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tyrantisterror · 10 months

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Saw Godzilla Minus One again and yeah, just as good if not better than I felt it was the first time.

But it does have me thinking - well, honestly, I've been thinking about this for a while - about how often critics of this series have bandied the argument that only certain Godzilla movies are "true to the spirit of the original," and others are not and thus are trash. It's always used as a way to not just praise the movie in question the critic is talking about, but to still paint most of the Godzilla movies as disposable garbage - which is really to protect the critic's status as an authority by emphasizing they do not challenge the popular assumption that Godzilla movies are by and large garbage, and instead only think certain Godzilla movies - a rare and specific few - managed to rise above their station as garbage to be worth something.

Godzilla (1985) is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.

Shin Godzilla is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.

Godzilla Minus One is the only Godzilla movie to hold true to the spirit of the original.

And I have... too many thoughts on this to put in a normal tumblr post, I should probably organize them into, like, an essay (god it's been ages since I actually wrote one of those, nowadays I just let myself ramble with only a thin grasp of a point). But this is bullshit, right? This is a bullshit thing that critics and especially fans, so many Godzilla fans do this. It's so fucking cowardly and pretentious, the act of a person without the bravery to truly stand up for art they love, a person who'd rather cover their own ass than be bold enough to fight for what others have ignorantly deemed trash.

Like, my feelings on Shin Godzilla are not negative - they're lukewarm, a "well it's not really for me but I get what they're going for" feeling. But so many people for so many years have held it up high and said, "Finally, a Godzilla movie that's not trash like all the other sequels, one that FINALLY lives up to the SPIRIT of the first, FLAWLESS, PERFECT FILM!" that I can't help feeling resentment for it, a sort of petty envy at how it is constantly held up so the people praising it can shit down on all the others that preceded it. I think I've been more harshly critical of it than I have most Godzilla movies specifically because so many people feel the need to praise it as flawless while shitting on the Godzilla movies that I like more - as if I need to find flaw in Shin Godzilla to prove my love for the others.

Which is cowardly too, in all honesty. We shouldn't need to burn one movie to praise another.

I love Godzilla Minus One. Objectively (or as objective as any critique I make can be) I think it's the best movie since the original, maybe even surpassing it (unlike the 1954 Godzilla, Godzilla Minus One has not jump cuts or other glaring editing mistakes caused by a rushed production time that didn't allow for proper film coverage). And while it may well be impossible to overcome nostalgia and topple the Holy Trinity of Godzilla sequels in my personal rankings, it might manage to fight its way into my top five Godzilla movies. It's an excellent movie, one of the best for sure.

...but people are ALREADY doing the "It's the first Godzilla movie that's true to the spirit of the original!" bullshit already, and specifically using it to tear Shin Godzilla down. I'm at least a little guilty of it - I mean, it was just an honest expression of my preferences, but still, there wasn't a need for me to express my lukewarm feelings on Shin while praising Minus One - and fuck, man, I already regret that.

It's a coward move. Fight for what you love even if people say you're cringe or uncultured for it. Fuck 'em, be the atomic freak you were born to be. You can't find your monster island if you don't.

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chernobog13 · 2 years

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Giant Phantom Monster Agon, aka Agon: Atomic Dragon, disguised himself with some prosthetic fangs to play Aron the Fire Monster on Ambassador Magma, aka The Space Giants.

There are some who say that the fangs are not prosthetics, but actually grew as a result of the suitcase full of narcotics Agon ate at the end of his four episode mini-series.

#Giant Phantom Monster Agon #Agon: Atomic Dragon #Aron the Giant Fire Monster #Ambassador Magma #The Space Giants #kaiju #tokusatsu #P Productions

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colorful-white-ideas · 18 days

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Is Bill Skarsgård only in remakes ?

This will be long. Really long.

After the relase of The crow 2024 , a lot of comments have surfaced saying that Bill only do remakes and nothing else. That he is where he is because of nepotism and that he only plays dark characters.

How about we review his trayectory according to his imdb page ? Lets see his eldest credit, how long it took him to position himself in america ( his big break) how many remakes has he done and what genres he explored.

