than happy to translate.

[boxturret]

The Adverse Affects of Pre-Release Materials

I usually post big rambling posts about bionicles, but today I'm going to do a big rambling post about one of my favourite movies, Steamboy.

And like...themes and stuff.

Have you heard of themes? Things can have them, they're pretty cool.

I know no one will read this but this is for me okay.

In 2005 I was watching the Space channel, now rebranded CTV Scifi, and they had an awards show called the Spaceys where they ranked and awarded media from that year. I recall when Stargate SG1 won one they had a clip of the Thor puppet being controlled by Richard Dean Anderson thanking everyone who supported the show, and that their voices sounded like "tiny farts". I wonder if that's available anywhere or if its lost media now lol.

In any case, they had an animation category and they mentioned several films that released that year, the winner was Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, but one of the nominees was a film called Steamboy, it was just named and they had a tiny clip from the trailer. It was literally just this part:

Really stuck in my mind and I went and looked it up and found the English website, which has been partially archived:

Unfortunately not documented is the previews and clips page, which had several short videos from the movie, notably, I recall, with incorrect character names. It called the main two characters Jay and Miss, instead of Ray and Scarlet lol.

One of the scenes on this page was from around half way through the movie, when the fighting breaks out in the Great Exhibition grounds, and Scarlet decided to stroll across the battle field to talk to the queen.

(I love all the shots where you can actually see the artillery shells flying through the air)

These men in armour come out and engage the British Tanks and one gets thrown by an explosion.

She goes to look at him and sees that he's dead, but she's surprised there was a man in there.

This being my first introduction to the "Steam Troopers" as the dub calls them, would prove a bit problematic for me and my understanding of the film for years to come.

This was 2005, it was harder to find things like this, by some luck after weeks of searching I did find the movie on DVD in a store and could finally watch it.

So now I could see the introduction of the Steam Trooper, which is quite ominous. The London Constabulary comes to break in to the O'Hara Manufacturing Company's pavilion in the exhibition grounds but the doors open and you see one standing there, menacingly.

And as a kid I thought "imagine being the guy told to just stand there all dramatic as the police storm in", thinking it was kinda funny really.

But something always bugged me about the Steam Troopers. They didn't really make sense, mechanically.

Steamboy is a steampunk movie, featuring all sorts of incredible machines with copious amounts of gears and belts and rivets and pistons and they all look very cool, but also there is a lot of thought put un to their designs.

In fact the British steam powered tank is actually based on a real world vehicle, the Hornsby Tractor.

Just stick a little gun turret on the front and you've got it lol.

You can see their power source, how they're propelled, their mechanisms make sense, they're crazy complicated and not really feasible or practical, but they're fun and make sense In the world established in the film.

But Steam Troopers don't!

Now from my point of view, from seeing the preview and seeing it was a guy in a suit, I just looked at it as a suit, so therefore, in my mind, the linkages and wheels and tiny boiler on the back must all be some sort of Victorian power armour, enhancing the wearer's strength in some way.

But it just doesn't make sense, nothing's connected to anything properly for that.

When you see the dead guy some of the wheels are still spinning and all they're doing is making some of the linkages, which aren't positioned to do anything, move around.

It really bothered me for years, everything else in the movie makes sense to me, but not them.

Then a year or two ago I did a little experiment. I watched this movie, which I've seen dozens of times at this point, but really tried to empty my mind of all my prior thoughts and knowledge. Just come at it fresh. And it was really fun! I highly recommend it. You'll never be able to really experience a movie for the first time again, but looking at it through this lens can make you notice things you may have missed.

Watching Steamboy in this way, when I got to the Steam Trooper scenes, it finally clicked. They don't make sense, because they're not supposed to make sense. They're fake. Its all fake.

They're supposed to be automatons.

The scene where Scarlet sees the dead man is supposed to be a big reveal that no, these are just men in suits.

This whole battle is a weapons demonstration orchestrated by Simon, the person in charge of this branch of the O'Hara Manufacturing Company. There are representatives from all over the world here and he spends the entire latter have of the movie trying to sell them stuff even when things start to go horribly wrong.

The whole ominous scene with the Steam Trooper standing there menacingly was for their benefit.

The O'Hara Manufacturing Company has so many amazing machines, they've got submersibles, blimps, actually functional airplanes, all in the 1860s, but its not enough.

They're so driven by greed they're not content to simply sell the amazing machines they have, they have to try and scam even more out of everyone.

It leads to them strapping some tiny engines that just wiggle around a bit and shoot out steam on the backs of some guys in full armour and have them march in to battle pretending to be clockwork soldiers.

This realisation also gave new context to this scene, which is one of the more humorous scenes in the film.

*bonk*

You can actually see these suits much earlier in the film, off in the background in a maintenance area. The Steam Castle, the true form of the O'Hara Pavilion, is massive and much of it was constructed in secret, under water, so they'd require many things like the submarine seen in the same scene and these diving suits with manipulator arms. But in their greed they're trying to sell these clumsy maintenance suits as amphibious battle suits, yet in reality they can't even climb stairs.

The O'Hara pavilion itself is a very clear example of this, its trying to look like a fancy stone building but really its all painted metal, and the shell breaks off to reveal the dark and dirty weapon of war it really is.

The Steam Castle started out as an idea of a mobile funfair and greed perverted it in to become this. This part was plainly laid out in the movie, but its fun to see how the theme was repeated in different ways throughout the movie.

So in conclusion, one of the major thematic elements of the movie was hidden to me for years because of the pre-release media that gave a away a twist before the set up, ruining the impact of it.

Its a tricky thing, seeing those preview materials were what made me excited to watch the movie, yet seeing them directly harmed my understanding of the movie for years to come. I've always loved the movie, its gorgeous, has an amazing sound track and sound design, it taps directly in to the gear obsessed part of my brain, and there's other themes and messages in the movie that even as a kid I noticed, but now I feel I have a much more clear understanding of the movie that I lacked before.

I've had my enjoyment of a few other things be tempered by overdoing it with pre-release materials, so in general once I've decided something is interesting to me I basically block out everything until I've finished it. I don't even read the blurb on the back of books anymore lol.

I highly recommend trying to go at something fresh, with an open mind, even if you can quote the movie from memory and every frame is etched in to your brain, you can learn something!

Some other quick notes:

Compressed gasses being released making things cold is an actual thing, if you've ever sprayed a can of compressed air for a bit too long and felt the can get colder, that's what's going on.

