#ended up switching to a fansub instead

[mikurulucky]

I was wondering when the dub of Arcadia of My Youth was made and apparently it was commissioned by Toei itself back in 1987 and a heavily edited version was released on vhs under the "Just For Kids" banner by Celebrity Home Entertainment. Same company that released shows like Sherlock Hound and The Bluffers under that same banner. Weird choice of movie to release for a kid demographic but ok.

But aside from that, at least they kept the original names intact, but Tochiro's voice sounds like a modern day text to speech, like the kind you hear in those Reddit vids where a robot reads AskReddit posts lol.

Especially the way he says "Don't die". He says it like goddamned Google Translate's tts.

And apparently, the English dub of the 2013 film as well as the Viz dub of the anime changed Tochiro's name to a more "American" sounding one, which ignores the fact he's canonically Japanese and even Arcadia of My Youth points that out via a flashback to his and Harlock's WWII era ancestors.

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

Another show just wrapped up, but a new one takes its place next week. Takara and Mitsuya have really become the bright spots for me in this current run of shows; they make excellent bookends for the week in jql. Of the five shows airing now, four are streaming weekly on Gaga and the other is available via fansub.

Takara's Treasure

What a fantastic episode of a show that continues to get better and better. The way this story has slowly built our understanding of these characters, and their understanding of each other, is masterful and so rewarding. I really loved the direct conversation they had about Takara's post-graduation plans and what it means for them, as well as Taishin getting to the heart of things and reassuring Takara that his desire is welcome. I'm excited to get a peek at Taishin's family next week and see how they navigate whatever challenges they bring.

Cosmetic Playlover

Farewell to this very pretty show whose story did not make much of an impression on me in the end. It never found a coherent relationship arc or gave us any foundation for this romance to hang onto, and it didn't live up to the dark and sexy tone of its original promotion. But it gave us a lot of beautiful visuals!

I Hear the Sunspot

We've now spent an entire month on repetitive side plots designed to separate and cause insecurity for Kohei and Taichi, and I am over it. I understand that the show is faithfully adapting the manga, but this is the thing about adaptations: when you switch to a new medium you have to adapt the work to fit the new format. When you read a manga you can speed through side plots designed to stretch out the story, but you can't do that in a weekly airing drama. And yes, I have seen the arguments that this is primarily a coming of age story about finding yourself, but it's not doing that well, either. This job falling out of the sky for Taichi and his boss—who we are meant to read as someone with good intentions—encouraging him to drop out of school immediately to work full-time is a strange development. That it once again set off a spiral of Kohei and Taichi feeling insecure about their friendship and misunderstanding each other only makes it worse. I understand the intention: we are supposed to be getting that Taichi is embarrassed about this job because it's tied to his still ill-defined feelings for Kohei. But they haven’t unpacked his hang ups with admitting (or understanding?) that he likes Kohei back enough for that to land. We've spent so much time sitting with Taichi's broody confusion without gaining any deeper insight into its source or seeing him grow, which makes all of this just feel like stalling instead of important character work.

Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

*sobs* Welp, the penultimate angst has definitely arrived. They distracted me with the possibility of dog death (Frito lives! THANK GOD) before sucker punching me with Mitsuya pre-emptively rejecting Ishida before their relationship could go further. And while I often roll my eyes at this kind of noble idiocy in the penultimate chapter of a romance, I think it's well-grounded in this story. Mitsuya has been worried about whether a relationship between them is right since he learned about Ishida's feelings, and on the heels of this blow about Frito's health and his sense that he burdened Ishida with this problem, he is feeling his age and his melancholy more than ever. He sees Ishida as a bright and beautiful young person that he would only drag down, and he does not yet understand that it was meeting him that brought this out in Ishida in the first place. The way he apologized and berated himself for asking Ishida to stay then hugged himself for that whole horrible conversation said it all. This also sets us up nicely for Ishida to finally make himself clear and do a classic jbl run next week (this show is ending too soon, I'm going to miss it so much). Thanks as always to @isaksbestpillow for providing her wonderful subs so we can all enjoy this beautiful drama. You can find the ep here.

Tagging @bengiyo to add this week's anime update.

[cina-full-moon-xanadium]

What's wrong with shout's sentai subs?

So even putting aside how they straight up stole both the subs used for Dekaranger and the subs used for Ohranger, Shout's official Sentai subs are simply very subpar and very stiff.

Personally speaking, Shout almost had me dropping Carranger before I switched to the fansubs halfway through and immediately started having a much better time. This is because Shout's subs are not technically wrong, but are far too direct; failing to take into account character and accents and tone in a way that's really bad for a show as comedic as Carranger -- and honestly, Sentai as a whole.

For example:-

The fansubs (from Harorangers) are on the left, while the official subs are on the right. What stands out here is how the fansubs give a voice to the particular characters -- Blue Racer is the smart guy of the team and so the show has him speak with longer words and more 'intelligent' phrasing most of the time, which is funny in the context of quipping back in a heated battle. Green Racer is a country boy whose accent sometimes slips through when he's heated up enough, as a funny contrast to how he's otherwise (attempting to be) a smooth-talking salesman. Both of these character traits are rendered invisible in Shout's official translations of their lines, instead going for much more generic statements that could have been said by any character.

Dapp's catchphrase - he apends his own name 'dapp' to a lot of adjectives and verbs - is entirely missing, as is the tone he's going for. Even the grammar seems to be off in this example.

This also showcases another aspect of fansubs vs official -- Harorangers translated the enemy gang, 'Bowzock'; as 'Bykergang', while the official subs leave it as is. Of course as many Warring Driver-wearing Ornacs would have you know, it's best to just leave names untranslated most of the time; but in this case the point of the name Bowzock is the humour in taking the name for a biker gang and turning it into a villain organization name, which the fansubs get across perfectly.

Signalman's voice is much more distinct here; as an uptight officer it is fitting he'd say he wants to "stamp out" a criminal organization that just the generic term 'destroy' doesn't get across.

No comment.

These examples are all from the exact same episode, and the reason I have them all is that this is the episode I switched over to the fansubs on; and the difference was immediate and I was having a far far better time! Harorangers' subs simply do a great job at conveying the humour of the show overall where the official subs completely fail.

Obviously this is a more extreme example, as Carranger is a self-parody and a much more heightened comedy than even other Super Sentai shows -- any flaws I've highlighted here are much more damning when it comes to something you're supposed to find funny.

So for another example...

Now this one isn't bad per se to be clear (and they do say the whole team name in Shout's subs i just left out their saying it for mirroring), but the Hurricanegers' roll call is meant to be a stage play. It's meant to use heightened, striking phrases and the 'Asanjou!' at the end is in context of them being on stage! So the fansubs (from SS this time) yet again get across the meaning far better.

If you're flicking through these images btw, you'll also start to see that whatever masters Shout used are lower quality; and for some reason their subtitled are rendered weirdly pixel-y? So there's a few visual issues too.

If Shout is your only way to watch these I can't tell you no -- partly because it is an accessibility thing! Shout means that all of Fiveman through Dekaranger are just fully available to watch on streaming on Tubi and Tokushoutsu and Poob and whatever at the flick of a button instantly, and their versions are also the only ones you can buy and own a physical DVD of. But their translations are very lacking compared to the fansubs and sometimes even stolen to the degree that I beg if you have the option, just torrent the fansubs; those versions will give you a much better viewing experience. ... you'll also need to anyway if you're interested in any movies and specials, as Shout only subs the episodes.

I feel this is likely just a result of how fast they have to pump these out -- if you didn't know their Sentai shows released about 2-3 months apart while they were still doing them, and that's a fucking insane schedule for 50-episode shows that it's not hard to imagine their quality would be hit. When Discotek said they were doing Toku they acknowledged it would take a long time to get us so many of the shows they'd licensed because these are very long shows and hence it takes time to do subs for them, which is reasonable to expect!

I imagine this is also why subs for Kuuga and Ryuki and such turned out so much better, due to the infamously long amount of time it takes Shout to do a new Kamen Rider show. This also makes me wonder if Zyuranger (the first Sentai they did) and Fiveman (the first Sentai they did after a long hiatus) might be better than what I've shown here, I'll have to check sometime. I just wish a company like Discotek would be given the Sentai license or that at least if Shout does carry on with Magiranger and Turboranger and what have you, they get given much much more time to work on them; because these shows deserve so much better than this.

[idollandhero]

I think in a year we'll look back at our time with Idol Land and think of it like a weird dream. A time when there wasn't a Pretty Series show announced and everything was in limbo. A time where King of Prism was a dead franchise. A time when songs were performed at Pretty Series live shows that wouldn't premier in the anime for years. The game teaser in every single Pretty Series announcement only for it to be delayed again. The YEARS long gap between episodes 2 and 3. The DISASTROUS launch. When we realized it was just a reskinned version of the switch game. Or when we discovered that it was mostly made by some unrelated dev who had only made one failed mobile otome game before Idol Land.

The Pretty Series' pivot to focusing on AiPri & KinPri instead of Idol Land & DanPri makes the past few years of Idol Land content, and the past less than a year of Idol Land actually being out, feel like an illusion.

It's frustrating because the concept of a PriPara mobile game sounds fantastic! When I play games like SIF2 or Idolish7 or whatever I think about what could have been. Was it money problems? or time problems? Or some combination of both. Regardless I can't help but yearn for a game with a budget that this franchise deserves.

