#I made this little promo poster only a few days ago...and only because I saw a random halloween blog post about old haunted house guides

[fordarkisthesuede]

It's midnight. The moon has long since set. The few celestial bodies I could glimpse above my head are covered by clouds. The lights downstairs are out by now. Only the streetlamp shows the shadows of the styrofoam cemetery I put up two weeks ago.

The cool night air is filled with anticipation. It comes in through my window, flowing in my fingertips and prickling at my brain.

The veil between worlds is thin again.

And my dear, sweet readers... I have such sights to show you.

THIS TIME...on seasonally-appropriate kink THE WHOLE NINE YARDS:

[saltpepperbeard]

A Jotato’s THG Story (novel?)

So a few days ago, the lovely @everlarkedalways asked me to Weave My THG Tale™. And, in being VERY on brand in regards for my THG Story, I’m late to the party lol! Mostly because of work, partly because I was avoiding Ballad spoilers, and a tad bit because...I’m a potato. BUT, now that I am free of any large projects and finally have Ballad in my hands, I’m finally able to look past my potato roots and talk about how a certain wATER POTATO ARCHER CHANGED MY LIFE lmao.

Ara has jokes though, let me tell you. “Keep it short” l m a o; THIS IS ABOUT TO BE A NOVEL AND WE KNOW IT. ARE YOU READING BALLAD? HERE’S A NEW 500 PAGE BOOK FOR YOU TBH-

I’ve told this story a few times before, but it’s always delightful to look back on things and see all the twists and turns I’ve experienced with this franchise. The most notable being, I started out HATING Hunger Games lol!

I was in ninth grade when THG started to become like, a global phenomenon. Everyone was reading it, everyone was talking about it, and it was everywhere. And for whatever reason, instead of actually sitting down and, idk, GIVING IT A TRY LMAO, my reaction instead was to DESPISE IT. Guess it was that edgy, irate, “I’m ABOVE the general masses ha look at me,” fresh-out-of-middle-school mentality. And also, my justification for hating it so much was along the lines of, “Wow it’s just a series about kids killing each other? WHAT’S THE APPEAL???”

Which like fjlksjdksds...If I could look back on my early 2012 self?

She had no idea what was in store for her lmao.

Anyway, the premiere of the movie came and went, and I was still hard set in my ways. THAT WAS, until that same summer. I can’t exactly remember which clips I stumbled upon first? But I know I came across the Joshifer+Liz Banks interview, and also a ton of Perfectly Legal Movie Clips™ on YouTube. Both of which silently chained my soul without me realizing LMAO. I remember thinking that the main actors were so cute and played off each other well (AGAIN LMAO, GIRL, BIG STORM COMING), and also remember being totally intrigued by all the clips I watched. It was mainly clips of Katniss in the arena, and I think it made me realize that wow hey, there’s an ACTUAL STORY HERE, WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST NO LESS.

The story gets a tad fuzzy for me here, but I do believe I got the books and quickly read through them shortly after I essentially watched the entire movie on YouTube through clips jdksljdks. I can’t really recall what I thought about the books really? Because, I think I BREEZED through them. I was so excited that I just ZOOMED TF THROUGH. I inhaled the series in one GIANT GULP. I think I even read THG in a single day jdlsjklaads. It definitely wasn’t a cautious read through to get a better sense of the detail and literary devices. 

BUT, despite my excitement, I still hadn’t reached the God Tier “OBSESSIVE” stage yet. The light bulb hadn’t fully come on yet. It wasn’t until late 2013 when Catching Fire came out that I REALLY STARTED TO GO BALLISTIC LMAO. Actually, one of my fondest THG memories comes from this time, because I think it was really like, the OFFICIAL starting block for my obsession.

I was riding on a bus to a Theatre Competition, and my best friend had just gotten the CF Soundtrack for us to listen to. I remember being absolutely enamored with it- Mirrors, We Remain, and Lean in particular. And idk, something at that point just kind of told me that Catching Fire was going to be my anchor. Sure enough, after the competition was over, said friend and I went to go see the movie together.

And I astral projected lmao. I ACHIEVED HUNGER GAMES ENLIGHTENMENT. THE LIGHT BULB SWITCHED TF ON.

I was quick to see it again the following day, and I think saw it another two times in theaters after that. I also started drawing fanart of it, and looking for more pictures/interviews. And the want for more content, the DESIRE to go crazy about it, is what eventually lead me to finding the fandom here on Tumblr. I had had a Tumblr since 2012, but never really used it with a purpose. But when I realized there were people posting all sorts of stuff about THG? Boom- another light bulb. I followed tons of people, and officially changed my url to what it is today. “Star’s” for my internet alias at the time, and “Mahogany” for my love of Effie/that Iconic Line.

