#like english dubbed has so many big names but like i love watching movies in the og language bc i love subtitles so…

[lu-zijing]

I am reading the BSD Manga right now—

(Am trying so hard to catch up so I can see why people have said certain things..... Like that it's no point trying to describe the plot to someone at this point.....

((Lookingforwardtothenewchapers--

Do You remember the whole talk about:

"HOW THE HECK does Fitzgerald understand Japanese??"

Still in love with this thing- Have been seeing it around on Pinterest: BIG credit to whoever made this:

He likely learned Japanese, I mean come on, he's rich, AND in the business work, of course, he could or would learn it. If not for anything else, then likely for the Work.

I feel like Royalty and Rich people tend to learn many languages, compared to "commoners" -of various reasons-, I mean at least in movies, I don't know how the real world works—

That's what I'm thinking now, but not gonna lie in the start I was like: YEAH HOW THE HECK DOES HE!!????

But Anyyyhoww, I was reminded of it again as I was reading the manga and came to this panel:

Even though Fitzgerald DOES speak Japanese, he has difficulty remembering some of the names -at least, parts or sounds of the name.

This is something shown more or less as a joke at least two times in the series of what I know of, possibly more.

Here in the panel, I showed just now, which is from Chapter 64 of the manga - Atsushi directly SAYS (or well, "thinks") that Fitzgerald's bad at remembering JAPANESE names. Not just names. Specifically JAPANESE NAMES.

And it was the same that one time in the anime when he couldn't remember Akutagawa's name.

Chapter 34 in the Manga:

THAT WAS LEGIT ME IN THE START—!

As a person from the West who does not speak any Asian language- ((YET—) I can relate to this.

(( I Swear I relate SO MUCH with the fact that he couldn't say Akutagawa's name right, -and just ended up with:

"Yes. That."

I relate to it with more names than just Akutagawa🥲

Heck I even first learned how to write it here recently- Thank all I am not the only one and it's actually a thing-

So you see, I have especially had difficulty remembering Japanese names. Something I noticed after beginning to watch much more anime.

In the start, I always switch the names up, don't hear, or more exactly: don't remember the little differences between names such as for example Tetchō and Teruko.

Until I hear them a couple of times, see them written, hear them clearly, etc.

-When I see it written like this I find it obvious, but not when I hear it for the first couple of times -

I assume it's because the sounds are so foreign to -in this case- English-speaking users, and therefore we easily mix the small differences up.

But it wouldn't sursprise me if some might be better at it than others, for various reasons of course -for example watching a lot of Japanese media, and hearing the language a lot - like watching Anime, but not the dub ofc- but well, generally speaking I think there must be more people who has it like this.

I mean even IN the show-! That's kinda relieving—

Like, I have an easier time remembering Chinese names than Japanese. Are Chinese names simpler? Is it because I have watched AND read a lot more Chinese material? Maybe because I'm learning Chinese? Or am I just better at remembering Chinese names??

Sorry me rambling there *ahem* back on track-

POINT BEING:

This definitely shows that even though Francis definitely SPEAKS the language he's still a Native English speaker, having apparently not been in Japan long enough -or whatever reason- to stop mixing the sounds in names up as we sometimes do.

Or perhaps he just isn't bothered enough to try, I could imagine he could be like that-

A little Fun Fact which I found cool, since I relate to it!

Can't believe Francis is the first character I "officially/publicly" announced I could relate something with.

I mean it's not like I am the only one who can relate with this, it's not that rare to speak English but still, that it was the first thing- It's not that I don't like it, I had just not expected it.

Some people out there must relate to it as well? Guys??

Please don't tell me it's just me -and apparently Francis- who has it like this-

Although, having an In-character-from-the-show on your side isn't bad. Especially when he's one of my favorite side-characters- ~

But anyhow! No matter what, Thanks for reading~! ✨  Hope you found it interesting-！

[mask131]

Other Odysseys: 1954's Ulysses

When it comes to a cinematic adaptation of The Odyssey there is only one movie to know, THE movie, I am speaking of course about the 1954 Ulisse (or Ulysses in English).

In the middle of the 20th century, Italian cinema absolutely dominated the world when it came to peplums, adaptations of Roman history, or of Greek mythology. It is from this era that came so many famous, cult, classic or influential movie that later ended up creating this same craze in the USA (for example, the huge wave of Hercules movies that later led to the series of American Hercules movies - I made a post about it a loonngg time ago I never followed upon). And this specific movie still remains to this day a big name in the list of Odyssey adaptations.

Directed by Mario Camerini (with Mario Bava also being involved!), this movie had quite an international fame due to not being exclusively Italian. Most notably, it has quite an amount of Americans involved, Kirk Douglas even playing Ulysses! (or Odysseus if you prefer the Greek name) You also have Anthony Quinn as Antinous. France also had its share in the movie, with actors like Daniel Ivernel or Jacques Dumesnil playing men part of Ulysses's crew.

What to say that hasn't been said before? If you enjoy the Odyssey you must watch this movie. I prefer the French dub over the English one because it clarifies some details that are more vague and left to interpretation in the English dub, but that's just me. The costumes of the movie were designed by a French haute couture house: they were the works of Madame Grès. Some scenes were originally planned on Ithaca itself, but an earthquake prevented the shooting. And some of the weapons and armors were historical pieces, lended by museums from Greece and Italy.

If you are interested by how this movie handled the Odyssey, I'll let you discover this by youself (given it is a movie from the 50s it is easy accessible around, even on Youtube you've got several free versions in various languages), but I will tell you that the movie had to condense the Odyssey as much as it could, due to the limits of being a single movie AND a 50s production, while still producing a story that felt satisfactory and complete. I believe it did, though I might be biased because this was literaly the first time I saw the Odyssey on screen after reading about it, and it was one of my childhood movies.

The most striking part of this piece being the synthesis of Ulysses' many trials into three specific steps, with the Nausicaa segment being the first third of the movie: it is a slow opening mimicking how the Odyssey itself begins, but with the additional detail that if Odysseus stays so long by Nausicaa's island, it is because he lost his memory. The sea adventures are actually Odysseus' narration as he finally starts to remember who he was - and this leads to the three iconic segments that marked the "Greek mythology cinema" of the time.

The Polyphemus segment, which was THE marking depiction of a cyclop on the silver screen ; the Siren segment, which explored this movie's tactic of purposefully not showing the most supernatural or gruesome elements of the tale, by the old theater trick (this movie has a strong theater vibe to it in terms or choices and staging) ; and finally the Circe segment. A segment where Circe is also Calypso and Charybdis all at once, and that chose to depict this mysterious enchantress as supernatural double of Penelope (both played by Silvana Mangano), forever clad in a green aura and acting in an eerily ambiguous and unnatural way which leaves you wondering if she is truly a divine witch loving in an unhealthy way Odysseus, or a malevolent agent of the god simply fooling him all along...

All in all, this is THE classic of the Odyssey adaptations that needs no introduction.

[kohakhearts]

hey that pokemon 2000 gifset + your jn dub analysis made me think about the pokemon 2000 dub - I've only seen it subbed once (compared to the hundred times I watched it dubbed as a child) so I could be misremembering, but didn't the dub completely change the themes of the movie with the chosen one ash thing?

i actually haven’t watched the sub nearly as many as times as the dub either :p but i have read extensively about this topic bc it’s personally my favourite pokemon movie and yes! the first and second pokemon movies are both victim to this (like mewtwo’s epic speech we all love so much at the end of the first movie…being a complete fabrication by the dub team :p you gotta give those writers credit - they were VERY good at what they did), largely i’m guessing due to cultural values and expectations. since they were trying to sell the anime to an american audience, not a japanese one.

tangentially, i will say i also think that’s the root of this like…subtle distinction some people have between the characters “ash” and “satoshi.” i don’t differentiate them in any big way myself because fundamentally they still are very much the same, but it is true that in japanese, ash has somewhat different mannerisms and responds differently to events at times, especially in the early anime when it was so much easier to get away with making big changes for…a big assortment of reasons haha.

in THIS movie in particular, some of those things are like…well. the prophecy is probably the most obvious change. the dub team rewrote it to include the chosen one reference, which works great because of the word play on ash’s name. in japanese, it just says “an exceptional trainer will appear to help calm the wrath of the gods.” ash’s response to this is more mild trepidation than outright fear. he doesn’t hesitate like he does in the dub. and tbh? both reactions make perfect sense for his character in my opinion.

in japanese, his concern is more "do you really think i can fit that role?" this...tracks pretty well with his character development by this point. like yeah he said he could win the indigo league, but he's also thinking about dropping out after gary loses; it's that little grain of insecurity he has, which he's normally good at covering up with arrogance (a lot of which is also very genuine, don't get me wrong). but he sees the opportunity to help and he takes it. that's just...what ash does.

in english, though, the prophecy is pretty clearly about him. there's no one else it could be. it has to be him. and he...doesn't like that? that scares him. which, fair. anyone would be terrified by being singled out like that. it's also so much...not ash's thing, even at this point in the series. his character development is about embracing having to work hard to do well. to keep trying until you get it right, no matter how many times you get it wrong. the idea of being a "chosen one" completely robs him of his ability to be so single-minded about what he wants his destiny to be that it manifests as pre-determined; it just...pre-determines it for him, if that makes sense. lol.

the thesis of the japanese version of the film is that no one person or pokemon can stand on their own. everyone needs help. it's about harmonizing with each other and with nature. about letting others help you, and helping them in turn. the english version rewrites that into a story about power and destiny. the title alone says it all, right? it's called "the power of one" - no reference to lugia, no reference to the birds. in japan, the title is about the revelation (or "birth") of lugia.

westerners love a good chosen one story, so this was a really good choice by the dub team in that respect. i mean, it's a narrative that's stuck really well. fandom loves chosen one ash! in general, western fanbases are really into this narrative. it's everywhere. and there's a lot that goes into that, culturally, and especially religiously, historically, etc. so at the end of the day, i don't think the change is so much about conflicting ideas about collectivism and individualism. it's more about goals and ideals, on a personal level.

let me say again for the 273456784th time, i love that they resolved ash's story by having him realize that the goal he's really been striving for all this time is to meet and befriend pokemon. to learn from them. to earn their trust. it's like...he did the thing that everyone else thought represented his goal, maybe even himself included, only to realize that his dream was never about the end of it anyway. it was about everything he learnt and everyone he met along the way. (i also suspect nobody writing in 1997 knew that that would be the ultimate resolution, either. but it makes sense in the entire context. it's kind of a nice irony, even. to only figure it out after writing the story :p)

and i think this little distinction is important to that goal! it's his whole character! which is why even though i too love chosen one characters, i don't necessarily think of ash as one. because even if he is, his whole Thing is that he wants to try. a lot of the chosen one narrative is about characters being reluctant to be used for a "greater good," or about them collapsing under that pressure. ash doesn't really have that. he does what he thinks is right because he...thinks it's right. sometimes, sure, others have to push him into it a bit, but usually they're actually pushing the other way - it's too dangerous, you're going to get hurt, etc. and to me, i don't know - thinking of times he's died, or nearly died, and some legendary or mythical pokemon has saved him at the last minute...i don't think that has to mean he's special in a cosmic sort of way. i think it just means he's special to them. that he did something for them, or for someone else they had come to care for (thinking manaphy responding to may's emotions, not just to the fact that ash was drowning, or in mpm ash convincing latios to trust him because of their mutual desire to save latias, etc.), and so they want to help him. which is completely opposite to the typical chosen one narrative, i think? because he doesn't do those things out of obligation...he does them because he thinks he can become a better trainer by doing them, and he wants to do that. and well. he did do that.

anyway my tl;dr here is YES they changed the theme a lot haha, but i find it fun that they also changed the characters’ responses to that theme. funnily that’s…kind of also what fanfiction writers do all the time, lmao, but that’s a whole other conversation.

[medea10]

My Review of Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Ooh yeah, I’ve heard about this one. Prior to the announcement of this anime, I heard Gigguk (from Youtube) mention this manga. And here’s me thinking, this is the same guy that praised Oshi no Ko and Frieren before they got anime adaptations. As for when this got the anime adaptation, Viz Media was excited to release this one that there was even an exclusive screening at Anime Expo.

Akira Tendou was a bright-eyed optimist going into his new job fresh out of college. Everyone seemed nice. He had great benefits. There was a chance at meeting famous people in this line of work. And there might have been an opening with a love interest at the office. This enjoyment lasted…8 hours, give or take?!

In reality, this job was hell. Sometimes, you can’t go home for days and work at your desk. The benefits you get…you probably will never use them. The only people you’re in contact with are screaming bosses. And as for that love interest, she’s having an affair with the boss…right in his office. Akira Tendou is so numb to everything now. It’s been three years of this endless hell. Then suddenly…and I do mean really suddenly…

A zombie apocalypse!

Yep, we’re officially in Highschool of the Dead territory. Only difference is that this is with adults, the blood is replaced with vibrant colors, no Matrix boobies, and the author to Zom 100 is still alive here.

Too soon, Medea.

Tendou watched a zombie movie literally the night before this all happened and thought that if he was living through a zombie apocalypse, he wouldn’t have to go to work anymore. And that’s his first thought here. No more work! He gets a day off! First thing he does, he goes to his crush’s home to reveal that he loves her. There, he sees his boss (now zombie-fied). Tendou gives his resignation followed by shoving him out the window. Then he sees his crush (also zombie-fied) and tells her that he loves her. Then bolts the fuck out of there! Now that Tendou is living in a zombie apocalypse, he’s wondering what he should do with his free time. That’s when he goes to a corner store and gets a notebook to make a bucket list. 100 things to do before becoming a zombie. Hence the title of this anime!

Tendou is not alone in this. Along the way, he meets up with his old college friend (Ryuuzaki) who is also trying to live his life for the best during the zombie apocalypse. He meets a girl named Mikazuki who has a bucket list of her own. Only hers is the best way to survive. And near episode 8, we are introduced to Beatrix. She’s a German who has had a fascination with Japanese culture. She’s also the token big-breasted girl that slices up the zombies with a blade. It’s an anime involving zombies, OF COURSE THIS GIRL IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE THAT!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Viz Media wasted no time assembling together an English dub for this. And several streaming sites got dibs on playing it on a weekly basis including Crunchyroll, Hulu, and even Netflix. And if there weren’t so many damn hiatuses, this anime would have had a spot on Toonami. It will eventually. March 2024 is still better than nothing. I will discuss the several hiatuses that persisted throughout this anime’s run down this review. I’m enjoying hearing both of Tendou’s voice actors getting more roles in the last couple of years. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Tendou is played by Shuuichirou Umeda (known for Izumi on Shikimori Isn’t Just a Cutie)

*Mikazuki is played by Tomori Kusunoki (known for Makima on Chainsaw Man, Neiru on Wonder Egg Priority, LLENN on SAO: GGO, Setsuna on Love Live Nijigasaki, and Misha on Misfit of Demon Academy)

*Ryuuzaki is played by Makoto Furukawa (known for Saitama on One Punch Man, Haru on Fruits Basket 2019, Miyuki on Kaguya-sama, Shorter on Banana Fish, and Shourei on 86)

*Bea is played by Minami Takahashi (known for Lucoa on Miss Kobayashi, Megumi on Food Wars, Grey on Black Clover, and Yamada on Eromanga Sensei)

ENGLISH CAST: *Tendou is played by Zeno Robinson (known for Goh on Pokemon Journeys, Hawks on My Hero Academia, Genya on Demon Slayer, Shuuji on Tokyo Revengers, Tooru on Horimiya, and Garfiel on Re:Zero)

*Mikazuki is played by Abby Trott (known for Nezuko on Demon Slayer, Machi on Hunter x Hunter, and Eleanor on Misfit of Demon Academy)

*Ryuuzaki is played by Xander Mobus (known for Motoyasu on Shield Hero, Ren on Persona 5, Juuzou on Blue Exorcist, Benno on Ascendance of a Bookworm, and Momoshiki on Boruto)

*Bea is played by Laura Post (known for Ragyo on Kill la Kill, Nozomi on Love Live, Isabella on The Promised Neverland, Akari on March Comes in…, Diana on Little Witch Academia, and Macrophage on Cells at Work)

SHIPPING: Am I sensing something between Tendou and Mikazuki?

No. Focus on surviving the zombie apocalypse first. Once the zombies are eradicated, then I’ll let my mind swirl around in the shipping category.

