#its been 20 years its time for a new sonic anime

[3rdsday]

Kirk Thornton I am sorry for everything mean I have ever said about you

[au-sonic-smackdown]

AU Sonic Smackdown - Round 1, Right Side

NEOSEGA! AU belongs to @chopp-6467

Evil Sonic AU belongs to @kittygamer2888

Read more about them under the cut!

NEOSEGA! AU-

After stopping the eclipse cannon and A.R.K from crashing into the planet, Sonic and company try to return to some form of normalcy, however a sudden clash between Metal Sonic causes shocking changes. For unknown reasons, Sonic, and Doctor Eggman shortly after, to suddenly vanish off the face of the earth. After this sudden predicament, Sonic’s friends are left confused and disjointed. Years pass and they haven spoken to each other…

Until! Unceremoniously decades later, Sonic is found alive on the deltas of Polaris! Despite everything Sonic (could maybe) have gone through in between then and now, his energy and attitude is unwavering. He's still steadfast and a go-getter, "Its better to live a life without regrets!". He's only slightly bitter and jaded over the fact that he lost 20 years of his life. No biggie.

While he may look aged, his abilities certainly have not. He's still just as fast and agile as he ever was! Maybe a little rusty because he hasn't touched the ground in a while, but you could barely notice even if you where looking. However, he does seem to have an bizarre trick to resonate with chaos energy naturally and intuitively. When asked how he can pull of those stunts without even learning it, his rebuttal is met with confusion: "What? Is it really that difficult? Its just a small exercise in teamwork really. It's really easy once you get a little bit of a handle on it." Maybe he is onto something…

Evil Sonic AU-

Sonic's personality is mostly firm, serious, and can be a bit arrogant at times. He can also be quick to rush things like attacking without a plan and plan's his fights during battle. He could care less about Knuckles and his friends, he just wants the Master Emerald and have that ultimate power to himself.

His abilities are mostly the same as the original Sonic (Spindash, homing attack, etc.) but he tends to use his machines more as he doesn't like getting his hands dirty, those are only in rare and dire times.

Sonic used to be this normal, brown, free-spirited hedgehog who just wanted to make friends with the animals and mobians in the woods and cities, but that all changed when he broke the sound barrier, changing him from brown to blue. Everything changed that day as his friends backstabbed him and betrayed him, left him for dead out alone in the woods. More time passes by and he would get bullied non-stop, and he was no longer the same friendly hedgehog he used to be as he became more distant and quiet throughout his years as a kid. But once Sonic saw how Tails would be bullied for being different too, he convinced Tails, manipulated him into joining his plan. To take over the world and change the planet his was, their way. And Tails, being a gullible kid at the time, accepted it. And after a while, Sonic didn't want to admit it, but deep down, he started seeing Tails as his beother later on in the years. To this day, Tails still works for Sonic, him being the one who plans the robots and builds them while Sonic is the one who plans the battles, but he has been practicing building his own robots with the help of Tails around.

Extra info: His name "Sonic" was just a nickname his friends used to give him because of his speed, and because of this, Sonic would go back to referring himself to his government name, "Ogilvie Maurice". And because the nickname "Tails" was a name that was given to the fox by the bullies in this AU, Tails still goes by "Miles Prower" here.

But because of Knuckles being the hero of this AU, he comes up with a new nickname for Maurice, it being "Needlemouse". So now that's what Maurice goes by, "Mr. Needlemouse" while Miles is simply just "Dr. Miles Prower".

Bonus: All of the characters here are aged up more, so Sonic here is only 20 years old and is 3'4. So.. there's that.

[xb-squaredx]

A Tribute to Akira Toriyama

It’s been a bit over 24 hours since I’ve heard the news that acclaimed manga author, Akira Toriyama, has passed away, and frankly it’s still hard to process. I’d like to just say a few things to honor and mourn a man that I have never met, but whose work touched me and millions of others all over the world in ways I am only now really beginning to see.

Like a lot of 90s kids in the United States, my first exposure with Toriyama’s work was through the Dragon Ball Z anime. Despite the fact that I didn’t even know this was a sequel to a completely different series, and I had no real clue what anime even was at the time, I was captivated. For years I would race home from school and sit glued in front of the TV as Toonami would air the latest episodes. A phenomenon that rippled out across the world for several years in waves, from the original airing of DBZ, to some snippets of the original Dragon Ball and even later on with the anime-only continuation that was Dragon Ball GT, this series had such a hold on me. Friends and I would spend recess trying to recreate the iconic Kamehameha Wave, we’d scream trying to become a Super Saiyan, or take turns fighting each other in one of the MANY different video games based on the series over time. I’ve made friends through my love of Dragon Ball and it would go on to foster a love of anime and later manga. But little did I know just how far Toriyama’s influence would reach.

While I was never all that knowledgeable of his past work, particularly Dr. Slump, so many other series would be inspired by him or have his involvement in some way. Sonic the Hedgehog’s Super Sonic is an easy reference to spot, but less so was Cloud Strife’s garb in Final Fantasy VII being a dead ringer for Gohan’s outfit in the Cell Saga. As long as we’re talking about RPGs, Toriyama’s long history with various properties, from Chrono Trigger to Blue Dragon, and going back to the grandfather of all RPGS in Dragon Quest, it’s safe to say his legacy is felt in multiple mediums rather than just one. This wasn’t even limited to Japanese media either. I would see references to Dragon Ball in things like The Powerpuff Girls or Codename: Kids Next Door. Even well into my 20s, I was still seeing series inspired by him, like the whole fusion concept that made up Steven Universe. His reach was vast and multigenerational.

As I would get older, I would listen to Linkin Park AMVs on YouTube, with songs like Numb or In the End overlaid over the various hypest moments from the Dragon Ball series and its later movies. Even long after the series had finished airing, you’d still see the rare movie or special crop up, alongside an endless series of games trying to capitalize on the success of the Budokai Tenkaichi games. Toriyama was inescapable, and in a way it was comforting. You start to get used to his work being there, whether subtly or overtly. You never think about the day when he’ll be gone.

When first reading the article stating his death, it took a moment to really let it sink in. This man who had been with me, inspiring me throughout my childhood, was gone just like that. Over the past day I’ve seen the greater Internet in mourning, as people share their favorite manga panels, or iconic moments from the various anime interpretations of his work. Outpourings of fanart and inspirational stories from people who grew up with his work just like I did. There are people that got into bodybuilding to be just like Goku, for one. For another, during the finale of Dragon Ball Super there were massive watch parties set up in Mexico and even when authorities tried to stop the events they went forward anyway because they just had to see how Goku could finally defeat Jiren. I remember when Trunks first appeared in the anime, and I thought he was the coolest. I had to try to draw and replicate his first appearance, how he defeated Frieza, the person that took Goku so long to defeat, in a mere instant; I’m realizing now Toriyama might have been my real inspiration to start drawing, alongside who knows how many thousands if not millions of people. As sad as it is to see him go, to see so many people pay tribute and remember him, it really does lay bare just how influential he was, just how powerful art can really be.

It was only in more recent years that I’ve come to really respect Toriyama’s craft. Far beyond the screaming and power ups that many associate with him from Dragon Ball Z this was also a man who valued whimsy. He got his start as a comedy author, and for the longest time the Dragon Ball manga was just a humorous retelling of Journey to the West. The man loved a good bit of toilet humor and the occasional fourth wall break. Looking back at his manga, you can see just how amazing his panel work was, and how it still holds up. The ease at which he guides your eye from panel to panel, the expressiveness of his characters conveyed at all times. Many of his peers have called him a God of Manga, and I think they’re right to do so. The likes of Osamu Tezuka, the creator of manga, had called Toriyama his heir apparent, and stated he was “almost too good.” You can’t get higher praise than that.

Outside of his manga work, just his raw talent at creating iconic character designs needs to be praised. Taking a rather uninteresting mockup of the slime enemy in Dragon Quest, Toriyama would create perhaps the most iconic enemy in all of video games. His enemy designs are often cute and goofy, but occasionally can be quite ferocious. If nothing else, they are eye-catching and never boring. He was also a fan of vehicles and machines, with some really interesting modes of transportation shown off in a lot of his work. And then there’s the fact that so many of his characters have the trademark spikey haircut that has become shorthand for “anime hair,” that is understood to this day. To see him effectively retire after finishing with Dragon Ball back in the 90s, with the occasional contribution here or there, only to get right back to business as usual in the 2010s with amazing designs like Beerus or Android 21, not to mention his continual work on the Dragon Quest series all throughout that time…the man never lost his edge even once.

A sentiment I’ve seen over the last day or so is that Toriyama might, with no exaggeration, have inspired more artists than anyone else in modern history. So many people making their own “Saiyan-sonas” or being inspired to make manga of their own…we may truly never know how far his reach really was at the end of the day. But we do know that the “Big Three” of Shonen Jump throughout the 2000s can be attributed to Toriyama, as the likes of Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto and Tite Kubo are all big fans of Toriyama, with Oda in particular worshiping the ground he walks on. Kubo is also on the record for stating that a letter from Toriyama, when his first draft of what would later become BLEACH was rejected, gave him the encouragement to try again and later be accepted into the magazine. And now these authors have gone on to inspire the next generation and so on and so on.

Over the last few years, we’ve lost a lot of creative figures in the manga industry. Toriyama now joins other similar legends, such as Yu-Gi-Oh creator Kazuki Takahashi as well as Berserk author Kentaro Miura. It is the end of an era, arguably of many eras, and it can be hard to imagine the future, but the Earth continues to spin and as Toriyama has inspired and influenced others, we too will inspire future generations with our work. It isn’t enough to call him a legend; he truly was in a league of his own, a legend among legends, and the outpouring of love for him across all manner of social media posts in just a little over a day alone is a testament to his immense talent and reach. I can think of no greater sendoff than the one that Eiichiro Oda gave him: “I pray for his soulful rest in peace. May heaven be the joyous world he envisioned.”