HOWEVER LOL, Tumblr would lead me towards a different side, something I didn’t expect to get pulled into so hard at all. Because, I distinctly remember coming on one night in December of 2013, and seeing @joshmopolitan and a few others posting about Josh going to the UK game. And that of course, lead me down the Celebrity Rabbit Hole, and lead me towards the Chaotic, Wonderful, Crazy-

JOSHIFER FANDOM.

((Also, before you crinkle your nose, *raises cane* BACK IN MY DAY, EVERYONE SHIPPED JOSHIFER LOL. *Snow voice* DON’T LIE. Like, everyone thought they were cute to some sort of degree, or believed they were going to get together. Shoutout to the Joshifer Golden Days, man.))

And thank goodness for it tbh. Because it was JUST when I was itching to write fanfiction with everyone else, and just when I was struggling HARDCORE with writing Everlark. @joshmopolitan and @youarebeingridiculous were sort of my introductions into RPF, with @youarebeingridiculous giving me nudges towards my first Everlark fic, before also nudging me towards my first Joshifer fic. And when my first Joshifer fic garnered attention/when I had a blast writing it? ANOTHER. LIGHT. BULB LOL.

So I was dead af from that point on. I was absolutely drawn in. Even though I was still invested in THG, Joshifer was definitely my main focus from 2014-2016ish. I was there for the typical ship wars, there to read and write all the fanfiction, there to read all the theories, and there to partake in all the crazy moments. Shoutout to Cannes 2014 in particular lmao; I was in the car and my phone started going off like CRAZY, with many of my friends SCREAMING at me about the events/articles that had transpired.

Being attached to Joshifer also allowed me to write my first, and so far only, full length, These Words are a Lie. It started out as just a four part series, two parts of which I actually published. Befffooorrre getting to the third part and realizing I had WAY too much to deal with/explain/write, which consequently lead to me pulling them down and expanding upon them! And thus my messy, lovely, 25 chapter peanut journey started lmao. Though I look back on it now and realize how disjointed it was, I’m so thankful I was able to see that story completely through. I’m also very thankful for the SUPPORT and following it got. Wouldn’t have gotten through without y’all! 

ANYWAY LMAO, because this is my THG story and not my Joshifer story, let’s get back to that. 2014 was WHACK because...LG was utterly tripping with its promotional material. And to think, it was just the START of odd/lacking promo, seeing as they were SOMEHOW WORSE WITH MJ2 LMAO. But even though I was incredibly salty at the time, it was so fun to be mad and chomping at the bit with everyone else lol. The SUFFERING OF NOT HAVING ANY NEW CONTENT BROUGHT US CLOSER TOGETHER. Also, going to Best Buy to watch the teaser trailer under Heavy Guard??? Was an EXPERIENCE LOL??? But man was I so stoked to get my poster and pin, because that was some of the first merch I got!

ALSO, MJ1 was the time where I got the idea to create a small YouTube series called “Tributes React.” I really really wish I could have been in the fandom earlier, because it would have been, dare I say, FIRE LOL to react to more than just the MJ1 and MJ2 trailers. But it was so so fun regardless, and everyone’s participation was incredible! And now all of our early, embarrassing, INTENSE fangirling is stuck here/memorialized forever PFFFF.

And, not to mention, Fran Solo himself watched one of them. Someone tweeted the video at him, and he tweeted back that it made all the hard times worth it. MY GREATEST FANDOM ACCOMPLISHMENT RIGHT THERE???

And finally getting to watch MJ1 in theaters lmao omg. I went with my friend before, and also one of my guy friends. And the entire time, he was HARD STARING AT ME WAITING FOR ME TO CRY LOL. SO HE COULD TEASE ME. AND HE GOT HIS WISH BECAUSE OF COURSE THE LAST 30 MINUTES OR SO UTTERLY RUINED ME. I remember shivering so so SO bad when the rescue mission for Peeta started, and having to hold my friends’ hands when they were creeping through the Tribute Center, and utterly SOBBING when Peeta attacked Katniss. Because...hello...I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again...WAY WAY MORE INTENSE THAN THE BOOK LMAO??

And then came the beginning of the end. I remember that promo time was even DRYER for MJ2 lmao, and that we were all DYING. Like, I think the big trailer didn’t release until like, SEPTEMBER??? WHICH...LG WHAT THE ACTUAL-

And we were also back to watching trailers in Best Buys jfkssdkdlsk. My Best Buy was also DUMB and didn’t have any posters, but @infinitegraces​ was awesome enough to send me numerous copies! Bless you, thank you; I had them on my wall all through college lol! DESPITE THEM BEING A HAUNTING REMINDER OF HOW HARD LG SMACKED US LMAO.

