#and other old mainstream anime

[arabian-batboy]

I hate how we’re living in a world where its easy to be spoiled for everything as long as you have access to the internet, so therefore you’re forced to catch up quickly to everything as soon as it drops to ensure that you wouldn’t be spoiled because dumb people will casually post screenshots/talk about a major character dying as if its nothing without using spoilers or any other words that you can censor and on top of all that there’s the algorithm that will show you things based on your searches and likes or the searches and likes of people you follow, so you can’t even like/retweet/reblog or watch a YT videos relating to a certain media without seeing spoilers 😩

[neonacidtrip]

Does anyone else occasionally see a news update from someone and just turn into a feral animal over it? Asking for a friend

[cak31ssuperi04]

1bitJanuary Day 11- Favorite Side Character My favorite girlfail.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Do you think Riot will make more seasons of Arcane in different regions post-s2, make more shows with different names that are set in the Arcane universe, or secret third option?

Yes and no.

To start with, yes: Arcane has been by far Riot's most mainstream successful media project ever (even outstripping K/DA), and there is literally no way in hell that the company isn't going to want to keep milking it until it is as dry, stale and withered as the PROJECT skin line.

So I predict that, absolutely, we will see new seasons of shows set in the League of Legends universe, probably animated, and hopefully with some of the extremely good animation partners Riot has managed to cultivate over the years.

The ARCANE branding is incredibly valuable now, and I wouldn't put it past Riot to do something stupid like name a show set in the Freljord ARCANE: True Ice or something unbearably stupid like that, even though the name relates extremely specifically to the setting and story of Piltover/Zaun and the Vi/Powder/Viktor/Jayce character group.

On the other hand, Riot might be the company on earth I trust the absolute least to effectively capitalize on and carry forward a success in creative arts that can't be monetized with skins and event passes.

Riot has an absolutely astounding history of tripping on their dicks when it comes to telling stories about their characters, in no small part due to its leadership quite simply never valuing storytelling as an end in itself. If it doesn't sell cosmetics or drive Engagement™ with the core League of Legends product, good luck getting Riot management to spend a fucking dime to make anything real.

Passionate people inside the company have to go to war, every single time, to make anything good happen. Legends of Bilgewater, the Spirit Blossom visual novel, the Marvel comics collaboration (RIP), Riot Forge, and very much Arcane, were absolute passion projects pushed over the line by people who literally put their jobs (and in many cases their health) on the line to make them happen.

Alex Yee and Christian Linke are old hands at Riot with a lot of clout, a lot of friends at the company, and a lot of goodwill to cash in, and if that hadn't been the case, there is literally no way in hell anything like Arcane ever gets made.

The behind-the-scenes documentary Riot themselves produced obviously goes out of its way to let Riot leadership suck themselves off about how much they contributed and how much they believed in the project, but make no mistake, they would have axed Arcane on the spot if there wasn't creatives fighting pitched battles every other day to keep it alive.

This is true of K/DA as well, by the way, there was a lot of internal resistance at Riot to that project - and to Star Guardians, and to Heartsteel. Anything cool Riot has ever made? Just assume that someone internally was shitting on it in meetings and trying to get it shut down.

Which is why I am intensely worried about Arcane in the long term. Not so much about Season 2, since it is mostly being produced by the same group of people, as far as I know, but that project is also going to be absolutely besieged by C-suite jackoffs trying to worm their names into the credits, making themselves Stakeholders™ and offering Feedback™ and voicing Concerns™, and I don't envy the showrunners the battles they are going to have to fight to keep these vultures away from the product.

But I am fucking worried about whatever Season 3 becomes. I am fucking worried about what happens the moment any of the key creatives behind the first two seasons resign, or get headhunted to new jobs. I am worried what's going to happen when Riot decides that the showrunners are "being difficult" and standing in the way of what leadership wants to do with the now very valuable ARCANE branding, and either corporately mandates them into roles of diminished influence or just outright fucking fires them (it'll be publicized as a mutual decision of course, it'll be publicized as a much celebrated retirement or "it's time to move on to new adventures").