DELAY, DELAY, DELAY: Is this the new normal? I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know a thing about getting an anime to air because we all know I don’t. But I still raise my eyebrow when currently airing animes take several weeks off at a time. Normally, when an anime is postponed, it is usually because of a sporting event, a giant news story hits, and the subject matter might be difficult if something tragic just occurred. That was something we went along with and accepted. After the Fukushima disaster in 2011, many animes were postponed. Madoka Magica’s final episodes were supposed to air around that time. But due to the sensitive subject matter, it was postponed for three months. Meanwhile, Pokemon was scheduled to air a two-parter, Team Rocket/Team Plasma special around that time as well. It was postponed. And we never heard from it again. Once again, there were special circumstances.

Moving forward to the 2020’s, Covid affected many animes and their airdates. All through the year 2020, nearly every anime was delayed by one week, several weeks, or would just stop airing for the entire season and start over the following anime season. A Certain Scientific Railgun T had to take several weeks off every now and then during the run. Black Clover and Pokemon took a several-week hiatus. And the fifth season of Food Wars aired a couple of episodes, stopped, and aired again three months later. AGAIN, there were special circumstances.

What the hell happened with Zom 100? I don’t see Covid as a reason and nothing upsetting the Japanese audience. Is this a case where they didn’t finish production on time and the staff was overworked to the point of breaking? Because that’s what it looks to me. I’m not complaining at all. I’m concerned that this is a new normal for staff members for anime. And it’s a shame that this had to happen to the studio and the good people behind it. This is a fairly new studio where this is the only anime to their credit. And suddenly I’m hit with a giant sense of irony with this situation and the first episode.

ANIME CAMEO: Did you catch the voice actors from Zombieland Saga in episode 6? It wasn’t the characters. It was just their voice actors grunting as zombies. Well, it happened. Rewind and listen closely.

ENDING: Just like the end of Highschool of the Dead, this crew goes to familiar territory by stopping in on Tendou’s family. My guess is that there’s going to be a big zombie showdown featuring Tendou, his friends and family, and the townspeople versus the zombies. Will that be the end of the season? Moving right along, they make it to Tendou’s home village. The good news is that his parents are safe as well as some of the villagers. There are even some city folks that escaped the hell going on in bigger cities. The bad news is there are some disgustos in that city folk crowd that have their own ideas for surviving the zombie apocalypse. If Tendou’s list was full of childish dreams and Mikazuki’s list is full of realistic goals, these guys…um…well, there are dark forces that work inside them.

And while the zombies are trapped inside a tunnel away from the surviving humans, one person here doesn’t have that much time left. That person is Tendou’s father. Tendou and his father have never seen eye-to-eye. Will they be able to say their peace before the worst happens? Let’s wait another couple of weeks and months to find out this answer.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2023: Okay, I watched my annual anime movie this year. This year it was Suzume. Ate cookies. Opened presents. Jammed out to some tunes. And crashed. Am I missing anything? Oh wow, Zom 100 came back for a three-episode finale!

Tendou and the gang were getting along with many in the village. Tendou got to know some of the city girls who traveled to the village for safety. Mikazuki got along with the elders of the village as she helped them with some of their ailments. Bea learned a lot about the area. And Ryuuzaki got a little girl traumatized by the recent pandemic to smile for the first time in a while. I’ll be honest, when I saw this little girl with her dog I kept thinking if she was going to go with Tendou and the rest and be that gang’s Alice and Zeke like in Highschool of the Dead. Again, I will keep mentioning that. All of this peace is about to be shattered by those disgustos I mentioned prior to the three-month hiatus. There are four of them; one divorcee, one anal-retentive chick, one forever fat bastard virgin, and the obviously voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto psychopath. The final guy I mentioned (named Higurashi) actually knew Tendou and Ryuuzaki as they all went to the same college.

Higurashi and the others have their chaos book. They removed the barriers blocking the zombies from entering the village and set everything around it on fire. The four main characters were dealing with each of the chaos agents on their own. Ryuuzaki, Bea, and Mikazuki were able to get past the chaos people. Unfortunately, two of those people wound up dying. One by the zombies and the other got electrocuted. The forever fat bastard virgin was still around by episode 12’s end. As for Higurashi, he brought the zombies to Tendou and told him he yearns to watch him become a zombie. This guy was so amped on wanting to fuck things up that he threatened to have Tendou’s ailing father eaten by the zombies.

Tendou does another impulsive thing. You’ve seen him do crazy shit the last 11 episodes, why stop now?! Tendou turned into a zombie courtesy of one of the hideaways who was a make-up stylist and tricked Higurashi. Unfortunately, things do not end well for Higurashi as he is bitten. Before time was up, Tendou was able to get through to him when learning what he really wanted to do. To be fair, any one of us could have wound up like this guy. Introverts have such the hardest times adapting to “normal” society. And I guess Higurashi envied Tendou and Ryuuzaki during college because they had friends and he was alone. Surprisingly, back then Tendou did make an effort to reach out to Higurashi, but dude ran away from them. Tendou and Higurashi do have this sweet moment before he’s turned into a zombie. Higurashi though ends up drowning in the river as he was turning into a zombie.

Tendou, his friends, and the survivors of the village survived just barely. They went to a suspension bridge that was unfortunately missing. But then, this old guy the group met prior to making it to the village made a collapsible bridge for everyone to get across and prevent the zombies from trailing them. In the aftermath, everyone was able to rebuild the village after that night from hell. Now as for Tendou’s father. I thought for months that this guy got bitten by a zombie. And as I’m watching the final 3 episodes I’m thinking, if he got bitten, it’s taking him a long time to turn into a zombie. But then it sounded like he might have a terminal illness.

Turns out dude has hemorrhoids.

Look, I know hemorrhoids are painful but…yeah, I have nothing to follow up on that. But if it gets so bad that it could be life-threatening, it might be difficult for a doctor to do anything when you’re in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. But, it did spark some ideas for what else to write in Tendou’s bucket list. Next stop for the crew…I guess northern Japan or Hokkaido.

Oh shit, I forgot to mention the shit. Ryuuzaki jumped in the cesspool of shit. He was covered in shit for an entire episode.

Despite the long waits in between episodes, this was a very good story. I’m just really concerned if a season two comes will the audience be subjected to long waits and will the crew be subjected to horrible working conditions? Again, seeing the irony! I think it was that first episode that seemed to strike a chord with a lot of viewers. I think at one point or another, we all find ourselves in a situation much like Tendou. I know it doesn’t have to be a job, but let’s face it, we’ve all had those jobs that tried to break us to the point of no return and you really do wish that some sort of apocalypse hits so you don’t have to go into work the next day. I really hope the anime studios kinda take a hint from this. Looking at you OLM, MAPPA, and BUG FILMS!

While I’m still on the topic of the first episode, I’m not going to lie, I honestly thought the whole zombie apocalypse was going to be a dream of Tendou’s. I can’t be the only person who thought this. He falls asleep watching a zombie movie, wakes up in total chaos, we’re treated to a splish-splash of every color on the spectrum, and Tendou is doing stunts like knock his boss out a several-story window and climbing drain-pipes. I will get a lot of push-back from manga readers for my out-loud comments here, but that’s what I originally thought. With that said, I really hope that this isn’t the intended ending for this story.

Now then, would I happily welcome a second season? Yes. Believe it or not, the several-month hiatus didn’t impact how I felt about this anime. Sometimes it does, but not here. When it returned on Christmas, it almost felt like not much time has passed since the last installment. And just because of this sloppy roll out, it doesn’t necessarily mean that any future seasons will be affected the same way the first season did. It will if the studio doesn’t take a freakin’ lesson from the anime they just put out. It seems like a couple of new characters are introduced after where this season leaves off. So, I’m looking forward to a second season. Thankfully, the manga is still in publication and the creator is alive and well. Sorry, after what happened to the creator of Highschool of the Dead, I am not taking any chances.

Enough from me! Zombie-show fans, you know who you are and we know your fandom isn’t dying off any time soon. Probably check this one out. It’s on Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll, so you have your pick of sites to watch it on. Starting March 30th, 2024, the show will also air on Toonami. And if live-action is more of your thing, Netflix has got that adaptation too.

[maxwell-grant]

Having been extremely excited by THE DINOSAURIA trailer, might I please ask if you've ever seen WALKING WITH DINOSAURS? (The BBC series from 1999, rather than the later animated film); if you haven't seen it yet, then please be assured that you've missed a Treat!

Anon, I definitely appreciate the recommendation, don't get me wrong, but -

Not only is Walking With Dinosaurs my actual favorite piece of media ever, the thing you'd find the closest to my heart if you cut it open, but I literally would not be able to talk to you right now if it wasn't for it. Allow me to explain:

To say that dinosaurs were one of my very first obsessions (or hyperfixations) is to understate the hell out of just how utterly strongly I loved dinosaurs and acted on it, and I don't state more because I don't quite feel like revealing the face and name of who's writing this just yet. I grew up watching dinosaur documentaries (and documentaries in general) more so than even cartoons, and I was definitely extremely obsessed with dinosaurs before WWD arrived in my life.

But all of the documentaries I had watched to that point, whether I caught them on tv or DVD or casette, had all been dubbed in Portuguese (since, y'know, I live in Brazil and all). But when my mom brought over Walking With Dinosaurs, there was no Portuguese dub option, so I had to watch it with subs on.

And I watched this series so, so many times, that I picked up the basics of English from it. I started watching other documentaries I had with English subs, and then movies, and then I started taking English classes and the works to tune it, and I was speaking English at an adult level at age 12 (likely earlier, but my memories are spotty and the oldest email I have from a conversation overseas dates from that age) and I kinda just never stopped writing and thinking and talking to myself in English since then.

I never really had an easy time picking up other languages when I tried them, but it was specifically because of Walking With Dinosaurs that I picked up enough English to become proficient at it early on, and that's informed a lot, pretty much everything, of my life ever since. To be honest I still speak with a slight British inflection, because Kenneth Branagh was my frame of reference for the English language. So trust me, I have absolutely seen Walking With Dinosaurs, maybe as much as anyone can possibly see it short of gluing it to the eyeballs 24/7. I've also watched all of the other Walking With series and spin-offs (and yes, even that horrid film, I refuse to discuss it further) like The Ballad of Big Al and Walking With Monsters and Walking With Beasts and of course all of the Nigel Marvin spin-offs, including Prehistoric Park. I've been wanting to give the extended Walking With universe a rewatch recently.

But every year, without fail, I make it a point to rewatch Walking With Dinosaurs. Doesn't matter when or how, my DVDs of it don't really work anymore, but I find a way to rewatch it. I know exactly what's gonna happen every year and it's impact has never been diminished. Every year, I get chills when Brachiosaurus shows up looming over the teenage Diplodocus pack and the music just SWELLS in dread and awe alike. I dread the scene of the Cynodonts eating their baby to spare it from the Coelophysis pack. I eagerly await the nefarious joy of just waiting for Liopleurodon to pounce out of the water to eat the theropod, because fuck off if that's physically impossible, that scene absolutely still kicks ass. I'm writing this post while listening to Islands of Green because you bet the soundtrack to this series lives rent free in my head as well. I can immediately hear the specific sounds and roars of each animal in it just by thinking of them.

I cry every year when Ornithocheirus dies alone after such a grueling journey just to fulfill a biological drive he cannot resist, and I still cry when the baby T-Rexes try to get their dead mom to wake up just as the meteor strikes and swipes them all away to nothingness, not even joking I'm actually getting chills right now just describing that scene and the "This is the end, of the age of the dinosaurs" line, God. Every year I find some new moment in the series that makes me incredibly emotional in a way it hadn't before, whether it's the Postosuchus getting eaten from the inside out after being toppled by a minor injury, or the forest fire that tears through the jungle and leaves charred dinosaurs behind. I'm getting chills just listening to the end credits theme right now.

Even today, there has never been anything in media that's ever made dinosaurs feel more real than Walking With Dinosaurs did, and that was the trick that all of it's imitators failed to understand: Even through it's dramatic soap opera lenses, it depicted dinosaurs not as great and glamorous movie monsters, but as real animals, no more or lesser than the ones living on the planet now. It doesn't make dinosaurs exciting by showing them as some mythical fantasy cooler than our current reality, it made dinosaurs exciting by showing they WERE reality, and reality can be just as cool and exciting and mythical as anything fantasy can give you, if not more so, if you stop to look at it with the same unclouded fascination and curiosity you'd reserve for something not real.

There was a time where I distanced myself from my love of dinosaurs for, a lot of reasons really, but I'm thankful that I never succeeded in making it go away, that I got to watch Jurassic Park at a movie theater a couple years recently and cry at the reveal of the Brachiosaurus in a way I never did in the over three dozen times I watched the movie at home, that I got to finally read Raptor Red, that I still get all these feelings over just thinking about Walking With and it's spin-offs.

More than maybe anything else, I think this series is what informs my storytelling and my sense of adventure. Everyone has that story, that adventure, either one or several, that's imprinted on them from an early age and subsequently defines everything they do or undertake as storytellers no matter how distanced from it. And I think if I was to point at anything from my childhood, I would point to Walking With Dinosaurs and the lives it depicted, regardless of how real or accurate they were.

Even right now, the fact that I'm typing this out to talk to you, that I'm confident enough in my English skills to even record audio in English for coming projects, that I made this entire blog full of essays in English about things I find creatively inspiring, is owed in no small part to my childhood adoration for Walking With Dinosaurs, the bedrock of what I am as a creator, and even if the show didn't have that particular impact on me, I'd still carry it to the rest of my life.

Everything about this show is ingrained into my bones and soul, maybe as deeply as anything is ever going to be.

Hmm. Who did I find it most difficult to work with?

Animators! Definitely animators!

You know? “Chase this dinosaur”, “Chase that dinosaur!” You’d swear we couldn’t act!

It’s sooo degrading

[sluggybasson107]

Rule: Tag 9 people you want to know better! @patamonn thank you for tagging me! It's been so much fun getting to talk to you for the past week or so, and I'm happy to complete this for you! Favorite piece of clothing you own?  Unpopular opinion, but jeans! Especially the ones that have leggings elements (jeggings???). I don't know why, but they always fit me well, and I feel more productive in them.

Your comfort food? My fried rice! Four cups of rice, three eggs, two carrots, one can of peas, a few cut slices of ham, 1/2 teaspoon of chopped onions, 1 tablespoon of garlic, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, and I eye the sesame oil and rice vinegar.

Favorite time of year? Winter, since I enjoy the cold a lot! I do love it when the seasons change during those days when there's a cold breeze and the hot sun, though!

Favorite song? This changes so much, but I'm going to say the digirap for fun since I shuffled my digimon songs today and that song happened to come up haha! I went "you know what, fine" and listened to the whole thing. I was able to mentally sing along to it since there's a bunch of lyrics that scarred stuck with me from watching the intro to Digimon: The Movie.

Do you collect something? Not exactly. I am someone who doesn't collect things, but has a lot of pride in certain objects I own. I have my Digimon Series Memorial Book, my small amount of CDs (I'm not someone who uses streaming websites), my drawing tablet my MP3 player, my trumpet which totally doesn't have a name idk what you're talking about, etc (basically anything I've referred to as 'my baby' before lol)

Favorite drink? Grape juice? I like lemonade too, but water's fine.

Favorite fanfiction? THIS IS A BIG QUESTION XD! SO I have so so so many favorites, and I’ve been wanting to make a long list of my favorite fanfics (tell me if you want me to actually make it haha), but I can say confidently that my three faves are (no particular order):

Four Years by @ahiddenpath! I love love love the mood/tone of this story!! Also, as a fan of the English dub along with the sub, I enjoy seeing elements of both Tai and co with Taichi and co! It’s also just a fun story that never fails to make me smile when reading!

Unholy Desires by @higuchimon! The story has a deep concept, and I always enjoy a taito action/supernatural/romance story ;) It’s such a fun wild ride, and being someone who read the fic as it updated during the start of quarantine, it was the highlight of my week! Even though it’s on hiatus, it’s still great with what the story has now!

armor we can’t remove by CozyVaquita!! OH MY GOSH I’VE BEEN NEEDING AN EXCUSE TO👏TALK👏ABOUT👏THIS👏FIC👏

SO this is a jyoumato post zombie apocalypse AU and BOY DO I LOVE IT!! I love the fight scenes, and the plot in this story almost made me cry since some plot points are things I’ve went through. I’m someone who loves more fighting/gory stuff, so this is a perfect AU for me haha. Not only that, but my favorite friendship in digimon is Jyoumato. I do enjoy them as a couple, but Jyou and Yama as besties is great. The thing is, this story is a slow burn, so it’s BEST OF BOTH WORLDS BABYYY

The need to draw fanart for this fic is through the roof, and I will once the upcoming digimon events ends. I cannot stress how good this story is, please read it!!

