#i just consider there being 6 years between them because i watched aos first

[lenievi]

also remembering yna makes me think that it could be interesting to, at least once, write a mckirk fic where there is eleven years between them with the focus on that age gap. Especially if it’s set early on and it’s a reason why they separate and then get reunited on the Enterprise again.

[captainjimothycarter]

So if you've seen AOS, you've seen Whitehall/Werner Reinhardt who tore apart a woman Peggy saved to turn himself young. I propose the AU image where he kidnaps and deages a 93 year old Peggy because it's no fun gloating to/winning over an old lady, and the Avengers show up in time to help her kick his ass. Peggy who was 93 and is now outraged to be like 22 again so she matches the age she screwed Werner over.

holy shit this is 1.3k words??? nonny what did you do to me

I don’t think Peggy saved her but I could be wrong? I don't’ remember the seasons well. I binged all 6 seasons in 2 months to get ready for S7. So my brain was friiiied. Also I apologize for not getting right back to you, long day.

--

Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. Steve never thought he would be begging the images on the monitor to be wrong before but here he was. 

He tried to ignore apparently a not-dead Coulson and Agent May’s looks. His hand gripped the shield tightly and tried to steady his breathing, his eyes never pulling from the screen until Fitz had switched it off.

“Captain Ro-“ Coulson began, a limit timid.

“Steve.”

“Steve. I know what you’re thinking, what you want to happen but we’ve been over these images a hundred times, and a hundred times more with the best people we have at our disposal, these images are real.”

“They can’t be!” Steve wasn’t aware of the anger rising in him until he was clenching his fist, looking between the two head agents.

“And why the hell not?” May asked, giving Steve a firm look. “I think you out of all people should know the mysterious circumstances of things and how the world works. We wouldn’t have called you here if we didn’t think they were real, Captain Rogers.”

Steve didn’t correct her, honestly, he didn’t even hear her. All he felt was the pain of his fist going through Coulson’s wooden desk. They ignored the fluttering of files and clutter of items collapsing to the floor. His knuckles were most likely broken but at this point, the pain was a welcome distraction.

“Because there’s no way in hell Peggy would agree under any circumstances to work with that bastard. She put him away for good! I read her records, we all have. She wouldn’t use him to-to deage. That’s not Peggy.”

“People change,” Hunter mused, shrugging his shoulders. Steve hadn’t even seen the man come in, his hands held up when Steve whirled on him and took three strides closer. There was a good foot height difference between them. “She’s dying and when people start to go, they get desperate. Look, Cap no ones blaming her if she did but the evidence says she’s working for Whitehall and if that’s so, then-“

Steve’s hand closed around Hunter’s neck before he could stop himself, seeing nothing but red. He didn’t choke the man or lift him from the floor, much as he wanted to. He just stared straight into his eyes, aware that May had pulled her gun on him.

“If you’re saying that Hunter, then you never truly knew Peggy. You have no damn idea what the hell she and I have been through during that war so you can sit here and serve Shield and not Schmidt. What the hell the both of I have lost. Agent Carter is a better person than I will ever be. She has morals and ideas that I can never match.”

Coulson’s hand laid over May’s arm, giving a shake of his head. They watched Steve stalk out of the room, the other agents scurrying out of the way.

“What the hell was that for?” Hunter groaned, rubbing at his neck.

“You perfectly insulted his ex-fiance,” Coulson replied, picking up the model of Lola from the floor. “If you ask me, Cap let you off easy.”

--

Clint and Natasha were not happy to have been lied to. Tony says he wasn’t surprised, Bruce was just more relieved than any of them. Thor said in a sheepish tone that he already knew thanks to Lady Sif, then came another whole term of arguments between them until things settled. And for the most part, Steve sat away from them, listening to the debate about Coulson and the very fact Peggy Carter was not only alive but young and working with Hydra.

“That’s not her,” Steve muttered to Natasha when she sat beside him, throwing her feet up on the table.

“I know.” Simply put. She knew.

“That can’t be her. Peggy would rather die than work with Hydra. Not Whitehall, not of all people. She-she can’t.”

“Regardless of the story, Steve, we’ll understand it. Fully.”

--

It was two full days later before Fitz was able to determine a location based on the photos. An underground base through a history of ownership dated back to Schmidt. That makes sense. Just hearing that name made Steve’s blood boil. He could barely listen to Coulson and his plan. All he could think of was Peggy and what the hell Whitehall could be doing to her.

The plan was quickly forgotten about when Steve heard Peggy’s whimpering pain. He threw his shoulder into the door, holding his shield tightly in his hand.

There she was, just as the photos had dictated. Laid out on a gurney, strapped down with blood pumping through her system.

This wasn’t the same Peggy as before. She was younger, much younger and despite the lack of gray hair and wrinkles, her eyes were just as sharp. They fell to Steve and she gritted her teeth, tugging on the bonds.

“Take another step towards me, soldier and you’ll find the reason Whitehall strapped me here.” Steve couldn’t help but to smirk at Peggy’s smart comment. That was her. “Who are you and why in the hell are you wearing Captain Rogers’ face?”

“Peggy, it’s me,” Steve said slowly, calmly, not letting go of the Shield. “It’s you. God, its really you.” He was trying not to cry, to be sedimental but he couldn’t. Tears burned in his eyes as he reached slowly to pull out his dented dog tags.

“Cap, we gotta go,” Tony warned.

She gritted her teeth, that machine, whatever the hell it was, was causing her pain. He couldn’t destroy it, couldn’t get near it without hurting her. “F-fine!” She snapped. “Prove to me you’re Captain Rogers then. Tell me one thing only he would know.”

“July 4th,” Steve said simply, knowing he wasn’t helping Peggy believe him. “1944. You went out of your way to buy me a birthday cake from a lady in town. It was…terrible. God, it was terrible. It tasted like charcoal. Seeing you take a bite, you almost spat it back out but I choked it down for both our sakes because you went through so much trouble.” He paused, trying to think if it was enough. And in the off chance.

“You got sick one winter. Really sick, to the point Phillips considered sending you back to London so you could see a real doctor, not be in the midst of the cold weather. You refused. You were delirious with a fever and so cold. He let me take you to a room you rented and take care of you. I had to nurse you back to health with my ma’s recipes and limited cooking skills. That’s the first time you told me you loved me.”

There it was, that look in her eyes. She believed him without saying a word. Steve rushed forward and undid the needles from her arm, being careful not to tear a vein. “Later,” Peggy whispered to Steve’s worried looks as he picked her up and threw her on his back, leaving his hands free for the shield. “How did you find me?”

“Sleepy and Dopey,” Steve mused despite Peggy’s confused look thrown at the back of his head. “Coulson, Stark?”

“Come on!” The shouting order from Clint and Bobbi at the end of the hall lead Steve to run straight to them. One ahead, one behind is how they made it to ground level and just in time for the warehouse to collapse in on itself, causing a giant sinkhole right in the middle of a large field in God knows where in this arctic.

Coulson shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around Peggy’s shoulders, letting Mack and Hunter take her straight to the Quin Jet. “Director Carter,” he mused with a polite smile, turning to look at Steve. “We’ll have to keep her for questioning. Make sure –“

“I’m staying,” Steve said firmly, daring the man to say otherwise.

Instead, Coulson smiled and patted Steve’s arm. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

[agentreeb]

Here it comes, my own goodbye to Agents of Shield. Just be prepared because it’s going to get sappy in here.

I began watching AoS just in time for season 6, probably a lot later than most fans, but regardless I still consider this period of my life really special. Endgame had just aired and as a marvel fan I was really sad that it was the end, and it was upsetting to think that the next phase wouldn’t be the one I grew up with. However, my brother told me about this show called agents of shield, and how it belonged to the MCU and followed Coulson’s life. I won’t lie, I was a bit skeptical at first but we gave it a shot anyway, and after that we were hooked. At the time, I was studying for my upcoming access to university exam, which is a huge deal in Spain and we basically prepare for it during the last two years of high school. As you can guess the stress levels were high since the exam was in less than a month, but whenever I felt nervous, or when I needed to take a break or just be entertained, I put on Agents of Shield and just say down to enjoy it. It truly became my comfort show and I became very attached very quickly.

I know it sounds corny and maybe even fake, but every time I had a setback I just thought about these characters, and how even after every adversity, how after every problem and fight, they always got back up. They didn’t give up on themselves or on their team, and that always gave me the confidence to do the same for myself. To know that no matter how hard you fall, you always have the option to get back up.

I think that’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned from them. They have also always done an amazing job at portraying found family and developing wonderful relationships between an amazing group of people, and just seeing that on my the whenever I felt like it, put a huge smile on my face. This year there were also long nights in which I had to stay awake and finish projects for university, and 99% of the times, I always put on AoS next to me so that it almost felt there was someone keeping me company.

On top of that, this show came with an amazing cast and crew, all of which have been very kind to us fans, and that’s something I really appreciate. Sure most of us may not known them personally, but even then it has always felt like we were a part of the show. Like they really cared about our enjoyment and I just know that if I ever need to have a laugh I can always watch their interviews, and their panels and every other promo that they’ve done and that will be enough to make me happy.

In conclusion, I just want to say thank you Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Thank you for 7 amazing seasons, thank you for everything that you’ve done for us, thank you for being an incredible show who taught us that even the ordinary can become extraordinary.

This truly is a spy’s goodbye💙

[stillinaincrad]

The NineSpot: Anime I Really Liked with Sequels I Really Didn’t

Am not calling any of these the worst sequels of all time or likewise calling any of the originals the best ever by any stretch of anyone’s imagination, but these are sequels to anime series I fell in love with and didn’t really care at all for what came next. (am not considering OVAs or movies based on entire shows, btw, because they both almost always suck compared to entire seasons anime)

1. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka)

The original DanMachi series was proof-positive that predictable and cliché can still yield a really great tale when the directing and production is top notch. Everything that should have made it lackluster couldn’t outweigh the feels and I always end up smiling earlobe to earlobe. The characters are beyond well crafted, and it is still crystalline-clear that this project was someone’s pride and joy. I adore the original series. The Sword Oratorio spinoff was -meh- to me, it leaned too much on the original for hooks as it tried to fill in Ais’ backstory and ended up being more about Lefiya anyways (plus they blatantly stole the marquee anthem from Last of the Mohicans, which turns me off a thousand times every time it plays now). Oratorio provided some levity, but did nothing at all to advance the story. Then we got DanMachi 2, which started out with mediocre writing but a killer arc and the backbone surfaced for some amazing story depth to amass, but all we got in the end was the horribly lame Ishtar arc where a depressed fox girl doesn’t want to be a prostitute and Bell feels bad about it. I’ve felt exactly nothing for these characters since the original.

2. Overlord

Take a peruse through my blog and you will see that I have never campaigned for a second season of anything more than I did Overlord. I LOVE the first season, it is an absolute favorite of mine, and being that it is yet another Madhouse anime I honestly never expected more but always clamored for it because Overlord was absolutely deserving. When we finally got S2, it threw me for a loop because the original cast barely appears in the first four episodes, but then I found my feet and eventually got myself into the new episodes. Ironically, that is about all that this second season had to offer to me. The lizardmen arc is fantastic, definitely watch it, but when that ends? Here’s about all you need to know: Sebas has a softer side, Climb is a little bitch. There you go, onto season 3 (which is fantastic, btw). 

3. Full Metal Panic

FMP is one of my favorite old-school anime ever, because it balances great humor, great characters, and - despite a shload of filler in the second half - a great all-around story. It is SUCH a gem. Second Raid was a tad bumpy due to a new studio, but still fantastic, and Fumoffu was the comedic break that an already goofball of an anime conjured up and it totally fit as long as no one took it too seriously. Then, some 15yrs later out of nowhere we get Invisible Victory, which Xebec used to completely rewrite everything, and not in a good way. From go, Kyouka - an important supporting character from the outset - is killed and totally glossed over like it wasn’t significant asf, and I got pissed. Then all the already-established characters took on totally new personalities of grave seriousness, which was never the brand. When you take previously established characters who have always been hopeful, energetic, and buoyant to a fault, always looking forward and up - and suddenly make all of them overtly dramatic, hardened, and inordinately austere across the board, it totally cheapens the original and to an extent that superflous doesen't even begin to describe. Massive franchise fail, Xebec - dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow. Easily the sequel I have hated the most. As in, ever. 

4. Sword Art Online

Look, I am the last person you need to tell how much bad this series has divulged into. I was so all-in on the concept, the characters, the drama, and the love of the original series. Do you think it’s ironic that I’ve been doing this almost 5yrs now and haven’t changed my URL? I’ve always said that if the first Matrix movie were left alone and that was it - Neo giving that threat and then flying off into the credits and we have to make up the reality that may or may not have transpired after that -  that it would be in the top 10 movies ever made. That’s how I see the first arc of SAO. It was THAT good, I have somehow watched it more than anything ever made. I originally considered the whole second half of the first season to be filler and am always turned off at the molestation that it celebrates, but said it was ‘for the story’. Then the Sterben shiz happened and I said ‘yes, it’s the EXACT SAME STORY  but it’s going somewhere’, and then it did, to somewhere absolutely worse. I made it about halfway through Alicization and I up and quit altogether. SAO is such a shit franchise - the only thing that has gotten worse than the animation is the writing, the characters that used to be great are so incredibly shallow and annoying now, and I have made more fun of something I used to love than anyone. I am the first to admit I am a huge heel for most of what I have said in support of it in the past. But omg those first 14 episodes. I can’t label the initial tale of SAO as anything but amazing. And if those 14 episodes were the only episodes we ever got, I would easily call it one of the best anime ever made.

