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maikatc · 5 years ago

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Black Sun Tale | Ten Dollars

alright, here we go y’all

remember that this is a first draft and i’ve only barely edited it, but comments and reception is heavily appreciated!

(also @rhyseoshaughnessy because they said to) --- There is always a time in someone’s life that’s the lowest, it’s a given. Those who break down from their faults and failures, ones who are toyed with to the point of numbness, the occurrences are common to an individual’s extent.

However, ultimately the question is how to break away from the cycles, and it takes lifetimes for some to realize.

It all boils down to the differences in people and what they want to achieve in the end. Though for some that desire is left unknown, or they were left with no certain answers, including Oliver Holguin.

The day lengthened in time for Oliver by the early morning as per usual. His tired eyes slowly waking as he played through repeated melodies. Practicing throughout the nights, the song ringing out from the ukulele was beautiful to the ears. And as he continued onwards, his sight began to lighten up the bedroom.

“As lovely as you are, I will have to go,” He sang with whispers tickling his throat. His bed-hair blocked him from catching somebody in the corner of his eyes, though the light greeted him with a shelf of books and a tablet on a nightstand instead of the man.

The complicated tabs and chords flew by with his fingers. The ease of the song left him concluding his mastery. “I’m sorry to let you down.” He rung the last lyrics and strings leaving the room in echoing silence. Taking a moment of pause, he placed the ukulele back to the side. He stood up from his bed. His sore legs fumbled together to go and grab a charger. His tablet turned on to a low percentage once he connected the two together.

I need to stop using this at night, he thought while he searched for a tablature site. He pulled back his auburn bangs to read better, scrolling through lists of songs to learn. “… I need to find a new site too.” His voice croaked with soreness.

He sighed, letting the device charge. He stretched his joints in a yawn and walked out of his room. His left arm pounded asking for a scratch and reminded him to check the bathroom. The early morning traffic blasted noise through the apartment when he scavenged the cabinet filled with multiple vitamins and medicine.

His tiny arms tried to recognize the feeling of what he wanted, and he debated on just getting a stool considering his height. However, he finally reached what he was looking for and opened the cap.

Crap. The ointment cream container held almost nothing. “I have to get more before she finds out,” he muttered. His eyes stuck on the little bottle for seconds until putting it back in its place, ignoring his irritating arm, as well as his always ignored stomach.

***

Oliver sat on his living room couch, doodling on schoolwork and watching television. The velvet cushions pinched him by his skin in discomfort, though he’d been adjusted for years. Cartoons played on an overpriced T.V. as background noise with the occasional screech harming the boy’s ears. He worked with barely a care, only thinking once a question tugged his head hard. Eventually, to no avail he had to turn the entertainment off. What the hell is up with kid shows nowadays, he scowled.

Checking the clock, the arrows pointed to be ten in the morning. Oliver yawned. Twenty minutes of sleep couldn’t cope with boredom. However, from the amount of ‘good sleep’ he had gain from the past days, some rest could be assuring.

He laid down, resting his body to the cushions he sat on. His mind rang until it blurred, nothing will happen, right?

His heavy eyes shut in only half a second.

***

The sound of soft sizzles woke Oliver up. He rubbed his eyes, sitting up to see his mother standing in the kitchen across the room.

“Seems like you were tired?”

Smile, smile. “Yeah, I slept a little late last night by accident.” He scratched his head while forcing a chuckle.

She cut up vegetables from the counter, assuring him, “You know that’s alright. It wasn’t even a school night.”

The crunch of the plants getting cut up could be heard all the way from where Oliver’s mother stood. Oliver himself checked the time again to find the clock pointed only a half hour after five. Dear god that was a long time. “How come you came home early,” he irked.

“My last patient’s parents called in and said that she wouldn’t come today so my boss said I could take the rest of the day off. Hope she’s alright, though.” She placed her knife down to go and walked over to him.

“You’re talking about Lavinia, right?”

She sat with him. “Yeah, the one with her phone.”

Oliver eyed her, “Didn’t you say that she’s been starting to act weird?”

“Mhm…,” she drifted, “But you don’t have to worry about that,” she messed Oliver’s hair with her hands.

“Stop!” Oliver moved her hand away sluggishly, giving a warm smile to her satisfaction. Though her own chortles told him that he did all right.

She stood up again, shifting back to what she did prior. “So now that I’m back early, do you want to go somewhere?”

Oliver shrugged, “We can go out somewhere if you want, where do you wanna go?”

“Oliver, it’s your choice, not mine. Don’t you want to hang out with a friend from school?” She opened the refrigerator, taking out prepped meat. “Your teachers say you get along with them but you never mention anybody to me.”

“It’s fine, Mom. They’re just kind of…” He avoided her eyes, “people that I wouldn’t hang out with privately.” He tried to laugh it off though his mother’s eyes sent concern instead.

“Is this about Rowan and Ann? Because you know that that kind of stuff isn’t common-”

“Mom, that was three years ago, I barely remember it.” That’s a lie. “They aren’t the reason. Heck, I didn’t even get along with my class when I skipped a grade.”

“Well,” she placed the meat in a heated pan, “you’re almost eleven and you’re still cooped up in the house all the time.” The meat sizzled in the oil. The scent flowed through the air as they spoke.

“No, I’m not,” Oliver scoffs, “I go out to walk… sometimes at least.”

His mother clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “I have to check up on you more often.” Oliver’s eyes widened. “I’ll bring you somewhere later today after I get some paperwork done.”

The boy’s eyes lowered without facing her. “Thanks, but you really don’t have to bring down work. Uh, your patients really like you, don’t they?”

“But I should be taking care of my only kid, shouldn’t I-”

“They’ll miss you,” he interjected, squeezing his vocal tone to be reliable. “Besides, you can get more money to pay the mortgage here faster doing so.”

“Stop making smart words with me.” A click in the stove caught Oliver’s ears. “Anyways, food’s ready.”

After setting plates and utensils, they ate together in a plain table of shiny marble. The meat turned out to be pork chops, and the taste would have been mouthwatering.

“Ah, this came out perfectly. Hope you like it.” She beamed, taking another bite in the process.

Oliver cut off another piece, biting his lip. “Yeah, it’s great like always, Mom.”

“You really need to invite a friend over sometime,” she exclaimed. “It’s not fun only cooking for you and me.”

He looked down at the food, sighing, “No clue when that’ll happen.”

They went to venture through stores after lunch, only for Oliver asking to leave an hour in.

***

Oliver skimmed through video posts online, scrolling past multiple in his disinterest. Crying sweats sank through his skin, though he ignored the occasional occurrence. Chirps of his mother babbling at her friends’ calls echoed through the apartment like every other night while Oliver listened in the back of his head.

“No! Jamie, you’re getting the wrong idea,” she snorted. “He’ll bring someone home at some point… hopefully.” The sight of her crooked smile could be imagined by Oliver in a mere second.

The redhead placed his tablet to the side of his undone bed. A deep breath was enough to function himself, same went for staring at the dull ceiling.

His mind dimmed from his usual racing thoughts, taking time to go at a complete blank. His hearing and sight blurred spacing out. His eyes continued to close and open, the emptiness making it difficult to keep his eyes open wide. To stay awake, he raised his hand towards the ceiling, using any muscle he had to keep it up. The warm air of the heater blew against his arm and long-sleeve. With every joint and wrinkle on his fingers, all he could observe with thought was his skin, which had paled from his constant brown.

“Damn.” Oliver clenched his hand. The arm fell down as he hopped out of his bed to the rugged floor with his bare feet. The room was already heated for Oliver, though his decision was an exception to the discomfort. Picked up from an unused chair, the boy dressed himself in a crimson cardigan dangling down to his knees. As he fitted the oversized attire, he nabbed his tablet back to his hands and sat on the floor. “This’ll probably be better,” he slurred.

Reloading the site, a certain video caught Oliver’s eyes:

Alexa Katzmann Found Dead Indoors from Area Death. The thumbnail of news made Oliver’s eyes widen, his cold sweats rising as he clicked with doubt.

The reporter stated the repeated script about area deaths. Of course, nobody could find the real reason of the death like always. While the woman explained the exact story, the camera panned at the body. Alexa was about five as the news said, daughter of a celebrity, though they censored enough appropriately.

However, what played over Oliver’s screen made his heart beat faster, louder.

Alexa’s stomach had been ripped out, blood scattering all over against her clothes and pale skin. Everyone in the room stepped on the organs without realizing they were there. Nobody could see the same scene Oliver viewed.

He muttered to himself as the video continued to play, “No, no, no…” His breathing grew as his throat continued to burn from the air and panic.

“This is the first report where an area death has occurred indoors.” Stop saying anything. He stopped the video and tossed over his tablet as his mind raced for answers.

His scratched his arm over and over, his heart pounding over his ears to the point of needing to scream. “When?” He barely breathed out. “When did-? “

Oliver looked around his room. Now. He jumped at his ukulele case in a split second, unzipping it in barely any time. Fuck the ointment. He reached for an inner pocket, unzipping it until he heard a voice.

“You really do get scared quick, huh?” The voice stung obnoxiously, making Oliver pause and enter back to reality.

Oliver twisted his head, still shaking from the previous seconds. His mind already clicked together who it was, however. A taller figure stood right behind him, leaning against the wall with hands behind his back. The man’s messily styled hair and dirty trench coat brought more memory to who he was. The boy took a gulp before completely coming back to his senses.

“… Why are you here now, Vittorino?”

Vittorino shrugged, popping out of the wall and walking towards him. “I was bored. ‘Wanted to see what you were doing.” His dark eyes darted Oliver’s position. “I see you’re about to have fun,” he scoffed

“Shut up.” Oliver slammed his ukulele case shut. He crawled back over to his bed, turning back on his tablet and biting his lip. Of course, he’s here because of that.

Oliver continued to scroll around on his tablet, his heart still pounding loudly in his head. The screen grabbed Oliver’s attention completely.

“… You know,” Vittorino spoke after Oliver’s ignorance, “You really don’t ever go out.”

His smile could already be seen without looking. “And you mention this because?” Oliver sighed out, his head refusing to turn to Vittorino. He typed up a video to re-watch in attempt to distract himself later on.

“Because are you really going to be cooped up like some nobody?” His tone was readably different from previous conversations, from what Oliver noted. Expectations for what to come next jotted to more limited possibilities.

“It’s better like that.” No turn made again.

A grumble could be heard before a sudden, “Come on!” Vittorino appeared right to Oliver, the boy’s body flinched and turned in the process. “Enjoy life a little!”

Oliver’s shoulders lowered. “You’re being pretty persistent than normal.”

“Come on, Oliver.” Vittorino dug his hands to his pockets, a sly grin creeping through like always. “Let’s go. Just a walk with me is alright, right?”

Oliver’s eyes squinted, his mind boggling at the possibilities that could happen with the decision, considering the teen-nuisance that is Vittorino. “… Fine.” But just why would he want me to go, was the only question in his mind that moment.

After drudging out of bed and to the living room, Oliver told his mother that he was going off to a walk. Vittorino followed behind him but she made no comment, gladly telling Oliver goodbye without noticing the teen’s existence.

Obodo City was always a bustling mess.

The tourists running around, the teenagers crying over late trends and messages, the children hyper and shouting at the tall buildings and stores, even loud, annoying traffic that’s at a constant. Oliver paced through the sidewalks, crimson hood over his head as gusts of October winds blew before him. Buildings stood tall and jagged against each other that formed unimaginable shapes in the air. Balconies stood in neighboring apartments filled with laundry or autumn plants, some even blasting music while the owners took a cig. The sounds screamed at the boy’s ears while the scent of street food caught his nose easily. As Oliver’s instincts pressured him to take a bite of something, he refused, his teeth clawing at his lip.

“So,” Vittorino ignited the conversation, “How’s your day gone so far?” He took no look at Oliver and instead viewed the sites ahead, to Oliver’s bewilderment. The only thing up ahead were greyed alleys and crosswalks, similar to everything else in the city aside from the intense smoke in the area.

“… Have you been hungry lately?” The man snickered, snatching Oliver’s attention despite the rude comment.

“I just ate.” He stated, looking ahead himself, “The question wasn’t needed.”

“Just wondering,” Vittorino bent down to Oliver’s height, still walking, gleaming by Oliver’s sour expression.

Oliver’s sight of Vittorino disappeared as his figure jumped up in front of the boy in a blink. “You have to admit,” Vittorino said, wrapping a stop sign around his arm. “This city really is awesome to look around in, right?”

“I’ve been here for the past ten years of my life, Vittorino. Best that can happen is controversy protests and holiday decorations.”

“Really? What kind of stuff do you guys decorate?” Vittorino’s brows risen up, curiosity almost purring from him.

Oliver walked passed him as the crosswalk glowed green. A small crowd surrounded him as he shrugged. “Lights for the most part, nothing special.”

Vittorino appeared right next to him. “Sounds nice.”

Silence covered both of them. Oliver pondered over Vittorino’s past actions as Vittorino turned all over to view the sights of the city. Oliver followed him though the teen stared aimlessly at such miniscule of things. A tiny convenience store barely seen by a tall building and a worn-down restaurant included. Someone older than him being intrigued by such things made Oliver question his identity more than before.

Entering a cleaner street, Oliver queried, “Vittorino?”

“Hm?”

“What do you have to do with Faustus?”

The man with the trench coat stopped at his steps. Oliver took a gulp down his throat.

