#my predictions of the episode layouts

[yuzusern]

Bluelock season 2 Rough episode layout (subtract most of the match summary to avoid spoiling most of the main match for anime only viewers)

My version. I’m seeing way too many thinking they’ll focus a lot on third selection but I hardly doubt they will. They want to get U-20 done before getting into NEL’s gigantic arc.

SHIDOU. THEY WILL NOT CUT HIS LINES.

Edit: TV Asahi is showing this in real time on their regular channel. I misread ネット as online. Because you can call it Online net or network 🙄 Japan pls. So they’re simultaneously showing Bluelock at the same time for all of their 24 networks across the nation. (I’ll cover this in another post about why this is such a big deal for them to stress it on their sites.)

Though this means a drop in their revenue and new fans. But, this move should mean that the show will remain uncensored. Probably be like this for season 3 and 4 because Isagi’s diss tracks get WORSE.

14 episodes

We have third selection and U-20 exhibition match to do.

Winter break is NOT included. That will be the start of season 3 OR they make it into an OVA. (Votes on new season starter)

Let’s go!!

S2.1: Quick recap of Season 1 + Ego’s 3rd selection explanation + Team selection + starting up of first match at the final 2 minutes before credits

S2.2-2.3: First match + Second half of episode 3 will be cuts of bits and pieces of the other matches. Add in Shidou kneeing Rin and getting shocked. Gets tossed in solitary. I have a feeling they’ll do different cuts to fit in Sae coming in to get Shidou at the end of episode 3

S2.4: U-20 team and Sae’s introduction with Shidou in tow. Skip to Bluelock where they show them prepping for the match. Second half is going to be the locker room talk from Ego, Bluelock and U-20 members clash and get on to the field.

S2.5-2.14: Kick off officially starts and the match goes on.

S2.8: First half ends. We see the members’ families supporting them. Second half restarts.

S2.9-2.10: Nightsnow mixed in with the match. Rin’s flashbacks of his childhood with Sae and their dream.

S2.11 or 2.12: Rin’s flow kicks in

S2.14: Final shot and win at the end of the first half of the episode. Comes back at Sae’s walk to Rin, Isagi’s interview, locker room cheer, then final scene before credits is Rin declaring Isagi to be his rival. Roll credits will have Ego and Anri setting up the calls and meetings for phase 2: Neo Egoist League.

Additional time? Yes.

I’ll murder Sae for getting Shidou out of solitary.

I’ll cheer Sae on for calling him names.

Then when Shidou’s famous lines show up, scream at him in my head it’s 11:30PM, got family sleeping)

[creachiergh]

guys, guys, guys. jax isn't an npc; he's a game dev/mod who got trapped in the circus.

i'm sure someone has already put forth this theory, but with the series still being in its early stages, it's hard to say exactly which direction it's going. while i don't think the npc theory is bad, i think it lacks a foundation and is more so the fandom's attempt to justify jax's moral greyness or give him depth where there currently isn't any. i just wanted to share some of my own thoughts about what his deal might be.

firstly, his design, which is honestly just my own speculation but bear with me. i know goose made some jokes about his clothes being farmer's overalls, but when i look at him, i almost get mechanic vibes? like if he wasn't such a prick, he'd be in charge of fixing any bugs that crop up during the adventures, which is pretty much what a moderator does.

speaking of which, he has keys to all the rooms, which is already pretty sketchy in itself, but it makes sense if you consider that he helped make the circus. naturally, he'd have them on hand in case he needed to access any areas of potential danger. to me, it's a bit like having cheat codes, which definitely gives him an upper hand above the other circus members. (but again, it's not like he's ever going to do his job.)

there's also the "figurine thing," which is probably either a throwaway joke or a thinly-veiled attempt at foreshadowing the npcs-- since their models resemble figurines-- but it's still worth noting. if we assume that the "figurine thing" is referring to the npcs-- which it probably isn't, but again, bear with me-- then it shows just how much jax knows about the circus. as far as i remember, none of the other characters have ever brought up the outside of the map, but obviously, if jax made the game, he's going to know its layouts and inner workings like the back of his hand. i won't go so far as to say he's all-knowing, but i'm sure he knows a lot more than he lets on, and i have a feeling we're going to see that in later episodes.

if he really can predict caine's adventures and whatnot, since he designed them, it explains why he's so unfazed by everything that happens at the circus, from zooble getting taken by the gloinks to running into the gloink queen. the only time he really seems to be surprised is when the game glitches-- when the one gloink started bugging out, when kaufmo abstracted, etc.

i think the mod theory explains jax's personality and motivations. when he first arrived at the circus, there might've been a time when he acted more responsibly, fixing all the bugs, trying to stop the abstractions, etc. he could've been caine's right-hand at keeping everything under control. but maybe he slowly gave up these responsibilities when he realized that people were going to get abstracted no matter what, as we can see from the crossed-off doors in the pilot. it's very possible that he became consumed by his mod privileges when he began acting more recklessly and faced zero repercussions for his actions. essentially, he's a step above everyone else in terms of knowledge, awareness, and grants of power-- probably just below caine on the power ladder, though pomni could also rival him as she comes to learn more about the circus. depending on how jax uses his abilities, he could either help everyone find the exit or slowly lead them towards abstraction, and given what goose has said about the future of the series, it's not looking very optimistic for anyone involved.

but what do i know? this theory could be completely nonsensical and riddled with plot holes. i just like to hyperanalyze jokes 🥲

[midnight1nk]

⭐️A few days ago...⭐️

Wow, what a wholesome episode! "The rosemary to my bread", dude, I hope my future partner will say that to me one day. Now that I had my weekly dose of silly, time to check the Puzzlevision website! Eh, I bet it's going to be the same as...

[*SCREAMING*]

WOTFI 2024 PREDICTIONS REVISITED

⚠️ DISCLAIMER IN INTRO POST ⚠️

An eye for an eye...

How are we feeling, SMG4 fandom? It's that time of year and many have speculated about WOTFI as well as what might come afterwards. Myself included with my previous theory posts, suspecting that something big is guaranteed to happen. And we didn't have to wait long.

On the 14th of September, just a few days ago, the channel's latest episode, 'SMG4 and SMG3 come up with an episode' was released. But what truly made the fandom lose their mind was the sudden change of the Puzzlevision website. If you need a refresher, here is what it looked like before:

It had:

[puzzlevision.tv] being the site title and URL

Mr Puzzles' logo

A central image that transitioned between a webp to a gif file and vice versa on certain occasions

(after choosing Save As option) the image already labeled as Now Airing

Now, there was talk about this that wasn't left originally, stating that the image (that used to be larger) now had a black border around it. At least, at the time. As someone who has worked with web design, there's actually a number of reasons why this is.

Depending on the resolution/zoom setting on your device, it might alter the site's layout.

As said earlier, the image alternated between a gif to a webp. All websites require a background color underneath all of its assets so the change in image/file size may have shrunk than what was originally. Especially if you are attempting to make it look seamless between the transitions.

Long story short, It's simply how web layouts are: formatting gets a bit wonky from time to time.

Anyway, as I already mentioned, the website has changed to this,

(supposedly someone said the password was "carnival")

Then, to this:

Changes include:

The title "War of the Fat Italians 2024" with a similar URL [www.wotfi2024.com]

SMG4 logo

A whole new layout design (obviously) which just gives off 'Greatest Showman' energy

And now we've come to the present day: fans have already submitted their minigame challenges and preparing for a carnival-themed adventure. For me and other theorists, though, we're having a field day. From the clues I gathered on the website and a few past episodes, I might be able to put together what the channel has for us this year. Let's revisit my "WOTFI 2024 Predictions"!

