#i recommend watching the whole thing because the first part is just basic review

[gowns]

ok listen i have been exposed to a lot of music theory and a lot of it has flown over my head -- i understood major and minor and etc and how to play easy chords and how to sing a pitch and all that, but any time people started talking about the circle of fifths and modalities i spaced out. i found this video last week and i was like whoa WHOOAAAAAAA holy shit... i understand now. and i printed out a big color picture of the circle of fifths and put it by my piano.

[ecargmura]

The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons Episode 2 Review - 11 Month Age Gap

Are the subtitles bad for this episode? Nope! They’re perfectly fine now, so no need to worry anymore! The first episode’s subtitles have been fixed as well, so I recommend watching the show with ease now!

Looking at Mikoto and Minato really does remind me of my younger days. Like I mentioned before in my review for the first episode, I am eleven months younger than my actual brother, so I do understand these two a lot. However, unlike these two, I never had another older sibling to look after me or a younger sibling I could take care of—it was just my brother and me growing up. Because of that, my dynamic with my own older brother is a lot different from Mikoto and Minato’s dynamic but I can also relate. The main difference is that my bro and I were calm and chill kids, according to our mom’s words. We were so quiet and didn’t really cause a lot of trouble for our parents and towards each other. If possible, I’d like to write a post about my own experiences growing up being 11 months younger than my brother.

Oh, speaking of which, I did read some comments on discussion forums about how the age gap confuses them, so I’ll explain it here. The Japanese school system starts from April to March. Let’s say that A was born on April 1st, 2000. This would mean A’s classmates would be people born from April 2000 to March 2001. A’s upperclassmen would be people born from April 1999 to March 2000. So even if B was born March 2000, they’d be “senpai” to A and in an higher grade. A’s underclassmen would be people born from April 2001 to March 2002. Since Mikoto and Minato are 11 months apart and in the same grade, this would mean Mikoto was born April 2000 and Minato would be born March 2001. This issue wouldn’t be a problem if Minato had been born a month later. So, the part where Minato tells Nikaidou that the latter has to call Mikoto “senpai” makes no sense to me unless Nikaidou was born after from January to March 2001 like Minato.

Enough about me, this episode showed how Mikoto was given an unfair hand in life. As soon as he was born, Minato came into his life eleven months later. He never had the chance to be doted on and was practically raised at the same time as Minato (another similarity I share with my brother). Because of this, he never really had the chance to prepare being an older brother as it was practically handed to him once he developed awareness. Although Minato is a bit sensitive with their age gap, Mikoto isn’t all too affected by it in the present. However, he was in the past. Before Gakuto was born, Mikoto was basically the neglected middle child as Minato had to be taken care of more often due to his tendency to become easily sick and Hayato already being in his teens. Mikoto did get frustrated with why he had less attention than the rambunctious Minato. I do like how Mikoto’s frustrations and thoughts were shown as childish drawings, showing off how young he was at the time. It’s like he’s still a child but has to suppress a lot of things while maintaining a childish mindset.

Fortunately, Mikoto was able to get over his frustrations and anger over being the middle child—being Minato’s big brother—thanks to Hayato. Hayato’s role is very crucial in this episode. He was the pillar of support Mikoto leaned onto during his fights with Minato and the person who doted on Mikoto when he needed attention. This really shows why Hayato chose to care for his three young brothers in the present. He loves them and wants to be there for them when they need it. Hayato is really shaping up to becoming one of the top big brothers in anime of all time. I’m really surprised with how mature Hayato was even as a teenager. I think it’s most likely because Hayato had a whole decade of attention given to him, so he was already prepared to become an older brother and the protector of the household when his parents needed him to be. Mikoto never had time to prepare when Minato came right after. Also, the subtitles of the show state that Hayato is 12 years older than Mikoto, which is incorrect? In the present, Hayato is 23 and Mikoto is 13, so he is about 10-11 years older than Mikoto and 11-12 years older than Minato depending on his birthday.

This is also the first time the parents of the brothers are shown in full. All of the sons got their black hair from the mother, Chieko and 3/4 got their green eyes from the father, Haruichi. Mikoto, Minato and Gakuto mainly resemble Chieko while Hayato does look more like Haruichi. Although Chieko did give Minato more attention, I can’t really blame her for not being too attentive  towards her second son. Raising two kids at the same time is a lot of work—my mom had to raise my brother and me at the same time.

Other than the understandable lack of Gakuto, my only gripe with this episode was that the dialogue between 5-year-old Mikoto and 4-year-old Minato felt a tad unrealistic for kids of that age. I do feel like what Mikoto said to Minato doesn’t really feel like something a five-year-old would say. From what I’ve seen from kids at that age, they’d say shorter sentences and such and not full on dialogue that you’d expect to hear from kids around 8-10 years old. Do kids actually like like Mikoto? Please let me know.

I really liked this episode for the insight it gave to siblings with a rare age gap. It really did help people understand why Mikoto is so level-headed and patient and how Hayato really is the pillar of the family after the parents died. While the previous episode made it seem like the show gave a family sitcom vibe, an introspective episode like this shows that this story does care about giving characterization towards each brother. I can’t wait to see more! What are your thoughts about this episode?

[theaceofskulls]

I finally finished Fulgrim and there's something to be said about how we focus more on the bad than the good or the simply alright based on how many posts I've made about it while I've been listening to it, but I think my true takeaway from the book is that it's a fascinating one because you can see how it could've been a good book if things were changed.

The final parts of it felt bad, but it actually made me like Ishvaan V and Ferrus Manus more than every summary I've heard of it as it no longer comes off as stupid as it seems. It takes the time to establish how Ferrus's rage works and how it subsides and makes him come off less as "the guy who gets mad at the drop of a hat and jumped the gun too hard", especially by pointing out why waiting too long would've been just as bad and why they couldn't just shoot down from orbit.

However, this book is about the fall of Fulgrim and that part is handled so badly. You can see the attempt to make it a slower corruption but in the end you also see how this book suffers from being so early in the series, wanting to get to the daemon stuff too soon.

And yet as I've mentioned so many times, individual character arcs are handled so well, and the contrast it puts between the Iron Hands who also idolized perfection and feared failure but were told that refusing to admit failure was worse than the failure itself really helps highlight their fall.

The book also struggles with the fact that it comes off as a sequel to several other books in the series, with a couple of character arcs having large portions of them located elsewhere in earlier books, making this feel more supplemental of a story.

This is honestly the book I most feared from reviews when I started this whole thing and is part of the reason I put off this series in the first place, as one of the central events of the start of it was apparently in a horrendous book, and having finished it, it's different than what I was told to expect.

It fumbles most of its payoffs, from the terrible warp orchestra that feels a little too much for this early in the Heresy, to the moment Fulgrim joins Horus, to the dropsite massacre being over in pages, to what actually happens in the moments when Fulgrim performs the infamous sword swing, but a good portion of the book is actually fairly good.

Fabius, Lucius (if you're like me and enjoy watching Starscream-like pathetic sad sacks, not so much if you're the type who already hates him because of these exact traits), and Eidolon all get great scenes that carry forward with future appearances, and Fulgrim himself actually has several good moments outside of the ones that he really needed to have.

I walked away from this book still wishing I could've liked it, but understanding why this one is so hated. It's not stalling the plot by getting distracted or full of terrible prose (though there are some moments) but it makes the exact wrong missteps that don't leave any opportunity to come back and fix them.

My final recommendation is the same one I thought I'd give it from my early impressions: this is a book that you'll read once if you're interested in the series and can appreciate it as a lesson on what can go wrong in a narrative. Dissecting this book is interesting because it helps you understand what you're looking for from this series as well as from this style of genre fiction in general because the highs and lows are so extreme it's easy to separate them out and the lows leave such gaps that it's easier to understand exactly what you wanted to fill them.

Anyway, this marks the last point of my sequential readings of this series and am now going to be jumping around to different books as they interest me.

In the end I think this is as good a point to talk about the series so far.

Horus Rising is great, classic, and works well on its own. Even with an ending that's setting up the next one, it basically could've ended there with a wink of "well you know what happens next". I stand by my statement that it's almost entirely for 40k fans instead of a newcomer book since half of it is written with dramatic irony thick in the prose.

False Gods is good, being a fantastic sequel with a misstep that plagues the early series where Horus's fall lacks enough characterizing motivation to endear him enough. However, the books are primarily concerned with other characters all of whom feel like a smooth continuation of the previous book's characterizations and it works well in that respect.

Galaxy in Flames has some great heights, especially in its pivotal scenes, but honestly it mostly blends together until you get to the event you're here for.

Flight of the Eisenstein continues the story but is honestly the point where I could tell that the writer switching was changing the tone of the books. It's still a good book but outside of the moment the message is delivered at the end of the book, and a few pivotal moments (the bomb in the hanger), most of it has slipped from my memory.

Finally Fulgrim I've given my thoughts on extensively, but definitely a weak ending to streak of 5 books before they begin to jump around to various perspectives.

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Im about to watch Sissi (1955) but before I do, I want to talk about it a little because I actually saw part of this movie before. Basically, my mom and I were going on a small roadtrip to see a musical in abother city and I brought my Elisabeth 2001 CD and we listened to it and I explained the context of the songs to her because it only had 16 of them on it, it was very nice. But it made her mistakenly believe that I was interested in historical or Sissi-media in general, so when we were in our hotel room and we had some time, she suggested that we watch Sissi (1955) and again, I wasnt really interested, but I agreed and we ended up watching the first 20 or so minutes before we had to leave, we severely overestimated how much time we had lol. But I feel like not a lot happened in those 20 minutes, all I remember is Franz Joseph is very busy, Elisabeth is homesick, Sophie does NOT like her, there was this guard-guy who had a very sillygoofy crush on her, and when we left it was at the start of her hungarian lesson, she was like "ach, something about hungary just speaks to me" and thats it. I also remember getting this post-war-country-reminiscing-about-its-"glory days"-vibe from this film, although Im not sure if that actually has anything to do with the filmitself, or if me knowing that it was made in the 1950s colored my perception of it, so Im curious if seeing it again and in full will be any different. I also ended up telling that anecdote to my therapist recently and she told me she grew up with the trilogy and apparently it is pretty kitschy, but I hope it'll be a kind of kitschy I can enjoy. Oh, also I told her that I was kinda interested in seeing them but also not because Ive found all the 50s movies Ive seen pretty boring so far (this was wayyyy before I decided to do this whole thing), and she recommended that I watch the films Audrey Hepburn did and it just so happens that I have one of those on my list, so Im curious about that one too

Also, this isnt related to anything I just said, but Ive been thinking about this since yesterday. When I wrote that line in my Ludwig II — Glanz und Ende eines Königs (1955) review where I was like "It was refreshing seeing a film about a different genre of mentally ill man", obviously referring to Rudolf only, I was originally going write smth like "royal" instead of "man" there, but then I looked back on my list and I remembered all the previous movies Ive seen and I realized that not only do they not portray Elisabeth's mental issues or suffering beyond being like "shes sad :( for reasons :((", these movies have really not been about her. I mean, Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich (1921) was but that one was like 30 seconds long. After that we had Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg (1928) which was mostly about Rudolf, then Elisabeth von Österreich (1931) which, idk if I would say that one was mostly about Rudolf but it was certainly about him a lot for a film named after her, then we had Sissy (1932), The King Steps Out (1936) and L'Aigle à deux Têtes (1948) which were all obviously inspired by her but theyre mostly just made up bullshit, and then inbetween that we also had Erzsébet királyné (1940) where she was a supporting character

And thats interesting to me because when I started this project, I was expecting the romantic image we have of Sissi to be more 'built up' in cinema, if the way Im phrasing that makes any sense, but thats really not the case and it really seems like that image that would be regurgitated and then subverted by media that's more "real" only comes from this one movie, or rather movie trilogy, and idk, I just think thats interesting

[jayreviews]

Good games, Great games (Part 1)

Hi I'm Jay!

And these are reviews about some games I've played. First, I'll include a list of these games, then go over each individual one and write what i thought about them. Also keep in mind, I'm someone who would not pay a single dollar over a game so please reduce your expectations to zero 🤩

(Ps; this is also me shamelessly sharing the games I like with you cause some are extremely underrated)

Starting off first, these are the names of the games I like to play:

- good pizza great pizza

- cats are cute

- cats and soup

- clusterduck

- color fill 3D

- blocks and Ropes

- stack colors

- bead sort

- Figgerits

- Plants vs Zombies

Good pizza, Great pizza

This game can be played on both iOS and Android. The name is self explanatory, it's a pizza game. You start off in chapter one ans slowly move on to the next level. Apparently, there's a chapter two but I haven't reached yet I'm still on chapter one day 10. Aha shut up I'm not slow.

That game is good cause it's not overwhelming? I'm not sure how else to explain it. Like, I've grown up on dash games and sally games (high five if you know them) so I know what stress in games is yk? Although the happiness meter in this game goes down quickly, I still like it.

Do I recommend this game? Absolutely yes. It's funny, love the ambiance and love the game as a whole.

Cats are cute

I love cats. I love this game. Idk what else there is to say.

LIKE LOOK AT THESE CUTE LITTLE THINGS.

In this game you can not only get more cats, but you can akso play mini games!