“Who’s Faustus,” he pondered.

“You know who I’m talking about,” Oliver spatters, “Emo kid, probably sixteen or something by now. Pale skin, white hair, blue eyes but he never shows one of them?”

“Oh! I know who you’re talking about now.” He sneered, “That isn’t actually his name, you know.”

“I figured,” Oliver murmured. “But aside from that, you have something to do with him, don’t you?”

“And what makes you think that?”

Oliver threw his hands forward. “Nobody except for me can see both of you! That’d be obvious enough.” He crossed his arms. “But you both are weirdos out of anybody that I’ve ever met.”

“That’s rather judgmental, isn’t it?”

“I’ve been trying to figure out who Zach is and where the hell he went since I was seven. I barely had any kind of way to figure out until you started popping up in my life.” Oliver’s unfastened hood flew out from the wind as he turned his sight to Vittorino’s eyes. He pleaded with brows furrowed, “Just tell me how you guys are related and why you both are really here in the first place.”

Vittorino’s mocking expression deepened. “Well, I guess I can admit one thing.”

“And that is…?”

“You can say that I’m hanging out with you for two favors,” He raised two fingers down to Oliver, lowering one quickly after, “but one of them is for ‘Faustus’.”

“What was the favor for?” Oliver’s head drifted to the side.

“One of them was more of an assignment out of anything, actually, but the other was so I could get some favors back.” Vittorino leaned by on a sign pole. “The one that wasn’t from the guy was basically just to check up on you from time to time. The assignment I can’t really tell. It’s about to be done though.”

“I swear to god, if you’re gonna screw me over somehow-”

“Don’t worry,” Vittorino rolled his eyes, “It’ll be beneficial for you.”

Oliver shook his head. “I don’t trust that at all.”

Vittorino chuckled and shrugged. “Fine then.” He stepped towards Oliver, slamming something to Oliver’s chest.

Oliver coughed at the impact, but caught the item he handed. He opened his hands to find a ten-dollar bill. Turning to see Vittorino, he already found the mystery to be walking away from him. He dashed to catch up with him. “Where’d you get this?”

“I asked a guy and he just gave it to me.”

“But nobody can see you…?”

Vittorino lifted a finger. “I can be seen if I want, I just usually hide myself for the sake of it.” He dumped his hands into his pockets. “You needed ointment, right?”

Oliver tensed. “Yes…” he nodded, guilt building up inside of him again.

“Go buy some then. Get extra stuff if you want,” Vittorino told. “Have fun, kid.”

He was gone before Oliver could say anything. The red-head was left alone in the street. He looked back to his hand, covered over by a single bill. Pulling up his sleeves, he stared blankly and sighed, a small puff of cold air seeping out of his breath.

“Might as well.”

Next >>>

#my writing #writing #writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #black sun tale #chapter 1 #gore warning #blood warning #implication of self harm #all are kinda minor but just pointing it out #bst oliver #bst vittorino #here we go yall

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starcloud-nova · 2 years ago

Video

Transcript:

“Hi, my name is Caroline and I usually do comedy. What I am about to share with you is not comedy, but it is incredibly important, and I beg you to stay.

Usually I make silly skits, and sometimes I use those skits to talk about issues that I think are important, and one of those issues is the protection and safety of kids on the internet, particularly kids that are being used in monetized channels.

A teen that has had their entire childhood monetized reached out to me and they told me to keep doing what I’m doing and they shared their story with me. What I’m about to share with you is an anonymous letter from a teen that has gone through all of the things that I’ve tried to bring awareness to and more. They are not in a position where it is currently safe to share their story publicly. But if you trust me, you will trust that I have verified that this is 100% real. Here we go.”

“To any parents that are considering starting a family vlog or monetizing your children’s lives on the public internet, here is my advice. You shouldn’t do it. Any money you get will be greatly overshadowed by years of suffering and very hard work for you and your child to keep up with trends and media, and if you do manage to do it, your child will never be normal.

You will be their boss and they will be your employee, which is a horrible relationship to have with your kid. It’ll be hard for them to go out in public without getting noticed, you’ll constantly be harassed by brands online and networks, and worst of all, your children will be sent inappropriate messages and videos. If they have over 100K subscribers, there will be some sick guy or girl out there who puts weird comments there. I know because it happens to me all the time. My parents show me these messages, some of them, but most of the time, I find them on my phone, and I have to sigh, screenshot them, and report them and turn off my phone.

Because I’m in too deep, there’s no going back now, and I never consented to being online. I wouldn’t have been able to anyway, I was 2 or 3 when I went viral for the first time and now there’s things I just can’t do. There are several things about me and my identity that the world isn’t allowed to know. Because I don’t choose what content my parents post. The channel isn’t mine. Again, they’re the boss and I’m the employee. I never signed a contract, but for some reason, through some stupid legal loopholes, this is legal, and I can’t escape.

No, I’ve never been hit, but my childhood came with its own trauma. I’ve been an employee since I was 5 and I hate it, so don’t do it. If you don’t regret it, then your kids will.

To any kids out there struggling like I am, hold on, keep pushing for getting off youtube. Never look up your name on any site, never look at comments, and if all else fails, perfect your thumbnail face and fake smile and start counting down the days until you leave. And to my parents, if they so happen to be out there and recognize me, I’m not sorry. I think I have the right to complain on the internet after you took my childhood away from me.

Love, your lovely child.”

This is hands down the most important video I’ve ever made. Please listen.

#tiktok #described

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raingoup · 3 years ago

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Rusty Seas

I came across a video on youtube by Queen Faith Official. Queen Faith is not a popular youtuber, but I very much appreciate the effort they put into showcasing so many different games that fall under the radar of mainstream gaming. Rusty Seas is one of those games that I want to talk about today.

Now admittedly, I only watched the video because the thumbnail had a cute wolf (?) girl, but after watching the entire video I had to play it myself. Rusty Seas is a beat em up where furry girls fight over salvage that could be treasure at a beach. The premise sounds ludicrous and niche and would never appeal to the masses. It's a good thing I'm a weirdo who likes unorthodox games.

I was surprised to find out that this is just a demo for a kickstarter and unfortunately it looks like it will not reach its goal for funding unless several dozen whales come out to support the project. All the more reason to compel me to write about this game.

There's a lot to like with the hour and a half runtime I spent with this demo. The graphics looks nicely drawn with its top-down 2d art style. This is especially helped by all the unique character designs that stands out from one another. It also helps a lot that my favorite design is Mirig, the playable character.

My two favorite characters here. Their banter always amuses me.

The music meshes exceptionally well with the beach setting. Apparently, the composer is the same person who worked on Freedom Planet. I never played that game, but I've heard nothing but good things about it and from what I heard in Rusty Seas has me interested in Freedom Planet.

The gameplay has a simple control scheme, however, there is deal of complexity involved. Even though I mentioned earlier that this is a beat em up, there's only two ways to directly attack opponents: hip check and throwing. Hip check is a great knockdown tool for close range, but there's a cooldown period so careful precision is needed, especially if there's numerous enemies in different directions. Throwing is self-explanatory, my favorite part of it is that even though items are littered far apart from each other it's possible to throw enemies at each other. There's no cooldown either so I can spam throws to my heart's content!

At first, I wasn't impressed with the stages. They were nice, albeit followed the same general strategy: throw exhausted enemies into the water and throw salvage into the boat, rinse and repeat until time runs out. That changed when I made it to the bosses. Those stages changed the formula enough to keep engagement fresh. There's even an "Advanced" difficulty version that further changes the boss fights in an interesting way. The pool stage also deserves special mention for being reminiscent of the chicken swarm from The Legend of Zelda as well as its unique "Advanced" version.

The story is… a bit silly at first glance. It reminds me of the Senran Kagura series where at its best titles are also really stupid at first only to pull some sudden dark themes towards the end; This game has the same potential for it. There's just a tiny bit of foreshadowing and background lore that has me intrigued for more. Or it really could just stay as a game where cute/sexy anthropomorphic ladies beat the crud out of each other over treasure and that's it, but the current state of the demo leads me to believe otherwise.

There's still so much for me to talk about but I'm doing my best not to outright spoil all the cool stuff. If what I wrote sounds neat to you, I implore you to check out its Kickstarter and support if it interests you and are able to afford it:

#rusty seas #video games #furry #kickstarter #demo

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frederator-studios · 7 years ago

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Meet D.R. Beitzel, Creator of “The Bagheads”

DR Beitzel is a cartoonist, creative producer, and Pennsylvania fellow living a NYC dream. His day job is playing video games in a Times Square skyscraper; his evenings are occupied writing funnies and drawing comics for the likes of MAD Magazine, McSweeneys, and his own Phatypus Comics. And like several of his idols before him - Matt Groening, anyone? - he’s now making the petite leap from comics to cartoons. His GO! Cartoon “The Bagheads” is a historically accurate depiction of trash take-out travails with former roommates and his competitive clashes with his older brother. He maintains that the Goat (”Goooat”) is its sole foray into the cartoonish make-believe. He studied politics, so you know that he has 0 capacity to - dare I even suggest it!? - fib.

Sooo, where’d you study animation?

I didn’t! I first went to a community college in central Pennsylvania. It was full of a bunch of cool people - unfortunately not Donald Glover or Alison Brie, but fortunately also not Chevy Chase. Then I went to University of Pittsburgh and studied communications and political science.

Poli- what now?

Yeah... it was the Obama era. I thought “It’s all uphill from here! We’re just riding this political train into the Promised Land!” Reality hit hard. Back then, Jon Favreau was writing Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ speeches, and I was all riled up. I wanted to be a speechwriter.

At one point a local city councilman asked me to write some remarks for him to use on Martin Luther King Day. I was idealistic and had a head full of steam, so I wrote this fiery, passionate stemwinder that drew on self-sacrifice and righteousness. I even referenced "Letter from Birmingham Jail”. The thing was, it was for a pancake breakfast at a rural Pennsylvania fire hall. So, I'm pretty sure he went out and said something like, "Thanks for coming. Go Eagles”. I was young and naive, and didn't realize that every speech didn't have to be "Ask not what your country can do for you ..."

When did you decide to NOT work in politics?

When I met a real life politician. (I laugh) No, really! He was a hometown representative - I’m from the Pennsylvania boonies. And he was a Republican, which was fine; I was just looking for a foot in the door. But when he found out I wasn’t, he asked me if I was a double agent. Like he actually suspected me of being in cahoots with the Dems to get dirt on him! So weird. And then finally, it came down to either an unpaid internship with a politician or a paid gig without a politician, so I chose to get paid.

Chasing that dollar. What was the paid gig?

I started out as a freelance editor for fashion and fitness blogs. The biggest perk - and irony - was that I was working in sweatpants from my couch. I got jobs at some TV and radio stations. At the end of college, I did do one unpaid internship, which was the best free work I ever did. It was at WQED, the PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was filmed back in the day. They still had a bunch of the sets just hanging around the hallways - and I even got to meet Mr. McFeely, who was exactly as nice as you’d hope. Eventually, I decided to leave Pennsylvania and move to New York, probably for the cheap rent. And I’ve been here ever since, working with mobile games. I even got to visit the old MAD Magazine office when I did a comic with them. It was covered in original art from some of the all-time greats.

What kinda stuff have you done for MAD Mag and others?

For MAD, I did a comic parody called “Captain Red America”. He’s like Captain America but only represents conservative states, so a lot of his enemies are things he doesn’t actually believe in. So, when he fights the super villain Climate Change, Cap can’t fight back because he doesn’t believe in climate change, so it just beats him up. I also did some writing for McSweeneys. They have some of the funniest stuff published anywhere, and I always wanted to write for them. I love doing comics, too, because if I have an idea, I can just put it out there—there aren’t really stakeholders involved. Recently, I just finished a Valentines comic for Bushwick Daily, a local Brooklyn blog, about the types of people you meet on Tinder.

How was transplanting to NYC - did you always want to move there?

Ehhh… I’m one of those unwilling New Yorkers who loves to hate it. The city has its upsides; it’s the best comedy scene. When I first arrived I joined UCB, which I think is mandatory when you move to New York - they just issue you a membership with your MetroCard. I always brag that I got to see Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson perform their Broad City stage show before it became a TV show. I love that community, and part of me wishes I’d have stuck with it longer, but I was getting pulled in a bunch of different directions, including a new job.

Oh yeah? Where at?

At Nickelodeon! I got the opportunity very randomly, about a month after I arrived. My (soon-to-be) boss called two people in for interviews, and I guess all that theatrical training from UCB paid off, because I was able to fake being a functional person long enough for her to hire me. It’s a really fun place to work: talented artists, toys everywhere, and sometimes wide-eyed kids are touring the office or testing games for us and you remember what we’re all doing there. The downside is that we’re in Times Square, so when I venture into the street I’m guaranteed to get a face-full of armpit. But playing video games is part of my job - I produce apps and games related to Nick shows.

That is the Dream. What’s your favorite game you’ve worked on?

Probably TMNT: Legends. We had a tremendous team of real fans, and the game looks great. Plus, I got to go visit Montreal where the team is based. I highly recommend that everyone spend years developing a game with a blockbuster studio, so you can visit, too.

Did you choose the cartoon life, or did the cartoon life choose you?

