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tsuki-sennin · 3 years ago

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Mina-san, bonne lecture~! (Tsuki recaps his feelings about Kamen Rider Saber, a personal essay.)

So, Saber... what a wild ride it's been, huh? Just a quick heads up, this is very long and rambling, and also contains spoilers for everything in Saber. It's fine if you don't wanna read all this, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

TL:DR, Kamen Rider Saber's an undercooked hot mess I absolutely adore, warts and all.

Speaking as objectively as possible, it's a 6/10. Probably closer to a 5 than a 7... it's not great: All the different plot elements are cluttered and weirdly paced; character focus is disjointed and clearly biased toward certain characters, leaving great ones like Kento and Ogami, interesting ones like Kamijo and Hayato, and underdeveloped ones like Sophia and especially the Shindais in the dust; not to mention its balance of comedy and drama is off, and while both are very effective, there's a lot of mood whiplash that can take you out of the story. I also feel like a lot of the easily avoidable character conflict could've been easily resolved, even in universe, by simple conversations. Be careful Fukuda, I think Inoue might sue you if he finds out you've been biting his style and doing it worse.

Rider shows have a very frustrating tendency to drop cool form ideas and not do anything with them, and I don't think it's ever been more the case than with Saber. There's a similar argument to be made with the majority of Heisei Phase 2 after Gaim, but wow. The suits are expensive to make without just straight up recycling everything, I get that, but man, I really wanted to see more Wonder Rider forms. How come Touma got all the fun, eh? Of note are the Blades King of Arthur forms (which look amazing by the way), Espada's Jaaku Dragon forms (one of which I even drew last night), even the non-elemental random Wonder Ride Books all have awesome design elements that go tragically unused. Even if the other Swordsmen just kinda have the ones they do get to use slapped onto them, that's at least something. Touma also just straight up only uses Diago Speedy twice and never again. You have cool props guys, don't waste them like that!

Speaking of waste, Espada, goddamn. Since most of the Wonder Ride Books are Story Type and he needs one very specific Story Book to transform, he doesn't get much of... anything, really! No Wonder Rider forms like Blades, Lamp Do Cerberus being exclusive to Ganbarizing, only getting to use the Ride Gatriker like once, he even spends the second and third arcs as a completely different Rider, then once he comes back he doesn't get a King of Arthur-granted upgrade or even a Necrom Espada form. ...at least, not yet anyway. I'm holding out hope for Espada x Necrom and the eventual Saber V-Cinemas. Extra Rider stans, we will be well respected someday.

The Unreal Engine CGI used for fights in early Chapters was pretty good but wow it feels disconnected and they really drop it quick. I feel like if the animators had more freedom to use as many forms as they want, we'd have gotten a lot more mileage out of the books beyond... decoration basically. I actually really liked the CGI sequences, they felt creative and were fun to follow along with.

The soundtrack is pretty great on its own and conveys what it needs to, but they seriously overplay the orchestral themes. It honestly feels kind of... stock at times. I think my favorite parts of the score are when it winds down, since it feels a lot more natural and lets the cinematographers and actors speak for themselves.

As awesome as I think Falchion's design and the Mumeiken Kyomu are, The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin comes up short as its own standalone thing. You'd think 30 or so minutes of non-stop action would be awesome, and it almost is? It's as good as a typical episode of the series with a higher action budget, but it kinda drags on a bit too long; and although I think Emotional Dragon looks cool, it feels a bit tacked on. Coming off of the incredible Zero-One REAL×TIME, it doesn't give you much room to breathe, which Rider films are typically great at handling. I also thought the resolution for the kid's subplot was kinda forced. He does an okay job at acting considering his age and doesn't overstay his welcome, but I really don't see how 20 minutes of violence and action is enough to convince him to be brave enough to go play with the other kids. 5/10, it's closer to a 4 than a 6 and I think that maybe Zero-One should've stood on its own if they really had to push back Kiramager Bee-Bop Dream because of the pandemic.

Alright, with all that said... As imperfect and undercooked Saber was, like Ghost I can consider it a personal favorite, 10/10. Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, but holy hell it's just the show I needed. Takuro Fukuda has a talent for creating fun, wonderful characters and utterly fascinating worldbuilding and concepts. It's a shame he doesn't utilize them fully, but hey!

The action and fight choreography are pretty top notch as usual. Lots of beautiful shot composition and set pieces, and plenty of great angles to help keep up with the extra busy action. I love watching the suit actors perform and they deserve all the respect in the world for their hard work in those hot, sweaty, and heavy costumes. Their visual design is also top notch, with lots of unique and fascinating forms and cool weapons I desperately want to play with despite being broke, all with spectacular finishers and hype jingles with the voice of Akio motherfucking Ohtsuka calling them out. A real feast for the eyes. Not a single bad suit among them, yeah I said it, fight me.

The crossover specials are soooo good too.

-I went over my feelings on the Zenkaiger crossover episodes in a separate post (good luck finding that btw), but to sum it up, they were great character moments for Zox and the Shindai siblings with lots of great screwball comedy and some good old fashioned meta humor.

-The Ghost crossovers are great little side stories all about how Daitenku Temple somehow had the Ghost Ijunroku Wonder Ride Book? I genuinely have no idea why it was there, or how Makoto had the Specter Gekikou Senki, and as far as I remember neither of their origins are explained. Did Luna or Tassel hand them off to them and told them to wait for a sword guy? And why do these generic French Revolution Gamma villains working for Danton get their asses handed to them so easily by Kanon, who literally just became a Rider? I thought that Makoto deciding to adopt all the Kanon clones into his family was both hilarious and adorable though; considering all the crap they went through, I think it was a good ending to this plot. Gimme Espada x Necrom already Toei/Bandai/Fukuda/whoever I need to yell at, give Kento things to do, I beg you.

-I haven't actually seen Super Hero Senki since it's not available for subbing yet, but apparently there's a Journey to the West plot starring the Taros and Ohma Zi-O and I want to see that so badly.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra? Yoohei Kawakami? A match made in heaven, that's what they are. All of their themes are absolute bangers. All of them. Almighty, Kamen Rider Saber, Sparks, Taju Rokou, all excellent and empowering pieces. Rewrite the Story, Will Save Us, and The Story Never Ends are all amazing inserts done by the cast, and it makes me wish we had even more of them to help break up the monotony of the score.

The characters are what easily make this show such a great watch though. For the most part, they have great personalities and chemistry, consistently fun and interesting scenes, well acted and... sometimes well-written development, and deeply investing personal stakes.

Narrating it all is the delightfully eccentric Tassel/Viktor, portrayed by Romanesque Ishitobi "TOBI" of the Paris-based Les Romanesques. I was utterly confused by his presence at first, wondering why there needed to be a narrator when the story would've been perfectly fine without it. He even got a special spot in the opening despite having no stake in the plot despite seeming to live in Wonderworld, who the hell is this guy? But then I thought "OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD". I thought it'd be some subversion of expectations, true form, "That Was His Mistake!" shit. Trust me, it made a lot more sense in my head. I'm very happy that they didn't do that, as I grew to love having male Yuuka Kazami as my narrator, and when he was shown to be actually important by being friends with Yuri my mind was blown. And doubly so when I realized just how deeply necessary to the plot he really is.

Rintaro/Blades is up there as one of my all time favorite secondary Riders, since his curiosity is always consistently funny and adorable, his forms are all gorgeous and impressively designed, his relationships with Mei and Touma are absolutely sweet and compelling to see unfold, and his arcs about becoming willing to call out those he views as family and coming to terms with his feelings of inadequacy and both moving past and using them to strengthen himself are always great lessons to pass on to kids. ...even if they took like 10 goddamn episodes to be conveyed in what could've been 5, but hey, Takaya Yamaguchi does a stand-up job all throughout. Rider veteran Eitoku's refined, almost logical movements with the Suiseiken Nagare absolutely beautiful to see in action, and his final form having the same white and blue color scheme as Zooous's base form is an amazing touch I don't see appreciated enough.

Mei Sudo's also absolutely wonderful, serving as the perfect emotional core of the story, responsible for most of the funniest lines, sweetest character moments, and some of the most deceptively compelling drama. Asuka Kawazu brings the perfect energy for such a dynamic and well rounded character, and absolutely nails her scenes of quiet turmoil. As much as I would've loved her to become a Rider, I don't think she really needed to. She's already done so much to help, and as cool as it would've been to see her pick up a sword and fight alongside them as Espada, Calibur, or Falchion she's already endeared herself to me as one of my favorite supporting characters in the whole franchise.

I can't get enough of my homeboy Kento Fukamiya/Espada. Like Rintaro and everyone else for that matter, he also suffers from Saber's pacing issues; and like his predecessor Valkyrie from Zero-One, he doesn't get a proper upgrade aside from his Wonder Combo, instead becoming an anti-villain using a completely different powerset and shifting the Raimeiken Ikazuchi out of focus for the Ankokuken Kurayami, and I feel there's a serious missed opportunity to see him use Jaaku Dragon with Alangina. However, Ryo Aoki's performance is probably among the most easily praiseworthy in the whole cast, managing to convey both Kento's kind and knightly stoicism as Espada and his emotionally unstable despair as Calibur perfectly, in conjunction with Yuji Nakata's experienced and expressive stuntwork.

Ren Akamichi/Kenzan's a dark horse favorite for sure. I remember back when Saber was first picking up, people hated this breezy mad lad for being such a simple character at first. Overly concerned with strength? Black and white world view? Annoyingly energetic? Agh, real-feeling character flaws, I hate them, get him away from me! But then y'all came crawling back. Eiji Togashi's apparently a bit of a rookie actor, and it really shows with some stilted delivery and the way he sometimes bobs his head when giving his lines, but man he improves dramatically as the series goes on. His inexperience ironically ends up really selling his character development, and his unexpectedly beautiful relationship with Desast is special evidence of that. The Fuusouken Hayate's three modes and Satoshi Fujita putting them to excellent use through his stellar acrobatic movements are also really cool.

Why did Luna have to be a child for so long? Does Wonderworld not age whoever inherits its power? Well since Luna randomly becomes an adult in Super Hero Senki and some of the final episodes, I guess so? Miku Okamoto does a fine job for a kid actor, but she's basically done all the heavy lifting for the whole series and doesn't give Mayuu Yokota enough time to get a feel for her character as an adult. How did she choose Touma to inherit the power anyway? Does she just subconsciously decide to trust him with it upon seeing how kind and passionate about storytelling he is? Well if that's the case, why didn't Kento get at least some of that power too? He's just as important to the merchan- I mean Luna-chan, isn't he? Why did Tassel pick her over someone who isn't a literal child who'd be understandably terrified about basically becoming an embodiment of storytelling?

Sophia also kinda suffers from the same problems. Rina Chinen's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but she doesn't really do much beyond serving as a source of exposition and support. I think her dynamic with Mei's adorable, and given her kindness I can certainly understand the respect Northern Base has for her, but she doesn't really contribute a whole lot. If she could use the Kurayami and become Calibur all this time, then why didn't she take it from Kento and Yuri and do so earlier when Kento decided to go back to being Espada? I know she's not much of a fighter and as the closet thing the Sword of Logos has to a leader after Isaac's death I'd understand not wanting to put her at risk, but considering Storious is destroying the world, and she's very evidently kicking a lot of ass in the first part of the final battle even in the basic Jaaku Dragon form, I think it would've helped a lot, just sayin'. Tassel at least has the excuse of being unable to interact with the real world, but Sophia obviously didn't just be put in charge of Northern Base just because she's a pawn in Isaac's plans right?

Ryou Ogami/Buster is also a victim of the disjointed character focus. I have no problem believing he's an excellent father and fighter thanks to Yuki Ikushima and Jiro Okamoto, respectively, but he feels a bit flat and simple in comparison. His rivalry with Desast is randomly dropped, his wife doesn't even show up until the final episodes, he's kinda sidelined in terms of action a whole lot. I imagine that must've sucked for the Rider Dads out there. He does get to star in his own manga, and that was pretty good, so I guess I can't be too mad.

Tetsuo Daishinji/Slash fares better though. Hiroaki Oka, being a Kamen Rider fanboy himself, manages to make him among the most relatable characters in the series. Not only are his hyperfixation on swordsmithing and anxiety played surprisingly believably, Hirotsugu Mori letting him cut loose is extremely cathartic and hilarious, and you really feel for him when the Onjuuken Suzune becomes the first victim of Calibur!Kento's sword sealing.

Yuri/Saikou's another dark horse favorite, for me at least. "Oh great, Avalon guy's got even more merchandise to sell, I wonder what his Sword of Light is- it's himself. Well... that's different." I admit, I didn't like him at first. He felt like he was there to fill out character dynamics in the absence of both Rintaro and Kento, I thought his gimmick was too silly even if his design and jingles were bangers, I didn't particularly care for his power set. But then XSwordman came around I totally got it. He's an endearing, hard-working man trying his best to catch up on all the cool shit he missed, unafraid of experimentation, ready to throw down at a moment's notice, serving as a wonderful bit of consistent support for our heroes, a truly knightly individual, an absolute Chad. and goddamn does he make me worry. Tomohiro Ichikawa, I salute you good sir.

Even if they fall short compared to the rest of the cast, the Shindai siblings are at least cool enough to not wanna write out entirely. They kinda devolve into comic relief after they become allies, something that villainous Riders from Chase onwards are very prone to doing, and it's especially awkward in their case because I think that they kinda get off scot-free for obeying the obviously sinister and crazy Isaac for so long, as well as driving a wedge between a lot of people and threatening children in Reika's case. I think their sibling dynamic is nice though, even if Fukuda recycled it from Makoto and Kanon and has some... questionable possessive undertones as a result. It's cool how they're basically foils to Touma and Rintaro though. The dispassionate and methodical Reika/Sabela is beautifully played by Angela Mei and her moments of emotional depth are fascinating to watch. Her Rider form is a thing of beauty, and its use of literal the Eneiken Noroshi's smokescreens and Yuki Miyazawa's precise and deadly stinging strikes are a joy to watch. And while Ken Shonozaki's not given the best direction as the undercooked plate of 7-Eleven fried fish that is Ryoga/Durendal, he manages to sell him as an experienced and hardened warrior with an awkward side that's especially evident in the Zenkaiger specials. His goddamn RWBY weapon that is the Jikokuken Kaiji is absolutely sick, I'm a sucker for transforming weapons and its combination of time and water powers is really cool, especially with Yasuhiko Amai's deliberate and forceful acting in the suit.

Daichi Kamijo/the Second Calibur, for as brief as his story was, was a pretty cool starter villain. Hiroyuki Hirayama brings this poor bastard to life in a genuinely touching way. I love how as Calibur he goes full force on his creative use of Wonder Ride Books for attacks, and his debut as Jaou Dragon got my blood pumping. His end is also deeply tragic, and I really felt for him when he realized just how badly he fucked up. Hayato Fukamiya also does wonders for the backstory, and while he also doesn't get much to work with, Mitsuru Karahashi makes his regrets and love for Kento feel genuine.

Legeiel and Zooous are both very intimidating and entertaining villains. On top of being just the right balance of goofy and threatening, Kairu Takano and Koji Saikawa's stage presences are both very strong, and their mixture of camaraderie and in-fighting is extremely believable. Zooous's rivalry with Rintaro feels incredible to see through to the end, and although Legeiel doesn't get quite the same treatment, Elemental Dragon had such a cool debut that it more than makes up for it. Their final fights are also absolute spectacles. I don't think their sympathetic angle works even close to as well as it does with MetsubouJinrai or even the Gamma, but I get it, power corrupts, and you probably feel a lot of sadness and regret for things you've done when you die unless you're a right bastard.

Isaac/Master Logos/Solomon is kinda generic. As wonderful as Keisuke Soma is, he doesn't get much dimension to work with. The result of that is while he nails being as smug and punchable as possible, he feels almost... comically generic. Genta Umemori from Shinkenger was full of personality! He was also basically some guy, but he was fun, he felt connected to the rest of the cast! Meanwhile the only real time we get to see Isaac's depth is when we see him crying over his failures. I almost appreciate him being unapologetically evil though, since I've seen way too many shows where redeemed villains get off scot free for way worse things, and some where they outright demand you to sympathize with them despite them doing nothing to warrant it.

