#i love one (1) wacky cast

[anglercrit]

One thing that really frustrates me about Viv's work is how she handles her villains. She has a love for wacky/Saturday morning cartoon villains, which, fair- I admit I like them too. But the issue is ALL of her villains are this- all of her villains are either goofy Saturday morning cartoons or complete idiots, neither of which end up posing an actual threat to the cast. Like, seriously- let me go through every villain in Hazbin/Helluva so far.

Stella: Treated as incompetent by the narrative

Robo-Fizz: Dead

Verosika: barely even a villain- if anything she's more just a rival

CHERUB: Kicked out of Heaven in their first appearance so they can't be a threat to IMP, and they haven't shown up since their first episode

DHORKS: Same as CHERUB- portrayed as incompetent and haven't shown up since Season 1

Striker: WAS an actual decent threat in Harvest Moon Festival....but then Western Energy ruined him and made him into another dick joke vehicle.

Fizzarolli: an actually decent rival to Blitzo in Ozzie's, but he needed WAY more episodes before hitting the big emotional arc in Oops and hasn't been portrayed as a villain since Ozzie's

Asmodeus: same as fizz- seemed intimidating at first, but he hasn't really....been portrayed as a bad guy since Ozzie's.

Chaz: Joke villain who's just a more annoying Blitzo and he's dead now so

Crimson: Had the POTENTIAL to maybe be a threat, but was already treated awfully in his debut episode, and was handled even worse in Oops

Andrealphus: Introduced out of NOWHERE and has barely done anything/we've had no time to absorb him as a threat

Barbie Wire: RIDICULOUSLY flat and oh yea is an Actual Predator for the sake of a bad joke

Glitz and Glam: ....why do they exist again?

Mammon: an ACTUAL THREAT AGAIN, but even THEN he's still portrayed as goofy/incompetent

As for Hazbin's villains...

Lucifer: Goofy Dad

Vox: Goofy Villain

Valentino: Goofy Villain Who's Also An Actual Rapist

Velvette: ....does she even count?

Adam: Annoying Dickhead Fratboy who's more irritating than intimidating

Lute: Honestly the most potential of anyone here but she's still pretty boring

The issue is Viv wants all her villains to be Team Rocket, but she forgets that Team Rocket was Never Taken Seriously. Minus the Unova anime, When it came time for a serious threat, there was always a new villain introduced for the movie! They knew they couldn't have proper stakes with them as the main baddies, so they weren't! Viv just doesn't understand that you can't have all your villains be Jessie and James if you're trying to go for a serious story like she is.

[joshuamartian]

I’ve posted before about most of the student body of Clone High outside of the main-cast hardly get a chance to speak in season 2.

Weird (see ‘bad’) choice for a show which is built around gags about historical figures.

But we missed out on the foster parents too!

Why did we get so few new foster parents for the new characters?

The big exception is Topher's mom. I love this blank-eyed 50s housewife who Topher communicates with solely by screaming and using her first name.

The s1 foster parents weren't deep characters but they added to the feeling of a lived in world populated by a whole community. The clones home-lives were another setting the show could use away from the school itself. Sure, some of the foster parents were stereotypes, no point denying that but at least they were lovable wacky stereotypes? You could feel the show was being slightly tongue-in-cheek by choosing as many diverse kinds of parents as possible but as broad as they played, I still thought it was cool that Ghandi's parents were Jewish and JFK had two Dad's.

I think they trusted the audience to know that irl alcholic parents are no laughing matter and that blind people aren't constantly walking into walls but in my mind, I can forgive that because it was funny! Toots is an mvp of season 1 and I miss him so much. Not just for the Mr Magoo shit but he also had a sweet relationship with Joan. Just one of many examples where S1 could have little moments of sincerity without it turning into feel-good treacle.

I think Lord, Miller's and co's hearts were in the right place and sincerely wanted to create a show that felt less edgelordy weith fewer problematic charcters but they nerfed half their cast and replaced them with nothing. The new clones were a great chance to introduce fun new foster parents and they just didn't! The lack of parents compounded the weird empty feeling of the new season, a show about six or seven main cast in a vacuum, surrounded by side-characters who won't be saying anything or doing anything.

[clonerightsagenda]

I made a bunch of mutual aid zines this summer and still can't get my folds straight, but here's my contribution to the September podcast zine fest! Image text under the cut.

Page 1: Wolf 359 + Terrible Space Facts

Page 2: Space is terrible. No one should go there. Here are just a few ways the reality of floating alone in the middle of nowhere is even worse than described for the crew of the Hephaestus station.

Page 3: "I'm going to drown? In outer space? What kind of sense does that even make?"

Not just a wacky podcast plot! Italian Luca Parmitano almost drowned on a space walk in 2013 due to a fan pump malfunction.

Page 4: "And that's how you [BLEEP] in space."

0g bathroom breaks aren't easy and luckily (?) NASA loves training. On Earth, astronauts practice on a toilet with a camera in the bowl so they can watch themselves from an... unconventional angle.

Page 5: "Doctor Selberg took the cast off today. Looks like my arm's healing well."

0g is worse on bones than osteoporosis. Chances are Lovelace's arm never healed right, which may have contributed to her use of pain pills.

Page 6: "We're getting hit by another wave of radiation."

The atmosphere protects us from cosmic radiation, but less so as it gets thinner. Astronauts (and flight attendants!) are considered radiation workers. Several ISS astronauts have developed skin cancer.

Page 7: "I did mention the 'so you don't get poisoned' aspect, right?"

In cases of ammonia exposure, astronauts are instructed to remove all (potentially contaminated) clothing before moving to a safe area. A potential other reason everyone is cranky in "Constructive Criticism".

Page 8: Want more #terrible space facts? Visit www.clonerightsagenda.tumblr.com/tagged/terrible space facts for my full collection.

[brucebocchi]

Spring 2024 anime, Pt. 2: Mixed bags and the gems

hey! i also post this on my ko-fi! this is very much a labor of love, so if you liked what i wrote consider throwing a few bucks my way! also you can find part 1 right here! thanks!

Yes, hello, I'm still here. Between work and AI: The Somnium Files -nirvanA Initiative-, I was struggling to find the time to get this out, but here we are! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go actually watch some anime again.

As always, the OP for each show is linked in the title. Watch them! There were some damn good ones this season.

Let's-a go:

Mixed Bags

Astro Note

I’m going to kick off this section by first stating that on the whole, I’m much higher on the anime in this section this season than I was last time: Nothing that I watched this season disappointed me nearly as much as Metallic Rouge or The Witch and the Beast, nor bored me to tears like The Unwanted Undead Adventurer. This truly is a collection of mixed bags; anime that I found enjoyable or interesting but still left me wanting in one way or another. “Good But Could Have Been Great” is too unwieldy anyway.

Astro Note was eye-catching from the jump: This is very clearly an homage to Rumiko Takahashi’s beloved romcom Maison Ikkoku, with character designs by Carole & Tuesday’s Eisaku Kubonouchi. The colors are soft and bright, everyone looks unique and has a wide variety of hilarious facial expressions, and the OP is a fun time right out of the gate. You come for the lovely visuals and Takahashi homage, and you stay for, uh, not much else.

Takumi, a down-on-his-luck young chef, answers a job posting at a boarding house that promises its residents breakfast every day. It turns out that Mira, the odd but beautiful new landlady, is a dogshit cook and tried to attract a new one with a plagiarized job posting. Takumi doesn’t really care because she’s, like, really pretty, so he takes the job and moves in. He’s soon beset by a cast of wacky characters that includes an enigmatic unemployed salaryman and his precocious son, an indie idol who looks like a hard-drinking Futaba Sakura in her downtime, a nosy neighbor, and a rich, handsome romantic rival. We’re already approaching Maison Ikkoku territory. 

Shortly after moving in, Takumi believes he overhears Mira saying that she’s a widow, which would firmly plant Astro Note’s flag right in Ikkoku’s turf, but it turns out that Mira is in fact an alien from the planet Wid, meaning she is of the Wido race (this is as good of a localization as you can ask for; in the original Japanese he heard “miboujin,” not knowing that she’s from the planet Mibou). So we’ve got some Urusei Yasura sprinkled in for good measure. Her adorable poodle, voiced by Junichi Suwabe (Sukuna himself!) is from the same planet and helping her find a MacGuffin, hidden by the previous owner, that would help her take over as queen. There’s also some blossoming romance!

The alien stuff made for an interesting wrinkle, and it went a long way toward characterizing Mira as an endearingly odd but curious woman, but it often played out in wacky hijinks caused by alien spies, which felt like a designated make-the-plot-happen button more often than not. It paid off splendidly in the last couple of episodes, and I loved how all of the flashbacks of Mira’s mother looked like grainy Showa-era space operas, but getting there took a lot of “oh no, chase that Thing!” sequences. I found myself tuning out on those until they finally became plot relevant.

The central romance was fine, if a little underbaked, but what kept me watching Astro Note was the smaller moments with the ensemble characters. There were moments with both Wakabayashi the salaryman and his son Ren that slapped the apathy right off my face, and a side plot with Takumi and a person from his past was incredibly sweet. I did also love the massive turn the plot took in the last couple episodes, to the point where I found myself almost wishing that the show up to that point was different.

And that’s Astro Note in a nutshell: A lot of good pieces mixed with some filler, weird pacing, and an overall uneven experience in a nice-looking package. A fun little distraction but nothing entirely memorable. If I can give this show one major positive, it’s that watching it finally convinced me to read Maison Ikkoku, and for that I will forever be grateful. Read Maison Ikkoku.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger

I keep running notes for everything I’m watching as the season rolls on, and sometimes I’ll indulge in other reviewers’ early takes and jot down some insights that might spark from hearing outside perspectives. During Gigguk’s opening remarks on Go! Go! Loser Ranger in his early Spring season roundup, I made a note that the easiest way to summarize this show for a western audience is “basically The Boys but with the Power Rangers instead of The Seven.” And then he said pretty much the exact same thing five seconds later. I just want the record to show that.

Indeed, this is a sentai series with some spice. 13 years ago, the invading forces of evil were soundly defeated by the Dragon Keepers, a real-life sentai squad. In the present day, the Dragon Keepers now sit atop a massive organization protecting earth, and also dominating the entertainment industry: Every week, they hold an exhibition match against the remaining rank-and-file footsoldiers, skull-faced shapeshifters known as Dusters. In order to keep their lives, the Dusters were forced to give up their freedom and serve as the farcical Putty Patrol for what is ultimately a pro wrestling show. Sick of being a jobber and effectively a slave, one of the Dusters, known simply as Fighter D, decides the best way to destroy the Dragon Keepers and free his brethren is to do so from within: He’ll morph into a human shape, join their Rangers program as a cadet, and personally slay each of the five Keepers.

