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argumentl · 3 years ago

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The Freedom of Expression Ep 51 - Amazing technology - 'Human with modified skull'

K: Hi this is Dir en grey's Kaoru with this week's episode of The Freedom of Expression. Joe, Tasai, welcome.

T: And thank you too.

J: Ta-da! We are wearing it.

K: Hahaha

J: We are wearing it. This is naturally cool, isn't it?

T: Yes.

K: Um, if we don't say anything the viewers won't understand.

J: Uh, Tasai, could you explain?

T: Um, so this is another Tokyo Sports T-shirt collaboration. We are putting one out.

K: It was a hoodie before, right?

T: Yes, that was a collaboration with Don Quijote. This time we've collaborated with the store Hardcore Chocolate in Higashinakano, to create this really cool tshirt.

K: I'm wearing it too.

T: Oh, thank you. Its a Core-choco × Tokyo Sports collaboration.

*clapping/cheering*

K: The back is nice too.

J: Yeah, I mean, I can't see it myself though. What is written on it?

T: Its past Tokyo Sports headlines. The black is pro-wrestling headlines, like 'Inoki's grand KO defeat'.....'Hansen...near murder' etc.

J: Wow.

T: These shocking headlines are...

J: All over?

T: Yes, all over it. And as for the front, Joe, could you turn around?

J: Yes.

T: Those are copies of Tokyo Sports tied up with string, just on the verge of being thrown away, giving a kind if melancholic feel.

J: Ahh, this is cool too.

T: Its very Tokyo Sportsy.

K: Are the white and back versions different?

T: Yes, they are different.

J: Ah! They are different?

K: The white one has 'Matsui' written on it.

T: Matsui's wedding.

J: Oh yeah.

K: This black one says, 'Brody'.

J: Pro-wrestling?

T: Yes, its mainly pro-wrestling. And the white is showbiz...

J: Sports and showbiz? Oh, so it is.

T: 'Elvis lives' and so on.

J: This is great...ah..'The Monster with 21 faces'!

K: Its nostalgic, isn't it?

T: Yeah, this type of thing.

J: Ahh..of course...Ah, shocking photos.

K: 'Discovery of Kappa'....'Madonna had hemorrhoids' haha.

K, J, T: Hahaha.

J: Does it really matter? haha.

T: Haha, that was about one time a long time ago when Madonna came to do a show in Japan. She requested a bidet toilet, so we reckoned maybe its because she had hemorrhoids.

J: Just from that? You put this headline with it?

K: Your info is thin!

T: Haha.

J: Right?! Zero fact checking! Guess after guess!

K: Incredible. So, there are two of these.

J: What should we do with them?

T: Well, I thought we could make them presents for the people who always watch The Freedom of Expression.

J: Ohhh! *claps*

K: There is black and white.

J: One of each?

T: Yes.

K: The size is S.

J: S?

K: Joe is wearing M, I'm wearing XL. Anyone who wants a big one..

J: Please but it.

K: Yes. For people who want S...um, what should we do...you could leave a comment on my Twitter..

T: With your thoughts on this show.

J: Of course.

T: Yes.

K: Yeah.

T: And we could choose one from those.

J: Leave a decent comment..

T: Like which was your favourite episode or something?

J: Ahh, you know how to do this!

K: Joe, its just that you're always drunk.

J: I'm always drunk, haha. When I see Tasai, Im learning how to conduct myself.

T: Excuse me brother, thank you very much.

J: Your stocks will rise with this tshirt. Yours and Tokyo Sports' stocks.

T: I hope so.

K: Everyone will be cool wearing this.

J: They really will be cool.

K: Please buy it, really.

J: If someone wanted to buy this, where do they get it from?

T: Probably online. You can buy it on Corechoco's site.

J: I see.

K: Ok, so today's story is a Tokyo Sports selection.

J: Its a Tokyo Sports day today.

T: A Tokyo Sports produced story...

The headline is 'Will we rise up in 2021? - Amazing technology, human with modified skull'. As for the content of the story, it asks what new technology will appear in the year 2021, and its by our science writer Hisano, who wrote about some of the things he'd heard.

J: Oh, so he's done it properly?

T: Yes. So firstly, well, we hear a lot about this A.I. deepfake problem at the moment, don't we? Like changing faces without permission, and making these made-up sexy images which cause harm, for example. *1

J: Yeah, its the basis of fake news, right?

T: We are hearing about that more and more, thats the first thing. Secondly, there is apparently this idea called, 'Trans-human' where people power up their own body with technology, and Hisano wondered whether Trans-human technology with develop a lot during this year. Specifically, well, there is actually someone doing this in Spain, Manel de Aguas. He peeled back the skin on his head and attatched self-mafe fin shaped devices to his skull. The fins contain a bone conducting oscillator and temperature sensor, so he can tell if the weather is hot or cold through vibrations in his head. So, this is a way to catch very small atmospheric changes that regular people wouldn't normally be able to sense.

J: I see.

T: And there are pictures of him, so please take a look.

J: If you go to the Tokyo Sports website?

T: Yes, you can see it there. Furthermore, well, there are quite a lot of other examples, like a 'trans-human' using prosthetics, or having an IC chip implanted into your hand to use for the train etc. On top of that, France has plans to make a conscription army like this. The name of the project is 'The Bionic Soldier Project', which is a really cool name. They would be like super strong soldiers who never got tired and didn't need sleep, and who could heighten their sight and hearing with medication, and would have communication equipment embedded in their brains to connect directly to wireless netwoks. Bionic soldiers..scary, right?

J: Yeah. Its like the end to the era of traditional fighting.

T: Research has been going on even longer America, in their Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where paralyzed patients have had chips embedded in their brain, and have successfully been able to control drones with their thoughts. They've already done that. Even bedridden people can control drones. Technology his also being developed to go without sleep for 48 hours by running electric currents through the brain. This is not the talk of dreams, we are closing in on these things. There is also a plan by Nasa, a mission to redirect asteroids, where a robot spaceship would grab an asteroid, carry it over to the moon's orbit, and dig up minerals from it. Its like the world of Gundam. What do you think of this for 2021?

J: So, like these might become a reality within this year?

T: Yeah, some of them, as far as the technology goes.

K: It'll be like Robocop.

T: Yeah.

K: Its incredible, its like the world of 'Terminator'.

J: Yeah, it is.

T: In reality, controling a drone with the brain is aleady being used in China with toys.

J: With the brain..?

T: Like, controlling it with your thoughts by just imagining it rising. And in Japan..

J: You have to operate it.

T: In Japan they can be controlled with radio waves *2, but in China they can already move drones around using brain waves. Like, its technologically possible to attatch a bomb to a drone and make it fly somewhere and explode...its scary.

J: If technology advances this far, people won't need to study for exams and stuff, will they?

T: Thats right.

J: With a chip embedded...we talk about preventing cheating these days, but you would have all that data within you, or you could just go outside and remotely update.

K: Or you could send questions with just your eyes and get answers back.

J: Yeah, its like already at the point where you don't have to bother with tests or exams.

K: And it would mean no more back entrance admissions.

T, J: Yeah.

J: Yeah, like whoever has the money.

T: They might starts scanning people with metal detectors when they do exams to see if they have chips or something in them. Like, have you got a chip in your brain?? If it beeps, you'll know they have a chip.

K: They could put the people who have chips inside like anti-vibration shields..

J: Yeah, like to stop the transmissions.

T: Oh, yeah.

J: We're already getting to this point in time.

T: Do we even need to study anymore?

J: Yeah, like the era of people using their brains is ending.

K: We don't even really need universities and stuff anymore

J: We don't! Cause you have have access to all the information in the world in your head, whenever you like.

K:Yeah, if you have it ???*3

J: Well, there's also the issue of whether this kind of thing will be permitted by law. Like how far..

K: Yeah, it wouldn't be allowed immediately.

J: Yeah, like how far can human ability be harnessed in this way. I mean, there is the problem of genetic engineering too, but..thats where we are at now.

K: Well, there might already be people like this out there.

J: Well, yeah, the technology is there already.

K: You don't know whats going on in other peoples' heads.

J: Well, yeah. Eh, what if Kami is one of them?

K: No, I don't think he is. Absolutely not.

J: Haha

Kami: No, gods are different. But the bionic soldiers who don't need sleep, never get tired, and use medication to improve their sight and hearing...they've been around in Nishinari for a long time.

K: In Nishinari?

J: Haha

Kami: People who look like zombies, there have always been tonnes of them. There is also an article about a 'robot girlfriend to go for a walk with you', which Gifu University made, I'm interested in that. I'd like to support Gifu University with that.

T: I see. Yeah, its a robot girlfriend who holds your hand and goes for walks with you, made by Gifu University.

K: What did Kami say earlier about women, doesn't he have woman trouble?

J: Oh yeah. Kami, don't women like you, being a god?

Kani: Thats a whole different story. Um, this is just a hand holding robot, but I'd like them to try harder with more in-depth research on this.

K: In-depth research? Haha

J: I don't know what he means by that. Kami!!

K: I mean, if they've been able to make the robot to this level, Im pretty sure they can also manage 'in-depth' research. haha.

J: They just won't announce it as university research, they stopped at holding hands.

Kami: Ah, I see. I wanna support deepfake technology too.

K: Ha, you wanna support it.

T: Well, this type of technology was originally invented for mens' pleasure. New technology can even start from such places. Like videos...

K: Ah, yeh, popular people from videos turned up a lot in this erotic stuff (*Sorry if I got this wrong*)

J: Ahh, yes, necessity is the mother of invention. Technology increases due human desires.

T: Yeah, thats it.

J: Well, this could be used for evil ways, or for more interesting ways. There are various ways to use it. Kaoru is there any kind of technology that you ever wanted to invent?

K: That I wanted to invent?

J: Like a specific type of robot or anything like that?

T: If you had a chip in your brain though, and you didn't have to study, what would you do?

K: But if all this stuff becomes normal, I think on the contrary, will might start to want to do things in more detail again. When you can get anything effortlessly, you will start to want to do those things that don't come effortlessly.

J: Ahh, hand made things will become nostalgic.

K: Our sense of value would change. People will want to go out and do things...if you can get everything you need without ever going out. And with food, it will be all there, ready as soon as you open the cupboard, right?

J: Yeah

K: Like, wouldn't you feel like going out instead?

T: Yeah, you'd want to go out and see live performances and stuff too.

K: People were told not to go out on New Years eve, but so many people still went out. haha

T: Oh, yeah.

J: Yep, human mentality just goes like that.

K: People will still go out. So, I think thats the direction it will head.

T: A.I. is pretty popular in human competions at the moment, for example with Shōgi, but in the end, what people really want to see is a human competing with another human.

J: Yes, I think thats true.

K: Yeah, its those natural variations

J: Thats it, we need those. Its that type of thing that is impossible to calculate.

K: A computer couldn't come up with this type of thing. (*holds up Tokyo Sports tshirt*)

T: Haha

K: Its a product of wild fantasies.

T: Hahaha

J: Yeah, that would be impossible.

T: If we let A.I. do this kind of thing we would have lost. Tokyo Sports would be finished.

K: A.I. couldn't make this.

J: Its incredible.

K: 'Human gives birth to frog'.

J: Haha, A.I. could never write this.

K: It probably couldn't, right?

J: Only some bombed out person could do it otherwise.

K: It was worth making, naturally Tokyo Sports.

T: Oh, thank you.

K: So, everyone, please buy one of these tshirts. We have a black and white in size S here, so please send a tweet. Ok, we'll finish here this week. Please subscribe, thank you very much.

*1, 2 Not sure its exactly right.

*3 Couldn't figure out

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #tfoe #kaoru #薫 #translation

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ladynox · 3 years ago

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20 Questions - Writer’s Edition

Tagged by @kaydeefalls & @im-the-punk-who

How many works do you have on AO3? 15. I use to be a pretty profilic writer when I was a teenager (before AO3 thank fuck 😂) but I lost interest. Picked it up again somewhere in my 20s, only to lose interest or the drive or something again. Roswell's the first fandom I've written for in almost decade. Hopefully this time I'll be able to stick too it. Id' forgotten how much I enjoy writing. What’s your total AO3 word count? 233292. Most of that is from just the last year alone! Crazy! How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? Currently posted to AO3? Just three. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Captain America and Roswell New Mexico. If we're counting the stuff lost to long dead Yahoo groups or forgotten notebooks, or the stuff still on the internet because I can't remember my password but I will never own up to? Probably 8? With the addition of Gundam Wing, Sailor Moon, Digimon and Final Fantasy 7. There might have been more but I can't remember anymore. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? The 1-3 and 5 were co-written with @beautifulcheat 1. The Great New Mexico Fake-Off (Roswell, malexa, complete) Michael takes up baking after watching The Great British Bake Off and starts gifting his bakes to the people he loves. Mostly fluff and pining. 2. Milestones (Roswell, malexa, WIP) based after the series, in that nebulous well adjusted future we dream of for our favorite idiots. 😂 Maria, who has been living in a v poly relationship with Michael and Alex for years, realizes she's pregnant. Michael is ecstatic. Alex is conflicted, which dampers some of Maria's joy. Still a pretty fluffy and very domestic fic. This one's on hold because we're both busy with work, school and certification exams. So we only really have time for one, which is the following monster of a fic:

3. The Truth is Right Here (Roswell, malexa, WIP) X-Files/White Collar fusion where Michael is both Scully and Neal, and Maria and Alex are both Mulder and Peter. Yes you heard right. The alien is the skeptic. But the agents don't know he's an alien yet. hahah 4. Testing the Bonds (Captain America, Steve & Bucky) Bucky comes out to Steve during the war. 5. Petit Fours (Roswell, malexa, complete). Companion piece to Fake-Off. An assorted collection of text fics or short fics. Mostly about everyone else's reaction to how bad Michael is at keeping the secret that he's the one baking the cake. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Hmmm looking over these fics, I realize that I don't really write angsty endings. I tend to like my angst with a happy ending, or a hopeful one. Whatever that might look like given the subject matter of the fic. So I guess the closet would be The Message (YGO, puppyshipping, complete). The fic starts after an incident of domestic violence. Jou is basically working through the horror/guilt he feels at what he's done. It's not a happy ending, but there's hope different decisions will be made. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? A New Year, A New Hope (Roswell, malex, complete) is entirely made up of marshmallows from start to finish, so likely that one. Fake-Off's also tooth rottingly sweet. Surprising no one I'm sure hahaha. I love happy endings so I write a lot of fics with those. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written? Yes I do! I'm counting fusion fics as crossovers too. I *love* AUs in general. They're super fun. As for craziest.... well I've already mentioned Truth above, which is likely the craziest because of how ambitious it is. I both love and regret ever starting this monster. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Oh yeah definitely. hahaha One day people will figure out the back button. Do you write smut? If so what kind? Yeah but not a lot. I want to write more smut honestly but I have a hard time writing it. I don't have a problem with action scenes so it's all mental. Just start thinking it's gonna suck or it doesn't make sense or it's boring. Dumb brain, cockblocking me. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of? Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope. Have you ever co-written a fic before? All the time. It's the best. Everything Kat and I write is just to amuse the other, makes writing so much fun. Also, she and I have opposite writing strengths and weakness so it really works out well. What’s your all time favorite ship? Er? I gotta choose just one? Seems kind of pointless to pit different fandoms against each other. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I mean I have every intention of going back and finishing it but probably Six. A malex The Last of Us AU that I had a lot of grand ideas for but have lost all drive to finish. I do think that what's written can largely stand on its own as a 1 shot. One of these I'll go back edit it, give it a good "in conclusion" so to speak. XD What are your writing strengths? Hmm? Character voices/studies, I think. I like doing stream of consciousness a lot. What are your writing weaknesses? Everything. Kidding. Kidding. Probably smut and dialogue. Though I think I'm getting better at dialogue. Lately I've been getting the dialogue on paper before the descriptions. That use to not be the case! Yay! Improvement! What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Use it sparingly and carefully. Most of your readers are probably not going to be able to read that language. The last thing you want is to confuse or annoy your readers. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Gundam Wing 🤣 All of those fics are lost to time and I'm totally ok with that. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? I am proud of everything I've posted to AO3. Um... @beautifulcheat, @maeglinthebold @jocarthage, @tasyfa and anyone else who wants to do it.