And the web anime was great! But only 12 episodes, and its own budget problems, plus the games delay keeping it finished and in limbo for 2 years! (+ the lack of any western fansubs picking it up, seriously how is do we still only have subs for up to episode 6) meant that it never got the place in the spotlight it deserved. Some people speculated that it was meant to air on TV because the episodes are formatted as such, but with AiPri starting in that slot the same month the show is ending that doesn't seem to be true.

It's hard to say where PriPara is going from here. It's the series 10th anniversary and the arcade game is being shuttered to push players towards AiPri Verse instead. Idol Land's anime finale is going to air to little applause because it's stuck on an app with less than 20,000 active users, and in the same month as the launch of the new series that's slated to be a real PreCure competitor.

Idol Land's EOS hasn't been announced yet, but the missing Nino birthday coord, the April monthly update with entirely rerun coords, and the fact that Idol Land is getting very VERY close to running out of content from the switch game. Well, if not EOS I expect this game to go into maintenance mode pretty soon.

Yeah idk what my point here was exactly, but man Idol Land really was a blur. Sometimes I think we understate exactly how inexperienced the devs really were. The game doesn't have any type of Google Play integration, and when the game launched the account recovery only lasted 15 minutes. I have a newer phone and the game isn't compatible with my hole punch front camera. There's just a black bar there. I only have this problem with older games, anything made in the last 4 years doesn't have this problem except for Idol Land. I honestly think the lack of region locking is because the dev doesn't know how to turn it on. Someone on discord reported that they've been buying gold, and then contacting Google and asking for a Play Store refund. It's worked multiple times and they are not banned. How is a ban for chargebacks not something they implemented day one. Also this game doesn't have any deals or discounts, ever. It's hard to believe that, like every game I've ever played has a buy two and get 50% off the second one bundle. But it's like the devs don't know how to implement anything past basic gacha mechanics. I could also ramble about how expensive the prices are, but I've done it before I won't do it again. Also the photo room, it's implemented pretty badly. You upload a photo for the background and it crops it weird and squishes it and makes it blurry. I didn't know this at launch because it was a paid feature for like six months. The pass itself was a horrible value unless you were buying it specifically to get the episodes early, you got exactly how the amount of gold you paid for. Why not just buy the gold then. But they either realized that, or were preparing for end of service; because they took it down. I'm rambling about things the devs messed up but I haven't even mentioned the first three months of the game. There's been so many points in this game's history where playing a promise was borderline impossible for one reason or another. This game didn't feel finished until that November update that included immediate promises. God there's so much more. The photo competitions just being about editing for some reason. Also they went away, so clearly those didn't work. The amount of coords they've implemented that were broken in some way. Sometimes it was the wrong coord entirely, sometimes the cylume didn't work. It's like the dev team is so small that there's no QA people. Also on that note, Open Dream Land was just fixed in the mid March update. The game went more than 6 months where one of its two unique charts was off sync. Also remember the voice bug, that lasted forever.

I'm sorry I just started rambling lmao. This is the problem when I write posts with speech to text, I say way too much. Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Idol Land, but it's existence feels surreal. Especially because 80% of the features from this game I can turn on my switch after end of service and play, and it's free because I already paid once and never have to pay again. I even have Waku Waku O'Clock on Switch. One day, probably soon from the way things are going, I'm going to wake up and not be able to play Idol Land on my phone ever again. But instead of reminiscing of this game, I will think about the game that could have been if Idol Land got as much love as Prism Rush did.

KASHIKOMA ✌️

[jinnaizaemon]

Okay. I have things to say about this episode lol. It's a really good one! It's cute to see Hachizaemon and Magohei out of their element like this. But it was a puzzle to translate and while I hope it makes sense when watching, I'll go through their little wordplay, others translation choices, and also some Animals Committee-related ranting while I'm at it.

We arrived quite late in the Nintama fansubbing scene, so for a lot of the terminology we decided to go with wordings the English-speaking fandom was already familiar with. The seibutsu iinkai is largely known as the Biology Committee in English, and it's a valid translation, but for the sake of this episode, we decided we would make it the Animals Committee because it fit this episode better. Luckily, I don't think we had released any episode involving them before, so we can stay consistent with that naming... (there are others committee names that could have been translated differently, notably the Explosives Committee that could be the "gunpowder committee", but it didn't go in the way of translation so far so it can stay as is I think...)

Anyways, all of this episode hinges on one word: 生物 seibutsu, which the committee is named after, and literally means "living thing", "organism", "creature", and from which 生物学 seibutsugaku, "biology", is derived. Living Things Committee and such sounded a bit odd, so we went with Animals, because it's largely what they deal with.

For the sake of the punchline, seibutsu largely became "critters" in this episode. In the end, when they chase their kouhai to pet them and cuddle them, it's because their cute little kouhai are totally included in seibutsu, or living things. Wording it with "animals" wouldn't have sounded very nice for the kids, so it's switched to the more affectionate "critters". It's kind of a nuance added to the English script, but since Hachizaemon and Magohei treat their kouhai the same way they treat the committee's animals, it'd make sense that they'd call them little critters...Right?!!

For their wordplay, seibutsu is animals to match the amount of syllables. I hope it makes sense as is in the episode, but the whole point is that they have to talk without ever pronuncing the syllables "se", "i", "bu", and "tsu". When I initially translated season 33, I was doing it by the day on broadcast day (I couldn't catch the TV broadcast because of work but it was made possible thanks to the recordings of Discord members! I'm so so grateful!), so I tried to do it fast... that one episode hit me like a brick though. I did try to keep the entire episodes without "a" "ni" "mal" or "ma" "l" "s" etc and even tried other words but just couldn't make it work in a natural way so I quickly gave up lol. The same happened to Lizzie, who edits my translations, so we spelled the words in Japanese and English on screen hoping that it makes sense like this.

So they go on like this without pronuncing these syllables. It means senpai (senior) is out, so they opt for another polite honorific, -san. Honestly, I assume that if you're enough of a nerd to watch Nintama fansubs, you already know what these mean. Magohei is out, so they opt for Mago-chan instead : as a nickname, it sounds cutesy and childish, hence why Magohei isn't too excited about it. Both new appellations end up correctly following the rule of their little game, and the hierarchy between the twos! Just after, Hachizaemon is out for using butsubutsu (grumbling), itteru (talking), ima (now). Magohei is out for saying hai (yes), so he switches to osu, a much less neutral affirmation that's more like an exclaimed Yessir! Understood!, so it became Aye! in the subs.

In Japanese, Junko's name is always spelled in the phonetic alphabet, so I'm not sure what is the intended meaning behind her name. Incidentally, I say "her" because Junko is a female name, but her gender has never been specified in canon as far as I know...? I don't think it's a pun on her species, which I believe is a Japanese pit viper, or mamushi, one of the most venomous snakes found in Japan. But there is for sure a lot of affection in the name Junko, which is typically written with characters like 潤 blessing, charm, 順 obedient, docile, or 純 pure, chaste.

Komachi the spider's name comes from カバキコマチグモ kabakikomachigumo, the Japanese foliage spider, and also the most venomous spider native to Japan.

Doggymura, Bull-yama, Eaglo-san are respectively Inuyama (inu means dog), Ushiyama (ushi means cow) and Washio-san (washi means eagle).

The following lines are all idioms involving animals:

"Eaglo-san really is stuck in his ways like a frog in a boiling pot." Literally "Washio-san really is like a frog in a well, right?", 井いの中のカワズ ii no naka no kawazu is an idiom you find in multiple asian languages to refer to a narrow-minded person. "You'd be better off preaching to a horse than talking to him." is literally "It's like chanting sutras to a horse's ears", 馬の耳に念仏 uma no mimi ni nembutsu, essentially "preaching to the deaf". "I'd take even a helping paw from a cat." is literally 猫の手も借りたい neko no te mo karitai, I want help even from a cat, an idiom meaning to be very busy and short-handed.

Okay! I think that's it for this episode. Phew. Despite all it was such a cute episode, season 33 really keeps delivering, I'm so happy with it.

So cute. Seeing the 1st years lined up like this with their open mouth and pea-eyes really cements the idea of them as little critters to me.

