#there were a lot of good one liners in this episode

[pike-the-monstah]

yknow, i don't know what the disk horse has been like around total drama 2023, but after finishing the season, i think i actually enjoyed it for the most part

[absolutebl]

This Week(s) in BL - yes yes I KNOW

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Dec 2024 Week 1 & 2

Ongoing Series - Thai

Your Sky (Sun iQIYI) ep 3-4 of 12 - Them on the rooftop together (and cooking) learning how to flirt and be comfortable in each other’s space was so damn darling. Fah is so gentle and so enamored. its just endlessly soft. I love the nickname negotiation. And then next we got an illegally cute date!!!!! Yes this is slow but I don't care.

Love Sick 2024 (Sun iQIYI) ep 12-13 of 15 - I like we get more Phun/Dad conflict backstory in this new version. I'm chronicling my experience with 2024 as compared to 2014 here. (hasn't been updated, I'm struggling here)

Caged Again (Fri Gaga) ep 5-6 of 10 - Family (elder gays) to the rescue is a wonderful trope to see! So rare.

Also a v well done first kiss. 

Not gonna lie, I found the second episode overly weird and rather slow and drawn out. Did not need all the cartoon stuff. Also not really into the penguin outfit thing either. Not cute.

ThamePo Heart that Skips a Beat (Fri YT) ep 1 of 12 - Oh I absolutely adore it but...... it’s slow. But I don’t care because everyone’s so pretty. Po is a bit too much of a pushover for me and his sister (or whatever) is a bit too much of a sasang. So I don’t like that part. Hopefully these flaws will get rectified. But my oh my are they PRETTY.

Did I mention the pretty?

Fourever You (Thurs YT) ep 10-11 of 16 - These episodes were a bit better and I am warming Johan (if not to North). I think my issue with this story arc is I never love a tsundere seme. North's hair was epically bad, like 2008 Japan level terrible.

Hill & Ter’s make out and discovery scene was truly spectacular and very tense.

In ep 11 I got very confused because I thought we already saw the rescue from rape in the street scene? Or am I hallucinating? Anygay, most awkward kabedon ever in a BL.

Good kiss though.

And now we are in a very working girl a relationship. Cool if that's your thing, I guess.

The Heart Killers (Weds Gaga) ep 3 of 12 - I like the Khun Mehhh Boss lady character. I cannot stand the music in this show! Fake metal, fake tattoos, I'm getting Hollyoaks flashbacks. Lap sitting was cute and kink was a nice touch. Not sure about the dance tho. Fight scene was much better. Lots of action this ep. ALL the action really.  

Episode 4, however, I inexplicably couldn’t find. I clearly have to use my old-fashioned VPN work-around. And I don’t have access to that computer right now.

Perfect 10 Liners (Sun YT?) ep 6 of 24 - I did really enjoy the twist that the uke character (who is not in love) was more into having sex than seme character (who is in love). That was fun. And quite modern.

I do love them casually just walking around campus in waffle robes. For those who don’t know this is another dig at a BL trope. Frankly, now that there’s a lot more communication (and intentions have been made clear) between the two of them, I’m enjoying their relationship more. I still don't LIKE it. Also the ever present language play is making me happy. For those of you who missed it, the nuance of that krap from a prior perennially rude Arc is basically the equivalent of a semi-sarcastic but also kind of sweet “yes, dear.”

Meanwhile, Sea just popping up out of nowhere made me entirely too happy. I hooted with laughter, it was so ridiculous. Episode 7 I didn't pay much attention because the sound effects were particularly egregious - or was it just me? 

Spare Me Your Mercy (Thurs iQIYI) ep 2-4 of 8 - I went on a journey with this one this week. Ready?

2 - Ooo its very good. I like it a lot. The doc is soooo awkward it's almost believable and yet still sus. Such a great actor. I do keep wondering if they’ve already slept together at some point though. Like they once had a one night stand in college or something.  3 - I did not call the pharmacist and the hospital head kink. Nice twist. I do enjoy how very adult the relationship is between these leads, but I don't get a ton of chemistry. 4 - Well this show turned into something I was not expecting. I thought it was gonna be a sort of mystery but it’s not. It’s more crime thriller is he a serial killer thing. sorry all, but this is too dark for me rn. So I’m giving it a pass until it’s over and others have deemed it safe. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Youth AKA Miseinen: Mijukuna Oretachi wa Bukiyo ni Shinkochu (Japan Tues Gaga) ep 5-6 of 11 - Oh it’s the classic flip halfway through so we get the other perspective. I forgot that was coming. Silly me. Anther one for the 2024 sniff test list list. Oh they gave such an achingly sweet sex scene Triggers are rough with this one. We are in for a world of pain. Why am I still watching?

See Your Love (Taiwan Weds Gaga) ep 8 of 13 - gosh they are so sweet. The Daddy/idiot-brat side pairing is epic. Wish they got more screen time.

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 11 of ? - finally stuff happened. 

Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 6-7 of 10 - ugh, they kept the violation of the journal reading bit in the JBL version. It’s really hard to watch no matter what. I actually think the Thai version of that scene was better acted. But ho boy how do I ever like that character?

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues ????) 11-12 end - Went pretty dark. Both psychologically, emotionally, and physically. I still like how the leads remained loyal and connected to each other though. Nice to see battle husbands again after so long. We don’t get them very often in BL these days. it’s just us against the world is always fun to watch. All that said  there’s quite a bit of chin stroking dialogue that was v on the nose and twee for JBL. Pleasure to see Haruto fight like a man who can actually fight, like the actor had some training or something (no idea if this is true). The final ep was satisfying and all in all, an enjoyable show.

A fun little JBL about a repressed lawyer who partners with (and then falls for) a beautiful street-savvy conman. Charmingly, they both come out the better and stronger for the relationship. The return of battle husbands, this time in the courtroom. Thank you, Japan, we appreciate a look in on an oft forgotten trope. 8/10

Be Moon - Falling for my enemy's son (China YT) movie from HBD Studio airing in short bits - this is another series of shorts that popped up on YouTube. It’s very pulp I not wild about it. Although I do like a lot of the tropes. 

Eyes on You (Hong Kong YT) - trailer, oh it’s mostly incomprehensible and really not good. I'd tell you what it’s about but I have no idea. There seems to be some sort of mystery and some violence and people fighting and a pair of lovers at the center of it who are being reunited. Or something.

It's airing but......

Winter Is Not The Death of Summer (Thai Weds YT) ?? eps - Criminals who meet in prison fall in love. I did find it on YouTube, initially un-subbed, then subs happened by which time I got distracted. The first episode seems to be only six minutes long. It is very pulp. But it is intriguing. For now it's to the wayside until someone tells me it landed safely. Occasionally Thai pulps want to be edgy and it's not a good look on them.

Secret Love (? YT?) 13-?? of 81 eps - I don't know what's going on either.

0.5D (Japan ????) 10 eps - Supposedly started 12/4 I couldn't find it though I'd like to watch. "Sales ace, Sada, has a secret that only his junior, Daiki, knows. He has pretended to have a gf for years, resulting in him being a virgin. But now Sada has fallen in love. Confused, Sada seeks advice from his junior." I sense another queer Cyrano De Bergerac. Info here.

Bad to Bed (Taiwan Sat YT) 10 eps - This is a little too low production value even for me + just very very odd. DNF

It Ended But?

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (China Sun Viki) paused at eps 9-10 of 12 - I have been told the ending is OK if not great. I’m gonna hold off for a bit.

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) 10 eps - I DNF'd at ep 7, did anyone stick with this until the end? Thoughts?

Next Week Looks Like This:

No cal for you. Mine is borked. LIFE. Interfering with my BL. Again.

End of year drops:

12/14 & 12/21 The Renovation (Thai mini One31) 2 eps - Writer turns his blossoming romance with holiday resort owner into a novel.

12/20 Eternal Butler (Taiwan Viki?) 12 eps - When Ever 4, a sophisticated AI robot, becomes the personal butler to Luo Bu Shi, a spoiled yet lonely young heir, an unexpected love story unfolds. (Spin off from the first season, new cast.)

12/29 Sangmin Dinneaw (Thai ????) ??eps - trailer Childhood friends (Thai & Korean) reunite after being apart for ten years. As the boys reconnect, their bond matures and feelings of romance begin to develop, in Thai.

Impression of Youth (Taiwan ????) ??eps - rummors are thsi is supposed to start this month.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Peak humor. Very good.

STRAIGHT = wrong word

(All Perfect 10)

LOOK AT THAT FACE> GAH. (Fourever)

(2 weeks ago)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Don't complain you're lucky I got this done at all!

[whoblewboobear]

There have been a lot of negative posts about how this season turned out bc of the rat grinders exclusively and everyone is entitled to their opinions on the season. But in light of it, I’m gonna throw out some positives about this season 💖

Sophomore year will always hold a special place in my heart because of the Fabian arc but Junior year might be my favorite fantasy high season overall. I loved learning about Ankarna and Cassandra. I thought I’d be bummed out not seeing some of my fave npcs but the downtime mechanic and the stress tokens added sO much. The Porter & Jace reveal was incredible. KRISTEN’S CAMPAIGN ARC!!! Fabian and Mazey!? K2 and all the blimey shenanigans 👏 Everything with Wanda Childa and Ruben and fig’s complicated women podcast was sooooo funny. I genuinely laughed harder this season than I have with any other d20 season I’ve seen.

I feel like with this season they really hit their stride with pacing too. It felt a lot more fluid with how we rolled into combat most of the time. I loved that first party of the year and seeing Adaine become the party wizard. After ep 18 it makes me love the party with the Oisin missing his shots so much more bc he got in that nasty little one liner later. I adored that the rat grinders were essentially a red herring to keep the bad kids looking elsewhere to take the heat off Porter and Jace a bit.

We didn’t see much from all of them, and we didn’t see nearly enough about Lucy, but I really loved the Rat grinders as in school rivals for the bad kids. Ruben was hands down my favorite but goddamn did I also love how much of a girlfailure Kip was. I loved seeing her rage out and I hope we get to see her really go nuts in the finale too. I really really warmed up to Mary Ann last episode with her tugging on Jace’s shirt and saying she didn’t feel good and then seeing her rage when her strawberry got destroyed. She’s so fascinating to meeee. I loved everything with Buddy and Kristen. I wish they had more scenes together. And while I’m talking about the Dawns, that entrance from Bobby Dawn as the new cleric teacher made my skin crawl in the best way. I loved Kristen calling him frumpy and sad on her teacher evaluation too- and holy shit Fig meeting Ankarna for the first time? Ankarna being the inspiration Fig needed to make music again too?

The incredible art from Cait May this season was hands down one of my FAVORITE d20 artist collabs ever. Just overall improved designs for everyone that just make so much more sense for their characters and art for new characters that made me adore them even more. Also holy shit the Porter maxi is genuinely my favorite mini that’s ever been featured on the show. I’m typically not into how the minis look in general, they always look a lil goofy to me but goddamn when they hit, they fuckin HIT.

