#like obviously most people realise it was a lot influenced by stuff about actual japanese law even though its not serious or realistic

[beneaththebloodylake]

actually i hate when people take ace attorney out of the context it was made in. like im just as clueless about the details as anyone else, and its true its heavily fictionalised and mostly not a really serious representation of anything, but at least akcnowledge that that context exists when you talk about it. cause otherwise its just stupid, like everything youre saying is just random words and nothing actually to do with the series

[sanoiro]

Lucifer 5x09 - Family Dinner -Spoilers & Speculation

Written by Joe Henderson

Directed by Nathan Hope

Nathan Hope has directed

1x02 - Lucifer, Stay. Good Devil 1x13 - Take Me Back to Hell 2x01 - Everything's Coming Up Lucifer 2x07 - Trip to Stabby Town  2x10 - Quid Pro Ho 3x05 - Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards 3x19 - Orange Is the New Maze 5x07 - Our Mojo He will also direct Episode 2 or 3 of S6

Behind The Scenes Video 

Ignore the fact that I accidentally watermarked it with the number 519... 

The Case & Deckerstar

Now we can start with the case of the week.

The murder happens at Golf n Stuff which is rather popular due to the scenes that were shot there for The Karate Kid. Rafferty was actually giddy over that.

So we have a murder. After over 70 episodes we know that the case of the week is somehow connected to the main plot and that it leads to a resolving of Lucifer’s issues or at least a small or big breakthrough.

The victim in this case was burned to death or at least he was… charred. A bit like how Mum ‘enlightened’ Jared in 2x17 but worse.

(In order to make sure most bts are included I have put them in the same file in their original resolution and you need to open the image and zoom. You can do it from your PC, MAC or mobile)

The mini golf has several fun statues like knights and pirates but what was not supposed to be there was the figure at the hole where nearby the victim was found. To be more You might have guessed it has many teeth by the photo and the answer is, it’s a reddish dragon head.

Back in December I came across the props building it and I thought it was cool but I wasn’t aware it was for Lucifer as the account is not affiliated with our crew or production. So imagine my surprise when a friend told me about what she had seen on the lot and going through the archived bts I found the victim photo as well.

You may have noticed it but in two particular episodes more dragons made their appearance. First it was at the second showrunner’s office in 503. There we see a dragon impelled by a sword, it seemed really out of place but I then correlated it with Baphament’s blade which is a representation of Azrael’s blade.

Later on I saw something else. In 508 Pete’s apartment had shelves dedicated to dragon figures as well as some knights. All along I was wondering can I even meta about that? What can it symbolise if it means anything at all? For some reason all I could think was the movie ‘Dragonheart’.

But let’s assume they have laid some hints, so far we have seen that they go very basic on bible and comic material so it’s funny how dragon-like Lucifer was presented in Series 3 of the black label of DC/ vertigo. But there are also more tidbits.

Now in 1x12 you all remember the Angel who was defeating a very Lucifer-looking Satan?

That was a prop. But it is derived by the work of Guido Reni ‘Michael and Satan’ (1636) Who was in turn influenced by Raphael’s painting ‘St. Michael Vanquishing Satan’ (1518) and if we go to Raphael’s early works... St. Michael (1504-1505)

Anyways!

The investigation of this ‘week’s’ case has its usual suspect chase which leads us to an arcade where we can spot some members of the crew doing rounds with the go-carts on that location. What I do know is that we are looking for someone young as far as guest posts go but other than that not much is known. The case seems to be progressing slowly but at some point the murderer appears to want to skip town so the leads bring us to L.A.’s train Union Station.

We also have scenes at the precinct during the case as we have seen from Aimee’s bts but not much is known there. 

Now the suspect might be played by the elusive guest of this episode John Clover whose appearance was posted on Reddit and had sparked the first speculations over the title of the episode.

We should now wonder whether the theme of this episode’s case which takes us to gaming areas has anything to do with how Lucifer views his Father’s appearance in the mid-season finale and whether it will provide him with a resolution to not act in a rush way. The same after all happened with Mum.

Do not forget that Lucifer in Season 2 and especially at the beginning with Mum and when he thought Earl Johnson was his Father, Lucifer’s plans changed as his vengeance turned to a slow paced questioning over why their relationship deteriorated. 

For an Angel who was ‘forced’ - not yet clarified so let’s not take that for granted- to punish the guilty Lucifer seems to be more merciful, understanding and open to explanations in the long run especially with the people who wronged him. Amenadiel, Michael, Uriel, Azrael, Mum, and Earl ‘God’ Johnson.

As Amenadiel said in the Pilot Lucifer away from Hell showed restrain and mercy… Perhaps it is true that we cannot escape from what we truly are. In any case that’s meta talk!

Back to the Union Station. 

In the train station we have a bts where we can see Chloe and Lucifer chasing the suspect and from the photos and videos outside of it we can safely say they are successful on apprehending the murderer.

Now a funny incident was that during the shooting the area was closed to the actual travelers but somehow a Japanese tourist ended up sitting where the background actors were. No idea if it was her Pizza or it was given by the craft service but the girl was obviously bewildered on what was happening. It’s the little absurdities of life I guess…

It seems though as a lighthearted episode at first...

Do not be mistaken, the writers, cast and showrunners have revealed that in S5P2 we enter the emotional and equally dark (In P1 I missed the darkness aside from Pete of course) part of this season. It means that by the end of 5x09 as we roll on the last minutes of this episode, Lucifer is heavily conflicted and a resolution is needed, one that seems to be somewhat provided.

Since P1 I thought it would be weird to have Deckerstar break up for effect, in order to break us, especially since S5 was supposed to be the last season and S6 is effectively from what they imply (again cast and showrunners) an epilogue. So do not expect Deckerstar to break up but on the contrary as we saw Lucifer and Chloe in 507 they pull each other back up. 

It is why I’m wondering what will be unraveled after the arrest of 5x09’s murderer.

The end of the episode takes us at night to L.A.’s Grand Park. The Grand Park is across the City Hall by the way, and for the Christmas season it was decorated with a Christmas tree made out of light bulbs.

In the bts the prominent colour of that tree is deep lilac. That’s where our next Deckerstar moment will unravel. We should also be ready for the Lucifer Universe to acknowledge yet another holiday of the human world, Christmas!

A tiny break here but you should remember that on each side of the elevator we have two bronze plates depicting the transfer of Christ after he was taken down dead from the Cross. So in the most discrete of ways Lucifer’s Universe has acknowledged Christ and perhaps it was because before the Sumerian text set Amenadiel as the favourite son, in Season 1 and for the majority of S2 we knew Lucifer as the favourite one.

On the cross Christ (no I didn’t write Lucifer at first :P) according to the scripts in a moment of lapsed faith “Father, Father why do you abandon me?”. In a way we might meta that for 516 but also for what Lucifer has experienced so far and has so eloquently expressed in 3x11 and in 1x09.  

But back to the Deckerstar moment…

It takes place on the ‘balcony’ above the fountain as the purple Christmas tree is behind them. The setting happens at night and provides the place for our characters to talk, to open up and perhaps even express certain fears but also be urged to take advantage of the current circumstances.

From my perspective is the scene of a couple that talks a difficult matter but at the end of that talk they know each has the other’s back so they can step forward, take that chance and their partner will always be there to catch them if they fall. It is also how we will experience Lucifer finally opening up without Linda probing him. But whatever comes forward also gives space to truths and a realisation which will break our Devil as we have seen from the bts of the next episodes.

We might even have an understanding why ‘I love you’s’ are difficult for Lucifer and for Chloe to also realise that. We might even get Lucifer to say it. Here is to hoping…

On a final note. Maze in this episode seems to have gone MIA but many times we do not see the bts of every scene so all we have is Lesley-Ann’s bts from her trailer during that time. Also do not forget how things ended in 508. Maze did betray Lucifer and with God on Earth... 

The Dinner

This episode is expected to open back to the precinct. The reason is because it is a mid-season finale which means that the in between scenes are not implied but also because of some spoilers we had back in December.

As you remember the actress who played officer Cacuzza had posted on Twitter that she and Lauren were in a ‘very small’ room which had just been painted. That room we can safely say is the ‘evidence room’ and that Cacuzza managed finally to find a way to close the surveillance in order to take a nap.

Now do remember that back in S4 Cacuzza was also the officer who let Lucifer ‘sample’ the drug busts… I’m not sure if that will come back somehow but we do know that Cacuzza will appear later this season, whether alive or not is yet to be seen.

What we do know is from the clues that were given by the actress.

1) She will be in the same room as Chloe meaning we will revisit the evidence room once Dad arrives and perhaps it will be a comic moment? Perhaps a random human will figure things out? But what was interesting is that according to the bts photo we see the actress and Lauren in their own clothes while Dennis is in his ‘Dad/God’ clothes.

2) Both Chloe and Officer Cacuzza were supposed to act distressed and shaken. If we take the ‘I love you’ element from that scene for Chloe let’s remember that the evidence is suddenly a bit of a mess. A glass has broken, the sound and effect will be heard once the time has started running again and they are two cops in a room with no idea of what is happening outside. So perhaps the shaken and distressed effect comes before they open the door (or walk out) and are sure there is no imminent threat.

3) In my opinion in this episode Cacuzza has some lines no matter how brief they might be.

Now the question here is how to proceed.

We obviously have a Family Dinner from which only two bts exist. 

If we assume that the Family Dinner is arranged after the brothers have hid their wings and then Dad has met Linda then the dinner is set up by a very flabbergasted Linda.

I do expect Linda to bow by the way and for this dinner to bring some elements from 1x10 Pops. For this speculation I’ll include the video of the scene from that episode and I’ll try to tie them up with 5x09.

All the episodes in P2 are meant to do a full circle and the writers have based most of their storytelling on the events of S1 and S2.

So first the spoilers of what we know from 5x09 and then the ties we may find with 1x10 and some more past episodes.  

The 11 minutes are quite long but is it really all things concerning? 

Henderson tweeted that there will be 5 actors but as we know know Ellis plays two characters which is why the dinner scene may have taken three days to shoot so we should count six people at the Dinner Table.

