#this is about toku and wrestling

[cure-cosmo]

man i really like watching people in silly outfits beat the shit out of each other bc of petty drama

[brbgensokyo]

at some point i should track down some people that are really in on sub-genres i dont usually fuck with and ask them to sell me on it

[guster-animations]

KR Gotchard Producers Roundtable PART 2

producer minato gave me a hard time with this one. if you see any problems, please tell me in reblogs/dms/asks/whatever

TOKU TRANSLATION MASTERPOST HERE

this was done for the henshindex wiki! join today!

Kamen Rider Gotchard TV Series Finale Commemoration Toei Producers Special Symposium (Second Edition)

“Kamen Rider Gotchard” will soon reach its climax!

With that, we are delivering a Toei producer symposium like usual, split into three parts. Furthermore, the first and second volumes will be released one week before the final episode airs. The three-part talk totaled up to over 30,000 words. The participants are, of course, Producer Yosuke Minato and Assistant Producers Daigo Matsuura and Kaho Miyashima. In this second volume, we mainly discussed the inside story on the first half of the battle…!

Act 5: 1st-2nd Cour Summarization

TTFC: I can say that Gotchard is the result of you young producers sincerely bringing answers to the views of “adults”.

Minato: That was when I suddenly realized that the big veteran Keiichi Hasegawa is on our side. That was amazing. It’s not a bad thing to be young. I thought that his aging halted 30 years ago because of changing from art staff to scriptwriter.

[Footnote: After being an assistant director and on art staff, Keiichi Hasegawa made his debut as a screenwriter in Tsuburaya Productions’ “Ultraman Tiga” (1996). He was also involved in “Tiga” as filming set staff until the middle part of the show.]

Hasegawa already has a fair amount of achievements, and it seems like his core is that his surroundings don’t change what he says. However, at the same time, he is also flexible. While communicating during preparatory meetings, he can switch over to going “Oh, it’s this way!” with ideas. That flexibility was very helpful.

Harashima: For me, episode 5 was my first time being in charge of casting the guest actors. That was the pro wrestling episode of all things… (Laughs). But this one also had many guest characters, and I thought whether I did well would be pretty essential, so even though I consulted with Director (Katsuya) Watanabe, I pulled it off in my own way. Even so, it was very troublesome to find who I would ask to play the role of “Koichiro Asahi”.

[Footnote: Masanori Machida, who appeared in “Gotchard”, is a big veteran of the acting industry, boasting of an over 60-year career since childhood. His appearances in tokusatsu works are also numerous; in “Ninja Hattori-kun + Ninja Kaiju Jippou” (1967), he was also responsible for Hattori-kun’s suit actors (multiple times). It’s actually been 43 years since he last appeared in the Kamen Rider Series. Koichiro Asahi re-appeared afterwards in episode 47 too!]

We were able to get Masanori Machida to appear, and after seeing the footage, Hasegawa sent me an email saying, “That was an incredible casting choice”. I made sure to save that email to look at when I’m having a hard time.

Minato: That’s true, you were in charge of episode 5, and then episode 6 too. Shogo Amo was a good choice for Boruto Namarizaki.

Harashima: I didn’t know Mr. Amo had appeared in “Mashin Sentai Kiramager” (2020) and “Avataro Sentai Donbrothers” too (Laughs). And yet both of those appearances were for episodes directed by Watanabe’s team. Not knowing that, when I asked Director Watanabe, “How about this person?”, he said, “That’s Amo!”. I immediately said, “Sure. Let’s ask him.”

Matsuura: Amo was good in “Kiramager” and “Drive”, but he was even better as Boruto Namarizaki this time. He gave a performance that made it hard to believe he was the same actor as in his last two works. At the same time that I thought, “Wow, he’s still a great actor,” Director Watanabe could tell that Boruto would be performed well if it were Amo.

Minato: I think that episode’s script from Hasegawa was good too. Bolt was truly a heel (bad guy) typical of Hasegawa works. Moreover, I’d wanted to see Hasegawa and Director Watanabe working together for myself. They were together for a year in “Donbrothers” and I really wanted Director Watanabe to participate in Gotchard, so one of my aims was to have him work with Hasegawa. That was realized in episodes 5-6, 13-15, and the endgame episodes 44-45. The first one, episodes 5-6, was especially interesting during the script phase, but those were episodes that I think were “changed” in such a way because of the guest casting, the synergy, and even more so, the direction. It had an effect.

Matsuura: It complements itself a little, one cool episode… The structure up to maybe the Kyoto arc was decided before the show started airing. The scripts for those were mostly finished too. Since we had calculated which forms would appear in what order and the like, we weren’t making that part of the show while looking at how the audience reacted. We wanted to do it that way from the start. We were making each episode having already decided what would be done and seen in it. Though there was trouble because there were a fair amount of things we should have done or weren’t easy to explain.

Matsuura: In the early days, episode 4 was profoundly memorable to me. That was the first one where we fully depicted the relationship between Hotaro and Rinne. I wondered if it would be easier for everyone to enjoy “Gotchard” if they watched this episode. But, on the other hand, I was worried if the path we took properly conveyed Hotaro’s goodness. Hotaro is the type of protagonist who makes sure to “listen” to the thoughts of others more than he shares something himself. We also included the point of “a supportive protagonist” and “passivity”. Personally, I think we need more people like him in this day and age… It was for exactly that reason that I wondered if he would be hard for present-day viewers to relate to. In other words, he’s not “easily understood”, isn’t it flashy? At that point, we were already coming to like how Hotaro was, but I worried about if audiences would feel the same way about him. The next pro wrestling episode… I think WrestlerG’s episode (episode 5) was full of showiness, and that was structurally good.

Minato: (Hiroki) Uchida finally had time to write in episodes 7-8, and moreover, that was the first two-episode arc, so we aimed to gamble with Uchida’s specialty style. It’s a story of the protagonist and a young guest character coming together.

Matsuura: Then, 9 and 10 was a school trip arc filmed in Kyoto. That was Director (Ryuta) Tasaki’s second time going up to the mound after the first two episodes of the show.

Minato: Personally, I strongly wanted to make Gotchard also a school drama, so at an early stage, I decided to “do these (episodes 9 and 10) on the Kyoto location as a school trip”. That’s why I basically left episodes 5 and 6 to Harashima, and 7 and 8 to Matsuura; I was focusing on helping with preparations for the location shoot. Then we had to make the scripts for those episodes… Hasegawa specializes in dark stories, and if we did that, it would go in that profound direction. At that time, the person who said during meetings that the appeal of “Gotchard” is its cheerfulness was Matsuura.

Matsuura: The back-and-forth exchanges around that had a structure to them. But my thoughts regarding Hasegawa, who I’ve socialized with for a year, were only “Keiichi, I’m sorry about this” (Laughs). “Gotchard” was our first time working together, but naturally, I knew his name before then. Now, I respect him a hundred times more than I did then. Well, it’s not that I didn’t respect him before (Laughs). I said it before, but even though he’s a big veteran, the way he thinks is young. I don’t know if “young” words are appropriate or what, but he always listened to what a youngster like me had to say, and he would adopt the ideas if he thought they were good. He would say, “I seeeee!” with genuine excitement… I have no idea if he’s always been like that (Laughs). He’s accumulated various experiences, and I know what he’s like now, but the Hasegawa I spent a year with was truly someone I can respect. That’s why a person like me could always talk nonstop about my cocky views without hesitation. I’m very grateful for that. I was also able to give many opinions in the script meeting for the Kyoto location episode too.

Minato: Because Hasegawa and Uchida’s unique characteristics are different, as the side that orders materials, there were parts where it was easy to go, “Hasegawa would fit here,” or “Uchida would be good for this one”. Then Akiko Inoue joined, but she also liked to write scripts that have personality. When ordering for Inoue, I deeply wanted to know her writing style, and I only came across an “Akiko Inoue Script Episode” from “GeGeGe no Kitaro (Series 6)” (2018-2020) that she had participated in.

[Footnote: In series 6 (97 episodes), Akiko Inoue was involved from episode 6 and onwards, and authored fourteen episodes in total. Incidentally, responsible for episode 1 of series 5 among others, Keiichi Hasegawa also participated in series 6, starting with episode 56 in the second year of broadcasting. He has written nine episodes for the franchise.]

Then, whichever episode she did would be very interesting. She’s very good at making use of the writing styles for people and societies, and yet, she also depicts things that are like human love flowing down. Of course, since it was “Kitaro”, the original work itself is amazing, but I also felt the power of her own writing. What I first asked her to do was Majade’s TV debut episode (episode 19) where what she would do had been decided, so there wasn’t much room left for Inoue to write with freedom, but from the next moment I asked her to do something, around episodes 22-23, she quickly showed her personality. I only ordered her with the information that “a Chemy called Zukyumpire appearing” and “a story where good intentions about love go wrong would be nice”, but she did more than I asked her (Laughs). After that, we were surprised again by Inoue with episodes 36 and 36, but what I really felt a reaction to in the beginning was 22 and 23.

Matsuura: I kept saying from the side, “Zukyumpire in live action is difficult, so can’t we do it another way?”, but a person named Akiko Inoue and a person standing here named Harashima conspired together, and I definitely couldn’t try to stop (Laughs).

