#i could go back to that episode where he introduced himself but that dvd is in the other room so i'm not interested

[duhragonball]

Neon Genesis Evangelion 07

Yeah, me neither, kid. Kind of weird that we're seven episodes in and we still don't know anything. I'm a little concerned, honestly.

This is another Misato episode. Actually, this one might be even more of a Misato episode than the last one, which is fine by me. This show had some trouble getting out of the gate, but now we're cooking. Cooking toast, that is, because that's what Shinji and Misato have for breakfast every morning. Wait... I misread my notes. Shinji has toast. Misato gets toasted. On beer.

No, wait, she's having toast too! Good, that explains why she has that second beer after Shinji leaves for school. Gotta wash it down. Shinji expresses disapproval for her slovenly, beer-swilling lifestyle, which is a big change from when he just passively agreed with everything she said. Misato is pleased that he's gotten more comfortable expressing himself lately.

Shinji is also embarassed at the prospect of Misato going to his school for some parent-teacher conference thing. Misato is essentially his guardian at this point, even though his actual dad is Misato's boss. I guess he would have signed off on this, since it seems clear he doesn't care.

All the boys at school think she's the coolest thing ever. She's a sexy lady and she's the NERV Ops Director. Shinji acts like they'd see her differently if they knew what she was like at home, but they don't care. Suzuhara and Big Rigg Mahoney are like "you keep the Earth safe, and we'll take care of Misato." Big Rigg Mahoney knows what's up. If I had me a freak like Misato, I think I could learn to live with empty beer cans. The penguin droppings might be a problem, but I think I'd get over it every night if you know what I mean.

We don't get a lot of information on the Evas in this one, but I'll go over what we do get. They're making more of them. Ritsuko and Misato talk in an elevator about the repairs on 00 and 01, and they speak of Unit 02 like it'll be along any day now. On a plane ride, Gendo Ikari speaks of Units 06 and 08, so there's plans to manufacture even more of them, though finding pilots seems to be the main hurdle.

Shinji also learns about Second Impact, the event that changed the world so much. First Impact was the hypothetical collision of the Earth with a protoplanet called Theia, which led to the formation of the Earth's Moon. Second Impact is widely known to be a meteor collision with Antarctica. According to the test in this screenshot, the meteor was only 4 inches wide, but it was traveling at 95% the speed of light, making the impact powerful enough to destroy Antarctica and cause upheavals that wiped out half of the world's population.

However, Misato tells Shinji that it wasn't actually a meteor at all, but the First Angel. It came to Earth on September 13, 2000, then exploded for some unknown reason, taking Antarctica with it.

NERV's mission, then, is to prevent a Third Impact. The Angels are still showing up on Earth, and if another one self-destructs in the same fashion, then it could cause even more devasation. So the only chance humanity has it to kill the things before they get the chance to explode.

Just to recap, we met the third Angel in Episode 1, and it self-destructed in Episode 2, but Shinji had nearly defeated it by that point, so maybe that's why it didn't produce the same destructive force as the first. And we met the fourth and fifth Angels in Episodes 3 and 5. No word yet on the second Angel, but it must have shown up in 2000, since everyone in Episode 1 talks about how there hadn't been an Angel sighting in fifteen years. It's also not clear how it was defeated, since Eva units weren't available for combat missions then.

My guess is that the second angel was susceptible to conventional weapons. That's my working theory on these things. Whatever they're up to, they seem to adapt and get more dangerous each time. The first one blew up shortly after it arrived on Earth, which might have been an accident, or some bad reaction to Earth's environment. The second one must have been killed by humans, which demonstrated that it could be done and it was a viable way to stop them from exploding.

The third angel was impervious to conventional weapons, requiring an Eva to defeat it. The fourth one... was basically the same deal, which is why Episode 3 kind of sucks. The fifth one targeted and disabled the Eva before it could get in range, requiring two Evas and a new-fangled weapon to defeat it. So the sixth one will probably be even harder to stop, which is why Gendo Ikari is trying to convince the U.N. to increase NERV's budget.

Meanwhile, Misato and Ritsuko are headed for Old Tokyo, where the Strategic Self-Defense Force are holding a demonstration. The SSDF are the guys who had that positron cannon Misato borrowed for her hail Mary play in Episode 6. Old Tokyo was destroyed in the chaos that followed Second Impact, but I guess someone decided to build a convention center out here on the remains.

I'm pretty sure the SSDF is just a continuation of the real-world Japanese Self Defense Force, but in this show they're mainly focused on finding ways to defend against the Angels, just like NERV. I mean, I guess that makes sense, given how the last three Angel attacks have been on Japanese soil. And their positron cannon did the trick, so they're not exactly bad at this sort of thing. This time, they're unveiling a new weapon, which is their own giant robot, Jet Alone.

NERV was invited to attend the ceremony, and Ritsuko takes the opportunity to question the premise of Jet Alone. It's powered by an on-board nuclear reactor, and it has no pilot. Everything is done by remote control, which seems like a really bad idea if they lose connection with the thing and the reactor melts down.

The SSDF guy laughs off her concerns, and attacks the Evangelion robots instead. They're powered by electrical cables, which is kind of impractical, and their pilots are subjected to intense stress and suffer mental instability. Also, the Evas are incredibly expensive, and every time the world increases NERV's budget, there's less money to care for the humanity they're trying to save.

So Jet Alone seems like a perfect solution. The tech is cheaper, there's no pilot to put in harm's way, and I guess they think it can hold its own in a fight, although that remains to be seen.

Misato keeps her cool at the dinner but gets furious afterward. By contrast...

Ritsuko calmly assures Misato that Jet Alone is nothing to worry about, as she burns one of the handouts they got at the dinner.

I'm pretty sure Ritsuko is awesome, but she really hasn't done a lot in this show other than provide exposition. She's practically the narrator in a lot of scenes, but damn. She can burn my papers anytime.

Soon enough, it's time to see Jet Alone in action. He looks a little primitive compared to the Evas, but I don't know, this thing kind of reminds me of Big O. I could see it getting its own show.

All they really do with it is have it walk forward, but for some reason they can't get it to stop, so it just keeps going and steps on the SSDF's control center.

And that's basically Jet Alone's whole deal. It just keeps walking in this same direction. Also its nuclear reactor is experiencing a pressure buildup, so yeah, this is turning out exactly like Ritsuko predicted at dinner. Maybe a little too exactly...

Anyway, the coolest thing about Jet Alone is its arms, which sort of dangle at its sides like tassels. I assume this is designed so it can wrap its arms around a hostile Angel like an octopus, but when it's just walking like this the arms flop back and forth and it looks adorable. He's just a struttin' and a strollin'.

Misato immediately takes charge, since the thing is headed for Atsugi and its reactor could go critical at any moment. She demands the SSDF give her an emergency shutdown password for the thing, but no one on-site has authorization to do that. So they call the authorities, but none of them want to take the responsibility without a written request. Disgusted, Misato decides to tackle the matter herself, and calls in Shinji and Eva 01.

Her plan is to just get inside JA and shut it down from the inside. For that, she needs a skintight suit to protect her from the radiation, and Eva 01 will get her close enough to the hatch to get inside. Once she's in, Shinji will have to try to hold Jet Alone so it can't move any closer to a populated area.

And Shinji seems to manage this pretty well, except he can't stop the reactor from exploding. That won't hurt Shinji, since the Eva can take it, but he's still worried about Misato, who will definitely be killed if she can't shut JA down.

Misato makes it inside, but the password to shut down the reactor (Hope), doesn't work. There's no time to figure out why that is, so instead she goes for broke and tries to shove the control rods into place manually. At least, I think that's what she's doing.

Fortunately, when she shoves one of them in, the others all retract with it. I'm not sure she knew that would happen, but it works. The red lights turn green, and Jet Alone stands down.

I'll go ahead and say it: This is actually really good fan service, as Misato promised in the preview for this episode. She said that a couple of times before, and never really delivered. I mean, she took a bath in Episode 2, but big deal. Most of the time she's wearing pretty normal clothing, and she's covered from neck to toe. Meanwhile, they keep showing Rei in various states of undress, or in her skintight pilot suit, which is the sort of thing you'd expect from fan service, except Rei's fourteen so that's creepy as hell.

But Misato wearing a skintight costume while she heroically dives into an exploding robot to shove its control rods into place? That's actually pretty sexy. YMMV, of course.

Shinji calls her success a miracle, but Misato is suspicious that it might not be as miraculous as it seems. Someone must have set all this up.

Later, Ritsuko reports on the incident to Gendo Ikari, and she says everything went exactly as planned, save for Misato's daring shutdown of the reactor. So it looks like NERV sabotaged Jet Alone, probably to discredit the SSDF and convince the UN that NERV deserves whatever funding they ask for. And since Misato's role in this was not part of the plan, it sounds like Ikari intended for Jet Alone to explode. That's why the password didn't work.

The only lingering question is whether Gendo intended for Jet Alone to explode in the middle of nowhere, or once it reached a populated area. That I feel the need to ask tells you everything you need to know about Gendo Ikari.

The next day, Suzuhara and Big Rigg Mahoney are still horny for Misato, and Shinji is still trying to convince them that she's not as cool as she seems. He tells them about how sloppy and silly she is at home, and they realize he doesn't know how lucky he is. Shinji's the only one who gets to see that side of her, and that's because Misato allows only him to see it. That means she thinks of him as family.

And there you have it. I guess this is a big eureka moment for Shinji, and maybe it helps him understand why Rei and his dad get along so well. Anyway, the next episode is supposed to have Asuka Langley in it, so maybe we'll finally find out what she's all about...

[jezabelle9299]

Intimidating S.R x FEM! reader

Overture-While you're cataloging a new collection in the archives, a young Spencer Reid wanders down in search of an art print stored in a different archive.

Inspired by the opening of season 2 episode 14 'The Big Game', when Gideon visits the Smithsonian to look at Havell's Audubon paintings. (We're going to pretend this isn't the episode Reid gets kidnapped in) Later piece is inspired by any of the many times prostitutes flirt with Reid throughout the early seasons. I looked at a few maps and online catalogs of the museums current collections to kinda figure out how long it would take to walk there, and what pieces are stored where, but it might not be 100% accurate so don't hold me to it.

Cws- Brief mentions of robbery and prostitution (separate occasions)

A/N- This has been bouncing around my brain like a DVD menu screen, I'm so excited about it. I'm a museum studies major so I'm making this girl live all of my dreams.

Your favorite part of the job by far, was cataloging the new pieces. Whether they were from other museums or private collections, unpacking those boxes let you indulge in a bit of nosiness everytime. This particular collection was from a recently closed exhibit, so you were doing the overnight shift. No one else was in this part of the museum, and your boss was doing a showing of some prints to a collections enthusiast so you had the place to yourself. 

You threw on some headphones and got to work, once you finished this you could go home. You’d just cataloged and packed the first half of the pieces, but as you were about to start on the rest, you saw something move out of the corner of your eye. Archives were a slightly creepy place to be at night anyway, the shelves looming over you, and the underground structure providing little light outside of your small workspace, but that was definitely unusual. When you finally turned around, there was a full-on stranger walking towards you. He was about your age, but he definitely didn’t work here, you would’ve remembered 

“Jesus! Walk louder! I didn’t hear you come down here.” 

“I called out twice to try and see if there was anyone down here.”

“Point taken.” You shrugged it off, you’d never seen him before. He definitely didn’t work here, he was cute and about your age. You’d remember him. You both stood there just kind of looking at each other, not fully sure what would happen next.

“Are you going to like— rob me now? Or maybe introduce yourself?”

“Oh! Sorry, my name's Spencer Reid, I was here with a colleague. He was looking at some ornithology prints upstairs, and he told me to come down to find—well you I assume, and get the last print in the set, and ask for directions to the coffee machine?”

“Sure! Just come over here and I’ll look it up for you.” You set down your clipboard to head back to your little desk, the only one with the lamp still on. 

“So, what exactly are you looking for?”

“It’s a Robert Havell, Frigate Pelican.” You typed in the name into your system to make sure, but you knew now why your boss didn’t come to get it himself. It wasn’t in this museum, it was in the archive under the Renwick gallery, almost a mile away. 

“Alright, I can be back with it in like an hour, it’s at the gallery on 17th street. This was a split collection and it’s still in that archive. There’s a coffee machine down the hall on your left, and I can meet you back in my boss’s office.”

“An hour? Are you walking this late at night?” 

“Yep. But I’ll go as quickly as possible.”

“I can’t in good conscience let you walk that far by yourself this late at night, would it be alright if I came with you?” 

“Alright! Only if you want to though, I promise you don’t have to.”

“I want to, if that’s ok.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” You smiled at him, and while you were grabbing your keys and ID, he went from relieved you said it was ok, to completely red at the idea of being around you alone for the next hour. He was stuck in place as you passed him and got halfway down the hall, before he started running to catch up. 

“Where exactly are we going?”

“We need to go up the elevator, through the garden, and then it’s pretty much a straight shot down 15th and through Lafayette park.”

“I thought we could get through the archives?”

“We could, but it would take longer. I get distracted easily, and it’s a nice night out anyway.”

*****

About halfway through your walk, you’d already felt like you knew him. When you were passing through a particularly busy part of the street, someone called out to you. Well not you, they called out to Spencer. 

“Hey cutie, you’re back. I told you I’d remember you.” A woman in high heels, a fur coat, and shorts entirely too short for the chilly weather, called out for him. You didn’t place any judgment on her, but the look you gave Spencer. Shock, and trying your best to stifle laughter at his panic.

“Oh–um. Have a good night.” He rushed off, in his haste grabbing your elbow to pull you along with him. Once he’d gotten far enough away for his embarrassment to pare down, he let go of you, realizing with a whole new sense of self-consciousness that he touched you without even thinking about it. 

“That was not what it looked like. I swear– I was talking to her with my boss last week, we were doing interviews for a case; and she well– she called me cute, which is what that was about.”

“You don’t need to explain yourself to me. I would tend to agree with her anyway– you are pretty memorable.”

“I– thank you. You’re memorable too.”

You walked the rest of the way with Spencer almost trailing a half step behind you. You were so mesmerizing, he just couldn’t help it. 

By the time you finished the walk, arriving at the security booth to get back inside the archives, you already felt like you knew Spencer. 

“ID please.” The security guard spared a singular glance towards yours, and you realized you forgot to ask Spencer if he had his on him. 

“Oh I forgot they check IDs of any guests coming into the archives, you have your driver's license on you, right? Or any ID is probably fine. I didn’t even think about it.”

While you were rambling about it, Spencer pulled out his credentials, showed it to the guard as if it were nothing. Because he’s a federal agent -apparently- he didn’t need a visitor badge. 

“You’re in the FBI?”

“Yes?”

“How on Earth did that never come up on the twenty minute walk here.” You finally got moving again towards the art storage, now trailing alongside Spencer, more focused on him than looking where you were going. 

“It did.” 

“When?”

“Why did you think I was interviewing a prostitute?”

“I don’t know! I thought you were like– a lawyer or something. You’re so fancy! And nice! And you know– Young!” 

“I–you think I’m fancy?”

“You’re wearing a suit with a sweater vest at 9pm on a Saturday night.” 

“Fair enough. But no, I'm not a lawyer. I’m glad you think I’m nice though.” It was your turn for your face to heat, and for you to hide your head. 

“Of course I think you're nice.”

When you finally found what you were looking for, you started heading back. He told you about some of his interests, but mostly he wanted to know about you. All you wanted to hear about was him though, he was so interesting. 

“What do you do for the FBI?” 

“Behavioral Analysis”

“Oh my god. Oh if I’d known that I would’ve changed everything I’ve done so far. That’s– I mean that’s so intimidating” And now he was laughing at you. 

“I don’t think anyone has ever described me as intimidating. Off-putting and annoying sure, but intimidating is new.” 

“You’re very intimidating. I’ve never met a guy who knew that much about historical art without even being in the field before, and now I know you could read my behavior? I must’ve come off like a total idiot like–15 times by now.”

“I don’t think so, quite the opposite actually.”

“Well thank you, but I was making a conscious effort not to make it clear I have a huge crush on you, and then you tell me you could tell anyway?” 

“You have a crush on me?”

“Well–yeah. I thought you could tell.”

“Not really.”

“Oh.” It felt like an eternity before he responded.

“I have a crush on you too, for the record.” 

“Yeah?”

“Most definitely.”

An older man came out of the building before you could walk back in.

“Reid! Where’d you go? JJ called, we need to leave for the office.” 

“Oh–um, I’ll call you? What’s your number?” You checked your lanyard and your pockets as best as you could while holding the flat-packed print. 

“I don’t have a pen or anything on me.”

“You can just tell me, I’ll remember it.”  After you said your goodbyes he disappeared again, and you went to put away the rest of the collection. Spencer called you the next morning to set up your first date, and though he never stopped amazing you, you wouldn’t describe him as intimidating anymore.

[amisbro]

The thing I ask myself now is this...

"What happened to the UtaPri fandom I knew?" I guess we are going to need some context on this huh? Do you remember 2014 and 2015? I do and they were great years! I had really started my first year on this platform in 2014 after I started watching the UtaPri Anime's first season on DVD and it was GREAT! It wasn't like Season 2 was...that was the Gold Standard but the season itself was a great one and I had gotten introduced to some of the characters that would become a part of of my life for a good amount of time...at least until Season 4 but we'll get there, I watched the 1st season on DVD and Season 2 on Crunchyroll and they were great times and at the time I remember seeing QN and liking ALMOST all of them and I say that because ,back then, I wasn't a huge Reiji fan...I know I know but its how things were as his personality wasn't something I was into. Ai's was a completely different story because of how analytical he was ,Ranmaru was the rocker that I liked A LOT and then there was...that guy...you know who! Yep...Camus! I don't know what drew me to him ever to be honest. Looking back on it I felt like a damn fool because nothing about him really relates to me and that makes things hard NOW to really embrace him as a character so I don't. I HAVE unfairly punished the other three members of QUARTET NIGHT for this and that I actually feel bad about but...yeah Now when I watched Season 2 there was a Trio that we all know now that debuted called HEAVENS and look we all know this that ,back then, I despised almost the entire Trio save for Kira (That dude just stayed out of trouble while Eiichi was being extra and Nagi was a brat...how could you really dislike the dude) so seeing them get beat was something I relished and then I went on about my day. Now before Season 3 (and I remember this still) the fandom actually did a thing where we took the chibis from Music 2 and we flooded the dashboard with them. It was a great thing we did and I still have a very fond memory of this. I think we also did it for season 4 which was really cool! But Season 4 something happened that I wasn't expecting and that was a..

"DIVISION!!!!" (Yes I love me some John Bercow...deal with it!) Okay so what happened? Well in Season 3 HEAVENS re-debuted as a 7 person group as we all know and they were supposed to be the opposition to STARISH and QUARTET NIGHT...this is where I think problems started to occur. See before (and then during) that season I had made it a goal to try and understand each of the different personalities of the HEAVENS members that were being introduced into the series. The big issue that came up really started in Episode 9 and really hadn't relented for a good long while until I blocked certain people (one of them used to follow me on twitter) and honestly I'm surprised I went most of the year this year without any Eiichi hate on my TL...it was honestly refreshing There were two episodes that genuinely confused and frustrated me when it came to the fandom S4/E5 - Visible Elf S4/E9 - Next Door Why these two? I'll tell you While we know that Episode 9 dealt with the subject of Abuse so did ,in its own way, Visible Elf because while the former dealt with both physical and mental it can be argued that the episode 4 episodes prior the HEAVENS member in it suffered "unintentional" mental abuse because ,if Shion wasn't being yelled at, why would he run from Cecil and then lock himself in the closet back at the HEAVENS Loft. Oh that's right...that never happened and we can excuse it right? The weird thing is that in "NEXT DOOR" that could be considered WORSE when it is depicted where Raging put his hands on Eiichi (his Eldest son) and then went in on him. Oh and we can't forget he called him a "Loser" which is always a fun thing to call your kid right? But that was forgotten and all that is remembered is that "Eiichi Broker Otoya" Funny how this fandom works isn't it? Oh but the weirdness of the fandom doesn't end there because you see now we get to talk about the recent bouts of ENTITLEMENT that they had not the least of which had to do with Shining Live shutting down their Global server and people being legit MAD about that despite the fact that they don't owe anyone an explanation. That would be like be going into Sentai's DMs and demanding to know why the heck they took UtaPri off of Crunchyroll where probably most of the fandom watched it? It ain't my business but I know I'll never buy from them again and rather buy the R2 DVDs because I genuinely didn't like what they did. But I guess my question is this Dear UtaPri fam, Why do you think you were owed a merge for the EN/Tradational Chinese servers when you got (and technically didn't deserve) 4 seasons of the Anime Maji Love Kingdom You got the UtaPri (Shining Agency) Special And are getting STARISH Tours Fam you ain't entitled to ANY of this and yet you got it! The ONE TIME a company says"No" and you decide to be vile and disgusting people. What happened to the people I knew in the fandom? If you are still around you come find me and we can talk but until then... I don't want to hear from you

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Memories of 2020 - A first look into all the content (OT7 as well as vmin and namjin)

As promised here’s my second post in which I just want us to have a look at some of the amazing content Memories of 2020 has in store for us. If you don’t want spoilers while you wait for your DVD (though I don’t know how anyone can hide from all the pictures and videos being posted everywhere) this post isn’t for you. If you want to have a look, than it’s very much for you. Truly there is so, so much here and everything I mention just scratches at the surface of it all. There’s more than eleven hours to go through after all!

