#in the original english dub this time… seems fun

[tiredeyes1975]

i havent rewatched evangelion 3.0+1.0 since it was released, but from what i recall, it has a few similarities with head…. or maybe it doesnt and ill do anything to connect my interests

in 3.0+1.0, shinji and gendo fight each other in nearly identical eva unit 01s. during their battle, they end up in different locations from the series/rebuilds, except it’s very obvious that these are sets (shinji’s unit 01 crashes through a plywood set wall of “misato’s room”, shinji’s unit 01 toppling buildings and landing on the backdrop)

when i watched head, all the fourth wall breaks made me think of evangelion… which sounds like a cringe statement i know.. but like when micky tore the backdrop paper or when the crew and camera could be seen, 3.0+1.0 was the first thing i thought of

i dont remember if there was anything else plot-wise that was similar (actually lets be real. what plot) but in a meta way, they’re driven by the creators’ desire to put their creation to rest. in 3.0+1.0, all the evangelions are finally gone from the universe of the film, but nge as a whole is completely over irl, and there will be no more movies or series or anything. at least i hope. and in head, the monkees literally all jump off the bridge; the film also acts as a subversion to the image of the monkees that was created for and by the series

OH i almost forgot. time loops duh. in 3.0+1.0 the loop ends but in head i guess it keeps going

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Gaara is truly the Character of All Time

-Introduced as main antagonist in a tournament arc, the terrifying bloodthirsty ninja from a strange desert village who kills without remorse and has survived every mission without getting a scratch on him

-He's 12

-Character design 10/10 he has bright fucking brick red hair, literal raccoon eyes, a face tattoo that says "Love" and carries that weird ass gourd; between the fun elements and the interesting tie-ins to Tanuki Lore, I have never seen a more charming design in my life tbqh

-Immediately more emo and chuuni than Noted Emo Heartthrob Sasuke Uchiha by virtue of reciting weird poetry after killing a guy in cold blood

-We get his tragic backstory and by fucking GOD is it sad. I cry just thinking about it. Literally everything about it is just horrible and devastating.

-Talk No Jutsu at end of the tournament arc, Gaara realizes that he should, in fact, go to therapy and immediately decides to turn his life around

-The first thing he decides to do is apologize to his siblings <3

-Shows up a handful of arcs later with a cool new outfit and becomes friends with the kid he literally tried to murder and nearly permanently crippled in one of the best fights of the entire series

-Liam O Brian's English dub of Gaara is Stellar ya know what. The raspiness of the original appearance morphing into the Deepest Voice That Any Kid Has Ever Had Ever was a genuinely hilarious choice

-Has the only good filler arcs in the old show; he's such a good character that the entire show molds itself and rises to meet him

-Post timeskip he is Desert Ninja President at the ripe old age of 15 and is extremely good at it because he's the weirdest little nerd with no social skills (on account of his tragic backstory) and diligently applies himself to doing paperwork and going to meetings

-Has a fanclub in the village mostly of girls his own age that he never seems to talk to?? Or realize have crushes on him?? Oblivious king we love him.

-Dies in one of the most genuinely moving scenes. Comes back like 20 episodes of fighting later because where would we be without him honestly?

-Becomes Super General Ninja President of the Grand Army of whatever where he accomplishes such feats as forgiving his asshole father and emotionally healing from his childhood trauma, stopping a meteor, and nearly dying a second time.

-Collects cacti as a hobby

-Has the only good sequel series arc where it's revealed that in addition to continuing to serve as Desert Ninja President, he's decided to adopt a couple of orphan ninja kids so that he can break the cycle of parental neglect and stupidity that created his tragic backstory in the first place.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

What was up with Chris Thorndyke, anyway?

I think it’s safe to say that Chris Thorndyke is one of the most hated characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, which is... a bit odd, when you think about it. In a world of Ken Penders’s Daddy Issues Personified and Octopus Who Kills Children For Fun (the latter of which basically being a fandom sexyman), why is a twelve-year-old boy so polarizing?

It would be easy to chalk this up to the bad 4kidz dub, but I don’t quite think that’s it. A lot of the complaints I’ve heard can go to “he got the main character slot in Sonic’s show” or “I just don’t like the human characters,” which are valid, but pale in comparison to basically all I’ve seen being: “He’s just annoying,” “I can’t fucking stand him,” etc. That’s basically all I hear, and when asking why, it usually boils down to two things: 1) his extreme attachment to Sonic and 2) his status as a rich white american only child basically puts any and all of his problems at “first world problems” at best. Those also seem like valid reasons, right?

Thing is, while on the surface it seems like this kid has no issues, as a kid with a, how you say, rough childhood, something stuck with me when I watched the show for the first time. I remember sitting through episode after episode, wondering, When does Chris stop being sympathetic and start being annoying? Since, you know, that’s his reputation.

It didn’t happen.

And it slowly became apparent to me that a lot of the things that made Chris “annoying” and “obsessive”... were just obvious symptoms of a traumatized kid.

Join me for my thesis presentation: Chris’s “annoying” traits are not a writing flaw, but an intentional character flaw brought about by severe neglect, which is resolved through his character arc, and why the fandom reaction to him is so furious.

Note: Throughout this meta, we will only be looking over the Japanese version of Sonic X, as it’s the original script and 4kidz did not translate it accurately. So if you see some lines you don’t remember being said, those are from the English subtitles/direct translation.

Once again, it is possible (also likely, we’ll discuss that a bit) that the kidification and cuts to Sonic X did a number on Chris’s likability, but for most of the meta we’ll be discussing his Japanese characterization with only a few references to cut scenes or lines in the dub.

