#love death and robots volume 3

[mesillusionssousecstasy]

Love, Death + Robots : Volume 3

It such an amazing animation series, the effect are incredible.

But it's more about Death, than Love.

The ending of each episode are more dystopian than Black Mirror itself, but I can understand life doesn't have an happy end either.

My favorite was the first one episode called "Three Robots: Exit Strategies" and the less favourite was "Jibaro".

So here a review for each episode :

Three Robots: Exit Strategies (3x01) : Excellent, the orange robot was hilarious and the cat ending too.

Bad Travelling (3x02) : was truly gory.

The Very Pulse of the Machine (3x03) : the animation was amazing.

Night of the Mini Dead (3x04) : I loved the details, it was incredible. The mini stop motion was perfect. Poor little penguins. The very gas station is called Hell literally and the Fedex truck is called Fux.

Kill Team Kill (3x05) : too violent, too stupid, too much cursing. It was the "fuck you" episode.

Swarm (3x06) : the animation was amazing.

Mason's Rats (3x07) : the animation was so well done. At some point, I was poor rats, but how many are they? I didn't understand the happy ending, it was the only one. It wasn't very realistic.

In Vaulted Halls Entombed (3x08) : the animation was incredible again, I wasn't expecting this ending.

Jibaro (3x09) : It was like animation on drugs, mushrooms. It was more looking as a video game than an episode animation. I'm not sure I understand the all story of the episode. It was like the siren against the deaf and dumb? I didn't understand why she was always dancing? Why the man was like from the middle age. At one point, I was asking if her vagina had teeth too. WTF. It was my least favourite episode.

Some Quotes:

"- What exactly is a tech millionaire? - It's a lot like a regular millionaire, but with a hoodie and crippling social anxiety." (3x01)

"- They were mean to robots and then robots killed them." (3x01)

"- Wait. I thought that's what the seasteads were for? - Those were for the merely millionaires. The obscenely wealthy 0.01 percent of humans decided they needed an entirely new planet." (3x01)

"- The elite were not sympathetic to their concerns." (3x01)

"- Okay, but Mars? I mean, it's dead and lifeless. - They could've taken the money they spend on the spaceships and used it to save the planet they were already on. - What's the fun in that?" (blows raspberry - 3x01)

"- I hate to say it, but humans are the actual worst. - Humanity had all the tools to heal their wounded planet and save themselves, but instead they chose greed and self-gratification over a healthy biosphere and the future of their children." (Robot 1 - 3x01)

"- Done and done. Nearly as unpleasant as it was necessary." (3x02)

"- Maybe I'm gonna live forever. Or maybe this is just one last dream before dying." (3x03)

"- Less Darwinian theory, more rodent-killing hardware." (3x07)

"- Spencer. (Harper) - The Lord is my light. (Spencer) - God is dead. Embrace the suck. We gotta move." (Harper - 3x08)

[starry-kattz]

The homoerotic tension between a moon and an astronaut.

[rubyglasses]

something about mackenzie davis' roles here and station eleven being attached to astronauts and literature

And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine A being breathing thoughtful breath A traveler betwixt life and death The reason firm the temperate will Endurance Foresight Strength and skill

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS | 3.03 The Very Pulse of the Machine

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Apashe - Lord & Master 2020

John De Buck is a Belgian-born Canadian musician. He was born in Brussels, Belgium and currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.

At the age of 19, he began studying electro-acoustics at Concordia University. After his studies he worked as a sound designer at Apollo Studio, where he co-produced the sound design for video games (Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, Far Cry) and the sound for Ubisoft gaming trailers. In 2014 he left the company as his own music started to kick off. 2011 he was signed by Kannibalen Records.

In 2020 he released his second album Renaissance – a mix of electronic and classical music. For this project the Prague Symphony Orchestra with 69 instruments was hired. Requiem, which won GAMIQ's Electronic EP of the Year, and Renaissance were produced in his first own studio. His music has been used in various movie and series trailers such as John Wick, Iron Fist, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Fast & Furious, and Love, Death & Robots Volume 3.

"Lord & Master" won Best Song at the 2022 Berlin Music Video Awards.

"Lord & Master" received a total of 53,4% yes votes.

[sagethegaywitch]

I Need To Rant About MTMTE #4

Why do they need to be torturing all the gay ones?

Every time I read the 4th volume I'm always crying by the end.

Here are some examples:

Rodimus (red one in bottom right corner) has to watch his advisor, best friend, and potential lover (Magnus: the blue one on the right) get impaled, his survival unlikely.

2. Rodimus (red one in bottom left corner) has to exile his best friend and potential lover (Drift: shadowed figure in bottom right corner) for a big misunderstanding.

3. Ratchet (the left one in the top panel a and Drift (the right one in the top panel and the main figure in the second panel), potential lovers, say their goodbyes to each other as they almost go down fighting (thankfully they survive).

4. Ratchet (the one on the right in the second panel) helps Drift (the main figure in the first panel and the one on the left in the second panel) escape his exile, knowing that he is putting his position at risk and sending his potential lover far away.

5. Chromedome (the figure in the background in the shadowed panel) and Tailgate (the blue and white one) want to save their lovers by offering a part of their spark (heart) to them.

6. Cyclonus (the purple one with horns) rejects Tailgate's (the blue and white one) attempt to save his life by giving him a bit of his spark (heart). But Cyclonus realizes his mistake and makes a silent apology with Tailgate.

7. Rewind (the one with the blue eye visor) sacrifices himself to save his lover, Chromedome (the one with the yellow eye visor). As he is preparing to die, Rewind tries to confess his feelings for Chromedome.

8. Chromedome (the red one) has the ability to erase his memories, and has done it multiple times in the past to forget the painful deaths of his past lovers. Brainstorm (the blue one) has to remind him that he should preserve Rewind's memory and not go back on his old habits.

9. Chromedome (the one with the red eye visor) watches a video that Rewind (the one with the blue visor) managed to throw to him before he died. Rewind finally confesses his feelings toward Chromedome, but Chromedome has nobody to love anymore and decides not to erase his good memories with Rewind.

I fucking hate how all the gay ones have to either die or get separated. I really can't tell if the author is being an ally by giving us gay robots or being slightly homophobic by giving them tragic endings. Don't take this too seriously, this is just me ranting and being sad that most of them won't get a happy ending. I love the series, but I don't think my heart can take much more.

:)

[yuripoll]

KNOCKOUTS: Qualia the Purple (2011 - 13)

Qualia the Purple is a three volume scifi series by Shirou Tsunashima based on light novels by Hisamitsu Ueo about a girl whose friend sees humans as robots.

