#oh and the art direction and character designs and plot and-

[fruitsofhell]

I'm about halfway through a long overdue rewatch of Steven Universe as I never finished the whole thing nor have I really watched anything since it finished. Like I used to love the shit out of the show, and I owe a lot of myself artistically to it. So like I was totally expecting to rewatch it and see the cracks in it I missed when I was younger, or to get bogged down by "filler episodes" people complained about but like, fuck that, this show's fucking amazing.

Like I can't believe there were internet wars about whether this show was actually any good, yall were insane. Like I said, halfway through and there has never been a bad episode or episode that I felt wasted my time, those people just hated fun and worldbuilding its crazy. Then on top of that the story is even fucking better now, the show has a nice subtly to it in places, and the nuance in the characters ages well. Especially Pearl, I remember just seeing her as obsessive and mean when I was younger, but man is she going through shit... Oh God and all the foreshadowing, it is such a rewarding show to pay attention to and rewatch, very well planned out.

Anyways I loved this show and now I love it even more again, best animated TV show of the last decade (from someone who hasn't watched most of them honestly).

[mekatrio]

cuz at first ajaa wasnt even meant to exist it was just meant to be the trilogy and thats it, then while theyre porting it over to the nintendo ds capcom gives them the green light to go nuts with a bonus pseudo-dlc case and By God Do They, making the longest case yet of RFTA with fully animated 3d cutscenes + an incredibly convoluted plot that makes the most out of aa1's 3 day trial system + fully modelled 3d rotational evidence, hitting heavy themes of police corruption and evidence forgery and whatnot like they went INSANE, cuz this was supposed to be IT. this was supposed to be ace attorneys big finale and farewell but SIKE oh my god the actual Ministry Of Justice has knocked on capcoms door and told them hey can you make some propaganda for us. so now the aa team has to make propaganda for them. right after burning themselves the fuck out from creating rfta. all that time spent on rfta which couldve been development time for ajaa.... too late. cant be taken back. apollo justice is designed in less than a week and theyre marketing this game while the team is still making it, takumi crazed madman that he is decides to not rely on old characters which while that is an artistic slay, sets up the stage for a marketing failure, and a new artistic team of infinite ambition goes nuts with creating derangedly detailed animations

⬆️ like oh my god are you insane. thank you so much BUT ARE YOU INSANE? all while still making 3d renders of evidence and random 3d animations and it looks so awesome BUT THERES NOT ENOUGH TIME, 3 wonderful cases are made but 4-4 falls on its face. 6 hours long instead of the usual 10 and only one cross-examination in the final trial and 2 whole main characters with no backstory like its bad. its going to be bad. but its too late. the most incomplete ace attorney game has to be rushed out of the gates and the sales are made But The Reception Is Bad. Real Bad. 2000s hater gamer crowds were the first of its kind, being massively fuelled by the internet, haters back then could sink their teeth deep into a company, which is what got nintendo scrambling away from their wind waker art direction to appease the gamers w twilight princess. so similarly when the hate for ajaa came on, cuz whattt phoenix disbarred and no 😤 old characters 😤😤, capcom scrambled to appease the masses. but oh oh whats this? takumi says 'yeahhhh Nah' and says he wants to make a game about his dog. OK. cant persuade him away from that. might as well let some new blood handle the franchise in takumi's place then, but for The Love Of God do not make an ajaa followup. the gamers will kill us. and so the aai duology was born....... cool........ first one's reception was so bad that localization plans were dropped entirely for the sequel. wow. takumi is fresh off from ghost trick but fucking what, 5 years has passed now, and the new hot console is the nintendo THREE ds. 3ds. wowwww. fucking... PROFESSOR LAYTON kidnaps takumi to make plvpwaa and ajaa continues to be left in the dust. fucking nobody wants him. poor orphaned kitten left in the street. all while the trilogy gets 9584948 million adaptations. and yamazaki twiddles his thumbs thinking abt making aai3 but after thinking it over hes like yeah ill try making aa5. capcom lets him and.......... its over........ they tell him sure go for it But Do Not Follow Up On Apollo Everyone Hates Him please make phoenix the protag. a recipe for disaster. and a disaster aa5 is. juggling THREE protags a complete mess and they do a popularity poll and wow would u look at who came first, fucking APOLLO. JUSTICEEEEEEE. its almost like.... gamers opinions..... are not valuable in the long run.. and popular opinion has never signified artistic understanding.... aa6 comes chugging along and yamazaki addicted to racism cranks out something even worse. both aa56 makes the sales it needs but mindless fanservice can only get u so far... its been nearly 10 years since the ajaa 'trilogy' titles released and the general consensus is that Aaja Was Good and aa56 Not So Much but what can you do now? heres the apollo justice trilogy please buy it and deeply lower ur expectations for coherent and cohesive narratives which have basis in reality thank u. bc u will not be finding that here. ajaa never stood a chance.. they werent doomed by the narrative. its worse. they were doomed by STUPID FUCKING GAMERS AND STUPID EXECUTIVE DECISIONS 😭😭😭

[qilingxiong]

九龍城寨之圍城 | Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

I've rewatched this movie more than once, since seeing it in theatres back in August, and each time was just as good as the first if not better. Given that, I now have many thoughts so I'm subjecting y'all to listening to why you should watch it:

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (九龍城寨之圍城 or gau2 lung4 sing4 zaai6 zi1 wai4 sing4) is a martial arts action/crime film directed by Soi Cheang. It is an adaptation of the manhua City of Darkness by Andy Seto, and its source novel of the same name by Yuyi. The film's cast has established Hong Kong names folded in with newer-generation actors, starring Raymond Lam, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, German Cheung, and Tony Wu (Aaron Kwok gets a cameo role, too).

At a broad glance, the movie follows several major triads in 1980s Hong Kong and their power struggle to control the Kowloon Walled City (a densely populated urban enclave, which for decades evaded direct governance by either the British colonial or Chinese powers in the area). We're introduced to the KWC and the triads' major players through the eyes of Chan Lok-Kwan (Raymond Lam), a man fleeing Vietnam and attempting to make a life for himself in HK. He winds up seeking refuge in the KWC, and comes to call both the city and the people he meets in it a home worth defending.

The narrative itself is not the most complex, but if you enjoy '80s Hong Kong films in these genres, it's solid fare and a harkening back to that decade. All the major themes like brotherhood (and brotherhood vs blood), vengeance, and struggle with conflicting loyalties are there, alongside an internal search for identity and belonging within Hong Kong. But the highlight in it is that the plot connects feast after feast of utterly stunning fight choreography, made all the more impressive by the fact that, according to Louis Koo, quite a few major cast members had never filmed this kind of action before. All their training was done just for TotW, and oh, does it pay off. I can't make good gifs, so you'll have to watch and see for yourself. It's not action for action's sake, either; listening to the head stunt choreographer discuss how different characters' fighting styles were crafted shows off how fight scenes aren't breaks in the story, they tell the story, and deepen our understanding of the characters.

The setting of the Kowloon Walled City truly makes the action in TotW stand out. It's a unique space to stage all these major fights, as the KWC's buildings at the time were packed together close enough to resemble a singular block from the outside. Once inside, it's a stacked, dark maze of uneven paths, stairs, and rickety roofs, with electrical and television cabling snaking over/around/through everything. Fight scenes in these streets feel thrillingly claustrophobic, with lots of acrobatics and near-dodges as characters navigate these tight alleys of the KWC. Each impact as a character goes flying into a wall, or is launched down a flight of stairs or onto a roof, is wonderfully visceral to watch.

All credit and hopefully awards are due to the production and set design teams for their work, in crafting this environment for the story and its fights. The visual/spatial representation of the KWC is the film's other glorious highlight, alongside the choreography. Whole streets of the KWC were recreated for this, filled with every mundane, period-accurate detail from the lives of ordinary people who would have lived there. It's impossible to catch all the intricacies put into making the KWC come to life again onscreen, just from watching the film. Shots like the credits sequence offer close-ups of harder-to-see details, and videos like a tour of the KWC set by Terrance Lau, acting as his character Shin, show off things from the drinks in the fridge at the corner store to the scribbled writing on the walls by the public taps. This film was designed with a drive to faithfully represent what the Kowloon Walled City had been like, how it looked when it was lived in, and they achieved it to an incredible degree.

