#me: *has at least 10 animes on watchlist*

[skeletxr]

No I actually really miss jjba I'm going to force the fixation back so I can think about joka and caejose and mudad and all of them bc I really FUCKING MISS THEM

[cultofcreatures]

My Top 15 Vaporwave Horror Movies

I thought I would put together a list of vaporwave/dreamcore/liminal aesthetic horror movies that I find to feel outside of time and space. That's sort of my vibe here on tumblr, and I also like the mantra of "if there's something you want to see that no one has made yet, make it yourself." These are films that I personally love, and the list not meant to be definitive. Remember also that art is subjective. I hope someone out there finds at least one film they want to add to their watchlist! It's been a minute since I've seen some of them, so let me know if I need to correct something.

15. Mandy (2018)

I wish I could add pictures for all of these entries, but I can still only add 10 pictures to a post blah. It's such a shame because I wanted to show off that gorgeous aesthetics of all these films. Oh well. This is a revenge flick about a cult kidnapping Nick Cage's girlfriend and him losing his marbles about it. Definitely recommend if you're the mood for vibes and/or Nick Cage NickCageing.

TW: violence, blood, fire

14. Come True (2020)

This is a haunting, fantastic vibes movie. It feels so otherworldly. It's about a homeless young person participating in a sleep study to be able to safely get some sleep. It would be an almost perfect film if it weren't for the just garbage ending. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, just skip the last 5 minutes, and take it for what the rest of the film is: beautiful.

13. Braid (2018)

This film follows a couple of young drug dealers on the run from their supplier crashing at a mentally unwell friend's house. The catch is they have to play along with their host's unhinged "game" while they hide out. Not gonna lie, this film is trippy af and definitely not for everyone. I can guarantee that no matter what, it is a ride.

TW: heavy drug use, blood

12. Perfect Blue (1997)

A pop star retires to become a full-time actor, which angers some of her fans. Her sense of reality becomes warped when one obsessive fan begins to stalk her. I don't love some of the turns this movie takes when it comes to mental health, but it's hard to deny this film is classic that has stunning animation.

TW: negative depictions of mental disorders, violence, blood

11. Skinamarink (2022)

This controversial found footage movie is sort of hard to describe because it's so otherworldly. Basically, two kids wake up one night to find their dad and all of their doors and windows are missing. Everything about this nostalgic yet terrifying film is vibes and aesthetic: liminal, vaporwave, voidcore, dreamcore, you name it. It feels like a fever dream, and it's a nightmarish journey you won't soon forget, for better or worse.

10. Vivarium (2019)

A couple are looking for a home to share. They follow a strange realtor to an even stranger labyrinthine neighborhood that seems to have no escape. If you're into liminal spaces, this film will definitely scratch that itch for you.

9. Revenge (2017)

This is a r*pe revenge tale that has absolutely beautiful scenery and cinematography. I love the sweeping liminal landscapes and vibrant vaporwave colors. It's a standard plot as far as the genre goes, but it's directed by a woman, so it has a different angle that I find to be superior to most films of the genre.

TW: violence, gore, SA, blood

8. Don't Worry Darling (2022)

A 1950s housewife begins to suspect that something about her utopian community is not what it seems. This film seems to be a bit controversial, too, for some reason. Whatever the case may be, I adore the liminality and dreamy feel of this film. You really get a sense that this world is outside of time and space.

7. It Follows (2014)

This film is straight up about a sexually transmitted curse. Jay sleeps with her boyfriend for the first time, and then finds out she must outpace this demon that can take the shape of anyone forever lest it kill her, or she must pass the curse on to someone else. The shots in this film are to die for. Especially for connoisseurs of the liminal, vaporwave, and dreamcore. Highly recommend for the visuals and music alone.

TW: gore, blood

6. House (1977)

Gorgeous decides to stay with her aunt to hopefully get closer with a group of six of her friends. The girls come to find her aunt's house is more than meets the eye. The visuals and absurdity are what make this movie. It's a classic for a reason.

TW: cartoon gore

5. Akira (1988)

Tetsuo gains psychic abilities via a secret military project and becomes mad with power. It's up to his friends and a small group of psychics to stop him. This is another classic anime. Its 1980s futuristic mentality really lends itself to the vaporwave atmosphere of the cityscape. I highly recommend this classic if you haven't seen it.

TW: violence, body horror

4. Censor (2021)

Enid is a serious film censor with a shrouded past that includes her long-missing sister. She watches a film that bears eerie resemblance to her vague childhood memories that begin to take hold of her as tries to piece them together. I don't think I'm totally clear on when this film takes place, which is what I love about it. It has a spooky surreal quality that will both draw you in and unsettle you.

TW: violence, blood

3. She Dies Tomorrow (2020)

Amy is convinced she is going to die tomorrow. Her friend Jane comes by to comfort her, and then becomes consumed by the thought she will die tomorrow as well. This film is as strange as it is beautiful. It will either leave you in tears or confused af or both.

TW: blood

2. The Neon Demon (2016)

Jesse is a very young, gifted model who is new in town (probably LA). She quickly signs with an agent and begins getting gigs, breeding the contempt of the established models around her. This is probably one of the most visually appealing films I've ever seen. The music is on point. The low key acting is a vibe. I just adore this film. 10/10, highly recommend.

TW: gore, blood

1. The Platform (2019)

A man wakes up in a prison that is an indescribable liminal pit where there are a seemingly never-ending number of levels. A platform full of food is lowered through each level once a day, and everyone on the lower levels must fight to survive. This film is just so utterly anticapitalist and gorgeous that I can't help but sing its praises. I think everyone should watch this movie at least once. It is horrifying yet eye-opening. Certainly one of my favorite films of all time.

TW: gore, violence, blood

Thank you for reading my list! Like I said, I wanted to make a list like this because I couldn't find one when I went looking. I hope you found something to add to your watchlist! I tried to include some of the big TWs for these movies, but they're far from complete lists. So please check websites like doesthedogdie.com for more complete TW lists if you have any concerns. Make decisions that are right for you. Thanks again, and have a happy and safe new year! xx

[dove-da-birb]

Yeah, I turned comparing my favs into a damn slideshow and MADE IT INTO A VIDEO

Characters;

Twisted Wonderland; Azul Ashengrotto, Jade Leech, Floyd Leech, Rook Hunt, Trey Clover

Ikemen Series; Clavis Lelouche (ikepri), Osamu Dazai (ikevamp), Johann Georg Faust (ikevamp), Roger Barel (ikevil)

Obey Me; Mammon, Leviathan

Assorted Games; Julian Devorak (the arcana), Jaehee Kang (mystic messenger)

Assorted Anime; Grell Sutcliffe (black butler), Sugawara Koushi (haikyuu!), Bokuto Koutarou (haikyuu!), Hermes (record of ragnarok), Buddha (record of ragnarok)

*if I see anyone misgender Grell, I am having your kneecaps. Grell uses she/her pronouns and is a trans woman

Da list

Glasses; Azul, Trey, Jaehee, Faust, Buddha, Roger, Grell, Mammon

Eyepatch; Julian, Buddha

Tall an' goofy (*tall being 5'10 and over); Floyd, Trey, Julian, Clavis, Hermes, Buddha, Bokuto

Mole; Azul, Clavis, Sugawara, Hermes

Should not be trusted near food; Jade & Faust (experiments likely), Buddha (munchies), Clavis (actual bad cook)

Butler aesthetic; Jade, Grell, Hermes

Mom friend & needs a nap; Trey, Jaehee, Sugawara

On a watchlist; Azul, Jade, Floyd, Rook, Leviathan, Dazai, Clavis, Faust, Julian, Mammon, Buddha, Roger, Hermes, Grell

Has been arrested at least once (canon or not); Floyd, Clavis, Mammon, Julian, Grell, Roger

Green eyes; Rook, Grell

Blue eyes; Azul, Buddha, Mammon

Yellow/Gold eyes; Jade, Floyd, Trey, Faust, Clavis, Bokuto, Jaehee, Roger, Dazai

Dark hair; Trey, Clavis, Faust, Roger, Leviathan, Hermes, Dazai, Jaehee

Light hair; Azul, Mammon, Sugawara, Bokuto, Rook, Buddha

Red hair; Grell, Julian

They look similar; Tweels (twins), Trey & Roger

Shark teeth; Tweels, Grell

Fangs; Leviathan, Mammon, Dazai, Faust, Buddha (top and bottom, yes, I'm specifying)

Not human; Azul, Tweels, Grell, Faust, Dazai, Leviathan, Mammon, Hermes, Buddha

Human; Rook, Trey, Clavis, Roger, Jaehee, Julian, Bokuto, Sugawara

Huntsmen from Snow White (if I had a nickel...); Rook, Roger

Malewife; Jade, Rook, Trey, Hermes, Sugawara

Wet cat; Azul, Leviathan, Mammon, Julian, Roger

Gremlin/menace; Azul, Tweels, Rook, Mammon, Clavis, Julian, Dazai, Grell, Buddha

Girlboss; Jaehee, Grell (Azul solely for his business schemes)

Himbo; Bokuto, Mammon, Buddha (debatable)

IRL I'm punting them; Azul, Clavis, Julian, Leviathan

IRL I would be terrified of them; Tweels, Rook, Faust, Roger, Hermes, Buddha

Melodramatic; Azul, Jade, Rook, Clavis, Dazai, Julian, Grell

Special interest go brrrrr; Fish bastards & Leviathan (ocean/fish), Rook (archery/poetry), Dazai & Faust (vampires), Hermes (Greek mythology)

Bakes; Trey, Jaehee

I forget to add that both Clavis and Julian have HORRENDOUS handwriting in the slideshow, but I'm not editing it <3

Most points; Jade Leech (11), Clavis Lelouche (11), Buddha (11)

Second place; Azul Ashengrotto (10.5)

Third place; Roger Barel (10), Julian Devorak (10), Grell Sutcliffe (10)

