#i love you old mecha i love you worldbuilding

[njararna]

watching dairugger is so interesting bc of the level of detail in the processes of launching the reinforcement fleets and how the rugger guard operates like idk i can tell that there was a lot of thought put into the world and the way it functions

[ofliterarynature]

AUGUST 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope DNF (bookclub) reread*]

True Grit • A Sorceress Comes to Call • (Fit for the Gods) • A Short Walk Through a Wide World • The Chestnut King* • Where the Drowned Girls Go • The Hollow Boy* • The Philosopher's Flight • The Whispering Skull* • Death by Silver • Grandma Gatewood's Walk • Across the Green Grass Fields • Tales from the Hinterland • The Screaming Staircase* • Ascension • Running Close to the Wind • August Kitko and the Mechas from Space

* * * * * *

Lockwood & Co - time for a reread! I really like the idea of ghost books but struggle to find ones that I like, but these are perfect! The worldbuilding and story structure is somehow just what I want - just enough rules to give them the confidence to be bad ass AND tension for when they royally screw up, and a fantastic, case-book type narrative where the characters are going about their lives, fighting ghosts, and not actually getting to the titular case until halfway through the book. Love it! I need more like that actually. (I recommend The Angel of the Crows)

Tales from the Hinterland -since I finally read The Language of Thorns I figured I should get around to this too. I didn't like the related novels all that much but WAS interested in the stories, but it's been so long I've mostly forgotten their context. I didn't mind it, and I think Albert has a better grasp on the language and form of fairy tales than Bardugo, but the inescapable grimness of the stories quickly became repetitive and boring.

Across the Green Grass Fields - it took me a bit to warm up to this one, but once we went through the door I had a good time! I think this is probably my favorite of the individual door stories so far. On the other hand, I usually like the ensemble books, but Where the Drowned Girls Go didn't quite work for me this time, but it might be one that just needs a second read.

Grandma Gatewood's Walk - I've seen this one around (most recently at a Hocking Hills gift shop) and finally picked it up since my library had it on audiobook. Unfortunately it was doing a lot of things that annoy me about certain nonfiction and while it was readable and interesting, I wouldn't say I enjoyed it or would recommend it.

Death by Silver - a gaslamp mystery/gay romance that was fun! If you like a mystery that is, the "romance" coasts along on the "old school friends/hookup buddies" line and doesn't really get any development (or steaminess), but things do keep moving and it was a nice enough read that I'd maybe try some of the author's other work (but maybe not the sequel)

The Philosopher's Flight - I don't even know. It *was* a good read that moved along well, BUT... I don't want to lay everything at the feet of "it was written by a man," but it definitely had its effects. Stories about girls and women going into a man's world and showing them all up are pretty common and catnip to me (Keladry my beloved), but something about a man doing it in a women's organization that exists in a patriarchal society WITH a heavy political-unrest plot going on as well, and despite the abundance of female characters none of them are well developed? And the main character is just a bland-ass dude? It really didn't sit well with me, and I do not want to read the sequel.

The Chestnut King - I'm glad to be done with this series reread. They're honesty just a perfectly middling MG fantasy series, slightly dated but charmingly midwestern in many ways. Kids would probably enjoy it more, but there's not much for an older reader.

A Short Walk Through a Wide World - going in I knew this was being pitched as sort of cozy, and being comp'd to Addie Larue (which I didn't like in execution). Fairly accurate on both counts tbh, and I thought the curse in this one worked much better - the problem with Addie was that the inability for anyone to remember her didn't allow for any connections to make things interesting, whereas A Short Walk's not being able to stay longer than a few days or ever return offers *just* enough to be heartbreaking. Unfortunately there just wasn't much of a shape to the overall story and I was so bored I almost DNF'd. If you're more into the books being marketed as "cozy fantasy" you might have a better time of it than me.

Fit for the Gods - aka "Greek Mythology Reimagined," which feels self explanatory. Anthologies are always a bit of a mixed bag, but I really liked this! Especially compared to the previous anthology (Sword Stone Table), there was only one story I didn't really like, but otherwise really vibed with everything else! I also learned that most of my myth knowledge that's stuck around is from Percy Jackson, lol. (Not to mention the reincarnation story that mentioned Percy Jackson! I cackled XD)

A Sorceress Comes to Call - LOVED!!! Regency house party, magic, murder, mystery is so so SO up my alley. I've seen people call this a stressful book, and I get it, the mother is awful and things are definitely tense, but something was telling me that things would turn out ok for the main characters and I was able to enjoy myself lol. It also helped that it became quickly obvious that the mother was very full of herself and overconfident, even if she was terrifying. I think this is tied with Thornhedge for my favorite Kingfisher so far, though I might rate this a little lower on quality. If you liked this I really recommend checking out the Greenwing & Dart series by Victoria Goddard!

True Grit - meh. Picked this up through a combination of podcast rec/book sale find/needed to read another classic. The kid's got spunk, but that's all I've really got to say. Came very close to dnf'ing, but at least it was short.

DNF

Ascension - 25%. I was really looking forward to making a "if I had a nickle for every book about a mountain mysteriously appearing somewhere it shouldn't, I'd have two nickles" joke, but alas. This started off pretty good, going with the classic "I found these papers among my brother's affects after a long mysterious life" that I was REALLY excited about. Then we actually got to the story and the main character was just Most Special Genius Science Boy, and the way his ex-wife was being written was absolutely bleh. I looked a bit closer at the reviews and decided to dump it. (Other mountain book is My Volcano and you should read it!!!! It's so weird!!)

Running Close to the Wind - 11%. Was this funny? Yes. Was this super horny? Yes. Was this funny and super horny? Super yes. I can really appreciate what was happening here, it's just unfortunately not a style I can consume in anything larger than small bites. I decided to part ways before my feelings really soured.

August Kitko and the Mechas from Space - 41%. I honestly did like what I read, it just wasn't speaking to me? I can see this being a great book for someone, I just had other things I wanted to read more.

[witchofthesouls]

So, uh, this little memory just suddenly popped up out of no where and I figured it would serve as good(?) ‘world-building’ material.

So, when I was in my private all-girls Catholic high school (that’s how you know it’s going to be a good story) girls would soak their tampons with vodka to get drunk. Some where more successful than others, but some where also less fortunate when their near fatal encounter of alcohol poisoning and nasty-ass vaginal infections where known throughout school.

My question is; do cybertronians have a similar method of madness like the vodka tampons?

And my second question; did Cybertronian’s have their own version of an all girls catholic school? And if they do, what kind of crazy shit went on there?

I can tell you so much about the crazy shit that went on there; the illegal gambling ring, the bi-curious and lesbi-curious girls who were convinced that they liked/loved another girl and stalked the poor girl, some of the shady male teachers, the secret LGBTQ+ club (which was actually kind of wholesome and I was apart of), the bullying (sweet Jesus was there a lot of bullying and harassment), some nuns were Grade A+ assholes who would wack our hands with rulers and have affairs with some of the male teachers, and there’s was a…uh,…secret orgy/cunnilingus club too.

It was the nineties, what would you expect?

Oh wow. I heard of things in private, religious schools from a friend, but hot damn that's wild!

I did go to a religious university. They had a weekly chapel where classes were suspended and all students were required to attend. I did start a tiny alcohol ring in the dorms. Nothing nefarious or crazy binging, just enough in plastic bottles to use in cooking or sipping for a secret meat meal in the rooms. I came from a time when weed was still illegal, but damn I never thought it would prepare me for smuggling meats into a strictly vegetarian campus.

So going back to the questions:

Cybertronians do have alcoholic goodies for popular sex play. Unlike humans, their reproductive system is a closed loop circulatory-wise, and they don't need to worry about poisoning themselves. But for an experience similar to humans doing stupid things for that drunk-high is the equivalent of a wine enema into their afts. That's because their "asshole" is actually a medical port that has components connected to their pelvis structures; meaning, they can get off really well with that alcoholic enema. Yeah, you don't need to be an expert in alien biology to understand that pouring drugs into a hole that's connected to your nervous system can be a stupid bad idea.

Get ready for a lot of worldbuilding:

Education on Cybertronian is severely restricted to caste due to edicts based on Functionism where frame dictates function in society. Some city-states like Vos and Tarn get away with public schooling by citing it as a necessity component of their citizenship and to the benefit of Cybertron as a whole. Vos stylizes their system as a military academy since Seekers are typically slotted into such hierarchies and citizens are drafted into the Air Force during wartime; whereas Tarn is famous for its factories and mines. Sparkling armature is too fragile for the unstable environment, so keeps the workforce much more docile that the bits too big for the holds are kept away and provides leverage as a union-busting technique. Accidents happen.

There are the old traditions of apprenticeships and mentorships for mecha that catch the attention of a well-established professional. Each decade, the number dwindles as more fees are added such practices, such as "alt-mode exemption for education" and "Form Ed-98A-3432d: Exemption to mentor a student two castes below."

Higher education typically functions as private entities with very high-stakes testing. If a student fails to pass progress exams to move to the next module, then it's game over. There's no retakes or repeats or any sort of second chance. They're permanently expelled from completing education within the city-state.

Because of this, coercion is a common phenomenon, especially to snap up specific connections or talented individuals under the school's domains or their related patrons. Skill was the means of trade among the faculty and students as well as the ability to cultivate it. Money could be both everything and nothing within these facilities; it was as meaningful as the parties in agreement made it. This was a strange world compared to what was outside the walls as it blended all the castes and frames and cultures and reduced it to what a person could bring to a table via their own hands or their future. Make no mistake, it wasn't a utopia. It was a cutthroat arena with deep tensions that were mitigated by the faculty and student council as they all battle to polish diamonds from the rough, force people into cohorts, and seal alliances. If done right, a low-caste sponsered can be taken care of for the rest of their lives or die back on the streets with nothing.

Ratchet managed to get away with his old clinic doing illegal free services by utilizing this strange culture. The relationships he cultivated with his old mentor's ties into their own university as well as Ratchet’s own ties via teaching will cover his tracks and provide some funding as long as he takes in "chosen" medical apprentices to train in such conditions and documents the long-term effects of poverty at those sunless levels. Ratchet was only able to trace a few of his benefactors in his project, Senator Shockwave and Counciler Alpha Trion.

Because it was a different world with so much on and off the books, the really secretive clubs would be the "heretics" with worship to certain Primes, Titans, or Unicron, sex clubs that cater to xeno-related kinks, and those with dysmorphic frames, either by force or assigned (cold construction, lab-grown sentio metallico, or noncon frame overhaul), trying to find themselves without anything set on legal paperwork.

(Knockout took advantage of that.)