Minato: Oh, come on, everyone and their energy was amazing in that episode. Even though we think about production in various ways for the difficult work, I expected that we could more or less compromise and say “It’s good if we make it this far!”, but the filming site really won’t give up either (Laughs).

Matsuura: For example, when Zukyumpire possessed Sabimaru, Sabimaru would always become a different emotion, and try to sing the song with “Everyone’s heart I zukyun, zukyun…” I was proposing that it would end up structured like a Super Sentai “filler episode”. It was interesting for the audience to see a Sabimaru that was different from normal, too. However, the young lady Akiko (laughs) didn’t give up there.

Minato: She was very particular about the idea of “Zukyumpire himself intentionally appearing as a human”.

Matsuura: While midway through it, I thought, “Well, it’s good that I’m not in charge (of the casting) myself”, and said afterwards for Harashima to do her best. No, of course I’m kidding.

Harashima: Firstly, Akiko’s pilot was interesting. That and another thing—when I looked at “Gotchard’s” audience analysis data at that time, it was sufficiently reaching the original audience of the C-group (Children/Kids group, ages 4-12), but more than that, the T-group (Teenager group, ages 13-19) and F1-group (females aged 20-34) were looking a little weak. Here, I thought about how I could bring about a character that seems to appeal to the said groups. I’m really glad we got Taro Yamanaka to appear.

Minato: Yamanaka was decided. and I told Director (Kyohei) Yamaguchi that we should push Zukyumpire and Yamanaka in this episode. So, if you rewatch episodes 22 and 23, there are many scenes we shot inside the Oizumi filming site to cut costs (Laughs).

TTFC: But Zukyumpire was right after Kamen Rider Valvarad’s debut arc (episodes 20-21), so when I think about it again, January and February were putting up a big offense.

Minato: Also as a connection between past and present, Mr. Minato became an enemy, the base called the Alchemy Academy was taken, and the “Kitchen Ichinose Alliance” was active for a while… I had decided that for that series of events, episodes 26-27 would be directed by Tasaki’s team, after episodes 23-24’s (Takayuki) Shibasaki group. I made the season with a lot of excitement.

TTFC: Then, from the spring break period, the episodes broadcast up to early April were a lot of “breather” episodes.

Minato: When we welcomed in Director (Kiyotaka) Taguchi, it was right during that (episodes 28-29).

Act 6: “The Dark Sisters” Secret Story

TTFC: With this, Director Taguchi has now taken part in all of Japan’s “Three Big Tokusatsu Series” (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai) as a director.

Minato: Actually, I approached Director Taguchi before I did Akiko Inoue. With various conflicts, I knew we wouldn’t have enough directors at some point. So I foresaw that development. Rotating directors isn’t a mechanical process; If we did that, it would be too much. For every director of a story, I would think in the same way as I do for casting guest members, and pick them based on the contents of the episodes. So while looking for what timing would suit Director Taguchi to come in, Director Taguchi himself was pretty busy, and it was hard to find a good spot in his schedule. If his schedule was more open, I might have asked him to do a pair of single digit episodes early on. I was contacting the director frequently, and what I thought he “might be good in” was episodes 28-29. It was also an episode that was just after a big development had ended. When I called the director, I first asked, “What kind of things do you want to do?”. I remember that I started by talking about “which Chemies remained”. And then it became “The Great Yokai War” (Laughs).

Matsuura: I thought with Director Taguchi that the image of monster movies and the work of “Kingdom of Light” was still strong, but when I call on him, he seems to like “GeGeGe no Kitaro” and the works of Mr. (Shigeru) Mizuki too. And since Akiko Inoue happened to have written for “Kitaro”, they got excited about doing a “ghost” story arc (Laughs).

Minato: Well, he had directed with Toei before in “Mashin Sentai Kiramager”, so I thought that he should direct in a different way from “Kiramager” since this is the Kamen Rider series. So, Otojiro Sato, “Gotchard’s” second assistant director… he also had experience filming for the Ultraman series, so we asked for his “favorite Taguchi work”. He had liked “The Love” (episode 6) from “Ultrazone” (2011).

[Footnote: A love story connecting Alien Zalab (Voice: Tomokazu Seki) and the widowed woman Omoya (Mitsuko Oka). A sudden and distinct episode to be broadcast in the short-story-focused “Ultrazone”.]

TTFC: He has great taste…

Minato: I watched because I hadn’t seen it, and it turned out to be really good. I discovered that atmospheric dramas like this are the director’s specialty, and I think that reflected on the story of episodes 28-29 too. Toshie Negishi also appeared then, in the role of Renge’s grandmother.

Matsuura: Ms. Negishi was the role of the protagonist’s grandmother in “Ultraman Arc” (2024). Actually, her shoots for “Arc” came before “Gotchard”.

TTFC: That’s been a pattern recently.

Matsuura: There was no aim to have this be “Gotchard’s” specialty. There are benefits to filming early (Laughs). The child actor Soto Osagaki, who we got to appear as a guest actor in the Saboneedle episodes (episodes 7-8), was filmed in the V-Cinext “Kamen Rider Geats: Jyamato Awaking” before, but his role in “Gotchard” ended up airing first as well (Laughs). Ayane Kinoshita from the next episodes, the Kyoto location ones (9-10) was the same way. TTFC’s “Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Part 3: Mid-Life Crisis” was filmed first, but before that even went up on streaming, we got her to come back for more “Gotchard” episodes (9-10, 44-45) (Laughs).

TTFC: Director Taguchi came back to help with Sabimaru’s focus episodes, 42-43, and results-wise it seems like he became the “director in charge of the older students [Renge and Sabimaru]”…

Minato: But episodes 28-29 weren’t originally intended to be Renge focus episodes. It’d been decided that it would have a “grandma character”, but not whose grandma it would be. We’d already had focus episodes for Rinne and Hotaro, so it was a difficult point, and then it became “wouldn’t Renge fit?”. And then there were talks of her grandma living in Kansai since Renge uses the Kansai dialect (Laughs). At any rate, the episodes turned out good, so when we asked him to do two more afterwards, it was easy to say, “Please do Sabimaru this time.” In the beginning, the aim in appointing Director Taguchi was from a place of wanting to expand the work’s worldview, so I think there was good synergy with him focusing on Renge and Sabimaru.

TTFC: Since we did the older students’ episodes, I want to touch on the Dark Sisters; weren’t they created because Hasegawa was in charge?

Minato: That’s right. At first, since it’s “a story where they search for Chemies”, we didn’t want clear enemies to be there yet, so there was a period where we were fumbling around for something in that direction. But when Hasegawa formally joined and looked over the plan, I received a comment that “it’ll become hard to understand which way the story is facing”. So I started to think about the creation of an enemy for Hasegawa. What appeared from there was “the Dark Sisters”, but because only three people would appear as enemies at the start, I thought, “this is a new approach”. So, at that time, Hasegawa fit very well with the drama “Dr. Chocolate” (2023)…

[Footnote: Created by Yasushi Akimoto. Ryo Aoki [played Kento/Espada in KR Saber] played a regular cast member who is a police detective, and Kokoro Aoshima [played Tsumuri in KR Geats] was a guest actor in episode 6. A favorite even with TTFC, Akira Shinomiya [played comedians in various KR media] was a guest actor in episode 3 while participating as a “comedy duo”.]

The premise is that its heroine is a ten-year-old genius surgeon. It was Hasegawa’s idea from the start that the eldest sister of the “Dark Sisters”, Atropos, would be played by a child actor. So when it became time to look for Atropos in auditions, I was able to come across a talented person named Itono Okita. The third daughter, Lachesis, is the incredible Alisa Sakamaki, who we met at auditions for the main cast members. Lachesis’ presence was one that I thought was valuable, so I asked her. The middle daughter, Clotho, was a brutish character, so a person who could fight is the best option. When speaking with Director Tasaki, he said, “What about Kanon Miyahara?”. Now the names had already been decided. Especially at the start, it felt like I would wonder when they would die (in the show) every time I read a script, but Hasegawa, at a point where there is a “creator” of the Dark Sisters, was always saying, “All of them will survive until the endgame!”. On the other hand, I was constantly worrying, “What will happen in the endgame?”. “However it’s done, it will look pitiful. We can’t avoid that.”

TTFC: In the midst of that, to have Lachesis and Spanner, Atropos and Rinne, and Clotho and Hotaro team up, the “teamwork” between the three sisters and three Riders was born.

Minato: The three sisters weren’t just Hasegawa; Uchida and Inoue, as well as all the directors, depicted them well. Right, I was saying to Director (Koichi) Sakamoto that “We’ll definitely ask you when the schedule is free” from an early stage, but his first words regarding that were, “Please let me film Kanon (Miyahara)!” (Laughs).

TTFC: That was definitely implemented in episodes 32-33.

Minato: That’s correct. It was decided to have Kamen Rider Legend finally appear in the TV series, and it became that we asked him to make the buildup to that more exciting. I asked Uchida to do the script, and it was an episode where he really got to shine. Clotho got more action scenes compared to the other sisters, but hadn’t been delved into as a character that much. Uchida was able to come up with a situation where the two of them, as “rivals”, are able to cooperate for a moment, while firmly summarizing the small connections between Hotaro and Clotho up to that episode.

TTFC: I think it’s because of Uchida cooperating with you from the planning stage, Minato.