[cospinol]

very late once again but, better late than never, Here Is my final fall '23 overview of isekai/isekai-adjacents/miscellaneous rpg fantasy garbage! another season where the twin major franchises are 'dropped with extreme prejudice' and 'was not dumb enough to pick this up in the first place' so my watchlist is a little thin, but nonetheless:

there's some internal narrative among the scores on this list, in that tearmoon empire couldn't quite get over the line to a 7/10 despite hovering very close to that territory the entire season (mia /is/ an absolute delight of a protagonist and the comedy hits more often than not, but the show as a whole ends up being concerned with its Capital P Plot to a degree that would only be an asset if the plot were actually good. it's a genuine shame, when it has so many strong characters and strong moments, in both slice-of-life segments and the more serious scenes, but i wish it didn't ask me to take a moment every now and then to look at the big picture, because the big picture isn't good enough to justify scoring it on par with the objectively stronger shows i've given 7s this season) which ended up bumping s-rank musume down to a 5 sympathetically, because they're definitely not created equal lol...

s-rank musume is largely Fine, with enough dedication to and competence at its dad-feels iyashikei to balance out its Light Novels Being Adapted At Maximum Speed plot nonsense, and it manages to extract a lot of (basic, but still) emotional beats out of belgrieve father-figuring at various troubled youths while coming to terms with his oncoming middle age. unfortunately, the core dynamic (and the show's titular character) is a huge liability - the way the writing chooses to portray ange's affection for/obsession with her father is truly absurd and travels well beyond the territory of 'exaggerated anime character antics' into 'at all times this character's behaviour makes sense for, at most, a precocious ten-year-old', and it makes many of her scenes deeply unwatchable, especially when her peers are written as normal young adults. it's less of a problem when the show is more of an ensemble (which is most of its run) but when your final two episodes are an ange-solo showcase about how her public tantrums and Telling People About How Cool Her Dad Is make her the most noble and upright person in the room, my goodwill is gone. this show is only on this list for the thinnest and most cursory maou-sama plot in the world btw, blink and you'll miss it, i just wanted to complain about it a little

continuing the theme of Girl Protagonists, problematic or otherwise, potion-danomi has the textbook setup for one of my least favourite subgenres, Girlboss Isekai About A Character Who Doesn't Care About Anything, and indeed kaoru forms no sincere connections to any other characters in the show; is smug, detached and superior until the writing decides she needs to be a force of moral good to own fodder characters (violently, and/or mean-spiritedly); flips motivations on a dime whenever the show gets bored of its current setting - and yet i came out on the other side of this one liking it worlds better than the likes of roukin, kuma kuma, leadale and so on lol. the back half of the show where she travels around to locations-of-the-week manages to find a comfortable rhythm that these shows rarely do, and although the core cast is weak and cursory, i was very charmed by the side characters in the 'let's open a store' arc; ultimately, the impression i left the show with was, for the very first time, that the protagonist had developed an entertaining one-on-one personal dynamic with another person in the show, even if it was just the stupid military official she was doing under-the-table potion deals with. it's The Little Things but it's enough to bump you up to a 5/10

andddd the shows in the 4/10 'default score for the genre' box are sitting there because they are as default as they come - certainly they're both annoying in their own right (boushoku no berserk conned me into watching it at all by opening with a fun villain voiced by daisuke hirakawa and then neglected to feature him in the rest of the damn show; toaru ossan takes a bizarre hard left turn into idiot-protagonist-based morality with some Morally Correct Torture Slash Gleeful Murder in the finale after being mostly blandly pleasant all season, though there are definitely earlier suggestions of a jarringly punitive mindset in this mostly slice-of-life show. also it brings back the zombie basement from seija musou for what feels like of half its runtime, what the hell), because that's what the default is, but neither of them feature anything egregious enough to drop down to 'remarkably bad'. it's simply The State Of The Genre...

...except that, of course, there's the outlier, whose first season i forgot to put in my spring log because it's doing the usual trick backwards and also making everyone else look real stupid while it's at it:

it's not that hard, guys. idk maybe try putting arius sabaramond in your isekai next time or something

[theanimeview]

[Movie Review & Spoilers] GOT TO LOVE SLIMES! “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8fUTen5NI&ab_channel=CrunchyrollCollection

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Reincarnation has been a popular premise in anime and manga (generally fiction as a whole) for some time, allowing characters to come back from death in a new form and allowing them/us to explore a different version of life in another world or the same one from a new perspective.  That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is one such series, and it is one of my favorites with its ridiculous plot progression that jumps from final boss-level worries in one episode to the internal drama of a tight-knit community in the next (not to mention the fantastic cast of characters). Therefore I was ecstatic to learn that the series was getting a movie, Scarlet Bond, and even more delighted to find that there would be an international release. 

DUB vs. SUB

The movie was equally as entertaining as the show and manga. I ended up seeing the film twice. Once in Japanese with subtitles and once with English dubbing. There were some minor changes between the two texts, like Towa’s ending speech or how characters responded to some things, but I wouldn't say that it changed the meaning of the scenes in any significant way. To be honest, I found the dubbed version to be more enjoyable. While I am used to subtitles and have a slight grasp of Japanese, I was able to really take in the art and the action scenes better when I wasn't trying to switch between reading and watching on the big screen. Moreover, the voice actors for the new characters–specifically, Towa and Hiiro–were phenomenal. 

Part of my favorite thing within the That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime anime is the over the top fight scenes and this movie was no different. There was some dramatic ones, there were some flashy ones, and there were ones that just looked epic. I felt like I got to enjoy these more when I was watching the dub version, because I could pay more attention to what was happening on screen. With the subtitled version, I was definitely reading a lot and there times when the subtitles disappeared too quickly for me to finish the sentence or second line of text. While I wasn't sure I was missing too much because the context was pretty straightforward, it certainly made me feel a little frustrated. 

[Spoilers] Should I see it if I haven't watched the show? 

No. I would not recommend seeing this movie if you haven't seen the show. Firstly, the movie opens in the midst of troubles with the Demon Lord Clayman (the Orc Lord arc), and there are a lot of things that tie in with events from Season 1 and Season 2 of the anime. I could maybe see missing Season 2 and still understanding the set up for the movie, but you'd need the context of Season 1 to fill-in some of the larger blanks since there aren't really character introductions. I think a lot of anime movies which continue a series tend to give brief characters introductions, and this one sort of does but it's not so much that I think you could miss Season 1 and still get the gist of the dynamic (at least, that's my opinion). Note: The movie picks up directly after Season 2, so there is not a big time gap between the events seen in the film and the show. 

My Feelings

I loved the movie. I loved the new characters–particularly Hiiro. I loved the animations. I thought that the opening action scene was epic and emotionally impactful. I felt invested in the progression of events and loved seeing the characters work out what was happening. 

I thought it was excellent and would rate it a 9/10. I give it a 9/10 only because I saw it in theaters but this would have received a 10/10 had I watched from home. It was worth the ticket prices to me, because I wanted to see it in theaters but this was probably one I could have enjoyed from home in a pay-to-watch sort of situation on Amazon Prime, YouTube, or–if they had the option–Crunchyroll/Funimation.

If you are a fan of the series, definitely add this to your watchlist!

[nhkamira]

MY SPRING 2021 ANIME WATCHLIST🌼🌈✨

Spring is officially starting and what a marvelous season we have ahead. Full of great anime continuations and some news that I’m really looking forward to. Since I post practically every review (only Horimiya left) here I present you my Spring 2021 watchlist:

1. Boku no Hero Academia 5th Season (27/03). Can y’all hear me screaming?😭 Finally, our heroes are back and I couldn’t be more excited. Many friends told me this season would be really amazing and I can’t wait! Bones studio is still in charge of the series so we will continue having a great animation. Genres: Action, Comedy, Super Power, School, Shounen.

2. Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui (29/03). A strange encounter spurs the meeting of Amakusa Ryou, a high spec businessman, and his high school sister's best friend, Arima Ichika. From there, he falls madly in love and tries to approach her, while she responds simply disgusted, insulting him without hesitation. Can this be a nice shoujo anime? We’ll see. Studio Nomad is doing the work, I haven’t seen their previous work but the trailer animation looks nice. Genres: Comedy, Romance.

3. Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood (31/03). An original and first series by Bakken Records. Set in alternate history Japan in 1931 the anime will follow the activities of "Nue," an organization of shogunate executioners who enforce the government. The dissident organization Kuchinawa strives to overthrow the administration, while the Nue of the Tokugawa regime, which was entrusted with its extermination, is in conflict. Sawa Yukimura, whose family was killed when she was young, continues to search for Janome, the executioner of the Nue. I don’t usually enjoy historical anime but hopefully, this would be good. Genres: Action, Historical, Supernatural.

4. Shaman King - 2021 (1/04). Can believe this actually got a remake, which I’m really really excited for. In a brief, Shamans are extraordinary individuals with the ability to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and gods. To life circumstances You befriends Manta due to his ability to see spirits, they set out to accomplish You's goal of becoming the next Shaman King. Studio Bridge is in charge, the ones behind my all-time favorite “Fairy Tail” ^^. Genres: Action, Adventure, Supernatural, Comedy, Shounen.

5. Mashiro no Oto (3/04). Lowkey I’m expecting this to be as good as “Kono Oto Tomare. Shin-Ei Animation is the studio behind this and they’ve worked in the Doraemon and Shin-chan movies. The story follows Sawamura Setsu, since their grandfather's death, he dropped out of high school, moved to Tokyo, and has been drifting, not knowing what to do besides playing his Shamisen. That's when his successful and rich mother, Umeko, storms into his life and tries to shape Setsu up. She enrolls him back into high school, but little does Setsu know that he is about to rediscover his passion for Shamisen. Genres: Music, Drama, School.

6. Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou (5/04). Project no.9 the studio of Jaku-chara is bringing a more dramatic story this season. Office worker Yoshida has been crushing on his coworker, Airi Gotou, for five years. Despite finally scoring a date with her, his confession is promptly rejected. Drunk and disappointed, he stumbles home, only to find a high school girl sitting on the side of the road. The girl, needing a place to stay the night, attempts to seduce Yoshida. Despite rejecting her advances, he nevertheless invites her into his apartment. Genres: Drama, Romance

7. Fruits Basket: The Final (6/04). If I started talking about this anime and how excited I am I will never stop talking. I’m ready to cry, get flustered, angry, and be happy. I’m sad but at the same time happy that the story is ending I’m dying to see the zodiac members at least feeling peaceful. Genres: Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Comedy, Supernatural.

8. Shadows House (11/04). CloverWorks is doing this one and it would probably be beautifully animated. The story is about faceless shadow nobles living in a vast mansion, attended by living dolls who spend much of their time cleaning up the soot endlessly emitted by their mysterious masters. It's not horror but I like the creepy vibe. Hope is good. Genres: Slice of Life, Supernatural, Seinen.