If we go all the way down we will see that his career started in Sweden. His first credit come from the 2000's movie Järngänget where he worked with his brother Alex. Bill was 9 years old aprox. Since then he worked ocationally until his teenage years ,when he took the job more seriously , in consecuense he started to gain fame for himself in scandinavia, even nominations for some roles. Like with simple simon (I rymden finns inga känslor)

In The crown jewels ( Kronjuvelna) we have Alicia Vikander and Bill skarsgard sharing the screen, both are swedish, and later both participated in the 2012 american adaptation of Anna Karenina (Leon tolstoi novel) sadly for Bill ,being Stellan Skarsgård son did not help his small role from being cut out of the movie. Alicia is the one who gets her big break from this by playing Kitty.

Role: Captain Makhotin

But things don't end there, he may have not done it in american movies yet but he did land the role of the vampire / upir Roman Godfrey in Hemlock Grove (series), another adaptation from a book with the same name, on netflix ( small streaming plataform in the early 2010's) he did a total of 3 seasons.

In 2016 he gets another small role but in the Divergent series , in 2017 Atomic blond ( as Merkel). Now it's in 2017 at 27 years old when his first remake and big break comes: IT (pennywise) . But first lest define briefly what is a remake?

wikipedia says: A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film".A remake tells the same story as the original but uses a different set of casts, and may use actors from the original, alter the theme, or change the flow and setting of the story. A similar but not synonymous term is reimagining, which indicates a greater discrepancy between, for example, a movie and the movie it is based on

It is a novel by stephen king ,the first adaptation was for tv miniseries of 2 episodes in 1990 with Tim curry as Pennywise. In 2017 another adaptation is released and here is where we open the main debate: The 2017 movie was a remake or another adaptation? I guess is matter of perspective, while is true that the first popular reference we have about the subject is the 90'series , the new production based his storyline and character design in the book... So if you are more familiar with the book you'll call it an adaptation but if you have never read it then it'll be a remake "with differences".

The contrast beetween both vertions of IT is too big to consider the latter ( 2017) a re-do/ remake of the miniseries. You can notice that just by the approach Bill and Tim took on Pennywise. Tim's version was more human, a psycopath like in John Wayne Gacy-esque type. Bill's was a monster, not one trace of humanity in his character, it was out of this world and enjoyed playin/ torturing its meals cause it tasted better basically.

My own take is that IT CHAPTER 1 AND 2 are not remakes of It (1990). But due to pop culture they are considered as such.

Between the IT- MANIA he was in the following productions: Battlecreek , deadpool 2 ( short role), Villians, Assasination nation and Castle rock ( series). He also participated in shortfilms like: A stone Appears, Alteration and Do you like the taste of beer?

Is in castle rock where he plays another creepy role as the kid .For battle creek he is an artistic vulnerable depressed dude. In assassination he plays a misogynistic teen asshole. And with Villains we see him explore his comic side.

This is what I would like to call the transition period, besides Deadpool and castle rock, all the projects previously mentioned are in some way small projects , that he for some reason decided to take on ,maybe for scheduling reasons cause by the end of 2019 IT CHAPTER 2 was premiering.

2020- 2022

The pandemic hit and changed things, he losses momentum. The whole industry was shaken actually. Movies that were supposed to be released in cinemas went to streaming, projects were cancelled and others got delayed.

For example Bill was set to work in The northman with his brother Alex again , he was already in Eggers radar, but due covid he had to drop out: Here

He left that project because something else was scheduled: Clark. (netflix nordic) a series he helped to produce too.

From this time we got Nine Days, The devil all the time (one of his best works and one of his most underrated film. He plays Willard a traumatized ww2 veteran), Soulmates (a series - one ep. He plays a uptight gay man who finds love while vacationing in Mexico), Naked Singularity ( he's an lawyer with adhd and a weird obsesion with ears) , Eternals ( KRO) ,Barbarian (horror movie where he is just a good guy who's in the wrong place at the wrong time )

By this time he was still under the shadow of " pennywise" but he had built a reputation for himself, he was a good actor before the critic and public that followed his work. Not as popular as Alex ,for example , but he was known by now.