I already covered a lot in depth in my "Puzzlevision 2: Now Airing" theory [link] and I'll be referring back to it here, so I recommend looking it over if you haven't already.

THE WEBSITE

I was honestly surprised that I was right about a couple of things. The main one being about the website itself.

The people behind SMG4 didn’t need to put this image in, they didn’t need to keep this website on. But they did.

Well, past Ink, you nailed it. And according to Cube (FM), this is the same website host.

"don't read into it too much"

Cube, with everything going on, I might as well interrogate a website for memes' sake.

Wait, what's wrong with it?

The fact that the website is used for WOTFI of all things is what's so strange. All the previous WOTFI'S asked the fans to submit their challenges through the comment section or social media. No other option was involved until now.

Maybe they wanted to try something different like what they did for WOTFI 2023?

That's a good point. It was stated that they wanted to be more experimental with their episodes. But even then, the '23 stream they hosted was on their channel, on Youtube.

Maybe they didn't want it to go to waste? After all, sites can be expensive.

Again, it's a good point. Depending on the domain they used and the apps connected to the site, it can be costly. However, I do want to iterate what I said earlier: they didn't need to keep this website up. Better yet, if they didn't want to raise any flags, why not keep the site how it originally was with the "That's all folks!" image? Why the change? Which brings us to our next point,

WHO IS THE REAL SMG4?

Let me explain...

After the change of the website, we got this post,

This brings up a lot of questions:

Who sent the letter?

If we can assume that's Four's hand, why did the post say "you" as if there is a narrator?

If Four had no idea about a carnival coming to town, then why would he ask us to submit challenges for a carnival he's supposedly hosting?

Well, they're pretty easy to answer. We already established that Marty would come back to be the most likely antagonist for WOTFI. I mean, this cardboard cutout managed to own a pizza shop, a casino, an airline company, and a spaghetti sauce brand. It wouldn't be a surprise if he also happened to own a carnival. But as I said in previous theories, Marty isn't working alone.

He's working with Mr Puzzles.

Mr Puzzles was the one who sent the letter to SMG4 just as he did for Wren in Western Spaghetti (indirect or not). It hasn't exactly shown if the letter had his seal on it. Not that it needs to anyway, they would recognize his logo and know they can't trust what's inside this envelope.

Remember how I said in my previous theory that one of the ways Mr Puzzles could control SMG4 was for our blue meme lord to be his eyes and ears? In the latest episode, SMG3 comes up with the idea of a carnival coming to the showgrounds for a week, and SMG4 wanting to go on the baby teacup ride.

Mr Puzzles was there, listening to every word they said to each other. He has been since "SMG4: Inside Out".

Could it just be purely by coincidence and just something out of improv? Sure, the SMG4 & SMG3 side episodes aren't really connected to canon. But like, c'mon, the channel knew what they were doing. Everything has to be put into consideration.

If that's true, the narrator could be Mr Puzzles, the second voice inside his head. Or, for those who love the goop!4 theory, the voice could be the demonic goo slowly taking over.

Now, back to the post!Four and site!Four. If we can assume the Four from the post is our Four, then the one impersonating Four would be Mr Puzzles, once again controlling the events in WOTFI. This time, using his website. Like Cube said, Mr Puzzles is the same website host as before. Also, look at these two:

It would be too obvious if we see a PNG of Mr Puzzles on the website again so why not impersonate his narrative foil. Well, at least look dapper while you're at it.

Or, even better, Four does know about the carnival but either the goo or Mr Puzzles are erasing certain memories.

A GAME OF WITS

Speaking of the website, let's analyze the description:

Step right up, WOTFI is coming to town and we need your challenges but this time...WITH A TWIST! We're doing a carnival theme this year and we want challenges named like a minigame and a description of what they are! For example "Whack a Bob - Who can smash bob with a hammer first?" OR "Pizza Pie Peril- Survive giant pizza's raining form the sky' Guidelines - Please only 1 challenge per person - Nothing inappropriate - Please add your internet profile name in the 'name' field below Thank you and see you soon!!! -SMG4

Carnival theme, huh?

Well, last year's theme made sense. Three's notebook was stolen and was risked of getting leaked. With the casino being heavily guarded, Four and Three had to sneak in. A secret mission to take back a secretive object.

If this WOTFI has Marty and Mr Puzzles working together, then It would make sense for a businessman and an entertainer would come up with something like a carnival. The best of two worlds: fun and capitalism. Besides, the Showgrounds would be a perfect place to host it since it used to be an abandoned carnival and Mr Puzzles having something to do with the land ownership.

[SMG4: Our New Home // timestamp: 5:38]

Now, what is peculiar is the use of the term "minigame".

Ink, it's a carnival. You have to stick to the theme of carnival rides and games.

Fair, but this is WOTFI we're talking about here. If you win a challenge, you get closer to the end and win a point for your side. For WOTFI '23, every choice impacted the story and therefore the ending. If the SMG4 crew plays and wins these minigames, what do they get in return? And if they lose, would there be a punishment?

It will entirely depend on how WOTFI would play out, in three scenarios:

Marty is revealed to be behind the carnival at the beginning of WOTFI and the Crew learns that, in order to reach him, they have to win some mini-games.

Marty isn't revealed until the near end. The Crew only came because they wanted to have some fun for the day but learned that this was a sort of trap created by Marty (along with Mr Puzzles but they don't know that yet).

OR BONUS SECRET OPTION

Both Marty and Mr Puzzles revealed themselves to be the ones hosting the carnival, meaning it's less likely that Puzzlevision 2 would happen unless something else happens.

Then, there is the phrase "WITH A TWIST". Sure, it could mean that it would be different than our regular old WOTFI, just as it happened in 2023. But WOTFI 2023 also revealed the twist that Mr Puzzles was actually the one orchestrating the whole thing, sending the fax to Marty about the secret recipe and his theme scattered in the background in multiple episodes. We might get a twist by the end of this year's WOTFI as well. Bonus points if we hear a version of his theme again.

Back in my Puzzlevision 2 theory, I predicted that the final battle with Mr Puzzles would happen back where it all started. With the carnival coming into the Showgrounds, it comes back full circle.

ONE STEP CLOSER

There isn't much to change from what I predicted:

Karen would be a key character for WOTFI this year. Maybe Karen just wanted her kids to have fun for the day, or even the corporation, her former workplace, gave her a tip that Marty would be there.

The Crew would have to find Marty's absolute weakness since he's technically invincible.

And possibly Pedro coming back to assist the Crew somehow.

But now I have a new prediction, based on the latest episode:

SMG4's and SMG3's relationship would change to a whole new level. That Four may need Three for something or if Three realizes something about himself, it would change their dynamic regardless.

It's really similar to how it was for WOTFI 2023 with small bits here and there all coming back to a single episode. (The notebook, the duo's meme guardian powers, Four's forklift, Three moving out of the Internet Graveyard, etc.)

It's still too early to confirm anything, but at the very least, we now have some idea what WOTFI may be about as well as evidence to back up some of my theories.

Will we get goop!4? God, I wish. I was listening to "Friends on the Other Side" and I was just imagining scenarios of Mr Puzzles taking complete control of Four with the goo. If it doesn't happen for whatever reason, I'll write it myself.

