#anyway here's to a good 2017 for anime

[waratteiru]

.

[somethingpersonarelated]

Akechi's taste in Literature

I've taken an interest in the books Akechi reads. Obviously from the first time you talk with him, you can already tell what he tends to: psychology, philosophy, and mythos. Also, I read at least a little bit from every text. One of my professors out there is proud of me. I hope. So: let's talk about it!

Ok, but why care? Quick Introduction

No particular reason. I simply want to tinker with his brain. I think it could give us insight on the character! And there's an easy way to dismiss this conversation: Akechi uses books as a way to appear intelligent. I don't think that's wrong per se, but he does express an interest in psychology and philosophy in his third semester Jazz Jin discussions. His thieves den conversations also point to interests in mythos. Use this as a "Annoying Person Bookshelf" if you'd like, I certainly will.

Aristole's De Anima (Mementos Mission - Chapter 3)

De Anima, or "On the Soul" [Leob Classical Library], is an examination of the soul and how it functions within the body. It's pretty dense but easily accessible. On page 15,

"There are times when men show all the symptoms of fear without any cause of fear being present. If this is the case, then clearly the affections of the soul are formulae expressed in matter."

Now, I'm not going to read every book, that would be a huge investment. And unfortunately I am still a university student, so I'll stick to the introduction/first chapters or so. But anyways, to the point of the quote, De Anima tends to get metaphysical. Theory time: Akechi has morbid fascinations with the soul. Not only because he well, kills people, but also messes with the restraints on their heart. I choose this quote because it's a good summary of the kind of body horror someone messing with you in the metaverse is like. It's fear and anger unchained, but it manifests in reality through subway accidents... for example.

Hegel's Dialectics (did Akechi misquote Hegel?) - Rank 1

Look, almost all of these texts are slogs to get through, so I wouldn't blame Akechi for not catching this. Or not reading the 2017 in-universe equivalent of cliffnotes. Note: Dialectics refers to the structure/strategy that Hegel uses, not a text itself. Looking at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy we see that Hegel never makes mention of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis idea. Rather, thesis-antithesis-synthesis is a pattern in his arguments. These are also projected by people reading his text, so we can't fully be sure he's using this to formulate most of his arguments. So not only has Akechi forgotten synthesis, the "unification", but also the fact that Hegel doesn't talk about this. Did he read Hegel? Probably. Did he retain the information? Questionable. Do I blame the writers for making the mistake? mmmm. Maybe. If you're asking me to guess which book he read, I would estimate it was The Phenomenology of Spirit [Google Books]. And yes, I'm going to say it was just because of this quote on page 9 that just, screams Black Mask:

"The force of the mind is only as great as expression; its depth only as, as deep as its power to expand and lose itself when spending and giving out its substance."

Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin vs Sherlock Holmes (Herlock Sholmes) (P5A)

This book I read because my curiosity definitely got the better of me. Since I've gotten into Persona 5 again, I've been DYING to read this one, but never got around to it. I think this one is also interesting to look at based on how it was represented in the anime, a crow escaping a bird cage. I can say that this doesn't happen in the book, but this is why I think Akechi is self inserting on Holmes/Sholmes here. Holmes is much freer as a person in this text than Akechi, but also in a deep rivalry with Lupin. Their banter is also pretty reminiscent of what they [Joker and Akechi] have, but... with older language. Longer quote, so here's an image in its place:

Edit/Correction: Edogawa Ranpo's Kogoro Akechi Series!

As pointed out by a couple people, we can't leave out this series. (credits to @heavy-metal-papillon) I don't know why my mind blanked and left this out. Because when I was doing research for this post someone had mentioned it. Just by name, it should be obvious why this is here! Here is a part of the preface that explains Kogoro Akechi, Arsene Lupin, and their presence in Edogawa's novels (written by Ho-Ling Wong):

Literature he makes references but doesn't mention (note: headcanon/my opinion)

John Stuart Mill's On Utilitarianism

Because Akechi knows how to flirt, he recommends philosophy to Joker. [Early Modern Texts] In my eyes he definitely doesn't agree with this philosophy (in fact some quotes are definitely more aligned with Maruki's philosophy). Page 8:

"That’s because the utilitarian standard is not •the agent’s own greatest happiness but •the greatest amount of happiness altogether; and even if it can be doubted whether a noble character is always happier because of its nobleness, such a character certainly makes other people happier, and the world in general gains immensely from its existence."

Yes, Akechi reads Freud. Freud's essays: Beyond the Pleasure Principle & The Ego Principle

In an offhanded comment about Personas in the Thieves Den to Ryuji, Akechi says:

I love you Akechi. I will not read Freud for you. My love has limits.

Carl Jung's Two Essays on Analytical Psychology

Okay I'm NOT reading this (a lie, i did. [Internet Archive]) but this was the foundational text on the Jungian Archetype of the Persona as well as addressing concepts such as "the will to power." Going to leave this quote from page 78 for you to munch on:

"Logically, the opposite of love is hate, and of Eros, Phobos (fear); but psychologically it is the will to power. Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other..."

There's a couple things here that point to Akechi reading this, but ultimately I just headcanon that he wants to reason through why Personas exist.

Generally reads about the casts Personas!

Similarly to how Joker can read about the other PTs Personas, Akechi does as well. Well, if his morbid discussion about Captain Kidd in the Thieves Den is an indicator. Does this mean Akechi is familiar with the Carmen stage opera? I think so. Besides, it's also the smartest move. Akechi (head)canonically reads lovecraft.

Conclusion

Akechi really enjoys psychology and philosophy, and while some of it seems like he's doing it for attention/to appear smarter, he DOES continue to show interest in third-semester/thieves den. I still can't forgive him for reading Freud.

The List (of ones directly mentioned here)

De Anima, Aristotle

The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel

Arsène Lupin vs Sherlock Holmes, Leblanc

On Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill

Beyond the Pleasure Principle & The Ego Principle, Freud

Two Essays, Carl Jung

The Fiend with Twenty Faces, Edogawa Ranpo

Other notes and headcanons I can't justify giving sections to:

he probably read that fuckass billiards book

definitely stuff on justice. i was just lazy. Some of these texts do cover these ideas, but definitely not all of them

he likes detective novels. he's probably read a fair share of sherlock holmes.

he probably reads adjacent literature to some of the philosophers mentioned (for example: Nietzsche to Jung, Plato to Aristotle)

[secret-subject]

Is now the WORST time to start a hypno themed content channel? (Yes, but do it anyway!)

So this is going to be a wild ride into hypnosis content creation, inspired a lot by my recent return to making it and how things have shifted over the years. This is in no way trying to deter people from making content, quite the opposite, I want to inspire others to take this as a sign to go for it if you've been thinking about it.

So WTF is going on online?

Welcome to YouTube a platform where anyone with some good ideas can start their own hypnosis channel. A place where you can be a spiral with text, an asmr creator moonlighting as a hypnotist, full cam video or an anime girl with a passion for mind breaking. It's actually wild how things have evolved and I love the shift in the medium. Back in the early days of hypnosis YouTube it really was the wild west, and a lot was able to slip by the community guidelines without a blink of an eye, and I should know, I really did push my luck with some of my own videos. YouTube isn't the only platform in this situation now where you can do hypnosis. You have here on tumblr, twitter (or x, make up your mind Elon), patreon, soundgasm, hypnohub, devient art, twitch. Name a platform or site and odds are someone is doing hypnosis there. This is great because it means the community is growing and the potential reach is expanding but it also means that working as a hypnosis creator is now harder than ever.

Back in 2017 I started a YouTube channel which I had no clue would as of today lead me to 95k subscribers and my entire income being funded through patreon. But if you look at my content from then to now there had to be some massive leaps to keep my name and my work in peoples attention span. Most content creators don't last years, I know I am an outlier and not a norm. This is due to the fact that over time tastes change, the algorithm changes to reflect this audience shift and what you did back then is just not good enough comapred to now. I had to be drastic to weather the storms of mental health, physical health, audience rention and analytics galore, branding shifts, shifts in community. It's all a lot to deal with but if you want to do this in any format you have to be ready to put yourself through it to be a success and even then I look at my work now and I don't think it's truly successful, yet.

