#i’m so so disappointed with the soundtrack for season 4 because they CLEARLY know how to compose a soundtrack

[laurrelise]

this song + heat of the moment (also by noel gallagher’s high flying birds) (which was in s1e5 of tua) are making my appreciation for this band i’ve never heard before skyrocket

if tua s4 did anything, i guess i can thank them for that (but also -5000 points for everything else that s4 was)

This stupid fucking song keeps making me CRY OH MY GODDDD 😭 it’s genuinely so beautiful and the fact that it played in the last season messes me up so bad

just the mere thought of this song popping up in my head just makes me cry

[animebw]

Seasonal Reflection: Spring 2023 Anime

Now that’s more fucking like it. I was feeling pretty down on anime after a disappointing winter season, but spring has come in like a freight train to remind us why this medium is so damn important (just in time for summer to let us down again because my god this new crop of shows is looking thiiiiiiiiiiin). Making the choice not to stick with shows I wasn’t enjoying just for the sake of completion was clearly the right call, because not only did that leave me with fewer bad shows sucking my my free time and motivation, it meant I was able to much more happily appreciate the bevy of excellent offerings that Spring 2023 had to offer. From an absolute top-tier run of rom-coms to a slew of entrancing fantasy series, I was never at a loss for things to enjoy. I’ve already shared by thoughts on Vinland Saga’s flawed but excellent second season (8/10) and the abysmal, overrated trash heap that was Oshi no Ko (3/10), as well as quick thoughts on all the series I ended up dropping. But if you want to know my thoughts on the other shows I watched to completion? Then read on, and see which spring offerings are worth checking out!

Uma Musume To the Top: 4/10

One of these days, I’ll be able to better articulate why this franchise leaves me so cold. What is it about Uma Musume that made fans go gaga for historical racehorses anthropomorphized as cute anime idol horsegirls that I’m not getting? Cause from where I’m sitting, the whole thing is just a bloated, overwrought exercise in hacky melodrama and shrink-wrapped moeblob pandering with the occasional actually pretty decent sports anime arc thrown in there. The whole thing just feels so cynical and calculating, from its lazily slapped-together premise that feels like three random popular anime genres shoved in a blender with no rhyme or reason to the obnoxious soap-opera histrionics that define its attempts at tugging your heartstrings. And while this 4-episode OVA certainly has the best, most exhilaration animation of the bunch- seriously- it is stunning how good the racing looks- it also makes the unforgivable mistake of having zero Gold Ship content. They got rid of the funniest character in the show and I will never forgive them for it.

Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible: 4.5/10

I think 2023 is the year that something officially snapped in me. I have just entirely lost patience with middling rom-coms that exist for no other reason than to sell the fantasy of a perfect manic pixie dream girl who’ll love your totally bland forgettable self. I mean, not like I had much patience for them to begin with in the first place, but watching Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible felt like staring the futility of mindless wish fulfillment itself in the face. Does it have some good jokes? Yeah. Is the animation pleasing enough? Sure. But between the embarrassingly forced whimsy in the soundtrack and the treacly sweet presentation that tarts up this bargain-bin Takagi-san like some sweeping, romantic ideal, the inherent emptiness at the heart of the fantasy it’s selling just becomes impossible to ignore. Boys, I beg you: get higher standards for yourself and the shows you watch. You will not cure your loneliness by losing yourself in the illusion of a perfectly sweet, doting girlfriend who’ll never ask you to outgrow the things you hate about yourself. You deserve better than settling for endless self-indulgence at the hands of an industry that doesn’t believe you’re capable of more than that. Or just, you know, at least only watch anime of this kind that actually are good, compelling stories in their own right with more to say than “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if Kana Hanazawa was the only person in the whole world who I mattered to?” There’s even one of those later in this list! You don’t have to settle for mediocrity! Seriously!

My Home Hero: 4.5/10

I feel bad for this show, because it’s one of those cases where it’s obvious you’re getting a vastly inferior version of the story. The concept of a cat-and-mouse thriller where the protagonists are just a normal family of everyday middle-class busybodies trying to outwit a yakuza conspiracy after killing one of their goons is a pretty unique one, and the writing goes a long way to sell out on the fact that these are just an ordinary middle-aged couple thrust into a hectic situation and doing their best with the limited skills at their disposal. Even if the writing can be overly convenient at times with how much they’re able to plan ahead, there’s some good stuff here. Unfortunately, it was adapted to anime by Tezuko Productions, one of the most bafflingly incompetent studios to still get reliable work. So the animation falls apart any time it has to depict anything more complex than characters talking and walking, the art direction is uniformly ugly and stilted, and the horrendously conceived score tries so hard to sound epic and edgy that it turns every potentially gut-wrenching moment into a laughingstock of poorly executed melodrama. If you’ve got any interest in this story at all, just go straight for the manga and forget this turd exists.

Yuri is My Job: 5.5/10

Something to know about me: I hate cringe. And if there’s one type of cringe I can’t stand above all others, it’s watching performers mess up on stage and ruin the show for the audience. As a former theater kid, nothing makes we want to curl up in a ball and die more than a stage play going off the rails and the actors being left lost and adrift while the audience stares and murmurs in worry. I say all this to tell you that I watched Yuri is My Job- a show that is primarily focused on watching actors almost fail in live performance over and over again in the messiest. most emotionally charged ways possible- and I almost managed to make myself like it. What can I say, I’m a sucker for subversive yuri deconstructions that explore the liminal space between ambiguous Class S-style stock yuri tropes and real feelings of lesbian love. Especially when they’re willing to let their characters be this messy and difficult. But man, there were times I had to watch this show with my hands over my eyes from sheer concentrated cringe. Do not let the yuri fool you into thinking this is just another soft and sweet gay girl romance, this shit gets rough. But as long as you have a stronger stomach than me for this kind of thing- and if you don’t ask too many questions about what these girls’ lives are like when they’re not play-acting for customers in a yuri schoolgirl cafe because we never fucking leave this location- you might find something really worthwhile here.

Otaku Elf: 5.5/10

Every season, there’s one anime that sneaks under the radar at first but slowly accrues more and more good will over time, establishing itself as an underappreciated gem for anyone smart enough to go looking for it. And this season, that show was Otaku Elf, an inconsistent but enjoyable blend of chill slice-of-life antics- centered on a young shrine maiden looking after the titular shut-in elf who serves as her temple’s local deity- and bite-sized history lessons about the life and culture of people in Japan’s Edo period. It’s got some surprisingly warm and nuanced character writing for its two leads, and their relationship as they push and pull from different perspectives on life leads to a handful of emotional moments I’d genuinely consider magical. Sadly, the further the show strays outside that central relationship, the less interesting it gets, with most of the side characters- the maiden’s perfectly angelic younger sister, other elves enshrined as deities as their caretakers- coming off as half-baked in comparison. It’s a bit of a crap shoot whether any given episode will pluck at your heartstrings or bore you to tears depending on what it chooses to focus on. But when it’s good, it’s really good, and it’s worth a look for anyone who enjoys historical trivia mixed in with their comfort viewing.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride Season 2: 6/10

In retrospect, I’m really glad I went back and re-evaluated my opinion on Magus Bride season 1 before this new entry came out. Not just because it helped me realize how much I’d underappreciated one of the most captivating fantasy anime of the modern era, but because it drives home that this second season’s sluggish pace is, in fact, an issue. Magus Bride has always been a very slow and ruminative series, trickling through moments like streams through a mud-clogged riverbed en route to its big character moments. But even by those generous standards, this has been sloooooooooooow going. Lots of table setting, lots of new characters with new conflicts, lots of buildup for multiple different plotlines that don’t always feel meaningfully connected and will require a damn good payoff to make this slow start worth it. Luckily we’ve got a second cours coming in the fall, so there’s still plenty of time to turn Chise’s experience at magic college into another worthwhile entry in this powerful series. Until then, I’ll hang tight to the things this series still does well- its primordial depiction of magic, a wonderful soundtrack, the complexities of Chise and Elias’ relationship, Chise’s continued journey toward understanding and cultivating her self-worth- in hopes the end result will be just as magical as what came before.

Birdie Wing Season 2: 6/10

Is there a point where a series who’s primary appeal is how brazenly over-the-top it goes starts to run out of steam? Believe it or not, being stupid and bonkers is an art unto itself, and it takes real talent to sustain. For every Akiba Maid War that constantly ups the ante until it blows its stack with an absolute barn-burner finale, there are countless Highschool of the Deads that slowly dribble away their incredible manic energy over time, leaving nothing behind but the same tired anime cliches as always. And as much as I enjoyed seeing the rollicking madness of Birdie Wing come to close, I can’t deny that I felt my interest starting to slip as this second and final season went on. It just doesn’t do enough to surpass the bar it set with the insane high-stakes golf mafia death matches in the first season. Which I acknowledge is a high bar to clear, but for all the hilariously overdramatic soap opera twists and sudden power-ups that dominate the matches in this season, it never quite manages to measure up to that wonderful madcap energy that made its first season such a lightning-bolt success. Or, I dunno, maybe they shouldn’t have split up the main goddamn couple for basically the entire season. Especially when the same studio was already doing another, much better handled lesbian separation arc over in G-Witch. Seriously, Sunrise, anything you want to get off your chest? I feel like you might have some issues.

Ranking of Kings: Treasure Chest of Courage: 7.5/10

It feels like we’re heading into a very bizarre trend in side story “season 2″s lately. First Ranking of Kings, Horimiya next season, and the Quintessential Quintuplets somewhere down the line, so many shows are spending entire seasons on side content going through stuff from the source material they either skipped over or rushed through. And I can’t help but worry that sets a bad precedent for anime adaptations; we seriously do not need to legitimize shows hacking their source material to pieces for the sake of modern broadcast standards any more than they already are. On the other hand, though... man, it’s hard to complain when the end result does such a great job living up to its source. The Treasure Chest of Courage is every bit as whimsical, emotional, and gorgeously animated as the first season of Ranking of Kings, all the same heart and imagination in bite-sized pieces exploring the finer details in ways that make you appreciate the base story even more. It even fixes a few of my big issues with the main show’s back half and sets things up for an apparent proper season 2 sometime in the future! We’ll see if Horimiya and Quints can keep up those high standards, but for now, this is an exceptional interquel that’s bound to make you fall in love with one of anime’s best modern fantasy yarns all over again.

The Dangers in My Heart: 7.5/10

If you started watching The Dangers in My Heart only to drop it after the very first scene, I can’t blame you. The prospect of putting up with a school-shooter level misanthropic loner of a protagonist gleefully fantasizing about brutalizing his crush was almost enough to make me nope out right away. But thank god I kept watching, because once you get past that horrifically unrepresentative opening scene, it quickly becomes clear that The Dangers in My Heart is actually a genuinely wonderful little rom-com that fully understands just how much edgelord middle school nonsense is just insecure kids trying to figure out their place in the world. So few rom-coms like this really get the precise blend of hormones, awkwardness, insecurity, and cringe that defines so many middle school foibles, let alone one that understands the interiority of its female characters well enough to make them feel more fleshed out than trophy wives. But this show nails that early adolescent hellscape without ever coming off exploitative of it (well, almost; there are some obnoxious fanservice moments that really didn’t need to exist, thankfully few and far between). And really, who else but the director of the similarly true-to-life Teasing Master Takagi-san could pull that off so well? Just make it through that opening scene and you’ll very quickly find yourself falling for these idiots just like I did.

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999: 8/10

God, it’s so fucking good to have shoujo rom-coms again. We went through such a drought period where the genre basically faded into nonexistence save for the Fruits Basket remake, but it feels like they’re finally coming back into fashion. And what better way to remind the world how marvelous the world of shoujo romance can be than another collaboration between the studio and director that graced us with the masterpiece My Love Story back in 2015... with another show called My Love Story? You couldn’t ask for a more surefire winning formula, and sure enough My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999 is a delight from start to finish. It’s nominally about failgirl extraordinaire Akane meeting the socially awkward and emotionally distant hot boy Yamada through the RPG they play together, but the game stuff is actually a pretty small part of it. At heart, this show is about the messiness of young adulthood, and the ways people fumble through the highs and lows of coming of age as they develop into fully concrete people. And it captures that chaos with all the sharp, creative direction, thoughtful character writing, and feel-good romantic fireworks you should expect from this creative team. It’s a gut-busting, feel-good, achingly sincere gem of a show, and I recommend it to everyone in need of a little more whimsy in your life.

Skip and Loafer: 8.5/10

It’s absolutely insane to me that the Skip and Loafer manga is published in the same seinen magazine as Vinland Saga, because this is one of the most authentically shoujo teen coming-of-age delights we’ve had in a long time. Small-town girl Mitsumi moves to the big city to excel at a prestigious high school and make her dreams of rebuilding her hometown come true, only to have her perfect plans derailed by the chaos of growing up, from friends to crushes to high school curveballs. It’s so rare for a story to capture adolescence this authentically, the moments both big and small that define our paths toward maturity as we begin to figure out who we want to be. Watching Skip and Loafer made me reflect on my own high school experiences, good and bad alike, and be grateful for all the steps I took that brought me to where I am today. And any show that can get me so introspective about myself is a show worth celebrating. Plus it’s got the legendary Tomoyo Kurosawa in the leading role, and it’s got a prominent adult trans side character (Nao-chan is perfect and needs more screentime in season 2 or I riot), and the OP makes my cheeks hurt from smiling too hard... yeah, PA works has once again knocked it out of the park. Somebody stop them, they’re growing too powerful!

Heavenly Delusion: 8.5/10

To summarize Heavenly Delusion in a single sentence is, I’m afraid, impossible. I could say it’s a post-apocalyptic mystery thriller that feels like the love child of Shinsekai Yori and The Promised Neverland, but that doesn’t quite do it justice. I could say it’s a dizzying double-track story that does a better job than pretty much any other series as letting you pick up clues on your own, but that’s doesn’t tell you enough either. I could say it’s host to one of the most staggering, masterpiece anime productions ever put to television with no shortage of the greatest singular episodes and individual cuts I’ve ever seen, but even that falls short. I could even say it’s a deeply flawed, intensely problematic series that’s trying to unpack so many different ideas about gender and sexuality with no guardrails to keep it from hurtling off track, but even that leaves out so much. Ultimately, though, the only way I can describe Heavenly Delusion is that it is Heavenly Fucking Delusion, and it’s one of the single most mesmerizing anime I’ve ever had the pleasure to watch. It’s a tour-de-force capital-E Event the likes of which we so rarely get nowadays, and if you think you can stomach the dark places it goes in its exploration of humanity’s corrosion and reconstruction, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to give it a watch. Just be aware there’s a content warning for an incredibly upsetting scene of sexual assault near the end, and I mean that seriously. I like to think I’m pretty desensitized and even I felt kind of sick and unclean by the time that scene was over. Watch at your own discretion.

Insomniacs After School: 8.5/10

So fun fact: this is the rare series where I’ve actually read the manga before the anime was even announced! One of my Discord friends introduced me to Insomniacs After School, and despite my normal aversion to manga, I fell helplessly, recklessly head over heels in love with it. And if this adaptation made you feel any inch of that magic, then you owe it to yourself to check out the manga right away. Not just because there’s more story to cover beyond the anime’s admittedly pretty perfect stopping point, but because Lidenfilms’ workmanlike production is only able to capture, like 70% of what makes this series so special. And this stirring tale of two insomniacs learning to navigate the trauma of their sleepless nights together deserves to be experienced at its full, unblemished power. It’s an absolutely wonderful slow-burn romance that captures the nuances of teenage friend groups and coming of age like so few series I’ve consumed, and its portrayal of Nakami and Magari’s growing companionship under the night sky is sure to melt your heart into a sugary-sweet puddle. It’ll make you learn for your lost youth more palpably than any other show you’re likely to watch this year. And even in a season already jammed to the gills with exemplary rom-coms that really, truly get what it means to be a teenager or young adult, this slightly subpar take on the material still stands head and shoulders above them all.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch from Mercury Season 2: 9/10

Be honest: did any other show even have a shot? For all the wonderfully realistic rom-coms and ambitious seinen mindfucks this season gave us, there was only ever one true contender to the throne. And I’m thrilled to say that after a fantastic first season putting all the pieces in perfect order, Gundam: Witch From Mercury stuck the landing with a riveting second season that smashed the game board and  sent everything spiraling out of control in the best way possible. It’s like Ichiro Ookuchi took all the right lessons from his work on Code Geass- a seamless blend of high school melodrama and gut-wrenching mecha warfare, dizzying plotting that leaves you gasping for breath at the end of every episode, a sheer unrivaled confidence in the chaos of love and war- and refined them to a razor’s edge, delivering a never-ending roller coaster of jaw-dropping battles, explosive emotional payoffs, stunning twists that all make sense in retrospect, tears, laughter, hard choices, flawed characters overcoming their weaknesses, and a true coronation of Suletta and Miroine as one of the all-time great anime yuri couples. At times you can’t help but wish for more time to explore the many worldbuilding details and side characters that fall by the wayside as the chaos takes hold; two cours just isn’t enough to do justice to all the complex, interconnecting ideas this series is juggling. But the fact it works as well as it does, and bring it all home for such a satisfying finale, is proof of just how damn miraculous this series has been from start to finish. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect introduction to this storied franchise, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what this creative team will come up with next. And if you somehow haven’t gotten around to watching it yet? Fix that as soon as possible. You won’t regret it for a second.

[floralcavern]

Ranking s1 Hazbin songs

16. Welcome to Heaven - The most bland, basic bubblegum pop. A huge disappointment to Heaven’s intro. I was more or so expecting a song that’s more orchestral and choir-y with sinister undertones. This song is a huge let down. 

15. Whatever it Takes- The more I hear it, the more I hate it. Carmilla’s voice is just not doing it here and clashes with Vaggie’s voice rather than meshing. Even musically wise it’s not very good. 

14. It Starts With Sorry- The actual music is great and Sir Pentious is amazing. It is LEAGUES ahead of Welcome to Heaven, but it’s too cheesy and.. goofy instead of emotional 

13. Out for Love- Carmilla’s voice actress is a great singer, but she’s just not doing it for me 2 out of 3 times :(. Musically wise, it’s great. An absolute bop. But the singing isn’t.. my favorite. And don’t even get me started on the lyrics. It pisses me off that this song is implying that Vaggie has always only been out for vengeance but never truly out for love, despite the fact that that’s her whole thing. Her entire relationship with Charlie is about fighting for love. 

12. The Show Must Go On- It’s sweet to see everyone supporting Charlie and all, but.. eh. The only reason it’s not lower is because of the Vs and Alastor absolutely KILLING their parts. 

11. More Than Anything (Reprise)- Their vocals were phenomenal. They hit those high notes. But it’s too short. 

10. Ready for this- It’s giving revolution, which I love. We’re getting to the really good stuff, so don’t take this being low as it being bad. There’s just some really good shit in this soundtrack. I love Alastor and Rosie’s part and them being so proud of Charlie. 

9. Happy Day In Hell- Charlie’s voice actress was clearly having the time of her life. It’s so fun and broadway. 

8. You Didn’t Know- It starts off eh, but once Lute gets her hardcore solo, things went up. Charlie and Emily singing together was just.. chef’s kiss. 

7. More Than Anything- If we were going off of pure vocals and how good the scene was, this would be too 3, easily. But this is based off my own musical preferences. So while the song is definitely S tier, it’s not something I really listen to just to listen to it. But just because it’s at 7th doesn’t mean it’s mid. Farrrrr from it. 

6. Poison- I really wish I could put this one higher. But it really goes to show how great this soundtrack is! Poison slaps. There’s not much to say about this song that so many people could articulate better than I ever could. 

5. Respectless- Carmilla killed this. The classic and more traditional Spanish guitar contrasted with Velvette’s poppy and newer techno music really shows not only their personalities, but also a more difference in generations and what’s new. It gives huge Six vibes as well. 

4. Hell Is Forever- I’ve listened to this song more than I’m willing to admit. It’s so good and the guitar solo genuinely slaps. Adam is such a little douche, but he’s a fun douche.