There's play rock paper scissors, you can feed the cats, pet the cats, play hide and seek with the cats, and watch the cats cause they’re little attention seekers and i love them for that.

Cats are God's greatest creation man. I used to have a cat. Emphasis on the used to. I'm gonna go cry now.

Do I recommend this game? I DO 100% I DO MARRY YOU ahem.

Yes I recommend it.

Cats and soup

Okay, now this game has two different apps, one like the picture on top and one belonging to Netflix. I installed the Netflix version first cause I was browsing through the Netflix games cause I have no life :) whe I found this app and I was like 'I love cats, let me download it' so I did. And I loved it. Because I downloaded it from Netflix, it already showed me my account and I could save it after I exit the app.

(Also I noticed that it needs updating in which I tried to update but I gave no space aha I'm crying)

Now look, I have 15 cats. And I love every single one of them. Every. Single. One of them.

The game name is basically self explanatory I guess? There's cats who make soup and there's different soups and there's also juice in these tiny potion bottles it's so cute.

And so, throughout this game, I noticed the lack of ads. And like a completely normal person, I went into the app store on my phone to look at the reviews, but what I found made me question my entire existence and made me panic.

I looked at the app and realised I have not installed it. I went out to see my home page and there it was, installed. At this point, like a normal human being, I asked myself 'Jay, were you hallucinating playing this game? It's been months. This is impressive and concerning.' But then I went into some of the reviews, and lo of the beholder: there was two apps! Just, one was through another app I pay to watch things on, and the other was free.

Now look here, I've been playing this for months and thought 'Hey this game is awesome and I might cancel my Netflix subscription soon so I might as well install this version. Its the same one right?' ERRRR WRONG.

It was not the same version, it did not have the same things the Netflix one had, it had SO so so many ads I basically memorised what games they showed.

(The one where you pour a color into another bottle and there's another bottle you have to have the same color I don't know I'm bad at explaining okay?)

So yeah. Now is this me shamelessly telling you that subscribing to Netflix is a good idea? No cause Netflix babe, sometime you're the problem, but other time I love you so much baby mwah.

So if you have the privilege of installing both versions and trying it put for a month or two weeks, do it and tell me what your thoughts are about the differences.

Clusterduck

This game is amazing too. If you heard about the cow evolution game (and any animal evolution one really) this one is kind of similar but it's just one land, and they recently made an update to the game having 10 of your selected ducks fight an opponent's 10 selected ducks.

Now in the game, you get three nests with three duck eggs, and those ducks would give more eggs until evolution starts happening and they start to have physical altercations. The game obviously has ads but I didn't think it was too many at the time...plus I don't remember don't judge okay?

Do I recommend this game? Obsolescence. I meant to say absolutely but I don't know how my finger slipped on the correction board on top of my keyboard whoops my bad.

Yes I recommend it cause it's not only funny, but you can name the ducks too.

These are some of their names which I came up with: Bob the builder, sir sneek, duckusa, Susan, y/n, and I have many more but that's all you're getting. Have fun imagining what they look like.

[saal-school-project]

Part 5

9th grade 

The entirety of 9th grade was online school. Well, actually, we did go to school for like a week, but that was mainly for the exams, so we can ignore the fact that they are not important. And you know how online school is; I don't need to explain much. It was chill. I had a lot of free time, which led me to develop quite a few interests that year.

I got into transformers.

I started getting into Transformers during that time. At first, some clips of Transformers Prime on YouTube were randomly recommended to me (it was exactly this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZAwYv_N-RQ). " And while searching for it to paste here, I also ended up watching a half-hour essay on Starscream's Wings, and it was mind-blowing, so here's the link to that too, I guess: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFYk_ZFpo9A "). I remembered the show back when I was still watching TV; it aired on CN, and honestly, I never really liked the show back then. Then I realized the reason for that was the fact that I remembered absolutely nothing about the decepticons. Perhaps I decided to give the show a shot back then, and it happened to be an episode that Desepticons weren't in, and I decided that "this show is boring; I'm not watching it" and would change the channel whenever I saw it on. I can't think of another explanation. because the autobots in that show are really boring, like, Omg, why are you so boring? I'm going to be honest, as I've admitted so many things already that it's too late to turn back now. I watched the show solely for Starscream (yeah, Transformers do have weird names, but I love them for them, like imagine them being named Michael or something bruh). Have you seen his design? He has built-in heels, he is the skrunkly

To be fair, he looks kinda weird in this pic idk.

The other decepticons were fine too, I guess. Then I checked out other series too, because Transformers is a pretty old franchise, and as a result, there are many different cartoons and spin-offs about it. There is "G1", which stands for generation one. It's a really old cartoon that aired in 1984, but the whole show is basically just an elaborate toy commercial if you consider the fact that the toys came before the show. And oh yeah, they do have toys; thats the best part about transformers, to be honest, and they do actually transform. G1 toys aren't really impressive engineering-wise, but they get better over the years. There is also a spinoff called "Beast Wars," in which robots turn into animals rather than vehicles. There are other shows, comic books, videogames, and life-action movies that fans often like to ignore or denigrate as bayformers) (and we also do not talk about kiss players), etc. but let's get to the good part. If I hadn't stumbled upon Transformers toy reviewing channels (mostly jobby i guess) on YouTube, things would have taken a different turn for me, and I wouldn't be owning any Transformers figures now.

 From the start, I liked the character designs; yes, I'm also a character design enthusiast. Human designs can get pretty boring after a while; but with robots, you can have all different shapes, sizes, and colors, which is great if you want to make unique and memorable designs (I guess with humans, you can have unique clothing, but whatever!). The idea of robots transforming into vehicles was an excellent touch too; this way you wouldn't just slap on random shapes and hope for the best but instead figure out a way where the vehicle parts would go to form an astechnically pleasing robot, and the vehicle form should reflect the robot's personality too and even on its own be recognizable—we all recognize the Optimus Prime truck, right? All of that on its own impressed me, but what absolutely blew my mind away was this.

(Please politely ignore fact that it turns into a gun)

Yes, that robot indeed transformes into this.

(Here's another link if you want to watch it transform: https://youtu.be/_EvBRGjaXHM)

Never once did I think this level of engineering was possible. It's like black magic. Incomprehensible. I want to transform it myself to understand how it works better, but oh god, the prices are just... well, there are a few things to know about transformer figure collecting. There are official toys. Hasbro (American-based) and Takartomy (Japanese-based) companies own the Transformers franchise, or something like that. I'm not fact-checking. These are both, like, toy companies? Hasbro also owns Monopoly, so imagine stuff like that. The one I showed you above is a masterpiece figure, and the number comes from how many figures there were before in that toy line, so they just basically enumerated them. That above is mp36 (as in Masterpice and the 36th figure), and the character's name is Megatron. That figure is one of my favorites, and I would buy it if I had the money.

Masterpiece figures aim to recreate the characters' G1 appearance as faithfully as is physically possible while being able to transform and be posable at the same time. There is "mpm" too; it stands for "masterpiece movie," which is just life-action versions of the characters (live-action movie). Transformers have completely different designs thanks to the director of those movies, Michael Bay, which is where the name Bayformers comes from. Needless to say, all of the masterpiece figures are hella expensive; their prices usually vary depending on the size of the character, but no, it's expensive; there is no cheap masterpiece unless you buy knockoffs, which goes into the unofficial third-party market that I will get to in a bit.

Then theres Hasbro; now Hasbro makes relatively cheaper toys targeted at children currently consuming the myriad of Transformers content out there as opposed to Takaraatomy making collectible figures for people who back in the day grew up with G1, so they are now grown adults and can afford those steep prices. These toys come in three classes: leader class, voyager class, and deluxe class, with deluxe being the cheapest and smallest and leader being the biggest and most expensive of the bunch. I personally own 1 leader class, 1 deluxe class, and 4 voyager class figures.

Here’s some of my figures:

My first and favorite figure is this one. His name is Skyhammer.

I got more but I dont have pictures of them.

Honestly how i got these figures has a story on its own as toy stores rarely sell them due to their prices being too high. I got most of these second hand.

Those were the official figures. and then there are third-party figures. the meat of the topic. It's basically just companies other than Takara and Hasbro making figures, and their legality is kind of questionable as it borders on intellectual theft because they own the copyrights for the Transformers franchise. but that doesn't really concern us. Another thing about third-party services is that what you get can drastically vary in quality; it could be an amazing figure or it could be really bad. You can't really be sure until you personally hold it in your hands, but Toy Rewiev channels have got you covered. Don't worry. Third parties are usually for official masterpiece-class figure quality, but they are a little cheaper. Then there are knockoffs. Knockoffs are just knockoffs; they literally just copy the official figures engineering and just remove the Aoutobot/Decepticon logo or something like that and sell it for cheaper. These companies are often Chinese for some reason, and the engineering can be more mind-blowing than the officials. Saddly, I don't own any third-party figures; I was so close to buying one, though. But, uh, I don't know about buying something that expensive overseas; I didn't want my package to get stuck in customs, so I decided against it.

There are also non-transforming transformer figures; it's just an articulating robot mode. They do this because it's more aesthetically pleasing. There is a term called kibble, which refers to pieces that have no clear purpose in one mode but are there only because they are part of another mode.

Usually shellformers suffers from this the most. Look at all those penguin parts in the robot mode. Making those parts removable is an option, but that would be partsforming. No one likes partsforming.

 some of the kibble is accurate to the character's appearance on TV, it is part of the character's design. but they are not; there are extra parts that stick out, and then there is less than excellent kibble management.

Oh god look at this things backpack.

So if the figure doesn't transform, they can just focus on making it more accurate and posable; it's just an action figure. And, oh yeah, most of the time, the fact that a figure transforms can hinder its poseability. and I think poseability is very important. and a non-transformable Transformers figure is just... meaningless? Like, why are you taking away the best part? I personally wouldn't buy one.

GUNDAMS

Now you can't be in the Transformers fandom for too long before you inevitably hear about Gundams too, and vice versa. They are very similar, minus the transformation, and the robots are way bigger and more pilotable now. They are both old anime that aired around the 1980s, and they are both about giant robots. The best part of both of them is the merchandise.

Gundam merchandise is now available in the form of model kits. They come in pieces. You cut the pieces out of the sheet of plastic with a pair of side cutters before you assembled them like Legos. In the end, you have an action figure of a robot. and they are more customizable than transformers; you can paint them and add details as you like as you build them, unlike transformers.

But I prefer transformers over gundams because you can only build a gundam once (technically, you can disassemble it and build it again, but thats a pain), whereas you can transform transformers as many times as you like. Gundams are also more fragile; I learned that the hard way when I broke my first gundam the day after I finished building it. but then I got another one. Here are some pictures of my Gundams.

Here’s my gundams. Well there is only two of them:

My beloved first gundam, high grade beyond global. Don’t  ask why that pose. This is like, the last picture I took of him before I accidently broke his leg.

I like this picture. He’s standing on one of my many journals.

Gundam model kits also have classes like Transformers toys do, but they are called grades from small to big: SD grade (basically just chibi). high grade (mine are both high grades, so they are small). real grade (real grade is small like high grade but way more detailed) Master grade (bigger) perfect grade (even bigger)

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.

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This is enough, right? I mean, I've got more things to talk about; we barely scratched the surface. I could go on, but I feel kind of tired now. sooooooo goodbye?

[saltygilmores]

What are your overall thoughts on GG? Like what is your favorite/least favorite season? Favorite/least favorite episode? Are your part of one of the "Teams"? Are there things in the show you really didn't like? I'm curious :)

In 2016 I was taking a long train trip and I asked my friend for something I could watch with a lot of seasons to pass the time, she recommended this show and so I went for it and I was immediately obssessed. After a while my obsession went dormant, until 2020 when I started watching it again during the pandemic and it came back with a vengeance. She is Team Logan and mentioned nothing about Jess/ Milo. But something just snapped in me when Jess showed up for the first time. I love bad boys... ...Favorite seasons in order 3,2,1,4. Nothing past 4 matters a whole lot tbh. I only remember a few very basic things that happened in season 5, 6 was a total trainwreck (everyone on their worst behavior) and 7 was a lot calmer but uninteresting. Favorite Episode: "They Shoot Gilmores Don't They" (aka the dance marathon episode) and "Lorelai's Graduation Day". All of my favorite episodes are in seasons 2 and 3, naturally (except the one in s4 where Paris and Rory go on spring break, that one is great)... Team Jess, DUH. Not even necessarily because Team Jess=Jess and Rory, but Team Jess as his own person too. Things I didn't like? Oh, you want complaints? I got em. (For the most part) I'm not shy about what i don't like. Follow along with my episode reviews on here to read my opinions, which I need to get back to doing soon...

[miekasa]

fluff alphabet: levi ackerman

↯ pairing: levi ackerman x (fem) reader

↯ genres and warnings: modern au, fluff…. obviously, no real warnings i don’t think, oh spoilers for his ova? 

↯ word count: 3k lol don’t ask me how

↯ notes: i was going to take requests for this for valentine’s day, but i figured i’d just do them all in one post lolol. i feel like i haven’t posted for levi in a while, so here we go

Activities — What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

If you ask Levi to do something, there’s a good chance he’ll try it at least once for you. Unless it’s something he’s said he explicitly dislikes or doesn’t want to partake in, he’d gladly try it out with you.