Minato: Uchida gave me comments from the standpoint of series structure for the episode scripts that Hasegawa and Inoue wrote. Like, “Couldn’t this part be connected to this one in a previous episode in this way?”. He gave useful suggestions within the minimum necessary scope while never erasing the personality of Hasegawa and Inoue’s writing, so it was always helpful. I think the fact that Hasegawa and Inoue had as much freedom as possible to write with probably caused Uchida trouble. The early-on episodes 7-8 and the endgame episodes 42-43 might have been when the “Uchida World” could expand. But because episodes 7 and 8 had so many components put into it, 42 and 43 too, there was an aspect of Uchida World and Taguchi World’s Gotchanko, so with the process of letting Director Taguchi do what he wanted, he had to adjust a fair amount of things…

Act 7: A Well-rounded “Adult” Cast

TTFC: With Kanji Ishimaru (Fuga Kudo), Yoko Minamino (Tamami Ichinose), Saki Fukuda (Kyoka Edami), and Kenta Kamakari (Glion), everyone in the “adult cast” is magnificent.

Harashima: Ishimaru and Minamino had a sense of stability, of security. They were there until the end, and I am very grateful for that. Saki Fukuda herself liked tokusatsu works herself, and she would say, “It’s fun!” whenever I went to meet her. She was an important person for Spanner while performing too, but I think it was good for (Yasunari) Fujibayashi to be able to act alongside her. From Fukuda’s standpoint, there were many times she was together with young cast members other than Fujibayashi, but it seems like she put a lot of work into helping him. Fukuda didn’t say it herself whatsoever; however, we should put care into the things that can’t be seen, and I’m grateful for it from the bottom of my heart. There was also a “Mr. Minato and…?” scene at the end of the summer movie, and it was wonderful. Being an “older sister adult” character, there are places where she overlaps with Sumiko Kozawa from “Kamen Rider Agito” (2001).

Minato: I think that was a little of my inspiration at the start.

Matsuura: Well, I should have her eat barbecue and gulp down beer from a mug, then (Laughs).

Minato: No, it’s because she was asking for parsley at the ramen cart (Laughs). But, “Gotchard” became a work with many female regular cast members. That wasn’t intended at all, and moreover, I have a feeling that there aren’t too many women in the audience.

Matsuura: The Dark Sisters are certainly raising the numbers (Laughs). But really, there was nothing that made me uncomfortable, and it’s just the trend of the times. Now, it’s the aforementioned last moment of the summer movie, but for Fukuda, even in the TV series, she had been thinking, “Kyoka and Minato could perhaps…”, so when there was a chance, she brought that nuanced acting into it. Even so, (Rikuto) Kumaki is more stubborn and doesn’t get on at all. I don’t think he realizes that (Laughs). The truth is that, and the fact that he played with so much force in Director Tasaki’s summer festival scene. Kumaki himself is a very warm and cozy person.

Minato: That’s true. I hoped for it to be like “Avataro Sentai Donbrothers” (2022)’s Tsuyoshi Kijino… (Hirofumi) Suzuki (plays Kijino), where we would get him to show his immense “acting ability” as a character from the Alchemy Academy, and stimulate the growth of the new cast members, but Kumaki wasn’t “that type”, not in a bad way. He would just enjoy being with everyone if those members were around (Laughs). But, I’m glad it’s that way. If anything, I think a good balance was struck when Fukuda joined later on, and it became an incredible team over the year. Now for Kamakari; Glion.

Matsuura: Kenken (Kamakari) helped a lot too. I think this is a hot topic right now, but in scenes like the one where Glion comes to “Kitchen Ichinose” in episode 49, when I read the scripts for them, I already thought, “I want to see this!”. And because Kamakari recognized that this was a highlight of the show, it became a truly good scene. I think that scene was created specifically because he was Glion. At the same time, wouldn’t he have not been performed that way without Kamakari?

[tac0tesseract]

Aftermath

Daniel spilled out of his chassis onto all fours, flinging his helmet to the scorched earth as he gasped for air. It was stupid – he knew it was stupid. The moment Eris' mood changed again he could be turned inside-out, or stripped of all oxygen, or whatever the fuck else – but neither could he breathe inside the Goblin right now. It felt like a coffin.

He'd never flirted so close with death before, at least not without Tansy there to undo it. His mech was barely standing. He was barely standing. Dan felt sick; how did this job go so wildly fucking sideways?

Fucking Tansy.

At least for now the eidolon was apparently feeling whimsical, because the air was full of tiny iridescent pink bubbles that smelled of artificial strawberries and screamed like a mountain lion when you popped them. A lovely little chorus followed Sai as he plodded over, and Daniel had to watch him through lidded eyes. He wasn't stupid. He knew Sai had been assigned as his babysitter in part. And what chafed the most was that Daniel had needed it.

What an absolute shitshow. He’d nearly been totaled, and more puppets than he could count had been vaporized. Daniel's eyes swept the smoldering remains of Eris' cute little supernova, lingering on the biomechanical survivors still milling around. Even if the metavault hadn't spontaneously spawned a miniature sun, they absolutely would have lost this fight had it not been for the sheer numbers of their reinforcements. Zerging didn't take any skill. It all felt so cheap.

Sai stopped a good ways back and climbed out of his chassis. It always freaked Daniel out how the mech mirrored its pilot's silence – save for the metallic sigh of its greywash mane. That lucky bastard had made himself enough breathing room that the Balor was already piecing itself back together. Dan would have no such fortune.

“I'm fine. I just need a minute,” he said defensively as Sai approached.

Sai pulled off his helmet. His expression was skeptical – doubly so as he sized up the damage to Daniel's mech.

“...Leave it,” Sai finally said, with surprisingly little difficulty.

“Hell no. We've got a job to do, and Maggi doesn't have time to print me a new one.” Daniel punched the ground. “Fuck. I had her. I had her, she'd just teleported! And yet when we stood there staring at each other I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger! What did she do?”

What did Tansy do? Or had guilt somehow stayed Daniel's hand instead? No, he wasn't that cucked. The metavault was probably in part to blame, sure, but – it was more than that. He could...feel Tansy somehow in that paracausal pulse, could feel her pain and her conflict and her desperation to spare them, and Sam's eyes, so many eyes, watching him expectantly. In that moment Daniel could see fragments of a future that hadn't come to pass, where he was sitting on what looked like a fancy ship's bridge? Talking to some old fart with a nice watch, and an SSC robot, and...he didn't know. But he was laughing. He looked happy.

If you surrender, we'll take you on. You don't have to die for this bullshit, Tansy pleaded.

We don't want to hurt you! cried her princess friend.

What horseshit. That kind of weakness would get you snuffed out quick back home.

Daniel finally stood, only to find Sai staring at the metavault where the “Vacationers”, as they apparently called themselves, had vanished. It was hard to read that man's face on a good day; today it was almost impossible, but there was something around his eyes: fatigue, probably.

Or sadness.

“...Did you shoot that fire fuck in there on purpose?” Daniel finally asked.

Sai turned to blink at him.

“The Toku with the cringe paint job. The one protecting Tansy.” Why did the idea of the Toku pilot make Daniel so irritated? Who was in there, anyway? Why wouldn't he leave her side?

Sai just shook his head. After wrestling with his words, he managed: “Not our problem.”

Daniel scowled. “Yeah? So we just let them all go on a goddamn field trip? What about vengeance for Knight?”

Now Sai definitely looked tired. He didn't say anything, his gaze instead straying back to linger where that princess and her flying chassis had been.

“Oni, Stunta. You two smoothbrains alive over there?” came a sudden voice over coms, punctuated by chaos in the background.

“Legion's putting itself back together; Trololo's hosed,” Daniel drawled. “Awful noisy. Gettin' freaky over there, Naga? Should let us watch.”

“Cute.” Static. “Head on back, we're regrouping.”

“Why? Where's the chiefs?”

“Trying to run off this asshole with a huge bow. He almost noscoped Neko. We've gotta get her to safety or we'll lose the Minotaur.”

“Shit,” Sai hissed, already turning for the Balor.

“Wait, are these still the same guys who intercepted you?” Daniel asked. “The fucking Karrakins? You haven't killed them?”

“Yes, the fucking Karrakins.” He could hear the eye roll in her voice. “These aren't the usual dregs they send to the Shore, and they've got some unhinged merc with them too. Banshee's orders, get back here. Now.”

The hand of panic squeezed around Daniel's ribcage again. What the fuck. What the actual fuck was going on? Who were all of these pilots? Why did they have such insane abilities? Did Uncle know about any of this? Why did it feel like the Cousins were on the back foot? Why was Knight fucking dead? Why was Knight fucking dead?

He turned for his chassis in a daze, staring at Trololo's shredded, sparking frame in dismay. A coffin. Was this where he died, too? Rotting, forgotten, in a jungle?

I am prepared to die for RA, he thought.

But somehow it didn't feel like RA was on their side.

[modularmedia]

Vac's Early Onset Dementia - TWIT! 10/2/2023

This week in Toku, @thevacuuminator & @busterscorp talk about swords, wrestling & propaganda.