Fighter D is quickly found out, though. One of the recruiters, the lovely but mercurial Yumeko, isn’t nearly as dumb as he thought, but she fortunately has the same aim and quickly puts him to work trying to steal the Keepers’ insanely powerful weapons, the Divine Artifacts. He’s also found by the Dragon Keepers and manages to escape, though badly wounded. He’s found in a cave by Yumeko’s hanger-on, the upstart Ranger cadet Hibiki, whose family was badly fragmented by an unknown monster. While he still believes in the Keepers and shares their ostensible goal of protecting humanity, he believes that there needs to be major changes and agrees to let D impersonate him to infiltrate the Rangers. He’s soon embroiled in a prolonged examination trial against higher-ranked Rangers that soon turns into a fight to the death, made only more deadly by the inclusion of a female Duster and the same monster that killed Hibiki’s parents and paralyzed his sister.

Yes, that’s a lot, and everything up until that last sentence was just in the first four episodes. I’ve said repeatedly that I’m willing to be patient with introductory seasons for action-oriented shonen series, because those do usually take a minute to start cooking, but the first season of Loser Ranger is bizarrely paced. The first four episodes were an intriguing introduction, but they might have served better as a movie to kick off the season, because the overwhelming majority of the remaining eight episodes were pretty much just a bunch of people fighting in a fucking parking garage. I was under the impression that the first season was going to be 24 or so episodes, for some reason, so I was willing to be patient with it.

Maybe I should've been patient enough to wait until the second season, because I found myself getting whiplash between fascination and utter boredom. I still don’t know if I even like this show. There are so many moving parts, and many of them are fascinating, but to get bombarded with them so early and so often, only to then keep most of them in the background in favor of way too many new characters fighting in, again, a goddamned parking garage, frustrates me in increasing measure the more I write about it. I really wanted to like this show more than I did.

The production values are seemingly all over the place too. The OP is another Tatsuya Kitani banger, the voice cast is deep and talented (especially for the English dub, holy hell), the puppet outros are a hoot, and the animation is mostly fine. I’m rarely one to complain about CGI in anime (the ED for this show is entirely 3DCG and it fucks), but a lot of it in Loser Ranger, especially as an obvious means of cheaping out on having to hand-draw and -animate the Dragon Keepers’ slightly-elaborate costumes, is baffling. You could make a generous case for it representing them as larger-than-life personalities, but in execution it’s just kind of uncanny. The show looks and sounds fine overall, but little things like that just take me out of it.

I’m going to withhold judgment until the second season, but for now I can’t say I’m too impressed by the debut. Maybe just watch the first four episodes and put a pin in it until season 2 drops.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night

I’m beginning to worry that Metallic Rouge’s catastrophic narrative failure may have permanently made me nervous about any original anime to follow. It’s an unfair comparison to make, especially considering it aired at the same time as the bombastically audacious Bang Brave Bang Bravern, which I consider one of the best of the year so far and even one of the better anime to air so far this decade. At the same time, though, the millisecond I start to suspect that an original anime is losing its footing, as soon as the one synapse fires that tells me that this show may not be able to stick the landing, I start to get cynical. The good news is that Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night isn’t even in the same time zone as Rouge’s disappointment. The bad news is that it still never fully lived up to what it could have been.

Right from the jump, this felt like Doga Kobo flexing in between seasons of Oshi no Ko with yet another gorgeous showbiz anime. The debut episode is one of the best I’ve seen in some time; an immaculately animated and brilliantly storyboarded mission statement showcasing the self-doubting illustrator Mahiru and the disgraced ex-idol Kano meeting and finding new inspiration in one another’s work (if you’ve been reading Beat & Motion, this may sound familiar, except they’re both high school girls). It was a masterclass in depicting powerful self-expression and the spark of a truly fateful encounter. What followed was also pretty good, but...

Mahiru and Kano band together (pun intended) to form the multimedia collective JELEE, also enlisting social-outcast musical prodigy (and Kano stan) Mei, and NEET VTuber Kiui along the way. We see a lot of the nitty-gritty of trying to get a new act off the ground, as well as the reality that any new artist or creator nowadays is, ultimately, at the mercy of the internet. It was a treat to watch these four all come together, as was seeing the emotional bonds they forge with one another while also navigating their own personal issues, but it frequently came at the expense of an actual plot. That sort of thing is fine, I do love me some good slice-of-life, but I feel like the show planned on something a bit grander. While we’re focused on so many of these really lovely moments of character growth and interpersonal drama, everything about JELEE’s ascent, y’know, the main plot, just kind of happens, and before you know it everything turns out okay and the season’s over. It really felt like the writers had a big plan but ended up just laying down the tracks while the train was already in motion.

As mentioned, I’m not nearly as down on the anime in the “Mixed Bags” section this season as I was three months ago, but just thinking about how the plot sagged around the middle and rushed towards its ending leaves me frustrated. Unlike JELEE itself, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night feels like less than the sum of its parts. This show feels like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle; what you can make out of the image is gorgeous, yet not only was it never completed, but someone clearly put a few of the pieces together wrong as well. There are plenty of themes in the story and character writing that could have blossomed into something amazing, like impostor syndrome, finding community and identity through fandom, young sapphic love, gender identity, and so many more, and it may have been possible to resolve at least a couple of these in 12 episodes, but Jellyfish seemed either incapable of or uninterested in actually getting there beyond a few vague overtures.

I know I sound harsh here and I didn’t mean for this review to be mostly complaints; I did very much like this show, but I wanted so badly to love it. And it probably isn’t entirely fair of me to grade this show based on what it could have been instead of what it is, but so much was plainly left on the table that I’m not really left with another choice. I still recommend it much more strongly than anything else I've put in the Mixed Bags section so far this year, but be forewarned that you may be let down. This is a pretty goddamn good anime that could’ve been pretty goddamn incredible, but it just couldn’t get there.

Mysterious Disappearances

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I know what I’m about. If a new series rotates around a protagonist who looks like that, I’ll at least give it an episode or two.

Sumireko is a former child-prodigy novelist, now in her late 20s working at a bookstore with the sharp-tongued Ren, as she continues to fail at getting published again. On the eve of her 28th birthday, Sumireko accidentally takes home a book that was droplifted in the store, and shortly after reading it aloud she finds herself reverted into the body of a child. Suddenly struck by inspiration once again, she disappears from work for the next week, furiously typing away at her next novel. Ren manages to find her and tells her that she’s under a curse: The book is an otherworldly object known as a Curiosity, and its power can be deadly to those who use it. Though Sumireko is desperate to hang on to her newly-regained youth, Ren manages to smooth-talk her into changing back and handing over the book. Now aware of an extradimensional threat to daily life, Sumireko teams up with Ren and his little sister Oto to track down and neutralize more Curiosities before they cause widespread havoc.

This series is alright, if questionable in a lot of areas. I recognize that I’m not entirely the target audience; while I love a good supernatural mystery, each of these Curiosities is rooted in East Asian mythology and contemporary urban legends, very few of which I was familiar with going in. To those on that side of the world (or to Westerners with that specific special interest), I’m sure it hits different, but I got lost on a couple of occasions. Mysterious Disappearances also runs into the same pacing issues that I found with The Witch and the Beast last season, where the plot structure is effectively episodic, but each mystery can last a few episodes at a time, so if you’re not particularly invested in the subject at hand, you’re SOL for another week or two.

This show also just plain doesn’t look very good. The animation is nothing impressive and there’s something off-putting about the overall look that I can’t quite put my finger on. It looks retro in ways that probably weren’t intentional, like a 20-year-old digipaint anime that was upscaled from 480p. The audio element is great, at least; the music, sound design, and cast are all fantastic (between her turn as Sumireko in this one and her supporting roles in Reincarnated as the 7th Prince and Kaiju No. 8, Fairouz Ai has put in great work this season), and that’s a good thing because this one isn’t a looker.

If you couldn’t already tell from how the main character looks, Mysterious Disappearances is undoubtedly horny as hell, but often distractingly so. I do have to praise Sumireko’s design to an extent; for a large-chested anime lady, she at least hews closer to how a tall woman with somewhat appropriately large breasts would actually be built and how her clothes would actually fit. She looks like a more realistically-proportioned Nami. There’s no shortage of anime characters with gigantic boobs, but few that make me actually go “oh, this woman definitely has back problems.” There are a lot of slow-tilting shots up female characters’ legs towards their chests to the point where I tuned the dialogue out because I couldn’t believe they just kept on doing it. I skimmed through the manga, and though there is far more semi-gratuitous nudity as compared to the anime, I still somehow found the latter much more distracting with its attempts at fanservice. I also don’t really care for how the “camera” looks at Oto and her middle school classmates either; I found myself just getting nervous whenever a scene focused on them.

For its problems, there’s at least a series of solid emotional cores here. Similar to Sumireko’s desire to regain her youthful creativity, the wielders-slash-victims of these Curiosities are largely vulnerable individuals who are trying to make the best of their lives in spite of past traumas like bullying, neglect, and disability. All serious issues, no doubt, and the story tries to handle them as well as possible, but once you see through the pattern of “awful thing is happening, we get to know the character, then we learn their tragic backstory and there’s a tearful resolution while we move closer to advancing the overall plot,” it can feel a little cloying in the long run. Not that those resolutions can’t be potent; I really liked the endings of the stories of the missing hairdresser and the rogue VTuber, but as a plot formula it can ring hollow.

Mysterious Disappearances is a fine if unspectacular series of supernatural mysteries with an okay overarching plot, and your mileage may vary depending on your existing knowledge of East Asian occult and superstition. It’s also not that fun to actually look at, even if you happen to be into tall redheads with huge racks. Uh, not that I would know.

The Gems

Girls Band Cry

When Bocchi the Rock! made its unexpectedly earth-shattering landfall a couple years ago, it was inundated with a deluge of comparisons to the previous landmark girls-in-a-band anime, K-On!. It felt a bit trite at the time, and feels even more so in retrospect; each show is its own thing and they both stand on their own merits. And now here’s my dumb ass, reviewing a new girls-in-a-band anime, desperately trying not to compare it to Bocchi.

It’s really not a fair comparison either way; the focus being on an all-girls rock band is really the only thing they have in common. Rather than Hitori “Bocchi” Gotoh, a perpetually-anxious recluse looking to join a band so she won’t have to get a real job after high school, we have Nina Iseri, who is… difficult. Nina has just moved to Tokyo after running away from home, but her train arrived too late for her to get her apartment key, and to make matters worse, her phone’s dead. While charging at a local coffee shop, she finds out that Momoka, the now-former frontwoman of her favorite band, is playing on a nearby street. After some ups and downs, they decide to form a band together, and butt heads more than a couple times.

