#is a sexist joke really worth making one of your main cast just like. an utter hypocrite who should be on a watchlist

[theroyalsavage]

sanji vs absalom...... oda im in your walls

[jebazzled]

SOOO the Drama: Making it Work with Tragic Backstories

Hi everyone, how are we doing? It’s been a while since my last unsolicited tutorial. Is everyone eating well? Is everyone drinking water? Dressing warmly if it’s cold wherever you live? 

Today we’ll be talking about tragic backstories, and how to use them rather than abuse them. 

This tutorial will mention a number of triggers, though not with great detail - more in the interest of providing context. 

Specific triggers mentioned: abandonment, verbal abuse, child neglect, car accident, transphobia, animal death, cheating, bullying, parental death

In the rp community we often joke about loving to put our characters through hell - about really running them ragged - making ourselves weepy. For a lot of us, writing Heavy Emotional Content is a lot more fun than fluff, or characters who are happy, fulfilled, and well-adjusted. I’m literally planning to kill off one of my characters in the next couple of weeks. I get it. 

But there’s also a fair amount of discourse in the rp community about what is pejoratively called “trauma porn.” It’s discourse that is warranted! Because while we love fictional drama, the truth is that sometimes...

well, sometimes it can be too much, can’t it? 

Here’s the thing about trauma: a tragic backstory does not a well-developed character make. Too often, too many of us lean on these traumatic histories as a crutch towards building a character, without meaningfully exploring that trauma with any depth. The truth is, in fiction, tragedy only builds character when when you do. And tragedy is far from the only way to create a nuanced character. 

In this tutorial, we will examine common approaches to character backstories, alternatives to tragedy-as-a-default, and figure out how to have your cake (the feels) and eat it too (with purpose.)

BUILD-A-BACKSTORY

In my experience, the most common approach to writing a freestyle application is writing a chronological history (you can read my app guides, including thots on alternative styles of freestyle, here). Ain’t nothing wrong with that! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

It’s an approach that makes sense, as it forces you to fill in the blanks to answer the question: why is my character Like That? And often, as writers, our first instinct is to provide the saddest answer possible.

“Why is Susie so clingy?” 

Her parents abandoned her at a fire station when she was an infant, and rather than being raised in foster care, she grew up at the fire station. But the entire company that raised her died while fighting a wildfire, and she is certain that any time anyone walks away from her, they will never come back. 

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?” 

His mother never wanted him and told him so every day of his youth. When he hit puberty, she stopped speaking to him entirely, and the day he turned eighteen, she changed the locks while he was at school. 

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?” 

Lichen was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning they break their legs, and every afternoon they break their arms. At night, they lie awake in agony until their heart attacks put them to sleep.

Feels like a lot, doesn’t it? I may have done a little exaggeration, but - not a lot, frankly. 

Especially if other characters on a site are loaded with tragic histories, it can be hard not to equate a certificate from the school of hard knocks with a Pulitzer. You want something juicy to write about, yes? And this is all so juicy! 

But here’s the rub: often, these histories will never come up again outside of an application, or will not be practically dev’d out beyond shock value. Susie will never be reminded of Frank, the fireman who taught her to ride a bike. Brent will focus his sexist comments on objectifying women’s bodies rather than degrading their personalities and motives, which were the issues with his mother. Someone who didn’t read Lichen’s app would have no clue that they have had a total horror show of a life. 

If you are writing a tragic backstory that doesn’t have a continual impact on your character, you are writing trauma porn, and it is doing nothing for your character. 

This doesn’t mean that your characters should be fully and constantly occupied with memories of their trauma - in fact, constant introspection is an easy way to stall threads (per my “why aren’t people writing with me?” guide here) - but it does mean that if your answer to the question, “why is my character Like That” is a compelling one, it is one that a reader should be able to answer even if they haven’t read your app, if they’ve read a few of your threads or other writing. 

This is a careful balance, of course, but think of your characters the way you think of yourself! For example: probably the most Potentially Dramatic thing about my personal life is that my older sister is developmentally disabled, and I am one of her legal guardians. When my parents die, I will inherit my older sister, and will uproot my life from wherever I am living at the time to move back to my hometown and make sure she is taken care of and happy. This is not something that I constantly think about, but it is difficult to know me for any meaningful length of time and not be aware that I have a developmentally disabled sister, as I mention her in passing, think about her when her favorite music comes up on Spotify, and tell people to donate to her favorite charity, Special Olympics. 

If I were writing an app of myself as a character and spent a good portion of the app untangling my relationship with my sister, and then never mentioned her in any of my thread posts, then is she really important to my character? Or was I flexing her for depth?

Do you see what I am getting at here? If it matters, it will come up more than once. If it only comes up once, and it’s in your app, you should think of something to explain your character’s personality and motivations that is perhas a little less loaded. 

BUT WITHOUT THE SADS, HOW DO?

The good news is: you absolutely do not need a tragic backstory to write a nuanced character! Again - think of your characters the way you think of yourself, or of other real people. While everyone has gone through heavy things in their lives from time to time, chances are that your life does not resemble that of a soap opera protagonist. And aren’t you a multifaceted person, full of depth and life? Aren’t you someone whose story is worth telling, even if it feels like your life is pretty ordinary? 

After all, it’s not the past that makes a character - it’s the present, their current voice, actions, and missteps. That is where you want the real juice to be, because that is the shit you’re writing! 

Some potential “everyday histories” for our above cast of characters:

“Why is Susie so clingy?”

In elementary and middle school, Susie was bullied on and off - a few weeks spent hanging out with the in-crowd, followed by a month as a social pariah. She could never understand why. When she moved to a different state for high school, she attached herself like a barnacle to the clique the Tulips, and has made it her goal not to let herself get shaken back to the outskirts this time. 

This isn’t as dramatic as Susie’s earlier backstory - in fact, it could apply to any number of people, being passed between friend groups for years on end. But again: your character doesn’t need a one-of-a-kind daytime talk show-worthy backstory to have a unique and compelling history and voice! 

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?”

Brent’s mother never wanted children, and made it pretty clear to him throughout his youth. His father, though, as always there for him - including when his mother walked out and never came back, after cheating on Mr. Brent’s Dad for years. From then on, Brent and his dad only had each other - and their bitterness towards the woman who wronged them.

This still gives you some family drama - unloving mother, and some adultery - but having Brent be raised by someone who has their own beef with women eliminates the shock value of locking your son out merely for being a boy. Also, this take acknowledges misogyny as a learned behavior.

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?”

When their parents divorced, Lichen only came out to their mother as nonbinary, and presents a fully different persona when they are with their father. Being in the top 5% of their high school class and being a national champion Lincoln-Douglas debater is the only thing Lichen and (deadname) have in common. 

I acknowledge that Lichen’s previous story was a meme. The above story could be made much more intense (for example, if Lichen’s father were a member of the Westboro Baptist Church and then Lichen’s supportive mother dies in a freak accident and Lichen, unable to hide their true identity, is imprisoned in their father’s basement until they pretend to have seen the error of their ways and identify as cis again) but the above gives plenty to chew on! 

While drama and trauma can be satisfying to write, there is plenty of drama to be found in the everyday. Building a well-rounded character is much less about what happened to them and much more about what they are doing, thinking, and feeling now. 

That said, 

TIPS & TRICKS FOR WRITING TRAGIQUE CHARACTERS

Don’t go overboard. If it is not going to come up ever again after the app: leave it out. 

Impact is about the character, not the reader. If it was important enough to leave in the app, it should have an identifiable impact on your character. The main purpose cannot have been to shock the reader. 

It’s not meaningful JUST because it happened. If someone can follow your character’s story for any extended amount of time and not realize that, say, your character’s mother died in a boating accident, then it isn’t actually important that your character’s mother died in a boating accident, and you should let her live. 

If ALL of your characters have a heavily dramatic backstory, ALL of your heavily dramatic backstories lose their meaning. Dramatic backstories are fun but they should not be a constant: they will begin to feel cheap and lazy. 

Your character does not need to dwell on their tragic backstory! While a character should acknowledge their history, a character does not need to realize that their backstory is meant to be tragic. For example, Sally might have been raised by her Aunt Agatha after her parents disappeared in a hot air balloon when she was a baby. Rather than being sad about her missing parents, Sally might think of them as total strangers and of Agatha as her sole parental figure - and her sadness might be for Agatha, who does miss Mr. and Ms. Pumpernickel. 

And that’s literally all she wrote! I hope you find this helpful when you’re writing your characters - tragic or otherwise - and developing their plotlines. The world is not made of trauma and fluff alone, friends. Go forth and contain multitudes!

[gascon-en-exil]

What's your favorite depictions of religion or religious characters in FE?

I think I’ve approached this topic from a character angle often enough between my series on FE’s faux-Catholicism and light magic and my post on Natasha, so let’s tackle this a little differently. Breaking it down by setting:

Archanea (+Ylisse, for whatever that’s worth)

Weakly and inconsistently developed, as is par for the course here. I get the impression that the original conception of magic in Fire Emblem was that it’s all some form of religion or spirituality, and while elements of that have persisted throughout the series it’s not really clear in Marth’s games that, for instance, the way someone like Merric perceives magical ability is in any way distinct from the way someone like Elice does. Why do the remakes make Wendell a sage but Boah a bishop especially when Wendell is decked out like a pope? Does it even matter when you can just reclass them back and forth? At least Gharnef’s Dark Pontifex title is pretty cool and manages to be so while playing up this confusion.