#tag meme #apologies if you've already been tagged by someone else #or have already done this #it's sometimes hard for me to keep up with my dash

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arliaeien · 3 years ago

Note

That explains why your fic feels so real!! Do you have any recommendations on media that helped you get a better grasp on the time period?

Thanks you for asking 🙏

Um, most of this knowledge is encyclopedic knowledge.

So, it's probably not the best answer, but Wikipedia is still a good place to start... Personally, I looked up all the history of entities related to the Kingdom of Naples since the 14th century to try to get a global view and to understand how Araki’s choices created differences.

For archives, I use Google Books, but there are certainly others.

The truth is, a question or a problem arise for me to write (fanfiction or some tumblr article), and I try to find the answer or the solution. Keeping in mind I need it to write, it created stronger motivation to do so!

Of course, it's easier with a question like "what great equestrian competitions existed in the place X in the year Y?" than with a social or geopolitical issue. As for politics, I spent a long time in the Gundam universe fandom, so I think it helped a little to design an environment that makes sense and specially to consider the Kingdom of Naples and its issues on a global level.

Otherwise, the easiest way is to ask yourself a question: about education (what was school like in 1880 in Italy?), sports (what was it like to be a jockey in 1888 in the USA?), urbanism (was there running water and electricity in the place Z? what means of transport?), art (what was the artistic style of the buildings? the interior decoration?), society (were there restaurants? how did people behave before marriage? - of course, the place of homosexuality -), communication (how did the post office work? and the phone?), major international events (Olympic Games? World's Fairs?), health and sexuality (how contraception worked? which diseases and which part of the population is affected?)

There are too many questions to list them all here.

In fact, you have to be curious and proceed according to your interests associating the time period. Seriously, nobody give a shit of Napoleonic Code.

You could use your hobbies and look about what it was like in 1890. Love fashion? Go for it. Love cooking? Go for it. Love Johnny? Look about equestrian world. Love Gyro? Look about the executioner duty.

And little by little, you can get the ability to marvel at things that without SBR you would never have been interested in.

It's much more fun if you think “Johnny probably knows about Julius Caesar because he went to school in England and the island was part of the Roman Empire”, or “Gyro probably saw an eruption of Vesuvius when he was 6-years-old”.

So, yes, there are archive platforms specialized in general culture, but every time I did my research directly through Google. That's what allowed me to find the most relevant answers. About platforms, I like Persee (https://www.persee.fr/disciplines) and Britannica (https://www.britannica.com).

To portray places, I love looking for pictures of old postcards! It makes me feel like I'm seeing through the eyes of the characters.

And for period furniture, I use antique websites such as: https://www.proantic.com/en/ or I do research by associating the name of the furniture (bed, table, chair...) with the name of the artistic movement of the time.

I’m not sure I gave you the answer you were looking for, but it was an interesting question to ask myself, so thank you again!

#writing #research #sbr spoilers

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untitledtallgeesepodcast · 4 years ago

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[TRANSCRIPT] Episode 0: The Anime They Once Saw (Or Didn’t See)

Kat 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Untitled Tallgeese Podcast, a podcast where four of us will watch Gundam Wing and then tell you all about Gundam Wing. My name is Kat, I write about comics on the internet, and I will be your episode moderator for today.

Mallory 0:17

And I'm Mallory, and I also write about comics.

Cathy 0:20

I'm Cathy, I don't write about comics. I am actually a lawyer, which sucks.

All 0:26

[laughter]

Caitlin 0:28

I am Caitlin. I'm a PhD researcher in Tokyo right now working on Japanese film. Yeah.

Kat 0:33

Extremely legit.

Caitlin 0:35

Are we?

Cathy 0:36

and we're all here to talk about the Gundam Wing.

Kat 0:38

[crosstalk] I mean we might be.

Kat 0:41

We are here to talk about Gundam Wing, the maybe not critically acclaimed, but fandom, okay, audience favorite anime that was released in 1995 in Japan and then made its way to the US in March 2000 on Toonami. So, we're going to talk about our fandom history and our history with the show Gundam Wing and I guess I will kick that off. So I-- I grew up watching anime because my dad is a huge nerd. So we were obviously watching Toonami. And the promos blew my mind. My friends and I all got really into it in middle school. Then we discovered fanfiction and we started with Heero/Relena fan fiction. [Caitlin: Ugh.] And then then we realized people could be gay.

Caitlin 1:29

Uugh, thank god.

Kat 1:30

That opened up like, I know it was like the clouds parted. rainbows fell from the sky. We were like, Oh, wow.

Mallory 1:39

[singing] "A whole new world"

Kat 1:40

[laughter] And then I don't know. I wrote a lot of fanfiction posted it on FF dotnet, got into fandom and then stayed in fandom. So, Mallory?

Mallory 1:53

I didn't have cable growing up. So whatever anime exposure I got was like, whatever was on Saturday morning cartoons. So Digimon was my first fandom and I was really into that.

Kat 2:08

Hell yeah

Mallory 2:09

And that sort of like bled into Gundam Wing somehow, I don't really remember how. But I found my way to Gundam Wing, read a lot of fanfic, hadn't ever really watched the show. And then in high school, my friend had some like random episodes from the first season question mark. I have no idea. So I watched those, and really enjoyed that? But I have no idea what their context was, so I'm coming at this pretty, pretty new.

Cathy 2:44

So you have never watched it from beginning to end?

Mallory 2:47

No.

Cathy 2:47

Got it. This will be fun.

Mallory 2:50

I'm expecting to be really disapproving of all the adults in the room. I find that like, now that I'm watching anime about kids, I'm really protective of these kids like, "Hey, this is really unethical!"

Cathy 3:02

So I'm like Kat, I started watching anime when I was I think around Middle School. I had a friend who got me into Sailor Moon, then I think it was Dragon Ball that was on Toonami at the time? I can't really remember the chronology.

Kat 3:16

Yeah.

Cathy 3:17

But then they did the promos for Gundam Wing, so then I started watching that on Toonami. And it was my first mecha series. And my first Gundam series, I think it's a lot of people's first Gundam series in the United States.

Cathy 3:31

I have attempted to do similar projects to this multiple times where I go back and I rewatch, and I haven't really had the opportunity to actually finish those rewatches. But my memory of it is still kind of stuck of when I was in middle school slash high school. I did get into fandom, so I expect to remember a lot of inaccuracies about what happened. [laughter] Because a lot of what my facts have with this series are have now mutated and changed. But I was a huge Gundam Wing fan, I think it still remains my favorite of the Gundam series just because I have so many memories of it? But I really excited to talk to Mallory, about what you feel and your experiences because it's been so long since I've talked to somebody who actually has never seen the series and doesn't know the story. So I'm super excited about this.

Caitlin 4:24

Yeah!

Cathy 4:25

All right, Cait, tell us about your family history.

Caitlin 4:27

Yeah, so similar to all of us, I guess, I watched anime growing up. I got into Sailor Moon sort of through an accident of just happening to see a very specific episode on Toonami in like 1999, 1998 maybe. So after that, I got really into anime and really into the internet. I think I was very depressed as a child. [laughter] So I spend a lot of time online. I believe that like my my first memories of Gundam Wing are when it was on Toonami: Sailor Moon was on first and then Dragon Ball Dragon Ball Z, and then Gundam Wing. And then they also were showing like the quote unquote unedited versions late

Cathy 5:09

Yes!

Kat 5:09

Yes, the midnight run

Cathy 5:11

The midnight run Right.

Cathy 5:12

Yeah. So very specific memories of like, I think I was mainly attracted to the, like, team format of Gundam if that makes sense? [Cathy: Yeah yeah yeah!] where it was used to sailor Sailor Moon where you have a team of color coded characters. And I'd, at a younger age been really into Power Rangers, where you had a team of color coded characters. So the marketing of Gundam Wing really appealed. You know, cuz I was just a kid watching on TV, I never really, I don't know if I watched the whole thing as a kid, but I got really into the fandom. And by 2000, 2001, I already knew about gay stuff online.

Kat 5:48

Wow. Look at you early bloomer.

Caitlin 5:50

Yeah. So So I got really into the various Gundam Wing pairings, I think it was mainly, I was mainly a 3x4, I think as a child. I went through some, 1x2, and then 2x5 phases. [laughter]

Caitlin 6:09

I still am a big advocate for 2x5, I think it's underrated.

Kat 6:12

I'm a big 2x5.

Cathy 6:13

2x5 is a good pairing, it definitely is.

Kat 6:16

Yeah.

Cathy 6:16

It's a better pairing as an adult.

Kat 6:17

So okay, I think that's actually a pretty good bounce off. So these are the things we remember about Gundam Wing. It was marketed, like, I remember the Toonami marketing 'cause I was really hype for this show. They had like these really extreme commercials.

Caitlin 6:34

Yeah.

Kat 6:35

Um, and I thought the voice acting was good. I don't know, maybe we'll revisit that during this watch, to see if it still is,

Caitlin 6:43

[crosstalk] Was it dubbed?,

Cathy 6:44

[crosstalk] It was dubbed, yes.

Kat 6:44

But I was ready for it. It was dubbed.

Caitlin 6:46

It was dubbed. One thing with the with the Japanese voice acting though, is that it's every single famous voice actor from the 90s. And so you can, you can use Gundam Wing is like a six degrees of every single voice actor from the 1990s.

Caitlin 6:59

Oh, that's cool.

Mallory 7:00

I mean, there are a lot of big American or like, dub dub names on the dub side, too.

Cathy 7:06

One of the things that I remember very strongly about Toonami is that they had what I think we would now call anime music videos, AMVs.

Kat 7:16

Yeah

Cathy 7:17

But they would play

Caitlin 7:18

Yeah,

Cathy 7:18

These montage trailers, where they'd stich together all their different series. And as they accumulated more anime series, these became really, I think, cinematic and gripping tales, where they would kind of try to tell a story to be about, like bravery or honor or like,

Kat 7:36

It's like, plugged directly into my little 11 year old brain like, Whoa,

Cathy 7:40

Yes. And one of them was, I remember was called, like, "technological development" or something like that, that featured a lot of the Gundam Wing clips.

Kat 7:47

Oh, yeah, cuz you only download them from like, KaZaa, or whatever horrible thing I was putting into my computer.

Caitlin 7:52

Yeah. We gotta see if we can find those. [crosstalk] They must be online somewhere.

Cathy 7:56

They are online. And I think they actually came out with like, I think somebody had either like hand by hand remastered them.

Kat 8:03

[crosstalk] Oh sick.

Cathy 8:02

Or they created a remastered version of it. They're wonderful. But that's I think one of the things about Toonami that I remember really strongly was Gundam Wing kind of is one of their, like epitome of like, Cool Anime that I feel like Toonami did and what it did was like they stiched together all these different things Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo and all these other stories to create a story about teenage growth, which is kind of strange and also weirdly fitting at the end of the day about like where Gundam is in the whole universe.

Kat 8:07

I think that's one of the reasons it blew up so much here because the marketing was really intense. Like Toonami, like it sort of right at the beginning, like people were into Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z was getting big. And like the manga boom was sort of happening in bookstores. So contextually, I think, Cartoon Network knew what the hell they were doing. They were like, "We can market the hell out of this."

Caitlin 8:55

And also objectively speaking, Gundam Wing was one of their cooler series. Like, Sailor Moon is cool. Tenchi Muyo is not cool.

All 9:04

[laughter]

Kat 9:06

Yeah.

Caitlin 9:07

Even even if you love it, it's not really cool. Dragon Ball. Love it. I don't know if it's really cool. Gundam Wing had like a very strong -

Kat 9:14

[crosstalk] like the chad of animes

Caitlin 9:16

- adult aesthetic to it, even though it was like, relatively, well, relatively appropriate for like 12 year olds.

Kat 9:23

And they swore during the midnight show.

Caitlin 9:25

Oh yeah,

Kat 9:26

They swore and there was blood.

Caitlin 9:27

So it was very cool. And so I felt very adult watching it even though I didn't really understand what was going on because it's all this fake politics crap.

Kat 9:35

Yeah, I was gonna say I did do a rewatch in like, like, right after college, so it was probably around 2010 ish, maybe? And I don't think we finished the series, but it was like, wow, I used to think this was very deep. [laughter] And I thought all the people in it who are the adults like Mallory, you were mentioning earlier, like they're actually like 17 and 19

Cathy 10:01

Yes!

Kat 10:01

in this show. So watching it at the age of 21, I was like, "Ooh no, don't give these people anything."

Cathy 10:09

I was actually thinking about that. Because when you said Mallory, "oh, well, I become very protective of the children. I disapprove the adults," in my head of thinking "what adults?" [crosstalk, Caitlin: yeah what adults?] because actually, in Gundam Wing, there's a funny thing where people are either 15, 25 or like 70. And there's no in between and nobody really makes adult decisions. So it, That was one thing that really shocked me because as I go back to revisit it, I think, "Oh my god, I'm actually older than almost everybody in this series."

Caitlin 10:39

How old, how old is Treize supposed to be?

Cathy 10:41

He's like 23, or 24.

Kat 10:42

He's 19.

Cathy 10:43

No, Zechs is 19.

Kat 10:44

Oh, Zechs is 19. Right.

Cathy 10:47

I just the idea of giving people who, you know, would have either been in college or just graduate college in my worldview, huge robots.

Kat 10:58

I think the ages of all the characters gets obscured by the anime art style, you know?

Cathy 11:03

Yeah.

Kat 11:03

In a lot of anime fandoms.

Mallory 11:04

And when you're watching this, when you're a kid, you want to see yourself as the protagonist. So it makes sense that, you know, a 17 year old seems like old and cool, and I want to be that person. And then when you're 30, you're like, the 17 year old should not be at war.

Kat 11:23

Relevant is that we definitely watched Evangelion. That was our last series.

Caitlin 11:29

I don't know, I think, I think Heero Yuy is doing fine in war. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be honest, as a 30 year old, I think these kids are much better at war than I would be.

Cathy 11:39

Well, so that's what I find kind of interesting, is that I think this series actually... I don't, I know this wasn't the point but when I rewatched it recently, or just like the first couple of episodes, it seemed, it made a lot of sense, because they were like 15 or 24. Like the series, actually stitches together...