Along the way, they recruit more members, each with their own issues: Subaru, the drummer, is struggling with the expectations placed on her by her grandmother to become an actress, Tomo, the keyboardist, is exacting and a little too opinionated to keep a steady role in a band, and Rupa, the bassist, is a soft-spoken foreigner who remains a cheerful enigma despite losing her parents. And Nina and Momoka are both flat-out stubborn in ways that do not mesh well with one another. There are a lot of yelling matches and many angry tears shed as the band Togenashi Togeari comes together: yes, the “Cry” in the title isn’t just for style points.

I will say that it’s refreshing that Girls Band Cry does not sugarcoat what an absolute pain in the ass Nina can be when she’s dug in: She ran away from home because she’s utterly convinced of her own righteousness, and it’s your damn problem if you think otherwise. She is avoidant and oppositional-defiant, and everyone else just has to deal with it. She may not pick her hills well, but by God will she die on them. Props for having a protagonist this openly messy and unpleasant. Plenty of musicians, or really anyone working in a group for that matter, can be abrasive and stubborn, and TogeToge’s growing pains are a necessary element of their development as a band. 

I know the bar isn’t very high for 3D computer-generated anime when it doesn’t come from Studio Orange, but this is easily one of the best-looking 3DCG anime I’ve ever seen. Between this and Trigun Stampede, I’m blown away at how expressive characters can be in CG, and how they react to what’s around them in real-time more consistently than you’d see in most 2D animation. Speaking of which, Girls Band Cry isn’t entirely in 3D; much of the OP as well as several flashbacks and background characters are hand-drawn, and they look so goddamn good that I’m almost left wondering what could’ve been. Not that I’m disappointed in the slightest; when the 3D animation hits, it REALLY hits in gorgeous synaesthetic waves that so perfectly depict an intersection of sound, light, and emotion. Hell, even the transition cards are huge eye catchers. Not everything looks brilliant all the time; the pets in particular are uncannily low-res and almost look like they got plucked out of KamiKatsu.

Of course, this is a band show, so the audio element has to be on point as well, and I’d say Girls Band Cry is up to snuff. The anime is part of a larger multimedia project, and the entire main cast consists of audition winners performing under mononyms, and they knock it out of the damn park; they’re pretty goddamn great for supposed newcomers. The music is a blast as well, not just in performance scenes but in the background as well. Togenashi Togeari already existed in the zeitgeist as a virtual band before this show went to air, so they already had a small discography out there before the show went to air and I’m looking forward to digging into it.

Infamously, this show isn’t particularly easy to watch. Not in the thematic sense, but literally: You cannot legally watch it in English anywhere in the West. Despite its popularity, Girls Band Cry was never picked up by any Anglosphere-based streaming platforms, for whatever reason, and the only official English subtitles out there are from an Indonesian streamer. So, much like the days of VHS trading and the early internet, we’re forced to rely on community translations. Far be it from me to encourage piracy (lol), but if you can find a good fansub, Girls Band Cry is very much worth your while. Pinkies up, motherfuckers.

Kaiju No. 8

I don’t watch Demon Slayer or My Hero Academia, so this was my designated Shonen Jump action show of the season, and it came with a ton of buzz: The way I see it, if I can pick up a volume of the manga at Target, the inevitable anime adaptation is gonna be a big deal. I’ve not read Kaiju No. 8 yet, but I’d say the anime lives up to a good amount of the hype.

Japan has had to handle a constant threat of kaiju for many decades now, and as a child the way-too-aptly-named Kafka Hibino made a promise to his best friend Mina that they would both grow up to lead the Japan Anti-Kaiju Defense Force in charge of eliminating the threat. A couple decades later, she’s a national hero as a captain in the Force, while Kafka is in the private sector at age 32, cleaning up the enormous corpses and viscera Mina and her division leave behind. He hasn’t given up on his dreams, by any stretch; Kafka has failed every single enlistment application he’s submitted since he came of age, but he just keeps on trying.

Kafka and his work kohai, the upstart JAKDF hopeful Reno, manage to survive a kaiju attack at the end of a shift with minor injuries, but when they’re in the hospital, a potato-sized flying kaiju shoves itself down Kafka’s throat, causing him to transform into a kaiju. Fortunately, he’s able to change back to his human form just in time to pass the first round of Defense Force exams, with Reno warning him not to let anyone in on his secret during practical exams.

Kafka is pathetically weak in his human form and is repeatedly shown up by the daughter of the Defense Force’s director general, the young hotshot Kikoru (Fairouz Ai once again), but he manages to save her life when a training exercise goes haywire and forces him to transform and share his secret with her. Reno and Kikoru get in, no problem, while Kafka manages to squeak in as a cadet. Of course, without exposing his little-big kaiju secret, Kafka can’t do much to help in terms of actual combat, but he does frequently act as an unofficial tactician in directing his squadmates on the battlefield and, in a very smart writing decision, applying his professional knowledge of kaiju anatomy to help them identify and target weaknesses. 

And from there we get a whole lot of early military training and bonding, and not just with Kafka, Reno, Kikoru, and their division’s vice-commander, the giggly Hoshina: There’s also, uh, Man-Bun! And Muscles! And Shark Teeth! And the Token Women! You know, those guys. Yeah, this is ostensibly an ensemble cast, as any good battle shonen should be, but I really didn’t get much from anyone outside the main few characters other than identifying features. I’m sure we’ll get more out of them in subsequent seasons but I have little to work off of right now.

The main three are great, though: Kafka definitely has shonen protag brain even at his age, but he’s still necessary representation for schlubby guys in their 30s who still have hopes and dreams (we exist and our stories matter), and for as serious and focused as Reno likes to think he is, he makes a great tsukkomi whenever Kafka starts acting up. Kikoru is already an icon as well; she’s basically Asuka Langley Sohryu for the zoomer generation. I feel a little weird about the fact that she’s literally half Kafka’s age and still acts kinda tsundere around him, but this is a shonen at the end of the day.

I have some small nagging issues with the story here and there, but nothing that outright ruins the show for me. Like plenty of others, I’m far more fascinated with the ins and outs of how Japanese society adapted to living with kaiju threats outside of just military preparation and response; Kafka’s initial job in kaiju cleanup was actually really neat and I’d have loved it just as much (and possibly more) if the series had just focused on that. I want some damn world building! I also am not crazy about the focus on the Defense Force’s powerscaling in the form of “Unleashed Combat Power,” but I also just plain don’t care about powerscaling to begin with. Wasn’t the entire point of power levels in Dragon Ball Z that it’s pointless to define someone’s fighting spirit by a number? Maybe they drop it later.

This show looks pretty darn good! Production IG clearly put its A-team on this one; the character animation is cartoonishly bouncy and expressive in ways we rarely see outside of Trigger productions, and the big-ass kaiju are all mercifully in outstanding 2D (though I wouldn’t complain about CG; the OP is entirely in 3D and looks exceptional). The silliness of the animation really came through in one of the funniest scenes in any anime I watched this season. Some of the textures can look a little distractingly muddy at times, but hey, these are big ugly monsters we’re looking at. Make those bastards ugly.

On a certain level, I can appreciate the effort put into this show to try to make it a crossover success; the manga is popular and kaiju films remain one of Japan’s greatest cultural exports. Streaming new episodes on the fetid corpse of Twitter was certainly a decision. I can also appreciate wanting to load up the soundtrack with popular Western artists; my problem is that they went with acts I actively avoid like YUNGBLUD (with writing by Imagine Dragons!) and OneRepublic. Suffice to say, I don’t care for the OP and ED on a musical level, but I know that I’m coming at this with a conscious bias. I’m sure they’re hits over in Japan, and for all I know there are music fans over there with the same tastes and disposition as me who think that some Japanese acts I learned about through anime like, say, Bump of Chicken or Queen Bee, are “coworker music” or whatever. I’ll live.

Kaiju No. 8, at the end of the day, is another battle shonen with guns and big monsters, but sometimes that’s all you need. I’ll be coming back for the next season.

Train to the End of the World

Spring 2024 was a banner season for girls anime. From the veteran director/writer duo that gave us cult hits like Squid Girl, Shirobako, and Prison School (and individual credits on a laundry list of classic and cult-favorite anime across the board) comes an original anime that’s not quite Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, nor Cute Girls Doing Amazing Things, but Cute Girls Being Fucking Weirdos in a Weird World.

7G technology has arrived in Japan and immediately wreaked unknowable chaos. Geography, flora, and fauna have all warped beyond recognition, and in the town of Agano, every human above a certain age has become a talking animal. Shizuru, a still-human high school girl, has been looking for her best friend Youka ever since they got in a fight two years ago and the latter ran off, just before the 7G cataclysm. She finds out that Youka has been spotted in Ikebukuro, and with the help of a babbling train conductor who managed to briefly turn lucid, learns to operate a two-car commuter train to get the hell out of dodge. Just before Shizuru leaves, train stocked with Agano’s famous goya melons, she’s joined by her classmates: The soft-spoken Nadeko, the temperamental bookworm Akira, and the rambunctious gyaru Reimi. Youka’s dog, Pochi, also joins for morale purposes. Along the way, they see just how warped Japan has become, with locals in the various towns ranging from mushroom people to zombies to Lilliputians to characters from their favorite anime, and more.

Try as I might, a summary does not do Train to the End of the World justice; this show is as offbeat as offbeat gets. It makes no bones about how flat-out weird it wants to get and actively revels in it. It’s not really interested in making the girls into a new generation of moe icons either; they are unabashed weirdos, in the ways that really only high school girls can be, and they handle the bizarre situations foisted upon them in similar fashion. They get into arguments about dumb shit, hurl insults at strangers, and occasionally just talk about poop. The writing in this series is fascinating, and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise coming from someone who also has script-writing credits for classics like Cowboy Bebop and Ranma ½ on her resume. The dialogue is punchy and comes at a breakneck pace in ways that you really only get in original anime like ODDTAXI.

Train to the End of the World is an incredible dichotomy unto itself because it clearly comes from a very literate way of thinking but has a blast being really goddamn stupid sometimes, in the best ways. It draws on a lot of inspirations of the epics of yore, gleefully cites the western literary canon, and ponders the future of the human race, and then has the girls negotiate their release from a Gulliver’s Travels situation by threatening to flood a park with urine. It is at once Homer and Homer Simpson. This show is funny in ways that are hard to articulate; comedy is so intrinsic to the show that it only has so many laugh-out-loud moments, but much more often I found myself shaking my head and remarking “this show is fucking hilarious.”