Wow, I really need to get “Cartoon Life” tattooed across my stomach. It was mutual selection. As a kid, I’d go to my grandma’s house and draw through all the paper she had. I looked up to Sergio Aragones of MAD. I was always drawing in the margins of the handouts at church - that’s the only way I’d sit still. But in high school, I stopped drawing for a bit - I guess I was partying too much, or maybe I just lost all my pencils in one of my oversized neon Tommy Hilfiger jackets. Then, I got back into it in college, drawing editorial comics at my school newspapers. I get inspired by people like Matt Groening. He was grinding out “Life in Hell” for like 40 years - well after he became a TV tycoon with The Simpsons and Futurama - just for the love of it.

How did you come to pitch for GO! Cartoons?

Just a random Google search, looking for places to send some stuff. I only barely met the deadline. I put together a thumbnail pitch and sent it on in.

Did “The Bagheads” change much from pitch through production?

The core story was always a brother and sister arguing over trash take-out. But it fluctuated in length quite a bit. There were a lot parts I added and then we condensed or cut out. There were intros, flashbacks - at some point, probably dragons and ice zombies - a lot did have to be trimmed down. Which was tough, because as you can probably tell, I’m a pretty big blowhard.

Who inspired the Bagheads, and were they always, you know… bag headed?

The Bagheads were always bagheads. As a little kid, I used to doodle baghead people with my brother, who inspired me to start drawing at all. We’d draw the guys from Guns ‘N Roses, but with bags over their heads—I have no idea why, but probably because I was kid who was crappy at drawing and couldn’t draw faces. Anyway, it became a running gag between us, we called them Guns ‘N Baggies. And over the years since, I’d draw those types every now and then -- a muscle baggie, an old baggie, whatever. So when I was getting ready to submit to Frederator, I knew the character’s personalities, but I didn’t know their appearances. So I reached into my childhood and pulled out the Bagheads.

What do you enjoy the most about Elbow and Artemis?

Well, what I enjoyed most about the short in general was working with so many talented people to bring it to life. I gotta give a big shout out to Eric, Kelsey, Michelle, JoJo, Sylvia, Paul, Bill, Kevin, Stephen, our cast and everyone else at Frederator and Salami Studios who made this happen. I did not do this alone - nowhere near it.

As for Artemis and Elbow, I’ve always liked duos with friendly antagonism, like Ren and Stimpy, Bugs and Daffy. Those good-natured conflicts where you’re kinda buddies, but you’re also kinda at each other’s throat. I like that Artemis and Elbow’s personalities create conflict: she’s hyper-competitive, he’s lazy. And then there’s their poor clueless dad, who’s working too much and constantly worried about the safety of his kids but doesn’t realize the biggest danger to them is each other. Those relationships can serve up a lot of fun, simple stories.

What inspired Nuke Man Jones, who’s still pulling off the eternal dunk as we speak?

Harlem Globe Trotters, for sure. They basically have superpowers. I was really looking for things that Elbow might see at a high altitude and I wanted something silly. Nuke Man is stuck up there in Earth’s orbit now, cursed to never complete that dunk like some Sisyphean baller fate.

The billion dollar question: do the Bagheads have bags for heads, or are they wearing bags over regular people heads?

Ya know, I’m gonna opt not to answer that one. The question of the bags can remain an unanswered mystery if it gets a series. It’ll be like The Leftovers for kids.

How about some favorite cartoons?

I mean, my Top 10 would just be The Simpsons, Seasons 1 through 10: that’s my all-time favorite TV, right there. South Park can’t get enough love—those guys have turned out classic after classic, and they’re the smartest gross-out humor in history. Looney Tunes, Ren & Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead - Mike Judge is a genius. Jim Henson and The Muppets, even though it’s not a cartoon; puppets count, right? MAD Magazine stuff like Sergio Aragones features or “Spy vs. Spy,” which was an inspiration for this Bagheads short.

I’m also really inspired by old school newspaper comics. It breaks my heart that they’re disappearing. Calvin and Hobbes is gorgeous and the most inspiring thing to me. I just read the entire series again, and it’s as good as ever. I appreciate that Bill Watterson refused all the licensing and merch deals people wanted to make for it. I read once that he left something like $400 million on the table.

That’s amazing.

Yeah. Once, I made a parody album cover for a local comic shop’s art show, and I made one based off of Notorious BIG’s “Ready to Die” cover: Notorious HOB’s “Ready to Live”. People wanted prints so I started selling them, and then it dawned on me that I was breaking the spirit of Watterson’s anti-commercial stance. So I stopped selling them, and just told people, “Sorry, they’re gone!”

What do you like to do outside of your work*? (*everybody else’s play)

I like to connect with my inner hillbilly - errr, inner hippie - whatever it is. I go to the beach and state parks pretty often. And I love stand-up: I just saw Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Jeff Ross and Kevin Hart at Radio City Music Hall. It was insane.

What are you working on now?

At the moment, I’m investing all my resources in trying to score “Black Panther” tickets. Otherwise, I'm working on a musical animated series idea with two musician friends, Jeff and Matt. It's really cool and is somewhere between Hamilton and Freaks & Geeks. I'm also working on a comic strip about animals in a post-human world. It's really cartoony, except the president is a photo-realistic opossum whose speeches are just incoherent, ear-piercing screeches. I'm not sure where that falls on the fiction/non-fiction spectrum. So much for giving up politics!

youtube

Great talking with you D.R., thanks for the interview! Looking forward to all of your future endeavors. And I’ll be sure to vote for you if you ever return to politics / being a spy for those wily Pennsylvania Dems.

Everybody: keep up with Phatypus Comics on Facebook and Instagram, @phatypus! And here on Tumblr: @phatypuscomics

- Cooper

#The Frederator Interview #frederator #frederator studios #go! cartoons #interview #cartoon #comic #animation #comics #cartoons #new cartoon #The Bagheads #phatypus #phatypus comics #DR Beitzel

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artyrogue · 4 years ago

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Blind Date Gaming: Bugs Bunny Collection

There was a time when Looney Tunes were like one of the staples of cartoons. They acted as an inspiration to other illustrators and paved the way for many of the cartoons we know today. As such, it's easy to understand why they were used in so many video games back in the old times. Nowadays they are more or less relinquished for cash grabs like the new Space Jam movie, but in the past...wait no, they were still cash grabs! Crud! There go my debate points on nostalgia! Well, I guess I at least have a case in point: meet today's blind date, Bugs Bunny Collection.

As it would turn out, this is a Japanese game that combines the thrilling action of a game just called 'Bugs Bunny' and its sequel with a clearly obvious name, 'Crazy Castle II'.

Man, the thumbnails look like they were the TI-83 calculator versions of the games

Oh-ho! A double date! Well, I'm not sure if dating the same-ish game twice counts as a double or not, but who cares! Semantics! Let's start with 'Bugs Bunny'. It's vague enough to be about nearly anything! Does it have to do with anvils? Outsmarting hunters? Understanding correct Google Maps directions to Albuquerque? Only one way to find out!

ok it's hotel mario

In a nutshell, you collect carrots by navigating doors, stairs, and pipes, avoiding enemies and using sparse attacking powerups to defend yourself. Out of a nutshell...uhhh...that's really it. There's no clever additions to the levels to spice things up or anything. About the only changes you get in the game is the count of Looney-Tune-themed enemies that want to walk into you. And sometimes that number is a ridiculous slap in the face (and I ain't talking slapstick, Looney-Tunes-type of slap).

Cats...cats everywhere

You can't tell from screenshots, but the controls are horrid. If you start to move down a staircase, you MUST walk down to the bottom. This makes avoiding foes your main issue. You can try to fight some enemies, but attack powerups are rare and the random items you can push into or onto them to defeat them are usually put in dumb locations that really don't foster their use. Enemies will stand still or gravitate back and forth without changing strategies. That sounds manageable, but they will stand still atop a pipe you need to go up, or other times they will refuse to go down pipes, blocking you off from a carrot you need to finish the level. Oh, and one hit and you die. One level had me racing to get a specific carrot before an enemy went up a specific pipe, as he would be stuck forever up there on a 2-tile wide platform. The saving grace for most of the game is that you can, for whatever logical reason, enter a pipe at the same time as an enemy and navigate through without getting hurt. You'll be using the pipe invincibility to avoid a lot of enemies, so get used to watching slow pipe bulges a lot. (That sentence sounds so gross...)

I'm sure there's some lame pun about getting a hare clog in these pipes, but I am plumb out of good puns

So there are 80 levels of this boring, mind-numbing game with shoddy controls and crappy music. And I, like an absolute goon, sat through them all. Some were ridiculously hard, most were simple. Difficulty wasn't linear either, because of course it wasn't! The cherry on top, though, was the lackluster ending that captured my sentiments of this game perfectly:

Brings tears to my eye. And like I mean that I am crying because I want those 2 hours of my life back, dangit

Ugh. Anyway. Let's go to the next! Maybe the programmers learned from their mistakes and improved their formula for Cah-razy Castle part deux!

This one has a story and cutscenes! Far as I can tell, a big doofy-looking witch kidnapped a duplicate of Bugs in drag and locked her in a castle that really doesn't look particularly crazy to me. False advertising, man. Nothing wacky here, just like ring the doorbell and ask to see her gas meter, then find your femme self and bolt! Well, you WOULD, but the navigation of this castle is apparently bloody terrible.

This looks like a really intense DDR song

Luckily, the programming is a bit better this time for movement, and the graphics look a bit better. The core gameplay...well, it's exactly the same. Okay, you can now cross ropes, use a couple new tools to traverse the map, and utilize jump and warp pads to get around, but you still go in doors, avoid walking enemies, use pipes, and collect junk to finish levels. This time, it's keys instead of carrots (because this witch has like 200 different locks on her doors?). Attacking items are more plentiful now, too, and there are FAR fewer levels. So at least there are better experiences somewhere, right? So we good now?

This castle would never get past any house reseller's inspection with a plumbing layout like that

Of course not! Things are still repetitive. The programming is still clunky at times, like when controlling jump pads (which either launch you into space or gently set you 2 block above your position...on the same jump pad). Enemy AI is still atrocious. The icing on the stale, store-bought red velvet cake is the amazing glitch I somehow triggered that replaced the typical non-skippable 20-second clip of Bugs walking slowly to a door that plays after you beat a level with fragments of his head shooting into the sky like fireworks. Now, that would actually be an entertainment upgrade, but all fun halts since the game was caught in some infinite loop, essentially locking me on the end level screen.

I think I found more than 13 bugs here, fellas

So, I figured I'd earned a break after getting an acme-sized headache from these dumb games and just looked up the password to the last level. It wasn't too bad, actually kind of fun, but still had no new features. However! There was another level afterward, and it was a boss fight! You get to shoot arrows at Gruntilda,but man is she cheap. She's invincible most of the time and clips through walls faster'n Wile E. Coyote.

I feel like that's bad broom posture, but whatever. You look like the mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas.

After some rough-ups, I finally nailed her and got a much better ending than the first game. Though like I still don't know who this love interest is? Also, why are there 2 Cupids, and why do they aim like my teammates in Overwatch? It's cool, it looks like Bugs'll get to go on a date of his own after this one. Take her to Crazy White Castle or something.

I like to think Bugs is actually just doing some soul-trapping stare into the eyes of this poor female rabbit while doing some creepy heavy breathing and profuse sweating

Well dang. That was a big ol' adventure, one that I wish I purge from my mind. I'm actually one of the potentially few people who love collectathon-like games (which I guess this one counts as?), but like...please put the collecting in a decently coded and paced game. The lack of building game mechanics, poor controls, boring level design, and overall shoddiness makes me not want to go on a second date with Bugs here again. Although I know of at least one more Game Boy Looney Tunes game, so no escape here. The corporate overlords demand more money! And you should demand this Sprite of Passage for surviving through my whiny rant on a cruddy 90's portable video game!

someone get that catatonic cat a tonic

#BlindDateGaming gameboy bugsbunny looneytunes bugsbunnycollection crazycastle

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xtremedespair3d · 6 years ago

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Anime Winter 2019 Final Impressions + Plans for Spring 2019

(I’ve seen Screen Rant and Crunchyroll using this shot as a thumbnail for news posts when the second trailer dropped, so I might as well use it too 😂)

The very first anime season of the year ends and we’re moving on to the next one, and it appears that this season is going to be the best one yet, before I discuss why with what shows I’m going to watch, let’s go back to the Winter season to rank every show I watched this season!

(Just don’t expect to see Kaguya-sama on this post, I haven’t really watched it at all, sorry. (but I will binge it eventually))

1.- Mob Psycho 100 II: Mob Psycho 100 continues to be a sakuga wonder and powerful storylines, I always thought the first season would be much more memorable for me, but I think this season definitely tops the character development and plotlines.

As for the sakuga wonder, this proves why Mob Psycho 100 is being held at better hands unlike One Punch Man, it went from Madhouse to JC Staff which is utterly disappointing, but Mob Psycho 100 being adapted by Bones and continuing to work on it is the best thing the series ever has.

I still haven’t read the manga but I can probably tell this is not the series finale, I wonder if there could still be a third and final season so it can adapt the final volumes of the manga, since it has ended recently, that third season would come in a quicker time, maybe like a year, a year and a half, or two, I don’t know, but it’s not impossible for that to happen anytime soon.

10/10 - Rank: S++ - 100% - AOTS #1.

2.- Kemurikusa: This all-new reboot has completely lived up to my expectations and it delivered some neat changes to the original and some big surprises.