Ylisse is...ugh. Lissa is not a cleric in the religious sense as far as I can tell (a trait she inherits from Mist), Libra is all steadfast albeit generic devotion to Naga and tasteless trap jokes, Brady is almost purely comedy, and if there’s any theological element to the position of Exalt it escaped my notice. The only apparent organized religion in Awakening is Plegia’s Grimleal, which is just sad (although it does neatly explain the direction they took with Fates, come to think of it). 

Valentia

Really strong in Echoes, benefiting considerably from the colorful and variously fleshed-out personalities of the Priory characters. Following on from Archanea, I do appreciate that even in Gaiden the setting commits to depicting the game’s magical classes as segregated between the continent’s two faiths; you don’t fight mages or clerics in the main story, only the arcanists, cantors, and witches of the Duma Faithful. It helps better characterize the followers of both Mila and Duma according to their magical practices. We know, on the one hand, that the followers of Mila blend simple everyday piety and austerity with vaguely Catholic (Marian, specifically, i.e..devoted to the Blessed Mother) rituals that are implied to be normally more lavish than we get to see in-game, in keeping with the hedonism of the Zofian upper classes - and with Catholicism at its best, as far as I’m concerned. The Duma Faithful, meanwhile, are casually sexist and totally into cavorting with and eventually looking like monsters themselves, making it little wonder that lay Rigelians seem to be less engaged with their church than the Zofians are with theirs. As I mentioned previously, however, Tatiana is a problem. Despite being a worshiper of Duma (mentioned in supplementary material but I don’t ever believe in game?) she’s a saint just like Silque and Genny and doesn’t seem to be much interested in the severity or fanaticism of Duma’s followers at large. Maybe she’s just too distracted by Zeke’s dick....

Jugdral

Disjointed? That’s a good word for this one I find. Again there doesn’t seem to be an organized religion that covers the entire continent at the time the games are set, although the Edda church takes that role in the epilogue. Spirituality among the playable cast is subtle but varied, in part because Jugdralians are willing to deify not just the twelve dragons who empowered the holy bloodlines but also the Crusaders who received their blood. Claud’s a martyr figure, but for all his defining fatalism I still don’t find him very interesting, and then we’re never given sufficient context to determine what faith Safy and Tina and Coirpre/Charlot are even practicing. Maybe it’s the same as the Edda church - and who knows what that even means - or maybe it’s not. It’s telling how easy it is to overlook that August was allegedly defrocked for performing torture when there’s so little sense of what the church in Jugdral even encompasses. And why does Edain think that becoming a cleric will lead her to find her missing sister - do the clergy routinely perform missionary work? As with Ylisse it’s the dark religion that actually has its act together here.

Elibe

It’s taken a recent replay of Binding Blade for me to recall this, but the Elimine church plays a fairly significant background role in the events of that game. Across both games there are a plethora of Eliminian clergy from different countries and from all walks of life, and both piety and corruption take multiple forms in these two games. I’ve noted before that Kenneth is a particularly memorable one for me even though he’s a one-off boss; something about a bishop preaching atheism (or secular humanism in the form of worshiping Nergal, close enough) really stands out for the irony. There’s also the contrast between the lecherous but (mostly) heroic Saul and the greedy Eliminians who support the coup in Etruria and the alliance with Bern. Yeah, none of these guys are model clergymen, but it’s how they specifically fail in their vocations that matters (and anyway, it’s not as though we know for certain that the Eliminians have vows of chastity. They probably don’t.). The GBA games are also the only ones to distinguish between priests and monks, and although that’s mostly a mechanical distinction it’s not all that common among fantastical depictions of Catholicism. I assume Renault was a priest before he promoted, if he’s saying Mass and hearing confessions. What were the FE7 localizers thinking...eh.

Magvel

Not quite as competently handled as Elibe, which is something that may be said of Magvel worldbuilding in general. Again the main religion feels a little formless; it’s presumably based out of Rausten, but since all the game’s playable clergy come from different countries and none of them can support each other I don’t really know what to make of it. The most interesting bits I covered in my post on Natasha, mostly pertaining to her support with Knoll and how it frames the contrast between light and dark magic as the conflict between religion and science. Dark magic as an intellectual pursuit into forbidden knowledge is unique to the GBA games as elsewhere it’s framed as a competing religious presence, but seeing as Grado’s dark research figures heavily into the plot I can run with that angle. Riev needed more backstory though, for the insight into the operation of the Rausten church if nothing else.

Tellius

Begnion is culturally something of a mess, pulling from the Roman Republic, the medieval Church, 19th century imperialist Europe (mostly the Anglos and their obviously overcompensating empire), and probably also Japan’s deified emperors. Despite the overtly Catholic trappings of their clergy it’s therefore difficult to parse out just how I feel about the worshipers of Ashera. It doesn’t help at all that the primary examples of Begnion’s clergy we get are the senators, who are all various flavors of terrible people up to and including the prime minister who’s been orchestrating omnicide for the better part of two decades. Doubly so when the PoV character for much of these interactions is Ike, who hates anything related to rule by heredity because it comes attached to basic social etiquette. It’s also odd that the only other named clergy, playable or enemy, in Tellius are a pair of commoner priests with no status or influence whatsoever who just happen to fall in with what will eventually become two of the biggest armies on the continent. And also like in Magvel, Rhys and Laura never talk to each other outside of generic “supports”, so good luck trying to figure out what comparative theology in Tellius would even look like. The Radiant Dawn saint outfits are great, admittedly, as is Oliver’s theme though he himself is the epitome of a joke character - and a tasteless one at that, in line with all those tired jokes about pedophile Catholic priests.

Norshido

Why does Nohr not have a Catholic Church equivalent? Their dark mages double as their clergy apparently, not that we see any evidence of this among the playable ones. I don’t know enough about Buddhism or Shintoism to comment on Hoshido’s clergy, although I get that Azama is a comically terrible monk. I wonder what the cultural significance of great masters using lances while priestesses use bows is? From what I gather the former are more like Buddhist monks while the latter resemble Shinto mikos, but isn’t the naginata traditionally associated with women in Japanese society? I’m completely out of my element here...moving on.

Fódlan

Jumping the gun a bit, but there’s such a huge focus on the church in promotional material that I can’t help but think this’ll be one of the more thought-provoking ones, for better or worse. As quick as everyone’s been to vilify the church I still hope that the Adrestian route at least gives you the option to support it, or at least not make them wholly evil. Oh, and bishops are back, yay!

[the-desolated-quill]

The Quill Seal Of Approval Awards - The Best Of 2017

It’s an established scientific fact that the real world is horrible. Full of nasty, hideous and deeply unpleasant things like racism, corruption, global warming, terrorism and prawn flavoured crisps. No wonder more and more of us are turning to the world of fiction to escape from our unhappy lives.

Yes a number of good stories have come out this year, and as it’s the last day of 2017, it’s time once again for the Quill Seal of Approval Awards. Where I pick my personal favourite stories of the year and hopefully persuade you to give them a try if you haven’t already.

Before we start, two things. One, this is my list. If you disagree with my choices, that’s absolutely fine. Go make your own list. And two, full disclosure, I haven’t been able to see everything 2017 has to offer for one reason or another. So please don’t be angry at me because movies like Get Out aren’t on this list. I’m sure Get Out is as brilliant as everyone says it is and I’m sure it would win a Quill Seal of Approval Award. I just never got around to watching it this year (also fuck you Golden Globes. Satirical horror is not the same thing as comedy horror. From what I’ve heard, Get Out is not remotely like, say, Shaun Of The Dead or Zombieland. Satire is not synonymous with comedy, you know? It doesn’t need to make you laugh. That’s not a requirement of satire. I mean look at Black Mirror. That’s satirical. What about George Orwell’s Animal Farm? That’s satirical. Would anyone ever consider either of those to be comedies? No! Of course not! Do you know why? Because they’re fucking depressing, that’s why! If you thought either of those were funny, you require serious psychiatric attention, you sicko!)

...

I’m sorry, I went off on a total tangent then. What were we talking about?

A Series Of Unfortunate Events (TV Series)

There had been rumours for ages that we were going to see another attempt to adapt Daniel Handler’s post-modern series of gothic children’s books after the painfully lacklustre movie starring Jim Carrey, and on Friday the 13th January (on my birthday! EEEEEEE!!!), we saw Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events arrive on Netflix. Speaking as a massive fan of the books, I absolutely adored this adaptation. TV is just such a better medium for the Baudelaires than the movie was.

