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mickstart · 4 years ago

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what do you think are some iconic/memorable schumi moments? i just got into f1 and would like to know more about him bc somehow i can’t really find anything like that about him.... just stats which are incredibly impressive but i can’t find anything about how he behaved or just anything about his personality..... thanks <3

:) Hi anon, thank you for unleashing the beast.

Ok I love you for asking me this thank you SO MUCH. Welcome to the circus I’m glad you’re here! Also yeah, Schumi is often talked about in terms of statistics and not as a human, Which is a shame bc like! Schumi is fascinating and the dynamics on the grid in late 90s F1 is so much fun! Also, this is mainly going to be late 90s -> early 2010s stuff bc I was born in 98 so uhhh I didn’t properly witness ANY 90s stuff and had to learn about it.

OK so I got super carried away but I’ve divided this into 3 sections: Drives/races that I think showcase some of his talents, human moments we need to talk about more, and Chaotic Little Bitch moments. The key thing to remember w/ Schumi is that he personally tends to be nice but as soon as you put him in a competition, Bastard Mode activates like a cat’s pupils going wide.

I am so sorry for the following short essay. Also some crashes are briefly mentioned but only ones with absolutely no injuries and there’s no details.

Chaotic Little Bitch Moments

Schumi debuted as a SUBSTITUTE driver for Jordan when one of their drivers was in police custody (yes. really.) The highest a Jordan had qualified all year was 10th and in his DEBUT at SPA, one of the toughest tracks, in the middle of the season, Schumi qualified that Jordan 7th! THEN his clutch failed before the first lap was even complete, but Benetton and Jordan WENT TO COURT to fight each other to sign him for their team before the next race in Monza. He couldn’t debut normally he HAD to cause a scene and set the tone.

The Red Strings of Fate: He qualified 7th, his iconic 7 starred helmet, his first victory next year was ALSO at Spa - his first complete race would be at Monza, Ferrari Holy Ground, and he finished 5th which 👀 1) he was immediately racing with The Greats. 2) Mr 5 Championships With Ferrari.

Winning a race by taking a stop and go penalty on the last lap, crossing the finish line in the pits, and making such a complicated argument about said penalty that in a hearing that was SUPPOSED to be Mclaren protesting the race result the stewards scrapped the entire penalty and the 3 who awarded it handed in their licenses??? Iconic.

Austria 2002 where Rubens was ordered to give the win to Michael. And then Michael fucking made him stand on the top step on the podium like “oh no no no RUBENS deserves this” and made a big SHOW out of it and its like “Michael stop you’re not making it heartwarming you’re making it WORSE Michael STOP” The Tension of germany 2010 podium VS the theatricality of THIS podium.

Team orders were banned because of this which also makes this indirectly responsible for Fernando Is Faster Than You having to be a coded message. You can’t escape him,

Blocking Alonso in Monaco qualifying and then, years later in 2010, overtaking Alonso technically illegally at Monaco (the race was ending under safety car, but the safety car doesn’t lead them over the line it pits and they’d crossed the safety car line and the regulations were NOT specific about the rules) and getting a 20 second penalty bc Damon Hill was a steward. Haunting FERNANDO specifically at Monaco like the ghost of christmas past? Getting a harsh penalty because ANOTHER driver he’d fucked over was a steward? Forcing the FIA to rewrite the rulebook to account for his nonsense when he was in his FOURTIES? I don’t know another chaos king.

Winning the 1995 championship by crashing into Damon Hill, getting AWAY with it for some reason, and then trying to do the same thing in 1997 to Villeneuve, failing to do so and simply rebounding off of him harmlessly, almost COMICALLY, and beaching his own car in a gravel trap at which point the FIA said “I have had ENOUGH of you Wacky Races Man!” and disqualified him from the entire championship

Forcing Mika off the track so bad at Spa 2000 that Mika realized the only way he was gonna be able to get past him was to re-invent the overtake and go for it whilst they were passing a backmarker. (The overtake itself is at 2:05 in the video but the build up to it is Important bc the key part it’s not just badass, it only happened bc Mika knew who he was dealing with.)

Spa 1998 was a Ridiculously Chaotic race it truly was the Mugello 2020 of its year, and after a crash at the start that took out almost the entire grid Schumi accidentally collided with Coulthard later in the race. (The teams used to have a spare car at every race then, so the race was able to continue after a restart.) This wasn’t a racing thing, Coulthard was getting lapped. So something in Schumi SNAPS, and he storms down the pitlane and tries to fight Coulthard while the mclaren and ferrari mechanics both hold him back and finally drag him away. He projected into the future, saw Coulthard was gonna talk non-stop shit about Seb, and acted accordingly.

Monaco 2012 Pole don’t talk to me about this I still can’t believe the audacity of this man to get the only pole of his comeback, at MONACO, at the ONE RACE where he had a 5 place grid penalty to take!!

In general, I know Cheating Bad but. I HAVE to admire the brainpower it must take to have the rulebook so memorized that whilst driving an F1 car Schumi could spot a loophole the size of the eye of a needle and then dance through it, forcing the FIA to add ANOTHER page to the rule book specially for him bc nobody else even REALISED that loophole existed.

Human Moments

A quick rant about Mika and Schumi’s entire friendship. After Spa 2000 Mika goes up to Michael, says something like “Don’t ever do that again” then they’re friends again. They had this mutual understanding that Racing was not Reality. This goes all the way back to their F3 days they were rivals AND friends for their entire career. They truly were the Sewis of the era if Sebastian was like 50% more evil. Their entire dynamic is “You’re the only motherfucker in this pit lane who can handle me”. Schumi would do some bullshit and every other driver would throw up their hands in frustration and Mika would just go “Okay” and drive better to put him in his place bc he was the only one who could keep up, and Schumi very visibly LOVED that he’s grinning after Mika owns his entire ass with that overtake at Spa. They were unstoppable force meets immovable object and I’m so sad their rivalry isn’t more talked about bc the way Mika is the only driver who can get him to behave like a normal human being is SO entertaining.

This is a sad one so I won’t link it but he started crying in the 2000 Monza press-conference with his brother and Mika when he equaled one of Senna’s records. The press kept trying to ask questions about it and Mika just has this death grip on his shoulder and tries to get them to stop or let them take a break and it’s so sad but also important to know about.

Once said he didn’t want Mick to race in F1 bc the pressure of his name would put Mick under so much stress and he wanted his son to be happy. (He fully supported Mick in his endeavors! But only after making absolutely sure it was what Mick wanted, and making sure he knew he could just race for fun if he wanted and it didn’t have to be F1)

This whole interview just after Mick was born with the Schumacher family. Special shout out to Gina on his head the entire video and also Corinna talking to the press while Michael is captivated by Mick. Me too Michael.

Once allegedly pleaded to take a stray kitten home from the track?

I reblogged this yesterday but. Sticking like glue to Sebastian at an F1 test and immediately being like “This is my new son he’s gonna go far”. There’s a lot of pictures out there also of Michael being a guest at the karting races Seb went to as a kid and baby Seb visibly losing his fucking mind at being given a trophy by his idol. Every day of my life I think about him trying to ruffle Seb’s hair through his helmet at Brazil 2012

WInning the championship in 2000. Him thanking the entire team individually and pausing mid-celebration to kiss his wife Corinna so tenderly it’s in the F1 opening. Also, the way it literally cuts from the rest of McLaren looking like they’re attending a funeral to Mika grinning at him and hugging him fucking SENDSSSSS me.

Schumi was a little shit in all the 2010-12 press conferences like, lowering Lewis’ chair, playing with a microphone wire, but ESPECIALLY corrupting baby Seb and getting him to mess with Nico Rosberg.

He’s just GOOFY! Like I refuse to let him be remembered as a terrifying force of nature he was so goofy kind of similarly to Seb. PLEASE watch this incredibly awkward interview he did with Coulthard on a golf buggy where they both had to pretend they hadn’t thought about murdering each other at least once. I think Sky F1 should force Brocedes to do this when covid’s over. “Do you mind if I drive?” “Yes.”

EDIT: I CANNOT BELIEVE I forgot the 1999 Canada press conference where Eddie Irvine and Mika Hakkinen get into a water fight and Schumi immediately grabs a towel and hides behind it and is like “I had NOTHING to do with it” 🥺 adorable, actually

A lot of people at Ferrari, including Rob Smedley (who was on the other side of the garage with Felipe Massa so not in his inner circle) have said that a lot of the success of the team came from Schumi’s LEADERSHIP more than anything, that he’d make the team get together to bond all the time. When Schumi moved to Ferrari in 1996 they were NOT dominant. He did the same thing Lewis did - went to a team that everybody said would be a huge mistake and helped build them up behind the scenes.

THIS bit of the Canada 2011 Rewind where his engineer gives him the strategy and he’s like “... OkaAaAaAay?” and then when it turns out to be the wrong strategy he cheerfully tells them it’s too late. Little shit.

Speaking of Mercedes I also wanna say that like. They were a MESS in 2012 and his car DNF’d because of a failing on their part MULTIPLE times. (In Canada qualifying his DRS was stuck open and they couldn’t close it.) He did not say a single bad word about them EVER even though the press used this to attack him non-stop as washed-up and bad without Ferrari to cheat for him. At Ferrari he was the exact same with the team, any bastard antics Schumi had for his rivals did not extend to the engineers and crew.

OK this one is soured bc Top Gear is trash BUT if you were like, a kid in England who followed motorsports? Schumi’s fake reveal as The Stig on Top Gear was like the coolest, sickest thing,

Please view this image of Schumi and Mika when they were young and stupid

Iconic Races

ok so I have limited myself to a few races that show off some of his key strengths!

Hungary 1998 / France 2004 - STRATEGY/SPEED - Schumi switched to a 3 stop strategy in 98 and a FOUR STOP strategy in 04 and won both races. In order for the strategy call to work he’d have to basically make every single lap a qualifying style ‘flying lap’ and you best fucking believe he DID THAT. God I fucking miss when Ferrari was the king of strategy.

Argentina 1998 - has it all. Talent, battling Mika, pit lane mind games with mclaren, and bullying coulthard xxx

Spain 1996 / a majority of the wet races - RAIN - One of Schumi’s nicknames was Rain Master bc he was so fucking good in the wet. If it started raining and you were a Schumi stan you were cackling evilly before the red lights even went out. I single out 1996 bc it was his first win for Ferrari and it was unexpected but in most wet races, even Canada 2011 post comeback, you can see Schumi thriving.

Malaysia 1999 - Schumi missed pretty much the entire second half of the season with a broken leg, came back for the last 2 races with everybody murmuring about whether he would struggle, and immediately put the Ferrari on pole. Also worth noting is that he was the number 2 driver for these 2 races bc his teammate Irvine was fighting Mika for the championship and he went along with that without complaint, allowing Ferrari to win the constructor’s championship if not the driver’s.

Monza 2002, 03, 04, or 06 just because it has the energy of the tifosi kneeling at the feet of an idol to their red god.

Brazil 2006 - Fuck All Y’all - Schumi’s last race for Ferrari. He got a puncture and ended up almost lapped, and then drove his way back from that to 4th bc he couldn’t go out without reminding us he’s a bad bitch.

Monza 2012 - Defending - Don’t tell F1 Twitter that there’s actual footage of Lewis and Michael having a genuine lengthy battle on track but DO watch Michael defending like a motherfucker and Lewis breathing down his neck for half the race we need to talk about this more.

Valencia 2012 - This isn’t necessarily anything special but I cried in my living room over the only podium of his comeback so it goes on here. It doesn’t have the same impact if you haven’t been watching him struggle with the car for years, DNF-ing from car failure most of 2012, and having BBC F1 telling you he’s washed up every single weekend, but you can just enjoy one of the best drives of FERNANDO’S entire career as he DRAGS that Ferrari by its hair to a home grand prix win and then watch the crowds embrace him like jesus and also Schumi being happy on the podium. Also, the very start of this clip from the press conference: him forgetting what language he’s supposed to be speaking

Basically, Schumi was a hyper-competitive ambitious bitch who turned into a goofball as soon as he switched the engine off. This is by NO MEANS everything if I was making an exhaustive best races guide I’d do more research and another post but I hope this is what you were looking for?? THANK YOU SO MUCH for letting me go MAXIMUM SPECIAL INTEREST and I apologize.

