#I really liked the idea I had for the poses. just the execution is lacking (a lot)

[dykedvonte]

Reading MW takes on Twitter is like reading a summary of the Bible from someone who only watched like a Family Guy family special about it

[arttsuka]

Reverse mermaid au (but this time it's the normal one)

[inkdemonapologist]

My BatDR Take That Used To Be Hot But I Left It Out On The Windowsill To Cool So You Should Be Able to Eat It Now Without Burning Your Tongue

its not actually that hot, is what im saying

Anyway my BatDR hot take is that BatDR's story is not fundamentally worse than BatIM with one exception; an exception that, for BatIM, covers a multitude of sins:

BatIM has a theme.

I can't presume the intentions of the creators, but if I had to write an essay on the themes in BatIM, it wouldn't be hard to pick one out: the cost of obsession, or even just, the ruin Joey brought on the studio. In the very first chapter, Henry asks "Joey, what were you doing?" and every single thing in the rest of the game revolves around that central question: what WAS Joey doing? Each audiolog is a snippet of the studio's path to this messed up state; each character you meet is someone ruined by Joey. The major antagonists echo Joey's flaws -- obsession with Bendy as more than a cartoon, obsession with perfection, obsession with fame and greatness and legacy -- but even without that, they're also each a picture of how the lives of people caught in the path of Joey's dream were ruined by it. Bertrum, for example, doesn't match the concept of rubberhose cartoons, but as yet another person screwed over by Joey, he fits the central question of the story, so he feels like he belongs here. Ultimately, in a narrative sense, the Ink Demon isn't the story's monster -- Joey is; the Ink Demon is just the consequence of his reckless ambition.

But what's the theme or central question of BatDR?

You can... try to pick out a theme. There's some promising options, because it feels like the story WANTED a theme, stating its emotional intentions more overtly -- "there's always a choice" to leave the darkness and chose hope; family and the struggle of living in a heavy legacy's shadow; or even just good old mewtwo-brand The Circumstance's Of One's Birth Are Irrelevant, It Is What You Do With The Gift Of Life That Determines Who You Are.

I think, even WITH the clumsy execution of Joey's "arc" and Audrey's lack of real choices, any of those could work about as well as BatIM. But unlike BatIM, the majority of the game doesn't tie in. Joey's tour can be considered relevant -- a picture of the family legacy and the "darkness" that Audrey doesn't yet know she's inheriting -- but like, the audiologs and hints and environment of BatDR are mostly teasing the question of What Is Gent Up To, and the takeover of Gent is detached from Audrey's choices, her family, her legacy, and Gent never really becomes a relevant threat to those things in this game. The Cult of Amok and the Ghost Train have nothing to do with any of these ideas. It might've been neat if Audrey had ever considered, "Did my father really drive all these people insane?", a hint of actually having to wonder about the darkness in her past. Even Wilson only barely brushes against these concepts; he doesn't like Joey and he also is trying to escape his family's heavy legacy, but it doesn't really reflect on his actions and we don't find that last part out until he's about to be dead.

There's also the question Wilson poses of "real" people versus ink creations, and what counts as valid "life." It would be an interesting theme with a lot to build off of in this setting, it ties into Wilson more as Wilson seems to represent the opinion that Inky Things Aren't Really Alive, which could've tied to Audrey (as an ink-person who has yet to accept that part of herself) and maybe given Wilson a reason to think it's fine to sacrifice her, it could've even tied to Gent (who don't even seem to value human life) -- but after Wilson asks the question, it doesn't tie into the direction things go. He smooshes a little Bendy, we see hints of his disregard for Betty, and then everyone continues with their plan to destroy the Ink Demon without any further moral quandaries about inky life.

The thing is, when you compare an element like, say, audiologs, there's a lot of differences you can point to -- but I don't actually think Lacie Benton's audiolog is notably better, taken on its own, than Grace Conway's or Kitty Thompson's, and yet tons of people were intrigued enough to flesh out Lacie. None of them are big plot points or compelling characters on their own; Lacie and Grace both give us a little note on what it's like working in the Studio, and Kitty shares a little bit on how Gent's expansion is affecting people. But when Lacie talks about Bertrum trying to make a creepy animatronic, that ties back into Joey's ill-fated schemes that are the point of the whole story. The question we're asking through the whole game is "what happened here?" so the fandom is interested in who Lacie is and what her life was like and extrapolates a whole person out of a couple sentences. But that's not the question in BatDR -- what has Wilson done to the Cycle and the Demon? Why? Who is Audrey really, and why is she here? Telling us new things about the Studio's fate seems strangely irrelevant to those questions, just an attempt to create a Mystery To Speculate On like the previous game did... but what question you're asking and how it fits into your story's main theme, like, matters. I absolutely believe that one clock animator guy would've been in EVERYONE'S crew if he'd been introduced in BatIM, but the context makes a difference; fleshing him out feels less relevant here.

The explanations of how and why Wilson did everything he did are baffling and handwavey, but in and of itself that's not a worse problem than anything else in the franchise -- I STILL don't understand why the Ink Machine needs pipes in the walls or even how it works, there's no good reason for Sammy to believe the Ink Demon will "set him free," most of Alice's motives don't make sense, etc etc etc. But the thing is that in BatDR, the wibbly bit is the closest thing to a central question we have! Wilson, what were you doing? The theme doesn't really explore or connect to that question, so the explanations that are finally tossed our way feel lacking in a way that BatIM's handwaved elements don't. There's a lot about Joey's motivation in BatIM that we can't know, but the heart of it resonates -- Joey wanted something, he was willing to exploit people to get it, and he became obsessed and prioritised that dream at any cost. We'll weather a thousand logistical inconsistencies if it's got heart.

But all of that said.... to be honest, I don't think Lacie overtly fits that theme anyway. Even, like, Sammy is iffy -- we don't really know what happened to him, only that he didn't used to be made of ink and worship Bendy, and now he does. We assume Joey's nonsense had something to do with what happened to him (though the books later assert his influence was indirect at best), because when there's a pattern, we can fill in the blank. So many fan creators found a place for Lacie, Grant, and Shawn in the cycle as butcher clones or lost ones, so many people imagined that Wally must be the Boris we meet, because that would've fit the pattern, the idea that the point of what we're seeing is the downfall of the studio. It's not actually that BatIM did a great job tying everything together -- it's that BatIM gave us a compelling idea and that was all it took to make everything else SEEM like it could find a place to fit. This is what I mean when I say BatIM's theme covers a multitude of sins. There's a LOT of characters in BatIM that don't make sense. There's a lot of inconsistencies and things that just sort of happen without any real reason. Characters don't really have "arcs" so much as different states they happen to be in at different times. But because there's a central question and the story doesn't wander away from it, our pattern-loving human brains will slot in all the pieces and do all the work to make the story feel at least somewhat coherent.

The things that happened in BatDR aren't a whole lot less coherent than BatIM imo, they just don't tie into a bigger theme or any of the questions the story's asking, making "how do they fit into all this" feel irrelevant, making it easier to forget entire sections and harder to get invested in audiolog characters. I think a lot of the other criticisms people have for BatDR's story are very valid, but I also suspect that if BatDR had a more successful theme/central question, then a lot of its flaws would be easier to overlook -- just like BatIM.

