#kao's ramblings

[kaoarika]

I basically said "I dunno what to do about going downspiral of an old fandom", but I got curious and found this pic from one of the Sukedan anime DVD volumes for rental stores and I'm, like...

I never reached this part of the anime (this is around ep 60-smth?), but it's the infamous School Trip Rhapsody arc adaptation of the also infamous arc from the series. From my understanding (digging around old blogs, actually), the arc was butched (and VERY compressed) in the anime because of (also understandable) quite risky? and quite awkward scenes that makes me scratch my head of "were these steamy/fanservice scenes all really necessary? to be there in the manga itself? I understand the AWKWARDNESS of the whole situation, but... let's be real...???"

(yeah, this coming from the same WSJ magazine that published ecchi series like Video Girl Ai or I's from Katsura in the 90s or, To-Love-Ru in the 2000s... and the controversial? Ayakashi Triangle in 2020... heck, City Hunter by Hojo in the late 80s; I know Sukedan was never free of fanservice, but I mean, wow, this arc...)

So, I went to reread the whole arc and... okay, yeah. The Sket Dan trio totally are there, Yabasawa makes her appearance as well in some moments of the arc itself, even... but who is this girl? She is not Saaya and definitely isn't any of the other (quirky) girls from their class(es). So... who is this or what happened here? I don't think there is any other (random) girl from their class that fits a similar appearance... unless...

Was this girl supposed to be Yuuki Reiko?

(EDIT: turns out to be a friend of Yabasawa that I barely remember about :P -side, side characters I don't even remember for one reason or another- and in fact, I feel like this supports my possibility number one, as it's possible she is also one of the girls in the manga picture I mention below. Anyway, if you still want to read my overthinking post, go ahead, lol, even if it's been debunked? as the mystery is solved, lol. However, the conclusion I DO reach is: GOD, do I even miss this kind of home media releases? Two different covers for a single volume that contains 2 or 3 eps for a long series like this??? No, no, I don't.)

Please, don't go away, lol. Let me explain:

This is how Shinohara drew Reiko in one of the manga color chapters ALL the way back in 2012 (ch 200, I believe)?

And this is the random girl from the rental DVD cover:

They seem to share a hairstyle and a somewhat similar hair color that Reiko used in the anime (and I daresay, even similar color tones of clothes, from what I remember Reiko seemed to wear, which were kind of plain tones?). So, I'm wondering myself that something happened here. Three things, actually:

1) There's a part of this arc in the manga where "Himeko" is asked to take a pic with the girls from her class' group dormitory in the school trip, and I mean, the manga cover for this specific chapter (ch 138) with that photo is mostly composed of random girls from Himeko's class (plus Yabasawa).

(the quality doesn't make it justice, but that's quite early 2010s scanlations for you)

So I would understand if it's a random girl... (Yabasawa is there, too) however I feel it's just too out of place for a (rental) DVD cover to have a smth similar concept like this for a cover? I know the anime staff or the one(s) that made the llustrations were asked LOTS OF TIMES to remake some manga covers in the anime style (especially for both of the renta and retail DVD covers) , buuuut... Switch and Bossun are out of the equation in this manga picture (and yet they are in the cover). Am I that too pedantic? It's just... weird to me, I guess. I would have chosen Saaya (especially Saaya for what this arc ALSO entails for her, but she already had too many forced appearances in the anime at this point, so what gives) or Captain or any other of the quirky girls they are all friends with, you know? Not just a random one? Or heck, another concept for a cover that covers a similar idea of a picture of the trio with other ppl from their class (not just Yabasawa and a random girl whom I don't know who she is???)

2) Something got mixed in the artist's request from the anime staff in charge for home media releases and they used the settei model for Reiko as a reference and/or turns out they were asked to add a random girl instead because Reiko was not what they were asked for initially. I wouldn't blame them (the artist), tbh. Especially knowing how, *sigh* imagine doing over 90 different illustrations for the DVD releases in total (rental, retail with 'limited edition composing of TWO extra images for the box and the extra content). I mean. I MEAN. (And I'm pretty sure this was handled to different illustrators and not just ONE of them, but... ugh... you know? it's not exactly a walk in the park)

3) Maybe the anime staff did ask for Reiko to be on that cover, but they backtracked before the illustration was finished. She appears in that arc, afterall (although her interactions in the arc aren't TOO meaningful besides a few lines but, hey, it also explains why Yabasawa is in this illustration) but, the little I do remember seeing of screencaps at the time leaves too much to be desired about her appearance.