#asks #Schumi #Mika #Alonso #long post #god I'm so fucking sorry #Anonymous #This is not comprehensive bc I didn't want to accidentally turn this into a whole research project especially if you're new to it!

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bananaofswifts · 4 years ago

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By : Callie Ahlgrim and Courteney Larocca

Taylor Swift released her eighth studio album, "Folklore," on Friday.

Swift surprised fans by announcing its release just one day in advance — and less than one year after the release of her acclaimed seventh album "Lover."

"Most of the things I had planned this summer didn't end up happening, but there is something I had planned that DID happen," she wrote on social media. "And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore. Surprise!"

She described "Folklore," stylized in all lowercase, as "an entire brand new album of songs I've poured all of my whims, dreams, fears, and musings into."

Much of the 16-song tracklist — 17 on the deluxe edition — was cowritten and produced by The National's Aaron Dessner. Smaller pieces were cowritten by Bon Iver, Jack Antonoff, and someone named William Bowery. Antonoff also produced five songs.

Insider's music team (reporter Callie Ahlgrim and celebrity and music editor Courteney Larocca) listened to the new album on our own, jotting down our initial thoughts track by track.

Almost immediately, we were forced to reckon with the fact that "Folklore" might be Swift's best album yet — potentially even better than "Red," which previously seemed like it couldn't be topped. We were stunned with the mature, poetic, stunningly understated collection of new songs.

Here is what we thought of each song on "Folklore" upon first listen. (Skip to the end to see the only songs worth listening to and the album's final score.)

"The 1" is the best album opener Swift has had in years.

Ahlgrim: "I'm doing good, I'm on some new s---" is a wild way to begin a new Taylor Swift album. This is going to be different.

This is easily the best intro song she's released in years. "The 1" far surpasses "I Forgot That You Existed" on "Lover," "...Ready for It?" on "Reputation," and "Welcome to New York" on "1989" in terms of sheer quality.

It's also an engaging scene-setter; I find myself gently rocking back and forth, eyes closed, smiling without realizing. It's only the first song and so far, I am totally grasping the woodsy aesthetic of this album. I'm already ready for more.

Larocca: I would argue that there hasn't been a strong album opener on one of Swift's albums since "State of Grace" on "Red" in 2012. "The 1" breaks that curse.

I was vibing from that very first piano note, but when Swift comes in and warmly delivers the first line of the album — "I'm doing good, I'm on some new s---" — it became evident this project wouldn't be anything like the rest of her discography.

As far as "The 1" goes as a standalone song, it's incredibly solid. Swift has a breezy attention to rhythm as she paints a tale of a the-one-who-got-away romance. I truly, truly love it. This might end up being an all-time favorite track.

"Cardigan" is beautifully influenced by Lana Del Rey.

Ahlgrim: I heard "Cardigan" first because I watched the music video before I listened to the album.

Right off the bat, I was struck by the Lana Del Rey melody in the chorus; I jotted down "folksy 'Blue Jeans.'"

Swift has actually cited Del Rey as an inspiration in the past, so this makes sense — and that particular shade of nostalgic, haunting glamour really works for Swift's voice, so I'm overall very impressed with this direction. I am more than amenable to a "Red" meets "Norman F---ing Rockwell!" album experience. On my second time around listening, sans music video, "Cardigan" already feels richer coming after "The 1."

This time, I'm struck by small lyrical details like "Sequined smile, black lipstick," a clear callback to her past eras, and "Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy," an effective way to evoke young love and innocence lost.

I also think the song's central refrain, "When you are young they assume you know nothing," is clean and sharp and — especially given Swift's public struggles with sexism and years-old contracts — extremely poignant.

Larocca: I had the thought that Swift listens to Lana Del Rey after hearing "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince" on last year's "Lover," but now I know for sure that Del Rey is an influence on Swift.

While "Cardigan" isn't what I thought this album would be like sonically, I'm overjoyed at how clearly singer-songwriter this album already is. I've been waiting years for Swift to make a lyrical marvel set to acoustic, warm, folksy instrumentals and it's here.

(And while I expected something different sonically, I am not mad at all by the backing instrumental choices here.)

"The Last Great American Dynasty" proves Swift is a natural storyteller.

Ahlgrim: Personally, I love Storyteller Taylor, so this is quite literally music to my ears.

There are so many delicious details here to unpack. The first verse, with its subtle sexist whisperings about Rebekah Harkness ("How did a middle-class divorcée do it?" and "It must have been her fault his heart gave out"), is a truly savvy way to set up for the song's eventual reveal.

Rebekah spent her time partying with friends, funding the ballet, playing card games with Salvador Dalí, somehow "ruining everything" — and her Holiday House was "free of women with madness" until Swift herself moved in.

That twist in the bridge is poetic genius. When the final chorus adjusts to the present day, underscoring the parallels between Rebekah and Swift, I'm forcefully reminded of an iconic bridge when Romeo finally proposed and changed everything — but Swift has evolved past daydreams of pure white dresses and fathers giving permission.

Larocca: I'm immediately taken back to 2012's "Starlight" when "The Last Great American Dynasty" starts. Thankfully, this song ends up being a lot better than "Starlight," which always felt more like a filler track on "Red" to me.

I love a lot here: the casual use of "b----," the acute attention to detail ("She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green"), and every version of this line: "There goes the maddest woman this town has ever seen."

I had a marvelous time listening to this song.

"Exile," featuring Bon Iver, is one of Swift's most successful duets to date.

Ahlgrim: Swift and Bon Iver, aka Justin Vernon, are two of the best songwriters alive today, so this song was destined to be breathtaking.

Swift has historically had difficulty allowing her voice and vision to coexist with a featured artist; her collaborations often leave me feeling like she should've just delivered the whole song herself.

But Swift and Vernon were able to weave their lyrics together so gracefully, I was left feeling grateful for his presence. His rich, rustic tone and those iconic hummed harmonies lends the regretful song an added coat of sincerity.

The production here is generally fine, but the layered instrumentals in the ending really bring the song together. I love a dramatic exit.

Larocca: When I see a "featuring Bon Iver" on a track, I instantly assume Vernon is going to come in with his high falsetto. So it was almost jarring that the song starts with Vernon sounding like a lumberjack dad who hasn't left the woods in a decade.

That didn't end up being a detriment, though. Swift sounds delicate on her verse, and their vocals contrast nicely later on the track.

This one also brings to mind her collab "The Last Time" with Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody. The line "I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending" is also reminiscent of "If This Was a Movie."

I'm obsessed with the clear influences Swift's previous discography had on these tracks, which have also so far felt completely unique to her catalog.

"My Tears Ricochet" is an extraordinary display of Swift's songwriting powers.

Ahlgrim: First of all, "My Tears Ricochet" is an incredible song title. Let's take a moment to appreciate that.

In fact, pretty much every line of this song is arresting.

Much of it feels both familiar and rare, like you know exactly what Swift is singing about, but hadn't thought to put it in those words before — which is, in my opinion, the mark of any good piece of writing but especially a breakup song. You can relate to the emotion, if not the particular details. You can hear the pain. It almost plays like a funeral march.

What a gift it is, what an exhilarating experience, to feel like you're listening to a poem being recited in real-time.

Larocca: Any true Swiftie knows that track five is reserved for the most vulnerable moment on the record, so I went into "My Tears Ricochet" ready to be sad.

I am endlessly impressed with how Swift managed to bake the word "ricochet" into this song so effectively. She also ditched her traditional song structure for this one, and instead built the track from peak to peak, utilizing clever lyrics along the way to tell an epic, devastating story, almost obviously calling back to the most beloved track five of "All Too Well."

I'm calling it now — this one is going to age like a fine wine. As all of Swift's best breakup ballads do.

"Mirrorball" is several strokes of genius.

Ahlgrim: This song gives me intense Clairo vibes, and I mean that as a very high compliment.

It's so fun and refreshing to hear Swift slip into different musical styles, and this shimmery take on alternative-bedroom-pop highlights her soft vocals and nuanced songwriting supremely well.

Also, my Leo sensibilities are fully under attack by this bridge: "I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I'm still on that trapeze / I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me." Oof! Just tag me next time.

Larocca: This one is so pretty! Swift's vocals sound better than ever as she spins on her highest heels across a glittery daydream.

"I'm a mirrorball / I'll show you every version of yourself tonight" might be the thesis statement of this entire album. So far, "Folklore" feels both diaristic and vague; detailed and completely anonymous.

Fans will be debating for years whether this album is about Swift's own life, or if it's simply really great storytelling pulled directly from her own mind. In the end, it doesn't really matter.

Because as all of Swift's best songs do, these songs will attach themselves to listeners in completely new ways, showing them elements and stories from their own lives.

"Seven" is pure whimsical magic.

Ahlgrim: This is playing make-believe in the garden when you're too young to feel self-conscious; it's poetic and nostalgic and full of awe in such an unpretentious way.

I wouldn't change one thing about this song. Swift's whispery high register sounds divine, and at this point in the tracklist, her rhythmic delivery in the chorus hits like a shot of espresso.

Right now, I'm wondering if it's possible for Swift to maintain this intrigue and momentum for another nine songs. There hasn't been a misstep to speak of, and I remain wholly beguiled. Can it last?

Larocca: The beginning of "Seven" sounds like Swift listened to Marina's "Orange Trees" on repeat before showing up to her songwriting session. Fortunately, "Orange Trees" is the only song I like on Marina's "Love + Fear" so I will gladly accept this inspiration.

Swift continues to impress with both her vocals and her sense of rhythm on "Seven." I also personally love space imagery so the line "Love you to the moon and to Saturn" is a standout line.

"August" will go down as one of the best songs in Swift's extensive repertoire.

Ahlgrim: I'm immediately catching hints of Phoebe Bridgers and girl in red in Swift's delivery. And I simply adore the idea that Swift has spent the last few months sitting at home, daydreaming about summertime humidity and listening to music by queer indie-pop girls.

In an album full of songwriting expertise, this song has some of Swift's best lines yet: "August sipped away like a bottle of wine / 'Cause you were never mine" actually hurts me.

In my notes, there simply sits this valuable insight (yes, in all-caps): "WANTING WAS ENOUGH. FOR ME IT WAS ENOUGH TO LIVE FOR THE HOPE OF IT ALL." This song has my favorite bridge on the album so far.

In terms of production, "August" is exquisite. It's lush and layered without feeling overwhelming at any point. It builds to the perfect level then recedes, like a wave.

Also worth mentioning: It can now be considered a historical fact that any time Swift mentions a car or driving in one of her songs, it's a perfect song.

Larocca: While listening to "August," I texted Callie and said, "I can't wait to finish the album so I can relisten to 'August.'" It's an instant favorite.

This is also the first track on the album that seems directly inspired by our current state. Not because she's expressing fear or singing about being bored at home, but because she so easily slips into a reflection of a relationship that ended years ago with a newfound wave of wistful nostalgia.

When quarantine started, it seemed like a million lifestyle articles came out explaining why everyone suddenly felt compelled to text their exes and why we're so invested in looking back instead of forward right now.

"August" validates those feelings with zero judgment, letting its listener know that yes, it's totally normal for you to be overanalyzing that quasi-relationship you were in back in college that never made it past graduation. Am I projecting? Maybe, but that's debatably what Swift's music is best utilized for.

I'm also going to be thinking about this song's bridge and outro for the rest of my life.

The National's influence can be felt on the stunning "This Is Me Trying."