And speaking of Porter, I really got endeared to him this season. Yeah he turned out evil and always has been a dick to gorgug and is definitely a shit teacher, but before the reveal I loved his training with Fig and Zara. One thing about Fantasy high is that I just love a lot of the teachers. My two faves this season being Terpsichore and Henry! They’re both so dedicated to their students and are such a specific type of teacher that you’ve definitely met before in real life. Like all my favorite math teachers back in school were so much like Henry and that made me love him even more.

Of course my #1 favorite thing about the world of Spyre is the religion aspect and how Brennan and Ally both approach it. That scene with Ally connecting with Yolanda and Lucy to allow them some comfort in the afterlife was so beautiful. Kristen’s talks with Bucky throughout the season were very touching and hit very close to home as someone that grew up in a religious household and doesn’t connect with the divinity I was raised on. Just- wow wow wow. I also really love that despite the breakup, Tracker and Kristen still have really interesting convos about divinity even if they don’t agree.

I loved seeing different dynamics in the bad kids too, I love the huge sibling energy that Fabian and Adaine have and the bond that Kristen and Fig have. I love how interwoven all the bad kids feel as a group. I love the little quirks that they all have, and I loved all the fandom posts about them like the sharing clothes posts and the one about how everyone lets Riz crawl on them to get better vantage points. I love Riz’s wall of text breaking down to gorgug about how much he appreciates him. Him calling gorgug a sweetie almost made me cry. I of course love all the parent/child moments this season. I loved the bad kids finally healing Lydia and seeing how happy it made Ragh. I LOVE Aelwyn and all her cats 🤧 I loved seeing Baron again and I loved how the bad kids got to the funhouse version of mordred through riz’s briefcase. I love seeing Adaine and Sandralynn bond. I loved finding out that Sandralynn and Sklonda go out for drinks and are friends. I just 💖 and goddamn, Ayda’s message to Fig and how Zara helped to surprise Fig with it. I love how Bill and Pok are such proud dads of their boys and I hope they’re doing some bonding over drinks in the after life.

And I cannot end this post without saying that I loved how cinematic this season felt too. It had INCREDIBLE imagery that you could easily visualize. Everyone at the table was in their element this time around from a role playing and a strategic standpoint. Everyone had their moment to shine and something important to do this season that fed back into the main plot. So thank you to Brennan and the intrepid heroes for giving us another killer season. After the season ended I was planning to finish Starstruck and Neverafter but I might just rewatch Junior year all over again just to get it out of my system.

Feel free to add things you loved about Junior year!

[beawake]

Random thoughts and immediate impressions of the first three episodes of tlovm3, an incoherent list

Pock o'pea wooden house at Gilmore's wannabe and taste of taldor'ei chalice thing

Did I mention the Gilmore wannabe? His distaste, amazing

Gilmore's displeasure at being dragged into Vox Machina's schemes, and still going along with it

My boy just wants to be home and run his shop, not babysit adventurers

Speaking about gilmore, Vex offering to flirt with the guards, gilmore saying he already tried

Gilmore, I'll hold them off, immediately gets caught. Yeah your adventuring days are behind you with running from highly efficient guards

Scanlan drinking courage

They are all so bad at communicating help!

Soo Draconia? Draconia.. *fingers guns* I forgot if they were there for real but they were there in spirit for sure

Percy looked so young in that scene, you would so often forget he's like 18 or 19 but not then

Kiki: but we kissed. When vax was saying they couldn't be together. It was so innocent and it hurt so much. Communicate dammit. And then cutting to Percy and Vex having sex nextdoor

They kept in Percy going for a talk and Vex opening the door naked!

Aah Cassandra and Percy as siblings, and Percy being so smitten

Kiki feeling so alone and unsupported

Scanlan ruining his relationship with his daughter even more cause he worries for his friends and then feeling unappreciated the cracks are there

The misunderstanding with Pike and Scanlan, oh that hurt, both trying to do their best but Pike not knowing how to fix it

Grog with the kids, being a detective, finding Percy

Percy giving himself up not feeling like he lied because he feels so responsible for all the dead the guns cause

Vex "I care for you so this can only be a fling or you'll get hurt"

Keyleth "so the joy of today is not worth the pain of tomorrow?"

J'mon Sa Ord is so fucking hot I want that character design

Allura and Kima 10/10 no notes these lesbians continue to slay

The banter, the one liners

The songs!!! Matt/Drenzel singing about the Ruby of the Sea

Scanlan singing about the Spice

Matt NPC do you spice? Does your daughter spice?

Scanlans vulnerability that he barely shows to his friends

It is so good, only a little disappointed about missing the cat/tiger demon going after Vax as Gilmore

Oh and I can't forget about Gilmores flirting with Vax

I just really love Gilmore

And how they are giving the NPC's bigger roles

Oh and Percy not knowing orthax's name, buddy? How?

Curious to see where that goes with Ripley, who is very cool

And the intro reminds me so much of anime intros and I love it, it is amazing

Things my friend noticed

J'mon Sa Ord and the creepily too big hands and feet, like trying for human and just missing the mark

Zerxus!!! Are we gonna see him all demon??? I am not ready

I might come up with more but first thoughts and excitements are here and good and there were a lot of changes but I don't mind any of them at the moment, I just trust that they love this as much as us and will go where needed

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

It's december already which just feels insane to me. Christmas is coming which makes me happy but this year went by too fast. Anyway as usual, spoilers and opinions below, read at your own risk.

QL - Currently Watching

🇹🇭 Caged Again [4/10] - Junior is one of my favourite characters. He never learned to deceive so he just says what he feels like it's the most natural thing. And his confidence and optimism are contagious. I love him. And Sun is just smitten and terrible at hiding it so it's a good thing Junior is completely clueless about these things. I'm loving Jodd and Jeng and since they are also animals, I think we're getting more about them next episode. I can't wait. 🇹🇭 Fourever You [9/16] - I am so incredibly bored. They are stretching these two pairs for no reason. They should have just given us the four pairs in 16 eps cause this is torture. 🇯🇵Fragrance You Inherit [3/8] - It's lovely. I love Sakura. I really liked the scene in the restaurant. Sakura talking about being a single mom and Mone being supportive brought tears to my eyes. It was a beautiful moment. I love the relationship between the moms and the kids and I'm curious to see how Toki will react, if he in fact doesn't know already. It's also interesting to think about what exactly parents owe their kids or not, specially regarding something like that. Fansubs being provided by @isaksbestpillow. Thank you🧡 🇯🇵Love in the Air Koi [5/10] - The pacing is so much better here. I agree with @lurkingshan here and the kidnappings will probably be combined somehow. I like the second couple a bit better here than the thai version, but I'm still not the biggest fan of this storyline. Although Fuma is better than Prapai.

🇯🇵 Love is a Poison [11/12] - Shiba is so in love. I always believed, just like Shan, that Haruto was coming back, but it was painful watching Shiba hurt. Only one episode left where they will defeat the bad guy and live happily ever after. I will not accept anything else. 🇯🇵Miseinen [4/11] - Well at least they are 'friends' now. I can't with these two. That ice cream scene was insane and it's burned into my brain. This is a great adaptation and I need all the episodes like right now.

🇹🇭 Perfect 10 Liners [6/24] - PondSand are everything to me basically. I'm so over ArcArm and I need the next couple stat. It looks like this will be another parade of guest stars which is kinda fun and next week Sea will make an appearance along with the always fun jealousy plot which hopefully will end with them being boyfriends so we can move on to the next couple.

🇹🇼 See Your Love [7/13] - The contraste between the couples is hilarious to me. The sign language scenes were the cutest and they are adorable. And this must be a record number of the 'falling into each other's arms and almost kissing but not' trope. No one is that clumsy. The sides are bonkers.

🇹🇭 Spare Me Your Mercy [1/8] - Strong start. I'm reserving judgement but I like the setting a lot, so many MoD vibes, and I like this pair. They can act.

🇹🇭 The Heart Killers [2/12] - I'm watching quietly.

🇹🇭 Your Sky [3/12] - This might be too cute. Teerak is adorably clueless and Fah is so smitten. He came up with that nickname so fast, it's almost as if he's been calling him that in his head for a while. Also, the friend group is amazing at running interference. That scene in the lift was great. And I love the scenes with the Teerak and Babe.

QL - Finished

This is gonna be the quick-fire version cause I'm tired.

🇨🇳 Blue Canvas of Youthful Days - Great until episode 10. Unearned and unbelievable ending. Mostly forgiven because China. 🇰🇷🇹🇭 Eccentric Romance - What did I watch? was it bl? was it a crime drama? No idea, but it was not good.

🇹🇭 Every You, Every Me - Rushed ending but I really liked the bl inside the bl. I wanna see these two again.

🇹🇭 Jack & Joker - YinWar. On my screen. In 2024. Even if it was bad, it was good.

🇹🇭 Kidnap - Proof that Ohm will pretty much get me to watch anything.

🇰🇷 Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo - Pain and snow and happy endings.

🇰🇷 Love in the Big City - As close to perfection as anything I ever watched. Young will stay with me forever.

🇹🇭 Peaceful Property - A mess and also proof that TayNew will get me to watch anything.

🇰🇷My Damn Business - It was fine.

🇹🇼 The Nipple Talk - Mama was a gift.

Others - Watched

🇰🇷 Bad Guy | 🇯🇵Seoul Blues | 🇯🇵Blue Boys | 🇹🇼Marry My Dead Body | 🇯🇵Some Love Begins with Mistaken Identity | 🇰🇷Taming the Bad Boy | 🇰🇷Joseon Chefs | 🇰🇷The History of Us | 🇯🇵 Polyethylene Terephthalate 1 & 2

And continuing my YinWar agenda they just released a song and the video is hilarious.

As usual my ask box is open. Have a wonderful week💜

[justchillandshipit]

911 "Final Approach" S8 x E3 Spoilers.

This really was a great episode. Never enough Buddie for me, but I do have some speculation about them which I'll get to later. This is a reaction post, so it is a lot of stream-of-conscious stuff and very spoiler-heavy.

-Athena either has the best luck in the world or the worst. I mean it was one bad thing after the other the whole episode. She did land the plane though with no casualties related to her landing. I'll never get over how bad a$$ Athena is. I'll die on that hill.

-Brad was a lot of fun in this episode and his interaction was fun too. I laughed out loud for real and several times during this episode.

-My favorite Buck line had to be when he realized that Brad was British. "I would never have known he was British." And Brad's response, "It's called acting son." That was a nice nod to Oliver from Oliver's character.

-The whole landing was just so intense. When it got to the actual landing part, I felt like I was going to puke. (I felt this way even though I knew how it would end.) I'm going to call that a win on the writing, acting, and directing of the episode.

-Bathena was the WINNING ship in this episode. Bobby knew he missed her calls and he was so desperate to talk to her so she could hear his voice and know that he was with her and had her back. Bathena genuinely gave me chills this episode.

