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remnantoforario · 4 years

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Remnant’s Top Ten Anime of 2020

2020 Was certainly a ride wasn’t it? To those that managed to make to make it through in one piece, or any piece, good job. Hopefully 2021 is better to us all.

Despite the world mostly being on fire, I’d hazard to say that a lot of good shows came out in 2020 (despite a number of them being delayed to either later in the year or this year altogether). I meant to release this list much earlier, but I kept changing it around.

Anyway, here are the ones I thought were the best.

Honorable Mentions:

Dorohedoro

Synopsis: The plot centers on a man named Caiman and his search for his real identity after a transformation by a sorcerer left him with a reptile's head and no memory of his former life.

Along with his friend Nikaido, he violently assaults sorcerers in the Hole, with the aim of taking their heads into his mouth, where a strange face will appear and confirm whether the sorcerer he has bitten onto was the one responsible for his transformation or not.

As the residents of the Hole, the En family and the Cross-Eyes gang, along with many others, collide with one another, the mystery of Caiman's identity begins to unravel, reigniting ancient grudges and threatening to forever change both the Hole and the sorcerers' world.

Thoughts: This is the only Netflix anime I watched this year (I missed out on Great Pretender before the year ended), and I can honestly say I had fun with this one. It’s animation was good, the story was engaging enough, and the characters were all unique (Noi best girl). The one problem I would say with the show is that it can come off as unfocused at times, meandering from one plaot point to another with no real connective tissue.

Still a fun series though.

ID: Invaded

Synopsis: The anime follows the investigations of Narihisago, a renowned detective now in prison, who is tasked with diving into the id wells of various serial killers.

Two years prior to the current events, Narihisago's daughter Muku was brutally murdered by a serial killer, leading Narihisago's wife to commit suicide. These deaths prompted him to hunt down and murder the killer, earning him his prison sentence. He is still depressed and haunted by his wife and daughter's deaths, but also uses this as motivation to take his work seriously and help stop serial killers.

Thoughts: One of a handful of original series that came out this year. This show gave me heavy Inception/Minority Report vibes from both its premise and presentation. It wobbles under the weight of its own concepts towards the end, but it still a fun ride nonetheless.

Gleipnir

Synopsis: The story centers on Shuichi Kagaya, a high school student with an unusual secret. He has the ability to transform into a monster resembling a giant dog mascot costume with a zipper down his back and a large cartoonish smile. After rescuing a strange girl, Claire Aoki, from a warehouse fire, they join each other to search for Claire's older sister, who is assumed to be responsible for the death of their parents.

Thoughts: When the initial rollout for this show began I admit I wasn’t really a fan. I thought it was just going to be a hyper violent, fanservice show. Now in some ways it is that, but if you really look Gleipnir tells a very interesting tale of identity and what it truly means to have a wish granted. The music was pretty good as well, and that’s really something from me as a person who doesn’t pay attention to soundtracks.

Hope this show gets a season 2, but if not I’ll more than likely start the manga.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Synopsis: Fascinated by the stories of Niké, a witch who traveled around the world, Elaina aspires to take the same course. Her determination of studying books and magic leads to her becoming the youngest apprentice witch to pass the sorcery exam.

However, when Elaina attempts to receive training in order to become a full-fledged witch, she is rejected due to her extraordinary talents until she finds Fran, the "Stardust Witch," whom accepts her. After earning her title, the "Ashen Witch," Elaina begins her exploration around the world, visiting and facing all kinds of people and places.

Thoughts: As a fan of the Light Novels, I was pretty excited when it was announced it was getting an anime. For the most part it didn’t disappoint. Though it skipped most of the stories in the novels, the show still told a few good stories that made for some amazingly animated tv.

Talentless Nana

Synposis: In the near future, mysterious monsters known as the "Enemies of Humanity" begin to appear, and with it so do children with supernatural powers called the "Talented". To prepare them for the upcoming battle against these Enemies, all the Talented are sent to a school located on a deserted island, where they have all their daily needs provided for until they graduate and communication with the outside world is forbidden.

One day, a new student named Nana Hiiragi arrives at the school. Her friendly and cheerful personality lets her quickly make friends with the class. However, with Nana comes a whole litany of mysterious occurrences on the island.

Thoughts: I can’t say too much about Nana without spoiling it’s first episode twist, but I will say that its a pretty interesting show with a fairly compelling game of cat and mouse being played.

Now on the the actual list:

10. The Misfit of Demon King Academy

Synopsis: After 2,000 years of countless wars and strife, the demon king Anos Voldigoad made a deal with the human hero, Kanon, to sacrifice his own life to ensure peace could flourish. Reincarnating 2,000 years later, Anos finds that royal demons now harshly rule over lower class hybrid demons in a society that values Anos's pureblood descendants over the demons who interbred with other species, such as humans and spirits.

Finding that magic as a whole has begun to decline and his descendants weaker as a result of the peace he created, Anos, now technically a hybrid himself, decides to reclaim his former title of Demon King, but first, he must graduate from the Demon King Academy where he is labeled a total misfit.

Thoughts: Originally I was going to put Nana in this spot, but its lack of a real ending pushed it out of the list. If only slightly. Misft at Demon Academy is just a fun ride from start to finish. There’s always something about shows with ridiculous OP protagonists (Overlord, One Punch Man, etc.) that gets the blood pumping.

It’s like junk food. Great for the right moment, but not needed all the time.

9. Ikebukuro West Gate Park

Synopsis: A charismatic troubleshooter tries to keep the peace between warring factions while protecting his loved ones in Ikebukuro West Gate Park.

Thoughts: I honestly had no idea what to make of this show when I first saw the synopsis, but I gave it a try on a whim. I’m glad I did because this was easily the dark horse of the Fall season. I really liked the mostly self contained story format the series had, and there were a few very good episodes here. Check it out.

8. My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Synopsis: Catarina Claes, the young daughter of a noble family, one day bumps her head and regains memories of her past life as an otaku. It is then that she realizes she has been reborn into the world of the otome game Fortune Lover, reincarnated as the game's villainess who, regardless of what route the player took in the original game, is doomed to be either killed or exiled.

In order to avoid these routes that lead to doom, Catarina begins taking countermeasures to try and avoid things going the same way as the game. This, however, ends up having unexpected consequences on her relations with the other characters of the game's world.

Thoughts: Normally I’m not a fan of Reverse/Otome harem series, but somehow Bakarina managed to pull me in, to a good result. This show was easily one of the best comedies I watched this year with a good cast and a likable protagonist.

7. Deca-Dence

Synopsis: In the fortress city of Deca-dence, the lowly Tanker girl, Natsume, dreams of becoming a Gear warrior following her father's death during a Gadoll attack. She is assigned to a maintenance team led by Kaburagi whom she discovers is more than he appears. Kaburagi has a secret role in eliminating "bugs", humans who threaten Solid Quake's operations.

When Kaburagi discovers that Natsume is listed as dead in the company database, he decides to keep her under observation and offers to train her to fight.

Thoughts: Giant monsters and giant robots. What more do you need? Watch it.

6. A Certain Scientific Railgun T

Synposis: The Daihasei Festival has begun, and that of course means that Tokiwadai Middle School—a prestigious all-girls' middle school—is competing too. Despite the participation of the "Ace of Tokiwadai," Mikoto Misaka, the other students who are participating are still putting their utmost effort into winning, no matter how impossible the feat may seem against her might. However, not all is fun and games. Due to the the festival, Academy City opens to the outside world, and various factions have begun plotting ways to infiltrate the city. Misaka appears to be on their radar, and as the festival proceeds, people lurking from the shadows begin to emerge...

Thoughts: Not really much to say here. It’s the third season of Railgun, but good thing here is that each season of Railgun is better than the last. Truly the best of the To Aru universe.

5. BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense.

Synposis: Urged on by her friend, Kaede Honjō begins playing the VRMMORPG NewWorld Online under the name Maple. Not wanting to get hurt, Maple opts to be a shield user with maxed out defense stats, and continues putting every status point she earns in the game into increasing only her defense level.

As a result, she is left with slow foot speed and no magic, but her high defense allows her to endure most hits without taking any damage. This, along with her basic-level creative thinking, allows for her to make unexpected accomplishments in the game, its quests and events. By doing this, she ends up earning all kinds of equally unexpected skills and becomes one of the strongest players in the game. Thoughts: Bofuri is another OP power fantasy like Demon King Academy, but with the twist of being fused with CGDCT. The cast is extremely likable (especially Maple) and when Silver Link wants to they can make the battles REALLY dynamic. A nice comfortable watch, which was sorely needed in 2020.

4. Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Synposis: The story follows Princess Syalis, a young princess who was kidnapped by the demon king, and her quest to sleep well while imprisoned.

Thoughts: A simple premise for a not so simple story. Sleepy Princess for me was easily the best comedy of the year, with plenty of heart and action thrown in as well. I was wary of the series at first, thinking that the premise wouldnt be entertaining for more than a few episodes, but boy was I wrong. Each episode was funnier than the last and Doga Kobo pulled out all the stops to make it look as gorgeous as possible.

3. Jujutsu Kaisen

Synopsis: Idly indulging in baseless paranormal activities with the Occult Club, high schooler Yuuji Itadori spends his days at either the clubroom or the hospital, where he visits his bedridden grandfather. However, this leisurely lifestyle soon takes a turn for the strange when he unknowingly encounters a cursed item. Triggering a chain of supernatural occurrences, Yuuji finds himself suddenly thrust into the world of Curses—dreadful beings formed from human malice and negativity—after swallowing the said item, revealed to be a finger belonging to the demon Sukuna Ryoumen, the "King of Curses." Yuuji experiences first-hand the threat these Curses pose to society as he discovers his own newfound powers. Introduced to the Tokyo Metropolitan Jujutsu Technical High School, he begins to walk down a path from which he cannot return—the path of a Jujutsu sorcerer.

Thoughts: Originally I wasn’t going to put this on the list, because the season doesnt conclude this year, but I decided to make an exception since the show started so strong. Many people were hyping this up as the next big shonen, and they were right. Mappa really went balls to the wall with this show and I’m pretty hype for what happens this cour.

2. Akudama Drive

Synopsis: The bustling metropolis of Kansai, where cybernetic screens litter the neon landscape, may seem like a technological utopia at first glance. But in the dark alleys around the brightly-lit buildings, an unforgiving criminal underbelly still exists in the form of fugitives known as "Akudama." No stranger to these individuals, Kansai police begin the countdown to the public execution of an infamous Akudama "Cutthroat," guilty of killing 999 people. However, a mysterious message is sent to several elite Akudama, enlisting them to free Cutthroat for a substantial amount of money. An invisible hand seeks to gather these dangerous personas in one place, ensuring that the execution is well underway to becoming a full-blown bloodbath.

Thoughts: Want to know what it would be like if Quentin Tarantino made an anime? Well here you go. An adrenaline filled rollercoaster ride from start to finish with a crazy cast of characters and even crazier visuals. There’s even a bit of social commentary in there if you squint.

1. Oregairu Climax

Synopsis: Resolved to become a more independent person, Yukino Yukinoshita decides to smoothen things out with her parents, and the first step toward achieving that goal is to prove herself. As graduation draws closer for the third-year students, Iroha Isshiki—the president of the student council—requests a graduation prom in collaboration with the Volunteer Service Club. Yukino accepts this request of her own volition, hoping to use it as a chance to demonstrate her self-reliance, but what lies ahead of her may prove to be a hard hurdle to cross.

At the same time, a chance for the Volunteer Service Club members to better understand each other presents itself. And thus, Hachiman Hikigaya's hectic and bittersweet high school life begins to draw to a close.

Thoughts: The gif says it all really. I could just leave that there and end this list on a somewhat high note, but I’ll explain it.

Now objectively, there were better shows than this one (off the top of my head JJK comes to mind) but when you combine all three seasons there is no contest in my mind that Oregairu had one of the most perfect endings to a series I have ever seen.

It was an ending 7 years in the making. The first season in 2013 was good, the second season two years later was even better, but Climax was Oregairu at is absolute best and that goes beyond the story and characters. A lot of praise also has to go to Studio feel., who took over animation duties from Brain’s Base in season 2. While BB’s animation was much more accurate to the LN, feel’s more realistic designs fit the more mature direction the story was starting to go, giving the anime some of its best moments.

Watching Hachiman, Yukino, and Yui grow and change from naive teenagers to somewhat understood young adults was amazing and sometimes heartbreaking to watch. Hachiman’s search to find something “genuine”, Yukino’s desire to be independent, and Yui struggling with her feelings of love and friendship all clash and compliment in very interesting ways that makes these three characters even more relatable than they were before.

Lots of long running series don’t stick to landing, but in my eyes Oregairu stuck it perfectly. That’s why its my favorite anime of 2020.

Here’s to 2021.

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asherlockstudy · 3 years

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I sometimes wonder why it seems like the two of them are on different wavelengths re: fanservice. Early on Rhett (GMCL era) seems preoccupied with applying bro-ettiquette to them even in an era when they were caught in 4k all over each other at diners and restaurants. It's clear to the observer these two guys are closer than bros. At some point Rhett became aware of fandom and especially with his own preoccupation with how he is perceived, with early Rhink fan speculation and fanworks. I get the vibe he was tickled by the existence of this stuff, if only because it is fan content and fan content that implies his desirability, and tangentially his masculinity as he was often especially in early fandom, portrayed in contrast to Link, who even then despite being the more stoic at times, people were picking up on his more gender non conforming attributes (whether from a place of relatability or riddicule). Even though as we know, Rhett is no stranger to putting on some lashes and feeling himself, he also enjoys being compared to the Brawny man in his spare time, and maybe sometimes Link is a too convenient scapegoat for Gay Feelings. 'Don't make it weird' is usually foisted on Link in the text, but the subtext is loaded with times Rhett was clearly into it. Rhett leaned into bits that teased this aspect of their relationship, possibly because he enjoyed the excuse to get closer to Link under the premise of comedy and more recently, trolling, but Link has almost always reacted more inconsistently, sometimes especially if something is scripted, planned or initiated by him he dgaf but when something is spontaneous he shrinks away, pretends to ignore or otherwise attempts to dismiss that gay shit(TM), if it involves Rhett. When it's a male guest or just a compromising position, topic or otherwise could be seen as quare Link is much less self conscious and is recently extremely comfortable. This leads me to believe , along with what you said about Link's need to feel safe in his place beside Rhett, that Link might just have insecurity tangled up in the thought that Rhett would interact with him disingenuously i.e playing to the audience. That he would be making part of their actual relationship 'a bit'. Link is sensitive about how Rhett squeezes his neighbour's shoulder, and weirded out by Rhett adjusting his seatbelt for Pete's sake. It's clear that their rules of what he can expect- their languages of physical intimacy and boundaries between the two of them- are sacrosanct to him. Asking your friend of almost 40 years to go RVing with you, to open up to you more, and having them waffle about it but then enthusiastically/sarcastically pitch the idea of an innuendo-laden Vlog Camping Trip #fortheclicks sounds painful asf. Link's fear of being used instead of wanted. Not to mention, if Link is queer and/or has/had feelings for Rhett that it might feel incredibly painful to have the concept of you two being a couple flouted as some kind of punchline, but one you feel obligated to participate in to keep your optics-obsessed friendsband around. I don't doubt Rhett's actual motives, I think the guy genuinely loves Link (I can't know what type of love that is), and maybe he's a little curious about breaking certain boundaries and exploring new territory as he is inclined to be, and Link just wants to keep things solid between them. I think Rhett is still bad at articulating and even understanding his own feelings and motives and so it comes off as trolling/baiting at the worst. And I think that there's no doubt some issues with masculinity, and a desire to play with those rules in a way that doesn't feel vunerable, and that whole thing is a perfect storm for maybe unintentionally putting Link in an uncomfortable position.

I dunno, I may have just caught the speculation bug but "How am I supposed to act about that again?" haunts me.

Perfectly and very eloquently said.

I agree with everything you wrote and I believe there are even more layers that complicate the situation.

Rhett feels against the viewers like Link feels against (mostly) him. Rhett is caught between exploring his relationship with Link (partly thanks to the viewers’ positive feedback and partly due to his own needs, curiosity and feelings) and feeling overwhelmed by the audience’s voyeuristic tendencies and their intrusion into what he now discovers. Hence, the out-of-nowhere explosion “you won’t get what you want”. His frustration is actually perfectly justifiable - Rhett fears (and he is right) that the audience is an ever changing unreliable beast. They could get criticism and lose their fanbase for the things the very same fanbase would love see them explore for fun. If they went public about how some things turned more serious than their fans expected, many of those very fans could turn their back on them and they would have hurt their business and families irreversibly.

“How do we act about this? I forgot” Evidence of an extra layer in their relationship: that of Mythical and all their employees. Rhett and Link probably keep several different profiles of their relationship depending on their surroundings. One for the viewers, on as bosses with their employees, one as straight family men and one for when they are alone.

#rhink #Rhett and Link #randl #tw rhink #anon #mail

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anonymouslyangsty · 3 years

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Idea: Escape Room AU. Making a loose interpretation of that one horror movie. Some of the Danganronpa characters are invited to play in an escape room, but find that if they don't solve the puzzles in time the consequences are deadly. Not only that, but each of the rooms are deliberately designed to invoke past traumas of each of the characters. My main motivation? High stress Ishimondo.

YES. 100% yes. You don't know how much I crave action/adventure Ishimondo. Yes domestic fluff is sweet, yes the death game can be intense. But there's something special about people having to actively fight for their lives together, and solving murders just doesn't hit the same.