Ahlgrim: "This Is Me Trying" quickly strikes a more sinister tone than its predecessors — still nostalgic and wistful, but carrying an edge, like a threatening secret.

Ironically, this one was co-written and co-produced by Jack Antonoff, not Aaron Dessner, though I can really hear The National's influence here. I'm getting strong wafts of songs like "Pink Rabbits" and "Dark Side of the Gym."

Based on Swift's own words, we can speculate that "This Is Me Trying" is a fictional tale, built around the image of "a 17-year-old standing on a porch, learning to apologize." And, as previously stated, I'm a big fan of Storyteller Taylor, so I'm into it.

The song's darker tone mingles really well with Swift's imagery; when you're a teenager, and you make a mistake, it can feel like the end of the world.

Larocca: "This Is Me Trying" is precisely what I imagined this album sounding like when I found out Swift collaborated with the National's Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver.

But I'm glad she was strategic about her use of echo and also finally paid attention to the tracklisting from a sonic standpoint. This haunting soundscape is reminiscent of 2014's "This Love" and comes in right when you need it after the yearning daydream of "August."

I'd also like it to be on the record that the line "I got wasted like all my potential" ruined me and this song is a win for that lyric alone.

"Illicit Affairs" is a glowing example of what sets Swift apart from her peers as a songwriter.

Ahlgrim: The expert songwriting on "Illicit Affairs" reminds me of the as-yet unseated queen in Swift's discography: "All Too Well."

Swift is a master of wielding specific details like weapons: "What started in beautiful rooms / Ends with meetings in parking lots," she sings. "Leave the perfume on the shelf / That you picked out just for him." These are the sorts of images that set Swift apart, and they're especially strong when she punctuates their delivery with a little growl in her voice.

This song has real power. I have chills.

That power is magnified in the third verse, similar to how "All Too Well" builds to a crescendo: "Don't call me 'kid,' don't call me 'baby' / Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me."

Certainly, "Illicit Affairs" is more restrained than Swift's iconic arena rock ballad, but goddamn that last verse hits hard.

Larocca: The way that she says "him" in the second verse shook me out of my skin in the very best way. And "Don't call me 'kid,' don't call me 'baby' / Look at this idiotic fool that you made me" will go down as one of her best breakup lines of all time.

It's been a minute since Swift delivered a painstakingly beautiful breakup ballad, and the fact that this album is littered with them is, simply, a gift.

"Illicit Affairs" has growing power and will likely become one of those tracks that fans form a strong emotional attachment to over time.

"Invisible String" is Taylor Swift at her most Taylor Swift.

Ahlgrim: "Invisible String" is a feast of Easter eggs and callbacks.

"Teal was the color of your shirt" reminds me of the line about Joe Alwyn's blue eyes on "Delicate," and her reference to a dive bar is similarly familiar. "Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs" recalls the push-and-pull on "Exile."

"Bad was the blood of the song in the cab" is undoubtedly a reference to Swift's 2015 single "Bad Blood," while "One single thread of gold / Tied me to you" feels like a nod to Swift's description of love's "golden" hue on the "Lover" album closer "Daylight."

This song is sprightly and sparkly and certainly nice to listen to, but its real strength lies in these details.

Swift is weaving many different stories on this album, many connected by a sort of "Invisible String," tying different pieces of her life and your life and other lives together. It ends up feeling like a growing plant with far-reaching roots, or a sentient treasure map.

Larocca: I'd be lying if I said there weren't multiple points throughout this album where I worried that Swift and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn had broken up.

Thankfully, "Invisible String" is a rosy, wide-eyed ode to love. The plucky guitar paired with Swift's soft vocals is a sound I want to live in, which is fitting since this track feels like coming home.

Every small detail, from the nod to Alwyn's time spent working at a frozen yogurt shop in his youth, to the color imagery that paints every inflection of Swift's adoration (especially the single thread of gold) come together to lay the holy ground Swift's relationship walks on.

Also, the image of Swift mailing Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner gifts for their expectant first child brings about an unbridled sense of joy.

"Mad Woman" is yet another highlight.

Ahlgrim: Every time I think I've heard the peak of this album's songwriting potential, Swift manages to surprise me.

Case in point: "Do you see my face in the neighbor's lawn? / Does she smile? / Or does she mouth, 'F--- you forever?'" Whoa.

And another, for good measure: "It's obvious that wanting me dead / Has really brought you two together." I texted Courteney, "Did she really just say that??"

This song is sublime on its own, but the way it ties back into the perception of female freedom and "madness" on "The Last Great American Dynasty" makes it even better. "Mad Woman" is definitely a personal favorite so far on this album, if not in Swift's entire catalog.

Larocca: "Mad Woman" will forever hold the honor of being the first song in which Swift says "f---" and for that, we should all be thankful.

I was also so wrapped up in the storytelling of this album, that it took a minute for this to even register that this is likely about the Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta / Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West ordeals of Swift's past. These callouts used to be so obvious, that I greatly appreciate the subtlety and restraint here.

It almost feels like these feuds were a lifetime ago, but this track does an excellent job at showcasing how anger and pain can leave an indelible mark on you. Swift went mad years ago, and that's just an accepted part of her narrative now.

But for the first time, her rage sounds like freedom.

"Epiphany" doesn't stand out.

Ahlgrim: There are some really interesting vocal moments on "Epiphany," but so far, this is the only song I haven't felt captivated by. It's a bit snoozy, and a bit too long.

This song clearly references war, the loss of a loved one, and the coronavirus pandemic, which makes it lyrically intriguing at best — but distressing at worst. I don't mind letting the overall effect waft over me, but this won't be a song I revisit outside the context of the album.

Larocca: "Epiphany" is the only track on "Folklore" that didn't immediately grab me. It's essentially a war drama in song format, so some people might like it, but I truly couldn't care less about war movies or war songs! So it's not my favorite, but it makes for pretty background music.

"Epiphany" does have another benefit though: Now, whenever some random dude erroneously claims Swift "only writes songs about her exes," fans have a clear song in her discography that they can point to and be like, "That's not true. This one's about war."

That's not to say Swift needed that — anyone who has been paying attention understands she's quite possibly the best songwriter of her generation.

This just happens to be further proof of that fact.

"Betty" is a charming callback to Swift's country roots.

Ahlgrim: "Betty" is like the best, sauciest song from Swift's 2006 debut country album that no one got to hear. It has sonic and lyrical similarities to hits like "Our Song" and "Tim McGraw," plus some name-dropping stuff like 2008's "Hey Stephen," plus a little harmonica thrown in for good measure! I love that for us.

"Betty" also appears to complete a three-song story, recalling details from "Cardigan" and "August" to close the loop on Betty and James, a couple in high school with some infidelity issues.

Looking back, it feels like "Cardigan" was told from Betty's perspective, while "August" was told from the perspective of a sort of "other woman" character. Now, we get James' side of the story. This is high art, folks! This is peak Storytelling Taylor!

"Betty" is also, like, very gay? I know it's easy to assume that James is a male character, but Swift herself was named after James Taylor, so she could be referring to herself. The song also references someone named Inez; James and Inez are the names of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's daughters.

Plus, in retrospect, the idea of whispering "Are you sure? Never have I ever before" during a summer fling seems pretty gay to me.

I'm not saying the story of Betty and James would be better if it was written about sapphic lovers, but I'm not not saying that.

Larocca: This one is gay, and if you try to tell me otherwise, I will simply ignore you.

But Courteney, it's from the perspective of a guy named James. James and the other character, Inez, share the same names as Reynolds and Lively's kids (will leave it up to you to decide if that means their third daughter's name is Betty). James is their daughter. Get out of here with your antiquated ideas about which names connotate which genders.

To me, the James named in this song is a woman and a lesbian and this song is for the gays. I will not be saying anything else or accepting any feedback on this opinion, thank you.

"Peace" is honest and raw.

Ahlgrim: This song's intro sounds like LCD Soundsystem had a baby with "The Archer." The gentle guitar riff is also lovely.

With Dessner's echoey production, Swift's voice sounds like a warm little fire in a cave — fitting, since she sings in the chorus, "I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm."

OK damn, I'm getting really emotional. This songwriting is beautiful and haunting. "Peace" perfectly captures the ambient dread of feeling your partner slip away, of wondering whether love can be enough.

Larocca: If you're a "Call It What You Want" stan, you're going to love its mature older sister "Peace."

I will hereby forever be thinking about the parallels between "But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm" with "He built a fire just to keep me warm" and between "Family that I chose, now that I see your brother as my brother" with "Trust him like a brother."

Also, "Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?" has the same emotional impact as when Swift changes the lyric in "The Archer" to "I see right through me" and that's meant as the highest form of compliment.

Swift's vocals are so crisp, that guitar riff is so stunning, and these lyrics are so gut-wrenchingly vulnerable. A perfect song, through and through.

"Hoax" is unlike any other album closer in Swift's catalog.

Ahlgrim: I don't know if Swift is going through a traumatic breakup, but if she isn't, the woman is one convincing creative writer.

The National makes some of my favorite music to cry to, so when I heard Aaron Dessner had co-written and produced much of this album, I knew I was in for some glossy cheeks. Until now, I think I've felt too captivated by Swift's artistry to really let myself get there.

But finally, "Hoax" is making me cry.

This is heart-wrenching stuff for anyone, but for a fan and student of Swift's work, this is like reading a friend's diary entry.

"Don't want no other shade of blue, but you" must be a reference to "Delicate," in which Swift sings: "Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you / Oh damn, never seen that color blue." Later, she croons, "You know I left a part of me back in New York," perhaps regretting the move to London that she detailed throughout "Lover."

"You knew it still hurts underneath my scars / From when they pulled me apart," recalling the public shaming she endured and demons she exorcised on "Reputation." "But what you did was just as dark." Like I said before: Whoa.

Personally, I love having a good cry set to moody music, so I appreciate Swift's soul-bearing. "Hoax" is one gut-punch of an album closer.

Larocca: Swift has a habit of ending her albums on an uplifting, hopeful note and I always eat it up. But if "Folklore" hadn't made it clear by now that it should be consumed differently than any of her previous works, "Hoax" brings that message home.

Instead of reveling in all the ways that love has made her stronger, happier, or more whole, "Hoax" deconstructs everything Swift has learned about love and leaves a bleaker picture about how maybe even the best of relationships hurt.

But at its most tragic, this love still isn't something Swift will ever let go of: "Don't want no other shade of blue but you / No other sadness in the world would do."

Finishing a Taylor Swift album has never been so devastating.

Final Grade: 9.7/10

#taylor swift #folklore #review

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qtheallpowerful · 5 years ago

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Book Rec: City of Brass and Kingdom of Copper

I wanted to write a review of these two books, and in fact had it planned in my head when I finished Kingdom of Copper on Saturday. Alas I wasn’t able to type it at the time and all the fancy words have left my head. So instead of a serious review, you get a small snippet of my thoughts.

These are the first two books in the Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty. The third is set to be published in June 2020, and I shall be speaking to my library later this week about them getting it. In fact, I enjoyed these books so much that I am not only in the process of writing a letter to the author, but am considering purchasing them.

The main protagonists is Nahari, a young con artist from 18th Century Cairo. Early in the book she discovers that she is not in fact human as she thought, but a Daeva, also known as Djinn(or Genie in modern vernacular), and that there is an entire magical world existing alongside the one she knows, one fraught with danger, politics, intrigue, and to some degree love.(Note on that last bit: it’s rather heterosexual. Though there is at least one canonically bi character, it’s not particularly good representation. Not bad, just not very good.) I don’t want to say too much more about the plot because of spoilers, but it’s good.

Besides for an engaging plot, I can not think of a single named character that is not well developed, with full personality and back story. Nor are any of them boring. They all continue to grow and change through out the story, and not always for the good. I found my self both loving and hating various characters almost simultaneously at some points because of this.

With such a complex world and many well developed characters one might think the book must be overwhelmingly wordy. It’s not. The language is clear and beautiful.

