#the youthfulness the maturity......the comedy the heartbreak......

[avorbl]

Avor's Watchlist for weeks 46 + 47

Winter seemingly started early around here. So I need these shows to brighten up fast because freezing temperatures and late fall darkness are depressing enough on their own.

Currently Airing

Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart! 11/12 There are some good parts in every episode so I still put them on but most of the episode gets skipped

Love is Like a Poison 10/10

Love Sick 2024 11/15 The series has arrived at the couple era for the main and secondary couples and is moving into the struggles before the end. As was to be expected with such a big cast not all of the stories get the consistent attention to make it a wholly satisfying watch.

Fourever You 8/16 The Bas Maxky story is not working for me and if it wasnt for Ngern Pond and Earth Cooheart I would have dropped this already.

Usotoki Rhetoric 6/10 I love this exploration of what a lie is. Especially since the parameters for the poor gentleman detective comedy have become more established

Light of my Lion 6/11 Its getting deeper and deeper into the definition of family

See Your Love 6/13 The mutual appreciation and the resulting motivation make this a standout feel good show.

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days 10/12 Gettingthe promise of a separation and the finalisation for Tan and Liu makes a heartbreaking last act for Xiao and Lu more likely. All being made easier by the youthfullness and care that they show in their interactions.

Bad to Bed 4/10 The weekly look at queer life or queer issues makes this a community building project. I am not sure if it has an overarching narrative.

Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan 4/10

Our Youth / Miseinen 3/11 Technically and storywise the most enganging right now.

The Nipple Talk 6/10 A more story focused look at queer life and the biases we all carry aound

Fragrance you inherit 3/8 This is building up some layers. I am interested to see how they going to contrast mother and son finding themselves

Caged Again 3/10 This is fun it gives child detective/adventure novel vibes although the rating seems to say there is a bit more in store here

Your Sky 2/12 I am enjoying the dynamic but I am not sure its enough setup to last twelve episodes

The Heart Killers 1/12 There is an excuse of a plot but most of it seems to be situational. Expressionless Joong doesnt do it for me though.

What I am catching up on

Unstoppable High Kick 28/167

The Princess Royal 27/40

Word of Honor 23/36

Fight for My Way 10/16

Playboyy 2/14

Kiss x Kiss x Kiss: Love ii Shower 1/

Still on my watch list

Sell Your Haunted House 5/16

I Feel You Linger in the Air 1/12

She and Her Perfect Husband 20/40

Fermat no Ryori 3/10

Blue Complex 10/?

Tengu no Daidokoro Season 2 2/10

Even if it's just a dream that I'll forget when I wake up 5/8

Stealing from My CEO 16/61

Buddy Boy 5/?

Finished in the last two weeks

Love in the Big City 13.11.24 10/10 A wonderful adaptation that while close to the book in its tweaks seems so much more hopeful and life-affirming.

Smells Like Green Spirit 14.11.24 9/10 Queer coming of age the decisions we make and how they affect us.

Eccentric Romance 14.11.24 6/10 Relies on the murder for the plot but doesnt take it seriously. Which means that it is easy to watch but lacks any kind of impact.

My Best Boyfriend 15.11.24 6/10 They have good chemistry and a good story could have been built on that but it got bogged down by side plots presumably to keep the supporting cast engaged which means that this cliffhanger ending leaves a bad taste and does not really encourage the support the creator is asking for.

My Damn Business 16.11.24 8/10 Entertaining small production. Realising a office fantasy.

Dominant Yakuza and Wimpy Corporate Slave 21.11.24 8/10 Professionally done Surprisingly sweet Not much substance

Every You, Every Me 24.11.24 8,5/10 Having them go from shorter to longer series showing the progression of their careers and then going into them losing themselves in the job whilst maturing. I wish they would have gone for a more obvious overarching throughline I had fun in the different worlds though.

Dropped in the last two weeks

Kidnap 11/12 eps 15.11.24 5,5/10 I got too bored and barely made though episode 11. And when I tried the last episode it just seemed like a continuation.

[hils79]

2023 Dramas Watched

I watched a lot of dramas last year, but not as many as I did in 2022. It was mostly a good bunch, which is generally why my to watch list is mostly things people have recommended to me (or I've seen gifs on Tumblr that look revlevant to my interests.

I'll put the list under a cut. It's mostly for my reference anyway

1. Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama - My housemate wanted to watch this because Michael Sheen is in it. I don't even have that excuse, although it's always nice to see him in things. IDK I wasn't obsessively following the court case when it happened, but my boss kept giving us updates because she found it highly entertaining. I think it was just something silly to focus on to distract us all from the shit that's going on in the world. Anyway, the cast were great and it was highly entertaining. I don't think we were supposed to laugh as much as we did but it was kind of ridiculous.

2. Ghost Doctor - This is one I've been group watching with friends over the past few months. It was a lot of fun. A rather silly concept (brilliant surgeon is in a coma after an accident and haunts the hospital where his body is) with a surprising amount of heart to it. I enjoyed it.

3. Dragon Age: Absolution - I loved this! I don't know how well this would stand up if you haven't played the games. It's mostly a stand alone story with a few nods to previous canon. I, however, have played the games and they are pretty much my favourite game franchsise. So, yep, this was great. Very much in the vein of the games. Everyone is gay and it's delightful.

4. The Eclipse - This was okay. It was in a similar vein as Not Me in terms of being a BL drama about social justice, but it lacked the maturity and tight storyline that Not Me had. The two main leads were both excellent it just lost its way a bit towards the end. Still very enjoyable.

5. Welcome to Chippendales - Honestly this show wasn't even on my radar until Jacqui was looking for something to watch and saw it on Disney+. She told me she'd watched a documentary about the founder of Chippendales a while back and gave me a brief synopsis. It was such a wild story that I had to watch this. It was really good! The cast did a phenomenal job

6. About Youth - I'd had this recced to me a while back so when my Saturday group watch gang suggested we watch it I was all in. It was great! Incredibly sweet, occasionally heartbreaking. We all really enjoyed it.

7. Hotel del Luna - I enjoyed this a lot even though I cried WAY more than I was expecting to. I thought it was going to be a wacky comedy about ghosts, and there are lots of funny bits, but there's also a lot about death, grief and making peace with your life. I think I cried at least once in just about every episode. Do rec though. It was good.

8. Roommates of Poongduck 304 - This is one I started group watching before Christmas with some friends and never got around to finishing. It was cute. Nothing amazing, and not one I'd particularly want to watch again but it was fine.

9. Choco Milk Shake - I did enjoy this. It was very cute and funny in places. It was also WAY sadder than I was expecting and I ended up crying a lot. I wish they'd spent a little more time explaining the mechanics of everything (basic premise is a guy's childhood dog and cat come back in human form because he's lonely) and the ending was a little bittersweet. But overall I think I did enjoy it.

10. The Blood of Youth - I absolutely loved this! It had a lot of of the classic wuxia tropes in it, but an interesting enough story that I was hooked. The cast were great, the characters all had fantastic chemistry. I definitely want to check out some of the other dramas the lead has done because he was great.

11. Until We Meet Again - This has been on my to watch list more or less since I started watching East Asian dramas back in 2020. I've been avoiding it because it deals with some quite heavy topics (the premise is two male lovers in the 80s take their own lives because their fathers disapprove of their relationship and in present day they meet again having been reincarnated into two students at the same college) but I'm glad I bit the bullet and finally watched it. It was very sweet, and was all about healing and forgiveness. I liked it a lot. I think Not Me still holds the top spot for my favourite Thai drama but this is a close second

12. The Guest - I really wasn't sure about this one when I watch the first episode. I don't mind TV horror generally but the first episode was a lot and I had to mute it a couple of times because it was freaking me out. Luckily they toned it down a fair amount after that and the rest of it was fantastic! Really enjoyed it. Definitely one of the better dramas that I've watched this year so far. If you're looking for a k-drama that's in the same vein as The Exorcist/The Omen/Supernatural then you'll like this one.

13. Overworking Man - This was a genuinely pleasant surprise. I watched it because the lead is one of my tomb show actors and I had pretty low expectations. I was expecting some sort of cringe sitcom in the same vein as The Office. What I got was a bonkers little web drama full of queer subtext where there's actual character development and life lessons. I really enjoyed it!

14. Midnight Museum - This was a very odd little drama. It was made by GMM who makes a lot of my favourite BL dramas. This one is not a BL, but it uses all of the BL tropes. The two male leads keep talking about how they want to be together forever and they keep risking their lives to save each other. I guess as bros? It starts off as a horror drama (premise is a barista ends up getting a job at a museum that houses cursed objects, which then get stolen, and they have to recover them all) but then halfway through it turns into this weird religious cult thing where they examine the nature of free will vs God's plan. I think I enjoyed it? But it was definitely a bit weird.

15. Cupid's Last Wish - I've been group watching this with some friends over the past couple of months. I enjoyed both leads in A Tale of 1000 Stars which I watched last year. They were good in this too but the story didn't hit quite as hard. It was fine but the ending felt rushed and anticlimactic

16. Sell Your Haunted House - This was really fun. It reminded me a bit of Buffy just in terms of general vibes and ass-kicking female lead. There were some genuinely surprising plot twists and I had a blast watching it

17. Ghost Host, Ghost House - This had a nice twist to it that I didn't figure out until I was partway through. It was cute and interesting.

18. Stupid Boys, Stupid Love - This was cute. I haven't watched much Vietnamese TV and this was very diverse even for a BL drama. There were gay boys, gay girls, height differences (the tall biker girl and her small nerd boyfriend were my favourites), butch women, femme women, bisexuals. The characters were young and, as the title suggests, pretty stupid. But overall it was cute and fun and it was only an hour long in total

19. A League of Nobleman - This was fun. It was quite silly, buckets of queer subtext and some political intrigue thrown in for good measure. It wasn't particularly deep or heavy going but I enjoyed it a lot.