Bahato/Falchion surprises me by not just being a movie villain whose actions affect the main plot, but also being a movie villain who actually gets to appear in series as a recurring threat! ...and it's not a particularly great showing on his part, sadly. Masashi Taniguchi does a wonderful job with what he's given, but his character feels like a retread of Eternal without any of what made Katsumi Daido a compelling and frightening villain. I'd like to believe Yuri when he says that he used to be a good person and a hero to the people, but I can only hear so many anime villain monologues about the pointlessness of life and the beauty of destruction before I can never take them seriously again. ...I think that's his biggest problem, actually. I thought he was an overall uninteresting and generic villain in the movie, and the cartoon nihilist he's shown to be in series is only a small step up. He still feels like filler. If only there were a far better written and much cooler villain who takes on the Mumeiken Kyomu after his de--

Desast is probably one of the finest anti-villains I've ever seen in recent years. On top of an absolutely badass character design and the excellent combination of Kazuya Okada/Danki Sakae's suit work and Koki Uchiyama's stellar voice acting, his story being so thoroughly intertwined with Ren's makes their shared journey and bromance a borderline Shakespearean tragedy. His struggle for identity despite Storious treating him as nothing more than a failed experiment and the Sword of Logos treating him as a mere monster really gripped me, and the way he uses what little time he has left to encourage Ren into blossoming on his own is absolutely beautiful. I think his enmity with Ogami is criminally underexplored in series, considering he killed several of the previous Riders and how Ogami's in desperate need of screentime.

Then there's our main villain, Kamen Rider Storious. Robin Furuya brings an incredible amount of charisma to this character, expertly portrayed as both a sinister, manipulative bastard , and as a lonely, tragic figure that arguably makes him feel even more villainous. Speaking as a struggling writer myself, it's easy to feel stuck in the idea of "fuck it, who cares, maybe everything is predestined", but I can't imagine what it's like to know that as the truth and carry it with you for all that time. All of your grand ideas have roots from your experiences, and you're not the only one who even could have those experiences. It's easy to just fall into despair and give up trying, but would that make you happy? Sure, Storious is sadistic, he may be fulfilling his goals, he may be ungodly powerful... but it's not enough for him, is it? All of his friends are gone, one of them even at his own hand, he probably doesn't have any idea what to do after he destroys all the world's stories, Touma even reached his full power before he did, and his downfall is so predictable that even a blind person could see it. He even seems to welcome it, what's up with that? But then I realized... OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD. He's so far gone, he's so desperate to stick it to the Almighty Book, he's willing to twist the archetype of the Hero's Journey so hard, it snaps in two. What I think is interesting is that he's ironically trying to chase the trend of "edgy superhero story" that became super popular in the 21st century. The Boys, Brightburn, Kamen Rider Amazons, The Sentry, No More Heroes, Magical Girl Site, even mainstream comics from DC and Marvel... Surely Storious must've seen the cruelty and tragedy these stories are filled with, but he chooses to go through with trying to force the world into this direction anyway. Did they, along with seeing the ever-popular tragedies of legendary playwrights and bleak satire of the twentieth century fuel his despair?

And yet... there's one who stands in determination against his ideals.

Our hero, Touma Kamiyama, the titular Kamen Rider portrayed by Syuichiro Naito and Kousuke Asai, he speaks to me on a personal level. There're plenty of jokes to be made about his procrastination in early chapters, his godless fashion sense, and him doing the funny run up the slope, that's all fine and dandy, but I rarely feel so connected to a character the way I did Touma. The struggle to create, find companionship, live your life, reach out to others... these're things a lot of people struggle with, and of course you see them depicted a lot in media about creators, but Saber gets to the root of what the greatest thing about storytelling really is. Giving people hope, while using the pain of the past as fuel for the future. Sure, Storious may be right about how every story has been done as far back as human civilization gets, he may even be right about how any spin or creativity humanity has is outright predestined. It should be pointless to even try, right? That's where Touma Kamiyama disagrees. He didn't spend all that time fighting and creating just to give up at the idea of predestination. His novel writing-fueled creativity in his early training, his devotion to his friends that let him surpass Kamijo as Dragonic Knight, his compassion for the Primitive Dragon that let him combine their powers to destroy Legeiel as Elemental Dragon, his resolve that let Xross Saber dethrone Solomon, and his passion for the craft of storytelling that let our heroes channel their wishes into Wonder Almighty... all stemming from the belief imparted onto him by his predecessor that "Hope lies beyond your resolution." And that you decide how your story ends. He may not be the greatest Rider to some, he may be as lame as others think he is, he may not even be my favorite, but I have no issue calling Touma Kamiyama... Kamen Rider Saber, one of the all time greatest carriers of the Kamen Rider name.

The final chapter's definitely not as great as some other Rider finales, but goddamn. Primitive Dragon consciously choosing to save Touma is so sweet and such a great emotional payoff, I loved jamming out to the opening theme while our boys lay the smackdown on Storious. Wonder Almighty's a fitting final bit to close the main series out with, if not exactly a great one. I think the cover is great, and the book's body is a lovely shade of candy apple red, but I really don't like how its pages are just the covers of the other books copy-pasted onto onto the pages, that feels lazy. Maybe if it were a panorama of all the books' characters, I'd like it a lot more as a symbol of how unified the Swordsmen are, but eh, what can you do? On a related note, does this mean all the "last episode extra final forms" of the Reiwa Era are gonna be named after their series's opening? That's a neat idea.

I felt a lot of feelings seeing all those video messages of Rider fans all across Japan talking about their favorite stories, and how their passion and fond memories help reshape the world. Mei's monologue at the ceremony about is also really touching and- IS THAT A HUMAGEAR!? :O

Y-yeah dude, it is! Wow, where have you guys been for the past 48 episodes?! Are you guys doing okay? How come you're like... the only one here? Is the technology of Hiden Intelligence only really that prevalent in that very specific metropolitan part of Japan and they're just not coming around much over here? Is it like Dragon Ball where anthropomorphic animals are just vibin' with humans while the heroes are off kicking ass? Apparently he's played by Hasegawa Keiichi, who wrote this episode and had the award ceremony named after him. ...is Hasegawa Keiichi a HumaGear in this universe then? Did he set up this award ceremony in Touma's honor? If so, why is it named after him? Did reading one of Touma's books lead to his Singularity? I know this is just a cameo, but... god, I have so many questions that probably will never be satisfactorily answered.

Overall, if I had to compare Saber to anything, it'd probably be Sam Reimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It's awkward, stupid, overwrought, undercooked, illogically written, scattershot, cheesy as fuck, and has a tendency to squander its otherwise fine execution; but the sheer passion for storytelling, sense of spectacle, deeply fascinating characters, and belief in the ideals set forth by the cast, crew, and fans are absolutely admirable. Improvements would certainly make it an overall better experience, to be sure, but there's something deeply captivating about how wonky this series is. Seeing everybody get their happy ending after all they've been through felt extremely gratifying though, and I may have to wait another for the epilogue to and then wait for Revice, but... man. I'm hella proud of our awkwardly-emoting, fashion disaster novelist and all of his heavily flawed friends for carrying the Kamen Rider name on to the future. Here's hoping Revice will keep it going.

Alright, that's everything I wanted to talk about. Sorry this was so long and ramble-y, I had a lot to say. I'll probably be liveblogging Revice as episodes of that come out, so... look forward to that, I guess. See ya.

#kamen rider saber #long post #tsuki talks #personal #kamen rider #whew #ok bye have a nice day

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titusmoody · 3 years ago

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2021 Q2 stuff

Games

Return of the Obra Dinn -- Very different. A great experience to play, it doesn’t use any typical “gamer” skills or knowledge. It also hit on a lot of my personally prefered sensibilities (stories self-contained to ships, non-linear storytelling, mysteries, and meticulous attention to detail)

Kentucky Route Zero -- Even more different. I’m glad I played it for the atmosphere, though it didn’t click with me the way Obra Dinn did. Extremely atmospheric and cool, but also has a strong academic curiosity to it.

DOOM (2016)-- Okay, we’re back to regular video games. Everything about this one seems very carefully crafted. I had a good, mindless time with this one.

Spider-Man -- Not as well-crafted as DOOM, but also less juvenile. I also had a good, mindless time with this one.

Metroid: Samus Returns -- Feels like Metroid. The moment-to-moment combat is different than Super Metriod and Fusion, which is a nice way to keep things from getting stale.

Shadow and Bone -- Sometimes tropes exist because they make for good stories. This show was a good example of that.

Pani Poni Dash -- WTF Japan, in a good way

Princess Tutu -- Much like I felt about Cowboy Bebop, this show was very well-made and I had an easy time appreciating what it was doing, though in the end it’s not the kind of thing that’s really for me

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid -- Pleasant to watch, mostly lighthearted but could definitely have emotional moments here and there to keep you interested.

Kakegurui -- Shows like this are the reason anime fans are so self-depricating. It was thoroughly trashy, but I’d be lying if I said that the trashiness didn’t lead to a lot of fun.

Love, Chunibyo, and other Delusions -- An excellent comfort-watch. About a high-schooler trying to run away from his cringe-y middle school phase. I definitely have criticisms of it, but I’m also definitely going to watch it again.

Devilman Crybaby -- I swear, Masaaki Uasa takes the most overdone premises and portrays them in such bonkers ways that they become pretty cool. This isn’t one of the best examples of that, but it still works.

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket -- Part of Gundam’s brand is that it shows the effect of wars on individuals. This is a great small-scale example of that.

She-Ra -- It’s good. The plot kinda meanders and the backstory lore is presented confusingly/unclearly at times. But the central characters are good enough to carry at least a few seasons, and the secondary characters really elevate the whole thing. I was personally very fond of Scorpia as well as the way the writers used Entrapta both in the plot and as a character foil.

Chernobyl -- Second time watching this, it’s definitely a favorite.

Movies

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again -- You already know what this is like and whether or not you enjoy the sort of thing it is.

Moulin Rouge -- It’s hard to watch Mamma Mia without thinking of this one, so I watched it soon after.

Minari -- My personal reward for being fully vaccinated was to go to the movies by myself. This was a good movie, though overshadowed by the circumstances in which I saw it. I would’ve been very happy to be seeing anything.

My Fair Lady -- An iconic pop-culture touchstone. Not my favorite musical, for sure.

Interstellar -- This movie is in the odd position of currently being my favorite Christopher Nolan movie despite the fact that I don’t like it nearly as much as I liked either The Dark Knight or Memento when I saw those for the first time.

The Perfect Storm -- George Clooney, big wave.

Legally Blonde -- I didn’t hear the term “sitcom” until oddly late in life, and when I heard it, I assumed it meant movies like this where there aren’t a ton of jokes, but the characters are constantly in inherently funny situations. I don’t like this type of humor that much.

Jurassic Park -- A big “moral” of the movie was “don’t trust computers to do anything important” but today it’s hard not to get the message as “never underpay your system administrator” instead.

Apollo 13 -- Pretty good

ET -- I really didn’t like this movie and I don’t quite know what it doesn’t do that Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones do. Imminent danger seem to be part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture.

The Day After Tomorrow -- *shrug* I had fun watching it

Pearl Harbor -- expected it to be bad, it was bad. It was definitely bad in interesting ways, and was almost good a lot of the time.

Die Hard -- I was looking for suspenseful movies with clear character motivation and this fit the description. It was good, though I didn’t like it quite as much as I hoped to.

Star Trek V -- Star Trek is often silly and I just can’t get on board with some of the silliness, like the last part of this movie.

Terminator 2 -- Yeah, I do like suspense. I don’t think I’ll look back on this as a favorite, but I was pretty into it. Moreso than Die Hard.

Cast Away -- Pretty good

Predator -- Somewhere between Die Hard and Terminator 2. I was a bit bored by the end, which ironically was the part that most closely resembled what I was looking for.

Braveheart -- I think romanticising medieval Europe is fun and cool. Unfortunately this movie has some creepy sexual hang-ups as well as rampant “no step on snek” energy that ruin the whole thing.

Redline -- Just a cool looking movie

State of Play -- I forgot the whole plot of this already, but I enjoyed it

Troy -- It’s not as bad as its reputation suggests, though the end does get really over-the-top cheesy

Demon Slayer -- I liked going to the movies by myself so much the first time that I did it again. This time it was in a much more full theater and I was one of very few people over 17. Fun action anime movie, though.

Gladiator -- I’m so disappointed that I didn’t connect to this movie, since over and over I felt like I was very close to loving it. I think the revenge motivation was what ultimately prevented me from really getting into it.

K-19: The Widowmaker -- Hell yeah, extremely tense submarine scenes, that’s exactly what I wanted.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) -- The movie felt like it wanted its premise to feel plausible, but it really didn’t. Still pretty good, though

The Big Lebowski -- Still not a big fan of this one.

The Naked Gun -- This confirms that my sense of humor has not gotten more refined since age 17 or so. I still thought this was pretty funny.

Dances With Wolves -- Mostly just boring.

Angels and Demons -- Even at age 15 the book’s riddles and clues premise felt a bit too contrived. The movie has the additional disadvantage that verbal explanations are the most boring way to resolve questions, unlike books where words are all you have.

Chinatown -- Meh, a fine detective story but nothing really clicked with me. The director’s life is wild, though. He escaped the holocaust, had his pregnant wife murdered by the Manson family, and is currently a fugitive from justice for raping a 13 year old.

The Core -- Like The Perfect Storm, appealing in the “so bad it’s good” way.

Porco Rosso -- Think the type of character study of Kiki’s Delivery Service, but about a middle-aged man, so it doesn’t resonate with Miyazaki’s audience enough for many people to talk about it.

Uncut Gems -- My second time watching it, it’s definitely a favorite. Between this and A Serious Man, I seem to love extremely stressful movies about mediocre jewish men.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -- Interesting to compare/contrast with the other version. I like both

Galaxy Quest -- another movie that fits my personal definition of what “sitcom” should mean. Again, not my favorite type of humor

Fantastic Planet -- Looks like something between the animated sketches in Monty Python and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Very weird, it personally really worked for me.

Scarface -- I think romanticising organized crime is fun and cool.

In the Heights -- colorful, catchy, happy and fun.

Books

The House in the Cerulean Sea -- a good comfort-read. very simplistic and a little clunky and amateur-ish, but ultimately pretty cute.

There There -- not a comfort-read at all. A super raw look at the modern life of a variety of Native American situations. Very harsh but also interesting.

Six of Crows -- Fine YA fantasy fluff.

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fvaleraye · 4 years ago

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Just a Day

Hi hello hey :>

I decided to write something involving Alex today, bc I don’t write about my AFW OCs nearly as much as I should... they’re v good ;w; It’s not much? Just a short little peek into the life of Alex, and his daily happenings. He’s doing his best

As always, AFW is @artnerd1123‘s story, and y’all should check it out, it’s super good and she just wrote a new chapter today :>

The sun rose lazily over the horizon, bathing the trees and buildings in its bright orange glow. The day was starting, people were getting out of bed, getting ready for the day. Many were still in bed, though. Not everyone had a profession with a schedule. And not everyone wanted to get an early start to the day either. One sorcerer was still sound asleep in his apartment, for the time being. But not his familiar.

Lucy, the little ball of energy and sunshine that she was, almost always got an early start to her day. Mostly it was idle tidying up while waiting for her originator to wake up. Nothing major, unless there were things from the previous day that she decided to wait until the morning to actually do. But mostly it was just walking around with a duster a bit too big for her, getting all the dust out of the way. Sometimes she would pick up and reorganize books that her originator left lying around. Alex insisted she didn't have to, but the little familiar wanted to... she wanted to be helpful, and it gave her something to occupy herself with. Once the sun started to peek more over the land, Lucy slid back into the bedroom, where the blue-haired sorcerer still laid sound asleep. Her first instinct, as always, was to just hop up onto the bed and nudge him a bit. That didn't do much. Usually the cold of her face pressing against his side would wake him up, but either he was very asleep, or he was getting used to it. Her second course of action was to just open the curtains, letting the sunlight pour into the previously dim room. The sorcerer let out a tired groan, before shoving a pillow over his head. She hopped back up onto the bed, and gave him a little smile. "Rise and shiiiine, sleepyheeeaaaad!" She said, pressing her face against him again.

"... what time is it...?" Alex mumbled, peeking out from under the pillow.

"Time to get up!"

