#the animation the voice cast the music the everything. its all really really good

[perenlop]

im so torn on whether i wanna watch xy subbed or not. like on one hand, the dub is easier for me to get through and im less afraid of getting a virus, also the site i used for dp and bw is really annoying sometimes and flat out doesnt play episodes sometimes. on the other hand…. god the dub gets so bad in xy. like thats where they stopped using the original score a lot of the time and the openings are just so much better and the voice cast is so good and augh (xyz is absolutely gonna be watched subbed fyi bc its actually on the site i typically use which is less of a pain in the ass)

[animasola86]

🐺 A KNOT TO REMEMBER

m!werewolf x f!reader 🔥 very explicit 🔥 words: 7.6k

In search of some fresh air, you stumble through a beautifully arranged garden. The full moon shows the path, or so you think, until you find yourself face-to-face with something very large and very hairy.

WARNINGS: NSFW! Explicit sexual content! Werewolves! Abduction! Dubcon? Knotting! Breeding! Cum inflation! Fluff? (READ ON AO3!)

A/N: This is part 4 of my CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE smut series! 1 🔸 2 🔸 3 🔸 4 🔸 5 🔸 6 🔸 7 This is OPTION 3 - but can be read individually, let me just set the scene.

CONTEXT: You were invited to a Halloween party in a mysterious house, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, and on your search for the bathroom, you come to a long hallway full of doors, and you decide to go through the door at the end of it, thinking some fresh air would be preferable now.

When you walk through the door, a cold breeze passes by you, making you rub your exposed arms. It's been a mild October thus far, so you didn't bring a jacket. All you have is the red cape that gives your costume its name. Pulling it around your shoulders, you follow the short hallway to another set of doors that lead you straight outside. The fresh air is numbing, but also strangely clearing, and the deeper you inhale, the steadier you feel.

The full moon stands high in the sky, illuminating a beautiful garden before you. You see rows of neatly trimmed hedges, large flower pots and other intricately laid out plant arrangements fit for the season, broken up by either a bench or a little lamp casting additional light into the dark night, with a narrow gravel path snaking through the vast grounds.

You decide to walk off the strange feeling in your guts. With your hood over your head, you quickly feel warmer again. The low thump of the music from the house quiets down with every step you take away from it, deeper into the garden. Soon you find yourself in the middle of a maze, with hedges too high to look over, and paths just wide enough to walk through comfortably. A sinking feeling grips you as you keep walking, but everything looks the same.

Quickening your steps, you feel your heart beating harder in your chest. Good idea to walk through a maze in the freaking dark, you scold yourself, but before you can think of a clever retort, you suddenly hear a strange howling noise, seemingly far away, probably past the forest surrounding the house. It still makes your blood run cold. You stop in your tracks, listening hard, but all you can hear is your own rapid heartbeat and the gentle swish of the wind through the leaves around you, there are no animal sounds, no owls hooting, no insects chirping, no critters running about.

Just eerie silence – until another howl cuts through the night, making you gasp. This time it's much closer, louder, and without even thinking, you turn around, trying to run back to the house, knowing you shouldn't be out here in the first place. Your flight instinct is cut short when you run blindly into... something. Something solid, big, warm...

Stumbling back, you look up with wide eyes, panting heavily, and when you see what you ran into, you freeze, holding your breath, shock settling into your limbs. It's a wolf. As tall as a man. Wait, it is a man, he's standing on his hind legs, but he's got the head of a wolf, with a long snout, sharp eyes and teeth, fluffy ears and all a wolf would have, but below his wide shoulders he may just be a very hairy man, muscular, bulky even, despite the rough looking dark fur covering every inch of his massive body, very intimidating, and he also has a long bushy tail swishing lazily behind him. When he speaks, which surprises you, his voice rumbles through the air like thunder.

“Are you lost, little girl?” he asks, tilting his large head.

You stare up at him with your lips parted, too dumbstruck to process anything. “I... uh... yeah,” you mumble, eyes scanning the large figure in front of you frantically. He really is very hairy, hairy enough he doesn't even need clothes you notice. “I think... I mean... the house is right there, isn't it?”

The wolf man turns around before a low chuckle escapes him. “Not quite. You went a little too far, didn't you, Little Red?”

You blink at the nickname, but then remember your costume – and your initial disappointment that there hasn't been any wolf at the party to match your freak. Well, now you've found him, or he you. And his costume is impressive. Might just be one of those fur suits, one of the more realistic looking ones, because the way he stares down at you almost feels a little too realistic. It's not a mask, is it? But it probably is, it has to be. The alternative would mean he is a real werewolf, and you know that those things don't exist.

Right?

Swallowing hard, you take a cautious step backwards. He moves with you, his imposing body getting closer again, threateningly. You let out a scared little whimper.

“Oh, don't be afraid, little one. I won't hurt you. Not too much anyway,” he adds with a low growl that might have been a laugh. You don't feel like laughing back.

“A-are you –” you stammer, your shoulders shaking with how frantic your chest rises and falls. “A... a... you know... a werewolf?”

He tilts his head again, putting his large hands (paws?) onto his hairy hips as he watches you curiously. “What do you think?” he rumbles, licking his long tongue around his muzzle, showing off razor sharp teeth that gleam in the moonlight. Nope. That's not a mask. This is fucking real.

“Oh God!” you cry out, and in your panic you turn around and run, nothing but terror pulsing through your body as you stumble headlessly through the darkness, away from whatever monster you just encountered. In your haste to round another corner of the maze, your cape gets caught by some thorns, ripping right off you, but you keep running, fleeing into the night.

“He won't help you here,” you hear the deep voice behind you, rapid footsteps following you before you feel a rush of air that knocks you right over. Or rather it's the wolf jumping onto your back, crashing you into the hard ground beneath you. You scream in shock, the pain only registering a few seconds later when you feel your knees scraping open and your palms rubbing over rough gravel.

You squirm in desperation, wailing helplessly beneath him. His hot breath hits your nape, and you freeze immediately, stiffening in fear. He sniffs your hair, and then you feel something warm and wet along the side of your neck. He's licking you, coaxing a sorrowful whine out of your throat.

“Shh, it's alright, little one. Don't be scared. No need to run from me. Wouldn't you say we were destined to meet?” His voice vibrates through you as he presses his snout against the side of your head while his large hands rub along your sides, his strong thighs bracketing your hips, his weight pushing you deeper into the ground. “My little Red Riding Hood...” he continues, poking his wet nose against your cheek. “Weren't you looking for your wolf too?”

You can only wail pathetically, too panicked to consider his words. “Please... no...”

He huffs a warm breath against your skin. “Well, it can't be helped. Fate brought us together. You are mine now,” he says in his deep voice, and suddenly he moves back, off your body, giving you a moment to breathe, but only so long before he grips you around the waist and throws you over his hairy shoulder. At first you're too shocked, then you start squirming and struggling in his hold, gripping his fur, slapping his broad back, kicking your feet. But it feels hopeless. He is just too big, too strong, holding your thighs together with only one hand.

A deep sigh sounds from him as he walks you further into the darkness, ignoring your weak attempts to fight back. Eventually you go limp in his hold, hanging upside down as you do, quickly feeling all the blood rushing into your head, adding to the nausea you felt earlier. Your fingers dig into his pelt, and you're surprised to find it rather soft. Not as rugged as it initially looked.

It doesn't help much to focus on the texture of his fur when you suddenly feel a change in elevation as he carries you down a set of stairs. Then your world is spinning once more when he pulls you off his shoulder, unceremoniously throwing you onto the ground. You land hard, with all the air being pushed out of your lungs, groaning as you roll onto your side, raspy breaths rattling in your tight throat. Before you can take a look around, something drapes over your head.

You cry out, frantically gripping whatever fabric is blocking your vision, only to find it's your red cloak. Staring at it after you've pulled it off your head, you frown.

“Put it on,” the large wolf man tells you in his gruff voice, and you frown even more. “And ditch the rest of your clothes.”

“What?” you gasp out and sit up quickly, looking at him with wide eyes, your heart beating faster.

“Do it yourself or I'll rip them off for you,” he replies, glaring down at you.

“W-why?” you stammer, hugging the cloak to your chest protectively.

An exasperated grunt escapes him. “Why do you think? It's the full moon, and that means one of two things: one, I either find a victim to eat... or two, one to eat out and fuck senseless. I figured you'd prefer the second option.”

Your lips part in a mixture of indignation and shock. Confusion is in there too. You should have known it would come to this, why else would he have carried you away, into his lair presumably, definitely not to talk. He told you not to be scared, but that was probably just a ploy to calm you down some. You are now far from it as hysteria grows within your fluttering stomach.

It's not necessarily the prospect of sex with a stranger, but this guy is a freaking wolf. A werewolf. An animal. Isn't that bestiality or something? And don't werewolves have special... cocks? You feel your cheeks warming up badly as your mind wanders, as do your eyes, lower down his large body, but before you can look for any genitalia between all that fur, you huff a grunt and look away, shaking your head.

“Hmm, you wanna make this difficult, little one?” he growls, slowly stalking closer until he's crouching in front of you, his large hands finding your shoulders, his claws pressing threateningly against your skin. “You should consider yourself lucky I think you're too cute to eat.”

You look back at him, into those dark eyes, his long snout so close to your face you can feel the warm breath on your chin. A shiver crashes through you, and to your biggest embarrassment, there's a throb between your legs, a familiar warmth settling in your core. You press your lips into a thin line and avert your eyes again. He exhales against your face.

“Well?” he huffs.

“You... you're a wolf...” you mumble in response, squirming in his hold. “How... how's that gonna work?”

His laugh catches you off guard. “Oh, little one, don't worry. I still have all the hardware needed for this, trust me. I bet you'll enjoy it more than you think...”

Chewing on the inside of your cheek, you blink slowly before focusing your eyes on his large head once more. You have to give it to him. He could have just taken you, taken what he wanted, ripped your clothes off and pounded into you like the feral beast he is, but he actually seems to ask for your consent in a way, or at least gives you time to consider it, which only adds to your confusion. The worst thing about it, is that your body already knows the answer.

He suddenly moves his snout, pressing his wet nose against your neck and sniffs, and you feel both ashamed and angry with yourself that he can probably smell your arousal as well. In an attempt to distract him from it, your hands shoot up as you dig your fingers into the thick fur of his chest, trying to push him away. He leans back and watches you curiously. You're breathing harder as you face him and the things that are bound to happen.

You can't fight him, he's too strong. From what you can see, he's brought you into some kind of basement and probably locked you in as well. There's no use trying to escape. You are here now, in his clutches, and he may be a werewolf with werewolf anatomy, but he's also talking and when you ignore the large wolf head, you can try to convince your mind that he's just a very hairy man.

And you did come to this party to let loose, to enjoy yourself, to experience an adventure. You had no idea it would turn into a sex adventure, but here you are. And if the alternative is being eaten alive by a monster, than what are you waiting for? Inhaling deeply, you let go of him and move your shaking hands to the buttons of your blouse, slowly undoing one by one as you keep him in your sight, while your heart beats faster with every inch of skin you expose to him.

He leans back on his haunches, his snout seemingly morphing into a wide smile. “What a good girl,” he growls, licking his sharp teeth.

You swallow hard as you continue to strip for him, until your chest is bare and you fidget to get your skirt over your hips in your sitting position. A yelp escapes you as he suddenly grabs your waist and pulls you up, lifting you effortlessly as he stands up to his full height, holding you in front of him like a frightened kitten with your feet dangling in the air. You don't fight it anymore, you just look up at him, blushing as you notice his hungry stare wandering up and down your naked body.

He sets you to the ground again, gentler this time, then leans down to grab the cape and slowly drapes it around your shoulders, his large hands/paws fumbling to try to bind the string into a loop. You reach up, your small hands brushing against his furry digits, before you fasten the bow yourself, keeping the cloak from sliding down again. It does give you a bit of security, even though it leaves your front fully exposed to him. You should probably feel worse about this, but despite a heavy blush creeping down your chest, you try to remain as still as you can, forcing yourself to play along, not wanting to provoke him into eating you after all.

He huffs a satisfied grunt before he grabs you again and lifts you onto his arms. You hold onto his furry shoulders as you gasp softly from the sudden motion. Breathing harder, you focus on him instead of your surroundings, it would only make you want to find an escape route if you knew where he was taking you. First you have to finish this, satisfy the beast, and once he's sated and done with you, hopefully too exhausted to follow you, you could try to sneak away. That is the plan anyway.

You just hope you won't enjoy your predicament too much.

His heavy footsteps echo through the basement, and before you know it, he's throwing you down again, a little bit gentler and this time onto a softer surface, not a bed, but an assortment of thick blankets and pelts on the floor. There's even some straw beneath it all. Primitive, as you would expect from a beast snatching up random women in the night. Even though you may not have been as random as you think.

Fumbling to untangle the cape that got caught around your neck, you look towards him as he stalks closer, bent over like the monster he is, an imposing figure, a terrifying sight that makes goosebumps ripple over your exposed skin. When he suddenly prances forward, you yelp in surprise, trying to scoot back, but his large hands find your thighs, pinning you down and spreading your legs, and with your mind still reeling, you don't even have time to comprehend his next move until you feel his hot breath right against your center.

“No... wait...” you wail quietly, your hands shoving at his large head, but he doesn't budge, and when he opens his large maw and extends his long tongue, you watch him in both terror and with a strange fascination before a deep moan is ripped from your throat as you feel that same tongue lapping along your slit, parting your folds with a strength that makes you throw your head back. “Oh...”

Your fingers dig into the fabric of your cloak that's fanned out around you as you start bucking your hips up, a motion you didn't plan, it just happened, a reflex, a response to the urges boiling within you. It should feel strange to have this beast devour you like this, in a way you never expected, but it also feels too good to fight it anymore. His tongue is hot and wet and large enough to lick up your entire sex, all the way from your puckered hole to your throbbing clit. A single swipe leaves you absolutely breathless, writhing at the edge of pleasure.

He sure knows what he's doing.

And he keeps doing it until you dissolve into nothing but a mewling mess, a puddle of boneless limbs on the makeshift bed, moaning and gasping as the sensations crash through your nerves. On the peak of your orgasm he starts moving his tongue differently, pushes deeper between your folds, and before you know it you can feel it slipping into your clenching cunt, coaxing a strangled squeak out of you.

You hear and feel him huffing against you, low grunts that vibrate through your entire body, enhancing the feeling of his warm snout between your trembling legs. He moves the muscle deeper, laps at your squishy walls, presses into every crevasse he can reach, and all you can do is tilt your hips and contort before him, riding out the most intense orgasm you may have ever had. Most special one also.

Despite your mind turning into mush, filling up with cotton, you still wonder if this may just be a dream. The strangest one for sure, but still a dream. No way could you be eaten out by an actual werewolf. But when he keeps doing what he does, you soon stop caring and just enjoy the feeling. Doesn't matter. You're in for the ride now.

You don't know how many orgasms he pulls from you until he finally leans back and extracts his tongue from inside you. You barely feel it when he laps up your juices, grunting as he does so, but the moment he crawls over you, more of his big body pressing you into the blankets, you blink your eyes into focus and stare up at him, noticing how wet his muzzle looks. You feel your cheeks burning up. Somehow you have the urge to reach your hands up and pat his long snout, and you do, carefully stroking the rough fur all the way to his pointy ears, and he even hums deeply when you scratch him behind them.

A dumb little smile grazes your lips, and for a moment you wish he'd be a real man so you could kiss him, share the feeling of joy reverberating through your insides, but he has the head of a wolf and despite your blissed-out state you don't want to come into close contact with those sharp teeth. How he kept them away from your sensitive skin is still a mystery to you, but also nothing you seem to worry too much about.

He gives you a wide lick in response, his languid tongue stroke reaching from your chin all the way to your eyebrow, and you giggle and try to turn your head away, swatting at his head before wiping at the slobber on your skin. A growl like a laugh echoes from him before he shifts on top of you, strong arms braced on either side of your shoulders, his knees bracketed around your hips as he crouches over you, his shins pressing down on your wide open legs. The rough fur of his stomach rubs against your body, sending shivers down your spine.

“Look at it,” he tells you in a deep rumble, and you blink in confusion before your eyes move lower, and you see it.

It being his cock. It's huge. Bright red with a tapered tip and the hint of a bulbous protrusion near the base, fully unsheathed from within his furry groin as it lies hot and heavy on your fluttering stomach, reaching all the way up to your ribs. You swallow dryly at the sight of it. Too big. It'll never fit. Your eyes move back up to his face, and you can't help it, you shake your head no as tears gather in the corners of your eyes.

He tilts his head, opening his maw to bare his teeth as he growls low in his throat. “You will take it. You were meant for it. You'll see,” he hisses darkly, nudging his wet nose against your chin before he starts lapping at your wet cheeks as the dam breaks and you realize you may have bitten off more than you can chew. “Shh, don't cry. You'll love it, I'm sure,” he continues between licking at your face, slowly moving his snout lower, teasing down your neck until you feel his hot breath on your quivering breasts. “And I will make it fit, trust me.”