20. Between Us - This is a spinoff/sequel to Until We Meet again. It was very sweet, and I enjoyed my favourite character from UWMA being the main role in this. Didn't quite have the same emotional impact as UWMA but I very much enjoyed it

21. Reset - Finished this while I was at the treehouse last month. It was one we had been group watching and it was nice to get to finish it in person. It was an interesting drama. A lot of unexpected twists which I liked, and a timeloop story is always fun

22. Our Dining Table - Absolutely one of my favourite things that I have watched this year. It was so sweet and soft. Usually I'm not a fan of kidfic but this was really lovely and the kid in question was adorable

23. Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 - I was a bit dubious when I heard they were doing a sequel to Tale of the Nine-Tailed but it was perfect. Time travel shenanigans, an awesome woman with a huge sword, brotherly bonding, an OT3 polycule. I had a great time.

24. The Eighth Sense - I liked parts of it. The main couple were cute, the two best friends were awesome. I did not care for the unnecessarily bitchy ex-girlfriend and her best friend who was equally awful. It went a little two hard on the 'everyone must have a happy ending' idea so a bunch of characters ended up getting apologised to who really didn't deserve it

25. Popular Indie Creator Nekoyashiki is Making His Yearning for Approval Worse - This was kind of weird, but also really fun. Everyone was so extra and dramatic but that just tied into the comic themes. I actually really enjoyed it.

26. The King's Avatar - This one got recommended to me literally years ago. Right back when I first started watching Chinese dramas and asked for recs. I definitely should have watched it sooner I absolutely adored it. Like I want to write fic levels of adored it. It had such a good group of characters, found family feels all over the place and was just generally soft and lovely.

27. My School President - A very sweet high school BL drama. I wasn't massively emotionally invtested in it but I enjoyed it

28. Love Tractor - Absolutely adorable! It's just very soft and I enjoyed this so much I watched it a second time so I could show it to one of my friends

29. The Director Who Buys Me Dinner - Got to love a drama where the premise is 'if we don't date you will die'. It was funny, but also kind of heavy with one of the protagonists being immortal and the the other being a reincarnation of his dead lover.

30. Oh No! Here Comes Trouble - I don't watch a lot of Taiwanese dramas but this was fantastic! Really funny, also really tragic, and full of really interesting folklore. I loved it!

31. Mysterious Lotus Casebook - Hands down one of my favourite dramas of this year. I keep toying with wanting to write fic for it but I haven't quite got there yet. I loved the cast, I loved the story. I was wonderful.

32. Moonlight Chicken - I really enjoyed that this was a BL drama about actual adults instead of the usual ones about high school or college students. I'd seen the two leads in a couple of other dramas and I really enjoyed them in this too

33. Goblin - This is one of those dramas that gets recommended to me all the time so I finally sat down and watched it. I enjoyed it, but probably not my favourite. I think the whole 'immortal being falls in love with high school student' would have resonated with me more in my Buffy fandom days.

34. Cross Fire - Apparently this year is the year I watch all the esports dramas. This was nothing at all like what I expected. It had loads of twists that I didn't see coming and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

35. Our Flag Means Death S2 - Loved it. Just what I wanted from a second series. No notes.

36. Good Omens S2 - It was fine. I enjoyed it. It's not one of those dramas that I go feral for but the two leads are fun and it had some nice surprises.

37. He's Coming to Me - A very sweet BL that doesn't entirely resolve the fact that one of the protagonists is dead but it's left with an openly hopeful ending.

38. Stay By My Side - Another sweet ghost related story but both protagonists are alive in this one. One of them can hear ghosts, and the voices only go away if he touches his roommate. Feelings happen. It's adorable.

39. Strong Woman Do Bong Soon - I think I expected to enjoy this more than I did, but I think my disatisfaction comes from me wanting the drama to be resolved with an OT3. Instead there was just a lot of queer baiting where the two men almost kissed but they were drunk so no homo.

40. Fairyland Lovers - I was way more invested in the side couple than I was in the main storyline. The main couple really didn't interest me at all even though one of them was Bai Yu.

[themovieblogonline]

Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a refreshing, if somewhat melancholic, exploration of youth, identity, and the slippery nature of time. The film offers a unique blend of science fiction, comedy, and drama, following Elliott, a quirky and sometimes impulsive teenager who has an unexpected encounter with her future self on the night of her 18th birthday. The presence of her 39-year-old self – a “My Old Ass" contact on her phone – is both a boon and a burden, leading Elliott to reassess her relationships and her own future. Park’s direction here maintains an almost dreamlike, intimate tone as she keeps the focus tightly on Elliott and her friends’ last summer together. By blending casual humor with deeper reflections, My Old Ass manages to avoid the pitfalls of a traditional time-travel narrative, focusing instead on the emotional weight of choices, love, and self-discovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvks3SeCDOs Maisy Stella makes an impressive debut: In her debut role, Maisy Stella portrays Elliott with a surprising depth and maturity, capturing the restless curiosity and indecisiveness that define her character. Stella embodies Elliott’s initial confidence as she skips her own birthday party to flirt with Chelsea, but also her vulnerability as she navigates her mixed feelings toward Chad, family expectations, and her sense of self. The humor and candor she brings to Elliott make her relatable, balancing Elliott’s headstrong impulses with a softness that emerges as she interacts with her future self. Aubrey Plaza is a delight: Aubrey Plaza as older Elliott is a strong complement to Stella. Plaza infuses the older version of Elliott with the wisdom and regrets that come with age, but without overpowering Stella’s youthful energy. Her portrayal has a wry, slightly jaded edge, which subtly hints at a past filled with both joy and pain. This balance of humor and melancholy brings a rich layer to her scenes, showing the complications that lie ahead for Elliott while also reminding her younger self to live in the present. Percy Hynes White as Chad plays a believable love interest, toeing the line between mysterious charm and youthful cluelessness. His dynamic with Elliott shifts from casual friendship to budding romance, and their interactions—awkward and charged with uncertainty—capture the thrill and confusion of young love. Maddie Ziegler as Ruthie and Kerrice Brooks as Ro also shine in supporting roles, lending warmth and humor as Elliott’s loyal, carefree friends who provide much-needed levity amid Elliott’s inner conflict. A witty script: Megan Park’s script is sharp and witty, and her take on the sci-fi genre is refreshingly grounded. Rather than delving into the mechanics of time travel, Park keeps the focus on the emotional implications of meeting one’s future self, using sci-fi to explore Elliott’s evolving identity. The simplicity of the plot structure—centering on Elliott’s interactions with older Elliott—keeps the story focused, letting us experience the deepening bond between these two versions of the same person. This, in turn, highlights one of the film’s central questions: what would you tell your younger self if given the chance, and would it change anything? Sci-fi elements: The film’s sci-fi elements don’t just act as a plot device but serve as a catalyst for Elliott’s self-reflection. Her older self’s warnings and her ambiguous feelings toward Chad, for example, are given weight by this supernatural setup. Through older Elliott’s hints about future heartbreak, Park subtly raises questions about agency, fate, and the bittersweet inevitability of change. By maintaining ambiguity around Chad’s future and Elliott’s path, Park ensures that the story remains more about Elliott’s current journey than her potential future. A coming-of-age film through-and-through: My Old Ass captures the hazy, nostalgic beauty of a teenage summer. The film’s cinematography is drenched in the golden hues of the lake, wooded campgrounds, and the cranberry bog where Elliott’s family works, giving a natural warmth to the scenes that emphasizes Elliott’s connection to her childhood home. Park creates an inviting atmosphere, where the lake serves as both a setting and a symbolic threshold between past, present, and future, capturing the fleeting nature of adolescence in images that are rich with nostalgia. The moments of Elliott’s mushroom trip and her humorous hallucination as Justin Bieber performing “One Less Lonely Girl” add a playful energy to the film, offering a brief escape from her inner turmoil. These scenes showcase Park’s talent for balancing heavier themes with light-hearted moments, resulting in a tone that is both contemplative and lively. Flaws: As heartfelt and relatable as My Old Ass is, there are points where the film feels caught between two tones. The sci-fi element, while intriguing, might leave viewers wanting more in terms of its narrative payoff. Park’s choice to leave much of the future vague, especially regarding Chad’s fate, keeps the focus on the present, but it might feel unsatisfying to viewers looking for closure. At times, older Elliott’s purpose in Elliott’s life feels more symbolic than practical, a reflection of future regret rather than a fully-realized character who engages deeply with her younger self. Additionally, while Elliott’s journey is engaging, some of the supporting characters could have been more fully fleshed out, especially Ruthie and Ro. Though Ziegler and Brooks deliver fun performances, they feel underutilized, with limited development that leaves them orbiting Elliott’s story rather than becoming central to her emotional journey. Overall: Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a quirky, heartfelt film that does justice to the complex emotions of coming of age. Its unique take on the sci-fi genre serves as a fresh perspective on adolescence, offering laughs, bittersweet moments, and a thoughtful look at the power of family, friendship, and love. Read the full article

[candlewinds]

LEE SE-YOUNG as SUNG DEOK-IM The Red Sleeve (2021)

[aion-rsa]

Anime For Beginners: Best Genres and Series to Watch

https://ift.tt/2N0s0pf

The past decade has seen anime’s popularity increase in dramatic ways, whether through a much broader spectrum of series receiving dubs, the growing success of anime feature films in theaters, or the sudden prominence of streaming services. There’s never been a better time to be an anime fan and the medium has become more accessible than ever. There’s a lot of anime out there, but the wealth of new series can often blend together or not be given a fair chance. Additionally, there are definitely certain types of anime that are more prominently showcased outside of Japan. 

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For the uninitiated it’s easy to assume that anime consists of giant robots, monsters that battle, and strong fighters and magical girls that transform, but that’s really just a fraction of what the medium has to offer. Words like shonen, shojo, isekai, and even reverse harem are used in reference to anime, which can sometimes feel overwhelming when someone just wants to watch a silly romantic comedy or superhero clone. Here’s a helpful breakdown of all of the major anime genres and where to get started with them all.

Shonen

The shonen genre is by far the most popular brand of anime and the majority of breakout hits and major successes like Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and One Piece all fit into the shonen brand. What’s interesting about anime genres is that they’re treated more like demographics and shonen is content that caters to boys with a young male protagonist. Shonen is so accessible because beyond this basic disclaimer, it’s able to cover a wide berth of content and a show like My Hero Academia can be completely different from Yu Yu Hakusho, yet they can still fall back on the same values. 

Shonen anime has largely been generalized to be series that feature lots of fighting and battles, which isn’t always the case, but has become quite representative of the genre. Shonen series are ideal for people that want lots of action and are hungry for a show that has hundreds of episodes to consume.