Oh well, we would just have to wait and see. In the meantime, that’s just a theory…

AN SMG4 THEORY

🎶Thanks for dropping by🎶

[cannonball5]

Prediction for how they’re going to handle Francesca moving forward

(Book Spoilers ahead)

Now I have only read the synopses for the books and heard what happens based upon descriptions so book readers I’m sorry. Anyway here’s the layout for Francesca’s timeline:

Season 3, part 2- Francesca and John Stirling’s relationship continues to grow and they eventually get engaged.

Marriage to John either in between seasons or at the beginning of season 4 to introduce Michael Stirling. Potentially building up Francesca and Michael before their actual season might be interesting.

Season 4-will be Benedict’s season but we’ll see Francesca and John intermittently throughout the season, being cute and in love.

Season 5- Eloise will be the lead, but Francesca is going to be there with John and he’s going to die halfway through the season. This will setup Francesca for next season as well as devastate the audience and also act as a catalyst for Eloise to declare how she feels.

Michael Stirling becomes Earl and meets with Francesca in either the Finale or penultimate episode to tell her he isn’t going to kick her out of her home since he’ll need someone to run the estate while he’s traveling anyway.

Season 6- Francesca’s season will explore grief and second love, and if done properly will be one of the best seasons Bridgerton ever has.

That’s just my two cents anyway.

[utahlive]

No episode today (i have a test i gotta study for booo) :( However in usual “no episode today” style, I’ve got some behind the scenes stuff! (+ answering asks). I’m really glad you guys like hearing about this part of the blog :D

It’s a little long so I’m putting it under the cut

So my latest method of answering asks is to write a quick outline/reply and save it in drafts (as opposed to what I was doing, which was copy pasting asks into the notes app and writing replies there. dont ask whats wrong with me; I dont know). Anyway this specific comic had its first ‘script’ (shoutout to @/ghostburface for the ask)

I usually draw out what I imagine happening and then add text to hit the points im aiming for, but I did the opposite in this one. I had a lot of trouble figuring out the actual visuals for this one

(For the record I tried to find the original price of the glasses on the las Nevadas merch page but it wasn’t there. I remember losing my mind over the price tho)

attempt/draft 2 (sort of) since I wasn’t sure about the layout. I was really hoping to just have three panels (as you can see by the “if 3 that would be epic” note above)

And then I transferred it digitally! I did go over the script in DMs with my friend so it ended up as it did I did see one person pointing out the whole “rose colored glasses” thing (shout out to you fr !!). I had a lot of meaning I was going for with this one but I have a hard time finding a middle ground between “so obscure its not there” and “way too obvious”

I also wanted to answer some asks (as per usual :3 because I love talking with you guys)

I wish he would grow it out!! However as anyone who’s gone from short to long hair... the awkward phase is NOT pretty. I did hear on one of his streams he might cut it when the EP comes out rather than the album. because he’s a coward (but I can’t blame him)

who doesnt feel like ripping up their pillow though, amiright fellas? Shout out to all the utahlive fictives out there (I’ve heard of reported sightings). Would love to talk to you guys some day <3 It still baffles my mind that this blog leaves any sort of lasting impression on people (for reals though, I hope you guys are ok!!)

this one isnt directed at me but I just think its funny you say this because summer 2022 I went to the Winchester house with my friends, but we all decided it wasn’t worth the price so we just checked out the gift shop and walked around the outside for about two hours. it’s actually very pretty! super cool architecture

this one is under the “what would you recommend I get at the gas station”

It’s also not a question but I think it would be funny to let you know I wrote and queued that post (and the other one posted that day) at like 5am I don’t know how I missed it because I usually check my posts the next morning before they get posted I know it’s bad I’m trying real hard to get my sleep schedule to be normal (this post is sponsored by melatonin tablets)

GET AWAY GET AWAY GET AWAY GET AWAY 🤺🤺🤺

I assume you’re talking about the mcytblr sexyman poll?? Im already making predictions and bets in my head on this one but Ill be fighting for MY meowmeows till my last breath

[accidentally-in-fictional-love]

Things I Noticed While Writing Light The Fuse: Part 5, Episode 2

Turns out I had a lot to say again

He's returned! And this is why I gave the Phoenixes their own private room lol okay so other than this room, which is clearly for the patrons to have fun in since there's a giant speaker in the corner, and the single motel room from ep1 we never see where these guys sleep. If they had their own trailers, Ethan might've been able to steal a couch from one of them, and if he had his own trailer then obviously he would've had his own bed.

Of course, that doesn't get him to the bar in five easy steps whereas crashing in this room does, so it's good for filming, but the Phoenixes live here along with everyone else, and they're always changing as they become Brawlers, so having one big room they can move their stuff in and out of (like a motel hehe) until they get their own permanent trailer makes sense to me! I'll make a visual layout of their room at some point since I see it very clearly in my head, so that'll go in its own post since I have limited images here

Matty looks great in this outfit btw 🥰

Johnson's been back for two seconds and already he's reminding me why I love him the most 🥰 but I love this bit, Matty's highpitched giggle that makes me insane with how cute he is, him admitting he was scared and thought he really did it this time, Johnson vibing the whole way up to the bar and saying he wasn't scared at all before acting as their bartender, and Ethan just barely awake and following like usual

Can't or don't, Matty? ;w; there's a big difference

You're so weird that's so mean I'm in love with you

Johnson not getting it in the least, Matty saying that and then it not even being real and Ethan not agreeing lmao what a shot

The switch from Ethan telling the lie in the last shots, to telling the truth and getting uncomfortable, to Johnson picking up on that and changing the subject with a glance to Matty, and Matty taking the topic a lot more seriously than before always gets me. It really feels like Johnson wanted to hear the truth more than the story, just with the way he was watching him before steering the topic, like that look to Matty was because he knew how he'd feel about all this

Look at this expression. He's not about to joke around here. Matty takes family so seriously, he's completely bought into Burt's promise and to hear Ethan talk about his family treating him like that has him serious, protective. I nearly wrote this scene in his POV because I really wanted to get into his head while Ethan was saying all this, maybe I'll call back to it when I'm writing season 2 because this feels like such a key moment to how he feels about him and him being one of them

This expression too, this is someone who knows this is exactly who Ethan is and that he belongs with them and he's waiting for Matty to say the same, that's how I see this

You know how I keep saying I'm gunna cry and we all know I'm only half joking? Yeah I teared up rewatching this scene again. It's only episode 2 and already Matty has fully accepted Ethan as theirs, part of the family. This isn't even ship talk this is them all drinking to the fact that Ethan belongs there and they both believe it. It's these scenes that make me love them so much and make me so damn emotional over them, why I think about them and instantly try not to start sobbing in public, and that's no joke.

The music here is also so beautiful, this is such a beautiful moment

This is the face of a man who's starting to realize that they genuinely care about him here more than in Detroit ;w;

Phew, ended up giffing pretty much this entire scene again! I never know what I'm going to say about these apart from a few scenes, so it's been very surprisingly to me how many gifs I've had to make so far. I really thought they'd be more rare as I point out other things, but I guess I should've expected it since I'm predictable in how much I love them heheh see you tomorrow for episode 3~ 💛❤️💙

[stillunusual]

Attack On Bzag (issue #6) YEAR: 1984 CREATED BY: James Brown LOCATION: Leeds SIZE: A4 WHAT’S INSIDE…. Journalist and lifelong Leeds United fan James Brown is best known for founding Loaded magazine in the mid-1990s, but a decade earlier, when he was still a spotty teenager, he started a fanzine called Attack On Bzag, while also contributing to alternative magazine Leeds Other Paper (which gets a mention in this issue of his zine).