He just gave a sigh, shoving the pillow off his face. He slowly sat up, his cyan hair a complete mess, bags under his eyes, and just looking like he wanted to go back to bed. This was about how he felt every morning. He pressed his hands against his eyes, rubbing them for a moment, and pushing his bangs out of his face. He gave Lucy a quick little pet on the head, and pushed himself out of bed with a groan. He grabbed his glasses from the nightstand as he stood up. Had to get ready for the day at some point.

He grabbed some clothes from the dresser- nothing fancy, just a shirt, some pants, and his binder, he wasn't going anywhere today- and tiredly shambled over to the bathroom. The first thing he did was toss his new clothes aside for the moment, turn on the sink, and just splash a bit of water in his face to try and wake himself up a bit. After a moment, he looked into the mirror, took a deep breath, and sighed. Now that he was a bit more awake, he went about fairly mundane early morning things. Brushing his teeth, getting his binder on, brushing his hair, changing clothes, nothing unusual. After a bit, he opened up a cabinet on the wall, and grabbed a bottle. It was full of a clear-ish liquid, and had a white label. It looked to be some sort of medicinal potion. He opened it up, poured it into a little cup, and downed quickly, cringing and making a face as it went down. Medicine never tasted great. But it was good for him... half the reason he was able to get out of bed, honestly. He stepped out, and walked down the hallway, this time with a bit more energy. Not a lot more, but he was waking up. That was something. He wandered around to the kitchen, and opened up some cabinets... ... they were quite bare, actually. ... guess I am gonna have to go somewhere today...

"Hey Lucy?" He called into the hallway, prompting the little familiar to peek around the corner. "I'm gonna head to the market, pick some stuff up really quick, you wanna come?"

"Sure!!!" She replied, practically bouncing over to his side. He gave a little chuckle at her enthusiasm.

He took a moment to just get a pair of shoes on, and grabbed his cloak from the cloak hanger. Once it was on his shoulders, the little one climbed right up and nestled into his hood. He let out a small sigh, grabbed his little bag of coins, and stepped out of the apartment. The walk out of the building was uneventful, as would the rest of the trip, hopefully. He waved at a few people who greeted him, but mostly just kept to himself. It was still... a pretty new town. He hadn't been here long. Merchant town, though, so you could find almost anything you wanted. As long as you waited long enough for a merchant selling what you wanted to stroll into town. Thankfully all the pair wanted today was food. That wasn't exactly a rarity. The streets were mostly empty today, it was a weekend morning, so the only people up at this hour were merchants either setting up or taking down stalls in the market, or their customers. The market itself was not very quiet, but it was still less of a crowd this early. That was nice. As long as I don't get called "ma'am", this'll be a pretty okay day... He tried his best to keep all his time at the stalls as brief as he could. Just picking up some groceries... meat, vegetables, baking supplies, some fruit juice he could freeze into little flavored cubes for Lucy. The usual stuff. Everyone was always cordial, some more convincingly than others. By the time he was done, he had two bags slinged over his shoulders, and his coinpurse was noticeably lighter. More people were starting to come out into the streets, which just made him want to get home faster. He really, really wasn't in the mood to deal with a crowd today. But, of course, he couldn't go back home without at least taking a peek at the questboard. It was like any other questboard: just a big wooden board where people put things for questors to do. Requests to find things, investigate certain areas, help take things from point A to point B... more of the same. No new dungeons today. Dungeons were slow recently. Kind of disappointing. But it was fine. He wasn't looking for more things to do today.

The walk back home was mercifully just as uneventful as the walk out. Lucy hopped out of Alex's cloak as he set it back onto the hanger, and the two got all the groceries out of the bags to put them up. It took a few minutes, of course, but they were done in no time. Now they could eat breakfast. After spending a minute or so looking at the food and trying to figure out what to eat, he eventually settled on some bacon. The little one wanted a sundae, which he decided to oblige before starting on his own food. She was sitting on the couch, enjoying her food, while he was getting a few bacon strips prepared. He honestly wasn't that hungry... but breakfast was important. He couldn't skip it. Just a little food would do. Once they looked nice and done, he got himself a plate, and sat down at the table. He just sort of prodded at it with a fork until his appetite decided to exist. Normally he was a big eater... but it was one of those slow days. Sometimes it was like that, and there wasn't exactly a reason for it. And that was okay. Once he was done, he stared at his empty plate, trying to figure out where to go from here. He didn't have any plans... besides sitting at home and possibly taking a nap.

... maybe I could write that guy I met at the library. He thought to himself, glancing at the hallway.

Yeah.

That was something he could do.

Lucy was still enjoying her sundae, so he had some time to kill. He stepped back into his room, still bright with the sun, but less so now that the sun was beginning to rise and not sit directly in front of the window. He pulled up a chair and sat down at his desk. It was a bit messy, covered in papers and maps and his own notes. He had been trying to reason out how exactly dungeons work and the ways to get them to pop up. He hadn't quite figured it out. Magic was a fickle and mysterious thing. Maybe there was a book about it. He brushed aside some of the clutter and pulled out an empty piece of paper. A brief blue fog washed over the inkwell across the desk as it slid over to his hand, the quill alongside it. He dipped into the ink a few times and tapped his chin as he thought about what to write.

Dear Journal

I hope you're doing alright. I just wanted to write really quickly, I didn't have much happening today. I just finished reading that adventure book series you recommended, great stuff. I feel like it kinda fell off near the end, though. I think the writer might have just been trying to extend the story more than they should have. I think it would have been better if it ended on the third book, would have been more satisfying. Overall though, it was okay. I hope you like the dragon facts book I recommended. I know a lot of it is probably common knowledge by now, but it's still fascinating. By the way, I was hoping you could maybe find me a book on the intricacies of dungeons and what their patterns are, if any? You don't have to, of course, but I'm trying to make notes and a book like that would make my life a lot easier. If it doesn't exist, or just isn't there, that's fine. I just don't know when the next time I'll be able to stop by the library is, so I wanted to ask. I promise I'll repay the favor if you pull that off.

Signed, Alex.

"... that'll work." He mumbled, setting the quill aside. He folded up the paper, tied it up, and whispered a few words to it. A moment later, it disappeared in a little puff of blue fog, hopefully to its destination. He pushed himself away from the desk, and started to stand up. He wasn't sure what else he was going to do today... Maybe he could just hang out and talk with Lucy for a bit. That sounded nice.

#Valerie Writes #AFW #Alex #Lucy #i am happy with how this turned out...#even if it's short...#short but sweet... wholesome #i hope y'all like it!#and; as with the last thing i wrote; belle proofread it for me and helped edit #bc they're super good and helpful like that #ty again for that; sib...

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yvvaine · 5 years ago

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ASOIAF hot takes ?

I’m not in the best mood right now as I have been working on an essay on the legality of war crimes all week (which is very uplifting in case you were wondering), but that kinda means I want to take out my frustration on something SO LETS JUMP IN:

1) Not much of a hot take but Dany is going be a villain, loves. Don’t misunderstand me: NOT. CRAZY. Nor will to be a sudden, last-minute twist either, looking at you Dumb & Dumber. She’ll be fully in control of her actions, impulsive with violence like she has a long habit of being, and it will end up having dire consequences that solidify her tyrannical tendencies. She’ll hurt and kill a lot more innocent people (more than she has has already….which is still more than a lot of people are comfortably admitting). And it will only become more apparent as the books continue. As the GRRM approved Meereenese Knot Essays basically stated: the dream sequence in the last novel was ultimately a turning point for Dany toward an even darker path where she embraces the family motto to a draconian degree.

2) It’s worth saying just for the record that I love Daenerys’ idealism and her crusade for a more just, equitable world (how much you think that crusade is actually for personal gain, survival, and/or ambition under the general guise of righteousness is on you though), but it ended up being pointless and ill-executed.

2B) On that point, I’m vehemently against those who counter any criticism of her crusade, specifically how she handled the crucifixion of all men wearing togas (which were a symbol of wealth, not just of owning slaves) over the age of 14, as being “pro-slavery” when that’s usually far, far from reality. I’d argue that though she tried to make the situation better, which is again admirable, she eventually becomes a glorified slaver herself, literally. “Mysa is a master”. Think about it, I mean at first she “liberates” cities based upon opportunity, and impulse, and what they can offer her, at that moment. But it’s a short term power/resource grab, and all she ends up doing is creating a bigger mess for the mostly-innocent people that live there, sentencing them to lives in horrid conditions like hunger, death, violence, and poverty. In Meereen she uses the people that she liberates (and its not like these “ex”-slaves had better options other than to follow her, or families elsewhere, etc. … plus to them she’s this albino goddess come out of ashes to save them who has these magical, thought-to-be-extinct dragons; it seems reasonable she’d amass a following on that alone) as her unpaid labor force in various inhumane conditions. Then the city becomes so mismanaged, chaotic, and violent because she is so inept at actually, ya know, ruling, that she allows said people to sell themselves BACK into slavery, SO LONG AS SHE GETS A 10% CUT…. sort of like A SLAVER. I just don’t think the metaphorical America in GRRM’s Afghanistan, considering how anti-war he is in real life, and how disastrous he’s said that that expression of imperialism actually was, is going to end up being the good, ethical guy you want in charge by the end of his novel allegorizing the triumphs and pitfalls of power. His whole point is that good intentions don’t guarantee good actions or good outcomes, however honorable that they might be. Short term decisions are just that; short term.

3) Sansa is not like Lysa in any way besides their casual connections to Littlefinger (of totally different natures) and their red fucking hair. I see a lot of gifsets or meta —usually by extreme Arya stans (which to be fair: you do you! I’m not about to sit here and tell anyone how much they should or shouldn’t love a particular character; the whole point of literature is that its entirely subjective and based off of emotional connection) — that states to some degree or another Arya = Lyanna and Sansa = Lysa when like….. no. I agree its very apparent that Arya shares a lot of personality and appearance-related attributes with her paternal Aunt, but that does not foil to her sister and other Aunt. If anything Arya has a stronger Lysa-connection with the whole “jealous of the more beautiful and dutiful red-haired older sister” thing. But that’s a silly and superficial parallel at best, just like claiming a connection to Lysa/Sansa because of shared geography and a “Tully look”. Moreover, on the Tully note, there’s nowhere that it says Sansa and Lysa look alike the same way the text explicitly says Arya and Lyanna do. They just both have red hair and blue eyes. That fact alone is not enough to constitute a parallel; in the books their face shape, eye color, physical figures, and other attributes like cheekbones are described totally different. Even the color of their red hair is described in different shades.

4) People need to stop discounting Sansa’s connections to Lyanna. Yes, they are not alike in looks or personality the way that Arya and Lyanna are, but their stories align very closely in many ways that Arya and Lyanna’s do not. Both were Northern princess with broken betrothals to “Baratheons”. Both were debatably romantically involved with Crown Princes. Both were given tourney roses. Both “kept/imprisoned” in the South. Both’s strengths were underestimated because of their beauty (Porcelain, Ivory, Steal, vs. You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath). Their siblings went to war for them (and independence too) and their fathers and brothers were executed in the south, on the King’s orders. Both have strong song motifs, rose motifs, etc. And they share a lot of literary quotes besides their famous beauty v. metal parallel (i.e. “like a ghost, dead before her time” is repeated once in regards to Lyanna, and once again by Sansa, no other times). Just…. stop discounting them.

5) Arya’s story is not one of duty and ladyship, stop trying to fit her into that mold. She doesn’t want to be the wife, mother, or queen. In her own words: “Thats not me, that’s Sansa”. She’s finding herself and trying to survive while being true to who she is at the same — that’s her journey of personal growth. To accept her rebellious nature, her untamed wildness, her adventurous spirit and know it doesn’t make her a freak or bad at being a woman. While I know a lot of people might hope that the end of her journey is like, “I’ll be a queen of the people sitting at my desk doing paperwork and running a castle and kingdom and all that it involves”, but I would be sorely disappointed if that’s her endgame, the woman they’ve been trying to mold her into since the beginning. I can understand why: she understands the common folk and their needs, wants, and humanity, in ways that no other contender for queen does. Daenerys has always been a degree removed from the people, even when she wast technically supposed to be a part of them re: her marriage to Khal Drogo, and she has become further and further removed from the people she rules over ever since. Margaery doesn’t truly, truly care about them, but rather sees them and their love as a source of popularity/power. Cersei is Cersei. Sansa bought into the role of the “high dignified lady” and the class system that unwittingly upholds the duty she’d been taught to model, and though she is learning that its a load of crap - especially as the “bastard” Alayne - and has always been very, very kind throughout her imprisonment in Kingslanding to dealing Sweetrobin in the Eryie, she still has a long way to go before she is truly a lady of the people, (which i think is the crux of Sansa’s journey).

I think I’ll stop there - thats enough ranting for one day! It did make me feel a little bit better though, I have to say! Thank you for the ask dear

#Anonymous #asoiaf meta #meta #daenerys targaryen #sansa stark #arya stark

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venus-says · 5 years ago

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Kamen Rider W Episodes 37-49

Why are endings always so hard to go through?

And we finally reach the final stretch of W. This was way faster than I imagined, I can't believe I managed to pull this off, I'm so happy.

This final third of the show was, as expected, the final arc. But different from other series I'm used to watch this one had a "finale" vibe to it through-out all thirteen episodes. Right from episode 37, we were already hit by a rock saying "the end is near" and things were slowly progressing and escalating until the end.

Before I talk about the positives of this arc let me discuss a few of my problems with it.

The first one is pretty minor, I was just disappointed that they introduced a villain who had an awesome design but she lost right away and we didn't get to spend time with her. My second complaint is again pretty minor, it's not a problem of the arc itself and more with the show and how in order to make Ryu seem smart they immediately transform Shotaro on a dumb person which isn't fully truthful to his character.

The next complaint is the first major one. I don't like how they've built the Sonozaki family through the entire season, just to shove them aside in the last two episodes and changed them for a less charismatic villain we know nothing about. I've mentioned this before and I'll say it again, the Sonozakis are very good villains and I do care for them (excluding Shroud) they're very charismatic characters, and better than that they're very charismatic villains! I really liked Ryubee, he could easily be the final boss of the season (like they were building him to be), he was very powerful, he had a strong presence as a dopant and an even stronger magnetism in his civilian form, and they even had something that could've been very interesting to see being played on a final battle. But no, let's change them for this Foundation X, a group of people we know nothing about and have no attachment towards to so that we can weaken this finale.

My final major complaint, and the biggest one of all, is how this show had a perfect ending in episode 48, but they had to ruin it with this epilogue where they revert the boldest decision they've made for the ending in exchange of... I don't even know what. Yes, is sad that Shotaro now is on his own, and it would be awkward for this show to end without one of its main protagonists. HOWEVER, this weakens all actions from the episode prior. If they wanted to make an epilogue it would've been better if they showcased how Shotaro has been coping with Phillip's death, we should have seen Wakana "reformed" and trying to do good in name of the brother that gave his life for her. You wanna make Phillip appear? Put him on a dream, put him as a hallucination of Shotaro while he's sad looking at the sunset wondering what to do, have Wakana somehow connect with him in the library. There are so many options, they didn't need to go by the easy route and revive Phillip.

Thankfully this show isn't just bad moments, and while these points I gave are for sure a problem on my eyes, I can't deny that this arc did a lot of great things that more than compensate for these flaws.

To begin the pace is pretty good, I think this part was the one that did the best regarding the "MOTW Cases" because, as isolated as some of these were, in every episode we could see things moving forward as we would slowly see new revelations happening that would eventually converge in the end. I especially like how the thing that would serve as a match to give start to the final battle would come to the boys' knowledge from a client dropping a case, it seems very simple but I still love this touch.

I also like how in this third act we could see a little bit of development happening for most people on both sides of this coin. Yeah, sadly the protagonists took the shorter end of this stick this time, but the villains had a compelling arc and the side characters also got something. Like, heck they even managed to give Jinno, someone who has been more or less just a comic relief character at this point, some love, this deserves to be praised. And as much as I have problems with the final three episodes I can't deny that the ending was very good and emotional, and they also found a way to redeem all members of the Sonozaki family and to me that was a huge plus because, if it hasn't been clear, I really like them.

The designs for this part were also great. The dopants were more hit or miss visually, Grasshopper, Old, and Utopia are probably the better ones, but they all had very interesting powers that elevated them to higher levels. Wakana (or I should say Clay Doll?) got an Xtreme form and I really loved the design because it reminded of Taboo which I think is my favorite girl of this season. Saeko also got a new form by using the Nasca memory and she looked amazing in it! I also L O V E the "dragon" Terror can summon to attack, it looks dope and it's super powerful, amazing. We didn't get any new power-up forms during this part but it was really exciting to see Kamen Rider Joker becoming a thing.

