#the scenes in the now when they act all loveydovey

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

louis being with armand as punishment to all three of them. "you'll never make it up to me" - "i know" - "is lestat still in paris". armand accepting this rather than being alone.

[abbyfreemansmind]

Let’s talk about Hazbin Hotel

So, I finally sat down and watched Hazbin Hotel. I’d heard so much about it and felt the need to launch myself headfirst into having my own opinions about it instead of just listening to other people talking about it. This is gonna be a long post, so I’m gonna put it behind a neat little read more. Please note that this is coming from someone who genuinely enjoys adult humour and edgy humour and themes. I’ve got no problem with something that’s all swearing and raunchy jokes. It just needs to be done right.

Point 1 - The Plot The plot is describes as the Princess of Hell trying to open a new hotel to rehabilitate sinners so they don’t get exterminated during the yearly heavenly extermination to deal with Hell’s overpopulation problems. This plot is quickly undone through a few things that anyone can notice during the first viewing. 1 - Overpopulation? WHAT population? The scenery is most often noticeably devoid of any signs of life, outside of when background characters are called for. The scene where Charlie’s doing her news presentation is the most notable example of background characters. After this scene, we see almost nobody outside of the main cast and those weird little egg things. There are a few throwaway demons but outside of that, the streets are devoid of people. There aren’t even the corpses we had just seen during that opening scene. 2 - Charlie may as well be a total nobody what with all the power being the Princess of Hell holds. Just look at how the other characters treat her. You’d think the Princess of Hell would have some kind of benefit that would sway people towards agreeing with this whole idea. Instead, she gets mocked by just about everyone for reasons I can only guess involve winning her sympathy points from the audience. 3 - At no point does she give any proof that redemption would work. She basically says, “Hey guys! I hate seeing you all die, so I have this idea that has no backing evidence, that may or may not work, to try and get you guys into Heaven! Let me sing a song about it where I insult you all!”

Point 2 - Presentation I applaud the animators. Must’ve been hard, especially for Charlie’s overly fast song that really didn’t need to be nightcored, or literally any time Angel Dust was on-screen. Frame by frame. No rigs. All those stripes. All those colours that blend if you stare at them too hard or squint even slightly while watching. All that unnecessarily constant movement. It’s no wonder the thing took four bloody years to animate. Outside of animation, there are too many unneeded details and not enough needed details. Seriously. 1 - The turf war. We didn’t need this. We didn’t need this at all. If you take out the entire opening to it and the entire actual fight scene here, the episode still flows smoothly and we get the same amount of information and worldbuilding. In a pilot/first episode, you should only give the audience necessary details. Leave them wanting more, yes, but make sure they actually know what they’re getting into from the first episode. Make every scene count. Make it mean something. Don’t just shove every detail you can think of together and call it a day, especially if you don’t actually give the audience much information from it. 2 - Why is Hell overpopulated? Why isn’t Heaven? Why can angels go from Heaven to Hell, but demons can’t go from Hell to Heaven? Why does nobody care about being redeemed if Hell is so overpopulated that Angels annually come down and kill people because of it? Why does everyone treat the Princess of Hell like she’s worthless? Why doesn’t Angel Dust know about Alastor if they got into hell within 10 years of each other? Where is this supposed overpopulation problem? Would redemption even work in the first place? Why should I care about most of these characters (who are mostly complete jerks with no redeeming qualities other than “PROTAGONIST”, especially when two of the fan favourites repeatedly sexually assault other characters and, in one case, is both sexist and racist at one point)? Why are there turf wars? I should not be having to ask these questions. Don’t hold the audience’s hand, but don’t leave every single question you present in the show unanswered. Some of the questions presented make absolute sense to leave unanswered. Why does Alastor want to help with the hotel? Why are characters like Vaggie and Niffty, who do nothing all that bad, in Hell? These are questions that make total sense to leave unanswered for now. 3 - What crime is too terrible to be redeemed for? Charlie seems to think that literally everyone can be redeemed. That means murderers, rapists, abusers, tormentors... Certainly her song holds some kind of key to figuring it out! “Inside of every creepy hatchet-wielding maniac” Hmm... Okay... “All of you cretins, sluts and losers, sexual deviants and boozers” Uh... “So, all your cartoon porn addictions, vegan rants, psychic predictions Ancient Roman crucifixions end right here All you monsters, thieves and crazies, cannibals and crying babies" Oh... Also, did she imply that mental illness, alcoholism, drug dependency, plant-based diets/lifestyles, rabies and enjoyment of sex were sins in that song?