He strikes me as the kind of person to like trying new restaurants. Not necessarily the trendy or popular or exclusive ones; but local places with good recommendations or reviews.

Down for late night drives, but you have to be the one driving. He’ll drive if you become too tired, but he prefers to sit in the passenger seat and just let you take him wherever. He doesn’t mind, and it’s a sign he trusts you.

I also think museum dates would be some thing he enjoys. Not history museums—I feel like the concept of stolen artifacts on display would piss him off more than anything lol—but art museums. That’s not to say he’s extremely into art, but I think something about a museum environment is somewhat calming to him. He doesn’t mind.

One more activity I would say suits him is watching movies or shows together. Levi’s the kind of guy that catches you watching a series and expresses how it looks stupid or boring at first, but still hovers around and backseat watches it anyway. After a while, he just gives up and starts actively watching it with you and becomes invested. He just won’t admit it.

Beauty — What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

In the least cheesy way possible, everything. Levi sees people, and his s/o in particular, as a whole person, rather than the sum of their parts. He understands that everything about you—physical, emotional, or otherwise—contributes to the person he loves. There’s something to appreciate about all of it at different times.

He’d probably admire and/or find little habits you have beautiful in some way or another. Probably things you might not even notice about yourself unless he pointed them out to you.

Personality wise, he’d admire it if his s/o were blunt and/or the kind of person to stick up for themselves or their friends. A little bit assertive; not going out of your way to make other people feel small or be rude, but simply refusing to shrink to make room for others.

Physically, again, I don’t think he has a preference for most anything, but if I had to pick, I’d say he’s a thigh/ass guy.

Comfort — How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack, etc.?

Levi is observant, so he would be able to tell when you’re struggling perhaps before you’re ready to realize it yourself, and long before you’re about to burst.

However, he would ask you how he can help. For as observant as he is, he’s also not a mind reader, and if there’s something specific he can get you, he would want to know, even if it’s seemingly small or superficial.

He would be pretty proactive about it, too. The second he figures out how he can help, he’s on it. You need a new desk to work from home? He’ll have it built by that weekend. You’re feeling overwhelmed and behind on your tasks? He’s already doing the ones he can do without your help.

He does his best to try and help you relax if the issue is a stressor, and if he could, he would eradicate the root of the stress from your life completely. Unfortunately, in the real world, that’s not always possible, but it’s nice to know that he’s willing. 

The other obvious answer is tea, but allow me to expand it more generally to food. Going along with the theme of acts of service being his love language, Levi would try to provide the basic necessities for you in order to allow to focus on solving your problems and/or feeling better. If not worrying about dinner is one thing that can help you, Levi’s happy to cook for you.

Dreams — How do they picture their future with their s/o?

Simple, but fulfilled. Levi just wants to be happy—to have someone to care for, and to have someone who will care for him.

Truthfully, I don’t think he’d mind children later down the road, and I think he would be a good parent. It might not be something he talks about outright at first, but as time progresses, and perhaps the timing becomes right, it’d be something he would want to consider.

Equal — Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

It’s equal. Levi doesn’t want to have more power, nor does he want to be passive. However, there are things he doesn’t mind handing over to you, and conversely, responsibilities he doesn’t mind taking on himself.

Compromise would be a big part in the relationship—not for the sake of compromising on your dreams or ambitions, but rather, to reach a middle ground if there’s any kind of argument.

I think it’s a give and take with him. And I don’t think he would want it to be any other way. He doesn’t strike me as someone who’s on either polar end.

Fight — Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

When you do fight, it’s a lot of pointed frustration. He doesn’t raise his voice, but he can get snippy, and a little closed off—speaking in clipped sentences, using underhanded phrases, focusing on past points. What drives him crazy is the aftermath of the fight, and if you give him the silent treatment, he’s bound to crack much sooner than later.

He’s quite easy to forgive. Canonically, he doesn’t like to fight with his friends or the people he cares about, and he would rather reach a solution as quickly as possible.

We saw that with Isabel and Farlan, despite the way he was firm on his decision for them to stay behind, they were able to break his resolve pretty quickly. He cares a lot about the people in his life, and I don’t think he’d like to go long with a riff between him and you. Especially if he thinks he might regret not talking to you about it sooner.

He’s one to keep a promise, but not to hold a grudge. That is to say, he understands that forgiveness goes both ways, and to work in a healthy relationship, both parties have to forgive themselves and each other at some point.

Gratitude — How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

Yes and no. It might take a minute for Levi to understand the depth of your actions—especially the ones that appear more mundane or are not as explicitly romantic.

Once he does, he is very aware of them, and as such, if very grateful. He didn’t every really think he’d be able to create and be apart of the kind of loving relationship the two of you have. He really cherishes it.

Honesty — Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

He has secrets by way of omission. He doesn’t lie to keep things hidden from you, but sometimes he doesn’t tell everything about himself, especially towards the start of your relationship.

It’s not always with malicious or even self-protective intent. He just doesn’t share because he doesn’t think it’s important, or that you might care. If you pry long enough or insist that you want to know just to know and because you care, then he’s happy to share.

As previously mentioned, it might take him a while to realize just how much you care about him, and his past and interests by extension. 

Inspiration — Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

As your relationship progresses Levi comes to learn that you genuinely find him attractive not just physically, but emotionally and psychologically. That you actually want to know him and that he’s worth knowing.

So, his biggest change is in the way he approaches his thoughts about himself and his self worth. But he also begins to pick up on your habits, your interests, and tries to understand your general approach to life, too.

He would probably change you in some ways, too. Most notably in the way you organize and clean your space, probably. He’s not sorry about it.

Jealousy — Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

No, he doesn’t. To him, jealously would imply that someone has something he wants. Firstly, you’re not an object to him, and secondly, he has you. There’s nothing more to it.

He’s not childish, nor is he out of check with his emotions, so he wouldn’t lash out on you, especially if it’s not your fault. In his small momentary slips, you wouldn’t even have noticed he was jealous at all.

He wouldn’t like it if someone was repeatedly making advances on you, especially if you’ve explicitly told them off/they were making you uncomfortable. In situations like that, he would simply try to get the both of you out of there/away from the person as quickly as possible.

There’s also an element of trust to this with Levi. He wouldn’t expect you to try and make him jealous out of spite; and he would trust that you wouldn’t play on the advances of other people if you notice them.

Kiss — Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

He is a good kisser. Mainly because he’s very perceptive to what you want and how to give it you.

The first kiss was sweet. Knowing Levi, there was probably quite the build up to it, so even if it was sweet and innocent, there was a layer of tension and a crash of emotions coming forward in the moment. It was memorable, to say the least.

Love Confession — How would they confess to their s/o?

I have imagined this time and time again… and I think it really depends on the foundation of your relationship/friendship with him before.

In the most generic scenario, it would probably be a little backwards—you would have, intentionally or not, gone on some dates before he realized what his feelings really were, and then take it from there.

If you were friends for a while before hand, it can probably go the implicit dating route—that is you’re both exclusively emotionally invested in each other, and basically involved in most relationship aspects without having realized it or put a label on it. You kind of naturally morph into a relationship, and it probably takes a verbal confession or kiss or two to solidify it.

It can also go the sexual tension route, and one day one of you finally snaps and makes a move. The verbal confession would come in the aftermath, but your actions will have solidified and expressed your feelings long before that.

Marriage — Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

Again, yes and no. Without taking into account the legal aspects, the actual concept of marriage is that juxtaposition of sweet and powerful that Levi likes; the idea of devoting yourself to someone and receiving a special kind of love for the rest of your life.

And while all of that is beautiful to him, there are the unfortunate cultural norms or marriage, especially in a modern au. The legality of it all, especially the financial defaults, would be a headache. Not to mention all the fluff and grandeur and gender expectations about it. He thinks all of that fucking sucks.

Above all, he doesn’t get why people expect him to pay for what’s basically an expensive document that tells the federal government he lives with you and loves you. He could do that without them in his business.

If you want to get married, then the proposal is sweet. Intimate, and probably a call back to something in your relationship, or a significant date/event for the both of you. He wouldn’t dare do it in public or even involve anybody else, other than maybe asking a friend or two.

Marriage with Levi is much like being in a long-term relationship with him. The way he acts in marriage isn’t exponentially different than the way he had been acting as your boyfriend. It’s all still very quiet, very sweet, very domestic.

Nicknames — What do they call their s/o?

He calls you by your name, unless you ask him to call you by something else. He might call you by an actual nickname, that is a shortened version of your name, if that’s the name you usually go by.

He’s not big on pet names and they slip out from time to time, but not in place of your actual name on an every day basis. If anything, he calls your name with a very unique tone to his voice. He rarely calls for anybody else with the same tone and/or emotion.

On Cloud Nine — What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

It’s not… not obvious to his friends, but he doesn’t look like he’s been shot by cupids arrow or anything. If you know Levi, you might pick up on the fact that he seems a bit happier, less stressed, has taken up new hobbies/habits, etc. But there’s not he’s not shitting rainbows and sunshine all of a sudden.

Love is very personal and intimate for him. He would do his best to express to you that he loves you and loves the love he receives from you, but he doesn’t feel that everyone else needs to know.

So, it’s somehow simultaneously noticeable and unnoticeable when you’re together in the presence of other people.

PDA — Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss when others are watching?

Levi isn’t big on PDA. He’s not hiding your relationship, but he doesn’t care to boast it to every person he meets, either. If somebody asks him, he’ll happily say that he’s in a relationship, but he doesn’t bring it forward himself.

He’s not hiding it or shy, but he doesn’t feel the need to be all over you in public. He doesn’t anything to prove to anybody. Besides, nobody wants to see that shit. He knows he wouldn’t.

There are some displays of affection, though. Hand holding isn’t abnormal, though likely not in a casual space with your friends or family. He’ll brush is hand along your arm when he’s walking past you, might ruffle your hair if the occasion calls for it, squeeze your thigh under the table.

Quirk — Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

He’s canonically good at math. This comes in handy when you’re at restaurants and trying to calculate a tip quickly. Somehow, he knows how to figure out 18% of your bill in 3 seconds flat.

It also comes in handy when you’re trying to organize things. Along with math comes a pretty good understanding of spatial reasoning. Somehow Levi is always able to put away your left overs using the smallest and least amount of tupperware possible. It’s kind of ridiculous, he might be a wizard.

Romance — How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

In the traditional sense, he might not appear romantic, but he’s the kind of person to say or do or gift little things that would take a much deeper romantic understanding of his partner than some grand, generic act like buying a thousand roses.

His romance is tailored to you and your relationship, not general expectations of what it means to be “romantic.”

Support — Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Levi is very devoted to you, so if you ask for his help, or he can help without stepping on your toes, he will. He wants you to not only succeed, but feel fulfilled through your achievements, and he’s happy to help you get there.

He believes in you wholeheartedly. If it’s something you really want, Levi wouldn’t dare doubt that you could achieve it.

Thrill — Do they need to try out new things to spice up your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

He doesn’t feel the need to try out new things based on expectations, but if you want to try something, or if he wants to try something, you can have a conversation about it, and eventually try it out.

There’s a sort of established routine in a domestic sense; a sharing of a mutual space and the behaviors associated with that. But there’s not, like, established date nights or “week-a-versaries.”

In that sense, he can be pretty spontaneous; bringing up new places to go or activities to try when the idea strikes him. But I suppose it’s never something… too adventurous? Not dangerous, at least lololol, he’s not going to randomly suggest you go skydiving as a bonding exercise. 

Understanding — How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Very well. Levi kind of makes you his business—in the most non-intrusive way possible. He’s perceptive and picks up on things about you with relative ease, and genuine interest.

He can predict how you might respond in a situation with pretty good accuracy, can guess what you might pick off the menu at a new restaurant, if given a choice has a good sense of which option you’ll choose. Very much a “I knew you would say that/do that, I don’t know why I even asked,” kind of person once he gets to know you. 

He can be pretty empathetic, and I think he would be in a relationship.

Value — How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Your relationship is pretty damn important to Levi, and he devotes a significant amount of time and attention to it. Not in the place of giving time for himself, his friends, family or interests; but he is very much devoted to you.

However, he’s not the type to give up solid opportunities (ex: financial, for his family/mom, career-wise) for the sake of a relationship, especially if he’s not in the position to do so; and he wouldn’t want you to give up exceptional opportunities that align with your goals for him either.

Everything is relative in that sense, I suppose. He cares for you, deeply, and knows that you do, too. That, contrary to popular belief, is what enables you both to be strong enough to bend and not break.

Wild Card — A random fluff head canon.

I’ll give you a few :)

If you want him to, Levi will do your hair for you, and he’s pretty fucking good at it, too; hair type or texture be damned, he’ll take his time with it, and do it well for you.

When he’s alone, Levi hums himself to sleep. Usually singing/humming his mother’s favorite songs and/or songs he remembers hearing as a child.

He always gives you the lighter bags when you take your groceries upstairs/into your house. He doesn’t tell you, but he knows you don’t like to ‘make’ him do all the work.

He always makes dinner if he gets home before you.

He’s a pretty good artist, and has even drawn you once. He’s never told you or shown you, but he keeps the picture folded up in his wallet. Or behind his phone case.