Through the uncanny purple eyes of Yukari, all people appear to her as robots. Her talent is both a blessing and a curse. She is able to assist the police in sizing up threats, since her “skill” allows her to evaluate humans’ quirks and physical capabilities like cataloging the parts of a machine–yet her strange sight has cost her the friendship of her peers. She does have one friend in her corner: Hatou “Gaku” Manabu, a girl at school who cares deeply for Yukari. When Yukari is recruited into a secret organization, the real trouble begins. Gaku is thrust into a realm of mystery, quantum experimentation, and alternate universes, with only her wits–and her love for Yukari–to guide her along the way. - AniList

ENG published by Seven Seas; AFAIK no convenient site to read the JP.

CWs under the cut. General severity rating: mod to major.

suggestive scenes <- details are greyed out but there's an upskirt shot at one point; occasional mildly suggestive posing; some mild non-sexual nudity and flashes of non-explicit sex; occasional sexual reference.

violence <- i did try to list out every distinct type of violence but it got too big. tl;dr, never especially graphic or gory, but violence is very frequent. details are typically blacked out. includes dismemberment, decapitation, strangulation, and gun violence.

body horror <- primarily in relation to the above. beyond that, there's mainly just the conceptual body horror of an injured human getting fixed like a robot (which is a major plot point and also really cool).

major character death <- not elaborating too hard on this one <3 you'll know when you get there. there's a big tonal shift after this happens (again. you'll know when you get there).

minor character death <- a plane is blown up and multiple minor characters die, including children. technically temporary, and the incident itself isn't dwelled on.

inappropriate age gap <- ch12, a conversation is had with an alternate hatou who has fallen in love with alice, noted to be 13 at the time where hatou is 16. called out as creepy by our hatou within that conversation. ch15, we see part of another world where hatou pursued a relationship with alice, including briefly showing them nude in bed and kissing. i'd say it's framed mostly negatively; the relationship is described in narration as brainwashing.

domestic abuse? <- ch15, flash forward of a relationship implies some degree of emotional abuse.

child abuse <- inflicted by a mother. part of a character's backstory, physical briefly shown in ch14. ch15, a different mother is also shown physically abusing her child, justifying it against the other mother by saying its out of love. additional abusive practices in relation to human experimentation mentioned below.

bullying <- there's a bullying plot in early chapters which is largely just teasing and gets resolved quickly, but ch11 briefly shows a bullying situation that reaches into abusive territory. additional, less notable mentions of bullying dotted about after this point.

suicide <- shown in ch15 via walking into traffic.

kidnapping <- there's a kidnapping in ch6 & ch13, both are brief but grievous bodily harm is inflicted in both instances.

human experimentation <- of the unethical variety. conducted on children, and resulted in death on at least one occasion. the facility in question was abusive in additional ways, such as using solitary confinement, threats, and pain as punishment for non-compliance.

internalised homophobia <- hatou thinks of being attracted to other girls as deviancy.

bittersweet ending <- less bleak than the whole latter half of the manga, though.

[hikennosabo]

#tristampparty day 1, episode 1: noman's land

normally i draw stuff for fandom events... but i don't really feel like it so instead i'm going to rewatch tristamp for @tristampparty :D it's been a few months since my last rewatch, so i'm excited~ (this will be my fourth time watching it...) subs this time, since i've watched the dub the last 2 times i watched. AND also my first time watching it start to finish after completing the manga. i've been wanting to do this for a while so now's as good a time as any!

i don't know how much i'll have in the way of coherent thoughts or analysis so i guess i'll just... do it like i did my bookclub posts? and write my random thoughts/observations as i go :'3 if i'm lucky it will turn into coherency and analysis LOL

okay episode 1 let's gooooo

i don't think this was shown in the manga so this caught my eye immediately - that there are robots helping maintain the people in cryosleep. the fact that there were only five other crew members besides rem, and that only one person is awake at a time barring emergencies, was brought up and questioned by multiple people in bookclub. maintenance robots make a lot of sense, one person can only do so much, even a small crew wouldn't be enough for such a huge ship.

iirc we don't see the other scientists on the ship at any point in tristamp, so i guess they were all integrated into conrad's character...? which means this rem was more alone than ever. and also had less people to fight against re: the experimentation on tesla...? or... hmmm. one minute into the episode and i'm already saying so much lol help

nai being cast in shadow... that's cinematography babes!!!! and the two blooming geraniums...

UGH!!!! this always gets me!!!! the fact that NAI is the one who invites rem onto the escape pod... knives's love for rem compounding his guilt over her death makes me want to eat rocks. i think that combination of love and guilt is definitely present in the original but it's not blatantly shown as it is here. i've said this a lot and i'll keep saying it but one of the things i really like about tristamp is how it puts a microscope over knives's emotions.

"i thought i'd spare her" he says!!! and with his face covered in shadow... this is from volume 2, so it's in part to keep him ~mysterious~ as the antagonist at this point in the story, but the shadow also serves to show us he's not being fully truthful here. obviously!! but at this point in the manga we don't know much about knives at all, and he's very much framed as sinister and menacing. tristamp does things a bit the other way around, showing us that nai cares about rem and then having him do his evil speech-laugh at vash later in the episode... but we're not up to that just yet. anyway.

we don't really get a clear look at nai's face after the pod launches but because i'm unwell i went frame by frame

he definitely looks angry here i think, or frustrated... of course he is...

so as vash cries here i can't help but think he's emoting for both himself and his brother. in stamp and in the manga both. like the lyrics of tombi.

...less than 5 minutes and i've already written so much. okay. enough about knives. let's all look at meryl's face.

>:T

it's been discussed how tristamp frontloads a lot of information, and this specifically has been pointed out already, but the reveal of the planet's name being NML doesn't happen until... the penultimate chapter of the manga. not like keeping the planet's name a secret really matters in the grand scheme of things, but in the manga the reveal was an emotional beat following the final battle, reinforcing the resilience of the people living there. here it's framed the opposite, almost - as the fact that this place SUCKS. also roberto is purposefully talking down to meryl in this scene but it still comes across as a bit clumsy in that it's obviously exposition for the sake of the audience.

i think this rewatch i want to pay more attention to roberto. i just kind of forget he exists most of the time since he's not in the manga, and not someone i ever really got attached to seeing as how he's clearly telegraphed as the Dead Mentor character, there to push meryl's character to the point where she needs to be by the end of the season. i wasn't around to see this happen but when tristamp started airing i'm pretty sure he got shit on a lot for Not Being Milly. but i do think he fulfills milly's role in one specific way; he's a very observant person. i don't know if i want to dive deep into a roberto-milly comparison though... i kinda feel like that would do a disservice to him lol. but i like the contrast of what kind of relationship each of them has with meryl.

the biggest wettest eyes you've ever seen

i just like the level of detail here with meryl and roberto being reflected in vash's glasses. very neat!