Also adding a fourth bc I make the rules. I just read Gravity by @piedrpiper an hour ago and I haven’t laughed that hard from a fic in awhile XD

Moral of the story is GO READ THESE FICS IF U HAVEN’T (also go team jeans)

Tagging: Not anyone at the moment because I’m falling asleep right now XD I invite anyone who wants to answers these questions to go right ahead!

[veeranger]

So you want to watch Precure!

Version 1.3

(Google Docs Vers & Changelog)

Maybe you follow people who like it, maybe you just love magical girls and never got into Precure, but there are over a dozen seasons and you don’t know how to jump in. Never fear, this masterpost is here to give you a rundown of Precure, and hopefully by the end you’ll have an idea of where you want to start. 

What Is Precure?

Precure (short for Pretty Cure) is a Toei Animation franchise started in 2004 and has been on the air nonstop since then. It’s a magical girl franchise, y’know like sailor moon or ojamajo doremi or other such shows. The main demographic is children so you don’t have to worry about any weird “fanservice” or panty shots or anything nasty like that, it’s very G rated. 

What Are The Shows About?

In a general sense, Precure is about a team of 2-6 middle school age magical girls fighting bad guys and giant monsters and saving the world on a weekly basis with pretty outfits and big flashy finishers and the power of love and friendship. Each season follows a pretty standard formula (toku fans should be pretty familiar with it for the most part), and each season is around 48-50 episodes long. 

In keeping with this toku-esque formula, most seasons will feature mid season additions to the cast, in the form of new precure heroes. For the sake of not spoiling these shows, these mid season cures will not be mentioned in our plot overviews unless they appear extremely early or something like that. Just know that almost every season will feature an additional cure joining the team later in the show. 

Additionally, every season has at least one movie, these days there’s usually two per season. Usually you’ll find the movies are a standalone self-contained romp, and a crossover movie with the preceding seasons, with a focus on the most recent 2-3 teams. These movies might as well exist in a continuity of their own, and have absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever, save for one except which I’ll mention when we get to that season. 

Why Should I Watch Precure?

Because it’s good. It’s a really stellar franchise with a ton of content and genuinely engaging characters and stories. Also this isn’t your mom’s magical girl show, these girls throw punches, and kicks, and big lasers. Precure is pretty well known for being extremely hands on with its combat compared to other magical girl shows, though don’t expect the same kind of fights you’d find in kamen rider or anything. Also a main draw for a lot of people is the amount of gay subtext in, frankly, every season. While there’s only one season with an explicitly confirmed gay relationship between two cures, every season has varying levels of subtext between cures, it’s pretty cool. We won’t discuss the subtext in every season overview but trust us, it’s in there. 

What Show Should I Start With?

It doesn’t actually matter which season you watch, every season is a new setting and with new characters and set in a new world (except for two sequel seasons i’ll explain later), so you’re free to watch whatever you want in any order! We’re going to spend the rest of this post talking about each season to give you, the beloved reader, a glimpse at what each season has to uniquely offer. Don’t worry, there’s no spoilers down there. 

Futari Wa Precure (We Are Pretty Cure) & Futari Wa Precure Max Heart

The original precure show that aired in 2004, and even received an english dub. Misumi Nagisa is a star lacrosse player living a normal life until one day a shooting star she wishes on turns out to be a fairy that careens right into her room, or rather, smacks her right in the face. The fairy, named Mepple, explains he comes from the Garden of Light, another world that’s been taken over by the evil Dark King and his Dark Zone in order to capture the Prism Stones, a number of heart shaped crystals that, if collected, could give Dark King the power to destroy not only the Garden of Light but also the Garden of Rainbows, Earth itself. Meanwhile, Yukishiro Honoka finds a box in her grandmother’s shed containing an item just like the one that smacked Nagisa in the face, and inside is the fairy Mipple, who explains the situation to Honoka. The two fairies, seeking to be reunited, drag Nagisa and Honoka along and the four of them end up meeting up, but are attacked by an emissary of the Dark Zone. Mepple and Mipple grant the confused duo the power to transform into the warriors of legend, Precure. As Cure Black and Cure White, Nagisa and Honoka manage to fight off their attacker and protect their new fairy partners. The girls are then more or less dragged into the battle against the Dark Zone, as the only hope for both Gardens, they fulfill their duty as legendary warriors despite their hesitations and desires to go back to being normal teenagers.

Futari Wa doesn’t exactly have any major themes to speak of, it’s just your standard magical girl vs evil bad guys kind of thing, forgive it for being the first season. What it does have to offer is the relationship between Nagisa and Honoka, as well as the action in fight scenes. The girls don’t start the season as best friends, in fact they barely even know each other’s names when they’re first flung together. It takes a few episodes and a major fight between the girls for them to really start opening up to each other, but soon enough they become inseparable and support each other in everything they do. It’s clear, especially near the end, that the girls cling to each other for support and strength in the face of the increasingly overwhelming odds they face as the Dark Zone gains strength. It’s very compelling to see their relationship deepen in the early season and see how deep their bonds truly go near the end. 

Futari Wa received a sequel show, Futari Wa Precure Max Heart, picking up the story where it left off in the first season’s finale. Honoka and Nagisa are still the main characters, and they’re still fighting the Dark Zone, but this time they’re joined by a mysterious girl named Hikari, who can transform into Shiny Luminous, not a precure but precure-ish. This time the girls are trying to recover the heart and soul of the Queen of the Garden of Light, before the Dark Zone can recover and destroy the queen in her weakened state. Also their precure costumes have changed slightly. 

The first season (that is to say, not max heart) is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll

Futari Wa Precure Splash Star

Hyuuga Saki (Cure Bloom), a tomboy who loves playing softball, and Mishou Mai (Cure Egret), a quiet transfer student and aspiring artist, meet each other by chance one day under the Sky Tree, where they discover two creatures from the Land of Fountains named Flappy and Choppy. The two girls transform into the legendary Precure and are tasked with restoring Princess Filia and the Seven Holy Fountains, which were sapped of their power by the evil forces of Dark Fall.

Splash Star's main theme is the appreciation of nature. The main focus is on the girls rediscovering their relationships with their town and the nature and people in it. You get to meet a whole cast of characters in their community, who have a lot of heart and charm behind their writing and the show does a good job of getting you genuinely invested in their stories.

Unfortunately the romance in Splash Star isn’t much better than Futari Wa's (sorry to any Fujimura/Kazuya fans), but the main girls themselves are so engaging that it's easy to ignore. The villains are pretty goofy, but entertaining if you can accept that the show doesn’t take itself very seriously. There are two villains in the latter half of the season that really stand out, though. Without spoiling too much, I can promise you their character arcs will tear at your heartstrings in the best way.

If you've watched Futari wa Precure, Splash Star will probably feel familiar. Although it's the first "reboot" series in the franchise with completely new characters, Toei overall played it safe and Saki and Mai in many ways still feel like "Nagisa and Honoka 2.0". Splash Star is different in enough other ways to make the show stand on its own merits, but if you watch it immediately after Futari wa you might find yourself feeling some deja vu. Personally, I think it's interesting to see what Splash Star builds on and explores when compared to Futari wa, since it has many of the same themes and character archetypes but they play out quite differently.

Yes! Precure 5 & Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!

Nozomi is a cheerful, carefree girl, but she doesn’t have a dream. One day she meets a hot guy and finds a mysterious item called the Dream Collet, capable of granting any wish once all the fairies known as Pinkies are gathered inside it, in the school library. She discovers that the hot guy is actually a tanuki from Palmier Kingdom named Coco, and that the Kingdom has been destroyed by the Nightmare. Coco’s dream is to restore his kingdom using the Dream Collet, and Nozomi decides to make it hers as well. 

She’s joined by her jock friend Rin, Urara, an aspiring actress, Komachi, a writer, and the rich student council president Karen. Together they form Yes Sentai Fiveranger Yes Precure 5 and work together to prevent Nightmare from obtaining the Dream Collet before they can gather all the Pinkies. They also save Coco’s “”””””friend””””””” and fellow hot guy squirrel, Nuts, and he joins them as the second mascot/handsome love interest.

The theme of Yes is dreams and heterosexual furry romance. It pulls off the dreams part very nicely. The het furry romance is bad, mostly because Coco is Nozomi’s teacher at school and also her love interest. However, Coco and Nuts are fairly gay and if you look past the romance part they have very good dadly relationships with the rest of the team. 

Yespre, like Futari Wa, received a sequel show, Yes! Precure 5 GoGo!. After the defeat of Nightmare some time ago, a new faction called Eternal rises up and starts stealing treasures from various dimensions. When Eternal targets the Rose Pact belonging to the Cure Rose Garden, the precure are called back into action to fight against Eternal, with new cure outfits, a new fairy named Syrup, and a new cure-like teammate named Milky Rose.

Fresh Precure!

Fresh is sort of the defining series for modern Precure, introducing a lot of plot and thematic elements to the franchise that would be used repeatedly later on. 

A concert Momozono Love attends is attacked by a monster called a Nakewameke. When Love stands up to it, she is nearly killed, but is saved when she is chosen by a mysterious power to become Cure Peach. She is joined by Inori and Miki as Cure Pine and Cure Berry, and, together with the talking ferret from the Kingdom of Sweets, Tarte, they have to prevent Labyrinth, a grey world led by Mobius, from taking over the Parallel Worlds and transforming them into identical, machine-like dictatorships, and also figure out the secret behind the Magic Baby, Chiffon, that Tarte is entrusted with. 

Fresh’s themes are happiness and nature/technology and donuts. The donuts are important. Labyrinth operates by gathering misery; the Nakewameke are created from it and their function is to create more of it and fill the Sorrow Gauge. All the girls (and the mascot) have love interests and their familial relationships are explored a lot to bring out the general stakes and emphasise what they’re fighting for.

While Fresh is very strong in characters, plot, and thematics, its lack of budget is very apparent. It looks terrible. Fortunately, it isn’t that difficult to get used to the bad animation once you get into the show, although the lack of means tends to show up at inopportune moments, like new powerups.

Heartcatch Precure!

Featuring character designs and art direction from Ojamajo Doremi’s character designer Umakoshi Yoshihiko, and written by Ojamajo Doremi and Onegai My Melody writer Yamada Takashi, Heartcatch should look and feel familiar to fans of either franchise, especially Doremi.

After having a reoccurring dream about someone called Cure Moonlight being defeated trying to defend the “Great Heart Tree”, the shy and reserved Hanasaki Tsubomi moves in with her grandmother and ends up inheriting the will of Cure Moonlight and becomes the newest precure, Cure Blossom. Finding out her grandmother used to be the legendary Cure Flower, Tsubomi vows to protect the world as a precure and learn to change herself for the better. She’s joined by her new friend and the first person she saved as a precure, Kurumi Erika, a loud girl with a big heart who means well, but doesn’t hesitate to speak her mind. Erika becomes Cure Marine and the two become Heartcatch Precure, the newest precure in the long legacy of those who have stood up to the evil Dune, a mysterious invader who destroys planets and turns them into lifeless deserts. Heartcatch Precure fights against Dune’s minions: the mask wearing Professor Sabaku, his Desert Apostles, and the mysterious Dark Precure. Along the way they meet the former Cure Moonlight, now stripped of her power, and try to help her cope with her defeat.

Heartcatch Precure’s main theme is flowers and flower language. Everyone has a “heart flower” that the Desert Apostles take and use to create their monsters every week. As an interesting result of this, the monster of the week will be the main character in the plot of the week and often their big monster form will vent about their issues which will usually lead to a resolution when the precure return them to their regular bodies. Heartcatch also has a very nice backstory and lore to it. Unlike most iterations of precure, the Heartcatch girls are not the first precure to exist in their world, there are dozens maybe hundreds of precure that came before them, fighting against Dune and his forces for hundreds of years. It adds a lot to the narrative in small ways, especially later on in the season. Also the fight scenes are extremely excellent, especially when Moonlight is involved. 

Suite Precure♪

The musical paradise of Major Land falls under siege by the forces of Minor Land, led by King Mephisto. His goal is to steal the living notes of the “Melody of Happiness” and remake them into the “Melody of Sorrow”, throwing the world into a permanent depressive state. As a last resort, Queen Aphrodite scatters the notes into the human world and tasks Hummy, the cat-like fairy, and the Fairy Tones, to find the notes before the forces of Minor Lands can capture them. In the human world, Hummy meets Hojo Hibiki and Minamino Kanade, two girls who were best friends as children, but drifted apart as teenagers because of their tendency to bicker with each other. The two find themselves thrown together again by fate and transform into Cure Melody and Cure Rhythm to protect the things they hold dear. Not long after, the two rekindle their relationship and become closer than before, despite their bickering. Soon the girls run into the mysterious Cure Muse, a girl who appears to be a precure like them, but hides her face with a mask and refuses to join in their fight, claiming to be neither friend nor enemy. Melody and Rhythm battle against Minor Land and the giant Negatones they create from the notes they gather, as well as Siren, another cat-like fairy who used to be Hummy’s best friend before turning to evil and joining Minor Land. 

Suite Precure’s main theme is music, and it is a very encompassing theme. Hibiki and Kanade bond over their piano practice, the town they live in celebrates music frequently and is aesthetically music themed, and their powers take the form of musical instruments. Harmony is also a large theme for the two girls. Their precure power increases as they harmonize with each other, and the early season is very much about them learning to harmonize with each other. Suite also features several extremely well done mystery arcs, about the identity of Cure Muse, and various other things that I can’t very well talk about without risking spoiling things myself. If you manage to go into Suite not knowing anything consider yourself extremely lucky and be super sure not to get spoiled. The show staff went to great lengths to hide certain things, including leaking fake cure designs, and creating a second version of the second dance ending to further mask the identity of Cure Muse until her true reveal. 

Also something to note, usually precure movies have nothing to do with the plot of the show itself and can be watched whenever but the Suite movie is best enjoyed right after the arc revealing Cure Muse’s identity is concluded, it has a nice resolution to plot elements in that arc and sets the stage for the last few arcs of the show, so be sure to watch it then.

Smile Precure!

Written by Kamen Rider Kabuto head writer Yonemura Shoji, Smile Precure is the second season to feature a 5 girl team after Yes! Precure 5 Gogo!. Running late to her first day of school, resident happy-go-lucky klutz Hoshizora Miyuki runs face first into a small creature called Candy, a fairy from a place called Märchenland. The two are attacked by an anthropomorphic wolf named Wolfrun, and Miyuki transforms into Cure Happy to fight against Wolfrun and the big clown faced monster he summons called an Akanbe. After Candy explains that the legends say there are five precure, Miyuki recruits four new friends: the hot blooded Akane (Cure Sunny), shy artist Yayoi (Cure Peace), responsible older sister Nao (Cure March), and refined student council vice-president Reika (Cure Beauty). The five of them become Smile Precure and fight against Wolfrun and his allies in the Bad End Kingdom, who attempt to revive the slumbering Pierrot by trying to put the world in a “Bad End”. 

Smile Precure’s main theme is fairy tales, in a general sense. The Bad End trio are based off of the big bad wolf (Wolfrun), the oni from Momotaro (Akaoni), and the witch from Snow White (Majorina), and Miyuki herself is utterly captivated by fairy tales. The secondary theme is happiness, and the happy go lucky tone of the series often turns on its head during serious arcs to deliver extremely powerful emotional moments. Smile Precure is light on plot, and most episodes are an ultra happy experience, but the show knows how to get serious when it needs to and Smile is exceedingly competent at pulling off drama when the time comes. Smile knows how to get you invested in its characters and use that to pull on your heartstrings during the big moments. The last 10 episodes of the show are the absolute pinnacle of the show’s emotional drama, and each cure gets her own episode for closure before the finale sets in and emotionally destroys you. Also you get to play rock paper scissors with Cure Peace during her roll call so that’s always fun.

Doki Doki! Precure

Doki opens with Trump Kingdom’s destruction by the Selfishness as Cure Sword looks on, helpless. Switching to our world and brighter topics, we meet Aida Mana, Student Council President of Oogai Middle School, whose dream is to become the Prime Minister of Japan. Whenever Mana sees someone in trouble, she’ll help them out, so when a monster attacks the city, Mana does the obvious and tries to stop it. And when, chosen by the fairy Charuru (Charles? Cheryle? Cherry?) to become a Precure and defend the world, she meets Cure Sword, she has to befriend her and help her restore Trump Kingdom and find her happiness. 

Mana (Cure Heart) is joined by Rikka (Cure Diamond), her studious companion and supporter, and also the immeasurably powerful and rich (in that order) Alice (Cure Rosetta). Together they have to unravel the mystery of the man who gave them their transformation items, the missing princess of Trump Kingdom, the strange, evil girl called Regina, and Ai, the chaotic neutral baby who hatches out of an egg. 