Part I: First Impressions

On the surface, Chris seems like not just a normal kid, but a very privileged one. He goes to regular school with regular friends, but also goes home to a mansion and millions of dollars. His parents dote on him, his grandfather has fun with him, the two servants treat him like their own kid. He should have no problems, right?

Except, honestly, the issues become apparent in Episode One.

You may be saying here, “What do you mean, episode one? The second episode is when Chris gets all his characterization and exposition.”

Except we get all this visually in the final scene of the episode. (I PROMISE the whole essay won’t be this analytic over small scenes but this is important.)

Before Chris rescues Sonic, kickstarting his part in the plot, we see him hear Sonic fall, peer out the window, and then run out to get him.

Firstly, the shots of his room. His room is huge– and we’ll come back to that detail later, so keep it in mind– but it’s also dark. Which tracks ofc, it’s nighttime and the kid’s asleep, but there’s also a lit desk light, which we see when Chris goes to the window. This together gives the audience the visual impression that Chris is in the dark, with the light only coming when he opens that window and sees Sonic.

Let’s get into the bigness of the house here, as Chris runs out of the room. In every shot we see him running, it’s emphasized how small he is. No, not only how small he is, but how empty the rest of the house is.

First the shot in the hall. There’s minimal lighting from a few wall lamps, the rest of the hallway is incredibly dark. Chris is shorter than the height of the lamps on the wall, his positioning keeps him small in the frame despite him running closer. He’s also centered in the hall, and when you look to the walls you can see several doors, implying several rooms, but only Chris is in the hall.

Then the stairwell– once again incredibly dark, but we see more of the grandiose nature of the house. A painting taller than Chris, a Grandfather Clock maybe twice his height. He also runs down the stairs with the railing up to his shoulder. It’s all finely detailed, which of course reflects the Thorndyke luxury they live in. But it’s still dark, and Chris is still so small.

A shot of him running across the floor. It’s shot from above, and we see that the tiles on the floor are bigger than his whole body. This shot is even darker than the rest, only a few lights reflecting on the ground. The above-shot also shows a ceiling fan in front of us, which makes it look bigger than it is, also dwarfing Chris in the shot.

There’s a shot after that of Chris running to the pool– it is actually near-impossible to see him here, but if you look he runs off the back porch. Once again the world is huge, everything around him is huge, and everything is dark, except the pools. The pools where Sonic is, not that he knows that yet.

The pool still remains brightly lit as Chris dives in and saves Sonic. The first shot we see is him diving in, and then grabbing onto Sonic’s wrist. This is repeated multiple times later in the show as they reach for each other’s hands. It’s not only the first time we see this kid make contact with someone in the show, I’m pretty sure it’s the first time we see Sonic. In the first bit of the episode he’s only hitting robots, in the second bit he’s fleeing from everyone who comes near him. This first contact thus subconsciously establishes itself in the audience’s minds as important for both of them.

We finally see Chris clearly after he pulls Sonic out, where the two of them are lit by the pool’s light. Despite the long shadows coming off of them, they are both fully visible and sitting amongst the lit tiles, meaning Chris is now in the light.

This opening scene also establishes something important about Chris as well, and that’s that he’s... not a rich asshole. This kid woke up in the middle of the night, and for all intents and purposes saw nothing in the pool– he saw the ripples stilling, but that could’ve been anything. Could’ve been a frog. Could’ve been a bird taking off into the air. Could’ve been a bird shitting. But Chris still investigates anyway and immediately dives in, presumably once he sees something still in there. As he dives in, he also reaches for Sonic instantly, meaning it wasn’t just pure curiosity that drove him forward, but a deep desire to help whatever was in there. Likely he saw it moving and leapt in to save it without a second thought.

It’s established in the next episode that Chris knew full well he was not allowed to do this and it probably wouldn’t be safe; he’s not allowed to go outside at night or swim in the adult pool. Not to mention he’s also probably still half-asleep and wearing pajamas. Without hesitation he jumps in anyway because there’s something that needs his help. When he pulls Sonic out, he can clearly see this is a weird fucked-up thing he doesn’t recognize, but without even reacting to that fact he just asks if he’s okay. He only starts showing his surprise when Sonic begins talking. Even then there’s no screaming, he just introduces himself politely and then. Takes Sonic inside.

The next episode opens already in the next morning, and with Sonic still there we can assume Chris just hid him for the rest of the night without telling the other adults in the house. After Sonic mentioned people chasing him, Chris probably figured it wasn’t safe to tell anyone and took it upon his 12yo self to make sure this little guy didn’t get spotted.

Which, if it weren’t for Sonic’s impulsiveness, would’ve been incredibly easy.

The second episode opens with another panning shot of the huge mansion, with a voice overlay from Lindsey. The first thing we hear from Chris’s mother is that she’s sorry, but she won’t come home til “next week.” But she’ll send him a ton of gifts, so it’s okay!

Our next interesting shot is as she continues talking, and we see a ton of family photos tacked onto the wall. This immediately gives the impression of, of course, a family that really loves each other. It then immediately pans to Chris, alone on the balcony, talking minimally into a phone.

Chris then has another character beat of apologizing for diving in the pool. It seems like if he hadn’t mentioned it, nobody would’ve known, but he does anyway because he’s just like. A good little kid. Either that or it’s anything to keep his mom on the line longer.

Another thing to note is that Tanaka briefly enters during this scene, but doesn’t even look at Chris as he drops his food off and leaves.

When she hangs up, we hear a little kissing noise, and then Chris kisses the phone receiver and rubs the back of his head. His expression doesn’t seem embarrassed, though, especially as he didn’t notice Sonic staring at him until the next shot. He looks perhaps relieved, a soft kind of happy, perhaps at the compliment she gave him immediately before her abrupt goodbye.