The two main henchmen in the movie are named Freddy and Jason, get it?

Canada is represented in the movie even though that flag didn't exist yet! :)

The PS2 game has an ending where you fight a pair of giant Punch and Judy robots.

The trailer and DVD menu for Steamboy is a song called Full Force, which is a cool song. The first half at least. I edited it a few years ago to remove the end bit which gets weird, and then found that several people also did that, independently. So that's neat.

I like my edit more, but its secret. Its mine.

I can't promise this won't happen again.

[rubywolf0201]

Gotta say, now that I'm watching the dub to Bucchigiri, I think it's pretty good, and even tries to clear things up in the dialogue, though not to the high standard of SK8's dub since there's no real standouts like David Wald's performance as ADAM.

The closest though has to be Ricco Fajardo's performance as Matakara. I've been following his roles for a decade now, and I'm impressed by his range across the shows he stars in and he manages to demonstrate that range so well here. Inversely, it's Arajin's VA who's new to voice acting, since this is his first major lead role in a dub.

Also a shout out to Shindo's dub VA for playing his first villain role in years and just delighting in chewing the scenery. It really sounds like he's enjoying this.

Yeah I caught a few of the dub clips on X/Twitter and while I do think that the dub cast isn’t as strong as the ones in SK8 (I WILL GET INTO THE SERIES SOON I PROMISE BUT NOT RIGHT NOW), I don’t mind it as I rather let some new talents shine and see how they perform in the long run. Well most of them are names I never heard of with maybe a few exception (Senya, Mahoro, Akutaro, Ichiya and Matakara).

So I’ll give out my opinions on some of the dub cast:

Arajin (Alex Mai): He isn’t bad by any means. I do like how in Episode 2, he made the scene where Arajin is forcibly pulled by Senya funnier than the original. Can’t wait to hear more of his performance.

Matakara (Ricco Fajardo): I only heard him a few times as Matakara but it is decent. It sounds close to his performance as Pandreo in FE Engage but with a much more mellow tone to it. (I don’t know how would Ricco tackle Corrupted!Matakara but I’ll just wait and see once all episodes are up) It’s a shame he doesn’t even mention or like any BUCCHIGIRI?! posts when I felt that it was a pretty decent role he has (tho then again not every VA’s are chronically online)

Mahoro (Lindsey Seidel): She’s ok so far. But I do think her raspy voice when showing her spiteful side felt a little off compared to the original VA where she just lower a few octaves or so but it’s still an okay-ish performance so far.

Marito (Kieran Fullton)- For a new-ish VA, his performance for Marito is just as close to the Japanese performance. I like how he balances out Marito’s playful side but also his sneakiness in some parts such as in the scene of Episode 2 where he asked Matakara about Arajin’s whereabouts before he gleefully says he is going to make him join Siguma.

Senya (Chris Guerrero)- I agent heard much but he does seem to act out the best he can. The part in Episode 2 where he managed to perfectly replicate the performance in the original where Senya is acting like a meow meow is just 👌🏻

Zabu (Daniel Van Thomas)- I think he’s ok but I do have certain issues in that I felt that his voice felt way too deep for a 16-17 year old boy. Still, it’s a decent performance but I preferred the original better (Sorry 😅)

Komao (James Marler)- I think he’s ok from the few clips I’ve seen, almost as close to the JP VA performance but still having some few differences here and there.

Outa (Wyatt Baker)- Can’t say much tbh. (Sorry)

Jabashiri (Alex Hom)- He’s alright so far. I only heard a bit of him back in Apothecary Diaries so it’s a bit surprising he was chosen to play Jabashiri.

Hagure (Van Barr Jr.)- Can’t say much tbh but I do like some of his performances from the few clips I caught of him.

Akutaro (Aaron Dismuke)- I do like his performance as Akutaro, sounds almost close to the original as well esp in that clip in Episode 6 where he ‘thanked’ the whole of Minato Kai and Siguma Squad for being close to his goal.

Overall, those are just my thoughts on the dub VA performance.

[johndpg]

SPANKING ON TV #6

The General (1998) d. John Boorman

This is a biopic of maverick Dublin crime lord Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies but came into conflict with members of his own gang and attracted attention from the police and the IRA. Ultimately though it was his dealings with the UVF that led to his downfall. It’s based on a book by journalist Paul Williams. In this scene, Cahill has been sent to a reform school as a boy after being caught stealing. The school is run by the Christian Brothers who oversee a brutal regime of beatings, humiliation and abuse.

A nine-year investigation into Ireland’s Roman Catholic-run institutions in the 2000s found that priests and nuns had terrorised thousands of boys and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades, and that government inspectors failed to discover what was happening. More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families were sent to Ireland’s austere network of industrial schools, reformatories and orphanages from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.

In this early scene Cahill and the other boys in his dormitory (twelve are shown on-screen) have been told to bend over the end of their beds and lift their nightshirts to present their bare backsides for belting. It seems they have to stay in this humiliating position until every boy has been lashed. They aren’t being punished for any particular wrong-doing and it’s clear that this is a regular nightly occurrence. Nightshirts were positively Victorian by 1962, so the inference is that such attire made abuse easier and, indeed, we see this in a later scene. The priest has obviously taken a liking to Cahill and chooses not to belt him; instead, he returns to molest him when the other boys are sleeping but Cahill is able to fight him off.

The film features a number of well-known actors including Brendan Gleeson, Adrian Dunbar, Maria Doyle Kennedy and Jon Voight. Cahill as a boy is played by Eamonn Owens, who was around 14 at the time. Donncha Crowley plays the priest.

It looks like five of the boy actors are belted bare for real; a sixth is heard being lashed off-screen. I thought maybe a plastic strap and sound effects had been used but two of the boys' buttocks are clearly indented when the belt hits them, one in close-up, and all the boys' jumps and yelps as they are lashed seem very convincing. John Boorman is renowned for getting his actors to perform their own stunts, so I suppose this is just more of the same. Goodness knows what casting director Jina Jay told their parents, but I hope the lads were well paid for their efforts. Realising it's being played for real certainly adds an extra frisson to the scene. It’s Kes (1969) all over again, isn’t it.

Although shot in colour, the theatrical release of the film was presented in black-and-white for artistic reasons. A colour print was subsequently made available for television broadcast and home video. There was some Oscar buzz when the film was released but this ultimately didn’t materialise.