[noisytenant]

i mean its like an infinitely rich wellspring if you know how to tap it. the nature of growing up in a world you're only just beginning to understand and the existential threats posed by new information, cultural notions of childhood, the types of childhood that get codified by Media Aimed At Children vs. the complicated and varied reality; the various mechanisms through which children are implicitly and explicitly forced into an oppressed position... there is much to consider if you decide you want to tell a story through Children's Media But Fucked Up. but i don't often see it happening.

i feel like the works that clear the "pure shock value" bar but still miss the mark for me tend to enter the territory of some kind of lamentation, where the unsettling and dark aspects of the work exist as a means of "confronting the difficult realities of life". it's sort of a feeling of, "i wish someone had prepared me for this," while also often lacking a good answer for why that never happened or how it might be possible to be prepared for these things. some works can ask questions without posing answers, but i feel like a lot of these works feel incomplete. i suppose if one wants to go this route i would be interested in a deeper exploration of the confusion and disappointment that is brought about by these things; not just letting your inner child speak up about their pain but actually dissecting (and maybe healing, who knows!) some of it

also there's a whole sidebar about whether the creator (in the real world) wishes to consider the intentions and experiences of the fictional creators of the fictional story. considering things like who operates the puppets, who writes the scripts... those can elevate a work i think. i havent been keeping up with Welcome Home due to it developing something of a cursed nature + me hating to do ARG business but it seems like the author considered these elements and that's something i appreciate.

i also think you can go on the flip side and fully commit to the work being "creatorless", in the way that as a child things magically come to you fully-formed without you really considering how it was made. that perceived contextlessness is inherently eerie and i think a lot of people tap into it without fully realizing.

there could even be something compelling about slowly realizing that there IS a creator, that there IS intent, that this isn't a little autonomous terrarium but in fact a planned and executed project. who knows! it's free ideas!

one other thought i have is that a lot of creators don't actually seem that invested in the reality of children's media and seem to rely mostly on their nostalgic recollections, which could be an interesting avenue if it weren't seemingly the dominant paradigm. i feel like the outcome is that there seems to be little to no attempt at replicating anything other than the most basic hallmarks of the "genre"; it's like the children's-media-facade is just window-dressing for the "fucked up" part. i think that's silly. taking a little more time to research (whether rewatching things you used to like or seeing what's new) can allow you to more strongly wield the specific and notable trappings of the genre. in that way, you can better integrate the horror with the more cute or comforting parts.

anyways, these are just completely disconnected rambles. i could talk forever but i have to go. bye bye for now

[amanitaphalloides]

can't do emojis on desktop but tea about fandom bleeding into published fiction

LOL. I don’t feel like I know enough about fiction publishing to have an opinion on how this affects trends or the industry in general, so simply as a woman who likes to read and write: extremely mixed feelings. sometimes it is really funny or even charming to me (when a mostly non-fandomy feeling book drops “he toed off his shoes” i can laugh and move on). however. i feel like many people who write fan fiction see it as fringe in such a way that they don't want to look frankly at how it influences writing style, and that can result in some very bad books. i think the "writing is writing is writing is writing!" school of thought does way more harm than good stylistically and we'd all be doing ourselves a favor to think of fic as a specific genre with specific genre conventions. and consciously or not, a lot of us practice those genre conventions for years, and i do think hopping between fic and original fiction poses some unique challenges. and sometimes this transition is executed poorly in a really obvious way. not just in the language either but also in terms of structure and idea. i think fic is so trope-forward partially because it is typically driven by pleasure-seeking, and partially because it's inherently about riffing. and this practice of RIFFING in particular stands out to me in certain contemporary novels, where it can feel like the author is trying to leapfrog over building an emotional core and instead shape it in reverse, by setting up tropes or dynamics that signify this core exists somewhere, just not on the page. and this can happen in really clear ways (trope-forward romance novels that everyone knows started as fic that include one line like "we've hated each other since we competed in our boarding school spelling bee") and more subtle ways (not to claim random authors i know nothing about are suffering from fan fiction habits but something like mrs s springs to mind. and i didn't even hate that book it just had that weird no-backstory feeling). and the fact that this so often coincides with queer lit and the perception that there's still a lack of stories just makes the whole thing feel sort of tragic.

the flip side of this is that i love fic writers, i love talking to people who find writing so fun they just do it regardless of gain, and i have found a lot of the habits and friendships i've formed through fic extremely helpful to my original fiction. i really love and support fic writers who write and publish original fiction. in a way i think fandom has a fantastic influence on publishing because it's where so many great writers practice and play. but again, ideally that involves being very mindful of the divisions instead of trying to ignore them.

overall if a fandom influence is coming through to me as the reader i'm probably not loving it. i will generally be more forgiving with romance and ya because i think they are fan fiction's closest genre cousins and have a lot of overlapping readership. lit fic i find it more annoying. little rabbit by alyssa songsiridej is another good example. also on a totally different note i think the funniest/weirdest bleed area is rpf and i am genuinely kind of pissed about the graham gore romance novel because i wanted to write that lol. anyway great question.

[animehouse-moe]

Hi ! I was wondering why weren't you reviewing jjk episodes anymore ? I loved reading your thoughts about the anime and I can't find other reviewers like you 😓

Love your blog !

First of all, thank you for the kinds words! Second of all, it's a bit of a complicated affair.

I think there are a lot of triumphant moments in this second season of JJK for the animators. I think a lot have done work that really can't be described as anything else other than a miracle in the context of this season.

But you sort of reach this fork in the road with those efforts, and neither is really where I want to end up.

The first option is praising the animators for their work. There's a lot of great work in the season. Not a mountain of work that I really think fits the context of JJK that well (and also severely messes with power scaling), but work that is undeniably well animated and executed.

The second option is to disparage MAPPA for their approach and behavior surrounding the production of this season. Front-loading staff to provide something presentable, or going in the opposite direction and putting animators in the position of having to work with the bare minimum to achieve a level of animation quality that is satisfactory for the studio (see the total lack of color and composition/lighting in episodes like episode 17).

What's challenging is that with both approaches, you'll both anger and upset people, as well as add fuel to the fire.

If you praise the animators for their work, people will immediately attribute that to Mappa, or justify the conditions due to the work being put out. Not like every other studio is a saint, but there's a reason that Mappa's been in the hot seat vs anybody else out there.

If you disparage the work of the studio, people do the inverse of what I just said, targeting the work of the animators themselves.

So it ends up this catch 22 that will always bother people and give others the ammunition to justify or disparage things based on their personal view of the situation.

In terms of more personal reasons, I think this season's just sort of been a struggle for me in general. I was a bit of a doomer right from the moment that Park was no longer associated with the project, so I haven't had the greatest headspace to really engage with the season. As this season's gone on, that mentality has only really worsened as it essentially revolves around finding good animators to get you from scene to scene. The moment that a not-so-great animator is present, the thing just sort of falls apart.

And then there's the story. It's such a funny thing, and in a way reminds me of Chainsaw Man. It's hard to really draw the line in terms of which staff member's influence it is (director/series composition/etc), but there's a few shadowy hands at play behind the season in ways that sour it for me.

The overall idea stays the same, they'd be crucified for doing anything to the core, so it's all these little details that get changed around. Poses or key interactions, even things as bold as the order of events. There is a hand that stirs a pot with these smaller details in a way that makes me question why. They don't feel necessary, but the approach feels like the person behind them felt they were needed. It's a weird greed in approaching the content.

A lot of people get up in arms when stuff gets changed period, and those people are sort of weird. Because of them though, the viewer's ability to challenge the creative input behind the adaptation becomes moot, and I don't think that's great. People can mess up, people can be too focused on their own interpretation and ideas, and viewers should be allowed to speak on those things and criticize them.

Anyways, bringing it full circle. I was already just barely holding on when this season started, and since then that thread of interest has been severed in really talking about Jujutsu Kaisen. Nuance no longer exists, criticism is either entirely baseless or used to attack individuals, praise always goes to the wrong people. If I were to point my reasoning in a single direction, I'd say it's largely got to do with the outlook and ideas of not just fans of Jujutsu Kaisen, but the average anime fan in general currently.

Not that I can't handle hate or harassment or anything, but when my entire idea behind doing these things is to engage the community in discussion surrounding something, and all that comes back is the equivalent of monkeys at a typewriter, it's just... tiring.

Learning more about production is incredibly important and should be fostered and encouraged within the community. But it's just so, so bad where people choose to stand in terms of learning. You either get people that know a few things and weaponize them to justify their personal (and biased) opinions, or the extremes in the sakuga-head territory that gatekeep and delight in sniffing their own farts like that South Park episode. It's hard to really find justification to discuss things in a public space when so few people occupy a reasonable position.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Many Seeds Many Blessings

There's a lot of reasons I like this set, not the least because we have Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun in their bright blue and red Wenzhou colors.

I also like figs that have a leg kicked up, like Zhehan does here in his inspiration photo:

I love active poses from Zhehan, he's always so athletic and graceful looking in motion.

Here's the inspiration for Gong Jun's outfit and pose:

What an absolutely beautiful smile from Junjun. I wouldn't think a Safeguard soap ad would feature one of my favorite smiles of his, but here we are.