2023 -24

After the pandemic we enter the period I woud like to call : COMEBACK.

The projects we find here are more "commercial" because these are action films, which is not bad , it was about time, most of his films usually dont get too much of exposure or are small projects. If someone said Bill Skarsgård automatically people thought in the clown 🤡 and not in Kro, mickey, willard or Clark for example. So we see here some sort of rebrandig he's now a killing machine, a cartoonish villain and anti hero.

John wick 4.

This offer came to him thanks to a previous work he did in Atomic blonde. Chad stahlesky let him choose what character play ( here) , and he went for the bad guy. A cartonish kinda old school villain , with funny accent and great suits: The marquis de Gramont.

Now, a very common observation people do is that roles are offered to him and his just takes them. That he is like a passive actor who only plays what he's tell to play, but since Pennywise he has always talked about how much he gets involved in the making of a character. The marquis was not the exception. That annoying accent was , for example, his idea. here more about it

This participation was a breath of fresh air, and brought new eyes to him. New fans arrived, people saw more of his work and he stepped a bit away from the IT shadow. Later was confirmmed that his next project would be BOY KILLS WORLD a pure gory action film with some comedic touch for which Bill prepared hard.

Moritz Mohr: Bill is a terrific actor. The only thing we weren't sure at that point was, "Can he deliver on the action?" He basically just promised, "No, I'm gonna put in the work, I'm gonna get ripped, I'm gonna train, and I'm going to learn the choreography." Which is a huge commitment, because it's just months and months of training and rehearsing, and I'm so glad that he did it. He overdelivered sometimes, he was really committed to it, and I'm very lucky that he was, because I think the results are just phenomenal.

In BKW we see Bill has good comedic timing, as if that wasn't clear with previous projects like Villains , but here he delivers comedy without talking. Conclusion : he can also be funny.

So far we are very into 2024 and NO MORE REMAKES in sight for him besides IT and we have talked about how many movies- series ? Almost 20 since his first big job in America (Hemlock G.)

The recent fame of " remake actor " comes from the next two jobs he landed. The crow 🐦‍⬛ and Nosferatu. 🦇

The crow 🐦‍⬛: How Bill got the script on his hands? it was given to him because he is known for remakes, because of his lastname , because no one else wanted to do it ? Luckily for us , Empire magazine tell us the following:

The project was conceived to be a separate work from the 1994 movie the crow, the source of inspiration was THE CROW graphic novel of J.O Barr. Again, by this and more interviews around we see Bill as an actor who played and active part in bringing a unique version of eric. From the physique ( something he kept from filming BKW) to the aura he's nothing like Brandon lee's Eric Draven.

The big differences between the 2024 and 1994 version, are confirmmed now after its release with heavy critics of people claiming it to be a "bad remake cause it looks nothing like the original " Here I ask rethorically , so is Bill a remakes actor or not?

Remakes are in full force lately, examples are whatever Disney has been doing lately, the ghostbusters, robocop , etc. Movies that go frame by frame , super close to their media source.

The same way Dune 2022 is not considered a remake of the 80's movie , The crow 2024 shouldn't be considered one either. Not even IT. Because, primarily, the source material is not the previous movie or series, but a book or a novel. So the best term to use is , I believe, adaptation or reimagining.

But what about Nosferatu?

I'm glad you asked random tumblr reader. I'm almost finishing and this is where I want to suggest that this upcoming film is actually the first remake Bill Skarsgård has done.

Robert Eggers ( director of this new remake ) shares with anOther magazine, that he planned to film Nosferatu after The witch , that's how he met Bill , who was 25 by then ( at 25-26 he was also auditioning for IT) . Eggers recalls Bill's audition being excellent for Hutter . Unfortunatelly the project fell but they stayed in contact and planned to one day work together , Bill was later set to work in the northman , we already know how that played out.

As we see here Bill was the one trying to get the opportunity to work with the director, having another role in mind ,until Eggers proposses to him the opportunity to be Count Orlok thanks to the work he did as Bob Gray in IT chapter 2.