Here’s a link to a clip featuring the dormitory scene at 4:40 but you'll have to watch it on YouTube.

And here’s another link to a colour print of the whole film. Unfortunately it’s a Russian dub, so good luck with the YouTube subs.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (January 8-14, 2023)

"Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this." One of my favorite sayings.

There's nothing like a kaiju movie in theaters. Shin Ultraman was almost as fun dubbed as it was subbed (and a smidge easier to follow). I don't know if I'll ever get used to anime voice actors doing live-action kaiju movies, but this was a good group, especially Emily Frongillo as Funaberi and Kellen Goff as Zarab.

Two big pieces of Shin Ultraman news accompanied its U.S./UK theatrical release this week. Cleopatra Entertainment licensed it for an American VOD/home video release; the wording in the press release is a bit confusing, so while the VOD will at least be happening in the spring, I'm not sure about the more important stuff. The Japanese home video releases are due April 12, so don't expect anything before then. Also, Ultraman Connection added the first episode of Shin Ultra Fight, with more to come. The first three episodes are just narrated clips from the movie, but after that, it gets weird. You need a (free) account to view Connection videos.

IDW put out two Godzilla comics this Wednesday—Godzilla Rivals: Rodan vs. Ebirah and Godzilla: Monsters & Protectors - All Hail the King! #4. I don't have much to say about the All Hail the King issue, which is mostly just setting up the big fight in the finale, but Rodan vs. Ebirah was a total delight. Taking the focus off Godzilla and letting some other kaiju shine was the right move, and this is exactly the sort of craziness all of these comics, with their access to nearly the entire Toho sandbox, should be striving for. It also has the distinction of featuring the first nonbinary character in a Godzilla story! At one point they divert a rampaging Biollante with song (all nonbinary people can do this).

After decades of obscurity, Space Monster Wangmagwi is out on Blu-ray from SRS Cinema, and... its obscurity was pretty much warranted. AIP-TV probably could've made something watchable out of this back in the day, but it would have been an order taller than the titular monster. It's largely plotless, with some of the worst foley I've ever heard. The street kid who decides to fight Wangmagwi himself is fun, at least. Given its legendary reputation, I recommend seeing it just to satisfy your curiosity; I'm sure it'll be up on Tubi later this year.

It would be malpractice for me not to mention the reveal of Gigan's older and younger sisters in Godziban. Before you ask, yes, showrunner Hideyuki Kobayashi understands exactly what forces he's playing with. It's very funny watching Toho let him do literally whatever he wants. I'm not sure when they'll be showing up in the show. The announcement was just for their props being exhibited at screenings of the Godziban "movie" (the new episodes from the Blu-ray edited together).

[theflavorofmyautismisspicy]

You know those “character x being y for 5 minutes” complications on YouTube? I so want to make those of the dwk cartoon like “Willi being father of seven for 4 minutes” etc

My problem is that I’m not sure what dub I should use, like English as a language is the most accessible to everyone but

1. I have no idea where you can watch/download this series with the English dub

2. I’ve heard that the English dub sucks(and from the few clips I’ve seen…yeah it does)

I could always just use the original German one and accept the fact that some people(including me lmao) aren’t going to understand it perfectly

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Hey, you posted a swedubbed Sailor Moon clip a while ago. I was wondering, did they ever dub Sailor Moon S (third season)? Cause I can only find clips from the first two.

Yes, they only dubbed and aired the first 2 seasons of Sailor Moon.

Now, this was not at all due to the third season having the lesbians, and if they aired it they would not have done weird censorships like making them cousins, nor that they thought the show was "too violent". The first two seasons were not censored at all and were translated correctly, so I am certain it would be the same if they dubbed more. Rather, they simply had some troubles buying the rights to the rest of the anime.

This is at least what the one who was responsible for buying the rights said. But many people think that the ones who did the dub simply didn't like the show personally and just didn't want to dub more. The show WAS very popular, I have read that when it originally aired, practically every child knew about it. But the channel didn't care because they personally didn't like the anime that much and thought it was weird.

So, we could trust the one actually responsible for buying the rights to dub, or we can trust the fans who speculate another reason. Maybe the ones who watched it when it originally aired just felt more betrayed that there weren't more seasons they could see, when other countries got more seasons.

And like... it could be that they simply had trouble with the licensing to dub more seasons, but considering the history of anime releases in Sweden... back in the 80s, another person tried to get television to air some animes, and their immediate reactions were "uuuhhh no thanks we don't really understand that japanese animated stuff it looks weird", which caused them to have to release all the animes on vhs, with a much smaller budget, around 5 people doing all the voices. And those animes released on vhs in the 80s, also got very popular among the kids that got their hands on them, and have gotten a cult following. It wasn't until the 90s that they started airing animes on tv, and the biggest one was the Moomins. And then, it wasn't because it was an anime, but because it was the moomins, so it was not even treated as an "anime" but simply just "this new animated show about the Moomins!!"

I do however know that, the reason they decided to air Sailor Moon is because they thought it was a lack of kids shows about powerful girls at the time. But, I have also heard of an interview with one of the swedish voice actresses in Sailor Moon (I think the woman dubbing Sailor Mercury), and she was like "I have heard a lot of people loving my work in that show, but tbh, most of us didn't understand anything that was happening, we thought it was really weird. So we met in the corridor in-between takes and were like "'what even is this'" (now, this voice actress was still very happy that people loved her dubbing work, she simply talked about how she felt about it at the time of dubbing Sailor Moon). I have also heard that, a lot of parents at the time did think the show was "odd" and were a bit judgmental about it simply because it was from Japan...

So what I've felt like is that, especially before the 2000s (by the 00s they started airing some more animes than before), the animes that came out in Sweden were very popular by the kids, while many adults were more judgmental and weirded out by it. And this is why many people can believe that the channel stopped buying the rights to dub more because they themselves didn't like it. But, we can also believe the one who actually was responsible who said that "we just had trouble getting the rights".

Maybe both of these are true at the same time! I don't know!