I really, really love the bandana on his wrist - not only does it highlight the strength of his arm and the beauty of his hand and fingers, but it also has the pop of bright blue. Which I know is for Safeguard's logo, not the Wenzhou blue, but the associations are still really nice for me!

Before we get started, with fig pics, I just wanted to say I'm DISAPPOINTED in these figs. Well, not the figs, they're innocent. The FIG MAKER. She posted a pic of the figs looking like this:

Notice the smooch on Zhehan's sliver of chest and of course right there under Gong Jun's beauty mark. I was so charmed! Then I got these figs, and saw the kiss on Gong Jun's face, but where is the kiss on Zhehan?!? NOT there in the final product!

I don't know about you, but I'm a fan of equal smooch time, and I have a feeling some of you may be too. More to come on that.

These two arrived safely! They were part of the experimental batch I didn't air column wrap, so thankfully they were not victims of my own hubris.

Zhehan looks a little woeful here, no doubt because he's lacking a good solid smooch. It's OK honey, we'll see what we can do about that.

I'm just tickled that these figs can actually stand. They're pretty heavy, so I was a bit worried to experiment with them, but they stand beautifully. AND, not only can they stand, but Zhehan can stand on either foot!

Actually, the fact that he can stand on either foot proved difficult (for me) as I very carefully noted that he was standing on his right leg in the magazine picture, and mentally chanted, right leg right leg right leg as I was taking pictures. And then promptly managed to take a pic of him on his left leg.

Ahh it's been a while, but we're back to the typical JZP fig maker fig silhouettes. We've got Junjun's very slim runway model proportions, and Zhehan's lusher frame.

Both of their sets of legs are cute! I like we've got a little bit of movement for Junjun too.

This is such a cute angle on Junjun! Adorable.

Even a cuter angle! Good shot of the silhouettes too.

I wish we had gotten the scarf around Junjun's wrist, but that would likely have been quite difficult.

Well, since I took the photo anyway, here's how he stands on the other leg!

Nice and clean paint. The clothes are simple but executed quite well.

The pants aren't as shiny as they look, I just have late afternoon sun pouring in through my window and lighting up the figs!

Oops. I got here and realized I had not taken a top down picture! I had already finished up and put the figs on stands and away on my fig display. Alright, they came back for a photo encore.

I had been so focused on poor smooch-less Zhehan, and making sure he got all the kisses he so rightfully deserves!

I had this water sticker pack that was part of the Zhongpei fig set, and as you can see it had quite a few little lip stickers.

As you can see, the little lip print is quite a bit bigger than the one on Junjun, and a little bit darker. I don't mind the darker color, since Junjun's eating a pomegranate, after all, but the fact that it's bigger is problematic. There's very little real estate there on Zhehan's chest.

You can see there's definitely no room on his chest for the entire print without it looking strange, so I trimmed it to have just enough peeking out.

Well, I'll cut to the chase...somehow I bungled the first couple tries. The first time I have no idea what happened, the kiss like smeared into a little red ball before I even was able to try to apply it. The second time I don't know what happened either, but the sticker would not stick for anything, no matter how much water or what I tried to do, either side. The third time I realized that the sticker is the opposite side, so I could only stick it on his right side.

The third time was the charm! There's a little bit of a line where I wasn't able to get it snug enough against the lapel, but honestly it was a miracle I even got it on. I'll get a little bit of acrylic paint and paint in the little bit of the line so it looks like it's under the lapel. I still have one kiss sticker left, but I didn't dare take this off and try to reapply - it was very difficult to get on as it is! It also bunched up, but I ran my finger over it and it stretched out somehow. I'm not rolling the dice that I'll be able to do any better!

This also came with a magnet as a free gift. And look! They put the kiss on the same side I did! Looks like that worked out.

Material: Resin...and some smooches!

Fig Count: 423

Scene Count: 29

Rating: 💋💋

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[incesthemes]

final thoughts: supernatural season 6

what an interesting season. i think what i'm most surprised about is how strikingly different this season is compared to its predecessors. maybe i only picked up on it because i knew in advance that the showrunner shifted from kripke to gamble, but i still think it's fascinating to see how much can change just be putting someone new in charge.

i don't remember how i felt about season 6 the first time i watched it, but rewatching it now it definitely feels like "the beginning of the end" to me. like it's clear that it's all downhill from here, now that the original concept and plot has run its course. i wouldn't really say it's bad, but it lacked the cohesion and direction that the original 5 seasons had.

my main critique is probably that it felt like it jumped all over the place. it felt like there were three small plots shoved into one season, rather than being one overarching plot with smaller arcs. the eve thing in particular disappoints me, since she was only around for a few episodes before she got got. it calls into question her authority and power and makes her seem like not as big a deal as they said she was. mother of all monsters? yeah, nbd. got her in one try. i would have liked to see more failures or consequences on sam and dean's part as they tried to take her down—maybe even make her the season 6 big bad and then focus on cas's bullshit in season 7. idk, i think it could have been handled a lot better, but as it stands eve doesn't really stand out to me as being a monster more threatening than, say, a vampire. hell, a vampire posed more threat to the winchesters than eve, since dean actually got turned by one and suffered the consequences of it.

(i really liked the vampire episode. they should do more like that.)

i TRULY don't understand the whole "burning demon bones" nonsense. it's set up to be some great way to gank a demon, as if they don't have a demon-killing knife AND exorcism spells. i tried to rationalize it at first as like "well this way they don't have to be near the demon" which should work for lesser demons who can't teleport—but hello? crowley can. and he does. "oh but he was in the devil's trap" then use the demon-killing knife? throw it at him. idk it just seemed like a very weird thing to introduce, and the pomp and circumstance it got really seemed overblown compared to what it actually is: another mundane option for killing demons to put in their arsenal.

i think they could have stood to put a little more foreshadowing in the early episodes of this season, too. when cas started getting shady all of a sudden it felt more like an about-face than a revelation, so i would have preferred more puzzle pieces be presented from the start.

i DO really like how they develop the soul in this season, and what their philosophy about souls is. the idea that "caring" is the primary function of the soul. like sympathy, empathy, desire, worry—all the emotions that connect you to another person, basically. that's an interesting way to play the idea of a soul, and i mostly like how it was executed. i was expecting "soullessness" to be more demonic in nature, so i like that the show makes a poignant distinction between "corrupted soul" and "no soul." my major critique here is regarding sam's lust for women, which seems extremely contradictory to the established worldbuilding. like having a sex drive independent of emotion is fine, but there are many moments in the season where sam checks out women or watches them appraisingly, which indicates some level of desire—and why would a guy with no soul care about sexual attraction? doesn't make a lot of sense. this is where i really think the writers muddied the distinction between demonic and soulless, and i couldn't help but roll my eyes every time they whipped out another one of those moments.

oh and i liked all of the crowley/bobby interactions. few and far between, but god they did a great job with it. i like their parallels (why do they have the same favorite curse. that's so unnecessarily homoerotic), and the tension between them is the exact type i like in my ships. there's a maturity and age to them which gives their interactions a nice spice and flavor, so i hope there are more moments like these in season 7 too.

overall though i think the season was pretty lackluster. it makes sense in a lot of ways since they're scrambling to find a plot after the original story finished, and it's definitely a transitional season. but i realize now that there's a very big reason why i remember so much of the first 5 seasons and so little of anything past that. but i believe that's the gist of my thoughts. season 7 is next! since i clearly don't know when to stop lmao

[akacatkat]

Finally getting around to post the look back summary on the Nijisanji EN Chocolate Collection!

Completing the collection in 2022 was very challenging. I had a method to creating these and at first it was really fun! But doing it over and over in such a short amount of time wasn't very fun! It was very taxing and at some point it became really difficult to focus. I tried to keep to a strict deadline for each and I worked on multiple at a time, but due to that I couldn't finish each liver on the days I was hoping to complete them. Working on them all at once in order of interest seemed like a really good method. I wished I just had the time and the planning to allow myself to work in that way for the whole project.

For the additions of 2023, I was more lax on creating and posting following a rough deadline, but I was still working/posting in debut order. It helped a little to not take a toll on my physical wellbeing, but with no set deadline I didn't really space things out well, nor did I plan ahead of time like I initially wanted. I guess I wasn't quite looking forward to continue to work on the series because even if it was so cute it was repetitive, and not going to lie, a bit boring to do something so restrictive in style and workflow.