Point 3 - Edgy for the sake of edgy Hazbin Hotel tries to be an adult cartoon, but comes off as something a mentally disturbed teenager wrote during their emo/scene phase. 1 - The swearing and sex jokes. Oh boy. I’ve worked with children under the age of 15 who swear and crack sex jokes better than the adults in this show. The swearing and sex jokes are the only reasons this show couldn’t be aired as a Cartoon Network show aimed at edgy teenagers. It’s so poorly done that it in and of itself takes away from the quality of the show itself. Also, we have a character who’s name is an actual sex joke itself. Vaggie, full name Vagatha - a lesbian sex worker, of course. Fun fact for those who don’t know, but all of her previous character drafts had her name as some form of joke on the word vagina. This isn’t an accident, this is blatant and intentional. Also, here’s a pro tip for you! You can make an adult-oriented show without having swearing, slurs and sex jokes taking up a solid third or more of your script. 2 - The... “Representation”. Yes, Hazbin Hotel has LGBT+ characters! Yes, it has biracial and Latina characters! Charlie is bi, Vaggie is a Latina lesbian, Angel Dust is a gay man, Alastor is ace and biracial, Husk is pan, Niffty is Japanese (YIKES). Except none of it actually matters. No, really. Vivziepop was all like, “btw you can ship w/e, idc! also, i rlly like the fanon version of human alastor (who is whiter than marshmallow fluff even though he’s supposed to be half black)! :)” and threw all that out the window because... Who knows at this point. Now, if you look at the connected series, Helluva Boss, you get Moxie and Millie - an extremely obvious and loving couple. In Hazbin Hotel, you get Charlie and Vaggie who you probably couldn’t tell were a couple without somebody telling you that in the first place, what with all the loveydovey-ness going on with them. In fact, the biggest hint we even get is literally one line. “Life ain’t a musical, hun.” But then again, I’d be more apt to believe Charlie and Vaggie are friends, or Vaggie is pining after Charlie. Also, Charlie is a really bad girlfriend! She lets Vaggie get abused by practically the entire cast without so much as a single word in her defense and ignores everything Vaggie says. It came as no surprise when I remembered hearing about how the only reason these two are a couple is because one of the people on the team thought they were during storyboarding and Vivziepop just went with it. Also, fun fact, Vaggie fits both the angry lesbian and fiery Latina stereotypes. Charlie fits the stereotype for the bisexual cheater, what with how she seems to actually like Alastor more than her own bloody girlfriend. Alastor is canonically ace because he’s too full of himself to be with anyone else. Speaking as somebody who’s ace... WHAT?! As much as I don’t like Charlastor, it’s partially more popular than Chaggie because Vivziepop actually made them act like a couple for an entire musical number. Also, he’s annoying. He not only kept telling Vaggie to smile (heck you dude), he also smacked her butt, which is a form of sexual assault, people. This was all played for laughs, along with Vaggie’s (actually very reasonable) anger. Niffty is Japanese. A yellow-skinned demon who’s boy crazy and obsessed with cleaning... Big yikes. Finally, Angel Dust. The kinky gay man porn star/drag queen/drug addict/prostitute who verbally sexually assaulted two guys. Where do I begin. When it came to this guy, Vivziepop must’ve been like, “Imma throw every stereotype for gay men on this guy and call it a character!” If you look a Helluva Boss again, you get Stolas, who verbally sexually assaults Blitzo over the phone and also cheated on his wife with him in the first place, so this isn’t a one-off. Also, he was originally AFAB, so that whole line about “Why are you all women?” is more than a little heinous and in extremely poor taste.