[coredrill]

okayyyyyyyy initial bravern finale thoughts. i think i will be thinking abt this show for the next 7-10 business years so more to come ofc but. AH!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ISAMI SINGING THE OP LET THAT BE DIEGETIC TOO!!!!!!!!!! AND ALSO ON SPOTIFY!!!!!!!!!!

isami off his Fucking rocker at that one point like Yeah you deserve it king go OFF LMAO. i found that quite satisfying :] real talk tho for as much as i call him baby rice cracker all the time i really love him as a protagonist? like he just feels so damn human in the way he struggles so much but tries his best and then gets hit AGAIN but keeps trying again and again anyways. it's really good! and his whole arc of like. learning that he Can rely on others and with that reliance brings mutual care..............sobs

i love that piloting these fucking things just makes your hair grow. LMFAO

okay i know i've been complaining abt the translation of "bang brave" or whatever tf smith keeps saying before he dies BUT the reveal that that is just ANOTHER thing he's doing bc he's a Fucking Freak and isami thinks it's weird too KILLED ME. smith: "brave bang :]" isami: If You Say That Shit One More Time You're Sleeping On The Couch Tonight". what is wrong with you lewis smith!!!!!!!!!!

i wouldn't be atall surprised if this show got the ssssg treatment and got four million random manga/light novel spinoffs especially considering it's consistently like the most popular show in japan lmao. the lulu-superbia spinoff sounds like a lot of fun so i'd def be interested to see more in that vein!!! i need to learn japanese tho cause no way they're getting eng translations!!!!

i feel like. there is a specific Vibe of mecha thing that verum vita fits which Also includes dissonanza backarrow and uhhhh idk the name but that one mf who pops up in ep30ish of gaogaigar and is just kinda like. observing? like verum vita is not a court jester like the other two and this analysis does not go any deeper than Vibes but. it had me leo dicaprio pointing like. another one!!!

i'm literally obsessed with the unhinged worldbuilding in this show. like?

population is nine billion???

the suez canal is still blocked????

if you're gay you can just. Do That ???

like i love that they don't explain this shit either it's so funny to me. LMAO

something something smith can only express himself and his love for isami as bravern not just bc it gives him as a character/person separation from his Human Self but also. bc i wouldn't be surprised if that was The Way to get the queer stuff so blatant, bc he was in robot form rather than one human man saying "i love you" to another and then glomping him in an explicitly romantic sense after all the talk of riding and him being inside him. LMAO. this isn't a complaint beyond a vague shake of the fist at Corporations and TV Censors, just smth i think is REALLY interesting and which i had a surprising amount of fun watching play out from a story perspective :]

i feel like my hottest bravern take is and will always be that i really don't mind the 12eps LMAO. like i thought it provided a fun variety of Situations with which to deal with the DDs and it didn't give it enough time for the gimmick or mystery elements to start to feel old. also i am just generally of the opinion that most stories would work better if you wrote them to be told in X amount of time and then had to trim off like. 40% of that. so i know it's a personal thing but i think it worked well for bravern!!

i do wish we'd gotten to see smith and isami hug if only cause i think isami fuckin needs it. LMAO. but overall i'm satisfied w their arc, especially bc i think the whole "beyond bang brave" thing works REALLY well w smith returning to his human body. like as soon as superbia kicked it i had a feeling that would happen, and obv it's textually referring to isami/bravern/lulu's massive super robot powerup, but i also think it can just mean like. what happens After? cause smith keeps saying "bang brave" or whatever tf when he dies but to go Beyond that is to come back to life and experience a life where he can receive love, too (i.e., via cooking and food AND ALSO via Literally being brought back to life from bravern's heart. who had just merged with isami on a particle level or whatever lmao). so i'm rly satisfied with how it played out in the end :]

overall i think my only real complaint w the show on the whole aside from the military propaganda was that the boys looked like such fucking DERPS in half their shots. lmao. like obviously i'm biased cause i'm a sakuga whore and i actually rly do like their more realistic style a surprising amount cause i usually don't go for that sort of thing but uh. there's a reason that lulu is the human i gif most often and it's cause she always looked better than them by a long shot FSKDLJH. her character animation was consistently the best & most expressive and she was always the most on-model which. FUCKING DESERVED BTW. her arc was incredible and i'm so excited to rly think about her some more and dig into her as like. a rei ayanami clone (maybe even specifically rebuild? w the "your hair grows long inside your mecha" thing) but who takes control of HER OWN STORY TOO and is able to grow wildly beyond being that story point. like i love that she's taken care of too. agh she's really such an amazing character maybe i'll have to cosplay her too FKLDJSHF i'm rotating her in my brain So Much

overall that was really good and i really enjoyed it and i can't wait for the blurays <333 i love it when robot shows are made by people who love robot shows!!!!!

[sakurarisen]

⚡ : What typically leads to inspiration for you when it comes to writing? 💔 : What kinds of characters do you have the most trouble writing for? 💕 : When it comes to shipping do you prefer to draw things out and let them develop slowly, or do you prefer to jump right into them and skip the developmental stage?

Monday Malarkey!

⚡ : What typically leads to inspiration for you when it comes to writing?

Just about anything, honestly? But for the vast majority of it, it's music and whatever game or book I'm into at the moment, three times as much if it's the source material for the verse I'm writing. It's rare that I can pick up Genshin or the Remake games and not walk away with some kind of inspiration or plot related thought by the end of my play session, and the light novels I'm reading now have sparked up a ton of it in regards to things like Sera's health and worldbuilding. Music often makes me sit and daydream out plots, too, so it brings its own form of inspiration - Heck, the Halcyon Era storyline/Sera's full backstory was inspired by a gorgeous mecha figure promoted in an email from one of the shops I buy Gundam model kits from, though I wasn't expecting the colorscheme and words 'Snow Phoenix' that inspired me to create to turn into the massive story it has!

Tl;dr? Never let me read or play games, I make things happen after. XD

💔 : What kinds of characters do you have the most trouble writing for?

The asshole, in your face, stuck up, only here to be a jerk types. The ones whose personality is "I'm here to be a problem and have nothing else going for me". I love a good antagonist and I have a few more blunt, serious, will fight you for fun muses (Leandros, Kalistratos, and Kagota over on @thundertide being primary examples of this XD), but I really struggle when their entire personality is abrasive jerk and they don't ever act like anything but, or they're just the scheming type constantly trying to cause issues - Even just a straight antagonist who would cause problems and smirk and leave is difficult for me to grasp, regardless of if they have more to their character or not? Like I could never write Rufus Shinra even though he's a pretty well rounded character 'cause I just can't get my head around that character, and it'll never not impress me others can and write him and characters like him so well. <3

I'm also not very good with writing canon characters. I have a handful, both on @shinrarisen and Thundertide, but unless they're characters like Kunsel or Cissnei, who have more open to interpretation storylines and big gaps to fill in, I end up feeling suffocated and struggling to match what canon gives. Basically, I didn't create them, so trying to match what the creator made gets hard because I can't just step into their mind and know everything about the character, if that makes sense? It's why the canons I do have end up being at least somewhat divergent in their portrayals - Because I love them and click with them enough to write them, but I don't feel like I do a straight, fully canon compliant take any kind of justice. ...Or I just don't agree with part of their story, looking at you old Yu-Gi-Oh multimuse of mine-

💕 : When it comes to shipping do you prefer to draw things out and let them develop slowly, or do you prefer to jump right into them and skip the developmental stage?

Both, but I will say the later requires heavy trust in my partner, and isn't really exactly a 'we ship now' and go. I have maybe three incredibly close friends I trust to skip the developmental phases in a ship and the ship still work out, but we have years of friendship and rp'ing partnership behind us for that to happen; this is seen best in my Genshin multimuse, where new characters get added and already have a ship tag - But to be fair, too, it's not exactly an insta-ship, either. While Kasa ( @honorisen ) and I jump into them pretty quick, what people don't see is the behind the scenes discussion on it, deciding if the muses even get along, letting them meet in short, one off things off-dash, let the muses flirt, really talking out how things worked out... We're jumping right into it and avoiding writing out the buildup (which gets usually drabbled or even a flashback thread much later on - It's avoided at the start but ends up happening eventually anyway to flesh out the characters and their relationship(s)), but we're still in heavy talks beforehand to make sure what we're really eager to do for a ship will even work, first - And if we actually like it when it's more than just a thought, even though our muses generally always just... Click.

For the most part, thought, I LOVE developing a ship! I love the buildup, I love the working things out and getting on the same page, the seeing if the muses get along, the figuring out of "how do we navigate this" - It's a big part of why even with close friends I can just skip into the ship with, we eventually come back and develop an entire story with them and even rp or drabble out those developmental stages. Sera and Zack had years of buildup even though their blogs were launched with their ship already in place, both on dash and off, but over on Thundertide and @yoroiis, Childe and Kagota swandived into a ship, yet we've gone back and worked out not only the developmental stages, but have a couple of ideas from those stages waiting in the wings to rp out and are constantly learning more about their backstory together, both as a ship and as old, childhood best friends.

I can't just 'okay, we ship now' with most partners - I can't even do it with you, Knight, OR with Kasa, even though you're both two of the three previously mentioned friends. I can launch blogs with ships in place, I can skip the developmental stages and go right into a ship when the muses click as well as we have - But I can't just cast it aside completely. Even when a ship is decided, we're still discussing how they met, how the ship happened, how they got where they are. We still go back and rp that out, or write it up. The development may be skipped in one verse, but it's very much present in another, and mimics the first regardless. In my personal opinion, ships that don't have any development, even discussed, feel shallow to me? And I mean that as in my muses and my ships and my experiences - Everyone else's varies and it may not feel that way to someone else, and that's totally awesome! <3 I'm glad other people can pick up two characters, tell them to kiss, and it works! But me personally... I can't. I have to have something, somewhere, and I have the best partners in the world who do the same. <3

[ebachan]

Sonic Prime - Frame by Frame

Hi,

I've seen and now taken tons of frames from the newest Trailer. Some are just funny, but you'll notice "odd stuff" in some. So, let's dive right into them. Also, this will be a very long post ;-)

I don't mind the 4th wall breaking, but I wonder how often, or if it will be there. The opening looks like it could be trailer-exclusive.

It's just for a frame, but we can see Sonic and Shadow being knocked back. This means both are evenly matched regarding the raw power of their spin-dash/homing attack. Which is no surprise XD

It seems not all Badniks have a Flickie.

We can conclude, Dr. Eggman also cracked the Paradox Prism. Or the sparks were caused by the forceful removal. I wonder if we will learn why that stone exists, who created it, and why it was in Green Hills. There is definitely a lot of worldbuilding that can be explored.

It's hard to see, but I wonder if those letters are based on any existing language or inspired by games. It would be cool to find out those aren't random "words". Also, notice the red dot which is the ShatterPortal (Let's call it that ;-)).

I really love how we get to see "Mobians". And it seems we may get a decent amount of variants. Also, it begs the question if we will see more humans outside of Eggman. It would be the first time since Archie we would get humans and Mobians living together and not separately.

I can't help but think Sonic can't run as fast as he should. Could it be possible that he can run fast thanks to his shoes as suggested in old Genesis manuals? It would be probably too similar to Shadow, but given his shoes are all sparkly, it's possible. That could also explain why he needs new shoes and gloves per universe.

I really like how each mecha is different. Also, I think we have seen only 3 out of 5 in this trailer. Unless those two Eggmen have something different.

Basically except for the fully blue-haired one, everyone is based on the old concept art. I really wonder what individual quirks they have :-D Also one of them seems to have a visible tattoo that is quite big. You don't see that often :-D

I can't help but think Tails have both of his tails. Right behind him, you can see something like two tips. But it may be just one tail with a split end. Tails also may have those mechanical legs because he can't fly even with two tails, or to increase his combat potential. I can also see him being more cynical or sarcastic, showing he is less optimistic.

Terminator Amy, nothing else can be said XD I wonder if we will get a flashback of how she ended up like this. Also, it may be possible she is completely mute, giving her more Metal Sonic vibes.

Primal Flickies used to be huge :-D Also, Amy is a bit of a less cavehog in this case. I really love the use of leaves for clothing. Froggy is there too :-D And Tails is examining something in the background. This fox will always be the brainiac :-D

I just find it interesting, that Rouge's sword looks so different from the other two.

Only the best of the best pirates have hot-air ballons on their ship :-D Notice Amy in the background by the helm. Also, I love Knuckle's clothes here, and his dreadlocks got a small but cool makeover.

Did Sonic steal Knuckle's hat? XD Also, Big is there too. Now to find Froggy. (It would be way past cool if Froggy turned out to be a giant sea monster Big befriended XD)

These robots are exactly the same as in the Dystopia world! And they are in Pirate world now! That may mean a few things.