From anon: Good luck for all the incoming questions regarding j*k*ok and their moment in memories - I think you know which one! I for one am enjoying all of the content and the love that each member has for the other, including vmin ofc. My favorite moment so far is definitely vmin kissing namjoon though - excited to hear about y'all's favorite moments :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, no worries anon, we barely got any and I already gave my opinion. As for our favorite moments, some of them are listed here along with other fun things, though I’ll admit, that forehead kiss was just so, so adorable. I mean, what other way is there to celebrate Namjoon’s birthday if not by kissing his forehead and squishing his cheeks?

One of the first things for the year were their practices for ON and Black Swan with the LAB dancers. We got a wider shot of Jimin helping Tae stretch, which we also previously got in their IG story last year, as well as Tae cutely asking Jimin to teach him how to do the cartwheel.

Furthermore we also saw Jimin practice his Black Swan solo dance which, what a surprise (not really), Tae was present for and (by the look of it) was filming him to show him later how it looks. I wonder if this was around the time when Tae wrote on weverse that Black Swan=Jimin. 

Then when filming the ON MV we got to see vmin dancing, the full version of what we originally saw in the teaser and contrary to what anons tried to suggest, as in that Tae wanted to remove Jimin’s hand, it was actually him moving Jimin’s hand so he could twirl him around and continue the dance further. Afterward Tae also repeats the dance with the little girl that starred in the MV alongside him so I wonder if this is when Tae introduced Jimin to her.

A lot more below the cut:

Then we saw some more of vmin being adorable at that one MOTS7 interview in NYC whereafter Jimin led Tae down the stairs while JK was behind them asking Tae if he was crying. The context here being that Tae was “sulking” because he didn’t get a chance to say the answers he’d prepared in English so, once downstairs, Jimin along with JK and Hobi (who was filming him much the way he did at the Grammys when a similar situation happened) encouraged him to at least show them his answers while Tae pretend cried and sulked some more.

Speaking of MOTS7, we also got some more behind the scenes of the jacket photoshoots which included vmin as dark angels and Jimin charming Tae while he was speaking, namjin making jokes about darks/ducks, and Tae and Seokjin looking stunning but we have an entire Bangtan Episode for that so I’ll save including a visual for this so I can include more pictures of other things instead. I hope you don’t mind.

We also had Jimin visiting Hobi and Yoongi on the sets of Interlude: Shadow and Outro: Ego which, judging by Jimin’s outfit, might’ve been filmed at the same time? Which, to be honest, makes a lot of sense. But the reactions were so different, as in Hobi was so happy and bubbly when Jimin came while Jimin “complained” that Yoongi barely even paid attention to the fact that he came. Their different dynamics are just so cute and interesting.

We also got so, so much content from the Daechwita MV filming, including a video of JK petting a chicken to the point that the chicken fell asleep. JK and animals, a very precious concept. Honestly I love this MV (the visuals are unreal) and the song so I’m glad we got to see more of the behind the scenes.

We also got plenty of Dynamite dance practice shenanigans like this:

Since we’re on the topic of dance practice, one thing that truly impressed me was Jimin’s core strength which we got a presentation of via him doing a headstand, as well as some gymnastics type looking something with JKs help. The control and strength he needed in order to lift himself up like that? Insane. Especially since he also lowered himself back down again in a controlled manner as well which makes it even more impressive. These men are so athletic, wow.

One of the moments I loved the most because it’s so meaningful and genuine is this one where they were filming their AMA performance and it was also the day of Tae’s grandma’s 70th birthday so, like the good boy he is, he decided to call/FaceTime her and Jimin joined him. From what I’ve seen Jimin used language showing that he’s familiar with her and it’s cute how natural this moment looks, like of course Jimin is there with Tae wishing his grandma a happy birthday. To be fair Seokjin also comes by and calls out a happy birthday but walks away just as quickly leaving just the two of them behind. Adorable.

Some more fun, random and cute stuff includes, but very much isn’t limited to, all of this:

Side note - Hobi singing You are my soulmate while vmin were practicing their Chingu performance? It really is his favorite song.

Honestly all the Seokjin and JK, as well as Hobi and JK content is so adorable and fun and there is so, so, so much more of it to be found and enjoyed than what I managed to include here. I’m glad we got to see so much more of their interactions across Memories of 2020 especially since they are the kinds of bonds that don’t get nearly enough attention most of the time which is a shame.

There were quite a few things included from their Esquire photoshoots but this moment with Namjoon, Tae and Hobi is just...wow. Love it. It’s one of my favorite moments and now also one of my favorite pictures of those three together. The fact that Tae was wearing a crop top for his solo pictures yet we didn’t get to see it (properly)? Wow.

From anon: Why is there so little Namjin in the memories of 2020 😞 I’ve seen so much from all the other pairings. It’s made me sad.

I don’t know who lied to you, dear anon, or who hid all the good stuff from you but rest assured we got plenty of wonderful namjin content, and this likely isn’t even all of it. 

Does Seokjin’s sweater say RM in hangul? Yes, it very much does. And is that Namjoon trying to stop Seokjin from walking away? Yes indeed. Much to think about.

And that’s about all I’m able to include without tumblr telling me I’m just doing too much. Like I said this is just basically a glimpse at all the content so everyone who ordered the Memories of 2020 DVD, there is plenty more for you to look forward to. Once I’ll be able to watch the full thing, I’m sure I’ll make more posts and if there’s something you’d like me to talk about or a moment you particularly enjoyed, let me know.

[nightlight-firelight]

Hi everyone, I’m really hoping you guys like this one! I’m hoping to continue this story, if you all like this. I’m not used to writing for other people, so please give me some feedback on how I could make this more enjoyable.

“Small Things Come With a Awkward Price”

Chapter 1

Getting home was a nightmare and getting back into your room is the top priority in your mind. The trip from Walmart had you exhausted due to the unexpected heat. Looking at your phone, you swear that today was only supposed to be in the seventies. You drop off your grocery bag onto your bed and pull out the item you have been waiting to open up. The Sonic Boom season one DVD set came with Sonic and Dr.Eggman figures. Even though the box was banged up, you bought the set anyway. The thought crossed your mind that a kid tried to open the box to get the figures but luckily didn’t succeed. You opened the banged-up box and pulled the figures out and set them on the bed. Then, taking out the two DVD cases, you set those on the bed and take a walk to the kitchen with the busted box and the excess plastic.

On the way to the kitchen, your thoughts began to wonder why you had picked up the box set to begin with. It was a good price and with the addition of the figures, you thought yourself lucky to get the last one they carried. Looking back, however, you did remember that this box was just under one of the shelving units next to the videogame isle, not even covered by a speck of dust. You had only seen the box when you went to look closer at a price tag, seeing the corner of the disheveled box and its contents. Pacing your dominant foot on the small peddle of the garbage can, the lid lifts from its closed positions and you gently toss the trash into the bin, only seeing a slip of paper glide out of the now trashed box.

You groan in annoyance that you have to take care of the fallen slip and pick up the small piece of paper after a try or two keeping it slightly stick to the floor. You take a closer look at the paper and see that it had some writing to it.

‘Hope you like my surprise!’

Staring at it puzzled you. Who was this for? I wasn’t meant for you to find, at least that what you believe. Was this put in here as a joke or an accident or-,

‘Clack!’

You jump ever so slightly from the odd noise that had pulled you away from your thoughts. The noise appears to come from your room, from the way the sound was only slightly distant and lightly muffled by the walls. You take more of a pep in your step and get to your room to investigate the noise. Taking a look around your room, you find after a minute of looking to see your Sonic figure on the floor. Picking him back up you take a look at him and see that his paint job was really impressive for a small action figure. You rolled him around in your hand and were impressed that the figure, all around, was correctly put together and made. No chip marks, no lack of paint, or extra paint where it shouldn’t be. No mistakes. You smile a bit at the thought and set Sonic on your small table next to your bed. You see that the Dr.Eggman figure, however, was almost to the edge of the bed, laying on his tummy, and had his arms pushed out in front of him. ‘Looks like he pushed Sonic off.’ You laughed at that thought of the plastic toy throwing its plastic arch-nemesis over the edge of the bed.

You pick the doctor up and examine him as well. He just like Sonic with the most impeccable paint job you’ve seen. You blush a bit and hold him more gently. You won’t lie and say that you may have had a crush on the doctor for a while now, not trying to deny it anymore. The first time that you had seen him on screen when watching the cartoon, you had butterflies swarming inside of you. The way he spoke was like music to your ears, and the way that he got when he thought he was about to win was so cute to you. You wished that they had made a third season to keep going with the cute doctor, but alas, good things must come to an end.

Taking the doctor and placing him onto your mountain of pillows you take a new pair of clothing into your bathroom and get cleaned up again, remembering that the heat had not been kind to you earlier. Once done, you put your old outfit into your laundry hamper and grabbed your portable DVD payer from the corner of your room. You had gotten this for the holidays and once you had gotten it, you never put it down for more than a few hours. You open up the player and take the first DVD case and open up the side of it up to show you the contents inside.

Your mood changed to a sour one when you saw the DVD itself. A plain disk with the words ‘Sonic Boom Season One, First Disk.’ repaced what would have been the official disk. You were upset that this was a false product and went to look at the second case. When you opened that one you were greeted by the bootleg copy of the second disk. You set both cases down and head to the kitchen you grab your favorite drink.

‘Really should have grabbed this earlier when I went to throw out the box.’ thinking bitterly as you swing open the fridge door and grab a bottle of your elixir that would of relax the current mood you were in. Opening the cap and dowing a few gulps of the drink, you realized that maybe you might have had gotten a copy that may have been a gift to someone or a factory error. You put the cap back on and take a deep breath. You had wanted to watch the show and still hope that the disks were holding the content you crave.

You made your way back to your room again to find your DVD player’s disk tray opened with the first seasons stuck in the correct spot. You freaked. You KNEW that you did not put the disk is the try, not even taking it out of its case, what is it ended DOING out of the case? You panic for a second and take a look around your home to make sure no one was in the house with you. After a check of the windows, rooms, closets, and even checking under furniture, you concluded that no one could have been in your house. You take a calming breath and sit down on the edge of your bed. You try and come up with some sort of explanation. Mabey you had put the disk in your DVD player and forgot about it. You were a bit sleep-deprived due to the last week of finals, so maybe you may have forgotten? You try and relax and after a few minutes you calm down enough to stop thinking of making scenarios of how this could have happened. After getting a grip, you push the lid down of the DVD player and start up the system. Sitting on your bed, you get to the main menu and sigh of relief that it was a copy of the show and not a knock-off. “So this must be a prototype or an unreleased version, cool.” Speaking to no one in particular. You press play on the first episode, ‘The Sidekick.’ and lean back the ride.

At first, the episode appeared normal. That ended when it got to the scene where Dr.Eggman got the poster for the sidekick tryouts and when the fourth wall gag kicked in and dropped the camera away from the doctor’s face, when he picked it up, however.

“Lousy security camer-.” he had stopped and looked dead into the ‘camera’. His eyes widened and he gave off a soft gasp, and you swore he was looking dead into your eyes, however, the scene quickly changed into the next stop before he could react. You pause the clip there and lean back.

NO WAY that happened. Your brain at the moment was fried and you KNEW he looked at you. Your heart was pounding a mile a minute and you had to take a few deep breathes to make sure you didn’t hyperventilate. ‘Breath,’ You keep telling yourself. ‘Breath!’ After few minutes of reconciliation, you looked back to the paused screen and ponder on what you should do. This has to be edited or who knows what. You were too far into this to give up now. First, the way the box was hidden was now becoming way too suspicious, second the way the figure looked way too good to be sold in a box set like that, and now this? You realized that this might be bigger than what you anticipated. Your eyes connect with the figure on your bed. You wanted to see where this goes. You had to see where this leads. You press play again.

You kept watching and when it got to when the doctor was introduced it was normal until it got to the Doctor entering the try-outs. He would keep going with the same dialog but kept taking glances over to you. The episode kept playing. The ending was different, however. Once BurnBot was destroyed via growing in the ice lake, Sonic and Tails didn’t kick the doctor away from the area. Instead, they did kick the Egg-Mobile out into the distance, but the doctor jumped out, landing in the area around the lake, letting Sonic and Tails leaving the scene. The camera focused on Eggman again as he lifted himself from off the ground and into the camera’s range. This time there was absolutely no way that the Docter did not see you as his expression look of that of confusion and worry. You decided to test out to see if you were going insane or if this was just an amazing edit. You wave to him. He hesitates for a moment. “Who-” But before he could finish that sentence, a very large light appears from the screen, blinding you. You cover your eyes and try to maneuver your body away from the small screen, only forgetting that you were seated in your bed and had just flung yourself off of it. You yelp out of fright and waited to hit the floor. You felt something grab you by the waist and pull you back up on the bed slowly. Uncovering your eyes you were met with something that happens only in fanfiction. A, very real, Dr. Eggman holding you in his hands, keeping you from falling off the bed.

“Hello.” His voice wavers from either the awkwardness of the situation or the fact that he just showed up into your room.

This is awkward.

[trenchcoatimpala]

You know what I will never forgive SPN for? I mean there’s a lot of things... BUT... not having Castiel in the holiday episode in season 15 was just fucking RUDE. Like we were ROBBED of such good content. Hear me out...

Cas actually being really good at carving pumpkins, like he makes all these intricate designs and everyone just stares at him in surprise and Cas just rolls his eyes and says “what? I’m a celestial being, I’ve picked up some things in the few millennia I’ve been on earth.”

Cas at Thanksgiving, spending hours in the kitchen with Mrs. Butters who is making pies, and he insists on making one by himself. So he spends the whole morning trying to make the perfect pie for Dean. And it turns out horrible, too much flour in the crust, too little sugar in the blueberries, but Dean eats it anyway because pie is pie and Cas made it specifically for him. 

And Cas on Christmas, where Dean makes him wear a Santa hat, but it won’t stay on his head right so it sits at an angle and Cas just pouts at him because he ‘looks ridiculous’ and Dean grins at him and tells him he looks adorable and Cas has to smile at that because Dean thinks he looks adorable, and so for the rest of the day he wears his Santa hat proudly and helps Mrs. Butters hand out presents to the boys. And later that night, Cas sneaks out to go buy presents of his own and he comes back to the bunker with three bags, one for Sam, one for Dean, and one for Jack. 

Sam’s bag holds books Cas thought the younger Winchester would be interested in as well as a few new flannels because Cas noticed that some of his other ones were getting a bit threadbare.

Jack’s holds a Teddy bear and a soft blanket as well as a box of cookie crunch cereal. 

And Dean’s... Dean’s is the one that Cas put the most thought into. 

Dean’s holds all the Scooby Doo episodes on DVD, a Zepp vinyl to replace the one Dean has that’s filled with scratches and skips every other second. And, tucked away at the bottom of the bag is something that Cas had been working on for a while and had decided to finish for this spontaneous holiday occasion... a mixtape of all his favorite songs that Dean had introduced him to over the years. 

When the boys open their gifts, their faces light up with joy, but Cas’ eyes linger on Dean. The eldest Winchester’s face has twisted into something so soft, so vulnerable, that the sight pulls at the Cas’ heart strings. Dean puts the DVDs and vinyl aside and holds the mixtape in his hands, gently turning it over in his palm to read the list of songs on the back, written in Cas’ blocky handwriting. 

Sam and Jack get up from where they’d been sitting and slowly leave the room, allowing Dean and Cas to be alone. 

“You made this for me?” Dean asks.

Cas nods slowly. “Yes.” 

Dean’s face splits into a wide grin and he stands up to pull Cas into a hug. “I love it.” 

“You do?” Cas asks against Dean’s shoulder. 

“Of course I do, Cas,” Dean replies as they pull apart.

They’re standing so close to each other and it would be so easy for Cas to lean forward and close the gap between them, but he refrains. “I’m glad.” 

“Cas... I-” Dean trails off, green eyes dipping down to look at his shoes. 

“What?” Cas asks, confused by Dean’s sudden change in demeanor.

“Do you... uh... know what this means?” 

Cas blinks at Dean in confusion, wondering what Dean could possibly be trying to get at. Dean huffs a soft laugh and then steps closer to Cas, his eyes merely inches from Castiel’s.  

“Mixtapes are... well... you give ‘em to people you... uh... you like.” 

“Well I do like you,” Cas says.

Dean smiles at him but it’s guarded and sad and Cas can’t quite figure out why that is. “Yeah, but they mean more than that, Cas.” Dean clears his throat and Cas watches his tongue dart out to wet his lips. “They’re kinda like... they’re kinda like love letters.” 

Oh. 

Cas thought back to the day Dean had given him his mixtape, the nervous hunch to his shoulders, the way he’d told Cas he’d made something for him but that he didn’t have to take it if he didn’t want to, but how Cas had felt something warm swell inside him at the fact that Dean was giving him something he’d spent time to make. He thought back to all the times he’d sat in the quiet of the bunker while the Winchester’s slept, listening to the tape over and over again, trying to decode the meaning of each song... he’d come to the conclusion that most of them were love songs, but he hadn’t thought that...

Cas snapped himself out of his reverie and reached up a hand towards Dean’s face, gently cupping his cheek before leaning forward, their lips mere millimeters away.

“Well in that case, is it safe to assume we’re both on the same page?” Cas asks. 

“And what page is that?” Dean’s voice is hitched and Cas can only smile at how visibly flustered Dean is at his proximity.

“This one,” he says right before he presses their lips together, sealing them in their first kiss. 

Dean clears his throat when they break apart, but there’s a smile shining on his face. “Uh... yeah, we’re... uh, we’re definitely on the same page.” 

And then Dean leads Cas down the hall to his room and he puts on Cas’ new mixtape and they make out to it, trying to catch up on all that missed time.

Haha wow this post kind of got out of hand and kinda became a ficlet, but I mean just... come on! We could’ve had this, or something like this, and yeah Cas’ deal, but also, fuck the deal, this would have been ADORABLE and this is how Destiel should have gone canon. I just think it was a missed opportunity to not have Cas in the holiday ep. 

[chibimyumi]

Hello there, Chibimyumi. I was wondering that if there were any Black Butler OVAs from seasons 1-2 that you enjoyed. My personal favorite was the Trancy Household OVA as it perfectly shows off the new cast from season 2 better than the first episode. I would've just preferred if season 2 just focused on the original characters and not force the original ones to come back.

Dear Anon,

Hello～! Yes, I actually did enjoy the ‘Hamlet’ OVA from season I and ‘The Making of Kuroshitsuji’ from this season that doesn’t exist ^^

‘That Butler, Performance’

In the second half of the first season Kuroshitsuji just went wacko, and yet it had the gal to take itself so seriously. The Hamlet OVA however, was something of a silver lining in the awful situation that was the first season. Incidentally it’s also the only thing that makes the 4-episode DVD sorta worth the ridiculous price I paid.

The Hamlet OVA stopped attempting to take itself seriously and just had its eyes set on sheer entertainment. Do I think the full potential of the Kuroshitsuji characters/cast was used? No, but at least the OVA didn’t waste it. There was a bit of bitter-irony alongside over-the-topness, but it didn’t try to shove any of it in your face. For once I thought the anime balanced the humour and the edginess of this series well. In short, unlike the rest of the series, the OVA was appropriately self-aware.

