#the crew all being species where it's highly unusual to see them in space on their own adds to the company isolation

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it's my birthday so I get to draw the most self-indulgent au imaginable. buddycrew rtts alien edition. plus whatever buddy is

[aion-rsa]

The Last Watch is the Night’s Watch on the Edge of Space

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In George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, the men of the Night’s Watch are known for “taking the black,” describing the night-dark garb they don when they pledge the remainder of their lifetimes to being posted on the Wall at the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms. Night gathers, and now my watch begins, is the start of their vow upon taking the black. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post.

Like the Night’s Watch, the Sentinels in J.S. Dewes’ The Last Watch take to the black—that is, they venture out to the very edges of space on essentially a one-way trip for what is a lifetime mission. Described as “The Expanse meets Game of Thrones,” Dewes’ debut shares a kindred spirit with ASOIAF, despite being set among the stars, in its focus on the former war heroes and criminals alike stationed at the Divide, the edge of the known universe, searching for any sign of their long-gone alien enemies. Despite their vast physical distance from the Core of the System Collective Legion, their duty is so integral to the Legion’s continued existence that even children know, through nursery rhymes, what are the stakes: Sentinel, Sentinel at the black, do not blink or turn your back / You must stand ready to stem the tide, lest Viators come to cross the Divide.

For all its thematic comparisons to a particular fantasy faction, The Last Watch occupies a science fiction subgenre that has long compelled readers: stories of everyday survival and occasional heroism set at the fringes of the known universe. Despite these series establishing in their worldbuilding the core of humanity’s (often prosperous) settlement in space, the heart of their stories take place on the outer edges, in which ordinary people, lacking the amenities and securities of their civilization’s core, must scrabble for survival. Consider The Expanse, in which Earth and Mars are warring superpowers but the dramatic thrust of the story occurs in Belter space, on a distant station, and aboard an unassuming ship called the Canterbury.

Hundreds of lightyears from the Legion’s Core, retired battleship Argus sits at the Divide, its loyal and unceasing position. For five years, former war hero Adequin Rake has overseen a crew with rather spotty service records, from soldiers who washed out of Legion command to petty criminals whose unusual skills are utilized in this unorthodox setting. Despite the ersatz military rankings keeping them in line, they resemble less The Expanse’s Martian Marines and have more in common with the scrappy Belters: self-sufficient and resourceful because more often than not they don’t get their requested upgrades from the Core; so far from the powers that be as to be nearly forgotten; and—most vitally—changed by their proximity to the time dilation that ripples along the Divide.

So, what makes these fringe space stories so compelling?

For one, it’s the allure of the frontier tale: adventures set at the known limits of the world, with protagonists who seek to engage the unknown for the potential of incredible discovery. The quintessential frontier in Western literature is the American West: romanticized as a wide-open land of opportunity for the settlers self-sufficient enough to explore it, and justified by the notion of manifest destiny. However, these themes have become so pervasive that the metaphorical frontier can easily be applied to science fiction and fantasy.

To wit: the Argus has its own chain of command that allows each new recruit, regardless of their background before stepping aboard, to work their way up through the system from entry-level oculus to highly-trusted optio. That system also makes room for Savants, hyper-intelligent human/Viator hybrids that embody the best of the enigmatic other species and provide much-needed insight into an alien culture. That said, the crew’s onboarding process is less of an idealistic oath and more a bunch of Legion legalese, plus a set of Viator-inspired Imprint tattoos to keep them humble: If anyone gets out of line, all Rake has to do is press a button, and they’re swiftly disciplined on a skin-deep level. However, the system does not explain why Rake, a hero of the last human/Viator war years prior, traded in her status as a Titan to command such a ragtag crew—nor why royal misfit and general shit-stirrer Cavalon Mercer shows up as her most unorthodox recruit yet.

Yet for all that the frontier setting presents a blank slate, it also challenges its protagonists to match the environment in its spareness. “In the emptiness of the frontier, we find characters reduced to their most basic selves,” Only Killers and Thieves author Paul Howarth writes for The Guardian, “the comforts and trappings of the modern world stripped away to leave them with startlingly elemental choices: death or survival; morality or corruption; love or hate.”

The military structure aboard the Argus actively supports such black-and-white thinking: loyalty or mutiny; honor or treason; survival or death. It also traps Rake and her crew in a toxic environment, as Dewes explains in a recent interview with The Mary Sue: “Though the Sentinels’ mistreatment is something that’s been simmering in the back of Adequin’s mind for years, her stagnancy at this far-flung post has stifled any potential progress in realizing it. She can’t see past the walls of her ship and across the 100 million light-year expanse back to reality and civilization, so she has no perspective through which to see how bad it is.”

Cavalon’s arrival explodes those binaries, as he provides some vital context for just how corrupt the Core has become—not to mention embodying another potential aspect of this subgenre’s appeal: the desire to engage with the problematic truths of manifest destiny, especially as it has translated to space exploration stories. The romanticism of the frontier myth often occludes the ugly truths of such expansionist storytelling, namely the theft and resettlement of lands already occupied by Native Americans, and the brutal genocide of these First Nations peoples. While it isn’t the central conflict, The Last Watch does contrast humanity’s antagonistic relationship with the Viators with the cultural exchange—technology, hybrids, and clones—that nevertheless occurs between these supposedly disparate civilizations. At the edge of space, there is no room for entitlement or ego.

And perhaps that’s the purest appeal of edge-of-space stories: the notion of one person facing down the infinite.

Martin was inspired to create ASOIAF’s Wall, and the Night’s Watch upon it, by visiting Hadrian’s Wall in the 1980s. Standing atop the historical site, he told John Hodgman in a 2011 interview, he tried to put himself in the mindset of a first-century Roman soldier staring out beyond the wall: “at the end of the known world staring at these distant hills and wondering what lived there and what might come out of it.” It’s easy to see how that inspired the core of the Night’s Watch oath, the sacrifice of individuality that each man makes on Westeros’ Wall: I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.

It’s a role that every watcher shares, yet there is a vast divide between the quotidian duty of serving yet another uneventful shift and the portentous moment of being the first set of eyes to behold something or someone otherworldly. In a blink, a man goes from cog in the machine to a vital piece of history.

The Last Watch subverts this thinking in two key ways. Instead of encroaching White Walkers, the Sentinels are meant to hold the Divide against the inhuman Viators, despite the fact that their advanced enemies haven’t posed a threat for centuries, excepting the recent decade-long Resurgence War that (as the war epics go) wiped out their remaining numbers. In the absence of returning Viators, the Sentinels stationed aboard the Argus instead grapple with the unique conundrum of confronting themselves. That is, ripples in time dilation from riding along the Divide that project their döppelgangers from a few moments in the future. These glimpses are usually inconsequential glitches that create self-fulfilling prophecies, but as the ripples become more frequent, they hint at branching paths, and signal one indisputable change in the universe as they know it: the Divide is collapsing.

What these edge-of-civilization stories share with frontier adventures is the escapist feeling that there is still world left to be discovered, that humanity has not mapped out its limits. Dewes clearly marks that limit, and then turns it on its watchers, with the otherworldly chasing them back to civilization. Only when the universe begins collapsing can Titans and princes be truly stripped down to their base selves: survivors… or simply ceasing to exist.

The Last Watch is available April 20 from Tor Books, and is available for pre-order now. Check out the full synopsis below…

The Expanse meets Game of Thrones in J. S. Dewes’s fast-paced, sci-fi adventure The Last Watch, where a handful of soldiers stand between humanity and annihilation.

The Divide.

It’s the edge of the universe.

Now it’s collapsing—and taking everyone and everything with it.

The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels—the recruits, exiles, and court-martialed dregs of the military.

At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms—nothing, except for the soldiers that no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer—genius, asshole, and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather’s genetic facility for “reasons.”

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She knows they’re humanity’s last chance.