The location will be (most probably) at Linda’s house as we have seen from a bts that her main table is full of different varieties of fruits and food in an attempt to recreate an Olympian affluent meal. For Linda is only normal to be out of her element and try to impress God. So far she has been almost killed by his ex, has a child that can be snatched away to the Silver City if she is not deemed worthy perhaps or even because of Charlie’s half genetic code.

Remember there was a stand in actor for Michael 

The problem Linda also faces is that she has supported Lucifer. Yes, he is her friend but how will God react to that? Having a human siding with His rebellious son? Linda as it has been written knows how far pissed off celestials can go and I’m sure she remembers Lucifer’s agony and fear over his Father where Chloe was concerned. So she tries, really tries to present a wonderful setting for the grandfather of her child.

So we do have Linda in the mix. Obviously God, Amenadiel, Lucifer and Michael. That makes us five characters and four actors. Little Charlie also makes an appearance as far as I’m aware as the twin babies were on set and that also contributes on why the scene took so long to be shot. However the babies do not count as the sixth character. Chloe though does.

In short we have:

Linda

God/Dad

Amenadiel

Lucifer

Michael

Chloe

and

Charlie

Another thing we should take into account for this scene is Rafferty’s posted script page of the midseason finale.

While Amenadiel and Lucifer appear shocked and in awe, Michael seems rather pleased. I mean he literally ‘Grins with excitement’.

Amenadiel in 5x03 said that the only one who was talking to the throne meanwhile Henderson as far as I remember in one of the post P1 interviews, revealed that God and Michael have a relationship that Lucifer wishes he had with Him. D.B on one of the virtual cons (or ET interview. I have issues with keeping track of them now) have said that the scene at the family dinner would be gut wrenching and absolutely fall down hilarious’.

So in this dinner we will get to know our characters more and as Ildy and Henderson have said Lucifer will go back being a 14 year old at the Thanksgiving table. That perhaps is the reason why the script episodes 510 and 511were reversed. The last time that had happened was in S1 in order for Lucifer’s vulnerability to not come too soon in the season. In the case of these two episodes I believe it has to do with Lucifer’s emotional state but also the constant collisions he will have with his father in the Family Dinner but also during the Musical episode.

Another aspect to consider is that if 5x09 reminds us a lot of 1x10 -Pops right now and 5x10 the Musical episode is directly influenced by 2x16 - God Johnson.

The next section will now be dedicated to a quick recap of 1x10 - Pops and the possible connection to Michael and his story.

Michael in 5x09 teases Chloe as she is kept captive that there is a bigger plan and ‘Spoiler Alert’ it will be EPIC. That can be left alone as a promise to see more of that plan in S5P2 but before we go forward we should also go back in 2x04 - Weaponiser.

Do you see the parallel? How far Uriel’s view of the ‘Patterns’ could go was always a meta I couldn’t crack. Sure Michael hinted as per one Anon hinted on Tumblr that Michael might have been the one to urge Uriel on Earth to kill Mum and hopefully Lucifer as well. It is also perhaps why we were reminded of Azrael’s Blade in 5x03 - Diablo with Baphament’s blade, the only blade that could kill the Devil. Perhaps that was Michael’s plan back then but it didn’t work out.

But is Michael the big villain? According to the showrunners no. There are more things happening but Michael has a reasoning, has a story, one that explains his deformity and is the hero of his own story as all  the other season ‘villains’ so far were. Mum, Amenadiel, Malcolm, Kinley, even Cain.

What the Interviews say about Michael:

Beginning with the parallel between the dinner we had in 1x10’s dinner and plot, and in what may have in episode 5x09 I would like to remind you- 

- at this point I have censored some spoilers, not speculations, spoilers for episodes of P2 that will not be added in the S&S -

I’ll return to this topic and explore it thoroughly as the S&S are written but for now remember that 1x10 might tell us more than what we think right now and it might take us as a point of reference even up to 5x16.

Between 1x10 and 5x09 we can also wonder what are God’s intentions, can we attribute them all to Michael’s manipulation or it goes beyond that because the showrunners have promised us an emotional P2. I do believe issues are addressed and Lucifer will have to come face to face with some hard truths without that meaning that Dad was always right.

In the Pilot - wait.. Pilot? Yes, 5x09 is an episode that slowly builds us to the very end. There are spoilers and references that need to be addressed from past and future episodes before and after 5x09.

We need to address that in the Pilot, Lucifer told Delilah the very truth he uttered to Linda where he was concerned in S4 (4x08). God has nothing to do with your mess. Like Delilah, Lucifer was putting the blame to others, circumstances and even questioned God. He was wasting his eternal life and his talent, which he eventually found in crime solving.

On cue we get to the scene with Chloe asking God what she is doing to a bar with Lucifer. And what follows is Chloe telling Lucifer how she saw things differently from everyone and she paid for it. That story for me at least rings a bell.

We still do not know why Lucifer was cast out, the actual reason. No matter the sexescapeding with Eve or the rebellion what was the core of all that acting out as Linda called it in season 2? Whatever it was if we go back to 3x11 we will see that Chloe in the Pilot is basically Lucifer in 3x11.

They feel alone, misjudged and while Chloe tries to move on and later in S1 finds what actually happened, in Lucifer’s case he gives up on waiting for forgiveness from his Father until Michael comes, and tells him that even his Fall was a manipulation.

In Pops Lucifer asked something very interesting what did the sous chef wanted? And the answer was to surpass Pops. I do wonder if that’s what Lucifer wanted in a way and of course Michael on Lucifer’s expense. Two ‘children’ fighting for attention but only one was groomed to take over.

Speaking of taking over at the end of the episode of 1x10 we learn that Pops despite what Junior had done still had his son in his mind for taking over the restaurant. Pops believed in his son but allowed him space to grow eventually when everything failed.

If you remember Zadkiel’s spoiler we see that in 5x15 for some reason Lucifer wants to re-join the Host. That aside from a reconciliation shows that like Junior, Lucifer for his own reasons - we do not know what has happened but we will go back to that in the S&S of 5x15 - wants what divine power has to offer.

What happens next is again interesting -censored-. I just want you to see how we do not deal with standalones but everything progresses towards a point, a familiar yet innovative point for the series.

In episode 2x01, Lucifer asks mockingly an offended Chloe who did she thought he took after, his Dad? That happened because Lucifer believed to have taken more after his mother but as we know genetics is a funny thing, Celestial genetics even more so.

God’s absence from Lucifer’s life shaped him. He did drove Lucifer to become something he wasn’t but after 4.5 seasons can we claim that Lucifer and God are nothing alike? 

Maze I believe was spot on on the similarities God and Lucifer held.

Lucifer believes in justice, in truth and is able to love. He has been more of an Angel than any non fallen Angel has ever been so far. 

Amenadiel tricked a dead human to kill Lucifer thus condemning him again in Hell however as we know from Charlotte’s case a redemption was not impossible. 

Uriel wanted to kill his mother and wouldn’t hesitate to kill Chloe in the process. Azrael is basically a liar and manipulator, Remiel would gleefully cut open a human for their half-celestial baby while Michael is really-really messed up.

So what has happened?

Like with Junior, Lucifer was pushed by his Father to become the man he is today. And Lucifer likes what he is, who he is because he sees the change and is even afraid of not being real when that change is questioned or exposed to him.

The same happened with Amenadiel, once he decided to embrace humanity and brotherhood. He changed for the better and became more ‘angelic’.

So yes, Junior’s story does apply to Lucifer on many levels. But Junior didn’t have that dinner with his Father, Lucifer will as they will do two more of his siblings. Some will be hurt, some will feel betrayed and some may walk out.

Which brings us to a very big question. 

Was Mum truthful when she said to Lucifer, his Dad wanted to destroy him? If the answer is yes, how will both deal with that? Because Lucifer may have not totally believed Mum.

If that answer comes to play we should consider it as the common question children come forward to when they learn they were not planned or their parents had opted at first to have an abortion. The fact that they didn’t get on with the abortion or had willingly made a child does affect their feelings towards that child now? Do they regret it? Do they want what that child has become?

These are all tough questions and sometimes the answers are not easy either. Mainly because humans like celestials with human emotions as it seems, are secure and balanced only with the totality of a circumstance. Everything or nothing, the rest in between are not welcome and it’s bound to hurt.

Finally, on this 1x10 weird reminisce. Can we say that Lucifer will be allowed in the end to create something that represents him? I think he may but more about that in 5x16 S&S.

Probably the story will not end with redemption but with Lucifer finally becoming his own person one that resembles a lot of Dad and Dad may accept or even encourage that path. That does not mean he will start anew though

Which brings us back to the adversary of 1x10 - Pops. The sous chef believed that Junior was not worthy of his father’s tolerance and reward so she made sure to destroy his reputation and went as far as trying to kill him. That sounds a lot like Michael.

Michael’s speech towards Maze about what was happening in the Silver City in 5x02 did echo the sous chef words:

So we should wonder if Michael will succeed to a point to ruin Lucifer’s chances and leave Lucifer live with the consequences in the end as our hero learns to move on from whatever injustice happened or the writers will provide a catharsis.

And a final question here… Is Amenadiel really the favourite son? I somehow doubt that, perhaps I’ll be proved wrong as in many interviews Henderson has gone back to Amenadiel’s arc as he learns he is the ‘favourite’ and so far he has not said anything to contradict the belief 2x17 brought to us with so many translated Sumerian words.

But as we said teh Dinner will not be cathartic on the contrary so does that mean that Lucifer eventually walks away? Probably.

At the photos that were posted near Christmas we have two bts one crystal clear and the other more hazy which shows Lucifer at the Penthouse and Dad being there in his white cardigan. I do suspect that meeting at the penthouse happens after the dinner but it does not resolve things between Father and son. it is also possible that it’s why we need the very emotional scene from the musical to be moved forward and 511 script to become 5x10 aired episode.

Perhaps the comment on it’s not just Lucifer who hits the keys was referring to Dad and not Maze in 5x01.

Although we cannot be sure on what will happen in the penthouse and whether Scarlet was meant to join that scene or simply was on set for the day (highly probable) for another scene, we do know that in this episode we had a LUX night. A most perhaps unconventional one.

By this point you know that the writers are ready to address everything or at least make parallels and so somehow we have one with 1x09 - A Priest Walks Into A Bar. This time however it is seems like God Walks Into His Son’s Bar.