Part of my experience was a bit dragged by the uncultured assholes that is 4chan with “Kemono Friends 2″ is better and such (Since it’s 4chan, some of them could be trolls, some of them could tell the truth, can’t really tell for sure), but it didn’t completely ruin my enjoyment of Kemurikusa, this is no big deal. And then there’s also the janky animation, but it’s Tatsuki’s quirk, so I’m not completely bothered by that and let him have it.

There are still some plot holes around the universe and everything else that raises questions after witnessing certain moments, but I think it’s best to leave things as it is, I wouldn’t expect Tatsuki to answer every single question, or even touch the world again.

I wonder what's next for Tatsuki now that Kemurikusa is finished when it comes to a new TV project, another remake of his classics or a completely original series? He would probably continue doing shorts for now. Either way, I totally need more Tatsuki TV projects since Kemono Friends. But for now, I would expect to see shorts being posted by parts on Twitter and then the full compilation on YouTube and NicoNico.

I almost forgot, I needed to address something: For the longest time I’ve been hyping up to watch the original 30 minute series before watching this reboot, I realized that you don’t really need to watch the original, but you should at least acknowledge its existence. But if you want to compare this to the original that badly, then you do need to watch the original. (We’re back in square one lol)

And for all the haters, please read this thread, and when you finish doing so, apologize and go take the L, conche tu madre, thank you.

10/10 - Rank: S++ - 100% - AOTS #2.

UPDATE - April 4th: Okay, a week after the finale’s release (Wednesday), Tatsuki out of the blue released a brand new 12.1 short video! (So far it raises so many questions)

I genuinely did not expect to see more Kemurikusa content, sequels even, but this is quite a surprise. I don’t know how long this is going to be but I’m sure it could be a weekly release. Anyways, this is really neat.

Smiley Riku is best Riku.

3.- The Promised Neverland: This was a pretty solid adaptation and the suspense has kept me on the edge of my seat constantly.

I’m so happy to see that a second season got announced for 2020. I wonder if it’s going to be a My Hero Academia situation, where it started with 13 episodes (in TPN’s case, it was 12 episodes long) and later seasons have two-cours.

9/10 - Rank: S - 95%

4.- BanG Dream! season 2: The first season heavily focused on building Poppin’ Party, this season features all of the bands and some episodes were focused on each band, which I was really interested, definitely looking forward to the 3rd season in Fall. (which I genuinely forgot it was coming out too)

Speaking of season 3, I recently researched that Rokka is a member of RAISE A SUILEN, and I wonder if S3 might get a storyline with Rokka becoming a member of RAS.

This looks way better than Monster Strike, I like that the characters have more like shading/lighting than being pure cell-shaded anime-like, but my common complaint with Sanzigen, or maybe even CG anime in general, is that they tend to make some background characters completely hand drawn which doesn’t blend well with the CG characters, it’s just horribly noticeably bad and inconsistent. You can add hand drawn effects and such, but for the love of god, never do hand drawn background characters and even main characters in flashbacks. (like Lay and Tae)

The third season was originaly going to come out on Fall but it got delayed to Winter 2020, which is a bummer, it could have been like BBK/BRNK three years ago but time is always needed.

9/10 - Rank: S - 96% - AOTS #4

5.- Ikki Tousen: Western Wolves: After spending an entire week binging everything Ikki Tousen, I couldn’t wait to see what Western Wolves had in store given on what I last saw with Extravaganza Epoch (even though I kind of forgot already), with 3 episodes for 3 months, this was a solid series with good fan service.

I hope I won’t wait for another 5 years or so for another series.

8.5/10 - Rank: A+ - 88%

6.- Kakegurui XX: Now I’m worried if this was a worthy follow-up given MAPPA’s track record of making crappy second seasons, best example being Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul.

Occasionally I was less motivated to watch an episode when it came out raw and rewatch that episode with subtitles by whatever group and sometimes I also felt like this series was way over-the-top than I previously felt like the first season

Anyways, I thought it was a decent follow-up.

7.5/10 - Rank: A- - 76%

7.- Manaria Friends: Decent series, but the most important thing I want to talk about is, this was supposed to come out on April 1st, 2016, but it got on hold a month prior its release. Since CygamesPictures was founded in 2016, perhaps they took the series and reworked into what it is now, after 3 years of reproduction and release, I wonder if it was even worth the wait. I’m also surprised the show is 15 minutes long, I’m not sure if this was part of the original version, but it’s that kind of short.

For some strange reason, I wish any footage of the original version of Manaria Friends would be leaked somewhere. 😁

Now with Manaria Friends released, and with the upcoming Princess Connect! Re:Dive anime series (and maybe they even took Granblue Fantasy: The Animation (that’s right, it’s confirmed that it’ll get a second season) away from A-1, that’s my theory), let’s see what does CygamesPictures have in store when it comes to anime based on their IP and maybe even original projects of their own (which has gotten me more curious since I’m an original anime fanboy).

Also, the show’s English title is called “Mysteria Friends” for some reason. (Well, not really “for some reason”, there’s definitely a reason why, but I’m not that big of a Rage of Bahamut person)

I never knew the show was going to be 10 episodes long, since it premiered late in January, I thought it would run for 12 episodes which it could be in April, which is way late to the Anime Winter 2019 closing party, but closing the series at episode 10 feels like a good time.

7/10 - Rank: A- - 74%

8.- Boogiepop wa Waranai: Not much to comment on this one, and I haven’t really read the LNs, but this one seems interesting. The only thing I’m not a fan of is its own style of character designs, it just looks weird and doesn’t really respect much to the original artist’s style, which lead to this whole thing with this Twitter rants and Kadokawa apologizing for the miscommunication (Can’t stop talking about this), so I guess the damage control wasn’t worth it to get used to the anime’s designs. At least the animation and visuals look good, though.

7/10 - Rank: B - 70%

9.- Lupin the 3rd: Goodbye Partner: After Part 5, I didn’t expect a new OVA special would appear right away, it’s a self-contained OVA special, it doesn’t have anything to do with Part 5 at all, though.

The only thing I’m super dissatisfied is that in 37 minutes, it seems like there was a huge skip, we jump to a crazy situation right away, after a conflict Lupin and Goemon had with Jigen minutes prior, we see that they’re working together again, like, what? It’s just feels so random...

7/10 - Rank: B+ - 72%

10.- Mini Toji: This franchise continues to give less of an impact in my life and to consider it to be on the range that of Kancolle and Touken Ranbu (you know, those games I always joke about that Toji no Miko is their baby), one year later after the base anime series, they decided to make a short spin-off series, I couldn’t turn down the offer to watch it, I was curious on what’s it going to be, and the show overall is alright, it is funny at times and I had some laughs but it’s not too hilarious.

As for the chibi style, it just looks so weird. Seeing the image below which I found in 4chan when episode 8 came out just makes me wish they could have chose this style instead of the one from Mini Toji because the current style just looks so wrong.

And there’s also the most painful, if not, the worst running gag ever, Kaoru is always getting mission jobs from her boss, every episode we see her tired and it makes me feel super bad for her, let her rest, let her suffering end. ;_;

Not to mention the show has a very sluggish pace, everything happens so fast I don’t even have time to understand or even laugh at what the fuck is going on. For a 3 minute short series, the best thing they could have gone is make a shorter opening or don’t feature an OP at all, just feature a title card to open the show and that’s it. Or maybe they could have extended the run time to 7 minutes (a la Sugoiyo!! Masaru-san) so I can enjoy the pace better.

Unlike Manaria Friends, I did know but then I forgot this series was 11 episodes long, but at the same time it threw me off thinking there could be an 11th episode but then I realized episode 0 counts.

6/10 - 60% - Rank: C-

And now... time for the top 3 worst anime of the season!

11.- W’z: I’ve probably never paid a lot of attention to the trailers (and even vaguely remember it), I thought it would be a stand-alone and different kind of series with a lot more music themed or something, but when the series premiered, it revealed itself as a sequel to Hand Shakers... THAT’S RIGHT, A SEQUEL TO HAND SHAKERS NOBODY ASKED FOR.

Despite being surprised that W’z is a sequel to Hand Shakers, I’ve grown to really like the series overall in a short amount of time, it makes me like Hand Shakers more than I previously could.

In like 3 or even 4 episodes, I couldn’t stop fanboying out constantly seeing the characters from Hand Shakers who look so grown up after the 10 year time jump after the series happened.

I mentioned that I thought that W’z was self contained, there are some moments and characters that are barely self-contained because the plot is all heavily linked to Hand Shakers (not that I’m complaining, though). I genuinely didn’t care much for the new characters, except Yukiya because he’s the adopted son of Break and Bind (Real names: Reijiro and Yukine Araki, respectively) , and he’s the McGuffin for accessibility to the Ziggurat to find Nagaoka and Mayumi. The one character I was the least satisfied for their lack of development was Midori, at first he’s had a couple of interesting moments, but the rest he barely appeared in the series and only in the previews, but in episode 9, they finally gave him plenty of screentime and even dropped some good info bombs on what the Ziggurat can do and stuff, so that redeemed my feelings on the character.

Another complaint would be the DJ Nielsen character, he’s got interesting motives and he’s the one who gave Reijiro baby Yukiya in a flashback, but his rapper-kind of voice can be so annoying. He and CHU2 from BanG Dream S2 would make a great team, or maybe a contest on who speaks the worst. (SPOILER ALERT: It’s a draw, they’re both so bad in different levels)

Then we get to episode 10 where the most important thing is that NAGAOKA AND MAYUMI FINALLY SHOWED UP. It actually took so long for them to appear because there was like a lot of stuff in the way, but whatever, I was so happy to see them... albeit with a caveat. Since the goal was to get Nagaoka and Mayumi out of the Ziggurat, it turns out that the duo themselves can’t get out because they want to live a normal life and Nagaoka was sick, as Mayumi said. It’s a little sad and it sucks that they can’t get out, but at least Mayumi had a phone call with Koyori after all.

I thought episode 12 with a Midori/Seba episode (it wasn’t an episode dedicated to those two) and to be on par with Hand Shakers with the 12 episode total, but I’m glad there was a 13th episode to have a good conclusion, and boy, this episode delivered some good surprises: The biggest moment is where Nagaoka told Yukiya how much he has grown and then Yukiya himself straight-up called him “Dad”, like three episodes prior, I had theorized that Yukiya would be Nagaoka and Mayumi’s true biological son but I backed off because I thought it would be disturbing (maybe not really, Mayumi must be old after the 10 year gap and she and Koyori don’t look like they have aged at all), BUT IN REALITY, HE REALLY IS, GOHANDS THE FUCKING MADMEN. The second thing I was happy to see was Makihara, at long last the man finally shows up, he always narrated the first few episodes and I couldn’t stop saying “Show yourself, Makihara!” or something and then there were a couple of namedrops, they took so long but maybe they wanted to save Makihara’s appearance in the flesh for last.

This may not be the biggest deal, but since every single character from Hand Shakers appeared in W’z all grown up and such, the one thing I really wasn’t happy with is the absence of Hibiki and Kodama. Sure, they both got namedropped once (though Kodama was namedropped twice) and mentioned their current careers (Kodama being a singer and actress and Hibiki being a costume designer) but I never got to see them at all, maybe they weren’t the most popular amongst GoHands’ staff. They weren’t my bigger favorites of the Hand Shakers cast (and I don’t mean it in a negative way) but seeing them how they have aged would have been really worth it, come on, GoHands!

Despite the hideous visuals GoHands has grown to have in recent years, I really liked W’z, it makes me like Hand Shakers more than I previously could. If I really liked the show so much, then why it’s in the top 3 of my worst anime of the season? Well, mainly for the aforementioned hideous visuals, while they don’t bother me much, it’s for the sake of people who can’t stomatch it. (Says the guy who put Kemurikusa on second place and gave it a 10/10, Rank: S++, 100%).

Like Kemurikusa, W’z also has a couple of plot holes, which I don’t really expect they could get answered that much, but some parts certainly raise a lot of questions, most notable, this Composer character, we never got to see who was this Composer Senri and Hana worked with. (They both don’t have in common, but they both made me ask questions about the plot and lore.)

Regardless on how you feel about the visuals nowadays, I still want GoHands to continue doing projects, one day they’ll return to their former glory with good visuals like the K franchise and they’ll win their old fans back, but the more important thing is that I still want to see them creating interesting stories.

I’d like to see more stuff taken place in the Hand Shakers universe, just don’t make sequels with every 10 year gap because I don’t want to see all the characters from Hand Shakers and W’z grow really old and die, prequels would be fine to explore more on the Akutagawa/Okuike families and/or fill the 10 year gap between said series. If GoHands decides to make completely different IP that’s not set in the Hand Shakers universe, being its own self-contained universe, I would be totalyl fine too. (I previously thought W’z was a self-contained series before it premiered after all.)

You can call me a lunatic or tell me I’m high, and say whatever you want about Hand Shakers/W’z, I’ve grown to like the franchise and I got the balls to tolerate the visuals unlike you. Besides, It’s not about the visuals anymore, it’s about enjoying the story a lot more.

By the way, I made this meme ages ago and I’m so proud of it. 😂

5/10 - Rank: C - 52% - (AOTS #5 :^) ).