The post The Last Watch is the Night’s Watch on the Edge of Space appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[orbemnews]

NASA’s Last Rocket Eleven years in the making, the most powerful NASA-built rocket since the Apollo program at last stands upright. Framed by the industrial test platform to which it is mounted, the Space Launch System’s core section is a gleaming, apricot-colored column cast into relief by twisting pipes and steel latticework. The rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty, pedestal and all, and is the cornerstone of NASA’s astronaut ambitions. The launch vehicle is central to the agency’s Artemis program to return humans to the lunar surface, and later, land them on Mars. On Thursday, NASA will try for a second time to prove that the Space Launch System is ready to take flight, aiming for a continuous “hot fire” of its engines for as long as eight minutes. If the test goes well, the rocket’s next stop would be Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and as early as November, the launchpad. It is expected to lift a capsule called Orion on a path around the moon and back. Its first crewed mission is planned for 2023. That flight will be the first to lift astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972. Indeed, it will send astronauts farther into space than any human has gone before. And yet far from being a bold statement about the future of human spaceflight, the Space Launch System rocket represents something else: the past, and the end. This is the last class of rocket that NASA is ever likely to build. Seeing it launch, though, will actually mean something. While NASA has long desired to return astronauts to deep space, it could not. The agency lacked a vehicle designed, tested and validated as safe to lift humans more than a couple of hundred miles from the ground. If this week’s test succeeds and the rocket later flies, the United States will be able to say that it does. But the course has not run smooth. The Space Launch System was born not on the drafting tables of engineers, but on the desks of senators. In 2010, Congress legislated into existence a launch vehicle for firing heavy things to deep space. What things? TBD. And where, exactly? No one could say for sure. Members of Congress had no particular design in mind, but they demanded that NASA rummage through crates of old space shuttle parts whenever possible to build this thing, and required that it launch by 2016. Mandated to build the big rocket, NASA cobbled together exploration programs that would use it. First, it was an asteroid rocket. Then a Mars rocket. Now, it is an Artemis moon rocket. In any event, the Space Launch System is billions of dollars over budget and five years beyond its compulsory launch date. A hot fire test in January disappointed NASA engineers hoping to prove it was worth the wait. Instead of simulating eight minutes of the stresses and events of an actual launch, however, the engines shut down after just 67.2 seconds. NASA blames “test parameters that were intentionally conservative” for the failure. Engineers have since repaired a valve and replaced a faulty electrical harness that had signaled a “major component failure” during the test. The setbacks that have plagued the Space Launch System stand in stark contrast to what else has happened in rocketry in the past decade. If you’ve logged on to the internet in the past five years, you’ve probably seen the spectacular launches of rockets built by SpaceX. Elon Musk’s private aerospace outfit has fired hundreds of satellites into space, and even a Tesla sports car. Its rocket boosters then return to Earth and land elegantly upright for reuse. On Sunday, one made the round trip for the ninth time. This private space program was nurtured by NASA and accelerated after the space shuttles stopped flying in 2011. Last year, SpaceX began carrying the agency’s astronauts to the International Space Station. Now the company has set its sights on landing people on the moon and Mars. But SpaceX’s rockets aren’t ready to carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit, and few other companies have expressed interest in this truly long-distance travel market. The Space Launch System is not NASA’s first post-Apollo attempt to build a deep space rocket for the astronaut corps. On July 20, 1989, 20 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, President George H.W. Bush committed humankind to becoming a multiplanetary species. Later he offered a timetable: that by 2019, the 50th anniversary of that “one giant leap,” astronauts would salute the stars and stripes from Mars. Obviously, that didn’t happen. In 2004, George W. Bush made a commitment similar to his father’s. Much of the engineering that went into the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule can be traced to that now-canceled program, Constellation. In 2010, Barack Obama made his own declaration, asking NASA to use the rocket to journey to Mars. The hardware has since been absorbed by Artemis, the NASA program started by the Trump administration to land the next man and first woman on the moon before heading to the red planet. Despite the lofty ambitions of so many presidents, humans have remained mired in orbit. The ability to reach the moon is not as simple as going a little farther. The space station operates about 250 miles above Earth’s surface. The moon is about 250,000 miles away. Accordingly, after 32 years of false starts and failed programs, a successful launch of the Space Launch System will at last reopen old frontiers of human spaceflight. NASA will again have the hardware to transport humankind to other worlds. No other American rocket can send astronauts to the moon in a single launch. The Falcon Heavy, a large rocket built by SpaceX that has flown three times, is not certified to launch humans. SpaceX has instead focused its crewed deep space ambitions on Starship, a sleek, ambitious spacecraft that is under development and possibly years away from flying humans. Right now, if NASA wants to return astronauts to the moon, the Space Launch System is the only game in town, even if it costs $2 billion per launch and cannot be reused. SpaceX and Blue Origin, another private rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, are solving very difficult problems: how to build versatile rockets and crew vehicles that land so gently that they are reusable even with astronauts aboard. By contrast, the NASA rocket does not look like anyone’s vision of the future. That is part of what makes the Space Launch System a useful transitional product. It has no unusual engineering hurdles to leap. There is every reason to believe that once these rockets demonstrate their flight worthiness, they will work well and reliably. Until Starship or some other rocket is flying safely and regularly, NASA can continue its interplanetary endeavors knowing that in the interim, it has a working giant rocket. There is great value in that. The big rocket won’t be needed forever. It might be needed only long enough to get the first woman on the lunar surface. The commercial launch sector may be ready to take it from there. It is highly unlikely that NASA will ever again rely on rockets it has built on its own. The Space Launch System is the end of the line. If the only purpose it serves is giving the nation the time and confidence to get a private, reusable vessel spaceborne, it will have been a success. Whether the Space Launch System program ends next year or next decade, unlike the end of the space shuttle or Saturn 5, it will not be the end of a chapter, but the end of a book. NASA will be out of the rocket business. When the next generation goes to Kennedy Space Center and sees a giant old Space Launch System booster on display, the tour guide will say, “They don’t make ’em like that anymore,” and that will be true — literally. David W. Brown is a journalist who writes about spaceflight. He is the author of “The Mission,” an examination of NASA’s long bid to build a spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. Source link Orbem News #NASAs #rocket

[myanime2go]

Top 25 Best Action Anime of All Time for Action Fans

When I say action, I mean ACTION! Maybe it's human beings need to pursue something greater than ourselves or of being much stronger, action anime offers something that brings us closer to our fantasy with sometimes illogical action sequences, the fate of the world, nation, city, or just the protagonist in the balance. Hello fellow anime fans and lovers to the top 25 best action anime of all time for action fans. Action anime is about conflict, thrilling confrontations, car chases and epic battles. It's heart-pumping action, nail-biting suspense, trigger happy characters and a love to hate or hate to love villain. You asked and we delivered. A list focused on action, explosions, eye-candy visuals, intensity of plot, characters, battles or stunts that should bring you a lot of hype and excitement. So lets get started;

25. Kill la Kill

Episodes 24 + OVA| Aired Fall 2013 | Produced by Trigger

From the creators of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann comes, Kill la Kill an anime with epic battles, eye-popping art style and astonishing moves. After the murder of her father, Ryuuko Matoi has been wandering the land in search of his killer. Following her only lead—the missing half of his invention, the Scissor Blade—she arrives at the prestigious Honnouji Academy, a high school unlike any other. The academy is ruled by the imposing and cold-hearted student council president Satsuki Kiryuuin alongside her powerful underlings, the Elite Four. In the school's brutally competitive hierarchy, Satsuki bestows upon those at the top special clothes called "Goku Uniforms," which grant the wearer unique superhuman abilities.Thoroughly beaten in a fight against one of the students in uniform, Ryuuko retreats to her razed home where she stumbles across Senketsu, a rare and sentient "Kamui," or God Clothes. After coming into contact with Ryuuko's blood, Senketsu awakens, latching onto her and providing her with immense power. Now, armed with Senketsu and the Scissor Blade, Ryuuko makes a stand against the Elite Four, hoping to reach Satsuki and uncover the culprit behind her father's murder once and for all –MAL Revenge is the story of the game in Kill la Kill, it starts up with a simple plot but becomes more complex and deeper than it appears with each episode, becoming much more than just an anime filled with fan-service and amazing fight scenes. I have been made a fan of Trigger and I honestly look forward to whatever future creative work they release. https://youtu.be/B98NY8Hfo7I