I feel like I haven't talked as much this time, but this comes from a place of joy. I was enjoying this final arc so much that I didn't take as many notes as I usually do, so I don't have many strong opinions on the huge positives. Still, I wanna take a moment to highlight the few episodes that got me wanting to sleep because I didn't like them.

Episodes 39 and 40 are very important because this cycle is where Wakana gets her power-up. Sadly this plot comes with an attachment that is very awkward, being the stupid movie the Gene dopant wanted to do. This was without a doubt the lowest point of this batch of episodes, Akiko was annoying, the dopant was lifeless, and the movie they were shooting was just awful. I couldn't care about ANYTHING this plot was going for, I think this was supposed to be Akiko's closing episode but, as I mentioned in the previews post, she doesn't have an arc, she never did, so her "ending" felt shallow.

Episodes 43 and 44 are the Ryu's arc closing episodes. This was more successful than Akiko's one, but as I said, the fact they make Shotaro look bad in order to have Ryu looking good is a big downside to me. Also somehow now Ryu is super special, he has a power we never have seen or knew about before. And to top that off they once again wanna throw the Ryu x Phillip rider idea, and just like the last time Phillip was willing to do it which yall know, I HATE. Yes, this time Shotaro had been transformed into an elderly and transforming with him wasn't the best option, but we really didn't need to see this stupid plot again.

And that was basically it. I thought I would come out of this with a big lesson learned as what you usually expect from shows like this and that I would be able to dissert on that lesson as a way to conclude this post. But W was more emotional and character-driven than what I'm used to and I'm kinda thrown off, but not in a bad way. This show made me feel things, intense things, just by seeing those characters that I grew to love interacting, rather than having a clear "good message" they were trying to convey and that was easy to grasp, and I don't really know how to translate these emotions I'm feeling. But I'm actually really glad, this is something new for me and it's very exciting, I can't wait to see what the next seasons are going to throw at me and if I'm gonna be this mess by the end of each one of them. XD

When I started this, I wasn't planning on watching the movies since there's a whole bunch of them and they seem pretty messy to get into. But I've done a little bit of research and apparently W has 3 solo movies that don't really connect with other season and just expand this world so I'll be giving Kamen Rider W Forever and the two Return movies a chance before I start the next season and depending on how much I have to say about them I may or may not make a post about this week, but this ain't a promise so don't keep your expectations high.

Now, this is really the end. Thanks to everyone who stayed with me on his journey and I hope I can count on you to keep me company for the rest of this project. I'll see you all next week with the first few episodes of OOO, bye bye~.

#Kamen Rider W #kamen rider

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gdwessel · 5 years ago

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Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2019 Night 1 - 9/27/2019; Rush, Dragon Lee Fired By CMLL, How This May Affect NJPW; Where Are Kawato & Oka?; Tonight’s NJPW on AXS: Double Header

The three night East Coast tour Fighting Spirit Unleashed began last night. There was a title match on that show, and we begin to say goodbye to Tiger Hattori.

Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2019 - 9/27/2019, Lowell Memorial Auditorium, Lowell, MA

Karl Fredericks d. Alex Coughlin (Elevated Half-Crab, 8:47)

Lance Archer [SZKG] d. Ren Narita (EBD Claw, 7:23)

Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS] d. TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors (NIcholls > Connors, Mikeybomb, 8:04)

Chase Owens & Jado [Bullet Club] d. Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson [FREE] (Owens > Morton, Package Driver, 9:10)

Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] & Amazing Red [FREE] d. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Ishii > BUSHI, Vertical Drop Brainbuster, 8:48)

Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. Jay White, KENTA & Gedo [Bullet Club] (YOSHI-HASHI > Gedo, Butterfly Lock, 12:28)

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © d. SHO & YOH [CHAOS] (Tonga > YOH, Gunstun, 16:43) - GOD succeed their 7th defense

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Kota Ibushi & Hiroshi Tanahashi d. SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] (Tanahashi > Naito, Ground Cobra Twist, 20:26)

Naito doing the job here seems a bit shit but Naito doesn’t have a title match to look like a contender for coming up either. Guerrillas of Destiny continue to hang on to the titles and let’s face it will do so until WK14 where they will be beaten by the eventual World Tag League winners. The tag division is trash and GOD are the face of it now. The match may end up on NJPWWorld on tape delay eventually. Chase Owens pins his trainer Ricky Morton, and the Rock’n’Roll Express lose their NJPW debut match. His partner in the match, Jado is 51 years old today.

In the wee hours of the night, something rather major happened behind the scenes in CMLL.

Firstly, Rush defeated Matt Taven at Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor PPV to become the first-ever Mexican ROH World Champion, with his brother Dragon Lee and father La Bestia del Ring (and son, above) in attendance. Rumors had been flying for weeks about Dragon Lee’s status in home promotion CMLL, stemming from Dragon Lee disobeying a directive from CMLL to not work Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles last weekend (Barbaro Cavernario was also booked for BOLA, but did withdraw his participation under that same directive; the reason given, is CMLL is once again considering both Pentagon Jr./Penta el 0M and Rey Fenix as AAA wrestlers once more so they are forbidding wrestlers from working with them). From this, Dragon Lee was pulled from CMLL’s 86th Aniversario, which also ran last night.

Within the hour of Rush winning the ROH title, Rush posted a video on his Twitter announcing both he and La Bestia del Ring were now independent wrestlers, and indeed both KAOZ Lucha and The Crash have announced Rush as working there soon as El Toro Blanco, as CMLL own the Rush trademark. Not long after THAT, CMLL tweeted out that they have fired both Rush and Dragon Lee. Dragon Lee posted on Facebook he was devastated by this, and indeed this really seems to be retaliatory. There are reports he may be working ROH’s TV taping tonight. Dragon Lee was also CMLL’s Welterweight champion at the time of his release.

I will stop right here and say that friend of the show/blog TheCubsFan posted a podcast with Rob Viper late last night summarizing this situation and you should listen to it; it’s only 40 minutes, but packed with information.

But it should go without saying that both Rush and Dragon Lee were pretty integrated in their way with New Japan as well. Dragon Lee especially has been pretty popular in NJPW, and of course his story is very well tied in to that of Hiromu Takahashi, and indeed Hiromu tweeted at Dragon Lee this morning. There are reports he was due to be in the upcoming Super Junior Tag League, presumably paired with another CMLL wrestler. but who knows if that can or will happen now. It’s become very murky politically. NJPW could outright sign Dragon Lee (or whatever he calls himself now -- there are reports of Toro Rojo being a possibility) if all parties agree, but he could also go to WWE, or somewhere else.

It all kinda depends on how strong the relationship between NJPW and CMLL is at this point and whether NJPW values CMLL or Dragon Lee more. There have been signs of strain between NJPW and its partners, ROH and CMLL; the ROH relationship has been the more obviously strained, especially since G1 Supercard at MSG, where ROH’s contributions were, frankly, absolute shite. However, other than Fantasticamania (which is usually a great payday for the visiting luchadors) and appearances in Best of the Super Juniors and Super J-Cup, there doesn’t seem to be much going on with the CMLL relationship right now. The last couple of excursions ended suddenly and without notice, as when Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu were Raijin & Fujin and then... weren’t (Hirai Kawato, I discuss below). Shota Umino and Ren Narita both are on excursion now, but neither went to CMLL, where before it was assured at least one would. Jushin Thunder Liger appeared at Arena Mexico this summer for a retirement show, but Liger is able to make his own bookings without NJPW’s involvement (which is how Liger was able to wrestle Tyler Breeze at the 2015 NXT Takeover in Brooklyn). Consider that around this time last year, Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & BUSHI all made appearances in Arena Mexico. This year, there were no NJPW wrestlers at the CMLL Grand Prix, where usually there is at least one or two, even if it were the likes of Michael Elgin, Satoshi Kojima, or even David Finlay. As NJPW broaden their global profile on their own, there seems to be a gradual withdrawal from their partners. As I said, which do NJPW value more, a continued partnership with CMLL, or Dragon Lee on their roster?

Then there’s the other elephant in the room: the status of Los Ingobernables. Straight up, CMLL own the trademark, and always have. There’s a CMLL trademark on LIJ shirts. The unit started in CMLL, between Rush, La Sombra and La Mascara. La Sombra is now Andrade Cien Almas in WWE, and the other two have been fired for various reasons. Los Ingobernables as a functional thing in CMLL is now dead, unless they want to do the typical lucha promotion business where they just shellac other wrestlers onto a popular gimmick after the original wrestler(s) behind said gimmick leave - indeed, it’s how Rush & Dragon Lee’s brother became the second Mistico. (His status is unknown, assumed not leaving, but who knows. If he does, Caristico can reassume the Mistico identity, which would make the Arena Mexico crowd happy.) There is a possibility that CMLL could keep Los Ingobernables alive with Terrible and some others, but I can guess how well that’s going to go over.

Los Ingobernables de Japon has to end, at some point. It’s just inevitable. Rush is still in ROH until at least 2020, so there is a possibility that Naito and the boys will reunite with Rush (although the last few times Rush and LIJ members were on the same ROH cards, they deliberately kept them apart, even at meet & greets). If the NJPW and CMLL relationship is starting to disintegrate, a very large part of NJPW’s current identity, and merch money, will be going away soon. Rush being shown the door by itself doesn’t mean LIJ is over just yet. It is not the first time the NJPW branch of a famous stable outlasted its home company. But this could be the harbinger of that unit coming to an end, until LIJ goes into its TEAM2000 phase.

Long story short, shit is wild, and complicated, and political, and who knows what ripples this pebble in the river will produce.

Above, I mentioned Hirai Kawato and his excursion in CMLL as Kawato San. I’ve been teasing a piece for weeks, and, well, here it is.

Hirai Kawato has not worked a match since 7/28/2019, a Sunday night show at Arena Mexico, teaming with Dark Magic & Misterioso Jr. in a losing effort v. Rey Cometa, Flyer & Dulce Gardenia. Prior to that, on 6/30/2019, Kawato had bested Audaz to win the CMLL World Super Lightweight title vacated by (ironically) Dragon Lee. Since then... nothing.

Apparently, according to TheCubsFan (him again), Kawato got seriously ill and had to go back to Japan for recovery. There’s been no official word about his status at all, including whether or not he will return to Mexico. It’s a real shame, as his excursion looked to finally be working, evidenced by getting a title, and it looked like they might begin an actual program with Audaz, but such is not to be right now. I hope he is recovering OK, no matter what happens next for him, as it sounded serious enough for him to go home.

Tomoyuki Oka is another one who’s been MIA. Last seen in RevPro UK under the gimmick of Dominator Great O-Kharn, Oka has not wrestled a match since his appearance as the only Japanese talent at the ill-fated New Beginning USA shows, beating Harlem Bravado on 2/2/2019 in Nashville. There is even less info about his whereabouts - his last tweet was on 3/4/2019, advertising the NBUSA shows on NJPWWorld. (FWIW, Kawato’s last tweet was on 7/26, and last Instagram post was on 7/3.)

I wish I had more, but I simply don’t; I don’t have sources or anything like that. But it’s a little disconcerting when not one but two Young Lions have gone missing in action whilst away. Makes you wonder what the future holds for Shooter and Ren.

(Whilst we’re here - David Finlay is still recovering from injury and surgery. He is still pretty active on social media.)

Ideally I should’ve posted this earlier but there were no posts and we’re here now. After taking last week off, NJPW on AXS returns tonight with a double header of episodes, all taking place from various Destruction shows from a couple of weeks ago. Advertised matches are:

9pm EDT / 8pm CDT - RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) v. Zack Sabre Jr., Destruction in Beppu, Oita Beppu B-Con Plaza, 9/15/2019 10pm EDT / 9pm CDT - Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Challenge Rights: Kota Ibushi v. KENTA, Destruction in Kagoshima, Kagoshima Arena, 9/16/2019

There will be other matches as these alone are not enough to fill an hour of TV each. It’s also preceded by an all-new WOW Women of Wrestling. Incidentally, it looks like AXS’s new owners Anthem are moving their own wrestling company, Impact, to Tuesdays later this month, so there is some assurance of them not actively messing with NJPW, at least, not yet.

Of course, you are spoiled for choice of watching NJPW tonight, as tonight’s FIghting Spirit Unleashed show from the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC is live on NJPWWorld. Show starts at 7pm EDT. Once again we have a title match tonight, too, although... let’s face it, we know who’s winning this.

- 9/28/2019, Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, NY (NJPWWorld)

Ren Narita v. TJP [FREE]

Karl Fredericks v. Lance Archer [SZKG]

Juice Robinson & Mikey Nicholls [CHAOS] v. Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin

Rocky Romero, SHO & YOH [CHAOS] v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado [Bullet Club]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ricky Morton [FREE] & Robert Gibson [FREE] v. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] & Amazing Red [FREE] v. Jay White, Chase Owens & Gedo [Bullet Club]

NEVER Openweight Championship: KENTA [Bullet Club] © v. YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS]

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] & Kota Ibushi v. SANADA & EVIL [Los Ingobernables]

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gamearamamegathons · 5 years ago

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Dragon Quest V: Murder Grandma Sharpens Your Sword

Circe here! Okay, so it's been a little while, but let me try and get back into the swing of things. Looking back at my previous post, maybe the events that played out were so overwhelming that I couldn't take any more. Or I just got distracted and dropped off playing the game. I think the only really important thing is that we have a boat now. A random NPC at the inn tells us that we should probably sail south to a huge desert, soooo, I pretty much do that. Unfortunately, Bianca is pretty low-level here. I think she might've actually started at level 1? So I had to be careful with her for a while. Luckily, grinding is just a natural part of this game, so I got to work pretty quickly getting her back up to speed.

If you're hoping the plot gets as bonkers as it did last time, well, unfortunately (fortunately?) things are fairly conventional for now. We're just kinda being led from plot point to plot point. When we go to the desert, we end up finding Castle Telepador, which looks to be the resting place of the Zenithian Helm. The queen of this place, Queen Isis, has us try on the helm, but this is just a reminder, for the billionth time, that no, our character is not the hero of legend. We don't take the helm with us either, which is weird, because we took along all the other equipment. I'm a bit worried I did something wrong here, but as far as I can tell I'm not supposed to take the helm with me.

Along the way, though, we do learn that our dad..........was a king! The king of some place called Granvania, specifically. So that's cool, I guess. Apparently the queen of Granvania got...sucked into the dark world or something? I dunno, something bad happened to her, so this guy just abandoned his kingdom and took his toddler son with him to find her. I have multiple issues with this course of action. But hey, what's done is done, there's no time to worry about dad's bad decisions or the horrible consequences it would have. Nothing of particular importance is achieved in Telepador other than learning the helm is here, so we sail off east towards Granvania. First, though, we have to trek north across the mountains, and you know what that means! Dungeon time!

This dungeon is filled with an awful lot of enemies that use multi-hit magic spells, which kinda sucks, especially since Bianca can't really take a lot of hits here yet. It is quite an eventful dungeon, though. One of the strangest things we encountered was near the peak, where there's a little staircase leading to a room filled with skeletons. Down deeper, there's an old lady standing by a bed. When you talk to her, she says something like, 'heh heh heh...you look tired. want to take a rest'? Of course, being the genre-savvy player that I am, I immediately said yes so that something horrible could happen and the plot could advance. Pretty much as you might expect, Bianca wakes you in the night, saying that she hears the sound of a blade being sharpened. On top of that, you can't move! The old lady walks in, and...says that she sharpened your sword for you so it would be more effective. Oh, and also she'd cast a spell on you that would help you sleep better, which is why you can't move.

Then she leaves. Nothing else of note happens. Also your attack goes up by 5 because she sharpened your sword for you.

Moving on!