9. Edens Zero (11/04). My Fairy Tail heart is singing of joy. J.C.Staff is animating the series so we know it would be good. Ever since the manga came out I started immediately. It’s really good so I hope people enjoy it without being too critical about the resembles of Fairy Tail. Here is a brief: At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, Rebecca and her cat companion Happy appear at the park's front gates. Little do these newcomers know that this is the first human contact Granbell has had in a hundred years! As Shiki stumbles his way into making new friends, his former neighbors stir at an opportunity for a robo-rebellion… And when his old homeland becomes too dangerous, Shiki must join Rebecca and Happy on their spaceship and escape into the boundless cosmos. Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Shounen

10. Tokyo Revengers (11/04). I really don’t know what to expect from this since LIDENFILMS has done some pretty awful or uninteresting works, but the trailer looked very cool. Our mc is Takemichi Hanagaki, his life is at an all-time low. Just when he thought it couldn't get worse, he finds out that Hinata Tachibana, his ex-girlfriend, was murdered by the Tokyo Manji Gang: a group of vicious criminals that has been disturbing society's peace for quite some time. Wondering where it all went wrong, Takemichi suddenly finds himself traveling through time, ending up 12 years in the past—when he was still in a relationship with Hinata. Realizing he has a chance to save her, Takemichi resolves to infiltrate the Tokyo Manji Gang and climb the ranks in order to rewrite the future and save Hinata from her tragic fate. Genres: Action, Drama, School, Shounen.

11. Fumetsu no Anata e (12/04). I think this is the most expected new anime for this season, and one of the most visually beautiful this season. Follows the story of It, a mysterious immortal being, is sent to the Earth with no emotions nor identity. However, It is able to take the shape of those around that have a strong impetus. Acquiring the form of a boy, It sets off on a never-ending journey, in search of new experiences, places, and people. Genres: Adventure, Supernatural, Drama, Shounen.

12. Marimashita! Iruka-kun 2nd Season (17/04). Yes yes yess. So we finally are going to find out what happened to Iruma-chi at the end of the first season. I’m really excited to see everyone again ^^ if you haven’t seen season 1 I invite you to do it and you can also read my review under this anime hashtag ^^ Genres: Comedy, Demons, Supernatural, School, Fantasy.

This season looks very promising!

[laloward]

do you have any anime recs! my watchlist is getting a little too short for my liking and i’d love to fill it back up again

umm idk 🤔 i dont watch a TON of anime, a lot of it is what ive seen people talk about. but i guess ill put some animanga i really enjoy. theres not much though bc i ended up infodumping a lot. whoops

mob psycho 100: a lot of people have seen it already but i *highly* recommend it to just about everyone. this shit changed my life. unconventional slice of life/shounen cross. central theme of kindness and self improvement. cool ass psychic battles. thats mp100. warnings in case you didnt know for transmisogyny in the second half of the second ep and in the anime theres that minor character who looks like hes in blackface starting from i believe episode 10 of season 1 and showing up again near the end of season 2. really gross stains on what is otherwise one of my favorite media of all time.

blue exorcist: this has an anime and its usually how ppl get into the series but it has like confusing continuity between the first and second seasons and imo the first season at least doesnt do the manga justice. plus it only covers like 15% of the manga thats out rn and there were 6 years between the first and second season and no sign of season 3. so wjat im saying is READ THE MANGA

anyway its about a teenager who finds out his dad is satan and that hes a half demon wuh oh. he has a twin brother whos normal tho :) anyway he becomes an exorcist cause he wants to kill satan and also cause its the only way the other exorcists wont kill him outright. (this is like one of the things i was heavily reminded of when reading jjk and thinking it was super derivative lol) there are a lot of religious themes and aesthetics and the characters have interesting and fun development and the plot is really interesting and eventually gets batshit insane. its kind of long at this point and i think the author said its like halfway done but imo its very well paced and still worth reading. personally ive been keeping up w the manga for like 6+ years. unfortunately it is a shounen manga and suffers the plague of having a token pervert character (shima the bastard. at least every other character thinks hes insufferable) and sexualized woman character (shura wears a bikini top ??). author is a woman so i think she probably has internal issues but i shan't psychoanalyze strangers. also i dont remember this well at all bc i binge read this part when i was 12 but heres a post one of my friends made about transmisogyny in the manga around chapter 40.

witch hat atelier: this is a manga, doesnt have an anime. its about a little girl who wants to become a witch and trains with other witches in a little atelier. blew up on the tumbs recently, definitely as good as people say imo. the art is GORGEOUS in every single panel, all characters have clear motivations and defined personalities, plot is well-paced, and it generally feels comfy; theres probably one of the most gentle and caring mentor characters ive ever seen in qifrey. one of the things i really like about this that idk if ive seen talked about much is the subversion of the trope that "you have to be born with this power" which is best explained by the manga itself. not to mention theres disabled characters that arent "cured," but have creative accomodations that fit well within the universe, like "wheelchairs" being chairs with enchanted legs that move like an animal. i genuinely dont have any complaints about wha. its good. read it.

DONT read/watch tokyo ghoul. i mean it would be funny to me in a schadenfreude way if you did but dont for your own sake

[dreamingsushi]

Dance of the Phoenix - Episode 1

As if I am not late enough on my other reviews, I’m starting a new drama. Yes. Believe it or not. But lately, this has been helping a lot with my mood, so I will keep going and hopefully I will finish every series I started. Hopefully.

What brought attention to this drama to me was that I joined the French subtitling team for it and it looked pretty interesting from the previews and then I finished my part for the first episode and the bits I saw made me curious. I figured I can’t see all the dramas I might sub for but, this one needed to be on my watchlist.  So here we go!

So for a start, I’m not sure I am going to watch it every single time, but the opening of this drama is really beautiful. I am personally the type of person who likes to watch it every time, because it’s part of the drama and they spent time to make something nice. However, if you like to skip to get into the story faster (which I can understand because sometimes... cliff hangers) I would still recommend to take the time to look at it at least once. I super soft and touching. Beautiful is the word. Honestly.

The continent Qianyuan is separate in four territories: the Junwu Academy, the Celestial Palace, the Penglai pavilion and the Darknight court. The first three are in alliance to keep the peace under the leadership of the Junwu Academy, while the Darknight court has their own ideas. Once, demonic beasts were called upon the mortal realms and the cultivators fought them to bring back peace. The strongest cultivator at that time was Mu Jiuzhou and after he repelled the creatures away and erected an energy barrier, he left to focus on cultivation until the day he tried to ascend to immortality and got in an accident before disappearing.  That very same night, Feng Wu was born and she was the second person after Mu Jiuzhou to be born with phoenix blood.

When she was twelve, she found a spirit ring in which Mu Jiuzhou lived as a ghost since his disappearance and he becomes Feng Wu’s master. Being his disciple makes her become a very talented and powerful cultivator, which aroused other people’s jealousy and amongst them, there is Zuo Qingyun who catches her by surprise one day and steals away her phoenix blood before trying to kill her.

Fortunately for her, when she falls down the cliff, her master saves her and gives her his phoenix blood. However, she lost all her cultivation and her memories. To regain that, she has to find the celestial fruit and make the nine transformation spirit restoration pill. But before Mu Jiuzhou can explain more to her, he disappears back into the ring. When she was found, her family banned her away because they believed her personality changed because of the loss of her spiritual powers, not her memory loss. And the energy barrier was cracked up as Mu Jiuzhou’s star faded away.

Three years have gone by since that incident and Feng Wu is making a living by selling medicine. But a new place opened up which causes them trouble to make a living. So she manages to trick the son of the prime minister to buy something from her, but at a higher price.

Many cultivators are hoping to get the celestial fruit, not only Feng Wu. One of them is the prince of Junwu who needs to get it for his dad. Also, the Darknight court wants to prevent him from getting it, but he’s just way too bad ass. Plus his two friends are cute. The dad looks kind of creepy, I don’t trust that guy.

Feng Wu’s mom is waiting for her and his very worried. She tells her not to stay out that late, she’s not as strong as before. She’s really worried she would die at the hands of demonic beast. Feng Wu tells her not to worry, that she just went to see the Old Ba.

At night, Feng Wu dreams of her master who tells her to get the celestial fruit, as he preparer the best path for her. At first she thinks it’s just a dream but then she figures it must be a sign sent from her master for her. So the next day she goes in disguise with her maid to the Yunlai tavern to gather info on the fruit which is located in the Frozen Forest. There she hears people gossiping about her past engagement with Jun Linyuan which was broken when she disappeared. Rumours have it that he’ll marry Zuo Qingluan and that they are a good match.

But then a beggar collapses in the tavern. The girls from the Celestial Palace don’t help him, so Feng Wu wants to lend a hand. She knows some kind of acupuncture technique that only her master Mu Jiuzhou knows of, but she’s stopped by the leader of that group saying she might kill him if she does that, they argue a little bit, but in the end, Zuo Quingluan is the one to save the beggar. Something seems to be triggered in Feng Wu when she sees Zuo Qingluan, but before she can confirm it, the tavern starts shaking: the firecloud giant hawk came over, causing ruckus in the little town. It draws Feng Wu’s attention too, but her maid pulls her away. They don’t get to completely run away, so they observe the battle from up close, but the girls are not strong enough and theeeen! Handsome prince comes to save them. AND THAT CRINGE THOUGH. He’s like reaching for his sword, but she thinks he wants to help her get up and he pushes her away because well she’s in the way. And that’s the end of episode one.

The rhythm of that episode was kind of weird, as we skipped many years and it was actually more to set up the story and the background. To know a little about our main character girl. The 3D animations are really not bad so far, for a C-drama, I was rather impressed. Plot wise, I’m waiting to get more meat around the bone before deciding wether it’s interesting or not. Visually, 100/10. Gorgeous drama. After episode one, I so far highly recommend.

[nightwving]

i was tagged by @mollyweasly​ to answer these questions, tysm!! i did most of them the other night but got distracted and am posting them now lmao

1. on a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now? idk, i’ll say maybe a 7 or so? honestly i’m feeling pretty decent for the first time in a while

2. describe yourself in a hashtag? #ohfuck

3. if you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be? that’s tough... i would never want to actually subject anyone to the horror or doing that with me, but i guess either tom holland or sebastian stan??