Riot is a company with absolutely infinite capacity to fuck up a perfectly good thing for absolutely no fucking reason except some kombucha-chugging, suit-jacket-over-a-graphic-tee-and-sneakers-wearing, keeps-his-job-despite-multiple-sexual-harassment-allegations-because-he's-bros-with-the-C-suite, motherfucking "I am a player so I know what the players want" platitude-spouting "themes are for book reports"-ass Silicon Valley libertarian piece of shit decided he knows better than the artists whose work are the reason he takes home six figures a year.

[bogleech]

Americans who grew up with anime and console gaming are finally getting old enough to be in charge of mainstream and marketing which on one hand means soulless corpos are gonna reference Goku and Knuckles a lot more but on the other hand I am ready to start hearing more references to Goku and Knuckles instead of eternally the same couple dozen 80s movies

[demonslayerunhinged]

My “unhinged” theory is that Sanemi has a huge crush on Giyuu and that’s why he’s such an asshole to him. He lashes out in an attempt to hide his feelings. I’m sure you’ve made posts about this before but it just seems so plausible. Why does he get so upset about anything Giyuu does like it affects him so much? Like seriously…and their chemistry is so insane. They are made for each other. Wind and water. A hurricane. A storm that will take down anything it comes across. And they both are the only hashira to survive??? (Not including Uzui but he wasn’t in the battle so he doesn’t count.) Sorry I’m kind of rambling and none of this is brand new information but how the hell is this not canon? It screams canon to me.

YES YES YES YES YES @psyencefaction! I agree! Sanemi has a huge crush on Giyuu, although I personally believe that Giyuu's crush is stronger, but it doesn't matter because the fact is they want to fuck each other. Their interactions are like that of an old married couple 😂 and you're so right, their chemistry IS insane.

As for the canonization, I don't think people realize how big of a deal this artwork is.

Please bear with me as I put on my Extra Unhinged hat. Ok so, I'd like to think I have enough experience with anime and the fandom to say that this is the first time I've seen artwork like this released from the studio of a mainstream anime. Like this was not only created and proposed by one of the episode's animators, it was approved by the studio execs and the marketing team and the social media team positioned them in such an obvious way that will be immediately picked up by fans. Well, unless you're this brain-dead asshole:

They didn't have to do this, they could have just released them in separate posts or swapped the positions, but they were like Yea guys we also support this ship. I don't think that it will ever become "canon", like I don't think we'll get any explicit love confessions or whatever (I'd be happy to be wrong, though!) but the fact that the team has acknowledged them makes me hopeful that we will get some kind of wink-wink-nudge-nudge hints at a romantic relationship between the two.

[brynnterpretations]

THE BOYS' MUSIC TASTES ☻

Click each character's name to see a custom-made playlist for them with song-to-song transitions!

Annie January (Starlight)

Since she was thirteen, Annie has religiously listened to female-led pop-punk such as Alanis Morissette, Garbage, No Doubt, Veruca Salt, and Hole. Even when she was, by all extents, "a good Christian girl" who was expected to shut up and sit pretty, Annie held a fierce nature that she expressed through her music tastes. To avoid being exorcised from her mother (half-joking-half-not-joking), hid her CDs in her old toy chest at the foot of her bed. She keeps them on a neat shelf in she and Hughie's apartment to this day.

Billy Butcher

Billy is an OG punk fan, particularly of the British variety, with his favorite bands being The Clash, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedys, Ramones, and Black Flag. Ever the rebellious spirit, Billy's music reflects that, and has since he was a child; when times with his father were particularly rough, he'd head down to the nearby record stor with his little brother and haunt the aisles looking for something of interest, where he found his to-be all-time favorite band, The Clash.

Frenchie

Frenchie enjoys psychedelic-rock (and just straight psychedelic) music in both French and English, with some of his favorite artists being The Mystery Lights, Juniore, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Limiñanas, and Allah-Las. At first influenced by his heavy-stoner friend group in middle school, Frenchie began developing his own tastes into what they became to this day through a lot of house-shows, concerts, and drugs: per the name, the bands he's into are intertwined with social drug use.