Notable Series To Watch: Yu Yu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Attack On Titan

Shojo

Shojo is the female counterpart to the shonen genre that caters towards an audience of girls rather than boys. The shojo genre isn’t entirely bereft of battles, but it’s a style of anime where relationships and emotional drama is the priority or the source of power. There are many eclectic kinds of shojo series that are content to explore awkward relationship drama where there’s typically some kind of atypical supernatural element afoot. 

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However, the most popular style of shojo that’s largely become emblematic of the genre are “magical girl” series where regular girls transform into powerful warriors. There’s also typically a bright and pastoral aesthetic to shojo series and characters, both female and male, are beautified. Shojo anime is absolutely the place where the power of love will triumph over evil.

Notable Series To Watch: Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Vampire Knight, My Love Story!!

Seinen

Seinen is the R-rated evolution of the shonen genre that’s geared towards a more adult male audience that can handle mature storytelling. That’s not to say that shonen series can’t be violent or deal with adult situations, but seinen series often center around antiheroes and adult characters who are disenfranchised as opposed to optimistic youth that want to save the future. 

Some of the most sophisticated and challenging anime series come out of the seinen genre and it’s a great place for people to jump in that are looking for a story that’s not overly drawn out and achieves the same dramatic peaks as prestige television. Seinen once more comes down to the viewers’ preferences and there are science fiction, horror, and fantasy seinen shows that all deconstruct their material in different ways. As a point of comparison, major anime movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell both fit into the seinen genre.

Notable Series To Watch: Kill La Kill, Berserk, Ping Pong The Animation, Vinland Saga, Dorohedoro

Josei

Josei is the more mature version of shojo content and it’s full of series that are designed for women as opposed to girls. Romance is a big component of josei series, but it’s more concerned about the harsh realities behind relationships than the flirtatious courtship that kicks things off. Josei love stories are messy and full of heartbreak and they’re less romanticized than shojo’s interpretation of love. 

A trashy way of putting it would be to say that Twilight is shojo, but Fifty Shades of Grey is seinen. Matters of the heart don’t always have to fuel josei series and there are also plenty of shows that center around adult women as they negotiate through professional and creative endeavors. It’s a place to find less flowery female-driven stories.

Notable Series To Watch: Chihayafuru, The Gokusen, Honey And Clover, Nana, Princess Jellyfish

Isekai

The isekai genre is perfect for fans of fantasy and this style of anime has become wildly popular over the course of the past decade. Isekai anime is any show where a character gets transported away to a fantastical new world. It’s a classic storytelling idea, but anime has been able to run with it in some creative new ways. There’s an abundance of isekai series that incorporate video game aesthetics and there are now just as many series where characters are trapped in a video game world than some alternate fantasy dimension. 

Isekai can focus on the protagonist’s mission to return home, act as a savior in their new world, or simply kill time and enjoy the vacation. There are even reverse isekai anime where a supernatural character gets stuck on Earth and must acclimate. Arguably the biggest most mainstream example of isekai content is Spirited Away, but even something as foundational as Alice in Wonderland would qualify.

Notable Series To Watch: Overlord, Re: Zero – Starting Life In Another World, That Time I Got Reincarnated Into A Slime, KonoSuba, No Game No Life

Ecchi

Ecchi is that brand of anime that’s generalized to be the oversexed content that’s likely to make someone blush if they were watching it in public. Ecchi is any sort of anime series that prioritizes a certain sexiness and isn’t afraid to showcase its assets and indulge in “fan service.” Ecchi anime usually has a lot of skin on display, but it’s far from empty content and there’s an important distinction between something like this and actual pornography. 

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Ecchi series titillate, but they still are concerned about their story and characters. There’s inevitably going to be some overlap between ecchi and seinen content (Kill La Kill is a series that really tows the line between both), but there’s often more of a gratuitous playfulness that drives ecchi content. Sexualized characters may bring in the audience, but the series are still deep enough to maintain their interests.

Notable Series To Watch: High School DxD, High School Of The Dead, Rosario To Vampire, Strike The Blood, Prison School

Mecha

Mecha anime are widely prominent and the visual of gigantic robots locked in combat as they fly through outer space feels like a tentpole of the anime industry. There’s a large awareness towards mecha series and it’s even entered mainstream live-action content through works like Pacific Rim. However, this visibility also makes mecha content easy to generalize and some may write it off without understanding the versatility of the genre. Mecha anime can be broken down further into real robot and super robot series, each of which apply a different level of realism to these unrealistic creations. 

Real robot series might focus more on the humans that pilot the machines and the politics that surround mecha, whereas super robot content can feature robots that destroy planets with giant lasers. There can be a lot of gratuitous action in mecha series, but the human element in shows like Appleseed and Neon Genesis Evangelion, or how various Mobile Suit Gundam properties are dedicated to the casualties of war, is proof that mecha anime can be a lot more than just giant robot battles.

Notable Series To Watch: Mobile Suit Gundam, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Appleseed, Mobile Police Patlabor, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Harem

Romance is popular in any medium and there’s often exceptional tension that’s created from out of a love triangle. One genre of anime takes that idea and seriously exaggerates it in a way that can sometimes be problematic, but has spawned a popular style of anime all the same. Harem series center around a hapless male protagonist who stumbles into some incredible situation where a large group of girls–all of contrasting personalities–fall head-over-heels in love with him. 

Harem anime can come across as baseless wish fulfillment fantasy, but the broad structure allows many other genres to mix together with it in a productive way. A lot of the time these series will center on the actual characters and the complex relationship dynamics involved and try to say something that may not be explored in a josei or ecchi series. There are also reverse harem series, which take the same idea, but flip the genders where multiple men fawn over a woman.

Notable Series To Watch: Tenchi Muyo!, The World Only God Knows, Nisekoi, To LOVE-Ru, Ouran High School Host Club

Gag

Anime series are able to achieve a lot of things that just can’t be accomplished in other forms of animation or programming. Comedy is something that’s able to connect extremely hard in anime and operate at an absurdist level that uses visuals, timing, and premises that are rare to find elsewhere. Many anime series have a sense of humor or are even specifically designed as comedies, but gag anime are a different breed that operate at an overwhelmingly relentless pace. 

Reality and the fourth wall are just things to break in gag series, which often engage in wild parodies and lampshade anime as a whole. Some gag anime have extended storylines, but they often operate in shorter vignette style sequences that allow the comedy to really pop. Gag anime thrive in pop culture references and some of the hardest times I’ve laughed in my entire life have been at gag series like Mr. Osomatsu and Gintama where comedy is king.

Notable Series To Watch: Gintama, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K, Pop Team Epic!, Mr. Osomatsu, Excel Saga 

Slice Of Life

Slice of life anime are those endlessly soothing series that don’t try to create major spectacles where the planet is at risk, but instead celebrate the mundanity of life. Slice of life series may center around the staff at a job, a group of friends in a high school club, or just a loner that’s moved to a new community. These are series that elegantly display the tiny moments that make life important and the bonds that create eternal friendships.

The stakes are often more muted in slice of life anime, but that doesn’t mean that they’re without tension or can’t dabble in fantastical material. There are still slice of life anime series that involve magical creatures or are set in unbelievable worlds. It’s sometimes even more humbling to learn that some planet in a far away solar system has a struggling chess club or that a dinosaur can be obsessed with different brands of candy.

Notable Series To Watch: The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toradora!, K-On!, Dagashi Kashi, Clannad

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[aerondudley]

James Villiers || 33 || Earl of Jersey || FC: Aidan Turner

Biography:

James was raised by his family to always be obedient, expected to play the dutiful son and grow to be the respectable man who would one day inherit the Earldom of Jersey from his father. When his parents told him that he was to be wed, it was not something he questioned since he had been raised from birth to know that his duty was to marry and continue the success of the Villiers family. He was married to Rebecca Wells when he was eighteen, and it was expected that the two would soon begin their own family. He met her on the day of their wedding, and she seemed the typical blushing bride he had always imagined for himself. But once the wedding was over and they were alone for the first time, her smile was immediately replaced with an ice cold stare, her lip curled in resentment against her new husband. Whereas James had always accepted that he would be married off to someone of his family’s choosing, Rebecca had relished the freedom she had as an unmarried woman and resented him for taking it away from her. He tried to be the husband he thought she wanted - attentive, caring, even romantic - but it was all for nothing. It didn’t matter what kind of person he was, she would always see him as the reason for her lack of freedom. James was not her husband, but her jailer.

James didn’t want to spend the rest of his life trapped in a resentful marriage, so he offered his wife an agreement: he would allow her whatever freedoms she desired, any indulgence she had once enjoyed before the traditional expectations of a wife were thrust upon her, on the condition that she remain discreet and they play the respectable married couple in public for the sake of reputation. Rebecca was sceptical of this arrangement at first, but agreed and slowly began testing the waters. Realising early on that James had meant it when he said he would give her no shame or judgement for her indulgences, she began to partake in more of them. True to her word, she played her part as the obedient wife in public as well as she had on their wedding day and eventually she began to warm to her husband. Whereas before they had lived almost completely separate lives, now she would come home and talk to James about her day. As they spent more time together, the pair developed a bond and Rebecca encouraged James to indulge in his own freedoms as well. She pointed out that he was still playing the part of a respectful and dutiful husband to a wife who was not there and she had no issue with him doing as he pleased.

Slowly, James allowed Rebecca to introduce him to the fun she had been out having. He had been raised a perfect gentleman and now he was out drinking, gambling and engaging in multiple affairs while his own wife cheered him on. Time passed, and James and Rebecca’s bond only deepened. They loved each other, but only in the way that best friends do - neither saw the other one in a romantic light, but as someone who had brought the other out of the darkness and allowed them to be their true selves. Unfortunately, as time went on, the two of them became so caught up in their hedonistic lifestyle that they forgot their one rule: discretion. Their lack of care meant that their various exploits were being whispered all over town - The Countess of Jersey spotted gambling away her husband’s fortune in a den of ill repute, the Earl seen with a woman perched on his lap who was not his wife, pouring him cup after cup of ale. It wasn’t long before word of these indiscretions got back to their families. They ordered a stop to their debauchery and demanded that the two of them do what was expected of them in their marriage and produce heirs. Although it was their families who had once again brought up the subject of children, the idea did not seem entirely preposterous to the pair. Rebecca had always wanted to be a mother, but she had put that dream aside. She hadn’t expected her husband to become her best friend, and who better to raise a child with? Their love might not have been romantic, but the platonic love between them was stronger than most married couples. Sadly, it was not meant to be.