Issue #6 of Attack On Bzag has a deliberately shambolic layout and is packed to the gills with irreverent and entertaining content that covers much more than the mid-1980s indie music scene. It was one of the first fanzines to feature extracts from Viz comic, which was still a comiczine with limited distribution at the time (and who could have predicted that after becoming rich and famous in the 90s Brown would end up buying Viz in 2001?)….

Brown's musical guide to mid-1980s Leeds correctly states that the "best and most credible shop to hang out in is by far Jumbo Records" (where I personally bought a lot of vinyl back in the day).

Bands featured include The Membranes, Five Go Down To The Sea, The Three Johns, Hagar The Womb, The Nightingales and the wonderful Folk Devils, whose "Beautiful Monster" ep includes one of my most played tracks of 1984 - "Brian Jones' Bastard Son".

Brown promotes a plethora of fanzines while also bragging about having been recently featured in the NME (who gave him a job a couple of years later). There are two pages dedicated to hyping fellow fanzine writer The Legend! (who also went on to work for the NME) and one of his favourite bands, The Monochrome Set.

Ranting poet Steven Wells (AKA Swells/Seething Wells/Susan Williams), who created a fanzine called Molotov Comics and was another soon-to-be NME writer, also gets a page to himself, while fellow ranters Swift Nick (head honcho of New Youth fanzine) and Richard "Kool Knotes" Edwards (co-editor of Cool Notes fanzine) get half a page each.

There's an amusing interview with rising star Rik Mayall, conducted while the second season of "The Young Ones" was showing on British tv. Each episode of the sitcom featured a different "musical guest" and the bands were selected by Mayall, who reveals that he turned down The Clash. Liverpool soap opera "Brookside", which was actually quite good in its early days (and had a character called Alan Partridge, who had nothing to do with Radio Norwich), also gets a two page spread.

There's even a very tasteful cartoon called "Zelda's Stomach".

Click on the title above to see scans of all the zine's pages….

my box of 1980s fanzines flickr

[indigo-ghost-girl]

I dont quite know how to organise my thoughts on Sonic Prime.

It's not boring... the animation is amazing and I love the themeing of the different worlds. I love Sonic's antics. I love the models for the characters. I love their characters.

But I can't help but feel like it could have been you know: this massive crossover between the other Sonic properties and shows and stuff. Even if it couldn't have been all of them due to copyright nonsense.

I think that is dampening my excitement for it.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if Sonic got to meet alternate versions of himself. I think my favourite part was meeting chaos Sonic.

It gives Sonic a chance to reflect on himself and all the alternate timelines he could have lived in.

Or like the artsytle changes everytime he enters a new portal, like one world is claymation another is 2d or a full on comic dub esc layout a bit like the storybook games or one is like pixel art or full on silent cartoon just to yknow: hammer home the fact that these are diffrent dimensions.

And I feel like the story is... too small like the ENTIRE show is just in alternate versions of Greenhill: F*cing GREENHILL. and like that's saying something when this is meant to be on some grand multiversal scale. They found a way to incorporate more green hill. Like it was okay at first but like please I am so sick of green hill.

There are like no real memorable locations outside the loop and the temple. Like come on!

I can feel the fact that they have to use 3d assets instead of the freedom of 2d backgrounds it drives me crazy.

I want to love Sonic Prime I really do. But I can't help but feel like there's something holding it back. There's just something... empty about it. I don't know, perhaps its my expectations. Perhaps I just despise green hill so much.

Perhaps I feel its a little too predictable. Or it goes by too fast.

Or its just another fetch quest narrative.

Or I really think Sonic needs to cry like full on Ansty weeping. Let the man cry. He needs to cry. Let him cry cowerds. Let him sulk. He needs a caved in by himself moment so he can reflect on things at his own speed because he clearly needs time to process things. Especially after the last episode of season 2.

He needs to like pace back and forth, talking himself through what happened without Shadow being all high and mighty in his ear.

...perhaps its a little too silly for a narrative about someone realising their flaws

Or perhaps I'm projecting my general distaste of dumbing down children's contents just because it's for children onto sonic prime because it's silly.

[oswlld]

2022: A Summary

Post your most popular and/or favorite edit/gifset from each month (it’s okay to skip months!)

tagged by (1) @hoe-biwan (2) @casualavocados (3) @dramaism (4) @i-got-the-feels & (5) @talays-portkey 💛💛  WOW thank you all for thinking of me, happy to oblige (also gonna plug the one i did last year for edits i made in 2021; idek why i formatted the post that way maybe dont look at it fjslkd just go look at everyone elses)

January most popular — bad buddy ep10 quote set: itll always be the most memorable quote set, since it was the first live ep that i caught after binging it favorite(s) — 1) bad buddy + giovanni’s bedroom: i remember seeing a photoshoot set with this format and knew i wanted to replicate it (prior to this i usually am insp by quotes first, worry about formats/layouts later); 2) bad buddy + hadestown “promises”: because im so predictable and still think about them when i hear the song

February most popular — bad buddy + kaveh akbar quote: the fact that the most popular edit ended up being the valentines day post is so satisfying favorite(s) — bad buddy + pride & prejudice: i actually thought that this was going to be the most popular and it was a close race (eight notes apart lol)

March most popular — bad buddy random screencap #19: a requested screencap that is most beloved by all, what else is there to say favorite(s) — 1) semantic error ep2 set: of all the episodic sets i made for the show, i really liked how this came together thematically; 2) the good place + eleanor quote: i can only count in one hand edits that i’ve thought about making for YEARS before actually making it, but this is prob up on top of the rest, in terms of execution

April most popular — doctor who + the girl who died quote: i think my defining trait in my dw edits is flipping quotes between the two and even though it’s not a new concept to do them, im never not thinking about them and what other moments to edit with favorite(s) — bad buddy + jane eyre: don’t get me wrong, the clara edit is also a fave, but this is tied for best because look at them 😭

May most popular — star wars + leia/padme parallel: not my first sw edit, but the first one ive done while a show was airing; also would like to shout out to the screencap galleries out there for both the sw series and movies, the real mvps favorite(s) — moon knight + head/heart/hands: i have an inside joke with myself with this edit and the tags give it way a bit lol

June most popular — star wars + anakin/darth progression: ofc this is the edit with the most notes overall. hellsite pls never change lol favorite(s) — 1) doctor who + weeping angels: not sure what it about me and making my edits as complicated as possible because it becomes a whole mental marathon, with just me and my phone but im proud of this one; 2) vice versa + series trailer: ive repeated this sentiment in other posts so i wont go into it again here, but this edit will also be so special for me

July most popular — star wars + princess leia: hi, miss you space mom favorite(s) — vice versa ep3 + caitlyn siehl: i think of all the episodic edits, there’s only a fair few that doesn’t carry the flipped/mirrored text effect; all this to say that i am very happy how this one turned out, out of all the versions of the effects (PLUS this quote still makes me teary eyed in hindsight, ugh baby boi i KNOW what youre capable of I KNOW)