Also, Ranmao as seaweed was bliss. More than 10 years have passed, and sometimes when I or my friends eat wakame we still hum “wakame, suki suki♪”.

‘The Making of Kuroshitsuji’

If the second season had existed it would have been GOD AWFUL. The makers knew that the second season was a flop... so OH THEY TRIED TO MILK the OVA potential to get SOME, ANY, DVD sales. There were OVAs for EVERY DVD as opposed to the first season only having the OVA for the last disc.

All OVAs for the second season were (almost) as awful as the season itself, save for ‘The Making of’. The reason this OVA was palatable was for a similar reason as the Hamlet one; it didn’t take itself too seriously and pretend it’s actually good. Some ‘making ofs’ are just always fun, and this premise saved itself from having to write a story that’s actually Kuroshitsuji while the team was woefully incompetent. It’s like these writers only read fan-comments for the first season, decided they knew enough and thought: “we can do a sequel! What could possibly go wrong?”

The ‘making of’ OVA isn’t as well done as it could have been; I would have loved to see how the “cast” actually consisted of actors who would, you know, act? rather than “here, play a supernatural/19th century version of yourself”. I think the ONLY persons in the entire OVA who were actually acting were Alois and Randall. Off-camera they were different people than their roles, and it was cute.

Season II as stand-alone?

Eeehhh.... had the second season focused on Alois and Claude instead, then it’d still have the same chance to either fail miserably or become actually good. If they had been the only protagonists the writers would have to be VERY careful in not making a knock-off version of Sebas and Ciel, while also making sure the audience wouldn’t go: “why is this Black Butler II?” And everyone knows people are fan of the first series mainly because of Sebas and Ciel, so I understand they’d want to capitalise on their popularity.

Albeit begrudgingly, I do have to admit that re-introducing Sebas and Ciel in opposition to the new master-servant-duo was a good choice. But that’s about it. The cause of all failure was that the creators were trying to eat the cake and have it too.

【 Click for a dissection of what this cake is and my angry rant.】

The first episode started trying to fool the audience into thinking that Alois and Claude were the new protagonists. The moment Sebas was reintroduced however, suddenly the nostalgia in old fans would forbid Alois and Claude to ‘replace’ our old duo as protagonists. The old duo couldn’t be the antagonists, and becoming a team was just unlikely. Where would the tension be then? Ciel’s revenge was already ‘solved’, after all. It is not for nothing that Season II tried to desperately rehash the literal same revenge plot.

So, from the moment Sebas appeared the new duo was relegated to side-characters or antagonists. Fine, fine! That’s not the end of the world, but then the creators would need to be competent enough to make sure the fans could genuinely be team Trancy or team Phantomhive, or actually enjoy both. But because Claude was written as the thief who stole Sebastian’s very payment for his work, it made it very hard for anyone to root for Claude��s cause. Sure, then perhaps he could still become a worthy villain to Sebas to, a genuine threat who is not just a demon himself too, but one with demon allies!

But even with four extra demons on his side Claude proved to be hopelessly ineffective in actually becoming a real threat to Sebas (except when PLOT CONVENIENCES happened). And then the series was juggling multiple balls all named ‘main plot’... and dropped all of them.

The following summarises the relations in Season II

Claude x Alois as the protagonists.

Then suddenly insert a Sebas + suitcase → Claude x Alois = antagonists.

Then the focus of the series turned to Sebas & Ciel’s re-revenge. Claude serves Alois, but Alois himself has nothing to do with Ciel, meaning that the two masters have no direct conflict, which meant that Claude & Alois were further relegated as side characters. Ermmm?????

Then Alois became Ciel’s antagonist...because plot. Ô_Ó

But then Claude was not really Sebas’ antagonist anymore... because plot?

And then Claude teams up with Sebas??? Except not really???

AND THEN HANNAH TURNED OUT TO BE THE BIG BAD I think?! But then she was not the big bad...(=o=)

And then at the finale EVERYONE is a loser! ^▽^

Dear Season II, are Alois and Claude THE PROTAGONISTS, ANTAGONISTS, VILLAIN-PROTAGONISTS, or SIDE CHARACTERS!? Choose ONE (or actually develop these characters). Also, are contracts the strongest thing ever for demons or not!? You can’t say it’s both a magical bond with draconian laws and also treat it like a pinky swear between five year olds.

Season II: “NO! I will eat the cake, claim to have baked the cake but not touch the cake, and also have it!”

Related posts:

More angry rants about the anime seasons I and II

My ratings for the Kuroshitsuji animes

Would I support a new faithful adaptation of Kuroshitsuji?

Yana’s opinion on the anime

SebaCiel and the anime’s populism

[ezrisdax-archive]

Franmaya sickfic for the bingo prompts?

for my sapphic september bingo card and also over here on ao3

~~

Franziska was awoken by the heavy thump at her door followed by a yelp and a scrambling noise that didn’t make sense to her muddled brain.

Determinedly with only the resolve a Von Karma could have she forced her bleary eyes open and made herself sit up. The room swayed as she did, making her wish to fall back into her pillows but the threat of an intruder loomed large.

Shuffling noises sounded down the hall and Franziska reached over for her phone, ready to call even Gumshoe if the situation deteriorated.

The door to her room creaked open and Franziska blinked at the sudden light, not noticing how dark her room had been until then.

“Oh! You are up!” A familiar voice said and Franziska kept blinking away the spots of light to focus until Maya Fey came into view. “Edgeworth said you were probably still sleeping, I was trying to be quiet just in case, guess I didn’t do a very good job hunh? Good thing I’m a spirit medium and not a ninja. All though…I could be a samurai I’ll bet…” Maya continued onwards, her blathering making Franziska’s head spin.

“Maya Fey.” Franziska bit out but it lacked any harshness with how raspy her voice was.

Maya winced at the noise and dug into the over large bag at her side.

“Here.” She said, pulling out a bottle of apple juice and handing it to Franziska.

When Franziska just stared at it Maya took it back and popped the lid off, handing it back.

“I am not an invalid.” Franziska bristled slightly.

“I didn’t think you were. But Edgeworth said you were feeling terrible. Guess we can’t recover from colds so fast like Nick does. All though he did say he wasn’t as good at it when he was my age.” Maya tilted her head up in thought. “Maybe we’ll get better at it then too.” She set the bag down at the door and then flopped onto the bed covers, nearly hitting Franziska’s leg in the process.

“What?” Franziska asked, taking a sip of the juice only because it was cold and soothing to her throat.

“You know, like we’ll develop a super immune system and be able to fall off bridges with only a cold.”

“I believe that is just a condition limited to Phoenix Wright.”

“He is special that way.” Maya admitted lightly, laughing.

“What are you doing here, Maya Fey?” Franziska asked after she remembered to, not because she’d been sidetracked by Maya laughing or anything ridiculous such as that.

“Oh! Well Edgeworth called our office to say you weren’t doing well, I guess spending all the time in a freezing cold temple trying to get me out wasn’t good for you after all.”

“It wasn’t even you.” Franziska muttered.

“But you thought it was me! And it’s the thought that counts!” Maya insisted. “I just wanted to return the favour so here I am, ready to help you get better! I got the key from Edgeworth, he said ‘tell Franziska not to do anything foolish’.”

Franziska scoffed. “Says the foolish fool himself.”

Maya laughed again. “He said you’d say something like that. I brought everything you need to feel better.” She stood up and walked over to her bag and began pulling things out. “Pearly made you chicken noodle soup and I brought over my Pink Princess DVDs so we can watch them together and here.” Maya pulled out a purple blanket. “My sis bought me this, it always makes me feel better.” She draped it over Franziska without another word.

It smelled vaguely like cedar and incense that Franziska suspected they burned at the temple Maya worked at, strong enough that it could get through even her clogged senses. Except it was making her sneeze.

A box of tissues was shoved in her face and Franziska took them with as much dignity she could muster.

“This isn’t necessary.” Franziska started but was waved off by Maya.

“Don’t be silly, you risked your life for me so it’s the least I can do. Besides, I hate being alone when I’m sick.”

“I am not sick.” Franziska finally denied. “It is merely…a foolish allergy.”

Maya stared at her.

Franziska stared back.

Or tried to which was hard because her eyelids felt to heavy and her head kept drooping .

“Okay…an allergy.” Maya said doubtfully. “Well, either way I’m here for you. Now where’s your TV?”

“I do not have a TV. They are for the foolish.” Franziska muttered.

“What?! You don’t have one?!” Maya groaned. “I guess I could ask Nick to bring me over his…” Maya muttered.

Whatever else she was going to say was lost as Franziska slumped back and sleep over took her again.

~~

When she woke up it was to the sound of swords clinking together, or rather how television shows assumed swords sounded.

“That is incorrect.” Franziska said groggily.

“You’re awake!”

The noise paused as Maya hovered over her, beaming down at Franziska.

“What is that foolish racket?”

“Pink Princess: Warrior of Little Olde Tokyo, episode seven, Our Swords Clash with Thunder! It introduces her sidekick, Oyster.”

“Swords do not create thunder.” Franziska said, trying to focus on what made sense which was really none of it.

“Of course they don’t.” Maya agreed. “But they do clash!”

Franziska opened her mouth for a rebuttal but her stomach grumbled. Maya scrambled off the bed she’d been lying on next to Franziska and scurried off. Franziska watched her go with confusion, wondering if perhaps her brain had just imagined this. Like a terrible painting done by one of Wright’s friends.

The paused picture on the now installed TV before her bed suggested otherwise. The pink was making her a little nauseous and she turned her head to bury into the purple blanket still covering her, a much more elegant colour.

It didn’t feel like long before Maya was back in the room, balancing a tray in her hands that she set down in Franziska’s lap. On the tray was a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a bottle of medicine accompanied by a glass of water. Franziska took the water and medicine, ignoring the Cold Killer X printed on the bottle.

She stared at the soup a little suspiciously.

“Don’t worry, Pearly made it, she’s much better at this than I am.” Maya said, noticing her staring.

Franziska started, realizing she’d been a little rude and she could see Maya twitching a little. She kept smoothing down the sleeves of her acolyte clothes and glancing between Franziska and the soup.

With a little trepidation Franziska picked up the spoon and took a bite. To her relief it didn’t taste bad though that could have been her stuffed up nose allowing her not to notice.

“See.” Maya said when she noticed Franziska not spitting it out. “Not bad right? I still haven’t really mastered that but one thing at a time. After all, I’ve got to get spirit medium-ing down first.”

“I do not believe that is a word.”

“Well are you a spirit medium?” Maya asked, her voice teasing. “Because we have our own lingo. Just ask Pearly, or I can channel my sister…”

“Please don’t.”

“Aw you only need my company, I get it.” Maya flopped onto the bed again, bouncing lightly and making soup spill over the edges of the bowl. “Oops.” She made a face. “I guess I haven’t mastered taking care of someone when sick either.”

“You are not doing a terrible job.” Franziska said idly, eating more of her soup before she lost it to Maya trying something else.

“Coming from you that means a lot, Franzy.”

“You will refer to me as Franziska Von Karma.” Franziska said and glared but was certain it lost it’s effect when she sniffled.

“Nah, that’s too long and boring.”

Franziska sputtered, her defense of the Von Karma name at the tip of her tongue.

“Besides, friends call each other nicknames.”

Franziska stopped, taken aback. “We are friends?”

“You stayed up at a temple trying to rescue me and helped Edgeworth get the trial going for Nick, I’d say that makes us friends.” Maya was fiddling with her sleeves again, her face turned away and slightly and buried in a pillow. “I thought coming over here would solidify it.”

Franziska opened her mouth and shut it with a click. “Ah.” She picked up her water and took a sip. “Very well, it would be foolish to admit otherwise I see.” She purposefully avoided looking at Maya as she said it but it was hard not to notice the glee on Maya’s face when she shot up, completely spilling what was left over in the bowl.

“Oh no, sorry Franzy!” Maya rushed to mop it up, pulling at tissues at the box. “I’ll get you a fresh one.” She took the tray and slipped out of the room without another word.

Franziska stared at the glass of water still in her hand despite the commotion.

“Friends.” She repeated, arching an eyebrow at the water.

“Did that water do something to you, are you going to question it on the stand?” Maya asked as she came back in to see Franziska still looking at the water. She set a new bowl of soup down in front of Franziska with much more care than she had previously

“Perhaps. It would certainly be better than when Phoenix Wright questioned a parrot.”

“Oh you heard about that!” Maya giggled at the memory. “Yeah we certainly seem to get some strange things happened on the stand…”

“I’ve noticed.” Franziska said drily and took the spoon once more to finish her soup as fast as she could while still portraying perfection. Which she did of course, because she was a Von Karma.

“I think it makes things more interesting. You just gotta have some fun with some of these cases.” Maya swallowed hard. “The last one was…”

Franziska watched her from the corner of her eyes, seeing Maya’s shoulders fall, and cleared her throat. “I believe we were watching…what was it again… ‘Pink Princess: Warrior of Little Olde Tokyo’.”

Maya brightened again, a much better look on her, and clapped her hands. “That’s right, you haven’t seen a full episode still! I can rewind it, don’t worry, I don’t mind watching it again. It’s really one of the best episodes. I hope they end up doing a crossover with the Steel Samurai soon, it’ll be nice to see those characters again..” Maya continued on but Franziska couldn’t concentrate much on her words.

The TV started again and Maya took her seat next to Franziska on the bed.

Franziska set her spoon down in the bowl with a clink and finished her glass of water, letting Maya reach over to set the tray on the floor despite every fiber of her being insisting that it should go to the kitchen right away. She was feeling too tired to argue it, perhaps she was a little sick after all.

“Thank you, for coming here.” Franziska said after a few moments, looking away from the TV when the colours swam in her vision too much. “It is…nice. To have friends.”

Maya looked over, grinning widely, “I’ll be here whenever you’re in town. You can even come to the village. Just don’t arrest me for murder next time.”

Franziska’s cheeks burned which she blamed on her fever and not on how Maya’s shoulder brushed against her own as Maya laughed.

“I will endeavor not to do so. Though you do seem to be caught in these cases quite a bit, Maya Fey.”

“Just Maya. And just my luck. But it’s not all bad.” Maya hadn’t moved from where she was pressing against Franziska. “I got to meet Nick and Edgeworth and Gumshoe and you.”

Franziska hummed, “You are not so bad at this, perhaps you will master taking care of someone who is…”

“Having allergies?” Maya teased.

“Yes.” Franziska said quickly and then broke off into a yawn.

“Aw you’re gonna miss the rest of the episode.” Maya was saying but Franziska couldn’t see the pout she was certain Maya was wearing, her eyes had shut without much prompting.

“Another time then, Maya Fey.”

“Just Maya!”

Franziska hummed again and let sleep take her, her head resting against the warmth of Maya shoulder.

~~

(Seven years later)

The door slammed opened making Franziska groan at the noise.

“Franzy!” Maya came in like she always did, a whirlwind of purple robes and ruckus. She stopped seeing Franziska resting on the couch and smiled softly, speaking quieter. “Well this brings back memories.”

Franziska sighed, sitting up on her propped pillows. “I am not sick, despite what Miles Edgeworth claims.”

“Uh hunh, I’ve heard that before too.” Maya came over, setting her bag down and Franziska was willing to bet there would be soup made by Pearl and Trucy in the bag.

“There had better not be any Pink Princess in that bag.” Franziska eyed it with suspicion.

“Don’t worry, this time I brought the Iron Infant: Warrior of Neo Olde Tokyo.”

“That foolish title still makes no sense.”

Maya was still snickering as she bent down to press a kiss to Franziska’s forehead.

“Maya Fey do not be so foolish yourself, you will get sick.” Franziska scolded.

“I thought you weren’t sick.” Maya shot back, ignoring Franziska’s spluttering to press another quick kiss to her cheek this time. “Besides, if I do I guess you’ll just have to take care of me.”

“If I must.” Franziska said but her tone was softened as she reached out to take Maya’s hand and squeeze it in thanks.

Maya beamed at her, a sight Franziska never tired of and then reluctantly pulled away to get set up.

She shut her eyes as Maya rambled on about the Kurain Village and Trucy’s latest magic tricks and a new defender that Phoenix had picked up. She let Maya’s voice lull her to sleep knowing Maya would still be there when she woke up.

“Hey Franzy,” Maya whispered, close enough again now that Franziska could pick up the sharp incense off her robes. “I love you.”

Von Karma’s did not mumbled so Franziska certainly didn’t as she said back, “I love you too, Maya.”

She didn’t have to open her eyes to know Maya was smiling again, as bright and happy as ever, but it did warm her to know she was the cause of it.

While she wasn’t sick and didn’t need the coddling perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if she was.

[mcheang]

ELOD episode 56 review

The finale

Feng Jiu and the others go to Fanyin Valley to see Dong Hua fight Miao Luo. Dong Hua is distracted by Feng Jiu. Miao Luo takes advantage and strikes. Only Dong Hua can enter the starlight ward, but since Feng Jiu is wearing his heart ring, she bypasses the shield.

As the others, plus Zhe Yan and Bai Zhen, try to break the shield to rescue the lovebirds, Feng Jiu rushes to Dong Hua’s defense. Surprisingly her fox blood can cleanse evil spirits. And Feng Jiu is able to affect Miao Luo since the former drank Dong Hua’s golden blood, which shields him from the evil energies. Together they vanquish Miao Luo, but suffer fatal wounds.

The lovebirds reconcile. Feng Jiu dies first. But there is a deleted scene where Dong Hua transfers his remaining energy to her. Hence why she suddenly wakes up when he is unconscious. Dong Hua asks her to forget him (his gratitude to her for making him feel love is also deleted) but she refuses. Eventually she passes out too. Their spilt blood mixes and cleanses the whole valley.

The Biyiniaos make peace with the Bai clan and move into Qingqiu.

Xiao Yan returns to Jiheng, who confesses her love to him. I am neither impressed nor convinced.

Feng Jiu is in a coma. Dong Hua is currently tending to her at Bihai, which receives plenty of guests! Xie Guchou brings Gun Gun, whose appearance surprises everybody, except maybe Zhe Yan.

Dong Hua does not recognise who Gun Gun is at first, despite the matching hair and Gun Gun falling Feng Jiu his mother. Then after introducing themselves, Dong Hua finally realizes Gun Gun is his son and introduces himself as his father.

Time skip to the happy family living happily ever after.

What I like

The happy family moment. Dong Hua realizes just how much he missed in those 200 years.

DongFeng reuniting.

Chonglin getting blasted back by the starlight ward. It’s petty but I want karma for him lashing out at Feng Jiu in the last episode.

What I dislike

Dong Hua’s poisoned veins are creepy!

Seriously...they had to delete DongFeng scenes in the finale?! And they couldn’t add the extra epilogue to the DVD?

I don’t like Jiheng getting a happy ending. She is going to be empress and gets a decent husband after all she did to DongFeng? Seriously? She doesn’t even show any regret for what they went through! Plus I am so not convinced by her sudden change of character. It would have been better for her last appearance to be Dong Hua curing her of the poison, if only so the above mentioned deleted scenes could have made an appearance.

Bai Zhen is older? Higher in rank and power than Lian Song. So why is the latter taking the lead?

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 1-The Strange Stranger from China/Enter Ranma

Alright, time to really start this thing off with the first episode, “The Strange Stranger from China”. I...don’t remember that being the name of the episode, but it has been about a decade since I last saw the series.

I feel like I remember what happens in this episode pretty well, it should just be an introduction to (some) of the main cast and kick of the dynamic between the two leads, but I could be wrong. Let’s see after the break, once I have rewatched the episode!

Okay first things first, the Opening. Musically, this song has always sat in a weird spot for me. It’s really freaking catchy and memorable, but it’s also kind of annoying? Like, there is a fine line between a great ear worm and a song you actually want out of your head, and “Don’t Make Me Wild Like You” by Etsuki Nishio is like right on that line. There are parts of it I think are adorably entertaining, like the whistle, and other parts where I kind of cringe. It’s not my favorite opening song of the series, but it’s not bad either.

Visually, it is Okay with a capital O. There is a reason Mother’s Basement has never done a feature on it. It is mostly just the cast running in place over pastel backgrounds, and some of them have the coloring that’s very different from what would end up being used later on once they appeared. That said, I have to give infinite props to Akane’s little snapping dance, because it is freaking adorable and I love ever frame of it.