Hughie Campbell

So, obviously, Billy Joel — but, believe it or not, Hughie does listen to other music. He loves '80s and '60s music, specifically Daryl Hall & John Oates, The Beach Boys, Elton John, The Monkees, and TOTO. His music taste came from either the radio (Eagles, Wham!) or his Dad (The Animals, The Beatles), and Hughie prides himself on having an old-school taste in music, no matter how mainstream the bands may be.

Kimiko Miyashiro

Kimiko loves jazz (particularly its "bebop" subsection) and R&B from the '40s, '50s, and '60s, with a particular love for Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, and Billie Holliday. When she was unfettered from the Shining Light Liberation Army, Kimiko didn't have much music to choose from besides an old Waklkman she swiped from a snoozing man on the streets of Brooklyn. For the next few years, she wore the Walkman and its headphones thin. Currently, she owns a sick vinyl player with an impressive catalogue of Dinah Washington records.

Marvin T. Milk (Mother's Milk/M.M.)

If it isn't obvious enough from his shirts, old-school rap. Growing up in Harlem, M.M. was both surrounded by the rap scene and deeply connected to the values it held (and continues to hold) of Black strength, resilience, and culture. From childhood to adulthood, M.M. has broadened a diverse taste in '80s to '90s rap and hip-hop from mainstream to obscure, and especially loves Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, and Run—D.M.C.

[transandrobroism]

What are your thoughts on women choosing bears over men

i think that's where you end up when you view men as inherently dangerous just by virtue of being men.

and i do get why people pick the bear and defend picking the bear - it's Schrodinger's rapist and stranger danger PSAs and all the statistics about violence against women etc. i understand where that fear comes from. but a lot of it stems from radfem rhetoric that has wormed its way into mainstream feminist discussions and produced this take that men are The Problem - not because of learned behaviours, not because of the patriarchy, but just because of something inherent to men and masculinity that means men are always a danger.

so whilst i'm sympathetic to the fears that lead to women going "i'll take my chances with the bear!" i do think it's worth reflecting on why exactly so many people would rather meet an apex predator than a fellow human being who happens to be of the Wrong Gender. the scenario doesn't specify that the man in the woods is doing anything threatening: he's not wearing a MAGA hat or blasting Andrew Tate podcasts on his bluetooth speaker or leering at every woman who walks past on the hiking trail. he's just some guy in the woods minding his own business. is it easier to imagine a sympathetic wild animal than a sympathetic man? why?

and the thing is, i'm old enough to remember a time when the feminist actions du jour were things like slut walk and 'take back the night' because the whole point was women shouldn't have to be scared. that women deserve to walk around in public and feel safe. somehow we've gone backwards on that to where women living in abject terror of 50% of their fellow humans is defended as the "feminist position" and going "that seems kinda bonkers actually maybe that should not in fact be how women experience the world" is anti-feminist. how did we get here. what went wrong.

the fear of men and choosing the bear are usually justified by talking about statistics on male violence against women. these statistics point to very real problems, but the talk of stranger danger and choosing the bear elides the fact that. statistically. you are more likely to be harmed by a man you know than by a stranger. over 85% of sexual assault victims knew their attacker beforehand (see this NIJ report and this BBC article). or see the UN Women report on global violence against women: "While 55 per cent of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or other family members, only 12 per cent of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private sphere." Or this report from the BJS in America: "76% of female murders and 56% of male murders were perpetrated by someone known to the victim". The same report also states that 21% of male homicide victims were murdered by strangers, compared to 12% of female victims.

based on actual statistics on violence rates, men are more justified in fearing strangers than women are. but the "stranger danger" myth persists, and it feeds into the radfem narrative that yes, men are an existential threat and inherently violent just for existing, and yes you should be terrified of every strange man you see on the street. it's worth asking: who benefits from this? who benefits from women being scared of strangers all the time? given the high rates of domestic violence and other violence directed at women by men they know, family members, partners or ex-partners, fathers, brothers... who is benefitting from a population of women terrified to walk into the woods alone?

the most dangerous man in the woods is the one you brought with you.