Caitlin 11:58

Yeah.

Cathy 11:58

...really well, because of how young they are, and kind of like the purity of feeling that they have, which I think is

Kat 12:05

Yeah, it is, like

Cathy 12:06

only maybe

Kat 12:07

like that [indistinguishable?]

Cathy 12:07

which I think is like only really, truly possible because I have to think of them as like 15 or 21 or 19 year olds. that is not at all when I took away when I was watching in high school. Right?

Mallory 12:21

Well, I mean, right.

Caitlin 12:22

Part of the ideology of Gundam in general is like trying to restore a form of hope, and youth to, like, young people growing up in Japan, who are the target audience for this, and this idea that, like, you still have the power to change the world, you still have the power to bring about peace in a way that you want, even though you're being manipulated and oppressed by all these crazy adults who make you pilot giant robots. So I think there's a significant, like part of the series is the fact that they are kids who have been recruited into child warfare, and now have to find some way out of that. And like my memory of the series is that even though most of, most of the decisions made are very bad, the kids in general are not making terrible decisions. They're making pretty good decisions.

Kat 13:12

Yeah, the pilots themselves...

Mallory 13:14

[crosstalk] Yeah

Kat 13:14

...are like doing the best they can be doing in that circumstance.

Cathy 13:17

[crosstalk] Exactly, exactly

Kat 13:19

But I think it's sort of interesting, 'cause it's like, to me Gundam Wing is definitely like a fandom era, because I think a lot of stuff exemplifies like...there's like a lot of tropes cycling through it. But also like, the series itself, is so perfectly...like, I think of it as a series that are so perfectly set up for fandom because there's a lot of like, here's my one episode mission, and we have to be at a safe house, I guess. And it's just like, a long interminable war. So there's like, a big, a lot of world building. Yeah, that creates all these spaces that sort of separate from all the political machinations of the series.

Caitlin 13:58

And that's also I think, a lot of what it was meant to be when it was created within the Gundam franchise like it was it was designed to have sort of a BL appeal to girls writing for comic market and that sort of thing. So it had like the setup of five hot guys who you could combine in various forms. And then also like Gundam itself, in general, it's designed to be and a sort of open universe that you can step into at various points, which also facilitates fandom engagement

Mallory 14:28

[crosstalk] literal fandom bait.

Caitlin 14:29

usually in the form, yeah, usually in the form of model collecting, which is like one of the main Gundam forms of fandom which we probably won't talk about too much on the show. But you, you kind of

Kat 14:41

Uh I've definitely built some Gundam models.

Caitlin 14:43

Yeah. Well, you will be the expert on that because I've never touched a Gundam model in my life. But that is like the big thing where you can you can get the model you can construct it, you can learn a little bit more about the, like, the technology and the different like details of the models and stuff like that. And it just gives you like a slight, like Little bit more of these like tiny narratives and that sort of what the fans are consuming rather than an overall plot that makes sense, which is not what Gundam has really.

Kat 15:11

So Gundam [Wing] has like the cool robots but also these hot boys in them.

Caitlin 15:15

That's what I want.

Mallory 15:16

I mean Well, that's exactly what I want to show right now. So it sounds perfect?

Kat 15:21

Honestly, yeah.

Mallory 15:23

I think Evangelion, sort of, because, Kat, you and I just finished -- or are almost finished with -- Neon Genesis Evangelion [Kat, crosstalk: we haven't done all the movies yet] which was also it was my first time [Cathy, crosstalk: Congratulations, laugh] watching the whole series...wow, grim

Kat 15:40

I also only consumed

Mallory 15:42

[crosstalk] grim

Kat 15:42

[crosstalk] I consumed it like piecemeal too

Mallory 15:44

And depressing

Kat 15:45

It was great.

Mallory 15:46

Very good but um grim.

Kat 15:50

Yeah it's pretty grim.

Cathy 15:52

Yeah, it's interesting to me because I feel like Evangelion doesn't make a lot of sense as a cultural product unless you've consumed a series like Gundam or its ancestors before watching it and yet Evangelion is a lot of people's introduction to giant robot series. So I always find that kind of interesting...

Caitlin 16:13

[crosstalk] It's very weird.

Cathy 16:14

because it, it is subversive, and I think it's subversive even if you don't know the tropes of the giant robot series, of which Gundam is perhaps a prime example. Gundam Wing...

Kat 16:27

So I was gonna ask that and like, would you say, since Evangelion is definitely a like the subversion of this genre, would you say Gundam Wing is like the type of series that it is subverting? Or do you think it's in a different place?

Caitlin 16:41

Gundam Wing and Evangelion came out the same year? Gundam Wing is in some ways a, it's already like a parody form of the original iteration of Gundam.

Kat 16:55

Okay, so it's--is it like, um, like the pure essence of teens-robots.

Caitlin 17:02

It's, it's more like, I feel like by the time of Gundam Wing, the tropes of the original Gundam series are so well set that a lot of things in Gundam Wing to, like the fans who watched the original Gundam or like later Gundams, seemed like a rehash but it was designed to bring in new fans. So something like Zechs Merquis is very clearly like a Char Aznable character. It's just sort of a reiteration of that.

Kat 17:29

So is it like a Star Wars, like a Star Wars sequel?

Caitlin 17:33

Like how the Force Awakens is kind of a rehash of yeah, of A New Hope. And then, but it still brings in a lot of fans and has appealing characters and good aesthetics

Kat 17:43

Right, yeah, I guess I think of them, the two shows, as sort of like, splitting the take on... like, what would you say is like the ur-mecha show?

Cathy 17:52

The original Gundam

Caitlin 17:54

Original Gundam?

Cathy 17:54

Yeah, Mobile Suit Gundam.

Caitlin 17:56

I mean, they're, they're older iterations, there's other robot shows. But I feel like when people think of mecha, the first thing they think of is Mobile Suit Gundam.

Cathy 18:06

So the way like I now think of Gundam Wing after the fact of experiences I have now is that like Gundam Wing is actually a perfect like K-Pop boy band way that they built it and so if you can kind of think of it like that, like it's, you need enough of the tropes and symbols, so that everybody watches it and immediately knows it's a Gundam series.

Cathy 18:30

Like the colors of Wing Gundam are so obviously

Kat 18:34

Yeah.

Cathy 18:34

a Gundam Mecca and you need that you can't get away from it. And same thing with like Zech's having a mask it the reason I think of it as being in in the Kpop industry is like there's a derivative sense. And that's animated by both like Merchandising, and advertising and what audiences want but at the same time, it's like this incredibly pure understanding of what makes us like things? And like when you get that when you really get it, like, it doesn't matter how like, quote, unquote manipulative or exploitative it can seem like you love it. And that's enough, right to make it like a thing that we all want to keep coming back to.

Mallory 19:12

And there's basically like, an archetype right? In all of the different characters like you have the more

Kat 19:18

Yeah, you have the serious one.

Mallory 19:20

That's what I was thinking.

Kat 19:21

Like, the goofy one.

Mallory 19:23

Yeah, the goofy one, the sort of mess

Kat 19:25

the ugly one,

Mallory 19:26

like really cute one.

Kat 19:29

Yeah, that's why I was thinking American boy bands cuz they all have to have like a type of heartthrob. Yeah, I'm a bad boy. I love death.

Caitlin 19:38

One of them's, one of them's a rapper.

Kat 19:40

Okay, so we talked a little bit about how we got into it. We talked a little bit about fandoms. And we touched on pairings, do we want to go into pairings at all? Or like our fave characters, or who we think our fave characters will be Before this rewatch?

Cathy 19:54

You know before we do that--Mallory, can you try to tell us what you think this series is about? I'm actually really curious, like before you do a complete viewing, like what? what is what is your understanding of what happens in Gundam Wing?

Mallory 20:08

Um, there's a long interminable war. These boys are recruited by some shadowy government whatever. And they're piloting these mecha. Uugh, I just remember Duo being really annoying.

Caitlin 20:28

[loud gasp] [laughter] [crosstalk] Oh my god.

Mallory 20:29

I mean, not annoying, like, being sort of...

Kat 20:32

Wow.

Mallory 20:33

...the one the pushy one like, he's the challenging one to Heero's "I'm serious and dour." Literally, I have the most broad strokes impressions of what this show is. I just know it looked really fucking cool every time I saw it in, like, a commercial and couldn't watch it.

Cathy 20:55

Fascinating.

Caitlin 20:57

Honestly, even having seen Gundam Wing, I'm not sure I could explain it much better. I don't remember who recruited them.

Mallory 21:03

Okay. Okay, that does make me feel better. Because I was like, Oh, I don't? Do I actually know what the show is? What am I getting myself into?

Caitlin 21:14

There's there's a lot of weird politics.

Mallory 21:17

Well, I'm really excited for that. And I don't mean that sarcastically. Like, I'm really excited to, to see what this world is like, because I remember, like images or impressions. But everything is like out of context. So it'll be cool to see what that context is. Like deja vu? Oh, I remember that. I've seen that in AMV.

Kat 21:48

I remember this from fics that just rewrite scenes from this show.

Mallory 21:55

Yeah, like, what do I know? What do I know of Gundam that is from fanfic only, or is actual canon? I'm curious to figure out.

Kat 22:10

I think everyone's a lot less obnoxious in canon.

Caitlin 22:14

That's true.

Mallory 22:15

Okay, okay.

Caitlin 22:16

This was a this was a really good fandom for the the fandom phenomenon of, you take a character's most, like, annoying trait, and you emphasize it like times 10 in your fanfic.

Cathy 22:28

Yes.

Kat 22:28

Yeah

Caitlin 22:28

Just so everybody knows you know what that character is like.

Kat 22:31

Heero's gonna threaten to kill everybody all the time, constantly.

Caitlin 22:34

"Omae o korosu."

Cathy 22:36

[laughing crosstalk] And so, it's funny that you guys mentioned safe houses, because actually, there are very few safe houses in the original series. In fact, I think there's like maybe one or two scenes ever, where they are all in a safe house provided by one of their allies. And it's a really fascinating trope, because it like pervades the fanfic? But I remember, that I remember was like a big deal, like, I went back and I was like, actually, these people spend very little downtime with each other in the actual series and I find that fascinating.

Kat 23:12

Right? So you have to fill it all in.

Mallory 23:13

Oh, wait, what?

Caitlin 23:14

They actually barely know each other.

Cathy 23:16

Yeah, they truly barely know each other. [crosstalk]

Mallory 23:18

Wait. Oh no, I thought, I thought this was going to be like..

Kat 23:23

[crosstalk] They actually never interact.

Mallory 23:24

we're going to get together and become like a team

Caitlin 23:26

No, no.

Cathy 23:26

Absolutely not,

Caitlin 23:27

They don't fight together; It's 50 episodes of them not interacting.

Cathy 23:31

They, they literally have like, they like, there's probably one or two scenes in which all five of them are on the same battlefield at the same time. And almost every single one of those scenes involves them fighting with each other because like,

Kat 23:44

[crosstalk]Oh, yeah, they fight each other alone.

Cathy 23:45

What's going on? And this was the thing that I'm sure we'll come back to when I came back to this is when I was rewatching. It in college, I realized that of the two people who spend the most time with each other, it's like Trowa and Heero. Because, yes, it is what arc where they actually go on a road trip, which like,

Kat 24:03

it's great. I wrote a thing

Cathy 24:04

like wiped it from my memory when I was thinking about the series, but it really drives home. You know, again, to your point like what of this series do I did I remember that was just from fanfic, and was just what like the fanfic I read very specifically. And so that was one of the things is like, when you come back as an adult, I was like, all of this stuff is so much more interesting to me because like, I actually, like, I don't get me wrong, I still have shipping opinions. But like, I'm older and I have I I'm famous for this. And Kat knows this. I like don't have OTPs. And I'm like not very good about actually being very loyal to pairings. And so as an adult coming back to this, I was like, Oh, this is actually really interesting because the permutations that fandom came up with also came from, like, non-canon material, because there's a lot of non-canon material, like promotional images that bear no resemblance whatsoever to canon.

Kat 24:54

Okay, I would, I would call those extra canonical, right?

Caitlin 24:58

No, they're, they're extra canonical, they count in some form.

Kat 25:02

Right? 'Cause they're official.

Cathy 25:04

I guess so. I mean, sure, we'll talk about that as time comes but like.

Caitlin 25:08

Listen, a canon is not just the story. It's the entire media mix around it. It's those, it's those things that you can collect. It's the extra manga. It's Frozen Teardrop,

Cathy 25:18

Like, Gundam Wing actually, I think is one of the few franchises I know where like "pair the spares" was a real merchandising tactic.

Kat 25:26

Yes, it was.

Cathy 25:27

And so, so everybody had somebody... gay, I mean, like, not like,

Kat 25:34

Wufei had two!

Cathy 25:35

They had a gay and a straight interest that they were paired up with. And so, um, so it's like, fascinating to me to come back and be like, actually, the canon is a lot more flexible and interesting than I remembered it.

Caitlin 25:49

The canon for me is like, remarkable in its commitment to not officially putting anyone together. Like it was, it's very good at balancing out all of the different pairings that it wants to support.

Mallory 26:01

Mm hmm.

Caitlin 26:02

Um, it's interesting to see which ones got picked up as the main two in fandom, which for me, were always 1x2 and 3x4 dominated the fandom, because they're both like, friendly, maybe talkative, personable guy and like silent, brooding, weirdo,

Kat 26:22

Warrior.

Caitlin 26:22

What fandom loves! Fandom loves that exact dynamic in every form. And so like, what 1, 1 and 3, were never going to work together because they're both silent and brooding. Fandom was never gonna pick that up. It's too It's too boring. It's not dynamic enough, right?

Mallory 26:37

Like, you can't fight. There's no banter,

Cathy 26:39

Which is actually weird, because if you go back and watch the episodes, you'll see it. Heero actually is not that quiet. And Trowa is like a nutcase. And so

Kat 26:48

they're really funny together,

Cathy 26:49

when they are together, they're actually incredibly dynamic in ways that in fact, the canon doesn't establish 1x2, or 3x4 to be. And so it is really fascinating, because I do agree with Caitlin. What came out of this canon is very different from what I think the show gives. And I don't know the show was like, open minded because it wanted to sell as much merch as possible or

Caitlin 27:13

It's that.

Cathy 27:13

Yeah, so I don't know.

Mallory 27:14

Capitalism.

Kat 27:16

I am gonna say I think the show is a 3x4 shipper. Like I think if the show had a pairing, it would be a three, it would be 3x4, like from my recollections of the show

Mallory 27:26

Yeah

Caitlin 27:26

I always thought that was true. But now

Cathy 27:28

I disagree.

Caitlin 27:29

I feel like I'm gonna go into this and and be like, they never

Kat 27:32

Nobody else has a musical interlude.

Cathy 27:34

But the but the thing is, here's Okay, so not to, like, make this too much about the pairing... But I also think 1x2 and 3x4 become established. I put that in quotes early in the series. And so it becomes entrenched and people assume that that's the pairing. But actually, I just remember so strongly when I went back and rewatched that I was like, there really is not that much evidence for Trowa and Quatre's like instantaneous connection because Quatre has that with almost every other pilot, and Trowa's relationship with Heero is like so much more interesting when I come back to it, even though I definitely think they would never work. They would like killing each other and instead as an adult.