XOXO — Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Affectionate in private, yes. He doesn’t mind it if you’re all over him, and truthfully, has his moments where he’s shamelessly all over you, too. Especially in the morning, he’s a cuddle bug.

Kisses are always good, he would never oppose them. He’s quite easy to persuade with kisses, actually. And most physical touches; he doesn’t get them often, so he kind of melts when he does. 

Cuddles, too. Again, all of this is private and in the comfort of your own home. His favorite way to cuddle is to either have you completely on top of him, or to lay his head in your lap. Because he loves the feeling of you playing with his hair.

Yearning — How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Levi will take part in things you like or things you’ve claimed in your shared space.

For example, he might find himself eating your favorite foods more often, sitting on the spot on the couch your sit in most often, rolling over to your side of the bed in his sleep.

He also likes to look back on pictures of the two of you. He doesn’t particularly like to be photographed, but he likes having these physical memories of your relationship, so he’ll indulge you when you want to take a picture together. And they come in real handy during times like this.

Zeal — Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

Levi will definitely put up a fight for you, so long as it’s mutual. He wouldn’t pour his effort into someone or a relationship in which he feels like he’s not receiving the same.

I’m not sure what great lengths there would be to go to in a modern au, but he definitely believes that relationships are hard work, and as such, is prepared to put in the work when things get hard. He’s not a quitter, and he knows that love is foundation and requires time and energy.

He cares about you too much to let you go without reason.

[popculturebuffet]

PIRATE MONTH: The Darkwing Dubloon (Darkwing Duck) Review: Our Flag Means Darkwing (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Ahoy lubbers and welcome to Pirate Month, a whole month of pirate themed reviews on this fine ship of a blog. I”m your captain jake and starting us off is a weird one.. well by darkwing duck standards.. by my blog’s standards..

IT barely reaches the top 20. And I didn’t even get a photo for the “pants sundae” from austin and ally.. mostly because I don’t want to end up on some form of watchlist for doing my job. 

So reviewing an episode where for no reasons other than the creators thought it would kick ass, which it did so.. touche, we go to the past/some form of pirate au where Pirate Era verisons of Team Darkwing, Gizmoduck and Stegmutt battle pirate era versions of the Fearsome Five. Why is there suddenly a lineage of darkwings? Is this canon? How do all the villians exist in this timeline when most of their origins should be impossible? why does negaduck have a 14 year old’s mustache? 

None of this is really explained. We just get a narration of darkwing leading us in and we’re off. So you’d think just plunking us in to Launchpad’s Pirate AU Darkwing Fanfiction wouldn’t work.. but it does. As I oft have to remind myself Darkwing Duck.. is not a very continuity driven show. Even putting the episode order that i’m convinced is really the sacred text of some elder god designed to drive mortals to madness, while it HAS continuity, the main goal is always jokes.  It’s a comedy first, and an action show second and while it delivers on both, it’s mostly there to deliver a good episode. So if they want to take a break and just.. plop the characters in pirate times and make a swashbuckling, more dapper version of darkwing. Why the fuck not? As I said it works

This is a solid episode> Admitely there’s not a ton to talk about: character wise the characters are almost all 1:1: The five are their usual selves and resent their boss but are too scard of him, Negaduck is unhinged and resents his arch, Launchpad is stupid but loyal, Gosalyn is still gosalyn... it’’s mostly the same.  But it works since w eknow the characters well and it’s more about having fun with the premise than really spotliting the sheer amount of characters in this.  They also DO have a lot of fun with Gizmoduck,w ho still acts like a chivlarous superhero with darkwing frustratedly having to remind the dipstick he’s a pirate and i’ts okay not to play fair or announce what your doing. 

Drake is the only real diffrence. In civies instead of being the same he’s servile, working for King Muddlefoot.. who is in the episode at th ebeigning nad end. Also why Drake needs a cover id when just being darkwing full time would make more since here, I don’t know. It’s the one part of the episode that dosen’t make no sense in the fun way. IT’s just dumb. But as the Darkwing Dubloon, he has darkwings ego, but also a touch of class, speaking a bit more posh and heroic, but still being himself. It’s a ncie little touch as it makes drake fit the pirate fiction drama a bit better. Also a touch our flag means death which I REALLY need to watch. I’ve only seen the trailer. I”m dumb, we’ve established this. You’ve seen what I cover. WOuldn’t change it for the world. 

Really the episodes strength is the clever back and forth as Dubloon tries to rob the fearsome five and they try to rob him back with the treasure going back and forth. It’s why I don’t have a ton to say this go round even if the episode is really good: it’s really just a fun game of cat and mouse, basically looney tunes but with more pirates and superheroes. It knows i’ts just a silly, one off au episode and decides to just have fun instead of trying to dive deeper into characters, or at least versions of the characters, we don’t see again. It’s a really fun episode I highly recommend and a great way to kick things off. 

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2021 anime overview: Quick Takes

Now for my Spring 2021 anime thoughts! I’ve decided from now on if a season’s like, 20- to-24 episodes I’m just going to wait ‘til it’s done to review it unless I feels super passionately, so though I watched To Your Eternity (it’s good!) and MHA (eh), I’ll comment on them next time. Also, for the record, I watched the first eight eps of Joran: Princess and Snow of Blood but I dropped it because it had clearly crossed the line from entertainingly dumb to boring dumb. 

I will probably give Supercub and some other stuff a shot later, this was a stacked season! May give updates on all that later, but this is what I have for now.

ODDTAXI

Quick Summary: A mild mannered middle-aged walrus taxi driver is drawn into a case involving a missing girl, yakuza, Youtube clout-chasers, manzai comedians and idols with big secrets.

It’s rare to walk away from media and be like “that is a singular experience I will definitely never see repeated again” but ODDTAXI is definitely one of those. A tense noir thriller murder mystery starring cartoon animals that spends an entire episode detailing the one (cat)man’s very fall into darkness triggered by addiction to gacha games and an online auction for a novelty eraser? Also there’s a porcupine Yakuza who speaks entirely in rap? Also there’s tons of meandering conversations about stuff like manzai comedy and the struggle to go viral on Twitter?

Admittedly, I had a hard time getting into the first episode, the dry meandering humor not being enough to hold my attention while I was sitting still, but once I watched this while I was working out at the end of the season, I found it an easy binge. A ton of characters with dark secrets or dangerous ambitions, each with their own part to play in a tableau of intersecting events- and it all actually comes together really well.(As for the female characters, it’s a pretty dude driven story, but they do get nuanced characterization and even some good heroic moments from one of them.)

 It’s a great example of a carefully planned narrative paying off, with all the twists appropriately seeded and foreshadowed to reward viewers who paid attention. Even when it ended on a perfect “OH SHIT” moment and denied me closure, I couldn’t help but respect it. If you that all sounds interesting to you, definitely check out the first couple episodes and see if you like it- you’re likely to have a memorable, satisfying experience!

Shadows House

Quick Summary: Emilyko is a ‘living doll’ who’s told she was created to act as the ‘face’ of her shadow master, Kate. The shadows and their ‘dolls’ all reside on the mansion and are required to pass a ‘debut’ to prove they’re a good pairing. If they don’t pass, they might be disposed of. And so the mystery of the Shadow mansion grows...

This slice of gothic intrigue was my favorite of the season, tied with ODDTAXI. With an interesting premise, slightly tense undertones and a strong focus on character building and relationships, it kept me hooked the whole way through. And for any squeamish fans put off by the hype about it, don’t worry, while there are some suspenseful elements, I wouldn’t qualify it as horror. I thought the relationship between Kate and Emilyko might end up being a completely sinister one, but it’s thankfully a lot more complex than that and it’s really interesting to follow how both their characters and relationship grow. The focus of the show is, unsurprisingly, on the “dolls” slowly discovering their autonomy and personhood as they struggle under the rigid system imposed on them by the mysterious elders of this weird Victorian mansion. Can they develop a more equitable relationship with their shadow “masters” (who are also shown to suffer under this system)? There’s a lot to dig into there, and the show has the characters develop through learning to understand and appreciate each other, which is pretty heartwarming. Our hero, Emilyko, is the typical plucky ball of sunshine (they even nickname her sunshine), but she’s also shown to be clever in her own off-the-wall way and she bounces off the far more subdued and cynical Kate well, not to mention the other ‘dolls’ she ends up befriending. 

What’s more, the show spends plenty of time to developing several other character pairings and combinations, and they all have their own interesting dynamic that makes you want to see more of them. Same-gender bonds are at the forefront of this show, and many of them are ripe for queer readings (I definitely appreciated the healthy helping of ladies carrying ladies), but even outside that it’s nice to see a show where a strong, complex bond between girls is at the forefront. My only real complaints about the show are the anime original ending is noticeably a bit rushed (though it’s not too bad, and leaves room for a season 2) and I wish the animation used the whole “shadow” theme more strikingly (like the opening and endings do)- instead the colors are a bit washed out which makes the shadows blend into the background sometimes. The “debut” arc also drags a bit in places, but it makes up for it by having a lot of good character integration.

I hope to check out the (full color)! manga soon and see more of this quirky, shadowy story. There’s some physical abuse depicted, sad things happening to characters and naturally the whole “oppressive familial system” thing, but otherwise not much I can think of to warn about. I give this one a big rec, especially If you’re a fan of gothic fairytales and stories of self discovery.  

Zombie Land Saga Revenge

Quickest summary: In this sequel season, everyone’s favorite zombie idol group must claw their way back into prominence after a disastrous show- the fate of the Saga prefecture LITERALLY depends on it!

This was a fun follow-up to the first season- if you liked the first zombie-girl romp, you’ll probably enjoy this one. In fact, there were a couple areas it improved on- namely, Kotaro failed, ate crow and embarrassed himself a lot more this season, which made him more likeable (as did the fact the girls gained a lot of independence from him). This season also shed more light on what the ‘goal’ of this zombie raising project is and what kind of shit Kotaro got involved with to make this happen, and it’s appropriately off-the-wall and ridiculous. We finally got some backstory for Yugiri too! I wish it had focused on more of her interiority, but she got to be a badass in it, and it was a treat to see this zombie idol show turn into a period piece for a couple episodes (also her song ruled).

 Tae also got a cute focus episode and there was a particular SMASHING performance early on! Also That revelation last season that had the potential to turn creepy hasn’t yet, and hopefully never will. The finale was heartwarming with big hints of more drama to come- I’m definitely down for more zombie hijinks!

Vivy: Flourite Eye’s Song

Quickest Summary: A songstress AI named DIVA (nicknamed Vivy) is approached by another AI named Matsumoto, who says he’s from the future and they must work together to prevent AI exterminating all of humankind 100 years from now.

This show is absolutely gorgeous visually with some really nice action scenes, but when it comes to the story my feelings basically amount to a shrug. It’s fine! I guess! Vivy starts out as an interesting layered character- and I guess still is by the end- with her stoic but stubborn determination bouncing off her fast-talking bossy partner Matsumoto well. She never listens to him, which is delightful. The way the show took place over the course of 100 years was an interesting conceit as well. However, it bought up a lot of themes and then sort of... dropped them. For instance, Vivy interprets her mission (PRIME DIRECTIVE if you will) as protecting humans at all costs, no matter how destructive said humans are or what their fate is supposed to be, and is perfectly willing to murder her fellow androids to do this, showing she inherently thinks of androids (herself and her own people!) as less worthy. Which is a little alarming! There’s a very dramatic point in the show where they bring this up as a potential conflict for her character but then it’s sort of...dropped. Pretty much.

Actually, despite the premise, the show doesn’t dip into the “AI rights” as much as you think it would with the main theme being more about Vivy’s search to find her own creativity and discover what it means to ‘pour your heart into something’. Vivy herself doesn’t actually care if she has rights or anything. Which is in some ways fine, because ‘AI as an oppressed class’ has been done to death, but IT’S ALSO KIND OF IN THE PREMISE, so that means that the show just shrugs really hard at a lot of the questions it brings up  basically just going “humans and AI should work together probably” and that’s it. There’s a lot that feels underexplored. The antagonists in the show also either have motivations that don’t really make sense or have boring hackneyed motivations. In the finale in particular, it feels like a lot of things happen “just because” and it falls a little flat.

I also have to warn that one of the arcs focus on a robot ‘pairing’ where the dude-coded robots actions toward his partner are straight up awful and rob her of her autonomy, but it’s played like a tragic love story. I suppose you could read it differently too, but it definitely made me go ‘ew’ the story seemed to want me to sympathize with this robo dude,

Overall, I wouldn’t anti-recommend this show, it’s an all right little sci-fic romp (and definitely SUPER pretty). My favorite element was definitely the episodes where Vivy develops an entirely new (an loveable) personality, because it played with the idea of of an AI getting “rebooted” really well and interplay between her two “selves” was done really well. But there are a lot of other parts of the show that just feel...a little underexplored and empty, making me have an ‘eh’ feeling on the show overall. It’s definitely an ambitious project, and while it didn’t quite stick the landing, there’s something to be said for a show that shoots for the stars and falls short over a show that just languishes in mediocrity.

Fruits Basket The Final

Quick summary: The final season of that dramatic drama about that weird family with a zodiac curse and the girl who loves them.