[solarcitymelodies]

Well hey, if you want actual recs (though nothing can top "you glanced through pictures of all the seasons and this one looked cool"), good starting shows might be

Kamen Rider since you've been meaning to watch: Kuuga (precious goodboy overcomes deepest despair, beloved despite aged CG), Ryuki (anti-heroes fighting each other in a battle royale, inspired like every 2000s late-night action anime), Kabuto (world's weirdest beautiful men have incomprehensible homoerotic drama), Ex-Aid (joyful tone dissonance central feat. videogame doctors. you have contracted a computer virus and I'm going to 360 noscope it)

Super Sentai if you want to relive the power rangers memories: Gokaiger (anniversary show that'll give you a sample of a bunch of other seasons feat. lovable space pirates), Shinkenger (excellently-written samurai drama), or if you're serene with extremely watching a funny kids' show ToQger (rainbows model trains and imagination yaaaay yet still heartwrenching drama mixed in there)

(My personal biggest love is actually older tokusatsu, from the 80s or earlier, but that can be much more of an acquired taste. You could try the super-lean 40-minute 1993 movie Kamen Rider ZO if you wanted to test if older stuff is to your taste. fantastic effects work, influenced guillermo del toro's films, big arachnophobia TW tho)

The big catch is that while there are mirror sites with uploads, they're often lower-quality in terms of video and subtitle translation, and I'd highly recommend seeking out the better-quality versions via torrents. Deluge (or qbitorrent or w/e) & VLC player (& a VPN if you're worried about the piracy of it all) don't take /long/ to set up and is easy once you've done it once or twice, but I understand it can seem kinda intimidating from outside (toku fans are usually very willing to help out!)

Luckily, the creators of Ultraman (a series about giant heroes who wrestle Godzilla-style kaiju--Godzilla actually also falls under the 'tokusatsu' umbrella) are much more open to international viewers, and upload their recent shows on their YT channel with language options for English dub/Japanese audio with English & other language subtitles. I personally really enjoyed the most recently completed series, Ultraman Blazar, and the currently-running Ultraman Arc is also fun so far

HEY OMG I THOUGHT I ANSWERWD THIS AND I DIDBT !!!!

I want you to know I DID see this <3 and I rlly appreciate the recs 😭 I'm so sorry I forgot lol

I need desperately to watch Kabuto ...... I love toxic yaoi 🫶

I rlly need to figure out how to torrent/VPN because I do quite a bit of piracy hehe.... also I'd love to have adblockers on :P I will probably call upon my techy friends to help me with it

But thank you so much op 🙇 this is very swag of you

[beetlemage]

TBH people talk about toku being hard to get into but how do you even get into wrestling

[sevrai]

I've been obsessed with Tokusatsu stuff for a few months now and haven't really wrapped my head around how I want to gush or ramble about it. I've probably posted random stuff on Twitter and just forgot but I need an excuse to post some pics here between comic updates and I don't see any Tumblr posts I've forgotten so HERE WE GO.

I've always loved Godzilla and the old Power Rangers seasons, and have spent years trying to get more into actual Super Sentai and Kamen Rider stuff, but never quite committed fully to any of it. Yet something just clicked in my brain and rewired my DNA earlier this year and now I'm cripplingly addicted. (Shin Kamen Rider didn't quite spark this, but the hype leading up to seeing it in theaters definitely helped fan the flames.)

I dunno why it took me so long to get hooked. It's all so up my alley. For a while I also thought I'd only be interested in the stuff closer to the 90's and 2000's eras and thought that the modern Riders looked too goofy and "toyetic," but then another click went off in my head and I got hooked on Geats. It was like a blastwave went off in my mind, suddenly I understood the appeal of Reiwa and late Heisei Rider.

I was enjoying it so much that I even impulse-bought a couple of DX Belt toys;

(They're basically absurdly expensive fidget toys for me to giggle at and I don't regret it for a second.)

I've been sorta bouncing back and forth through different eras as I decide what to watch. I watched Kamen Rider Black with Hayley, watched a ton of Geats on my own, then burnt through Kuuga.

And between Rider series I've been dabbling in Super Sentai, starting with Dairanger which had some fun doses of nostalgia, being the source of a bunch of footage from later episodes of MMPR. I also watched Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, which has a rep for being a weaker season but I still enjoyed it a lot.

(Especially Kyuemon. Apparently my weakness for femboys and weird monster guys is not immune to a goofy rubber suit in a toku show, especially when the two are combined.)

I don't want this to be as long-winded as the Armored Core post, but I definitely want to share more Toku stuff as I move through the series. I hope I don't burn myself out but I can't stop watching them. I started Ultraman Tiga recently, too. While not as up my alley as the other two of the big three, I do love me some kaiju and exploding miniatures.

It's so rare I get into something that I can't articulate the appeal of without just bluntly saying "it's fun." It fires off the same neurons in my brain as pro wrestling. It's stupid and super fun. Pretty easy to find these shows around the internet, too. Shin Kamen Rider is on Amazon Prime, and a lot of the older stuff can be dug up on the Internet Archive or streamed on Tubi.

(Those just being the most accessible options for peeps who don't want to dawn their pirate hats and go sailing the seas of nyaa, of course.)

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

Ever heard of this obscure 70's toku called Azteckaiser? It has 2 noteworthy gimmicks, 1. it's about pro wrestling, 2. in every fight the hero pulls a Makuu Space, except he turns the fight ANIMATED.

I have heard of this specifically because of point 2. Funny shit

[campaignskyjacks]

1, 2, 8 and 15 for the skyjacks asks!! :3c

1. Who’s your favourite background crew member?

I have always had a deep affection for Pliff and Jane. When Liz said "I will never aknowlege or speak to you," I knew that I was going to break that right away. I wanted them to have a more complete arc in Star Wars, so pulling them into Skyjacks was just my chance.

If we are talking even more background than them, I love Toku! He seems like he has a lot going on. I want to see him do more stuff.

Also, obviously Bathroom Barry. Tho as Quartermaster I don't think he qualifies as "background."

2. Share a headcanon you feel you’ve never had the chance to share before.

I think Travis and Gable fucked. I can't prove it. I am certain it will never come up. But over 200 years, I think they did.

Also, if it happened once it happened a dozen times. It's like that "five times they didn't and one time they did" fanfic format but it's more like "five times they did and an additional time they also did."

8. What relationship would you like to see developed more?

Ha! I mean, any relationship I really want to see developed more probably will be developed more. I'll say Dref and Orimar. They are fascinating now and their past is also so interesting!

15. Which folk tale would you like to see re-told as a piece of Spéir folklore, and how would it change?

To be totally honest I am more interested in developing new folktales for Spéir that feel like real world folktales. That was The Maiden and The Hart, taking a thing we had in the world and applying a folk sensibility to explaining it.

I have a new "romantic ghost story" that I'm writing for next February. I am excited about it to show off how queer the world is even from a traditional sense. I want more stuff like that so people know from a mythical perspective how different this world is from ours and which toxic assumptions were just never in play here.

There are some re-told real world folktales that are already in there but we haven't gotten to show off yet, like La Llorona (as you know.) There are a few biblical stories I'll re-do like Jason wrestling an angel. I have to get my favorite fairy tale in there: The King of Cats.

I might also fuck with some Shakespeare. Like Skyjacks Twelfth Night if Shakespeare wasn't a coward.

‐----------

I don't know how you young people do asks. I had to go looking for the old post to find these questions. Back in my day we just asked the questions we wanted to have answered.

[canmom]

Toku Tuesday 34: "Isn’t That An Anime?”

Hello friends, it’s one of these. Arguably for numerology reasons #34 should be some kind of niche porn fanwork, but no, tonight the theme is another of the sets that @mogsk​ selected for me. And hey we’re back to Japan, in territory that can reasonably be called tokusatsu even.

Tonight, the concept is well, live action adaptations of stories that have also received well-regarded anime adaptations. Many such cases, etc. etc. Can these stories work without the clarity of drawings? The answer is mostly... hmm. Let’s take a look.

First up, Mogs has found us a live adaptation of Charge!! Cromartie High School, which is such a mogs pick given that it’s a parody of yankī delinquent manga (c.f. Toku Tuesday 4, Toku Tuesday Mogs Edition) of the 70s and 80s, following on from the tail end of the gekiga period. This particular work originates as a manga by Eiji Nonaka (野中 英次), which in keeping with its influences, adopts the textured lines and rougher hatching of a gekiga manga, but is a surreal comedy framed through a normal boy attending a school for yankīs.

This series seems to have been easily the most popular of Nonaka’s works, and was soon adapted to anime by Production I.G. in 2003, contemporary with their Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Animation Night 39).

This adaptation was directed by Hiroaki Sakurai (桜井 弘明), who prior to his career at I.G., was known for allegedly driving the studio Film Magic into bankruptcy with overly elaborate direction that didn’t respect the limits of TV animation in terms of drawing count during outsourcing work on Akazukin Chacha (1994-5). (Though there’s some dispute, with some of the key animators instead claiming it was their fault; alas the original source is in Japanese so I can’t get the details.)

Perhaps this experience chastened him somewhat, or he just learned better practices after directing various series like an adaptation of PaRappa the Rapper (!???); the I.G. adaptation of Cromartie is certainly low budget, but a friend has praised it for its unusual and creative application of limited animation techniques to make the most of what they had...

