#jump 50th anniversary

[rabbitcruiser]

On September 8, 1974, American daredevil Evel Knievel attempted to jump over the Snake River approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the Shoshone Falls on a rocket-powered motorcycle, the Skycycle X-2, after unsuccessfully petitioning the U.S. Government to let him attempt a jump over the Grand Canyon. Knievel and his team purchased land on both sides of the Snake River and built a large earthen ramp and launch structure. A crowd of 30,000 gathered to watch Knievel’s jump, which failed because his parachute opened too early, causing him to float down towards the river. Knievel likely would have drowned were it not for canyon winds that blew him to the river bank; he ultimately survived with a broken nose.

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Violence, major spoilers, flashing lights

Title: 無敵 MUTEKI

Editor: SylverZ 龍

Song: 弱虫な炎 [Magic of Life]

Artist: DIRTY OLD MEN

Anime: One Piece, Naruto Shippuden, Dragon Ball series, Bleach, Beelzebub, SKET Dance, Gintama, Katekyou Hitman Reborn, D.Gray Man, Death Note, Bakuman, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter X Hunter (2011), Naruto, Yu Gi Oh series, Fist of the North Star, Toriko, Saint Seiya series, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series, Boku no Hero Academia, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Black Clover, Boruto, Shokugeki no Souma, The Promised Neverland, Dr. Stone, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Assassination Classroom, Black Cat, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, Shaman King (2001), Rurouni Kenshin, D.Gray Man Hallow, Medaka Box, City Hunter, Bokuto no Ken, Fire Force, World Trigger, Nurahiyon no Mago, Busou Renkin, Nisekoi, Yuragi so no Yuna-san, Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke, Slam Dunk, Kimagure Orange Road, Eyeshield 21, Prince of Tennis, Captain Tsubasa, Hinomaru Sumo, Ninku, Jigoku Sensei, Ichigo 100%, Cats Eye

Category: Action

[ashitanozak]

From 2018, for the 50th anniversary of Shonen Jump, Akira Toriyama and Takehiko INOUE met for an interview..

They talked about their work and the manga world. Some of what they said hinted at the tough times they had when they were starting out.

On the interview, Akira Toriyama revealed what kick-started his journey into Mangas. He admitted, "Honestly, I just wanted the 100,000 yen prize."

He had quit his job as a designer and was looking for something to do. While reading comics in a coffee shop, he found a magazine offering a 500,000 yen prize for new artists, but he missed the deadline to enter.

So, he tried a new monthly competition in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, which only offered 100,000 yen. Despite it being less money, Toriyama was broke and didn't have many options.

Eventually, Kazuhiko Torishima, an editor at Shōnen Jump, came across Toriyama's artwork. Then Dragon Ball was Created..

RIP LEGEND.

[poweringthroughthis]

cabin chronicles | zhong chenle

nsfw, mdni

desc: (name) is chilling with the dreamies, but maybe he should keep in mind that his boyfriend is a jealous little bean.

warnings: making out, hickeys, fluff

Chenle was ANNOYED.

To be fair, it didn't take much for the man to lose his cool. Nonetheless, he tried to keep calm for as long as he could.

But his friends should know that his boyfriend is off limits.

The dreamies are on a weekend getaway to a cabin in the woods, currently sitting around a bonfire in the backyard.

Jaemin and Jeno are looking at each other wish disgusting heart eyes, Jisung is on his phone texting god knows who and Renjun is staring into Chenle's soul with a blank expression.

Donghyuck of course, is clinging onto Mark for dear life, telling him about how today is their 50th anniversary or something. And (name), for reasons unknown to the Chinese, is sitting giggling and leaning into the subgroup of Jaemin, Jeno and Jisung.

Yeah, that's precisely why Chenle is annoyed. While he's always ecstatic to see how well his boyfriend gets along with his closest friends, sometimes they get a little too comfortable for Chenle's liking.

"You know you're boring holes into their heads, right?" Renjun asks the male in Chinese. Chenle does not dignify him with a response, except for a deadly side-eye.

Just as Chenle was about to explain his reasons, a chorus of laughter erupted again, making him turn his head towards the source for the umpteenth time tonight. (name) had just toppled over laughing, towards another man's lap. Surely, no joke could be THAT funny. Chenle was fuming now. That damned brat Jaemin.

"(name)! "Chenle called out, his boyfriend finally glancing at him after what felt like an infinity and a half.

"bǎobèi", he called him over to where he was sitting. (name) noticed Chenle's eyes. They might look heartbroken and neglected, but hiding behind them was the glint of dominance that would jump out if (name) didn't immediately settle into his rightful spot in Chenle's embrace.

As (name) made his way to the Chinese, the boys could all but gawk at him. "Did you see the way Chenle looked at (name)?" Donghyuck whispered to the group. "It was scary" Jaemin shuddered. "I think the real reason I didn't ask (name) out is because of that".

"Do you guys think I did something wrong? "Jeno asked, confused. "You're an angel Jeno. If anything, this is about your best friend's jealousy" Renjun rolled his eyes.

"Are you alright, bǎobèi?" Chenle asked as (name) snuggled closer to his chest. (name) looked up at him with big doe eyes, "of course, Lele. Are you okay, you look tense?".

"I'm okay as long as you're here".

Chenle pressed a chaste kiss to the younger's lips, leaving him blushing, a small smile playing on his lips.

"What was that all about, though? "

Mark questioned, the dreamies trying to make sense of the scene they just witnessed.

"I'm still trying to figure that out".

Jaemin replies.

"If you really must know, I'm tired of sharing him"

Chenle said, making everyone raise a brow, the younger being too embarrassed to even speak.

"What do you mean?"

"I MEAN, that you are all stealing my baby away from me! You're always touching him and talking to him and I just want to spend some time with him"

"But we're his friends, Lele!"

Jisung says, Chenle huffing.

"You can be a little possessive, you know" Haechan remarks.

"Says the boy who was literally clinging onto his boyfriend 10 minutes ago"

"Oh, shut up, I'm a cuddly person. It's not my fault if you can't handle it".

"So, you admit that you can't handle (name)?"

"Yes, I can! What kind of question is that? I can totally handle him."

"Well, you sure seem jealous of us, Lele."

"I'm not jealous. I can definitely handle my own boyfriend."

"Okay, then."

"Whatever".

With that, Chenle gets up and brings (name) inside with him, going upstairs to the room the couple was staying in.

"He so is jealous!"

"Definitely."

The dreamies say, shaking their heads, the only thing on their minds being: "How is Chenle murderous towards us yet always sickly sweet towards (name)?"

Now inside, Chenle had (name) pinned to the wall.

"You know I only belong to you, right, Lele?"

"I know, baby. You're my precious little treasure."

Chenle presses a bruising kiss to (name)'s lips.

"You're the best thing to ever happen to me. I'll never let anyone hurt you."

"I know."

Chenle lifts the boy, (name) wrapping his legs around the other's waist, the Chinese carrying him towards the bed, setting him down on the edge and climbing on top.

Chenle was getting carried away, his mind clouded with possessiveness and jealousy, his kisses getting rougher by the minute, (name) doing nothing but accepting all the attention.

"Lele… wait… I can't breathe…"

"I'm sorry baby, you're just so perfect and I want to have you all to myself."