Eggers knew about his capacities as an actor to embody darkness while having a youthful and pretty exterior that's why he tought of him as the right choice for the project.

Once again we read an interview that highlights the joint work of the director and Bill on the character, from the psyque to the make up. He was very proactive, long conversations, audio tapes, isolation, voice coach , etc. All of which finally paid off

Bill Skarsgård has proven his desire to become a versatile actor, just by reading his imdb page we see a variety of works forming his resumee , but he has a particular preference for dark, scary , creepy roles. In this review since the Hemlock grove days he has played a total of 7 obscure characters ( from antagonist to conflicted ones). This alone is not bad, and they aren't that many either. Every actor have a genre they prefer , characters they feell more pulled to work with. Bill is a goth king and I respect that.

His career itself also proves to be the result of organic growth, although he was lucky to be part of one of the most successful and respected acting families in sweden , that alone couldn't have granted him is current success. He started in America with a small show that most people haven't heard of till this day, and was in his late 20's when he got his first big opportunity. He sent emails, he sent tapes, he auditioned, he gave his word promising to deliver a good job. He works his ass off for what he wants. He doesn't seem to be the classic textbook nepobaby.

That's why I think that considering him just a remake actor is unfair and narrow minded. Said statement reduces a still growing career full of exploration to just opportunistics cashagrab roles ... and this guy is far from being that. Also because not everything that shares a tittle or character's names is a remake. It dependes on what the creators are having in mind for the new work.

That's so , after reading the most recent AnOther magazine interview , that I came to the conclusionI expressed before: Nosferatu is his first remake . Both Bill and Robert Eggers have always in mind the 1922 movie as source of reference and they worked Count Orlok and the story around that.

He's still a rising star, and has a lot more ahead, im confident the general public will see what directors and fans have seen in him: A good mfucking actor who wants to leave a mark but in his own terms. Taking risks , exploring, chosing roles that may not look right for him but always improving himself to expand his potential and keep taking on new and more promising challenges.

Its intersting how everything connects , IT oppened the door of Nosferatu. After all the issues that came to him at the right time , and I can bet my left arm he will deliver !

*Im sorry if this was too long it took me 2 days finishing it ,i'll go to sleep now .

#bill skarsgård #bill skarsgard #billskarsgard #the crow 2024 #boy kills world #nosferatu #hemlock grove #IT #pennywise #marquis de gramont

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wanderersrest · 4 months

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An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 1: The Mighty Atomic Prelude (The 50's and 60's)

Welcome to An Abbreviated History of Mecha anime. Today, we're starting at, as Fraulein Maria would say, at the very beginning. We're taking a quick peak at the beginning of the canon, which means that we're starting back in 1950 (specifically 1952). I should also confess right now: there are two series on here that are demonstrably NOT mecha shows. However, due to their sheer influence on Japanese media as a whole, I feel it is important to bring them up as being honorary mecha shows due to their sheer influence pop culture.

Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom/Astro Boy (1952)

Starting us off is Osamu Tezuka's seminal manga series, Mighty Atom. Known over here in the west as Astro Boy, this series would be what kickstarts a lot of the modern anime and manga industry due to its sheer popularity. Astro Boy would also be one of two series that would be emblematic of how Japanese pop culture would portray the recent use of atomic energy. It should also be worth noting that realizing that Astro technically is a mecha is what got me to start using a broader definition of mecha instead of the classic giant robot definition.

Due to its fame, Mighty Atom has receive multiple adaptations throughout the years. Of note are:

The original 1963 anime.

New Mighty Atom (1980) which updates the series to 1980's animation standards.

The 2003 anime, which does the same, but to the standards of early 2000's anime.

The 2009 CGI movie.

Gojira/Godzilla (1954, honorary mecha series 1)

1954 would also give us Ishiro Honda's Godzilla, the movie that would make tokusatsu-styled live action stories in Japan. Godzilla, alongside RKO's King Kong, would play a large part in popularizing the concept of kaiju. And boy will kaiju play a big part in the history of the mecha canon. As we'll see soon enough, the history of tokusatsu heroes, kaiju, and robots are all intertwined with one another.