5. Date a Live

I almost have to laugh that I am about to mention Date a Live after that. DAL was never going to be confused with a good anime, but it was fun. It was silly and rampant and insane, but you still fell in love with the characters because they were totally and completely worth falling in love with. Then DAL2 happened, and I hate this season a little too much. It was released too soon, it was done too poorly, it was just every kind of measurable cringe. The only thing worse than the writing was the lackadaisical and pedestrian voice acting, and that’s saying a lot considering how intern-worthy the animation of the second season was. DAL3 redeems itself plenty, the characters become likeable again, and there is an actual story and it isn’t awful and harkens back to seeds planted that were never developed, and at least part of the budget was dedicated to better artwork. But wow - DAL2 is just pure hot garbage.

6. A Certain Magical Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index)

The first two seasons of both Raildex series have casts I'd pretty much take on an entire den of Wendol with a soup spoon to protect. They're just that good, so I was beyond excited when a third Index season was announced. I've never read the source material, so maybe some were ready for it more than I was, but Index III started off TOTALLY different - the blood and brutality is turned up past 10, everybody up and turned into an a-hole about everything, and it all felt very foreign to me compared to everything before it. But, I stayed in because I was still invested in the characters and wanted to see where it all went. It eventually reminded me a lot of the good 'ol days of anime where it wasn't always happy, where sometimes even the good guys made you feel bad, and where there was a fairly complex storyline that you really had to pay attention to if you wanted to keep up. The difference is, a lot of those shows were good. Index III just... was. I got nothing out of choking my way through the entire season, and really didn't care about anything but finishing it long before I ever did. I still feel a bit betrayed that this was the anime that fans waited 8 years for. 

7. Eureka 7 Ao

No need for any exposé. Screencap says it all. How you follow up one of the most epic mecha anime ever with this fail of a series is beyond me. Great music, absolutely abysmal writing. 

8. Infinite Stratos

Was Infinite Stratos good? Original, yes. Fun, yes, Characters that made you care about them, yes. But good? BWAHAHAHA NO, it absolutely was not good. IS is one of a handful of titles I chuckle about saying I enjoyed, because it's quite bad. Which is how you know IS2 is total dregs, because it's so very bad that it makes the first season look kinda decent. There was a story worth developing in place in the second season, they just chose to go full potato on the harem and fanservice elements instead, and decided that the writing didn't really matter. The ensuing episodes are for the most part just too much stupid to watch. 

9. Blood Blockade Battlefront (Kekkai Sensen)

A bit of an odd duck, Kekkai Sensen introduced us to a world of enigmatic and strange bedfellows traversing a totally bonkers landscape of a world that somehow all manages to come together as a collective yaaas in the end. There is a unity that develops between them which task by wacky task binds these otherwise incongruent personalities together towards a common goal, and interpersonal gold eventually develops between them. The strengths of the individual are blended like watercolor to reinforce the weaknesses of the individual within the resulting eccentric genus. A cliché but nonetheless robust red string of fate ties all the loose ends together and a fantastic actuality of cognizance materializes between the ragtag cast and the forces that amass against them, and the first season ends with a feel-good that no one could have ever seen coming. It really is a great ride. Then the second season happens, and the glue that holds it all together feathers and ‘stuff just happens’. I was disappointed that all that great writing and plot that intertwines in the first season is totally absent in the second, and in the end it becomes just tales. I wanted so much more and got barfly stories regaled secondhand. 

[arlingtonpark]

Winter 2020 Anime Round-Up

I decided to do a round-up of all the anime I’m watching this season because, turns out, most of the shows I was interested in were bad!

I.D. Invaded.

This is a psychological thriller sci-fi mystery type show. It’s about a police unit who uses this sci-fi technology to detect a killer’s murderous intent and create a sort of virtual reality projection of the killer’s mind.

They then take a special agent and insert him into the projection to hunt down clues and find the killer’s identity and whereabouts.

Enjoying this show is not cheap. It asks a lot of you.

1. Don’t laugh at how ham-fisted the exploration of how a killer’s mind works is.

2. Don’t laugh at the special agent’s official designation being “The Brilliant Detective.”

3. Don’t question the ridiculous premise of the show; they use a killer’s particles to create the projection of their mind to hunt for clues, but are later shown using those same particles to pinpoint the killer’s location.

4. Don’t laugh at one of the police unit’s agents being a teenage girl.

5. And, of course, don’t notice all the expository monologuing for the audience’s sake.  

The show is silly, but there’s some intriguing stuff in it. The conflict between the unit’s field squad and the desk workers can be good, though the locus of that conflict being about what seems to be a bureaucratic oversight is pretty weak.

The teenage girl is the most bald-facedly ridiculous thing about this show, but she is unironically the best character. She does some daring, crazy shit in this show and I was legitimately shocked by it.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

6. Don’t laugh at the OP using recycled production materials and footage from the first episode.

Signs of a quality production right there.

 Plunderer.

>.<

This. Show.

I feel bad for Sarah Wiedenheft. She voices the main heroine in the dub. The in-over-her-head, naïve, helpless heroine, Hina.

God, help us!

Hina is a woman with a mission. She is bubbly and naïve, but stubborn and she gets in over her head by the end of the first episode. Why?

You know why, fool! So she can be rescued by the hero.

This show puts a creative spin on the typical shonen formula. Many shonen shows are designed to be wish fulfillment for teenage boys, with Mary Sue main characters for them to project onto.

The crazy spin on the formula here is that it’s wish fulfillment for sexual predators.

That’s not a joke.

The show takes place in a magical world where everyone is branded with a “count,” a number that increases whenever they complete a task specific to them.

Hina’s count goes up whenever she walks 100 km. Another’s count goes up whenever her food is complimented.

The count is denoted by a number that’s branded somewhere on their bodies. Hina’s count is located on her inner thigh, just below her crotch.

Meanwhile, this is what the hero does to Hina the first time they meet:

This is them at the end of the episode after he rescues her.

You know how in Dragon Ball, Master Roshi was this old pervert? The hero here is like that, except he’s young, not old, and a predator rather than just a pervert.

Licht is the hero; his count goes up whenever he dates someone, I guess, but the thing about him is that he’s a predator, so his count is actually -999. If your count reaches zero, you’re Kylo Ren-ed off into an abyss never to be seen again, so negative counts shouldn’t even be possible.

The reason the hero isn’t dead is because he’s actually.

Wait for it.

The Legendary Ace!

A badass fighter spoken of only in legends!

Who is this show even for?

It’s clearly supposed to be a wish fulfillment kind of show, but the only people I can see projecting onto the hero are, like, really, really pathetic people who fantasize about sexual assault.

(Another female character’s count is located on her left breast.)

The heroine is looking for this legendary ace, but even though she’s lived in this world her whole life, and has traveled throughout it her whole life, she knows nothing about how the count system works.

That was necessary, you see, for two reasons: so the system can be explained to us in monologue, and so the heroine can be made helpless and in need of rescue.

Those with a higher count have a high social status. This could have been a cool exploration of how luck is underappreciated as a factor in one’s social status, since how counts are determined is completely arbitrary and some are easier to increase than others, but no, we don’t get that.

People with a lower count must obey people with a higher count. But you’re in the military, there is an appeals process: if you have a lower count and are ordered by someone with a higher count to do something, you can challenge the high count to a duel and if you win, you can ignore their order.

You can then take the loser’s count and add it to your own.

These duels are called “star stakes.” >.<

Hina, naturally, is suckered into one of these duels and is about to lose everything when Licht saves her by agreeing to duel Hina’s opponent on her behalf.

And just to emphasize how infantilized Hina is in this show, Licht not only saves her physically, he even provides her with some emotional support, but phrased in a way that totally talks down to her.

 Asteroid in Love.

I’ve already seen the first episode three times, and I have no shame!

Doga Kobo is the Kyoto Animation of the past few years. Just as KyoAni made a name for themselves with a string of shows about cute girls doing cute things, Doga Kobo have sort of taken on that mantle.

Three Leaves, Three Colors; Gabriel Dropout; New Game; Senko-san; and now Asteroid in Love are all shows with good characters with good design work and animation better than they had any right to have.

This show is about a girl named Mira who meets a boy named Ao during a camping trip. He has a thing for astronomy and Mira is completely won over by it. They promise to discover and name an asteroid together.

Tragically, that one camping trip was the last they saw of each other.

Comically, they happen upon each other at the start of high school and wouldn’t you know it? Ao was a girl the whole time!

She was very tomboyish at that time in her life, so Mira mistook her for a boy.

But whatever, Mira’s friend still ships them.

They’re both passionate about astronomy, so they reconnect and become good friends real quick.

The friendship between Mira and Ao is by far the best part about this show; unfortunately, everything else is very generic.

High school club? Check.

Club member who’s boisterous and excitable? Check.

Club member who’s serious and down to earth? Check.

But in spite of all that, I could watch this show all day.

The presentation is excellent. The character designs are lovely and the direction and animation are amazing.

 Magia Record.

A spin-off of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Magia Record takes place before Rebellion, but in an alternate universe where the events of Madoka Magica haven’t happened yet. There’s a new cast, but the main cast of Madoka Magica will be back as major characters.

InuCurry, who did the artwork for the witches’ labyrinths are back, this time as series co-directors and co-writers.

The Magica Quartet, the brain trust of people who created Madoka Magica, Gen Urobuchi, Akiyuki Shinbo, Ume Aoki, and Atsuhiro Iwakami, are back too. The four are collectively credited with coming up with the story.

Shinbo, who co-directed Madoka Magica, is back as an animation supervisor. Aoki is back in her role as character designer. Iwakami is co-credited with series planning.

Yukihiro Miyamoto, who co-directed the original series alongside Shinbo, is back as assistant director.

This show…it’s just good to see it all back. The character designs are a bit different from the original series, but they nailed the aesthetic otherwise.

Magia Record draws heavily from plot elements first used in Madoka Magica, but it’s not what I would call uninspired. Anyone who’s seen Madoka Magica will notice the callbacks, but they’re fun, not cringeworthy.

It reminds me of how The Force Awakens brought people back in to the Star Wars universe by heavily echoing A New Hope, but Magia Record is much more creative in its echoing than Force Awakens was.

Everyone who likes the OG series should check this out.

There’s already much intrigue in the story. A magical girl whose wish was granted, but also apparently simultaneously erased from existence, rumors of a city where magical girls can be “saved,” and a Kyubey who is a separate entity from the others.

The show is an adaptation of a mobile rpg. This is from a cutscene.

Iroha Tamaki, the main character of Magia Record, and Homura Akemi. 

Get excited.

 Bofuri.

This show is like Asteroid in Love, in that it would be totally boring if it weren’t totally charming.

This is the type of show that takes a silly phenomenon in the real world and makes it the premise of the whole show. Maple is a girl who’s just gotten into video games. Because she’s a newb, she puts all of her points into defense at the expense of even basic stuff like speed and strength.

Thus ensues hilarity.

There’s not much to talk about here. Maple is endearing as a video game noob. The artwork is great. The writing is legitimately funny in a subdued way.

A+

 Darwin’s Game.

I watched this show because the premise reminded me of King’s Game.

For those who don’t know, King’s Game is widely considered to be the worst anime ever made. It sucks.

King’s Game is about a death game administered over the phone and it the point is that everyone dies. It tries hard to do horror and it fails hard. I watch it every Halloween. :D

Darwin’s Game is about a mobile app game that pits players against each other in death matches. You win by killing all the other players.

With some shows it’s clear the writer can’t decide what they want to do. This show can’t decide if it wants to be trash or legit good.

Immediately you can tell this show is going to suck because the artwork is terrible. This is an ugly show to look at.

The show opens with a cold open clearly made to make the audience ask questions. It succeeds too well.

The opening depicts a random person being chased through the streets and then killed by an invisible furry.

Seriously.

By God, the fanservice in this show…

This doesn’t even fully capture the shamelessness of it. If you watch the episode, you’ll notice her dress has frills from the waist down.

Except for when we see her kneeling down, when her dress is suddenly a single piece of cloth. So we can better see her ass outlined through it.

Things temporarily get good when the main character has to fend off the furry from the opening. It really is thrilling, but everything goes back to crap when the mc has to fight the dress woman in the above picture.

He doesn’t kill her though. Oh, no, he doesn’t.

She becomes smitten by how strong he is and the episode ends with her asking him to bed her.

-barf-

[dgcatanisiri]

So I'm thinking of making a start on all of the old Stark Trek stuff, the shows & movies. Do I have to see them in a certain order? Are they part of the same continuity? Are there any I could leave out of my viewing(like whether or not they're good or canon)?

Much of Star Trek is episodic - references aside, unless they have “part 2″ in the title, you can usually drop in and go from there at most points. The exceptions are DS9, which developed an ongoing story as the show continued, while still having standalones mixed in. And, of course, there’s Discovery, which has embraced serialization. All of Star Trek except the three AOS movies are in the same continuity (at least officially - fans argue back and forth about how much or how little other Trek connect to one another, and declare this or that “not in continuity” for this or that reason, but the official word from on high is that all TV Trek and the first ten movies are in the same continuity). The Animated Series has been yo-yoed about its canonical status, but it’s generally accepted as canon, if at best unimpressive as a whole

Still, a good baseline and rule of thumb if you’re looking for a viewing order is production order - the Original Series, the Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery. There aren’t any direct crossovers between one another, where the two shows team up or anything. There are some loosely connected episodes in late TNG Season 7/DS9 Season 2 regarding the Maquis, a group established for Voyager, but they’re still independent of one another. Enterprise and Discovery both take place in the timeline before TOS, but, at least on first viewing, I still recommend production order first, just because TOS takes a while to figure out all of the details that Enterprise takes as a given, so going in, say, timeline order makes it a little confusing that Enterprise talks about something as a rule, while it’s more of a recommendation in TOS. 