You're not sure that's a good thing. But you can't do anything against it now. You are trapped beneath him. Breathing harder, your chest moving rapidly against his relentless tongue as he laps around your hardening nipples, you try to relax under his ministrations, lying back, closing your eyes, white-knuckling the blanket. He shifts on top of you, keeping his maw near your chest as he lines his hips up with yours.

You feel one of his furry hands slipping between your legs, rubbing over your puffy labia, spreading them, coaxing a quiet moan out of you as one clawed finger dips into your hole. Your eyes flutter open again. He looks up then, watching you out of these black eyes, so intense he seems to stare right into your soul, and when he retrieves his finger, you notice out of the corner of your eye how he grips his big cock, strokes it slowly, before pressing its pointy tip between your folds.

You hold your breath, trying to relax while also bracing for his penetration, your muscles already confused as they are. He pushes in then, slowly, almost carefully, and you feel the stretch as soon as his tip disappears inside you. A groan escapes you when he rolls his hips against you, and more and more of his large cock presses into your tight channel, bullying his way deeper. You're whimpering under his scrutinizing gaze as he watches you closely, seemingly looking for any sign of distress, even though he also doesn't seem to mind it too much as you gasp and yelp in pain whenever he forces another inch into you.

His hands circle your head as he leans over you, his wet nose rubbing at your neck. “You're doing great, little Red,” he huffs into your skin, keeping that slow and steady rhythm of moving his pelvis back and forth. “You can do this. You were made for this.”

You wail in response, turning your head to the side, exposing your neck to him, but also to look away from the beast ravaging you. If you focus your mind on the feel, you can almost imagine being fucked by a very bulky man with a very thick and veiny cock, and the thought makes it a little easier. Squeezing your eyes shut as he squeezes the last inches (or so you hope) of his large member into you, you are quickly overwhelmed by it all.

Quiet sobs fall from your trembling lips. You feel so incredibly full, so stretched, his cock taking up any available space inside you. You can feel the tapered tip pressing against your cervix, poking at it as if wanting to go deeper. It's a strange hurt, a sharp pain that turns into a weird comfort, almost-pleasure, as your muscles clench around the unfamiliar intruder. For now he is just resting there, heavy on top of you, heavy inside of you, but then, he starts moving.

You squeak like a slaughtered pig when he withdraws slowly before slamming his hips back against you, hammering his cock deep into you, forcing his way through your tense muscles. He gives you a moment to breathe between his thrusts, but only for so long, until he repeats the motion, over and over again. A slow drag along your walls, a forceful slam back into your depths, out and in, pause, out and in, pause, and despite the ever repeating rhythm you yelp out every time, surprised all over again by the sharp pain crashing through your body.

And it's not just his tip bullying your deepest points, it's that strange bulb at the base of his cock that nudges against your pussy lips with every deep plunge. What's it called? A knot? You don't know much about the matter, why would you ever be interested in animal anatomy, but you wish you could do a quick google or something to ease your mind at the strange sensations. Not that it would change anything.

He keeps pounding into you, always increasing his pace a little bit, slowly taking away your little breathing breaks, until he is hammering into you with full speed, just like the feral beast that he is, and all you can do is whine and wail and moan and mewl, unable to think, unable to breathe, unable to do anything but take it. You're squirming beneath him, both trying to get away from his ruthless assault and maybe, possibly, trying to match his rhythm to make it somewhat better for yourself.

His large form looms over you, his low grunts and growls loud in your ear as he nuzzles at your neck, bent over like he is, resting on his elbows, caging you in even further. Your hands shoot up to grip at his fur, and you even raise your twitching legs to steady them as you hook them around his strong thighs. It does help to be able to hold onto him like you do, without any limb moving about bonelessly, and the longer you cling to him, finally meeting his thrusts with snaps of your own hips, it starts to feel really good really fast.

Before you know it, you're arching against him, clawing at his back, gasping and sobbing and panting as the heat gathers inside you, burning through your nerves like wildfire, setting everything ablaze, and every rapid thrust spirals you higher and higher, building up that tension in your stomach that is sure to explode at any second. When it does, you are not ready.

A shrill scream rips from your throat as you press your back into the makeshift bed and stiffen beneath him, your mouth wide open as you squeeze your eyes shut. Warmth spreads inside you, forcing its way past the rapidly pistoning cock pummeling your clenching muscles, and it's like a tidal wave, not soothing as it laps against the shore, but destructive, powerful, all-consuming. It drags you along, threatens to drown you, pulls and pushes you as you lose all control over your convulsing body.

Your orgasm crashes through you with a blinding force, letting you forget anything around as it engulfs you in sparkling lights and mind-numbing bliss. By the time it subsides slowly, you can already feel it building up all over again as he just continues to fuck you in his relentless rhythm, hammering his cock deep into you, grunting on top of you, his maw parted as he growls, slobber glistening on his razor sharp teeth, his tongue hanging out lewdly.

But before he propels you into the next orgasm, he suddenly leans up, propped on his strong arms, licking his furry lips as he stares down at you. You may look up at him out of hooded eyes but you can't really see him, just this large shadow above you, but you do feel when he suddenly leaps back, pulls out with a force that coaxes another scream out of you as he rips his large cock from between your tight muscles. You writhe a little, groaning in frustration as your orgasm deflates, as that empty feeling settles in.

Though you don't have to lament the loss of his cock for too long as he grabs your waist and manhandles (wolfhandles?) you onto your hands and knees, at least he hopes you'd stay like this, but your body is too limp to fully function, and so you sink onto your chest, arms outstretched, face buried in the soft blankets, ass raised on shaking knees, your cloak tangled around you. He grips the fabric, strangling you for a moment before he notices his mistake and rips it right off you, making you gasp.

His large hand is on your head as he turns it to the side. You can feel his wet nose poking at your cheek. “I'm gonna breed you now, little one, and you will take it all, yes?” You blink at his words, so low they're only vibrations through your head, and you wonder if you heard him correctly. “I will pump you full and keep you on my knot until it sticks, you hear me?” Clearly you didn't, because... what now?

You squirm beneath him, trying to get up on your elbows at least, but he holds you down, one large hand on your nape as he shifts behind you, his fur brushing against the backs of your thighs before he nudges his knee between your legs and pushes them further apart. You can sense the heat of his cock before it even gets in contact with your core, and when it pushes inside you again, it feels like a knife cutting through melted butter.

You cry out, arching your back, jerking your hips away, but he is ruthless. He's carved his way into your cunt, but there's still a bit of resistance before you can take him as deep as he desires. He doesn't care though, just pounds into you with hard and fast thrusts, in and out, a rapid rutting accompanied by wild panting, and all you can do is grunt and moan too, your body pushed up and down the blankets. His hands move to your waist, claws digging into your soft flesh as he drags your hips back when he slams his against your cushioned rear, forcing his cock deeper still.

Your head is spinning, your heart thundering, and slowly, the burning pain turns into overwhelming pleasure. He's bullying your cervix again, plunging in and out with languid strokes, and you're so aroused by now that the only sound aside from your heavy breaths is the loud and lewd squelching of your wet cunt. It drives you insane how good it feels to be taken like this, bent over, a primal sensation, to be at the mercy of this beast. In this position, he hits all the right spots, and it's a blinding thing all around you as you come hard, crying out helplessly, hands digging into the blankets and pelts, body spasming against him.

He grunts as you clamp down on his cock, but he doesn't stop, he even moves faster, pushes harder, forces all of him into you. And despite your orgasmic haze you feel his knot pummeling against your entrance, trying to fit through. The pain cuts through the cotton in your mind, sharp little jolts whenever he pushes particularly deep, and when those throbbing bulbs suddenly breach you, as your muscles give way to the rest of his cock, you scream, first in agony at the stretching sensation, then again as another intense orgasm rips through you.

He lets out a low howl when your tight muscles clench around him, milking him for all he's worth, before he continues to snap his hips against your rear, bullying his knot deeper. If you felt full before, you are now close to bursting with how stuffed you are. You can barely breathe between all the gasps and whines, and he doesn't let you either as he continues his shallow rutting, his growls and grunts getting louder, more frantic, his clawed fingers digging into your flesh as he holds you against him.

You are again on the edge of pleasure, floating on that wave that threatens to consume you fully, when he suddenly stills, buried deep within you, tip squished right against your cervix, your cunt holding onto his knot as if you would drown without it, and you feel it throbbing, pulsing, swelling up, stretching you even further. Lightning crashes through the clouds of bliss, making you shriek, hot tears rolling down your already wet cheeks.

And then he grunts, leaning over you, snout nuzzling against your neck, burying in your hair, hot breath fanning over your skin as he gives you those tiny snaps of his hips, and your whole body moves with those motions, connected as you are. You feel him shaking above you before you feel something else deep inside you.

Spurt after spurt of hot cum shoots into the already cramped depths of your cunt, filling up quickly, but with his knot holding it all in place, it has no choice but to look for every nook and cranny it can find, pressing through the tiniest openings, and as it does, you shudder deeply, feeling ready to burst before yet another orgasm rips through you, leaving you shaking like a leaf, as his seed breaches into your womb, more and more, with every twitch of his cock, every pulse of his knot, rope after rope, filling you up until you feel completely bloated.

Somehow you manage to move a hand beneath you, rubbing against your usually soft tummy, but it's tense and hard, rounder than you remember it, and even though you should be terrified by it, you can only lie there and take it, as the wolf man above you leans on you and pumps you as full as he has promised. His breathing eases slowly, yours takes a lot longer to go back to normal, and with your heart thundering inside your heaving chest, you feel utterly exhausted.

He licks his tongue over your wet cheek, a sweet gesture among the feral breeding act, and you can't help but give him a tired smile as you try to look at him out of the corner of your eye. He huffs against you, resting his large head on your back as he relaxes – letting his body work for him, because you can still feel him throbbing, shooting more cum into you at irregular intervals, usually accompanied by a soft little roll of his hips, a little nudge to remind your tight cunt he's still very much stuck inside you.

You wonder how long this will last. But before you can think more about this animal rite, your eyelids grow heavier and the world turns black.

You wake with a shriek as you feel a particularly hard thrust hitting your bruised and probably dilated cervix, the sudden pain crashing through you like the stab of a knife. You're no longer kneeling on the makeshift bed, you're lying on your back on his wide body, legs fallen open over massive furry thighs, two strong arms holding you tightly in their grip, squishing your tender breasts. He's switched you around, huffing and puffing beneath you as he pushes his hips up in a slow but steady rhythm.

“Again?” you groan out, trying to squirm in his tight embrace.

“Not over yet, little one,” he growls into your ear, wet nose poking at your cheek as he shifts beneath you. “More to give.”

“Ugh,” you make, your head lolling back against his shoulder. “But I'm so full...”

“You can take more,” he tells you quietly, a low rumble in the air. One large hand moves down your body, firmly pressing against your bloated stomach. You moan in response, your own hand finding his, trying to feel the same he does.

It's unnatural, that's for sure. That bump should not look and feel like this after only one load of his seed. But then again – he is unnatural, everything about him is. Who knows how special his cum is. Though you really don't want to think about it. You don't want to get pregnant, no matter how hot the whole breeding thing may be in theory. And you probably won't anyway, he's a wolf (man), it sure won't be compatible, right? A groan escapes you as you shake your head to clear it. No more thinking.

Just enjoy his warmth, the way he holds you, moves inside you, locked on his knot for who knows how long. Despite it all it feels comforting, somehow even romantic in a way, to be connected like this. Inhaling deeply, you relax into his soft but also hard body, his fur feels nice against your sweaty skin, the bulging muscles beneath exuding strength and safety. A good bed, that's what he is, with the added bonus of a truly incredible cock that fills you out perfectly, rubbing you just the right way.

Another wave of exhaustion washes over you, alongside what feels like the gentlest orgasm you've ever experienced, a little tingling sensation, a burning deep within, a soothing caress. You sigh contently, closing your eyes, falling deeper into his embrace.

When you come to next, you feel a cold breeze against your face that makes your nose twitch. You seem to move, but your limbs are still out of order, and when you slowly fight your way back into consciousness, you realize you're being carried, with two strong hands holding your thighs up while you are still impaled by that unbelievably resilient cock. A groan escapes you.

“Calm down, little one,” the wolf man grunts into your ear as he walks through the dark basement. “Almost done now.”

“Does it always take this long?” you whisper, leaning into him, your hands grabbing his wrists to steady yourself.

“For the knot to go down? Well, you are particularly arousing, my little Red, I can't help it. Seems you are my special mate after all,” he hums deeply.

You turn your head slightly to look at him, raising an eyebrow. “Mate?”

“Yes, mate. I would have made you mine already, but I wanted to see how you can take me.” He inhales deeply as he presses his muzzle into your hair. “You did amazingly,” he adds, lapping at the shell of your ear. You shiver, squirming away with a surprised giggle that travels through your entire body, making you clench around his hard cock.

“Your stamina is really concerning,” you reply with a shake of your head. “Not sure I could do this again...”

“But you're still doing it, holding my knot so perfectly, keeping my seed inside you,” he huffs gently, licking along your neck as he turns around and walks back the way he came.

“Why are you walking in circles?” you wonder, moving your hands to your rounded stomach. Every movement seems to slosh its contents about. A strange feeling for sure.

“I can't keep you on it forever, I am afraid,” he says in a low rumble. “The moon is setting soon...”

You frown at his words, not even wondering what time it is right now, shifting in his hold to better look into his wolfish face. “And then what?”

“I'll turn into a man again,” he tells you, his dark eyes boring into yours. Something warm crashes through you.

“How is that a bad thing?” you blurt out, more excited about that prospect than you probably should be.

He huffs a low laugh, shaking his large head. “You wouldn't want to be near me when I do. It's painful even for me, and to have you stuck to me would be... devastating.”

“Oh,” you make, blinking as you process his words, chewing on the inside of your cheek.

“Let's try our luck, hm?” he then says, carrying you back to the makeshift bed.

He kneels down with you strapped to his chest like a newborn in a carry-on, and when he bends you forward, you brace yourself, resting on your hands and knees as he shifts behind you. His clawed fingers dig into your plump hips as he gives you a tentative nudge of his pelvis. You wince at the sensation, the stretch and pull on your tight muscles sending shivers down your spine.

His sigh is loud and warm around you, and apparently his knot is still too inflated to budge. Inhaling deeply, you buck your rear against him, trying to relax, ease your muscles, force his cock out of you. He seems to notice your efforts and starts pulling gently, grinding his hips, inching himself backwards. You still feel a sharp pain when his knot nudges against your tight entrance from within, but it's slowly widening, giving way, and when he pops out and slips free, you gasp and collapse on the bed, the sudden loss of pressure almost dizzying.

He lets out a low growl, his hand rubbing over your swollen pussy lips as you feel your muscles contracting around nothing, or rather the flood of cum that's bound to spill from your depths if he wouldn't hold his large palm there. He rolls you onto your side, snuggling against your back, before he pulls his fingers away, pressing your thighs together instead. His wet nose rubs against your jaw as he pulls his strong arms around you.

“Rest now, little one. Keep your legs closed,” he whispers, holding you tightly.

You're too exhausted to protest or care about any possible spillage or whatever consequences may result from this unusual coupling. None of it matters. Sleep does sound really good right about now. The wolf man relaxes behind you, his deep breaths slowly turning into loud snores, and you allow yourself to catch some Zs too. You'll need your strength. For something. Hmm. What was it again? Some sort of plan? Doesn't matter. It'll come to you. Now you just want to rest, let your body recover from whatever ordeal this has been. Knotted and bred by a werewolf. Pfft. What a silly dream...

Your eyes fly open as if someone has turned on the light in your empty mind, illuminating everything that's happened earlier. Oh. Oh God. Oh no! Your breaths accelerate, your heart beats faster as you realize where you are, in whose arms you're lying. His snores still echo through the cavernous room, your body molded to his larger frame, his arms tight around you.

Carefully you wriggle your way out of his embrace, listening closely to his rumbling sounds, but he seems too far gone to notice your frantic escape. You manage to slip from under his arms, your body aching when you move it, but you fight through the discomfort and slowly stand up on shaking legs. Immediately you feel something wet and sticky dripping down your thigh, and a quick touch to your bloated stomach tells you, you are still filled to the brim with werewolf cum. Fuck. This can't be happening.

Turning around, you see the furry beast slumbering away peacefully, his large body moving with every thundering snore. Once you got your bearings, you start looking around the room until you find some clothes. Not yours though, but a big plaid shirt that you slip into. It reaches almost to your knees, so it'll have to do. When your eyes fall on the red cloak next to the makeshift bed, you hesitate, but then you leave it behind. Let him have a small remembrance of your special night.