At the top of the mountain is a little town that acts as a checkpoint and resting place. When we get there, Bianca briefly collapses and needs to rest. It's around this point that I'm reminded that Bianca seems to have taken on a sort of generic wifey characterization, which is weird considering that I'm pretty sure she used to...have a different personality? Apparently whichever girl you pick to marry just slots right into this position, which might have an impact here. So that's, uh, not great. Once we're ready to move on, we have to travel through a cave to reach the other side of the mountain. The dungeon gets quite a bit more annoying here, with a whole lot of mimics, stronger monsters, and a confusing dungeon layout. After a couple trips through the dungeon, I thought I found the right way, only to discover that it just plunks me right back at the start again. So that was fantastic. On the bright side, I did see two consecutive Metal Babbles just right out of nowhere, both of which I totally wrecked. So that was just a nice pile of free levels there. I didn't see any more after that, though.

We make our way to Castle Granvania, and discover that some other guy had to take King Papas's place after he just wandered the fuck off. Fair enough, I guess. While we're here, Bianca collapses again, and this time we find out that it's because she's pregnant. And she's going to have a child any day now. So...uh...?? I guess nobody noticed...? Also I guess this means Bianca and protagonist have canonically banged. I mean, I guess that's why horny young adults get married anyway, so fair enough I guess. It would sure explain why the whole thing felt so rushed. Still, this all feels very forced, and I think I know why. But we'll get to that later. All I can say is, having <insert wife here> and her body used as an instrument to advance the plot feels...icky. The whole marriage thing feels icky. I don't like it.

Anyway, new king guy is pretty much ready to hand over the throne to us. But his chancellor (of course) thinks that we should prove ourselves first, and suggests that we go to the Cave of Trials, as is tradition in the royal family. Oh, sure, it just happens to now be infested with monsters, but since when has that stopped tradition and/or attempts to off the heir without it looking suspicious? Never, that's when. So that's my next destination! Also, it looks like I may be going this alone, since Bianca is very pregnant, and also tradition?? I dunno if this means going without my stable of monsters, but I guess we'll see. Solo dungeons are always a huge pain in the ass, so I'm sure this will be fun.

#circe #marathon #dragon quest #dragon quest v

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 6 years ago

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Dragon Ball Super: Battle of Gods Arc REVIEW:

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and as I've said in the past screaming and punching is awesome! This is just an undeniable fact. And when it comes to the "screaming and punching" genre of cartoons there is none that does it better than Dragon Ball Z. (Okay, that's probably not true at all, but shut up alright? I'm trying to segway into this.) The best way to look at Dragon Ball Z, and the Dragon Ball series as a whole is to look at it as just a really cool superhero series, that doesn't try to come across as needlessly "dark" or "mature." It has dark and mature moments for sure, but not in the way that some comic books do where they try to shoehorn in these elements in order to be shocking or edgy. Dragon Ball does something that a lot of superhero type stories now of days tend to forget to do, and that's just be fun. From the over the top characters and powers, to the tonnes of convoluted lore that they make sound important, even though ever arc just ends up being a contest of who can punch the hardest, Dragon Ball was just a fun series. Flawed for sure, yes, (Seriously, next time you watch a Dragon Ball series play this game at home, it's called "Find the inconsistency.") but still a lot of fun regardless. After finishing up the story of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z the original author, Akira Toriyama, decided to step away from the series for almost twenty years. He did help with some designs for some spin-off properties based off of the series, but for a long period of time Dragon Ball was pretty much over. But, and this a true story, after seeing the American live action adaptation of his series, Dragon Ball Evolution, and hating it so much, it inspired him to make another Dragon Ball Z movie. One that he would be directly involved in. That movie was 2013's "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods." and the movie was a huge success. So much of a success that it got a sequel called "Dragon Ball Z: Reserection 'F'." The Dragon Ball franchise was given new life. And naturally with all this success, it was only natural for Toei Animation to announce a new Dragon Ball tv series. After 19 years there would finally be a new series, and that new series would be called "Dragon Ball Super." Fan's were hyped....

...Until it was announced that the first two arcs would be adaptations of the two newest movies.

Yeah, fans were not happy to learn that they would have to wait 26 episodes before getting any "new" content. Especially since the movies had just came out a few years ago. But, who knows, maybe this could be a good thing. Maybe these longer versions of the movie could expand on the movies, and add new scenes or different plot elements to improve the movies story, and make it even better. How did this movie retelling work out? Well, let's dive into this and find out. But first some context. First things first, when it comes to these reviews I will be reviewing the dub. This is because I started actually watching Dragon Ball Super at episode 63, when the website Crunchyroll started subbing it. I was following what was happening in the series before hand using online recaps and such, but I never really went back and rewatched the first 62 episodes, save for a few. So I'm using the new English dub to actually see for myself what I have missed. And since most fans of Dragon Ball seem to like the dub more anyway I think it be better to do it like this. Also, I just want to say that I will be comparing this to the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods film. It's kinda hard not to what with them being the same story and all. Also I want to state for the record that I LOVE the Battle of Gods film a lot. I was a casual Dragon Ball fan before watching that film, but after watching that movie I fell in love with the franchise. I loved the more comedic feel the film had, while still keeping in the drama that was needed. I loved the way it built upon the lore, and how it created a story and a villain completely different from anything that Dragon Ball had seen before. I consider the film of version of "Battle of Gods" as not just a great Dragon Ball film, but a great film in general! So keep all that in mind. Also, SPOILERS for everything Dragon Ball from here on out. Okay, ready? Let's go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsPw7x8LZC4

So just a quick rundown for anybody not in the know. Dragon Ball is the story of Goku, a psychopath man child alien who loves to fight things. He was sent to Earth as a baby to destroy the planet, but forgot about his mission after his adopted grandfather accidentally drops him into a motherfu*king canyon. Goku and his friends travel the world collecting the Dragon Balls, magical orbs that can grant any wish, but over the course of the series pretty much just becomes there "get out of death free" card. Then half way through the show suddenly becomes about fighting aliens. One of these aliens they fight is named Vegeta. A member of Goku's race called the Saiyans who, over the course of the show, goes from evil big bad, to anti hero, to just a frickin' tsundere by the time Super comes around. The Saiyans have the power to become more powerful using the power of "Super Saiyan" transformation, which increases there power and hair mass exponentially. Also this arc takes place four years after Goku defeats the evil pink bubblegum man, but six years before he abandoned his family to train some random Indian boy. HOPE THAT CLEARS EVERYTHING UP FOR ANY NEWCOMERS! Anyway, this arc begins in space where, in typical Dragon Ball tradition, we are introduced to a new villain who just happens to be way stronger than our last villain, and has just happened to never be mentioned by anybody until now. This new villain is Beerus, a God of Destruction. His job, as we learn, is to go around the universe destroying planets in order to maintain the natural balance in the universe. Beerus looks like a giant purple cat, and this reflects his personality a lot. Because like a cat, all Beerus cares about is eating, sleeping, and being a general dick. Only this cat has the power to effortlessly destroy planets with a touch of his fingers. Beerus also has a helper, named Whis. A flamboyant but snarky blue guy who's job is to look after Beerus and make sure he's doing his job. He also acts as the straight man to Beerus's antics, and these two characters have great chemistry together. This is helped by the great voice talent of Jason Douglasas as Beerus, and Ian Sinclair as Whis. They do a great job portraying the duo. We learn that Beerus has been sleeping for the last thirty seven years, so he just conveniently been sleeping for most of the Dragon Ball series. But he was awoken by a premonition dream, as he foresaw something called a "Super Saiyan God." and this "God" would provide him with someone he could call a rival. Beerus, like most characters in Dragon Ball, has a love for the thrill of combat. But since he's so powerful there are few who he can fight without just obliterating in an instant. So thus, he is really dedicated to finding this Saiyan. However, despite having the dream, he has trouble remembering the details of it, so he goes around destroying planets and eating, hoping that doing that will somehow jog his memory. The way Beerus is portrayed is a point of contention for some Dragon Ball fans, when comparing the film to this arc. In the movie, while still mentioned that he was a destroyer of worlds, we never really saw it. And it seemed like he did it less out of malice and more because, as a destroyer god, it was his job to. While in the anime we see him destroy the planets, over petty things like the food he eats on the planets not being tasty enough. Most fans prefer the film version, but I actually don't mind the change that much. I mean we still knew that he had destroyed planets, so I don't see why showing it matters much. What I don't like about Beerus in the first half in this arc though, is the fact that they really play up him bumblingness a bit to much. The Beerus from the movie was able to really balance being a wacky, fun character and a real threat. He acted silly because he was so powerful that he didn't have anything to prove to anybody. Here they push it a bit closer to the comedic side, which I think is a miss because the movie got it just right, in my opinion. After obliterating some more planets Beerus fully remembers his dream. He ask Whis how many Saiyans are left in the universe and Whis answers five And so Beerus and Whis decide to head out and find out which one of them can be the "Super Saiyan God." But enough about our villains, what are our hero's up to? Well, it's Bulma's birthday and everybody from the original series is invited. I really like this, because after being away from the Dragon Ball series for almost two decades it's great to have ever character from the old series, major or not, show up and just be themselves. It's nice seeing these guys when there not fighting and just hanging out. In the movie the party was just held at Bulma's mansion, but here it's on a cruise shop. I kinda like the former better, but it doesn't really matter. Goku and Vegeta are both uninterested in the party, and want to spend there time training. Goku goes off to King Kai's planet to train but Vegeta is forced to go to the party because Bulma's his wife and more importantly scary. Meanwhile Old Kai and Kibito Kai sense that Beerus has awoken from his slumber. They are worried that if Goku finds out the Beerus is awake, and is as strong as he is, Goku will try to fight him, and that fight could risk that fate of the universe. By the way, I love how the gods view our hero and our villain as equal threats to the universe...There not wrong. We also learn that it was Beerus who trapped Old Kai in the Z sword. It doesn't say why, but I like to imagine that it was because Beerus wanted to make a SICK prank video for his GodTube channel bra!

Old Kai tells King Kai to not tell Goku about Beerus. However, this doesn't work out very well as Beerus is already on his way to King Kai's planet to find Goku. When Beerus does find Goku he challenges him to a fight to see if he is the prophesied Super Saiyan God, and Goku accepts. In the original film Goku goes straight to Super Saiyan 3, but here he goes through each form one by one. It is kinda cool to see the fight extended a bit, but it is definitely there to pad the length, and also doesn't make to much sense on why Goku would start at a weaker stage, but it's kinda cool to see. Which version of the fight is better though will depend on what your looking for. Something quick or something a bit more drawn out. (And I'm not going to talk about the bad animation, because it's beating a dead horse at this point, plus they fixed it by the time it aired dubbed so who really cares?) Regardless of which version you watch though, it's a complete curb stomp. Goku doesn't even land one hit on Beerus, and Beerus takes Goku out in three hits. Goku is left beaten and wounded, and Beerus decides to head to Earth to see if Vegeta is the Super Saiyan God. King Kai uses his telepathy to warn Vegeta about Beerus and tells him that if he can keep Beerus happy, they all might just live. Vegeta suddenly has a repressed childhood memory about a time where Beerus visited Planet Vegeta, and made a mockery of his father, using the King of all Saiyan's as a mere footstool. This knowledge, plus knowing how easily Beerus defeated Goku, makes Vegeta decide to suck up to Beerus. The only problem is that none of the other people at the Bulma's party knows who Beerus is, and Vegeta has no time to tell them. (They assume Beerus is some friend of Vegeta from space. Which is dumb because Vegeta has only been a "friendly" person for a couple of years at this point, and none of those years was he in space to our knowledge.) So Vegeta has to make sure that nobody at the party annoys Beerus, or else they'll all die. It's actually some good stuff as we get some good comedy and some actual character development out of Vegeta. The prideful Prince of all Saiyans has to swallow his pride and act a fool for the sake of the planet. It's good stuff. In the original movie we get to see Vegeta singing and dancing to a ridiculous bingo dance to distract Beerus from his rage, while here we see him being an over the top sushi cook. Both are good but...come on, bingo dance has this in the bag. No contest.

Oh, something that I forgot to mention is that the Pilaf Gang are in this arc. The reason I forgot is because they really don't contribute anything to the story here. We learn that apparently at some point off screen they managed to find the dragon balls and wish to be younger, but they didn't specify how young and were turned into babies. So now they've naturally aged back up to about Goten and Trunk's age. They basically act like Team Rocket from the Pokemon anime, which is fun to see in a Dragon Ball series, but my problem is that the tv version cut out all there best scenes from the movie! They cut out the weird sudo-romance with Trunks and Mai, they cut out the hostage scene with a drunk Great Saiyan Man. Why? I mean we were trying to extend the film out the twelve episodes anyway, and heck that Trunks Mai romance thing actually comes up later in Super, and only makes sense if you saw the Battle of Gods movie, which I don't think is even cannon anymore. (Though I do like this one scene later on of Whis and the Pilaf Gang just kinda chillin'. It's funny seeing the most pathetic Dragon Ball villains and one of the most powerful characters actually getting along.) Anyway, back to the main plot Vegeta is actually doing a good job of making sure that Beerus stays happy. This is until Beerus decides that he wants to try some pudding, but finds out that Buu is hogging all of it. Buu refuses to share and this enrages Beerus to the point of him deciding to blow up the planet. If there's no Super Saiyan God AND no pudding then what's the point, right? At this point all of the Z fighters start to realize that this Beerus guy is trouble and try to take him on, only to be very quickly clobbered. Bulma actually get's so fed up with all this crap that she slaps Beerus and tells him that he's ruined her birthday party. This causes Beerus to back hand Bulma, and this infuriates Vegeta. It's a touching and awesome moment showing how far Vegeta has grown since his first appearance as a sadistic killer. (Though this scene drags on way to long in the series.) Vegeta channels his anger. He refuses to stand by and watch Beerus walk all over him and his friends. Vegeta's rage is so strong that it actually causes him to get stronger. Stronger than even Goku! Vegeta has finally surpassed his rival for the first time since the Cell saga and is about to unleash all of this new found power on Beerus head on! ...It goes as well as you would expect...

(But hey, at least you landed a few hits onto him Vegeta. Be proud of that.) Beerus is about to destroy the Earth, but he decides to give our heroes one more chance. If they beat him at rock-paper-scissors he'll spare their planet. Oolong is chosen to represent our heroes. Finally, after like four hundred combined episodes it's time for Oolong to enter the spotlight once again and save the Earth. Also THEY SPEND AN ENTIRE EPISODE ON ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS! OH MY GOD! AND YOU WONDER WHY MOST PEOPLE PREFER THE MOVIES!? Anyway eventually Goku shows up, healed from his previous battle. Goku decides that if he doesn't know what a Super Saiyan God is, he can just use the dragon balls and ask Shenron about it. Beerus decides to let them, and we get a funny bit where even Shenron is scared by Beerus. (Though is this really a surprise? I mean even King Piccolo could kill him.) Shenron tell the legend of the Super Saiyan God, and how it can only be achieved by six pure hearted saiyans combining there power, and channeling it into one host. This is a problem though, because even with the half saiyans they still only have five. But threat not, as Gohan's wife Vedel reveals that she is pregnant, and thus the baby is a quarter saiyan. It's a long shot, but they might have a chance to actually pull this off. They all hold hands together, and channel all there power into Goku. And then, Goku starts to transform and OH MY GOD THIS FRICKIN' TRANSFORMATION IS CARTOONISH LEVELS OF OVER THE TOP! It goes on for almost five minutes and has everybody glowing, the sky turns gold. It goes from day to night and back again.(Somehow? Seriously is that effecting the rest of the Earth?) It rains, it snows. It's all just to over the top. Especially since (outside of the manga) we NEVER see this form again after this arc. It really feels just like padding.

Anyway, after what feels like an eternity we finally see it. We see Goku's new form, the Super Saiyan God! I really like the design. After Super Saiyan 3 there was no way to make the Super Saiyan form buffer and with more hair, so like Super Saiyan 4 in GT they chose to reinvent the look. I like how it's slimmer, and the hair isn't as spiky. It works because it's reminisce of his base form, which works as this is suppose to be a new starting point for Goku. I like the way the red looks, and I like the touch of his eyes and even his skin turning red as well. It's really cool.

