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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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HBO Max New Releases:. July 2021

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LeBron James might be out of the NBA playoffs, but he’s still angling to be a big part of the summer entertainment season. That’s because HBO Max’s list of new releases for July 2021 is highlighted by a very special sequel.

Space Jam: A New Legacy premieres on July 16. will find LeBron teaming up with the Looney Tunes in a Warner Bros. IP-extravaganza. Can ‘Bron and the Looney Tunes beat the Goon Squad before Warner Bros.’ server steals LeBron “Bronny” Jr.’s soul (or something)? Let’s hope so. The two other major WB releases this month, No Sudden Move and Tom and Jerry in New York, both come to HBO Max on July 1.

HBO Max is also bringing some fun TV shows to its stream this month. The long-awaited Gossip Girl revival premieres on July 8. That will be followed by Mike White’s satirical limited series The White Lotus on July 11. Ronan Farrow’s excellent book Catch and Kill gets a docuseries adaptation on July 12.

July 1 will see the arrival of library titles like Planet of the Apes, Reservoir Dogs, and Scream. Recent hit Judas and the Black Messiah comes to HBO Max on that date as well. It’s a good month for geek TV with the Doctor Who 2020 Christmas Special (July 1), Nancy Drew season 2 (July 3), and Batwoman season 2 (July 27) all coming home to their streaming residence.

HBO Max New Releases – July 2021

TBA FBOY Island, Max Original Season 1 Premiere Romeo Santos: King of Bachata, 2021 (HBO) Romeo Santos Utopia Live from MetLife Stadium, 2021 (HBO)

July 1 ¡Come! (aka Eat!), 2020 8 Mile, 2002 (HBO) All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, 1996 (HBO) All Dogs Go to Heaven, 1989 (HBO) Behind Enemy Lines, 1997 (HBO) Beneath the Planet of the Apes, 1970 (HBO) Bio-Dome, 1996 (HBO) Black Panthers, 1968 Blackhat, 2015 (HBO) Brubaker, 1980 (HBO) Cantinflas (HBO) Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, 1972 (Extended Version) (HBO) Cousins, 1989 (HBO) Dark Water, 2005 (HBO) Darkness Falls, 2003 (HBO) Demolition Man, 1993 Dirty Work, 1998 (HBO) Disturbia, 2007 (HBO) Doctor Who Holiday 2020 Special: Revolution of the Daleks, 2020 Duplex, 2003 (HBO) Escape from the Planet of the Apes, 1971 (HBO) Eve’s Bayou, 1997 Firestarter, 1984 (HBO) First, 2012 For Colored Girls, 2010 (HBO) For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada, 2012 (HBO) Full Bloom, Max Original Season 2 Finale Ghost in the Machine, 1993 (HBO) The Good Lie, 2014 (HBO) Gun Crazy, 1950 House on Haunted Hill, 1999 Identity Thief, 2013 (Extended Version) (HBO) Ira & Abby, 2007 (HBO) Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990 Judas and the Black Messiah, 2021 (HBO) Laws Of Attraction, 2004 (HBO) Lucky, 2017 (HBO) Maid in Manhattan, 2002 Married to the Mob, 1988 (HBO) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997 Mississippi Burning, 1988 (HBO) Monster-In-Law, 2005 Mousehunt, 1997 (HBO) My Brother Luca (HBO) No Sudden Move Pleasantville, 1998 The Prince of Tides, 1991 Project X, 1987 (HBO) The Punisher, 2017 (HBO) Punisher: War Zone, 2008 (HBO) Rambo, 2008 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Reds, 1981 (HBO) Reservoir Dogs, 1992 (HBO) The Return of the Living Dead, 1985 (HBO) Return of the Living Dead III, 1993 (Extended Version) (HBO) Rounders, 1998 (HBO) Saturday Night Fever, 1977 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Scream, 1996 Scream 2, 1997 Scream 3, 2000 Semi-Tough, 1977 (HBO) The Sessions, 2012 (HBO) Set Up, 2012 (HBO) Snake Eyes, 1998 (HBO) Staying Alive, 1983 (HBO) Stuart Little, 1999 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 2003 Tom and Jerry in New York, Max Original Series Premiere Trick ‘R Treat, 2009 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, 2007 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman, 2005 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself, 2009 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail, 2009 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, 2011 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, 2006 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too, 2010 (HBO) The Watcher, 2016 (HBO) The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, 2007 (HBO) Westworld (Movie), 1973 White Chicks (Unrated & Uncut Version), 2004 The White Stadium, 1928 Won’t Back Down, 2012 (HBO) Zero Days, 2016 (HBO)

July 2 Lo Que Siento por Ti (aka What I Feel for You) (HBO)

July 3 Let Him Go, 2020 (HBO) Nancy Drew, Season 2

July 7 Dr. STONE, Seasons 1 and 2 (Subtitled) (Crunchyroll Collection) Shiva Baby, 2021 (HBO)

July 8 The Dog House: UK, Max Original Season 2 Premiere Gossip Girl, Max Original Series Premiere Human Capital, 2020 (HBO) The Hunt, 2020 (HBO) Looney Tunes Cartoons, Max Original Season 2 Premiere

July 9 Frankie Quinones: Superhomies (HBO)

July 11 The White Lotus, Limited Series Premiere (HBO)

July 12 Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes, Documentary Series Premiere (HBO)

July 15 Tom & Jerry, 2021 (HBO)

July 16 Betty, Season 2 Finale (HBO) Space Jam: A New Legacy, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 Un Disfraz Para Nicolas (aka A Costume for Nicolas) (HBO)

July 17 The Empty Man, 2020 (HBO)

July 18 100 Foot Wave, Documentary Series Premiere (HBO)

July 22 Through Our Eyes, Max Original Documentary Series Premiere

July 23 Corazon De Mezquite (aka Mezquite’s Heart) (HBO)

July 24 Freaky, 2020 (HBO)

July 26 Catch and Kill: The Podcast Tapes, Documentary Series Finale (HBO)

July 27 Batwoman, Season 2 Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

July 30 Uno Para Todos (aka One for All) (HBO)

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Leaving HBO Max – July 2021

July 3 The ABC’s Of Covid-19: A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall for Kids and Parents Part 2, 2020

July 4 Annabelle, 2014 Annabelle Comes Home, 2019 (HBO) The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, 2021 The Curse of La Llorona, 2019 The Nun, 2018

July 5 Lost And Delirious, 2001

July 8 Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015

July 10 It: Chapter 2, 2019 (HBO)

July 11 An Elephant’s Journey, 2018 In the Heights, 2021 Thanks for Sharing, 2013

July 15 Burlesque, 2010

July 17 The Notebook, 2004

July 26 The King’s Speech, 2010

July 31 17 Again, 2009 A Clockwork Orange, 1971 A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, 1985 A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, 1988 A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, 1989 A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street, 2010 Adam’s Rib, 1949 America’s Sweethearts, 2001 Anaconda, 1997 The Apparition, 2012 (HBO) Are We There Yet?, 2005 Argo, 2012 (Alternate Version) (HBO) AVP: Alien vs. Predator, 2004 (Alternate Version) (HBO) Badlands, 1973 Beau Brummel, 1954 The Benchwarmers, 2006 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, 2011 (HBO) Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva La Fiesta!, 2012 (HBO) Billy Madison, 1995 (HBO) The Book Of Eli, 2010 (HBO) Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992 Bringing Up Baby, 1938 The City of Lost Children, 1995 The Color Purple, 1985 The Comebacks, 2007 (Alternate Version) (HBO) The Conjuring 2, 2016 The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, 2002 (HBO) Don’t Let Go, 2019 (HBO) Downton Abbey, 2019 (HBO) El Angel (aka The Angel), 2018 (HBO) Eyes Wide Shut, 1999 Fool’s Gold, 2008 Fort Tilden, 2015 (HBO) The Four Feathers, 2002 (HBO) The Gay Divorcee, 1934 Get A Job, 2016 (HBO) The Goonies, 1985 Grand Canyon, 1991 (HBO) Hairspray, 1988 Happy Gilmore, 1996 (HBO) Hellboy Animated Collection, 2006, 2007 The Hurricane, 1999 (HBO) I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1997 Iniciales SG (aka Initials S.G.), 2019 (HBO) J. Edgar, 2011 Jackie Chan’s First Strike, 1997 Jacob’s Ladder, 1990 (HBO) Jeremiah Johnson, 1972 Keeper Of The Flame, 1943 Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2003 (HBO) Kill Bill: Vol. 2, 2004 (HBO) Kung Fu Hustle, 2005 The Lego Ninjago Movie, 2014 Less Than Zero, 1987 (HBO) Life Stinks, 1991 (HBO) Lincoln, 2012 (HBO) Little Children, 2006 (HBO) Little Man Tate, 1991 (HBO) Lovely & Amazing, 2002 The Lucky One, 2012(HBO) The Madness of King George, 1994 (HBO) Marisol, 2019 (HBO) Me 3.769, 2019 (HBO) Michael Clayton, 2007 Mickey Blue Eyes, 1999 Monster-In-Law, 2005 Mulholland Dr., 2001 Muralla (aka Muralla, The Goalkeeper), 2018 (HBO) Murder on the Orient Express, 1974 (HBO) Music and Lyrics, 2007 My Dream Is Yours, 1949 My Girl 2, 1994 My Girl, 1991 My Sister’s Keeper, 2009 Now, Voyager, 1942 Old Dogs, 2009 (HBO) The Opposite Sex, 1956 The Pledge, 2001 (HBO) Precious, 2009 (HBO) The Producers, 1968 The Prophecy, 1995 (HBO) The Prophecy II, 1998 (HBO) The Prophecy III: The Ascent, 2000 (HBO) Prophecy IV: The Uprising, 2005 (HBO) Prophecy V: The Forsaken, 2005 (HBO) Pulp Fiction, 1994 Rachel and The Stranger, 1948 Radio Days, 1987 (HBO) The Reluctant Debutante, 1958 Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise, 1987 (HBO) Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love, 2005 (HBO) Revenge of the Nerds, 1984 (HBO) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 1991 Roger & Me, 1989 Rollerball, 2002 (HBO) Romance on the High Seas, 1948 Rumble in the Bronx, 1996 Safe House, 2012 (HBO) Salvador, 1986 (HBO) Shall We Dance?, 2004 Shallow Hal, 2001 (HBO) Shocker, 1989 (HBO) Sinbad of the Seven Seas, 1989 (HBO) Sprung, 1997 (HBO) Stop-Loss, 2008 (HBO) Sunshine Cleaning, 2009 (HBO) Swing Time, 1936 Tea for Two, 1950 Thief, 1981 (HBO) This Is Spinal Tap, 1984 (HBO) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, 2011 (HBO) Top Hat, 1935 Trapped in Paradise, 1994 (HBO) Troll 2, 1990 (HBO) Troll, 1986 (HBO) Two Minutes of Fame, 2020 (HBO) Underdog, 2007 (HBO) Untamed Heart, 1993 (HBO) Up in the Air, 2009 (HBO) The Visitor, 2008 Waiting for Guffman, 1997 The Wedding Singer, 1998 Wendy, 2020 (HBO) Wildcats, 1986 (HBO) The Wings of Eagles, 1957 Without Love, 1945 Woman of the Year, 1942 Worth Winning, 1989 (HBO) Young Man with a Horn, 1949