Kat 28:12

And I mean, I love that pairing. And like the one thing that came out of my rewatch a million years ago was I wrote a 1x3 fic cuz I really love those episodes, and fandom didn't do anything with it. But I feel like, I feel like Quatre and Trowa are framed slightly differently than all the other potential pairings so that they could be together.

Cathy 28:33

Even up until Endless Waltz like, I really just feel like that that was an early series thing. And then as you go on into the series, that relationship while still important, was not really emphasized any more or less.

Kat 28:47

But I mean, if it, if it comes out of the gate strong, [laughter] like

Caitlin 28:51

That's all that matters

Kat 28:52

I still think that the show was pushing that one if it pitched. Like if it was giving the most evidence to any one of them, I think the early stuff was really like, ~look at this beautiful pairing.~

Caitlin 29:04

So wait do we all want to, maybe to end this episode, we should all go through and predict what are OTP or pseudo OTP for Cathy will be by the end of this rewatch.

Kat 29:16

But also tell me your fave character because that's what I asked like, 15 minutes ago.

Cathy 29:21

Okay, Kat you first.

Kat 29:23

Oh, well, my favorite character has always been Duo Maxwell. And I'm predicting that he's still going to be my fave character. And I am going to stake my flag on Duo/Wufei, 2x5.

Cathy 29:36

Mallory?

Mallory 29:37

I think from what I remember, I really liked Trowa, I thought Heero was too dour, but I also think that I might relate to him a lot more this time around. So I'm going to say that Heero is going to be my favorite character. And I've always liked...see, I don't know about fandom pairings. I want to say it'll be...well it was Duo/Heero before? No, but I've-- I really like Duo/Wufei so, like, I think that's just always gonna be my Gundam Wing ship.

Cathy 30:20

So when I was a kid watching it my favorite was Duo Maxwell, but I know from my prior rewatching, or attempts to rewatch the series, that as an older person coming into the series, I actually like the girls a lot more, like Relena and Dorothy and Noin became my favorite characters and I did not give them the credit they deserved when I was watching it as a younger person.

Cathy 30:41

I also was 1x2 shipper but again, I know that what I came out of the series really shipping was disastrous Heero/Trowa, and then Duo/Wufei.

Caitlin 30:56

Okay, I see we are all Duo/Wufei fans now.

Kat 30:59

[crosstalk] That's why this is going to be the superior Gundam Wing podcast.

Caitlin 31:02

Yeah. I feel like so, my favorite character when I was originally watching as a kid was Quatre. I think probably because like I always liked like, the friendly blondes in boy bands?

Kat 31:13

That go apeshit?

Caitlin 31:15

When I got older, I was more into Duo and Duo is was probably still my favorite character. I was into Duo/Wufei for a long time. I just think that they are funny together and terrible. And I actually really like Wufei a lot. I sort of admire that fake honor sort of thing. But I, since everybody said Duo/Wufei, I feel like I should say something else, which is that I think that I will get more into 3x4 again after this rewatch, because it's a comforting pairing, in some ways. It's a return. And we're all very full of anxiety right now. [laughter] And so we just need Quatre and stupid, crazy Trowa, you know, having their pure love connection that fandom imagined for them from the beginning.

Kat 32:02

It's real.

Mallory 32:03

I look forward to it.

Cathy 32:04

I do too. I also look forward to hating Treize because that's what happened the last time I rewatched this. He's such a fuck boy.

Kat 32:12

I'm excited to love Dorothy and Relena.

Cathy 32:14

My god, they're so good. Yeah, they're so good. That's what I should have said is my favorite pairing.

Kat 32:20

Fandom definitely ruined me for a little bit, like, "urgh, Relena!"

Caitlin 32:24

When I was a kid, part of the appeal of Gundam Wing fandom was in some ways that it was so sexist, and so I could like act out my own internalized misogyny at the time. And so like, I like I was definitely participating in that of like a group breaking up the boys, whatever. And then in later iterations, I like love Relena. So.

Kat 32:45

Yeah, she was just such an easy reason for them to get together, right? For 1x2, but in the show, she's way more than a plot device. So that was kind of frustrating.

Caitlin 32:56

In the show, she's easily the most one of the most interesting and active characters for sure.

Kat 33:02

As podcast Daddy, I declare Episode Zero officially over. Thank you everyone for your time and catch us in two weeks with Episode One: The boy whose wings killed adolescence.

Caitlin 33:16

Byeeee [laughter]

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

#gundam wing #untitled tallgeese podcast #transcripts #mobile suit gundam wing #gundam #episode 00

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zenonaa · 5 years ago

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Fandom: Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Komaeda Nagito/Tsumiki Mikan Characters: Tsumiki Mikan, Komaeda Nagito, Saionji Hiyoko Additional Tags: full class ensemble Summary:

'“Ah! Okay, so before I say the next bit, brace yourself in case you feel nauseous... but perhaps we should hold hands the rest of the way?” he proposed. “It might be safer if we do... or at least quicker.”'

Mikan takes Komaeda to see some fireworks.

Comments: Commission for @evil-muffins <3

***

Some years prior, Mikan read a study putting forth that a person should have at least eight meaningful touches a day. That included things like high fives, hugs, kisses and even just friendly pats on the back. Doing so came with a number of benefits such as a longer lifespan and increased happiness levels.

The sky deepened as evening drew on, not yet dark enough to hide the island in its void. Mikan gave a small smile, surveying the rest of the beach where everyone else was setting up a fireworks party just because they stumbled upon boxes of them, working together, laughing, bumping shoulders... while she stood off to the side not falling over. Teruteru manned the barbeque that crackled and sizzled, while Akane and Byakuya played the part in seeming like they were standing guard. Others arranged lanterns at regular intervals.

“Big Sis Mahiru!”

A sudden gust rushed past but nothing actually touched Mikan, though that didn’t stop her from letting rip a shriek and cowering. Nearby, Mahiru could do no more than stiffen before Hiyoko pounced on her, having sprinted out from some bushes with her orange kimono fluttering. Despite her small frame, Hiyoko had bounded into Mahiru with enough force that Mahiru had to strategically readjust her footing so as to not fall over. Hiyoko wrapped her limbs around Mahiru in a tight embrace, pressing close.

Apart from Hiyoko, all the girls present wore a pink kimono lent by Usami. A grin warmed Mahiru’s face as she took in what just happened.

“Good evening,” greeted Mahiru. Her eyes softened as she stroked Hiyoko’s head.

“Did you see?” Hiyoko asked, looking up at her excitedly. “I did my obi all by myself!”

Mahiru’s hand drew still.

“I did notice,” she replied. “I was beginning to wonder what was holding you up. Not that we would have started setting off the fireworks without you, but...”

She tilted her head to one side and shrugged, still smiling.

“... we don’t want to stay up too late, do we?”

“Ibuki wouldn’t mind,” piped up Ibuki from a short distance away, carrying a keg of age-appropriate beverage under one arm, and she pointed upward with her other hand. “When the sky is as dark as Gundam-chan’s eyeliner, the fireworks stand out like Byakuya-chan’s smile in a room of a thousand people.”

Gundam and Byakuya raised their eyebrows and exchanged puzzled looks, not sure whether to be offended or not. Meanwhile, Nekomaru scratched his nose and did a quick headcount. Seven girls wore pink kimonos, one wore orange and six guys donned blue.

“So... we’re just missing Kuzuryuu and Komaeda, are we?” said Nekomaru.

Mikan had been wondering when someone else would notice.

“I bumped into Kuzuryuu earlier,” Peko informed him, straddling the trunk of a palm tree as she tied up a pinata. “He has a stomach ache. I believe he has... diarrhea.”

The hesitation was either because she didn’t want to say something so intimate, or she was lying. Mikan squinted.

“Ah.” Nekomaru nodded and folded his arms over his chest. “I see! He’s too busy shitting!”

Almost everyone pulled a face. Mikan, however, as a nurse, didn’t so much as grimace. She clasped her hands together, staring up at Peko with wide eyes.

“If he’s sick, a-as a nurse, maybe I should go check on him...?” asked Mikan.

Peko turned to her sharply. “That’s not necessary. He will not want to be seen by anyone in such a pitiful state. And he’s definitely in his cottage, not lurking nearby so he can see the fireworks too.”

Silence passed like a gentle breeze. The sea lapped lazily at the sand. No one spoke for a few seconds. If there was a tumbleweed, now would be the time it rolled by.

“... Okay,” said Haijime with his arms resting on his knees, squatting down with Kazuichi, surrounded by unlit fireworks. He flicked a wrist as he elevated one hand, eyeing Peko for a bit longer before turning his gaze away. “So that just leaves Komaeda, right?”

Everyone seemed to shift their weight. Glances darted about like mosquitos. Mikan recalled seeing him around lunchtime, where he appeared to be in high spirits during his aimless walk, but she didn’t get the chance to divulge this to everyone.

“I vote Thunder Thighs gets her,” Hiyoko piped up, no longer clinging to Mahiru. Her hands gripped her hips, and her head was held haughtily high. “I don’t feel safe knowing he might be lurking somewhere nearby like a perverted old man.”

Byakuya adjusted their glasses, and indeed, several of their classmates turned toward them, but Hiyoko wasn’t looking their way. When Mikan didn’t respond, Hiyoko pointed at her and sneered.

“Oi, Choppilocks! Tsum-icky! I’m talking to you!”

Her voice whipped across Mikan, who twitched.

“M-Me?” said Mikan with a limp finger directed toward herself.

“Uh, duh!” Hiyoko stuck her tongue out, pulling a stupid expression.

The rest of their class began nodding.

“I’m fine with that,” said Kazuichi.

“My condolences,” said Teruteru with his hands together in prayer.

“Thank you kindly!” said Sonia, waving.

Mikan’s head swayed from side-to-side as she tried to look at everyone in turn. Her teeth dug into her bottom lip.

“I don’t mind going,” said Byakuya, and they pushed up their glasses, shoulders back, but Mikan stepped forward and extended her arm.

“I-If everyone wants me to go, I’ll go!” she promised.

Byakuya quirked their brow. “Are you sure?”

After everyone had thanked and acknowledged her like that, she was. Mikan nodded and after a quick bow, she hurried off, hugging herself as the cool air grazed her cheeks.

In hindsight, she should have asked where they thought Nagito would be. The island boasted many areas, ranging from the open perimeter of sand to the nooks and crannies in the woodland. By now she had left behind the beach where all her friends waited with the firework display on standby, and tall trees flanked her, their branches creating a mesh that the sunset had to drizzle through, but she didn’t want to go back to ask without anything to show for it.

They all depended on her. Even if they would probably forget about this good deed the next day, she couldn’t fail. That might lead to them shunning her.

Mikan thought he might be in his cottage, so she checked there first. Her footsteps creaked on wooden boards as she approached his door. The blinds on the windows never let much light in or out, so she couldn’t use them to deduce whether he was there or not. If it had been a person, she might have been able to read between the lines, but a building couldn’t hide secrets. People could only hide secrets in it.

She knocked. “Komaeda-san?”

Something thumped on the other side, and the door opened soon after. Unlike the other guys, Nagito wasn’t wearing a blue kimono. Instead, he wore an oversized t-shirt, jacket and jeans.

“Ah! Tsumiki-san!” he greeted, beaming widely. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?”

Such a warm greeting made her tense. He even said her name too. Mikan placed a hand over her heart. She couldn’t forget her purpose for coming here and breathed.

“The fireworks party is about to begin,” she explained, loosely clutching at her kimono.

Nagito blinked. Realisation sparked in his cloudy eyes and he bonked himself on the head.

“Oh, yes! I completely forgot.” He flung out a laugh and reached his hand forward, grasping her shoulder. “It’s a good thing you reminded me. It totally slipped my mind. I’ll get ready right now. I won’t be a minute.”

His hand patted her a few times before he withdrew it and shut the door.

Mikan stayed where she was and fidgeted. Her knees rubbed together as she waited. When she gulped, her saliva crackled in her throat. She could hear rustling and his feet plodding around the room as he got changed. A mental image of him doing so flashed in her mind, and she squeaked and covered her face with both hands.

Only when she saw the door open through the gaps between her fingers did Mikan resurface, and she tensed as she noticed his frown. Her insides quivered.

“Is something wrong?” she asked in a small voice, wringing her hands.

Nagito must have realised how stern his face seemed, because he winced out of it. He unfurled a grin and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Ah, no. I just didn’t expect you to still be here,” he said.

“Oh! Um...” She squirmed. “Sorry... you don’t have to walk back with me if you want.”

He swished his hand about. “No, it’s fine! I just figured you wouldn’t want to waste more time on me.”

Mikan straightened and raised her hands with her palms toward him. “It’s not a waste of time! I’m happy to... if you are, of course!”

Nagito stared for a few seconds then wheezed out laughter. The skin by his eyes crinkled.

“You are funny, Tsumiki-san,” he said. He patted her upper arm. “Come on, let’s get going.”

With him leading the way, they headed to the woods, and once there, he fell back so they walked side-by-side, following along the path that Mikan had taken on her way to the cottages. Moonlight filtered through the trees, and though it highlighted their silhouettes, it didn’t reach the sleet of night underfoot. They hobbled along uneven ground. The occasional twig cracked under their geta.

She focused on staying beside him so as not to get lost, and as a result, didn’t pay much attention to her footing.

One of her feet knocked into a partially embedded stone. Time froze, if only for a moment, and then sped by as Mikan shrieked and tipped forward, landing on her face.

If it hadn’t been dark, Nagito would have been presented with an unfortunate sight due to her short skirt.

“Tsumiki-san, are you okay?” he cried out, sounding concerned and not laughing.

Mikan didn’t reply right away, sprawled across knobbly dirt, and felt his hand seize her shoulder. She raised her head, letting him take hold of her other hand, and he helped her up. His hand slid from her shoulder to her waist as she shakily rose.

Her knees stung and her hands burned, but otherwise, “I’m fine.”

Though hard to see, Nagito cocked his head to one side.

“Are you sure? I’m not a nurse, but I’ve learned to take care of some of my own injuries,” he said, keeping his arm around her. “As you can imagine, I get my fair share of scrapes on my misadventures, but I could never be as capable as you!”

Nagito laughed. Mikan’s heart gave a flutter, but she shook her head.

“I don’t want to bother you,” she mumbled. She tightened her fists to try to numb the pain in them. “Besides, everyone is waiting for you...”

He gave a hum and took his arm off her. “In any case, I suppose it’d be easier if we were somewhere with more light.”

They resumed down the path, this time with Mikan behind Nagito. She could still feel where his arm had been slung over her - the gentle pressure, the tickle of fabric against her cheek and how her skin tingled like a rash. Nagito bobbed as he walked along, and then he stopped. Mikan almost barged into him.

“Komaeda-san?” she said, backing up a bit. His arms hung out awkwardly either side of him as he writhed his body, like he was hula hooping, staying in the same spot, and her brow creased more the longer she watched him.