4. if your life was a musical, what would the marquee say? “a juxtaposed comedic disaster”

5. what’s one thing people don’t know about you? shit man i usually overshare pretty much everything, but i guess one thing would be that i got hit straight in the head by a golf ball while on a course with my parents when i was in middle school?? it came from way far out but miraculously didn’t seem to crack my skull or give me too bad of a concussion. my dad said it hit so hard that it sounded like it hit the pavement. now i have severe anxiety near golf courses and when things are flying near my head in general lmfao

6. what’s your wake up ritual? i check my phone real quick and then immediately go to pee and brush my teeth. depending on the day and whether or not i’d be late for class back when things were normal, i might shower lol. then either get dressed real quick and go to class or, these days, play video games or get on my computer

7. what’s your go to bed ritual? i’ll usually wrap up whatever i’m doing, make sure my fan is on, lock my door (when i’m at school), strip, take some melatonin, lay down, set my alarm, plug in and then get on my phone for a while until i (hopefully) get sleepy

8. what’s your favorite time of day? i love the evening around sunset or so but i also just love the night in general, especially when things get quiet in the am

9. your go to for having a good laugh? tiktok

10. dream country to visit? ummm... honestly canada 😂 or germany or something

11. what’s the biggest surprise you’ve ever had? last spring i spontaneously won an award in the department that i work for at school because my friends insisted that i get one for all the work i do on the newspaper and for my work study and stuff. they had to work some stuff around because i’m not actually a major and that’s who the awards are for, but they all agreed to give it to me at the ceremony and i was NOT expecting it whatsoever. it was one of the most amazing moments ever especially since i struggle with finding a niche and having faith in myself

12. heels or flats/sneakers? sneakers!!

13. vintage or new? i love vintage but that shit can be hard for me to find

14. who do you want to write your obituary? probably a friend idk i feel like my family would say some dumb corny shit lmao

15. style icon? i have quite a few but slash or duff mckagan from 80s GNR would be a couple ok don’t judge me. and john bender from the breakfast club

16. what are three things you cannot live without? internet, my ps4, and friends

17. what’s one ingredient you put in everything? chili or garlic powder

18. what 3 people living or dead would you want to make dinner for? i don’t even make dinner for myself lmao but if i really had the motivation, probs stan lee, carrie fisher, and my tiny son josh bassett

19. what’s your biggest fear in life? being institutionalized against my will and/or death before i’m ready/feel like i’ve done something worthwhile.

20. window or aisle seat? depends tbh

21. what’s your current tv obsession? i’m not really on a kick with it right now, but i’m slowly making my way through the clone wars in chronological order.

22. favorite app? tiktok

23. secret talent? uhh... i guess a lot of people would assume that i’m not athletic because of my weight but i’m actually naturally pretty sporty and can still be when i really feel like it

24. most adventurous thing you’ve ever done in your life? well i’ve tried to summon spirits in multiple different places, attempted to break into an asylum with my ex, done a pregnancy test with an old friend in a burger king bathroom... idk if those count as “adventurous” but that’s about all i got as of right now in my life

25. how would you define yourself in three words? eclectic, resilient, and real

26. favorite piece of clothing you own? my denim jacket

27. a must have clothing item that everyone should have? also denim jacket lol

28. a superpower you would want? i debate this often... i think shapeshifting would be cool but also telekinesis

29. what’s inspiring you in life right now? movies and stuff i guess

30. best piece of advice you’ve received? probably that it’s okay to do things at your own pace and to not be so hard on yourself when you aren’t doing things the same way as others

31. best advice you’d give your teenage self? wear some better fuckin clothes lmao

32. a book everyone should read? bruh idk i don’t really read anymore, harry potter i guess 😂

33. what would you like to be remembered for? being honest and real but also someone that would’ve been there for you, or to have a good laugh with

34. how do you define beauty? beauty is like something that fills you with wonder and a sense of life or something

35. what do you love most about your body? uh... i have nice legs i guess 😂

36. best way to take a rest/decompress? find something that distracts you and makes you forget about all the shit. get lost in another world in movies/music/etc or just laugh with someone about anything

37. favorite place to view art? i like seeing it in the studios at school when people are still working on it

38. if your life was a song, what would the title be? “somethin’ else”

39. if you could master one instrument, what would it be? ugh i would love to be a full blow pianist but i ain’t got the patience for that. i made it through a few periods of lessons throughout my life and three classes in college but i don’t have the capacity to do more than that. but i would also love to get even better with my voice. i’ve been taking classical lessons for the past couple of years but quit recently because of the anxiety that studio recitals and master classes give me. music major shit is rough

40. if you had a tattoo, where would it be? i have one janky one behind my right ear that i got when i was 16, it’s a bird. but if i wasn’t a fatass bitch, i’d like to get more in different places on my body

41. dolphins or koalas? dolphins

42. what’s your spirit animal? it used to be a coyote according to a quiz years ago lol but it’s probably something different now

43. best gift you’ve ever received? probs my shitty first car that my dad got me last summer. but it’s a hell of a lot better than nothing

44. best gift you’ve given? shit i can’t even remember. i love doing personal little gifts for my friends. ACTUALLY i’d probably say the playlist i made for my friend last christmas because listening to music late at night was our thing

45. what’s your favorite board game? secret hitler is the BOMB

46. what’s your favorite color? yellow

47. least favorite color? probs brown

48. diamond or pearls? diamonds

49. drugstore makeup or designer? drugstore bitch, i’m broke

50. blow-dry or air-dry? air dry preferably but i’ll blow dry if i need to

51. pilates or yoga? neither lmao

52. coffee or tea? coffee unless it’s sweet tea

53. what’s the weirdest word in the english language? all of them

54. dark chocolate or milk chocolate? dark

55. stairs or elevators? elevators bih i got bad knees

56. summer or winter? winter, FUCK the sun

57. you are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat? potatoes

58. a dessert you don’t like? a lot of things, i eat like a picky five year old. but i don’t like anything minty

59. a skill you’re working on mastering? singing. but also design-y stuff and videography

60. best thing to happen to you today? i went on a short walk with my mom earlier and there’s always a man across the street from us who sits on his porch every evening and sings with his guitar. i love it

61. worst thing to happen to you today? sitting through my zoom class lmao

62. best compliment you’ve ever received? idk, just when someone has generally called me beautiful? that makes me feel really nice

63. favorite smell? i love the smell of cookies or brownies in the oven. i’m also weird af and love strange things like basement smell and gasoline. also sharpies

64. hugs or kisses? hugs probably

65. if you made a documentary, would it be about? idk probably something about a niche community/town or some cult-y shit

66. last piece of content you consumed that made you cry? avengers: endgame

67. lipstick or lipgloss? i don’t usually wear either very much but probably lipstick

68. sweet or savory? savory

69. girl crush? ana de armas or margot robbie

70. how do you know your in love? i feel like you’d do anything for that person even if it hurt you, and you think about them all the time and want to protect/be there for them

71. a song you can listen to on repeat? i usually avoid listening to things on repeat, but if i had to choose something... idk maybe africa by toto 😂

72. if you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be? probs someone like elon musk or bill gates to see what it’s like to be that fucking rich and successful

73. what are you most excited for about this time in your life? just enjoying it and maybe honing some skills with all this extra time. also watching some movies on my watchlist

i’m tagging @verafarmiga, @northuldrra, @tmhnks, @spaceoddly, @breaksfastclub, and anyone else who wants to do it!! but feel free to ignore or just laugh at my answers

[letterboxd]

Top 100 Women Directors.

Ella Kemp takes a deep-dive into our newest all-time stats addition—the top 100 films directed by women—and finds, to nobody’s surprise, that Agnès Varda is indisputably the GOAT.

There are countless ‘best of’ lists on Letterboxd to track your progress against; some are maintained by our staff, while others are contributed by passionate members. If you’ve upgraded to Pro or Patron level, there’s a section on your all-time stats page (accessible directly from your profile) where we’ve gathered twelve key lists against which you can track your progress at a glance (example below), and we’ve also added ‘Completed Collections’ for Patrons, showing all franchises of three or more films that you’ve seen in their entirety (excluding unreleased entries).

In the interests of promoting a diverse range of titles, we’ve recently added a Top 100 Women Directors list to your all-time stats, compiled by Jack Moulton and ranked by overall weighted average rating. In other words, these are the female-directed (and female-identifying-directed) films that you, the Letterboxd community, have chosen as the best.

To celebrate, we invited Letterboxd member, writer and Girls on Tops photographer Ella Kemp to cast her eye over the current list (it’s bound to change in future based on new ratings cast).

Encompassing thousands of votes to meticulously rate and root for the greatest films we have courtesy of women directors, Letterboxd’s newest all-time list offers a sobering dissection of the way we consume movies—and how much we recognize the women responsible for these works.

At first glance, a scroll through the list boasts a generous handful of posters designed in the last couple of years. Five features released in the past twelve to eighteen months have made it straight to the top 20 (Portrait of A Lady on Fire, The Farewell, Booksmart, Lady Bird and Capernaum) with one of those films—not even publicly released in cinemas yet, but making waves at festivals around the world—already sitting at number two. That’s the power of Céline Sciamma and her Portrait.

Céline Sciamma’s ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ (2019).

Diving deeper, Sciamma’s top-tier triumph exemplifies a few key patterns. She returns at number 64 with Tomboy, reminding us what a great shame it is that her excellent feature Girlhood didn’t make the list, but confirming that France appears to be one of the best countries in the world for women to make movies: the list comprises 23 French features, which, considering the US’s oft-perceived monopoly on the film industry, feels monumental.

But of course, it’s not accidental either. This year sadly marked the passing of Agnès Varda, indisputably the GOAT. She stands proud as the most prolific contributor with six features, two in the top 20. To grieve, to remember, at least we can always keep watching.

Another singular trailblazer is Scotswoman Lynne Ramsay. She has four entries, but what’s most impressive is that these are, well, all the feature films she’s made to date. Her fourth entry, Morvern Callar, sneaks in at number 100.

Elaine May and Chantal Akerman both have three entries, which may come as no surprise to cinephiles, but it’s also the same number of entries as Japanese animator Naoko Yamada (whose A Silent Voice sits in sixteenth place on our list). This reveals an open-minded slant, one that acknowledges the widely perceived touchstones but also embraces further-reaching works from lesser-known artists. Five features are Japanese, four are German, three Italian, and three Indian.