24. Hunter x Hunter (2011) (HxH 2011)

Episodes 148 + OVA| Aired Fall 2011 | Produced by Madhouse

Hunter x Hunter is a well animated and thought out anime with plenty of action, with highly anticipated battles. Hunter x Hunter is set in a world where Hunters exist to perform all manner of dangerous tasks like capturing criminals and bravely searching for lost treasures in uncharted territories. Twelve-year-old Gon Freecss is determined to become the best Hunter possible in hopes of finding his father, who was a Hunter himself and had long ago abandoned his young son. However, Gon soon realizes the path to achieving his goals is far more challenging than he could have ever imagined.Along the way to becoming an official Hunter, Gon befriends the lively doctor-in-training Leorio, vengeful Kurapika, and rebellious ex-assassin Killua. To attain their own goals and desires, together the four of them take the Hunter Exam, notorious for its low success rate and high probability of death. Throughout their journey, Gon and his friends embark on an adventure that puts them through many hardships and struggles. They will meet a plethora of monsters, creatures, and characters—all while learning what being a Hunter truly means –MAL Hunter x Hunter is an amazing action anime with a fantastic story, excellent characters with deep having their own goals and desires some simple while others complex. It's one of those rear unicorns in the action genre that those a lot of things well. You will be glad you watched it. https://youtu.be/d6kBeJjTGnY

23. One Punch Man

Episodes 24 + OVA| Aired Fall 2015 | Produced by Madhouse

One Punch Man is the story of Satima, a hero who is a hero just for fun and the strongest man in his universe that can defeat any opponent with a single punch. Based on Yusuke Murata's manga remake of ONE's original webcomic. The seemingly ordinary and unimpressive Saitama has a rather unique hobby: being a hero. In order to pursue his childhood dream, he trained relentlessly for three years—and lost all of his hair in the process. Now, Saitama is incredibly powerful, so much so that no enemy is able to defeat him in battle. In fact, all it takes to defeat evildoers with just one punch has led to an unexpected problem—he is no longer able to enjoy the thrill of battling and has become quite bored.This all changes with the arrival of Genos, a 19-year-old cyborg, who wishes to be Saitama's disciple after seeing what he is capable of. Genos proposes that the two join the Hero Association in order to become certified heroes that will be recognized for their positive contributions to society, and Saitama, shocked that no one knows who he is, quickly agrees. And thus begins the story of One Punch Man, an action-comedy that follows an eccentric individual who longs to fight strong enemies that can hopefully give him the excitement he once felt and just maybe, he'll become popular in the process –MAL One Punch Man is quite different from other action anime, as rather than watch our protagonist struggle to become stronger, our hero has already reached his goals. The series takes this plot and shows us the emptiness that follows achieving a lifelong goal. Showing us the journey to one's goal is more fulfilling than actually reaching our goal. https://youtu.be/tMblzsXwAKo

22. Terra Fromer (Terraformars)

Episodes 26 + OVA| Aired Fall 2014 | Produced by LINDENFILMS

Terra Formars is a show that is short, violent and an action anime that is simple to understand. During the 21st century, humanity attempted to colonize Mars by sending two species which could endure the harsh environment of the planet to terraform it—algae and cockroaches. However, they did not anticipate the species' remarkable ability to adapt. Now in the 26th century, a lethal disease known as the Alien Engine Virus has arrived on Earth, and the cure is suspected to be found only on Mars. The problem is, Mars in the present is overrun by creatures known as "Terraformars," incredibly powerful and intelligent humanoid cockroaches that mutated from those originally sent to the planet.The Annex I team, consisting of a hundred men and women genetically enhanced with characteristics of powerful organisms from earth, has been sent to Mars on a mission to find the cause of the Alien Engine Virus and to help cure humanity—signalling the start of the crew's fight for survival –MAL Terra Formars is an action sci-fi horror anime that deals with humanity fighting insects much like the films and series "Starship Troopers". Plot-wise it's not the best cause they try to add so much into it, but for action, it is pretty good. https://youtu.be/KVx9GrpN5lU

21. Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (Reborn!)

Episodes 203 + OVA| Aired Fall 2006 | Produced by Artland

Katekyo Hitman Reborn is definitely a well-made anime for its comedy and action. There is no putting it lightly—Tsunayoshi Sawada is just no good. He is clumsy, talentless, and desperately in love with the school idol Kyouko Sasagawa, a girl so completely out of his league. Dubbed "Loser Tsuna" by his classmates, he seems to be the very personification of failure in the guise of a middle-schooler.Tsuna's boring life takes an extraordinary twist when he encounters the mysterious Reborn, who happens to be a hitman... and shockingly, a baby! Sent from the strongest Mafia family in Italy, Reborn is assigned the daunting mission of preparing the dull middle schooler to succeed the ninth boss of the notorious Vongola family, who is on the brink of retirement. The dull boy has a gruelling road ahead, but with the help of his new criminal affiliates and his peculiar home tutor, perhaps even Loser Tsuna can achieve greatness –MAL Katekyo Hitman Reborn plot builds up slowly, with the first 20 episodes comedy-heavy. We will watch Tsuna change from being a clumsy weakling, to slowly growing up and become more dependable. It's a show that will definitely keep you at the edge of your seat. https://youtu.be/40pfu7XqWok

20. Kuro no Keiyakusha (Darker than Black)

Episodes 37 + OVA| Aired Spring 2007 | Produced by Bones

Darker than Black is definitely an anime that takes you on a journey with unique characters and an unusual style of story telling. It has been 10 years since Heaven's Gate appeared in South America and Hell's Gate appeared in Japan, veiling the once familiar night sky with an oppressive skyscape. Their purposes unknown, these Gates are spaces in which the very laws of physics are ignored. With the appearance of the Gates emerged Contractors, who, in exchange for their humanity, are granted supernatural abilities.In the Japanese city surrounding Hell’s Gate, Section 4 Chief Misaki Kirihara finds herself at odds with an infamous Contractor codenamed Hei. Called "Black Reaper" in the underground world, Hei, like his associates, undertakes missions for the mysterious and ruthless Syndicate while slowly peeling back the dark layers covering a nefarious plot that threatens the very existence of Contractors.From the mind of Tensai Okamura comes a sci-fi thriller taking the form of a subtle exposé on a war in which political positions and justice have no sway—a war waged exclusively in the shadows –MAL If you like shows about people with supernatural powers and action, I think you should definitely watch this series. It's a show that doesn't give too much away in the beginning but as the story progresses you can piece the whole plot together. The characters are also brilliantly done especially the contractors that are supposed to be void of human emotions. https://youtu.be/goYEIQT5m8U

19. JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Episodes 152 + OVA| Aired Fall 2012 | Produced by David Production Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is definitely an anime that takes you on an adventure. It's a series that just keeps getting better and better. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure follows the stories of a different generation of the JoJo family, whose members have unique powers that they use to fight supernatural enemies.Kujo Jotaro is a normal, popular Japanese high-schooler, until he thinks that he is possessed by a spirit, and locks himself in prison. After seeing his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, and fighting Joseph's friend Muhammad Abdul, Jotaro learns that the "Spirit" is actually Star Platinum, his Stand, or fighting energy given a semi-solid form. Later, his mother gains a Stand, and becomes sick. Jotaro learns that it is because the vampire Dio Brando has been revived 100 years after his defeat to Jonathan Joestar, Jotaro's great-great-grandfather. Jotaro decides to join Joseph and Abdul in a trip to Egypt to defeat Dio once and for all –MAL I personally like the way the story follows a different member of the Joestar family? It's an anime that lives up to the hype that surrounds it. Though it's an anime that requires a bit of getting used to, it sometimes doesn't take itself seriously but when it does, it keeps you at the edge of your seat. https://youtu.be/EO08vMz73YY

18. Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden

Episodes 720 + OVA| Aired Fall 2002 | Produced by Studio Pierrot

Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden is one of the longest-running and most famous international shounen. That has a special place in most anime enthusiast. Moments prior to Naruto Uzumaki's birth, a huge demon known as the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox, attacked Konohagakure, the Hidden Leaf Village, and wreaked havoc. In order to put an end to the Kyuubi's rampage, the leader of the village, the Fourth Hokage, sacrificed his life and sealed the monstrous beast inside the newborn Naruto.Now, Naruto is a hyperactive and knuckle-headed ninja still living in Konohagakure. Shunned because of the Kyuubi inside him, Naruto struggles to find his place in the village, while his burning desire to become the Hokage of Konohagakure leads him not only to some great new friends, but also some deadly foes –MAL Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden is an anime with a lot of characters, and there is definitely one you will feel you can relate to and you will cheer on for as the story progresses. And this feels like where the anime shines the most the ability to make us feel for certain characters. And all the while it takes us on an adrenaline-filled journey. https://youtu.be/j2hiC9BmJlQ