August most popular — taylor swift + midnights announcement: i knew that i wanted to make something ts related after having made a few for red tv, so this came together pretty quickly favorite(s) — sense8 + birthday!: i love that a few tags from other ppl pointed out a lack of Will… it’s, uh, intentional lmao

September most popular — the little mermaid + D23 teaser: i still get chills favorite(s) — vice versa ep11 part one: look, i dont miss making these edits each week because, again, the mental marathon i put myself through lol but ep11 [1/4] is now imprinted on my soul and i could not do the ep justice in ONE post (i also made myself cry making the last edit but thats not why its my fav lol)

October most popular — doctor who + regen redux parallel: 50th anniv ep, my beloved favorite(s) — 1) bad buddy + mastermind lyrics: absolutely not my original idea lol but one that i reallllly wanted to make once it consumed my waking hours; 2) vice versa ep12 quote set: its a real color to me

November most popular AND favorite — andor + maarva quote: WHAT A SHOW! WHAT A QUOTE! WHAT A CHARACTER!! I MISS IT TERRIBLY

December most popular — doctor who + google search: it seriously warms my heart that the most popular edit ended being my birthday post and with my most beloved, my url namesake, my queen favorite(s) — reset + best 2022 series: i mean, the clara edit is also def a faaav fav, but i’m so attached to this show and worked so hard to make this for sam lmao (not sure what it is about the two-row sets that are really intimidating to me but thats a whole other matter) very few ppl know how long ive been dyinggg to make this all year, so i was so happy to see that someone requested it. im gonna look at it a little longer before i post this... *sigh*

--

i think everyone has been tagged at this point, but feel free to make one yourself if you have not been tagged yet and tag me

[kim-ruzek]

Thoughts on 10x02

I've made a separate post on all I loved about the burzek of things, but this will be on the episode as a whole.

I found it to be a really strong episode, and it felt the most like the show I like it has in seasons. Gwen being at the helm really does seem to be doing good things for the show, and while I still have my criticisms, I do think things are looking up.

I liked that the case was about someone arrested five years ago, and that was how Adam was getting questioned. I was worried about the whole doubting about the gun thing, in no doubt because I've been burnt before and while I had faith this would end on a good note, I didn't think it would be that good OR that the drama would be really quite mild between Adam and Kim.

I really enjoyed the Kim and Hailey interactions. When they're discussing where voight and jay is I really liked that interaction, especially with Kim's lil you don't know. It's more than we've ever gotten and I like it. I also really enjoyed them being partnered up, and I honestly thought if they decided to do that (especially long term) before this episode, I really didn't like the idea but now I'm digging it. I mean it's only just one episode so I don't know how Gwen would have the partnership written so I may go back on that, especially depending on what they do about upstead/jay, but if this is an indication of how it'll be, I like it.

Kevin still basically got nothing, which is still pretty disappointing, but I'm hoping that things will be looking up for him too. I know he's a strong player in the Torres episode, and with them looking paired up, I'm hoping that'll open up more screen time opportunities for him, especially as Kevin has a lot of wisdom to give.

Torres I am very much enjoying. I like how he did very much feel like a newbie in the unit, arriving when they have a fast paced case and you can very much feel that he feels the history and years of bonds that's between the other members and I liked that. I also think he's going to add something unique to the unit which is always nice, especially as I feel this season has already been good at showing the different characters differences, whereas they've felt replaceable amongst each other in more recent seasons imo.

I like the Halstead, Voight (and Hailey) drama that's going on. It's well written and I like how it still played a role in the episode, despite being largely character centric as a layout. I don't know if that's just because they need to lay down the groundwork for Jay's leaving, but honestly I really did enjoy how this episode was set out. Focus on burzek and the case, but hints of Torres and Upstead drama, and I hope in other centric episodes we still get that consistency with other characters because it really goes a long way at making the episode and series all that more coherent and nice.

I do feel the jay voight drama has come a little out of nowhere. It's in his character, and it's not a storyline that I see as unrealistic, but more one with little build up so while I know I could see the character being built up to this, without seeing that it does feel like it just appeared. But that's sometimes what has to happen when an actor leaves.

I know a lot of people doesn't like the sl so far but I do and honestly as much as I'd love characters to be written off with no drama, that's not what you can expect from a drama show and depending upstead's drama has always revolved around voight, it's predictable and expected that's what Jesse's leaving will be revolved around.

I have my hopes and my theories about what's up with Jay but I'm going to keep them to myself.

So overall, I so very much enjoyed this episode and Gwen running the show really is making things feel so so much better and I'm trying not to get ahead of myself but I'm hoping things will continue along this line.

[tenthdoctxr]

B R O

[melonthesprigatito]

Gonna talk about Rhyme and Reason's friendship because I'm obsessed with them

Posting my submission to @wordgirl-joy on my own blog because I don't know how to send a submission with pictures to people's blogs yet.

When we're first introduced to the pair at the bank, Rhyme is wearing a cute little peanut butter toast necklace. As I was watching the episode, I just thought it was cute, but meaningless part of her character design.

We get told a little bit more about their friendship, about how they've been friends for 15 years, and how Fair City is just one of 28 different cities they've been to. But then Reason starts arguing with her, about how he's frustrated that her insistence on stealing useless things just because they rhyme with his reasonable things keeps getting them caught by the police. (jewels + mules) He tries reasoning with her to give up the rhyming crimes, but she's just not listening to him. I got the feeling from his facial expressions that this is something that's been bothering him for a while.

Rhyme decides to do things her own way once again, and steals an old car to go along with their gold bars. Predictably, old cars don't make a good getaway vehicle, so they get caught by Word Girl.

While they're being driven away in a police car, Reason just completely blows up at Rhyme, he even cuts her off when she tries to rhyme again. Once again, Rhyme stole a useless thing, even when Reason begged her not to. Reason tries to end their friendship right then and there, by saying "You and I are done! I can't do this anymore!" but Rhyme misunderstands, thinking they're done just because they got captured, not because she messed up again. So she tries to prove him wrong by breaking them out

(Side note, that is a really funny way to escape a police car)

Once they get out, Rhyme instantly starts planning their next heist, still completely oblivious to how serious the situation is. She hasn't learned a thing. In order to fully drill it into her head that he's ending their friendship, Reason pulls out the other half of the necklace.

"No. I quit. This is the end."

Then he tosses it over his shoulder. Rhyme catches it, and squeezes it tight.

"But...but... you're my best friend..."

Reason doesn't even look back as he walks away in the rain.

Think about it, they've been friends for so long, and have been through so much with together. Those necklaces are the symbol of their friendship and are probably more valuable to them than all the gold bars in the world. And Reason just throws his away.

Part two of the episode opens with the Narrator recapping the previous episode over a four way snapshot of Becky, Rhyme, Reason and Violet all feeling "forlorn" as the word of the day describes them. I find the layout of this scene interesting because

Becky and Rhyme, the superpowered characters are in the top row

Reason and Violet, the two non powered characters are in the bottom row. They're also the ones who broke off their respective friendships.

Looking at the background of Rhyme and Reason's scenes shows Reason at their motel, packing his bags. He's going to move on to City Number #29 without her. The background of Rhyme's scene is in a completely different part of the city, suggesting that she's been wandering aimlessly as she reflects on what happened.

But the feeling sorry for herself doesn't last. After losing her best friend of 15 years, Rhyme moves onto a totally healthy coping habit:

Terrorising civilians and smashing the city to smithereens with a combination of her super speed, super strength and frost breath! (Did I say totally healthy? I meant completely unhealthy.) Later, she states that she's destroying everything "to make it easier on herself."

