#i thought this was gonna be a short review 😭 why do i keep doing this to myself

[curestardust]

Dust Watched: Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King

Genres: Shounen (VERY), Fantasy (Magic) // 1 movie (2h) // S01 (x)

As I don’t keep up with anime news very much, I’ve lived under the assumption that this movie was a continuation of the main series. It isn’t. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined... Okay, not really, but the first 5-10 minutes of this movie gave me whiplash.

✧  story  ✧

Now I’m not sure if this is considered canon as a freshly minted booklet/manga was made alongside the movie, explaining the plot and characters. The story takes place after the (VERY LONG) Elf Arc but before the Spade Kingdom Arc. Now, considering that the whole lead-up to the latter is the Magic Knights training to become stronger because they are too weak to take on the Dark Triad, I’m going to file this away as an AU because the cast is way too OP in this movie.

This movie is the most Shounen thing I’ve seen in ages. It’s literally 2 hours of non-stop battle sequences with barely any downtime and... it’s great! If you like that thing (and if you’re a Shounen fan then you most likely do). It’s basically an arc without the filler. 

The plot itself is paper thin on the surface. The former Wizard King, Conrad, breaks Julius’ seal that was keeping him imprisoned. Then using the Sword of the Wizard King, Elsdocia, he revives 3 former Wizard Kings who held very similiar ideals to him: in order for an equal society to be born the current one needed to be completely destroyed because it was rotten to its core. I’ll further go into these characters in the next section but yeah, that’s about it. Four incredibly powerful Wizards are trying to destroy the Clover Kingdom and our main characters try to do everything in their power to stop them.

Also, the fight choreography! Probably the best parts of the original season were the fights against the powerful villains, however those fights often only included 3 or max 4 characters using their magic together. In this movie, the scale is MUCH bigger. It was a lot of fun!

✧  characters  ✧

A few mentions on the already existing cast: Asta and Yuno probably interacted more in this movie than in the last 50 episodes of the original season, the side characters didn’t get much screentime but the ones they did were used very well and highlighted the most important part of their personalities and/or skills.

An absolute highlight of the movie was definitely the treatment of the female characters. Probably some of the best I’ve seen from any Shounen in recent memory (this includes the original season!). Noelle finally wasn’t used for fanservice nor was her entire arc framed around Asta. I do think her reaction to what happens to her was pretty mid but the character focus was like a revolving door so nobody really got any meaningful focus (besides Asta) so that’s more of an overall complaint I have not specific to Noelle. Nero’s new "job” was great, that science lady who showed up for like 5 minutes was great, and the obvious GOAT that cannot go unmentioned, Mereoleona, was insaneeee here. I cannot put into words how much I loved her chemistry with a certain other female character.

But that directly leads me into probably my biggest complaint with the movie, the villains. The way the 4 of them want to go about creating their equal society is portrayed as crazy, and while it’s definitely extreme, everything they say is true! In fact it’s SO true that their argument, the fact that the Wizard Kings have no power and that basically nothing has changed with the class divide and the treatment of people with weak magic powers through GENERATIONS was one of the thing I complained about in my review of the original season!

And that’s why I’m deeply disappointed that their backstories were not shown or explained *in the movie*. That booklet/manga they gave out with the release of the movie? It’s in THERE. But that makes absolutely no difference to me, and most people who’ll only watch this movie who will not understand where the villains are coming from. Because it’s such a great exploration of the world itself and proper worldbuilding has always been a weak point of Black Clover. I do understand that the flow of the movie might’ve been broken if we had flashbacks but then do what every Shounen does: make the characters drop exposition in the middle of combat. The things they say gives us a glimpse into their personalities but not where they’re coming from that they’d literally agree to come back from the dead to carry out this plan.

Of course, with the lack of any insight into their pasts, who they were teamed up against didn’t really matter but as I read their backstories on the wiki, I thought the final team ups could’ve also been tweaked so they were essentially fighting their “past selves” . I won’t go into detail about their backstories, I linked the wiki if you want to read it but I would’ve went with Princia vs Noelle, Edward vs Yuno, and Jester vs... I dunno. But he is perfectly gremlin shaped and loved him for that. Actually, by the end of the movie I grew to like all of them. But, as I keep repeating, putting more of their backstories into the movie itself would’ve made them even better.