Rest in peace, and thanks for everything, Mr. Toriyama.

-B

[fleetways]

Hi, HUGE fan of yours, I just wanted to point out that the big addition you made about Shadow Generations and the Shadow's history timeline from the anime expo seems to be based very heavily on assumption; it's way more likely and also was downright alluded to by the host that whoever threw that chart together for this con (and who likely was just an intern given Photoshop and a Fandom wiki) was only including appearances that were major to real life; they specifically presented it as "his first appearance, the games where he returned, his first standalone title, and then non-game media that depicted him."

I also don't agree that it'd be nostalgia bait to focus on Shadow's past right now, especially in a Generations-style anthology game that's meant to capitalize on the movie. The ARK itself was last relevant to a game almost 20 years ago so SEGA is probably concerned that the people they're marketing to literally weren't alive during its relevancy.

Spoilers for a level in the game below:

It's also not like they're ignoring 06 and sweeping it under the rug, one of the few things we know about the game is that it has a level from 06. I'm not saying you were wrong I'm just saying you based a ton of speculative criticism on assumption and misunderstanding, which as a Sonic fan who lived through the 2010s it's just very draining to hear speculative criticism

Well the 06 thing was just me being mr salty more than anything so I’ll give you that. It’s not a criticism for the game, because I know what the game is gonna be and accept this, but just a disappointment with the attitude around it and the fact that they were able to tell new stories with Shadow in the past but have been seemingly unwilling to do anything else like that for the past 17 years. It just kinda feels like they’re digging their heels in to characterize Shadow as someone whose sole motivation revolves around Maria because they think that’s what people want to see, even though that’s something that I feel the canonical ending of Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) and later Sonic 06 showed was definitely not the case.

(Although I still vastly prefer this reading to Shadow acting like an asshole for no reason).

My issues lie way more in my expectations for the panel that this was going to be a deep dive into Shadow’s in-universe character and explore some of the lore that hadn’t been talked about before. There was some of that, but in the end it really boiled down to stuff I was either aware of, or stuff that had already been well-established in canon. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, especially as an introduction to Sonic x Shadow Generations, but considering Sonic x Shadow Generations is already looking to be an introduction to Shadow in Sonic 3, I was hoping there would be more for me to sink my teeth into as someone who is familiar with the character and deeply interested more in specifics. I recognize this is 100% a me problem, but I can’t help but feel frustrated.

As for the nostalgia-bait thing, I think we’ll just have to agree to disagree there. Sonic Generations is literally THE nostalgia game, and I don’t mean that as an insult, it made perfect sense for the time it came out. But considering there’s been a pretty significant tendency to revisit the same locations and concepts, to the point where its become a known point of criticism for the franchise, I can’t help but feel like this is the same thing I’m used to seeing just with Shadow. Which don’t get me wrong, if they’re gonna do it anyways, I’d much rather it be for a character we’ve been hankering for for so long! I just feel a little fatigued is all, even if I understand it makes perfect sense marketing-wise to make a version of one of your best-received games that neatly introduces your character starring in a blockbuster later that year, while also throwing a bone to Shadow/adventure era fans who were dying to see remastered levels from that era (me included!). It’s actually ingenious, so I can’t possibly fault them for it. Plus, for all my complaining, its looking like there definitely is new stuff going on with Shadow, so I’m excited for that. I am just hoping they can tell a story better than the one we got in the original Sonic Generations (which fortunately shouldn’t be too difficult).

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Amy Propaganda

"Despite the fact that Sonic has said outright that she is important to him and someone he's glad to have around, fans choose to ignore that she is shown to be a good friend and has lots of friends- Cream, Big, Tails, Blaze, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge(? They didn't seem to get along, but she invited Rouge to her birthday), Vector, Espio, Silver, E-102 Gamma, Elise, Belle, Sticks, and again, Sonic- in favor of pretending that she is a creepy, obsessive fanatic and a stalker who forces herself into Sonic's life and the lives of those around him without ever being wanted. It's quite frankly disturbing."

Kairi Propaganda

"The Kingdom Hearts game series is about Mickey Mouse battling the forces of Darkness with an alliance of fashionable anime boys. Kairi is a major character, and one of the few female characters. She is part of a trio of childhood best friends, with the protagonist Sora and their other friend Riku (who had a villain arc and then a redemption arc). Though Kairi is constantly and clumsily sidelined by the canon narrative, she arguably has more backstory going on than any other major characters. She is a refugee from another planet. She implicitly lost her beloved grandma at five years old in the traumatic destruction of their hometown. She was kidnapped and experimented on by an evil wizard-scientist—she escaped thanks to having a magic charm that basically teleported her to her soulmate(s). Then she had to adjust to living on a new planet and being adopted by a new family. In the very first game, when she's 14, she turns out her pure heart is one of 7 in the entire universe to be free of Darkness—she shows a full emotional spectrum of fear, sadness, frustration, defeat, but she isn't vulnerable to corruption. In KH2, she becomes one of the Chosen Ones who wield a magical weapon called a Keyblade. She loves her friends very much, and she has the unique talent to instantly recognize them even when they've been transformed into monsters. She has saved them several times with nothing but the Power Of Love in her heart randomly manifesting in, like, telepathy and teleportation and resurrection—she doesn't even consciously know that she has powers, her love is just so great that it's accepted as a tangible force of nature. She is frustrated and ashamed by her role as a damsel in distress, and she wishes to be stronger and combat-capable so that she join her male friends on their adventures instead of waiting around where it's safe. Also she was kidnapped by an evil assassin clown who's ten years older than her, and then they became friends. NOT ONLY does the fandom plug its ears and claim there is nothing interesting about this character and no potential in her story—Kairi has been demonized by the fandom for about 20 years. Somehow Kairi is useless and boring while also being a Mary Sue at the same time. She was called a bitch and a slut and a whore. She was hated for wearing too much pink and wielding a girly weapon with a floral design. She was criticized as a slut for wearing a short skirt, and for THE PLAYER being able to manipulate the camera into a contrived angle to look up her skirt to see her panties in the first edition of KH2. You can find nearly 20-year-old fanfiction and fanart of her being twisted into an evil schemer driving her friends apart, and of her being gleefully brutalized and insulted. Haters STILL comb for every crumb to make elaborate anti-canon theories about why she's an agent of evil, even though canon has FIRMLY ESTABLISHED for TWENTY YEARS since the very beginning that she's THE ONE CHARACTER incapable of growing Darkness in her heart. The theory is that she exists only as a puppet sent by the main villain to sabotage her friends (the plot for two out of the four main female characters) for all ten years of their friendship. The theory is that she's been using her powers to force her friends to love her—and their Power Of Friendship that is the EMOTIONAL BACKBONE OF THE STORY, and THE MAJOR FORCE OF GOOD IN THEIR UNIVERSE, and THE MOST CONSISTENT MOTIVATION FOR THE HEROES is all Just Misdirection LOL building up to a shitty Plot Twist. The theory is that she's secretly a custom-manufactured Chirithy (a cute talking animal companion that serves and guides humans)—and not a human girl with her own natural feelings and aspirations. AND THEN after stripping her of every important trait and role, these fans claim they're making Kairi more important and interesting than she is in canon. I don't know what causes the fandom to so desperately hate a sweet 14-year-old girl who literally canonically never did anything wrong."

[dipplin-daycare]

Blog Info...

Hello and welcome to our age(d)re + pet(d)re blog. Take a good look and feel free get comfortable 'cause we're all about comfy things! Though this blog is still new we're looking forward to posting original content and interacting with the community. One day we might even open requests, who knows... And, of course, feel free to shoot us an ask! Our ask box is always open

Tagging System...

#🍎-❝by leaf❞🍃 ...for leaf's posts #🍎-❝by blu❞🌧️ ... for blu' posts #🍎-❝by rosa❞🌸 ... for rosa's posts #🍎-❝text❞💬 ... for text based posts #🍎-❝edits❞📸 ... for icons and edits #🍎-❝boards❞✏️ ... for agere moodboards #🍎-❝reblogs❞🔁 ... for reblogs

Do not interact...

Kink or NSFW accounts, ageplay and variants, pedo/zoos + supporters, any kind of bigot (incl. TERFs and transmeds), discourse and/or politic centric blogs, anti-recovery (incl. pro-ana pro-sh), anti-agere/petre, anti-therian !Interacting includes linking and reblogging posts!

.... about us under the cut!

About us...

Starting with the basics... We're three brazilian young adults and we all love pokemon We're also a T4T polycule and been together for around a year at this point(and we're not looking for romantic relationships here), we all have some background with the agere community and agree that we prefer to not be a part of any specific community and just treat regression as an individual thing (non-community)

I'm Leaf! I'm 21 and go by they/them. I'm a caregiver and care for both my partners whom I love very much <3. That aside, I'm a leafeon therian and sometimes I pet regress to a fox or cat Even though I'm not an age regressor I still deal with a fair amount of anxiety, OCD, dissociation and I'm neurodivergent Currently majoring pedadogy and I dream of working as a educator or school counselor, I have a fair amount of knowledge on sociology and neuropsychology as well. I'm also a pokemon fanatic, shiny hunter, and I love everything nintendo (Splatoon and Kirby are my other favorite franchises), roguelike and metroidvania games and TTRPGs. I enjoy collecting stuff and I'm very fond of lizards (snakes included!) My favorite pokemon is leafeon (and hydrapple) and I'd be a grass type trainer/gym leader

I'm Rosabella, Rosa for short! I'm 20 and my pronouns are she/they/fae I'm a flip, that is, sometimes I'm my partner Blu's caregiver and sometimes my other partner Leaf is my caregiver! My little age is around 4-8, I started regressing recently and so far I love the idea of getting to live the ideal childhood I've never had. I'm a puppy regressor too, a pomski to be more specific I'm a DID system and switch between using we/us and I/me, I'm also autistic+ADHD and HoH. Because of that I'm very invested in disabled and Deaf/HoH rights activism I love pokémon (duh) Scarlet/Violet have been my favorite games so far! I also like Animal Crossing, nostalgic toys, The Owl House, Amphibia, Adventure Time, OTGW, and similar cartoons. And I love anything magical girls!! My favorite pokémon is the hatenna evolution line and I'd be a psychic type gym leader!