-We also reached the limits of the prodigy child who knew all about planes. He always crashed them in the simulation. The funniest Athena line in this episode is after her failed attempt to make the kid feel better by telling him he may have crashed in simulation but this was real life. The look on his little face and on Athena's when she said, "That sounded different in my head."

-The one-liners were rolling from everyone in this episode. When Josh said, "Oh you sweet naive man." Josh knows you have to expect the unexpected with the 118. LOL

-I loved Bobby putting Brad to work. I really could see Brad trying to join the fire department for real after this. Brad's behavior afterward, pretending that he was a real firefighter, the man is already showing signs of being unhinged. I think the crazy is going to crank up at some point. Loved that Brad fainted when he saw a real-life injury though.

-We did have a few good Buck scenes. I love that character like he's a real person. There were no real Buddie moments since they had no scenes together. That's so abnormal for them. That said, I had a very strong sense of foreshadowing. When Hen said, "I can't imagine what Athena is going through right now," and then Eddie says, "I can't imagine what Bobby's going through right now." Total speculation based on nothing but a feeling, but I think we are going to see Buck in serious danger at some point this season.

-The ending as it relates to landing the plane made me cry. I knew it was going to happen, but I still got emotional.

-Bobby takes charge of the scene and Chim wonders about it. Hen says, "I'm just going with it," was a great line from her too.

-Oh, and Bobby asking, "Where is Gerrard." Chim: "Buck put him in the hospital. Bobby: What?! Chim: "I could explain, but it's more fun not to."

-Finally, that ending with Gerrard. He's working with a few screws loose for sure. He should not be back at work, and yes, I laughed. He proved that he didn't turn over a new leaf by dressing down the others for stupid reasons. He gets to Buck who is bracing for the worse and planning to take whatever he deals out because of guilt when Gerrard hugs him and calls him son. The look on every single one of their faces was pure gold.

-I don't think they are going to try and redeem Gerrard, but I think he is going to try and "fix" Buck. I think this finally explains that golfing scene.

[mistywitcher]

percy jackson and the olympians has done it. disney, has done it. rick riordan has DONE IT!

the show is so good. i honestly so far can’t fault it, there is nothing i didn’t enjoy. it’s almost perfectly book accurate, the vibe is just right and i absolutely love all the casting. i know there will be people who disagree with me, but i do not give a monkeys. i actually love it.

percy jackson is extremely special to me. it was the first proper full blown autistic special interest i have ever had. i picked up the books when i was 11 (i am now 22) and they have got me through some rough times (including rn with chronic illness) i have a literal trident tattoo on my arm ffs i’m a die hard fan forever.

so to have something i am so incredibly fond of, redeemed from the awful movies, and made into a visually stunning , well thought out, book accurate adaptation, is literally one of the highlights of my life.

so here are some of my more specific thoughts on the first two episodes:

•PERCY! let’s start here. my gods, walker is PERFECT! he has absolutely made this show for me. you can tell how much work he put into understanding percy and making him EVEN BETTER in my opinion than book percy (no shade to book percy, still love him) it’s the moments of vulnerability that he’s worked into it, the genuine anguish, the grief. but also he’s got the humour DOWN! the little comments and one liners were so well delivered, along with his expressions and the way we can see how percy is going to develop. i will never get over his little dancing, and stroking the gecko. that was top tier for me. absolute perfection.

•ANNABETH MY BABE MY LOVE MY WISE GIRL. oh my, leah absolutely EMBODIES her. it’s the little eyebrow quirks, the slightly harsh but kind intonation, it’s so so annabeth. there was so much unnecessary backlash over this casting (cough cough, you can guess why) and it’s total bull, because it doesn’t matter and leah knows that character inside out and it shows. we didn’t get lots of annabeth yet, but i am BEYOND excited to see more and see how percy and annabeths relationship develops!

•GROVER GROVER GROVER what an absolute cutie! absolutely loved his delivery, especially the “i’m 24” line like that ENDED ME. aryan has this in the bag, and i love how he’s kinda sheepish, but still brave, and brings a softness to the character. his comedic timing is everything.

•casting in general i love. Mr D was great, especially with the whole “son” thing. that was illegally funny. love chiron, love luke, and love clarisse. the vibes are all there.

•the writing felt good too! nothing felt too scripted to me, it felt like it flowed and they included a lot of book lines which i loved!

•the visuals were awesome! i loved the CGi, especially for the minotaur and chiron! it wasn’t jarring and you can tell they put the work in to not make it look tacky! i loved how the camp was designed, ESPECIALLY THE CABINS! i always struggled to picture the cabins, so i was actually so impressed with them!

you can tell rick and becky had such a big part in this, it’s really really beautiful and my heart is so full rn. i cannot wait for the rest of this season, i am overjoyed and i hope so much that we get more seasons because this deserves it.

[samthetrekkie]

for having watched this movie at least twice before (albeit several years ago), I recalled surprisingly little of the plot. and so did my dad, who had once watched this with me! I used to think this was my favorite tos movie and I think the reason was bc this movie needs the smallest tos context. like it's objectively a - not super inventive - but thrilling and interesting plot. I also only now realized how much this movie made parallels to the end of the cold war and overall had some really good dialogue, which, let's be honest, not all of tos has.

but I think the reason it's not my favorite tos movie anymore, is bc I now do have the context and for a star trek movie, it was pretty weak when it comes to the characters. and tos is especially character-driven (to the point were the same 2-3 characters are protagonists in each episode). and I find that really interesting bc I do like all of the tos crew, but I also need that kirk/spock relationship thrown into my face again and again. and there was very little of that this time (not nothing though) and each character had kind of important roles to play. I don't want to say this is the only tos movie that operated like that, but I do notice it more in this one as I used to think this was the best movie.

anyway, there were still a few things I liked about the character portrayal in this. kirk and spock seemed to have some bigger issues prior to this as kirk seemed to be pissed off and distant with spock the whole time. and you can't tell me this was just bc of the assignment with the klingons. kirk felt like spock had personally attacked him with this assignment and spock seemed really confused, probably thinking he had given kirk an interesting last mission. so in my headcanon, their seem to have separated at this point :( but later on I really enjoyed how unusually angry spock got when he found out valeris was the one responsible for getting kirk convicted and had ultimately put his life in danger. there was a certain level of guilt in there too, as spock had been the one to get them into this mission in the first place. and kirk having pretty much forgiven spock in rura penthe of all places, was really surprised to see spock's behavior and even felt bad for it, so it seems. he was not even initiating the kiss with iman's character! (also very interesting alien concept, similar to changelings, when it comes to gender.) in general he seemed almost never interested in any of the women in the movies, which I have mentioned before, but I love as it fits right into my headcanon :) but mccoy's "what is it with you" after the kiss was still amazing as it summed up the entirety of kirk's obsessive womanizing behavior in tos. generally, mccoy had the best one-liners ever in this. and he was by far not the most prejudiced one in this movie. and he was actually really nice to spock the entire time and seemed relatively tame in general. do we see a little character change caused by the last movie…? I still don't see mccoy and kirk being a thing, but mccoy and spock on the other hand…

I won't take this any further and rather conclude my tos walkthrough for good now (even though some of the characters appear in other series and movies again). I thought it was really interesting to see the changes the decades made on sci fi and to watch it with a person who actually lived through those decades.

I have to say tos really is up there now in the star trek ranking for me, maybe even above tng. (but we'll watch that next, so this view might change very soon.) spock (as played by nimoy) is certainly one of my top 3 star trek characters and I think that says a lot for a show that was written in the 60s. (the other one is seven and I have no idea who the third one is, but... we got all the autistic-coded ones up there, don't we.)

I'm so glad we have so much to go when it comes to star trek, though! even if it'll take us several years, now that I've counted it… (there is some shows and movies I will skip, though.)

[magicwhiskers29]

More Prime season 3 thoughts/analysis, because I'm not done!

Time to talk about Shadow again!

He honestly came back after episode one a lot faster than I was expecting, haha. I really thought they would do a season 2 again, and wait until like. The final episode to give him time to do anything much, except for maybe give the odd line here or there, but I was pleasantly surprised to see him from episode five onwards! (I also did keep expecting him to have a snarky one-liner for Nine any time we cut back to Nine exasperated at stuff not working, but... That wouldn't exactly make sense with the explanation for where Shadow was...)

For starters, yeah, him having just been fighting robots the whole time checks out. That... was what he said he was going to do... Makes his uh... bloodlust? For a fight with Nine more understandable too. I'd want a fight with the guy who'd been sending robot clones after me all day, too.

But... His dynamic with Sonic! This was such a good conclusion to it! In episode one, we saw him finally show a bit of trust in Sonic, and here we see him fighting alongside Sonic, that trust paying off best it can. He offers to keep helping. This is a big display for Shadow, who previously in this show wanted to just get things done himself.

I was a bit concerned at first about how they seemed to be not including him as part of the friends Sonic wanted to save, but no, they were just holding back. And I think that divide is deliberate, the same way it is with Nine. Shadow isn't just someone he's found in the Shatterverse and wants to now save; Shaodw is someone he knows from home. The kind of saving Shadow needs is very different.

And... the thing is, defining Sonic and Shadow's relationship in this show is difficult, and also really interesting. (Yes, they're every fruity aghkgkghgjkhhhjjh, but in a more serious sense...)

At first, we get the sense that they don't like. fully hate each other, but that they do not listen to each other, and definitely would be best known as rivals. The implication at the start of season 1 is that they show up weekly to brawl or something. Because they don't agree on things, and tussle over the smallest things.

In season 2, Sonic is thrilled to see someone from home, even if it is his rival, and basically seems to use that to declare Shadow his friend on the spot. (Kinda like how he assumes all the Au versions of his friends are just his friends because the originals are, at first.) Shadow still sees Sonic as his rival at this point though, and more importantly, as someone who caused this mess, and is thus too unreliable to fix it. He attacks Sonic to get him out of the way, and probably also to vent a little bit. They are not prepared to work together in s2e1.

Through out season 2, we see them have to work together, for better and worse, and yeah, they still don't really losten to each other. Sonicnot about Nine, and Shadow in only focusing on the mission -- still assuming Sonic's flaws are faults. They aren't really team players.

But then! S3e1! Shadow starts to plan around Sonic's flaws, and Sonic starts to listen. They actually put trust in one another, and it's quite clear that they do care about each other, even if before they'd both just thought of each other as rivals. I've talked about this before. Shadow starts trying not to get angry at Sonic fo his mistakes, and they both try to understand each other.

And when they reunite? They start fighting together again fairly seemlessly. Shadow has Sonic's back for the big fight scenes, even if he has gone off to do his own thing again. (Sidenote, I really like the implication that maybe Shadow really did want to prove himself better than Grim Sonic, quite possibly just because Sonic said it could be modelled after him too lmao) Shadow doesn't even complain too much when Sonic hugs him and introduces him to everyone! He just gets on with things, becaus ehe knows things are serious, and he does sort of trust Sonic.