Sonic then asks why Chris referred to him as a cat; he doesn’t seem upset, just a little curious. Chris’s reaction is interesting here– the first thing he does is ask if Sonic is mad at him, and then immediately launch into an explanation.

After Sonic seems calm, Chris then curiously asks Sonic where he learned to talk. They’re interrupted by the phone ringing, and Chris seems incredibly confused that it rung. He answers almost robotically, and immediately grows excited upon hearing it’s his dad, though his voice still indicates surprise. You can really hear it in the line delivery of his og actress, Sanae Kobayashi.

Chris continues smiling blankly as his Dad talks about how his mom told him that a cat got into the estate and maybe he should update security. Chris swiftly assures him that it’s okay, and then says, “But more importantly, you’re very busy, aren’t you?”

Basically he already knows that this conversation will be less than a minute long, but he’s still smiling until his dad’s already hung up.

The rest of the scene plays out as Chris googles what hedgehogs eat, tries to feed Sonic cat food, and then rightfully freaks out when Sonic leaves to get a chili dog, considering he’s a fugitive. And while his face and mannerisms at the end of the scene does effectively display this worry, they really do hold on that shot for a while as he fades back into a sadder expression.

These scenes both serve as introductory scenes to Chris, and both visually and through dialogue, we have established:

Chris is constantly alone.

His world is dark until he finds Sonic.

He has a kind personality and doesn’t seem to be at all jaded or spoiled by his privileged upbringing.

His parents love him but are so absent that he doesn’t even bat an eye at the fact he won’t see his mom for a week. He is surprised when his Dad calls but immediately puts his work before his own well being.

He’s relatively calm, but only freaks out when he thinks Sonic might be mad at him, and when Sonic leaves.

I’d love to do a fucking scene-for-scene analysis of the entire show, but we’d be here for like twenty years so instead let’s uh. jump ahead a bit.

We slowly unravel Chris’s backstory and mental state throughout the first two seasons, in a slow way that I think is very effective and won’t be effective enough through this essay, but I’m gonna try my best.

Anyway, let’s jump ahead and cover his whole... thing.

Part II: The Backstory Scene that 4kidz Cut

The youngest we ever see Chris is in the season two penultimate episode. There’s a flashback to him as what seems to be a toddler, or just out of toddlerhood. This scene, right here, was cut in the English dub for... no real reason I can think of. In fact, it just makes Chris look less sympathetic.

The first shot we get is of Chris and his parents. Much like the Chris’s first scene, he is tiny, even tinier. But unlike that scene, everything is bright. It’s blinding, actually, as the doors are open and Chris’s parents stand in front of it. This is obviously from baby Chris’s perspective, representing his emotional state. With those doors open and his parents in front of him, he is covered in light. Covered.

His parents are quite formal in their parting words. “We’re leaving now,” his dad says. His mom then says, “I’m sorry, Chris. Make sure you behave until we return.”

Once again, I mentioned that this scene is from baby Chris’s perspective, so maybe they weren’t as formal when this actually happened. But that’s how it came across to Chris.

Sidenote, but honestly? Considering his age, this could very well be one of his earliest memories.

Little Chris says, “If I behave, will you come home right away?” While of course operating on little kid logic, this also reflects on how much he loves his family again, as all he wants is for his parents to be home with him.

His parents look at each other, confused on how to answer. They then give the worst answer– “Of course.” We see how happy this makes him, but it’s only a temporary happiness. They’ve just made a promise they cannot keep and they know it, and at baby Chris’s age, he will NOT understand that.

When they turn to leave, Chris’s face falls. They once again have a formal goodbye, and as they leave, the doors shut, and the light is gone, and he stands there for again a long time. I don’t think I need to explain what this symbolizes.

The next shot, we see Chris is reading a picture book by himself on the couch. Once again a small little guy in a big world; the book also seems to be The Little Matchgirl, which... oof. The story is about how a lonely orphan dreams about having a family as she slowly freezes to death, in case you weren’t aware. The two shots we see from the book are first of her freezing, and then of her looking in a window and imagining a family. As Chris reads this, he repeats that if he behaves, his parents will come home.

He then hears the door about to open and immediately leaps up and smiles widely.

It’s not his parents, it’s Ella, but she has presents from his parents!

Despite being a little kid who would normally be ecstatic at the prospect of new toys, Chris just looks numb as she speaks.

He takes no joy in the toy either, because his parents aren’t there with it.

So. I have worked at a daycare and as a babysitter for about... seven years now. Kids? They have separation anxiety. They will sob and scream and shout and kick and run if their mom is out of their sight. I recently babysat a kid who learned how to unlock the door so he could try and run after his parents which was terrifying for me tbh.

Chris’s reaction of just immediately falling into a numb depression isn’t something I saw in the kids I watched. At this age, they cry at the very least. Chris doesn’t even do that, he’s just staring. We get one voiceover at the end of this scene, as Chris just says, “It never came true.” Obviously referring to the promise– he behaved, and his parents still stayed away.

What impression does this give a kid that age? One of two things, if not both at once:

I am not behaving enough and I need to behave perfectly.

Mom and Dad don’t care enough to come home.

From knowing Lindsey and Nelson, we know this is not true. They’re busy, and they hope to show their love through gifts. But Chris’s love language is very much not gifts, it’s quality time. And he doesn’t. Get that.

From anyone.

Part III: Chris’s Abandonment Issues

As I’ve made it clear, Chris’s parents are never around. He doesn’t bat an eye at his mother saying she’ll be gone another week, and is surprised that his Dad even bothered to call. We saw all those family photos, but looking at them again, how many of them were taken at the same time, one of the few times his parents were home? How many is Chris standing stiffly, properly, instead of relaxing like a kid?