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mitigatedchaos · 4 years ago

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Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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supermanfanpodcast · 4 years ago

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NEW FUN COMICS 1, February 1935, was published on January 11, 1935. It contained 32 pages for the cover price of 10¢. Lloyd Jacquet was the editor. It was published by National Allied Publications, the company that would evolve into the DC Comics we know today.

FAMOUS FIRST EDITION: NEW FUN COMICS #1 was published on May 19, 2020 for the cover price of $19.99.

- (8:29) I review the book, JACKIE ORMES: THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN CARTOONIST by Nancy Goldstein, published by the University Of Michigan Press in 2019. This book was 226 pages long.

- (11:45) MY PULL LIST, where I review the comic books that carried the November 2020 cover date, which were released during the month of September, and I received from Discount Comic Book Service.

- (26:45) Before the reprint of NEW FUN COMICS 1, this FAMOUS FIRST EDITION had two introductions. The first was titled, THE START OF SOMETHING BIG, written by comic book historian Jerry Bails for a previously planned reprint of this issue that was eventually never published.

- (28:33) A SECOND INTRODUCTION was written by Roy Thomas, explaining why that first reprint never happened, and what the historical significance is of this issue.

- (30:11) JACK WOOD, subtitled PANCH VILLA Part I, a western adventure was written and drawn by Lyman Anderson, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics. The Grand Comic Book Database gives this feature the subtitle as, DON NAGLES - CATTLE RUSTLER Part I, written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and drawn by Lyman Anderson. Jack Wood rode into the sunset with his final appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS 42, September 1939.

- (33:27) The adventure strip SANDRA OF THE SECRET SERVICE in THE GAVONIA AFFAIR part I, was written and drawn by Charles Flanders, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, while the Grand Comic Book Database credits Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer and Charles Flanders as the artist. Sandra's final mission for the Secret Service would occur in MORE FUN COMICS 35, September 1935.

- (34:11) The comic strip OSWALD RABBIT, which was written and drawn by John Lindermeyer, appeared on the bottom of the page. It filled the gap at the bottom of the page below not only SANDRA OF THE SECRET SERVICE, but many of the early features in this issue. Oswald made his final appearance in MORE FUN COMICS 7, January 1936, but would make various appearances in various titles for other comic book publishers.

- (35:03) JIGGER AND GINGER, a teen humor strip, writer unknown, was drawn by Adolph Schus. They would make only one other appearance in NEW FUN COMICS 2, March 1935.

- (35:50) The adventure strip BARRY O'NEIL, in FANG GOW OF CHINA part I, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, was written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and drawn by Lawrence Lariar. Barry's final adventure occurred in ADVENTURE COMICS 60, March 1941.

- (37:17) THE MAGIC CRYSTAL OF HISTORY, a kid adventure strip, was written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux. Bobby and Binks would take their final historical adventure via the Magic Crystal in MORE FUN COMICS 50, December 1939.

- (38:45) The adventure strip WING BRADY: SOLDIER OF FORTUNE began with THE BEDOUINS part I. Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics credits Henry Carl Kiefer (who signed his name as de Korosett, his wife's maiden name) as the writer and artist, while the Grand Comic Book Database lists Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer and Kiefer as the artist. Brady's final adventure occurred in MORE FUN COMICS 52, February 1941.

- (40:19) Sir Walter Scott's IVANHOE was adapted to comic book form by Charles Flanders, according to Mike's Amazing World Of DC Comics, while the Grand Comic Book Database lists Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson as the writer of this adaption and Flanders as the artists. This adaption of IVANHOE ended with MORE FUN COMICS 27, December 1937.

- (41:54) JUDGE PERKINS, a humor strip, was written and drawn by Bert Nelson Haig. The Judge would only have one more misadventure, in NEW FUN COMICS 2.

- (42:57) The science fiction adventure, DON DRAKE ON THE PLANET SARO, was written by Ken Fitch and drawn by Joseph Clemmens Gretter, who signed his art as Clem Gretter. Drake had his final adventure in MORE FUN COMICS 17, January 1937.

- (44:17) LOCO LUKE, a western humor strip, was written and drawn by Jack A. Warren. Loco Luke rode into the sunset after NEW FUN COMICS 4, May 1945.

- (46:41) SPOOK RANCH was a western mystery story written by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, using the pseudonym Roger Furlong, with illustrations drawn by Charles Flanders. The story concluded in the next issue.

- (46:41) SCRUB HARDY was a sports humor strip drawn by Joe Archibald. Hardy's sports career was cut short, only appearing again in NEW FUN COMICS 2.

- (48:19) The sports adventure strip JACK ANDREWS ALL-AMERICAN BOY was written and drawn by Lyman Anderson. Andrews' sports career would only last through NEW FUN COMICS 6, October 1935.

- (51:04) BATHYSPHERE - A MARTIAN DREAM, writer unknown, was an article about Dr. Beebe, who descended 3,000 feet in a bathysphere, and the equipment on board.

- (51:59) SPORTS, an article written by Joe Archibald, was about the Toronto Maple Leafs and a brief history of the game of hockey.

- (52:59) ON THE RADIO: THE DIAL TWISTER, maybe written by Lloyd Jacquet, was an article asking readers to write the staff of NEW FUN COMICS and share their favorite radio shows, and the writer also shares some favorites.

- (54:27) IN THE MOVIES: TALK OF THE TALKIES, writer unknown, described some of the upcoming films in 1935, including one involving the comic book cowboy Jack Wood, a movie serial titled RUSTLERS OF RED GAP (IMDb lists the final title as RUSTLERS OF RED DOG).

- (55:24) MODEL AIRCRAFT, writer unknown, with illustrations drawn by Dick Loederer, was an article about how to make a model of the U.S. Navy plane Vought Corsair, one of the early planes that took off and landed on the first aircraft carriers.

- (56:49) HOW TO BUILD HENDRICK HUDSON'S "HALF MOON", an article written and drawn by Robert Weinstein, about a 17th Century sailing ship.

- (57:08) CAP'N ERIC, a sea adventure strip, was written and drawn by Robert Weinstein, who signed this feature Bob Weinstein.

- (58:33) BUCKSKIN JIM: THE TRAILBLAZER, a western adventure, was written and drawn by Eugene Koscik, who signed his work as "K". Buckskin Jim rode off into the western sunset after MORE FUN COMICS 18, February 1937.

- (1:01:28) The article POPULAR SCIENCE, writer unknown, had illustrations provided by Dick Loederer, who signed his work as "Loe". It covered three subjects, STREAMLINE TRAIN THAT TALKED, PUTTING THE SUN TO WORK, and A BIT OF MAGIC.

- (1:03:06) STAMPS AND COINS, writer unknown, also had illustrations drawn by Dick Loederer, who again signed his work as "Loe". This article was divided into two sections, BEGINNING A COLLECTION, about stamps, and ABOUT COINS.

- (1:03:50) The issue's final article was titled YOUNG HOMEMAKERS, writer unknown, also with illustrations provided by Dick "Loe" Loederer. This article provided advice about a well organized kitchen.

- (1:04:39) AFTER SCHOOL, a kid humor strip, was written and drawn by Tom McNamara. Lefty and Slim had their last humorous adventure in NEW FUN COMICS 6, October 1935.

- (1:05:43) CAVEMAN CAPERS, a prehistoric humor strip, was written and drawn by Dick Loederer. The fire went out for CAVEMAN CAPERS after NEW FUN COMICS 5, August 1935.

- (1:06:42) FUN FILMS: TAD AMONG THE PIRATES, was written and drawn by Adolphe Barreaux. This feature was unique among the others in this issue. It was a series of strips that you could cut horizontally and tape together into a paper film strip, viewed through a paper backdrop drawn at the top of the page. Tad's final adventure occurred in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

- (1:07:20) BUBBY AND BEEVIL, a humor strip, was written and drawn by Dick Loederer. Bubby and Beevil's last misadventure was in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

(1:07:41) The animal humor strip PELION AND OSSA was written and drawn by John Lindermeyer, who signed his work as Kevin Hay. Their last adventure was also in NEW FUN COMICS 3, April 1935.