[daydreaming-scheming-demon]

minecraft doesnt need to be a fucking multimedia franchise, it doesn't even need anymore games than one, there's no fucking point to it, nobody gives a shit about minecraft dungeons, since when was the last time you saw someone go "oh wow, i cant wait for the next minecraft dungeons update" and there's even more minecraft spinoffs that nobody gives a shit about, i cant even remember the name of the latest one because it died so quickly

and now they're making a minecraft movie, and it's live action, which makes no sense but i guess making it animated wouldnt have a mainstream appeal and they need dat money from da masses. and they're having fucking jack black in it. and it's just. please. stop. you couldve made a movie about something original and interesting but instead you need to make a fucking minecraft movie.

i feel similarly about the mario movie and the fnaf movie but like, at least with those games it makes sense. mario games have plot even if simple, and fnaf has a plot even if it's a bad and confusing one. minecraft is a fucking sandbox game with no characters or plot going on unless you're matpat or something. it has fucking nothing. they're making a movie out of fucking nothing. they might as well be making a fucking live action tetris movie.

you know, it could be good. maybe id even like it. but even if it is, it's just so fucking unnecessary, they could've been making something original but nooooooo original is risky, we need a fucking minecraft movie to bring in those shiny fucking dollars to stuff down our fucking throats and choke on and die.

minecraft isn't designed to be anything other than a single fucking game, but because it's big and owned by microsoft it needs to be fucking everything. there needs to be a minecraft movie, and a minecraft show, and a minecraft branded pencil to stab my minecraft branded eyes out of my minecraft branded eyeholes so i dont have to see anymore fucking minecraft.

and to add to this, even if the minecraft movie is good, it's just such a fucking shame that it had to be minecraft and nothing else had any chance to be made. there's been lots of great movies that the big guys up top only allowed to be made because they're based on popular things. the lego movie for example, the barbie movie too. but it's just so fucking irritating that if any creative wants to actually make a good fucking movie they need to do it through this already popular thing. that's how shit like velma gets made. that show feels like an original show with scooby doo slapped on top of it to grab more attention.

everything needs to be appealing to the masses or it's not even seen as worthy of being made. the only movies worthy of being made and the only shows worthy of being renewed are the ones that ceos think will give them enough money to violently shove down their throat and fill their stomach with, fill their lungs with, fill every crevice of their shriveled old body with until every shit they take is hard and full of bloodsoaked gold coins, and every piss they take is shining gold, and every time they pick their nose they pick out gold.

there's just so little space for original works now.

[gold-pavilion]

Reminder that this is coming up to air in Tokyo Revengers:

Reminder that this is how this shounen takes the leap and puts a LGBT storyline between two prominent, main-cast characters on screen. A messy storyline about overcoming confusion, letting go of old attachments and facing new feelings that remains relevant through to the end of the story, worked out as any other plot point. Not implied, but expressed in in-story written word and unambiguous visuals.

Again: in a shounen anime. 

In a mainstream, dudes-punching-dudes anime series that airs on TV.

Regardless of whether one enjoys Koko and Inui as characters in particular, or the ship in itself, the fact that this happens / is able to happen (god, I hope it's not censored out) is important.

I can't stress enough how rare these things are.

I'm nervous, not gonna lie, these things hardly ever make it on-screen for reasons, but at the same time I trust Liden Films and how much care and respect they've put into Tokyo Revengers so far. Can't wait to see how it goes.

[kintatsujo]

I can't actually overstate how popular Yugioh was in the 2000s you guys it was on par or moreso than the TMNT phenomenon in the 90s

Mai was on the cover of TV Guide-- Mai, a supporting female character, was on the cover of TV Guide. There were magazines. There was cereal. There were dumb little dogtags that I wore the entire first year I worked at my first real job. There were tie in games and even 20 years later they considered it worth making dsod and releasing it in theaters.

Yugioh is probably the entire reason the Naruto or One Piece mangas got translated, because interest in Yugioh was why Jump tried out a physical monthly release in English in the first place.

Yugioh helped mainstream modern anime.

I need you to understand that. Pokémon absolutely had some influence there but there was a time period that Yugioh was more of a mainstream anime than Pokémon. They did it together.

And the only reason any of you thinks otherwise is because when you're young you just kind of weigh all the cartoons you watch on the same scale. YOU didn't realize that it wasn't normal how Yugioh kept completely taking over the Saturday morning broadcasts. That wasn't normal! The only other shows that they ever did that with were Pokémon and Digimon! And those were always special occasions!