Despite my salt towards the INITIAL promo though, the premieres and what not definitely lead to MJ2 having a special place in my heart. I had just gone off to college, and was a timid, lonely little freshman with nowhere to turn. But the fandom was there for me, and MJ2 promos/premieres gave me something to be excited for. It all kept me going through that ROUGH first semester, and was there for me before I met my best friends. So thank you MJ2, and thank you all for sharing that excitement with me! <3

Also, I’d like to mention that I was SO desperate to continue the tradition of seeing the premiere with my friend thaaaaatttt...I left for Thanksgiving break two or three days early/skipped class JUST to make it back home in time to see it with her lol! I WASN’T HERE TO PLAY GAMES, Y’ALL. THG > ACADEMICS APPARENTLY PFFFF.

After that though, things kind of quieted down. I found friends and activities in college, the movies were done, and Joshifer was dying out. It lead me to use Tumblr sporadically, not posting AS much as I had before. I still had tons of love for everything, and still enjoyed coming on whenever I did!

Then I sort of stumbled upon our “renaissance,” like the lovely @everlarkedalways​ posting re-reads and re-watches. It tugged me in again, and made me excited to post content! I also branched out and began to write Everlark, and began talking about them/the books/meta more than I did in my earlier years. 

And of course, said renaissance lead me to attending TOASTCON LMAO. Which I somehow managed to name. On accident. *Dabs unironically*

That of course, was such an amazing experience. Going to movie filming sites has always been on my bucket list, so getting to go to HUNGER GAMES SITES??? WITH FANDOM PEOPLE???? GOD TIER??????

I was also suffering from major panic/anxiety problems that summer, having just graduated college and being thrown out in the Real World™. So once again, THG and its fandom were there for me when nothing else could be. And despite me feeling off mentally, despite me feeling plagued by fatigue, I still thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone/having such a once in a lifetime experience. Also, getting to FLEX on my friends when we watch the movies and go like “I WAS THERE! I WAS THERE!! I WAS THERE!!!” is...A Time PFFFF.

Then of course, I started working a full time job, and shifted a bit away from Tumblr/the fandom. Not DELIBERATELY; more like, I was too Mentally Tired to really do much after work. But now that Ballad is here, and now that we have new content once more? I feel like I’m waking back up. Hell, I even went to Atlanta to see MORE film sites right before the virus started to make its rounds.

And so here I am lol! A SEASONED THG VET WITH SEVEN YEARS AND COUNTING UNDER MY BELT. I would very much love to tag everyone who had an impact on me, and/or who I’ve interacted with and shared fun times with over the years. But A. Everyone really out here CONSTANTLY CHANGING THEIR URL’s, and B. The number would be Too Great and I would inevitably forget someone on accident.

SO THEN, if you’re reading this, and we’ve ever shared some kind of THG experience together, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. THG has been such a wondrous experience for me, and it’s lead me to meet all sorts of amazing, talented individuals. It’s also been there for me during darker times, and has supported me in every way possible.

I love you all, I love being here, and HERE’S TO MANY MORE TAGS/RAMBLES IN THE FUTURE LOL! Like lmao, a new movie, you guys??? WHAT??? TRIBUTES REACT ANYONE???

-Jotato Out <3

[madzilla84]

VidCon London 2020

I wrote up some rambly thoughts on Vidcon, my trip, and Phil day!

I arrived in London the night before the others, last Thursday (a week ago?? WOT), so went straight to my friend’s place in London – we went to a pub near his for pizza, and while I was there I saw Dan’s cute tweet. After a few wines, it made me super emotional as you can imagine. I love him. <3

We had some more drinks once we got back, which made the next morning … well.

Friday – Day 1

YUP, HANGOVER. But luckily not a ‘can’t function’ hangover, so once I’d packed up I made my way over to the Airbnb (it was fuckin WIMDY) to leave the luggage (too early to check in). The previous occupants were a group of Lads who’d left the place in a state, so it was still being cleaned. HONESTLY BOYS SMH)

Then I headed to the complex’s on-site café (ooh errr) and spent some time trying to figure out what to write in the card I wanted to give to Phil. My roomies @yikesola, @ahappydnp and @calvinahobbes arrived a little later and we checked into the flat, and basically hung out and chatted until it was time to head to registration. Which was a good decision as the line was super small on Friday night. Gotta say, the feeling of seeing Phil so big and so central on all the banners and posters for the con made me feel so proud of him. As other people have mentioned, there was some – curiosity, I guess? Worry? – about whether it would be weird seeing him there doing his first event like this on his own in a *very* long time, but somehow it wasn’t, at any point.  

We spotted Martyn checking in further down the hall, which was probably the first moment it all started to Feel Real. We (slightly awkwardly at first in my case lol) met a bunch of online folks in the registration area, and tagged along for a cable car ride over the river (did I mention it was WIMDY) to the O2 arena for dinner. When we all sat down to eat I realised I was sitting opposite two friends from IDB! \o/ We headed back after the meal to hang out and PREPARE for what was about to come.