I haven't made it and I don't think I ever will because that "made it" feeling, the top of the hill, is such a subjective metric that's hard to describe. Back in 2017 if you'd asked me, "Secret, when will you know that you are a great creator?" and I would have told you, "100k on YouTube, I want my silver play button." I still do want it, but not like I did before. Before it was clout to be quite honest. 100k means you are powerful enough to do what you want to do, to be able to reach brands, to make friends and collab with the bigger channels, to have people look at you and take you seriously as a creator. But none of that matters now. Subscribers are less important than ever. What matters now is attention. Retention. Clicks, engagement and views.

Now back in 2020 I was really rude. I made a video called Seduced into Obedience that blew up my channel. It got half a million views before YouTube made me take it down earlier this year. It's an achievement I could never expect to relive and it was all based on cheating the system. See I knew that back in "the day" people loved doing those audios on YouTube where you would "comment I am a good slave" in the comments. Knowing what I know about YouTube I decided to run a little test, an experiment on my channel. A risk that I thought just might pay off and if not, oh well, worth a try. I made an audio with the aim of making people like it, and comment in the comments. In the same style of those before me, I took a concept that was not often seen and honestly a little stupid, I made it and the worst part is, it worked. It got me seen by huge content creators in the mainstream who memed on me for it. It skyrocketted in views and kept going. It was my first video to hit 100k on YouTube and it is a moment that will never happen again. It was age restricted which killed the growth but the channel kept going and it wasn't a viral hit, but it was a dark horse that built my reputation on YouTube and then I went and changed everything.

Why change if it was going so well?

So one thing about the internet is you have to follow the success where it takes you. I could have made several more Seduced audios for YouTube and in fact I did do that for a little while but, tastes change. I changed. I stopped doing what I was doing and started being a vtuber, a faceless creator and I got into ASMR. At the time ASMR roleplaying was massive so this was a strategy I wanted to try, mix my love of acting and fantasy with my love of hypnosis see what happens. It worked pretty well as those videos also started doing pretty good and now I have a bunch of videos over 100K on YouTube. But this also trapped me in a box. Now I have had time to have a break and come back I noticed, YouTube especially is really hard on ASMR creators. It's hard on hypnosis creators. It's hard on creators because the platform is loaded with content. You have to be unique to stand out. You have to play to your audience. You have to gain people's attention through interest and ideas that are still fresh but not too specific to turn away the people who watch you. It's a battle to keep it going and it's one I have made many, many mistakes in. You have to give your audience the most, but not too much. You have to be avaible to people in the comments, but not too much. It's a fine balancing act and one that will drive you insane if you don't have a great support system.

So why am I sharing this with you?

I'm at a stage in my career as a creator where I am fearless to try new stuff. I am trying not to care about my reputation as a domme or as a person (more on that in a later essay, I'm sure). I'm trying to lead with my creative spirit and not be upset when a video doesn't "hit" or "pop off". I'm not going to leave a livestream anymore and cry because no one came to see me do a thing. I'm splitting my time between making music, gaming and creating fun things for me and making hypnosis and asmr roleplays for the people who want it and not being sad if my song doesn't go viral right away. Because recently after a death in my family, a health scare that nearly ended my career and the loss of a huge opportunity that turned out not to work for me, I have learned that life is too short not to make the fun things I want.

I want to share with content creators that doing this fulltime is scary and it is hard. It is tough to see posts do nothing. It's scary to see that platforms want to ban hypnokink. It's rough to have other creators disown you for being the wrong kind of degen. But if this is your passion and your dream to make this work, you can do it.

How do you get noticed in this challenging environment?

Lead with passion and your own point of view.

I'm not kidding here, it's the best and worst advice I can give you. Too different and you alienate people, not different enough and you aren't memorable. But you have to lead with passion. Passion carries through the screen. People can hear it in your voice, see it in your work. But outside of that, here are some other things you might want to think about if you are going to commit to making content of any kind:

Who is your target audience? If you say yourself, great! What do you like? What do you want? What are you goals with interacting with content? Follow that.

What is your brand (and can you say it in a single sentence) I'm literally not kidding. If you can't describe what you do in one sentence your branding needs work. Eg, hi I'm Secret and I'm a hypnotic nyanpire from New Zealand.

If someone was to see you on the internet, what should they remember? The other day I got a great comment on a piece of art I commed, "I saw this and I immediatly thought of Secret Subject, and then I looked and saw it was posted by her", your branding should be that strong because people see thousands of posts a day. What makes you different? For me, it's purple. It's goth mommy. It's cats and bats. Find your vibe and own it. Do not be afraid to double down and make your entire thing about it. Everytime I get art made, I make it about my character and it must have purple hair because that keeps the brand strong in someone's mind.

What is your purpose? For me without a goal of "this is why I make the content I do" I would be lost and unmotivated. Find your why and write it down, put a post-it on the wall. Tell a friend. Whatever you need to remind you, this is why I do what I do. When times are hard or you run out of steam/ideas go back to this and really hone into what it is you want to say.

Own your mistakes and bad days. We all have them. That thing didn't do well. That video wasn't great. There was a mistake in this thing or I accidentally made a tweet that went viral for all the wrong reasons. It happens. Be honest with yourself but exercise kindness. Own your mistakes and show people you are human even if you play as an anime vampire catgirl online.

Make connections for the right reasons. As an ex-vtuber I can tell you it's hard when people use you or befriend you "for something". It's okay to build business connections and make this all about business but be honest with people, it does go a long way. Have respect for people who are fellow creators and if you seriously are looking for "friends" that's fine but also know that being friends and colleagues in content are not the same and the lines get very blurry at times.

Be persistant instead of consistent. You've probably been told "constancy is key" a bunch here, hell, you may have heard it from me. I used to teach this as part of my content class at cons but it's not as important as just sticking with it. We are not robots. We can't just all schedule tweets to go out perfectly timed and are all amazingly funny all the time. You need time to come up with quality so take it, but do not give up. If you give up and throw in the towel often you won't make it. Especially on social media. Taking a break or hiatus is fine, I just had one myself, but if you everytime it gets too hard say "I'm done" and then come back on a cycle you are just hurting yourself.

Perfection is a creativity killer. Just post that thing. Sometimes just posting that thing will lead to a new classic for the community.

Time to make your mark

I'm still grinding, we all are still out here making it happen in our own ways. I am so excited to watch the next gen of hypnosis creators florish and thrive. I am a huge simp for my friends who take on this challege because they all work so hard and have so much passion for this weird niche kink we all have. I am in awe of people who feel the fear of this journey and keep doing it. I'm in awe of people who started before me and are still here doing it, because it is not easy and I am over pretending it is.

We need diversity in content and especially in hypnosis kink. I am a person from New Zealand, a small country where a lot of us tend not to make a big splash in the world. People like me don't get the kind of platform I am lucky and insanely grateful to have. I encourage you to take your point of view as a kinkster, and make your mark on the world too. Play safe, care about your content and do good. Remember that you don't need thousands of dedicated fans to be popular and you can be someones favorite regardless of how "seen" your work is.

[shychick-52]

So, I was looking up information on the Darkwing Duck reboot, and I found this info on a two-month-old Reddit thread from a person who claims to know people in Disney Television Animation (click on the first one to see the full screenshot):

So, it sounds like the DT episode 'Let's Get Dangerous' WAS a backdoor pilot for a DWD reboot/direct spinoff of DT 2017, there WAS a plan to make a season 4, and the rumored DWD reboot apparently being done by Seth Rogen (which was to have nothing to do with DT 2017, but totally seperate) was quietly cancelled.

Honestly, I was never thrilled about a DWD reboot that had nothing to do with DT 2017 anyway, especially one handled by Seth Rogen.

But it's good to take this with a grain of salt, since neither Frank or anyone on the DT team ever confirmed anything- anywhere- about the plan being for the episode 'Let's Get Dangerous' truly being a backdoor pilot and for a season 4 of DT.

Here's the link to the full thread on Reddit.

@artist-fan146

[pants-magic-pants]

okok, one more ✨

so i know you would like to make the other Goblin King outfits. but are there any other characters you would like to cosplay? or that you have already cosplayed?

Thank you for asking! Yeah, I have cosplayed before. None of the proof of it's here because I've designated it as a Labyrinth blog. My interests and projects do not resemble each other at all, and my cosplay history reflects that. hahahaha

Anyway, my last cosplay was the Mad Hatter from Disney's 1992 series "Adventures in Wonderland". The show is extremely dear to me, and I also love the costumes, so I made his entire outfit (vest, tailcoat, pants, spats, collar, bowtie, hat), which were my introductions to making clothes. Didn't crawl before I ran. hahaha It took about 10 months to complete in 2021. A couple of videos of him can be found on my youtube channel.

