#and it had an example of a ''heroic'' wolf character vs a ''villainous'' one

[rileys-battlecats]

I love how you changed Wrentail’s design slightly by making him more rounded. Mudpaw is spikey but is really a sweetheart, and Wrentail being rounded making you think he’s a decent cat when in actuality he’s a monster. Really drives the theme never judge a book by its cover

Yes!! That's exactly what I was going for!!

[qwirk]

*vigilantes ch. ~64 and main manga ch. ~255 spoilers*

although idk if these are really spoilers if these chapters came out a couple years ago! anime-only fans beware. anyway here’s my extremely long rant about the obvious, not trying to explain anything- i gotta yell!

so that vigilantes arc destroyed me! i’m not good at immediately putting thoughts about media into coherent points but i’m just so sad :( first of all after catching up with the main manga, shirakumo, despite being technically dead during his introduction, rocketed up to one of my favorite if not my favorite character. aizawa is also up there for me- he was first introduced as this strict teacher who seemed to psychologically torment his students for the fun of it, or at least for some yet unknown ulterior motive. but we now know that, while still kinda harsh, he does this to give his students that lead-dropping-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach rush in order to push them to succeed (or something like that?). he truly cares about his students and their growth which has been demonstrated multiple clear times. but what drives him to be like this??

shirakumo!! his actions today are a clear answer to the pushes shirakumo gave him back when they were students. they’re so obviously influenced by shirakumo that they’re almost literally answers. the main chapters are a little foggy because i speedread them at 3 am, but i just caught up with vigilantes. 

at the start, aizawa sees himself as someone who’s constantly just behind and will stay there as everyone moves on. he trudges into class drenched after leaving the kitten behind and he’s super emo about it. meanwhile, shirakumo literally flies through the window, also drenched, saved not only the kitten but aizawa’s umbrella, and manages to put on this cheery (albeit borderline explicit) show about it. it’s a CLEAR contrast between the two and aizawa goes as far to say that he hasn’t reached his “true self yet” while he looks at shirakumo and then says that he starts to change. 

as if it’s not enough for aizawa to beat himself up mentally, his classmates bring him down for not having a “heroic” enough quirk. shirakumo is constantly stepping in to bring him back up, even during real work study stuff, and goes as far to lend him a pair of his goggles so that his eyes become more useful. this becomes a stronger bonding point between aizawa, shirakumo, and hizaishi for them to start looking to the future together. while wearing those goggles, which are protecting his sight from the strong winds on the roof, he stares into the sky, feeling like he’s getting swept into the future like the clouds in the wind. (also the clouds as a metaphor. damn)

and then we come to the last fight. everyone that aizawa looks up to is crushed in the wake of the villain, and he’s the last one standing. there’s a group of children to protect, and he’s panicking and drowning in his overthinking. the way he’s given a huge panel to himself only to be visually overwhelmed by his thought bubbles stood out to me. and then the thing that snaps him out is shirakumo’s voice cheering him on. it’s a bunch of simple praise, but it means everything in the situation. the friend who’s been pulling him up no matter how hopeless or apathetic aizawa feels is of course the one to spur him into action in a life-or-death situation. aizawa realizes he’s gotta fight immediately, and even reminds himself of exactly what shirakumo told him- that his quirk IS useful and levels the playing field. 

i was already kinda spoiled for this part since i read the main manga first, but hearing shirakumo’s cheering the entire time while aizawa is absolutely toiling to defeat this huge villain would have been touching regardless. and when he lands in triumph, hurting but victorious, he screams for his friend to hear that he did it!! but then you see this joy start to like. rot away as soon as it pans to kayama and hizaishi. it’s raining again (THE CLOUDS AS A METAPHOR! DAMN!). shirakumo’s corpse is lying feet away from him, staining the medics’ sheet with blood. i don’t have much to say about this part, it was just a lot for me to process!! also i’m still not entirely sure about the way his speaker works so i might be wrong here, but did he really spend his dying moments with a traumatic head injury cheering on his friend to not only beat the immediate danger, but to self-realization?? or maybe it was prerecorded? idk but either way, truly a hero. 