As a complete story, Train to the End of the World isn’t exactly generation-defining, but that’s perfectly fine. It’s an experience more than anything. It has really nice character moments and some heartwarming stuff in there, but I was mostly there for the weird shit. The ending was just okay, but I didn’t feel any poorer for having seen it; I’ll dive right into the cliche and say that it wasn’t about the destination but rather the journey. I had an absolute blast for the whole ride.

Now that I’ve made you read all of this, I’m going to go ahead and admit that I haven’t seen Squid Girl, Shirobako, or Prison School, but I kind of have to now, because I was bowled over by this show. This series revels in surrealism, so your mileage may vary, but it’s at the very least worth checking out. It may not have a lasting impact outside of some similar cult favoritism, but this was still my personal favorite new anime of the season.

Wind Breaker

A few weeks into the Spring season I felt like I was missing something. I gave Wind Breaker a shot and I realized about halfway into the first episode that what I was missing was just some dope-ass fisticuffs.

Haruka is a bit of a delinquent. His hair and eyes are heterochromic, and because he’s judged so harshly for his looks, he decided to lean into it and become the nogoodnik everyone thinks he is. He’s moved to a new town to join the local high school Furin, where he hears he’ll have to fight his way to the top, but as soon as he arrives in town he sees a young woman being harassed by a group of creeps. He takes them out on his own and in return receives a free lunch from the cafe she runs despite his protestations. After she teases him more than a little (his ass is NOT used to positive attention), the creeps return with more goons in tow, and Haruka is backed up by his new classmates. To his surprise, the locals shower the Furin boys with praise, and he then learns that Furin’s gang, Bofurin, exists solely to protect the town from outside threats. And Haruka thinks that is the coolest shit ever.

From there, Haruka gets to meet more of the Bofurin boys, and because of his standoffish personality, rebuffs their praises from the fight. Again, his ass is NOT used to positive attention. We get to learn the hierarchy of Bofurin, and it’s not exactly as Haruka expected: This is not a might-makes-right dogpile at all; it is a structured organization that protects its own and puts its community first. Soon enough, though, they happen upon one of their middle schoolers being hassled by a neighboring gang, and they organize a tournament on hostile ground to resolve their differences.

I am an absolute goddamn sucker for the “delinquent with a heart of gold” archetype, and Haruka is just a big ol’ tsundere from the opening minutes, so Wind Breaker hit like fucking catnip for me. For a show about gangs of delinquents, this could actually be a good example of positive masculinity if you look at it in a certain light. It’s very heavy-handed with the message that nobody can achieve greatness on their own and that surrounding yourself with the right people can change your life for the better. It’s not a rare theme in Japanese media by any means (it’s a central theme of the Persona series as well as another ultra-popular shonen series I’ve been reading in secret), but I really appreciate it being delivered through the lens of channeling brute strength and fighting prowess specifically to protect the vulnerable.  

At the end of the day, though, it’s really just about guys bein’ dudes.

The production values on this are phenomenal and I have to commend CloverWorks for turning in yet another banger. The cast is deep and plenty talented (there’s a lot of Jujutsu Kaisen in there, and it should surprise nobody that the goofy, silver-haired leader of Bofurin is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura). The animation, shot composition, fight choreography, and lighting effects are all absolutely gorgeous, and it’s clear that they see this as a potential franchise. At least, I would certainly hope so, because what we actually got from the first season left me a little hungry. The tournament arc was juicy, and it went a lot longer toward introducing the ensemble cast than the two other action shows I just talked about, but it lasted about an episode too long for a 13-episode season, and the ending came at an awkward time. I was left wanting, but what I want is a second season, so I guess it did its job.

The issues with pacing and the weirdly-timed ending meant that Wind Breaker was a bit of a fence case for me between this section and the last, but my memories of watching it are almost uniformly positive, so into The Gems it goes. This show rocks. Dudes rock.

[comicaurora]

YOU WATCHED CENTAURWORLD?!

YOU USED IT AS AN EXAMPLE IN THE TROPE TALK!!!!

It is my favorite and I require to know your thoughts on it.

It's. Hm

So I think it absolutely accomplished what it set out to do, which means it is a successful work of art. But I think what it was aiming for didn't work for me?

In its efforts to play with centaurworld's ridiculousness versus the gritty nightmare of the "real world", it tonally undercuts almost all of its profound moments and then tries to get profound character moments out of squeeky-toy inflatable cartoon characters. Of the main cast, Horse and Wammawink are basically the only ones who get sufficient development to feel like real characters capable of carrying impactful moments, and the rest of the crew are basically walking punchlines - even speedrunning their respective Tragic Backstories doesn't do much to strengthen them, because in the present of the show they're fundamentally joke characters incapable of emotional subtlety. It kinda feels like if a Looney Tunes episode randomly dropped a flashback to baby Daffy Duck being moses'd into the bullrushes as if that mattered to how he functioned now. Plus, once we start jumping back to the Real World again, it turns out all those characters are also wacky in their own way - lots of very quippy dialogue and self-referential humor. Instead of Horse feeling broadly representative of her world's tone, she feels like the most serious character in the entire show - at least until season 2 where her dialogue starts being 50% fart jokes by volume.

Overall I think I loved what they set up in season 1, but not how they paid it off in season 2. There's the themes they establish in season 1 of how centaurworld has a cartoonifying effect on everyone who comes there, and the way this plays to Horse early on is full on cartoon body horror - a realistic horse slowly and inexorably transforming into a parody of itself. I thought that was a fascinating way to frame it, and it was nightmarish to contemplate! It comes to a really strong head in the Whaletaur Shaman episode when her friends seem to finally realize how much she's been struggling and suffering and how, despite it looking like a big joke to everyone, it's profoundly unfunny to her. But while she gets a nice emotional resolution at the end of that episode, the underlying horror is never addressed again. She still seems unhappy with her new cartoon body, but the transformations are from this point forward framed as uncomplicated positives that everybody thinks are funny.

It's purposefully blending comedy and horror together, but the execution feels like the disparate ingredients are hindering each other's effectiveness. The horror stuff rarely gets sufficient gravity and is just left as Hey Look Horrifying Implications, and the jokes are often undermined by all the seriousness left lying around. It's a flavor combination that doesn't work for me.

And then the stuff with the Deertaur and the Princess is incredibly interesting and profound and tragic, and I don't understand why it's happening in the same show as everything else?

Also, this is a minor nitpick, but the musical numbers were astounding in the first season but seemed to experience some sort of weird categorical downgrade in season 2. All the solid numbers were reprises from season 1.

Centaurworld was doing something very much on purpose, and I just don't think I got what that something was.

[mage-ical-character-person]

So… is this Meme Guardian stuff?

A compilation of moments after the cosmology saga that aren’t explicitly stated to be part of the whole Meme Guardian/Meme Energy thing but I think might be or could be interpreted that way

this post has been sitting in my drafts a while and I finally finished it up!

ALSO! I know the show silly. I know I’m overthinking it. It’s what I do! For enrichment for myself!

First off wanna note that Meme Energy is everywhere and everything, memes are just the greatest concentration of it. In some magic systems the distilled form of the magic turns into crystals, or some liquid… elixir stuff, or spirits, or light… Here it’s memes. Because that’s the kind of show this is.

Animism: but make it memes. Great worldbuilding.

Now, Three and Four aren’t holding hands in these, but that’s… not always necessary? I guess some spells need that and some don’t. SMG1 and SMG2 can also do solo magic.

Yeah it was a waaacky misunderstanding but these guys are the experts on this stuff. They wouldn’t expect each other to have casted a spell on their own if it was literally impossible, and One’s doing some sort of magical thing without holding hands with Two there (even if it doesn’t work because of aforementioned wacky misunderstanding), so the fact that something doesn’t involve holding hands doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not Meme Guardian stuff.

Anyway, getting into the specific clips.

Clip 1: Mario vs Minions

Not related to Meme Guardian powers, but it’s similar enough to the whole Meme Life Cycle keeping the balance of the universe thing that I think the fact this is something Four is monitoring is related to his job as a Meme Guardian.

Clip 2: The Meme Games 2022

I debated on including this one, but SMG4 summons Beeg here, and Beeg is a meme, and summoning memes is something he and Three do a lot. He’s powered up by Saiko’s cool musical number here too so there’s that. If this is Meme Energy based that means meme energy is compatible with and can be boosted by other sources of power. I guess?

Clip 3: It’s Gotta Be Perfect

Three summons his beloved son who is a meme. It’s… it’s meme summoning again, just like the last clip. Making Eggdog into a sword could be Three using Meme powers but also Eggdogs just stretch like that, it’s what they do.

Notably, the Eldritch Goop and keyboard are explicitly stated to be “something entirely different” and not meme (or by extension anti-meme) energy.

thank you Three.

Clip 4: Mario is Fine

Okay. Here stuff starts getting interesting. Four does some kind of magical thing that seems pretty difficult for him, and then SMG3 falls from the sky. Four didn’t just summon him, though.

somehow, doing whatever that was communicated to Three that Jack Black was there (a lie). And Three can just make portals in and out of the Internet Graveyard (where I’m assuming he was before SMG4 telepathically lied to him about Jack Black) that’s established. I’m assuming he was just so excited about Jack Black he made a mistake and his portal was too high up or something.

Also mostly unrelated but I am choosing to believe the meme metal detector thing SMG4 was using at the beginning of the episode was invented by SMG1 and SMG2 and they gave it to him

Clip 5: WOTFI 2023

Okay so. This is the result of choosing “The Power of Memes” as the secret weapon. Niles and SMG0 fused with each other. Meme Guardians fusing with their partners is absolutely something that can happen, Three and Four just aren’t there yet.

And the fact that the byproduct of their failed spell is a penguin from hit kids’ virtual world Club Penguin. I guess they gathered up a bunch of meme energy but didn’t use it right, so I guess it just… coalesced into a club penguin meme.

Clip 6: Trash Friends

They can just beam thoughts and memories and stuff directly into each other’s minds and they STILL have communication issues. I love that.

Anyway, yeah, telepathy again, this time short range and much less of an ordeal for SMG4 to do. The telepathy thing is something that feels related to the whole

More headcanon than analysis but I like the idea that full mind reading is possible between meme guardian partners, but like it’s a two-way street so can’t read partner’s mind without keeping that connection open and allowing em into your own brain, poke around in there. And also I like the idea SMG1 and 2 withhold this information in order to prevent mass chaos and disaster.