Obviously Word Girl has to intervene, after she's made aware of the situation by the Exposition Guy appearing in her school playground screaming "HeeeEEEEEeeeeeLLLLLLP! There's a girl I don't recognise AND SHE'S WRECKING STUFF!"

Upon being asked what the hell she's doing and where the hell is Reason (ok, so Word Girl doesn't actually say it like that, but you get the idea.) Rhyme does the one thing that completely subverted my expectations. She stops rhyming. " I don't know, ok?! I. Don't. Know!"

This might not sound like a huge deal, but think of characters like Lady Redundant Woman, who always speaks redundantly by saying things like "Hey. Hi. Aloha." or Ms. Question, she only speaks in questions, remember? Or The Learnerer who keeps addinging unnecessary suffixes to everythinging. Point is, if a character has an established speaking quirk, they never stop doing that speaking quirk. Rhyme's ability to rhyme is entirely reliant on Reason giving her a set up. She admits that it's too hard to rhyme all the time, she needs Reason.

So off Word Girl goes to find Reason so he can talk some sense into Rhyme (after Rhyme completely kicks her ass and nearly crushes her under a statue.) She finds him slowly chugging past the debris in another old car and tries to get him to come with her. Kinda like "hey, your ungodly powerful bestie is ruining countless lives right now? Could ya maybe get her to stop?!" (again, not real dialogue but it pretty much sums it up.) Reason's like "Nope. Not my problem. There's nothing you can say to make me come back with you." So she doesn't say anything, she just picks up the car and brings him to Rhyme against his will.

The faces Rhyme makes when she sees Reason again makes me feel so emotional. I love how the animators didn't make her angry at first, she was excited, and then shifted to uncertain to "Wait, I should be mad at you." It's so brief, but the tiny details in this episode make me love it a whole lot more.

And now the reconciliation. Reason gives her a set up, like he always does "I'd like to start up this car and drive away really...drive away really... You're not going to say "far?" Rhyme snaps at him, why should she rhyme? She thought it annoyed him. Reason admits that yeah, but it's not really the rhyming that gets to him. More like when their crimes are rhymes, they end up having to steal really ridiculous stuff. Word Girl admits that's a good point. Reason then tells her it makes them way easier to catch. Word Girl admits that's also a good point. Rhyme nonchalantly zips over and smashes the pillar of ice that Word Girl was standing on to get her to shut up. (Honestly, hilarious.) Rhyme asks him if he's saying that it's ok to rhyme, just not in their crimes? Reason agrees and says he just wants to avoid another jewels/mules incident. They actually lost money on that crime, having to feed and care for all those mules.

Rhyme scratches the back of her neck as she considers what he's saying. "If I say yes, does that mean we can be friends...again?"

"Oh, buddy. We never stopped being friends. It'll take more than a little quarrel to break up best friends!"

"Now come here for a hug!"

"Come here, ya big lug!"

Awwwww. So adorable. Now back to the PB&J necklaces.

You see that? Rhyme doesn’t even hesitate to give Reason his necklace back. She just does it automatically. She’s like “Yep, we’re friends again. Here you go. Now let's deal with Word Girl.”

The first rhyming set up Reason gives her is “Well. Hey, Rhyme. Let’s stop the chaos and have a snack” *turns and points and Word Girl* “Or maybe you can do-!”

“An ice attack!”

Cue quite possibly the most one sided fight scene in the entire show. Oh, man and you though that Word Girl’s loss against Miss Power was bad. Well, Rhyme literally beats her into the dirt…after grabbing her at high speeds, throwing her around like a rag doll and dropping her down a spiralling ice ramp into a huge crater. Like, daaaamn. Rhyme is OP as hell. Only reason why the season finale of Word Girl didn’t end with Word Girl dying is because Violet shows up and confuses Rhyme by trying to get her to rhyme something with the word “purple.”

Reason takes his goggles off in a "Oh crap, we're screwed" kind of way and Rhyme panics and tries desperately to come up with a rhyme for "purple." with Reason trying to offer her suggestions and everything. Word Girl just sort of picks them up by their collars like misbehaving kittens and floats away with them while they're still trying to figure it out.

In the final scene with them, Reason laments the fact that they're going to jail again, but this time he looks on the bright side and says that at least they'll get to spend their jail time trying to find a word that rhymes with purple. As Rhyme can be heard still trying to find that elusive rhyming word, Reason smiles, shakes his head in an "Oh you!/Never change :)" kind of way and holds his jelly toast charm tightly.

Honestly, they didn't even have to give Rhyme and Reason those necklaces at all. It's such a cute little detail and it's an excellent case of "Show, don't tell" Not once do they even talk about the necklaces, but they're used to show how much they mean to each other.

Ok, so where was I going with this? I think I had a point somewhere and I might have lost it. Oh well. I'll never understand how I managed to get so invested in two supervillains who only appeared in one episode of a show I've never even heard of until a few months ago because it aired on a channel that doesn't even exist in the UK.

But who cares? They're wholesome as heck and I think we need more best friends like them in media.

[yoiku]

Just some thoughts and wonderings about my comic project under the cut. Comments and thoughts are very welcome if you might have any!

Now that I've finished the first sketchbook of comic draft (119pages), scanned all of them and sorted them into chapters... I'm thinking a lot about what kind of update frequency and page amount I should be going for. All I know is that as a start I want to post the entire starting chapter (15pages) so people can get an idea of what's it going to be like. Maybe I'll figure out a suitable pace once I've digitized/drawn clean a small amount of pages, to see what kind of pace I can draw them with in general. (I'm sure it'll get faster once I get used to the layout and tools and all that.) But I'm still wondering what kind of chunks should I update with to have a good "rhytmn" so to say, so that it doesn't feel like it's updating too few pages at a time and people would feel like it's difficult to stay on top of the story over time. That is to say, people like to read (web)comics differently anyway, some won't bother to check small updates weekly/biweekly etc, and will rather come back to read when there's been a bigger chunk of new pages. So far my chapters seem to be around 20 pages, with few being 30-40... Would be cool to be able to update a whole chapter/month and the larger ones bi-monthly... But I don't think I could keep up a pace like that, esp with the latter chapters that will have huge amount of backgrounds to be drawn. So I'm pretty sure I have to go with smaller chunks. Personally i feel like 2-3 pages/week seems doable, but I also feel like that's not very fitting with how the pace of the comic is. So maybe 4-6pages biweekly would be better...? I will of course have a longer break every now and then so I can keep up with the draft and allow myself proper breaks too, but generally I would reaaaally like to do my best to keep up at least somewhat of a steady pace >_< I know I work better with structure and clear plans, but I'm also absolutely terrible at keeping any routines and schedules of my own making.(And nobody can predict artblocks or depressive episodes q_q)

I've also struggled over trying to figure out the name/title for the whole thing for a few months now. I've browsed thesaurus for words and their meanings so much with no real progress x_x

And another topic of many questions has been I will I publish it. Am I just going to make a site of my own for it that I can fully manage myself (shitton of extra work tho and probably some costs...) Am I going to publish it on something like Tapas.io and maybe be able to make some ad revenue money on the side? Am I going to start a patreon to publish it on? (would definitely turn away people even if it's 1$/month to get access to it)