Consistency is difficult for me, not necessarily in the ways of actually drawing consistently but the act of doing something that's so restrictive. Normally when I draw illustrations, there is some aspect to it that is new, but with these chibis, to keep them looking cohesive/similar I needed to stick with the same, textures, brushes, forms, treatments etc. Maybe in the beginning if it was one single large piece it wouldn't have been so tiresome? Having a bunch of individual pieces and files felt endless and disconnected. It was difficult to see progress as a whole and the end goal.

After everything, I'm glad I could complete them! For some, I wished I could have executed better, some I wished I had better ideas for outfits and chocolates. I especially think I could have been more creative with poses. I think another thing that felt limiting was just my lack of skill when it comes to drawing chibis. Chibi poses? Those are really difficult. I also just have a very limited pose

I'm happy I could finish them in a satisfying enough way for myself! It was a fun challenge. I hope there wasn't anyone who was disappointed in my execution of any of the livers, but I did my best to give everyone thought and care even if I didn't know the liver all too well. Would I do something similar in the future? Probably not. I don't exactly have the mental bandwidth for it. If I were to do something like this again I would really need to attack it with a clear yet flexible plan that allowed me to work in a way that kept my interests.

I know I've said that this was the last round of Niji EN Chocolate series, but if no new wave debuts after Krisis by Valentines or White day I'll add Krisis to the collection! But that's also only if I feel up to it. Considering how difficult it is for me to do something repetitive and strict on style, the chances are relatively low. So I'm sorry if anyone was looking forward to it. Consider it a pleasant surprise if I do manage to add on to it!

[kaleido-write]

I don't personally think that the title is fitting . I would've preferred seeing something symbol of solidarity and team work as they run to help Jaden. I really like the pose and their proportion I feel that rusty had a great grip on his to give them diverse body without being too extreme (reference at 13 yo shez that looks exactly like 30 yo shez)

It's unfortunate to understand the context behind the title we have to go read the synopsis of the chapter , for something that urges danger and the need of help asap . Endure is a very good title idea but I don't think it's fitting this chapter in particular, I would've preferred seeing it for the meriam/shez backstory chapter or even a Jaden one .

It's unfortunate we only see *now* a really malicious expression I truly think the agp would've been great vilains , but rusty didn't wanted to depict bad people she wanted to portray trans woman in her twisted version of what they are . If she did it well , she could've done something great about that topic but she didn't she just wanted to harm people and be mean .

On the art side of it , the neck is too long , a bit shorter would've been better but I like how rusty decided to explore expressions and emotions and give us something as interesting as that !!

I like most of it it's again somewhat well written and I like how the case are all very well fitting , I think having parniya come out of the panel like that is a good artistic choice . I don't like very much the case she come out off tho , it looks like she's running away from Jaden, instead I would've put them in front of her so it's obvious she's running towards them

On another point I'm not sure if it's internalized misogyny but I've noticed the reoccurring theme of women not being able to defend themselves against men and transwoman . I don't understand the point , isn't the comic supposed to be about lesbians ? I understand that misogyny and patriarchy is a very important plot that rusty wants to explore but she always put the woman in position where they can't defend themselves against men to the point it's becoming absurd. Strength isn't measured in chromosomes , there's plenty women stronger than men . I don't understand why she keep devaluing and making her own woman characters that she want to empower look so weak . Especially security guards ???? Plus Jaden is only fighting one of them I don't understand why she can't at least have a fair fight.

That panel is also well executed , we see very well the emotions and I like their running pose , it tells us about their characters and how they are . It's something very important to do in character design and I'm glad rusty does it this well .

It's another very good panel !!! My only critique would be the cracking noise , parniya isn't facing them to put emphasis on "she didn't see , she doesn't know" It would've been more interesting to put it behind her , also I would've added movement line to ginger to show she's still going at it and doesn't care about harming Jaden.

Not a lot make sense in that panel , where does shez come from ?? Why put her in the cover if she isn't going to be there to help Jaden sooner ??? The shadows are well done and I like how experimental yet control rusty style was in that chapter but her writting lacked a lot , I wish she took the time to write something that truly reflected *her* experience as a lesbian woman . She visibly has a very hard time portraying anything she didn't live herself . So until she practice more I think sticking to slice of life romance is what she excels at .

Another very well drawn panel !! I like that she finally added more movements lines making us feel more her panel . And she did very good with the expressions . And the poses and I like how the anatomy stayed consistent in that chapter so far !!

I like a lot of this panel is drawn , everything feels very different from one character to another no one feels the same the shadows where well done through the chapter so far

I just don't get why is ginger so far already ?? I would've liked her to be a bit closer to parniya because here it just looks like ginger is sonic wich is pretty ridicule-

[excusethequality]

My 2024 in Film: May

Is this it? Is this the month I finally get caught up on my movie listing duties? Perhaps!

Sometimes I'll look at what I watched in a month and it seems like I was watching things selected at random. But if you've been following these posts all year I think you'll be beginning to see the through lines to my madness.

A lot of me taking chances on things this month. Which usually means some really intriguing titles and also some truly unfortunate ones as well. I can't say I loved any of the new things I saw this month, but certainly some ones that got me thinking.

*= a rewatch

109.

Thief

(1981)

— Crime Thriller Directed by: Michael Mann

A jewel thief tries to balance his personal life and his life of crime, but soon finds that each side poses an insurmountable threat to the other.

I was listening to the Faculty of Horror episode on Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) and they made mention of this one and it made me curious to see another of his films.

So far I'd say that Mann definitely has style, which I appreciate in a director, but I can't say that either of the films I've seen of his have really grabbed me.

There's quite a bit to the technical side of this one that I like. But I just can't be presented with such a toxicly masculine character and be rooting for them. And I get the vibe that the film is on his side and sometimes thinks he's in the right and I generally do not agree with that take.

I think he's a sack of shit. Anything good he does is wrapped in like 12 layers of caveats. If ever a character could have really used some therapy it was this guy.

In fact my letterboxd review for this one was simply, "Instead of buying silk shirts and gold watches he should have bought some therapy."

I guess on one hand it is presenting a very honest portrayal of the ways that toxic masculinity harms men as well as the women in their lives. But on the other hand, I don't get the vibe that it was specifically trying to make such points and more often than not the film itself suffers from the same tainted viewpoint that the main character does.

110.

Mac and Me

(1988)

— Sci-fi Family Adventure Directed by: Stewart Raffill

A family of aliens wind up getting sucked into a U.S. spacecraft collecting terrain and atmosphere samples on another planet. After the craft returns to Earth the baby of the family gets loose and encounters a young boy and his family.

As a Conan O'Brien fan I was well familiar with this one from Paul Rudd's visits, but had never actually seen it. So when I saw that it was on Tubi I figured it was time to see what it was all about.

Definitely a bizarre movie. Definitely something that would have been better with drinks and friends.

(I feel like I say that about a lot of the weird shit I watch. I should probably look into buying some drinks and getting more friends.)

You can see how badly it wanted to recreate the magic of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. But as is often the case when someone wants to recreate a big hit they just wind up trying to recreate a similar plot. After all the thing that made E.T. popular wasn't the plot, it was the execution. And so putting your B team behind a loose approximation of the E.T. story is just a recipe for a flop.

As far as bad movies go it has its moments where its lack of skill is quite entertaining, but overall it drags quite a bit. And the alien costumes/puppets/whatever are ROUGH. Part of why E.T. was endearing was he could emote. And these things? Ooo, boy. They definitely can't.

I feel like if you're the sort of person who would enjoy Mac and Me then you probably already know it.

111. *

The Meg

(2018)

— Creature Feature Directed by: Jon Turteltaub

A group of scientists inadvertently release a prehistoric giant shark lose from its deep sea habitat.

I thought that I had never seen this, but I was halfway through before I realized that I had. I have no idea when or where I saw it, but I have definitely seen it before.

I've undertaken the deranged mission to watch and rank all the shark movies and that's why I'm here. I would say The Meg is the epitome of a middle of the road movie. It brings me neither joy, nor does it bring me pain. It neither excels at anything nor does it truly fail at anything.

It's like a lot of talented people got together to make something none of them cared much about. In a couple years I'll probably forget I've seen it all over again.

112.