They spent years trying, but after three miscarriages, they just weren’t able to cope with the heartbreak anymore. They decided to stand up to their families and told them that they were not willing to continue this suffering. They would remain married and do their best to be upstanding and respectable, but no heirs would come of their union. The news was taken surprisingly well, and the two of them were ready to go back to how their lives had been before the subject of children had ever been reintroduced to them. Their renewed happiness barely lasted a month before fate struck the next cruel blow and Rebecca’s life was snatched away. She had not been feeling well in the week before her death, but they had both considered it to be a short and temporary illness. James had not expected to see his wife deteriorate so quickly and to be at her deathbed only a short time later. He was told that these things happen, that even the strongest can be felled by illness but still he could not make sense of it. She had been so full of life, how could it have been ripped away so quickly? As he made the preparations for his wife’s funeral, James began to notice a few unusual occurrences.. Their new kitchen maid, who had only been in her position a few months abruptly handed in her notice, giving up what was surely a most prosperous position for any girl of her station; whispered conversations that stopped suddenly when he entered the room; what seemed to be a small and specific part of their gardens destroyed. When the time came for Rebecca’s funeral, the final straw was as he stood by his late wife’s grave as her coffin was lowered into the ground, and he overheard his mother discussing options for his second marriage.

James refused to see his mother after that. She tried to visit, tried to reason with him, but James was falling down a dark hole where no one could not catch or follow him. His late wife had introduced him to the wonderful distraction that gambling was, and he used it well. It was an easy way to help him forget, to give him that rush of adrenaline and joy that he craved in these dark times. But even a talented gambler cannot win forever, and James realised that his funds were dwindling fast. If he did not take care, then he could lose his entire fortune. The money did not mean as much to him as it once had, but there were still people who depended on him for their livelihood and he knew it would be wrong to punish them for his vices. He resolved to settle his debts and focus on building the fortune back up. An industrious man, James did have some success in recouping some of his losses, but such things take time and he knew that if he was to recover before anyone noticed, he would need the assistance of another person’s wealth. Although it disgusted him to do it, James allowed his mother back into his life and she agreed to find him a wealthy new wife while subtly going behind his back to spread the rumours that any losses in the Villiers coffers had been caused solely by Rebecca and not her son. 

Different families and their eligible daughters were discussed often, until one night James attended the theatre to briefly escape his mother’s meddling. She never had enjoyed the theatre as she thought actors were painted puppets, but plays and the opera had often been an escape for him. It was that night where James watched Henrietta Fane cross the stage and she immediately caught his attention. He had briefly recognised her name in the program as the daughter of one wealthy family that his mother had discarded due to their lack of title, but James saw a spark in her that he hadn’t considered when he had been bombarded with so many names and suggestions from his mother. He found himself seeking out the shows that she was in and started to visit backstage after each performance. The two of them got along well, and he finally decided that this would be the right choice. He needed money and someone he could get along with, and Henrietta had both qualities. Bringing up the Fane family again earned him a snort of derision from his mother, but he was quick to point out that although Henrietta lacked a title, her dowry more than made up for it. Although still not entirely sold on the idea, his mother knew that they were running out of time and agreed to assist in presenting the idea to the Fanes. A wedding day was set, and although James felt nothing but resentment at himself at marrying again for money, he found himself making his marriage vows once more.

The years since then have been kind to James. With the assistance of his second wife’s money, he has been able to build up the Villiers coffers to the point where he is able to use the money to invest wisely and now their riches are double what they previously were. With the extra wealth and input of Henrietta, James has established himself as a patron of the arts, and there is not a theatre opening or art gallery that he can’t be found at. The man he is now that he has matured is a curious mix of old and new - his drinking and flirting link to the hedonistic period he indulged in with his late wife, but his patronage of the arts and wise investments hark back to the young man who was trained from birth in how to be a perfect gentleman. And yet there is even another side to him, moulded from his present circumstances - a man with a strong mind and sharp intelligence deemed fit to mentor the Prince of Wales. Stare into the Earl’s eyes for long enough and you will see every aspect of his life flash through them: from innocent boy to unleashed youth, a tragic figure struck by loss, the wit and charm of a man who knows how to get what he wants and finally the cold, hard stare of the master manipulator. He is comedy and tragedy, intelligence and idiocy, a figure of opposites scrambled together to make him who he is: James Villiers.

Relationships:

Henrietta Villiers - Wife. The two have been husband and wife for four years now and have settled into their marriage. Their relationship is friendly and supportive, and there is an attraction between them as they are known to fall into bed together when the mood is right, but James extends the same courtesy to Henrietta that he did with his first wife. He is aware of her dalliances outside of their marriage, just as she is with his, but there is no jealousy or judgement of either party. James makes a point to not discuss his late wife at all. He still holds so much grief and guilt over her death, but prefers to keep up his jovial facade which is difficult to hold in place when he talks about her.

Rebecca Villiers - First Wife; deceased. Although they were unsuited to be wed, James and Rebecca managed to make their marriage work for them over time. Allowing each other the freedom they wanted for themselves let them lead the exciting lives that they wanted. They were husband and wife in name only, as their relationship developed more into two friends who also happened to live together. She was his best friend, and as the one to bring him out of his shell, James feels as though only Rebecca has ever completely understood who he is. James still has suspicions over her untimely death and is convinced that there is more to it than just a sudden and tragic illness.

Lydia Cavendish - Current Flame. Relationship TBA

Frederick William Augustus - Mentee. Relationship TBA

Edgar Percival Spencer - Companion. Relationship TBA

Duke of Devonshire - Political Rival. Relationship TBA

[jjr1971]

Can I just express how much I freaking LOVE this anime?  Recovery of an MMO Junkie  (Japanese: ネト充のススメ Hepburn: Netojū no Susume, subtitled "Recommendation of the Wonderful Virtual Life") with its unlikely protagonist, Moriko Morioka; an unmarried single woman in her 30s who bails from the high stress corporate life of modern Japan and becomes a NEET (Not Engaged in Education or Training) and borderline hikikomori.  She does go out, but only reluctantly; and mostly just to the corner store and back (where, ironically, her guild master works as the check out clerk; he tries to make small-talk with her about MMOs, with limited success). She loses herself in the world of online MMOs where she enjoys the (virtual) company of like-minded people and doesn’t have to worry about the high stress corporate life.  Online she hides her real identity by assuming a male persona.  She runs into a very sweet gaming partner who plays as female but unbeknownst to her is a young I.T. professional salaryman a couple of years her junior.  She develops real and lasting friendships online through the MMO world.  Conflict arises when these relationships eventually spill over into everyday life offline. Self-deprecating to a fault, Yuta Sakurai gently tries to call Mori Mori out on always beating herself up and tries to point out her good qualities that she's blinded herself to...not only does she have crippling social anxiety but it was even more heartbreaking when she divulged how much internalized shame & guilt she carries around for being a NEET unable to live the corporate life....you just want to hug her and whisper in her ear: "You have a psychological disability...there's nothing for you to be ashamed of..."   Moriko Morioka is just so REAL and very well written as a character.  She voices the very real anxiety of body image issues many women struggle with their whole lives.  She is also an unlikely protagonist insofar as how Japanese society as a whole tends to view unmarried women in their 30s....as somehow dysfunctional, anti-social, “past their prime”, etc.  Even when she realizes Sakurai is sincere in his affection for her, she worries about the stigma that might attach to him for dating an older woman.  As someone who has successfully dated women older than myself, I can identify with Sakurai and his motivations.  There’s something refreshing about dating a mature woman versus someone younger than yourself...I dated someone who was 42 when I was 36, but she still looked youthful and I’d like to believe dating me made her feel young and feel better about herself.  We really clicked and if not for my misguided professional ambitions that geographically forced us to part ways, I might well have made this woman my second wife, despite the age difference.  Of course, I also raised eyebrows when I married my first wife, who was 10 years my junior (I was 30, she 20---I look younger than my chronological age; my wife later confessed she thought I was only 26 at most).  As long as only consenting adults are involved and there’s no power imbalance, judgmental ageism on the part of everyone else towards those dating outside the mythical Goldilocks Zone of age difference kinda sucks.  I hate how much Moriko is made to suffer and feel guilty because of being in her 30s and unmarried, as if she doesn’t deserve Yuta Sakurai’s love and affection somehow.  Yuta Sakurai will need deep reserves of patience and perseverance to get Mori Mori to accept that she is lovable and worthy of love, that he loves her unreservedly and his desire is genuine.  She’s hurt, broken, and sensitive...and like Sakurai, I just want her to be happy.  And I have to give out major props to her voice actress in the English dub, Terri Doty and also to Josh Grelle who plays her potential love interest Yuta Sakurai.  Honorable mention also to Ian Sinclair voicing  Homare Koiwai, who is Sakurai’s co-worker, faux romantic rival and secret “wing-man”/cupid/match-maker.  He flirts with Mori Mori to prompt Sakurai to take more action than simply wistfully admiring Mori Mori from afar.  I gushed to Terri on Twitter about her amazing performance in this show and she sent back a GIF of the Disney Dwarf Bashful from Snow White to express her thanks. This is a really, really sweet romantic comedy and one of my stand out favorites of the season.  Mori Mori’s crushing self-doubt and self-loathing feel all too familiar to yours truly.  Moriko has extreme social anxiety while I have Asperger’s but out in the real world these struggles have a lot in common with each other.  Moreover, Sakurai’s crushing lack of self-confidence, his own social awkwardness around Moriko....as well as both of them having difficulty believing and accepting the affection and desire of the other....all feel very familiar and very real and relatable.  10 Episodes + 1 OVA; available on FUNimation with English dub and on Crunchyroll in the original Japanese with subtitles.