aizawa and hizaishi are left standing in the rain because once again, “it fits the mood.” so obviously there’s the callback to when aizawa first said that when he comes to class after leaving the kitten and i have yet to fully comprehend it because i have no braincells for interpreting media. i guess maybe it’s like- aizawa at first felt terrible for not being able to save even a kitten while being enrolled in the most prestigious hero course in the country. getting drenched while settling with (what he considers to be) a cowardly measure is the icing to the cake for his self-hatred. it’s the classic “this might as well happen” scenario to get soaked by random rain or a car splashing you with a puddle on a bad morning. rain is sad. but in comes shirakumo, equally drenched but still the bright light that he is. he’s also done everything aizawa couldn’t but wanted to and more in this situation. he could do it not just because of his storing quirk, but because he held the life of someone who needed saving more important than the school rules. this decorum lets the kitten slide as it makes itself at home in the classroom. the rain stops soon after. but then you have shirakumo’s death. once again, aizawa, and even hizaishi, who’s usually always upbeat (almost every panel of him was just him screaming YEAHHHHH. plz give him more dialogue) both agree that the pouring rain fits the mood. this also brings us back to the present that preceded the flashback- koichi just rescued a cat and a child from a villain with aizawa’s help, and now they’re standing under an awning to escape the rain. this situation is literally almost exactly what happened at the beginning of the flashback which is why i guess it brought it on, but it’s interesting to see what changed- aizawa is the one who’s learned from this situation and teaching the student the meaning of responsibility (using an abandoned cat as an example, no less), and they’re all properly shielded from the elements this time. i guess the conclusion (that could be totally wrong) i’m coming to is that the rain sort of represents the adversaries aizawa faces in life- his self-deprecation, those that don’t believe in him, his personal failures that he has been facing lately. shirakumo has always been there to guide him past it, and once he lifts up aizawa nothing can shake him again. but now that he’s definitively gone, it’s back to haunt him for this one last moment of sheer grief. it’s only this one moment though, as aizawa clearly uses this moment to move on and better himself not just for his sake, but for everyone counting on him. he’s escaped the rain.

it’s so clear how this manifests in the main manga and i’m so happy vigilantes was able to spin out such a good backstory and explanation for his actions!! one of the most immediate ways we see his ideals stand out is his taking in of shinsou as his apprentice from general studies. it’s absolutely because he sees himself in this boy. he has a quirk that’s seemingly useless once you get into combat and everyone thinks he’s a creep for it. more people might even wary around shinsou than aizawa’s case. during the a vs. b practice fights, shinsou explains what he did wrong, clearly upset at himself for not doing enough. aizawa immediately pulls himself up, reminding him that in order to achieve what he just said, he’d have to be a pro, and that what he managed was more than enough. these parallels between aizawa and shinsou are definitely hinted at in the main story, like when midoriya underestimate’s his prowess in combat at usj, but with the vigilantes arc everything is so much clearer. in the main manga, we get a direct reference of aizawa’s expulsion rate in relation to how it helps students grow when they face “’death’” as he’s interrogating kurogiri. though dramatic, i feel like it has to be linked to the dire situation aizawa faced when the pro heros and shirakumo got knocked out during that one fight because of its placement in the chapter. he understands better than most in the story that a lot of times pushes, whether big or small, are needed to grow. he wants to be to his students what shirakumo was to him.

OK EDIT because i didn’t realize there was more to the arc after 64 lol. so obviously after shirakumo dies aizawa’s and hizaishi’s dreams of starting a triple hero agency have been dashed. aizawa seems to distance himself from hizaishi, or at least they’re on uneasy speaking terms. he’s coping by training super hard and is bent on going solo after graduation, the opposite of what they had all planned. but this time, he has conviction on what he’s going to do with himself, and that’s great! he learns that you have to be there for yourself in life. there’s a small montage leading from graduation to where is now in vigilantes and it’s been hard, but he’s been making it. still a lone wolf as ever, aside from the pushes from kayama to become teachers with her and hizaishi at ua. he thinks doing that would be a stupid choice for him, he’s been alone this whole time and doesn’t work well with others (anymore, he thinks). but now that he’s in the cafe with everyone, he changes seeing everyone fawn over the cat but their new dreams of being a popular cat cafe. 

the impact of seeing their newfound hope brings him back to another flashback of the rooftop trio, and THE PARALLELS!!! of them also dreaming to start their hero agency based on their first rescue of sushi the cat. back in the present, aizawa, who’s been spacing off, suddenly realizes the sky and his mind have cleared (THE CLOUDS KEEP COMING BACK AS A METAPHOR!!! if this happens in the main story i’ll cry). i’m still not 100% sure of what exactly makes the dots connect for him, but it’s been hinted through the flashbacks and his reactions to the rescued cat that he’s actually a good teacher himself, though he had been mainly shown to have learned from others around him. he drilled husbandry requirements into shirakumo and interrogated koichi about responsibility as if they were second nature. i think aizawa realized that he’s actually always had a soft spot for watching people grow and do good things and wants to be a part of facilitating that. or at least because he wasn’t able to accomplish doing good with his friends originally, he wants to help other accomplish the goal he couldn’t. also the fact that kayama still sends him updates on sushi isn’t just really nice of her, but it’s also another representation of how aizawa’s convictions he developed as a student still drive him to do what he does today.