If the camera is clear enough we can see God (?) talking to a white person. I would have loved it if it was Dan but I cannot tell for sure.

Whether that visit happens before or after the family dinner I believe it may happen before as the clothes Dennis wore at the lot around that time were different from the white we saw him appear with in the end of 5x08. Of course that does not say much as we will see Dad in the same/similar white clothes in at least three different episodes in Part 2.

Therefore in the conclusion of this S&S we should speculate that the Dinner is placed at the middle of the episode and a resolution is reached for Deckerstar in the end of the episode but Lucifer’s turmoil did fit better through the musical episode hence the change. 

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression Ep 20 - 'Corona Cafe' facing internet slander.

K: This is Dir en grey's Kaoru, starting this week's installment of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome to this week's episode. Soo, hows it going? Well, I say that, but who ever is watching this will know that we are recording three at once.

J: Yeah, they will.

T: Oh, but aren't Hanshin doing great, Kaoru?!

K:......Oh! Yeh yeh yeh!

T: They won 10 times unopposed! (*sarcastic prediction*)

K: Yeah, yeah.

J: There's a possibility this will become fake news!

K, T: Hahahaha

J: If it does we're in trouble!

T: Can you believe they turned around a ten point difference?!

K: Ahh, thats just like them. It looks like there's a chance of this event happening.

J: The possibility is rising, right? (*This exchange is dripping with sarcasm*)

*On screen note - 'As of July 2nd, Hanshin have won 2 games, and lost 10'.*

K: Is it really? Will they really be ok?

T: Yeah, I wonder.

J: Well, its important to fantasize sometimes.

T: Yeah

J: 10 consecutive wins...

T: 10 consecutive wins.

J: Its like, 'Could it be?'..In a Tokyo Sports kind of way.

T: Yeah, like with a question mark, 'Could it be?!'.

K: Well, I think I'll be buying it every day. Tokyo Sports.

J: Oh, Tokyo Sports right? But doesn't Tokyo Sports support the Giants the most? In Tokyo area?

T: Well, we support the Giants and Hanshin.

J: Ah, the Giants and Hanshin?

T: Well, what with these ten consecutive wins, Kaoru will be pretty pleased with himself.

J: Yeh, he'll be beaming. And then an event for everyone.

K: Haha

T: Yep. And if we sang Rokkou oroshi (Hanshin Tigers theme song) at the end..

K: It would be great if we sing that, right?

J: Hahaha. We can do it!

T: We can!

J: Everyone, lets support Hanshin this year.

K: Ok, well..for the topic this week, Joe san, if you will..

J: Ah, may I? This is the news of 'Corona Cafe' suffering online abuse. This cafe, located in Nagano prefecture, Saku city, is lovingly nicknamed 'Corona san' by local residents. Since the increase of covid 19 infections in March, this cafe has been suffering from harassment, such as prank calls, and an increase in heartless comments posted online. Third generation owner Sudo Hitoshi san (age 42) said, 'Covid 19 has no relation at all to the name of this cafe. All we can do is endure it'.

Well, the name sounds similar, but also the beer, Corona, has been unable to sell. I wonder if they have stopped production, I'm not sure what they'll do. But in this case, there are comments online...why would you comment online??

T: Right.

J: What are these people thinking? This cafe obviously has nothing to do with covid 19. Moreover, the people writing this have certainly never been to this cafe, right?

K: Well, yeah. It seems like that.

J: Im certain of it. But still, this problem of so-called online slandering is..

T: Its getting big, right?

J: Yes, its getting big, unfortunately. There is now the idea of changing the law in regards to this..

K: Yeh, but I have a feeling its not gonna go away. In the end, you don't know...well, actually you do know, right?....but even if there were cases of people being caught, I have a feeling that wouldn't change anything, honesty.

T: Hm, yeah.

J: If you look..you see people slandering in all sorts of places, but the ones who are writing this are people who are either really  malicious, or people who just think its ok to repeat what the malicious people write, but who are not really that malicious themselves. Its very difficult. Real bad guys, who are intent on crushing, and people who are not intending that at all. But people are just typing away, it gains momentum, and some people are influenced by it. I mean, we mustn't forgive online slandering, but its very.....Well, like you said Kaoru, people aren't really thinking of any consequences when they write this stuff, so making up rules and expecting people to change is...

K: Yeh, in this sense too...like, there are people who are just writing their opinions, aren't there?

J: Yeh, yeh, yeh.....so its like, that could even end up having consequences in the future. Its a very complex thing.

K: Yeh, I feel like this is hard.

J: There is the idea of banning anonymity on SNS and only allowing real names, but its only due to anonymity that people suffering from bullying or discrimination are able to speak out, if they were forced to use their real name, they might be too afraid to say anything, and there is also the possibility of accusations..so, its like, where do you draw the line? What do you count as a slander? For example, if you see 'That guy is meddling' as slander, you won't be able to make a good judgement based just on the text.

T: Hm, yeh.

J: Its really difficult, isn't it. Especially on SNS, like Twitter, the number of characters is limited, so you never really know whats going on.

T: You can't convey all the details, or the right nuance.

J: Yeh. Nuance is also very difficult to get across. If there are people suffering from this kind of thing, despite doing nothing wrong, well, I'm not talking about Corona cafe here...there is a need to think about some countermeasures. But at the same time, SNS are super useful, really handy...its so hard.

T: Do you remember those morality lessons in elementary school?

K: Mm

T: Online behavior or rules could be provided in those lessons.

K: Yeh.

T: About not writing things that you would never say to soneone's face.

J: Well, its very difficult to define 'slander', but you could say its being critical of someone else, moreover to do them harm. So in that respect, by definition, saying something like 'Stop it' is not slander. I think how you say it will also play a big part, but yeh, we want to stop this thing of trying to hurt people who have done nothing wrong, not broken the law, not disturbed anyone. But the difficulty arises when considering whether to implement rules, because it would depend on each situation as to whether on not slander is being used, it would be difficult to judge. However, well, i may be talking too much, but if you look at Japanese lawmakers at the moment, they are doing a lot of things, right? Like, trying to change the prosecutor general to one of thier own guys and such. This isn't classed as illegal to do, so thats why they do it. If the state is doing this type of thing, it creates an atmosphere on the whole that its ok to do something, as long as its not technically illegal.

T: Thats right.

J: Its like you said, Tasai, its not exactly morality lessons, but if you think about it rationally, even though its not written in law, if you think about the spirit in which the law exists, to allow people to live, you will realize this isn't something we should do. There are things that are not written in law that we really need to be applying the same level of scrutiny to. If people don't do that, simply because its not actually written in law, we will become unable to properly develop future laws .

T: Yeah

J: I feel like it just becomes a vicious circle.

T: If people can get away with it, they will do it, right?

Kami: Um, I want people to quit bragging about themselves.

K: In that case, what would they write about? Hahaha.

Kami: Its really hard to listen to it.

J: Ahh

T: Hm, yeah.

J: There must be people bragging around Kami? *laughs*

T: Right?

Kami: Its really tough. Like if they do it without realising, it damages the people around them. I want it to be made illegal. A ban on bragging.

J: A ban on bragging?!

K: Hahaha

T: Thats interesting.

J: Thats a new kind of rule..

Kami: I really want people to stop it.

K: *laughing* Well, you don't have to look at it.

Kami: But it inflicts damage, right? Bragging about delicious french food, or wine..its like, we can't have that. Even small stuff like that, don't you think, 'what is this guy doing??'

T: Hahaha

K: He's quite wound up about this, isn't he? Haha

J: He really is. I mean, conversely you could say that if they are doing nothing but brag to that extent, you should feel sorry for them?

T: Do you wanna get rid of Instagram from the world?

Kami: Yes, yes. I really do. If you brag, I mean...really, its really..

J: Hahaha.

K: He's saying really, really.

J: Ah, Kami, you are really taking off.

T: Havn't you ever bragged about anything in your whole life, Kami?

Kami: Not much, no. I havn't got anything to brag about.

J: But I don't want a god to say they don't have a lot to brag about! What kind of god is it who doesn't have anything to brag about? Thats the first question.

T: But bragging could also be less like some low-life saying 'I've got a million yen', but more something like, 'I love basketball and I shook Michael Jordan's hand', or that type of thing. Isn't that a bit different?

K: Ahh, if someone said they'd shaken hands with Michael Jordan, you'd think 'Wow, thats amazing!'

J: Yeah, right?

Kami: Yeah, you would.

K: He's saying 'yeah, you would'. Hahaha.

J: I bet you do brag then, Kami!

Kami: Low life bragging should be made illegal.

T: Ahh, low life bragging.

J: Defining low life is difficult!

T: Well, talking about money, and stuff?

J: Money is out...Money and food, right? Relying on the power of money is no good?

Kami: Yes, thats it.

T: So for example, if Kaoru bought a really famous, great guitar, how about that?

Kami: An expensive one?

K: Yes

T: Very expensive.

Kami: A really expensive one?

K: If I made a post bragging about it...

J: You'd make a post, yeah.

K: Im not sure if I've done that..

Kami: I would want to hear the sound of it.

J: *laughing*You'd want to hear the sound?!

Kami: If it had a good sound, I'd want you to let me hear it.

T: Ahh

Kami: I'd want to touch it.

K: Well, if its something that has more to it, it might be ok.

J: Oh right

Kami: Yeah

K: Like, if you just say 'I bought a nice car', it just ends there.

T: Ahh, but if you bought a guitar..

K: Like, if you say what does it sound like, will he let us hear it...there is more of a future to it.

Kami: Yes, yes, yes. If it made a good sound, that would be ok.

K: But the same goes for that french food. If you thought it looked nice, you might think about going to that restaurant yourself, so there is a future to that.

J: How about that?

Kami: No, it depends how its written.

J: How its written? *laughs*

K: Ah, he's back to feeling like that again.

J: He's lost that vigour he had at the end.

K: Hahaha. You know, people who are suffering from this ought to talk to Kami.

J: One time, right?

K: He would get straight to it.

T: He would.

J: Kami, don't you have an info@ address or something? For people to send in stuff.

Kami: No, I don't have anything like that.