Another thing that definitely throws some sticks in the gears about the publishing bit is that I'm planning on having the spicy bits of the comic be optional. So people who aren't interested in reading sexual content can skip the spicy bits without it making too big of a difference in the depth of the story. Vast majority of it is fluff after all. Buuuut. The spicy bits. Part of me really wants to put those behind a small paywall like patreon, because boy would I need some extra monies and boy do I know that people who are into spicy content are often willing to pay for it too if it hits their interests. But this whole separation of parts in the chapters will make it difficult or weird to try and publish on places like Tapas etc, that have separate sections for PG/adult rated comics. Also if I'd simply publish it as an adult one and it will be 80% fluff... I think people who search for spicy comics will keep interest in it - meanwhile it would also not find the audience that will never even search through the adult section. If I published through my own site via, say... squarespace, I could throw a link to patreon or such at the point where the spicy chapters would be...? OR I could just upload all of it with the spicy bits and just put in clear a clear warning and option to skip past the spicy bit for those uninterested. + I could do the thing that public uploads are slower but you can access new pages earlier through Patreon. This would make it optional for everyone which would be the... kindest choice I feel, while still giving me the possibility of making some few monies perhaps. (one can hope eh)

I'm also thinking about putting other illustrations and content through the "patreon timegate" that many artists do -peeps who want to see content earlier/access some extra content can pay for it if they want. I don't think I could do enough content for a patreon to keep it interesting enough if I wasn't working on the comic. So that whole things is still a big question mark as well.

Many big think. Brain heavy.

[zekejaegerchoked]

Episode count and title predictions for season 4 part 2 under the cut

So obviously 76 is Judgement, and then:

77:Two Brothers or Brothers or a Tale of Two Brothers or something 79: Memories of the future 80: From You, 2000 Years Ago 81: Island Devils 82: Thaw 83: Sunset?  Hero?? 84: Pride 85: Night of the End 86: Traitor 87: The Dawn of Humanity 88: The Rumbling 89: Sinners/The Wings of Freedom 90: The Battle of Heaven and Earth 91: Titans 92: A Long Dream 93: Toward the Tree on that Hill

I’m hoping they’ll combine a few of them that I have laid out, but who knows.  So by my predictions, there are 17 possible episodes, probably less.  I also know that they’ve been moving stuff around from the specific layout in the manga, so for example “Island Devils” might be later or earlier, who knows.  Or, they might make a whole episode out of a few specific scenes like they did with Reiner’s backstory in Season 4 episode 3.  I’m excited!

[hopeymchope]

Initial “Danganronpa S” Thoughts

I got the game on Saturday night (12/4/21), so I’ve only played it for about six or seven hours so far. And I already have a lot of thoughts.

Intro Stuff

- When you first boot it up, you have to go through a number of scenes that set up the story of what our crew of students are doing and why, etc. So don’t expect to just jump right into the gameplay like in Ultimate Talent Development Plan. You won’t actually see the title screen for like 15 minutes, and after that you still have some additional exposition/tutorials before you can get into the actual gameplay

- If you’ve never played a Danganronpa game before this or skipped any of the other games before this point, 1) How did you even find this post? 2) You really shouldn’t play Danganronpa S until you’ve played through 1, 2, and V3. I know that’s probably fairly obvious, but on the off-chance that the “Decadence” pack is your introduction to the series, I just wanted to make it clear. Allusions to canon events abound in DRS. Hell, the entire game map is rife with DR2 spoilers. 

- Since we’re in a Despair-free reality (...so far?), we’re told that Komaru met all of the Ultra Despair Girls characters while on a field trip to Towa City. If you’re wondering why Togami and Toko and Hiro’s mom were there at the same time, you should either A) keep wondering or B) write your own justification, because I don’t expect any reasons to be provided in their routes through the board. But at this point, I might still be proven wrong. I've only played as Komaru out of the various UDF characters.

The Main Game Board

- It appears that a significant number of the Friend Event/pop-up event cut scenes focus on pairing characters who never spoke to one another before now. So if you’re a fan of a ship where the characters haven’t really interacted in the canon or in UTDP, like Kirizono for example? I’ve got good news for you. In fact, Kirigiri and Maizono share multiple scenes in this. And they get along pretty well!

- I’m not seeing a lot of shared plot threads between characters yet. Makoto and Kyoko shared one subplot, at least (although I haven’t yet seen a resolution to that dangling thread). But there’s definitely no underlying network of connections to a new Despair plot just waited to be discovered ala UTDP. In fact, if you play as Junko, you may be surprised to learn that her storyline actually has her attempting to give up Despair for a while because it’s grown too boring and predictable for her. 

- Each character gets a Hope Fragment upon playing through the board once. Since the goal of the whole thing is set up as being “collect all the Hope fragments” and “defeat all of Monokuma’s boss monsters with the grimoires,” I’m assuming that some kind of Ending Scene awaits if I can do one or both of these things. So for now, I have like five fragments. Out of... um, a lot.  Supposedly, every 10 fragments unlocks a new “episode” of the storyline. Yeah, this may take a a while. 

Despair Tower

- The “Despair Tower” has no map to walk around; it’s just waves of battles per floor. I miss the actual layouts of the Despair Dungeon that you walked through. :( But at least this way, I won’t be suddenly jerked into “random battles.” I always know that battles are coming as soon as I start a floor.

- Even with my current party of four fully developed U-ranked characters, I’m still encountering challenges/goals I can’t seem to complete in the lowest tier of the Despair Tower. That’s... that’s just embarrassing. But I guess I’ll probably do better once I get the bonus multipliers that come with every 10 Hope fragments.

- You get three silver monocoins every time you complete all three challenges/goals for a given floor in the Lowest Tower, and once you get them, you can’t earn them again. Ergo, there seems to be a set number of monocoins available outside of random drops on certain floors. And the odds are always against those drops. 

Microtransactions

- You might be wondering if I splurged on the microtransactions. And, well... LOOK, getting any three characters I want in their U-ranked versions for just 99 cents was too good to pass up. It’s also only available once. After you do it once, the only options remaining are a leap in price that I don’t see myself going for if I can help it. But I did give them one (1) dollar to have Naegi and Kirigiri unlocked at their highest tier ASAP. I then used the third credit on a U-tier Komaru.

- I’m still pretty early into this - I’ve only played as five characters so far on six playthroughs. But at this point, does it seem like the game designed to encourage microtransactions? Honestly, I think YES. There doesn’t appear to be nearly enough silver or gold monocoins available via quest goals, and random drops are precisely that - random, and the drop rates can get pretty low. It sure seems like they’re trying to funnel people into buying at least some of the characters. :( As I keep bouncing back and forth between the Despair Tower and the Board Game, I’ll get a better sense of how necessary additional cash really is. But it’s not looking very good.

[flclarchives]

Amusing Himself to Death, an Akadot.com interview with Kazuya Tsurumaki (director of FLCL and assistant director of Evangelion) from around December 2001. In the article, Tsurumaki explains a few things about Evangelion, his mentality behind FLCL as a whole, and the meaning of the name ‘FLCL’.

Full article text is under the cut, or read the article in its original form [here].

Kazuya Tsurumaki was a relatively little-known animator when Hideki Anno selected him to work as the assistant director on Neon Genesis Evangelion. For the TV series, which became a smash hit in Japan and one of the touchstones of the current surge of interest in anime in the US, Tsuramaki served as the main storyboard artist as well as assistant director, and when Studio Gainax began production on a trio of Evangelion films Tsurumaki got his first directorial assignment.