Adapting the first four books of the series, Season 1 follows Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, having recently lost their parents in a terrible fire, trying to keep their fortune out of the clutches of Count Olaf; a vile villain and even worse actor. The series is being adapted by Barry Sonnenfield and Daniel Handler himself, and not only remains close to the original source material, but also expands on it thanks to the TV medium. It also boasts a great cast. Neil Patrick Harris is incredible as the villain Count Olaf, able to walk the line between comic and sinister effortlessly. Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes are both great as Violet and Klaus, and share excellent chemistry on-screen, selling the sibling affection better than the movie did. There’s also Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, who offers deadpan comic narration, as well as K. Todd Freeman as the incompetent Mr. Poe, Aasi Mandvi as the eccentric Uncle Monty, Alfre Woodard as the petrified Aunt Josephine and Catherine O’Hara as the perfectly innocent, I swear, optometrist Doctor Orwell.

Admittedly this may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you’re into family friendly viewing that intelligently mixes both the surreal and the macabre, then I’d say definitely check out A Series Of Unfortunate Events. It’s perfectly wretched :)

Wonder Woman

Warner Bros and DC may have completely fucked up their shared universe thanks to the total cock-up of Justice League, but one good thing did come out of the DC Extended Universe this year. Wonder Woman.

Finally making her cinematic debut, Wonder Woman is definitely one of the strongest superhero movies to be released in recent memory. Patty Jenkins does an amazing job bringing this feminist icon to life and Gal Gadot gives quite possibly one of the best performances in any superhero movie to date. This naive, but passionate warrior who takes it upon herself to try and save the world from the evil influence of the Greek God Ares. But what I especially appreciated was how the movie went beyond the simple hero vs villain story and really created something both powerful and socially relevant with its themes of love and sacrifice. The main takeaway from the film is that evil isn’t an external force or outside threat. It’s something that exists in all of us. We all have the capacity for violence and treachery, but if we could all just learn to love and support each other, and work together, we could help change things for the better. It sounds incredibly hokey when you say it out loud, but the movie conveys it extremely well.

If you haven’t already, definitely check out Wonder Woman. It boasts a strong female protagonist and an intelligently written and emotional story with a noticeable lack of the sexist tropes and cliches you’d normally find in these kinds of movies. Hopefully Wonder Woman will be the start of a whole new wave of female talent both in front of and behind the camera (and when I say women, I don’t just mean white women... please! Feminism only works if all women benefit from it after all. Let’s see some more women of colour in the director’s chair and on the red carpet).

War For The Planet Of The Apes

The long awaited conclusion to Caesar’s story, War For The Planet Of The Apes is simultaneously both the darkest and the funniest of the rebooted Planet Of The Apes movies. As the human race lash out against the apes in their desperate bid to survive, we see Caesar face his ultimate test. Will he lead his tribe to salvation or be consumed by inner darkness just as Koba did in the previous movie?

While not the strongest movie in the Caesar trilogy, it’s still exceptionally good. Andy Serkis gives the best performance so far as Caesar, and you really feel for him as he undergoes his inner conflict. He’s by far one of the strongest protagonists to come out of a Hollywood blockbuster, and War serves as a fitting end to his story. Director Matt Reeves continues to make us care deeply for the apes’ survival, with characters like Maurice, Rocket and newcomer Bad Ape providing many touching and comedic moments to alleviate the tension and darkness. We also see some strong human characters, such as the mute Nova, played by Amiah Miller, and the antagonistic Colonel, played by Woody Harrelson, who definitely stand head and shoulders above the other human characters in the previous films.

A lot of filmmakers could learn a thing or two from these films. 20th Century Fox should be immensely proud of this trilogy, and I hope the franchise will remain this intelligent and impactful in the future.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie

No! Stop it! I can see you sniggering! ‘Oh! Quill honestly thinks this puerile kids movie full of toilet gags is worthy of some kind of award, does he?’ Well, actually yes. Yes I do. And before you judge me, have you actually watched the movie? No. I didn’t think so. So why don’t you get off your high horse and go into this with an open mind because I’ll think you’ll find Captain Underpants is one of the best kids movies ever, so there!

Based on the popular (and surprisingly controversial) series of children’s books written by Dav Pilkey about two troublemaking schoolchildren, George and Harold, who hypnotise their mean principal into thinking he’s a superhero and go off on a series of whacky adventures, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie is an excellent adaptation that captures the books’ humour and message perfectly. Yes it’s filled with toilet gags and fart jokes (and I can see you rolling your eyes dismissively already, you snob), but it all serves a purpose, and the message behind Captain Underpants is incredibly unique for a kids film. That sometimes a little rule breaking is okay provided it doesn’t go too far. Children are often forced to conform to societal norms, and discouraged from certain things because they’re ‘inappropriate’. Captain Underpants serves as the perfect antidote to that, encouraging children to actually have fun and let their imaginations run wild. The toilet gags and adolescent humour in this film are very funny. It’s not very high brow or sophisticated, but it doesn’t really need to be neither. That’s the point. Captain Underpants is basically a celebration of the childish and the silly, implying these things have value in and of themselves rather than just dismissing them as being ‘immature’.

If you have kids, this would be a perfect movie to show them, and you just might reconnect with your inner child in the process. And if you need further convincing that Captain Underpants is worth watching, consider this. Did you know Harold is gay? Yeah! In the final book of the series, Harold meets his future self and discovers he’s married to a man and has two children. So it’s a cleverly made family movie that encourages children to be creative and to not feel constrained, and offers positive representation for the black and LGBT communities. Suddenly this movie doesn’t feel so puerile anymore, does it?

Logan

I never thought I’d see the day I’d actually be praising a Wolverine movie. 

After two failed attempts, 20th Century Fox finally offers a Wolverine movie that doesn’t make me want to fall asleep, tear my hair out in frustration or gouge by eyes out with ice cream scoops. Logan is not only the best Wolverine movie, but quite possibly the best movie in the entire X-Men franchise. Hugh Jackman gives a brilliant performance in his last ever portrayal of the character and Patrick Stewart is equally as good as an elderly Professor X.

Logan is as tragic as it is thought provoking, deconstructing the idea of a superhero and spelling out in no uncertain terms how Wolverine utterly fails to meet that criteria. It’s dark, hard-hitting and surprisingly poignant as we see Wolverine desperately try to redeem himself, escorting a group of young mutant children across the border whilst metaphorically passing the baton to them. He may have failed to be a superhero, but he could well have saved a new generation of mutants that will succeed where he failed.

If you haven’t already, you need to watch this movie. Even if, like me, you don’t like Wolverine very much, you should still watch it. Logan more than makes up for past mistakes, I assure you.

The Tick

Are you getting sick to death of the over-saturation of superhero movies and TV shows these days? Then The Tick is the perfect antidote for you!

Based on the comics created by Ben Edlund, The Tick essentially drops a Saturday morning cartoon character into a Christopher Nolan-esque environment. Serving as an affectionate parody of the superhero genre, The Tick is both incredibly funny and surprisingly clever. Peter Serafinowicz does a stellar job in the title role, giving a performance almost reminiscent of the late Adam West, and is both charming and hysterical. But the true star has to be Griffin Newman as the Tick’s sidekick Arthur. While his surroundings are incredibly wacky and surreal, Arthur himself is treated with the utmost care and sincerity. He is to all intents and purposes the main character, as we see him try to overcome his own anxieties and insecurities in order to expose a plot from supervillain the Terror. He is the emotional centre that the show revolves around and is what elevates The Tick from being just a simple parody to a legitimately good superhero show in its own right.

The first half of Season 1 is available to watch on Amazon Prime, with the second half due to be streamed in February 2018. if you haven’t already, check this show out.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Finally we end with a video game, and it’s a very special video game (well it would be. It’s on a best of 2017 list). Horizon Zero Dawn. Created by the same people who did the Killzone games, Horizon is an open-world adventure game set in a post post-apocalypitic world where machines dominate the landscape and humanity have gone back to basics, living in isolated tribes and shunning the technology of the ‘Old Ones’.

Two things make Horizon Zero Dawn stand out. The first is the world itself. Guerrilla Games have created a very rich and nuanced setting, and as you explore the environment and collect datapoints, you begin to piece together how exactly human society as we know it initially fell hundreds of years ago. The machines are well designed and each have a very specific purpose, and the tribes are incredibly well thought out with believable hierarchies, belief systems and societal structures. It’s simply fun to explore this world and interact with its inhabitants.

The second is the protagonist the entire game revolves around. Aloy. A young outcast woman who goes in search of her parents and ends up discovering herself. She’s a classic archetypal hero and one of the best female protagonists to come out of the video game industry for quite some time. She’s a fully realised, three dimensional character with her own goals and motives, and is at no point ever sexualised or objectified. Even when she’s captured by the baddies, the game never resorts to sexist tropes or cliches. Just as Wonder Woman represents a significant milestone for women in film, Aloy represents a significant milestone for women in video games. She’s intelligent, resourceful and immensely likeable and I was completely emotionally invested in both her as a character and her journey. It’s not only fun to explore the world of Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s fun to explore the world of Horizon Zero Dawn with her. If you have a PS4, definitely get this game. It’s a must-own and you won’t regret it.

And that’s it for this year. All that’s left for me to say is Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and I hope that your 2018 is less shit than your 2017 most likely was.