Before that, I had been closet-cosplaying Dance Magic Jareth from time to time, and had made a much easier less screen accurate version of his ballroom attire minus the coat, and this blog has that content under the "jareth cosplay" tag.

Before that, I closet-cosplayed Kurama from the anime Yu Yu Hakusho from 2017-2018. I was obsessed with the show and characters, and having a quarter life crisis, so I dyed my hair red and let him consume my entire being.

Before that, I for some reason had a fixation with Jared Leto's Joker from Suicide Squad (2016)... Don't judge me, I know he wasn't a very good joker! I just didn't care! I didn't know how to sew yet, so all the pieces were collected, the bowtie was commissioned, and I had to go all around town trying to find dress shirts for my tiny body. All the while, I holed up in my room practicing his makeup. It took about 3-4 months? @mistahgrape was my handle on instagram and tumblr.

Then finally, there was my first cosplay which is also my cosplans for the future. I used to closet-cosplay Nosferatu when I was a bub (2011-2013) the whole time I was away in film school. I have a degree in film which was heavily focused on the German silent era, so he meant/means a lot, and I would make videos pretending like he visited me in my apartment. lol The blog strange--cargo is all about that. I desperately wanted to commission a screen accurate outfit but just never did, so I'm going to make my dreams come true and hopefully take him to cons and make people laugh/creep them out.

watch out!!

[akayralylegacy]

──✧✦ 𝚆𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘, 𝙼𝚢 𝙿𝚊𝚐𝚎!! ☙

☾┈⛁⛀┄⛃┄⛀⛁┈☽

➪ Hey hey hey! Hello and welcome to my Tumblr! Name's Akayraly, I'm a 14yr/o girl with a passion for art/animation and story creation. I have 50 stories in total and more than +500 OCs, my love for all of them is huge, and I'm willing to share more info about my beloved characters and universes!!

— Info About Me:

• Pronouns: she/her

• Oriantation: Omni

• Nationality: Brazilian

• Nicknames (what you can call me): Akayra, Kayra, Akay

• Personality Type: ENFP, 7w1, Chaotic Good

• My Life in Art: I started to get more and more invested in art around 2017 when I was 7 years old! I started to do digital art around 2021.

• Fandoms: MBTI, Harry Potter, Sonic, Cuphead, Coraline, FNAF, Bendy, Astrology (kinda), Lorax (aka Onceling), TF2, Wednesday, Pokémon (kinda), TLK/TLG, FNF (kinda), TAWOG, LPS, MLP, Creepypasta, Poppy Playtime, HTTYD, HTF, Cat Ghost, Andy's Apple Farm, Gacha, Warrior Cats, Super Mario (kinda), Miraculous, Roblox, Baldi's Basics, Amanda The Adventurer, TLOTR, Supernatural, Lackadaisy AND Melanie Martinez Fandom

Phew, gosh, I am in so many fandoms :')

Anyways, that's pretty much it! I hope I can make some friends around here! See ya guys ^^

[uaremyjae]

My thoughts on my One Piece journey and How it’s affected me 🩷

This is going to be long ass post lol

I think this is the platform that I never knew that I will ever comeback to but you know because of one piece and deprived of Sanji, Nami & Law content, ✨ here I am 😁✨ *shamelessly comeback after abandoned tumblr for good 11 years lmao*.

Anyway, I just want to let out my thoughts on my one piece journey and how it affected me. So bear with me. This is only place I can talk about One Piece because other platforms I had is related to kpop * Yes I’m a kpop fan. HEAVY ON NCT. Neo Got My Back.*

I know about one piece way back when I’m teenager. It’s just I don’t start to watch it/ read it somehow?? Idk why 🤷‍♀️ I’m also confused to as why because I did grew up watch anime like FMAB, Naruto, Bleach, Black Butler, K-On, Fairy Tail on tv. HECK I EVEN WATCH THE LONG ASS DETECTIVE CONAN TOO 😭

I think it’s because back in the day ( 2010 - 2017 ), I had lack of access to internet and not exposed to the series at all. Besides the local TV station here, only aired Naruto ,Bleach and those anime I mentioned . *I’m just 24 years old btw*

So around September 2023, I came across to One Piece content on TikTok and funny enough it’s Brook edit! I was so intrigued with this character and little did I know I watch a bunch of One Piece clip here and there on TikTok. To be fair, I am basically spoiled myself that time 😬 but I’m the type dgaf if I got spoiled because I won’t remember at all later on. 🤷‍♀️

So I decide to start watch it. First few episodes, my reaction was like “ Okay Luffy is an interesting guy🧐his body stretches and always smiled! He got damn hands tho ngl”. Zoro, my reaction was like “ahaaa SO THIS IS ZORO THAT EVERYONE KEEP TALKING ABOUT. Quite a Stud.”

Nami, interesting female character that I can relate because I like money 🤑 and her backstory is so sad. Ussop is also another character I gradually love over the time!

Then COMES MY HUSBANDO, SANJI. Man I have a thing for a man who can cook and looks good in suits. Sanji really makes me having my first anime crush ever! I DONT HAVE A CRUSH ON ANYONE IN NARUTO & Detective Conan but One Piece made me have one 🤧 *The upgrade from loving a guy that exist but doesn’t know you exist ( haechan,jaehyun & jaemin bb i luv you guys but Sanji 😮‍💨) to loving a guy who are not exist on this plane of earth 👀*

Little did I know I start to binge watch it. First day of watching, 30 episodes in 6 hours. 10 days later I already watch 325 episodes . but the show is so good! The story telling that oda created really hit home to me and the foreshadowing & lore he created makes me hooked unlike other story that I have read & watched.

Here’s the thing, to me every anime that I watch, I never like finish it . Sometimes I would just watch last ep and called it the day. This is not only apply on anime, it’s apply to western shows, my own local shows & k-dramas. So One Piece truly like solidified their place on my heart. I finally can understand why one piece are so loved for decades!

Also during those times, I hit rock bottom too. I quit my job because I was falsely accused for stealing shit at my work place and being discriminated by my ex-boss due to being the youngest one for my entire work.( everyone else was in their 40’s ). That time I was desperate as I need some money to achieve my bucket-list and want to lessen the burden of my family. Lord heavens knows what I’m going through, got death threats by that mf. Twisted the truth that causing my whole family cut ties with her severely. From there, I felt so stress and worried.

So One Piece is my way of escapism and it’s been a beautiful and exciting journey. Compared to last time, I took a 7 months breaks from works due to burn out & anxiety, this time it doesnt took long for me to overcome those situations and my “year-end blues” that I called is not as bad as before. I also has been actively try to get a job asap so I can buy an Ipad as I want to start learning digital drawing again after watching one piece.

One piece teach me it’s never late to start a new journey towards your dream! I used to dream to be a graphic designer or animators but my family don’t want me to be that. They want me to have that conservative jobs like working in government, an accountant etc. so essentially I gave up those dreams so I can make them proud of me. It’s been bothering me for so long as I felt like I should have go for what I want not what people want. At the end, I abandoned my accountancy knowledge and worked as an admin & a baker which I found a lot more less stressful that being an accountant. I guess what people describe after knows me personally being a confident, free-spirited & rebellious is just the way I am. AND oddly enough One Piece is just perfect manga & anime for me!

At this point, I already caught up with anime. I’m a weekly basis anime watchers now. I also has caught up with manga too. It’s been a huge revealing & fresh experience of One Piece for me. I felt like I being myself again! It’s weird but it’s the truth! I never felt so at ease and being seen. I just want to do what I want. It’s just fitting fate for me to be a One Piece fan!

That’s all what I want to say… if you really read this till the end. Thank you!

[fallloverfic]

Nimona, the 2011-14 webcomic by ND Stevenson, turned into a graphic novel published on May 12, 2015, and adapted into a full cast audiobook on October 4, 2016, has been adapted into an animated movie!

The movie premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France on June 14, 2023. Netflix released a teaser trailer on May 18, 2023, a clip on June 8, 2023, a full trailer on June 14, 2023, another big clip on June 21, 2023, more footage on June 22, 2023, and another big clip on June 27, 2023. The movie released in select theaters starting on June 23.