Another line from episode six really drives his home, one I think a lot of people miss.

Upon being told his parents are coming home, Chris remarks that it has been months since he’s seen them. Months.

Later in the episode, Chuck remarks on how it’s a miracle to see them both at the house at the same time. They laugh this off, and spend the rest of the episode anxiously waiting for Chris to get home because, yeah, they do care. When Chris gets home he immediately calls for them and gets tackle-hugged. As they do, he stiffens upon the physical contact, and looks awkward the whole time, like he’s not used to physical affection.

He’s then later surprised to hear his parents were worried he was late.

The next episode, Chris’s dad has already left by the next morning. When he hears his mom has unexpectedly left, he is upset, but not surprised; he immediately resigns himself to this and sighs before leaning back on the couch.

When he brings this up to his uncle, Sam immediately remarks that his sister is never home.

This is where Cream breaks, because she has seen Lindsey herself break down over not being there for Chris. Chris has not seen that. All he knows is that his mother was there and then was gone, despite their elaborate dinner plan, despite knowing he was bringing a guest to meet her.

Once again, he’s not surprised. Neither is Sam.

Similar with his Dad; in the previous episode, when they were worried, Nelson implies that he has a guard service making sure Chris doesn’t get abducted. They’re two seconds away from calling the US Military to find him. But they stop short of going after him, because they don’t want him to think they’re being overbearing.

We’ve firmly established this by now, okay? His parents are never home and haven’t been since he was, what? Three? Four, tops.

Nobody else was really there, either.

Ella and Tanaka seem to have done most of Chris’s raising. And while Ella and Tanaka are amazing, and definitely care a lot about Chris, it doesn’t change the fact that they are paid employees and Chris knows this. They’re paid to hang out with him. If they weren’t getting paid, Chris has no idea if they would even give a shit about him. Even with that, there’s not a ton of evidence they like. hung out with him outside of making sure he was alright. As mentioned, in the second episode Tanaka doesn’t even look at him as he delivers food. Not for lack of care, but probably because they’re busy as only two servants in a huge estate. This isn’t their kid, too, they’re under no obligation to raise him. Ella is the cook and Tanaka is the butler-bodyguard, they’re not childcare experts.

What about his grandpa? Sorry to break this to you but Chuck wasn’t around, either.

In episode 51, which we’re gonna keep coming back to as it’s the culmination of Chris’s arc, Chuck says this while reprimanding Nelson and Lindsey. He says, “I never blamed you for neglecting your household because you were too busy with work. That’s because I also did whatever I wanted and continued my research.”

Back to the second episode, when we first see Chuck, you notice on the second watch that Chris 1) doesn’t trust his grandpa enough to tell him that he’s hiding a fugitive in their house, 2) didn’t seem to expect him (or ANYONE) to walk in on them in the LIVING ROOM, 3) seems to not know a ton about his personality. He’s surprised when his grandpa closes the door on Sonic, and surprised that he’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie. It seems that instead of spending time with his grandson, Chuck spent most of his time in his shed tinkering with machines.

His uncle? Seems to visit on occasion, but has a government job. You know he’s never around, either.

So Chris is growing up in a huge house, which is serving to give him a constant reminder that nobody’s home. There are two servants going around working and sometimes saying hi to him, there’s a grandpa in the shed somewhere who might come in once or twice to watch TV, and there’s photos on the wall of parents who aren’t home. He’s like that for at least eight years.

OH, and let’s talk about the friends argument which I’ve confusingly seen. He’s got two friends at school. His parents seem to recognize Danny’s name, so Danny might have been a longtime friend, or at least friend he talked about before. But Danny and Frances, being barely in any episodes, we can assume they also have their own lives and things going on and thus don’t, like, hang out with Chris after school a lot. He uses Danny as an excuse for being late in ep6, but the fact that nobody seemed to expect him to be late implies this is not a usual thing. And of course it is ABSO-FUCKING-LUTELY not on the shoulders of these other 12yos to emotionally support another kid, but it’s not like they’re immediately moving into his house and giving him attention 24/7. They’re friends. Which is all they need to be. But for a neglected child like Chris, they’re just another part of his life that comes and goes. Him having two buddies at school that he shares a table with (thus probably just. friends by proximity) doesn’t negate the neglect.

Looking at the photos on the wall again, there’s one photo of Chris with some kind of sports team, probably baseball. Considering how bad Chris played in the baseball episode, he probably didn’t stay there long, and considering we never see anyone even resembling the kids in that pic, we can assume they didn’t stay long-lasting friends. The other photos, they’re dressed in suits, like they’re taking professional photos. Once again stilted, stiff.

But I hear y’all on twitter now. “Oh, boo-hoo, his parents weren’t around. He was still living fancy, it’s fine.”

So let’s talk about the effects of emotional neglect on the childhood psyche.

Part IV: Connie Read Actual Research Papers and Scholarly Articles For This Instead of Doing Actual Work

So, here’s something that’s been seen recurrently in neglected children: kids are psychologically dependent on parents or caregivers throughout their whole childhood and adolescence.

From New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research by the Committee on Child Maltreatment Research, “Children who have experienced abuse and neglect are therefor at increased risk for a number of problematic developmental, health, and mental health outcomes, including learning problems, problems relating to peers, externalizing symptoms [aggression or conduct disorder], and posttraumatic stress disorder. As adults, these children continue to show increased risk for psychiatric disorders, substance use, serious medical illnesses, and lower economic productivity.”

Let’s talk mainly about the mental health outcomes. Without a present caregiver, neglected children often fall behind on the abilities to regulate behavior or emotions. Several parts of the brain will end up altered due to early childhood neglect, including the stress response system, the emotion processing and regulation system, the learning and memory system, etc.