[xtremedespair3d]

HajiKo Anime: Summer 2020

Previously I made a post where I talked about my first impressions of the Summer anime I’ve watched, now that the Fall season is getting closer, now it’s finally the time to give my final impressions of everything I watched this season.

(I wanted to make a custom thumbnail for this post like I did with the previous one but I gave up with the idea afterwards)

(Also, I had some of this post in draft for a while but on September 29th, I spent HOURS and I WROTE a lot of good shit before and for some god forsaken reason Firefox decided to crash. Everything I had written before is gone and I have not even saved at all since, I’m so god damn salty. Now you will never experience what have I written before and all I wrote now are just bare remains from what I last remember writing, I was so god damn salty but in the end the rewrite worked out well, I did the best I could to rewrite some of the same things I said before and I did some little changes and added new things so I was satisfied, I hope you can still enjoy the post.)

As usual, here’s the tier of everything I watched this season:

(Higher resolution)

By the way, as of 2021 I think I might make only ONE tier for every anime I’m gonna watch that entire year, as I publish my first tier of the Winter season, I’ll be adding more visuals of the Spring anime and so on, even if I might get lost in finding the visuals as I edit my template, this is because I’ve been constantly making way too many standalone tiers for a single season FOR A YEAR, I bet I’ve must have been taking a lot of the website’s space for something very small and irrelevant.

TierMaker should have better options on whether the tiers your making are public or not, and I read the terms of services conditions, I’m kind of scared on what to do next with using TierMaker for doing these kinds of tiers, I can’t just find a random blank template and use GIMP.

Uzaki-chan: Aside from simply saying “This was a very good show, I had plenty of laughs” or something, the main thing I want to talk about isn’t so much in the show itself, but rather how Uzaki-chan herself, Hana Uzaki, has become a target of SJWs in one of the worst anime controversies ever, even worse than Goblin Slayer.

As for the series itself, I really liked it, I had plenty of good laughs and it was just fun to watch, and I’m really happy that season 2 is happening now too.

Fire Force: There is something about the feel of the show, these awkward long slow moments and stuff and everything else kinda drives me insane, but until the second half of the first season with the Adolla Burst and stuff, that’s where now I’m getting very intrigued in the plot, the worldbuilding, everything, and this season continues to expand the story and it gets even more interesting, and the animation can be really nice too.

Re:Zero season 2: Echidna is best girl, that’s it, that’s the review.

All jokes aside, I’m liking this season so far, it gets somewhat confusing but I’ll figure that out, and it’s strange that we’re only having the first half of the season this Summer and we will have to wait all the way to Winter 2021 for the series to continue, it’s a very Ufotable thing to do and hell, even Magia Record is still in production as of now.

Oregairu season 3: Let me give you a little bit of a retrospect: I honestly vaguely remember what even happened in the first two seasons, as I started watching this season, I started to remember at least one key moment from season 2 and even the characters, which I kinda feel like I like most characters, except Irohas is my least favorite, maybe Komachi too when she constantly says “kimochiwarui” but she’s not extremely annoying like Irohas. I still think how these last two seasons are visually impressive in contrast to the first season, that one’s painful to watch, the voice acting is particularly interesting too.

Now that the series is over, let me give my overall thoughts on the Oregairu series as a whole. The series overall isn’t a series I wouldn’t consider be a huge part of my life, I’m not hugely impressed with it but there are things I liked and I would still talk that I had seen the series, it’s kinda something.

Donkyuu Hentai HxEROS: This one’s the most conflicting ecchi series I’ve ever watched in my life. On the first episode, I was into it at first, but then I started to feel lukewarm about it, but then episode 5 was the one episode I got genuinely the most impressed, and the next few episodes have started to degrade on me, it was a complete 50/50 of a series to watch.

My biggest problem of the series is Kirara, her writing and just her overal existence, she’s the most painfully unlikeable main ecchi heroines I’ve ever seen in my entire life. On one hand, she looks cute, but boy, I fucking hate her so much, I can’t stand for how she is at all, I absolutely prefer her young lowkey pervert self from the flashbacks, she might even be the worst girl ever. If there’s any best girl in this series, it’d probably be the other HxERO girls like the Saitama branch teammates, the girls from the Toyko branch and even Chacha (And the shota (?) from the Toyko branch is best boy). The flashbacks are especially sad, it really hurts me how Enjo and Kirara’s happiness got taken away so god damn bad.

As someone who’s completely spoiled with full blown hentai instead of ecchi nowadays, I usually prefer girls written as perverts or something, someone who can be okay with what the MC does and what not, anyway, the other HxERO girls seem to be absolutely fine with doing the H-Energy and stuff, but Kirara is so intolerable to watch. Even Chacha and Dark Kirara (A hallucination reflecting Kirara’s young self dressed in a iliy outfit) encourage Kirara to be more honest with her feelings about Retto and try to bring her to her old self.

(I really hope this doesn’t sound sexist)

The animation was decent, the visuals looked nice but there are times the animation can be a little off, especially episode 11 which was awful, then there’s also the annoying censorship even the AT-X broadcast didn’t help, and by the way, the “H-Energy” version that comes out a week after the original episode premiere was not worth it at all, it only decensors some irrelevant parts, the steam and such, it doesn’t even decensor the boobs, thankfully the Blu-Rays are here to save the day.

I judge Kirara a lot which is my deal breaker with the series, but what about the story or the concept even? The concept of the story, the themes and everything seems okay, nothing really special about it that kinda makes up for the series being decent.

This isn’t the worst ecchi series I’ve seen in my life, but certainly the most mediocre, one that I felt it was truly frustrating to watch and I’m not even sure if I should make rank this as C or even D which I ended up on the former for the pros being the visuals and the concept being okay. Take me back to Winter 2020 with Ishuzoku Reviewers. Maybe I should have watched Peter Grill this season instead.

Honorable mentions:

BanG Dream Garupa Pico Ohmori: I gotta be real about the Garupa Pico series overall now, not just with Ohmori but with the first season as well.

To be brutally honest, I don’t really find humor in this series as much, though in some cases there are episodes that did make me laugh, I mean, the series is still entertaining to watch as it is but at the same time I’m not really impressed, it isn’t much of a constant laughing stock series as I wanted it to be, and never has been even with the first season to begin with.

Before the series came out, I had an argument with someone who hates the main Bandori anime series because of the “forced drama” and they called the Garupa Pico series “the good series,” it seriously frustrated me because the third season from this Winter was so good, it’s probably the best Bandori season yet because of the character interactions and it made me become a fan of RAS. I don’t hate the Garupa Pico series, it still has its charm, I like the visuals (I’m surprised that the Garupa Pico series are animated by Sanzigen as well) and I admire how the series is watchable on YouTube via the official Bandori channels, but in my opinion, this is probably like a 7/10 B rank series at best, it isn’t something that’s gonna stick and be a huge part of my life like the main series.

With that being said, I would probably like to go back to the Spring 2020 tier I made and would put Garupa Pico Ohmori on B in retrospect, but I’m still gonna keep it as it is because at the time I was really surprised for its sudden existence.

General overview and critiques of the overall Garupa Pico series aside, let’s talk about Ohmori for once, if there’s one thing I have to give huge thumbs up for is introducing RAISE A SUILEN and Morfonica and the series continuing to last for two-cours, one-cour for a short series can be such a waste, even better comedies like Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter (I have something special to tell you about it below), I really like that the series is very long so I can watch all the misadventures for every band, but at the same time, even if RAS and Morfonica have finally been introduced, they’re still somewhat irrelevant and underused which makes me sad since Bandori 3 really made me a huge fan of RAS and I want to see more of them, and oddly enough, they probably can’t even bother trying to update the ending theme by including RAS and Morfonica, both in the visual and the song itself, if there’s gonna be a new Garupa Pico season in the next two years, hopefully RAS and Morfonica will become regular cast members. As for Morfonica, I have no idea and I don’t really know them much, I seriously need Bandori 4 to happen so it can introduce Morfonica and make me understand them.

As Joaquin Phoenix Joker said: “Comedy is subjective, Murray.”

Welcome to the Japari Park season 2: If there’s some things I have to complain about this second season is that I wish the series would continue to do these secret mystery Kako recordings during the credits like the first season had, and I wish they would stop doing these Friend trivia segments with non-existent Friends, the first season always did these segments with Friends who are actually featured in one episode or something, now that the series has been doing these segments with Friends that don’t even appear in the series, it makes these segments absolutely pointless.

Speaking of Kemono Friends, after the Welcome to the Japari Park series, who knows if the franchise’s anime future will live on given on how widely panned Kemono Friends 2 was. SEGA’s Chocotto Anime Kemono Friends 3 shorts have pretty much ended, I was actually eager on watching these shorts but they haven’t made any new short for a long time. What about 2021? Should we expect a Kemono Friends 3 anime? Probably not, and with the existence of the game with the same name, it’s gonna be extremely confusing whether this Kemono Friends 3 anime should be the third season of the main series or might be an adaptation of the game, whatever it turns out, I’d still watch it anyways because I want to continue to observe the Kemono Friends anime adaptations unfold, and I’d still be confident it would still be nowhere near as good as the first season with Tatsuki.