Saturday - Day 2 - PHIL DAY

We started off by going for breakfast – naturally pancakes – and then headed across to the con. The first event of the day was the comedy panel that Phil was on, so we went across to the panel room early and ended up sitting through the panel before that one, ‘Out and Online’, which was probably – Phil notwithstanding – the better of the two I saw.

During that first panel – and really all morning up to that point – I’d started to feel increasingly nervous. I’d never met Dan or Phil before, and the fact it was happening imminently was suddenly hitting me. Not to mention it was very hot in the panel room that day, and – yeah. By the time the LGBT+ panel finished, I was just like the *screaming internally* meme.

The only other time I’d seen D&P in person with my own eyes was at Interactive Introverts – non-VIP, and I was quite far from the stage, so I couldn’t see them well, y’know? So when the panellists walked in for the comedy panel, I turned around and saw Phil properly in person for the first time. And… wow. I’m sure I hardly need to tell anyone on this forum how attractive he is, but I was just blown away by how beautiful he is in person. He just seems to, like, glow. 

And I was absolutely in love with his jacket, which I thought was new at first (it took me a while to place it was the one from the II promo photos). He just looked wonderful, and I went full Heart Eyes Motherfucker as he took his seat with the others. And once I’d actually seen him, somehow I felt less anxious and stressed. 

The panel was okay – I wasn’t familiar with the other attendees and I’m not sure theirs is the sort of content I’d necessarily watch – lots of prank vids and the like, but they def had some fans in the room. But it was obvious the majority of the attendees were there for Phil, and I noticed him looking around the room at all the people there for him throughout, making eye contact with lots of people. I’m sure he made brief eye contact a couple of times, which made me go !!!!! It was obvious the panelists were at quite different stages of their careers, which was a little dissonant sometimes, but also quite sweet – Phil was very encouraging to the younger, more inexperienced members of the panel, which was very lovely. Lucky them to have such a kind senpai.

After that we only had a quick break (mainly to down water after being boiled to death in the panel room) before it was time to get in line for Phil’s meet and greet. The wait for him to arrive was weirdly fast but also interminably long, and I spent most of it panicking about what I was going to say to Actual Phil Lester in a matter of minutes. 

But soon enough he arrived, shook hands with the photographer, did a lil hop to wave to everyone in the crowd who was waving at him, and then off we went.

I wasn’t sure what to expect – I’ve had pics before with celebs at conventions, and every con is different in how they handle photos. Some really rush you through, but this one was pretty good, I thought – you had plenty of time to say whatever you wanted to say, or give gifts – I thought we were supposed to leave them in a box somewhere, but no, we were to give them directly to Phil, who had a little table to put them on. Obviously I wanted to give him a hug, too, but would I be too awkward to ask for one once I actually got up there, I wondered?

But as it turned out I needn’t have worried; I could watch people meeting him from where we were in the line, and from the very first person, he opened his arms for a big hug from everyone who went up to meet him. Watching people running into his arms was making me really emotional – he just has such a great connection with his people. You could tell he was happy to be there and liked meeting us all. He took so many cute photos with people. We noticed he had a Sharpie and was signing things, which we hadn’t been told about beforehand, so I hadn’t brought anything special - ended up getting him to sign my con badge as a souvenir.

There were 3 of us, and @yikesola took one for the team and volunteered to go first. I watched how much fun they were having, how easily they chatted and hugged and posed for their cute photo and thought to myself, please don’t be a total buffoon when you go up there…

Soon enough it was my turn. Walking up for these things is always nervewracking and awkward – except this time, once it was time, Phil turned around, looked at me, smiled and opened his arms and I knew it would be okay.

I walked over and hugged him, and he probably had to bend down quite a lot, lol. I reached up over his shoulder to hug him, which meant being on tiptoes, of course; as many people have said in the past, he didn’t let go until you did. He was so gentle. <3 I maybe hugged him for a little longer than I might usually with someone I didn’t know because of it; he just has such comforting and welcoming vibes. And no, before anyone asks, I didn’t notice what he smelled like – we were talking about it after and I don’t think any of us did. I don’t in general unless someone’s wearing reasonably strong perfume/cologne, I don’t think, unless I’m hugging them for a really long time. ANYWAY.

The now-famous jacket (which looked so good!!) was soft AF. I handed over my lil gift – he spotted the chocolate and was pretty happy about that.