At least you find your shoes, and once you're ready to leave, you throw a last glance back at the monster. He's still fast asleep, and you almost regret having to leave, but you can't just live in some cave or basement with a werewolf, letting him pump you full of cum to carry his pups or whatever it is he expects of you, no matter how mind-blowing the experience has been.

Biting your lip, you turn around and try to find a way out, and surprisingly enough, he didn't lock you in. After climbing a set of stairs, you find yourself in a small cabin, and when you try the front door, it just opens. Stepping outside into the night (which surprises you, you were almost certain you were stuck on his damn knot for a day or more, or so it felt), you fight the shivers, snuggling into the large shirt that smells like him, a comforting scent that doesn't make it easier to leave.

But you do, trying to find your way through the darkness. The moon is nowhere to be seen, it may just be a cloudy night, or it really was close to setting, you can't be sure, and frankly, it doesn't concern you anymore. You gotta move on, get back to the house, ask someone to call you an Uber...

As you suddenly realize you have no idea where your purse is, you stumble onto a better lit path, but the sight of what awaits you at the end makes you shiver deeply. It's a graveyard.

1 🔸 2 🔸 3 🔸 4 🔸 5 🔸 6 🔸 7

You've come to a (literal) dead end. Or have you?

No, just keep going...

But you can always go back to the beginning and choose another door. Back in the hallway, here are your options:

Reach for the door closest to you.

Go through the door a few feet on your right.

Notes: I'd like to thank @moongurl95 for planting this idea into my head! Thank you so much for sharing your open-ended dream, it really inspired this whole adventure, but particularly this part! I hope I could fill in the blanks! <3

MASTERLIST // AO3 // ORIGINAL WORKS

KINKTOBER 2024 MASTERLIST

[speedierthanasubmarine]

I decided to watch helluva boss and imma do 2 separate posts for seasons 1 and two (why did I write it like that…?)

Season one

God I love this show. The writing is way more my speed than Hazbin hotel on Amazon, I enjoyed the writing in the pilot, but once Amazon took over the humor just didn’t really land for me, and tbh the plot took over and I started focusing more on that, and in general I’m more partial to the rapid fire YouTube dry comedy and this sentence is a friggin mess- I found HB SO FREAKIN FUNNY

Dude when he goes “FUCK, a new hole” I lost it

“Just try and sue us”

��We’re rich and we’re hot”

“I can just buy all the things!”

“You should commit die”

“Hehe, Trumpet!”

These are just my kinda lines, I don’t know how to explain it, I was wheezing all throughout the season

The music OH LORD when I say I’ve listened to stolas’s lullabye, lulu land, cotton candy, and house of ozmodius like 100000 times I’m… exaggerating but like you get the point the music here is friggin fantastic I also really like how a lot of the music is diegetic, I think that’s a fun touch. I don’t remember whether this is the case in Hazbin, but in this one it was like… I don’t know, it made sense that they were singing when they were singing… am I articulating myself well? I don’t care, iykyk if not, no prob

The animation is great, Viv loves them spinny shots and I am here for it. The amount of genuinely amazing action scenes is super impressive, and even the chill scenes have a ton of personality

The voice acting might be what steals the show for me, idrk anyone’s names cept Alex Brightman but BLITZS VA NEEDS AN AWARD, also slight tangent but I don’t know what it is with stolas’s va but he sounds a lot like a bird in the same sense that Gary Oldman sounded a lot like a bird in Kung Fu Panda 2, what is it that casting directors recognize in actors that screams bird?! Because both of these men are just SO BIRD DOES ANYONE GET WHAT I MEAN moving on, Ozzie’s voice was also effing PERFECT it slid silkily over me like… silk butter or smtg it was the perfect lust voice, I loved it. Everyone else was also great, but they were extra great.

It was also just so fun? Like in hazbin there’s very little just… shenanigans to enjoy, nothing wrong with that because it’s not that type of show, whereas this season is jam packed with them. Like I’ve heard that everyone hated episode 4, but like I don’t know I loved it😆 I just found it to be good old fashioned chicanery, and I liked the chaos and stupidity of it, made for some entertaining TV. This story engine is just mad entertaining for me.

I also enjoyed the writing of most of the characters (Millie, Moxxie, Loona, and Octavia still leave a bit to be desired imo, but whatever, they can’t all be winners and there’s nothing wrong with them) Blitz kinda reminds me of a Barney Stinson type character, which I really enjoy, and I also really like how his boss persona kinda infects everything he does while simultaneously being what’s screwing him over, his nature is kinda like a snake swallowing its own tail, which is tragic and beautiful, and Stolas compliments him well by being, not an enabler, but… I don’t know a clever way to say this… Stolas is a wreck in the best way and he just works. He’s short sighted, like extremely so, like how he thinks sleeping with Blitz will fill his emotional void so he does it but it just drives them further apart so it’s like he’s in a hole and in order to get out he’s gonna dig to pile up dirt so he can climb out but he’s an idiot and that’s a stupid idea and I loved his whole arc. Very enjoyable stuff drama.

Kinda random but whoever Viv’s foli artist is also deserves an award, the sound effects in this show are pristine and it’s incredible (yes I’ve seen the scene where the gun sounds go off a few seconds too late, and yeah, mistakes happen, but every bone crunch sounds and other stuff like that being so enunciated in an indie show is extremely impressive)

Anyhoo, very fun, very emotional, nice to look at, very funny, yada yada- altogether great season 1.

[musicfranchisetournament]

propaganda under the cut !!

break my case :

The music variety is so fun and the rhythm-puzzle gameplay is so engrossing!! The depth to all the characters in the story with a setting that's very down-to-earth makes it feel like these guys are my friends and coworkers for reals.

hanadoll :

MY FAVORITE MUSIC PROJECT OF ALL MUSIC PROJECTS EVER. the basic premise is that there's this idol agency ( amagiri production ) looking to create the "perfect idol" and in order to achieve this, they developed a flower implant technology to nuture the potential of their idols. it currently has three seasons of voice dramas ( the fourth one is coming soon, which they just announced along w an anime for the s1 dramas in 2025 !! ) the first season follows the "main" idol group, anthos, in their predebut days and their struggles of "blooming" their flower seeds in order to become a full fledged idol group. season two adds another group, louloudi, and follows both them and anthos after their debut ( s2 also adds a new member to anthos !! ) and finally season three is well. i shant say but it's so good you gotta trust me i've been a fan for like. three or fourish years now its been great<3 aside from the story content though, the songs are truly so good !! i'm rather partial to s1 and s3 anthos music but basically everything slaps rlly hard wehehehe :] the lyrics are also insane and there's lot's of hint and puzzles/riddles/clues abt the story presented in them and in the mvs themselves !! also the art is gorgeous thank u teita <3 overall the project is just really really cool and honestly i think everyone should give it a try. trust :] ALSO last point but if anyone cares abt seiyuus here they have SUCH a good vocal cast its insane. in anthos we have seiichi, massun, itoken, tokishun, horie shun, daiki hamano, and wataru komada . . . then in louloudi we have tosshii, yamashita daiki, and takeuchi shunsuke . . . soooo good ouhh

Beloved silly crazy science media where a bunch of guys are implanted with a seed that blossoms when they reach their true potentional. The media is dark delving into different forms of trauma as we navigate the relationship ships between each of the members. The concept is super unique and the description of the blossoms blooming sounds so painful that I was shocked to read about it in a silly music franchise. The songs are ... so good lyrically and make you stare at a wall for a while.. the designs for all the characters really stand out. It's got some strange slightly immoral human experimentation science in a music media what more could u want.

[the-al-chemist]

Dos Namorados

A/N: for @hphm-ship-week’s prompt “First Kiss”, here is Charlie’s.

Warnings: references to canon character death and mentions of loss/grief.

Though she wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, Alanza’s first impression of Hogwarts had left her rather disappointed.

It wasn’t that the castle and grounds weren’t beautiful — they were, in their own way — but everything was rather devoid of colour, especially compared to the lush greens and rich golden hues of Castelobruxo. At Hogwarts, everything was muted, from the grey stone to the even greyer skies, from the crisp white snow to the inky depths of the Black Lake.

Tonight, however, on the evening of the Valentine’s Day Ball, the castle had bloomed. The Great Hall, along with its usual floating candles and ceiling that looked like the night sky, had been filled with paper hearts in every shade of pink and red imaginable, from the palest pastel to the deepest crimson, and each of the sash windows had been lined with roses. Even the students were brighter, dressed in their colourful dress robes and blushing as they were complimented or asked to dance by their dates.

Alanza herself had not been invited on the dancefloor yet, even though she did have a date. Charlie had yet to ask her if she wanted to dance. She was not sure why, exactly. Surely, dancing was the whole point of a ball?

But, maybe he did not like dancing, or he was just too shy to ask her — after all, she had been the one who had asked him to be her date, not the other way around. Or, maybe, he only liked her as a friend.

That would be disappointing if it were true. In the month Alanza had been at Hogwarts, she had developed an Erumpet-sized crush on Charlie. He was kind, and didn’t stare at her like the other boys did. She liked his friendly-looking face and his vivid red hair. He liked animals, and she had heard that he was a really good Quidditch player. Yes, this was the boy for her. If only she could be the girl for him.

She cast a look sideways at him as they stood to the side of the Great Hall, near the dance floor. He caught her eye and smiled, but said nothing. She tried not to sigh. After all, she should have been happy to just be Charlie’s friend. It wasn’t like she was having much luck making friends with anyone else. She had hoped that, by now, she would be firm friends with the girls in her dormitory, but it was still very awkward between them. Often they seemed upset, perhaps with her, though she didn’t know why that would be. Even when they weren’t upset, Penny and Tonks rarely had time for her, they were so busy revising for Potions, and though Chiara from the room opposite was very nice, she barely spoke to anyone, and as for Artemis…

Well, if the other girls seemed upset with Alanza, Artemis seemed to really hate her.

Alanza’s eyes drifted once more to the dancefloor. The other girls were right in the centre of it, dancing with that Ravenclaw girl Tonks was friends with. They all looked happier tonight than Alanza had seen them in all the weeks she had been at Hogwarts. Perhaps because she wasn’t with them.

A wave of loneliness crashed over Alanza, and she took a sip of her Butterbeer to hide the look of sadness on her face. Still, she must have not hidden it well enough, because Charlie turned to her looking confused and worried.

“You alright?” he asked her, voice raised over the sound of the music.

“Hm? Oh, yes,” Alanza lied. “I am having a very nice time.” She waved her hand vaguely at the room. “Everything here tonight is looking beautiful, I think.”

She was hoping that Charlie might tell her that she, too, looked beautiful tonight. He might have done, but before he could say anything at all, they were interrupted by a not-wholly welcome third party.

“Talking about looking beautiful,” said Diego Caplan, who had appeared out of nowhere to stand beside Alanza. “That dress really suits you, you know.”

The compliment might have come from the wrong person, but it was still a compliment. Alanza smiled. “Thank you.”

“A dress like that was made for dancing in. Want to go up there with me and I can help you show it off?”

“That is very kind of you.” Alanza glanced at Charlie. He was silent, his eyes fixed on the dancefloor, but she could have sworn that she had caught him shaking his head. “But, no. Charlie is my date.”

She smiled at her date, and he at her. He looked a little surprised, and grateful, too.

“Of course. No worries.” Diego’s smile wasn’t as friendly as Charlie’s. “I hope you two have fun.” He leaned across to talk to Charlie. “You really should get out there, mate. I mean, if they can get up and have a good time tonight there’s no excuse for the rest of us.”

As he nodded his head in the direction of the dancefloor, Alanza followed the direction of his gaze. He was looking directly at the girls from her dormitory. She wanted to ask him what he meant — why wouldn’t Penny and the other girls be having fun? — but Diego wasn’t done talking.

“Though, judging by that outfit,” he added, “Hexley’s planning on having a really good time tonight. It’s funny how some girls just go completely off the rails when—”

“Funny isn’t really the word I’d use, Diego,” Charlie cut in. His tone was abrupt, more so than Alanza had known it could be.

“Hey, I’m just saying…”

“The thing is, mate, I don’t actually care what you have to say.” Charlie shrugged his shoulders, which had grown suddenly tense. “Most of the time I just wonder when the hell you’ll shut up and stop being such a slimy git.” He turned to Alanza and told her, “I’m going outside.”

Alanza blinked. “Oh. Oh, okay.”

“You can come with me if you like.”

It wasn’t obvious whether Charlie was inviting her to join him because he really wanted her to come with him or if he was just being polite. It didn’t feel like he wanted her to come with him, but he wasn’t speaking in a very polite way, either. He seemed really angry for some reason. She had never seen him look angry before, and for some reason, she quite liked it.

Charlie was not tall, his legs were not long, but he strode out of the Great Hall with such speed that it took some effort on Alanza’s part to keep up with him in her heels. When they got to the courtyard outside, he placed his balled-up fists to his head and took one very deep and very loud breath. As he exhaled, he ran his hands backwards, fingers raking through his hair. Alanza frowned.

“Charlie, are you—”

“I’m alright,” he said. He shook his head and offered her a forced smile. “Sorry. I just had to get some fresh air, that’s all.”

The air was not so much fresh as it was freezing. Alanza had been warned that it would be cold at Hogwarts, but nothing could have prepared her for the biting chill of the British winter breezes. She shivered in her dress, and Charlie’s eyebrows furrowed.

“You don’t have to stay out here with me.”

Alanza took a step backwards. “You want me to leave you alone?”

“That’s not what… You’re cold,” said Charlie. “I don’t want you to think you have to stay out here just because I am. You can go back in, I’ll only be a minute.”

He seemed to genuinely care about her being cold. That was sweet, Alanza thought.

“The cold is not so bad if it is only for a minute,” she told him. “I will stay with you, if you do not mind.”

“Not at all.”

They sat side-by-side on a low wall under an archway, Charlie stock still, Alanza shivering. The cold was bad. Each second seemed to last an age, and Alanza could have sworn that not just one but several minutes had passed without them returning inside to the warmth of the Great Hall. After what felt like almost twenty minutes, but was probably only around twenty seconds, Charlie removed his jacket and placed it over her shoulders.

“Here. I’m used to this weather,” he said. He paused before adding, “Don’t you hate feeling angry at people? I hope you didn’t think it was you I was annoyed with.”

Alanza hadn’t thought that, not really, but it was nice to know. Especially seeing as…

“I think most people here are annoyed with me,” she admitted to Charlie.

“Really? Why?”

”I don’t know. I think I might have done something wrong.” Alanza sighed. “I think that is why I don’t have any friends here.”

“That’s not true,” said Charlie. Alanza raised her eyebrows at him. “Um, we’re friends. And Penny and that, they’re your friends, too, right? Penny said she was really looking forward to you all getting ready together earlier.”

Maybe he was just trying to cheer her up. But Penny was nice, and she had been the one to suggest them all getting ready together. Penny might have been busy a lot, but she did always try to make Alanza feel welcome. Tonks, too. Maybe they weren’t as annoyed with Alanza as she thought. But they weren’t the only ones in that dormitory.

“Charlie,” she said, “you are friends with Artemis, aren’t you? Good friends?”

“Yeah, really good friends. She…” Charlie blinked. “I think she’s probably my best friend.”

“Has she said to you why she hates me so much?”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

“She doesn’t like me.”

“Well, no.” Alanza hadn’t expected Charlie to be quite so honest. “But, if it’s any consolation, I don’t think she likes anyone at the moment.” He shrugged. “She’s in a bad place.”

“Why?” Her curiosity piqued, Alanza sat up straighter.

“I can’t really say.”

“Because it is my fault?”

She could have guessed before he shook his head that it probably wasn’t her fault, but at least her question got Charlie talking a bit more.

“Look, I can’t tell you anything that she wouldn’t want me to tell you because she’s my friend, and I don’t know everything myself, but… Well, basically, Artemis lost someone really close to her recently. If she hadn’t, then I don’t think she would be half as unfriendly as she has been. Normally, she’s not like that, not really. Normally, I think she’d really like you. And you’d like her, too.”

Alanza wasn’t sure how much she believed those last couple of sentences. She let out a low hum, and though Charlie almost laughed, he looked almost as tense as he had before leaving the Great Hall.

“I’m serious,” he said. “Trust me, she’s not herself right now. I’m pretty worried about her. Really worried, actually. And Diego saying stupid things like that doesn’t help.” He sighed and scratched the back of his head. “But, like I said, I don’t like getting angry. It’s not my… I just want my friend back, honestly.”

Charlie fell quiet once more. Alanza stared at him. He really did have such a kind face. She leaned towards him and smiled.

“I think it is nice, that you care so much about your friends,” she told him. “I really like that about you.”

“Really? Right. Thanks.”

He had stopped looking down at the floor and was looking at her now. Since she had leaned in, they were a lot closer than they had been, their faces were only centimetres from each other.

“I, er…” Charlie frowned and moved backwards. Alanza was disappointed, for a moment, but then he said her name. “Alanza?”

His voice was hopeful and nervous, and so was she.

“Yes?”

“I was just wondering, would it be alright for me to kiss you?”