And hey! By episode 6, he's not the one saying that they can't trust Sonic's plan! He has no objections to it, and goes along with it!

He goes for Nine still at the end, because of course he does, but he stops when Sonic tells him to. He does trust in Nine for Sonic, and... Well, he lets Sonic make the sacrifice. His facial expressions (Sorry, don't have screenshots this time...) make it clear that he is reluctant to do so, and hates this, but he doesn't complain. He knows it's the only way, even if he has now realised that it will hurt him to lose Sonic.

Shadow standing on the other side to Nine, flanking him too, in the sacrifice scene, alongside him being the first to mourn, really does put into perspective how Shadow here has come to care. How he is more than just another in the crowd of Sonic's friends.

And THE ENDING. AGHHHHHH! Him saving Sonic at the end was adorable, and the line about hugging? He doesn't even deny it! He likes being close to Sonic now!! 🥺

And I really do get the sense that he's learnt something too, in the end. He trusts Sonic and Sonic's growth, so they work together in the retake of the prism fight. That little nod before the chaos control of the prism is everything. (Sonic 06 vibes haha)

Their banter is also on point... When Sonic mocks him saying "Modest, too" after the first Ultimate Life Form line? Love it. Made me laugh a little in shock. Same deal with the hugging line, haha.

They're immaculate. From a sonadow perspective and a character dynamic perspective, I love their dynamics, and I love the feeling of their parallel arcs where they grow around each other and for each other.

Oh, also I forgot about it before, but when Sonic yells out for Shadow and sounds so worried mid-battle?? That's his link back home! That's the guy he's doing this quest with!! They both want the same thing, so it's so fitting that they need each other for it, and in the end, they make it together. Shadow saves Sonic by bringing him through the gate to Green Hill, and that is the big symbol of change.

He couldn't go through gates before. But just like at the start of the season, thanks to Sonic, he finds another way. He makes it through in this new, fixed universe that he helped to make.

[blorbologist]

🖤💚

for the unpopular opinions asks

:DD Thank you! You get Percy rambles because that's where the brain goes past midnight <3

🖤: Which character is not as morally good as everyone else seems to think?

Very, very quietly: my yearly reminder to everyone that Percy knew what he was doing when he invented Gun. The entire character concept, per Taliesin, is 'what the fuck could motivate someone to make something this awful'. He did not invent Gun to free Whitestone, he did not invent Gun to rid the world of terrible evil, he invented Gun because he was a terrified and hurt and furious teenager who did not care what consequences there were to his actions so long as he maybe, possibly, might be able to kill some of the people responsible for his family's deaths. Once it does hit him that he will have to live with the consequences, that others will live with this same pain because of the havoc firearms can sow, he definitely feels awful! And wants to undo it as best he can! But it remains that he was a deeply selfish character.

And still is! No Mercy Percy is a fun meme and all, but he really leans into a lot of needless cruelty when he's scrambling for control. Which pops up again even after the Briarwoods arc is all done with - he is absolutely furious at Scanlan and some of what he mildly brings up to Vex is horrifying shit to say you'd do to a friend.

Anyways he's perfectly in character in C3 and I will die on this hill. And get raised as an undead by Delilah because PERCY WAS FUCKING RIGHT ABOUT THE WHOLE THING -

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character?

OK, so I know we (by we I mean me) all love to point at Percy and go 'this man is autistic please let him infodump about the Feywild/clocks/engineering stupid dragon traps'. But there is a really good reason why everyone was shocked by his backstory reveal in C1, and why he's got so few lines in the first two episodes of TLOVM, and that's because he's pretty fucking quiet. And it's something I didn't fully appreciate until recently, so it's really understandable how often it trips people up!

The main thing is that while Lord de Rolo is usually a man of few words, those words are fucking bangers. While a lot of Vax's famous lines tend to be part of a long Shakespearian ramble (which I love), Percy, as a Taliesin character, is a master of the one-liner. Which tends to get over-represented in our memory compared to how often he says very little at all!

Percy often gets wordy when he has a space to do so (a debate with Keyleth, a bit of Whitestone lore Taliesin wants to yell about, nerding out with Tary who is importantly nerding out right back)... and when he's talking to Vex. God he will not shut up when he's one-on-one with Vex. In his conversations with other characters (Vax and Keyleth namely) he usually keeps his input short unless he's doing some arguing. But with Vex? Just won't stop.

So while I do think infodumping can be compliant with canon Percy, he needs to either be doing it in tandem with someone else (he and Keyleth or Tary being little weirdos), he has to have a solid excuse to indulge in it and feel justified, or he and Vex are alone. (Cass can probably get him to infodump, but given her nature as an NPC there isn't much textual evidence alas.)

Ask me about my unpopular opinions!

[mikuni14]

We Are - Ep 7

I liked the whole episode and watched it whole with the same interest, it's the first time for We Are 💖

I really liked that the series touched on two issues: creating false scenarios in your head, projecting your expectations onto others, and believing that you know how others feel instead of just asking them about it. I also liked that although this plan was technically a success 🤡 Toey was somehow "punished" for being dishonest and misleading Q.

I liked Q, who quickly confronted his jealousy with its source, I liked that he asked the right questions of both Chain and Toey, which came down to whether they were serious about each other, whether Toey was aware that someone is hitting on him, and can HE hit on him? Q first made sure he actually CAN do something about his relationship with Toey, very green flag. The haunted house scene was very good, from start to end. Q is such a man 💯 how fast he is, how he goes straight to the point, he doesn't play games, but he also gives Toey time to react, to say "no". I really liked the fact that Q didn't take offense for a long time and quickly got over himself. That he listened to Peem. What was also very cool was that while he was mad at Toey (rightfully so), he didn't make it all about himself when talking to Peem.

As always, the strongest point of the episode was ✨FRIENDSHIP✨. It's amazing how much they support each other (both in being stupid and in difficult, important moments), how they help each other, but also how natural they are with each other, how easy it is for them to spend time together, sleep together, but also, when necessary, they try to guide each other to the right path. I'm really happy that the show spends a lot of time showing them together doing ordinary, mundane things, I love details like Tan jumping on them in bed and Peem and Q having their legs raised defensively to push him away lol

Comedy effects, making exaggerated faces and gestures, sound effects - everything was very funny. Which is actually something, because it can be so irritating... But I loved it here!

Despite a lot of funny scenes, there were also a lot of surprisingly deep ones, with beautiful words, such as the conversation between Peem and Q, or the flashback of the conversation between Q and Toey.

Since QToey dominated this episode, less time was devoted to PhumPeem (and their scenes were very nice), ChainPun (who, I won't lie, I only noticed as a potential couple now), or TanFang (I love Tan, but to be honest, Fang is a character, which could be replaced by the cactus carried around by Tan, because he adds this much to the plot 😭).

Killer one liner:

So cool!

[buckleyreid]

So here are my unpopular (?) thoughts on season 7

Personally I think this may have been one of my least favourite seasons of the show so far, only higher than season 5.

I feel like there was way too much going on for a 10 episode season, where the first 3 episodes were spent on a giant emergency that really only involved 2 of the characters (I'm still disappointed that we didn't even see the actual rescue from the cruise, but alas).

I have this sense that there was a whole lot going on but at the same time we spent barely any time with these characters. For example, besides the wedding episode I feel like Chim was barely there this season, same thing for Maddie. Eddie only got a decent plot from episode 7 onwards and Buck stopped having a plot after episode 6.

It's pretty obvious from my account that I love Buck and Tommy together, but I really dislike how they seemingly have been dating for a couple months now, yet we didn't get to see any of that on screen. With this being Buck's first queer relationship, it would be important to show how he's navigating everything and I wonder how they'll go about it in season 8. If we're just supposed to pretend the relationship is still new, or if we're acknowledging the relationship as something that's already an established part of both of their lives.

Moving on to the finale, I thought it was extremely underwhelming exactly because there was too much going on. We didn't even have time to see the 118 sit with the news of Bobby's heart attack, no talks in the hospital room between them, nothing. The most we got was seeing Eddie pray for Bobby but that was from an outside perspective. Instead, we moved right along to Athena playing vigilante and terrorising Amir and I think it's a shame such a good scene between amazing actors had to be shoved into a cluster fuck of an episode.

The pacing issues really boil down to how disorganised this writers' room seems to be, and as a showrunner I feel like Tim should really get ahold of that going into season 8. It shouldn't be hard to brainstorm the season as a whole before starting the writing process so you know where your characters will start and where they will end. That way you can write accordingly while not having a whole bunch of storylines going on at the same time and underutilising an amazing cast of characters or scramble to cut scenes because there's not enough time to air them. I could see how maybe the strikes impacted that process, but still... hopefully it's better next season.

Also, season 8 please bring on the emergencies!! The lack of calls the 118 responded to this season only showed me how incredibly crucial they are to showcase the characters' relationships with each other. I miss the 118 banter, the teasing and the funny one liners while they sit together in the engine. I miss when the episodes started with "911 what's your emergency?"

The only real winners of this season were Hen and Karen and, while I wish the other characters had had more fleshed out storylines, I also think they very much deserved to have their moment to shine.

All in all, besides some stand out moments, this season fell really flat to me and I'm kinda sad about it. If anyone has any other thoughts I’d love to hear it.

[aberooski]

Fuck it.

Random Yu-Gi-Oh GX headcanon dump part 2!

Part 1

Once again in no particular order, just the order they pop out of my brain.

Most of my headcanons are upsetting so we'll see what gets released from the vault this time 👀

Atticus takes care of anyone and everyone but himself, to an almost self-destructive degree at times.

The J-Squad kept in touch with Chumley after he left

Atticus is 100% a theater kid

Of the Primary Color Trio(tm), Syrus is the only one they trust to cook. As we've established, Jaden will burn down the kitchen if he tries, and Hassleberry isn't a bad cook, but he's the kinda guy who will have something really good and then walk away and accidentally wreck it.

Hassleberry has never measured ingredients in his life. He doesn't know what tea/tablespoons or measuring cups are.

Bastion's top artist on Spotify is Frank Sinatra

After graduation Atticus and Alexis made Chazz write down a list of things/experiences he's never done or had because of how restrictively he was brought up and they make it their mission to make sure he can cross off everything on the list.

Alexis has painted Chazz's nails for him more than once because she does a cleaner job than he does. 💅

Alexis also taught Chazz how to do eye liner

Jim tells people Shirley is his seeing eye croc when they ask why he has her

After graduation, every single one of them eventually starts going to therapy

Jesse was the one who finally convinced Jaden to at least try therapy after he repeatedly insisted to everyone that he didn't need it. He did

This is kinda canon actually, but Hassleberry doesn't remember what happens when he goes dinosaur berserk mode. The headcanon part is that it's not just like fuzzy memories or anything, there are just straight up holes in his memory. And it really bothers him.

Yuki is Jaden's mom's last name. She's Japanese but his dad is American and when they got married, he took her name.

Eventually, Bastion does return from the other dimension with Tania. Everyone is happy to see him. No one ever forgot him.