✧  art  ✧

I was initially really scared because the movie starts off with some mad ugly CGI establishing shots but thankfully that was pretty much the only time they stuck out like a sore thumb (not a good first impression though!). For the rest of the movie, there’s so many angle changes that the CGI wasn’t noticable anymore. Princia’s soldiers were probably the weakest part of the whole movie visually but everything else around it was so high quality that I’ll give that a pass.

The animation in this movie absolutely blew me away. Especially with the length! 2 hours long and not a single drop in quality??? It was insane, BIIIIG props to the animation and art department, for real.

This movie also fixes what I mainly complained about with the original season which was that the colours were very washed out making the battles much less exciting to look at. Not here, though! A beautiful and, most importantly, vibrant colour pallette makes the fight scenes POP like they should’ve in the original.

✧  sound ✧

Probably the only part of the movie I found quite disappointing. Most of the OST felt like some Disney knock-off ‘badass fight music’ and whenever something good came on I realized that they were just the OP’s from the original season.

But holy hell, did the VA’s put on a PERFORMANCE. They were fantastic, and especially seeing how much Asta’s VA improved was a treat.

✧  overview ✧

I took off a point for the lackluster villain backstories and honestly, as much as I like bombastic Shounen fight scenes, there was so little breathing room in this movie that I kind of zoned out a few times. 

My Rating: 8/10

[gunsatthaphan]

GMMTV 2024 part 1 - review

another year, another lineup, another post that no one asked for dhkgdf

But here are my thoughts on the announced shows from today (in order of announcement, BLs are marked with a 🏳️‍🌈, personal favorites are marked with a 🌟):

My Precious The Series: This project has been lingering around for 4 years now since it was announced and I'm tired lmao why are they making this into a series now??? I have many questions. I never had any desire to watch the movie, it seems like a generic coming of age drama oozing with unnecessary nostalgia so it's a pass for me. .

Ploy's Yearbook (🌟): I like this one!!!! It's giving I'm Tee Me Too but with a female ensemble cast, all of which are fantastic and also the rest of the cast is very promising and we're in for a lot of new ships - I was hoping Earth and the other 30yr olds would finally be free of the blue shorts but maybe this the last one 🤡 but anyway yes I will definitely be tuning into that one 👍🏻 .

We Are (🏳️‍🌈): I'm just gonna go ahead and assume this is the WabiSabi show because it looks terrible. Like how lazy do you have to be to just throw a bunch of BL side- and 1 mainstream couple into the same show with the most basic plot you can think of like what a joke?? WinnySatang are another side couple in this so either they're getting their actual debut show in part 2 or this has all been a scam lol. I expected a lot more, same goes for AouBoom and MarcPawin, who I was hoping would maybe get a comeback show. Also PondPhuwin going from NLMG to this is.... a choice. Don't wanna judge too fast but the trailer made it seem like no effort went into this at all. Hoping for a better end result. .

The Trainee (🏳️‍🌈): Oh look!!! It's OffGun show number 6 lmao rip. I'm not gonna comment on this matter again, I guess they'll just be around forever and that's that lmao. But anyway I'm a little confused by this show, the premise seems fun but?? I have questions lol. I'm excited to see View and Piploy though and I'll just keep an open mind. .

Only Boo (🏳️‍🌈): How did we go from Only Friends to Only Boo lmao what a downgrade. I wanted an all-newbie BL and I'm excited to finally see some new faces but I guess I fooled myself into anticipating a setting that's not highschool lmao. This is another show that I'm clearly too old for but it's also the MSP of 2024 and that ended up being nicer than expected so maybe this will be the same. We shall see. .

Pluto (🏳️‍🌈 🌟): I'm 😭😭😭 This was such a huge surprise I'm still shook lmao. Namtan and Film is not only a couple I never expected in 432 years lmao but also a very strong combination in terms of acting and I'm SO into it. They're revisiting a plot about a disability which is still something I'm dreading about Last Twilight so I guess it comes down to the director again. Let's hope they do it justice. Also the twin story could be tricky, I'm getting some Not Me vibes plot-wise but regardless the trailer looks super interesting to me, also Ciize and Kapook?? YES please. I'm so hyped for this!!!! 🥺 .

On Sale (🌟): Ghostbusters but make it TayNew? I love it lol this looks so fun, I'm very intrigued. I wasn't a huge fan of New before but he climbed up the ladder with The Warp Effect real fast because he undeniably excels at playing awkward goofy characters and this looks like another chance for him to showcase that lol. Him and Tay have always worked better as a comedic duo for me so I'm actually excited that this will be more of a bromance situation lol. Also Mook and Jan are excellent additions so I will be watching this for sure!! .