Naoko Yamada’s ‘A Silent Voice’ (2016).

The lean still remains very much with the US, and yet few films on the list break records for eye-watering budgets. The Matrix, courtesy of the Wachowskis, was made for $63 million, and Shrek, co-directed by Vicky Jenson, had a budget of $60 million. Aside from these two, projects on the list seldom had more than $10–15 million to get the job done.

When looking at the list’s omissions, one almost unanimous absence is that of the highest-grossing films of all time directed by women. No Sleepless in Seattle, no Frozen, no Fifty Shades of Grey. No Nora Ephron, No Nancy Meyers. No Ava DuVernay. It’s a peculiar gap, as the influence of these writers and filmmakers is hardly one to be contested. And, to close the circle on big budgets, $120-150-million-wielding Patty Jenkins is also absent. The highest-grossing film directed by a woman (with no male directing partner)—a cool $821.8 million at the global box office—did not make the cut.

On this topic, there are sixteen films co-directed by women on the list. A co-directing mention is a crucial credit. It’s like the trust exercises that used to be taught in school drama classes—how would they work if one party wasn’t there to catch the other as they fell? What’s the point in being brave if you don’t also have some kind of promise of safety? Partners need each other, and these directors needed partners to reach the heights they did. City of God, co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, was nominated for four Oscars, and yet Meirelles was still the only filmmaker credited at the ceremony. The Academy chose to disregard Lund, but our list does not. There are five female co-directors in the top 20. One of the highest-grossing films on the list, Shrek, would not be what it is without Vicky Jenson.

Also curious: Palme d’Or winner Jane Campion makes the list, best director Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow does not. Overall, the list shows a vast body of skill, a crop of familiar names, some deeply felt absences and—hopefully—a whole lot of additions to watchlists. Further names that deserve to be sought out, in no particular order, include Mabel Normand, Maya Deren, Josephine Decker, Jennie Livingston, Mia Hansen-Løve, Dee Rees, Joanna Hogg, Gurinder Chadha, Barbara Hammer, and directors with new films soon to be released: Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Niki Caro (the live-action Mulan) and Kasi Lemmons (Harriet).

Chantal Akerman’s ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles’ (1975).

Writing this breakdown gave me plenty of homework, and it shed light on a lot of works that I’m yet to catch up with. At first I thought it pretty normal to not have seen as many on the list as I would have liked, taking into account my age, access and time, but the further I went, the more names cropped up that I didn’t recognize, and the more I recalled my three years studying film at university and not having learned anything about so many of these women.

I should know more names. I should have been set more assignments regarding more of these names. I can do more, but so too can those above me, those who taught me and continue to teach others, about who makes the films that are worth learning about. We now have lists such as this one—it’s high time we start to properly use them.

Header image: Agnès Varda (with her own 1962 self-portrait) in Faces Places.

Related content

Films Directed by Women: Vanessa’s comprehensive—and growing—master list, and her shorter, highly recommended list

Female Cinematographers: The Master List

Written by Women: a master list of scripts written by women

Five filmmakers Jane Campion wants you to watch next

Our Q&A with Debra Granik

Little White Lies’ 100 Great Movies by Female Directors

Female directors recommended by Tilda Swinton

Iranian Women Make Films: a list of Iranian female directors

Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen: the story of trailblazing Māori filmmaker Merata Mita (available on Netflix, distributed by Array)

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - Summer 2019

Hey, look who finished the season perfectly on time, even if he did so by dropping a bunch of stuff last minute! (Technically, as of writing, I haven’t finished Re:Stage Dream Days, but you can rest assured that it’s bad.)

I thought I was going to do a first impressions rundown video for the entire season at once, since my impression posts don’t tend to get a lot of engagement anyway, but since I didn’t end up going through with it, I’ll summarize my point - summer started strong, and even here at the end, I can easily say it’s the best season thus far in what’s largely been a letdown year for seasonal anime (and a god damn renaissance for long shows, thanks to My Hero Academia, so if I seem down on a season that had Dororo, or Vinland Saga, or Fruits Basket, remember that I exclude those shows from my considerations until the end of the year).

This season saw several high-profile continuations like A Certain Scientific Accelerator, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon II, and Symphogear XV, but also new works by creators like Mari Okada, and anticipated adaptations of Astra: Lost in Space and Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, and in the end, well...a lot of those were mixed bags at best, but the biggest drawback I will remember Summer 2019 for is that it was drowning in bad isekai shows. The aforementioned Arifureta, the basically-counts Danmachi, and also Isekai Cheat Magician, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks, The Lost Ones, Demon Lord Retry!...it just never ended, and that’s not even counting If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord. 

Speaking of all that stuff, let’s get right into it, yeah?

28 shows were simulcast this season, and of those, I…

Skipped 4:

Yami Shibai 7, Starmyu Season 3, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, and Lord El-Melloi II Case Files: Rail Zeppelin Grace Note were all skipped because I have not watched the previous series.

Dropped 15:

Worst of the Season: If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord!

I dropped this after one episode because I found the aesthetic and tone to be aggressively boring and I found even the cute daugheroo character to be utterly generic in execution...and then later found out oh boy was I right to drop it, based on how many people compared it to the Bunny Drop manga that we don’t talk about. *shudders*

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest

Wins the “biggest tryhard” award for being just the most straightforward an SAO award gets, right up to being grimdark for dumb reasons. The first episode alone had inconsistent animation, and that just did not bode well for the future...and the plot instantly reminded me of Slime, which soured on me over time. I let this one go sour after one shot.

Demon Lord, Retry!

The blandest of beige this season, Demon Lord had neither the story nor the production values to reel me in or convince me it was anything but the Overlord wannabe it so clearly was.

Isekai Cheat Magician

This show was a pretty transparent attempt to have an isekai story with a childhood friend romance plot, and while I’m fine with one and a half of those things, it couldn’t execute them in any decent way by the end of the first episode, and just wound up being largely boring.

Wasteful Days of High School Girls

Speaking of boring, what if Nichijou wasn’t funny? You’d get something like this.

Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?

So the tone this one ultimately ended up having was pretty much exactly what I expected after the premiere - it leaned too hard on jokes that weren’t as funny as it thought they were, and too hard on the dumb hentai mom trope, and neither of those things interested me in the slightest. Pretty okay with having left this off the watchlist.

The Ones Within

I have stated multiple times in the last few weeks that Symphogear is great because it can convince you that it’s a work of genius. The Ones Within has, unfortunately, convinced itself that it’s deep social commentary of some kind, rather than a bargain-bin Danganronpa with no real thought put into it.

Are You Lost?

I’m amazed that we got another Eromanga Sensei this season and it flew entirely under the radar. For God’s sake, the first episode featured a young teenage girl eating a bug and drinking her own urine. I just didn’t see myself being particularly entertained by the shock value longer than the premiere.

Ensemble Stars (4/10)

I can’t tell if this one is actually over, but Funimation’s site doesn’t list any new episode premieres coming up, so I’m gonna assume it is? I gave this one a shot and hung onto it because it took UtaPri’s premise and gave it the slightly more serious tone I was looking for, but dropped it after the second episode started to drown us in side characters with no hint that the floodgates were closing, rather than giving ample screentime to a select cast so they could actually become at least two-dimensional before throwing in more people we’re supposed to care about.

BEM

BEM suffered from an unfortunate lack of distinct personality, which sucks when it seems to have had a decent story to tell. Nothing else about the show wound up sticking out to me, though, which has me fully convinced that Production I.G.’s name is only on this to boost recognition, and the second-billed LandQ studios did the majority of the work. And their best-known other show is Swordgai. So...

To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts (5/10)

I have gotten absolutely no pushback so far for my decision to tear into this show because it should have been a different show, so I’m gonna take that as a general agreement of my earlier statement. What a waste of a concept.

Cop Craft (5/10)

This one I still think I was not crazy to pick up after the first episode, because it wasn’t until the third that the animation tanked hard and the pacing went absolutely nuts, and apparently stayed that way. Did they write a thirty-nine-episode story that had to be condensed into twelve or something?

Magical Sempai

This one I probably would have kept watching if the majority of its humor wasn’t just the title character embarrassing herself in lewd ways. It was funny, but I didn’t see myself enjoying anything more than one episode of it.

GRANBELM (6/10)

This one I got halfway through before realizing that, during my end-of-season catchup, I had absolutely no desire to return to. The plot didn’t really start moving until the fifth episode, and in that time I had not gotten particularly invested in the characters, especially since the show makes fun of the viewer for thinking that the big mecha dream battles actually had stakes beyond “you don’t get to be The Thing”. At least it looked nice and the mecha designs were very original.

Are you willing to fall in love with a pervert, as long as she’s a cutie?

There were four shows this season with questions for titles. Just saying! This one actually had me hooked right up until the end, revealing that not only is it a fanservice show, but a fetish pandering one. That being said, if I were attracted to women, I could have seen myself getting something out of it, what with the decently moody tone and good production values.

I put 2 On Hold:

Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? II

I’ll probably come back to this when the third series comes around, just to give it one more chance to pull me back in, but ditching my favorite character for harem antics and character shilling just did not endear me to this long-awaited sequel.

Re:Stage Dream Days!!

This one’s not actually on hold, but I don’t have any other good place to mention it. This one I’m gonna make it through just on willpower, not because it’s good, but because it starts out as the most shameless rip-off I’ve ever seen in anime, specifically of Love Live!.

And I Finished 7:

Kochoki (5/10)

I thought I was gonna give this one a 7 at least, for nearly the whole season, for being a decently-told and somewhat new telling of Nobunaga’s early life with great production values for Studio Deen...right up until the structure fell completely apart at the end, almost completely out of nowhere. I’m still in awe of the gall this show had to literally skip over the final battle.

How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift? (8/10)

This one came right the fuck out of nowhere and totally blew my expectations out of the way from the very first episode. Looking at the summary, I was convinced I was gonna drop this after the premiere...and found myself totally hooked by its cheery visual presentation and excellent sense of meta-comedy, not to mention its genuine educational value.

Astra: Lost In Space (8/10)

One of two adaptations I was really looking forward to this season (along with Fire Force), Astra was pretty much what I expected - a very good translation of a very good manga that ran for the perfect amount of time to be divided into twelve-ish episodes. A fantastic and memorable cast of characters enhanced a surprisingly twisty story, and Lerche made it all look just as good as I’d hoped.