17. Megalo Box (MEGALOBOX)

Episodes 13| Aired Spring 2018 | Produced by TMS Entertainment

If you are a Rocky and Ashita no Joe fan, you will love Megalo Box a sports action anime that's violent and entertaining with a futuristic setting. "To be quiet and do as you're told, that's the cowardly choice." These are the words of Junk Dog, an underground fighter of Megalo Box, an evolution of boxing that utilizes mechanical limbs known as Gear to enhance the speed and power of its users. Despite the young man's brimming potential as a boxer, the illegal nature of his participation forces him to make a living off of throwing matches as dictated by his boss Gansaku Nanbu. However, this all changes when the Megalo Box champion Yuuri enters his shabby ring under the guise of just another challenger. Taken out in a single round, Junk Dog is left with a challenge: "If you're serious about fighting me again, then fight your way up to me and my ring."Filled with overwhelming excitement and backed by the criminal syndicate responsible for his thrown matches, Junk Dog enters Megalonia: a world-spanning tournament that will decide the strongest Megalo Boxer of them all. Having no name of his own, he takes on the moniker of "Joe" as he begins his climb from the very bottom of the ranked list of fighters. With only three months left to qualify, Joe must face off against opponents the likes of which he has never fought in order to meet the challenge of his rival –MAL Megalo Box is a great anime that really asks a big question of how much pain, time and energy one is willing to give and endure while chasing their dreams. And that resonates with me a lot. https://youtu.be/-j8sX95vkfc

16. Deadman Wonderland

Episodes 12 + OVA| Aired Spring 2011 | Produced by Manglobe

Deadman Wonderland was one of those shows that had everyone who saw it wanting more. It looked like it would be a normal day for Ganta Igarashi and his classmates—they were preparing to go on a class field trip to a certain prison amusement park called Deadman Wonderland, where the convicts perform dangerous acts for the onlookers' amusement. However, Ganta's life is quickly turned upside down when his whole class gets massacred by a mysterious man in red. Framed for the incident and sentenced to death, Ganta is sent to the very jail he was supposed to visit.But Ganta's nightmare is only just beginning.The young protagonist is thrown into a world of sadistic inmates and enigmatic powers, to live in constant fear of the lethal collar placed around his neck that is slowed only by winning in the prison's deathly games. Ganta must bet his life to survive in a ruthless place where it isn't always easy to tell friend from foe, all while trying to find the mysterious "Red Man" and clear his name, in Deadman Wonderland –MAL Deadman Wonderland is a well-written engaging anime with plenty of horrifying scenes, deaths and amazing visuals. It's one of those animes that made me take an interest in the manga, wanting to find out the secrets that lie beneath Deadman Wonderland when I finished watching the anime. https://youtu.be/WUTFRxi5RXM

15.Psycho-Pass

Episodes 41| Aired Fall 2012 | Produced by Production I.G

Psycho-pass takes place in a futuristic setting, with interesting characters and weapons, where you are constantly being monitored. Justice, and the enforcement of it, has changed. In the 22nd century, Japan enforces the Sibyl System, an objective means of determining the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for signs of criminal intent, known as their Psycho-Pass. Inspectors uphold the law by subjugating, often with lethal force, anyone harbouring the slightest ill-will; alongside them are Enforcers, jaded Inspectors that have become latent criminals, granted relative freedom in exchange for carrying out the Inspectors' dirty work.Into this world steps Akane Tsunemori, a young woman with an honest desire to uphold justice. However, as she works alongside veteran Enforcer Shinya Kougami, she soon learns that the Sibyl System's judgments are not as perfect as her fellow Inspectors assume. With everything she has known turned on its head, Akane wrestles with the question of what justice truly is, and whether it can be upheld through the use of a system that may already be corrupt –MAL Psycho-Pass is an amazing action anime that shouldn't be missed. It's thought-provoking showing how sanity does not always equal morality. https://youtu.be/DgDBzAHg4wU

14. Black Lagoon

Episodes 24 + OVA| Aired Spring 2006 | Produced by Madhouse

Black Lagoon an action anime with a lot of mayhem featuring modern-day pirates, outrageously amazing action scenes and interesting characters. Within Thailand is Roanapur, a depraved, crime-ridden city where not even the authorities or churches are untouched by the claws of corruption. A haven for convicts and degenerates alike, the city is notorious for being the centre of illegal activities and operations, often fueled by local crime syndicates.Enter Rokurou Okajima, an average Japanese businessman who has been living a dull and monotonous life, when he finally gets his chance for a change of pace with a delivery trip to Southeast Asia. His business trip swiftly goes downhill as Rokurou is captured by a mercenary group operating in Roanapur, called Black Lagoon. The group plans to use him as a bargaining chip in negotiations which ultimately failed. Now abandoned and betrayed by his former employer, Rokurou decides to join Black Lagoon. In order to survive, he must quickly adapt to his new environment and prepare himself for the bloodshed and tribulation to come.A non-stop, high-octane thriller, Black Lagoon delves into the depths of human morality and virtue. Witness Rokurou struggling to keep his values and philosophies intact as he slowly transforms from businessman to ruthless mercenary –MAL Black Lagoon an amazing anime that can't be mentioned without our trigger-happy Revy, who truly helps bring the series together. It's a story with a lot of ups and downs that tries to tackle themes like existentialism -what are we here for? what's our purpose? and morality - what is really wrong or right? Plus it has gun-wielding nuns, sociopath maids and the awesome Revy. https://youtu.be/d4EbGC7fKnQ

13. Vinland Saga

Episodes 24| Aired Summer 2019 | Produced by Wit Studio

If you ever wondered what watching an angry Sasuke after he left the hidden Leaf village would be like, I give you Vinland Saga. Young Thorfinn grew up listening to the stories of old sailors that had travelled the ocean and reached the place of legend, Vinland. It's said to be warm and fertile, a place where there would be no need for fighting—not at all like the frozen village in Iceland where he was born, and certainly not like his current life as a mercenary. War is his home now. Though his father once told him, "You have no enemies, nobody does. There is nobody who it's okay to hurt," as he grew, Thorfinn knew that nothing was further from the truth.The war between England and the Danes grows worse with each passing year. Death has become commonplace, and the Viking mercenaries are loving every moment of it. Allying with either side will cause a massive swing in the balance of power, and the Vikings are happy to make names for themselves and take any spoils they earn along the way. Among the chaos, Thorfinn must take his revenge and kill the man who murdered his father, Askeladd. The only paradise for the Vikings, it seems, is the era of war and death that rages on –MAL Vinland Saga is the Berserk Adaptation we deserved. With stunning artwork, consistent and solid animation and characters you will connect with. It's definitely one of the best anime of 2019. https://youtu.be/b7ptrklt1sc

12. Samurai Champloo

Episodes 26| Aired Spring 2004 | Produced by Manglobe

Samurai Champloo is one of the most unconventional, thrilling action anime about samurai. Fuu Kasumi is a young and clumsy waitress who spends her days peacefully working in a small teahouse. That is, until she accidentally spills a drink all over one of her customers! With a group of samurai now incessantly harassing her, Fuu desperately calls upon another samurai in the shop, Mugen, who quickly defeats them with his wild fighting technique, utilizing movements reminiscent to that of breakdancing. Unfortunately, Mugen decides to pick a fight with the unwilling ronin Jin, who wields a more precise and traditional style of sword fighting, and the latter proves to be a formidable opponent. The only problem is, they end up destroying the entire shop as well as accidentally killing the local magistrate's son.For their crime, the two samurai are captured and set to be executed. However, they are rescued by Fuu, who hires the duo as her bodyguards. Though she no longer has a place to return to, the former waitress wishes to find a certain samurai who smells of sunflowers and enlists the help of the now exonerated pair to do so. Despite initially disapproving of this idea, the two eventually agree to assist the girl in her quest; thus, the trio embarks upon an adventure to find this mysterious warrior—that is, if Fuu can keep Mugen and Jin from killing each other.Set in an alternate Edo Period of Japan, Samurai Champloo follows the journey of these three eccentric individuals in an epic quest full of action, comedy, and dynamic sword fighting, all set to the beat of a unique hip-hop infused soundtrack –MAL It's a series that takes the usual "power of love and friendship" plot most animes takes and throws it out the window. Throwing a trio of mismatch characters together and forming an unlikely team, we will all be sad to see part ways at the end of their journey together. I'm still hoping for a second season. https://youtu.be/MV9sMJau674