Dokipre’s theme is love and selflessness. It also has Deep Lore, a lot of which is established in extra-series material. The show does try to explore concepts like past cures and manages a very nice repeating pattern effect with the plot, in terms of past and future happenings. There’s a lot of foreshadowing. Compared to most Precure seasons it’s very plot-heavy and even the filler usually ends up being plot-relevant. 

Happiness Charge Precure!

The 10th anniversary of Precure! The Phantom Empire is spreading across the world, and Precure are rising up all over the globe to fight them off. In Japan there are two active cures, Cure Fortune, strong and capable, and Cure Princess, scared and unsure of herself. As Cure Princess, Shirayuki Hime, struggles desperately to do her duty as precure, Cure Fortune refuses to work with her for reasons Hime doesn’t fully understand. Realizing her only hope is to find a partner to work with, Hime bumps into Aino Megumi, a super friendly girl who has a tendency to drop everything and help others any time she sees someone in need. Megumi becomes Cure Lovely, and bolstering Hime’s confidence, the two of them become Happiness Charge Precure, tasked with protecting Japan from Queen Mirage and her Phantom Empire. The two are joined by Cure Honey, and eventually Cure Fortune, and the four of them receive support from Blue, the God of Planet Earth. As the girls continue to fight and defend Japan, they are assaulted by Phantom, the ruthless Precure Hunter who has defeated and trapped countless Precure in his Precure Graveyard, and the Oresky Trio, the Phantom Empire generals who oversee the invasion of Japan. 

Happiness Charge Precure’s themes are romance and happiness. There are several arcs dedicated to the budding romances of the cures, and the backstory of the show is heavily tied to romance. Happiness might as well be Megumi’s middle name, she makes it her business to spread happiness to as many people as she can, and takes every chance she can to help others. Happiness Charge is also the first season to have form changes for the precure, each cure has a small selection of forms they can change to for different big attacks, and this concept would later be expanded and used as a core concept in Maho Girls Precure. Like Heartcatch before it, Happiness Charge exists in a world where multiple precure exist, but unlike Heartcatch all those precure exist at the same time in the present day. Other precure teams make cameos every so often and the concept creates a great world in which the whole planet is being protected by teenage girls with superpowers, creating a wonderful sense of scale that really makes the big victories of Happiness Charge Precure feel even bigger. 

Go! Princess Precure

The first precure series to take place at a boarding school! Years ago, a young girl named Haruno Haruka meets a very royal looking person named Kanata who gives her a Dress-Up Key, a big key shaped like a dress. A teenager now, Haruka starts attending Noble Academy, a prestigious boarding school, all the while holding tight to her dream of becoming a true princess, in a quasi-literal sense. Not long after starting the school year, Haruka meets Pafu and Aroma, two fairies from the Hope Kingdom desperate to revive the legendary precure to fight back against Dyspear and her minions who steal dreams to create their giant Zetsuborgs. Realizing what her Dress-Up Key is meant for, Haruka uses it and the Princess Perfume to become Cure Flora. Together with student council president Kaido Minami (Cure Mermaid), and Amanogawa Kirara (Cure Twinkle) a fashion model with huge aspirations, they become the new Princess Precure, tasked with learning to become true princesses along with protecting the Dress-Up Keys from Dyspear’s forces. 

Go! Princess Precure’s main themes are princesses (duh) and dreams. Dreams are a driving force behind all of the cures, and most of the plot of the week characters. Dyspear steals dreams to make monsters, and the precure fight to return those dreams. Characters follow their dreams with conviction, pride, and full commitment. This is also where the princess theme intersects, since it’s Haruka’s dream to become a true princess. One should note that princess is used sort of liberally in this series, it’s not that Haruka wants to somehow become someone of noble birth or have political power, she just wants to be strong, kind, and beautiful, the traits of a true princess in Princess Precure’s own terms. Also she wants to wear pretty dresses and such but who can blame her really. 

Mahou Tsukai Precure! (Maho Girls Precure!)

Quite literally putting the magic in magical girls for the first time in the franchise, Mahou Tsukai Precure was the first season to have its cures be actual magicians. Izumi Riko lives in the magical world, a world where magic is real and she attends a magical academy to hone her craft. She leaves the magical world to travel to the “non-magic” world, to search for a legendary item called the Linkle Stone Emerald. In the non-magic world she ends up catching the attention of another girl, Asahina Mirai, who sees her using magic. After trying to show off some magic and messing it up, Riko is attacked by Batty, a servant of the dark wizard Dokurokushe, who is seeking the Linkle Stone Emerald as well. As fate would have it, both Mirai and Riko carry stones that turn out to be the Linkle Stones Diamond, and the two of them use them to become Cure Miracle and Cure Magical, the legendary Mahou Tsukai Precure. Additionally, the power of the Linkle Stones grants life to Mirai’s lifelong companion, a teddy bear named Mofurun. Having discovered the world of magic and become a precure, Mirai is invited to spend time in the magical world learning magic alongside Riko, before the two, joined by Mofurun and a baby fairy named Ha, return to the non-magical world to search for the Emerald and protect it from Dokurokushe and his minions.

Mahou Tsukai Precure’s main themes are bonds and separation. It’s strengths lie in how it shows the relationship between Mirai and Riko. The show takes its time building their relationship in the first dozen or so episodes of their adventures in the magic world, highlighting their similarities and differences as they grow closer and learn to live with each other and fight as precure together. Well before the halfway mark it’s clear how strong their bond is and how deeply they care for each other, and the lengths they would go to for one another. Mahou Tsukai is an emotional ride in so many ways, every emotional moment hits its mark and the more you get attached to the characters the more the show will hit harder and harder with its moments, both sad and happy. Even side characters get satisfying and emotional conclusions to their storylines outside of the episodes they’re introduced in, it’s all wonderfully crafted.

KiraKira☆Precure A La Mode

Another return to the five cure format, Kirapre is also the second season to feature a sixth team member after Yes! Precure 5 Gogo!, as well as the second season to feature high school age precure after Heartcatch Precure. Usami Ichika is in her second year of middle school and loves sweets, especially making sweets. One day a hungry fairy named Pekorin finds her way into Ichika’s kitchen, and after being fed teaches Ichika about Kirakiraru, an energy source that exists in all sweets, and something that can be stolen and used for evil, leaving the sweets gray and tasteless. Utilizing the power of kirakraru in the shortcake she baked for her mother, Ichika becomes Cure Whip, one of the legendary patissiers, Precure. One by one other precure appear, the smart but shy Arisugawa Himari (Cure Custard), the rock band headliner Tategami Aoi (Cure Gelato), the fickle catlike Kotozume Yukari (Cure Macaron), and the responsible and helpful Kenjou Akira (Cure Chocolat). The five of them fight against the evils of Noir and those he has influenced: Julio, the mysterious masked boy who runs “experiments'' using kirakiraru, and Bibury, a mean spirited girl who uses her talking doll to steal kirakiraru and create monsters.

Kirapre’s main motifs are sweets and animals, and it has a pretty general togetherness and happiness theme going on, the standard precure stuff, mostly viewed through the lense of sweets and sweets-making. All the precure work as patissiers for one reason or another and it’s the main way the team bonds early on. The team, as well as the people of their small town, love sweets as a part of their culture and sweets maintain an important role as the emotional tie that binds most things together in the story. Overall Kirapre is a wonderful show with a great cast on both sides of the conflict, and a lot of care has been put into the show to make sure characters have their moments to interact with each other as well as have their own stories , even on a team of six every precure gets more than enough time to shine on her own. Kirapre is at it’s best when it takes two girls and puts them together for an episode, letting each unique dynamic play out in a fun and satisfying way. Kirapre is also noteworthy for the almost inarguably canonical relationship between two of the cures. It's not exactly explicit and it does leave something to be desired, since this is a Toei children's show, but there’s not really any other way to read the evolution of their relationship or their duet song, so I’m more than satisfied calling it canon.

This season is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll 

HUGtto! Precure

Precure’s 15th anniversary! This season is in many ways a celebration of all things Precure, bringing together a lot of familiar elements from past shows into one. Hugtto! is another five cure season whose main themes are destiny and future. Nono Hana (Cure Yell) is a thirteen-year-old girl whose dream is to be a "cool and stylish woman," although she worries that others see her as childish. One day, a hamster named Harryham Harry and a magical baby named Hugtan fall out of the sky into Hana's house. They're being chased from the future by an evil organization called Criasu Corporation, who are trying to use Hugtan's power to freeze time forever. Hana makes friends with two of her classmates: the responsible class representative Yakushiji Saaya (Cure Ange) and the reclusive ex-figure skater Kagayaki Homare (Cure Etoile), and together they fight Criasu while taking care of Hugtan and figuring out the many mysteries surrounding her. Expect some light sc-fi elements and an emphasis on modern technology/social media.

Hugtto! explores its themes primarily through the lenses of childcare and the workplace, giving us a look at how each girl comes to terms with the transition from childhood to adulthood. This season does a good job of letting each member of the team shine; you spend several episodes with each girl (or duo of girls) and there's a real sense of a complete character arc for all of them. The romance aspect is, unfortunately, pretty bad: there’s a return of hetero furry romance between Harry and Homare, and Hana’s love interest exhibits some really creepy behavior towards her. There’s uncomfortable age gaps in both of these relationships too so it’s a just a bit…. Yikes. Thankfully, it’s fairly easy to ignore like past seasons, but a warning for it nonetheless.

Something that makes this season stand out is its LGBT subtext; there's a TON of it even compared to the normal amount that Precure is known for. Without giving away too much, two of the cures this season are heavily coded as lesbians (though not with each other per se), and there's a subplot concerning a side character who is pretty explicitly (well, as explicit as Toei dares to be) a gender non-conforming man/nonbinary person in love with another man, and it's all very wholesome and presented in a positive light. Again, this is Toei, so don't expect anything too radical, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised with how Hugpre handles it.

Finally I'll just say that while Hugpre is a fantastic season on its own, I would personally recommend waiting to watch it after you've seen some other seasons (notably Futari wa). It's not required, but since Hugpre is an anniversary season, there are a few episodes (especially near the end) that will really hit different if you have an emotional connection to the franchise already. Ultimately though this is a fairly minor part of the show, so watching this season first won’t ruin it or anything like that, it’s just something to keep in mind.

Star☆Twinkle Precure

Precure… in space! Our protagonist, Hoshina Hikaru (Cure Star) loves space and cryptids, to the point of drawing her own constellations. One of her constellations is an adorable alien puffball, who warps into Hikaru’s room almost immediately after she draws it. The puffball quickly befriends Hikaru, who names her Fuwa. They are later joined by Prunce, the team dad friend/alien mascot, and Lala (Cure Milky), a humanoid alien who is an adult in her own culture. After our initial duo gets off to a bit of a rocky start, they are joined by the student council president, Kaguya Madoka  (Cure Selene) and a biracial upperclassman who is considered to be the “sun” of the school, Amamiya Elena (Cure Soleil). Together, they explore the universe and befriend all sorts of aliens, while also defending them from the Notraiders, who want to rid the universe of all imagination. On top of that, the universe is dying and the cures need to find the 12 astrologically themed Star Pens to save it and the 12 Star Princesses. This series is notable for attempting to break the “monster of the week” format, instead making it a “fight of the week”.

The major themes of Star Twinkle are space, imagination, and maturity. The cures have to explore the universe to find the Star Pens, and in doing so, visit a bunch of different planets. About half the series is spent on Earth, but the world still feels developed! Honestly speaking, the theme of imagination is forgotten pretty quickly and I’d refer to it more as free will. The theme of maturity is where Star Twinkle really shines. All of the cures have had to grow up too fast in some way, and the series is partially about just allowing them to goof off. Lala is considered an adult on her planet, and this plot point is treated realistically. Well, as realistically as it can be. This is one series I’d recommend avoiding spoilers like the plague for, because part of the fun is in how the plot twists are pulled off. Also Star Twinkle is notable for featuring the first ever dark skinned precure, as Elena is half-hispanic. 

Healin’ Good Precure

The currently airing Precure season, as of this writing. The Byogens seek to revive their king by inflicting viruses on Earth, the Healing Garden sends three medical interns to combat them. These interns, fairies named Rabirin, Pegitan, and Nyatoran, along with a baby fairy princess named Latte, journey to Earth to find partners to become Precure. They end up meeting Hanadera Nodoka, a kindhearted girl who was hospitalized for most of her young childhood. After Nodoka risks her life to protect Latte, Rabirin chooses her to become Cure Grace. Joined by older sister type Sawaizumi Chiyu (Cure Fontaine) and the outgoing Hiramitsu Hinata (Cure Sparkle), they form Healin’ Good Precure, and defend their friends and the Earth from the Byogen’s newest wave of attacks. 

This season is currently one of the few seasons available with official english subtitles on the streaming platform Crunchyroll.

Where To Watch Precure Online

Unfortunately for us, Precure isn’t really a thing in the west. There was a dub of Futari Wa back in the early 2000’s and Smile and Doki both got “adapted” into Glitter Force over on netflix (I don’t really recommend checking those out), but really Precure just doesn’t exist over here.

However, as mentioned above, there are currently three seasons avalible for streaming on crunchyroll. The original Futari Wa Precure, Kira Kira Precure A La Mode, and the current season, Healin’ Good Precure.

Beyond these isolated examples of official releases, you can really only watch precure online on streaming sites or through torrents. You can find precure pretty much on any major anime streaming site, kissanime, gogoanime, the works. You can also try your luck torrenting the seasons, i’ve found that pretty much every season has a working torrent you can find on sites like nyaa.si or the like. For more recent seasons you should have little difficulty getting torrents, and last time i checked every season was on one of the aforementioned streaming sites. What I’m saying really is there’s no single place to find precure, but it’s not impossible to find for sure.

Thanks for reading this post, I hope you decide to check out precure and I really hope you end up loving it.Thanks to my wonderful friend @meltorights​ for writing the sections on Yespre, Fresh, and Dokipre, to @wonderlilane​ for writing the sections on Splash Star and Huggto, and @cure-cosmo​ for writing the segment on Starpre. 

If you have questions feel free to drop me an ask I’d be happy to help. I will literally go out of my way to help you if it means getting someone new into precure so please do not hesitate by any means. 

[theforbiddenpriestess]

The Pharaoh & His Princess

Twelve |

Oasis Before Departure

The Pharaoh and the crown princess of Egypt sit on the bed, both of them gazing at the newly painted mural of deities in her room.

“These are the deities of Egypt, Anippe. Lots of people believe in them, even though they’ve never seen them. And on this wall, many artists imagined what some of them might look like.”

The four-year-old princess studied each deity. She looked at Horus first. He was the falcon-headed god that her father represented to the people of Egypt. She then looked across the room to another god.

“He’s the one you’re always praying to, isn't he?

Atem smiles a little. “Yes, I’ve been praying for him ever since... for a long time now.”

“He looks funny,” Anippe adds as she judges Osiris. The princess then looks at another deity.

“There’s Anubis!”

Atem chuckled, “Anubis looks a little scary to me, but you like Anubis.”

“Anubis is real big and strong, but he’s still nice. Just like you are Papa.”

“I’m like Anubis am I?” Atem chuckles again, “Imagine that.”

The Pharaoh then turns towards his daughter. With his deep voice he improvises, “Well, then I am Anubis! Roar!”

Anippe’s face breaks into a huge smile as she watches her father.

“You’re Anubis!” she cheers as Atem lets out another, “Roar!”

Suddenly, Anippe throws herself at him as he turns his back on her. “Uff,” they both fall from the bed laughing.

Laughing, Atem makes sure Anippe is holding onto his back before saying, “Here we go!” Atem then runs around her room, carrying Anippe on his back, as he yells, “Roar!”, “Roar!”, “Roar!”

Anippe is laughing and soon Atem is laughing with her.

A knock on the door suddenly interrupts their playtime. Anippe frowns as her father sets her down to the floor.

“Another urgent call, it must be Shimon again. It’s always him.”

Atem goes to answer the door. As a cue, Shimon bows immediately.

“My Pharaoh,” he begins before lifting his head, “This is about our departure to the Kingdom of Atlantis. It’s getting darker by the minute, if we leave now we’ll arrive just in time for the King’s requested dinner.”

Atem nods and lets Shimon leave. With a sad smile, he turns and faces his princess.

“I’ve got to go now, Anippe,” Atem says which makes Anippe frown even more.

“Papa I’m going to miss you,” she says.

Atem smiles sadly. “And I’ll miss you.”

He then reaches down and lifts her.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Atem promises just before she leans in his chest. He holds her closer to him.