The movie released on June 30, 2023 on Netflix for streaming! You can also view the movie for free, legally, on YouTube, until February 26th, 2024. Netflix also released a free-to-read digital-only multimedia 358-page artbook for the movie.

For simplified background, Disney cancelled the movie in 2021, but on April 11, 2022, it was announced that Annapurna would produce the movie, DNEG would animate it, and Netflix would distribute it for streaming sometime in 2023. I'm seeing a lot of confusion out there, so I'll make a summary of what else we know. I also keep the Nimona movie fanwiki page up to date with more info as it releases. Other good places to get news: ND Stevenson's twitter, his Tumblr, his personal site, the savenimona twitter, and the movie page on Netflix. While managing the fanwiki I found that Wikipedia's reference articles for the movie were kind of terrible and often quoted things not being said in the articles being quoted, even in their archive versions, so I would stick with first-hand accounts where possible, particularly what's coming from folks working on the movie and the companies making it. Below is a more detailed summary of info.

Nimona by ND Stevenson began life as a school project while Nate was in college. He was a tumblrite and posted the first pages on Tumblr on December 14, 2011. On June 19, 2012, he began publishing the webcomic in full on its own site. Sometime before November 2012, it was contracted for publication as a graphic novel after completion. The webcomic ended on September 30, 2014, and was released as a single graphic novel in entirety on May 12, 2015. It has currently been translated into 16 languages. Nate adapted it into a full cast audiobook that released on October 4, 2016 (you can hear a preview and purchase it via the link above). The graphic novel and audiobook are still available for purchase.

Apologies for maybe getting studio names wrong, some have changed over time. Anyway: the movie rights for Nimona were acquired by 20th Century Fox Animation in June 2015, to be produced by Blue Sky Studios. In June 2017, Fox scheduled the movie to be released on February 14, 2020. Patrick Osbourne was brought on as director, and it was planned to have the movie in the style of Paperman (Osbourne was animation supervisor of Paperman (2012), and went on to direct Feast (2015), which used the same style). After Disney acquired 20th Century Animation (as it was later called), the movie was delayed to March 5, 2021. There was reportedly pushback for queer stuff in the movie. Blue Sky is publicly stated to have shutdown due to the pandemic and money issues, which isn't relevant here, and I would be careful spreading rumors it was for other reasons. A lot of "successful" US companies shut down studios and departments en masse for other very dumb reasons, particularly in recent years, sometimes just because they aren't making as much money as their parent/shareholders wants them to and cutting salaries makes your profits look better to shareholders. The important part is: Blue Sky was being shut down, and Disney officially cancelled the movie in February 2021.

At some point around the cancellation, a video compilation of early release footage and sculpts seemingly from someone involved in the movie's production was released online. It was later taken down, but put back up by iO9 after the Annapurna, DNEG, Netflix production was announced.

After Disney shuttered Blue Sky, according to Variety, the Nimona crew, "led by former Blue Sky co-presidents Andrew Millstein and Robert Baird, shopped the animatic around town. The film caught the attention of Annapurna CEO Megan Ellison, who was familiar with the film and had been tracking the project. “I think anyone who has ever felt misunderstood or like an outsider will connect with N.D. Stevenson’s story like I did,” she said in press material for the film. “When I watched the storyboard reels I immediately fell in love with it. Nothing about it felt conventional or built off market research. It’s bold and mischievous and full of love. Nimona has such a powerful voice.”

Annapurna stepped in and signed up Millstein and Baird as executive producers. They created Shapeshifter Films so the team could finish “Nimona,” and subsequently joined the company, forming Annapurna Animation.

DNEG Animation was hired in the spring of 2021 to help with the animation, becoming collaborators on the film."

On April 11, 2022, it was announced that the film would be produced by Annapurna, animated by DNEG, and distributed by Netflix. Netflix also shared the first summary:

"A Knight is framed for a crime he didn't commit and the only person who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona, a shape-shifting teen who might also be a monster he's sworn to kill. Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is a story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone."

Between Netflix's posts and DNEG's Nimona page, as well as folks involved with the film talking about it, and new info released after the Annecy Film Festival announcement, we knew it would release in Summer 2023. Netflix released a primary cast article with images of what the characters look like from Netflix (be warned, both are very spoilery).

What is also interesting about the cast listings is that Ballister's last name was changed from Blackheart to Boldheart.

Sources for Business Insider said that Blue Sky's work would be incorporated into the film somehow. The second production seemingly wasn't started from scratch, and members of the Blue Sky production stayed on to work on the project. This makes sense, given the art was quite similar to what was in that footage released around the film's cancellation in 2021. DNEG crew have stated repeatedly, though, that although they did have a lot of material from the Blue Sky production, they had to make a lot of things from the ground up.

Quane released an official shot from the film on January 4, 2023:

It was announced that the movie would premiere on June 14, 2023, at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. (Post on Annecy's site, post on DNEG's site)

Two new stills were also released on April 25, 2023, with the Annecy Film Festival announcement:

On May 10, 2023, Netflix posted a new image for the movie:

The May 10 article also had a new movie summary:

"When Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn’t commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem — who also happens to be a shape-shifting creature Ballister has been trained to destroy. But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona’s the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc — for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to… just wreak serious havoc.   

Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, Nimona is an epic tale about finding friendship in the most surprising situations and accepting yourself and others for who they are."

Netflix released another still on May 17, 2023. On May 18, they released their teaser, the movie's first poster, and the announcement of the June 30, 2023 general streaming release date!

Netflix also added a new preview image to the Nimona page on the app, featuring Ballister and Ambrosius facing off behind Nimona.

And Netflix started selling Nimona plushies! Amazon (and possibly other vendors) are also selling shirts/jackets with official movie art!

Netflix released more footage of the movie on May 24, 2023! (it's around 6:31 in the video).

Empire magazine released another still for the movie on June 7, 2023, as well as an article in their June 8, 2023 issue.

Variety released a new still on June 11, 2023.

Netflix released a new poster on Jun 13, 2023!

More stills were released in an Entertainment Weekly article on June 14, 2023. And Netflix released even more. More teasers were put up on the Netflix app (though these are quite spoilery, so I'd advise avoiding them). The cast and crew did press tours throughout June 2023.

Again, the Nimona movie fanwiki page has more detailed info on all this.

[tinukis]

(OKAY. I KINDA GOT CARRIED AWAY (i got REALLY carried away.) AND NOW I WILL PROVIDE VERY FEW INFO ON SABOSAN HISTORY AS EARLY AS 2014.)

sabosan existing on here since at least 2017 is crazy

(it's ask blogs and im lazy to know the lore but all ik is that sabo and sanji have kids while sanji is in extreme denial abt being gay)

i wanna know how far back sabosan goes... like at leasT 2015 or 2016??? (anime timeline) and maybe 2014 (manga timeline) idk im just guessing bc i dont know what year sabo returned so

OK BUT THE SLIM CHANCE THAT SABOSAN BECAME A THING LIKE ALMOST A DECADE AGO DRIVES ME INSANE I NEED TO INVESTIGATE WAIT

on pixiv in the sabosan tag (サボサン) the oldest works on there is from 2015. (i mean when u look up サボサン you get this cactus mascot which is p hilarious)

i theorize that sabosan became recognized because of zou/wci. bc thats when we learn about sanji's history. i notice that it seem to be more recognized by a few fans as early as 2016 (when wci started)

so those big brained individuals were onto something then. they saw two blonde characters that shared similar histories and went. "wait a minute. i can cook something with this"

and you know what sanji's good at? taking any ingredients and making something amazing out of it. thats what early sabosan fans did

there are Very Little content of them/i cant read japanese and i just mostly find the cactus mascot, but they were there. at Least as early as sabo's return. and at that time, fans did not receive sanji's past. they just took these guys like barbie dolls and made them kiss... anyway i need them to meet and i want to see the longtime fans react as theyve waited nearly a decade for that very moment

(kinda doubtful but let me dream!!!)