Godzilla has starred in numerous movies since the original, but for stories based off of the original there are:

Godzilla Raids Again (1955), a direct sequel.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: All Out Monsters Attack (2001), a Heisei-era production that uses the original '54 Godzilla as a manifestation of the horrors of World War II.

Shin Godzilla (2016), a re-imagining of the original movie set in contemporary times directed by Hideakki Anno.

Godzilla Minus One (2023), the most recent outing inspired in part by GMK.

Tetsujin 28-go/Gigantor (1956)

(Oh hey, this gif again!)

Tetsujin 28-go is the creation of one Mitsuteru Yokoyama and is generally regarded as the grandfather of the giant robot style of mecha. Tetsujin is unique amongst mecha in that it is controlled not by a pilot riding inside of it, but by a little kid with a controller. Tetsujin 28, alongside Mazinger Z, would help to codify a lot of the tropes common to the classic superhero mecha anime that would be prevalent in the 70's. Like Mighty Atom, Tetsujin would receive multiple adaptations throughout the decades.

Shin Tetsujin 28-Go/The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980), which updates Tetsujin's design to look more in line with something like Mazniger Z.

Tetsujin 28-go FX (1992), sporting a radically different look that's more akin to something out of the Brave Franchise.

Tetsujin 28 (2004), a faithful adaptation of the original manga (at least I think it is) directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Cyborg 009 (1964)

Created by Shotaro Ishinomori in 1964, Cyborg 009 is another classic human-sized mecha series. Cyborg 009 would be the first of many hits for Ishinomori, and he will be mentioned again later in this series.

Oh boy... I am not a Cyborg 009 nut, but in terms of adaptations, Cyborg 009 has:

The 1966 Film

The 1980 Film

009 Re:Cyborg (2012)

The Call For Justice Trilogy (2016)

The 1968 Anime

The 1979-1980 Anime

The 2001-2002 Anime (I actually remember when Toonami aired this series!)

Cyborg 009 vs Devilman (2015 OVA)

If you want to follow someone who follows a lot of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, I'd recommend checking out YouTuber Mercury Falcon for more info about Ishinomori.

Ultra Q and Ultraman (1966, honorary mecha series 2)

(The urge to use a gif of Ingraman is strong)

Ultra Q and Ultraman are the first two entries of Tsuburaya's legendary Ultra franchise, with the latter in particular being one of the most famous pop culture icons of all time. Ultraman's influence on Japanese media is so large, that I'll be mentioning it at least once in relation to other series later on.

Ultraman, like Godzilla before him, would get the Hideaki Anno treatment with Shin Ultraman in 2022.

Giant Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967)

Another one of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's classic manga series, Giant Robo deserves a mention due to its influence on tokusatsu. Giant Robo would usher in an era of tokusatsu that would rely on using giant robots as the main protagonist.

In terms of adaptations, there are two animated adaptations, but only one will be listed here:

GR: Giant Robo (2007)

If you want to learn a little bit more about the history behind Giant Robo, I'd recommend checking out blunova's video on Giant Robo for more info on this important series.

Conclusion

As the 60's would lead way into the 70's, we would see a lot more live action tokusatsu series involving giant robots. Of course, this would be untenable due to how expensive it was to do tokusatsu effects for television. However, one robot would appear in animation that would change everything.

(Read in the voice of Tessho Genda) AND ITS NAME IS...!!!!

#anime and manga #mecha #astro boy #mighty atom #tetsuwan atom #gigantor #tetsujin 28 #cyborg 009 #giant robo #ultraman #an abbreviated history of mecha #anime history #godzilla #gojira

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bkenber · 11 months

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'The Nun II' Movie and 4K Review

The following review was written by Ultimate Rabbit correspondent, Tony Farinella. In the interest of transparency, I must admit I either saw “The Nun” and it was so bad and I completely erased it from my memory, or I haven’t seen it at all. I’m leaning toward the latter. However, I’m pleased to report “The Nun II” was a very satisfying cinematic achievement. In fact, I need to go back and…

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siflshonen · 4 months

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The Greatest Robot on Earth: Astro Boy and Pluto Part III

Part I is here. Part II, where the manga comparisons start, is here. The entire set of slides and text is also available on Ao3.