“Keep me close, in your dreams,” Atem whispers soothingly, noticing how anxious Anippe seems in his embrace.

He then walks over to her bed and gently tugs her in.

Anippe gives him a small smile. Atem can’t help but smile tenderly at her bright innocent aquamarine eyes, soft smile, and cute little dimples.

“I love you.” Atem gently says. Anippe tries not to cry and begs him to not leave.

“Pleasant dreams Anippe.” is the last thing her father says. Anippe has a sad expression as she watches her father leave. For the first time in her life, she was being separated from her beloved father. She knew Mahad, Isis, and Seto were staying with her.

But, even though she loved them, she would miss her father deeply. Why did he have to go? Why couldn’t she go with him?

The princess just sighs sadly listening quietly to the countless soldiers in their horses march off towards Atlantis.

“I love you too, Papa,” Anippe whispers sadly into her big dark room.

Her father was now gone.

--

Note(s):

This whole chapter was inspired by the third Pokémon movie, Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unknown: Entei. Dan Greens provides the English voice for Professor Spencer Hale and the legendary pokémon Entei. Professor Spencer Hale has a small daughter named Molly and the relationship between those two is enough to melt your heart. That’s the same daughter and father relationship Atem has with Anippe. Go watch the movie and see what I’m talking about. (Warning though! The movie is extremely cheesy!)

“The Ancient Egyptians believed that their Pharaoh was the god Horus, son of Re, the sun god. When a pharaoh died he was believed to be united with the sun and then a new Horus ruled on earth.” - from primaryhomeworkhelp .com

“Osiris, one of Egypt's most important deities, was the god of the underworld. He also symbolized death, resurrection, and the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt relied on for agricultural fertility. According to the myth, Osiris was a king of Egypt who was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth.” - from britannica .com

“Anubis, easily recognizable as an anthropomorphized jackal or dog, was the Egyptian god of the afterlife and mummification. He helped judge souls after their death and guided lost souls into the afterlife. ... Therefore, Anubis was not evil but rather one of the most important gods who kept evil out of Egypt.” - from study .com

There are two reasons why Anippe makes the comment pointing out that her father is always praying to Osiris. Number one is because Osiris is Dan Green’s favorite Ancient Egyptian god. In case you didn’t know, Dan Green is both Atem and Yugi’s voice actor in the English dub. The second reason is a surprise so you’ll have to be patient. But, I mean, it’s pretty obvious as to why Atem is always praying to the god of the underworld.

Author’s Note(s):

I hope you all have been well. I got big news. I’m starting University pretty soon so I don’t know if updates will become slower or not.

Let’s see how it goes.

The events of this chapter are what occurred before the scene where Isis is with Anippe before joining Mahad and Seto and then leaving the palace late at night (which you can read in the chapter called “It’s Cold Outside”).

[timemachineyeah]

I think you're the one who loves sailor moon. If so did you watch the eternal movie on netflix yet? If so thoughts?

I, personally, loved it. I cried.

I don't know what someone who hasn't been in love with Sailor Moon for over two decades would get out of it. Maybe very little? It goes very quickly through the story and there's not a lot of time to take things in before we're hopping right along.

There are certain subplots (The Amazon Trio, Minako's inability to transform) that I feel like really would've benefited from being padded out and explored in a serialized story. Like, if we introduced Minako being unable to transform earlier, and then brought it back later? Would've been good. As I think I saw someone else point out, the only member of the Amazones Quartet whose name we even hear is PallaPalla. There's a lot of stuff like that, where I just go "god, I wish there was more time."

Like, if you hadn't been analyzing Sailor Moon and all its incarnations for years, you wouldn't even be able to learn the names of VesVes, JunJun, and CereCere from this. And that's not great. If you KNOW who they are, though, they did a good job. If you're already invested in this story, this is an incredibly beautifully animated and scored translation of some long-awaited manga scenes and it's so lovely to finally get to see it.

But without knowing this story beforehand?? Or at least the characters from other incarnations? IDK if it would be compelling or make sense.

I haven't watched the English dub yet, but I have watched the Japanese twice now and I was completely invested both times. Tears! Much crying.

I LOVE a big ending battle where a cool song plays in the background while every character takes turns shouting their powerup. I don't care if with so many characters it takes like five minutes, it was BEAUTIFUL OKAY. I LOVE THAT SHIT.

And god seeing the coronation scene makes me SO EXCITED for the wedding whenever they get around to adapting the Stars arc??? It's gonna be SO PRETTY.

I'm glad they added some embellishments to the old transformation sequences and attacks but you know what would've been even better? Storyboarding entirely new versions. That would've ruled. It feels cheap to just copy the old ones.

AND THEY HAD AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A JOINT TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE WITH MOON AND MASK AND THEY SQUANDERED IT. WHAT A WASTE. LET THEM HAVE CHOREOGRAPHY TOGETHER YOU COWARDS.

I also feel robbed of a solo Super Chibi Moon transformation and of a group transformation for the Asteroid senshi. C'mon. That's the good shit. Give it to me.

Unrelated to the movie itself, but I'm also thinking about how every other major franchise has had a next gen reboot (Naruto, Inuyasha, etc) and how og Sailor Moon set itself up for not one, but two next gen reboots (ChibiMoon and the Asteroids in Crystal Tokyo, and Parallel Sailor Moon) and yet has taken advantage of neither and how if I hadn't lived to see it I would not believe you that everything that's set up with the 30th century is just, basically, flavor text, and is not and never was a backdoor pilot for a spinoff.

Like, c'mon. *grabby hands* gimme a spinoff.

Anyway, in conclusion, I liked it. My biggest gripe is wanting more of it.

[spoocys-glade-of-dreams]

Behind the voice actors: Rayman

the first official edition of behind the voice actors. i figured it would be appropriate to start it with the main big nose himself!

This will also include the french voice actors i can confirm as being the roles. 

those i cannot find any information on or cannot confirm a voice actor for will not be included 

Rayman 1 English AND French: Steven Perkinson

Steven Perkinson was the original voice actor for Rayman. he did so as well in the educational games such as Rayman Jr. and French/English with Rayman. (he did both). 

he was the guy that did the YEAH! that would play upon completion of a level, but did actually have dialogue in game. 

RAYMAN ACTUALLY SPOKE IF YOU LEFT HIM IDLE FOR LONG ENOUGH IN RAYMAN 1

(“I’m waaaaaitiiiing” gave me fierce Jaleel White’s sonic the hedgehog vibes too. what a little doofus)

Sadly Perkinson didnt have much of any information on any roles other than the ones i listed. so this is actually a short entry.

Rayman Maternelle (French): Michel Mella

Rayman Maternelle, (aka Rayman Accompagnement Scolaire CP) also known as Rayman CP for English people

(Which he really didnt speak as far as i could find in the English version of this game) 

the French voice acting for Rayman, as well as the Clown in Love, and the Musician Monk were done by a man known as Michel Mella

Michel is probably one of the easiest French actors I’ve found that i can put his voices into a big group. 

He was the voice for Wakko Warner in the French dub of the original Animaniacs cartoon, 

Squidward Tentacles in the French dub of tv series Spongebob Squarepants, 

Mushu in the French dubs of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, 

and Banzai from the French dubs of the Lion King, the Lion king 1 1/2, and the second Kingdom Hearts game. to name a few.

Rayman the Animated Series (English): Billy West

(if you thought i wasn’t going to include the most iconic version of rayman that has lead to many memes and jokes to this day, boy you were mistaken)

in the animated series Rayman was voiced in the English dub by Billy west, and he did Rayman... well, some people consider he did Rayman dirty

Over-exaggerated Boston accent that was so bad that it became the reason we have THE CAH jokes today. 

(personally i do love the billy west rayman, i just don’t use him in mind for voice head canons in the main stream stuff. i do however always picture this goof when i do animated series specific stuff)

Billy west also did the voice of Detective grub in the animated series as well (which due to inconsistant crediting, i did finally determine it was billy west.)

Billy west, has a lot of voice history. allow me a brief summary:

Ren Hoek and Stimpson J. Cat (Stimpy) in Ren and Stimpy

Elmer Fudd in the looney tunes show and Rabbits Run

He did Both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in things like: Bah Humduck a Looney tunes christmas, Looney Tunes Stranger than Fiction, bugs bunny lost in time video game, and the original space jam movie. 

Phillip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth (GOOD NEWS EVERYONE), and Zoidberg from Futurama

Sparx the dragonfly in The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night

Rancid Rabbit from Catdog

Woody Woodpecker from “from the earth to the moon” and would voice both Woody and Wally Walrus in the New woody Woodpecker show

Doug Funnie, Roger Klotz, and Coach Spitz from the original Doug tv show. (billy has stated himself that he had nothing to do with the remake)

Rayman 2 and Revolution, and games all the way up to Rayman Raving Rabbids tv party (English): David Gasman

the voice i always had behind the Rayman!

David Gasman had been the voice of Rayman for YEARS since Rayman 2′s day. he was the guy that did English voice lines for Rayman.

For his other roles: depending on which version of the English dubs you’ve seen, he was the voice of none other than Goku (Son Goku/Kakarot) and Oolong in Dragonball media. 

(Which. coming from someone who has watched most of the anime here in the USA, i was only greeted to the Sean Schemmel voice acting for Goku) 

His roles for dragonball were goku in the  “Big Green” dub of Dragonball GT: a hero’s legacy, he was both goku and oolong, 

as well as Tien Shinhan in Dragonball Z: Bojack unbound, 

goku and oolong in Super Android 18, Broly the legendary super saiayn, 

and so on. again. it’s purely based on the version of English dub you can get ahold of. 

Gasman has also done the voice of Hellboy in the videogame Hellboy: Asylum Seeker, 

Pey’j in beyond good and evil, 

Aaron in Styx: Master of Shadows and Shards of darkness. 

Side note but Gasman also did the French dub Rayman for games like Rayman Arena and the port remakes, 

Rayman 2 and Revolution, Rayman the Animated Series, Rayman 3 hoodlum havoc (French):  Emmanuel Garijo

(Shout-out to @titenoute who helped me get a jump-start on this. thanks to a little anecdote made in the tags a post she reblogged, It helped me greatly. I looked into the name mentioned and got confirmation on this being a correct Rayman voice actor. I like having a name to the voice for the purpose of researching these voice roles. rayman and other-wise. thank you for that)

Rayman for the French versions of the main stream games as well as the voice actor for Rayman in the French version of the animated series was Emmanuel Garjio

and as @titenoute alerted me on this... yes. he has so many roles that i can group for the audience. so i’m going to try to give you a short version of his work in French dubs and voice acting. 

Alvin from alvin and the chipmunks movie, the squeakquel, and Chip-wrecked. 

French voice actor for Freakazoid,��

Masaru "N ° 27" from the french dub of the 1988 Akira anime movie

Tulio Monteiro from the Rio movies

Bobby Zimmeruski in the first Goofy Movie, 

adult Hercules in the disney animated movie and Kingdom hearts 1 and 2, and teen Hercules in the tv show, 

Stitch from Lilo and stitch both the first and second movies, in Kingdom hearts 2, Leroy and stitch, and Stitch! the movie

Mort from the Madagascar films

The gingerbread man from Shrek media

Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The clone wars media

and Lastly Montana max from tiny toons.

Rayman Origins, Legends, Mini, Adventures (All versions): Douglas Rand

Douglas Rand is who i consider the rayman voice actor veteran. he’s been around from the very first rayman game. in various roles.

When Rayman origins launched, he’s now the current voice actor for rayman...and pretty much every single character from that point. 

Like gasman did, Rand has done voice acting for Dragonball media English dubbing but it’s depending on the version of the dubs. Such as 

Yamcha and Tien Shinhan from Tree of might

Trunks, Yamcha, Andriod 17 and Vegeta from the history of trunks;

Vegeta and Mr. Popo from the return of cooler

Broly and Future trunks from broly the legendary super saiyan 

and many other roles within that franchise.

inside rayman specifically, he’s done many roles 

(Some will be featured in future behind voice actor posts as well. so i will actually not feature those ones to prevent myself from sounding like a broken record)

he was the spyglass pirate in the great escape, 

The teensies and Barbara the barbarian within Legends

the lines for Joe the Extra-Terrestrial in rayman 1, 

and my personal favorite and the one i have him still doing as a voice head canon, the thingamajig magician back in rayman 1. the original game. 

[komori--shoma]

Shoma Umi Komori.

🦢

(I'm sorry if my english is shitty-)

❛A sad soul can kill faster than bacteria.❜

—𝐽𝑜𝒉𝑛 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑘

⟅☙⟆ Universe ⟅☙⟆

Diabolik Lovers. I plan, however, to take her out of the universe and make her a character of her own. Or maybe I'll just drop it and do both. Who knows?

⟅☙⟆ Full Name ⟅☙⟆

Shoma Umi Komori.

"Shoma" is a Japanese name that means "Woman who seeks the truth, who is not conformist at all."  Her second name, "Umi", is also a Japanese name that means "ocean".

⟅☙⟆ Kanji ⟅☙⟆

シ ョ マ

⟅☙⟆ Nickname ⟅☙⟆

Despite being initially confused by these, as she was not used to it, she was given the nickname "Engel" (which means "Angel" in German) by a family quite close to her.  The nickname was given by the mother and head of the family, since in the eyes of that woman, Shoma is an angel.

Seiji, who was the adoptive father of the girl, called the young woman "Astertea", which is quite a "peculiar" name in the bible.

Yui, with whom she is no longer in contact with Shoma, used to call her "Sho" or "Shomi" affectionately.

⟅☙⟆ Age ⟅☙⟆

She is eighteen years old, although she looks a bit younger.

⟅☙⟆ Gender ⟅☙⟆

Feminine.

⟅☙⟆ Sexual Orientation ⟅☙⟆

She doesn't know yet. Doesn't really bothers her to know.

⟅☙⟆ Height ⟅☙⟆

160 cm.

⟅☙⟆ Weight ⟅☙⟆

She used to weigh 35 kg., But now she is a proud 64.5 kg.

⟅☙⟆ Blood type ⟅☙⟆

OR-

⟅☙⟆ Status ⟅☙⟆

Alive.

⟅☙⟆ Race ⟅☙⟆

Human

⟅☙⟆ Birthday ⟅☙⟆

June 20th.

⟅☙⟆ Sign ⟅☙⟆

Gemini.

⟅☙⟆ Favorite Color ⟅☙⟆

Light blue and night blue.

⟅☙⟆ Appearance ⟅☙⟆

There is a great before and after in her appearance, and even though she is not shown in her story (at the end of the card), there was the occasional change in her future.

The girl has oculocutaneous albinism, so her skin and hair are snow-white.  Her hair, due to a small "situation", was long, straight and lifeless.  Her hair almost touched her waist, and she basically managed to cover her view.  She is now a cute short hairstyle down to the nape of hers, wavy and neat.

Her skin is very pale and fragile, although now she is somewhat better, before she was simply rough and damaged.  She has several deep burns and scars on this one as well.

The young woman, despite not having very good eyesight, has beautiful eyes of a light blue color, somewhat grayish.

She has a mark on her right leg in the shape of a fox with several stars on it.  It's a pretty special symbol, but she keeps it covered most of the time.

She usually did not wear clothes other than bandages to cover herself, although she still finds old clothes to wear, even though she was a little too big.  Now, she got used to wearing light clothes that cover most of her body;  like jeans, leggings, or long dresses with something underneath.  She doesn't really like to wear short or see-through clothes.

⟅☙⟆ Personality ⟅☙⟆

Many think that she simply doesn't have any kind of emotion. Shoma never shows any kind of expression in public, she is shown with her face up and with a look so cold that she makes it true to her appearance. The young woman is too serious, and depending on the person, it is very difficult to get her out of her typical attitude.

Sho is an elegant little girl, and full of grace despite all her troubles. She will never be friendly enough in front of someone (again, it depends on the person), but she will also not feel uncomfortable or unwelcome unless that is the goal of the little one. Shoma knows that she is able to erase someone from the earth fas if she wishes, but she doesn't abuse that thought, you just have to be careful not to make her angry or touch her too much.  It could be a big mistake.

Still, well ...

She is always alert, so it is very easy for her to get nervous or anxious most of the time.

She can also happen that she cannot do something right (she finds it very difficult to concentrate / think on several occasions, as well as sometimes she finds it difficult to understand what happens around her, etc).  Still, it is something that doesn't happen as much as before, after leaving the aforementioned situation in which she found herself.

She is easily frustrated, and this happens when she recognizes that she has trouble thinking.  It's very easy for her to cry or tear up in frustration (she doesn't do it in public, she refuses to do it, but that only makes it worse).  Also, her coping strategy is simply not talking about her emotions and keeping a straight face all the time.