12.- Virtualsan - Looking: This got announced and released a trailer simultaneously out of nowhere, but when I saw the trailer (though it was focused at introducing the main VTubers) and the opening preview, I always thought the show was going to look half-assed, and indeed it did. And speaking of the opening, this series should have been hand-drawn so it would have been cooler to see the VTubers that way.

The bigger problem is that there’s no Kizuna AI at all, which many people aren’t happy with, I’m not worried too much since I like seeing the other VTubers (people should at least watch other kinds of VTubers, not just Kizuna AI alone). Even if Kizuna AI sings the first opening theme, it won’t make up for the fact that she’s completely absent. (At least try to learn to like other VTubers the same way you have your many normal YouTubers/Let’s Players you like, you dumb fucks)

The weirdest selling point of this show, Hideaki Anno was involved in the series. Yes, you read that right, the very same guy who did Evangelion and Shin Godzilla. No wonder why there’s this one sketch where we see the main cast dressed as the girl school uniforms from EVA.

The title of the show, Virtualsan - Looking has given a lot more meaning as I kept watching, it turns out that it’s actually referred to the VTuber Baacharu always watching, he always pops up at the very start of every episode and he’s a recurring star in “Listen Sister!” (forgot the name already, oops) where he always get thrown by Tokino Sora in order to confess to Sister Claire herself [Tokino]. Then he occasionally appears at this Siro segment where some VTubers take a seat and Siro gives a lot of trivia about different topics (then Baacharu became the last guest to star in this segment). It all makes sense now, but for some reason the subtitles called Baacharu “Virtual”.

Speaking of localization, for some reason Crunchyroll decided to license the series a week after its release, but guess what? The episode release schedule was behind, they simulcast the previous episode before the new one aired in Japan, that is until with episodes 5 or 6 which made things even.

There’s no real reason for me to hate this series, I quite enjoyed it and had a lot of laughs throughout the series but the half-assed special effects and stuff are not for the faint of Western audiences’ heart.

Though, I gotta say, this has the potential to spawn more genuine VTuber anime, I’m really optimistic to see more of them in the future.

4.5/10 - Rank: D+ - 48%

13.- Kemono Friends 2: *sigh* Oh boy, trying to write a series review on this one is going to be really tough, but to make it short, it’s as expected, Kemono Friends 2 is a soulless cash grab of a show, a shadow of its former self, definitely the WORST of the season. There’s just so many problems the show has:

Recycled storyline from the first season with a new human character nobody asked for.

Boring ass opening theme song that isn’t memorable and isn’t singable like WELCOME TO YOUKOSO JAPARI PARK.

Having two characters who serve the Raccoon and Fennec-type of roles. (despite having them featured in the OP numerous times and started to appear on episode 10)

Ceruleans look like unfinished CG mess compared to every character and heck, even the Ceruleans from the first season.

Occasionally inconsistent framerate from character movements, most of the time is a bit slow but there are a few times that it goes really fast.

Completely wiped out Serval’s memories of the events from the first season

etc.

Let’s go part by part:

The biggest crime of this season is of course not following the To Be Continued teased at the end of the first season and they decided to soft-reboot the series with a totally new human character, Kyururu.

Then, enter Armadillo and Pangolin, two characters who are looking for Kyururu for reasons [that is from the beginning of the series, later it was explained why they did it, it was to bring Kyururu to Domestic Dog], sound familiar? That’s because their roles are very like Raccoon and Fennec from the first season... when Raccoon and Fennec ALWAYS appeared in the opening (and then finally appeared on episode 10).

Speaking of the opening, the theme is a boring jazz earrape and it’s certainly not memorable or even singable as the first season’s opening, WELCOME TO YOUKOSO JAPARI PARK, those days are over.

I mostly didn’t even care for literally every character in the series. However, there are characters I do care, Kaban-chan (which I’ll discuss about her in a bit) of course, I will always care for Kaban-chan, and Domestic Dog, she’s the one Friend I’d definitely protecc because she’s a doggo and I feel bad for her in episode 8. The characters I’d definitely least protecc are Kyururu, nobody asked for a brand new human to take the Kaban-chan role, and Serval, because she doesn’t remember shit about the first season, they kind of ruined her character.

Serval was the worst change that has ever happened to her, as I stated, they basically wiped out all of her memories of the first season (or so it seems). Caracal told Serval that she had traveled with a human before and there was a small flash with Kaban-chan’s silhouette, this is one of the many things this season broke my heart very badly.

As for Caracal, the chemistry between her and Serval this season didn’t absolutely work here. Her character is depicted kind of a tsundere compared to her Welcome to Japari Park version which, gotta be honest, I definitely prefer the Welcome to Japari Park version and voice way better than the Kemono Friends 2 one. Without disrespecting the VA way too much, her voice for Caracal didn’t work for the character.

Rewatched a small portion of the first season, despite Serval having the same VA, she sounds a little different in Kemono Friends 2.

Speaking of Welcome to Japari Park, there’s the finale coming up in two weeks, so I hope it has a better conclusion than Kemono Friends 2 (which I’ll talk about later).

Now... let’s talk about Kaban-chan! If Serval wasn’t that of a poorly written character enough, Kaban-chan has definitely suffered the most! At the end of episode 5, a paper plane with a flame on its tip was flying out of nowhere, just to drive the Beast away, I heard a voice and IT WAS KABAN-CHAN!!! I was so happy that she finally appeared and I was eager to see more of her in the next episode, then the next week came and... she had plenty of screentime but... SHE DIDN’T DO SHIT! SHE DIDN’T DO A LOT OF SHIT, LIKE, SHE COULD HAVE INTERACTED WITH KYURURU A LOT MORE ABOUT WHAT DOES SHE WANT AND EVERYTHING, I CANNOT FORGIVE THIS EVER!

Well, it’s not like I wanted her with Serval to be like “Hey, Serval! Do you remember me?”, I understand she had her reasons and she must have been aware on Serval’s memory or something, but at the same time, she didn’t do a lot, though later in the episode, it was more focused on Kyururu talking to the owls about the origin of the Ceruleums, Kyururu theorized that the Ceruleans must have been spawned from the sea, and they all decide to test this out, which I don’t really blame too much that it turned out that way because they need to focus more on the overarching story of Kyururu’s search for her house, but come on...

At the end of the episode, Kaban says goodbye to the main trio, but most importantly, to Serval, as she asked Caracal to take care of her, she was downright sad.This episode was completely unsatisfying that I went so far to make a review out of it.

But that’s not the end of Kaban-chan, as she did appear in the final episodes, which I’ll talk about them in a bit...

But I gotta say, I really dig Kaban-chan’s new design. She has indeed grown up given by her height and her matured voice. 👌

There’s something I haven’t discussed very often and that is the NicoNico ratings. I haven’t seen these very often but I’ve seen two screenshots of two random episodes of the ratings, and guess what? Japan definitely voted for the “I didn’t like it.” option! Here’s a screenshot of episode 6:

This is the exact same episode with the underwhelming reunion with Kaban-chan, it deserved it.

This is very funny because, two years ago, Pop Team Epic also a lot of dislike ratings, but it’s not because PTE is bad bad, I think it’s because it’s a kuso anime and people would follow the gag that it sucks or something, but in the case of Kemono Friends 2, it’s plain bad.

Moving on, episode 9 came by, the PPP episode, and there was no Crunchyroll-Hime cameo from the first season, wow, the disrespect. Then we get to see Crested Ibis again! Though she was not a main Friend of the episode (as it is a PPP-centered episode), she has become more of a minor role, just doing auditions, she even name dropped Alpaca.

Next we’ve come to the one episode where Armadillo and Pangolin finally captured Kyururu and brought to her master, the master appeared to be a Friend called Domestic Dog. She started talking to Kyururu that she has finally met a human after a long time, she brings Kyururu to her house and OH MY GOD, SHE MADE DOG SOUNDS, DEFINITELY PROTECC, I’M BEING SERIOUS, PROTECC.

Then comes the scene where Doggo was protecting Kyururu from the Beast, the moment I saw her full of scratches and dirt, my god, I cannot unsee that, that was horrifying.

(Yes, I couldn’t resist bringing John Wick jokes)

Then when doggo let go of Kyururu, to come back to her friends, I felt so bad for her. I saw a comment on Crunchyroll where someone said “Oh no, she’s Seymour from Futurama” and things couldn’t be any more painful.

Right at the end of the episode, these two Friends from a promotional poster I saw a while before the series premiered finally showed up.

They’re purpose was to give Kyururu some sort of existential crisis (well, not that much) by asking her if her house really exists, why did she made her drawings, etc.

Now we’re finally in episode 10 where Raccoon and Fennec finally appear after being in the OP literally every episode ever (Maybe I was asking for meaning or pay-off way too much), then KABAN-CHAN REAPPEARS and that time she was hella serious because she, the professor and her assistant, found out that there were Ceruleans being spawned from Kyururu’s drawings. Kyururu then made a drawing of literally every Friend she has met, including Pigeon which she just met but wanted to include her, and that immediately screamed maximum danger, as I thought there would be a huge army of Ceruleans shaped like the Friends, this is where things got interesting.

Episode 11, comes this war of Friends vs Ceruleans shaped like them, blah blah blah...

Episode 12 came and NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT THE ENDING!

THE ENDING, I.... TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!

Then there’s the post-credits scene:

My face during the very end:

................................................................................................................................................................................................can somebody explain to me what the fuck just happened?

That Kaban-chan and Serval scene........ how could they do this to me.... and I don’t mean it in a good way.... Then that drawing with Mirai and two other Japari Park workers...................

THEY JUST MADE KABAN-CHAN SUFFER!!! ;_;

AND THEN THAT JAPARI PARK FRIENDS DRAWING, WHO ARE THE OTHER TWO WORKERS, MIRAI GETS TO CAMEO, EVERYTHING AAAAAAAAAAAAA

FUCK... THAT!!!

Sure, these moments should bring hype and I should be happy that they did this, the Kaban-chan and Serval scene and the drawing, but it won’t work for me, Kemono Friends 2 tries really hard to redeem itself with hype-worthy moments like these, they just won’t make up for this irredeemable garbage.

Now, I wasn’t a douche on watching the entire series, there are some moments that I found genuinely interesting, had some laughs and made me smile (probably out of confusion, I have problems smiling even on inappropiate shit), the models perfectly capture Mine Yoshizaki’s art style, but without disrespecting Tatsuki, at the same time the models feel lifeless compared to the first season’s.

One thing I don’t understand about the designs is that I’ve seen people in 4chan blaming Tomason for the lazy designs and stuff, or something like that because I’ve seen them use “they” and I don’t really think they’re referring to Yoshizaki, they must have been really referring to Tomason, and that’s not true, Mine Yoshizaki does all of the Friends’ designs, and please don’t call some of them lazy, don’t disservice the man.

Then there are also the next episode previews made by Kikuchi Milo featuring the characters from the first season. Because of Crested Ibis’ minor appearance in episode 9, now I kind of wish the Friends from the first season to show up in the series, not just the next episode previews.

There were also two ED themes, which I find it bizarre that a one-cour series changes theme songs.

We never got to learn more about the Beast character though, she was like an underdeveloped Friend and she behaved more like a genuine tiger animal or something, we never get to learn her origin, or even her race.

Boy, this review turned out way better than I expected, I had a lot of fun writing about this soulless pile of trash. I hope the Welcome to Japari Park finale will help me forget this shit, let’s see how it would build up to the first season of Kemono Friends given that it’s a prequel and this is really old footage, I’m sure there must be how the future of the series got set up or something.

This might have been the most brutal anime review I’ve ever written but it’s the truth.

Watch Kemono Friends 3 get announced but inb4 it could be an adaptation of the mobile/arcade game of the same name instead of following the anime’s overarching story.

Though I think if Kemono Friends 3 happens, it could still be a continuation of the anime's story and it has nothing to do with the mobile/arcade game of the same name. It could be a similar situation with Welcome to Japari Park where there's a manga and a short series and they're both totally unrelated.

To conclude this series review, let me just say this:

Kemono Friends 2 is the Pacific Rim: Uprising of anime.

0/10 - Rank: E - 0% 🔥 🔥 🔥 Hail Hydra (or in this case Hail Kadokawa) No Tatsuki, No Tanoshii

Fuck you, Kadokawa. 🖕

Fall 2018 ongoing:

At last, ongoing anime from the previous season, I wasn’t having this streak lately and it was about time I had it.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind: JoJo Part 5 continues to be strong. There’s not much to add but I got some small things to say: When I’m 4chan threads, seeing screenshots of Part 4 makes me realize that Part 4 is the WORST looking and poorly produced part out of all the rest, thankfully Part 5 looks way better.

Since I was so accostumed on how the characters sound like in All Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven, the new voices have definitely grown on me now.

Also, how does King Crimson work?

Ace Attorney season 2: I genuinely had this post written with JoJo as the only ongoing Fall 2018 anime alone and somehow I have forgotten about Ace Attorney despite still watching the series. I feel like I enjoyed the Bridge to the Turnabout episodes a lot more.

I felt like this second season has genuinely given me a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth unlike the first season, which it definitely lead me to drop the series, but I didn’t drop it completely, I have picked it up again around episode 10 because I felt bad.

Now, let’s start talking about the Spring season, and why is this going to be the best anime season yet? Well...