That dedication extends to more than just the sets, though. The emotional core of TotW revolves around the KWC's inhabitants, and how they were the ones who made the city what it was, a home for about 35,000 people at a time. The film doesn't treat the KWC as just an eye-catching location to stage some fights; its characters might be fictional and overloaded with jianghu powers, but it goes out of its way to show how ordinary people might have lived, worked, and socialized within the historic city. It shows off why, despite its (not unwarranted) dark reputation, so many chose to live in a place that was once the densest urban center on the planet.

And this brings us to the acting, because the cast all do a very good job bringing their characters to life as the heart of the KWC. Louis Koo is fucking fantastic and arguably the scene stealer of the film as Cyclone, the triad leader in current charge of the KWC. He's grumpy, magnetic, and dangerous when he must be, but he also cares so very, very deeply about the inhabitants within his jurisdiction. Terrance Lau's Shin acts as his charismatic and capable right hand man, as well as protégé to Cyclone, befriending Chan Lok-Kwan and helping him become accustomed to life in the KWC. These two, along with the snarky Twelfth Master (Tony Wu) and the masked + imposing AV (German Cheung) become a quartet with great chemistry and friendship, the next generation to watch over and protect the Kowloon Walled City. Outside the KWC cast, antagonist figures like Sammo Hung, Philip Ng, and Richie Jen's characters are intimidating and compelling as threats to the city, and the lives people have etched out within its walls.

All of these things put together, and Twilight of the Warriors is a deeply fun, enjoyable, and rewatchable film (so good, in fact, that Hong Kong has submitted it as its nomination for the 2025 Oscars). The movie doesn't lose its emotional throughline in the promise of an action-packed ride it fully delivers on, and it uses its narrative, setting, and choreography to pay tribute to an earlier era of Hong Kong, as well as highlight + humanize a piece of the region's history that might not be quite as well known to some.

(The Kowloon Walled City was demolished and its inhabitants relocated in 1993. The area where it once stood is now a park, with some historic buildings preserved. If you're curious about people in the KWC before demolition, City Of Darkness: Life In Kowloon Walled City (1993) by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot is a collection of photographs and first-hand recountings from residents, recording their lives and stories. I'm in the midst of reading it right now.)

If anything I've said has piqued your interest whatsoever, I say to give Twilight of the Warriors a try, if you have a free two hours to spare. Something in it will be worth it for you. And if I've failed to convince you with any of this, or you need one more push, here's the trailer for the film:

And if I did manage to actually get anyone to seek out this movie, please tell me! I'd love to know your thoughts.

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #3

Oh, I was right- Wanda called Cosmo out for his crown still showing. That's a good way to signal to the audience that they're mystical.

Purple toe sandals! The artists were havin' FUN with colored shoes.

I'm a little surprised they went the direction of making Cosmo's design rounder and Wanda's thinner since, y'know... she's always been implied to be bigger than him, but hey! They both look great and I'm excited to see them with new body types.

I am obsessed with the fact that even in the new 3D style, the characters still default to holding their hands in that little bird-wing position. That is A+. Someone put a lot of thought into this.

Hazel, your hallway has a way cool rug.

It's a very snappy, jolty art-style. I think that works. I hope it doesn't make me motion sick, but I think it'll be fine.

SLKDFJ I'm on the floor, we're getting Hazel's parents' names straight out of the gate (Angela and Markus Wells).

AND A ROOM NUMBER? I am getting SPOILED. It's like this was made for me!

Friendship ended with Dimmsdale; my new best friend is city where we have more house numbers than 4158.

Cosmo, you are playing a dangerous game using magic in front of them. What did you need to change that you didn't know before?

Wanda too? Oh baby, we are SO back! Take me back to the days of Wanda cheering for Timmy to pour way too much liquid into his science experiment.

The welcome basket has a portrait of Cosmo and Wanda and they're gushing over it and saying "You're welcome! :)" and Angela is just like "... okay. I'mma head out."

Cosmo was about to floor me by saying Fairies have to be invited indoors, so I'm glad Wanda corrected him immediately.

Tbf, in Fairy World, "Doors are for chumps."

I'm glad Cosmo and Wanda both forgot how to sit on couches, seeing as most of the seating in Fairy World floats.

Mom's a therapist? That's never gone poorly for anyone in my fanfics before! ... Also, that's immediately gonna set up some plot tension when Hazel starts keeping secrets.

HER PICTURE ON THE BOOK IS 2D, I'm cracking up. Seriously, I think the running gag here is that all photos look like this. That is HILARIOUS.

Actually I'm on the floor; there is something so very funny about her giving Cosmo a book and him being excited about it, citing it as a "smart person present," when he's canonically a guy whose deepest, darkest secret is that he writes about astrophysics in a culture where Fairies think stars are also Fairies (alongside his children's books and blatantly 4th-wall-breaking books), so he doesn't let anyone know he writes. Ever.

I know that's not going to come up in this show because that detail is from "77 Secrets of the Fairly OddParents Revealed" (though he's confirmed the author of Astrophysics For Morons which Timmy found in the library once), so... chances are minuscule the writers for this show know he's also an author who likes "smart people books," but... I know. And I love him. Oh, there are places we can go with this!

Them...

sdl;fjk, Wanda swooping in to stop Hazel from poking Cosmo when she suspects something's up.

Oh my gosh, Angela is unpacking an entire box of her books and putting them all on a shelf. This is the best "show, don't tell" I've seen in a while.

Snack break for homemade bread.

[felassan]

Some more info on the Mass Effect board game, from co-designer Calvin:

"Hi all, Calvin here, co-designer of the game. I've gathered all the frequently asked questions on social media and bgg and gathered them into some answers for you. Feel free to ask more questions if yours is not answered, and if I can answer it I will. I will be updating this as more information about the game becomes available. Release info - The release date is (hopefully) November depending on the gods of shipping - Price is confirmed, the game will be $50/£40 - The team is currently working on translation deals for 9 or so languages. More details soon. - For info on pre-orders go to https://www.modiphius.net/pages/mass-effect-signup - There are currently no plans for a collector’s edition vs standard edition - It is not crowdfunded, the game is direct to retail - "If you'd like to support the game right now, there's nothing better than going into your local FLGS and asking them if they'll stock the game when it comes out. With the vast amount of great games coming out every week, retailers rely on fans asking about the game. This helps them gauge how much to buy, the more people ask, the more buzz they know there is, the more confident they are to buy enough and the more likely there's one waiting for you on the shelf when you go in :-) That feeds up the chain; the more retailers ask their sales reps at Asmodee, the more Asmodee goes, "Oh wait, let's order more, so we have enough for all the shops". Plot - The game is set on the planet Hagalaz, early during the events of Mass Effect 3 - The players are tasked with investigating a crashed Cerberus research cruiser which could have info that contributes to War Readiness and could help stop the Reapers - The game is designed so people who have never played Mass Effect can still enjoy it. Eric hasn't played the games as much as I did so he got to do what he calls “the meathead test” on all the theming and story. - We worked with Bioware on all the plot and theming. - Yes you can do calibrations in this game Basic game info - Co-operative squad tactics - 1-4 players - Included are six 32mm minis, masc Shep, fem Shep, Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Wrex - Not many other components to keep price and complexity low - 45 minute missions - 3-5 missions per campaign - Branching paragon/renegade choices + sidequests - Enough missions to replay the campaign several times without repeats - Solo play is really fun, in fact I like all the player counts equally, which is something I’m very proud that we were able to achieve in this game - Solo play is basically multi-handing, you control more than one character. - There is no legacy aspect, the game is fully resettable - There will be new original art"

[character limit text break]

"Gameplay info - Low rules complexity, but with lots of tactical depth. We aimed for an audience of Mass Effect fans who might not know anything about board games. Board gamers should still find something to enjoy if they’re into co-op tactics. - A group that just wants to turn their brain off and blast through the game should have an easy time - But a group who wants to get the best endings, complete all the sidequests, get all the level ups will have to min-max pretty heavily - The game has relatively low randomness. Planning, prediction, and preparation are very important to avoid bad outcomes - but there’s still enough randomness to avoid AP as players try to plan out perfect turns. - Important gameplay elements include positioning and combo-ing abilities with other players. - There is a tactical map. - Players will level up their characters by performing in game actions and learn new abilities. - We got all 6 Shepard classes in there. It is one of the things I am very proud of doing. - Re: alpha gamers, Eric and I do not believe it is the designer’s job to solve for jerks at your gaming table. Obviously we have designed the game so that every player has something to contribute and there’s plenty of info so that it’s hard to track. But we also recommend having adult conversations with your table partners. Interviews/Behind The Scenes Beyond Solitaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nLGDt97i4 Topics: how we designed the game and implemented the narrative UKGE promo copy https://twitter.com/Modiphius/status/1796844231018811782/" Post last updated August 8th

[source]

New original art 👀

[artsandstoriesandstuff]

The pain of fixating on a character not on art fight that no one will be drawing until they get up there... :,)

Anyway. Crappy artist rendition of the two from earlier!