3. Stayed Gone- Who let Vox cook?! The beat is so fun and the beginning and end paralleling each other makes me go feral. Vox is such a boy loser, I want to squish his brains out.

2. Loser, Baby- Husk’s voice is so smooth and sultry, I really hope he gets to sing jazz in season 2. But he’s so sweet in this song and the song has such a sweet message in it. The part where he and Angel start singing about an undesirable thing they’ve done “I’ve got no more holes left to deflower.” “I sold my soul to save my power.”, is SO FUCKING GOOD. 

Hell’s Greatest Dad- I’ve lost count on how many times I have listened to this damn song. It is so catchy and has one of, if not the best beat out of all the songs in this soundtrack. Lucifer being the only person who can get under Alastor’s skin is hilarious, I just know Vox is fuming. It just sucks that Mimzy ruined it. But this song is so good that despite that, it still manages to be my number 1. 

[x0401x]

Hey miss wonderful taste in everything, can you recommend us some of your favorite KyoAni productions?

Sure! I love doing recs and I’m literally taking any sort of positive content related to KyoAni lately because we truly need it at the moment. Long post alert, though. Here goes my top 10:

1. Hyouka

This one will probably be my first choice forever. It’s KyoAni’s most brilliant work so far and easily one of the best animes I’ve ever watched, hands down. It’s also their finest novel-to-anime adaptation in my opinion, and one of the very few animation series that actually turned out better than their source material.

The books are extremely interesting, but they’re also bland. The alterations made to the anime added visual value to it in order to make it more alluring and appealing, turning ordinary situations into rather unique and thought-provoking settings, while managing to never deviate from its novel counterpart. The changes on the characters’ designs were also a very good choice in my opinion, as they fit more into the character archetypes and the impressions they give off.

This one is honestly an example for the whole anime industry and a timeless gem. I’m pretty certain that it was one of the studio’s turning points in terms of animation style. Surely will become a classic in the future.

2. Koe no Katachi

KyoAni’s most well-done movie, as far as I can tell. I’m specially fond of the symbolism of every scene and the effort put on the scenery, which gave an effect of depth to the frames. The studio managed to portray the mangaka’s art style while staying true to its own trademark traits as well.

Animation quality and sound design aside, it’s also loyal enough to the manga. There were cuts in order to fit the story into the time limit, but KyoAni made up for the gaps with later released specials. The movie is also considerably less dramatic than the original, yet I’m certain that the alterations in that regard were made so that the transition between the phases of the story wouldn’t feel rushed. Albeit in a much more uplifting way, it nevertheless managed to transmit the characters’ essence and emotions.

What caught my attention the most in this movie was the soundtrack, though. There was a lot of care in its production, and it was clearly made to be gentle and almost imperceptible, with glitch-like repetitions here and there, as if it means to put the viewers in the shoes of the deaf heroine. It certainly did its job well.

3. Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu!

First anime from KyoAni I’ve ever watched, aside from the Inuyasha movies. Easily one of their funniest series, if not the actual funniest. It has a very special place in my heart. I dropped Amagi Brilliant Park on the first episode, but I’d cry internally every time I saw Bonta-kun in it. The nostalgia is strong, kids.

It’s got excellent animation for the year it was made, and I dare say it’s more decently animated than many current animes. The pacing is dynamic and the jokes vary from over-the-top to smart and witty in a smooth way. I also give this one kudos for not relying nearly as much on fanservice as more recent titles.

For the people who didn’t watch the first Full Metal Panic, I suggest doing so before trying this one out. Anyone who enjoys the two should also watch the second season, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, which comes right after Fumoffu and was also animated by KyoAni.

4. Clannad

This one I deem as the best out of KyoAni’s most notorious classics. I also recommend the other titles related to this one, such as Clannad: Another Story.

Much like Hyouka, it’s a masterpiece in every aspect. It has a very non-cliché and unconveninent plot that deals with delicate themes in a sensible way and tears your heart apart at the same time. Frankly exemplary to the drama genre and exceptional as a visual novel adaptation.

5. Free!

The franchise became lackluster after the first director left, but the first two seasons were fun enough in their own right. Unlike most novel-to-anime adaptations, Free! started with original content through creating a future for the main story, which was turned into the not-so-distant past in the anime. This is unusual enough, but it worked out well as the anime maintained itself as loyal as possible to the first book and never went off the rails with the plot. The main characters’ personalities did suffer many alterations, yet it’s obvious that they meant to make the two more charismatic and likeable. As far as fan responses went, it worked.

I find very interesting that the creators were aware the story took itself too seriously at times, and they made this clear by compensating the heavy melancholy with heavy comedy. They also compensated the overdramatic atmosphere of the first season by picking up the pace and getting a little more serious in the second season. Everything was intentional and designed to be a hit amongst women, which I think had served the purpose until the first movie came out.

To be honest, I’m not fond of the exaggerated fanservice, but it gets easy to ignore it after a while if you only pay attention to the storyline. I don’t consider myself a fan of Free!, and I actually took very long to start liking it. I only did get into it at the last scene of episode 8, back when the first season was still airing. It was only by this time that I could see the true value of the series, so I recommend anyone who tries it out to go at least that far with it. I know it might be a lot of work, but in my honest opinion, it’s worth the trouble.

I deem the High Speed! novel awe-inspiring because of its nostalgic tone and the awfully realistic depiction of childhood crises. The most serious situations of it are a little out of reality, but the rest is absurdly relatable in levels that I myself don’t know how to put into words. Yet I also appreciate Free! for its strong tone of encouragement. It feels like the creators are trying to cheer up the viewers.

6. Kyoukai no Kanata

It starts becoming a mess from episode 4 onward, yet the beginning was quite promising. This one relies heavily on fanservice, often makes use of nonsensical tropes for the sake of comedy and sometimes goes overboard with the jokes. However, it doesn’t fail to deliver emotional value and the action is pretty neat. Anyone who hasn’t read the novel will definitely be able to enjoy it as a standalone.

I don’t think I need to mention it, but the animation is stellar. I in particular love the blurry movement effects of when the characters draw their weapons and the geometrical spectrums in the colorful power barriers. I also recommend the OVA, as well as the second movie I’ll be Here, although the latter is 100% original content. It was actually cute and fun to watch. The first movie is merely one huge recap.

7. Hibike! Euphonium

Truly dazzling take on slice-of-life. It’s healing and heartrending at the same time. The way that characters are portrayed allows the viewers to feel their passion and dedication without it occasionally feeling unrealistic. Everyone has their own problems, but none of them are taken out of proportion. Miscommunication happens, just not in a frustrating shoujo manga way.

The soundtrack and scenery are breathtaking, yet the forte of the animation in this one was the huge amount of detail put into the eyes and hair. Everyone’s hairdos are remarkably glossy without ever looking weird, and I especially like how their eyes all glinter in different colors.

The author published another volume of the novel after the anime, saying it had inspired her to write more, and it’s no wonder. I also recommend season two and the OVA. The first two movies are just recaps and the third was to me a disappointment, so I leave those to people’s own discretion.

8. Tamako Market

Rather odd but nice story. It blends iyashikei elements with a peculiar plot and actually manages to do that in a cute way. All of the characters are likeable and the visuals do a good job in transmitting what they have to transmit in a very relaxing manner.

This show caught me off-guard by how unproblematic it was. It has trans, gay and dark-skinned characters, but none of them is ever used for fanservice or jokes and their respective circumstances are portrayed as 100% normal, which is sadly still rare in anime even nowadays. The romance is pretty not-dramatic and filled to the brim with fluff, and I very much like that the main guy treats his female love rival as a serious threat.

I recommend the specials and the movie as well. Especially the movie, which is basically the same as direct sugar injestion and gave me diabetes.

9. Munto

Also has a special place in my heart. Cheesy but good, actually. I’d be lying if I said there aren’t some surprises in it, though, but I’ll refrain from giving too much info on the story itself.

It was firstly an OVA, but then got adapted into three movies. The animation was done finely enough, but there’s a drastic change in style from the first to the second half, though I myself didn’t really mind it. The characters are all well-stablished and the plot is consistent. There’s a present quality of feminist shades in it and the relationships are very endearing.

10. Nichijou

Not really one of my favorites but certainly one that I recommend for people who are in need of a laugh. It’s got some pretty creative and iconic humor. Its imaginative retakes on routinely affairs manage to transform the most trivial real-life situations into Oscar-worthy wit. It also gets nonsensical every so often, but this fits within the show’s own narrative.

It has a very unique animation that sometimes mixes different styles of art, which only makes every scene a hundred times funnier for being so soft and adorable. It varies from hyperrealistic to surrealistic at the speed of light and sometimes even becomes abstract as hell. It’s full of notes on Japanese culture, not only about daily life but also about media, which adds up to the fun.

[joracalltrise]

I’ve fallen in love with the 7th season of the Clone Wars, but in the same time this season… disappointed me so much. Do you, guys, feel the same? Or are you fully satisfied?

I warn you, that I’m going to more or less skip the good things and get to the bad things – not because I’m a complaining person, but because I believe a lot of people have already listed all positives about the last episode and season 7 in general (especially <url> www.gffa.tumblr.com </url> – dude, I really love your blog!), so me talking about the things I had loved in the latest season, would be… repeating what other people have already said.

I think we all (or most of us) agree, that the 7th Season was totally amazing, if not THE BEST season of the Clone Wars. We got that clear? Okay, now let’s get to the “buts”.

1. Not enough episodes

I’ll sound a bit whiny here, but… I really don’t get it, why couldn’t we get full 20 episodes for the Final Season of the Clone Wars. Or even more than 20. Maybe there are people in Disney, who are smarter than me, and they know the answer to that question, but STILL… if Star Wars is such a good brand, why not making more of the Clone Wars?

Of course, there are also advantages of producing only 12 episodes.

The whole season feels more like a movie than a TV series. Or, rather – like three movies. Instead of “small stories” we were given three solid Arcs, which are very smoothly connected to each other. That’s a good thing. It’s not the same case as “the Legend of Korra”, where 12 episodes would give us a feeling of an enormous pacing.

BUT. Because I was given only 12 episodes, I got to miss some of my favorite characters.

2. Lack of some important characters

We didn’t see Dooku in the last season the Clone Wars – not even ONCE!

We didn’t see Grievous in the last season of the Clone Wars – not even ONCE!

We didn’t see Ventress in the last season of the Clone Wars – not even ONCE!

We BARELY saw Obi-Wan (sniff! sniff!) – poor guy got some bigger scenes only in “Good friends not forgotten” and “Phantom Apprentice”. And some short (but really good) lines in “An unfinished business”.

Padme got ONE scene (one that confirms, that Anakin is, in fact, blind, since he didn’t comment on her baby bump).

Now, someone would roll their eyes and say – yeeeeaaaah, but Dooku, Grievous, Obi-Wan and Padme got PLENTY of TV time in the Revenge of the Sith, duh! If you want more of them, just watch RoTs, again. Okay, I agree, but… that was the whole point of me watching the Clone Wars. I liked it so much, because prequel trilogy was not enough for me. I wanted MORE of my favorite characters. What’s wrong with that?

And what about Ventress? She was supposed to have such a great Arc with Quinlan Vos!

Than brings us to the next case…

3. Abandoned and Non-existing Arcs

Utapau Arc… oh, I’m NEVER gonna forgive them for Utapau Arc!

I believe it was actually the best Arc in the Clone Wars. I’ve watched those unfinished episodes sooo many times, and they have brought me more joy than ANY full-fledged episodes. So many good moments in those episodes!

So much of Obi-Wan and Anakin dynamics (I’m sorry, Ahsoka fans, but no matter how much Felloni and Co will try to persuade me otherwise, OBI-WAN is a Jedi who has the closest relationship with Anakin, NOT Ahsoka. Quarrel, if you like, but that’s how I feel, sorry).

Anakin interacting with animals (outrageous, cute and absolutely beautiful).

Anakin’s great plan “ups, I’ve fallen asleep… ah, no, it was my plan from the beginning!”

Scorpion creature playing with Anakin’s lightsaber, and Anakin killing the creature “by accident”.

And FINALLY two best moments:

“Awww, got yourself captured again, Old Man?” (I’ll NEVER get tired of Anakin calling Obi-Wan “old man”, okay?”

And Obi-Wan merrily waving to Grievous, when he and Anakin escape with the cristal.

Ventress and Quinlan Arc – even if they didn’t follow a comic, they could have made an amazing Arc out of this.

Small Padme Arc? Like… how she was dealing with her pregnancy, while working for the Senate? Anything? Pretty please?

Some Arc involving Ayala Secura or Kit Fisto or Ki Adi Mundi or Plo Koon – just to say goodbye to those characters before Order 66? By the way, it’s kind of weird, Ahsoka didn’t think or talk about Plo Koon even a little bit, during the WHOLE season. That’s the disadvantage of having only 12 episodes, yup!

The last Padawan Arc aka Caleb Dume turning into Kanan Jarrus Arc aka One of my biggest disappointments for the last season. Why… WHY they didn’t do it?! The trailer gave me soooo muuuch hope! I really, REALLY wanted to see Kanan interacting with Depa and the Clones. Yes, I know, comics and stuff, but comics is not TV, and I love watching my favorite characters with nice soundtrack and great voice actors and everything. R.I.P. my expectations for Caleb Dume’s Arc in Clone Wars… sniff sniff!

Of course, there’s more, but those are the ones that come to my mind firsts.

4. Ahsoka’s character in this last season

Now, let’s talk about the character who got the most of the TV time in the whole season (if not the whole series).

Ahsoka’s greatest fans will probably get angry at me, but I’m still gonna say this. Not because I dislike Ahsoka, because I DO like her, and I think she’s an amazing character. Actually, before I start throwing my “accusations”, I’ll say some nice things about Ahsoka, so that you know I’m not trying to be mean here.

What Ahsoka did in the 7th season, can be mostly explained by her young age. She’s clearly at the rebel stage, she’s got through some really awful experiences (getting accused of treason, when you’re INNOCENT can really leave someone pretty shaken up, I think we all agree), and before Martez Sisters Arc for the first time in her life she was really, really ALONE.

Also, we all know that Ahsoka will be more mature in Rebels. It kind of makes sense, that you need to become an angry and proud teenager first, before you become an experienced and charismatic leader.

BUT, even knowing that, I’m really annoyed at Ahsoka after the last season. I’ve liked her during all 5 seasons of the Clone Wars, she was one of my favorite characters, but after season 7, she really got on my nerves. And honestly? I’m starting to think, it wasn’t even her fault. Maybe it was just the Clone Wars creators turning her into to some sort of… agenda? Using her to prove something? About the whole Jedi Order, maybe? Or about Anakin?

But, anyway, to the point…

Ahsoka’s actions in season 7 basically resulted in three groups of fans.

Group Number One (that’s NOT me) – people who started to think Ahsoka is some sort of saint, the only good (ex) Jedi in the rotten Order, the very best person, and oh, if only other Jedi could act like her, then maybe nothing bad will happen. And, oh, Obi-Wan and the rest Council sitters could REALLY learn from this amazing woman!

Group Number Two (that’s me) – people rising an eyebrow to Ahsoka’s behavior and being slightly annoyed at her.

Group Number Three (I don’t know who’s there, but there are some people) – people hating Ahsoka, getting really angry at her for acting the way she acted, and also blaming her for not using her knowledge about Sidious wanting to make Anakin his apprentice.

Who’s right? Maybe no one? Maybe partly everyone? I don’t know, so I’ll just proceed to explain my own subjective point of view.

I’ve already said some things about Ahsoka in this post:

<url> https://joracalltrise.tumblr.com/post/615743227991031809/ahsoka-versus-obi-wan-where-did-that-even-come </url>

I’m going to say more, but it’ll be much shorter.

What I disliked about Ahsoka most in the latest season was the fact, that she wanted to have a cookie and eat the cookie and she started to lecture people smarter and more experienced than her how to do their job.

Let’s start with the first one, by looking into Ahsoka’s particular words and actions. So…

She doesn’t want to be a Jedi, but she wants Republic to support her actions (siege of Mandalore) and let her participate in important Jedi-only discussions (Mace Windu talk). Kind of like some Brexit supporters, don’t you think? “Let’s leave the EU, but let’s keep all the privileges of the country belonging to the EU, because we are so smart, we deserve it and that’s it”. Oh, come on! You either leave of not – make up your mind, Ahsoka (Britain could, so why can’t you?).

She wants Anakin and Obi-Wan to help her but she doesn’t want to ASK them nicely and try a little bit to act like a person asking for help. She just expects them to agree, because they… what? Owe her? Owe her WHAT? Not supporting her ENOUGH, when she was accused (let me remind you: Obi-Wan sided with Ahsoka during Council meeting, and Anakin was litteraly running around Coruscant to prove his Padawan’s innocence)?

Her being angry about Anakin and Obi-Wan choosing Coruscant over Mandalore – I’m not even commenting that, because I’m tired of talking about it. But I’ll add just one more thing here – did it occur to anyone that Trace and Rafa are still on Coruscant, when Coruscant is attacked? What a great friendship you have formed, Ahsoka! Not even a single worry about whether or not your new friends will be in danger? But wait, they don’t need you, cause people in Mandalore need you more. Cool (sorry about the sarcasm, guys, but I couldn’t resist).

And now, the second thing.

If you want to change some huge organization, especially one like a Jedi Order, the best way to do it, is from the inside. Qui-Gon Jinn was like no other Jedi, and he was probably tempted to leave, but he chose to stay, and his presence benefited the Order in many many ways! He didn’t really change the Jedi – died before he could – but there was a chance. Perhaps Anakin could have changed the Jedi, had he not turned to the dark side? I think he would! Maybe, if he would mature even more (although, in Clone Wars he matured A LOT – look at the “Old friends not forgotten” episode) and join the Council a bit later, when the time was right… just imagine it! The Jedi Code hasn’t ALWAYS forbidden marriages and love. The Order could have come back to its old ways. Good thing, stuff like fanfiction exists ;)

But anyway, coming back to Ahsoka. If you LEAVE an organization, and then you start lecturing its members about morality and choices, it’s kind of obvious, they won’t take you seriously. And yeah, I fully support Obi-Wan’s statement “but Ahsoka is no longer a part of the Republic Military”, and I totally agree with Mace calling her “a citizen”. It’s all about Ahsoka wanting to keep and wanting to eat at the same time. What she wanted in the final season, basically, is doing all the good things she remember doing in the Order (helping people selflessly, supporting friends), but without having to deal with difficult (but necessary) things (like making difficult choices and dealing with consequences, duty versus emotion, all of this so called “playing politics”, etcetera). It’s like wanting to have a pet, but leaving all the problems – going to the vet, curing the animal, when it’s sick, maybe even making the decision of “putting a friend to a sleep” to keep it from suffering – to somebody else. Do you get, what I mean?

And before I leave the poor girl alone, I have one more thing to add.

I don’t like making Ahsoka “another Rey”.

Strong female characters are very much needed in the popculture. I’m a girl too, so I understand. But, for Force’s sake, don’t upgrade somebody’s skills ex-machina!

Okay, fine, they’ve made Rey a Force prodigy because she’s *********’s granddaughter and apparently she was already good in martial arts before she has left Jakku. Some people like that.  I don’t. I prefer an actual skill development instead of sudden skills upgrage.

But Ahsoka didn’t held a lightsaber for a long time, and first time she grabs her new pair, she becomes a one person machine. I wouldn’t say it makes me particularly upset, because it was nice to watch. But it DID disturbed me. And I couldn’t help the feeling, that canon was a bit shifted to match Ashoka fan’s expectations.

The canon got me used to the fact, that Star Wars strongest prequel fighters were Yoda, Palpie, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace, Dooku and Maul. I might have forgotten someone, but you get my point, right? Experienced and adult fighters, whose skills are logical and earned. Actually, I think that Ahsoka from Rebels fits that group as well.

I repeat it – Ahsoka FROM REBELS!