One of the Dystopia Eggmen is after Sonic, chasing him through the multiverse.

For some reason, the Eggman of each universe uses the same robots. Maybe because of the Paradox Prism.

There is another Eggman, that provides his robots to "lesser" Eggmen to control the Shatterverse.

Any other ideas?

Could there be a piece of Paradox Prism, that acts as a gateway to the ShatterVoid? I wonder if anybody else can use it to hop between dimensions?

There seem to be Knuckles under the ship. It can be a flashback or an outcome of the battle with the robots.

It seems Sonic is deep in thought and realizing what mess he had made. It's refreshing to see him being so serious. I wonder if this moment is in the first episode where he decides to stand against The Council and fix everything. Not that he wouldn't want before, but this isn't your everyday banter with Dr. Eggman he knows. He needs to mature to be the hero he thought he is.

Do you see the portal? Could it be possible for Sonic to leave Dystopia World (by accident or by choice) and get back later to fight The Council? Because the next few seconds are from one scene.

First thing, lovely shot. And... Rouge has some sort of knife on her soles! And a different style of heels! And it seems her main partner is Knuckles since we can see them almost always together in this trailer. It may not mean much, but it would be a nice teasing for Knuckles x Rouge shippers :-D

It's also interesting to see that, despite the chase, citizens seem indifferent. Shows how their will is broken, and they just try to survive.

Also, I have to wonder why Sonic looks so "concerned" or "worried". He should be able to run just fine with his new shoes. I wouldn't be surprised if those robots are tougher to beat. But it may be just a frame from his usual smile.

Have you noticed those weapons are literally taped together? Such a neat detail that tells a lot about their resources. It's also interesting how all of them are surprised by Sonic's speed. Could this be possibly the first time he had shown it to them? Or it was Sonic returning to aid them after leaving?

Of course, leave the best for the end! It seems Shadow's involvement will be bigger. And unlike Sonic, he may be stuck in between dimensions. This may be because he used his Chaos powers to protect himself, making his situation worse or better.

Worse - He is stuck in between.

Better - He may be in a similar position as Sonic, allowing him to search for a way to fix the mess.

But also, he seems to be more friendly toward Sonic than in most of his incarnations. He sounds urgent, not angry or aggressive. Maybe he will be able to point Sonic in the right direction where to find shards of Paradox Prism or something that can prevent from the multiverse collapsing.

Well, I told you it'll be long :-D Hope you enjoyed my babbling. If you have any ideas, leave a comment or reblog. I like to read them.

[crehador]

brother crab’s 2023 seasonals in review: summer

surprisingly easy to rank season for me, so i'll get right to it

anime of the season + runner-up for summer goes to...

undead girl murder farce and zom 100: zombie ni naru made ni shitai 100 no koto! nothing else even came close

i'm giving ugmf anime of the season because i personally vibed with it a lot (murder mysteries with a rakugo flair + arsene lupin trying to fuck the phantom of the opera in the background you really cannot go wrong) and also because zom100 has yet to release its last few episodes

zom100 is such a consistently solid show, though, that even without seeing the full cour i'm prepared to give it runner-up of the season. and it's honestly a strong contender for anime of the year. the first episode especially... i would rank it even higher than the first ep of oshi no ko tbh

lots of sequels this season as well!

horimiya, bleach, jjk, and bsd. some new snv came out this season as well but since i binged all that at once it doesn't really feel like a sequel to me

anyway easily sequel of the season goes to bleach, largely because of nostalgia won't deny that but also because it's just that fucking good

horimiya however was also an immense delight! gonna miss these wacky kids :')

quickfire thoughts on everything else:

watashi no shiawase na kekkon is the shoujo of the year, there's been a lot of cute stuff lately but nothing comes close to watakon

vending machine isekai was fine and occasionally funny, but kinda shocked it got a sequel announced already. worldbuilding was definitely the most interesting part and i hope we see more of it in s2

dekiru n eko way kyou mo yuuutsu was absolutely perfect, very fun and cute and soothing

okashi na tensei had a promising premise which it failed to lean into, there was little to no BAKING in this BAKING anime jfc

lv1 maou to one room yuusha seemed like your run of the mill shitty ecchi but actually it's NONBINARY OLD MAN YAOI?! and was kinda good. dumb, but fun

ai no idenshi was... well it was episodic which i like, generally, but it really. was not consistent. some good pieces, some not so good. some interesting, some not so interesting. main failing is it really did not imo balance its 'main' plot with its mini-stories well at all

ayaka was fun! it doesn't really hold a candle to k project like at all but at least it was not as bad as praeter lmao

synduality noir (first cour) was alright. nothing to write home about but a decent enough mecha. as far as anime that are game ads go... i'd say it's okay. a little more interesting than takt op to me, though not as visually stunning. and not as compelling as god eater

hyakushou kizoku was a tv short adapting arakawa hiromu's autobiographical farming manga and it was such a delight lol, especially fun if you're a fan of fma or silver spoon. explains so much about ed tbh

hi no tori: eden no sora was a 4-ep ona that i quite liked overall... ending was just so-so to me i guess

dark gathering isn't quite over still but it's fine as a horror that's heavy on the gore (gorror? is that a thing) actually. probably better than fine, it's just not my genre. some of the stories are definitely more gripping than others, but yeah solid horror overall and really good cast (yandere hanakana what could be better)

helck is also still going but has been really solid, way more enjoyable than i'd imagined. it has an 80s feel to it that i love

and last but certainly not least shuumatsu no valkyrie ii part 2 gives us GYARU FUCKBOI BUDDHA once again. what could be better lmao

MOVING ON

op of the season goes to zom100's song of the dead by kana-boon! the song itself is a banger and the way the op changes from episode to episode makes it even better

HOWEVER this was not an easy choice lol bleach and even jjk both came in with strong contenders as well

ed of the season goes to heclk's statice by saji! it just. ough. right in the feels

this was not a very blorbo or ship heavy season for me but i have to just repeat ARSENE LUPIN. AND THE PHANTOM. OF THE OPERA. one day i will circle back to this lol

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Fortnight – 9/17- 9/30

Space Adventure Cobra – RetroCrush added this to their streaming catalog just as everyone was posting their remembrances after the mangaka passed away, so I figured I should probably see what it was about. What I got was a interstellar romp featuring a blond-haired frat boy with a gun-arm and a smorgasbord of comic book villains and nearly naked women that entertained me despite my better judgement. It’s directed by Osamu Dezaki, with all the pastel freeze frames and three pans he was known for, and still looks pretty darn good for a 40-year-old anime. If you’re ever in the mood for a turn-your-brain-off sort of adventure peppered with smugly delivered one-liners, this should deliver the goods. 7/10

Project Blue Earth SOS – I found this one night while randomly poking around Crunchyroll’s library, and it’s a nice little retro-futuristic sci-fi that’s much better than its MAL score lets on. It’s set around the year 2000 in an alternate timeline Earth where humanity has developed powerful engines that allow for near-light speed travel, leading them to be targeted by an alien civilization bent on subjugating the planet. Rising up in opposition are two brilliant teenagers, one the son of the manufacturer of the powerful engines, and the other the son of astronauts killed in a space disaster years earlier, who work together with a quasi-governmental secret agency to drive them away. The art style is vibrant and colorful with a delightfully 1950s ray gun sci-fi vibe, and the story had lots of twists and turns and revelations straight out of a midcentury B-movie. 7/10

Initial D: Extra Stage – This two-episode OVA follows the driver of the blue Sileighty from Usui Pass as she faces down a challenge on the road and one in her love life. The first episode, Beyond Impact Blue, has her racing one of the Lan Evo drivers from the Emperors after he insults female drivers as a whole and challenges her to what he assumes will be an easy race for him. The second episode, Sentimental White, has her go on a date with one of the divers from the Night Kids, who suggests that he would want his girlfriend to give up a dangerous hobby like street racing, leading her to do some thinking about her life. I didn’t feel like the racing was as exciting as it was in the main series, and I don’t love this mangaka’s approach to writing female characters or romance content, but I did like watching Mako take control and set a path for herself. 7/10

Space Dandy – I don’t know what took me so long to watch this series, as an episodic space comedy directed by Shingo Natsume featuring dozens of top-tier animators and guest directors is completely my kind of food. It starts off a little dubiously with the title character monologuing about tits and asses before heading off to his favorite breastaurant, Boobies, but it was hard to stay mad at this charming idiot blundering his way around the galaxy with his talking vacuum cleaner robot sidekick and alien cat freeloader, Meow. Some of the episodes were fantastic sci-fi short stories that packed a ton of worldbuilding and creativity into 20 minutes, and others were just sort of okay monster-of-the-week episodes, with a thread of a overarching plot loosely connecting them. The art and animation varied a bit depending on who worked on the episode, but on the whole, it was very good work and a lot of fun to watch. 8/10

Gunbuster – The old anime nerds have been talking up this series ever since Discotek licensed it, and Crunchyroll added it to their catalog this week, so I watched it. If you watched Aim for the Ace and thought to yourself that it would be better if it had more mechs and titty fanservice, this is the show for you. The first episode is an almost frame-for-frame homage to the beginning episodes of Aim for the Ace, which is kind of amusing when all the girls were training to be mecha pilots to fight the alien horde. It had some solid space fights and substantial sci-fi scenarios, and I appreciated how big the stakes felt. I only wish there were fewer lovingly animated bouncing titties. 7/10

Sasaki and Miyano: Graduation – This is one of those movie sequels to a series that’s kind of hard to put a rating on. On the one hand, it’s more of the story I enjoy with the characters I love, and it’s great to see some of the moments I remember from the manga animated and acted out. On the other hand, however, it’s not structured like a movie in the least, and runs through the material pretty quickly, leaving the viewer little time to take in what they’ve seen. It’s basically just two more episodes smooshed together without an opening or ending song. If you like the series, you’ll like this, but it’s not a movie-length story with a dramatic arc that stands alone. 8/10

[taulupis]

I posted 50,374 times in 2022

That's 31,753 more posts than 2021!

47 posts created (0%)

50,327 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tigerking-of-kings

@tinymacaroni

@shadowkat678

@asdfjasklfjdkla

@perfectlynormalhumanbeing

I tagged 3,150 of my posts in 2022

#lancer rpg - 293 posts

#unreality - 157 posts

#drawfee - 140 posts

#drawtectives - 85 posts

#kenobi spoilers - 66 posts

#ksbd - 61 posts

#kill six billion demons - 48 posts

#parahumans - 38 posts

#💜 - 37 posts

#worm - 37 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#anyway... 3 minutes into writing it i realized that i had spilled my entire guts out into making her story a trans allegory unintentionally

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

i bet you could tell me everything about the drawtectives crew

Asjdhdjdj you got me

The most important thing to know is that they're a queerplatonic polycule and they love each other very much :)

22 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#4

The reason that I love Lancer (setting aside the fact that humongous mecha are awesome) is the amazing lore and worldbuilding they've done. Here's an excerpt about a time shortly after humanity has finally started to pull itself together, after the end of the world:

"They found old telescopes, radio towers, and laser communication complexes preserved in deep ice on mountaintops and high places all over the world. They pointed them to the stars, turned them on, and waited.

"The first messages arrived almost immediately, and with them came the third great trauma: the voices of Old Humanity, thousands of years ancient and dead, carried on signals garbled by radiation, time, and distance, crying out to their home for help; lost souls that begged for aid, guidance, and their loved ones.

"Millenia of messages, recorded and playing on endless, decaying loops for the survivors to hear.

"This was the voice of Old Humanity as Union had never expected it: a desperate cry for help, a lonely gasp as the air ran out. A plea, unanswered, as the lights grew dim.