By the way, since September 16th, SEGA finally released not one, but FOUR new Chocotto Anime Kemono Friends 3 shorts after so long! (1, 2, 3, 4), I just happened to find that out as of the (re)writing of this, September 29th. My question is, what did it even take so long to make new shorts? One would assume is most likely COVID because that affected quite a lot of anime, but at least we finally got not one but four new videos of the Kemono Friends 3 shorts.

My Hero Academia: Make It! Do-or-Die Survival. Pretty strange for a new My Hero Academia OVA to come out this time.

Aggretsuko season 3. If there’s one thing I’d like to say about this season, or at least the last few episodes, it’s that this season has quite the darkest season finales for Aggretsuko I’ve ever seen.

Plans for Fall:

This was the weakest season of the year despite Uzaki-chan and Fire Force (Fruits Basket, Garupa Pico and Japari Park too but I don’t count leftovers), it’s a shame considering how this decade had started strong with quite some good shows and Summer has always been my favorite anime season, but the line-up isn’t as great as before, if Akudama Drive and Danmachi season 3 wouldn’t have been delayed if it weren’t for COVID, they would have made this season slightly better, but now that I think about it, it was for the best for them to get delayed because this Fall line-up is looking a million times better, hell, it’s looking to be the best season of the year!

Now, whenever I talk about the Fall anime season, we can’t forget the most important thing ever: My birthday! If you have no idea, I’ll probably remind you a billion times my birthday is coming soon, October 4th, and one of the things I always look forward the most is watching day 1 anime that come out in my birthday, but alas, I started to feel like I’m not looking forward to my birthday this year AT ALL, mainly because Venom Let There Be Carnage got delayed until June of 2021, and that really sucks so bad because THAT WAS MY ONLY CHANCE TO SEE A VENOM MOVIE IN MY BIRTHDAY, SOMETHING THE FIRST FILM SHOULD HAVE BEEN BECAUSE IT CAME OUT A DAY LATE! IT WOULD HAVE ABSOLUTELY TOPPED JOKER AS MY #1 BEST BIRTHDAY FILM EVER! My birthday gets even more depressing when there’s literally not a single anime that remotely interests me coming out in my birthday and most of the anime I’m the most excited for are coming out before and long after my birthday, the only choice I have is Talentless Nana, or Munou na Nana if you’d like to call the series but I like using the former, I watched the trailer of it and it was okay, not really impressed but might as well give it a shot in my birthday, if I didn’t like it, might as well rewatch the anime that came before it.

Anyways, enough talk about my birthday, let’s talk about my most anticipated Fall shows:

Akudama Drive - October 8th: Since the foundation of Tookyo Games, a new studio by Kazutaka Kodaka,and Kotaro Uchikoshi with artists like Rui Komatsuzaki and Shimadoriru, this anime by Pierrot was the #1 thing that got my most attention, and I can’t believe that we’re so close to the release! Though I SERIOUSLY wish this would come out on my birthday.

Danganronpa may be over but as long as there’s new projects with Kodaka and Komatsuzaki onboard, such as Akudama Drive and the upcoming Tribe Nine. Oh, and speaking of Danganronpa, guess what?... THERE’S GONNA BE AN AKUDAMA DRIVE AND DANGANRONPA COLLABORATION!!! (News provided by the official Akudama Drive Twitter account) Not only there’s gonna be illustrations by Rui Komatsuzaki but if the translations are correct, there’s gonna be more projects along the way! A Danganronpa and Akudama Drive collab is something I just never knew I needed in my life!

I’m absolutely calling it, this is definitely gonna be my AOTY, it may be based due to the fact that I love the Danganronpa franchise to death, but I’ve always had my eyes on this and I want to see it now!

By the way, I just realized something, there’s this project with visuals by Rui Komatsuzaki and Shimadoriru that I have yet to see some news of!

It’s not Tribe Nine, that game looks like a completely different beast on its own and it’s in collaboration with another project.

Then there’s also this other game that’s, quote:

Collaboration of the development team of Danganronpa and Spike Chunsoft. Kodaka actually started this project before his retirement of Spike Chunsoft. We imagine a kind of cyberpunk world from this art. Komatsuzaki designs the characters, Shimadoriru designs background, and Takada directs the sounds.

Okay, that sounds really cool, but I’m more interested in the one project with the Rui Komatsuzaki and Shimadoriru visuals, I want to know more about them!

Sure, the concept art may not represent what the final product might end up looking, but World’s End Club (Originally called Death March Club) and Akudama Drive live up to their concept art, so that’s something!

Speaking of Danganronpa, the 10th anniversary stuff was ABSOLUTELY LACKLUSTER, I legit expected there might have been surprise announcements or anything that said there’s a new Danganronpa installment, but nothing absolutely relevant came from it, the Danganronpa x Akudama Drive collab was the only good thing from it. This is what I get for setting my expectations way too high, well, maybe not too high, but still, come on.

(But at the same time, do I REALLY want a new Danganronpa without the staple creators on board?)

Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2 - October 7th: Girls’ Frontline isn’t my most played gacha game, a black sheep, probably the most blackest sheep since Granblue Fantasy, one I don’t heavily get invested to play like Fate/Grand Order, Azur Lane and even Arknights, though while I started playing Arknights at launch, I stopped around March because the game was very difficult and I lacked the resources, but I returned to the game in May after seeing my older sister starting to play Arknights. I returned to Girls’ Frontline because my Filipino friend started playing Girls’ Frontline around early May and he’s made quite a lot of insane progress in just 5 months, even I wouldn’t ever do that, but since September 28th, I uninstalled the game because I wanted to have some space to install Genshin Impact but at the same time I ended up giving on it too because it ran pretty slow for my phone even on the lowest settings and I almost had no storage left, I even tried installing the game on PC and I don’t know why but the game gave me last minute errors for some reason, so sacrifices had to be made for both Girls’ Frontline and Genshin Impact.

Anyway, enough talk with the gacha game side of things because I made quite a long un-spaced (?) paragraph, let’s talk about the GFL short anime series itself, even as a non-GFL player, I LOVED this series to death, hell, I was even lowkey sad when Healing Chapter ended, Madness Chapter, however... Not so much, we don’t talk about Madness Chapter. The biggest surprise I had when the series came out was that it came out in BiliBili with Chinese dub, hearing anime in Chinese dub is unheard of, I thought the series would be automatically in Japanese because the first trailer had an all-Japanese voice-over, but the Chinese dub was quite good, but then the Japanese dub finally came out--ON MY BIRTHDAY! on Japanese television (and BiliBili too). Well, that’s quite a lovely surprise, I managed to watch the JP dubbed premiere of Healing Chapter long before I went out with my family to have lunch and then go see Joker, it was the second 神映画 (Kami eiga - God film, I made that up) of the year, and my #1 was of course Avengers: Endgame. The JP dub of both Healing and Madness Chapter were very good too overall, it did some things better than CN and vice versa, even casting Persica’s JP voice which I really hope her seiyuu can be used again at some point, the JP broadcast of Healing Chapter also had these weird live-action segments of some dudes’ hands playing with the main character plushies doing random things... I don’t even know what they are or why they are, all I can say that they’re just pretty much fillers to fit the Japanese TV broadcast time limit.

I’m wasting quite a lot of time writing nonsense history of my experience with the Girls’ Frontline short anime series and let me get straight to the point of season 2, when the interview video was released, one of the animators said that they were working on season 2 and then the designs for AK-12 and AN-94 were shown, I’m of course hyped as hell for season 2! (Poggers) and, I don’t want to say this but because of COVID-19, I thought season 2 wouldn’t ever happen now, but it’s still alive and kicking and ready to be released! But there’s one MAJOR problem, apparently BiliBili is going to region lock the series! At first I wasn’t concerned about it for some reason, I had some misguided optimism that someone’s gotta have a VPN or do anything to try to upload the series on more accessible websites, but now the concern is growing bigger and bigger, but still let’s hope someone can still upload season 2 somewhere, I don’t want to see spoilers going around, even if I don’t follow a lot of Girls’ Frontline accounts which I should because sometimes I wouldn’t have ever found out about season 2.

Now I’m just seeing mostly stuff about Healing Chapter season 2, there’s one major question, should I expect Madness Chapter season 2 as well? As far as I know, there really hasn’t been any trailer for a potential season 2 or if it’s actually getting one at all, doesn’t seem like the series did well and I didn’t even care about it sometimes, which is great because Healing Chapter is far superior. But now that Madness Chapter may not get a second season, there’s also the question of what does M16′s Chinese VA mean by making the series “longer,” longer as in be a couple of minutes longer? Although 3-4 minutes is already a decent runtime, it’s not insanely short but I’m down if they’d make it at least a couple of minutes longer. Maybe making the series longer means that we can have a two-cour second season worth of Girls’ Frontline: Healing Chapter only? I would love for that to happen, but we’ll have to find out and see.