Also, the title. What I said it was earlier, “The Strange Stranger from China”, was what Hulu has it listed as, and from what I can tell that was what it was listed as on DVD. From what I can tell from my expert translator, Mr. Google Translate, it’s kind of similar to the Japanese title, which says it is “He's from China!! A little weird!!”. But in the episode, the dub says the episode is “Here’s Ranma” which is what I remember it being. So...yeah. Apparently at some point they wanted to retcon the english title of the episode, but never changed the dub track to match.

So, what’s the episode about? Hell, what is this show even about? Well, the episode starts with a feminine person with red hair fighting a panda in the street, arguing about being betrothed to someone against their will, while onlookers watch in confusion. Then the panda knocks them out, and carries them away. Cut to the Tendo family estate, where Soun Tendo has received news that Ranma Saotome and his father Genma will soon be coming, and gathers his three daughters to explain the situation.

You see, in addition to being fairly well off in general, Soun is the owner of a dojo for the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts, and his best friend and fellow practitioner of the same art, Genma, made an agreement years ago to bind their families in marriage. Thus, Ranma will marry one of Soun’s three daughters. From oldest to youngest, they’re Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane, who is the only one of the three to practice martial arts herself. When Soun reveals he has never met Ranma and has no idea what he’s like, his daughters are kind of pissed that their dad promised one of them would have to marry him, which is pretty fair.

Instead of the middle-aged man and teenage boy they expected, the red-head from before is dragged in by the panda, and they explain they are Ranma Saotome, to everyone’s confusion. Based on their body, everyone assumes Ranma is a girl, and Ranma and Akane actually become fast friends, sparring in the dojo. But after Akane has a surprise bathroom encounter with a very masculine Ranma that involves him seeing her naked, and vice versa, they learn the truth.

See, Ranma and his dad were in China training when they visited Jusenkyo, a seeming hot spring tourist trap, only to each fall in a different spring while practicing fighting there. Turns out all the water there is cursed because things kept drowning in the springs a long time ago. Now they’re both cursed. They each transform when cold water is poured on their heads, into a feminine body for Ranma and a panda’s body for Genma, and turned back with hot water.

Once that’s all out in the open, everyone except Ranma and Akane thinks that, since Akane doesn’t like guys, she would be the perfect fiance for Ranma since he is ‘half girl’. Akane is still upset with Ranma, both because she has a lot of issues with men and feels betrayed that Ranma never said he was really a guy, and also because he saw her naked. Ranma claims it isn’t a problem because he can look at himself anytime and he’s more stacked, and the dynamic of Akane hitting Ranma for the asshole-ish things he says is born.

So, lots of stuff to talk about for an analysis. I think I’ll go with a compliment sandwich, bundling up what was rough for me around what I liked or thought was particularly interesting. To start with, aside from a few places where there was clear corner-cutting of reusing animation and kind of needless flashbacks, I liked the animation. The original mangka, Rumiko Takahashi, has really great character designs, and I love seeing her personal art style brought to life by the animation of Studio DEEN, a group I am not super used to complimenting.

In terms of plot, I think it’s a pretty strong opener. It introduces a lot of the main cast, even if some of them are depicted fairly broadly and not shown as the characters they’d one day become. This might sound odd, but I also really appreciate how female nudity is handled. Maybe it’s just because, if anything, the way most anime handle ‘fanservice’ has just gotten more and more over-the-top as the years go by, but the way Ranma 1/2 handled it feels like a breath of breath air.

See, in most modern anime, full blown nudity of either sex is never shown. Instead, feminine characters’ bodies are incredibly sexualized, with lots of emphasis put on the breasts and other body parts, without ever giving the full game away. By contrast, this episode contained several example of the feminine form shown completely nude, but it wasn’t treated like some mind-blowingly sexy thing, it was just kinda shown without much fanfare. I’ve currently watching the original Mobile Suit Gundam, which came out around the same time, and it actually does the same thing a few times. It feels more similar to how nudity is treated in, say, paintings or sculpture, more tasteful, and I just kind of think it’s neat.

What is definitely less neat...is the music. If I had to throw out right away my biggest gripe with the show, it is the OST. Not all of it, there are a few bits near the end of the episode that are actually really good, they’re the kind of music I remember being in the show. But the more silly, goofy tracks more common in the first half of the episode really don’t work for me. They remind me of the generic ‘Silly Person’ theme songs from the Ace Attorney games, and maybe it’s just me, but those kind of background music always take me out of the experience and grate on my nerves. That’s actually my only big issue so far, but it did make both times watching this episode genuinely hard to get through at points, it annoys me that much.

Now, I will say right now that I will be referring to Ranma using male pronouns regardless of whether he’s in his cursed form or not, and I won’t call him a ‘girl’ or a ‘woman’. If you didn’t know, sex and gender are not actually the same thing, so even if his physical sex is changed to fit someone who would be Assigned Female at Birth, his internal gender doesn’t change. No matter how Ranma looks, he thinks of himself as a man.

Corollary to that, it was this time going through this episode that I realized something that I’d never thought of before: Ranma’s experience in this episode, and in some ways throughout the series, is actually a lot like that of a transgender man’s. Ranma shows up at the Tendo’s estate and they all see him as a girl because of how he looks, only for him to reveal his actual gender. When he’s hanging out with Akane, and she thinks he is actually a girl, and they’re getting along, there’s a part where she tells Ranma that she’s so happy he turned out not to be a boy, and you can see Ranma’s facial expression, he doesn’t want to hear that. Clearly, yes, you can read that as Ranma wincing at the fact that she’s in for a rude awakening later on, but it also gives off the same kind of vibes closeted trans people experience when they’re misgendered by people they know.

In fact, when you think about how his curse really affects Ranma, when he’s in his cursed form, he effectively is a trans man. He still identifies as a guy, but his body has been changed so that it no longer represents who he sees himself as inside. It just felt like an interesting real life parallel in this episode, and I’m interested to see if I feel it shows up more later on. But for now, let’s move on to character spotlight.

For the first spotlight, I thought I should center on the titular Ranma Saotome. Obviously this won’t be the only time I focus on him, he’ll get more spotlight pieces as the series develops, so right now I’ll try to focus on the Ranma we see in just this one episode.

To start with, who plays him? Well, that’s a funny story, actually. Not only does Ranma, due to his curse, have different voice actors in each language for his cursed and non-cursed forms, but in the English Dub they recast his masculine body’s voice actor after three seasons. I’ll talk about that voice actor, Richard Ian Cox, once we get to when he actually becomes Ranma’s voice actor, so let’s start with the masculine form’s VA’s.

Now, the Ranma I first met when I was a teenager was Sarah Strange, a Canadian Voice Actress who is not known for much else. Her Ranma has mostly been the one I think of in my head when I think of the character. A little nasaly, her take on the character is very average joe, very ordinary high schooler. There’s some brashness to it, sure, but it’s actually kind of a subdued version of Ranma. Looking at it now, I actually feel like both of Ranma’s masculine form’s voice actors don’t quite fit the character, but for opposite reasons. Sarah Strange’s voice is so normal sounding that it dampens the more extreme parts of his character, Ranma at his most arrogant and egotistical. Like I said, I’ll cover Richard Ian Cox when he takes over the role, but I’ll say in brief here that his version of Ranma is the polar opposite, too over-the-top and aggressive.

In contrast, his original Japanese voice actor, Kappei Yamaguchi, feels a lot better to me, at least so far. Again, this is basically my first time seeing the series subbed, so I’ve only heard him for one episode as opposed to the 3 seasons I had with Sarah Strange. Still, Kappei’s take on Ranma is just as normal sounding as Sarah’s, but I felt like I could already hear a little more of the more emotional side of the character I felt Sarah never quite managed to capture properly.

As for Ranma’s cursed form, I was kind of confused, because the voice I was hearing in the episode wasn’t the one I remembered. For a while, I thought she must have just grown into the role over time, but it turns out that is not the case. For the first six episodes of the show, he was played by Brigitta Dau, who was then replaced with Venus Terzo. Now, I did not know this until literally right now, as I am typing this, so I feel like I don’t actually have much to say about Brigitta. Her performance felt a little off to me, but not bad. Venus, though, really owns the role once she takes over. Her performance as red-headed Ranma has always felt perfect for me, selling the idea that this is a teenage guy in a feminine body, and she’s really good at selling Ranma at his most dickish.

In Japanese, this form of Ranma is played by Megumi Hayashibara. Now, I would never ever say she did a bad job, but from what I saw of her in this episode, I don’t know how much I actually like her as Ranma. Maybe it’s just the pitch of her voice, but she doesn’t sound quite to me like a guy in a feminine body, but just like a very emotional teenage girl. Of course, I do not speak Japanese and it’s a lot harder to really judge acting in a language you don’t understand, so I could be spouting utter nonsense, but that’s my thoughts on her as of this episode.

In terms of Ranma’s character, they don’t really give much away with this first episode. We know he’s a good fighter, has a difficult relationship with his father, doesn’t like his curse and wants to get rid of it, and has enough stubbornness to butt heads with Akane and stand his ground. I also felt like they did a good job telegraphing Ranma’s general fighting style during his sparring match with Akane. He spent the entire time dodging her attacks with incredible ease, which emphasizes his speed. Generally speaking, I’d describe Ranma as a very agile, thinking-on-his feet kind of fighter, but that’s something we’ll see more of in later episodes. I was going to do a big thing about his personality, but I feel like anything more than what I’ve said hasn’t really borne out in what we have, so I’ll wait for another time to do that.

Like I said in my Introduction post, I will be ranking each episode as they appear, and as this is the only one I’ve seen in the rewatch, it is both the best one and the worst one so far. The real question is how it will stand up next time, when I’ll be able to compare it to the second episode, “School is No Place for Horsing Around”. See you then!

[goldenkamuyhunting]

Manga vs Anime: Episode 25 “To Karafuto”

So the new series as started and this time I won’t just ramble about it but also compare it to the manga.

So let’s start with Ep 1 of the 3rd series… which is the 25 Golden Kamuy animated episode.

Some data first.

This episode last 23:40 minutes. There’s no opening, or better what will become the opening song for the series is used as ending. The episode covers the last panel of chap 139 and 4 other chapters of the manga, chap 140, 141, 142 & 143 for a total of around 70 pages (I’m discounting the covers) basically ending Volume 14 and the first part of Vol 15.

The episode is titled ‘To Karafuto’, which is actually the title of chap 139, chap 140 being ‘An Ainu girl’, chap 141 being ‘Karafuto Ainu’, chap 142 being ‘The village of resident Russians’ and chap 143 being ‘Stenka’.

And now into the anime.

INTRO

Manga: We see the boat approaching Karafuto and someone saying they’re arriving.

Anime: We get some bits from Ep 24 as some sort of preview. Wilk says to Sugimoto it wasn’t him who killed the Ainu then starts asking him to tell something to Asirpa about the gold when he’s shoot. Sugimoto hurries to use Wilk body to cover himself but he’s shoot as well. Asirpa, on top of a roof, screams his name then everything goes dark. We then see Sugimoto holding Asirpa’s menomakiri. A porthole shows the sea as Sugimoto, inside a boat, is sitting on a hammock. The door opens to show Tsukishima, telling him they’re there. Gulls fly on the sky. On the bridge of the boat we can see Koito Heiji, his son, Tanigaki and some other sailors. Then, we see Sugimoto also standing there, Tsukishima behind him as the boat approaches Karafuto.

My two cents: Although I’ve included that one panel of the manga as correspondent to this whole scene in the anime, you might say this anime scene was created for the anime to introduce the new series, showing the important elements that’s relevant we remember, like Wilk’s death, Sugimoto getting shoot, Sugimoto having Asirpa’s Menomakiri and travelling to Karafuto with Koito, Tsukishima and Tanigaki. At first I was a bit displeased to see the story start with recycled footage from the last episode but we start with new footage almost immediately and I’ll say the idea to create this scene to introduce like this the situation we’re in is good, considering the long pause the anime took. There’s no really equivalent in the manga, the most we get is a panel showing the boat and saying they’re reaching Karafuto. I’ll be honest and I’ll say I was worried they would start from the dumb dream that showed Asirpa and Sugimoto’s magical mental connection at the end of ep 24. That one wasn’t a great idea, especially considering Asirpa doesn’t believe in dreams so I’m glad the anime pretended it didn’t take place. Now, while I praise this idea I’ll be honest and say it also causes a continuity problem because a ferry, who’s much slower than the boat Sugimoto is on, takes three hours to go from Hokkaido to Karafuto. Sugimoto, in ep 24, was shown on the bridge of the boat, about to reach destination. The fact he went inside and needed to be called by Tsukishima feels a bit weird. Whatever, it’s not a big deal and maybe no one remember how Ep 24 ended after all this time. On another side the anime couldn’t help but put a great remark on Sugimoto. The way the camera zoom on him as he’s on the bridge, as well as how all the other characters seem to stand behind him, really gives the impression he’s the leader. Whatever, it’s no big deal and it gives a certain atmosphere so okay, so far it’s good.

CHAPTER 139 ENDS HERE.

THE GOLDEN KAMUY WRITING IS SHOWN HERE

THE BOYS ARE IN ODOMARI

Manga & Anime: Tanigaki comments how they got there quickly. We get some info about Karafuto before Tanigaki says there are good chance Kiro and the others also went there. Tsukishima tells Koito he can’t carry with himself all his luggage, Koito protest when a case opens suddenly, showing Cikapasi and Ryu. It’s decided the two of them will remain with then, under Tanigaki’s responsibility.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the anime we see Tanigaki pulling out Cikapasi from the case and rest his hands on Cikapasi’s shoulders. Nothing of the sort happen in the manga where Cikapasi’s nose, differently from the anime, was running.

- In the anime Tanigaki frowns when Cikapasi says he doesn’t have a home/a place to return. In the manga this isn’t included.

- In the manga when Tsukishima says that he doesn’t plan to babysit more children, Koito is looking at him from behind him and Tsukisihima seems to be about to go in the opposite direction to the one Koito is looking at. In the anime they’re both staring at Cikapasi, Koito in front of Tsukishima, turning toward Tsukishima as the latter finished speaking.

- In the manga after Tsukishima says that he doesn’t plan to babysit more children he immediately adds that Cikapasi is Tanigaki’s responsibility. Sugimoto then says that he doesn’t know about Cikapasi but Ryu helped them often. In the anime when Tsukishima says he doesn’t plan to babysit more children, Sugimoto replies that Ryu helped them often so they should carry him with them. Tanigaki then says than in Karafuto there should be Ainu so Cikapasi could be useful as well. Cikapasi smiles at that and Tsukishima says Tanigaki will have to take responsibility for them.

My two cents: It’s not bad. Although there aren’t all the close up of the manga, expressions are visible and well cared enough and I’ve to say I also like many anime choices, like showing Tanigaki walking next to Sugimoto when he says Kiro could have gotten there, showing that Tanigaki feels closer to him in this hunt than to Tsukishima and Koito. Koito’s reaction to the idea of leaving behind his cases is a little over the top in the anime and this bit is overall weak but can work. I like his face when he sees Cikapasi and Ryu. I love how Tanigaki runs to where Cikapasi is, how he pulls him out of the case, kneel next to him and hold his hands on Cikapasi’s shoulders. I also love how he suggests Cikapasi can be useful. In the anime Tanigaki seems to care much more for Cikapasi than in the manga where Tanigaki is just there, saying nothing and being entrusted Cikapasi. Koito’s expression when Tsukishima says he won’t babysit any more kids is fun. On another note though, while in the manga it seemed Tsukishima just discharged Cikapasi to Tanigaki, here it seems more likes he surrendered to Tanigaki’s wish to keep Cikapasi. On a sidenote though I found the music completely unfitting for such a scene. It had something… tense, mysterious, that seemed to make the moment more important than it was.

THIS IS WHEN WE’RE SHOWN THE TITLE OF THE EPISODE

SEARCHING THROUGH THE CITY

Manga & Anime: Sugimoto suggests asking around in the city and starts showing a photo, thinking it’s Asirpa’s and asking people if they saw her. It’s Tanigaki’s photo though. Tsukishima and Tanigaki also asks around and Sugimoto wonders if Inkarmat’s info was correct and Asirpa really came to Karafuto. Tsukishima then realizes they’ve lost Koito. Turns out Koito is in a shop, trying Hurep wine. Tsukishima scolds him for leaving them with no result. Sugimoto insults him and Koito tosses Hurep on him. Sugimoto throws him a glass and the two start fighting. The woman in the shop notices Cikapasi and points out he’s the second Ainu kid she saw that day. Sugimoto thinks the kid she saw could be Asirpa and shows him her photo. The woman claims it’s her and that she just left to go back to the Ainu village.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga Sugimoto comments on how the fact in Karafuto is snowing a month earlier than in Hokkaido means the winter is longer and colder there. In the anime this is cut.

- In the manga when Tsukishima finds Koito he sighs and he’s sweating a little. No such thing happens in the anime.

- In the manga when Sugimoto jumps on Koito, Koito’s face is well visible and it’s clear Tsukishima is trying to part them. In the anime we can’t see Koito’s face  and it’s not so clear what Tsukishima is doing. Kotio’s face becomes visible and it’s clear Tsukishima is parting them only when the woman says she saw another Ainu child, making it seems as if Tsukishima decided for parting them and Koito stood more upward just due to this.

My two cents: Somehow I don’t particularly like Koito’s expressions. They’re similar to the manga but they don’t seem to deliver the same nuance. Mind you, the anime shows the expressions so it’s not so bad and it can be they’ll improve them for the dvd release but for now they feel slightly off. Still, the more the story goes on, the more I feel they hadn’t nailed Koito. Maybe that’s why because he had a too little role in the previous series and the animators just don’t know what to do with him but his funny moment just don’t deliver the same vibe, nor does his behaviour as bonbon.

CHASING ASIRPA

Manga & Anime: The group runs out of the shop, in the direction Asirpa supposedly took. They met a Russian person who points then to a direction an Ainu girl just took, warning them that she went into the wood where there are bears and an animal more dangerous than them. They run there to search for her but find Enonoka and realize the woman mistook her for Asirpa. Cikapasi asks her why she’s there and Enonoka explains it, albeit not in perfect Japanese. Koito translates her words better. Enonoka then claims she met a young Ainu girl from Hokkaido

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga, although it’ll become clear the others run in search of Asirpa too, at first we see only Sugimoto doing so, in the anime we see all them doing so, Sugimoto leading, second Tsukishima, then Tanigaki and after Koito. However, in the following scenes that shows Sugimoto running we see no one behind him, not when the image is frontal nor when the camera is behind him.

- In the manga we don’t know who talked about the Ainu village being distant but in the anime it’s Tsukishima.

- The manga merely shows Sugimoto surprised Tsukishima can speak Russian, in the anime, probably knowing showing emotions isn’t their strength, they have him also comment on it.

- The manga explains the situation of Russian people in Karafuto. The anime prefers to show us a bit of Tsukishima and the Russian man’s dialogue.

- The manga showed Sugimoto from behind as he called Asirpa while the anime preferred to focus on his very worried expression.

- When Tanigaki says he has found child footsteps in the manga Sugimoto turns in the direction Tanigaki is pointing and sees Enonoka. In the anime he runs desperately until he finds Enonoka.

- In the manga, after Sugimoto turns because he saw someone (Enonoka), we get a full page with Enonoka turning, her pose hinting she did so in mid movement as she likely was chasing after he grandfather. In the anime Enonoka is standing still and when she turn a lot of emphasis is put on the move as there’s a lot of shining around her.

- In the manga Sugimoto is immediately disappointed to see Enonoka isn’t Asirpa. In the anime he first seems surprised then disappointed.

- In the manga Enonoka is serious as she explains why she’s there. In the anime she starts serious but then starts smiling.

My two cents: The anime keeps on showing Koito running behind all them which makes no sense considering he’s the fastest runner.

While it’s good the anime focuses on expressions and it’s nice to see Sugimoto so worried for Asirpa when he thinks she’s in the wood, in a way it doesn’t really make sense as Sugimoto knows she’s a hunter and trusts her ability as hunter. From the emphasis they put on Sugimoto’s worry for Asirpa, even showing him running in slow motion to remark his effort as we hear him panting hard, it seems he’s searching just a defenceless little girl, not the girl he trusts to be able to take care of a bear on her own. The shining lights around Enonoka and Enonoka only are a bit weird, they seem the special effect you use in shojo anime to introduce the heroine. I stand my case, somehow Koito gives me a different vibe than in the manga but maybe it’s just me. I’ll say I appreciated the anime new trend to show expressions, for example when Tsukishima says the bear is being strange we can see Sugimoto’s expression as he notices the bear is bleeding.