I first read City of Brass last year, prior to the publication of Kingdom of Copper, and did not know it was the first of a trilogy. In fact, I did not know it was a trilogy until I finished Kingdom of Copper on Saturday. Even so, the book was a fantastic read. And while the ending of the first novel left room for the story to continue(as it obviously was intended to do,) it also felt complete. The second does not have the same ‘full story’ feeling at the end of it, but given the nature of what is happening that is understandable.

I seriously recommend these books. Though you should know it is an emotional rollercoaster with this characters. And hey, turns out that was a more decent review than I thought I was going to type when I opened this. And if you’ve already read them, or after you do, please let me know what you thought. My asks and sims are always open and I would love to chat about this.

Edit: I forgot to mention, like all good fantasy work it’s not just a fun story, but has many wonderful sociopolitical and general life messages for us to think about.

#Book rec #S.A. Chakraborty #City of Brass #Kingdom of Copper #book review #reading #don’t take my word for it #the daevabad trilogy

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btsybrkr · 5 years ago

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2020 Vision: What To Expect From The Next Decade (By Someone Who Has No Idea, Obviously.)

Happy New Year, all!! I had planned to do a little run-down last week of everything that happened in the 2010s, but instead succumbed to the existential struggle that comes with the week that follows Christmas Day, in which your time becomes largely swallowed up by asking yourself ‘what day is it?’ and ‘at what point am I supposed to stop living on a diet of alcohol and Quality Street?’. It’s festive purgatory, and you’re literally powerless to do anything other than sleep, eat, and moan that the shops are still playing Christmas music. That’s my excuse, anyway.

So, instead, I thought we’d say a collective “cinnabit, lad” to 2019 and a collective “what is UP, dude?” to the Roaring 20s 2.0, the only sequel that humanity has waited a whole 100 years for. Apart from Avatar 2, which I imagine will come out at some point in the 3020s. What do we know so far about what the 2020s have in store for us? Obviously, not a lot, but as someone who successfully predicted the outcome of the last election, and the UK’s last four Eurovision losses - two things which I’m sure absolutely nobody ever saw coming - I thought I’d give out my own valuable speculation. Here’s what the 2020s might look like, according to me.

Politics

Let’s get it out of the way - we’re in a terrible state. At this point, every important issue is so divisive, that the nation is divided over everything, including whether we’re actually divided or not. Do I think we’ll become any less divided in the coming years, in a United Kingdom where the conversation is so often dominated by things we can absolutely never seem to agree on? Yes. We will have no choice. Why?

All-out war.

Yes, I said it. In 2021, there will be all-out war. With America, probably. I don’t know why. Maybe Trump will get into an argument with Boris Johnson over who can manage to effortlessly look the most like a Viz caricature of themselves - they both already do somehow, I’m just saying they might disagree on which one of them is the best at it. Could be that, or possibly a more serious cause, to do with nuclear weapons or something, but I’d rather not think about that, because it’s not as funny as the Viz thing. And it’s more likely. So, we’ll pretend for now that we’re on the verge of the first pantomime, slapstick war the world has ever seen.

Anyway, while Trump and Johnson are beefing up a storm - picture Punch and Judy, except the puppets are in suits and have thinning, bright yellow hair - previously all-encompassing issues like Brexit will fall by the wayside, until Boris Johnson eventually decides to hand his notice in to focus on more important things, like beating Trump with a wooden spoon and chasing after the dog that stole all his sausages. After this, we’ll all come together to realise that if actual elected officials can’t do the job, then maybe we, the people, deserve our chance to test our political metal. Obviously, we can’t let just anybody have a go, but at the end of the year, Cosmopolitan magazine puts the traditional democratic process at number one on its ‘Leave It In 2021’ list, so we have absolutely no choice but to come up with something else, which brings me to...

Television And Film

2022 will start with a bang, with the debut of Simon Cowell’s new talent show format, So You Think You Can Be The Prime Minister?, hosted of course by Ant and Dec, with the aftershow on ITV2 being hosted by Jeremy Paxman. Contestants will line up in huge crowds to give judges Russell Brand, Susanna Reid, and, of course, Jesus S. Cowell himself (forgot to mention, Simon Cowell has been elected as the new Christ in this completely non-hypothetical universe, alright?) their opinions on hot political topics such as Brexit, the NHS, and, of course, whether a Jaffa Cake can really be classed as a biscuit or not. Each episode, contestants will take part in a live debate, themed around a different issue with every passing week. The two least popular contestants after the weekly phone vote will go head-to-head giving their own rendition of Running The World by Jarvis Cocker, with the worst performer being eliminated. I know a sing-off isn’t exactly relevant in a politics programme, but it’s Saturday night primetime so it’s still got to be at least somewhat entertaining, yeah?

Love Island will be back, of course - and not just with a Summer and Winter edition, but with an additional Spring and Autumn one for the 2024 schedule! This will be a win-win situation for the series producers, and for its viewers, as by 2027, ITV will run out of attractive under-35s to appear on the show, and members of the public will begin getting called up to appear - like with jury duty, except that ITV pay for you to have extensive cosmetic surgery first, so that you’re aesthetically pleasing enough for people to want to tune in, and so that you can maintain a successful career selling Bootea on Instagram afterwards.

Films will also go through a renaissance in the 2020s, as the Hollywood big boys come to a conclusion that everything has just become a little too… blockbuster. To remedy this, they make the joint decision that, 100 years on, we should take ourselves back to the silent film era, which will surely create hundreds of jobs for mute people, therefore solving Hollywood’s problems with a lack of diversity in film. It’ll also give well-known TikTok creators a chance to make the leap into mainstream entertainment, as they’ll have spent so long lip-synching over the years that they’ll now be more qualified to star in these new golden age pictures than actual trained actors. Obviously, that sounds absolutely beyond comprehension, but look at Count Orlok in 1922’s Nosferatu. See his slender limbs, blank stare, gothic dress sense - in a way, he’s the original e-boy, and there’s plenty of them out there on TikTok now that could play the titular vampire just as well in a 100th anniversary remake, just with less neck-biting and more lip-biting. Trust me, it’ll be a hit.

Technology

Throughout the 2010s, there’s been a lot of talk about everyone spending too much time on their bloody phones, so, in 2024, Apple will try to combat this issue when they unveil perhaps their most innovative product to date - the iPhone XZ+, a phone which exists solely in the mind of its users. Not in a Black Mirror, chip-inside-your-brain sort of way, either. It is literally imaginary. It’s a phone that, instead of being a phone, is actually just the concept of a phone. Yes, for the small cost of £1,500 and six units of your own soul, you, too, can block the rest of the world out. How amazing is that? No more wasting hours of your day keeping in touch with friends and family. No more accessing a wealth of information, wherever you are, with a quick Google. No more blocking out the sound of cackling pre-teens on the bus by putting in your earphones and listening to music. These things are bad and must be stopped, before we become an entire species of communicating, bopping, learning zombies.

I think those must be bad things anyway, since you can rarely go a few seconds scrolling through social media without stumbling across a ��woke’ meme about how the use of smartphones is destroying us, one notification at a time - memes which I’m absolutely sure were created and posted from a book or a potato or something. Otherwise they’d just be hypocritical, wouldn’t they?

Anyway, the iPhone XZ+. It’s the only thing you need inside your head this decade. Apart from a very real ever-growing sense of fear and doom, which you can get for free.

Sport

The next decade will see the Olympics and Paralympics take place in 2020, 2024 and 2028, as well as the Winter equivalents to both in 2022 and 2026. You’d think we’d be all Olympic-ed out with that, but in the absence of anything else that gets people feeling remotely patriotic in a purely nice way, the world will decide to come together to throw scaled-down, low-budget Olympic games in all the off-years this decade.

Summer 2021 will see the start of the first ever Not-The-Actual-Olympics. Marked by a glamourous opening ceremony in a field in Loughborough, the opening will feature a series of performances from stars such as H from Steps, and will be attended by some people who aren’t the royal family, but really do look like them. Taking place over the 10-week long games will be thumb wars, arm wrestling, staring contests, and an exciting event in which competitors try to eat the most HobNobs they possibly can without the help of a glass of water to combat the extreme dry-mouth they end up with. It might sound underwhelming now, but if there turns out to be any truth in the other predictions I’ve made here, it might be just what you need to restore your faith in the everyday.

Happy New Year, Everyone

In all seriousness - not that the rest of this isn’t serious, because it is, and is definitely all going to happen - whatever the coming years bring, it’s important to remember that we have to take the good with the bad, to look after ourselves and each other, and to enjoy each day as much as we possibly can, even during the bits of life that leave us feeling a little less Gangnam Style than we did way back in 2012. Thanks, everyone, for reading my blog. I’ll be back again in a week or so to talk absolute arse about something else. Until then, I hope you all had a great 2019, and have an even better start to 2020. Cheers!

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xtremedespair3d · 4 years ago

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HajiKo Anime: Fall 2020

Where was Summer at? We needed to have a line-up as lit as this one, but alas, this cold line-up was pretty refreshing!

Okay, I probably shouldn’t come up with these ridiculous puntastic introductions just for filler and for the sake of using the “Keep reading” tab because these posts are always lengthy, but there’s nothing else I can say, I can’t just simply put the “Keep reading” tab and that’s it!

Also, there were some details on my anticipated shows and I completely forgot about them so I’m going to write them down here because I’m not even gonna bother go editing my previous post and add the things I forgot to say and tell everyone about it, nobody reads my posts anyway.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Before I start this review, I want to say something and it’s probably not for the faint of heart depending on your prefered way of watching anime and mine may not be the absolute best if you’re a “purist,” but it’s very important. On October 1st, as soon as I published my previous Summer 2020 review the day prior and as soon as the Fall season began, HorribleSubs, the anime subs torrent site I’ve been using for a long time, has closed.

Torrenting anime is kind of a gray area for me to say this, but I’m not a shallow anime review site, so who cares? This is my personal blog and might as well say this. I’ve been torrenting anime for quite a few years now, and my go-to anime site to watch the latest shows ripped straight from big-shots like Crunchyroll, Funimation and HIDIVE, is HorribleSubs. I’ve been using random websites before but I moved to torrent anime because the torrent library site Nyaa offers a huge variety of high quality torrent anime, there are so many websites to watch anime illegally and they’re not even that good, the biggest one being KissAnime but on mid-2020, it appears that KissAnime has been closed, a lot of people who used the service are sad, meanwhile I’m laughing my ass off at them since I mainly torrent anime.

Ever wondered how I usually watch anime that aren’t licensed by Funimation, Sentai, etc.? Torrent, that’s why.

The closure of HorribleSubs is quite shocking considering I’ve been using the site for a while, but there’s other sites like Erai-Raws, although not as good as HorribleSubs as they can be very late, but they still get the job done. Sometimes I browse on Nyaa to look for any other sub groups that have the newly released anime I want to watch, but sometimes they can bring pretty awful quality.

I had briefly used Erai-Raws for a while, which was my alternative whenever HorribleSubs was slow, but even Erai-Raws can be very slow at times, so I switched to SubsPlease which at first I had seen torrents from them uploaded on Nyaa and they’re probably the first group to upload torrents of this season’s anime I watched, so I switched to SubsPlease and I gotta say, I’m really really impressed with SubsPlease, they truly are the best website, they really live up on being the better HorribleSubs and Erai-Raws.

Let me give you a quick rundown on why SubsPlease is absolutely better than HorribleSubs and Erai-Raws:

They have a schedule tab on the left page and they waste no time on uploading new seasonal anime, which they are rips from Crunchyroll and Funimation (I don’t know if they rip stuff from HIDIVE too and who knows if they’ll rip Netflix stuff too but we’ll see).

Although on November 19th, for some reason SubsPlease took so damn long on having the latest Guraburu episode, it only took a few hours, but seriously, I do not condone the tardiness and I hope they don’t make this same screw-up or be worse in the future. And then on November 27th, they also took too long with an episode of Assault Lily Bouquet, I don’t watch that series but the tardiness, come on...