Ghost Shark

(2013)

— D-movie Creature Feature Directed by: Griff Furst

A couple of fishermen kill a shark for fun and its ghost comes back for revenge because of reasons.

Oh boy. It's not good. There's just something about the genre of shark movies that attracts people that want to make extremely low-budget trash. I am beginning to think I may have to bail before I even get close to watching all the shark movies out there.

Because damn!

The conceit that the ghost shark can manifest from out of any source of water went a long way to keeping their budget low, because now they can film their shark movie from land! And I can't really fault them for it though, because it also provides more of an interesting hook than a lot of the low-budget shark movies have.

I'll give it credit for having a few scenes go so over-the-top that it's hard not to enjoy the lunacy. But overall the lack of talent in all departments makes it a rough watch.

It's definitely not the worst shark movie I've ever seen, but it's definitely far from the top.

113.

Letter to a Pig

(2022)

— Animated Short Directed by: Tal Kantor

A young girl begins to daydream upon hearing a Holocaust survivor give a talk at her school.

This showed up on Kanopy, and it was the only one of the Oscar Animated Short Film nominees that I hadn't been able to find a copy of to watch.

There were some parts where it felt like they had just put an animation filter over some live action shots and then adjusted them by hand? Maybe they were actually rotoscoping, but it definitely was giving me filter vibes. In any case, it's a style of animation I don't particularly enjoy. And the best visuals were the ones where they weren't doing it.

This one confounded me a little. I feel like whatever it was trying to say was going over my head. And it makes some bold choices, but yeah, I'm not so sure they were actually in service to its message?

I dunno. I'm open to the theory that I was just missing/misinterpreting the themes it was going for.

114.

Cape Fear

(1991)

— Thriller Directed by: Martin Scorsese

A man gets out of prison and makes it his mission to get revenge on the defense attorney that helped get him sent to jail instead of providing him with a real defense.

I've heard about this one forever. There's even a whole episode of The Simpsons that's just their version of this!

I wanted to like it, but it's just too weird. It's a movie where two different types of misogyny are pitted against one another and I have no one to root for, because I'm just hoping that they wind up offing each other.

Plus it boggles my mind that Scorsese made this AFTER Goodfellas. There are so many shots of this that I can only describe as having a Someone's Nephew Having Fun With Aftereffects style.

Robert DeNiro is the highlight of the movie. But his character was also a woman beating, rapist, pedophile, so you can't really ever like him in the same way you might like the villains in other movies.

I'm glad I've finally seen it. Probably don't need to see it again.

115. *

Rumble in the Bronx

(1995)

— Action Directed by: Stanley Tong

A Chinese man visits his Uncle in New York City in order to help him out with his wedding and the selling of his store, but trouble finds him when he runs afoul of a local gang.

I'm pretty certain this is the movie that hooked me on Jackie Chan movies when I was a kid. I definitely had it on VHS and I've lost count of how many times I've seen it over the years.

I love this movie. I don't know what that says about my taste, but it's true. This thing is all over the place in the best possible way.

To me any great movie must be one that you'll remember long after you've seen it. And this movie is full of memorable bits. Perhaps you won't remember the specifics of the plot, but you will leave this movie with a lasting impression.

Jackie jumping off parking garages, his amazing uncle and new aunt who seem like they came in from a different movie, kids in wheelchairs being attacked by thugs, a New York City straight out of the mind of someone that's never actually been to New York City, a shooting location that also couldn't be more obviously not New York City, a plethora of amazing outfits, hovercrafts, swords-wielding convertibles, trucks full of balls, thugs, wood chippers, action, delightfully strange dubbing.

This movie has everything!

116.

Dumb Money

(2023)

— Comedic Drama Directed by: Craig Gillespie

A dramatization of the story of Keith Gill and the Game Stop short squeeze of 2021.

This movie wanted so badly to be something like I, Tonya (2017) or The Big Short (2015).

It's not. But it really wanted to be!

The especially baffling thing about that is that Craig Gillespie directed I, Tonya, so you'd think he'd be better at trying to replicate its charm?

I don't have much to say about it honestly. It's a very middle of the road movie. It's the kind of thing you can safely put on while you put together a puzzle or clean your room or something.

It's not bad or anything, there's just nothing there that really demands your attention. You'll enjoy it well enough while it's on, it will leave no lasting impressions, and a few months from now you won't remember a thing about it.

117.

The Foreigner

(2017)

— Crime Thriller Directed by: Martin Campbell

After his daughter is killed in a terrorist bombing a grieving immigrant father makes it his mission to make sure that those responsible are made to pay for their crime.

I was talking with a coworker about Jackie Chan movies where Jackie actually goes hard on the acting side of things and he mentioned this one. I was intrigued so I grabbed it from the library.

It's a weird sort of movie, because Jackie's character is 100% the most interesting part of the movie. Actually his storyline is really gripping and thrilling. But 90% of the movie just feels like your standard airport-read Thriller novel plot about politics and terrorists and whatnot. Jackie's character seems utterly shoehorned into the story. His story arc really doesn't have any importance in the overall outcomes.

But while I just thoroughly didn't care about the sordid affairs of the politicians and the gang and the rebel faction of the gang, the story of this father is fantastic.

I really don't understand why the story isn't focused on him. Jackie is really giving the performance so much emotion. And there are all these great themes about the immigrant dream and how countries in turn treat and perceive them.

So, yeah, a hard one to talk about. On one hand I love Jackie's side of the story. And on the other hand the rest of it is just incredibly stock. So do with that information what you will.

118.

Dead on Time

(1983)

— Comedy Short Directed by: Lyndall Hobbs

A man is told by his doctor that he has 10 minutes left to live and he decides to try his best to make the most of them.

As someone who grew up watching Mr. Bean episodes my grandma taped for me, I have a lot of nostalgia attached with Rowan Atkinson. So I was excited to come across this short with him that I had never heard of.

It certainly has its moments, but overall it was a little flat for me. I think if it had allowed itself to escalate the wildness of every scene some more I probably would have loved it. Actually that was part of what made Mr. Bean so brilliant: the way every skit would start in some familiar situation and then just continuously escalate everything to hilarious results.

The premise here of a man who is trying desperately to fit a lifetime's worth of living into 10 minutes is a really great set up for comedy. But it just wound up being a little too restrained to really make the most of its potential.

119.

Leviathan

(2012)

— Documentary Directed by: Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel

Cameras were set up to capture the sights and sounds of a fishing ship.

I've been loving the documentaries I've seen this year so I was looking at some lists of the best documentaries and saw this one mentioned on a few. It definitely didn't sound like my kind of jam, but you never know.

The only way I can properly describe it to you is that it is 100% the sort of thing you would expect to find playing in some random room of a modern art museum installation.

It was produced by the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard, which also goes a long way to describing the sort of thing you can expect.

There's no narrator, no story; nothing of that sort. Just very observational cinema, fly-on-the-wall, really in the thick of it kind of shots from all around this fishing ship. From the hull, to below deck, to on the deck, to the crew quarters. It takes you all over.

I respect the art. But definitely not my sort of thing.

In other news, life on a fishing ship looks like it sucks.

120.

Gimme Shelter

(1970)

— Rock Documentary Directed by: Albert Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin & David Maysles

A documentary on the Rolling Stones and their infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival of 1969.

This is another one I saw on some lists of great documentaries. I didn't really know anything about it other than it was about a some Rolling Stones concert.

I spent the first half of the movie being a little bored and thinking to myself, "wow, the the 60s/70s were a weird era. Every part of this concert seems like the world's worst idea."

But then the concert starts coming together and you realize that truly this was the world's worst idea. Just a wildly bad idea that very quickly goes from "this seems a little unsafe" to "someone people are gonna die."

Also, Mick Jagger kind of seems like an asshole. There are some parts where he's being really disrespectful to the people trying to put the concert together. And at every point he seems to be blaming others for the concert being a mess. But it was y'all's dumbass idea in the first place!

Like, yeah, putting on a massive free concert for people sounds like a great idea in theory. But the second you stop and put any thought into what would happen if you get hundreds of thousands of people in one area with no food, no water, no restrooms, no security, no medical staff? Terrible idea.

And he's out here acting like how was he supposed to know that paying the Hell's Angels gang in alcohol to provide some security could backfire???

How does someone NOT know that that would backfire?