The first six movies are clearly slotted after TAS and before TNG, and while all are capable of being viewed independent of one another, again, production order is best - 2, 3, and 4 are a loose trilogy where each directly impacts the next, and 6 is definite cap to the cast of the Original Series, drawing some character motivations out of all that’s come before. The next four movies feature the TNG cast, and all take place after TNG. There are a few nonspecific references towards DS9 and Voyager over the last three, as Worf joined DS9 after TNG ended, so they had to contrive him to join the movies, while Janeway gets a cameo in the last movie, but I’d say you can still comfortably view them before or after those shows if you want - First Contact and Insurrection were produced at a time when they got a simultaneous global release, but across the pond, they were airing shows on weirdly different schedules, and a handful of direct references to DS9 that made sense in character were cut because of spoilers.

So, yeah, I recommend production order overall, and for the most part, anything that I would recommend skipping just come down to matters of personal preference - there are some “classically bad” episodes of Trek - Spock’s Brain, Threshold - that make for good drinking games or something, they’re the so bad they’re funny (I would hesitate to call them “good,” but you can find enjoyment laughing AT them, if nothing else). I have two episodes on my personal blacklist for reasons, but I wouldn’t say you SHOULD skip anything.

I mean, yeah, there’s a serious Archive Panic when you consider that there’s a good 800+ hours of content, so definitely prioritize if you feel the need. I’m not saying you shouldn’t get interested in Star Trek if you can’t watch it all or anything - TOS is definitely a product of its day, and the sixties had a different style that not everyone today is interested in, TAS’s animation quality is questionable, given that its budget was about two bucks, and that’s after adjusting for inflation, TNG is highly episodic, the first two seasons are really uneven in quality, the final season kinda shows that the writers were running on fumes by that point, DS9 is something completely different from the Trek that came before it, Voyager is very status quo dependent (DS9 and Voyager are often seen as something of dueling siblings, considering they ran alongside one another, engaging in VERY different styles of storytelling), Enterprise struggled to find a purpose in its first two seasons (I literally grew up with Star Trek, been a fan effectively since birth, and Enterprise’s second season was enough to make me no longer watch it live at the time), and Discovery is contentious for a number of things, not the least of which is the aesthetic clash it has with the style of TOS, when it’s a prequel of only ten years to the later. 

Find what works for you. Feel free to jump around, mix and match, watch an episode of one, then an episode of another. Find what of them suits you as a viewer and a fan, skip episodes if they’re not working for you, jump around the franchise if you want, leave this or that for another day if you need to... If there’s one thing that I’d call an advantage for Star Trek as a whole franchise is that it is very accessible, and just about anywhere can be a jumping on point, while still providing incentive to go back and run through the archive.

Star Trek is, on the whole, very newbie friendly. Don’t hesitate to check sites like Memory Alpha (the Star Trek wiki) or TV Tropes or even the StarTrek.com site if you want to see about any reference or something that you miss, or want to check out more before you get invested. It’s meant to be something for anyone and everyone, not just the obsessive, nitpicking, continuity obsessed fanboys who will demand you view anything and everything that connects. Find the parts of it that work for you, and, if that’s not everything, let no one tell you you can’t enjoy just parts of the franchise.

[brenli]

[28]

Tagged by: @goddamnitkastle​ (YAYAYAY ANOTHER ONE!)

1. how tall are you? 5′3″

2. what color and style is your hair? Dark brown. A couple of stray silver strands. When the light hits it right you can see natural auburn-y red highlights/tones in it, especially near the ends. I wear it long, down to my lower back, usually parted in the middle (sometimes on the left) and with bangs. Usually blunt-cut across my brows, but I'm not as good about trimming them as I ought to be so they usually end up growing out long enough that I need to brush them off to the right.

3. what color are your eyes? Brown

4. do you wear glasses? My cat-eye specs are basically part of my identity at this point.

5. do you wear braces? Nope

6. what is your fashion style? I have contempt for this question that likes of which you cannot believe. XD I guess in the most general sense it's rock-chic. Rock/metal girl elements mixed with glamorous or feminine elements/silhouettes. But this is MASSIVELY boiling down my massive wardrobe and I've certainly had moments of departure from the rock-chic umbrella depending on how I'm feeling. I dislike strictly adhering to specific style labels; I find it stifling.

7. full name? Brenda Lee Larson. My maiden name is cooler to be honest; I only changed it because I was more interested in sharing a surname with the Honey and I know I can still use my maiden name for other things.

8. when were you born? July 24, 1987

9. where are you from and where do you live now? Technically born in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, WA, USA and spent the first 4 years of my life bouncing around different naval stations because my family was about that Navy Life, but the majority of my formative years Spokane, WA, USA so my assumption is that would be more accurately where I'm "from." (Hawaii is where my heart wants to say I'm from though as that's where my earliest memories take place~) After some years spent CA (first in the Bay and then in LA), I'm currently living just south of Seattle, WA. So. Basically I've been wiggling around the West Coast my whole life, including going so far west I ditched the mainland for a spell.

10. what school do you go to? I WORK at a school currently, Cornish. Freelancing as a house manager for 3 of their 4 venues. The 4th one never seems to put on any events that require one of us from the house management roster, otherwise I'd work gigs at that one, too. XD

11. what kind of student are you? Some of you who make these questionnaires clearly cannot think beyond life-after-schooling and it shows. XD I was an above-average student for the vast majority of my years in schooling but I started falling off a little toward the end, largely because I was very keenly aware of what areas of study pertained to me and my interests/goals, and I had no patience for areas of study that did not. I left before it got too bad.

12. do you like school? I liked the parts of school that spoke to me~

13. what are your favorite school subjects? Literature/English was always the major go-to throughout all of my years of schooling. I was in Choir up until highschool; this was when Theatre became available to me and I wasn't able to participate in both, so I parted ways with Choir and focused on Theatre all the way up through my last years of schooling. Other subjects of interest, in highschool: Photography, Psychology, Forensic Science, World History. In college: Creative Writing, Journalism, Japanese.

14. favorite TV shows? The major ones have been racy period dramas The Tudors and The Borgias. I grew up on Star Trek TOS and as such it has a very dear place in my heart despite it not being a racy period drama. XD I also am quite invested in the Netflix MCU with Daredevil and The Punisher being my two favorite shows (Frank is my everything!). More currently I've been expanding my Sanada-san filmography-binge thanks in large part to @anagraves​; I recently finished the 1993 Koukou Kyoushi and am through episode 10 of Konna Koi no Hanashi. What I've been learning from this - Hiroyuki Sanada knows how to break hearts whether he's being soft and vulnerable to cold and cruel and anything in between, but that's exactly why I love him.

INB4 "you post Snow White everything so why isn't OUAT on here" I do enjoy OUAT a lot, but I don't know if I would consider it a favorite show overall. I'm more fond of the earlier seasons than the later seasons and it's that ambivalent feeling I have for the later seasons that make the show not a favorite - but still very good overall.

It's also at this point that I should probably explain what my blog description does not - my blog started running a Snow White-themed queue LARGELY as part of an inspiration-drive for a Snow White AU project that I haven't actually touched in a long time. I REALLY should do something about that; I just keep getting pulled in other directions and now it's years on and here I am with what's basically a Snow White queueblog. XD If I can ever get my dumb head in gear and FINISH what I've started, that would honestly result in the queue being mass-posted and then probably altered to suit whatever the next project would be. That's always been the intention, anyway.

15. favorite movies? While I'm still feeling the chilly gaze of my Snow White queue, my favorite Snow White movie thus far is Mirror Mirror. I think it's massively underrated and that makes me sad.

As far as Disney is concerned, while I have a HUGE amount of respect for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, my favorite film growing up was Beauty and the Beast (and my Rococo-loving ass does adore the live action remake). Surprise??? XD More recently, Moana is the film of my heart; it's the closest Disney has gotten to making a Princess culturally-relevant to me as a half-Filipina so my tropical islander ass is just utterly enamoured with Moana. ((Listen Disney if you ever decide to make a super fun colorful precolonial Philippine film THE PERFECT PRINCESS EXISTS FOR THAT, I submit for your consideration - Urduja!)

Because of my rather open-door childhood with regard to media, my earliest favorite movies are actually Nightmare on Elm Street and Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors. Freddy is my Nightmare King Murder Boyfriend and I'm prepared to face judgement for that. XD

Fondness for Star Trek TOS has resulted in an affection for the AOS movies~

But a movie that speaks to me very much is What Dreams May Come.

Currently I've gotten re-ensnared into The Last Samurai, in correlation with the most recent AU project. Because I am hopeless, Grumpy Samurai is Best Samurai, and I've been spending time manically fretting and pretending that because Ujio drops before the gatling guns are brought out, maybe he SOMEHOW managed to survive in SOME way and he can have tons of cool battle scars. Right? ... RIGHT???

16. favorite books? If manga counts then it's Angel Sanctuary. Hands down. No contest. It's easily woven itself into my life in the form of fanfic that is/was well-received within the fandom, and a weirdly HUGE list of AUs that somehow burst out of nowhere. (Currently all of it, AU work included, can be read via my FF.Net account under brenli. I have a placeholder page on AO3 that's currently empty but may end up holding all my content there as well, in time. If I can ever make the time.)

I was and am really into Sue Harrison's Ivory Carver series, particularly My Sister the Moon.

It was part of my middle school/junior high reading curriculum but I honestly DID really like The Diving Bell by Todd Strasser. Even if the cover art of Culca coming up out of the ocean looked A LOT like me and resulted in my class calling me Culca for the entirety of our unit on that book. It's fine. Culca is a badass queen of pearls and seawater so I'm happy to be associated with her~!

Every now and then I remember a book that clearly really resonated with my as a child if I still remember it, but the problem is that I don't remember the title or the author, or even any of the characters' names. It was about a Roma girl who lived in the American south - I wanna say Tennesee? - who was discovered for her talent playing guitar and singing country music. The book essentially details her struggle between her traditional roots as a Roma person, including the arrangement for her to be married young, and her interest in pursuing music as a career but feeling alienated by an industry and a society at large that is wealthier than her and has a different culture from her own. The book ends with her running away but it isn't made clear what her ultimate fate is. To this DAY it bothers me that I don't remember the title or the author because I honestly go through periods where I want to reread it. And yes, this was the kind of stuff I was reading as a child. XD I also read My Sister the Moon for the first time when I was like. 11 years old. If you're familiar with the content of that book then you're aware that certain scenes are really not 11-year-old friendly, but. If I can watch gratuitous 80's slasher horror at age 4 then I can read about a young woman surviving sexual abuse at age 11.

17. favorite pastime? Writing at this rate, honestly. Which probably speaks more to my inner tortured artist than anything else. XD

18. do you have any regrets? I feel like everybody has at least one regret and anyone who says otherwise is either very very young, or lying. XD It's not about whether you have regrets, it's about not letting them hold you in the past.

19. dream job? Telling stories, in any and every way attainable to me.

20. would you like to get married someday? I already am~

21. would you like to have kids someday? Absolutely not. I don't feel like my life is conducive to childrearing, and INB4 "you're never truly ready" and "you make it work" the key factor here is I'm not WILLING to become ready and I'm not WILLING to make it work. That's how I know my life is not conducive to childrearing. XD (I'm at that age where tons of people are asking me this and feeding me words meant to encourage me to consider and it's honestly EXHAUSTING by this point. I can't wait for when I'm menopausal maybe people will finally shut up about it because I'll be past my prime~)

23. do you like shopping? I mean, yes, but I usually avoid it because I'm aware of how impulsive I am.

24. what countries have you visited? I'm tempted to say that Hawaii should count because it's so far away from the mainland. XD But honestly I've never been outside of US territory. It's in the plans to try for Japan during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I'm not sure if we'll make that goal but if not, I figure it won't hurt to continue saving up anyway and making a Tokyo trip post-Olympics. Prices will be cheaper post-Olympics, anyway, so~

25. what’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had? At the risk of raising weird red flags I've gone through periods where I'll have reoccurring nightmares about being actively pursued by someone who very obviously intends to do harm. It happens often enough that the Honey wonders if I'm mentally suppressing something. XD I did have a standalone dream though, where me and the Honey were asleep in bed and then I become aware that someone's broken into the house and is approaching our bed. I'm walking through every possible option in my head with my eyes shut; if the Honey and I both lunged at the attacker we could possibly overpower them just because it would be two against one. But I know that I can't possibly wake up the Honey and make him aware of the situation without the attacker immediately acting and resulting in at least one of us being injured or killed. I realize that I have no choice but to try and take the attacker by surprise by myself and hope that is enough. I make peace with that. I can feel the attacker leaning over me. I suddenly lunge at them in full primal adrenaline-filled rage.

I wake up.

26. do you have any enemies? I guess that I have a few, yes, but honestly at this point I've gotten probably a little too used to being vilified. Barring physical assault or turning the animosity on innocent third parties in my life, I am prepared to weather the metaphorical lashes.

27. do you have an s/o? I have my Honey~

28. do you believe in miracles? I believe in miracles that aren't the overt surface-level wish-fulfillment-from-above which I think most people expect a miracle to be. I think that sometimes luck plays out via a slim-to-none chance and that can be a miracle. I think that sometimes a person works very hard at something or for something and when they achieve it, that can be a miracle. I think that the butterfly effect is a double-edged sword, but sometimes that little flutter of a butterfly's wings is a miracle.