Chenle continues to kiss down (name)'s neck, sucking and biting harshly, the younger whining at the pain.

"Lele, no marks!"

"Let them know who you belong to", he replies with a blank stare.

"Lele!"

Chenle pulls back to stare at the love of his life, his hair ruffled, lips swollen and red and a few hickeys already forming on his neck.

"Why don't you just marry me, bǎobèi?"

(name) blushed, Chenle chuckling at his reaction.

"I love you so much!"

Chenle kisses his lips softly, holding his face gently and stroking his cheek with his thumb.

"I love you more, Lele."

Chenle moves them to the center of the bed, (name) laying under him as the Chinese hovers above him with a smirk playing on the corner of his lips.

"Now, let me remind you who you belong to."

And he dives in.

Outside the cabin, the dreamies are groaning, Renjun covering his ears to shut out the moans coming from above them.

"Look at what you did! Now we have to sit here and listen to Chenle doing it with his boyfriend" he cried.

"Hey, you guys are the ones who teased him!"

Donghyuck said.

"Whatever, I'm just happy that I'm not Chenle's boyfriend"

Jeno says.

"And I'm happy that I'm not his boyfriend's best friend"

Mark replies, the dreamies looking over at Jaemin, the male looking at the ground in shame.

"This is so awkward"

Jaemin mumbles, the others snickering, as they went back to their conversations, trying to ignore the noises coming from the upstairs bedroom.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

The day Princess Anne was almost kidnapped on The Mall — 50 years on

On this day 50 years ago, 23-year-old Princess Anne found herself fighting off a gunman as her bodyguard and driver lay wounded beside her. Emma Loffhagen takes a deep dive into the disturbing day one of the most senior royals was almost kidnapped.

By Emma Loffhagen

20 March 2024

“Your daughter has been kidnapped. The following are conditions to be fulfilled for release.”

In March 1974, Ian Ball used a rented typewriter to haphazardly type a letter intended for the then-head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Ball, 26, a funeral home worker, demanded £3 million — to be paid in £5 notes — in exchange for the return of the Queen’s daughter, Princess Anne.

After becoming fixated with the 23-year-old princess, he spent two years hatching an elaborate plan to kidnap her.

Today, March 20, marks the 50th anniversary of Ball’s kidnap attempt — one of the most bizarre and disturbing episodes in British royal history.

A “loner,” Ball had been inspired to hatch his elaborate kidnap plot by the novel Day of the Jackal.

He wanted to follow in the footsteps of the book’s hero, the contracted assassin the Jackal.

“He was a very strange man,” Ball’s neighbour later said. “The only time he ever went out was when he went down to the launderette or went out for some food.”

It was thought that he had developed a “fixation” on the royal, whipped up by the widespread and lavish coverage of her wedding to Captain Mark Phillips the previous year.

As part of his plan, Ball had moved from his run-down flat in Bayswater to a lush rented house in Fleet, Hampshire.

It was only a few miles from Sandhurst, where Anne lived with her then-husband Phillips.

After a quick phone call to the Buckingham Palace press office, Ball knew which engagements and events Anne attended each week.

He rented a car under the alias John Williams, stocking the boot with Valium tranquilisers and two pairs of handcuffs.

On the evening of 20 March 1974, Anne was travelling back to Buckingham Palace in an Austin Princess limousine.

She had attended a screening of Riding Towards Freedom, a documentary by the charity Riding for the Disabled.

Captain Phillips, her bodyguard James Beaton, and her lady-in-waiting Rowena Jane Brassey, were also in the car driven by royal chauffeur Alexander Callender.

At around 8pm, as the group drove up The Mall, a white Ford Escort swerved in front of the limousine, forcing Callender to stop.

Then a 31-year-old inspector, Beaton, who had been Anne’s bodyguard for a year, got out to investigate.

“I thought it was somebody who wanted to be a pain in the neck,” he later said. “There was no hint of what was to happen.”

Suddenly, a bearded man with light red hair jumped out of the vehicle and pulled out two handguns, smashing the passenger window with the butt of one.

Beaton had not even had the chance to pull out his weapon when he was shot in the shoulder.

He then attempted to fire back at Ball — but missed. Upon a second attempt, his gun — a Walther PPK — jammed.

Ball turned to the passenger door behind the driver’s seat and started shaking it. Anne was sat on the other side. “Open, or I’ll shoot!” he shouted.

As the princess and Captain Phillips desperately tried to hold the door closed, Anne’s lady-in-waiting crawled out of the door on the passenger side.

Beaton got back in the car, placing himself between the couple and their assailant.

Ball shot into the car, and Beaton’s hand deflected the bullet.

He shot the bodyguard a third time, hitting Beaton in the abdomen and causing him to fall from the vehicle.

“I felt tired and very drunk, although I hadn’t been drinking,” Beaton later told police. “I just wanted to lie down.”

Callender stepped out to confront the gunman, but Ball shot him in the chest and he fell back into the car.

Pulling the door open, Ball grabbed Anne’s forearm as her husband held on to her waist.

“Please, come out,” Ball reportedly told the princess. “You’ve got to come.”

As the pair struggled over Anne, her dress ripped, splitting down the back, which she later recalled prompted her to “lose her rag.”

But, rather than panic, she had what she described as a “very irritating conversation” with her potential kidnapper.

Unbelievably calm despite the commotion, Anne famously replied: “Not bloody likely!”

In an interview with the late television presenter Michael Parkinson, she recalled:

“He [the gunman] opened the door and we had a discussion about where — or where not — we were going to go.

“I said I didn’t think I wanted to go. I was scrupulously polite because I thought it would be silly to be too rude at that stage.”

A nearby tabloid journalist, Brian McConnell, arrived on the scene.

Recognising the limo’s insignia, he realised the commotion must have involved a royal family member.

“Don’t be silly, old boy,” he told Ball. “Put the gun down.”

Ball responded by shooting him too and McConnell collapsed bleeding onto the road.

A man named Ronnie Russell drove past at this point.

He was on his way home to Strood, Kent, from working as an area manager for a cleaning company in London.

In a stroke of incredible luck, Russell happened to be a former boxer. He had cut his cloth at the Repton Club in east London, an infamous venue sponsored by the notorious Kray twins.

Jumping out of the car, Russell punched Ball twice in the head before leading Anne and her lady-in-waiting away from the attacker.

He later explained that he “did not like bullies,” which prompted his decision to intervene.

Despite being injured, Ball still shot the first police officer to arrive on the scene, Constable Michael Hills, 22, before running off.

Detective Constable Peter Edmonds, who answered Constable Hills’ radio request for backup, chased Ball down The Mall and through St James’s Park before tackling him on the ground.

At Ball’s Old Bailey trial in May 1974, more details came to light about the plot.

Ball kept his head lowered for most of the proceedings, only uttering the word “guilty” to confirm the charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

In his pocket, detectives had discovered the kidnap note addressed to the Queen, which demanded the £3 million ransom (the equivalent of £26 million today), a free pardon, and a plane to fly him to Switzerland.

He had planned to take the princess to a central London property he had rented under an alias.

In a police interview, Ball also said he believed Anne would be an easy target after ascertaining her whereabouts by phoning the Buckingham Palace press office.

“I had thought about it for years,” he said. “She would have been the easiest. I have seen her riding with her husband.”