S33 - E14: A Day Without Critters [ENG SUB]

Since Takeya Hachizaemon-senpai and Igasaki Magohei-senpai are always taking care of the critters of their committee as well as watching over them, their kouhai suggests the two of them forget about animals and go out to town for once.

mediafire pixeldrain

[tfw-no-tennis]

hunty movie 1

sooo ruth and i watched the first hxh movie holla

me as soon as we’re done w/the yorknew arc: OH FUCKY ITS ANIME MOVIE TIME

i love anime movies. theyre so often Entertaining As Hell, and also Not Very Good. its a very fun intersection 

overall this movie slots pretty easily into that category. it was a good time but nothing revolutionary. which is ok! and that makes sense bc its not canon apparently 

this movie was basically the ‘killua and kurapika have Trauma(tm)’ movie lmao 

we open w/killua having a trauma dream abt illumi, rehashing the stuff we saw in the hunter exam arc....we see this a few more times in the movie, and it really drives home how killua is still rlly scared of illumi and kinda just goes into a dissociative trauma state whenever illumi is around (even fake doll illumi or dream illumi, in this movie). poor kid :( :( 

regrettably tho ruth and i agree that illumis outfit in this movie was pretty sexy 

ok that whole beginning part where kurapikas eyes get stolen happens SO fast hvbfhdjshfsk its like ok guess thats the status quo for this movie!

jesus poor kurapika. they cant catch a fuckgin break huh

also that kid was totally the kid that was alluded to by kurapika at the end of the yorknew arc...so i guess that was included in the anime as a setup for this movie? 

also apparently that stuff was based off of a short story thing the author did a while ago which is p cool

leorios terrible drawing skills is hvhbjsdfbsdfngsjkdf

also leorio is so tender w/kurapika hhhhhhh im gonna die. im gonna gay die

and gon and killua are just. tiny soulmate boyfriends ok 

ah yes i see the obligatory movie original character who befriends the protag

it kinda cracks me up how hostile killua is to retz like vhbhskhdfbaj i get that its bc of Trauma and his fear of betrayal/betraying but it also reads as killua being a Jealous Gay which is kinda hilarious 

ruth and i when hisoka shows up: [prolonged annoyed groaning and dismayed yelling]

hisoka literally just shows up to sow chaos and throw around information to stir shit up huh

of COURSE the villain is the former 4th spider thats like. easy choice lmao 

it might just be the fansubs but i feel like there were strong implications that hisoka and 4th spider guy fucked bhjdfashfdjnakn

the most unbelievable thing abt this whole thing is that hisoka didnt kill that doll guy lmao 

ohhh shit its uvo

OHHH SHIT NOBUNGA AND MACHI....its so bad but i really like the troupe members and when they show up im like !!!!!!!

machi is so cooooool

aughhhh its like....i feel bad for nobunga for having to face down uvo like this....and THEN when pakunoda shows up too :( and nobunga tells her doll ‘rest in peace now’ or something when he cuts her down....oof. but also like theyre evil murderers so im!?! conflicted?!?!

also the shadow beast guys that uvo killed showing up and then proceeding to do LITERALLY NOTHING was kinda hilarious

and damn so technically the troupe is on the same side as the main crew, what with all of them wanting to wreck omokages shit

also omokage looks like sephiroth lmaoooo 

ill be honest i barely know what sephiroth looks like but ruth said this and i felt in my bones that its true 

ok i gotta talk abt the kurapika backstory stuff bc OUUGHGHGHGHGH my fucking UWUS BITCH!!!!

seeing a bunch of kurta was sad....and seeing baby-er kurapika OUGH and also pairo is sooo cute and him and kurapikas friendship is so pure 

kurapika is so different :( theyre like, so much more innocent and excitable....thats so damn sad bro wtf 

pairo pulling some slick moves swapping that little potion thing - all while using his blindness as a cover - was so good...no wonder he and kurapika get along so well 

also gotta say its even more brutal that one of the main reasons kurapika didnt get Big Murdered w/the rest of the kurta is bc pairo pulled this stunt - if he hadnt, kurapika wouldve failed the test and never would have left 

also kurapika saying theyre gonna find someone who can help w/pairos eyes ;_; the similarities w/leorios backstory/motivation makes me die 

and seriously im still caught up at how innocent and pure kp is oooof ough 

tho still defs the kurapika we know....theyve seemingly always had a temper, what with the reaction to the dudes in the market 

like, kurapika did NOT hold back...even after finding out that they were just part of the test! tho i do get it bc they insulted pairo...kurapika’s love for their friends/stalwart need to defend their friends is clearly a big thing 

also the market people’s reaction to seeing kp’s red eyes is rlly interesting to me...are the kurta like, known to anybody? or are they more of a vaguely talked-about group that like, ‘probably exists’? or is it that people know abt them but not the red eyes thing? it seems like these people, if any, would know, bc this market is seemingly a day’s travel from where the kurta live....i want more kurta lore bro!!

i big love pairo helping kurapika cheat like that....such an interesting twist, and makes it obvious that theirs is a friendship of equals 

anyways i loved that flashback stuff and it just drives home how absolutely fucked up and horribly sad kurapikas whole existence is, especially in this movie w/pairo’s doll being used against them

n e ways back to the non flashback stuff

i love that gon’s super nose returned for this movie omg 

im just auhghghghgh gon and killua know each other so well uwu....

aaaand illumi (well, doll illumi) is back to fuck shit up for poor killua

ugh it still gets me how clearly terrified of illumi killua is...we dont really see him act like this any other time :( and the fact that doll-illumi was able to scare killua enough to get him to run away and leave gon behind (albeit briefly) was oof 

gon jumping in front of killua and getting his eyes stolen instead....baby boyyyy oughhh

also can i just say thank fuck they didnt replace illumis eyes w/gons bc THAT wouldve been some serious nightmare fuel lmao 

cant believe killua then ran away again and walked emo-ly on the train tracks 

and THEN he saw a train coming and was like oh well :( guess ill die :/ JESUS KID 

but gon w/his Big Sniff Powers comes to the rescue!!

it was so cute how gon told killua that killua didnt run and abandon him - they were working together to fight :’) gon understands killua so well 

i love how the squad then squads up to fight omokage...with half of them being blind lmao 

and in the half that isnt blind is leorio, who STILL doesnt know nen, and literally brings a knife to a nen fight 

i totally saw the whole ‘retz is a doll and her older brother is omokage, and retz actually died a while ago’ thing coming lol but still, not bad

all omokage does is talk abt the beauty of his dolls or w/e like ENOUGH bro 

kurapika fighting pairo and killua fighting illumi (AGAIN) was all so fucked up they shouldve switched opponents for less trauma oof 

and poor leorio is literally no help vhhvdijfhjbashkj he just gets throw around this whole time

kurapikas fight against pairo was sad bc it was such a fucked up situation...kp did gr8 tho, i liked them saying that this isnt the real pairo, cause pairo would never say/do these things. still and extremely sucky situation to be in! 

meanwhile its the gon and killua vs doll-illumi rematch...and this illumi is like, a version of illumi drawn from killuas mind/heart (or something idk, it was kinda glossed over which i understand), which means that hes extra scary and focused on telling killua how much hes just a mindless killing machine who cant have friends 

but luckily we have gon here to help snap killua out of his trauma haze, which certaintly wasnt the case at the hunter exam - so it was kinda nice to see how things went w/gon around :’) they work so well together oughhhhh....and they love each other so much broo gay preteen love real 

hisoka just fuckgin materializing in the house place to help sow more chaos....unbelievable 

me: i bet hisoka wont want to fight doll chrollo bc its not The Same as real chrollo 

ruth: no i think he will bc hes a whore 

hisoka: [fights doll chrollo] 

me: oh shit u right 

kurapika: ok omogake its time for you to FUCKING DIE- 

and then killua stops them and says that he’ll do it, be he doesnt want kurapika to kill anymore :( :( :( bro im sooo fucking sad. killua rlly b out here thinking that hes already too far gone to matter when it comes to murder, but he doesnt want his friends to end up like that, so he might as well take on that burden, because whats one more person’s death on his hands? (EVEN THO HE SAID HE DIDNT WANT TO KILL ANY MORE...but theres exceptions when it comes to saving your friend’s souls and whatnot) :( :( AUGHHH

but luckily retz comes THRU with some good ole fratricide

killua: [takes notes]

the fact that the phantom troupe just fuckgin shows up and is like oh hey its you guys. this casual enemy stuff kills me lmao i love it 

then they just fuckgin LEAVE and theyre like welllll we cant rlly fight u bc of chrollo’s state so by i guess. its NOT On Sight but someday it will be! YOU TOO HISOKA DONT THINK WE FUCKIGN FORGOT ABOUT YOU. 

dramatic house burning! and rip retz, saw that one comin tho 

when they all went thru and said their life goals and then killua was like shit i dont have a cool definitive anime goal LMAOOOO

but THEN gon said his goals should be to stay by gon’s side UHMMM???? baby gays AUGHHHHH and killua is just like lovestruck AUGHHHH 

Gays Win 

then they all peace out to resume the next arc lmaoooo

and then we see flashes of other characters, like the blonde girl (who ruth and i totally thought retz was, seeing thumbnails from this movie....we were like w8 hasnt that girl not been introduced yet??? lmao)

we also see some dude w/long hair and a hat who ive never seen before but ruth went OHHH ITS SCYTHE GUY!!! so i guess hes gonna b important?? lol 

and then we saw chrollo....still in the same place the squad left him vbhajfdjkahsbfkdjabhsukfdj CAN HE NOT GET DOWN FROM THERE W/OUT NEN OR AN AIRSHIP??? THATS SO FUCKING FUNNYYYYYY ARE YOU KIDDING ME 

general thots:

so this was very much an Anime Movie, in that they cant like, advance to plot or develop the characters much, bc its a movie. and this one is non canon

it was enjoyable but i do feel like it was much more typical shounen then hxh usually is...like, i feel like this was made by the same people who make like, the naruto movies or w/e, and w/the same sort of approach/attitude 

this isnt necessarily bad - i LIKE shounen for a reason - but it was a bit noticeable bc it wasnt quite as smart as hxh is usually, and it rehashed a lot of stuff weve already seen in this show itself 

but still i think it did a good job w/what it had, and it had some good angst, and everyone was very gay which is good

the art style was SLIGHTLY wack but it wasnt as bad as i thought itd be 

overall a fun time like most anime movies. didnt reinvent the wheel but i had a good time. im excited for the greed island arc, and im also disproportionately excited to watch the hxh musical bc that is a thing that exists and i MUST see it asap bc that sounds like the kind of hilarious wackiness that appeals to me specifically

so thats it...later! 