It should also be said that I was born in the 00s, and thus missed the original airing of Sailor Moon, and was way too young to remember it airing as re-runs in the 00s (my parents actually said my sister used to watch Sailor Moon on TV when she was like 1 though??? lmao) - and thus, someone who was born in a year to remember when it aired in Sweden may have some better info than me (I simply am a kids show guru who researches everything and anything people are nostalgic about, even when I didn't grow up with it myself)

The closest we got to a swedish dub of the later Sailor Moon seasons, is a parody dub series on youtube. There is a guy that has parody dubbed EVERY SINGLE SAILOR MOON EPISODE, and he's about to finish Super S right now. It's a TREAT, let me tell you. It's called "Sailor Muu", he does all the voices himself and he's renamed all the characters in funny ways. Usagi is named "Usacow" and thus Chibiusa is names "Usakalv" ("kalv" is calf in swedish). Rei is called "Rave" and everyone mistakes her for talking about an actual rave party. Etc etc. I think he's done english subtitles for some episodes, but not all. If you know swedish, definitely check it out, it's so goddamn funny.

[firaloveatea]

I'm sure I forgot stuff but I tried to cover as much about her as possible.

Neon's Character Concept and Bio

Chaos Neon

Age: 18 (pre time skip)/20 (post time skip)

Height: 160cm

Blood Type: TBD

Birthday: 12/12

Affiliation: Straw Hats, Heart Pirates

Hair: Navy Blue, untamed curls/waves

Eye color: Red

Personality:

Growing up with Luffy, she actually has a very similar personality to him, though she has more brain cells and is willing to talk things out rather than fight all the time.

Trusting in an almost blinding fashion and devotion so strong she will put her needs last when her crew needs more attention.

Neon is as socially dumb as Luffy, but does have more common sense. She mostly doesn't understand things around romance, dating, and things of sexual nature besides what she experiences from Sanji and Brooks's preverted habits.

She is also very petty. The price will always be paid, just don't know when or how.

Out of the A.S.L. Neon is more like Sabo, where as Luffy and Ace are more similar. In disagreements it would be Neon & Sabo vs. Ace & Luffy or Ace & Sabo vs Luffy & Neon. It was a blue moon is any other combos happened.

Abilities:

Knife throwing+Accuracy

Neon has learned how to throw knives and works on her accuracy all the time. Yes, she can juggle the knives as well

Flexibility+Balance

Luffy likes to say Neon is part rubber from how flexible she is. She possesses double jointed and trained her body extensively all because as a child Ace and Sabo wanted to see how much she could fold her body in weird and odd ways. She liked the freak out it keeps practicing.

Neon also has amazing natural balance. I haven't figured out the full extend of this balance, but girl is a hard worker and keeps pushing her limits.

Haki

During the two year time skip, Neon learns and masters observation and armament haki.

Weapons:

Throwing Daggers:

Weight: 15.9oz Blade Thickness: 5mm Blade Length: 7-1/2" Blade Steel: 1050 High Carbon Handle Length/Material: 6-1/2" Overall Length: 14" Style: Knife Product Family: Thrower Steel Family: High Carbon Steels

Throwing Knives:

Weight: 6.4oz Blade Thickness: 3.5mm Blade Steel: 1055 Carbon Overall Length: 10" Style: Knife Product Family: Flight Sport Steel Family: High Carbon Steels

A leather whip

Concept History:

Neon originally started off as the Female Main Character for an original fiction work of mine called Neon Red Eyes. It was a Stardust-inspired fantasy world where Neon was the Hybrid Daughter of the terrible Demon King and a Powerful Witch. Her mother would eventually understand why the Demon King sought her out as the mother of his child and fled while heavily pregnant. 18 years later, Neon would come home to their little cabin to find her mother murdered and the King’s right hand waiting for her. She was tossed into the dungeon since emotional distress sealed away her powers the King was after. There, she would meet a Pirate Captain, who had been captured before her. His crew would pull off a heist and rescue their captain, bringing Neon along with them. It was mainly romance focused on Neon and the Captain, who would eventually take down the Demon King, but it never worked that part out.

When I finally caved and started One Piece, I took Neon and added her after making some changes that would make sense to the One Piece world. Having Magic and Demonic powers didn’t. Her being Buggy’s daughter was supposed to be funny and stuck. I wanted her to be Luffy’s childhood friend because that guy needs someone more consistently by his side. As I got further into the show, my inner simp was sad that I hadn’t found my favorite character. No one was tickling my fancy.

Then Trafalgar Law started to show up on my tiktok fyp, but he hadn’t appeared in show for me yet. I speed ran to Sabaody. Now my tiktok had been giving me Japanese dub Wano clips, nothing English dub. I watch dub because I multitask while watching my shows. I got to Sabaody, and I heard him speak. Matt Mercer. Sold. I found my favorite character and wanted to punch Kid in the face.

Now I won’t lie, Neon was meant for Luffy. Childhood friends to lovers cliché since I don’t do it often. But Trafalgar Law took over, Grumpy x Sunshine, Enemies to Lovers, it held more of my favorite troupes. The power dynamics and struggles. Her being bratty and him always wanting his plans to work out. I started my self indulgence dabbles that are now posted.

I do have a Luffy AU in my mind but to post both seems like too much work. There are differences but nothing huge. I could post all of pre-time arcs and then branch off after time skip but I’m not sure about posting both. I will write my Luffy AU dabbles and keep them for myself. Unless my sister and friends talk me into posting like they did with my Dabbles with Law.

Her last name being Chaos is super recent. I had brewed up a Crack AU where Della married Shanks during his year long stay in Windmill village, then stole Ace, Sabo and Luffy from Dadan and Garp wasn’t gonna fight Della.

I called it Chaos House AU, because of the chaos caused by the kids, yes, Uta would have stayed with them becoming Neon’s sister. So five chaotic children being raised by a pirate and a woman who thrives in chaos… the family name for Della and Neon being Chaos fit too well.

[gumptioustactition]

Mean Girls(2024) is a film which is loudly ashamed of itself. It is self referential and cheeky - it cuts itself off to remind you that you're watching a movie MUSICAL, isn't that silly? Aren't movie musicals SILLY? Why are these teens SINGING? Isn't that RANDOM? The backing tracks have been gutted and sound empty, while the actors at some times sound like they would have benefited from a second or third take, such as Cady's verse in Revenge Party, or look completely dubbed, like Regina in Someone Gets Hurt. The choreography in many songs is lacking and nonsensical. I'd Rather Be Me is filmed like a made-for-YouTube music video, not like a scene in a movie. Stupid with love sounds like it was sung by someone who had never heard the song before but was given the lyrics and a generic royalty free backing to sing over, and finishes with choreography which was made to be easily cropped to a vertical format and posted on tiktok. It is generic and boring and BAD. Cady sings the line "I am filled with calcu-lust" like she's serenading a slug she found on the sidewalk. After being shot in the behind with a horse tranquilizer.