These are Walt Peters (or Pete Waters or. Idk.) and Bonnibel!

Walt is a detective from maybe the 20s-50s that, out of curiosity, powered on a time machine project from a high schooler and wound up in the 21st century. He's a cold -too cold, sometimes- and calculating guy. Over the course of the series he does learn to have a heart... but the emotions sometimes get in way of his work, in his opinion.

Bonnie (or Bo. Or Bon) is a seemingly ditzy woman from a big city that is one of the first people Walt comes across. However, as previously mentioned she may not be as stupid as she often comes across and this more intelligent side shows further in the series. She has a '60s aesthetic. While at the beginning it's unknown if she traveled from the past too, she may have a deeper connection to one of Walt's cases...

Walt meets Bonnibel at some sort of important building. I know that they become detective partners at some point but I don't know how yet. I do know that Walt is often fed up with Bon's work ethic, but doesn't necessarily hate her, and Bo just really likes working with him. Eventually the big important case shows up but it becomes really hard to work on due to Walt's newly developed feelings for Bonnie. (not specifically that the romance gets in the way! Also speaking of romance though I do ship them I don't think the romance is a main plot point this time. Sorry.)

Design tidbits!

Walt

Walt has arms. And hands! I just find it fun drawing him without 'em. When he's in his detective suit he has black gloves on, nothing fancy.

His coat is supposed to have 3 buttons on it.

His hat is also a taller rendition of the deerstalker (the Holmes hat... look it up!)

Unless he's at home or in a generally comfortable place, Walt doesn't tend to take off his coat. He will, though, add accessories such as a tie or a scarf if the situation calls for it. I always draw him with the hat though.

His face in always in shadow (probably even without the hat). One of his eyes is generally squinted at all times, and his eyes can become more or less stretched depending on the emotion (this means he has NO EYELIDS unless his eyes are fully closed. His eyes show the emotions, not the eyelids or brows.)

The smaller eye generally is the opposite of the direction he's facing. Not necessary if he's looking forward.

Bonnibel

Bonnie has big hair! It isn't overtly big like a beehive, but it isn't really flat like Bel's either.

Oh and freckles. I decided to add them to make her a little more distinct!

She tends to have jewelry on! Mostly bracelets and earrings, though. She doesn't tend to wear necklaces.

She also likes to switch out these jewelries!

She is a very expressive woman! (Close to Enid levels of expressive) Feel free to stretch her emotions more!

Fitting with her accessories she also likes to have many outfits! They're generally 60s too but she has a few modern items in there. (she's kinda like enid but a little psychotic wait what who said that

So why the heck do I include all this information? Well:

Currently I can't get a good laptop photo for the life of me and

I really really want someone to draw them on art fight

That's all I have of them for now. I'm still thinking of a name but I feel like this would work well as an adult swim and/or cartoon network thing, or a webcomic. Both?

Also as much as I want them to get along I feel like these two would have serious beef with the Robo Sleuths.

If you read all this please let me know what you think of them!!! :)

[bugslaststraw]

So because someone (@theblabarmy hope it's ok to tag) wanted to know. Um. I should make a self indulgent post about my brainchild on this blog. I guess. I have a side blog for her/sso related stuff (@vilda-ravenhill) but still. Hey.

So to preface Star Stable Online is an open world mmorpg about being the Chosen One horse girl who has to fight the bad guys. It's badly written but unfortunately really well concept'd. Got some good art direction. About half the character designs are ass and the other half are genius. Sometimes for the wrong reasons. The gameplay is fine. The fandom does nothing but complain and the creators are so sensitive that they keep listening to bad complaints just because they sound angry. It's got one hundred thousand lore retcons. There are books. The book lore doesn't match the game lore. It's a weird game. I've loved it since I was in like fourth grade and trying to survive being bullied so it's definitely special to me anyway ok more under cut this is long

It gets weird when it comes to the plot though. Cus, well basically it's like this: the whole plot takes place on a fictional island called Jorvik. Somewhere between Norway and England. Its its own country. Its rural and there's like one mall on the whole island. And on this island there are druids that know like actual nature magic and shit? And there's a nature goddess called Aideen, and she has a prophecy that four girls and four horses, called the Soul Riders, are gonna save the world or whatever. These Riders change with time when they get old and die and have to find new ones, but the Soul Horses reincarnate for some reason? Like they can remember their past lives and shit.

So there's this hippy nature cult around Aideen where some of the druids are devoted specifically to her and to training/protecting the Soul Riders, and they're called the Keepers of Aideen, okay. And each Soul Rider has a unique power with it's own symbol so there's like the Star rider the Sun rider etc and they do different things.

But as it turns out there's a secret second prophecy that says there's a FIFTH rider who's like super duper important and knows all FOUR magic circles and that's the player character. Who. Turns out. Is also reincarnating? Like you meet your own previous reincarnation in game and it's the dead mother of a character you already know. Star Stable is bad until it suddenly makes a U turn and does something really clever and there's so much potential and that's what drives me insane.

And there's also this other dimension called Pandoria? And it's got people in it too but Pandorians can't survive on earth because they're dearly allergic to time, yes, literally to time, and humans who stay in Pandoria for too long get very sick and their magical ability goes haywire. There's a pandorian on Jorvik who has created a bubble where time doesn't exist, and he just hangs out and occasionally tries to kill you.

There's also an in between void dimension full of literally nothing that you have to go through to get to Pandoria. Like it's The Void it's The Nothing it's The Fog. There are these magical trees that grow on Jorvik but that reach all the way into Pandoria through The Void and they've got a whole root system there. You can apparently get lost in The Void and never return. It's actual Limbo and it just hangs out there.

Oh and lets not forget the evil counter-cult masquerading as an equally evil oil company (sso has an environmentalist message) that have four DARK RIDERS and DARK HORSES and DARK EVIL VERSIONS OF THE GOOD MAGIC like Dark Sun and Dark Star I shit you not, and they worship an evil chaos god called Garnok who is Literally Just Cthulhu, and their leader is a little too into it for some reason, and also witches exist and they're sometimes evil sometimes not but also they're always evil but that got retconned because star stable is not a good game and keeps contradicting itself and never does anything with its potential or characters or story because it's bad okay holy shit Tumblr doesn't like it when I write this much text hold on I'm gonna continue in a reblog

[spmcomic]

What made you wanna create your comic?

to be honest, it was a combination of things!

the reason i made the first scene is because it had been a long time since i worked on an art piece, and i wanted to spend a school break creating designs for blumiere and timpani and draw a short comic with the two of them interacting. i already had everything i needed with memory 1, so i drew a few drafts of the characters, a few one- or two-panel sketches of the pair and the father character, a few thumbnails, and then put together the three-page scene.

one of my friends commented on the post on deviantart and said "great work, can't wait for the next one!" at which point i said "oh this was just a one-off, i'm not going to draw more."

we can see where that got me.

by next week, i had a notebook full of doodles, concepts for the rest of the gang, more interactions, and little plot lines. some of the mini comics were five pages long and covered the characters discussing their relationships, their backstories… stuff that looks very different in the final comic.

i guess i just ended up having a lot to say! a month later, i had a basic plot outline- a list of questions and their answers. three months later (during arc 3-ish), i had the first draft of a complete script with all the moments i wanted to include, and i committed to pursuing that plot line. six months later (during arc 4), i had an idea that i REALLY needed to share, and i rewrote all of my notes and put all of my ideas in a defined order with a set number of scenes (about 300) to make sure i could take every step necessary to get there.

i'm excited to draw every scene along the way. every page has something i love in it. this comic is a joy to create and i want to show you guys what i've been thinking about. it's been with me through a lot of rough patches in my life. it's my favorite thing that i've made, and even after six and a half years i still feel really good about the direction we're going to go in. i have a complete third draft of the script with about 276 scenes and i'm happy with it.

i found other fan works i've read over the years very inspiring… i think two major fics that found their way into my work were blue sky (portal 2) (webcomic here!!) and handplates (undertale). when i read that stuff, i think to myself "i want to make something that good and satisfying, i want to make more things like this." so i work my hardest to make stories like those.

anyway, if you got this far, thank you for hearing me out. i'm glad that the comic has resonated with a few people. your kind comments and interesting and fun questions help keep me going when i get discouraged. i know my story doesn't have much shipping in it or anything, but i wanted to tell this exact story with these exact characters and that's what i'm gonna do. i'm grateful to have anyone along for the ride, and i'm so happy that i've gotten to meet everyone i've met, and make friends along the way.