Ball also showed no remorse for having shot three men on the night of the attempted kidnap.

“They were getting in my way so I had to shoot them,” he said. “Well, the police, that's their job. They expect to be shot. I took a chance of getting shot so why shouldn't they?”

He added: “I suppose I’ll be locked up for the rest of my life. I am only sorry I frightened Princess Anne. There is one good thing coming out of this: you will have to improve on her protection.”

Ball was diagnosed with schizophrenia following the trial and sentenced to a mental health facility under the Mental Health Act, “without limit or time."

He remains in the Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire to this day.

The facility has been home to a series of notorious criminals, including serial killer Peter Sutcliffe and London gangster Ronnie Kray.

Immediately after the attack, the royals ceased having only one protection officer.

When Anne visited Beaton in hospital, “she turned up with two policemen,” her bodyguard said. “From then on, that’s what it was.”

“I had nothing…There was no back-up vehicle,” Beaton told The Times separately.

“The training was non-existent; but then again, [we thought] nothing was going to happen. They are highly specialised now, highly trained.”

Beaton continued to work for Anne for another five years — before the Queen employed him.

After Beaton’s weapon jammed, the type of guns used by bodyguards were also changed: “The Walthers were got rid of overnight.”

Beaton was honoured for his bravery, receiving the George Cross — the UK’s highest civilian honour for gallantry.

Russell also received the honour. In a 2006 interview, Russell recalled what Queen Elizabeth said as she presented his George Medal:

“The medal is from the Queen of England, the thank you is from Anne’s mother.”

[setokaibassoulmate]

I finally got the full Seto Kaiba set from these really cool Yugioh poker cards which got released for Shonen Jumps 50th anniversary! I love all the artworks from the manga panels so much! He always looks so cool!

[duhragonball]

Chainsaw Man ch. 5-12

Ha ha! Look at this adorable li'l guy! Hell yeah!

All right, so last time, Denji merged with Pochita (see above), and became Chainsaw Man. Well, his monster form with the chainsaws isn't actually named anything, at least not yet, but the comic is titled Chainsaw Man, so that's what I'm calling his chainsaw form.

Anyway, Denji was coerced into joining the Public Safety Devil Hunter Squad Directorate Organization Agency Conglomeration whatever. He's mainly in it for the food, shelter, and a possible chance of intimate relations with women. His boss, Makima orders him to go on a patrol with another teammate, Power.

Power is a fiend, which is a devil who has inhabited a human corpse. This is somehow different from the Pochita/Denji merger, but I'm not clear on the distinction yet. Power would seem to be on the supply side of devil hunting, but Makima seems to think she can make use of her, and Power is willing to play along, probably because Makima will kill her if she doesn't.

At first, the two of them have trouble finding any devils in town, but then Power spots one and immediately destroys it with a big magic hammer. This was a bad call, because there was already a civilian devil hunter handling this devil, and apparently it's against the rules for devil hunters to jump each other's claims. Power tries to weasel out of the blame by telling Makima that Denji ordered her to do it, but Makima doesn't care. She just wants the two of them to get results. The "or else" is mostly implied at this point, but it's there.

Fundamentally, these two just don't get along, and Power trying to throw Denji under the bus earlier just makes things work. But then Power explains that she can't get along with humans, and the only other creatures she likes are cats, like her pet Meowy. She says Meowy was captured by a devil and Power was recruited by Makima before she could recover the cat. But if Denji were willing to help get Meowy back, she would be willing to repay him by letting him touch her boobs.

Currently, that's Denji's main goal. Yeah, that's it. Second base. That's pathetic and all, but until recently his main goal was to have enough money to afford jam for his bread, so I'm pretty sure this is going somewhere.

Meanwhile, Makima meets with her superiors, and vaguely reports that she's found two new recruits, one promising and one interesting. Aki disputes her assessment, as he finds Denji neither promising nor interesting, but Makima explains that his devil powers are based on chainsaws. Generally, devils have a power based on the scariness of their theme. There was a tomato devil back in chapter 1, and it probably wasn't all that dangerous. There's no scary mental image of tomatoes. I mean, there was the movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, but that was a comedy, and no one ever remembers that.

But chainsaws, well, they made an actual horror movie with that in the title, and everyone remembers Leatherface. Oh, actually, this is the 50th anniversary of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. See, that's staying power, and that's the kind of power Makima is interested in.

Also, Power, the fiend literally named after power. I have to assume Makima's interested in her as well, for one reason or another.

Back to Denji and Power, she leads him to some spooky barn or something where the Bat Devil is holding her cat hostage. She had a plan on the way over, but then she forgets it as they head for the door, and so she knocks out Denji with a hammer. Power's supposed to be a Blood Devil, so I don't understand the hammer thing. She seems to be able to make them out of thin air, so maybe she's making them out of blood? I dunno.

Power was mostly telling the truth, except she never intended to fight the Bat Devil. She just wanted to lure Denji here so she could feed him to the Bat Devil. In return, the Bat Devil said he would give her back her cat. Why doesn't this guy just hunt down his own victims? Well, one of his arms got lopped off at some point, so he needs human blood to regenerate it, and he probably doesn't want to risk hunting a human while he's injured. Instead, he captured Power's cat and used it as a hostage to force her to do his dirty work. So here we are.

Why did Power get attached to a cat in the first place? Well, she found one in the woods and decided she should fatten it up before eating it, but while she was doing that, she wound up becoming fond for the li'l guy.

But the Bat Demon won't honor his bargain, because even though drinking Denji's blood regenerates his wing, it tastes bad because of Denji's part-devil nature. So he swallows the cage with Meowy in it, and then eats Power too? Okay...

Bat Devil decides to go hunting some tastier victims to cleanse his palate, and now that his wing his restored, he's all set... except he forgot one thing.

Boobs. No wait, I meant chainsaws. No... hold on. "Boobs" was right? In spite of Power's betrayal, Denji still thinks he can save the cat and get the reward she promised him. He grabs onto the Bat Devil and sucks his blood, which I guess heals him up enough to continue this fight. Bat Devil's like "What the hell do you want, anyway," and Denji's like...

So yeah, there's a certain touch to this that I really enjoy. The monsters in this story seem to be a lot more rational than Chainsaw Man, and when he goes apeshit on them, they start to wonder just what the hell they've gotten themselves into.

I've had to hear about Lovecraftian horrors for much of my life, how Cthulhu and his ilk are so impossibly powerful and scary, and if you even looked at them too long you'd go mad from the dread or whatever. I'm a bigger fan of Robert E. Howard stories, where Conan will run into some eldritch horror and just attack it like he would a wolf or a bear. It's like the man said: If it bleeds, we can kill it.

On the other hand, I like the notion of a creature so alien and with motives so incomprehensible that it cannot be perceived by the rational mind. That's a fun idea, but it's wasted on Yog-Sothoth. No, it's a lot more fun when the hero is the one who's beyond understanding, and the monsters he slays are left utterly baffled.

Bat Devil's like "What the fuck, dude? I'm just a despicable creature trying to drink blood to sustain my unholy existence. Why won't you leave me alone?"

And Denji's just like "booOoOoooObS" and there's no answer for that. Bat Devil can't give him boobs, he can't take another hostage. If he kills Power, Denji would just kill Bat Devil anyway for revenge. There's no way out of this because Denji's motives make no fucking sense. To him anyway. Boobs are pretty awesome.