OKAY ANOTHER UPDATE (YES IM TYPING EVERYTHING IN ONE POST) i learned how to search dates on the bird app once more and. im seeing posts from jpn about sabosan !!!

one of my favorite ones:

the people understanding since 2016... that sanji goes well with ASL brothers :'D

ok found another tweet (and the users are still active !!) and translation seems butchered so im not gonna share but from what i could understand, this other user also likes sanji with ASL... this is amazing. LIKE im aware of the impact acesan had, especially bc of the anime including ace in alabasta (i understand deeply. i mean have you SEEN the way ace acted around sanji⁉️⁉️ lighting his cigarette... smirking at him when sanji turns his back... i know what you are. they Definitely spent an entire night (or more) alone together <3) but for sabo to be included to since this long ago, esp considering the two never met?!?? and the one connection is being royal blood...

again i cannot include everything, esp long posts bc the translation gets butchered but aaahh just ppl talk about the pairing, any potentials about it makes me happy... and gives me hope for the agenda to spread wider lol. what looks like that has been said is that a couple of people really like pairing sanji with multiple characters, esp ASL... and i understand so well. theres just something about sanji being so shippable

there are also fans speaking to other sanji ships fans, and they ask/say "i want to see your sabosan !!" it's great...

ahahhaa AHAHAHA FOUND ANOTHER POST I CAN SHARE:

sabo POP figure from 2016 (aaah i want it so bad...)

and the suit he wears in this figure, it does look like sanji's fit now that the user mentioned it 👀👀

okay i dug a little more and found another sabosan fan! at first i was unsure as they could be talking about another user or a cactus or something. but as it turns out, they are indeed a sabosan fan! they've said things like "i wish sabosan was more popular"/"i wish for sabosan" and this is dated back in 2016! plus one of my favorite posts (translated into deepL as i had a feeling that twt had butchered the translation and...)

they get it. they got it. as i mentioned earlier, the fans definitely knew what was up when wci happened. THEY WERE COOKING BACK IN 2016!!! which... i believe i should now start digging as early as i can. maybe for zou or dressrosa years!! bc certainly, this pairing was actually talked about during 2016-2017. it was wonderful to see!

oh my goodness... i decided to look from start of 2015 to the end, and so far in late 2015, the same user from the above translation, has been talking about them still! they mentioned sabosan fanworks, and how they read a heartbreaking fic⁉️⁉️ i cant tell you how happy i was to read that. sabosan being a thing and having angst works, even if i can't read them. (never mess with one piece fans, especially if they are fujoshi !! they'll find their ways. im honestly fascinated. i love fandom history if you couldnt tell by this post!)

plus, some fans calling themselves delusional for thinking of this pairing... if only i could be there with you, longtime fan.

and i'll be real here, i dont know of the popularities back then but the comparison of sanji and sabo being nobles are great :] (maybe bc i've just seen ppl being mean to sabo recently 😔)

okay im sure this post is getting wayyy too long so i'll try to wrap up my investigations. bc there are many posts to look through but sabosan being talked about as early as 2015 (as i write this) is just... very joyous news to me ;w;

im sure i will be missing lots of good posts (despite the horrible machine translations) but i am shaking hands with 2015-2017 fans in solidarity... at most 9 years later

!!! GREAT NEWS. 2014 posting!!

original tweet and deepL translation... dated mid december 2014. nearly a whole decade ago. i swear sabosan will go viral, way more than when zou/wci was in progress. im sure of it

i really cant put into words how im feeling or what im really thinking. just know im happy to find fans from 2014 !!

OH MY GOD.

⁉️⁉️⁉️ AUGUST 2014 BTW. and im assuming its supposed to be "sabo started with" or something but... the content. sabosan content. 2014. it's out there. SHAKES YOU. THE CRUMBS (also this user is a sabosan fan and i think acesan fan too as i did see mentjons of them... so this just...)

THEYVE BEEN HERE FOR A LONG TIME AAAAAHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭

NOW IM CURIOUS WITH HOW MANY POSTS IVE BEEN MISSING⁉️⁉️ yall the agenda must spread farther

ASL/sanji mentioned! august 2014

omg again from the same user

shaking your hand in spirit (april 2014!!!)

there have been fans of this pairing as early as april 2014!!!! and have been manifesting for their popularity for awhile 😭😭😭 (plus this user is still active! im not sure if theyre still into one piece but... i hope for the longtime/past fans to see it all soon)

i think my investigation into sabosan history ends here after a long post and hours of searching... unless i somehow find something earlier than april 2014, the earliest moment that sabosan was first talked about was in the year 2014. Q2 2014. back when dressrosa was still ongoing. do you know how insane that is? before wci.

i think we can come to a conclusion that sabosan was a concept as early as 2014 was all becaude of acesan. thats the pattern i noticed. ace/acesan was often mentioned. and i believe it's bc not only are ace and sabo brothers, but bc sabo aimed to eat the mera mera no mi. and if sanji were to meet sabo, sanji would be reminded of his late lover, ace. and the angst potential is so real... sanji looking at sabo... just as a replacement for ace? ouch

i know the fans were having a field day when they learned about sanji's blood family :']

side note: there are likely things lost due to users deactivating or whatnot... and i doubt i'd be able to search via wayback machine. and as much as i dont like pinterest for reposting art, there are pieces of the two ive never seen before

[familyabolisher]

I'm very curious about any more in depth thoughts you have on It Came From The Closet! It's been on my radar and I'd been planning to check it out soon as my next read, and this is the first opinion I've seen on it that isn't part of what feels like marketing reviews almost. Is it the analysis of the horror movies and themes that feels off or the way the essays are written? I'm a huge horror fan and I've definitely seen a...few queer horror takes that felt either like reaches or just "off" to me, but it's always hard to put my finger on it

i’ve only read the first few essays so it’s entirely possible that the volume will improve from here on out (though i … haven’t gotten my hopes up), but my impression so far is that it’s a series of schlocky, surface-level analyses providing a veneer of pop talking points around “horror” and “queerness” over what are often frankly uninteresting personal essays. v little insight and v little desire to bring anything new to the table; frankly, v little interest in the films they purport to be writing on beyond shallow rhetorical vehicles for personal reflection. my patience for The Personal Essay is vvv low at the best of times, but like, i can appreciate a work from which i can glean some compelling insights and articulate a thoughtful response. and, god, none of these pieces have crossed that hurdle so far.

like, if it’s not a long string of appeals to buzzwords like “queerbaiting” and “bury your gays” or v poorly substantiated appeals to "subversion" then it's incorrectly defined “reparative reading” or one writer citing that stupid mary oliver soft animal of your body whatever line out of literally nowhere. it’s just not insightful or imaginative. at its worst it does just read like an annoying tumblr post circa 2017. carmen maria machado writes an essay on jennifer’s body as articulating something essential to her bisexuality such that efforts to talk about the way in which it marketed itself via appealing to the homophobic cultural currency of teen lesbian eroticism somehow constitutes “gatekeeping.” this is not compelling or original critical writing, people.

almost every essay seems to fall back on the same base claim: that what makes horror horrifying relies on a currency of alterity which discursively constructs the “other” and that queer people can & will identify with the “other”—the monster in the horror film—in order to make sense of themselves & overturn the hegemony that the film may well seek to affirm. cool, awesome—this is not new analysis. i would not expect this kind of thing to be churned out in a book published in 2022; we know this already. i worry that overleaning into this idea of a “reclamation” of sorts a) risks forfeiting the language we have available to us to actually talk about the sort of bigotry which can fuel these kinds of stories; how many people talk about le fanu’s carmilla as a stunning depiction of erotic lesbian vampires and lose sight of its having been a v homophobic, colonialist text in their doing so?; and b) neglects the tradition of horror within alterity; horror being made not out of a conservative ethos that we seek to critically remould into a kind of limp simulacrum of a “radical” one, but one born out of a desire to tell a story against heteronormative social imaginaries in the first place. it’s all well and good to identify with regan from the exorcist and cite your poor understanding of reparative readings (not a critical framework i subscribe to anyway, but like, at least get it right?) in doing so, but do we have to keep limiting our discourse to this back-and-forth about whether or not we can salvage obviously homophobic/misogynistic/ableist/racist stories forever? lol. i watched Hellraiser for the first time the other day and that was queer horror that could be met with on far more compelling terms than whatever all this is.

[flower-boi16]

I Watched The Hello Neighbor Cartoon (It's bad)

So just today while I was scrolling through my recommendations on youtube I saw a review of the Hello Neighbor cartoon that I never knew existed up until now. Just by looking at the show I didn't have very high expectations but I randomly decided to watch it cuz why not? I mean, it has an 8.6/10 on IMDB so surely it must be good right?....ya no. Anyways...the show sucks, here's why.