*squints* i just wanted to post BDN's wanted poster to lament the fact that he doesn't actually appear in tristamp, and perhaps laugh at nightow's poster again, but the guy on the left... that's the guy from 98 episode 1, right? and i think the guy in the middle is the guy who lina kicked in the face. there's a poster for the nebraska daughter later in the scene, too. the attention to detail is insane, man.

oh. he's referring to knives here. i think.

see, here's the thing. i only just now realized that he might be referring to knives because the subs i was watching previously (the ones uploaded to aniwave) translate this line differently. it's a lot more vague, about how things will just get worse if they don't do something. the dub line is similarly vague. this line is a lot more clear. but i don't know, man. the reason why i've mostly stuck to the dub is because i could tell the subs on aniwave were of dubious quality, but my japanese isn't good enough to tell which subs are the ""most"" correct, this included. it makes a lot of sense that he's referring to knives here, so that's the interpretation i think i'll stick with. and at least these subs are like... better grammar-wise than the ones on aniwave, lol.

Thinking About This Again. okay i don't remember where this was confirmed by staff or if it was just a theory but this was a bounty put out by knives, right? as "this is what humans think of you, as an object you can put a price on, not as a person." it's all been said already by people who aren't me. but i'm just thinking about knives's hypocrisy again. he doesn't exactly view vash as a person either.

...as i watch this i'm realizing i have a lot less to say about the second half of the episode than the first half.

i've seen people say that vash not having any bullets for the duel was on purpose. and that's probably true. i've also seen people say that running around screaming and crying was on purpose, like, it was part of his act. i... don't know about that. he does scream and cry and throw up to present himself as a harmless idiot, but contrast that with the bullet dodging and the disarming of the cluster bomb... he's kinda... showing his hand? especially because he tries to laugh it off as luck immediately after. NONE of that was part of the plan.

OKAY AM I JUST MAKING THIS UP OR ARE THOSE TEARS IN HIS EYES. THIS ISN'T JUST ME RIGHT. he could just be crying from laughing too hard UNLESS...?! also, why am i reminded of vash saying to rem "when you cry, you look like you're laughing." so the other way around would be...?! we know how much nai is hurting here, how much he didn't want to kill rem... and he's laughing... but with tears in his eyes... is this anything. am i overcooking. it's getting late and my brain isn't working at full capacity anymore.

GOD just. he's so young. in the flashbacks in volume 2, the twins look a bit older, i think, and especially since knives's face is completely blacked out in shadow, it doesn't fully register just how young he was at the time... but man. he was just a kid.

ugh, and the first thing we see of adult knives is him playing the piano, knives's piano being a cry of loneliness from his heart... as we know... i'm going to combust. and his... piano room(?) is so haunting with the dead plants all around.

here's a detail that i like in tristamp - the worms are ever-present from the beginning. for the first couple of episodes they just seem like window-dressing, simply part of the environment to give the setting more character, nothing more. we don't learn about the worm hivemind or zazie until episode 4. but it's obvious upon revisiting that this is how knives is getting information about vash's location and also where any dying plants are.

which i also want to point out because!!! in this scene knives says, in japanese: 「見つけたか」 which in the subs is translated as, "so you've found him." it's translated similarly in the dub, referring to him, as in vash. but in the subs i initially watched, the line was translated as, "did you find it? [...] i'm taking it back." if you know anything about how japanese grammar works, it's that japanese doesn't have pronouns the same way english does, so exactly what or who knives is referring to when he says 「見つけたか」 is not actually specified. so we have a potential double meaning that gets lost in translation - knives could be talking about both vash and the dying plant.

...and that ends episode 1. i... did not expect to write this much. also post this before the date turns over challenge failed. i'm tired and i need to go to bed lol.

we're just getting started. see you tomorrow.

[tumblingxelian]

Okay so, given Mercury Black's and Cassandra Cain's backstories, what do you think both characters would feel after an encounter with each other where neither dies?

Sorry I've been neglecting asks recently, been kind of down and so just doing low effort reblogs with the occasional burst of energy.

Anyway!

This is a fun and interesting question I actually sought help in answering from but a humble good, who always has good Cass takes and loves RWBY!

Off the cuff and for anyone confused, the characters being asked about are:

Cassandra Cain - who was raised by master assassin David Cain to be the perfect killer. She was never taught to speak and only learned through physical action. Because of this she can essentially predict what a person will do before they act and she is functionally the best martial artist in the DC Universe, or always in the top 3. Said body language reading ability though also means she can experience her targets deaths by proxy which... Yeah basically led to her adopting a 100% no kill policy after her first mission. Thus leading her to running away, living homeless for several years before joining the Bat Clan and becoming Batgirl.

Mercury Black - Like Cassandra his father Marcus Black raised him to be an assassin like himself. Marcus may not have denied his son words but he instead stole the manifestation of his soul (His Semblance) claiming it was a "Crutch" and he would get it back eventually. He never got it back & instead had his lower legs mutilated to be replaced with robotic prosthetics which he then used to kill Marcus. Unlike Cass he's not the best of the best, but is definitely skilled & unlike her he's doggedly committed to the role of playing the villain with a veneer of jocularity he uses to hide that he can't imagine any other life.

Conclusion:

So we have two teens/young adults coming from very similar places as far as what they were trained and otherwise horrifically abused to be, but who ended up on seemingly opposite ends of the spectrum.

Cassandra's reaction when encountering most killers tends to be one of two things. A very stern "You need to grasp the enormity of what you are doing and stop or be stopped painfully." Or "Oh, you actually think this is in someway necessary, please do not do this, there is a way out, there has to be."

She's also very chill with people who did kill but choose not too, she's not... Preachy or judgmental in that sense, doing so would be hypocritical in her eyes.

So she'd likely emphasize a lot with Mercury, being able to see him as something of a "Therefore but for the grace of empathic body language go I." So she'd very much want to both stop him from killing but also show him that he can go down another path.

This doesn't mean she'd be inclined to be a doormat, quite the opposite but she'd definitely be working to communicate with him as much as fight him if she had to.