Also, Denji's not exactly thinking straight. Bat Devil tries to throw a car at him as a distraction, but Denji catches it and chucks it back at him. I'm pretty sure he knows better, but he's too upset to care, and that must surely send a chill down Bat Devil's spine. I dig this sort of thing.

So Denji finally disembowels the Bat Devil and rescues Power and Meowy. She's like "What could possibly have made you go so far to rescue me after I betrayed you?" And he just points at her chest. And since Meowy survived, Power says she's hold up her end of the deal.

Well, except this thing suddenly showed up and cut off one of Denji's arms. Good luck touching boobs now, idiot.

This is a Leech Devil, and she says Bat Devil was her boyfriend. I don't know how she happened to be in the area when this fight happened, or how she snuck up on these two, so I'm going to assume that she was inside the Bat Devil's rectum the whole time. It's some freaky-deaky sex act, just get all crammed up inside your partner's rectum. Anyway, Denji tries to transform again, but he's worn out, and he only changes part way. The Leech Devil offers to let him go, but she intends to kill Power and the cat, so Denji's like "Let's dance, bitch."

Denji gets a few hits in, but he can't last long, and just as the Leech Devil is about to eat him...

Aki shows up and does the Too-Sweet gesture. Has he joined Bullet Club? Probably, because Bullet Club sucks these days and so does Aki. Well, actually, this is how he summons his demon familiar or whatever it is. It eats the leech devil and saves Denji.

Later, Denji's arm grows back when he gets a blood transfusion, and Aki explains to him that he's not friends with this Fox Devil thing. He borrows its power in exchange for feeding it parts of his body. It's a contract, similar to the contract Denji and Pochita made in chapter 1.

Aki loathes devils, and resents Denji for not hating them just as much, and for having shallow motives for being a devil hunter, but he believes he can accept this if Denji agrees to follow his orders. Also, Aki covers up all the civilians Denji put in harm's way during that battle.

Denji agrees, and one of the other Devil Hunters asks Aki if this is wise. He seems to be going to great lengths to protect Denji and Power, and if they screw up, it'll be his ass. But Aki insists that he's simply using Power and Denji to achieve their primary goal: hunting devils. He has no intention of befriending either of them.

But he does have to live with them, because Makima orders them to live with Aki. Aki asks why and she says she trusts Aki more than anyone, and he accepts this pretty readily.

Later, Power finally gives Denji his payment for saving Meowy. She agrees to give him three squeezes.

On the first one, Denji winds up causing her breast pads to fall out. I'm not against her wearing the things, but I feel like that first squeeze shouldn't count if all he got was padding. He could buy one of those himself and go to town if that's all he was after.

Two and three go pretty uneventfully, and Power seems pretty pleased with the transaction. She has her cat, so she has no reason to continue hunting devils, but she can't escape Makima, so she'll just carry on and help Denji from here on out. Well that's nice.

But for Denji, the whole thing seems kind of anticlimactic... because... it was.

Later, while Makima walks him through paperwork, Denji confides in her that he achieved a dream he'd had for a while, only to discover the fulfillment of the dream felt empty. Like the Vulcan once said: "[H]aving is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."

The hollow feeling of touching Power's boobs isn't such a bad thing in itself, but Denji is now worried that this will be how it goes every time. What if every dream he chases turns out like this?

He finally admits to Makima that this is about touching boobs, and she explains that physical intimacy kind of depends on... well, intimacy. You have to get to know your partner, at least physically, and take your time, or otherwise there's no enjoyment.

I'm not sure if Makima knows Denji touched Power's boobs, or how that went down, but it's probably not hard to guess that it was a cold, sterile experience. Power's not even human, so it's unclear if she even cared about doing it. And she just sat on a toilet and let him do his thing. Come to think of it, that's probably why the pads were in that scene. I said that first squeeze shouldn't count, but the second and third kind of don't count either, because Denji didn't enjoy the flesh any more than the padding.

By contrast, this panel of Makima putting Denji's hand on her ear is a lot more thrilling. It's pretty dumb on paper, and it's kind of creepy when it's Makima doing it, but she also makes it seem like a truly romantic gesture. I wish some lady would let me fondle her left ear.

So when all of that is set up, Makima then puts his hand on her boob, and that actually excites Denji, because she built up to it. I'm pretty sure this isn't appropriate for one reason or another, but I'm not here to consider the morality of Makima's actions in this scene. Her observation on the nature of intimacy, is spot on, even if she really shouldn't be demonstrating it like this in the workplace.

And after all of this, Makima asks Denji for a favor: defeat the Gun Devil. It's a really powerful devil that's worth a lot of money or something, and Makima thinks Denji can take him. All she needs is to get him properly motivated, which is probably what this scene was all about.

And if he succeeds, Makima offers to grant him any one wish. I kind of don't believe they can do Third Base in a manga like this. Maybe he'll wish for his own desk instead.

[myheromedia]

Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary featuring Naruto in the My Hero Academia art style!

[buttherainbowhasabeard]

Unpopular Opinion: David Tennant Should Never Have Returned To Doctor Who

When a teary eyed David Tennant as The Doctor uttered the words “I don’t want to go” in his 2010 generation scene, it was a heartbreaking moment for fans. Saying goodbye to such a universally loved incarnation would be hard, but this was Doctor Who. Change was inevitable, and often, exciting.

So when the BBC announced that Tennant would be returning to the iconic role 15 years on, as part of a series of 60th anniversary specials, I was sceptical. 

It looked like I was the only one though, as the internet erupted with anticipation and jubilation. I, however, thought the 14th Doctor reveal was a huge distraction that disrespected both the outgoing and the incoming actors.

Don’t get me wrong, Tennant is one of my favourite modern Doctor’s. His mid 2000s run as the 10th Doctor was funny, frightening, heartfelt and unforgettable. He had some of the best companions and villains, and some of the smartest and most compelling stories. But all good things come to an end, and now his emotional first exit felt a bit hollow. 

His return really took the shine off Jodie Whittaker’s finale. Yes, her years as the 13th Doctor were responsible for some of the worst Doctor Who storylines in recent memory. But this was hardly her fault, and instead of enjoying her last moments as The Doctor and reflecting on the good bits (the first female Doctor in the show’s history), fans were shouting at their screens for her to hurry up and regenerate so their favourite could return. It was almost like the show was doing a reset and hoping we’d forget about her.

It also meant that the now 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gawta, the first gay, black Doctor in the show’s history) had to wait a little longer to make his debut, which seemed on-the-nose too. 

The BBC were making it crystal clear who they thought their most popular Doctor was. Tennant has had more screen time than any other modern era Doctor, and now he’s the only one still alive and kicking post regeneration across all eras. Haven’t they ever heard of 'jumping the shark' or having too much of a good thing?!

He had four consecutive seasons from 2005-2008, with a fake regeneration at the end of Series 4 that saw him get cloned and live happily ever after with Rose Tyler on parallel earth. From 2008-2010 he travelled sans companion in a series of specials, before reluctantly regenerating into Matt Smith. In 2013, he made an appearance alongside Smith in the 50th anniversary special.