There are somethings I forgot to mention about Girls’ Frontline season 2, it’s aimed to be released on October 7th, which is surprisingly earlier than the first season’s release where it was late July. And October 7th being on Wednesday and I wish Girls’ Frontline season 2 would come out on my birthday, but oh well. I wonder if it’ll take about the same timeframe for the Japanese dub’s release, it came out on my birthday last year when the original Chinese dub came out in late July, so I might expect the Japanese dub of season 2 to come out in probably like Winter 2021 at best, we’ll see about that.

Even if I don’t religiously play Girls’ Frontline like I wanted to because I’m a big fan of guns, I wouldn’t mind playing Code Name Bakery, though. I may not fully understand the story in order but my Filipino friend would occasionally tell me spoilers and I don’t really mind that.

By the way, last year I made a shitpost video of Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter but with Team Fortress 2 audio, now I finally made a new audio parody video but with a twist(ed metal)!

Osomatsu-san season 3 - October 12th: Just when I thought the future of the Osomatsu-san series would be over with the movie, but I’m glad my boys are still up and running! This is definitely gonna top Uzaki-chan as the better comedy of the year because Osomatsu-san has consitently given me a lot of laughs and delivers some really hilarious and bizarre moments.

Knowing that this is Osomatsu-san, wil it dare to even touch upon the topic of COVID-19 or something? There might be some scenes where the cast are doing a Zoom meeting, but they probably wouldn’t flat out say the name of the virus out loud, it’s very unlikely as I kinda find COVID-19 a somewhat sensitive topic and other media hasn’t or probably wouldn’t even try doing something about it.

Burn the Witch - October 2nd: I never really grew up nor care about Bleach, but I read the one-shot of Burn the Witch and I was intrigued by it, when the serialization was announced, I was excited because this series has potential, but there was a catch, this would be a short limited series for 4 chapters, so when I read the last chapter of the manga series, I was sad because the series has potential and it got wasted, but wait, it’s not entirely over yet, as this was only the “first season” and the manga series is getting a “second season.” Yeah, I have no idea how a manga having seasons even works, that doesn’t make sense.

Now here comes the film (or three-part episode series) and upon seeing the first trailer, I thought it would adapt the one-shot because that came out first, but as later trailers came out... It’s adapting the serialized series?! How long was this in the making?! How did the animators even get to read the four chapters of the serialized manga series before they were even released yet?!

Speaking of Bleach, there’s an upcoming new anime that’s adapting an arc, but like I said, I never grew up nor I care about Bleach, so... ¯\_(ツ)_/��

Golden Kamuy season 3 - October 5th: Information on season 3 has been quite scarce for a while and hell, I have barely even watched the trailers, but at last it’s finally coming. As of the (re)writing of this post, September 29th, I finally managed to watch the OVAs and I forgot how hilarious and weird it can be and I love it.

Danmachi season 3 - October 2nd: Like Akudama Drive, this one was also originally gonna be released on Summer but was delayed because of COVID, I haven’t really talked about it more than I have with Akudama Drive because I’m the most excited for it.

Like Golden Kamuy, I happened to watch the recent OVA when season 2 ended and I haven’t seen the trailers at all. Man, I rarely watch OVAs nowadays. Also, speaking of the OVA, what did I just watch?!

D4DJ First Mix - October 30th: That’s right, this is ANOTHER Sanzigen produced anime of the year, Sanzigen has done it again, they’re absolutely killing this year. Anyways, I wanted to watch this for obvious reasons, but apparently I found out that this D4DJ franchise is a new property by Bushiroad, the publisher of the BanG Dream series, seems like Bushiroad has a soft spot for Sanzigen and I really can’t blame them.

Higurashi remake - October 1st: Starting the month off with a remake adaptation of Higurashi, lovely. I never grew up watching the original Higurashi anime, however, I do remember certain moments from the series... For the absolute worse. (1, 2). Yeah, that’s all I can remember. I really wish I could have binged the original series months ago, at least the first season because upon checking the Wikipedia, there’s a lot of other series and they’re just as long as the first one, there’s no way I would have survived all that binge-watching considering I have other things I’m heavily compromised such as my gacha gaming addiction, and yeah that was silly but I have nothing else to do in my spare time, with that being said about the binge-watching and consuming a lot of material, it would have been the time I binged all of Ikki Tousen for a week all over again.

I don’t know anything about the Higurashi visual novel, I don’t know if the original anime series was a good adaptation or not, I’ll probably let some VN royaltists tell me on this one, the 2000s were probably the time where VN adaptations were absolutely mediocre (which I can’t really say for sure because I don’t play VNs to even care to agree that the Tsukihime and Umineko anime are garbage), but I digress. If you couldn’t tell, the original Higurashi anime is that old, which I don’t understand why the need for an anime remake like at this time and what will it even do as an adaptation.

Watching the series is gonna be totally new to me, this isn’t like a Fruits Basket situation where I refused to watch the original anime series in favor of the remake, and by seeing some comparison videos, the remake is a million times far superior than the remake.

Guraburu! - October 8th: I don’t want to consider my older sister as my personal go-to Granblue Fantasy/Shadowverse/Bahamut source since whatever she says are her opinions and whatever which I wouldn’t always end up agreeing, even if she ends up saying that she hates the main Granblue Fantasy anime series. As for me, I found the first season decent, I liked the animation, but then the second season came and the animation is totally different and that gave me a huge sour taste in my mouth, just the visuals were enough to make me sick from the painful animation and I couldn’t care any single bit of it, and the fact that season 2 came out around the same time where other gacha game-based anime like Fate/Grand Order Babylonia and Azur Lane The Animation came out didn’t do any favors.

I don’t know if Girls’ Frontline or Granblue Fantasy are my blackest gacha game sheeps, I did have some decent experience with the game, I played the Christmas, the Persona 5 and the Detective Conan events (Though I didn’t finish the Conan event), I mostly opened the game for log ins but I occasionally went to do free rolls whenever those happened, lastly I played the campaign for a little bit but I stopped because the one chapter where I last played, I forgot what it was, but it required having a party with higher level and I couldn’t even beat a map once, so I gave up. I haven’t opened the game for a long time and I feel like I have pretty much retired from Granblue Fantasy. I wouldn’t like to try to follow my older sister in the shadows when it comes to Granblue Fantasy, Shadowverse or Rage of Bahamut any longer, so they’re totally out of my league.

My older sister seems rather optimistic about this series as it’s an adaptation of the game’s 4koma, going so far to say this would be “a million times better than the main anime series.”

Honestly I’m not feeling quite fond of these Cygames adaptations as a whole, they can be very hit or miss but the most important thing is whether they resonate with me or not, so I still end up watching everything anyways.

Also, we do not talk about the current Shadowverse anime because that is NOT the Shadowverse I know at all and I can’t believe it’s still going.

Attack on Titan: The Final Season - December 7th: Okay, I definitely did not expect quite a release date for the final season of Attack on Titan at all, it’s so weird that I even thought about whether or not I would classify this as a “Fall” anime and more like closer to the “Winter” season. I haven’t been following the news but my biggest question is, has the manga already ended? This wouldn’t be the final season if it wouldn’t adapt the entirety of the series finale as soon as the source material ended, kind of like Tokyo Ghoul:re.

Talentless Nana - October 4th: I already mentioned above that this is my only decent choice of day 1 anime to watch on my birthday, I’m just putting it here again for the sake of having the list complete.

Toji no Miko - Tomoshibi - October 25th, November 29th: Back when I first watched Toji no Miko back in 2018 (Wow, I already feel old), I found the series okay, they also released a mobile game at the time which I was like “Okay.” But for some reason as time went on I kind of grow to develop a negative aftertaste for the series, like it’s not very appealing or whatever. Then the Mini Toji series came out last year and it added fuel to the fire on my uninterest on the Toji no Miko franchise as a whole with Mini Toji leaving me a huge sour taste in my mouth, it wasn’t even funny, sometimes it was but most of it wasn’t.

I don’t want to associate Yoshinori Shizuma’s art heavily with Kancolle, but I even went so far thinking that Toji no Miko would be the Kancolle of swords or even a female Touken Ranbu of sorts but not exactly like Touken Ranbu, but it does nothing to help to gain interest.

I don’t know why I kind of feel that way towards the franchise, and after the mobile game’s release, I later thought Toji no Miko would become a failed franchise, so where we at now? Well, Toji no Miko is getting an OVA, but it’s not just a single OVA, it’s actually a two-part OVA, lovely. There’s just something about the series that makes me think it’s bland, it’s nothing special and whatever. I do think Yoshinori Shizuma’s character designs are nice, not great or rule 34 worthy but they’re okay at best, and that’s about it.

Mini Toji introduced the characters from the mobile game into the anime scene, and now the new OVAs are heavily based on the mobile game, but honestly, I prefer the characters from the anime series a million times better than the ones from the game, they’re rather forgettable.

You probably want to tell me that if I feel somewhat pessimistic about Toji no Miko, I should boycott the OVA, I’d like to but part of me tells me that maybe I shouldn’t blindly be a dick about it, so I guess I should give Toji no Miko one last chance. I wrote the release date just in case, I’ll probably forget about it anyways except there will be something that’ll make me remind the Toji no Miko OVA parts 1 and 2 will come out soon or have come out depending on the time.