[directdogman]

Heya, been watching Mr bean lately and thought I'd ask you if there's anything I should know about the bean lore

i deadass almost responded 'why are you watching mr bean' on its own, but hey. it's not every day i get an ask like this. it's actually a common fan misconception that I like Mr Bean all that much, but I'll still attempt to answer this question in good faith. first question to ask is, animated or live action?

for the live action show, I could talk about it for quite a long time, but long story short, it was created by the same creative team as Blackadder's first season (more or less), with Rowan Atkinson starring, Atkinson and Richard Curtis co-writing and Howard Goodall scoring the show. The famous chorale arrangement of the Mr Bean theme is actually real Latin too. Something people forget about Rowan Atkinson is incredibly well educated. In fact, him, Richard Curtis and Howard Goodall all met in Oxford college iirc.

The first line of the live action series theme literally translates as 'behold the man who is bean'. Beyond that, the only real surface level live action lore I can really think of, off the top of my head, is that Mr Bean has co-acted with Willem Dafoe, has destroyed priceless artwork, has been driven around downtown LA while flipping the bird at people he passed, was almost briefly named 'mr cauliflower', etc. Oh, also, Mr Bean isn't fully mute in the live action series, like in the pilot, where he speaks at length before sitting for a university math examination that he isn't prepared to take. So, yes, Mr Bean has canonically attended a university.

I do have a pretty big theory that alleges that Doug Walker's relationship with the Nostalgia Critic is more or less the same as Rowan Atkinson's with Mr Bean, but I refuse to explain Mr Bean lore if I feel it may come up later on in a trial or contribute to me ending up in a padded cell somewhere, so you'll just have to sit and wonder, I'm afraid.

OKAY, onto the cartoon series. The important thing to remember about the cartoon series is that it had two iterations. The run of the Mr Bean cartoon was aired in the early 2000's. Rowan Atkinson was apparently in the writer's room for it, and Mr Bean, like in official media, is semi-mute in it. He often just emotes using various grunts, but can utter short sentences. The animation is very fluid and the characters frequently go off model in order to appear more expressive. The episode plots were also pretty off the wall in comparison to the second iteration. You know the Citadel of Ricks in Rick and Morty, where Rick meets a whole space ship full of identical clones of himself? Yeah, it's canon to Mr Bean too, but y'know. It's the Citadel of Beans, I guess.

In case the embedded timestamp doesn't automatically work, jump to 9:02 and watch until at least 9:13. Or don't watch any of it at all. Your call. Also no, it's not a dream sequence or anything like that, it's fully canon and really happening. It also implies that Mr Bean remembers that he's an alien for the rest of the series. The scene even ends with the direct implication that the fan theory that live action Mr Bean is an alien IS correct. (Some have speculated that he was perhaps a fallen angel too.) By the way, I'm linking to a shitty fan reupload so this Mr Bean clip instead of any of the readily available public resources because fuck YOU Mr Bean, I refuse to give you your now undeserved 10th of a cent in ad revenue after your DISGRACEFUL NFT line. More on that later.

After they finished up with the early 2000's cartoon series, the show went off the air for a literal decade and then they brought it back, out of nowhere, with rigid (and decidedly cheaper to produce) digital animation. You could compare the change in animation to, say, The Simpsons or Family Guy, where the art style remains the same for every design/background that's borrowed from the older seasons, but now everything moves stiffly/robotically. Newer one-off character designs are also way flatter and less cartoonish, as if the creative juices that went into the original cartoon series are... gone.

I have to say, I haven't seen all of these episodes because they're really not very good. The writing is a lot worse. Mr Bean just constantly talks for some reason, which feels like a pretty stark abandonment of the core tenets of the character imo. Come to think of it, the other recurring characters (like his landlord, Mrs Wicket) is also strangely out of character. Long story short, they just don't care anymore.

The funny thing about the baffling Mr Bean NFT line is that, well, there's basically 4 'eras' of Mr Bean... at least, according to how I group it. Era 1 is the live action series, era 2 is made up of the 2 feature length Mr Bean movies (I group them together, despite them coming out over a decade apart as they don't really connect directly to the main Mr Bean lore and take place outside of London), era 3 is the early 2000's run of the cartoon, and the era 4 is the 2010's cartoon reboot.

Of ALL of the 4 possible places they could pull content from, only ONE iteration of Mr Bean contained digital, pre-cropped assets... The cartoon reboot, which the production company that owns the rights to the character (Tiger Aspect Productions) obviously had, leading to this really strange revisionism (more or less gaslighting) from the Mr Bean brand, like "hey, remember Mr Bean? Remember him? He has an NFT line now! Remember Mr Bean? BUY BUY BUY" Which is funny, because statistically, of all of the four eras, the shitty cartoon reboot is the only era that does not contain anything that interesting to talk about, and is the only one that doesn't contain memorable Mr Bean media, arguably.

Some people 100% remember the time Mr Bean put an armchair on TOP of his car and drove it around in the live action series. Some people remember watching the movies in the theater as a kid and some people remember the zany episodes of the early cartoon series, which aired on Nickelodeon owned channels in the early 2000's... Nobody remembers the time Mr Bean set up a pizza place called 'pizza bean'. Seriously, there's several episodes in the new animated series where the guy just starts up a get rich quick scheme, which falls apart by the end of the episode. It's like Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy, except instead of the Ed boys, you're stuck in an elevator alone with an our of character Mr Bean.

So, yeah, the company REALLY milked the final seasons of the cartoon, despite it being the worst Mr Bean content, because that way, they could produce easy content that didn't require any more work. They don't even get Rowan Atkinson in for voices most of the time they make 'new material', just using recycled clips from a Mr Bean soundboard. The entire NFT line, by the way, is just random frames from the cartoon reboot placed against re-used backgrounds from the show, or just in front of a gradient/solid colour. Pretty cheeky given that they minted these NFTS for, get this, over $100 each. I personally wouldn't even accept someone else's money in exchange for having to own a Mr Bean NFT, so I can't imagine who'd actually spend their hard earned money on such a thing.

I could keep going, but sooner or later, an Al-Qaeda sniper is gonna take me out if I keep typing, so best quit while I'm ahead. You were a FOOL to have read this

[roseofcards90]

STEVEN UNIVERSE WATCH:

Hi hiii, everyone! I am planning on making a series of posts for my first time watching Steven Universe! I’ve been watching with @mgjong and it’s been so much fun omg! I can’t thank her enough for watching with me ❤️

For these, I’m going to talk about my breakdown analysis for each season (I’ll be doing Season 1A and Season 1B as separate), and I will also give commentary on every episode (yes I am insane) and highlight certain ones that are my faves! I will give my overall thoughts about the season as a whole, as well as the main characters and what I’ve learned of them so far.

Episodes marked with a ⭐️ are some of my personal faves from this season! Here is my overall breakdown of Season 1A down below:

*I also wanted to preface this saying that my knowledge of the show is very limited. Most of the things I’ve heard about it have come from when it was still airing, and my childhood friend who was obsessed with it at the time would also ramble about the show to me. I already know some major plot points (such as Garnet being a fusion and the Ruby and Sapphire stuff) and other minor details, but yeah most of this overall is still pretty blind to me!

So first off! I wanted to talk about some general points about the show:

- I absolutely love the art backgrounds in each episode. Some of them are just so pretty to look at. I know the animation can be iffy at times, but overall it is very consistent across episodes.

- Character designs are also pretty unique, and each one stands out to me among the cast! The fact that you can easily pick out even the minor characters is a huge win for character design imo

- The title cards also reflecting the time of day/weather for the episode is a neat detail! I did not realize that, Mg had to point it out to me kdfjdfnk and the fact that they imply little things from just that one shot (like it being the temple hand above the house where they do their laundry) is a great attention to detail!

- I think the setting is also really nice! Having it take place in a coastal town near the beach feels refreshing to me.