“Ah, I’m sorry... I stepped into a rabbit hole or something and got my foot stuck,” he said in a light tone, as stark in contrast to his frustrated movements as his fluffy hair and sharp features. He bent down and tugged on his leg, but to no avail.

Mikan positioned herself behind him, set her jaw and gripped his sides. She heaved with him, sliding her hands up to his armpits as they made further attempts, but after a few more lurches, he still hadn’t budged.

“It doesn’t look like I’ll be going anywhere,” he said, restraining a sigh. He craned his head and offered her a wane smile. “I guess you’ll have to go on without me. Hopefully, I will be able to hear the fireworks from here.”

Go? And leave someone like this? Helpless? Alone?

She screwed up her eyes with determination. Her chest swelled. “Let me try again...”

The next time she squeezed him, all the air in his lungs rushed out. With all her strength, she threw herself back, and she didn’t relent, not against the strain in her body or gravity or anything. With a pop, the two staggered backward together. Her arms flew outward, and Nagito fell onto his butt ahead of her, but she kept going. As much as her arms windmilled, she couldn’t have saved herself even if she tried, and she disappeared into some bushes with a scream.

Leaves whispered around her. Every movement, no matter how minimal, prompted them to snap at her. To prick at her. All she could see was the inky sky overhead with her head lolled back like it was, even when Nagito loomed over her. The sky consumed his silhouette, and Mikan only knew he was there because she felt him grasp her frail hand and lug her back to her feet.

She tottered, but he hadn’t let go of her so she didn’t fall over again. He tucked some hair behind her ear, perhaps unnecessarily.

“Thank you,” he said, brushing leaves off her. His brow furrowed. His hand wavered. “At this rate, we’ll be here all night.”

He tapped himself on the chin, then flicked his finger up.

“Ah! Okay, so before I say the next bit, brace yourself in case you feel nauseous... but perhaps we should hold hands the rest of the way?” he proposed. “It might be safer if we do... or at least quicker.”

Her stomach tossed over, but not because of nausea. She lit up and stumbled on her words. “S-Sure! If it’s okay with you, I mean...”

Then again, he had been the one to suggest it. Neither wanted to be the first to grab the hand of the other, but when neither seemed to plan to, they reached for each other at the same time. They paused, then fumbled for the other’s sweaty hand, and they continued on down the dirt path. Nature crunched beneath their feet, and for the rest of the journey, neither spoke, and neither of them died by the time they emerged from the woods.

The rest of their class flecked the distance, and out in the open, she could see better. Only stars littered the sky, so the fireworks couldn’t have started yet.

After a couple more steps, Nagito turned to Mikan and raised his free hand.

Mikan stared at him.

“High five!” he said. The ends of her lips crept upward and she tapped her palm against his one. “Oh, by the way, how are you feeling? After that fall, I mean. I hope you didn’t hurt yourself badly.”

It took a moment for her to remember she had tripped up earlier.

“I’m fine!” she said, giggling nervously even though there was nothing funny. She flapped a hand, and she really was.

“That’s good,” he said with a smile. He didn’t look away. Neither did she.

Not for a good few seconds.

“Hey, they’re back!” Ibuki shouted some way away, stealing their eyes off each other. She thrashed her arm about but her finger stayed on them. “Ibuki thought she heard them.”

Hiyoko tipped her head back and groaned up at the sky. “Finally! Let’s set off some fireworks already!”

The beach rumbled with agreement. Very soon, everyone lost interest in the newcomers, focused on where Hajime and Kazuichi had prepared the first lot of fireworks. While they all gathered around, Mikan and Nagito watched the others from a distance away. She felt Nagito pull his hand away from hers and reluctantly let go of him.

Instead, to her surprise, he placed his hand on her shoulder and regarded her with a twinkle in his eyes.

“Tsumiki-san,” he said. She gazed back at him. “A week ago, you mentioned how a person should have at least eight meaningful touches a day. Some of the others laughed or purposely misunderstood you at the time, but it got me thinking. And I know you don’t get touched much, so on the way here, I gave you those touches.”

Mikan processed what he said with a blank expression. Her eyes widened and she jerked her head back. “H-Huh?”

Nagito couldn’t have. Surely.

He counted off his fingers. “A squeeze on the shoulder when you arrived at my cottage. A pat on your arm. Helping you up after you fell. Brushing leaves from your hair. Holding hands. A high five. A touch on your shoulder just then.”

She trembled and picked at her fingers, scrunching up her face as she recalled each instance he mentioned. He could have done it. He did.

“B-But that’s seven,” she said, looking down at her digits and wiggling them.

“I know.”

Mikan lifted her eyes at his soft tone. Nagito’s eyes glinted. Then, without warning, he leaned in and pecked her cheek. Her breathing hitched, and he receded with a smirk.

“Now it’s eight,” he said, and her legs went weak.

She wrapped her arms around herself and collapsed into a happy pile on the sand. His shocked face appeared over her.

“Tsumiki-san! Are you all right?” he asked.

Butterflies swirled overhead that only she could see. Beautiful, beautiful butterflies. Mikan cupped her cheek.

“I am,” she said, grinning.

More than okay.

#komamiki #nagito komaeda #mikan tsumiki #sdr2 #fanfiction #one shot #commission #i have a nae////giri commission going on but i want to link that here when i've finishd it

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okami-zero · 5 years ago

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Rules: answer 20 questions then tag 10 bloggers you want to get to know better!

I was tagged by @karathecatdragon

Name: Maxx

Pronouns: He/Him

Nicknames: Maxx (I go by this regularly ^_^;) Xano (WoW main), Puppers, Zedd (TOR main)

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Height: 5′10″ (178 cm)

Languages: English

Nationality: American

Favorite Season: Fall

Favorite Flower: Clover and Tulip

Favorite Scent: Worn leather and Woodsmoke on your clothes after a camping trip

Favorite Color: Blue and all its various shades.

Favorite Animal: The friend-shaped ones. xD

Favorite Fictional Characters: Harry Dresden (The Dresden Files), Sherlock Holmes (from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Domon Kasshu (G Gundam), Kou Shun'u/Tasuki (Fushigi Yuugi), Shunsuke Akagi (Dai Guard), Baiken (Guilty Gear series), Gene Starwind (Outlaw Star)

Coffee, Tea or Hot Chocolate: Yes (with coffee there is a specific brew from Vermont that is really the only kind of it I enjoy)

Average Sleep Hours: 5-7 hours

Dog or Cat Person: Both, of course.

Number of blankets you sleep with: (including a sheet?) 2-3

Dream Trip: Japan or Ireland

Blog Established: Um…within the last 3-5 years…

Followers: 69 ^_~

Random Fact: I am addicted to notebooks… >.>

I tag @airyairyaucontraire, @sonneillonv, @pugoata, @centience, @gallusrostromegalus, @captainderyn, @saph-y, @elveny, @caffeinewitchcraft, @simplykorra.

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beegjuniper · 6 years ago

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Okay so here's my mech thingy:

(I call it Project Metal Panther for now)

I don't know where specifically to start with this. So obviously it's set on an alternate earth, in an unspecific time period. It's not too dissimilar to our time, but not being our earth, it has developed differently in some areas (most notably that someone figured out how to make giant robots viable in real warfare.)

It's hard to describe exactly where the robots fall on the scale of fictional advancement. By the main events of the story we've entered the 6th generation of military mech suits; they've definitely surpassed Metal Gear, but they're still struggling to become Gundam (or even Zakus I guess.) There have been great leaps in balance and articulation, but they still move like they're being controlled by a dude in a cockpit. They can't quite manage the same reaction speed or specific movement as a real soldier; it's still a lot of up, out, bend, swivel. This also means they can't fight in space, at least not without being attached to something. They also don't have lasers, and what beam weapons DO end up being introduced aren't nearly as efficient as a beam rifle.

I'm still working on how the main conflict actually kicks off, I can't quite get it right. The idea I'm working with rn is mainly just to allow all the proceeding events to happen and is getting tweaked all the time.

In theory, it's starts with a large and influential nation called Shasia experiencing a power vacuum, as its powerful monarch has died unexpectedly, with no clear heir. A section of the nation takes this opportunity and breaks off from the rest, calling itself the Union of Mechiana and attempting to establish total control through force. It uses the disproportionate wealth in the numerous parts of Shasia as a rallying point to garner support. The UM is backed by an influential family that supposedly has ties to the previous royal bloodline, helping to further legitimise their cause to their supporters. The remainder of Shasia still has the greater number of resources, but lacks real leadership and is caught unprepared by the sudden uprising, allowing the UM to gain a foothold once the conflict escalates into all out war. The conflict would then last for another 20 years, as the difference in resources prevents the UM from ever truly gaining the upper hand, locking both sides into a stalemate.

The fighting took some time to fully spread throughout the nation. Eventually, after 4 years it reached a small independent country sitting awkwardly in the middle of the nation's territory. In one specific town, a group of UM supporters are secretly stockpiling food and ammunition, then sneaking it to the UM soldiers currently occupying. They happen to take in a UM spy, who was being hunted by Shasia forces for stolen plans for an orbiting station that would become a military base. He was eventually located and as a result of the residents' defiance, the town was declared a UM friendly area, causing fighting to break out and an eventual massacre, leaving a young girl named Mackenzie Laurels orphaned and homeless. Unable to understand her situation or the state of the war as a whole, she vows revenge on the entirety of Shasia, joining several underground resistance groups over the years and eventually enlisting in the UM's military.

There's like, a LOT more, but I think it would be better to make a few seperate posts. Also I can only write so much in one go. Next I'll probably write about Mackenzie and her team, as well as the titular mech

#i tried to limit it down the the crucial details #but i think the conflict kinda comes off as one sided as a result?#ill try to make it clearer in future #project metal panther

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thatothercosplayer · 7 years ago

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Taking a break from writing plot stuff (building up shit in drafts so I can put out things more consistently) but I am in a Big Writing Mood™ so let’s sit down and have a talk about Gundam.

I’m gonna talk to you about....

5 Gundam Sidestories That Deserve to be Animated.....That AREN’T Crossbone.

So, before I get into things, I know what you’re wondering (that is, if you’re not mecha literate): what the fuck is crossbone and why is it being excluded.

Well, I’ll tell you, fam. Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam is a manga series that was written to kind of explain what would have happened if Gundam F91 would have been made a proper TV series.

At least, that’s what it is in theory. I can only really apply this to the first manga series- not it’s endless sequels (Cross Heart, Steel Seven, Phantom, etc.)

For some fucking reason, people won’t shut the fuck up about Crossbone, and how it needs to be animated. There’s no explanation as to why it needs to be animated, but people just fucking want it and no one ever shuts the fuck up about it.

In case you couldn’t tell: I’M SALTY AS HELL ABOUT THIS. I can’t go anywhere to have a fucking discussion about Gundam without Crossbone getting brought up. This has been going on for close to 3 years now and it’s driving me FUCKING CRAZY HOLY SHIT WOULD YOU PEOPLE SHUT UP FOR FIVE GODDAMN SECONDS

Um.

ahem.

Sorry about that.

So, anyways. I’m writing this list mainly to get this off my chest and expend some energy related to me being salty as fuck about Crossbone. Ya’ll ready?

No?

Too bad. Note: The placement on of things on this list don’t really speak to how I prioritize any of them, in any manner. This is just me writing it as things come to me. Without further ado, let’s get this underway.

1) Mobile Suit Gundam Sidestory: Missing Link (2014)

What? A UC Gundam entry? On this list? It’s more likely than you think.

Let me say this to start: I fucking love Missing Link and think it’s a tragedy that it’s as obscure as it is. Like many of the series in the Sidestory family, it started off life as a video game. In this case, it was the crown jewel of the compilation game/remake/hd collection/whatever Mobile Suit Gundam Sidestory on the Platstation 3. This particular entry is a dual-sided story about two units in the One Year War: The Marchosias Special Forces, a dumping ground for Zeon pilots who are too violent, tempestuous, or injured to work in standard units; on the other side is the Slave Wraiths, which I would say are honestly the Gundam A-Team.

I’m serious! They’re all military criminals that were framed for various crimes, and then were taken in by a rather dubious high-ranking Federation officer who uses them to clean up their not-exactly-legal-or-moral shit. They’re not so much black-ops but more like walking redtape files.

The things that make this one stick out are the fact that, despite an ensemble cast of 12 or so that the story flips back and forth between, nothing is ever lost in translation. No team is focused on over the other, and by the end you’ll find yourself caring about both of these disparate, ragtag teams of jaded pilots.

Atop that, the story’s protagonists are actually a father and son duo who have no idea that they’re fighting each other in the war (at least, not at first)! It’s a beautiful case of dramatic irony and for once, IT’S NOT PLAYED FOR TRAGEDY. There is a strong underlying theme of hope despite crushing odds running throughout the story. Great sacrifices are made so that the fire of hope can still burn, and eventually the two teams find themselves bucking off the military complexes that cast thema side and find solidarity in each other.

It’s a story about unity, hope, and most importantly: understanding.

Of course, that’s not even touching the FANTASTIC setpieces that permeate the story. Seaside battles, battles amidst the jungles of Jaburo (not above, not under, IN the jungles of Jaburo), furious battles to protect shuttles launching to space....I could go on and on!

Did I mention the mechanical design? What?! I haven’t?!

The new mechanical designs in this series are _superb._ The Slave Wraith is great, but what’s even better is the element that connects these two concurrent stories together: The Pale Rider.

The Pale Rider is a phantom of the battlefield, attacking everything in sight. It has no concept of friend or foe, and it is there to silence dissent and wipe out any proof of ill deeds.

Oh, yeah, and it runs on a variant of the EXAM System. You know. The one that the Blue Destiny has.

The same system that was made by fracturing a human soul in two and shoving those halves into computers.

You know.

The one that made a Gundam an eldritch abomination.

That one.

Yes.

Except this variant, the HADES, is far worse.

So, now you have an enigmatic Mobile Suit that indiscriminately ravages the battlefield, all operated by a phantom hand that you only have a name to. One of my favorite things about Missing Link is the simple fact that, quite honestly, you never see the villain. You only hear the orders they send, and feel the impact of their decisions.

Last, but certainly not least, while the majority of the story is set in the One Year War, the final chapter (which, sadly, is not in English in any shape or form save for the Gundam wiki) is set during the First Neo-Zeon War, around the time ZZ takes place- which makes it even more unique because there aren’t many sidestories that explore this time period, even if only for a moment.

All of this combined makes for a fantastic tale of political intrigue, espionage, hardship, and triumph that I would easily recommend. Unfortunately, the only way to experience this story in English at the moment is SD Gundam G Generation Genesis’ chapter based on the story; as I mentioned above, the story itself isn’t truly complete, even if the end is more like a bonus chapter. It is rather extensive and covers all the key plot points, and also manages to keep all the character bits that make it so good.

tl;dr Missing Link deserves to be animated.

2) New Mobile Report Gundam Wing Dual Story: G-Unit aka Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: The Last Outpost (1997-1998)

Holy SHIT why is every fucking title related to Gundam Wing so fucking long.

ahem

So....let’s talk Gundam Wing.

After Colony, in my opinion, is a rather weak timeline with little media worth actually looking at. What few sidestories there are are mostly rehashes, there’s not much variety in mechanical design due to the majority of the sidestory designs being variants of the main five Gundams in the show, and most importantly: the overall average quality of the timeline as a whole is incredibly lackluster.