Mercury meanwhile would hate this. He is deep in denial about himself and hates being read for what he is, as local serial killer Tyrian Callows did in Volume 6:

Tyrian: (mocking) Oh yes, the world is mean, and I'm a big, bad man now just like the others. (laughs)

Mercury: (growls as he angrily walk over to Tyrian) How long have you been standing there?!

Tyrian: All you ever learned was pain and violence, and now you're too afraid to leave it. Such a tragedy.

Mercury: You don't know me!

So while he would see the connection the moment he had any details he'd throw up an aloof façade and claim Cass was weak and lacked the stomach for what he does or something to that effect.

Internally he'd be seething with resentment, or more, a blooming sense of inferiority about how someone who proves his beliefs wrong seems to so casually exists and wants to help him of all things.

He'd not welcome or trust her, not a first at least.

[bluejaybytes]

hiiiiiiiiiiii tell me about your disabled robot ocs????????? i love them already

HAIIIII :] My two robot OCs exist in wildly different and fundementally opposite universes funnily enough, but both are in some form disabled :]

Cricket's an androidgirl living in a solarpunk utopia and doesn't actually have much plot going on, she's more or less just a cute design for me to think about occasionally. She's autistic, by both human AND robot standards <3 By human standards she has no volume control, special interests, struggles with social cues, ect. By robot standards she doesn't think in Literal Binary and instead is much more human-like in her processing. She's also trans genner <3 Robots are traditionally entirely disconnected from human ideas of gender but Cricket prefers Being Girl <3

The other robot is Juno and she's a mining robot on a sci-fi desert planet and she has both pretty significant memory issues (After being violently attacked and basically as "killed" as she can be, she ends up offline for two decades, and as such, her memory storage deteriorates severely), and at the end of the plot, she ends up unable to perform a lot of her built purpose. I'm unsure how it all comes together, I know how I WANT the plot to end (Giant acidic worms burrow through the solid rock and form the caverns that everyone lives in, everything ends when Juno summons a bunch of worms in an act of self sacrifice that doesn't actually end in her death like she anticipated), but regardless, her lantern, which serves to detect danger, as well as housing all of her code, ends up permanently damaged from being extended far past her limits. She's no longer able to use her lantern for really anything besides a battery, and now it occasionally gets set off in what would be the robot equivalent to a migraine. Outside of her lantern issues, she's also just using a pretty worn down body, as its been decades without maintenance, even trying to clean it up now can only keep it at the level its at now, not really making it any better. With such, she's got QUITE rusted joints that tend to act up. It does get SOMEWHAT better from how it was originally, as her human partner makes sure to perform regular upkeep to keep her joints working as well as they can, but after the initial getting of the rust out, she can't ever really be fixed beyond that.

[bestworstcase]

with only three episodes left, what do you think is in store for the rest of the volume? personally, i’m having trouble imagining a solid resolution fitting into such a small window. not that i doubt there’s a way to end this volume succinctly—rwby is always throwing curveballs i could’ve never predicted hitting, which i love—but i suppose the hangnail in resolution’s cuticle is that jrwby are all finally facing their lifelong, beaten-in worldview being turned on its head and that seems like the kind of thing (on top of neo’s untold ever after story) that needs more time to be resolved. in which case, ig we’re not looking at a clean wrap up? do you think they end this volume ascending the ever after? escaping back to remnant? (i ask those two questions separately bc i wanna say they might have different answers lol)

as a point of comparison, here’s everything (not necessarily in chronological order) that happened in the last three episodes of V8:

1 - ironwood vs everyone beat down

2 - winter heel face turn completed

3 - met ambrosius + staff of creation rules

4 - magic rules lawyered penny into a flesh body to save her from the virus with a side dish of horrible body horror robot body death scene and holy shit atlas is FALLING.

5 - creation of whacky portals for evacuation to vacuo

6 - emergency evacuation broadcast CANCELLED!

7 - cinder remembers the power of friendship and uses it for evil

8 - cinder recovered the lamp and scored the password and used the last question to spy on team oz which is fucking hysterical by the way, so she knows the entire plan

9 - YANG DIES?

10 - ruby and blake fall too. and neo

11 - the evacuation dumps everyone in a sandstorm so they can’t call for backup and also the exit is one-way (“oh dear. ambrosius \:” love that enthusiasm sir)

12 - HARRIET TRIES TO NUKE MANTLE?

13 - ironwood murders jacques

14 - eleventh hour harriet heel face turn also zeki dies because atlesian tech goons thought the nuke needed to be plugged into the IOT for some reason god bless

15 - PENNY???

16 - and winter becomes the winter maiden

17 - TEAM RWBY TOTAL PARTY KILL!!

18 - jaune also

19 - salem and cinder playing chicken over who is going to blink first like they don’t both already know that it’s going to be salem

20 - ATLAS OBLITERATED FOREVER

that’s a lot of things!

now, it’s a lot easier to set up and execute a dense, tightly-paced climactic spiral of disaster than bring a lot of interconnected emotional crises to satisfying resolution in the same amount of runtime—but on the other hand, V9 has a lot less going on. it doesn’t FEEL that way because the emotional development has been so rich and done so, so well, but there honestly are not that many narrative threads to tie off. basically, the big ones are:

1 - ruby’s emotional crisis

2 - jaune’s corruption

3 - neo

4 - how do we get home?

5 - what do we do once we get there?

compared to the sheer amount of dominoes V8 had to juggle, handling this stuff is a nice little walk.

the key thing to remember—& this has been true for every one of rwby’s climactic sequences and also counts as writing advice—is that none of these major threads are truly discrete. they’re all interwoven with each other and bound together with all the smaller filaments (like the cat’s arc or little’s arc or the framing device of ‘the girl who fell through the world’ and what really went down with alyx and the tree), so you don’t have to resolve them separately and indeed you can’t because it all has to happen at once. what this means, from a writing standpoint, is you layer up and make every scene work towards the resolution of two or three major threads and however many minor filaments you can fit comfortably so that everything is doing work for everything else. if you’re efficient you don’t need a lot of time to pull off a stunning climactic sequence, and efficiency is something rwby has always been very, very good at. this is true even of V1 even though V1 feels laughably inefficient by the standards of V8; which is to say, they started off good and got much better.

the other piece to bear in mind is that V9 is not meant to be self-contained; it is not a character-focused breather volume to let the protagonists heal up before returning to remnant to carry on as they were, it is The Answer. when rwbyjn go home they are not going to return to the story they fell out of at the end of V8. that story is OVER. it ENDED. the final word was checkmate and the world they knew is GONE FOREVER. salem WON. the ever after is an epilogue to that story and the prologue for another; it isn’t building towards a resolution so much as it is building a hook.