I'm Blu, I'm 20 years old and go by he/they and occasionally it/its I'm a regressor and my two primaries act as my caregivers. My regressed age fluctuates from a little toddler to an edgy teen. I also heavily relate to birds, am a bird regressor and a swablu therian(that's where my name came from lol) I have OSDD1a, though I strictly refer to myself as singular person (I/me), I'm also autistic and physically disabled Majoring geography and specializing in meteorology, loooove storm spotting and retro videogames (my partners might disagree on that but I think the best pokemon games are the early ones + spin offs). Be sure that I know and have played the most obscure nintendo and sonic spin-offs My favorite pokemon is obviously swablu/altaria (murkrow is a close second) and I'd be a flying type trainer. That's it.

dipplin sprite by RetroNC

[faith3231]

// NEW UPDATED PINNED POST FOR 2023/24 //

Hello people on tumblr!

Just in case if you don’t know me, the name is Faith!

I’m a 20 year old autistic woman who basically struggles with anxiety sometimes and depression. BUT I always have a safe space on loving to my fixtations like basically cute but scary stuffs for example like Pretty cure and Sonic.Exe.

Overall, I joined this media back in November 10th when people back then used to dislike this place but thankfully stopped.

I know I’m rarely active on the place now but just in case if you guys still want to know me better, feel free to for this introduction post!

(UPDATED: 8/1/24)

★INTRODUCTION:

Name: Faith

Nicknames: Rapper Faith, Lil Faith, or Mom of Hog

Current Age: 21

Born: September 8th (9/8/03)

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual

☆Polyamorous and Demisexual

American :(

♡Taken (Currently by 2 people)

Autistic

Favorite color: Blue and Pink

Artist and Lil bit of animator

Fandoms I’m mostly in rn currently: :0

Sonic the hedgehog

Sonic.Exe (Mostly going strong on it still lmao)

Bocchi the Rock

Pretty Cure

Studio Ghibli

Friday Night Funkin

The June Archives

The Amazing Digital Circus

Helluva Boss

Hazbin Hotel

And Godzilla

(Other old fandoms that wasn’t able to be listed on: Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, MLP, PowerPuff Girls, Pokemon, Splatoon, FNAF, Black Butler, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Ena, and Sanrio)

MAIN PERSONA:

(NOTE! Hog belongs to Jack Gore whenever it comes to me and hog Art! + Lore of their friendship will be worked on later on)

★彡FOLLOW MY OTHER MEDIAS! :

YouTube - LilTilOne3231 (MAIN) / Faith3231 (Alt)

Tiktok - LilTilOne3231

Wattpad - LilTilOne3231

DeviantArt- Faith3231

Discord - LilTilOne3231 (Ask me if I may know you first)

Twitter (Not calling it X btw) - Faith3231 (Rapper Faith)

Other Fun Facts!

•I’ve been liking Exe stuffs ever since July of Last Year when I got introduced to Hog and Scorched.

•My first animes I saw was Lucky Star and Ponyo

•I have been interacting with voice actors before in rl (Example: Kellen Goff)

•I mostly interact with newer fans, friends, and people better on my sever so if you wanted to be friends with me on my discord sever, please do if you have the same interest as me!

(Again, social anxiety can suck tbh)

•I’m really big into Nostalgic stuffs. So if you see me ramble about the crap I like, I’m sorry-

•I’m more active on YT, Discord, or Twitter sadly but again, sorry if you see me posting reshares and Art here!

•I really dislike Loud shit sadly. This mostly includes due to my trauma from my parents divorcing and fighting. :(

•I’ve been drawing for 10 years by the time I’m making this post.

•Christmas is my favorite holiday ever/srs

•My persona does have other looks plus in the fandoms I am in.

•I rarely drawn my own Original characters so one of them will be listed later on.

•And if you have any Gifts or FanArts of me that’s related to Exe, TADC, June Archive, or anything else, please do mention or ping me to let me know! 🩵

And yeah… THAT IS MOSTLY IT.

Hope you liked this introduction pinned post and feel free to interact with me if you liked!! 🩵

(OLD PIN POST - https://faith3231.tumblr.com/post/700545129587539968/all-art-is-not-mines-and-belongs-to-its#notes )

♡

-Faith

[thesinglesjukebox]

KESHA - "EAT THE ACID"

Harlan recommends an artist about whom we've always had lots to say...

[6.86]

Leah Isobel: The other night, I was walking home from work and listening to the Song Exploder episode about this song. For 20 minutes, neither Kesha nor any of her collaborators -- nor Hrishikesh Hirway, the podcast's host -- ever mentioned Luke. Instead, they talked about advice that Kesha received from her mom, Pebe, not to take acid; they talked about a dream or vision or panic attack that Kesha had had one night, in which she felt that she had come into contact with the immortal being at the heart of the universe. She described this as a deeply comforting and beautiful experience, but the song is paranoid and itchy, its synth tones dissonant and harsh. I found this episode affecting in ways I can't quite articulate. I see a lot of myself in Kesha's story, and the hardest part about the years since The Stuff That Happened To Me is how I find it seeping into my brain and my life and my perspective basically all the time. I don't even really think about it that much anymore; I have mostly forgiven him, or at least the version of him that still lives in my heart. And yet, a few days ago, I had a fight with my partner in the way that we fight, which isn't combative but sad and puzzled and hurt, and they asked me if I really allowed myself to be angry. I know that I don't, and I knew it then, but hearing it asked so openly did make me think about The Stuff That Happened all over again. I've been having dreams about it. It never really goes away. I remember feeling, after it was over, as if I had seen through something, like the curtain blocking reality as it is had pulled back slightly. Some old friends, whom I have since stopped talking to, described DMT as having similar effects. Trauma affects brain function; in some ways, it's a drug that stays in the system forever. And yet I still petulantly cling onto the vision of who I once was, who I could have been. I go to work, and I feed myself, and I clean my room, and I write. I kiss my partner. I go to choir rehearsal. I play Ghost Trick on my Switch. And in all of it, that shift -- that change -- lurks. Maybe I spoke with God, back then, and didn't know it. Kesha sings "hate has no place in the divine" without passion, reciting a mantra without really believing it or hearing it. Maybe this is how God speaks: with indifference. [8]

Harlan Talib Ockey: "Eat the Acid" doesn't address Kesha's struggle for justice as explicitly as "Fine Line," but it's a powerfully unsettling meditation on the sheer depths of the wilderness in the universe. Kesha has sounded this raw before ("Praying" being an obvious example), but here she does so with incredible understatement, bringing unearthly intensity to dark, minimalist production. (From Rick Rubin!) It's like nothing she's ever done before. [10]

Alfred Soto: It took fifteen years of craft and a lifetime of torment to produce "Eat the Acid," the natural sequel to "Tik Tok." Eloquent as gesture and devastating as product, it maintains its austerity because even at its most electro-shivery the Kesha of 2010 shivers in its core. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: Credit to Kesha for managing to get "art pop" as a genre tag on Wikipedia before Gaga did. Unfortunately, most of "Eat the Acid" is diminished by what made that achievement possible: a Rick Rubin-helmed effort to reverse-engineer a Strange New Respect by brandishing the familiar totems of artistic maturity. No one's asking Kesha to go back to the Animal/Cannibal days (though maybe one more Gottwald-less entry in the series wouldn't hurt), but would these circular ruminations about the dangers and/or benefits of hallucinogens have suffered if they were set to a higher BPM? Only in the final minute is the minimal-ish mood-setting sharpened into something like a point, with the word "divine" serving as a sleeper cell activation code for rhythm and propulsion and full-bodied sonic texture. Wish it didn't take that long to get there, though. [6]

Micha Cavaseno: I said elsewhere, but Gag Order feels less like a victory of emancipation than a morose departure, a heartbreaking turn for one of the most charming songwriters of the '00s. "Eat the Acid" demonstrates this perfectly in how hollow the vocals, organ, and guitar loops just languidly hang there disjointed. Sebert's hollow mourn is devoid of glamour in the way someone fresh from jail has yet to learn how to have someone to be again, flatter than a stilled pulse. There's no sense of unity or oneness in this supposed revelation; instead it gestures at the hint of a phantom limb as proof of survival. I don't need the old "her" to come back and mask the pain, but I'd like to know that the spark isn't hidden away forever. [3]