Still, and even though she very reluctantly accepted help, Sho is willing to change and improve (even if she has to go through hell first).  She has shown to be too cunning for her age and to behave as if she were an adult, and even though she is slowly trying to behave according to her age, she is very difficult for her as well.

Anyway, Shoma can also be a girl who listens to others and is willing to do it regardless of the situation, and she is always there to be a shoulder on which one can cry.  She also tends to have fun when she feels calm around her, being one of the few moments when she feels and acts like a young little girl.

⟅☙⟆ Relatives ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Seiji Komori: Adoptive father.  Currently dead.

⟣ Yui Komori: Adoptive sister.  Currently alive.

⟅☙⟆ Favorite Food ⟅☙⟆

She doesn't have a single specific favorite food, but she definitely likes sweet and simple foods, like grated applesauce and banana, or a fruit salad.

⟅☙⟆ Hoobies ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Shoma likes to make paintings with her hands.  She serves to entertain him and clear her mind.

⟣ She also likes to make crowns with different types of flowers, even some bracelets and necklaces.

⟣ She has a certain fascination for mathematics and literature, so it is normal to see her do either of the two when she is bored.  The problem is when she has a hard time doing a difficult exercise.

⟣ She Likes to play decorating and decision-making video games. She likes to decorate and combine, so it is normal for her as a hobby to do the odd combination in video games, or in a room.

⟣ It may not count as a hobby, but Shoma loves to watch an episode of a series that she likes or a movie many times to imitate the lines, as if it were some kind of dubbing attempt.

⟅☙⟆ Occupation ⟅☙⟆

None, she doesn't consider herself a student, even if she studies at home.

⟅☙⟆ Relationships ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Seiji Komori, adoptive father.

She did not have a good relationship with him no matter how hard she tried at the time.  It was too obvious the favoritism that he had with Yui, and how she always stayed in the shadow of the blonde.  Despite trying to be like Yui, he could never have any kind of acceptance with her father.

⟣ Yui Komori, adoptive sister.

He adored her with her soul. Yui was Shoma's heroine, and she always tried to follow her example despite her unruly attitude as a child.  The elder Komori was Shoma's world, and he simply wanted to be with her all the time.

Things have changed now. She can't even look at her. The disgust and hatred that he has for that now young woman is simply immense. And believe it when I say she tries; she tries too hard to forget so many things that caused this feeling, but she just can't.

⟣ Yvonne Beauchene, the right hand.

Shoma's only trusted person alongside her family.  Yvonne was Shoma's guardian from the day he arrived at the church, although she had some problems because of it, and that is the reason why she had to leave, but surely nothing bad could happen, right?

⟅☙⟆ Likes ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Despite not having tasted it in recent years, she liked (and still remembers the taste of it, so she still likes) Yvonne's orange tarts a lot.  She used to do them when Seiji was not at home for her, Yui and Shoma.

⟣ She loves music, especially the one that doesn't have any type of letter and is only a beautiful and hypnotizing melody. Her favorite, and also Yvonne's, is "The Vampire Masquerade", which is the melody which Yvonne met her husband.

⟣ Regarding the above, she usually daydreams many times with music in the background and she likes that (because the real world sucks and it is her only way out of the stress and anxiety that she feels most of the time). She sometimes even draws or paints those scenarios that are formed in her head.

⟣ As said before, she likes to play decorating and decision-making video games.  Also, despite having the face of wanting some horror games (these make her heart race and sometimes she has panic attacks), she prefers Animal Crossing by a lot.

⟣ Loves snakes (which are not poisonous), cats and dogs.  Snakes are very good company, and cats and dogs are responsible for keeping her calm.

⟅☙⟆ Dislikes ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Despite having been seen surviving based on it, she does not like meat very much.  Of course, she can bear it, she even likes some (very few) meat dishes !, but there are certain types of meat that remind him too much of ... well, her own meat.

⟣ Obviously, she can't stand going to churches or things related to religion.  She gets too anxious and nervous.

⟣ Her body and mind literally rejects any kind of physical affection if she doesn't know the person very well or doesn't trust them. It's no surprise, considering her personality.  Very few people are lucky enough to even put a hand on her shoulder and not get hurt (Shoma doesn't do it on purpose).

⟅☙⟆ Fears and Phobias ⟅☙⟆

⟣ Somniphobia: fear of sleeping.

Oneirophobia, somniphobia, clinophobia or hypnophobia is an irrational and excessive fear of the act of sleeping.  People who suffer from it enter a state of panic caused by the fear that while they are sleeping something terrible will happen to them, such as the possibility of stopping breathing or that they will never wake up, even knowing that there is no threat, but  they stay awake, presenting insomnia.  Some people who have this phobia associate going to bed with death.

In some cases, panic is unleashed by the belief that the dreams that will be had when sleeping are actually delusions and these will favor falling into a state of permanent madness.  This type of phobia generates a great deal of stress and significant physical and mental deterioration, so it is not uncommon for many people to end up suffering from hallucinations, a fact that further aggravates this type of phobia: fear of sleeping.

Shoma cannot sleep because various things used to happen during these.  She remembers well once a nun (then she disappeared without a trace) entered her room and hanged her, almost killing her if it weren't for Yui screaming for help.

⟣ Theophobia: fear of religion.

Theophobia is the fear or aversion to religion or the gods, and being more common among people who are raised in an environment of iron religiosity.  Theophobia can express itself as fear, aversion, anger, or other negative emotion towards religious practices.  In some cases, the theophobic representation can categorize the deity as an arbitrary totalitarian dictator or, conversely, as unworthy of worship.

It is common among people who suffer from theophobia to avoid religious texts, houses of worship (churches, mosques, synagogues ...) and even the parishioners of a religion.

The young woman lived in a church for years and was not treated as "a daughter of God", but as "an aberration of satan" by her father and certain nuns.  She causes him so much fear that, if there really is a god, she has abandoned her for "not being worthy".  Many things together caused this irrational fear of religion in general.

⟣ Hafephobia: fear of being touched.

Hafephobia is a specific phobic disorder (unlike agoraphobia or social phobia) that causes great suffering in the person who suffers from it.

It is an irrational fear of great intensity that manifests itself when the individual suffering from the phobia comes into physical contact with other people and is touched.  It produces a series of cognitive, physiological or behavioral responses, among which extreme anxiety and the attempt to avoid the feared stimulus to reduce the unpleasant sensation stand out.

Shoma, of course, is working on this and for now she's doing very well, but if she's some stranger, she isn't going to allow herself to be touched or touched by another individual. She is so afraid that every touch will turn into a blow or something to harm her.

⟣ Atazagoraphobia: fear of forgetting.

Atazagoraphobia is the excessive fear of forgetting, which includes both the fear of forgetting and the fear of being forgotten or replaced by others.  Despite the fact that it is a common sensation, atazagoraphobia has been little described in scientific language.  In fact, it has been more pointed out by philosophers and writers who speak of atazagoraphobia as the fear of eternal anonymity.

Shoma was literally forgotten or ignored from a young age, and she doesn't want to go through it again. She doesn't want to feel so cold again that she can't breathe properly or move. She can't, she doesn't want to...

⟅☙⟆ Headcannon Voice ⟅☙⟆

Mia Rodríguez.

⟅☙⟆ Skills ⟅☙⟆

⟣ She is impressively good with knives and razors.  She usually uses them for cooking.

⟣ Literally she can imitate many voices, even male ones.  She uses it to make jokes or for some plan (to get some dessert) that she has in mind.

⟣ She is becoming more and more independent, and that is why she is getting very good at cooking.  She even manages to focus on that rather than other things.

⟅☙⟆ Extra ⟅☙⟆

⟣ She has undiagnosed “attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”.

⟣ She tends to bite her arm or bite her nails if she is very anxious.

⟣ It is difficult for her to accept some changes in her life, but she manages to adapt step by step.

⟣ She likes to play with Yvonne's family, August, her husband, being Shoma's favorite.

⟣ She is considerably innocent of the world around her, but at the same time, she isn't.  She is aware that the world revolves around that filthy green paper, and she is very clever with it.  She knows that her "condition" and her situation may be a weak point, but it is for that reason that she is also careful who she hangs out with.

⟅☙⟆ History ⟅☙⟆

Shoma arrived at the doors of the Komori family church on May 22, 2001, with only a note that said "My name is Shoma, Mom and Dad can no longer take care of me," just three weeks after I was born. She was greeted by one of the local sisters, a favorite of the owner and leader of that church, Seiji Komori. The latter named was not on that cold night, with the snow falling slowly in that beautiful place, so the same sister took care of the girl in his absence.

A girl with blond hair and pink eyes like the petals of a cherry tree approached said sister, curious by the cries that began to be heard.  Seeing her up close, and seeing that beautiful celestial gaze, the seven-year-old girl took the girl in her arms (with the permission of her sister), and did not leave her during that night until the next day. It was no surprise to the sister that her crying stopped as soon as the young Komori began to gently cradle her in her arms.

Still, from the moment Seiji arrived, he knew that something was wrong with the girl, that she was "not human", and that he probably knew whose "gift" it was.  Shoma was unwelcome, and he couldn't show her that in public, not with Yui close to her. Also, the plan deviated. No, he isn't supposed to have two daughters, and she is supposed to be just one more orphan, but the young blonde girl already called her "Shoma Umi Komori", and that could be ... Something dangerous for him.  Obviously, the orders for Shoma to come to his office were not long in coming as soon as he was two years old.

What Shoma saw in her supposed father's room was sealed in her mind, and nothing else. Every time Shoma was called to her father's office, her heart raced because she knew something bad was going to happen.  Every time that happened it was because she Shoma found out more and more that she was going to happen to every sixteen, maybe seventeen-year-old on certain dates. It was because Shoma knew too much about her, and if he couldn't make her forget everything she had seen, then she would silence her to her grave.  Every time Shoma gained courage and told Yui, she was scolded for inventing such things, and she would see her father again for "breaking her promise" to him.

The only one who managed to believe her is the same sister who received her the day Shoma arrived there, although that same sister would get a serious face everytime Sho told her that, she never had to see her father when she told Yvonne.

But, one day, Seiji went a bit far with the punishments, and let the fury just blind him, even if he didn't even regret it afterwards.  Seeing Shoma talk to someone... Important, once this man left the church it just infuriated him. That man's smile when he stopped talking to her and saw him in the eye was not good news at all.  That night, everyone heard the screams of a three-year-old girl resound throughout the establishment, and she was found in the middle of the hall with a desperate Seiji, saying that she had been playing with a poker and that she tripped, with it smacking part of her face.

Shoma began to startle every time someone moved near her, every time someone placed her hand on some part of her body, or when they called her, or when they approached her. She didn't separate from Yui or the sister she trusted so much, and even though it started to be annoying for Yui as she grew older, there were very few times when she was really rude to Shoma due to the fatigue of having her on her back every day three seconds, but they just didn't help Shoma with her fear of being alone, either with Seiji, or with certain nuns. The sister who had her trust steadfastly refused to leave her alone if she wasn't with Yui, although it was only because she slipped out of sight once.

Things escalated to the worse on December 12, 2006, at exactly a quarter past two in the morning.  It was precisely an exhausting day for the girl, because the nun who was taking care of her and her sister had to leave due to family problems, or so they told her.

The albino-haired girl couldn't sleep due to some nightmares, even though she had become very habitual.  The young woman began to hear murmurs and footsteps outside the room that she shared with Yui, and she could make out her father's voice.  She could make out her desperate tone from her ... And, strangely, anger.

Carefully, she got out of her bed without making any noise, but following a little voice in her head, she took the camera that belonged to the blonde that was a gift from her only trusted caregiver, and opened  slowly the door.  Her father had locked himself in her office, and she could hear someone else's voice.  On tiptoe, he approached the door ajar, and looked behind it.  Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw the body of one of the older girls on the ground, tied up and with blood pouring from her head.  That memory is somewhat blurry, but it remembers very well various parts of the conversation between her father and a man with long hair.  She took photos, and to her surprise, they did not have flash, and the photos came out perfectly ... That woman had many strange objects.

Once she finished, she turned, intending to leave, but one of the nuns spotted her, yelling to warn Seiji. Shoma wasted no time running and closing in on her sister's room, which she was awakened by her scream. Shoma told her everything quickly, leaving the photos to hide them, and the little girl didn't hesitate long to jump out the window (it was not the first time that she did that out of boredom), and she ran away from there.  Still, the nun had gone ahead, and it wasn't long to be just a few steps away from her with her father's poker, part of them burning. 

She remembers her sister with hatred seeing it all in horror and just standing there with the camera in her hands, shaking, to simply turn and turn her back on him.

In the blink of an eye, she was dragged by her hair by her "father" and other nuns, and before she had a chance to run away, the girl was thrown into the basement, away from other people, away from Yui, away from  everyone.  She tried to get out, scream, but no one ever came.

Nobody, nobody at all...

And here ends her story.  The young woman, thanks to her curiosity, sealed her fate.  She was destined to die in that place, even if she didn't want that, alone and starving, not knowing if Yui or someone would remember her...

But they say that there is always someone who takes care of us somewhere, right?  Even if she has no hope... Maybe there really is someone, even without her knowing it.

[tricewithaz]

THOTS ON SHADOW AND BONE

Hello everyone! it is I, Trice, and i come with my thoughts on the Shadow and Bone show cause ive got many

I'm gonna divide this in what i liked, what i disliked, and what i think could have been better but didn't really bother me. Feel free to send your opinions too!

As a whole, I really liked the show and I think it's a great adaptation that both fans and newcomers will enjoy. It's super well done! and every episode had me glued to the tv even though I knew what was going to happen.

Beware this is long

To start,

What i liked

Mal and Alina

I never really liked Mal in the books, mainly cause he had like, nothing going on for him, and not having his pov made him no favors whatsoever. Alina's perception of him was everychanging, two factors that didn't make him unlikeable necessarily, but that made me not want to read about him. In the show he's way more likeable and even though he still doesn't have a lot going on for him, you can see that he's always trying to protect alina, and you also see a bit of his demeanor through Archie's acting. I think he made a great job at portraying him. And Alina! Alina who in the books was essentially a y/n sort of character (although she did get better over time), her character, likes, dislikes, her DRIVE was incredibly portrayed in the show. Also Jessie (loml, marry me) and Archie have incredible chemistry together and they sold their yearning SO WELL (and so did the kid actors portraying them as children oh my GOD)...yall...i cried when they held hands. My favourite scene was definitely when Alina took care of Mal's wounds (a favorite trope of mine). And the HURT in their eyes whenever they thought the other was in danger....i saw the show dubbed but I'm sure their voices made it beyond incredible as well, their face acting was just on. point. Overall the show rEALLY makes me root for them both individually and together which is something the books didn't manage to do.

The Darkling

AAAAA i really enjoyed the Darkling omg, incredible charisma, Ben does such a great job (and so did his voice actor in Spanish oh my GOD). His acting was just as I imagined it in the books and i loved how he could be as sweet and mysterious as he could be menacing. In fact! i liked him more than i did in the book, and i think it was a great choice to make him more human. I'm not sure if this was Ben or the writing, but i could really see his yearning for an equal, for Alina, his loneliness and his thirst for power and control too. Great love interest, even greater villain. And his wardrobe was phenomenal. I also really liked how they implied that The Darkling was a name given by other people, it was very believable that people would call someone who literally controls shade something akin to "son of the dark" or something of the sort, instead of it being a name he gives himself or his job title (both if which are incredibly pathetic and cringy to think about).

Jesper

No comments. He was just great. I love Kit.

Nina

Omg Danielle did SUCH a great job at portraying Nina, it's exactly how i imagined her in Six of Crows.

Helnik

THE. YEARNING. THE. CHEMISTRY. I didn't love their scenes at the boat but once that was over I was practically screaming at the screen to jUST KISS ALREADY. Calahan and Daniell have such good chemistry together and the few changes they made only served the story better. I did wish they had development over more time cause Matthias' change of mind felt too quick, but i get why they had to rush. Because of how good their chemistry was, their fallout also was incredibly painful.

Inej's fear of the Menagerie and her morals

Amita's portrayal of Inej's hurt, devotion and her refusal to kill (and later hurt cause she has killed) is incredibly subtle but so SO effective. She's so talented really and truly sold Inej's feelings throughout the show.

VFX

Man.....the fold, the volcra, the grisha powers.....kudos to the animators and overall artistic team cause they were incredible. Also seeing the different title animations in each episode was such a tiny detail that made me so excited and they all looked so good.