11. Tokyo Ghoul

Episodes 48 + OVA| Aired Summer 2014 | Produced by Studio Pierrot

Tokyo Ghoul is an anime I looked forward to watching after reading the plot, that I immediately started reading the manga. Tokyo has become a cruel and merciless city—a place where vicious creatures called “ghouls” exist alongside humans. The citizens of this once great metropolis live in constant fear of these bloodthirsty savages and their thirst for human flesh. However, the greatest threat these ghouls pose is their dangerous ability to masquerade as humans and blend in with society.Based on the best-selling supernatural horror manga by Sui Ishida, Tokyo Ghoul follows Ken Kaneki, a shy, bookish college student, who is instantly drawn to Rize Kamishiro, an avid reader like himself. However, Rize is not exactly who she seems, and this unfortunate meeting pushes Kaneki into the dark depths of the ghouls' inhuman world. In a twist of fate, Kaneki is saved by the enigmatic waitress Touka Kirishima, and thus begins his new, secret life as a half-ghoul/half-human who must find a way to integrate into both societies –MAL Tokyo Ghoul was quite enjoyable even though I felt there was room for more improvement. It's an anime that's not for everyone either being a swing or a miss. https://youtu.be/vGuQeQsoRgU Honorable Mentions

Bleach

https://youtu.be/SKxGokQWQ3c

BTOOOM!

https://youtu.be/H92d6YZkVO8

Dimension W

https://youtu.be/Mgq7hcFxkXM

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?)

https://youtu.be/bcG5ZkGB-XI

Akame ga Kill!

https://youtu.be/HOB4GZ1S1Wo

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions)

https://youtu.be/c5jgWAZc6wQ

10. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Gurren Lagann)

Episodes 27| Aired Spring 2007 | Produced by Gainax

Gurren Lagann is a popular action anime that pushed the boundaries of action anime and is an anime that has a special place in everyone's heart that has seen this anime. Simon and Kamina were born and raised in a deep, underground village, hidden from the fabled surface. Kamina is a free-spirited loose cannon bent on making a name for himself, while Simon is a timid young boy with no real aspirations. One day while excavating the earth, Simon stumbles upon a mysterious object that turns out to be the ignition key to an ancient artefact of war, which the duo dubs Lagann. Using their new weapon, Simon and Kamina fend off a surprise attack from the surface with the help of Yoko Littner, a hot-blooded redhead wielding a massive gun who wanders the world above.In the aftermath of the battle, the sky is now in plain view, prompting Simon and Kamina to set off on a journey alongside Yoko to explore the wastelands of the surface. Soon, they join the fight against the "Beastmen," humanoid creatures that terrorize the remnants of humanity in powerful robots called "Gunmen." Although they face some challenges and setbacks, the trio bravely fights these new enemies alongside other survivors to reclaim the surface, while slowly unravelling a galaxy-sized mystery –MAL Gurren Lagann is a classic, vibrant, heroic and outspoken anime. That's an absolutely must-watch. https://youtu.be/rAQylCHv8Cw

9. Mob Psycho 100

Episodes 25 + OVA| Aired Summer 2016 | Produced by Bones

From ONE the creator of One Punch Man comes another fascinating anime Mob Psycho 100. Eighth-grader Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama has tapped into his inner wellspring of psychic prowess at a young age. But the power quickly proves to be a liability when he realizes the potential danger in his skills. Choosing to suppress his power, Mob's only present use for his ability is to impress his longtime crush, Tsubomi, who soon grows bored of the same tricks.In order to effectuate control on his skills, Mob enlists himself under the wing of Arataka Reigen, a con artist claiming to be a psychic, who exploits Mob's powers for pocket change. Now, exorcising evil spirits on command has become a part of Mob's daily, monotonous life. However, the psychic energy he exerts is barely the tip of the iceberg; if his vast potential and unrestrained emotions run berserk, a cataclysmic event that would render him completely unrecognizable will be triggered. The progression toward Mob's explosion is rising and attempting to stop it is futile –MAL Mob Psycho 100 is definitely a one of a kind series from its unique art style, well-developed characters that are very relatable, to the out of this world actions scenes. It is a true gem, that proves the saying "never judge a book by its cover" or in this case art style. A definite must-watch for an action lovers time. https://youtu.be/mV39saBlBLI

8. Afro Samurai

Episodes 6| Aired Spring 2007 | Produced by Gonzo

Afro Samurai an anime about revenge and katanas, filled with a lot of action right off from the beginning of the story. When he was a young boy, Afro witnessed his father be cut down in a duel at the hands of a man known only as Justice. After taking the life of Afro's father, Justice cast aside his Number Two headband and took the Number One to claim its godly powers as his own.Years later, having obtained the Number Two headband which grants him the right to challenge the Number One, Afro moves forward in his hunt for revenge on the man who murdered his father. There is just one thing that stands in his way—everyone else in the world! Though the Number One can only be challenged by the Number Two, the Number Two can be challenged by anyone. As his enemies gather to try and take the title of Number Two, Afro must fight through a myriad of foes and obstacles if he hopes to reach the Number One and claim vengeance once and for all –MAL Afro Samurai is actually 5 episodes but I made it 6 cause of the movie, which I'm 80% sure you will want to see if you watch the series. https://youtu.be/yB8_cdvEGZM

7. One Piece

Episodes 912+ | Aired Fall 1999 | Produced by Toei Animation

One piece is one of the most popular action anime series from its first air till date and still growing strong. Gol D. Roger was known as the "Pirate King," the strongest and most infamous being to have sailed the Grand Line. The capture and execution of Roger by the World Government brought a change throughout the world. His last words before his death revealed the existence of the greatest treasure in the world, One Piece. It was this revelation that brought about the Grand Age of Pirates, men who dreamed of finding One Piece—which promises an unlimited amount of riches and fame—and quite possibly the pinnacle of glory and the title of the Pirate King.Enter Monkey D. Luffy, a 17-year-old boy who defies your standard definition of a pirate. Rather than the popular persona of a wicked, hardened, toothless pirate ransacking villages for fun, Luffy’s reason for being a pirate is one of pure wonder: the thought of an exciting adventure that leads him to intriguing people and ultimately, the promised treasure. Following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Luffy and his crew travel across the Grand Line, experiencing crazy adventures, unveiling dark mysteries and battling strong enemies, all in order to reach the most coveted of all fortunes—One Piece –MAL One Piece is an anime with a lot to offer from supernatural powers, amazing fights scenes, well developed and lovable characters and voyages to new and exciting places. It's definitely an anime that ticks a lot of people boxes on what they want in an action anime. https://youtu.be/-tviZNY6CSw

6. Stranger: Mukou Hadan (Sword of the Stranger)

Episodes 1| Aired September 2007 | Produced by Bones

Sword of the Stranger is a really great movie with a lot of amazing action scenes. In the Sengoku period of Japan, a young orphan named Kotarou and his dog Tobimaru steals from unsuspecting villagers in order to make ends meet. However, Kotarou is forced to remain on the run when he finds himself being hunted down by assassins sent by China's Ming Dynasty for mysterious reasons not involving his petty crimes.Fortunately, the duo runs into Nanashi, a ronin who has taken refuge in a small temple, when Kotarou is attacked and Tobimaru poisoned. Although the samurai saves the helpless pair from their pursuers, he feels that there is no need to help them further; but when offered a gem in exchange for his services as a bodyguard, he reluctantly accepts Kotarou's offer of employment—just until Tobimaru is healed and the two reach their destination. As the three set out on a perilous journey, it soon becomes evident that their path is riddled with danger, as the Ming Dynasty has now sent a terrifying swordsman after them to capture Kotarou and fulfil a certain prophecy –MAL If you love historical settings that's another reason to give Sword of the Stranger a chance. It won't disappoint with its relatable characters, amazing action sequences, beautiful art style and just the brotherly love that is shown between the two main characters has the story progresses. https://youtu.be/dYGpmgxKpNs

5. Dragon Ball Z

Episodes 291| Aired Spring 1989 | Produced by Toei Animation

Dragon Ball Z is like a fine wine that only seems to get better with the years. Five years after winning the World Martial Arts tournament, Gokuu is now living a peaceful life with his wife and son. This changes, however, with the arrival of a mysterious enemy named Raditz who presents himself as Gokuu's long-lost brother. He reveals that Gokuu is a warrior from the once powerful but now virtually extinct Saiyan race, whose homeworld was completely annihilated. When he was sent to Earth as a baby, Gokuu's sole purpose was to conquer and destroy the planet; but after suffering amnesia from a head injury, his violent and savage nature changed, and instead was raised as a kind and well-mannered boy, now fighting to protect others.With his failed attempt at forcibly recruiting Gokuu as an ally, Raditz warns Gokuu's friends of a new threat that's rapidly approaching Earth—one that could plunge Earth into an intergalactic conflict and cause the heavens themselves to shake. A war will be fought over the seven mystical dragon balls, and only the strongest will survive in Dragon Ball Z –MAL Dragon Ball Z is one of the anime series that helped spread the love of anime around the world. It's thrilling, pulse-pounding and delightful to watch. https://youtu.be/E6CYI3Xb1tQ