The stress response system is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortial axis, aka the HPA. The HPA is incredibly sensitive to early childhood experiences and an uncertain childhood can effect a lot of things, such as sleep patterns and hyperactivity. Abused children will often have higher spikes of cortisol, a high enough number of which can cause damage to the brain and premature aging.

The behavioral regulation is also most commonly affected in these victims; neglected children will often show “behavioral and emotional difficulties that are consistent with effects on the amygdala, such as internalizing problems, heightened anxiety, and emotional reactivity, and deficits in emotional processing.”

Other mental health issues are also seen; children with trauma experiences will show similar mental patterns as those with ADHD, and can have serious issues with inhibitory control– aka, controlling your impulses.

Then there’s the corpus callosum. (Insert SnapCube dub joke here.) The corpus callosum manages communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. Several studies have found that abused children have a much smaller corpus callosum than non-abused children, even those who are mentally ill; these effects are also more pronounced in boys than girls, which is relevant to our analysis of a 12yo anime boy from 2003. This means that their brain development will often be behind that of their peers, and it could take a while for them to mature.

That was long and boring Connie. Give us the tldr.

Okay don’t worry, the article got to that right about now. Children dealing with neglect will show several issues related to the interrupted development of these parts of their brain, including:

Extreme Deficits in Executive Functioning

Difficulty in regulating attention: As a note on this, 18.6% of abused and neglected teens are diagnosed with ADHD. Compared to 5% of other children. That’s like three times the amount!

And, most interestingly, the behavioral outcomes:

Difficulty forming trusting attachments to caregivers

Both Disorganized and Insecure Attachment Issues, usually getting severe Attachment Disorders

Reactive Attachment Disorder: Inhibited or emotionally withdrawn behavior, rarely seeking or responding to comfort

Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder: Basically the opposite; it’s marked by a pattern of overly familiar behavior with strangers.

Emotion Regulation: infants learn how to deal with distress via their parents– how their caregivers handle stress, how they take care of problems and slowly introduce the ability to deal with them. Without that, abused and neglected children will often fail to develop effective strategies for regulating emotions. This will probably cause a lot of the following.

This also includes recognizing emotions in others. While abused children will identify anger quickly, neglected children tend to be worse than non-neglected children at identifying any facial expressions.

Their emotional issues can also cause them to feel isolated from their peers, as their peers do not understand them and do not act like them.

Anxiety

Depression– nearly a 3x chance compared to non-neglected kids

Dissociation

Conduct Disorder

PTSD

Physical issues include stunted growth and motor development, and lower health.

Note that these do not appear in all victims of neglect, these are just common symptoms.

Part V: Every “Annoying” Thing Chris Does is a Fucking Symptom

Difficulty forming attachments to Caregivers

In episode 43, Chris deals with a situation that’s obviously alien to him: his parents coming home to care about him.

His parents hear that he’s sick and drop everything to come home. This is clearly something that’s unusual, judging from both Chris’s and his grandpa’s reactions to it. Chris is confused and embarrassed, kinda numb and still, until his grandfather and father start arguing. Even then, he only reacts when they bring up Sonic.

He then yells that he hates his family and orders them to leave him alone. This doesn’t last long as they’re immediately attacked by more badniks, but it’s a beat they definitely put in there intentionally.

Also, he doesn’t seem to trust Chuck as an authority either. He really just sees him as an impulsive adrenaline junkie at best; in the cruise ship episode, Chuck is drunk the whole time and Chris doesn’t seem to care. It also says something that while Ella and Tanaka are present, he doesn’t trust them to tell them they might be finding an alien in the attic until they find out for themselves.

Difficulty Understanding Others’ Emotions

This one’s gonna be easy, as I talked about it earlier in the essay. When Sonic asks, “Was the cat supposed to be me?” Chris immediately assumes he’s upset and tries to placate him with an explanation. This happens throughout the show as well; let’s take Mr. Stewart for example, that man is obviously spying on him and inserting himself into his life and Chris thinks it’s maybe a little weird, not that much though. He also spends most of his time hanging out with Shadow standing there in complete obliviousness as to what Shadow is thinking or feeling. He doesn’t even seem to really register Shadow as a threat, instead throwing himself at him in hopes that he can convince him to help Sonic. In doing so, he also doesn’t think that Tanaka would at all be worried about him, and is surprised at their reunion that Tanaka was upset.

Aggression / Delinquincy

This was very underplayed, but in the Sonic Battle arc, we literally see him start to rebel. He tells Sonic that he’s sick of being the perfect rich kid, that he wants to be a problem on purpose sometimes. Sonic seems to completely understand that, as that’s a point Chris needs to reach. He has to realize he cannot be perfect and that’s okay.

[except that dialogue was all cut in the 4kidz version no im not bitter]

Only Chris explores his imperfection in a really bad way.

And now. Let’s get into the attachment.

And to do that, we need to get into...

Part VI: What Sonic Represents

This is a fascinating part of Chris’s psyche since I think it occurs both subconsciously and consciously, but when I drew attention to Sonic bringing the light back into Chris’s life? Yeah, that’s cause he did.

Everything changed only after Sonic arrived. Suddenly Chris’s parents are... visiting??? For once??? TOGETHER??? His grandfather wants to spend time with him! His friends at school are hanging out with him more and he’s even made new friends! And most importantly, he has the mobians around him constantly. He’s got constant attention from all of them, and while he quickly takes on the figure of the Responsible One, he’s still WITH PEOPLE. He’s gone from being alone all the time to surrounded by a rowdy-ass found family.