T: I want to discuss everything with Kami.

K: I've a feeling he would be encouraged.

J: He'd get straight to the point, right? But if people are feeling gloomy, before they comment online, they could talk to Kami..

K: Should we make an appeal? People could share thier troubles or..

J: Discuss thier worries?

K: Yeh, and then get a straight answer from Kami.

J: A word from a god.

K: Shall we appeal for questions?

J: Yeh.

T: Ah, its a good idea.

J: We've come up with a new plan.

K: And, so people could send questions to my twitter...Oh, did we have any local chinese restaurants contacting us yet?...We didn't?

T: I wanna go to a chinese restaurant, soon.

J: Yeah, so do I. I wann go to Hosojimaya too.  We might get questions for Kami though, people sharing thier worries. And one answer from him.

T: What do you think of this plan, Kami?

K: Lets do it.

Kami: Well, i might end up being to well behaved.

J: Oh really *laughs*

Kami: I'll *laughs*...I'll end up making myself seem like a good person. Like I might just stop being able to talk.

J: I'm getting this really strong image that you are smiling while saying that.

K: Hahaha.

J: Kami, you are nasty.

Kami: Quite..

T: Well, lets keep this tone for it.

J: Yeah. We could also do a live  broadcast once. A live chat with Kami..

K, T: Ahh.

T: Yeah, with a live feeling.

K: He kinda got carried away on the last live broadcast, didn't he?

J: Definitely, haha. This time he'd have a specific role, discussing worries.

T: That sounds good.

J: Like ten quickfire questions.

T: Yeah.

J: And he would answer in quick succession.

T: Ahh, thats a good idea. Like, 'Next!'.

J: What do you think, Kami?

Kami: Oh, its not a big deal for me. Its no big deal for me so..

J: He said it twice, haha.

K: Hahaha. Well, its an interesting plan.

J: Well, you can be the judge Kaoru, of whether we'll do it or not.

J: Well, we'll appeal for questions. Ok, well let's finish here this time. Please subscribe. Thank you very much.

J, T, Kami: Thank you.

[the-desolated-quill]

A White Actor Grows Some Bollocks - Quill’s Scribbles

You may recall that movie studio Lionsgate got themselves into a bit of hot water last week when they announced the casting of Ed Skrein as Major Ben Daimio in their upcoming Hellboy reboot. The problem was Major Ben Daimio is a Japanese character in the source material, making Hellboy the latest of numerous sci-fi and/or comic book adaptations to whitewash a prominent Asian character. I and many others made our views heard, voicing our strongest and angriest objections to this blatant bit of racist erasure (for whitewashing is objectively racist and totally inexcusable) just as we did with the likes of Doctor Strange, Death Note and Ghost In The Shell. But unlike those projects I just listed, the most extraordinary thing happened. Somebody listened.

Oh not the studio obviously. No, it was Ed Skrein himself. Realising the hornet’s nest he had kicked, Skrein actually announced via his social media accounts that he was dropping out of the role.

This open letter has received a positive response from fans and readers. Hellboy producers Larry Gordon and Lloyd Levin made a joint statement in support saying:

“Ed came to us and felt very strongly about this. We fully support his unselfish decision. It was not our intent to be insensitive to issues of authenticity and ethnicity, and we will look to recast the part with an actor more consistent with the character in the source material.”

Even Hellboy creator Mike Mignola chipped in to offer his praise for Skrein’s decision to step down.

Now it would be easy to take a very cynical approach to all of this. Perhaps claim that Skrein only stepped down because he realised the damage all of this backlash could do to his career, but for once I’m willing to put aside my cynicism. I do actually believe Ed Skrein’s sincerity here. He seems to be genuinely apologetic, initially not realising the implications of what he was doing and now seems determined to make amends.

However I’m not exactly willing to praise him for his decision. At least not to the same extent others are. I can understand why people are praising him so heavily. This is an almost unprecedented move. Having put up with loads of A list white actors giving the weakest and most pathetic excuses to justify their own racist bullshit, the idea of a white actor growing some bollocks and actually stepping down from a whitewashed role purely on moral grounds is a novelty. He quit a tentpole movie purely because it was the right thing to do, and I am grateful for that. But can we try and keep this in perspective? This decision wasn’t courageous or brave. It’s just an actor turning down a role. A role that should never have been offered to him in the first place. While I’m pleased that Ed Skrein did the decent thing in the end, the fact is this entire situation should never have happened in the first place. Asian characters should be played by Asian actors. That should not be a difficult concept for filmmakers to wrap their heads around, and I feel I should point out I still don’t trust Lionsgate in the fucking slightest. Oh they’re going to cast a Japanese actor as Ben Daimio now if they know what’s good for them, but if Ed Skrein didn’t take the moral high ground, they wouldn’t have learnt a damn thing. Let’s not forget the studio’s initial response to the controversy came from this now deleted tweet from Hellboy executive producer Christa Campbell:

We don’t see colours or race. The slogan for closet racists the world over. 

See this is what so many white people in positions of power and authority within the industry need to understand when it comes to POC presentation. Being colourblind sounds good in theory, but in practice it can be very dangerous. When you make an actor’s performance or marketability the only criteria, you end up making stupid mistakes like this. When you racebend a white character, it’s fine. We already have plenty of representation, plus 9 times out of 10 being white isn’t actually integral to the character. For characters of colour on the other hand, you’ve got to take these other factors into consideration. Usually the culture of said character is integral plus it’s important for non white characters to be portrayed on screen not just for equality, but also for variety.

Recently I finally got to watch the Disney movie Moana, and I’m currently slightly obsessed with it. Not just because it’s a fun, smartly written musical with a great female protagonist, lovable characters, funny jokes and a heartwarming message behind it. It’s also because it explores myths and cultures I’ve never got to experience before.

Moana takes a lot of influence and inspiration from Polynesian culture and mythology, most notably adapting the stories of the demigod Maui (played by Dwayne Johnson). I have no idea how accurate this is, but I still loved it because it was something different. After seeing so many fantasy stuff like Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones, which are essentially variations on Norse mythology, as well as the trillions of Christian inspired fantasy stories, Moana feels incredibly fresh and unique. I found all the stuff about Maui and Te Fiti fascinating, and I would love to see more movies exploring these Polynesian myths and legends. There’s such an incredibly rich vein of creativity you could tap into here.

Something else I loved about Moana was they actually cast Polynesian actors as the characters. I’ve already mentioned Dwayne Johnson as Maui. There’s also Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa the crab, Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s mum, Jango Fett himself Temuera Morrison as Moana’s dad, Rachel House as Moana’s granny, and newcomer Auli’i Cravalho as Moana herself. This is why diversity is so important in films. Not only does it give actors of colour more exposure and allow new talents like Cravalho to emerge and flourish, but it also exposes general movie going audiences to stories and cultures we wouldn’t normally get to see. And that’s why whitewashing is so offensive. It takes job opportunities away from actors of colour and also causes creativity to stagnate. When it’s an Asian character in an Asian inspired story, there’s lots of different directions you can go. When it’s a white character in an Asian inspired story, there’s only one story you can tell. The outsider. The stranger. The foreigner to their ways. That’s not interesting. We’ve seen that done loads of times. Plus if you truly want to immerse the audience in another culture, isn’t it better to have a character that actually represents that culture rather than some white dweeb who knows jackshit about it?

Basically what I’m saying is we need more movies like Moana and less movies like...

No I’m never dropping this. Fuck this movie and all who support it.

So while I’m pleased that Ed Skrein decided to do the right thing in the end, I’m still going to judge this Hellboy reboot with the suspicion and scorn it deserves. Sure they’re probably going to cast a Japanese actor as Ben Daimio, but only because they have to now to save themselves from further embarrassment. It’s not because they want to. If it was someone like Scarlett Johansson or Tilda Swinton, the studio would still be sticking to their guns and trying to justify their racist bullshit. 

I’m glad Skrein managed to fix things and reveal A list white actors like Swinton and Johansson for the selfish, racist, privileged pricks that they are through his own selfless actions, but until the industry properly recognises that whitewashing is NEVER a good idea, nothing has actually changed as far as I’m concerned.

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 07/11/2020 (Ariana Grande, Bring Me the Horizon)

You know, it’s odd how that despite two pretty massive albums dropping, both having an impact on the chart, we actually have less debuts than the scattered mess of singles from last week, thanks to silly UK Singles Chart rules. Regardless, this week’s #1 is still “positions” by Ariana Grande and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Dropouts & Returning Entries

The biggest drop off the chart this week is undoubtedly the #1 hit “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi, exiting the UK Top 75 after a run lasting 50 weeks. Nothing really compares to the weight of that drop-out but I guess we do have “GREECE” by DJ Khaled featuring Drake, “Heather” by Conan Grey. “Bando Diaries” by Dutchavelli, “Heart of Glass” by Miley Cyrus, “forget me too” by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Halsey and “Hold” by Chunkz and Young Filly, only lasting a measly two weeks but still peaking high. There is actually a theme to our returning entries as all of these are spooky scary Halloween-themed tracks. The classic “Thriller” by the ever-controversial King of Pop Michael Jackson is back at #57, “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker, Jr. Is back at #54 – this is my personal favourite of the bunch, mostly thanks to Neil Cicierega – and even “Monster Mash” by Bobby Boris Pickett is back at #50. Oh, and “5AM” by M Huncho and Nafe Smallz is back at #66 but that’s just scarily bad. The biggest fall this week was for “Cool with Me” by Dutchavelli and M1llionz down to #64 whilst the biggest gain was unfortunately for “Whoopty” by CJ at #48. Honestly, what’s the appeal here? Sigh, at least we have some really interesting hijinks this week, pretty fitting for a week that saw the messiest US election in history, and I won’t write this in order so you won’t see what I’m leading up to until a while after you read this part but there is some incredible stuff here. You know what’s not incredible?