But yeah, that wound up being a wild documentary. I liked the documentary style. There's no narrator and it's all firsthand footage. And it's weirdly like watching the dreams of the 60s dying before your very eyes.

——————

——————

MAY Stats

——————

Movies watched this month: 12

Rewatch percentage: 16.7% (2/12)

Favorite new movie of the month: Gimme Shelter

Least favorite: Ghost Shark

——————

Previous months' posts:

JAN | FEB | MAR p.1 | MAR p.2 | APR

[fadebolt]

Welp, I did end up sticking with the powerswap bois, partially because I had ideas for 'em, but also because it does help a lot when you've got a direct reference for the pose, rather than having to make up one yourself. (And no, I ain't making T-pose drawing. You just loose out on so much personality that way)

However, it's highly unlikely that I'll upload every single Slugcat for current year's AF, sooooo here's some brief notes of my ideas (in case I might forget them xd):

I sort of did the Rivulet before, and they're obviously going to be centered around fire. Mobility will still be a core aspect of their identity, it'll just be more aggressive and less avoidant.

Gourmand's thing is their lack of edge. They're a soft, huggable rotund fella that has no tragic backstory and are motived by a for their tribe, as well as food. I don't have this one fully figured out yet, but I'm thinking something with robotic/cyborg elements, with maybe a little bit of a darker side (though not anything overly angsty, ofc).

Nightcat's an obvious one. Even the name, Lightcat, just comes so naturally. I suppose the two things that most people's Nightcat's commonly have are dexterity and magic, so I'm thinking they would be a 'swift holy warrior' kind of deal. Like an exorcist from Hazbin, but without the evil-ness.

For Monk, evil manipulators have been done before, so I'm thinking let's ditch the whole 'working together with others' aspect, and make them more of a lonely assassin type character, who's still very weak, meaning they have to rely on stealth (so a Riki from DotA sort of deal, essentially).

Reverse Saints have truly been done to hell and back. We've seen all sorts of ideas, and mine would be.... a sadist, essentially. Saint is characterized as someone that refuses to inflict suffering on others, so much so that they're actually willing to suffer more, if it means that others will suffer less. The complete opposite of that would be a creature looking to inflict as much suffering as possible for the sake of personal pleasure.

And finally, there's Survivor and Enot, who are especially tricky cases.

Surv is a base template for Slugcats, with their one characteristic being that they're lost and confused. Videocult has already pretty much created an 'opposite Survivor' for us, through the Hunter. And trying to figure out something that is basic, but also drastically new, is a pretty hard task.

And for Enot, they don't really have a gimmick, outside of them being that 'cringy sex joke character' you see in so many comedies, and their whole campaign being a giant shitpost with ridiculous difficulty, that you can point and laugh at. I suppose adding any sort of seriousness to them will do, but the execution itself is a tricky question.

We'll see what else I'll manage to put out, but at least my thoughts and ideas are now archived here.

One big issue with Art Fight is that it's kind of making me forced to pick priorities, cus if I wouldn't, I'd have to upload, like, over 30 characters, and that's just too much (even if I would prepare way ahead of time).

So, now I have to figure out what I want to make, between:

The powerswap versions of the playable Slugcats (you know, fire Riv, water Arti, plant Hunter, sadist Saint, etc), which is likely what most people would be interested in seeing.

Characters from other media being reinterpreted into RW, which seems like the most fun option. (Especially cus I'm having my eyes on Plague Inc right now. It would allow for some evil characters, which are always very fun)

Characters that are involved with some cosmic shenanigans, being reinterpreted to fit the Seafoam theme instead (my only idea that actually has something to do with current year's AF themes).

And Warcraft 3 heroes that you can play on melee maps/ranked mode, being redesigned for other races, or just any race in general, if they're a neutral Tavern hero (this is more of a recent brainrot that came from me stumbling into Grubby on YouTube thanks to his tier lists.... but y'know, a brainrot is a pretty powerful tool, when you're a creator).

These are the things I've been having in mind recently, but who knows, maybe I'll soon get even more ideas to add to the pile.

Though to be fair, I'm very much used to the issue of having to put a bunch of my ideas aside.

The only problem is that I never really got opportunities to give my OC related ideas some time to shine, so now I gotta figure out how to sort out all that mess.

I suppose I'll just go with whatever makes me the most excited. That tends to work.... sometimes xd

[zephyrine-gale]

heyy i love ur art! i was wondering if u ever get the feeling of wanting to draw ur fav but don’t know what pose or scenario to draw them in? 😭 then when you actually draw them it looks so stiff and bland 🥲 if you do, do you mind sharing what you do in this situation? 🙏

hi!! this happens quite a lot so I understand adjkfkgjh although for me, it's that I have an idea but the execution is lacking

one that I can think of are some kaveh pieces I've never finished :'D I came back to it every few days at the time, but in the end its been left to collect dust in my files

this one in particular, pose was an issue for me (and that I didn't think I could finish it the way I saw it in my head) in that case, - looking up references - sketch more loosely (sketch 2 vs 3-5) - change the angle/perspective - push your art to be more dynamic - don't be scared to scrap a sketch! (or turn off that layer and make a new one entirely) sometimes starting over results in a better concept but just know that you can always come back to it!! sometimes an idea just doesn't work the first time, but it'll be like a trial run for the next piece(s) you do :>

I really wanted to draw tomokazu but it didn't work out, so it's been scrapped ever since. the above was my 3rd(??) redraw at the time but it's helped me figure out how to draw the next few pieces and take not of what worked and what didn't, even if they're of different characters :> for this one in particular, some of the issues I had was: - head angles looked off/stiff - facial expressions looked awkward - couldn't figure out how to position the arms and legs at that point, it wasn't a fun piece anymore, even though I wanted to draw tmkz, since I felt like I had to force myself to figure something out so I didn't! It's forever in my wip folder ajdfjgh and I don't mind that, because maybe that one concept didn't work, but something else will in the future, and it might be completely different from the first idea you had in mind :> improvements don't happen in a day, and some concepts can marinate and get better with time, so don't be too hard on yourself! if you're able to recognize that your work needs improvement, or that it feels like a challenging task, your motivation to figure out how to remedy that is already one step forward to making your art better!

[attackfish]

Anonymous asked: "Can I ask for 5 headcanons in the “Azula and Zuko are Iroh’s children AU”, please?"

Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. Iroh recieves word that Zhao is planning to attack the home islands at the same time as he finds out that the Avatar has shown up. Some days are just like that. What takes a little bit more time to reach him is that the Avatar is in fact only twelve. Which means he's neck deep in planning a defense, while at the same time making vague plans for the best diplomatic approach to make to the Avatar, and hoping that the Avatar might be willing to preside over talks with the Earth Kingdom to formally end the war. Plans he shares with his good friend and mentor, King Bumi.

2. So it's Bumi who gets to write a letter back saying, by the way, the Avatar is twelve. He came through Omashu. Old friend of mine. Was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years. Didn't age. Twelve. And just like that, all of Iroh's halfbaked plans are swept away. Of course the Avatar is twelve. That's exactly the kind of thing that happens.

3. So Iroh doesn't have anything particularly innovative to do as far as defending the Fire Nation, since he really is just going to beef up some of the security he already has in place and make sure his children know how to get to the bunker and how to lock it down if anything goes wrong. Instead of more dramatic defenses on the homefront, he takes a more proactive approach. Which is to say he sends a fleet into southern waters to hunt Zhao down. A fleet, that has been thoughtfully equipped with gifts, and prepared statements to the various locals that this fleet means nothing but peace, and simply wishes to apprehend a violent Fire Nation outlaw, and as a thank you for allowing the ships to pass through their waters, here are these gifts as a token of our appreciation. Iroh is aware he has a lack of goodwill and he needs to do something about that, which is a polite way of saying that nobody trusts the Fire Nation as far as they can throw them, and nobody likes seeing Fire Nation warships sailing through their waters, close to their homes and families.