Pluto as Urasawa’s Own Work

Given Tezka's core instruction, I don’t find it surprising that Urasawa Urasawa’d the ever-lovin’ shit out of Atom, because I’d recognize the similarities between Atom’s snail scene and Monster’s moth scene all the way from outer space! But where Milos chose to crush the moth in his despair and disillusionment regarding the nature of new life and procreation and how his mom never wanted him, Atom controlled his hatred and comforted Ochanomizu despite his own agony. (Note to the Monster fans: Wolfgang Grimmer's contrasting attitude towards the moth is analogous to Atom's in that he makes the choice not to lose his interest in the things that make him human like Roberto/Adolph Reinhardt, his friend from Kinderheim 511 who loved insects, or destroy it in fury like Milos.)

Atom’s furious anti-proton bomb equation and breakout followed by his swift internal denial to give into his violent urges isn’t just a callback to “Astro Reborn” wherein Tenma “turned Atom evil”—it’s a dramatic way for Urasawa to assert that, while he does have it in him to become one, Atom is not a monster.

Grimmer’s rediscovery and acceptance of his own humanity in this scene would also allow him to be right at home with the ennui of Pluto, too, I must say.

It shouldn’t even be a little bit surprising that Urasawa chose to have Gesicht, called Gerhardt in “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, feature as the initial primary character. His detailed research and love for Germany begged for new life after Monster, and dear Gesicht and his beautiful wife Helene are the perfect outlet.

“The Greatest Robot on Earth”’s Gerhardt made a house call to visit Atom, was made of a zeronium alloy, and shot special bullets, it’s true, but I think anyone who asserted that he is identical to Pluto’s Gesicht would be kidding themselves.

In his postscript essay, Murakami posited that, as a counterpoint to Tenma and Ochanomizu reflecting two sides of Osamu Tezuka, Atom and Pluto embodied Urasawa’s push-pull struggle with his feelings towards the late master and his work. Well, I think if that can be true, so can the notion that Gesicht is the closest thing Urasawa has to an embodiment of his own adult self’s creations and work while Atom is the echo of Tezuka as he exists in Urasawa’s perceptions as well as the the avatar of what inspired him to pursue manga.

Gesicht may have died in the story, but not before imparting the core of his being to Atom in order to reach a new level of mutual understanding and revive the then-out-of-commission Atom with a fury and passion so strong that it could not be ignored. Atom with the memories and heart of Gesicht is Urasawa and Tezuka both existing as one, and blasting off towards the future.

Or maybe I’m just waxing poetic. We could cook this tomato using multiple methods, but it would still come out as the same kind of pasta sauce in the end.

Adolf Haas is a particularly interesting Tezuka case study because he doesn’t really have anything to do with the original “The Greatest Robot on Earth”. Instead, he and his brother appear to be the product of putting all the primary characters from Tezuka’s Message to Adolf in a blender. See? I told you I’d get back to Message to Adolf.

Message to Adolf, considered Tezuka's last complete long-running work, is the story of how the existence of documents supporting a particular rumor—that Adolf Hitler has Jewish blood—tears the lives of Sohei Toge, a Japanese sports reporter who finds himself with a target on his back while investigating the murder of his communist brother; Adolf Kaufmann, a Japanese-German boy born in Japan who begins the series pure and heroic but is corrupted by the indoctrination of the Third Reich; and Kaufmann’s childhood friend Adolf Kamil, an Ashkenazi Jew living in Japan who later joins the Israeli-Lebanese Conflict and perpetuates the story’s cycle of vengeance and violence, into itty, bitty, bloody pieces. Only Toge survives to the end.

The story of Adolf Haas’ bid for vengeance in Pluto touches on details from all these characters’ stories, but unlike the Adolfs in Message to Adolf, he has a chance to put his hatred to rest and continue to live on with his family. He even has top-secret information about a dictator on his computer that he didn’t initially realize was crucial to maintaining or destroying the political status quo.