David Moore: "Eat the Acid" is track two on Kesha's Gag Order, her collaboration with Rick Rubin that serves as the exit from her straitjacket contract with Kemosabe Records. When I heard this, it made me wonder whether it was her "Paranoid Android," and thus Gag Order was her OK Computer. Well, it was, and it is, for me, anyway. When I was 16, hearing OK Computer in its entirety for the first time unspooled reams of totally unhinged poetry from me that I threw in the garbage a couple years later. With distance, I see how good music and bad poetry sparked a lifetime of chasing down the sublime in music with words, and I have some fondness for the kid who bought Radiohead's miserablist codswallop and was inspired to write the way it made him feel. It becomes clear as you get older that some parts of you are just you, always were and always will be, some parts are just habits and inheritances you might be able to nudge or massage or exorcise out of you, and you really have to muck around in there to sort out which is which. You start to understand that the totality of yourself includes your past and its people, even the ones you've discarded or who've discarded you, even and maybe especially the ghosts, and it also includes a whole bunch of other stuff you thought you'd forgotten but almost certainly didn't. And if you have kids -- god, the kids! Mercenary little memory-dredgers. Was I like that? Are they really like that? Or am I just thinking about me again, unable to see them? (Projection is the second-worst sin of decent parents, after possession.) At pushing-forty I've started to make acceptance with all of those accumulated parts of myself, and to preemptively make some amends for the sins of my present. That's what Gag Order is, an album that articulates ugly and beautiful and inconveniently truthful moments in one's life, the jagged edges and things that can't be unseen, with unflattering documentary clarity but also a premonition of the eventual grace from having healed from it someday. Life keeps on fucking you up, and you keep figuring out how to say thanks, even if you need to indulge in a little woo-woo to get you through now and then (preferably stopping short of falling for outright charlatans like crystal people or Radiohead). From the liner notes: "THANK YOU to the universe for compiling the life force of atoms and energy to make this cosmic dimensional existence available for me to experience." And I can't help but say yes to this, just like I said yes to misanthropic robot rock back in the day, the "no" that I treated as a yes. I was convinced it was telling me something important about the universe and my place in it, and in some sense, it was. But now I only seek the "yes" that is actually a yes. And I ask, hopefully not in an oblivious butterfly meme sort of way: is this wisdom? [10]

Aaron Bergstrom: Fragmented shadow reality. Fear of a higher plane. Partial realization. Hostility. Overwhelming visions. Hidden truths revealed. Understanding. It's Kesha's Allegory of the Cave. [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Mimics a real comedown from a high: "Eat the Acid" aims for apotheosis about the divine and universe, but instead of transcendent, the result is dully profound and profoundly dull. [4]

Michelle Myers: Apparently, Kesha and I both have "Dark Minimal Gothic Synthwave Compilation 2 Hours" in our YouTube recommendations. [7]

Dorian Sinclair: "Eat the Acid" is a stylistic departure for Kesha, but if you -- like me -- still think twice about her weird decade-old Bob Dylan cover, you knew she's always had an interest in this kind of minimalist, droney accompaniment and deliberately-undersung vocal line. I don't think that cover entirely works, but "Acid" absolutely does, pairing the buzz and mumble with a spectral backing choir, delicately plucked guitar, and ominous, evocative lyrics. The additions give it a structure and direction that her take on "Don't Think Twice" lacked, and the decision to build the tension to an almost oppressive degree before abruptly cutting the cord feels like the only right choice for how to end the song. It's an audacious choice for a lead single, but a great one. [9]

Oliver Maier: Undeniably a bold move from Kesha -- but "from Kesha" feels like an important qualification. I don't mean that in a demeaning way, just that it's hard to imagine taking an interest without the name tag. I wouldn't go back to this if I heard it from a relative nobody on Bandcamp. Shame to snuff out that intriguing build-up at the end, too. [5]

Nortey Dowuona: Rick Rubin, Stuart Crichton and Jason Leder are listed as producers, but the drum programming, bass and keyboards on this song are played by Tom Kahre. Did you know that he helped TiRon and Ayomari make their album The Great New Wonderful, one of the best forgotten albums of the 2010s? That he's been Big Sean's engineer since at least 2016? That he engineered a Babyface Ray song in those duties? That he got Mya nominated for Best R&B album in 2016? That with Erica Campbell he won the 2015 Grammy for Best Gospel Album? That he got Charlie Wilson a 2014 Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Song? If you like this song you should. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Like a bedroom pop version of Nico's Desertshore, "Eat the Acid" plods along with a knowing sense of importance and mysticism. It mistakes negative space and minimalism for grandiosity, reducing Kesha's vocals to textured detritus. [3]

Jonathan Bogart: In October, I visited my family in Texas. It was only supposed to be for a few days before my younger sister and I flew to Guatemala for a shared vacation slash pilgrimage to the land of her birth slash memorial for our brother, who had died there in 2022. But massive protests against government corruption erupted a week before our travel plans, crippling Guatemalan infrastructure and indefinitely postponing our trip. So I spent my accrued vacation weeks in Houston instead, and splurged on a quite different set of expenses. One of those included a road trip to see Kesha at Austin City Limits with my sister and brother, resurrecting an old shared interest and bonding ritual. We played her most recent albums on the way there to familiarize ourselves with her current state of play. Like most of America, they had stopped paying close attention to Kesha once she dropped the $, and even I had only taken in the recent singles. Thirteen years on from the culture shock that was "Tik Tok," which fundamentally rewrote the rules of pop music in my head -- I had been a classicist who overvalued Sixties models of rock and soul -- Kesha has grown into being less of the wild child she was initially marketed as and more of an institutional provocateuse. Like her role models, Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop, she combines a swaggering attitude, a limited but effectively deployed vocal instrument, and a generic set of rebellious postures that seem frozen in time. The sounds of current pop have moved far away from the gleefully scuzzy vulgarity that made her famous, so she's free to chase her own rather basic aesthetic muse rather than the prevailing winds of pop fashion. In Austin, the audience on the floor appeared to be primarily made up of gay white men in their thirties and late twenties, who came alive the most at the old reliable bangers from Animal and Cannibal, but for whom the emotional highlight was undoubtedly when Kesha got choked up introducing "Rainbow." "I'm fucking free!" she hollered when she found her voice again, to a responsive roar, and that conflation of a lawsuit settlement (and the gendered violence that originated it) with the queer identities of the fans drinking up her emotional catharsis is perhaps the most quintessential aspect of Kesha's post-Dr. Luke career. "Eat the Acid" was the first song in the second act of the three-act show, coming after four dancefloor bangers in a row followed by a routine by her dancers to Macklemore's "Good Old Days" while she changed costumes. It was performed so deep back on the stage that she was invisible to my section of the balcony, and its near-tempolessness meant that it was the only time in the show that her audience seemed even a little bit bored. The ancient knock against psychedelic music has always been that a meaningful trip is uncommunicable to anyone else. The lysergic quality of "Eat the Acid" is limited to Imogen Heap-style vocal processing, so there's not even a lot of texture to get lost in; while the lyrics, in post-2015 Kesha's special blend of self-mythologizing, hippy (and occasionally -dippy) spiritualism, and It Gets Better sloganeering, allude to an experience of transcendence that remains permanently out of focus. All the better for listeners to apply their own history and desires onto, of course; as much as critics like me love specificity in lyrics, too much of it is alienating to the broader audience for whom pop is about large, communal emotions, not granular interior ones. Unfortunately, "Eat the Acid" falls between both stools. I bet it means a lot to Kesha, but like recounting a dream, the meaning fades in the telling. It's time to wake up. [4]

Ian Mathers: Not all knowledge is helpful. Not all trips are good. But maybe nobody else gets to decide or interpret which ones are which for you. [8]

Anna Katrina Lockwood: There's a pervasive aura of dread, and terrible consequence, in semi-contrast to approximately half of the lyrics. Giving it up to the divine isn't really my thing--I'm a bit too rage-filled for that--and my personal relationship with psychedelics is less cognitive exploration, more barricading myself in a club restroom until things stop moving wrong. However, I've never had a massive public trauma and personal excoriation in the manner Kesha has, so if this song helps her to live the life she wants, so be it. [6]

Will Adams: Yes, the subtext runs deep (don't be changed like what changed you?) -- it always does. What is more striking to me is how "Eat the Acid" sounds. The searing organ tones; Kesha's vocal, numbed and distorted and frayed; the clipped synth arppegio; guitars filtered to sound like ghosts; elegiac choirs; it's all arresting. I'm reminded of the William Orbit remix of Sarah McLachlan's "Black" -- both move their respective elements in and out of view, like scenes of a dream, all the while maintaining an unsettling energy. It's a crystal ball of a song, showing a dark future that might be yours, whether you choose it or not. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: "Right after it lobbed off its own knees," Kristin Hersh wrote about Crooked single "Moan," "[the song] told me I should drop my weapons. The ether's smart about weapons. I'm not, particularly." The song she describes is one of hope, telling you that "we're messes sometimes and messes are sometimes OK." But the song she recorded is restorative only like oblivion is. What "Moan" tells you is that "in the deep cold, you won't be brave; in the deep cold, you can't be safe," over murder-ballad chords, barren fuzz, and an unchanging guitar solo with the melodic contour of trying to pull yourself out of your grave and giving up fast. It's among the bleakest songs I've ever heard (though not the bleakest by her), and it reminds me a lot of "Eat the Acid." The songs share a dirge pace that jolts to anxious action in the final seconds, and a moldy-timbred four-chord buzz that sounds more like an empty machinery room than a communal musical space. Kesha's voice is starting to sound a little like Kristin's, too. Much was made of her upbringing by country songwriter Pebe Sebert, but Kesha's roots increasingly seem to lie in folk instead -- specifically, the prickly, sometimes stark, sometimes psychedelic and always harrowing subgenre that includes Hersh, the late Sinéad O'Connor, and maybe Beth Orton ("Eat the Acid" also sounds like the equally bleak "Pieces of Sky.") It says a lot about Kesha as a musician that she's drawn to this kind of folk, rather than the broadly palatable sort favored by so many of her peers who worship their Joni and their Crow, and who could probably sing about brushing their teeth with a bottle of Jack and have it seen as a quippy meta-enabling lark rather than a sign of the party-house decay of civilization. But the path that led Kesha there was pain, and once you've taken that path, that pain can re-emerge anywhere. "Eating the acid," going strictly by the words, is meant to be daring and restorative, in an Erowid-vault, Erehwon-enjoyer sort of way. A few grains of that do remain; Kesha's backing vocals punch up "eat the acid" like an electro hook she might record in some other unrecoverable universe. But Kesha chooses one line as her refrain, and truncates it until it means the opposite: "you don't wanna be changed like it changed me." On the verses, her voice sounds small; on the refrain, she sounds sure. What do you do when people consider you a completed cautionary tale? When what's left for you in life is to find "acceptance" of things that should never have been offered, much less accepted? "Eat the Acid" offers an answer in its final act to everybody but one. "Hate has no place in the divine," Kesha sings, and the divine assumes its understood musical form: celestial choirs, happier keys, soprano harmonies, air-conditioned space above the arrangement, Meanwhile, the song itself is somewhere else, weaponless on its knees. [9]