4. As the person who alerted Iroh to the danger Zhao poses, Hakoda gets special attention, and a messenger hawk informing him of the fleet's imminent arrival. Hakoda might be willing to give Iroh the benefit of the doubt in most things, but not with a fleet near his home, so he rushes home to be there in case of attack. Which is how he learns about the Avatar, and Sokka and Katara leaving. It's a lot to process. Which means he's there when the fleet shows up, and one of the ships docks, and a young, very ernest ship's captain reads a declaration of Iroh's good wishes, and a request for Hakoda to help them determine Zhao's last known location. He also finds himself loaded down with the oddest assortment of jewelry, silks, sugar, tea, and cooking pots, as if Iroh had no idea what Hakoda might want, so he sent everything. Well, that was nice of him. Hakoda and Bato help the captain figure out where Zhao is probably heading, the captain throws a small feast full of strange spicy, wonderful food, the fleet leaves with the next tide, and everybody heaves a sigh of relief.

5. Aside from performing some much needed diplomacy, the fleet also accomplishes its goal, in that it apprehends Zhao. Or to be more accurate, they shoot Zhao's ship out of the water, and he and most of his crew jump ship, and are fished out, shivering and half dead. They are taken away to the capital prison to await trial and execution. But there is another high profile prisoner in the capital prison, the man Zhao claims to be trying to restore to the throne, the Firelord's brother.

[nines82]

-- 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 90𝒔 -- I originally intended on making these separate reviews but I think it is much easier to just condense these five into one single short thoughts on. 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆 Shin is an interesting animal, an almost Cronenberg taste of horror mixed in with some typical Kamen Rider elements. It certainly feels different to previous entries but very much of the era that it belongs to (The Rider Arthouse Era of 1987-2005) with its distinct voice.  Now, as much as I’ve been anticipated a watch of this film since I caught wind of the movie back in 2018, I feel like it didn’t live to the expectation I set for it and for what the toku fandom passes it as. This isn’t to say that I was giving into the idea of a fan pressure, but rather I was expecting a film that wasn’t so...messy. This film has a lot of ideas, but it doesn’t have the execution that makes all these ideas truly work. When posed with an idea such as an almost grindhouse Kamen Rider I was expected something that had the competence to tackle all of it but came out disappointed and scratching my head. I think the movie lacks the writing to make its characters truly memorable either, the only one you really remember is Shin and that’s because of what happens to him and despite that, I feel like there isn’t enough of an emotional connection between the audience and him for us to really sympathize proper. What the movie lacks in substance, it does the typical Rider thing in being a spectacle powerhouse. Shin is definitely made with the idea of using the techniques that make tokusatsu so diverse, a trend of the 90s era that never really goes away even as the 2000s roll in. The film is shot beautifully, and the creature design is on point for the setting it places itself in. It’s a recommendation to me despite my problems, as its best to always take my words as a basis of a differing opinion to what you may have. 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝑫 Ladies & Gentlemen, the greatest piece of Kamen Rider media ever produced is found smack dab in an OVA released in 1993. Rider SD feels like what SD Gundam is to Gundam, with witchcraft levels of really great animation and veterans of the voice acting world providing some next level comedic timing. SD shines in such a bonkers setting that it almost feels so genuine. Characters are parodies of their show counterparts, and it doesn’t feel demeaning to them in the slightest. Sure, ZX here is a total con artist (should have been Super-1) but the OVA does such a great job with committing to it that it is just TOO GOOD. What sparks SD’s true beauty is that it never lets you down in being entertaining and unpredictable, to sit there and watch the SD explanation for RX and Shadow Moon’s rivalry be that Shadow Moon just destroyed RX’s sand castle because he felt like it and then they sumo wrestled as KINDERGARTENERS is just so amazing that it must be seen to be believed. CHECK IT OUT. 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒁𝑶 Of the 90s films, ZO feels like the best one to me. With probably the most impressive blends of every possible medium of filmmaking at the time being condensed in a 48 minute runtime. ZO shines in the writing, drama, and spectacle that it almost feels exactly how a Kamen Rider standalone movie should be. The essentials to what make Rider at its best so great is all here, and is it too much to say that it may be close to the best it had ever been at the time here? Characters are strong here, Masaru Aso has to be one of my favorite Rider protagonists. Aso just breathes that sense of humanity that Rider loves to toy around with (especially writers like Toshiki Inoue). Side casts like Hiroshi & Reiko have such defined personalities and character moments that I feel slowly blend into the Heisei Phase I.  As stated prior, ZO really uses all that was still prominent in toku at the time of the film: suitmation, miniatures, stop motion, puppetry, animatronics, it has it all and the passion of the crews breathes right through it. It truly is the A-game of the tokusatsu medium at the time.  Worth the watch, and the excitement for the Media Blaster release is heightened. 𝙐𝙡𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙫𝙨 𝙆𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙣 𝙍𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙧 This special was aired on television in 1993, and feels more like a documentary on the two franchises in their current state in pop culture at the time. Overviews of character abilities from the OGs to the then current incarnations (Great & ZO), as well as interviews with Hiroshi Miyauchi, Kohji Moritsugu, & Shotaro Ishinomori. The final segment is, of course, the original filmed short of Ultraman and Kamen Rider facing off against kaiju together in a way that we may never see again. The special is entertaining and educational, there is a lot to be learned from the three interviewees on their time with the franchise and seeing how the production crews dressed the sets for the interviews. There is a lot to love here, even for the short length. 𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑱 The last of the 90s trilogy, and while not as strong as J was I still feel is a worthy successor to it as well as a good way of closing out the trilogy.  J feels like a blend between the two previous entries, with the grindhouse horror interspersed with with great drama. Something that it both excels and suffers for as a result, J isn’t as stuffed as Shin and nor is it as a marvel of toku as ZO was.  The characters are pretty good, I love the character drama in the movie the most out of all the pros of the film. But I do feel like the villains are where it lacks the most compared to the previous, despite being really kickass designs.  I’ve been neglecting to speak of the score for everything so far, but J may have the best of the bunch. Very memorable tunes, and some downright catchy ones at that. J has a unique blend of everything that makes a really good score in it in my opinion. And with it, it elevates the movie as much as the moments of pure silence do.  A movie that is overall fun, but lacks in some areas.  𝑲𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 And so, the end is reached. A fitting one, as it is crossover a short with ZO and J where they fight...Shadow Moon for some reason. A shocker, I was not expecting Shadow Moon to be a villain in a short where he should have basically no reason to be taken part in. Yet, it’s REALLY cool. The short is fun, albeit probably the most Rider thing of this era. It’s got the previous suitmation kaijin from ZO & J returning, but now they are in the QUARRY. If my memory serves, this and Super Sentai World were filmed side by side and it obviously shows in basically every sequence.  It’s harmless, and I find it thoroughly enjoyable.

[adobe-outdesign]

Reviews of All Scrapped Spaceword Betas

Exactly what it says in the title. This is also for my reference, as I might redesign some of these later for funsies. 

I’m only including Pokemon that were 100% scrapped (we’re not here to argue what might have become what) and aren’t evos/pre-evos of existing Pokemon. Also, I’m using the English fan-translations for the names because I don’t speak Japanese.

Flambear/Volbear/Dynabear

Our original fire starter, and yeah, I can see why this was scrapped. For starters (heh), it looks more like a rodent that evolves into a lion than anything resembling a bear. And secondly... it doesn’t really have a clear focus, nor a memorable design. It’s just kind of a rodent-bear thing with flames tacked onto it. 

The best Pokes usually have a "catch” to them, and these guys lack that. For example, this got replaced by Cyndaquil, which has the concept of flaming spikes that form out of its back. That’s memorable. This, well, isn’t.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Teddiursa and Ursaring are probably the closest in terms of being bears. Something about it also reminds me of Growlithe/Arcanine, probably because it’s a fluffy fire thing that evolves into a bigger fluffy fire thing with a mane and black markings.

Cruz/Aqua/Aquaria

This has the same problem as the Flambear line, just less extreme. It’s okay, being a little plesiosaur that evolves into a bigger plesiosaur, but it also lacks an interesting catch to it. The pearls are maybe something, but they’re not really emphasized, just kind of tacked on. Plus Dragonair kind of has the crystal neck ornaments on lock. And the horn. And the underbelly. And the water theme...

Whoops.

I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to a plesiosaur water starter in the future, but it would probably have to be completely redesigned.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of focus/interesting design; too similar to Dragonair

Pokes to fill the void: Dragonair, as mentioned above. If you want a plesiosaur, Lapras is always a thing.

Putting the rest under the cut for length.