Tagging: @yacky-jackie​ @halorecoil​ @anagraves​ @benevolentqueenofstars​ @lesbomancy​ @candybunnieholic​ @lemonedscream​ @tinathefish​

[fantasiavii]

some unpopular opinions

You have been warned.  You don’t have to read this.  I’m not attacking anyone or saying that people who disagree with me are bad (mostly...on 10 I’m pretty mad).  I’m just venting.  There’s a lot of fandoms on here but mostly Star Trek lmao.  In no particular order: 

1. (Les Mis) I don’t really like the Jehan/M0nt-par-nasse ship lmao and I’m sad that it’s pretty much the only ship Jehan’s put in now.  When I joined the fandom there was a lot more Jehan/Courf and I really liked that and I miss it and I miss Jehan/Bahorel and Jehan/Feuilly too even though I never really shipped them like I shipped Jehan/Courf but I just miss Jehan with other people... (Also Jehan/Courf/Combeferre!!! My beloved rarepair rowboat of a ship)

2. (Les Mis) Not really an unpopular opinion just something I found out and I don’t see people talking about: The invasion and colonization of Algeria actually had a key role in the 1830 revolution and the establishment of the Orleans monarchy and its not really mentioned in Les Mis, most likely because Hugo’s looking at French history through rose-colored glasses.  A lot of ideals from the Revolution and Napoleon’s time were weirdly combined under the Orleans monarchy to get people to support the regime and the colonization of Algeria was a key part of this and part of the expression of that ideology.  Essentially, some of the values promoted in Les Mis were used to justify the colonization of Algeria (though in a weirdly monarchist form).  Good reference: By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria by Jennifer E. Sessions.

3. (Star Wars) I like the prequel trilogies.  Not in a “they never did anything wrong/are unproblematic and you are all wrong!” way but in a “I grew up watching all of Star Wars indiscriminately” way because my parents (who grew up with the original trilogy) didn’t hate the prequels and so now I can say I like the prequels, I don’t think they’re any worse than the original trilogy (which had plenty of problems imo) and also Padme is fucking awesome.

4. (Marvel) Loki is canonically bi and genderqueer both in Norse mythology and the Marvel comics and that’s just how it is.  This isn’t even an opinion.  I’m just tired of people straightwashing him and honestly if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine, just stick to the movieverse, I really really don’t mind.  It’s worse when you try to explain away his queerness.  That’s what really sucks.

5. (Star Trek - Vulcans) Vulcans/Vulcan culture seem to have originally been a thought experiment of like...taking Enlightenment era rationality and neo-Stoicism and pushing it to its most extreme and Vulcans, when they were originally created, were (mostly likely, given what I know of the time period) a symptom of the contemporary Western idea that religion would one day die out and be replaced by rational, secular humanism.  Vulcan logic/Surakian logic grew to resemble a religion more over time* (most notably within the Enterprise and Discovery series) and then it most resembled (through my religion major eyes) a combination of Enlightenment era rationality and Buddhism.  Surakian logic’s relationship to Buddhism is complicated, because its resemblance of Buddhism is a symptom of the Orientalism that is still very much present in a lot of science fiction** (usually when Asian inspired cultures appear but not Asian characters), but Surakian logic is also symptomatic of the Americanization of Buddhism or what some people call American Buddhism.  This is a form of Buddhism that has been sanitized of most of its original “religious” trappings and narrowed down to “spirituality” and, again, rationality, because white people went to Asia and thought that Buddhism was the only rational religion for awhile and then brought it to the US and it’s now sold to people as mostly a spiritual, not a religious, thing, and as a way to cope with late capitalism.  Not trying to disparage American Buddhists or people who are into the just spirituality thing.  I’m just saying there was a change when Buddhism crossed the Pacific and some of the process of bringing it over was highkey problematic (same with Hinduism).  The fact that Buddhism was perceived as the “most rational” religion is probably why it ended up being what Surakian logic most resembled when Surakian logic grew to look more obviously like a religion.  And also because Orientalism.

*though it is my opinion that even in its original series formation, Surakian logic could still be considered a religion

**there’s several examples of it in Star Trek besides Surakian logic.  Also Star Wars.

6. (Star Trek - TOS) Take a deep breath on this one guys: the original series is not that great.  Like. It’s valuable for the nostalgia factor and its repetitiveness is comforting and so is the familiarity of the cast but some of the episodes are just straight up bad.  Like That Is Obviously Racist levels of bad.  And I no longer want to waste time with this “they put sexual stuff to distract the censors from the radical message” shit.  That might be true but there’s still blatant exploitation of women and women’s bodies in almost every episode; Jim both is sexually assaulted and sexually assaults other people; Jim is a feminist sometimes but only when it suits the episode.  The fandom put TOS on a pedestal and looks at it through rose-colored glasses and I don’t really understand why??? We should be able to admit it had problematic aspects and move on.  It was groundbreaking for its time, yes.  But it’s been over fifty years and I’m not interested in returning to the 1960s.  

7. (Star Trek - Spirk) The AOS movies (especially the first two) are written like a love story between Kirk and Spock and I know people get upset about the Spock/Uhura romance but there is at least as much homoerotic subtext in aos as there is tos.  y’all are just mean. (esp since Jim so obviously dates other women in tos or has “had a past” with them which is clearly meant to imply romance of some sort......)

8. (Star Trek - AOS) Into Darkness is a good movie.  So it the first one and so is Beyond.

9. (Star Trek and Star Wars) This fandom war is pointless.  You can enjoy both, especially since they’re completely different stories with different messages, and also, by some definitions, different genres (science fiction vs science fantasy).  My parents grew up watching both and (like the stuff about the Star Wars prequels) didn’t ever tell me I should be fighting between the two.  I honestly think these controversies (Star Wars vs Star Trek and SW prequels vs originals) still exist bc they’re taught to us, not because they are valuable debates.

10. (Oscar Wilde) “Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling” is not about oral sex, y’all have just never read De Profundis and it shows.  Oscar Wilde was very much a Christian and while talking about divine love through the metaphor of human love and vice versa is a tried and true thing people do, I can guarantee that this quote is not about oral sex.  You guys just have your minds in the gutter or are, at worst, fetishizing of gay relationships.  Not everything queer people do is about what they like it bed.

And I think 10 is a good place to stop lol.

[natsthinkitythinkthinkthonk]

Happy 32nd Birthday Nobuhiko Okamoto!

Personal Note:

I’ve been preparing for a while because I wanted to make this with a lot more thought. Sorry for the length of this post. I spent quite a bit of time on it, but I didn’t realize it would get so long! He is one of my top favourite voice actors (both English and Japanese) ever. To me, he’s a relatable, awesome, and passionate inspiration. He puts his all into every role he does, and he never gives up no matter who tells him to. 

I could probably go on about how much I like many of the roles he’s done, but that would be a whole other essay in itself. I even considered watching Corpse Party (the scaredy cat I am) because I heard he was in it. Yeah, I’m one of those people who gets drawn to anime when I figure out certain studios and voice actors are attached to it. I have watched a few episodes of some really bad anime because I heard he was in it. No regrets! Okay, maybe I have a few... I still haven’t watched them all though! I plan on watching a ton more, and that includes a few bad apples here and there.

Despite all the hurdles and adversity he faces, he overcomes it! He has had so many amazing roles, he sings, he’s good at shogi, and he’s just a good person. I respect him a lot. Honestly, I can’t word stuff too well, but I sincerely hope he continues working, maybe gets married and has kids (since he said he wanted to), and experiences all the happiness he deserves.

Table of Contents:

Top Roles (+ clips)

Trailblazer arrangement

Facts + Q&As

Music Recommendations

Additional Sources + other cool posts

Top Roles:

I watched to include even the ones that I didn’t watch entirely, so I put together a whole list. It’s generally not too strict in order, but I went from his good to his best. If I wanted to put a few words, I just included them in square brackets. In those, there will also be recommended clips if I feel the need to add any in.

* = ones that I haven’t watched completely (or up to its current point)

Rui Tatsumi* - Starmyu

Ivan Karelin* - Tiger and Bunny

Shin-ah - Akatsuki no Yona

[This character didn’t talk much, so he actually got to play a MOB character as well. I found this character kind of charming though.]

Mitsuo - Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

[He’s the one who dropped the hot dog. Rest in Pieces. This anime made me laugh, and even though this character barely appeared, he made me laugh every time he did. Recommended clip: “Glasses”]

Gladion* - Pokemon Sun & Moon

[He’s actually the perfect choice to play this edgy boi.]

Yumeji Fujiwara* - Yumekui Merry

[RIP the can]

Makoto Kashino* - Yume-iro Pâtissière

[I just started this one]

Mizuki* - Kamisama Hajimemashite

[I watched six episodes of this one.]

Rei Ogami - Code:Breaker

[This wasn’t a very good anime, it’s a mediocre manga, but I still enjoyed it.]

Nikaidou Harunobu* - 3-Gatsu no Lion

[I watched around 6-8 episodes of this one. This character is a pure round boi, and I like the way Nobu portrayed this character. Recommended Clip.]

Io Otonashi* - Acchi Kocchi

[I watched around 5 episodes of this one. His bishounen game is very strong.]

Takeru Fujiwara* - Prince of Stride

[These anime characters run like how I run from my life responsibilities and problems. His bishounen game is also very strong. The strong and silent type is always popular. Sadly, I’m the quiet and extremely frail and weak type.]

Shouta Kisa* - Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

[According to Tumblr, he has never done an R-rated (18+) BLCD, but he has been in some shounen-ai anime.]

Issac Foster - Satsuriku no Tenshi

[My reaction to this anime. Don’t worry, I’m following this to the end.]

Ryousuke Kominato - Diamond no Ace

Ryou Kurokiba* - Shokugeki no Souma

Age - Sakasama no Patema

[Yeah, that’s his actual name. If you name your child something that stupid, I would personally like to have a word with you. This movie was really nice though.]

Accelerator* - Toaru Majutsu no Index

[I had to include his laugh to this]

Jurai Andou - Inobato (Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de)

[And jail is just a building you live in! I can’t remember the context of this line.]

Kiyoharu Hyoudou - Welcome to the Ballroom

Yoichi Saotome* - Owari no Seraph

Eiji Niizuma* - Bakuman

[Recommended Clip]

Obi - Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

[When he looks into the mirror and realizes he’s missing his eyebrows.]

Takumi Usui* - Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Yuu Nishinoya* - Haikyuu

[Recommended Clip: ROLLING THUNDER!]

Rin Okumura - Ao no Exorcist

[He’s such a likeable protagonist. Recommended clip: Rin x Shiemi because they’re adorable]

Mikoto Mikoshiba - Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

[This character made me laugh so much. He and Seo are my favourites. I haven’t seen another amazing anime with both Miyuki Sawashiro and Nobu. They’re my two favourites. I hope to see them acting together eventually (even if Mikorin and Seo never really communicated). Thanks to Nobu, we have a voice to this madly embarassed bishounen. Recommended Clips: Mikorin Clips, Mixer Clip]

Katsuki “Kacchan” Bakugou - Boku no Hero Academia

[Bakugou might not always be my cup of tea as a character, but his voice made me like him somewhat anyway whether he’s an asshole or not. There are a few scenes in season three that hit me with mad feels,, but even during season one and two, Nobu aced this role. This role is what shot him up to one of my favourite voice actors. Recommended Clips: Rage moments, Kacchan vs Deku audio segment (scroll down a little for this Tumblr post), Salty Bakugou S1]

Karma Akabane - Assassination Classroom

[While Bakugou is one type of crazy, Karma is another. Honestly, he’s such a sly, cunning, and mischievous character, but that’s what we all like about him, right?]

Trailblazer Arrangement:

This is my first time transcribing a song and arranging it! I improvised and made up some stuff (mostly guitar solos that just didn’t fit as well logically on piano). I usually don’t like (actually, I kinda hate) transcribing because it’s basically like trying to copy down a book that someone reads aloud (and you can’t look at the text). But it was worth doing this! He’s definitely not my favourite singer, but I’d still listen to him.

I didn't want to go with an original score for this one because I felt like I wanted to improve a lot more as a composer and artist (as if I'm qualified enough to be called those terms). When I make one for him, I want to go all out.

Facts:

I found some other interesting facts online. There are quite a few different sources. I’ll try to list them below all the facts (but I might link them to the actual facts as well. There are a lot, so there’s that.

All [Nat Notes] will be put between square brackets “[these]”.

These are all from THIS POST:

After graduating from secondary school, he entered some voice acting training courses associated with his agency (Pro-Fit) to pursue his dream as a seiyuu.

To be able to pay for his training, he worked at a 7-Eleven and a post office.

His family is very strict and conservative.

He was into video games when he was younger, but his parents were against letting him play video games and ended up limiting him to a one-hour per day time limit [THIS POOR BOI]

[Regarding his gaming] his parents told him, “If you want to play games, you can play shogi.” This ended up being the reason he started playing shogi.

He is a practicing Catholic [ironic since one of his most iconic roles is playing the son of Satan]

He’s a 3rd dan ranked shogi player, and he once aimed to be a professional shogi player.

He has a huge love for sweets. I follow his blog, and a lot of his posts involve sweets.

“His favourite [candy bar] would be Black Thunder chocolate bars (same as Kamiya Hiroshi and Ono Daisuke), and at one point, he always ends up buying Black Thunder by the box, stocking up on it, and eating up to 10 bars in one day, that his agency decided to restrict him into eating just one bar a day.” [let the poor guy eat his chocolate]

He is easily bullied by other seiyuu [check out the original post which has gifs of his mishaps]

“[While recording] …he ran away from the mic, forgetting that he was wearing headphones connected to the mic and ended up messing up the recording room, and the staff had to rearrange everything.”

He’s a big fan of Pokemon [He now plays Gladion in Pokemon Sun & Moon]

These are from “More Nobu Facts”

“As a student, he used to fall asleep on the train and miss his destinations sometimes. He thinks that it’s really comfortable to take a nap there.” [Yeah, you say that until you somehow end up in the middle of nowhere and wonder where you are and why you even exist.]

“He suffers from hay fever in the spring. Said that the symptoms kill him.” [You and me both except mine are year-round and gradually getting worse.]