"Shaken and sobered, FirstComm eventually returned to those messages, resolved to answer those calls and to ensure that whatever had caused them would never happen again.

"Old orbital stations were retaken. Vast machine minds – the first artificial intelligences – were reactivated and set to puzzle out solutions that humans could not.

"New ships, proud and able, were launched toward those old signals, along ancient charted paths, and out toward new worlds.

"Union could not bring their dead back home, but they would choke the stars with the living."

40 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#3

Just wanna show off these beauties from our No Room for a Wallflower campaign

Livewire

Echo

See the full post

42 notes - Posted June 22, 2022

#2

Ranni and Blythe drawn in Ghibli style, from today's Drawfee

43 notes - Posted May 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Like to slap his bald head

Reblog to slap his bald head

88 notes - Posted February 15, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[recentanimenews]

RECS: Want to Watch Old Anime? Discotek Has You Covered

Every anime season brings a new roster of hits, but the shows of the past recede into the distance. Certainly, there are some exceptions and niche fans keep the spirit of ongoing series like Gundam alive. But with the continued emphasis on new and exciting anime, it’s tempting to forget the multitude of great shows and movies that already exist.   The Discotek label has fought consistently over the past several years to ensure that anime’s past is preserved. Run by industry stalwarts, they’ve done the impossible time and time again: they tracked down the masters of cult OVA Project A-Ko, painstakingly restored the 2001 remake of Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier from thousands of damaged tapes, and much of their best stuff is now available for streaming.

  If you’re looking for something a little different or simply looking for a new show to watch, why not travel back into anime’s past? Here are some great TV series and movies as enjoyable today as they were when they were produced.

  These are just my own recommendations, picked from the great sea of Discotek titles. But if you want to explore further, and check out titles including real-life inspiration on Yoko Taro, Sister Princess, you can find their shared Crunchyroll catalog list here.

  Note: The titles listed are largely only available in the United States and Canada.

  Movie Night

  Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer

    One of the best-known anime directors ever, Mamoru Oshii first made his mark with an outrageously popular animated sitcom: Urusei Yatsura, the series that put the queen of romantic comedy manga Rumiko Takahashi on the map. Oshii struck a balance throughout the TV series between hilarious comedy and experimentation, but it was in the second Urusei Yatsura film, Beautiful Dreamer, that he really went all out. This surreal time loop story keeps finding new ways to defy audience expectations throughout its runtime both as an atypical Urusei Yatsura tale as well as a sterling example of just how imaginative and ground-breaking the Urusei Yatsura anime could be at its best.

  GoShogun: The Time Etranger

    GoShogun: The Time Etranger is that classic anime standby: a film completely different in tone and content than the franchise that spawned it. Released four years after the original 1981 super robot series, The Time Etranger spends much of its runtime focused on the dreams and anxieties of sole female cast member Remy as she lies in a coma at the hospital. Examining “what happens after” a final super robot fight, it remains an enjoyable film with smarter writing than you’d expect.  The Time Etranger is also a notable favorite of the great 80sanime Tumblr.

  Night on the Galactic Railroad

    Kenji Miyazawa’s novel Night on the Galactic Railroad might be best known to English-speaking audiences as a reference point for anime like Mawaru Penguindrum and Galaxy Express 999, but in truth, it’s one of the most beloved Japanese children’s stories ever written. An anime film adaptation was released in 1985, directed by the famed Gisaburo Sugii and scored by Yellow Magic Orchestra member Haruomi Hosono. Also, the characters are all drawn as cats! While slow-paced, it’s a strong adaptation that captures the charming and whimsical spirit of the original novel.

  Other Discotek movie recommendations:

All the other 6 Urusei Yatsura movies

Jin Roh

Like the Clouds, Like the Wind

Ringing Bell

  Mecha

  Giant Gorg

    Folks talk up director Yoshiyuki Tomino as the key creative force behind the original Gundam. But don’t forget Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the talented character designer behind both Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam. His most personal anime project is Giant Gorg, the story of a young boy who stumbles across a giant robot on a mysterious island. Rather than a Gundam-style war narrative, Giant Gorg is a proper adventure story in which the young cast spring from cliffhanger to cliffhanger. A white whale in American anime fandom for years, it was finally licensed for distribution in the United States in 2015. Don’t forget this fantastic mash-up between the Giant Gorg OP and the Perfect Strangers theme!

    Mazinger Edition Z

    In Mazinger Edition Z, cult-favorite director Yasuhiro Imagawa reimagines Go Nagai’s classic robot series to create a unified setting packed with pulpy thrills and conspiracies: The giant robot Mazinger has a past history involving the Greek god Zeus! The villain Baron Ashura is recontextualized as a deeply tragic villain with the best story arc in the series! We’re even given Tsubasa Nishikori, a Go Nagai staple who here becomes Imagawa’s best-written female character! 

  Mazinger Z is absolutely suffused with the spirit that made Imagawa’s earlier masterpiece Giant Robo so beloved and is an essential watch for any fan of that series. Not to mention that it ends with a cliffhanger brutal enough to make Go Nagai jealous.

  Other Discotek mech recommendations:

Dai-Guard

Gunbuster 2

Tetsujin 28

  Comedy

  Cromartie High School

    Anime comedies speak to the time that they were made, but there’s something uniquely timeless about Cromartie High School. You could say the show is funny because it’s set in a high school whose roster of delinquents includes a robot, Freddie Mercury, and a gorilla. But I think it goes even further than that: Cromartie High School is funny because its rowdy delinquents live lives just as boring as our own. When I watch Cromartie High School, I think not “what weirdos!” but “same, bro.” True in 2003, true in 2021.

  Other Discotek comedy recommendations:

Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan

Cat Girl Nuku Nuku

Golden Boy

Samurai Pizza Cats

  Drama

  Key the Metal Idol

    Key the Metal Idol is a truly weird series. Directed and written by Hiroaki Sato, one of three animation directors who brought anime film masterpiece Akira to life, it’s the story of an android tasked by her creator to become human by making 30,000 friends. It’s a series that skewers the entertainment industry but is also loaded down with science fiction exposition. It’s a series that’s deeply in love with the work of David Lynch. Key the Metal Idol is flawed and idiosyncratic, but it’s also a genre-busting original far ahead of its time. And the opening credit sequence rules.

  The Twelve Kingdoms

    Fantasy anime are a dime a dozen these days, but for my money, no recent title comes close to The Twelve Kingdoms. The series has its share of magical creatures, epic duels, and even more elaborate fantasy worldbuilding than you can shake a sword at. But most of all, it’s a story about people and growth. Twelve Kingdoms puts its cast of scared teenagers in a crucible and subjects them to intense pressure until those teenagers realize, to their shock and genuine awe, that they can handle anything the world throws at them. Twelve Kingdoms deserves consideration along with Berserk as one of the greatest works of epic fantasy that animation has to offer.

  Other Discotek drama recommendations:

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!

Honey and Clover

Kaiba

True Tears

  What are your favorite older anime? Is there an anime BluRay or DVD you treasure most? Let us know in the comments!

    Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he is not evangelizing Kaiba to his friends and neighbors, he sporadically contributes with a loose group of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at:@wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[hapuriainen]

Hapuriainen's Animation & Comics & Games of 2020

It is again time for the annual compilation!

Manga:

Attack on Titan

I'm so sad this is so close to end... It's been my main thing for a few years now. Eren definitely didn't take the route I expected but I still find this consistent with his character and a bold and interesting move from the author.

(My notes say I also finished the jr high spin-off manga but it's not worth talking about)

Awards given: Best Side Girl (I still like Gabi, haters gonna hate), Best Boy (ditto Eren)

One Piece, My Hero Academia My interest in OP is still at an all-time low and I'm just waiting for the arc to end. There are so many characters and I have little idea what their deal is, Carrot hasn't been interesting in ages and currently Yamato is the only character I care for. Same for HeroAca; at least the excruciatingly long action scene is finally over.

Undead Unluck New Jump series! I think the main duo have a really good dynamic, but they're pretty much the only thing I care about and I'm very lost with what the plot is actually supposed to be about.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

I like detective stories so here's one from the Assassination Classroom creator! The detective stuff itself could get rather nonsensical and as the story progressed more and more fantasy elements were added, but the titular character was entertaining enough to keep me interested. The viewpoint character was refreshingly (for a Jump series) a girl and her dynamic with Neuro (an ordinary schoolgirl and an arrogant amoral troll demon) was great.

Awards given: Best non-romantic relationship (Neuro & Yako)

Spy x Family

Super fun and the characters are cute!  The main couple has such great chemistry and in general I enjoy following characters who are really competent at their job. Not surprised that this has become hugely popular.

Awards given: Best romance (it is rare to get me to ship anything but the main couple here is just so cute)

Delicious in Dungeon

This manga has amazing character design and the author clearly loves to play around with it, like by drawing each character as each other's races, or making clones of everyone but each clone is a little different so you can guess which is the real one with the characters, and there's so much thought put to the outfits too. And then there's of course all the worldbuilding around how an RPG dungeon and the creatures in it could work, but it's presented simply enough that the story is still easy to follow. I also like the upbeat atmosphere; maybe I could get a bit more emotionally involved if there was more drama, but I still really like this as it is.

Awards given: Best character designs

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Reread one of my favourite manga ever and it's still just as good. I love how the manga still has a positive vibe to it, under it there is the quiet melancholy of a world that is close to ending. And it's wonderful how uninterested the story is answering any of the worldbuilding questions it sets up.

Beastars

This was incredibly interesting in how it presented an animal society where the carnivore-herbivore differences couldn't be just explained away with "the differences don't really exist", and the story looks at this from so many different angles. Pairs really well with Zootopia for a completely different approach. Louis was a really interesting character with how he publicly managed to appear as if he was a good candidate to be the next ambassador for the peace between the animals but was actually very cold and broken inside, and I really liked his breakdown moment. The ending was pretty meh though.

Awards given: Best Side Boy (Louis)

Kannagi

This one has really cute character designs but apart from that it's a pretty generic harem story. Except for the twist that the main girl already had been involved with a boy which caused otaku to shred their manga or whatever. I believe I would have enjoyed this more if it finished back when it went to hiatus since at this point it didn't do much for me.

Witch Hat Atelier

The main girl is the kind of heroic, friendly, plucky goody-two-shoes protagonist I really don't like but apart from that this is a great manga. I love the art, and the way the magic works is really well set up but also easy to understand. Great outfits too!

Anime:

This year I learned that in order to clear stuff from your anime watch list you need to actually watch anime. So unexpectedly I think I watched a lot more different series than usual.

Attack on Titan

It was my plan to watch seasons 1-3 before jumping on board with the last one, and of course I dragged my feet for the entire year and had to marathon the whole thing in autumn. I still prefer the manga, but the anime does have great colours, soundtrack and voice acting and some of the action scenes were amazing. But I really hate what they did to Historia in season 3... The final season has been excellent so far and I can't wait for the big scene in the next episode.

Awards given: Best OP (all the Linked Horizon ones)

Ouran High School Host Club

Haruhi continues to be one of the best girls in the anime and manga industry ever with her confident and no-nonsense attitude, and Tamaki's oblivious and overflowing friendliness makes for a great counterpart to her. And the opening theme is so darn catchy.

Awards given: Best Girl (Haruhi)

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Finally managed to watch this. I love the iconic character designs and all the chaotic energy. Kamina for best bro. I've never cared for mecha, the girls were nice but the writing around them sucked and the second half wasn't as strong as the first one, but still a good package overall.

Awards given: Best ED (don't care for the song that much but Simon looks somehow really cool in the second ending)

Haibane Renmei

Another one that had been on the watch list for years. A lovely quiet and contemplative show. Visuals were rather dull though but maybe it's better for a show like this that the characters didn't have bubblegum pink hair.