ENTER THE WOLVERINE

Manga & Anime: Enonoka tells Cikapasi she met a young Ainu girl from Hokkaido. Sugimoto would like to ask her if she’s Asirpa but Ryu starts barking and they notice he’s looking at a bear, which is acting strange. A small animal fell off the bear. It’s a wolverine which attack Koito.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga when Enonoka says she met a Hokkaido Ainu girl, both Tsukishima and Sugimoto grow interested, Sugimoto showing her Asirpa’s photo. Then Ryu starts barking and Tanigaki turns. In the anime Sugimoto is the one who shows interest while Tsukishima is the one who turns as he hears Ryu barking.

- In the manga, after they noticed the bear, we can see Tsukishima preparing his rifle as he says to get the children behind them, then the bear, then Sugimoto and Tsukishima pointing their rifle at it, Sugimoto ready at shooting at it. In the anime, after they noticed the bear, we can see Tsukishima and Sugimoto pointing their rifles at it as Tsukishima says to get the children behind them, then Tanigaki, rifle lowered, moving in front of Cikapasi who’s in front of Enonoka, then the bear, then Sugimoto and Tsukishima pointing their rifle at it, Sugimoto not really taking aim as he did in the manga.

- In the manga Koito looks mocking when he says the wolverine seems weak in the anime disappointed.

My two cents: It’s actually bad when Tanigaki places himself in front of the children but keep his rifle lowered, clearly not ready to shoot and he still has his rifle lowered when the wolverine, which clearly was attacking the bear, falls near Koito.

In the manga it’s implied Tanigaki had his rifle ready to fire when the bear was around, although he raised it when the bear escaped. Although in the anime Sugimoto looks surprised when he realizes it was the wolverine which attacked the bear, in the manga this is a lot more visible. Tsukishima also seems a lot more alert in the manga than in the anime. Again, maybe it’s just me but I keep on getting a different vibe from Koito than the one I got in the manga.

CHAPTER 140 ENDS HERE.

ESCAPING THE WOLVERINE

Manga & Anime: We get some explanation about which animal is the one they met. Tsukishima kicks the wolverine away, tries to shoot it but fails. The wolverine tries to attack Enonoka but Cikapasi protects her and Sugimoto rips the wolverine away from him before it could bite Cikapasi. He then entrusts the kids to Tanigaki claiming the girls has info on Asirpa. Afterward he tosses the wolverine but Tsukishima fails again to hit it. The group escapes, chased by the wolverine. Sugimoto fails on shooting it when Enonoka’s grandfather arrives and they climb on his sled, managing to distance the wolverine. However the old man said they’re too heavy and so Sugimoto  tosses Tanigaki off the sled.

There are just some minor differences:

- In the manga explanations include the differences between animals in Karafuto and Hokkaido. This is cut in the anime. Explanations about the wolverine are also shorter.

- In the manga it seems the wolverine is biting Koito’s back, in the anime, even though there’s blood, it’s clear the wolverine is biting Koito’s coat while on Koito’s back.

- In the manga it’s clear Tanigaki grabbed the children. In the anime it seems the children were pushed against him, which is not possible as Sugimoto was holding the wolverine right then. So maybe it’s just me.

- In the manga the sled doesn’t stop to pick them up but they climb on it while it’s running. In the anime they stop it.

- In the manga isn’t clear if it’s Koito’s words about him having gotten fast or Sugimoto’s groping who caused Tanigaki to flush while in the anime it’s clear it’s Sugimoto groping.

- In the manga when Tanigaki is tossed off the sled his buttocks jiggle, in an attempt to make the scene funny. The anime who’s still playing a dramatic music instead freeze the scene, with Koito saying ‘Tanigaki first class’ after a pause as if attempting to make it dramatic… for humoristic purpose.

My two cents: The anime has previously depicted Tanigaki close to the kids, which wasn’t in the manga. Now it plays the scene of the wolverine’s attack to Enonoka as it’s in the manga, in which Tanigaki was nowhere to be seen… but as in the anime we know he’s near them, it makes him look worthless when Enonoka is protected by Cikapasi and Cikapasi by Sugimoto without Tanigaki doing nothing but receiving the kids from Sugimoto. After Sugimoto fires and misses for some reason the anime decides to show they have ALL stopped running, which is dumb, especially considering the wolverine is running toward them and Tanigaki is even giving it his back.

In the anime the fact the characters first and the sled after, stop running is particularly bad because the wolverine, which in the anime is also defined fast, should have reached them at that point and instead it doesn’t. While I can’t really say I found the scene of tossing Tanigaki off the sled fun in the manga, it impresses me even less in the anime but maybe it’s just me. And again Koito feels a bit off to me.

ABASHIRI

THIS PART DOESN’T EXIST IN THE MANGA

Anime: At the Abashiri hospital Usami informs Tsurumi they couldn’t find Hijikata’s group nor corpses resembling them.

Tsurumi is brushing a tattooed skin against his cheek, the other on display on a bed. Tsurumi comments Hijikata is a tough old man but there’s no hurry as Hijikata will show up.

The scene switches and we see Hijikata’s group (Toni still unconscious on Ushiyama’s back and Kadokura with his arm bandaged) reaching Nagakura.

Nagakura is happy to see Hijikata is still alive...

...as he feared he died but hoped that, if the latter where to be alive, he would have hid in the place in which Inudou hid Nopperabou so he’d been keeping an eye on the lecture hall each day. Hijikata says they’ve info on the prisoners so they would head to Kushiro. Kadokura turns to Abashiri to point out that prisoners and guards are all dead and wonders if the gold was worth all this.

Hijikata says it’s not the gold they want but what lies beyond it. And the same is true for the others and that everyone believes what the others are doing is right.

At this we’re shown an image of Tsurumi looking at the skins greedily and of the Karafuto group, Tanigaki still chasing the sled.

My two cents: The idea of the scene is good, the fact Usami is so far from the camera as he speaks we can’t even see it’s him, it’s not. Luckily they show his face and Tsurumi short after. The scene of Tanigaki running after the sled is horrible. Anyway, the scene with Tsurumi rubbing himself against the skins is likely partly inspired to when, in chap 139, Tsurumi was rubbing himself against the tattooed skins, albeit since he has done it in ep 24 too, I find useless to show it here as it seems to imply he kept on doing that for days. It was much better if he were studying the skins. On the other side the rest of whole bit, plot wise, is a very good addition. I was genuinely displeased the manga skipped this so that it didn’t seem like Tsurumi searched for Hijikata, and the moment of the reunion between Hijikata and Nagakura was also completely skipped so we moved on them being together abruptly when they show up in Kushiro. Also I take their mention of Kushiro means the anime might show the Youichirou arc and not skip it altogether. Let’s hope so. Also the colouring in the scene is nice, I love the sunset.

THE ANIME PLACES HERE AN EYECATCH

THE AINU VILLAGE

Manga and anime: We get some explanation about Ainu, and, more specifically, about Karafuto Ainu. Koito’s wound gets treated. Enonoka asks Cikapasi his name and tells him her own. At Sugimoto claiming they could have named Enonoka differently, she says the Ainu girl that came from Hokkaido also are hurep at their house. She recognizes Asirpa and tells Sugimoto she was with three men. She confirms to Tanigaki Kiro was one of them and that he said they were heading north. Sugimoto asks if Asirpa was well and Enonoka says she was very sad and silent but she ate the hurep they served. Sugimoto tries it too. Enonoka says eating the hurep cheered Asirpa up and she smiled and said ‘hinna’. Sugimoto says this means it’s Asirpa for sure and that now they’re sure she came to Karafuto.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga the scene starts with Tanigaki being already at the village, seated on the ground and panting. In the anime we see him walking, coming to a stop and sitting down, looking much more worn out than in the manga.

- In the manga, when the old man put bear fat on Koito’s wound we can’t see Koito’s back and therefore e can’t see his wound. In the anime we can… but there’s no wound.

- In the manga Kiro’s face is partially darkened (not that it can be seen wella s Kiro is giving us his back) while in the anime it’s in full light (even though Kiro keeps on giving us his back).

My two cents: It’s not bad. While certain scenes could have benefitted of showing close up of the characters, it more or less transposes everything faithfully

KIRORANKE’S DESTINATION

THIS PART DOESN’T EXIST IN THE MANGA

Anime: This scene is supposedly a continuation of the previous in which Enonoka reports her grandfather says the Ainu girl and the men were asking about the Russian village near their own. At this Sugimoto and Tanigaki turns toward the old man who nods. Koito and Tsukishima exchange a glance and the same happens to Sugimoto and Tanigaki before they nod to each other. We then see the roof of the house, the sky showing us Night has fallen.

My two cents: In the manga we learnt this by a discussion the boys had the morning after while the anime preferred to insert it here. The idea wouldn’t be bad… it could actually be very good… but the execution is poor. The transition from the previous scene is horrible, they tries to avoid having us hear the old man talking in Ainu by skipping to Asirpa translating his words, but it’s just too abrupt and you have to reason to understand she’s translating and not merely continuing the previous conversation. So, while I praise the idea, I hope the anime will handle it better in the future.

CHAPTER 141 ENDS HERE.

HIRING ENONOKA’S GRANDFATHER

Manga & Anime: Koito negotiate with Enonoka to hire her grandfather and his sleds.

My two cents: In the manga it works to keep Enonoka and Koito silent but in the anime it just feels weird we don’t hear their voice. While Cikapasi singing is also present in the manga, in the anime his scene feels abrupt and a waste of time.

THE RUSSIAN VILLAGE

Manga and anime: The group travels to the Russian village. Tsukishima warns them about how the Russians there could be criminals. In the bar Tsukishima asks if people had seen Kiroranke. A drunken Russian tells them to leave. Sugimoto claims he doesn’t understand what he’s saying and tells Tsukishima to tell him if he touches him, he’ll knock him down. The Russian tries to attack Sugimoto and, ultimately, is knocked down. The boy leave the bar, Sugimoto claiming the place is worthless.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga we get explanations about dog sleds and ethnic groups using them. In the anime this is cut.

- In the manga, once they arrived to the village, Enonoka would tell them her grandfather said Asirpa’s group asked about the village they’re in. This is cut in the anime as they added a scene of them in Enonoka’s house discussing this.

- In the manga, the group listen to Tsukishima standing still. In the anime they move toward the bar as Tsukishima talks.

- In the manga Tsukishima’s face darkens when the Russian guy asks him why Japanese soldiers are in their village. In the anime he also lowers his head, seeming even more annoyed than the manga.

- In the manga the impression is that the Russian guy has moved closer to Sugimoto. In the anime is clear he has moved closer to Tsukishima and Sugimoto had gotten in between the two.

- In the manga the scene seems faster, as we have the impression Sugimoto immediately puched the guy as the other grabbed him. In the anime the scene is slower as the guy grabs him, the camera pans on Sugimoto who frowns and then punches him.

- In the manga Sugimoto is leading the group when they leave, Tanigaki looking behind worriedly and Tsukishima and Koito walking while frowning. In the anime, although Sugimoto is still walking ahead the others are just following him calmly, as if nothing had happened.

My two cents: Honestly I don’t particularly like the anime choice of having Sugimoto getting in between Tsukishima and the Russian. In the manga it made sense he would tell Tsukishima to tell him not to touch him or he’ll beat him because the Russian seemed to plan to attack him but in the anime it seems Sugimoto has gotten in between to protect Tsukishima and, with his words, he’s challenging the other to touch him. Also slowing the start of the fight, while giving more emphasis to Sugimoto at the same time make him look more violent. In the manga the quick scene seems to tell us that Sugimoto just reacted fast so as not to be attacked. As in the anime the Russian didn’t immediately attack him but just grabbed him, Sugimoto seems to be overreacting. The idea of also having the group walk away calmly makes the scene underwhelming and cold.

THE DOG STEALING

Manga and anime: As the group wonder why Kiroranke came there Enonoka reaches them complaining their dog was stolen. She explains what had happened and we get an explanation about sled dogs. The Russian guy who distracted Enonoka and her grandfather shows up and tell them to come with him.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga Enonoka seems to run as fast as she can seriously, in the anime it seems more a humoristic scene.

- In the manga when Enonoka explains what happens we can see her grandfather is distressed. The same isn’t true for the anime where the scene is shown from afar and with the camera above them.

- In the manga the explanation about the Isohseta is in a box. In the anime Tanigaki asks what an Isohseta is and Tsukishima explains him, giving him a much more summarized explanation than the manga.

My two cents: The lack of expression of Enonoka’s grandfather is a real annoyance in the anime. The poor guy is just a background figure.

BACK TO THE BAR

Manga & Anime: The owner of the bar claims if they want the dog back they’ve to join the stenka. It turns out that the man Sugimoto punched should have taken part to it but with a swollen eye can’t anymore so he wants Sugimoto to take his place. Sugimoto says he doesn’t care and wants to threaten him and the same goes for Koito. Tsukishima though claims he can’t translate their complicate sentences. The Russian guy tell them he knows Kiroranke and the others were searching for a tattooed man who came from Hokkaido and the tattooed guy might show up to the stenka. Sugimoto comments this means the tattooed prisoners have found their way to Karafuto.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga when the Russian man tell them about Kiro his dialogue is at first untranslated, and we can only see Tsukishima’s surprised face before hearing him translate it. In the anime they subtitled it.

- In the manga Tanigaki sweats as he comments that’s why Kiro came there. In the anime he does not.

My two cents: Honestly, subtitling what the Russian guy said takes away the surprise of hearing it from Tsukishima, making the scene more flat and since they left the part in which Tsukishima translate all that the guy is saying, it’s a bit useless.

THE STENKA

Manga & Anime: The Russian takes them to the place in which the stenka is taking place. The guys still don’t know what it is and, once shown, we’re surprised. We get some explanations on how this is a traditional Russian sport.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga Sugimoto decides they’ve no choice but join it, albeit Tsukishima is surprised by his saying ‘we’. In the anime there’s no such scene as the guys will express their disagreement in taking part to it later.

My two cents: When the anime shows people fighting, he recycles some scenes. This is not so great. On a more positive note I somehow like the colouring of the scene. Also I’m fine with cutting the part of Sugimoto saying they’ve to take part to it and Tsukishima being surprised by the ‘we’ because it will be discussed later, both in the manga and in the anime so in the anime it would become redundant.

CHAPTER 142 ENDS HERE.

ACCEPTING TO JOIN THE STENKA

Manga and anime: Tsukishima translates the info the man gave them about the stenka and how the man who first started gambling on it was the Japanese man with the tattoo. The Russian man says the man isn’t there yet and only comes to fight strong people so he won’t show up if there aren’t adversaries he likes. Sugimoto says then they’ll have to join the stenka and draw him into a match. Koito and Tanigaki points on how Kiro’s group gave up on him but Sugimoto insists, saying it will be a pain if they let such a guy escape so he wants them to take part to the stenka. Tsukishima and the others express their disagreement but then the Russian guy says he only wants Sugimoto to fight in the stenka because he thinks Japanese, apart from Sugimoto, are weak, which fires up Koito, Tanigaki and Tsukishima’s fighting spirit.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga, when explanations are given we see the men fighting. In the anime we see Gansoku moving close to the place.

- In the manga Sugimoto asks if the tattooed Japanese is there, Tsukishima translates his question for him and the Russian shakes his head. As the manga shows people fighting, it’s implied the Russian said to Tsukishima what Tsukishima then said, making Tsukishima’s words a translation. In the anime Sugimoto makes his question, the Russian shakes his head and Tsukishima explains the guy only fight the strong.

My two cents: This is transposed faithfully enough and I love how they made Sugimoto’s voice sound muffled due to the skewer going through his cheeks. Not translating Sugimoto’s words give the impression the Russian understand Japanese. We can stretch thing and assume he told Tsukishima before , what Tsukishima will reply but still the scene isn’t that good. Although in the scene in which they’re drawn Nihei and Henmi’s pose are similar to the one in the manga, in the anime it seems more like they’re together, with Henmi watching Nihei as if they were some sort of friends. That’s just weird. Also I don’t see why there’s this weird obsession of showing scene from above instead than from a frontal position. It really doesn’t improve things if we can see the top of the characters’ head and their expressions come as less visible in this way.

THE STENKA

Manga and anime: Sugimoto’s group take part to the stenka. A Russian player makes fun of Tsukishima due to his short height. Sugimoto’s group tells us what the stenka is for them. They fight and win, watched by Gansoku. Sugimoto’s group win the stenka and Tsukishima helps the Russian to get up. As people cheer on them Sugimoto notices Gansoku looking at them.

There are minor cuts and changes:

- In the manga the panels show the boys together, then we get two panels placing more focus on Tsukishima first and Koito after, as we never saw them without clothes. In the anime they pan on all the bodies equally, starting with Sugimoto, then Tsukishima, Tanigaki and, at last, Koito.

- In the manga as the boys fight we also learn what is the stenka for Gansoku and we get a flashback about his past. This is cut in the anime but it will probably included in the next episode.

My two cents: The music gives a very odd atmosphere to the scene in which the boy tell their expectations for the stenka but it’s fine. On a sidenote I’ll say the anime is doing action scenes much better now, compared to the previous series. When the 7th division attacked Abashiri and had to fight the convict they used a lot of still frames while here the fight is thankfully animated. This is a clear improvement. Gansoku is depicted in a more mysterious manner in the anime as we can’t see his eyes for most of the story and get to see them only at the end of the episode.

TO SUM IT ALL

Well, if I’ve to compare this first episode to the previous series there are a lot of improvements. Sure, the musical background should be improved and, more importantly, used better, they should film the character more often form a frontal position, with a decent close up instead than from above or from a distance but there are much more close up and much more attention to expressions, there are action scenes instead than still images and most of the added scenes were a great idea. The story flows, for the most of it, smooth enough (except in a couple of points) and while I still perceive Koito’s transposition as odd well, it might be just me. Overall it’s a good start for the third series and I hope the rest of the episodes will keep up with it and even improve.

[nosybookworm]

Ninja Academy vs Hero School Rant

Naruto was my jam back in the day. I stayed up late to watch the new episodes, bought the dvd box sets and manga volumes, collected toys and cards just to stare at adoringly, even pretended to be sick so that I could stay home and watch a Naruto marathon. Point is, I LOVED Naruto.

I was invested in the characters. My heart ached for every single character that gave me a backstory. I ugly cried on more than ten occasions.

The action and moral dilemmas sucked me in and spit me out, made me the person I am today thinking critically about the stuff I love because wow that universe is in no way safe or sane for the people living in it lol.

The villains absolutely TERRIFIED me DESPITE STILL WANTING TO SEE MORE OF THEM, Orochimaru alone had me sleeping with the lights on and ripping the arms off his action figure just to be safe.

When I started watching My Hero Academia those old happy feelings started slapping me in the face drawing me in. MHA hits a lot of the same points that Naruto had and I didn’t really notice until the end of season 3 because those points weren’t as in-your-face or emotionally impactful as it was in Naruto I guess. Not to say it didn’t have an impact! Just that it rolled off me a lot easier which might just be a me problem.

I Mean:

The main character getting bullied/excluded because of something he can’t control. 

Underdog character then meeting or making an emotional connection with a mentor figure truly feeling “acceptance” for maybe the first time and taking that all important first step toward their life long dream. 

A teacher willing to sacrifice himself to protect the students. 

A school training teens to protect/serve. 

Rivalry that may or may not be actual friendship.

Students fighting against each other to “rank up” by showing how capable they are to their superiors.

Enemies invading to terrorize the kids and escaping to terrorize another day.

Traumatic family backstories that child will now attempt to seek justice through own power.

Previous underdog character actually having a secret power that no one knows about but a select few and that he has to train to learn how to use, but it makes him a powerhouse that is always surprising the enemy and inspiring his fellows.

Sure all that can be tied to any story when generalized like this, but the way MHA presents them is pretty similar to Naruto.

(Okay, ALL OF THIS is going to be my personal opinion. Things I want to say to get out of my system so that I can move on. It’s long too. So, now that you’ve been warned continue on.)

The more I got into it the stranger it felt because despite hitting those same points I loved they hit in a different way that....well... made me a little uncomfortable to sit through.