1.- Kimestu no Yaiba - April 6: I’M SO LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS ONE! Ahem, well, to tell you the truth, I just love being wowed by Ufotable’s fantastic visuals. I’m definitely checking this one blindly, I feel like this is something I should read the manga because I’m starting to feel like it could be an unfaithful narrative mess, and it’s already making me sad. But is Ufotable the type of studio to go off the rails and completely butcher the story? (Probably God Eater as people say but I don’t really see what’s with the hate and why is it offensively bad, I played God Eater Burst long afterwards, though. Call me an Ufotable stan if you want, but I really don’t see any problem with God Eater even when I binged it years ago, aside from a bit of animation hiccups (probably the/my first with (modern) Ufotable having a bit of hiccups) but I don’t mind it, I just enjoyed the way it is; people are gonna tell me this too and I’d be like totally disagreeing their opinions, refusing to seek the reality; I’d love to rush my ass off and read the manga like I did with One Punch Man, My Hero Academia and Monster Musume but I’m just so lazy to do it now, and I can’t read manga with over 100 chapters long.)

I always watch a lot of anime without even reading the manga first, even I don’t read JoJo (Even though I know some of the biggest spoilers from every part through the games) and Mob Psycho 100, but for some reason Kimetsu no Yaiba feels like a huge deal for me, I wish I couldn’t let the opportunity of reading the manga first go to waste, yet, I’m here about to watch the anime. I wish I could have realized this sooner.

Anyways, enough of that insane talk and wouldn’t boost hype confidence, I’m still going to enjoy it regardless how the story goes and the music might be something worth praising because the composers are fucking Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina, animation and visuals are no surprise worth of praise , I’m just ready to watch Ufotable’s next big TV project since Katsugeki: Touken Ranbu. (yes, there was 2018′s Emiya-san chi no Kyou no Gohan but it was a monthly series and each episode was 12 minutes long, so it’s not kind of a big deal; then there’s also the Heaven’s Feel movie trilogy (loved the second movie (even though I’m an anime only, I’m legit scared of Gavin and other kinds of elitists now; even though he unfollowed me)), but like I said, TV project)

As of March 27th, I read some news that Ufotable is under investigation over tax evasion and now I’ve grown way concerned than I was. It may not affect the releases of Kimetsu no Yaiba and even Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel III but I just don’t want to see Ufotable close. After Kimetsu no Yaiba come out, let’s see how Ufotable will do.

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Quick update, I HAVE read the first three chapters, it’s relatively solid and given on the scenes I’ve seen in the trailers, I do believe Ufotable is going to make a pretty good job on adapting the series faithfully narratively.

But most importantly so far, I hope Ufotable will do justice this panel! Which I had posted this on my Kemono Friends 2 series review.

Bones disappointed me with the anime version of Mina’s “NO WAY” scene from My Hero Academia, and I hope Ufotable won’t do the same, I want a perfect recreation of that Tanjiro face.

Here’s the comparison below:

Anime:

Manga:

Do you agree on this? (If you don’t, it’s fine, don’t worry about it)

UPDATE - April 13th:

UFOTABLE, YOU FUCKING BLEW IT!!! GET BANKRUPT!!!

I changed my mind about Bones with the Mina “NO WAY!” part, it actually looks faithfully recreated, UNLIKE UFOTABLE.

(Alright, I gotta stop updating this post constantly with what’s happening right now)

RELATED: What will Ufotable’s final release be?

2.- One Punch Man season 2 - April 2nd: I’ve said this before and I will say it again, I’m NOT expecting OPM S2 to be any good and I’m NOT looking forward to it, even if I say that, I’m still going to watch it, regardless, but I’m not very hopeful for the visuals (Man, all I ever care about in anime is the visuals, I don’t give a crap of the story, I just want good animation!).

Since the release date is revealed to be April 2nd, which is Tuesday, I’m going to miss the good old One Punch Man Sundays when the first season came out, but Tuesdays are a good day for anime, so it’s worth it.

Well, I wrote that sentence literally like a day or two, and a new visual got revealed, it looks clean but it’s already not gonna look like that, very S1-like, given the first teaser trailer released. That aside, Viz Media confirmed that it will be premiered on April 9th on Hulu (RIP Daisuki.net), which that’s on Saturday, so that’s close on the good old OPM Sundays 4 years ago.

Actually, I’m pretty split on that information, in one hand, the official Twitter account tweeted the visual with the April 2nd release, but in the other, Viz Media tweeted that it comes out in the 9th and calls it “the same day as Japan” and “ Details and availability regarding the April 2nd special programming in our territory are currently unavailable.”, I’m so confused.

(Sorry, this post has been in progress for the entire Winter season and I’m writing stuff I was currently experiencing at the time)

March 18th, the second trailer dropped and somehow I’m kind of alright with it, still not super impressed but at least it’s kind of something. But the biggest let-down is the new opening theme by JAM Project revealed in the trailer which it’s not as great as THE HERO. I’m a bigger fan of the way THE HERO is, I’m probably the more upbeat type of person, and with this? I don’t want something calm, I wanted a more action packed song! I hadn't payed a lot of attention to the editing of the trailer with the black screens, but yeah, it's so bad.

The more I think about the trailer and seeing people’s reactions, I’m starting to think it’s really looking like absolute ass than I previously mentioned, so I couldn’t agree more. But hey, at least I love seeing some of the jokes and memes related to the trailer.

I thought I had to wait until AnimeJapan to drop the trailer but they decided to do it now.

I now understand what’s with the April 2nd and April 9th releases. The April 2nd release is going to be more like an special of sorts and next week is when the series for real starts. It’s the same issue I had with Kemono Friends 2, but that was unpredictable at the time, so with One Punch Man, I can totally wait for next week. (At the time of posting this, the day has come)

3.- Attack on Titan season 3 second cour - April 28th: It’s seriously been like annoyingly forever after the first cour ended in Fall 2018, but I’m finally it’s going to continue.

I still don’t know what took so long, but whatever.

4.- Isekai Quartet - April 9th: From what I see now, this is going to be more like a show with different isekai projects focused as sketches or something, I randomly thought it would be a crossover but apparently it’s not the case. Regardless, I’m still going to watch and enjoy the way it is.

By the time I saw its announcement, I immediately went to binge Re:Zero, I have seen Youjo Senki, Overlord and Kono Suba, so I needed to watch Re:Zero so I can be complete or something.

Since I write this post as time goes on, the trailer for Isekai Quartet has released and indeed it is a crossover like I wanted!

5.- Girls’ Frontline comedy anime short - ???: It appears that we’re getting our first Girls’ Frontline anime and it’s a comedy which it’s even cooler.

The trailer was first revealed on a BiliBili livestream on January for Chinese audiences, then a few days later, there was another livestream taken place in VTuber Nekomiya Hinata’s channel for Japanese audiences, where they showed off the same trailer but one frame of new footage and then there’s a new trailer for another Girls’ Frontline anime, that’s right, we don’t have just one, but two different Girls’ Frontline comedy anime, this one’s focused on the AR Team and 404, and the other one has a variety of T-Dolls featured, but the former is the bigger focus here.

What I find rather surprising about this short anime is that ever since they showed the trailer on said livestreams, there’s no official upload of the trailer, not a whole lot of news sites reported about this, and not even a full release date after two months. I thought there would be more information on AnimeJapan 2019 but there was nothing in sight.

So I guess I’ll have to wait until April to see if this will indeed come out, it could be a surprise release not everyone is going to notice or it might be delayed to Summer. Nevertheless, I’m excited to see this one, and the other one too but I prefer this one with the AR Team and 404 the most.

By the way, thanks for tagging me twice on these Girls’ Frontline anime, Moetron. I’m happy that I let you know these trailers exist. Here, have this powerful image of G11 meditating.

6.- Fruits Basket remake - April 5th: I never watched the original Fruits Basket and I’ve been seeing a lot of announcements about returning English voice actors and stuff, I dunno why but I’m thinking the remake could be overhyped with all this stuff, but I’m sure it’s still going to be enjoyable for the people who read the manga, who watched the original anime series and newcomers alike.

Speaking of the manga, I wondered why is there a need for a remake now, one of my friends told me that there could be an actual ending of the series since the original anime prematuredly ended when the manga was still going at the time, so I believe the remake might add the manga’s ending or something, I don’t know anything about it but it sounds like a likely thing to happen.

7.- Miru Tights - May 11th: There isn’t much to comment on this one, but it’s interesting because it’s basically Yom the anime. Yep, the man of the thights is getting an anime. Who would knew one day this would happen? Also, it comes out on May 11th, it’s kind of an unusual date even for a web series.

8.- 四月一日さん家の (Watanuki-san Chi No) - April 19th: After Virtual-san wa Miteiru, it seems like the anime industry wouldn’t give up on start making anime with VTubers now.

Unlike Virtual-san wa Miteiru, this one’s not really classified as “anime”, it’s more like a drama as its official Twitter account says or something. Well, at least this show stars Tokino Sora as one of the three leads, so it’ll be interesting. Though I’m not sure anyone would really like to torrent this but at the same time it’d be a waste not to.

9.- Bungou Stray Dogs season 3 - April 12th: I’ve watched the first two seasons of the show in December 2017, then watched the movie in my cinema with my older sister on her birthday, I’m definitely quite a fan of the series, not completely hardcore as I need to read the manga, but I’m fine for now. Anyways, I’m glad there’s a third season happening and can’t wait to see it.

There was originally going to be a Chiitan anime this Spring but it got delayed to Summer. And yeah, you read that right, a Chiitan anime.

HONORABLE MENTION (Since that just happened): Pop Team Epic special: I genuinely forgot a special was going to occur on April 1st (being April Fools), but I’m glad I watched it and still loved it like the base series and now I want season 2.

Thanks for reading this post, this must have been the longest post I’ve ever made yet for so many reasons. What’s your most anticipated anime of the season?

Twitter: @HKomaeda.

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marco42james · 7 years ago

Text

5 Ways to Bring Sustainable Food Understanding into Your School

Julie Willcott on episode 285 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Julie Wilcott talks about how we can bring sustainable food systems and understanding into our schools with these five simple ideas.

Sponsor: The STLinATL Conference will be at Woodward Academy in Atlanta July 26-27, 2018. I’ll be speaking with other amazing educators like Suzy Boss, Janet Zadina, Jay McTighe, Dr. Brendan Ozawa de Silva, Scott Sanchez, Dr. Ayanna M Howard and more. For $295, this all-inclusive event (except for hotel and travel) is an amazing opportunity to learn. www.stlinatl.com

Listen Now

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Listen to the show on iTunes or Stitcher

Stream by clicking here.

Below is an enhanced transcript, modified for your reading pleasure. All comments in the shaded green box are my own. For guests and hyperlinks to resources, scroll down.

***

Enhanced Transcript

5 Ways to Bring Sustainable Food Systems into Your School

Link to show: www.coolcatteacher.com/e285 Date: Friday, April 6, 2018

Vicki: Happy Five Idea Friday! Today we’re talking to Julie Willcott @WillcottJulie about five ideas for helping integrate sustainable food systems into our schools.

Now I have to admit, this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I am a farmer’s daughter. I grew up working on the farm, and I just love the outdoors and the country life.

So, Julie, how can we bring in sustainable food systems into our schools? I mean, is this something you have to be in the county to do or not?

Julie: Oh, absolutely you don’t have to be in the country. There’s so much, because obviously we all eat! I have had the good fortune to teach greenhouse management at the high school level, and I now teach a course about sustainable food production at the community college level. A lot of the ideas work really for any age level.

Vicki: What’s our first?

The Lexicon of Sustainability

Julie: Well, our first idea is called the Lexicon of Sustainability, and this is actually a PBS web series that you can access through the internet. There’s video, there is an absolutely gorgeous book and gallery of artwork for this Lexicon of Sustainability. And what that’s about is, in order to talk about food production, let’s talk about some of the basic terminology.

One way to do this is to take images and overlay content onto them. That doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as the beautiful pictures will show you. But it’s an assignment I do with my students because I do live in rural Maine. I often ask them to take pictures themselves, but anybody can find pictures of food and talk about its production in a very artistic way.

Vicki: What kind of things are they overlaying, like where it came from, or that sort of thing?

Julie: For example, my students took a picture of an apple orchard, and it was their kids picking apples in an apple orchard. Then they overlaid some terminology like, “Here’s where the bees would be pollinating,” and “Here’s where the cider is pressed,” and that type of thing. Go to the website and look at the imagery, because it’s the imagery that is so exciting.

Vicki: Awesome! And we will add this to the Shownotes. You definitely want to look at those enhanced Shownotes over on the blog. OK, what’s our second idea, Julie?

Stories of Meals

Julie: So, another idea I use with my students is I have them create what I call Stories of Meals. Again, they start with an image of a meal, and they pick out what are some of the ingredients? I usually have them focus on major ingredients, but it’s also interesting to look at spices and other minor ingredients. Then they figure out where those items were produced, and then they put all this information onto a map. So, you could use a Google Map, for instance, and you start looking at how far food has traveled to get to you.

So, if you have pork, maybe you find out that your pork is coming from the Midwest. And those spices obviously are going to have traveled a long distance, and maybe you have some potatoes that are from just down the road.

So, it gives them that ability to kind of research where things are produced – at least where they’re commonly reproduced – and sometimes to kind of hunt for thing that are produced locally, and then look at those distances, because the average food is traveling a long distance to get to our plate.

Vicki: Love that, and the awareness it creates, of just our interconnected world and just as well as agriculture. OK, what’s our third?