A personal conspirative hypothesis? that I still have all these years is that the anime staff, at a point after Reiko's "make over" ep, wanted to make her "scarier" and "uglier" than her manga counterpart, whom already was looking scary and ghostly-like, because biases, I freaking guess... and she specifically standing up to Switch's side (w/o bickering or not getting along) was... maybe ship teasing/inducing? (when it was clearly obvious whom THEY shipped him with... HUH, who said that?) Part of me wants to pick up the crumbs and be a little delulu, because I mean, the possibilities of this random girl originally being Reiko is just... too good to be true, I suppose. But this whole thought somewhat.. fits too much to be a coincidence, I guess? The appearance between them is similar (she is around that height if she isn't hunching, as well) and I imagine this would be how she would look like (or dress, even) if she wasn't drawn all ghostly or "plain" like. The girl in this "photograph" like cover being a random girl that wasn't heavily featured in the (manga) arc itself seems a little suspicious to me?

The thing, again, is that I don't have any further context from the anime adaptation of this arc and trying to look back into it is hard these days because this is an early 2010s anime and many ppl that were fans have moved on (blogs are abandoned, some are still available to look at) while newer watchers/readers are becoming lesser because they prefer to watch newer or more popular "content" (also, something about availability, I don't know if CR STILL has it... and definitely I will not be paying for Anime Onegai just for satiate my curiosity since I think? they got the (re)license of this anime for Latam in the past few years; I could try to find this specific anime arc and watch it myself through less legit ways, but I admit I am a bit lazy and new laptop stuff is...).

Why writing this now? Well... tbh, I know no one will care about this specific observation, and it is just me making it because I do find it curious and perhaps I'm just delusional about things. I just wanted to let it out there, because I do find it interesting and I find it a shame that there weren't more observational posts about the home media releases of this anime, especially because I find it interesting that the ED album cover that homages one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums' cover is not the only homage the anime staff did to real stuff out there (tbf, this still being released in the "2-3 eps per single volume" home media release era, and costing over 5000 yen each and the JPN copyright stuff about not reproducing certain things unless crappy pics from early 2010s phones... social media accounts disappearing from the face of earth for a variety of reasons, etc...).

(also, I do find the retail DVD limited edition front covers kind of ugly, like, not all, but... lmao; some look a little sexualized for my liking and the ones from the second season that are head profiles from a certain angle are TRYING to get the whole concept for them, but MAN... do they TRY)

[mr-and-mr-mitchell]

Shows that got cancelled despite being good, popular, and having tonnes of potential to go on to become classics:

Kaos - 1 season - Netflix - Ends with set up for a following season

Shadow and Bone - 2 seasons - Netflix - Season 3 was already mostly written when cancelled

My Lady Jane - 1 season - Amazon Prime - Story not resolved, set up for a second season (in fact the show shows you what's supposed to happen in the second season)

Half-Bad: The Bastard Child and the Devil Himself - 1 Season - Netflix - Main story wrapped up but easily open enough for a second series exploring the world

Star Wars: The Acolyte - 1 season - Disney Plus - First series feels mostly like set up for a second series we'll now never get

Dead Boy Detectives - 1 season - Netflix - Set up for a second series with a minor cliff hanger and an open continuation for the characters

Lockwood and Co - 1 season - Netflix - Potential for a second season

I Am Not Okay With This - 1 season - Netflix - Story not properly resolved, needed a second season

National Treasure: Edge of History - 1 season - Disney Plus - Story concluded, but lots of potential for a second season

Gentleman Jack - 2 Seasons - HBO Max/BBC - So much more potential, it had so much real life basis it could have followed

Our Flag Means Death - 2 Seasons - HBO Max - I actually liked the ending we got, but I feel like the show had more potential, particularly with the crew

First Kill - 1 season - Netflix - (Not one I watched, it was on my tbw but it got cancelled and I didn't see the point)

Grease: Rise of The Pink Ladies - 1 season - Disney Plus - So much more potential And Insult to injury they've all but wiped it from the platform

A running theme for these shows are that they have a pretty high amount of LGBT rep, with a lot of these shows centering on queer characters and stories, as well as representation for POC. There are also a lot of fantasy/supernatural shows.