Ossan's Love Thailand (🏳️‍🌈, remake): I have very mixed feelings about this, I have not seen the original show but from what I've gathered, this does not seem fitting for EarthMix, also is it really necessary to remake another Japanese BL? But this is coming from someone who's not exactly a JBL connoisseur so I guess I'm biased. It seems that after MLC they became enthusiastic about the idea of casting EM in more mature roles which I endorse very much but aren't the people in the OG literally 40 💀 idk I'm curious to see what they make of it and also if we will ever get to see a trailer because we all know how that went with Cherry Magic lol. oh well. .

My Golden Blood (🏳️‍🌈🌟): Well well well. what do we have here. This is for sure the biggest surprise since Be My Favorite lmao I can't believe Gawin is bringing yet another retired BL actor back from the dead and this time it's supernatural kjdhgd. The vampire genre is something I never thought GMMTV would take on but like?? I'm excited?? I'm so happy to see my boy Gawin in another main role and Joss is such an interesting partner but he fits the genre very well imo lol. Also Neo and Mond?? I'm so ready. Hoping for a release around Halloween next year for obvious reasons lol ✌🏻 .

Kidnap (?): Another show another confusion lmao this looks like Double Savage 2.0 to me, Ohm is caught in another mafia situation but this time not with his brother but with someone who's either a bro or a 💖 bro 💖 lmao but this smells like bromance to me. Ohm would never. And besides that I'm not really intrigued. next. .

Summer Night: This is kinda strange because everything about this seems like a BL but... it's not? the first 30 seconds had me convinced PhuwinDunk were gonna be the new thing on the block lmao but yeah apparently not. If I squint my eyes I would think this is Hidden Agenda 2 but with more girls lol and tbh I expected another JD series but regardless the plot seems a bit generic to me so I'm on the fence about it for now. .

Wandee Goodday (🏳️‍🌈): This looks like the Walmart version of Only Friends tbh but guess what I'm on board lmao. It's AllThis Entertainment's new project which means no Eclipse Season 2 (thank god). Great and Inn are a pair I did not see coming and tbh I did not expect Great to even take on a BL role to begin with but I'm intrigued! The director has been moving on a vast spectrum of different genres lately and this is another one that's completely different from their previous works. But I'm excited. It looks kinky and violent. perfect. .

Highschool Frenemy: All I'm seeing is people beating each other up and calling each other friends afterwards so yeah. not my thing. next. .

My Love Mix-Up (🏳️‍🌈, remake): I'm not a huge fan of this, not just because I didn't like the original but because I was hoping to see GemFourth in a different setting. I'm confident they can do it justice though and deliver a good outcome, especially regarding the comedy, but other than that this isn't going on my watchlist for now. .

conclusion: this was a wild rollercoaster lol, every trailer was a stressful game of Het, Gay or Bromance lmao - The majority of this lineup was not to my liking but then again I appreciated the variety because from puppy love highschool romance to gay vampires is a spectrum you really can't complain about lmao. My 2 highlights for now are Pluto and My Golden Blood simply because they're both a massive surprise that they kept very well hidden lol, I'm also intrigued by Wandee Goodday and Ploy's Yearbook because those have great ensemble casts.

One thing I'm missing from the BL lineup though is a genuine romance, something that's deep and genuine and more mature. What they announced seems fun but for the most part either silly or drowned out by 32 couples at the same time lol. so I really hope we will get something a little more serious that also talks about lgbt issues in part 2; Something like Be My Favorite would be nice, maybe minus the supernatural element.

I did not expect them to announce 15 series already, considering this is only part 1 so who knows what part 2 will bring. I'm expecting FK to make an appearance as well as PerthChimon since they are the only 2 couples that have not shown up, also possibly JoongDunk because I can't imagine they would separate them just yet. Looking forward to December! ✌🏻

Don't hesitate to drop your thoughts below! 🧡

xxx

[mocacheezy]

Moca watches: Fox's Peter Pan & The Pirates, The plucking of Short Tom

HOLD ON THERE IS A SKELETON CHAINED UP IN THE TITLE SCREEN??? WHAT POOR SUCKER DIED IN CHAINS??