Brad Shoup: I don't know that "You don't wanna be changed like it changed me" gains much from this much repetition; by the second or third time I was already thinking about fame. (It does make me wonder if Pebe Sebert's ever written a song about acid. In my mind she has, and it has this vibe.) That fluttering sequencer gets Kesha to the cosmos, tab-free; its imperiousness emphasizes how much she's in control. A similar vastness ducks in and out of the comparatively table-flipping "Fine Line": I guess I'll have to hear the LP to find out if it touches or recedes from the face of God. [7]

Rose Stuart: Kesha's post-lawsuit era has centered on moving on from trauma, but "Eat the Acid" is raw like an open wound. There are no pop hooks or bright choruses. Instead, accompanied by the refrain of "you don't wanna be changed like it changed me", Kesha creates an unsettling meditation that feels paralytic and overwhelming. The sparse electronic instrumentation creates a drone in your mind, before bursting into lights at the end. It's a song that forces you to stop and listen to it, and more importantly to feel it, every note buzzing inside your head. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The drones and the distortion and the hymn-like refrain run up helplessly against Kesha's deep and well-learned skill with a hook -- even as the song threatens to fall into itself, into ego death and self abnegation, she still sounds as captivating as she has since 2010. She's not who she was then, but she's not entirely separate, either; the process of freeing one's self from trauma and specifically the trauma of being made into a symbol or legal instrument will inherently be one of recapitulation and self-paradox. This is a hard song in all regards, but it feels worth it. I hope it is. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[sonic7ischaos]

Y'know, talking about 'physics' in Sonic games, Momentum, inertia, pinball physics, slope physics, has become something of a meme in the Sonic community. A little bit an object of ridicule.

And y'know? I get it. We beg for it and criticize Sonic games for lacking it so much that I can imagine that for those of us who aren't even here for that, who picked up Unleashed or Generations or Colors and found their favorite game that hearing "It's missing momentum so it's bad" all the time is really frustrating. Like "NO! This game is amazing and you're just picking it apart because it's not exactly what YOU want!", which admittedly has SOME truth to it.

But I want you to imagine that Mario abandoned its jumping mechanics. Jumping into blocks does nothing but stop Mario's jump. Jumping onto enemies or into Koopa shells damages Mario now, and you're forced to use power ups to deal with foes, which are now just scattered across levels.

From the perspective of someone who grew up with Mario, hell, the average person with a passing awareness of what Mario IS, maybe they enjoy it for a game or 2. "Hey cool, this Mario game really zeroed in on using powerups and combat with enemies! New type of Mario game!" Then 5, 10, 15, 20 years pass and they're STILL doing it, They've alluded to some of the old mechanics here and there. "Hey, jumping on enemies doesn't hurt you now, you can bounce off of them like the old games" But still, the focus is on using powerups to defeat enemies. It doesn't feel like they've "changed things up" anymore, that they've "iterated on the old", it feels like they've abandoned Mario's core design, because they HAVE.

And before Mania, and now Superstars, that's what happened to Sonic. The core idea of Sonic was thrown completely to the wayside like it didn't matter. Imagine growing up with Mario, connecting with it enough that it's a part of your identity, not because you failed to find your own, but in the way that anything you love with your whole heart becomes a part of you, and then having the thing you fell in love with cast aside like garbage, just waiting for it to come back.

You break down Sonic to its very core, remove the imagery, the animation, the character design, attach the character controller to grey squares on grey platforms with grey backgrounds, and you still have what makes Sonic fun. It's in the programming, the design and functionality of mechanics, in the shape and functionality of the environment. Sonic the Hedgehog is merely the name and identity we attached to a game about building inertia and rolling on sloped terrain. And for decades it's been missing.

And listen, I LOVE Sonic Frontiers. It isn't perfect even in the areas where I love it, but it has the rest of the things that make me love Sonic. The stuff that you add on top of the grey squares, the visuals, characters, music, stories, even parts of the gameplay. Still, the game about building inertia and rolling on sloped terrain isn't in there. The last 3D game we got about building inertia and rolling on sloped terrain released in 2001.

There's a part of me that's terrified. That I'll die before I see another one. A modern 3D Sonic game built on that same idea. The grey squares becoming cubes. That I'll die waiting to see what could've been done.

[sonknuxadow]

Ngl tga has always had some sorta really fuckin bizarre bias to "kids' games" like Mario and Sonic because both BotW and Metroid Dread are more realistically looking and "adult" than say Pokémon or D.K. and they're the only real ones that got nominated for something that wasn't the family's game category or something low-key, meanwhile (besides last year's goty thankfully) most of the games that get awards are ones that focus on realism and gritty boring story telling. But for Sonic's case especially, who's reputation has been tarnished for years by some let's players and ngl some specific fandubs that made it seem like a joke to have serious storytelling, was especially biased against. Especially since they literally have THE lead singer of Sleeping with Sirens, as well as a bunch of experimental music ranges but still focusing on the rock Sonic has been associated with for so long, yet wasn't even nominated for that. Like seriously??? No offense to the composers but I can guarantee only 20% of people would know a song right from the get-go from the entirety of the gow franchise, meanwhile even non-sonic fans know Green Hill. Escape from the City??? Do I even need to mention Live & Learn?! god I'm sorry for flooding your inbox but I'm like. Actually pretty heated over the blatant disrespect to the Sonic devs that's been going on for too long

yeah i cant help but notice it too people are so biased against sonic like every time some new sonic thing comes out and its good people go "wow this wasnt absolute dogshit like i was expecting it to be!" or "that was pretty good! you know.. for sonic". and people are somehow shocked that sonic frontiers has good music?? that HAS to be because they refuse to take sonic seriously because sonic has been delivering banger after banger since the 90s. and yeah like you said people constantly memeing on sonic and sonic becoming known for those sorts of things is not helping at all

and the game awards seem a bit biased against "childish" games in general not just sonic. like how nominees for awards like game of the year or best soundtrack or story or art are mostly more gritty and "adult" games and games that are more colorful and appeal to kids like sonic and splatoon and mario and kirby are excluded from that and are just nominated for best family game or some other smaller award. as if these games cant have good music or compelling stories just because kids like them and they dont have hyper realistic graphics and characters. and there are exceptions, animal crossing new horizons was nominated for goty back in 2020, but from what ive seen this is usually the pattern and it really sucks

[talesfromthebacklog]

Random: A gamer’s diary entry for October 2023!

While I finish writing, and playing, my next backlog games I’m excited to add to the wishlist ‘Little Goody Two Shoes’. Which looks like it’s going to be getting a physical release. (Which I won’t be picking this game up until the physical drops. I already know I’ll like it.)

One of my favorite YouTube channels called Nostalook worked on the trailer (and I think the in game cutscenes as well) and their work is stunning as usual. It really captures the 90s anime look. It deeply reminds me of Princess Maker.

Also it’s a shoujo yuri. Female romancable characters only! (And they’re all so ✨ PRETTY ✨) I can’t explain how HAPPY that makes me. I just hope it stays in an innocent direction.

You know, because in majority yuri isn’t made for women. 😐

I get it, but at the same time I feel locked out of the content because it’s so obviously not for me. But that’s a complaint for a different post on a different day! Makes me wonder if men feel the same way about yaoi.

I was very bad this month. There were a lot of physical sales. And then my preorders for new games rolled in. I always prioritize my physical games over my… “digital” games, so those will be in the front of my backlog!

Let’s take a look at what I picked up! (I paid full price for nothing on this list. I am wickedly good at finding deals and coupons. Which upon review I will attempt to pass onto you!):

Traumatarium

Dredge

Omori

FaeFarm

Inescapable

Sonic Superstars

Coffee Talk 2

Moon A Remix RPG

I’m already playing a few of these games, so my reviews on those should be out next week!

I decided to skip this month’s two biggest releases altogether until about next year. I want the GOTY Spider-Man 2 when it comes with all of the DLC for $20. The first one was amazing. I’m just willing to wait on it. Which is a similar story for Mario Wonder. I mostly use the fall season to get all the titles I’ve been wanting for a freaking sick deal. Why should I have to pay full price?

The older I get, the more I feel like I appreciate weird games and indie titles more anyway. I feel like those other projects have the freedom to take more aesthetic risks than the big companies. Not because of the creatives inside (They tend to always have good ideas), but the stockholders. 🙄

I adore some of these triple A titles to my core, but I crave to see more new things too. Different things.

Dave The Diver is a good example. That seems rad. I like ocean games. I like that we get more of them now. I’m gonna wait and see if that one gets a physical as well. You collect fish to go back to your restaurant to make sushi? Sign me up!

Don’t even get me started on Limited Run’s releases this month.

While ‘Persona 4’ and ‘This Way Madness Lies’ are no brainers for me; I was EXTREMELY on the fence about ‘Persona 3 Portable’. (I did pick it up reluctantly)

The remake of Persona 3 will be upon us soon and I don’t know if I’ll want to play P3P again. The problem lies in the fact that most of these games become much more expensive later. Buying it on “launch” from Limited Run usually IS the cheaper option.

That shit annoys me so bad. I don’t like picking up games for value. But because the game might be value I have to be ahead of the scalpers and pay for it at its maybe cheapest.

I collect games because I like ‘em. I want to play them and love them. I want to use my stuff. I don’t give a fuck about the “value”. I respect the folks that do care about that stuff but I plain just don’t.

But that’s also just kinda life. Not much can be done about other people. You can only truly control yourself. 🙄

Overall October has been an exceptionally excellent month for gaming! We’ve had so much good stuff come out this fall season. I’m excited for next month as well! Super Mario RPG will be making its re-debut and I can’t wait to talk about that one!