It’s very weird that after not cutting a lot out, they kinda sped through some material for, you know, the finale. I guess they thought they couldn’t stretch this final arc to 26 episodes? Or weren’t cleared for another double cour? However, though there were a couple places that felt awkward, despite being a bit condensed it mostly held together pretty well for a D R A M A T I C and ultimately heartwarming conclusion. I was really disappointed they kept the part where Ritsu cut their hair for the ‘happy ending’, I thought  their intro episode not showing them in men’s clothes meant the anime had decided their presentation didn’t need to be “fixed” but WELL I GUESS NOT. That was the only big upset for me though, otherwise the adaptation went about how I expected, sticking to the source material. Furuba has a lot of bumps, from weird age gap stuff to ...gender, but it also has a lot of important feels and great character arcs. It was a gateway shoujo for many and has its important place in animanga history, so I’m glad it finally got a shiny, full adaptation.

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Movies I watched in July

Once again I’m doing my monthly round-up of movies I’ve watched. This was a good month for the cinema getting back on track and seeing new releases including the new M. Night movie, Old and James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Pretty sure Marvel put out a new movie also. I’m hoping that this list can help in guiding a decision about what to watch (or what to avoid) and introduce people to movies they may otherwise not have heard of or bothered to see. These short reviews are my own subjective opinions on each individual movie and maybe a more informal approach to movie criticism can help include others who are just passing through. Here is every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of July.

Bridesmaids (2011) - 4/10

Off to a good start. I won’t say Bridesmaids is a terrible movie but I don’t think I’m exactly the target audience. As far as I know, this is a beloved comedy but I just can’t get on board with all the boring, juvenile humour; with Maya Rudolph shitting in the street, with Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig trying to one-up each other at a toast that went on forever, with Melissa McCarthy shitting in a sink… the conflict is so done to death and makes the movie feel unspecial. I do understand the appeal of the film, especially for women in that before this movie the likelihood of seeing something like this, where women play up the more crass and gross side of comedy, was probably few and far between. But the story is very tired and while I did appreciate some moments, namely a couple of decent jokes and some of the more intimate scenes, for the most part it felt like they wanted to corner a more quiet type of line delivery in a way that was supposed to be understated but very funny so as to not rely on over the top body language or musical cues, and it ended up being super dull.

Spectre (2015) - 7/10

As far as I can tell, a lot of people don’t like this instalment of the James Bond franchise… but I really enjoyed it! I’ve really taken a shine to these Daniel Craig-era Bond movies and while I can’t say any of them are the most amazing thing, I have a lot of fun with them. The biggest problem I have with Spectre is the villain being utterly pointless and uninteresting in basically every way. The idea of every villain Bond has fought before being tied to this one organisation controlled by this one guy is ridiculous, and what makes it worse is that the villain is barely in it! There’s so much that doesn’t come together in this but as it goes, I still had a really good time. Daniel Craig holds the whole thing together; he is excellent as 007 and the main reason I’m up for each of these movies is because of him. Sam Mendes directs again after the previous instalment and for what it’s worth I do think he does a good job with some of the action set pieces and the locations. I’m so ready for No Time To Die.

Shazam (2019) - 7/10

Shazam is a genuinely fun superhero movie that doesn’t take itself seriously at all. I was having a great time throughout and while it could conform to some of the same tropes we’re used to with these kinds of movies, it still remained playful and used the character of Shazam to his fullest potential in a way that showed an understanding of just how silly the idea of a kid who can turn into an adult and shoot lightning out of his hands is.

High School Musical (2006) - 6/10

So as you may or may not know, I co-host a podcast: The Sunday Movie Marathon. It’s a film podcast and every week I get together with my other co-hosts and watch movies. For episode 38, we watched the High School Musical trilogy. This first movie blew me away. I was really surprised with just how much fun I had, and if you want to hear more of my thoughts on the film, please listen to episode 38 of the podcast.

High School Musical 2 (2007) - 4/10

We then jumped into the second and while it’s certainly not as good as its predecessor, there are still some brilliant songs that manage to top the last movie. Again, more of what I have to say can be heard on episode 38 of the podcast.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) - 3/10

Senior Year was pretty hard to get through. I don’t remember it being as bad as it was, but then I didn’t really remember it anyway. It did however have one redeeming quality, which you can discover on episode 38 of the podcast.

The Piano Teacher (2001) - 9/10

What the fuuuckkkk. The Piano Teacher is horrendously affecting and I was so upset when it ended, maybe not because it’s not what I wanted but because it’s just so fucking dour and unrelenting. This is the second Haneke movie I’ve seen (after the original Funny Games) and I’m so impressed with how well executed it is. Following a woman who teaches piano, we get a glimpse into the life she lives, how sheltered she is from living with her mother at an age where you’d reasonably expect a person to be living alone or with a partner or friends (even going so far as to be sleeping in the same bed as her), and how repressed she is sexually. It’s clear she’s never experienced any kind of sexual interaction or romantic love with another person, so she goes out of her way to take control and make that happen. The upsetting nature of it comes from just what she does in pursuit of it or as a result of her repression, and what is done to her. It is by no means a movie to recommend to your parents but The Piano Teacher offers so much in terms of the ideas it presents (and I’ll admit there seems to be a lot more going on than I think I picked up on a first go round) about women in modern society, and about the portrayal of sex and expectations of people when it comes to how that is represented in a person’s character depending on their gender. I really enjoyed this movie but it is not for the faint of heart.

Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure (2011) - 1/10

My podcast co-hosts decided it’d be a right laugh to add Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure to this episode and that might have been a fun idea for them because they got to watch it together, but I was just watching it alone. Just a 24-year-old man watching Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure alone and having a miserable time, I might add. But for a short and sweet ramble on what we all thought, please listen to episode 38 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

Dr. No (1962) - 6/10

A lot of very iffy parts of this movie. A lot of discomfort arising from how black people are portrayed that really didn’t sit right with me. As far as a Bond movie goes, this first instalment in the series is one I’ve seen before and it’s not wholly engaging but it plants the seeds for the rest, with Sean Connery breathing life into the role and making an otherwise lacklustre plot bearable.

Black Widow (2021) - 6/10

I think probably the best part about Black Widow is the experience I had while watching it. It was great being back in the cinema with a couple of friends in a packed theatre. The energy was high and I’m sure for a lot of people, this is the first time they’d been to the cinema since Endgame. For what it’s worth, I did have a lot of fun with Black Widow and I’ve explained more of what I thought about the movie in episode 39 of the podcast.

The Climb (2020) - 10/10

The Climb was added to Now TV recently and I already knew I loved it, having seen it in an empty cinema theatre last year, which I had an absolute blast with. The Climb details the years of a rocky friendship told over scenes filmed as one-shots. Not only is the presentation something to gawk at, but the performances by the two leads playing these friends with a terrifically dysfunctional dynamic is truly captivating. They’re both trying to figure out their own lives and where one can come across as being rather selfish, the opposite is true in his counterpart, whom everyone loves. This is a truly funny and heartwarming movie with a lot to say about how we choose to live our lives and who we choose to be with. It’s a shame the distributors of The Climb didn’t do a very good job because if not for it being available on Now TV, it would be near impossible to watch without forking out more money than is necessary to purchase a film.

From Russia With Love (1963) - 5/10

The second Bond movie. I thought perhaps I’d change my mind on it with another watch, having seen it for the first time maybe a year ago. But no, it’s still largely boring and it treats women like absolute garbage. From Russia With Love is one of those movies I forget as I watch it, and I was trying very hard (in the middle of the day!) not to fall asleep.

The Good, The Bart, and The Loki (2021) - 1/10

I don't usually talk about the short films I watch but for this I'll make an exception. As we all should know, Disney owns The Simpsons now, through their acquisition of Fox, so, coupled with another of their properties, that being Marvel, they decided to make a six-minute animated film wherein Marvel’s Loki is stranded in Springfield. This felt as though it was a minute long due to the horrendously jarring pacing; it is a movie that feels adamant that it needs to exist, while trying as hard as it can to be over as soon as possible. It serves only to stare the audience directly in the face and say “look, characters from The Simpsons are dressed as Avengers”, shit out three credit scenes, then end before you’ve even processed the atrocity you just bore witness to.

Russian Ark (2002) - 8/10

For this next episode of the podcast, we watched a few Russian movies, starting with Russian Ark, a film shot completely in one take as the camera moves about a luxurious museum in a first-person perspective as this main character watches what is happening around him, seeing people moving about the place but unable to interact with them, guided only by another man who seems to be just slightly out of his own perception of reality. This is a tremendous feat in filmmaking and more can be heard about what I have to say in episode 39 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

Ivan’s Childhood (1962) - 7/10

For my own pick of Russian movies to discuss on the podcast, I chose the debut feature from one of my favourite directors, Andrei Tarkovsky. It’s amazing that while this is not his best film by far, Ivan’s Childhood is still such a stellar debut, jumping around in its timeline as it details a child’s experience in the second world war. Again, I do go into more depth in episode 39 of the podcast, so be sure to check that out.

Outlaw (2019) - 1/10

The third movie chosen for this marathon is apparently the fourth Russian LGBTQ+ movie ever made. I’m unsure of the ultimate goal of this movie but what seems to be clear is that it hates the LGBTQ+ community. This is perhaps the worst film we’ve discussed on the podcast to date, so listen to episode 39 to understand exactly why it’s such trash.

Almost Famous (2000) - 7/10

I too love heavy music and also studied journalism so it stands to reason that a movie about a teenager who makes his way onto a band tour, following them through America and interviewing them as they hang out and play shows is going to be a premise that resonates with me. This certainly did. I enjoyed Almost Famous a lot; this kid is living the dream and I was so along for the ride, seeing a lot of myself in what was being portrayed. That said, the story itself is at times a bit by the numbers and I really would’ve been more on board if the visual component was more interesting. For what it is, technically it’s fine enough but nothing in that department ever jumped out at me.

Minari (2021) - 8/10

It’s crazy that this didn’t get a theatrical run where I live in the UK. It feels as though I complain about film distribution all the time but I really don’t understand the process by which a movie gets no cinematic release and yet, months later will pop up on the front shelf of hmv, taking pride of place. But of course I got the blu-ray straight away. Minari has a lot to say about the immigrant experience, specifically in America as a family comes over from Korea and tries to start a business and make something of themselves. You get to see a lot of what you might not think twice about when you think about immigration: the hardship of coming from a place where you know everyone to somewhere rural and sparsely populated, having to make friends with locals and integrate within the community; the strain it can put on a family and on a marriage where this idea is presented about the importance of making it on your own in order to live and not just survive, while also taking into account why you’re doing it in the first place and the value you place on being part of a family that you decided to make because that was more important than money, than economy, than proving you were good enough to make it in a place that gave you very little advantage from the offset. This concept of the promised land, of the American dream is a construct. There are times when it’s not pretty, when you have no running water, or you’re in debt, or a family member is dying and it just feels like you’ve been dealt as bad a hand as you can get. But it is better to know you’re not facing all that alone.

Roma (2018) - 10/10

This was my recommendation for the podcast episode on Alfonso Cuarón movies. Roma is as beautiful as it is heart-wrenching and I would recommend listening to episode 40 of the podcast to find out more about my thoughts.

An American Werewolf In London (1981) - 8/10

In all fairness, London is enough to make anyone a little crazy at the best of times. An American Werewolf in London showcases some fantastically grotesque effects, akin to something like Carpenter’s The Thing, in showing the dead brought back to life and a horrifically gory transformation scene. Although the film is from the perspective of an American protagonist, directed also by an American, the depiction of British culture and climate is something I’ve not seen many films pull off quite so well, and I was pleasantly surprised at the more comedic tone the film has overall, which is something that works more in its favour than straight horror would.

The Party’s Just Beginning (2018) - 6/10

Karen Gillan’s directorial debut is… pretty good! There are a lot of ideas I like in this movie: a woman living life and through convenient circumstances, is confronted with death in many ways. Gillan obviously knows her homeland as well as she can, imbuing the whole thing with an intensely Scottish vibe (though maybe not in the same vein as something like Trainspotting) that makes it a bit more unique than a more run of the mill movie of this ilk, backed up in no small part by her own main performance. The plot itself is no great diversion from the kind of story I’m used to with these smaller movies and for something that’s trying to include messaging about transgender issues and suicide, it probably could have been handled better or done in a different way.

Solaris (1972) - 9/10

Another Tarkovsky joint, one I thought I’d revisit to see if there was indeed more to get out of it a second time. Well, it’s no surprise that yes, there was certainly more to get out of it. Solaris is a crazy trip of a movie and I would liken it to Kubrick’s 2001 in terms of how grand the scale of it feels. Yet this is a film that comes across as deeply personal, choosing to focus on a specific character as he goes to a space station to help those on board who are experiencing some kind of emotional crises, only to feel the effects of the planet, Solaris invading his own mind as it has the crew. To many, I can see this lengthy Russian sci-fi being a tad slow but my personal experience is one of deep engagement. Solaris pulls its viewer in a lot of different directions and it is always doing something unexpected in terms of where its narrative goes. There’s a lot to think about with the movie and thankfully it’s no chore to watch again.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001) - 9/10

Another recommendation for the podcast episode on Alfonso Cuarón movies. This is a very relaxed experience, following three young people as they go on a road trip, visit different places and have sex. Listen to episode 40 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast for more of my thoughts.