Aster carries Echo's memory with him until the day he dies. Just like his father, he'll always remember the poor girl who was murdered for a card. The girl he couldn’t save.

Crowler's the teacher everybody added on Facebook and all that after graduation because they're not his students anymore so they're allowed to be friends with him on social media 🤭

Syrus really does love his brother a lot, bit therapy really opens his eyes to how so many of his personal issues and fears and anxieties and inhibitions stem from Zane and how badly he treated him and how badly it stifled him as a person and is able to bring himself to hold Zane accountable for it all so he can actually find a way to heal from it all and they can truly mend their relationship.

Jaden regrets not holding Zane accountable for how he treated Syrus past their duel in episode 8 where the subsequently drops the issue because of Zane's dueling skills.

Bastion can play the piano

Chazz is the most bisexual little man on the planet 💖💙💜 pretty sure we all agree on this one

Atticus is pan 💖💛💙

Jaden and Jesse have gone as Jed and Octavius for Halloween at least once

One year Atticus used the fact that Halloween is his birthday as an excuse to convince Chazz be Snow White for Halloween so they could go as Snow White and Prince Florian.

By the time they're grown up and he and Atticus are living together/married the only family member of his that Chazz still keeps any contact with is his mom

Aster has intense trust issues after learning the truth about The D and his father's death

Hassleberry tilts his head like a dog when he's confused

Syrus actually gets sick a lot. 🤒

Zane giving kids cards to stop them from bullying Syrus was a common occurrence when they were little kids

Before Zane went off to train at Sheppard's dojo and before he started abusing Syrus in his own ways they were actually decently close considering Zane's inherent emotional distance

Slade and Jagger hated Chazz from day one.

Alexis has nightmares about Atticus being taken away again after he comes back. If they're bad enough, she'll go to his dorm in the middle of the night to check on him and make sure that he's safe, and often ends up sleeping on his couch for the rest of the night.

Chazz knows his family is homophobic so after he cuts his ties with his dad and his brothers, he comes out to Crowler because he's the closest thing to a genuine father figure he's really ever had

Crowler officiates Chazz and Atticus's wedding 💍

Inspired by Yusei, Jaden got a motorcycle post Bonds Beyond Time. He thought it would impress Jesse. It did.

Jesse is the first one to get their driver's license

Axel is the only one who has never crashed their car

Axel will always come whenever anyone needs help. No matter who, and no matter how far away they are.

While working on Chazz's experiences list Atticus and Alexis took him to the mall. She left them unsupervised for a few minutes to go to the bathroom. When she came back, they were gone, and when she found them again, Chazz had his ears pierced. Atticus had taken him to Claire's. She will never leave them unsupervised again. 🤦‍♀️

I think I'll call this one here for now!

Maybe next year I'll come back with part 3 🤭

[guster-animations]

Kamen Rider Gotchard Producers Symposium PART 3

part 3 finally! a lot of really interesting information in this one. i’m gonna make a few small changes to parts 1 and 2 after i post this, and then i’ll get started on revice

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

again, this is for the henshindex wiki. join today!

Kamen Rider Gotchard: TV Series Conclusion Commemoration Toei Producer Team Special Roundtable (Final Edition)

“Kamen Rider Gotchard” will soon be at its climax!

This year, we are delivering a Toei producer symposium like usual, split into three parts. Continuing from the first and middle volumes last week, this time it is the final volume. The three parts totaled up to an over 30,000-word talk. The participants are, naturally, the producer Yosuke Minato, as well as assistant producers Daigo Matsuura and Kaho Miyashima. In the final volume, they will discuss their three most profoundly memorable “Gotchard” episodes, secret stories from contents made with TTFC, and then curious “future” topics too…?

Act 8: Assistant Producer Harashima’s Top 3

TTFC: By the way, for today’s interview, each of you thought about the 3 episodes you personally have the most profound emotional attachment to… Could I ask you what yours are, Harashima?

Harashima: Third place goes to episode 12, “Runaway Liner! Abyss Rider!”. The one where Sabimaru becomes Kamen Rider Dread. The reasoning behind it was first that action director (Hirofumi) Fukuzawa had also been working as story director, and has shown very fresh direction. Also, I like dirty action as originally shown in Korean films and drama (Laughs).

Matsuura: You’re like that too? (Laughs)

Harashima: I think that in that episode, that roughness was definitely needed, and Fukuzawa made such different action more unrestrained than ever. While I say that I like dirty things, it was a standpoint that had to be adjusted for a children’s program, so I’m also curious about the impact of this portrayal—where so much pain was inflicted on Hotaro—had on everyone in the audience…

Matsuura: But as much as we worried, we were surprised that there wasn’t a strong negative reaction against it. Especially for today’s kids, aren’t they seeing a lot of things like “Demon Slayer” nowadays? I think they’re more used to that kind of expression.

Harashima: That’s right. Then, episodes 9-10 just before that were a school trip. I still felt like there was chitchat around “Chemy searching” as the basic story premise, so I also wondered if it was okay to have a development as serious as possible. But a development like that is just right for “Kamen Rider”. A difference with the Super Sentai series, where teamwork is highly valued, is that in that situation, the protagonist should not bear their pain and suffering alone. I fully understood that in that episode. Because I was a “Kamen Rider beginner” at that time, it’s a very memorable episode in that sense too. To say it more accurately, I really like the course of events through episode 12 and up to Director (Katsuya) Watanabe’s episode 13, “Get Him Back! UFO X Friends Forever!”.

Second place is “Rinne’s Dawn! Transform, Majade!”. Protecting the opponent Atropos, and showing one’s own “decision”, was a single pattern, and Rinne’s actor Reiyo (Matsumoto) showed incredible acting and expressions. In Reiyo’s case, Rinne first awakened in “Kamen Rider The Winter Movie Gotchard and Geats: Operation to Find the Strongest Chemies”, and this episode 19 was another step in her growth. Majade, which Rinne transforms into, has a really good appearance, and it brings back memories of when I watched the “PreCure” series as a kid.

Matsuura: Mr. (Hiroshi) Takagi’s music was amazing again too. It’s sparkling. There are parts unlike Kamen Rider music, but it fit “Gotchard’s” setting wonderfully.

Minato: Matsuura was the one who originally recommended Mr. Takagi.

Matsuura: I knew Mr. Takagi from the work called “Go! Princess PreCure” (2015) which he had composed the music for, and that work’s music was also excellent. Then the music for “Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger” (2018) was wonderfully done. I wanted to work with him sometime. It always becomes difficult to decide which composer to ask, but I’m really glad that I got Gotchard to be done by Mr. Takagi.

Harashima: I felt like the Rinne-related tracks especially had phrases that resonate emotionally with girls. A sparkling feeling that evokes memories of “PreCure” or “Sailor Moon”. Then of course my first-place is Zukyumpire (episodes 22 and 23) (Laughs).

Matsuura: You really don’t waver on that (Laughs).

Harashima: Something we didn’t talk about when it was a subject earlier is that (Akiko) Inoue had been talking about Zukyumpire from the screenplay meeting stage, but Yua (Yamashita) sympathized when she heard at some point that it’s about a girl who was dependent on him and becomes independent. Of course, “Gotchard’s” main character is Hotaro, and the main guest character is Zukyumpire, but I knew Inoue’s stance that she wanted Yua’s portrayal to be important too, being involved with the story, and I learned from that. I especially like episode 23’s final scene. For Yua, the ex-boyfriend Tacchan comes in and says he wants to take Yori back, but Yua can clearly state, “I’ll make my own happiness on my own terms”. Then the background song “Kimi ni Zukyun” is played and the episode ends.

Minato: Yeah, if I’m not mistaken, in the second draft Inoue proposed “Can I add this kind of scene?”, and it was added. It wasn’t in the first draft, and even at the point when it was added, it was a mood of “This might be cut if it’s introduced…”. I think that was at the time that we received the final manuscript, but actually, at that time, there was a scene about the people who got memory-wiped in “Kitchen Ichinose” coming in again, and saying something like, “I feel like I had some kind of amazing dream, but I can’t remember…”. When it became necessary to cut either that scene or Yua’s scene, I asked Inoue, “Which do you want to remain?”, and she wanted Yua’s scene. So I guess Inoue had emotional attachment there too.

Harashima: If it were the “Kitchen Ichinose” scene that was there, it would be a much more comedic ending. That’s fine too, but because we kept Yua’s scene, the relation between Chemy and human progressed a little further. In the beginning with WrestlerG (episode 5) it was nothing but a human and Chemy being separated, but during Zukyumpire it’s already been over 20 episodes, so it’s very good that a depiction was done showing the impact that memories of a Chemy has on a human, like the flower that Yua received from Zukyumpire have been pressed and used as a planner bookmark, and Zukyumpire’s words remaining in Yua’s heart. It becomes an episode with an ending that always feels a little different, and it’s personally moving for me.

Minato: Also, the existence of “Tacchan” was featured in that episode, and in the endgame he’s doing something completely different (Laughs).

Matsuura: He stands out way too much however you think about it… (Laughs).

Harashima: That was originally just decided to be ���the ex-boyfriend Tacchan in the last part”, and when I was thinking about what person to cast, Director (Kyohei) Yamaguchi said, “In that case…!”. A “bad-feeling editor” character appeared in Watanabe’s episode 14.

Matsuura: “That guy! With that flashy blond hair!” (Laughs).

Harashima: With Director Yamaguchi saying, “The bad feelings from that time would fit perfectly with Tacchan”, we got Takato Nogami to come back a second time.

Minato: Doing it that way is Director Yamaguchi’s usual practice (Laughs). In “(Avataro Sentai) Donbrothers” too, when the “Old Ninja Man” Ono’s (Takashi Sakakibara) mother came in (Don 32: “Duel Part 2”), he proposed, “Let’s do that person who took a blow from Taro Momoi in Don 18: ‘A Shark’s Blow’!” (Laughs). [note: i haven’t watched donbros]

TTFC: No negligence or missed opportunities (Laughs). You don’t know which character will connect to whom or what style…

Minato: Speaking of casting in “Donbros”, the sudden appearance of a mysterious comedy duo in the Romeo and Juliet episodes (episodes 30-31) was Matsuura’s wrongdoing (Laughs).

Matsuura: Hello, I’m Matsuura, a principal offender (Laughs).

TTFC: Now I’d like to hear about your “Best 3”, Matsuura.

Act 9: Assistant Producer Matsuura’s Top 3

Matsuura: I thought I’d have each episode in my top 3 be by a different scriptwriter. (Keiichi) Hasegawa is the Romeo and Juliet episode we just talked about… (Hiroki) Uchida is episode 24, “Sudden Turn of Events! The Forbidden Steel Rider!”. That’s a compilation episode too.

Minato: It was good, Uchida’s structure. That was wonderful.