[karigarihakase]

Let Me Protect Your Smile- A KariSasa Manifesto

A small disclaimer: This essay is entirely an expression of my personal opinion and interpretation, and is not meant to be a be-all-end-all fact sheet and start drama. Also, it is entirely about two fictitious anime characters, and in no way, shape or form is this in reference to the former TBS announcer Yuri Sasagawa, whom the character was named for (nor the title character from the 1920′s horror silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, whom the other character was named for- with a modified spelling because his namesake was German but he’s part Japanese). Yes, this is sounding like the ultimate crack relationship already, but fortunately none of that is relevant. Just a sort of hilarious side thing to acknowledge.

  Drive Head is an anime I’ve been invested in for quite a while now. It’s an obscure kids anime which premiered April, 2017 and ran for only 37 episodes (though it was followed up with 8 short ONA episodes and an hour-long movie.) While popular in Japan, it never caught on in the west due to numerous factors, the biggest being that it had no legal stream or even fansubs for most of its run. That and the fact that the show suffers from some really poor pacing, with a heavy amount of filler rescue-of-the-week episodes and even two recap episodes before getting into the meat of the plot, which is actually quite intriguing. It’s just unfortunate that they took as long as they did to get there. Actually, a lot of the filler episodes are pretty enjoyable. The show has a very likeable cast of characters. Depending on one’s tolerance for slice-of-life and shows that are more character-driven than plot-driven, the pacing may not even be an issue. It still was for me when watching one episode a week, but felt much more palatable when binge-watching. Well, YMMV.

               The show is centered on an organization called the Mobile Rescue Police, which controls three (eventually four) robotic frames called the Drive Heads. They can switch between vehicle form and robot form, ala Transformers (Takara Tomy is behind the show, after all), though the robots aren’t sentient in this case. Each is driven by an elementary school student who was chosen due to their pure heart. The Drive Heads are launched during various disasters, in order to rescue people. And, Bayfront City seems to be hit with some pretty nasty disasters, though as it turns out, a lot of them weren’t just freak occurrences.

               That being said, this essay isn’t about the members of the Mobile Rescue Police. It’s about their biggest enemy and their biggest fan.

The Number One Genius Scientist in the World Dr. Karigari

Karigari (real name- Fritz von Gustav Karigari- who is prone to referring to himself in lengthy titles to brag about his great intelligence) is a character who is quite popular with the fanbase for good reason. Initially appearing in the 11th episode, he finally serves as a real villain, and is a very competent and dangerous one on top of that. Despite all the boasting he does, when it comes down to it, he really is as intelligent as he believes he is. And he hates the Mobile Rescue Police (particularly holding a grudge against the Chief Engineer Jou Kurumada), because in the past, he used to be involved with them. He was also developing a robot for disaster relief. But Karigari’s system, which was powerful and cutting-edge, was also deemed too dangerous. Therefore, the Drive Heads were chosen instead. Taking this as a blow to his pride, Karigari severed ties with them, and swore to make them pay.

Despite being a villain, despite being petty, despite being a complete egomaniac, there’s a lot more to Karigari. Right from his introductory episode, there are hints that despite his hatred for Kurumada, he holds this grudging respect for him. (Telling his subordinates “Don't underestimate Saionji and Kurumada.) Karigari’s various attacks on the Mobile Rescue Police (which he actually refers to as  “games”) often feel like tests, so he can see their newest equipment and force them to keep improving. Karigari also makes it clear he isn’t actually interested in hurting or killing anyone either. Yes, he traps Chief Gozu up on the Akashic Tower, which he claims is covered with explosives. But the explosives were all fake. It was just a bluff to incite the Mobile Rescue Police into action and ultimately make them aware of their shortcomings. That’s basically how he operates. He’ll do what it takes to win, but he’s noble in his own sense. The contrast becomes more obvious when the true enemy of the series emerges.

Yuri Sasagawa, on the scene

Whenever an incident strikes, Akasaka TV will be there to cover it. Announcer Sasagawa appears in each episode, together with an unnamed cameraman, to bring all the details to the people of Bayfront City. Sasagawa is almost always cheerful and excited. While she tries her best to keep up a professional appearance, it’s clear as day that she’s passionate about Drive Head (particularly the blue frames, Sonic and Cyclone Interceptor) and just wants to gush about them. It’s to the point that most fans interpret her as lusting over the robots themselves. Well, with some of her comments, it’s not hard to see things that way. (The relationship chart on the official website, which shows her with a heart pointing to Interceptor, does not help matters either). The point is that she adores Drive Head more than anyone, even though she’s rather disappointed that she doesn’t know who the drivers are.

While Sasagawa could easily have been used as a one-note gimmick (lots of shows do have a token ‘announcer’ character who appears every episode for the purpose of announcing, and nothing more), she’s actually incorporated into the plot quite nicely. She’s given a few episodes in the spotlight. For instance, one where she becomes the one in need of rescue by the Drive Heads, while test-riding a new Ferris Wheel that gets knocked off its rails. One where she’s on vacation from work. While she isn’t a hero per-se, and tends to get into trouble, she’s brave and reckless and helps whenever she can. She evolved into a character in her own right, and a very fun one at that.

Karigari and Sasagawa

I probably could say this about a lot of my ships, but initially, I wouldn’t have imagined these two interacting, much less getting ship tease with each other. When it actually happened, it was like being slammed with a hammer, realizing how amazingly compatible they actually are. Well, I’ll get to that later. First, the canon evidence, and my analysis of these moments.

In episode 11, the very first scene which Karigari appears in is pretty interesting. Because while I have my doubts it was meant as an intentional KariSasa scene, it does involve Sasagawa. The problem is that it’s unclear if Karigari knew at this point who Sasagawa was in the first place, given that for some unidentified period of time, he wasn’t even living in Japan (allegedly.) But anyway, the scene involves Karigari appearing near the Akashic Tower. Which becomes a centerpiece of his plan later in that episode. So obviously, the basic interpretation is that he was going there to scope it out. But it’s worth noting that Sasagawa was there being filmed. If anything, I feel like it could have been intentional foreshadowing. The episode was written by the main writer, Kenichi Araki, who has worked on all the episodes containing explicitly KariSasa moments.

The first real hint is in episode 18. Yusuke and Akira, Karigari’s two subordinates, become concerned that the Mobile Rescue Police will find their location. When they try to confront Karigari about it, he’s paying no attention to them, as he’s been watching the news coverage of the strange weather affecting Bayfront City. Which was his doing, so there was really no need for him to watch it. Except, he pauses on an image of Sasagawa, commenting that she’s beautiful. So his objective was just to watch the girl he has a crush on. I mean, obviously alarm bells should be ringing off at this. He’s a bad guy, crushing on this sweet girl who may not be one of the heroes, but is certainly their biggest supporter. There’s no way that could possibly end well. Except, the writers take it in a much less cliché and more appealing direction.

Episode 19 follows up with this new plot thread right away. Karigari is again watching Sasagawa on TV, but this time she’s reading fortunes. Such as, “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're a Sagittarius. It's looking especially good for your love life. Now's your chance to finally confess to that person on your mind!” Hearing this, Karigari is very excited. Even though, as his subordinates point out, his sign is Ophiuchus. But because the TV stations don’t give fortunes for the less-acknowledged 13th zodiac sign, Karigari chooses to go with whichever fortune is the luckiest. For the day, he’ll become a Sagittarius.

Karigari won’t put this very lucky fortune to waste, so he heads to the Akasaka TV building. There, he’ll unleash his newest revenge plan, and confess to Sasagawa while he’s at it. Or at least, that’s what he hopes to accomplish. His plan begins with using the parabolic antenna on the building to cause blackouts in certain areas of the city. Sasagawa is busy reporting on an unmanned replenishment craft, which is returning from a space station to earth, when she’s informed about this more pressing news story.

Of course, Sasagawa and her cameraman rush to deal with this crisis. Sasagawa is told by one of her higher-ups, “This is the situation. Karigari has chosen you to have exclusive coverage of the story.” The man warns, “He's a very dangerous character.” Despite this, Sasagawa doesn’t look worried at all. She replies, “Let me handle it. I have no reason to refuse exclusive coverage on the man who opposes the Mobile Rescue Police!” So she heads into the trailer that Karigari had managed to drag into the building. Of course, she’s interested in taking this one because of her personal investment in the Mobile Rescue Police. I like how, despite warnings, she doesn’t seem to be afraid at all. Not that it’s out of character for her either, but considering the apparent threats Karigari has made in the past, and is making currently, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to refuse entering a small enclosed  place with him and leaving it for the authorities to deal with. But she decides then to confront him anyway.

So, once inside, Karigari greets her while posing dramatically (he has a flair for theatrics, after all.) “Welcome Miss”.

Except, he freezes up immediately after. Actually being face-to-face with the object of his affection, he’s so nervous he’s not sure what to do. Which is actually pretty amazing, given how confident he always is. Sasagawa’s first impression of him is bafflement. At first, she can’t really believe that this person is the infamous Dr. Karigari. But, Karigari confirms that he is, indeed, Karigari. And he starts explaining to Sasagawa all the details of his current plan, while the cameraman is filming, so it’s broadcasted live on TV. Remaining as calm as she can, Sasagawa listens to all of this and tries to understand it.