(<- remember V3 “beginning of the end” and “end of the beginning”? this story-within-story device is something rwby has utilized before; this show is a singular contiguous narrative in the literal sense, but it’s structured as a trilogy.)

so V9 needs to be a satisfying farewell to the middle book and also make the case for continuing on to the third and final story—which very much works to its benefit here, because the sweeping emotional changes being developed actually SHOULDN’T be resolved. a clean wrap up would critically weaken the narrative structure. the immediate crises need to be realized—there must be a moment of peace, of closing one book and beginning the next; a hopeful glimpse of the story to come, of what it could be—and then they go home. and the new story begins.

in the figurative sense you could call it ascension. in the literal sense, no, i don’t think any of the remnant characters are going to ascend because i don’t think they can (frankly i’m bemused as to why so many people seem to believe otherwise; it seems to me that the cat has made it very clear that ascension is closed to non-afterans). but the idea of ascension? oh, yes, they’re carrying that forward with them.

as for whether they’ll return to remnant—yes. i think the probability that they don’t find their way home by episode ten is zero. how they return is an open question but also not a question at all, because the tree is the question and their answer is the door; this has been spelled out, explicitly, albeit in wonderlandish terms. what we don’t know yet is what this will look like, because the tree is also the blacksmith and the ever after runs on wonderland rules. it’s not going to be literal. (<- unless abstraction is less absurd than the literal option, which is possible given the likelihood that the ever after itself is fictional.)

[clairdeluneandmurder]

A selection of unhinged quotes from my political theory professor:

"Socrates has a tiny ghost in his head telling him when things are wrong. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell him when things are right so he’s just really annoying."

*Brings a 1-liter bottle of sparkling water to every class and drinks the whole thing during lecture.*

“The flood happened because God looked down at earth and said ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do with this’, and so he nerfed us again.”

“God comes down and asks ‘Where my people at?’ And Adam and Eve are like ‘We done fucked up’.”

“Any schmuck can match their socks to their shoes but the mark of a true gentleman is matching your socks to your mood.” - said because someone insulted his neon pink socks.

“At that point, everyone else would be dead and it would just be Carl Schmidt waddling around Germany all alone.”

Prof: “Is the Illuminati still a thing with your generation?” Student: “Yeah” Prof: “The number one rule of the Illuminati is toughen the fuck up.”

“You can read Hobbes’ Behemoth if you're like a glutton for punishment or something.”

“The neat thing about soup is that you can start with the same ingredients and end up with a new soup every time.”

“If any of you steal my pies I’m going to assume you’re possessed by a demon... I made a pie yesterday. You have NO IDEA how much fruit goes into one of those fuckers.”

“The great thing about Locke is he’s dead. Once you’re a corpse you can be used for anything.”

“I am the crazy leftist professor your parents warned you about. I will make you read Marx and I will say that racism is bad. Sue me.”

"de Sade would be great at being on the internet. And I do mean that as an insult."

Brought a jar to class and put a dollar in it every time he used the word ‘neoliberal’, said he'd give us the money that goes in at the end of the semester. (we each got 3 bucks, there are 15 people in the class)

"Time is a flat circle and I am but a lonely goldfish cracker."

“By a show of hands, who is hungover today? I’ll go first to make you feel better. I am hungover today, be nice to me."

Starts lecture by writing on the whiteboard: “THE ECONOMY IS STUPID”

“Just to be clear, I’m not saying we should guillotine people who open soap shops on Etsy.”

“People don’t get my Simpsons references anymore. You kids today with your sponge bob and anime.”

“If you need help, please ask for it. The worst thing that happens is I send you a super condescending email and you’re no worse off.”

“You’re a shitty libertarian if you accidentally become a Leninist.”

“Anyone seen one of these modern garbage trucks? It’s sick right?! Pretty fucking cool!” proceeds to do an impression of a garbage truck “Marx would love to drive around a dope robot truck.”

"That’s what makes babies just awful. They don’t understand that they don’t always get what they want."

"For how many of y’all does getting stoned and staring at a wall to ponder morality sound like a great class?"

“I once had a student use the topic 'The only way to commune with the aliens is through nuclear warfare' for this assignment, nothing you write can scare me anymore."

“I'm not going to make you read this. It’s 4 volumes, 2500 pages, and mostly about how linen is produced. Moments of brilliance though.”

“I think we should replace the death penalty with public humiliation. ”

"Crude Freudism will get you 80% of the way there 90% of the time."

"I’m going to throw my uncle under the bus here… Actually, I fucking hated that guy and he’s dead so whatever."

"The best thing you can do for your future happiness is to never think about politics. …I say to a bunch of people enrolled in a 400-level political theory class. Y’alls mental health is fucked I guess."

"God tells you not to do the one Bad Thing and Eve is just so sexy that man has to do the one Bad Thing."

"I haven’t worn a 1950’s bra but I’ve heard they’re very uncomfortable. …Not that I’m opposed, I just don’t have the access and I've been banned from three museums so far."

"Course evaluations are available now y’all. I don’t care what you say about me or the class, but make sure you mention how great my hair is."

"Identity politics can be useful, but I think we’ve probably taken it too far since now we’re at the point where Kid Rock is shotgunning 18 packs of bud light on Twitter as a form of protest."

"We basically live in an aristocracy where you can vote. Sorry to disappoint you if you think Joe Biden is a communist."

"Do you know why we didn’t celebrate international workers day on May first? Because America says fuck you, that’s why."

[ntls-24722]

God please, I want to marry all your DJ designs

That question for all of the DJs

Will you merry me Mr music man ?💍

Not:(LOVE YEAR ART)

#DJ MM LOVER FOR LIFE

THANK YOU BOOK AGARGARGAGH🦀

but as for the proposal...

this is an ambitious ask to answer, because of right now, there are 62.5 DJMMs out of the list of 86 Music Men and counting i have

and i am going to personally go on the mission to draw... each of their responses.

But I should probably eliminate the ones that are taken just to make this easier since it'll just be a hard "no,I'm taken" and Deejay Memento Mori + Meeboop are kids, so they're also eliminated, which leaves us with.... 44.

like... slightly more manageable.

I haven't talked about a lot of these guys, So I'll put a little desc for each!

Without further ado

"Will you marry me?"