Matsuura: And Akiko (Inoue) is episode 40, “Wicked Descent! Three Great Dark Kings”. But a runner-up is the Wheel Malgam episodes (20-21) written by Hasegawa. I’ll touch on that a little bit. Those two episodes’ primary centerpiece was Spanner transforming into Kamen Rider Valvarad for the first time. “Kamen Rider Valvarad’s debut” itself has already appeared as information before, like it was said at the start of this symposium. So, separate from that, I prepared a surprise component in this episode.

[SPOILERS FOR AVATARO SENTAI DONBROTHERS AND KAMEN RIDER FAIZ]

What I came up with there was the development that “Spanner is turned into a Malgam”. We keep coming back to “Donbros”, but it’s because Tsuyoshi Kijino repeatedly becomes a Hitotsu-oni (Laughs). For me, though, the impact of the protagonist of “Kamen Rider 555 (Faiz)” (2003), Takumi Inui, being the Wolf Orphenoch has always stuck with me… During the hon-uchi (preparatory meetings for scriptwriting), I proposed to Hasegawa the idea to match that shock.

[SPOILERS END]

Again, before then, I hadn’t really gotten the chance to work together with Director (Teruaki) Sugihara, so I was very happy to be able to see the visual wonder of Sugihara’s direction.

TTFC: Director Sugihara only did those two episodes in “Gotchard”. I’m looking forward to “Kamen Rider Gavv” from now on.

Matsuura: To follow this— with Hasegawa’s Romeo and Juliet episodes, that was slotted for episodes 30 and 31, and Hasegawa thought that might be the last time an “adolescent drama” could be done in “Gotchard”. At first Hasegawa wanted do a band episode for it.

Minato: That’s right, at first there were discussions that it would be interesting to do something like a band episode somewhere, since Junsei (Motojima) plays the guitar and Kajiki’s actor Amon (Kabe) plays bass.

TTFC: I see. Like, let’s make the best of their special skills?

Minato: Yes. For Hasegawa, there was “the times we can do an adolescent drama” which Matsuura talked about, but actually, we had already decided to begin working on the summer movie after episodes 30 and 31 were written. So, when we returned to the TV series, it was unmistakably nearing the final portion. Taking that into account, we wanted Hasegawa to do what he wanted to there.

Matsuura: A band story sounds interesting, but in practice, a lot of problems will come up with it, like wanting to make a song for that, and not having much time to spare for music practice. That’s a common issue for planning. So, unfortunately, I had to ask to do a different concept. That’s how together we came up with the idea of a school talent show where interesting events occur. I remember various ideas like maybe a concept café or a takoyaki shop. Then, a “play” story appeared, relatively close to the band idea, and Hasegawa was on board with that too. The “transfer student” as a different development in the show was something Hasegawa had been pushing since the band idea. It’s a cliché, but the idea was that a beautiful girl transfers to the school, and it has some sort of effect on Hotaro and Rinne’s relationship. I, as a “cliche-loving man” (Laughs), was very motivated. Immediately, Director Yamaguchi presented Kanon Matsuzawa, who’d appeared as Kei during the V-Cinext “Kamen Rider 555 20th: Paradise Regained”, and she was decided to play the transfer student, Seina Tsukumo. At any rate, it was Hasegawa’s order to have her be an “unmatched beauty”.

TTFC: You mentioned it a while ago, but there was also the surprise appearance of Hirofumi Suzuki and Shinnosuke Takahashi. Tsuyoshi and Sonoza in “Donbrothers”.

Minato: I remember that was decided somewhat suddenly (Laughs).

Matsuura: That’s also a tentative goal. Isn’t there a scene where the drama club president Hajime Mikuriya gives a speech to everyone? Director Yamaguchi said it could be interesting for the audience to get really excited right before then, to more effectively show that everyone is disinterested in the speech. That way, Mikuriya seems more “pathetic”. So we talked about calling in pro comedians, but when I wondered if there were actors who weren’t comedians but could make the same people laugh, I went, “Oh!” (Laughs).

TTFC: The “Super Hero Time” fans were happy too (Laughs).

Matsuura: As the person in charge of the casting, I can’t say I “slacked off” with it… no, it’s not like that! (Laughs) It was also “luck”! (Laughs) It was quite an “unreasonable request”, but I’m very grateful the two of them came and did it happily. Well, even separate from that, I think those Romeo and Juliet episodes were a masterpiece. I myself had a period in school where I was reading a large number of Shakespeare works like “Macbeth” and “Hamlet”, but I once again realized the power of a work that still continues to be read even after 400 years. With this universal appeal, the way that Hasegawa skillfully intertwines the main parts of “Gotchard”, the relationship between Hotaro and Rinne, and other things, was deeply moving. By the way, I might not need to explain it here, but the full version of “Romeo and Juliet” that Hotaro and Rinne performed in can be watched on TTFC, so if you still haven’t seen that, you should definitely do so (Laughs).

TTFC: How about episode 24?

Matsuura: The TenLiner episode. Minato was saying a little of this before— we can make compilation episodes a little loosely, but this one wasn’t like that at all. It was a very well-structured and interesting episode.

Minato: That episode was at the turning point of “Gotchard” in its entirety, so filming-wise, it was the first shot of the new year. We also did bi-uchi (preparatory meetings related to designs) at the end of the year, so we wanted to decrease the staff’s workload. If we did a lot of complicated location scenes at that point, we would definitely end up being overloaded during the New Year holidays. But preventing that wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be (wry laugh).

Matsuura: There are difficult places in that point in production. But what I can say is that it’s just like Uchida to be able to convey the story and items in “Gotchard” as much as possible to everyone in the audience, at that time in the year. It couldn’t have been written if it weren’t him.

Minato: Uchida wrote the compilation episode in “Kamen Rider Revice” too. Where everyone shows the history of their battle to try and restore Hiromi Kadota’s memory. That was done in an interesting way, and honestly, there were parts that showed promising skills.

TTFC: And one more, episode 40. The one where Germain and Gaeliya arrive. And with the existence of the Dark Kings as a “Trinity”, three of them appear.

Matsuura: When I look back on it, Akiko was mostly writing the Dark King characters. She’s writing Germain and Gaeliya’s debut episodes, and Gigist was appearing starting a little while ago, but his first story was when a gorgeous person (Laughs) came in too, and Gigist’s character didn’t really show before then.

Minato: It’s around episodes 32-35. There were parts that I still wanted to stay “mysterious” at that point.

Matsuura: So, it was in the Hopper1 Malgam episodes (36-37) which Akiko wrote that we got to see what Gigist’s character is really like. If I think about what feeling it was written with, the words “understanding all humans” come to mind.

Minato: That was amazing.

Matsuura: Since then, we’ve come to call Lord Gigist “the old man who understands feelings” (Laughs), but there was surprise that “He ended up like that?!”.

Minato: Enemy characters are always hard to make. It turns out that whatever you do, they’ll hold ambitions, and they’re fighting to realize those ambitions. For “Gotchard”, Glion was defeated first, and we worried about how to portray the Dark Kings who would appear after that. This was decided in the structure of “Gotchard” itself, but as an enemy of the always-progressing Hotaro, it’s maybe something about a static existence, or to say it in the words of today’s world, an existence of “problems caused by old people”. I’ve been consulting with Inoue since that stage, so when she wrote Gigist, it was an “Aha!” moment.

TTFC: It’s a little unique for an enemy to hold that stance.

Matsuura: Also, it’s unbelievably intimidating when (Ryotaro) Okiyuki says those lines. It simply gives the feeling that “he seems strong”. And then, I loooooove the character of Germain. He Zukyun’d me (Laughs). When suit actor (Kosuke) Asai plays the “domestic violence boyfriend character” [i swear this is what he says] Germain which Akiko wrote, he made me think, “this guy is completely going at it” or “what an awful guy”, even just with little movements. Furthermore, the performance of his voice actor (Kohei) Amazaki synchronizes beautifully with Asai. Episodes 40 and 41 were (Koichi) Sakamoto’s, and when I was watching Amazaki do voiceovers with the director, he seemed to be completely satisfied too. As you know, we were thinking about Germain being used as Glion’s new body from the beginning, so it was decided that his appearance would only be for episodes 40 and 41. So he was a “stepping stone” in the overarching structure. But I gave orders that I wanted him to be depicted as the strongest being until he’s defeated, and to show so strongly that it makes you think he’ll be the final boss. So Akiko, Asai, and Amazaki each responded to that to their heart’s content, and I’m grateful for that. However, consequently ending up making a character who’s too good to last only two episodes is nice for the people watching, but as a producer, I kind of feel like it was a mistake (Laughs). But, as I can think even that was an amazing “miscalculation”, the scriptwriter, suit actor, and voice actor were a wonderful “trinity”.

Act 10: Producer Minato’s Top 3

TTFC: How about you, Minato?

Minato: I thought I’d also do it this way and have one episode each from the three writers, but it’s difficult. It’s not in the TV series whatsoever, but for Uchida, it’s “Kamen Rider Gotchard vs. Kamen Rider Legend” (all 2 episodes), on Toei Tokusatsu YouTube Official and for Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club members. I was already putting energy into making one new program into the work. Timing-wise, episodes 3-6 were all by Hasegawa, and Uchida’s hands were free, so ahead of time, I asked him to do it before writing episodes 7 and 8. What I was first concerned about was Kaguya’s character. He was working out the minute details with LINE up to right before sending the manuscript. I think Kaguya became a very good character as a result. There was also the direction of Director (Takayuki) Shibasaki, and from the starting point, he was able to lay the groundwork for connections regarding Legend/Kaguya to episodes 33-35 and the summer movie. I have a feeling Kaguya will be active for a long time afterwards and won’t just be there. They were two 15-minute short films, but they were strong (Laughs).

TTFC: The way you made a new Rider like Legend appear was likewise a new experiment.

Minato: With Gotchard being a card Rider, we wanted to make things called Ride Chemy Cards a hit, and with that course of events coming first, there are also Legend Ride Chemy Cards, so we wanted a person (Rider) who uses that. There was also an idea to bring that about in “Gotchard” proper, but ultimately Legend was first streamed on Toei Tokusatsu Youtube Official and such, and we also had him appear in the TV series after that. But of that happens we have to think about how to do it so that it’s shown to a lot of people, and how to make it interesting. Because there are people who wouldn’t have seen “Gotchard” on TV… I guess some have only watched a bit of it too. So, we couldn’t do him as anything but a person from yet another world (Laughs). So the people who don’t know “Gotchard” can watch as much as possible and look forward to how the next episode is made.

TTFC: Having a new character in a position as Decade’s successor is also an observation point.