Sakurai scored this series with prog rock band Bi Kyo Ran in which he plays as a bassist; it all sounds pretty interesting and maybe we’ll get the chance to show it on Animation Night before long.

Anyway, Cromartie High School would later receive a film adaptation directed by Yūdai Yamaguchi in 2005, which is what we have tonight...

This one also has some fascinating details about its production:

Director Yamaguchi has said that the author of the original manga, Eiji Nonaka told him to "Do whatever you want" when he learned that a film was to be made of the manga. Yamaguchi took him at his word and did not read the manga or look at the anime version before directing his film. Because of the episodic nature of the original manga, the screenplay took a year and a half to write.[1]

In Yamaguchi’s hands, the film becomes essentially a series of parody skits crossing a range of genres. Critics mostly seemed to praise it at the time, although they found the sheer breadth left it seeming a bit aimless. Whether it works now? We’ll soon find out, I suppose! At least this will probably explain why gorillas are such a theme in comedy manga?

Next up we have... JoJo!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a sprawling manga drawn since 1987 by Hirohiko Araki; one of the real core long running mangas in first Weekly Shōnen Jump and then the seinen magazine Ultra Jump, accumulating over 120 million sales in the meantime.

To try and deliver full context for it would be a fairly overwhelming task at this point, and will have to wait for a future animation night. But it might be best understood in terms of wrestling: a series of massive muscular guys with over the top characterisations strike dramatic poses based on fashion magazines, taking turns to invoke complicated, exaggerated powers to one-up each other.  If it sounds extremely gay, yes, it’s absolutely suffused with homeroticism, though rarely (ever?) actually drawing it out explicitly. (The girls of JoJo tend to get a pretty poor showing in earlier arcs, though I am led to understand that matters improve a lot later, and they get to have all the massive muscles and fashionable design and swagger and elaborately complicated powers that the guys do.)

It’s also marked by a fascination with the West; while only the first few chapters take place in England as far as I understand, allusions to Western culture (music, fashion etc.) crop up constantly, seen through the defamiliarising lens of a very impulsive westaboo.

The series jumps through a long series of time periods (so far nine of them), in each instance following a man from the Joestar family named something beginning with the syllable ‘Jo-’: Joseph, Jotaro, etc., and their long battle with an immortal villain Dio Brando. A huge part of the appeal is surely the artwork, with Araki’s talent for exaggeration and design often displayed in large, lavish splash panels, along with extensive use of stylised onomatopoeia (common in manga, but very developed in JoJo).

JoJo has received adaptation twice; first an OVA series in 1993-4 and 2000-2002, which adapted one of the more popular story arcs; then a long series of TV anime series by David Production which began in 2012 tackling the entire work from the beginning. I don’t know the ins and outs of this, but there’s a fantastic article on Sakugabooru tracking the evolution in direction style and the different staff who worked on this mammoth project.

David Production’s approach is unusual, heavily emphasising the manga origin through its graphical elements - the onscreen onomatopoeia, screentone effects, and highly stylised saturated colours giving it a completely unique look among TV anime. Even if you don’t have much interest in the story of Jojo, David Production’s CGI OPs are worth a look just for the sheer cinematographical wizardry on display. It is a perfect fit for the content and, naturally, has become a massive hit for the small studio, which continues to lavish all attention on it.

However, that’s not the subject for tonight! Instead we’re going to look at that time Takashi Miike took on the series in live action. Miike you may remember from Toku Tuesday 7 (Zebraman), Toku Tuesday 11 (Yakuza Apocalypse) and Toku Tuesday 14 (Happiness of the Katakuris) - but we have barely scratched his enormous filmography. He may well be a good fit for JoJo given that it’s, well, quite a gory and chaotic series... but we shall see! Here’s the trailer

Finally, we have the adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist. FMA is another one of those ‘household name’ manga, Hiromu Arakawa (荒川 弘)’s story of state power and genocide as ultimately resisted by superpowered alchemists more or less complicit in its workings. Following two alchemy-prodigy brothers who failed to resurrect their mother at catastrophic cost, and then found themselves recruited by the pseudo-germanic fascist state that is secretly a massive project to sacrifice the entire population of a country in a huge alchemical ritual, it strikes a compelling blend of character drama, humour and action, and satisfyingly ties together its alchemical themes in the finale, even if what it has to say about militarism and fascism feels kind of underdeveloped.

This received two adaptations, both by Bones. The 2003 adaptation ran out of material while the manga was still running and wrote its own ending, which is generally regarded as unsatisfying; it goes fascinatingly off the rails though with a movie sequel where the characters somehow find themselves transported into real life Germany. The second adaptation in 2009, subtitled Brotherhood in the international release (but simply called 鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST at home), followed the story of the manga much more faithfully, and generally completely overshadowed the first by virtue of some truly masterful animation by legends such as Yoshimichi Kameda; the scene in which Roy Mustang burns the homunculus Lust with his terrible-secret fire powers is definitely one of my ‘sakuga awakenings’ for the sheer intensity and horror that Kameda is able to convey...

...anyway, Fumihiko Sori came along and decided to make a similarly faithful live adaptation; the project was conceived in 2013, but production was delayed until 2016 due to the vast amount of CGI shots necessary (since one of the main characters, Alphonse, would be entirely CGI). I have trouble working out exactly where the funding came from; the film was distributed in Japan by Warner Bros and internationally by Netflix, but the production company is listed as Square Enix, with a house called Oxybot providing the VFX. Regardless; it finally landed in 2017, to broadly mixed reviews.

Given that it has to compete with an exceptional anime by Bones at the top of their game, it’s hard to imagine this film can really live up to its predecessor - but I think it might be interesting to see a different take on the story in a more compressed format, and especially, as an illustration of how ‘more realistic’ or more elaborate CG animation often does not mean artistically better; the trailer is full of slow-mo shots which, despite being so much more expensive and stacking so many more layers of debris and similar, frequently lack the impact of the cel animation. Have a look:

Still, we’ve acquired this one, and I’m curious to see it, even if it turns out only to be an object lesson in the ways filmmaking has gone terribly wrong in the last decade.

That’s all I have for you right now in terms of production details; we’ll roll the movies very shortly so please tune your sets to twitch.tv/canmom!

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 28- In Shadow

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

Returning to his hometown, Etho hs to balance his past with his present, as well as keep Keralis and Grian from embarrassing him in from of his old teacher and town. 

_______________________________

Etho always thought he was a handful- he may act mature, but his mind is full of mischief that would make even a criminal stumble. But dragging Keralis and Grian through the misty swamps of his home, he realizes there are more ways than one to cause trouble. 

Keralis goes sloshing away, swallowed up by the fog. The only way Etho knows he still exists is by the loud splash of the bug wizard, followed by a string of curses in his thick accent. Keralis returns to Etho’s side, wrestling a stag beetle and cooing at how lovely it looks. 

Grian on the other hand, Etho couldn’t get to shut up. “I think I have half the swamp in my boots.” 

“You could just fly.” Etho points out. 

“But I can’t see anything!” Grian’s whine echoes through the thick copse of trees, bouncing off submerged ferns and aged wood. “How do you even know where you’re going?” 

“Secret ninja techniques.” Etho muses, following the trail at his feet. Beneath the water, he can feel ridges carved into the stone, under the silt. Guiding him to his hometown. 

Keralis’s eyes get wider than usual at the sound of a branch snapping in the distance. He whips his head around, pulling on his hat and brushing closer to Etho. “Are you sure we’re alone?”

“We’re not.” Etho grins. Both Grian and Keralis whimper, searching the fog like they’re trying to see a ghost. They might as well be. “The town knows we’re coming. They’ve already seen us, even if we haven’t seen them.” 

“Ninjas.” Grian whispers. The trio continues in silence, or at least as silent as Grian and Keralis can be, sludging through the swamp. Grian chatters with himself and the bug wizard, his voice bouncing up cypress trees as tall as towers, clambering over the roots. He gets a foot tangled in the submerged vines, and goes headfirst into the slow moving brown water with a yelp. “Etho, when the hell are we going to get to this town? I haven’t seen any signs that we’re even close.” 

“Ah, yeah. I haven’t seen a spot of dry ground this whole time.” Keralis adds. “Are they on stilts? How does a town like that stay out of the swamp?” 

Etho feels the carved markings beneath his feet turn into a radiating circle, like a ripple across the surface. He stops, grabbing Keralis and Grian, a grin appearing on his unmasked face. “We’re here.” 

Grian turns around in a full circle, looking at the copse of trees. “Uhhh, are you okay Etho? This looks the same as every other part of the swamp.”

“Maybe it’s hidden in the fog? Fog magic?” Keralis waves his arms around as if he’s attempting to feel around in the dark. 

Etho leans against a root, grinning. “Try looking up.” 

Grian does so, and gasps. 

Above their head, a town hovers over them. Lantern lights split through the fog, unveiling themselves like a stage curtain, warm yellow glows dancing off the wood and paper. Beneath the strung lantern lights, dancing will-o-the-wisps above their heads, bridges of plank and rope connect tree to tree and guide the townsfolk across the swamp without making a sound. 

The fog continues to disappear, and the town of Shellor unmasks in ripples. Homes and businesses nestled in the massive trunks of the trees or perched on the expansive branches, the open air filtering the earth and water tone of the swamp air through bars, abodes, shops, and shrines. For a second, Grian wishes Mumbo was here to rant about the engineering marvel above his head. How much time it must’ve taken to build a town in the sky, where they even get the fire from, and hidden out of sight, out of sound. He never even realized they were walking beneath it. 