NEW ARRIVALS

#74 – “Too Many Nights” – 220 KID and JC Stewart

Produced by 220 KID, Joe Janiak and Mark Ralph

I started off this episode by writing about the Bring Me the Horizon songs first. Not only is the album good and I had recently listened to it, but I had a lot more to say about the tracks, obviously since it’s not something you see on the charts every day and there’s a lot more to discuss in these tracks. Hence, after writing nearly 2,000 words on the metalcore boys alone, I have a question: do I really need to cover this emotionless tropical house-pop crap manufactured by labels and DJs who rarely find any interesting instrumentation, songwriting ideas or even samples to cover up their complete lack of innovation and at times even talent, for a quick buck and stupid amounts of unwarranted chart success? I don’t want to say I’m angry and I don’t want to seem pretentious but music is art. Art is, as a result of the society that produces it, a product, but even #1 hits and major-label records are still pieces of art. They can be analysed, appreciated and listened to with a lot of thought and detail. I cannot see that in “Too Many Nights” by 220 KID and JC Stewart. To me, this is purely a product. I’m taking this way too seriously but this really exemplifies what people hate about pop music in three minutes and eight seconds of cheap plastic dance music. Next.

#67 – “Ginger” – Wizkid featuring Burna Boy

Produced by P2J

Wizkid and Burna Boy are both highly acclaimed Nigerian singers and given everything that’s happening here recently, it’s no surprise Wizkid released an album that I would think touches on these issues, Made in Lagos, which is a name I can infer means he will explore Nigerian identity and what it means to be from Lagos and make it big in music. Wizkid is one of the big stars and pioneers of modern African pop music and whilst I should be interested in the album, I haven’t had the time to give it a spin yet so I’ll take this first impression from the track with Burna Boy. This is a pretty sweet tropical tune with an infectious hook referencing the traditional West African dish of jollof rice, and whilst the language barrier does prevent me from fully understanding the song, I can gather that this is a mix of a hook-up jam and typical rap stuff, with him flexing how he lives nice and if people want smoke, he’s got smoke, and a lot about this woman gyrating on him. Seriously, that’s the whole first verse, which only arrives after a really awkward pause. The second verse is kind of awkward here and Wizkid’s voice and flow have never done much for me, especially here where both he and Burna Boy sound checked-out. Burna Boy’s contributions are pretty much relegated to half of the chorus and an outro that quickly fades away and soon enough, this really slow, kind of uninteresting song has already finished. I’m not personally a fan of this but I am still interested in that album – I like the song with Skepta even if it does sound very much like “Ginger”, just with a stronger guest. Now onto the big story, or at least my big story, on the chart.

#55 – “1x1” – Bring Me the Horizon featuring Nova Twins

Produced by Jordan Smith and Oliver Sykes

I never read Kerrang! magazine, mostly because I’m not a loser [citation needed]. I understand that they originated in the 1980s as a metal-focused magazine but I wasn’t there for that. I was there for the Kerrang! TV era of pop-punk whining, scene-core screaming, nu-metal grunting, emo crooning and the Bloodhound Gang for some reason. Listening to this new Bring Me the Horizon album, titled Post Human: Survival Horror, took me back to that place. That feeling of classic Metallica followed by less classic Foo Fighters followed by the absolutely not classic Medina Lake (some of their stuff still slaps, however derivative) – oh, yeah, and like 10 minutes of adverts after six minutes of music. That feeling of All Time Low and You Me at Six playing back to back and being completely incapable of telling the difference between the two. “If we ain’t got that then we ain’t got much and we ain’t got nothing.” They were simpler times. I may be mashing up eras here but it still stands. Hell, the BABYMETAL tracks even took me back to the “Flashing Lights” disclaimers of all things. Rest in peace to Scuzz by the way, and, yes, I said BABYMETAL, we’ll get to that in a bit. So, yeah, I really liked that throwback to turn-of-the-millennium mallcore, but it does keep itself fresh and interesting enough throughout, especially with Sykes’ unique delivery and topical albeit ham-fisted edgy lyrics. You can say a lot about Bring Me the Horizon but at this point at least they definitely have pretty defining characteristics and a lot of likeability even if they do like to stick to a formula at times that makes it pretty obvious where their influences lie. That said, I do think the album becomes a slog by track seven, and it’s a lot duller than it probably should be for the final stretch. Unfortunately, this is track seven. I’m not familiar with the Nova Twins but they’re a punk-rap duo from London and honestly I am interested in checking out that debut album but I’m not really impressed by them or the metalcore boys – which is somehow a better band name than “Bring Me the Horizon” – on this track. Again, there is a formula to the metalcore boys’ banger tracks, and here it feels particularly stale and awkward, thanks to the loudness war that’s present in the album as a whole (Linkin Park’s influence shows up everywhere, even in the production) and the awkward trap elements shoved into the percussion of the first and second verses. I think Amy Love of Nova Twins obviously flows better on it than Oli Sykes who should have handed everything that’s not the chorus – one of the most cookie-cutter on the record – to the Twins, because he sounds pretty off here. There’s a lot less “epic edgy” lyrical content (I’m not sure if that’s a compliment) but that leads to kind of vague and disjointed ideas that don’t all line up to the core theme of the song, which is human guilt for the sins of man or some crap like that. Boys, when you interpolate four of your own songs AND Linkin Park, you’ve got to realise you’re re-treading some ground here. Not even the typical Bring Me the Horizon drop into the metal breakdown from an electronic bridge really feels like it’s worth it or climactic here, which is a shame but who needs the Nova Twins when the metalcore boys have a collaboration with another unique all-female rock duo...?

#51 – “Kingslayer” – Bring Me the Horizon featuring BABYMETAL

Produced by Jordan Fish and Oliver Sykes

When I saw BABYMETAL on this tracklist, I was amused and kind of laughed it off. These guys do have some pretty bizarre collaborations – they have songs with Halsey and Grimes – but BABYMETAL? I remember them when they were half-awesome Japanese pop-metal band and half-complete and utter meme in the early 2010s, and I knew that they had continued being so, mostly because the last time I heard from them they were playable in Super Mario Maker. Seriously, look it up. Now when I saw BABYMETAL on the charts, nearing the top 50 no less, I was ecstatic and honestly shocked. Needless to say this is their first appearance on the chart and whilst metal bands in the 2000s like Slipknot and System of a Down had genuine hits, outside of, fittingly, Bring Me the Horizon, it’s unheard of, especially for a Japanese girl group who happen to have freaking shredders playing on stage behind them. I haven’t listened to a BABYMETAL album but I feel like I don’t need to because of how much they’ve made an impression through singles, videos and live performances. Judas Priest’s Rob Halford called BABYMETAL “the future of metal” and whilst I’m not into the metal scene, I’m half-inclined to both agree and add Bring Me the Horizon to that conversation. I’m just amazed there is a cyber-kawaii metal song on the charts. I’m honestly astonished. Oh, and it helps that the song is incredible. On the album there’s a short interlude that functions as an introduction but honestly the short, aggressive synth riff followed by an immediate crash into the metal groove and Sykes yelling his lungs out works better on its own to just shove you face-first into some insane music. I love how that opening yell is chopped up and digitally re-arranged in the background of the chaotic instrumentation. The cutesy and bleep-bloopy synths that are not new to Bring Me the Horizon’s repertoire are used to their full potential here and yes, it is complete sensory overload, but it’s also kawaii-cyber metal. I mean, what did you expect? It also thematically makes sense. The song is about Call of Duty but it’s also an ode to the people willing to stand up for what they believe in even if it’s illegal and even if it doesn’t abide by rules and regulations. The album is full of these songs that fully support a revolutionary attitude and a clear frustration with keeping up with the old guard for all these years. You can hear how fed up and sick and tired of the political hellscape Sykes is in his shifts between pitch-shifted whining not dissimilar to Blink-182 and gravelly yelling straight out of extreme metal, except unlike most extreme metal I’ve heard, this is actually mixed properly. This track and especially the opener, “Dear Diary”, have so much anarchic energy and that is what I love about the hardcore punk edge to a lot of the album, not necessarily as much sonically as that in content and lyrical themes, where Sykes presents his inner mental struggles and contextualises them on the world stage, making an album that tackles the pandemic, racism and corruption vaguely and with poetic wit without being shallow or impersonal. Most songs that relate to the social distancing will not use the depressive emotional bloodletting of “Teardrops”, the subtly ominous yet still anthemic choruses about lockdown in “Obey” (seriously, these guys can make even YUNGBLUD sound listenable) and even the slow, sour conflict with both Mother Nature and general isolation on the closing ballad that has a name way too long for me to recite, as much as I enjoy upping the word count on every episode. Sykes’ verse in “Kingslayer” discusses opposing points of political opposition and protest, on one hand wanting to express how sick people are of going through the capitalist machine only to be spat back out again but also asking him the condescending question of if he really wants to poke the governmental bear. On the pre-chorus, he voices those frustrations in profanity-laden motivation that is asking not just himself but the general public to wake up, not that they’re unaware of how unfair the system is but instead acting as a call to action. Su-Metal of BABYMETAL takes this ode in a different angle, seeing revolutionaries as idolised figures, so much so that the chorus works as a confession of love or just awe in how the “kingslayer” is destroying castles in the sky and will save “us” from the darkness and from the struggles that the corrupt elite forces onto the populace. In the verse Su-Metal juxtaposes the imagery in the hook of some kind of medieval warrior (“angel of the blade”) with the near-incomprehensible verse, which is half-sung in Japanese with a cry for help responded to in commanding English, which I see as a reaction from the authority that undermines these problems. They call the revolutionary “artificial” and “modified” in a condescending, mocking tone, as well as using so much digital jargon that the verse becomes practically meaningless, especially backed by the heavy, loud music that drowns some of the messaging about and very much intentionally. It also seems pretty intentional that this song sounds like a take on an anime opening, as all of this cyber-punk imagery and anti-authority lyrical content feels a lot sharper when coated in references and criticism of mass-media. Oh, and it also helps that the song rocks, Su-Metal’s melodies are beautifully placed against a frenetic, monotone bass note in her verse, and that final chorus is absolutely perfect. That rapid-fire addition to the chorus took me by surprise on first listen and just completes the song for me. The song ends with one last wake-up call from Sykes about the rabbit hole before his yell is manipulated, screwed and played with by the production, rendering his scream inhuman... and followed by the playful, childlike inflections of BABYMETAL. If we don’t at least try to change in this time, the generations after us will suffer from our mistakes and missed opportunities. Man, this song is a rollercoaster that starts with drum and bass rhythms and ends with Oli Sykes growling gratuitous profanities that get close to feeling like he’s insulting the listener – it’s really brutal – and I’m here for it all the way. There have been songs on REVIEWING THE CHARTS that I like and that I love and whilst I know this won’t stick around (it is still cyber-kawaii metal), this is undoubtedly the best song I think I’ve ever covered on this show and might as well just be one of the best songs I’ve heard this year and maybe ever. I adore this track, please, PLEASE check it out.