I then had a little time to talk to him but, like, how do you condense into a few seconds what someone means to you, how much they’ve helped you or how much you appreciate them? So I ended up going with one of the main reasons I came to love Phil so much as a creator – someone around my age still making such fun content. I don’t mean it like, ‘wow, at your age!!’ lol, which I’m not sure he would have appreciated, more like – when you get to a certain age, people often expect you to leave certain interests and behaviours aside (we see it all the time with these ‘ew people over 30 in fandom?? Gross’ posts), and Phil is still being himself and doing what he wants and not letting that affect him, and I just think that’s really great and it’s meant a lot to me. So we talked about that a bit. He said you should be able to be creative at any age. <3 Talking to him wasn’t like I expected – I don’t know what I expected, really, but I thought he might have more of a – nervous energy, maybe? Or just a bit more – y’know, ‘AmazingPhil’? But no, he was chill and confident and had this ease about him that was so comforting in person. I know he’s an introvert and probably holed up on the couch for a week after meeting all those people (hard same), but he really is so good at talking to people and making them feel at ease; everyone looked so happy walking away from him.

About halfway through the convo I had to work really hard to keep my brain on track and not just descend into babbling nonsense because he was looking me in the eye and listening attentively and bruh!!! That is … a hell of a thing! Not only is he so beautiful, but he really listens, and cares about what you’re saying, and is actually interested and not just going ‘uh huh, uh huh …’ like other celebs can do. His expression and demeanour was so friendly and open and welcoming, and honestly I just felt like I could talk to him for hours.

We then posed for the official photo they took, and hugged for it – when I’ve had other photo ops in the past where I’m standing close to the person I’ve been prone to nervous giggling, but this time I felt really relaxed and happy.

And that was it! I reluctantly said goodbye and headed off and was so flustered I a) forgot my little card to collect my photo, the guy had to chase after me, though it looked like everyone was doing that because they were on cloud 9, and b) picked up someone else’s sequin Dan bag from the bag pile. (Which I immediately noticed because I had a keychain and pin on mine, but I mean they *are* identical.) We went to get food and download our photos and watch all the videos we took. Even though I now had pics, I still almost couldn’t believe it was actually real.

And, wow. We were just floating for the rest of the day. It was such a wonderful, positive experience and I’m so glad it worked out that I was able to meet Phil. I didn’t think I could love him more but after that day I definitely did. Obviously, because it’s me, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I said to him and how I said it and was it the right thing and did I say it right and lejslkdjkjfkdhks, but at the end of the day he was lovely, I said more or less what I wanted to say (of course there’s more I’d have wanted to say, but there’s never enough time), and it went wonderfully well. So I really shouldn’t worry too much.

We paid a quick visit to the AP shop booth in the Expo Hall – they didn’t have a ton of stuff but they had all the t-shirts (I think it was just all the t-shirts, corgi jumper, corgi keychains, glitch hoodie), so I bought the yellow Try New Things shirt from Sarah. (And got a free pixel Phil sticker; they really want to get rid of those huh)

The only other Phil-event for the day was his appearance at the Night of Awesome that evening, so we went along for that. Apparently the theme of the evening was ‘collaboration’, so most of the performers didn’t appear by themselves aside from a couple of music acts. But it quickly descended into madness – most of the performances were some sort of challenge which involved the loser getting a pie to the face or gunged – i.e. perfect Saturday night entertainment if you’re ten. So maybe it was more aimed at kids, I thought, until one of the music acts started swearing up a STORM and a load of horrified parents started dragging their kids out while I almost died trying not to laugh. There was a lot of TikTok stuff, but the animators challenge was pretty good and a couple of the music acts were great.

You probably read about the guy who crashed the performance to make an offensive anti-trans joke and then got chased out by security … when I figured out who it was later I wasn’t surprised, he’s done stupider shit in the past, but Vidcon didn’t react very well to it right away. Throughout the event I generally thought security and staff were very good, but they really dropped the ball on this. The music act gamely carried on though, as did a number of other acts after them, and *just* as everyone had pretty much lost the will to live, Phil randomly appeared on stage with Kian and JC (…no, me neither) along with a science Youtuber. Yay! I thought his bit was really cute; kind of random but that made sense when he explained the original plan had gone awry shortly before the show started. He was *so* into it and I thought it was so sweet how, again, he kept looking for his people in the crowd. He was so confident on stage and even when the stuff he was being asked to do was so random and weird he just owned it, went for it and made it funny. Thomas Sanders came on after science!Phil to do a very wholesome set which kind of saved the evening, lol.

And that was the end of Phil day! Naturally we had to order Domino’s in the evening after our emotional and intense day (and to recover from whatever tf most of that concert was). I feel like I’ve become some sort of addict, and now the rest of my existence will be sad and grey until I can hug Phil again (which might well be never). I have peaked. I also remembered what I like so much about (good) conventions; being with your people and feeling so free to express yourself and what you love - between the phannies and the fanders there were so many pride flags, and so many people walking around wearing merch. (Also it was the first con I’d ever been to where there were no cosplayers! Which is unsurprising given it’s youtube fandom, but still – new experience.)