Toward the end of Yugioh DM they were airing something like ten episodes a week, all Saturday morning, for months at a time.

That, my dears, is absolutely bonkers.

Yugioh fandom isn't small, it's just old and exists in pockets and that makes it SEEM quiet.

[six-costume-refs]

Six Makeup: Masterpost and Links

Hey y'all! Finally finished up a long promised post: all of my makeup suggestions for SIX cosplayers (and/or fans who just want to do some cool makeup looks)!!! I've been actively working on this post for about a year now and compiling makeup for even longer, so I'm happy to finally finish it. I'll get into more details in a moment, but first things first:

I'll include all the links below, but for easy access I made a handy-dandy Pinterest board. It is sorted by costume (sections for each queen + alt costume) and you can clink on any pin to be taken directly to buy it. I would recommend that people look there for a more visual/easy look at the recommendations; I realize pure text can get a bit old!

Some notes: - All of these links are to US sites, with a variety of US and UK sources. Most of these brands ship internationally and/or are available on Amazon as well. - I tried to factor in a large variety of material colors/shades, skin tones, and financial budget. You'll find a mix of US and UK-based brands, mainstream and smaller brands, drugstore versus more upscale, and some brands owned by women of color. - There's a broad range in the companies listed in terms of their ethics, animal testing, politics, etc. I'm including as many companies as possible to give people as many options as possible, but some of these I wouldn't personally financially support. I would strongly suggest that anyone do their own research into the brands listed. - Many of these products may be harsher on skin than your typical products. I'd suggest considering any potential allergens and skin testing any product before use, and using your regular base (foundation, blush, etc) to minimize the number of new products. (If you have sensitive skin or are worried about toxicity, I'd suggest Skin Deep for toxicity information and the FDA site for information on common irritants) - The vast majority of the makeup on this list is products that I know Six actors use. However, just because someone in Six uses it does not mean it's necessary to achieve a great look - there are many great alternatives for just about any product, and what works for a specific actor may not be what works best for you. (I'd also note that the vast majority of queens use some fairly cheap makeup, so you never need to feel like you have to pay more to get "stage accuracy") - Factor in where you're intending to use your products. Six uses some extreme stage makeup and truly crazy lighting; if you use these products with the exact same intensity in just about any other context, it will be way overkill. Convention lighting tends to be harsh so you can usually go a bit heavier there, particularly if you're intending to do any on-stage performances. But for everyday use or a closet cosplay to go see Six or an outdoor meet-up with natural light you will usually want to go much softer. (Photoshoots are a whole other can of worms and really depend on specifics) - Some of this information is taken from a series of Instagram stories Erin Ramirez did. I'm still writing up a post of everything she suggested, but I'll link it here when finished. - And, finally, have fun experimenting and finding what works for you!

Links to recommendation posts and inspiration: Glitters/shimmers Palettes, eyeshadows, and other accents Lipsticks (coming soon) Erin Ramirez's recommendations MAC partnership link Eye look inspiration (my Pinterest board)

[tzilatza]

NATLA Review - spoilers

Woke up today still feeling annoyed after finished the Netflix ATLA remake last night, and I think I've figured out the core reason.

It's the fact that: If they had held truer to the original source material, we could have had a truly great show. I disagree with those calling it a complete disaster. The acting was good, great in some cases. The effects were very well done, the bending looked about as good as it can in a live action media. The scenery was lovely.

But what happened in the writer's room?! The way they just reveal all the back stories up front EVERY TIME is honestly insulting to the audience. It's like they're so terrified that smartphone culture has made the public so accustomed to instant gratification that they have no faith we will stick around and keep watching if they make us wait for anything.

They're also clearly terrified of complexity. One of my biggest gripes with this remake is Jet's story. They completely took out his plans to murder a whole town of innocents in order to get a few enemy soldiers. Now, Jet isn't my favorite character, but his story is so important. Because it is real. The world is full of people who have been so brought down by injustice that they lose their sense of right and wrong, and we need to see that on screen. If Jet is too complex for them, how will they handle Ba Sing Se in the second season.