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 25.10.2017

Reviews this week are going to be a little shorter than usual, but not to worry! I’m preparing to bring the Rambles to a whole new medium by launching a podcast in the very near future with the amazing @theeffar as a guest so that we can talk about her experience making comic strips for the US Airforce, future publication plans, and a decade plus of friendship with yours truly that can be traced back to a single comic.

But for today, we have a whole lineup of comics to dig into with lots of intrigue across the board. I hope everyone enjoys!

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, IDW’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Archie’s Jughead, Marvel’s Moon Girl and ?, Dark Horse’s Overwatch, Image’s Saga, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #26 Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard

I’ve said it many times before but it still holds true, I’m not a huge fan of diving deep and providing a big consensus in the middle of a storyline, and that is definitely true here where there were so many developments to the current Orphans of X story that Taylor is unfolding for us but also so much left to do. And that couldn’t be more clear than in the fact that we get the hints that Sarah is either knowingly or unknowingly an accomplice to the Orphans, or isn’t even Sarah at all.

My bets are on the latter because Sarah’s death being the status quo for Laura’s story is honestly something I’ve just accepted over the years, but man I would really be interested if Taylor broke expectations by actually allowing Sarah to be alive and a part of her daughters lives now, especially since he finally brought Debbie and Megan back into Laura’s life. ... One also has to wonder how nothing came up from Beast’s scans and medical exam of her but alright.

Another thing I really love is the fact that Daken and Laura act like... actual brother and sister? And are treated as such by everyone around them. There’s not a huge amount of canon supporting this interpretation of their relationship outside of Taylor’s run, but you can definitely argue that the seeds for this have been planted since their X-23/Daken crossover ages ago, and the fact that they do have so much in common and are so similar in so many respects. 

The medical stuff at the beginning, or rather the perversion of medicine that was the torture sequence Daken was going through at the start was incredibly difficult to watch, and the fact that his arm hasn’t grown back is super concerning to me, especially if there is strong hints that the same will possibly happen to Laura as the storyline continues.

There are a lot of stakes and I think, most importantly of all, there is just a lot of love for the relationships that Taylor has shown in the Wolverine family and I honestly just hope that he handles everything to do with these characters and Logan for the foreseeable future. I rarely get what I want in comics though so, here goes to me looking apprehensively toward Logan’s future resurrection with an “ugh”

This is also a small moment and not really a big part of the review overall, but the sequence I used above? Where Laura and Daken realize that they’re attacking each other and then have that fight of “Get in the car!” “No you get out of the car!” is just... so hysterical to me for so many reasons, but especially because it just sounds like siblings who can’t figure out who’s in charge.  I love it. 

IDW’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2017-present) #1 Kelly Thompson, Corin Howell, Valentina Pinto

I hadn’t realized it had been as long as it had been for me since I was reading a title that Kelly Thompson was on concurrently with it being released, and I have to say, given how strong of a first issue release Answer the Call ended up being, she’s a pretty perfect fit for this series. 

As I’ve said before, the ongoing Ghostbusters IDW universe is one of its longest running and seriously compelling series to date, using the original 80s movies as its baseboard while expanding into all collective universes and mythology to continue what are fascinating and enjoyable stories which sometimes even add debt to a lot of the characters who weren’t necessarily given it in the original two movies. Which is part of the reason I was so excited about Ghostbusters 101 and also why I was really hopeful about Answer the Call. 

One of my major critiques of the 2016 movie is that there were too many concepts with a lot of potential which ultimately weren’t utilized to their full expectations, which is why a comic series with the sort of IDW development and support is exactly what could have been useful to it. Especially where the character of Patty is concerned. And so far, it seems like Thompson is delivering, having put a lot of emphasis on Patty’s history background and her general knowledge and position in the group as the period expert for the ghost they encounter really having a more prominent role (i.e. allowed to have any role) in the comic. 

Thompson has a good sense of comical timing and Corin Howell’s art really helps emphasize that. So while I was initially bummed that the long time creative team was not going to be in charge of Answer the Call, I much prefer what we got which is a different taste, and a different universe, where the 2016 ladies are allowed to truly shine on their own with their own unique voices.  And that’s all thanks to Kelly Thompson.

Archie’s Jughead (2015-present) Vol. 3 Ryan North, Mark Waid, Ian Flynn, Derek Charm

I have actually been really supportive of the relaunch of the Archie comics, albeit mostly in theory since those things tend to be rather expensive, but I don’t think that it was ever fully appreciated by me until this volume of Jughead that I came into a full understanding of just why it seemed like Riverdale needed such a makeover to begin with. 

It also adds to my disdain for Riverdale but that’s a whole other subject.

The point is, the reason Archie comics have been such a force in American comics and, honestly, American culture as a whole for decades is because when my grandparents started reading, the nature of the comedy and relationships between all the kids from Riverdale was something like a modern morality play. Easily read, easily relatable daily situations of the All-American kids of the time who learne respect, love, and friendship from each other through zany and truthfully nonconventional lessons. 

There have been small, subtle modernizations to Archie over the years, from adding to the diversity of characters to allowing Betty and Veronica’s relationship outside of Archie to develop and at times even taken center stage, so having Kevin come out as openly gay. Archie has maintained a progressively changing outlook for American youth for a while, but at the end of the day the style and the roots of being a teenage romantic comedy from the “Greatest Generation” are not something that I can say I ever saw as more relatable and real than, say, a superhero. 

But this update of the last few years has allowed for a complete change in that. It’s not just that clothes and relationships have been updated, it’s that what moralities and what behaviors are being taught in this new and crazy time. Like Jughead learning about internet autonomy and general etiquette. 

It was a fun comic, and if you enjoy Jughead or Archie in general, you obviously should pick it up, but the real value for me this time around was rediscovering what made this particular “reboot” exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see.

Marvel’s Moon Girl and ? (2015-present) #24 Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos, Ray-Anthony Height, Dominike “Domo” Stanton, Michael Shelfer, Tamra Bonvillain

This issue of Moon Girl and... *gasp* Oh no! Devil’s no longer around!!!

So this issue is a collection of stories allowing lots of artists and writers to take a swing at dealing with Lunella in her heartbroken and honestly rather depressed time in attempting to find a replacement for Devil Dinosaur, her best friend who she finally acknowledges as such, and ultimately with deciding that she can’t replace him and will rather work solo after trying out a roster of fellow superheroes who leave something to be desired. 

This comic as always threads the needle perfectly of being for children (read: all ages) while being grounded in mature context and understanding of the world through the eyes of a super genius who is smarter beyond her years but still very much mature for her exact age. And I think that balance is perhaps on its best display here when allowing Lunella the true mark of what makes her character so realistic and believable: smart kids are more prone to anxieties, depression, and having difficulty relating to people, especially their own age. 

This is the first issue where none of Lunella’s supporting cast feature, and that’s such a genius choice because it emphasizes that loneliness and heartbreak she clearly feels, while still stuffing the book full of cameos and guest appearances from adults showing that she is not neglected or not being looked after.

I will someday express how important coloring has become to the mood and feel of comics in the modern era, specifically as rotating artists have become more and more prominent in bigger books and tighter production schedules, but once again Moon Girl proves to be one of the best if not the best in the business at understanding and really utilizing that feature. 

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #11 Matt Burns, James Waugh, Joe Ng, Espen Grundetjern

I cannot even begin to attempt to pretend that I understand how Dark Horse is choosing to release its issues of Overwatch through comixology, but then again that is making it sound like I ever understand Dark Horse’s publication practices particularly with digital media so the next three entries and how they aren’t... remotely chronological is just something we’ll all have to get through together, I guess. 

So I think of the three issues this one, which surprised me by showing up in my New Comics on Wednesday nearly a week after I had finished writing the reviews I had for issues .... #14 and 15.... even though this one is #11... This whole thing doesn’t make sense, moving on. 

In any case, of the Overwatch characters, it’s probably of the least surprise that I adore the adorable and tortured backstory robot because, well, I’m me, so my love of Bastion from his short to this comic release now and the environmental message that goes along with it all just makes me so genuinely happy to read, especially with the icredible art we see in this comic.

And I definitely was not expecting to have as much enjoyment and #feels from Torbjörn coming into the story and basically making the decision to become Bastion’s companion after they have a touching moment of bonding. 

This is just a short and sweet comic I really enjoyed and would recommend to those at least interested in trying out these Overwatch freebies. 

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #14 Robert Brooks, Miki Montilló

Just about any time a comic is free, even if it’s promotional material, I will give it a try, which is why I have been so pleasantly surprised by the Overwatch tie-in comics over the past year. And that’s with me having almost no experience in the game itself. I’m not really a fan of multiplayer or learning curves as it were, but as you know from this blog, I’m a huge fan of superheroes and an even larger fan of character-driven world building which is precisely what these comics provide. 

AND we got two separate ones with different creative teams!

I haven’t been swept up by the intense love that Overwatch fans seem to have for Junkrat and Roadhog, but I found this origin story for the both of them but mainly through Roadhog’s perspective to be absolutely fascinating. I still have qualms with how well a Mad Max-styled Australia really fits into the more technological and advanced world of Overwatch, but it does make a way for some pretty amazing visuals in this issue.

And I have to say, Miki Montilló is the real star of the issue because the style and just beauty the artist was able to find in the grungy and somewhat terrifying world of this post-apocolyptic wasteland is really inspiring. I’m definitely keeping an eye out for their name in the future.  

Dark Horse’s Overwatch (2016-present) #15 Andrew Robinson, Joelle Sellner, Kate Niemczyk

Despite as I said before about how I don’t really have much of a dog in the Overwatch fight, I love the character designs, especially the variety presented for the women. And one of my favorite characters aesthetically who has unfortunately not been given much in the way of cinematics and comic storylines has been Zarya. I absolutely love her.

I think the storyline for Zarya’s comic is a lot more inventive and pertinent to the world building, as well as speaks to Zarya’s character. It might seem a little cheap to have her be hateful/racist toward Ominics and then ultimately work alongside and befriend one, but sometimes the tried and true formulas work and personally I think that’s the case here. And I like that we are tying her in to the more “central” narrative that’s been going through all of these anxilary material by having her tied in with Sombra and the growing conspiracy of this world government. 

Also her hacker robot friend was adorbs and we all know how I love robots. 

I will say that the art didn’t feel as unique or mood centric as the previous issue, but at the same time that straight forwardness adds to the really straightforward narrative that was being told. 