Soon, the Mobile Rescue Police contact Karigari, and he threatens that if Kurumada and Saionji don’t come to the TV station and surrender, he’ll cast a blackout on the entire city. After this, Yusuke cuts off the transmission. Karigari is glad, because now he and Sasagawa can get back to where they left off. Sasagawa, however, has no desire to continue the interview. She’s done sitting quietly and listening. Instead, she rips Karigari apart.

“Please stop! If you take down the entire capital's electricity, it won't just paralyze the city's functions. There will be countless casualties! Hospital patients depend on the power! Stop involving people who have done no wrong in satisfying your selfish vendetta!”

Karigari doesn’t seem to be angry over her criticism, though. He replies, “But I have to win this game. I absolutely refuse to lose!” Sasagawa is further upset, but Karigari continues, “I'm not seriously going to leave casualties. You needn't worry. I never planned for a capital-wide blackout to begin with.” All it is was a bluff, he makes clear to her. “I just want to beat Saionji and Kurumada. Once they admit defeat, I'll be satisfied. And after that...”

“After that?” Sasagawa replies, confused.

“The police will arrest me. I'll go to hell. Well, whatever the consequences may be.”

Hearing this, Sasagawa is completely dumbfounded. It was quite the opposite of what she was expecting. Not only was she wrong about Karigari’s intentions being something horrible, Karigari also admitted to her that yes, he acknowledges that he’s not a good person and realizes the hole he’s been digging for himself all along. He’s just that desperate to win and repair his wounded ego. So just like her first impression when she stepped into the trailer, Sasagawa again has to change her perspective on this dreaded enemy of her Drive Heads.

Already becoming more curious about Karigari’s true intentions, she asks him, “Why did you choose me?” Karigari replies, “Because of what you said this morning. It's my chance to confess.” But Sasagawa never gets to find out exactly what he meant by that. Nor should she really have reason to believe that he would confess to her, as he’d only just met her. 

At this point, a mysterious eye symbol appears on Karigari’s computer, and the antenna starts to move on its own as a result. That space craft from earlier was its target. The ship loses power, and starts to plunge down towards the city. Naturally, neither Karigari nor Sasagawa have any idea how this happened, and are both panicking. And this brings us to the third unexpected side of Karigari Sasagawa got to see. His vulnerability, and legitimate worry for the lives of the people in the city.

Fortunately, the Drive Heads are able to prevent a disaster from happening. But as a result of what occurred, Karigari tells Sasagawa, “Your fortune was wrong, Miss. Or rather, it might be that Sagittarius isn't my sign.” Thus, he never does confess, and he has Sasagawa and the cameraman leave the trailer. Because the police are surrounding the trailer outside, ready to capture Karigari, he and his subordinates escape through the roof in his flying car. Sasagawa watches from outside, looking worried for him.

Okay, so I wrote an essay on this episode. But it was what made me ship them. It was the important foundation for everything that comes after. It brought Sasagawa from the point of, ‘I hate this bad person who dares oppose my Drive Heads and hurt people’ to ‘he’s this weird, awkward guy so obsessed with winning that he’ll go to hell for it, and he actually doesn’t want to hurt people? And something about a confession…?’ It’s an impressive turnaround, solidified with that longing look towards Karigari at the end. At the very least, she pities him after this, but she also seems legitimately curious about him, given that she asked him why he chose her, something that wasn’t relevant to the rest.

I should mention, from Karigari’s side, the relationship seems a lot more shallow. Sasagawa is interested in him because of her interactions with him, but Karigari is interested in her because she’s beautiful? Well, you can see as things go on that it’s more than that. From things that Karigari has said and done, I feel that he’s more attracted to her vibrancy. The way she’s always smiling and upbeat. With his bitterness over the past and negativity, of course he’s drawn to her positivity. She’s the light he needs in his life, a new focal point besides revenge.

But, moving on to episode 24, which is my personal favorite. Karigari and his subordinates stay at a hotel in the mountains, and he uses this opportunity to research the eye symbol which has been responsible for a large number of disasters. Karigari promptly stops his research when he realizes it’s time for Sasagawa’s morning fortune corner, and switches over to a live stream. The problem being, Sasagawa isn’t on. She’s off on a summer vacation, and a different announcer is filling in for her. Karigari is in shock. He turns it off, depressed. “My luck is terrible today. Because every morning, I look forward to seeing her smile.” Karigari plans to head back to his room, but his subordinates notice something.

“Over there... isn't that the fortune person?”

Lo and behold, Sasagawa was vacationing in the same hotel. Karigari is overjoyed, in a dramatic enough fashion that he manages to generate shoujo sparkles around him. Thing is, Karigari is also a nervous wreck. This man with an ego from hell is still too shy to actually go up and talk to her. Which leaves him to hide his face under a newspaper and watch her from a distance, looking like a complete stalker. And cringe whenever someone else approaches her, which happens quite a lot when she’s a popular celebrity.

“If you're that concerned, why not just call out to her?” “Want me to call her?” His subordinates, foolish as they are, get that he’s totally crazy about her and want to help. “Stop that! Don't do anything that's unnecessary!” is Karigari’s reply. “But this is a rare coincidence,” they argue. “She's spending her summer vacation in the same hotel we're in.” Karigari still isn’t convinced, and says, “As if she'd believe it's a coincidence. She might mistake me for a pervert who's following her around.” Which is ironic, because in trying to avoid that, he was basically stalking her.

Anyway, Karigari finally decides he has to do something when she gets up to leave. Otherwise, he’ll never get the chance. But then, per the disaster-of-the-week nature of the show, a meteor suddenly crashes right near the hotel. Despite being off from work, Sasagawa decides to go out and investigate anyway. Karigari, needless to say, is disappointed by this turn of events.

So Sasagawa is off in the mountains alone, calls up the TV station, and starts covering the story. Watching her from the hotel’s TV, Karigari is panicking over how reckless she’s being. And he was right to panic, because Sasagawa gets too close to the edge of a cliff and falls off to her imminent doom. Or not, because Karigari went out after her, and catches her with his flying car. When Sasagawa opens her eyes, she’s certainly surprised to see him there (though Karigari is kinda hiding himself in the back seat, so nervous he can’t even watch. His subordinates were the ones driving. Still, it’s Karigari she notices right away.)

After landing the car on the ground, the two are left to talk for a little. Sasagawa asks, “Why did you come to save me?” Still a blushing adorable wreck, though he’s trying to stay composed, Karigari answers, “Really? My reason is simple. I enjoy watching your fortune corner every morning.” Because apparently, he still can’t pull off answering honestly and saying that he loves her. “That will be all, Miss,” he says, as he heads back to his car. Though she’s puzzled by his answer, Sasagawa hopes he’ll stay around. “Please wait, Dr. Karigari!” He holds out his finger and corrects her, “That's the Genius Scientist of Dreams and Romance, Dr. Karigari.” Sasagawa watches him go, looking confused.

It’s really pretty adorable I think, the awkwardness between them. With Karigari’s inability to confess, and Sasagawa just having no clue what’s going on, but still remaining oddly fascinated by him. The dynamic between them is something really sweet already.

Episode 31 involves Karigari working intensely to complete a virus, having finally learned the identity of the eye symbol (the AI of a long-forgotten super computer he dubbed “the Evil AI”) and hoping to destroy it. In the process of doing this, he looks to be quite paranoid, checking around to make sure it’s not already on to him. Unfortunately, it was, and the Evil AI is very, very smart. Karigari’s system was infected by it. It brings on screen an image of Sasagawa and starts to taunt him with her voice. “Today, you'll be the most lucky if you're an Ophiuchus! I predict something fantastic will happen today. Both you and the results of your research will be erased from this world before long, Dr. Karigari.” Then it proceeds to delete his virus, blow up his hideout, and attempt to kill him using his own Walker Vehicle. Karigari is rescued by Kuroeda, one of the Drive Head’s drivers, but is badly injured and taken in by the Mobile Rescue Police to receive medical attention.

Enter Sasagawa, who is blissfully unaware of all of this, but has been busy covering stories on this popular new Ark symbol, which happens to look identical to the mark of the Evil AI. After that, she reports on a new city complex being constructed, with the ominous name of “the Tower of Babel”, when she’s nearly hit by a car. It turns out to be Karigari’s car, driven by his subordinates, Akira and Yusuke. Though the camera crew working with Sasagawa is quite concerned by this, Sasagawa looks absolutely delighted to see them. She exclaims, “They’re the criminals who saved me!” and runs up to them, asking about Karigari right away. There’s really no other way to interpret this besides, ‘Sasagawa has become really fond of Karigari.’ And it’s really, really cute.

Of course, Akira and Yusuke decide it’s best not to tell her what happened with Karigari. After all, Karigari wouldn’t want her to worry. Instead, they hand her an envelope, containing a flash drive of some sort, telling her that it’s vital for saving the world. They say that Karigari wanted her to have it. The reason being, “It's because you're the person he trusts the most.” The two fly off and leave her with it. And as it turns out, when she brings it to Kurumada since the contents are impossible to access without some advanced technology, the chip contains a virus of some sort. (Ultimately, it’s a copy of the virus Karigari was creating to take down the Evil AI, though Sasagawa herself doesn’t get to learn of its true purpose.) Nonetheless, she entrusts it to Kurumada. Sasagawa doesn’t seem to have any doubt in Karigari’s intentions either, despite the fact that he created a virus and handed it over to his enemies. So she trusts him, he trusts her, and the virus helps save the world from a major crisis thanks to that. Neither of them know the other particularly well (it’s possible they’ve met offscreen sometime, but who knows?) so it’s rather telling, I think, that they can place trust in each other for something so vital.