4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Episodes 64 + OVA| Aired Spring 2009 | Produced by Bones

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime with an amazing plot, engaging action, lovable characters, comedy, drama and beautiful music. "In order for something to be obtained, something of equal value must be lost."Alchemy is bound by this Law of Equivalent Exchange—something the young brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric only realize after attempting human transmutation: the one forbidden act of alchemy. They pay a terrible price for their transgression—Edward loses his left leg, Alphonse his physical body. It is only by the desperate sacrifice of Edward's right arm that he is able to affix Alphonse's soul to a suit of armour. Devastated and alone, it is the hope that they would both eventually return to their original bodies that give Edward the inspiration to obtain metal limbs called "automail" and become a state alchemist, the Fullmetal Alchemist.Three years of searching later, the brothers seek the Philosopher's Stone, a mythical relic that allows an alchemist to overcome the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Even with military allies Colonel Roy Mustang, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, and Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes on their side, the brothers find themselves caught up in a nationwide conspiracy that leads them not only to the true nature of the elusive Philosopher's Stone but their country's murky history as well. In between finding a serial killer and racing against time, Edward and Alphonse must ask themselves if what they are doing will make them human again... or take away their humanity –MAL  A must watch anime series for anime fans alike. I really like how it showed how as humans how far we are willing to go for the ones we love. https://youtu.be/kKtNiPpJy0A

3. Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan)

Episodes 59 + OVA| Aired Spring 2013 | Produced by Wit Studio

Attack On Titan is an extremely action-packed story with cliff-hangers, amazing characters and interesting battle equipment. Centuries ago, mankind was slaughtered to near extinction by monstrous humanoid creatures called titans, forcing humans to hide in fear behind enormous concentric walls. What makes these giants truly terrifying is that their taste for human flesh is not born out of hunger but what appears to be out of pleasure. To ensure their survival, the remnants of humanity began living within defensive barriers, resulting in one hundred years without a single titan encounter. However, that fragile calm is soon shattered when a colossal titan manages to breach the supposedly impregnable outer wall, reigniting the fight for survival against the man-eating abominations. After witnessing a horrific personal loss at the hands of the invading creatures, Eren Yeager dedicates his life to their eradication by enlisting into the Survey Corps, an elite military unit that combats the merciless humanoids outside the protection of the walls. Based on Hajime Isayama's award-winning manga, Shingeki no Kyojin follows Eren, along with his adopted sister Mikasa Ackerman and his childhood friend Armin Arlert, as they join the brutal war against the titans and race to discover a way of defeating them before the last walls are breached –MAL It's one of the best anime series of its year. With amazing visuals and soundtracks. It an anime that really questions the morality of humans and our resilience. https://youtu.be/KKzmOh4SuBc

2. Kenpuu Denki Berserk (Berserk)

Episodes 49| Aired Fall 1997 | Produced by OLM / Millepensee, GEMBA

The story centres on Guts, a lone mercenary and Griffiths, a leader of the mercenary band -Band of the Hawk. You think Sasuke and Naruto rivalry was something, Griffith and Guts take it to a whole new level.  Born from the corpse of his mother, a young mercenary known only as Guts, embraces the battlefield as his only means of survival. Day in and day out, putting his life on the line just to make enough to get by, he moves from one bloodshed to the next.After a run-in with the Band of the Hawk, a formidable troop of mercenaries, Guts is recruited by their charismatic leader Griffith, nicknamed the "White Hawk." As he quickly climbed the ranks in order to become the head of the offensive faction, Guts proves to be a mighty addition to Griffith's force, taking Midland by storm. However, while the band's quest for recognition continues, Guts slowly realizes that the world is not as black-and-white as he once assumed.Set in the medieval era, Kenpuu Denki Berserk is a dark, gritty tale that follows one man's struggle to find his own path, while supporting another's lust for power, and the unimaginable tragedy that begins to turn the wheels of fate –MAL It's a series that is based on realism, at least when we look at human nature. Showing the good and evil, we humans are capable of and how society as become and so much more. https://youtu.be/_M1suLCbz-w

1. Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia)

Episodes 88 + OVA| Aired Spring 2016 | Produced by Bones

My Hero Academia has been praised as one of the newest big three of its time. The appearance of "quirks," newly discovered superpowers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 per cent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual.Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku's unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might's quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!Enduring many months of gruelling training, Izuku enrols in UA High, a prestigious high school famous for its excellent hero training program, and this year's freshmen look especially promising. With his bizarre but talented classmates and the looming threat of a villainous organization, Izuku will soon learn what it really means to be a hero –MAL It's a superhero genre that has been done right, very realistic with lovable and relatable characters. Showing how hard work and skill go hand-in-hand to being good at something. https://youtu.be/-jBRnSVaGmI So that's all amazing guys and gals, hope you loved my recommendations if you have an anime you think deserves to be on this list, hit me up in the comment section below I would love to hear from you. And check out all our other amazing content or our MyAnime2go merch store for anime, manga and gaming treats and gifts. Till next time have an action-filled adrenaline-pumping day.......

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[chronotrek]

761. [DIS] The Vulcan Hello

SCORE:

(3/5 stars)

It's a little hard to separate my impression of The Vulcan Hello and Battle at the Binary Stars since they flow together into a complete narrative. I suspect outside of CBS's interference insisting this be a streamed show and wanting something to entice broadcast viewers to sign up for All Access right away that we would have just treated this as a 2-hour single episode premiere like prior Trek series. I'll try to do my part and just focus this on the first episode despite having watched both back to back. The title theme has some cool elemental visuals in keeping with Bryan Fuller's style (think Hannibal or American Gods), but the music doesn't feel like it will ever become iconic. I can't recall a tune to hum along with like I would with the other series. Instead, it seems more to hint and echo at motifs of better themes. Title music doesn't have to be Jerry Goldsmith's hum-a-melody style, but it's nice when it is. At least it's not Rod Stewart.

The Klingons have been visually redesigned and it's probably going to take me some time to get used to it. Klingons do tend to have a history of getting reworked every couple decades, so it's not without precedent. The difference is that the makeup job done here does not appear, to my layman's eye, to be something unachievable in the nineties, when I consider alien design for the later seasons of TNG or all of DS9. So while the first Klingon facelift was both budgetary and an advance in makeup, this seems arbitrary, making Klingons different just to make them different. I'm also hoping we're going to see more clothing that resembles their leather-bound look from series of yore, because right now it looks like they're all wearing ribcages. I could see it being this particular ship's garb, but once we delve further into the other Klingon houses we'll see what they look like.

I'm not getting a strong sense of Starfleet unity from this crew. I gather this crew is not the final crew based on promotional materials and the ship being named the Shenzhou, not the Discovery, but even so, I don't get the feel of an intrepid crew of brave explorers. Instead we see a timid and cautious crew (embodied in Science Officer Saru) only kept together by the measured hand of Captain Philippa Georgiou and the hybrid passion/dispassion of First Officer Michael Burnham. We're a hundred years out from Enterprise and ten years until Kirk's five-year mission, but it feels to me more like we're hot on Archer's heels and a long way to go before we get to a Starfleet prepared for alien menageries and salt vampires.

It's May 11, 2256, and my 271st birthday. Captain Georgiou and Commander Burnham are on a planet entering an 89 year drought. In order to save the native population, they blast through bedrock down a well to break through to the aquifer. They're unable to hail their ship, the Shenzhou, due to a dust storm, so Georgiou has them walk in what appears to be circles, but she's actually drawing the Starfleet chevron in the desert so the Shenzhou can see them and pick them up.