In Rebels she’s an adult and she’s got plenty of time to hone both her Force and lightsaber skills.

I’m not saying, I’m hating her fighting like a pro with Mandalorians and Maul. I repeat it - It WAS nice to watch. I’m just not buying it.

Like I’m not buying some other things.

5. Lack of logic (especially in Martez Arc)

It’s not a big fault, actually. We get plenty of those in pop culture shows. It gives us a lot of room for “How It Should Have Ended” videos ;)

But, seeeriiouslyyy…

Ahsoka using the Force right and left in the Martez Arc, while Rafa and Trace don’t notice A THING… are they deaf and blind, or something?

Is Anakin blind as well? Does he REALLY not notice Padme’s baby bump? Was he too busy’s with his wife’s beautiful eyes, or what?

And – AGAIN! – Ahsoka grabing Maul’s ship with the Force. Since when grabing a  (MOVING) ship with the Force became a canonical skill of anyone other than Yoda (or maybe Palpatine)? No, wait, even Palpie and Yoda didn’t grab a MOVIG ship. Why Anakin and Obi-Wan couldn’t Force grab Dooku’s ship, when he was escaping Naboo? There were TWO of them, for Force’s sake, and one of them was the Forcedamn Chosen One! Why couldn’t they? Oh, wait, I know! Because it was BEFORE “The Rise of Skywalker”. In THAT movie Forcegrabing the ships became a canonical skill, especially for prodigical women loved by the audience (again – sorry about the sarcasm, guys). As a woman who used to train martial arts for YEARS, I’d like female protagonists to actually LEARN their super skills, before they use them. Okay?

But, well, Star Wars suddenly canonizing new amazing skills after years is a material for a different article.

And, like I said, it’s really not that big of a deal. The Clone Wars were still amazing and enjoyable to watch – especially the newest season.

Besides, well, I can’t get what I want all the time, right? Felloni and Co had to CHOOSE, whom they want to make happiest, and they’ve chosen Ahsoka’s fans. I don’t blame them. Maybe they’ll choose my preferences next ;) One can always hope, right?

Conclusions?

Yeah, I think that’s all I have to say about the newest season. And I repeat – once again – that in spite all this complaining, I really loved that season. And I loved reading about other people’s opinions about it. May the Force be with us all!

Thank you for reading this long, looong post!

If anyone’s up to the discussion, feel free to contact me.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 124: Lion 4: Alternate Ending

“Please tell me my destiny.”

We’ve had Ronaldo as a toxic gatekeeping fan intent on harassing the creator. We’ve had Lars as a disappointed fan whom the creator is desperate to impress. We’ve even had Navy as a false fan who’s only interested in robbing the creator’s spaceship (arguably a rarer breed than the first two). So now it’s time for the obsessive clue-hunter, who parses through the creation so deeply that the original meaning gets lost in the shuffle. And this time, our fan stand-in is Steven.

Lion 4: Alternate Ending is an episode about Steven trying to ruin Lion 3: Straight to Video. All the magic from that first glimpse of Rose Quartz threatens to be extinguished through overanalysis, to the point where his discovery of a new tape is met with dread instead of excitement. For all the Steven Universe fans that get frustrated by Steven not being as invested in the lore as they’d like, well, this is what happens when Steven gets as invested in the lore as you’d like. 

To be clear, I don’t think Steven succeeds in ruining Lion 3, especially because the conclusion of Lion 4 manages to enhance its predecessor. I also don’t think it’s a bad thing that he tries: it fits his post-Storm in the Room state to tear through whatever evidence he's got to figure out why he was born, and it’s properly painful to see him so desensitized to the wonder of Rose’s tape that he’s reduced it to a possible decoded message. What better way to express how Steven feels than tainting a pivotal moment with his mother?

I’m super into stories where a mystery to the characters isn’t a mystery to the viewer: the core example is Cowboy Bebop episode Speak Like a Child, where our 2070s crew is trying to solve the case of a strange antique object that a 1990s audience already knows is a videotape (although a fifth of the way through the twenty-first century, we’re already getting removed from an era where modern audiences would know what a Betamax is, even as a cultural relic). Because the writers don’t have to try to fool us, we can focus more on how the characters tackle a problem instead of trying to beat them to the punch with our own deduction skills. I wouldn’t call Lion 4 the most concrete example of this sort of story, as it’s not impossible that Rose was leaving encrypted messages behind, but to me at least the “twist” that Rose’s tape wasn’t part of some dubious master plan is obvious enough that I can just enjoy the ride.

“Enjoy” is perhaps the wrong word, because while this is an excellent episode, it’s not a fun one. There are comedic moments, because this is still Steven Universe, but watching a kid at the end of his rope struggling to understand his place in the world is bound to be harrowing stuff. Steven’s determination is compounded by his solitude: the Crystal Gems are pointedly absent, as the last time he asked them for answers his dad got abducted to a space zoo and it’s easy to confuse correlation with causation. So it’s just Steven and Lion for most of the episode, and it’s telling that Lion answers Steven’s final cry for help by bringing him to see his dad. Some things can only be fixed by talking, and for all his strengths, Lion isn’t a great conversationalist.

Before we get to Greg, this Steven/Lion solo outing uses constant activity to sidestep the dullness factor that bogged down Steven’s Lion. After a strong first impression of Steven’s mental state as he scours Rose’s tape for clues, going so far as to try to find meanings in anagrams, Lion revs up the plot by retching up a giant key. I love that Steven’s first thought is the same as mine, and likely yours: the chest in Lion’s mane that we first saw in Lion 3, which unlike Bismuth remained a mystery (and it still is, because we never saw what Steven found in there between Change Your Mind and the movie). Even though the key is comically oversized, Steven ignores the obvious and keeps trying to make it fit. So right off the bat, we get two little stories about Steven looking for answers where there clearly aren’t any and doubling down despite the futility out of sheer desperation for the truth.

From here we get a montage of past locations a la Marble Madness and Warp Tour, accompanied by a gorgeous medley of location themes from Aivi and Surasshu; I will never not complain that we don’t get to have an album of their scoring, because this episode’s soundtrack is one of their best. Visiting the Armory harks back to Lion 2 as the tape did for Lion 3, and we also get a glimpse of Rose’s Fountain and Rose’s Room to continue our references to the many known areas tied to Steven’s mom. When nothing works, Steven pleads with Lion for more information, aware by now that the cat has some answers.

While I’m not huge on Steven’s Lion as an episode due to the aforementioned dull pace, it’s awesome to see our heroes return to where Lion was first found. Buddy’s Book already did a great job of reminding us of Lion’s desert home, but now it’s time to finally investigate the area further. 

Jesse Zuke and Raven Molisee paired up for our last episode, leaving their usual respective partners Hilary Florido and Paul Villeco at bat for Lion 4. The ragtag team has so far given us rich visuals, with a particularly expressive Steven and Lion (crucial for the non-talking member of the duo) and a callback to the lovely settings of the past, but every aesthetic choice they make is topped by the desert run. It’s a beautiful shot, evoking the iconic ocean run of Lion 2, but Steven’s exhaustion (aided by Zach Callison’s beleaguered performance as he narrates his thoughts) tinges the scene with melancholy where there was once only magic. Steven’s desperation is no longer the frenzied need from when Greg was kidnapped, or even from the beginning of this very episode, but has been worn down to a weary determination that just breaks your heart. This is Charlie Brown after a yanked football too many; he hasn’t been thrown a single bone in his search for answers, and this might be his last chance.

I try not to include too many images in these reviews, because they can mess with the flow of the text, but screw it this shot is also amazing:

The pyramid-like structures leading to the locked door are the first we see of a new hidden getaway, and retrospect makes Steven’s plight even worse: as we learn in Legs From Here to Homeworld, all he had to do was touch one of them to get a major hint about Rose’s true identity. 

It wouldn’t have solved everything, as Garnet would likely assume they were spoils of war, Amethyst wouldn’t recognize them, and Pearl would keep her mouth shut. And it would’ve ruined the pacing of the mystery for such a strange hint to be presented, so from a storytelling perspective it makes total sense to keep this in the backburner. And it’s not like it’s that weird that Steven doesn’t feel compelled to touch what seems to be a couple of statues when he’s spent the whole episode looking for a lock and it’s right in front of him and he just survived hours of desert travel. But knowing what we know now adds to the drama of how close our hero is to the truth he deserves.

In yet another bummer, Rose’s hidden landfill is worn down to the point where most of the walls had collapsed, meaning Steven didn’t even need the key. Which isn’t to say the key wasn’t important, as it prompts his trip in the first place, but it’s just one more way that the universe seems to be throwing unnecessary hurdles at him. In the same vein, Lion not only could’ve warped him to the destination as he mentions, but he could’ve done so without hacking up the key in the first place. But we’re long past the point where we should expect straight answers from Lion, so I forgive the big lug.

The first thing that came to my mind when Steven saw the dump wasn’t Amethyst’s room, although there are obvious similarities. It was Greg’s storage locker, the place where we first talked about Rose all the way back in Laser Light Cannon, the place where Greg expressed confusion about why a magic woman fell for a regular guy like him. And as frustrated as Steven is, this room is a wonderful unspoken answer to that distant question: among Rose’s many imperfections was that, like Greg, she was kind of a slob. It’s so nice to have a mundane flaw after nearly a full season of focusing on her as a liar and murderer, especially a flaw that reminds us of why she and Greg were so great for each other.

But yeah, Steven isn’t interested in subtext, and his tantrum is both realistic and reasonable. He finds the tape for Nora by accident, right after kicking some garbage in anger, and this is where that Speak Like a Child oomph comes in. It’s crystal clear that the tape was a backup in case Steven was a girl, but he’s so primed for lies and complications that the obvious answer eludes him and he suspects the worst. I honestly can’t blame him. If you learned out of nowhere that your mom killed someone, who’s to say you don’t have secret siblings?

The contrast between harsh desert and soothing sunset is another treat for the eyes, readying is for a cooldown after two distressing acts. Greg’s excitement over seeing the old tape blinds him to Steven’s angst in a way that adds honest tension to the exchange, because he’s trying to give Steven a fun treat but has no idea how much anguish his son has been through to get to this point. To Greg, telling Steven the answers outright would be ruining the moment, but the wait is already killing the kid. In an episode without an external villain it’s such a clever way to present a final “confrontation” to overcome.

When we finally see the tape, it becomes even more apparent that it was a backup for a hypothetical daughter. Still, I love how the strange new version of a video we know and love is only half-seen, as we focus so much on Steven’s reaction at the expense of footage. Where he was once gazing at the marvels of a new glimpse of his mother, his eyes are now furrowed in frustrated concentration. As in Lion 3, he has a viewing partner, and Greg’s welling tears mirror those of Steven and Sadie from the first tape, highlighting that the Steven of the present isn’t feeling an ounce of tenderness.

Tears do come for Steven, but in the form of anxious release. When he’s told that he’s Nora, meaning he’s the person the tape was intended for, Steven still doesn’t get it and exclaims that he’s his mom and his sister; it’s sort of a joke, but boy is it rough to hear him slip that in some way he does see himself as his mom rather than his own person. So thank goodness he’s saying this stuff to Greg, who’s calm at first but leaps to the occasion when Steven frantically asks why he exists.

As is standard by now, Greg's got fatherhood down cold. He adjusts his tone to show he’s taking Steven seriously, but rather than jump in he sits his son down and lets him talk. He addresses Steven’s concerns gently but firmly, leaving no room for doubt that he’s loved and appreciated no matter what. He brings himself into the conversation by saying he changed his name, doing so not to turn the topic to himself but to reassure Steven that it’s okay to not be stuck on one identity. And just look at how perfectly our three main characters exist in the shot during this last talk:

Steven gets those happy post-tape tears after viewing the last part of the video, and our happy ending is earned, but it’s not a full victory. Rose still had issues, but at least Steven has gained some confidence back that she wasn’t all bad. He’ll go back and forth on how much guilt he feels for her actions, but at the very least he knows now that his decisions to try and atone for her mistakes are his to make, and not a mandate from a dead parent looking for an escape route.

Whiiiiiiich means that now he’s able to try and feign a sense of control over helpless situations by assigning blame to himself in new, exciting ways. Hey, it’s not like the show could’ve solved all his problems less than halfway through Act III of the series. Lion 4 thus doesn’t have the conclusive oomph of Lion 3, which closed a trilogy of Lion Episodes as well as the stage of the show where Rose was a well-realized but distant idea more than a full character. For all its strengths, Lion 4 feels much more like Just Another Episode. But that’s okay. It doesn’t owe the past a thing.

Future Vision!

Again, those pyramids return in a major way, because they’re not pyramids.

Greg talks about Garnet’s inability to predict things about Steven, which is an element of their relationship throughout the show but gets major focus soon in Pool Hopping.

Escapism blends the two big Lion Runs by setting it back on the ocean, but making the passenger an exhausted Steven facing one last ordeal before relief in the form of his dad with a guitar.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It doesn’t make the top twenty, it does make the top twenty-five. Just like Bismuth right before our hundredth episode, this doesn’t mean much now, but it will next time, because I’m expanding again to a Top Twenty-Five when we hit the big One Two Five with Doug Out. 

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(Kind of unbelievable to me that a Lion Sequel doesn’t have official promo art, but luckily we have discount-supervillain’s measured take on what Nora Universe would realistically look like.)

[takaraphoenix]

Buffy dir the ask Game

Aaah! *^* Thanks for asking, I had hoped that may come up! xD

Answers under the cut though, because this turned into... literally 3k words worth of fangirl rambling. That’s what happens when you make me talk about the things I love the most. *ducks head*

Top 5 favourite characters: Spike, Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Rupert Giles

Other characters you like: let’s make that five more then! Daniel Osbourne, Andrew Wells, Cordelia Chase, Anya Jenkins, Drusilla

Least favourite characters:Dawn Summers by a landslide

Otps: Spike/Buffy, Tara/Being Alive, Willow/Tara, Xander/Cordelia, Xander/Anya, Giles/Joyce (I always wanted Giles to become Buffy’s dad, officially and legally ;-;), Cordelia/Buffy, Giles/Spike, Oz/Andrew (LISTEN, I love Oz, I hate that he left and only came back once to see his girlfriend his now a lesbian. I wanted him to return for good and I wanted Andrew to be explicitely gay and not just Word Of God gay)

Notps: Xander/Dawn - like, her crush on him was cute and all, but that season 8 really had to make THAT canon was… not necessary… Also Giles/Buffy is really the only Hard No ship I’ve encountered in this fandom, otherwise even when I don’t vibe with a ship, it’s more a shrug and keep scrolling

Favourite friendships: THE GOLDEN TRIO. Xander-Willow-Buffy. I love them

Favourite family:The friends we found along the way. Seriously, the Scooby-gang absolutely counts as a family. Joyce and Giles are the parents, Xander and Willow (who supposedly have parents but we never meet them and they don’t seem to care much) are as much a part of this family as Buffy ;^;

Favourite episodes: HAH! The one show where I can actually name them, without having to cross-check what the episodes are called and what happens where! xD

Once More With Feeling: clearly. IT’S A MUSICAL EPISODE. And it is so good. The singing is so good. I immediately bought the soundtrack and I listened to it on a loop for months. Then the content! The Spuffy is so good, the Buffy angst, everyone gets an adorable moment and then that ending that kills me

Tabula Rasa: I love this episode. It is so whacky but again also with angst, because that Willow/Tara is murderous

The Body: I mean, in a masochistic kind of way do I love this episode. It is… it is so heartbreaking. I’ve seen it like twelve times now and I still cry every single time. How vulnerable Buffy is, the Tara-Buffy friendship, Anya has one of my favorite moments when she confronts what death means. This episode is an absolute sucker-punch

Favourite season/book/movie: Season 6, hands down. Other TV shows always try to one-up it - so they fought demons in season 1, how about they fight SATAN HIMSELF in season 3? The escalation is very rapid in most supernatural shows nowadays. That Buffy took a step back and spent essentially a whole season on character development and friendships and human issues? Also two of my favorite episodes happen in this season, so that makes it all the more special to me!

Favourite quotes:Okay, so, full disclosure I love the musical episode but I listened to Rest in Peace THE MOST. And the lines “I died so many years ago, you can make me feel like it isn’t so” just completely wrecks me. Like, there’s a whole lot of memorable quips in this show and the line “I’m the thing that monsters have nightmares about” is ALSO absolutely outstanding

Best musical moment: When Buffy says “I think I was in heaven”, just the way her voice breaks, the reaction on everybody’s face? This silly musical just outed her biggest secret, the thing that’s going to hurt everyone around her with guilt and the thing that’s wrecking her life. That moment is so good

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: William Pratt. Getting explicit flashbacks to flesh out Spike’s past, to meet the man he used to be and see what he was like. Also genuinely every any flashback about the Fanged Four. This is something I KEEP yelling about in all the supernatural genre shows - if you have centuries old characters then USE THAT. Show me their past! Seriously the wasted potential of flashbacks around Magnus Bane on Shadowhunters is downright insulting. But Buffy? Every time it explored more, showed me more, I fangirled so hard. Also genuinely when Buffy slept with Satsu in season 8 - like, I know there were no grand romantic feelings but Buffy Summers had sex with a woman and… c’mon, Buffy’s not 100% straight, she just isn’t, I stand by bi!Buffy

When it really disappointed you:When some greedy asshat decided to do a comic reboot and retcon Willow into being Out And Proud in high school and be Gay All Along. Fuck. You. Like, yeah, sure, obviously am I all for out and proud teenage rep! But not at the cost of erasing existing rep! Not when it’s a retcon that actively erases an “I took longer to realize my feelings and be true to myself” lesbian, because those exist and are valid and deserve to be seen too and by retconning her into being out in high school, instead of having boyfriends in high school and only coming to terms when she is in college and actually MEETS her first lesbian to realize that this could be her truth, by doing that, you’re effectively sending the message that only Gold Star Lesbians are valid and genuinely fuck you for doing this. Also, from what I’ve heard that comic reboot effectively erased Drusilla’s insanity and victimhood to have her be an evil mastermind villain and… no… that’s not the character anymore then; a huge point of Drusilla was that she was a victim, most specifically Angel’s victim, that he broke her completely so we can see the bad and depth of Angelus’ worst days, it’s important for the plot even if it makes you uncomfortable to see a woman be a victim, in her case her victimhood and her insanity are literally what make her her. You just created a new character. There is some really wrong SJW bullshit going on in there and it’s dumb. If you wanna tell new stories, do that. But don’t take this existing beautiful story and slaughter it for your own whims what the fuck, I genuinely loathe that this comic exists and I’m glad that the TV show thing is going to be a spin-off sequel and not an actual reboot because don’t fucking reboot Buffy

Saddest moment: Joyce’s death, definitely. But also when Giles decides to leave, that breaks my heart every time

Most well done character death:ALSO Joyce’s death

Favourite guest star: I… really don’t know, like I don’t know who’d count as just guest, when looking at the cast list most the ones I would have said are technically recurring characters and then it’s also not really asking for the character but the actor, huh? Retrospectively probably Wentworth Miller, because he has become an actor I like a lot so seeing smol!Wentworth in Buffy is adorable

Favourite cast member: James Marsters. If tumblr existed back when Buffy first aired, all my Dominic Sherwood obsession could be fully translated onto him. He was one of my three first actor obsessions and he still remains that, to this day

Character you wish was still alive: ANYA. There was no need to kill Anya off in the finale, I wish season 8 could have had that happy, good Xander/Anya content… ;-;

One thing you hope really happens: I am so excited and afraid of the sequel spin-off. That could be so great (or a disaster and that’s the part that frightens me), but what REALLY needs to happen is that Sarah Michelle Gellar guest stars. Of course not as a regular, it is supposed to be about a new slayer. But I need them to then also acknowledge what has been before. Maybe others could guest star too, cameo occasionally (though it would be hilarious if Andrew was a regular and like a… guide to the new kid). Ideally, I would get to see every Scooby at least once in this spin-off but what really needs to happen is that Buffy Summers appears in it

Most shocking twist: When they killed off Buffy… and there was another season. Like. This was pre “everybody dies and is frequently brought back from the dead, death doesn’t stick” TV era (actually, it is the mother of that trope, really), so that was… really a shocker.