Clip 7: SMG4 and SMG3 Rank SMG4 Characters

Three summons a coffin. I guess a coffin is a meme because of coffin dance. I know this is one of the improv episodes but like the animation isn’t improv and this WAS when they were talking about SMG1 and SMG2

Clip 8: SMG4 Doesn’t Meme For 1 Second

This one feels like it very much is intended to be part of the Meme Guardian powers. It’s been pointed out as such before. What I wanna know is when did SMG4 get like… actually pretty good at this? He does it without Three even nearby and it works. It works well. He made the meme shoot laser and then flew away on it

When did he get legitimately pretty good at this? Has he been practicing on his own?

On a similar note:

Clip 9: A Night at SMG4’s

Okay. So first of all, similarities to the previous clip. Summoning memes and shooting laser out of memes. Yes. I am aware that it is parody of sans but sans is also a meme. So.

IN ADDITION! Four is not usually that strong. Not even close. And you see. When this mini arc was in the middle of happening and Mr Puzzles was claiming the comedy zone to be the source of SMG4’s power, I made fun of him for it. Because obviously the source of SMG4’s power is

Now the Meme Factory was a trap for Puzzles. Four gathered up all these memes in one place. The concentration of meme energy in there must be insane. So in a way, yes. Meme Factory is kinda a power source for SMG4.

might be why he was a little weird that mini arc too. Little mad with power maybe. Plus the usual stuff he struggles with and never properly addressed. Plus, “meme energy makes people be weird” is established lore fact. So! Yeah!!

Clip 10: Mario Gets Stuck as a GIF

okay might be a liiiittle but it a stretch on this one but bear with me here.

-None of the things Mario and Three do while controlled are things they can’t usually do, except this

-Three turns into a meme (similar to Four becoming Sans? Maybe?? A stretch but throwing that out there)

-Once Three becomes a meme, SMG4’s eyes start glowing, and then SMG3’s eyes start glowing. AND

AND once SMG3’s eyes start glowing, Four is completely still in the background. He’s not pressing any buttons anymore.

Again, still a stretch. But considering SMG4 has done telepathy with Three twice before… just throwing this out there

Clip 11: Mario Loses His Mustache

I’ve talked about this before but. This post wouldn’t feel complete without discussing this because it makes me insane.

This moment right here is definitely part of the meme guardian stuff. To me. Because when that stuff was first being introduced

and then we get this moment!

It’s so instinctual for him. Literally what he exists to do as an meme guardian! And here we’re shown he can’t resist it if he tries! Hard coded into his very being…

adds another layer to every time Four is unwell about his channel. Like yeah everyone needs a creative outlet and he’s worked really hard on it his entire existence but also it’s (technically) the only thing he exists to do and is vital to maintaining the balance of the universe.

Meanwhile as the guardian of dead memes whose role is essentially to be a caretaker of the forgotten, Three simply gets to be good at parenting and have emotional intelligence he refuses to apply to himself.

[boldlyexplorational]

Episode 10 "The Corbomite manoeuvre"

I got the impression that this is one of the most iconic episodes. The salad scene, the weird child alien guy, the puppet. Can't argue with any of that.

I'm once again bringing up my wacky theory for the order of the episodes in this season: I think this would have made a great episode 1. It touches some of the fundamental themes and tropes with the cast of characters. It felt very introductory. But then again, it's only episode 10. I guess that, when I watched "the man trap" I thought it did a great job of introducing the characters. But after watching this one, it seems to me it's even better.

First of all you've got shirtless Kirk, which is the prime example of how you should think about this character. Just kidding. But he was very shirtless and very sweaty and... He's video-calling Spock, of course. Also that shot of his butt.

But sexualization of the captain a side. I loved that moment with Spock: "gives me emotional security". It really sums up their relationship (at that stage) very well. I might make a different post about this, but I'll also say that the frame of that scene, the softness of the color and the gentle blur of the picture is something that keeps happening in scenes between Kirk and Spock. And I wonder why people got some ideas.

That brings me to McCoy, it's pretty evident how his relationship with Kirk is different from the one with Spock. You can tell Kirk and McCoy are besties, pals. While every interaction with Spock is more intimate (the way it's filmed too!). Even if they were intended to be both friendships, there's a very distinct difference between the two.

Another significant moment is when Spock almost apologizes to Kirk. That little exchange hits pretty hard. First of all you don't need to apologize to Jim, Spock, you did nothing wrong I know this and I love you. I appreciated your chess related contribution, and so did the captain, he's just stressed. And you need to be a little less desperate sometimes, but we're all stupid when our crush is around, I get it.

I shouldn't be surprised but, in the salad scene, the Janice Rand situation is brought up again. It's actually a little frustrating how they want us to see this as an actual problem/conflict for Kirk, and also as a sign of his virtue: he's so brave for not dating/harassing/take adventage of his hot assistant. It's honestly insulting to Kirk because (he's such a more complex character than that), and to Janice and to me, watching. It's such a useless, shallow bit.

Last but not least Bailey's little exchange program with the creepy manchild alien is exactly what he deserves.

Rating: 10/10

What can I say, I really liked it. It had everything, it was just the right amount of campy and I would watch it again anytime (which I discovered is a big part of my rating and ranking process). This episode is now on the podium with "the enemy within", but how long will it stay there? And who's gonna get the third place? (Check the ranking tag for the full list)

[hargreevesrage]

I'm so pissed off about season 4 that I made a whole new Tumblr account to complain about it.

What the fuck was that? I had never seen something so truly ridiculous, senseless and bad, just plain bad. I'm embarrassed to even say I liked the show now. There are so many things wrong with it I can't even begin to list them. From beginning to the end nothing made sense. The only positive thing to come out of it was Klaus and Claire's relationship, and the only interesting idea was the timeline train + Five Cafe, everything else was garbage.

Ben's whole thing. Klaus's regression and sexual abuse being played for laughs. Luther being reduced to a single joke. Lila being butchered to give Five a useless love story. Five being numbed and dumbed down, and also not even actually being Five, because Five would never in a million years do that to his family, his own brother. Diego having to deal with all that shit, being blamed for it for no reason, and it also being played for laughs. Allison not actually dealing with anything, adding no depth to her character, sending her and Ray's story into oblivion. Viktor being virtually non-existent. Villains being wacky with no substance, stupid useless wastes of time like the puke scene, the plot being all over the place, Jennifer, nothing being cohesive at all, no themes being explored like before. The whole ending which threw all of the themes established in previous seasons down the drain. And maybe I'm being picky, but the stupidity of saying Claire, Grace and the twins would still exist without Allison and Diego there to conceive them is so laughable and ends the whole thing on such an absurd note that I still can't believe this is actually what they wrote and went to all that trouble to film and release.

It was like the show had no heart, the season had no center because at its core it was empty. Like an AI generated picture or text. Cold, dead images. No light behind its eyes. Just a bunch of scenes someone put together, with people saying things that mean nothing, in a world that means nothing, to say nothing of importance to no one at all.

The cast did all they could do with what they were given, and I will always be grateful for the love and care they put in their characters since the beginning, but that could only go so far in this case. They were hanging on for dear lives. At least there will always be season 1.

[robotnuts]

heres my bitching post sorry

the main thing i didnt like was how they treated grif's character. he was so angry and i feel like some of his character got leeched out to simmons. for a season that tried to call back so much to the original, that even tried to even out the great destroyer plotline from BGC that didn't make any sense, i wish they handled grif's character with more care. like a red team member manipulating sarge to do what they want is GRIF'S mo, not simmons, and i wish grif had been the one to rally and convince sarge to come help caboose instead of simmons. i feel like the grimmons breakup was the emotional scene that hit the least for me i didnt cry about it i only started crying when the credits rolled, and thats because grif felt pretty ooc for me. which sucks as a grifhead but what can you do

similarly theres kind of a weird abuse apologia thing going on where its like. im fine with how sarge treats grif because it's so clearly like water off a duck's back and grif just manipulates sarge to get his way and rolls his eyes at him and doesnt give a fuck throguhout seasons 1-10, i can take it just as a fictionalized comedy duo that isn't taking itself seriously and grif isn't actually 1:1 like a soldier being abused by his superior irl. and then shisno had the problem of making grif go "actually this really hurts my self esteem and makes me feel bad" and makes you retroactively view their dynamic in a different light. this isnt as bad as shisno, but having sarge say "i was only hard on you because i wanted to push you to be better" made me like :/ because. yknow. if we're taking it seriously, the fact that sarge was "psuhing" grif doesnt make his treatment okay. what makes his treatment okay is that theyre wacky halo man characters and obviosuly there has to be a crazy sargeant character and its not really bothering grif that much. but :/ very minor but i thoguht id mention it

um um um. tex coming back was incredible and made me scream i knew she was gonna come back i was spoiled but i didnt expect how theyd do it. really good. they got me again with the fucking chex at the end of course they did!!!!!!!!

oh right biching. um. what the fuck was going on with wash honestly LMAO like him having his fuckign DID and talkign about his memory issues was completely made for me but his role in this season was so funny and strange WHY DOES HE HAVE A DOC TULPA OH MY GODDDD. like in my ideal world of a final season it absoltuely would have had a more filled out cast and wash and carolina woul dhave been part of the reds and blues the whole time because i want this to be my sitcom where everyone is friends forever but like. I do understand why burnie wanted to take down the cast to sarge/grif/simmons/caboose as the original four founders (rip joel LMAO).

also the stuff with tucker was so scary !!! ahhhHhh why did they send him to time prison for 10 years AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!

idk ill also update this post with stuff that i loved it was really funny and i did like it overall, i need to watch it again i was tipsy/drunk for most of it and also talking about it irl so i missed some bits that my friends went crazy for and i need to watch the commentary. its not all bitching thats just waht sticks in my mind easier. god that campfire scene with the barenaked ladies song i was CRYINGGGG. it obviously felt short/rushed or whatever but like. ugh. its just a potential possible future anyways you guys KNOW in my head all the reds and blues are together on chorus forever and ever always doing their bits. i really am just glad we got more of it to watch together and got to get on burnie's wild ride one last time. thank you

[mask131]

Exploring the Ice King (1)

As I write these lines, the first snowfalls happened in France. To fit with the weather, I thought of starting something I was planning to do for quite a long time... A series of posts talking about Adventure Time's Ice King.

Well... not posts talking really about him. But rather posts talking about the origin, the formation, the tropes and archetypes at play with this character. Adventure Time is a very, very weird media in terms of mediatic evolution as it is a very bizarre yet influential step in the evolution of fantasy, placing itself as the unusual crossroad between faithful homage, absurdist parody and fresh continuation. It's... well it's weird. And the Ice King, one of the most crucial characters of the series, is a literal melting pot of MANY many different elements of the fantasy fiction.