“He played with Lego bricks when he was a kid.” [If he’s the type of person who left out the bricks and made people experience pain because of it, I will personally leave Lego bricks outside his door. Those things hurt when they’re unexpected.]

“He loves the indoor life.” [don’t we all…]

“He read the Harry Potter series.” [I did too! Not that I remember any of it.]

“His cute, foreign Furby only speaks English. Noburin stated, “English is very hard.”” [HOW DO PEOPLE SLEEP KNOWING THEY OWN ONE OF THOSE? I WOULD BURN IT IF I GOT ONE.]

“In elementary school, the girl he liked gave him chocolate on Valentine’s Day. He said he felt like crying from the shock.” [I haven’t experienced that. Was he happy because it was that girl who gave him chocolate or because he got free chocolate?]

“He was hospitalized before when he was a child due to a bad cold (or maybe the flu).” [Well, that diet sure doesn’t help, and I doubt screaming all the time is good for you. Weirdly, I can’t say anything more than that because I do both too except I scream internally while he does it as his profession.]

He tends to get sick within the first two weeks of October, right before his birthday. [I wish you luck!]

He likes to watch lightning and thinks that it’s cool. [I’M SO SCARED OF THUNDER]

During the summer as a kid, he liked to catch cicadas and dragonflies, and play with water guns. [SAME DUDE]

He was in the badminton club during secondary school.

These are all from his Q&A! [Part 1], [Part 2], [Part 3], [Part 4]:

I’m not going to include quotation marks for this one for the most part. I changed some awkward phrasing. I left out some questions from the original posts as well. Check the sources out!

Nickname: Pikorin

Favourite animal: Dog [Same. I love my dog, Penny. She’s my little sister. I have no shame.]

What are you fond of?: Squirrels [why?]

Description of your personality: Moody [Same.]

Favourite Colour: Black

Health and Beauty Routine: I drink two cups of milk in the morning and do squats two times a day. 

First thing you do in the morning?: Rinse your mouth

First thing you wash in the bath: Face

Amount of sleep you get: 4 hours on the weekdays, 10 hours on the weekend  [I wouldn’t live with that kind of schedule.]

Rain or sunshine: Rain!

What did you play as a child?: I slid down the slide and got many scratches. [I ran up slides a lot in elementary school]

Something you’re proud of: “I have a shiny legendary Pokemon.” [I ALMOST NEVER GET SHINIES. LET ALONE LEGENDARY ONES. THAT’S AN ACCOMPLISHMENT RIGHT THERE. The chances of getting one kinda vary, but it’s less than 0.1% I think.]

Favourite school subject: Math [Can’t relate. I’m dumb.]

Least favourite school subject: Civics

Best school memory?: I won a badminton tournament. [Can’t relate. I’m a blob.]

Previous part-time jobs: [...]post office, fast food, convenience store and then accounting, I’ve done different jobs.

If you could be reborn, would you be a man or woman? A woman!

Who was your first love?: We were in elementary school, in the same class. [Related post]

Any gesture of women unnerving to you?: My heart skips a beat when ousted or “shooed” by hand.  [He gets shooed like a bug XD]

Where would you go for a date?: Tokyo Disney Sea.  [You know you’re at the height of luxury when you can afford to take someone there. I want someone to take me to Disneyland or Disney World, or a Disney Cruise.]

Morning person or night person?: Morning person.  [Can’t relate.]

If you could drive to any time period, what would it be?: Jurassic Period! [If it just so happens you do, *pats* it was nice knowing you (even though he doesn’t know me). He’ll get eaten by a dinosaur.]

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what would you want there with you?: My Nintendo DS or PSP.   [Good luck without a charger or electricity. What games would he bring though?]

Favourite music genre: Anime songs [Me too fam.]

Do you play any instruments? No, playing the F chord on the guitar is my limit. [I like playing and creating music. I’m just not any good at it. XD He should try learning though!]

Favourite sports: swimming and badminton [I’m not good at swimming. I’m not good at badminton. I’m not good at sports.]

Sweets you usually eat: Macarons and chocolate-related sweets [AYE, that’s pretty much my taste too, so we pretty much have similar taste.]

Something you’re self-conscious about: The thickness of my eyebrows. [If his eyebrows were ugly, I would’ve commented on that already. XD (I usually say something along the lines of, “Is that a caterpillar on your face? It’s so thick and bushy! It looks like you took hair from your head and put it on your eyebrow! Maybe you can’t grow facial hair because all of it goes to those eyebrows.”)]

What will you do when and if only you became an invisible man one day?: Secretly observe Sugita Tomokazu-san. [Well, alright then. Fangirls have some competition? More importantly, Nakamura has competition!]

What’s the scariest thing to you?: In a sense, the most intimidating people. [All people are intimidating for me O^O’]

What is the title of the first game you’ve ever played in your life?: “Super Mario World”. [For me, it was Pokemon Pearl]

What would you be if you went into the fantasy world?: A witch. [Nobu, defying gender barriers. He’ll be a fabulous witch. I would similarly want to be a mage.]

What if I want to use a weapon to fight monsters?: Bow, crossbow. [I would want to use magic or a sword!]

Favourite season?: Spring. [I like winter because plants are dead (I have extremely bad allergies), snow, Christmas, my birthday, and New Year’s!]

At what spot do you like to linger around?: Starbucks. [Again, the height of luxury is when you’re able to afford Starbucks regularly.]

How’s your tolerance to alcohol?: I can’t drink much. [I don’t drink]

What good books do you usually read?: Original works that are adapted into anime. [I don’t read a lot. I’m an illiterate fool.]

What do you buy at convenience stores?: Fresh premium caramel roll cake. [I wish they had those in Canada…]

Favourite place in the country?: Okinawa. [I gotta go there someday!]

What countries do you want to go abroad?: Italy. [He recently said he wants to go to Italy for gelato and to be honest, I relate. Europe has good chocolate and cheese from what I hear.]

What are the challenges to your trip destinations like?: Pickpockets like to snatch! [He better watch out for those vans that say “Free Candy!” They might be meant for kids, but he might just stumble in.]

Are you nervous in public?: Recently it’s been okay; still nervous during events. [I’m always nervous in public. I would like to attend an event by the end of my life though.]

What would you tell your past-self (10 years ago)?: “Don’t give up and eat your dinner properly!” [I tell that to myself now XD If I were to send a message to myself, it would be something along the lines of, “What you feel, what you think, and what you believe is important. Listen to yourself. At the end of the day, you will figure out what to do. Don’t be afraid of being alone, and don’t be afraid to wander. Loosen up.”]

What would you message to your future-self (10 years from now)?: “The you in his twenties is having lots of fun. Are you having fun?” [Message for me ten years from now: PLEASE TELL ME YOU AREN’T AS DEEP INTO VOICE ACTORS AND ANIMATION. I BEG YOU, GET A LIFE.]

If the world was going to perish in 24 hours, what would you do? Gather all my friends and family, and have a BBQ party. [I would just write something in case it resurfaces. I would want to write my thoughts, opinions, and experiences along with the people around me.]  

Where do you want to work?: A place where I could grow. [Same!]

What are your thoughts when you look back at 2010? I issued a sex appeal to play [Usui], and worked hard to reach the targets! [From the amount of screaming fangirls, I think you did just fine.]

What is your current aim?: To be more playful and get more out of acting.

Finally, a message to the world: I’ll work hard from now on to make a voice that everyone will not have a hard time to listen to. Thank you for your support! [Thank you Nobu! You inspire a lot of people (including me) everyday!]

Additional Facts! [SOURCES WILL BE LISTED BELOW!]

He likes watching horror movies (especially with his friends Ryouhei Kimura, Kouki Uchiyama, and Yoshimasa Hosoya. Kouki is a scaredy-cat.) When watching a horror movie, he experienced scary unknown noises and used salt to ward away ghosts.

His birthdate is October 24, 1986

He is 168cm tall

He is affiliated with the agency Pro-Fit

He won: - Best New Actor Award at the Third Seiyu Awards for his roles as  Shin Kanzato in Persona: Trinity Soul, Ryuji Kuhoin in Kurenai, and Accelerator in Toaru Majutsu no Index (along with Yuuki Kaji!) - Best Supporting Actor Award at the Fifth Seiyu Awards for his roles as  Takumi Usui in Kaichou wa Maid-Sama, Eiji Niizuma in Bakuman, and Accelerator in Toaru Majutsu no Index II

He loves sweets... a lot: - He’s a qualified patisserie - Where his love of sweets came from [I can also say that is a good portion of his blog]

He tried to be rebellious as a kid but got “clobbered” by his mom.

He would purposefully wear long-sleeves while in the hot recording room for “My Hero Academia” so that he would be agitated enough to play Kacchan!

He adds chocolate to his curry sometimes

He gave Ayane Sakura the nickname “Ayaneru”

He often celebrates fictional characters’ birthdays on his blog for series that he’s involved with!

He was once told to give up on being a voice actor!

Thank you for not giving up Nobu!

Music:

月刊少女野崎君-俺の手でSPARKING!! 御子柴實琴(CV:岡本信彦) - Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: Mikorin Character Song

Kamisama Hajimemashita: Mizuki Character Song

Welcome to the Ballroom: Kiyoharu Hyoudou Character Song

『 サクラメント』By Okamoto Nobuhiko Ending for Vatican Miracle Examiner

Promise - Kaichou wa Maid-sama: Takumi Usui Character Song

Restoration to 0 - Code:Breaker: Rei Ogami Character Song

Tiger and Bunny: Character Song

スタミュ Starmyu S2 Shadow & Lights 「沈黙のディアローグ」Ver. Tatsumi Rui

Blue Flame - Prince of Stride: Takeru Fujiwara Character Song

99.9% Noisy - To Aru Majutsu no Index: Accelerator character song

Oikaze ni Tsugu - Diamond no Ace: Kominato Ryosuke

Trailblazer - Ao no Exorcist

Kimi wa Hitori Janai

List of Links (Sources and other cool stuff!):

Some of the links were included in the actual facts themselves! If a source and other stuff is missing, they’re included above!

Voice Compilations:

25 Anime Characters That Share The Same Voice Actor as Boku no Hero Academia's Bakugou Katsuki

Voice Compilation [ 1 ], [ 2 ] 

Wikipedia:

Nobuhiko Okamoto

3rd Seiyuu Awards

5th Seiyuu Awards

Haikyuu Stuff:

Haikyuu Awards Basically, they got the fans to nominate for awards like “Who’s the best dressed?” Then the cast got to comment (and maybe get praised by the two female cast members)

“Imagination Game” - Seiyuu Event Long story short: to win a pair of Karasuno boxers, the voice actors must answer all the same character when asked something like, “Out of the Karasuno team, who’s the most likely to [blank]”

Cast Pictures

Drama CD: Why Noya isn’t popular with women (This one is because I fricking relate because I’m too short for this tall world)

“Who’s Best Girl?” - Cast Comments + Nobuhiko’s comments [video with cc]

Nobuhiko Okamoto & Yuuki Kaji being bros [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], [ 4 ], [That time they challenged a Guinness World record], [Nobuhiko’s message for Yuuki Kaji’s 30th birthday]

Nobuhiko’s athletic ability

Kouki Uchiyama, Daiki Yamashita, Nobuhiko Okamoto: [Comic] BNHA Cast Comments

Daiki lending Nobuhiko his jacket (this can potentially fuel Bakudeku fanfics. I can feel it.)

Nishinoya and Bakugou at Jump Festa

[analyticallymindedarchive]

SHIPPING INFO     //     answer  the  following  for  your  muse(s)  so  people  know  how  shipping  works  on  your  blog.   REPOST.   don’t reblog.

1.   WHAT’S  YOUR  OTP  FOR  YOUR  MUSE? : right now i don’t.... really have one........... for a while it was fitzsimmons, but rn my relationship with fitzsimmons is complicated so idk. there’s nothing really screaming at me as otp for jemma atm.

2.   WHAT  ARE  YOU  WILLING  TO  RP  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  SHIPPING? : mmm i’m willing to try most things? i don’t really do smut, i’m okay with talking about ns.fw headcanons, but i don’t really....... i don’t write smut. like lead up to, and then fade to black, i’m good with that, but smut’s really about the only thing i can think of that i won’t rp. (except for like potentially with people i’m incredibly close with but there are very few people i’d be comfortable doing that with.) but fluff? drama? angst? bring it all on, i love it. things that lead to character and relationship development are my fave kinds of things. 

3.   HOW  LARGE  DOES  THE  AGE  GAP  HAVE  TO  BE  TO  MAKE  IT  UNCOMFORTABLE?: so like. jemma definitely has a thing for older guys. so like people being older than her, i’m much more flexible with that. but younger is a different story bc she’s still fairly young herself, and it would depend on her verses and such (like in the academy/first years at sci-ops vs. mainverse where she’s almost 30), but the youngest would probably be like 21 and that’s still kinda pushing it a bit? it’s one of those things where it just. really depends a lot, and probably would be a thing that’s good to be discussed. but general rule of thumb, definitely no younger than 21, preferably a bit older than that, but 21′s the definite cut off. this is all kinda dependent on verse (see: teen verses, immortal/mortal things, etc.) but in general.... yeah. i probably explained that really badly.

4.   ARE  YOU  SELECTIVE  WHEN  SHIPPING? : yes and no? i, personally, am ship trash in general, and could probably ship anything if the chemistry was right. jemma, however, can be selective about it. i’m more selective when it comes to rping certain ships, or with certain muses or fcs, usually bc of past experiences or what have you. but i’m very very against forced ships because that was a big thing in the past that would happen a lot, and i’m not about that. but tbh if you like mention it to me and we talk about it i’ll probably ship it because, as mentioned, i’m ship trash. i just prefer to talk about it first, even if it’s just a really vague ‘hey let’s try this thing’ before jumping straight into it, so we both know what we’re getting into and there’s nothing forced on either end? 