The vertical angle worked...somewhat, for Sexy. It was a clever choice to frame the song as something Karen was shooting for her Snapchat, but it again suffers from a gutted backing, poor choreo, and cluttered visuals when the screen is filled with poorly framed, shot, choreographed, and edited clips of other actors performing for their smartphones, which later devolved into, again, something that is visually more like a music video than a scene from a movie. Avantika is a talented vocalist, she did not need to be autotuned!!! Let her sing!!

Damien's solo song Stop was cut, which is the reason I am going with for him being given Cady's wild-themed lines in Apex Predator. You are reading that correctly - the song in which Cady compares highschool to the animal food chain she knows in Kenya was instead given to Damien, who has no reason to be singing lines like "they scatter like mice from a jungle cat". His fling with The Beast from Stop is hinted at earlier, just before Meet The Plastics, but is otherwise dropped.

This is an issue presented throughout the film. In its haste to point and laugh at itself at every juncture while shoving in orignal songs in a desperate attempt at winning Best Original Song, character moments are dropped. Karen does not get to report the weather. Janis is not manipulative. We do not know who Cady Herron is, aside from that she is obsessed with Aaron, and yet her obsession is sedated, so she is not even allowed that. What Ifs replaces It Roars, a song which is better and does more to introduce Cady's character, which is to say, Whats Ifs does anything at all. The hints of jungle bounce from Cautionary Tale, It Roars, Stupid With Love, Apex Predator, and More Is Better have been erased, leaving behind clean pop idol Cady Herron who we know nothing about. If you are going to take out all hints of her childhood, you should at least replace them with something! Her leitmotif is meant to indicate when we are seeing/hearing Cady Herron for who she is, getting a glimpse at her true self before she covers it back up in concealer and glitter. Mean Girls(2024) leaves Cady as glitter all the way down.

(Note: In several areas of the movie, lyrics are changed for reasons I can't discern. A verse of Stupid With Love, which references Cady's first crush on a Kenyan boy, is completely cut, and in Sexy the line "Sexy Elanor Roosevelt or Sexy Rosa Parks" Is changed to "Sexy Elanor Roosevelt or Sexy Joan of Ark". In both cases, the change was jarring. A more understandable change, but one I still dislike, is that from calling Janis a Space Dyke to calling her a Pyro Les.)

Scenes where the chaos of the school hallways are portrayed using animal-like choreography are cute and clever(Meet The Plastics), and the representations of the soul-sucking nature of social media is represented well by filling the screen with vertical facecams and overlaying voiceovers. What's Wrong With Me was exactly what I expected, and that isn't an insult! It is the only moment in the film in which the snarky "LOL what is happening??" angle works for it, as Gretchen Weiners vents her troubles to Cady, who has no idea how to handle it. Revenge Party was a pale imitation of its musical counterpart, but the replacement of the soundtrack with a marching band version paired with whispered vocals was lovely in the context of the scene.

Megan Thee Stallion killed it.

2/10. This movie was 112 minutes long, and a complete waste of nearly two hours. It is the worst of both worlds. If you want to listen to the musical, watch the musical. If you want to watch the movie, watch the 2004 version.

[cosmicdreamt]

For your OC, is there a particular voice actor in mind that just seems to work out perfectly for them?

[[ I talk about this so much you think I'd be tired of it, but nope. I am ALWAYS up for talking about Neff's voice because I'm extra about literally everything~

Allow me to introduce you, if you've never heard of her, to Mary Elizabeth McGlynn~

If you've grown up on dubbed anime ( and no one come at me with the dub vs sub bullshit. I watch both. Both are good. Everyone has their reasons/preferences for watching them, you're just not better for bashing on one or the other ) you'll know her as Julia from Cowboy Bebop, Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex(_2045), Kurenai from Naruto, and various other roles.

If you've grown up with horror video games then you know her as the singer from the Silent Hill series.

And here are some clips for those who DON'T know what she sounds like:

Singing Farewell from Kholat Interview Voicing Major Kusanagi

When I created Neff I wanted her to be a lot of what isn't normally seen. She's essentially an adult magical girl, dealing with adult stresses and trauma and bringing up realistic issues even within a semi-fantasy world. I wanted to represent the lesser considered traits with what I'm dipping into: and with that came what type of voice I wanted to give her. People are used to more happy, cheerful, higher pitched feminine leads - so I wanted to go the deeper route. An alto voice that was also fairly soft-spoken but still had strength in her emotion, and boy did I STRUGGLE. When I finally heard her as Motoko and even just heard how she spoke in interviews I knew Mary was The One™

So there you have it :D I hope the people that write with me or read my threads can hear her voice a bit better now as well~ ]]

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

It would be super cool to see your voice claims for the characters!

VOICE CLAIMS WOO!

Okay okay so this is a very long list, because I’m indecisive, and originally I would’ve loved to make this a video but alas I do not how to edit, nor do I own my computer, so it’ll have to wait

I was debating if I should of just sent my Google doc here of everything (because that doc has even more then I’m sending here) but I decided to just- copy and paste some of it so apologizes in advance for the length!

This list is very extensive and I’ve pulled voices from ALL over the place, I haven’t even watched all these shows, most of this I’ve just seen through clips and went “omg it’s perfect” so it’s a mess I’m sorry akdjsjd

Long post ahead!! (Italicized font are the ones I especially like the most)(I’ve also included links to some of these if you’ve never heard them)

UNDERTALE

Frisk

•Gregory (Over the garden wall)- Colling Dean

•Jessica (Craig of the creek)- Lucia Grace Cunningham

•Chihiro (spirited away English dub)- Daveigh Chase

•chowder (chowder)- Nicky jones

•niki yang, BMO (adventure time), Candy (gravity falls)

Flowey

•Yakko Warner (animaniacs) -Rob paulsen

•Richard Horvitz

Toriel

•Sigourney weaver

•little foots mother (land before time)

•Kala (Tarzan)- Glenn close and Kat cressida

•freya (god of war)- Danielle bisutti

Napstablook

•Sadness (Inside out)- Phyllis smith (although maybe a tad pitched down. But only a smidge)

Sans

•Herb (BoJack horseman)- Stanley Tucci

•Bob (bobs burgers)-H. Jon Benjamin

•Moist Cr1tikal (the YouTuber)

•Revtrosity (also a YouTuber)

•Red guy (DHMIS) -Joseph pelling

Papyrus

•Jacksepticeye (you all know who that is.)