(Speaking of Touken Ranbu, when the hell are we gonna get the new Touken Ranbu Hanamaru project? I recently read the news of the new Hanamaru project being in the works again to refresh my memory the last time I saw the news and it was from THIS JANUARY?! Holy crap, that was a really long time ago! I really hope this would resurface in 2021 and it might bring some interest in Touken Ranbu again, although this is Touken Ranbu and the fanbase are hardcore fujos so they’re still keeping the game alive in some way. I always thought the Touken Ranbu anime would now become dormant for some reason, especially when Ufotable is never gonna release the Katsugeki Touken Ranbu movie, they definitely must have ditched it in favor of more Fate and even Kimetsu no Yaiba. The Katsugeki Touken Ranbu film now is sitting next to Girls’ Work as Ufotable’s most infamous vaporware works.)

I guess that’s it for this post, I talked way too much about some of my most anticipated shows than others but it’s clear I do give a lot of thought into some of these things.

Anyways, I’ll see you later and don’t forget about my birthday!

Hajime Komaeda/XtremeDespair3D - Carrd.

If you want to do birthday donations: Here.

[rate-out-of-10]

WONDER WOMAN REVIEW

Superhero films just keep getting bigger and bigger; Marvel seems to always make a smash hit every single year, and DC seems to have been trying to catch up. With Wonder Woman, the first female-lead superhero film since 2005’s (flop) Elektra, hitting theaters this weekend, DC has gained some major ground. Director Patty Jenkins expertly crafts a believable world for Wonder Woman to dwell in and made Wonder Woman the all-around best film that the DC Cinematic Universe has put out thus far, and very well may be the most important superhero film that’s ever come out.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The character of Wonder Woman is a huge undertaking for any actress, I’d say it was even harder for Gal Gadot, someone who was relatively unknown in the States until now, to convince people she was right for the role. She’s previously done some work in the Fast & Furious movies, but once she was announced as the chosen one to play the role of the Amazonian princess, Diana, aka Wonder Woman, she was met with some criticism. But her smaller performance in Batman v Superman seemed to have raised some eyebrows, mine included, and here in her feature length debut in the role, she’s engulfed Diana in the best of ways. Gal Gadot pierces through the screen with intensity, purity, strength, and innocence. Her Wonder Woman is powerful, virtuous, noble, and forthright, she is just wonderful. She has a smile that just makes you proud. Gal almost effortlessly molds the innocence and naivety of Diana in the world of man with her confidence and independence. Other than herself, Gal had some prominent back up in the film as well, specifically Chris Pine in the role of Diana’s human love, Steve Trevor. I can’t think of a movie where Chris Pine wasn’t good. He has an infectious personality on screen, he’s always enjoyable to watch. His approach to Steve’s awkwardness around Diana was great; he’s continually surprised by Diana and it always confuses him how she can always do that. Chris and Gal have natural chemistry on screen, when they joke, when they fight, when they connect, through the whole film their relationship always felt genuine. Their romantic subplot wasn’t ever in your face either, it felt natural and was done so delicately and with grace, I respect it a lot. I wish I could have seen more of the Amazonians of Themyscira, but what we got was definitely enough. To see all these strong women training and fighting, moving so fluidly and gracefully was invigorating to watch. I could only imagine how a little girl felt watching these powerful women command the screen. My only complaint when it comes to the characters of the film is essentially everyone else besides the Amazonians, Diana, and Steve Trevor. They assemble a rag-tag group of guys to show Wonder Woman the different facets of humanity, however I wish they felt maybe more important, maybe a group of strong ladies would’ve taken it further. They didn’t seem to do anything of importance except just be there. They all had some nice moments individually but not enough to convince me that they’re worth watching. Next, there were three villainous figures: Ludendorff (Danny Huston), Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya), and Ares (David Thewlis). Ludendorff and Poison were the ones who commanded most of the evil appearances, however they were excessively generic. I think when you bring a movie into WWI or II, you can just use Germans as evil doers without much depth added to them. Poison had some intrigue, but we never really learn much of her, all she really spent time doing was marveling as gas clouds and being melodramatic. Then there’s Ares, and he wasn’t much at all exciting. His best moment was the reveal that he’s been around the entire time as Sir Patrick, but after that his intrigue faded away with excessive CGI and just an awkward appearance. He kept that mustache for thousands of years? Really? It might have had something to do with the casting choice that made it a bit ridiculous to see. When Ares formed his armor with the weapons and plating scattered around the airfield at the end, that was a cool moment, but David Thewlis just wasn’t Ares. A change in form or appearance might have gone a long way. Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and the Amazonian women really steal the show for me, the rest were just bearable in a sense to keep the film moving forward.

Wonder Woman starts out incredibly strong, giving the warriors of Themyscira, and a young Diana, time to shine. The concentration on the world building of Wonder Woman was fantastic. It didn’t feel mashed up or rushed, like the other three DC films that have come out thus far. The movie paced generally well, even when the action was at a low point in favor of exposition, there were still bits to draw you in. Sure it can feel a little slow at times, I definitely wanted to see more of Wonder Woman kicking ass, but the slower bits did serve some nice character building, specifically for Diana. Gal was always great to watch whether she was clearly a fish out of water, or standing strong and noble against sexist men, or just smiling. You’re always rooting for her, but you’re also waiting for her to be enlightened. In parts, she’s very naive when it came to the conflict of Ares and mankind, and at the end when she has that realization of who humans really were, after Steve’s sacrifice, a feeling of relief and excitement washes over you. The action sequences were glorious too, Zach Snyder’s trademark slow-mo shots were all over the place, but I was happy with them because I liked watching Wonder Woman kick some serious ass. The final battle between her and Ares may have been very CGI’d and perhaps a bit underwhelming, but the showcase of Diana’s maximum power was great to watch. Beating overwhelming odds in superhero movies will never get old, perhaps that’s because superheroes were built off that premise. I also marveled at the set-pieces; Themyscira, London, the trenches, they all were wonderfully designed, Themyscira being the most colorful of all the landscapes. One thing I did want to bring up was the choice of the WWI setting. It was a bold choice to introduce Wonder Woman in this war-torn time, some people wanted to see her introduced in the modern day, and where I can see that being perhaps a bit cooler, it wouldn’t make much sense to the DC timeline for this universe. In the modern day, Superman and Batman specifically are prominent figures already, Batman already having a long history. If there wasn’t much of a record of Wonder Woman before Bruce discovered her picture and secret file, why would the modern day make sense? It serves her well to be in a time where technology wasn’t all over the place, so the only real evidence of her existence is the one photograph taken of her, that’s what makes it significant. If she emerged closer to the modern day, her ambiguity would be lost. Question that remain from this time, though, is how does she really age in this canon? Is Themyscira somehow suspended in time? How did she age there? Is ten years to an Amazonian in Themyscira, 50 years, or a hundered years, in the world of man? How did she seemingly not age through the rest of human history up until BvS? Did she not interfere in WWII? Vietnam? The Civil Rights era? There are a lot of questions about Wonder Woman and her history that come from this movie, however they don’t really pertain to this film specifically. These are just things that should maybe be fleshed out through the rest of the DC films.

After a film like this, what’s next really comes into question for the DC cinematic universe. Wonder Woman blew all the past films (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, & Suicide Squad) out of the water. Will Justice League have a monumental payoff like this one did? Or will the rest of the DC universe be just as flat as where we left off with it prior to Wonder Woman? There are plenty of DC movies slated for the near future, but the rocky start it’s gotten off to may hurt the success of their first team-up film. Especially since DC seems to just want the team up to happen more quickly than Marvel’s. We don’t get an Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, or even a solo-Batman film until after this first Justice League movie, set to release this November. It’s a questionable timeline to have. I would’ve appreciated their creative choices a lot more if we got the films in this order: Man of Steel, The Batman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, and then Justice League. With the multitude of cameos in BvS of the other “meta-humans”, plus Batman and Wonder Woman’s solo films would have already introduced them, the team-up would have more of a payoff. But then again, Justice League isn’t out yet, these are just my feelings as of now and they could change. Wonder Woman is the shining example of what DC has needed and it captures Wonder Woman so epically that my excitement for DC has been revitalized to a good degree. My final rating for Wonder Woman is:

8.75/10. In a word: wonderful.

Wonder Woman does a plethora of things right, and when the movie is going great, it’s going great. Gal Gadot does an amazing job with the character, Patty Jenkins directs with fierce integrity and puts on a show that is tremendously impressive. Wonder Woman may be the most important superhero film to have ever come out, and it earns that praise. The flaws with supporting characterization, a decent lack of villainous intrigue, and a not-too-impressive main villain finale doesn’t take away too much from Wonder Woman herself. She’s a shining light in this grim world that DC has built up and I’m excited to see where she will lead the universe to in the future.