When did you start watching/reading?: Ironically, during my least favorite season. Season 4. The initiative was the most bland and obnoxious plotline, Riley/Buffy is a ship I really don’t dig and I was a teen so American college was Weird And Confusing and also uninteresting. However, I had been DYING to watch that show for three years and been deemed too young to watch it so it was really exciting that my mom finally allowed me and also I WAS right on time for the lesbian coming out and that still to this day blows my mind because Willow and Tara were the first lesbians I got to see on TV and it still means the world to me. I then got caught up on reruns, watching the first three seasons, but even on rewatchs, plot-wise season 4 is the weakest for me

Best animal/creature: Miss Kitty Fantastico, by default? xD I think she is the only animal in the whole series… and she just kind of… disappeared too ôÔ°°°

Favourite location: THE LIBRARY I LOVE THE LIBRARY SO MUCH

Trope you wish they would stop using: Mmmh… I… I mean, when rewatching this as an adult, I gotta admit the early Angel/Buffy is very uncomfortable. Back when I was Buffy’s age and younger I thought it was the coolest thing that this vampire loved this teenage girl, but as an adult I have come to re-evaluate all the 16/17 year old girl getting together with a 100+ year old vampire because that most definitely is a very concerning age-gap and… not necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always also hold love for them because I loved them back when I first watched it too and I think they have a fascinating and epic tragic romance, but… media’s gotta stop pushing the idea that centuries old immortals find high school kids romantically and sexually attractive; it’s not a good look

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: Clearly sell me on the canon romance, if you look at my list of OTPs where nearly all of them are canon. Also THIS IS PROPER FOUND FAMILY YO. I’m so tired of shows pretending to be “the team is a family” and then it’s all just deceite and distrust and miscommunication and tragic. AND where this show 100% outdoes… literally everything else I have ever read and watched is the mental health. Buffy died and came back from the dead and instead of just shrugging it off and doing business as usual, we spent a whole season on her depression and dealing with the aftermath of it. Same goes for Willow and her grief over Tara and her addiction. Bad things happen to the characters and it’s not just used as a cheap ploy for more drama, they have ramifications and are being dealt with.

Funniest moments: When Tabula Rasa made everyone assume new identities and everyone thought Giles was Anya’s sugar daddy and Spike’s actual father? Also the time that Giles kept himself a pet-Spike in his home because no one trusted Spike yet (reasonably so). And honestly, countless more - this is one of the funniest shows I ever watched, the quips and one-liners are absolute killers.

Couple you would like to see: Huh. Can I go really vague and say that I would like to see a wlw couple with at least one lesbian in the spin-off sequel? Like, obviously do I hope that this new iterations brings more rep to the table - LGBT as well as POC because if I have to admit one flaw in my favorite show then that it’s very 90s white - but even among that, I really hope there will be at least one lesbian character, who gets to have an on-screen romance

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: As mentioned above, I hope Sarah Michelle Gellar and others join the cast at the very least as guest stars.

Admittedly, I also would murder to see Dominic Sherwood play a vampire on this new show.

Those two would be the ones I’d love to see join the cast. However, I kind of got lost in an entire fan-cast here, so have my pitch for what I’d love the spin-off’s cast to look like. I have no idea what age-range it’s going to be though. Probably teenagers again, but I kind of hope early to mid twenties.

My dream cast, which isn’t going to happen because she already has a lead role in a TV show so she’s too busy, but I’d LOVE to see China Anne McClain as the new slayer.

And, okay I admit this is Marvel based type-casting, but I’d LOVE to see Lyrica Okano as the witch friend (the group needs a witch friend).

Sarah Jeffery for the Cordelia-type role. The bitchy cheerleader - but she’s actualy a closeted lesbian who joins the team when she accepts her own identity and befriends the group.

It’s probably also type casting to make David Castro play another brooding vampire, but listen he’s about the same age as China and he would give off good Angel vibes to her Slayer?

Jane Lynch as the Watcher. But not a soft dad like Giles, more the grumpy, annoyed mom who now has all those irritating children running after her even though she is just trying to teach her charge how to be a Slayer.

Favourite outfit: EVIL DOPPELGÄNGER WILLOW’S VAMPIRE DOMINATRIX OUTFIT *^*

Favourite item: I love the dumb axe. Like, I think it looks WAY too modern to be this ancient tool, but dang it’s pretty

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: my phone-case, all seasons on DVD, the soundtrack of the musical episode on CD, I probably still got my old bedsheets somewhere. I do wish I had more merch, in a different time I probably would have spent all my money on Buffy figures, but those weren’t available way back when and now that I have access to the internet’s treasure-hunting-sites, I… have learned to… mostly… manage my money better than mindlessly buy merch (though if Funko Pop finishes that… Rock Candy series with all the main characters, I will definitely buy those. As it stands, there’s only Willow and Buffy available right now…)

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: I would definitely not be a slayer. Maybe a witch??

Most boring plotline: The initiative. Seriously. I’m HARD anti military and this bullshit of college soldiers policing the supernatural world was… boring and weird. Got even weirder when it turned into Frankenstein at the end

Most laughably bad moment: ooof that puppet episodes had quite some intentionally cringey moments

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: ALL OF THEM. NOT A SINGLE NOT GOOD FLASHBACK THERE. GIVE ME ALL OF THE PAST

Most layered character: Spike. Fight me on that. Seriously, his past as a human, as a vampire, his present, his will to gain a soul, his dynamics with all the Scoobies, I love him. To be fair, Buffy is also the most layered character though

Most one dimensional character:huuuh… Dawn? I mean, seriously she is just every teen angst trope crammed into one, with zero tolerance for what the only slightly older adults may be going through, they even made her shoplift for attention, I swear she could have only been more of a cringey teen trope if she also Cut For Attention… -___- Like. She… She got slightly better with time, but out of all these multi-facetted characters, she is definitely the flattest

Scariest moment: Puppets creep me out so the puppet episode was definitely scary for me. Also the Silence I mean damn that was an amazing episode but it was creepy as fuck

Grossest moment: mh… I can’t think of one, really. I’m unsure if there were any really gross moments

Best looking male: Spike!

Best looking female: Doppelgänger Willow. Don’t judge me. Also Evil Willow. Okay you can judge me a little

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Never really had a crush on any of the characters

Favourite cast moment: That was… pre-internet times, we didn’t get immediately swamped by posts and videos and photos of the cast, there was very little access to these things so I was never really exposed to that

Favourite transportation: THE RV. I loved when they were on the run for half an episode and just all lived in an RV together :D”““

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): I really don’t know

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:It’s a very well-rounded series and I was never actually left with major questions

Best promo: The best promo it had was running in our living room so I could carefully sneak a peek when going to bed and thus want to watch the show :D”

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: When Willow/Tara happened. I didn’t even know that I’m a lesbian back then. I was like 10 back then. This was literally the first time I saw two women be together. Back then I didn’t know what about it amazed me so much. Cue in 12 year old Phoe slowly realizing “oooh I’m a lesbian that’s why the lesbians spoke to me”. But yeah, being the first show to show me lesbians exist, that was when I fell in love and then I got to watch the whole show and it is just such a perfect show that it was impossible not to love it

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS

[snkpolls]

SnK S3E15 Poll Results (Manga Reader Version)

The poll closed with 321 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results of the manga reader poll. Anime only watchers are suggested not to read if you do not wish to be spoiled about certain events! Anime only viewers, click here to view your poll results!

RATE THE EPISODE 308 Responses

Overall the fandom enjoyed the episode, with the vast majority of votes being at either a 4 or 5.

Best ep of the season thus far, Bert's monologue/transformation was amazing. Some fantastic VA work by Tomohisa and Inoue as well. CG CT also looked far better than I thought he would. These next few episodes are going to kill me. I can't wait.

Fantastic episode. Bertholdt's monologue was the best part.

Great episode, very dramatic, awesome OST. I am not looking forward to the next few eps, except for Floch's villain origin story!

Can’t wait for the next episode, this one was so good!

Editing was a bit choppy, voice lines cut half a second too quick a few times.

First ep of S3P2 to get a 10/10 from me <3

The animation was pretty lacking in this episode. R&B’s running animation on the wall felt pretty lazy, there was that reused shot of the beast Titan’s throw from season 2, Bertholdt’s character design felt inconsistent as well as Zeke’s. They really need to get the old team back on the animation cause the current team clearly doesn’t know how to handle aot. It’s getting on my nerves.

The episode was absolutely awesome.

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT? 308 Responses

The Bertl Bomb™ was the scene that respondents were most excited about. Following behind that was Mikasa’s brief skirmish with Bertolt, and closely behind that was Armin and Bertolt’s shouting match on the rooftops.

BERUTORUTO=GOD

I’m mikasasexual

As a huge Bertholdt fan, it was so great to see Bert as the centre of attention for once. It makes me really sad knowing what comes next.

Bert bomb made my bomb go off

I love Bertholdt's resolve. This scene made him one of my favorite characters.

Bertholdt vs. Mikasa was so fire 🔥

One of the best episodes without a doubt. Bertholdt's monologue before transforming was even more impactful than in the manga.

Explosion aftermath was disappointing. I expected a sea of fire. The one they gave us doesn't feel like something big just happened

That "Levi's 5 seconds of screen time" was good, too!

Why isn't "Mikasa comforting and protecting Armin" an option for favorite moment in this episode? Because those were definitely my favorite moments in the episode

The partner gesture between Reiner and Bertl is the death of me

Am I the only one who get's goosebumps  in the scene before he transformed himself into the colossalus titan and said: 'I feel like, no matter how this all plays out, I can accept whatever happens. That's right, nobody's in the wrong. There's nothing we could do. Because this world....is just...that cruel.' This scene was impressive back in the manga and I'm proud how good Tomohisa Hashizume nailed it. He's an amazing voice actor, especially for Bertholdt.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE APETITAN AND YOUSEEBIGGIRL REARRANGES? 296 Responses

Overall the fandom was excited about the new versions of familiar songs with 71% of respondents feeling that they were “totally epic!” 18% agree that the rearranges were good, but that they can’t surpass the original versions.

The soundtrack was lit.

Music was awesome!

Ngl I've watched the episode many times bc the OST during some scenes is just SO GOOD!!

WHO WON THE SHOUTING MATCH? 308 Responses

Over ¾ of the fandom agree that Bertolt dominated the shouting match on the rooftop.

I feel Armin won the "debate" because Bertolt, in his zeal to convince himself that he wanted to kill people he used to see as friends, wasn't making any sense

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT BERTOLT’S DEVELOPMENT AT THIS POINT? 308 Responses

46% of respondents were happy to see how far Bertolt had come as a character at this point in the story, while 34% were just happy to get more dialogue and thoughts from him. A small percentage had been curious where his character would go from here.

Godtolt on the way

He ditched the alter ego built up out of guilt, and it's cool to see him truly one of the strongest characters fighting off Mikasa while in human form

I wish we had more Bertl development! He could’ve been really complex, but just isn’t due to a lack of screentime. Compared to someone like Reiner or Annie, this was his one moment of pure raw character development

He reveals his true warrior colors

I loved it, one of my favourite chapters because of his resolve and how he himself was surprised about it.

He's only moving forward as a character and does what needs to be done. Bertholdt, your doing amazing sweetie!

With all this development just to kill him off was heart breaking.

Honestly, I’m so proud of him. He was amazing and it’s so nice to see a confident Bert. I don’t think it’s a development worth praising in terms of moral standards but it suited and made sense for his character

I feel like this is where his character peaked. It was pretty flat before season 2

I just don’t like bertolt in generalI really like his development but it's a shame that he severely lacked screen time before this episode

I'm not really a fan of Bertolt so I'm neutral on this

I still hate his traitorous guts and can't wait for THAT scene to be animated

Fucking loved it. It's one of my favorite chapters (and now episodes) just because he's talking so much and he's badass af. My boy is finally shining!

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT ARMIN BLUFFING ABOUT ANNIE A SECOND TIME? 306 Responses

Just over half of respondents feel that Armin should have tried a different tactic with Bertolt, while 46% felt that it was worth another shot to try and manipulate Bertolt’s feelings for Annie again.

Has Armin ever convinced anyone of anything they didn't already believe?

He was so used to Bertholdt’s behavior and there was nothing that would’ve made Armin think Bertholdt would have the reaction that he did

Lame. He didn't use much of intelligence here.

It's low, I'm happy it didn't work again

He learned some pretty vital things - how far the Warriors are willing to go, what their priorities are, what Bert's state of mind is, and where his loyalties truly lie. I don't imagine Armin went down that track solely because he thought it would have the exact same effect, but rather to 'check something' - exactly the same as Bertolt.

I think it not only was a good attempt to take (it worked before, why not try it again), but I also think it is incredibly important to show Armin's flaws. Yes, he's an amazing strategist. He's also still sixteen and not always entirely confident. Having Armin make mistakes like relying on old ploys that worked keeps his character more grounded and realistic

Smart people tend to use the same tactics over and over again as long as they're successful and for good reason. After all, why wouldn't you use the same tactic if you know it brings success? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's only when said strategy or tactic doesn't work where the individual would entertain the prospect of changing it or never using it again.

That’s Very Unfortunate!

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT CGI COLOSSAL TITAN? 306 Responses

36% of respondents aren’t very impressed with the CGI colossal titan, while 29% actually found the effect to be pretty awesome! 13% feel it’s disturbing and a small 7% just find it cringeworthy.

Alright

CGI doesn't bother me. What bothers me is how animators overly rely on it. Several decades ago animators made great masterpieces without cgi, all by hand. I understand using it because it makes things easier, but exceeding quality should still be top priority. If you can't make it better with CGI, then go old school and do it right.

Decent but could be better

U can still notice it is CGI but I think their CGI has gotten better compared to some of their earlier uses of it

Doesn't fit with the art style, which is as bad as unfair splitting potatoes

Not too bad but could definitely have been better. Understandable since there has only been one full body shot of it before and that was a sharp backwards, down looking angle.

Don’t really care much for cgi complaints, animating that would be a lot of work, their efforts are better elsewhere

It was necessary and didn't look appallingly bad.

I don't get why people hate it so much? I think it's fine

I hated it in season 2 and I hate it more now

Bad

Don't like CGI anything in any anime so take from that what you will

Most angles he looks fine! The only part that he looked off was when we got the face shot of him panning out to the rest of his body

Thought it looked solid. There were some really great shots of him this ep imo. Hopefully the action bits will look as good, and they mix in some 2D shots as well.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE 104TH RIDING ON TITAN EREN? 306 Responses

Over half of the fandom agree that this detail is something that’s very adorable, while 22% feel it’s just pretty neat. A combined 21% of respondents either feel it’s not that big of a deal or simply don’t care about it.

>AMJCS who cares?

Good boy protecting his friends? Hell Yeah!

I want to ride pieck - Not an innuendo, i just want a go in one of her turrets

It's gay

Lads you would never get me off that thing, I'd be saddling him up to go grocery shopping

Save me a seat guys!!

HOW WELL DID THE EPISODE ADAPT THE CORRESPONDING CHAPTERS? 306 Responses

Manga readers are overall happy with the adaptation of chapters 77 and 78, with over 90% saying that it was close to being perfectly done.

DID MARCO’S DEATH AFFECT YOU AS MUCH AS IT DID IN THE MANGA? 305 Responses

41% of respondents felt more heartbroken to see Marco’s death play out in the anime, while 31% say they felt more sympathetic toward Marco. 14% weren’t affected when this scene played out in either story-telling medium.

About the same level, still utterly heartbreaking, though

DEATH TO THE TITAN TRIO!

Didn't feel as much. Not because it was a bad adaptation, but just because I've already read it and knew what went down.

I felt more sorry for RBA than Marco in this version

I still had lot of emotions with the adaptation, but there's no compare to experiencing it for the first time

I was absolutely sobbing when I read it in the manga. Anime-wise I was more prepared to handle the scene

Watching Marco die again reminds me of why, even in current manga, I still completely and utterly LOATHE/DESPISE/HATE RBA. No, I don't care about their "tragic backstory", they don't deserve empathy of any kind.

It had the same impact when I first watched the trailer for the Lost Girls OVA, which spoiled me his death

It was tough to watch, but it was necessary to deepen Reiner, Bertolt, Annie (and Marco)'s characters. It was very well done, dramatically

Oh fuck it was WAY WORSE animated. Actually hearing his cries and screams is something that can never be duplicated in written form

I did not anticipate being as affected as I was by the Marco flashback. That doesn’t give me hope for how I’m going to handle the rest of the RtS arc. The emotions of the characters are being portrayed very well this season.

NOW THAT WE’VE HAD A CHANCE TO LISTEN TO ZEKE HAVE MORE DIALOGUE, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIS VOICE? 305 Responses

The majority of the fandom believe that Zeke’s seiyuu is a good fit for his character, although over half of the fandom had expected his voice to sound a bit different. 10% feel it wasn’t the best choice, while a small sliver of respondents don’t care for the voice at all.

I can't unhear DIO. Thanks Zeke, thanks Koyasu.

Zeke's VA also voices a lovely, kind character in Violet Evergarden, so his lines are making me really, really uncomfortable

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT PIECK’S TITAN VOICE? 307 Responses

30% of respondents are excited about Pieck’s titan voice, while 28% feel it’s not what they expected to hear. 18% find the voice “acceptable” while 17% want to wait and hear more before making a final verdict.

Pieck's voice was unexpected in that it was terrifying, much like Ymir's Titan voice

Holy shit. I'm gonna hear it in my nightmares

I rabu Piku.

REGARDING CURRENT MANGA EVENTS, DO YOU THINK REINER STILL WANTS TO STAY TRUE TO HIS PROMISE TO YMIR? 308 Responses

Nearly half of the fandom believe that Reiner would still like to honor his promise to Ymir, but feel that he will never actually get to pull through. 15% believe that he’s still determined to save Historia no matter what, and 18% believe that he’s actually stopped caring about his promise (or perhaps just Historia in general) altogether.

Good question. I really want to have a scene with him facing Historia, his reaction to her pregnancy should be interesting

He doesn't want to save HISTORIA because he doesn't know her. The one he wanted to save was KRISTA. But she is already "dead"

I think Reiner has done what he needed to

I'm not sure, I think his main concerns are the kids and stopping Eren

It has to be real low on his priority list right about now given the circumstances

Of course not, Reiner only cares about his own manpain

He still calls her Krista and she probably has already chosen a side most likely Yeagerist

ARMIN HAD WISHED FOR A CHANCE TO NEGOTIATE AT THIS POINT, SIMILAR TO CURRENT MANGA EVENTS. IS THIS PROOF THAT HE HASN’T BEEN CHANGED BY BERTOLT’S MEMORIES? 308 Responses

44% don’t want to say either way whether Armin’s pre-titan behavior is indicative of the influence that Bertolt may or may not have over the Armin we know in the current manga. 39% believe that this is proof Eren’s words to Armin were total B.S., and 12% think this isn’t really proof of anything.

Armin Has always been the diplomat, while Eren is a man of force. Mikasa is in between. It has always been that way.

Past and future are influenced the same when paths are concerned so there's no way to tell.

I don’t think it’s enough to prove or disprove but this is an interesting idea

I don't get this 'changed' shit. Of course having access to someone else's memories has its own influence on a person, but that's true of anyone on the planet who's read a memoir as well. Everything has its effect. The titan shifter thing is obviously a bit more invasive than that, but it doesn't mean he's now suddenly possessed by Beartoto's fucking undead spirit.

I'd like to think it is but with everything Isayama's been throwing at us from out of left field who knows

he's always wished for negotiation, but he seems to have changed in his methods for negotiation. armin used to be more abrupt and upfront, whereas now he seems more tentative

No, he wasn't chanced that much. He understands RBA better and has more sympathy for Annie (maybe even has a crush on her) but it has nothing to do with being a slave.