5.   HOW  FAR  DO  STEAMY  MOMENTS  HAVE  TO  GO  BEFORE  THEY’RE  CONSIDERED  NS.FW? : i tend to think of it in terms of ‘if this was a movie, would i want my grandmother to come in and see me watching this’. heavy making out and some touching is probably where i would start to consider it ns.fw??

6.   WHO  ARE  OTHER  MUSES  YOU  SHIP  YOUR  MUSE  WITH? : i ship jemma with a lot of different characters just in general like outside of rp, or potentially could. bc, like i said, ship trash. ships on this blog tho... most are crossovers. i live for crossovers. with like other parts of the mcu or outside of marvel in general, just all of them. on this blog tho, a few of the ships i have are with steve rogers, warren peace, clint barton, riley poole. leo fitz, shane fitz. more that i know i’m forgetting but i’m tired so forgive me. but yeah. i’m ship trash. love me tho.

7.   DOES  ONE  HAVE  TO  ASK  TO  SHIP  WITH  YOU? : yes and no. if you wanna go straight into a ship, then yeah, even if it’s something like ‘hey wanna try this thing’, and then we can talk about it and all that good stuff. if it’s like one of those times where we’ve already been doing things and it starts to happen like ‘wow ok there’s starting to be feelings and i didn’t expect it but i like it’, then you should totally tell me bc yes i’m so down for that kinda thing and then we can roll with that and see where it goes. and like ofc there’s the times where it just happens and i love those too. but generally just... yes?? just to make sure there’s no forcing anything on anyone and there’s no misunderstandings or anything like that. plus then we get to talk about it more and i’m so here for that.

8.   HOW  OFTEN  DO  YOU  LIKE  TO  SHIP? : i really like to ship, i think it’s a great way to bring out different aspects of characters that might not otherwise be seen. i’m down to ship whenever tbh.

9.   ARE  YOU  SHIP  OBSESSED  OR  SHIP  MORE - OR - LESS? : in between? like shipping isn’t all i care about, but when i’m shipping with someone, i’ll put a lot of care and thought into it.

10.   ARE  YOU  MULTISHIP? : oh yeah friend

11.   WHAT  IS  ( ARE )  YOUR  FAVORITE  SHIP  (S)  IN  YOUR  CURRENT  FANDOM? : fitzsimmons was my otp for ages, but lately it’s ?? faded a lot. ( although props to the last two episodes of aos for restoring it a little bit )  i also love will/jemma and daisy/lincoln and mack/elena.

12.   FINALLY,  HOW  DOES  ONE  SHIP  WITH  YOU? : communication and chemistry. those can come in either order, as long as both happen on both sides. if we talk first and test for chemistry, great. if we’re interacting first and that chemistry and then we talk about it, also great. as long as talking happens. but tbh this whole thing makes it sound like it’s a lot more complicated to ship with me than it is. i assure you i am ship trash, and if you bring it up with me, it can probably be a thing. communication is just a massive thing for me to ensure that we’re on the same page about things.

tagged by: @swellofpity tagging: whoever wants, everyone, you reading this right now

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

ACCA 2 | Nanbaka 16 | SGRS 16 | Marginal #4 2 | Classicaloid 15 | Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga 2 - 3 | D Gray Man Hallow 1 | ReLIFE 2 - 6

The idea for D Gray Man Hallow from now on: Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

(ACCA 2)

What in Dante’s Inferno? I’m properly listening to the OP as it was intended in the anime…and it doesn’t quite look like what I expected.

I don’t like tomatoes, so no bread for me.

This is a cute…albeit unconventional way to introduce the series’ core concepts. Also, acorn berets.

Kabocha = pumpkin, while murasaki = purple. That’s made from purple lettuce, so I don’t blame ‘em for calling it that.

Mushroomhead = Rail.

I thought ACCA paid really high if he got cigarettes for free.

Oh no, is Nino going to go against Jean?

Bihinshitsu = equipment room.

2m 22 cm is over 6 foot…wow.

Walnut-topped cake filled with nuts.

The systems managers seem really incompetent…I suspect something’s up.

The guys all deilberately seem to have the same face.

A-hah. As I thought. (Dang you, title spoiler.)

If this ED were to evolve, it would be even better than Yuri on Ice’s OP. (That’s saying something.) Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening…

Doesn’t seem like there’ll be any title spoilers next time either.

(Nanbaka 16)

I’m less likely to skip Rin! Rin! Hi! Hi! than some of the other Ops when I’m watching. That does make it slightly unwieldy as a rewatching show, though.

“Wow, he’s trash.” – Dat me.

Samon has a brother?

In a world full of filial piety, the worst one can do is to insult someone else’s family.

I’m not very good with “kept secret” stories, which is why I’m trying to do “Next to Me” well enough…at least to my standards, anyway. My standards are very high, you know.

They must’ve done something to the snacks…

(Showa Genroku: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen 3)

The fireworks are so lifelike in this ep!

Daiku Shirabe…I found out about the story from an ANN article, so I should’ve seen its appearance coming…“Tamaya” is something you yell during fireworks displays. Apparently it was the name of a fireworks company somewhere along the line.

The flattening refers to how Yota had to bow for forgiveness, but I think I kinda explained that already.

“Shinuchissei”…Yota seems to slur the end of his sentences.

I actually went “WHAT?!” at Yota not being fazed by the big daddy boss.

Note for later: The baby (I heard his name was Shinnosuke) was born November 23rd.

The jazz soundtrack really sells this show.

...so this is the rant from Daiku Shirabe. It’s fast (compared to even the usual), but it has lots of heart. Plus the showcasing of the tattoo really did its significance justice.

I think the bridge is called Matsubashi (Pine Bridge).

Yota could’ve fabricated the shaking of his hands.…wow. Yota has such yaoi hands. Just what you’d expect from a former BL artist.

I thought Yakumo was more of a cat person. Whose dog is Hanako?

Aw. I felt sorry for Matsuda, even if I have a suspicion he feigned those tears. Well, regardless, now I know Matsuda has grandkids anyway…so win win.

I knew he was either summoning the master Sukeroku II pissed off or Sukeroku himself.

“Tou-chan” was an unexpected nickname I didn’t think Konatsu would use.

Update: I thought about it, and even Shinnosuke’s name takes after the legacy. Remember? Sukeroku used to be called Shin! 

(Marginal #4 2)

One of the things that makes this show stand out is the space-styled episode titles.

Ooh. Pretty cherry blossoms.

Pan shots. Of course.

I know this isn’t the sort of show that gets too much coverage, and I even think it looks a bit ugly at times (not to mention a bit weird) but when you’re not caught up on most of the other big idol shows, this is the best you can do.

I think game boy (orange twin…er, aka R)’s trying too hard with his terms.

Now that Atom is talking about heart, it really does look like he’s a Toshiki Masuda character through and through, although he doesn’t look very angry when he sounds angry. I’ll chalk that up to the art department.

“Don’t think, feel” seems to be attributed to lots of places, so I don’t know the original source. However, since game boy (um, aka R) cites a movie star, it’s apparently Bruce Lee (if my Google-fu serves me right).

L makes stuff sound deeeeep.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! Rui wasn’t surprised by the juice.

Atom is such a Ryuu sometimes...

…okay, enough with the underwear jokes…The twin jokes are a bit weird. Plus the ships can be smelt from a mile away…but that’s not enough to save a show.

“Ore-sama”? I only just realised Atom uses such a term.

Enough about the lucky underwear! *flips table*

Oh, I saw Ayanokouji in the background at one point.

I’m with Rui most times, including the need for deduction.

I’m still questioning the sanity of someone who wrote an entire episode plot about lucky underwear.

Alright, since I feel brain dead after that, I’m going to drop it, meaning ACCA is the show that forges ahead. Well, I’m lucky I was hoping to watch FLCL to fill in the gap once I’m done with my 3 remaining rewatches at this point in time (ReLIFE, D Gray Man, Morose Mononokean). The latter two will have, from ep 7, fresh impressions, so hopefully you can look forward to them.  

(Classicaloid 15)

Selfies: a worldwide phenomenon…I never got into that stuff, but if I were to analyse ‘em, I’d say they tap into the human need to be self centred.

There’s something sad about seeing someone rejected, eve if that someone is a piece of trash like Sousuke…

The game the Classicaloids are playing appears to be a game of Life.

Unfortunately, Kanae’s right…again. Sad life for you, Sousuke.

Motz literally became a flippin’ Akoya, right down to wearing a dress. Plus, the Amazon brigade came back.

Aw, I really felt for the glasses guy, even if briefly.

“Basics of Programming”? Don’t need that for Garage Band, Sousuke.

Hanted house and cosplay café...

…eh? Tchaiko still calls herself a former member of Cla:Kla?

Oh. I never realised until now, but Hamamatsu + festival (matsuri) = Hamamatsuri.

With that song (Sousuke’s song), it’s a sad blooper reel.

(Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga ep 2)

I got a wallpaper of Shima trying not to laugh (it was from the official Blue Exorcist anime page, but only for a period around Shima’s b’day). So this ep is where it comes from.

“Bon” means “young master” anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

“…a herbal tea antidote…”

Kyoto is meant to be the imperial capital…at least around the 1700s, it was the imperial capital.

Mamushi means “pit viper”. She’s not one to mess with.

He’s got some reflexes, that Ryuji.

Uwabami is also a type of snake…I forgot which one though.

Wait, Uwabami’s the man?! Uwabami was a woman in Oumagadoki Zoo…

Seriously, are they all getting drunk on juice…? Oh, okay. So that’s what happened.

(ep 3)

Rin’s shirt says “Sankyu” in goroawase and English, LOL.

Even if you love weeds, please don’t smoke ‘em, kids.

I thought Rin was going to pull a Shaft head tilt out of nowhere when he looked back at Konekomaru.

Update: For efficiency, the tag for this one is “Chesarka watches AoEx”. However, I don’t normally refer to it as such. I’d probably refer to it as “Ao Eku” if I wee speaking (due to the season 1 DVD extras), but “Blue Exorcist” is the shortest mode of the name I’d use in typing format.

(D Gray Man Hallow ep 1)

I am familiar with this source material, so do be aware of that. However, I didn’t finish the anime the first time around, so do be aware of that too.

Sometimes the art style for this anime can be a little off. The noses can be a little too pointy and too close to the eyes, so on and so forth.Allen doesn’t even look like he’s blushing with this art style too…that’s a bit of a disappointment.

Even the golems have it in for each other…LOL.

Johnny has apparently been stealing the spotlight for quite some time, but I haven’t noticed it all that much. Probably because I read volumes 21 – 24 in one go…

I think.Cross Marian looks more like Grelle (Black Butler) than ever in colour.

Why does Lenalee have such a short skirt?

When even the masked guy has a sweatdrop, you know there’s trouble.

(ReLIFE ep 2)

Unfortunately for Kariu, I understand there is no “next time”…

I’ve found out even at 18, people don’t judge two people of different gender sitting together eating lunch…of course, cultural standards notwithstanding.

Stud earrings are fine if you play sports, I think.

According to Google-sensei, it’s only about $11, my country’s money. It’s not that much if you work…but knowing Japanese standards (which say you should focus on getting into uni before getting a job), it does seem a bit much for someone who doesn’t work and doesn’t get any allowance. So in a weird way, it does make sense to me.

...but you took Kariu’s hand when she offered you the rubber, Arata?

Hey, that joke was in Erased too.

Kazu-kun = Karamatsu…kinda. LOL.

I always seemed to understand Hishiron, and yet also understand Arata to some extent too. Maybe I’m the perfect in-between for these two. Probably because I tend to break off friendships as soon as the year ends, and yet prior friendships are a core part to my social strategy.

Unfortuately, the downside to “minimalistic” is that it’s obvious when it goes off model.

LINE sticker…LOL. LINE’s very popular in Japan.

(ep 3)

I’ve wondered whether Yayoi Sou is a lady or not. Considering the circumstances, it probably is that Sensei is a female.

Hideyo is the dude on the 1000 note, obviously.

Ah…fitness tests. The bane of youth. No one says “stupid loud” though.

Oh. Tamarai’s there around the time of Asaji’s throw.

Lookit that rabbit on Usa-sensei’s shirt. No one says “crazy athletic” either…you outdated subbers.

Akira (Inukai) is kinda like Yurio, come to think of it, eh?

Didn’t you just say it yourself (about you being old) though, Arata?

Yoake literally had a blank face there, LOL.

There appears to be a Sato GP on the way to Aoba. Huh.

Ah…a show’s a real classic if it makes you laugh every time…

(ep 4)

Where’s the guy who does sad interpretations of OPs and EDs? (This guy.)

I know your feels, Kariu. (see the Tumblr debacle for an instance of this)

There appears to be something about whales near the fishtank.

The cityscapes in this are so nice.

There’s a map of Japan on one wall of Kaizaki’s place.

Go forth, young Kariu! Pick up your fallen balls! (teehee)

CGI balls, LOL.

It’s creepy (but also dramatic) when the lights of the eyes are the last to move.

(ep 5)

Sumire! Her name means “violet” (the flower).

There are some nuances lost in translation, like yappari and the levels of formality…but those are typically lost.

This “lecture” is probably the highest point you can get in the show (so far). It’s times like this you can really see an author’s strengths in storytelling.

The piano really sells the Hishiro/Kaizaki meeting.

What a strange angle that “lean to the left” shot is.

I’ve found out swear words have a lot of leeway when it comes to levels of “oh no”. These swar words include yabai and temee. Due to the context of Wan! and the fact it was Chuuya who kept using them, I went with the nastier variants [in my scanlating days] but sometimes a non-swearing variant is enough. However, kirai (to dislike) is pretty nasty if you use it in Japanese.