Sticking with the trust thing, episode 36. Sasagawa has been looking into the strange phenomenon where people are turning into metal. She’s also noticed that the Ark symbol has something to do with the disasters that have been happening lately. Her co-worker and friend Unai notices the images she’s looking at, and comments, “Don't you think there's a chance it could be the work of Dr. Karigari?” Without hesitation, Sasagawa replies, “No. I don’t think so.” However, that gives her an idea. She’s sure that Karigari knows something, given his virus. Therefore, she decides to visit Karigari to find out what. I love how she’s quick to defend him, and sees him as someone whom she can approach to find out more.

The next day, Karigari is watching Akasaka TV while binging on ice cream, and is quite disappointed. “I was hoping to see Miss on the news,” he says, but Unai is on instead. Yusuke and Akira, meanwhile, are pissed that Karigari ate their supply of ice cream, and insist that he buy them some more. Karigari says that he can’t. He doesn’t want their last remaining hideout (which is located underground beneath his former destroyed hideout) to be found, and they have to prioritize work on the Drive Head he’s remodeling. Well, Karigari quickly learns why Sasagawa wasn’t on the news. His security cameras show that she’s right on top of his hideout. Which she somehow ended up at, despite having no clue how close she was to the real deal. “I guess he wouldn't be here,” she thinks to herself, just seeing nothing but rubble. “But somehow, it was my first instinct.” Naturally, Karigari is freaking out over this. But he decides to be practical. Like he said, he can’t leave the hideout for any reason. He’s made up his mind. For a moment, anyway. “You came here to see me after all. Miss… Of course I have to go!” Suddenly becoming sparkly-eyed, Karigari plans to rush out and meet her. But Akira and Yusuke forcibly stop him. He’d convinced them it was a bad idea to expose the hideout, after all. Sasagawa has to leave anyway, as she’s called back to work. But she looks back one last time, suspiciously. 

And Karigari, meanwhile, is left crying. Yes, he’s actually crying, and it’s as pathetic as it sounds, but sort of endearing at the same time.

Now, this scene is obviously just for comic relief, but on the other hand, the ship tease is just blatant. Between Sasagawa’s amazing sixth sense putting her in just the right spot (though she’ll never know for sure) and Karigari’s over-the-top reactions, seriously. While it probably was for the best that they didn’t  meet (that Drive Head Karigari was working on becomes quite important in the next episode, so he needed to finish it), I can’t help but wish they did. They both just end up disappointed that they couldn’t see each other.

(Look, this is basically princess carry)

37 is the last episode in the TV series, and arguably the biggest KariSasa episode. When the episode begins, the Drive Heads are rushing to get to Ark’s location, but are attacked by an army of fake Drive Heads that the Evil AI produced. Sasagawa is covering the battle from up in the news helicopter, which gets hit in the crossfire and starts to crash down. But Sasagawa is rescued by a colorful Drive Head. “Don’t make me so nervous, Miss.” Karigari was of course the driver, and he puts the helicopter down onto a roof. “You’re…” Sasagawa realizes right away that he was inside, and smiles. Whether she heard the following conversation between Karigari and his subordinates, implying that they were all ready to die in this battle, or she simply just had a bad feeling about this, Sasagawa looks terribly worried when she gets out of the helicopter, and calls out Karigari’s name. But since she’s stranded up on the rooftop, all she can do is watch him fight.

When it seems like the situation has finally been resolved, things take a turn for the worse again, and the entire world is in danger of imminent destruction thanks to the Evil AI. However, Karigari has a plan to stop it. That is, to fly into the Tower of Babel and contain the Evil AI somehow. He turns his cameras to where Sasagawa is standing and says, “Farewell, Miss,” before taking off.

Sasagawa can immediately tell that he’s going to do something dangerous, and tries to run closer. She watches as a huge explosion erupts in the Tower, crying out, “Dr. Karigari!”

After the incident, Sasagawa is clearly not in a good state. She’s seen wearing her casual clothes, meaning she took some time off from work, the same job she loves enough to do while she’s on vacation, and she comes to the remains of the Tower of Babel, where she leaves flowers. Given that her glasses are fogged over, she must have been crying.

Some time later, Sasagawa returns to work, getting back to normal life. Right before she goes on air, she receives a strange email. It isn’t signed, but it reads, “Miss, what’s today’s fortune?” Immediately, Sasagawa’s eyes light up, knowing that Karigari sent it, and he’s alive somewhere. As this and other epilogue scenes play, the ED theme is running in the background. The song’s lyrics could not be more appropriate. “No matter when, I’m going to protect your smile.” This is just the essence of KariSasa. Karigari did what he had to do to save the world. He and his subordinates survived, but not without severe, crippling injury. But he knew Sasagawa was worried, and wanted to make sure she knew that he was alive. He wasn’t able to see her yet, but as long as she could be happy again, that’s what was important to him. And that’s what motivates him too. Her vibrancy and happiness. And thanks to that, a villain comes to save the world.

Karigari himself does not appear in the 2018 web series, though to be fair, the series itself had very little substance to it, being half recap episodes, and it was mostly to introduce a couple new Drive Head frames and support vehicles which would appear in the movie.

In the movie itself, well, Karigari and Sasagawa do not interact on screen (the pains of getting a 57-minute movie) but I’m bringing it up because it’s not without some meaningful shiptease. Basically, the Evil AI comes back, the Drive Gears get corrupted, and because of that, the four drivers are unable to launch in their Drive Heads until they’re fixed. Instead, they’re controlled by substitute drivers from the Mobile Assault Police. Although Sasagawa knows nothing of this, she comments to Unai that Cyclone Interceptor has somehow lost its appeal to her. Still, she continues reporting on the Drive Head’s actions per her job, and is absolutely devastated seeing the Drive Heads get trashed in a fight. Karigari is watching this on the news and comments, “Such depressing news doesn't suit you, Miss. Well then… I guess it's time I make a move.” So in order to make Sasagawa happy, Karigari goes and hijacks Cyclone Interceptor’s frame and remodels it a bit. He gives it a new form called the “Force Field Mode”, and returns it to its proper driver. When Sasagawa watches it activate this mode for the first time and save the world, she’s in awe. She’s clearly fallen in love with Cyclone Interceptor all over again. It’s painful in a sense that she has no idea that it was Karigari’s doing. But at the same time, the irony is just plain beautiful. Karigari gets no credit, despite being an egomaniac who loves recognition, but he’ll always protect her smile. And Karigari, being a massive tsundere, calls up Kurumada after this to insist that he not get the wrong idea because everything he did was all for his revenge… well, a “revenge” that he hasn’t seemed to bother with for months, since he fell in love with Sasagawa. And his actual motive, which was wanting to help save the world, in order to make her happy, is known to the viewers.

Why KariSasa

Even considering all the ship tease, the pairing is not canon. We don’t even know if the two have ever interacted post TV series, though it’s certainly not out of the question, given that an unspecified amount of months past and Sasagawa herself didn’t have much of a role during the web-series either. But regardless, I love this pairing and still root for it.

The two are just so much alike, for one. On the surface, they really don’t seem to be. One loves the Drive Heads obsessively while the other swore revenge on them, obsessively. Notice the ‘obsessively’ part, and there’s your first parallel. They’re both linked by a strong obsession with the same thing. Also, the both of them are absolute nerds. Karigari being a scientist, and a dork who will create deadly weapons based on history, like his “Archimedes Beam”. And Sasagawa does try her best to act professional when on air, but it’s obvious that she loves cool robots, heroes and justice and just wants to squee over them. I feel like, since Karigari is a scientist of course who loves to go on about his achievements and Sasagawa is into that stuff, they would be such great outlets for each other. And Karigari does even get his own Drive Head in the end, which Sasagawa would probably love getting to ride inside. (She often talks about wanting to ride in a Drive Head or Viper with a boyfriend on the Drive Head Line bits, which aren’t canon but they still exist.)  They seem to think alike as well. I mean, they both vacationed at the same hotel at the same time. And there’s the fact that Sasagawa was able to guess the location of Karigari’s hideout that one time.

As well as being outlets for each other, I think they both help each other a lot. Well, I explained a bit before how Sasagawa’s vibrancy helps Karigari. He also wants to impress her, and he starts to do more heroic things. Karigari had a background in disaster control, but turned down a dark path. She helps bring him back to the side of the light, and make him a better person. Of course, Karigari helps Sasagawa in a straightforward sense by saving her life twice. And surely, he would always come to protect her if she were in danger. But aside from that, I feel like he broadens her narrow-mindedness. Sasagawa went from seeing him as obviously a villain to someone she started to care about, as she learned more about him. She sees things in black-and-white, but the world isn’t a black-and-white place. As well, she can come off as rather shallow, gushing about how the Drive Heads must be driven by handsome young men (which is false), being disturbed by the thought of the driver being someone who looks like Izawa (an older fat man) and pining over guys she thinks are traditionally attractive. Karigari is older than her (going by appearance, though neither has a canon age) and would be really hard to call “attractive”. Yet, later on she’ll squee over the thought of seeing him, and he’s someone who has such an effect on her that she’ll take off from the job she clearly loves because she’s so distraught over his apparent death. This is what I mean about the both of them having a truly strong impact on each other, despite only meeting a few times.