SIMILARLY, MIKASA POINTS OUT HOW BERTOLT FEELS LIKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSON. ARE THE MEMORIES OF HIS PREDECESSOR AFFECTING HIM IN THIS ARC? 306 Responses

Over half of the fandom feel that Bertolt’s current behavior at this point in the series is of his own will, and not influenced by any prior holders of the Colossal Titan. 38% think it’s possible he’s being influenced by memories of his predecessor(s) at this time, while a small percentage feel that he is definitely being influenced by someone else’s memories.

He was badass but I think he was affected by memories of the previous CT owner.

I think that Mikasa thinks he’s acting like a different person because he is. I think this is what Bertholdt is really like but with the 104th he was playing a role so he didn’t get too attached to them.

Still wondering if the "he seemed like a different person" comment was a note about development or supposed to foreshadow something about the Titans influencing their hosts.

I think it’s original Ymir controlling him through the paths

Probably. It seems like a bit of a drastic change to go from quiet, self-deprecating and remorseful to cold, outspoken, and trying to morally justify his actions. It's just too drastic a change.

Confidence boost is completely irrelevant to paths.

We don’t even know Bert’s previous predecessors!

Nope, that's have something to do with "character development", people change sometimes after time and grown more indepented and strong of their own shadow.

I always thought of it more as Bertie finally coming down on a side and the pair picking up on that. He was always so meek and indecisive, but now he's been forced to make a choice and to do it he has to shed his old skin and become more ruthless.

Not at all he ditched his guilt that made up the act they knew him for.

WHAT SCENE ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE PREVIEW? 307 Responses

The overwhelming majority of respondents are looking forward to the Survey Corps’ suicide charge against the Beast Titan and his flying boulders. Nearly 30% are looking forward to the moment that Levi gives Erwin his promise to kill the Beast Titan. A small percentage are most looking forward to Armin and Jean decide who’s going to lead the 104th to victory.

I am not ready for the next two episodes

I’m gonna get my ASS FUCKED SO HARD I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. THERES GONNA BE SHIT EVERYWHERE. ERWINS GONNA FUCKING DIE. LEVIS GONNA BE SAD.

fuck next week's shit is good, hype

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

The "predecessor's memory affecting current shifter" is, as far as I'm aware, just a theory that I don't buy into. I've only seen a person "changed" because of the Founding Titan's vow. Otherwise, the shifter's personality remains the same. Armin has always been an advocate for talking and negotiation. We see this in the Trost arc when the Garrison nearly kill Eren with that cannonball. So no, I don't think anyone's memories are "affecting" anyone, including current Eren.

Loved pretty much everything in this episode except for the CGI CT. Didn't expect to see uncensored Reiner, which was weird because Mikasa cutting off Bert's ear was more censored. And I'm a bit disappointed we didn't see more shots of Bert with his V fringe off his forehead. He looked so cool in the manga!

This episode gave me anxiety 'cause I know what we'll going to deal in the next three ones. The soundtrack gave intensity in every scene that its put on it, plus the fantastic job of the VA, perfect work. And just thinking about how the next episodes will be.... *goosebumps*

Wit studio handled the cgi very well imo. It's very difficult to animate this action heavy arca with rubble, smoke, odm scenes etc. and I think they are adapting the manga very well with the right pacing per episode which is also a challenge to fit within 20 minutes.

Bertolt is best boi and this episode was the best of all 3. He deserved to survive and mature up. Hashizume nailed him JUST RIGHT and his interactions with Reiner this episode were on point. The scene where he outsmarted Armin and countered Mikasa was worthy of applause.

i wish it wasn’t too rushed some moments aren’t as emotional as they should be

mikasa looked so good this episode and i'm so happy with how wit isn't screwing her over

After seeing this episode and Marco's death, it makes me sad that Reiner lost his pal Bertolt. They should be suffer bois together. Even still, some of the animation this episode was reallyy not great, so I rated the episode a 4.

Bertolt has proved on this episode that he's one of the best character of the series

I miss berthold so much and seeing him at his best was awesome but it’s really hard knowing what’s going to happen next

This is shaping up to be the best season of Attack On Titan. Cheers for more!

zeke’s beard is the tenth titan shifter

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 295 Responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! We’ll see you again in a few days! 

[listenbang]

THE CYMBAL CRASHING CLOUDS

Four years ago today, I started this blog. The blog’s name came from the first track of The Cymbal Crashing Clouds, a full-length solo record by Nashville songwriter and producer Ben Shive. I didn’t know it at the time, but the day I created Listen! was Ben Shive’s birthday! And so I think it would be neat and even appropriate to write today about one of my favorite albums.

1. Listen! 2. EGBDF 3. Sorry, But I'm Yours 4. Someone Is Asking 5. The Fall 6. Shooting the Moon 7. She's Invincible 8. The Fire Pit 9. Your Secret Smile 10. A Last Time for Everything

I remember when The Cymbal Crashing Clouds was released. It was late Summer / early Autumn of 2011, around this time of year seven years ago. I remember that time in my life to be a blur. I was learning a lot. A lot about the gospel. A lot about God. His Holiness, His love. A love so profound that it would chase me to the ends of the world. I was realizing, too, that I was a very weak and needy person (I guess I’m still realizing that). 

I had known of Ben Shive as a writer and producer (Andrew Peterson, Sara Groves) for a while, but had only just discovered his solo work on The Ill-Tempered Klavier, his 2008 release. I loved what I heard there and hoped for more. I remember the weeks leading up to the release of The Cymbal Crashing Clouds. I remember the expectation I felt. I remember my jaw dropping as I heard snippets of the record. In fact, I don’t remember a time where I was more keenly anticipating the release of a record. And my expectations were met and exceeded the night I got the album and listened through it for the first time. I felt then — and feel it even stronger now — The Cymbal Crashing Clouds is a quintessential record.

“Listen!” is the first track on the record (the song this blog is named after!). It opens with dueling train whistles. The train whistles actually sound throughout, as the song’s base (and um, it’s genius…). A shimmering opener, “Listen!” sets the tone for the rest of the record. Vibrant and strong. Brilliant in lyric and composition. The song tells of an encounter with the grandeur of God. It is inspired by Scripture, like many of the songs on CCC. I’ve written more about this song in another post. 

THE LYRICS

OK, let me tell you about Ben Shive’s lyric writing. It is stunning. Wonderful. Captivating. The Cymbal Crashing Clouds is a thematic album, where unconscious, inanimate objects speak eternal truths. A train, a bust of Beethoven, a Nintendo console, the Fall leaves, and a fire pit are just a few of the characters. And they all tell of the God who stepped into our sin-broken world, to bring us truth and grace.

There’s a trend in songs coming out of the church; it’s a trend that’s been gaining traction for the last decade or so. Vagueness. And along with that, irrelevance. Because most of the time, the writers of these songs aren’t even sure what they’re writing about. In CCC I’m not hearing vagueness. Instead, it seems the more I listen, that each song has a message that is intentionally hiding behind a story, an image, a character. This is the way of a parable. But to those looking for truth, the meaning will find them. That’s the beauty of a parable.

For instance, “EGBDF” is a song about Ben’s struggle as a boy to please his piano teacher, only to get fired in the end. And how later on, music came alive for him in a surprising way upon discovering his father’s record collection. That’s the basic drift of the song, and it’s already a great song. But when you find out that the frowning Beethoven bust in the piano teacher’s living room is symbolic of Moses, and the frown of God’s holy law on our imperfection, the song opens to a new dimension, and so beautifully describes the gospel and the work of grace in the heart. I really like the metaphor the second verse makes to describe what God’s holiness requires of us, and how we fall far short:

Mrs. H was unimpressed Though I had practiced religiously Never mind that I was practicing To master Super Mario 3 And soon she put my memory behind her And fired me with the biting reminder that Every good boy does fine

Ben has the ability to paint with his words. Every time I hear “Someone is Asking,” I clearly, vividly see the scene the lyrics are portraying, and I wish the scene could transform into a watercolor painting. But I don’t know if a painting would do justice to the imagery this song creates in my mind. Added to that, the song is a brilliant sweeping celebration of Christ and his love for the church. I’m wowed every time I hear it. Also, I love that it’s pretty much a modern jazz standard. 

The more I listen to these songs, the more I realize the mastery behind their writing. I feel like there’s much more to them than my dull mind can grasp. “A Last Time for Everything” is a heartbreaking and glorious song that Ben wrote for his friend Emmet, who was dying of cancer. Hymn-like, it alludes to the finished work of Christ on our behalf. Ben got to sing it for Emmet before he died. 

You're gonna wake up soon In your lonely room To the sound of a singing bird Throw the curtain back To find your bag's already packed And the cab is at the curb Then like a bad dream Unreal in the morning light So will the world seem When you see it in the mirror for the last time

THE MUSIC

The music of The Cymbal Crashing Clouds is diverse. It draws from pop, rock, jazz, and soul traditions. It’s nostalgic. It reminds me in a way of the sound of Fleet Foxes, who have at times limited their instrumentation and style to a certain musical era or “world,” you might say. And it seems Ben has done a similar thing: set creative rules to go by in his delivery and production of CCC. This almost seems harder to do than trying to sound “modern” and “hip.” But Ben does this in such a natural way. And somehow, the constraining only broadens the creative horizon of the record! There are unapologetic references to the Beatles and the Beach Boys throughout the album — both musically and lyrically. “Your Secret Smile” is about Brian Wilson and the story of an unfinished record called Smile. It wasn’t until listening to the Smile sessions afterward, that I realized how much of an influence those songs were on Ben Shive’s music. 

One thing that Ben gets a lot of requests for is his orchestral arrangement, and there are amazing string arrangements throughout this record. I’m a sucker for seventies-swelling string whimsy, so the string section toward the end of “Listen!” always gets me!! Every track on the album is so well choreographed. The interwoven strings, I would say, are the “cherry on top.”

Looking back, I feel like the reception of this record was not what it should have been; it’s a bit disappointing. And it mystifies me. What happened to The Cymbal Crashing Clouds? Why was it not more eagerly received and appreciated? Especially by the church, where eyes and ears are said to be opened to true beauty. Was it its musical “indieness”? Its lyrical intricacy? Or perhaps it was the owl-man on the front, I don’t know. But I do know there’s good news in these songs, and beauty for those who have ears to hear.

Yesterday I was driving through town and listening to “The Fall” —

The summer sun, once young and wild, Is a little wiser and his eyes are tired; He nods his head mid-afternoon And then he’s off to bed.

So while the days are ripe and sweet We heap them up in baskets at our feet And do our best to use them well, Cause they won’t last.

Leaves are turning everywhere; the days are getting shorter. It’s a beautiful time of year. Yesterday, Ben Shive’s “The Fall” reminded me of something I believe God is telling us through this season: That the year is coming to a close, and so are our lives. The year speeds by, and ends with a sigh, just like a lifetime. O Lord, teach us to number our days. By the way, “The Fall” is one of the most brilliant songs of all time…

Since its release in 2011, The Cymbal Crashing Clouds has probably become my most played album. I always get something new from it. Every time. And it’s plain fun to listen to as well. This album has become the soundtrack for many precious memories in my life. Every time I hear it, I’m filled with gratitude for this collection of songs and for Ben Shive, in opening up and letting us hear them. And I’m still hoping that Ben lets us hear more, because I know there’s more…

As the needle deciphered the song from the vinyl, I went stumbling down halls ever spiraling– Drawn to the center, the strings all ascending, A long chord decaying, a song in a circle unending...

A train passes our house daily. It has the exact same whistle as the one that plays at the beginning of Ben Shive’s album. I hear it most distinctly in the mornings, as it passes through the sleepy countryside and rings its rousing dissonant cry. Now every time I hear it, I hear the cymbal crashing clouds. And I’m reminded that the God of history — the God of the universe — is calling out to me. That in each day, even in the mundane things, there can be an encounter with his majesty. My response, then, is that of the boy awakened in the night by the voice of God — “Here am I.”

The Cymbal Crashing Clouds can be found (at least for now) at the Rabbit Room, and I would strongly (even forcibly) suggest you go there and get it! You won’t regret it! And while you’re at it, you can get the book — did I mention that he wrote a book with the same name‽ Countless times I’ve reread that fascinating little book. And I’ve always gone away inspired (and that’s where I got those awesome drawings from).

[marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer]

MTVS Epic Rewatch #202

BTVS 7x17 Lies My Parents Told Me

Obligatory Soundtrack

Stray thoughts

1)  Tbh, instead of the Spike or the Ripper spin-off, THIS is the spin-off the Buffyverse needs and deserves…

We don’t get to see much of Nikki Wood but the little we do, I love. She definitely has Buffy’s sass, spunk, and punning powers. And she can kick ass!! I just think it’s such a wonderful premise to have a black slayer fighting demons in the backdrop of 1970s New York.

It’s also neat to see the interactions between Nikki and Spike and how they mirror Spike’s relationship with Buffy in the early seasons – Spike chasing after her in what looks like foreplay to him while the Slayer only feels hatred and disgust towards him yet they’re still pitted against each other as worthy opponents.

2) I truly feel for Robin in this scene, though.

I mean, getting his ass saved by his mother’s murderer must be very conflicting, to say the least.

3) This is such a sad yet truthful statement…

Hey, any apocalypse I avert without dying? Yeah, those are the easy ones.

4) Oh, Giles, don’t you ever go changing…

BUFFY Maybe you're right. Maybe everything is fine.

BUFFY Giles, what's wrong?

GILES Have you seen the new library? There's nothing but computers. There's not a book to be seen. I—I don't know where to begin, Buffy. I mean, who do we speak to?

I just love that amidst all the chaos and end-of-the-world-ness, he’s worried about the school not having a library.

5) I think this scene was kind of meta, don’t you?

6)

SPIKE Oh, bollocks. With all the rubbish people keep sticking in my head, it's a wonder that there's room for my brain.

GILES I don't think it takes up that much space, do you?

BURNNNNNN!!!

7) The CGI, though, it’s so cringey, looks like they did that with MSPaint.

8) Oh, and the cringefest continues, yikes…

I mean, where do I start? First, there’s the poem…

Yet her smell, it doth linger, painting pictures in my mind. Her eyes, balls of honey. Angel's harps her laugh. Oh, lark. Grant a sign if crook'd be Cupid's shaft. Hark, the lark, her name it hath spake. "Cecily" it discharges from twixt its wee beak.

I mean, it’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not… good. “Balls of honey”? Really, William? Really?

Then, there’s the fact that he’s obviously obsessed with Cecily and writing what apparently amounts to be a creepy amount of poems about her with HER ACTUAL NAME in them, and then he goes, “Hmmmm, Who is't is this cecily thee speaketh of? I knoweth not whom thee couldst possibly beest talking about. I has't nev'r hath heard such a name. Cecily, thee sayeth?”

And then there’s this, which is almost as cringey and disturbing as what comes later on between these two…

WOMAN She's lovely. You shouldn't be alone. You need a woman in your life.

WILLIAM I have a woman in my life.

WOMAN But you ne… Oh...

She’s like blushing? They’re flirting? I just…

9) I get everyone freaking out about Spike’s trigger being activated, but the truth is, the trigger seemed to be dormant until they went messing with his head. What I don’t get is Spike wanting them to unchain him, though. It doesn’t make much sense when he had chained himself before and even asked Buffy to off him a couple of times. Why would he want to be free now that he knows he could still hurt people? I understand they were building up the conflict between Buffy/Spike vs Giles/Robin by having him ask to be released and having Buffy agree with him WHEN IT’S OBVIOUS HE SHOULD BE CHAINED UNTIL THEY FIGURE IT OUT AND IT’S COMPLETELY OOC FOR BOTH HIM AND BUFFY TO ARGUE OTHERWISE.

10) I fucking love Drusilla’s reaction here…

WILLIAM We'll ravage this city together, my pet. Lay waste to all of Europe. The three of us will teach those snobs and elitists with their falderal just what—

DRUSILLA Three?

WILLIAM You, me, and mother. 

11) And then he goes and does the most sexual thing a vampire can do with a human BUT he’s surprised when that other thing happens? I’m sorry, but your relationship with your mom was weird way before she made a move on you…

12) I truly don’t get why they can’t read into The First’s actions and realize that it was manipulating them into doing exactly what they were planning to do. It’s so obvious to me, and I expected more from Giles, tbh. I can understand Robin because he had a personal vendetta against Spike and that’s obviously more important to him than the grand scheme of things. But Giles?

ROBIN Mr. Giles... You got a moment?

GILES What's on your mind?

ROBIN The same thing that's on yours. We got ourselves a problem.

GILES Spike.

ROBIN Yeah, if that trigger is still working, then the First must be waiting for just the right time to use it against us.

GILES It does seem doubtful the First simply forgot it had such a powerful weapon.

ROBIN Yeah, a while back, it slipped up. It told Andrew it wasn't time yet for Spike. So, whatever the First's ultimate plan is, it's obvious that Spike must play an integral part in that. Something needs to be done.

GILES Buffy would never allow it

Robin conveniently leaves out the fact that The First contacted him personally and divulged the fact that Spike had killed his mother. It truly doesn’t get more obvious than that! And I understand why Robin wouldn’t care. It was selfish but totally understandable.

On the other hand, Giles’s stance is rather disappointing. Not only because he fails to read between the lines but also because he’s clearly underestimating Buffy’s ability to make the tough calls when push comes to shove. Buffy had always proven that she has what it takes to make sacrifices for the greater good, even if that means dying or killing someone she loves. And at the same time, we know that she finds strength in her emotions and her love for others. So it’s kind of bewildering that Giles doubts her at this point.

There’s also the hypocrisy of him washing his hands clean off her when she needed him the most and was actively asking for his help but trying to dictate her actions and decisions now by deceiving her. I think that’s what gets me angry, really. It’s not his trying to off Spike, as daft a move that was. It’s his lying to her and deceiving her in order to do something he knew she wouldn’t agree to.

13) So, this is for the greater good, Robin? Hmmm…. 

It looks more like you’re trying to fulfill your revenge fantasy. Or maybe he had a weird crosses fetish?

14) I mean…

ROBIN No, I don't wanna kill you, Spike. I wanna kill the monster who took my mother away from me.

Technically, he could never kill the monster who killed his mother. To begin with, Spike has a soul now and by the show’s standards, he wasn’t the same person who’d killed Nikki. This is the reason why Robin chooses to use the trigger. But the monster that shows up when Spike’s trigger goes off is not the person who’d killed Nikki either. When Spike’s under the influence of the trigger he seems to be a much more primal, instinct-driven, lethal vampire, which is not the pre-soul Spike we’ve known.

15) I really like how the fight is juxtaposed with the scene between Spike and his mom. It’s a really nice way to show how he gets to accept and overcome the burden that makes the trigger work. You can see that he’s beaten not because of Robin’s punches but because of what he’s remembering.

I mean, who wouldn’t be traumatized…?

16) I kind of see some of the points both of them make during their final conversation. Spike, as usual, makes some very good observations as regards Robin and his vendetta against him in the sense that he’s trying to put the blame on Spike for getting robbed of his childhood when that’s not really the case. While it’s not true that Nikki “knew what she was signing up for” because being a Slayer is not a career choice or even a calling, she did choose to put her duties as a Slayer before her personal and family life, which is why she ended up getting killed. I think it would be interesting to see how she got that mentality. I can imagine her arriving at the conclusion that she had the chance to make the world a better place for her kid, which makes a lot of sense in my opinion. I can’t help but see her “the mission is what matters” statement as influenced by the Black Power movement, too. The thing is, the fact that Robin grew up without a mom was the result of a number of reasons. That doesn’t take away from the fact that Spike was, indeed, his mom’s murderer, but it feels like Robin was trying to channel his anger into Spike because he couldn’t deal with the fact that he resented his mother for not choosing him over her job. On some level, he must’ve blamed his mother, too. It’s just a very complex issue, and I don’t think Robin would’ve gotten over the whole thing just by killing Spike.