In conclusion, this show is terrible. Everything about it. It needs some serious reworking, because as it stands, it’s really truly not that great of a creation.

tl;dr: Needs a lot of work and “ThEy’Re In HeLl!!1!!one!!!eleven!!!11″ isn’t even remotely an excuse for the genuine problems in it. Remember, at least one actual human being on Earth, not in Hell, wrote this garbage fire. Also, the animators deserve a higher wage than whatever they’re getting to deal with these designs. I shudder just thinking about animating them, with or without a rig.

[sambart93]

2017.08.10 Soukai no Tiida Review!

I went to see Hiroki-kun again ^_^ and this one I was super excited about because of the story (it’s a fantasy set in the Sengoki era) and when the costume visuals came out, they looked freaking amazing! The colours are beautiful, look!

I was a little worried at first because the site announced that it was going to be a lot longer than I was expecting, and I went on a school night too so I was a little worried it’d affect my work the next day BUT you do these things for the people you like, right?!

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3

CAST AND CHARACTERS

Oshima Ryo as Nakijin Tiida Kuryu Mina as Zan Ukai Mondo as Kyan Zoui Nagahara Masaki as Ganeko Temi Tanaka Hiroki as Nakijin Kaji Ichikawa Miki as Nakajin Maaji Mizuki Momoko as Teruya Rami Maruyama Raiden as Ganeko Uusu Oguri Ryo as Kagushi Kanyuuji Yamamoto Teppei as Kaihara Tenyou Yoshida Munehiro as Motake Jakotsu Akaba Mio as Eshirdera Nekomaru Mochida Chihira as Seimatsu Yoshino Teppei as Eriguchi Teraji Hiroya as Riisu Kamikoshi Sho as Giya Akiyoshi Aya as Lala Hanaoka Meika as Rei Miri as Ion Ogura Erika as Akari Araki Miyu as Senado Shimozuki Yukari as Watashimi Yamamoto Mayu as Sofi Funaoka Saki as Mao Ichiose Hidekazu as Ganju

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As expected of ASSH: a freaking HUGE cast.

STORY

Set in the country ‘Yamato’ in the midst of the Sangoku (Three Countries) period. We have a royal family in the land of “Ryuusa” who’s prince, Tiida, doesn’t really have an interest in inheriting the throne. One day, he accidentally finds and rescues a mermaid -- a very rare creature that pirates will track down and kill in exchange for a lot of money. Thus conflicts arise; people who want to protect the mermaid, people who want to kill the mermaid, we also have conflict between the royal family and it’s servers, as well as Tiida refusing to take responsibility.

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REVIEW

I ended up being third row and SMACK in the middle! The theatre (CBGK Shibugeki) is actually really nice and the seats are super comfortable!! At first I was worried because the play was set to be over 2 hours without a break BUT because it wasn’t boring at all, I enjoyed the full 160 minutes(!), it didn’t feel long at all.

This was very, very similar to D-Boys’ Yuhiden - probably because it’s the exact same story/history in terms of Tiida being someone who doesn’t want the throne and runs away from his responsibilities, as well as in the end deciding he needs to go out on an adventure and finally getting onto the sea to see what’s out there. But it’s different enough what with the mermaid aspect and I think this one had a lot more fantasy and fantastical elements such as mermaids, gods with magical powers, summonings and spells etc. -- also Yuhiden had like corpses coming back but this one just had human against human fighting instead. 

The set was really cool for this, especially when they pulled out the massive boat that came out to the very edge of the stage! It was super close! And it was a little scary whenever they were leaning out over it!

Also they used a little projection mapping when the mermaids were in the sea which was cute -- I also loved the delicate touch of the two actresses swaying slightly when they were underwater as if the current was pulling them a little.

I already talked about the costumes a little above but I really did like the costumes in this! I especially loved Sofi, Teruya and Zan’s land outfit.