I just find it fascinating that there seems to be a lot of similarities between most of these shows.

[kaos-incarnate]

I’ve noticed that there seems to be an unfortunately small amount of people talking about my badass queen Ariadne. Please tell me I’m not the only one who cannot wait to see her tell Poseidon to go fuck himself every time he tries to tell her how to run Krete

FUCK THE GODS!

✨except of course for her godly boytoy Dionysus✨

[margo-mania]

Who wants to help me hunt Netflix execs for sport

[windsweptinred]

I need to find me some more mutuals ready to jump headfirst into the neon ball pool that is Kaos. Cause this show is living rent free in my mind 24/7 and I have SO MANY THOUGHTS.

[sarafangirlart]

Did Kaos even explain why the three humans “destined to destroy Zeus/the Gods” are specifically Eurydice, Caeneus and Ariadne? Because if they really wanted a “we hate the gods” story shouldn’t the chosen three be. severely wronged or abandoned by the gods / the fates?

Like Oedipus? Lamia? Cassandra? Daphne? Arachne? Callisto? Hell I’d even watch a smackdown of Clytemnestra vs Artemis or Menelaus and Helen vs Aphrodite any time then watch a whole other boring show following the same bad story tropes.

They don’t really explain it no, but I was so eager for it to be over I likely missed it, this show seems surprising hesitant to show the more gruesome side of mythology, if they adapted the story that Caeneus was raped by Poseidon and they show how angry and miserable he is about it I would’ve totally been on board, tho someone mentioned that considering the current social environment is especially hostile towards trans ppl nowadays, having someone transition after assault could be bad “pr” so to speak, tho I don’t think we should bend a knee to transphobes/terfs and make representation that’s more palatable and presentable, human experience is messy and we shouldn’t shy away from that in an attempt to make bigots less hostile towards minorities bc they will always be hostile.

If they show Eurydice being angry about Aristaeus not facing any consequences for trying to assault her I’d understand that too mythology Eurydice has zero beef with Hera, but she could feel resentment towards Aristaeus and by extension Apollo (since he’d likely defend his son), gods rarely face consequences for assaulting mortals, Euripides’s Ion tackles that subject way better than all of these “Gods bad” modern retelling (tho I wish Creusa didn’t forgive Apollo bc that mf didn’t even have the balls to show his face).

Instead of Ariadne, who usually gets a happy ending and becomes a goddess herself, how about going with Apemosyne? Another Cretan princess. Her story is extremely depressing, she’s screwed over by a god and her own family, considering that half the show takes place in the underworld she’d fit right in. Considering she’ll be “coworkers” with Hermes it would especially suck for her. But considering that Dionysus is made to be one of the “good ones” even tho in mythology he brainwashed women into slaughtering their families, they’d probably portray Hermes as such too, since he’s usually simply the comic relief in adaptations anyway.

That’s another thing, they water down the gods who are supposed to be good guys and make the “bad guy” worse, in this version Hades never kidnapped Persephone that’s just propaganda in universe. The Fates and Furies are goddesses but in this show they’re against the gods bc of that meander water thing? Don’t they drink it too?

I think they realized that their hesitancy means that they won’t be showing us bad things the gods actually did and so they make up random bullshit like Hera owning tongueless priestesses and Zeus killing a kitten. Cassandra is in the show but she’s more of an exposition machine tho it’s hinted she’ll play a bigger role in season 2, but why couldn’t she be one of the three humans destined to destroy Zeus? Why aren’t any of the Trojans destined to destroy Zeus? Why do they have to be saved by Greeks? Sure Zeus in mythology had a soft spot for them but he still planned the destruction of their city (could be a decent metaphor for an abuser who says that they love their victim while still abusing them imo) but Kaos Zeus doesn’t have that goodwill towards the Trojans so why not have them rightfully take him down? In the final episode Andromache and Ariadne team up and agree to fight against Olympus, tho that reminds me of Acrisius in the Clash of the Titans remake being more of a dumb dumb than he is in the myths and started a war against Mount Olympus only to unsurprisingly fail.