I also think that they both have this sense of admiration for each other. As I mentioned before, Sasagawa loves cool heroes. While to an extent, she wants to be like the protagonist of a romance novel, being the heroine who is protected by the hero, and loves that kind of moment, I also think there’s indication that she too wants to be the hero sometimes, and do something important. Like her going to confront Karigari without fear, and when she wanted to investigate the truth behind Ark personally. She loves the heroic side of Karigari the most (as long as he’s not putting his life in danger). As for Karigari, he probably sees in her more of the person he was in the past. Someone who believes in justice and protecting the people in the world. I think that he would want her to not become jaded like him.

In Japan, TV announcers have this sort of idol status. It’s actually a plotline I’ve seen in Japanese media, both before and after Drive Head, to have a character crushing on a TV announcer. Even the older Tomica Tokusatsu series, Tomica Hero Rescue Force had an episode like this (albeit with a weather-caster, but not a big difference). It’s usually played as a joke, a delusion on the fan’s part. Having a celebrity crush on someone you’ll never meet and is never going to reciprocate even if you do meet. But yet, Drive Head decided to play it a little differently. They did meet, and Sasagawa actually reciprocated. I love that they took a cliche and played with it differently this time around. And I mean, KariSasa is also basically “the villain gets the girl” which obviously isn’t used much, but in this case the “hero” was a 10-year-old who was never interested anyway. KariSasa is fun because it subverts expectations.

In a more silly but totally valid point, what I mentioned way above about Sasagawa being robo-sexual. After the series, due to his injuries, Karigari makes himself into a cyborg in order to survive. That’s the closest to a robot a human can be. If Sasagawa is robo-sexual, then he’s absolutely her “type” in a post-canon setting.

Even if they don’t end up together romantically (if the series ever continues, that is), I still just love the odd friendship between them, and the great effect they have on each other. So, that’s why I ship KariSasa. And of course, I would love a romantic resolution.

Fandom

What fandom? Really, Drive Head has a non-existent fandom in the English speaking world. About the only discussion you can find about it from when it was airing was on old 4chan threads. Therefore, there aren’t any fics either, except for the ones I’ve written. 

I have a ton of KariSasa fics, many of which will never see the light of the internet for various reasons, but several of which had. Most of what I write is light-hearted, silly fluff, because that’s my cup-of-tea and works so well with these two, but I’ve written a few which were more serious.

You can see the fandom tag here: https://archiveofourown.org/tags/%E3%83%88%E3%83%9F%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%20%E3%83%89%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%96%E3%83%98%E3%83%83%E3%83%89%20%E6%A9%9F%E5%8B%95%E6%95%91%E6%80%A5%E8%AD%A6%E5%AF%9F%20%7C%20Tomica%20Hyper%20Rescue%20Drive%20Head%20Kidou%20Kyuukyuu%20Keisatsu%20(Anime)/works

There are, of course, Japanese fics on Pixiv, as the canon was more well-received there, but not one is KariSasa. Given that the most popular ship seems to be Kuroeda/Saionji, who are considered the two most handsome characters, even though they barely interact, I can imagine why a het ship with a male who isn’t traditionally attractive doesn’t get much fanwork. Especially factoring in that KariSasa seems to be generally well-liked and accepted by most fans and even some of the cast, going by how much I’ve dug through Japanese twitter posts. Which is sad, but inevitable. 

---------

Have a bonus shot of the lovely couple bonding over a stockpile of Coke.

[super-zero-time-blog]

Super Light Warrior Changéríon: Episodes 1-3 Review

The year is 1996. Toei Co. Ltd., the penny pinching and merchandise driven imaginative studio that graced the world with anime adaptations of Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball and tokusatsu hero franchises like Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, have found themselves paired up with massive entertainment force Sega (yes, the Sonic the Hedgehog guys) to release a brand new superhero show on the world.  The first idea, a planned follow up to the 1995 Keita Amemiya film Mechanical Violator Hakaider (itself a reimagining of the villain from the 70′s Shotaro Ishinomori classic Android Kikaider) falls through.  A new idea suddenly comes about from Toei producet Yoshikawa Susumu and suit manufacturer Rainbow Co. Ltd: Create a hero suit made primarily out of transparent parts. With that in mind, a cast and crew are soon brought on to create one of the weirdest tokusatsu series of the 1990′s.

So here we are and here I am and it’s Changéríon (yes the accents are how it’s officially written, it’s meant to be French, I don’t know why) time. Sorry for that long build up! Just figured it’d be what all the cool kids do. Super Light Warrior Changéríon is a doozy of a series, one that has held a cult following in Japan for 20 years after its abrupt end in December of 1996. The show featured a staff of producers (such as Shinichiro Shirakura), directors (such as Takao Nagaishi)  and writers (namely head writer Toshiki Inoue) who would go on 4 years later to help revive Kamen Rider for the Heisei era, and in general went on to be remembered for its quirky and surreal nature. Even the show’s star, Takashi Hagino, would go on to be in Kamen Rider (in a very different role as infamous serial killer Takeshi Asakura, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Ouja, in 2002′s Kamen Rider Ryuki) I decided to plunge into this series finally now that English fansubs were out, and I’ve been contemplating how to go about this. For the first installment I figure I’m just going to write up my thoughts briefly on the first three episodes of this 39 episodes series, and I may then expand upon that later and switch the format around a bit at any given time, so here goes!! 

A few things to note ahead of time

1. The head writer of this series (and, to my knowledge, the writer of the first four episodes here) is Toshiki Inoue. Inoue is a man known for his love of drama, strange humor, and plots heavily focused on miscommunication. His best known shows include Chojin Sentai Jetman (1991), Kamen Rider Agito (2001), Kamen Rider 555 (2003) some mess called Kamen Rider Kiva (2008) and oh yeah he’s written for anime, included the Death Note anime in 2005. You have likely seen something he has written if you’ve touched an anime. Or maybe not, I don’t know.

2. The suits in this. They are absolutely gorgeous, but they were infamously dangerous. 

The Changéríon suit alone had two versions, a 100 kg (~ 200 lb) version for close up shots and a 40kg (~ 80 lb) suit for action scenes. Both were terrifying to those in it. Veteran suit actor Jiro Okamoto commented on the suit being absurdly heavy and fearing he would break it, not to mention that it was so heavy that it hurt his neck. This thing supposedly nearly sent suit actors to the hospital! And yet the action is generally decent despite the struggle in these beasts of a set of suits.

3. The opening, “OVER THE TIMES ~ Beyond The Present~” by MISA. It’s just awesome. It’s really awesome. I mean listen to it. It’s super awesome. 

Aww yeah....

SO! Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of the way, on to the reviews! The format is simple. A summary of the plot first, then my thoughts on it. I’ll see how this works and just go from there.

EPISODE 1: “A Hero!! Me?”

Air Date: April 3, 1996

Bumbling detective Akira Suzumura is hired to investigate a series of missing student reports from a local elementary school. After a night of staking the grounds out, he soon finds himself on a new path after a freak accident and an attack by a monster from the inter-dimensional invaders known as the Darkzeid lead him to unwittingly become the warrior of light: Changéríon! But as he struggles to master his new powers and deal with the mysterious SAIDOC organization, the full threat of Darkzeid begins to awaken.

Changéríon starts out about as weird as you can expect a show like this to with a massive hoop spiralling down a flight of stairs to a narrow Tokyo tunnel and having a creepy 90′s CG entity force its soulless face out towards the camera. It only escalates by going to a dramatic sequence of Akira and his assistant Akemi seemingly armed and ready for a shootout....only for the sequence to be a harmless rescue of a local puppy. This is Inoue at his peak weirdness, something which can really be hit or miss, but it’s strangely all a bunch of baffling moments which click oddly well. Akira isn’t much of a hero in many ways: He’s clumsy, he’s a bit lecherous, selfish and lazy. He doesn’t have much cash and doesn’t even pay part-timers like Akemi well. And yet despite all of this he has his heart in the right place and it’s fun to watch him fumble around in the suit at the episode’s end. It even made me chuckle seeing him “free up” time on a completely empty schedule to help the school find their students. While some scenes do feel disjointed and a bit uncomfortable (including a very uncomfortable joke about pedophilia which struck me as more than a little uncalled for in a show aimed at children), everything is really bonkers and pretty exciting here! It all ends with the main villains being awakened and a budding rivalry between Akira and the former, intended Changéríon candidate, Hayami, as the good folks at SAIDOC quietly wonder “What on earth have we gotten ourselves into with this nut?” 

It’s also worth mentioning that this show is a definite turning point for Toei’s production, having been one of their first shows recorded on digital video rather than film, and it’s chock full of now dated CGI and strange, minimalist dark rooms for otherworldy realms. It’s kinda creepy and very uncanny, but I’d say it oddly works in the show’s favor at this point. It’s got an unintentional charm to it. There’s a borderline David Lynch feel to the Darkzeid realm bits, in all honesty. Considering how big of a hit Twin Peaks was during the mid 90′s in Japan, it wouldn’t surprise me if the set designers took at least a smidge of inspiration from the Black Lodge sequences during seasons 1 and 2 of the series. It’s not as traumatic as something you’d see Lynch do, but there’s a similarly sinister atmosphere to it all here with countless bodies wrapped in plastic...like...bags, much like Laura Palmer was.