17) I’m not a fan of the resolution, though. The fact that Spike overcomes his trauma by pissing all over Robin’s in the most brutal way feels so wrong and unnecessary, and I don’t understand why the writers made that choice and expected the viewers to see Spike as the hero in that scenario. Of course, I didn’t want him to get killed and I do like how he got rid of the trigger – by being forced to confront what he probably deems his most horrible deed and understanding that what matters about his relationship with his mom is not its ending but everything that came before. But I don’t get why he had to be so brutal with Robin in order to do that? Telling him that his mom didn’t love him and all that? Like, these are all things Robin probably thought himself a million times before, but having someone else spit them out in your face – your mom’s murderer of all people – feels like the ultimate humiliation and I don’t appreciate the writers building up Spike as a “strong/badass” character again by trashing Robin in such a horrible way. I can’t imagine how anyone would cheer for Spike here? It feels wrong to do so.

18) This is the moment you choose to bring this up, Giles? Why wasn’t this an issue before? Why didn’t you question this before?

GILES You want Spike here even after what he's done to you in the past?

It’s such a douche move to bring this up when it suits your purposes instead of showing concern about this because, I don’t know, you’re worried about Buffy reconnecting with her attempted rapist?

19)

BUFFY I'm in the fight of my life.

VAMPIRE Really?

BUFFY Not you, Richard.

“Not you, Richard” is going to be my new “Take it easy, Joan.” I’m calling it. 

20) I just love how the second Buffy realizes that Giles has been stalling her, she slays the vamp without even looking. It probably was harder for her to not kill him.

21) This also rubs me the wrong way…

BUFFY You try anything again, he'll kill you. More importantly, I'll let him. I have a mission to win this war, to save the world. I don't have time for vendettas. The mission is what matters.

I get that she strongly believes Spike is a warrior they need in this fight, but that doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t stop him from killing Robin, someone who’s also an asset – vendetta or not - but more importantly, an innocent person. This is so unusually cold of Buffy, and I don’t like it at all.

22) I don’t know why Giles assumed that Robin would succeed in killing Spike? If he’d been smart and sneaky about it, of course, but Robin was more concerned about his vendetta and putting on a big show, he was probably the least qualified person to try and kill Spike because of how emotionally involved he was in the whole thing. It’s precisely because of his emotions that he didn’t succeed. And besides, fighter or not, he didn’t stand a chance against William the Bloody, which is the one he wanted to fight. Giles was kind of stupid, tbh. Like, he trusted this guy who he barely even knew with a very important task, one that would cost him his relationship with Buffy. And he didn’t even bother to make sure that Robin would do it in a foolproof way.

23) See the hypocrisy?

BUFFY He's alive. Spike's alive. Wood failed.

GILES Well, that doesn't change anything. What I told you is still true. You need to learn—

24) This is Buffy’s kiss of death, tbh, and I fucking love it, it’s so extra.

25) I’m kind of torn when it comes to this episode. I feel like it’s a solid episode in the sense that it explores both Robin’s and Spike’s issues with their mothers and Buffy’s relationship with her mentor/father figure. On the other hand, this is an episode that centers around three of my favorite characters in the show – Buffy, Spike, and Giles – and I can’t say that I like any of them in it. I can handle not liking one of them at once, but shaking my head at all of them simultaneously is too much for my poor fangirl heart, you know? I don’t know. They come across as idiotic, brutal, and cold, and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I love these characters, and watching them act so unlike themselves for the sake of the plot… I just get this uncomfortable feeling I can’t shake off. I feel... like second-hand wrongness or something.

26) If you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi. Thanks!

[rock-and-compass]

7.01 thoughts

I wrote this as I watched the episode: 

The whole “Author” angel still sucks – it is a shit premise to base the show on – it starts from a point of undercutting the authenticity of the characters they are asking us to invest in. Season one didn’t start like that; they were people first, characters second. They were people who just happened to live lives that were then turned into “fairy tales” for a non-magical world. But going with this multi-version path you make them “characters” and “creations” of an author first and people second. And for me, well I want to invest in a believable representation of a person and relationships. Plus, just because there are “multiple versions of the same story” doesn’t mean that these multiple versions should co-exist as real – this is hard to explain... yes each version of the story is a unique expression, but each versions of the story is based on an original story that came from somewhere. Like The Grimm Brothers didn’t go out and write their version of, say Cinderella (I have no idea if they wrote a version of Cinderella, I’m just using it for illustrative purpose) at the same time as it was emerging as a German folk story… no, the Brothers Grimm collected and published folk stories and fairy tales and popularised them which then led to others doing the same thing, right through to movies and modern adaptations … what Once Upon a Time wants us to believe is that all these versions live independent lives because an author created them, which contradicts their own mythology which is that the Author records not creates – didn’t Isaac get in trouble for interfering? So I guess my ultimate issue with the premise of Season 7 is that it gives the Author too much credit and it creates a block to believing in the characters as people – and isn’t the object of television drama to get us to invest in narratives creations as real and then buy the products we see advertised in the commercial breaks?  But OUAT has decided to start this race with a handicap in place…. And Henry constantly reminding us that these people are characters doesn’t help. 

So to the episode: 

Yeah, I’m so not here for Regina and Henry – such a surface-level, unsatisfactory relationship. Henry’s forgetfulness of his mother’s actions is one of the great whitewashes of this show – and the propensity to sweep anything unpleasant under the rug and never mention it again is the great undoing of this text. I believe this bad narrative habit is THE reason the show was so disappointing in season’s 4, 5 & 6.

Magic Beans – So rare once upon a time, now it seems they are a staple… (and didn’t they used to make great hulking holes in the ground, not neat fire portals?) And way to marginalise Emma much from the departure … oh yeah. That’s going to be a thing now.

Henry is a Swyft driver. Oooh, it’s just like the Uber ad we have here in Australia… (I liked the photography and soundtrack for this scene.)

Hello repeato storyline!

Lucy is . . . um . . . precocious and I don’t mean that in a good way. She sound like a child, over-acting lines written by forty+ year old writers. And, jesus kid, save something for the car-ride – ALL. THAT. INFORMATION. IN. ONE. HIT. Emma was at least able to hook into the need to get Henry home and he didn’t over-whelm her with details. But the need for narrative pace here is all-too-obvious. They are trying to salvage viewers. We don’t get the luxury of slow burn. They’ve put an uncomfortable, unnatural fire beneath this story.

SEPERATION WAS NEVER THE PROBLEM little girl. The original curse needed a Saviour. The original curse needed Emma Swan to break it. The Fairy-Tale refugees lived TOGETHER in ignorance for 28 years. I hate it when shows forget their own story.

Let me guess – Hyacinth is going to be her lucky flower. The writing is anvilicious as ever.  I’m sure there will be more added to this list – the “need to write your own story” seems to be a theme we’re going to get a lot of. 

HenryElla reactions: Not seeing much chemistry. But I’m willing to say it’s because I don’t want to buy what they’re selling. My choice. Henry being all upfront about the stories is annoying – like it perfectly demonstrates what I was talking about in my opening rant… it treats her like a character rather than a person… and it makes me uncomfortable. The flirting feels forced and unnatural – you can see the words from the script all too clearly. And they want us to believe that Cinders can ride a motorcycle after one verbal lesson. Impossible. And is the punch to the face supposed to put them in the class of Snowing and Captain Swan ?  It doesn’t. I love the Rock and the Compass moments for Snow and Emma (see my user name) – they were both up against it, in danger of being captured (by the blokes who would turn out to be their true loves no less) and they did what they needed to do to get the upper hand. Sorry Cinders  punching Henry to steal his bike is not in the same category. And the attempt to start this romance by borrowing from its better predecessors is  just waaaay to transparent.

Ugh. Roni.

She’s calling him “Kid” now?

Henry to Roni - “Imagine if I walked through that door and told you I was your son.”   Audience - Oh wait - you are her son!! 

What clumsy heavy-handed writing; adding that to my anvilicious list.

Tiana cooks. Nice.  (and the frogs legs line was very good too).

Why would Step mother have any rights to the custody of Lucy? And we get it – this woman is your step mother – how many times did they refer to that in one scene (Four. Four times in 40 seconds)

And why is Ms Belfry so attached to Lucy anyway? How was she ever given access to Cinderella’s child at all if she’s always been this evil biatch? The Devil Wear’s Prada riff was nothing but deliberate. Obviously so.

Here’s another of what I suspect will be a reoccurring themes – “Never rely on Magic. Magic isn’t power.” And “Fear lasts forever”.

Oh here we go – A wishing well in a dirty old vacant block. Lemme guess, as the proverbial sense of “hope” returns to Hyperion Heights this vacant lot will blossom and bloom with life and forge a sense of community … and then Ms Belfry will bulldoze it…

The Ball. The lucky flower is back already. Wasn’t expecting it quite so soon. (hmmm. What’s going to grow in that vacant lot I wonder?)

Drizella’s (is that her name?) dress is fantastic.

Did we even see the dagger in the motorbike stealing scene?

Oh yeah. Cinderella/Jacinda ‘doesn’t believe in signs’ (adding to the list…)

Alice is intriguing. And clearly doesn’t want Henry interrupting “the story”

Yes – please please please make Rumple/Weaver unequivocally villainous again.  I bet they won’t but whatever. I don’t expect him to last the season.

Aaargh – “not too happy with your story? What would you change?” says Henry…  seriously? Who wrote this dialogue? It’s about as sophisticated as a piece of string...

And why isn’t Jacinda telling whatever-her-name-Belfry to fuck the fuck off. As far as I know, a grandparent, let alone a step-grandparent has no legal rights whatsoever to a grandchild so writing that she does without giving some reason for it is just infuriating. And the blurred lines between everyone freely talking about fairy-tales and authors is so messy – how would Ms Belfry know about Henry or what Lucy has been talking to him about – he is an unsuccessful author of absolutely no note. And yet everyone (and by everyone I mean Belfry) seems to know exactly who he is and why he’s there.  Maybe they do; but it comes across as narrative convenience or confusion, like the writers have forgotten who knows what.

Sorry. Why would Roni get so emotional about Belfry telling Henry off? It just screams manufactured emotion with no substance.  

Stolen car? Or was it towed Henry? For parking too close to a mail box? Just pointing that out.

Hook the Cop! Who cares when others don’t . . .  I just hope they don’t woobify him too much. At all. looks like that’s what they are doing.

Ugh this is awful – “Wait. You’re Alice. Alice from Wonderland?” The use of Henry, the Author as all-knowing expert to point out what the audience already worked out is just horrible! My initial problem with the premise continues to get reinforced. Maybe this will dilute as the season progresses and such but at the moment the awful, awful writing is not helping the cause at all.

“When it’s not your story, bad things happen” – another theme? How many is that already? And again, it signposts issues with the premise. And by bad things, we’re talking curse aren’t we. So if Henry is in the wrong story and sets about the curse in motion … this is making my head hurt. It’s all so very snake-eating-itself.

Henry and his hero kink…. Was tiresome before and is just as tiresome now…

Why the fuck did Alice let him go???

oh god, would you look at that; Lucy is planting Hyacinth “seeds” - they should be bulbs. Good lord, if they wanted a shot of her scattering seeds, why not pick a flower with seeds? I guess the blue colour (and it’s connection to Cinderella) was more important than botanical correctness. Lol.

Lucy and Henry have a nice chemistry – easily the most believable of the new characters – but Lucy’s dialogue is not great – mini-adult rather than authentic kid. Henry, in season one was written well and then it seems like A&E forgot how to write good child and they haven’t got it back with Lucy. It doesn’t help that she is being asked to be the narrative conduit for all the information about the curse and current situation and is being given no luxury of time to let the story flow organically. It all feels very rushed and very forced and ungainly. 

Step Mother is Regina 2.0 then.  Setting up Cinders to take the rap for murder, just like Regina did to Snow, only Stepmum is much more to the point. Public murder no lest, by her own hand.  I’ll struggle with this a lot if we’re supposed to interpret everything Belfrey does as evil when she is a clone of Regina (even a supposedly redeemed Regina). No doubt they’ll give step mama a sad backstory and make us all feel sorry for her and then they’ll all make friends and skip around the hyacinth flowers in the community garden together... 

And could they hammer home the whole “stories beginning” any harder that they are. It’s like being tortured with the concept… which is so annoying because we get that this is a “new beginning” for this ridiculous show but the instance that Jacinda and Lucy have to ‘start their story’ is just dumb. The story is in progress -  they might be looking for a change but to keep repeating “the story” “the story” “the story” over and over is moronic. People don’t talk like that. A&E love their themes more than believable dialogue. 

I get that they want Hook to look in the book, but how the fuck did Drizella know about it being in Lucy’s back pack – how did anyone know that she had it??

And why does Lucy have to go to Ms Belfry again? This is just silly.  

Not to spoil a good scene where Hook is obviously seeing something of import on the page, but there are no other pictures in the book except the one he stops on…  and jesus Colin, try to muster a  little enthusiasm here…

Now they add a little conflict between Henry and Jacinda just to keep the pot bubbling- after all those attempted heart-eyes earlier we can’t give them too easy a path to true love now can we?

Portals are on timers now?

For real? We’re still using “Operation insert-word-here” to name the mission? It was puke worthy after season two. I thought Henry had grown up?

How does Ms Belfry have the power to promote a cop?

Hook trapped with Rumple as his policing partner…. Let’s just say I’m dubious, although it might give both these characters some scope for an interesting story. Depending on what Rumple’s game is.

So Roni doesn’t know how the legalities of sale of real-estate works (or the writer’s don’t), whatever. But the refusal to part with the bar sets up Roni to give a painfully manufactured ‘hope’ speech – inspired by Jacinda apparently – who ‘wouldn’t give in” to Ms Belfrey, even though Lucy still ended up in her grandmother’s custody and Jacinda did precious little to stop it. OUAT has had this habit for a while – making the character say things that are not backed up by the actual events. It’s just one of the reasons the writing on this show is so weak. It shows they have a lot of trouble of getting ideas and actualities to mesh and support each other.  

“today I watched you walk into my bar acting like you owned the place” Oh the irony! I’m laughing my guts up here – if you read anything I wrote for the previous seasons of OUAT you will know that this is a particular beef I had with Regina, particularly in season 6 - She was always barging into places like she owned the joint – she believed she did own the town - and in SB no one questioned her actions!  And now, here in HH it’s an affront to Regina/Roni that someone does the same to her? Now this would all be great if there was a remote chance that Regina would learn a lesson from it. If Ms Belfry’s character was a mirror for Regina to see her own reflection and actually address her past and undertake an authentic redemption – BUT IT WON’T - because the writers are incapable of complex storytelling and are too scared to tackle anything unpleasant.  I will never believe in Regina as the hero of the people. I will never believe Regina as a worthy leader.  The show didn’t do a remotely satisfying job in selling her “redemption” the first time around. Maybe Roni, the cursed persona is supposed to be different – maybe that IS the irony, that Roni gets affronted by things that were habitual to Regina, but I’m pretty sure (like 99%) that Roni is merely a way to write Regina as a white-washed hero and for her to assume the new position of a Snow-Emma-Granny hybrid. Nope. Still don’t like her. She feels like a fraud.  And never, ever give her dramatic voice-overs. They never work well. (And this one just goes on and on and on…) Could they be more obvious that they wanted Regina/Roni to check all the boxes, make sure she says all the catchphrases and touches on all the themes? it’s a crowning moment of anvilicious dialogue. 

Regina calling Ms Belfry a bully? That’s rich. It’s like the pot calling the kettle black. And the sad part is I don’t think the writer’s even realise it!  I see what people who saw the screener meant when they said that the show now belongs to Regina – she has become the ‘voice’ of the narrative. It makes me very sad.

Sheesh, so they bust the myth of Henry’s dead family straight away? The break-neck speed of exposition is so inelegant.

Hook looking at the picture of Emma – about the most interesting 5 seconds of the entire episode.

The music, Roni’s heavy-handed voice-over, it all made me feel very uncomfortable. It was just a big hulking reminder of what is not there anymore. It all just felt so obvious that the show is trying too hard to recapture something that it has lost and I don’t think it will ever get back.  

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #178 - Madagascar

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: No.

Format: DVD

1) I was not actually planning on watching this so soon for my recap. I only own the first one and was thinking of getting the sequels in the future so I could do the whole trilogy. BUT I am currently working at a youth summer drama camp which is putting on this production and the director asked me to watch this film for that. So I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and do the Epic Movie (Re)Watch post for it simultaneously.

2) The dream is actually a nice way to start the film, primarily because it clearly illustrates Marty’s driving motivations for the first half of the film while also setting up some of its humor (mainly through the choral penguins flying away).

3) Ben Stiller as Alex.

Stiller’s performance as Alex the Lion makes what could have easily been an unlikable character lovable instead. He’s warm, excited, genuinely heartfelt. He does not condescend to his friends, he is never seen stabbing them in the back for the chance to be more famous, and Stiller just makes the character fun to watch.

4) The opening scene of the guests at the zoo - cutting between animals, establishing various characters - is a nice example of a model telling. We get a sense of what everyday zoo life is like for everyone, something which is juxtaposed against the shenanigans to come.

5) The Penguins.

The ultimate scene stealers of the show, the Penguins have become so popular they have their own short film, TV series, and even a feature length film. All you have to do is look to this film to understand why. There is a clear dynamic in the group formed with leader Skipper (voiced incredibly by director Todd McGrath), second hand Kowalski, wild card Rico and lovable Private; a chain of command which is fun to watch and see them operate. They are not nearly as competent as they believe but the fact that they are so confident in their buffoonery makes you A) actually believe they’re skilled spy like creatures, and B) enjoy watching them all the more.

6) You can file this one under jokes I didn’t get as a kid.

Melman [after Marty puts the thermometer Melman gave to him in his mouth]: “You know that was my first rectal thermometer.”

7) Chris Rock as Marty.

Rock breathes a lot of life into the protagonist zebra, making Marty kind and sincere. The enthusiasm he has for going to the wild is childlike and infectious. He’s funny when Marty needs to be funny but vulnerable/honest when also needed.

8) Jada Pinkett Smith as Gloria.

Gloria actually does not get to do as much as I remember (probably because her role increased with the sequels). That doesn’t mean Pinkett Smith isn’t good in the part. She breathes a lot of warmth and personality into the character. Her performance allows Gloria to stand out as much Marty and Alex despite the smaller amount of screen time comparatively speaking.

9)

Marty: “I don’t even know if I’m black with white strips or white with black stripes.”

It was formerly believed that zebras were white animals with black stripes (because some zebras have white underbellies). However, evidence has shown that the animal’s background color is black and the white stripes and bellies are additions.

10) Alex and Marty signing “New York New York” early in the film is a nice showcase of their strong friendship. While at odds for most of the film, it is when this relationship shines through that the characters are at their most interesting.

11) David Schwimmer as Melman.

Schwimmer is able to play the neurotic character well while also making him subtlety different from Ross from “Friends”. There’s a bit of a difference in his voice; a little more of a gnawing neuroticism than an over the top comedic one (as he got to show off in the later seasons of “Friends”). While he was potentially type cast in the part, he is able to make Melman his own character wonderfully and a worthy addition to the quartet of zoosters.

12) Zoosters Breakout.

Bolstered by what might be the best piece of score on the soundtrack by composer Hans Zimmer, the breakout and chasing down of Marty is one of the funnest parts of the film. A lot happens in not a lot of time and we are carried through the scene with wonderful humor, editing, music, and performances from the actors. It also features one of the best remembered gags in the film in "Bad Kitty”.

(GIF originally posted by @the-light-of-animation)

And one of my personal favorites as well.

Skipper: “We’ve been ratted out, boys.”

13) Man, everyone points out the drug jokes in The Good Dinosaur and Dumbo but let’s not forget about this:

14) When the Phil the monkey is using “sign language” I don’t think it’s accurate (as someone who has been studying it for the past year), which is pretty annoying honestly. Either do it accurately or have him communicate in another way.