I will start in this post with the function of the Ice King, mainly how he manifests the type of the "recurring pitiful villain".

When I think of a potential cultural ancestor for the Ice King, being a French person, I immediately think of Gargamel, the main antagonist of the Smurfs.

Why? It seems at first the two have nothing in common... And yet when you think about it, the two are old, ugly men practicing magic. The two are recurring villains that become one of the iconic head of the show. The two start as a legitimate, creepy, evil threat and then devolve in a pathetic, foolish, almost friendly foe - notably because each of their scheme and plan is bound to fail or blow back in their face, as part of the law of "evil can't win". The two are driven by a monomania, an obsession that becomes their main trait (capturing princesses/capturing the Smurfs), and the two have an animal sidekick that they treat with a mix of abuse and love (Gunther/Azrael).

I can't claim that the Ice King was directly inspired by Gargamel... But it is interesting to point out that the Ice King answers to a very specific type of villain in older children cartoon: the recurring but ineffective villain, the returning protagonist who always fail and despite his antagonism is part of the "main cast" so to speak, the "evil" guy who isn't so much evil as just a weird goof we laugh more at than we really dread.

A more American example could be Dick Dastardly from "Wacky Races", who has the bonus point of also having an animal sidekick:

There are many, MANY iconic and classic exemples of the "recurring, ineffective villain" in older children cartoons. I evoked Gargamel and Dick above because of their familiar animal, which highlights the parallel, but other "predecessors" of the Ice King include The Professor from Felix the Cat (bonus point for being an old man with a strong white theme and this huge mustache - and extra bonus point when you know that "Felix the Cat" was one of the first inspirations for Adventure Time's artstyle):

Elmer Fudd, who was eventually so pitiful in his evilness that Yosemite Sam had to be introduced (Yosemite Sam could also have played a part in the Ice King's creation as he has the King's short-temper mixed with the luscious facial hair):

You can also count in Wile E. Coyote - he isn't obviously related to the Ice King and I don't think he was an inspiration, but he is one of the icons of the "loser villain" that keeps inventing extravagant schemes, a monomaniac who is doomed to never succeed.

Or Shredder, from the old Teenage Turtle Ninjas cartoon...

... Or even "Eggman" Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise (there is something to be said about how a lot of these characters enjoy excentric facial hair).

And to conclude we need, of course, to bring forward the greatest of all these ineffective antagonists, and one that clearly did have an influence over Adventure Time: Skeletor, who was such a failure that the writers of He-Man themselves took pity on the guy and ultimately replaced him with alternate antagonists.

All of these "predecessors" did form a type of villain, a niche that the Ice King nicely filled. However, the Ice King's first "function" was not to be such a sad clown of a villain...

[medra-gonbites]

BG3 Masterlist

Hereby find a list of my writing (revolving exclusively around Baldur's Gate 3 because I have brainrot).

If you feel like it I'd be more than happy to receive prompt to work with (however I am quite slow just so you know ^^)!

Disclaimer: Most NSFW pieces are not posted on this platform in their entirety and will relay a link to the full version on AO3. This allows the reader to consult the full list of tags and CW before interacting with any potential triggering scenario. NSFW does not necessarily means smut: it can also indicate violence or possible triggering themes.

Head Canon Blobs

Companions Filmmaker Edition - What roles would the BG3 characters be taking on a film set?

Companions Party Edition - Who brings what to Tav birthday party?

Companions Music Edition - Which instruments do the Tadfools Band (and others) play and why?

Companions Pokemon Edition - Which Pokemon would the companions choose

Companions Disney Animation Edition - Which Disney Animation are their favourite?

One Shot Fictions

The Contemplations and Conclusions of Minsc of Rashemen - SFW - A stream of consciousness following Minsc's (and Boo's) reading of their new (and old) comrades.

A Night to Remember - SFW - The drunken shenaningans of two tadfools out in Baldur's Gate. (Astarion/Shadowheart (platonic))

And Thus The Moon Shall Glow - SFW - Shadowheart pines for Tav after the rescue of Dame Aylin and her repudiation of Shar. (Shadowheart/Unnamed Fem!Tav)

A Modicum of Decorum - SFW - An old friend attempts to visit Gale. Unfortunately Tav is at the door. (Gale/Tav)

Wounds of Love - SFW - Lae'zel is obsessed with the wizard and needs to do something about it. (Astralweave: Gale/Lae'zel)

Beyond the Bridge - SFW - Lae'zel hates the wizard's nose!... Until she doesn't anymore. (Astralweave: Gale/Lae'zel)

Ashes to Ashes - SFW - During the first year in Szarr Palace, Astarion has grown very close to one of the other spawn. (Astarion/NamedMale!OC)

Feathers, Fur and Fate - SFW - Gale and Tara reunites and catch up in Rivington (Gale & Tara)

The Treasure among the Scale - NSFW - Wyll encounters a distressed mermaid on the beach and decides to help her out. (Wyll/Unnamed Fem!OC)

A Cone of Cold you Made of Me - NSFW - Gale visits an old flame. She is not happy to see him. (Gale/Unnamed Fem!OC)

On My Lord's Lap - NSFW - Lord Astarion and his consort Gale receive an adventuring party reporting on their missi. (Bloodweave: Ascended Astarion/Consort Gale)

A Wild Magic You Cast - NSFW - She infuriates him; her talent for magic matches only the chaos she triggers. (Gale/Fem!Wild Sorcerer Durge)

Blooodweave week 2024 - SFW & NSFW This series consists of 6 one shot chapters and 1 multi-chapters fic centered around the Bloodweave ship (Astarion/Gale)

Multi-Chapters Fictions

The Wizard Who Read Everything - 3 chapters - Pairing: Gale/Named Fem!OC - SFW

The wizard had struggled to find an apprentice for quite some time. When he finally does, he find himself quite intrigued by his new hire. It is not appropriate but he can't help think about her. The racy literature that she writes as a hobby does not help. Neither does the fact that he reads in secret…

What is left of what once was - 5 chapters - Pairing: Gale/Fem!Tav - Ascended Astarion/Fem!Tav - NSFW

Astarion has ascended. He has all he has ever wanted. Except you, since you chose Gale over him. Now that he is a Vampire Lord he will not let you go so easily.

Roll Initiative - 4 chapters -Pairing: Gale/Astarion - Alternative Universe - NSFW

This is not Astarion's idea of fun but he begrudgingly agreed to join Wyll's current D&D tabletop campaign: the prospect of rolling dice and hallucinate a quest for 2 hours does not appeal to him at all. At least the game master is cute...

My Tavs & Durges

Most of them are silly geese. I like puns and inventing wacky backstories for them.

Tavs

Medra Gonbites - Drow Paladin

Denisious Delicious - Rock Gnome Bard (& co-op Tav Denise Delice - Wood Half-Elf Druid)

Mari Zoto - Human Monk

Durges

Dana R'Whaal - High Elf Sorcerer

Robert (Bob) Slay - Half-Orc Warlock

Zorthos Akognto Yerwitcher - Tiefling Cleric

I hope you enjoy my work! Comments and feedbacks are always appreciated of course !

[animebw]

Seasonal Reflection: Fall 2024 Anime

I'm not exactly sure when I realized this year's fall anime season was shaping up to be a dud. It started out so strong, with one stellar premiere after another promising a stacked slate of excellent shows. But at some point, it started to sink in that I was only keeping up with most of them out of obligation, the initial spark they started with long since flickered out. I barely even finished half the shows I usually do, and a good half of those didn't feel worth the time I wasted on them by the end. On the bright side, this season's two best entries- Re:Zero's third season and the spectacular Orb: On the Movements of the Earth- are still ongoing, so I may end up feeling more positive on fall in retrospect. For now, though, I'm mostly left with disappointment. So let's say farewell to this mediocre end for an otherwise pretty solid year for anime and take stock of its few entries that are genuinely worth your time.

Mecha-Ude/Mechanical Arms: 4/10

The best way I can describe Mecha-Ude is that it feels like someone stole a rough doodle from Hiroyuki Imaishi's sketchbook. From the intensely angular, frame-dropping animation style to the breakneck pacing and constantly escalating sense of overstuffed Anime Bullshit plot mechanics, this sci-fi yarn about inter-dimensional arm-shaped biomechanical organisms kick-starting an insecure young boy's journey to manhood would feel right at home among any of Trigger's offerings. And at first, I was really digging it! The first few episode have such a wonderfully stupid sense of humor that sell you on its absurd premise effortlessly, and while the CG-blending mecha animation takes some getting used to, it results in some really damn expressive action scenes. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before the plot rears its ugly head, and the second Mecha-Ude tries having an actual story it pretty much falls apart. The story barrels ahead at a disorienting pace, rushing through plot beats too fast to understand what's going on or why we should care. And the characters are hit with some of the most contrived decision-making I've seen in a long time to justify the increasingly hackneyed drama of it all. Seriously, it's been a while that I've been this aggravated at the Obviously Bad Choices every single character makes in this show. And then they stop letting the cool action girl do cool action girl things on top of that. What a disappointment.

Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow (1st Cours): 4.5/10

I've tried my best, but I think I'm finally starting to lose my patience with Blue Exorcist. There's only so long I can watch a story I love slog through this subpar adaptation before it becomes painful to keep holding out hope for it to recapture the magic it once had. The huge, earth-shaking direction this season heads in just can't stand up to such weak production values, let alone the crushing weight of too much lore and backstory that, frankly, is never as interesting as the show seems to think it is. And it doesn't help that Beyond the Snow's introductory arc is easily Blue Exorcist's worst arc yet; in trying to bring some welcome depth to Shura, it instead face-plants into some of the most condescending and sexist writing I've seen out of shonen in a hot minute. Blegh. At this point Rin and Shiemi's romance is the one joy keeping me from jumping ship just yet. Let's hope that remains true.

Ranma 1/2: 5/10

Once again, we have a modern remake of a Rumiko Takahashi series that leaves me very conflicted. If nothing else, Ranma 1/2 is instantly a more credibly sincere love story than Urusei Yatsura ever managed to be; the way Ranma and Akane's prickly chemistry develops in the first arc is genuinely kind of lovely. But this is still very much in the mold of an endless will-they-won't-they that's going to live or die on the strength of its wacky supporting cast rather than actually developing its main couple in any sort of timely fashion. And it kind of stings more knowing Ranma and Akane are doomed to a nigh-endless parade of misunderstandings and wacky hijinks when I actually care about them, as opposed to Lum and Ataru who I never gave so much as a half-shit about. I dunno, maybe I'm just too much of an early zoomer for this show to hit the same way it does for the people who grew up with its particular cocktail of mind-expanding gender hijinks. Or maybe Mappa just isn't the best studio to adapt this kind of slapstick-based action gag comedy. Eh, whatever, I'll still check out season 2. Hopefully it'll click with me the more time I spend with it!