Minato: In terms of results, that area was also able to be returned to in the summer movie, but from Toei’s perspective, it was still significant that they had introduced the character Twokaizer in “Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger” (2021). It feels like Decade and Legend are directly linked because Twokaizer had a relationship to (Kaizoku Sentai) Gokaiger. Next is Akiko Inoue’s work, and I touched on this a little before (in the second volume), but it was (Kiyotaka) Taguchi’s group’s episodes 28 and 29, where Renge’s grandma appears. I talked about this on the official homepage’s “Gotcha Place” too, but I wanted those two episodes to be a “change of pace” after the big roadblock of defending Glion was over, one that you’d remember as “some kind of weird episode” into your later years. It’s an episode where Inoue and Director Taguchi met those demands excellently. To give concrete examples from past works, a similar mental image to the taiyaki expert episodes in “Kamen Rider Blade” (2004) (episodes 29-30) or the “dark kitchen” episodes in “Kamen Rider Kabuto” (2006) (episodes 29-30) (Laughs).

[THEN IT SHOWS THE PROMO SHOT OF THE FEET LMAO]

TTFC: It’s the exact same episode number as those episodes too (Laughs).

Minato: Personally, I think it’s fun to experience watching a 30-minute-per-episode tokusatsu show where every episode is interesting, and where there are a lot of episodes full of personality. Of course, as a story that’s spread out throughout a year, it’s also important to have characters that are liked. With that feeling, I’m glad Renge’s focus arc also was able to delve into her character. I think we were able to broaden the scope of the one-year production with Director Taguchi, who became the “senior students’ director” after he did episodes 42 and 43.

TTFC: And the last one is Hasegawa’s work…?

Minato: Hasegawa began working on the summer movie after episodes 30-31, so the next thing I asked him to do was episodes 44 and 45. After that, with episodes 46 and 47 being by Inoue, I tried to have everyone write a part of the final trilogy, so in the exact same way as 30 and 31, I asked Hasegawa something like “is there an episode you want to make happen here?”. As a result, what he finished was a story about Kajiki and Hijiri. In Hasegawa’s episodes, he raised 44 and 45. Hijiri’s name had occasionally appeared in Kajiki’s lines, but she re-appeared here. According to Hasegawa’s post by the way, during the first draft preparatory meeting, Minato said to him, “This reminds me of ‘Ultraman Tiga’s’ ‘Farewell to Darkness’”…

[Footnote: “Ultraman Tiga’s” 22nd episode, “The Fog Comes In”, is Hasegawa’s debut work as a screenwriter. The character Horii, who acts in a comedic relief character role and is part of the defense team, meets her future spouse. The only episode he wrote in the last part of the series was “Farewell to Darkness” (episode 47). This is a continuation of episode 22, as well as episode 11, “Requiem of Darkness”. Horii and Kajiki’s roles share similarities in their positions and their approach to “light and darkness” within the hearts of people. Of course, also the beauty of the guest heroine. Incidentally, the day that “Farewell to Darkness” was July 26th, which is very close to “Gotchard” episode 45’s air date of July 21st.]

Minato: That’s correct (Laughs). This episode is at a similar time in the structure of the series too. “Farewell to Darkness” is also a little bit before “Tiga’s” final trilogy (episodes 50-52).

TTFC: In “Tiga’s” case, the last two episodes were listed with the names of three screenwriters who worked on it, including Hasegawa. Compared to that, “Gotchard” has three writers each in charge of one episode in the final trilogy. It feels like that direction hadn’t happened in the Kamen Rider series until then.

Matsuura: Huuuuh… I see, “Tiga”… (Laughs). You were thinking in a “Tiga”-esque pattern that the most recent Rider season isn’t considered to be the last. I somewhat understand that.

Minato: However, we didn’t do anything like “Ultra’s Star” (episode 49).

[Footnote: An episode that breaks from the standard right before “Tiga’s” final trilogy. It’s one with a meta component of the protagonist slipping in time to the filming of “Ultra Q” at “Tsuburaya Productions of 1965”. Incidentally, the space monster Chaliger, who appeared in this episode and has the power to travel through time, was played by Masanori Machida— Koichiro Asahi in “Gotchard”.]

The episode where the protagonist Daigo and company slip in time to the past and somehow go to Tsuburaya Productions. Hotaro went to the future in the summer movie, but if we did some sudden episode like that now where Hotaro goes to Toei Ikuta Studio, no one would watch the essential final trilogy (Laughs).

TTFC: And speaking of “Tiga”…

Minato: That’s right. “Gotchard” has the theme of alchemy, so I became picky about the number “three” which is connected to that, and “Tiga” means “three” in the Indonesian language (Laughs).

Matsuura: Since you said that, my name is also Daigo (Laughs). And Future Hotaro’s actor is DAIGO too. What is this?!

Act 11: Mother and Son, and Then the Gotchanime

TTFC: At the point in time that we’re recording this round-table discussion, the final episode (episode 50) has still yet to air, but I looked at it ahead of time, and the scene where Tamami sends Hotaro out really struck me.

Matsuura: (Yoko) Minamino was really excellent in the finale.

Minato: To speak frankly, there’s a part of me that asked Minamino to play the role of Tamami specifically intending to have her do that scene. After we established Hotaro’s mother, it was almost a given that we would have that kind of situation at the end.

Matsuura: Minamino in the winter movie was incredible too.

Minato: Originally, we weren’t planning to do a story about Hotaro and his mother in the winter movie, but I’m glad that, along the course of making the story, we put in a drama about Hotaro arguing with his mom over something trivial and running away at the start, then returning home at the end. I think that, because that development happened, we were able to “lift Hotaro up” even in a movie where a lot of characters appear.

TTFC: This might be too meta of an angle, but I wasn’t especially surprised when Tamami said she had known her son’s identity (Laughs).

Matsuura: Did you guess that she knew because it’s Minamino? (Laughs)

TTFC: I guess it’s natural that she would know…

Matsuura: So it’s not because she’s Tamami, but because she’s Minamino. Because she was in “Legend of the Iron Mask”.

TTFC: Of course, I don’t think there are many generations that know of that.

Minato: Speaking of that, the work “Sukeban Deka II: Legend of the Iron Mask” was the late Toei president (Osamu) Tezuka’s debut work as a producer before he passed away last year (2023). While I was making the screenplay for “Gotchard” episode 1 and 2, I was thinking about asking Minamino to play the role of Tamami, but after I talked with Department Head (Hideaki) Tsukada, it turned out that I would meet with Minamino several days later to shoot a video that would play at Tezuka’s memorial gathering. Then as Tsukada introduced me to her, I immediately asked, “Do you have any interest in doing the current ‘Kamen Rider’?”. After that I gave her a formal offer, and that’s how she ended up in the role. Minamino was always saying “It’s because I grew up with Toei” because it was that timing. As long as I’m watching, with the feelings of conveying that she’d learned at Toei when she was a new actor herself to the young cast members, I think that she entered the daily scene. It felt like I wasn’t thanking her enough. Junsei (Motojima) is also a new actor, and shots have to be retaken a considerable amount of times, but she always watched over Junsei, and no matter how many takes we did, she stayed with him. So we also strongly think that she helped us in more ways than just her acting.

Matsuura: Junsei kept at it, too. It was the Platina Gotchard episode (26 and 27), and the Hopper1 Malgam (37) and Rainbow Gotchard (38) where he really showed the difference in his acting, and I felt his growth. Of course, now for Reiyo. I think you can see it in the summer movie; she’s always really reliable with her acting.

Minato: Reiyo was talked about yesterday (the day before the symposium), while recording audio commentary for the summer movie and many other things. When I think about it, she definitely started to become good in the winter movie, but she got even better in “Televi-kun Hyper Battle DVD Kamen Rider Gotchard: What’ll We Do?! Hotaro and Rinne Switched Places!!”, which was filmed right afterward. She’s always been a cheerful girl, but she wasn’t good on sets at first, and there were points where she seemed very tense. At that time, with that “Televi-kun DVD”, she did a so-called “body-swap episode”. That was (Koichiro) Hayama’s group, and they did a thorough rehearsal before filming. After getting to do varied performances there, it seems like she came to enjoy it. Her expressions got gradually better.

Matsuura: That was the best performance she’s done (Laughs).

Minato: I think there are also a lot of people who didn’t watch the “Televi-kun DVD”, but it’s a work I’d certainly like them to watch.

Matsuura: On that note, I asked (Katsuhito) Onishi to write the “Televi-kun DVD” screenplay. And speaking of Onishi, I’m indebted to him for writing the script for “Gotchard Short Anime - Gotchanime: Gotcha Furasu High School’s Seven Wonders!” much in the same way… This is an article aimed towards TTFC members (lol), so let’s talk about the “Gotchanime” too.

Harashima: Okay. Well, I was allowed to do a lot of things, and that was fun (Laughs).

Minato: For some reason, I feel like I mostly just threw things away, I’m sorry about that… (Laughs)

Harashima: Don’t worry about it (Laughs). At the point in time that this article will enter the world, its final episode still hasn’t been broadcast, so please look forward to that.

Matsuura: Is there a behind-the-scenes story here?

Harashima: A behind-the-scenes story… (Considers for a while) Something unexpected was that episode 36, where the Hopper1 Malgam appeared and the TV series got a serious plot twist, was right when we could distribute a light-hearted story with the “Gotchanime”. I’m personally glad about that. We weren’t intending for it whatsoever, but it feels like there were many people who came to watch “Gotchanime” to feel better (Laughs) Like it was linked to the original work (the TV series) well. Again, at the start, what I heard from Matsuura was that it’s in a short anime, but there are separate contents and it’s a work in the world of “Gotchard”, so we should properly think about what components we’re putting in to “draw” people to watch it. We were aware of that while making it. More than anything, all of the cast members were excited, and did better than we imagined. Naturally, that was expected of (Misato) Fukuen, a pro in voice work. If there are still people who weren’t watching, it’s not too late even now, so please give it a watch right away. The final episode has a lot of surprises too!

Act 12: To Love, To Be Loved

TTFC: Matsuura, you were in charge of “The Dark Sisters Present Kamen Rider Gotchard: Unfinished Plans”.

Matsuura: Yes, I was very self-indulgent in my work (Laughs).

TTFC: Episode 0, “New Year’s Eve Special”, was very novel (Laughs).

Matsuura: That was natural because New Year’s Eve of 2023 was a Sunday, but “Gotchard” didn’t air that week. It was started so we could make something to coincide with that. We were really just scared that various things would be forgotten if it wasn’t airing, even for just a week. So I planned something on short notice. There were no other people I could ask to help, so I wrote the script and whatnot by myself in about half a day. Minato liked it when I showed it to him and asked if it was good, so then I rushed to finish it (Laughs). I’d done all the (audio) commentary episodes for “Donbros” with Minato, and that did well. I guess this was something we felt like we’d already done… The workload was already big since it’s a weekly schedule, and it felt like things were getting too repetitive for me as a creator. When I thought about how to make TTFC more interesting and less habitual, I remembered “Kamen Rider Zi-O: Supplementary Plans”.

[Footnote: A spin-off work released on TTFC in the early days of “Kamen Rider Zi-O’s” broadcast. Naturally, you can still watch all sixteen episodes in the present. With the recitation style of entrusting the script to the cast while they acted, the strong meta component was a distinct feature (Producer Shinichiro Shirakura was in charge of the script). There were many legend actors who guest starred in “Zi-O” on TV and then came in to appear on “Supplementary Plans”.]