Fucking fight me, I’ll die on this hill.

However, there’s one story that I feel rises above its compatriots and manages to to be a bit better. That would be, of course, the entry I have listed above.

G-Unit focuses on an asteroid colony, MO-V, a rather backwater installation with a population of about 100,000. The story itself runs concurrently with those of Gundam Wing, though the effects are rather negligible at best due to how isolated the conflict depicted in the manga is.

The protagonists of the story are twin pilots Odin and Odel Bernett, who test the prototype Mobile Suits developed at the colony, the Geminass Units 01 and 02. Things are going smoothly, however, there’s just one problem: OZ is not happy with MO-V. OZ is the villainous organization in Gundam Wing- think of them as your Titans expy ala Zeta Gundam.

Anyways, MO-V has not agreed to OZ’s continued demands that it fall in line with rest of the colonies that are submitting to OZ’s rule. While, at first, it was ignored because it was merely an outdated factory (it mass-produced Leos, the go-to grunt unit for OZ, but by the time the story takes place the Vertigo has replaced the Leo), news of the prototypes traveled fast and it was deemed taking things too far.

Thus, begins a six month siege, with an entire army on one side and (at most) two men on the other.

Oh, and I guess two of the Gundam Boys appear too or something and Zechs might be there as well idgaf.

I still have yet to read this in full (as it was released in English during Gundam Wing’s heyday in the US), but the premise alone is interesting, and the majority of the new mechanical designs are awesome.

Just ignore the special Leo units that OZ-Prize deploys. Two of the three are the kind of bullshit that Gundam Wing likes to pull that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Having a gigantic, flowing cape in SPACE IS ABSOLUTELY IMPROBABLE. How can you style yourself as an attempt to go back to Gundam’s more serious, hard sci-fi roots when you throw in a fucking mecha with hair extensions!? This isn’t G Gundam! You can’t get away with that! PICK A GENRE, DAMMIT.

Uh...

ahem.

Anyways, I love what I have seen of these mechanical designs in action. The Hydra Gundam was featured in Gundam Battle Assault 2 (aka the game that gave rise to the “Oh hey! Big Zam” meme, which I love atop of being a good fighting game), while the Geminass units, Gundam Asclepius, Burnlapius, Gundam LO Booster, Griepe, Vayeate Suivant, and Mercurius Suivant (PHEW!) all appear in the Gundam G Generation games, particularly WORLD and OVERWORLD. They units I’ve listed above are all fantastic designs and really deserve to get animated proper.

Plus....well....

The only other Gundam Wing-related project that has any chance in hell of getting animated is Frozen Teardrop, aka the Biggest Disaster to Ever Come Out of the Gundam Franchise, Ever™.

So....yeah.

3) Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray (2002)

Fuck. Cosmic Era is such a disappointment. The two TV series it has are half-baked attempts at rehashes of 0079 and Zeta with new plots sloppily dumped in, are overloaded with pointless flashbacks and too much fucking filler of people screaming each other’s names. Asinine writing, sameface syndrome, and behind the scenes bullshit abound.

But I’m not here to gripe about the flaws of Gundam SEED or SEED Destiny.

I’m here to talk about the godlike spin-off that SEED birthed, and has been criminally underutilized by Sunrise and Bandai.

Hang on, I gotta put on some TM Revolution to get into the mood.

...

Alright, fixed.

So! Let’s talk about Gundam SEED Astray and why you should be experiencing it Right Fucking Now™.

For one, it doesn’t focus on Kira, so that’s already a huge plus. Sorry, kiddo- you may be adorably pathetic, but you are also a bore to watch at times. Nah, fam, let’s get some hot-bloodedness up in here!

OKAY SO this story is about a group of salvagers. That’s right. The main characters of this tale is the motherfuckin’ Junk Guild- or, rather, the ship HOME of the motherfuckin’ Junk Guild.

Yes, I have to put motherfuckin’ before I say Junk Guild, because these guys are cool.

One problem SEED has is that there is this bad habit of tying things back to the main series in some bullshit roundabout way that kind of ruins the point of having sidestories. I’m reading, watching, playing, etc these stories to learn about people in other parts of this universe who are either independant of the conflict in the show, or are only loosely tied to it by being in the same war but elsewhere or maybe being effected by it.

SEED Astray manages to dodge that bullet by throwing out the concept of let glory-hog Kira Yamato show up and ruin things, and instead knocks him out for the duration of his appearance.

Uh, wait, I need to talk about the story itself. Whoops! Let’s get back to that.

So! SEED Astray revolves around 3 prototype Mobile Suits know as the Astray Red Frame, Astray Blue Frame, and Astray Gold Frame. The Red and Blue Frames accidentally fall into the hands of junker Lowe Guele and mercenary Gai Murakumo, who find themselves pursued by nobleman Rondo Ghina Sahaku, who wants the frames back.

As Ghina begins his dogged pursuit of both parties, HOME and Serpent Tail (the groups Lowe and Gai are parts of, respectively) continuously cross paths, taking scrap from the battlefields they pass trough and extensively personalizing and upgrading their Astray Frames more and more.

As time passes, conspiracies are unraveled, secrets about the origins of humanity’s space travel are revealed, and THERE’S A BRAIN IN A JAR.

Yes! That’s right! Astray embraces the wackiness of SEED and goes beyond it, resulting in one of the best goddamn things that ever happened in all of Gundam: the 150 Meter Katana.

No. I’m not making this up. This happened. And it is amazing.

It was a katana so big that they had to make a power loader....for a MOBILE SUIT to wield!

Now, I may be cheating a bit by putting Astray on here as it’s....somewhat been animated. Sort of. It has a short series of 10 minute promotional episodes, as well as two 5 minute promo shorts to promote the later entries in the series. However, it never got a full-fledged anime series, and that’s an absolute CRIME. The 150 Meter Katana needs to be animated.

Lowe Guile is a fun protagonist who bucks a lot of Gundam traditions by being a hot-blooded go-getter who is always ready to take on whatever life throws at him, and his counterpart, Gai Murakumo, is a cool-headed badass who can turn around even the most impossible of odds. Their interactions are unique in that they vary from antagonistic to friendly and everything in between. This is in part thanks to the diplomatic immunity that the Junk Guild has, and also due to Gai Murakumo being part of the mercenary group Serpent Tail. As a result, the two clash, team up, etc. many times over the course of the series before realizing they have a common enemy. As a result, I feel that SEED Astray shows the Cosmic Era timeline at it’s best- displaying new possibilities for the Gundam franchise, and proving that you don’t have to rehash the same story over and over to be good.

Lastly, as things sit right now, the only reliable way to consume SEED Astray is to hunt down the shorts, or check out Brunom1′s Let’s Play of Super Robot Wars W, which extensively features SEED Astray.

I rest my case.

4) Mobile Suit Gundam 00F (2007-2009)

Let me tell you about a crazy motherfucker named Fon Spaak.

Fon Spaak is a fucking lunatic. He is a homocidal maniac who enjoys killing, blatantly breaks laws whenever he gets the chance to just because it’s fun, and most importantly: he is the good guy.

Yep. Got your attention, didn’t I? Mobile Suit Gundam 00F is the story about another agent in the organization Celestial Being, who supports the protagonists of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (the first season of which I still uphold to be Gundam Wing done right) from the shadows. He covers any hiccups and makes sure that operations go smoothly, ensuring that Celestial Being’s goals are met.

However, he has to deal with constant sabotage from a rogue agent who is tied to VEDA, the supercomputer that helps plan and dictate a lot of Celestial Being’s operations.

00F is, at times, the Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead of Gundam 00. It’s fast-paced, funny, yet also grim and violent all at the same time. It creates a crap-saccharine view of an already shitty world, and exploits that by using the larger-than-life protagonist to contrast the rather depressing events that surround him.

Fon Spaak is a bit of an implacable man, and when he wants to get something done, he will stop at nothing to do it.

Gundam 00F is a bit rare nowadays, like any out of print Gundam material, but it was published in English. I actually own almost all of it (still missing two volumes). If you ever run across it, I can’t recommend it enough. If, for whatever reason, you want Deadpool to pilot a Gundam, this motherfucker is the closest you’re going to get. God speed, you crazy bastard.

5) Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel (2002)

Come on. Like I was really going to leave this one out?

We’re returning to the Universal Century for my last entry on this list, and goddamn is this ever a good entry. Set in the year UC 0085- a whole two years before Zeta Gundam begins- and continuing up into the events of the TV series, Mobile Suit Gundam École du Ciel is, by and large, my favorite Gundam sidestory, ever.

Period.

I love all the above sidestories, but this one has a special place in my heart for a lot of reasons. It’s nostalgic, but it’s well written, and explores a rare time period in the Universal Century.

The space between Operation Stardust (depicted in the OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory) and the Gryps Conflict as depicted in Zeta Gundam is a time period that has, to my (rather extensive huehuehue) knowledge, has only ever been looked at by École du Ciel. That alone should be reason enough to hunt this one down and give it a read.

If it’s not, well, read on, friend.

It has a female protagonist (a rarity in Gundam!!) who, while at first lost in this world constantly at war, eventually finds her own purpose and sense of agency as she struggles to find a place in the world to call her own. École du Ciel is a story about coming of age, the pains of growing up, and facing inner demons set amidst the backdrop of Canada and a sea of stars.

The original mechanical designs are gorgeous, particularly the star Mobile Suit, Le Cygne. The characters feel human despite their extraordinary abilities, and they’re not perfect.

Most importantly, something I’ll stress above all else- while the events in the series are impacted by events depicted in Zeta Gundam, there is hardly any overlap between the two, with little to no cameos by main characters from the show.

Which is as it should be in any given sidestory. It’s a SIDE story, not a crossover. I don’t mind the occasional overlap to show that things are part of a larger world (EG: Protagonist A brushing shoulders with Protagonist B from another story who is in the midst of an important scene, and A is merely a bystander), but extensively featuring a protagonist from another show just ruins the point.

The TV show is about them. The side story is about someone else. Ideally, that’s how it should be.

And, as things are, this story feels fresh. The illustrations by Haruhiko Mikimoto are gorgeous, especially when he pulls out his signature hand-brushed style. The Mobile Suit scenes are beautifully detailed, and they carry weight and impact.

I can’t recommend École du Ciel enough. If you’re a new Gundam fan or a veteran, if you haven’t read École du Ciel, do yourself a favor, hunt down some copies of it, and join me in my regular outcries of how it’s a damn CRIME this hasn’t been revisited in any shape or form after its print run. No model kits, no anime, no game appearances, NOTHING. It’s been neglected for too long.

I don’t care if it’s in G Generation, Gundam Breaker, a trading card game, whatever, École du Ciel needs to return, and I feel an animated series would be the perfect way to do so.

Well, there you go. Hopefully you enjoyed my ramblings about Gundam.

#mechapost #mechanons #not really but for filing purposes tagging as such

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noblehope · 7 years ago

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Hey! When you get the time/drive, I really want to know what personally draws you to your muse! What is it that inspires you so much? What do you admire in them? What do they mean to you? Just give me a sweet, sweet feelings dump :D

… ah. No one’s ever really asked me this before, I think??? It actually caught me off guard. I’m still hibernating until my days off again but I really want… to answer this now. Though forgive me cause???? Idk where I’m going with this.

I… I really don’t know how to answer this, I’m sorry. It’s a very… hm. Idk, I’m actually not that good at describing stuff when it comes to me personally.

I’m drawn to… Everything about her. It’s weird how important she’s become to me. I’ve had other favorites, other characters I felt a bond with and adored, but throughout my life Sonia’s just been special. Even new characters in new fandoms I get involved in (karma from c/inderella phenomenon, zeno fro a/katsuki no yona) I really can’t explain it unless you have yourself. She’s been a constant in my every day life and I don’t remember how or why it started.

She wasn’t one I was drawn to at first. I remember, I did Twog/ami’s and G/undam’s ftes first. Those were my first “I really like them”. I just… I can’t remember, but by the end I really did like her most of all. She was the one who led me to roleplaying on tumblr, not Sakura. I had… roleplayed a little bit with my bf at the time on Skype as her and Peko, but I liked rping Sonia more. Haha, I wonder… how would this all have turned out if I had chosen Peko instead? I plan on rping her at some point so we’ll see how that goes.

Okay, I looked back on my steam trophies and I see that I completed Sonia’s FTEs on May 6th, 2016. I beat the game on May 12th, and Sonia was the 3rd one I had completed (Gundam first though it would’ve been twogami first if he fucking lived i remember now how i had nyoomed to finish his in island mode, Fuyuhiko second which I remember blazing through during the fun house because of being fucked locked from his ftes and THE 2ND TRIAL UGH I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING ON IN HIS HEAD, and the final event revealing that he survives somehow but yes)

So yes, of the survivors by that point I can definitely see that she had won my attention since I didn’t complete any others during my run in story mode. But… that brings again, why?

Okay let me ramble on for a second about my other favs of the franchise: Sakura, and Hoshi. They all seem such different characters but I believed it was around mm… this time last year, that I discovered what they all had in common: some kind of self sacrifice.

Hoshi sacrificing his future for revenge, Sakura sacrificing her life for her friends, and Sonia sacrificing her desires and wants for her country. That is a big thing why I adore her, I would say it is the second thing, but we still haven’t reached the root of her importance to me beyond just “everything”, and I do mean Everything, even her flaws, though that’s a topic for another time.

“Do you not agree that dismissing a different set of values due to ignorance is foolish?”

This. This is the driving force behind my interpretation of Sonia, and always will be. This reflects so much in the game. How she’s the one to ask everyone if tying up Komaeda will solve anything, but if it’s what’s everyone agrees to she won’t object. She’s genuinely the only person in game to stop and think about Komaeda even if he is “troublesome” (excluding Chiaki and Hajime), and I spotted that a mile away even when I hated his guts in story mode. It doesn’t matter to her if someone’s ways of thinking is strange, she wants to understand. She wants to know how they think, and this extends to her interest in true crime and serial killers as they shouldn’t be thought of as “mere murderers”, because their reasonings are far more complex than that. It doesn’t mean she will agree with them, but she doesn’t want to dismiss them as just.. unreasonable, because to them they are being reasonable and just have different values. She wants to know the why.

As well though this is just my headcanon, Sonia’s been stalked with the intention of being murdered. It’s cathartic to her to learn about things like this. Again, that’s a topic for another time tho since this is getting way too long.

She’s so… often thought as naive, but that shouldn’t be confused as ignorant. The language barrier doesn’t help. Sonia’s one of the smartest in the cast and I will defend that as truth forever??? She’s so so smart, she’s so talented, like holy shit. 30 languages? All these topics that’s required of her to know because of her being apart of this strange and almost fairytale-like land’s royal family? Like, holy shit.

But, we learn through the little tidbits she gives us Novoselic is far from perfect. You can read in between the lines (um hello? Weapons everywhere despite it being a peaceful nation? Basically raising children soldiers with them knowing how to drive tanks in grade school? An underground blackmarket for creatures we only know are a nobility status and required for courting, and grow/shrink when angered and scared or whatever I think that’s it tho?), and see how unhappy she is with her country with certain things. (Sonia mentions how consuming a Skong is her country’s ritual for her to be recognized as an adult but she refuses to do it) She wants to change her country for the better. It’s time to move forward and Sonia wants to be the one to start it.