Most of all is Sonic. Chris seems to have attached himself mainly to Sonic, likely because in his mind Sonic represents the moment when everything changed. Of course, Sonic would probably have been the worst of the gang to get attached to, seeing as he runs off all the time. The first several episodes, even after they stop hiding from the public, Chris is noticeably upset whenever Sonic leaves. He only calms down after several, several episodes, after assurances from every character that this is just a thing Sonic does, he never sticks around anyway, don’t worry about it.

But still, he definitely attaches himself to this hedgehog for better or for worse.

And it gets worse.

Part VII: Even More Trauma

First we gotta talk about the end of Season One.

At the beginning of the arc, Chris is noticeably... incredibly depressed. He’s also disassociating hardcore. He’s constantly staring into nothing, his face upset, but as soon as someone snaps him back to reality, he forces a smile on his face, acting happy despite going through a ton of negative emotions at once. Almost like he’s trying to behave perfectly.

Chris realizes throughout the episode the attachment he’s gotten to the mobians, and especially Sonic, but even then he still does his best to help them. He steals a chaos emerald and runs off to Eggman in order to get them home, because it will make them happy! Nevermind if it doesn’t make Chris happy. He’s never worried about that anyway.

Of course this backfires and Eggman kidnaps him, and then Chris has to go through the serious trauma of. Well. Being strapped to a wall, forced to watch helplessly as Sonic fucking dies.

And he’s blaming himself for it too.

MAJOR shoutout to Kobayashi’s acting in this scene, holy crap. But he just screams, and then... BREAKS THROUGH METAL?? And GRABS the Chaos Emeralds despite them ELECTRIC SHOCKING HIM???

And then of course we get this incredibly subtle dialogue.

"I will not let you have it. I will not let anyone have it. They’re only mine. Only me. Sonic... Sonic, you’re staying with me forever.”

Immediately after this, Chris almost fucking dies, and is only saved by Super Sonic. When he sees Super Sonic, he reacts by... begging. He drops down, clinging to Sonic and screaming and crying that he is nothing without Sonic.

Chris literally yells that he can’t do anything without Sonic, because that’s how he felt before Sonic. He could not do anything to get anyone to care about him, it only happened when Sonic arrived. So that’s how he sees himself: useless, worthless.

Sonic of course stays, but then dips for six months. When he gets back, a fucking god attacks Chris’s neighborhood, destroying his city. He gets sent away for a month, but that’s interrupted by Sonic being declared a fugitive from the government. Then Chris ends up with Shadow. He gets kidnapped by the goth clone of his emotional support hedgehog. He bonds with the goth clone. He gets the shit beaten out of him begging the goth clone to help save the world. It works, and Shadow runs off to save the planet. And then DIES.

You can tell how traumatized Chris is by this in the next episode. He’s disassociating again, staring at nothing, and eventually asks his uncle if he thinks they can actually live in the same world.

Which is followed by...

Part VIII: The Season Two Finale

We get the rather worrying scene of Chris having to write an essay for his school about his ideal future. Literally all he can think of is that he wants to stay with Sonic forever. He has no other ideals for the future. Just being attached to Sonic.

Only to go downstairs and find out that Sonic HAS to leave. They ALL have to leave. Their dimensions are caving in on themselves and they need to separate.

So he enters the Denial stage of grief.

He seems... dazed. Like he’s in a trance, as he argues that Sonic can’t leave, that all he wants to do is be with Sonic, that he can’t be apart from Sonic because he’s only been able to do things since Sonic got here. This was the first time he’s had agency in his life and he places it all on Sonic.

He decides that it must be Eggman’s fault and literally tracks him down. When he finds out that it’s not Eggman’s fault, he is distraught, and what’s interesting to me is that Eggman seems to get it. He just tells his robots to let him go. Let him be alone. Let him accept it.

Chris then falls back into the depression/disassociation during the entire farewell. He doesn’t emote, he just stares ahead. Something they cut in the English version is that while Chris is politely saying goodbye, throughout the whole scene you can hear his inner monologue screaming. Crying not to let them leave.

So he doesn’t.

The penultimate episode of Season Two is the culmination of Chris’s arc and they do it so beautifully.

Sonic knows Chris is going through a breakdown, and he lets him figure it out for himself. He lets him run off with him, he lets him make the decisions about where they go. Chris starts to realize this but says nothing. They see his tearful parents on TV begging him to come home and he... groans and leaves.

The episode also subtley shows Chris doing things himself. Climbing up the mountain, picking their roads. Sonic is slowly trying to let Chris know he has his own agency. That he is his own person.

They get to the campsite that meant a lot to Chris in his childhood, one of the only times that his parents hung out with him, and he breaks. Asks Sonic why he doesn’t hate him. Why he hangs out with him. If he only hangs out with him out of obligation.

And he comes to the conclusion himself that no, he can’t keep Sonic here. He can’t keep Sonic away from his world just because he has attachment issues. It was what he knew was right in Season One but couldn’t get himself to understand no matter how hard he tried. But now he gets it. And now he can let Sonic go.

The episode is soooo good, sooo fucking good. And then in the season finale, when we see the aftermath of that, when Sonic takes him on one last run and... he sees Sonic crying? Realizes that Sonic does love him and still lets him go? It’s impactful. It’s emotional.

Then when his parents come get him and he just smiles? Because he realizes they did come for him? That if Sonic can love him without obligation, maybe other people do too?

Chris’s severe attachment issues and trauma from being neglected culminated in this episode, and he made a bad choice. And then he made the right one. And that’s so good.

Part IX: Some Season Three Notes

Chris’s inclusion in the third season was... weird. It felt like they didn’t want to animate his adult model so they shoved him into a child body and made an excuse for it. But honestly, after traveling there, you can kinda... tell how much Chris has grown.