I am gonna have to relisten to this first part so many times, I can understand jack shit. Also, I need to review the parrot behaviour, because Hook just taking that bite and reassuring Tom no harm will come to him from the dummy is... Kind of sweet really, and I wonder if this is just a common thing that happens when Tom is nervous. That glove probably comes in real handy.

Okay, I might've been right about Hooks height when I tried to figure it out now that Short Tom is actually on his shoulder.

Oof, how much did the animation budget suffer???

BILLY JUKES MY BOY 😭😭😭😭😭 YOU WERE DOING SO WELL

Oh shit this quality is so bad it reminds me of watching the Popeye cartoons on VHS tapes that skipped every once in a while. This is old school Tom and Jerry animation quality.

Short Tom absolutely HATES Smee. Which, given the amount of stress he causes each time he enters the captain's cabin makes perfect sense.

Also Smee WHY AREYOU HOLDING HIM LIKE THIS, YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON KEEPING HIM SAFE!!!

The fact Long Tom would be the reason why Short Tom has perished would be kind of hilarious actually.

YOOOO SMEE!

YOOOOOO WHAT HAPPENED TO MISTER BUMBLING USELESS HEADACHE??? A GENUINE THREAT???? A YELLING, COMMANDING BEHAVIOUR?!?!!!!

I gotta say, THIS makes him being a bosun more understandable. Hell, he pulled his sword ON BILLY!!! HE ACTUALLY PULLED OUT HIS SWORD ON A CREW MEMBER LIKE WHAT!!!

Short Tom flying off spells dissaster, but I am really curious about how Smee will handle this.

The quality is so bad. It's so very bad.

BILLY BECAME THE SMEE OF THIS EPISODE😭 MY BOY DOES NOT DESERVE THIS DROP IN IQ!

"My darling Polly." Hook really loves his birdie.

And now poor Tom got a dunk in the water too.

"Why aren't you on the Jolly Roger?" *both nearly get obliterated by a canon ball*

Also, since WHEN IS JUKES SO BAD AT AIMING? SINCE WHEN??? THIS IS SLANDER, THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS, MY BOY DOES NOT AIM LIKE SHIT!

Also both Tink and Short Tom having enough of their respective idiots is great. Companions need some break from it all too.

I never thought hearing a grown ass mountain of a man searching for his bird by going "Who's a pretty boy?" would fill me with so much sympathy and yet. HE REALLY HAS EVEN MORE NICKNAMES FOR HIM, JUST SHOOT ME ALREADY WHY DON'T YOU😭😭😭

Here's his one stress managing relief, and his little guy is MISSING. My cat regularly pulls little hide and seek disappearing acts on me and my heart nearly drops EACH TIME SHE ACTUALLY GETS OUT AND THERE IS A CHANCE SHE MIGHT BE HURT.

When I said "if he actually completely loses it in the next episode I would expect nothing else" I did not mean for that reason to be HIS BELOVED PET MISSING!!!! THAT! IS NOT! WHAT I IMAGINED AT ALL!!!

Mullins being good at mimicking a parrot to the point where Hook can't tell the difference, now gave me a headcanon that he is good at mimmicking all sorts of noises and makes good use of it when needed. Also my man can BOOK IT!

I like the fact that Hook's temper and frustrations don't dissappear when Short Tom is acting up. And clearly this parrot is also a little shit since Hook does start cussing at him to stop with this behaviour.

Parrots are a whole other intelligence level, but the amount of times I can get my cat to get from somewhere where she really shouldn't be by being calm or cooing, has about the same amount of success rate when I just yell for her to get her furry behind back indoors. Her protests over it are noted, but sometimes you gotta be firm if catching them isn't possible. And you'd be surprised how well future calmer calls go too. No rushing or fear, just "Oh ALRIGHT, I'll do what you said.". I love my little pissbaby, but her falling off a roof and nearly landing on rusty metal had been enough emotional distress for my foreseeable future.

Back to the episode at hand though, BILLY! DID MULLINS TEACH YOU? OR DO YOU GUYS JUST KNOW HOW THAT BIRD SQWAKS?

Daaaawwww they're playing🥰🥰🥰

Tinkerbell, the air traffic rule enforcer.

SHORT TOM SITS ON MICHAEL'S HAND, THAT IS SO CUTE 🥹 (even though there is no way that would be possible with the weight of a grown macaw.

Okay Smee, I congratulate you on dusting off those braincells and becoming more commanding, BUT THE OBJECTIVE HERE IS! TO GET! THE PARROT!