This goes along the same lines as removing Sokka's sexist moments. They felt they had to do it to make him more 'likable.' Yet the writers themselves went full sexist on Katara's character. They've taken out so much of her spark, her righteous and justified anger, and they've done it because even in 2024, people expect women to be more passive to be palatable. Enough people have already commented on them removing Aang's choice to run away. Heaven forbid the main character not be an absolute paragon. Did y'all notice that they even made Hahn likable? Hahn?! What reason do you have for making Hahn likable Netflix?! His role in the narrative is to be an example of toxic masculinity that is clearly the bad choice compared to Sokka who has learned and grown out of his own.

Don't even get me started with what they're doing with the fire nation family, I'm not ready to tackle that. In general, I have no problem with Azula getting a little more backstory and humanizing, but why season 1? Throwing in all these extra scenes just sacrifices screen-time where they could've actually fleshed out the real season one plots instead of rushing through things at breakneck pace. (ex: Aang escaping Zuko's ship in about 2 minutes flat)

At the end of the day, the scenes I most enjoyed were those that held true to the original like the Blue Spirit sequences. They could've easily done more of this, held onto the important plot points and even more important character complexity, while maturing it for an adult audience. I'm not disagreeing with every change they made. Go ahead and take out the silly Nickelodeon gags, add cussing and more realistic violence to get your mainstream viewers. Go ahead. They could've easily made a darker more mature version of the show and still held onto all the old fans in my opinion. But claiming that you're making a 'more mature' version and then removing the complexity and subtlety because they didn't think viewers could handle it...

What makes me most sad is that there are a lot of people who will experience ATLA for the first time through this show. There are a lot of adults who are not willing to watch original ATLA because they refuse to acknowledge an animated series can be anything other than a kid's show. Those people will watch this and think it's the real deal, and that just makes me sad.

If you've read this far, a very sincere thank you for listening to my rant. If you're an OG fan who enjoyed it, I have no problem with you. It was a fun watch, I was just hoping for more. If you are a new viewer who has never seen ATLA before, I sincerely want to hear your opinions. Is it a great show to someone who isn't holding it against the context of the original? And do you plan to watch the original now?

[cicerfics]

31 and 42 for Bond or Q please 💜

31. If they had a tumblr what would it look like?

Q: A comprehensive list of 'tech doesn't work like that!!' moments from mainstream media, along with EXHAUSTIVE explanations of why this particular Hollywood scene is TOTALLY impossible/implausible.

Bond: ~Vibes~. Aesthetic blogger. Artsy shots of different locations around the world. Nature pictures. Beautiful sunsets and birds soaring majestically over the ocean. Zero text.

42. 3 comfort items

Q:

-A threadbare stuffed cat that he's had since childhood. Shh. Don't tell! Bond only gets to meet this cat after they've been dating for like six months, and Q preemptively tells Bond that if he makes any jokes about it, he (Bond) will be exiled to the couch for the next 6-8 business weeks.

-Some type of leaf collection Q made as a child. It was probably a school project. Students were asked to collect like 20 different leaves, press them, and label them. Q did 100 different types of leaves, and wrote detailed descriptions underneath about the genus, the tree's role in their biome, etc. etc. He put sooo much effort into it. Too much, probably. The teacher was like, "Haha, maybe calm down a little? Meanwhile, I probably need to speak to the headmaster about skipping you ahead a few more grades??" The other kids probably made fun of Q for being a tryhard. Q didn't care! He loved collecting those leaves and making his little booklet!! He's still proud of it!!

-A photo album containing pictures of every pet he's ever had. Per my animal-rescuer-Q headcanons, he's had at least 15. Most have since passed on to the other side, but Q still treasures his memories and pages through the photo album very often.

Bonus: A postcard Bond sent him once, ages ago. He'd been flirting with Q outrageously, right before heading off on a mission. Q rolled his eyes and firmly turned him down. Bond pouted. Q cited regulations. Bond argued that life was short (especially his!) and Q was being really dumb by refusing to let Bond take him to bed, just because of some nonsensical MI6 rules. Q argued that insults to his intelligence were not the most compelling prelude to a seduction he'd ever heard, and for heaven's sake, hadn't Bond ever considered poetry? Bond made a joke about blunt instruments (wink wink!) and said he didn't know any poetry anyway. He went off on his mission. But a week after he left, Q got a postcard from Bond. It was a painting of a huge, glorious sun. On the back, Bond had copied out some verses (including the last few lines!) from To His Coy Mistress.