MY MAIN POINT IS: aizawa really loves shirakumo. to have so much of his character based in the lessons he purposefully or inadvertently taught him is an amazing testament to that appreciation. aizawa never emotes except for the occasional creepy smile when he psychologically toys with 1a, but the emotion he displayed during the interrogation really caught me by surprise. the apathetic emo character suddenly being truly happy or sad is a cliche but this panel right fucking here was so powerful to me:

yeah his eyes are always bloodshot as a trademark to his quirk, but the emotional EXHAUSTION written on his face is so starkly different than his usual boredom. this feeling that horikoshi illustrates in two small panels is so human that it’s instantly recognizable deep in our hearts. we’ve all been in those heavy and direly serious moments that wrack our mental and emotional fortitudes, where the only response manageable without hideously breaking down is some subtle motion of the hand or crinkle of the face. we all know what this means without understanding the japanese onomatopoeia or needing additional dialogue. before i read vigilantes, i still immediately understood what this man meant to aizawa. and that’s why i love shirakumo so much!! we all know at least a little how aizawa used to feel as a student, and to have someone constantly pushing you and acting as such a light in your moments of darkness is something so incredibly special. i really hope they’re able to get him out of his nomu state so those three can finally become heros together :’)

god!!!!!!!!!!

[lizaharridge-mga2019mi4015]

Original vs Remake of The Jungle Book

The jungle book, an animation movie inspired by the Rudyard Kipling “Mowgli” stories has had a series of movies filmed for children starting from the 1967 animation cartoon to the high-quality motion graphical live-action movie in 2016. Both movies are about a little boy who was brought up in the jungle by a pack of wolves, but the two movies depict the storyline in a vastly different way to each other, where it can be compared to the graphical structure, they both were made on.

The story narrates about a jungle in India and about a little boy who has been abandoned in the forest and then brought by the animals itself. The storyline can be the exact same as per the 1967 cartoon animation to the 2016 live-action sequel, but with more developed characters and the scenery.

Story shows a little boy (Mowgli) in small red cloth covering the privates, and a bear(Baloo), a panther(Bagheera), a snake (Kaa), a tiger (Shere khan), the wolves (Akheela and Raksha) as the main characters of the two movies and they play major roles for the success of the movies in their own specific way.

In comparison, Baloo’s character is more specific in the 2016 sequel and it depicts a gigantic grizzly bear that plays a more serious character rather than the blue bear which plays in the 1967 cartoon animation. And the 2016 movie depicts the bond between the two in a far wider range in the sequel rather than the cartoon as well. The action scene of Baloo depicts the strength of the bear to a greater extent as well, especially, in the monkey temple where Baloo protects Mowgli and fights to save him, again showing the bond between the two. Thus we can see the relationship is like a teacher and also a friend between the two, through the scenes where the two go to bathe in the river while singing and caring for each other.

Bagheera’s character is of a great black panther whose character has been given more prominence in the sequel yet again than of the cartoon, showing the greatness of the panther and also showing that the character is mostly feared based on the image, which shows at the beginning of the movie sequel where the panther jumps on Mowgli through the trees. And this scene was depicted with the action-based music giving a scary tensed situation to it, where the movie clearly depicts the character as one of the most respectable and also feared personality, but also the good in the character as well when the panther starts speaking out quite friendly towards the human cub. The 1967 cartoon animation, however, does not give the character much depth as the introduction of the character even starts with gloomy music and also involving humor to the character. Bagheera plays the role of the care-taker of the human cub Mowgli in the movies. The scariness of the character is also shown in the action scene in the monkey temple and also in the fight scene of Shere Khan the tiger as well, being the only character to challenge the tiger. 