1. The Animation & Vissuals

The animation is...bad. It just looks very stiff and cheap looking, and the characters aren't that expressive either, they all look bland and soulless (which also describes their personalities incredibly well too). So much of it feels choppy as hell, like I'm watching a show made with two dollars on flash. I would say that this looks like a cheap Canadian cartoon (and I say this as somebody from Canada) but...even then there are Canadian shows that look more appealing than this.

The art style also looks bland, again, the characters barely have ANY real expression to them, and it really looks like a low-effort kids show more than anything else, which makes the show's attempts at being "scary" fall flat. Don't have much else to say here, the animation just looks that bad.

2. Comedy

There are a few times when the show tries to be funny...and it fails. None of the jokes here really made me laugh....at all. Though there were times when the show did get a laugh out of me...and they were when I wasn't supposed to laugh. Like that scene in episode 2 with where our main girl sees a bunch of neighbor heads I just couldn't help but find it VERY amusing, plus the credits which is just the neighbor goofily staring through the window where "dRaMAtiC" music plays in the background and it just looks VERY goofy. Aside from that, when the show is trying to be funny...it's not. It's just not.

3. Characters

A majority of the characters are honestly not worth talking about aside from Trinity and Nicky ig, they are all just...so boring. None of the kids' personalities are remotely endearing in the slightest and they are all just extremely one-dimensional.

Trinity is our main character and...I'm sorry but she just isn't interesting in the slightest. She has literally no personality or depth as a character and makes her a very boring protagonist for the story. She's also pretty inconsistent in episode 2 where she's all like "no we can't follow around the neighbor" when last episode she was perfectly on board with that and Nicky's plan? Then there's Nicky who also kinda sucks. Like the other characters he isn't that interesting or endearing at all, and they also don't even give a reason for why he thinks the neighbor is a murderer. Like, what made him assume the neighbor murdered his own kids??? It honestly would've been really cool if they merged aspects of Dipper from Gravity Falls and Webby from Ducktales 2017 together for his character because I could really see the potential here, but what we have now...ya.

The other kids are, again, not worth talking about because of how boring they are. They aren't funny or entertaining to watch at all, they all feel so bland and soulless. The other kids simply just exist and not much else. I really don't have that much else to say about the characters.

4. The "Horror"

So the show tries to be scary...but it isn't. Honestly, It's hard to pinpoint what parts the show wants me to be scared of because it's really hard to find a show with this art style scary in the slightest. Nothing about it is that "creepy" at all, though I don't even know this is supposed to be a horror show despite it being based on a horror game since I never felt scared watching it all.

I guess the show's overarching mystery is kinda intriguing...? But when the characters are so bland it's hard to even get invested in it. Don't have much else to say here.

5. Plot Holes

Ah yes, no bad show would be complete without plot holes, now would it? I'll just list some of the plot holes in each episode here:

Trinity SEES THE NEIGHBOR KILL SOMEONE IN THE STORE and for SOME REASON decides to run away instead of, oh I dunno...TAKING A PICTURE WITH THE EVIDENCE OR CALLING 911 IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Speaking of that murder, wouldn't have that got onto the news or something? Like, did nobody report it??? And if we assume someone DID report it, since the neighbor was the last one there who COMMITTED THE MURDER, wouldn't the officers put two and two together and realize it was the neighbor?

Also why did the neighbor commit the murder in the first place??? What was even the point of that???? Did he not have any money to pay for it???? Why????

The fact that there is just. A tunnel under the school. For some reason, which NEVER gets explained by the way.

When Nicky gets captured by the neighbor, where tf are his parents???? Did they not recognize their child is missing??? Why didn't they file a missing child report or ANYTHING???

There are more plot holes than these but these are the most egregious ones to me. Also the ones I already mentioned in the characters section. Besides, this post is getting long enough already so I'll just end it here....

6. Conclusion

So ya, the show sucks, 3/10, see ya.

[auroraeternal]

Get to know you - Sims Style

Sorry, @puffkins2000, I totally forgot about that thing! Anyway, thank u for tagging me ❤ I really appreciate that you mention me as your fav creator ❤

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I use both, but in CASt I add more realistic textures for MM items if it's possible, detailed textures is really important for me. For hair I prefer now more realistic textures like @ifcasims or Plumblobs. Also I replace speculars to black in almost every item because I hate that shine.

Do you cheat your sims weight? No, I don`t care about this.

Do you move objects? I don`t build most of the time, but I use MOO for moving sims for photoshoots.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? I've always had an 🏴‍☠️ game with all packs 😋

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? I don`t speak about sims in English, but I read this in my head as aLIVE.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Christhie (and her gf Ingrid ofc but I don`t have good new portrait of her):

Even if I actively use them as models for my CC, I still haven't created any special backstory for them. Only that they are girls that into nu and black metal but they are still love each other. That`s it. But they are my favorites anyway.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? Huh? I think that question is here because it was a tag game for ts4 players?... I know that in ts3 exists hair color presets, but I don`t use standard ones.

Favorite EA hair? I installed @maryjanesims3 defaults yesterday 😅 But actually I have some favs from store:

Also that BG long male hair that Gunther Goth have and SN and Decades middle length hairs:

credits for pics: @ifcasims and @blamseastore

Are you a CC creator? Ofc, I love convert/create different items, it may be hard sometimes, but I really like it. But mostly I love create sims and play around in CAS.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? Almost half of my friends are from the sims community 😍 @agnelid @oddballik @sagasimsworld @avirein @you-will-never-find-me-anymore @vayorika @nectar-cellar

Do you have any sims merch? No, I haven't.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? To be honest, it changes every day. But for example before I started this acc I preferred more maxis-match-ish style with simple matte hair textures and genetics and other stuff, because it was looking good in other people's screenshots. But after I understand that this style doesn`t suit my current aesthetic and now I use more realistic style. Also earlier I used less sliders and my sims faces was less diverse and also really really skinny no matter what their body type is. But my sims proportions have always tended to be realistic, I only liked the cartoon/anime-like style sims when I was much younger (like 10-13 smth).

Who’s your favorite CC creator? This list will be huuugee, but I love creators that made high-quality CC and can fit my aesthetic. To be more specific: @sim-songs, @nemiga-sims-archive, @rollo-rolls, @simtanico, @rstarsims3, @ninaaposts, @satellite-sims, @polaesims, @murfeelee, @nightospheresims, @agnelid, @nectar-cellar, @ifcasims @vmsims23, @xiasimla, yesod/jesod/thorns-of-piece (I think it`s @grim-dreamer-cc now?...), @billsims-cc, @shushilda, @ziva-sims, @aroundthesims, @pitheinfinite, @martassimsbookcc, @aa6x7, Pink Dahlia, @thepathofnevermorecc, Wiktoria-Von-Frege (inactive), Aikea-Guinea and Gelydh (Inactive), @white-enamel-ts3 (inactive), Ephemera and Tifa (Inactive), @leahlillith (inactive for ts3) and many others.

How do you edit your pictures? I use Reshade with different presets (mostly by @erasabledinosaur or @intramoon), Photoshop CC 2017 (also installed Topaz Clean today) with these actions by @intramoon: SONDER, COLDWATER, BEAUTY QUEEN, LEAVING SALVATION. Also mess around in photoshop and/or use AI upscaler to make pics in better quality (I can turn on 4k HQ, but I always forgot about that). Sometimes I try something different but this is the base.

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite? World adventures, Late night, Supernatural and Generations.

What a wall of text I wrote, I hope someone reads it to the end 😅

I don`t know who to tag actually ＼（〇_ｏ）／ I really late to the party with that tag game.

[hotmonkeelove]

My Anime Frontier '23 Odyssey

I probably shouldn't say it was an odyssey, as I was only there on Friday. It sure felt like one, though! First off, look who I stumbled upon:

Other than that, the only Black Butler stuff I saw were the Book of Circus and Book of Murder dvds (which I bought), the live action film dvd (which I passed on), and someone cosplaying Ciel in his female disguise. There might have been more stuff in the booths, but I was too anxious and in too much pain to browse more. So that was the only merchandise I bought. I did get a bag of chips and a soda for lunch, and refilled the bottle with water the rest of the time. The convention centre had those fountains that are specifically for that purpose.