I took inspiration from that for “Unfinished Plans”. Even though it’s released irregularly, I could continue it until the end. I definitely hope you look forward to the finale too.

TTFC: Information about Clotho’s model was only revealed in “Unfinished Plans”.

Matsuura: It wasn’t talked about in the TV show, so… When I asked Hasegawa to talk about the situation and write something for “Unfinished Plans”, he surprised me by immediately responding.

Minato: If you think about it, the Toei video Blu-Ray Collection’s extra video, “We Are Class 3G”, is like that too, but each of the various plans are independent from each other and became interesting-looking things. You don’t have to watch it all to enjoy the whole TV series.

Matsuura: To sum it up, I think it took the happiest form because of the charm that the cast and characters have was supported.

TTFC: “Class 3G” and the aforementioned Romeo and Juliet and such were like a “Gotchard Acting Troupe”. As for these members, it seems like no matter what they do or when, it always turns out interesting.

Minato: It’s valuable that all of the actors involved, including the adult cast, loved this work. That was definitely the strength of “Gotchard”.

TTFC: In the meantime, as for things you’re planning to show in September (of 2024) and beyond, there’s the “Final Stage” in four cities across the country.

Minato: This is also becoming a pretty extravagant matter. We’re making elaborate plans for it. The Final Stage, as already announced, had its script written by Hiroki Uchida. Regarding the developments beyond that… there are a lot of things that I can’t say yet. But, for all of the fans, I’ll tell you to please come and watch the Final Stage. Even with what’s being broadcast now, you can still see it!

Postscript

TTFC: Our time will be up before long, so I just have two points left. First of all, if you could talk about the director’s cut of the final episode, which will be released on TTFC…?

Minato: Okay. For this director’s cut, I have TTFC to thank for making my proposal a reality. So, from the beginning, I asked Uchida to freely write lines that got close to all the characters’ emotions, without taking the normal episode length into account too much.

Directors are people that normally think about length while filming too, but this was filmed with more room for the acting, so consequentially, the version of the finale that aired had a suitable amount of good scenes. Moreover, since the director’s cut is showing everything, I think the people who watched the TV version can enjoy it too.

TTFC: Thank you. Now, everyone, if you have anything else you want to share here, even something minor… (Laughs).

Matsuura: Umm… oh, right! There was one small thing. The hands that appear at the start of the opening are actually mine (Laughs). For some reason, Director Tasaki asked me to do it… So, for the fine individuals who want to see Matsuura’s hands, once again, please watch the OP on TTFC. That’s it. I wanted to say that somewhere (Laughs).

Minato: On that note, Harashima, you have a story about the roast beef stand, right?

Harashima: I did. That was a Yamaguchi episode… I think it was episode 31.

Minato: The scene where Kyoka and Lachesis are talking to each other at night. About the Ouroboros Realm, and the Dark Kings.

Harashima: I played the role of the woman working at that shop (Laughs). I was filmed for the back-and-forth with Kyoka in the filming stage, but a lot was cut out for the broadcast (Laughs). In the end, I show up in some shots, but you can’t see my face at all. So, I don’t think you would notice it, even if you rewatched it on TTFC, but all I can say is that I did actually appear in that scene (Laughs).

TTFC: I see… What about you, Minato?

Minato: It’s a little more serious of a story than what they’ve told, but it’s about Hotaro and Rinne. I thought about where the two of them would go and how to depict them for the whole year. But when I think about it, if they finally reached some kind of goal, their “youth” would end. It’s a program where the protagonist’s main ideal is to “push towards change without fear”, and if we showed that only until the conclusion, it would feel like it lost the spirit of “Gotchard”. So, in the summer movie and TV finale, the end of the story was shown, but I won’t hint at anything concrete for the future of those two. Again, I really focused on having those two be “Rider 1 and Rider 2” rather than “hero and heroine”. I wanted to emphasize that aspect. Something like an irreplaceable partner? It’s close to the Riders-1-and-2 relationship between Sento Kiryu and Ryuga Banjou in “Kamen Rider Build” (2017), but if we went that far, it would be a little too romantic (Laughs). It might change in many ways in the future, but for now, those two are good as they are. And if Hotaro, Rinne, or any other characters remain for a long time in the memories of anyone who watched “Gotchard”, that would make me happy.

[tennessoui]

Hey Kit!! This past year when the Acolyte came out, my heart broke and I decided to step away from Star Wars. It’s fine that others liked it but personally I didn’t; actually to be frank, I REALLY didn’t like it. Star Wars and Anakin got me through a lot, so watching Disney take an actual shit on his origin and then his redemption ark by half-assing the lore, felt like a punch to the gut, and I had to step away. (This is my personal opinion, if you or others liked it that’s great! I just didn’t). However, when I saw that u published the body politics au, I decided to sit down and catch up on all your fics (btw I love the Hanahaki one!), and it got me back into the fandom. I’m glad one shitty (imo) show didn’t push me away permanently and I have you to thank for that. I’ve met so many great people thru Star Wars and made a lot friends so it had really been kind of hard to turn away from it. I just really wanted to say thank you. your writing is, as always, too beautiful and inspiring to ignore. Star Wars means so much, and I’m so thankful that your work was able to help me look past all the stuff that made me unhappy with it. I hope you have a wonderful day!!

this is very kind to send to me and a very nice morning read! i admit, i actually have not watched the acolyte, though not for any particular reason. i've definitely heard mixed reviews about the show and its take on the jedi order and the sith, which have been sorta sad to read cause i do like the jedi (though i guess i never label myself as pro-jedi cause like? they're the good guys? you're not like. pro-percy jackson or something right? pro-katniss everdeen? you just sorta read the book and you're like oh yeah these are the good guys. might find aspects of a character annoying but i'm definitely not supposed to be rooting for the Capitol or smething right)

but i've also heard from other people that as a pew-pew show, it delivers on that front! lightsaber fights are cool and everyone has a funky haircut that they pull off somehow which does feel quintessentially star wars

my general view of the disney plus star wars shows is that i'll watch the ones that strike my fancy, and if one of them doesn't then i won't. the star wars disney execs produce a lot of content (and i truly mean content, i.e. material to be consumed - not necessarily art) and a lot of it i'm probably never going to watch. it wasn't made for me, and i definitely get the lurch and disappointment you may feel if you look forward to something for ages and then it's not what you wanted in a thousand small ways or a handful of big ways. i think that's especially hard to guard against nowadays when trailers for tv shows rely more on aesthetic and punchy one-liners and brief second cameos than they do explaining the actual story of the show

but you can be a fan without loving the direction some shows go in or the choices directors make!! if that looks like only watching shows that have been peer-reviewed, or if that looks like ignoring everything but a small corner/subset of a massive fandom, or if that looks like turning from the media itself and diving further into fanart and fanfiction and interacting with people online then that's what it looks like! especially now that the world of canon star wars media isn't just 6-9 movies + 2(?) non trilogy movies, you should absolutely go about watching star wars content with a you-first mindset 100%

you know how many people were disappointed in the obi-wan kenobi series?? soooo many because he was a sad little pathetic and broken man with greasy hair. but that's exactly how i like my obi-wan kenobis, so i was thrilled every episode lol but i'm sure other people hated it and boycotted and whatever. but i found my corner of the fandom who also enjoyed that and it's been wonderful <3

so anyway thankyou so much for your very kind words i hope none of that sounded too preachy i was mostly trying to agree with you that it's really great that one (shitty) show did not keep you away from the fandom forever and that you're back!!

welcome back :)

[thanx-files]

Season 3 Wrap-Up

Let’s skip the boring part. We know the routine by now, and I have a lotttt to say this time around. Thoughts on Talitha Cumi and S3 below the cut.

Talitha Cumi

My least favorite season finale so far, if I’m honest. It’s not that the stakes weren’t high enough, it’s that I was confused for a lot of this episode. I, like Mulder, have precious little patience for Cancer Man and his musings, and there were a LOT of musings in this episode. I’m going to have to read the Wikipedia plot summary for this one. Also, not enough Scully.

Season 3

My favorite season so far. I know, I know “Thanx, you’ve said that every season!” If you’ll recall, I was on the fence about season 2 being better than season 1 (Pilot my beloved) because I feared recency bias. But I feel very strongly that S3 beats out both S1 and S2 pretty handily, recency notwithstanding. Why? Because it’s fun, in a way. The first handful of episodes are less so, but as the season finds a rhythm, there are these brilliant little character moments. Skinner gains a lot of depth this season, for example, but he also has some killer one-liners that tell us he is playing this game for better or for worse.

And as for Mulder and Scully? If there is one thing these two will do, it’s talk on the phone. Those were some of my favorite details this season. The classic “it’s me,” but also the way they can’t stay off the phone in Coprophages. The way Mulder knows Scully will stay on the line to eavesdrop in Avatar. Mulder, our “ticking time-bomb of insanity” starts to show his Captain Ahab side more (hello, Grotesque???). And Scully gets to call him on it! More importantly, the moment I’ve been waiting for: they finally let Scully be so so Catholic.

This season just went crazy, I don’t know what to tell you. There are some seriously unhinged episode progressions — and I’m not even talking about the two-parters. Coprophages to Syzygy to Grotesque (just two eps before Pusher)? Quagmire to Wetwired? Stop it.

5 fave eps (now with more musing!):

Revelations - I told y’all I wanted more Catholic Scully, and this episode really delivered. I love that our skeptic is religious, however remotely. I love Scully. I love that there is this part of her which the X-Files never seem to touch — until they do.

War of the Coprophages - The way they can’t stay off the phone with each other. The way Fox Mulder just HAPPENS to be in the cockroach town during the cockroach uprising. The bug that crawls across the screen. The way Mulder is eating chocolate cake while writing his report about how he narrowly escaped an exploding shit lab. The inexplicably exotic bug he squishes without hesitation.

Pusher - Fuck all the way off. The paper that just says “Pass.” “Smile, Scully.” Russian roulette. Russian roulette!!! I don’t need to tell you all about this. You already know. Plus, there’s this deeply unwell post I already made.

Jose Chung from Outer Space - I also already posted about this one, but the TL;DR is that this sitcom fanatic loves a frame story and a series of Events Which Probably Didn’t Happen Like That.

Quagmire - I KNOW I KNOW it was between this and Wetwired. But when it comes down to it, the Captain Ahab conversation is just too fucking good. Also, I feel I should honor the memory of Queequeg, who deserved better.

5 least fave eps:

The Blessing Way - It’s not that it’s a bad ep, it’s just not for me. I’ve never been much for the metaphysical “between life and death” thing where you talk to your dead dad and he tells you to keep living. This is because my heart is made of rocks.

The List - I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t like prison eps.

Piper Maru & Apocrypha - I just got lost. Glad to see Krycek again tho!

Talitha Cumi - See above.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to buckle my seatbelt for the [REDACTED] [REDACTED] arc. Maybe I’ll also rewatch the pilot just for kicks.