Like Aizawa

Very clearly the Kakashi in MHA. He’s sly hardly ever telling his students the truth but has incredibly high expectations of them, has been known to expel students left and right until his most recent batch of kids, is ready and willing to throw himself in harms way for them, and surprisingly competent despite his exhausted persona/personality. However the way these two teachers act get two very different results from me. Naruto got a chance to introduce Kakashi in a way that endeared him to me, the bell test was more than just showcasing the kids current abilities it was introducing Kakashi (the Jounin that is a kind of jack of all trades, the known perv that will publicly read porn, the guy that will happily mess with a bunch of kids to “teach them a lesson” and because its funny, the guy that requires the students under his care to care about each other because caring for his team matters to him more than any mission, that guy). MHA gave the quirk test. Aizawa mostly in the background taking notes and jotting down scores after his speech about expelling whoever comes last. We didn’t get to hear Aizawa’s thoughts until the very end when Izuku surprised him. 

I didn’t really feel any connection toward Aizawa until I stumbled across fanfics that wrote him more involved with the students and I think that’s the problem. Aizawa is dedicated to his student’s education, he believes they will all be amazing heroes one day, but he hardly ever interacts with them. He can be seen watching their training from afar, sleeping in a corner as another teacher takes over for a bit, protecting them from danger or fighting along side them, and proudly declaring that Bakugo would never turn villain but all of that means very little emotionally when I can’t see him making connections with these students to make this standoffish confidence understandable. He comes off as one of those super smart teachers that have undecipherable lessons because he has no idea how to connect with his students enough to explain in way they understand. Similarly, he like jots down that he’s taking note of Bakugo and might need to step in before he goes down the wrong path but then does nothing and confidently tells the press Bakugo would never be a villain.

Kakashi was pretty standoffish too, no denying that, and the little episodes when the kids conspire to try to see him without his mask are the kind of outside interactions that would be weird for a modern teacher-student relationship like in MHA, so I get why Aizawa doesn’t really have that with any of the kids. However, Kakashi saw the path Sasuke was going down and spent time with him and confronted him about it (it did nothing to stop him but he tried). He took time to find a teacher for Naruto. He was present and awake for just about every milestone in there education with him. He told them when he was proud of them not other people. He involved himself in some of their high jinks to measure their growth and as such was able to have confidence in them when they went off on their own.

The Villains

And My Hero Academia villains, namely All For One. 

I felt nothing when he showed up. I was all caught up in All Might and his passing of the torch. The guy without eyes didn’t feel threatening, didn’t feel like the big bad he was suppose to be. The League of Villains really didn’t feel like “serious enemies” either cause I actually really enjoyed them when they were on screen for their dynamics with each other. Similar to how I liked the Akatsuki in their more light-hearted scenes when they where super strong idiots banded together by sheer force of will and explosive personalities that refuse to leave a job half finished. With the League I would be just as entertained (probably more so) if they were in a slice of life anime just being terrible people together.

I get the feeling All For One was supposed to be MHA’s Orochimaru. (And I say this despite knowing Orochimaru’s introduction is probably a lot closer to Stain what with the confrontation and all, but his whole “the world is corrupt, I will cut out the wrong and remake it into the pure world it should have always been” aligned more with Pain especially with his quick turnabout saving Izuku.) 

Orochimaru always felt in control even when he was in hiding or on the run, he felt like he had more up his sleeve which is the only thing I got from All For One when he was imprisoned. Both Orochimaru and All For One showed up out of nowhere, very obviously in a class of their own that the teenage main characters had no hope of beating, and a mysterious backstory that clearly put all the adults in the know on edge. But I just don’t see All For One as a villain. Nothing about him screamed “Run for your lives this man will smile as he tears you apart!” like Orochimaru. Nothing about All For One’s secret Mad Scientist lab gave me creepy vibes that left me on the edge of my seat clutching at the nearest pillow the way the Sound Village that practically worshiped Orochimaru and the many base of operations he had did.

Terrible Parents

The Todoroki family. 

...

Look. The world of Naruto has terrible parenting, but they also live in a dictator/military run nation where kids can be a front-line defense or key players in a war zone so it’s hard to measure how to view these people. Cause a father that beats his kid and yells at him to get stronger has genuine reasons to rightfully freak out when children as young as 8 get sent to ninja academy. Families that have a rare genetic trait like the Hyuga or Uchiha have every right to be tough and stern if they feel that will protect their kids when they know putting them out into the world makes them an easier target for enemies that would rip out their eyes. 

I can judge their actions based on their consequences. Like the Uchiha clan planning a revolt forcing their eldest to massacre them to keep the peace and their youngest to live with a crazy amount of trauma. Like the Hyuga clan branding their branch members to protect family eyes, but forcing them into being lesser than the main branch and all the trauma that forced on Neji’s poor head. The stupid level of expectation set on Hinata’s young shoulders that she couldn’t meet in the way her clan wanted that made her self-confidence practically non existent. The Hokage leaving Naruto mostly alone for his entire childhood in a village that openly hated him. The Kazekage trying to have his lonely three-year-old assassinated multiple times once by his beloved uncle - the only person that was kind and loved him - that scarred him so entirely that he carved “love” into his forehead and rampaged around the village and did casual murder intentionally for years before meeting Naruto. 

All that... I can get behind as abuse. I want those sad kids to be happy. They deserved better and I will happily lose myself in a fix-it fic where they get that.

MHA gives me similar scenarios but without the clear-cut consequences that shows when parenting for that world is abuse. 

Endeavor is not a good husband. He is emotionally abusive to his wife to the point she has a mental break and attacks a child. 

However, in a world of heroes, in a world where high school students are trained to protect and serve and that self sacrifice is a noble heroic trait. How do I compare such a society to my own? They put children in harms way with hero internships yet don’t allow them to defend themselves if they don’t have a hero license, that would be like getting a learners permit but not being allowed to practice driving.

All this to say I have a hard time telling when bad parenting falls into abuse when it comes to MHA. Endeavor is not a good parent, he is an abusive husband, but is he an abusive parent? As a hero training up the next generation of heroes can it be argued that he is pretty okay even if his methods are a little harsh? None of his children fear him from what I’ve seen. Shouto happily tells him his plans to never use his fire and all the reasons why without fearing he might be punished for it. The other kids seem to be pretty okay going on with their lives. Toya being the exception but again I don’t know what happened to him and he’s a follower of Stain so did he have a falling out with heroes or did his father push too hard?

Nighteye & Tsunade

Okay so this is where I get super rant-y. I have feelings on Nighteye and none of them good.

Nighteye being the estranged comrade of All Might the underdog’s teacher, Tsunade being the estranged comrade of Jiraiya Naruto’s teacher.

Tsunade has been hurt deeply. She ran because she felt that was the only way to save herself from more pain. Here comes Jiraiya with his new little tag along demanding she come back home, she gets appropriately angry and tries everything she can to get them to leave her alone. Naruto being the special little underdog that he is immediately gets under her skin reminding her of all the loved ones she lost bringing back all of that old pain back, so she gets even. She beats him down and challenges him to an impossible challenge to show him how small he really is and get out of her own responsibilities. But he wins. He wins, and shows Tsunade how closed off she’s become forcing her to face reality head on and face her fears at last. He changes her whole world view through action.

Nighteye has been hurt deeply. He sees the future for every person he touches and as such sees futures in which people he loves get hurt and sometimes die. He believes there is nothing he or anyone can do to change these visions. All Might is his hero, His friend and mentor, his comrade. His friend gets hurt in a way he can never fully recover from and he sees a vision where his friend dies on the battle field. He then tells All Might who refuses to retire and leaves without a backward glance. They don’t speak until years later when Nighteye picks out a successor for One For All, but Toshi chooses Izuku and never meets Nighteye’s pick.

Izuku, needing an internship not Gran Torino, goes to Sir Nighteye All Might’s old side kick. He gets tested, told he’s not worthy of One For All, and has to work under this man as he tries to get Izuku to see how Mirio is more worthy of All Might’s quirk. Facing off against Overhaul when they are at their most desperate Nighteye uses his quirk to see what will happen and sees the worst possible scenario. They lose. Then Izuku flies in sweeps Eri into his arms and fights Overhaul saving the day. Izuku proved, unknowingly, that the future Nighteye sees is not set in stone with his actions and on his death bed Nighteye acknowledges that without acknowledging it.

Nighteye’s treatment toward Izuku makes me uncomfortable. This is a man in a position of power over this student telling him that he is not enough, will never be enough, and that he is a disappointment.

His glorifying of All Might makes me uncomfortable. He was All Might’s partner and yet he practically had a shrine of the man in his office. He made him more than just a man, built him up as The Symbol of Peace and kept him there (as many of Toshi’s friends seem to do except for Nedzu and Naomasa) despite getting close enough trusted enough to learn about One For All. And despite all that “love” and “devotion” he left Toshinori alone to deal with his new normal of a permanently damaged system alone for years then takes out all that frustration and grief out on his friends chosen successor.

Then when all is said and done and he’s dying and he’s confronted by Toshinori and Izuku what happens? Does he apologize? Explain his actions? Get closure in his final moments?

No. Well, Toshinori got some measure of closure. Izuku got a few words that essentially boiled down to “Good job, your better than I thought.” without talking about the newfound hope Izuku’s action gave him that his visions are only possibilities not absolute. All of his attention then goes to his choice for One For All, Mirio. 

Understandably. 

He’s dying and Mirio was always his main priority as a mentor, and you know who Mirio looks like? All Might. He’s blonde, buff, blue-eyed, cheerfully friendly, and with a happy-go-lucky persona about him. Sir Nighteye taught him to smile. Chose him to be the new wielder of One For All and without telling him anything planned to introduce him to Toshinori to make his choice reality. Doesn’t that sound... I don’t know... uncomfortably close to manipulation? Grooming? To taking this child under his wing and molding him to be pretty close to a new version of All Might?

I don’t know. Maybe if Sir Nighteye had lived this uncomfortable impression I have of him would be lessened as he began to internalize the full extent of possibilities for the future that he never thought possible before and acted more hopeful, more willing to take gambles because his visions were no longer a guarantee of what will happen. 

[esoanem]

I.

“Let me tell you a story, about a Spaniard named Vasquez...”

Following this fantastic video essay by Rowan Ellis (contains spoilers for the entire show), I am currently rewatching Black Sails. The first season has a slightly different tone from the rest of the show and, in particular, has a major sexual assault storyline. I know several people who have been put off from watching the show as a result

So, with that in mind, I’m gonna give summaries and content notes for the episodes of the first season as well as timestamps of any scenes with particular content people may want to avoid. Hopefully this information can allow people to either skip those scenes or, read the summaries of these episodes and skip them entirely

Anyway, this post is about the very first episode

Major Content Notes:

Violence: some bloody violence, shot fairly brutally

Wikipedia Synopsis:

John Silver joins Captain Flint's crew as his ship's new cook whilst secretly holding a highly valuable page of the Captain's Log, which he takes from the first cook, who had stolen it from the captain himself. Meanwhile, Captain Flint faces a potential mutiny from his crew and must work to secure their support. The Captain recruits his first mate Billy Bones' help to overthrow the mutineer's leader, Singleton. Meanwhile, Eleanor Guthrie tries to keep order on the lawless island of New Providence conducting her father's business, as the Royal Navy's suspicions of the pirates grow stronger.

There’s quite a lot going on in this episode, with several speeches establishing important themes, because it has to establish all the major players, and most of their relationships, so the summary is actually quite a long (albeit quite condensed from my 8 pages of notes). Below the cut are the timestamps of any scenes requiring any of the major content notes, and then the summary (which includes all the events of the episode)

Timestamps:

All timestamps are from the “Complete Collection” DVDs which includes a Starz logo at the start. Depending on your source, timestamps may vary a little, which is why I’ve included the timestamp for the opening titles. Timestamps are only given for the start and end of scenes featuring any particularly warning-worthy content

06:30: opening titles

56:23-60:30: Flint & Singleton’s fight. The violence here is pretty brutal & bloody, moreso than most of the rest of the series

Summary:

1715 West Indies

The Pirates of New Providence Island threaten maritime trade in the region

The laws of every civilized nation declare them hostis humani generis. Enemies of all mankind

In response, the pirates adhere to a doctrine of their own… war against the world

A merchant ship is attacked by Captain James Flint’s pirates on the Walrus. During the attack, the cook steals a page from a logbook, and ends up barricaded in a compartment with the coward John Silver (below). The cook plans to joint the pirates after the fight, saying a good cook is always in demand. Silver spots the pouch the page is hidden in, causing the cook to draw his sword

The rest of the crew barricade in a separate room, but eventually the pirates break in, defeat them and the pirate captain, Flint (below), gets the merchant Captain to surrender

The quartermaster Hal Gates (below) walks through the merchant ship assessing the prize as the crew breaks down the door to Silver’s compartment, in which he finds the cook dead, stabbed in the back, Silver claims to be a very good cook and asks to join

On the deck, Singleton (below, and also pictured in the background of Flint’s picture) is giving a speech to the captured merchant sailors, appealing to their sense of class consciousness

"Now that the fight is over, you have nothing more to fear from us today. Because we know this fight was not of your making, it was the choice of our true enemy, your true enemy, the tyrant captain. Many of us once sailed on ships like this one, we know what it is to be slaves to his whims, his violence, his shit wages! His insufferable stupidity! So we’ve made for ourselves a different life, where we don’t rely on wages”

The accountant Dufresne (below, note that he is played by a different actor as his original actor sadly died after the filming of the first season) assesses the prize as barely covering their costs and, after four prizes in a row with little profit, Gates is concerned about dissent in the crew, and that Singleton is angling for the captaincy

Flint and Gates appear conspiratorial over the logbook, saying it proves that this is the ship, but Gates quickly spots the missing page, the schedule, without which the logbook isn’t very useful in leading them to the greater prize

“let me see if I have this right. This is the fourth prize in a row from which the profits will barely exceed the expenses it took to win it, Singleton’s out there trying to convince your crew to torture that poor bastard of a captain simply because he hasn’t worked out how to get them to do it to you, but all’s well, because you’ve discovered, that the information we can’t tell anyone we’re looking for, exists on a page, that we don’t have“

A Royal Navy Man-o-War, the Scarborough is spotted (unusual seeing as she’s based in Boston), and the Walrus leaves behind the merchant ship so it can get away

Belowdecks, the Bosun, Billy Bones (above) introduces Silver to Randall (below), who used to be the Bosun before him, before he was beaten to within an inch of his life and “lost his wits, but not their loyalty”. Randall is mistrustful of Silver, apparently because he feels like Silver is replacing him. Billy emphasises the equality of the pirate ship, that everyone should get the same food, including the captain & quartermaster

Gates tells Flint that Singleton plans to replace him, and now has the votes to do so. Flint tries to manipulate Gates into blaming himself, even though the crew’s poor morale is due to Flint’s seemingly poor choice of prizes to chases. Flint says that with a few more days, the schedule could be reconstructed from the logbook, but he’ll need a favour from Richard Guthrie who is responsible for selling all the goods the pirates steal. When Gates is skeptical that Guthrie will help them, Flint says they’ll just go back to normal and pretend none of this ever happened & Gates calls him out for lying

The Walrus arrives in Nassau, and the crew go ashore (below). One of the pirates tells Silver that it used to be English, now it isn’t, and that now it’s “ours”. Gates tells Billy that Flint is going to ask Guthrie for a favour and is likely to react badly when he refuses, and tells Billy to go with him and, when the time comes, restrain him, so they don’t lose Guthrie’s business. As Silver is unloading the cargo, he notices one of the logbooks is not among them and deduces the page must be from the missing volume and is in Flint’s quarters

Silver then gets hazed. He is accosted and told he needs to see Blackbeard, who “meets the new ones, no exceptions”. When thrust into a smoky room he’s told contains Blackbeard, he realises that the person in the throne is not, in fact, the pirate Edward Teach, but rather a prostitute. When he questions this, she opens her coat, revealing a large black bush. The pirates laugh, tell him to yell if he gets lost in there, and close the doors. As Silver is stripped, and has sex with the five prostitutes, he keeps glancing for the page that has fallen out of his clothes

Gates goes to speak to Eleanor Guthrie (below, left), in her tavern. She is introduced berating a captain for being scared of the mere whiff of the Navy rather than going for profit, and clapping back at a drunk pirate telling her to fuck herself. Gates warns Eleanor & her right-hand man, the former slave, Mr Scott (below, right) about Singleton’s plan to take over, and asks for a loan to buy the crew’s loyalty. Eleanor eventually agrees, but Mr Scott chides her, saying that he doesn’t think her father would approve

Max (below), one of the prostitutes from Silver’s hazing pours some tea as he scrambles for the page, which she already found, having noticed that despite having “a whore for every finger on your hand, but your eyes kept drifting to this”. Realising it’s valuable, but that Silver doesn’t know anyone to sell it to, she offers to act as a middle-man, in exchange for half

Gates enters a tent with several of the black pirates and negotiates with the eldest of them, who he knows the rest will follow, to buy their votes. Despite having spent the entirety of Eleanor’s loan on other sections of the crew, he persuades them to side with him in exchange for payment taken out of the next prize. Unfortunately for him, Jack Rackham (below) spots him and tells Singleton that Gates has been buying votes

Silver sneaks into Flint’s cabin aboard the ship with Max waiting in a rowing boat, where he finds the logbook and matches the page to it, but disturbs a feather Flint had left

Meanwhile, Flint has his meeting with Richard Guthrie (below), explaining his plan, how he heard of it, how the logbook confirms his lead, and that he needs Guthrie’s contacts to reconstruct the schedule

“Let me tell you a story, about a Spaniard named Vasquez. A few weeks ago, he staggers into a tavern in port royal, takes a seat next to an English merchant captain. Vasquez, it turns out, is dying, bleeding to death from a knife wound to the belly. The knife wound was courtesy of his former employer la Casa de Contratacion in Seville”

“Colonial Intelligence?”

“Navy, more specifically. One of the top agents in the Americas, responsible for the security of one particular ship, a ship with a cargo so rich, the king of Spain is very anxious to see it launched. Vasquez warned that it was too late, storm season was upon them and no escort could be mustered to guard her, but his superiors demanded that he sign off. They advised him that if he couldn’t arrange for an escort, he should plot a course unknown to anyone but our captain, and consider that route to be a state secret of the highest order. When Vasquez refused and threatened to report his concerns to the court things got ugly. The ship in question? Urca de Lima. The largest Spanish treasure galleon in the Americas. According to Vasquez, total cargo in excess of 5 million dollars”

Guthrie refuses to help, saying that the ship is heavily armed even without an escort, and that even making enquiries would jeopardise his standing with the Spanish. Flint twists his arm and goes to break his fingers, asking Billy to threaten Guthrie with his pistol, but Billy instead aims it at Flint

They hear a commotion outside, it’s the British! Captain Hume of the Scarborough to be precise. Billy, Flint, & Guthrie have all returned to their positions to maintain the pretence of respectability, but Hume isn’t buying it treating us to his pontifications on the relationship between gossip and civilisation, and attempts to take them all into custody. Flint & Billy resist, defeating the Navy men, but Guthrie is shot in the shoulder

“Tell me something, Mr Guthrie. Do you have gossip here?

“Gossip?”

“I’ve often wondered if it can survive in so remote a location. You see gossip is what holds civilisation together. It reinforces shame, and without shame, well, the world is a very dangerous place”

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand”

“Do you know what the gossip is in London about you? The gossip is that you make your profits selling ill-gotten cargo, stolen by the pirates of Providence Island”

Singleton confronts the leader of the black pirates about his change of heart. When they refuse to change back to his side, Anne Bonny (below right) appears together with Jack Rackham and she kills them

Before the leader is killed, Captain Charles Vane (below) comes out of the shadows too

Gates tells Mr Scott & Eleanor that he’s secured the votes, only to be told by one of the remaining black pirates that their leader was killed, and his last words were “Vane”. Eleanor decides to do something about Vane

Jack, Anne, & Vane are drinking in a brothel, and discuss their plan. Singleton will become captain, fail at it, and the skilled hands will then defect to their crew. We also find out that Jack & Anne are fucking. At this point, Eleanor storms in, and punches Vane. He punches her back and then offers her a hand to help her get back up. He follows her as she goes to clean up. She explains that he’s fucked her over, and we find out he used to love her and, despite grabbing her face, he still tucks her hair behind her ears suggesting conflicted feelings about that. She threatens to cut him off from selling goods, but vane points out that her father is the one who buys the goods, and he’ll always choose profits over daughters

Max sees that Eleanor has been hit, and leads Eleanor to her bedroom, hand-in-hand. She correctly guesses that Vane is the one who hit her and, when Eleanor blames herself she scoffs at it. She nurses Eleanor, they kiss, and then have sex

Flint & Billy sail away from Mr Guthrie’s mansion, with his pale, unconscious body. Flint strips Guthrie’s rings & wig, and explains that he plans to hide Mr Guthrie, so as to avoid panicking the crew when they find out their fence is burnt

Billy calls out Flint’s constant lying, and wonders if maybe Singleton is right, and they do need a change. This causes Flint to move aggressively towards Billy, but he puts his sword between them forcing Flint to keep his distance. 