So yeah I like the idea, it almost gives me YTTD vibes (for those who don't know, Your Turn To Die is like DR but you win puzzles or die. I love it)

(If you're interested, there's a fic that kinda fits this idea. It's Beyond Despair. It's basically "everyone who dies comes back and now they have to do puzzles to survive. I'll try not to take too much inspiration from it for this concept)

But yeah I love this idea. I think things like this do best with smaller groups, so here's an idea: Leon, Hiro, Chihiro, Mondo, and Taka go to an Escape Room over the summer for Mondo's birthday. Then surprise! It's all death trap filled.

Just trying to think of potential rooms on the spot...I warn you that I've only gone heavily into the backstories of Taka and Mondo when it comes to DR1, so I might be missing out on some good ideas.

Hiro has to make a bunch of predictions to stop the others from getting harmed, perhaps a form of Russian Roulette. If he predicts where the bullet is incorrectly, he ends up shooting someone. He's probably not aiming for anything vital just in case, but it would still suck.

Not sure how this relates to trauma. Maybe he messed up an important prediction, and that led to someone getting seriously hurt?

Chihiro's great issue is weakness, which he tries to overcome. So maybe his room is having to hack something with a timer, where failing to do so in time leads to everyone burning alive. It would test his mental fortitude.

Or we could go the physical strength path. Like a situation where the solution is in an area so small that only Chi can enter, but something inside has to be forcefully pulled open. So Chi has to find the strength to do it, either by outsmarting the trap, or pure strength.

Or maybe it's both? Chi has to show both mental and physical strength to pass the trial.

Mondo has his own issues with strength, not to mention his guilt for the whole Daiya thing. Maybe he gets put into a situation where he alone can solve the puzzle, but cannot act. Instead, he has to tell the others what to do.

Think something like the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. The basic premise of that game is: there are two players, one with a manual, and another with a bomb. The player with the manual has to instruct the other player on how to defuse the bomb. The player with the bomb cannot see the manual.

And that would be pretty stressful for Mondo. He isn't confident in his intelligence, so having to solve the puzzle alone would already be a problem. Plus there's the fear that he'll fail his friends, that he'll mess up and get them all killed.

For Leon...I'll admit that I don't have a solid idea for him. He wants to leave baseball and become a musician, right? So I'm not really sure how to infuse that desire into his room.

Plus I don't want to make his room just "hit this target to escape" because he can probably do that really easily...But it still needs to be involved with his talent in some way.

Here's an idea. It's not ideal because I'm not sure how well it fits into his character, but at least it includes his talent in a way that won't be horribly easy for him.

The group has to play a game of baseball, Leon vs everyone else (sure the teams are uneven, but Leon's the best baseball player around, so it's fair).

The game has to end with 12 home runs (why 12? there's a dumb reason.). For each point the enemy team gets, the other team is punished somehow. Each punishment is worse than the last.

Leon is a way better player than all of them combined, so it's not about him winning. It's about him deciding who gets hurt. Does he save himself, or save the others? It's a game of selfishness vs selflessness. Not to mention a delicate balance of ensuring nobody's too hurt to keep going.

As for the punishments, we could add another layer of selfish vs selfless actions. Maybe the losing team has to decide among themselves who takes the punishment, or they can all agree to take a slightly less harmful version of it.

And Taka. I'm...not sure? His character is all about morality, but Leon's trial kind of has that covered. There's also his role as a leader, but Mondo's trial covers that. Whatever the case, I'm just going to throw out ideas.

First thought is to focus on Taka's passion and strong work ethic. Think of it as kinda the opposite of Mondo's proposed trial. Taka's placed on some kind of pedestal that leaves him about 8 inches from the ceiling. On top of the ceiling is some kind of button, just far enough away that he has to reach to touch it.

While he's up there, everyone has...some kind of puzzle to solve. I don't know what honestly, probably some moral dilemma or something to keep on theme.

Now here's the point of this trial. Around the beginning of the room, Taka's shot with like half a dose of sedative. Not enough to knock him out, but enough to make the process of reaching up to hold a button pretty hard. Whenever he isn't pressing the button, water starts filling the room. If he passes out, they all drown.

This trial places him in a position of power, as everyone is relying on him to stay strong despite the struggle he's facing. And it's the opposite of Mondo's trial because he has no agency. He can't really help solve the puzzle, all he can do is keep that button held. But it's also similar to Mondo's trial because, if he falters, everyone dies.

The downside to this option is that it has nothing to do with morality. Mondo could just as easily have this trial, since it's more about hard work and strength.

Another option is something that focuses far more on morality. I'm not sure of the details, but perhaps it's a situation where he has to decide who of his friends to hurt to help everyone escape. And he wants to find a solution that leaves everyone unharmed, but that very well might not be possible.

Or maybe something like the prisoner's dilemma? (In very basic terms, you have prisoners A and B. If A and B trust each other, they both escape. If one betrays the other, the one who betrayed escapes with some extra benefit. If both betray, both get nothing.)

In this hypothetical situation, perhaps this is the last trial, just long enough for little resentments within the group to build. For the stress of the situation to make friendship become overshadowed by self preservation. Can they really trust one another to do the right thing, or will they get betrayed?

This is more morality related, but it's also not specific to Taka. Taka doesn't play a lead role, they all do, since they all have to face the dilemma.

Final idea, and admittedly the least formed one. They’re in...some kind of puzzle, with a timer of course because we need the pressure to be one. In the room with them is someone none of them know, bound and gagged.

They can spend time trying to solve the puzzle the hard way, or they can do it the easy way. But the easy way means killing the captive (Maybe they have a key in their stomach or something). And you want to do the right thing, but there's a timer and the moral option takes so much longer.

Taka continues his role as moral compass for this trial. He has to be the one to declare if they go the easy option. If he choose it, he personality has to get the key. There's a knife provided for the task

It could feed on Taka's fears of corruption and morality. Is it better to sacrifice one to save the group? Is he being selfish for trying to save a stranger rather than his friends? Taka has a very black and white view on morality, and this trial would force him to shatter that.

It could also lead into a fear that he'll become just as corrupt as Toranosuke. After all, if he can't solve this trial without any deaths, how can he be a good man?

Honestly? While I called this one the least formed, I think I like it the most. It's a real moral dilemma.

#kiyotaka ishimaru #hiro hagakure #mondo owada #chihiro fujisaki #leon kuwata #danganrompa #also #thank yall for dealing with my slow response time #an ask tag

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Tex Avery Birthday Spectacular!

Hello all you happy people! And welcome to a celebration of the only cartoon director I knew as a kid and one of the finest whose ever lived, Mr. Tex Avery.

Avery is a legend in the animation industry and rightly so. Starting out at a few other studios, and loosing sight in one of his eyes due to some tomfoolery at one, Tex was annoyed with the restrctive enviorment and eventually found his way to Termite Terrace, the animated shorts wing of Leon Schislenger Productions, aka the future Warner Brothers Studios and the makers of Looney Tunes. And his impact on the franchise is vast, cannot be overstated and I only learned about just how much recently: The man created Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, created the prototype for Elmer Fudd, and created the design for Porky we’re all far more familiar with.

Eventually though while he was happy there, his career when ended when he eventually got into a squabble with Leon schsinger over the ending of “The Heckling Hare” and left soon after. Given he got a four week unpaid suspension for it , a bit extreme given all he’d given the studio, I can’t blame him. He instead went over to MGM who badly needed his wacky energy, and thus got to go as nuts as he wanted, with creative control a better budget and the result was his peak and classic characters like Red and my personal faviorite and personal boy: Droopy. I will try and do a birthday thing for him next month, we’ll see if my rather packed schedule will allow for it. Point is I watched the guys cartoons a lot as a kid between looney tunes and his shorts being repacked for the Tex Avery show in the late 90′s, and until recently I had no idea the depth and scope of his career: The guy gave looney tunes it’s standard fourth walll breaking and made it a huge part of the industry, and he was the one to hlep htem break out of being a Disney knockoff and into what we know today. The guy has my utmost respect so today I honor him as the first animator to get one of my birthday specials: As is my standard ten shorts, my patreons get to pick one each (I now have two but she start’s next month so her benefits will too) if they so choose (Kev opted out of the porky pig one next week) and I went to my friend blah for a recomendation as he’s an avid fan of the golden age of animation and thus usually has a really good choice up his sleeve. Now that’s out of hte way join me under the cut for some shenanigans as old tex would want it that way.

1. The Gold Diggers of 49 (1935)

This was Tex Avery’s first short with warner and the first of his I could find, not ot mention his first time working with Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, who he’d mentor and go on to be the heart and soul of Looney Tunes and define the characters Tex created. And since this is more significant than his earlier work i’m coutning it as his first. And as a start it’s.. ehhhhhhh.

I don’t blame him for it though. Most don’t hit it out of hte park their first time up to bat, and frankly the deck was stacked against him. He was saddled with Beans the Cat...

No one brak no one. He was part of an attempt by warner to create a new star as part of a Little Rascals/Our Gang style group of kids debuting in the short “I Haven’t Got a Hat”. This short is notable not for Beans, who no one cares about, but for the debut of Looney Tunes first star: Porky Pig. Porky was just one of the various characters but the only one audiences really liked. It took some time for Warner to get the hint though, hence Beans starring here and Porky playing his girlfriend’s father.. and also now being much older than him for some reason.

So instead of being a Little Rascals ripoff bean is now a mickey mouse ripoff, as the short gives me mickey mouse vibes.. but without the things that made those shorts actually good and feels mostly built on studios trying to make what they think audiences will like. There’s sparks of waht Tex would become.. but just not enough wiggle room for him to make something special. Also porky looks and sounds weird in this one and Bean’s girlfriend has a REALLY annoying voice. Oh and two horrible Asian stereotypes, because it was acceptable at the time but lord was it never okay. Then again I should be at least mildly greatful none of the shorts had blackface.. because tex apparently REALLY had a problem with that, something I obviously didn’t know as a kid as they edited it out but given most of his MGM shorts have “blackface edited out of x version”, yeahhh.... I may like the guy, quite a bit and feel those gags weren’t done out of malice.. but it dosen’t make them okay, they were never okay and he should’ve done better.

2. I Love to Singa (1936) Thankfully our next entry is 800% better, as we get a classic from my childhood and probably multiple childhoods. Admittedly part of the reason this one stuck in my head is the title song, sung by a young jazz singing owl whose dad doesn’t like that he sings Jazz instead of classical, enters a contest and nearly looses singing classical to please his dad only for his dad to intervene and finally accept his son. It’s a wonderful story of acceptance with some decent gags, beautiful animation and one hell of a title track that will probably never leave my head. The song is really what makes this short and sometimes that’s okay. Also just to note so someone else doesn’t: This short was a parody of the Jazz Singer one of the first talkie’s.. and also a film that uses blackface and whose 80′s remake bafflingly also uses blackface for some reason. Yes really.

3. Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)

One of Tex’s only four Bugs Shorts.. but given 3/4 of them are certified classics, and one of them involving a horrible stereotype.. to the point it’s part of the rightfully infamous “Censored 11″ and the ONLY one involving Bugs Bunny.

So as I said, Tex has a bad history with casual racism, and while it was the style at the time and I don’t THINK he was actively malicious towards black people.. it doesn’t make some of his work any less harmful. The rest of his bugs work though is remembered for the right reasons: his first appearance, and early classic we’ll get to next.. and this standout everyone who saw it as a kid or an adult fondly remembers.

You all know the premise: Bugs finds out, in an utterly brilliant wall shattering bit at the start where he reads off the crew names and then the title, that this picture will have him beaten by a turtle and taking offense to that challenges the guy. This is honestly one of the few Bugs shorts where he’s the out and out villain of the picture. He’s doing this race purely out of ego, yells at Cecil whose perfectly nice in this one, and in general is the bully set up for a fall he’d later be famous for taking on. But it works, both because this si early in bugs career so it’s entirely in character, and because Mel just really sells the obnoxiousness while still being funny.

This short also has one of Tex’s trademark setups as this is essentially a prototypical droopy cartoon: A meek, goofy voiced protagonist whose shorter than his large obnoxious enemy and who torments him by showing up every where he’s going to be and casually doing it. Cecil even does so using an army of fellow turtles with Droopy later using a similar trick in one of his shorts. As a big Droopy fan i’m clearly not complaining and while Droopy would do it better, this short’s still a classic for a reason with tons of great bits and is a fun break from the usual bugs setup, though in full fairness the usual bugs setup is still solid gold so take that how you will.

4. The Heckling Hare (1941)

Originally I was going to have Daffy in Hollywood in this spot as I thought it was on Max, it was not, so I swapped it out with his final bugs cartoon. For the record his first, and Bugs, is being saved for Bugs birthday this summer. And honestly i’m glad I did because this was 7 mintues of pure joy that has another setup that Tex himself and other Looney Tunes animators would resuuse: Bugs being pitted up against a far dumber antagonist. One who often still fully deserves it but allows him to just have fun for several minutes at this dumb bastard’s expense. It works well here, with tons of clever gags, my faviorite being the two doing dumb faces with each other only for bugs to stop and pull out a sign as seen right above.

It’s also an approriate capper to our warner made Tex shorts for the day, as this would be the one that got him fired. He and Schisnger argued over it and he got suspended as I mentioned and I found it again a bit fucking extreme. So did Tex and after a handful of shorts elsewhere, he’d move over to MGM, whose cartoons would ironically be bought up by warner. They needed a shot in the arm to compete with Disney and Warner and Tex was happy to provide hte needle filled with nonsense. And the results.. are pure gold.

5. Dumb Hounded (1943)

I’ll admit as a kid I didn’t know Tex’s MGM shorts were theatrical, or any shorts but somehow I knew they weren’t looney tunes. Besidds obviously having hteir own show they just had their own tone and pacing and style. While the Looney Tunes aren’t bad, at all honestly, Tex’s work here was in a class by itself with MGM gladly giving him a higher budget and even more creative freedom. And the results speak for themselves and one of those results is one of if not my faviorite classic cartoon character. And since I might not be able to get to his birthday with one of these next month, though i’m certainly going to try march is just VERY VERY FULL. Anyways point is our happy hero was introduced here. And given i’m frequently depressed and often withdrawn, not that you could tell from my reviews here, I related to this depressed bulldog who always won anyway despite being an outsider, finding love, sucess and always beating a much larger, much more assholish antagonist. But Droopy is good on his own merits as his shorts are just that funny.

This was true from Day One as dumb hounded is fucking perfect: The Wolf that Avery always used in his cartoons escapes from jail and is hunted by bloodhounds including our boy, who charmingly introduces himself with “You know what, i’m the hero”. From there it’s a simple setup but a great one as Droopy finds the guy.. then chases him from here to enternity with one amazing gag after another. Simple, utterly hilarious and the dawn of a legend, with the ending having Droopy go a bit nuts after getting his reward money before returning to his usual demeanor “You know what? I’m happy” So am I bud, so am I.

6. Red Hot Riding Hood (1943)

Yup same year. Tex hit the ground sprinting. This one is his signature MGM toon and for good reason. Using his usual forth wall breaking style, both the wolf and red riding hood rebel when it opens with a typical telling, so it changes to a 40′s nightlife setting: Grandma lives in a penthouse and is man hungry, Red is a fanservicey night club act and the Wolf is a sexually harassing asshole who chases after here and has some over the top reactions to her that are iconic in some’s mind.

The short is gorgeously animated with Red’s dance sequence and Wolfie’s reactions being the highlight and the short isn’t as bad as it could be as the wolf is treated as a scumbag for hitting on her and generally being a creep. SO the first two thirds aren’t bad with nice touches like the narrator clearly improvising the new story. It’s just badly hampered by the last half where Grandma sexually harasses Wolfie and it just doesn’t work. This double standard stuff annoys me and “haha get it it’s funny when a woman stalks a man” isn’t funny. Wolfie stalking her really isn’t that funny either it’s just not you know an entire third of the film. So a classic for a reason.. but one that really has degraded with time. Still worth analyzing and what not, just not great.

7. Who Killed Who? (1943)

Yes still. It was a good year. This is another one off like Red Hot Riding Hood and as is tradition since the Tom and Jerry one, my patreons each get to pick one and Kev selected this one. And this.. was a great choice.

Seriously I could not stop laughing with a great gag a minute, WAY too many to mention, a classic ending, and just nothing but net the whole time. I don’t have much to say really.. but because this one’s just good. The whodunnit genre hasn’t really gone away, it’s cliches are welll known even today and this is a lovely parody of it that hits the ground running after a live action intro and runs right through the wall across a lake and straight into droopy “You moved.”.

The only real observation I have other than “This is fucking awesome watch it immediately” is that the villian looks exactly like the Phantom Blot. Who knew the Phantom Blot was a live action guy with a weird haircut the whole time huh? Seriously this one is a masterpiece, an instant faviorite, and I highly recommend it.

8. Screwball Squirrel (1944)

As you can probably guess by how I lead it in this one is not very good. It is tex TRYING to make a bugs or daffy type character again and somehow failing at it. He created them, he did plenty of shorts like theirs with other characters and got how the cat and mouse antics of the old theatrical shorts worked.. so I have no idea how this one happened.