Goku and Beerus begin to fight it out, though Goku has the disadvantage as he is still getting use to his new god power. Here Beerus's personality reverts into something a lot closer to the film version, which is very welcome. Old Kai and Kibito Kai monitor the fight and note that it doesn't seem like Beerus is actually trying to kill Goku, but rather teach him how to use his new found power. (After all, all Beerus wants is a rival who can challenge him, so why not help Goku reach his full potential.) It's really cool to see that element in the fight, as Goku and Beerus take on the student and mentor roles. The fight very quickly escalates into upper orbit. Then, as one of my favorite online reviewers Mr. Movie Sunday would say, "They punch for a bit then they're mates." There are pros and cons to both the fight in the movie and the fight in the series. In the film the fight, in my opinion, feels a bit to brief due to the movies time constraints. The series has the opposite problem though, as the fight seems to drag on in some points. It's weird to say that, considering that the fight only last about five episodes, which is nothing by the standards of the Z. I think it might be because the fight mostly takes place in one location, and the quicker tone of Super makes all the stuff that seemed common place in Z just feel a bit off from a pacing perspective. I wish maybe they spent maybe one less episode on the fight, and devote that episode to more of Beerus at the party. The film's fight also brings up the idea that Goku actually doesn't like using Super Saiyan God, because he doesn't like the fact that he needed other people's power to obtain it. (Though the Spirit Bomb is just fine I guess?) The theme is touched on in the series, but only in one line or two. Which is a shame because I actually think it's an interesting look in Goku's character. The series also adds some additions to the fight scene that weren't in the movie, and these additions are very hit or miss. Some things are really cool, like how Goku actually mimics the three attacks that Beerus used to knock him out in there first battle. There's also this really powerful scene where Goku is drowning that really shows what Goku's character is really all about and has AMAZING voice acting from Sean Schemmel. We also get a great scene of the prideful and arrogant Mr. Satan begging for Whis to stop the fight, not because of he's scared for his own life, but because he's scared for the life of his pregnant daughter. It actually really touching. There's a scene of Piccolo getting up in Whis's face that's pretty bad ass and episode fourteen in general is awesome, feature voice acting and even animation that comes close to rivaling the film, which is beyond impressive for a tv budget. But then there are some less good changes. Like there's this bit where the shock waves of Beerus and Goku's fight are so powerful that it might destroy the universe, and even does destroy some random planets. This is weird because, while Beerus is stronger than anybody we've seen fight in Super afterwords, he's not using full power in this fight and Goku get's way stronger in later arcs. So how come the universe is becoming torn apart here but not say next arc when a stronger Goku is fighting Golden Frieza? Why is this needed? The fate of the Earth is already at stake, we don't need more risk. Also we get Vegeta dramatically staring up at the fight without talking FOR THE ENTIRE FIGHT! Why? what is this suppose to be indicating? YOU CAN'T SEE THE FIGHT VEGETA, THERE PRACTICALLY IN SPACE!

(D-Don't worry. That planet was PROBABLY not inhabited...Goku PROBABLY didn't just accidentally help commit a global genocide...hehehe.) Anyway, as the fight goes on we learn that Goku's Super Saiyan God transformation is only temporary and he loses the power half way through the fight. However, he absorbed the godly power, making it a part of him. I honesty don't like this, cause it just confuses things on how this power thing works. Is base Goku now stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Goku was before this arc. And if so, are all the Super Saiyan forms stronger? And how does Blue work? Why couldn't God just be a transformation like it is in the manga, it's design is so cool! (Sigh) Well whatever. So Goku is now fighting Beerus in Super Saiyan Classic, but with the power of a god. But even so Beerus still out classes Goku and actually beats him! Yeah, that's honestly something really interesting to see. Goku isn't able to actually beat the bad guy, even with a new form and all of his talks about breaking his limits. Beerus is just to far out of his league. Beerus heads down to Earth, ready to destroy the planet, and there's nothing our heroes can do to stop it. Beerus however, so tired from the fight, ends up falling asleep right as he fires the death beam and just happens to miss the planet. Or at least how it appears to be. What we learn afterwords is that Beerus never fell asleep, but rather chose to spare the Earth on purpose, as he finds the two Saiyans on that world most interesting. Probably regrets telling Frieza to blow up planet Vegeta now, huh. (Oh yeah, apparently Beerus did that. You would think that that MASSIVE Revelation would impact something, right?....nope.) In the movie, Vegeta demands that next time they use the Super Saiyan God ritual on him, while in the series Goku suggest doing it, Vegeta refuses, as he believes that he doesn't need some cheap ritual to shortcut his way to more power. I honestly like the series version better here, as I think it's more befitting of Vegeta's character. So yeah, that's where the arc ends. Do I recommend it? It's kinda tough to say, honestly. Some of the new scenes that are added are really cool, and are definitely worth seeing. But there is also a LOT of padding, with scenes like the Super Saiyan God transformation and the rock-paper-scissors game that are a drag to get through, and only exist to help turn this hour forty minute movie into a fourteen episode saga. If you love Dragon Ball and really want to watch those really good moments, then you'll probably enjoy this arc. You'll just have to slog through some REALLY drawn out padding in order to get there. This arc isn't bad by any stretch, but in my opinion it just doesn't top the movie. The movie is much quicker, has better animation due to having a theatrical budget, and for ever good scene they have in Super there's a good scene in the movie that they cut out. (Seriously, they cut out Beerus break dancing!) You can watch the Battle of Gods film and then just jump into the rest of Super without missing much. HOWEVER, if you do chose to skip over this arc, I do recommend you watch the first two episodes of Super anyway. These are the "filler" slice of life episodes, and there amazing. One of the best things about Super is the slice of life episodes where we get some fantastic comedy seeing the Dragon Ball gang in pretty much sitcom situations. The first episode is about Goten and Trunks trying to get a wedding gift for Videl, and the second episode is about Vegeta going on vacation with his family. Yeah, remember that one line from Z where Vegeta says that he'll take Trunks to an amusement parks if he's able to hit him? THEY BRING THAT BACK! Akira Toriyama forgot about who Launch was, but remember that! THESE WHERE THE FIRST TWO EPISODES OF DRAGON BALL AFTER ALMOST TWO DECADES OF WAITING! AKIRA TORIYAMA IS A MASTER TROLL!

(I don't care how many flaws Dragon Ball Super has, this one images justifies it's existence to me.) So yeah, that's my review of the Dragon Ball Super "Battle of Gods" arc. Not as good as the film, but still with some really good elements in it. But what do you think of this arc, or Dragon Ball Super in general? Leave those thoughts in the comments down bellow. I'd love to start a discussion, even if we don't see eye to eye. Also tell me what you think of this review. I hope to review every arc of Super as the series airs on television, so I really hope you all like this review. If you did like this review than please fav, follow, and comment and have a great day! (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Dragon-Ball-Super-Battle-of-Gods-Arc-REVIEW-678214005 DA Link

#Dragon Ball Super #Dragon Ball #Anime #Battle of Gods

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tearasshouse · 4 years ago

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Mostly vidya ramblings pt 3C

Previous post here.

Right, software time. A cursory glance at my PSN Profile will show that I’ve met my personal quota of getting the platinum in at least 10 PlayStation titles over the year, with a few PC titles sprinkled in for good measure since hey, I have access to a Windows machine again (though it’s not exactly a games machine, unless your definition of a “gaming rig” is something with a 15W Core i3 and modest laptop Radeon graphics). While I didn’t start out meaning to rank these games, I find I have a tendency to do so anyway and while I’m certainly not saying these games are outright bad, they were absolutely lower on the rung, so I’ve dubbed this part “C” (again, no disrespect to the devs or any who rate these games higher than I do; these are just my personal assessments). These are OK games.

The Darkness 2 (Steam)

Enjoyable, somewhat! I put this down like, ages ago when I picked it up for a song on PC, feeling it was too basic and uh “console shootery” at the time. Often times, having restrictions placed upon something can net great results, and hamstrung as I am by my less-capable hardware, I’ve only been picking up Steam games that could run on lower end hardware, or anything released prior to say, 2015. Surprisingly this runs at something stupid like 200 FPS on my machine with V-Sync off and all settings on High at 1080p, so go figure. Anyway, it’s a short and enjoyable shooter. I don’t know anything about the comics upon which the game(s) are based, but Jackie is a likeable character, the Darkness powers are fun enough, the locations are varied, the supporting cast surprisingly interesting and the plot was actually pretty cool too, with a major sequel hook that we’ll probably never get.

Ori & The Blind Forest (Steam)

It sorta hovers a bit below 60fps while running at 1080p, but it’s all just a bit reductive when one spends more time looking at the framerate counter than playing a game, no? The blessing and curse of PC gaming I suppose. Anyway, as a Metroidvania the game is a bit annoying. As a piece of interactive fiction, it’s too saccharine and feels like a B-tier Dreamworks production for children which, I suppose shouldn’t be a knock against the game but I have to say -- wasn’t my cup of tea. Reminds me a bit of Child of Light by Ubisoft -- gorgeous to look at, benign if not frustrating to play (those escape sequences can piss off), and young gamers would probably find more to like in the...emotional tidbits than most adults.

Crysis 2 (Steam)

So apparently this got delisted off Steam but now it’s back up or something with EA deciding to put their back catalog on the platform or something? Anyway, like this list implies, Crysis 2 is an okay game, nothing more and nothing less. The nanosuit energy depletes a bit too quick for my liking, and you’re really made to feel like a badass only some of the times, in quick and short bursts, not unlike BJ in the new Wolfenstein games by MachineGames (any more prolonged exposure to hitscan weapons and other bullshit will quickly send you to the loading screen). Thing is, I don’t want to feel like a badass only some of the time? I mean, you put a ripped supersoldier type doing the Badass Looking Back At the Viewer Pose on the cover and I expect to be able to do certain things without stopping for a breather every 20 seconds, ya know? If you’re going to give me the power fantasy, commit to it. Or, find ways to keep the flow up and reward mastery to make players earn said fantasy (something the new DOOMs have done and why those have been so successful). I certainly don’t envy game devs for having to balance this shit, but id Software showed you one way of how you might do that while the Crysis games and those of their ilk just feel slow and unrewarding.

Quantum Break (Steam)

Really surprised I was able to get this running on my PC but hey, it runs on the Xbox One so how hard could it be? I dearly love Remedy’s games, even if they’re a bit straightforward at times and you get the feeling they’d rather be in the business of non-interactive fiction than games making at times. Well here is a TV show hybrid! Made exclusively in partnership with Microsoft as part of their TV & STREAMING, TV & STREAMING, SPORTS & STREAMING strategy of the 2010s. I didn’t care for the plot, nor the endless email / audiobook / loredumps scattered around, nor the characters, any of it. I will say the final stage with the super high tech offices was a delight (boy wouldn’t I love to live the corpo life in such beautiful, clean office environs). Lance Reddick was a treat as always. Peter “Littlefinger” Baelish shows up to do a thing. Yeah, it’s a Remedy joint through and through. 2019′s Control was such a highlight for me that I’ll take any kind of prototype-y take on it (and QB certainly feels like a rougher, worse version of Control, at least mechanically).

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs / Dear Esther: Landmark Edition (Steam)

These titles were certainly...things that I installed onto my PC and sat through... Yes. Look, I’m not one to dog on walking simulators, and I know the devs have faced tough times recently but I still feel these are acquired tastes and could be appreciably improved in too many ways to name. Of the two, Dear Esther is the one I’d rec because at least that one was quite pleasant to meander around in while Amnesia left me disappointed that I’d wasted my time, physically sick with its subpar performance and muddy graphics, flaccid with its stodgy plot and left absolutely disappointed that I’d wasted my time on such a bizarre and confusing payoff towards the end. Chinese Room, I mean this in the most constructive way possible: maybe try a different type of game next time.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (GOG)

I remember putting in some decent time into the DEMO version of RtCW’s MP mode, being amazed at the time by the particle effects, with child-me just running around the D-Day map with the flamethrower out. Anyway, years later and I finally played the SP campaign. It’s maybe better than Allied Assault’s? It feels more consistently entertaining anyway. Hell I think I like these boomer shooters better than MachineGames’ recent efforts (which isn’t saying a whole lot because I find those games just merely okay). I promise you I’m not just being a crotchety old fart.

Ys: Memories of Celceta (PS Vita)

I’d been playing through this over the spring on my Vita TV, before it bit the dust eventually and I’ve been meaning to go back and wrap up the cheevos. I was a bit lukewarm with Oath in Felghana (my first Ys), but could definitely see the appeal in the series, as boss rush games aren’t really my cup of tea (ie. it’s the journey and not the destination of say, a Souls game that is the meat for me). Definitely a game that would benefit from a 60fps refresh and cleaner graphics than what the Vita can provide. I’ve already got a copy of Ys 8 in shrink wrap and have my eyes set on emulating Ys Seven or grabbing the GOG version. A game where action is king and story or character development is secondary; I would prefer more of the latter to make this more of a JRPG and less of a “predominantly Japanese action game with superficial RPG elements”.

Catherine: Full Body (PS4)

I paid $70 for this on day one and I’ve gotta say... should’ve waited for the price drop. I’m a somewhat lapsed Atlus mark, and I still hold the original Persona 5 as my no. 1 in the PS4′s lineup (with Dragon Quest XI possibly being a tie), yet I bought this knowing it wouldn’t really be for me. Why? High difficulty in a genre I don’t play, like at all, a relatively short clear time (in itself not an issue and frankly welcome these days HOWEVER...), and a somewhat unsatisfying payoff despite being a supernatural romance thriller. I bought this as seed money for Atlus’s P.Studio/Studio Zero, in the hopes that Project Re: Fantasy will knock my socks off just like the latter day Persona games have. Because in spite of the contents not really appealing to me, it’s still supremely well made, and it’s not everyday that games like these get made, so there you go. Look, if I could go back in time and put this money towards 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, I probably would, but then the Catherine steelbook is ever so pretty...

Tearaway Unfolded (PS4)

The OG game is one of the most charming little 3D platformer/collect-a-thons out there, and as far as children’s games (or er, “games that also appeal to children”) go, more of these and less of those please (your Child of Lights and Oris). I’d go as far as to say the OG version is better than the PS4 version, though the PS4 version is also quite good. Really, if I wasn’t going for that stupid Misplaced Gopher trophy, this would probably be an easy shoe-in for the B-tier list, but I place this demotion firmly at Media.Molecule’s feet. That cheevo is cursed.

The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories (PS4)

I’d almost forgotten about this! If that doesn’t qualify for making the C-tier list then I don’t know what else does. I only know of Swery65′s qualities through osmosis, having watched the 2BF’s legendary LP of Deadly Premonition and the gone-too-soon D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. He’s an interesting person with interesting ideas but crucially, as a game dev, his output is just... kinda mediocre? If not outright bad? Case in point with this game. It looks and runs like garbo; it plays like garbo; the character designs are cute; the dialogue is pretty good; there is a wonderful and gradual “twist” to the main character that was super spoiled for me when people were discussing and promoting it (like, that is my bad, but also internet discourse on any kind of entertainment media is just *fucked*); there’s a lot of semi-colons in this sentence so I’ll stop here.

And the balls to charge like, what, $40+ for the game on PSN?? I’d gotten it for way less on a sale but in a day and age when $1 could buy you 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and MS might also throw in a curio like this in there just to fill in the gaps, it makes you wonder if these kinds of games can ever turn a profit, especially when the end product is this jank. And these are commercial goods, make no mistake, any aspirations to being an art piece or social critique notwithstanding, so that also brings to the fore the whole aspect of pricing games, relative value, production and marketing costs, blah blah.

IF you like something different, can appreciate games made on a shoestring budget with arguably bad gameplay and technical deficiencies, but has...heart? Then look no further to the output of this man. The most C-worthy of all the titles listed here.

#vidya #gaming #tech #tl;dr #long post #games #videogames #2020 in review

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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FEATURE: How Behind The Scenes Decisions Changed The Course of Digimon Adventure 2020

In the Digimon Adventure: opening, there's a little bit that's always stuck out to me. Just before it teases Greymon's evolution into MetalGreymon, protagonist Taichi performs a standard battle hero pose — the ol' "Yell while I have got my arms slightly bent and my hands are curled into fists." You've probably seen it in another anime produced by Toei Animation, Dragon Ball Z, as it's a pose Goku has struck a few times when charging up or reaching a new level of Super Saiyan. It's a classic anime mannerism, signifying increasing strength through physical turmoil. It's super interesting when applied to Digimon Adventure:, as it seems indicative of the entire direction of the series.