Alanza laughed out loud, she was so relieved. As Charlie’s face fell, she realised that her laughter had been misconstrued. For a moment, she thought she should apologise, but actions always did speak louder than words. So, she leaned in and kissed him. It took a second for him to respond, but when he did, it was everything she had hoped for, if maybe just a little clumsier.

“So, yeah. I guess it’s alright, then,” Charlie said, once they had broken apart. Alanza laughed again, but this time, so did he.

“This has been more than a minute,” she told him. She picked up his hand and stood up. “Let’s go inside and dance. I am very cold.”

But, that was not true. As they walked back towards the door of the castle hand-in-hand, Alanza felt warmer than she had in weeks.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group B Round 4: Kageki Shoujo!! vs Orient

#B2: Kageki Shoujo!!

Girls aiming to become top stars in a Takarazuka high-school

#B3: Orient

Samurai on motorcycles!

Details and poll under the cut!

#B2: Kageki Shoujo!!

Summary:

After being forced to graduate from JPX48 following a controversial incident with a male fan, Ai Narata swears to never interact with another man ever again. Using her talents and strong desire to get away from men, Ai auditions for the exclusive all-female Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. The school is renowned for producing the best actresses that go on to perform in the famous all-female Kouka Theatre Troupe. Coming from the idol industry, Ai is the perfect candidate for the school’s hundredth generation class, but her aloof demeanor alienates her from her classmates. The eccentric Sarasa Watanabe is the only person who wishes to become Ai’s friend. She enters Kouka with the goal of becoming a top “otokoyaku” performer—an actress that plays traditionally male roles. After seeing a Kouka performance of The Rose of Versailles when she was younger, Sarasa dreams of performing as Lady Oscar one day. Unfortunately, Sarasa's inability to read a room causes friction between her and her classmates, including Ai, who reluctantly becomes her roommate and partner in many of their classes. Succeeding at Kouka will involve more than just raw talent for these young girls as jealousy, deceit, and the harsh realities of show business put their mental fortitude to the test. Will Sarasa and Ai be able to rise to the top and stand on the silver bridge?

Propaganda:

If theatre setting/schools is your thing, you’re probably going to love this series! We follow our protagonists and their schoolmates following their dreams to become actresses for the prestigious Kouka Revue. Not an easy road as they will have to face and overcome many challenges, the hardest ones coming from themselves. Indeed, the story is not afraid to address sensitive topics and their resulting traumas (see TW list) always rightfully handed. These episodes may be a bit hard to see if you’re sensitive to these topics, but the show never leaves you in discomfort: everything is properly addressed, and characters are cared for realistically.

The characters are all very well-written, portraying individuals with way more depth than they may appear at first glance. We follow their growth—or its start—during the series. Sarasa is a walking sunbeam, and her blooming friendship with the withdrawn Ai is a delight to watch. We learn to know—and love—all their classmates as well, as episodes switch focus to one or the other.

The OST is really good, with a catchy opening, and no less than five different versions of the ending song, a fabulous duet voiced by the cast! The animation features really pretty art with iconic details like the stars in Sarasa’s eyes. The series is a homage to Takarazuka and scatter references to famous real-life Revues and older famous shôujo manga series like “Versailles no Bara” or “Glass no Kamen”. Actually, it feels like a modernized version of their essence: roses, sparkles, spotlight, drama, all while staying safe!

This anime is like candy for eyes and soul, and I really hope we'll get a season 2 to explore the girls' voices further!

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Pedophilia, Self-Harm

Nothing is too graphical nor explicit, just the right amount to let the unsettling situations be clear enough to watchers, and they’re always addressed correctly.

Child abuse/ Pedophilia: episode 3 (+4), about Ai’s traumas

Self-harm: episode 5 focuses on a girl with an eating disorder, forcing herself to vomit (not sure if that really counts as TW?)

#B3: Orient

Summary:

Freed from the rule of samurai 150 years ago, the people of Hinomoto live peaceful lives and revere their liberators—demons whose true forms remain elusive—as gods. Fated to mine rocks for the demons to feast on, Musashi knows the grim truth: humanity is enslaved by these otherworldly beings and the samurai are the last bastion fighting for freedom. Hiding his true opinion from his peers and growing distant from his childhood friend Kojirou Kanemaki, Musashi lives in angst until the day of his graduation.

When the fresh graduates arrive at the mine, they are horrified to see the inhumane treatment of miners and the uncanny physical appearance of their overseers. However, Musashi manages to endure thanks to Kojirou's help. As the demon leader wreaks havoc on the quarry, Musashi is saved once more from certain death by the Takeda samurai clan. Recovering from humiliation and yearning for adventure, Musashi embarks on a journey to become a samurai and form his own clan!

Propaganda:

Ohtaka has done it again in creating a world full of characters with more depth than can be portrayed limited amount of screen time that each of them get. This leaves the viewer with a whole lot of potential to imagine on their own, even after watching. It’s kind of unique that it is set in the samurai era of Japan, but thanks to crystals left by the demons, motorcycles and flying castles are a thing outside the main characters’ mining village. There are plenty of gags throughout and dynamics between characters. Personally, I loved the second half a lot more than the first because of the cast introduced then. For example, the detail given to Kuroku with the lace she wears–it’s so intricately beautiful! Plus, most of the mechanics of how the world works is covered by then, so we can get into the action.

Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse

The third main character comes from a mentally abusive family situation, but the other two help her leave that situation. Main character’s child abuse is in flashbacks for character development to rise above that and break the cycle. Don’t know if gore or fan service need a trigger warning, typical shounen stuff.

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 it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form with your revisions, and I’ll consider adapting those changes.

New: Starting round 5, screenshots will be included in the poll post. You can submit screenshots through the form linked above, or through here, via ask or dm.

Guidelines in submitting screenshots:

No NSFW or spoilery images.

Pick some good images please. Don’t send any blurry or pixelated ones.

You may send up to 9 screenshots, but not all may be used.

[writebackatya]

i wanted to ask, why beauty and the beast as your favorite disney movie? do you have any specific memories with it?

There might be some childhood bias but man I do love the Disney Renaissance era. I was born near the end of that era so I did have a certain fondness. Mind you I have vivid memories watching both Tarzan and Mulan in theaters and the rest on VHS and DVD with my siblings

For the longest time I’d say Aladdin was my favorite Disney movie of all time and I think it might be the one I watched the most, but when I was in my teens Beauty and the Beast became my favorite because it’s just the best in my humble opinion

I love everything about it!

The music numbers are wonderful! The Disney Renaissance in general has a lot of wonderful music!

Every movie from that era I will admit have some bangers. The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Mulan; all great stuff! But I admit all of them have song or two that just don’t really do it for me as much as their others. Doesn’t mean I hate them though. (The only songs I genuinely hate out of these movies are Les Poissons from The Little Mermaid and A Guy Like You from The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

But Beauty and the Beast! Every song is a banger and not a drag and moves the story forward! First you got it’s opening number: Belle! I just love it’s energy and how it introduces its main characters! It’s so good it gets another reprise and you don’t know how often I’ve sung “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere” in public. Twice. Once at work

And Gaston!? An amazing villain song. It’s so ridiculous, makes you wanna sing along and do all the voices, and it captures our villain’s scummy ways so well! And the reprise!? So good! Just love how sinister it becomes while still being so jovial!

Be Our Guest!? Yes please! The supporting cast in this movie is so good and this song is a great showcase of these characters, specifically Lumiére and Cogsworth! Lumiére with his excellent showmanship and Cogsworth just slowly getting into while being on the end of a lot of slapstick! Don’t worry, Mrs. Potts will get her time in the spotlight soon but we get a small taste of her singing talents in this one!

And how about Something There!? Whenever it’s a beautiful winter day this song will always play in my head! And it’s funny to think that one of the previous scenes before it was the Beast fighting off those wolves in the snow! When all of that was kinda scary and he was still seen as somewhat of a threat! But look at him now! Birds love him! He has a gentle side! And he sucks at snowball fighting! It’s funny! Oh and his voice! So damn good! And Belle’s singing is still just as beautiful as ever

If we’re talking extended edition I do really enjoy Human Again which is a great addition to the soundtrack! The beast’s servants deserve their own song singing about what they want

And now. The main event. The titular song. Beauty and the Beast sung by Mrs. Potts herself!! God this song is so beautiful! Angela Lansbury’s voice is phenomenal; it’s so loving and caring and soft! (Also absolutely great blend of 2D and 3D animation in this scene! So well done!)

Funny to think about that the final song (besides the reprise) is the Mob Song. But yeah! This song is damn good too! Like I love the Beast but this fear mongering song is such a banger and shows Gaston’s manipulative side so damn well. And let’s not forget the servant’s side as they head into the final battle! Good stuff!

I love all the characters in this movie! Belle is a great protagonist, the Beast has development that you just love to see happen, Gaston is the most fun villain to ever come from Disney, and the supporting characters are great at stealing scenes

I remember there was a time on the internet where everyone just seemed to have this whole “Yo! Fuck the Disney Renaissance movies” and just had a whole bunch bad takes such as Belle being a horrible person, Gaston is a good person, the infamous Stockholm syndrome take. I guess that pushback just made me love it more. Not to say the movie shouldn’t have its critics but i just felt those arguments were always weak and either ignored details from the movie or just added something that wasn’t in the movie

In the 8th grade, I was in my school’s musical of the Disney version! I played Monsieur D’Arque (the asylum guy) and my big solo moment was “He’ll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wonder free”. I was friends with a lot of the leads already so this musical was a lot of fun for me

And recently on my trip to Disney World I got to eat at the Beast’s Castle

So yeah. I love this movie. It’s my favorite. But I admit there is some bias to it but who cares!? There’s always bias when it comes to opinions

[2-d-rogue]

My thoughts after completing my first playthrough of Eiyuden Chronicle

A few days ago, I finally finished my first playthrough of EC. Because I backed the project, I had an early start before release day. Nonetheless, I make it a habit to take my time with games and take in as much as possible, leading to me finishing them a bit slower than most.

This isn't really a review per se, but more a cliff notes of my current thoughts after my first completion. I feel I can't fully decide on my thoughts until I've replayed the game, and have seen the DLC (mostly because it seems a lot of story in this game is being saved for DLC. More on that later). Currently, I'm in the process of platinuming it, and I am planning a second playthrough in the near future. Maybe then, I'll have a more concrete opinion of this game.

One thing I am going to be upfront about right from the get-go is that I am disappointed with this game. That isn't to say it's a terrible game, or that I hated it. Far from it, in fact. I had loads of fun playing it, and enjoyed many things about it. But even so, there was more I expected from this title that it simply did not deliver on. And I don't know how much of that is because they're sitting on things that won't be revealed until the DLC is out, or the sequel. Regardless, the game on its own really needed more than what was given, and I fear that because so much was held back, it really hurt the potential.

I'll break things down into things I liked, and things I didn't like.

Things I like:

*The characters, especially the side characters. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the side characters. Especially ones like Yusuke, Falward, Francesca, Momo, etc. There's too many to mention here because a lot of them are so fun. Not just to use in battle, but also possessing entertaining personalities.

My favorite has to be Yusuke, though. Not only is he a beast in battle, having ended many boss monsters' lives with his double charge, he also just has your back on anything (just see his comments if he's around for beigoma). I loved him so much, I even started calling him "kyoudai." He's a bro, and he's hilarious in theater roles, too! Seriously, Caleb Yen did such a fantastic job with this yankii character.

Really curious about his relationship with Falward, though. Going by Falward's comments when Yusuke's in the party, it implies he cares about him a great deal, but as far as I'm aware, there's no interactions between them, and Yusuke doesn't appear to pay him any mind. It's fascinating to think about what might be going on there, is all…

*Beautiful art and graphics This game is gorgeous. The detailed spritework, animations, the backgrounds and environments, the art… All of it is a smorgasbord of candy for the eyes. I thought Rising looked beautiful, but this was beyond what I was expecting after that. Everything is so painstakingly detailed.

*Most of the English voice acting As I mentioned above, I enjoyed Caleb Yen as Yusuke, but I also enjoyed a great many others, too. Most of the cast chosen suited their characters well, and delivered on them spectacularly. Some of the best were Seign's, Nowa's, Garr's, Francesca's, and many, many others. I was pleasantly surprised at how good most of the cast was, but also just how much everything is voice acted. This being on a budget, I was expecting the usual in JRPGs where only the more pivotal scenes are voice acted, but to see (hear?) that at least 90% of the script got voice acting was really nice, especially when the voices are actually good.

That being said, there were some scenes, particularly towards the end, that I felt were a bit more off, and there were some characters that were certainly miscasted. This being a game with as many characters as it has, I knew not all of them were going to land, but I can at least be grateful it's only a couple who feel off, while the majority were more than qualified enough for the job.

*The music Okay, so I'll admit that the OST isn't the most groundbreaking I've ever heard, but there are many tracks that I'm really fond of. "The Greatwood" is a mysterious track that reminds me of music from Donkey Kong Country and Oddworld, which I really like. The "Dappled Forest" theme sounds straight out of Tales of Symphonia, and some of the boss tracks are so metal it's awesome (especially the one where you're fighting a bunch of creatures Narungarde sends after you on the bridge in Seign's scenario).

I find the Treefolk Village theme and the Village themes soothing as well. Having Naruke and Sakuraba, as well as Yanagawa was definitely something nice to have for this game.

*Some of the mini games are really fun A bit divided since I did sour on beigoma a little once I realized strategy has very little in winning matches, and you're more pushed to grind for stronger ones to win. (Also have no clue why there's three games per match you have to get through, even if victory is guaranteed winning the first two.) But I do enjoy Glen's card game, and the Eggfoot races can get a little addicting.

*The theater

Nuff said.

Things I didn't like:

*The story It's not a terrible story, but it is lacking, taking until the end of the game to really start raising the stakes.

One thing I noticed really quick, and this is shown quite early, is that this game really seems to shy away from tragedy. When Nowa's village is burnt to the ground, it has to be one of the most impactless village burnings I've ever seen. No one is killed, and right after all is said and done, the villagers are just rolling with it and set to work on rebuilding immediately.

Then there's when Eltisweiss falls. The gate/wall gets destroyed, yet outside of the war battle, there is no evidence of destruction at all throughout the city, the townspeople are just going about their lives, and despite being occupied, you're still allowed to freely enter and exit without fear of consequence. And this remains true for any other place that gets taken over, thoroughly killing the immersion of anything truly getting bad.

The tension, the tragedy, the stakes, etc., are just not present, making you wonder what exactly are we doing any of this for. It isn't until the second-to-last arc of the game that they finally start having real things happen, but by then, it's too late to really appreciate most of it, making me almost want to call this game "Suikoden for babies".

This also effects Nowa. It's a shame because I actually do like his character. He's not like the typical overly energetic shounen hero I feared him to be, and he comes off a bit more grounded. It's established he's a "meddler", which basically means he's a natural do-gooder, but it's not the only thing about him, which makes him have a fairly interesting personality. The problem is that they do almost nothing with it. He never suffers any personal tragedy of his own, gets barely any character development, and the only reason he becomes the leader is because: countess Perielle is "a good judge of character" and thinks he's "handsome", which was a total cop-out and more or less the game admitting they have no legit reasons why he's such a big deal.

The game also implies he's got something special about him. In Chandra's recruitment scene and if you get her as your companion with the highest affection, there's a voice that speaks to him, calling him the "the third begotten", then makes vague statements like "now isn't the time for this talk", but then leaves Nowa with the words "saldio raum". This sounds like something is being set up for him, yet nothing about it is explored or ever brought up in the grand scheme of things. I have no idea if they have any intention of exploring this in any of the DLCs, or a future sequel, but it didn't sit well with me to just randomly mention these things, then leave it hanging.

*Seign and Nowa's relationship One of the main draws to this game was the conflict between Nowa and Seign; as two men who had become fond of each other, but are on two opposite sides of the fence, and have to face each other in war against their will. Many people compare them to the likes of Riou and Jowy, but for me, I think of them more like their predecessors Han and Genkaku. Riou and Jowy were childhood friends, whereas Han and Genkaku met during the war and happened to form a friendship inbetween battles, and also hated fighting each other, striving to end the conflict. That fits the story of Nowa and Seign more in my opinion.

I was looking forward to how their relationship unfolds, thinking it would be close to how Han and Genkaku would have been if they got something showing their story. In the beginning, it starts off very promising. They clearly like each other and get along well. Enough to start protecting one another and grow from being around each other. Nowa defrosts Seign's cold visage, and Seign helps Nowa mature and become more grounded. It sets up that the inevitable tear is going to be extremely painful when it happens, and it is…until they start rushing through it all.

Look, there was never any doubt that Seign was eventually going to come over to Nowa's side. Especially when several screenshots prior to the game's release spoiled Seign being around the castle and involved in things like the cooking mini-game. Still, I was waiting for all the drama and angst to happen between them before that pivotal moment. The buildup to Seign realizing this war was pointless/wrong, damn what is expected of him, then change sides.