I got to attend Steve Blum's panel and the Naruto cosplay meetup. I was the only one in a Boruto version costume and the only Anko. The majority there were Akatsuki. No one was mean to me, which I'm grateful for. A few actually asked for my picture and complimented my costume. I was also not the only disabled person there, so I didn't feel so awkward. Still, I was too shy to initiate conversations on my own. Being by myself and not knowing anyone there kept me in my shell. (I went to a con alone in 2017, but still ran into plenty of my old Rocky Horror friends.)

Anyway, here's my Anko cosplay. The bust on the dress was quite weird and we didn't have enough time to alter it correctly. The vintage bangles I bought won't fit over my right hand due to my arthritic knuckles (they fit the left, though), so we had to improvise with fabric and interfacing. Also, I had to get a second wig from a local shoppe, as I screwed up the first one.

I still had time before the uber was to fetch me, so I got Steve Blum's autograph and photos then. (By the way, he was incredibly nice and did an Orochimaru voice without me even asking him to!) Good thing, too, as uber cancelled my trip for Sunday morning, which was the last straw for me. The ride back on Friday night was nearly an hour late as the app kept glitching and wouldn't give proper directions or updates. I could see on my phone it was acting up, so I know it wasn't the driver's fault. But after that, the stress of finishing my cosplay n time, my wig being very uncomfortable, and being so sore from the walking, then another uber problem, I decided to spend Sunday at home.

But now for the kicker. While uploading my pictures with Steve Blum from my digital camera earlier this week, my laptop crashed and fried the memory card. I managed not to cry, but I was quite down. It was the whole reason I was attending the con! Fortunately, my partner (who is a saint!) was able to eventually recover them. So now I can at long last share them here!

And with that, I will likely spend a few more years on break from cons. Also, I'm kind of broke now.

[rockybloo]

hello!! (love your art btw it scratches a part of my brain in a good way) apologies if it's already been asked or something else but who are your oldest oc's? I'm just curious

THANK YOU

And I don't think I've really answered this before (or at least not in a good long while) so excuse this essay dump here...

If we are talking "Who out of the lineup you actively use now are the oldest", it'd be my Beanstalked cast. But I never truly get rid of an OC. They all live on forever and occasionally get reinvented into a newer being. So if we are talking about my OLDEST OCs in general, they are actually none of the ones you guys have been seeing me post on this blog frequently.

Before Glitter and Guilt, Bondwidth, Beanstalked, literally EVERYONE you see as part of my main story lineup, I had a entirely different cast of Rockstars.

Off the top of my head, I recall one story being called Mythical Mayhem and the other being called Zodiac Fighterz. Both of which were made during my middle school days (though Zodiac Fighterz might have been near the end of elementary as I recall one of my first days of middle school was me drawing the main character on the whiteboard for class...the memory still haunts me)

Mythical Mayhem was about a friendly demon named Spike (who was basically the Jack of my old OCs: a very good boy who could do no wrong and made friends with everyone) who wanted to become a guardian angel...but as a demon. A guardian demon basically. But he kept running into folks that didn't trust him due to being a demon-so it was basically a never ending journey of him winning people over by being wholesome and collecting pals.

The cast was filled with OCs based off mythical creatures. I had a whole map of the world and regions and flags and EVERYTHING before I just dipped out mentally from it.

Zodiac Fighterz was basically my magical girl series before Glitter and Guilt. It was made when I learned about the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals as a wee kid. The story was about a random group of teens who had been marked with one of the 12 zodiac animals fighting crime under the guidance of a talking cat and having to use their animal abilities to fight against a group of evil cat people and the corrupted animals they'd make using blood magic...let it be known this is what little baby me was writing and drawing after getting home from elementary school.

I do not have the original designs from baby me's times of drawing them as those were literally on paper with colored pencils and are currently buried in my notebooks as, just like with my OCs, I rarely ever throw out my own physical art. That sounds so deep but...it's just bc I live in a constant state of "but what if I need this for reference later".

HOWEVER I do have this 2017 pic I drew of some redesigns for everyone.

Both of these stories are retired but I do plan to recycle some of these characters into my new stories. All my OCs live in the same storyverse so no one is truly gone anyways.

[wydstepcat]

Me venting a bit. (My personal experiences with Chiaki, and the fandom's perception of her.)

(Posted on Reddit as well, so my bad if some wording is a bit off.)

Hi everyone.

I wanted to make this post to let out some steam and to sort out my mind, and maybe some people here can relate/feel the same.

I want to start off by saying that in no way am i directly targeting someone with this post, or people who have some sort of differing opinion on her, you are allowed to dislike Chiaki, i just feel that the fandom is really downplaying her character.

Anyway, let's start with my initial reactions to Chiaki in both DR2 and DR3. My very first impressions of her was very... Eh. On the very surface to me she looked like a "waifubait" type character, really just made to make specific anime fans happy. I was wrong. I was SO wrong. Those feelings began to change around 2-4, when she became a lot more active and made her presence a lot more well known. The moment where i was like "Please don't die" was during the moment Chiaki convinced Hajime NOT to go in the final dead room. 

It was also during those chapters where i started with her FTE's (although i was kinda late, and i never had the time to finish it). 2-5 was THE moment i shed my first tear in the series, the way they built it up, how the survivors reacted to it, Usami's last words, Sonia's Rebuttal Showdown. it became the most memorable moment in the series for me. And after finishing it a day later, 2-6 extended that.

So, great right? That alone gave me a pretty damn good reason to make her my favorite character just for memorability alone. a few days later i started watching DR3. I was already semi-spoiled by her fate thanks to youtube, but i never watched the full execution to keep that a surprise for me still, good lord, somehow DR3 EXPANDED everything i love about Chiaki and more. Her sense of acting more "human". her friendship with Hajime, and Chisa, just. All of it. And I KNEW the writers knew, which is why they gave her such a cruel fate.

So, those where my initial reactions of Chiaki, and after finishing V3 i was finally unshackled from the horror called spoilers. It was also around this time i started becoming an actual fan of the entire series in general. I made my DR oriented Twitter account, i joined r/danganronpa, and began reading fics (Extra Life is one of the best DR related fan projects i've ever read, seriously.)

But, something was off. It seems to me that a lot of people didn't share a lot of the same things i felt. Now of course, i'm fine with that you know? People have differing opinions so i don't expect everyone to feel the same as me, but some where like, outright hostile or completely slandering the character, like "Chiaki was meant for fans to masturbate over" or "DR3 Chiaki is a character that shouldn't even exist in concept", and even in appreciation posts she gets shit on in the comments. Which is like, so weird to me, a lot of attention was put into making Chiaki such a subtle character, from the way she was written in both DR2 and DR3.

I felt completely and utterly alone in this for a while, and it made me feel really sad. It was not too long after where i met some people on tumblr chat, i prefer to keep their names anonymous, but they as well felt very similar to the things i was feeling, and we started to talk more. I learned they had their own server to vent about stuff like this, and we've been talking a lot more since. One of them told me that around 2017, they outright ditched the entire fandom altogether, and really only talk DR with the people they know. The other has pretty much ditched reddit and moved on to other social media websites, deemed a lot safer to communicate Danganronpa with. I've talked with some artists as well, who weren't even aware this was "still" happening.

So, that begs the question. I've seen a LOT of people straight up hating her, even outside reddit. Why does she keep being so popular? If i'm right, r/ultimategamer has THE most members out of ANY DR Character, she was placed #2 at the official character poll, and probably even more that i forgot to mention. 

Am i wrong about this? Do people really praise her for the character she is? It can't just be because of her looks right? There has to be more than that, right?

I left that subreddit yesterday. I decided that it does not offer any value to me other than the fact that Danganronpa Kirigiri got fully translated. And really, it feels like constant negativity and "unpopular opinions/tierlist" posts.

...That's all i wanted to say. I also want to make it clear that aside from SOME characters, I really like almost every single one lf them, flaws and all. I've become a lot more cynical on the franchise lately, like the negatives of DR3 overpowering the positives, and becoming a lot more hostile and negative as well. I hope that stepping away for a bit will improve it. I hope that anyone reading this felt some sort of relatability in regards to this, it would make me pretty happy to know I'm not alone in this.

[katatonicimpression]

A Walk Through My Year in Media

This isn't necessarily things that came out this year, but rather things that I watched/read this year that I liked or compulsively consumed regardless of whether or not I liked them.