1. Clavier! Sorry, it's a little hard for her to imagine marrying anyone after she killed her girlfriend on the day said girlfriend was going to propose to her. That's what being a religious fanatic drove her to do, not out of a devotion to a god, but in order to ensure herself an afterlife. The concept of a soul and a supposed afterlife for everything with a soul for someone without a soul and has seen nothing after her death, is very troubling

2. Lieutenant Armadillum is a requested MM based off of the prompt of just. "rolly polly." So I made her a part of security. With all those armored plates I wasn't sure what else she could be. She can be nice, but she takes everything literally, or as an order, and has a problem with volume control. Congrats to you and your new, loud wife

3. Walbergi/The Entertainer Piece... um. Hmm. I was almost not going to put him here because I would think he's more similar to MM than DJMM but him alongside the next two are actually just pieces of DJMM, all his jobs just assigned to their own Music Men. Walbergi (and the eliminated singer duo Lovebugz, which namely are taken) Are composers/musicians, but Walbergi is specifically a mantis entertainer that has the entire dancefloor as his wings. He is also really arrogant and feels superior to everyone around him... including you. Sorry.

4. The Security piece is, to some degree, also arrogant. At least he's quieter. He's the bouncer, and he has accepted your request, but with his constant desire and and usually ready opprotunity to beat the tar out of things he's around, I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing.

5. Custodian Piece! He's the janitor and he's very lonely since he spends most of his time in the tunnels and slithering across the floor to clean it, he's kind of a people pleaser and would be over the moon to be proposed to. I'm not sure if he's good for hugs considering his entire underside is a mop. he recplaces it often, he showers yes, but he is also a full time custodian... i'm not sure if the feeling of hugging a damp wet mop would ideal

6. Polybius. um. Not sure what to say? He's haunted, he's enourmous, and he's single, and ready to mingle (htough, take caution, because he might be trying to trick you into playing a game and hypnotising you. or something.) Gamer bf?

Blood and organ exposure (more like an organ diagram, ish) below the cut!

7. The masquerader. Now we're getting into the SOS lore section of the list. This guy was the first success in shapeshifting, and could've been a lot more if he didn't try to escape by killing and taking the identity of a researcher. It almost worked, but he messed up the eyes. Typically, you only have 1 pupil in each, not 3. He was shot dead the moment his back was turned, and totally died. He doesn't like humans... at all. Sorry.

8. The entertainer does, though! He's the one survivor of the brain surgery done to instill robotic motions and an "algorithm" for their behavior. He died not due to surgery, but being left to starve to death, but in his lifetime he was able to figure out that the scientists in the Oort Cloud are not there on their own will, and he convinced the Vanessa of SOS to do something about it. Nonetheless, he doesn't have the same resentment, and he accepts your proposal, mostly due to having no idea what marriage is.

9. In SOS, the mastering of shapeshifting was a detrimental time for the creations of the Oort cloud, as now they could make living concept art. While some were whimsical re-imaginings of what the final product could be, like a more welcoming and humanoid "bee" design, some were made for shits and giggles, which is a horrifying concept when someone has to live through being a living product of "shits and giggles." Nonetheless, this bee is a queen bee, made her own hive, and does not want any other royalty around, especially not human royalty.

10. Dolomedes is another weird concept, less based off an idea but from a pre-designed mask - a fisherman... who has no idea what a fish is. His head is in the clouds, and he accepts the proposal.

11. Lucorum is not just any member of the queen's hive, but the queen's personal guard and is the loud and proud bestie of Dolomedes. That being said, she cares few for any other people. Sorry.

12. This is just one individual from a massive colony of asexually reproducting failures for shapeshifting - instead of exhibiting changes to themselves, they literally have a new person grow out of them that instead exhibits those changes. Most of them don't feel romantic attraction - And due to human trauma like 99% of anything from the Oortcloud, none of them would accept the offer.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Volupe's polycule may be a very open relationship, but none of them at least even know you. The council has decided not to accept the proposal.

This will be continued soon. I just need a while to draw + write the rest (ToT)

[engshoujosei]

No. 6

9 volumes (singles), 3 3-in-1 omnibus volumes as of 5/9/2023

Licensed by Kodansha

The classic dystopian manga returns in three 3-in-1 omnibus editions!

 An elite student named Shion lives a seemingly perfect life in the city of No. 6, where life is carefully controlled down to the last detail. However, everything changes one fateful night when Shion offers an injured young man shelter from a storm. Known only as Rat, this boy is a VC--a fugitive living outside the computerized tapestry of city control--and helping him throws Shion’s life into chaos and starts him down a path to discovering the appalling secrets behind the superficial perfection of No. 6.

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 Ends at Vol 9, Chap 35 (Alternate Ending)

Related Series No. 6 (Novel) (Adapted From, not licensed)

Status in Country of Origin

9 Volumes (Complete) 

Tags:

Adapted to Anime

Based on a Novel

Boys' Love as a Subplot

Childhood Friend/s

Conspiracy/ies

Dystopia

Experiment/s

Fugitive/s

Futuristic City

Genius/es

Human Experiment/s

Important Non-Romantic Relationship/s

LGBT Character in Non-Yaoi/Yuri Manga

Naive Male Lead

Near-Death Experience

Opposites Attract

Politics

Poverty

Prodigy

Robot/s

Scar/s

Slow Romance

Social Hierarchy

Strong Male Lead

Sudden Death/s

[phantombandit-films]

Christian Slater Movie/Tv checklist.

When I find a actor/actress I like I will go through their IMDB and make a list of the films I think look interesting and watch them. Most of the time that means watching every single movie/ tv show they have been in. Titles with a ✔ at the end are the ones I've seen.