#46 – “Flooded” – M Huncho and Nafe Smallz

Produced by Sean Murdz

Okay, seriously for a second: who cares? There’s nothing interesting here. A synth-based soundscape with some cheap flute loops drowned out by trap percussion that doesn’t even drop in, it just awkwardly fades in – yes, even the 808s – and Auto-Tuned mumbling from a nasal-voiced child with an unbearable falsetto. What is the appeal? None of them sound interested, there are no bars of any interest or even a funny line, not even unintentionally. D-Block Europe make me laugh but this tragically awful duo make me bored to death. M Huncho has a cool mask he wears and I wish his gimmick was more than just that and you know, actually translated to the music, but he doesn’t sound intimidating or like a villain. He just sounds like some dude who decided to rap barely on the beat of badly-mixed type beat with bass mastering that should be pitied. He did have a fluke song that kind of slapped called “Pee Pee”, which just comes to show that the more ridiculous and stupid he gets, the more vaguely entertaining he is. So why is he this dull and lame?! The flow is either talking over a beat that refuses to stay still but never truly reaches any kind of climax or even build-up, or just trap-rap word association. “I flooded the chain, it’s like a lake, we runnin’ the game, you pressin’ the brakes.” There’s nothing here, absolutely nothing, and these two hacks cannot sell it. I’m just looking for some effort and even if something is effortless, at least have the charisma to make it sound like you give a damn because this is pretty inexcusable.

#35 – “Paradise” – MEDUZA and Dermot Kennedy

Produced by MEDUZA

I’m tired and I feel like I’m almost at breaking point with these songs. What would usually be generic and uninteresting is sounding offensively bad to me right now and I’m not sure why. That doesn’t really matter all too much to me though as this show has never been an in-depth critical assessment... okay, well sometimes it becomes as such but these are usually just my first impressions of tracks that happen to debut that week on the UK Singles Chart and this can range from volatile frustration to immediate adoration to not giving a rat’s ass about a single one of the songs that debut, depending on how I feel that day. That said, this song is fine. I actually really like Kennedy’s delivery, even if his rougher edges are smoothened and cleaned up by the vocal production here, which is pretty reverb-drenched but does allow for Kennedy to actually release rather than editing the vocals to sound really tight and closed-in... except for that really weak, pathetic drop but I do like the lyrical content, fittingly about distanced relationships as England enters a second lockdown. There’s little to say here but it’s worth a listen.

#32 – “Four Notes – Paul’s Tune” – Paul Harvey, Daniel Whibley and BBC Philharmonic

Produced by ???

No production credits for this one for whatever reason. Anyway, I am tired to the point of just complete speechless confusion at why this charted, and especially so high, rather than having any intrigue in why, but I looked it up anyway. Paul Harvey is a man from Sussex with dementia who is able to improvise beautiful piano melodies with only four notes as a reference point, hence the name. This was recorded by his son Nick and posted onto Twitter, where it soon became viral. This composition was then arranged by Daniel Whibley and recorded by the BBC’s Philharmonic Orchestra to be released as a charity single with proceeds being split between the Alzheimer’s Society and Music for Dementia. This isn’t a song I can critique. The arrangement is really pretty and it was in the original video, with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra only serving to make it sound grander and fitting for a single release. Dementia, Alzheimer’s and any kind of brain disorder are all really tragic and really depressing things to happen to anybody, especially to the people it tends to affect: the elderly. It’s sweet that this is a single and I like that it charted high so those organisations that can assist science in treating these disorders and give help to those with family members diagnosed with and suffering from brain disorders have more funding. The song sounds good, it’s mixed well and honestly it’s pretty gorgeous at times, and if this helps people, then it’s done its job, and I commend Harvey and his son, Daniel Whibley and the BBC for letting this happen. Now for something completely different.

#26 – “Deluded” – Tion Wayne featuring MIST

Produced by Steel Banglez and Chris Rich Beats

Steel Banglez, Tion Wayne and MIST? God, maybe we are returning to the new normal; this is a 2019 line-up. Tion Wayne is a character and a presence on the track always and MIST is quite the opposite, but that “So High” song with Fredo was pretty cool, I suppose. Tion Wayne has always been more of an entertaining presence than half this crop of drill rappers, even if his flow and bars suffer from it, but he’s always a lot more fun and he does have a couple punchlines that hit. This particular song uses that “mm-mm” flow that originated on his track “Keisha & Becky”, and both him and MIST sound really interested and enthused here, as they trade bars in the verses and support each other with ad-libs throughout. The two seem to actually have some chemistry and it’s not an unnatural collaboration. Even in Tion Wayne’s solo chorus, MIST is shouting behind him, and it overall makes the song really aggressive and punchy, even if some of the lyrics are just kind of uninteresting or even confusing, like the oddly-specific jab at an unnamed crack abuser, always referred to as “you” in the song. Is the listener a crack addict? Should I be scared? I’m not entirely sure, but this kind of slaps, especially the keys and vocal sample in the outro. It kind of reminds me of a harsher version of the #1 hit back from 2018, “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo, except these guys are legitimately menacing in the song and the bass-heavy drill beat never subtracts from that, not to say that “Funky Friday” is a bad song (far from it). It’s not about being able to convince me with lyrics, it’s about being able to sell what you say effectively and interestingly – not even uniquely, but just in a way that’s presentable and leads to genuinely good music. M Huncho and Nafe Smallz could take a couple hints from these guys.

#16 – “motive” – Ariana Grande and Doja Cat

Produced by TBHits, Joseph L’Etranger, Mr. Franks and Murda Beatz

Murda Beatz, huh? Well, I haven’t listened to Positions yet, mostly because I’ve been bumping Goddamn Bring Me the Horizon for the past week, but also because 14 tracks of the same song doesn’t necessarily interest me. For the sake of the show I probably should check the album out – it’s not that long – but don’t expect me to have that a positive opinion on it. I said my peace on Grande last week and given the singles I seriously doubt this album will erase my continuous issues with her projects. I’ve always felt that despite her unbelievable talent, she is also unbelievably disinterested and detached from her own music to the point where whatever artistic contributions and creativity she and her team had is completely washed out by the questionable production, weak-sauce trap beats and misguided song ideas (I still roll my eyes on “7 rings” and “sweetener”). From what I’ve heard from this new album, it has a lot more classic R&B keys and strings undercut by trap skitters and modern vocal production, and this is pretty clear in “motive”, a funky house-inspired dance-pop tune that feels miles less robotic and factory-made than most house on the charts, instead going for an organic fast-paced groove and mildly annoying vocal samples. The trap breakdown in the pre-chorus is what gives Murda Beatz the right to put his producer tag at the start of the song, which is honestly just funny. I do like the verses but the chorus doesn’t hit in quite the same way it should, possibly that pre-chorus is just garbage and it doesn’t build to an effective crescendo for the chorus to build up on off of whispery murmuring. Oh, and Doja Cat is here, which took me by surprise when she started lazily rapping since Ari actually sounded like her in the second verse. In fact, this is a Doja Cat song in all but lead artist credit and honestly, the song kind of suffers because of it. This is decent, I suppose, but a collaboration that doesn’t favour either artist.

#9 – “34+35” – Ariana Grande

Produced by ProdByXavi, Mr. Franks, Peter Lee Johnson and TBHits

Ariana Grande’s albums have disproportionate producer credit to producer effort ratio. At least there’s not a M-M-M-Murda on this one. The song title is stupid but this was pushed to radio so I guess it has to be family-friendly PG clean to some degree. It is interesting how it goes for the absurdity of being dirty over Disney-like orchestral blossoms and pretty nice-sounding strings, but it doesn’t go far enough other than the chorus. It’s missing a good, effective, funny opening line, and I feel that the verses are pretty lacking. The pre-chorus is almost cringeworthy and just going into bizarre levels of horny on main but that is very much the point of the whole thing. “You know I keep it squeaky”? I find it almost difficult to take this song as anything more than a joke, but she does have some pretty commanding tones when she asks him to “just give me them babies” and the snarky laugh in the intro combined with pretty slick albeit absolutely stupid punchlines that go from so bad it’s good territory to just unabashedly ridiculous and embracing itself as such. I love the falsetto in the chorus even if it is just building up to that stupid title that is nowhere near as clever as Ari thinks it is. By the way, she completely delivers here and it’s a pretty damn great performance from her, one of her most enthusiastic on record, even with her now typical “yuh”s spread throughout. Hell, the rap verse actually works this time mostly because her charisma actually comes through and the trap skitter has some energy this time, unlike “7 rings”. I don’t get the end where she says she was never good at maths, though, because “34 + 35 = 69” is a pretty solid and correct albeit obviously simple calculation. You got the answer, give it a tick in a different colour pen.

Got the neighbours yellin’, “Earthquake!” / 4.5 when I make the bed shake

There’s a song in the top 10 that uses the moment magnitude scale as a sex metaphor. 2020, everyone.

Conclusion

Let’s cut to the chase: Best of the Week goes to Bring Me the Horizon and BABYMETAL for “Kingslayer”, which should have been obvious. I’m so glad I expanded beyond the top 40 on this show. It means I can talk about songs like that in depth. Honourable Mention might actually go to Ariana Grande’s “34+35” on plain fun alone, although the similarly numeric “1x1” did get close. The Worst of the Week is really a toss-up because there was a lot of disposable filler between the good and interesting stuff this week had to offer. I’ll probably go with “Flooded” by M Huncho and Nafe Smallz, with a Dishonourable Mention to “Too Many Nights” by 220 KID and JC Stewart. Both are just impressively lacking in effort or any appeal I can search for, but knowing my luck, they’ll both be “Old Town Road”-level big. Here’s our top 10:

Thanks for reading this! You can follow me @cactusinthebank on Twitter and I need some sleep. See you next week!