Sunday - Day 3

Sunday we slept in after staying up until like 3am chatting (whoops), so I missed jacksepticeye’s panel but I did get to the Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher one, which was really funny. I wish I’d gotten to meet the boys but what can you do. I also went to the Expo Hall and met PJ (who was very nice, and friendly!! But had exactly that nervous energy I was talking about earlier, which I’m more accustomed to when I meet celebs at cons; Phil really is something special), and bought a few enamel pins, because ENAMEL PINS.

And then … the worst bit of any con, people started to leave. :( My 3 roomies left first, which was the worst bit of the weekend. I ended up tagging along with some twitter friends to get coffee, and we ended up sitting around for like 3 hours outside the cloakroom because no one wanted to leave.

We found out about Dan’s half marathon during this time, and I know people have this view of phannies like we’re all obsessive, invasive weirdos who just want to find out things for – I dunno, clout? But honestly everyone there was so proud of him and just like the whole weekend, it was great to be with people who understood. Like, I can hardly tell a co-worker that a youtuber I follow ran a marathon, they’d be like - okay, and…? So it was nice to sit there and sort of – celebrate it, in our own lil way.

We all parted ways on the train - I went back to my friend’s and watched Phil’s liveshow there, which was really a perfect way to end the weekend. I’m glad it sounded like he had such a nice time at Vidcon. Someone tweeted about him seeing all the people who had come to see just him and how excited they were to see him, and that warmed my heart. And hopefully his too.

The next day I returned to the Excel to have pizza lunch with the last two friends who were still in town, which really helped with the post-con blues, and then it really was it. Since then I’ve been hanging out at my friend’s flat and taking a couple of trips out to various shops or whatever, but I’ve mostly been tired and lazy and catching up on sleep a bit.

As I mentioned, I’m now a filthy addict. I will be … keeping an eye on future vidcons/events, for sure. >_> And I might be back in London in April, maybe. >_> many thoughts head full

[softdragon]

I'm seeing salt and criticism in the fandom about the plot of the Christmas short already... wtf ppl we don't know anything! HAHAHAHA I love this fandom (I tell you because i need to rant a little and you look like one of the few with sense here in the fandom)

oh sorry i saw this a while back and kept forgetting to answer it, and now that i am answering it i’ve already seen the christmas short!!! oops

edit: this got so long i am so annoying

but yes, i saw a lot of criticism and salt and negativity regarding it and honestly, when i first heard the rumour (months and months and months ago, long before there were any announcements or posters or anything) i was very skeptical and didn’t want to think about it because i didn’t want it to be true, because i was convinced if it was real it was gonna be basically an RTTE episode and just have awful writing and animation and blagh. i just hoped it wasn’t real because the concept of an actual good quality, well written, genuinely really good christmas short seemed way too good to be true and so i thought it would never ever happen

but then!!! as soon as it was officially announced and it was made clear that it’s nothing to do with the netflix/rtte side of things and it was actually gonna be produced properly with lots of care, and the promo pics looked so good, that’s when i let myself be excited! and i’m glad i wasn’t negative about it because honestly, its a 20 minute fluffy christmas short, it wasn’t gonna be a masterpiece but it was DEFINITELY better than i had at first expected!! i loved it so much. it’s adorable.

seriously, i came across some blogs earlier today that i really did not want to come across, basically the very heavily anti-httyd3 and anti-hiccstrid blogs who think their opinions are the correct ones and all of their posts are about how awful and annoying httyd fans are.... anyway, i would rather not come across those blogs but for some reason i stumbled into a bunch of them. and there was so much stupid whining over homecoming. like, i saw a whole essay about how homecoming doesn’t make sense and doesn’t fit with canon and they were calling us all stupid for even enjoying the short because blah blah it doesn’t make any sense.... and like, that attitude is exhausting. its so tiring. can these people log out of tumblr, please.

like ok homecoming doesn’t exactly make sense when you try to fit it into httyd3, in fact i bet if i watch homecoming and then httyd3 afterwards i will immediately notice all the ways in which it doesn’t make sense. but the thing is. who cares??? i don’t care. it’s just a cute, fluffy, funny, very VERY cheesy christmas short that’s only 20 minutes long. of course it’s not gonna be very complex or deep or fit exactly into the film narrative, that’s impossible because the film’s already been done. you can’t really get bogged down with specifics because it’s just.... pointless, like, it’s so pointless and tiring. just watch homecoming and enjoy it for the cute pile of cheese that it is!! they tried their absolute best to make it fit with canon and i applaud them because honestly, i was expecting it to be impossible. (spoiler here!// for example i love how toothless saw hiccup but only when hiccup was covered in a suit so toothless didn’t see his face, he only recognised him by his voice and scent! pretty much explains why toothless didn’t recognise him in the epilogue. and he didn’t get to see astrid in homecoming, so of course he didn’t recognise her in the epilogue either. its not perfect but at least they did address that, like, hiding hiccup in that suit did make sense and was a good trick to stay in canon. the only problem is that toothless didn’t recognise zephyr on the boat in the epilogue, which yeah, makes no sense, but if we chalk it up to him just not noticing her because he’s too preoccupied with the bearded stranger in front of him then we can sort of let it make sense, ya know? obviously not perfect. but they did a very very good job)