Digimon Adventure 2020

This started promising but has since lost steam. I really like how different the story is from the original Digimon Adventure, and compared to Precure it's super nice how not every episode has the exact same structure, and the cast has different roles and regularly gets split up instead of shoehorning everyone into every conflict. But on the other hand the characters feel way more samey and flat, and the original "kids want to return to their home from the Digital World" plot was a lot more personal than the current one about global crises and prophecy jargon. And some of the action scenes last way too long.

Awards given: Worst side boy (Agumon and his evolutions, it is of course expected that he'd get a lot of screen time but I'm so over how much he's constantly pushed in your face in the franchise)

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii Desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desu ka?

This wasn't afwul but still left me kind of cold. I think the character designs were a problem here, in general I'm used to brightly coloured anime characters but this was trying to be a very serious story about child soldiers who know they're going to die young. But when they were colour-coded and always wore the same clothes (and mostly had pretty generic animu girl personalities) they felt so artificial which made it harder to get into the drama. Nice OP song.

Yashahime

Inuyasha was my first show after really getting into anime so I was super hyped for any kind of new content. So far this has unfortunately been rather dull since I'm not particularly interested in either of Sesshoumaru's daughters, and the way the show treats the absence of the old cast is annoying. Just either show them or make it clear we're not supposed to care about them, now it's just annoying how their disappearance is treated as a mystery but the three heroines know barely anything about their heritage and don't even seem interested in learning either. But I'll watch this to the end for Moroha.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angels, Twin Angel Break, Pretear, Happy Seven, Healin' Good Precure

Watched a lot of magical girl stuff this year too, these being shows that play the tropes straight. The Twin Angel seasons had different flaws but were otherwise watchable aside from the awful Twin Angel Break heroine. Pretear had surprisingly nice character writing and I feel I would really have liked this if I saw it at an earlier part of my anime hobby experience but now it doesn't feel so special any more. Healin' Good Precure has been rather dull.

I also watched a bunch of Precure movies, out of which only the Star Twinkle Precure one was actually good, and the Spring Carnival crossover movie was also good in an absurd way, while the rest ranged from awful to somewhat decent.

Awards given: Worst girl (Meguru - Twin Angel Break), Biggest WTF (Happy Seven suddenly going from monster of the week shenaningans to alien mass destruction weapons)

Concrete Revolutio, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Re:Creators

Also some anime where the magical girl was a side character. Concrete Revolutio was an unpleasant mess with nice visuals, Myriad Colors was a pretty boring otaku high school harem thing and the magical girl episode was also rather bland, and Re:Creators had a lot of potential with the "anime characters come to our world" setting but the result was somewhat uneven. Re:Creators had the best magical girl out of these three.

Awards given: Worst non-romantic relationship, Worst side girl (Setsuna from Re:creators, with the main boy) not really an awful character on her own, but the writing around her was pretty bad, let's also give Worst Boy for the said main boy

Nausicaa

I watched the first half of the movie over a decade ago and didn't manage to finish until now. After seeing so many other Ghibli movies this didn't do much for me, but the animation and nature were still beautiful.

Western:

Most Popular Girls in School

The newer seasons didn't reach the heights of the earlier ones but there's still something entertaining about a very raunchy Barbie doll stop motion show. Also pairs well with the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse for a fun but more child friendly Barbie experience.

Frozen 2

I'm wondering if these really are the only Western piece of media I consumed this year? I certainly didn't go to movies after March. Anyway, like the previous film I had major problems with the plot and characters (I don't think Elsa's story was set up properly, Kristoff's sub-plot feels like an afterthought when he doesn't factor to Anna's sub-plot at all, Olaf is annoying, too much Lore) but ultimately I still had a good time. I like the costume design, the idea for Elsa's arc is fine, the songs are great and there were plenty of good scenes too, and the lullaby was beautiful. I'd say that like the original Frozen this was patched together from perfectly serviceable pieces that didn't quite work combined.

Awards given: Worst romance (not the pairing itself but the way Kristoff x Anna was written)

Games:

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp

Early this year I just decided not to open this app for the daily money-grubbing grind and haven't touched it since. I'm free!

Animal Crossing New Horizons

However the daily grind continues here! It's been way more enjoyable, primarily due to lacking the microtransactions/limited time item angle and also for being so much more customisable. And the nature is so pretty... But I've reached a point where even this has started to feel kind of stale.

Super Mario Odyssey

My first Mario game since Super Mario World so of course I'm blown away by everything. I like how colourful and welcoming the worlds were, Cappy was a surprisingly enjoyable sidekick/mascot and also the game was easy enough and had a simple linear plot so it was far easier to approach than Zelda BotW which is still on hold.

Plans for 2021

Actually play Zelda BotW

Maybe finally Evangelion?

Finally finish the mostly disappointing Digimon Adventure tri

Various magical girl sequels and remakes

[meandmyechoes]

I love Sentai so much!

It is refreshing to see people striving for innovation in a 45-year-old franchise, writing-wise and production-wise, while still respecting the traditon of the genre. Sometime you wish a certain space franchise has the whimsy to get meta and play on itself, wouldn't you.

Zenkaiger is such a uplifting show much needed at the present. It's just a visual spectacular every week with the gradually sophisticating blend of practical sets and CG. I am loving the fight scenes, sparks and suits. It must be applauded how bold it is to make the main cast droids, and sticking with it! Looking forward to the worldbuilding. This is the first time I actually want the mecha over the henshin gadget because it just seem versatile and fun.

Two minor things I wonder though. Pink's boob armour… it just doesn't make sense. Her civilian form is flat-chested and the mecha she was suppose to homage of course does not have boob armor so like, why. She is a droid okay… And, the only way I could love Blue's curiosity more is if they make him a girl.

[whiskey-corridor]

Strangereal is a unique sci-fi world and its genius is underestimated

To many newcomers to the Ace Combat series, many of them are all like "you play as an analogue for America and you fight an analogue for Russia/Germany. Why not just take place in the real world where you play as America and fight Russia?"

Like really nigga? You want another game where good old America fights those big meany Russians? No you don't because you were just bitching about how theres too many America v. Russia games and we need something new. That's what Ace Combat is, something new.

Now at first glance itll seem like you're playing Not-America and fighting Not-Russia, but if you look just slightly below the surface you'll see that's not the case. Let's take Ace Combat 7 for example, Osea seems like America, but it also has heavy Japanese influence too. Then Erusea seems like Russia because the main enemy squadron uses Flankers, but they're not socialist and their nation isn't Eastern European style at all. They actually closely resemble France in WWI, but transplanted into modern day. Not to mention Belka, who are like Nazi Germany (just less racist) put in modern times as well. You can't get factions like this on a game that takes place in our world.

Folks who are hardcore on worldbuilding would look at Strangereal and go "how do they have the same technology as us if the entire planet is completely different?" And if you're like that I'd say you're looking too far into it. Even though Strangereal's lore goes back to the middle aged (or technically thousand of years since they practice Abrahamic religions there too), it's not meant to be that deep. Strangereal is a playground for the writers to come up with epic war scenarios without being tied up in our worlds politics. It's like if Tom Clancy and Hideo Kojima made a world together, its awesome.

One more thing I really appreciate about Strangereal and the writers at Project Aces is they use a lot of airplanes that in our world were rarely used or weren't used at all. For example in Ace Combat 6 theres a mission where you shoot down XB-70s. If you're not an Avgeek then you probably wont care but if you are then you know how cool that is. Irl the Valkyrie never entered service, but it's nice seeing it come to life in a video game. I like the sci-fi mecha weapons in it too, but I greatly appreciate Project Aces love for aviation history.

[spiderdreamer-blog]

She-Ra and the Fallacy of Superficial Comparisons (SPOILERS WITHIN)

So as evidenced by my last post, I’m thrilled with how She-Ra turned out! Excellent emotional payoffs, great acting, beautiful visuals, super gay, all the great stuff ya want in a show ending like this. And I’m happy both for myself and the fandom at large, but I must admit to a certain....annoyance in things I am seeing in it.

Like comparisons to a certain other DreamWorks animated 80s reboot series that ended nearly a year and a half ago called Voltron Legendary Defender. A series that, even with its flaws, I’m still very quite fond of and meant a lot to me personally (for one, it helped me meet my awesome and nerdy-ass boyfriend).

And it would not be entirely accurate to say that I LOVED the ending of that series in the same way that I do for She-Ra or that I agreed with every choice that it made as a story, as I do not even whilst agreeing that some of the elements I’m less fond of were well executed on their own merits (namely Allurance, some of the magic and worldbuilding, certain episodes that are weaker narratively). But that’s as true for She-Ra, at least in some of the particulars I mentioned in a previous post, as it is for anything, and I think the early seasons in particular aren’t as strong in many areas as the later ones while still being pretty good. I also believe the comparisons here don’t hold as much water as some people think and do neither series any favors. I will explain my reasoning in three major points below, and hope you at least find them edifying even if you’re not convinced.

1. Fundamentally different builds as series do not a good comparison make

First, let’s do a basic breakdown comparison of the two series:

Voltron: Five idiots get involved an intergalactic war for survival against a thousands-of-years-old empire with a resistance organized by a magic space princess with access to ancient superweapons that the bad guys ultimately want for their own purpose.

She-Ra: Local idiot fights war on behalf of evil empire against magic princesses, decides that’s bad, gains access to ancient superweapon that the bad guys ultimately want for their own purposes.

Now, obviously, since these are playing in somewhat adjacent genres (magical girl sci-fi, giant mecha) and premises, there are admittedly some similarities in the above, but you may have already noticed the big difference: Voltron is an ensemble show. She-Ra is Adora’s story first and foremost.

“But ho, Spider!” I hear you saying in the voice of an old timey radio announcer. “She-Ra HAS an ensemble cast! It holds The Princesses of Power as its subtitle! They even have a Best Friend Squad!”

Ah but see, I whisper back in a confident nerd voice, here is where we get into that “different nature” thing: the difference is point of view.

Voltron starts us with one character’s point of view (Shiro), but he is notably already in a group and team atmosphere. And this continues in subsequent scenes throughout the pilot episodes: Lance, Hunk, and Pidge are introduced being a team, badly, and we are informed about our next party member, Keith, through Iverson telling us both he and these guys, implicitly and explicitly, suck at this. We generally follow all these characters not solely as individuals, but as part of groups and ecosystems. It’s rare, in fact, that a character is completely and utterly alone, or close to it.

She-Ra, by contrast, firmly puts us in Adora’s headspace from the first moment. The opening scenes of its pilot are dedicated to fleshing out how she feels about the Horde, singularly, and Catra; the other Horde members like Lonnie and Kyle are, at this point, incidental. And while we switch to other perspectives, it is Adora’s actions that primarily drive the story for herself and her own self-actualization throughout, whilst the other characters either react or further their own plans because of her (Catra’s entire arc is based on what she perceives as Adora not loving her).

Ergo, while She-Ra has an ensemble cast that builds up over time, Adora is its primary protagonist, while Voltron ends up with six lead characters and an ensemble built around those. Thus, the character writing styles and arc goals are completely different/not truly comparable in my mind.

2. Opposite thematic ends

The other main issue here, I think, is that Voltron and She-Ra ultimately have different thematic goals entirely.