Kaizaki’s delivery of these lines really sells their comedic effect. The electronic keyboard makes it sound like night, but also makes it sound 1) like night and 2) creepy, for some reason.

Freeter is almost as bad as NEET, Kaizaki.

There appears to be a 100 man (10 thousand) coin bank behind Yoake, which makes that...1000000 yen. (chorus in back: One million yen?!)

(ep 6)

Apparently someone tried to type the same Japanese words into Google and didn’t get the same results, LOL.

Hishiron uses a Mac, LOL.

“Thanks for having us” probably isn’t the right words for it. Ojamashimasu means “sorry for intruding”, but it sounds heavily formal when translated, so I can see why the subbers did what they did though.

*laughs* MDs (minidiscs)? I know what they are, even though they’re meant to be completely dead by now. Apparently they’re a product of the 90s that never caught on..although I admit I’ve never used an MD in my life, let alone held one. It does kinda look like a floppy disc, though. (chorus in back: You poke through old stuff too much, don’t you?)

Those fadeout cups are so cool! I want one.

Ah, maths. The sad thing about my life is that up until a certain point I was good at maths. Then the hard stuff came up and I started to fail.

I thought it was Third Street Oga was talking about, but it’s 3rd chome, sort of like a suburb.

Knowing An, she may have deliberately put Oga out of the way for her own purposes…if you know what I mean.

CGI car just ruined the suspenseful mood, dangit.

Sometimes I just turn off my volume and turn on some music on Spotify. That way, you can make your own soundtrack.

Why did Arata have such a dumb face in the thought bubble?

Wow, she’s a real fujoshi, that one [An].

“Dude”? I cringe so much at her use of it, despite the fact I use it myself. 

You liar, Onoya. Knowing who subject 1 was means that I know they couldn’t have even thought about that part…

[xtremedespair3d]

Anime Spring 2018 Final Impressions + Plans for Summer

It’s been a long time since I made the last post on every anime I watched on winter, or posting anything on Tumblr in general, it’s time to come back to talk about what anime I’ve watched this spring season and what I’m going to watch this summer.

WARNING: This list may contain spoilers.

Spring 2018

Golden Kamuy: I’ve looked this one this entire season, even though I may not know much, after watching a few episodes, I was definitely impressed, but there are a few people who are disappointed with how the anime turned out, I kind of understand that, but at the same time it leaves me a sour taste in my mouth.

I’m happy season 2 got announced for October, definitely looking forward for more.

High School DXD Hero: I’ve always been skeptical about this season just by the new art style alone, even if it’s by the same studio that made the Citrus anime, but it seems like Passione pulled it off.

Not only the art is rather nice, as I stated, it looks to be faithful to the light novels, they retconned the Juggernaut Drive moment from Born from episode 0, it took me by surprise and learning that the rest of Born was anime original ruined my life and everything I’ve seen has changed.

Steins;Gate 0: Not a lot to add, but it’s definitely one of the strongest series I’ve seen this season so far.

Tokyo Ghoul:re: As someone who hasn’t read the Tokyo Ghoul:re manga, I’d say this one was decent. I saw this ComicBook post where fans were disappointed by the season finale, but hey, there’s season 2 coming in October.

(Man, what’s with these shows having season 2 in Fall?)

My Hero Academia season 3: It’s lower in my list because, while MHA is really good, I read the manga and I pretty much know everything that happens, even if I forget what happened since it’s been ages since I read the chapters the anime adapts, at least they refresh my memory.

Lupin the 3rd Part 5: This one is good, my only problem is that every few episodes with storylines end, there are those extra episodes that take place in previous jackets, like red jacket and pink jacket Lupin, I can’t help but think those are filler. It’s probably my first time I’ve been mad to filler.

Persona 5: The Animation: Totally did not expect the problems P5A has at all, from animation quality, like terrible fight scenes, to pacing issues, like everything is happening so fast and A-1 decided to rush the 100 hour plot into a 25 episode series. At least it looks better than Persona 4: The Animation.

Given by the episode count I mentioned, I’m looking forward to the surprise teased by the director, I hope I see a lot of people lose their shit like Darling in the Franxx (Heh, A-1), I kind of have the guilty pleassure to see people suffer in this case.

Caligula: This one I really was looking forward to hate. The animation was decent and all but all I can think of is the story, I really don’t like the world at all and I probably don’t care for any of the characters, especially Ritsu.

At the end of episode 10, Ritsu left Mobius and came back to reality alone while all of his friends are left behind, by that point, for some reason I thought “I officially hate Ritsu for that!”, but the more I waited, the less I considered that idea and decided to drop it.

By episode 11, it’s where things are getting worse: The Ritsu we were seeing all along wasn’t even Shikishima Ritsu, it’s a dude called Tachibana Shingo...

...and this dude right here IS THE REAL SHIKISHIMA RITSU!

LIKE... WHAT?!

I thought Mobius Ritsu was Shingo who took Ritsu’s name but it’s actually the real Ritsu who took Shingo’s likeness. Why? Why would he do that? It’s not even explained. (Not sure if the game does)

I wanted to drop around episode 8 but I was 4 episodes left to finish watching this trash, and the more I saw it, I felt interested to know what was going on in the story.

I cared less about everything that happened in this show. It’s not offensively bad as 18if, but seriously, the world of Caligula sucks.

The only highlight of the series I’d give credits for are the post-credits teasers by Pop Team Epic creator, Okawa bkub.

Winter 2018 ongoing

Darling in the Franxx: Darling in the Franxx has grown to be the most divisive series to date, mainly from the “Bitchigo” controversy ever since.

While I definitely enjoy the series and I feel defensive about it, I can’t help but think that this is Trigger (and A-1)’s most controversial anime they’ve produced to have such fan outrage. Speaking of which, I don’t think it’s even being animated by Trigger anymore, it’s probably only A-1 alone along with Trigger animators and they just slapped the Trigger name on the credits. (I’m probably exaggerating), and Darling in the Franxx is not even on Trigger’s website!

If this is another one of Trigger’s big flops (The second one being Kiznaiver which WatchMojo called it “disappointing” which made me pissed so bad considering that I loved Kiznaiver, fucking thanks for the trauma, you cunts. (Don’t ask)), then Trigger, as storytellers, have become one-hit wonders, and that one hit is Kill La Kill. (Speaking of which, it’s getting a video game... developed by the people who made Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time, which turned out hot garbage, RIP)

As of the writing of this post, the series hasn’t ended yet, so we’re still gonna have to wait how the ending will turn out.

Toji no Miko: This one was alright, for some reason I expected the second cour to be somewhat time-wasting and trying to figure out the story because I was satisfied with the end of the first cour, but this one was decent.

Even if the anime series ended, while the mobage is currently on existence, I’ll never stop making Kancolle x Touken Ranbu jokes, at least the series had its own identity to make up for it.

Grancrest Senki: This one I was the least hopeful to watch, though not as trash as Caligula per se, but it’s just generic fantasy with some political drama, and ridiculously violent (Which there’s nothing wrong with it but the amount of gore is really something from a fantasy anime).

There were a couple of good moments but overall, it was meh.

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card: I’m a little surprised that Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card ended with 22 episodes as opposed to 24 or 25 episodes, overall, I enjoyed the series, hopefully we won’t wait for a long time for another season.

Plans for Summer

Attack on Titan season 3: Reminder that we didn’t have to wait for another 4 years for another Attack on Titan season.

Angels of Death: This one has the potential to be one of the better anime adaptations of an RPG Maker game, unlike Ao Oni which failed spectacularly, considered that the Angels of Death anime is being made by JC Staff.

As of the writing of this video, it’s now confirmed that the total of episodes was 16 episodes, 12 of the regular series, and 4 OVA.

Overlord III: It’s still hard to believe that Overlord II was a winter show and this new season is a summer show, considering that I normally would expect shows having two seasons between winter and fall (Such as Shinmai Maou no Testament (2015) and Bubuki Buranki (2016).)

Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: All I can think of is the titular character, Yuuna, is cute, and hot springs, what’s not to like?

Fate/Extra: Last Encore Illustrais Geocentrism: It still feels weird that Last Encore ended with 10 episodes, but at least there’s going to be more, but it’s going to be a two hour special, in two separate episodes. I thought I’ve seen sources that it was going to be episodes 11-13, I’ve seen a lot of sources and they confuse the heck out of me.

(Finally, a good line-up to watch)

BONUS: FLCL Progressive: Technically, FLCL Progressive came out on June 2nd on Adult Swim/Toonami, unlike the majority of the shows are all July shows.

FLCL Progressive and Alternative have quite the unique releases.

I was so baffled that many of the people I talk with were skeptical about FLCL Progressive, there were even stories of the original creator not wanting to make a sequel in the first place, I never gave a crap and ignored to what they said and just moved on to watch it.

After the first episode, it seems like the reactions were mostly positive (Maybe because a lot of people must be more newcomers than a few veteran FLCL fans), though the one thing that cringed me out was the part where Haruko (disguised as a teacher) made everyone watch porn.

Also, my bigger problem with watching FLCL Progressive (and Alternative) is that I have to watch them English dubbed and the subs got delayed until November (yes, that long; I’m not an English dubbed person, okay?).

Speaking of problems, as I mentioned that it was English dubbed, the parts where the characters say Japanese phrases is absolutely cringey as fuck, and with episode 4, at the beginning of the episode, Hidomi made a Jacksepticeye reference by saying “TOP OF THE MORNING!” and that triggered me so bad.

Speaking of Hidomi Hibajiri, she’s like my only highlight of this entire season, she’s such a cutie.

Like the original FLCL, Progressive and Alternative (I keep counting that one a lot, but, since it’s released on September, it still falls into Summer, I guess?) have 6 episodes, so as of the writing of this post, which ironically it’s almost 2 AM and it’s saturday, so new episode tonight, there’s at least going to be one more episode to end, and Alternative, while the first episode was released as a surprise release on April Fools, the rest of the episodes will be on September.

I wanted to add Tensai Bakabon to the list but now my interest to watch has turned off and I prefer Osomatsu-san over this one (This and Osomatsu-kun are made by Fujio Akatsuka and they’re being animated by Pierrot).

I hope you enjoyed my list of everything I saw this spring (while tryhard reviewing them in the process) and what I plan to watch this summer.

Twitter: @HKomaeda

[recentanimenews]

Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution Q&A Panels with director Tomoki Kyoda

In the spirit of Hi-Evolution's "remixed" chronological order, the following Q&A sessions with the director of Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution, Tomoki Kyoda, will be presented out of order. You may have caught my preview of Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution, but there was plenty more information Kyoda had to offer about his movie. Over the course of several Q&A sessions, he provided information about the philosophy film trilogy, the production of movie 1, his career, and some interesting hints regarding what comes next. The first set of questions were delivered immediately following the world premiere screening of Hi-Evolution on Saturday while the second rewinds to Tomoki Kyoda's focus panel on the previous day.

Did you pay any special attention to the mecha action?

Eureka Seven is a very over-the-top story. In order to make an over-the-top movie to work out, you have to be realistic in certain ways. For example the scenes such as the spectacular explosion of the battleships were made possible by the recruitment of super animators such as Hideki Kakita and Takashi Hashimoto.

Can you tell us more about Acperience 7?

If you look up the Acperience, you won't see it in the dictionary because it comes from a german techno group called Hardfloor. Dai Sato and I have been big fans of them since our youth and we asked them if we could use their composition Acperience 1. They said “no, let's do something completely new” and they wrote a new one for us called Acperience 7. The original parts for the compositions only went from 1-5. They skipped over 6 and went directly to 7 to keep with Eureka Seven.

The scene with Adroc. Did that make you more emotional as you watched the film?

Yes, the scene with Adroc is the beginning of it all, so it’s meant to be very meaningful to all three movies. After you’ve seen the 3rd Eureka Seven movie and go back to watch the Adroc scene, it’s meant to be meaningful in a new way.

Other than that, do you have any other favorite scenes?

During the pre-titles everything is memorable to me, but especially Adroc’s first line. It was delivered by voice actor Toru Furuya. He was very spot-on.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the last half? Such as the monologue by Renton and the play back/play forward construction of the film?

Eureka Seven was always going to be a story that spans two generations. The part with Adroc is very serious and heavy and thus I wanted to make the part that’s 10 years hence, the story about the child, Renton, be much more light and calm. It’s a more comedic story and so we found this composition.

How is your impression of the music?

My original intention was not to feature techno sound in the movie, but after hearing the recording I felt it would be appropriate to use Hiroshi Watanabe’s sound. This would be the piece that strung Eureka Seven from 12 years ago into and the new film together.

Do you have any other favorite scene from the last half?

I like the dogs...

The other thing is that I really meant this movie to make sense as part of a trilogy. There are parts in the latter half of the movie that might be frustrating or cryptic on first view. They’re really meant to make sense and be much more sympathetic after we go through all three parts. That’s my intention and something I really put my heart into. The composition will really make sense when all three parts are released, so I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

After the credits there was a teaser for the second movie--can you talk a little bit about it?

We are currently in pre-production for the part 2 movie and a lot of you may have been wondering “where is Anemone?” You can there will be a lot of Anemone in part 2. I haven’t decided if part 2 will be just as light-hearted in style as the teaser. So that hasn’t been fixed yet. For each part of the movie, we go through a codename for the title. The working title for part one was Renton Seven. Part 2 the working codename is Anemone Seven.

PLAY BACK: 27 hours before Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution world premiere

What is the best way to watch Hi-Evolution?

The best way to watch it is without any spoilers at all. The best way to understand it is that one of the primary characters in Hi-Evolution will be Renton’s father and Renton will be following in his father’s footsteps.