Design and Build a Greenhouse

Julie: So, my students were able to both Design and Build a Greenhouse. That is understandably a huge project. We were able to get some grant funding, and my students literally did everything from calling the hardware store to ask how much components cost, to leveling the ground, and putting the plastic on it.

See Julie’s iTunes Course on Greenhouse Management

But there is really an easier way to do this in a classroom without all the funding or – quite frankly – the space to do it, and that is you can make model greenhouses and use them. They can be made from wood or cardboard, and you can put plastic over some hoops, and you can grow a little tray of food in it.

So, I’ve shared with you a slideshow about our big project, but in it are some pictures of these model greenhouses. My students started out making the model greenhouses before they built the full size one, but again, thing about doing it right in your classroom. Here in Maine, where I live, greenhouse production is a big deal, because as we go into the winter months it allows us to have fresh food.

Vicki: Awesome. OK, what’s our fourth?

Get Out into the Community

Julie: The fourth idea is important for so many content areas, but for food production it’s Get Out into the Community. Obviously go to farms, and there are farms even in rural areas. Some are rooftop farms, but you can also go to grocery stores. You can go to local restaurants. You can talk to them about where they get their food. We go to fairs. Anytime there’s a fair with a food type theme, I try to take my students.

Gosh, if you’re really brave, maybe if you teach P.E., you can try maybe bicycle tours. That’s something that some communities are starting to do is offer some tours – bicycle or walking — to go and look at different food sources. Talk to the people that are serving food about where their food comes from. So that’s something that is a good connection to make, is that connection between food service or the culinary arts and food production.

Vicki: It sure is, and you’re really building a connection with your community. Such a great thing to do. OK, what’s our fifth, Julie?

Agriculture in the Classroom

Julie: One thing that you really want to do is reach out and connect with your state department of agriculture. There is a national organization called Agriculture in the Classroom. The thing that the state department of agriculture can provide you with is lots of resources – paper resources, internet resources, maybe even speakers that can come out to your classroom. Many states have a statewide Ag in the Classroom component. So, for example, here in Maine, we have one that provides free summer training to teachers about how to better integrate food production into their classroom.

Vicki: So, we have so many fantastic ideas to bring sustainable food systems into our schools. Being aware of where our food originates and how things are grown – this is an important part of just life literacy.

So, follow one of these tips or advice, and take a look at Ag in the Classroom in particular. And this is just an exciting subject and an important one. So be remarkable, and pull sustainability and agriculture into your classroom!

Transcribed by Kymberli Mulford [email protected]

Bio as submitted

Julie Willcott is an advocate for holistic learning with

an emphasis on STEAM (science-technology-engineering-art-math). She provides professional development, content creation, and social media services; presents at national and international conferences; and acts as an advisory board member for SXSWedu.

Blog: Julie Willcott

Twitter: @willcottjulie

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored podcast episode.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.) This company has no impact on the editorial content of the show.

The post 5 Ways to Bring Sustainable Food Understanding into Your School appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/e285/

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zhumeimv · 5 years ago

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The Internet's Going Crazy Over Kumail Nanjiani's Transformation

The Internet’s Going Crazy Over Kumail Nanjiani’s Transformation

Date: 2019-12-18 12:00:07

[aoa id=’0′][dn_wp_yt_youtube_source type=”101″ id=”WToCCoRNxDo”][/aoa]

Say hello to the latest graduate of the Mighty Marvel fitness program.

Kumail Nanjiani recently took to Instagram to post pics of himself after getting absolutely shredded for his role in Marvel Studios’ upcoming epic The Eternals, and the entirety of the internet promptly lost its mind.

Nanjiani now…

View On WordPress

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beardcore-blog · 5 years ago

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Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Review

This review will have all the spoilers. You’ve been warned.

It was either late 2013 or early 2014. Good times. I was messing around on Youtube one day looking at videos of the latest Batman game. Then in the recommended videos I saw something that both confused and intrigued me. The thumbnail was the iconic image of Niel Armstrong saluting the American flag he just planted on the moon. Except there were a couple differences. Twisted, terrifying differences. The American flag was replaced with the banner of Nazi Germany. And Niel was Seig Heil’ing to it. I’m pretty sure I let out an audible "what the fuck?" apon seeing this. This was the E3 trailer for Wolfenstein: The New Order. For those who don’t know, Wolfenstein is one of the oldest franchises in gaming, and put FPS games on the map. A goofy game about shooting Nazis in WWII that gave 90s gamers the chance to shoot the hell out of Mecha-Hitler. Think of it as a prototype to the more infamous Doom series that would launch shorty after. The New Order was a modern-day reboot with some ambitious questions. The biggest one being "what if they won instead?" The New Order takes you to an alternate 1960 where the Nazis beat the allied forces to the nuke (among other advanced tech) and thus took over the world. It was grim. It was campy. It was subtle. It was loud. It was dumb. And it was also much smarter and more engaging than anyone would’ve thought. So it went on to be a smash hit in 2014, and one of my favorite games ever. A few months ago to the day this is being posted, Bethesda stopped by E3 and showed the world it was sequel time, showing off Wolfenstein 2 The New Colossus (Actually like the 3rd or 5th in the series) to the world. The next day I preordered the hell out of it. Was it worth it? Well after 10 days of tearing through it, lemme tell you.

So I’ll start off with things I didn’t like, get the negativity out of the way. It’s not a big list but I think what on it is valid. In The New Order, which I shall now abbreviate as TNO, in nearly all sections you could either go in fast and loud, putting holes in everything that moves with dual automatic shotguns and a big laser cannon. Or you could be a bit more stealthy about things, sneaking through vents and corridors putting knives in throats and taking care of problematic enemies from afar with a suppressed pistol (which might I mention was one of the things I loved about the TNO; keeping the pistol relevant and not just a forgettable starter weapon like most shooters). It was all about personal play style, but both options were viable. In The New Colossus, which I shall now abbreviate as TNC, going in loud was the way I always went because it seemed more viable. And I always went stealth in TNO. I probably just need to learn the areas, but there was some problems I ran into. Like this game being dark. Not story wise (even though it is) but literally. I remember alot of areas meant to be stealth-able lacking in the lighting department, and I set my brightness at the recommended settings, too. Anytime I’d get caught it’d be from and enemy that I couldn’t see. And that leads to another problem. In TNO, enemies stuck out in the maps. Even if they were dully-colored humaniods coming in plentiful shades of gray you’d still spot them from across the area. It was probably due to both TNO being brighter and the enemies having a wide design variety. Not so much in the TNC. There’s less design variety here and they all seem to just blend into the background alot. Even the brightly-colored HAZMAT and Venus space troopers don’t pop in anything less than Glamour Magazine photo booth. On top of that those two previously mentioned troopers, while being obvious separate models apon inspection, honestly just look like classic Mortal Kombat-esque palette swaps. Again, TNO had alot of variety in their designs. Which is why it was a shame there was no proper model viewer in TNO, and why it’s straight-up bullshit their isn’t one in TNC. One of my favorite bits of last year’s DOOM (another Id games classic updated for the modern world) was a model viewer that let you get an up-close look at the game’s monsters and weapons. The Batman: Arkham games have had it for years. Hell, I remember having them back in 2005 with Jak III. Why can’t Wolfenstein, with their toybox of greatly-designed characters, weapons and assets have it? Or a photo mode, too? I’m not insane about graphics in games, but I still appreciate them with how incredible they are today, and TNC is no exception. It’s a beautiful game. Let me appreciate it to the fullest extent possible. Honestly these days model viewers and photo modes are something all games should have with how far graphics have gone. If only bosses got the same advancement. TNO had a few that aren’t Psycho Mantis or Big Baby Bowser levels, but they were fun nonetheless. DOOM’s bosses were one of the highlights for me. TNC has none of those. Here and then there’s an enemy that can act as a sort-of miniboss, but their’s nothing big and climactic like TNO’s showdown with the towering London Monitor, or the final showdown with the main antagonist, General Deathshead. The "final boss" of TNC is more of a gauntlet than anything. 3 pairs of Supersoldiers, a higher-powered but still common enemy assisted by a shitload of standard infantry, finished off by 2 "Zerstörers", which are basically super versions of the Supersoldiers (I call them "Super-duper Soliders"). The main antagonist of the game, General Engel, goes down with one melee attack, only vainly defending herself with a pistol. An outdated pistol by both the game’s and IRL standards. In a game where mechs, actual Avengers Helicarriers and boimechanically-enhanced mutants are possible, you’d expect so much more. Especially with Hitler himself making an appearance. I was really looking forward to a modern-day Mecha-Hitler. Not sure if I’d want bosses to worry about though since something as simple as getting your weapons out can be a pain. In TNO you could dual wield nearly every weapon in the game, but you could only dual wield two of the same gun. In TNC dual wield returns, for every weapon you can carry, and you can interchange between them. And while it has it’s uses for sure, it feels kinda clunky, not to mention slow. TNC takes it’s sweet time letting you change your weapons which can be fatal, especially since this game carries over a problem TNO had in that you’re not exactly warned when your current ammo’s about to run dry and you’re gonna get lit up while changing a clip.

Now to the good, which I assure you outweighs the bad. Lemme start by saying that the gunplay feels as fantastic as before. Every gun has kick and you feel it whenever you see a Nazi get turned to mush by your triple-barreled automatic rotary shotgun. Yes, that’s a thing in this game. As is a pistol-sized grenade launcher. And sticky-bomb launcher. And an OP-as hell laser cannon that atomizes people and metal covers/doors alike. And all of these can be powered-up through upgrades. The Shotgun can be upgraded to have ricochet rounds to deal even more damage. The pistol can have a suppressor so it stays useful like it did in TNO. The Assault Rifle can have both a scope and armor piercing rounds making it able to down mechanical enemies in one shot. And the laser cannon. Oh god the Laser cannon. Called the LaserkraftWerk in the game, it’s by far the best weapon you’ll get, even before upgrades. One shot will destroy even more armored infantry, but when you upgrade it so the blast can be charged, ooooooohhh. One charged blast will down Super soldiers with ease, and even on higher difficulties the powerful Zerstörer units I mentioned earlier will fall with a few good shots. Combo this with an extended battery doubling your already-decent ammo pool, And you’re unstoppable. I guess that leads to another issue. While every gun has their uses and you’ll likely use every one at one point, like DOOM before it you’ll probably cruise along primary’ing 2 guns. For me it was the Shotgun and Laserkraftwerk. But even then they weren’t the weapons I used the most. It was the heavy weapons. In TNO there was a Heavy MG you’d find here and there. It was powerful, sure, but could only be picked up and not carried in your inventory, and slowed you down considerably. You couldn’t sprint and crouching reduced you to a snail’s pace, and interacting with anything would make you drop it. In TNC there’s 4 types of heavy weapons and they’re awesome. They still slow you down but nowhere near the TNO’s. You CAN interact with stuff and you can even sprint with them. Doesn’t sound like much but believe me, that makes a world of difference. Another thing that gives you an edge in combat is the contraptions. There’s 3 in total; The Ram Shackles, which allow you to bash through both weak walls and enemies alike, the Constrictor Harness, which allows you to sneak around in tight spaces, and the Battle Walker, my favorite, which is just some goddamn stilts. They let you get to higher places so its not anywhere as useless as it sounds, but also has perks, like the other contraptions. You’ll be able to tank explosions without falling over, make enemies freeze n terror at the sight of you, and even keep your overcharged health from going down, my favorite. Speaking of health, one thing that makes the newer Wolfenstein and Doom games is the lack of regenerating health. You have to find health and armor in the levels, and this returns in TNC. One addition though is instead of having to pick up stuff manually, walking over health and armor pieces will make you pick it up automatically, though manually picking them up like before is still an option. It admitting needs refinement but it works well enough. It’s nice after a firefight were I took a beating, I remember where a health pack or some armor was, I run to that location, and I already have some extra heath/armor on me when I get there from the bits that was lying around. While I did say that their isn’t much variety in the enemie’s designs, the designs that are there are good, and carry over that retrofuturistic asthetic I loved so much about TNO. My favorites are either the Ubersoldat, with is basically a Nazi T-800, or the previously-mentioned Zerstörer. Enemy behavior is much better in this game too. In TNO during a stealth section if an enemy ran into a dead body, they’d just move along like something happened. In TNC, enemies are much more sharp. Anything louder and light sniffle they’re hear and investigate, and if they find a dead body they go into high alert and start hunting for you. The levels are incredible too, truly feeling and looking like a 1960s America under Nazi control. The level layouts in this game are kinda funny. In TNO a new level was an entirely new location. In TNC, multiple levels are across one location. This is due to the levels being so much more vast than TNO if anything. My favorite level is either the Nazi base on Venus (the actual planet), or Manhattan, which was directly hit by a Nazi nuke in WWII and is now a desolate, irradiated wasteland. You could feel how thick and cancerous the air is, and the devastated buildings have their upper skeletons eerily bent and curled from the blast. Fallout fans will have a bit of deja vu going through it. All these locales help guide the story along, which like TNO before it is a standout part of the game. TNC takes place right after TNO more or less, after the main character, BJ Blazcowiz, is mortally injured in his big battle with General Deathshead. You’re saved by your resistance buddies before they nuke the place, but you’re still messed up. After 5 months in a coma, the game finally starts. With you shooting Nazis on a U-boat you captured previously in a wheelchair. For half the game the only reason you’re able fight again is thanks to a power suit wired to BJ’s brain. Even while you’re fighting BJ’s injuries are taking their toll. By his own estimate, he has weeks. Which is tragic to think about since in TNO, he met Anya Oliwa, a nurse who took care of him during a prior comatose, and eventual lover. By the time TNC rolls around, she’s heavily pregnant with BJ’s twins. Not being their for his kids is something BJ laments a few times, and you feel for him. Especially when you learn about his awful childhood at the beginning of the game. He deserves a good family, and it sucks he’ll never get that. And for a bit it really seemed like that he wouldn’t since midway through the game, BJ’s betrayed by his abusive, racist, Nazi-loving father who make his childhood such a shitshow, and is captured by Nazi forces. After a few weeks of parading "Terror Billy" The most horrible terrorist the world has ever seen according to the Nazi propaganda machine, BJ is executed in front of the Nazified Lincoln memorial to an audience of millions. Beheaded, it really seems like the game took a grim turn. Luckily due to the quick work of his aforementioned buddies in the resistance and some advanced tech, BJ is saved, if head slapped onto a new super soldier body. This brings up something that some reviewers had an issue with. TNC goes through a tone shift in story midway through the game. It starts out very grim and foreboding. Your base was attacked, the leader of the resistance is murdered right in front of you, America seems like it’s perfectly fine living under the Nazi’s boot, BJ is crippled and basically expecting death, and his unborn kids seem like they won’t have a dad. Even in gameplay things feel grim at first. Even with the power suit giving double armor you can’t escaped the halved health. You really feel like you’re playing a crippled character. BJ himself puts it out there pretty good. "I take it off, I’m afraid I’ll fall apart and all the pieces won’t fit back together again." Then he loses that body and gains one that can actually move on it’s own power and then some. BJ is basically reborn. stronger than ever. It makes sense that the game would kick up to a more upbeat tone. You’re a new man, more powerful than ever before. This can be done. You can save the world. This upbeat attitude peaks at the birthday party scene. Just before the final assault, it turns out it’s BJs birthday, so what do you and your resistance buddies do? Party like theirs no tomorrow, because for all they know there might not be. If their’s one thing I like in a story it’s reminding me that the character I’m playing and the characters around them are people, and not by just showing me their trauma and flaws. Every character in Wolfenstein already has those in spades. I’m more for seeing them having fun. Being happy. Enjoying eachother’s company. Take me out of the misery for once and remind me that their’s something good in the world. Not to say seeing smiles on their faces is what made them good characters. Every major character is pretty good in this game. Grace Walker, The new resistance leader and black revolutionary front member is pretty much a female Samuel L. Jackson. General Engel, The game’s antagonist, is the perfect villain in that you want nothing more but to see her get what’s coming to her. Super Spesh, Grace’s husband and crackpot alien conspiracy theorist, gives some good comic relief for the time he’s around. And Anya. Fucking Anya. Loyal, smart, and considering the crazy shit she does while carrying twins in her, may be more badass than BJ himself. And even with the grim beginnings don’t think this game takes itself too seriously. In one level, right after BJ monologues to himself about his imminent mortality, he (and us) get a first glimpse at the Nazi’s rocket-powered train system. Something he immediately responds to with basically "what the fuck?". After nuking the Nazi high command in fucking Roswell, BJ escapes on what’s pretty much the monocycle from Men In Black. Before BJ’s head is slapped onto his new body, it’s dropped in a jar like Futurama. That Venus level I mentioned earlier? You get there on a Nazi flying saucer. And again, stilts. One of your upgrades is big, stompy stilts.