The Shenzhou goes to make repairs to a damaged relay on the edge of Federation space in a young binary star system. Saru, the lanky Kelpien science officer (it took them long enough to cast Doug Jones in Star Trek) believes the relay was intentionally damaged, and Burnham is inclined to agree due to Starfleet's reputation for rapid repair deployment. If someone wanted to lure out a starship, it worked. There is an object that is actively obscuring optical sensors in an accretion disk, and Burnham volunteers to make an EVA flight out there to inspect it. She loses comm signal once in range of the object, but finds an ornate stone and steel sculpture. Once she lands on it, it seems to react to her presence, raising spires all around her, and she is confronted by another humanoid in an EVA suit. She looks at his insignia and his bladed weapon. He is Klingon. He charges at her, and she fires her suit's thrusters to get away, knocking his bat'leth into his chest in the process and cracking her visor.

On a nearby cloaked Klingon vessel, they have retrieved the body of the dead warrior and T'Kuvma, the captain of the vessel, leads them all in the Klingon death ritual, staring into his eyes and yelling to Sto-vo-kor that a great warrior is coming. Unusual for Klingons, they actually take great care of the body, wrapping it in a shroud and sealing it in a sarcophagus that they place on the outer hull of the ship, where it is among thousands of others. This is new Klingon behavior. T'Kuvma speaks of a prophecy and of Kahless, wanting to unite the great houses of the High Council and restore the Empire. His ship appears to be populated with outcasts, including an albino named Voq, Son of None, who volunteers to "light the beacon" and proves his faith and devotion by holding his hand to fire.

Burnham dreams of her childhood, being raised and taught on Vulcan as a human, with Sarek as her instructor. She appears to be the sole survivor of a Klingon attack on a Federation colony and while she attempts to embrace the logical nature of Vulcanity, the death of her parents is something she cannot emotionally shake off. She awakens in sickbay, where she's being treated for radiation exposure, and aborts the treatment mid-process to run to the bridge. Her suit's recording systems did not function at the beacon, and so none of the crew know of the Klingon presence. She convinces Georgiou to go to red alert and lock phasers on the beacon, which causes the Klingon vessel to decloak. The captain orders her to return to sickbay to complete her treatment because she needs to be living if things escalate.

Starfleet Command orders the Shenzhou to hold position and wait for reinforcements, and Admiral Anderson personally berates Burnham for bothering "a warrior race we've hardly spoken to for a hundred years." Starfleet is hoping for a diplomatic solution to this Klingon incursion, but Burnham argues they only understand strength and violence, an attitude that gets her accused of racism. They hold position, and then the beacon is lit. To call it a beacon is a bit of an understatement. Despite the Shenzhou being a starship with windows that ought to be able to filter out significant quantities of light for flying near stars, they are effectively blinded by the beacon. Filters at full leave nothing but white in the viewscreens, and the beacon broadcasts on multiple frequencies, including audio ones. Shutting down the comm system still has the ship's sympathetic vibrations from the beacon.

Burnham calls Sarek on Vulcan and asks how the Vulcans dealt with the Klingons, since they've had a peace with them for a long time. She brings the advice to the captain. Before formal dialogue was established between the two species, the standing policy of Vulcans was to fire first at any Klingon vessel they saw, to communicate in a language they understood. Burnham wants them to fire everything they have at the Klingon ship, but Georgiou will not fire first and chews Burnham out in her ready room for becoming insubordinate on the bridge and being cavalier with wanting to engage her crew in battle and death.

I suspect Burnham has a long way to go to reconcile her hatred of the Klingons with her Vulcan upbringing, but it's not here yet. In a desperate move, Burnham mutinies, neck-pinching Georgiou in the ready room and ordering the bridge to lock weapons despite Saru's protests. Just as she orders to open fire, Georgiou returns to the bridge thanks to Burnham's weaksauce technique and belays the order, training a phaser on her mutinous first officer. Before another move can be made, the beacon's call is responded to, as a fleet of 24 Klingon warships warp into view.

SPECULATION

T'Kuvma appears a different and more spiritual leader of Klingons, showing reverence for dead bodies. It doesn't last, since by Worf's time, Klingons are back to considering dead bodies empty shells for disposal, while still highly spiritual, considering the belief in Sto-vo-kor. This appears to be a much different religious order.

Since this is on the outer edge of Federation space, are we about to see the formation of the Federation/Klingon Neutral Zone?

It's an interesting choice making a woman of color use the racist dogwhistle "it's not race, it's culture." I suspect we're going to see a series arc of Michael coming to grips with and overcoming her ingrained prejudice of Klingons.

NITPICKS

Why couldn't Burnham and Georgiou have beamed closer to the well? Bet they could have been in and out without having to draw a beacon and exposing the local population to a starship in low atmosphere.

The binary star appears to be a recent merger between the two stars, but even so, the accretion disks of each star appear too fixed to their parent star. There should be a lot more material that's bending toward the center of gravity between the stars.

Why couldn't Burnham warn Georgiou about the Klingons using the Sickbay intercom?

The Klingon redesign definitely makes them more alien, but the complete removal of hair is a problem to me, since to Klingons, hair is a symbol of virility.

Sarek mentions there being a "new star in the sky." While the beacon certainly makes use of subspace to call in the Klingon great houses, the light from the beacon must be limited to light-speed and therefore nobody would be seeing this "new star" for years.

FAVORITE QUOTES

T'Kuvma: That is why we light our beacon this day. To assemble our people. To lock arms against hose whose fatal greeting is "we come in peace."

Georgiou: It's hard to imagine you've served under me for seven years. I think it's time that we talked about you having your own command. Burnham: I'm grateful, Captain, though I would be significantly more so if I thought we had any chance of returning to the ship.

Burnham: How did they find us? Georgiou: I set a star.

Georgiou: Saru's Kelpien. He thinks everything is malicious.

Saru: As Science Officer, I can provide a far more concrete and detailed analysis than simply reading data off a monitor.

Georgiou: Mr. Januzzi, contact Starfleet Command. Send an encoded message. Tell them we have engaged the Klingons.

Voq: I will light the beacon. T'Kuvma: Speak your name. Voq: Voq, son of None. T'Kuvma: You have no family blade of your own. You cannot assume the birthright of a noble house. You are unworthy. Voq: I am worthy not by blood, but by faith. I serve the light of Kahless. I am reborn in his flames.

Saru: Your world has food chains. Mine does not. Our species map is binary. We are either predator or prey. My people were hunted, bred, farmed. We are your livestock of old. We were biologically determined for one purpose and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now.

Burnham: 240 years ago, near H'Atoria, a Vulcan ship crossed into Klingon space. The Klingons attacked immediately and destroyed the vessel. Vulcans don't make the same mistake twice. From then on, until formal relations were established, whenever the Vulcans crossed paths with Klingons, the Vulcans fired first. They said hello in a language the Klingons understood. Violence brought respect, respect brought peace. Captain, we have to give the Klingons a Vulcan hello.

Georgiou: Battle is not a simulation. It's blood and screams and funerals.

[techmomma]

Worldbuilding stuff from the Art/Behind the Scenes of Treasure Planet:

(It gets long.)

A race of beings called “The Forefathers” created the portal mechanism to study the universe one million years ago. (The Forefathers is likely an arcane name only known by a few. Most knowledge of them is lost.)

Eventually the Forefathers evolved into a “brilliant force of living energy” that drifted away.

100 years before Jim acquires the map, Captain Flint and his gang found the portal planet, but greed and paranoia eventually consumed Flint. He tried to murder all of his spacers, leading them to flee through the portals. Flint’s cabin boy Billy Bones, the turtle-alien at the beginning of the movie, made off with the map--stranding Flint and Ben on Treasure Planet.

Setting is confirmed for an empire, ruled by a queen. 100+ planets are part of the empire, almost all inhabited.

Shipping is the major industry; economy depends on trade.

“The empire, however, is plagued by problems. There is civil unrest between alien cultures. There is hunger and sickness. There is a class system creating a vast discrepancy between the haves and have-nots.”

Etherium has qualities of both air and water. It is living, roiling, and ever-changing.

[concept art includes gigantic sea-serpent creature made of etherium]

The seagull-like creatures are mantabirds, the space whale is called an “orcus galacticus” (pl. orci galactici), and Lagoon Nebula is inhabited by jellyfish-ish predators called “zaftwings.”

Empire is inhabited by at least 50 different species of alien

Montressoris “a rocky mining planet that has seen better days. It has become a lonely space outpost with a small local population made up of mostly migrant workers who emigrated from various surrounding planets. The rest of the populace consists of a few froglike Benbonians, some humans, and a few other random species.”

Crescentia based loosely on the port of Bristol, O’Hare airport, and Grand Central Terminal in New York.