And now in 2023, he’s done three extra episodes alongside Catherine Tate reprising her role as his much loved Series 4 companion Donna Noble. These specials ended with him bi-generating (one Tennant Doctor, one Gatwa Doctor - don’t ask!) and continuing on as The Doctor, complete with his own TARDIS. He will, he says, stay put on earth to let Gatwa go off and have his own adventures. How generous of him! 

Firstly, Tennant’s latest run didn’t feel like a 60th anniversary either. Instead it felt like a very late follow up and conclusion (or even an alternative ending) to Series 4, so the opportunity to include other cameos and celebrate the show’s rich history was lost.

In ‘The Star Beast’, the monstrous Meep really just provided a reason for The Doctor to see Donna again. In ‘Wild Blue Yonder’, The Doctor and Donna fought creepy doppelgängers of themselves (again, talk about self-indulgent!), and in ‘The Giggle’, Neil Patrick Harris’ promising Celestial Toymaker did little more than put on a funny accent and do a funny dance.

Sure, it had some fun and heartfelt moments. I'm glad the DoctorDonna Human-Time Lord metacrisis has been resolved. The Doctor's tender moments with Donna were nice. His two redheaded companions (Donna and Mel) holding his hands as he "regenerated" was touching. Even Tennant and Gatwa's interactions were surprisingly sweet. However, the whole jaunt just felt like an excuse to reunite Tennant and Tate and capitalise on their lingering popularity. Which leads me to my second point… 

No other actor has been able to continue on as The Doctor, so the fact that this is the first exception to the rule shows that the studio is very obviously playing favourites. They are keeping Tennant’s sprightly sneaker wearing, pin stripe suited spaceman up their sleeves to roll out whenever they please. If the ratings plummet, they can bring Tennant back. If the fans want it, they can bring Tennant back. If Tennant wants it, they can bring Tennant back. Does anyone else smell a spin-off?

Thirdly, I don’t buy the idea that The Doctor can be - and wants to be - domesticated at all. Despite everyone telling him that he needs to stop and slow down, he has never once done so. In every incarnation, he/she is an energetic, chaotic and forever on-the-go entity that can’t stand waiting or having to sit idly by.

So, all of a sudden we're expected to believe that he’s going to stay with Donna and her family and just hang out on earth like a regular human? I doubt it. He even said it himself to Rose in Season 2, when trying to justify why he can’t settle down. "You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you." If bi-generation had have happened to Peter Capaldi’s 12th Doctor, I might have accepted it better because he said he wanted to rest. It would’ve made more sense there.

And lastly, but probably most importantly, everyone loves a bit of nostalgia, but bringing beloved characters back from the dead to get ratings up again isn’t a good enough reason. In reality, it just reeks of lazy writing or a lack of creativity, and in turn, a lack of closure. The whole point and poignancy of a show like Doctor Who is that The Doctor must change and move on, as we, the audience, have to move on.

When someone plays The Doctor, they do it for a limited time but they leave a lasting legacy. Having Tennant on standby undermines that. I want the writers to invest in their new actors and have faith in their new adventures instead of having earlier models waiting in the wings.

So for me, the best thing about these three specials and the finale wasn’t that Tennant didn't have to say goodbye this time. It was that Gatwa finally got to say hello...

[regicidal-defenestration]

ROWAN I wanna start watching Old Who, where should I start

Doctors 1 thru 7 are on tubi but they don't seem to have 8 for some reason :( I could also dig up the TV movie or something, i remember watching at least 1 doctor who movie on vhs at my grandma's but I don't know which one it was

OKAY SO the first rule of watching Classic Who is having fun and being yourself

Further than that:

First Doctor - Start at the start!

Classic move! Put on An Unearthly Child and watch them all in the order that God, or at least the BBC*, intended

(*disregarding the ones, all from the First or Second Doctor's runs, that were purged from the archives as part of due process back then. Some have been reconstructed in a variety of ways, others remain entirely lost)

Pros of starting here: Easy! You get to watch the show develop into what it is today and you don't have to piece together context in ways you might have to to be willing to starting elsewhere

Cons of starting here: The show started very differently to what it is today. The pacing is sometimes slower, sometimes just by the nature of the story, sometimes because they had 2 episodes worth of plot they had to fit into 6 parts

Seventh Doctor - Start at the... end?

The Seventh Doctor, particularly when he's joined by Ace McShane at the end of s24, is arguably the most similar to modern DW. The first Classic Who episodes I ever watched were Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol after I was given them on DVD as a gift

Pros of starting here: we've got drama we've got a Doctor who's a little bit fucked up with his schemes we've got a teenager willing (for better or for worse) to jump into the fight, it's often familiar to a modern DW watcher and as good a place as any to start. Also has a incredibly high proportion of banger serials, something I realised later down this post when trying to pick a few to recommend

Cons of starting here: plot threads that never develop into what they promise, due to the show getting cancelled in series 25. You may also be left with the reasonable question of "okay so I've watched the end bit of DW, now what?"

Eighth Doctor - Why is my tumblr mutual abnormal about this man

Never got a TV series :(. He has like three televised appearances: a minisode made for the show's 50th anniversary, a cameo in an episode made for the BBC's 100th anniversary, and the TV movie Doctor Who (1996), which was an attempt at bringing the show back after it got cancelled in 1989

Pros of starting here: doesn't directly follow on from any previous stories and since you already know who these guys (the Doctor and the Master) are, you know all the relevant backstories (other than a few new pieces of lore they throw in just for this film, to really piss off a certain kind of diehard DW fan)

Cons of starting here: as much as I love it dearly, and regard it as a masterpiece of cinema, I do acknowledge it would be massively improved by, for example, a coherent plot. There's a reason it took until 2005 for the show to come back properly and it wasn't because everybody at the time loved this film

Addendum - Watching orders are overrated

The order I've been watching Classic Who in has gone 7 -> 5 -> 3, excluding the odd single serials I've watched from 1, 4, and 6. The world can be your oyster if you're willing to sometimes skim some character's wiki page to find out who they're supposed to be. Some ones I recommend(*) and ones I haven't seen but have been reliably recommended by friends(+) are:

First Doctor

The Romans (+)

The Gunfighters (+)

-> DW's first musical serial!

Second Doctor

The Tomb of the Cybermen (+)

Fury from the Deep (+)

The War Games (+)

Third Doctor

Spearhead from Space (*)

Inferno (*)

The Curse of Peladon (*)

-> Really this is because I am just so delighted by Alpha Centauri whenever it appears

The Green Death (*)

Fourth Doctor

The Ark in Space (+)

Horror of Fang Rock (+)

City of Death (*)

-> Co-written by Douglas Adams this one, and is one of those stories that's pretty much as good as everyone says it is

Fifth Doctor

Castrovalva (*)

-> Does follow directly on from the previous serial Logopolis, featuring companions introduced throughout s18, but at the time of writing I still haven't watched Logopolis so you're probably fine? Good serial for fans of fucked up architecture and blonde men in distress

Earthshock (*)

The Caves of Androzani (*)

Sixth Doctor

Vengeance on Varos (+)

Revelation of the Daleks (+)

Seventh Doctor

Remembrance of the Daleks (*)

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (*)

-> Occupies an interesting place in DW history as it is in pretty much direct response to fans at the time, to the extent they kill off a parody of an obsessive DW fan who may or may not be Chris Chibnall. Mostly I'm recommending it because it has really really good clown costuming

The Curse of Fenric (*)

Survival (*)

-> Lesbian furry serial

[hkartincolor]

Weekly Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary Illustration by Kohei Horikoshi

[emily-ispirata]

What if Gracie hadn't died?