[demifiendrsa]

SEGA Sammy Holdings subsidiary SEGA Corporation will acquire Finnish mobile games company Rovio Entertainment for €706 million (approx. $773.8 million). The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024/3, and is contingent on the completion of reviews under applicable antitrust laws and other customary conditions.

Details

■ 1. Background and purpose of the Acquisition

(1) Positioning of the Consumer business for the Company

The Company positions the Consumer segment of its Entertainment Contents Business as a growth area under its Mid-Term Plan (FY2022/3-FY2024/3), and has accelerated its efforts to strengthen the business through initiatives such as converting existing IPs into global brands, strengthening user engagement through multi-platform support and enhanced media mix, etc.

As a part of its growth strategy to invest up to ¥250 billion during the five-year period ending FY2026/3, the Company has been exploring investment opportunities in the Consumer area to strengthen its development capabilities as well as to create new ecosystems.

In order to strengthen global development capabilities, SEGA has historically acquired numerous development studios, from the UK-based The Creative Assembly Ltd. in 2005, to the Japan-based ATLUS. CO., LTD. (formerly, Index Corporation) in 2013, and the acquired studios have all greatly expanded its scale while also releasing many new titles across the globe.

(2) Background of the Acquisition

The size of the global gaming market is projected to reach US$263.3 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 3.5% from 2022 to 2026. The mobile gaming market in particular, is set to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% to represent 56% of the global gaming market overall, an increase from 53% in 2022. (Source: IDG Report (dated October, 2022)).

The Company firmly believes that it is imperative to continue investing in its game development and operating capabilities, in order to further strengthen its position in this fast-growing mobile and global gaming market, which therefore led to the decision to acquire Rovio.

Through the Acquisition, the Company aims to take-in Rovio’s live-operated mobile game development capabilities and expertise in mobile game operation, to accelerate the development of mobile-compatible and multi-platform-supported version of SEGA’s existing game IPs, thereby strengthening and further accelerating global expansion of SEGA’s game portfolio.

(3) Purpose of the Acquisition

Rovio is a global mobile-first, games company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded over five billion times. Rovio is best known for the global Angry Birds brand, which started as a popular mobile game in 2009, and has since evolved from games to various entertainment, anime, and consumer products through brand licensing.

SEGA aims to accelerate its growth in the global gaming market and increase its corporate value by generating synergies between SEGA’s existing businesses and Rovio’s strengths, including its global IPs and live-operated mobile game development capabilities. More specifically, SEGA aims to create synergies with particular focus in the following areas:

Utilization of Rovio’s distinctive know-how in live service mobile game operation, to bring SEGA’s current and new titles to the global mobile gaming market, where there is large potential, and many users can be accessed.

**SEGA strongly believes Rovio’s platform, Beacon, holds 20 years of high-level expertise in live service-mobile game operation centered around the United States and Europe.

Rapid expansion of both companies’ fanbase by sharing know-how regarding multi-media expansion of global characters.

**Rovio and SEGA have both succeeded in extending its IPs, Angry Birds and Sonic the Hedgehog, to various media outside of video games, such as movies, anime, and merchandising, and accordingly hold a strong fanbase around the world as well as know-how regarding IP expansion.

Support cross-platform expansion of Rovio’s IP using SEGA’s capabilities.

**Rovio is aiming to expand its platform outside of mobile gaming, and SEGA will actively look to support this process through its capabilities.

■ 2. Comments from Haruki Satomi, President and Group CEO, Representative Director of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS

Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been SEGA’s long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field. I feel blessed to be able to announce such a transaction with Rovio, a company that owns Angry Birds, which is loved across the world, and home to many skilled employees that support the company’s industry leading mobile game development and operating capabilities. Historically, as represented by the Sonic the Hedgehog series, SEGA has released countless video game titles to various gaming platforms. I am confident that, through combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fanbase, as well as corporate culture and functionality, there will be significant synergies created going forward.

■ 3. Comments from Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio

I grew up playing Sonic the Hedgehog, captivated by its state-of-the-art design. Later, when I played Angry Birds for the first time, I knew that gaming had evolved into a true mainstream phenomenon, with the power to shape modern culture.

Joining Rovio has been an honor and I am proud to have seen Angry Birds continue to grow, as we released new games, series and films. Less known but equally impressive is our industry-leading proprietary technology platform, Beacon, holding 20 years of expertise, allowing tight-knit teams to develop world-class GaaS products.

Our mission is to ‘Craft Joy’ and we are thrilled at the idea of using our expertise and tools to bring even more joy to our players, enhancing and expanding Rovio’s and SEGA’s vibrant IPs.

Red and Sonic the Hedgehog: two globally recognized and iconic characters made by two remarkably complementary companies, with a worldwide reach that spans mobile, PC / console, and beyond. Combining the strengths of Rovio and SEGA presents an incredibly exciting future.

[doubleddenden]

I had a thought about Pokemon- "oh when don't you?" I hear some of you say. I'll have you know I have been hyper fixating on Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic 06 this past week, so the answer is surprisingly "not always!"

But back on track, I had a thought regarding 2026, aka the 30th anniversary and MOST LIKELY when gen 10 drops, since they've consistently dropped a new gen every 10 years so far.

You know what's another consistent thing they've done on the 10th and 20th anniversary gens? Nostalgia. Well, Pokemon marketing has really crunk up nostalgia since gen 6, but it was especially thick during 4th and 7th gens.

4th gen brought a bunch of cross Gen evolutions and pre evolutions to the table, even dropped a new Regi on us. 7th gen didn't really bring those- instead it went for a more direct approach with regional variants being introduced exclusively for gen 1 Pokemon, on top of Kanto constantly being brought up in conversation and Alolan lore and even the return of Red and Blue themselves. 2016 was also the year they dropped PoGo to lather on an extra helping of gen 1 nostalgia (which was already kinda high given XY and ORAS introduced new Kanto Megas- especially the starters- and gave Eevee a new Eeveelution in Sylveon).

Anyway, if we follow this trend, and use common sense, i think it'll be safe to say they'll be milking nostalgia a bit more than usual. So what can we expect?

It's theorized gen 10 will be in Australia due to the painting of Uluru being seen in Hassel's classroom. It would make sense, Australia is basically a living Pokemon region already but rated M, basically it'd be easy to turn lots of the animals there into Pokemon as long as they don't stop to try and give each one a job like they usually do. Australia is a longtime fan requested region, and it has a layout that would easily transition into a region map.

However, there's something else interesting regarding the wildlife: lots of Marsupials and other unique animals that fit into similar environments seen in other regions.

You could say these are Convergent Species- animals that adopt traits similar to a different species to survive in the same environment. The Thylacine, aka the Tasmanian Wolf/Tiger, is an extinct 4 legged marsupial with traits similar to a canine that farmers basically hunted to extinction because they kept killing their sheep. You could even directly call it a convergent species to the Dingo, an actual native wild canine species that fills a similar niche. I might be missing some bits or maybe I got some terminology or definitions mixed up, but I think you get the picture here.

Pokemon Convergents are a little different- with exceptions to Sinistcha and Poltchageist, it would seem that it's basically using the same body plan to survive in a different environment, such is the case with Tentacool and Toedscool, but the ideas are still there to be worked with.

Australia, if chosen as the 10th gen region, would actually be the first region in the SOUTHERN hemisphere. Basically, it's off on its own, separated by incredible distance from other mainline regions (apparently just narrowly beat out by America when it comes to average flight time to and from Japan, but consider we/Unova are closer to the European regions than Japan).

So all this preamble to say: I think a hefty chunk of the gen 10 Pokestralia dex will be comprised of Convergent Species and Regional Variants, maybe a marriage of the two and something akin to whatever happened with the Paradoxes and BM Ursaluna. Tbh, I'd rather have a fresh dex of mostly new Pokemon, but if we contribute nostalgia as a factor, it's not entirely off the table to consider that, for the 30th anniversary, they decide to do maybe 20 to 50 or more lines as part of a "best of" bit where they essentially revamp old favs again. We've already seen that they're willing to stretch what it means to get a regional variant with exclusive evolutions and even allowing MULTIPLE variants in one region, and as far as we can tell, they've already stretched the term by basically making a regional variant of Sinistea/Poltchageist and Polteageist/Sinistcha and swapping the names around. Basically, nothing is off the table going forward.

So for instance, convergent Kanto starters (like water Charmander, a fire Bulbasaur, a grass Squirtle, etc), a convergent Pikachu and Meowth line where they basically swap species, maybe a regional Cubone line that converges with a convergent Kangaskhan or a regional Sharpedo that evolves into a convergent Garchomp, maybe convergent Lucario and Zoroark- you get the idea here. Essentially a "who's who" of popular Pokemon from past gens in THEIR eyes.

I think they'd probably toss these in with new Pokemon, of course, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a BUNCH like this when it comes up.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Quick recap.

David Zaslav should not be running a movie studio. Yet another film has been locked away, one that was near-completed that you'll likely never see, because "tax write-off". First BATGIRL, then SCOOB! HOLIDAY HAUNT, now COYOTE VS. ACME... And even crazier, that production - which tested extremely well - involved James Gunn, one of the architects of Warner's new DC movie universe... Zaslav likely pissed Gunn off, big time... What kind of ineptitude is that?

He could've offloaded it to another distributor, like how the Looney Tunes movie THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP and the series BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER were. But no, a $30m tax write-off. Because fuck everybody who worked hard making these movie, and fuck everybody who will be its audience - me included. Yachts do weird things to your brain. This is why there were strikes, and whatever happens with the Animation Guild next year, I hope that end of things gets to go HAM next year, because this is all kinds of bullshit. No movie should be locked in a vault because some dingus who doesn't like movies can't be bothered to actually do his job.

Lighter note...