15) The beach scene has a lot of great gags in quick succession. Alex almost vaulting (?) Melman in the crotch, Gloria showing up looking a bit like a mermaid, Marty coming in on the dolphins, and of course…

16) Oh Melman…

Melman [thinking the beach is the San Diego Zoo]: “Complete with fake rocks. Wow, that looks real!”

17) In the same way that “I’m A Believer” became the anthem for Shrek, “I Like To Move It” has been repurposed into the theme for the entire Madagascar series.

18) Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien

Julien risks topping the penguins as the top scene stealer in the film. Originally a two minute bit part, after Sacha Baron Cohen auditioned the filmmakers expanded the role to best showcase his humor. Baron Cohen’s abilities as a character actor/mast of improv shines through in the part. There’s heart and humor in every bit of his dialogue, totally effecting and partially elevating the rest of the film.

19) Honestly this film is a bit weaker than I remember, mainly from a structural standpoint. They spend a lot of time bickering/freaking out on the beach about being the wild. While it leads to a lot of great gags, often times plot movement relates to physical movement and since the characters just stay put for a while so does the plot.

20) This is another joke I didn’t get as a kid.

21) See #21.

22) I mentioned before that I think this film is at its best when we’re treated to the relationship Alex and Marty have together.

Marty [to Alex, about the wild]: “Can you give it a chance? Just think about it. It isn’t really the fun side [of the island] without you.”

It’s nice seeing these moments between the pair, showing just how strong their friendship. They’re more than friends; they fight and forgive each other, they’re brothers.

23) Hmm…

Marty: “You know what Alex: I promise I’m going to find you a steak tomorrow if it kills me.”

24) I grew up in Wisconsin. I appreciate this.

Private [after the penguins observe cold, windy Antarctica]: “Well this sucks.”

25) I forgot this line was in the film. It made me laugh more than it should.

Julien [trying to dismiss Alex biting Marty’s butt]: “Come on Maurice, what is a simple bite on the button between friends. Here, give me a nibble.”

26) This is the moment where Gloria gets to shine as a strong, determined character.

Gloria [about what to do about Alex]: “Come on, we are New Yorkers right!? We’re tough! We’re gritty! We’re adaptable! And we are NOT going to lay down like a bunch of Melmans!”

27) I dig this joke.

28) Jeffrey Katzenberg admitted he was disappointed with the film’s final act. And it does kinda lose steam at the end (despite some great gags with the penguins and the Foosa), but there is still a nice bit of Alex and Marty’s relationship there. Alex’s conflict over what nature intends for him and what he hopes to be (a killer predator vs a friend to Marty, respectively) is compelling, and the way Marty is there for his friend even though Alex wants to eat him just speaks to the continued strength of their relationship.

29) This is a nice last joke to end the film on.

Private: “Skipper, don’t you think we should tell them that the boat’s out of gas?”

Skipper: “Nah. Just smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.”

I enjoy Madagascar well enough. I think the third one is the best and its obviously not the best Dreamworks film of the 21st century (Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon vie for that spot in my opinion). But the characters are fun, there’s a lot of great humor (especially from the penguins and Julien), and it’s just a really enjoyable 90ish minutes. If you want to take part in the film, do so. You’ll probably enjoy it.

[psycho-alchemist]

Summer 2017 Anime - First Impressions

The first week of the summer 2017 anime season has ended, and we've got a pretty good lineup! I've finished sampling all of the anime I planned on watching, plus a few extra, so in this post I will discuss my impression of each first episode I watched. Click on the respective picture to see my thoughts in the description! And please share your thoughts as well; I'd love to know what you thought of this first week!

Covered in this post:

Aho-Girl

Ballroom e Youkoso

Centaur no Nayami

Dive!!

Enmusubi no Youko-chan

Isekai Shokudou

Jikan no Shihaisha

Kakegurui

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

Knight’s & Magic

Konbini Kareshi

Made in Abyss

Nana Maru San Batsu

New Game!!

Princess Principal

Shoukoku no Altair

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Aho-Girl - First Impression Anime about stupid people are usually an even mix of funny and cringey. You laugh at their mistakes while shrivelling up on the inside from secondhand embarrassment. But you know what? Aho Girl is NOT one of those anime. IT'S WORSE. I wasn't even enjoying her idiocy after a few minutes; I was not only cringing, I wanted to fucking drop kick her and end the episode. Her poor childhood friend deserves better. I can't watch this entire anime. I'll get high blood pressure.

Ballroom e Youkoso - First Impression BeY was one of the most hyped anime of the season. The manga is very popular, and I actually read 4 volumes before the anime started airing! I'm not in love with BeY, but I do think the anime will be fun and intense to watch, if it's anything like the manga. The dance moves and competitions are very fast-paced, and it'll be very cool to learn about ballroom dancing. There's a lot more to it than just romantic, sexy movement! I think BeY does a great job explaining the technical aspects of the sport, and I can't wait to see it all animated! I'll also be promoting this anime a bit extra, since YoI's awful fanbase is attempting to tear it down for being--and I quote--"aggressively het," among other things. (The Tumblr drama is INSANE.)

I wasn't very impressed with this episode. I was expecting something similar to Demi-chan wa Kataritai except with even more demi-humans, but this first episode really fell flat for me. There wasn't much good music, the voice acting felt very bland, and the art wasn't very good. It is interesting to see all the different types of students, but I just...can't seem to care much about them? Something about the show just lacks charm, so I don't think I'll even watch the next episode.

Dive!! - First Impression I wasn't tooo impressed with episode 1. I'm pretty selective about which Yuki Kaji roles I like, and this isn't one of them. But as long as I can learn some technical stuff about diving--and maaaaybe get a little bit of eye candy as well--I'll be happy! Usually these kinds of conflicts happen later in a series once we're already attached to the characters, but I'm hoping that the boys' endeavor to save their club will give us some insight into their personalities. Episode 2 was definitely more promising, so I look forward to seeing how Tomoki improves!

Enmusubi no Youko-chan - First Impression UGH. One of the WORST pilot episodes of the season. I checked out the anime because of the romance tag, but the characters were insufferable, the voice acting was pretty bad, and the plot was just stupid. And the whole "arranged marriage because girls are useless" trope is SO overdone. That's really all I have to say about this one. Not watching anymore.

Isekai Shokudou - First Impression The first two episodes were pretty cute. I was still on the fence after ep 1, but ep 2 pretty much sold me on the anime! I really like the main chef (Junichi Suwabe <3) and the girl who joined as a waitress. It was interesting to hear about the discrimination she faced, and I look forward to seeing if she will be able to regain her confidence by serving customers who are just as odd as she is. I also love seeing the variety of customers who visit, and of course, the food looks delicious!!

Jikan no Shihaisha - First Impression Based on what I saw on the forums, people weren't too crazy about episode 1? But I liked it! I like the two main characters, Victor and Wu. The first episode has already established what they do and why they do it, and I appreciate having that information in the first episode. I also loved the plot twist at the end of the episode; it really got me thinking! As for Koyuki, I thought her struggle with death was very valid. My only complaint is--who just leaves their precious violin on a bench and crosses the street?! You'd never catch me doing that to my violin! And then, who runs across the street without looking both ways?!?! Basically, my complaint is that the actual death scene was pretty stupid. But Koyuki's desire to bring her brother back to life, even if it hurt her in the process, was very valid. Obviously, there are more characters we have yet to meet. There's Mina Putin, who I'm guessing is Wu's sister. And according to MAL, there's also Blaze, Ice Radar, and Snake. I'm pretty excited to meet all of them, since I already like Wu and Victor! They're pretty amusing characters and they have a great dynamic, despite their sad pasts. I hope they can get their revenge against the Horologue that took their mother and cursed Victor!

Kakegurui - First Impression WOW. Of all the season anime I watched, Kakegurui gave off the best impression so far. Episode 1 & 2 were intense and exciting! I loved the soundtrack, the art was awesome, and I especially enjoyed the grotesque facial expressions. (They remind me of Psycho Pass!) In addition, I'm not a big Saori Hayami fan in general, but I was blown away by her voice acting. She did such a great job capturing that insanity that Yumeko flaunts, and I can't wait to see her performance in future episodes!! As for the actual plot, I'm curious to know who exactly Yumeko is. The girl with the blue lipstick clearly recognized her. In addition, the blue lipstick girl seemed to have some kind of quasi-lesbian tie with Yumeko in the OP, so I want to know if they have some kind of connection? And finally, I can't WAIT to meet all the other conniving bitches at this school and watch Yumeko take them all down!! >:D

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun - First Impression Keppeki Danshi's pilot episode was the most disappointing for me. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that this anime was one of my most anticipated seasonal shows. I expected a fun sports anime with a quirky hero, but instead I got something...kind of in-between. This anime isn't taking the route of an intense sports anime, nor is it taking the route of a pure comedy anime. It yoyos back and forth between the two without really doing a good job at either genre. I didn't enjoy the games, I didn't like any of the characters (minus the obvious comic relief abs guy), and I especially disliked the forced character development Aoyama received at the end of the episode. The scene I'm referring to is when the manager/coach explained how much Aoyama must care about soccer because he was cleaning the soccer balls. I just don't see it at all, and I'm not sure if I'll even watch the next episode.

Knight's & Magic - First Impression I loved this first episode! I try to sample all the decent-looking mecha anime these days, since a lot of people are biased against the genre. I gotta say, I really enjoyed the first two episodes. The three main characters are so much fun, and Ernesti in particular is very interesting! Of course, I'd like to get a better explanation of how he was reincarnated into this magical world, but so far this seems like a pretty light-hearted fun mecha/action anime. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and we can always expect Ernesti to figure out a way to beat the odds. So far Knight's & Magic is one of the highlights of the season so far! <3

Konbini Kareshi - First Impression ...A below average, standard, cliche-as-fuck shoujo anime. I admit that I watched two episodes--mostly for the pretty girls--but I really dislike Towa (the blondie guy). He literally said that when girls say "no," they mean "more." And let me interrupt my anime post to say that NO MEANS NO. Doesn't matter the gender or romantic preference. NO MEANS NO. Anyway, the girls in this series feel very bland so far. And the romance between Towa and Mami feels very forced. Mami clearly dislikes the way Towa acts towards her--and he's not even her type!!--but I already know the show is going to try to convince me that 1) Mami was just embarrassed when Towa called her cute because she also thinks he's hot, and 2) Mami just avoided talking to Towa because other girls would get jealous or something. I'm calling it right now, and it's bullshit. I'm still watching right now though. I'm a hypocrite.

Made in Abyss - First Impression Episode 1 was pretty nice, but I'm getting nervous. I posted about Made in Abyss on Tumblr, and someone responded to my post by saying that the anime would most likely have to censor some of the gore from the manga. In addition, another post side-eyed the scene where Riko said that getting strung up naked was traumatizing to a young girl. Basically, I get the idea that there will be much more traumatizing events. I've also heard that the manga covers some uncomfortable, discourse-worthy topics. Honestly, I can handle a fair amount of suffering, but one of the things I won't really be able to stomach from Made in Abyss is rape. I don't know if that's a possibility, but hopefully the gore stays away from rape or sexual assault. :( (If anyone does know if that is something that will happen, please let me know! I'd at least like to be mentally prepared!) And this is just my prediction, but Nat (the boy Riko was with) is listed as a supporting character rather than a main one. If you all remember, Manato from Hai to Gensou no Grimgar was also listed as a supporting character, which clearly indicated he was going to die. I expect Nat to die as well too. (Please don't send me any explicit spoilers though!) Long story short: I'm scared of what is going to happen to these kids.

Nana Maru San Batsu - First Impression Ironically, the first two episodes of this anime have been more exciting than the debut of Dive!! and Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun. Even though this anime is about taking quizzes, I truly still classify it as a sports anime. It's about a competitive club, and it requires training and fast reflexes, which makes it sporty enough for me! I had no idea that the quiz takers had to anticipate the question material based on the syllables, and it's been really interesting so far to learn about the nuances of quiz taking! I also love that Shiki gets to participate in a high-energy club, even though he's the type of student who typically wouldn't get to do something like that. My only grievances so far are 1) the panty scene in episode 1 (but the rest of the episode was good enough to overlook it), and 2) Mari's voice actress is clearly VERY inexperienced. She lacks inflection and enthusiasm, and Mari is a pretty dynamic character. I'm all for supporting budding voice actors, but I still feel that Umika Kawashima wasn't the right choice for Mari. She needs more practice using more inflection. Luckily I'm still really liking the anime, but Mari's voice stands out to me often as just not emoting enough.

New Game!! - First Impression A pretty good first episode. I will say right off the bat that I wasn't happy with all the panty/butt fanservice. Can't we just have an anime about female programmers making a game? But aside from that, I liked this episode! The idea that Aoba could be the leade character designer is super exciting, and I can't wait to see what kinds of characters she creates! I'm excited for this season, but I remember how slice-of-lifey and fanservicey s1 got towards the end, so I really hope that doesn't happen this time.

Princess Principal - First Impression A pretty impressive first episode! With these kinds of "cute girls killing people" anime, you can never be too sure until the first episode airs whether the anime will take the dark route or the ultra cute route, and so far this anime seems to be going more for the dark route! Maybe not as dark as MahoIku, for example, but the first episode clearly wasn't trying to be moe at all. I appreciate that. So much... ;_; I really like the characters so far, and I was pretty surprised by the ending! I was impressed by how hard-headed all the spies are, and I Ioved watching them in action. Overall this was one of the strongest debuts of the scene as well, and I'm definitely looking forward to future episodes! ((Maybe this anime won't disappoint me the way Joker Game did :))))) ))

Shoukoku no Altair - First Impression ...This is the one anime that I just can't remember much about from the first episode. It was pretty unremarkable to me. People seem to like the manga, but so far Shoukoku no Altair just reminds me too much of Arslan Senki, except more boring. I'm not going to quit just yet though! I still want to find out if Mahmut will convince that other kingdom that they were framed!

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan - First Impression ...WOW. You know what, this is the dark horse of the season for me. I was not expecting this anime to be so interesting or exciting. I don't know what the anime community is saying about this anime--removing myself from that community has done wonders for my mental health--but I certainly did not expect ANYTHING good from this anime. I don't think I even bothered to put it in my season preview, because it was right at the end and the summary left me entirely underwhelmed. But here I am, singing Vatican Kiseki Chousakan's praises left and right! I can imagine that one issue people might have with the anime thus far is the very strong roots it has in Catholocism. However, as someone who grew up in a Christian home, I'm very familiar and comfortable with all the Catholic references. If anything, I'm glad to see religion discussed in an anime without being the butt of a joke. However, while I can understand people getting put off by all the religion, I think the mystery from episode 1 is genuinely interested. I'd really like to get to the bottom of it, and I'm fairly certain I will continue watching this anime!

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou - First Impression The first episode of Youkai Apartment genuinely wasn't too bad, but it was just...kinda boring? I didn't care for any of the characters, and something about the art style was just horribly average. I don't plan on watching anymore.

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - First Impression This episode was actually not too bad. The colors were pretty (albeit a little odd), and the twist at the end was unexpected. Obviously I don't really like the main character--a lot of people don't from what I've seen--but the premise was pretty cool. It kinda reminded me of Danganronpa, but I'm confused about why the genres are "comedy" and "romance." This anime could easily turn into a drama/psychological anime, so why the comedy tag? If the show ends up being really generic and light-hearted I will definitely drop it, but I'm hoping it'll take a "Lord of the Flies" route! :D

[theworstbob]

the thing journal, 4.30.2017-5.6.2017

capsule reviews of the seven pop culture things i took in last week. in this post: american honey, falsettoland, fin, a good night in the ghetto, guppy, don’t think twice, and brooklyn nine-nine (s1)

1) American Honey, dir. Andrea Arnold: did you guys know women make films I've been so stoked to see this since Battleship Pretension recommended it on the strength of Sasha Lane's perormance, and I was so psyched when it was made available. I thought this was really admirable. The media about the suburbs that I've typically endured paint the suburbs as this empty, hollow place where dreams are suffocated, so this film did something really cool by showing the suburban Midwest through the eyes of these kids who live in abject poverty, in a position where living in sketchy motels and selling magazines is the best living they've had and may ever have. I can't for the life of me tell you the plot or if there was any sort of conflict -- I guess the woman in the Confederate flag bikini didn't like the Sasha Lane character? But? Nothing really happened? This movie didn't need to be two and a half hours? But it's fucking beautiful and I can't believe this was Sasha Lane's first performance and Shia LeBouef is cast to type as a dude with a rattail who fucks teenagers, and I adored it.

2) Falsettoland, wr. William Finn: Boy this was Jewish! I wrote this note three songs in, and this is my main opinion. I added this musical to my library because it had a fun name, and while I cannot say that this has rid me of my habit of finding things with fun names to listen to, it will definitely make me more hesitant, simply because sometimes you listen to a 90-minute musical soundtrack about marital strife in suburban New York.

3) Fin, by Syd: i listened to this twice last week, but i didn't write anything down and i've forgotten anything i might've had to say about this thing. my bad. i clearly thought it was cool, if not quite cool enough to keep it in the memory bank i guess?, but man, i'm disappointed in myself. i barely hit seven things this week, and one of them was a tv season which i'd already seen 33% of, and now it's sunday morning and i procrastinated on this post and i've gotta get this shit back on track. next week will be better.

4) A Good Night in the Ghetto, by Kamaiyah: gosh but there was so much good hip-hop released in 2016. this is one of the stronger debuts i've heard in a while, kamaiyah already has a strong sense of who she is, and i'm so stoked for the thing she's going to release next because any sort of backslide from this album would be a hell of a thing. it's been a while since we've had a woman with a legitimate claim to Best Rapper Alive -- nicki's fine but way too inconsistent to have any right -- and like it's shitty to lay that expectation on her, i'm just psyched to see where she goes, but if it's 5-7 years in the future and she or syd or noname aren't in the Best Rapper Alive conversation, we will have failed as a species.

5) Guppy, by Charly Bliss: This is a solid rock album that all the people I trust were right about. It took me a little bit to get used to the vocals -- that first song was one of those, "Oh, that's what you decided to sound like! What an odd choice to have made!" But about halfway through, I realized that this was what the lead singer of Metric would sound like in a conventional rock band, and I was into it from that moment on. Some dope tracks, doesn't overstay its welcome (could have maybe even stayed a little longer!), and will make for some enjoyable bus rides for the foreseeable future. I hope this band doesn't suck in the future! That'd be a downer.

6) Don't Think Twice, dir. Mike Birbiglia: This is not the movie to watch on a Friday night when you've been pretty sleep-deprived. I'm into a movie about people realizing the dream isn't going to happen, of course, and I love Mike Birbiglia, and the parts of the film I was awake for were nice -- the scene near the end, where Gillian Jacobs is carrying out the saddest improv show ever, is so beautiful, but the rest of it, enh, it's a lot of white people sad they can't do improv as a job forever. I feel guilty evaluating a movie I didn't completely take in, that take might be a reductive one, but I'll stand by it. If it were engaging, I'da stayed up, ya know?

7) Brooklyn Nine-Nine, s1, cr. Dan Goor & Michael Schur: This was a nice show! I so far love every single time Andy Samberg comes up with a new fake identity for himself (and I love that his propensity for creating fake personas is an arc with a satisfying conclusion), the Rosa character is a really fascinating and dark twist on the Carla-from-Cheers character who sort of walks in and insults people and leaves (this is an opinion I have because I'm also rewatching Cheers), and the writers and Andre Braugher are so very up to the task of creating a comic character out of a humorless man. Two things I didn't like? The show probably should have realized how badly the "cop panics and wildly shoots into the night" jokes would be at the time, but they're even worse now that police panicking and shooting at innocent civilians is a thing we're aware of, and I really wish Michael Schur would have shelved the romantic arcs for this one. Peralta and Santiago work better as professional partners than as a will-they-won't-they, and Boyle/Rosa is just shitty. Joe Lo Truglio is like so very clearly older than Rose Beatriz, and that makes it really creepy when he tells her things like, "When you go out with me -- and you will." I'm glad they put him together with someone his own age for a little bit, and I guess Peralta/Santiago is somewhat compelling, but I hope the show recognized the romantic arcs were duds and put the kibosh on them in s2. (Please tell me they did, even after I watch s2 and they didn’t, tell me they did.) Compliment sandwich! Terry Crews is perfect and I am so glad they let him exist in their universe.