I’m really not overselling it: The short is about Screwy, who hyjacks it from a cute widdle bunny clearly parodying bambi.. who he beats the shit out of, then decides to get things going asks a dumb dog to hunt him, then insults him to provoke him to attacking him. He then spends the entire short tormenting the poor dumb bastard who again HE PROVOKED. It feels like a poor imitation of dumb hounded, as while Bugs clearly outclassed the dog there, he’d die if he lost, so while he was punching down, he clearly didn’t have a choice and you can’t honestly blame him. Here, Screwy is fine, he just wants someone’s head to fuck with and spends a whole short torturing him. We don’t even get catarsis as while the dog does catch him at the end via weird gag, they end up deciding to beat up the bunny instead.

His voice is also just the worst, just utterly grating and making me wish an anvil woudl fall on HIM instead. Screwy would return for some other shorts but I have no idea why. This was easily the weakest of these ten shorts and I will probably not return to the guy next year.

9. Bad Luck Blackie (1949)

This is one i’d forgotten till I got a ways in. It’s also weirdly one of the only MGM Tex shorts on HBO Max as this was included in the Tom and Jerry collection for some reason, the dog in it clearly isn’t the tom and Jerry verison of spike... though the dog Droopy fought a lot was indeed called spike. Yes that is confusing, no I don’t know why MGM thought this was a good idea.

As a result though I have been saving giving out about this till now but seirously , put the tex avery shorts on HBO Max. Their on Blu-Ray, their on boomerang, especially Droopys. I do not get why they aren’t on here. I’m tired of them holding things out for the boomerang app when not everyone subscirbes to that. Let me have my morose dog dammit.

That giving out aside i’m glad this one caught my eye via i’ts weird name as it’s another masterpiece. It also does what one Tom and Jerry short I reviewed, the one where tom’s a millionare, earlier this month failed to: properly make it’s antagonist loathsome enough to deserve the parade of abuse he gets. With that one Tom is tourturning jerry for like 30 seconds, but Jerry torments him for most of 5 minutes.

Here we get about two minutes of our lead kitten getting torremnted by a mean bulldog. It’s not only still a bit entertaining to lessen the horror just enough to be watchable but not enough to make the bulldog likeable, but it makes what happens for the rest of the short oh so fucking satsifying. While the previous short today really didn’t get the karmic ballance neded for a good classic screwball comedy short this one overwhelmingly does.

Our kitten gets some help in the form of Blackie, a professional black cat who agrees to turn the tables, sauntring across to a wonderfully catchy tune. any time the little guy whistles. The result from there is 5-6 nonstop minutes of comedy genius, as Tex finds new and creative ways for the cat to come out of nowhere, and even shakes things up to keep it intresting towards the end iwth the dog getting the whistle.. only for it to still not work out, and for our little kitten to get his revenge at last by painting himself black after the bulldog paints blackie white. As should be obvious by now, it’s really good, showing Screwball Squirrel was the exception not the rule. In general Tex was this good during his mgm and when he was at his peak we got gems like this. Truly sensational, watch it if you have max it’s under the tom and jerry section for some reason.

10. T.V. of Tommorow A decent one I remember seeing as a kid. Not much to say though, it’s mostly a bunch of gags about “future” tv’s based on their viewer’s needs. Some good stuff.. not as good as most of what was here today but still better than the worst of it and still very memorable and part of a memorable tetralogy i’ll probably come back to when I do Tex’s birthday again next year. Not a bad note to end on though.

Overall these shorts show just how strong a creator tex was, gleefully taking convention and ripping it to tiny pieces. As i’ve mentioned many times i’ll be coming back to his work next year.. and probably be watching a hell ofa lot more in the time between. Might even do a second special on him in between birthday ones. We’ll see how this does. The Tom and Jerry one sadly wasn’t quite the hit I hoped.

Until then I have many other reviews. And since Today (This review is late) was supposed to be the 90′s tom and jerry movie but that turned out not to be on Max for some reason. I still plan to cover it some day i’ll just have to find it and buy it first. But tommorow if I have the time i’ll be continuing the Lena retrospective with an intresting little side trip. So until then, i’ts been a pleasure and you know what? Thanks for reading.

#tex avery #droopy #bugs bunny #porky pig #the gold diggers of 49 #cecil turtle #tortoise beats hare #the heckling hare #tv of tommorow #dumb hounded #red hot riding hood #who killed who #red #spike #bad luck blackie #screwy squirrel #screwball squirrel #owl jolson #I love to singa

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blue-mint-winter · 4 years

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Dune trailer reaction/analysis

Paul’s vision

Paul’s whispering voiceover resembling Lynch’s Dune (also Leto II My skin is not my skin. Something’s changing in him, something’s happening.)

seeing Chani in casual outfit first, very nice. She’s a woman and she’s special to him. Though it is also total opposite of her book introduction in which when Paul first saw her in a stillsuit, he thought she was a young warrior.

kissing scene - looks tender and with chemistry + stillsuit is very prominent in it

the trailer promises an emphasis on their romance in the film which is good because this wasn’t done well before in previous adaptations (or the book itself lol because they just got together and that was it, no extra drama.)

the eyes of Ibad! and she calls him - his destiny calls

he wakes up in the dark, and the headboard of his bed is gorgeous!

also this is literally “The sleeper must awaken”

but the contrast between the dream full of light and waking in the dark bedroom, mmmm nice

“there’s a crusade coming” - Paul knows what’s up, the vision of him looking at war and devastation with Chani is very foreboding - AND it doesn’t say what’s this war about and who’s fighting which is a clever set up - if you don’t know the book, then you know all of it XD. But this gives the plot the sense of mystery and danger and stakes.

GOM JABBAR

I am gushing over the symmetry of that shot in the dark room, with Paul at the center and HIS LEGS. Look how he’s standing!

His face when she asks him about his dreams!

that Atreides sign on the collar! He looks so good!

“From director Denis Villeneuve” and the cut to above clouds and a lightning - a storm is coming. Also a shot VERY reminiscent of his work on Arrival and those clouds.

The most famous, iconic, first scene of the book is in the trailer - well, it makes sense to use it to get people interested.

I LOVE Gaius Helen Mohiam’s costume design in this. I think it might be the best ever. Also, her voice, her acting, it all fits. She’s mysterious, hides her face, she’s dangerous, she’s fast, sharp, dangerous, wise. It is her.

Caladan

Flying boxes - ships/drones/tech because this is still the future despite the feudal system

Paul on the shore on Caladan

I really LIKE the music here. Gives me PoP vibes :)

Anyway, the whole idea of making Caladan the total opposite of Arrakis by making it so dark - that’s different than what I’m used to. I always imagined it as a very green, fertile world, abundant with water, life and plants. Traditionally Giedi Prime is the dark planet. BUT I can see the logic behind making Caladan so sunless, cloudy, water and stone kind of planet - illustrates the stark military nature of Atreides rule just as well as Paul’s uniform-style clothing. They are war-like. And it is very opposite to the scorching sun of Arrakis and lack of water on the desert. And the similar austerity of both is thematically appealing. We get a sense from those surroundings and gom jabbar scene that Paul wasn’t just a duke’s spoiled son.

“You inherited too much power” - hmm, that does sound ominous, GHM wants him gone!

THAT training scene with Gurney!!!!!!

first of all, the actor looks just right, I think it’s Josh Brolin? I like that I didn’t immediately think Thanos when I saw him, instead I recognized it’s Gurney!

They made the fight FAST!!! And it looks awesome! The issue is that in the book those fights are slow because they use the energy shields, but it would look stupid on film, so instead making it fast was a stroke of genius - visually great and also makes you think the characters are total badasses (which they are)

Is Paul looking at a sunrise or a sunset over the ocean? My guess is sunrise, but it’s pretty ambiguous, could be either and fit the theme of him leaving Caladan/beginning his journey towards destiny. And he looks so handsome in this shot.

Atreides Family

Paul needs to surpass his ancestors - and the shot on some ancient sculpture with Greek writing referring to the mythical Atreides he’s descended from. Awesome, really awesome since his powers as Kwisatz Haderach are based on the ancestors.

Oscar Isaac introduced as Duke Leto and the shot of the palace on Caladan - nice, looks very much like fortress, surrounded by sea and protective stone

Greek style pottery in the palace too

Jessica too! she looks worried

seems that Leto is putting a hand on her nape, an intimate gesture but also kind of... possessive?

Arrakis

They arrive, Paul smiles

more foreboding despite everything looking fine, they have an army, they look strong and prepared

freaking Jason Momoa as Duncan greeting Paul LOL - but this had a right, genuine emotion to it. Very nicely done.

Stilgar! Harkonnen troops! Rabban! Baron!

Doctor Yueh, at last

More foreboding and Duncan being Duncan, but Jason Momoa style - he’s kind of “if Ronon was cocky and loud”. Alright. I had concerns about him, but he might work out in this role. I just don’t see him as a heartthrob knight type honestly. Really wonder how he and Jessica would be done. And I don’t know about him and Alia or the ghola fuckery in later books. (They would have to get a different actor for Duncan in Heretics, there’s no way Momoa could work.)

Paul in stillsuit, ok.

Back to gom jabbar and Chani - he sees she’s real!

The chorus sounds good with the explosions

Ornithopters look like dragonflies, I like it.

Baron... in a bath??? Is it spice bath?

some other iconic scenes from the book only hinted but who knows, knows what they are :)

SHAI-HULUD!!!

Paul in full stillsuit gives me life. Cover up completely, because you gotta save all the water

Final thoughts

This is an amazing trailer. THE HYPE IS REAL. This movie might be the definitive Dune adaptation. I love the visuals, costumes, scenery, designs, cinematography, music. Actors seem to fit well in their roles. Especially Paul rocks.

The focus on Paul and his journey is good, but I am a little worried about Jessica, because she’s barely in the trailer and in the book she’s the character we start with. She’s a co-protagonist and I would hate for her to get sidelined like in Lynch’s film. I am hoping they’re saving her for the best.

Also, no sight of Alia? Is she going to be in the movie at all? She might not if this is adapting only the first half of the book.

Anyway, I am very excited. As far as trailers go, this was awesome. It gave enough info but didn’t try to explain everything about the world and the characters. We get the basic premise and some of the characters, but it left out most of the surprises. As an ad, this is solid and gives us a taste of what it’s going to be like to watch this movie. Good job, Denis Villeneuve. I knew you could do it.

#dune #dune 2020 #trailer reaction #my thoughts

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ladyloveandjustice · 4 years

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Winter 2020 Anime Overview: Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun

Ok, so let’s get this out of the way first, 1. I adore this story so much and 2. Toilet Bound Hanako-kun has a horrible, horrible English title that is not actually at all representative of the story’s content and I have no idea what happened when it came to the team choosing that name. To the average English-speaking viewer/reader, this name 100% implies gross stuff and bathroom humor, and there is none in this show.

A Japanese reader on the other hand, would be more likely to recognize the name Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun as a spin on the classic ghost story “Hanako-san of the Toilet” only A BOY THIS TIME WHHHHA?” Basically, the story goes that a girl named Hanako in a red skirt haunts girls’ bathrooms in Japanese schools and if you knock on the third stall and call “Hanako-san” three times, she’ll appear. She might grant you a wish or pull you into Hell or something else, it varies.

(Her Wikipedia image, aww.)

Anyway, I dunno why the English title didn’t at least go with “Toilet Ghost Hanako-kun” or something that would have gotten the premise across even a little better (HE NOT TECHNICALLY BOUND BY THE TOILET EVEN, HE CAN GO ANYWHERE IN THE SCHOOL GROUNDS THE BATHROOM IS JUST HIS HOME BASE), but our boy Hanako haunting the girl’s bathroom only leads to broad jokes about our heroine being tasked with cleaning the bathroom and “dude you really shouldn’t be in here” comments, it’s pretty incidental.

Now that THAT’S out of the way, let’s talk about my LOVE FOR THIS STORY

Hanako-kun tells the story of a “regular” high school girl named Nene Yashiro, the mischievous and mysterious school ghost she befriends, and all the other weird monsters, exorcists, spirits and curses they encounter. It’s got a gorgeous, colorful bold aesthetic and art style that combines gothic and cute! It has a great mix of humor, intrigue, angst and fantasy action. basically if you love ghosts, monsters, Japanese mythology and legends, supernatural-human relationships, supernaturally fueled angst and drama, stories about trying to fix an unfair system the world has set up, wistful romance, a good shoujo manga with a Lot of Feelings (yes this is a shonen technically I’ll explain that later), weirdo dorks becoming friends AND MUCH MORE...this story will have something that will resonate with you. It’s got a lot going on, and it’s a ton of fun.

Hanako-kun is really one of those surprising stories that fits right into a hole in my story-loving heart I didn’t realize was still there, or that I’d actually been carrying since childhood. I love ghosts, see, and have since I was a kid!!! I knew this, but I kinda forgot how intensely I love them until this show reminded me again??? That’s because regular ghost stories/mysteries/whatever- I like them, but they don’t quite do it for me in the way more character-driven ones exploring the nature of being a ghost and humans and ghosts trying understand each other etc do. Stuff that really gets into the tragedy AND the fun fantasy aspect of ghosts, and plays the long game with it- and Hanako-kun scratches that itch perfectly.

Getting a little bit deeper into the premise of Hanako-kun, Nene is a very brave and sweet but not-all-that-bright girl (or, to put it more bluntly, she’s an idiot in the best way) who has a lot of romantic fantasies and insecurities and is VERY focused on them. After hearing a rumor at school that “Hanako-san of the bathroom” will grant wishes, she wishes to be able to confess to her crush and finds out its actually a weird ghost boy her age named Hanako haunting the bathroom! A lot of things happen, and she ends up cursed and bound to Hanako-kun, but also ends up slowly forming a friendship.

Turns out Hanako is the ghost in charge of the “seven mysteries/wonders” aka seven powerful supernatural entities that haunt this school (he’s number seven). These apparitions only supposed to terrorize students a LITTLE, because apparitions need to have rumors spread about them to remain in the human world.

(‘HAVE YOU HEARD?’ Oh hey shadow girls from Utena see you’ve moved to a new school.)

The rumors also generally dictate how powerful and dangerous the apparitions actually are- but SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS is changing the rumors around the school and making the apparitions go berserk and actually harm humans. So Hanako needs a human assistant to change the rumors and help him calm and seal the apparitions! That’s where Nene comes in.

Hanako himself is a very fun character- he’s very chaotic and revels in his whole “ gremlin ghost” persona, and is upfront about being a bit of an asshole. BUT he also makes his kindness, often good intentions and the fact he’ll have his friends back when it counts obvious from the beginning. B U T! He’s also got darkness and hidden depths to explore, and a lot of his persona is affected and masks deeper issues!

Our ghost boy is genuinely A TAD unstable deep down (as in he straight up has several untreated PTSD symptoms and that’s as disastrous as you’d expect) and packing some serious tragic backstory, as you might expect from a kid who died young and carries around a butcher’s knife, and it’s gonna come back to bite him and and all who care about him hard.

Especially when an overly enthusiastic exorcist named Kou Minamoto shows up! Kou is another one who’s very dumb and very good, a wannabe-shonen-protag with a heart of gold and strong sensitive, domestic side. He rounds out our main trio. Also he gets a tragic, emotionally intense relationship with yet another ghost boy that sings to my heart.

(Yes Hanako’s helping Nene to do the thing)

You may be able to tell, this story has INTENSE good-shoujo vibes despite technically being a shonen in a way that I love- it’s story very driven by big emotions, a variety of fucked up and tragically complex relationships, teen hormones running wild, etc, and it’s just delicious.

Nene is the normal-person-audience-surrogate-girl in a way that is more common for a shoujo protag, and the way her emotional connections to everyone, her sweeping romantic fantasies and her interiority are consistently in focus when she’s there- yeah, she’s definitely a plucky shoujo protag, 100%. And I’m all about that!!!

One thing I especially appreciate (though this comes across more strongly in the manga than the anime thanks to the anime rearranging things) is when Nene finds out about Hanako’s Heavy Baggage, she actually takes some time to herself to consider whether she can handle dealing with someone with these intense issues as a kid who’s never encountered stuff like this before- it’s not assumed by the story that the Sweet Girl is Obligated to help the Tragic Boy. I go into more detail about this part in this part here, but it’s that kind of attention to Nene’s needs that makes her role in the story work. Hanako and Nene and everyone’s struggles to get the hang of and properly navigate honest communication and mutual support in relationships are often really great and real-feeling

The story has a lot more things I love packed in to it- a dorky-but-still-deeply-unsettling villain gang who’s screwed up interactions are just as fun as our protagonists, yokai, A CURSED LIBRARY, some great ladies in addition to Nene, meditations on the nature of life, death, themes about fighting nihilism, and so on...I could seriously go on forever. It’s good stuff, and there’s lots of good weird supernaturals to meet.

The story’s also got tons of intrigue! The overarching plot and Hanako’s Mysterious Past is still in the process of unfolding, but it’s been great drama every step of the way! As mentioned before, the story also really relies on funny character dynamics, interaction and development to carry the whole thing and balance the drama.

The anime itself does have some pacing issues bc they crammed a lot into the first season and rearranged some stuff- an entire two chapter arc was skipped and was unlikely to be covered in the anime and some parts are noticeably rushed. I still really like the anime and it’s a solid adaptation. I love how much of the manga’s detailed aesthetic it managed to keep as well as the amazing voice acting and it made a few small but important additions. But there are some notable bumps- of course this just led me to go binge the manga (up to volume 12 is legally available digitally) and BOY DO I NOW LOVE THIS STORY EVEN MORE.

Now obviously, just because it is Exactly My Shit in a lot of ways doesn’t mean Hanako-kun is the much quested for “unproblematic fave”, there’s several caveats you should probs be aware of- its shoujo vibes also mean some classic shoujo ~Problematic tropes~ and a couple shounen ones.