Children of Men (2006) - 10/10

My favourite Cuarón movie, one that never stops being tense as its characters are constantly moving towards the end goal. Set in a future where humans are infertile, the oldest living person is 18, and London is the last city in the world that’s still keeping it together, somewhat. This is masterclass filmmaking. Listen to episode 40 of the podcast for more insights.

Minority Report (2002) - 5/10

I’m really not the biggest fan of Spielberg… Minority Report is an interesting movie in terms of its concept of stopping crimes before they happen by way of prediction, but I just didn’t connect with the heart of it. The colouring is way too overexposed in a way that’s supposed to be eliciting a futuristic vibe but instead feels so early-2000’s in the worst way. My biggest problem with Minority Report is just how long it is, clocking in at two hours and twenty-five minutes which allows for a lot of meandering, all while never quite developing characters enough for you to care about.

Caché (2005) - 9/10

Oh god! Another Michael Haneke movie! Here we see a couple periodically sent video tapes featuring hours of footage of the outside of their house. The anxiety ratchets up and the mystery gets deeper with every minute. There’s always at least one moment in any of his films that have so far made me realise just how out of my depth I am. Caché is no exception, and I won’t spoil anything here because I think it’s better just to watch the movie and see for yourself. He is a director that wants the audience to know something and that something is never what is explicitly shown at face value; it is pressed into the fabric of the film - plainly evident, yet hidden. Caché is so stupidly clever in displaying its themes and messaging - making reference to the Siene Massacre of 1961 as well as a deeper study of colonialism - and there’s no way to change a single detail of it without risking the Jenga tower crumbling to the ground. It all works in tandem. It is passion and fury and haunting.

Coco (2017) - 7/10

Pixar had a string of around seven forgettable movies before this point so thankfully Coco emerged to show the company still had something good in them. Coco deals a lot with themes of death and legacy, remembering those who are gone in order to preserve them and while its plotting is quite basic and there are certainly moments that either drag or cannot escape the same Pixar formula, most of what the movie has to offer is a lot of fun, with creative, colourful animation and emotional beats that resonate the way they’re supposed to.

Incredibles 2 (2018) - 5/10

Oh, they almost had it! There's a lot here that could have been explored in far more interesting ways. Setting Incredibles 2 directly after the events of the first movie was not a good idea. If it had taken place five or ten years after, the characters could have been in different places in life and it would feel as though they'd actually changed and developed. But instead of trying to be a film that actually cares about its characters and the journeys they go on, a lot of the film is wrestling with the idea that Bob isn't supportive of his wife and Jack-Jack has to fight a raccoon… They have to shoehorn in a villain that in no way compares to the genius of the original. The ending of the original introduces another antagonist that gets wrapped up within this film's first ten minutes, except they don't catch him and he's never mentioned again. It's a real shame because the animation is fantastic and the acting is superb and there are great ideas sprinkled throughout. It just doesn't come together.

Toy Story 4 (2019) - 6/10

I was rather reluctant to watch Toy Story 4 because from the get-go I’m not really here for sequels being made just for the sake of it. Everyone loves Toy Story and making another one is a sure fire way to make money. This is the first time I’ve seen Toy Story 4 and for what it’s worth, I did enjoy it. The animation is immaculate and that alone feels like a huge flex from Pixar who tend to step up the game when it comes to animation in film, despite not having the best track record for films generally at this point. While it was nice to see these characters again, I found a lot of them to be side-lined (namely Buzz) in favour of a story that focuses mainly or entirely on Woody, who I just don’t like as much as in the previous movies. Generally the movie is good and decent enough but there’s no real antagonist and the plot is quite loose… it doesn’t feel as though it needed to be made from a story point of view.

Onward (2020) - 6/10

And with that I have seen every Pixar movie. And Onward is a fine one to go out on. While I don’t think it compares to the likes of earlier Pixar it’s still pretty fun. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for a medieval setting filled with bright colours and magic! Speaking of which, the animation was super and the medieval quest element is something that hooked me with the film. Again, plot-wise it does feel very familiar and I don’t know, maybe I’m past the point now of expecting Pixar to mix it up where their formula for story-telling is concerned but the movie is quite predictable. Nonetheless, while I’m not rushing back to see Onward I would hardly turn it off or refuse if someone wanted to watch it.

Old (2021) - 3/10

Oh boy! New M. Night movie dropped and my word, was it fun! For more of my thoughts on this… masterpiece (?) of a movie, please direct your attention to episode 41 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

T2 Trainspotting (2017) - 5/10

Trainspotting is perhaps one of my favourite movies and I had never bothered with the sequel, 20 years on, because the ending of that first movie is so conclusive. T2 felt more an excuse for these guys to get together again and in that, I probably would have preferred a couple of pictures on Twitter of the main cast and director, Danny Boyle having dinner or something. This is a fine movie - very arty in its presentation but meandering and dull in its story that doesn’t offer much in the way of proof that it had to exist.

Taste of Cherry (1997) - 9/10

What makes life worth living? This is a central question and theme of Taste of Cherry, and one that leaves such interpretation not only up to its central character but to the viewer as well. This film got me thinking about times in my life when I truly have had no answer to hard questions. Because it’s hard to convince people of things they are so adamantly against and harder still to rationalise what you believe if you’re not even entirely sure why you believe it in the first place. We are all of us alive and in recognising that, does that make it precious? And if indeed living is not a happy thing, why then should we fight so hard to preserve it? I felt upset as I watched this movie because I’ve been asked these kinds of questions before and it makes me feel stupid when I’m unable to answer. But the only real answer I can give is, everything. And if you can’t see the point then you’re not looking hard enough. Taste of Cherry is beautiful in its exploration of these topics and in its overall presentation, offering some of the best visuals in any movie I’ve seen - fitting for a feature with so much to say about the beauty of life - and an ending that as much pulls the rug out from under you as it does pull you out of the dark and make you realise just how lonely you’ve felt.

Bones (2001) - 2/10

Snoop Dogg is Jimmy Bones! This film is super funny but I’m not sure it’s trying to be and I really didn’t love it overall. But I do talk more in depth about it in episode 41 of the podcast.

The Duchess (2008) - 5/10

Another recommendation for the podcast. The Duchess was pretty much exactly what I thought it was going to be and there’s a lot to like about it but generally it’s a bit sparse. For more chat on the movie, listen to episode 41 of the podcast.

The Man With One Red Shoe (1985) - 1/10

This was another one for the podcast and man, was it awful. We had to watch it at 1.5x speed towards the end because it just wasn’t getting finished otherwise. To find out more, make sure to listen to episode 41 of the podcast.

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) - 7/10

Pull the lever, Kronk! Haha! Slays me. I do quite miss this era of Disney, where the animation was hand-drawn and the stories were actually compelling and funny. The Emperor’s New Groove is vibrant, it’s got great characters and memorable moments that will forever be ingrained in the memory of culture. All in all, it’s just a solid flick that doesn’t waste time, developing the standard fall from glory type of arc but smoothly and in an entertaining way.

The Suicide Squad (2021) - 8/10

Oh, bloody hell! They actually made a good one! The Suicide Squad is not only better than the ‘Suicide Squad’ of 2016 in every way, it’s a genuinely great film! This time, James Gunn (director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies) is at the helm and it seems clear that Warner Bros. basically let him do what he wanted with the movie, as it doesn’t seem to bog itself down with the restrictions of a more family-friendly rating. The result of this is a far cleaner, colourful film with a clearer vision that takes from early Vietnam movies and uses that style to craft a superhero/villain movie that differentiates itself among the copious amount of existing films of the genre.      The Suicide Squad wastes very little time, introducing fun, crazy characters we’ve not seen on the big screen before and isn’t worried about killing a whole bunch of them, with standouts being Elba’s Bloodsport, Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2, Stallone’s King Shark (expertly rendered with fantastic visual effects), and Robbie’s returning interpretation of Harley Quinn.      A lot of Gunn’s trademark sense of humour is laced throughout and more often than not, it hits. The audience at the cinema were truly loving this movie and I’ll admit, I was right there with them. This mix of the gritty, gory and absurd is not something that should work as well as it does but the basic premise of the film is already so silly (and boy, do they know it) that it just works! Certainly one of the best DC movies since The Dark Knight and one I’d be more than happy to watch again. This is what the modern comic book movie should be: just balls to the wall fun!

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Good Omens and Judaism

Recently, I watched Jill Bearup’s review of the Good Omens Amazon Prime adaptation – a video you can watch here, and even if you don’t, I highly recommend you watch any of her other videos, especially her newer stuff about fight choreography – and something she brought up set my brain rolling down a particularly interesting hill.

She compares the series (written by Neil Gaiman) to the book (written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman), and points out how one of the things the series does differently is that it shows the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn’t appear in the book Good Omens, though a major part of the story’s premise is that all the events described in the Bible actually literally happened. The book is centered on the birth of the Antichrist, but it doesn’t present us with the Christ that he is “anti” to.

Bearup comments that the story of Good Omens doesn’t really work so well if Jesus’s death (and subsequent rebirth) is one of the things that actually literally happened in the world. This is because the other major part of the story’s premise is that Heaven is, in many ways, just as bad as Hell. The angels are just as much a threat as the demons are to the world, to humankind, and to our protagonists. There is no inherent, definite separation between “good” and “bad” in Good Omens; humanity, and life on Earth, is the important thing worth fighting for.

But Jesus’s death indicates that there is an inherent “good” separate from “bad.” It also indicates that Heaven is the ultimate good place, and the ultimate goal, because Jesus’s death was for the purpose of redeeming the sins of humanity so that humans could in the end go to Heaven. If Heaven is just as bad as Hell, how can there also be this objectively good “dying for our sins” thing?

I find this view particularly interesting because none of this occurred to me while watching Good Omens. I didn’t think at all about the Jesus scene or what it implied. It didn’t linger with me; it didn’t affect my interpretation of the rest of the show.

And that’s really because Jesus doesn’t matter to me. At all.

I didn’t grow up with the Jesus story. My first exposure to any New Testament content was the time my dad was in a community theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He played Caiaphas, and we have home video of my siblings and I – little Jews between the ages of 2 and 8 – singing about how much of a problem this Jesus guy is in our best imitation of a bass voice. Mom didn’t let us stay to watch the second act, so we missed out on all the betrayal and whipping and death parts, and once the run of the musical was complete, we never watched it again.

In middle school, it took me until the last chapter of The Last Battle to realize that Aslan had been Jesus all along. Yes, I did read all seven Narnia books; I just thought it was fun fantasy, until they all suddenly died and went to heaven. In hindsight, I get how heavy-handed the sacrifice and rebirth in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is, but at the time, I didn’t know that part of the Jesus story, let alone that it was something people cared about or believed.

Bearup is right – Good Omens doesn’t work with Jesus. The series worked for me because I didn’t think that the Jesus death scene had any impact on the rest of the story, because as a Jew, that scene doesn’t have any impact on my life philosophy.

And I think that’s the key thing here. Good Omens makes the most sense if you remember that it’s a Jewish man’s take on Christian theology. Neil Gaiman is Jewish. Of course Jesus doesn’t matter in Good Omens. He’s a detail that doesn’t fit with the story’s philosophy and is therefore easily deleted or relegated to a flashback that’s actually about Aziraphale and Crowley’s friendship.

Which brings me to something I did think about while watching Good Omens. Though it focuses on the Christian Bible, Good Omens is really fricking Jewish.

For Jews, the here and now matters so much more than whatever is after death! The mashiach hasn’t come yet; no one’s “saved” our souls. In fact, our souls don’t need “saving” – “Elohai neshama shenatata be t'horah he,” we say – “My G-d, the soul You have given me is pure.” We are already good, as we are now. We’re here on Earth doing the work of creation every single day, and that work is important. All that we create – all the stuff that Aziraphale and Crowley love about us in Good Omens – is important. The very idea of everything being destroyed so that we can all be shuttled off to Heaven or Hell is, well, icky.

The existence of the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley is also very Jewish. In the Torah, angels don’t really have personalities. They’re malachim – literally, messengers. If one shows up, it’s treated in the text like it’s just speaking G-d’s words. We have stories about them in the Talmud that give angels a little more color, but they’re not exactly painted in a very “good” light there. In one midrash, when the Red Sea closed over the Egyptians, allowing the Jews to escape slavery, the angels sang and danced in celebration. G-d then said to the angels, “Why are you celebrating? My children are drowning in the sea.” So the idea of an angel like Gabriel, who’s spent his whole time hanging out in heaven, being a jerk who doesn’t care about humanity fits well with the Jewish perspective. However, if an angel did stick around on Earth for thousands of years, getting to know us, instead of simply parroting G-d’s words… then he’d probably become a decent fellow who loved humans. That’s Aziraphale.

As for Crowley, well, Jews question everything. Arguing with G-d is our thing, all the way back to Abraham. We love G-d, sure – if we believe in G-d, and there are plenty of Jews who don’t. For every law that exists, for every story we tell or prayer we recite or tradition we take part in, there is a Jew who has said, “But why, though? Does it really have to be like that?” And isn’t that what got Crowley in trouble in the first place, and what motivates him throughout the series? “Does it really have to be like that?”