[softcoregamer]

Top 5 games I played in 2016

I actually played some games made in 2016 in 2016, for once.

honorable mentions

Dragon Age Inquisition has some interesting looking wrinkles to the Chosen One RPG formula- for one you can pretty much decide whether you believe you actually ARE the Chosen One, and the game looks quite reactive to things like class and race choice.  I like the high concept of the story but can’t stand Bioware’s dialogue, and the combat didn’t do much for me in the few hours I played, but I’m sure I’ll pick it back up properly at some point.

Unravel is a charming puzzle-platformer which makes good use of diegtic elements to feel organic and natural, which sometimes works against it because it can be hard to tell what bits of the environment can be manipulated to progress.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that this game, while it looks beautiful, just isn’t flashy enough to convince me to spend that much time with it.

Doom 4, or D44m (there is already a game just called Doom, you philistines) kind of came out of nowhere; everyone was expecting it to be a nu-FPS trudge through halls of blobs that are called Cacodemons for brand recognition.  Instead it’s a fast-paced, blood-soaked, surprisingly-colourful romp through halls of blobs that are called Cacodemons for brand recognition.  I rented it on PS4 and will definitely buy it at some point when I upgrade my PC.  I have trouble justifying any PS4 purchase because almost every single game I’ve played on it has loading times that would have to be cut in half for me to consider them unacceptably long, and this game is no exception.

dishonorable mentions

Fallout 4 stripped out the role playing from an iconic role playing series and replaced it with a settlement building minigame. Fuck off.

Bound is a feels platformer about a pregnant woman imagining her traumatic childhood memories as a princess made of triangles defending her kingdom from a monster. Instead of combat you dance to produce a force field which protects you from flames and swarming triangles. You have three dance moves but I couldn't see any difference in their effects. The platforming isn't very good and it's impossible to run off a ledge because they put invisible walls everywhere because they didn't want to frustrate players of their bullshit feels game by having gameplay. Bound robbed me of two hours of my life that I can never get back.

If I never hear another “the only reason to not like No Man’s Sky is if you are too intellectually enfeebled to comprehend how good it is” it will be too soon.

Anyway, onto the top 5!!!!

5: Batman: Arkham Knight

I barely have any complaints about this game, but not much stands out as great either. The gameplay is polished and there’s a good amount of variety in side missions, the graphics are spectacular, it’s got great Batmanfeel with heft and weight to your actions, mixing up the brawling with an acceptable video game approximation of detective work. The Batmobile/Bat-tank is used way too much, though, and while the cutscenes are excellent the story is middle-of-the-road, and much of the gameplay is a bit too familar after the previous two games.  The PC release was atrocious and I’ve got no idea if it remains so since I played this on PS4. Overall I can see myself giving the DLC season pass a try, which is a huge mark in a game’s favour.

4: Brigador

Gorgeous looking isometric tank shooter.  The totalitarian dictator of the planet Novo Solo has been assassinated, and the invading Solo Nobre Concern is hiring independent contractors (that’s you!) to soften up the capital city for their takeover by destroying high-value targets, orbital cannons, and any scenery that gets in your way. It’s highly challenging, gameplay is smooth and slick, and it includes a huge selection of characters, vehicles and weapons, not to mention a banging soundtrack and an Official Novel which chronicles the adventures of several Solo Nobre soldiers trying to get through the last night of life as they know it.

3: Blue Revolver

Like all the best shmups Blue Revolver is like a diamond- a miraculous fusion of beauty and structural intricacy, small but perfectly formed, and absolutely rock hard.  It’s brutally difficult but scrupulously fair, punishing you with instant death when you slip up but always welcoming you back with a friendly smile to try again.  It goes out of its way to make itself accessible to newbies without being condescending, and I’ve seen it get high praise from genre veterans too.  It includes a selection of “missions” to train you to think like a shmupper, and provide extra challenges outside pure survival and score attack.  I don’t particularly like the art style or much of the music, but the gameplay is so good that this is going to be a fixture on my PC for years to come anyway.

2: The Witcher 3

CDProjekt Red’s action RPG is overrated but the “complete” edition is nonetheless consistently entertaining and great value for money, with my fairly thorough playthrough weighing in at nearly 140 hours(and not a radiant quest in sight), around 10 of which came from the first expansion, Hearts Of Stone, and nearly thirty from Blood And Wine- I’ve heard it said that B&W could almost have been sold full price as The Witcher 4, and I’m inclined to agree.  Get this game on PC if you can.

1: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

It’s difficult to place MGSV.  It’s clearly frustratingly incomplete- many missions have little weight to the story, there are few enemy types and encounter designs are samey, with the admittedly cool preparedness system (enemy equipment responds to your playstyle so sneaking around at night results in enemies wearing night vision goggles, headshots mean more helmets, etc) not actually doing that much to switch things up in the long run. The story is poorly paced, and feels a lot like the developer was struggling to balance a linear story with the linearity-unfriendly open-world genre.  Chapter 2 (of 2, with the online multiplayer component apparently constituting chapter 3) consists largely of harder versions of Chapter 1 missions- not “oh, you had to find a microfilm in that mission and now you have to find a microfilm in this one, but literally the other mission was called THE MICROFILM and this one is [EXTREME] THE MICROFILM.  Most of the story is told through audiologs, which go way too exposition-heavy and really feel like a last-minute solution to not being able to have more cutscenes because Konami turned off the money hose without warning.  A lot of the game feels like that, a first draft which would then be iterated on to get things right.  Obsidian Entertainment’s design director Josh Sawyer once roughly defined “alpha” as “you would cringe but eventually shrug if it went out in that state” and I think a lot of cringing and shrugging ended up happening at Kojima Productions.

And yet... the gameplay is clearly what they worked the hardest on for longest, and it’s as smooth and responsive as I’ve ever seen in a stealth game.  Whatever the last Metal Gear game was that I tried to play (maybe MGS3?) was nowhere near this in terms of deciding what you want to do and then doing it in an instant, without stumbling over which combination of buttons makes you go prone.  Add to that a ton of options, from smoke grenades to hide your escape, sleep grenades to knock enemies out, dummies to distract them, way too many types of guns, grenade launchers, rockets, a dog who will slit enemies’ throats for you and howl in triumph... And if you can divorce the story from it’s pacing it’s really great, surprisingly low-key and haunting for a military espionage thriller featuring a man with a mullet and eyepatch called Snake.  It’s all about the emptiness of revenge and the pain of loss, and about the lie at the heart of every myth about a Great Man, and about how if your circumstances dictate who you are then how do those circumstances come to be, who controls them, and why?  It’s shot through with references to two core concepts, phantoms and parasites, as you sneak around the battlefield as a mercenary, feeding off war(the ending reveals that...spoiler).  The story even makes the incomplete nature of the game feel kind of cool in a meta way- we feel the phantom pain of where the rest of the game should be.  It was our game!  Give it back!!  They played us like a damn fiddle!  That’s not enough to forgive everything, obviously, and the game really does suffer from a lack of content on par with the amount of playing it actually wants you to do(even at optimum efficiency it’d take well over 200 hours to unlock all the weapons and equipment) but it’s still resonating with me months later despite everything.  It’s hard to resist popping the game back in to collect some more soldiers for my base, maybe try the multiplayer and find some nukes to disarm for that special final cutscene.  It may be a disappointment to Metal Gear fans, but I’m not a Metal Gear fan, and I find it hard to justify putting it anywhere on my Top Games I Played In 2016 List except at number one.  It’s lame and unfinished, it sucks a big fat chode, and it’s one of the greatest games of all time.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 127: Are You My Dad?

“This might be serious.”

Those of y’all that check out my episode rankings at the end of every post know that my favorite “normal” episode of Steven Universe (so not Steven and the Stevens or Hit the Diamond, which are in their own category of perfect character studies) isn’t Lion 3 or Alone Together or Jailbreak or The Answer or Mr. Greg or Mindful Education. And, spoiler alert, it won’t be Jungle Moon or A Single Pale Rose or Reunited or Change Your Mind. It’s Mirror Gem. 

So it’s not a shocker that I’m drawn to another episode that’s the beginning of a two-parter closing out the first half of a fifty-odd episode chunk, which starts out goofy but grows increasingly ominous and ends in a confrontation with a new blue Gem. In terms of tone, Are You My Dad? is an incredible exercise in tension, albeit one that benefits from two prior episodes’ cliffhangers in a way Mirror Gem manages without (but to be fair, Mirror Gem arrives when we still don’t know there are other Gems, which gives its mystery a major advantage).

The silly beginning here is strengthened by the return of all three original Crystal Gems, who haven’t been in a room together since Rocknaldo. They’re increasingly out of focus as we get into more Steven-centric storytelling, and I’ve heard this lobbed as a criticism of latter-day Steven Universe; while I agree that these characters are terrific and am always down to see more of them, I can appreciate that their big moment is Act II (Seasons 2/3), and Steven’s is Act III (Seasons 4/5). If Act I is about creating Steven’s universe, and Act II is about developing Steven’s family, it’s because Act III, which the other two have been building towards this whole time, is about Steven.

Episodes like Storm in the Room and Lion 4 fundamentally don’t work with the Crystal Gems around, and our last two episodes place Steven among Beach City citizens to prime us for a finale about Beach City paying for Steven’s past. So I get why we haven’t seen the trio as a whole for a while. But I sure am glad to see them again.

Amethyst’s offer of beans and suggestion to barter them for donuts is great, but come on, nothing beats Garnet and Pearl’s sand castle. I love glimpses into the Crystal Gems’ leisure time independent of Steven (he’s around, but clearly wasn’t involved with the construction): because the Gems are so often characterized in relation to Steven and/or in big personal ways, it’s a pleasant change of pace to just see them reading the paper in Watermelon Steven or assembling furniture in Shirt Club. Doug Out and The Good Lars are celebrations of the mundane tainted by the supernatural in their last moments, so it’s perfect to ease us into this new story with more slice-of-life lazing.

Still, this beach day is a backdrop for Steven wondering where his mail is (in the first of many callbacks, we get his Mr. Postman song from all the way back in Cheeseburger Backpack). On its own this might not be a big deal, but we know that Onion and Sadie were being stalked by new Gems and that Lars didn’t show up at the potluck (which, for now, we can lump in with other disappearances), so even though Steven doesn’t know anything sinister is afoot, Jamie’s absence sets off warning bells for us. 

The scenes that follow build dread with masterful efficiency. First we get an uncharacteristically worried Sour Cream, which stands out even more than normal because we just saw him behaving as usual in The Good Lars. His concern is tempered by fun visuals: our MISSING poster is a repurposed WANTED poster, and we get a neat flashback aesthetic as Onion’s haunts are seen as if through an old-school View-Master (calling back to Onion Gang, Arcade Mania, and Onion Friend). While the audience knows new Gems are to blame, Steven is able to write this off as another weird Onion thing, and is more disappointed than concerned when he hears the Big Donut is closed.

Even now, Steven thinks things are probably fine, assuming Lars and Sadie are blowing off work to watch scary movies (calling back to Horror Club and The New Lars). It’s here where we’re introduced to the most clever element of this first act: Barb Miller. She’s connected to Sadie, so she can reveal that her daughter never came home after the potluck, but is also connected to Jamie, who she sent out that morning with Steven’s package. And she’s overprotective enough that she doesn’t make rationalizations like Sour Cream and Steven did for Onion (although she does reference Island Adventure, finally acknowledging how weird it is that three kids went missing for days and nobody seemed to care). In one fell stroke, Steven realizes that this is an alarming pattern, and starts looking for answers at last.

But he still hasn’t caught up to us. Sure, he knows his friends are missing, but he hasn’t seen the looming shadows from the end of Doug Out and The Good Lars, so when he comes across Aquamarine he has no reason to suspect her of kidnapping. A lesser show might build suspense making its characters too thick to put obvious hints together, but Steven Universe makes it clear that none of these threads are obvious to Steven. A more cynical version of the character might deduce earlier that this new Gem is bad news, but despite everything he’s been through in Season 4 he’s still empathetic to his core. After all, the pivotal event of this season was his own dad’s disappearance, so he’s primed to help a kid in a similar situation.

But finally, after knowing more than Steven from the beginning of the episode, Aquamarine asks the titular question and brings us back into the unknown with him. “Are you my dad?” is a brilliantly weird question: of course it’s odd for anyone to ask this of Steven when the answer is so self-evident, but it’s even odder for a Gem to do so. As Steven later tells Connie when she suggests the stranger might be a hybrid, this is a full Gem, and Gems don’t have dads.

Steven’s council of Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Connie shows that his instinct isn’t to go it alone, lending weight to his solo sacrifice at the end of this two-parter. But for now, it offers a moment of respite by reveling in the artistic differences of these characters; on the one hand, it makes little sense for Steven to not just draw Aquamarine himself, considering he’s the one who saw her and we know he likes drawing from Shirt Club and Open Book and Barn Mates, but on the other hand, this scene is a delight. Connie draws a manga-influenced figure using an amateur ball and plane method, Amethyst goes abstract, Pearl undersells her dramatic flourish, and Garnet just draws herself; I actually think Pearl’s is closest, but we go with Connie’s and set off.

This is the second time since Lion 4 where we’ve explored the potential for other half-humans like Steven, and in my first viewing of Are You My Dad I saw it as foreshadowing for fellow hybrid. The trend never really continued, and while it seems like a red herring in retrospect, the close proximity of two stories about Steven maybe not being alone shows just how alone he really is. There’s nobody else like Steven, and while this makes him special, it adds to his burden as a bridge between worlds, a burden that’s partially thrust upon him and partially created by his own sense of outsized responsibility. 

Connie lightens the mood as they search by inventing exciting new scenarios to explain this new Gem, contrasting her further with Pearl. Connie’s art is cutesy while Pearl’s is dramatic, and where Connie sees hope for a new friend, Pearl is the only member of the team who advocates preparing for a fight. We don’t go very far down the “optimism is wrong and cynicism is right” road, because that isn’t at all what this show is about, but I love that youthful innocence from both Steven and Connie isn’t championed as an absolute positive in this story.

The light mood of two friends hoping for the best leads to Steven making a game of looking through Onion’s woods, and his facetious search of an empty log ends up getting him trapped. Again, this show isn’t here to build suspense by dumbing down the characters: Steven needs to be out of commission for Connie’s kidnapping to work the way it does, but getting stuck comes from realistic playing around rather than stupidity or ineptitude. And it continues the thread of others getting punished for Steven’s perceived mistakes, which of course adds to his guilt complex (and is furthered by Connie getting kidnapped because Steven shouted her name). These are small moments of getting us from Point A to Point B, but it’s so important that this crew pays attention to such details for the story and themes to flow smoothly.

Aquamarine’s questioning becomes even more confusing when she corrects Connie, saying she’s not looking for “your dad” but “my dad.” Connie’s condescending Tarzan speak is a bit out of character, but it at least makes sense that she wants to simplify her language for someone who doesn’t seem to understand the meanings of words. Aquamarine’s hidden nastiness emerges, with a wicked snicker at Connie’s “Me Connie” routine before she calls for Topaz.

While I prefer Mirror Gem to Are You My Dad? in most regards, the reveal of Topaz takes the cake in the horror department. She’s announced by thundering footsteps that clear birds from the surrounding trees, and emerges first as a shadow before we see our missing friends trapped inside her body. None of the captives’ mouths are free except Onion’s, and he's nonverbal, so their struggles are joined by muffled and incoherent screams while their captor lurks in silence. The soundtrack lurches into unnerving strings as Connie panics at the sight, substitutes more typical digital music as a moment as Topaz splits up, and returns to even tenser strings as Connie is viscerally absorbed into the giant Gem. As with the Ruby Squad’s giant fusion, it’s a brutally practical application of something the Crystal Gems have made beautiful, and Steven is as helpless as Connie to stop it.

A key element of Steven’s martyr complex is that his sense of ownership over everything bad that happens around him is unwarranted, and this sequence is a perfect example. Yes, he’s stuck in a log when Connie is taken, allowing him to blame himself for the kidnapping, but once he’s free he doesn’t stand a chance against Aquamarine’s magic wand. In the best-case scenario, where he and Connie manage to fuse and fight off Topaz, Stevonnie would still lose: as we see in I Am My Mom, even four Crystal Gems working together are beaten with ease by the wand’s ridiculous power. If anything, getting stuck in a log was the only reason Steven was able to regroup and fight back later in the first place. But in the moment, it seems like he made an avoidable mistake that cost Connie her freedom, which is certainly on his mind when he makes his sacrifice.

Aquamarine follows the Holly Blue Agate mold of brief but memorable villains, and while both are petty monsters, Holly Blue Agate’s Professor Umbridge has nothing on Aquamarine’s Eric Cartman. It’s one thing to let middle management power go to your head, but Aquamarine is cruel for the simple joy of being cruel, an attitude captured magnificently by Della Saba’s refined British accent. She taunts Topaz as readily as her enemies, and unlike the fiercely loyal Homeworld villains we’ve seen before, she sees her duty as a waste of time that she begrudgingly fulfills because she’s the best. Like Kevin, this is a troll who’s just mean to her core, but she unfortunately has a lot more power than your everyday toxic douche. 

As is standard for two-parters by now, we end with a cliffhanger, this time evoking Steven’s Dream (another first-parter that ends with a new blue Gem). A loved one has been taken, Steven blames himself because he put this person in harm’s way and couldn’t stop it, so now it’s time for a rescue mission. An unprecedented streak of consecutive serialized episodes already began with Doug Out, but now we get a proper two-parter, then a four-parter, then a six-parter, then another two-parter all in a row. It’s a special time in the series, highlighted by Earth plots and Homeworld plots colliding in ways that backdrop Steven’s role as a child of two worlds, and Are You My Dad excellently escalates the plot.

In closing, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is the final episode from the amazing Raven Molisee. Other veterans like Joe Johnston and Kat Morris ended their roles as lead-credit writer/storyboarders to fulfill other roles for the show, but this is it for Molisee’s tenure as an active member of the Crewniverse. Her work speaks for itself: she helped introduce Lapis in Mirror Gem, Peridot in Warp Tour, Jasper in The Return, Yellow Diamond in Message Received, and now Aquamarine and Topaz in Are You My Dad?. She helped bring to life the comedy of Kindergarten Kid and The New Crystal Gems, the tragedy of Rose’s Scabbard and Monster Reunion, the horror of Frybo and Keeping It Together, the wonder of An Indirect Kiss, the catharsis of Earthlings, and so much more. We were lucky to have her, and I really hope she didn’t leave because she was abducted by aliens.

Future Vision!

Steven is down to watch a movie about an orphaned Gem whose parent figure left for Beach City and never came home. So were the fans, apparently.

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

The ages of Lars and Sadie were nebulous at first, but it’s more or less been established that they’re teens of sorts by now, which makes Barb’s declaration that Sadie’s an adult confusing in a way that I find surprisingly annoying. It’s really not a big deal, but it bothers me way more than your average nitpick.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It’s not unheard of for first-parters to make my greatest hits list: Mirror Gem is certainly one of them, and we’ve also got The Return and Steven’s Dream. But it’s hard to put an episode without a proper ending up with the best, and despite its wonderful tone, meeting Aquamarine lacks the conclusive impact of meeting Lapis, we don’t get a huge moment of Steven summoning his shield and protecting his team, and Aquamarine isn’t a Big Deal like Blue Diamond. I still love Are You My Dad a lot, but this is a hard list to crack and it does feel like half an episode when viewed alone.

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Doug Out

Are You My Dad?

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

(It took some serious sleuthing, because the amazing Are You My Mother parody image is unsourced on Google Images and comes from a TeeSpring shirt that is no longer available, but I tracked down the artist as Zaccrim.)