There’s also so much she’s hiding from everyone. Her final FTE is her breaking down in front of Hajime, collapsing and sobbing in his arms as she cries out how she wants to go home. How he thinks she’s finally letting herself act like a normal girl, and how before he had thought “of course she’s scared”, when he sees her hands shaking and that being her only betrayal. It’s just…. gahhhh… I could talk about her for hours.

She’s just so… so, so amazing. There’s a fire inside her and just this overwhelming kindness to everyone and she’s so strong. She inspires me. She’s so fun to explore and crack at because I want her to experience everything, and imagining her in alternate universes like siren sonia or serial killer sonia (which um I’ll start up again someday) is so fun, because I always make sure she is still Sonia at her core. I want her to feel, I want her to break, get angry, fall in love, develop both positively and negatively and see how it changes her. I’ve said it before but always kinda jokingly… idk, the best answer to “what does she mean to you” is… Idk, she’s my daughter. Not my waifu, not my lover, not my whatever. A daughter. I love her. She makes me happy. I have a little nendoroid of her??? And I kiss her little head for good luck when I’m going out and feeling nervous, and it’s my favorite thing in this world, I about cried when I got her as it was random chance. I’m… IDK IM CRYING RIGHT NOW. There’s so much to say about her but I can’t say it properly just how much she means to me and why she inspires me so. She just does, she’s not perfect but she’s so wonderfully important to me, not only for my creativity, but like. She’s my rock.

It’s… really something, when you learn so much both about the world and yourself through roleplaying and researching a muse. And, just what I’ve been through, it’s all because of her. I don’t think things would’ve been the same if I had chosen someone ese to roleplay first… I’ve had people compare Sonia to me, and gosh is that a delightful feeling that makes me smile. She’s radiant and makes people feel at ease, and it’s a blessing to know I evoke the same emotions and people feel strongly enough to make a comparison. That I’m doing something right. I don’t think she is me, I’d never use the word kin, its just… idk? Being compared to someone you really care about is an amazing feeling. It makes me want to keep doing what I’m doing.

But ahh… I’m, rambling so much and Idek if I’M MAKING SENSE? I love her, I really love her, and nothing comes close to what ideas she’s given to me and what peace she brings as well. Like okay, Ik it’s fun to shit on ko/daka a lot but I’m so thankful for him bringing her into existence. Ughhhh I’m crying and CANT SEE ANYMORE so maybe this is where it should end. Please just know I absolutely adore this character and I am honored that I bring her to life for people through roleplay and invoking emotions (being proud of her, being scared for her, etc, not only just cause Sonia but gosh is it powerful when you know people are moved by your writing) through that, that I can bring others to appreciate her (even Sonia haters to liking her, which is such a feat) and love her too. To make people understand her a bit more and how many layers, some even contradictory, she has. I really really hope this makes things a bit clearer even if it’s a mess of emotions, and that it’s the sweet sweet feels dump that you wanted.

there’s so much more i can say but i figure this is enough

#〚》𝔾《 straight from the horse’s mouth ( out of character. ) ✧ 〛#〚》𝔾《 there’s a rainbow somewhere and it’s a beautiful day ( mun info. ) ✧ 〛#tulpacest

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andythelemon · 7 years ago

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if you could only watch 5 anime series/movies for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Omg the fact you narrowed this down to movies AND seriesmade this super hard lmao but ok here goes:

1. Castle in the Sky – I’d have to include at leastONE Ghibli, right? This is an old favourite, it’s really charming andbeautiful. Every Ghibli film is iconic in its own right but this one isspecial to me because it’s also my dad’s favourite, and I love the soundtrack(Carrying You…aaaa). The depiction of genuine platonic love/affection betweenthe two leads is SO GOOD like that shit is my jam I s2g. More guys and girlsbeing good friends without any annoying romantic subplot please and thank you! (Also, Sheeta’s high-waisted floaty pants outfit is my favourite thing ever)

2. Kids on the Slope – this series is SO timeless Iwill watch it again and again and fall in love with these children all over? Myfavourite stories are actually those with no fantastical or dramatic element tothem, that don’t try to do too much or be anything more than they need to be,you know? It’s about a small cast of highschoolers in 60’s Kyushu trying tonavigate their way through school, friendship, romance and figuring out whatthey want to do in life. It’s so moving and heartfelt but not overdone andreminds you to cherish the times you spend quietly in your youth with peopleyou love. :’)

3. Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans – lmfaook I just said my favourite stories are quiet, small-cast, low-key andundramatic but this is THE TOTAL OPPOSITE. It really surprised me! I didn’tthink it’d be my thing at all but DAMN LOL I GOT SO SUCKED IN for some reason. Technicallyit’s amazing (the character/mecha/background design is WOWOWOW) but thecharacters themselves are SO GOOD. They’re filthy, despicable and socorrupted because of war, but you see their human sides and realise they’veturned out that way through no real fault of their own. Legit everyone has blood on their hands omfg…it does a great job ofportraying people believably despite the fantasy setting, particularly thechildren? They’ve had to grow up far too fast, being child soldiers, but thereare moments that remind you they’re still kids. It also impressed me w/ the way it addresses polyamory/bisexuality/queerness without being fanservicey? The relationships are soincredibly fucked up and make me bite my nails hahaAnyway this series is a godless hellride but reminds me that well-done design, soundtrack, (and most of all) characters and worldbuilding will win me over regardless of premise. It also made me realise some veryimportant things when I was considering giving up drawing and wondering whetherI even liked anime/animation anymore, so it’s special for deeply personalreasons too.

4. Kuroko no Basuke – DON’T LOOK AT ME LOL I had tothrow at least ONE sports series in here and I pick one of the trashiest, butdamn I love Basuke?! SO MUCH?! It’s hugely self-indulgent but you know what,fuck it I LOVE SELF INDULGENT STUFF life is too short to be serious all thetime! It’s so silly but makes me laugh and root so hard for my boys, plus um??ALL THE LADIES IN IT COULD PUNCH ME IN THE FACE AND I’D THANK THEM.

The soundtrack is amazing and honestly…it’sridiculous on the surface but also a Very Good Time and my favourite life mottoever is a quote from one of the characters during a tough training arc.

5. God I should probably put a Makoto Shinkai filmor an old classic like Akira in here but you know what. SAINT YOUNG MEN LOL it’sjust so unbelievably pure and funny and feel-good I watch it every Christmasseason and laugh out loud without fail each time. Jesus and Buddha beingroomies in Japan for a year whilst they take a break from heavenly duties,being mistaken for Yakuza in the hot springs, shopping for their flat andtrying to convince the landlady that they’re not actually NEETs…please watchit it’s SO FUNNYAnyway there you go! I love so many series though that are wildly different so it was hard to choose but I think I picked a good variety were I stranded on a desert island…you probably didn’t want a small essay but I actually like when people explain a little bit about why they like things heh (also so I could procrastinate on freelance lol)

#replies #anon

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

Text

Which Anime Could You Watch Forever? Fans Choose Their Eternal Faves

There are some anime out there that seem like they've been running forever—and in many cases, we'd happily watch every single episode. But what series would fans most be willing to stick by for the rest of their lives?

goo Ranking polled more than 5,000 anime fans in Japan, asking which anime they would watch for the rest of their lives if it stayed on the air. Several enduring titles made the list, including a few that have been on for literal decades. So, which shows made the top three?

3: Hidamari Sketch

The art school comedy, based on the manga by Ume Aoki (known to many as the character designer for Puella Magi Madoka Magica), ran on and off for several years. It seems a good portion of the voter base would be more than happy to see it come back permanently!

2: Dragon Ball

From the original 1986 series to the more recent Dragon Ball Super, we've followed Goku basically all his life (and in some cases, all our lives)! Coming in at #2, it looks like a lot of anime fans would be more than happy for that arrangement to continue.

#1: Lupin the 3rd

Fortunately for voters, their #1 pick is also the #1 most likely to deliver! Lupin the 3rd has been turning out regular movies and specials for decades, not to mention its multiple TV series. Going by the numbers, fans are just fine with that.

Long-running action sci-fi comedy Gintama came in fourth, with Natsume Yujin-cho in fifth. Rounding out the top ten are the Gundam franchise, Haikyu!!, City Hunter, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and My Hero Academia.

What shows would you watch for the long haul?

Source: Anime! Anime!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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wayfarer-bjd · 7 years ago

Text

End of the year thoughts. word vomit (or what I’ve been up to “behind the scenes”). if I don’t do it now it’ll never happen before year’s end.

Wall of text incoming ha („ಡωಡ„)…

So, at the end of this year, I have more Nendoroids than space to display them. But somehow, with great patience and determination, creative rearrangements, and installation of new shelves, I have made them all fit. XD

I’m getting into other types of figures as well. Scales, which I never saw myself buying in the past–have you heard of Parfom figures, uber cute–and model kits and figma type figures. *gasp* Gundam?! Should I do Gundam??? I kinda want to now. Robots are so much fun. Which brings me to... Polynians! Which are the best thing ever. My most anticipated figure is the Polynian Shamrock which is kind of a re-release but kind of not. He got a body upgrade and a few other minor changes. I cant wait to finally own one. (3 cough cough) One of the three I’m only getting for the body which I’m going to use to make my Polynian Janna a boy. Wouldn’t Janna make the sweetest boy? They just have the most innocent looking eyes <3 And now that we’re on the subject of robots. I recently bought/preordered some Frame Arms Girls that I’m planning on modding into boys (sorry but almost everything has to be a boy in this household). I’m starting of with Materia, Baselard, and (alternate color) Hresvelgr. I really dig their designs but its an all female figure line :(((( I still have no clue how I’ll be going about it, but mark my words, those girls will be turned into cute robot boys. Not sure if there will be 3 robo boys or if I’ll be mixing and matching parts for just 1 or 2 boys. hmmm

Oh right right! I also became interested in Azone’s Assault Lily line, specifically the custom Lily (Lilies?). Its basically a head w/sculpted hair on a picco neemo body (1/12 size so small!). From what I can see there a named Lilies which seem to have established characters and come with unique costumes and items and the custom type which are available in three variants (just different hair colors) and plain clothes. They’re basically the same aside from the clothes and slight price difference. None of the character lilies’ faces really spoke to me, so, I went ahead and pre-ordered a custom lily 037 with pink hair. She comes with extra face plates and hair parts. But if you know me you know I don’t usually get girl dolls so why this one? Cuz I’m making her into a he too! :D not sure if I’ll mod her body or not. I might just sell it because *drumroll* I might just not need to (mod it that is). Azone is releasing Picco Neemo DANSHI soon – picco neemo boys!! There are currently photos of prototypes labeled a, b, and c. I’m not sure if they’ll release like the custom lilies where each letter type will be available in different hair colors or if that counts as one doll and he’ll be available in three different hairstyles. I’m thinking it’s the first option but you never really know. The c type has the best hair imo.

Pure Neemos and Ruruko dolls are adorable af and I need moar! Now that I have a couple of each I feel like there’s a some sort of story developing (rurukos and PN are in different “universes”/separate stories). They’re by far my favorite dolls to shop for. I love having them within arms reach to play around with when I’m bored. Fun to dress up, fun to pose, and so portable too! I’m currently waiting for the limited edition Wizard of Oz Himeno who will be the younger (twin?) sister to my Alvastaria Neil, my tol gentle boy. She comes with cute pastel clothes and is on the S body...I think. S body is the best girl body imo. The M and L just look like an elongated version of the S size. It looks a little weird. And xs size is cute but too small for my taste. (although I do love my xs rurukos/PN and wouldn’t even think of selling them. I just can’t see those little guys on any other body)

I need to find someone to paint my blank obitsu head, the person I was thinking of sending him to isn’t taking commissions right now T-T I don’t even know if they’ll reopen. I hope so. I really like their work so I wouldn’t mind waiting. I need to get him a body. I want a pure neemo S size boy body for him but I can’t seem to find one second hand and Azone still doesn’t sell that body separately, only the xs size. OTL

My doll count is fluctuating as always. I just never know if I’ll actually like the doll until I have it in my hands. -__- So far my oldest doll is still the first, sweet Enda, followed by young!Marion, then Quinton, adult!Marion…and it gets hazy from there on. Oops lol. My most anticipated doll purchase is…5th Motif Venitu!!! Yaaasssss!!! Aaaa I can’t believe I was finally able to purchase one. Super excited for this one. I guess he counts as a grail? I really wanted one. Never thought I’d get to own one. I painted one before (faceup commission) and he was so so beautiful. I want him now! >o< I had him on a 6 month LA but now that I’ve sold my DDS Len I can pay him off much sooner. !!! !!!!!!!!! !!!1 1!!!!!

Now that I’m speaking dolls, I still need to buy a body for my Fairyland event head whom I’ve named Soma. I’m not sure if it’s his permanent name or a temporary one. You know what, its probably permanent. I’ll get so used to it I won’t be able to see him as anything else. That’s what always happens with placeholder names, that’s how Marion was named lol. I also need to get my Luts Satyr his human torso. (and redo his faceup x__x Did I name him? I don’t think I named him yet. Bodies still needed for Egil and Gera. I need to get some eyes that actually fit my Kanadoll boys, Egil (adult!Marion stole his eyes) and incoming Venitu (!!!). I want to get some glasses too, I’m not sure who will wear them though. I was thinking they would go to either Valentine or incoming Venitu. I have a thing I’m working on for my Batchix St George, Gilbert. It’ll be pretty neat-o if it turns out ok ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also need to finally wash that bag of alpaca hair and get to making some wigs haha. I would also really really really like to do a proper photo shoot with adult!Marion now that he’s complete. He’s gorgeous. Love him. Best boy. Fav boy. He’s my #1 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I want to post more on my tumblr though I have no idea what. More photos? Character info? Story snippets? Drawings? Faceups? Would anyone be interested in my non-bjd figures? :p hmmmmm What do?

My resolution for the coming year is try to be more active in the community. To leave nice comments on people photos and actually talk to people. Have conversations? I’m so bad at this but I’ll try. >__<

That’s basically it. Um if you wanted to see more of my stuff there’s more activity (randomness and bad pics) on my insta @silent.wayfarer. Its basically all of interests crammed into one place. No organization. Kind of like a photo dump. Its my comfy trash pile.

#ignore #sorry for the wall of text #how to tumblr?????????#end of year rambling

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lasentimentael · 5 years ago

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The Lamp

My Papí was my hero. He was an ordinary man—a job, a wife, and two kids—but to me, he was incredible. My Papí would wake up at five in the morning to go work at a scrap metal company in South Gate, take the lucrative 710 to the 60 to the 605 ride back home, have dinner with us, and sleep during play time with me. And I loved him for it.

That was the rhythm. Weekdays we spent with me nudging him awake and using hair accessories and chubby hands to style his locks. Curly black hair held together by pink and purple butterfly clips and tied with bright blue elastics all while my Papí snoozed. He’d wake up the next morning and go to work like that too.