So overall really enjoyable. I hope to see more features with Zarya as well as giving the other original heroes who haven’t received focus some attention. Like really, where’s our Lucioó story already?

Image’s Saga (2012-present) #48 Fiona Staples, Brian K. Vaughan

We’re running up against, once more, that difficult challenge of properly explaining why something that is just so universally good is beloved to begin with and that can’t be said enough with Saga. 

This wasn’t the strongest issue to go out on, but it gave us a lot more reason to relate to both Squire and Ghüs, characters we’ve really not had as much time with before now or have mostly related to through their relationships with other characters like Sir Robot. 

I’m still not entirely won over by the reporters but it is interesting to see how they still are exposed to the consequences that I know I forgot about an entire story arc ago at this point. And it’s interesting to have what feels like a narrative guilt for having not been aware or actively considering their lives and what their challenges were in that time because the consequences then felt like we were neglecting them as much as the main Saga crew had been as a result. Which is a nice narrative trick on Vaughan’s part.

Hazel’s narration is a welcome return after missing it from last issue, but it’s still fairly sparse. I’m just excited at the fact that Robot and Petrichor as well as Hazel and Squire are apparently going to have more relationship focus and development to come. That’s so promising.

As for Staples’ art? What can be said? She headlines the credits for a reason and there is no character design, no environment that I don’t love and find horrifyingly surreal all at once, and this issue is no exception. I’m so excited and fearful of what is to come, especially now that the Will is captured and going to be used to take another new foe directly to Alana and Marko’s doorstep.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #75 Kevin, Eastman, Tom Waltz, Cory Smith, Mateus Santolouco, Chris Johnson, Ronda Pattison

What a landmark issue! 75 issues strong! The longest running, most expansive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property to date and it has reached a landmark issue far beyond, I think, anyone’s expectations. I genuinely could not be more grateful and more appreciative of this creative team, the love and hard work they have poured into this comic for over six years now without almost ever missing a release date, and especially for putting together this incredible, extra sized comic which ties up the current space opera and sends us right into the very next arc that I think I and many other turtle fans have been long awaiting: The Triceraton Wars.

In the upcoming podcast, I’m pretty sure that @theeffar and I will have quite a lot to talk about in regards to TMNT and our history with it, but when it comes to this series specifically I think the most outrageous and yet the most true compliment that can be offered to it is that somehow they were able to introduce elements which are common and looked forward to from all TMNT fans regardless of generation or preferred continuity, and not only seamlessly weave the elements together but manage to surprise us over and over again with the twists and turns.

Like who could have predicted that the Mirage dark and angsty Leatherhead, the 80s cartoon maniacal General Krang and suffering Dimension X Neutrinos, and the Triceraton Invasion as it was played out in the 2003 cartoon would not only play out the way it has here, but work together so perfectly that it’s unlike anything long time fans or new have seen before.

I’ve also talked about how this run of TMNT understands the multi-genre nature of having the four turtles and tie their development to particular genre storylines. This was held true as we got a lot of Don in this arc, especially Don operating outside of his brothers while the three of them worked with the Neutrino forces, and usually that would mean for the TMNT writers to move to a different genre and focal point for the next arc. But since we’re jumping right into a sci-fi storyline, but one completely opposite of the ones that Don has taken center stage in (this being a 1950s-esque Invasion movie), I wonder if we may just mix perspectives all the same. I think Raph’s been due for center stage and as we all know, he has Pepperoni to look after...

And those are the comics for this week! Did you happen to agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed out on picking up a comic that was good? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

But before I let you go, I have to (yes have to) plug once more:

I have exactly a month to pack up everything I own and move halfway across the country again which is not helping those financial crunches I mentioned before either.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

RenaRoo Ko-Fi

RenaRoo Patreon

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[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 5/21/19

Anne Happy, Vol. 9 | By Cotoji | Yen Press – This is the second-to-last volume, but while there are a few hints of plot (Hibari’s family is lampshaded a bit), for the most part it’s devoted to another test of “happiness,” this time by a VR environment that causes everyone to resemble children. Given our main cast already know each other and are pretty good friends, the stakes are honestly pretty low, and there’s a bit less “everyone is useless” here—I don’t even think Botan coughed up blood once. It does make it feel like this is a series that needs to come to an end, though, which is why it’s good that it’s about to. If you’ve been following Anne Happy, this is a pleasant enough volume, and there’s no reason to stop just before the end. – Sean Gaffney

Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist’s Journey, Vol. 1 | By Akiko Higashimura | Seven Seas – I’d loved everything by Higashimura that I’d previously read—Princess Jellyfish and Tokyo Tarareba Girls—so I was looking forward to the release of the award-winning Blank Canvas a great deal. After reading the first volume I can confidently declare that I’m still enamored with Higashimura’s work. Blank Canvas is an autobiographical series in which Higashimura, now a successful manga creator, reflects back upon her early days as an artist. The first volume shows her in high school as she’s preparing to apply for art school, a somewhat daunting challenge since up until that point she’d largely been coasting through her clubs and classes. Determined to become a famous shojo creator, she enrolls in a community art program, the teacher of which isn’t about to let her get away with slacking off. Told with Higashimura’s characteristic mix of humor, heart, and honesty, Blank Canvas is a tremendously engaging manga. – Ash Brown

Dr. STONE, Vol. 5 | By Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi | Viz Media – Tempted as I am to just copy/paste my review of the fourth volume here, I will try to say something new. It’s hard, though, as the same two things I spoke about last time are focused on this time. Senku is very invested in science, but it’s a ridiculous shonen kind of science. Also, ridiculous is the order of the day elsewhere, as this series really goes over the top in everything it does. Thankfully, the tournament arc doesn’t last too long. The winner may surprise you, unless you’ve read any other shonen manga ever. I admit I laughed at Ruri’s sprint across the village. But we’re getting a backstory flashback as well, as Ruri knows Senku’s last name. How? We’ll find out next time. – Sean Gaffney

Eve and Eve | By Nagashiro Rouge | Seven Seas – Between Seven Seas and Yen Press, we’re getting quite a few yuri anthologies in 2019. This one is a collection of yuri-themed stories by the same artist, and the title comes from the first of these. They’re fairly explicit—Seven Seas actually labeled the title Mature, something they rarely do—and a few of them range towards science fiction. Two of them also involve getting pregnant in a handwavey sort of way, and in fact those ran in “Yuri Pregnancies” in Japan, which I assume is an anthology and not a magazine. There was nothing earth-shaking in here, but nothing truly bad either. If you like yuri, and don’t mind that it gets sexual (or the magical pregnancies), it’s a good volume to pick up. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 32 | By Haruichi Furudate | VIZ Media – Karasuno’s game against Inarizaki continues in (and beyond) this volume. The plot = “volleyball,” but that allows Furudate’s artistry to shine. Getting caught up in the drama of who will win is unavoidable, but I also marvel at the skill with which Furudate fleshes out the opposing team and imbues moments of individual victory with significance. For example, I loved when terminal bench-warmer Kinoshita thinks he’s missed his chance at heroism only to be credited by Nishinoya for helping him practice a move that pays off on the court. And I especially loved when Hinata not only manages to perfectly return an intimidating serve but proves so defensively competent that even Tsukushima comes to rely on him. That’s major progress! I love this series so much. – Michelle Smith

Hitorijime My Hero, Vol. 3 | By Memeco Arii | Kodansha Comics – I’m happy to report that Hitorijime My Hero has improved a lot since its first volume, which left me with some trepidations. In this volume, Masahiro’s friends find out about his relationship with Kousuke and one reacts badly, though it’s mostly coming from a place of feeling like he was the last to know something so important. Starting with volume two, Kousuke has been worried that Masahiro might focus on him instead of his “youth,” so he gives some good advice that helps them sort things out. I also appreciated that Kousuke’s friends are really concerned about his choices and grill Masahiro a bit to find out how much of a threat he poses. No, Kousuke doesn’t actually get arrested—although one of his friends is a cop, he’s an absolutely useless cretin—but it’s nice that it’s acknowledged that he could be. I’ll keep reading. – Michelle Smith

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 8 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – After the plot-filled seventh volume, we’re back to wacky gag chapters in this book. Which is good, as this series does comedy well. It’s still working Ino into the fun, but even when the humor is based around a Japanese concept (one chapter talks about collecting bellmarks, which helpfully is so old in Japan that it’s explained in the text) there’s still laughs. My favorite chapter might be the one where Chika tries to tell Kaguya about the one she likes, and paranoia makes everything so much worse (and also reveals Chika is well aware of Kaguya’s ambiguity towards her). As for our lead couple, well, even Kaguya literally collapsing and going to the hospital can’t stop the laughs—or get them together. Great fun. – Sean Gaffney

Laid-Back Camp, Vol. 6 | By Afro | Yen Press – There’s some actual character development here, though for the most part the series still runs on ‘cuties camping’ for all its attention. Nadeshiko has been sort of the airhead of the group for most of the series, and I was expecting her desire to own the camping lantern to be blown up in some way, but no—she gets a part-time job, is decent at it, and buys the lamp. The author even toys with us, having her trip and almost break the lamp, but then catching it. What’s more, she wants to try solo camping. Hopefully her camping goes better than Inuko, Aki and Ena, who try a cold-weather campout and thankfully don’t die—though they need a little help to avoid it. This is getting better as it goes on. – Sean Gaffney

Murcielago, Vol. 10 | By Yoshimurakana | Yen Press – I never thought I’d say this, but this is actually a pretty sedate volume of Murcielago. Oh sure, Kuroko finds a new girl she wants to seduce, and there’s some naked bathing, but there’s no sex in this one. Even the violence is relatively behind-the-scenes here, though I have a feeling the volume after this will take things up a notch. We’re at a fishing village with a dark secret at the local church, one that’s led to an awful lot of dead people being eaten by sharks. And, of course, Kuroko’s new girl turns out to be the key to it all—or rather, the rosary left to her by her late father is. Will Kuroko and Hinako save the day? Can Suiren avoid getting seduced? Likely no to that second one, but that’s what makes Murcielago what it is. – Sean Gaffney

Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare, Vol. 1 | By Yuhki Kamatani | Seven Seas – Tasuku Kaname has recently transferred to a new high school. His classmates are friendly enough, but soon a rumor starts circulating that he’s gay. Tasuku is quick to deny it, though the truth is he’s struggling to come to terms with his sexuality since it carries such a large social stigma. It’s only after he meets and learns the stories of several other people who are likewise not straight that Tasuku starts to feel less isolated and is able begin to accept himself. The fear, anxiety, and agony that results from not being able to freely live true to oneself both inwardly and outwardly is exceptionally well-conveyed by Kamatani in Our Dreams at Dusk. But while the first volume is at times heartbreaking, it’s also not without hope. Emotionally intense and tear-inducing for both sorrowful and joyful reasons, Our Dreams at Dusk is off to an incredibly compelling start. – Ash Brown

A Strange & Mystifying Story, Vol. 7 | By Tsuta Suzuki | SuBLime – And so, A Strange & Mystifying Story comes to an end. I could quibble with some aspects of this finale, like how Tsumugi convinced grief-stricken Magawa to give up on his destructive quest with ease to spare, but since it led to a happy ending for all concerned, I’m not going to argue with it. There are some great moments between Tsumugi and Kurayori, especially a tearful and relieved two-page hug once the effect of Magawa’s spell is reversed, and I adored their first love scene. It’s fumbling and awkward and loving and entirely about the characters. It felt necessary and not gratuitous. This series stumbled a little in the beginning but I’m glad I kept with it because from the third volume on, it became something special. I recommend it highly. – Michelle Smith

By: Ash Brown

[theantisocialcritic]

This AntiSocial Life: 30 Black and White Movies You’ll Love! (Part 1)

I can’t begin to describe the utter joy that my developing love of classic films has managed to bring into my cinematic life. It is so easy to let things fall by the wayside in the modern film landscape. In a way though this is a massive artistic sin. We stand on the shoulders of giants and think we’re flying. This is a sin I will only hold against filmmakers however. As much as the average critic can go on at lengths about the evils of popcorn munching blockbusters or the innate immaturity of the movies the masses indulge their pleasures in I don’t find it my moral prerogative to do so. While mass art is important it’s important to know that the average person doesn’t engage with art the same way that filmmakers do. There’s nothing wrong with people wanting to watch superhero movies and romantic comedies because they engage with movies as a means of escaping the world briefly. For filmmakers, movies ARE our world. 

With that said, as i’ve delved into the vast ocean of forgotten classics and masterpieces of old i’ve grown sad at the loss our culture has seen as so many important pieces of art find themselves deeper and deeper inside the Hollywood storage vaults. There is a growing cinematic illiteracy across culture and while some of it has much to do with predictable entropy I feel a much needed reinjection is necessary. 

When most cinephiles talk about the greatest decades in film ever the 1970s will likely emerge as one of those periods of time most filmmakers considered the unabashed greatest decades in the history of film. Beyond just the incredible output of a group of insanely talented filmmakers the formerly broken down Hollywood studio style, crushed under the weight of it’s own hubris with enormous flops and a struggling sensibility to understand the audiences that had long since forsaken them for art house films and television, started allowing for insane risk taking by a large group of director’s it would've never let through the door before. What resulted was the decade that gave us The Godfather, Star Wars, Jaws, Taxi Driver and dozens of other classics. What made these filmmakers so innately talented though was the once in a lifetime combination of talent and drive. Filmmakers like George Lucas, Spielberg, Coppola and the rest spent their youths indulging in the fun schlocky genre filmmaking of the 40s and 50s and then matured into the classics/foreign films as they worked their way through film school. The depth and artistry of the art house films they learned from combined with their passion for sex and violence to create a unique energy and wave of films the likes of which Hollywood has never seen since. This could only happen because these great directors figured out how to merge the things they loved about film with the greatest skills their medium had to offer. These are lessons we can learn just by watching these same movies.  

The following list is not something I intend as a required viewing list for fans of cinema. If you’re like me and you adore the movies than this will be nothing less than a love letter to cinema. Below i’ve carefully considered a list of thirty classic black and white films that I feel serves as a primer for anyone who loves movies as I do and wants to chase the history of where the modern form we see today comes from. 

For our first seven films we will start with a basic rundown of vital classics and highlights from acclaimed directors before delving deep into the various genres of filmmaking that stretched across the long reign of black and white cinema: silent films, noir thrillers, westerns, war dramas, science fiction films and foreign films. 

Without further ado… 

1. Casablanca 

In a sense starting out with the movie that often qualifies as one of the most beloved, romantic and is occasionally rated the greatest film ever made might be something of a cop-out. There is no shortage of people who are aware of it and it’s presence in pop culture has been a heavily parodied and referenced one given it’s utter ubiquity. That reputation made my initial viewings of the film in high school a rather dry experience for an ADHD individual fresh off hyperactive boom-tests like Transformers 2. Having now seen the film three times in theaters and over a dozen times overall I feel confident in saying it’s grown on me in a big way. Michael Curtiz’s miraculous accident of a film, seemingly incepted into reality as just another studio romance film, blossomed into a beautiful, comedic and painful epic of love torn apart by war. It’s hard not to overrate the film to the point where someone who isn’t on the right wavelength would be able to approach the film objectively but this is a film that has earned every step of it’s way. There simply isn’t another film like it. 

2. On the Waterfront 

If there is another director who truly understands the innate cost of doing the right thing when it’s hard I can’t think of someone greater than Elia Kazan. Once a member of the communist party at the height of the Hollywood blacklist he turns his back on them and controversially helped expose his fellow former comrades. His 1954 masterpiece On the Waterfront was his answer to his critics. The movie alongside his other collaboration with the then young Marlon Brando A Streetcar Named Desire helped cement Brando as that decade’s most attractive and beloved young male movie star. His legendary performance brought Kazan’s vision of the young union kid who is pressured to help reveal the inner workings of a corrupt union together to express such a painful truth. 

3. To Kill a Mockingbird 

Harper Lee’s seminal masterpiece remains one of the most important pieces of literature to come out of the 21st century. At once a slow burn meditation of family life, youth, femininity and justice the story has long gone on to become required reading in most schools. It’s cinematic adaption has similarly gone on to share much of it’s progenitors reputation and rightly so. Gregory Peck’s utterly perfect performance as Atticus Finch remains one of the greatest performances in history, exuding a wonderful quiet confidence and the silent strength of being the only person in the room who is willing to do the right thing (also the child performances are surprisingly tolerable!). 

4. Sunset Blvd. 

Billy Wilder should be a name every single film fanatic should have on their minds constantly. His filmography including such highlights as Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Ace in the Hole, Some Like it Hot, The Seven Year Itch, One, Two Three, Stalag 17 and The Apartment show a breadth and creative voice almost unheard of in filmic history. If you haven’t indulged on the Wilder side of things (please forgive the pun…) than there isn’t a great place to start than his utter masterpiece of satire, the unforgettable, the glamorous, Sunset Blvd. I can’t think if there’s ever been a more deeply introspective look on the dark side of Hollywood as this film managed to portray. The movie is a time capsule to the forgotten and an ode to narcism as the long since forgotten former Hollywood mega-star watches her once grand career in the silent movies became forgotten. It’s a tragedy, but the tragedy already happened. All that’s left is the denial. 

5. Meet John Doe 

I had to put something by Frank Capra on this list. He is in my favorite director. His voice and morality speak to everything I hold as important in film. At once he is deeply religious, sentimental, and patriotic but unflinchingly honest and introspective towards life. That being said his two largest films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life still enjoy a surprisingly continuous half life so neither would do for this list. Of all of his films however this one might be my own personal favorite. John Doe as a character might be the most perfect depiction of the Christ metaphor ever put to film. Capra’s heartbreaking story of a down on his luck man in the great depression who agrees to kill himself to teach the world a lesson and who’s declaration of doing so manages pour a wellspring of goodness and love from a concerned public might be the greatest depiction of brotherly love in a cruel world ever put to celluloid. 

6. Citizen Kane

Of all the films in this list I was reluctant to choose this was the one I was most concerned about. This is one of those films every cinephile continually runs their mouths about in perpetuity and shy of it’s history it may seem incongruous that it’s considered the greatest movie of all time. That being said, Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made. The great Martin Scorsesee has opined of late that his considers film to be a dying medium and that it is proving to to be unable of recreating the kinds of films that once defined it. While movies are very much alive the point is ultimately true. All that exists in modern film is fun blockbusters and cheap art house dramas that lack audience appeal. To paraphrase hollywood screenwriter Andrew Klaven, the body and soul of filmmaking has split apart. It has effectively died. Gone are the days of the filmmaking of depth and deep thematic resonance. Citizen Kane is a movie of such labyrinthine depths and insight that it’s more than a mere miracle. This is a movie conceived by a rising star of broadway and radio dramas who was given unfettered creative control at one of the largest studios of the day and written by a self destructive drunk. On paper it’s a poorly structured and non-traditionally dramatized script. In action though it’s startling. This a film inhabited by shadow people from the media who we never come to understand delving into the complicated life of one man who they ultimately never come to truly understand. It’s a stunning character exploration that details thoroughly the true unknowability of the person before offering it’s audience the chance to understand the full truth of his reality. It’s a deeply relevant (and by the times controversial) satire of the time’s worst newspaper pundit who abused his power to limit the film’s outreach. It’s a movie who's history and circumstance set it apart as one of the most fascinating movies of all time. Everything in it is perfect, original and only then does it end on one of the greatest twists of all time. 

7. Stagecoach

When Orson Welles was knee deep in production on his masterpiece he was given an interview to discuss his influences for his upcoming film. He gave a simple answer, “John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.” Not to be repetitive but John Ford is probably the greatest director in the history of cinema. Welles, who became a master in his own right, watched and rewatched Ford’s 1939 western masterpiece Stagecoach dozens of times in preparation for his work on Citizen Kane. This is the movie that defined the idea of the Hollywood western. It helped forge an institution that ran rampant through Hollywood and consumed the world’s pop culture for decades. It’s a simple story of multiple people with different (at odds) motivations traveling through hostile territory but it’s the kind of movie that changes everything. This is the movie that helped John Wayne break out in Hollywood. It’s a great movie in it’s own right and one that changed everything around it for the better. 