Digimon Adventure: is a reboot, one that bears almost the exact same name as its predecessor. So, there's an expectation for it to hit certain beats, for it to reach a certain quota of homage — which it does almost immediately. Taichi spinning rapidly as he plummets through the digital space that contains the name of the series at the beginning of the opening immediately recalls the Digi-Destined doing the same thing in the original theme song. But whereas in the opening for the 1999 anime, Taichi was soon followed by the rest of his friends, the 2020 anime sees him spinning alone. And most of the sequences that follow also see him alone, hanging out with Botamon, Koromon, and eventually Agumon. They pal around, take naps together, and most importantly for Digimon — a franchise built on the ethos of "What if digital pets, but fighting?" — they battle together.

The original opening saw the kids often staring in awe of their evolved Digimon partners, barely able to comprehend their supernatural majesty. The 2020 opening has Taichi and Agumon standing back to back, equally battered, amid a field of flames and ruin. They are friends, destined to have found one another in order to save multiple worlds, but they are also action heroes. The episodes that make up the series so far — 24, at the time of this writing — make good on the opening's promise. Yes, there are multiple Digi-Destined kids, and yes, they all have their distinct personalities and lovable relationships with their monsters. But the focus is mostly on Taichi and Agumon, whether they're clashing with villains or inspiring one another to grow stronger.

To fans of the original series, this might seem a bit unsettling.

See, 1999's Digimon Adventure is chock-full of, well, adventure. Nearly every episode ends with some kind of climactic battle against a villainous Digimon, often correlating with some new bit of emotional growth for its protagonists. But it's also, surprisingly enough, kind of a hang out show. Rewatching it will reveal that the kids and their Digimon spend a lot of every episode talking and eating and debating and joking. You get to know them all pretty well — their likes and dislikes, how they bounce off of one another, their expectations for each other, etc.

And this was very much by design. Digimon Adventure producer Hiromi Seki and series director Hiroyuki Kakudou knew that even though Taichi was the main character, he wasn't "the only main character there." Kakudou intentionally wanted children to see that "even the child who sits at the back [of the classroom] is still a member of the class." This approach to developing every character on an almost equal basis would also help with ratings, as it ensured that when Taichi wasn't there, people would still tune in to watch everyone else.

However, keeping this in mind calls into question Digimon Adventure 2020's value as a remake. Did the producers somehow flub and instead of creating Digimon Adventure, they landed on Digimon: The Adventure of Tai? This is an opinion I see online often, and I totally understand it. Because if you go into the 2020 series hoping for the spirit of the 1999 incarnation, you probably won't be satisfied. But it's not because the people involved forgot the original recipe. Rather, they intended from the beginning to cook up something new.

Well, turn something old into something new. Back in 1999, as the toy company Bandai was eager to expand the various mediums that Digimon could appear in, manga artist Tenya Yabuno was contacted to create a one-shot for V Jump magazine. The one-shot would be extended and the series Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 would eventually become the longest-running Digimon manga ever — and its main character was Taichi. Not the same Taichi you see in the anime. Whereas the Taichi on TV was someone working to be a part of a team, the Taichi on the manga page was mostly a solo act, a kid who grows up as the central, lone hero.

It's this Taichi that provided a huge influence on the one we see in the 2020 anime. Lead writer Atsuhiro Tomioka, who'd previously worked on Dragon Ball Super, admitted that "the core of new Taichi is directly based off V-Tamer 01" and he set out to make Taichi someone who is "always with his Digimon, fights together with him, gets hurt together with him, and gets through dangerous situations together with him. Of course, he still works together with other allies, but we want him to be a heroic figure with a strong sense of responsibility and dependability." He'd been directed to make "the battle aspects more prominent," an order that goes hand in hand with the character objective.

Yabuno also recognized that the 1999 series addresses "human weakness a little more" when it comes to Taichi than in his manga. This is somewhat echoed in an interview with Taichi's voice actor Yuuko Sanpei, who referred to Taichi as "a flexible and talented character. Like a super person." To watch Taichi face near death as he's thrown around with Greymon by ridiculously powerful villains, you can kinda see what he's going for.

The people behind the production are in full-support of this creative mission. A reboot is something that Toei had been considering since the days of Digimon Adventure tri., and one of the reasons producer Hiroyuki Sakurada appointed Masato Mitsuka as director was Mitsuka's proficiency with action scenes. Mitsuka isn't shy about his desire for them, even admitting that he did some things that were a bit "unreasonable" for a TV anime in order to show off "Omegamon fighting in a cool manner" in the third episode.

In fact, Mitsuka and his team re-thought the whole approach to Digimon fight scenes. I've often referred to some of them as "Digi-MMA," but Mitsuka wanted to "directly apply the principles of human action scenes" to Digimon. Thus, the titanic monsters often engage in punching, headbutting, tail-whipping, kicking, and general fisticuffs in a way that the creatures in 1999 never did. When it came to giving directions for the creation of the opening, two of the three Mitsuka listed were "the pairing of Taichi and Agumon" and "the battle aspects."

To put it simply, Digimon Adventure 2020 isn't really trying to be Digimon Adventure 1999. Rather, it's doubled down on the aspects that the creators have found to be the most appealing, namely the idea of Taichi as a hero and the Digimon as combatants. Personally, I really enjoy it (while also really, really enjoying the original Adventure) but I understand it if isn't everyone's cup of tea. But that's one of the best things about Digimon. The franchise is so sprawling you should find at least one incarnation that checks off your boxes, whether it's a series, a manga, or the digital pets that spawned this whole thing. Digimon Adventure: is just one more story being told among many great ones, and I can't wait to see what it has in store for me next.

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: [email protected]

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

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botslayer · 4 years ago

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Random character analysis: The Hobo with a Shotgun

This post exists because I love this movie and it’s protagonist is worth a deep dive.

For those unfamiliar, Hobo with a Shotgun is a grindhouse/exploitation-style action/lite horror movie about... A Hobo with a Shotgun. He rides into “Hope Town” and starts doing what you expect. Begging, looking for money and digging through trash. But the longer he stays in the city, the more he sees rotten and awful things happening. Corrupt cops, buckets of blood, as he explains to the police chief in once scene “... people don’t go bad like they do here.” eventually he hits a breaking point, buys a shotgun with money he saved up from degrading himself, and starts cleaning the streets. Now, if you haven’t seen the movie, I’d recommend watching it, as not only am I about to spoil it up and down, but it’s VERY much worth a watch. It’s a film that isn’t afraid to go to some scary places, but between all that everyone turns in one hell of a performance, and the movie has a surprisingly great emotional core. Ideas like family and in a strange sense, nobility are represented here in ways you’d probably not expect. It’s a damn fine movie if you have the stomach for it. With all that out of the way, let’s talk about Rutger Hauer’s character, the Hobo, who goes otherwise unnamed in the movie. I also wanna talk about some of the symbolism used throughout the movie.

I wanna start with a running plot thread that lets us look into the Hobo’s psychology: we have the scene with Abby where the Hobo says she should be a teacher. She’s a sweet, caring, and somewhat intelligent young woman. And The Hobo clings to this idea as the movie goes on. Later scenes have him telling a guy who refers to her as “just a fuck tube.” That she IS a teacher. And then later, when she’s in the hospital, he gives her some fresh picked dandelions in a cup. He says they’d look good in her classroom window.

But When she reminds him she isn’t a teacher, the Hobo says “Everyone ‘otta have a dream.” Why though is he so insistent she become a teacher? Why though does he say she IS a teacher? She taught him something. See, it’s my firm belief that Abby, in showing him hospitality and telling him a little bit more about how the city works, she taught him there was some good in the city. That somewhere in the rotten husk of Hope Town... There was something worth protecting, someone worth helping. Hell, go a little further, she may have taught him what it’s like having a warm bed for the evening. He doesn’t remember the last time he had one. Going back to the first scene where he mentions she should be a teacher and she gives him a bed: She gives the Hobo the bear sweater, and he tells her about bears. How bears are very territorial. “They don’t care if you’re like a mile away.” But if you get to close, they will maul you. How a single bear claw can take your face off your head. And when they get a taste of human blood, they tend to become people killers and can only be stopped by killing them. “And that’s why you don’t hug a bear.”

Later, as The Hobo kills the robbers at the pawn shop, we can clearly see the blood go into his mouth. And he still has the bear sweater Abby gave him. The Hobo is just like a bear. Earlier in the movie, he doesn’t help anyone, he doesn’t do anything about the crime running rampant, save for stopping the character of Slick from Kidnapping Abby and taking him to the cops because it’s really not his business. The Hobo is not a bad guy at the start. It’s just not his place to mess with things. But he can’t afford not to care when people like Abby are around. Or, as in the shop, when the man with the witch mask is waving a gun in the face of a baby. This continues throughout the movie as he never takes the bear sweater off. The Hobo’s last interaction with Abby has her saying she wants it all to stop, she wants to go to the zoo with him and see the bears. “... Bears don’t belong in a zoo.” He doesn’t belong in a zoo. For he too, is a bear. He doesn’t deserve this happy thing. All he, as a manic killing machine deserves, is the death of a wild animal, but he’s content taking a monster out with him. Moving on from that, Let’s talk about the film’s primary antagonist, The Drake and how he relates to a certain other symbolism.

Interestingly, people refer to him as just “Drake,” Like his brother. Then there are people who refer to him as “The Drake,” mostly himself. Why does he do this? Because he isn’t just “Drake.” That’s just a name. “The Drake.” That’s a title... He’s not “The Drake” because that’s his name. He’s “The Drake” because he’s a fucking dragon.

What do I mean? He has a god complex the size of the Roman empire stacked on top of the Byzantine empire. He’s so far above everyone else, he knows how to “Entertain” the masses, frighten them, make them compliant, he has wealth, women, power, a larger than life personality, often complimented by his bright white suit and how he stays perpetually clean as if he were above all the filth... And his name is a capstone to all that. He is, for all intents and purposes, not a human threat. He’s a manifestation of everything wrong with the city. He’s a CREATURE who spreads pain and suffering everywhere his foul claws get close to. No mortal man does the things Drake does. So again I say, his entire point is that he isn’t just another thug The Hobo can kill. He’s the greatest challenge our hero will face. The people scarred by the actions and words of The Drake and his sons Ivan and Slick are broken. Diseased. The Hobo calls them “Vultures, circling the city, tearing the flesh off of everything that is innocent.” These aren’t people to him anymore. It’s a great plague upon the land. A curse that cannot be cured by any other means than through a purging. The Hobo is not just our resident Rorschach-type “Good-man-broken-by-a-bad-world.” He’s basically a knight in a fantasy movie when you cut down to it. Consider again: the bear sweater. The Hobo gets it from a girl named Abby, and he gets it from her in a very intimate way, in a very bright, warm, and solemn place, her apartment. He’s also clearly at least a little religious, I site “Mother Theresa is a god-damned saint!” This is a knighting ritual in a strange way. The Hobo the next day and in the presumed week or so following that night, lives up to being the bear and being a knight, protecting the innocent, the kind, and the ground he considers worth protecting. Look at the Plague two... You know... These guys.

They aren’t just armored psychopaths, they’re skilled fighters with a heavy focus on melee weaponry and a dubious alliance with The Drake. In a deleted scene, Abby calls them “Demon fucks” and their established targets include Jesus, the Easter Bunny, and several old and Christian adjacent figures. The plague are not just bounty hunters, but also Black knights. Warriors who are supposed to be some flavor of virtuous corrupted until they serve a monster or monsters. This doubles over with the alternative ending where Abby forcefully becomes a new member of the plague. Abby does good things in the movie, and would, in an ideal circumstance, become the teacher the Hobo thinks she can be. Either that or she continues the Hobo’s work, being the Evey to his V and making society at large better. But no. Rip drags her away and makes her a monster.

Continuing the “Knight” theme built into the movie, when The Drake is referred to as a “King” around him, The Hobo simply says “Kings fall. You ‘otta read a history book, Chief.” This is true, kings do fall. And The Hobo, as if undertaking a holy quest to do it himself, starts his rampage a few scenes later. And after giving the Dandelions to Abby, he says he has to “Go back to work.” I.E. killing bad people. Why does he refer to this as “work?” Because it's what he did with the money he was going to use to start his lawn mowing business. Now that the money he was going to put towards work went to the gun, his crusade is his job. Now let’s talk about something that might seem insignificant: The Shotgun sound. It sounds nothing like an actual shotgun. There’s that almost electrical discharge after he fires it every time... Almost like a magical spell. And that spell is one of eradicating all that is wicked. What is a gunshot to the people of Hope Town? It isn’t much. Just another punk getting robbed and murdered. What is that sound to The Hobo? Power incarnate. The sound we hear is what The Hobo hears in his heart as it were. Last but not least: I wanna talk about little hints the Hobo kinda gives to his own history. He says two things that point to a life of wandering. When asked if anyone welcomed him to Hope Town, he says “They never do.” And when Abby notes that he’s not “From around here.” The Hobo says “I’m not FROM anywhere.” This tells us that the Hobo has been riding rails and taking hikes for as long as he can remember. This also explains some of his basic fighting ability and why he’s such a tough old bastard. He’s been places, seen things, and gotten into some serious shit. So he’s fine being thrown into a dumpster or chewing glass. I would also suggest that at some point, The Hobo had a brother. He relates to pain, the abstract physical feeling, as a brother of sorts. “And brothers... Fight sometimes.” This suggests to me that he’s very much familiar with having a family even if they were constantly moving. The Hobo however... is the last one. He’s all that’s left. Maybe some sort of fight with his aforementioned brother broke up what was left of the family unit and sent them on their separate ways... That is, until a bear attacks. Why does the Hobo know so much about bears? I think it’s because he’s gotten into it with them before. I think there may have been some sort of friction between The Hobo and his brother at some point that... frankly he can never take back. not any more. His brother is gone because a bear mauled him to death. The bear, having acquired a taste for human flesh, goes after The Hobo, who has no choice but to kill it. How long ago this was is anyone’s guess, it was probably back when The Hobo was younger, if I had to guess. This is all just theories, speculation, and me probably reading too deeply into the blue drapes as it were but it’s always fun to think of this stuff. Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

#Hobo with a shotgun #armchair psychologist #Rutger Hauer #The Plague #Knights #dragon #drake #The Drake #Fantasy #grindhouse #fan theories

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pannacottawarrior · 7 years ago

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Grim’s Story??? owo’’

so Grim's been alone for billions of years and just been doing their job for most of that time too. the general rules for a reaper are to travel around and guide souls to the afterlife - be it if they need to go to the underworld or not depends on how they lived. they just send souls to be judged and they might be assigned to send them to wherever they gotta go. they may have some time to relax every now and then but they //must// do their job. they cannot kill people based on their actions - just on whether it's 'their time' or if their soul is really weak

after meeting Chán (who can see ghosts and reapers like Grim since they're technically a 'guardian spirit' too), they start laxing off on their responsibility since they've never had a friend before and they love spending time with them ;v;

then they meet Shino eve''

they were doing their job - they just helped a soul the gods sent back to pass over into the afterlife at their own funeral. a few days later, Shino comes in and resurrects the dead person. Grim heard news about a soul being dragged from the afterlife and came to investigate and followed their tracks through the lingering of dead spiritual presences.

at this point, Grim's concept of 'love' is quite naive so when they met Shino they became infatuated with them. 'they look so cute;;; and mysterious goshhh ;A;'

Shino - being a necromancer - can see Grim too and questions who they are. when they tell them, they're really angry and tell them to 'fuck off' and try to kill them - which obviously doesn't work ._.'''

Grim's a little bit uncomfortable and uneasy around them obviously after being hit with dark magic in an obvious attempt to kill them but they still ask 'so um;;; i didn't want to bother you for very long ahh i didn't know i could even talk to you just a few minutes ago and you see *rambles* umm anyway just, have you seen any dead people walking around lately? i just thought you might know something since you could see me and...you don't happen to be a necromancer, are you?'