[chamrosh]

so a few days ago, I wanted to draw while watching tv as a change to music, and Friends came on, and like

wow it’s aged awfully

and wow it’s offensive

season 1, episode 9. Joey walks in wearing make up, he looks fine? Like, the lipstick’s a little more obvious than ideal, but legit, he looks fine, it seems like less make up than stage actors have to wear from my experience, and yeah. He looks fine.

Monica asks what’s going on, and Joey says he’s now part actor, part model.

Chandler’s first line in the whole episode is... “No, you look part he, part she.”

And just yeah.

and the whole episode, he spends making jokes about Joey not looking manly enough, or doing unmanly things like being employed as one of santa’s elves, or dating a single mum, and yeah.

Chandler is just an awful human being.

and... then Joey gets employed as a model for a STD awareness poster, and there’s this running “joke” about his family abandoning him at Thanksgiving because they think he has syphilis, and like...???? no??? that’s not a thing to joke about? It’s not that it’s offensive (it is) but getting kicked out by your family is not funny. Especially as the episode is sort of trying to frame it as people thinking that Joey is gay, and I think they didn’t want to make Joey come off badly to their producers and all, because I mean. HIV would fit that plot better, but producers might not like certain audiences being able to see a character who comes across as almost confirmedly gay.

Then Ross’s ex-wife, and her wife are framed entirely as villains - and the thing of not making a minority villains so as to not paint the minority as bad is dumb, yeah, but if they’re your only members of a minority, you... probably shouldn’t do it - and Ross’s main plot line through the whole episode is that he’s doing things for his unborn baby’s wellbeing just to spite his ex-wife’s wife. They get way more subtle with this later, but Ross also spends progressively less time with his son as they get less hostile, and we don’t see his son for like 2 seasons at the end, so...? Apparently the only reason why your divorced dad would want to see you is to spite your mother’s new partner. And also, all lesbians are awful people

Monica’s entire plotline that episode is that she needs to cook dinner really well, and that she needs to cook 4 types of potato, except Rachel’s a moron and doesn’t bring the keys when Monica asks her to bring the keys, and it’s really really obvious that Monica is asking about the keys. Like... women’s concerns regard that they need to cook things and they need to stop being dumb. And I get that those are actual things for some people, but Phoebe gets no plot, Ross gets the plotline of getting to know his kid more, and Joey gets the plotline of getting a new job and his family abandoning him. The dudes get a better deal, yo.

Also, worth noting, that by the time they get back in the apartment, all the cooking has burned to ash. And yeah, Monica’s annoyed and all but like. Can you imagine how pissed off you’d be if your friends strong armed you into doing all the same work 3 more times in a row, and then they casually laugh about it later, and replace all your work with literally a couple of sandwiches? Can you imagine how underappreciated you’d feel, if your several hours’ work can be equated by like two sandwiches? So basically, her friends sort of portray it as all of Monica’s work doesn’t even matter. A woman’s work doesn’t matter. There’s no apology for it all being wasted by everyone, there’s no attempt to at least get a cooked meal done, even if it were just like, a heap of pasta, no. Absolutely minimal effort is what’s needed to replace what was lost when something made by a woman is destroyed.

Okay so I sort of just let it through because I wanted to give more of a chance and see if it was just that episode?

Next came season 1, episode 10.

Phoebe spends christmas playing messed up songs about her mother’s death in the cafe, which could have been funny, but the punchline is super obvious, and the only light they give to the scene is one of the verses about Pheobe’s mum’s ashes is interrupted by her going “lalalalallalala” loudly. So.

And then she’s interrupted by two really nerdy-looking blokes, who were debating if she was prettier than a supermodel or not, which is legitimately really cute, but then she starts dating one of them, and her plotline starts revolving around how David isn’t typically manly enough? That instead of a proper date, he shows her graphs and equations, and he’s genuinely excited, but they portray it as bad? Even though he genuinely wants to share what makes him happy with her, and that’s a good thing, because you sure don’t want to date someone who won’t let you into things they enjoy... but nope,it’s framed as him being a whiny wimpy loser, and Phoebe does the framing. And she demands he toss his work on the floor to kiss her, despite it all being neatly placed around and like yeah. that’s gonna be hours of sorting, I’m sure you can pick another counter, Pheebs. And at the end of the episode, she basically forces him to break up with her? He gets a job offer in Minsk, and he’s torn between going to the new job and breaking up with her. And I get why Phoebe wants him to go! She knows he’s happy at that job, and that’s fine! But instead of discussing it at all, she forces him into breaking up. If she’d done that after they discussed and realising he didn’t know, that might be different, but they don’t communicate about it at all. Phoebe leaves a guy heartbroken because she doesn’t want to talk to him, and because couples can’t just talk things over like people who have a shared language!

So in S1E9, Rachel wants to go skiing, and like half her plotline is jokes about her being awful at her job. And, yes, that fits her personality and history and all, and it gives her somewhere to grow from later, but you’re like “haha. i see. the joke is that women are awful at their jobs! how amusing.” She eventually gets given the money for a plane ticket because she’s just that awful at her job, but the thing with the keys and her being a moron happens. And in S1E10, again her plotline revolves around planes. She wants her boyfriend to come back from Rome, and his plane is delayed but she only finds out when at the airport. Okay, decent plot idea... but they never actually show it, we’re just told about it. And then she gets back from the airport, her jacket... that she didn’t leave with... is covered in mud, she has a mild cut to one lip, and yeah, she looks like she thinks she’s awful beat up. Maybe I’m judging injuries by the scale of “hey when I get a paper cut it bleeds for hours!” but still, it’s really not a big cut. And she tells - not shows, this is an offense against storytelling too - this story about a “literal whale of a woman”.

Like????? what???? you don’t like this woman who stole your cab, and the scriptwriters take this as an opportunity to both dehumanise the other woman and fatshame her. And they keep going on about how massive this woman is, rather than what she did to hurt Rachel (it turns out, mildly pull her hair, she tripped to get the cut lip), and Rachel seems more upset about her size than the hairpulling, honestly. So Rachel’s plotline... is actually.... about fatshaming a random lady who also needed to get a cab.

To new years’, Chandler invites his ex, who he broke up with because her laugh is annoying and she just generally annoys him. The second bit is fair enough, but it’s clear that he broke up more because of the first bit. And she’s portrayed as literally a giggling jack in the box demon thing. And like, I get this is a sit-com, and everyone’s an extreme? but... you can portray people as awful in a way that’s a little less just bad? Janice doesn’t get that Chandler isn’t interested, she messes up stuff at the party, she asks weird questions, y’know, stuff like that. And yeah, the take-away is that when men say their ex is crazy, they probably mean it... which is bad. Because like, women don’t just become worthless human beings as soon as dudes break up with them. People don’t have to be inherently awful for them dating to just not work, and they don’t even manage to get that right when those between the main cast break up (Being on a break does not mean not being open about stuff, Ross, or not wanting to discuss what you’re going to be happy with the other doing, and why were you on that break, huh?). Instead, Janice is reduced to just the most annoying laugh track they could manage without highlighting exactly how awful the studio audience laughing constantly is. I don’t even know how to phrase how awful it came across that there’s just this woman who’s there to embody the crazy ex-girlfriend trope and nothing else. Even if she tried to get to date Chandler again by small little tokens of stuff, then that’d be something? But no, as soon as you break up with someone, they have no value beyond being a crazy ex-girlfriend.

Note also, that the only female plotlines that aren’t more about a man than about her own storyline, are Monica needing to cook potatoes, Rachel having no ability to pick up basic requests, and Rachel wanting to go skiing and clear off so we don’t see her for an episode, and insulting all her friends in the process, and highlighting in turn how awful she is at her job. The female plotlines are all about romance, or about something sorta sexist. Women need to cook, women don’t understand things that are obvious, women need to leave, women are awful in the workplace.

I might do more of these rants about Friends being awful later. We’ve got the whole box-set, it’s not like I’d run out of material soon. But yeah, it’s aged absolutely awfully.

Lots of sexism, some homophobia, shaming of people with STDs, laughing at kids with rough backgrounds, shaming men who aren’t stereotypically manly, laughing at people whose conservative families kick them out, saying that all divorced dads are awful parents and only pretend that they care to spite your stepparent, that women will trick you into doing things you’re not sure you want to do, saying that women are all idiots, stating in Monica’s potato plotline that women in the kitchen need to bow down to whatever requests are put on them, even if it’s to make 4 different types of potato for one meal, and that their effort is worthless if it fails... Yeah, there’s a lot here.

I’d also like to point out that generally I don’t spend entire TV shows just thinking about the awful things they show but it was literally one of the first lines that made me go “well that’s not acceptable” and it sort of spiraled from there. Most TV shows i might notice one small thing, and not care because one small thing is normally going to be from a character flaw or whatever, and that’s fine. But when your not-okay ideas become entire 20 minute (40 minute in the case of Joey not looking masculine enough) storylines, without them being portrayed as not-okay at all, but as being sympathetic, and such? no. No no no. There’s lots of ways to handle sexist / whatever-ist ideas in your TV show in a way that makes it clear that there’s a maturity, and there’s ways to handle them that don’t light up the red flags in people’s brains even if they’re not fully explored and whatever. But these episodes just did nothing there.