- (1:08:35) This issue's final strip was the science fiction adventure 2023: SUPER POLICE, written by John Finch and drawn by Joseph Clemens Gretter, who signed his name as Clem Gretter. The Science Police investigated their last case in MORE FUN COMICS 14, October 1936.

- (1:10:11) After the reprinted issue, there were a few essays to round out this book. The first was titled, THE MAJOR WHO MADECOMICS, about Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, written by his Granddaughter, Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson. She provides a brief biography about her Grandfather, how his interests in life helped shape the features that were included in this first issue, and some of the talented comic book creators whose careers he helped influence.u

- (1:10:38) NEW FUN 1 - THE CONTRIBUTORS, brief biographies of most of the creators in this issue, also provided by Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, with special thanks to David Saunders for his original research.

- (1:11:17) The book's final essay was titled, A TABLOID TRADITION CONTINUES, written by Editor Benjamin Le Clear, Manager of DC Comics Library Archives. He explains how and why this issues printed at tabloid size, and a brief history of the evolution of the size of comic books, and finally the origin of the FAMOUS FIRST EDITION series in the 1970's.

- Next episode we return to our journey through the Silver Age Adventures of Superman with: SUPERMAN FAMILY COMIC BOOKS COVER DATED MAY 1966: PART I: WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 157, PART II: SUPERMAN 186, PART III: SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE 65 & PART IV: ACTION COMICS 337 with ELSEWHERE IN DC COMICS' May or May/June 1966 titles.

The home for THE SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST is http://thesupermanfanpodcast.blogspot.com. Send e-mail to [email protected] can join the SUPERMAN FAN PODCASTGroup or Page on facebook, and follow the podcast on twitter @supermanpodcast. You can also keep track of the podcast on Tumblr, Medium, Flipboard, the Internet Archive, tunein, Stitcher, Amazon and Instagram.

SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST is a proud member of:

- The LEAGUE OF COMIC BOOK PODCASTERS and

- The COMICS PODCAST NETWORK.

The theme of this podcast is PLANS IN MOTION, composed by Kevin MacLeod, and part of the royalty free music library at http://incompetech.com. "Plans in Motion" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Superman and all related characters are trademark and copyright DC Comics. Any art shown on this podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and not for profit. I make no claims of ownership of these images, nor do I earn any money from this podcast.

If you are interested in my artwork, go to wayfarerercomics.wordpress.com. I am available for commissions, so click on the Art Commissions tab for more information. If interested, send an e-mail to [email protected].

Thanks for listening to the SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST and, as always, thanks to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman!

And don't forget to take care of each other out there.

#Superman Fan Podcast #Famous First Edition #New Fun Comics

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cinemasnob412 · 4 years ago

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Two “4′s” And A “7″ Beat Two “5′s” And An “8″ - The Battle Of Horror Heavyweights At The End Of A Decade.

1988 and 1989 were interesting years for horror fans as the decade of excess came to a close. Heading into the 1990′s, the final seven-hundred plus days of the 1980′s saw the emergence of new blood into the genre with the likes of “Chucky” from 1988′s CHILD’S PLAY as well as “Pinhead” getting a jump start on his own franchise with the release of that same year’s HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II. Originality is always welcome, but let’s not forget who the decade really belonged to: Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. With a combined box office pull from the seventeen films released between 1980 and 1989 nearly amassing half a billion dollars worldwide, the slasher genre spearheaded by the gruesome trio was as popular and as profitable as ever. Critics be damned, the films were huge draws and favorites of fanboys and fangirls the world over.

What makes the final two calendar years of the decade worthwhile of putting under the microscope? 1988 and 1989 were the only two years where an entry from all three series were released theatrically, with FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD dropping first on May 13th, 1988, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER hitting screens on August 19th, 1988, and HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS closing out the year with its October 21st, 1988 bow. 1989 saw FRIDAY THE 13TH again take the lead with FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN being released on July 28th, 1989, followed by A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD arriving only two weeks later on August 11th, 1989 and lastly, HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS seeing the light of day on October 13th, 1989. Over the course of eighteen months, six films were released, each achieving varying degrees of financial and critical success. How did everything shake down? Which film, or film series won the battle of the sequel onslaught?

As mentioned before, the first film of the bunch to see its release was 1988′s FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD. Paramount Pictures had long ignored these films when it came to proper advertising campaigns and wide-release strategies. Whereas New Line Cinema fully embraced their A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series, Paramount seemed to take an embarrassed, closeted approach to their release strategy for their FRIDAY THE 13TH films. Short of a trailer, some television spots and some coverage in genre magazines such as Fangoria and Gorezone, not much ever really found its way out of the Paramount marketing department for the seventh entry in the series. There was a People Magazine piece that featured all three horror icons, along with a Leatherface from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE films appearance, but that was close to everything when it came to promoting FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD.

Next up came the fourth entry in the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series when on August 19th, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER hit the big screen. Unlike Paramount, New Line Cinema went all out for Freddy’s return. From promotional pieces on MTV, a movie tie-in novel, toys to licensed memorabilia and Halloween costumes, the Freddy Krueger machine was in full force by the time the fourth film found itself in front of audiences. The film’s box office returns showed the effort put in paid off as THE DREAM MASTER was the highest grossing A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET film to date, eclipsed only by 2003′s FREDDY VS. JASON.

Rounding out 1988 was the release of the fourth HALLOWEEN film, HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS. As the film’s subtitle promised, masked maniac Michael Myers made his triumphant return after skipping out on the (at the time) ill received, Michael Myers-less HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH. Nearly seven years had passed since Myers was last seen in 1981′s HALLOWEEN II and fans were pumped to have him back. Producer Moustapha Akkad’s insistence on returning the series to its roots paid off, as audiences flocked to see the William Shatner (or at least a loose interpterion of it) mask donned once again as bodies piled up at the feet of Michael Myers.

The numbers don’t lie. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER was the undisputed box office champ, pulling in more than both the seventh FRIDAY THE 13TH and fourth HALLOWEEN combined. While New Line Cinema may have won the box office, it was the horror fans that really made out, having all three of their favorites, in three of the better entries in all of the series hitting theaters within weeks of each other.

Then came 1989.

Just over a year after FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD’s release, Paramount rolled out the deceptively titled FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN on July 28th, 1989. Paramount did little more for this entry’s marketing than it did for the previous film, going slightly out of their way to at least promote the film on their own, Viacom owned ARSENIO HALL SHOW. Kane Hodder, returning as Jason Voorhees for the second time appeared on the talk show as Jason himself, in a rather amusing bit to promote the eighth film. Again, less the trailer, some television spots and a recalled clever teaser poster, there wasn’t much in the way of a promotional push going on for what would become Jason’s last hurrah under the Paramount Pictures banner. The indifference by the executives showed as FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTEN would go on to become the lowest grossing film in the entire franchise.

By 1989, even Freddy fatigue seemed to be setting in. New Line Cinema’s quick turnaround on A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD, after the hugely successful A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER may have proved a costly mistake, as just like the eighth FRIDAY THE 13TH sank at the box office, so to did the fifth Freddy film, becoming the lowest grossing film in the series up until 1994′s WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE saw its silver screen debut. Even New Line Cinema’s gigantic marketing push for the fourth film seemed to be watered down for the 1989 entry. Gone were the television tie-ins and merchandise heavy promos, all that was left was a soundtrack and score release, a novel adaptation and little else. Freddy seemed destined to head into the 1990′s as an afterthought for the House That Freddy Built.

If the behind the scenes executive choices seemed to go off the rails for both the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH franchises as they hit the end of the decade, it was the on-screen shenanigans that took the HALLOWEEN series into strange, unforeseen territories. What started out as a simple stalk and slash set of films took a odd turn (that continued through at least one more sequel) when a Celtic Cult subplot was introduced into the fifth Michael Myers film. In all fairness, not much is exposed in HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS about this unnecessary addition, but enough is touched upon to give the audience the second WTF moment of the franchise (I’m eluding to the fact that upon its initial release, HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH garnered that same reaction). If the seventh and eighth FRIDAY THE 13TH films suffered from a lack of good marketing, HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS did itself no favors with its own campaign, bearing too much of a resemblance to the fourth film’s promotional material, most notably the film’s subtitle, THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS which was all too similar to 1988′s THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS.

If a winner had to be declared it would be hard to argue that 1988′s efforts shouldn’t come out on top. The three films released that year were the better of the overall six, and the hype leading up to the fourth A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET film, as well as audiences getting their Michael Myers back in the fourth HALLOWEEN was enough to call it as a hands down victory for the 1988 entries.

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thisisus-s5e1 · 4 years ago

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▷ This Is Us; Season 5 Episode 1 - (S5E1) - HD 720p

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The Pearsons gather to celebrate their 40th birthday while musing about the day they were born.

Genre : Comedy, Drama Air Date : 2020-10-27 Network : NBC Casts : Chris Sullivan, Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K. Brown, Susan Kelechi Watson, Justin Hartley, Jon Huertas, Chrissy Metz

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Television Show

A television show might also be called a television program (British English: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A television series is usually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and are usually divided into seasons (US and Canada) or series (UK) — yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries, serial, or limited series. A one-time show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “television movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.

History

The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 5950s. Televised events such as the 5955 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 5957 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 5959 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 5957 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 5958, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 5, 59575 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.[5][5][5] The first national color broadcast (the 59575 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on January 5, 59575. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 59557, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 5975, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completely all-color network season.

Development

When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the show’s elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew, and cast. Then they often “pitch” it to the various networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series, known as a pilot.[citation needed] Eric Coleman, an animation executive at Disney, told an interviewer, “One misconception is that it’s very difficult to get in and pitch your show, when the truth is that development executives at networks want very much to hear ideas. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for.