•Scudworth (clone high)

•Skeletor (he-man) (I think this one speaks for itself)

•revtrosity (YouTube)

Monster kid

•Darwin Watterson (Gumball)

•Steven universe- Zach Callison (specifically young steven)

•Wybie (Coraline)- Robert Bailey Jr

Grillby

•Jack Skellington (nightmare before Christmas)- Danny elfman and Chris Sarandon

•Wirt (over the garden wall)- Elijah wood

Gaster

•Narrator (the Stanley parable) kevan Brighting

•bubo (bubo)- James dijit

•knight lautrec (dark souls)

•Sasha barbicon (titanic adventure out of time)

Undyne

•Jasper (Steven universe)- Kimberly brooks

•kuvira (legend of Korra)- Zelda Williams

•Yunan (amphibia)

Alphys

•Peridot (Steven universe) -Shelby Rabara

•Lara Jill Miller

Mettaton

•ENA (ENA)- Gabe V and Lizzie freeman

Mettaton Ex

•Alaska thunderfuck (hieeeee)

Burgerpants

•Hiccup (HTTYD)- Jay baruchel

•Randell(monsters inc)- Steve Buscemi

Asgore

•Mufasa (lion king)

•Aslan (Narnia)- Liam neeson

Asriel

•Lewis (meet the robinsons)

•kubo (kubo and the two strings)- art parkinson

•yes hear me out: Max (camp camp) -Michael Jones

Hyperdeath Asriel/Adult asriel

•Anakin (Star Wars)

Chara

•Connie (Steven universe)

•Kristofferson (fantastic mr fox)- Eric chase Anderson

•Marcy Wu (amphibia)

•Demetri (cobra Kai the karate kid saga continues)

•Ronno (Bambi)

Temmie

•Happy (Fairytail)- Tia Ballard

Mad dummy

•Blitzo (Helluva boss)- Brandon rogers

Gerson

•Yule (Mune: guardian of the moon)- (it’s the large green old guy)

That’s it for the Classic cast so far, I’ll make a seperate post this with my picks for the Environmentalshift au and other miscellaneous voices at a later time. This took forever

Maybe someday I’ll turn this into a video. So it’s easier

[cuddly-asexual]

My Thoughts on FE Engage

Aight I had all this sitting in a google doc for a while and now that I’ve sat on this for a while I figured I could share what I think about this game. I have A LOT of thoughts so buckle up. These are all just my personal opinions and I’m not some kind of Maddening/Classic player that is gonna analyze how the game is balanced or anything. Spoilers for the whole game btw.

Overall

In general, I definitely enjoyed this game. I think if Fates was only one route then it would honestly be pretty similar to this one.

Game play is fun, characters are amusing, if a bit flat in some cases (but honestly I was a little surprised with some of them). The story is kinda lacking, but some aspects of it were fun and even interesting.

Most of my gripes from this game come from me thinking about cool shit it totally had the set up and then it not doing anything with those cool things. Lots of missed opportunities for a game that has so many references to older games in the franchise.

I do think this game is a step down from three houses in terms of characters and story tho

I played in English with the Japanese audio and wow I’m not very happy with the translation. They leave out a lot of things and even change characterization pretty drastically in some cases (Louis’ “people watching” and Amber/Diamant’s entire support chain as a few examples). The English dub is pretty solid from what I’ve heard though

I didn’t really think about graphics or art design much with this game, but I will say the discrepancies between the in-game and rendered cut scene models was insane (I don’t mean quality, like these characters just look different). Also Sombron’s model was ugly as fuck. Also lots of clipping and also sometimes only one eye would move on a character and that was always a little jarring

Gameplay

Kinda hard to fuck up the basic gameplay in a fire emblem game tbh

My main gripe is that the difficulty difference between “normal” and “hard” is fucking insane. Hard is pretty fuckin’ infuriating, but normal is piss easy, I really needed an in-between difficulty there.

Also it’s really hard to grind characters if you leave them for too long since the skirmishes scale with your main story chapter (I know this is more similar to older games but I got used to being able to grind all my characters okay :p)

I miss the crit cut-ins :(

There’s so much shit to do in the Somniel it’s kind of overwhelming and a bit tedious after a few chapters

No weapon durability, which I personally enjoy

I don’t think the soundtrack is anything special, but there are definitely some cool tracks that I like a lot esp near the end of the game

POG you can be gay with everyone

Emblems

Aight let’s get the big boys out of the way

I LOVE the emblem mechanic. I think it’s super fun and creative. It adds another layer of customization to your units and the nostalgia factor is not lost on me either

Visually I think engaging is super fun, love that the outfits are a version of the emblem’s and the cool hair colors

I think inheriting skills from emblems is a super neat thing, esp if you have a unit that works well with multiple emblems (grinding SP is kind of a chore tho)

INSANE that they wrote three part supports for every character with every emblem, they’re fun I like that you can learn about the emblem and what game they’re from in all of those

I think their choice of characters for each emblem mostly made sense, there were definitely some choices that made me go ???, but I’m fine with them and I’m glad they tried to balance out the genders since a lot of fe lords are dudes

Emblem ring polishing really fucking weird, don’t like the sounds they make oh god, I avoided that shit like the plague

Classes

Big fan of the way they do classes in this game! Rather than weapon proficiency determining what class you can turn into, the class you pick determines your weapon proficiency (for example as a high priest you get access to B rank tomes, B rank fists and S rank staves)

You get weapon proficiencies from using emblems as well, and you gotta use the specific emblem that gives you that proficiency

The classes aren’t as customizable as they are in three houses, but there is more customization than in older games. For most martial classes you can pick what weapon they specialize in (paladins, hero, berserker, etc)

Because of the way weapon proficiencies work your access to better weapons is a little more sparse since they don’t want you buying silver weapons for everyone at level 10, I think they pace it pretty well tho

YEAH BOY THEY BROUGHT BACK THE AWAKENING 2ND SEAL TRICK

Some of the outfits for classes are kinda... (looking at you sage and warrior)

Kinda crazy that all the royals have their own special class. I like it for flavor obvi, but it’s funny since they’re a big chunk of your playable characters

Maps

Pretty good in general

I think some more variety in winning conditions would have been fun, almost all of them were “Defeat enemy commander” and then there were two “Escape” maps. The last 5 chapters or so all did something fun so I’m not too beat up about it really