THE LIST:

-Just as a general content overview thing: if this wasn’t clear the show deals heavily with death, body horror and other horror aspects. There’s heavily implied suicide and abuse and so on- as mentioned, the main character is traumatized and shows a lot of symptoms of PTSD, and Nene has to struggle to navigate her relationship with him because of this, as does Kou.

-Hanako himself has the whole ~loveable pervert~ and ~slightly possessive shoujo bad boy~ schtick going as part of his mischevious persona. In the anime so far, he never actually gropes or comments on not-in-his-naughty-mags-people’s breasts or anything of that level thankfully, but he’s very flirty, clingy, will loudly bring up porn, fond of the ol’ *says something that purposefully sounds sexually possessive* HAHAHA U THOUGHT I MEANT SOMETHING DIRTY RIGHT LOL ACTUALLY I DIDN’T.”

(My unnecessary ‘this part is kinda interesting!’ ramble: Nene always lists “sexual harassment” among Hanako’s flaws (she loves listing them), but doesn’t get visibly uncomfortable with his flirtiness or seem to mind it most times, which at least makes the whole thing more tolerable for me.

(since she doesn’t seem to mind that part and its clear he does it bc of actual affection for her, it’s actually p. cute how huggy he is.)

The one time it does cross the line and genuinely upset her, it’s treated seriously, Hanako is genuinely regretful and apologizes. That’s one of my fave moments in the story and the way it’s handled is well done.

This incident that he’s honestly pretty socially clueless as kid who died young and a lot of his bravado is to cover that up and keep people at a distance- this is a trope into itself that can use unpacking but I do at least appreciate that this is a considered character trait that’s part of his whole messed up package rather than something that thrown in there Just to Be a Fanservice Trope. (Especially since the manga confirms he never acted particularly pervy while alive, further cementing this is an affected persona).

-There’s a running gag around Nene’s insecurity over her thick ‘daikon shaped’ ankles and boys treating her badly for it.

One one hand, her body image issues are relatable, on the other, it feels cruel and annoying just how much the show finds ways to bring it up and humiliate her over and over again.

(My unnecessary “this is part is kinda interesting” ramble:The one thing i did realize that despite bringing it up constantly, we at least have no “i’m going to do this to lose weight” or “go on a diet” rhetoric,like this is just part of Nene’s body type and she knows she can’t change it? Which is kinda interesting. And I’ve spotted what might be foreshadowing something plot relevant’s going to happen with her ankles (I DON’T KNOW HOW, BUT GOD I PUT NOTHING PAST THIS STORY) so uh yeah??? either way it’s not good tho)

-”Obsessive and twisted love” is a running theme in this story, and while it’s generally acknowledged as unhealthy, it can be played for comedy in a way that could make viewers/readers uncomfortable. There’s a couple characters who’s entire thing so far is “obsessively in love with this one person” (and the one only focused on in the manga so far is one of the least interesting characters tbh ugh)

-The antagonist of the show is a member of a main character’s family, and the manner he acts towards pretty much everyone, including (and really especially) his family member, verges on seductive. This is presented as deliberately unsettling and treated as a marker of how unstable and scary he is- and though the backstory between them hasn’t been fully delved into, it’s pretty much all but confirmed he abused this family member physically and emotionally.

-The story has like, A LOT of queer subtext and pretty-heavy queer coding for one character especially, but the few times queerness blatantly comes up in the story, it’s played as a joke in the “haha that’d be kinda weird” way (aside from the rando boys who have a crush on Teru, handled pretty neutrally). It’s not as malicious as a lot of animanga can get (ONE MANGA INCIDENT ASIDE), but it’s something to Be Aware Of, and it makes it clear we’re unlikely to see subtext rise to text and makes some moments feel baity.

-And probably more I might have missed! The manga also has Some Shit in addition all the Good Shit that hasn’t been adapted yet, an early arc has Hanako crossing a serious line etc.

BUT despite how messy it is, I think it’s clear I have a lot of love for this story. In fact, I wouldn’t trade away a good chunk of its messiness (DEFINITELY SOME JUST NOT ALL), it kinda works for the characters and works in the “this story really feed my inner teen” way. Some of the trashy parts are exactly My Trash, basically.

So, I knew I’d ramble on for a while when I talked about his show, but if you’ve read this far, thanks, and I hope that means you’re gonna check out and maybe enjoy this story, bc i need more people to join me in Hanako Hell.

#toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #jibaku shonen hanako kun #winter 2020 anime #anime overview #hanako kun #nene yashiro #yashiro nene #kou minamoto #minamoto kou #yugi amane #amane yugi #my reviews

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bltngames · 4 years

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SAGE 2020: Fan Games

I’d hoped to have this article out a little bit sooner, but I overestimated how long it would take to write about some of these games. Whoops! Like I said when I outlined the posting “schedule” on the first day, we’re playing it fast and loose, so this is just what you get.

Today is the day I talk about fan games! And even though SAGE has “Sonic” right there in the acronym, it’s always hosted fan games from all types, so today we’ve got Mega Man, Mario, Rayman, and even fan games of fan games, if you can believe it.

Sonic Pinball Panic!

Pinball is one of those things where I’ve always been obsessed with it, but never very good at it. And now, with access to digital pinball collections like Pinball Arcade and Pinball FX, I don’t actually find myself playing as much pinball as I thought I would when I was 14 years old. Still, I find myself fascinated by a good pinball table, and this honestly caught me off guard. This could very easily be an official DLC release for one of those aforementioned pinball collections and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash (in fact, if you ask me, this is better than Pinball FX, which has always had weird ball physics). This looks, sounds, and functions exactly like a real pinball table should. My complaints are minor: for starters, the table feels kind of easy. I’ve never been a pinball wizard, but I was losing balls left and right here and it still took a good 15 minutes before I finally got a game over. Score accumulation is also pretty slow; most pinball tables will dump millions and millions of points on you, but here, it felt like a struggle just to reach the 379k I finished with. Both contribute to the fact that the table feels a little flat, like it’s missing a spark to really put it over the top. And, third, it would be nice if it had controller support. The keyboard works just fine, here (it’s just pinball, after all) but I find that the triggers on a controller feel really good with pinball flippers, and mapping the plunger to the right stick is great, too. This is a Unity game, so I wouldn’t think it’d be that hard to hook it up to the controller mapper. Still, I came away impressed.

Mega Man: Perfect Blue

There are two things out there that always give me pause: fan-made Doom level packs, and Mega Man fan games. Fan made gaming content generally has problems when it comes to difficulty balancing anyway, but these games have earned a certain reputation for their difficulty, which creates a problem when you have content made by fans, for fans. This insularity means these things are usually way too hard for what I would consider “normal” people (read: casual fans and outsiders). Add on to the fact that I’d even say that there are official Mega Man games with bad difficulty balancing, and you have a recipe for frustration. Sadly, this is how I’d characterize Perfect Blue: though this introductory level isn’t impossibly hard, it’s definitely pushing that edge where it’s not very accommodating to someone who hasn’t played and finished every Classic Mega Man game ever made. It almost immediately throws you into scenarios where you have jumps you can barely reach, insta-kill spikes, and enemies that not only actively dodge your shots, but invincible enemies that launch counter attack homing missiles. And then it starts making you juggle all of this stuff, together, at the same time. None of this is insurmountable as long as you’re paying attention, but as a very casual Mega Man fan, it’s an unfriendly first impression and makes me worried about what the rest of the game is going to be like as the challenge naturally ramps up. For those hardcore Mega Man fans among you, the rest of this is solid, at least. The presentation and controls are excellent, and the new sprites are beautiful. It’s a game I’d love to enjoy when it’s done… but I’m assuming I’ll be left out in the cold. A shame, really, because there’s so much promise here.

Sonic and the Mayhem Master

There’s a lot to like about this game, but there’s a part of me that really wonders if this should even be considered a Sonic fan game. Mayhem Master’s depictions of Sonic and Amy Rose are atypical to put it mildly. Here, Sonic seems to be a bookish nerd of sorts, a sidekick to Amy Rose, who has been turned into a burnt out, cigar-smoking detective. Most of the game plays out as half an adventure game, half an RPG, where you roam around the world talking to NPCs and gather clues while being assaulted by random battles. The battle system is super off-the-wall, too, perhaps taking inspirations from games like Mario & Luigi and Undertale. This means that battles aren’t passive -- you spend most of each fight dodging or nullifying incoming attacks with simplistic action-based commands. It’s weird, and different, and occasionally even a little bit overwhelming. That’s kind of the whole game, really. It’s the sort of thing that really doesn’t feel like a Sonic game at all, but it also doesn’t feel bad. The artwork is very charming, I’m interested in seeing the characters develop, and there’s plenty of worldbuilding and mystery. Would this still be as intriguing if you removed the Sonic connection, even if it’s so threadbare? That’s a hard question to answer. I know that some of my interest in this game is seeing how it spins more familiar Sonic elements into something that’s completely different. Worth checking out, for curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Sonic and the Dreamcatcher

This is a fairly brilliant little game with two unfortunate quirks. If you didn’t know, the special stages in the original Sonic the Hedgehog were inspired by an arcade game of the era called Cameltry, published by Taito in 1989. Now, Sonic’s special stages were different enough from Cameltry that it wasn’t a case of Sega outright stealing the gameplay, but there’s a clear lineage there, and it only becomes clearer when you compare the special stages in Sonic 4 Episode 1 to Cameltry (spoilers: in that game, they’re nearly identical). Dreamcatcher is also from this lineage, but is infinitely more charming than either Sonic 4 and maybe even Cameltry itself. The idea is that you must collect a specific number of blue spheres in order to reveal the Chaos Emerald, after which you have a limited amount of time to find and collect it. It’s very simple, but the presentation really sells the game’s charm. It’s just a game that looks good and sounds good, with an interesting premise executed very well. Also, you get a dedicated “& Knuckles” button to spawn infinite Knuckles to help you collect blue spheres and bash enemies. Being able to have unlimited numbers of these guys sounds like it would break the game, but once that countdown clock begins, the last thing you need is 20+ echidnas clogging up the route back to the emerald. The first quirk this game suffers from is that there’s only two levels. Parts of this have a very “game jam made in a weekend” vibe to it despite the rock-solid music, sound, and gameplay, and only having two levels contributes to that. Hopefully more are coming in the future. The other quirk? You can’t actually download this game -- it’s embedded in a webpage. I’m sure this is to make it easy to play on any platform with a web browser (phones, PCs, etc.) but I find myself greatly desiring a hard copy of this game that can live on my computer forever.

Sonic Galactic

Now here’s just a good old fashioned Sonic fan game. Though it clearly takes inspiration from Sonic Mania’s aesthetics in some places, it’s clearly doing its own thing, featuring not just the core cast of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, but also Fang the Sniper, and even a brand new character named Tunnel the Mole. Unlike a lot of Sonic fan games at SAGE, this appears to be using something besides Clickteam Fusion, Game Maker, or Unity. Here, it’s the “Hatch Game Engine,” whatever that is. Whatever the case may be, the game runs very well and is basically indistinguishable from just playing Sonic Mania. Visuals are sharp, music’s good, the two included boss fights are surprisingly fun to fight -- everything seems to be in order. As a result, there’s not really a lot to say. This is just a good, fun game. Anything else I’d say would come off sounding like nitpicks. For example, there’s no way to set graphics options yet, so the game is stuck in 2x Windowed mode. Fang and Tunnel are cute additions, but I wonder how much utility they have as characters. Unless I missed something, Fang’s pop gun is mainly for a weak double-jump ability, and Tunnel’s ability to dig and ricochet off floors, walls and ceilings is cool, but it doesn’t have quite the universal utility of Tails’ flight or Knuckles climbing and gliding. It’ll be interesting to see how or maybe even if their abilities have a chance to grow into something special. Anyway, like I said, those are nitpicks, so try to give this a shot if you can.

Sonic Robo-Blast!

Remasters seem to be a bit of a theme this SAGE, between Sonic Triple Trouble 16-bit, Sonic 2 SMS, Sonic 1 Revisited, but this is perhaps the most surprising of them all: a loving remaster of the original Sonic Robo-Blast. SRB1 was perhaps one of the first true “landmark” fan games, given that it was basically a whole entire game that people could play. It's not a stretch to say that SRB1 probably helped kickstart the fan gaming community that still survives to this day -- I certainly owe my involvement in the community to seeing SRB1 for the first time. The problem is, as historically significant as the game might be, it’s nearly impossible to go back to nowadays -- it’s much, much too dated to be any fun. This remaster completely re-envisions SRB1 as a regular Sonic game, while also pulling in gameplay elements from Sonic Robo-Blast 2. It’s a bit of a time paradox mindwarp, but it helps give it a bit more personality than just making a bog-standard 2D Sonic. It works, aided by the fact the sprites, music and overall presentation are fantastic. The only downside is the Act 2 boss, which commits the cardinal sin of taking away player agency and making you wait around far too much. Here’s hoping this gets finished, because it’s definitely on my radar now.

Super Mario Flashback

This has been floating around for a few years now and I’m glad to see it’s finally starting to get some more substantial content as it moves towards becoming an actual game. That being said, this is also one of those games that’s kind of hard to talk about because it’s just… really polished. The art is incredible, it controls exactly like a Mario game, and there’s already a decent mixture of ideas at play in the demo. Anything else I’d say would sound like nitpicking -- like, for example, the backseat game designer in me wonders if maybe the game is prioritizing aesthetics a little too much. This is a wonderfully animated game, absolutely gorgeous, but some actions, like the butt-stomp and the wall kick, feel a bit sluggish, and I think it’s because they show off fancy animations. Even if it’s a split second, waiting for Mario to attach to a wall to kick off of it feels slow. Really, though, that’s an insignificant complaint. This demo is still well worth checking out.

Sonic Advance 4 Advanced

This game seems like a greatest-hits of Dimps best ideas, spanning the first Sonic Advance all the way to Sonic Rush. There’s just one problem: the game seems broken. Now, my desktop PC is starting to show its age. I built it four and a half years ago, and though it can handle game like Gears of War 5 on high settings at 60fps, slowly, newer games seem to be leaving it behind. That being said, I don’t think a game like Sonic Advance 4 here should be running at what appears to be half its intended speed. It also originally launched in a teeny-tiny window (we’re talking, like, smaller than a postage stamp) and even though the options menu has a toggle for full screen mode, it doesn’t want to work. Something about this game under the hood seems to be struggling very, very, VERY hard. It’s a shame, because if this actually played at the proper speed, it seems like it might actually be an alright game, if a bit complex and busy.

Sonic 2 SMS Remake

Here’s a game I was all buckled in expecting to enjoy. Like it says on the tin, this is a remake of Sonic 2 for the Master System (and Game Gear), but with wide screen visuals and huge expansions to the mechanics, roster of playable characters, and levels. On the outside it seems really impressive, and to a certain degree it is, but something about the controls feel a little off. Sonic’s heavier here than he is on the Master System, perhaps to simulate “real” Sonic physics a little more accurately, but you can also pretty much stop on a dime, and the combination of the two feels awkward. The camera also needs a lot of work, as it’s basic at best and does a poor job of letting you see what’s below (to the dev if you’re reading this: there’s actually video tutorials out there on how 2D scrolling cameras work, it might be worth looking a couple of them up). It also leans into some of the tech limitations of the Master System, like how you aren’t given any rings for boss fights (and even hiding the HUD, a move done to save on resources for the large enemy sprites). I could be picky on a bunch of other little stuff, too, like how the flight mechanics feel, but there are other games to play at SAGE and I’ve got at least two more articles to write. Needless to say, this is a solid (impressive, even) foundation but it’s missing a lot of late-stage polish to clean up the tiny little rough edges.

Rayman Redemption

I tell this story every so often, but it was about three quarters of the way through Rayman 2 on the Sega Dreamcast when it struck me, suddenly: I love this game. I was being chased by a pirate ship through some rickety bridges and even though I was dying over and over and over again, I realized I had been enjoying Rayman 2 enough that I might put it in my top ten Dreamcast games. But that was 2002, and the years haven’t been so kind to ol’ Rayman. From the strangely celebrity-infused Rayman 3, to the tragedy of Rayman 4 (eventually becoming Raving Rabbids) to the endless, careless ports of Rayman 2 to every platform under the sun, one gets the impression Ubisoft maybe didn’t know what to do with Rayman. Especially now, when most of Ubisoft’s games are some form of online live service or cookie cutter open world experience (or increasingly both). But the fans know what they want. Rayman Redemption takes the original 1995 Rayman game and lovingly gives it a fresh coat of paint. The results are akin to what Taxman and Stealth did for Sonic CD in 2011, with wide screen visuals, improved controls, touched up level design, but gameplay that still feels faithful and accurate to the original experience. Except that Sega charged money for that, and here, fans have released this for free. Ubisoft’s loss, I guess. I didn’t play Rayman 1 until well after I’d finished Rayman 2, and I’ll admit, I kind of bounced off of it back then. It felt slow, and awkward, and when the difficulty ramped up, it got very hard, very quickly. Now, admittedly, I’ve only put about 30 minutes into Redemption here, but just the addition of a run button is incredibly welcome, and the retooled level design and powerup mechanics helps the game feel way less obtuse overall. It’s just a cleaner, tighter, more accessible and more polished version of Rayman.

Stay tuned for the next article: Indie games.