oh my god i’m sorry this got so long. maybe one day i’ll find a way to answer asks in much more concise words without going on a tangent (also, thank you so much for saying i’m ‘one of the few with sense in this fandom’, seriously that was r real good for my ego, thank you, and i know what you mean because there are a LOT of people in this little httyd fandom who are just....... well. a bit much😬)

TDLR: i agree there’s a lot of salt and criticism surrounding homecoming and i think it’s dumb and everyone should just relax and enjoy the dumb, cheesy, festive short for what it is:)

[thesearchforphantaman]

SUPER-COOL NEWS!

Hey, guys!  It’s sure been a while since I posted here.  I’d thought the trail on this had all but dried up, but just the other day, out of the blue, I got a LENGTHY and super-detailed email from an individual named Andy Shepherd!

Mr. Shepherd has apparently been looking for Phantaman separately for quite some time, though fell out of it recently due to getting busy... go figure!  How cool is that, though?

I’ve included most of it here under the read-more label.  Have a look-see!

Hi.  My name is Andy Shepherd and I saw your page/Tumblr post (Search for Phantaman) and thought I would share some things with you.

Ogon Batto (Golden Bat) was dubbed by Bill Ross and his wife Japanese wife, Michie, at Frontier Enterprises in Tokyo.  They rechristened the show ‘Fantoma’ for sales in the English speaking territories.  I think Ken Fujita hire them to do it.  More on Ken later.

Ross/Frontier was the go-to guy in Japan for a bit of comparatively inexpensive dubbing (when compared to Glen Glenn Sound, Titra, etc.) for Japanese media that was being distributed/shopped overseas.  Bill died a couple of years ago, but I and a few others (Steve Ryfle and August Ragone) corresponded with him via email and snail mail.  I spoke with him several times by phone over the course of a couple of years, and I have at least one taped phone conversation with him.

Frontier/Ross hired local expats and military personnel living/stationed in Japan in the 1960s.  The series, according the scant records Bill sent me copies of (which I cannot find at the moment), was titled “Fantoma” and the only English audio clip that has survived the decades bears this out.  Not sure where alternate spellings/names, Fantaman or Phataman, come from.  Maybe it was printed this way in the Aussie TV guides/promo material.  I’ll have to ask Kelly Patrick Lannan about that.  He’s in the weeds on the series and films shown only in Oz (i.e. The Samurai, Phantom Agents, Gazula, Space Ace, Fantoma, etc.).

Although, Ross never kept records of the people he hired to dub these things, he did recall a couple of names and those were enough to start the dominoes tumbling for me.  The narrator on the Fantoma ‘coming attractions’ audio clip is Burr Middleton, once known in the business as Burr Hoyle.  He’s an actor and announcer, and you can catch him eps of Matlock, Hunter, and such things.  During the 1960s, he was stationed in Japan (military, I think) and was hired by Ross for dubbing in Fantoma and Princess Knight (confirmed).  He also acted in the Bill Ross-co produced sino-American sci-fi movie, The Green Slime. [...]  But he confirmed for me his voice in the Fantoma clip.  He also voiced Duke Duralumon, the villain, in the little-known Princess Knight/Choppy and the Princess dub, which finally saw a release in the U.S. a few years back, after decades of legal issues and copyright mishandling.  I can try to ask Middleton who else worked on the Fantoma dub.  Maybe he’ll remember.

Also, you’ve got the two ‘K. Fujitas’ mixed up.  Yep, two.  Kiyoshi Fujita of Video Promotions was also known as K Fujita in the 1960s, but he shouldn’t be confused with the other and, I think, more important, K. Fujita of K. Fujita & Associates.  Kazuhiko (a.k.a. Ken, or just ‘K’) of K. Fujita & Associates was one of the first, if not the first, to have the idea of marketing Japanese movies and tv content outside of Japan.  For years, little more than an enigmatic name found only in the end credits of Speed Racer, Marine Boy, The Amazing 3, Star Blazers, etc., I hunted for years for him and finally my persistence paid off, found him semi-retired in Japan.  We became friendly and got his story.    