To create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If audiences respond well to the pilot, the network will pick up the show to air it the next season (usually Fall).[citation needed] Sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and additional review (known in the industry as development hell).[citation needed] Other times, they pass entirely, forcing the show’s creator to “shop it around�� to other networks. Many shows never make it past the pilot stage.[citation needed]

The show hires a stable of writers, who usually work in parallel: the first writer works on the first episode, the second on the second episode, etc.[citation needed] When all the writers have been used, episode assignment starts again with the first writer.[citation needed] On other shows, however, the writers work as a team. Sometimes they develop story ideas individually, and pitch them to the show’s creator, who folds them together into a script and rewrites them.[citation needed]

If the show is picked up, the network orders a “run” of episodes — usually only six or 55 episodes at first, though a season typically consists of at least 55 episodes.[citation needed] The midseason seven and last nine episodes are sometimes called the “mid-seven” and “back nine” — borrowing the colloquial terms from bowling and golf.

#This Is Us #This Is Us Season 5 #This Is Us Season 5 Episode 1 #Series

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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HBO Max New Releases: May 2021

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Do not adjust your WiFi settings. No, you are not experiencing a severe case of Deja Streaming-vu. HBO Max’s list of new releases for May 2021 are indeed highlighted by two very recent WarnerMedia hits.

For starters, Tenet finally makes its long-awaited HBO Max this month. Mark your calendars as May 1 is the day that you can finally watch Christopher Nolan’s latest cerebral thriller. Of course, Tenet already had its theatrical release, but obviously that was not really an option for many of us. In addition to Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984 makes its triumphant return to HBO Max this month on May 13. The Wonder Woman sequel already premiered on HBO Max this past December, now it’s getting a second run on the streamer.

In terms of newer originals, May is relatively light for HBO Max. The Jean Smart-starring comedy Hacks premieres on May 13. The latest Adventure Time: Distant Lands special arrives on May 20. May also contains two prominent finales with The Nevers closing out part 1 of its first season on May 15 and Mare of Easttown wrapping up its case on May 30.

It’s also not a big month for Warner Bros. theatrical releases. The only one to speak of is Those Who Wish Me Dead on May 14. Thankfully that will be augmented by some library titles on May 1 including The Interview, Jackie Brown, and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Here is everything else to expect in May 2021.

HBO Max New Releases – May 2021

TBA Gomorrah, Season 4 (Max Original) Oslo, (HBO Original Film)

May 1 17 Again, 2009 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012 (HBO) Anaconda, 1997 Anger Management, 2003 (HBO) Baby Boom, 1987 (HBO) Barry Lyndon, 1975 Black Hawk Down, 2001 The Cable Guy, 1996 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005 Cursed, 2005 (HBO) Daddy Day Care, 2003 Darkest Hour, 2017 (HBO) Darkness, 2004 (Extended Version) (HBO) The Dirty Dozen, 1967 Dumb & Dumber, 1994 Employee Of The Month, 2006 (HBO) Firehouse Dog, 2007 (HBO) Flight of the Intruder, 1991 (HBO) Free Willy, 1993 Frida, 2002 (HBO) Generation Por Que? (HBO) God’s Not Dead, 2014 (HBO) Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 (HBO) Happy Feet Two, 2011 Happy Feet, 2006 Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man, 1991 (HBO) Hercules, 1983 (HBO) Igby Goes Down, 2002 (HBO) Igor, 2008 (HBO) Insomnia, 2002 (HBO) The Interview, 2014 Jackie Brown, 1997 Kansas, 1988 (HBO) Magic Mike, 2012 Menace II Society, 1993 Michael, 1996 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Movie 43, 2013 (HBO) Muriel’s Wedding, 1995 (HBO) My Baby’s Daddy, 2004 (HBO) Mystery Date, 1991 (HBO) Norbit, 2007 (HBO) Para Rosa (For Rosa) (HBO) Precious, 2009 (HBO) Rabid, 1977 (HBO) Romance & Cigarettes, 2007 (HBO) Rosewater, 2014 (HBO) Rudy, 1993 Rush Hour 2, 2001 Rush Hour 3, 2007 Rush Hour, 1998 Save The Last Dance, 2001 (HBO) Save The Last Dance 2, 2006 (HBO) Senseless, 1998 (HBO) Separate Tables, 1958 (HBO) Serpico, 1974 (HBO) Serving Sara, 2002 (HBO) Summer Rental, 1985 (HBO) Tenet, 2020 (HBO) The Debt, 2010 (HBO) The Immigrant, 2014 (HBO) The Kingdom, 2007 (HBO) The Last Of The Finest, 1990 (HBO) The Perfect Man, 2005 (HBO) The Tuxedo, 2002 (HBO) The Wings Of The Dove, 1997 (HBO) The Witches Of Eastwick, 1987 (HBO) Tomcats, 2001 (HBO) Trust Me, 2014 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, 2012 Varsity Blues, 1999 (HBO) Welcome To Sarajevo, 1997 (HBO) When Harry Met Sally, 1989 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 (HBO) Words And Pictures, 2014 (HBO)

May 2 Uri and Ella, Season 1

May 3 300: Rise of an Empire, 2014 Pray, Obey, Kill — HBO Docu-Series Finale

May 6 Hunger, 2008 Legendary: Season 2 (Max Original) Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 That Damn Michael Che — Max Original Series Premiere West Side Story — TCM CFF Opening Night, 1961

May 7 La Boda De Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding) (HBO)

May 8 Greenland, 2020 (HBO) Re:ZERO — Starting Life in Another World: Season 2, (Subtitled, Episodes 14-25) (Crunchyroll Collection)

May 9 Axios (HBO)

May 10 Jujutsu Kaisen: Season 1, (Subtitled, Episodes 13-24) (Crunchyroll Collection) Race for the White House: Season 2 The Crime of the Century — Two-Part Documentary Premiere (HBO)

May 13 Hacks — Max Original Series Premiere Wonder Woman 1984 — 2020 (HBO)

May 14 Those Who Wish Me Dead — Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021

May 15 The Personal History Of David Copperfield, 2020 (HBO) The Nevers: Part 1 Finale (HBO)

May 19 Apple & Onion, Season 2A

May 20 Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Together Again — Max Original The Big Shot with Bethenny — Max Original Season Finale Ellen’s Next Great Designer — Max Original Season Finale Territorio (Close Quarters) (HBO) This Is Life with Lisa Ling: Season 7

May 23 In Treatment: Season 4 Premiere (HBO)

May 25 Cinderella Man, 2005 (HBO) Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

May 26 Curious George, 2006 (HBO)

May 28 A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season 2 Finale (HBO)

May 30 Mare of Easttown: Limited Series Finale (HBO)

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Leaving HBO Max – May 2021

May 11 Mud, 2013

May 13 Bullitt, 1968 The Searchers, 1956 Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949 West Side Story, 1961

May 16 Annabelle Comes Home, 2019 (HBO)

May 23 Mortal Kombat, 2021

May 28 The Operative, 2019 (HBO)

May 31 All About My Mother, 1999 All the President’s Men, 1976 Amistad, 1997 (HBO) The Avengers, 1998 The Beguiled, 2017 (HBO) The Bishop’s Wife, 1947 Black Christmas, 2019 (HBO) The Blind Side, 2009 (HBO) Blood Work, 2002 Blue Streak, 1999 Bombshell, 1933 The Book Of Henry, 2011 (HBO) Book Of Shadows: The Blair Witch 2, 2000 The Bridges Of Madison County, 1995 Butterfield 8, 1960 Captain Blood, 1935 Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, 1958 Cats, 2019 (HBO) The Cider House Rules, 1999 (HBO) Cinema Paradiso, 1990 (Director’s Cut) (HBO) Cradle 2 The Grave, 2003 Critical Care, 1997 (HBO) Cruel Intentions, 1999 (HBO) The Dancer Upstairs, 2003 (HBO) Dangerous Liaisons, 1988 The Dead Don’t Die, 2019 (HBO) The Dead Pool, 1988 Death Becomes Her, 1992 (HBO) Defending Your Life, 1991 Dirty Dancing, 1987 (HBO) Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, 2004 (HBO) Dolores Claiborne, 1995 Doubt, 2008 (HBO) Downhill, 2020 (HBO) Driving Miss Daisy, 1989 Drop Dead Gorgeous, 1999 East Of Eden, 1955 Emma, 1996 (HBO) Emma., 2020 (HBO) A Face In The Crowd, 1957 Father Of The Bride, 1950 Flipped, 2010 Giant, 1956 Heartbreak Ridge, 1986 Hot Fuzz, 2007 (HBO) Hunger, 2008 Jaws, 1975 (HBO) Jaws 2, 1978 (HBO) Jetsons: The Movie, 1990 (HBO) Justice League: Gods And Monsters, 2015 A Kiss Before Dying, 1991 (HBO) The Last King Of Scotland, 2006 (HBO) The Last Kiss, 2006 (HBO) Lego: Justice League: Attack Of The Legion Of Doom!, 2015 Life As We Know It, 2010 Life With Father, 1947 Little Women, 1949 Living Out Loud, 1998 The Long Kiss Goodnight, 1996 Magnum Force, 1973 March Of The Penguins, 2005 The Matrix Reloaded, 2003 The Matrix Revolutions, 2003 The Matrix, 1999 Maverick, 1994 Misery, 1990 (HBO) Mortal Kombat, 1995 Mortal Kombat Annihilation, 1997 Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, 2020 Nell, 1994 (HBO) Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always, 2020 (HBO) Papillon, 1973 A Patch Of Blue, 1965 Phantom, 2013 (HBO) Phantom Thread, 2017 (HBO) Project X, 2012 (Extended Version) (HBO) Ray, 2004 (HBO) Richie Rich (Movie), 1994 A Room With A View, 1986 (HBO) Sanctum, 2011 (HBO) Scream, 1996 Scream 2, 1997 Scream 3, 2000 Se7En, 1995 Selena, 1997 Shaun Of The Dead, 2004 (HBO) Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows, 2011 (HBO) Skyline, 2010 (HBO) Snakes On A Plane, 2006 Snow White And The Huntsman, 2012 (Unrated Version) (HBO) Stuart Little, 1999 Stuart Little 2, 2002 The Thin Man, 1934 Tightrope, 1984 True Grit, 2010 (HBO) Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family, 2011 Unforgiven, 1992 Veronica Mars, 2014 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, 2007 Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, 1966 X-Men: Dark Phoenix, 2019 (HBO) X-Men: First Class, 2011 (HBO) You Can’t Take It With You, 1938

The post HBO Max New Releases: May 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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streamworthytv · 5 years ago

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INCOMING!! All February Releases on Netflix, through today’s date, 2/22!! The month’s remaining upcoming offerings are at the end of the post. (Some users may need to turn their phone sideways, for easier viewing.)