Charlotte moves to the Gold Coast with her mother and grandmother. Charlotte enters the story the same way, eventually entering a relationship with Lewis and a contentious rivalry with Cleo, Emma, and Rikki.

Over time, she becomes suspicious that Lewis is hiding something from her. She goes to Cleo, certain that if there's anything to hide, Cleo would also know about it. She finds the three girls with the bag from Max Hamilton, including a photo of- her grandmother. Who she still lives with.

Even more paranoid now, Charlotte is certain Lewis has a secret, and that it has something to do with her grandmother. She eventually finds the film of Gracie with a mermaid tail, and she confronts her, demanding to know if it's the truth. Gracie breaks down and tells Charlotte everything, including how she lost touch with the love of her life, Max Hamilton.

Charlotte begins to ask herself why Emma, Cleo, and Rikki had all of this stuff, and manages to put two and two together. She blurts out to Lewis one day that she knows about mermaids, and while he doesn't give her an answer, the stricken, guilty look on his face tells her everything she needs to know.

Charlotte realizes the reason that the girls have been so closed off to her, and realizes also that she may have been a bit pushy with them and Lewis. She goes to find them and apologizes, saying that she knows why they've been cold to her, and she understands. After all, her grandmother was a mermaid, and she knows it can't have been easy.

She has just one question, though.

Where did they get the bag with the photos and the film roll?

Cleo, Emma, Rikki, and Charlotte put aside their differences and get Max and Gracie to reunite. Seeing her grandmother happy with the love of her life after 50 years of separation, Charlotte realizes that she and Lewis just don't have that kind of a bond, and they amicably break up. After a long talk with Gracie, Charlotte realizes that what she really wants is to become a mermaid and carry on her grandmother's legacy, and on the 50th anniversary of Gracie giving up her tail, she jumps into the moon pool with Gracie's blessing. Max and Gracie watch, holding hands, as four mermaids swim off into the sunset.

Max creates a new locket for Charlotte, and Gracie picks out the stone herself.

[jcs-study]

The "Gethsemane" paintings: what they are and who created them

It's widely regarded as one of the most artistically effective -- and emotionally affecting -- sequences in the 1973 film of Jesus Christ Superstar. Nearly every reviewer has cited it (one calling it nothing less than a "masterly cinematic stroke of genius"), Wikipedia devotes the caption of an illustration to it, and I've seen more than one production (and one 50th-anniversary music video featuring the film's star, Ted Neeley) imitate it. (In fairness, it's not like anyone has come up with a better idea.)

Every draft of the screenplay uses the same language to describe it, and since I couldn't phrase it nearly so well, I will, too:

258 to 280. CRUCIFIXION MONTAGE.

On the heavy brass instrumental bridge, we cut to a rapid montage of about 23 shock cuts of full figure and details from the most powerful masterpieces, painted and sculpted, on the theme of The Crucifixion. Cut for impact of expression, nailed hand, wounds, thorns; for these 26 seconds we see how Christ was to die - both then and ever since. This is the agony of the cross.

It certainly is... especially those uncomfortably fast zooms and abrupt close-ups.

Some call it "foreshadowing," but I don't think that's a strong enough word. Truthfully, I find this series of famous paintings more brutal than the actual crucifixion scene in the movie. Compared to the visions Christ might be having about his death, the execution itself is in, out, and done so quickly that it's hard for me to feel any kind of way about it. But this sequence is a horse of a different color.

Anyway, one of the most asked questions about this montage has been, "What paintings were featured in this sequence, and who painted them?" In all honesty, I never cared who did it. I assumed they came from the Italian and Northern Renaissance eras, possibly with some Baroque mixed in. But I was never an art history major, and knowing the sources and their creators wouldn't have enriched my experience. I know it nailed me in the gut when I was a kid and has (somewhat) freaked me out ever since, and I thought that was all I needed to know.

However, it mattered to other people, so I did some digging. It was kind of tough, partly because many of the shots zeroed in on specific details rather than revealing the entire painting. But with a little help from the film's production file (courtesy of the Norman Jewison collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives), and researchers Ethan Clark and José Garay, we've managed to identify 12 paintings by 10 artists in the final montage, as well as uncovering a few of them that didn't make the cut.

To learn about the paintings and take a closer look, hit the jump!

The Montage

Here, in order of appearance, are the paintings that made the cut, as well as the artists behind them, and how many times they show up:

Crucifixion of Christ (Derick Baegert) -- once

Isenheim Altarpiece (Matthias Grünewald) -- six times (thrice sequentially after Baegert, twice sequentially after the second Grünewald, and once after Bosch)

Crucifixion (Tintoretto) -- once (and incidentally, it's horizontally inverted)

The Crucifixion of Christ (Matthias Grünewald) -- twice (once after Tintoretto, once after the Austrian School)

Christ on the Cross (Diego Velázquez) -- once

Crucifixion (Masaccio) -- once

Crucifixion (Andrea del Castagno) -- once

The Trinity with Christ Crucified (Austrian School) -- once (the angel on the right-hand side, horizontally inverted)

Saint Luke Painting the Crucifixion (Francisco de Zurbarán) -- twice (once before Bosch, once before van der Weyden)

Christ Carrying the Cross (a follower of Hieronymus Bosch) -- twice (sequentially)

The Crucified Christ Between the Mourning Mary and St. John, a/k/a Crucifixion of Scheut or Escorial Crucifixion (Rogier van der Weyden) -- twice (sequentially)

Christ Crucified (Francisco Goya) -- thrice (sequentially)

Of the above list, ten of them were included in a memo dated June 8, 1973, concerning the contents of the montage that appears in the production file. (Grünewald's name appears only once, with no attribution, so it's unclear whether one or both paintings were initially intended for inclusion.)

The Leftovers

Only three classic paintings from the previously mentioned memo didn't make it into the film.

First on the list, which categorized the paintings alphabetically by artist's surname (or, in some cases, name), is "Antonello." This clearly refers to the crucifixion painted by Antonello da Messina, which incidentally was also source material for the production designs for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. The only unclear thing is which one; Wikipedia lists three, all fairly similar-looking.

Second is an actual Hieronymus Bosch painting, Ecce Homo. Considering the Bosch-reminiscent image used in the final cut, I can only assume Jewison was either eying the crowd or confusing this painting with the more well-known descendant.

Last is an artist we have yet to identify. The memo lists them as "Guinewala," but Googling produces no artist by that name, and there is no helpful title to allow us to reverse-engineer who that actually is. (My assumption is that it's a phonetic spelling or a weird typo.) A friend who spends a lot of time at MOMA and the Brooklyn Museum of Art is wracking their brain. When they have an answer, we will!

Well... I'm glad I cleared that up for everyone. I hope this offers the art experts among us some insight into the construction of the scene. Maybe this will tell them something that we average folk don't know? Time will tell.