Lotta dark maps on this one, more than we’ve had in a while I think

Mostly a me thing, but I’m mad you can’t rotate the map 360 degrees anymore

FUCK CHAPTER 17 UGH

THE EMBLEM TRIALS ARE SO FUCKING COOL OH MY GOD, maps that look like iconic maps from their original game?? Dude fire emblem fans are EATING (don’t even get me started on the music remixes AOUGH)

The last level is piss easy if you’re over leveled and I think it makes it less impactful because you can skip the fun unit thing it has set up

Combat

The addition of Break and Smash mechanics was pretty neat, I think they made the combat a little more dynamic

Weapon advantages matter even more now since you can break an enemy with them

Smash is cool since you can wack enemies around the map, I will say tho, you often do so much damage with the great weapons that you often kill the unit before even pushing them

Also depending on the unit, the fact that you have to tank a hit first can deter you from using them

Somniel

There’s so much shit going on on the Somniel and thankfully you can skip a decent chunk, but it does get more monotonous than three houses I think since you go back a lot more often

I wish there was a thing i could click that would gather all the items lying around for me, I’m lazy, make Sommie do it

Characters

I was pleasantly surprised with the characters in this game. I was expecting more of them to be boring and one note, but there’s a surprising amount of depth with some of these guys. Depth that was not shared equally mind you, but it’s there.

This game has a bigger cast than it needs I think, but it’s not bloated like Fates.

Supports/Interpersonal Dynamics

This is also a story flaw that I’ll get into later, but there’s not really any interpersonal conflict going on in this game, everyone’s pretty nice to each other and where it would make sense for there to be conflict there is none (and sometimes there’s random superficial conflict that doesn’t need to be there, read: white bitches being racist to Fogado)

I’m not saying I need characters to hate each other, but there’s very little character growth or reflection going on. Like the game makes a point to show you that each of the four kingdoms have very different values and ethics, so you’d think that would come up more, but tbh it only really does with the crown royals and their supports

Also Alcryst having beef with Ivy, but not Hortensia was a choice

I also think more people should have been upset with Veyle, like I think it would have been cool to see them have to overcome their feelings since the evil Veyle was quite literally someone else and they had to come to terms with that in some way.

Instead it all comes from Veyle being like “oh god I’m so sorry please let me atone somehow” when literally everyone is like “oh no sweat we’re chill”

EVERYONE IS OBSESSED WITH ALEAR PLEASE GIVE ME ONE PERSON THAT DOESN’T LIKE THEM IMMEDIATELY. AAAAAAA

Yo why doesn’t Alear act like they’re from a thousand years ago

Story

Setting

The world is pretty typical for a fire emblem game I think. You got a handful of kingdoms, one is kinda evil-ish, one is super peaceful and there’s probably a trade based, “free” kingdom, and another one rolled at random on a list of kingdoms, in this case one that’s obsessed with strength.

3 of the 4 kingdoms are allies/neutral and of course it’s just the “evil” kingdom picking fights, which I think is kinda stale esp since they’ve been at peace for a while. Not saying there needs to be a war or anything I just want more political intrigue and tension

Elyos has also been ruled by dragon gods since forever, never elaborated?? Where did normal people come from? Were they the same?

I’d love to learn more about what happened during those thousand years tbh

Also what was the world like a thousand years ago? I wanna know more about Gradlon, did people live there? How was Sombron as a king? What about the mage dragons?

Plot

There’s not much in the plot of this game that sets it apart from older fire emblem games

Like a good chunk of plot beats are very similar if not exactly the same as fates

MC is dragon child with mysterious past and everyone loves them immediately

Mom dies in your arms by jumping in front of something purple to save you within the first 5 chapters thrown by a hooded figure

You fight a resurrected version of your mom who is now a little evil and actively obstructing you

Evil kingdom king was controlled by evil dragon

You turn out to be the child of the evil dragon

Evil dragon is some bitch from another world

The antagonists are pretty comically evil until they die and then the game tries to redeem them or make them seem like round characters, but I don’t think you really get enough of that side for any of them. And it’s not like the pacing felt rushed, you were definitely just dicking around in there for a few chapters in the middle, those could have been used to flesh out the antags

They faked you out and made you think Alear was evil in the past, but oops nah he was nice then too

It was pretty obvious from the beginning that you were Sombron’s kid, and Veyle’s sibling, her evil reveal was pretty neat tho

Chapters 21, 22 and 24 went hard I will say. They had a lot of cool shit happen in there and even some stuff I wasn’t expecting! I’m still mad Alear wasn’t evil

COME ON SOMBRON’S FROM ANOTHER WORLD? AND HE’S JUST EVIL CUZ HE WAS A PISSY LONELY BITCH THAT MISSED HIS GHOST BF

Last level was equal parts cool and disappointing. I guessed correctly that Sombron would bring all the past antags as emblems which GOD IS SO FUCKING COOL, but they’re just like generic hooded figures which is so LAME. Like come on you’ve already put in this much to have a nod to the older games you can make a few more assets :/

Fell Xenologue Thoughts

Gonna be real I liked this vibe a little more than the main game’s vibe. No dlc is worth the money, but I at least didn’t regret buying this one.

Also the plot made me more emo than it should have gonna be real

THE FUCKING MUSIC GOES SO HARD. They only added a handful of tracks but they all slap

All the extra writing they did for the royals when they meet themselves or a retainer holy shit dude, some of those hurted

Setting

The setting is much more grimdark in this (as much as this game can be anyway). Just having conflict baked into the world does a lot for the vibe

The world is very bleak and filled with animosity, grief and pain but also those who would try to persevere despite that

Very fun seeing all the vibe swapped kingdoms even if they were quite superficial. Love the mirrored map too

Plot

Aight I think one of the themes for this dlc was love and aaaa I think that’s so sweet

Familial love between Nel & Nil/Rafal + Four Winds

Romantic love between Nel and her divine dragon

The distinct changes in the relationships between all the royal sibling duos I think also kinda focuses on the lack of familial love they share in this world vs your world

Also just how Rafal has just been searching for validation and meaning (i.e. love) and not getting it through his thick skull that everyone around him love him until the end

The twist villain was fun, I saw it coming, but not cuz the game was obvious I’m just too genre savvy (in fact I think a little foreshadowing could have been cool)

I think the Nel evil fake out was cool, but it was resolved way too fast, esp because they teased it in the trailer, but didn’t really go anywhere with it

I really liked the ending!