As he tells the story, Anno came to him after Eva and announced that he was out of ideas and that it was up to Tsurumaki to dream up the next project because, "you are next." Tsurumaki let his imagination run wild, but by the time he had written a script, Anno - despite his declaration that he had no stories left to tell - was already several steps ahead of Tsurumaki and in pre-production for his next series, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, leaving Tsurumaki a chance to have complete and unsupervised creative control of his own series FLCL.

FLCL, referred to as "Fooly Cooly" (or "Furikuri" by its American fans), is unlike any anime series to come before it. Wild, maniacally fast-paced physical comedy; exaggerated, exuberant animation alternately pushing towards surrealist- as when mecha exuviate from a bump on young Naota's head - and deconstructionist - as when the animation literally stops and the story is told by a camera bouncing across a page of black and white manga art panels; and obsessively, often irrelevantly, referential to obscure Tokyo-pop bands and anime insider trivia; FLCL was hyperkinetic and disorienting, yet mesmerizing, almost transgressive, and undeniably original. It inspired enthusiastic admiration for Tsurumaki as a creator, even amongst the perhaps 90% of the series' fans who were absolutely baffled by much of it. One is tempted to refer to it as announcing the arrival of full blown post-modernism in animation, or perhaps as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable of the anime industry.

When Tsurumaki visited Baltimore to speak to American fans at the recent Otokon Convention, predictably, many of the questions were along the lines of, "Hi, I really loved FLCL [or Evangelion], but could you please explain this part of it to me?"

Tsurumaki answered all questions genially with a self-deprecating and often mischievous sense of humor. For example:

Why does Haruko hit Naota over the head with her guitar?

Kazuya Tsurumaki: Naota is trying to be a normal adult and she belts him to make him rethink his decision.

Why does Evangelion end violently, and somewhat unhappily?

KT: People are accustomed to sweet, contrived, happy endings. We wanted to broaden the genre, and show people an ugly, unhappy ending.

Why is the character of Shinji portrayed as he is?

KT: Shinji was modeled on director Hideki Anno. Shinji was summoned by his father to ride a robot, Anno was summoned by Gainax to direct an animation. Working on Nadia [Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, one of Anno and Tsurumaki's earlier projects] he wondered if he still wanted to work like this. He thought that working on Eva could help him to change.

Is there any particular reason why so many Gainax series feature very anxious, unhappy young male protagonists with no parents?

KT: Yes, the directors at Gainax are all basically weak, insecure, bitter, young men. So are many anime fans. Many Japanese families, including my own, have workaholic fathers whose kids never get to see them. That may influence the shows I create.

Could you explain the mecha bursting from Naota's head in FLCL?

KT: I use a giant robot being created from the brain to represent FLCL coming from my brain. The robot ravages the town around him, and the more intensely I worked on FLCL the more I destroyed the peaceful atmosphere of Gainax.

Why doesn't FLCL follow one story?

KT: In the third episode Ninamori was almost a main character, a kid who, like Naota, has to act like an adult.  After episode three her problem was solved so we wrote her out.  She has many fans in Japan and we got plenty of letters about that decision.  For FLCL I wanted to portray the entire history of Gainax, and each episode has symbols of what happened behind the scenes on each of Gainax's shows.   Episode one has many elements of Karekano; episode two, a lot of Evangelion references, etc.

Where does the title FLCL come from?

KT: I got the idea from a CD in a music magazine with the title Fooly-Cooly.  I like the idea of titles that are shortened long English words. Pokémon for "Pocket-Monsters" for instance, and an old J-pop band called Brilliant Green that was known as "Brilly-Grilly."

Is there any reason why the extra scenes added to Eva for the video release were cut in the first place?  Did you think the story would mean something different with them intact?

KT: The scenes that were added to Eva for its video release aren't that important.  We added them as an apology for taking so long to get the video out.  Maybe they'll help people understand things, because the episodes were done under tough deadlines the first time around.

Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?

KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us.   Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious.  None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians.  There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool.  If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice.

After the panel, Mr. Tsurumaki sat down to speak with Akadot.

Do you enjoy confusing people?

KT: I have a twisted sense of humor.  I'm an Omanu Jacku, a contrarian.  [Writer's note- Omanu Jacku is a folk character a bit like Puck, a mischief maker]

What do you see differently now that you're working as a director rather than only as a visual artist?

KT: As an animator I have only the art; as a director story is really big.  I still feel as an animator and I often have trouble putting the needs of the story first.

Did you intend from the start for FLCL to be as bizarre as it wound up?

KT: From the very start I wanted a different flavor.  To achieve this I had to re-train the animators to be as stylized as I wanted them to be because I wasn't drawing it.  I knew that not everyone would get it.  I deliberately selected very obscure J-pop culture and anime sub-culture jokes and references.  Because Eva was so somber I always intended to make FLCL outrageous and wacky.

Why the choice to break out of conventional animation and use manga pages? Was it at all a response to how many anime are using computers to achieve smoother and more realistic visuals?  Were you trying to go the opposite direction?

KT: I like manga, not only to read, but the visuals.  The pen drawings, the frame breakdowns and layouts . . . This is the first time I have used digital animation, and those bouncing manga shots wouldn't have been possible with cel animation.   Personally I'm not interested at all in using computers for realistic animation.  I'm impressed by it sometimes, but I'm interested in using computers to do what was once impossible, not to do smoother versions of what has already been done.  I want to be less realistic.

Has using digital animation techniques changed the way you work, or the way you feel about your work when you see it?  Does it still feel like it's yours if a computer did much of it?

KT: Before I got into digital animation I saw other shows that were using it and I felt that there was no feeling, it was empty.   As an animator, there's a sense of release when you draw a cel.  There's something there.  Working on FLCL, though, I learned that computers can do more, and, most of all, that they allow room for trial and error and revising, more freedom to experiment.  That is why I now feel that cel art cannot win against computers.  For actual animation everything is still drawn on paper.  That work hasn't changed.  It's the other stuff, the touchups, and coloring.  If we didn't use paper, maybe the feeling would change.

Earlier today you said that you were trying to broaden the genre by giving Eva a sad ending.  Does the sameness of much of today's anime bore you?

KT: First of all we didn't use a sad ending to annoy fans.  When they're upset, that really bothers us.  Personally, I think a happy ending is fine, but not if it is achieved too easily.  That's no good.

For all the fans that are confused at all, if you had to define in one sentence what FLCL is about, what would you say?

KT: FLCL is the story of boy meets girl.  For me it is also about how it's ok to feel stupid.  With Evangelion there was this feeling that you had better be smart to understand it, or even just to work on it. With FLCL I want to say that it's okay to feel stupid.

Even though it may be strange to us, do you have in your head a logic behind it?  Are you trying to portray a story that follows the logic of dreams, or is it supposed to make sense symbolically?

KT: I'd like you to think of FLCL as imagination being made physical and tangible, just as it is for me when I take whatever is in my head and draw it.

So what are you working on next?

KT: Right now Gainax has told me that they'll support anything I choose to create, but I'm having trouble coming up with any ideas.

Why is that?

KT: Releasing titles for market, I know I have to make something to please fans, but I'm not a mature enough person to accept that fact.  If I'm not amusing myself I can't do it.  I feel bad that fans have to put up with such behavior from me.  I apologize.