- Soundtrack amazing that is all 🫡

General Character Thoughts:

Steven:

At first, I really didn’t think much of Steven’s character I would have to admit 😭 I thought he was a sweet kid ofc, but I wasn’t sure where the show was gonna take his character and his development. That is, until I started to see more of the bigger picture and realize what direction they were going to take him. And now I have high hopes on how Steven is going to develop throughout the series just from all the expectations placed on him from his loved ones and the other gems. Your mother was amazing, she was everything. She gave up her form so you can be born. How do you deal with that? How do you cope with being the only one to not know her at all, your own mother? Can you fill the void she left behind? Will you falter when you can’t?

Also, having a mother-son version of this trope is one I haven’t seen much? Barely at all tbh, so it’s refreshing! I think it’s very sweet to portray a male character as very emotional and compassionate, and have him take after his mother.

Amethyst:

Amethyst is great I love her LMAO she’s so silly!!! On the surface, she seems to be the outward comic relief in the cast. But when you look more closely at her character and her reactions towards certain things, then it becomes clear that there is something deeper, the feeling of self-hate and resentment towards herself compared to Pearl and Garnet. I like how this is first hinted at in Tiger Millionaire, an episode about Amethyst’s hobby with wrestling. I think it shows that even in her own space, that self-hate will still find a way to manifest (it didn’t help that Pearl and Garnet showed up but yeah 😭)

Pearl:

Oh, Pearl. Where do I even start? There’s…a lot. I’m going to be honest, my perception of Pearl from what I remember is just “very gay lady” back when the show was airing LMAO which isn’t wrong necessarily. She is that, but she’s also a lot more than that. Pearl is tragic. She is a character who continues to grieve because of her closeness and her love towards Rose. She can be a bit overbearing and critical at times with Steven, but it’s because she cares about him and wants him to grow. Ofc she loves him, that’s her son. But Pearl isn’t perfect. She’ll have outbursts, she’ll panic, she’ll slip back into the loss that continues to consume her and project it onto others. And it’s not healthy at all 😭 I am curious to see how her character will be in the later seasons, but for now she’s one of my faves! Absolutely love tragic gays who cannot move on 🫡

Also I just love how at first glance, she seems like the character to have the brain cell in the group, but then you realize episode after episode that nah, she’s just as insane as everyone else LMAO it’s so good (I believe in OCD Pearl too btw SO REAL)

Garnet:

AAAA I LOVE GARNET!!! I love how calm she is but also deadpan LMAO??? She’s so silly sometimes, it’s cute! I like how she’s the one to ground the whole team together, not wanting to underestimate Steven, but ofc, still being protective of him. There’s more we learn about her in Season 1B (which I’ve already seen by this point), so that’s why I don’t have a lot to comment on here. But she’s still pretty cool, especially with all the various hints towards her actually being a fusion!

Greg:

Greg is an interesting guy! I didn’t have many thoughts on him at first, but some episodes later in the season had made me rethink my initial thoughts on him. He’s clearly trying his best as a father, wanting to still connect and bond with Steven. And he’s also another character we see deal with the grief of losing Rose. I love how he has many parallels with Pearl because of this, with the way they deal with loss and also their personal relationship with Steven. I’m looking forward to seeing more of him and also more interactions between him and Pearl I think they would be funny DJDKFKF

Connie:

I LOVE CONNIE I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! IDK MUCH ABOUT HER BUT SHES SO CUTE AND I LOVE HER AND STEVEN'S RELATIONSHIP! I do like how she’s written to be a bit of a weeb LMAO it’s very accurate for 12 yr old kids obsessed with anime. I can’t wait to see more of her in the main cast!!!

Rose Quartz:

Besides her sharing my name (which I already love lmao), I have heard many things about her character that have piqued my interest! From what I've seen, she's a character who haunts the narrative, always being mentioned in the other's words as a lasting memory, or just her own portrait in the house being displayed in the background during some scenes. I love how the writing continues to portray her like this, and us as the viewer are curious to learn just who she really was as a person. We know that she was important, that she led a rebellion against her own kind to protect the Earth, and that she meant a great deal to the Crystal Gems and Greg. But just who was Rose really? Behind everyone's fondness and memories of her? Is she really just the all-loving heroic sacrifice we're presented with?

It's funny, because we are a lot like Steven in a way. We are in the same shoes as him, where we learn alongside him in finding out more about is mother and what the kind of person she is behind everyone's rose-tinted glasses. It's a really neat touch that helps connect the viewer to Steven as both a protagonist and a character

Episode Breakdowns (very brief):

Gem Glow:

• I think this is a decent introduction episode that lays out the characters and initial dynamics in the show! The Crystal Gems fight but they don’t want Steven to get hurt, but Steven ends up helping in his own way and starts using his powers as a result. I don’t have much else to say about it, but I think it’s neat!

⭐️ Laser Light Cannon:

• I like this one because you can start to see Rose haunt the narrative, and also the implications that are shown in the episode: the main one being that the cannons activate due to Greg’s phrase! I just love how much this implies how close her and Greg were that she made it so that the cannons activate because of something so silly, yet obviously meant something to her back then

⭐️ Cheeseburger Backpack:

• I stared this episode mainly because I absolutely love how it comes back in the best way possible in Season 1B. It is such good foreshadowing, and while the episode itself isn’t too noteworthy to me, I think viewing it as a mirror of the other episode that calls back to it makes it so much more interesting

Together Breakfast:

• I don’t think there’s much to note in this episode, other than it’s a characterization moment for Steven. It shows how much he sees the gems as his family, and how he wants them all to be together. It’s sweet!

Frybo:

• …I have nothing to say other than…yeah, nightmare fuel 👍

Cat Fingers:

• Okay lowkey this episode disturbed me a bit while I was watching KJDFDFKL 😭 I did not find the cat fingers cute, but I do like how this showed Steven’s ability to shapeshift! We’re starting to see Steven be able to wield some of the abilities the Crystal Gems have too!

⭐️ Bubble Buddies:

• Connie’s first appearance!!! I love it so much, the fact that they had met each other before and Steven was waiting to see her again and return her bracelet, how Connie also paid attention to him too! I love that little backstory they have together before they officially meet

Serious Steven:

• Another characterization one for Steven! Him wanting to help the gems no matter what, and I like how this episode kinda parallels the first episode a bit? Instead of being childish here like in the first episode, we see Steven be more serious, but he still helps them in his own way. Also this had an interesting frame showing a mural with presumably Rose Quartz fighting? Very curious indeed…

⭐️ Tiger Millionaire:

• This is where we see Amethyst’s self-esteem issues at the forefront. Seeing Amethyst’s and Steven’s relationship be expanded upon was nice too. We see one of Steven’s core traits with wanting to make everyone happy. He wants to continue accompanying Amethyst in her wrestling hobby and even uses a made up back story for Amethyst’s wrestler persona to help people understand her better. In relation, we see that Amethyst takes pride and confidence in wrestling because she’s good at it. It gives her something meaningful to her existence. So overall, I think this episode does a good job with characterizing the both of them

Steven's Lion:

• Lion’s first appearance! I love how he’s just…not explained LMAO he’s a pink lion and he’s chilling, and it’s obvious with his connection to Rose because of his pink color scheme

Arcade Mania:

• I like how this episode focuses on Garnet’s competitive side, as well as showing her 3rd eye under her visor. It’s silly, especially with the rhythm game (why did they name it that…), but it’s cool that it showed how Garnet is an important member on the team and seeing Pearl and Amethyst rely on her too. Also her relationship with Steven as well and how determined he was to snap her out of the game was sweet

⭐️ Giant Woman:

• OPAL FIRST APPEARANCE ALSO PEARL AND AMETHYST BEING GAY AF WHEN OPAL FIRST TALKED I THINK I DIED AND CAME BACK TO LIFE 🪦 but seriously, I like how we see fusion for the first time and they make a cool point that many fusions are their own person, and they take the best aspects of said gems and have them be in balance together. Very cool fr!!!

⭐️ So Many Birthdays:

• They went the existential crisis route omg 😭 but besides how dark this episode is, I do like how we see the gems care for Steven a lot. It also emphasizes the point of Steven’s powers being heavily influenced by his emotions!