Shino - kinda annoyed but also surprised for a moment - just kinda stares at them like 'the fuck is up with you?? e-e'

'i can't die ._. but i can make other people die though'

from this Shino gets the idea to use Grim for their power to do what they want. they explain why they tried to resurrect the person since they were 'close' and they try to convince them to help them with their cause to kill people they hate/think are morally wrong and have done wrong (most are criminals but there are some who have just 'wronged' Shino in some way or another)

it doesn't work at first - Grim knows that's against the law. Shino does find ways to get them to help (they make a deal to not continue their necromancy if they help them with just some of the people on their hit list and later when Grim thinks they're in a 'relationship and Shino finds out about Chán, they say 'these people are horrible enough to get people killed...you wouldn't want Chán to be one of those people, right? and what about me? Chán and i are way too young to die this soon')

it was meant to just be 4 people Shino wanted dead but on their mission Shino keeps finding more 'irredeemable' people to get rid of. the numbers grow from 7 to 15 to 28+ and this is where Grim starts to get more depressed

no matter how many times they ask Shino if they can stop, they keep guilt tripping them to convince them to keep reaping. when Grim reminds them that 'it was only supposed to be 4 people - that was the deal' they would tell them that they never said so or that they only showed them a 'part' of the list - 'we're nearly done, just help me through these last few names okay darling?' (even if that's what they said the last time)

like i said before, souls have to be weak in order to fully pass on into the afterlife/underworld and since the souls Grim had been reaping weren't weak and Grim doesn't want to properly send them to the gods to be judged; the souls of the people they've reaped follow them and never leaves them alone. they're able to take a vaguely human-like form (but they're distorted and odd in place, with limbs twisted, their bodies and faces constantly melting and they taunt Grim at any opportunity they can find. they sometimes grab onto their feet or their ribbon ends and Grim has to drag them along and they scream and screech. they blame Grim for their deaths and they constantly ask or demand to know why they killed them since they had so many things they wanted to do in life

normally Grim's okay with it since they get that from some souls who didn't want to die yet but those souls usually don't stay with Grim for very long - it's either off to the underworld or the afterlife for them.

not only that but they've stopped talking to Chán at this point too;; they're worried Shino would somehow find them and are worried about how Shino would react to them hanging out or even to Chán as a person. they stay with Shino since this is the first person they think they're in love with and think is the only person who'd love them at all. even though they're unsure if they really do care about them aside from what they do as a reaper.

since Shino wouldn't listen to them, Grim just decides to drop the deal and tells Shino to leave them alone and to promise to never do necromancy again otherwise they might have to send them to the underworld. they have an argument since Shino still wants to continue 'doing the right thing' and Grim mentions how they don't want to be in trouble with the other gods for going against the rules. Shino yells about how they really don't care what happens to them, that their existence is terrible anyways and Grim could've redeemed themselves by reaping all the horrible people in the world and letting the innocent people live on. and that's when Grim realizes and stops denying the fact that Shino doesn't really love them and they were being used.

eventually though the gods find out about the whole thing and send other reapers to sorta arrest them ovo'' when Shino finds out that they were going to be punished for disobeying the gods (still working on a punishment - i'm thinking of having an enormous dragon whose very breath can cause gods and spirits to cease existing - i'm hoping?? that seems mythological enough?? ovo''), they find a way to get to their 'execution' (yeee still trynna find out how =w='') to help Grim escape. with their magic they break Grim's cuffs and distract the gods :V

at this point, Grim's had it up to here - they've lost their title as a god (their ribbon halo thing is torn), they haven't seen Chán in //months//, was guilt tripped and manipulated to do things they weren't comfortable with and felt insignificant and terrible just for existing because of Shino so seeing them again got them REALLY fucking angry

so they transform into a giant ram skeleton and fucking wreck the place once they're free ;v; and they teleport themselves back on Earth to hide away from the gods and Shino

once again; just saying that none of this is official =w= it's what i've got so far but the story is still open to changes so see this as more of a 'what if' sort of thing?? :V

#My OCs #Ny's Precious Little Dorks #Grim Reaper #Chán #Shino #long post #dEAR GOD THIS IS LONG #LIKE //REALLY// LONG;;;#AAHHHH BUT I HAD TO GET THE DETAILS DOWN BECAUSE JFC DXX #abuse tw #because i mean #Shino is really emotionally abusive ._.#they may not have intended for Grim to get into trouble and only vaguely knew of the rules for reaping souls #but they were still abusive and really did NOT care about Grim's feelings throughout the story ._.'''#Shino holds morals and justice very close to their heart which is why they started this 'quest' to get rid of 'bad' people in the world #and also why they tried to help Grim e-e''' i'm undecided as to whether i want Shino to develop into a better character or for them to #get punished by the gods for what they did - especially since this character evolved from being a decent necromancer character #who was just mildly irritated with Grim's behavior and didn't initially reciprocate Grim's feelings until after a while #to being an emotionally abusive character who thought they were the protagonist in their own story and thought they were helping #Grim redeem themselves even though...they're a reaper...it's their job and a really important job to balance out the world regardless #if the person dying was good or bad #one thing's for sure though - Shino and Grim are definitely //not// going to be together again =w= friends or otherwise #i wanted to end Grim's story with Chán finding them and then finding out about what happened and shit #and he feels sorry that Grim had to go through that and he also feels sad because not only didn't he see Grim for //months// but Grim's #also really fucking silent; tired; depressed and not like themselves :/ but yet again; Chán's not my OC eve'''#i wouldn't know how Chán would react to a friend not seeing him for months and if they'd even know what to do with Grim after hearing #their story and shit ovo''''#but yeee :V that's the story - i want with time ofc for Grim to get better - be more skeptical; independent and have a more mature look #on things like love and even friendship but to be able to still smile; be happy and still be a playful caring sweetheart ;v;#as for their job now? nothing - they're p much a wandering spirit now - they still have a chance at becoming a guardian spirit again though

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chromsai · 7 years ago

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i dare you to make a top V arc v soundtrack list better than mine

Okay so first off, there’s no way I can make a list just like yours because as we discussed before, we all have different tastes in music, even if it’s all great. Secondly, in terms of writing a list as descriptive as yours… there’s just no way for me to. I’m not a musician, like you are, so I have little to no knowledge of musical terminology. That being said, I can give you a list from a more… consumer-of-music standpoint. And, although I may not be as technically descriptive as you, I can at least try to convey my emotions for…

Aaahhh… The Arc V soundtrack.

Let me just say that right off the bat, we’re all going to have very different lists. While I know this isn’t everybody’s favorite soundtrack of all the Yugiohs, it definitely is mine. By far. I absolutely fell in love with this soundtrack since episode 1. Okay well, not absolutely absolutely, but pretty damn close to absolutely since episode 1, but I’ll explain more about that later. The one thing I will mention though is that this is my favorite soundtrack because its tracks were all extremely memorable since that very first episode.

I’m an avid consumer of music and one of the most important aspects for me in how much I end up liking (or loving) a series (or video game or whatever) is its music. I listen to music without fail every damn day of my life. Can’t live without the stuff. But of course I have my tastes, and somehow the Arc V soundtrack always gave me something to look forward to. Kotaro Nakagawa, in my opinion, did a wonderful job composing the entire thing and keeping pace with the tone of the story to help make scenes have significant impact on the audience. After hearing the Arc V soundtrack, I’m convinced that Nakagawa is some kind of musical genius because, tho I said I love music, if it’s not memorable, I can’t care any less for a soundtrack. Ironically enough, the only other anime soundtrack I keep revisiting aside from the Arc V soundtrack is the Code Geass soundtrack which… he also composed. The guy knows how to leave an impression… with his music. And that’s amazing.

Here’s just a handful of screenshots of me screaming about the Arc V Soundtrack ever since the first few weeks of Arc V, proving that: No. I won’t ever shut the fuck up about this soundtrack. Because. It’s. That. Fucking. Good. It’s been good since Day 1 and it stayed damn good til the end.

It’s especially amazing considering that a major theme of this show is leaving an impression on your opponents and your audience through your dueling. Not only did Nakagawa let his signature style shine through his compositions in this soundtrack, he also contributed to the story itself numerous times over. The soundtrack he composed here is that impressive.

Well anyway, enough of this and let’s get to my list:

(Note: Yes, I am including the entire soundtrack, up until the very finale of the show, and not just tracks from Sound Duels 1-3, but don’t worry, I’ll have links for all tracks I mentioned, though expect not-so-perfect quality for some that aren’t on the Sound Duel [curse you, Marvelous!!]).

5. Wavering Feelings / ENJOY (Unreleased)

Of course I can’t avoid starting off with a tie because you only gave me 5 slots and it’s hard enough to choose JUST 5 out of the entire soundtrack. Hell you coulda given me 10 slots and I would still be struggling. :/

Anyways, so Wavering Feelings: I love the building anticipation of this track from beginning all the way til its climatic, burst of boundless, jazzy energy at 1:24. It’s steady and serious but also not overly boisterous, so it’ll give you a slight hinge of anxiety, but not enough to where you can’t focus. In fact, it does the opposite; the tone of it pretty much prepares you for a fight. I love this theme because it builds steadily as the characters strategize and then plays along perfectly when they finally unleash hell. The resolution to it right after the sax also brings you back down to the same level of focus you had before activating some sick card combo + also perfectly syncs up as you throw down some face downs to end your turn. It just plays excellently for any serious comeback turn.

ENJOY: Alright so when this track first aired, I kinda “nutted”, for lack of a better term.

Ah yes, the infamously terribly animated ep 61. Thankfully that was just THAT episode. Anyway, see? I “nutted” for ENJOY. (*cries* poor past Sai, this unfortunately didn’t make it onto any Sound Duels.)

Well basically, I love this track because it’s just so… passionate? Over dueling?? Like… that’s so extra (just like this entire franchise) but at the same time it’s moving, and honestly the track playing during Enjoy Chojiro’s mini redemption during that duel made it seem like his real dueling spirit was actually reviving and that he’d be able to come back strong and uplifting, all thanks to Yuya. Yeah, I mentioned before this was actually one of my favorite moments in Arc V and this track was a big part of that, tbh. The slow steady guitar riff is pretty damn sick and really gets you into the mood of the duel. I know they played this track again in episode 69, but it had a better impact in episode 61, I think. Still an excellent and memorable track, despite it only being used like twice.

4. Duel of Rebellion

HOLY SHIT. This. Track. Is. Bone-chilling.

First of all, it is hella rhythmic af all throughout, but that aggressive guitar in the beginning gets me every time. Then it moves into some signature Arc V electronica… and then stops for a moment. And then it picks right back up again with BOTH. Just like its namesake, this theme for the XYZ boys is pretty damn fucking poppin’ and takes no prisoners. It’s here to do one job and one job only: pump you up and keep the pressure on. I absolutely love that they throw in the XYZ trio’s theme into the mix over a steady beat that keeps up with your fast-paced heart beat as you’re running around grabbing action cards or running from attacks to try to pretty much stay alive. The track takes another slight break at 1:22 so you can catch your breath a bit and gather your bearings as you get ready to plan your next move for survival while keeping the urgent tone still very much alive. It ends steadily, gradually, instead of abruptly like you’d usually expect a track of its pace to do, manifesting the tired spirits of those of the Resistance: more than willing to fight back despite how much they just want this war to end. This track just… it’s pretty much Shun & Yuto in music form. That’s beautiful.

3. Duelist’s Secret Feelings

Ha. So I don’t usually let anyone know this about me but, I really, really love dark, creepy, menacing musical tracks like these. What I find most astounding about this is that there’s a lighter version of this track and it sounds almost nothing like it but the melody is still definitely the same and, to be honest, I was not much of a fan of it or just thought nothing of it… until Duelist’s Secret Feelings. This is what I meant when I said that Nakagawa’s composition also adds narrative to Arc V’s story. Of course, DSF isn’t always used for scenes with Sora in them or is exclusive to just him, but again this track made that first Sora vs Shun duel that much more impactful and grandiose. The menacing tone of it just screams “danger looming overhead and there’s not much you can do to stop it” while also reminding us that this is also technically Sora’s theme. Under all that fluff and candy, he was hiding his threatening outlook. It also ends rather calmly though, perhaps foreshadowing that there’ll be a calm after whatever terrible storm is up ahead.

Bonus: Do yourself a favor and play this track then immediately follow it up with Duel of Rebellion. The mood of this one carries over into DoR and it gives you this feeling of an all-out war and hell.

2. One Last Show (Unreleased)

This. Track.

It’s full of hope. It’s full of dread and desperation. It’s full of urgency and confidence. This is the kind of track I expect to hear right before dealing the final finishing blow on The Final Boss.

And that’s exactly what they used it for.

BUT. They actually used it twice. Once for when Yusho faces off with Yuri, where it was used to accompany Yusho’s fascinating entertainment skills which lead him to certain victor- oh wait no. He died. Thus, the feeling of misleading hope is very appropriate here.

But it also has its certain hopeful highs, which is why it was used again against Zarc, our (kinda titular) final boss. And it definitely brought on all those emotions of facing off the final boss and the satisfying anticipation that comes right before the finishing blow is dealt.

One Last Show is grandiose in its execution (0:19-0:40 is like GET READY), leaving no room for imagination regarding how important the moment it accompanies is. But it’s also intricately delicate and elegant (them piano riffs), leading to the belief that there still is a chance for everything to go to hell and it very damn well can if you fuck up so don’t waste the chance.

As I write this, I do believe actually that it was used again later on (iirc, during the moment when Yuya and his counterparts speak again right before he summons his dragons in 146), but I could be wrong and that might be another OST. Regardless, it’s fitting for important moments like these and it leaves a lasting and chilling impression.

Shout outs / Honorable mentions:

1. Yuto’s Passionate Soul (acapella) (this track MADE ‘duel de egao’ matter)2. Swing! Pendulum of Souls (oh man… the fact that this track was actually out shined by others is pretty damn telling how much I love this entire fucking soundtrack overall since this is probably one of the best orchestrated themes I’ve heard in any anime and I never get tired of hearing it. Side note: the piano solo version of this in episode 97 was such a beautiful tease I cry every time.)3. Enlightenment (just. epic. af. I don’t think I have to explain any further)4. Futile Struggle (this is one of those I like to call a “wasted theme” because as far as I can remember it was only used once and well… it’s just. Spectacular. All of it.)5. Dark Requiem / Reiji’s Heroic Entrance (yep, even my Honorables list ends in a tie. Both of these are supremely majestic and accompanied their respective scenes epically.)

1. A Battle That You Can’t Lose

Wow, can you tell I like violins and guitars?

Recall I said way earlier this post that I absolutely loved the Arc V soundtrack almost at the beginning. Well I really liked it since episode 1, but this track is what made me absolutely LOVE and appreciate and expect great things from this entire soundtrack.

I was referring to the end of episode 8, which does in fact end with ABTYCL.

Yeah damn them to hell for making this track that I have been in love with since episode fucking 3. I’ll play this on loop and never really get tired of it.

Honestly, my whole bias for violins and guitars aside, I feel this track does 2 things.

1) Encapsulates the spirit of Action Duels pretty damn well: it’s fun and exciting but it can also mean serious business. Either way, a duel is still a duel so we’re going to keep it light-hearted and try our best to show that to you in this heated heart-to-heart battle.

It also helps that this song is played often right at the beginning of duels as the duelists rev up the Action Duel chant, and often times it’s played at the very end of duels right as they leave you off on a cliffhanger after an absurdly high-stakes entertainment maneuver.

2) The second thing I believe it does is encapsulates the spirit of ALL OF ARC V. The entire theme of this show. It’s fast-past, non-stop, tense, but also fun-loving and damn does it know how to keep you hooked from beginning to end with its MARVELOUS (*coughpunsomewhatintended*) entertainment style. ABTYCL starts off with a literal bang to grab your attention (even giving off the feeling of “oh poor you, you don’t realize the hell you just signed up for”) immediately then has that looming guitar riff carried throughout to remind you that yes, this is completely serious. Then at 0:58 seconds in, it tones down just slightly while remaining completely serious to demonstrate that this show is not afraid to fuck around just a little just to surprise you (and put a smile on your face).

And yes, I know you must be thinking But Sai its kind of a simple melody, how is this your number 1?!

The emotions in this track are kind of a mix of everything, though, as I explained. Thus, it’s actually pretty complex. But it hides it pretty damn well. And I live for the seemingly simple. Depth is my favorite part of this track and ABTYCL gives it to me in spades (hell, even from just its title which fits it pretty damn well).

Anyway, that’s the end of my list. Of course there were A TON more tracks I LOVE I had to leave out (unfortunately), but these are basically the ones that left their biggest impressions on me and made my Arc V experience all the more memorable.

#absterra #ask #reply #refia #arc v #ygo #sai watches arc v #music #arc v soundtrack #igrejdks #i will never get over this soundtrack aaaaauugghhh #i didn't mean for me to go on forever but...........eh it's to be expected i guess #long post #cries i have so much more i woulda added on to the list #curse you marvelous gimme all the osts in HD u cowards

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