Hi-Evolution is the story of Renton and him transforming from boy to man. It’s something pretty common in anime these days, usually featuring a harem of girls, but that’s not gonna happen in this story... Everything he has will be destroyed so only the future is something he can look forward to and build for himself.

What sort of audience do you want to watch this?

Our intention was, of course, to accommodate and reunite with the audience who watched Eureka Seven 12 years ago but there will be new people, perhaps some who weren’t even born at that time, who are welcome to discover Eureka Seven as a new show. Those are the two audiences that we intend Hi-Evolution for.

Can you tell us a bit about the music?

In the original tv show we featured a lot of folk music such as Denki Groove. For Hi-Evolution, we wanted to get much more original in the sound track. Myself, and also the screenwriter Dai Sato, have really been influenced by this artist called Hardfloor for this reason. Since Hi-Evolution is not only a story about Renton but also this father, we wanted to go back to our own roots and so we went to Hardfloor and asked if they would do the music for us. We got a “yes” and they made a great soundtrack and that's something that’s been incorporated into Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution.

The other piece of music featured in Eureka Seven comes from Hiroshi Watanabe. If you go back to the original TV show, he wrote the themes for Charles and Ray. Since Charles and Ray have a much more prominent role in Hi-Evolution, their music was reprised and revised.

The other theme song is provided by Hiroya Ozaki, but since Hi-Evolution itself is a story about father and son and Ozaki himself is the son of another singer, Yutaka Ozaki who was a very talented singer who died young in a tragic way. His story and the story of the Ozakis resonates with the father and son theme in Eureka Seven: Hi-Evolution. It was just so fitting and he has made a great song for us.

For fans of the original TV show from 12 years ago, you’ll find something familiar with Hrioshi Watanabe’s music and, at the same time, the coming of a new film in Ozaki’s songs.

As a director, what was the most challenging project for you to work on?

Eureka Seven: AO

What sort of themes were you looking to explore with the new trilogy that you hadn’t yet explored or old things you covered in the past that you want to revisit?

It may not be something that we couldn’t do, but maybe something we didn’t really explore in Eureka Seven would be the relationship between father and son. Since all three of us, myself, Dai Sato the screenwriter, and character designer Kenji Yoshita have aged 10 years, we probably have changed our perspective and ideas. That could possibly be reflected. At the same time we want to be consistent with what we originally depicted in Eureka Seven.

I do that the central pillar of Eureka Seven is the childhood experiences of Renton and Eureka. I think that has always been consistent in all the works of Eureka Seven. Possibly not in the best way but I do think it’s been pretty consistent.

You previously worked no the RahXephon movies, which were an adaptation of an existing TV series. When you are adapting an existing property how do you plan what ideas you want to retain from the original work while also introducing new elements?

One difference between RahXephon and Eureka Seven is they were made at different times so philosophies and elements will be very different. One of the things that's most time consuming in adapting an existing story is deciding what to focus on. Once that’s done, the rest comes much easier. In the case of RahXephon, it was the relationship between Ayato and Haruka and how Haruka would retain her feelings for Ayato. In contrast with Eureka Seven the relationship is still a work in progress and that’s the difference when we went into production.

Being an animation director, do you give your animators a lot of freedom or do you prefer they stick more closely to the storyboards? Also, do you prefer to make more detailed or more sketchy storyboards?

That is actually one of the biggest evolutions in my own style of storyboarding and directing. I’ve been directing for the past 20 years and started off by doing storyboards and expecting animators to trace out exactly what I did in the storyboard. But, as I’ve learned there are plenty of talented animators who can come up with scenes and draw much better than I, I’ve learned that the best way to do storyboards is to come up with ones that will be inspirational to the animators. However, one thing that my staff has been telling me recently is that I really expect a lot from my animators and really set the hurdle high.

When you draw for 20 years, it’s very natural that you get better at drawing and when you look at my storyboards you get the impression that it might be a little detailed but we like to present it to the animators as a springboard for their own ideas.

In the original Eureka Seven TV series, how much freedom did you give episode directors? Would you say each episode is the closer to your vision are theirs?

The production style of a TV show is different dependent upon the show and the culture of the studio, so what I say now does not reflect every single production. There is one person who supervises the production of every episode and that is the general director. There is then the technical director who works on individual episodes.

The general director's job is to come up with the common underlay that follows beneath each episode. I consider it my job to prepare the ground so the episodic staff and the technical director can do their job. That leads to slight discrepancies between each episode but it’s the animation director to unify all those styles so that everything is consistent throughout the series.

How did it feel to work on franchise as legendary as Space Battleship Yamato and, if you got the chance, would you like to work on more Yamato projects in the future?

The reason why I had involvement with Yamato 2199 wasn’t because the show was legendary or because I was fond of it, but moreso because of director Yutaka Izubuchi. Since I owe a lot to him, he wanted me to work on some part of Yamato. It was really difficult to adjust my schedule and I think I was able to oblige him when I got to do the storyboards for the very final episode and I was very happy. This required both the elements of the show being Yamato and the director being Izubuchi. If neither of those were the case, I don’t think I would have been involved.

As for if I would be interested in working on any other legendary shows, I can’t really come up with any shows that I would find enticing, although in terms of a legendary franchises I would be very happy if I could work on Pacific Rim.

---

Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll and author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[one-away-travel]

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.

– Anatole France

Longtail Boat Ride from Ao Nang to Railay Beach

Three years after my first amazing trip to Krabi, Thailand I found myself back on a longtail boat cruising the Andaman Sea with my girlfriend Betina.  It had been only 6 months since we met and I knew how badly she wanted to visit Thailand since our first meeting.

We were on a natural high since we left Fort Lauderdale airport a few days before and we had already spent several days exploring Bangkok, so we were ready for some island fun time!

We took a short flight from Bangkok to Ao Nang on Air Asia.  The flight was comfortable, on time, and very clean and pleasant.  It seemed to be a newer plane as well.  I had heard so many negative things about Air Asia, but never experienced anything bad and this time was even better than the last time I flew with them.

I did have a terrible experience with Tiger Air a few years back flying from Phuket to Bali, but it was related to over charges for luggage.  It literally cost me more to check my luggage than it was for the airline ticket!! Wth?!  I will never will fly with them again if I can help it.

Bangkok Airways would be my most recommended for a little extra money when traveling long distances in Thailand.  I had a great experience with them from Sukhothai to Phuket.

As for the longtail boat ride… there is something so exhilarating about racing across the sea in a small wooden boat that is most likely taking on water.  You’re in a beautiful place half way around the world from your home.  The enormous limestone rock formations sticking out of the sea in random spots all around you as far as you can see, makes it feel like you are on another planet.

I’ll never forget the first time I experienced this journey, and it was just as exciting for me to share it with someone new.  I hope to share it with my friends and family too one day.  If you are a friend or family and you’re interested, leave me a comment, and we will figure out how to make it happen.  Seriously.

Most of the rock formations are uninhabited but some are small islands that have become part of the tourism economy and sightseeing tours are available from a number of small agencies around East and West Railay for a very reasonable price.

Railay beach is one of my favorite little getaways that I’ve ever visited and it’s consistently changing, which is inevitable, because tourism is growing more and more every day. Places that were once hidden gems and difficult to access are becoming more and popular.

I feel that there are an increasing number of new travelers coming from the United States.  Some of these new U.S. travelers are escaping the 9 to 5 to find themselves and their purpose or some are just wanting to take their 2 week vacation a little further than the family trip to Orlando or Bahamas cruise.

(Eh, lets be honest, unfortunately, most U.S. citizens if they are lucky enough to get a 2 week vacation from their corporate job, may only use 1 week at a time, twice a year.)

In any case, those who are willing to move out of there comfort zone are incidentally finding that there is a vast and beautiful world out there that isn’t as scary as the news media makes it out to be.

Rock Climbing East Railay Beach with Dropship Lifestyle

Betina picks out a pair of rock-climbing shoes while she is being coached.

Alright, so this post is long overdue.  I am way behind on writing about some of these experiences, but I’ve decided, I will write them as I find the time.  I plan to pick up the pace and consistency though, so stay with me.

These pics were taken from the Dropship Lifestyle Retreat I attended in October of 2015.  Yeah, old news.  It was held in Ao Nang, Krabi, Thailand at the Krabi Resort.

During this retreat we spent several hours in the morning listening to guest speakers give talks on various topics related to E-Commerce, Entrepreneurship, and being a “Digital Nomad”.

If you are able to generate a sustainable income and run a viable business using mainly your laptop, phone and internet connection, without being tethered to an office cubicle; then you might consider yourself a “Digital Nomad”.  That seems to be the buzzword among many long-term travelers or ex-patriates.  Many don’t like it, but it doesn’t bother me.

I like to use the term location independent, and that is what I am striving to be.  I am still in the process of building that foundation through multiple streams of income.  If you are interested in hearing more about that, let me know in the comments below.

The Dropship Lifestyle Retreat is a yearly event put on by Anton Kraly only for student members of the online course called the Dropship Lifestyle.  I have been a member since August of 2014 and have learned so much in regards to E-commerce through this course.  I know there are many online courses out there but I really believe this is a genuine course with so much valuable content and since I am a lifetime member, I always have access to new content as they add more and more features.

A yearly retreat is a great perk for being a part of this community and it is a great opportunity to meet other online entrepreneurs who have a similar mindset about work, life, balance.  I really enjoyed hearing all of the backstories and how we all ended up there together in Thailand and talking about how we can improve our online businesses.  We even spent one morning split up into small mastermind groups so we could offer advice to each other on issues we were facing with our online businesses.

Alejandro focused on reaching his goal.

  Every afternoon, the daily schedule for the retreat included a day trip that you had the option to participate in.  This was the first day of the retreat and our first day trip was a 20-30 min. boat ride to Railay.  A place that I’ve always held dear to my heart, since my first trip to Thailand in 2012.

Johnny FD from Travel Like A Boss Podcast.

Random climber

Dropship Lifestyle Team/Staff

Our day trip options were to go rock-climbing on East Railay Beach, play volleyball on West Railay Beach or go straight to Phra Nang Beach to relax and swim. Betina and I decided to go rock climbing, so a huge group of us headed across West Railay to the east side where the rock-climbing trainers were waiting for us.

Another random climber

Michael Coghlan of FBA Empire

Bez rising to the top!

I didn’t end up rock climbing myself, because I had strained my wrist a few days before, and kind of forgot about it until I had to lift some heavy luggage.  I took some photos of others in our group, and watched Betina complete her first climb like a champ!

I was very impressed by how well she did and how high she went even though it was the beginner climb, she was a natural :-)

No turning back now.

Almost there.

Rapelling down. Wow!

  Path to Phra Nang Cave Beach

After the rock climbing I grabbed Betina and convinced her we had enough time to see Phra Nang beach and possibly the hidden cave.  We had a limited time before we had to catch our longtail boat back to Ao Nang.  Three years prior I had spent several days in Railay so, there were a few spots I wanted to show her because I wasn’t sure we would have time to return and really enjoy more of this beautiful island like peninsula.

We took the path I like to call Monkey Walk because of all the wild monkeys walking around the base of the tall rock formations.  The path leads to Phra Nang beach another beautiful and well photographed spot for many Thailand travel brochures.

I forgot to mention that Railay Beach is only accessible by boat because access is blocked by those enormous limestone cliff rock formations.

Here is an aerial view from Google.

Phra Nang (Princess) Cave

Princess Cave is known for it’s sacred cave filled with hundreds of phallic structures carved out of wood and other natural materials.  At first, it may seem to be quite comical, and maybe a little embarrassing especially for many westerners.

However, the location apparently holds some spiritual significance based on the legends surrounding the cave.  From what I could find online the first legend is about an Indian Princess who was killed in a shipwreck offshore and her ghost came to inhabit the cave.  Another story explains how Phra Nang was the wife of a local fisherman, who waited inside the cave for him to return for many years until her death.

What I had heard the first time I visited was simply that the cave resembled a woman’s reproductive organ and thus made it a sacred location representing fertility. Now, these wooden phalluses known as “lingams” are representative of the Hindu deity Shiva.  Locals who place these lingams inside this cave may actually do so as part of a ritual in order to increase fertility and or virility for themselves.  In any case, as funny or strange as it may seem to an outsider, it is still considered a sacred place by locals, so please be respectful.

Secret Cave on Phra Nang Beach

After we took some pics and videos around the Jurassic like stone structures south of the cave, I took Betina on a walk further down the beach, to a somewhat secret or lesser known cave, which does actually lead all the way to West Railay Beach.  We didn’t have the time or appropriate gear for that trek, but we were able to climb up to a giant cave opening that Tyson and I found a few years earlier.

Also, we didn’t have much time because we still had to catch a reserved longtail boat back to Ao Nang with the rest of the Dropship Lifestyle group.  Luckily we didn’t have to go all the way back to West Railay to catch a boat because they set one up right there on the coast of Phra Nang.  I estimated an hour would be enough to get up there to the viewpoint and back down to the beach in time to catch the longtail boat.

In the picture below, if you were to follow the sand straight down until the end of the beach and then look to the right you will find an opening in the trees that will lead you to the cave and the viewpoint overlooking Phra Nang Beach.  I would recommend bringing sneakers or something a little more than flip-flops, although you can climb it barefoot, it won’t be as comfortable.

Follow the sand straight down until the end of the beach and then look to the right, until you find the path.

  Betina, was once again, in the midst of a picture taking frenzy and I had to prod her along the beach to show her the viewpoint from the cave entrance.   After some more prodding, and meandering through the jungle we finally made our way up to the viewpoint.  I could tell by the look on her face that it was worth the extra hiking and exploring to find the caves, take a few pics and back to the boat with just a few minutes to spare.

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Things to Do in Krabi Thailand: Railay Beach Rock Climbing and Phra Nang Cave Beach Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.