I really dislike how the Trojans are portrayed in the show, clearly they are supposed to be allegory for modern middle eastern refugees in Europe yet all the main Trojan characters are played by white actors. They have such a racially diverse cast but they seem uninterested in actually representing the diversity of the Mediterranean and mythology as a whole.

[stuffnonsenseandotherthings]

Things Wandee Goodday could have focussed on instead of whatever on earth it's doing:

An exploration on complex familial relationships, especially the trauma and effects of parental abandonment (no I don't accept the one episode speed run as sufficient exploration). Couple this with themes of chosen/non-traditional family units and you have a winner.

An ACTUAL look at how a friends with benefits situation transforms into a romantic relationship and how people might navigate that transition (do you just go for it? Do you create a space to work out what's going to change? How do you know when you're ready?).

Confronting changes in long term goals. Both Yak and Dee entered into their fwb in order to achieve a specific goal (Dee: scholarship, Yak: relationship), it would be way more interesting seeing them work out what to do once they achieve those goals but realising that it's not actually the thing they want any more (or in Dee's case, not the only thing he wants any more).

Dating as an asexual. Kao touched on it briefly but THERE IS SO MUCH TO EXPLORE: the difficulty of finding a partner who can understand your relationship with sex and intimacy, actually understanding your own relationship with sex and intimacy and how you want to navigate things, what an asexual relationship can actually look like and how they can work even while falling outside of the "traditional" relationship mold, LITERALLY EVERYTHING. Instead we get Ter and his redemption arc.

There's definitely a lot more than that but that's all I can think of for now. For the first 3-4 episodes these are all what I thought we were going to get which makes it all the more disappointing because the potential was there, I didn't pull these ideas from thin air they were literally there for the taking.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

Not Netflix giving me a ‘top picks for DK’ list and the first two being Lockwood & Co and Kaos

Fuck you, Netflix xx

[icantpickausernamesorry]

netflix is incredibly annoying.

(in this I will talk mostly about dead boy detectives since it's the one I have watched, but I acknowledge Kaos, Lockwood and co. and all the others. tag more in the reblogs!!)

like a lot of people, I clicked on dbd and like a FUCK TON of people, I adored it. and like AN ASS TON of people, I started crying when I realised it got cancelled.

now, there are a few things about this show that ticked me off when I looked into it. one, it's a show about dead guys and it was not released in October. Two, it is very inherently queer and was not released during pride month. the problem- it was released when the audience wasn't introduced to it in a proper way.

next, it was in the Top 10 list for a while, but then fell off. I think (!!) that the reason is because honestly, sometimes I get so mad that my favorite show is cancelled that I'd give up on everything too. also, there are people saying that netflix did not market this show well. I cant find anything about that since I don't have any other social media app, but if you have data pls post it here.

next, the main problem. SHIT DOES NOT GET FAMOUS WITH ONE SEASON!!

take schitts creak. from this article (which was also an inspiration for this post) I saw that it did not get much traction until the third season. THIRD. SEASON.

I think it's basic common fucking sense, but let's explain it to @netflix

imagine you get a taste of an amazing ice cream. it's beautiful. it hits all your taste buds in the best way. you gobble it up. then you find out that the ice cream is discontinued. the company that made it is fighting tk make more, but the head honchos at marketing don't care. they said that it didn't have a bit enough audience, not enough people ate it. After some research, you realise that the ice cream was released for a week. in an ice cream truck that was notorious to partner with the head honchos and routinely did this.

don't you think that that is a little FUCKING DUMB!?

the crew and cast and everything about dbd is beautiful. captivating. the season ended on SUCH a cliffhanger, leaving the audience wanting more, like ice cream. but that joy hoes un-heeded.