Nel saying she knew Rafal replaced Nil all along but still grew to care about him all the same

Nel saying she can’t bare to lose another sibling so instead she’d die to take Rafal’s pain away

Rafal refusing to let Sombron’s “curse” on the dragon stone dictate his actions. He was a shitter all of his own choice, he doesn’t regret it and he’d do it again

Not getting to tell Nel his true name before she died

Saying he’ll stay with her for a thousand years until she wakes up

Alear saying they are invited to come over to his world and Rafal in response saying no, but also that 1000 years is a long time so maybe that could change

THEM BEING THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ALIVE IN THIS WORLD

I get why, but I wish we didn’t get Nel and Rafal as units, because after having that whole emo ass see you later and knowing Alear has to wait 1000 years to see them again is so bittersweet, but then you literally get them back after the end credits because whoops I guess time moves differently there now

Characters

I like the dragon siblings a lot actually. They have interesting personalities and their dynamic is insane, especially after the thousand years when Rafal was able to reflect.

The other three however, Zelestia, Gregory and Madeline, I don’t like that much

They essentially took these villains who had fun quirks and were somewhat interesting, but sanitized them and made them SUPER boring.

I get what the devs were trying to do. They made the villains sympathetic and then created a way for you to have them on your team in some capacity. The thing is, these three are so different they are basically different characters, so it doesn’t even fulfill that want

Added on the fact that they don’t have supports with anyone outside of their squad so we don’t even get to see what other character’s reactions are to seeing people who look like the Four Hounds but aren’t them (not that there was much of a reaction anyway since according to Madeline they were all welcomed easily)

I think they should have just found a way to redeem the Four Hounds OR bring their other world counterparts but have the other world counterparts be more or less the same, but maybe fighting on the “good” side still with the dragon sibs

As for the personality swapped royals, I found some of them quite interesting like Alfred, Celine, Hortensia and Diamant. Alcryst was also fun but he was just quite literally a true opposite to himself. Fogado was fun but WHY was he like that. The game doesn’t tell me soooo. Timerra and Ivy were just funny, I’m sorry.

I think what they should have done is instead of just trying to make everyone a true opposite (still not over the Timerra being vegetarian and hating music) they should have taken one important part of the character and changed it, but then kept everything else the same.

Take Timerra. Keep the fact that she’s more stoic and less flexible in this world but maybe she still loves music, but doesn’t have time for it or it has less priority in her life

Stuff I Think Would Be Neat

This is just my “oh what if they did this?” section, it doesn’t really have much to do with my opinion on the game

I think if evil emblems talked this game would have been so fuckin juicy. Like you have fused with these people, they know everything about you, if they were evil they could tear you apart and I think that’s fuckin metal. I just want Marth to be evil and mean as a treat

Past Alear being actually evil would have been super interesting, esp if after dying a second time they only retained their evil memories and briefly turned on their allies

EVEN BETTER: if they made it a gameplay mechanic! Like Alear is red and fighting on the enemy phase

I think limiting the units you have on each map on the xenologue to the relevant royals and retainers would be good too. Since everyone is a default class anyway you don’t lose anything and it invites you to get all the special dialogue with the royals and retainers

And that’s all! If you made it all the way through this, wow thank you for reading all of my rambles. I really love the fire emblem franchise and even if this game wasn’t the best I still enjoyed myself while I played it. Until next time!

[unblinded-by-nostalgia-blog]

SPICE & WOLF MONTH!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a review of the Anime series only and does not reflect the thoughts of the original novels. They are two different entities and I will be treating them as such.

Part 1 (Episodes 1-7)

The Story

The story is about a young merchant who teams up with a wolf-girl who promises to help him get his dream shop if he takes her back to her homeland in the north.

The story is not an action series like most fantasy anime, but focuses on money and how if affects their world.

Some people may get confused with the economic talk, but the anime explains how it works well. But you have to concentrate on this series all the way through to keep up, even though it doesn't look like anything but talking going on in this series, listen carefully to what they are saying and you will be able to follow the storyline.

The Characters

The two main characters, Holo and Lawrence, work off each other perfectly, and they are both interesting characters in their own right. But they are the only interesting characters in this series (so far), and the rest of the characters get very little screen time or are not very interesting.

The Animation/Special Effects

The animation isn't very impressive. The characters just mainly sit down and don't move. When they walk, they sometimes seem a little stiff.

The animation even recycles a couple of clips in this first part, and you do notice them, even if you aren't looking for them.

The sound effects are all stock. The wolf howls, footsteps, doors closing, every sound effects you can here are reused and can be found free on any free moviemaker app!

The Dub

The dub is one of the best I have heard from Funimation! All the roles fit the characters perfectly and you know that the voice actors had a lot of fun dubbing this series!

Final Thoughts

Overall, this first part may not be the best out there, but it is still very enjoyable! Let's hope that the second part follows this part's example!

The Story 4.5/5 The Characters 3/5 The Animation/Special Effects 2/5 The Dub 5/5

Overall 3.5/5

Part 2 (Episodes 8-13)

The Story

The second half is about Lawrence coping with bankruptcy after the armour he bought loses its value.

The second half is DEFINITELY weaker then the first half, with a lot of filler and having the series go nowhere till the last 2 episodes.

The Characters

The main duo get a lot of development in this half, but the new character, Norah, isn't that interesting, all we know is that the Church doesn't like her and think she is a pagan witch (they never explain why very well) all they say is that she is too good at protecting sheep from wolves... That is frustratingly dumb for this series!

The Animation/Special Effects

The animation is still not very impressive. Even the final battle scene isn't very good, the character movements are too stiff.

The Dub

The dub is still very well done. But I think the voice of Norah doesn't fit well. She sounds too high pitched and doesn't sound like a confident shepherdess who can fend off wolves.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this second half is definitely weaker than the first half. The main problem with this second half is that it's too slow, and this is already a slow paced show. It's still enjoyable, but don't expect a masterpiece out of this second half.

The Story 2/5 The Characters 2.5/5 The Animation/Special Effects 2/5 The Dub 4.5/5

Overall 3.5/5

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this show is ok as an adaptation to the original novels. I do think that the anime is overrated, but I still enjoy it on it's own. It isn't something I would watch again anytime soon, but if you are looking for something to watch and nothing else good is on, I would recommend you watch this series.

Part 1 3.5/5 Part 2 3.5/5

Overall 3.5/5