[weirdraccoon]

Hey, hey! Your little fanfics are so cute, especially the MC and Fig ones. I love them! So, I wonder if you still take requests (of these two or more characters). I'm thinking of a situation where Mc, after being away for a long time fighting Rookswood's followers, returns to Hogwarts and maybe Fig's office and passes out from exhaustion. Or something similar. I would be grateful <33

idk why y'all liked the parent!figxmc so much but it helps practice at least lol I was gonna draw this but I'm having some sad days so writing it is:

Fig *sipping tea while grading some essays*

MC *stumbles into the office*: Hey, Professor!

Fig *frowns*: MC. It's like three in the morning. Were you out again?

MC *cleaning some blood off her cheek*: Nooo.

Fig *jumps up*: Is that blood!? Are you ok?

MC *nodding*: I'm fine~ It's fine. It's not my blood...

MC *faints and falls face first on the carpet*

Fig *purses his lips*

Fig *sitting back down and taking his cup of tea*: I hope you don't stain it, MC. Miriam gave it to me for our 50th anniversary.

Fig *flicks his wand to cover MC with a blanket*

[ckau-official]

CK-Prologue

//TWS: abuse, angst, kamabo co.//

I’d usually start my day off with getting dressed in work attire and sliding my Cardinal-based mask on, but today is different. Today is the 50th anniversary of the founding of our company and Empire, which means I have to dress up. 

How stressful…. 

Luckily, I woke up 5 minutes before my alarm goes off, so I have a little extra time to reflect on myself and prepare for the day. 

Walking over to my private bathroom, I swipe my towel off of the counter while heading in and looking at myself in the mirror. I look at myself directly in my wide, anxious eyes. ‘Why are you scared, Prince? This is a happy day, isn’t it? Snap out of it.’ I think to myself as I shake off the icky feeling, gently wash my face and dry it before heading out of the room. 

I sigh as I dress myself in fancy clothes, wondering why this was all so necessary at first, but then silencing my thoughts afterwards. I quickly finished getting ready for the day, walking to my door and carefully placing my hand on the knob. 

My eyes close as I start to overthink about everything that could go wrong today. My breaths quicken, and for a moment, I take my hand off the door knob. I open my eyes again and look back at my room to regain my composure, eventually nodding to myself as I turn back to the door.

I take a breath as my hand starts shaking on its way to the door, but I push through and turn the knob, opening the door with a smile on my face. 

Mask in hand, I take my time walking to the designated room. I take a second to notice how no one else is wandering the halls. ‘Maybe they’re already there?’ I ask myself, slowly approaching the large doors.

I feel my hands start to get clammy again as I reach for the handle. I sigh again and put on my mask, figuring that might help with the irrational anxiety I was feeling. I push open the door to see my cowor- teammates talking at a table. They all stopped talking and stared at me when the door closed, as if they didn’t notice me coming in at first. “BROTHER!” Emperor saw me and ran over to me, taking my mask off “What do you need this for? We’re not strangers, are we, Prince?” He lightly punched my arm, before putting his own around my shoulder “Besides, you don’t need that yet, the after party’s later.”  He winks and giggles at my stupidity. “Right.. My mistake.” I nervously say, looking around at the others. “What’s the plan for today? Anything special?” I already know the answer but I might as well feed his ego. The Inkling grinned ear to ear as he unwrapped from my shoulder and walked to a white board.

“Why, I am so glad you asked.” He pauses to clear his throat. “Sit down everyone! Let’s revise for today.” Me and the other two members sit down on the cosy chairs that are assigned to us.

 “As you all already know, today marks a very very special day for us as a family.” I try not to think about what’s coming next, hoping that my irregular breathing isn’t being picked up by the others. 

“Today marks the 50th anniversary of our family business, and empire, Kamabo Co.”

I must look zoned out because my brother nudges me slightly, pulling me out of my self-induced trance “Prince, pay attention. its status report day.” He glares at me, before signalling N-Pacer to go over to him. She starts to talk about the project she's working on, but my mind is on everything but what anyone is saying right now. 

‘50 years.’ My mind floods with thoughts that are far too dangerous for me to have, though despite that, not being able to move on. how terrifying. I realize that as I'm stuck swimming in my forbidden thoughts, Jr had already gone halfway through his report about weapons. ‘If they knew what I was thinking right now, would they jump me?’ I think, before mentally shaking the thought away ‘no. no, why would they? we're family.’ before I know it, Emperor is snapping his fingers in my face 

“HEY. Wake up, your time to sleep was over an hour ago.” 

‘has it really been that long?’ I think, forgetting to answer back. 

“PRINCE. Get up here” I quickly snap myself back to reality, standing up and going to the front as my brother sits down. I take a deep breath, swiftly thinking of the words I'm going to say. 

“This year we have employed a total of 100 Inklings, and have uhm.

 lost. half that amount to work related incident. I'm sure you three can agree, that kind of ratio is extremely dangerous for our wellbeing. I fear that if this continues, we will be investigated in some way. So, in order to sway this ratio to lower numbers, I have a proposal.” I stop to catch my breath, and Emperor responds in the time I take to pause

.

“Go on.” He says, crossing his arms in his chair and tapping his foot on the floor.

“I propose that when the new employees this quarter come in today, I have the permission and resources to train them more so we are not required to-” I'm cut off.

“Permission granted, status report dismissed.” Emperor says, before standing up and walking out the door. everyone is silent.‘Was I really that boring.?’ without a word, the other two followed. ‘I didn't even finish..’ I sighed and held my head in my hands, trying not to cry as I look around the room, mentally preparing to continue for the day. I take another breath as I push through the door, putting my mask back on while I head to the dining area for breakfast.

Next Masterpost

[thetriphibianmonster]

Godzilla Film Watch: Week 5

While I could have made this the last week of the watch, I decided to include the anime trilogy in the watch since they did have theatrical releases in Japan. Credit to Wikizilla for the poster images.

Day 29: Godzilla Final Suits (2004) In a twist of irony, the 50th anniversary film is the first Toho entry to cast aside all continuity with the original film, abandoning the partial reboot system that had defined the series since the 80s. Final Wars brings back many old faces, but they are all stripped of their original context, forming a setting as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle. The film itself follows suit: Godzilla's quick destruction of his American doppelgänger would have landed better if he didn't mow through the rest of the kaiju cast nearly as quickly (poor Hedorah). The inflated roster must jockey for precious screen time, both with each other and with the excessive human scale fight scenes. Ryuhei Kitamura is a talented director, but I think Kamen Rider would suit him better than Godzilla: here his heavily stylized sensibilities feel out of step with the rest of the series. The more anthropomorphized monster designs such as Gigan and Monster X feel off at 120m, and the extensive wire fu does little to sell their weight. The truncated kaiju fights also feel at odds with the prior films: I think Godzilla works much better as an underdog than an unstoppable juggernaut when facing his peers. The mutant storyline is also a strange place to take the series for its golden jubilee. It starts out somewhat promising, expanding on the Kiryu Saga's themes with the mutant's role as living weapons paired with the EDFs fascist imagery. I think the intrigue following the Xiliens' arrival is the strongest portion of the film, with the subversion of the United Nations institutions and those same fascistic elements. Unfortunately these ideas fizzle out after the Xiliens go mask off, and Ozaki's eventual brainwashing is dispelled by an external tool rather than his internal desire to be more than a weapon. Instead he resolves to not be cattle, replacing the more interesting themes with a generic "indomitable human spirit" message.