The website automatically detects my timezone, even after the daylight saving time, which is really amazing.

And most importantly:

Dark theme! Well, Erai-Raws’ website is dark by default and there’s nothing wrong with it, but since I treat SubsPlease more like a successor of HorribleSubs, having a dark theme on their website is something HorribleSubs always lacked. Dark theme is the future! Not just it’s easier for my eyes, but dark theme is just cool.

I should also point out that on December 9th, Crunchyroll was actually bought by Funimation, this may or may not sound like a win-win situation, it sounds impressive and guess the tables have turned considering their previous team-up which didn’t last long and now they’re back, but I don’t have high hopes for this move overall, just as long as they don’t go too extreme with piracy DMCAs and worst-case-scenario nuking Nyaa or any subs sites like SubsPlease and Erai, I’m okay with it.

Anyways, enough talk with all the anime torrenting, but still, let’s press F to pay respect to HorribleSubs. HorribleSubs closing with the first episode of Higurashi (They were still uploading episodes of ongoing series for a little bit but we don’t count those) sounds like they definitely ended with a bang.

One more thing before I talk about my review for this Fall 2020 season as well as talking about my line-up for Winter 2021, let’s talk about my birthday. So, how was it? It was great, it’s always better when you happen to have friends who make lovely pictures for you, even if it’s usually a day early or some may not always deliver screenshots (Because most of my friends are Japanese and a Filipino who make Custom Order Maid 3D2 content) but at least I get something.

As for the actual day, well, it was alright, it started off quite stressful with reuploading my birthday picture with numerous fixes over and over and played some Among Us with friends, and then I did have fun just going out with my family and have lunch, so that was something.

But to be brutally honest, most of my fun was already taken away the day prior with all of my Japanese and Filipino friends sending me their COM3D2 pictures to me, that’s a big problem, their timezone is like way ahead of me and they lived on October 4th, so everyone pretty much celebrates my birthday so early and as much as I like it, it starts to lose the fun for what I’m supposed to be on my actual birthday.

My birthday should officially be October 5th in their timezones so I would tell everyone in my actual day that it is my birthday, and I should stop having this habit of telling everyone it’s my birthday, I say it’s pretentions but at the very moment I end up doing so anyways.

Actually, the most fun I would have had in my birthday was if Venom: Let There be Carnage hadn’t been delayed if only COVID didn’t exist, that seriously should have been the main thing that would have made my birthday but without it, my birthday has become shallow overall. But whatever, at least I did have a pretty good lunch, only to make my stomach hurt for a week.

So for the future of my birthday, I probably should stay quiet in telling Japanese people about my birthday being in October 4th in their timezone, at least some who don’t know, I’ll start going crazy about my birthday in my actual day. I really hope there’s something really exciting in my birthday and beyond, too bad there’s no movies to watch next year (Although I could wait to see Dune in my birthday since it comes out in October 1st, so it’s kinda close--And my birthday in 2021 is in Monday, lovely...).

Also, we do not talk about the day Travis Touchdown was announced in Super Smash Ultimate as a Mii fighter, the timing, which happened a day before my birthday, and the choice of making him a Mii fighter are the worst thing they’ve ever done and now I’ve 100% lost care for Smash, if I had any care to begin with, I’ll NEVER forgive you, Sakurai! 😡

That is until October 28th that the Switch ports of the first two No More Heroes games have been released! Aah, what a relief! I might have NMH3 next year, but having the first two games on Switch now is an absolute win and the most important thing right now! (SOMEONE GIVE ME A SWITCH!) Actually, now it seems like NMH1 and 2 will be coming out to PC as well, I GUESS I WON’T NEED A SWITCH AT THE MOMENT, THEN!

After I publish this post, please look forward to my New Year post in the next few days as well.

ANYWAYS, let’s start with the reviews!

Fall 2020 Review

(Higher resolution)

Akudama Drive: Call me biased since I’m a Danganronpa fan, but THIS! THIS IS IT! THE ANIME THAT SAVES 2020! THE ONE OF MANY TOOKYO GAMES PROJECT THAT HAS FIRST SOLD ME FINALLY RELEASED AND IT’S ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I WANTED!

Ahem, sorry about that, but it’s true, I ABSOLUTELY loved this series.

It’s got really great characters and their designs are great, it’s got kick ass opening and ending themes (Although the OP theme is the most important highlight), the animation is very aesthetically pleasing too, and then... AT LAST WE GET TO SEE A PREVIEW OF THE DANGANRONPA COLLAB ART AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY MY #1 AOTS!!! THEN ON DECEMBER 1ST, THE FULL ART IS SHOWN!!!

Another thing I like about the series are the titles of the episodes which they’re all movie titles, especially the episodes “Mission Impossible” and “The Shining,” especially The Shining because it definitely lives up to its name and goes all out with the most obvious references anyone would know.

As much as I love Akudama Drive, I have some complaints!

First off, in terms of the universe, I kinda wish the characters didn’t go by codenames and it would be nicer if they had real names or have them revealed at some point (Which they didn’t, sadly), this makes me feel like watching Goblin Slayer all over again. I mean, there are some things where I’m okay with the characters just having codenames for varying reasons (Hiding their identities or remain mysterious), but this one kind of doesn’t work a bit.

Another which I may take back is the lack of fan arts, somewhere like episode 4 or something, I thought I wouldn’t see fan art of Akudama Drive which I thought nobody watches the series, but one random person miraculously saved my life by giving this one fan art, not only it’s a good fan art, IT’S A CROSSOVER FAN ART WITH DANGANRONPA, ABSOLTUELY PREDATING THE REVEAL OF THE ACTUAL CROSSOVER ART!

Then I searched through Twitter and Pixiv and there’s quite a lot of decent fan arts! (Especially on Pixiv since it usually has god awful fan art, but not all the Akudama Drive fan arts were all that bad, not perfect, but it was something). Searching for Akudama Drive fan arts on Twitter would be extremely hard, especially when there can be way better fan art but without the Japanese hashtag, but even so, I can still find plenty of good fan arts with the hashtag. If anyone has more good Akudama Drive fan arts, please give them to me.

Well, these are nitpicks that are rather meaningless, the real complaint I have is the heavy censorship on any violent moment, like, the most hardcore bloody scenes or something. This is something I’m never going to understand with Japanese censorship, like, I’m okay with the censorship in porn, but the gore is something that hits close to home for me since I’ve always liked blood and gore but it just feels like whatever people like doing with violent video games, anime and manga, it just feels very limited. Not to mention there’s some weird inconsistency in some Japanese media that some can show gore uncensored and others censored, I’m so confused.

I also wish the ending was a little more satisfactory, even though I’m sad about all the Akudama dying, something about the ending is a little left to be desired and raises a lot of questions.

The healing factor kids are save now, but it came at the cost of our Akudama bros’ lives. 😭

By the way, there’s a manga adaptation that came out when the anime was supposed to come out back in July, it’s monthly and I would absolutely read it legit in this site called Renta and the chapters are quite cheap to rent or buy, which is really nice. I would like to read it but I’d like to buy the full volumes of it whenever they’re gonna come out.

Anyways, after the series ends, I hope we get to see new info in the Kazutaka Kodaka projects with Rui Komatsuzaki character designs soon, and I really hope Kodaka would make more original anime like Akudama Drive (As long as the characters are designed by Rui Komatsuzaki, I can’t look at anything Kodaka without Komatsuzaki character designs, no matter the concept).

Oh, by the way, even Osomatsu-san season 3 promoted Akudama Drive! (I mean, they’re both made by Pierrot, but to see something like this is just uncanny)

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - Gou: First of all, the title is actually not “New,” the true title is actually “Gou,” which supposedly this is a brand new entry, this is interesting, the secrecy behind the series and how it was marketed certainly makes for a really great series, but since I’ve never experienced Higurashi in my life, I feel left out. I mean supposedly because from what I hear this isn’t even a remake but rather a new entry, but whatever site I heard that from is probably an unreliable nobody source that I know of, so I’m not entirely sure on that one.

Second of all, before I go into details on my impressions with the series, as someone who never grew up with the original anime nor the visual novels, there’s something I forgot to address in the previous post, Higurashi Gou is animated by Passione, which they impressed me with High School DxD Hero and Citrus. Although sometimes the character designs does throw me off a little, and I saw a comment on Nyaa within the HorribleSubs upload of the episode that the art style reminded of the commentor to Monogatari, which it does look Monogatari-ish and I can’t unsee that now.

Now for my impressions, since I pretty much know the nature of the Higurashi series, I didn’t have that much of high expectations, so there’s not much to say about it. Although even if I’m familiar with the messed up nature, I wasn’t really familiar with the characters and the story, so I guess this is my one way to go with it. As of late, YouTube has randomly been recommending me comparison videos of some moments from the series so far and I’m usually biased towards newer stuff that look cleaner, so I’m definitely take the 2020 side (Which leads me to believe this IS a remake of an adaptation or something).

One thing that did disappoint me, however, is that the Eiko Shimamiya opening theme from the original series was only used once at the end of the first episode, I was kinda sad this isn’t used for the rest of the series, but it was kind of expected to make new theme songs.

If I have the time and desire to do so, I wish I would watch the original Higurashi series and maybe rewatch Gou for like a side-to-side comparison visually and perhaps narratively as well. (And what about the VNs? Eh, I’ll probably never get the mental capacity and time to do so, sorry.)

D4DJ First Mix: Since this is already a new franchise beginning, I thought I would give this an A (just like other Sanzigen titles this year but for varying reasons), but as of the writing of this episode after episode 5 premiered, this series immediately went from A to S! This is my #2 Sanzigen anime of the year, #1 being of course Bandori season 3.

One thing I’d like to point out is that the background characters throughout the series are entirely CG! Looks like Sanzigen has finally delivered God’s work for once! Except there are times when MINOR characters, like the owners of Cafe Vynil and even the Happy Around girls when they were kids are still hand drawn. I don’t know why but I just realized I constantly talk about how much hand drawn characters I have to point out in literally everything Sanzigen makes, so apologies about that.

When I started watching the first episode, I literally got familiar vibes to that of Argonavis with the main character (or in this case, multiple main characters being Happy Around) going to a live concert, but it’s a little different. Instead of the main character being motivated to becoming a musician and go to the concert he went when he was a kid, instead the main character (Being Rinku) went to this concert and remembers WOW WAR TONIGHT, Maho, however, does have the desire of going to the same concert Rinku went when she was a kid.

That kinda sounds more like Argonavis but with more accessibility and well, something that appeals more to audiences because I’m still baffled that out of every Sanzigen title that came out this year, no company, and I mean, NO COMPANY, has officially licensed Argonavis at all! Leaving the series mainly being fansubbed. I think it may be for the better that Argonavis isn’t officially licensed because not everyone would like the series because not everyone is fond of the concept of a male equivalent of Bandori (If it works for Idolmaster, it wouldn’t for Bandori IMO).

Hopefully they’ll make just as many seasons and movies like Bandori if this is going to be Bushiroad’s next big franchise.

Osomatsu-san season 3: After 5 long years, Osomatsu-san continues to deliver some really good laughs and being bizarre.

Wait, it’s been 5 years, why hasn’t Osomatsu-san season 3 addressed a 5th anniversary of sorts? 5 years is an important milestone!

Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2: Sure, Osomatsu-san season 3 is definitely the better comedy of the season (Which forgot to mention it would top Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2 along with Uzaki-chan), but that doesn’t mean Healing Chapter season 2 wouldn’t give me a lot of laughs (Which I think it gives me more laughs than Osomatsu-san sometimes).

They definitely improved this season with a lot of things, new characters, extended runtime which they really listened, and G11 now speaks. The first season will always be iconic, but I definitely think this season is beyond better.