Feb. 1:

Back to the Future Part III (I checked, fam...I & II currently unavailable without a fee, the cheapest being $2.99 a pop at Sling)

A Bad Moms Christmas

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Seen as the “definitive” version, based on my research.)

Center Stage

Cookie’s Fortune

Dear John

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Dirty Harry

Driving Miss Daisy

Elizabeth

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Fools Rush In

Hancock

A Little Princess

Love Jacked

The Notebook

The Other Guys

The Pianist

Police Academy

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment

Police Academy 3: Back in Training

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach

Police Academy 6: City Under Siege

Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow

Purple Rain

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Scary Movie 2

Sex and the City 2

Feb. 3

Sordo (A Netflix Original Film, only available in Spanish, Portuguese, or w/English subtitles)

Team Kaylie: Part 3

Faith, Hope & Love

She Did That

Tom Papa: You’re Doing Great!

Feb. 5

Black Hollywood: ‘They’ve Gotta Have Us’

#cats_the_mewvie

The Pharmacist (Netflix Original Series)

Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story

Feb. 6

Cagaster of an Insect Cage

Feb. 7

The Ballad of Lefty Brown

Dragons: Rescue Riders: Season 2

Horse Girl (Netflix Original Film)

Locke & Key (Netflix Original Series...I REALLY was not a fan...you can reference some of my earlier posts on this.)

My Holo Love

Who Killed Malcolm X? (Netflix Original Miniseries)

Feb. 8

The Coldest Game

Feb. 9

Better Call Saul: Season 4

Captain Underpants Epic Choice-o-Rama

Polaroid

Feb. 11

Good Time

Camino A Roma

Q Ball

Feb. 12

Anna Karenina

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (Netflix Original Film, a sequel to “TATB I’ve Loved Before”)

Feb. 13

Dragon Quest: Your Story

Love is Blind (Netflix Original, Dating Series)

Narcos: Mexico: Season 2 (Netflix Original Series)

Feb. 14

Cable Girls: Final Season

Issi & Ossi

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

Feb. 15

Starship Troopers

Feb. 17

The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia

Feb. 19

Chef Show: Volume 3

Feb. 20

Spectros

Feb. 21

A Haunted House

Babies

Gentefied (Netflix Original Series, from executive producer America Ferrera...The first show to go freely between English and Spanish. More on that here: https://variety.com/2020/tv/features/america-ferrera-netflix-gentefied-1203506733/?_gl=1*1y3rzfb*_ga*YW1wLTFiRGdfMVlvdVprS2lldks5aUIya0NoQUVGOTlWYkRId3ktc3U3Snh6bjNBY0VfMGVjaTAzU01PalhQNFJUdmI.#respond )

Glitch Techs

Puerta 7

System Crasher

Feb. 22

Girl on the Third Floor

The biggest things coming out for the remainder of the month on Netflix include the Netflix Original Series “I Am Not Okay With This” (2/26), which I’ve posted an EW article about on FB, IG, & Twitter: https://ew.com/tv/2020/02/17/sophia-lillis-im-not-okay-with-this-first-trailer/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Also of note are “Altered Carbon” Season 2 (2/27), and “Jerry Maguire,” coming to Netflix on 2/29 (which I will likely AT LEAST be scanning through for the Jerry Cantrell cameo...my fellow AIC fans know what I mean!😎)

The rest of Netflix’s upcoming offerings, and their dates of release, can be found below the line. HAPPY STREAMING!! And don’t forget to follow @StreamworthyTV on FB, IG, & Twitter, if you enjoy my posts...I will be featuring giveaways, when I hit a certain number!!📺________________________________________

February 23

Full Count

February 25

Every Time I Die

February 26

I Am Not Okay With This

February 27

Altered Carbon: Season 2

The Angry Birds Movie 2

Followers

Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution

February 28

All the Bright Places

Babylon Berlin: Season 3

Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 2

Jeopardy!: Celebrate Alex Collection

Jeopardy!: Cindy Stowell Collection

Jeopardy!: Seth Wilson Collection

La trinchera infinita

Queen Sono

Restaurants on the Edge

Unstoppable

February 29

Jerry Maguire

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paulisweeabootrash · 5 years ago

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Pokémon 2.B.A. Master

I stumbled across a piece of weeb trash media I had heard of, but neither attempted nor expected to find. And it’s a bit different. Today, my friends, we are not doing an anime or manga, or even another novel. We’re doing a tie-in music album, a American blatant cash-grab based on a Japanese franchise. Oh no. Oh yes.

Pokémon 2.B.A. Master (1999)

As a young weeblet, I was a regular watcher of the first two arcs of Pokémon (Kanto and Johto). It was in both weekday and weekend timeslots, and never seemed to be broadcast in any sensible order, but I nonetheless watched it frequently and enjoyed it no matter how many times WB decided to rerun episodes I’d already seen. At some point, this CD came out, and I remember seeing ads for it when it was new. There were even televised music videos for a few of the songs, broadcast as a segment called “Pikachu’s Jukebox”. I never saw a copy of the album in person, and never expected to. Maybe it was one of those that you had to order by calling some number? I don't remember (or, frankly, care enough to look it up). Anyway, I recently encountered this in the small music section of a used book store, and I figured "why not?" And the obvious answer is "most of the contents".

The cover, in addition to using proud and unironic Comic Sans for the subtitle "2.B.A. Master", boasts that the album contains both "Music From The Hit TV Series" and "10 Brand New Songs!" The former refers obviously to the main theme of the show and every child's favorite mnemonic device, the PokéRap (or “PokéRAP” as it’s spelled for some reason?), but I'm not sure what the third song from the show is. And again, I don’t care enough to look it up. The important thing is, John Loeffler wrote all of them, and apparently an absurd number of other Pokémon-related songs. The "Brand New Songs!" here are mostly new to me, and they’re... a doozy. Except for the songs from the show, plus “Double Trouble” and maybe “Misty’s Song” if I want to be very generous, I am tempted to suggest you could get a similar musical experience in a shorter time by putting on an episode of Pokémon, playing a mix of Milli Vanilli and Boyz II Men songs over it, and banging your head against a wall.

1. Pokémon Theme

We begin with the extended version of the classic theme, this is a sure dose of nostalgia for anyone who watched the show. It sounds, considering the release date, a little outdated — I get kind of a "Beat It" vibe, not from the melody, but from the instrumentation, combining 80s-gated drums and searing electric guitar. But the theme, already one of the few TV themes out there I find enjoyable and not instantly forgettable, extends to a full length surprisingly well, avoiding getting boring or devolving into complete idiocy with lyrics. I actually like this song as a song, and you can’t convince me otherwise.

2. 2B A Master

The instrumentation in this track is absurdly 90s, and again kind of Michael Jackson-y, but is interesting and varied, especially in the sudden attention-grabbing rhythmic change accompanying the line "the greatest master of Pokémon". It shows better restraint in its use of things like record scratch noises and basslines running parallel to vocal lines that I find get really old really quickly. I actually, on the whole, enjoy this song and think the music could have been the basis for something great. “Could have” being the keyword. Lest you think I'm going to give a rosy, loving review of this album, no, it quickly gets bad. Some of the lyrics feel like such forced attempts to get Pokémon references in that I am embarrassed on behalf of the people stuck singing and rapping them, 20 years later. It’s a waste of what could’ve been a fun funky song. (Incidentally, why is the title of the song punctuated differently from the title of the album?)

3. Viridian City

The slide downhill continues. What the hell is this song? The lyrics are only marginally less stupid than the previous track, the music sounds like a keyboard "dance" preset, and it has a weird rapped/spoken "echoing" of sung lines it’s incredibly hard to imagine anyone ever liked. Ugh.

4. What Kind of Pokémon Are You?

Third time's the charm, I guess? After the previous two tracks tried and failed to force Pokémon-related lyrics that just don't work, this one at least manages to fire off a series of type-related puns. The music, however, turns back towards gratingly boring (and for some reason, the bridge comes thisclose to ripping off "Eye of the Tiger"?). Actually, no, hahaha, the lyrics remain very stupid, I think I'm just getting "ground down by a Marowak" by how bad the preceding tracks were.

5. My Best Friends

The parts move in unison too closely for my tastes, the lyrics are bland, the vocal arrangement makes it sound downright inappropriately dramatic, and what’s up with the bridge that veers off into doo-wop? The main thing this song has going for it is the vaguely pleasant piano part in the verses, which really appeals to me (it sounds familiar, although I can’t place what specifically it reminds me of). The melody of the chorus sounds even more familiar — so familiar in fact I'm starting to wonder if it's a copyright-violation-skirting ripoff of something famous. But otherwise, this is a solid “meh”, sounding like a boy band song that would only briefly have made the charts.