The Demon Girl Next Door (8/10)

Speaking of defying my expectations, another show I was expecting pretty much nothing from, maybe one I could compare to Gabriel Dropout or something, that was instead an incredibly charming story of a girl trying to save her family by defeating a magical girl...with a very, very loose definition of the word “defeat” in play. I couldn’t have asked for much more from this one, aside from maybe a sequel?

Given (9/10)

Speaking of “Lerche” and “gorgeous”, this profoundly gripping story of a spacecase and a loner hesitantly making music together blossomed further and further as it went on, and became my new go-to reference point for explicit gay relationships in anime. It went where even Yuri On Ice!!! couldn’t, and left me desperate for a Part Two.

O Maidens In Your Savage Season (9/10)

My write up for this show was one of my longest in recent memory, and I stand by it - even if Okada had to write a few plot contrivances in to get where she’s going, at least she presented her cast in an incredibly thoughtful way and gave them a satisfying payoff, with the knowledge that they’re teenagers and all of their problems can’t be solved in one semester. The high water mark for discussions of sexuality in this medium.

BEST OF THE SEASON: Symphogear XV (9/10)

Anime is wonderful, and so am I.

So that wraps up summer! We’ve got a lot to look forward to in fall, even if My Hero Academia and Food Wars’ fourth series will both ultimately end up on a list in the distant future next year. Will Psycho-Pass 3 redeem the series? Will Azur Lane be better than Kantai Collection? Will Beastars beat Aggretsuko as the biggest furry panderer of the year? Only time will tell. And then I’ll tell you all what I think it said.

[nettlestonenell]

So, you want to adapt Little Women for the screen.

There’s quite a challenge ahead of you, Gentle Readers. Might I help get you started?

What, you might ask are my own bona fides in suggesting that I might have the right to hold forth on such a topic? Very well, I first read Little Women in 1983. The first of countless times I have read it. Actually, I collect copies of it, and buy interesting ones whenever I see them. I’ve seen more than a few adaptations of it.

The cover of my first copy. A giant volume, it was highly impractical to carry around. I did it anyway.

An initial challenge, any screen writer will tell you, is sheer length. Little Women was originally published as two separate books. So, an initial novel, and a sequel. By 1880, the two volumes were forever published as one. 

Not only does this mean lots of pages and plot needing weeded out of your script, but it also means you’re going to have two climaxes and two denouements (seems about right for a female novel, yeah?), another challenge when adapting the two stories into a single film. (Imagine having to create a single story/plot from Philosopher’s Stone AND Chamber of Secrets). 

Inevitably, what generally happens in past adaptations is that Part II gets greatly compressed and short-changed (and I do not doubt, Gentle Readers, creates some of the dissatisfaction among viewers and fans where the handling of Laurie’s proposal and the latter adolescence of characters and their romances/mates don’t land as they might if spent more time with).

Actual illustration of Book One (on the left) and Book Two (on the right) once adapted for film.

According to Wikipedia: The book has been adapted for cinema; twice as silent film and four times with sound in 1933, 1949, 1978 and 1994. Six television series were made, including four by the BBC—1950, 1958, 1970, and 2017. Two anime series were made in Japan during the 1980s. A musical version opened on Broadway in 2005. An American opera version in 1998 has been performed internationally and filmed for broadcast on US television in 2001. Greta Gerwig is directing a new rendition of the novel, set to be released 2019.

I could not hit “Add to Watchlist” fast enough.

So, the list of folks attempting to tackle Little Women is a long one, and not always a successful one. Some elements of the story are always going to play well, and frankly, be hard to mess up too much. But others? Others have some real sticking-points.

I’m not here to critique individual versions of adaptations today, Gentle Readers. 

I’m just here to muse on the Big Questions that need solid answers when you’re ready to take on writing your adaptation.

Someone contact them, I demand a recount.

1.       How much of the true lives of the Alcott family will we include?

It’s no secret at this point that Alcott took a lot of inspiration from her real life. But how much do we include? Do we have Thoreau invited over for dinner? Do we address some of the more radical notions of the Alcotts’? Do we just go ahead and make Father in the novel like Bronson in real life?

a.       How to explain/not explain the war and its effect on their lives

For contemporary audiences and readers, the incredibly matter-of-factness of the Civil War taking place deep in the background of the story will not resonate as much as it would to readers back in the day (It plays a bit like the Blitz in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]. Perhaps it might be a good idea to bring it closer to the fore, beyond merely showing the girls in hoops, and coming across the occasional newspaper story or quietly dropped reference to a battle.

b.       How to address or not address the March’s contemporarily confusing socio-economic position (that of ‘genteel penury’)

Gentle people now in reduced circumstances is a tough sell intellectually when 2019 can allow most everyone to disguise their financial situation through extensive credit and things like those housing bubble mortgages given to lots of Americans. It’s going to be necessary at some point to explain or show how the Marchs, who have so little themselves, have (to our 2019-eyes) pretty clothes, a large, cozy house, the ability to take food and minister to the (much) poor(er) Hummels, and a house servant; Hannah. The humiliating fact that they can’t buy new gloves for a party does not...exactly track in the twenty-first century.

They’re much worse-off than the Bennets of Longbourne, whose financial crisis is on the horizon, but how can you show that to viewers unfamiliar with the notion of life as a fallen-from-wealth family?

2.       The persistent problematic-ness of Amy/Laurie

I will call to mind one adaptation, here, and Kirsten Dunst’s performance in particular. Singlehandedly, at the age of only *10*, she manages to sell the potential of not only Amy, but Amy/Laurie like no one else this tumblerian has ever seen. What a tragedy the film couldn’t have waited for her to grow up enough to also play Amy in the film’s second half.

In a world where perfect casting is rarely obtainable, this child should have been nominated for Oscar. She out-performs every Amy March before or since, ad infinitum.

Like many of the romantic partnerships, which other than Jo/Teddy (which is not presented as romantic in Book One) are included only in Book Two, films front-loaded with Book One (I can’t think of one I’ve seen that wasn’t) find themselves racing to a conclusion, and every one of the three couples suffers in presentation and allowing enough time for viewers to be ‘courted’ by them into liking them.

There’s simply not enough time left to work on all of them. So, it becomes a decision of which one is more important. Traditionally, as Brooke/Meg happens first, they get some character beats, but once Jo turns down Teddy... 

I can hear the screams of horror across the ages.

...adaptations become a fight between showing Amy/Laurie or Jo/Bhaer, yet both of which are true surprises to viewers not familiar with the story, and who need time to warm up and be seduced by these new pairings. 

(Mind you, I do think Bhaer and Jo should sneak up on a viewer/reader, but there still have to be signs planted here and there that make it make sense when it actually does happen.)  

3.       The age and age progression of the girls

Per the book, the story begins with Meg 16, Jo 15, Beth 13, and Amy 12 (aside: poor Marmee).

A clear example of...impractical* casting for teenagers. (And Jo! In trousers!?) * but perhaps necessary for community theatre

As I mentioned a few lines ago, Amy becomes the most difficult to cast, here, as it’s unlikely a person can play both 12 and the age of Amy when she accepts Laurie. Amy may be only 16 or so when she accepts Laurie, but contemporary viewers are probably going to need a little more assurance she’s not a child bride by her looking more mature than 16.

Beth is frequently cast older, which is also troublesome. She’s 16 at most when she dies, and has been ill for some time. (So, easy to assume she wasn’t growing rapidly.)

Jo has to be able to play age 15 to 25+.

Is that meant to be Jo on the left? Does that make Susan Dey Amy? Anyway, this production has the luxury of doing better on the ages of the girls. And they’ve got the inimitable Greer Garson as Aunt March!

Actors chosen can’t only be made-up to pass for certain ages, they also have to convince us they’re playing dress-up in the garret in the early portion of the film. 

In fact, Jo in particular with her harum-scarum ways isn’t deliberately trying to make constant mistakes and faux pas. She’s a kid who hasn’t yet grown up, with a kid’s energy and unbridled sincerity. Convince us of that.

4.       How to show both the importance and the growth of Jo’s writing

Filming someone writing is rarely moving to watch, and what’s more, writing is so misunderstood as a pastime or even a vocation, it doesn’t easily lend itself to being captivating when shown on-screen. And yet Jo’s writing is not only vital to the story, the growth and expression she finds in it are so deeply important to her character, and later to her romance plot with Bhaer. It’s got to be shown, and more than once. Moreso, or at least as much so as her temper, her mouth, and her lioness-like care for her sisters, it IS who she is.

Where’s the silly hat?

5.       Flawed female characters that are meant to confront and wrestle with those flaws

Well, this is a big one, here. It seems to me we’re sort of operating by 2019 where that old saw of [man] girl vs. self isn’t really written about or shown. Our society at large has become very vocal about whoever we are being awesome and “never change”.

Which is just about as far from the notions in Little Women as one could get. Every one of the ‘women’ has something they need to work on, to grow and improve about themselves. From Meg not being able to get over their loss of money and status (remembered from when she was younger), to Amy’s dissatisfaction and constant desire to fine things, to Beth’s introversion, to Jo’s temper and intolerance of those who aren’t as bold and rebellious against society as her, and Jo’s inability to accept the change that will constantly be coming into all their lives as they grow.

Nasty!

The Little Women Alcott wrote had lessons to learn, and directions to grow, contrary to what their gut reactions might be. You can call that a moralistic take on the novel, but you can’t argue that Jo has to change, and is expected to be her own instigator of that change within the novel(s). [It does seem like anymore in films that the only person we expect to change bad habits or wrong ways of being are actual ‘bad guys’/villains. And sometimes not even them.]

6.       Friedrich Bhaer

Well, that’s a mouthful. I don’t doubt that it always has been. The single, fan-dividing phrase of female literature. Am I right?

Doing for umbrella representation until Gene Kelly came along.

You know the story, right? That Alcott was so DONE with readers after Book One assuming and expecting Jo and Teddy to live happily ever after, she was so frustrated (she had never wanted, nor intended for that to happen) with all the shipping she built a Bhaer bomb.

@grrlinthefireplace would climb that.

And it’s still exploding readers’ and viewers’ minds today.

Why Professor Bhaer is the perfect match for Jo, and why their marriage and life together makes ultimate sense is certainly a post for another time, but I will say that if you’re still sore about it, take some time and reread the book as an adult, and see if you don’t also come to see the eminent sense in it.