However, as much as I loved this season, that is until I watched episode 12 where right before watching it, I just realized we had come this far until the very end of the season, time went flying so fast I felt like this season ended way too soon. Even if the season had a longer runtime for episodes, but for some reason it kinda feels like it didn’t do anything to me. I was pretty confused with M16′s character throughout that episode as well.

Then there was this teaser with 6P62 in episode 8. Was this supposed to mean something or did they just randomly threw this scene out of nowhere?

This finale doesn’t ruin the season overall, like I said, it improves the first season and I had plenty of laughs, but I need to process this. Once I watch the Japanese, I’ll probably get a better impression of it, and yes, the Japanese dub is indeed happening. It is coming in Spring 2021 as well, I wish it would come out in January 2021, like how the first season in Chinese dub started in late July 2019 and then the Japanese dub came out in my birthday, October 4th, I actually saw this coming but I guess the Spring 2021 release is fine, I suppose.

Despite the somewhat weak ending, I repeat, I still think this is absolutely better than the first season.

With the trend of wasting new characters in comedy shows, I absolutely award Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2 as the one new comedy season that absolutely did not waste new characters like DEFY and Sangvis Ferri! 🏆

Surprisingly there was no surprise Madness Chapter season 2 or anything, which it’s for the best and I guess that’s just to show how that series wasn’t as popular as Healing Chapter, even though it’s supposed to be like an adaptation of the game’s 4koma, but the animation is so cheap and people prefer the more wholesome series like Healing Chapter, which is probably why it’s so popular.

(Although I kinda wish they picked Architect from the villain roster, I like Architect more than pretty much every Sangvis character. Although I guess Hunter, Executioner and Scarecrow are like the most popular characters or they’re important to the story? I don’t know, I just like Architect because she’s cuter)

Hoping for season 3 if the Healing Chapter series continues to grow popular and hopefully the 6P62 teaser can be paid off.

Burn the Witch: I’m still surprised how this adaptation came out shortly after the manga serialization was launched, which means it was on the work for some time, did Tite Kubo give the animators his drafts or early copies of the three chapters of the manga serialization early before it come out or something?!

Anyways, it was quite a great adaptation, I liked it, the animation was clean, I like the performances, etc. Although I do wish they should have adapted the one-shot instead since it’s pretty much the prologue of the story, although one-shots usually aren’t what the actual stories supposed to be, it’s kind of like a prototype of sorts, but this wasn’t a prototype at all, but oh well.

Golden Kamuy season 3: Around November 1st, I randomly read through all my previous Tumblr posts and even talking things out about my retrospective thoughts in stuff I reviewed (Some hold up, some don’t), with the first two seasons of Golden Kamuy, I gave it a B- overall because I was kinda spoiled with some of the hate around it and gratuitously CG animals, but retroactively, it’s still a very good series, the action, the worldbuilding, the characters and especially the bizarre humor are the best part.

Although to be honest, I like the storyline from the first two seasons better, but I’m glad things have turned out well in the end this season.

Munou na Nana: For a show that came out on my birthday, I guess this was alright overall, when I watched the first episode, I was quite surprised with the twist and that’s pretty much what the entire series is. Still, I wasn’t highly impressed, but it was alright at best. Like, I think it was best worth watching the premiere on my birthday, otherwise I wouldn’t be committed on watching the entire series because I usually drop anime that don’t convince me on my birthday.

At first I thought Rena from Higurashi and Nana would be a cute but deadly waifu combo, which they still are but I prefer Rena over Nana because I’m not pretty sure about her as a character before, she’s quite smart but I definitely wouldn’t cross paths with her ever, she at least had some hilarious faces throughout the series too. That is until the last few episodes is where I’m starting to like Nana now?

There’s another thing I liked about the series is that how earlier episodes were character focused, like dedicated to Nana’s victims before Nana kills them, later episodes have become more serialized or something.

Probably the worst thing I can come up with (And I seriously wish anyone else, especially anime journalist sites, the journalists themselves or normies would say this), is that Munou na Nana is basically Among Us the anime. Kyoya always sus’d Nana, and Nana was the Impostor all along. Pink is hella sus. (Yeah, this is stupid, moving on) But then, the final episode came out and... it ended... in quite a shocking fashion, and this is probably the best episode in the series.

If there’s one thing I have to complaint about this series, is that the official Funimation subtitles can be cringey and don’t make sense with what the characters actually say sometimes, what the hell were the official subbers thinking? I wouldn’t rewatch the series but I’m sure fansubbers would do a much better job with the writing in the Blu-Ray rips.

But then, the final episode came out and... it ended... in quite a shocking fashion, and in my opinion this is probably the best episode in the series, although even if I liked the episode very much now after watching it, there are some things I was pretty confused by, but whatever. Now this episode for sure makes me think about the series in retrospect, probably not the best anime to come out in my birthday, the first most of it was decent but this episode delivered quite a punch!

First the series started in a shocking fashion which I had no expectations for the series at the time, now the series ended in a shocking fashion. Who would have thought?

Danmachi season 3: Throughout the middle of the season, I thought this would be my least favorite storyline of the series ever, but I think it turned out pretty good in the end, I usually like beginnings than climaxes. I kinda felt similarly with Golden Kamuy as mentioned above, but both have solid climaxes.

Call me crazy, but I feel like Danmachi doesn’t feel as relevant as it used to be back when the first season came out and it was quite memed a lot, particularly with Hestia’s boob ribbon and the tooth brushing from the opening or something, those were the good old days.

Although I do admire how we’ve come this far with quite a lot of Danmachi anime over the last 5 years, from the first season in 2015, the Sword Oratoria spin-off in 2017, last year’s season 2 and now season 3. There’s this two year pattern but season 3 this year feels different.

Toji no Miko Tomishibi: On November 1st (Día de los Muertos), before watching the latest episode of Munou na Nana (or Talentless Nana as I called the series in the previous post), I knew I was definitely gonna forget about the first part of the OVA, so I watched the first part of the OVA after watching Munou na Nana and I guess it was okay, not really great but not bad either, but there was one thing I immediately noticed is that the character designs in the OVA look completely different than the TV series.

Before (TV series):

After (OVA):

The OVA character designs look a lot less like Yoshinori Shizuma’s art style like the TV series replicated. That is probably because the OVA was made by a different studio than the TV series. The TV series was made by Studio Gokumi and the OVA was made by Project No.9.

But even if they’re both made by different studios, part of the visuals kind of look similar in a way or something? I also noticed the Aradama aren’t CG in the OVA like in the TV series.

I was happy to see Kanami and Hiyori in the OVAs too, I always liked them better than pretty much everyone else, especially the characters from the mobile game which are the main stars here who are my least favorites, so I guess there are some characters I like in a series I’m otherwise lukewarm with.

The second part, however... It didn’t do much service to me, as the animation has gotten really horrible, the writing was terrible (And no, I’m talking about the subs, I’m talking about actual writing), and even if this served as the finale of the OVA, the pacing felt way fast for it being the last half of the OVA.

I’m not sure I should hope for more Toji no Miko anime in the future, I really hope this should be the last and never hear about Toji no Miko again.

Guraburu: This is probably the blandest Cygames adaptation yet. I mean, sure, you could say that it’s nowhere near bad (Same with Princess Connect Re:Dive), but for some reason this series wasn’t really that funny for me, definitely the worst comedy of the season when we have great ones like Osomatsu-san and Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter. I think the Guranburu 4koma work best when they’re just still images, making an anime out of this just doesn’t work.

Then there’s the animation, I’m very conflicted with it. On one hand, it tries to replicate the art style of the 4koma very well, but when it comes to the motion, it just looks very cheap, almost as if it was animated on Flash, it’s kind of like Queen Bee tier animation. Even gacha 4koma adaptations like FGO’s Manga de Wakaru is does absolute justice to the art, it's hilarious and it's very pleasing to look at.

The subtitles writing can also be a little weird as well, though probably not as god awful as Munou na Nana can get, right? (No wonder people say dubs are usually better written, but I couldn’t care less about dubs in general)

As for the comedy, sometimes it was funny, but I wasn’t really impressed, I don’t think this is a case of “comedy is subjective” (or might be), if the animation were better, I would have laughed along with the jokes.

If you want better examples of anime adaptations based on gacha games’ 4koma, just watch FGO’s Manga de Wakaru instead, like I previously mentioned, and then the upcoming Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin (If you’re one of those people who hate Azur Lane: The Animation which I hope you’re not).

This was me throughout the series...

(Although this and Lyria’s “See? You just said something nonsensical.” are the only good moments I liked which these make for good reaction images from a series I find otherwise bland.)

I just realized I haven’t put any anime I didn’t like or hated in D or E, so this might as well be the first and ONLY anime of 2020 being D tier! Congratulations! We’ve finally found a bad anime of the year that’s D or E-tier worthy for once! I’m impressed, most of the anime I watched this year aren’t really all god awful compared to last year, all the anime I watched, even the ones that let me down and downright disliked weren’t all god awful, so this year turned out quite a blessing in disguise with my anime experience for an otherwise terrible year for literally everything.

Honorable mentions

Attack on Titan: The Final Season: As of the publishing of this post, we’re literally four episodes into the season and I’d hardly call this as an AOTS in 2020, as the tier on my TierMaker image suggests, this gonna be more like the Best Anime of 2021, there’s no way after four episodes, this season should immediately be AOTY material, or who knows.

There’s one thing I forgot to mention in the previous post and that is the surprising studio change from Studio WIT to MAPPA, at first when I saw the poster of the season, I was very skeptical and confused as to why did they change studios from WIT to MAPPA, before I even noticed the trailer was actually there when this was announced, I was very skeptical, then I saw the trailer and I thought I was impressed, it seemed on par with what WIT did, but upon watching the actual first episode in fullscreen this time, I think it looks alright but it’s got some good parts so far like the rotoscope animation. Some of the character designs look a bit different too, but I don’t know if it’s just me. I just hope it’s not a repeat of One Punch Man season 2 where JC Staff did a horrible job and ended up being my #2 worst AOTY 2019 just for the animation quality alone. That’s not to say I’m shitting on MAPPA just yet, let’s wait until the very end so I can get a better judge of what’s the animation to come.

And then in episode 2, there were flashbacks from the previous seasons with the WIT animation. I think I’ve come at a point where I really started to get fed up with this trend. It’s not just lazy copy and pasting scenes from previous seasons, but it’s just really heartbreaking seeing those clips of the previous seasons done by better studios compared to the actual season we’re watching done by another studio.

The OP and ED are absolute bangers too. As for the OP, it’s still not Linked Horizon but it sounds good, and I love how it has now being parodied to death with footage from World War and even one of 2020. The ED is pretty good too and that one’s actually released in full first, sometimes I listen either the OP or the ED quite a lot Oh, and I found out the band that did the OP made... This. Uh... Okay... (Before you complaint, I don’t think it’s a bad song, but the backstory behind it just makes me feel uncomfortable. Oh and they did the ED theme for season 2 which I didn’t even know and forgot about the song)

The most shocking part is, from what I heard, this season is going to be 16 episodes long. I mean, it sounds a little better than 13 episodes like season 2, but is that even going to be enough considering the manga is nearly about to end? It should end pretty soon but the final season of the anime is ending in March and who knows if by that time the manga would have ended and who knows if MAPPA will be able to catch up by adapting this season with JUST 16 episodes, or they would probably end up making movies that cover the manga’s finale, I DON’T KNOW!

So far MAPPA’s animation has been okay for me, it can be a bit of hit or miss but they’re doing an alright job, but of course, WIT will always be the best, althugh sometimes even seasons 2 and 3 can get a little stale, but WIT will always be better. They pretty much worked hard into the series and lately they’ve been working in a lot of projects, so it must have been very difficult if they were able to work on AoT The Final Season and everything else all at once. Thank you WIT.

Fire Force season 2: After two seasons, Fire Foce is one of the best and worst works David Production has ever done. My thoughts into the story and stuff goes the same if I were to read the manga, I like the story, the worldbuilding, etc. But my biggest criticism in the anime’s part is the animation, sometimes even in the second season can still be a bit slow and poorly paced, but at least it’s not as dreadful as the first season, but even so, there’s still some great sakuga moments.