Good Omens talks a lot about “God’s ineffable plan,” and it leaves things ambiguous in the end about whether the events of the series actually were Herself’s plan. That’s very Jewish, too. The Jewish answer to “Does G-d have a plan?” is, basically, “Does it matter?” We’re here now. We’re living our lives now. We’re doing what good we can now. If there’s a Heaven or a Hell, if there’s even a literal G-d, if any of the stuff in the Bible actually literally happened… Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Tl;dr, if it feels like Jesus doesn’t make sense in Good Omens, that’s because he doesn’t. Jesus left Judaism behind, and Good Omens is a Jewish story. It’s Jewish fanfiction of the New Testament. Which itself is fanfiction of the Torah. Think about it.

[ukaiknowsbest]

Review: Tamayomi

[will contain spoilers]

Lately I have been pretty bored with the recent developments in Daiya no A and Oofuri. New Shonen anime stuff just don't appeal to me, so I bit the bullet and watched Tamayomi for at least one episode a day.

Like me, people would normally think "HOW TF ARE THEY GOING TO PLAY BASEBALL? AREN'T THEY WEARING SHORTS??? IS THIS JUST FANSERVICE?? OMYGOD"

But I did it. I watched the whole thing. 12 episodes.

And I enjoyed it.

THE SETUP/PLOT

pretty standard fare

Pitcher Yomi Takeda accidentally reunites with her childhood friend who's actually a nationals-level in middle school catcher when they both end up in the same highschool.

School: former powerhouse located in Saitama, now baseball club is almost non-existent. Yomi and a few other will try to revive the team from scratch.

Basically Shin Koshigaya is a brand new team where they struggle to look for new members and majority are first years.

They have to face other stronger teams even when they have a few members and some decent players.

Demographic is SEINEN (like oofuri, last inning, one outs, etc.)

CHARACTERS

Yomi Takeda as Main character and pitcher- skilled, resilient, funny, hardworking, does a lot of research which enabled her to perfect her form and hone her breaking ball. She keeps improving in a good pace too.

Tamaki Yamazaki former childhood friend of Yomi. Is a decent catcher in middle school. A bit well known. Good communicator.

Yoshino - team manager and coach. srsly she is a boss. She's not infallible but she tries her best.

and other decent players with adequate skill

For a sports anime they have decent cast. This is probably the closest we can currently get of a story where the girls are just focused on the sport, do their own strategizing/planning/training. All of them are cute but also serious about what they do.

There's no boys here so there's no talk about het-crushes and other distractions. It's a clamfest babyyyy.

I've seen a little of Major 2 (the one abt the son and his coed team) and I couldn't stand it because it was just slice of life in sportsy undertones.

There is also decent communication among all the players. It's pretty refreshing to watch. The catcher is well rounded and the pitcher is good. Everyone talk things out and there is not a lot of drama.

FANSERVICE

Wearing shorts to a sport that involves a lot of making contact with the ground is just illogical lmao.

Their school uniform skirt is pretty short

A little bit of their manager prodding the thighs of each person she meets but with good reason (she can tell how much muscle/exercise a person does just by a little prodding). It's a trope thing.

That's all. There are no panty shots, unnecessary locker room nudity, boob action, see through sweaty shirts. Most of the cringy things I've seen in other girls sports anime aren't present.

Eventually I even forget that they're wearing shorts or that it impedes their performance. It seems like it doesn't matter much to the characters so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't know if like the hugging or holding hands is considered fanservice. In my experiece we ladies just act like that irl. What they do is nothing out of the ordinary.

REALISM

3/5. They wear shorts and dont tie their hair up. The baseball part seem pretty decent though. The pacing of the story and matches was like watching IRL Koshien. It's all very clinical and straightforward.

Plus they include a lot of interesting baseball stuff which I haven't seen happen in early stages of other shonen anime like: specifically training the pitcher in other positions, showing what fielders yell to each other, letting other relievers start to reserve their ace (ppl can yell DnA did this but remember Tanba was injury boy throughout Act 1).

COMPARISON TO OTHER BASEBALL MANGA

based on technicality Tamayomi is prolly one of the top among baseball anime/manga I have seen.

Last Inning

Oofuri

Tamayomi

Daiya no A

Now don't chase me with pitchforks because of this ranking just yet. The fact that Shin Koshigaya coach's decisions and reasonings for plays and lineups are discussed makes the show at par with Last Inning and Oofuri. (we dont see DnA kataoka talk abt this sht like..ever)

Moreover Tamayomi has similar vibes to Oofuri/Big Windup but less dramatic. I do not think it's good for beginners too (especially with just 12 episodes). You need to have prior baseball knowledge to understand what the characters were doing.

However, this show is probably the most no-fuss baseball anime/manga I have watched. It does not rely on hype like DnA and it also don't have heavy topics like Oofuri and Last Inning. It's not wacky like One Outs and it's not uber slice of life like Cross Game. It's just baseball.

My minor complaint is that they don't give numbers when talking about things like pitching speed tho. It would've been more realistic if actual numbers were dropped XD

ART/ DESIGN/ANIMATION

A.k.a the thing most viewers complain about.

Character design is subpar. Everyone's faces are almost the same. You can tell who's the character not by face but by hair and height. Personally I don't mind this. I don't really look for realism in most things I watch. And I think the hair designs are cool.

Lots of people drop this show because of bad animation. There are shots/scenes where it's like I'm watching fanmade AMV's in nicovideo/youtube from the early 2000's. Pitching motions and Batting motions look like character movements in rpg games.

It's not really a problem for me though. I think it's charming for some reason. I don't mind it. A lot of people do but I'm not them.

CONCLUSION

NGL I wanted more. 12 episodes is too short. I hope a better animation company picks this up. I'm rewatching the whole thing because I enjoyed it a lot. I'll even check out the manga if I have time.

If anyone's interested here's my tamayomi livetweet thread

This is one of the closest thing I could get to what a decent girl sports anime looks like. If the character designs, art, animation and the uniforms were just better this show would have gone pretty far.

Compared to Shonen types of manga this was relaxing to watch, especially before bed. I'd honestly recommend it you wanna watch smth that doesnt involve a lot of feelings and drama but still feel like watching an actual sport.

Girls are fun. Finally.

[personal notes under the cut]

I get that people reading this would think I'm being too optimistic about a show they considered shtty but I kid you not, I dropped Bakuten (boys gymnastic's anime) coz even with it's wonderful animation i thought it was boring af.

I have dropped so many prettily animated shows coz i just cant get into the characters nor the story.

I've also said before in my Two Car review that I am actively avoiding shows with popular VA's. Idk much abt female VA's in anime, therefore watching Tamayomi was the perfect solution for me.

The reason I like tamayomi so much is that it gave me the same feeling of watching Summer Koshien 2021. I just think an anime that made me remember that kind of feeling was cool.

I'll rewatch hanebado next. wish me luck.

[mazojo]

Winter 2021 Anime Opinions

As always its that time of the year I pretend to be an anime connoisseur and leave my review on this seasons anime so take it with a grain of salt asdfgh from the one I enjoyed the least to the most.

Wave!!: Surfing Yappe!! (TV)

You are seeing currently the only probably best thing about Wave asdfghj Tanaka bby I am SO sorry you got stuck here,,,,, Its bad because I had so many expectations for Wave but it just...... isn’t very good? The characters feel 2 dimensional, animation is veeeery average and the plot is all over the place? Dont even get me started on the Shou situation plot device that they just brushed over and went on with and,,,,,big sigh

Urasekai Picnic

To be honest is not very fair to compare this one to the rest as ive only watched the first 2 eps but ill catch up eventually asdfghj its not bad just that the plot didnt capture me as much as I hoped but the two main characters cutiess the plot just confuses me asdfgh but I don't have much to say about it

Yakusoku no Neverland 2nd Season

So uh anyways Chile I don't wanna talk about it the only reason this is not dead last is because RayEmma cute moments but yeah don't watch this clown show go read the manga for self care ✨

Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun

The only reason this is here is because she. The main girl I cant remember the name of sucks and main dude is very normal asdfgh the plot is basically “Want people to like you? change everything about yourself and become a normie robot!!!” ASDFGHJ Like its so over the top and cringe at times it becomes very confusing but hey I am not caught up either so I may change opinions (x doubt tho)

2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

From this point onwards I basically like everything. 2.43 Started suuuuper strong for me, definitely thought it would be one of my favs this season but as the eps went by I just.... kinda lost interest asdfgh? Like its not bad, but its a sort of mix between Stars Align and Haikyuu where I would have loved a more character based story with dark subplots like Stars Align but got the parts I always criticize about Haikyuu were there was a point I didn't really knew any of the characters? ASDFGH like the enemy team is super cool and Love their designs but if you ask me to tell you anything about them I already forgot rip. Its still cute and the animation is cool but yeah it kind of disappointed me in the end a bit ;w;

Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season

AOT Is so sexci because it keeps on hurting me and I come back every-time for it ASDFGHJ Not much to say that hasn't been said, characters are super interesting, plot is a bit confusing at times for me to follow but amazing and I just :))) could go on about certain characters :))))) but I wont :))))

Wonder Egg Priority

Wonder egg priority is very talked about right now so I wont get too much into it other than definitely give it a watch if you like the more philosophical and “makes you reflect on your life choices” sort of anime ASDFGHJ the visuals are stunning and the characters very well build, although I am very confused at times I am still enjoying it tons ^^ Trigger warning however for some heavy topics I recommend checking the warnings before watching it <3

Kemono Jihen

I LOVE THEM OKaY? asdfghjk Kemono Jihen gives me the found family topes and I eat them all right up, I love the characters , their designs, the plot, everything. To be fair tho, I did enjoy the manga more than the anime but maybe its a pacing thing? idk but I definitely recommend 100% taking on the manga and maybe after watch the anime but I am enjoying it tons!!

Kai Byoui Ramune

This one may come as a surprise lol?? Like I haven't seen a single soul talk about Ramune but like??? I am actually enjoying it a lot?? and look forward every week for the ep? asdfghj Like yes I will be the first to admit the animation isn't really the beeeeest out there but the plot is funny while also being serious, the characters are quirky and interesting to keep the flow going and I am liking the undertone heavy messages? the soundtrack also slaps imo and yeah I would definitely say to watch the first ep and if you like that sort of dynamic take it up on the rest!

I★Chu: Halfway Through the Idol

Okay I will be the first one to admit this is just me being trash for the idol shows but like?? its my list so I get to decide which found family I am screaming about next ASDFGHJ. As an avid A3 stan this gave me serious vibes of my boys (plus they were made form the same company so like not very surprised there loll) and like I think the characters are cute with adorable relationships and cute songs and its just a lighthearted show I sit down every Wednesday and smile through the 25 minutes so yes I Chu deserves a high spot and yes I recommend it even if it has like a 6.3 on myanimelist sksksks

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars

Look at Gen!!!! enough reasons to watch dr stone!!!! ASDFGH but in all seriousness I....... love them okAy? The plot is amazing and the characters are super entertaining (hiiii Ukyo Gen Senku and Chrome muak) and although it may seem a bit slower paced than first season the arc is gonna get better and better and the finale is gonna be great if they stick to the manga. Only sad that I dont get to see my pirate fuckboy but we better be getting a third season

Bungou Stray Dogs Wan!

when I say this is the happiness of all my Tuesdays I ain’t even exaggerating ASDFGHJ Does this have an important plot? no. Is it transcending to animation? not really. Is it BSD content I've been starving for? absolutely!!! Tbh I see my favorite anime characters in chibi version and I go feral, go watch BSD pogg!!

Horimiya

Me?? searching for that one gif of the side ship scene am obsessed over?? more likely than you think ASDFGH Horimiya holds a special place in my heart because it was the first manga I ever read and the nostalgia is stroNG,,,,,, The plot isn't anything really transcending but the way the characters are captured the feelings just,,,,,, stan!! Also Yuki x Tooru supremacy !

Skate-Leading☆Stars

Okaaaaay this is also me being a bitch for sports anime but like, again, are we surprised?? ASDFGHJ It may be my love for Hayato speaking but ive absolutely loves Skate Leading Stars, I love the group, the main characters, the ships, the routines and its so pretty and they are in love and like the competition and asdfgh its gOoD OKaY??? Watch it if anything for Hayato 👉🏻 👈🏻 My bastard bitch I love the gremlin.

Beastars 2nd Season

I think we are all sleeping on Beastars brushing it off as a furry show. I don’t speak enough about it and I am not one to go about poetic cinemaness on main but beastars is a very poetic cinema show and yall sleeping on it. Coming from someone who was uncomfortable at first with the whole animal relationships part at first, just know beastars is so much more than that, it has a complicated plot with critics about the society within the show with amazing characters, great soundtrack and animation plus banger plot. Pina, Jack, Juno and Legoshi best characters and every week I look forward for the next eps so I hope yall go give it some love.

SK8 The Infinity

If it wasnt clear from my spam every Saturday that I am absolutely in love with this show I dont know what to tell you ASDFGHJ. Sk8 has an amazing range of characters I find fascinating, specially Reki, very much so everything Reki asdfgh but yeah!! Its super entertaining with an interesting plot and its definetely becoming one of my favorite animes because the amount of times ive rewatched the episodes to cope is kind of embarrassing lmaooo, definetely give it a try although I understand its not for everyone but like,,,,, do it for Reki? 🤧👉🏻👈🏻

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: No More Heroes 3

Thanks to @knightsweeties for this art

Its been 10 years since the last mainstream no more heroes game and things really get shaken up.