ASSH (alongside LiveDog and Odd Entertainment) always do such a good job of having strong female characters, and ones that kick ass to! This stage was no different! We had quite a few badass females in this; especially Sendao and Seimatsu!

The action was once again very, very good and crapped myself for most of the stage beause of how close I was (third row) to everything! Especially when we had giants spears and swords - like Kaihara and Nekomaru had!

Also there were a lot of story lines; some I cared for, some I didn’t but there weren’t too many.

I want to get into characters, actors and individual scenes now...

Oshima Ryo as Nakijin Tiida - not going to lie... I think he was the weakest character and actor. For some reason I just couldn’t warm up to Oshima and his acting. Also the other characters were far more interesting; I really didn’t care about his infatuated love with the mermaid; I really didn’t care for this storyline even though it was the main damn point of the whole show xD I was more interested in the pirate group and the other country’s group fighting each other for HER because her meat is so valuable. I was also more interested in the pirates groups’ relationship, the hate and turmoil between the Ryuusa brothers, the plot to kill Tiida and take over the Ryuusa family, as well as Kaihara and Mao’s relationship. Kanjyu was a character who I definitely wanted to know about too. So unfortunately his character and the stages main plot line were the weakest parts for me personally, especially because...

Kuryu Mina as Zan - at the end, she decides to change back into a mermaid, after all the witchcraft and crap Tiida went through to give her legs(!), and be with her sister, even though they’re probably going to get caught and killed and sold off eventually. But anyway... I think Mina did a good job! I think she covered a naive mermaid very well (even I’m laughing at this sentence). I really loved it after she got turned into a mermaid, we got this The Little Mermaid twist where she got her legs BUT in return she lost her voice and she did a very good job with trying to force herself to speak and just squeaky exhausted noise would come out. Also she sang the theme song at the end and her voice is beautiful. I already mentioned above too; her outfit when she was on land was gorgeous! It was this white tweed-light dress. I really liked it.

Ukai Mondo as Kyan Zoui - Mundo always does such great roles. He always does such a good job and his action and fighting is always great too! He always looks so damn cool too! I was a little surprised at how little stage time he got this time around and that he was a side character rather than a main, but I still loved his character. He was playing Tiida’s childhood and best friend, and I loved his dynamic with Tiida; he was trying to be serious but Tiida was just being airy-fairy and not listening to him so he got stressed a little >.<

Nagahara Masaki as Ganeko Temi - Unfortunately I don’t remember him all that much. I remember he was cute and he played the guy who wanted the throne and to take it from Tiida. Also he had a crush(?) on Teruya who was only ever interested in the other two boys. He was a cutie!

Tanaka Hiroki as Nakijin Kaji - Here’s my boy!!! He played Tiida’s younger brother who clearly felt he was more ideal for the throne and did have remorse towards his brother and even fought with him, but once it turns out they’d be manipulated and there were bigger things to worry about, they managed to figure it all out ^_^ As usual Hiroki got to do action scenes and look very cool! Also his costume is gorgeous! I love the colours. BUT I’m sad he had such a small role -- I always want him to have more stage time xD BUT!!! Dang his voice! He used a deep voice this time around -- which I am not used to! I’m so used to his normal high pitched voice <3 it’s so cute... but this time around, the deeper, low toned voice made him sound so sexy ^_^ well MORE sexy. And I got his tokuten at the venue so here’s that:

It’s cute right!

Ichikawa Miki as Nakajin Maaji and Maruyama Raiden as Ganeko Uusu - These two worked as a pair because Ganeko is sort of like her son’s teacher but he’s also somewhat of her butler. Also they ended up having a romantic relationship together. It was cute how at first she was like ‘I can’t be with you! What would the kingdom think! It’s not very queen like!’ but at the end she’s liken ‘I love him and that’s all that matters!’ and it was cute seeing them get together in the end. He was so sweet and supportive of her.