Magilumiere Magical Girl Inc: 5/10

This is one of those shows I like more in concept than execution. I've always thought there's loads of untapped potential in stories about grown-up magical girls (magical women?), and Magilumiere has an excellent approach to the subject: what if magical girls were an actual industry in today's business landscape? How would large and small companies differ in the hiring and training processes? How would it intersect with other, more mundane industries? What's the ideal way for a magical girl to carry out her mission and protect people in a world where they're as commonplace as pest exterminators? There's so much fun thematic and worldbuilding territory to explore here. Unfortunately, I think Magilumiere is a little too eager to explore all of it. Because it just can not stop making its characters turn to the camera and explain every last bit of subtext or nuance directly to the audience's face. It's like every time I was starting to form my own conclusions naturally, the show slams on its brakes and says "IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, THIS IS THE MESSAGE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARC." And it gets annoying very fast. Try trusting your audience, show, most of us are smarter than you seem to think!

Acro Trip: 5/10

For such a simple show, it's hard to know what to make of Acro Trip sometimes. It's a lighthearted magical girl spoof about Date Chizuko, a gloomy girl who moves to a new town and instantly falls head over heels for its magical girl defender, the peppy and radiant Berry Blossom. But upon realizing she has a knack for playing the bad guy, she teams up with Berry's current antagonist- a sopping wet kitten of a man named Chrome who just can't quite live up to the evil mastermind he wants to be- to give Berry the challenge she needs to show off how cool she is. So I guess picture Gushing Over Magical Girls if it was family friendly instead of, well, you know. Whatever the case, though, it's a janky-ass show, seesawing wildly in quality over the course of any given episode with a production seemingly held together with glue sticks and a prayer. At its best, it lets lead actors Miku Itou and Nobunaga Shimazaki flex some truly remarkable comedic chemistry; any time it's just Chrome and Chizuko fucking around, its a blast. But most of its side characters are forgettable, all its attempts to have any sort of grander story fall pretty flat, and it feels like there's a missed opportunity to develop Chizuko's relationship with Berry in her civilian life while scheming against her behind the scenes. Seriously, you had a perfect excuse for a villain secret-identity double-life between the protagonist and her Big Gay Crush/Rival, and you did nothing with it? Disappointing.

Blue Box (1st Cours): 6/10

To be honest, I'm a little surprised Blue Box has had so much trouble winning me over. On paper, it's got everything I could ask for; a grounded sports drama and rom-com following two adorkable teens pursuing their own inter-high dreams while developing feelings and pushing each other to do their best. Add a mostly solid production and a cast of high school kids that feel genuinely down to earth, and I feel like I should at least be enjoying this enough for a 7/10 on principle. But in execution, something about Taiki and Chinatsu's budding relationship leaves me cold. Perhaps in such a grounded show, it stands out so much more blatantly how Chinatsu has been constantly sidelined and objectified by the narrative, reduced to a gorgeous porcelain trophy we only ever get to see from the outside instead of a character in her own right. She clearly has some interiority, but the show consistently fails to explore her perspective, or focus on her struggles, or use her as anything other than a lodestone for Taiki's growth. That might be starting to change as of the last episode of this cours, but if Blue Box genuinely wants me to care about her and Taiki getting together instead of stubbornly rooting for Obvious Best Girl Hina to the bitter end, it better start treating her side of the story with the importance it deserves, and fast.

NegaPosi Angler: 7.5/10

If I said the feel-good masterpiece of the season was the show that opens on the protagonist trying to hang himself, would you believe me? I know it took me a second to re-adjust after that whammy of a first scene. But believe it or not, that contradiction between life's joy and its bitter misery is the beating heart of NegaPosi angler. Shackled by debt and struck with an illness that leaves him only two years left to live, it's no wonder college dropout Tsunehiro Sasaki isn't exactly in a great mental state when we meet him. But when a chance encounter introduces him to a motley crew of fishing enthusiasts, he finds himself drawn into their wake as he tries to make sense- or rather, tries to stop running away from the existential terror- of what his life means now that it's got an expiration date. It's a genuinely touching tale of self-discovery and self-redemption, and I love how it's not afraid to let Sasaki be messy and imperfect as he grows into a better person. At times, his short-sightedness and myopia are painful to witness, but that just makes his moments of clarity and change hit all the harder. And it helps that the supporting cast is all so lovable and diverse in their own dysfunctional ways. This show just gets the healing power of community, man. If you're willing to face the mundane misery of human existence to find your happiness within it, I can't recommend this show enough.

Dan Da Dan: 8/10

Listen, do you know how frustrating it is that I can't recommend Dan Da Dan wholeheartedly? Do you understand how much I wish I could sing this show's praises uncritically and happily suggest it to all my normie friends? It has everything I could possibly want! Gorgeously rendered supernatural action! One of the most infectiously adorable main couples in recent memory! Some of the most expressive storyboarding in the entire modern anime industry! A gonzo sense of imagination that makes each new dive into the occult and paranormal feel as fresh as the first time you learned about aliens and ghosts as a kid! The sheer badassery of Momo Ayase owning every single scene she's in! As a long-term defender of goofy, sincere anime nonsense where superpower teenagers punch demons in the face with the power of love and friendship, Dan Da Dan is one of the finest examples of the form I've seen. But I can't recommend this show without the one fucking caveat of that lurid attempted rape scene in the first episode that has no business being here and is completely irrelevant to the story moving forward. Literally just five minutes of an otherwise spectacular shonen thrill ride prevent me from sharing my love with this series as widely as I want to. Why do you do this to me, anime? Why???

DROPPED SHOWS

Blue Lock Season 2: Dropped at 2 episodes because of a catastrophic drop in animation quality.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions Season 2: Dropped at 4 episodes because I realized I just didn't care anymore.

[sonicboomrevisited]

Hii! Just wanted to ask I love your comics! Sonic boom was what got me into the franchise so it's great seeing a fancomic based on it, I do have a few questions

As someone who's trying to learn how to write as a beginner? What would you say is the most important advice you can give? Were there any original ideas that you guys had but ended up scrapping and would you like to revisit those ideas?

If it was possible, which idw characters would you like to see in boom? And If robot sonic(pre upgrade?) Got touched with the metal virus, Would it infect him or not? Since he is half organic/robot?

Love the art and writing and hope both of you are doing well :] <3

MULTI:

Hi, Anon! Super glad you're enjoying the comic! I am doing well!

The best advice I can give for writers just starting out is to study what other people are doing. Watch films, read books, comics, etc. Study the structure of stories you like and see what ideas they inspire in you. If you train your mind to recognize story patterns they become easier to create!

We've only just begun on SBR so there really isn't anything scrapped in issue 1. There is, however, plenty of stuff down the road that's been rearranged or altered slightly from the initial concept to support the overall story better. I can't really say anything to that, right no without spoiling stuff!

From the IDW cast. I'd love to see Rough and Tumble in Boom. I feel like their wackiness would fit right in with the rest of the cast. Sonic and co. wouldn't take them very seriously, but they would be heavier hitters then say, the Lightning Bolt society!

Robo-Sonic 1.0 and the Metal Virus. That's a tricky one. I would think, because the Metal Virus is essentially a more organic-based form of roboticization, it would complete the organic-to-mechanical transformation just with a Zombot finish (he'd look like 1.0, still, but shiny). It would be worse for everyone, though, if Robo-Sonic became a Zombot because A) There's no Chaos Emeralds to help stop the virus, B) Robo-Sonic's finer motor control, abilities, and allegiance to Eggman would be null and C)... No, that's pretty much it unless Qwerty has anything to add!

QWERTY:

Multi gave a lot of good advice for writing. Read, pay attention, find what you like and try to emulate it. (NOT copy. Let it inspire you.)

Basically, my advice is just to write! Just start throwing words on the page. You'll never improve if you don't start. You won't know what needs worked on if you don't have anything written.

You don't need a long, drawn out plot with lots of twists and turns. Just think of a scene and write it. It might be bad. Don't let that get you down. Most writers start BAD and eventually get NOT BAD. It takes practice to get better. Lots and lots of practice.

Good luck!

[paracosmic-sims]

My top 24(?) screenies from 2024!

Tagged by the lovely @changingplumbob, thank you Kirsty <3

I literally don't know if I even have taken 24 screenshots this year. Let's see...

1, 2 and 3: Some screencaps from a photoshoot I did with my revamped simself. I have MANY variations - check it out, none of those are the one on my current profile picture, or with...

4: Oh Kinha, that's cheating! That is an edit, not a sceenshot! Shhh! I literally don't think I have enough screenies to make this post. Anyways, once I can figure out how to do my tags and navigation posts, expect to see this one in my pinned <3

5: An outfit I made for Sienna that I needed to save for other kiddos too! It's so cute!

6: Vlad. What are you DOING walking around Evergreen Harbor? Not even on my lot, since Journey Delight - the founder of my personal Whimsy Legacy challenge - doesn't even have a house at this point. Just... passing by. It was like... the second night? Anyways, appreciate how marvelous this woman is (and how wacky the sims can be sometimes)

7: Speaking of personal legacy challenges, here's Hendrix Baccinus, the Mint of my NSB save. (The light makes him look blue-ish, but I swear it's mint.)

Look at him. Hot. Handsome. The male quota of this post. He is a baby and a pathetic wet cat of a man. This mfer tried to kill himself! (No joke, he autonomouslt went swimming when his energy was low on Sulani, because he was burnt out. Dude, sims used to be able to juggle a job and an Uni degree!)

I still love him <3

8, 9 and 10: Obligatory Arielly Vespertinai appreciation. Look at her. Gorgeous. My baby. Watcher's favorite (little chew toy nomnomnomnom) <3

Have you seen her? yes? Well, go look again. Until you're mesmerized enough to forfeit your entire mortal posessions to this siren of a woman. Nobody understands the amount of adoration I hold specifically for this little bean. She could kill me and I would still thank her. She consumes my thoughts almost daily even though I have an entire cast to think about so I can support your story babygirl unleash my brain!!!

Also, obligatory gloating that this woman was elected Bronze Medal in @simblorbo-bracket's 2024 SIMBLR SEXYMAN TOURNAMENT. Yes, you heard it right. She's a Sexyman. And is the Sexiest™ of the human competitors.

11: Speaking of Vespertinai's, a draft of Arielly's mom, Elysiann! Still unsure if I want them biologically related or adoptive (makes some sense with part of the lore, screws some other part. UGH.)

don't be fooled, this woman has SUCH a resting bitch face outside of CAS.