“How...how do we get up there?” Keralis tips his head, holding onto his hat so it doesn’t slip off. 

“Normally, adults can just climb up ourselves.” Etho launches from the root, grabbing hold of a branch and swinging himself up, higher and higher. “And Grian can fly, obviously. But- I’ll grab the basket.” 

“Basket?” Keralis watches the two disappear among the intertwining bridges. A second later, something is dropping back to the ground. It’s not a basket he thought it would be. It’s a lift of sorts. The wood floats like driftwood on the murky swamp water, the walls opening to invite Keralis in. He clambers on the wood panel, surprised to find that the weight hardly even shifts. Even when the walls pull back up around him and the basket starts to rise, he feels like he’s on solid ground. It’s the smoothest lift he’s even been on, something that would put Darlon to shame. 

Etho and Grian have their heads poking over the railing as Keralis rises up. “A pretty neat invention, huh?” Etho laughs, running a finger along the rope, watching the pulley system release the weight a distance away. “It’s not used often anymore, really just for when kids need to get down, supplies, the like.” 

Keralis stumbles onto the bridge. The warm glow of lantern light invites him deeper into Shellor, and the scent of food makes his stomach growl. Spices that dance with the mist, a warm rumble of quiet laughter from the nearby restaurant. But everyone’s movements are lithe and silent, even if their talking isn’t. Everyone in the town walks without a sound, like cats stalking their prey. Exactly how Etho walks, constantly spooking Keralis when he’s in the middle of reading or baking. 

It quiets down, and even Etho pauses. Grian and Keralis turn around, surprised to find Etho prostrating before a shrine. They never took him to be the god-worshipping kind. But they sit down next to him, looking at the shrine. It’s made of stone- how that got up here, neither of them can guess. Lanterns are kept aglow and the crescent shaped bowl protected with a carved wooden gazebo. After a few moments, Etho speaks. “Manys, god of the moon. Patron to Shellor, teacher to the art of stealth. I remember my first lesson to harness my power was to watch the full moonlight travel across the swampwater. Silent, but present.” 

“Is that how you learned to be a shadow ninja?” Keralis whispers while Grian lights a dying candle. 

“Nope.” Etho chuckles. “I definitely took a more...physical approach.” 

“Etho!” All three hermits stiffen at the shrill shriek of the shop owner a few bridges down. “I knew you’d come back! Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about all that candy you stole!” 

“Ah, that’s what you mean.” Grian muses, watching as Etho is given an earful by the man. It’s the first time Keralis and Grian have ever seen Etho embarrassed, the pale skin under his white hair blushing red, his hand rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Mr. Toku, I think Etho has heard well enough.” A warm voice, quiet but persistent, cuts through the berating tirade. Before her first syllable was uttered, Keralis and Grian knew this was someone of importance. An unusual sense of raging peace, like sitting next to a swollen waterfall in the middle of a forest, exudes from the woman like an aura. She turns, and immediately sweeps Etho into a hug. “It is good to have you home, my pupil.” 

“Hello Reverent Nama.” Etho squeaks, hardly able to breathe against such a tight hug. A weak smile appears on his face, the one person he missed most when he left being his teacher, the head monk of Shellor. Nama. He doesn’t even remember her real name, he’s always called her Nama. 

“Look at you, so tall! You grew like a shoot, Etho.” She grabs his cheek, looking at the scars on his face. “I still remember the day your magic first showed itself. Have you been using my teachings, anak ko?” 

“Nama, I remember it all. But you know me.” He offers a sly grin, but nods silently. “I still like to watch the moon, though.” 

“The best teacher, and the mother always with you.” Nama’s voice dips into a lower octave at her sagely advice, before rising back up as a smile creases her warm, deep toned skin. “But you must be starving, walking through the swamp. Come, bring your friends.” 

She waves her hands, blue and white robes beckoning the weary travelers deeper into the town. A glint of lantern light catches Grian’s attention, and his eyes go as wide as saucers at the sight before him. The biggest gong he’s ever seen in his life. Taller than Grian, even with his wings stretched high above his head, the silver metal glimmering like the moon at the center of the town. Archways decorate and dance around the massive instrument. Grian’s drawn to the gong like a moth to the flame. 

Only to be thwarted by Etho. He grabs Grian by the collar, dragging him back in line with Reverent Nama and the other monks. Keralis giggles and teases Grian even as they enter the raised, thatched house. Bowed roofs similar to the arches and pagodas they saw before protect angular, woven walls and open windows. The swamp breeze filters through the mat-strewn floor as Nama opens the sliding door. Nama disappears into an upper level, before returning with a steaming teapot and five different plates of food. The boys sit at the low table, suddenly alone with the leader of Shellor. Silent as shadows, her peers had disappeared. Like ninjas. “I assume this is not just a family visit.” 

“How did you know?” Keralis croons, sipping on the warm tea poured before him. His eyes light up at the fried, wrapped treat set on his plate. His massive bug eyes only unnerve Nama, repositioning in her seat at the sight of such strange friends Etho brought. 

“Etho isn’t exactly the visiting kind. A practical pupil, even to the day he left.” 

“Nama, you of all people know how to gather information. You see what the moon sees.” She nods at Etho’s words. It’s not hyperbole- it’s her magic. “Surely you have information about husk monsters attacking all over Lairyon.” 

“Why does that interest you, Etho?” Nama gazes over the rim of her teacup.

“We intend to stop it.” Grian states, flat and plain. Etho seethes, sending imaginary daggers at the blond angel before him. He needs to be more subtle than that! 

“Finally, someone to take up the mantle.” She responds. “I have heard worrisome things, are you three sure you can handle such a task?” When all of them nod, she continues. “Then you need to start here- husks have been attempting to enter Shellor for the past few days. They have broken through our mist barrier, but have been unable to reach the town. I do not think they will stop trying until they reach the bridges.”

“They want to steal your magic, your power. They’ll kill you all.” Etho growls. 

“Exactly as what my informants told me. Do you boys think you could defeat an army of mindless creatures?” She pauses, looking at their faces. Seeing the glint in their eyes and knowing. “Excuse me, I have underestimated you. It seems you have already done so before.” 

“We’ll need more than just your information, Reverent Nama. We need supplies, tools of stealth that only Shellor can create. We need to use every advantage we can find to stop these husks. To stop-”

“To stop Magistrate Dolios, yes.” Nama nods, a growl breaking through her neutral expression. “Whatever you and your friends need, I will be happy to give. But for now, eat! Tell me, anak ko, who are your friends here.” She leans over to Etho. “Is the one with the large eyes okay? Is he some sort of hybrid?” 

Etho chuckles, and welcomes the warm food of home into his body. He missed the taste of good palabok, wishing at least one other hermit could cook his hometown’s food like Nama could. He introduces Keralis, quickly explaining his magic, then moving onto Grian. Even Nama, in all her wise counselling, was shocked to learn he was an angel mage. She knew they existed, beneath the watchful eyes of the moon, but to see one in front of her? And in a guild as wayward as Etho describes? 

Their plates are filled as fast as they’re emptied, food appearing out of what felt like nowhere. Etho smiles as he hears laughter rise from his friends and teacher. He left Shellor because he felt restrained. But to be home? It felt freeing, now that he’s an adult. Now that he has his guild, he feels more connected to here than ever before. They continue talking well into the night, until the fog fades and the moon observes the quiet swamp. 

Nama closes her eyes, falling into a quiet meditation at the dinner table. But when her eyes open, it’s anything but calm. She rises so fast her knees almost spill the table over, robes fluttering like leaves in the wind. “They’re here. Oh gods, they’re already at the barrier.

“You wanted lessons in stealth? Well, lesson number one- don’t let your enemy see you.” Nama motions for another monk, and he casts his magic circle. In one deep breath, he inhales the magic. And a gust of wind from his lips blows out every single candle. Only the full moonlight bears illumination upon the town. 

And the distant crack of lightning, an ashen storm visible through the spindly cypress trees.

Townsfolk shuffle in the dark, accustomed but alarmed. Night is when Shellor is most alive, lanterns lit and moon in full view. Nama sends her monks to scout ahead, to be the first line of defense, before marching towards the center of town. 

Towards the gong. It reflects the moonlight, blue luminescence titillating across the silver instrument. A mallet the length of Nama’s arm is plucked from the arch, but she pauses. Looking over her shoulder, she sees Etho practically holding Grian back, the angle bouncing in his boots. Like so many of her other pupils, and who is she to deny him something so exciting? She hands the mallet into Grian’s hand. He wastes no time putting it to work. With wings unfurling and hovering at the center of the circle. One mighty reel backwards, he swings. The mallet strikes the metal, and both Grian and the gong reverberate in response. A low, loud ringing warns the entire town they’re under attack. Grian still feels the sensation of the strike in his arms even after he lands. 

“The husks aren’t after anything in particular- they just want as much magic as possible.” Etho warns, pulling free his kusarigama, watching the darkness. In the distance, a blood curdling howl of a banshee turns even his blood cold. He doesn’t want to face that beast on good terms, much less a creepy husk version. 