He was trying to get back to Sonic, but not because he needed him, but because they were friends. He and his friends wanted to see their friends again. He only went alone because he had a sense Sonic was in danger. And even in the twelve-year-old body, he’s an adult now and he acts like it. His only real emotional issue is that he is upset he can’t fight as well in his kid body, but then he figures out he can be useful with his inventions and finds a place with Tails. He’s basically parenting the rest of them for the rest of the season, telling Cosmo that her impulsiveness reminds him of his younger self. He offers to give up a way to return home because he knows the Metarex problem is bigger than himself.

At the end, when Eggman offers him a way home, you can tell they expected him to freak out about it. They’re shocked when he just says thank you, cries, and leaves immediately. They clearly not only will miss him, but they expected him to freak out like he did at the age of twelve. But he’s not twelve anymore. He’s spent the last six years surrounded by people who love him, healing from his trauma, and becoming his own person. So now he isn’t unhealthily attached to Sonic, and he can say goodbye if he has to. That growth, so subtly in the background of the season, really impressed me.

Part X: Fandom Reaction

On June 24 2022, I posted this meme to both twitter and tumblr.

On tumblr I got no pushback and a few agreements. On twitter I got a tidal wave of discourse, which tells you a lot about the two sites but regardless, this is the first time I get to ratio my commenters cause as of today, it has 23.4k likes and only 161 replies and 156 quote tweets. So that’s barely over 300 people (TOPS, considering several replies were positive) arguing against 23,400. So I may not be the only one thinking this!

But even still, with this being my most viral post atm, I got so many people bitching about Chris still. Even after all these years, he’s despised for being so annoying. And what is it? Is it really the fact that he got main charactered over Sonic? Really, I thought that was a plus of the show, that Sonic was a static figure that influenced what was around him. It doesn’t work for every Sonic property, but it did for this one. Was it just a hatred for humans in the franchise? Probably not, everyone loved Helen and the recent movies.

I really do think a vast majority of it is his realistic reaction to the trauma of neglect. “Ugly” trauma symptoms, like attachment issues, impulsive destructive behavior, aggressiveness, and selfishness, they are not looked upon kindly. Just look at how TikTok picks and chooses cute parts of mental illnesses and calls the rest “toxic.” And yes, sometimes mental illness can cause you to be toxic! And sometimes you’re just mentally ill! Sometimes you just have bad days and bad decisions and horrible mental states, and sometimes, life gets better. Sometimes life gets better and you begin to heal, and that’s what Chris’s arc was about, about him slowly gaining his own agency and starting to heal from his abandonment trauma. And he does this through the help of others. But with him having several moments where he reverts, several moments where his healing is non-linear, viewers see it as an annoying personality trait, not a trauma symptom he is trying to overcome. And one that he does. I cannot emphasize enough that he does overcome this and that the narrative specifically focuses on it. I’ve seen so many people say it was a writing flaw, that they never criticized Chris for his attachment to Sonic... it’s the focus of two season finales, what are you talking about? I think at that point, it’s just you.

Just think about why you find him annoying. You do not have to like Chris as a character but please recognize that his arc is a realistic portrayal of a neglected child and that’s why he is the way he is.

Part XI: Conclusion

I was gonna write a full-ass conclusion here but tumblr’s already trying to kill me over wordcount so uh. tl;dr Chris isn’t annoying he’s a traumatized child and this is something the narrative notices, examines, and resolves. What this means is that it’s not a writing problem, it’s a character flaw brought on by trauma that his character arc makes him heal from.

Leave him alone.

[dunium]

With my recent discovery of this concept sketch of Ky from the 10th Memorial Book, as well as discussion about it, I actually wanted to talk about some of the misconceptions had with Ky's eye and its relation to his Gear Cells.

Long story short, we know very little about it.

The first time we hear about any issues regarding his eye is in Sol's Overture Material Collection short story. The eye patch is mentioned once, but never directly explained. It's also stated to be on the opposite eye in this image and that his Dragon Install is on. There's a claim that Ky's short story mentions a training accident that explains the eye patch, but it doesn't. The eye patch is only mentioned in Sol's, with no explanation. (Thank you @solradguy for these translations!) The other main theory is what I kindly dub the "Eye Swap Theory." Basically, people believe Ky has one of Sin's eyes. This one is a bit weird in all honestly. The main reason people believe it is because of a line added in the English GG World text for Dragon Install

The Japanese text says pretty much the same as the first paragraph of the English text. A very very rough translation through DeepL:

"A technique in which Sol removes the Gear Cell Suppressor and activates the Gear's original power. It can produce extremely powerful power, but Sol hates using it in the dark because it makes his emotional suppression ineffective. Also, each time Sol uses this technique, the growth of the ‘seed’ that lies dormant inside him accelerates, and changes appear in his appearance and abilities."

Regardless, it does not have that second line about Sin or Ky that the English text has. I have no good explanation to why it was added only in the English localization. It is not present in the Korean text either. I haven't check other languages. In my personal opinion, it’s hard to say that this factually the cause due to it only appearing in some translations. The only actual reasoning we are given for Ky's Gear Cells is a vague answer from Daisuke in a Famitsu Q&A where he is specifically asked about Ky's Dragon Install, and specifically asked if Sin was involved. Daisuke responded: " この場でお話することはできないのですが……。ディズィーとカイの関係が影響しているのは間違いありません。これ以上はご勘弁を（笑）。"

Basically, he says he can't talk about it here, but "The relationship between Dizzy and Ky is definitely an influence." In conclusion...we really don't know much about Ky's Gear Cells or his Dragon install haha... We know he wore an eye patch prior to Overture. We know he exhibits a red eye, regenerative abilities, and inhuman strength by Xrd. We know by strive he has a partial Dragon Install and claims to have the "Blood of Juno." No exact reasoning for any of these is fully given and information is confusing. Honestly, it seems like many plans were changed, or rewritten, but its hard to say. The 10th Memorial book does not mention it to my knowledge. It's fun to speculate though!