Overall out of all the recent iD software games to hit the scene lately, I’d say DOOM is my favorite. But I’ll give it to The New Colossus. With a few bumps here and their it’s just as fun to play as it’s predecessor, and improves in most areas. Overall, yes, it’s a step up from The New Order, and if you want a fun, absurd shooter with a good story to tell, look no further,

Posted by SHARPSPEED on 2017-11-08 21:23:49

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The post Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus Review appeared first on Good Info.

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archiebwoollard · 6 years ago

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Google Remarketing Strategies That’ll Work Every Single Time

So, let’s say you set up killer search campaigns on Google Ads. You’re bringing in the most qualified traffic, your click-through-rate (CTR) is through the roof, your conversion rate is 30%, your boss is happy, and you are feeling pretty good.

Sure, the other 70% of your visitors left without converting. However, according to Invesp CRO, the average conversion rate in the B2B lead generation industry is 28%.

So, not to worry, right?

Well, yes and no. Why let your targeted audience convert somewhere else when you can reel them back in to further increase your ROI? Create a remarketing strategy, bring your audience back and reassure them that you are the right choice.

Now, there are several types of remarketing strategies out there. We’ll go over which ones you can use for Google Ads and YouTube. Additionally, we’ll cover some cheeky ways where you can start seeing results immediately in your campaigns. Here we go!

Google Display Remarketing

Let’s start with the most common strategy, Google Display Remarketing. We’ll pretend you have all of your display ads in the correct sizes, formats, and they’re all CRO-optimized with best practices. Additionally, you’ll need a pool of at least 100 people, and then you can move forward implementing the following tips to fully enhance your remarketing strategy.

1. Refine Targeting – Set up your campaign to only reach people who visited your pages through paid efforts and did not convert. You can target anyone who visited organically or through direct channels. However, you may lose some control over the quality of trackable traffic.

If you have successful search campaigns they will translate into your remarketing campaign in the same way. You can even make it hyper-targeted by creating a custom remarketing strategy for each search campaign you’re running, but that’s a topic for another discussion.

2. Avoid Unwanted Associations – With remarketing, you are basically following your users wherever they go as long as that website is in the GDN (Google Display Network). However, you wouldn’t want people to associate you with a specific brand or topic just because you showed up on that site, right? You can be affiliated in a good light, but not all sites are created equal.

You can find an example of this below:

Luckily, with a few quick steps you can exclude all topic and content types you don’t want to show up next to. Go to the main settings of your display campaign, click on additional settings, and under content exclusions you will see the following.

Just check the boxes of topics you do not want to be associated with!

3. The Power of Frequency Capping – Many people don’t pay attention to frequency capping when setting up campaigns. However, this is key to optimize your campaigns and avoid banner burnout, which is when visitors are being overexposed to your ads and it drops the response rate. Set a frequency cap to limit the number of times ads show to the same user. It is generally recommended to start with 5-7 impressions a day per user (Adglare).

Google RLSA

For remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA), you need a bigger pool of people (at least 1000) to start your remarketing strategy. Before you begin, keep in mind that these people came to your site, didn’t find what they were looking for and went back to searching on Google. Friendly reminder, ONLY include non-converting visitors from your paid campaigns.

Now it’s time to grab their attention for good:

1. Use Keywords With High Potential – In the RLSA campaign, your targeting will still be around keywords. We suggest using keywords from your main search campaigns that have a ratio of high CTR and low conversion rate. Why? This is because you’ve already done a good job attracting people with relevant and engaging ads (high CTR) but they’re not quite convinced yet on your product or service (low conversion rate). You just need to be there AGAIN when they go back to performing a search using the same or similar keywords.

While putting together those keywords, it’s also smart to look at the search terms that were triggered by your keywords. For example, if your core keyword was “lpn programs”, but you’re also seeing a lot of search terms for “online lpn programs” or “lpn programs chicago”, you may want to add those to your list.

Next, refine your targeting by weeding out keywords that triggered irrelevant search terms. For example, search terms that have informational intent. These words usually start with “how”, “what”, or “where”.

Below is a solid example of a search terms report with relevant terms, high CTR, and slightly lower conversion rates that would be exceptional keywords to use in an RLSA campaign.

2. Tailor Your Ad Copy – Target your audience with unique ad copy that’s different to what they’ve initially seen. Highlight your UVP (unique value proposition), specify benefits and features, and be clear on why they need to take a second look. Maybe they missed something the first time!

Additionally, this will be the time to offer a discount or a promo to stand out in the SERP (search engine results page). However, be aware of your audience. What’s going to entice them? Everyone loves a discount but remember that you are offering quality services and not “giving them away!”

Google Custom Audience (Contact List)

Google Custom Audience lets you use both search and display remarketing by uploading customer data (email, phone number, first and last name) that you’ve collected in the first-party context. For example, this can be information collected from your websites, apps, physical stores, or other situations where customers shared their information directly with you.

To use custom audiences you need to upload a list of contacts. This list size needs to be at least 1000 if you’re targeting contacts on Google Search and at least a 100 if you’re targeting them on Google Display.

Essentially, the same size requirements are in RLSA and Display Remarketing campaigns. Once you upload, Google will try its best to match your contacts with its database. Keep in mind that it does not guarantee that every contact will get matched, so you may want to upload over the minimum required amount to ensure you will have a list in place to use.

Once you have that list in Google, here is what you can do:

1. Use Broad Match Keywords – I know, I know, it’s against the biggest PPC rule of all time – “Stay AWAY from broad match keywords”. However, in this case, your audience is already narrowed down and qualified, so using broad match keywords is actually an advantage.

If you think about it, they have been qualified twice. This happened once when they shared their information, and the second time after going on Google to search a keyword for the service or the product you are offering. So, trying to qualify them a third time through specific keyword match types will only result in too low of a volume.

2. Tailor Copy to Speak to The Specific Audience – Let’s pretend that you gained your contact list through a webinar you hosted. You have your keywords and now it’s time to create your ad copy and the landing page.

Your ad copy will be a great medium for letting people know there is more information to be taken. The landing page can share the key points you covered in the webinar and connect dots on where your audience should go next.

If you’re not sure how your landing page should look like in terms of structure and functionality, here is an article to read about lead generation landing pages. If you’re not selling a product or offering a bottom of the funnel solution (BOFU) on your page, you will most likely want to drive your audience further down the marketing funnel.

Here is a good example of a landing page that does that:

It’s simple but yet visually appealing. It reminds you of the conference you attended and offers a demo video as a next step to give you more information about something that’s important for your company.

YouTube Remarketing

YouTube allows various ways to remarket to an audience. We’ll dive into one that we think aligns best with Google Ads and allows the most control over your remarketing strategy. Let’s discuss your audience selection and what ad format you should go with first.

1. Choosing an Audience – While choosing an audience for your remarketing strategy on YouTube, keep in mind that you have a short period of time to demonstrate your product or service. Therefore, it’s best to show it to people who have already had good engagement with you or are aware of what your product or service is.

This is essential as it can make that last push toward your audience choosing you over a competitor!

Below is a screenshot of two different audience types (visited three or more times and stayed on the page for more than 10 minutes) that you can use separately or together:

2. Choosing an Ad Format – Here is a list of all ad formats offered by YouTube. The formats I have experienced the most success with are skippable and display ads.

With skippable ads, your audience is able to skip the video after watching it for five seconds. Pretty straightforward, right?

You only pay if visitors watch it until the end or at least 30 seconds. These ads are beneficial for high impressions, brand awareness, and TOFU (top of the funnel) solutions. Skippable ads are also relevant if your product needs a demo video to best highlight its features and benefits.

On the other hand, with display ads, you pay per click, similar to running a display campaign. Your ad appears at the right of the feature video and above the video suggestions list. Display ads are located where they have to compete with related video thumbnails.

So, to grab attention, they need to be eye-catching! If you are able to achieve that, these ads are great for driving clicks to key landing pages.

Conclusion

Overall, creating a remarketing strategy, along with your search and display campaigns, will only strengthen your efforts. Ads are a part of our everyday lives, which may be why the marketing funnel is stretching more to guide people to exact solutions they are looking for.

So what’s next?

Check out how to add remarketing codes or create remarketing lists in Google Analytics, which you can find here.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://www.ppchero.com/google-remarketing-strategies-thatll-work-every-single-time/

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maxslogic25 · 6 years ago

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Google Remarketing Strategies That’ll Work Every Single Time

Sure, the other 70% of your visitors left without converting. However, according to Invesp CRO, the average conversion rate in the B2B lead generation industry is 28%.

So, not to worry, right?

Google Display Remarketing

You can find an example of this below:

Just check the boxes of topics you do not want to be associated with!

Google RLSA

Now it’s time to grab their attention for good:

Below is a solid example of a search terms report with relevant terms, high CTR, and slightly lower conversion rates that would be exceptional keywords to use in an RLSA campaign.

Google Custom Audience (Contact List)

Once you have that list in Google, here is what you can do:

Here is a good example of a landing page that does that:

YouTube Remarketing

YouTube allows various ways to remarket to an audience. We��ll dive into one that we think aligns best with Google Ads and allows the most control over your remarketing strategy. Let’s discuss your audience selection and what ad format you should go with first.

This is essential as it can make that last push toward your audience choosing you over a competitor!

Below is a screenshot of two different audience types (visited three or more times and stayed on the page for more than 10 minutes) that you can use separately or together:

2. Choosing an Ad Format – Here is a list of all ad formats offered by YouTube. The formats I have experienced the most success with are skippable and display ads.

With skippable ads, your audience is able to skip the video after watching it for five seconds. Pretty straightforward, right?

So, to grab attention, they need to be eye-catching! If you are able to achieve that, these ads are great for driving clicks to key landing pages.

Conclusion

So what’s next?

Check out how to add remarketing codes or create remarketing lists in Google Analytics, which you can find here.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8217493 https://www.ppchero.com/google-remarketing-strategies-thatll-work-every-single-time/

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