Voltron, as I see it, is about loss. Most of the major characters, heroic and antagonistic, have lost something personal, be it family, friends, or autonomy. These losses and their reactions to them drive the motivations for most of what occurs in the plot and arcs: Zarkon kicks off everything by refusing to admit that his wife will die and he will lose her; Lotor does not truly hate his father until he loses Ven’tar and her planet; Allura’s loss of her people and world spurs her into action against the empire; Pidge’s loss of her father and brother prompts her to forge her disguise; Keith’s loss of his parents and then Shiro both times are a major motivating force in his psychology; and so on. Death is also on the table much more readily than She-Ra, with the stakes being incredibly high from early on; there’s an entire episode subplot focused on the Balmera and its people that drives home what this war is costing them and thus, by extension, the rest of the universe.  The danger levels are also apparent at any moment with organizations like the Blade, who take it as a certainty that they could die in the flash of an eye, or Pidge, who is ruthlessly attacked by Haxus and Sendak without hesitation despite her clearly being younger. Thus, the fates of several characters like Lotor, while tragic, are consistent with the series’ tone and what it says about loss: if you let it consume you, instead of eventually moving forward, it will destroy you.

By contrast, the only named characters in She-Ra we truly see die or that people lose in ways they cannot really come back from are Mara, Light Hope, Angella, Shadow Weaver, and Horde Prime. And this is not to say that She-Ra handles this sort of thing poorly, mind, but the thematic focus is far more on breaking the cycles of abuse and self-actualization as the primary driving force. It is not really a “war/action show” in the same way that Voltron is until really the final season, and even then, the thematic focus remains the same: Horde Prime, the epicenter of everything that has happened, is less of a warlord and more an abusive cult leader that boosts his own self-actualization over that of his clones and the people that he conquers. Hordak’s rejection and kickstarting of the conquest of Etheria to desperately seek Prime’s approval is born out of this abuse. Shadow Weaver, meanwhile, is an abusive mother figure from the word go, manipulating and grooming figures like Micah, Adora, and Catra. Thus, the arcs have a different focus: it’s not so much about regaining what has been lost as figuring out who you are and what you want to do with your life instead of what your abusive parents or leaders do. And it does this excellently, especially in the final season where characters fully affirm their new selves.

3. Tearing down one series to boost another does not say as much about the latter’s strength and uniqueness as you think it does.

Finally, I think what tends to bother me most about the superficial comparisons is that I don’t think it does either series any favors to drag the other down as comparisons because they’re so different and focused on different things at the end of the day. Voltron is telling a war story where bittersweetness or tragedy can be an ever-present force even amidst life and love, and also giant robot brawls are here. She-Ra is not, even with the tragic things that can occur in the narrative. Neither does this really get at why She-Ra is SPECIFICALLY as good as it is, and truth be told, I’d much RATHER be talking about that and Noelle Stevenson’s gifts as a storyteller and creative force.

More than that, while I think, yes, She-Ra does some things better than Voltron ultimately does (namely explicit and stated onscreen queer representation, though I maintain that it is intensely weird to assume creators in kid’s television are just lying to you about what they can or can’t accomplish when most creators, even with more “visible” rep, have the same stories about running into interference from the higher-ups)....I also think Voltron does some things better than She-Ra (hang on, setting up my bomb shelter). For instance, I believe the ensemble writing is much stronger from the get-go, whereas She-Ra takes a good while to build up its cast and even then, many of the other princesses can often function as guest stars in Adora’s narrative/having subplots that don’t really affect her main story; something like, say, Entrapta’s budding romance with Hordak has far more of an effect on Catra’s storyline than it does the title character, arguably. In fact, the show only gets stronger as it focuses more on the others and builds up those relationships, such as the Best Friend Squad growing distant and fighting more as things drag on, or Scorpia’s confidence to leave Catra when she’s a bad friend.

To use a more specific example in terms of ensemble writing, this is something that I think weakens the initial separation of Entrapta from the group in Season 1 when they think she died on a mission; we’ve spent so little time building up this group dynamic that it’s hard to say they’re really bosom friends at this point even if the supposed death has shocked them. By contrast, when Shiro is gone in the early part of season 3 of Voltron, it’s a palpable, hard-hitting loss because we’ve spent so much time with him as part of the larger group, and all the characters are clearly affected by it/trying to live up to the example he set. There’s also more of a sense of mystery as to what happened to him; we don’t get answers until 5 episodes into the season, whereas we learn of Entrapta’s survival almost immediately.

I also think it’s an unquestionably better action series throughout, with Studio Mir’s fluid, dynamic style boosting already great choreography and tension. As stated in an earlier post, She-Ra is not precisely BAD at this, and got better as time went on, but I can think of many standout fights choreography and emotion-wise in Voltron. Not so much for this until pretty much the end. NE4U is a very good animation studio, but their strengths and focus, like Mir a lot of the time, are on character acting and visual comedy; one of the best runners in She-Ra is how, say, they animate Entrapta’s hair as being an extension of her body and how it interacts with her tools or other people. In terms of fight choreography, a lot of brawls tend to boil down to “throw magic/swat people away with sword, rinse and repeat”. It’s not a series I watch or rewatch specifically for the action like Voltron or other Mir shows like Kipo.

CONCLUSION

Ultimately, what I’m trying to say here is....you don’t have to like what Voltron did with its narrative or character arcs compared to She-Ra. I recognize there are arguments to be made in terms of poorer representation on some fronts or it being less “satisfying” a conclusion in its bittersweet tragedy than She-Ra’s near-unequivocally positive end for just about everyone. But I think it’s poor analysis to compare series that have little to do with each other beyond superficial commonalities because you were more personally satisfied by one than the other. What I’d like to see more of is solid comparisons of, say, Legendary Defender to past franchise depictions or other mecha franchises that it takes clear inspiration from like Macross or Gundam. That, to me, will tell you far more about it and how it succeeds or fails. By turn, She-Ra has, like Steven Universe before it, far more in common with magical girl or shoujo series like Sailor Moon or Revolutionary Girl Utena in terms of aesthetics, tone, and thematics. To me, that’s where the REAL fun is, not trying to boost your new girlfriend over your old one.

[dappercritter]

Random Thoughts on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (S1):

Let me start off by saying, Friendship ended with VOLTRON: LEGENDARY DEFENDER. Now SHE-RA is my best friend.

(But seriously though, I can’t emphasize enough how refreshing it feels to watch this after Voltron abandoned mecha fun and good character writing for a pretentious space drama.)

There’s something about Adora’s story that seems familiar to me but in a good way. Let me elaborate: A young adult with special talents is drafted into an evil terrorist army who uses mysterious advanced technology and is led by monstrous commanders and a sadistic figure in a red cloak, but rebels against them out of goodness and uses a powerful device to transform into an armoured warrior with a flowing red accessory and a trademark stead connected to their powers who can demolish their forces. Why does that sound so familiar...?

(Eh, it’ll come to me.)

A modern action cartoon with an actual theme song instead of an orchestral piece/sting? Miracles do happen!

It’s nice that they gave this show the darker and deeper treatment and all, but I what I really love is that they didn’t let go of She-Ra’s sillier origins. Little things like the characters’ goofy names, the importance of friendship, the vibrant colour palettes, ALL THE GAY--these things are just as important as worldbuilding and drama.

There needs to be more science-fantasy/magic vs. science stories in the world and I’m glad She-Ra is stepping up to fill that void.

Speaking of which, the story and design of the Sword of Protection vaguely remind me of an old story idea I had a while back. ...That I ditched. So seeing it live on in but not really here does my heart good.

On the topic of conflict, I noticed that the story has an interesting thematic wist on the good vs. evil conflict: the good guys stand for healthy mutually beneficial relationships and fight for peaceful societies, whereas the bad guys are the product of toxic relationships and a military complex. (e.g. compare the relationship between the Princesses, their friends and kingdoms with Catra, Shadow Weaver and the Horde as a whole.)

Got some real Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind vibes from the bug monster in the Whispering Woods.

I also like to think that said bug feeds on all the dinks who said Adora/She-Ra looks like a dude.

Seriously though, I don’t care how feminine or masculine anyone thinks they look, the character designs are great. You can tell who the boys and girls are without a problem, but their sexual characteristics--tertiary or otherwise--aren’t overexaggerated. There’s a certain neutrality in their designs that allows the characters to look as feminine or masculine as need be based on their personalities and not just their gender.

And that’s just dandy.

Bow is a most excellent role model for boys--cisgender or otherwise.

2/3 of the entire cast are MVPs.

I want to give everyone a hug. Between the personalities and aforementioned designs, everyone here radiates such great friend energy!

Okay except for Catra.

And Shadow Weaver.

And Hordak (gonna let Entrapta handle that one ;)

And I’m probably better off respecting Frosta’s personal space for as long as possible.

Princess Prom was a pretty good episode and all but consider an alternate reality where, instead of some dubstep music playing at the party and the credits, they played Fabulous Secret Powers.

A really cool guy made a post highlighting how rebutting the letting go of attachments trope in Light Hope is a good thing. He got chewed out for it but you knuckleheads. I on the other hand, wholeheartedly stand by his and the writer’s opinion. Removing yourself from what you care about won’t make you stronger - it makes you more callous.

It’s great there’s a toyline for the show but in all honesty, it would be nice if they looked less... doll-ish and more on-model. But that’s just my totally unnecessary opinion.

If we don’t get more Madam Razz, I riot.

I legit want to watch classic She-Ra and He-Man now.

I can’t wait for Season 2/3 to emotionally abuse me.

[moistwithgender]

Media Roundup (February 2019)

I wanted to try and squeeze in one last finished show into the last day but I ended up having a really bad sleep schedule hiccup. Anyway, here’s what I finished this month:

Games:

This is actually the shortest list this month, on account of me mostly playing through a single game somewhat slowly. If you follow my posts, you might be able to guess what series it’s a part of.

Super Robot Wars EX (SNES): At the end of the previous post I warned that if you want to get into SRW, SRW2 is an extremely rough starting point, even though it’s canon to the four or five original SRW canon games mostly on the SNES. Thankfully, there is a youtube video that shows you all the dialogue and combat snippets from SRW2. That said... if I wanted to stick hard to canon, I would have either played SRW3 first, or waited for the incoming re-fan-translation that will drop probably at the end of March. BUT, I wanted to play SRW and not jump to a game so far ahead that the mechanics alienate me to the earlier games, so I started EX. EX is largely a contained side story that takes place in and revolving around the original properties of SRW canon. Said original properties involve La Gias, the world that exists inside of planet Earth, and a three-sided war involving mechs that run on magic. There’s a lot of politics and strategic talk and fantasy worldbuilding grounded in fantasy science and it’s actually really fucking cool. They take the time to explain how due to a (magical) scientific phenomena, prophecies are always accurate in La Gias (yet preventable with the right effort), which is exactly the kind of bullshit I love.

However, due to summoning rituals, the setting is also flooded with “Surface Dwellers”, AKA people from different mecha anime who have been written into a melting pot setting that contains all their narratives (sometimes cleverly tweaked to allow and complement each other). This isn’t just a hand wave, but worked into big plot points. It is genuinely stunning how much the creators of these games actually tend to give a shit about making these narratives believable and interesting. I say “believable”, though it’s also worth noting that, as with manipulated inclusion of various IPs, canon is general is somewhat malleable in SRW. There are usually multiple plot options in the games, and EX features a unique system with three separate campaigns that, depending on the order you play them, and also depending on the choices you make and how well you play, change the sequence of events in other campaigns as they weave into each other. It’s not handled amazingly, and to see everything, you may play the campaigns some three times each. I don’t really have that kind of patience, because these early SRW games are also sufficiently challenging games. While not nearly as bullshit as SRW2, EX features a fair amount of incentive to save and reset for better RNG, and you might spend an hour or longer on later maps because situations get really tight. EX is also considered one of the easier early games (phew). Despite that, the maps are almost all really enjoyable, you just have to be willing to work for your victory at times.