Imagine how disappointed I was when their conflict is resolved very quickly, and without much strife at all. The scene on the bridge felt like that should have come much later, after all that's happened. In my opinion, that's when Seign should have switched sides. But the fated painful duel happens far too early, and then Seign joining not too long after made the whole arc feel underwhelming in the end.

What makes it worse is Seign and Nowa don't get to interact much after that until nearing the end of the game. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy what they did get well enough, but there really should have been more. One of the draws to this game was the agony of war tearing apart two friends. Doesn't mean much when that gets wrapped up all too quickly.

*Nowa and Perrielle I haven't the faintest idea what they were trying to do with this one. It's implied early on that Nowa is developing feelings for Perry, and she feels the same, but they kinda don't really do anything with it. At least, not unless you got her scene on the roof towards the end. Personally, I would have been on board with it. The times they do interact are cute, Nowa giving her a cute nickname was adorable, and they have good chemistry, but they kinda leave it underdeveloped and it's really unfortunate.

Like with Seign, there should have been much more if they did want to have a romance between them. I can only guess they purposely left it open in case people wanted to ship Nowa with others.

I will say I am of the opinion she's the closest thing to a canon love interest for Nowa, however.

*Lian A lesser Nanami essentially. Had no problem with her in the beginning, but she quickly becomes annoying when she keeps treating this war like it's a game and never develops her character beyond that. Also irritating how she clings to Nowa like he's her property sometimes. Literally Nanami without anything that made her interesting and likeable. Her catchphrases were annoying, too.

*The Watch group (Garr, Mio, and Lian) They do not get developed at all, leading to them becoming forgettable unless you staunchly use them throughout the game. Again, highly disappointing. (But less Lian is fine with me.)

*Marisa gets very little to work with I get the feeling Marisa's entire story is being saved for her DLC, but because of that, she comes off as having little to do with this story, making me question why she's considered a main. I don't dislike her, but given how little time we get with her (at least until the end), I found her the least interesting of the three.

*The cooking mini-game I was so happy to have this back. It was one of my favorite features in Suikoden II. Unfortunately, this time around it had almost none of the charm as it did before. All it ended up being was, essentially, a rehash of SuikoII's cook-off story. Only less well-written and lacking substance. Just ended up not really caring for it. Not helped that the mechanics are broken and most of the duels can be won cooking fried eggs over and over. (I was even joking to my bestie that this army is made up of anorexics by how much they seemed to just hate any food I gave them, including the stuff they supposedly liked!)

The story, music, presentation, the animations… None of them were as memorable as SuikoII's version, and that's a terrible shame.

That being said, I love Kurtz. The brooding cooking dweeb that he is.

*The duels I'm…really not a fan of how they handled these. It feels as though they wanted to make them more challenging, but instead, they made them irritating as hell to grasp. I got the gist of it, but I just don't know why they had to have it that you need to a fill a bar in order to use break (wild attack). I'm guessing it's to reward you with the epic animations of the fight (which are actually really well-done, I'll give it that), but when it feels tedious to get to it, it makes it feel very unsatisfying. I think it's possible to make something better of this, but until then, please don't do it this way again.

Well, those are some of my current thoughts as of finishing my first playthrough. There's more I can mention, but I feel this will do for now. My thoughts may change on a replay, and with some time when the DLCs are all out. Again, I will repeat, I did not hate this game at all, but I did want something more mature and grounded than what was provided. I do feel this was a decent step up, but I encourage Rabbit & Bear to take chances and actually remember we're dealing with war. There will be death and other horrible things that happen. Do not be afraid to embrace this.

And please, develop the main cast a little better next time.

[alln64games]

Banjo-Kazooie

NA release: 29th June 1998

PAL release: 17th July 1998

JP release: 6th December 1998

Developer: Rare

Publisher: Nintendo

N64 Magazine Score: 90%

Banjo-Kazooie is possibly my favourite game, something I utterly love. I play it around Christmas every year and never get tired of it. But why is this? What makes Banjo-Kazooie such a lovable game to play?

For starters, Banjo-Kazooie has a lot of character, from Banjo-Kazooie themselves to the worlds, settings and music. Even characters like Colliwobble (a giant cauliflower with googly eyes) has a magical style and charm to it. I think it’s Rare’s love for googly eyes, so much stuff has it, including boulders, blocks of ice and boxes of TNT. The world of Banjo-Kazooie is just alive in a joyful way.

Then you have the heroes Banjo and Kazooie. Banjo is a fairly straight character. For the most part he’s kind and gentle and wants to do good. If he was completely on his own, he may be a bit bland, but luckily his trust friend Kazooie lives in his backpack. Kazooie is rude, sassy and will mock anything. Together, it makes for great banter between them and other characters. And all dialogue is text with grunts, which helps make their world remain unique. I really hope any (if there are any) future games keep this as I’m not sure how I’d feel about proper voice acting.

Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, which doesn’t go overboard on its collectibles. Banjo and Kazooie have a lot of moves crammed onto a controller, but they all work really well. There are some slight niggles, like trying to change the camera while aiming an egg can activate your golden feathers, but the platforming itself feels extremely precise, with any missed jumps never feeling like the game’s fault. The camera also functions fine for the most part, but there’s a couple of areas with some forced angles that don’t work, such as the path to Mad Monster Mansion which is a narrow walkway that can be difficult to see.

There are 9 worlds in Banjo-Kazooie. These each have 10 jiggies to collect, 100 notes, two honeycomb pieces (which increase your health). One jiggy in every level will be finding all five Jinjos hidden in each level. The levels will be considered small by today’s standards, but I think that they are ideal. It’s a size where you can search for everything without tedium or growing tired of it. Each world has its own charm.

Mumbo’s Mountain is a great introductory world. It’s a great introduction to how jiggies are hidden. Some are out in the open, some given to you by characters, some by activating switches and some by smashing things or just trying to shoot eggs into any hole you find. It sets you up for handling the later levels. It also introduces the important Talon Trot move, which allows you to use Kazooie’s legs to traverse steep slopes, and the layout of the level encourages heavy use.

Also here is the first Mumbo Skull. Enter here and you’ll find the crazy shaman Mumbo Jumbo. If you’ve found enough Mumbo tokens, he’ll cast a spell on you and you’ll turn into a termite. These transformations are another wonderful thing about Banjo-Kazooie. They’re not in every level so aren’t overused, but they turn you into different animals (or objects), which is required for certain jiggies. They’re all wonderful to use and are simply a joyous thing to have in the game.

After Mumbo’s Mountain, we get Treasure Trove Cove, a beach level filled with crabs. Mambo’s Mountain also introduces you to a pound attack (using Kazooie’s beak), which is used here for enemies and tasks. Flying is also introduced, as Kazooie can use red feathers to fly around the map. Treasure Trove Cove is quite open, with a jiggy that encourages flying around it. There’s also a very scary shark in the water. It’s a really wonderful level.

Next up is the weakest part of Banjo-Kazooie: Clanker’s Cavern. It’s a murky underwater level, and looks fairly dull. I do like Clanker – a big whale that has been turned into a horrifying trash disposal monster, but is actually a nice but depressed individual, but there’s a lot of swimming in this level, including a very deep dive that terrified me as a kid. That said, I grow more and more fond of the level each time I play the game.

Bubblegloop Swamp swiftly returns to form, especially because of adorable crocodile Banjo. This level is split up into segments, and then croc Banjo can traverse new areas, including a fairly difficult minigame with Mr Vile, sneaky crocodile (although a move from a later level can make this easier if you wish).

Then the wonderful wintery world of Freezeezy Peak, a level revolving around a giant snowman. One slight niggle for me with this is that you can’t finish the level initially, so I’d recommend a quick trip into the next level to grab the speed trainers, but it’s only a minor hassle. In Freezeezy Peak you get to climb the giant snowman’s scarf, have aerial fights with aggressive smaller snowmen, turn into a Walrus and take part in races – WAHEEEY!

From the snow straight to the sand of Gobi’s Valley. This is one of the more challenging levels, with pyramids, temples and sphinxes holding challenges you need to complete. One of these requires a perfect run with the speed boots, and still takes me multiple attempts each playthrough. That said, there is still a load of fun and charm.

Up next is for some halloween fun in Mad Monster Mansion, a haunted house and grounds. Initially, I found this level to be incredibly daunting, but traversal isn’t as difficult as initially seems, and getting around the level is quite fun. There’s lots of rooms to explore and even a toilet to explore. Brilliantly, the toilet itself is also a character called Loggo. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that Banjo-Kazooie loves puns. Some people may pretend to groan at puns, but everyone loves them.

Rusty Bucket Bay is the penultimate level, with some very tough challenges. The water in this level drains your air much faster than previous levels, so even though there’s a lot of water, you only spend small stints in it. There’s lots of hidden rooms to find, with some fun and cute details hidden in them. The transformation in this level is also super adorable.

And last is the seasonal Click Clock Wood. This is split into four “sections” that you open up over time, each is the whole world in a different season, and some jiggies require doing parts in each season, although if you fully explore each season before moving on, you don’t have to go back and forth. It’s lovely to see all the changes throughout the seasons.

Connecting these together is Grunty’s tower. Grunty is an evil witch who wants to make herself beautiful (by stealing the beauty from Banjo’s sister, Tooty, who became a staple of all future Banjo games…either that or she was relegated to a missing person’s poster and forgotten about). You explore the tower, finding jigsaws to fill in with the jiggy pieces you collect to open the main worlds. There are also 10 jiggies hidden here, which require you to hit a switch in each level to reveal (except for one, which is given to you at the start of the game).

And once you get past all the levels and go to defeat Gunty, it doesn’t go straight into a boss battle (that comes later), instead you have to complete Grunty’s Furnace Fun, a trivia board game where you have to answer questions about the game (or complete some mini games from previous levels). These questions could be about Grunty herself, pictures of places in levels to identify, trivia about characters or identifying sound and music.

Music. That’s a very important part of what makes Banjo-Kazooie work. Composer Grant Kirkhope did an absolutely phenomenal job of creating some tunes that you will be humming for the rest of your lives. They also work with the levels extremely well, adding to the magical experience. The music will also vary slightly based on different locations of each level or going underwater, all with perfectly smooth transitions between them. The music to Banjo-Kazooie is simply heaven for your ears, and will put a smile on your face for the entirety of your playthrough. Even other people in your house will start humming the tunes.

Replaying Banjo-Kazooie takes between 6 and 10 hours, although this will be a lot longer the first time. It’s a great length for annual revisits and is an extremely well-contained piece of media. You can follow it by its sequel, Banjo-Tooie (as I do every few years), but it works extremely well on its own. The entirety of the game is just full of joy, accompanied by very happy tunes and a sense that everyone working on the game was enjoying themselves.

There are two versions of this game, the original on N64 and a remaster version on Xbox. I highly recommend the Xbox version, as the better controller design helps a lot, and the widescreen HD image is much nicer to see. The main other difference between the two is that the Xbox version is easier, as it saves what notes you have collected. In the original, you need to collect all 100 in one go, which I believe was mainly due to memory limits on the N64 and not the original intention.

Banjo-Kazooie is my perfect game.

And stop playing you won’t. You can always tell when you’ve got a great game on your hands: when it starts to warp time. 16 straight hours of Banjo, leaving only for calls of nature – we had food and drink brought in.

- James Ashton, N64 Magazine #18

Remake or remaster?

The Xbox remaster is pretty great, although releasing on more platforms and a few fixes and refinements would be great.

Official ways to get the game.

Banjo-Kazooie is available on Xbox One/Series and is included in Rare Replay. You can also rent it on Switch via Nintendo Switch Online

Re-releases

2008: Xbox Live Arcade

2015: Rare Replay

2023: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

[tearsofthefilmreviews]

MEAN GIRLS 2024 REVIEW

“You could be really hot, if you like, change everything.”

I was excited for this film from its first announcement, which I caught wind of prior to my Eras Tour screening. I am a huge fan of the original 2004 film, and was quite interested in seeing a mew version of it, and particularly, was wondering how the new Regina George would perform. I am very happy to say that she is absolutely fantastic, and steals the show for sure. The entire cast is great atop of that, particularly Auli’i Cravalho as Janice and Angourie Rice and Cady. I also especially loved Avantika’s portrayal of Karen. The music surprised me very pleasantly; the songs were all good, catchy and quite memorable; I will get into those later on, but my absolute favourite song of the film was "World Burn", performed by Reneé Rapp. That being said, the review truly starts from beyond this point.

-The Cast-

The original Mean Girls has a perfect cast. And, I am happy to say, this musical rendition of Mean Girls, 20 years later , follows suit! Everyone is great here, though the obvious highlight is Reneé Rapp as Regina George, who absolutely steals the show with fantastic outings in both the acting and singing. She nails the attitude and personality down to a t, with her own twist on it that separates her from Rachel McAdams’ portrayal; it isn’t a mimic of the performance, but rather one that respects it while making itself distinct. My other favourite performances were Angourie Rice as Cady, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, and Avantika’s portrayal of Karen. All of them bring their own interesting and fun energies to the characters we know and love, and along with other highlights such as Bebe Wood(Gretchen), breathe a great life into this film. I was very impressed by the cast and their performances overall, and was especially happy to see Reneé shining as Regina, which was admittedly the performance I was looking towards the most leading up to this film’s release. Nothing bad to say about any of the cast!

-The Music-

I loved the music of this film. The songs are very well integrated into the story, and move it along while also playing around with the surrealism that musicals often delve into; one musical scene in particular take place in the character’s head, and we will see the reactions of this around them as they imagine this song happening. The opening song is a great force for opening exposition, with a really interesting visual transition that takes place at its end, and gets us right where we need to be for the story to happen, and sets up Cady for us. The songs in general do great jobs at moving the plot along and developing characters in interesting ways, as well as being visually fun, creative and well sung. The following paragraphs will be some details on the three particular songs that I liked the most, and the reasons why.

#3 - “Someone Gets Hurt” (Reneé Rapp/Regina George)

I am absolutely in love with the dark, silky vibes of this song, and the power in Reneé’s voice sells it even further. Has some more of my favourite visuals of the film as well, with the rest of the partygoers being suspended and puppeteered in visually interesting ways that go with the lighting, which takes a cold and dark tone as opposed to the bright warmth that the halloween party is otherwised bathed in. The way the visuals follow the music in this sequence in this particular is downright lovely.

#2 - “Apex Predator” (Auli’i Cravalho & Jaquel Spivey/Janis & Damian)

This song has a lovely sound to it and is a very fun track as well. It essentially serves as a contrasting view to what Regina and the other Plastics initially present her as, qite literally calling her the 'apex predator' - the untouchable top dog. One of the catchiest songs of the film as well, with great duet vocals and rhythm to it that really sells the energy of the scene, along with some great shots visually. The lyrics are great as well and feature some creative usage of the animal kingdom as a metaphor. It also does a great job visually at furthering the metaphor, by showing all the students acting like animals; scared mice and dogs running from Regina, as an example. Everyone hopping around and on all fours, painting a picture of how the high school drama sphere is quite literally a zoo of chaos that's held down by the one, the apex.

#1 - “World Burn” (Reneé Rapp/Regina George)

This was not only my favourite song of the film, but also has some of the best visuals of any of the musical sequences. The red lighting looks great and is also symbolically indicative and adds onto the song’s mood, which turns from simply bitter to angry as it ramps up in intensity. Its greatly placed in the soundtrack itself too, following the much brighter-toned “Revenge Party”, which allows for Regina’s mood in singing this song to be even more greatly contrasted. The vocals and instrumental on this track work so perfectly together with the visuals and create a perfect portrait, hitting the climax button on the plot while also communicating in multiple sensory manners Regina’s mental state and thought process that leads to her quite significantly setting the high school’s social sphere ablaze. Reneé absolutely hirs every note, literally and figuratively, in delivering this section of the film, and it even heightens her portrayal of Regina further. I love all of the red-lit scenes, and especially once we get towards the song's end, with all the glitching in of the social media as things go haywire? Chef's kiss. I love the backing vocals singing out the lines from the Burn Book as well, and the absolute power of Reneé’s voice that hits so damn hard and is so wonderful on the ears.

I do love all of the songs in the film - I listen to them individually, and in the film they all work superbly and smoothly, and add to the refreshed identity that this film has. If you’re curious, this is my full ranking of the film’s soundtrack:

1. World Burn

2. Apex Predator

3. Someone Gets Hurt

4. I’d Rather Be Me

5. Stupid With Love

6. Revenge Party

7. What’s Wrong With Me?

8. A Cautionary Tale

9. Sexy

10. What Ifs

11. Meet The Plastics

12. I See Stars

(I’d Rather Be Me)

This song is genuinely gorgeous, lyrics-wise and sonically. It is hard-hitting and strong, and has an absolutely stunning long-take sequence as Janis sings it. It's a song that is also very socially relevant in its message, which in essence is to not stay in and enable toxic relationships in your life. Janis sings this after having been betrayed by both Regina and Cady, and also speaks about staying who she is, not changing herself for those around her. It's very well-written and has great vocals from Auli'i Cravalho, and fits very well into the film, as well as capping off that scene in a very satisfying manner. The next few paragraphs are some small dives into the songs, particular things that stood out about each one to me, and why I loved them.