Mizuki Momoko as Teruya Rami - This bitch! She was all nice and loveydovey in front of Kaji, Temi and Tiida but it very soon came to light that she was just manipulating them all and only wanted to be with the son that would ultimately get and take the throne from the other brothers. She was the one who set it all up that turned Temi against Tiida and why Kaji also ended up fighting his brother at one point. She was just crazy and horrible in the end. Her costume was gorgeous though! Oh and she wouldn't dare get her own hands dirty

Oguri Ryo as Kagushi Kanyuuji - FINALLY a role where he doesn’t die! He’s died in freaking EVERYTHING that I’ve seen him in! And I went into this one thinking ‘I’m gunna see him die, and cry again ain’t I?!’ BUT he didn’t! I really liked his character in this one too! He was more of a minor character this time around but I really enjoyed that his character just completely trusted and supported his friend no matter what. Kanyuuji’s relationship with Kaihara was so great! I really loved their dynamic and their relationship and their end scene was great too! In the end they set out on the sea and Tiida goes with them. Ryo’s costume was ALSO great and colourful and beautiful.

Yamamoto Teppei as Kaihara Tenyou - I already said I loved his relationship with Kanyuuji, BUT, unlike Tiida and Zan’s relationship, I really enjoyed his relationship with Mao. His main objective is that, a few years ago, the goddess Mao appeared to him and asked him to fulfill her wish. When he asked what he wish was, she said her wish is to die and he promised her that he would be the one to kill her. So his objective this entire stage is to find Mao once again and kill her. And this is why I love his and Kanyuuji’s relationship; Kanyuuji’s could’ve simply been like ‘a god? You’re gunna kill a god? That’s ridiculous!’ but instead he’s like ‘okay! You go do that but I’m coming with you!’ and just completely trusts him! This duo were so interesting! They’re both cuties too so that helps >.<

Yoshida Munehiro as Motake Jakotsu - his character was pretty interesting. At first he just seemed like a typical, crazy bad guy BUT once the fighting kicked in, he started using unearthly god-like power (if I remember correctly, he controlled thunder or electricity) and after Tiida attacked and stabbed him, he somehow came back to life (after Nekomaru somehow sacrificed himself and gave his life to Motake) which means some sort of magic or godlike power is going on with him which was super interesting. I also really liked the scene between him and Nekomaru around the beginning of the play when they’re making their plot to get the meraid and the scene ended with Motake on top of Nekomaru and going to kiss him as the scene faded to black -- of course(!) that made me happy! xD

Akaba Mio as Eshirdera Nekomaru - I’ve seen Akabe quite a few times now; both on stage and in person; he’s definitely someone who’s very comfortable as he is and always does roles very similar to himself and he does the type of roles that I too enjoy. So this character was no different. He was this beautiful, somewhat feminine character who was in love with his boss and had this sexy air to him. He also knew how to use a spear in such high skill and he made that also look sexy. And when his boss was attacked he was very sacrificial and thought his lover and leader more important than himself which was beautiful too! I really liked his character in this too.

Mochida Chihira as Seimatsu - She was badass! She was very Hijikata like; all about the samurai-ness. Also she always had this samurai stance and lowered her voice to make her more powerful and intimidating. I loved just how stereo-typically samurai she was! I loved her fights and her final scene was badass too! She was like ‘I’ll die fighting!’ and that’s what she did! She gave it her all! Bad. Ass. Super, super loved her fight with Senado!!

Yoshino Teppei as Eriguchi Teraji - A huge apology but I don’t remember this guy at all! as he even in this? I don’t remember him!

Hiroya as Riisu - His was basically Japanese Jack Sparrow. He did the exact same walk, exact same hand gestures; everything was the spitting image of Jack Sparrow, which made me a little disappointed. I kind of wanted Hiroya to add something to it. It’s fine if you take inspiration from Sparrow and use parts of him in your character but to pretty much copy him and not add anything new or different was a let down. It was okay and interesting in the beginning but I very soon got tired of his performance in this one. Which is sad because I’ve seen Hiroya act a number of times and he can act but why he decided to just be Japanese Jack Sparrow... it makes me sad and disappointed.