6. Everything Changes

And now we're back to impressions of Michael Jackson. This one's instrumentation and mood and even bits of the melody are so him that I could almost believe you if you told me this was an outtake that didn't make it onto Bad. (Although the singer sounds less like Jackson the longer the song goes on.) The lyrics, although vaguely applicable to everything, are a welcome change from the previous few tracks by not feeling like Pokémon has been painfully shoehorned in... up until the part where a clip from the show plays during a break between choruses. Ugh. Could you really not come up with a better way to make this into a distinctly Pokémon song?

7. The Time Has Come (Pikachu's Goodbye)

Yuck. The sentimental ballad (I want to call it a “power ballad”, but I’m unsure what exactly counts as one), as a general rule, is a fire hose full of melodrama best used for comedy. I don't understand how songs like this have ever been taken seriously. I would expect to hear this as the ending theme to a movie that tries to be a tragedy but can’t quite pull it off.

8. Pokémon (Dance Mix)

I assumed from the title that this was a remix of the theme song, but instead, it's just sort of a filler track... It makes almost no impression on me at all, although I do enjoy the intro’s use of "backward-sounding" and morphing synths. Otherwise, this is another track that sounds like it uses keyboard preset backgrounds.

9. Double Trouble (Team Rocket)

Okay, look, I can’t rate this one fairly. The longest-running fandom-related internal conflict of my life has been whether I'd rather be James or have James as mai hasubando, and I love Team Rocket in general as comedy relief villains. I used to enthusiastically perform their ridiculous introductory speech with a friend from band camp (I am even more of a geek than you thought). This song actually bothers to be more specific in terms of its Pokémon subject matter, meaning this is finally a song about Pokémon rather than just a generic pop song with Pokémon flavor, and it uniquely is performed by voice actors from the show, namely those who played Jesse, James, Meowth, and Giovanni. It really grates on me when the VAs talk over the singers, but unlike some of the other songs, it feels like it builds up and goes somewhere. We have at least broken free from the boringness of the last few tracks, with almost industrial percussion and chromatic and sometimes dissonant bass and synth lines that really make it a solid villain song, even though it has a hokey “rap written by people who haven’t actually listened to any rap” feel. And James’s absolutely ludicrous laugh will absolutely alienate who isn’t already a fan of the character, and most people who are, too.

10. Together Forever

The “disappointing imitation of Michael Jackson” theme returns, this time mostly in the voice. It especially pops out at me with the pronunciation of "friend" as "fraynnnndah!". Unfortunately, rather than trying to imitate Jackson’s songwriting again, this song seems to want to rip off Stock Aitken Waterman. And it succeeds at that, too well, as it somehow manages to outcompete a song those writers wrote for Rick Astley to be the worst song with this title. Also returning here: the use of clips from the show to clumsily force an otherwise generic song to be Pokémon-related. Hooray.

11. Misty's Song

Huh. Now this one is interesting. Buried deep in the album, we get something from a character POV that doesn’t just set trivia or quotes from the show to music. Yvette Laboy does a believable job filling in as the singing counterpart for Rachel Lillis's speaking voice for Misty, and I just don't find it nearly as ridiculous as the other ballads on the album, for some reason. It even portrays a tsundere as insecure rather than just an obnoxious walking trope! Sure, it's not great, but it's not bad either, especially after the other attempted ballads on here. Until you remember that it's a 14-year-old singing a love song to a 10-year-old, which... ick. It could've been sweet if put in the mouth of another character with a more age-appropriate relationship. Anyone want to rerecord this as “Kaname's Song” or something?

12. PokéRAP

Oh, educational rap. Why? It’s just unbearably cheesy and doesn’t seem to have had much thought put into it, as a general rule. And this song is no exception. Sure, I guess it has value as a mnemonic exercise (and it does a decent job of that, as anyone who still has large chunks of it memorized can tell you), but no value as music. It often doesn’t even come close to rhyming where you’d expect it to, and it's obvious that Loeffler et al weren't sure what to do with a few of the names at all — Grimer and Chansey have egregious pauses after them, for example, and Omastar is stretched across space enough for two or three names for no good reason. It is broken into convenient-sized stanzas that are only somewhat awkwardly forced into the established meter, but that meter has a too-regular feel, bouncing like a musical Superball, that even I, someone with no particular knowledge of nor interest in rap, recognize as being cheesier than Vanilla Ice. It also hasn’t aged well. The sung parts have absolutely no dynamic range and stay at MAXIMUM DRAMA LEVEL at all times. Over the past 20 years, the lyrics have also become obsolete due to the many additional generations of Pokémon media and consequently much longer list of Pokémon to memorize. Those topics have been covered in excruciating detail by Brian David Gilbert, who is much cleverer than I am, and yes, I do highly recommend sitting through that entire half-hour video. All I can really add to that is, it's considerably less annoying than certain other mnemonic songs I was exposed to growing up. A bad song, unless you’re viewing it through sheer unfiltered silliness? Yes. A surprisingly catchy song that was a good marketing move? Also yes. And 20+ years later, I still can't avoid laughing at the way he says "Wartortle".

13. You Can Do It (If You Really Try)

The album could've gone out on that upbeat note, but no, they had to go for another overblown ballad, this time trying far too hard to be inspirational. The plus side is, it's not yet another generic 80s/90s pop song. The minus side is, it sounds like something that would be playing on the PA in a church thrift store. Or a fake ad on an episode of SNL. I do not feel empowered by this level of unironic encouragement. I just feel like my eyes are rolling so hard they'll fall out. Its only saving grace is that it’s somehow not the most irritating inspirational ballad from the late 90s that was used in connection with a geek-magnet TV show.

Overall... Although I want to describe the music as being "generic" — and it is full of the tiredest parts of 80s and 90s music, wandering from orchestra hits to record scratch noises to cutesy synthesizer "dings" to what seem to be several different singers' bad Michael Jackson impressions — some of it is actually interesting! See, no matter what impression you got from what I said above, I don’t categorically hate this style of music. I made multiple comparisons to songs from Thriller and Bad because I think most of the songs on those albums are examples of how to do this genre very well. But 2.B.A. Master doesn’t just lag because I’m comparing it to widely-beloved albums. Writing this review actually sent me introspecting for quite a while about what music I enjoy and why. And I realized, many of the cheesiest and most flawed aspects of this album are also present on less-acclaimed albums I enjoy very much, like the niche The Golden Age of Wireless by Thomas Dolby and the virtually-unknown Playgrounds ‘n’ Glass by Urban Blight. But, while Dolby’s music often has the same cheesy synthesizer voices and lack of dynamics or has weirdly melodramatic moments, it’s also often clearly experimenting with particular effects and techniques, and his lyrics have evocative images or stories that make the songs really engaging. And, while Urban Blight’s lyrics are often cliche-ridden or downright idiotic, the 80s/90s pop music instrumentation and style elements are varied and used with... for lack of a better term, more discretion, I guess?, which makes me feel like their songs are building to something musically. Well, except the song “Favorite Flavor”, which is just garbage.

The point is, while neither of those examples is a great album (at least not to my taste, which I freely admit colors this), they are both still good. Unfortunately, while some songs on 2.B.A. Master approach goodness, they are the exception, not the rule. Most of the music is simple and predictable and seem to use the more grating tropes of the time like orchestra hits and record-scratch noises just because they can, and most of the lyrics are less "song about Pokémon" and more "attempts at being vaguely inspirational with Pokémon references forced in uncomfortably". Some of the songs are enjoyable in a "this was an earnest attempt” and/or guilty pleasure sort of way (and I unironically like the B-52s, so believe me, I know "this was an earnest attempt” and/or guilty pleasure music), but there’s very little on here I’d actually call good. The best track here musically, “2B A Master”, is wasted on blah lyrics, and the one that most accomplishes the goal of being a song about Pokémon, “Double Trouble”, suffers greatly from its speaking-over-the-singers vocal performance. All I can say is, I’m glad I got this album used.

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W/A/S Scores: 3/0/7

Weeb: The lyrics require some prior specific knowledge of the Pokémon anime to not be completely baffling, but Pokémon is probably the most well-known and well-entrenched Japanese franchise on this side of the Pacific, and other than that, it’s decidedly American, or at least decidedly within the musical cultures of Western Europe and the Anglosphere.

Ass: No.

Shit: AAAAAAAAH. Okay, okay, no, seriously, there are a few good points, but it’s at best average-quality 90s pop with a veneer of Pokémon over the top.

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Oh Weird: While writing this and hunting down appropriate links, I was surprised to see how many uploads of, and even covers of, songs from this album there are on Youtube. I assumed this album was a more or less forgotten piece of bad 90s media, but apparently it’s one with a significant fanbase.

Oh Cool: Maddie Blaustein, the original English-language voice actress for Meowth was also a comic editor and writer for both Marvel and DC and the Creative Director for the Weekly World News. Oh, and she was intersex and, according to one of the sources cited by the Wikipedia article, bi.

Oh No: Educational rap is still a thing, and there are resources to make your own.

#weeaboo trash #album review #pokémon #Pokémon 2.B.A. Master

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vintage1981 · 6 years ago

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Bloody Terror: The Shocking Cinema of Norman J Warren, 1976-1987 - LE | Coming Soon from Indicator

SATAN’S SLAVE (1976)

PREY (1977)

TERROR (1978)

INSEMINOID (1981)

BLOODY NEW YEAR (1987)

Release date: 22 July 2019

Limited Blu-ray Edition Box Set (World and UK Blu-ray premieres)

One of British genre cinema’s most important and distinctive independent filmmakers, Norman J Warren made a series of horror films which were at the forefront of a new wave in British horror during the 1970s. Reflecting a period of permissiveness and fearlessness, Warren’s distinctive stylings are far removed from the Gothic conventions of Hammer Films, deliberately upped the ante in terms of sex, violence and gore to create a new breed of horror that was designed to shock for shock’s sake.