#sage #sonic amateur games expo #writing #review slew #rayman redemption #sonic pinball panic #mega man #perfect blue #mayhem master #dreamcatcher #sonic galactic #sonic robo-blast #super mario flashback #sonic advance 4 #sms remake #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #review

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mejomonster · 4 years

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if you have never watched Men with Sword it is worth checking out for its unique setup if nothing else.

like. its an emotional, short ride, and it’s pilot episode pretty fairly gives you a preview of the themes/stories this show will proceed to delve deeper into and provide on larger scales. it has a very faithful first episode to the vibes and premise it’s going for.

its just this. low budget show shot sort of like a play, with a whole bunch of idol actors but they’re all trying surprisingly hard to give really heartfelt performances (ian yi stands out major, jian bin’s actor, most of the main cast really) and so the acting’s actually solid somehow. its just love and conflict and tragedy, and the dangers of pursuit of power and the cost of that. its basically politics and war and political aliances, but on a nice small scale if you don’t have time for longer dramas. then its season 2 ramps it up with a Much better budget for the fight scenes and fight choreography so the war plots that ramp up are a lot more engaging.

it also happens to be set in a world/universe of all men. only men. this world literally is just men.

oh yes, also magic mystical swords. just because. and a lot of the men put cool bright colored hair streaks in their hair, like anime characters. why? i don’t know why, because they like fun hair. anyway you’ll forget about the magic swords, but they come back. literally ‘men with sword’ is an apt summary.

also, despite the literal looks of this show on the face, or its summary on the face (i saw idol drama and ran for months before actually giving it a chance), the actual show takes its plot Very seriously and heavily, and the huge cast of lovely men all tend to be taking their roles really earnestly so the actual performances are really good. (there will be at least 1 kingdom’s pair that rips your heart out, more than likely most of them will. Jian Bin and Qi Zhikan are nearly guaranteed to rip your heart out. Ling Guang despite starting off as evil-villain-ongoing will literally make you ache for his losses repeatedly up to his final moments, if you end up sympathizing with Murong Li or Zhi Ming well ohhhh good luck with that emotional journey). The show is angst and conflict and it just ramps up. Its like going to a low budget play with fresh actors and finding that they’ve all put their heart into this little story and really enjoying your experience as it unfolds for you.

also its the kind of story where every single side is being depicted as the protagonist of their own story. so its very much watching all these people in conflict they only have some personal control over, and seeing all of their perspectives even though they’re ultimately going to be opposing (or already are) with each other.

And, again, the very first episode sets a mini example of this in it’s more self-contained intro plot. later in the bigger plot Ling Guang is Murong Li’s villain, but where Murong Li is the hero avenging his family and country from Ling Guang’s destruction... he lays his own destruction onto Ling Guang’s country and others at any cost in pursuit of his vengeance and the recovery of his country, and in the end Ling Guang is the leader and country cornered and repeatedly damaged and destroyed. So many characters are hero/villain depending on who’s perspective you’re following or you’re relating to in a given moment. I like that it takes more internal work of you looking at your own ideas of what is ‘crossing a line’ when deciding who you root for, as ultimately characters you might potentially both support end up at odds. Every protagonist is dealing with their own internal country’s political situation, along with the externals. And they’re all painted as full people.

#men with sword #it is... super hard to conceptualize #until u watch the 1st episode #it seemed like itd be a hot mess mistake when #i only read the summary #then i watched it and was like #'oh oh Wow ok im in'#offers a very unique experience i tell u that

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entamewitchlulu · 4 years

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lulu does flash reviews again

hey it’s been a while since i did one of these, anyway i just finished Princess Connect and I have some Thoughts so this is genuinely just me rambling about it

So, Princess Connect Re:Dive. It’s essentially a 12 episode long commercial for the associated role playing mobile game. It follows the adventures of the Gourmet Guild, a group of four adventurers whose goal is to investigate and enjoy the various foods of their fantasy world.

The Guild is made up of Yuuki, ostensibly our protagonist: a somewhat blank-slate sort of character who’s obviously supposed to be whoever your face character in the mobile game is, but who is actually, surprisingly, rather charming. He has lost his memories after some unknown battle he participated in with a bunch of former party members, and tends to respond to things in monosyllables, preferring instead to communicate with thumb’s ups and “mn!” in most cases. Despite this, he seems to be a very sweet boy who cares about his friends and is eager to do his best. Personally, I found him to be kind of a breath of fresh air in terms of male protagonists of fantasy shows otherwise populated by women. There’s not a single bit of “lucky pervert” tropes, he doesn’t seem at all interested in pursuing or flirting with any of the other girls, and only one of the girls is interested in him romantically. He’s generally pretty straightforward and good-hearted, so at worst I could call him boring - but even so, again, I found him charming.

Next is Kokkoro, an elf from a small village sent by someone who appears to be a goddess of some kind to find Yuuki and assist him as he recovers his memories. Kokkoro is, in a word, cute. She’s the only member of the cast who is interested in Yuuki romantically. Despite this happening immediately after she meets him, it sort of makes some sense to me, since she’s clearly been taught that he’s a special and important person whom she is duty-bound to serve, so it makes sense to me that she would hold him in high regard - and since he’s just genuinely so...genuine, it makes sense that it wouldn’t take long for a more sheltered girl to develop feelings for him. And, happily, she has a personality outside of this attraction as well: she’s reliable, patient, and good at sewing, and she enjoys spending time with the rest of the guild. Her silly faces she makes every time Yuuki gets chewed on by a wolf are hilarious, too.

Third up is Pecorine, who, while Yuuki is supposedly the protagonist, is pretty much set up to be the real protagonist of the show. Pecorine is not-so-subtly secretly the princess of this fantasy world, Landosol, however, it appears for some reason someone else is acting as ruler. Pecorine is ridiculously strong, ridiculously peppy, and always hungry. She’s literally made of nothing but love, joy, and excitement for whatever the next day will bring. She’s always helping people and seems to consider making others happy to be her life goal, alongside eating lots of yummy food. Everyone she encounters eventually becomes her best friend, even when they start off by trying to steal from her. She’s straightforward, doesn’t seem to notice when people don’t have her best interests in mind, and yet, beneath that, she is extremely lonely and vulnerable. If you couldn’t tell, she’s far and away my favorite character of the show.

And finally, there’s Karyl: a cat girl who is, in my opinion, the perfect example of a cat girl. She’s initially a loner who doesn’t see the need for friends, and is, apparently, supposed to assassinate Pecorine. As Pecorine doesn’t notice, she quickly inducts Karyl as her new girlfriend best friend, and Karyl, for all of her tsundere, don’t-touch-me cat vibes, absolutely starts falling for Pecorine’s kindness back. While she’s the one to call out the guild’s stupid plans and ideas, she generally ends up joining in on the shenanigans, much to her eternal chagrin.

So, I don’t mean to make this just a description of the show, because I do have thoughts and opinions, but I felt like setting up my feelings on the main cast was important before I got into the details of the show itself. From this point forward, there will be spoilers.

So, what this show does right:

As I mentioned in my talk about Yuuki, in terms of “1 male protagonist surrounded by girls”, it’s a relief to watch a show where the main cast is just all a bunch of good friends and they’re not just all hanging on the bland main character. Each of the cast is given their own time to develop their own personalities both with each other and outside of each other, and they’re all, genuinely, rather endearing. There are two characters who show up later who are a bit annoying about their care over Yuuki (calling themselves his big and little sister respectively), but since they aren’t main cast members and connect the show to a larger “what happened before this?” narrative, I didn’t mind it so much. Plus, despite a cast of all girls in a mobile game, outside of a few skimpy outfits and Pecorine’s occasional boob jiggle, there wasn’t a SINGLE bit of fanservice, which shocked me for this genre. No upskirts, no accidental boob touches, no lewd comments or innuendos. I was floored, and in a good way.

The character design really isn’t bad for a show based on a mobile game. Characters are distinct in design and personality. The best design is, of course, the girl who is Just a Llama.

I actually really liked being thrown into this world where it was very obvious that something had already happened Before, but you were only given pieces of it. It built a very intriguing premise by starting us off seemingly after the climactic battle goes wrong, and adds a sense of unease here or there about knowing that something is a little bit off, but you don’t quite know what. Not getting all of the answers at the end of the show wasn’t a dealbreaker, either, because I knew I wouldn’t going in - it’s a mobile game show. The story is still going in the mobile game, so they won’t play all their cards in the adaptation.

Karyl and Pecorine are definitely the main characters of the show, and while I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, their story very much feels like a love story, and I just really, really enjoyed that for what I expected to see going in, I instead got two girls who were allowed to have a complicated and yet very sweet relationship that developed slowly over the series into a truly beautiful climax. Speaking of Pecorine, as well, I have to give some props to the plot twist about her character. It was obvious to me for a while that she was the princess of Landosol, and I assumed that her parents were dead. I kept wondering why she was leaving her people to the whims of her impersonator instead of taking back her throne, and it was something that sort of bothered me throughout her seemingly cheerfully ignoring what her usurper was doing to her kingdom. Finding out that the fake princess had, in fact, simply replaced Pecorine with herself in everyone’s memories, leaving Pecorine with no idea what to do and deciding to disappear knowing that even her own parents didn’t remember her as their daughter was a shocking, and powerful, plot twist.

When it’s good, it’s really good. There are some genuinely heartfelt and powerful moments. The animation is surprisingly good, beautiful to watch especially during fight scenes. The final scene especially with its emphasis on Karyl and Pecorine really touched me, as it was clear they put a lot of effort into just the last few frames to make it really touching.

And here’s what this show does wrong:

When I said that when it’s good, it’s really good, the same can be said that when it’s bad, it’s bad. The main problem with this show is that it wants to be everything. It wants to be a comedy. It wants to be a drama. It wants to have deep character drama and heartfelt moments. It wants to have intense battles and evil villains alongside a story about four friends making sandwiches out of monster meat. The comedy bits and drama bits are both solid enough on their own, but smushed together, it makes for a tonally dissonant show that cheapens some of the more heartfelt moments.

The show takes way too long to even get into its main conceit, too. I think it wasn’t until episode 4 that they started their Gourmet Guild - and then even after that, the food hunting sort of disappeared in a lot of episodes so that you kind of forgot what their goals even were. And even when the food episodes happened, they almost felt like filler. Because of the show’s lack of focus, it was hard to truly enjoy any part of it.

And I cannot forget to mention that though I praised the character design in the good stuff section, there were some...concerns. Episode 3 introduces a fatphobic, borderline racist design. He is shown as cruel, violent, gleefully mean, and morbidly obese in a cast that is otherwise made up of skinny characters. And worse, he’s the only brown character in a sea of pale, white-coded characters. His appearance in episode 3 almost made me stop watching. He showed up briefly in several more episodes after this, and it sucked every single time. Despite a lot of the other things I loved about this show, I really cannot recommend it to anyone with a clean conscience just because of this character. He’s distressing and uncomfortable to me, so I can’t imagine how a POC might feel while watching it.

Genuinely, if even one or two of their “here’s a cute girl” designs had been Black or brown, I would have felt way better. But the juxtaposition of this guy being the only dark skinned character in the show combined with his abhorrent personality just really, really distresses me, and I think it’s a warning that people should be aware of before giving it a try.

That being said, overall, I don’t think Princess Connect Re:Dive was a bad show. As I said, there was a lot of elements I enjoyed, and I will probably go look and see if there’s any Karyl/Pecorine art out there, and since the app is Japanese only, I might even go and read the continued plot somewhere.

So this wasn’t much of a “flash review”, I had a lot to say, I guess lol. Anyway, if anyone else watched it, please let me know what you thought~ I’d be interested to hear anyone else’s take. For my part, I’ll give Princess Connect a solid 6/10.

#princess connect #lulu's flash reviews

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obtusemedia · 4 years

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Ranking The 1975′s songs, from worst to best

The 1975 are unabashedly political, wildly eclectic in musical style, and masters of striking the perfect balance between strange and accessible. They’re also the most important, and arguably the best, band of the last five years or so.

However, despite their ability to pen generation-defining anthems and incredibly sticky pop hits, The 1975 have a fatal flaw: they overstuff their albums. All of their records, even their most consistent one (2018′s A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships) have at least a couple filler songs. Because of that, and because the Manchester band love to dabble in nearly every musical style on the planet (except hip-hop, which is probably for the best), a song-by-song evaluation is the best way to judge The 1975′s catalog. And with the recent release of their hit-and-miss fourth record, Notes On A Conditional Form, there’s not a better time to do just that.

But first, some ground rules:

1) To make the list, songs had to appear on one of The 1975′s four albums, or their four debut EPs (which I normally wouldn’t count, but they contain many of the band’s essential songs).

2) The 1975 love to include instrumental interludes on their records. I’m not ranking those — Matty Healy has to sing on the track for it to count.

3) The 1975 also begin every album with a self-titled song. Because three of them are variations on the same song, and the fourth is a spoken-word track with climate activist Greta Thunberg, these won’t be on the list either. (For the record, the best version of the song is their second attempt, although I respect the hell out of the Thunberg monologue.)

#69: “Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You” (The 1975, 2013)

The bottom of this list will be mostly comprised of the painfully boring, minimalist ballads that The 1975 used to end their albums with (thankfully, their last two album closers were phenomenal...we’ll get to them much later). One of the most appealing aspects of The 1975 is their bold, in-your-face style. A bland, hookless piano ballad like “Somebody” is the opposite of that. I already forgot how the tune goes.

#68: “Don’t Worry” (Notes On A Conditional Form, 2020)

The backstory behind “Don’t Worry” — lead singer/lyricist Matty Healy’s dad wrote it for his family ages ago, and now Healy’s recording his own version of it — is cute. The actual song, unfortunately, is a treacly mess that sounds like something from Barney & Friends. But if Barney aggressively, and unsuccessfully, tried to ripoff Bon Iver’s autotuned ballads.

#67: “She Lays Down” (I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, 2016)

Postnatal depression is a real issue, and one that should be explored more in song. But The 1975 were clearly not the band to do it, judging by how boring and forgettable “She Lays Down” is.

#66: “Woman” (Facedown EP, 2012)

The band’s first boring closing track, way back on their debut EP! Considering how great Facedown’s other three songs are, this aimless ballad is a major disappointment.

#65: “Bagsy Not In Net” (Notes)

This overly reverb-y nothing of song is a prime example of something that should have been cut from the overlong Notes On A Conditional Form tracklist.

#64: “Playing On My Mind” (Notes)

Speaking of boring late-album songs from Notes that should’ve been left on the cutting room floor! At least this one has a halfway decent melody.

#63: “Surrounded By Heads and Bodies” (A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, 2018)

The only interesting things about this shuffling ballad are A) the very metal song title that doesn’t match the actual tune at all, and B) Healy sings this song about a woman named Angela. Is this meant to be from the perspective of Dwight Schrute?

#62: “Head.Cars.Bending” (Music For Cars EP, 2013)

Later in their career, The 1975 would excel at off-kilter electronic jams. But “Head.Cars.Bending,” one of the band’s first attempts at that style, proves that it took a lot of practice to perfect that sound, because yikes — this is rough. That lurching beat makes me seasick.

#61: “Nana” (I like it...)

It’s not a track I ever return to, but I’ll admit that “Nana” has a nice melody and is an appropriately reverent and pretty tribute to Healy’s dead grandmother.

#60: “Inside Your Mind” (Brief Inquiry)

The 1975 attempted to blend shoegaze guitars with ‘80s cheeseball power ballads on “Inside Your Mind.” It was a noble attempt! The guitar lick sounds great! But the track sadly stays at one level throughout, so the song never achieves liftoff.

#59: “Talk!” (The 1975)

The 1975′s self-titled debut is an outlier in the band’s discography, as it came before the shameless (and fun!) genre-hopping of their next three records. In contrast, the debut has a very early-’10s, Urban Outfitters-core indie pop-rock sound throughout. On some songs, that sound works really well! But there’s also a glut of mediocre filler tracks that fit that sonic description. The stop-and-start, neck-jerking “Talk!” is one of those filler tracks.

#58: “Yeah I Know” (Notes)

One of the few musical styles that Notes returns to frequently during its runtime is a skittery, repetitive drum-and-bass sound. Although none of these songs are outright bad, they’re mostly not too interesting either. “Yeah I Know” is the worst of the bunch, with annoying chipmunk voice effects and a dreary vibe.

#57: “She Way Out” (The 1975)

"She Way Out,” despite having an opening lyric that calls back to one of The 1975′s very best songs (which we’ll get to much, much later), is just another one of the dime-a-dozen mediocre pop-rock nuggets that flood the tracklist of The 1975′s self-titled debut. The guitar lick is pretty tasty, I guess.

#56: “Pressure” (The 1975)

ƒAnd here’s another one of those pop-rock filler songs! At least this one has a nice shuffling groove. Still, I’ll stick with the charmingly bonkers Billy Joel song of the same name (and its gloriously awful, very early ‘80s music video).

#55: “The Birthday Party” (Notes)

This folksy ballad tries to jack the style of emo-country act Pinegrove, while Healy makes a half-hearted quip about the unclear acts of “sexual coercion” that the band’s lead singer admitted to. But “The Birthday Part” doesn’t have the concise songwriting or heart-wrenching emotions of “Old Friends.” Instead, it sort of just meanders around for a few minutes. The melody is nice — and I did enjoy Healy’s quip about not being able to poop in a shared hotel room, so he has to sneak to the hotel lobby — but most of the song just feels pointless.