Travis now is fighting for the fate of the earth.

Can this Passing Assassin become the hero earth needs? Or are there really no more heroes?

So for this review I will be covering the following:

1. The Story

2. The Gameplay

3. The side quests

4. Difficulty

5. Appeal

Spoilers below:

1. THE STORY

So its been 10 years since the events of Desperate Struggle. There is a rich CEO named Damon who reunites with his alien best friend FU. (in a ghibli-esque short of ET). And when FU returns he and his crew had basically escaped space prison and came back to earth to conquer it. FU then claims he and his crew are Superheros (as a subversion of the trope.) And Travis sees these a**holes destroying his city and decides to f*** them up.

After killing Mr.Blackhole. Travis finds out the UAA basically created a new list. The Galactic superhero rankings. And Travis now has to fight his way to the top to save the world. (though he initially agrees because His wife, Silvia, promised him something. Which we are believed to be dirty)

But s*** gets personal when FU shows up, Kicks the s*** out of Travis, Disarms Shinobu and murders Badman, AKA a friend of Travis from a previous game. Now basically making this whole game VERY personal.

So there is so much more to it, and there are so many twists and turns to the point where trying to explain it all would take away from it. But lets just say aliens arent the only opponents Travis fights.

Even when things get nuts the story knows when to take itself seriously and when to have fun with it. Anyone familiar with Suda51 will get a kick out of it.

But just know the plot itself is not the main appeal of it, its what happens during that makes it so interesting. The twists that had me saying "What the fuck?" are what really make it. And the genre changes that come in. Suda really went ham with his wild style and it shows. Dont do drugs kids, just play suda51 games and you will have the same effect.

It will leave you with more questions than answers.

2. The Gameplay

Lets get right to it. The game play is the best part. Fighting the different enemies, the puzzling yet fun bossfights. Thats where this game really shines. I recommend players start on Bitter. I started with Spicy and got my s*** handed to me early on. After beating it the first time then you can try the harder difficulties.

The death glove powers gives the player options when things look bleak and clever use can really turn the tides. The Chips the player can collect and craft also give Travis a lot of customization. Also some chips are WAY more useful than others. But the important thing is that you pick the best one for your play style.

I found most of the boss fights pretty balanced and have their own gimmick which has each one stand out.

And good news for the bitter players. Even if you die in bitter there is a chance you can come back with the chance wheel. And with sushi meals or to go items, you can boost your health and stats before a big fight, giving you all the advantages you need to win.

Another great feature is the time machine, which allows you to re fight old bosses. Letting you get coins that can up your stats and items for crafting. And you can battle them on different difficulties, from Berry sweet (I basically want to curbstomp the boss) to Death ( one hit will kill you). I reccommend saving the last difficulty for when you fully mastered the game.

Overall the boss fights, the mini boss fights, and the space battles are relatively fun and will keep you on your toes.

3. Side Quests

Honestly, meh.

The overworld is not as awful as people complain, but it is pretty bare bones. Some of the sidequests very from boring to midly entertaining. The search quests for the cats and stickers are a chore and the rewards are only some what worth it. The scorpions is the worst one since they can sting you and you lose your chance to find them.

On the plus side, its much easier to get money for the boss fight fee, and you can pretty much skip money grinding as the fights will often give you enough to pay for whatever. The money is mainly for the tee-shirts and Chips.

The game has a ton of collectables which are cool easter eggs and thankfully none of them are optional for the true ending, which means you dont need to do them if you dont want to. Which makes it a lot more tolerable. Only the diehard Suda fans really will care about them.

4.Difficulty

I touched on this earlier, with the different levels. But I will say that the game overall is not super difficult. Once you get your playstyle and max out your stats, you are basically able to have little issue beating most of the bosses. In Bitter its a lot easier.

In spicy, the early game is ABSOLUTELY brutal.

While most of the bosses are pretty balanced, some of them are really difficult. (Fu's boss fight can be ESPECIALLY painful EVEN WITH MAXED OUT STATS). But its not at the level where its not fun or broken. I would say the fights are the most balanced in the series.

Though some of the requirement battles before the big boss can be spiritually taxing with some of the minion combinations.

So just watch out and be sure to stock up on sushi.

5. Appeal

This game is fanservice to Suda51 fans. Its clear that first and foremost. If you arent into No more heroes, then you likely wont be as invested in it as someone who is. Now you dont need to play the other games, but I would recommend it, just so its not so confusing.

As a beat-em-up slash game, its one of the better ones. If you love that style of game you will be enjoying this one.

But really this game is an acquired taste.

Overall:

As a fan of Suda51, I give the game a solid 8/10.

If the overworld wasnt as barren and almost pointless, I would probably bump it to a 9.

The ranking is basically 4 points for the style, references, and overall experience the game gives, while the other 4 are for the nice fighting mechanics and gameplay.

If you arent a suda fan, then I would say its more a 6.5 out of 10.

[elpercotreviews]

My Anime 9/10′s

With probably no spoilers cuz I don’t wanna talk too long about them zzz.

1. Fullmetal Alchemist

YALL ALREADY KNOW THIS A 9/10. The only real reason this show is not a 10/10 is because it’s just a story that I’d never rewatch. There’s like 70 episodes, which is way too long for my short attention span, especially since I’ve seen it already. But yeah, by all accounts, this story is a masterpiece and is one of the only “shounen” anime’s that I genuinely enjoyed. No random sexualization. No dumb filler. All the characters have an actual purpose and role in the plot and everyone has their own morals and ideals that interact to make the story interesting. I couldn’t bring myself to really hate anyone, even the villains, because everyone was pretty well written. Also super satisfying ending that ties up everything properly without leaving me confused or upset. If you only watch a few anime in your life, Fullmetal Alchemist is pretty much a MUST WATCH to see a beautiful example of a modern classic anime as an artform. Also I should say that I really don’t like Hunter x Hunter (AN EXTREMELY CONTROVERSIAL OPINION BTW) but I love Fullmetal Alchemist so take from that what you will.

2. Parasyte: The Maxim

Same kinda shit where you already know this a 9/10 for me. It’s just a very satisfying anime that doesn’t have random sexualization or random filler or anything like that. Ending is also very good and ties up the story in a way that doesn’t leave more questions but also allows the characters to have a “life” outside of the scope of the story. I think Parasyte, because of its more horror and psychological-esque vibes, counts as a seinen and not a shounen, so for more mature audiences. I also really liked how the story was successfully adapted to modern times since the manga is from the 80′s. I have actually rewatched this anime, but what stops me from giving it a 10/10 is a few things that I found kinda “stereotypical” that I don’t wanna discuss further too much cuz it’s spoilers. I still obviously really like this anime and highly recommend it.

3. Zankyou no Terror

TBH, this anime is pretty hard for me to properly describe in a lot of words as to why I like it. The art was really pretty as well as the music, which was just straight up amazing. The cinematography of this anime is excellent as well, and a lot of scenes have that sense of being acted out by real people, as opposed to feeling completely drawn/animated. I was a teenager when this anime came out and I think a lot of the themes presented in the show really related to me. The show does kinda have some leftover questions when it ends that prevents me from rating it a 10/10, but I have such a soft spot for this anime. It’s from the same creator as Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop, and although those two animes are also very good, they did not impact me as much as this anime did. Recommended for people looking for idk something that gives off Inception vibes?? In the sense that it’s much more about its themes and its message more so than the believability of the events that occur.

4. Magic Kaito 1412

THIS IS JUST A PERSONAL PREFERENCE BTW LOLOL I DON’T KNOW ANYBODY WHO’D PUT THIS AS A 9/10 ANIME. I JUST REALLY LIKED IT OKAY. It’s made by the same person who does Detective Conan but I like this a lot more because it’s a much shorter series and slightly more mature (more for teens than just straight up kids). I really liked the main guy, I think he’s funny and charismatic. He’s a pervert at times but Imma forgive that cuz of the 90′s. Idk it’s just a really fun anime that I don’t have to take seriously and can just watch and enjoy.

5. Mob Psycho 100 (season 1 AND 2)

Imma put season two as slightly better than season one. So season one would be like a 9 and season two is like a 9.25 for me. Super super funny anime and I like it SO much more than One Punch Man. I liked that there was a good balance of serious moments, but you can definitely still count this anime as a comedy. I’m typically not the type to watch “comedy” but this anime genuinely had me laughing out loud, while also crying and freaking out right alongside the main character. The main guy is super great because he’s just this shy and sweet middle schooler, and it’s really interesting watching him balance trynna have a normal life while also using his powers for good and such. Apparently the anime was decently faithful to the manga and there’s apparently enough material for a third season so I’d be pretty stoked for a season 3, but season 2 ended on a pretty good spot and was satisfying. TBH, if I had the time, I’d probably rewatch both seasons and bump it up to a 10/10.

6. Vinland Saga

This anime is just the first season of what I hopes to be a whole series that will be stay beautifully and faithfully adapted from the manga. As someone who read very far into the manga (but quit like years ago simply because I hate slow updates lol), I actually didn’t enjoy watching the anime at first. I was impatient and kept waiting for when like the “major” events would happen. So I watched like three episodes and quit. But when I had some free time, I decided to get stuck in and commit to watching the whole series and I was so pleasantly surprised with just how good it was. I was impatient but I needed to realize that there is no “filler” or like “wasted time” in the entire anime. I hadn’t read the manga in years, so so many things were only vaguely familiar but I think this helped me stay surprised and excited throughout the anime. I’m looking forward to the rest of the manga being adapted because it’s just a good Viking saga lolol. Major themes of stuff like growing up, violence vs. peace, what it means to be a good person, etc. Lots of blood and LOTS of violence like a LOT they are VIKINGS CMON but tbh not really any gore which I liked cuz gore makes me ughhhh. A very good watch and only a taste of an excellent story.

7. Demon Slayer

It’s just Demon Slayer duhhh. Of course this a 9/10 for me. I don’t wanna write much just cuz the show is so popular. Just read a REAL review of this anime somewhere else lmaoooo. Also yes I did watch the movie in theaters and yes I liked it a lot as well mmkay. I’m mad hype for season two. My S/O doesn’t like Demon Slayer as much as me, but also has Hunter x Hunter as their all time favorite anime. Do with that information what you will lolol.

8. Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

Same shit as Demon Slayer. Just go read someone else’s review about why it’s so good lol. Also, unlike Mob Psycho 100, I can’t include all of the seasons in this, because I have very various opinions about how good/bad the other seasons were. But this season 3 part 2, was just plain and simply amazing. While I might not like each season equally, as a whole Attack on Titan is also a modern masterpiece of storytelling. Read the manga if you can.

9. Great Pretender

I love this anime so much. Such a good and fun wild ride. The whole show is ridiculous but in a fun way. I’m a HUGE fan of heist films, so of course I absolutely enjoyed a heist anime. I’ve watched this show in sub AND dub, due to the fact that everyone is “technically” speaking English the entire time. If you’re a purist, just watch in sub OR dub cuz I did get confused here and there, especially when I would go back to compare language discrepancies.  Because basically I did this super high maintenance thing where I switched back to Japanese whenever the main character had flashbacks, since he’s ya know, Japanese. The dub also has this confusing thing where the first five minutes or so are still in Japanese, but switches to English when a little cue card on the screen goes “For the Viewers sake, everything from now on will be translated to Japanese.” It’s cuz in the sub, the inverse obviously happens where the characters are initially speaking broken English to each other, but for convenience sake, everything from that point on will be in Japanese. It’s confusing at first but I liked it cuz it just proved the whole international vibe of the show. It’s funny either sub or dub when they joke about how bad the main guy speaks English, cuz in the dub he’s speaking perfect English, while the sub has him not speaking English at all. But anyway, great anime that WOULD have gotten a 10/10 if not for the last episode. Like without spoiling ... WTF WAS THAT LMAOOOO. The anime as a whole is super wacky and zany but at least I could try to think it’s real life, but that last episode was just so unbelievable and bizarre and pulled my suspension of disbelief into the STRATOSPHERE that I just had to convince myself that this show takes place in some improbable alternate reality where something like what happened in the last episode is at least 5 percent possible CUZ HOW DID ANY OF THAT WORK LMAOOO??? Once again, great show, one of my absolute favorites, BUT THAT ENDING THOUGH WTF.

10. BNA

Good super underrated anime that I don’t hear people talk about at all. If Beastars is anime Zootopia, then BNA is Disney Beastars lmaooo does that make sense? It’s a lot more fun and zany than Beastars and I liked it way more. Made by the same people who made Kill la Kill. I really like that more classic, animated “cheap” art style that the anime has, and I also really liked the plot of the story. Not a 10/10 cuz the show does leave a few unanswered questions at the end of it, but this show was such a fun and interesting ride. When I finished the last episode, I was left with a big smile on my face because I just genuinely enjoyed this anime. Recommended if you wanna watch something a little unique and more on the silly and wack side. Talks about some serious stuff, but luckily the show never takes itself TOO seriously, and remains overall lighthearted for a fun action/sci-fi show.