I genuinely don't know how to tell people that maybe, perhaps, things take time to work. relationships. a project.

A MOTHERFUCKING SHOW.

in short, I hate @netflix . they are hungry capitalist pigs who do not realise how much shows mean.

bring back binge-worthy television that does not get cancelled when the head honchos want it to.

@netflix @netflix @netflix @netflix @netflix

(p.s- check out the linked article! it's very informative and very well written!)

[masked-loser]

I actually adore the way they change Greek mythos in Kaos. They change it so orpheus cannot look at eurydice after instead of on the journey out.

Also love the black and whiteness of the underworld. Really ads to the whole being dead thimg.

[kaoarika]

I kinda wish ppl talked more about Nanashi no Game and its sequel, lol. I recently watched a video kiiiinda thinking it might be an essay or explanation of sorts, but it was a full playthrough (yet edited around) of both games, that I kinda needed in my system again.

It's such a silly game (I say "silly", but not really) that pays homage to the "you have X days left to live" j-horror genre and for some reason? to Square-Enix itself (the publishers of the game), from the "Final Fantasy could have been our last game" myth to "this song sounds TOO much like the overmap's song for Dragon Quest III" mixing the story of a game that pretty much describes how infuriating is the game development cycle for developers between what the creatives want vs the business men want and how it affects their family life... except, you know, they don't haunt the game in question and kill people as a result (maybe they should haunt the CEOs, as a treat :) for all those crunches).

I also say silly because "Me" is weird in some aspects. The story is okay, in a cheesy/horror j-drama story way (Akane's motivations as a ghost and the whole thing was because a trio of friends were breaking up due to this marvelous thing known as "adolescence"), but some stuff is pretty "eh" if you try to put logic into it as a sequel of the original game (I mean, sure, I guess, the "game" becomes an eldritch entity of hate, because Japanese mythology about spirits and feelings put in objects), but "suuuure" about some elements from the past game (I mean, how Akane was even comatose in a hospital that was abandoned for YEARS in a VERY sterile secret room? does that make sense? was it her spirit? is it an illusion? what is it?)... but still?

In the video I watched comments about the ending (the true bad ending of the game) and I'm like "...yeah... this is how asian horror/drama tends to end, regardless of a potential sequel hook or what", lol. I know there was a third game, but there's barely info or playthrough of it, because it was for iOS, 15 or so years ago, and apparently it was rescued before it was delisted, but who knows if there's a way to record it or emulate it yet. (there's also the DSiWare platform spinoffs from Me, but as maaaaany things from the DSiWare shop are non-existent at this point :/... also, why these were platforms segment and how much sense do they make in the whole game universe mythos bites me... but I mean, Kaizo-like difficulty levels from games HAD been a thing from a long time, and there have been several platforms with a range of precision and difficulty in the same vein as this before).

[ramon-tikaram-love]

still gloomy after learning that Kaos was cancelled. ALREADY. unbelievable. Netflix is just digging its own grave. i hope it goes under soon, and a new, smart, platform rises to take its place. and then that platform continues Kaos.

i was really looking forward to seeing Charon and Prometheus reunite; Charon being angry but ultimately forgiving him and then them being gay together again. Prometheus finding a way to bring Charon back to the living world. and seeing cute kitten Dennis again, possibly also brought back, and Dionysus and what he's planning, Persephone being cool and nice, Zeus getting what he deserves.

sigh. finally a show where Ramon was getting recognition. at least, there is still hope that he will feature in another show. and be gay.

[insomnia-and-caffeine]

wtf kaos was cancelled too???? netflix really is just on a killing spree, hey…

[kaos-incarnate]

[margo-mania]

400 follower celebration art

i think its been little over a year since i started actually posting on tumblr and i cant believe i've hit 400 followers its kind of insane. i decided in celebration i would draw 1 blorbo (my favourite) from all my little phases? at least the decently big ish ones (and kaos bc i love that show)

[autumnsoldier13]

Literally wtf is wrong with Netflix how in actual hell do you cancel KAOS? WHAT THE FUCK THAT SHOW WAS SO GOOD AND PERFECTLY MESSY. AND THE CLIFFHANGER??? JESUS.