“How can you stop them?” Nama questions, dipping her arms into her robes. She doesn’t need a weapon to be dangerous. 

“There’s no crystal.” Keralis warns. “But there is a darkness storm.” He points to the distant canopy, black clouds roiling across the sky. 

“We just have to defeat them. One by one, it will weaken the storm and purge the land of their presence.” Grian flutters over the side of the bridge, looking down. Below, among the swamp water and cypress roots, monsters and mages scrabble up the aged cypress wood. Throwing themselves higher and higher, unlike Etho’s smooth agility to the town. “No matter what, don’t let your fighters get caught by the husks. They’ll turn into one.” 

“Stealth is our trade, angel.” Nama hums, arm reappearing and offering up supplies to the trio. Smoke bombs, firecrackers, magical climbing gear for Keralis, an enchanted mirror to Grian. “We shall do our best, but you three are clearly the masters in this battle.” 

Nama steps back, and bows. Pride swells in Etho’s chest, almost causing him to tear up. If he didn’t hear the snarls of darkness consumed being of pure anger, hatred, and power, he probably would’ve. He’s never seen Reverent Nama bow to anyone else before. 

And then she’s gone. Disappearing among her robes, the hermits next see her down at the roots. Battling with a cold rage, like sunlight reflecting off the moon. Etho hands a few smoke bombs to his friends, grinning. “Let’s raise hell, shall we?”

[bobauthorman]

Remember Kinnikuman, that over-the-top wrestling anime and manga, with outrageous character designs? Well, it wasn’t always about wrestling. In fact, the series started out as a mock-up of toku superheroes, with Kinnikuman recognized in-universe as a poor man’s Ultraman. In the first chapter, the Earth Defense Force learn that monsters from space are going to invade Japan, but all of the competent heroes are either sick, on vacation, or otherwise busy. With no other options, they turn to Kinnikuman to save the day. The rest of the chapter is Kin being a goofy blowhard and showoff, bragging about his strength while looking absolutely ridiculous. Of course, no one believes he can really do it, so the Japanese people make a good exit stage-right when they learn that Kin’s their only hope. Ironically, his presence does save the day, kinda...

[partlysmith]

I think more people need to talk about the hypocrisy of western superhero denouncing tokusatsu/kaiju as “too silly.”

It seems like when the average western “nerd” thinks of toku, they’re largely only familiar with the Showa era and denounce the campy writing and dated effect of the time, and somehow feel that’s fair to compare it with the current state of the superhero genre as the mainstream blockbuster that it is.

But keep in mind, this-

came out the same year as this:

And yes, there is something inherently ridiculous about both genres. These are stories that involve a giant lizard wrestling with other giant monsters, and a man dressed as a bat caught in mind games with a clown. But they’ve still managed to inspire legacies of deeper, more complex stories that are still entertaining on a purely frivolous surface level.

I don’t see how someone can turn their nose up at something like this

and not realize that it fits the same niche as this:

In the broad strokes, they’re both silly -maybe even kind of stupid- but they’re both presented with such sincerity that the audience is still expected to become genuinely emotionally invested in them with little to no irony.

While I have mixed feeling about the MCU, I’m glad that they’re bringing the weirdness of comic book deeplore to the mainstream. It feels like we’re gradually chipping away at western fictions’s extremely rigid “realism better” mindset. I’ve also noticed toku becoming more popular in recent years, which I hope will help broaden people’s horizons.

this is kinda rambly and i don’t really know how to end this post, so, uh...... give me money

[tracingdreams]

“Zettai Nakasu” (I’ll definitely make them cry) - Translation: Part II

Miyuki/Kuramochi Unofficial Fanbook (Doujin) (2015 PIXIV/Kinakorondo)

Disclaimer: Translation and thus all errors are my own. I do not have the capacity to scan the pages without damaging the book. I will include occasional images where I can get them to work, but this is a text translation.

This doujin translation and content is safe for work.

It is chiefly Kuramochi Miyuki but it is a shade bittersweet and also includes hints of Kuramochi Ryousuke, Miyuki-Chris and even maybe Chris-Sawamura vibes in it. 

Part II

Back in the middle school Edogawa Dragon days.  Miyuki returns home from practice in his uniform.

“I’m home!” he calls out, but there is no response. He turns on the light, and heads up to change into his casual clothes. He cooks his meal, turns on the television and sits down at the table to eat. The television commentary echoes into the room.

“And the game enters the final moments. It’s the bottom of the ninth, with two outs. Will the game be decided on this one pitch? A moment of tension…”

His gaze is fixed on the screen as he eats.

Nighttime. It’s black outside and he draws the curtain.

“He’s late again tonight,” he reflects. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he yawns. He says ‘goodnight’ to himself, into the silent darkness.

I never once felt that I was lonely.

The twelve year old Miyuki at the table, slippers dangling from his feet, is now the second year in high school, pen in hand.

I’ll definitely make them/you cry. (Note: This could equally mean, “They’ll/You’ll definitely make me cry” and “He’ll definitely make you cry” and any other possible combination of pronouns…because Japanese doesn’t require them to be stated. Deliberately ambiguous, this is also the title of the doujin)

“What are you drinking?” he asks Kuramochi, seeing him with a carton in hand, straw in mouth.

“Cola flavoured milk.” Came the reply.

Kuramochi’s in a good mood today. How good a mood?

Kuramochi eyes Miyuki pensively, then asks,

“Do you want some?” He grins, a big smile that reveals fang teeth. “I’ll give it to you!”

That good a mood.

I understand the reason only too well.

In the last game, he was praised by Ryou-san. (Even though right after that he got a ton of criticisms as well).

Kuramochi is shown talking to Ryousuke. Ryousuke’s face is hidden, but Kuramochi is all sparkles and smiles.

“It probably tastes horrible,” Miyuki says out loud. Kuramochi dumps the carton on his head.

“Shut up,” he shoots back.

“Don’t use me as a rubbish bin,” Miyuki objects. “What’s with that challenging spirit?”

“Well, I wanted to know,” Kuramochi replies. “Hey, you got praised as well, so be a bit happier about it, will you?”

“Of course I’m happy about it,” Miyuki answers. “Sawamura was also in good form, after all. But I need to play at that level as a matter of course.”

As the Captain. As the main catcher. As the fourth batter.

“Ah!” The carton falls off Miyuki’s head and onto the ground.

***

Room five. Sawamura is present, looking hugely emotional. His cheeks are red, his eyes wet with tears, his teeth gritted. Miyuki stands in the doorway, dressed in his tracksuit. His expression is troubled, then impassive.

“Tsk, that’s no good, Kuramochi-kun,” he says lightly. “Bullying your kouhai.”

“It’s not me!” Kuramochi is annoyed at this.

“What’s that?” Miyuki notices the books. “Manga?”

“Yes!” Sawamura announces. “A currently popular one! There’s even a movie!”

Kuramochi, still looking frustrated, grabs a towel and starts forcibly wiping Sawamura’s tears away.

“Are you his mother?” Miyuki asks.

“If he gets them dirty, I’m the one who Jun-san will kill!” Kuramochi exclaims.

The door of Room Five opens to reveal an angry looking Kanemaru, who enunciates Sawamura’s name ominously. Miyuki shoots him a startled look.

Ah-ah…

Kanemaru has plenty he wants to get off his chest.

“You idiot! Why are you sitting there reading manga?! You said you were studying for the test, didn’t you?!”

“I’m finishing, I’m finishing!” Sawamura protests hastily.

“When you’ve finished with the revision stuff, then you can read it!” Kanemaru is unamused. “The next time you do this, I’ll give you manga spoilers!”

“What kind of evil demon are you?!” Sawamura is horrified. Toujou pokes a smiling head around the door.

“Sorry for the disturbance!” he chirps cheerily.

Sawamura is taken away, and the door shuts behind them. Kuramochi and Miyuki are left alone in the room.

“They’re energetic,” Miyuki observes.

“You don’t really seem to be, though,” Kuramochi remarks in return. “You came to ask me about the test subjects, right?” He taps Miyuki on the head with his textbook. “The next time you sleep in class, I won’t tell you.”

His back is to Miyuki, who clutches the book tightly. Still without turning around, Kuramochi adds,

“You’re clearly still thinking about a bunch of stuff, but right now you need to just heal up your body.”

“You’re being too nice to me, it’s kind of scary,” Miyuki replies.

There’s nothing amazing about it or anything. I just pushed myself that far for the sake of my own selfish desires. I wasn’t able to think about doing it for the team, or about being Captain, or even thinking about how all of you felt. I thought that, for my own sake, if I trampled on the concern all of you felt for me it didn’t matter. I certainly wouldn’t have given up that place…even though to achieve that dream, I needed all of you as well.

But no matter what, I couldn’t stop myself.

“It’s not that,” Kuramochi replies. “I still don’t know myself if that was the right call.”

He still has his back to Miyuki.

“I tried to think about a bunch of things – what was best for the team, your own feelings…but at the end of the day, I really just wanted to win with a Seidou team that included you. So when you were able to keep standing there, I was happy. Even though I had no idea how much worse your injury could get from continuing to play…”

“The same is true for me,” Miyuki replies.

Please don’t lump us together like that so easily.

“Sorry for not stopping you.” Now Kuramochi turns. “The next time it happens, don’t hide it, okay?! You’re so annoying.”