12: And on that resting bitch face note, Scione Vespertinai! Ari's younger sister, of whom I have shared custody with @momoception <3 (because someone in her game needed to simp over Lucius Holt, and given I'm his #1 fan in the real world...)

Could you tell my game's eyelashes were still broken on those last 2 pics?

13, 14 and 15: Enough of sim pics for a while, appreciate Elio Alvoretter's (aka, Ari's bestfriend, partner, and overall soulmate) (no, literally.) room. I'm insanely proud of it even if it drove me majorly crazy at some points.

(We do NOT talk about the small desk under the desk. It was fixed after.)

16: On the topic of building, a little bar decoration I made using TOOL. It took me longer than you'd expect.

17: Okay, back to sims because it's all I have at this point. I forgot this cutie's name, but she never really left CAS despite this picture. She was for a BC that never really happened, so I'm saving her for another opportunity. Maybe a spouse for one of my families. Maybe a founder for another legacy? She's kinda packed with CC, so I don't think I'll ever set her for dl.

18 and 19: Some of my girlies for other simmers! Moxie and Apolline were some of the ones I had the most fun doing, and I think that the unused photos deserve a place to shine too.

===================

Unfortunately, the most I could is still short by 5. But then again, 2024 was THE year for me, in terms of personal growth, so TS4 kinda fell behind (a LOT. Some of those pics have literal months of gaps between them)

I am not sure who has been tagged already or not, but if you're seeing this and you want to participate (even again), you're tagged!

[wwwow-official]

Hello, world!!~

Welcome to the OFFICIAL Wacky William's World Of Weird blog!

Now, you may be asking, what IS Wacky William's World Of Weird? Well, my friend, I'm glad you asked!

Description!!~

Wacky William's World Of Weird, or WWWOW for short, is a work-in-progress indie game/art piece/passion project, with elements of mascot horror, analog horror, bait-and-switch games, puzzle games, and other such things!

-

You play as Y/N [that's right, YOU!], a 20-something year old horror enthusiast, with a love for lost media, and a knack for abandoned building exploration.

After re-discovering an old shirt they don't remember having, they do a bit of research, finding out about the [now abandoned] children's interactive museum of the same name, which resides in their childhood home town, which they and their parents had moved away from, when they were just a kid.

-

Throughout the game, you'll do puzzles and mini-games, complete tasks, explore, discover secrets, and most importantly, meet the [very much ALIVE!] colorful cast of mascots!

Luckily for YOU, a good few of these characters are friendly! Especially the name-sake character himself, Wacky William, who will grant you sanctuary, and give you hints about the lore, if you ask the right questions!~

-

Outside of the game, there's still much to do with this fun little story! It seems like SOMEONE'S been uploading old video archives to Youtube, showing off several different promotional videos, commercials, cartoon episodes, and even stuff from what appears to be an old website?

Discover bits and pieces of the story, pieces you wouldn't be able to find in the game, and connect the dots the best you can!!~

Now, that's about all I can give in terms of a description, for now! Though, if you're curious about any non-story related details, our ask box is, in fact, open!

This blog is mainly for sneak peeks, dev updates, musings, and other such random things. Though, there may be a few rebloggings, aswell!

To make things less confusing, I have devised a little tagging system!~

TAGS!!~

General:

#wacky williams world of weird! - For all posts related to WWWOW!

#wwwow! - Same as above, just abbreviated!

#important posts! - Posts like this one, with IMPORTANT INFORMATION!!

#asks! - A tag dedicated to answering questions!

#wwwow updates! - A general tag for WWWOW-related updates!

#sneak peeks! - For sneaky little peeks at WIPs!

#dev log! - Just development logs, nothing too special!

#character intro! - Posts that are all about showing off one of our wonderful Wacketeers!

#wacketeer art! - For art of the characters, Canon or not!

#sillies! - For memes/joke posts about the characters/story/etc.!

#fun fact! - Just to spice things up, I'll be posting fun facts about the characters at least once a week!

-

Character-Specific Tags:

#wacky william!

#zany zeno!

#nutty norman!

#aberrant albert!

#curious cornelius!

#bouncy betsy!

#sweet suzanne!

#peppy penny!

#other wacketeers!

-

Off-Topic/Other:

#off topic! - For posts/reblogs that aren't about WWWOW!

#aesthetics! - A tag [mostly] containing aesthetic/stim-worthy pics/gifs/videos that remind me of certain characters!

#polls! - For.. to put it simply, project-related community polls! Kinda speaks for itself, doesn't it?

#reblogs! - Posts that have been reblogged from other accounts!

#support! - To help spread awareness, or just to help out!

-

*This section will be updated every now and then, to include new tags, if needed! ^^

Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, it's time I introduce myself, and put some boundaries down!

You can call me Mod Cryptic, or just Crypt! I'm the owner of this blog, aswell as the creator of WWWOW as a project! You may know me from my main blog, @cryptic-loser , but that's neither here nor there-

As for my boundaries when it comes to this blog, they're pretty simple!

-

1. Please, do not make any strange, NSFW comments about the characters! Simping is mostly fine [I encourage this, actually!], just please nothing inappropriate.

2. Please do not pester. If your ask hasn't been answered, I probably just haven't gotten to it yet, or don't know how to respond!

3. Please be nice!! If you don't like something about the project, or have something to say about anything, please be civil about it! Remember, if you have nothing nice to say, it's better to say nothing at all.

4. If you are a bigot in any fashion [Homophobic, Transphobic, Xenophobic, Racist, Sexist, Ableist, etc.], please leave. This is not the place for you. If you try to interact, you will be blocked.

5. If you are a pro-shipper/p3d0/m@p/z00phile/etc., again, this is not the place for you. Like with the last point, if you interact, you will be blocked.

6. On a lighter note, if you draw anything, or make anything related to this project, please tag me in it! I love seeing it!! ^^

And with that, this post FINALLY comes to a close.

I hope you guys have a splendid time here, and have fun!!~

Goodbye for now!!~

Boarders/Dividers made by @strangergraphics !!

[gizkasparadise]

What is the worst, most technically inept drama that you secretly love? Tell us of the best badgood drama, the clunkiest dialogue, the most inexplicable casting, the hideously costumed yet most fun dramas, please.

🫥Anonymously yours🫥,

💜Purplehanfu😈💜🍇👾

dear complete stranger (<3),

man i love badgood dramas so much!!! i chose ones that are flatout objectively not good, but i was glued for them all. here's a few that are jumping out

triad princess (taiwan). it ends on a cliffhanger that will never be continued, the relationship building is non-existent, jasper liu basically plays himself yet still acts like he's doing a community service project, but omg it's cute and hit all the right notes for me. fave bonus is that one of the gangster henchmen falls in love with the FL's best friend, a shy boy who works at a mart and makes youtube covers

hold on, my lady (chinese). a bandit is offered a choice when she's caught during a heist: be executed or marry this aloof but beautiful but delicate son of the general. she chooses the latter, and hijinks ensue. made on a budget of pocket lint and just wacky, im going to rewatch this today, actually. fave bonus moment: the FL falls dramatically down and the ML breaks both his arms instantly when he tries to catch her

thumping spike & thumping spike 2 (korean). the two are barely related, but both deal with a competitive men's volleyball team! thumping spike 1 is about a washed up competitive female player going to coach a high school team to glory (just dont...think too critically about the age difference, there) and the second is COLLEGE EDITION with a love quadrangle between two identical twins, one of whom is a cheerleader for the team, the ace volleyball player who's too cool for school, and the WILDCARD volleyball player who gets mad when people call him gorilla. the second one is definitely worse than the first one, but neither are bringing home awards. i still watched them both in one sitting.

my heart twinkle twinkle (korean). this show is actually insane and a parade of toxic that i can never, in good conscience, ever rec to anyone. but gd did i watch the whole fucking thing. look at this fucking poster. this fucking poster looks like it was doused by a fake snow machine.

premise: Noble But Poor family has 3 daughters: the eldest, who is the caretaker; the middle who is Aloof and Ambitious; and the youngest who is A Fucking Menace. they are lead by their single father, who owns a fried chicken store

Rich but Dysfunctional family also has 3 children: the eldest, who is the only son and a fucking piece of work, the middle who is school colleagues with the other family's middle daughter and a hot mess who loves Da Club, and the youngest, who is clingy and gets into a ton of fights with the other family's youngest but is otherwise ok. they run AN EVIL FRIED CHICKEN FRANCHISE that is poisoning people through subpar ingredients!!

there's so much that's so wrong with this, im going to bullet point it from another post i made:

the entire premise is that there’s a fried chicken restaurant rivalry between two families but somehow there’s murder and slush funds and this guy who owns a string of fried chicken franchises named after himself (yeah) has direct access to seoul’s police commissioner at any given moment

one of the main actresses was involved in a scandal a little over halfway through production so they just….vanish her character/entire plotline like it never happened

the main male lead is toxic personified. him and li chengyin from goodbye my princess could co-author a dating strategy/forced-marriage-after-you-kill-your-girlfriend’s-head-of-household book because jesus christ. he literally screams that he hates women and he ends the drama (rightfully!!) in fucking prison

the second female lead disappears/creates a new identity and becomes a chicken chef student of the world. shes later in a love triangle between a single dad chicken shop interior designer and another vanilla guy

that's right, one guy’s job is he’s an architect for chicken restaurant interiors i cant

the main male lead leaves the main female lead’s father to die in a chicken-coop-themed arsony and then cha-cha slides into the son-in-law’s role during the father’s funeral and later MARRIES the female lead

the main male lead tells the female lead’s father’s grave that HE WON AND DAD LOST because the male lead is standing and the father’s in the dirt?!

a friend/almost!love interest of the second female lead dies tragically in a chicken delivery motorcycle chase????

it's the worst drama i've ever seen. i watched all of it.

kakafukaka (japanese)

this one is so gd weird and unappealing it somehow circled back around and became off-puttingly charming to me? so the premise is that there's a 20something year old woman whose life has gone to shit and she ends up in a sharehome with the most sexually dysfunctional bunch of people in the world. one of these is her ex, who tells her that she's the only one he can get a boner with (yeah) and asks her to help him get over his impotence in order to write his novel (yeah). if you read the whole show as kind of an exploration into sex without romance/love, it's as not bad, and there's something weirdly endearing about everyone--i really love the second female lead akari in particular. but it's not a good show, not by a long shot (MDL rating? 6.6), and the ship is dysfunctional at the very best. the ost somehow is great though?

speaking of trash dramas with great OSTs, love in sadness has some of my favorite songs:

okay that's enough for now!!!!