The INSIDE OUT 2 teaser. At last. Funny how it came about right after the actor's strike ended. And even more egregious that while Disgust and Fear are still in the movie, their actors Mindy Kaling and Bill Hader didn't come back because the pay was below that of Amy Poehler's. Tony Hale - previously TOY STORY's jumpy Forky - takes over for Fear, Liza Lapira of many TV roles is now Disgust. New characters! I hate my anxiety, but I like this movie's Anxiety. The design, just. WOW! A scrunkly bunko chewed up Fraggle Rock reject, I dig. Funny how three of the four teased new emotions begin with "E", and the fourth with an "A". All vowels.

Voice work resumes on SPIDER-MAN: BEYOND THE SPIDER-VERSE. Please, no crunch this time. Lock the picture before frames are animated, no last minute changes up until the week before release.

The Netflix-exclusive DreamWorks feature ORION AND THE DARK, from director Sean Charmatz, has a release date, February 2nd... And a trailer... It has a very fun, subtly sketchy look, with characters looking like they were cast from notebook scribbles. Looks to be a fun kid-centric spooky time, like something the ill-fated Disney/Guillermo del Toro animation partnership "Disney Double Dare You" could've made.

The other big Netflix animated movie of 2024 doesn't have a concrete date, but its new trailer is quite striking. Shannon Tindle's ULTRAMAN RISING looks to work off of a SPIDER-VERSE-esque playbook with its textures and modeling (worth noting that Tindle was supposed to direct a superhero movie for Sony Animation up until the plug got pulled in July 2018, just a few months before SPIDER-VERSE 1 came out), but totally doing its own thing, with - as expected - all the anime influences. Another worthy experiment in CG animation pushing the medium in different directions once more.

Now that the strike is over, more delays are likely to come... Disney delayed a *ton* today on the Marvel and CG tech demo end... Their LION KING remake prequel leaves July 5, 2024 (where it was to open opposite of DESPICABLE ME 4) for December 20, 2024 (where it will go head to head with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3)...

Marvel saw the biggest shakeup.

DEADPOOL 3 is now the sole MCU movie of next year, set for July 26, 2024.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD now opens 2/14/2025, followed by FANTASTIC FOUR on 5/2/2025, then former 2024 movie THUNDERBOLTS hits 7/25/2025, and the year ends with BLADE, 11/7/2025.

I get that two of these movies are former 2024 titles, but goddamn 2025 still has *four* MCU movies. They should really just do 1-2 solid movies that they took their time on every calendar year. For me, if the bar is GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER, the MCU would be in good standing every year...

They also still plan to release four movies, including AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY, in 2026... Nah, this train I feel has to slow down a bit. You also have all those Disney+ shows as well, it's a bit overwhelming a feel.

So now Disney's 2024 slate, following the delaying of ELIO and all these Marvel movies, is down to... KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (the first of their new movies, opening in late May), INSIDE OUT 2 (June), DEADPOOL 3 (July), a new ALIEN film (August), an untitled Disney live-action film (September), 20th Century title THE AMATEUR (November), an untitled WDAS film (November), and MUFASA: THE LION KING (December).

Two recently delayed Searchlight movies, THE BIKERIDERS and MAGAZINE DREAMS, can feasibly take some early 2024 slots. They may miss the Oscars, but I'd rather see them sooner than later. I don't know if they can reclaim their December slots with the actors now available to promote them (MAGAZINE DREAMS is tricky because its lead is Jonathan Majors), or if Disney/Searchlight would rather just focus primarily on POOR THINGS.

Untitled Disney September 2024 could just be a placeholder for another 20th Century or Searchlight film, and I doubt they move SNOW WHITE forward from March 2025 to that date. Otherwise, I can't think of any other movie in the tank that could make that date. At least one I've heard of or know that was in production before the strike.

I'm just hoping, since WISH is right around the corner, that we hear what WDAS 2024 is going to be. Who's directing, what it's about, the title, etc. From the trenches, I hear it's a fantasy film set in the Middle East, possibly directed by Suzi Yoonessi, who is of Iranian descent. Maybe, maybe not. I'd love to know soon, though. But whenever they're ready, they're ready. No rushing, now.

I expect a lot more scheduling developments to take place over the next month or so, now that the dust has settled...

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

Some miscellaneous sonic movie headcanons

Sonic sings preforms in the shower (if he takes showers?)

Since Sonic picks up all kinds of stuff running Tom and Maddie got him bunny slippers to wear in the house

Knuckles enjoys doing yoga with Maddie. It also reminds him of his training days

Tails enjoys going to the clinic with Maddie. Every time he goes he learns something new. The staff love him

Her and the staff also sit around and discuss the boys. Do they need vaccines? What dosage? Tick meds? What is safe for them to eat? Should we xray them now incase one of them breaks a bone so we know how to fix it? When a alien says he sleeps less than humans is he being honest or is he just trying to get out of bedtime?

Tom let Tails drive a grand total of one time

Knuckles prefers sherbet over ice cream

Sonic (and now Knuckles and Tails) isnt a secret in the town so he's allowed to go everywhere. Outside of Green Hills its back to hiding :(

Tom makes the best spaghetti

When Sonic is bored and its a slow day at the office he'll come by and hang out with Tom and Wade

There is no physical fighting allowed in the house. The walls have suffered enough. If you wanna roughhouse you have to go outside and be at least 40 feet away from the house

Knuckles and Tails are super strict with Sonic wearing a lifejacket when they go out on the lake. Sonic thinks they're buzzkills

Knuckles, the last great Echidna warrior, guardian of the Master Emerald, is that kid that always falls asleep in the car even if you're only driving 20 minutes

Tom and Knuckles always fall asleep on movie night just minutes apart from each other. Maddie finds it funny, Sonic and Tails are mad they cant hear the tv over the snoring

There are now rules for what Tails is allowed to tinker with after the blowtorch incident

He also tried dismantling the fridge...

From behind and at a certain distance Ozzy and Tails have been mistaken for each other before. It makes Tails mad

Tails (canonically) and Ozzy (headcanon) are both scared of thunderstorms

Knuckles LOVES Ozzy. They're best friends

The boys all have better night vision then humans and Tom has entered a pitch black kitchen in the middle of the night only to turn the light on and see the boys sitting hunched on the counter eating oreos and other junk

Knuckles tried to fight the raccoons because they displease Tom and ended up covered in scratches. He got a rabies shot. He was pouting the whole time because he lost.

Knuckles absolutely takes the family name. He's proud to be a member of tribe Wachowski

Knuckles will say a word like "dishonor" and Tails and Sonic will start saying it as a joke

Tails found Ozzy really creepy at first. Knuckles had visited several planets, so creatures like Earth's animals werent super surprising

Sonic pretends he's too old/cool for super affectionate things (like cuddling) but Tails does not hesitate. Sonic is a little bit jealous. Knuckles doesnt understand why Sonic pretends to not like it.

All the furniture is covered in small holes from when Sonic and now Knuckles lean to far back

Sonic and Knuckles lived on their own in the wilderness for years. Whenever the family does something outdoorsy its not unusual to see them eating things they really shouldnt be (ex. bugs)

With two walls of the house gone and two new children moving in Tom and Maddie had a addition added onto the house during the reconstruction

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Movies I watched in May

Sadly, I kind of skipped writing a post for April. It was a mad month with so much going on: lots of emails sent and lots of stress. I started a new job so I’m getting to grips with that... and even then, I still watched a bunch of movies. But this is about what I watched in May and, yeah… still a bunch. So if you’re looking to get into some other movies - possibly some you’ve thought about watching but didn’t know what they were like, or maybe like the look of something you’ve never heard of - then this may help! So here’s every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of May 2021 Tenet (2020) - 8/10 This was my third time watching Christopher Nolan’s most Christopher Nolan movie ever and it makes no sense but I still love it. The spectacle of it all is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen. I had also watched it four days prior to this watch also, only this time I had enabled audio description for the visually impaired, thinking it would make it funny… It didn’t.

Nomadland (2020) - 6/10 Chloé Zhao’s new movie got a lot of awards attention. Everyone was hyped for this and when it got put out on Disney+ I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. Seeing these real nomads certainly gave the film an authenticity, along with McDormand’s ever-praisable acting. But generally I found it quite underwhelming and lacking a lot in its pacing. Nomadland surely has its moments of captivating cinematography and enticing commentary on the culture of these people, but it felt like it went on forever without any kind of forward direction or goal. The Prince of Egypt (1998) - 6/10 I reviewed this on my podcast, The Sunday Movie Marathon. For what it is, it’s pretty fun but nowhere near as good as some of the best DreamWorks movies.

Chinatown (1974) - 8/10 What a fantastic and wonderfully unpredictable mystery crime film! I regret to say I’ve not seen many Jack Nicholson performances but he steals the show. Despite Polanski’s infamy, it’d be a lie to claim this wasn’t truly masterful. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) - 8/10 Admittedly I was half asleep as I curled up on the sofa to watch this again on a whim. I watched this with someone who demanded the dubbed version over the subtitled version and while I objected heavily, I knew I’d seen the movie before so it didn’t matter too much. That person also fell asleep about 20 minutes in, so how pointless an argument it was. Howl’s Moving Castle boasts superb animation, the likes of which I’ve only come to expect of Miyazaki. The story is so unique and the colours are absolutely gorgeous. This may not be my favourite from the legendary director but there’s no denying its splendour.