“I get it, already!” Miyuki beams at him. He recalls that hand being placed on his head, and adds, “I’m used to doing stuff by myself, after all.”

“In that case, you need to get used to this,” Kuramochi grabs Miyuki by the lapels of his shirt. “To the fact the rest of us are here with you, too.” He looks serious. “Me, Zono. Don’t think you just have to do it and it can’t be helped. Although being you, I knew you would do it.” The shot pans out, showing them facing each other, both huddled on their knees.

“It’s annoying but the rest of us can’t get by any more without you.”

He gets to his feet.

“Right, I’m going to return this (manga volume).”

“Right now?”

“Well, it seems as though he wants it back soon, so…”

Kuramochi leaves, and Miyuki is alone in the silence of room five.

I never once thought of myself as being lonely.

“It’s really quiet…” he reflects. He looks around the room. “Seems like he’s added some more new games.” He starts poking through Kuramochi’s stuff, and finds an old magazine. “This one’s pretty old…”

He shivers.

“It’s cold in here.”

He glances around him, seeing a blanket on the floor, which he grabs with both hands and pulls towards him.

“Just what I need right now.”

He wraps it around himself.

“I’m sure this is Kuramochi’s…”

A flashback memory darts into his head, of banter between the two of them.

“That thing’s so old and ratty it’s falling apart,” he had teased, and Kuramochi, blanket defiantly over his shoulders, had retorted, “Does it matter? I feel relaxed with it!”

Miyuki eyes the blanket.

“He said he brought it with him from home, I think.”

He reflects on his conversation with Kuramochi. Kuramochi is shown, smiling and sparkly.

“I’ll never forget being praised today!” he announces, and Miyuki thinks this over.

If Kuramochi says that, probably, he won’t ever forget it.

Kuramochi has a ton of things he likes.

There is an image of Kuramochi, surrounded by an array of things – food, games, television, books, baseball, and his teammates; the image shows Ryousuke, Eijun and Jun.

I’m a little jealous of how he can add to those things and treasure them so much.

The panel changes to a big empty one of Miyuki sitting, wrapped in Kuramochi’s blanket, surrounded by grey. An inset shows a young Miyuki, alone, peering out of the window of his apartment, presumably down to the steel workshop and Toku below.

The door of the room opens and Kuramochi returns. He’s surprised.

“Oh! You’re still here.”

“Still? Seriously, you. Sawamura’s not here either, I didn’t want to just leave the door open like that with nobody else here.” Miyuki replies, still wrapped in the blanket.

“Right. Well done, taking care of things in my absence,” Kuramochi rubs his hand over Miyuki’s head playfully. “I’m back now.”

“Welcome back,” Miyuki answers him. “Did you go borrow another volume?”

They are wrestling over the blanket, Kuramochi wanting to retrieve it and Miyuki wanting to keep hold of it. Kuramochi demanding he give it back, and Miyuki not yielding.

“The next volume,” Kuramochi replies at length. “Why don’t you read it?”

“No. To begin with, that’s a middle volume. And I’m not interested. Not in shoujo manga.”

Kuramochi still has his hand on the blanket. He fixes Miyuki with a look, then,

“It’s because you’re like that that you make the girls cry, you know.”

Miyuki is taken aback. “Wha? Why do you say something like that now?”

In his moment of distraction, Kuramochi pounces and takes back the blanket. Miyuki protests, “unfair!”. Unrepentantly, Kuramochi reminds him that it’s his blanket in the first place.

“You poor thing.”

“Hey, that’s pretty merciless…”

There are some images of Miyuki in flashback, over which he explains,

“The thing is that I played baseball because it was fun, right from the start. But right now it’s even more fun. Well, because of that, in the past, I got scolded because I only played baseball and did nothing else but that.”

“So that’s why you strike out with the girls.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Stupid.”

“So are you, most of the time.” Comes Miyuki’s retort.

“Hey!” Kuramochi is annoyed. “That’s not what I meant! The girls! I meant the girls!”

He glances down at the manga.

“Those are your good points, after all.”

Miyuki looks at him. Kuramochi is reflected in the lens of Miyuki’s glasses.

“Well, it is pretty much your only point as well.” Kuramochi adds.

“Hey!”

Nevertheless…if for some reason, baseball was to disappear from me…I feel like you’d still call my name in exactly the same way as you do now.

An image of Kuramochi, calling Miyuki’s name, follows.

Maybe that’s just my wishful thinking, though.

Out loud Miyuki says, “Hey, Kuramochi…? Did you ever have a girlfriend…?”

There is a moment of awkward silence between them. Miyuki looks at Kuramochi, then retreats, as though he’s suddenly realised he’s hit a sore point.

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

Kuramochi slams shut the manga volume, looking angry. He clenches his fist.

“I swear, if I don’t make you cry at least once, I really won’t be satisfied…” he growls.

“Take care of the things you borrowed!” Miyuki chirps in a quiet voice. He tries to back away as Kuramochi grabs his baseball bat, letting out a squeal. “Hey, I’m against violence!”

“Don’t be stupid,” Kuramochi has the bat in one hand, and he pushes open the bedroom door. “I’m just going down to do some private practice. I’m going to lock the door, though, of the bedroom.”

“Hey! I’ll come down with you!” Miyuki decides. Kuramochi fixes him with a look, as he’s still injured.

“You…”

“I’ll just watch! I’ll just watch!” Miyuki says hurriedly.

“I guess you’re restless,” Kuramochi thinks.

They head out. It’s cold enough to turn breath to clouds of condensation. Kuramochi shivers.

“It’s cold,” he says.

“It’s winter,” Miyuki replies.

“And when you mention winter,” Kuramochi began.

“The winter training camp,” Miyuki finished.

“Scary! Don’t! It’s already pointlessly cold!” Kuramochi protests.

Miyuki let out his breath in a rush, and a cloud of white air comes from his lips.

You shouldn’t underestimate the ability to make this baseball idiot cry.

There’s an image of Koushien stadium.

All we can do now is go there.

The panels show the members of the team. Eijun yelling, and Kanemaru in pursuit. Haruichi practicing with Zono. Asou with Seki and Higasa. Then them all gathered around Miyuki, Zono looking stern, Miyuki grinning, an arm around Sawamura’s shoulders.

Until I reach the top with these guys, I’ll definitely make them cry.

To be continued...

[spankzilla85]

UPDATE from a Japanese friend who wishes to remain anonymous. They noted that the interpretation of the text missed a lot of nuance in the translation, and was likely made with an internet translator.

“Hi Mr. Frank,

Long Version: Seshita doesn't say Toho told them it was not to be about kaiju fights. He said Toho told them "No Monster Professional Wrestling". Professional Wrestling is specifically cited. So Toho was basically telling them 'don't have goofy extended Showa era fights' (like the ones in the 70's).

This is just background, not in the interview. Toho has wanted to make Goji more serious for years, they really tried to distance from comical 60's-70's Godzilla and bring in more women and children during the Versus series of films in the 80's-90's. With Shin Godzilla's success they saw how big the audience could get by not just appealing to the 'traditionalist/Goji-Oji' crowd who just wanted giant monster fights. People who watch anime here and particularly women generally want the human characters to be the focus, and that is what they did, and it worked to expand the audience. People who point out that the anime films are low-grossing forget that they have had extremely limited engagements (similar to how Shin Godzilla and the Batman animated films were released to theaters in the USA), not a general release because of the deal with Netflix. So they are expanding their fanbase and it is working, which will allow the Godzilla universe to thrive (until it becomes over saturated again). Could there ever have been a permanent Godzilla Store with satellite stores in the 90's? And if you look at their merchandise, most of it is geared towards women and children, not hardcore fans.

Shizuno had only seen two Godzilla movies, but it is not like he did not know toku-he was part of the directing team on Evangleion 1.0, after all. Seshita also mentions he TOLD Shizuno not to watch the rest of the Godzilla films before the project because he wanted that fresh viewpoint, and that includes the bit about 'does he need to exhale fire from his mouth'. Of course, Shin did the same thing. So people who want to blame everything they complain about on Shizuno for being a non-fan are incorrect.

The bits about how Seshita and Urobuchi wanted a 30 minutes fight between Godzilla and a 1 KM MechaG, MechaG turret heads, and Exifs wearing sunglasses and being thwarted by Shizuno were all punctuated by laughter. They're basically just kidding around and giving each other a hard time, they were never really seriously considered (except for maybe the sunglasses). Your typical 'how cool that would be to see as a fan even if it does not fit with the film' thing. The laugh that Shizuno gave them a look like Buddha when they mentioned it. They point out that having the Exifs wear sunglasses would have turned female fans away form them (my note here, female fans like to see eyes in their characters, characters that wear sunglasses are deemed suspect and associated with Yakuza). They do this on the director commentary track for the Blu-ray, just clowning and kidding with each other.

So all in all, Toho just wanted a more serious tone for the film that would continue to broaden the fan base in Japan like Shin did to great success. All three of the parties (Shizuno, Seshita, and Urobuchi) were happy to oblige. Like Mr. Derendorf stated, Urobuchi in the program states that he wanted to bring it back to the spirit of 1954, where it was about the characters, and one of them in the anime makes a sacrifice akin to Serizawa-sensei's in 1954.”