#54: “Anobrain” (Music For Cars EP)

“Anobrain” reminds me a lot of a deep cut from one of my other favorite bands: U2′s “Promenade.” They’re both short, oblique slices of atmosphere and haze that are pretty, but don’t build into something greater. Think of “Anobrain” as a warmup for the superior nocturnal synthpop that The 1975 would pen in later records.

#53: “Undo” (Sex EP, 2012)

“Undo,” an otherwise standard early-era midtempo tune with lots of reverb, gets some bonus points for its smooth, swaying beat and a solid hook.

#52: “Mine” (Brief Inquiry)

When I imagined what “The 1975 does a jazz song” would sound like, I was hoping for something more frantic and bebop-y. “Mine” doesn’t sound like that at all — it’s a loungey slow-dance ballad that’s less Miles Davis and more Cole Porter. But regardless, it’s still an interesting detour. Who said quirky genre excursions were only limited to upbeat songs? Or that they had to be quirky?

#51: “The Ballad Of Me And My Brain” (I like it...)

I love the musical elements of “The Ballad” — the cascading drum fills, the thundering splashes of guitar, the twinkling keyboards, Healy’s delirious vocals. But the actual song itself doesn’t do much for me. Having a song about literally “losing your mind” and your brain is wandering in a grocery store, at a bar, etc. is a cute idea on paper, but it just sounds awkward in execution.

#50: “I Think There’s Something You Should Know” (Notes)

Here’s another of Notes’ repetitive drum-and-bass songs. But at least “I Think...” has a catchy tune and a bit more musical evolution throughout.

#49: “Haunt // Bed” (IV EP, 2013)

“Haunt // Bed” has one thing that distinguishes itself from other middling EP-era 1975 tracks: the pulsating loop that undulates beneath much of the song. It’s an interesting choice, and certainly helps the song stand out despite its forgettable melody.

#48: “Settle Down” (The 1975)

Probably the best of the debut album’s jangly pop-rock filler tracks, “Settle Down” still sounds like a weaker version of that record’s big singles. Which is interesting, as it was a single itself. But I’m certainly not going to kick it out of bed — the soaring chorus is legitimately great, and the funky guitar riff is nice.

#47: “Paris” (I like it...)

This mid-tempo, snarky character study about a drug-addicted party girl almost feels like 1975 on auto pilot. But just because Healy and co. could knock out a song like this in their sleep, that doesn’t mean “Paris” isn’t a pleasant, silky smooth comedown from the zanier cuts on I like it.

#46: “Then Because She Goes” (Notes)

The 1975 going full Slowdive and making a fuzzy, shoegaze-y jam? Sounds incredible! Unfortunately, “Then Because She Goes” doesn’t quite live up to that premise, mostly because it’s so brief. At just a notch over two minutes, the song doesn’t give itself anytime to expand or go anywhere interesting. It’s a case of wasted potential, but at least the sliver of a song we got is decent.

#45: “Be My Mistake” (Brief Inquiry)

There are a couple exceptions to the “The 1975 shouldn’t do acoustic guitar ballads” rule. “Be My Mistake” is one of them. It’s nothing spectacular, but the melody is quite pretty, and Healy’s troubadour act is sweet. Also, unlike some of the earlier acoustic ballads, there’s no studio gimmickry or weird vocal filters: it’s just a nice coffeeshop ballad.

#44: “M.O.N.E.Y.” (The 1975)

It’s a bit strange that The 1975 decided to slot this single so high in their debut album’s tracklist, ahead of much catchier, more obvious hits. But there’s something infectious to the winking lyrics and jittery production that sounds like clanging slot machines.

#43: “This Must Be My Dream” (I like it...)

If there’s been one constant to The 1975′s albums, it’s that there’ll be at least a couple big, cheesy ‘80s homages. And I’m a huge sucker for those songs. “This Must Be My Dream” is the worst of the bunch — it’s a bit uninspired — but big crashing synths and drum machines are still a weakness for me. Also, Healy’s vocals sound eerily like Phil Collins here...not sure if that’s a plus or minus.

#42: “Roadkill” (Notes)

The superior version of “The Birthday Party,” for two reasons. One: instead of the band half-heartedly dipping its toes into an alt-country sound, “Roadkill” has BIG honky-tonk energy with its twangy guitars and dusty groove. Two: Healy’s little anecdotes are much more interesting and strange here. It still doesn’t have much of a hook or anything, but “Roadkill” is alright by me.

#41: “Lostmyhead” (I like it...)

Putting “Lostmyhead,” a fan-favorite deep cut, in the bottom half of this ranking is a bit of a hot take. So let me make it clear: this is a good song! The issue is, I feel about “Lostmyhead” the way those who dislike The 1975 describe the band’s other genre excursions: it just doesn’t come close to the original. Here, they’re clearly trying to emulate M83′s cinematic post-rock. And it’s passable! But it’s certainly no “Outro” or “Moonchild.”

#40: “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied” (Notes)

This quirky number feels like a grab bag of various styles The 1975 have tried on throughout the years: a gospel chorus! Sort-of rapped auto-tune verses! A Mark Knopfler-esque guitar solo that sounds like it was recorded two rooms away, for some reason! It doesn’t quite add up to a classic, but it’s certainly attention grabbing, particularly Healy’s self-critical lyrics.

#39: “I Couldn’t Be More In Love” (Brief Inquiry)

Melodramatic late-‘80s R&B isn’t my favorite musical style, so that dings “I Couldn’t Be More In Love” a few points for me. But Healy is absolutely SELLING this thing vocally, corny key changes and all. And drummer/producer George Daniel expertly captures that specific era with some charmingly chintzy keyboard tones.

#38: “What Should I Say” (Notes)

This detour into robotic dancehall doesn’t work quite as well for me as the other track on Notes with this sound, the Cutty Ranks-led “Shiny Collarbone” (which didn’t qualify for this list, as Healy doesn’t sing on it). But “What Should I Say” is solid in its own right, with some twisty keyboard licks and lots of gorgeous chopped-up vocal samples.

#37: “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)” (Notes)

It’s a cute old-school soul song at its core (with a prominent Temptations sample!), but I feel like the lurching synths and occasional chipmunk vocals don’t work well with the more traditionalist tune. It’s an interesting test of mixing new and old, but it’s not entirely successful here.

#36: “So Far (It’s Alright)” (IV EP)

This song describes itself pretty accurately: It’s alright! Okay, fine, it’s actually pretty great. The twinkling pianos and Healy’s ghostly vocals are an atypical backdrop for adolescent stories of debauchery and angst, but it somehow works. It’s a song built to naturally cool down a house party.

#35: “Girls” (The 1975)

We’re about halfway through the list, so it seems like a pretty good time to talk about “Girls” — a big early hit for The 1975, but with a sound the group has clearly evolved from. It’s basically a catchier, sharper improvement on their debut album’s jangly pop-rock filler tracks.

But although that chorus is quite sticky, and the groove is nice, it’s not as interesting or unique as The 1975′s later hits, or even other singles from that same album. Another mid-10s semi-indie band of pretty boys could’ve easily recorded it (but it would’ve been their best song).

#34: “Menswear” (The 1975)

This is the point of the countdown at which where each track left is unequivocally a classic. I feel a bit bad putting “Menswear” — a slinky synthpop deep cut with a killer synth riff — this low on the list. But it just shows how many other incredible songs The 1975 have.

#33: “Loving Someone” (I like it...)

I like it when you sleep... doesn’t have quite as much genre hopping as their next two records. Instead, much of it it crystalized the ideal “1975 sound” — of-kilter but sleek synth-heavy rock with some ‘80s influence and some out-there lyrics. “Loving Someone” is a great song in that vein, with Healy delivering some wonderfully pretentious lyrics (“I’m the Greek economy of cashing intellectual checks”) and George Daniel creating a gorgeous cacophony of whirring synths and vocal samples to back him up.

#32: “Facedown” (Facedown EP)

The world’s proper introduction to The 1975, the band’s first song on their debut EP is a perfect distillation of their EP-era sound. The dream-pop keyboards and the processed, nearly Daft Punk-esque vocals make “Facedown” an intriguing invitation into The 1975′s nocturnal world of drugs, women and depression. It might honestly be a better teasing leadoff than the iconic self-titled track that opens The 1975′s full-length albums.

#31: “Heart Out” (The 1975)

This otherwise just-decent synthpop number is elevated by one aspect: the synth bass is incredible. The constant pulsating throb throughout the track gives the song an early-MTV vibe, lending it a sense of drive.

#30: “How To Draw / Petrichor” (Brief Inquiry)

In multiple interviews, Healy described A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships into his attempt at making Radiohead’s OK Computer for a new generation. But with its glitchy, robotic aesthetic, “How To Draw / Petrichor” is much more Kid A.

But despite my distaste for Radiohead’s more experimental side, I really love The 1975′s pastiche of it! Probably because, like the best 1975 songs, it has a really strong melody. But unlike many of their other great tunes, “How To Draw” is a snaking, constantly evolving track that’s mostly instrumental. Instrumental tracks aren’t usually for me, so the fact that this holds my attention for nearly 6 minutes is a strong sign.

#29: “Me” (Music For Cars EP)

"Me” is The 1975 at arguably their most sad-sack. Healy’s vocals are leaden and filled with guilt. At point, he casually tosses aside, “I was thinking about killing myself, don’t you mind.”

The music is a perfect match — the rhythm is plodding and heavy in the best way, and the mournful sax solo in the bridge stays just on the right side of cheesy. It’s a genuinely affecting ballad.

#28: “Give Yourself A Try” (Brief Inquiry)

This was the first taste of A Brief Inquiry we heard. And I really disliked it at first — the clanging, messy guitars and motorik rhythm didn’t connect with me at first.

But — strangely for a lead single — "Give Yourself A Try” is a grower! Healy’s lyrics are in his sweet spot of being legitimately sincere, gloriously snarky and absolutely ridiculous at the same time. And the pounding groove burrows its way into your skull until you find it endearing. The band’s next attempt at a more RAWK single on their fourth album worked a bit better, but “Give Yourself A Try” is pretty damn great for a Joy Division ripoff.

#27: “Intro / Set3″ (Sex EP)

This was essentially The 1975′s warmup version of the multi-part electronic sweep of “How To Draw.” Yet, I like "Intro / Set3″ a tad more. It’s more direct and has a stronger hook.

#26: “If I Believe You” (I like it...)

“If I Believe You” joins the legacy of pasty British/Irish rock bands making unexpectedly strong gospel songs. Although it’s not quite on the same transcendent level as The Rolling Stones’ and U2′s attempts, it’s at least on Blur’s level.

I love how Healy took the religious genre and used it for a song that’s all about religious confusion. He vents to a god that he doesn’t really believe in, wondering if religion would solve his myriad problems. The song doesn’t arrive at a clean conclusion, but it’s still a fascinating track about doubts and why people turn to a higher power.

#25: “People” (Notes)

In a whole career of random left-turns, scream-y punk rock might be the most unexpected yet for The 1975. “People” — which directly follows an apocalyptic spoken word intro from climate activist Greta Thunberg on its album — is a piercing jolt of energy that’s impossible to ignore.

"People” is definitely a polarizing track, even for fans of the band. It’s extremely aggressive, angry, and might freak out your friend who just wanted to hear more songs like “Chocolate.” But even though I think the lyrics (although admirably ballsy!) are a bit of a mess, I love the no-holds-back rage of “People.” If you’re going to try an out-there genre experiment, dive in headfirst.

#24: “Frail State Of Mind” (Notes)

By far the best of Notes’ drum-and-bass tracks, “Frail State Of Mind” feels like an actual, fleshed-out song rather than just the band dinking around with some new rhythms.

The skittering percussion, mournful vocal samples and melancholy lyrics help to create a gorgeous, downbeat track. It’s the audio equivalent of sitting inside on a drizzly day, listening to the rain hit the roof: sad, but also content.

#23: “TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME” (Brief Inquiry)

Okay, so remember that hot minute in the mid-2010s when pop music pivoted hard into a gentrified, bland tropical house sound? Justin Bieber was the biggest offender? Well, The 1975 jumped on that bandwagon a few years later with “TOOTIME” ... yet it wound up sounding much better than any of the actual hit songs it was ripping off.

Why does The 1975′s tropical house banger actually work? First off, it embraces its non-tropical Britishness: with the chilly synths and auto-tuned vocals, it barely emulates the Caribbean outside of its rhythm. Furthermore, that rhythm is a tad faster than many of those mid-10s hits, making the song feel less like a drag and more like a traditional pop banger. But most importantly — it’s catchy as hell. Good luck getting that chorus out of your head.

#22: “Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America” feat. Phoebe Bridgers (Notes)

“Jesus Christ” is easily the biggest exception to my “The 1975 shouldn’t do acoustic ballads” rule. And that’s primarily because they brought alone one of the modern masters of that form: Phoebe Bridgers.

Healy’s quietly emotive vocals and knack for lilting melodies fit in perfectly with Bridgers’ whispered folksy musical world. And of course, it’s nice to hear another voice on a 1975 song, especially if it’s as evocative as Bridgers’. Both she and Healy sing short vignettes of tortured, non-reciprocated same-sex crushes, and it’s a prime example of the power of compact storytelling.

#21: “She’s American” (I like it...)

As I warned earlier, the top of this list is going to have a lot of The 1975′s trips into pure ‘80s synth cheese. So let’s dive right into that!

“She’s American” is just pure fun, from Healy’s cheeky lyrics poking fun at his American lover, to the swirling synths and shiny guitars. It’s like a long-lost Duran Duran banger.

#20: “You” (Sex EP)

For a rock band that loves bombast, it’s surprising that The 1975 don’t tap into the U2/Coldplay arena rock sound more often. But the couple times they tried it, they nailed the landing.

“You” is a stark departure from the nocturnal angst of much of The 1975′s other EP-era songs. It’s bright, major-key, and meant to be blasted to the cheap seats of an arena. The guitar riff is pure The Edge, and the song just keeps getting bigger and bigger, louder and louder. “You” sounds like pure euphoria by the time it reaches its climax.

#19: “UGH!” (I like it...)

We’ll file this in the “Healy vents about his drug addiction over a super-sleek pop song” folder. And like most of those songs, “UGH!” is a total winner.

The guitars and synths are so liquid and snappy that it’s hard to tell them apart (in a good way!). And Healy gloriously vamps over the ‘80s Bowie groove, pontificating about his coke habit is ruining his life. The attention to detail here is admirable — from the chic plastic production to Healy making an aside about how the song only lasts three minutes. Guess how long “UGH!” is, to the exact second?

#18: “The City” (Facedown and IV EPs, The 1975)

This song was clearly a favorite in the band’s early days: it was on two of their four EPs, and was the first non-intro track on their debut album. “The City” absolutely deserves all that love, though.

First, to be clear: the re-recorded version on the self-titled debut album is much better. The 1975 are not one of those bands that sounds better with a DIY, low-fi aesthetic — they need that studio sheen! And on the re-recorded version, the absolute best aspect of “The City” gets to shine: THOSE DRUMS. They slam against your eardrums with the force of a Mack truck, and help propel an otherwise-just-solid pop tune into a classic.

#17: “Sincerity Is Scary” (Brief Inquiry)

This is a song that probably shouldn’t work: jazzy horns, an off-kilter beat and a towering gospel choir in service of a song about how the internet has ruined the way we relate to people? It’s all a bit much. But luckily, “a bit much” is The 1975′s sweet spot.

Strangely enough, this shuffling single feels effortless and natural, despite having wordy lyrics and not sounding like any Top 40 song in recently memory. Also, it’s the band’s best music video. It’s creative and absolutely adorable.

#16: “Love Me” (I like it...)

If there’s one older band The 1975 is constantly compared to, it’s ‘80s Aussie legends INXS. It’s a bit of a strange comparison — The 1975 are shameless genre-hoppers. INXS had one (really great!) signature pop-rock sound that they stuck with for most of their big hits.

But I understand where that comparison comes from, because “Love Me” is the most dead-on INXS pastiche I’ve ever heard. It wouldn’t shock me to learn it’s a cover of a forgotten Kick B-side. The wiry guitars, bouncy rhythm, winking lyrics about fame and sex, hits of wiggly synths and horns — it’s all the elements that made a song like “New Sensation” so great. The music video even features Healy, with long curly hair, preening around shirtless like Michael Hutchence!

Look, if you’re going to shamelessly rip someone off, you might as well rip off a great band at its best moment. And The 1975 channelled peak-INXS better than anyone since 1988 (even the band itself!) with “Love Me.”

#15: “Antichrist” (Facedown EP)

“Antichrist” is probably The 1975′s most goth song. It opens with a stately organ, and Healy sings the first verse in the very lowest part of his vocal register. It’s a stark departure from any other song of theirs, which of course grabs your attention.

But the funeral dirge vibes, as cool as they are, aren’t the only factor that makes “Antichrist” a great song. The minimalist guitar solo semi-chorus is stunning, like something Interpol would’ve done. And when Healy cranks up his vocal stylings for the song’s second half, it injects a bit of energy. The punishing, near-shoegaze finale to the song is masterful as well.

Despite it being a fan favorite from their very-first EP, “Antichrist” has infamously never been played live. And honestly, I’m okay with that — this seems like a bolt of gloom-and-doom lightning that would be nearly impossible to re-create in some mid-sized arena in Des Moines.

#14: “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)” (Notes)

It’s a bit of a bummer that easily the three best songs off of Notes On A Conditional Form all easily slide into The 1975′s pop-rock comfort zone. But even if that album’s experiments fell a bit flat, it’s nice to know the band can still hit its sweet spot over and over again without getting tiring.