(Stupid With Love)

This song is so fun and joyful, with Cady fresh off of meeting Aaron and becoming smitten with him. The song is a pretty and happy one both lyrically and sonically, the soft instrumentals letting the daydreamy voice flow through. It's such a cute love song as well, with how she compares herself being great with math - book smarts - but being 'stupid with love' - street smarts. It's also a statement on herself beyond the love aspect, as she does lack clear street smarts as she is drawn quickly into Regina's world, and struggles to balance between that realm and that of her friendship with Janis and Damian. Through the song she comes to understand her feelings and affections more, and it also plays with the fact that she is daydreaming the song during class in a pretty funny way.

(Revenge Party)

This song is practically the embodiment of fun and chaotic, especially visually, in a great way. Its the big moment where Cady turns against Regina, with Janis and Damian making many references to (metaphoricallly) murdering Regina and eventually convincing Cady to be part of this master plan with Aaron. The climax of the song is also what kickstarts Cady's big changes, as she decides to go "fuck it" and backstab Gretchen just to get with Aaron, whom doesn't even fulfill that wish until the very end of the film.

(What’s Wrong With Me)

Such a beautiful little solo song from Gretchen, that gives us a little insight into her psyche, after some particularly harsh remarks from Regina. She gets a moment alone to contemplate and introspect on herself, while being yelled at in the background to leave the closet. It's this moment in particular that truly begins our connecting with Gretchen and Karen, the former in particular. Gretchen stayed with Regina, unlike Janis, and goes forth with the rocky relationship and social status despite the clear effect it is taking on her mental health, especially later when she snaps and blurts everything out to Cady during Revenge Party.

(A Cautionary Tale)

Great opening to the film! I love the touch of making it visually stylized for social media, as if filmed on a phone to be saved and posted afterwards. Lyrically, its essentially a statement of the film's themes and thesis, as well as foreshadowing the film in a way that sets the vibe in a very fun way. Its a bite-sized little jam that quickly becomes an addictive earworm, and feels right at home in the 2020s.

(Sexy)

This is such a goofy little bop that I fell in love with. It sets the mood for the halloween party, and gives Karen a fun time in the limelight, the song stylized quite well to what she is doing; a social media video, and Avantika's delivery is simply great. It has such a fun charm to it, as well as a nice message to it despite its inherent siliness(given the character); being who you want to be, not following some sort of predetermined social norms.

(What Ifs)

This song introduces us to Cady, living out in Kenya. She speaks as if she is happy there, living alone with her single mother, but also desires to have the social experience of high school; a fear of missing out on that part of life. It has an amazing visual transition between Kenya and the high school, and sets up her character and part of the main exposition of the first act very smoothly and nicely. Great visuals and lyrics that do their job very well, at integrating her cleanly into her first day of public school.

(Meet The Plastics)

Great introduction to the titular Plastics, with gorgeous vocals from Reneé and some interesting foreshadowing with the "My Name is Regina George..." lines, which show up later in a very different context in World Burn. The way it contrasts against the much brighter "What Ifs" sets the differences between Regina and Cady in a very stark fashion, that immediately exemplifies how different they are before they even have their first conversation, moments later.

(I See Stars)

Such a pretty ending song to the film. It's really exemplary of the character development that many characters have gone through, with the touching symbolism of Cady throwing the tiara pieces to others while she sings this lower-key, soft ballad. It ties things up in a very nice, pink bow, and really solidifies the ending in a lovely way. Also plays a strong role in solidifying the redemption that Cady goes through towards the end; a fuller redemption than Regina has.

(Not My Fault)

While it's not really part of the film - a song that plays only in the credits - I felt it worthwhile to mention the thematic significance to some of it. The opening spoken line, the chorus, and many of the lyrics that Reneé sings fit the film's themes and vibe very well, as if to paint the picture with those particular parts of the song, of Janis and Regina's fallout, from the latter's perspective. The line "It's not my fault" also works for much of the rest of the film, as characters often struggle to accept blame or that their methods are wrong.

-New Life-

The film has a new life in it, a different take on the classic tale. A large change from the 2004 film is the prevalence of social media and the internet in how the story is told, essentially a generational shift. Events and words spread more than ever before due to this, which adds another layer to all the drama that occurs. In particular, it demonstrates cyberbullying and gossip in the digital age; as an example, Regina’s accident during the dance performance is movoed widely all over social networks, particularly TikTok. Another particular interesting change is the falling out between Janis and Regina; its a particular thing that caught my attention. Instead of how it happened in the original, Janis and Regina fell out because Regina began to bully Janis behind her back by using a plush she nicknamed “Sissy Liz”, shorthand for “obsessed lesbian”. In anger, Janis torched the doll, accidentally setting Regina’s backpack ablaze and leading to her dismissal from the school. This leads to another interesting and welcome change, Janis being queer and open about it. This adds another interesting layer to the backstories of the characters. I found the new portrayal of Aaron quite interesting too, especially in contrast to the original film; he’s much more quiet and sensitive in this version, and that definitely changed the air of the scenes he was involved in.

This film is its own film while retaining the classic overall story we know and love, adding new elements, nuances and performances that create a special experience that was a joy to see on the screen. Everything comes together to make a truly wonderful final product. The cinematography is also great, as is the score. Especially during song sequences, there are some absolutely *mean* visuals; and interestingly enough, some of my favourite visuals tend to be from Regina’s songs.

Something I always loved about the original, and continue to in this film, is the whole ambivalence it gives the audience. Throughout the film, we feel badly for many characters, including the two leads in Cady and Regina. Yes, Regina does a lot of awful things, but we begin to question Janis and Cady once they start to go too far with it; ruining Regina’s life more than she had ever done theirs. In particular, what strikes is the “health bars” Cady gives Regina, which turn out to be bars that make the user gain weight instead of lose it; Regina is quite health-conscious, and perhaps even in a destructive way - she is perfectly thin, yet she constantly counts calories in hopes of losing more pounds. This is the main thing the protagonists do that really starts to set the unease about them, because they are quite literally ruining Regina’s health in retort for what is essentially petty drama(it isn’t even Gretchen who’s involved, who honestly got the worst of Regina in the film). It leads to the best song and moments of the film, where Regina sets things ablaze by bringing out the Burn Book she had so openly mocked before, and displays her cleverness by adding herself into it to ensure she wouldn’t be accused. On the other hand, she’s quite awful, especially towards Gretchen and most people around her, her attitude only really changing towards the end. She becomes more softly spoken, and after she’s hit by the bus, and quite literally is dead for a few seconds, is when she mentions to Cady her plans to change her ways. Regina is one of my favourite characters of all time, and Reneé’s portrayal does not miss a bit in furthering that.

Another way that leads to Cady becoming what Regina is essentially emotional abuse towards Gretchen, which is never admitted. Cady, Janis and Damian rig it so that she doesn’t get any candy canes that are given out, and make her feel like Regina specifically disowned her for it. It helps their takedown of Regina, but made me feel horribly for Gretchen, who is nowhere near an antagonist in the film. Cady becomes the antagonist and replaces Regina in that role, honestly. Regina isn’t reforming personality-wise at this point yet, but its clear who’s taken the new antagonistic role. Another way we see Cady change over the story is how in the beginning, her grades in such a high level of math are stellar, but as her focus drifts solely to Aaron, they slip down hard, something that she will later be criticized for. Earlier in the film, she refuses to take alcohol, but once she has gone full ‘Plastic’, she goes right into it and drunkenly harms her relationship with Aaron by essentially insulting his math skills and admitting what she had been doing, that the tutoring had all been a lie.

Overall, I loved how this film made all these plot points we know and love feel refreshed by applying its own features and intricacies to it, that make it feel distinct while also not disrespecting the original classic film. The fact that it is a musical also affects the tones in really interesting ways, both the positive and the negative.

-Regina and Cady-

Regina is a wonderful character. Mot in the sense that’s she is a nice person; mostly far from it, as it is not even until the very end that she truly changes. However, we do see growth through the film; Cady’s backstabbing of her, though is immediately followed by some Burn Book revenge, clearly affects her perspective. Regina in the first act and part of the second act of the movie would never have even raised her hand during the rally; yet she does it after unleashing the Burn Book, even if it is half-assedly. It’s a clear symbol that she has been affected. Obviously, she isn't going to become a complete new person, especially not overnight; that's not what the film preaches. In fact, it preaches exactly against changing yourself to 'fit in' with others, using Cady's corruption as a clear example of what can happen. She can become less mean, but changing her whole personality would lead to issues down the line as it did for Cady. She's a great example of very solid character writing and growth through a film. Contender for favourite film character?

As is Cady. We follow her for most of the film's runtime. She goes from being a socially nervous freshman to basically winding up where Regina spends a solid chunk of runtime character-wise, while Regina fades out of that role. She becomes more confident, but as a result of the exact things she did to get back at Regina for stealing Aaron from her, she deviates strongly from her initial self, adopting the personality traits that made Regina the villain. It is very well-done in both versions of this film. Cady becomes the new defacto leader of the Plastics after she pushes Regina out, as her own social standing increases and the intoxicating feeling that comes with it clearly gets to her head. Cady in the beginning of the film would never have fucked Janis and her own mother over in the way she did, when she held a party in her home after claiming she was going to Janis' art show. “I See Stars” serves as such a gorgeous way to cap off her redemption, which starts from admitting about her single Burn Book contribution. The mathletes scene was very well done, and it was lovely to see Lohan cameo in there - and having the Cady Heron of 2004 talk to the Cady Heron of 2024. Cady is the main lead, with some very clear flaws to her that get exploited into changing her character, and is very well written, and the performance from Rice is another standout from the film. Gorgeous singing voice to her too.

-Janis-

Janis comes out of the film with the cleaner record between her, Cady and Regina. She is, however, also one of the ones (along with Damian) who admittedly drives things too far and plays a role in Cady’s corruption. She pushes Cady too hard into the direction of going after Regina, and admittedly it is clear that she is doing that out of more self-focused reasons; she wants payback at Regina, and is both befriending Cady but also using and manipulating her for petty drama, which ends up backfiring as it corrupts and changes Cady and how she acts. Her record is not pristine, but it is definitely the cleaner of the three. It is worth noting her character growth as well; in the end, she is ready to make an apology to Regina about the fire incident, and possibly what she and Damian egged Cady into doing to her - but Regina’s snide comment, at the last minute, changes her tune and she sings the fantastic “I’d Rather Be Me”, which features a gorgeous long-take and leads into a very impactful bus crash scene, which was just as viscerally done as the original film. This cements her as the most “good” character in the film(though I will explain later why this label isn’t really valid for anybody here) and she is one of the best characters with a lovely portrayal by Auli’i. She is the one who received the worst bullying from Regina and ends up in a much better spot, especially after her powerful solo song. Auli’i Cravalho does not disappoint to any degree.

-The Comedy-

This film had me laughing and chuckling quite a lot. I found the comedy to be quite well done and crafted, and it honestly added to the musical vibes we got; some of the funniest moments come from characters bursting into song, whether physically or mentally, and having others react to what they’re doing as a result of it. Also, so many lines or simple actions were hilarious; it didn’t miss a single best on this front for me, personally. Karen brought the most laughs with her loveable demeanour for sure; both times that I saw the film this far, my crowd has laughed all along with me at pretty much everything that I found funny. They really nailed the funny moments in this one!

-The Technical Details-

First off, I will reiterate that the cinematography is great here, and consistently so as well. There were no shots that stuck out as misplaced or bad to me, and it especially excels once we get surreal with the musical segments.

Beyond the songs, the score itself is also very well composed, and heightens the scenes that its used in, and the lack of it in some scenes works perfectly too, to set a certain tension between characters, often involving Regina in some way. Big kudos to the composer, both for the score and the instrumentals of each of the musical songs.

The sets, props, hairstyling, makeup and costumes are unsurprisingly done flawlessly. Fantastic wardrobe we get in this film, and everyone absolutely - slays - the appearances of their characters, along with giving their knockout performances. Obvious as it was that it would show up, it was so nice to see the Burn Book back onto the screen in all its glory. Its used so well in the World Burn scene. The film has great use of colour as well, beyond the wardrobe - the Revenge Party sequence is a perfect example of this.

Seeing behind the scenes clips on social media from the film, its clear that everyone had a good time making this film; the set definitely had a fun, supportive energy to it, and those involved clearly loved the project they made. This work atmosphere comes through into the project itself, and makes it feel like a labour of love. This is clear in how well the film is directed and crafted, leaving a wonderful, theatrical experience. It's so much fun to watch, especially in a cinema with others.

-More About The Cinematography-

Because it deserves its own section. Its freaking great and super visually engaging all through, but especially in musical scenes it shines. I’d Rather Be Me in its entirety is a lovely, minutes-long take, and the World Burn sequence is amazing as well. I also want to appreciate the cinematography of What Ifs and Stupid With Love more, because those sequences are also amazingly done, and especially both transitions in What Ifs are really smooth and visually pleasing. I love that the filmmakers leaned into the musical side of this film as much as they did and allowed themselves to make it fun, which it clearly feels like they had some of that during the filmmaking process for this film.

-More About Costuming&Hairstyling-

I wanted to give some more spotlight to the significant work put into getting the characters to all look right. Hairstyling and costumes are all-around excellent and vivid, and there’s no better example than the Halloween party, where all of the costumes are super well made, many of them that we see during Karen’s song. Even the non-flashy wardrobing, particularly the clothes we see Regina and Janis wear, are great and also such an interesting, visually symbolic clash. Regina sees herself as in the right and Janis as in the wrong, so she’s all bright and wearing colourful clothes for most of the film, whereas Janis often opts for darker colours in hers. Its also a representation of the whole “Rebel vs. Leader” dynamic they have going on, in terms of the school’s social hierarchy. The hair plays an important role too, particularly with showing how Cady changes and takes Regina’s place, as her hairstyle and appearance become more in line with the Plastics, while Regina begins to wear more casual clothing.

-The Score and Instrumentals-

The score hits so well, and enhances a lot of scenes. One particular moment that always gets me is when the score picks up as Cady tells Regina she can’t sit with her and the others, particularly kicking in as she adjusts her sitting position in a way that utterly demonstrates how her character has changed. This applies to the instrumentals of the songs as well, which are all distinctly suited to each track and set the mood and character of the songs very well. Compare, for example, the bright tune of Revenge Party against the darker, heavy tones of Someone Gets Hurt or World Burn, and its clear who is being portrayed and how. Regina’s portrayed as the antagonist for most of the film, and so her songs take on that darker tone to them, whereas when our protagonists sing, the vocals and instrumental are always brighter and cheerful.

-The Thesis-

I have talked about how the characters change and the narrative and themes elsewhere in this review, but to cap it off, I want to dive deep into what I interpreted as the film's main thesis statement. The film deals with many themes; love, betrayal, vengeance, identity, social status quo, and social media as primary examples of the most prominent ones. The film's overall main point, regarding everything mentioned here and through the review, the music, and the character arcs, can be boiled down to this mess of a sentence from me:

"You are who you are, don't change for others; don't play the social game; everyone has a 'Mean Girl' in them, whether they'll admit it or not."

Let me divulge a bit. The song I'd Rather Be Me is perhaps the most clear display of the film's main point, and I went into the track earlier. But beyond that, through the basic plot of events of the film:

>Cady transfers to the high school.

>Cady befriends Janis and Damian.

>Cady falls into Regina's social group, and begins hanging out with her often.

>Cady, despite Gretchen's stern words to not go after Aaron, goes for him secretly in her calculus class. Janis tells her off for pretending to be dumb just to get the attention.

>Regina finds out at the halloween party, and steals Aaron from her.

>Cady, angry and tearful, is drawn into Janis and Damian's big revenge plan to ruin Regina's life.

>They go too far in doing this, and end up corrupting Cady and making her the new Regina.

>Regina, in retaliation for it all, though especially the ruining of her health, drops the Burn Book and implicates the Plastics, who rejected her at the lunch table earlier.

>The chaos leads to the rally scene, which turns towards everyone walking outside in an angry, musical fashion, and Regina being hit by the bus - giving everyone a shock, and further damaging Cady's reputation; especially with social media hawking down on her with no hesitation, accusing her of attempted murder.

>Cady says that she was the one who insulted Norbury in the Burn Book, but doesn't reveal that Regina did the full book.

>The characters are split and feeling interpersonal spite, but in the ending party, we see Cady splitting the tiara, and see her and Regina both turning more to the light.