 The combat itself is a bit strangely edited too. Lots of sped up footage and Changéríon seldom kicks (more often getting kicked around instead), which I will assume is due to that hulking suit. But it also gives us one of the most ridiculou(sly satisfying) attacks ever with the Shining Attack. Which...uh...well...

....okay it’s pretty rad, I won’t lie. That’s pretty great. It is. It’ll get used to death in future episodes, but it’s still cool here.

First impression is a good one. It’s like this episode sets the tone for what is to come quite well.

Episode 2: “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Brain”

Air Date: April 10, 1996

The three generals of Darkzeid awaken and enter the human world, with plans to consume humans to satisfy their ravenous appetites. Meanwhile, SAIDOC Chief Munakata explains to Akira about the threat of Darkzeid and their need for his help, only for him to swiftly turn them down and celebrate his newfound superpowers with an unlimited shopping spree. But in the process he not only angers operatives Hayami and Eri, but finds himself in yet another Darkzeid plot as Akemi and Eri are kidnapped by an otherworld monster using posessed shoes. It’s up to Changéríon to save the missing women before they end up on Darkzeid’s lunch menu!

It’s here that we see Inoue throw in another one of his big tropes with character writing: The reluctant hero. This isn’t the first time he’d written that character archetype (another great example of this is Gai Yuki/Black Condor in Jetman) but it’s something he loves to write quite often. In this case, Akira decides to just go hog wild with loans he can’t afford, and it’s actually pretty funny. Buying out restaurants for the day, loading up on shoes for Akemi, and just being a total snot and a cocky jerk until he’s forced to realize that he put his own employee in danger and team up with Hayami....after a bizarre sequence of both of them sneaking into the same Darkzeid shoe store. In drag. And not recognizing each other. In drag. Before fighting it out in front of onlookers. In drag. This is after a scene with the store owner, the monster of the week (with a literal face full of shoes in his monster form, no less) attempts to feed his kidnapped victims with mysterious goop in high heel shoes. There’s no shortage of surreal visuals here and it does get disjointed at points, yet I feel like the story comes to a more coherent point from here. 

Despite the goofier antics, there’s still that underlying sinister aura to the Darkzeid generals. Their designs are legitimately creepy and their hushed meetings in dimly lit rooms, murmuring about their need to consume humans and how darkness will consume their own world could easily give a kid nightmares. Even I was amazed at how well the monster suits were pulled off in this show. The villains look like villains, and they’re fittingly mysterious.

In terms of action, Changéríon gets his aptly named Gun Laser, a really nifty weapon with a gimmick I love! Y’see, it runs on disks that he summons from his chest. And the discs spin. Go figure that Sega would manufacture all these toys with a disc gimmick. Not only was it the peak of the CD boom, it also made me chuckle thinking about how they had moved into CDs with the Sega Saturn at around the same time. (Plus the Gun Laser just looks really dang cool!)

 We’re getting places now that the initial stage has been set! Slowly but surely, we’re getting places! 

Episode 3: “A Bunch of Brides”

Air Date: April 17, 1996

Brides are mysterious disappearing at the altar! Darkzeid is behind this! Akira plans to counter these objections to holy matrimony with the help of Hayami and Akemi...but time and again things keep going south! Can he save the day and stop these foul occurrences? Meanwhile, in a basement lab, Chief Munakata struggles to develop the sidekicks Akira needs in his battle...

If you haven’t figured out that this series is meant to be goofy at this point, I don’t know what to tell you. This is a pretty fluffy and light episode with some good gags strewn throughout. Perhaps the funniest is Akira’s futile attempt at teaching Hayami how to flirt with women. It’s done with the most 90′s montage imaginable and it killed me with how good it was. The follow up is the sequence in the above shot, which I won’t spoil the full context for, but it also got a laugh out of me. There’s slapstick, there’s snark, there’s a simple but weird vibe to this whole episode and it’s totally fine. We’ve gotten into the groove of the show at this point it feels like, and I look forward to where it goes from here. The most interesting element plotwise is seeing Munakata’s struggle to get a set of mysterious robots up and working for Akira to use. It’s made clear that he and his research are mocked by his superiors, who don’t even think that Darkzeid is real, let alone a threat. Poor guy needs more respect! But we’ll see where things go with these machines in the next episode.

With 36 episodes left to go, Super Light Warrior Changéríon is certainly an odd, yet familiar show to me. I can see the early elements of Heisei Kamen Rider at play here with how it’s shot, the eerier villain designs, the quick cuts and kinetic feel to the action and the quirky humor and characters. It’s like seeing a mix of Metal Hero aesthetics with Super Sentai pacing making something of a hybrid that will have a lingering impact. Next time I’ll cover episodes 4-7, or perhaps change up the pace a bit. Expect some cool new robot buddies next time, but other than that I’m as in the dark as everyone else!

Hopefully my rambling didn’t scare you away by now, and we’ll be ready for more adventures to come, soon!

And remember! SOMEBODY LOVES you. And SOMEBODY NEEDS you. 

[rottenbrainstuff]

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Viz Blu Ray release: some thoughts:

Recently I impulse purchased the entire run of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (minus part 5) on blue ray. Part of my order arrived a couple days ago, so I’ve time to peek at the discs.

It was a bit complicated to place my order, due to different websites having different stuff in stock, and it seemed like no one really had a clear description of any item. Because of this, it looks like I accidentally ordered three out of the five sets as fancy limited editions. They all came in an extremely sexy box. I know for SURE that my other two sets, which are yet to arrive, were ordered as the regular unfancy version, because those items were much more clear. I don’t really care that I won’t be getting the art book or art cards with these, but if they don’t also come in the same type of nice box I’m going to be disappointed, and I might consider switching them out just so my set matches...

(of course the idea of a matching set is probably moot anyways since part 5 for some reason is too good for the black box format and looks like it’s being released with completely different packaging, thanks guys)

Anyway these discs are nice, I like the packaging. I’m annoyed that they make you switch languages at the main menu instead of being able to do that in the middle of playing something: am I the only one who likes to switch languages back and forth and compare? I was kind of hoping for some different kinds of special features: I don’t really care about interviews with voice actors and directors. I always like seeing more of the art and animation process stuff. I guess a lot of japanese animation gets farmed out these days so maybe they just don’t have a lot of that stuff to show...

These are great, they look nice watching them on my tv instead of my stupid computer screen, the sound is great, everything is nice, but...

The subtitles. The subtitles. It seems they are..... creative?...

Viz lists “completely rewritten subtitles” as one of the selling points for the blu ray release. And... they really are completely rewritten, these subs are notably different sometimes from the netflix version or the pirated version I snagged a while ago. My understanding of japanese is too limited for me to be able to tell if they’re more or less accurate than any older version, but they’re definitely different, sometimes quite different in some places. With my limited grasp of japanese, my guess is that they’ve been massaged a bit to sound more casual in English.

Some of it is small little changes... for instance, Dio saying “muda” has typically always been translated as “useless!”, but here it’s translated now as “futile!”. I don’t know enough about japanese to say which one is more accurate. Why make a little changes like that for the sake of being different?

Dio yells “rodo rolla da!” as he drops the steam roller on Jotaro and it seems to be pretty typically translated as just “road roller!” which? I like? It’s good? On the blu ray it’s “take this, steam roller” which...

?

Dunno. Don’t quite like it.

Then there’s other things like Polnareff swearing. Almost every time Polnareff swears, it gets translated into a french equivalent in the subtitles. Which is fine, it’s cute, he’s french so it fits, but the problem is, it’s not what he’s saying.... Polnareff DOES say french words sometimes in the japanese dub, which absolutely should be subbed as a french word, but for instance if he’s saying “chikushou!” (shit!) and they translate it as merde! like...

It’s an interesting interpretation for sure, but it’s not what he’s saying. It’s not BAD I guess, it’s just different that what I would prefer. I am wondering exactly how much has been massaged around with these. I will have to go through and rewatch it all again at some point I guess.

What’s the most different with the subs though are the translations of the opening songs. These translations are significantly different from anything else I’ve seen, in online translations or in any of the older files that I have. Some lines have been translated completely differently. There’s some lines in End of the World in particular that I’m puzzled about, I can’t figure out where they’ve figured out their translation from.

From my days downloading amateur fansubs, I’ve noticed that japanese songs seem to the most difficult to translate / up to interpretation. I’m guessing that’s because with how much japanese relies on context clues, it’s difficult to get that from a song, maybe, maybe, but it’s just puzzling to me that this translation would be so different from other professional translations... it’s weird. I don’t know.

It’s kinda wild, anyways!

And of course, the stand names are still localized, and the beginning of the oingo boingo episode is still cut. Not much I can do about that. EDIT: someone kindly pointed out to me, because I am a tired idiot, the “beginning” is actually at the end of the previous episode, so hooray!!! There it is!

Anyway, whatever, it’s nice to have the blu rays, it’s nice to have them in such nice boxes. Still waiting for set one and two to arrive.