☆ Tales from the Darkside. ☆ The Legend of Billie Jean. ✔ ☆ The Name of the Rose. ✔ ☆ Twisted. ✔ ☆ The Equalizer (Season 2, Ep 4) ☆ Crime Story. ☆ L.A. Law (Season 2, Ep 16) ☆ Tucker: The Man and His Dream. ☆ Heathers. ✔ ☆ Gleaming the Cube. ✔ ☆ Desperate for Love. ☆ Beyond the Stars. ☆ The Wizard. ✔ ☆ The Edge (Season 1, Ep 3) ☆ Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. ☆ Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory. ✔ ☆ Pump up the Volume. ✔ ☆ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. ✔ ☆ Mobsters. ☆ Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. ☆ Kuffs. ✔ ☆ Where the Day Takes You. ☆ Untamed Heart. ✔ ☆ True Romance. ✔ ☆ Jimmy Hollywood. ☆ Interview with the Vampire. ✔ ☆ Murder in the First. ✔ ☆ Bed of Roses. ✔ ☆ Broken Arrow. ✔ ☆ Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. ☆ Julian Po. ☆ Merry Christmas, George Bailey. ☆ Hard Rain. ✔ ☆ Basil. ☆ Very Bad Things. ☆ The Contender. ☆ 3000 Miles to Graceland. ☆ Who Is Cletis Tout? ☆ Zoolander. ✔ ☆ Hard Ca$h. ☆ Wind Talkers. ☆ The West Wing (Season 4, Ep 7,8,10) ☆ Masked and Anonymous. ☆ Alias (Season 2, Ep 15, 19) ☆ Mindhunters. ✔ ☆ The Confessor. ☆ Pursued. ☆ Alone in the Dark. ✔ ☆ The Deal. ☆ Hollow Man 2. ☆ Bobby. ☆ My Name is Earl (Season 2, Ep 8) ✔ ☆ He Was a Quiet Man. ☆ Slipstream. ☆ Love Lies Bleeding. ☆ Igor. ☆ My Own Worst Enemy (Season 1, Ep 1-9) ☆ Dolan's Cadillac. ☆ Lies & Illusions. ☆ The Forgotten (Season 1, Ep1-17) ☆ Sacrifice. ☆ Without Men. ☆ The River Murders. ☆ The Final Rites. ☆ Playback. ✔ ☆ Sofia. ☆ Freaky Deaky. ☆ El Gringo. ☆ Dawn Rider. ☆ Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood. ☆ Soldiers of Fortune. ☆ Breaking In (Season 1, Ep 1-7 - Season 2, Ep 1-13) ☆ Guns, Girls and Gambling. ☆ Bullet to the Head. ☆ Bound. ☆ Assassins Run. ☆ Stranded. ☆ Nymphomaniac: Vol. I ☆ Nymphomaniac: Vol. II ☆ Ask Me Anything. ✔ ☆ Way of the Wicked. ☆ Mind Games (Season 1, Ep 1-13) ☆ Mune: Guardian of the Moon. ☆ Hot Tub Time Machine 2. ✔ ☆ True Deception. ☆ King Cobra. ☆ The Summit. ☆ The Wife. ☆ The Public. ☆ Mr. Robot. ☆Dirty John (Season 2, Ep 1-8) ☆ We Can Be Heroes. ✔ ☆ Dr. Death (Season 1, Ep 1-8) ☆ Vindicators 2 (Season 1, ep 1,3,4,6,7,10) ☆ Archer (Season 5, Ep 9,12,13 - Season 6, 2,6,8,9,12,13 - Season 7, Ep 8 - Season 13, Ep 7,8) ☆ Inside Job (Season 1, Ep 1-10- Season 2, Ep 1-8) ☆ Willow (Season 1, Ep 6) ✔

[albertonykus]

Doraemon Vol. 3 from The Complete Works of Fujiko F. Fujio

The stories in this one were published in 1970–1976. By and large, they’re settling into their typical format and tone, including the introduction of shooting as one of Nobita’s few talents. With some stories from 1970 here though, there’s still some early-series weirdness. For example, this volume contains the last of the stories featuring the robot duck Gachako. There’s also a chapter in which Doraemon is reluctant to rescue some stranded hikers because he wants to keep his 22nd-Century technology a secret from people in the present, an essentially nonexistent concern later in the franchise. Then there are stories where the central conflict could have been easily solved by recurring gadgets that would be introduced later, such as the Anywhere Door (first appearance in 1973*) and the Doctor’s Handbag (first appearance in 1979).

*Due to the way the Doraemon manga is collected in The Complete Works of Fujiko F. Fujio, the story introducing the Anywhere Door is included in volume 2, despite postdating some of the stories in volume 3. In fact, it’s the same story where Dorami debuted!

We also start seeing the occurrence of distinct but conceptually similar gadgets, like the Lie Realizer (ソノウソホント) and the Lie Machine (うそつ機). Both are beak-like mouthpieces that generate an effect based on the user’s lies, but whereas the Lie Realizer actually makes lies come true (an incredibly overpowered ability—no wonder this gadget has never shown up in the Doraemon movies), the Lie Machine simply makes others believe they’re true.

Some of the most iconic Doraemon stories in this volume (as determined by my personal experience and biases):

“ペロ! 生きかえって” (“Pero! Come Back to Life”, 1971): Shizuka’s dog, Pero, passes away, so Nobita and Doraemon travel back in time and prevent his death. There are no negative consequences to this whatsoever.

“ほんもの図鑑” (“Real-object Encyclopedia”, 1971): Doraemon shows Nobita what a tarsier looks like using a set of encyclopedias that can release real versions of anything pictured inside. Nobita’s friends borrow the encyclopedias and chaos ensues.

“テストにアンキパン” (“Taking a Test with Memory Bread”, 1972): To help Nobita study for an exam, Doraemon offers him Memory Bread, which can copy printed materials and allow the user to memorize them if ingested... for as long as it remains in their digestive system, at least. (This is the story pictured on the cover.) I get the feeling that many people who grew up reading or watching Doraemon wanted this gadget at some point.

“すてきなミイちゃん” (“Beautiful Mii-chan”, 1973): Doraemon falls in love with a toy cat and brings it to life with his gadgets, but it turns out to be a male cat who isn’t into him.

“ネズミとばくだん” (“Mice and Bombs”, 1974): Doraemon goes berserk trying to deal with a mouse in the house, even bringing out an Earth-destroying bomb!

“進化退化放射線源” (“Evolution-devolution Ray”, 1975): Doraemon takes out the titular gadget to upgrade Nobita’s radio, but Nobita gets the idea to try it on other things. I previously discussed this story and its anime adaptations here.

“ニセ宇宙人” (“Fake Alien”, 1976): After Nobita is fooled by Gian and Suneo’s fake UFO photo, Doraemon helps him get even by using a model UFO from the 22nd Century.

[otakween]

Zero Men - Volume 1

Now that I've finished 0-Sen Hayato, this manga was next on the list, another oldie. At least this time it's by the Godfather of all manga, Osamu Tezuka. I think this is his first work I've ever read??? Apparently no one cares about it because there's very little English material on it. Oh well, the main character is cute!

Ch. 1

Omg I'm loving this so far! The art is so dynamic and cute and the dialogue is really colorful too. The protagonist Ricky is adorable ;w; I love his tail.

That was a pretty badass and hilarious opening with the two soldiers fighting a pointless war while also low key bonding over a baby they saved.

Ricky crying when his dad told him his tail was something to be ashamed of broke my damn heart! Glad the dad isn't fully evil though. Just misguided...