Bond:

-An old arithmetic textbook published in the 1940s. It belonged to his father, and he used it to teach tiny!James math. Bond can still smell his father's cologne whenever he so much as looks at that book.

-His father's straight razor.

-His oldest and most decrepit pullover which is soooo comfy and broken in exactly right.

Bonus: A tiny origami frog. Once, Bond woke up in Medical (horribly injured and after being unconscious for nearly 24 hours) and found Q sitting beside his bed. Q had turned to origami to self-soothe, and he had feverishly created a menagerie of tiny animals while he sat vigil at Bond's bedside. Q quickly swept all the animals away when he saw Bond was awake, but Bond stole one. He keeps it safely tucked away in his flat (even though he'd like to carry it with him as a talisman), just for the reminder that somebody cares about him enough to sit at his bedside.

[apeekintothepantry]

Happy Pokémon Day! February 27th is the anniversary of the first two Pokémon games’ release in Japan, and it’s a minor holiday in my house, as a fun excuse to make Pokémon inspired food, watch some Pokémon shows or movies (we’re going to watch Netflix’s new Pokémon Concierge this year!), and get excited about upcoming games and releases. This year, we’re making a Pokémon Sword and Shield inspired burger-steak curry and I’m making a dessert from the Pokémon Cookbook by Victoria Rosenthal. It’s one of my favorite fandom cookbooks – all the recipes are vegetarian or vegan, to get around the awkward question of where does the meat in the Pokémon universe come from?

But that’s not all we’re making! Ever since Nicki and Isabel were released, I’ve been dying to do a post about them and Pokémon’s infamous “Jelly Filled Doughnuts”, better – and more accurately! – known as onigiri.

Pokémon was released in the United States in 1998 via two Gameboy games: Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. The games quickly caught on to be one of the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the late 90’s and early 00’s, and as a kid at the heart of this explosion, I can’t overstate how much of a big deal it was. One of the great things about Pokémon – and probably why it has such lasting, widespread appeal – is that there are so many ways to interact with the franchise, and the marketing doesn’t skew hugely towards one gender or the other. Cool, tough Pokémon like Charizard got pretty similar billing to cute, pink Pokémon like Jigglypuff, and there were so many options for potential favorites that it was easy for any kid to find some creature to attach themselves to.

One of my petty complaints with Nicki and Isabel’s collection and books is the almost complete lack of mention of Pokémon and other anime that was really popular among kids in 1999. I know AG probably didn’t want to shell out for licensing deals with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, but their stories just don’t feel accurate without discussing their prized binder of Pokémon cards or begging their parents to take them to see the Pokémon movie in theaters. Maybe the authors were just a little too old to get caught up in Pokémania?

I’ve also always thought its close overlap with the Beanie Babies crazy helped get millennial children like me very into the “gotta catch ‘em all” aspect of the franchise. Is this why I’m such a crazy toy collector as an adult? Who knows.

The Pokémon anime was one of the main ways kids like me got hooked on the franchise, because not everyone was allowed to have a Gameboy of their own (me), and not everyone liked video games, but even if you didn’t like video games, the cartoon might appeal to you. Although it was far from the first Japanese cartoon to air on US television, Pokémon was one of if not the first truly mainstream favorites of the 1990’s. 4Kids, the company in charge of dubbing the show into English, decided that American kids wouldn’t understand or be open to certain aspects of the show that reflected its Japanese roots, and so made a lot of strange choices in rewriting the script. One of the most notorious was deciding Brock’s rice balls were actually jelly filled doughnuts:

Onigiri – also known as omusubi or nigirimeshi – are balls of rice with a variety of fillings inside. They’re often compared to sandwiches, as an easy, quick, cheap meal or snack that combines carbs and other ingredients. While the concept of taking a rice ball and stuffing it full of other tasty treats goes way back to ancient Japan, the triangle shape became popular in the 1980’s thanks to a new machine that automated the filling process. Further developments over the last 40 years have created unique ways to prepackage onigiri without making the nori wrapping sticky. The ones we made were an attempt at recreating the “Hawaiian” (spam and pineapple) rice balls from our favorite food hall back in DC. One of my favorite pandemic indulgences was getting take out from the food hall, which often included a sampler of some of my favorite onigiri, and I haven’t been able to find anything close to similar where we are now. One of the many reasons I’m excited to move!