Bāhubali: The Beginning (2015) - 3/10 The next morning I watched some absolute trash. This crazy, over the top Indian movie is hilarious and I could perhaps recommend it if it weren’t so long. That being said, Bāhubali was not a dumpster fire; it has a lot of good-looking visual effects and it’s easy to see the ambition for this epic story, it just doesn’t come together. There’s fun to be had with how the main character is basically the strongest man in the world and yet still comes across as just a lucky dumbass, along with all the dancing that makes no sense but is still entertaining to watch. Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10 If it wasn’t obvious already, Seven Samurai is a masterpiece. I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, so more thoughts can be found there. Red Road (2006) - 6/10 Another recommendation on episode 30 of the podcast. Red Road really captures the authentic British working class experience. Before Sunrise (1995) - 10/10 One of the best romances put to film. The first in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy is undoubtedly my favourite, despite its counterparts being almost equally as good. It tells the story of a young couple travelling through Europe, who happen to meet on a train and spend the day together. It is gloriously shot on location in Vienna and features some of the most interesting dialogue I’ve ever seen put to film. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Tokyo Story (1953) - 9/10 This Japanese classic - along with being visually and sonically masterful - is a lot about appreciating the people in your life and taking the time to show them that you love them. It’s about knowing it’s never too late to rekindle old relationships if you truly want to, which is something I’ve been able to relate to in recent years. It broke my heart in two. Tokyo Story will make you want to call your mother. Before Sunset (2004) - 10/10 Almost a decade after Sunrise, Sunset carries a sombre yet relieving feeling. Again, the performances from Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke take me away, evoking nostalgic feelings as they stroll through the contemporary Parisian streets. There is no regret in me for buying the Criterion blu-ray boxset for this trilogy. Before Midnight (2013) - 10/10 Here, Linklater cements this trilogy as one of the best in film history. It’s certainly not the ending I expected, yet it’s an ending I appreciate endlessly. Because it doesn’t really end. Midnight shows the troubling times of a strained relationship; one that has endured so long and despite initially feeling almost dreamlike in how idealistically that first encounter was portrayed, the cracks appear as the film forces you to come to terms with the fact that fairy-tale romances just don’t exist. Relationships require effort and sacrifice and sometimes the ones that truly work are those that endure through all the rough patches to emerge stronger. The Holy Mountain (1973) - 10/10 Jodorowsky’s masterpiece is absolute insanity. I talked more about it on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10 Another watch for Grand Budapest because I bought the Criterion blu-ray. As unalterably perfect as ever. Blue Jay (2016) - 6/10 Rather good up to a point. My co-hosts and I did not agree on how good this movie was, which is a discussion you can listen to on my podcast. Shadow and Bone: The Afterparty (2021) - 3/10 For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the first season of Shadow and Bone, which is why I wanted to see what ‘The Afterparty’ was about. This could have been a lot better and much less annoying if all those terrible comedians weren’t hosting and telling bad jokes. I don’t want to see Fortune Feimster attempt to tell a joke about oiling her body as the cast of the show sit awkwardly in their homes over Zoom. If it had simply been a half hour, 45 minute chat with the cast and crew about how they made the show and their thoughts on it, a lot of embarrassment and time-wasting could have been spared. Wadjda (2012) - 6/10 Another recommendation discussed at length on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Wadjda was pretty interesting from a cultural perspective but largely familiar in terms of story structure.

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - 2/10 A truly terrible movie with maybe one or two scenes that stop it from being a complete catastrophe. Tom Green tried to create something that almost holds a middle finger to everyone who watches it and to some that could be a fun experience, but to me it just came across as utterly irritating. It’s simply a bunch of scenes threaded together with an incredibly loose plot. He wears the skin of a dead deer, smacks a disabled woman over and over again on the legs to turn her on, and he swings a newborn baby around a hospital room by its umbilical cord (that part was actually pretty funny). I cannot believe I watched this again, although I think I repressed a lot of it since having seen it for the first time around five years ago. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - (2011) I have to say, these movies seem to get better with each instalment. They’re still not very good though. That being said, I’m amazed at how many times I’ve watched each of the Twilight movies at this point. This time around, I watched Breaking Dawn - Part 1 with a YMS commentary track on YouTube and that made the experience a lot more entertaining. Otherwise, this film is super dumb but pretty entertaining. I would recommend watching these movies with friends. Solaris (1972) - 8/10 Andrei Tarkovsky’s grand sci-fi epic about the emotional crises of a crew on the space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris is much as strange and creepy as you might expect from the master Russian auter. I had wanted to watch this for a while so I bought the Criterion blu-ray and it’s just stunning. It’s clear to see the 2001: A Space Odyssey inspiration but Solaris is quite a different beast entirely. Jaws (1975) - 4/10 I really tried to get into this classic movie, but Jaws exhibits basically everything I don’t like about Steven Spielberg’s directing. For sure, the effects are crazily good but the story itself is poorly handled and largely uninteresting. It was just a massive slog to get through.

Darkman (1990) - 6/10 Sam Raimi’s superhero movie is so much fun, albeit massively stupid. Further discussion on Darkman can be found on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) - 1/10 Abysmal. I forgot the movie as I watched it. This was part of a marathon my friends and I did for episode 32 of our podcast. Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) - 1/10 Perhaps this trilogy is not so great after all. Only marginally better than Darkman II but still pretty terrible. More thoughts on episode 32 of my podcast. F For Fake (1973) - 8/10 Rewatching this proved to be a worthwhile decision. Albeit slightly boring, there’s no denying how crazy the story of this documentary about art forgers is. The standout however, is the director himself. Orson Welles makes a lot of this film about himself and how hot his girlfriend is and it is hilarious.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) - 4/10 More style over substance, Sony’s new animated adventure wants so much to be in trend with the current internet culture but it simply doesn’t understand what it’s emulating. There’s a nyan cat reference, for crying out loud. For every joke that works, there are about ten more that do not and were it not for the wonderful animation, it simply wouldn’t be getting so much praise. Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10 The first movie I’ve seen in a cinema since 2020 and damn it was good to be back! I’ve already reviewed Taxi Driver in my March wrap-up but seeing it in the cinema was a real treat. Irreversible (2002) - 8/10 One of the most viscerally horrendous experiences I’ve ever had while watching a movie. I cannot believe a friend of mine gave me the DVD to watch. More thoughts on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Don’t watch it with the family. The Golden Compass (2007) - 1/10 I had no recollection of this being as bad as it is. The Golden Compass is the definition of a factory mandated movie. Nothing it does on its own is worth any kind of merit. I would say, if you wanted an experience like what this tries to communicate, a better option by far is the BBC series, His Dark Materials. More of my thoughts can be found in the review I wrote on Letterboxd.

Antichrist (2009) - 8/10 Lars von Trier is nothing if not provocative and I can understand why someone would not like Antichrist, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. After watching it, I wrote a slightly disjointed summary of my interpretations of this highly metaphorical movie in the group chat, so fair warning for a bit of spoilers and graphic descriptions: It's like, the patriarchy, man! Oppression! Men are the rational thinkers with big brains and the women just cry and be emotional. So she's seen as crazy when she's smashing his cock and driving a drill through his leg to keep him weighted down. Like, how does he like it, ya know? So then she mutilates herself like she did with him and now they're both wounded, but the animals crowd around her (and the crow that he couldn't kill because it's Mother nature, not Father nature, duh). Then he kills her, even though she could've killed him loads of times but didn't. So it's like "haha big win for the man who was subjected to such horrific torture. Victory!" And then all the women with no faces come out of the woods because it's like a constant cycle. Manchester By The Sea (2016) - 6/10 Great performances in this super sad movie. I can’t say I got too much out of it though. Roar (1981) - 9/10 Watching Roar again was still as terrifying an experience as the first time. If you want to watch something that’s loose on plot with poor acting but with real big cats getting in the way of production and physically attacking people, look no further. This is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen because it’s all basically real. Cannot recommend it enough. Eyes Without A Face (1960) - 8/10 I’m glad I checked this old French movie out again. There’s a lot to marvel at in so many aspects, what with the premise itself - a mad surgeon taking the faces from unsuspecting women and transplanting them onto another - being incredibly unique for the time. Short, sweet and entertaining!

Se7en (1995) - 10/10 The first in a David Fincher marathon we did for The Sunday Movie Marathon, episode 33. Zodiac (2007) - 10/10 Second in the marathon, as it was getting late, we decided to watch half that evening and the last half on the following evening. Zodiac is a brilliant movie and you can hear more of my thoughts on the podcast (though I apologise; my audio is not the best in this episode). Gone Girl (2014) - 10/10 My favourite Fincher movie. More insights into this masterpiece in episode 33 of the podcast. Friends: The Reunion (2021) - 6/10 It was heartwarming to see the old actors for this great show together again. I talked about the Friends reunion film at length in episode 33 of my podcast.

Wolfwalkers (2020) - 10/10 I reviewed this in an earlier post but would like to reiterate just how wonderful Wolfwalkers is. If you get the chance, please see it in the cinema. I couldn’t stop crying from how beautiful it was. Raya and The Last Dragon (2021) - 6/10 After watching Wolfwalkers, I decided I didn’t want to go home. So I had lunch in town and booked a ticket for Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon. A child was coughing directly behind me the entire time. Again, I reviewed this in an earlier post but generally it was decent but I have so many problems with the execution. The Princess Bride (1987) - 9/10 Clearly I underrated this the last time I watched it. The Princess Bride is warm and hilarious with some delightfully memorable characters. A real classic!

The Invisible Kid (1988) - 1/10 About as good as you’d expect a movie with that name to be, The Invisible Kid was a pick for The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, the discussion for which you can listen to in episode 34. Babel (2006) - 9/10 The same night that I watched The Invisible Kid, I watched a masterful and dour drama from the director of Birdman and The Revenant. Babel calls back to an earlier movie of Iñárritu’s, called Amores Perros and as I was informed while we watched this for the podcast, it turns out Babel is part of a trilogy alongside the aforementioned film. More thoughts in episode 34 of the podcast. Snake Eyes (1998) - 1/10 After feeling thoroughly emotionally wiped out after Babel, we immediately watched another recommendation for the podcast: Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage. This was a truly underwhelming experience and for more of a breakdown into what makes this movie so bad, you can listen to us talk about it on the podcast.