“War is coming, one ship is not the war. When a king brands us pirates, he doesn’t mean to make us adversaries, he doesn’t mean to make us criminals, he means to make us monsters, for that’s the only way his god-fearing taxpaying subjects can make sense of men who keep what is theirs and fear no-one. When I say there’s a war coming, I don’t mean with the Scarborough, I don’t mean with King George, or England. Civilisation is coming, and it means to exterminate us. If we are to survive, we must unite behind our own king”

“We have no kings here”

“I am your king”

Flint tells Gates about Guthrie, and finds out that whilst they were gone, Singleton has called a council to vote on him taking the captaincy. Flint takes a moment in his cabin and, whilst flinging some furniture, notices the feather Silver had disturbed

Taking the logbook to the council, Flint tells them of his plan, and accuses Singleton of having stolen the schedule from the logbook

"I’m sorry. For the short hauls. For the trouble I’ve caused. But most importantly, for the disregard it seems I’ve shown you

“The most important element of a healthy ship is trust. Trust between men. Trust between captain and crew. Without it, a ship is doomed

“For the past few months, you and I have been on the trail of a prize so rich, it could upset the very nature of our world. And for that reason, I felt it necessary to keep it secret

“I didn’t trust you. And that was my mistake. Right now I would like to tell you that prize is within our grasp and we are close, so close. But it would appear that my concerns about secrecy had merit

“Someone on this crew discovered my plans. And tore from this log the very page necessary to discover that prize. Stole it for their own gain. Stole it from us. And then, stoked your resentment to cover his crime, and make himself your captain”

Obviously, Singleton is confused, and protests that he doesn’t know anything about this. Gates points out that this is a serious accusation, thievery being punishable by death, and a false accusation likewise. Per the articles of the ship, Singleton must either submit to a trial (with Gates as judge, who Singleton does not consider would be impartial), or they can settle it by sword

This fight is analysed in a lot of detail by Matt Easton (a historical fencing instructor, well versed in military sabre of the late 19th and late 18th centuries, so only shortly after the period of the show) here (may contain spoilers for later in the show, I don’t remember). Flint has good form, and is clearly well-trained, but Singleton is stronger, tougher, and more ferocious, easily gaining the upper hand

There is some back and forth, with Flint temporarily gaining the advantage, before losing it again, ending up injured and covered in blood. He is finally able to grab a cannonball and smash Singleton on the head, before crawling over him and beating him to death in front of a shocked crew

Flint produces a piece of paper, seemingly from Singleton’s bloody corpse, and offers it to Billy (seeing this page, Silver confirms that he does in fact still have the real page). Billy opens it, sees that it’s a completely blank page, but as Flint coolly holds his gaze tells the crew that it is in fact the stolen schedule

“Friends, brothers, the prize that you and I have been pursuing, is l’Urca de Lima, the hulk, a prize of almost unimaginable value, now with this page securely in our possession, we can begin our hunt, and we will succeed, no matter the cost, no matter the struggle, I will see that prize is yours, I’m not just going to make you rich, I’m not just going to make you strong, I’m going to make you the princes of the new world!”

The crew all cheer whilst Billy, Gates, and Silver, who all know that this page is not real look on in disbelief

Max is called from her room, where we see Eleanor sleeping naked on the bed by Idelle, one of the other prostitutes. She goes down to meet Jack & Anne and, sitting on his lap (which Anne does not like), tells them she has something she thinks they may want to buy

[cookiedoughmeagain]

Haven DVD Commentaries: 5.16 - The Trial of Nathan Wuornos

Commentary with Speed Weed (writer for the episode) and Adam Higgs (writer for 5.15)

SW: This was really a two-parter. We tried to make these not look like two-parters, but they were. AH: And this season became even more serialised than 5A, which was pretty chocablock. SW: Yeah, well we’re heading towards the end, wrapping things up.

[*Flashback on screen to Duke’s eyes turning black*] SW: We talked a lot about what colour Duke’s eyes should be. AH: And the pupils; shark eyes, no pupils … red, black, white.

SW: So really, right from the start, we felt it a little bit ourselves but we get a lot of shellacking from a certain core of fans who feel that we don’t give Nathan his due.  And, we love Nathan as a character, and this episode was really meant to highlight all the heroism that he has done for the town over five seasons. And, we thought we would put him on trial. AH: It was a great idea. I remember we went back and forth on how much of a trial it would be, and what would the trial look like. SW: Right. And at the time I was listening to a lecture, during my commute in the car, on ancient Greek democracy. So it sort of got based on that. AH: And that’s a good touchstone for this episode; democracy. Who is allowed to make decisions in this new world order?

[*Demands on screen for Nathan to be banished*] AH: We put Dwight between a rock and a hard place here, and he did a really good job with that. SW: Yeah, and Tony’s right - Dwight in 5.15 banished a guy for doing less.

[*Audrey on screen: We need to put Nathan on trial*] AH: Remember, she is an FBI agent. SW: We’d sort of forgotten that for a bunch of seasons. And speaking of FBI agents, we tried so hard to bring Fraudrey back. We never found a way. That’s a regret. AH: We tried. Fraudrey fans, we tried. SW: We did.

[*Dwight on screen telling Haven they need to come up with a legal process for Nathan*] SW: We’re supposed to be commenting. I’m just enjoying Adam’s performance. He did a great job. AH: You wrote a good speech for him there. SW: Ah, he makes it good.

[*Vince on screen: I’m unclear, is this a stalling tactic or the rebirth of democracy?] SW: *laughing* Vince can’t imagine something straight up, can he?

[As we see Duke and Hailie in Halifax] AH: So again, these scenes were shot a long time after the rest of the episode. SW: What happened to the truck? Did they shoot these scenes out of order? AH: I think they did. So, he traded in the truck because it was hot and he didn’t want to be caught. SW: And because we have product placement with Toyota maybe. [The car they just got out of is a Toyota] and the truck was a Ford as I recall. But that’s not a new Toyota, I don’t know if we got any money for that. [*Duke to Hailie: When I almost hit you with the car, what were you thinking about? Was there anything else in your world or just the car?] SW: Yeah and it was a truck [not a car] - I think they shot these scenes out of order. AH: Yeah and it was two different units too, so the continuity process might not have coped SW: And it might have been two different directors as well I can’t remember exactly who shot what.

[*Vince and Dave addressing the school*] AH: You did a great job with this PA system. I remember when you were trying to figure out exactly how to do this - I thought it was brilliant. It’s one of those things sometimes when your hands are tied (where it has to all be in the school) you can come up with really clever execution. SW: This is true by the way, history fans; the prosecutor in ancient Athenian trials offered what he thought the punishement should be. The prosecutor proposed a punishment and the defence also proposed a punishment if found guilty. It was a way of getting some moderation. Because the jury could only choose between the two options, so if the prosecutor over reached, you could get off with a light sentence.

[*Tony talking about Nathan’s previous ‘crimes’ eg stopping Duke leaving town] SW: And so we were trying to make the trial about everything, to let Nathan justify himself for the series AH: Yeah and prove that he’s that hero. Because he really is. I do think these episodes really kicked it off for this season in which he has a strong heroic arc. SW: Yep. AH: And we talked a lot about that near the end of the season when it came down to, everybody else seems pre-destined and he’s the everyman. SW: Yes, he’s the everyman. He’s the only guy with no supernatural fate.

[*Audrey talking about wanting to stop the trial*] AH: And this was nice. I remember when we were breaking this one of the things you were talking about was flipping the usual paradigm of Nathan doing everything in his power to save Audrey - now Audrey’s doing everything in her power to save Nathan. SW: Right.

SW: We haven’t got any character payments yet, have we? Wouldn’t it be nice if we got Trouble payments. AH: Oh my goodness. We put so many Troubles in this episode. SW: So, by guild rules when you introduce a new character in a series, when you’re the first writer to write that character, you’re defining that character and so - it’s really nominal, but you get a payment for the creation of that character, when they appear in future episodes. So by gentleman’s agreement Adam and I have agreed to split them on the ones we two-parted; we haven’t gotten those yet. We’re in a fight [presumably a good natured one] with Nick Parker about who introduced Charlotte. Because she actually appears right at the end of episode 8, and it’s a question of how many lines she has, or how substantial they are I think is the actual question. And just to be clear - we’re talking about, maybe enough money for a dinner out. AH: Yeah, nothing more than that. It’s more the fun of it than anything.

[*As Hailie realises she’s cut her heel*] AH: I thought this was a great moment you put in here of Duke, you know … SW: Worried about the blood touching him? AH: You can’t escape your past, is his whole story line here SW: Right. AH: And he’s just trying, so desperately.

[*Audrey telling Peggy that her husband Rolf is dead*] SW: Jennifer Morris does a good job here - this is thankless for an actor. To go to the most emotionally difficult place you could possibly imagine, without any ramp up - the scene just starts on it. Thankless. Good work. You try not to write things that way because it’s just too much; you’re not going to get a good performance out of it. You try to cut out of a scene on telling the bad news and then cut back in when the character’s had ten minutes to digest it.

[*Vince, Dave and Nathan arguing about whether they can let the trial carry on or whether they can stop it*] AH: There’s some great tension - here you are in a classroom and yet the stakes are so high. SW: Yeah, number two on the call sheet and his life’s on the line.

[*Kira trapped underground with her fluorescent tube*] SW: I think this looks really cool, that she’s lighting that thing with her Trouble. But what was the Adam’s Family reference that Matt was worried about? AH: Oh, he was worried it was going to look like Uncle Fester who could put a lightbulb in his mouth and light it up. SW: Right. I don’t see Uncle Fester in that. AH: Yeah I don’t see it at all.

[Charlotte: I lost my husband to it] AH: And that was a big reveal SW: That was a big moment. AH: I’m so interested - we haven’t seen these episodes air yet and seen the reactions, so I’m so interested to see what people will make of this. Putting their thinking caps on trying to deduce who’s the husband.

[*Tony spinning tales about Nathan to the school*] AH: And you did a really good job here with Tony of not making him arch. And making him formidable. SW: Well Paul [in the role] did a great job with that too, he really threaded the needle on it. And actually, props as well to Rick, our director, who helped get him there.

[*Audrey threatening to set fire to the school to disrupt the trial*] SW: They did a great job with this. This switch where he’s calm and cool and she’s, you know … Thinking of the end of season three where Nathan shoots Howard; he’s willing to do anything. And now she’s willing to do anything to save her one true love. AH: I think it’s nice. I think it really shows how much they care for each other and that the relationship is growing. And the characters are growing too.

SW: And here’s Faber Haskins. AH: This was cool. This was one of the worst bad guys we’ve had on this show. Because usually on this show people with Troubles are conflicted; they don’t have malice in their hearts. But this guy is just … SW: And props to the actor, he did a great job. Oh wow I like the nose ring. It’s funny, I’ve seen this cut before but he delivered a really good audition so I remember that (when he didn’t have the nose ring)

[*As Faber shows us the pile of bodies*] SW: Oh yeah, jeez wow. Remember when we had to review pictures of the props for that? AH: Yeah we talked about what would the bones look like, how fresh … SW: How much meat should be left on them. Oh my god, only on this show

SW: So Grayson, we auditioned a bunch of Graysons, many of whom were very good - and they had to actually really truly sign, but also talk because in episode 17, he is no longer deaf, he actually talks. So getting someone who can act, sign and talk is rarer than you might think. And we auditioned a bunch of people and low and behold, seeing that Grayson appears in episode 17 which is directed by Lucas Bryant, he said; I have a friend in LA who can do all those things and he’s a good actor. And he delivered a great tape. And at this point in the show, and especially given what a great job Lucas did directing 17 … [*as Grayson sets off his Trouble*] ...That’s another cheap Trouble to produce, sound is cheap, shaky cameras are cheap ... um, anyway what I wanted to say is I’m really glad we cast him and really glad Lucas nominated him. I just remember that there’s always that slight nervousness you get when somebody on the show, who isn’t a producer, nominates someone for a role. Not because you expect them to be worse than normal, but because if they are, then you have to tell someone who you respect, that you can’t cast them. So it was really great that Lucas nominated the best person for the role and we cast him. AH: And another thing we should mention is that Emily Rose does know American Sign Language. SW: Oh yes! She does. AH: And she’s an ambassador I believe for them, in some way. So that’s one of the reasons we wanted to, you know, utilise some of the skills that our actors have.

[*Duke and Hailie about to rob a bank*] AH: It’s nice that Halifax is actually Halifax. SW: Yeah, how often does Halifax actually get played for Halifax. AH: Very seldom. It does look like our ferns though. SW: Yes and I think it’s our signs too. AH: That’s a cheap effect [as Hailie disappears into the wall] but it looks well done.

[*Nathan to Audrey: You’re stealing my line now? When you went into the Barn, I was willing to risk anything to keep you with me while you faced your fate head-on.] SW: Props to our show runner Gabrielle Stanton who, as we were breaking this story, pointed out that that was what the flip was, and then we throttled into it. I hadn’t quite realised but then she pointed out that we were doing the opposite of what had been done before. So then we wrote to it, which was cool. AH: It’s neat because we continue to pay off on that decision he made about the Barn later in other episodes SW: Yeah. All of season four was about it, in a way. But oh yeah also later episodes in this season.

AH: One of the things I liked about these episodes was everyone had something to do. Everybody had something incredibly important to take care of. SW: Yeah the stakes are high. We’re just throttlin up stakes all the way.

[*As the poltergeist Trouble shuts Dwight and Charlotte in the dark.] AH: This was nice to have what seems like an innocent Trouble

AH: I like this relationship [Audrey and Grayson] SW: Yeah and Shernold really runs with it in 17. Look for Shernold’s name on other shows to come. She next appears on a show that has stolen rampantly from us … AH: *laughing* SW: … whether they know it or not [imdb would seem to indicate that her next job after Haven was Sleepy Hollow]

SW: I’m just so impressed with Lucas’s work in this episode. These two episodes, because as he was shooting these two episodes he was prepping 17 as a director. And when you see 17, if you have a directorial eye, you will see it is really, really planned. He knew what he was doing, and he brings some real beauty and attention and design and precision to the show. Which means he was working his butt off. AH: Yeah. And we tried to give him some time off to prep, but at the same time - he’s number two on the call sheet. SW: Well and 16 is his episode in a way.

[*As Tony’s Trouble starts to ramp up*] SW: This was thankless. To make one room get darker from the outside in. My apologies to Rick [the director], Jennifer Stewart our production designer, Eric Cayla our DP - you all did great. This was not easy. Very hard to pull off AH: Yeah because it wasn’t smoky or inky or anything, it was just dark. And it’s a good twist here that Tony the prosecutor is actually responsible. SW: When it comes down to it, about half the Troubles are about denial.

[*Dwight trying to break out of the shed*] AH: The silence says so much here. SW: And this was important to us in the room. Because, Dwight broke some relationships at the end of season 5A to believe in Charlotte’s science. So we really wanted to make sure that it actually meant something in the end, so her reveal wasn’t just a betrayal of their romantic relationship, it was also a betrayal of the cure that he believed in. AH: And he’s invested so much.

AH: Oh and here’s Nathan’s speech. And the intercut here [between the speech and Audrey talking down Tony] worked really well. SW: It’s nifty to write quite a long monologue for a character who never talks. AH: Yeah, he’s so quiet. SW: I love that line in the first season where Audrey says something about how his clipped sentences … I can’t think of the exact line, but. AH: Yeah it’s a clever line but [can’t remember it either] SW: And I thought about Eric Taylor in Friday Night Lights, writing this. AH: That’s a good touchstone because it’s another very quiet person who needs to give those big motivational speeches. SW: Right. To a community. AH: And again I just love the intercut here [to Dwight and Charlotte] of how all the stories come together. It’s well designed. SW: Smooch! Don’t you want them [Dwight and Charlotte] to smooch? And we had five seconds of screen darkness there, that’s great. And we had the five seconds of silence earlier. Things you’re not supposed to do. AH: But it worked so well.

[*As Charlotte looks through the wooden slats to the space beyond filled with aether*] SW: It was Rick’s idea how to shoot this which was really cool, with this VFX shot to get a huge amount of aether. It was scripted as a ‘stadium sized cavern’ full of aether, and there you get the idea that there’s just insane amounts of it. AH: Yeah wow, that was well shot.

[*As Hailie reappears out of the bank with the money*] SW: We originally wanted to do this on a yacht, where she actually phased through the side of the hull. But it didn’t work for locations. AH: I love that, just as you wrote it with the blood spatter on Duke’s face. He’s got no choice in the matter again. SW: Shark eyes. [Hailie to Duke: What are you doing?] SW: Resisting the urge to kill you.

[*As Audrey asks Tony where he got the info in his notebook*] AH: It was so interesting to work on this story line with the notebook because we had set some of this up in 5 and 6 and there was so much being planted there that doesn’t really come out until 10 episodes later; by the time they air it’ll be over a year later.

[Vince; And the verdict is … *Kira returns*] AH: How can he be guilty of killing someone if she’s still alive? SW: The best of TV timing.

[Dwight to Nathan: That’s a hell of a lot of aether you found] AH: He’s vindicated in so many ways.

[*Hailie running from Duke and into the shipping container*] SW: She was supposed to have the money with her in this scene, but for some reason she doesn’t so we had to write around it. AH: Yeah she didn’t have it any more SW: Ooops.

SW: I can’t remember how we did Duke’s black eyes - was it totally VFX or did we go with contacts? AH: VFX. We wanted to go with contacts, and Eric wanted to use contacts, but we just decided it would be easier to go with VFX.

[*Dwight and Charlotte sharing milk and cookies*] AH Oh I love this scene! This was one of my favourites. It’s their night under the stars romantic dinner - with milk cartons. SW: At the last minute they cut the line that I really liked. Charlotte says ‘I like your hand’ and then would have said ‘There’s a lot I’d like to do with it.’ But they cut it - we were just getting too randy in the writer’s room AH: I think we need an uncut edition SW: That’s right - a writer’s cut.

AH: In the original break, before we knew what the next episode was going to be, you had a great turn at the end of the episode where Nathan would be found guilty. But that did not line up with the next episode.

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales 87 Reviews: A Drain On the Economy (CACC Part 1) (Commission)

Commissioned by @weirdkev27​. The start of a whopping four episode commission as I review the original Ducktales Four-Part Serial, Cash as Catch Can! The Kishke of Macaroon decides the best way to market his once in a life time find of glowing, power producing fruit is to have the two richest men in the world weigh their money to see whose richer. Seems Legit. Glomgold of course can’t play fair but since this is the 87 version he simply hires and outfits the Beagle Boys to steal scrooge’s money instead of leaving a shark filled with c4 on the doorstep of the bin as a distraction while he tries to saw it in half with a giant buzzsaw. Tanks, childen nearly drowning and outbidding yuppies ensue. Full reviewcap with spoilers under the cut. Sadly no Sea Monsters eating Ice Cream Yet. 

Huzzah! Another day another commission! And it’s a massive one too as i’m covering not one, not two, not three, but FOUR episodes of the original ducktales for 15 bucks! Thank you once again WeirdKev27 for the commission. Not saving this for the end this time, if you’d like to commission your own review, just pm me, it’s 5 dollars for one episodes, and now you get 5 dollars off for each episode you commission after 2. So for instance this multiparter was 4 episodes, so Kevin payed for only three, for a total of 15 bucks! Whatabargin! But enough shilling let’s get down to bidness.  As usual for first episodes a quick rundown of my history with the show: Being a fan of the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, which I fully intend to cover here at some point and yes you can commission duck comics too if you were curious, I did want to watch Ducktales for a while but didn’t really try to until the Reboot came out. As a result I got the first season dvd for Christmas, bought the second, and while I haven’t watched all the series, what I’ve seen is pretty good. It’s a fun, fluid adventure show that captures the spirit of the Carl Barks comics while doing it’s own thing with them. Sure some aspects of the time or even of the original comics that this adapted wholesale haven’t aged well, and we’ll get to some of them, but for the most part the series has a timeless quality to it that really makes it work. I may prefer the reboot.. but I still enjoy this series and i’m glad to revisit it. 