Kamikoshi Sho as Giya - ShoKun!!! This little cutie!! His character was like the baby of the group, naturally, and he was protected by the rest of the people in his group. I really liked this one scene though, where he finally gets his hands on a gun, like he’d been wanting to, but at the moment, he got so scared and full of fear that he couldn’t shoot and closed his eyes and miss the shot etc. It felt rather realistic, especially because this happened in the middle of a battle sequence too! Sho is always such a cutie <3

Akiyoshi Aya as Lala, and Hanaoka Meika as Rei  - These two were cute! They were similar to Sho’s character in that they were very new and didn’t really know much about fighting and it was a huge shock of reality when all of a sudden all this fighting is going on and they have to somewhat grow up and get involved in the fight in order to help each other and Riisu.

Miri as Ion, Ogura Erikerina as Akari, and Araki Miyu as Senado - They played the queen’s bodyguards/henchmen. Unfortunately, I don’t really remember Miri, BUT I do remember thinking that Erika played almost the same character in this role as she did in Soul Flower, so nothing interesting or exciting there for her unfortunately. I really enjoyed Senado though. She had an interesting fighting style - she was like duel wielding two wooden blocks, used more for defense rather than to attack with. Like I said before, her fight with Seimatsu was badass!

Shimozuki Yukari as Watashimi - He’s just this random god that shows up to talk to Mao now and again. His visuals are both awesome AND terrifying at the same time because of that almost fully dark blue / black eye going on.

Yamamoto Mayu as Sofi - She played the worrying older mermaid sister when Zan disappears and goes to the human world. There’s a few scenes with her and her sister and she’s just pleading for her sister to come back to her but her sister in like ‘no sorry I’m going to stay and live here with the humans’ which is pretty damn harsh, leaving her sister all alone int he ocean! But luckily Zan comes to her sense and joins her sister again. Although I feel like her sister should’ve been more pissed when Zan came back - she was going to abandon Sofi! At least be annoyed THEN be happy your sister is back! her costume was gorgeous too! Especially the top half, it was like this light blue laced dress top.

Funaoka Saki as Mao - Mao was both a sweet but sad character. Sweet because she was kind enough to help Tiida turn Zan into a human - but with a price. Tiida ended up having this almost black poisoned veiny tattoo up his left arm and while it allowed him to also use godly powers - like with Motake - it also turned him crazy and evil and unable to control the power when it was unleashed. But it’s sad because all she wants to do is die and she’s unable to due to being a god.

Also now I feel super bad for the actress! I thought she was in her early thirties but, looking at her profile, she’s only two months older than me! Do all us 24 years look that old?! Damn... I feel real bad and feel real old now.

Ichiose Hidekazu as Ganju - this guy was so cool! I super loved him! I wish we had a stage JUST about his backstory and about him! He seemed to be this old, mystical guy who just knows what the hell was going on, and would offer his help, but at the same time, would not tell anyone about his past nor who he really is. We know he trained Tiida and Riisu so he really is this old, wise Yoda-like character. He was super sexy too! And his fighting was awesome! His visuals alone made him look badass! I really want to know more about this character!

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The ending was left open ended too! We had the pirate gang going back out into the ocean, as well as Tiida, Kaihara and Kanyuuji out off on an adventure together. We don’t know much about Ganjyuu at all(!), and I’d quite like to see if any shit happens now that Tiida is gone and Temi and Kaji are left to rule the kingdom without him.

GOODS

That’s all I think I have to say! This is another ASSH production that I want on DVD! And I feel like this stage could be or is part of a series so I am very open for a sequel and more stages in this world! Especially if it’s got my boys like Hiroki-kun Sho-kun, Mondo, and Ryo in it!!

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Hope you enjoyed this! Have I interested you in some of the lesson known actors in the Japanese stage world? Y’all know my love for Hiroki-kun anyway xD and Sho-kun is a newbie I super love too! Some regular faces popped up here too that you should all be just as familiar with as me! ^_^