Ketterdam

Again, kudos to the artistic team, everything about Ketterdam felt so alive (and weirdly moist), truly sold a kind of aesthetic and life that is so characteristic if the Barrel, even when i didn't imagine it that way in the books.

David

He appeared like, twice, and both times were so cute and charming I can't wait to see more of him both on his own and with Genya.

The Wardrobe

So, at first i hated the keftas. I thought the looked tacky and costume, but when you see them on screen they're just perfect (although i have to say the patterns on some of the keftas were kind of...cheap looking? and the training keftas were just kinda boring. My favourite was the Darkling's. Aside from that, i really liked Kaz's and inej's clothes too. Very distinctive and recognizable (although it was kind of weird seeing Inej in teal instead of purple lmao).

And the queen's dresses. Chefs kiss.

It's...so cheesy (affectionate)

The whole show felt like the kind of movies I would watch as a kid like Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean. The writing was stylized enough to make it incredibly dramatic and overall there was just so much heart behind all of it. Definetely a show to watch again and again and feel all of it, cause that's what it being so cheesy managed, to make me actually feel for it. It feels like something to watch on a rainy afternoon after a bad day....it's great okay i really enjoyed it, even (specially) the most unbelievable parts of it. And here's the thing, it's something that i think a lot of newer tv and film have lost, so this is good.

What i didn't like

Zoya

Mostly cause of the writing. Originally, in the first book, i didn't like her, neither as a character (stereotypical mean girl with no other motivation than to bang the love interests....all three of them....what's new i still think it's an incredibly sexist trope) or a person (hey at least this was intentional), but over time i grew to LOVE her (mean girl turns out to have a good heart and actually respects the mc and decides to fight alongside her cause it's what's right, without necessarily liking her or giving up her character??? AND she has strong motivations??? now THAT'S new). In the show, i hoped they would keep her mean girl nature while foreshadowing her depth, but all they did was turn her into a petty seductress with barely any screentime, and that only makes her not even a bad antagonist but just a boring character to watch. Not only that but they took away a big part of her character that needed to be developed in the next books. I wanted to watch her rivalry with Alina, her unjustified venomous tongue too, I wanted to be entertained by her and I wasn't. This was also a problem cause when she finally changed teams, and when she hugged Alina, it was incredibly unsatisfying, it would have had a way stronger effect if we had seen her being Ruthless Zoya with a big ambition. I also didn't like how we were told that she didn't like alina, or that she had a family, instead of it being shown on screen. Just from the show, all i can tell you about her is that she likes to bang people and she has a good moral code i guess. Yall, I'm so petty about this.

Kaz

So, I didn't hate him, in fact i think I would have enjoyed him if I hadn't read the books first, cause the two things that bother me about him were two essential characteristics of him in the books. FIrstly, he seems so strained, instead of the seemingly laid back, almost chill looking (even though we know he's not chill at all) Kaz we see in the books, the Kaz that always knows something that you don't. Show Kaz doesn't seem to always be in control, to always have the last word, the last laugh. Instead he seems strained, all the damn time. And I think this is mainly a writing and directing issue. And he also seems weak, something Book Kaz would never do. This is also an issue cause because he doesn't have the same presence he has in the books, the times where he is weak, don't seem as effective. Sure, Pekka Rollins has essentially reduced him and humiliated him, but I haven't seen enough of Kaz being actually dangerous for this to be shocking and for Pekka to seem even more hateable (and, i really liked Pekka, loved him as an antagonist more than i did in the books). Idk, Kaz was so charismatic and just fun and engaging to read in the books that his portrayal in the show felt lacking.

Alina's power's VFX

The little suns were cute and all but the light coming from within her was just ugly I'm sorry.

SFX

A lot of the sound design was just too stylized for the tone of the show i think. I particularly remember the sound of Mal's punches....what's that about.

What i think could have been better, but didn't particularly dislike

The Crows' storyline

And i think part of this is a consequence of Kaz not being as witty as he was in the books. Where's the incredibly complicated heist moves? the even more unbelievable C and D plans when something goes wrong? I didn't like that them getting Alina was essentially just luck, cause i didn't see enough of them being smart and quick on their feet. I also think it was unnecessary to have their storyline mixed with Alina's, i would have enjoyed watching a different heist, maybe in Ravka as well, and them incidentally crossing paths with Alina, more than i liked this storyline. ironically enough, the heist was the part i was least interested in

Genya and Alina

I just feel like her relationship with Alina wasn't strong enough, and i think it's because the show tried to make us believe they were much closer than they were without spending the necessary time in them.

Overall, I really really enjoyed the show, i will be watching it again (particularly cause i want to watch it in English) and i cannot wait for the second season omg (although i have to say, I'm scared for Nikolai)

I think that's all! I would also love to read yall's opinions and have a conversation.

[onestowatch]

Meet CRAVITY, the K-Pop Super Rookies With a Gravitational Pull [Q&A]

Photo: Courtesy of Artist 

The world of K-Pop is always changing and evolving, and CRAVITY is the latest group to illustrate the universal appeal of the worldwide phenomenon. Originally debuting in the midst of the ongoing COVID pandemic, the affectionately-dubbed “Super Rookies” found themselves in an unprecedented situation, having to make a name for themselves in a genre built around extraordinary live shows and human connection, all while the world shut down around them. In spite of the odds, the group’s debut, Hideout: Remember Who We Are, climbed to the top of the U.S. iTunes K-Pop chart, cementing their place as super rookies ready to take the world by storm.

And hardly a year following their noteworthy debut, CRAVITY is back to make good on the early promise that came with topping with the iTunes chart and being Starship Entertainment’s first new boy band in five years (following in the footsteps of their seniors, Monsta X). The Awakening: Written in the Stars arrives as the group’s first full-length debut album and serves as a marked maturation for each of the members. Consisting of eight tracks that transcend genres, from explosive hip-hop to euphoric electronic-laden pop, CRAVITY fearlessly brings their ambitious vision to life.  

We had the chance to catch up with the boys behind CRAVITY via e-mail ahead of the release of their full-length debut album, which is out now, to check-in and see how they’re doing before they become a household name. 

Ones to Watch: What does CRAVITY mean?

Serim: It’s a combination of the word “Creativity” and “Gravity” and it has special meaning behind it--we (CRAVITY) will gravitate the audience into our unique universe with our charms.

What’s one fun fact about every member of CRAVITY?

Allen: Apparently I sleep talk in three languages? English, Korean, and Chinese.

Hyeongjun: I always wear contact lenses whether it’s a day off or not.

Seongmin: I enjoy eating jellies and candies these days.

Serim: I always clear my throat before I sing or rap.

Minhee: I don't like eggplant.

Jungmo: Allen sleep talks in three different languages and these days, he likes to shop online.

Woobin: I bite my nails, I am always looking for a new song, and beatboxing is one of the things that I enjoy doing these days.

Wonjin: These days, I play the game called Animal Crossing, but I'm too lazy to pull weeds on my island. I need some help haha ☺

Taeyoung: Many fans say I look like a cat! BUT I am actually allergic to cats ~

And what are everyone’s roles?  

Allen: I lead the group during dance practices and make sure everyone is looking sharp by the time we release new music or prepare for a performance.

Hyeongjun: I’m in charge of passion! HJ = Passion! 

Seongmin: I am the “Maknae” of the group and as the youngest member, I get along with my brothers (members) and I’m like the vitamin for the group!

Serim: The strongest and photographer for the members.

Minhee: Everyone is different, so it's fun

Jungmo: I’m in a vocal position in CRAVITY, so sometimes I upload vocal cover videos.

Woobin: I'm the main vocal of the group. 

Wonjin: I like to make some jokes to keep our team’s mood up. It looks so easy, but it is actually very hard.

Taeyoung: My role is to hype up our members!

Serim, do the boys ever make being the group leader a difficult job or are they all pretty well-behaved?

Serim: I think it's really comfortable because the members listen to me well and follow me well.

Were there any particular challenges that arose from debuting in the midst of a pandemic?

Allen: There were definitely moments where I was up on stage tired and worn out, not being able to perform at my best due to not having a live audience, but I still try my best to not let that show through the camera lens. 

Hyeongjun: I think the biggest challenge is not being able to meet the fans.

Seongmin: I wanted to perform in front of the fans, but I'm sad that I can't. 

Minhee: It's still very difficult that I can't show our stages directly to the fans.

Serim: I'm in charge of passion. Expectations about meeting our fans are growing, but I'm sad that we can't at the moment. 

Jungmo: Before our debut, we imagined performing on stage in front of our fans and around the world, but these days we are just performing in front of cameras so it’s really sad. We really miss you guys!

Woobin: I want you to understand what CRAVITY is trying to say. We really miss you and want to see you guys in person.

Wonjin: The fact that we can’t see our fans. We had a fairly long break in between our new album and the last one, but it felt as if it was a year. In addition, when we perform on stage without our fans, it’s hard for us to be energetic. 

Taeyoung: That we can't meet our fans face to-face... that is a big, sad problem.

With your debut reaching number 1 on the US iTunes K-pop chart, how does it feel going forward with future projects?

Wonjin: I’m so excited because there is only one way for us which is to go up.

What do you hope people take away from your first official album?

Hyeongjun: We prepared a lot for the performance so please look forward to our performance and be sure to look out for our music video too!

Woobin: We tried to incorporate various genres and sounds into this album, so we hope you can find your taste in it!

Can you speak on the title of your full-length debut album, The Awakening: Written in the Stars?

Seongmin: It's focused on the keyword “Awakening,” a challenge towards a new goal. Also, please look forward to seeing how CRAVITY’s message will be written in the future!

Jungmo: It’s our first full-length album, and it means that we are all awakened and got more mature after coming out from our hideout.  

Why do you think K-Pop has become such a worldwide phenomenon?

Allen: I believe K-Pop truly has something magical going on. Its power to connect people from all around the world is unbelievable. Social media definitely plays a big part in making K-Pop into such a world phenomenon, but I firmly believe that music is a universal language and that no matter where you’re from or what language you speak, the emotions portrayed by a piece of music will always be well communicated.

Are there any other groups or artists you would love to collaborate with?

Allen: It’d be nice for us to collaborate with Steve Aoki. His collaboration, “Play It Cool” with our company senior Monsta X really suited their vibe and sound, so I feel like if he ever got to produce for us, he would be able to create something that would really suit our image and our sound.

Hyeongjun: It’s still the same for me, I want to collaborate with MONSTA X.

Seongmin: I'd love to collaborate with Charlie Puth.

Serim: I’ve always liked Ateez sunbaenim’s performances and would like to have a collaboration opportunity with them.

Minhee: Anyone is good, it would be an honor for us to have an opportunity to collaborate with other artists.

Jungmo: I want to collaborate with Jooyoung sunbaenim because our new album has a lot of cool tracks written by Jooyoung sunbaenim and his crew! Also, I want to learn his vocal style.

Woobin: Lauv, and Kihyun from our senior group MONSTA X.

Wonjin: I want to collaborate with The Kid Laroi. I knew him through a song called “Stay.” I fell in love with his vocal skills and style and he is so young. I want to be his friend.

Taeyoung: I’m still waiting for the opportunity to collab with The Chainsmokers.

You’ve yet to perform for your fans in a large-scale setting. How do you feel about the possibility of performing for your fans on tour?

Taeyoung: I’m really excited to meet LUVITYs around the world and perform on stage while listening to their voices. It would be an unforgettable experience in my life.

Is there anything you all like to do when not working on music?

Allen: We all enjoy playing board games together. A few of us also like to work out or play sports such as soccer, baseball, badminton, and basketball.

Hyeongjun: I’m into watching tv series on Netflix.

Seongmin: First of all, I'm looking forward to meeting many fans, and I'm looking forward to learning about the culture of various countries. I also enjoy reading books.

Serim: Watching movies!

Minhee: I’m currently looking for one!

Jungmo: I like watching horror movies because I am interested in ghost haha.

Woobin: Cooking? I love to cook!

Wonjin: I like baseball or basketball, but these days because of COVID-19, I’m sad I can’t play.

Taeyoung: I like to play badminton and watch memes~

If you could say one thing to all your fans, what would it be?

Allen: Don’t go anywhere and stay right where you are. We will come find you once the pandemic subsides.

Hyeongjun: Let’s not stop here, LUVITY! Fighting!

Seongmin: Let's always be healthy until we meet each other.

Serim: LUVITY~~ I miss you and I love you.

Minhee: LUVITY! Always be happy!

Jungmo: We really prepared this album hard, so we hope you like it. We always love you guys.

Woobin: Please look forward to our new album! Love ya!

Wonjin: Please love our new album and stay healthy. I miss you guys so so much.

Taeyoung: I just want to say I really care about our fans and I love you so much! 

What’s next for CRAVITY?

Allen: They say the sky’s the limit but we’re going to be up by satellites.

Seongmin: It’s my goal to finish our album promotions well and I hope to meet our fans as soon as possible.

Minhee: There's still a long way to go and I'm pretty sure that there will be more opportunities for us to be on stage in the near future, so I think we should all work harder to move forward.

CRAVITY’s full-length debut album, The Awakening: Written in the Stars, is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.

[medea10]

My Review of Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out

How did I get into this anime? Memes, controversy, outrage…I will get to you eventually! I know there were many people split on this anime and mainly the leading lady with the big bazooms. I’ll get to the controversy soon, for now let’s get down to what Uzaki-chan is about and why she wants to hang out.

Hana Uzaki is now a freshman in college. And on her first day, she runs into a senpai from her high school days, Shinichi Sakurai. Their first meeting really didn’t go anywhere. And the first 2 minutes of the series, we fast-forward through one whole year where Uzaki is watching Sakurai really do nothing with his life. Something must be done about this pile of nothing! One year later…

Hana Uzaki is now a sophomore in college. And on her first day of the new term, she decides to hang out with Sakurai. But Sakurai really has no interest in being all that social. He goes to his classes, he goes to work, and then heads home. Hey, I’m like that too, dude! No shame in that! But you can’t tell an out-going extrovert like Uzaki. Uzaki wants to keep Sakurai from being such a loner and takes him to different places like shopping malls, batting cages, movies, cafes, and all sorts of places. So basically it’s Uzaki-chan wanting to hang out with her senpai, but senpai doesn’t want to and finds Uzaki-chan an annoying twat that teases him.

That’s the anime! Make with it as you will!

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Okay FUNimation, you’re doing an anime involving college-aged students. Not just that, but a series with plenty of sexual double-entendres. I know you guys LOVE to input lines that have nothing to do with the series and no Japanese student would ever say that. So if you could just stick to the written material, that’d be great.

Actually, the dub isn’t half-bad. If I get to hear the great Kent Williams, I’m happy. And once again, we’ve got the female Jesus voice actress Monica Rial voicing the TITular, bubbly Uzaki. She’s perfect! Honestly, my only thought on the dub is every time Sakurai says the word, “Phrasing”. We know what he means when he says it! I just fear that one day I’ll wake up to Adam Reed and Jon H. Benjamin suing FUNimation for the use of “Phrasing”. I’m sure there are a bunch of AMV Hells using Archer clips with this anime. Yes, the dub is a boat-load of fun. With that said, here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Uzaki is played by Naomi Oozora (known for Susanna on Genshiken Nidaime, Tellu on Sailor Moon Crystal, and Chieri on Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls)

*Sakurai is played by Kenji Akabane (known for Producer on Idolm@ster)

ENGLISH CAST: *Uzaki is played by Monica Rial (known for Bulma on DBZ: Kai, May Chang on FMA: Brotherhood, Index on Railgun/Index, Nyamo on Azumanga Daioh, Stocking on Panty & Stocking, and Mei-rin on Black Butler)

*Sakurai is played by Ricco Fajardo (known for Koutaro on Zombieland Saga, Itona on Assassination Classroom, Natsuya on Free!, Karim on Fire Force, Jackal on Fairy Tail, and Kyousuke on Danganronpa 3)

SHIPPING: Oh, we’ve got quite a few people wanting Sakurai and Uzaki to hook up in the romantic sense. Co-worker Ami along with her father love watching them from afar and having fun at their expense! Sakurai’s friend Sakaki tries to push him to do more adventurous things with Uzaki. But is there something to this ship?

Like any other heterosexual boy, he does get TITalated when accidentally brushing up or feeling up Uzaki’s tig-ol-bitties. And Uzaki does get bothered by Sakurai at small details like him not calling her by her first name and often gets blushy during some heated moments. Most of that is because of the accidental brushing or feeling up Uzaki’s tig-ol-bitties!