Five of Norman J Warren’s horrifying chillers are presented here in new restorations and on Blu-ray for the very first time in the UK. Containing a wealth of new and archival extras – including new appreciations by contemporary British filmmakers, new cast and crew interviews, audio commentaries on all five films, rare short films, outtakes and alternative scenes, and making-of documentaries – this stunning Limited Edition box set is strictly limited to 6,000 units.

INDICATOR LIMITED BLU-RAY EDITION BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES:

New 2K restorations of all five films, approved by director Norman J Warren

Original mono audio

The BEHP Interview with Norman J Warren (2018): an archival video recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the prolific filmmaker in conversation with Martin Sheffield

Satan’s Slave audio commentary with director Norman J Warren and screenwriter David McGillivray, and a second commentary with Warren and composer John Scott

Prey audio commentary with Norman J Warren and author Jonathan Rigby

Terror audio commentary with Norman J Warren and screenwriter David McGillivray

Inseminoid audio commentary with Norman J Warren and assistant director Gary White

Bloody New Year audio commentary with Norman J Warren and film critic Josephine Botting

All You Need Is Blood (1976): a vintage ‘making of’ documentary for Satan’s Slave, presented in High Definition for the first time

Creating Satan (2004): an archival documentary on the making of Satan’s Slave featuring interviews with Warren, David McGillivray, actor Martin Potter, and others

Devilish Music (2004): an archival interview with composer John Scott

Satan’s Slave alternative scenes

Keep on Running (2004): an archival documentary on the making of Prey featuring interviews with Warren, actor Sally Faulkner, producer Terry Marcel, and others

Prey: On Set with Norman J Warren (1977): location footage with new Norman J Warren commentary

Bloody Good Fun (2004): an archival documentary on the making of Terror featuring interviews with Warren, actors Carolyn Courage, Mary Maude, James Aubrey and Elaine Ives-Cameron, writer David McGillivray, and others

Interview with John Nolan (2019): the Terror actor recalls making the film

Terror deleted scene

Subterranean Universe (2004): an archival documentary on the making of Inseminoid featuring interviews with Warren, actors Stephanie Beacham, David Baxt and Barry Houghton, and others

Interview with Trevor Thomas (2019): a new interview with the Inseminoid actor

Inseminoid Girl (2004): an archival interview with actor Judy Geeson

Electronic Approach (2004): an archival interview with Inseminoid composer John Scott

Interview with Catherine Roman (2019): the Bloody New Year actor recalls making the film

Interview with Steve Emerson (2019): the actor and stunt coordinator discusses working on Terror and Bloody New Year

Norman J Warren: A Sort of Autobiography (2004): an archival career-encompassing interview

The Bridge (1955-57): surviving footage of an early short film directed by Warren, about a pilot on a mission to locate a bridge in Germany during World War II

The Making of ‘The Bridge’: rare and unseen behind-the-scenes footage with commentary by Warren

Carol (1962): pilot tests for Warren’s unrealised feature film about teenage pregnancy and backstreet abortion, with Georgina Hale and Michael Craze

Drinkin’ Time (1963): a comic silent short directed by Warren

Turn Off Your Bloody Phone: Norman J Warren and the Ghost (2013): horror short produced for FrightFest, starring Warren, David McGillivray, and Yixi Sun

Interview with Yixi Sun (2019): an interview with the filmmaker and Warren collaborator

Trailers and TV Spots

Image galleries: promotional and publicity material

New English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

Limited edition exclusive 120-page book with a new essay by Adrian Smith, archival interviews, articles and on-set reports, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits and more

World and UK premieres on Blu-ray

Limited Edition Box Set of 6,000 numbered copies

All extras subject to change

#norman j warren #prey #inseminoid #stephanie beacham #sally faulkner #indicator #powerhouse films #british filmmaker #films #bloody new year #satan's slave #british horror #brit horror

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germanperioddramatranslations · 6 years ago

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What’s next

I thought to keep you updated about what I’m currently working on. It is quite a lot and it will take time. So if it won’t happen tomorrow, don’t worry it is still on my plate.

My next big project will be the movie Ludwig II. from 2012. It is about the famous King Ludwig II of Bavaria who is often refered to as fairytale king and sometimes as swan king. He is the one who build Neuschwanstein for example. Thanks for Jess from WLEXT for helping me in finding an HD source of the movie.

I want to try something different here this time to speed up the project. So far I did the timing myself and put everything in tedious work together in Sony Vegas. This time I found a German subtitle .srt file which I will translate and check for inaccuracies. I hope that this speeds up the process of translation significantly. We will see how it goes.

My side project will be Sophie - Braut wider Willen aka Sophie - Reluctant Bride. I have found a better quality source than their youtube channel and will have to rerender and reupload the two already finished episodes. I still hope to make January 1st, 2019, the release date for episode 01. After that I will try to post a new episode each Saturday. Emphasis on try. Episode 02 will be the first one to be posted on a Saturday at 12:00 am Middle European Time.

Another side project will be the reworking of Maria Theresia. The new version will be logoless since I was able to get a hand on the ARTE airing and can cut it together with the original ORF version to form one logoless video. Furthermore I will update the translation, fixing minor errors I noticed and giving it a more uniform style. For example, in the first few parts on my channel the font size is bigger than I use it now and later on during the translation. I will give this version to WLEXT. If there is a demand, I would also reupload it to youtube but since in my opinion youtube is more for watch once and forget, there won’t be one. But I might be wrong. On WLEXT you will be able to stream and download the episode in one piece instead of in parts.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate. I will see what I can do or help out as far as I’m capable of it. If you know of an official translation but cannot find it online, please contact the admins behind WLEXT directly. I’m constantly recommending series to them whenever I know there is something official and they are searching the web too, but neither I or they know every series and every translation. The admins of WLEXT are very kind and usually capable of finding everything once they know about it.

#update #English subtitles #Ludwig II (2012)#Maria Theresia (2017)#Sophie - Braut wider Willen #Sophie - Reluctant Bride

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mainsmission · 2 years ago

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Cast of a quiet place 2

CAST OF A QUIET PLACE 2 MOVIE

John Krasinski - who co-wrote, directed, and starred in both previous movies - reportedly came up with an original idea for this spinoff. Instead, Day One will likely focus on one or more new groups of characters, hopefully in a very different setting. Though plot details remain scarce, don’t expect Krasinski or previous co-stars Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, or Cillian Murphy to appear. Who’s in the cast for A Quiet Place: Day One? Here’s a look at the first 10 minutes of A Quiet Place Part II, which happens entirely on Day 1. There’s no trailer for this spinoff yet, but chances are high that it will detail the initial alien invasion, a day that was featured via flashback in the second movie: Is there a trailer for A Quiet Place: Day One? It could even take an anthological approach and tell several different stories. So this prequel could really be anything from another tight, paranoid thriller to an action-packed alien invasion. Previous films followed the Abbott family in upstate New York, but the sightless aliens with super-hearing known as “Death Angels” landed all around the globe and killed most of the human population in a matter of weeks. This was reportedly confirmed by Krasinski himself when the title was announced in April 2022. We’re clearly meant to read between the lines here and see Day One as a prequel that takes place entirely on the first day of the invasion. Part II takes place in the days immediately after, but the film opens on Day 1.

CAST OF A QUIET PLACE 2 MOVIE

The first two films both jumped around a bit in the apocalypse’s timeline the first movie opens on Day 89 before jumping forward to detail the dramatic events of Day 472 and 473. What is the A Quiet Place: Day One story?īack in April 2022, Paramount announced at CinemaCon that this previously untitled spinoff film would be called A Quiet Place: Day One. It’s unclear to what extent Day One’s delay is due to ongoing pandemic issues, but it’s not inconceivable that it could face more delays. By March 12, John Krasinski announced that the film would be delayed, and it wasn’t released until over a year later on May 28, 2021. But in late July 2022, the studio announced that the film had been delayed to March 8, 2024.Ī Quiet Place Part II had its world premiere in New York City on March 8, 2020, mere days before the World Health Organization officially declared Covid-19 a pandemic. When is the A Quiet Place: Day One release date?ĭay One was originally scheduled for September 22, 2023. How does this spinoff relate to the first two movies? When will it be released? Here’s everything we know, but be sure to read quietly. Among them is an upcoming A Quiet Placespinoff subtitled Day One that’s set within the universe of John Krasinski’s hit films. Paramount Pictures may have had a huge 2022 thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, but its upcoming slate of movies is a bit chaotic and suffering from several delays.

#Cast of a quiet place 2

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nahasvirginia · 2 years ago

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Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget

#Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget series#

#Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget tv#

Transcription: " Rokudaime Hokage Danzō" ( Japanese: 六代目火影ダンゾウ) The third ending theme, "Yokubō o Sakebe!!!!" ( 欲望を叫べ!!!!, "Shout Out Your Desires!!!!") by OKAMOTO'S is used from episodes 219 to 221. The second ending theme, "FREEDOM" by HOME MADE Kazoku is used from episodes 206 to 218. The first ending theme, "Mayonaka no Orchestra" ( 真夜中のオーケストラ, "Midnight Orchestra") by Aqua Timez is used from episodes 197 to 205. The second opening theme, "Lovers" ( ラヴァーズ, Ravāzu) by 7!! is used from episodes 206 to 221. The first opening theme, " Diver" by NICO Touches the Walls is used from episodes 197 to 205. The season contains five musical themes: two openings and three endings. The season's first episode ran on Adult Swim in its original Japanese audio with English subtitles on April 1, 2018, as part of an annual April Fools stunt by the network, and proceeded to play the same episode in its normal English dub format the following week. The season would make its English television debut on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block and premiere from April 8 to October 6, 2018. The season's English dubbed version aired on Neon Alley from July 13 to December 21, 2013. Its first Japanese DVD volume was released by Aniplex on September 7, 2011. The season aired from February to July 2011. Released on DVD under the name The Gathering of the Five Kage ( 五影集結, Gokage shūketsu), the season follows the assemblance of the Kage, the five village leaders attempting to stop Sasuke Uchiha and the remaining members of the Akatsuki.

#Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget tv#

The episodes are directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Pierrot and TV Tokyo.

#Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget series#

The episodes for the tenth season of the anime series Naruto: Shippuden are based on Part II for Masashi Kishimoto's manga series.

#Naruto shippuden episode 200 english dubbed narutoget

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asterinjapan · 6 years ago

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KOKIA in Nagoya Blue Note [2018.08.11], first stage review

Hi everyone!

I got back from Nagoya, and there's something I want to get wordy about. You see, KOKIA held a performance at Nagoya Blue Note today, and I was lucky enough to get to attend the first stage. Naturally, I want to tell you all about it, so my review follows below the cut!

Without further ado, first the set list (from memory, but I’m fairly confident about it):

Bye bye blackbird Tenki ga ii, biiru o nomou (’the weather’s nice, let’s drink a beer’) Power of smile/the girl from Ipanema Kangaroo pocket Kirin (’Giraffe’) Waraenai hanashi (’a story not for laughing’) Obake ga kowai nante (’ghosts aren’t really scary’) What a wonderful world Moment ~ima o ikiru~ (’live in the now’) kono chikyuu ga marui okage de (’thanks to this planet being round’) Summertime

The setting was really intimate, like a jazz bar. I was on the left of the stage in the front, close to the pianist, and close enough to touch the stage if I were to lie on the ground here, haha. Pianist, bassist, guitarist and drummer all entered the stage before KOKIA went up herself. I think this is the first time I've seen her wearing pants, with a glittery top this time. It fit the casual atmosphere.

I was right with my jazz reference as she started with bye bye blackbird, a cover song I haven't heard live from her yet and in fact, I'm fairly sure she hasn't performed it in a while to begin with? The sounds were light and upbeat, getting us in the mood for a comfortable afternoon.

I think it was after this song that she started referring to the hot summer weather, as the next song was very aptly titled: tenk ga ii, biiru o nomou: the weather's good, let's drink a beer, haha. (You needed to get at least one drink here along with your ticket.) It's from the new album, Tokyo mermaid, and fit right in the jazzy and light hearted flow that blackbird had started. She got her band members to join in on the occasional cheer halfway through the song, haha. After that, she mentioned the drink she had as a specialty for today, since we should be in the mood for drinks on this hot, hot summer day, obviously! (I definitely agree. In the mean while, I had barely touched my iced tea yet because I was so enthralled already, haha. ) She then asked for us to enjoy the next song, after which the pianist started a song I didn't immediately recognize at first. Then she started singing and it clicked: blast from the past, Power of Smile! It was, again, a more jazz inspired version of the song, pretty similar to the version she rearranged for her best of album pearl, subtitled a gentle breeze. I loved KOKIA's own smile as she delivered this song, light and sweet. Halfway through, we were in for a surprise: the song morphed to English, and then KOKIA covered girl from Ipanema. That was a very fun surprise! Next up, she talked about how much fun she's had with her upcoming album, ikimono no ongakkai (concert of living beings), part 2 of her animal series. She already teased about a preview and indeed, she mentioned the kangaroo and its pocket, which she identified with because you can just swing your child around in a pocket in front of you like that, haha. So next up, the kangaroo song, Kangaroo pocket! It was still kind of jazzy and the lyrics went a catchy "kangaroo-roo-roo pocket", and she did the whole swinging thing too, haha. So cute! The first animal album was quite a change from her previous works as it's explicitly intended to also be enjoyed by little children, so there are also a lot of animal noises in there which was apparently a lot of fun in rehearsals. We weren't yet done with the animals! I actually felt the song sounded a bit like the giraffe song from her first animal album in terms of general atmosphere, and in keeping with that atmosphere, we got - the giraffe song! (Actually, considering giraffe is Kirin in Japanese which is also a beer brand, I'm wondering as I type this whether she was still trying to get us to drink, hmmm.)

Of course, she also came back to her most recently released album, Tokyo Mermaid, which she's really proud of and she hopes that those who haven't gotten it yet would give it a listen. For now the appetizer: two songs from the album! I must confess I am not super familiar to all songs yet, so I had to rely on the lyrics to identify Waraenai hanashi (’not a story to laugh about’). The sound of it brings me back to earlier albums, and although it is a song that didn’t stick out to me right away, it got stuck with me now. And then, she started a song I immediately did recognize because it's the first one from the album and also one that I latched on almost instantly: obake ga kowai nante (ghosts aren't really scary). From what I heard from the DVD preview, she slowed it down considerably for the 20th anniversary concert, but this was the normal rhythm. I think it could be a pretty sad song, but she kept her smile and the song felt light instead. I really love this song and i was so glad she'd put it on today's set list!

Next up was a song with mostly just KOKIA and piano, which is a combination that always makes me happy. This was a song all of you know: What a wonderful world. She sings it a bit slower than the original, but so kind and sweet. I feel like her English has improved a lot over the years, and she definitely knows what she's singing, as she gestured and smiled knowingly when the lyrics about children growing up came up.

With the intro of the next song however, I immediately perked up because I knew this one very, very well. I think she's performed it every time I've seen her live, which is a blessing, because this was moment ~ima o ikiru~ (live in the now), which is an impressive song on its own but even more amazing live. Gone was the light tone of the previous songs: suddenly, the small venue seemed much, much too small to hold her powerful voice as she didn't hold back. I really tried not to cry, because this song hits me hard, but KOKIA looked almost straight at me when she was looking at her pianist for cues and I didn't want to cry on her, haha. This was marvelous. The lights swelled with the song, she effortlessly held her ridiculously long tone (last time I remembered to record it, I clocked it at 22 seconds!), and just - wow. That's not the most insightful review ever, but I'm just so blown away every time, especially contrasting the previous songs. Although KOKIA is without a doubt a professional and at ease on stage, it was like she just let loose all of the reins to deliver on moment, and delivering she did. I barely remembered to sip my drink as she took the microphone again for a talk.

She mentioned her upcoming concerts, of which there are a LOT (trust me, I run a fan blog and I've been having trouble keeping it up to date this year, haha), but the first ones up will be in China. Not entirely coincidentally I suspect, her next song was kono chikyuu ga marui okage de (thanks to this planet being round). This is a song that swells, although not quite as much as moment, haha. I really like it though.

It definitely was a little earlier, but KOKIA also mentioned the last time she performed here in Nagoya, which was last year’s birthday live show, when the audience apparently started singing Happy Birthday to her. The pianist tried to sing it now too, but shied away once he was offered the microphone, haha.

I think it was during this time that KOKIA started to thank the musicians, but we weren't done just yet: suddenly, she picked up the tempo and the volume, as the final song felt too big to be contained in such a small space, wow. KOKIA really is an amazing singer: she sounds like it's effortless live, and this was no exception. The song was English and very appropriately Summertime, though definitely a more powerful and slightly more up-tempo than the versions I can find online (I don’t know a lot of jazz, okay, sorry about that, haha) .

And suddenly, it was over, just like that. I mean, it makes sense since she has two performances today, but I was still overwhelmed by her performance and kind of meekly sipped on my iced tea while people around me were getting up. As it turned out, there was a shop with merchandise, and it was still open! When I went over to check, we noticed KOKIA sitting in the next room over - she was having an signature session. Ohhh boy! I mean, with how small the venue was I was hoping for it, but being able to see KOKIA this close and getting to talk to her twice within a year was a bit much for my heart, haha.

I'm a spoiled brat who already had all the albums for sale, but I did spot the normal version of her 20th anniversary best of album, which has a lovely but completely different cover and packaging from the special edition (which I had pre-ordered, because come on, have we met). So I ended up buying an album I already have (technically twice even, since it's a collection), but it did mean I could queue up! Keeping with the atmosphere, this session was much more up close and laid back than the Christmas concert back in December (but honestly, I was already amazed she held an autograph session at all back then, given how huge that venue was). KOKIA was seated at a high table putting her at eye level, and the queue was so short I was getting fidgety trying to remove the packaging as quickly as possible, haha. And suddenly I was at the front, and she seemed pleasantly surprised to see me (I'm fairly sure I was one of the very few obviously foreigners here today, at least from what I saw). I thanked her profusely for today (I never quite know what to express but gratitude when it comes to KOKIA), and we actually got to talk a bit. I mentioned I was from the Netherlands, and she was impressed with my language skills since, as my blog demonstrates (and she knows it's there!), I speak at least 3 languages, haha. I'm not quite as fluent as I wish in Japanese, but this talk went pretty alright with some help here and there. I explained that moment as a song meant a lot to me and asked her to sign the booklet at that page, and she wrote it out to my name with a smiley face, hee. There were still people waiting for their turn, so I thanked her again and got to shake hands before leaving.

And with that, I think I summoned up today's main event pretty well! I'm currently in the train back to my hotel, so I'm typing this on my phone.

Aaand now I’m back at the hotel and have just finished tidying up this review a bit, haha. I hope I didn’t forget to mention anything, but I’ll stalk twitter a bit for the other fan reviews there.

Thanks for reading my rambling thus far and if you’re reading this, KOKIA, thank you again for a wonderful afternoon! It was very different and a sharp contrast from the last live show (when she did a huge hall concert backed up by a full orchestra), but I can’t help but fall in love with your music all over again every time.

See you soon again!

#report #japan 2018 #report: japan 2018 #report: KOKIA concert

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