The main displays of this are between Cady and Regina, with Janis and Gretchen playing the most thematically significant supporting characters. Cady changes herself in many ways for others; adjusting to the rules of the Plastics, pretending to be dumb so she can spend more time with Aaron, and slowly adopting personality traits from Regina, while Regina herself begins to slowly slip out of them, and goes from outright mean to more just snide and snark. Gretchen is hurt by Regina, and the 'betrayal' of the candy cane is her breaking point, though we know its false. Gretchen is one of the other characters who gets done really dirty by our main protagonist, in the way that her world is rocked and emotions hurt on a lie. Yes, Regina was mean to her, but from what we have here empirically, we can assume that the tradition would have continued, and Regina would have given the candy cane to Gretchen, if not for the meddling of the "good guys." This is where we truly see the Mean Girl coming out in Cady, Janis and Damian, as they take their revenge for the harm Regina's caused too far and ruin her in a way that Regina never did; physically. What really clicks is when Cady tricks Regina, who is quite health-conscious and calorie counting, into eating the weight gain bars. Janis has more of a motive than Cady, really; Janis was bullied in a derogatory way, while the main motive for Cady is Aaron being stolen from her, which seems just peachy in contrast to ruining someone's weight. The point is that everyone comes out of this as a better person, but through most of the film, nobody is truly the “good” side, as everyone has their own hidden agendas and have their mean moments. Even Janis, who’s open queerness and rebellious attitude makes her an extremely relatable character besides this universal statement that “everyone is a Mean Girl inside,” has that moment. Damian not as much, but he isn’t really the focus out of the dup; he has impact on the film, yes, but he is less thematically relevant than Janis by a clear distinction. Regina’s exit from the Plastics makes Cady into the Mean Girl instead, and both eventually get to a similar middle ground of wanting to change by the end. Gretchen and Karen are both positively affected by the end as well, after the tumultuous events of the film run their course. This film also shows how the main characters changing themselves for others is inherently a negative attitude to take, primarily through Cady and Gretchen. Both of them

try to change themselves for a social group, and end up hurt as a result of it.

The film’s many songs work fantastically to communicate character development, story progression and themes. Character appearances play a part as well; we see a stark contrast between the outfits and hair of Regina and the other Plastics versus Janis, Damian, and particularly Cady as she was in the first bunch or so of the film. Through the film, Cady changes her look until it culminates in her ‘Plastic’ appearance once she and her friends succeed in getting Regina out, only to immediately betray them too, leaving her with Gretchen and Karen as she becomes more of a Regina. She does makeup and jewelry like she never did before, and changes her hairstyle in a way that looks like how Regina’s is for much of the runtime. The superficiality of it all, the high school sphere, becomes crystal clear through this symbolism, and the Burn Book also represents absolute toxicity. It is the true dark side of the high school world of drama, which also is made crystal clear, both visually and song-wise during World Burn. Something that this and the 2004 film both get perfectly down is making its characters strongly written, and full of depth; they all have a proper arc and story to them, and all share the “Mean Girl” quality in one manner or another, whether they’re Gretchen and Karen; dragged around by Regina, Cady and Janis; motives for revenge that don’t quite match the crime, Regina; who needs no introduction to how verbally awful she gets, mainly in the first half. None of them are truly in the clear, even by the end; there is much repairing to be done, especially once Cady’s new attitude begins to bleed into her home life, and she has emotional moments with her mother that edge her towards the start of redeeming herself both socially and cleaning up her conscience.

Ultimately this all leads to another theme, of forgiveness and character growth. In the end, Cady’s final song and actions during the Spring Fling serve as her apology, and though it was a rocky road, she ultimately grows more as a result of her experiences. Another message then makes itself clear, that to truly grow you need to experience things both bad and good, even if it hurts to do so. The hedonistic desire of constant positivity is brutalized in this film, and for good reason; its a psychological fact that if you remain on the loop, or rather the hedonistic treadmill, your happiness and well-being levels will stagnate, whereas if you experience both bad and good things, you will come to appreciate the good more than you would otherwise. This is something the film clearly takes seriously, and as a result, is more compelling drama-wise.

Next for this section, I will touch on the cyberbullying portrayed through the movie. Especially after the Burn Book is dropped, a lot of people are mocked on internet platforms, most prominently TikTok. Particularly though, the focus is put on Regina and Cady, as they both face rises and downfalls; in opposing orders. Cady rises but then is slammed online because people accuse her of pushing Regina, and Regina falls in two ways but rises back up after her accident, as the sympathy takes hold. It shows how fickle the digital world is, in how they flip on an instant and don’t hesitate to go toxic, following trends like sheep. Even with how bad Regina has acted up until the talent show, that shot of her looking back to the crowd after her harsh fall…chills. That made me feel badly for her, and severely question Janis for a good few minutes when she laughed at it. Yes, I get that Janis was treated horribly by Regina, but this immediately feels off given the newfound context of social media toxicity, especially once we see exactly how much it spreads. This was one of the primary examples of the revenge going too far - although Regina’s stubbornness to not bother to rehearse indeed led to the issue happening due to the weight gain, the worst sin that Cady commits towards Regina - and definitely got to Regina. We see her being so health-conscious, and from subtle curs in her voice, face, and things she says, we can tell that it is negatively affecting her in a way that is going beyond what was necessary. That being said, I would be less inclined to dub Janis and Cady as letting their mean selves out in that if they had cut those parts out. However, as the opening song says, everyone has a mean side to themselves. So, this was not a surprise to see - even if you’ve never seen the original 2004 film - but the extents that it goes to should make any viewer ambivalent about who is in the right, and that is something else that is so fantastic about Mean Girls. All sides do actions both good and bad, that really paint the proper portrait that, in life, there isn’t anyone who’s truly pure. Everyone has a darker side, that makes you question their true intentions and motivations, even if they’re otherwise splayed out clearly. Thus, nobody is inherently ‘good’ and nobody is inherently ‘bad’, and especially for the latter, the film shows the negatives of treating others like the bad ones and of propping yourself up as the good one.

And that’s the main point of the film, I believe. A Cautionary Tale sets this out and the film picks it up and displays the idea in really interesting and fun ways, which leads to an amazing, strongly-crafted experience all-around, with plenty to analyze and discuss about it.

-Conclusion and Rating-

In the end, I think its pretty clear to anyone who has read the review to this point what I will be giving this film as a rating. I personally had 0 issues with it and nothing stuck out to me as a flaw; it all worked together into a perfectly sublime platter that impressed me all around, more than I’d even been prepared for. It is with absolute joy, especially as a huge fan of the original film, that I bestow this rating of mine. Will need to binge this with the original on the 20th anniversary of the original. For me this was…joyous perfection. I hope this review made my love of it clear via both the gushing and the analysis. It was an absolute joy of a viewing experience on the biggest screen my cinema has, and I cannot wait to see the film again.

Mean Girls 2024 is so absolutely fetch. I highly recommend this film, especially if you love the original how I do; its truly wonderful.

10/10

[bergeronprocess]

My 2023 In Anime

Ah, 2023. What a year! According to my Anime Planet custom 2023 list, I watched 20 anime this year. A couple of them I haven’t finished yet and a couple of them are DNF. As the year dwindles down to its final days, I’m gonna take a look back at what anime I watched in 2023. Beware of spoilery discussion for all of the tagged shows.

Sorted by season and then in the order they appear on my list.

Winter 2023

Nijiyon Animation: Nijigasaki is my favorite flavor of Love Live (it’s the first one I watched, I like the characters a lot, the songs are great and there’s literally a girl also named Emma in the cast) and so I will never say no to more Niji. Cute fun bite-sized episodes. There was even a touching farewell to Tomori Kusunoki as Setsuna. I just saw that they’re going to do a second season, so I’m looking forward to that.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague: Holy crap, this show was a pretty little nothingburger. Literally NOTHING happened aside from the characters becoming friends. The two leads didn’t even kiss?!?! I wanted to see how they might handle that - the idea of people who are imbued with yokai powers is a neat one, but oof. This was unsatisfying.

UniteUp!: My dark horse favorite of the season, a bishonen idol show that dealt with some of the more realistic/uglier aspects of fame and the idol industry specifically. There were some production delays (that’s the story of 2023 across the industry, isn't it?) but I actually really enjoyed how they handled those - they showed these neat behind the scenes episodes with the voice actors. I love behind the scenes. The characters have a lot of heart, the songs were really good and the dancing looked excellent too. I think this is getting a second season too? If so, I’m thrilled to spend more time in this world.

Handyman Saitou in Another World: I actually watched an isekai! Holy shit! But it wasn’t one of those lazy paint-by-numbers isekai shows that are just a dime a dozen. I like how it showed Saitou using his skills (undervalued in our world) to get stuff done in the high fantasy world he found himself in after a Truck-kun situation. There WAS a bit too much fanservice for my liking - I’m a sports fan, so I’m used to that “oof, as a cis woman I am NOT the target demo here” feeling lol, but still - and I feel like they did a few too many “he’s dead! But not really because magic!” fake-outs. But hey! Ai Fairouz was in the cast here! I like her!

Buddy Daddies: OHHH did I enjoy this one. Great music, I love Kazuki and Rei, you could tell there was someone on the staff who is a gearhead based on how they portrayed cars, Miri is great, lol at how they overcome bureaucracy crime-style…Tumblr loved this one and with good reason. Also I definitely ship those two guys lol. The one downside is I feel like they kinda fridged Kazuki’s wife and Miri’s mom. They could’ve done a bit better by their adult female characters. I do still get the opening song stuck in my head now and again, though.

Soaring Sky/Hirogaru Sky Precure: Folks, this is the year I got Precurepilled. I tried Delicious Party last year but bounced off of it after episode 1 - it just didn’t hit for me somehow - but this one GOT ME! This is still ongoing and will be through the end of January (50 episodes y’all!), so I can’t speak with finality about it, but so far so good. The first boy Cure! The first adult Cure! She drives a Hummer for some reason lol! I think Mashiro is my favorite! It’s been so much fun to theorize about the story (I was SO wrong about Yoyo being Sora’s hero from her childhood, ha…) and watch it unfold. I do think they waited a bit too long to bring in the Kaiserin storyline, but hey, we’ll get a few more episodes to wrap everything up, right? As for Wonderful Precure, I don’t know lol the concept isn’t getting me hyped up, but I will at least watch episode 1 and go from there.

Spring 2023

Kira Kira Precure A La Mode: Still the only Precure season I’ve completed to date lol. This one was so much fun. I love sweets and baking, so I had great fun here, sometimes even shouting at the TV to try to help Ichika with her doomed bakes when she inevitably forgot baking powder or whatever. When I realized that Ciel had literally been in the opening credits since episode 1, that blew my mind lol. I DO wish they would’ve just let Julio become the first boy Cure, but hey, he walked so Cure Wing could fly. Himari is baby and Akira/Yukari is Haruka/Michiru for the 2010s. Aoi’s band made some good music. The very last scene was very sweet. Both ending songs are total earworms. Good stuff.

Skip and Loafer: This show is SO FREAKING CUTE. I just love these goofballs. I love how Nao-chan is able to just be herself and is not subjected to transphobia all the time. Mitsumi is adorable and also extremely relatable. I liked this one so much that I’ve started to read the manga, picking up where the anime left off. (2023 is also the year that Atlanta got a Kinokuniya location, which is very exciting for me, though maybe less so for my credit card lmao.) Season 2 pls? I would love to spend more time here.

Gundam The Witch from Mercury Season 2: Damn, this show needed at least one more season. Preferably two more. I was fully expecting 50 episodes like what Gundam Wing got lol. It needed more time to breathe, to show us more about the other characters (Lilique my beloved!) and to flesh out the big story. But alas, this is not a perfect world, and what we got was still pretty damn good, and also Sulemio married. That’s my interpretation. That's everyone's interpretation, isn't it?

Star Twinkle Precure: I’m still working on this one, but I FREAKING LOVE IT. The day-glo 80s aesthetic is right up my damn alley, I adore the transformation sequences, we get dark-skinned biracial representation with Cure Soleil, I enjoy reading the horoscopes at the end of each episode (my Japanese is at about a preschool level, so it’s great that everything has furigana lol), there’s space stuff AAAAAND this season has my very favorite Precure song ever. One of the only two so far to be in a minor key, folks, it’s PaPePiPu Romantic time.

I now have a new goal: sing this bad boy at karaoke someday. Pew pew! Pew pew pew!

Summer 2023

Yohane the Parhelion: I enjoyed Love Live Sunshine a lot, but phew, this didn’t do it for me. I feel like it would’ve been better as a 3 or 4 episode OVA (ONA these days I guess), but just didn’t have enough story for a full 13 episode season. My mom is fond of saying “just okay”...like, it wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t awful either. Yohane the Parhelion is just okay. Please just watch Sunshine instead if you want to be introduced to these characters. Sunshine is so much better.

Zom 100: I watched the first episode of this and then didn’t bother with the rest. DNF. Sorry to hear about the production troubles - that’s especially ironic for this show.

Fall 2023

MF Ghost: The other DNF for me. Watched 3 episodes, heard they were about to introduce a character who is obsessed with 17-year-old girls, noped the hell outta there. Wasn’t impressed with the 3 episodes either. I love Initial D - we named our cat Hachi because she’s black and white just like the Hachiroku - but MF Ghost just had no heart or soul. The Toyota 86 was lovingly rendered but I hated the ugly black motion lines they added when it was moving. The race they showed was dreadfully boring, the worldbuilding felt extremely unrealistic and oooh did I HATE that “outfit” they put our underage race queen in, if you can even call that an outfit.

Overtake: Of the two car racing shows this season, Overtake absolutely wins. It looks great, it introduces F4 racing to the audience very well (there’s some show, there’s some tell, a good blend) and the characters have more heart in their pinky fingernails than the entire cast of MF Ghost combined. There’s a very real and affecting subplot about PTSD, realistic discussion of just how much racing costs for an amateur team and plenty of men being unafraid to feel their feelings and cry it out. Overtake is definitely on the top of the podium. It hasn’t gotten anywhere near the love it deserves - ANN didn’t do weekly reviews of it and Anime Feminist was hyperfocused on the lack of female characters (valid! But not a dealbreaker to me!) - so I hope that people discover it later.

Shy: Thank goodness this is getting a season 2 because we spent literally a quarter of the season focused on the Pepesha and her mother subplot. That could’ve been tightened up a bit - ANN’s review mentions how Amarariruku’s villain speeches tend to be very circular, which is exactly how I felt seeing Lenya explain herself for what felt like the 50th time over - and I was genuinely looking at the episode count like “uhh??!?” before the season 2 news came out. So other than that part being a bit too drawn out, though, this is a very interesting show with a cool concept (Teru experiences Personal Growth! We are so proud of her!) and I’m interested in seeing where it goes from here. Will we meet the USA’s hero next season? I kinda want to see who that might be.

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer: Ai Fairouz is in the cast of this one too, so maybe she’s just what needs to be present for me to watch an isekai/high fantasy show? I did enjoy this one, even though the action scenes were a little bit lacking, perhaps above the skill level of the animators. They did do lovely watercolor-like scenery shots, though. The characters are charming (Belgrieve, total DILF, also giving us disability representation) and the opening song is a bop. They did leave the door open for a season 2 - for example, the question of Ange’s parentage was never answered, although it is VERY heavily implied that she is also a demon. I mean, the little demon kid Belgrieve takes in at the end literally looks exactly like her, for crying out loud.

Spy x Family Season 2: Haven’t finished this one yet - I want to watch it with my husband because he also likes it and we’ve just had a lot of stuff going on! We have watched 4 episodes, which means we’ve watched a bunch of one-off side stories basically lol. He even remarked at some point that the episodes felt weird. I was like “Well, because they’re only side stories!” From what I have read, it sounds like things are about to pick up plot-wise, so we gotta just make some time to catch up soon lol. 

Power of Hope/Kibou no Chikara Otona Precure 23: I have not seen ANY of the Precure series that have characters appearing here, so I came in fresh. This was enjoyable! I was originally bummed that we didn’t get to see them transform as adults, but the age reversion to transform was done for big story reasons and made perfect sense in that context. The episode that showed how the town was devastated by firebombing in World War II was deeply affecting - war is hell, no wonder Bell was changed by it - and it was great to see Cure Black and Cure White turn up. It reminded me of all the companions coming together at the end of Doctor Who season 4. Total fan catnip, I love it. I have not seen Mahotsukai Precure either, so I’ll be going into their sequel fresh too. (Is that what was being teased at the very very end of episode 12? Yeah probably lol)

16bit Sensation Another Layer: My winner for best show of this season. As you may have gathered from my mention of Doctor Who just now, I like time travel stories, so “Listen, Konoha Akisato has come unstuck in time” appealed to me right away. This show also genuinely taught me things about computer game development. I have a deepened respect for PC-98 game art (I follow such accounts on here now lol), which would surely make Mamoru smile. Plus, I like how it has a core message of “You can be a woman who works on erotic video games and that is not weird or perverted. Follow your dreams!” Toya does, after all - I would have loved to see her team up with Konoha and it sucks that she was being manipulated by the evil company. The show did take a turn for the Matrix-y in the fourth quarter, and I do feel episode 13 was a bit rushed (Konoha opens Comic Party and then is just immediately back in 2023? She and Mamoru explain how they told everyone about being time travelers instead of us getting to see that reaction?), but dammit, I teared up at the very end anyway. What a show!