[doomedandstoned]

Week of Wonders: Kurokuma

Doomed & Stoned is kicking off what we're dubbing the "Week of Wonders," featuring free Bandcamp giveaways every day, with the mighty KUROKUMA. It's hardly the first time we've featured the Sheffield band in these pages, but now they're back with good reason (besides the freebies): a new EP. Actually, it's the first installment of a new series of recordings on the oh-so-English Off Me Nut label casting a spotlight on the new blood of the heavy music scene. 'Sheffield's Best Metal Bands Vol. 1' (2019) is the record before us, which Kurokuma has dubbed metal with a twist for the eclectic variety displayed on the record (including a surprise cover -- I won't spoil it for you).

Despite the diversity, I never for a moment felt I was listening to any band other than Kurokuma. Their hard-driving rhythmic style with its obsessive drumbeat and relentless riffcraft. Though I've never had the pleasure of witnessing Kurokuma do their thing live, from the sweaty, shirtless pics I have seen it's apparent that these guys are serious about their music making and thus gigs get very, shall we say, intense. You can certainly feel the visceral nature of the music making throughout these tracks, which travel like a bugged-out snail across the razor's edge of doom, oozing on into contemporary sludge and even synthwave territory.

We were lucky enough to get drummer Joe E. Allen to break down each of the tracks on the new record. If you like what you hear, please show the band some love!

Kurokuma Speaks!

The idea for the EP began when we were in Japan. Our mate Tich (who runs Off Me Nut Records) was at the Tokyo show cos he was playing there on the same day, which was pretty nuts. He said he wanted to put us out on OMN and we joked about calling it Sheffield's Best Metal Bands, and here we are cos it ended up happening. It's a release inspired by a collection of creatures that are perhaps shunned or misunderstood by society at large, and heavily affected by our time on the road over the last year or so.

RVN

Sheffield's Best Metal Bands Vol. 1 by Kurokuma

We chilled a lot with Gestur from the doom band Morpholith when we were in Reykjavík last year. We were at his place once and he showed us this Icelandic folk song called “Krummavísur.” There was a haunting Scandinavian melody and simple lyrics about the raven. When you're in Iceland there's a really strong connection with the natural world, especially its more brutal and cold elements. That's what I felt anyway. When we got home we tried jamming around with the main riff, and at first it just sounded like Viking metal, as you might expect, but we twisted it more and more and eventually ended up with the first track on this EP.

The first half is pretty heavily psychedelic and we've had a lot of people comment it sounds like Pink Floyd's "One of These Days" or Primus' "Here Come The Bastards." There are ravens cawing in the background at the start. It locks into a pretty nice groove once everything kicks in. Live it's all played by us obviously, but on this release we let Tich recreate the bassline with a John Carpenter-style synth and it works really well.

Last summer when we were in Eastern Europe we got to play with a lot of legit black metal bands, which was something new for us to be honest. Watching Belphegor from the side of the stage in the Transylvanian mountains was a pretty special experience and we definitely brought something of that feeling to the second half of this song. It changes completely at that point and then the vocals between Jake and George start to trade off.

For the lyrics I wanted to keep it somewhat in line with the original folk song, and so the first line is exactly the same. Then it branches off into this manifesto on basically being in a gang of ravens, which is technically called an "unkindness," hence the line "An unkindness of the land." It goes really well with the riff, I think. We hammer that for a while, then there's a type of crescendo with the ravens cawing making a return. Live we play this ending differently with a lot more blast beats and a black metal feel, but on the recording we ended up going for a slower approach with a fatter version of the main motif.

Wasp Nest

Sheffield's Best Metal Bands Vol. 1 by Kurokuma

This is a track that came to life in the production of it. It was based on an old interlude that we'd only ever played live once, I think. It was originally meant to sound very basic and repetitive when we were writing it, like some old school hip hop beat. We thought it would make a good interlude on the EP. Some people in reviews have called this filler, some have said it's their favourite track on the release; I like how it turned out a lot. It's pretty unique in my opinion. Old Necro Deathmort stuff and beats by producer Alchemist was a big influence on how it ended up sounding.

I think we called it Wasp Nest cos some of the sounds when we were first jamming it sounded like buzzing, and it just had that vibe. The wasp sample at the start sets the tone nice. Me and George just jammed this one out live in the studio, then we picked the best parts and cleaned it up a lot. Jake put some big chords down on top of it, then we added some extra percussion like the dusty tambourine and the drum fill sample. There's also a screaming sax sample on every first three beat. One review said it "simmers for four minutes, threatening to spill over but never doing so" and I think that's a good description.

Deeper Underground

Sheffield's Best Metal Bands Vol. 1 by Kurokuma

Yes, this is a cover of Deeper Underground by Jamiroquai. We've played this live for a while now and I can count on one hand the amount of people who've recognised it. Most people don't realise, which probably shows how much we messed with it.

The original has one of the best basslines in the history of music, and it was pretty big in the UK when it came out in 1998, along with the Godzilla movie. I remember loving it, and it's more evil than Jamiroquai's other material -- the synth intro has to be one of the darkest things to ever enter the charts. We wanted to take those elements to the extreme in our version. We'd always talked about covering it from the start of Kurokuma, and we finally decided to try it after our Japan trip. I dunno why but Jake came up to me in the changing room at a public baths in Meguro and said "Let's do that cover of Deeper Underground". He must have been inspired by finally being in Tokyo...

As a nod to the Godzilla connection we started this track with a sample from Godzilla 2000 in Japanese. On this EP as a whole we wanted to bring in more sounds and samples so the whole thing would flow and blend, a bit like a mixtape. The voices say "The stampede of science has been born. Why did you appear?" "He's a monster birthed by humans." "So Godzilla is inside all of us?" And then the riff drops.

We did take that synth intro to the extreme, probably the slowest, most funeral doom thing we play. It builds for a long time based around George's bass riff and effects before the main riff kicks in. This song is our longest as well, at over 10 minutes. The whole thing is meant to feel laboured and cumbersome, like a giant lizard.

When the vocals kick in we simplified the main riff down to a sludgey core; it feels like a Crowbar riff to me. Of course the drums are very straightforward as well. Jake does all the vocals on this one cos his style suited it better. The chorus was the toughest part to make work. Even in the original it's unconventional with its time signature and feel. Eventually we tried it with an inverted drum beat, no vocals and loads of reverb on the guitar while the bass keeps the flow going.

The bridge also took a while to perfect. It has the "I'm going" vocal in the original, but we ended up implying that with a Sleep-esque guitar riff instead. Always enjoy playing the cowbell here. The whole track ends with a Geiger counter fadeout.

Wasp Nest (Memphis Edit)

Sheffield's Best Metal Bands Vol. 1 by Kurokuma

Working with our producer, Tich, and putting this out on Off Me Nut we couldn't miss a chance to have him remix one of our tracks. We're all fans of the 90s Memphis rap sound and that was basically the brief, and Tich did us proud. It's pretty authentic with some nice tape distortion and 808 cowbell samples.

The Great Kurokuma Giveaway!

Who will be among the chosen few to yoink one of the 15 Bandcamp codes below? Choose one and try your luck! Redeem here.

82fc-5f9n vka9-gpce 7y9z-3ns3 v2tu-hmxs fmzv-vgad lby8-6buc cvut-yxmx cf5y-uq8p cd7z-j9bn ph5n-kt4j rc7v-6njy asw7-kjzr 6kda-cb5z k3q8-xwng ka83-ew5u

Follow The Band

Get Their Music

[uncheckedtomfoolery]

Some Wriggle thoughts

Here’s the followup I promised. Below the cut in case it gets long. No real theme, just a bunch of ideas. Assume the usual ‘this is not canon’ disclaimer. I’m only using definitive terms rather than a mess of theoreticals because it scans better.

Wriggle doesn’t actually know a whole lot about bugs. She doesn’t have much of an education there, though she’s working on it. Yes, she’s an insect youkai and controls insects, but does being human give you perfect knowledge of human anatomy and everything there is to know about other primates inherently? Nope. She’s got a lot of learning to do.

Wriggle’s powers are actually fairly Swiss Army Knife-y. You can do a lot with insect control, provided you’re smart, careful, and have the right bugs for the job. At the very least you can know a lot about what’s going on in Gensokyo... conveyed solely in terms of what, say, a beetle would be able to parse. Basically, there’s a lot of potential here that scales well with knowledge and planning. What she won’t do is throw them into fights as cannon fodder. More on that below.

Wriggle goes on and on about people looking down on bugs, casually harming them and thinking nothing of their lives, in the little exposure she gets. It’s not hard to go from here to an image of Wriggle as someone who... well, cares a lot. Is she more of less at the bottom of the food chain? Yes. Is she also uniquely far more capable than, for instance, an earthworm or beetle? Oh yes. So it falls to her to look after them; their service is a bonus. She takes care of them, searches the forest for injured ones to take in, probably has a whole mess of them living around her house and so on (in their own area; at this point her sensibilities are reasonably distinct from hers, she might have guests, and it’s generally for the best to give them a separate portion of the house). 

Basically, she sees herself as a caretaker and friend to them. That they’re going queen of all insectkind over it is besides the point. 

It’s probably worth deciding if you want her to influence insects or bugs. They’re not quite the same, but you can totally justify the latter: Youkai are basically personified ideas. Do you think the average feudal Japanese villager cares about biological and taxonomical discussions between a cicada and a spider? Probably not.

Relatedly, being around her may feel kind of weird for Yamame.

Based on what I’ve seen of beetles, mantises, flies etc., it’s hard to imagine Wriggle going more than five seconds without preening herself, or at least needing to resist the urge to do so. I have a feeling she cares significantly more about keeping perfectly clean than most youkai do, for that matter.

I imagine Wriggle living in a house converted from a big hollowed out tree in the forest of magic. There is no actual basis to this. I just think it suits her.

Similarly, with no real grounding, I like to imagine that Wriggle’s default appearance is a bit more bug-like (a random mishmash of features maybe, not just firefly; again, it’s a concept more than anything, being a youkai). The human look is, you know. Part habit, partly to be presentable. Angry or extremely panicky Wriggle (protip: you are going to see the latter much more often) might slip up and briefly look a fair bit more unsettling. 