⭐️ Lars and the Cool Kids:

• It’s a Lars episode and it exists, but the main thing I loved about it was towards the end. It had such a great moment with Steven standing up for himself and his mother, but it was also a bit heartbreaking too? Steven never met his mother, but he still believes in and realizes how much she cared for living beings. He will stand up for her no matter what because he doesn’t have anything to doubt her on, only what he’s heard from the others. I do wonder if this will be forshadowing later on when Steven learns something less…positive about Rose he can’t stand to believe as the truth

Onion Trade:

• This one is funny LMAOOO I HOPE THAT ONION CONTINUES TO BURN DOWN BEACH CITY

⭐️ Steven the Sword Fighter:

• Another dark one with Pearl literally getting stabbed in front of Steven. Along with the Tiger Millionaire and Arcade Mania, this one is my favorite among the episodes showing the relationship between the gems and Steven! Having him try to deal with the hologram Pearl while the real Pearl isn’t around really showed how much Steven has grown as a person. He’s tying to be more responsible and mature without Pearl around, which I think is a great character moment for him

Lion 2: The Movie:

• I like how this episode both develops Steven and Connie’s relationship (they’re silly kids who both think that the other doesn’t want to hang out with them but Connie provides normalcy for Steven, while Steven provides excitement for Connie. They both accept each other is the main thing that I love about their relationship), as well as whatever tf is going on with Lion DKDKDK it becomes even more clear now that he was Rose’s lion with the training temple they go to (love how this also comes back too). Also COOL SWORD

Beach Party:

• A silly one! This one is more of my favorites among the episodes that focus on the Beach City residents. It doesn’t get too bogged down with silliness, but it still focuses on character interactions between the gems and the residents! It’s overall very funny <3

⭐️ Rose’s Room:

• Rose first voice appearance! In the form of a whale LMAO I couldn’t imagine when this episode first aired and people lose their shit when this happened. It’s cool to get a glimpse into how Rose’s room works, that it gives anything Steven wants, but whatever it creates is still imperfect

Coach Steven:

• Sugilite first appearance! I cannot believe Nicki Minaj voiced her 😭 also I do like how it touched upon Pearl’s insecurities. “I’m not strong enough to do anything” THATS SUS PEARL WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN THROUGH WHY IS THAT SOMETHING YOU BLAME YOURSELF FOR??? I NEED TO KNOW MORE

Joking Victim:

• Lars and Sadie are cool ig??? I mean Sadie is cool, Lars is…there LMAO but it’s interesting to see more of their dynamic. I assume they’re a popular ship in the fandom, and I think Lars in his own way can be sweet at times. But in general, I just think that Sadie deserves so much better 💀

Steven and the Stevens:

• Very convoluted episode fr 😭 it doesn’t make much sense to be canon either? I feel like if the gems had access to a time travel artifact thing, they would’ve already used it a long time ago. I’ve also been told this doesn’t come up again, unless it’s with Steven recounting his trauma during this episode, so idk it really doesn’t make much sense, besides it being another silly episode

It’s nice though how this episode hints at the season finale by showing the desert created by Lapis in Mirror Gem in the background! Very cool detail there

Monster Buddies:

• We start to see more of the corrupted gems and learn about them. This one also highlights Steven’s overall kind and compassionate nature that he’s willing to extend to corrupted gems, seeing their humanity beyond the corruption. It’s another reflection of how his mother acted before. Also he’s able to bubble gems now and becoming more and more like his mother

An Indirect Kiss:

• An interesting way to show that Steven has his mother’s healing powers? 😭 was not expecting it to be through his spit DJDKDLDL the title is clever for that. I also like how it subverts our expectations (as well as the gems’ expectations) that Steven has the exact powers his mother did

⭐️ Mirror Gem:

• Lapis first appearance! I love they just casually show that Steven hasn't attended school 😭 it's kinda sad in a way? Like ofc we see Pearl try her best with teaching him, but it still highlights the differences between Steven and the other kids. He still doesn't have the most normal life when it comes to being 12 and not sharing experiences other kids his age have gone through.

⭐️ Ocean Gem:

• The season finale! I loved it a lot. Mainly because of how they start to set up some doubts regarding the Crystal Gems and their motivations. Lapis obviously doesn't like them and tells Steven to not trust them. She says they "never cared about the other gems, only Earth", so it leaves the viewer wondering if what Lapis is saying is true or not. But it also reinforces the point that they gems have been fighting for Earth, in the name of Rose Quartz and her mission. In contrast, Lapis only wants to go back "home", not seeing the beauty in Earth like they do. She's a good foil to the crystal gems (I would also say she parallels Pearl in a way because they both want to go back home, but Lapis follows her own ideals and wants to be set free, while Pearl's takes on Rose's ideals as her own and follows them to the end).

BUT YEAH THIS HAS GONE ON LONG ENOUGH SO COOL SEASON I LIKE HOW IT'S SETTING UP A BUNCH OF THINGS FOR LATER STUFF AND IT'S SILLY AND HAS ITS SERIOUS MOMENTS TOO!!! I think the show towards the end started to become more grounded on what it was going to do, so I like that! I can't wait to start my review of Season 1B fr 🫡

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group E Round 2: #E7 vs #E3

#E7: Teenage boys use empathy to solve problems for youkai

#E3: Sending us penguins will NOT fix our terminally ill sister, but thanks anyways

Details and poll under the cut!

#E7: The Morose Mononokean (Fukigen na Mononokean)

Summary:

Without realizing it, a high schooler named Ashiya Hanae shows kindness to a youkai and is subsequently possessed by it on the first day of class. The spirit clings to his shoulder, making him progressively sicker each day. After a week of collapsing on his way into school, Ashiya notices a “Help Wanted” flyer for an exorcism service in the nurse’s office. Desperate, he calls the service, only to find that it is run by his grumpy classmate.

Abeno Haruitsuki prefers youkai to humans, sleeps through class, and is the master of a sentient tea room called the Mononokean, where youkai come for help with their problems. It turns out that they’re mostly benign, and exorcising them to the Underworld is safer for them. Ashiya convinces Abeno to exorcise the spirit possessing him, but Abeno demands he work part-time for the Mononokean as repayment. Abeno’s intimate knowledge of the spirit world and Ashiya’s empathetic nature form a great contrast as they work together.

Propaganda:

The Morose Mononokean is a beautifully written and animated coming-of-age story— with youkai, which can only ever make a piece of media better. The characters, both human and youkai, are fully three-dimensional, and although there isn’t much of an overarching plot in the first season/early manga chapters, the episodic stories contribute to the growth of both Ashiya and Abeno; their juxtaposed methods of problem-solving, and the way they affect and learn from each other’s perspectives as they become closer, are very satisfying both to analyze and to experience on an emotional level. Beyond the writing, the art is outstanding as well. The designs for the youkai characters are frequently adorable, occasionally terrifying, and always quite original, brilliantly incorporating characteristics of existing creatures in novel ways. The occasional visits to the Underworld are always a visual treat, with vibrant colors and a unique animation style painting the backdrop. Both the art and the characters are delightful and moving, and the OP is a banger. As a connoisseur of urban fantasy, Fukigen na Mononokean’s focus on emotion over action has made it my all-time favorite anime in the genre.

Trigger Warnings: None.

#E3: Mawaru Penguindrum

Summary:

For the Takakura family, destiny is an ever-spinning wheel, pointing passionately in their direction with equal tides of joy and sorrow before ticking on to the next wishmaker. With their parents gone, twin brothers Kanba and Shouma live alone with their beloved little sister Himari, whose poor health cannot decline any further.

On the day Himari is given permission to temporarily leave the hospital, her brothers take her out to the aquarium to celebrate, where the family's supposed fate is brought forth with her sudden collapse. However, when Himari is inexplicably revived by a penguin hat from the aquarium's souvenir shop, the hand of fate continues to tick faithfully forward.

With her miraculous recovery, though, comes a cost: there is a new entity within her body, whose condition for keeping her fate at bay sends the boys on a wild goose chase for the mysterious "Penguin Drum." In their search, the boys will have to follow the threads of fate leading from their own shocking past and into the lives of other wishmakers vying for the Penguin Drum, all hoping to land upon their chosen destiny.

Propaganda:

Do you like weird artsy stuff? Do you love magical girls? How about weird, messed up character dynamics? Then boy oh boy, Mawaru Penguindrum is the show for you! The show starts out funny enough, but will quickly spiral into an intense and intricate plot, involving fate, the mafia, magical destiny-rewriting spells, and penguins. Which yes, before you ask, the funny penguins are in fact plot relevant.