Even as a kid, I wasn’t convinced the food in the anime was fried dough with fruit jelly inside, because they sure look like rice. I also think 4Kids didn’t anticipate that Pokémon’s widespread popularity would inspire many of its fans – including me – to become absolutely obsessed with Japanese food and culture. I would’ve been more excited if they’d just been straight with me and shown more Japanese food on the show, and then probably begged my parents to make it or take me to a restaurant that made it. While I can’t confidently cite numbers of how many other people were first exposed to Japanese culture and food through Pokémon and franchises like it, I do think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity to highlight how things like this exposed kids like Nicki and Isabel to parts of a culture outside their own!

[concorp]

MCYT Eras Concept

For a long time, I've thought of MCYT as divided into different eras. I've finally decided to refine the idea and write it out. I feel it's a good way to define things, rather than just "old school" and "modern", as the bar for each of those have shifted drastically over time. Please do note that a lot of how I describe these eras is mostly from my own perspective, but I do think the overall divisions work well for MCYT as a whole!

Era 1 - The "OG" Era (2009 - 2011)

The beginning of Minecraft and MCYT. Much content at this point was traditional lets plays, simple tutorials and showing off early innovations in redstone.

Era 2 - The "Classic" Era (2012 - 2014)

This era encompasses what is often considered the peak of many iconic "old school" groups and series. Team Crafted, Mindcrack, the various Yogscast Tekkit series, and many, many more.

It's difficult to describe everything that made up the classic era in a succinct manner. It was the true rise of SMPs, Adventure Maps, Minecraft Animations, Parodies, Mod Reviews, MCRP, and so, so much more. Minecraft was unavoidable on YouTube back then.

Era 3 - The "Gap" Era (2015 - 2017)

The "gap" era is named for the lull in MCYT's popularity. In this period of time, it was seen more as a niche, compared to the massive popularity it saw before and after.

This era saw the "death", or at least massive dips in popularity to many formerly wildly popular groups and ccs, as viewers interests changed and moved onto other things.

Many series came and went during this era, but weren't properly appreciated until after their time.

Era 4 - The "Revival" Era (2018 - 2019)

This era, due to a combination of many factors, was MCYT's return to mainstream. Many people returned to both singleplayer series and servers. Episodic SMPs old and new such as Hermitcraft and Truly Bedrock, began experimenting more with the lines between gameplay, story and improv.

This era also saw the rise of streaming based series, such as SMPLive, SMPEarth, and Minecraft Monday.

Era 5 - The "Lockdown" Era (2020 - 2022)

Much of this era is defined by the new heights reached during covid lockdowns. This era kicked dozens if not hundreds of the careers of those who grew up watching MCYT during the OG and Classic eras.

This era is admittedly very defined by the DSMP, rocketing MCYT and specifically MCRP into a level of popularity unseen before. Second, and as just as important to this era is MCC, bringing together so many personalities from all over the MCYT sphere who otherwise would likely have never interacted on a monthly basis.

A massive innovation in this era was also the introduction of the Simple Voice Chat mod to many servers, now a staple of most multiplayer content.

Era 6 - The Current Era (2023 - Present)

Unnamed as of yet, as it is still ongoing, the current era of MCYT has so far been defined by not only the continued rise of many smaller, younger MCYTs. But largely, and undoubtedly, by the QSMP.

Not only has it redefined what an SMP can be through its gameplay. It has brought the international MCYT community is closer together now than ever, crossing language and cultural barriers previously rarely touched.

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This concept of mine isn't fully solidified, and is up to be more refined. I would love to hear y'all's thoughts and feedback about these divisions and the idea overall!