So with that, we come to one of the series handful of multiparters. For the most part Ducktales was just one off adventures, episodes that could easily be aired at any time with little regards to a strong continuity. 

But unlike most shows including the rest of the Disney afternoon that at most had one pilot movie and one or two two-parters, Ducktales had 4 multi-episode story arcs. The episodes were still written with about the same episode of the week format, it’s just instead of being all wrapped up there was an ongoing storyline that tied each episode into the next and drove the action. It’s honestly not a bad format and not all that dissimilar to the Sardonyx, Out of This World, Heart of the Crystal Gems, and Diamond Days arcs Steven Universe would have.. and if your wondering yes I would cover those for the same fees, but that’s not what we’re here about. 

However even among this format this four parter was unique.. and not just for the “A Sea Monster Ate My Ice Cream!” bit we’ll get to next time. The other 3 mini’s were 5-part Season Premires that either set up the show period (Treasure of the Golden Suns) or introduced a major new character for the rest of the series (Fenton/Gizmoduck for Super Ducktales, and Bubba and Tootsie for Time is Money). Though weirdly in the case of season 2 these 5 parters were also the ONLY episodes, but one oddity at a time I suppose. My point is Catch as Cash Can is not only the only one not to start a season, instead coming in mid-way through season one, but dosen’t change the show and is only 4 episodes instead of 5. It’s still from what I can remember, which only came back when watching part 1 as I got it confused with treasure of the golden suns, pretty good.. apart from the third episode but we’ll get to that, it’s just worth noting is all. So with that out of the way is this four parter any good? How do the episodes hold up from a few years ago? Well I was paid good money to find out so let’s do it to it shall we? We open in Macarooon which.. I THINK is a play on Moroco, but still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense given it’s a cookie, this episode about fruit and Hamilton’s accent as the Grand Kishke, the country’s ruler, is a vauge indian stereotype with a touch of middle eastern sterotype. Sing it with me now....

Still not great having a white guy do a vaugely foreign accent that’s played for laughs, and yes again acceptable at the time, I don’t hold it against Hamilton camp, still dosen’t make it at all comfortable. Though it’s still, and this is VERY faint praise, better than Carbomya, an ACTUAL CANON LOCATION in the 80′s transformers cartoon that’s as offensive and dumb as it sounds and, no joke, caused Casey Kasem, who I was reminded by the article linked above quit over this.. and found out from said article is Middle Eastern himself. Huh the more you know. And SOMEHOW this isn’t the most offensive thing the franchise has ever done, as japan had mexican stereotype transformers and kiss players.. just kiss players you do not want to know, and Micheal Bay later gave us skids and mudflap and I die a little on the inside remembering that happened. Back on point there’s been worse, dosen’t make this okay, but it’s not so offensive it ruins the entire episode. Just makes the Kiskhe’s seens wince inducing. 

Scrooge and Glomgold are having a poker-esque dick measuring contest over whose wealthier but for once i’ts not just because it’s tuesday in duckberg but because the Grand Kishke has called both here. As he explains, and as they know but we don’t, while going down the stairs he fell down and found a vast cavern beneath his pallace with tons of glowing fruit that could soon replace lightbulbs if marketed correctly as they never spoil and never run out, thus putting his country ont he map. While the vauge “wacky foreigner” stereotype thing is unfortunate, the Kiske is likeable and does have good reason for not doing the marketing of his biggest export himself: He’s not a businessman and has a country to run. So he felt going to the richest man in the world was the right call, but Glommy and Scroogie are tied in assets so the Kiske decides to tie break things by having the two weigh their fortunes instead as the two you know.. have large piles of stealable money around for sentimental reasons.. and because they don’t trust banks.  So yeah with the contest set Glomgold sets out to do what he does best... set himself on fire with a hairbrained scheme.. no wait that’s the other glomgold. Cheat.. which this one can actually do without ending up in a bear trap, so we cut to the Duckburg jail.. which is at least in this episode just one giant cell surrounding the Beagle Boys, though given their responsible for 80% of Duckberg’s crime, and a good chunk of this series as a whole, it probably IS just that. But Glomgold using ... a .. giant floating cow balloon.. wait.. 

I mean I love this because .. just what the hell is this, why a cow balloon.. was it the only one he could rent? Who rents those? Did he buy this thing? How’s he going to get rid of it? How’s he not getting caught for buying this thing? Did he make this? Did he spend a good few hours building a giant cow balloon fortress/ did he dump it in the river? 

You know, maybe it was schemes like this that made Frank decide to make Reboot!Glomgold into the loveable incompetent maniac he is today. I mean this sounds like one of his schemes: If your going to do something right do it in the most insane, over the top, nonseical, costly, overcomplicated way possible.  As it stands though the rest of 87 Glomgold’s plan actually makes sense: he throws down gas masks and gasses the guards, though the boys think it’s ma at first. However they quickly are fine with it being their dad as Glomgold has a job for them.. though they nearly nope out when they find out it’s scrooge. This is a neat contrast to the comics where, under both barks and rosa while the Beagle Boys would get discouraged or bemoan their defeats they still kept coming. While it’s likely only for this episode it’s nice to see them have some hestiation.. at least about going after the bin directly. Which given the bin is the most heavily guarded location in duckburg no matter the contniuty and while it’s been attacked and broken into millions of times at this point, no trick works twice because Scrooge adapts. It’s what makes the continual nature of the beagle boys assualts on it here and in the comics work and why their still a threat despite always getting beaten down: sure they get in once in a while, but scrooge outwits them and then presumibly offscreen makes adjustments for next time while at the saame time their too stupid and stubborn to ever fully give up and to stop coming up with new ways to get scrooge’s fortune for themselves. 

It’s a good dynamic but I like some hesitation since even the dumbest crooks get wise eventually and their being hired by someone whose utterly ruthless and might kill them or worse if they fail. But Glomgold actually has a resonable counter, that since he’s rich he can suply them with everything they could need instead of whatever they can steal he just needs the manpower and the plausible deniability. They shake on it and the die is cast.  At the bin Scrooge is annoyed at having to put up with the beagle boys again ow of all times, and we soon get the second best scene of the episode as the beagle boys, and cousins storm the bin, basically doing a zap branigan and trying to throw wave after wave of their own boys at them till Scrooge’s defenses falter. It’s a great and tense action scene as the boys send beagle after beagle with some great names I sadly forgot and should’ve written down. It’s a fun sequence, though it does show why the series updated burger as he gets distracted with food... because... 

That’s literally the joke and I can see why Matt and Frank retired it entirely. But other than that it’s a joy to watch. The finale is notable as Bigtime uses some armor to tank things.. until scrooge actually brings up a tank.. with just one caliber larger shells than what his armor can take, a nice little gag. But yeah scrooge pointing a tank at someone is badass and one of the only two times this episode he really gets to be. More on that in a sec.  But while the boys celebrate Scrooge’s victory Scrooge dosen’t, knowing they’ll just be back in in greater numbers and thus has gone to the ludicrous extreme of setting up an automatic cannon in his money bin that fires at anyone entering.. and then forgot his cane. You can probably guess what happens next. 

Yup Scrooge is thrown back, because apparently he’s immortal in this reality too, and the bin starts to break down, while the Beagles storm in and seconds up. This scene just.. annoys me. I get Scrooge isn’t unstoppable, if he was the show, and the comics and the reboot of the show wouldn’t be as fun if he wasn’t challenged at all. Scrooge himself would be disappointed if his life had no stakes. My issue here is the beagles go from evenly matched with scrooge, if both using weapons to.. casually brushing past him and the boys. And they HAVE beaten them plenty in the comics, but usually it’s through surprise or threatening the boys.. who they have right there. Instead they just.. easily beat scrooge for no real reason. It just smacks of laziness: they need the boys to get in so like scrooge and his own boys they can see the money go down a crack and thus into the sewers, but instead of having a fight or them just you know hold the triplets hostage or use a ray gun or something since it’s plausible in this setting, their backed by a billionaire for this ep and it’s an acceptable substitute. This just makes no sense to me and really baffling bit in an otherwise great episode.  But as noted the money went down the tubes, so the beagles retreat.. if only because they now can just go fish it out of the sewers like that’s somehow legal. But given how the Calisota supreme court seems to never change the various terrible loopholes that nearly loose scrooge his money all the time, it’s not surprising. Seriously it was used by Carl Barks more than once: Some asshole using a bet, wager or old timey agreement to try and take something from one of our heroes usually scrooge, and other writers followed suite naturally given he set the pace for them on everything else why stop now? Though really “Slimy assholes use loopholes to run roughshod over innocent people” is such a common thing nowadays and presumably was even more so then, I commend barks for not only picking up on it but using it frequently in a CHILDREN’S COMIC. God damn man that’s some balls.  Anyways Scrooge can’t quite literally slip through the cracks, but the boys can and given they are as one, they all go down follow that dough while Scrooge tries to figure out where it is from above. Scrooge goes to city planning or something like that and gets the maps to the water works, and I like the fox clerk here, but the beagles also have them. And while Scrooge chases them above the boys continue their trek bellow eventually finding the cash stash with good detective work and call scrooge , who happens to have tracked the cash and is in the general area, over from above.. but get swept out because the beagle boys open the floodgates and into the city’s reservoir. ON the bright side I now get where “Open the floodgates comes from” Scrooge heads to the pumping plant to pump them out, but finds the beagle boys and a fight ensues to see who can accidently kill some children the fastest as the triplets are buffeted back and forth over, and over, and over and over and over...

And over again till the valves break and shove the Trips into a swanky condo just as a real estate lady, who according to the Disney wiki also showed up in “Magica’s Shadow War”, good for her with the yuppies naturally wanting the condo, though the boys stop them from buying it, trick them into the elevator and then use the override to shut it down so they can’t get back up. So the Trips hold onto the loot, while Scrooge arrives.. and again since Duckburg legal policy is chosen by spinning a giant wheel and going with whatever it lands on, Scrooge can’t just you know have someone come and get his property. His solution however is clever as after a bidding war over the condo he just decides to buy the whole blasted building. And at first I wondered why their wasn’t a bit of him grumbling over the price.. but then I realized his fortune, and doubling it is at stake. While Scrooge will spend as little as ducking possible, when the chips are down he will throw his money around. And I like that it’s a nice subtle character moment showing that he knows when not to throw a big tantrum about spending money  and that he has more important things going on right now, such as keeping his hands on most of it. But naturally this wins though the real estate lady wonders how he did that. Lady he owns a good chunk of the city, is in the news frequently even in this series, and owns the largest building in town which towers over every other on a massive hill and is frequently broken into or attacked, how the hell do you NOT know who he is?

Regardless Scrooge regroups with the boys but the beagles are close and are even bright enough to cut the power. I LIKE these versions better than the reboots. With the exception of a lack of character actress Margo Martendale and you know the fat shaming and all that, these beagles, while having less personality are more compient, mor eof a threat and more enjoyable to watch instead of just petty crooks who only get involved when the opportunity strikes. IT’s one of the few changes i’m just. eh on. Most of the changes, making Glomgold more insane, making Gladstone just less obnoxious enough to be tolerable, making donald less of a scallywag and more of a responsible father, not having Daisy leave donald at the drop of his hat but be an actual supportive partner.. all good. This one’s just lukewarm though ma herself is awesome, the boys are just incompitent and I forgot when watching the series that while stupid and stopped constantly the beagles just aren’t. It’s something I can give this series more than the original easily.  Scrooge is about to give up and is fading out on them, tired and exausted. This DOES feel in character as scrooge, like anyone can feel worn down and he’s tried damn near everything only to be ready to loose. The boys snap him out of it.. or rather Dewey does by hucking a wad of bills at him as seen at the top of the article and it’s easily the best gag of the episode. Though it’s also the ONLY time i’ve been able to refer to the boys actions by name as while one may do something.. their the same character. Now what they are varies as the show bounces between the classic HDL characterizations: They can be like they are in the barks comics and this episode, upstanding young woodchucks who are clever, loyal to a fault, and bring scrooge down to earth when he needs it as well as an utter asset to him, mischievous young boys screwing up as children often do but learning from their mistakes or short sided goal like they are in the other half of barks comics or the later theatrical shorts.. or hyperactive , sexist little shitheads who are selfish and lazy like in the early shorts minus the sexisim or quack pack. Though I now realize just from writing that that while Huey is based on barks and ESPECIALLY Don Rosa’s version of the boys, just taken to a logical extreme as well as being autism-coded, the other boys are based on other aspects of them with their sometimes scheming nature being given to Louie and their more energetic spells and overly 80′s attitude from this cartoon given to Dewey, with again both amped up considerably. It was a neat way to give them actual personalities instead of being one person sharing the bodies of three characters. 

Yeah as you can tell while I WILL say upfront I love Russi Taylor and none of this is her fault.. i’m not a big fan of the classic versions of the boys. They aren’t BAD It just baffles me why Disney, and i’m blaming theme more as some foreign comics apparently did try as did Quack Pack, never let people differentiate them or thought to really try hard at that until the reboot and it smacks of their stubborn refusal to really change their iconic characters in a significant way. I’m honestly surprised the reboot got away with it and hope the 2017 personalities are the default. I also apologize for that rant but it was going to come about at some point might as well nip it in the bud now.  But that smack to the head got Scrooge back in gear and it gave him an idea.. give them the money.. specifically pile money on the elevator, breaking it, after all he’ll need to fix it anyway might as well go all in, and sending the beagles crashing down.. to the waiting police. Who called them.. probably condo lady to make sure Scrooge wasn’t lying and to report strange men breaking in. Point is Scrooge is exhausted, but triumphant.. for now. TO BE CONTINUED. 

Final Thoughts:  This is a solid 87 Ducktales episode: it’s fun, fast paced, has a simple but enjoyable concept, and feels like a Carl Barks comic come to life without directly adapting his stories. It’s good stuff. I had my problems as mentioned but their outweighed by the great jokes, pacing and action in this one. A great note to start out on.  In the Next Part: A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM!  A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM!   A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM!  A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM! A SEA MONSTER ATE MY ICE CREAM!

Until then, you can follow this blog for more ducktales every monday, check my various sub pages for more ducktales reviews of the reboot, i’ve done every episode of season 3 so far and one season 2 episode as well as a recent review of the first darkwing ep, and as noted before you can comission your own review of any animated series, ones i’ve covered and otherwise. Reblog this to spread it around if you liked it, like it if you don’t want to do that, and until next time stay safe, check your house for gary busey,  and hopefully we’ll meet again. 

[thegirlwholied]

I haven’t heard before that there was changes made from the OT before, can you recall some of them? Also what was your opinion on the Luke and R2D2 appearance in the finale? I’ve heard varied verdicts on it (ranging from people calling it fanservice to people being really angry that grogu was taken away so fast after din got him back)

Oh wow the changes made to the OT, WELL...

My guess is you maybe have heard of these changes before without realizing what they were referring to. If you’ve ever heard or seen the phrase “Han Shot First”... you’ve heard of these changes. 

So the first Special Edition, re-released in theaters, was in 1997, & it added back in deleted scenes (that the story didn’t really need imho, looking at you, repetitive Han & Jabba interaction), new visuals, played with sound/color etc. ...so, messing 20 years on with elements Star Wars won Academy Awards for, which, fine, cool, just a special edition project except... 

Except the tweaks kept coming. Most notably with the 2004 DVD changes to bring the OT better in line with the prequels, changes which, personally, I categorize as “thanks I hate it”. 

Here’s the much, much more thorough Wikipedia breakdown. And the Wookieepedia breakdown of the same.

...oh no even my version of a ‘sum up’ isn’t going to be brief, is it...

Filed under ‘annoys-me-personally-the-most’ change? The Return of the Jedi end across-the-universe montage where the Gungans are celebrating, Coruscant’s liberating itself, Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost suddenly looks like Hayden Christensen... please leave me with the happy Ewoks & characters we care about & the older version of Luke’s father he just said goodbye to please! AND the Empire’s fall post Death Star II all too easy...  and likely contributed to the sequels’ choice to firmly establish (via Jakku) a timeline of a rapidly defeated-Empire/fully-fledged New Republic within a year of RotJ, which closes the door on way too many potential still-fighting-the-ongoing-Empire adventures.

One of the smartest things The Mandalorian’s done, in my opinion, is to bring back the Imperial Remnant, and YES, they actually used that phrase in a recent episode, and yes I geeked out about it. The falling Empire, with warlords jostling in the vacuum of power, becoming increasingly ragtag is just a vastly interesting antagonist to me than the ‘it’s the Empire but with a dumber name’ First Order. 

Generally: I think The Mandalorian’s a smartly-made show. Fanservice is not a bad thing; it just needs to be approached intelligently, and imho, the finale scene was incredibly smart fanservice. The moment the Child was revealed to be Force sensitive, way back in episode 2, the time period we’re in demands that Luke become involved in the narrative. You can delay it, sure, but we, the audience, are aware of one Jedi in existence, one Jedi who’s looking to rebuild the Jedi Order, and so from that point on it’s really only been a matter of time. The moment Din Djarin is given the quest of finding other Jedi, the thought  is “Luke”. Any other Jedi, like Ahsoka, is coming from ancillary material that not every fan is as familiar with: you can handwave it with ‘it’s a big galaxy’ but especially when you’re trying to reach as many fans as possible, the natural answer is Luke Skywalker. 

And it doesn’t really make sense, for Luke Skywalker, central hero of the franchise, to do nothing and just have the Child (...I still can’t say ‘Grogu’ with a straight face) be delivered to him on some temple or such. We’ve also already had sitting-out-the-action Luke in Force Awakens. We also had Ahsoka deny she’s a Jedi. Luke arriving in the way he did, fulfilling the narrative function of ‘here’s a Jedi, here’s what a Jedi can do’ in the show for the first time, in a scene reminiscent of Vader’s Rogue One hallway scene? Oh damn that was good. That was chills-down-the-spine good from the ‘one X-wing’ arriving on.

...Of course then he inevitably had to pull back his hood and then we’re in uncanny valley territory. CGI’d!Luke didn’t really blink. He both looked-and-did-not look like Luke Skywalker. My sister pointed out he looked like an Instagram filtered Luke, where the filtered eyes don’t blink, and yes exactly.

Do I wish they’d just recast him? ...No? Hard call? They’d already played with de-aged Luke in Rise of Skywalker, and they’d already recast characters in Solo: so it’s a weird mix currently. Does this ultimately lead to a place where Donald Glover or Alden Ehrenreich interacts with a de-aged Luke? They’ll probably avoid that, but theoretically! I’m happy that Mark Hamill’s happy he got to play the character again; I just wish the technology was a little better & less creepy.   

...and writing-wise I don’t know why we didn’t get Luke Skywalker crouching down to get more face-to-face greeting the kid. (Or introduce himself! I get why they avoided an “I’m Luke Skywalker and-” moment, but how could they resist!) They were going for more RotJ-austere Luke, and Jedi shock-and-awe, and I’m sure were limited by technology too... but at least Artoo rolling up, and of course he would be with Luke, provided more warmth!

As to people being really angry that the kid was taken away so fast after Din got him back... well, it’s a finale. As powerful as they’ve established him to be, training for ...Grogu... seems essential; this happening felt inevitable to me, but placing it where it did allowed it to be both a surprise and bittersweet. I found it good writing. They have set up a problem now though: the adorability of a baby Yoda has been a drive for the show and usually an episode highlight; how long they’ll go without showing us that cute little green face is an interesting mystery. The longer they stall in bringing him back, the more impact the return will have. But fans want baby Yoda! So will the writers be able to resist?

And that drives us back to my thoughts on fanservice: it is not a bad thing to give fans what they want. That’s part of what media/fiction of all kinds exist for. That’s the entertainment part!... but there’s also the art part. And that’s where fanservice becomes a negative: when it detours or derails, when it distracts or detracts from the story being told. Where narrative purpose is buried under a pile of ‘here you’ll like this!’ Giving us Luke was imho the best kind of fanservice: downright well-done entertainment that fit the narrative. It worked, in the same way the show itself works, for me. 

What happens next, though... both for The Mandalorian and the myriad Star Wars projects announced... what kind of fanservice that will be remains to be seen.