“If You’re Too Shy” is a perfect ‘80s synthpop banger, complete with some very-1975 lyrics about a couple meeting online and immediately objectifying each other. But the lyrics are really not the selling point of the song — it’s the taut new-wave rhythm, the twinkling synths, the ROARING sax solo, and that insanely sticky chorus (maybe the catchiest the band’s had). It’s the kind of song that could’ve played during that absurd library dance scene from Breakfast Club. It’s a timeless jam of the highest order, and impossible to resist.

#13: “I Like America & America Likes Me” (A Brief Inquiry)

As much of a big deal I make about The 1975′s experimental, don’t-give-a-fuck nature, most of my favorite songs of theirs are their more conventional pop songs. Sorry, I’m lame!

But regardless, I adore “I Like America,” a truly strange electronic freakout that encapsulates all the anxieties and fears of the world’s young people. It’s electrifying and horrifying in equal measure.

Of course, a much more famous 1975 song coming on this list does this concept a little better lyrically, and has more of an actual hook to back it up. Still, there’s something poignant about “I Like America,” particularly Healy’s unhinged performance. He spends most of the song hysterically yelling out into the void lines like “I’M SCARED OF DYING, IT’S FINE” and “WOULD YOU PLEASE LISTEN.” And the chaotic, undulating wave of vocal samples, drum machines and synths seems to get stronger with every second.

#12: “Chocolate” (Music For Cars EP, The 1975)

Easily The 1975′s biggest hit in the U.S., “Chocolate” could’ve easily pinned the band into the bin of other just-decent Tumblr-friendly indie bands in the early ‘10s. They could’ve been the British version of The Neighbourhood (remember “Sweater Weather?”).

But just because The 1975 quickly moved away from the super-sugary pop rock of “Chocolate,” that doesn’t mean the tune is a simple trifle. I mean, okay, it is — but it’s a perfect trifle! The hook is basically the entire song, and for good reason: it’s freakishly catchy. “Chocolate” is one of those songs you’ll have stuck in your head for weeks afterward. And that bouncy groove is *chef’s kiss*.

“Chocolate” was bound to be noticed by the world: it was too pristine to be ignored.

#11: “The Sound” (I like it...)

Am I underrating this? Maybe.

When I first heard “The Sound,” it was the first 1975 song I truly loved. The bouncy house piano, thumping four-on-the-floor beat and simple sing-along chorus drew me in like a siren call. And it still sounds fantastic four years later!

Really, the only bad thing you could say about “The Sound” is that the band made a couple even better synthpop jams later. This was sort of a warm up, their first truly great ‘80s costume party. But even though it’s been surpassed, “The Sound” is still a delight today. At the very least, it has the band’s best-ever guitar solo.

#10: “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)” (A Brief Inquiry)

Y’all know the classic Oasis power ballad “Champagne Supernova,” right? It’s incredibly epic, but the lyrics are infamously meaningless. What if a band wrote a similar Britpop power ballad, with an equally anthemic chorus, but actually injected a legitimate, moving theme?

That happened! The 1975 did it with “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes),” maybe the most uplifting song about suicide ever written. Healy penned some of his most empathetic lyrics here, all about how, well, sometimes we all want to die. Always. His chorus is a moment of glorious angsty catharsis — the emo lyrics of My Chemical Romance set to the sweeping strings and towering guitars of a Coldplay single.

This song is 100% my sweet spot, as a person with depression who loves a corny U2 ballad. It’s a shame The 1975 don’t operate in this vein more often — they’re quite good at it.

#9: “Sex” (Sex EP, The 1975)

The 1975 are barely a “rock” band in the truest sense. Yeah, they have a guitar player and a drummer and whatnot, but most of their music leans more on the pop side of things.

But “Sex,” one of the band’s earliest hits, legitimately rocks. It’s a raging, almost pop-punk jam that proves The 1975 can make a fantastic headbanger anytime they like. The frenzied tune is pure adrenaline, which makes sense given it’s about the forbidden thrill of cheating.

During the band’s last major tour, when “Sex” was played during the encore, the massive screen simply read “ROCK AND ROLL IS DEAD” while Matty Healy violently smashed a guitar at the song’s conclusion. Ironically, he proved the opposite.

#8: “Guys” (Notes)

This one’s just too cute.

“Guys” has an incredibly clever — and admittedly quite cheesy — conceit: Healy wrote a love song, but instead of being about romance, it’s about his platonic adoration for his fellow band members. It’s funny how most of The 1975′s songs about dating tend to be bitter or depressed, while arguably their most head-over-heels tune is about how much the four titular guys love spending time and writing songs together.

Even though it was written before the COVID-19 pandemic, “Guys” still fits the moment eerily well. Healy’s vocals and the lilting melody have a bittersweet tone, and the opening refrain of “I was missing the guys” could easily be about quarantining.

“Guys” won’t be for everyone. Some might roll their eyes at its aggressive sincerity. But if it catches me in a certain mood, it really has an effect on me. It’s perhaps the greatest bromance song ever written.

#7: “Fallingforyou” (IV EP)

The best song from The 1975′s EP era, “Fallingforyou” is a gorgeous, minimalist ballad that could’ve only come from the band’s less pretentious early years.

Healy switches between a conversational mumble and an angelic falsetto on the nocturnal track, giving it an intimate feel. It’s almost like he’s right next to you in the backseat of some car at 2 a.m. The dreamy, rumbling background gives “Fallingforyou” almost a Beach House or Chromatics vibe, and it suits the band well.

The 1975 is far too extra nowadays to try another song as quiet, serene and gimmick-free as “Fallingforyou.” But at least we have the one.

#6: “Me & You Together Song” (Notes)

The 1975 already have so many songs that try to recreate the magic of mid ‘80s pop-rock. And although they could probably keep mining that sound forever, it would be nice to see them try homages to other golden eras of pop music. And “Me & You Together Song” does just that.

With this bouncy, propulsive power pop jam, The 1975 were clearly aiming for a Y2K-era adult alternative vibe. It wouldn’t be hard to see The Goo Goo Dolls or Third Eye Blind performing a song like this, with the chugging guitars, snarky-yet-romantic lyrics and endless energy.

Daniel and Healy wrote a groove and effortless melody for “Me & You” that could probably go on forever — and it almost does! The last 75 seconds or so of the single just repeat the refrain over and over, and although normally that kind of repetition drives me nuts, it feels natural for this tune.

#5: “A Change of Heart” (I like it...)

One of two all-time classic breakup songs off of The 1975′s second album, “A Change of Heart” is crushing in the most pedestrian way. It’s not anything melodramatic or exaggerated — it’s simply the story of a couple naturally drifting apart.

Healy’s lyrics are rich with details here, from pithy asides about not smoking cigarettes correctly and Instagramming salads to a rather blunt description of falling out of love: “You used to have a face straight out of a magazine/Now you just look like anyone.”

Interestingly, Daniel decided to accompany the unromantic lyrics with some of the band’s most dreamy production. It sounds like a prom scene from a John Hughes high school movie. But that dissonance works — it sets up a fantasy and then shatters it.

#4: “It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)” (A Brief Inquiry)

You want to know why I left “The Sound” out of the top 10? Here’s why: “It’s Not Living” takes that same hyper-sleek ‘80s synthpop sound but improves upon it with a stickier hook, dark lyrics and a killer guitar riff.

Strangely for such a perky and bouncy song, “It’s Not Living” is about Healy’s struggles to get over a heroin addiction. It’s a smart lyrical trick, framing his difficulty with quitting smack as being similar to not getting over a rough breakup. And it’s downright genius to pair such a dark topic with such a fun instrumental, Passion Pit-style. “It’s Not Living” is the band’s finest pure pop song, and a success they’ll no doubt try to repeat for the rest of their career.

#3: “Robbers” (The 1975)

This is the pinnacle of The 1975′s early career young-and-dumb anthems. It turns literally robbing a bank into a sweeping, heartfelt power ballad.

Alright, alright, fine ... it’s not literally about robbing a bank; it’s a metaphor for a toxic, co-dependent relationship, according to the band. But that deeper meaning is pretty hard to pick up on when Healy’s singing about guns and screaming “NOW EVERYBODY’S DEAAAAAAD” on the bridge. Honestly, “Robbers” being a tragic Romeo and Juliet-style story sounds much more plausible.

But lyrics aside, the chugging guitars and soaring chorus hit you right in the gut. “Robbers” could be about shopping at Pottery Barn and it would still be an incredible tour-de-force of a song. But its brutal ending elevates it even further. That cruelly ironic final line, “Babe, you look so cool” — which Healy sounds like he’s singing through tears — lands like a sledgehammer every time.

#2: “Love It If We Made It” (A Brief Inquiry)

The words “generational anthem” tend to get thrown around a lot online about various tracks. But “Love It If We Made It” deserves that moniker.

I have yet to hear a song that better describes the acute stress and psychological horror of being a Millennial or Gen Zer while the world collapses around you. The ice caps are melting, police brutality is rampant, the refugee crisis is accelerating, and the world’s leaders are too corrupt and/or incompetent to do anything to fix these problems.

Unlike many political anthems, Healy doesn’t sound angry on “Love It If We Made It.” He sounds terrified. The title itself makes the song’s theme clear: we just want to survive this mess. And we’re pretty sure that we won’t.

With 2020 being an absolutely awful year so far (oh hi, COVID!), “Love It If We Made It” unfortunately sounds just as powerful today as it did a couple years ago. Hopefully, there comes a day when this song sounds less visceral and chilling and more like a relic of the past. But that day hasn’t come yet.

#1: “Somebody Else” (I like it...)

If there is a “The 1975 sound” — which is kind of ridiculous, seeing as the band changes up their sound so much, but still — “Somebody Else” is the perfect example of it. It’s both deeply indebted to ‘80s new wave, yet wholly modern-sounding. Healy’s lyrics are laughably pretentious yet cuttingly relatable. And it packages complicated emotions into an undeniable, melancholy pop nugget.

Healy’s exploration of tangled, better emotions on “Somebody Else” about his ex — who he mistakenly thought he was over —finding a new partner is sadly a place we’ve all been. “I don’t want your body/but I hate to think about you with somebody else” — who can’t relate?

Daniels’ nocturnal production is sleek, slippery and heartwrenching in its own right. The scattered, distorted vocal samples almost mock Healy’s emotions, and the shuffling beat adds a nice pulse to the proceedings. If you’re in the proper mood and setting, there are few better breakup songs to blast and mope around to.

"Somebody Else” one of the all-time great breakup anthems, as well as a top-tier song to drive around to at night when you’re sad. And it’s The 1975′s best-ever song.

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quu-kii · 5 years

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Jake Gyllenhaal Filmography Ranking

My personal ranking of all Jake Gyllenhaal movies from October Sky onwards with some brief thoughts on each of the movies. Honestly the exact number ranking of these movies is probably not super accurate and could be liable to changes, but I tried my best with the ordering.

Amazing Tier (My favorites)

1. Brokeback Mountain - This is such an emotional and heartbreaking movie. I knew it was going to have a sad ending going into it, but still I was not prepared for how strongly it hit me in the feels. And it’s not just the ending that is sad; you can tell that the love between the two leads is doomed from less than the midpoint of the movie, and it keeps going downhill from there. Overall, I think the movie is a perfect tragic love story. As well, there’s this very subtle and natural feeling to the whole movie that is difficult to describe but works really well. There’s just something truly special about this movie that makes me want to place it as the #1 best of Jake’s movies.

2. Nightcrawler - A highly suspenseful movie with an amazing lead performance by Jake as the sociopathic lead character Lou Bloom. Jake is really a big part of what makes the movie great, as he is such a strong focus of it. Lou acts so off, but it’s just impossible to take your eyes off him, and he is so interesting to watch since you keep wondering what he will do next. The other part of what makes this movie great is the writing and dialogue. There are just so many memorable and great lines, especially for Lou. Along with these factors, the subject matter of the movie, that of the career of selling violent news footage to news stations, is pretty unique, and there are some interesting ideas and themes in the movie as well relating to success and the news media. Overall I really love this movie. If there’s one thing I would say I might not like about the movie, it is the music. It can have an uplifting and hopeful vibe in dark scenes, which lessens the tense mood of some scenes. But I understand that the music was made to reflect Lou’s mood in the scene, which is a very interesting decision in itself and helps add to Lou’s character, since you can notice the contrast between how disturbing the scenarios he is in are and how Lou himself feels in such scenarios. So I at least admire the music for this aspect.

3. Enemy - A tense and psychological movie. I really love the heavy and surreal atmosphere of this movie, added to by the yellowish filter which is present throughout the whole movie as well as the score, which is ominous and used to amazing effect in the movie to enhance the dark mood. Also, I think this movie is both enjoyable when taken in at face value, being about a man who finds that there is a doppelganger of himself, and when looking deeper at what the “real” story is, taking into account the symbolism and various small details placed throughout the movie. It’s an interesting movie to think about due to its openness to interpretation. And lastly, Jake does a great job playing the two lead characters in the movie; despite the characters looking the same, they give off quite a very different vibe.

4. Spider-Man: Far from Home - My favorite MCU movie. I love so many things about this movie: how it deals with the aftermath of the Blip in a light way, how it deals with Peter Parker’s character after Endgame and his desire to just be able to have a normal life, the overall story, the setting being Europe and having this fresh vacation feeling, the fight scenes, and of course Mysterio. Along with this, it has great music (especially Mysterio’s theme) and probably the best mid credits and post credits scenes in the MCU due to their plot relevance. All of the characters are very likeable too, from Peter and all his classmates and teachers to others like Nick Fury and Mysterio, which is important to me since likable characters is one of the most important aspects to me in any kind of story. This movie was such a pleasant surprise after Endgame, which was a great disappointment to me. Also, this movie is special to me because it’s how I discovered the awesomeness of Jake and thus indirectly the reason why I watched all his movies and made this list in the first place. I’m not sure if a future MCU movie can top this for me, but who knows.

Great Tier

5. Nocturnal Animals - A harsh movie with an interesting structure of having two main stories, with one of the stories being a story within the main story (I will call this story the 2nd story for brevity). I think the 2nd story is where the movie really shines. This story was so tense and much more interesting to follow compared to the main story, and Jake portrayed the emotions of anguish and despair so well in it. It’s also interesting to think about how the 2nd story links with the main story, which gives more depth to the overall story of the movie. I find this and Brokeback Mountain to be the most emotionally harrowing of Jake’s movies, which is definitely a compliment since I admire when a work is able to make me feel so strongly. Also, I have to note that I disliked that there was a random jumpscare in the middle of the movie. It doesn’t lower my opinion of the movie, but I really don’t like jumpscares and did not expect one in this movie.

6. Source Code - A really solid sci-fi movie about Jake’s character repeating through a time loop. It is the only Jake movie to make me cry due to me being a sucker for tragic scenarios involving time loops/parallel worlds. It was just a very engaging movie to watch due to the intriguing premise and the very good execution of said premise.

7. Zodiac - I didn’t know that this movie was based off true events until almost the end of it. So the whole time, I was expecting there to be a conclusive ending when there was no way this would be the case, since the Zodiac killer case to this day hasn’t been solved. Because of this, I felt initially disappointed about this movie from a story perspective, since all the clues from the movie seemed to lead to nothing. This is my biggest “flaw” about the movie (and it’s not really the movie’s fault), but this factor aside I really liked this movie. Jake, RDJ, and Mark Ruffalo are all great in it, and I love murder mysteries so much, so the story had me hooked on this alone. It’s so interesting to watch the characters piece together clues for the case and try to unravel the mystery, as well as seeing how the case progresses (or well, doesn’t progress at times) over the years. Also, this movie just feels really good to watch; as in, the scenes and shots flow together so well. It’s a great movie overall I think.

8. The Sisters Brothers - A western with a kind of laid back feel to it. Also supposedly it is a comedy, but I found it not funny at all. It’s not that I see the movie attempting jokes and find that they don’t work; it’s more like I don’t see the attempt at humor at all, unless maybe it’s kind of a weird dark humor thing. Anyways, I really like this movie, and it’s mostly because I really like the main four characters and their dynamics with each other. Jake does a great job playing his character John Morris and has an accent which is pleasant to my ears, though I was sad that he (as well as Riz Ahmed) wasn’t in the movie more. Even though I was watching the movie for Jake, I found myself liking John C. Reilly’s and Joaquin Phoenix’s characters, the two leads, a lot as well. It’s a movie that shines because of the characters for me.

Very Good Tier

9. Donnie Darko - A pretty unique coming of age story with sci-fi elements. I’m still not sure what to think of this movie, though I think I liked it. Some of my favorite scenes are where Donnie goes off on these rants about what he believes to be the truth. These scenes are amazing to me.

10. Prisoners - I actually find the story of this movie to be not that great. However, what elevates the movie is Hugh Jackman and Jake and their amazing performances. Funnily enough, I found myself siding with Hugh’s character and against Jake’s as they both simultaneously tried to solve the case. Also, this movie is just really exciting and engaging to watch and is maybe one of the easiest to recommend movies on this list due to these factors.

11. The Day After Tomorrow - This isn’t a very deep movie or anything, but it’s a really solid disaster flick in my opinion. I love the visuals, and Jake is such a cutie in this movie, a factor that really elevates it for me.

12. The Good Girl - It looked like a comedy or something from the outside, but actually this is a rather bleak movie. It’s one of the duology of the Jake-being-into-older-married-women movies (and the much better of the two for me). I find this movie pretty underrated.