Kind of weird that the dad is like "I swear I'll find you a doctor!" Like dude...you've had many years to do that and it probably would have been easier when the kid was an infant.

Ch. 2

Obvious parental death is obvious. Ricky sure got over it quick lol.

So, so far we know that 0 men can survive extreme temperatures, are really fast learners, and have great agility. I think this is an Elfen Lied scenario where they're supposed to be "evolved humans." Making them squirrel like was kind of a weird choice but oh well.

The professor's design where he basically just has a cloud for a head reminds me of Dr. Uranus from Cyborg 009. Peak old dude character design lol.

Losing one dad and then instantly meeting your real dad is pretty wild. The emotional whiplash made it all feel kind of rushed and silly. It's nice that Ricky doesn't feel like a freak anymore tho. Kind of an ugly duckling story.

Ch. 3

Woah, suddenly the story gets very different. Forget the evil scientists, it's time for robot demons apparently! New bad guys are Enma (Buddhist God of Hell) and Satan. Fun for the whole family!

Enma kinda looks like one of the guards from Squid Game lol, simple but menacing

The scene where Enma and Satan make an entire lighthouse disappear and the keep jumps out to save his life was effectively frightening. I wonder if that guy will come back as a witness?

All of Tokyo is ripped apart and put back together in like an hour and everyone just shrugs it off!? I know Japanese people can be complacent, but not THAT complacent!

This chapter felt like an anti-communist message with every house being exactly the same but "something's missing." I googled it and apparently Tezuka was a communist, but only for a short time before he changed his tune, so it's still possible that's what he was going for.

Ch. 4

So apparently the professor is a good guy now (despite first impressions) as he teams up with Ricky to investigate Enma.

We learn that 0-men are closer biologically to squirrels than they are to humans...riiight. The adults definitely looked more squirrel-like at least.

Pretty savage of the professor to shoot up his friend with a gun to "check if he's human" (including a shot to the head!?) Reminds me of the original Stepford Wives when the MC stabs her friend in the crotch.

The way Tezuka draws the prime minister feels very Looney Tunes. He's very rubbery.

Ch. 5

This manga is very text heavy so the average chapter takes me a bit to get through. Luckily, the Japanese has been very easy so far! (Rare for an older manga...)

Ricky and the Professor escape the clutches of King Enma who was planning to kill them if they didn't reveal the whereabouts of the 0 men. They end up in the forest where Ricky finds his mom and dad again. They ask Ricky to return to their country with them but he turns them down because he's vowed to be an "ally of humanity."

I can see why King Enma wears a mask...he's pretty dweeby looking under there. I like his mad scientist hair though. The fact that his face is a little disfigured gives Darth Vader vibes.

Ch. 6

Ricky and the professor try to alert the public about King Enma's take over. People start to be swayed, but then Enma just kills anyone who tries to join the resistance, so they don't get very far. By the end of the chapter Ricky is captured again by another power hungry person after the 0 men. Gdi Ricky...

I know it's for plot convenience but Ricky's tail pops out so easily that you'd think they'd come up with a better strategy for hiding it than stuffing it into his pants by now.

Ch. 7

Ricky splits up from the professor and finds himself captive on a boat. His 0 men parents come to save the day (apparently this was like a 0 men slave ship) and they knock out their captors.

Ricky just did a dramatic goodbye to his parents in chapter 6 and now he's back with them again? Make up your mind, story!

I was proud that I was able to read the kanji 船長. The videos I've watched of Marine-Senchou (vtuber) helped me out with that one.

We end the chapter in the jungle of the Himalayas. Maybe we'll learn more about 0 man culture?

Ch. 8

Uhhh wtf!? Ricky's dad just dies in an avalanche and they're like "meh, whatever!" Seriously Ricky and his mom recovered from that way too quickly. He might not really be dead, but they believe he is!!

It was cool seeing how the 0 men have been evading humans by living in a place that's only reachable by their species. That felt believable. I bet their land is nicer than the weird place Ricky was living before anyways. No dictators (I hope lol)

Ch. 9

Lol my previous statement was immediately proven wrong in this chapter. Ricky basically went from living in 1984 to Brave New World. I quickly went from enjoying learning about 0 men culture to being like...oh...that's not good.

Kind of confusing that Ricky's mom would intentionally bring her son into this world if she knew how messed up it was? She even is like "here's our apartment where we'll live as a big happy family" but then Ricky learns that kids are separated from their parents super early in this world and sent to live in a children's village. Like...did she not think of that??

Why was chapter 9 like 3 times longer than chapter 8? Well, I've been enjoying the kanji reading challenge. This manga has no furigana...

Ch. 10

Man this story is cyclical. They escape, they get captured, they escape, they get captured. Tezuka also seems to have ditched who I thought was the main villain for now. Will this whole thing be episodic or will we get a real plot?

They come across some yeti in their travels who say "yeti yeti" like Pokémon lol. I wouldn't mind seeing them make friends with all the cryptids, but the visit was very short.

Ricky's mom asking him to shoot her tail off with a gun was pretty dark. It does seem like it would make their lives a lot easier to remove their tails (in hopefully a less painful way), but I guess it's the principle of it.

Dude at they end looked like a Cyborg 009 character with his giant buttons and fancy hair haha.

Ch. 11

And just like that we gain another random party member (and Ricky's mom gains her 2nd adopted son in like 2 chapters). Ricky and Pete bond over their daddy issues.

I was wrong, they did bring Enma back. He reveals that his new, Communist version of Tokyo was inspired by the 0 man way of living, so I guess that explains that.

Like I said, we're going in circles here. Now we're back to looking for the professor Ricky befriended in earlier chapters. After the gang finds a safe place to live, then what? Are they going to save the world from oppressive regimes? Is the goal to just be a normal, happy family?

Ch. 12

So apparently the professor they eventually find is some kind of fake (even though he passed Ricky's needle test). Can Tezuka decide if this dude is a good guy or a bad guy already!?

Kinda funny how when they found a safe place to hide out they're like "now let's confront the evil people!" Like...weren't you running to hide from the evil people? Well I guess heroes gotta hero.

Ch. 13

So now it's doomsday via Mt. Fuji erupting. Although the gang succeeded in destroying Satan's clone factory, they now need to worry about the fate of humanity.

The version of this that I got from Bookwalker is 4 volumes but MAL has it at 7 volumes, so this must be an omnibus. I wonder where the original volume 1 cut off?

That first volume was kind of all over the place. The plot progression didn't feel all that natural, but I think this was one of those stories that was supposed to be a one-off and then got expanded, so whatever. Let's see where things go in volume 2...