Magic User’s Club OVA: I remember renting videotapes of this from Blockbuster way back in the day, but I didn’t remember much about the show itself, so I decided to watch it again after seeing this AnimeBackWhen video about it. It’s so fun and charming! And Ikuko Itou designed the characters and Junichi Satou is the director - a bit of a Sailor Moon reunion lol. (Fun fact I learned just now is Chiaki J. Konaka did the screenplay. This is very very different from his work on Serial Experiments Lain.) I’m not done with it yet. The opening song is a big ole bop!

2024 goals:

Finish Star Twinkle Precure

Watch Gunbuster (another "I rented it from Blockbuster during the Clinton administration" story - I bought Discotek's new Blu-Ray of it, just haven't cracked it open yet lol)

Continue to enjoy seasonal anime!

[cloverthirteen]

unsorted (and spoilery) mario movie thoughts under the cut since I saw it today

first to get it out of the way: critics apparently complained about the plot being too simple and straightforward, none of the characters changed that much, too much stuff being thrown at you and too many references...it's a mario movie. this is basically what the plots of the games are. if anything these things helped the movie by making feel more like the games!

for my personal issues: first half of the film goes at an absolute breakneck pace and luigi doesn't get to do nearly enough. mario and luigi also spend way too much time apart :(

otherwise, though, THIS MOVIE IS AMAZING. it was clearly made by fans and caters directly to fans, the amount of easter eggs and references is enormous.

THE MUSIC. nearly all of it is BEAUTIFUL orchestral versions of songs from the series and it's everywhere and in the most unexpected places. underground theme in the sewers, bowser's castle theme as his fortress is approaching, super mario 3 athletic theme (I think?) when mario gets the tanooki suit, mario kart menu music in the kart garage, LUIGI'S MANSION MELODY WHEN LUIGI FIRST ENTERS BOWSER'S KINGDOM? I am kissing all of the orchestra members and composers DIRECTLY on the mouth for their work. and if we're talking about music...

DK RAP BABY!!!!! the crowd loves that guy! they even name-drop diddy kong during the scene!

there are also a few pop songs in the movie, though take on me during the introduction to the jungle kingdom is the only one that felt really out of place

the bros' path to their first job being a recreation of world 1-1 complete with a castle-like building at the end...that scene was totally there to show off but it's very neat

MARIO AND LUIGI ARE BEST BROS...mario gets to protect luigi from insults and luigi gets to say that any princess with good taste would be into mario...their relationship is the BEST and I'm so sad we didn't get to see them directly interacting more...

somehow I wasn't expecting bowser's plan being to marry peach since it was left out of the trailers...but it's hilarious seeing bowser plan it all out and they even got bowser's and peach's wedding outfits from odyssey, so it was perfect

I was a bit worried that they would lean too hard on peach being a do-anything Girlboss™ but while she's tough she's clearly got her kind side too! protecting her people is her biggest concern and it's even exploited by bowser!

bowser gets to sing a love song for peach with bisexual lighting and everything. you can tell jack black was having the time of his life

speaking of the voice cast, they all did really well! I didn't have many doubts as a whole but even chris pratt was great as mario. didn't think I'd ever write that sentence but it's true

kamek was such a proud dad to bowser despite his limited screentime. love it

I'm not sure why spike was part of the initial advertised voice cast because he's barely in the movie lol

out of all the powerups I expected to return, I was not expecting the mini mushroom and ice flower, but they were incorporated very well!

other things I didn't really expect: mario and dk having a rivalry that builds into a friendship was cute. also they straight up get swallowed by the mario 64 eel

princess peach backstory?????? at least in the movie canon she isn't from the mushroom kingdom and just arrived via warp pipe from...somewhere as a baby. also using the baby versions of peach and the bros for flashbacks is incredibly cheesy but also cute in its own way

there were surprisingly few cringeworthy or self aware jokes and no awkward overly long gags, which must be some kind of first for illumination based on what I remember

the animation was spectacular as expected. rainbow road looks fucking gorgeous and the character animation was fun to watch

no really romantic moments between mario and peach unfortunately, though we did get a lot of very nice interactions between the two overall so I hope they build on their relationship in a potential sequel

so yeah...it's good and very fun. go see it if you haven't already!!

[aeroplaneblues]

Alright! its time for top anime of 2022 list🎉

This year I didn't watched that many however I did found some good ones! 2 of those are recurring shows which I try to avoid, as this might be used as a rec list, but I like them that much!

the tldr; is on twitter

10- Vampire in the garden: this one was on netflix which I guess is why it didn't get that much attention, i like the concept and visuals were very nice its a bittersweet end but I quite enjoyed. 09- Raven of the inner palace: the story is interesting, its starts very monster of the week style with ghosts then moves to a main villain, the relationships between the MC and the rest of the cast is honestly the highlight. My only complain is pronunciation of the names are jp localized so I hope this gets a chinese dub. 08- Gundam: the witch of mercury: the last gundam i watched was wing and do not remember anything but i know its reputation, I gave this one a chance because the designs are really fun and I also went in with the idea that it was yuri bait. TURNS OUT this might not be what I was expecting, there is one more ep of this + the rest of the cour so I'm hoping it improves from here. The characters carry this for me even the background ones, they all feel like characters not props! Plus ZERO GRAVITY HUGS!! 07- Mob psycho 100 III: I know this list is numbered but I love all of these equally ! However, this in comparison with s1 and s2 is one of the weakest, maybe bc it had to close loose ends? idk but its still a good one, the moment I cry was with ekubo more than reigen i know i know but reigen had his moment in s2 and I think that hit harder. Time to read the manga! 06- My dress-up darling: this is ecchi, im saying this first bc if people barely tolerate bnha fanservice this is not for you. I usually avoid this but I was dumb and didn't saw the tag😂 and I got attached to the main characters and the story, I read the manga and the ecchi is very far and far between as the story progresses. I think it has a lot of heart and its quite fun love story, plus you learn so much about cosplaying! 05- Sasaki and miyano: cutest bl I've ever watched/read, sasaki reminds me of childe which I find it so funny I can't unsee it. Miyano isn't your uwu protagonist and their relationship is build sloooowly on a lot of love and respect. Its nice to see this type of bl without its usual uh nonsense. 04- The case study of vanitas II: the thing about this second season is that i didn't know if bones was going to adapt everything, the manga updates at shoujo pace and has had rough months of absence HOWEVER it was all adapted, like a month after the last ch came out we saw that ep which is the wildest thing for me tbh. Anyway that last ep is why this is here, it was the BEST fight scene ending like [SPOILERS] watch it, it was amazing. 03- Chainsaw man: yeah i know ofc this is here, this is one of the best adaptations I've ever watched, it is beyond perfect. Several episodes I felt like I was watching a movie, can't rec it enough it even has its own mads mikkelsen inspired character voiced by the same va of the other mads mikkelsen inspired character from my other fave show. Also love the detail how mappa draws shoes as fujimoto draws them. 02- Spy x family: this is another good adaptation, I started reading this manga in 2019?? And I kept thinking how GOOD of a story it was and it was a shame so little attention it got, but now with the anime its got the much deserved attention. I adore it immensely, here is hoping for a continuous success.

01- Bocchi the rock: THIS is at the top bc of how relatable it is for me and what a nice surprise to know its actually a good anime. I was expecting it to be another "cute girls do cute things" like "do it yourself" from this year and I wasn't wrong its just that it has a little more depth than that. All the girls have good and bad traits, goals and obstacles to overcome so the story focuses on that with their collective goal of playing music. As someone with social anxiety that lean on rock/playing guitar to make friends and not succeeding on that front I want to see bocchi accomplish her goals, its cathartic like that. Also the animator are truly having fun with the different styles of animating the jokes which is always a treat to watch.

If you got it to this part, thank you so much for reading! If you give any of this a chance and like them let me know! I love talking about anime as you can see haha. I hope next year the season isn't as dry mid way so I get to watch more!

Happy New Year!!🎉

[twistedtummies2]

Fifteen Days of Disney Magic - Number 3

Welcome to Fifteen Days of Disney Magic! In honor of the company’s 100th Anniversary, I have been counting down my Top 15 Favorite Movies from Walt Disney Animation Studios! We’ve reached the Top 3 on the countdown! Today’s entry is a FAIRY good film, indeed. (AUDIENCE BOOS AND HISSES) OH, YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS ‘CAUSE YOU DIDN’T THINK OF IT FIRST! Number 3 is…Sleeping Beauty.

MALEFICENT. Ahem…sorry, I…anytime this movie comes up, that’s my immediate gut reaction. Let me try again: today we’re talking about Sleeping Beauty-MALEFICENT. Drat. Um…okay…one more try: todaywe’retalkingaboutSleepingBeautyafilmthat-MALEFICENT! …Yeah, uh…Maleficent’s a big part of why I love this movie. ‘XD I suppose that is neither a surprise nor necessarily a bad thing. A villain can do a lot for a movie’s power, and it’s no secret that Maleficent is not only one of Disney’s most popular and well-known antagonists, but also my single favorite Disney Villain of all time, as well as one of my favorite villains ever made, period. So, naturally, having that character is a boon to the picture, because that character’s presence is automatically something that draws me to it…and vice-versa, I suppose, since while the original fairy-tale of “Sleeping Beauty” has been around for centuries, it’s Disney’s specific take on the Evil Fairy from the story – Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil – that this movie gave birth to and made so grand. However, I don’t really want to spend this entry jabbering on about how good Maleficent is. I have had and likely will have plenty of opportunities to do that. And truth be told, she is far from the only reason I love this movie. “Sleeping Beauty” is one of those magnificent films that really does try to show the artistry of animation. If you ever want proof that animation is truly art in itself, this is a movie that can probably prove that to you. The look of the film is absolutely gorgeous, from the backgrounds to the characters in play, it’s all magnificent to behold. This was actually one of the first animated films ever made in a widescreen format, and this was no accident: when Walt Disney assigned his team of creators to the film, he wanted them to make something he called “a moving tapestry.” Everything had to be bigger, bolder, and more illustrative than ever before. This meant not only hiring the work of a brilliant artistic director and background designer, Eyvind Earle, but also stretching out the scope of the film so that every bit of animated beauty could be displayed, like a great moving painting for the audience to behold. The soundtrack matches this ideal, as well: originally, the film was going to have a more typical Broadway-or-pop-tune-esque song list and likely a matching soundtrack to go with it. However, at some point the suggestion was made to use Tchaikovsky’s ballet of the same name for the soundtrack. Nearly every piece of music in the film is either directly taken from the ballet, or riffed off of some section from it. The use of the ballet music only helps to further heighten the film’s atmosphere, emotional power, and sense of grandeur. “Sleeping Beauty” is essentially designed to be the ultimate fairy-tale story; the greatest expression in art of the endless struggle between good and evil, with a simple but well-executed fantasy to give it life.

In a way, I see Sleeping Beauty as a sort of cousin to an earlier Disney feature, “Fantasia.” It feels very much like a segment from Fantasia, but given a voice cast and stretched to feature length. Some elements of the plot are a bit iffy, but the movie worries less about plot and more about emotion and the strength of its characters. And, generally speaking, the characters are strong: while Aurora may not be the best of the Disney Princesses, in my opinion, she’s not an unlikeable character. Indeed, she’s not even REALLY the main protagonist: the true main characters of the story are the Three Good Fairies, and all of them are fun and interesting in their own right. I’ll even throw a bone to Prince Philip; in my opinion, Philip was the first REAL Disney Prince, by which I mean, he was the first who felt like he HAD an actual character. The ones in “Snow White” and “Cinderella” were barely present in their respective films and really felt more like plot devices than actual characters in their own right. Philip may not be as fascinating as characters like Aladdin or Simba, but he’s at least got his own unique personality and motivations at play. Heck, even the two kings, who barely have anything to do with the story in general, are memorable and fun characters! And of course, I’ve already made it clear how much I love Maleficent. Watching Sleeping Beauty is like watching a classic opera, but without the loud singing in a language you may not be able to understand. (Ha Ha.) It’s an emotional and artistic experience above anything else, which gets more intense than most films that came after it ever even tried, at least as far as Disney goes. It was the last film of its kind, at least for the studio...literally. Disney physically doesn't make movies like this anymore, just on a technical level; "Sleeping Beauty" is a work of pure and genuine craftsmanship, the peak of its kind and the end of its own era at the same time. Later films used different techniques to create their animation, which proved more cost-effective, but lacked the remarkable amount of effort it took to create something this polished and resplendent. It's rare you'll find something like Sleeping Beauty in our modern world, and it represents something special as a result: the work of incredible passion, time, and cost that created what many would consider to still be a masterpiece. I guess I can understand if it’s lower in the ranks for other folks – when you compare it to the complex storytelling and characters of some later films, there are definitely elements to pick apart – but for me, there’s no doubt that it’s in my Top Three Favorite Disney Movies. Tomorrow will be the penultimate post! I shall be presenting my 2nd Favorite Disney Movie! HINT: It Took a Truly Concerted Effort to Create.

[bluescarabguy]

Gonna cross-post my GAMERA REBIRTH review from Letterboxd. I'll copy-paste the text here too, but if you wanna click through and like or follow, feel free!

GAMERA REBIRTH is an excellent blending of every previous version of Gamera that still has its own voice. Rebirth has the over-the-top kaiju cast and battles of the Shōwa films, the horror and mythological aspects of the Kaneko trilogy, and an endearing cast of complex child characters akin to GAMERA THE BRAVE. Considering that 2006 film, Kadokawa's first Gamera effort, was basically E.T./Iron Giant/Water Horse but with Gamera, it makes sense that their 2023 take would be Stranger Things, but with Gamera (especially on Netflix).

More or less exactly what I wanted from a modern take on Gamera, with its only issue really being what it isn't: a new live-action project, or a higher-budget animated one. The limited animation of the human cast can be somewhat distracting, though I acclimatized to it fairly fast because I liked the characters themselves so much (helped by a pretty good English dub). All of the monster fights look great, though, a marked improvement from director Hiroyuki Seshita's previous kaiju films for Netflix, the Godzilla Earth trilogy, where I felt the monsters felt almost statuesque in their movement and expression. Hopefully, this season being successful will entice Kadokawa and Netflix to give extra funds to the animators for things that aren't kaiju in season 2. Everything else here production-wise is firing on all cylinders, though. Good if generic human character designs, great music, fantastic redesigns of all the kaiju that are recognizable yet refreshing. With luck, its success will mean more new Gamera projects of all kinds!

[lemonmeringues]

I don't think I have to put on a spoiler disclaimer in here since everyone knows the story of princess Ariel but yeah, this will be kind of a review/blog something.

🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️

So i took myself on a date yesterday after my 24-hour duty, and what better "date" activity to do than watch a movie. For the record, it's my first time to go ALONE 🤟🏻💪🏻 and I haven't been inside a cinema since 2019 😬. So to top the whole experience off, I chose to watch The Little Mermaid and my oh my...i ABSOLUTELY LOVED it! I haven't felt kilig due to a movie/show in such a long time (or just felt kilig in general!) AND i even cried at the cheesy ending. Hahahahahah. Im such a sucker for this.

There had been some buzz about this movie ever since it released its initial trailer primarily due to its casting and I myself felt skeptical about it when I started seeing some clips on its animation (thought the graphics looked weird and low-budget) BUT for some reason the movie did justice to the animation i loved from childhood --- like everything...graphics, musical score, cast, etc. AND is no one gonna talk about how cute Prince Eric is??? HAHAHAHAHA. Jonah (yes, done stalking) gave Eric more depth in the movie and his good looks and voice don't hurt also. Ehehehe.

Ooops. Excuse my simping hihihi.

Honestly though, I used to think that animation Ariel was too stereotypical to fall immediately in love with the usual prince charming who likes to go on sea adventures. So it's nice that the remake added somewhat of a back story to the prince charming character.

Fave part of the movie might be when Ariel becomes human and meets the prince but she doesn't remember she had to get a true love's kiss within 3 days (AND WITHOUT HER SIREN VOICE, Ursula really did it dirty!), however you can definitely see how the Prince Eric is slowly falling for her and becomes curious about her without her really trying hard at all. Though I'm not all in with the pairing...like there's some percentage of chemistry amiss...but I think each character was suitably cast --- Halle's voice was monstrously goooood and look at those toned arms, like guuuurl. Prince Eric, need I say more? 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻. Also, Awkwafina voicing Scuttle was really hilarious and fun.

All in all, it' s a 4.7/5 ⭐ (again, there's some chemistry missing but Kiss the girl made me sooooo kilig nevertheless!)

Good night!