Sunmola1/Anchorage/Grotess

This is one of the most chaotic beta evolutions out there, aside from beta Girafarig. I can see the resemblance between Sunmola1 and Anchorage to some extent--counter-shaded blue fish with two fins and a short body--but the anchor part of the evolution comes out of nowhere. Then it sporadically turns into a gulper eel, which has nothing to do with the previous two evolutions at all.

I’ve heard some people suggest that Sunmola1 basically gets dragged into the depths and turns into a deep-sea creature due to its anchor, which is a fantastic idea. However, if that’s what they were going for here it’s not really clear, and I think it could be executed much better.

Individually, Sumola1 is a little plain. Not terrible, but I think they could do something more interesting with the little head thing. Anchorage is memorable, but there’s something very un-Pokemonish about it. I think it’s just the fact that it’s basically cut in half--I keep expecting the backsprite to show its organs or something. Grotess is also a bit too plain.

It’s also worth noting that at some point, this was the evolutionary line, which is more consistent but much less interesting (save for the middle evo’s eyes, which are pretty great).

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of evolutionary consistency; some designs plain or not very fitting for Pokemon

Pokes to fill the void: Alomomola is a sunfish Pokemon. Sharpedo is a shark crossed with an object, and Grotess almost certainly became Huntail and Gorebyss.

Rinring/Bellboyant

These two... are pretty good. They have a simple catch--black cats with bells--and the designs are nicely executed and memorable.

If I had one complaint, it’s that they maybe seems a tad unfocused in the backend of things. They’re dark types, but have a bunch of “cutesy” moves, and it’s not clear why’d they be dark apart from being black cats. They seem to have a magical girl vibe (Bellboyant looks a bit like Luna from Sailor Moon, which is probably not a coincidence), which also has nothing to do with the bells or the dark theme. I do think that the designs themselves are fine though, and that if you just focused on the sound concept a hair more you’d have a pretty great Pokemon.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not entirely sure, these definitely would’ve been popular. Might’ve just been a balancing thing, or it lost the dev popularity contest. 

Pokes to fill the void: Skitty kind of has the same vibe as Rinring. They also remind me a bit of the Meowth line, being cat Pokemon with metal attached to them. The Purrloin line takes over the “dark-type cat” aspect.

Bomseel

I’m torn on this one. On the one hand, it’s a very plain looking Pokemon. The idea of it balancing a fireball/bomb on its nose instead of a ball is clever and memorable enough... except that it’s dependent on it being on that pose. It can’t balance that 24/7, and once it stops all you’re left with is a plain sea lion with dark points.

However, it’s fire/water. The only fire/water we have right now is a legendary, so it would be sweet to have one that’s just a regular poke. So it’s not that the concept itself is bad, using a water-based animal and adding a fire type; it’s just more that the execution is lackluster. Give this guy a hook not related to the fireball and make the seal itself more interesting and I think you’d have something here.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Lack of interesting design

Pokes to fill the void: Volcanion is our only fire/water Pokemon for now. In terms of seals/sea lions with a circus theme, Popplio is a decent enough match.

Tigrette/Electiger

Someone at Gamefreak hates tigerballs, because this line was planned for Gen 1, scrapped, then planned for Gen 2 and scrapped again. Which is strange, because while it’s not the best design it’s not bad either. It’s very very cute, and could definitely find an audience.

However, I’m not really sure what the premise is here. If it’s based on tiger clay bells, then it doesn’t really play into the bell theme much at all. And if it’s not... why is it so round? It’s not that the roundness is bad, but it would usually form the hook for this Pokemon, like it collects static electricity in its fur that makes it puff out or something. Maybe some dex descriptions would’ve made this clearer, who knows.

Also, Electiger is literally the exact same design as Tigrette, just bigger. It would either need a completely new final evolution or would need to show up as a single evo. 

While that sounds harsh, I do really like this design. Fix the evo, figure out/build on the hook of it being round or bell like, and maybe refine the markings a touch and it would be pretty perfect.

Possible reason for being scrapped: Not sure. Might’ve been too similar to Pikachu (both being yellow round electric type Pokemon with zig-zag tails, and og fat Pikachu was also very round). The need to rework the evolution also might’ve turned GameFreak off of it.

Pokes to fill the void: Spheal and Rowlet are both pleasantly round. Pikachu is cute and electric themed in a similar way. In terms of tigers, Raikou is also electric-type. The exact way the stripes are done here is also very similar to Litten.

Kurstraw/Pangshi

GameFreak. GameFreak, you are telling me that we almost had a voodoo-doll Pokemon based off of Ushi-no-Toki-Mairi that evolves into a fucking jiangshi panda?? You are killing me here.

A few interesting things to note here:

Kurstraw evolves at level 1. How? Why? No idea. It could just be a placeholder, but...

The fact that Kurstraw was set to have Curse as its signature move (then called “nail”) and that it only learned this move at level 100 makes it evolving at level 1 seem intentional.

To make things more confusing, it almost seems like (and this is speculation on my part) GameFreak’s intention was to encourage players to not evolve this thing. Stats are comparable, Kurstraw only gets its signature move if you level it up to where it can’t evolve, and Kurstraw has the better moveset (getting frigging destiny bond at lv. 16, while Pangshi gets... splash (which. makes more sense when you consider it’s called “hop” in Japan but it’s still useless). If that was what they were aiming for, then that’s a really unique mechanic that would really make this poke stand out.

Design wise, Kurstraw is... well, it’s a doll with a nail rammed through it. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not very Pokemon-ish. Meanwhile, Pangshi is maybe a little too much like a Jianshi rather than being reminiscent of one, right down to the little hat. The pose, fangs, and panda colors (which resemble Jiangshi mandarin robes) are more than enough to get the hook across.

What I really love about these two are the expressions. They are just like, so dissonantly happy. Kurstraw is literally like

and Pangshi has the dead-eyed thousand-yard stare of Espurr, except unlike Espurr it looks completely and utter deranged. It looks like if this Pokemon ended up in Mystery Dungeon, it would respond to every question with “my favorite color is blood”. Amazing.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I think these two might’ve been scrapped just because they were too scary. I mean, it’s a voodoo doll impaled on a giant nail that evolves into a literal actual corpse. The implied violence was probably just a bit much for GameFreak.

The reason I think this is, beside the fact that they have fairly solid designs, good hooks, and all of their stats and moves in place, most beta Pokemon have had their premises revisited at some point. But we’ve really never gotten a voodoo doll Pokemon since this, and we definitely haven’t gotten any jiangshi Pokemon either, which suggests the problem lied in the very concept rather than the execution.

Pokes to fill the void: People say that Kurstraw was reworked into Banette, but if anyone Pokemon resembles it to be, it would actually be Mimikyu. They both have cloth bodies with drawn-on smiley faces that resemble something cuter than them and they both want to curse you for existing.

For Pangshi... well, there’s Pancham if you’re looking for tiny pandas. If you’re after a jiangshi though, you’re out of luck.

Wolfman/Warwolf

This Pokemon has a great hook. I mean, a Pokemon that wears a pelt that transforms it into a werewolf? Hell yeah. Not to mention it might be a reference to an obscure Nordic tale about people donning wolf pelts to turn into wolves for ten days.

Design wise, it... well, Wolfman looks almost exactly like Venonat. I’m not the only one who sees this, right?

That aside, I think the idea could be played up a little more. Wolfman is fine, save for its Venonat-ishness, but Warwolf doesn’t do much for me, basically just being a larger version with claws and fangs. If the idea is that it turns into a werewolf by wearing the pelt, what if its evolution looked somewhat like a wolf? Or better yet, the actually body of the thing changes to fill the wolf skin more, so it looks like its a part of it? That would really elevate this Pokemon to a new level.

Possible reason for being scrapped: I’d guess that it’s the same problem as Kurstraw and Pangshi--too scary. I mean, that is a dead pelt of some kind, which means that it killed and skinned some kind of Pokemon, and that’s not getting into questions of what Pokemon they got that from.

It’s also worth noting that when we did finally get a werewolf Pokemon via Lycanroc, it was minus the pelt concept.

Pokes to fill the void: Lycanroc as our werewolf Pokemon. In terms of design, Venonat is very similar as noted above. And something about it really reminds me of Snorunt, being little critters with glowing eyes that wear a cloak of some kind and live in the cold (this line was ice-type).