With that being said about the animation, I hope this doesn’t affect David Productions in the future, such as the upcoming second seasons of Cells at Work and potentially the JoJo Stone Ocean anime. (And whatever else David Production makes but honestly I don’t give a shit)

Hmmm, I feel like I’m missing something, oh yeah, what about the Dragon’s Dogma anime? Well, I wasn’t interested on wanting to watch it. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it would be shitty, even from hardcore Dragon’s Dogma players.

Arknights Holy Knight Light: This was quite the most surprising thing ever to come out of the 1st anniversary livestreams from the Japanese and English Arknights YouTube channels, the first time I started watching it, I couldn’t help but fanboy out of this with what was happening, this OVA is worth rewatching a billion times as a New Year movie!

Since I don’t have time or not planning to add this into my actual tier lists, might as well say that this is definitely S tier!

(This last honorable mentionis more like a last minute addition since I had planned to publish this post this Sunday, the 27th, which you’re probably reading now. This was written on the 26th.)

Anyways, let’s get into the most anticipated releases of Winter 2021!

Anticipated anime of Winter 2021

Note that I’m not talking about my anticipated anime of 2021 overall, as I’ll be discussing that in the next post which is my New Year 2020 review, so for now, let’s talk about the Winter 2021 releases!

Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin - January 11th: Over the course of this 2020 after the finale episodes came out, I became extremely bummed out and spoiled on the fact that a lot of people (Especially the Western Azur Lane community) absolutely HATE Azur Lane: The Animation. I mean, sure, the animation kinda got bad at times but that doesn’t make it automatically trash, and neither should the story (Which I think the animation is more troublesome than the story).

I of course had always known Azur Lane The Animation might be hated, at least from the Western community, from the day it was first broadcast, I’ve seen nothing but praise from the Japanese community, and it was going that way for the entire series, that’s what I always relied on and it has beared with me until I started talking to the official Discord server about it and it was quite a shitstorm.

I could go on and on with ranting about why Azur Lane The Animation isn’t garbage for billions of times, over and over, from the many references from the game to fan service at its absolute best. especially that they actually featured official Azur Lane nudity in the Blu-Rays, and speaking of the Blu-Rays, they offered very cool costumes. You might say having exclusive costumes in the Blu-Rays would scream ALTA being a cash grab, shut up, it’s not, people of course religiously buy the Blu-Rays for whatever purpose. Shit animation my ass! Shit characterization my ass! Shit story my ass! Identity crisis my ass! Fuck everyone whoever talks shit about Azur Lane The Animation and even if I were to forget about it for a while, I’m bound to come across someone who’s gonna be like “Azur Lane has an anime too but it’s shit,” and I’m gonna yell at their asses off!

After making animated trailers, not only for Azur Lane but even Arknights too, this is the first major TV series release from Yostar’s new animation studio, Yostar Pictures, but they won’t operate alone, so they’re collaboration with another studio known as CANDY BOX. which seems to be a relatively new studio, but this isn’t the first time Yostar Pictures is collaborating with another studio, they also work with Madhouse for some trailers, including trailer for the third anniversary as well as the Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation collab trailer. YOSTAR PICTURES COLLABORATING WITH MADHOUSE, HOW COOL IS THAT?! THAT’S A DREAM TEAM FROM STUDIOS I LIKE!

Imagine if Azur Lane The Animation would get a second season (Dear god, please do. I loved this season more than anything, fuck what people say) that is animated in the same style as these trailers, the series could recover and it would be redeemed for the Western community (I may jinx this one out since I said the same thing with the very first animated commercial made by Sunrise, and then ALTAS was animated by Bibury Animation Studio, I’m not really disappointed, though).

What if an Arknights series from Yostar Pictures x Madhouse too? That would be amazing and they even teased about it. Actually, around this Christmas when the first anniversary livestreams were happening, they actually released an OVA which is sort of New Year-themed at the end BUT IT’S SO COOL, I’M GOING TO BE REWATCHING THIS A BILLION TIMES!

Anyways, I’m sorry for going off topic with Azur Lane The Animation instead of what I was supposed to be talking about, Bisoku Zenshin.

It’s been like 2 years since I started following the series, mainly on the Japanese Azur Lane Twitter account and I can’t remember what were the first chapters even like, the only things I remember is this one chapter where Takao actually having animal ears. 2 years later, the English Azur Lane Twitter account is finally catching up with English translations of the 4koma, but the problem is that it’s 2 years and so many chapters behind from JP, going from the first chapter, it may or may not help me remember what were the first chapters like and hopefully they’ll be adapted in the series, I probably should pay attention.

Although from what I’ve seen in the trailers and the character reveals which so far they revealed Formidable, Baltimore, Spee, etc, I’m not really sure if this series is going to actually adapt the 4koma from the very beginning, well, I don’t remember what were the first chapters like, so hopefully once I start seeing the series and try to find the first few chapters, this can be a faithful adaptation. Although, honestly, I wouldn’t mind if this were an original story using the same foundation, I just want to watch more Azur Lane anime with whatever stories they can come up with.

Cells at Work! season 2 and Cells at Work! BLACK - January 9th: What’s better than having a second season of Cells at Work and have an adaptation of the spin-off, Cells at Work BLACK? HAVE BOTH OF THEM AIRED BACK-TO-BACK IN ONE HOUR! That is such a perfect way to celebrate the series with a new season and spin-off! It kinda reminds me of the good old days when I used to watch Danganronpa 3 Hope and Despair Arcs almost simultaneously, just with two days apart, but with Cells at Work and BLACK, we’re getting ONE HOUR!

As previously mentioned in Fire Force season 2, I really hope David Production can keep their shit together with the animation in future shows, most specifically Cells at Work season 2. I’m not animation expert but I’m sure it’ll be pretty much the exact same team of animators who did the first season, so I really hope the series won’t have a very deteriorating tone and direction like Fire Force suffered so badly in the first season last year.

With Cells at Work BLACK, if you haven’t guessed from the title, this is a darker spin-off of the vanilla Cells at Work series. The vanilla series is already violent but it keeps a light spirited tone, BLACK, however, is downright edgy. We’re having quite the Ying and Yang of two series. I’m surprised that David Production isn’t doing BLACK like the vanilla series, although I think it’s for the better because they’ve been working on other stuff like JoJo and Fire Force, and with this different studio doing BLACK, I’m impressed with how the visuals look so far.

And female White Blood Cell is cute.

Quintessential Quintuplets season 2 - January 7th: I’m surprised how long it has been for season 2 to come out, at first I thought it would come out this Winter 2020 but nothing came out of it and I was already thinking it would have been delayed, then a few months later we finally got some info but the most surprising thing is that they actually changed studios to Bibury Animation Studio.

Given that this is Bibury Animation Studio, the same one that did Azur Lane The Animation, like I previously mentioned in Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin, PLEASE GIVE BIBURY A CHANCE! THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!

When I looked at the visuals and looking at the character trailers, it actually looks quite promising, the first season wasn’t visually the best, so this has potential.

Project Scard: Scar on the Praeter - January 8th: Actually, this 2021, GoHands is going to release two TV series, this first one being an original anime series, and the second one which was supposed to be for April being Tokyo Babylon, an adaptation of CLAMP’s manga series of the same name. Tokyo Babylon was delayed until further notice because apparently costume designs were referenced without permission, that is such an outlandish reason. Besides, what kind of costume references? And permission from who or what? So vague. I could have gotten two GoHands shows in two seasons in a row!

Anyway, let’s first talk about Project Scard which that’s what it’s gonna come out first. I’m happy to see that GoHands is doing more original series, but there’s a problem: This one is apparently not related to Hand Shakers at all!

And no, this is not a case of misleading marketing with the trailers tricking me this could still be secretly a sequel of Hand Shakers like W’z did (Although I don’t think I payed attention to the W’z trailers at all until I started watching the series), I definitely see this series entirely standalone for once based on the characters and the setting, which I’m very disappointed that this isn’t a threequel to Hand Shakers. Everyone hated Hand Shakers and W’z was GoHands’ EXTREMELY worst selling anime, I really loved the series and I liked their stories, the world had so much potential!

Anyways, I may be sad this isn’t a new Hand Shakers entry, I should at least enjoy this series for what it is, not everyone’s going to like this one for sure since the animation is more akin to Hand Shakers, which would turn many people off.

With what I said about Bibury Animation Studio with Quintuplets S2, people should also give GoHands a chance! THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!!!

I’m honestly feeling more excited about Tokyo Bablyon than this, but we’ll get into more details in the New Year post.

Bungou Stray Dogs Wan! - January 12th: There may not be a new season of the main series as of late, but an adaptation of a chibi spin-off is quite surprising, since I really like Bungou Stray Dogs, I’m of course watching this!

(Now that I think about it, I don’t really think Bungou Stray Dogs a huge part of my life... 🤔)

Promised Neverland season 2 - January 7th: With the manga now ended a few months ago, should we expect future seasons so they would adapt the finale?

Beastars season 2 - January 5th: I always victimize Beastars when criticizing Sanzigen’s syndrome of having hand drawn background characters (Even D4DJ was so close on breaking the syndrome, it has CG background characters but there’s still some minor characters that are still hand drawn, the most baffling part is the main characters when they were kids), but that aside, it doesn’t really affect the story or anything, just ranting.

Yuru Camp season 2 - January 7th: I literally forgot the spin-off series, Heya Camp, existed, and since that one was a short series, I feel like it wasn’t enough, so it’s finally time for season 2 to come out!

I also forgot about the movie, so maybe once season 2 ends, there might be some info on it?

Re:Zero season 2 second cour - January 6th: It hasn’t been long but it still feels weird having to wait a while for the next part of the season, at least it’s not in production that would take forever like Magia Record.

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars - January 14th: A few months ago, I randomly watched a couple of episodes of Dr. Stone, but on the night of December 6th, I have decided to start binging the first season, then I finished it and... WHY DID I SLEEP ON IT IN 2019?! THIS IS GREAT! I was already impressed by the 3 episodes I randomly watched at some point, but after watching the series fully, I couldn’t be more impressed than ever, it’s making me feel like the time I binged Shield Hero and I was just as amazed (which lead to the disappointment of Isekai Quartet 2 wasting the Shield Hero characters hard).

That is it for my Fall 2020 review as well as my anticipated anime of 2021!

Final thoughts on 2020 in anime

I want to give my final thoughts on this overall year in anime: As previously mentioned, I was absolutely impressed that there was almost not a single anime I didn’t like that I would consider D or E, even for a year that has done me more harm than good, this year has delivered quite a lot of good anime, even if some of them disappointed me. BUT! Want to know what are my top anime of the year? You’ll have to find out in the New Year post to see what are my contenders!

Check out my Carrd.

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all-good-things-dot-dot-dot · 4 years ago

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All Good Things… The Good With the Bad.

All Good Things… The Good With the Bad. #Blog #Bloggerstribe #AllGoodThings… 24th June 2020 Hello, Chaps and Chapettes,

(Source: https://www.keengamer.com/articles/guides/list-of-common-fallout-4-pc-errors-and-how-to-fix-them/ ) It might have seemed like I stopped for a little bit there, huh? In actual fact, I have still been writing, but more or less in the background rather than doing a full-on post like this. Does that mean I’ve been “neglecting my duties” or “forgetting the challenge” I set myself to write for thirty minutes a day? Well, sort of. I cannot lie. Let’s see if we can analyze what happened here and correct the error, shall we? The main hiccup was actually on Friday where I did not write anything at all. I did end up writing that blog on Saturday and followed it up with the actual Saturday blog which I wrote and posted on Sunday, but by then I was already going back on several guidelines that I’d set myself. The first was to ensure that I wrote thirty minutes a day, this was missed on Friday, and the second was to have a break on Sunday.