The writing, with much credit going to the stellar fan translation imo, is also a compelling read, and dialogue is frequently hilarious despite how much it also focuses on political intrigue and fatal drama. The “hard” campaign (at times equally or less difficult than the “intermediate” campaign) has you playing one of the main series antagonists, whose right hand minions include an oujosama who openly talks about how horny she is, a princess with hardcore stockholm syndrome (or is it?), and a semi incompetent little blue bird as a psychic familiar. A running gag is them chastising each other for using rude words. These characters have apparently been popular enough to reappear even in the modern titles, which largely are self-contained timelines of their own, with their own canonical tweaks.

Last point I want to touch on (this single game just has so much to it) is that playing this game out of order is interesting in how canon is referenced. In most self-contained-stories-in-greater-narratives, you’ll get somewhat forced exposition drops when a character is (re-)introduced. Most of these games so far tend to treat pre-existing characters on the same ground as OCs, where a character doesn’t say, for example “yo I’m goku I come from earth and I’m a super saiyan”, but kind of just realistically reacts to the scenario as per their characterization. If you learn more about them, it’s mostly via seeing them interact with other heroes or villains from their own canon (though later games include library bios to catch you up if you want). While this creates an interesting experience where, if you don’t know a series, you get that curious feeling of walking in on the middle of something, but instead from the beginning. The most interesting aspect of this, and what I consider the defining aspect of the game’s storytelling, is that the same delivery is used with the original characters. From the get-go, the original characters in SRW EX talk about other elements the way real people do, without vaguely audience-oriented exposition. Some people won’t like this, but it makes it feel much more real to me, and complements my recent exploration of the breadth of mecha, where I know a ton of names and have very little context, and slowly accumulate context as I go along. It’s a lot of little micro-mysteries. EX didn’t start this, either. SRW2, which is both the first SRW with a plot or even dialogue, introduces the main OC of SRW, Masaki and his Cybuster, who has a lot of his own lore, and tells almost none of it. You are left for the entirety of SRW2 to only grasp the fringes of what Masaki’s story is, and when he says “hey I’m actually leaving now in the middle of the game because I have my own plot bye” you just deal with that. SRW establishes that the world is way bigger than you, even though the core concept of the series is rooted in fanservice. Now, part of this is that Banpresto and Winkysoft probably had a big MCU-style plan from the beginning (cough most ambitious crossover in history cough), because, well, look at this release timeline and associated narrative chronology:

-Super Robot Wars (Game Boy, April 1991) No plot, or dialogue, but establishes the Big Three (Gundam, Getter, Mazinger) as playable characters and has the kaiju villain from an old 70s Getter+Mazinger crossover movie as the final boss. The pilots don’t exist, the robots are all apparently sentient beings. -The 2nd Super Robot Wars (NES, December 1991) Beginning of plot, introduces a proper antagonist (Bian Zoldak), an antagonist force he leads (Divine Crusaders), light political intrigue, Masaki Andoh and his nemesis Shu Shirakawa are established vaguely while having a separate plot that is not explained. IMAGINE juking your audience with your own main character like that. He doesn’t serve as protagonist yet but is clearly, like, the most important OC? Bian and Shu even serve as the final bosses and you don’t even know who Shu really is. The kaiju villain from before comes back for a single map and evolves into a stronger form unique to the game. The heroes from SRW1 also all acknowledge that SRW1 happened and they know each other. This establishes that you cannot rely on canon. -The 3rd Super Robot Wars (SNES, July 1993) Haven’t played yet but I hear this is where they really started playing with canon. Mixes the Divine Crusaders plot with the plot of the original Gundam series. Multiple endings exist now, and plot regularly splits into dual branches. -Super Robot Wars EX (SNES, March 1994) Here’s where it starts to get complicated. This focuses on Masaki’s setting, while continuing off of SRW3′s plot. Elements introduced here will continue to be referenced in SRW4 (the ending screen even explicitly states that, which reinforces my idea they planned this all years in advance). Multiple campaigns with malleable canon means nothing is concrete ever again. -The 4th Super Robot Wars (SNES, March 1995) Campaign now splits into Super Robot (Getter, Mazinger) and Real Robot (Gundam) routes, which is easier to handle. This game finishes up the “Classic” SRW timeline, but would also canonically be replaced by two remakes on the PS1 (SRW F (1997) and F Final (1998). However... -Super Robot Wars Gaiden: Masoukishin - The Elemental Lords (SNES, March 1996) Masaki gets his own game five years later, beginning his narrative. This game has no mecha IPs, and is exclusively OCs. The most complicated aspect is that this game is split into two chapters: the first, at the start of Masaki’s story, and the second, which... if I have this correct, follows after EX and SRW4. The previous games have, supposedly, been referencing this game that has not existed until now, and this game references what has come before. Playing SRW feels like being lost in linear time. This game starts off its own timeline of games that, I hope, stay confined to the OC-centric games. 

So here’s the timeline:

First half of SRW Gaiden SRW2 (loosely referencing SRW1) SRW3 SRW EX SRW4 Second half of SRW Gaiden

As a result...I can never be comfortable writing a suggested order of play. In playing these games, you simply must accept that the world is bigger than you, and at all times you will be an outsider to some degree. You know, until you’ve played all of them. Which you can’t yet, because they aren’t all translated yet.

Phew! That’s a lot of words about Classic Timeline SRW, and I’ve only played through two games. Thanks for reading all of that, I hope it kept your interest. Despite how complicated that got, EX is a great game and easily in my top SNES RPGs now, up there with Live A Live and Dragon Quest V. Let’s move on for god sake!

Oh, right. Almost forgot: (SRW EX: Masaki’s Chapter: Beaten 2/9/19) (SRW EX: (One of the two versions of) Lune’s Chapter: Beaten 2/15/19) (SRW EX: Shu’s Chapter: Beaten 2/20/19)

Fun fact: In EX, if you use a cheat code on the title screen to play through Shu’s route with a suped-up absurd final boss-strength version of his mech, and run into one of the other protagonists, then when you later play as that other protagonist, you’ll have to fight the cheat version of that mech as a boss.

Orbital Paladin Melchior Y (PC): I had to play something else this month, and because I’m trapped in a fugue state, I made it something mecha related. Melchior Y is a small, hour-long visual novel/shoot em up made by John D. Moore, who I know mostly as a_new_duck from the selectbutton.net forums. I’m... not gonna have as many paragraphs to talk about this, or anything, as I did with SRW EX, so if he sees this I hope he doesn’t take that as a negative. Reportedly, this has multiple routes, though as of this writing I’ve only played one of those. I don’t know if that means multiple endings! I liked it for the small gamejam game it is, though. John is an academic and a mecha fan (and did his thesis on mecha, iirc) and so this is reasonably an introspective mecha story focused on children conscripted for space war purely for their utility, and adults who boss them around despite no longer being allowed to pilot once they hit the very beginnings of adulthood. It gets dark! A smaller positive about it is the matter-of-fact inclusion of queer identity, comfortably existing alongside religion without having to immediately make the plot about the conflict between those (at least in the route I played). I enjoyed it, and if you have the patience to explore artier games that aren’t polished AAA cash houses, you might gain something from it too. Here’s a link if you’re curious, it’s currently free.

Anime:

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: I already wrote about this last time, oops! Still, despite a couple stumbling points, this is fun character-driven supernatural lit, and if you’re mad at Persona games for bad political takes, then this... at least this doesn’t have those! The funniest thing about the series is that the bunny outfit is easily removable from the plot and barely relevant past the first couple episodes. (13 episodes, finished 2/5/19, Crunchyroll/Hulu)

Punch Line: I actually went in expecting something akin to the sort of wackiness I remember way back when FLCL was fresh. I didn’t get that, necessarily. What I did get was (as I would discover after I wiki’d it later) a fucking Kotaro Uchikoshi story. That’s not a bad thing, but if I had gone in knowing that, I would have been prepared. Uchikoshi writes light novels. Extremely convoluted, mysterious, non-linear light novels. As I was watching this show, I actually thought the whole time “is this a fucking light novel adaptation?” It wasn’t, but it was by the guy who wrote Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (one of my favorite DS games), and Ever17: The Out of Infinity (probably one of the most miserable game experiences I’ve ever had), and I was easily identifying his particular brand of storytelling. There is a LOT that can be said about his style, but I’ll try to keep it short with a paraphrased example (don’t @ me if this doesn’t explicitly describe any one of his plots, it’s close enough). He likes to tell stories that start as quirky or high-concept, but somewhat mundane, skip a scene at one point, and then progress until you suddenly hit a big plot point that turns everything on its head and, in my experiences, causes things to immediately end tragically. Then you see the scene you missed. The scene held a plot point literally so important that it completely changes what the story was ever about. From then on you are fed a trickle of left-field plot twists until eventually the plot is unrecognizable from how it started. His work is as stupid as it is clever, and he’s got the strongest grasp of continuity I’ve ever seen a human being have. This is the polar opposite of SRW’s “fuck canon” philosophy, and that’s not for the worse on either account. Punch Line starts as a story about a boy who dies, becomes a ghost, and then has to figure out... something? (I should clarify I watched all of this overnight while not sleeping as as the story built more and more upon itself I had to fight to keep following it) BUT ALSO, if he sees panties twice, he’ll accidentally destroy the earth. Those details are, like, one percent of the secret plot that the show is built upon, and by the end when the wacky dorm sitcom has become a full blown world war with government conspiracies, I was like “wait why is that girl a superhero again?” Everybody deserves to experience an Uchikoshi story once, just for the wild novelty of it. I don’t think this is his best work (I think 999 is better), but it perfectly exemplifies his style.

Also, I spent the full binge watch (which I rarely do) thinking it was a visual novel adaptation. Absolutely convinced. But, it turns out that, no, he just writes like he’s making a VN game. The “panties = genocide” concept is so obviously a choose-your-own adventure mechanic that I thought it had to be. On the bright side, an actual VN adaptation later came out, and even came out in English on the PS4. And they added in apparently ten episodes’ worth of significant extra plot, so I might play that.

Also, it’s called Punch Line because in Japanese it sounds like “panty line.” That’s it. Also maybe it’s referencing plot twists, or mortality, idk. (12 eps, finished 2/6/19, Crunchyroll/Hulu/HIDIVE)

Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow (Movie): A month later, I finally got around to the rest of Gundam 0079. I think I might like this movie best of the three, even if it does feature a lot of character death is kind of a downer at times (granted, that’s kind of most of Tomino’s work isn’t it). This movie is where most of Kai Shiden’s character development occurs, and it’s nice to see his go from a bastard to a sympathetic, uh, bastard. He’s terrible and my son. (Finished 2/9/19)

Mobile Suit Gundam III: Encounters in Space (Movie): You know I really like the original Gundam in concept, and even execution, but sometimes I’m chewing through it. Even when boiled down to the compilation episodes I’m just pushing through at times. I mean, I think part of that is my burnout and executive dysfunction issues preventing me from fully enjoying things, but it could also just be that I’m baby. This was the movie I liked the least, despite having some of the best moments in the series. The final showdown is genuinely incredible, and there’s probably a lot of essays out there discussing the recurring theme in Gundam of invoking the figure of Newtypes, while also regularly denying being one (even to oneself!) after engaging in a lot of telepathy. My problem with MSG3 is that they packed the most plot points into this one, and it gets to a point where it was hard for me to follow. Mirai goes through two separate love triangles, and a huge tactic (bordering on the severity of a war crime) happens and then is iterated on in such a small amount of time that I actually lost track of who had it and how I was supposed to feel about it. If I were to rewatch it, I might grasp it better. I spent this movie feeling like I should have just watched the 50 odd episodes instead, for the sake of comprehension. Idk! Hate to end this on a negative note, because this series has layered characterization, complex examinations of war, the things people do in war, and the ways that war changes people, and also cool robots. It’s probably something you can revisit multiple times and gain new value from each time. (2/15/19)

Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team: Guess who watched this on Adult Swim a long time ago and almost totally forgot! This series is amazing and probably going to stay my favorite Gundam series. The animation is consistently beautiful and consistently had me comparing it stylistically to Cowboy Bebop, from the body language to the lavish mechanical displays to the character writing to the excellent english dub. The US got it ater it was complete, but the original airing of it was spread out over three and a half years, and given how flawless it is, I can understand why. If you’ve have a spot in your heart specifically for watching the switch axe change shape in Monster Hunter, you’re gonna lose it watching them do maintenance in this show. Character-wise, while 0079 was about watching whiny teens complain and break protocol on a regular basis, 08th MS Team is as much about living army life as it is about going on missions. There’s soldier superstition, there’s writing to girlfriends back home, there’s complaining about staking out in the desert for five days. I haven’t watched MASH, but the things I have heard about it make me link the two. 08th MS Team is also about a super unfortunate star-crossed love between people on opposite sides of the war. This plot element is a recurring one even back in 0079, but here it feels the most heart-wrenching, and with the very weighty and believable mech combat (it’s so pretty, good god), I was constantly worried about the well-being of all the characters, Fed and Zeon (except for Ginias). If you have any interest in anything, you have to watch this. I’m not good at selling things.