13. October Sky - It’s an uplifting and inspiring movie, and I love how Homer’s relationship with his father is portrayed here.

14. Okja - I love the stylized vibe of this movie. Jake isn’t in the movie that much, but I really like every time he shows up. He goes full wacky here and it’s fun to watch.

15. Brothers - Tobey Maguire is the real star here. I think he was great in the movie and I could really feel the emotions of his character, especially after he comes back from the war and is in a troubled state of mind.

16. Stronger - A good based on real life movie about a survivor of the Boston Marathon Bombing. Jake does a great job as usual, and I think the emotions of the story came through well.

17. Wildlife - A really simple and subdued story about a family, but I think it works well in the movie. It has a very quiet and natural feeling to it.

Ok Tier

18. Demolition - A quirky feeling movie about a guy trying to deal with the death of his wife. The scene with Jake dancing in the city is my favorite part. Also I thought Jake’s friendship with the kid in the movie was a highlight.

19. Bubble Boy - It's kind of a dumb movie with some maybe offensive humor, but I thought it was pretty enjoyable regardless. Jake is so adorable as the main character Jimmy, and it was fun to follow his journey across the country and seeing all the interesting characters he meets.

20. Proof - I thought it was pretty good, but then the movie ended just when I thought it was starting to ramp up the story to the conclusion. This factor brought the movie down for me.

21. Life - The monster design for this movie was pretty cool, and I liked the ending and the general space horror vibe. However, I didn’t feel much for any of the characters.

22. Everest - It was ok, but I wasn’t really into any of the characters here.

23. Southpaw - I think this movie is very impressive for Jake’s resume, considering how he trained a lot and learned boxing for it. However as a movie itself, I didn’t really feel much for it and felt like it wasn’t doing much special in the story department. I liked some of the parts in the earlier half though.

24. End of Watch - I just wasn’t feeling this movie. Maybe it was the found footage style or something. I feel a bit sad about not digging this movie since I see it is generally one of the more well liked ones in Jake’s filmography.

25. Jarhead - I really don’t like the vulgar tone throughout this movie, but I do like the general story and message. Also the movie looks really good.

Not That Great Tier

26. Velvet Buzzsaw - I love Jake’s character Morf so much as well as the general premise. However the movie itself wasn’t too great: I found most of the characters besides Jake’s to be unlikable, and also the movie felt cheap. It’s very disappointing since the concept for the movie (horror in an art gallery) seems so promising.

27. Prince of Persia - This was the first Jake movie I saw back in the day around the time of its theater release. I have to say I find this to be Jake’s weakest acting performance out of all his movies. For me, good acting is when the actor feels very natural as the character and is somehow magnetizing to watch. But for some reason I did not get a very natural vibe from Jake as Dastan in this movie. I do think he looks very beautiful in this movie though with his long hair, so that’s a big plus. The story of this movie feels pretty cliché and kind of lifeless in a way, but I still liked it alright.

28. Highway - I don’t really like the sleazy tone of this movie. However, I think Jake is very adorable in this movie and has this pure wide-eyed vibe about him (despite him being a drug dealer and sleeping with prostitutes and such).

29. Rendition - I found this movie to be aggressively boring for the most part. There’s this subplot which I was unsure why I should even care about until a reveal near the end of the movie, when it was too late to start caring at all. However Jake in a bloody shirt towards the beginning of the movie makes for some good screencaps and gifs, and I learned about the term extraordinary rendition through searching about it after the movie.

30. Moonlight Mile - I guess this movie might be considered technically good because it tells the story it sets out to do fairly well, but I just found it very boring. There is a part towards the end with Jake’s character being very emotional which I really liked.

31. Lovely & Amazing - It's actually decent, but really not my type of movie. It’s the 2nd of the duology of the Jake-being-into-older-married-women movies.

Just No Tier

32. Accidental Love - I actually enjoyed the beginning parts of this movie (though what’s with the constant dutch angles in the earlier parts?), and ironically it is around the point of the introduction of Jake’s character where I felt like it started to nosedive. I felt my soul slipping away and my IQ dropping by the end of the movie.

33. Love & Other Drugs – I really, really don’t like this kind of raunchy sex comedy movie. That’s all.

#jake gyllenhaal #text #brokeback mountain #nightcrawler #enemy #spiderman far from home #nocturnal animals #source code #zodiac #the sisters brothers #donnie darko #prisoners

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ebachan · 5 years

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Sonic’s Movie is Good

Okay, I have heard quite a few ridiculous claims Sonic’s Movie will suck despite the redesign. That is quite a claim with nothing to back it up. Or almost nothing.

Not much is known about the plot, but before we move to it, let’s remind ourselves what each Sonic game was about.

Games:

Sonic 1

Sonic 2

Sonic 3

Sonic 3 & Knuckles

Sonic A1

Sonic A2

Shadow the Hedgehog

Sonic Colors

Sonic Generations

Sonic Forces

Sonic and Black Knight

Sonic ...

Uuuuf... Let me catch my breath first, I’m not that fast as Sonic ;-)

So, here we have a small sample I cooked up at the spot. So, what is the plot? It can be summarized in four words - Save the world/stop Eggman

Okay, theoretically it’s five... But, my point still stands.

So, people kind of complaint Sonic’s Movie is about him saving the world = simple/primitive even. (Do I get it right?) If “saving the world”-trope/plot is lame, I guess LOTR or Star Wards are lame too. After all, they are “just” about saving the world as well.

Now, please notice the sarcasm. I use it when dealing with close-minded humans. Thank you for understanding. My point is - every story has a theme. Being it save the world, go on an adventure, or solve a mystery. I have somewhere read an article about Seven Main Plot Lines in Books (Maybe it was more of them ^_^;). Each book, no matter how awesome it is, can be categorized in one of those “cliché plots”.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t make them bad or boring. Do you go and read a book to know how it ends? Yes, some books have shocking ends you don’t expect. With some, you know how it will end - hero will beat the baddie and lives happily ever after.

Well, how about the journey in the middle? Isn’t it the most exciting part of the story? It sure is. It can have anything - humor, action, adventure, mystery, romance, angst, twists, character’s growth, world building. The list can go on. The end is just a cherry at the top, it’s the middle part that sucks us in.

In other worlds - Stop judging Sonic’s Movie based on the premise. It’s stupid.

What do we know for sure:

Sonic is an alien.

Different planet, but in one universe

Or different dimension means two different universes like in games.

Government is after Sonic

You telling me this is stupid? I would be knocking on my forehead if no military was involved when Sonic appears, especially after the shockwave knocked out half of the continent. You can’t ignore him. This part reminds me of Season 1 of Sonic X when Sonic was chased by humans to find out how he ticks.

Also, this has E.T. vibes, and nobody says the premise of a human kid helping a lost alien to escape from the government to return home is stupid ;-)

In other words, Sonic is a too big deal to be ignored by the military. They have to take action.

Pair up Sonic and Tom

No problem here. We often see two unlikely individuals joining forces to beat bigger baddies. It provides nice dynamics and often helps both parties to see the world from a new perspective.

Game inspiration

There seems to be still the confusion about what type of story Sonic’s Movie tells. I think it was even officially stated, that this movie is a prequel to Sonic 1 and partly Sonic 1 too. So kinda like Sonic 0.5.

It tells how Eggman/Robotnik and Sonic became enemies. The game never explained this, nor why Eggman wants to conquer the world. At least that Amusement Park of Death is an original tidbit :-D So, in a way we can get some answers or the alternative way how to look at their frenemies relationship from games.

We can also get more about how the Two Worlds (Mobius, Earth) are connected. For me, I still can’t wrap my head around it. It kinda feels they made it up to cover some plot holes, but whatever. The idea itself is interesting.

It has a lot of Easter Eggs but introduces Sonic to kids

There was a test screening during January/February and here is the comment from that person (found on Reddit).

The movie aims to bring a new origin story for Sonic and Robotnik. Its main goal is to introduce children to Sonic the Hedgehog as a character, but at the same time throw references and pay homages to details from the original game series for the longtime fans. It aims for a PG Rating.

He gave the movie a 7/10 grade. “It’s geared towards new fans with respect for the older peeps. Just go into it knowing that new kids will fall in love like we all did at one point.”

About how the movie was like, he said that “ Id say it is more TMNT with reference to story and action balance. It’s a solid mix between engaging action which continues to develop the bromance between sonic and Tom.”

“Its definitely being targeted towards youth demo. It seems their goal is to intro sonic to the next Gen of fans. More so with access to their parent's wallets for the spin-off merch and happy meal toys. I enjoyed it similar to seeing transformers. Don’t expect the green mile storytelling but turn your brain off and just enjoy for what it is, The cast does a great job” Robotnik is only called by the Robotnik name in the movie, no mention of the Eggman name at all.

It's about 90 minutes long

“ It’s a good balance between giving the old fans something but introducing him to kids. I went in not knowing it was gonna be screened or any expectations. Cheesy but enjoyed it from start to finish. Jim Carrey kills the role.”

“ Action scenes were great in storytelling and execution wise. Effects weren’t complete so a lot of it was still early CGI and the hidden actors playing sonic. At one point he was just a blue doll on the counter lol”

The post contains some “plot” for the movie, so I won’t post more. I actually skipped once I noticed this ;-)

I don't know how you, but I’m going to watch this movie no matter what!

@movie-sonic-positivity @movie-robotnik-positivity

#sonic movie #sonic movie 2019 #sonic movie positivity #sonic movie 2020 #movie sonic #sonic the hedgehog #dr. eggman #dr. robotnik #jim carrey

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arcaneranger · 5 years

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Final Thoughts - 2018 Long Shows

It’s finally here! I’m so close to being done with 2018 (...mostly. We’ll get to it) that I can taste it, but in the meantime, this list is gonna be weird, because there will be things that were already on other lists since I revised my rules of what should be classified how. This post is specifically for any show that ended in 2018 and lasted longer than 13-ish episodes (including shows that aired a second season during the same year or within six months of finishing the previous one), which means that there’s about as much on it as a usual season of shows, but they all had more time to impress - or disappoint me. I’m doing a better job in recent seasons of getting to everything, but last year there were unfortunately things that I missed (I was burned out in the winter) and just have to leave aside for now because I can’t wait any longer for these lists.

Anyway! As usual, let’s start with what I skipped!

* The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the Commandments, The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo S2, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Garo: Vanishing Line, and Mr Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues because I haven’t seen their previous seasons or parent works. (Yes, even Cardcaptor Sakura. Y’all can shoot me later.)

* Hakyuu Hoshin Engi, Beatless, and Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls because by the time I was rounding things up, I hadn’t heard a single positive thing about any of them.

Next comes what I dropped -

WORST OF THE YEAR: Steins;Gate 0 (4/10)

What a fucking mess this show was. Aside from a very noticeable downgrade in production talent from its predecessor, the plot meanders and flirts with maybe actually happening this time before just dropping out again, over and over, to the point where I was perfectly willing to drop it two episodes from the finish line because it was such an insult to fans of the original. (Also, continued disgusting mistreatment of the transgender character.)

Gundam Build Divers (4/10)

Taking the Build series from being a well-written kids show to an averagely-written kids show that hides itself in decent mech designs.

Katana Maidens (4/10)

I remember so little about this show, and granted that I did drop it after one episode almost nine months ago, but what I did remember was that it gave me strong KanColle vibes with laughably inconsistent animation and flat characters. Meh.

Darling in the FRANXX (5/10)

This should probably be lower on the list, but I got out of Darling while the getting was good, sixteen episodes in. I understand that future episodes of the show cemented it as crappy right-wing nonsense in addition to pushing worldbuilding out of its fortieth-story window, but the moment it lost me was much sooner, when the crazy yandere female lead was reduced, almost instantly, to Good Anime Waifu as a reward to the protagonist for going against his friends with his selfish motives.

Persona 5 the Animation (5/10)

In addition to not actually finishing in 2018, Persona 5 just did not give me a single reason to watch it when I’d already finished the source game, with middling-to-bad visuals (thanks to the switch from Production I.G. to A-1 Pictures, and not even the team that created the much better-looking Day Breakers OVA before the game was released in the U.S.) and phoned-in music, which is especially unacceptable in a Persona adaptation. Also, we all absolutely called that the studio couldn’t tell the story of the entire game in just 26 episodes.

Record of Grancrest War (6/10)

There’s people that like this one a lot, but I didn’t see much that interested me in the first two episodes. I’ve heard better things about the manga.

Golden Kamuy (6/10)

I had problems with the first half of Golden Kamuy that the second half simply didn’t fix, and it became difficult for me to keep watching - the show still interrupted almost every fight scene with a dick joke, but still wanted to maintain a serious and occasionally frightening tone - and those things simply don’t go together. It needed to either spend more time being funny, or keep its lowest-common-denominator humor out of the fights.

Next, I have two shows that are (potentially permanently) On Hold, simply because it’s time for me to move on and I don’t have the time or energy to marathon them when the Winter shows are starting to wrap up:

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, because even though I initially dropped it, I’ve heard a lot of good things since and I want to eventually give it another shot.

Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line, because despite the fact that I still enjoyed the previous season, this one started right in the middle of my burnout and I only heard bad things about it. I’ll get to it eventually, but it’s a shame that this series has been on a clear trend downwards since its revival.

And finally, the stuff I finished!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride (6/10)

Keep in mind that this is here entirely on the merits of its aesthetic and its side characters - in the end, Ancient Magus’ Bride is a Beauty and the Beast story where the beast gets what he wants without learning to be less of a dick or even apologizing for his clearly wrong actions.

Major 2nd (7/10)

Always pleased to have even just Good sports shows around, and this one is a very effective reboot of a classic series that’s never made its way stateside (man, the underperformance of Big Windup! really did a lot of damage to this genre in the West). With good character development and a decent second-generation premise, Major 2nd has the potential to be the beginning of a solid baseball story, assuming that it gets a needed followup.

IDOLiSH7 (7/10)

I dropped IDOLiSH7 when it first aired, and though I wound up enjoying it after I was very strongly urged to revisit it, the problems it started with never quite left it behind - that is, it has an okay cast of characters but doesn’t present even passable performance sequences, and if you’re going to include big song-and-dance numbers, they have to be good, or you may as well just be UtaPri.

ClassicaLoid Season 2 (8/10)

In 2017, I gave the first season of ClassicaLoid a near-perfect 9/10, and while this season gives us a satisfying conclusion to the story, it does things both a little better than the first, and also not quite as great. It’s story is much more well-integrated over the runtime so it doesn’t happen all at once in a few chunks, and the jokes that work are still absolute genius, but there’s simply too much that doesn’t quite land correctly, and a little too much immature humor, for it to reach the same lofty Hall of Fame heights as the first season. Still, one of the most underrated shows I’ve ever seen.

My Hero Academia Season 3 (8/10)

God, Izuku in that onesie is too damn cute.

My problems with Hero Academia are frustratingly persistent - the show is at its best when the students are competing with other students, because outside of last season’s Stain (a villain whose motivation is specifically related to the world of MHA), the villains are just not at all compelling and they all seem a little too generic for their own good. I just want Horikoshi to be a little bit less predictable of an author and do a little less reading of the Standard Shounen Playbook. Luckily, when it works, it works magnificently.

March Comes in Like a Lion S2 (8/10)

March remains director/auteur Akiyuki Shinbo’s most accessible work, and one of his masterpieces, as a well-paced and marvelously moody story of a depressed shogi prodigy learning to be a normal teenager before his youth completely passes him by, and the fantastic characters that surround him with their own complex problems and motivations. I just really, really hope it gets a third season eventually, because this one did not leave off on a satisfying conclusion.

Speaking of which...

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma S3 (9/10)

It’s almost a shame that My Hero Academia became hugely popular purely based on its accessibility to American audiences, because Food Wars pretty squarely deserves to be the reigning Shonen Jump king - each season has only improved on the previous one, and this one was based entirely on a continuing arc that could only have happened in the universe of this show, Fighting Food Fascism. That being said, it also leaves off right in the middle of the arc (because it had almost caught up to the manga), meaning that we have to hope that it can remain relevant long enough for there to be enough source material for another season. I’ll be crossing my fingers until they snap.

Banana Fish (9/10)

Yes, this has risen a point since my review, but Banana Fish still deserves to be thought of as both a complete masterwork of crime fiction, being fantastically paced and expertly plotted in the use of its many, many twists, and a work that disappointed the side of me that hoped that, in adapting it into the modern day, MAPPA could have managed to get the author to let them depict what is clearly a queer relationship with the authenticity and legitimacy that it deserved. It’s still amazing, though, and Amazon should be pushing it with their most lavishly-made originals. At least it was the last noitaminA show they’ll get to totally bury.

And, finally, the one you all saw coming.

BEST OF THE YEAR: Lupin the 3rd Part V (10/10)

Lupin is, quite simply, one of the pinnacles of the medium. A simple idea that can (and did) go in thousands of different directions, handled by highly creative writers and an animation staff that has been knocking it out of the park for years, despite the fact that it is criminally (heh) unrecognized in the West. To put it simply, there’s a very, very good reason that it’s been around since the 70′s.

Okay! All I have left to do is finish Dragon Pilot (waiting on a friend) and we can get the last two lists out of the way! We’re almost done...

#multi 2018 #arcaneanime #year end anime list #final thoughts #lupin the third #my hero academia #banana fish #food wars #the ancient magus bride #March Comes in Like a Lion #idolish7 #major 2nd

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