2023 in Films

Most of this post is going to be positivity; a sampling platter of things I've enjoyed this year. But also:

Salty Film Hot Takes:

The French Connection is uncomfortable to watch. I don't care about the racist, antisemitic, misogynist cop. He's objectively bad at his job make him go away.

None of the Next Generation era trek movies are good.

Guardians 4 would have been a better movie if Pratt wasn't in it. And I mean that in a "the script would be better structured" way.

Se7en is a really fun film and I'm not mad to have rewatched it recently but... it's undermined by 1) the writers not realising that John Doe's opinions are bog standard right wing talk radio shit, 2) the fact that they kind of agree with him and 3) they clearly, hilariously, don't know what lawyers do.

The Mummy (2017) is awful. I guess that's not controversial but still.

Robin Hood (2018) is also awful. Like, amazingly so. And, slightly warmer take, so is Prince of Thieves you guys.

I will not be answering questions on any of the above.

Positive Film Hot takes:

I went on a bit of an 80s dark fantasy kick this year. Out of films that I hadn't seen before, The Dark Crystal and The Last Unicorn really stood out. Especially the Dark Crystal. I ended up rewatching the show as well. Just so good. Bring it back. Justice for the gelflings.

I also watched a lot of Terry Gilliam this year - not all of his back catalogue but most of it. Obviously Jabberwocky is almost entirely bad, no one needs to be told, but overall yeah you get why he's beloved. The common vibe from his films is "wow there's so much to love here but it doesn't quite work". Brazil is an obvious standout - it's a classic for a reason. But I want to highlight The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Behind the scenes disaster and orientalist opening sequence aside, it really is spectatular. The sets, the details. It's so well crafted and just makes you wish they made films like this all the time. Damn you, Terry.

The 1938 Robin Hood film is the best Robin Hood film. Yes, congratulations, you noticed another theme in the shit I've watched this year. But yes, it's great, it's fun and well paced. It holds up staggeringly well. I also watched The Court Jester (1955 - with Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury) - Also surprisingly great.

Finally, also feeling medieval, I watched Excalibur (1981). This is more "swords and sorcery" than "dark fantasy" (think: Conan the Barbarian vibes), but it's kinda great (most of the genre is not, lbr). It captures the logic of those stories, the vibes of the mythology very well, the mix of pagan and early christian beliefs, and the weird metaphysics that results. It's great. Way better than that dumb clive owen one. My lord that was bad.

2023 in Telly

Live Action Drama:

Succession

It's good. I don't think anyone needs me to tell them that. Still haven't finished it but enjoying it in a peaceful, fandom-free way.

Robin Hood (2006)

This was a terrible show, with an even worse third and final series. Did I rewatch the whole thing anyway? Yes I did. Should I have? No. (I love the first two so much though. Lily Allen's dad as the sheriff of Nottingham as tony blair? sign me up.)

Doctor Who

Am I a basic bitch who only came back to who because RTD did? Yes. But at least I'm not quite as basic as the ones who were only back for Tennant. The first one was good, if a little on the nose, the second was great, the third was good up until they get onto the stupid avengers platform for the showdown, from which point me and everyone in the room just got mad at it. The christmas special was fun though, excited for Gatwa and the new series.

Adult Animation:

Castlevania: Nocturne

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Genuinely so great. It's very clear that they're setting up a whole multi season arc with this first season, and the incompleteness that comes with that is probably its biggest flaw. But overall, fucking fabulous. The animation, fights, character design. Just a gorgeous show. Maybe not to everyone's taste; it's fantasy, but not escapist - its very much rooted in the historical injustices of the setting and has some heavy themes as a result. But if you liked the first Castlevania show, then you'll probably love this.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

You might have noticed that there was a show out that featured "Rayman, but with drugs and cussing!" and, yes, this is that show. You might not have noticed that Rayman is only a small part of it, and it's actually about Dolph - a traumatised gay cyborg - and his no good, horrible, very bad breakup. Dolph is great.

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Do you like Star Trek? Do you like silly cartoons and workplace sitcoms? Then do I have the show for you. Real highlight of the year for me tbh. While the show is built on poking fun at trek canon, and can feel a little overly reliant on nostalgia sometimes, the latest season really pushed for more meaningful character moments in between the laughs. I like it. It's good.

Mononoke

This was the most mixed of mixed bags. Japanese horror with a really striking and confronting art style. At its best, it's got this visceral atmosphere that sucks you in and is genuinely fantastic. At its worst, it's got a whole storyline about "abortion ghosts", and features some art that comes across as racial caricature. Between this, and a few other things that felt uncomfortable in an unintentional way, I don't think I'd really recommend this, but it did stick with me, I'll give them that.

YA Animation:

The Dragon Prince

If you're into the whole YA fantasy adventure thing, this is an obvious rec. It's biggest flaw is how slow it's been to release, but if you're binging it for the first time, that's not a problem. It's heartfelt, it's pretty, it's clearly a kids show but is well crafted and has appeal beyond its core audience.

Star Trek: Prodigy

S1 actually originally aired like two years ago, but I only watched it this year after finding out that it was cancelled. But it was rescued! S1 is now on netflix, and s2 will air there next year. Genuinely a really fun contribution to the whole trek shebang, fitting into the universe well without ever feeling reliant on nostalgia.

I didn't include the two other treks that aired this year because s3 of Picard sucked balls (still not over it) and Strange New Worlds has stopped appealing to me... but that's a whole thing for the other blog. But the animated series are great! Also Disco. I still like Discovery.

Skull Island

This was better than it had any right to be. One season of a surprisingly funny King Kong show, also on Netflix.

Reality:

Rupaul's Drag Race UK Season 5

DRUK is good again, hooray. The dark times are over... for now.

Married at First Sight UK

Do not watch this. It will consume your entire life. Your brain will melt away as you watch someone fake cheat on their fake husband with someone else's fake husband just days into their fake marriage.

Taskmaster

It's good. It's been good. It continues to be good.

2023 in Gaming

Lol no. Can you imagine?

I did play the sims a lot. I had my guy cheat on his husband who then died.

2023 in Books

Fun fact: I only finished one of the books I intended to read this year. That's embarrassing. Anyway, it was "From Here to Eternity" by Caitlin Doughty (yes, the Ask a Mortician lady). It's great.

2023 in Comic Books

Orlando

This has really been Steve Orlando's year for me. I was thinking about what series I would include on a highlight list, and his Scarlet Witch was the only obvious answer for me. Sara Pichelli's art in that series is gorgeous - I love the way she draws Wanda. The writing is solid, compelling, tells a complete story. If I were to recommend any one series from this year, it would be this.

His Astonishing Iceman was also up there for me, and I will also repeat that the Mutant First Strike one shot he wrote was genuinely great. Kudos, Steve.

Gillen

Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men is easily one of the best to come out of the Krakoa era, and this year was no exception. I didn't really care about the Sins of Sinister event, and I care even less about the Fall of X event, so it really means something that I'm still including this series here despite it being dominated by these events. The issue with Piotr's narration has been my favourite, I think. But overall, still strong. I really hope he gets to continue writing these characters (especially Exodus and Sinister) in the future.

Other Positivity

Ewing's Black Panther series is really solid, Avengers (2023) has been pretty good. Dark X-Men was probably my actual favourite of the Fall of X titles.

Negativity

Lol I already said I didn't like the x-events. I also hated cold war. Such a waste of an opportunity. Speaking of, a lot of my comics-based salt and frustration this year has been about Sam. The way that he gets written out of things, ignored, then he turns up and his written badly and goes straight back to being ignored again. Then Marvel turns to the camera and is like "why would audiences do this?".

Put the fucking effort in and more people would show up for him. It's not that hard.

There's my overall annoyance with Duggan, which is a freebie, but one highlight of that has to be the bizarre direction they went with Kamala. No one wanted this, no one needed it, and certainly nobody needed the weird gleeful "killing" of this character just to launch a pointless plot beat that feels both offensive (see: Emma lecturing Kamala about not understanding real oppression) and is inexplicably happening during a whole massive event that feels like it should be about other characters.

The end...?

I don't want to keep listing things that annoyed me this year, because it'll just get repetative. If you follow me (which, if you don't, why are you reading this?), then you'll see me complaining about random crap all the time anyway.

Have a good NYE everyone!