That said, in any satisfying and successful adaptation, you’ve got to work hard to sell the man your heroine chooses over Laurie. Laurie’s had all of Book One and a good three-quarters of Book Two to endear himself to readers. Who’s this guy?

Well, yes, that’s William Shatner...as Professor Bhaer.

This guy isn’t good enough for Jo. This is nonsense. “Weird old guy with an uncomfortable age gap with my fave.” Are not the sort of things you’re going to want to read in reviews.

First, you’ve got to cast him right. Hollywood’s not *overly* worried about distressing RL gaps in ages between their actresses and actors, you might know, and beards are actually pretty in right now. Bhaer’s not a babe by any means, but he’s got an accent he can work. And he’s in love with our fave.

Think an Alan Rickman-type (I know he’s not German), did you see how hot Kurt Russell made Santa Claus in that Netflix Christmas movie? Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan? Probably all too old. 

Bhaer’s actually described as “middle-aged”, which means 40ish, to Jo’s 25 (when she accepts him). You know who’s 40ish in Hollywood? Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, most of Hollywood’s Chrises, RDJ for Pete’s sake is 53. Give him a beard, and awkward social presence tick, and get him working on that accent, and I guarantee your audience will buy Jo’s attraction to him, and create a Twitter for his umbrella.

In the end, Bhaer is key to understanding that the novel isn’t trying to transform Jo into a woman who will fit into Teddy’s wealthy life and the social circles he has no plans to turn his back on. Bhaer is literally the embodiment of Jo making choices that she learns (and I daresay we are meant to learn) are right for her. She finds a man comfortable with who she is, who is in love with her brain as much as with the rest of her, who sees their coupling as a joint project, and who wants her to be the best her. (cough, cough, Gilbert Blythe prototype)

You’ve got to get him right, or what’s come before gets lost in dissatisfaction for Jo’s final, epic choice.

Oh, look, a nice picture of a charismatic, bearded German actor. How did that get here?

Let’s be succinct here in the end, Gentle Reader. Little Women (Books One and Two) and Little Men and Jo’s Boys would make a splendid series. (Such as Anne with an E), there’s certainly enough episodic drama and plot to go around.

Keep that in mind when planning out your adaptation.

What film adaptation is your favorite, and why?

[curestardust]

if you want: wholesome stories / great comedy / slice-of-life

Hinamatsuri was a last minute addition to my Spring watchlist (yes, I’m STILL watching Spring Season anime) and I almost dropped it based on the first episode. But I’m very glad that I didn’t because it turned out to be a very fun and wholesome experience.

Let me explain. The first episode starts out with Hina appearing at Nitta’s house. She has psychic superpowers. Nitta gets sent on a suicide mission cause he is part of the yakuza and Hina helps him out with her powers. We get some backstory on the place Hina came from and how they used her to order her (possibly) to kill people and such. There’s some minimal comedy as well but it’s not very prevalent. This episode is one of the worst pilot episodes I’ve ever seen. Why? Cause NONE of the rest of the anime even resembles the tone set up here! The yakuza bussiness? Irrelevant. Hina’s powers? Irrelevant. Hina’s backstory? (Almost) irrelevant. Comedy? Cranked up to the max. 

Even if you aren’t quite fond of the dynamic of Hina and Nitta, or their personalities in general, no need to worry cause there are actually 3 main characters in Hinamatsuri. First we’ve Hina of course. She is very careless and childish and I’m not going to lie, I had trouble tolerating her at some parts. Second is Anzu, who’s sent by the “organization” to bring Hina back. She uses her powers for about 2 seconds, loses, realises that she can’t go back and becomes homeless. Her story is the most touching out of the three, with the least comedy. Our third character is Hitomi who’s completely seperate from the superpower/organization plotline as she is just a normal schoolgirl who gets dragged into having to work (keeping it as vague as possible).

Episodes consist of 1 story in the first half and a completely seperate one in the second half. The main character keeps changing which is great, cause as I said all 3 characters’ stories have distinct feel and tone to them. 

The comedy is really good imo. Great timing and great reactions with the jokes being surreal but not too much as to become too weird. The art style may get a little to get used to however the animation quality is up to par. [8/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents 

if you want: cute girls / cute female friendships / some pure fun / exciting story / good character development / basically no fanservice!

And in today’s “only Japan could come up with something like this” we have racing horse girls, The Anime!

And I’m going to start with what’s all on your minds when you look at this the first time. “Horse girls, anime of a mobile game = bad production, no story and lots of creepy fanservice” right? Actually, no! Not even close. I avoided this as well cause that was what I thought it was going to be like but I gave in and I sure am glad I did! Because there’s no fanservice, the production quality is great and the story is actually thrilling! 

So in Umamusume there are girls who are half horse and half human which basically means that they have the physical capabilites of a horse but the looks of a human (with cutesy ears and tails of course because anime). These girls attend schools to take part in races. That’s it, that’s the anime. But wait! It’s actually...pretty exciting?

First off, from reading other people’s reviews and doing some minor googling, it turns out that the characters in the anime are actually based on...real life, actual racing horses. Not only that, but their hair colours are actually based on those horses’ fur! This is why a lot of them have weird white streaks in their hair because the horses often have white spots of fur. I know that’s a minor detail but I was amazed by this because...it shows that the creators not only have knowledge of the base material but are actually dedicated about it. I’ve also come to know that the races we see in the anime are also based on real races that happened with the same outcomes.

We basically have 2 main characters, Special Week and Silence Suzuka. Suzuka is an already established and talented horse girl who however is losing her love of racing. Spe-chan (Special Week’s nickname [incredible]) is new to the school and taking part in races and we follow these two on their journey. 

In regards to characters, there are a shitton of them. First we have the trainers of the 2 teams. The male trainer is the one whom you would expect to be the “fanservice/self-insert” thing character and they kinda set him up as such in the first episode however he becomes more of a father figure to the girls. Then, there’s Team Spica with their members who are the main supporting chars and Team Rigil who’re the secondary supporting characters. We get to know the Spica girls more but they’re mostly there to provide some additional entertainment. Which is a big shame cause they’re shown racing in the opening and they all seem to have different techniques but we’re not shown that in the anime itself. BUT! While I’m sad about that, I’m also glad that the anime knew what to prioritise in its short runtime of 13 episodes. In the end, the focus was Special Week and Suzuka’s character development in which the races WERE the focal point.

And the races! Yes, it’s just a bunch of girls running in a big circle but they made them so exciting! There’s one quite impactful race where the main character is not doing quite well and then the background and sound dissapears and she takes a deep breath. And I was rooting for her so hard and so stressed that I unconsciously took a breath WITH her. That’s how invested the anime can make you. 

Oh and side-note, the winning girls put up basically an idol performance at the end of the day of the race with singing and dancing and all that but the anime basically pays no attention it so I’m guessing that it was only included because it’s in the mobile game(?).

Umamusume is a surprising little gem. The creator’s dedication to horce racing bleeds through the anime and is one of the big reason that it’s so enjoyable. With lovable characters and an exciting and heartfelt story, I’d recommend this to anyone. [9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: (hetero) romcom / adults juggling IRL and being weebs / some not cringy romance / to go “uwu” / relatable shipping problems / relatable gaming problems

Wotakoi is definitely not something that’d be my first choice when deciding what to watch. Romance focused anime isn’t really my style but I saw another user that I like blog about it and saw how high rated it was and as there was the “comedy” aspect I thought...eh there isn’t really much to lose here, at most I’ll just dislike it. But I’m incredibly glad to say that this, just as the other 2 anime included in this post that I only gave a chance due to “peer pressure”, actually didn’t dissappoint!

Our main cast is made up of adults in their mid-twenties, working an office job. In the first episode we are introduced to Narumi who’s switching to work at a new firm where she founds out that her childhood friend Hirotaka is also employed at. Narumi was first planning on hiding her hobby of being a big-ass weeb but she soon finds out that 2 of her co-workers also share this hobby of hers. The first episode then ends with Hirotaka and Narumi deciding to “date” purely because they’re both weebs and it would be convinient not to have to hide it.

There’s a great chemistry between the 4 main characters and the shippers are probably having a field time with this anime as basically all of them are shippable with each other. 

So, obviously this being a shoujo, the main appeal to most fans would be the romance but that definitely wouldn’t be enough for me to enjoy something. But this is where the comedy and the “relatable :100_emoji:” aspect comes in. The 2 work in tandem, with most of the humour steming from typical “otaku problems” and how much being a weeb affects their everyday life. 

One downside would be the kind of rushed ending. Wotakoi isn’t a plot focused anime but they introduce a new character like 2 episodes before the finale and I just didn’t see the point. It DOES show the text “See you later” or something at the very end, so maybe there will be a second season? (Would watch). I also thought there was a missed opportunity with the last character introduced as she is obviously also set up as a love interest for another character (not one in the main cast, don’t worry) but this char thinks that she is a guy. Now, the main 2 female characters are BL lovers and I thought that introducing an actual gay couple into the anime would force them to realise that, you know...it’s not very polite to fantasise or obsess over gay people just cause of their sexuality...but eh, I guess that’d be a too serious topic for something as lighthearted as Wotakoi.

All in all, it was a nice, short and fun 11 episodes and if you like comedy, romance or both, I’d definitely recommend! [7/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

[gamebunny-color-sp]

Answer 21(?) Questions + Tag 21 People

tagged by: @mrgameandwatch​. Thanks for tagging me again!

nickname: Sam. I call myself Sammy, but most folks go for Sam.

Zodiac: Gemini

Height: Around 5′6 I think.

Last Movie I saw: I guess the Black Jack movie. I don’t really go out to watch movies that much.

Last thing I googled: “MAGIC USER’S CLUB”. Before I add a show to my watchlist, I google the title to check out the ratings/extended plot synopsis. But before I was googling anime, I searched “cracked lcd screen” for an idea I had.

Favorite Musician: Pinocchio-P + Mili

Song Stuck in My Head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQDM8AX8mOY Hey baby, how’s it going? This. Beat. Is. Non. Stop.

Other Blogs: @gamebunny-advance​ for fandom doodles/babbling. @askhoraceps​ my Problem Solverz ask blog. I have other blogs too, but those are the only ones that are really active.