Thank you all for reading! Join us again tomorrow for Part 2 where we will be discussing the Silent and PreCode eras of film! 

If you would like to see more reviews, articles and podcasts lemme know by tweeting me at @AntiSocialCriti or commenting below. Also be sure to check out my review show The Fox Valley Film Critics!

Live long and prosper!

[themovieblogonline]

Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a refreshing, if somewhat melancholic, exploration of youth, identity, and the slippery nature of time. The film offers a unique blend of science fiction, comedy, and drama, following Elliott, a quirky and sometimes impulsive teenager who has an unexpected encounter with her future self on the night of her 18th birthday. The presence of her 39-year-old self – a “My Old Ass" contact on her phone – is both a boon and a burden, leading Elliott to reassess her relationships and her own future. Park’s direction here maintains an almost dreamlike, intimate tone as she keeps the focus tightly on Elliott and her friends’ last summer together. By blending casual humor with deeper reflections, My Old Ass manages to avoid the pitfalls of a traditional time-travel narrative, focusing instead on the emotional weight of choices, love, and self-discovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvks3SeCDOs Maisy Stella makes an impressive debut: In her debut role, Maisy Stella portrays Elliott with a surprising depth and maturity, capturing the restless curiosity and indecisiveness that define her character. Stella embodies Elliott’s initial confidence as she skips her own birthday party to flirt with Chelsea, but also her vulnerability as she navigates her mixed feelings toward Chad, family expectations, and her sense of self. The humor and candor she brings to Elliott make her relatable, balancing Elliott’s headstrong impulses with a softness that emerges as she interacts with her future self. Aubrey Plaza is a delight: Aubrey Plaza as older Elliott is a strong complement to Stella. Plaza infuses the older version of Elliott with the wisdom and regrets that come with age, but without overpowering Stella’s youthful energy. Her portrayal has a wry, slightly jaded edge, which subtly hints at a past filled with both joy and pain. This balance of humor and melancholy brings a rich layer to her scenes, showing the complications that lie ahead for Elliott while also reminding her younger self to live in the present. Percy Hynes White as Chad plays a believable love interest, toeing the line between mysterious charm and youthful cluelessness. His dynamic with Elliott shifts from casual friendship to budding romance, and their interactions—awkward and charged with uncertainty—capture the thrill and confusion of young love. Maddie Ziegler as Ruthie and Kerrice Brooks as Ro also shine in supporting roles, lending warmth and humor as Elliott’s loyal, carefree friends who provide much-needed levity amid Elliott’s inner conflict. A witty script: Megan Park’s script is sharp and witty, and her take on the sci-fi genre is refreshingly grounded. Rather than delving into the mechanics of time travel, Park keeps the focus on the emotional implications of meeting one’s future self, using sci-fi to explore Elliott’s evolving identity. The simplicity of the plot structure—centering on Elliott’s interactions with older Elliott—keeps the story focused, letting us experience the deepening bond between these two versions of the same person. This, in turn, highlights one of the film’s central questions: what would you tell your younger self if given the chance, and would it change anything? Sci-fi elements: The film’s sci-fi elements don’t just act as a plot device but serve as a catalyst for Elliott’s self-reflection. Her older self’s warnings and her ambiguous feelings toward Chad, for example, are given weight by this supernatural setup. Through older Elliott’s hints about future heartbreak, Park subtly raises questions about agency, fate, and the bittersweet inevitability of change. By maintaining ambiguity around Chad’s future and Elliott’s path, Park ensures that the story remains more about Elliott’s current journey than her potential future. A coming-of-age film through-and-through: My Old Ass captures the hazy, nostalgic beauty of a teenage summer. The film’s cinematography is drenched in the golden hues of the lake, wooded campgrounds, and the cranberry bog where Elliott’s family works, giving a natural warmth to the scenes that emphasizes Elliott’s connection to her childhood home. Park creates an inviting atmosphere, where the lake serves as both a setting and a symbolic threshold between past, present, and future, capturing the fleeting nature of adolescence in images that are rich with nostalgia. The moments of Elliott’s mushroom trip and her humorous hallucination as Justin Bieber performing “One Less Lonely Girl” add a playful energy to the film, offering a brief escape from her inner turmoil. These scenes showcase Park’s talent for balancing heavier themes with light-hearted moments, resulting in a tone that is both contemplative and lively. Flaws: As heartfelt and relatable as My Old Ass is, there are points where the film feels caught between two tones. The sci-fi element, while intriguing, might leave viewers wanting more in terms of its narrative payoff. Park’s choice to leave much of the future vague, especially regarding Chad’s fate, keeps the focus on the present, but it might feel unsatisfying to viewers looking for closure. At times, older Elliott’s purpose in Elliott’s life feels more symbolic than practical, a reflection of future regret rather than a fully-realized character who engages deeply with her younger self. Additionally, while Elliott’s journey is engaging, some of the supporting characters could have been more fully fleshed out, especially Ruthie and Ro. Though Ziegler and Brooks deliver fun performances, they feel underutilized, with limited development that leaves them orbiting Elliott’s story rather than becoming central to her emotional journey. Overall: Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a quirky, heartfelt film that does justice to the complex emotions of coming of age. Its unique take on the sci-fi genre serves as a fresh perspective on adolescence, offering laughs, bittersweet moments, and a thoughtful look at the power of family, friendship, and love. Read the full article

[themovieblogonline]

Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a refreshing, if somewhat melancholic, exploration of youth, identity, and the slippery nature of time. The film offers a unique blend of science fiction, comedy, and drama, following Elliott, a quirky and sometimes impulsive teenager who has an unexpected encounter with her future self on the night of her 18th birthday. The presence of her 39-year-old self – a “My Old Ass" contact on her phone – is both a boon and a burden, leading Elliott to reassess her relationships and her own future. Park’s direction here maintains an almost dreamlike, intimate tone as she keeps the focus tightly on Elliott and her friends’ last summer together. By blending casual humor with deeper reflections, My Old Ass manages to avoid the pitfalls of a traditional time-travel narrative, focusing instead on the emotional weight of choices, love, and self-discovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvks3SeCDOs Maisy Stella makes an impressive debut: In her debut role, Maisy Stella portrays Elliott with a surprising depth and maturity, capturing the restless curiosity and indecisiveness that define her character. Stella embodies Elliott’s initial confidence as she skips her own birthday party to flirt with Chelsea, but also her vulnerability as she navigates her mixed feelings toward Chad, family expectations, and her sense of self. The humor and candor she brings to Elliott make her relatable, balancing Elliott’s headstrong impulses with a softness that emerges as she interacts with her future self. Aubrey Plaza is a delight: Aubrey Plaza as older Elliott is a strong complement to Stella. Plaza infuses the older version of Elliott with the wisdom and regrets that come with age, but without overpowering Stella’s youthful energy. Her portrayal has a wry, slightly jaded edge, which subtly hints at a past filled with both joy and pain. This balance of humor and melancholy brings a rich layer to her scenes, showing the complications that lie ahead for Elliott while also reminding her younger self to live in the present. Percy Hynes White as Chad plays a believable love interest, toeing the line between mysterious charm and youthful cluelessness. His dynamic with Elliott shifts from casual friendship to budding romance, and their interactions—awkward and charged with uncertainty—capture the thrill and confusion of young love. Maddie Ziegler as Ruthie and Kerrice Brooks as Ro also shine in supporting roles, lending warmth and humor as Elliott’s loyal, carefree friends who provide much-needed levity amid Elliott’s inner conflict. A witty script: Megan Park’s script is sharp and witty, and her take on the sci-fi genre is refreshingly grounded. Rather than delving into the mechanics of time travel, Park keeps the focus on the emotional implications of meeting one’s future self, using sci-fi to explore Elliott’s evolving identity. The simplicity of the plot structure—centering on Elliott’s interactions with older Elliott—keeps the story focused, letting us experience the deepening bond between these two versions of the same person. This, in turn, highlights one of the film’s central questions: what would you tell your younger self if given the chance, and would it change anything? Sci-fi elements: The film’s sci-fi elements don’t just act as a plot device but serve as a catalyst for Elliott’s self-reflection. Her older self’s warnings and her ambiguous feelings toward Chad, for example, are given weight by this supernatural setup. Through older Elliott’s hints about future heartbreak, Park subtly raises questions about agency, fate, and the bittersweet inevitability of change. By maintaining ambiguity around Chad’s future and Elliott’s path, Park ensures that the story remains more about Elliott’s current journey than her potential future. A coming-of-age film through-and-through: My Old Ass captures the hazy, nostalgic beauty of a teenage summer. The film’s cinematography is drenched in the golden hues of the lake, wooded campgrounds, and the cranberry bog where Elliott’s family works, giving a natural warmth to the scenes that emphasizes Elliott’s connection to her childhood home. Park creates an inviting atmosphere, where the lake serves as both a setting and a symbolic threshold between past, present, and future, capturing the fleeting nature of adolescence in images that are rich with nostalgia. The moments of Elliott’s mushroom trip and her humorous hallucination as Justin Bieber performing “One Less Lonely Girl” add a playful energy to the film, offering a brief escape from her inner turmoil. These scenes showcase Park’s talent for balancing heavier themes with light-hearted moments, resulting in a tone that is both contemplative and lively. Flaws: As heartfelt and relatable as My Old Ass is, there are points where the film feels caught between two tones. The sci-fi element, while intriguing, might leave viewers wanting more in terms of its narrative payoff. Park’s choice to leave much of the future vague, especially regarding Chad’s fate, keeps the focus on the present, but it might feel unsatisfying to viewers looking for closure. At times, older Elliott’s purpose in Elliott’s life feels more symbolic than practical, a reflection of future regret rather than a fully-realized character who engages deeply with her younger self. Additionally, while Elliott’s journey is engaging, some of the supporting characters could have been more fully fleshed out, especially Ruthie and Ro. Though Ziegler and Brooks deliver fun performances, they feel underutilized, with limited development that leaves them orbiting Elliott’s story rather than becoming central to her emotional journey. Overall: Megan Park’s My Old Ass is a quirky, heartfelt film that does justice to the complex emotions of coming of age. Its unique take on the sci-fi genre serves as a fresh perspective on adolescence, offering laughs, bittersweet moments, and a thoughtful look at the power of family, friendship, and love. Read the full article