The Snake Kaa gives yet again more prominence to the movie live-action sequel of 2016 as it depicts the reality of life through it. Right at the introduction through a piece of music which gives out danger, shows a large snake on many branches. Kaa is enormous in size and is also very scary, and through its eyes shows the truth about the man-cub, where and how he came to be in the jungle, the music changes and the man-cub was about to get eaten, which can actually relate to the truth of life, which can depict danger on its truthfulness and then it can also put you in danger as well. The cartoon animation of 1967, however, mocks the character giving a humorous personality to the snake and not giving the character the prominence, it needs. Kaa’s ability to turn the prey mentally unstable depicts that truth can also take make you unstable in different parts of life. But the fact remains as to how Baloo the great grizzly bear be able to fight off the enormous python, where the directors tend to hide the action sequence from the audience and at the end of it, Mowgli turns out alive and Baloo turns out more alive than ever without any injuries as to forget the fact that he actually did fight off an enormous python. Which actually gives Baloo a heroic tendency to its character, but still appears to be humorous.

Speaking of the action scene of the fight between the excellent Grizzly bear and the enormous snake, is one of the main battles of the movie live-action sequel of 2016 where the video is hidden from the audience, but embraces a huge fight between the two through the sound effects and also through the extremely fast-moving snake body. If it actually showed, it would’ve been very dangerous yet heavenly to watch as well.

The tiger Shere Khan portrays the villain of the movie, but the character does not give out its scariness in the 1967 cartoon animation where the personality gives out more fairytale villain characteristics rather than of it is actually scary. The 2016 live-action sequel, however, has given much prominence to the character having the face burnt from fire as well, which clearly gives out the message as to why the tiger actually hates humans. The villainy character plays a major role in the movie where its jealousy is feared by the whole jungle and its revenge has given the movie a great advantage. The revenge is clearly shown when the tiger enters the gathering and it is shown that the great character is feared by all through the slow but fearsome music and also it’s slow but steady walk which gives the character a very dangerous accord to it. Also, the scene where the tiger actually attacks the man holding the fire shows the braveness of the character yet being it evil as well.

Mowgli however shows as a mere human cub who is timid and weak and is introduced to us in a way where it’s running away from something dangerous (panther) which depicts the characters survival abilities through the music and also the voice of the character giving the character the advantage of being brave as the main character an ability it must  have. The only real character in this live-action sequel gives a vast message to the audience through its brave personality and the will to stand facing any danger he meets up with, where it’s clearly shown in the scene where he meets Kaa the python and he did not tremble but spoke freely towards the great beast. The abilities of Mowgli is great as he even faced Shere Khan without fear, but the wolf cubs even actually eared the tiger, depicting the braveness of the character in a vast way but create a pun as in the beginning he was on an exam quest to qualify to be an actual wolf cub.

The two movies have vast differences among the two where the 2016 live-action sequel has made every scene in a better to a major extent while also giving depth to each moment. The start of the movie also starts with action-packed music where the entertainment is widely discussed. Clearly, the whole movie is very advanced in the 2016 live-action sequel where it has given attention to the tiniest detail as well, to the background music of the forest along with its bird sounds as well giving the audience an experience of a real forest. The growl of the panther is also very realistic where it shows at the beginning of the movie where the panther jumps on the man-cub with a fearsome growl. The voices of the characters have been given accordingly and is also very suitable to each and every character where the voices gives out a clear understanding of the character as well, for example, Raksha’s voice, the motherly voice which gives out the truth and understanding from every word spoken, and gives out the personality of a mother, loving and caring to its children yet very brave and fearsome in the face of danger to its children as well. Also, Kaa’s voice mesmerizing sweet voice which is very scary but yet godly to the ears of the listener, and the voice is also given more prominence with the scary yet truthful music in the background, in the scene where Kaa approaches Mowgli and shows the truth of his life, through its eyes.

The battles of the movie sequel are very entertaining, and yet so fearsome as well and is clearly and well given prominence as well, as for an example the battle between Bagheera and Shere Khan where her brave character actually challenges the mighty tiger and the music also depicts the great fight scene even though she was beaten through it. The importance of the fight and also the fearsome of it is clearly depicted through the background music as well as the action the scene shows. This can also be seen in the final battle between Shere Khan and Mowgli with Baloo giving out motivating music in the background, hence giving out the message to the audience that it’s the final battle and also of the great challenge where a timid young boy challenges a great and a mighty creature like a tiger.

2016 live-action sequel has given depth to the movie, along with the right message towards the characters as well as the storyline. 

Works Cited

original movie 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-jungle-book-2016

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-jungle-book-animated

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1031385_jungle_book

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/jungle-book-review/

https://www.timeout.com/us/film/the-jungle-book-1

The remake movie 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_jungle_book_2016

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/reviews

https://www.pluggedin.com/movie-reviews/the-jungle-book-2016/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-jungle-book-2016