I’ll come back to Friday in a bit and how I’ll resolve that in the future but I also want to talk about why Monday and Tuesday also didn’t happen. Monday was an oddly exhausting day. The heat has been creeping up this week, today being the hottest so far, but Monday was still cool. I had to take a nap after work and then when I did sit down to write, what I wanted to write was not one of these. Instead, I wanted to work on “Scoundrels”, a story about colorful ponies living in apocalyptic times. They swear, take drugs, shoot guns, it’s fun to write. The reason I wanted to write that, was because on Tuesday I attended an online workshop by a fellow writer who goes by the codename “Somber”. I know there’s non-bronies who read this on my Tumblr so, to summarise, they wrote a particularly famous FanFiction called “Fallout Equestria; Project Horizons”, millions of peeps have read it. It’s also a spin-off from an equally successful story called “Fallout: Equestria” (written by another fanfiction writer, KKat). Somber has a background teaching English so a class on Creative Writing was practically extra studies for my university course!

(Art by me, see https://derpibooru.org/images/2200843 )

The workshop was brilliant. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to workshop my story as we ran out of time but I didn’t feel too down about this. I made friends with a few other fellow writers and so could happily learn and share ideas with them. This ran on quite late and by the time it had ended, the clock was telling me I wouldn’t wake up for work if I didn’t attempt to sleep. That, neatly, leads me to today. As you can see, although I’ve had a busy day of work, walking to and from the shops and watching “Game Night” with my brother, I still managed to find the time to write this. That’s because tonight I had the time. That’s important. Friday, the time wasn’t there. I had to be there for a friend who was in need and since my chat, I have it on good authority that their life is looking up. Sunday was father’s day and I wanted to see both dad and stepdad, which I accomplished. Both men had a great day and felt loved, which was another mission accomplished. Sunday night was blitzed by a migraine and it took two paracetamol two hours to put those fires in my brain out. Monday, as said, was a very tiring day. But I also spent time writing something, even if it wasn’t this. So there was still something completed by the close of the day. Tuesday, there was work, I had my mother pop over for something, I had to cook dinner, and despite all of this still managed to make Somber’s workshop and find writing allies. Do you see where I’m going with this? Basically, just because you don’t get done what you wanted to do, do not look at it as a wasted day. Even a rest day is a success, so long as it is used to let you prepare for some harder work ahead. You are not failing if you didn’t hit that word count, or forgot to do something you wanted to do, or missed that walk to slim down the spare tractor tyre your gut has become. Even little accomplishments are still a win in the grand scheme of things and believe me they make all the difference. And sometimes, if someone you know, care about, or love is in need of you, then you should down tools to help them. Let me reiterate that it should be somebody you care about or at least someone who will return the favor along the line. There are people, even family, who can be a drain on your time, resources, and energy. I learned that the hard way last week (see my blog about bullies). Follow your head in these instances, especially if it is aligned with your heart. Most of all, I want you to take this away with you. Did you wake up today? Do you know how many didn’t get out of bed? Pulled a sickie? Or gave up? You didn’t so in that sense you’re already winning. Now go treat yourself to some cake, champ, you earned it. Stay safe, stay happy. All good things, Love, Scaramouche. X Oh, eerrrr, still here? Okay, let me square with you. Thirty mins just ran out but I wanted to include this; I am writing a spin-off of that “Fallout: Equestria,” series too, as I mentioned, called “Scoundrels”. I did have a lot of the story already up in my FIMFiction library, but I have unpublished it. Here are my reasons; I didn’t like how confusing it was. It felt like it started in the middle of a story. I had made choices as a writer that took the story in some strange directions. I made the plot too complicated. I made some of the good characters unlikeable. I made it too long while not much/ too much happened. So, I am holding onto what I wrote. I want to rewrite it, so that story that you may or may not have read does still exist and isn’t a waste of time, it just needs surgery. When it’s ready, you’ll be able to see it again. Until then, here’s a sneak peek at “Scoundrels”, the ponies of the apocalypse story I will be writing, have edited and polished before I publish it as fanfiction. Enjoy!

(Artist: Brainiac - see https://derpibooru.org/profiles/Brainiac ) ~ Scoundrels Written by Scaramouche “War,” a voice, masculine and gravelly, haunted my hangover. “War never changes.” It wasn’t much, but it was enough to stir me from where I’d attempted to make my early grave. My snout had the telltale feeling you got when you accidentally snorted water while submerged in a pool... Or hit too much Dash. I pushed my hooves out around me before my eyes were able to open and felt tiny canisters rattle away from me wherever I moved. My ribs hurt, telling me I hadn’t found a nice or even barely comfortable place to flop. The information fed back to me from all my senses came to the conclusion that I’d bucked up again. Daring to wake, I cracked my eyes open for as long as I could muster and fluttered the lids ‘til I could make out the shapes of a flickering square of light in the night-time room. Black and white images flashed through the screen of ponies dressed in armor and uniforms, those in the foreground attempting an escape with their wounded while the “best and bravest” continued to fight, to injure, to die. The image changed to Wonderbolts tearing over a coal cloud that once belonged to a shining city. I realized it was Manehattan, the place I’d hailed from. I knew from the shadow of a building topped with a huge pony head choking on the fumes. The Pegasi just seemed like haunting crows over that havoc. After the Manehattan skyline lingered for a few seconds, it switched to a shot taken behind ponies hiding from the invisible foe in a shady tunnel. Their silhouettes were huddled and perpetually expecting the worst of what was to come. Image after image along with the low, tedious voice seemed to mingle with the throbbing headache I’d gained. It reminded me that as gloomy as these images were, they were only the precursor for the apocalyptic times that came after them. I watched, laid lazily on my side among spent stims I’d used to forget the woes of the new world. I couldn’t help thinking that those dumb saps who had lived nearly a hundred years ago never knew how lucky they were. They could still trust the folks either side of them and that was more than could be said for most ponies this side of a century. “... But out of the devastation that arose from the wars, a few were able to reach stables that could house and shield them underground.” The narrator of the scenes kept going with his spiel regardless of whether I was listening or not. I looked about, but it quickly became apparent to me that the voice was just that. A recording from a stallion no doubts long gone now. There was nopony else in the place but for me that I could see. Nonetheless, he persisted. “Your family was part of that group and took refuge in Stable Thirteen.” On-screen, a snap of the giant cog that had once locked up this subterranean vault could be seen. “No, they weren’t, pal,” I grouched, squinting about the area still while battling with some persistently annoying amber locks of mane in my eyes. Something in this place was still trying to live, based on the squealing of a harmed fan spinning in the walls. Thanks to the projection lamp, I could see the tiles that dripped from the ceilings as age and erosion pulled them down. Wires knotted into nooses hung out from the ceiling gaps. Across dirty, rusted floors, the corpses of chairs lay on their sides and backs, stricken by the last unknown executions that had taken place here. Near me and my graveyard of used drug containers, a card crate lay on its side in a beaten state. “You are the first generation born in this stable to have not known the-the-the--” Apparently, I still wasn’t to know what “the” was. Above me, the box that had created this depressing light and sound show for me fizzed, crackled, sparked, then died. All light failed and draped a veil casually over me and space. Yet, this wasn’t as terrifying to me as might have been to somepony else. I sighed, relaxed, and let the gentle black patch encourage my head to heal. The festering stable was dead, the complaining sounds of the vents now a memory, and it was good. It was calming. I could maybe forget everything and fall back into a graceful slumber with it. After all, a ship in the harbor is a ship that’s safe... Of course, fate intervened. “Breeze! Breeze, where are you?” The voice was distant, but it was growing closer. “Gypsy Breeze, I swear on the spirit of Celestia, if you don’t get your ass into gear…” Fresh, battery-powered light began to dawn around the edges of the forever-open doorway into the corridors, confirming that the calling, living voice wasn’t far from finding me. “Buck,” I grunted to myself and pushed back the pain sloshing side to side in my cranium. I had to get myself up before they found me and the evidence littered around me. My legs complained but lifted me, allowing me to stand and let my brain cease paddling about in my skull. I swung a hoof out, brought it down, then my face immediately met the oxidized floor once more as a giggling Dash inhaler tripped me and twirled away. “Breeze?” They’d heard my tumble. “Buck,” I hissed painfully and scrambled back up, firing up a spell. I knew the caller in the halls would see the light but hoped I’d be quick enough. Despite the magic throbbing behind my junked-out eyes, I gathered all the emptied Dash I could see in the enchanted light. Catching as many as I could levitate, I shoved them into the deteriorated box, managing to slip the last of them away when a blinding orb swung through the door. I covered my bleary eyes and snarled out at a feeling only a vampire pony in the baking sun would understand. “Gypsy!” The dazzling sprite squeaked. “That’s my name— Buck, Hayfever, could you drop the light of that thing? My bucking eyes are about to explode…” mercifully, the beam lowered to ground level, allowing me to partially see the mare I knew behind it. Her sunset orange wings were spread in preparation to once more admonish me while the expression on the pegasus remained concerned. “You split from me again, Breeze. Ottawa said this stable is particularly dangerous, we shouldn’t be going off alone when--” “Ottawa was wrong,” I skulked somehow towards the door and waved my hoof back the way she’d come from. “I caught a terminal back up that way and… I dunno, something about the water talisman failing? Either way, the pony meant to fix it shuffled out the main door, and never came back. After that, the rest of the dwellers overthrew the overstallion and let themselves out of their own accord. Probably likely that nopony’s been here since.” If I’d have sounded more sure of myself in that last comment, I might not have seen doubt spread across her freckled, gold-lit face. “No, somepony has been here before us,” she suggested, “I found the mattresses pulled out of their rooms and laid together in the atrium. There was waste and broken gear that could only have come from outside too. Could be scavs, could be raiders, either way, we don’t want to take our chances.” “It could have easily been the Stable Thirteen ponies too,” I countered, “especially if they were going back and forth in and out of here, not wanting to--” I interrupted myself, as a false step kicked something, which ricocheted off of the metal wall and swirled unfortunately into the light of Hayfever’s torch. It only took her a second to realize what it was and I was already cringing guiltily when the light raised back accusingly at me. “Gypsy Breeze, you silly mare,” she scolded as well as any experienced mother could, “Using? Again? I thought you were beating this.” “It’s not mine,” I played the part of a lying teenager as best as I could, “it’s from those raiders you were bitching about--” “Oh, so now we believe in the raiders?” She had another quick examination of the inhaler and sighed, ruffling her wings in irritation as she walked past me, ensuring her hoofsteps echoed her annoyance. “When I agreed to hide your troubles from the rest of Helping Hooves, it was on the promise that you were going to make an effort to quit from them. Not so that you could privately indulge in the stuff.” She collected my saddlebag, discarded on a spineless chair, and was about to toss it to me when she had second thoughts. At my protests, she flipped the flap open first and rifled through up, digging out what she had expected to find almost instantly. Five more full inhalators of Dash were plucked out and tossed into the void of the room before she was comfortable returning my near-empty sack to me. “I’m not doing it to be an ass to you, Gypsy,” she said as I mournfully took the bag and slipped it back on. “As mayor of Helping Hooves I have a duty to look out for everypony and that includes you. But if you’re going to endanger lives this way, I’ll have no choice but…” I waited for what kind of penalty she’d place on me. Yet, all she could do was gaze at me, not mad, just disappointed. I gave a low groan, both out of the pain of coming down and the guilt of letting down a mare who was just looking out for my best interests. “Can we just get out of here?” I pleaded, “the air in here is making me feel sick.” “You sure it’s just the air?” She thrust a hoof forward, directing me on the way to head next. “But you’re right. Let’s just get the spark batteries Ottawa needs and high-tail it out of here…” To be continued...

(Source: https://thegeek.games/2020/03/24/fallout-3-war-war-never-changes-retro-2008/ )

#fallout #blog #writing #challenge #brony #equestria #my little pony #friendship #new vegas

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