Day 30: Godzooky (2014) A decade on, and still nothing quite conveys the sheer scale of daikaiju like Gareth Edwards did. The camera is always set at a human vantage point, with vast spatial depth. CGI is used to give monsters an inertia they could never achieve as people in suits. Godzilla and the MUTOs wade through human structures like they were sand castles and send naval vessels careening in their wake. Some of the later entries approach this sense of scale, even match it occasionally, but none outright exceed it. Beyond the Kaiju, Edwards has a painterly eye for dramatic shot compositions: the HALO jump into San Fransisco is still as fantastic as it was ten years ago. Unfortunately movies are more than just their cinematography. The strongest character is killed off at the end of the first act, and Ford Brody is an unengaging replacement for his father, his only major decision being to destroy the nest. Humanity in general lacks agency in the narrative, including abdication of responsibility for the monsters' existence. Natural disasters can't be controlled, but humans still have a material role in their severity and even initiation, though mitigation measures and anthropomorphic climate change. This film downplays such environmentalist themes, possibly one of the many changes made at the request of military liaison. The US Army now seems to prefer being framed as competent, even if it costs them their monopoly of force, and their positive portrayal robs the film of more biting critique. Still, this film brings a level of subtlety and earnestness to the material that I feel has been sorely missed in the last few Monsterverse films.

Day 31: Shin Godzilla (2016) This is still such a biting satire. I was once more in favor of bureaucracy, but if the last 8 years have taught me anything, it's that the institutions of power have little interest in doing anything constructive. Anno's cinema vérité camera work and painstaking focus on government logistics fully brings us into this world of bureaucracy while maintaining a dry wit about the absurdism of it all. Godzilla himself is wonderfully unique here, approaching realism from an engineering direction instead of the naturalism of the prior film. Like Edwards before them, Anno and Higuchi excel at using CGI to give weight to the King of the Monsters. Godzilla barely notices his surroundings, but causes mass destruction just by moving forwards, sending massive debris flying with a simple step forwards or an errant flick of the tail. I really like how he evolves towards a more familiar shape as the cast become used to him, before starting to diverge again with the introduction of a terrifying new take on his atomic breath. The pacing starts to drag a bit in the downtime after this pivotal scene—the political satire mostly gives way to the still ambiguous mystery of Goro Maki—but these flaws are paltry in the face of one of the best movies in the whole franchise. The themes are compelling, Sagisu's score is sublime, and the cinematography is masterful. There are so many hauntingly beautiful shots over the course of the film, ending with one that will leave you pondering the film for a long time afterward.

Day 32: Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017) When I first saw this I was pretty whelmed, and that hasn't changed much since. I enjoy the novel take on the series and the world building early on. I especially liked the scene where the Exif and Bilusaludo reflect on their initial plans of conquest, and how they were made irrelevant by the sheer power of Godzilla. Unfortunately this seijin face turn gets rolled back in the following films. Likewise, this film's end twist renders much of the prior plot irrelevant, which doesn't help engagement on a rewatch. Haruo's also not a particularly interesting lead: I've seen people claim he's a discount Eren Jaeger, but his vendetta against Godzilla feels like less of a drive for him than the trilogy implies. His interest in defeating Godzilla seems more in service of retaking Earth than a pathologic obsession in the vein of Ahab.

Day 33: Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018). The start of this one is a real slog. The Houta are an interesting twist on the Infant Islanders, but the character dynamics among the human cast are pretty weak. Yuko in particular is gets the short end of the stick, with her childish jealousy over Haruo talking to other women, her unwarranted kiss on her stepbrother, and the gratuitous tentacle attack. I do think the movie manages to pull itself together towards the end. The Bilusaludo get some nice development, building off the control obsession established in Terror of Mechagodzilla and adding a fixation on rationalism over morality. Combine this with the properties of the nanometal and we get one of the better Cyberman stories of the modern era. I like how the Bilusaludo don't betray the United Earth so much as their philosophy ends up incompatible with the other members. This culminates in a pretty intense moral dilemma that manages to wring some pathos out of Haruo for once.

Day 34: Godzilla: Planet Eater (2018) The flawed finale to an equally uneven trilogy. Despite Metphies' prominence, the Exif end up a lot more generically villainous than the Bilusaludo: we only see two members, and both are all in on the death cult. I think their human following needed more setup in the prior films, and despite Metphies' claims Haruo ends up pretty accessory in their plot. Ghidorah is a creatively bizarre take on the three headed monster, but past his wonderfully chilling introduction the movie relies too much on telling rather than showing how unnatural he is. The trilogy's sole kaiju battle is also pretty weak: Ghidorah is untouchable for most of the "fight", and puts up little resistance once his invulnerability is gone. The themes are an equally mixed bag. Urobuchi opts for a radical anarchoprimitivist take on the series usual environmentalist themes, positing that the industrial revolution and its consequences will inevitably lead to ruin. I don't think this message fits well with Godzilla Earth's characterization though. Rather than a byproduct of humanity's environmental depredations, Godzilla is personified as a vindictive avenger in the vein of Battra. He deliberately seeks to exterminate mankind as punishment for the hubris of civilization, but given the way he ends up shaping the environment in his own image he comes across as a self-righteous hypocrite. Giving agency to Godzilla's violence makes him unsympathetic, and Haruo's sacrifice to dispel humanity's hatred feels like it's blaming the victim for fighting back against their abuser. It also ends up fulfilling Metphies' desire: by vindicating the Exif's nihilistic beliefs about the arc of all civilization, Haruo essentially submits to Ghidorah after all.

Day 35: Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) A glorious serving of fan indulgence, but one with a bit more substance than Final Wars. While I have problems with the Ghidorah and Mothra designs, they more than make up for it with personality. Mothra's scrappy underdog status is endearing, as is her connection to Godzilla, and it shocks me how long it took to give Ghidorah's heads individual personalities. Meanwhile Godzilla carries on his battered old soldier persona from the prior film, while Rodan is a delightfully scrungly little bastard. While I wish Desplat's bespoke themes from 2014 could have carried through the series, Bear McCreary's sweeping renditions of Ifukube's classic leitmotifs more than make up for it. Mothra emerging from the waterfall to a triumphant orchestra playing Her Song was among my most sublime experiences in theaters. Dougherty also makes an admirable attempt at continuing Edwards' sense of scale, though rarely with as much success. His impressionistic use of color is a marked contrast with Edwards' naturalism, but both have an eye for iconic visuals. The human cast are an improvement on the Brodys, but are hamstrung by clunky exposition: everyone has to directly state their current emotions and motivation. Unfortunately the film is also poisoned by the irreverent humor that infests modern Hollywood: occasionally it lands but more often it undercuts the genuine love that went into this production. Dougherty at least manages to push through stronger criticism of the US military's belligerence, even if the lower ranks remain somewhat lionized (never have I seen a more complimentary depiction of the V-22 Osprey). He also wrangles the environmentalist themes into something compelling, rejecting both the passivity of 2014 and the nihilism of the Anime Trilogy. Here humans have a clear role in the changing planet, but have the ability to improve by working with its other inhabitants instead of against them. While this film could have easily fallen into the other Hollywood fixation on "going too far", the end of the film instead presents a clear and positive change in the status quo.