Wriggle likes people. Unfortunately, her prior experience is in liking bugs, who she looks after. I’m not saying she has trouble with more human (well, let’s say humanoid, on account of youkai and fairies) mannerisms. No, she just has a very blurred line and generally heavy overlap in her mind between ‘thing/person I like’ and ‘small helpless creature I need to keep safe and look after’. And this is universal. She will take care of and endlessly fuss over basically anyone she cares about, regardless of protest or necessity, even if she’s considerably less well-equipped to do anything because.... well, you know. She’s not exactly a big deal by any means. Imagine, say, a solid few hours of ‘nooooo, don’t go out there, Yuuka, you could get hurt’ prior to PoFV and you’ve got the general idea. That’s beyond the day to day stuff, obviously. As someone who reacts extremely poorly to cold, I assume she also sees to it that all her friends get at least one silk sweater a year. 

Yes, Yuuka coming up is basically inevitable, isn’t it? Well, here’s their connection as I see it. Wriggle supplies bees, which is a pretty invaluable service to the garden. Yuuka probably pays her for borrowing the bees, and that’s that. More or less a professional relationship. Having said that, Yuuka respects her well enough (more than most, even, because her metrics have no connection to ‘bugs are gross’ or ‘yeah, but you’re not exactly big and scary, are you?’). Wriggle, of course, likes most people, and probably reacts to anything about Yuuka’s fearsome reputation with “wait, what? Where are you getting this? She’s fine. Well, no more than anyone bigger/more important than me is scary, anyway.”

Given that she can order huge swarms around if need be and is used to herding them around, I would wager that she has a stern ‘no, stop that’ voice on par with Keine’s if need be.

Remember the leaping/general leg strength of a flea, and realise that we can legitimise the tired old Wriggle Kick joke if we really want to.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Phantom in the Twilight 4 - 5 | Starlight Promises | Muhyo and Roji’s BSI 1 | Cells at Work! 5 | BnHA 55 - 56 | Angolmois 5 | Planet With 5

Tags should be rolled out soon.

Phantom 4

The Chris x Shinyao ship is setting sail…figuratively and literally.

Affogato al caffe. I’m not a coffee person but it sounds tasty!

I wonder what “shut up, peanut gallery” sounds like in Japanese or Chinese? (volume off right now)

I like how they decided to randomly stick a drone into this.

Oh, I didn’t really believe Ton when she said Toryu had a talisman over his eyes, but now I can see it too. This crow scene reminds me of Juuni Taisen though…by the way.

The fact Haysin (half-shaven man is Haysin, now that I’ve gotten the villains’ names straight) is plotting above London reminds me of the 90s, where villains would do that a lot for no other reason but to look cool.

I love how Vlad’s cape appears last, so that it can drift behind him dramatically like that.

This show’s a bit monologue-driven, but nothing that isn’t highly entertaining.

Ohmigosh, was that Vlad? As a singer??? What??? That’s fantastic! Amazing! And also surprisingly sexy…not that I needed to divulge that last bit since he’s a bishie vampire as it stands, but…y’know.

Starlight Promises

I normally don’t do commentaries for movies, but I need the notes for the WordPress post…so let’s go.

I wonder why this was delayed…

Was it just me, or was Shouma’s bike/body CGI when he was riding up the hill? I like how they chose to put the bike scene over the phone call though, it would’ve been too boring otherwise.

I always like noticing when someone says “Sankyuu” rather than “Arigatou” because it’s always funny to laugh at…well, that’s a bit of an injoke between me and some classmates from Japanese class, but…yeah.

Yakusoku no Nanayamatsuri = The Promised 7th Night Festival, or something along those lines.

The hologram speaks very formally…but that’s because she’s an admin person. She’s dealing with people she’s not familiar with and might keep at arms’ length.

They’re so going to fall in love aren’t they? That’s the tale of Tanabata for ya.

Oh, Shiori lost her hat! Also, was Shouma always calling her (Shiori) –chan?

Have you noticed the women all dress in pink/red and the boys all dress in blue? Eesh, gender segregation, much?

This water is so obviously CGI…it’s not the most terrible-looking stuff I’ve seen in CGI, but it’s still obviously CGI.

He’s dead! Just as I was thinking all along! As soon as they started dropping hints about Shiori’s sister, I knew Atsushi was gonna be dead!

You can quite clearly see the fabric has been animated by CGI in this dance sequence. That’s probably why the movie was delayed…

There weren’t that many friend-friend pairs…only lovers and familial ones…hmm…

Muhyo and Roji’s BSI 1

Finally! Time for the start of the season to be watched!...At least, I hope so. Between the shows I’ve got, the lineup’s pretty much set.

If Kenji and Nana appear next week, they’re probably just trying to take their time with this show. Then again, they could still rush the ending…or cut out some of the middle stuff…

I find it interesting that they showed Yoichi chasing after Enchu first. By doing that, it’s almost as if Muhyo and Roji don’t matter in this show.

This adaption’s actually pretty by the book, to use a very bad pun. I think the glasses cost Roji about 300 (or was that 390?) yen, but that’s the only missing detail I’ve found so far.

What does “nice course” mean anyway? In volleyball, that is…

Welp, as much as I want to support this show, this first problem could clearly just be solved by having more communication between Rie and Taeko…

…I kind of knew this would happen, but…the lineup I have is so solid and yet I don’t think this show could compete with any of them. So, as much as I want to follow the show weekly, it’s going on hold.

BnHA 55

This “Miss Sai” lady is most definitely going to go “Ohohoho!”, y’know? Just from that hand gesture, I can tell that’s going to happen…*sigh* Anime…

Phreatic explosion. Sounds cool, but it’s pretty simple at the heart of the matter.

Interi Saiko…ohmigosh! It’s just as bad as puns from Saiki Kusuo’s show! Saikou means “best” and interi is short for “intelligence”.

Interesting that Yaomomo thinks of Todoroki first…then Iida…

This high-pitched noise is basically the beginning of Dude of Red, y’know? (LOL!)

Lemme guess, Aizawa thinks Midoriya and Bakugo are the two with the biggest influence.

Cells at Work! 5

Phagocytosis. Haven’t seen that word in years, y’know…

Diastroph-wuh?...Diastrophism, apparently.

“With its antibodies!”

…wasn’t there an explanation of mast cells in one of the previous episodes, though?

I think Mast Cell was using “baka” (volume off) but the subbers went with “bonehead”, which works just as well while including an extra body pun in there! Fabulous, huh?

Steroids can be human-made, right? So that’s why this is a robot! A-ha!

Planet With 5

The giant explosion? Didn’t think they were going to talk about that, LOL. Nobody talks about things like those in ordinary shows…but then again, this isn’t an ordinary show, is it?

I feel like the girls are talking about the case in Eva, where the children constantly had to get evacuated.

Can someone be weird by not being weird? I guess that’s the chuuni life for ya.

Why is there an abandoned ball in the play equipment, though…?

Hey! It’s a world turtle! The Nebula people(?) really do believe in human mythology, don’t they?

Oh. The “ni” in “Universe” is upside-down…

Maybe the snake is Ouroboros? Or the Midgard serpent, which is said to encircle the Earth in Norse mythology?

The hologram machine looks like a macaron…*drools*

There appears to be the kanji for “love” on one side of the bowl.

Ah! Shiraishi is giving them instructions! Just like I said in ep 2’s commentary!

I mentioned in a WordPress post Planet With can be interpreted as a coming-of-age and I think that’s best encapsulated in Nezuya’s change. However, Takezo (old man) is proving that even the young at heart can “have the fire in their hearts put out”, meaning even he need to grow up…metaphorically speaking.

The dog’s Japanese name is Kakka = “His Excellency”. So why “Generalissimo”????

Whoa! Normally it’s a small TBC on the corner (bottom-right quarter of the screen), but this time it fills the entire screen…! The show’s just getting better and better!

Phantom in the Twilight 5

The body text of the newspaper appears to be in Latin, LOL.

Hey, a leannan sidhe! Havn’t seen one since Ancient Magus’ Bride and that’s where I learnt about ‘em anyway.

Is it just me, or does the animation look noticeably wonkier than usual in this episode…?

George Gregory *scoffs*. What a name, it’s almost redundant…

Poor boy Roland seems sleep-deprived…hopefully it’s just the artstyle…or his stage makeup.

“Armlet”? (sic)

I wonder why there are all these blurry shots? They seem somewhat intentional…

I thought Roland was Vlad in the next-ep preview of ep 4! Dangit, show, why do Vlad and Roland look so similar???

This song sequence is pretty much as bad as Dynamic Chord, so thank goodness the entire premise isn’t about the singer…*wipes invisible sweat off brow* Phew.

Oh dear. Why is Van Helsing always the man you want when it comes to vampire hunting? Couldn’t you call for Buffy or something? Not that I know anything about Buffy…

I thought I saw Toryu for a second back there…in the PhaTowa Plus segment…

Angolmois 5

I never realised how good the sound design was in this show. Now that I’m listening to it properly, it’s pretty amazing.

Why was the scout so small in that shot? If they wanted Hitari to show off, they should’ve gone for something more visible, y’know?

Amushi looks like Keith from Voltron…! Why do I even know what Keith looks like? Because you Netflix watchers make such a fuss over him and his sexuality!

Interestingly, the Mongols have spears but the Japanese only just got them…huh. In the birthplace of the naginata, to boot.

Why are there so many stills in this show’s action scenes, though?

“Don’t fight a war unless you know why you’re fighting it.” – Sage advice, Kuchii Jinzaburo.

9th year of the Bun’ei era = 1272. The more you know.

Kuchii still had his scar back then, huh? I wonder when he got it then.

I really liked seeing Yajrou’s character development throughout this episode.

BnHA 56

“It seems pretty handy!” seems like a really bad pun, considering what happened just earlier with Shishikura’s fingers…

I still don’t get why Denki’s glasses are meant to be upside-down, though…

For some reason, I’m laughing *gasp* really *gasp* hard at *gasp* the insult “Dunce Face”! (LOL) (gasping from too much laughter)

Midoriya does the Naruto run. It really shows how much Horikoshi looks up to Kishimoto.