Penguindrum isn’t really a show about all that stuff though, even though it is. It’s a very symbolic story, about living under the crushing heel of capitalism, and the quiet poison of the societally expected nuclear family dynamic. I could write an essay on each and every single one of the characters, as they’re all given a lot of depth and time to grow. Every character has their own baggage that, one way or another, ties back to someone else. Everyone in this show is connected in some way shape or form, and that’s really highlighted when everything starts to fall apart. Be warned: this show is NOT a light watch! If you’re the type of person who gets really into deciphering symbolism and creating your own meaning from pieces of media, then this show is for you!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Flashing Lights/Flickering Images, Gender Identity/Sexuality Discrimination, Guns, Incest, Kidnapping, Nudity, Pedophilia, Rape/Non-Con, Smoking, Suicide, Bomb Threats/Attempts and Terrorisim

It’s a very major plot point. This show is HEAVILY based off the 95 Tokyo Sarin Gas Attacks, so if content like that is triggering to you, tread lightly.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how they’re presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure 02: Revenge of Diaboromon

Wow...somehow this one just completely fell off my radar, otherwise I would have watched it a long time ago lol. I seriously thought I was all caught up with pre-Tamers anime until I saw this on the 02 TV Tropes and was like "oop..." It was a good surprise though, I can never get enough of these Mamoru Hosoda style shorts! (Looks like he didn't actually work on this one though).

I watched this dubbed first to take screenshots and then subbed. It's hard to find a non-crunchy version of the subbed short. The OG Japanese was a lot stronger imo because, as usual, the dub ruined some stuff with it's jokey tone and music choices. Still decently faithful though. Full thoughts below.

Notes:

So this is like a midquel, I guess. I don't know if there's an exact place within 02 I was supposed to watch this, but I didn't feel like my immersion was wrecked or anything haha.

While the aesthetic of the short was great, I felt the story was pretty redundant and eye-roll worthy. "Oh Omegamon/Omnimon is back for some contrived reason and the OG chosen children's digimon can't defeat him like they did last time...for some contrived reason. This looks like a job for the 02 protagonists!" Whatever, it doesn't have to be deep to be fun.

The early 2000s CG looked pretty good actually. I thought it added a fun otherworldliness to the Kuramon.

Kuramon look a lot like Takodachi (Hololive fans know what's up). I wonder if there was some inspiration there on a subliminal level.

I wonder if Daisuke's character designer intended him to be from a southern part of Japan. His tan skin sticks out more in this art style.

I feel like Diaboromon got uglier somehow compared to Our War Game lol. Armagemon's design was deliciously creepy though. He looked like something out of an Alien movie. His entrance was epic and probably would have freaked me out a lot as a kid. Weirdly, they never actually said Armagemon's name so I just assumed it was Diaboromon until I googled it just now lol

Sora and Mimi were like two sides of the same coin in this. Mimi was useless, but in a delightful way. Sora was useless, but in a boring way lol. Seriously, she didn't need to come all the way home from her tennis club trip to just go "I'm here!" and then do nothing. I'm not saying there was much she could do anyway, but I get really pissed that they never gave her character a real point aside from "bland love interest" in any Digimon show/movie.

Loved Mimi's interactions with Koushiro. Their awkward "we're in the same friend group but have nothing in common" chemistry is so fun.

Yamato seemed extra cool with his rings and stoicism. I do kind of wish he and Taichi got a little more dialogue though.

Really didn't like the direction of the fights inside the internet. They were either animated too up close or too distant so I felt like I couldn't really follow what was going on half the time. Also, the choreography wasn't that inspired. The IRL fight at least had a cool Evangelion vibe going for it. The harbor was a really aesthetic setting for a final fight.

I've started shipping DaiKen for funsies (there's some really cute fanart) so it was nice seeing them together in the elevated art style hehe.

Daisuke has a Yamato phone strap! So cute and supportive

It's funny how the digimon sizing suddenly changes when we're in movie-mode. Angemon and Angewomon were huge in this! I was excited to see the 02 digimon, but they mostly looked the same as they looked in the show tbh.

The Shibuya vibes, complete with Hachiko statue, were fun. Was 02 set in Tokyo? I honestly don't remember...

Seeing all those children running around at night without any worries about safety...must be nice, Japan.

When Omegamon "ran out of energy," I had the thought of like "can a jogress digimon die in the real world or would they always just de-digivolve??" I guess they'd never go that far for plot reasons anyways

Imperialdramon gets a new mode! Paladin mode, according to Google. Were these names in the credits or did they just decide things later for the TCG or something...?

We got the 02 theme inserted towards the end and even the OG show's theme as a ring tone. Really cute touch. (I was a little triggered to hear Bolero again for the millionth time though).

All in all I'm glad the 02 kids got their due in this style. Was it groundbreaking? No. Was it worth 30 minutes of my time? Absolutely!

[secretsofdbz]

Oh hi there, it's been a minute!

Sooo NYCC panel happened, and Dragon Ball Magic/Daima is real!

Under the read more for the links, images, and some of my thoughts, analysis, etc...

First, the name: Daima 大魔 can be translated as big magic, large sorcery, big magic trick...And that 魔 symbol should look familiar to you guys, because it's the same MA from Piccolo DAIMAo, from MA Jr., from MAkkankosappo, from MAsenko, and from MAjin (magic people/population). It's the same word used for magic, sorcery, witchcraft, and hocus pocus style stuff. So... with or without demon connotation, just supernatural magic stuff :p

Then the continuity. When does this happen? There's no DBS refs at all in it, so there's speculation about it happening before DBS (but after the Buu saga since the Buu events are the origin of the story it seems). However... Kibito and Shin are defused. Did they defuse because of the wish? Or is it happening sometime after they get defused in DBS (different versions depending on manga or anime).

We don't know. I would say: we don't care. "Canon" is a lie. Official content (games, anime, manga, movies, tv specials, one shots, promo material, etc..) tend to steal from each other and reuse whatever is interesting for the following stories. Content is recycled and reused and readapted to fit whatever narrative of the current story beat (or arc/saga if we're generous) and that's it.

Oh btw you can watch it online, since Toei put it out!

Anyway let's get back to the plot:

Pretty sure these guys are Bibidi-Babidi related, and they hold a grudge against the gang because of the Buu situation (this is what they're watching).

They make a wish to make everyone young, and there's no transformations (!) so.. Goku has to use the PowerPole.

There's also a message from Toriyama himself, delivered by Iyoku:

Hello. I’m Akira Toriyama. I’m currently working on a new Dragon Ball. The Title is “Dragon Ball DAIMA”. Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious world. Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Nyoibo to fight, something not seen in a long time. I came up with the story and settings, as well as a lot of the designs. I’m actually putting a lot more into this than usual! Things will unfold that close in on the mysteries of the Dragon Ball world. Hope you enjoy these different-from-usual battles that are cute and powerful!! — AKIRA TORIYAMA

He's far more involved in this than he ever was in DBS, sooooo.. !! Who knows. It's going to be similar to his modern style though, like Dragon Quest or SandLand.

Everyone's designs look amazing!

Look at Trunks and Goten! They will never age, they get CTRL-Z lol Same for Marron actually, she got back to being her Buu saga toddler self :o (note how Trunks is back at being purple, and not Blunks anymore...)

Anywaaaay!

The animation looks STUNNING. However! Goku's hair looks very stiff :(

Other than that, the series started production right when Dragon Quest Dai ended: that's what the animators are transitioning from.

And some new and old names!!

https://x.com/ag_sanda1/status/1712564193344311549?s=20

Nakatsuru at the character design and corrections, Aya Komaki and Yoshitaka Yashima in the direction roles. Art direction is Takahashi Kurahashi (big background artist, did Yo SonGoku a while ago), and some GOATED names for the animation: Chikashi Kubota, Naohiro Shintani, Yuya Takahashi, Takeo Ide, and Miyako Tsuji. Kubota is the guy who did the 2D section of the intro for DBSSH btw. Kubota My beloved.

Anime AJAY did a whole thread about the production info he has so go check it out.

Kid versions of everyone look super cute, but there was no Gohan on sight. It has to take place "after the Buu saga", but considering the designs, I do think this is kinda meant to be before Pan and Bra were born.

Also I smell Demon lore.

Much interest on my end because it looks amazing even if it's not the serious type of story I usually enjoy. But it looks so good!

Also yeah, DBS Broly and DBSSH is "let's reuse the OG Broly Trilogy", so this is let's reuse/repurpose GT?

Prolly.

[antibrainrotcrusader]

Review of: Akudama Drive

Going into Akudama Drive, I did not know much about it other than: 1) It's set in a dystopian society 2) The art is killer 3) A lot of people I know love it So my expectations weren't very high. I went in for the pretty art and animation, and stayed for the pretty art and animation. And Swindler. And the creepy rabbit and shark TV brainwashing program. That's pretty much it.