On weekends, it went like this. He’d work Saturday and come home around noon to a modest yellow home with a rose bed in the front yard and a Rottweiler pup in the back. The house would be chaotic, yelling from my mother to my brother, from her to me, from him to me, and me to them. Brooms and mops and a vacuum would hum along to Selena Quintanilla, and Don Chente. When Papí came, it meant we took a break and ate, sometimes beans and rice, and in richer times a treat from the Pollo Campero near my Papí’s work. When the cleaning was done, we would hop into our worn down Jaguar, and go to the movies. Action movies mostly, they were Papí’s favorite.

Sundays were sweeter, they meant breakfast at Denny’s and dinner at home, a few slaps of carne asada on the grill, fresh guacamole, and the rice and beans my Mamí made. My Papí would grill while I played with our Rottweiler, Bryan and Mamí setting the table. A yummy dinner, clean up, and the night would end with Papí reading a book to me before bed.

One day, on a Sunday, we went slightly out of routine. For whatever reason, we didn’t grill outside, we just ate McDonalds and called it a day, my parents laid in bed watching a movie, and I wandered the house as I usually did. I came to settle in my brother’s room. He had a fair-sized room with things a twelve-year old boy would have. His desk was shoved in the far right corner, an assortment of Gundam Mobile Suit figurines and Hot Wheels cars set on display. An old mattress that Papí was going to get rid of was propped against the closet on the left. A Sonic the Hedgehog poster hung over his bed, which resided closest to the doorway. Beside that, a single lamp with no lampshade. Just a bare bulb that lit up the room.

Bryan was at his desk, his back to the door. I came up behind him and saw he was playing on the new Windows 98 we had gotten a few months before. He managed to install Mega Man on it, and man, was he good at it.

“Whatcha doing?” I asked, pushing my mane of frizzled goodness out my face. I did that thing where I adjusted my shirt awkwardly with my clumsy six-year old hands, and totally invaded his personal space, real close to his ear.

“Get away, stop breathing so close to my ear,” I remember him say, eyes not moving away from the computer screen. Mega Man was blasting Proto Man.

“ But I wanna see. Can I help?” I moved closer, accidentally knocking down a pencil he had on his desk.

“Jessi, get away. Go sit by the mattress.”

“Why? I wanna watch you play. Let me help.”

“Help me by sitting over there. Go or I’ll tell Mamí.”

That was all I needed to hear. I went and sat by the old mattress, bored but for whatever reason, not willing to move on to elsewhere in the house. I studied the mattress, worn and beat up, and yellowed, so that the blue material had turned green in some spots. In its place, at Bryan’s bed, was the new mattress. It was a colorful Dinosaur patterned one that he had chosen himself. I watched Bryan click away for what seemed like forever, until Papí happened to be passing by, and poked his head in. He looked towards Bryan.

“Where’s your sister? He looked on the bed, expecting to find me there.

“Hi Papí,” I waved from my spot by the old mattress. I briefly wondered if I could get him to tell my brother to play with me instead of his computer.

I saw his eyes slowly follow the sound of my voice until he found me. He went from nonchalant, to having his eyebrows furrow together, and his voice got like, three times louder.

“What are you doing there?” he asked, while my brother still clicked away.

“Helping Bryan,” I said dully, even though I knew I wasn’t really helping.

“Qué?”

“Helping Bryan,” I said a little more loudly.

“What do you mean helping? What are you doing sitting next to that mattress?” He shook his head as he spoke, pointing to the mattress and trying to make sense of what I said.

“Bryan said I can play by sitting here. It’s not really fun.” I pointed at Bryan, who was oblivious to our entire conversation. He was still clicking away, only now he was losing to Proto Man.

“Bryan, did you tell her to sit next to the mattress?” Papí asked.

“Uh…yeah...but it’s because she wouldn’t stop bugging me.”

“Who wo-why would you think that’s okay?”

My brother shrugged, still not looking away from the screen. My Papí fumed, and sat on my brother’s bed. I could see the steam coming out of his ears but I couldn’t understand why he was so upset.

“Ven pa’ca.” My Papí’s Salvadoran accent was strong, and I hesitated to go over. I was in trouble.

“Ven pa’ca.” He waved me over, only barely contained. “Why did you go sit there?”

“Uh…because Bryan told me to.”

“Are you going to do whatever he tells you to do?”

“Um” I said. I wasn’t sure if this was a trick question. I had seen a lot of that on Scooby-Doo and The Flintstones.

“Are you going to do whatever he tells you to do?”

“Yeah?” My voice went up at the end; you could hear I didn’t understand where he was going with this. “You said to listen to him.”

“If somebody tells you to jump off a cliff, are you going to do it?” Papí’s hair, normally curly and neat stood up on all ends, a big ‘fro of mess. His face was stoic and serious.

I said nothing, trying to figure out what the right answer was. What he wanted me to answer. I thought he had come in to tell me he was going to read to me. Or ask if I wanted cereal. Or make Bryan play with me.

“Sit here.” He patted his lap. His tone stayed firm, but the lap said I was safe.

“Look here,” Papí said, pointing at the lamp beside us. The bulb was exposed and very bright. Heat radiated off of it.

“Touch it,” he said.

“What?” I asked, wondering if I had heard him right.

“Touch it. Go on, touch it.”

I looked at him incredulously.

“But Papí… It’s hot.”

“So? Touch it.”

“But I’ll burn myself.”

“Touch it.”

I studied his face. Completely serious.

“Andále, touch it. Do it.” He grabbed my hand and moved it closer to the bulb.

I knew very well that my hand would burn. I knew it, but my Papí had told me to do it. I didn’t know why, but he had asked me to do it. I contemplated for a moment, but Papí had always said to do what he said. Do it, he said.

So I touched it.

Almost immediately, I pulled my hand away. I pulled it away and cried before I even saw how red my hand was, before I knew the skin would peel from how hot the bulb was. I cried and held onto Papí, but I hated him also. My Papí held me as I cried, soothed my hair, and held my hand in his.

All the while, he said, “You see? That’s why you don’t always do what you’re told to do.”

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punderfulowl · 8 years ago

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10 Anime Series That Could Pull Off a Live-Action Remake

What’s more shocking than me actually updating? Why, the fact that the live-action Ghost in the Shell adaptation wasn’t complete garbage! I mean, it wasn’t the greatest movie I watched, but it sure wasn’t the worst especially in terms of adapting from anime. Despite having so much against it, the film, overall, was fine. Simply fine. But because the bar has been set so low, “fine” is actually a positive step forward for adapting anime, which is kind of bittersweet because that’ll probably hurt the chances of anything original getting on the big screen, but it’s still a positive step for the anime community. After all, there’s a live-action Death Note series for Netflix on the horizon so there still must be demand for it. Of course, it wasn’t long after I saw the new GitS movie that got me thinking about what anime series could have a legitimate chance of having a live-action movie or show.

First off, these will not be in any particular order. Second, these are hypothetical movies based off of TV series only. Third, the series I mention must not have any prior adaptations already (which means I had to do some research, oh boy). Fourth, each of these ideas must be strong enough for a stand alone movie, so if I thought an adaptation could work with a couple of sequels, it’s not on this list. And finally, these are WESTERN adaptations with a Western audience in mind, so my ideas are going to come with some tweaks to certain details of the original source material.

With all that out of the way, here are my nerdy opinions movie and series pitches.

- Baccano

Remember when after the show LOST was over and everyone tried to make a show like that? You know, like, every trailer for these knock offs tried to make their shows out like they were SUPER important while trying to ride the wave of momentum LOST created? Those shows didn’t last long, did they? The problem was that they tried to do too much too soon. LOST didn’t start out like that, but as the show went on it played up to it’s mystery and deserved its important-sounding teasers for the next episode. Since then, there hasn’t been a lot of shows like that and it’s a shame when you think about how a mystery element can be quite a lot of fun if done right and “fun” is the keyword for a live-action Baccano.

Like I said, FUN is the key for a live-action series of Baccano and it would be what separates itself from those other shows that have tried and failed. As long as you have fun in the forefront, you already of a decent foundation to reel in and hold an audience.

Another key is to be faithful to the source material and that is obvious enough, you already know that, but it’s especially important to be faithful on the very first note of mystery. You see, where LOST slowly introduced you to the possibility of mystery or supernatural elements, Baccano didn’t mess around and showed you something to ponder within the first five to ten minutes.

Something else that Baccano shared with LOST is the times skips, but don’t worry, the former does a lot better job than the latter as it contains the events within three years. A cool thing Baccano did with skipping around was each period time had a different feel as well as using different lighting and color which would let the viewer know, visually, that this is sometime else. Not to mention that the story of Baccano takes place during the Prohibition period in New York which would help an American audience connect with what’s going on.

All in all Baccano is a great time with a cast of colorful characters and couple layers of mystery. As long as you keep its spirit, an adaptation could work wonders.

- Zoids

If you just put Zoids in a nutshell, it’s basically people piloting giant robots in the likeness of various animals fighting other people piloting giant robots in the likeness of various animals. Okay, it’s not exactly “complex,” but there’s enough to work with for a fun, live-action, summer blockbuster.

Now between Chaotic Century or Century Zero (I haven’t seen Genesis and I refuse to acknowledge Fuzors) I think Century Zero would work the best considering that giant animal robots fighting each other in a grand tournament would sell better than having a story about two factions using them as instruments of war. Because Century Zero revolves around a tournament, it gives characters a goal and a competitive setting gives the audience something to be excited about. All that doesn’t matter compared to how much merchandise this movie would sell, but I believe I’m getting ahead of myself.

The story for this adaptation is interesting because I can see it going one of two ways.

Option 1: Tell a new story with new characters while using the setting of Century Zero as a template.

Option 2: Take on the task of retelling the story of Century Zero while making a few tweaks to fit into a two hour movie.

Like I said, both are good options and if someone decides to make a live-action Zoids movie, it would be a huge draw for kids and adults alike. After all, who wouldn’t want to pilot a mechanical animal?

- Canaan

It’s a story about a hero that is fighting against a terrorist group that’s using deadly virus. Seems like a basic action/thriller that’s been done before, but this time the cast is mostly women. Not only that, the characters are actually taken seriously. No joke, Hollywood, if you make this with the intent of giving these characters the proper respect they had in the anime, you will not fail.

- Eden of the East

Imagine yourself coming into a large sum of money, let’s just say, 10 billion dollars in electric currency found on your phone, and with all that you’re tasked with “saving the country.” Not only that, there are eleven others (one of which is the mastermind of this whole thing) that have been given the same task as you and thus you have been thrown into a game of life or death.

There are two reasons why this could work really well as a live-action Netflix or HBO show. First, because it started as an anime, we learn about what a Japanese perspective on this situation would be, which then asks what a Western take would look like. Second, it was interesting to see the variety of characters. Each person involved in this game had a different background, social standing, personality. Given that a Western society like America is a melting pot, I can’t help but think of what different kinds of people would do with all that money to throw around. It’s a show I would definitely binge.

- Psycho-Pass

In my humble, honest opinion, this would be THE easiest anime to adapt. You don’t need to add anything, the narrative is fine by itself.

Anyway, Psycho-Pass takes place in the near future where a system dictates most things like what job you’re going to have via aptitude tests. It also keeps track of your mental well-being which then predicts the likelihood of you committing a crime. If your mental state reaches a certain level, you’re hauled off to jail till your level goes down. However, there’s a mysterious individual that has a rare mental state that bypasses the system no matter what heinous acts he commits. If his mental state can’t change, then this new system sees no reason to arrest him.

There are other pieces to the plot I’m leaving out, but go and see the anime for yourself, that way you can see why this would make a cool live-action sci-fi movie.

- Desert Punk

I’ve been pretty serious with these ideas, so why not include something a bit more silly?

Desert Punk is a show that follows the life of a bounty hunter named Kanta. His reputation may lead most to thinking he’s a man of a mercenary, but actuality, he’s quite the shrewd and skilled teenager with average teenager, um, “urges.” That last part doesn’t become known until he’s bested by another mercenary who just so happens to be a grown woman. Hijinks, as they say, ensues.

The anime is a action, comedy show with a raunchy side to it. Personally, this can work well as a movie that’s directed by someone like a Shane Black or Quentin Tarantino. This would most likely be a hard PG-13 to light R, but it would still be pretty entertaining.

- Mobile Suit Gundam

Despite me thinking this idea could work, this would be the hardest anime to adapt. Why? Because there are so many different Gundam series out there and I’ve only seen three or four of them! If you want a rundown of most Gundam series, here it is: War is happening with robots that involves young pilots controlling more special robots (for any big Gundam fans reading this, I’m sorry).

I always thought of the Gundam franchise as a property that floats idly by waiting for someone to make a live-action adaptation of it. Like, it’s just there, waiting! But alas, it has yet to happen. If I were to make a live-action Gundam movie, it would be similar to the Wing series, only because of the cool designs and weapons of the main Gundams, but I would make up a new story. I don’t know, other than that and having a guy wear a cool mask, I don’t have much, unfortunately.

- Yu Yu Hakusho

Except I would call it something else like “Spirit Detective,” just so we don’t have a title that would scare off possible viewers, but I digress (even though this is a new thought and didn’t stray away from anything).

Despite having to change the name of the show and even some of the character names, I would make this live-action series follow the adventures of a character named Yusuke Urameshi. I would make the slight tweak of Yusuke’s family being Japanese-American immigrants. The setting would still be American, but it would still be cool to have an action/adventure show led by an Asian actor.

I would make the first season be based on the first episode all the way to the Saint Beast arc. It would be mostly be beat for beat with the anime, but with the addition of Yusuke’s family moving to America and because he was an immigrant he got bullied in school which then started his delinquency that we all know.

This could be good, but it HAS to be a project of passion.

- Kino’s Journey

You know what I learned from projects like Stranger Things and Logan? Little girls can freakin’ act, man!

I would definitely make this a series that carries the same laid back atmosphere like the anime did. Each episode of the anime was basically Kino going through a town or city that acted as a parable of sorts and I think that’s pretty doable. Like I mentioned before, I’ve been wildly impressed by young acting talent (boys and girls alike) and I can see both young and old audiences appreciate the mood the storytelling comes with despite the age of the actors.

- Sword Art Online

Anyone that has followed for awhile knows that I have a few issues with SAO. I have had my fair share of criticisms and jokes toward SAO. But with all that aside, I can’t help but acknowledge that a live-action movie would actually be pretty decent. HOWEVER! However, some things need to be done to make this adaptation not only bearable, but BETTER than the anime.

To start things off, we need to keep run time in mind so in that case I would only focus on the movie being about the first story arc of the first season, cut out the episodes with Lizbeth and Silica, and you got yourself enough for a two hour movie. Even though the ending of that arc transitions into the next one, the ending was satisfying on its own.

Next, and it goes without saying, to understand the source material proper, you have to watch the show. After that, watch the abridged series by Something Witty Entertainment. Watch the original for the basic concept, but watch the parody for characterization. Combine the two, and you got yourself a movie with a really cool idea that’s not full of itself.

That’s all I got, what anime series can you come up with that could have a legitimate shot at live-action?

#anime #live-action #sword art online #kino's journey #yu yu hakusho #mobile suit gundam #desert punk #psycho-pass #eden of the east #canaan #zoids #baccano!

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