I watched all of this when Hulu was threatening to remove it, but now it appears to still be up? Uh, so go watch it I guess. Oh fuck, right, I almost forgot. The last episode of this is so bad they didn’t even air it on TV in the US. It’s tangentially related to the plot, claims to be about the main characters but instead centers on two side characters and like six new ones, has zero character development, has comparatively/definitively awful animation, relies entirely on misdirection towards the viewer to keep the plot barely hanging together, and has no satisfying payoff. Thankfully, it’s sort of an omake episode, and you can completely skip it. (12 eps (minus 1), finished 2/20/19, Hulu)

I can’t find a decent HQ poster so have this you filthy animal.

A Place Further Than The Universe: It’s not about robots! Wait. Is it about robo--it’s not about robots! I had heard about this show for a while, it was almost universally agreed upon by everyone that follows seasonal anime to be easily the best show of all of 2018. And wow they were not kidding around about that. APFTTU (oh god that acronym) is about four high school girls who decide to go to Antarctica. It is a feelgood comedy with occasional ventures into very real drama, and is rooted very realistically. The show is semi(?)-educational with the attention it gives to showing how real life expeditions work, while also liberally flowing into the poetry of the concept and experience of such a thing. The four girls are all hilarious and innocent without being cloying and, and this is the most important part, without being written with voyeuristic appeal. It is not off-base to have concern for the ways in which a significant number of female cast anime are written with intent to appeal to lonely men who want to feel a safe ownership of something innocent and attractive. It’s not all of them, but it’s a significant amount. Male gaze exists even in the lesbian shows, it’s something you sometimes have to roll with. Here, however, these girls are fully realized and believable, it is obvious that they are developing people, and that is treated as its own value, not as something to covet. If you’re lookin’ at thighs in here, that is your problem, and I’m calling God. A subplot that comes up involves a guy who gets a crush on one of the older women, and he tries to make it about his narrative and is immediately shot down by the whole cast, because this isn’t a vehicle for his romantic conquest. This isn’t anyone’s romantic conquest, really. It is significant to me to say, “this is an anime I could show to my mom and not be worried about.” I know I just said 08th MS Team was required watching for everyone, but A Place Further Than The Universe is required watching. (13 eps, finished 2/26/19, Crunchyroll)

Giant Gorg: At some point I picked this out to watch on CR without any prompting. Wait, I had one prompt. I knew nothing about this show except I think for seeing it on a short list of tumblr user @lightningclone’s favorite anime. It kind of floors me that this came out a year before Zeta Gundam and has way way better animation. Granted, Zeta has twice the episodes, which might be a big factor. The defining trait of this show is probably way it unravels itself, focusing for multiple episodes on exploring what of the great mystery of Austral Island and Gorg has been established to the audience, before revealing something more an deliberately taking it’s time as it takes you to the next reveal. The reveals don’t feel like twists, because a twist comes out of nowhere and sidelines you. The reveals here feel organic, and expected, but all the same compelling. Another good trait of the show is the characterization. Everyone fits into a very different role both in terms of personality and function, they all have their own motivations, and they all complement each other in unique ways. Also, this show has an Usopp. Back before Usopp was a thing. He’s Dr. Wave, and he’s the best character. 

If I have any criticism for the show, it all comes at the end. Near the end a character does a heel turn that, while a little twisty, is hinted in the beginning of the show, and in his heel turn the writers go a bit overboard and have him commit some sexual violence that goes on for an intentionally uncomfortable amount of time, and features frontal nudity. I know we’re supposed to think “oh god he’s a horrible person actually,” but 1) the main character is a child, I kind of expected this to lean family friendly with the occasional dark element (ignoring all the hilarious New York graffiti at the start that says FUCK in several places because America), but... okay! And 2) the stakes rise to a point by the next episode that the characters, including the victim of that violence, all just shrug it off, like whatever! The character is even redeemed by the end, which I wouldn’t mind if the betrayal itself was less physical. It’s a bit much for me, and I wish they hadn’t done it. Aside from that, I feel like the ending itself is a bit anticlimactic, but everything up to these two points had been so solid that I still think it was worth the watch. Worth it if you like mystery, adventure, and big robots, but worth bearing in mind the trigger warning for near the end. (26 eps, finished 2/27/19, Crunchyroll)

Manga:

Shin Mazinger Zero Vols 1-3:

[Serious Content Warning For Everything]

Shin Mazinger Zero is reprehensible garbage and I hate it. While inspired by Go Nagai and intentionally over-the-top, the absurdity is juvenile, offensive, and often just empty. Now, it may seem hypocritical of me to complain about transgression in something based on Nagai’s works, but I genuinely don’t find this transgressive, just extremely self-indulgent of toxic masculine fantasies, both sexual and violent. It has interesting ideas, about how Mazinger is both a tool possible of great good or great evil (literally the mission statement in every Mazinger work), and it wants to explore alternate timelines to see how characters can be corrupted or overcome corruption. The visual of a demonic Mazinger is genuinely pretty rad.

...Okay maybe he’s not, he’s kind of overdesigned. I like the toothy grill, though.

The problem with that exploration of corruption is that sometimes a character is just a horrible monster for no reason, without much explanation (so far?) for how that comes to be. Maybe in volume 4 they’ll get more into that, since they are currently in flashback mode, so there’s no undoing the damage.

Anyway, female characters so far are hypersexualized and submissive or motherly, or hypersexualized and, like, totally unreasonable. The hot robot girl sat on my lap in her underwear and did sex moans, why are you mad, main love interest? Men are testosterone as FUCK. The hero is constantly yelling to the point of visual distortion, no matter how the drama of the scene is being portrayed. The old man villain Dr. Hell is, for some reason, jacked as hell, and in the backstory to the main timeline (it’s all post-apoc) he shows his superiority over everyone by crushing Not Obama’s balls in his grip. I know exactly the kind of dude that would find this appealing and that’s the kind of person I avoid.

Honestly I knew this series was going to be a trashfire from square one and just kept reading out of morbid curiosity. The story starts in media res at the end of the world, with sexy girl robot disintegrating the hero so his soul can go back in time and try the timeline again. Okay, sure, I’m on board. Immediately next we’re shown what I would assume is The One Timeline To Get It Right, after establishing that there have been thousands of timelines where the hero is corrupted by evil. Pretty normal storytelling. And then, uh, the hero’s grandfather molests and murders the hero’s girlfriend, because the hero might become evil. My face is in my hands at this point. The incomprehensible shame. The hero is then corrupted and goes on a killing spree and humanity’s caught in the crossfire and the world ends. After *that* we get the One Timeline. Why? Why say things have always been bad (and I guess imply that bad things are the default) and then waste my time with the worst shock value trash that comes after for a full volume before actually starting the story? It’s edgy garbage! Why is this an official Mazinger work? Stuff like this is what makes me stop and think “wait are all Nagai’s works like this and I’ve been lying to myself when I like it?” Christ, this turned into a rant. Moving on.

[Content Warning Over]

Dumbbell Nan-Kilo Moteru? Vol 1: Idk if talking about horny manga after that mental breakdown is gonna make me look weird but hear me out.

Hot girls lifting weights.

You still here? Okay, good. I started this on a mutual’s recommendation and while it’s not regularly engaging with my own things (I’m more of a “watching fit woman deadlift and hoping she drops it on me and I disintegrate like so many dead leaves” person), and with the two main girls being high schoolers, I try to avoid engaging with that in that way. Luckily, there’s a teacher my age with a bob cut, so we’re good! More interesting, though, this is in the same genre as that Skullface Bookseller Honda-san anime (though less biographical), where the author just wants to explain their job or hobby while also using likable comedy characters as the vehicle. Anime made edutainment work.

I’m starting to get tired and I wanna wrap this up but unfortunately I have a bit to talk about regarding the last manga I read in Feb.

Tokyo Ghoul Vols 10-12: I’ve been reading this for the past, uh. I read it a lot last year, I don’t know when I started, though. Around 8 books in I started slowing down and taking long breaks because phew! I’d hit the end of the series’ big bad story arc and was having trouble picking up from there. I’m glad I did, though, because the story is still getting good. Here’s hoping I can handle the sequel series, because Tokyo Ghoul itself only has two books to go.

I’ve talked about TG a few times before, maybe just on Twitter. It’s very intelligent “vampire” lit that ramps up the stakes of transition by saying “you can’t just suck their blood and let them go! Human meat is your food and you’ll suffer without it.” At first, I was like “oh wow lol this is edgy” but the last twelve books have talked about trauma, alienation, and most importantly loss of innocence. It’s also about the importance of the bonds between people. The main character is perpetually at odds with himself, trying to be a good person in spite of the fact that being a ghoul is literally and figuratively being a monster. It could easily be an overwrought story of self-indulgence and angst but everything in it has been careful and effective. Ghoul culture is thoroughly built up and balances concepts of territory and posture along with careful deception for the purpose of staying a part of, and hiding from, human culture. It’s about predators who cannot remove themselves from their predatory nature, even if they want to be people with families and educations. There’s an organization that wears white and hunts ghouls with weapons crafted from ghoul bodies and functionally I can’t fully argue with them, sort of, but hey we’re starting to discover that corporations are corrupt (who knew?) and that’ll be fun.

But forget the poetry and human condition, the best thing this series does is that unashamedly works the Hot Topic aesthetic. The main character likes reading books and wears an eyepatch to hide his heterochromia and works as a barista. He wears a mask that evokes an S&M lifestyle. Ghouls can only eat people and all other food taste rotten. Except for black coffee. There’s also a number of ghouls with black nails and eyeshadow, and very heavily coded queer male characters (some more flatteringly portrayed than others but that’s a whole other thing). If Sui Ishida never listened to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, I’ll eat my fucking feet.

@sun-eater-official I think this might be up your alley. Or maybe not! But these aesthetics sound like you. Actually, you should probably watch 08th MS Team too, for the Bebop vibes.

So that’s everything! I thought I had a short list but apparently it was all things I had a lot to say about. Again, if you read all of this, thanks a lot, I hope I end up introducing you to a new favorite. In the future, I may have to split these into separate posts for each category. I have a lot of free time to write these lately. Writing two roundup posts back to back is a bit tiring, but I don’t have to do another until April starts.