First, I'll list everything I loved about the show. I found the animation to be super consistent. It never disappointed me, and that's why if I rated my anime based on the art purely, I'd be giving Akudama Drive a 10/10 without hesitation. I also loved the soundtrack, they certainly felt unique enough that I did not dare skip the opening song, and stayed until after the ending song multiple times. It's an interesting pairing with the anime itself. Had this been a slice-of-life, the pairing would make a lot more sense. I loved it this way though, it made it feel like the anime wanted it known that this story doesn't want to be "just action" or "just cool". The music gets a 7/10 from me.

I also loved how our main character is a girl in her 20's. She's an ordinary person, with no tragic past, and no specific character traits that would mark her for the danger she gets thrown into later on (other than her honesty and kindness). It was incredibly refreshing to see in anime. She was not sexualised, but she also wasn't bland in terms of her character design. I enjoyed the moments Swindler was on screen. It worked perfectly for (what I felt like) the anime was trying to tell it's viewers: anyone can fall into the "wrong" path easily. Allowing people to judge those that fall into darkness with such absolutism will probably ruin a society. Example from the show? The executioners.

Oh the executioners. The way I feel about them is very mixed. They were shown as typical "heroes" for the first few times they appeared on screen. And then that seemed to shift to them... being evil? I did not like it. It could've been done a LOT better. I think the producers themselves might have also had mixed feelings. There is a clear shift in tone where the show changes it's direction and goes off the rails. In the first half, the executioners were developed a bit more, and one of them (the young apprentice) seemed to have more growth waiting for her at the second half of the show. But, of course, there wasn't. And so we lost sense of who the executioners are and what they are. The anime just wanted them to be branded as the "bad people" and it was left at that.

The Kanto plot was also a bit of a disappointment for me. Surely the technologically advanced city of the future that literally does not care or need physical existence anymore can do better than... putting an entire virtual city inside the bodies of children....? Right? It felt extremely far-fetched. As Hacker said (SPOILER ALERT):

"What a crazy twist, right? A world inside a supercomputer... who would've thought Kanto would be some overused sci-fi trope?"

If only the show's awareness of it's own tropes went anywhere. Note to story writers: making a character break the fourth wall and voice the future criticisms of your viewers is NOT good writing and it is NOT going to make those criticisms disappear or be less relevant. Breaking fourth walls is in and of itself not always a great thing to do in a story so focused in it's own world and separated from the viewer.

But you know what? The ending makes everything worth it!! Not. There is a single scene that I LOVE, and it is Swindler's last confrontation with the executioners. They surround her and stuff happens and then she says "zamamiro", and I love it. I died fangirling, and then died trying not to be sad. Lol. It's stuck with me now, such an iconic scene. Other than that, the ending wasn't that great.

Overall, I enjoyed the show, but I wish I could've seen another Akudama Drive. The Akudama Drive the first half introduced seemed like it would be amazing, not only a must-watch for the season, but BEYOND that. The Akudama Drive I was left with made me feel glad that it ended so short and stopped wasting my time. 6.5/10 and not lower for Swindler <3

[weird-gay-disaster]

Uh, so this is really out of left field for me to talk about, but I've been feeling this type of way for over a month now.

I'm very ambivalent about the new Famicom Detective Club.

Before the game's reveal and when we basically had a teaser to go off of, there was a lot of speculation (jokes, memes, or otherwise) over what the project could've been. I'm not much of a survival horror enjoyer, I was just interested in what it could've potentially been. I noticed some accurate leaks about it beforehand, but didn't think they were legit.

When it was fully announced, I basically went "oh. okay..." before feeling a growing sense of disappointment and embarrassed for having such an autistic level of obsession over the teaser. Not because of it being a visual novel, but the fact that it was a certain type of visual novel from a series I genuinely did not care that much about. And the way it was described in Yoshio's interview (mainly the part where the ending was described as "divisive for some people") made me think "oh...so THAT'S how it's gonna go...").

And I probably wouldn't be so vexed with it if I didn't notice a number of FDC's (supposed) fans responding to some similarly disappointed people by...basically insulting them. Because...that'll make people want to enjoy the obscure, niche thing you seem to care about so deeply.

What made things even worse was when I noticed a certain Twitter profile (@WhoIsEmio) and thought it was an ARG linked to the teaser somehow, especially since the bio linked to Nintendo's Emio website/the new Famicom Detective Club game website. There were somewhat sporadic, cryptic uploads with seemingly random Japanese words and music (?) that I assumed would've hinted at certain plot points of the game.

So imagine my shock & disbelief when I eventually found out this shit was apparently an AI experiment from a college that may not exist. And this apparently has nothing to do with the actual game (which creates a number of...interesting questions as to how they even knew about certain dates revealing more FDC information...). It legitimately made me want to jump off a building or something.

Uh, so for the demo (as of Ch. 2 right now)...

I think the music's pretty nice...and the mystery is at least interesting enough...the antagonist is pretty menacing & enigmatic so far....

But....

I'm not saying it needs to be like Danganronpa (especially since that series has issues with a good number of its character designs being increasingly more derivative), but...the character designs here are REALLY bland and boring to look at (besides the main antagonist himself). It's like it's trying to go for a more "anime/stylized realism" angle, but it ends up looking very cookie-cutter instead. Many visual novels, even with all their flaws, at least have some interesting art direction, so seeing how it is here felt very lackluster.

And the writing...the mystery itself is fine so far, but much of the regular dialogue between characters incites little to no emotion within me. Beyond certain key characters, I personally didn't feel that much for the main cast.

When I got to the point where you had to wait at a bus shelter before deciding whether or not to call a taxi, the pure silence and the angle made me paranoid enough that I assumed Emio was either watching from the background or was about to creep up to the protagonist as he closed his eyes to...somehow summon a taxi. Needless to say, it felt anticlimactic when neither of those things happened.

I might continue looking into this, but very likely via a playthrough online (and not just because I'm currently poor).

[cosmermaid]

🔥for pokemon!

Oh this is gonna be a lot easier, lol.

-I feel like lot of criticisms of Pokemon as a story are in bad faith. Pokemon is a setting, not a cohesive narrative. It's a world. It is large, has a lot of things in it, and things happen in that world. Some of the things are cool, others are stupid. Just like in real life. I personally think that's what makes it so much fun. (I also LOVE reading fanfictions and worldbuilding head canons for it.)

-Mewtwo isn't overrated. It left a lasting impression with a lot of people because they are to date the singular Pokemon with the most consistent and complex characterization. Most Pokemon, especially in the games, are not characters. They are episodic plot devices/mcguffins or effectively toys with stat-sheets. We project characterization onto them through our own experiences playing the games, which is why a lot of fans have different favorites or personal stories to go along with them. Which is fine in its own right! But there's no canon answer to where your starter Pokemon in your first game came from, or what its story is before meeting you. We all know Mewtwo's story, which makes them a legitimate character and fun to talk about. (Obviously there's exceptions like Ash's Pikachu or Team Rocket's Meowth, but I couldn't tell you a damn thing about my Ceruledge in Pokemon Violet, even though I love it to bits.)

-I don't think most Pokemon translate well into a realistic art style. I liked Detective Pikachu as a movie, quite a lot actually, but most of the Pokemon designs in that movie are either unsatisfying to look at or kind of creepy. I still want there to be another movie though.

-I didn't finish Pokemon Sword because I didn't like the soccer aesthetic. I don't know if this is unpopular or not though.

-It's absolutely criminal that I can't find merch of Finizen or Palafin on the Pokemon Center website.

-This is probably just a me thing but I find it a bit disappointing that a lot of people who want to bring Pokemon in D&D want to make their setting basically only Pokemon. Bring Pokemon into the Forgotten Realms! It'll be fun! Imagine mind flayers making a Pokemon go through Ceremorphosis! Have a wizard do some rules-lawyering to enter himself into a Pokemon tournament!

-I love when humans try fighting Pokemon in canon and I wish it would happen more. This might just be the Floridawoman in me, but people are weird and we like to fight things.

Edit: I have another one. Whatever team does the setting art design for the Pokemon movies needs to be brought on to help out with the games. The Pokemon movies, both the good and the bad ones consistently have beautiful backgrounds and props. If the games insist on going in the open world direction, they could definitely use the help with set design.