He first took sample footage of what was to become Astro Boy to shop around in the states and was pretty much laughed out of New York by the folks at NBC, ABC, Screen Gems, etc.  Until he later sold a b/w live action Samurai series to Mexico.  It was such an enormous success/ratings hit, south of the border, that the Americans were more ready to listen to him on his second pass.  However, when he returned again to the states to negotiate a sale for Astro Boy, he walked away from the puny deal at NBC Films.  Then, along comes Kiyoshi Fujita, of Video Promotions, apparently now negotiating on behalf of the Japanese producers/Mushi and accepts the same shitty NBC deal, or so I was told.  The Japanese needed whatever NBC offered in order to bankroll future projects.  I think Kiyoshi Fujita of Video Promotions may still be around.  I don’t know him and have never spoken with him.  Since Kiyoshi Fujita of Video Promotions had made the deal with NBC, he/they were well-positioned for the Kimba deal.  You can read most of this in Fred Ladd’s book.  Fred directed the dubs of both Astro Boy and Kimba for NBC Films, as you know.

The upshot is that Kiyoshi Fujita of Video Promotions, while he maybe still around, isn’t the K. Fujita of K. Fujita & Associates that sold Ogon Batto and the other anime and live action Japanese series in Australia.  It was Kazuhiko (or Ken as he liked to be called by his western friends) who did that.  Sadly, Ken passed in 2012.  Kiyoshi probably won’t be much help to you in your search.

Kelley Patrick Lannan and Glen Johnson in Australia have been poking around for years for surviving prints of some of these series, including Fantoma.  Kelley, if remember correctly, works in the TV industry, there, and he has his tentacles out, forever groping and prying to see if somewhere in Oz, somebody has 16mm prints of these series in storage, an attic, a basement.

Sometimes, all of the groping and prying by fans pays off.  Episodes of both b/w live action shows “The Samurai” and “Phantom Agents” were finally located and released on DVDs.  Unfortunately, the “Space Ace” and “Fantoma” dubs seem to more elusive.  When I asked him, Ken Fujita couldn’t remember the names of the producers he sold/licensed the properties to.  He’d thrown out 40 years of old paper work from his former companies, along with tons or original artwork and cels from his company’s (Japan Tele-Cartoons) production of “Marine Boy”.  I nearly had a heart attack when he told me that.  He simply had no idea anybody would be interested in having it, much less paying money to own it.

[...]

Starting in the mid-1990s, I decided that I hated reading misinformation/incorrect crediting in all of the animation reference books and articles about 8th Man and Princess Knight, and spent subsequent years researching Copri, Frontier, and Titra dubbing facilities.  There wasn’t much information out there at all.  I was starting from scratch.  I would get one half remembered name from somebody, which then led to another half remembered name from somebody else, and so on.  I finally got enough to put a picture together of the Miami dubbing outfit in the mid-1960s.

I’ve shared this information over the years with Fred Ladd, Dave Merrill, Glen Johnson, August Ragone, Chris Palmer, etc. and now it’s public information, which is good.  The Copri and Frontier folks, unlike the Titra dubbers (Pete Fernandez, Fred Ladd, Corrine Orr, Jack Grimes, Paulette Rubenstein, Earl Hammond, Jack Curtis, etc.) never got credit for their work because of how it was done (under the table to skirt the union rules and union pay scales in Florida for Copri) and in Japan, it just wasn’t thought important and seen as an added (unnecessary) cost (i.e. cast list/end titles).  Besides, the Florida and Japanese casts were local actors, school teachers, disc jockeys, moonlighting military personnel and their bored wives, etc.  Nobodies, really.  So, what did credits matter to them?  They got paid few shekels and had some fun.  End of story.

Many of the folks are gone, now.  I was lucky that I got to know and speak with many of them and get their stories for posterity.  I have a number of taped phone interviews, and still have some chapters of Pete’s unpublished auto-biography, hand typed, that he sent to me.  He was a real sweetheart, and he is missed.  I’ll what I can do about digitizing this stuff to post for everybody to enjoy.

In any case, I’ve written more than I intended.  Sorry.  I hope you find it some of it useful and if not, at least interesting.

It’s been years since I was actively researching.  Just got busy.  But I can try to reach out to Kelley Patrick and Glen to see if they’ve made any headway on the Fantoma and Space Ace hunt.

Regards,

Andrew Shepherd

What a surprise, right?  As you guys following this blog know, I spoke with Mr. Burr Middleton myself, and he confirmed for me that he voiced not only the Narrator for Phantoma but also Gabby, Dr. Zero, and the big golden skeleton himself!  (Though, granted, Phantoma didn’t exactly have a lot of dialogue in the series -- mostly laughing.)

As I mentioned to Mr. Shepherd in my response, I also discovered some Australian TV listings from the time, which is where the title “Phantaman” came from.  My post about that can be found here:

https://thesearchforphantaman.tumblr.com/post/143665817167

Regardless, this is such exciting news!!  Hopefully we’ll be able to continue the search from here.

Hailey out!