Very little in this world is mass-produced. Most is hand-made.

The big stoves in the Benbow Inn and Silver’s galley are anti-grav, gyroscopically balanced, so that contents stay upright at all times.

Munitions for the cannons aboard the legacy are called “plasma pellets.” They’re stored below deck and fed up through a tube.

The storybook is called a holobook. The border around the edge is a combination of Baroque friezes and modern circuitry.

The locket is called a hololocket. “[The book and the locket] might be made by the same company. We figure you can download snippets of materal from your holovideo camera into its little chip.”

The blinds in the inn that create different scenery are called--wait for it--holoblinds. Crew referred to them as “Venusian blinds.” (Get it. Venetian. Venusian. Yes.)

The “holographic map” you see is made of nanorobots called intelligent pixels. They create the moving, dimensional map.

Treasure Planet is covered in fungi and helium-filled trees.

BEN had to crawl through the miles of piping by himself after Flint died, to get to the surface.

The centroid mechanism also created the gravity that kept the artificially-constructed planet in balance, and acted as a massive computer. The giant beams were transferring energy and information.

Jim’s dad is Leland Hawkins.

Leland and Sarah married at 19 and 17, respectively.

Jim was about 8 when his dad walked out.

Silver’s about 50. He grew up in poverty and had to go out on his own very young. 

The main anthropomorphic animal aliens like Doppler and Amelia also follow the 70-30 rule. 70% human, 30% animal.

The Legacy is classified as a “solar galleon.”

“In the Interstellar Navy [Amelia] was brilliant, fearless, and highly capable commander who reached the rank of captain at an unusually young age, but she was also rather difficult to keep under control. Frustrated by the bureaucracy,  and politics she had to deal with, she resigned, stating concisely ‘They were big on protocol. I was big on results.’”

“Amelia went on to work independently, hiring herself out for various endeavors that suited her interests. The captain and her stalwart First Mate, Mr. Arrow, have worked together from almost the beginning, and her association with him is the longest stable relationship in her life and career, with Arrow acting somewhat as a mentor. Their relationship is strictly professional, but one that has been tested by the passing of time and solidified by shared adventures and battles, where they have depended upon each other for success and survival.”

Flint stole BEN on one of his raids and became a weird, dysfunctional, abusive dad to him.

Sarah and Leland moved to Benbow just a little before Jim was born, when the mining community was more prosperous and Leland thought he could strike it rich.

Arrow spent most of his life in the Navy, but surprised himself when he chose to stay with Amelia when she left. Possibly first-mate to one of her parents or grandparents. Long family friend.

Silver, Scroop, and Turnbuckle (the tentacled helmsman) had a long history of pirating together.

Turnbuckle stayed loyal to Silver; Scroop stayed loyal to their original mission.

The names of the crew of the Legacy besides those mentioned already include Mackriki, Oxy and Moron (different species, same planet), Greedy (comes from planet Ellenwood), Birdbrain Mary, Dogbreath, Hands, Pigors, Aquanoggin, Schwartzkopf (from a species called Tuskrus), Snuff, Onus (called a Zanderian), and Meltdown.

The star that goes supernova and turns into a black hole is called “Pellucid.”

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “My Friends are Human.”

So I sense a bit of an upcoming conflict, one that heavily involves and Arc for Krill that a lot of you were asking about, and this may well be the start. Just something quick for you this morning.

***

“Let us go back to the beginning.  How long have you been aboard the human ship?”

“Approximately 2 cycles maybe a little more”

….

“You don’t remember precisely.”

“...Time is very hard to keep aboard a human ship. They have a much different measurement of time than we do.”

“Do you often find yourself using human measurements.”

“Of course,I have to. The entire crew is human, if I were to use any other system of measurement than I would create more problems than I would solve.” 

….

“Hmm, very interesting. Tell us Doctor, when did the psychological symptoms appear.” “With all due respect chair member, I don’t believe that there are psychological symptoms.” 

“Really, that is interesting because on your intake evaluation it says that you have acute symptoms of stress, hyperactive affect, logical degradation, increased sensory reactivity, lexical degradation, and that is not taking into account the physical symptoms, which include but are not limited to, predatory gate syndrome, reduced use of inflation, and disjointed visual sequencing…. Can you tell us why that is doctor.”

“Things move much faster on a human ship. I don’t have time to just float around.”

“I see….”

“For some reason I don’t think you do.”

“That is another interesting thing I have noticed, Dr. That speech pattern you keep using , our tests tell me it detects high levels of aggressive affect.”

“Oh really.” 

“There it is again.”....”Look, Dr. the council is very very worried about you, which is actually becoming a disturbing pattern in your history. First you demand to switch careers after being appropriately placed once switched granted, there is a long history of proper behavior, but then you ask to be transferred off planet, which is highly unusual..” … “The records here state that you have published no less than 120 works of academia in the past three cycles beginning with your original admittance to the surgical profession off-word.”

“I wasn’t aware that academia was seen as psychological degradation.”

“I don’t like your tone���. Regardless that is only tertiary to what comes next, where you subsequently quit your job, hopped on a human military ship, and have now been gallivanting across the galaxy.”.... “Do you know what the word Harbinger means, Dr.?”

…

…

“A harbinger is something that heralds the arrival of something else. You might call it a warning. I find that to be interesting, don’t you, because it seems to me that the ship was aptly named, Since you and the human’s appearance is often a harbinger of disaster, confusion, and idiocy..”

“I-”

AH- let me finish. Before the humans arrived on scene, the galaxy was relatively stable, but since they have shown their faces our entire economic system has devolved into chaos, riots and upheavals over inter-species relationships, hybridized human species, prison riots, wars, and the subsequent breakdown of our society beginning….. With you.”

…. 

“May I speak now?”....”The way I see it, you are getting dangerously close to questioning the decisions of the galactic assembly and putting our entire treaty at risk. The humans may have brought chaos with them, but plenty of that was already on the way. War would have been inevitable with the Drev, if humans hadn’t stepped in. As far as interspecies relationships and riots go, i believe that has nothing to do with our species and everything to do with the poor decision making of the galactic assembly. No one was being forced into those decisions and the GA decided to take away that choice, which is what really caused the riots.”

“Tha-”

“Furthermore, the prison riot was actually caused by Gibb and his delusions of grandeur. If none of this is causing any questions for you, than I might take the time to point out that the Gibb are theorized to be  a subset of Vrul..”

...

“As far as economics go, the humans didn’t pin down  the Tesraki and force them to implement a capitalist system, and as far as i understand, our own economic system on planet is unchanged.”

…”that way well be Dr. but that still does not answer our biggest concern, that being the slow breakdown of our society and our entire way of life. Do you understand what you did when you entered that human ship?”

“What?”

“You propped open the door for others to follow your lunacy. According to our records at least 100 Vrul have OPTED to leave planet and join the crew’s of other ships, including human ones, and that number is steadily climbing. Our inner city population has fallen by .3%, and our analysts predict an exponential rise in numbers.”

“I see no issue with that. If the Vrul leave world, than that gives you license to hatch more and keep others on for longer.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“That seems to be exactly how it will have to work regardless of what you think.”

“Our society is slowly crumbling, Dr. not just from population reduction, but from the crumbling of our core values. Humanity is showing to have a strange and…. Honestly alarming effect on our population, you being the WORST of it so far, but maybe not for very long.” 

“You seem to be implying that humanity makes us less Vrul, while I argue that humanity unlocks more parts of us that we didn’t know we had. Honestly, if the Vrul were a completely logical species than why would we even have the CAPACITY for emotion.”

“Emotion gets in the way of survival.”

“Tell that to the humans. Yes, sure we survive, but the humans thrive. Why wouldn’t you want to be part of a species that can find joy in something as simple as bubble wrap.”

“What is bubble wrap?”

“It's like the crack cocaine of sensory experiences…. My point being that we have spent thousands of years simply trying not to die, but by doing that we have reduced the lives of  our population to nothing more than numbers in a machine. The Vrul population hasn’t grown for over three centuries, why because we control the population. Why do we do that? For no damned reason that’s why!”

“Dr. if you don’t calm down we will be forced to sedate you.”

“Sedate me than! I know for certain I have a group of people that would quell the universe to get me back, and since this is only one planet you can kiss your infrastructure goodbye.” 

“Are you threatening me.”

….

“I don’t have to.”

“And why is that.”

“Because…. My friends are human, and you are already scared.”