I am still on the side of I don’t think this ship will last or even set sail. Sakurai still finds Uzaki annoying as balls, but I think he’s grateful at times for her. Perfect examples of that gratitude are when Uzaki took care of Sakurai when he was sick and when she joined him at a cat café. But then we get some cute moments during episode 8 where we see a meek Uzaki talk to Sakurai for most of the episode and a cute flashback of the two in high school. This following with a cute realization from Sakurai about how much fun he’s having with Uzaki.

However, when Sakurai and Uzaki went on vacation, they were kinda duped into spending their time in lovey-dovey spots. And they are clearly NOT a couple! But their nosy friends are still determined to hook these two up come hell or high water. Yeah, both characters do get blushy with each other every so often, but I feel like this is more of a friendship than anything else.

CONTROVERSY AROUND UZAKI-CHAN: Gee, I wonder what the reason was that Uzaki-chan got a lot of flack for. I can’t think of two good reasons why this little lass got in so much trouble.

Yeah, let’s start off with the obvious. Short girls with big boobs! THEY EXIST! I can attest to the existence! And people who like them are not Lolita fetishers. They’re just perverts into big tits. Guys, Uzaki is 19 and a two-dimensional waifu, lay off. She’s not worth the effort in cancel culture. And this problem began long before Uzaki-chan even got the green-light for an anime series. Apparently, people got huffy when they saw Uzaki teasing Sakurai about getting stuck with a needle for a blood drive in Japan. Saying that they are using sex appeal to lure people to give blood!

First of all, I’m actually surprised they used Uzaki instead of the characters of Cells at Work. It would have made a lot more sense in my eyes. But then I could see the downside to that as they are literal cells. Whatever!

Second, sex sells. Even anime 2-D waifus! I don’t hear anyone getting outraged every time a skinny bitch in a bikini is advertising for football, trucks, or burgers. I know this reasoning doesn’t apply as Japan and U.S. do different things to get people’s attention. I just feel like saying it because most of the outrage came from whiny SJW’s from America with a big Twitter following. Yeah, my black ass is not fond of those people.

Third, WHO THE FUCK CARES?! My God, Uzaki was teasing Sakurai about giving blood so he would do so. This was actually a good ploy to get people to give blood. I would give blood more often if America offered something anime related. Don’t you people have anything better to do than to harass people about 2-D waifus? Aren’t we in the middle of a fucking pandemic? Tap Dancing Fuck!

ENDING: The final episode set us up with a punch to the gut where Uzaki comes to Sakurai’s apartment stating she can no longer see him. But it’s not like she’s moving away or her mother put her foot down on these two hanging out. Her grades are low and she needs to study for her final exams. I should have known this was a troll move.

The final episode wasn’t a total loss. I mean, we did get a revelation in the form of Sakurai getting drunk. Uzaki gets Sakurai drunk at his own apartment (so his defenses are down) and in his drunken haze, Sakurai reveals that he loves…her cooking. But Uzaki was also drunk and all she heard was the word “love”. They pass out, Sakurai’s friend comes in, puts them both to sleep on the futon, and leaves. The two of them wake up not knowing what happened that night, but definitely feel weird about everything. And their hanging out moments will continue. I mean, we are getting a season two. I don’t know when that’ll happen, but it was definitely green-lit.

In the meantime, there’s always Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro to watch!

Oof. That one is a lot to take in. Let’s just stick to Uzaki-chan right now.

This was an entertaining anime. Hell, the controversies don’t bother me one bit. Uzaki-chan is a cake-walk when you’ve got other anime controversies like bad CG or an anime set around revenge rape or Miss Nagatoro! Seriously, Miss Nagatoro is just Uzaki-chan on steroids. Anyways, Uzaki-chan is one of those fun animes you’ll want to watch if super curious. Or if you’re a straight-up pervert, you’ll won’t even care about the story and just stare at those jiggly-bits of Uzaki’s bouncing about. I’m sorry, but her flesh-colored tooth wasn’t enough for even me to look away from those globs of fat.

If you would like to watch Uzaki-chan, FUNimation has all 12 episodes available in either sub or dub.

Final note: Don’t insult Choco-mint.

Okay, what’s my next FUNimation licensed anime?

That one anime with THIS banger!

Fuck yeah!

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

An Ode To Miyazaki:

Hi everyone! So for my final paper for film, we had to pick our own director of our choosing and talk about them extensively between the attributes that make them special. Our course focused on the narrative and technical styles of directors. For my final project, I have chosen my biggest hero in the world of animation and somebody that drastically changed my life as a young child, Hayao Miyazaki. Learning about him for this project gave me so much insight into not just his films but who he is as a person. I hope that my paper is as interesting for you to read as it was for me to do research for!

1. Hayao Miyazaki, often referred to as the Japanese Walt Disney is the front runner of his animation studio Studio Ghibli. I picked him because I already have sufficient knowledge and love of his films. One of the first memories that my parents love to remind me of is my first time watching Totoro and laughing at the introduction characters. Miyazaki himself stands out for a number of reasons. Over the years, Miyazaki has made a humongous name out of himself, one of his most famous movies Spirited Away became the most popular film to ever be released in Japan and also won the academy award for the best-animated film that year. His most “popular” films (I say popular in air quotes because it is nearly impossible for people to agree on a favorite) remain the aforementioned Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke. Beginning his career as a simple animator for Toei animation, he worked as an in-between artist. It was here that he met his future collaborator at Ghibli, Isao Takahata. His first big directorial debut in film before founding Ghibli was a team effort without Takahata was Lupin The Third, The Castle Of Cagliostro. His first successful movie was one that was based upon his own manga Nausicaa of the Valley Of The Wind. The first official Miyazaki movie that was made with Ghibli was one of my personal all-time favorites that had ever been created, Castle In The Sky. For many children, especially ones with parents who are lovers of a film like mine, Miyazaki was one of the first animators that I was introduced to. His films have become classics for every fan of animation, being referenced in culture, specifically back when Disney owned Studio in Toy Story 3, Bonnie has a Totoro.

2. So, this brings up the question, how does one recognize a film by Miyazaki? You can always expect for him to be critically acclaimed, for there to be some element of magic and whimsy in the way that he animates, for there to be something to do with flight (whether it be dealing with airplanes like in Porco Rosso, the idea of flight in Howl’s Moving Castle, or a floating castle up in the sky in Castle In The Sky.), his heroines are always strong-minded and live by their own rules never bowing down to anybody, his love stories are dynamic and fulfilled, a sweeping score by Joe Hizashi, and they have a meaning about nature somewhere, mostly about why it needs to be protected.

Let’s start by breaking him down narratively. The thing that is always in every Miyazaki film no matter which one you decide upon watching, is that his female characters are always strong-willed no matter what. In many ways, I think that he writes women better than Disney does. He has gone on record saying “Many of my movies have strong female leads—brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart. They'll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man.” Sometimes, this will cause them to come across as reckless, or stupid, but in my opinion, I have always looked up to his female characters and the way that they are portrayed. My personal favorite female character that he has ever brought to life through the screen is Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle. She is strong-minded, not willing to put up with any of Howl’s dramatics, kind, an incredible adult figure for Markal, endlessly sympathetic to her friend’s plights (namely Howl and Calcifer), and somebody that I can always look up to. I spent most of my childhood looking up to characters like Kiki in Kiki’s Delivery Service, Chihiro in Spirited Away, or one of my personal favorite underrated girls, Fio in Porco Rosso. All of these female characters are independent and never let themselves be taken advantage of by anybody.

Another trait that can always be found narratively in his films is that Miyazaki is an airplane/ air travel fanatic. He absolutely loves airplanes, even to the point where his latest film, The Wind Rises was based upon the life of one of the first airplane manufacturers in WWII. Almost all of his films will involve something about flying in the air. Even with the ones that he didn’t direct and he just simply wrote. His obsession with flight is something that stemmed from his childhood and he never saw them as a thing to be used for war “airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.” My personal favorite of all of his flight animation is used in Howl’s Moving Castle when Howl and Sophie “fly” over the heads of all the people below them.

Narratively also one of the biggest things that set apart his films from any others is his focus on nature. The idea of protecting the beauty of nature is something that he has always stood by. A lot of the time, America tries to prove that it can make films about nature as well to usually varying results. I think that nobody can sell an environmental message quite like my biggest hero for Japanese animation. One of the main movies that focus on his will to protect nature above all else is Princess Mononoke. He always manages to animate nature in such a beautiful and majestic way no matter where the film is set.

I also think that a narrative trait of his that often gets overlooked is how beautiful the romance in his films can be. He never has a romance between two characters that feels stale or boring. I love the fact that you can pick any number of his films and the chance of there being a romance that you’ll get sucked into is a very large one. Everybody has their personal favorites, I love Howl and Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle but my best friend loves Sousuke and Ponyo from Ponyo. He has on record saying that “I’ve become skeptical of the unwritten rule that just because a boy and girl appear in the same feature, a romance must ensue. Rather, I want to portray a slightly different relationship, one where the two mutually inspire each other to live - if I’m able to, then perhaps I’ll be closer to portraying a true expression of love.” Writing romance between two characters can be a very tricky thing which is why it’s always amazing when he can continually pull it off despite everything and how many films that he has made over the years. The beauty of having both a strong and independent male and the female character is that they can both lean on one another for love and support. Probably the biggest supporter of this is Whisper Of The Heart, a film that he wrote instead of directing. The romance is what makes up the entire film. It’s a beautiful love story about how two young teenagers fall in love with each other. The romance is something that continually keeps me coming back for more every time.

Technical style Miyazaki can always be assured to deliver breathtakingly stunning animation. There is a reason why so many people leave his films starving because the food that he draws always looks so good. For me though, it’s the backgrounds that stand out above all else. It’s nearly impossible to have one favorite shot in one of his films but I as a matter of fact do have one. The most breathtaking animation in any Miyazaki film is the scene where Howl takes Sophie to see his secret garden. Everything about this scene never fails to make my breath catch. It’s such a profoundly beautiful moment and how it is animated is something that I haven’t forgotten since my first initial viewing of the film when I was seven.

Another iconic technical trait is that Disney did a fantastic job dubbing the films from their original Japanese language into English. Back when Ghibli films first started to become popular, they needed a way for an American audience to see them. So Pixar’s CFO at the time, John Lassater made a deal with Ghibli that they would dub all the films from their original language for a brand new audience. Growing up, this was how I watched all of Miyazaki’s films. I fell in love with the way that they sounded in English. To this very day, I have yet to see one of his films in any other language. I don’t think that anybody could have dubbed them better. Ever since Ghibli and Disney went their separate ways and they went to GKids the dubs haven’t been the same.

Finally, the last technical trait is that a Miyazaki film will always have a score done by his longtime collaborator Joe Hizashi. The score is such a big part of what makes Miyazaki’s films his own. They are what get you sucked in through their whimsical and magical tones; they always fit the vibes that he’s going through at that moment. There is also the element of sound. Every Miyazaki film has a distinct sound effect that will set it apart from the one before it.

3. The first film that I want to look at is my personal favorite of all his films that he has made so far if you were to force me to pick just one Howl’s Moving Castle. Released in 2004, it was the 9th film that the director came out with. It has an 8.2 out of 10 on IMDB and an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. The storyline for the movie follows a young woman named Sophie. She gets a curse set upon her by the Witch of the Waste and when she leaves home she finds the infamous Howl’s Moving Castle. This is the second Ghibli movie voiced by a Batman live action actor. Christian Bale voiced Howl Pendragon after Michael Keaton played the titular Porco Rosso.

Narratively this is definitely a Miyazaki film. From how strong of a female character Sophie is I spent most of my childhood looking up to her as a character. Strong female characters are everywhere in his films and in my opinion, Sophie is one of the strongest. Another strong factor is that flight plays a major part in this film. One of Howl’s main powers is that he has the ability to fly around. This leads to my favorite scene of flight in any Miyazaki film when Howl takes Sophie’s hand and they “fly” over the tops of the city down below them. All of his early films up until the last few were set in someplace other than Japan. This one is set in Europe, and he takes a lot of time while in the cities to show off all the different types of buildings while Sophie tours around the city.

Technically speaking this is also a Miyazaki film and holds all the titular traits of being so. The animation is utterly for lack of a better word, magical and spellbinding. It takes my breath away every time that I rewatch it. The food looks incredible, one scene that most of Miyazaki’s fans always think of when this movie is brought up is Calcifer making the food for Howl, Sophie, and Markal to eat. The dub for this film is also one of Disney’s best dubs for Miyazaki films. It even brings actors to the table that I usually would not like to see in other films like Christian Bale. I haven’t loved him in any other films than this one. Billy Crystal is a stand-out as well as my favorite fire demon Calcifer. The score is done by Joe Hizashi as well. My favorite part of the score is the main theme which has Howl and Sophie floating above the people below. The sound effect that follows throughout this film is the steady creaking of the castle itself.

Princess Mononoke was the first time that Miyazaki ever “retired”. Most of the time, whenever he tries to retire, he always comes back. A lot of his colleague's joke that it’s because he physically can’t stop working. He animated most of this movie by himself. Before Spirited Away it was Japan’s most famous film to date. The story about a young man who is just trying to erase the curse that was set upon him by an angry boar and it leads him to a place called Iron Town is something that never fails to amaze me. While in Iron Town, Ashitaka meets a young woman named San who was taken in by wolves and he finds himself caught between a war involving humans and the gods of the forest.

Narratively this is definitely a Miyazaki film. It has a strong female lead, focusing most of its screen time on how important it is to protect and preserve nature as a whole. The idea of protecting nature is such a moving part of the film, as we see what it does when man takes over the forest. We see how distraught it makes the Gods of this world and how they wish that the humans would just go away. However, you also see it from the point of view of the villain of the film Lady Eboshi, who also regularly helps lepers and people who would often never get work outside of her offering them a home and a family. I have regularly gotten into a debate with my mom over which side is “right” and which side “wrong” over the course of the last few years of me being a massive fan of this movie. She takes the side of the forest while I see Ashitaka’s side that everybody should just get along and interact in peace and harmony. Miyazaki never shoves the idea of nature down your throat. That is not what this film is. It’s instead about the beauty of what we have and learning to appreciate it.

On a technical level, this film is fantastic as well. It blows my mind that Miyazaki-san animated most of it all by himself. The backgrounds are sweeping and utterly gorgeous showing off the time period of the film. The fight sequences which make up the bulk of the film’s running time are engaging, thrilling, and fabulously animated. Mononoke’s score was done by Joe Hizashi as well. Its score is beautiful and I always find myself getting sucked into it, especially for the more dynamic scenes with Ashitaka and San. The sound effect for this film uses nature as a backdrop for brutality. Ashitaka’s arrows don’t just come out of his bow, they screech through the air.

Finally, my last film that we will be focusing on, Kiki’s Delivery Service was made in 1989 a year after his cult phenomena My Neighbor Totoro and was his fifth animated feature. Kiki is a young girl that is hoping to become a young witch in training. However, to do so she has to train a year away from home. She and her cat Jiji find a town by the sea where she learns her true strength and what she can really do to help others. Hayao Miyazaki didn't want to bore the audience during the film's end credits by using just the names. He set it up to be like a mini-sequel so that the audience would leave the theatre feeling happy.

Narratively this has all the traits that one should be familiar with and associate with a Miyazaki film. It has a strong-minded female character at the source of it that young girls can look up to and admire. As a kid, Kiki was my favorite female character of his because I loved her strength and her dedication to what she was good at. She knew that she was still young and had a lot to learn but even though she gets depressed she doesn’t let that stop her in the long run and will still save her love interest Tombo. The romance in this film is by far one of the sweetest. I love the interactions between the characters and the way that they both inspire one another to be better than they are. The idea of flight is basically the focal point of everything. Kiki finds that her best trait is that she flies incredibly well and decides to create her own flying delivery service.

Technically this also has a lot of traits that Miyazaki made a name for himself in doing. The animation is spectacular, especially for Kiki’s flying. I could watch her fly around all day and that was the idea that he was going for while making the film. The sweeping score by Joe Hizashi, especially in my favorite song A Town With An Ocean View, is something that I’ll often listen to outside of the film itself. The sound effects for the film are meant to be calming. From the first sound that you hear of the wind rolling through the reeds while Kiki lies against the grass to the waves when she finally finds a home.

4. Miyazaki as a director has inspired me since I was way too young to even remember. When I was a kid I would pretend to run around my apartment building's front yard imagining that I lived in a big house in front of a camper tree like the one in Totoro. His movies are perfect for children that “suffer” from having an overactive imagination. His movies are everything that is bright and beautiful in the world. The animation never fails to take my breath away, the characters and stories are unforgettable, the soundtracks sweep me away and tell stories themselves. His movies are something that even my parents, who are not anime fans, can watch over and over again. I think that speaks for itself. Miyazaki makes films that are art, not just animated films.