Where's a burlap sack when you need it? They could try to catch Short Tom by using that.

Again. A perfect example of an exasperated pet owner having ENOUGH of their pet's antics.

Mullins... Your immitation is superb, but you cannot expect your captain to fall for you PRETENDING TO BE A PARROT

I honestly wonder WHY Short Tom couldn't just stay inside the Captain's cabin? What on earth was happening in there that required Smee of all people to look after him? Being stirr crazy and needing to be outside could wait for the duration of Jukes' training. So unless there was some major work/potential hazard happening in there, I think Hook might've just went a bit crazy, and was not thinking straight.

I understood none of that Starkey. But good to know one of them is a carpenter.

This animation is so damn shitty.

"Bosun Smee, prima ballerina!" ... I have no comment. This whole episode better be a fever dream or something.

I was expecting Michael to end up resting on the crocodile, but alright, Smee will do

"He has my word on it. As a gentleman! *eyeball twinkle*"

Listen. Short Tom is right there. Peter had NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. So my only conclusion is that Short Tom feels the captain needs to get off the ship, or that this bird LIVES for the drama.

Okay so there IS ticking, but only when the croc is near? Damn, really makes this poor man count his last seconds among the living huh?

Also THE CREW COULD AT LEAST SCREAM CROCODILE OR SOMETHING, NOT JUST FUCKING PUSH THE MAN SO HE FALLS TO THE GROUND.

Also, I love that Peter actually tries to be nice to Short Tom and only grabs him like that when he isn't cooperating. Even he knows there's no need to hurt a pet, even if said pet belongs to his nemesis.

"My word as a gentleman is insignificant when compared to my OATH as a pirate!" ... Hook. Honey, baby, sweetie pie, you do realize Pan could just... Not give you Short Tom if you don't respect the deal?

"Never think, (insult), it simply isn't your forte."

Oh good, atleast Tink has a gag so she won't immediatelly tell Peter what Hook said.

HE LOVES HIS LIL BIRDIE SO MUCHHHHH🥹😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️

Fucking, how dare he look like that. "Oh. Did I promise? 😲" This animation is shit, but this expression alone redeems the whole episode up to this point. He looks just like a lil' guy. Just a silly lil guy.

"Ah, dear boiiii. But then, I was a gentleman. Now, I am a pirate." *pounding my fist on the table* you are using loopholes with that voice and it is extremely attractive you fucker

Peter's impression of Hook will never not surprise me.

This is the second time Hook sliced off the heel from Peter's shoes. This boy is going to need a whole wardrobe of shoes at this rate if he doesn't have someone to fix it.

... I hope this was the only episode with this low level of quality, and I choose to believe the in-universe reason for it, is that it was another overblown story told by Peter.

Because I REFUSE TO BELIEVE MY BOY JUKES WOULD SHOOT THIS BADLY!!!!!

[softmichii]

hey everyone

im gonna use tumblr for the first time in literal years to talk about the books ill be reading / have been reading and keep track of them. ive always read books when i would be in a dark place in my life but recently ive been reading for fun! i honestly prefer the reading with a healthy mindset rather than a toxic one. but anyways i wanna talk about this book called

normal people

rating: 4/5 stars

my thoughts: my cousin told me a month ago or so that she would reccomend me this book. i asked her why and she told me it was quite a fun read. it took me a while to get to it but once i did get to read it i was shocked to have finished it in such a short amount of time

the book is a story about the love between marianne and connell. at first i was quite shocked by their sudden friends with benefits type of deal but then they began to learn from each other and boy do these people have ISSUES 😭

throughout the story i would really emphasize with the characters and get angry at the scenarios they would be in. i was feeling for these characters in a way i haven’t felt in a long while. i was enjoying my time with the plot but there’s a personal critique i have of it.

the way these two don’t communicate bothers me to my coreeee. i think the author intended to do this and boy did it work because i would get so frustrated when they would separate over things that could have been solved if you just TALKED.

sometimes i just wanted to lock those two up and tell them to speak. but i understand why that couldn’t be. these two were suffering with changes from high school to college , being “together” and growing up somewhere they weren’t familiar with. plus their personal lives were sort of messed up in one way or another.

overall, i enjoyed the book. i thought it was a good read to have and it started my love for book reading again. i won’t forget about it

ps: sorry for my crappy “review” this is mostly for me. imma post another one after this and begin my journey of reading for leisure again 🤍