Adolf also gets his very own Monster-esque, “Whatcha gonna kill with that gun?” moment, which I find incredibly funny.

But the character that Urasawa arguably most made his own is Pluto (sometimes called Bruton in certain dubs) himself. At first, he is hidden throughout much of Pluto like a monster or serial killer in any self-respecting thriller/horror while in Astro Boy, the audience meets him right off the bat and learns that a sultan built him to kick the metal butts of the world’s seven most advanced robots. But Pluto’s Pluto isn’t just hiding his monstrous form—he is also hiding the fact that he isn’t really Pluto, but Abullah's robot son Sahad trapped in a new body.

If you’ve read Monster, you likely noticed immediately that Sahad is Monster’s Karl Neumann/Schuwald (make his nose smaller and Japanese-ify him, and he’s suspiciously similar to Billy Bat’s Kevin Yamagata!) For those that don’t know Karl, it’s his lot in life to be totally caught up in daddy angst until an ethereal blonde or silver-haired guy reaches out to him and knocks over the dominoes to allow change into his life one way or another.

In Monster, Johan is favored over Karl by rich sunuvabitch Hans Georg Schuwald, Karl’s (unknowing) biological father, and it is assumed he sees Johan in more of a son/heir capacity than the fuck-up Karl. Shit ensues, Johan dramatically eliminates the possibility of him becoming Schuwald’s son or heir, but he lets Schuwald live so that he and Karl can reconcile.

In Pluto, Sahad is only able to destroy Epsilon because Epsilon basically forfeits. This does not solve his problem, but Epsilon manages to see him for who he is, communicates this with Atom (sort of), and opens the door for Sahad to regain his sense of self and shake free of his father’s will. Yay!

Ok, so Brau-1589 is the most fun Easter egg in Pluto. He’s a Hannibal Lecter-ified Blue Knight. His open bloodthirst has increased tenfold in comparison to his Astro Boy portrayal, but that’s definitely the shape-shifter Blue Bon lying there in ruins.

Finally, the last big, giant, and noticeable new thing Urasawa added was the United States of Thracia’s open, by-name involvement in the story’s plot and conflict. Personally, I think it was rather gentle of Urasawa to not just blast the USA by name, but I suppose as a monolith, USAmericans are fragile and sensitive and Tezuka Productions still wanted to sell this manga in the states.

Dr. Roosevelt, as well as the teddy bear face and mouth for the supercomputer may actually be an Umataro Tenma creation. The Pluto manga began serialization in 2003 as part of a concentrated “birthday celebration” series of reworks of the original Astro Boy—you see, in-story, Atom was “born” in April 2003 (source: I know this as a fan.)

The 2003 Astro Boy anime, produced by Tezuka Productions (which I mention only because it means that Makoto Tezka likely knew all about the details of the series throughout planning and production), premiered on April 6, 2003. The series introduces the cute and manipulative bea-chan, or micro bears, one of many Tenma-adjacent creations (Tenma’s robot clone made them using plans originally created by Tenma, okay? It’s complicated) used for nefarious purposes, in an episode that premiered in Japan on September 21, 2003. These bears’ MO is basically to manipulate and socially isolate people and get them to do whatever they want, which is basically the same thing Dr. Roosevelt does.

Pluto’s first chapter came out in Big Comic Original on September 5, 2003, but its story was completed well in advance under supervision from Makoto Tezuka. The Dr. Roosevelt supercomputer and bear may be related somehow to the micro bears, which are a known Tenma creation in the extended Astro Boy universe.

What I’m saying is that Tenma was so sloppy that he caused the Gulf War. Look at the red string on this corkboard. I’m not crazy.

Beyond Pluto

What’s Next?

Nothing! Go read Monster or something!

Anyway, here are the sources for the stuff on my slides in case you need them.

#astro boy #naoki urasawa's pluto #pluto #tetsuwan atom #gesicht #pluto sahad #brau 1589 #adolf haas #message to adolf #osamu tezuka #Pluto presentation #sifl's meta presentations

22 notes · View notes