Do I get ask: Not really. Anon’s still off though and I think I’m gonna keep it that way.

following: 547

followers: 438

amount of sleep: Usually about 8 hours a night. It depends.

lucky number: 8

what i’m wearing: My underwear I guess.

dream job: I dunno. I don’t really have any ambitions. I could just do something that made me happy, I’d be satisfied.

dream trip: I dunno. I don’t really like traveling. But I supposed England/Japan would be fun.

favorite food: That’s a tough one. As just a general food, I suppose fried eggs, but as a meal, I think my favorite is sinigang.

play any instruments?: I played the viola in middle school, and if you give me enough time I could probably play a song on the piano.

languages: I can only speak/read English. I took French in high school, but I didn’t retain any of it.

favorite song: I dunno. Rolling Girl has always been pretty nostalgic for me.

random fact: Did you know? If you hold down a random directional key while selecting an instrument in Wii Music, you can sometimes change your mii’s outfit.

describe yourself as an aesthetic: You’re in a bowling alley arcade with a friend. There’s a low rumble of conversation and video game catch screen announcers, as neon and lights vie for your attention. You zone it out, trying to focus on your friend when out of the corner of your eye you spot a cute little claw machine. It’s been forever since you’ve tried playing one of those, but recall winning at least once in your life. All of the prizes inside are some variation of pastel pink, blue, and yellow, with little bows and the occasional accessory. They all look kinda cheap, but at 25 cents a go, it doesn’t seem like a bad deal. Among the bears and cats, you see an overturned bunny with a huge fluffy tail and decide that that’s probably your best shot. You motion your friend over and insert a coin. Right. Up. No, back. Left. Right. Drop. Miss. Your friend laughs a bit, but you try it again. Right. Up. Up. Right. Left. Drop. Another miss. Coin. Right. Right. Up. Left. Right. Left. Drop. Almost. Coin. Right. Up. Right. Right. Up. Drop. Your focus became immeasurable. You can’t even hear your friend anymore. You can only focus on winning this plushie. You start sweating a bit, and your fingers tremble. You can hardly register that you’re even in a physical space anymore. It’s just you and the machine. You drop maybe another 10 quarters in this machine before finally claiming victory. As you return to reality, you notice your friend has left, probably bored of watching you try and fail so many times. But at that moment, it doesn’t matter to you, you’ll catch up with them later. Your new bunny finally falls down the chute for eager retrieval, you notice something strange about it. About all of them. Your bunny, perhaps in spite of its cute exterior, had around 10 or maybe 12 button eyes stitched haphazardly to its face. Looking back in the machine, you notice that all of the toys have something off and unnerving about them. Some having realistic teeth and fangs, some of them having giant mouths across their stomachs. Some with one eye. Some with no eyes. You look again at your new prize, and decide that it’s still really cute. Satisfied, you search for your friend, eager to show them this strange new thing you’ve acquired.

Sorry, I just felt like writing something, but I think this sums me up.

Tagging: I’m sorry to be such a downer, but I don’t think I’m gonna tag anyone this time. Hardly anyone did it last time, so I’m just not gonna bother this time ;3;. That said, you wanna do this one and/or I tagged ya last time, feel free to do this one too!

[captainameriwoman-reviews]

A Review of ReBoot: The Guardian Code

As this got away from me a little, I’ve put the majority of this under a read more. Here’s a TL;DR though:

Essentially, ReBoot: The Guardian Code is your run-of-the-mill kids show. It’s fun and doesn’t take itself super seriously. The big-bad is called the Sourcerer, and Vera is, well, Vera and I love her character. If you don’t care about the original show, I would say watch it if you’re running out of other shows in your watchlist. But ReBoot: The Guardian Code should have been it’s own show, separate from the original cartoon ReBoot. It’s a reboot that really shouldn’t have been, and having it be has only hurt it’s chances at getting more seasons.

All the reviews I’ve seen for Netflix’s new show ReBoot: The Guardian Code say essentially the same thing: it’s a bad show regardless of who you are watching it. As a new viewer, it’s got the same old tropes that every other kid’s show does. As a fan of the original, it’s basically sacrilege.

I can’t help but think differently, at least as someone who’s new to the whole thing. Sure, it’s not the greatest show I’ve ever seen. But considering the market it’s aimed for, ie kids and younger teens, I think it’s done fine as a show. The characters are all okay, the plots are the usual for any serial scheme-of-the-week show, and the animation is pretty darn good to me. The biggest problem The Guardian Code faces is the first part of that title, ReBoot, but I’ll get to that in a sec.

So I feel the need to highlight a couple of pretty big things about who I am as a viewer of this particular show. First and foremost, I’m 18. I’m 18, and 50% of my Netflix watchlist is children’s shows (an odd variety of stuff, as shown below). I like watching silly, light-hearted shows considering the other stuff going on in the world.

The second thing is, if you haven’t guessed already based on the first, I haven’t seen much of the OG ReBoot. I’ve got a solid 30-ish minutes of watch time, between the very first episode and very last. The excessive computer puns put me off, what can I say? And that 30-ish minutes came after I was a few episodes into the new one, so I came into The Guardian Code basically blind.

The first episode was a very blunt introduction to the setting of the show and it’s main cast. I’m starting to get to a point with shows that maybe I should just start skipping the first ep and just get into it before coming back once I’m invested in it. But that’s at least not a point off for The Guardian Code, seeing as it’s just keeping up that delightful trend of “adults can’t write teenage dialogue worth a damn.” I honestly had to pause the show at Lame-O Meter because no one talks like that.

Anyway…

The rest of the season is, like I said earlier, okay. It’s got the basic team-building episodes, the learning to be a leader ep, the “if you just talked to each other this wouldn’t have been a problem” ep, etc. So it’s nothing special exactly. I’ll admit, It took me seven episodes to remember Austin’s real name. Out of a ten episode season, that’s a bit rough.

But there’s two sides to every coin and all that. I absolutely loathe Trey’s dad -- as someone who’s only just graduated high school myself and also has a healthy appetite for video games, his behavior really irks me for reasons I won’t get into. However, I would die for Vera. AI learning how to be human is one of my favorite tropes, and Vera is an amazing example of that. The Alyx episode is great. The hurricane episode that follows directly after is not so great (yes, hi, hello @Netflix writers: that’s not how the weather or cloud seeding works). I find Judy’s character a little odd in that she’s opposed to new technology despite the fact that her husband was a tech and coding genius. I enjoy Tamra because of her vlogging and I liked learning why she first got into it. I like how Megabyte acts. I like the slowly unfolding plot of it all. The big thing is to save cyberspace, but there’s the whole thing with Austin’s dad and the Guardian Program and I’m a sucker for that sort of thing. The plot is fairly fun and the characters have a lot of potential.

Basically, I think The Guardian Code is pretty decent show. Yeah, it’s like a weird combination of Power Rangers and Code Lyoko, but I like both of those so I guess I don’t much mind that. It’s the kind of show you can dig through in a day and, yeah, I want a second season because this one felt very set-up heavy. Yet ReBoot: The Guardian Code is a different matter.

ReBoot then and ReBoot now are two very different things. The OG show was about a virtual group of people like a Guardian named Bob, a diner owner and over-all leader Dot, her little brother Enzo, and a bunch more other characters fighting baddies like Megabyte and Hexadecimal, while also dealing with the ever-present threat of “nullification” (basically death but worse from what my 30 minutes have gathered) via a game. Heavy stuff for a kids show, but hey it was the 90s and that’s just how it was. The new show is four real kids that get ported into cyberspace to fight off Dark Code.

That is a very big difference in plot lines, to say the least. It also doesn’t help that ReBoot ended in a massive cliffhanger that’s just not addressed in the new show. It’s basically like someone kicked your puppy, quickly pointed somewhere else and went “look over there!” and then proceeded to switch it out with a kitten while hoping you wouldn’t notice. So while I’m not exactly invested in the original, I can absolutely see why old fans of it are upset with what The Guardian Code turned out to be.

There is virtually no other mention of the original cast, other than episode 10 which feels out of place with the rest of the season. Megabyte mentions Bob once and never again. Bob and Co. seem totally fine in episode 10 despite the absolute disaster in which we last saw them. At least, the three that are there do. There’s no mention of Matrix, AndrAIa, Phong, or anyone else for that matter. Megabyte, and now Hexadecimal, are the only real links to the past and with Megabyte’s redesign even that’s minimal. Knowing what ReBoot was like, and knowing how it ends, it genuinely seems to me that the creators of the new show saw Megabyte and just wanted to have him in their show.

Maybe that’ll change if Netflix gives The Guardian Code a second season, but as it stands now, it’s a bit of a nightmare. The Guardian Code is a fine show. ReBoot: The Guardian Code isn’t. My big thing is just that The Guardian Code shouldn’t have been a reboot. Standing alone, it would have been like any other kids show -- campy, poorly written at times, a few stellar characters here and there, and a fun gimmick. But with the ReBoot label, Netflix was attempting to pull in an older fanbase in an effort to make it succeed. A built in fanbase is perfect for any content producer, and a big name like Netflix is no different. With all the changes, though, all they’ve done is shoot themselves in the foot. Alienating the audience you’re depending on isn’t a fantastic idea, but it’s what Netflix has done.

I would say watch it, if the trailer seems like something you’d enjoy. In the end, it’s just another kids show even if it does have an old brand name tacked onto it. And I, for one, am a fan of lots of “just okay” kids shows.

[mizukixtsukiyomi]

Hiya, Uchiha B here! I have a few anime recommendations since you are asking! But first, I really hope that you are doing well and aren't over-exerting yourself! Anyways, here are my suggestions: Fate/Apocrypha (not nearly as good as Zero or UBW, but good if you're a Fate fan), Fate/Extra (only 10 episodes), Sengoku Basara, and Fukigen no Mononokean. I do hope you will consider at least one of them and know I will always love you

Hello there, senpai!

Sorry for the late reply, but I finally got my butt down to be checking on messages and all the recommendations that were given. I have seen my Netflix account recommending Fate/Apocrypha to me for a while now, ha-ha, so that may be a sign now for me to watch it.

I think I did get around to watching the first two episodes of Sengoku Basara, but that was a LONG time ago. Maybe I should go back and watch it?

For Fukigen na Mononokean, I do think I had it on my to watchlist, but I never really got to it, he-he. I do think it may be on crunchyroll. If so, I will put it in my queue!

Thanks for the recommendations, senpai! Hope you are doing well!