[theheirofthesharingan]

Okay, sorry if this was asked before but I'm curious and I'd really like to learn more. You've mentioned in a couple of posts now that Itachi wasn't retconned. Could you please elaborate further?

Hey! No, this wasn't asked before. I was thinking of making a separate post for this, but procrastination is evil. So, I am one of the 'Itachi was meant to be a good guy/was not evil/had more to him than he let on' people. Watching the anime, it was the feeling that there was more to him. His reveal was along the lines of devastation and shocking for me than surprise. Detailed post is below the cut.

First thing first.

This was Itachi's first look that Kishimoto had planned.

Itachi was originally conceived as the leader of Konoha's Special Assassination and Tactical Squad called the "Anbu", dubbed the Itachi Squad (イタチ隊, Itachi-tai), which would have been a 70-man group divided into four teams, specializing in assassination and other illicit operations. However, this idea was scrapped in favour of the current Itachi working for the Akatsuki.

The above paragraph is from Itachi's wikipedia that cites a couple of interviews as sources. People can't be too blind in their delusion to think the author who wrote the story had no idea what he was writing.

Next is the Naruto Databook that has some fishy things if we look closely. In the first glance it's not very obvious, but after learning the truth it seems very much obvious.

It says, "the ones who know the reason of its downfall are very small". Go back to Obito's words about only four people being aware of the reason of the clan's downfall.

Additionally, Itachi carried out 134 B-Rank missions. Zero A Rank. And one S-Rank. The S rank mission being the Uchiha massacre. It's very fishy that he was given one s rank mission without any A tank mission. Suspicious? We know later on why.

It's also interesting because the first databook was published in 2002 and Itachi first appeared in 2003. If his twist wasn't planned from the beginning this databook is very telling.

Since I mentioned how he looked, here's him in Sasuke's flashbacks for the first time.

He looks far from evil or sadistic. You want to know who enjoys killing for fun? Hidan. Itachi, on the other hand, on the day of the massacre itself, looks miserable and lost.

In chapter 7, he in a haze-like manner he talks about crying. In many English translations it's translated as 'he made me cry' and in many it's this. It's very, very vague, but his statement is complimented by Sakura's question, to which he still responds in the similar way 'My..' Maybe he was trying to say 'My brother', but he instead finishes his speech with 'my goal is to take revenge' etc., Since it's still very early so it might not be the strongest evidence, but a few chapters later in chapter 27, during their fight against Haku, when Sasuke awakens his Sharingan, he has two tomoe in his right eye.

Yes, he might have awakened it this way, but it also suggests that maybe already had his Sharingan and that's why this is 'asymmetrical' awakening? In the later chapters we find out he actually did have his Sharingan he awakened after the massacre.

This flashbacks in chapter 127 most firmly establishes Itachi's twist. The tilted head-protector. Sasuke remembers it vaguely, but he has no recollection of Itachi crying that night, because his mind is still hazy from the "truth" Itachi wanted him to believe. We know later on the significance of this scene.

There are three moments before Itachi was even introduced that give away what we see right after his truth reveal and connect to the chapter 403.

The 'Itachi was retconned' camp also uses 'Itachi was meant to be older (than 13) but Kishi made him younger later on' as an excuse to justify their retcon bullshit.

Kakashi, in chapter 142, states Itachi was 13 when he was made the Anbu captain.

Itachi graduated when he was just seven. Sasuke is the same age as Itachi was when he graduated from the Academy. Itachi is 17 at the time of his first appearance and Sasuke is 12. It is enough to tell lies were spread about Itachi. We, obviously, learn later on why.

Some more obvious hints were his interaction with Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi.

The criminal infamous for annihilating one of the strongest clans refuses to indulge in fight?

He also asks Kisame to keep things low key and not get too much attention. That's an excuse. He's not here to wage war. Yes, later on he does ask Kisame to go ahead. But that's because he's a spy. He cannot let Danzo know he dropped his guard. One single mistake from his side that could unearth the truth of the massacre and Danzo would lay hands on Sasuke. Plus, while he's strong, his opponents aren't just fragile saplings who couldn't stand any blow he or Kisame cast. He knew reinforcements would be on the way.

Kakashi also wonders why Itachi didn't just kill him. Again, yes, the torture was brutal, but they're ninja who are meant to do and endure cruel things. Itachi had to look like he was a menacing criminal reputed to have killed the Uchiha singlehandedly.

So, he completely avoids fighting Asuma and Kuernai, takes on only Kakashi because he's strong and can take it, also has Sharingan. But he completely refuses to go against Jiraiya. Jiraiya may or may not be stronger than him. Maybe they were equal. However, recalling Obito's words again: Itachi devoted himself to fighting Sasuke to death.

Two conclusions come from this:

He didn't want to fight Jiraiya because it would result in a massive bloodbath and killing a leaf Shinobi is out of question for him. He's not a coward. He just doesn't want to fight him.

As we know from later on, he wanted to fight and die at Sasuke's hands only. Killing a Konoha Shinobi or dying at the hands of someone that isn't Sasuke isn't a part of his plan.

This can also be tracked further when Kisame captures the Four Tails.

Kisame most likely knew about Itachi's illness, knew Itachi wanted to die at Sasuke's hands. The reason Itachi didn't fight Jiraiya and Rōshi was most likely the same.

Kisame comments on Itachi's 'lingering affection' towards the village. The Akatsuki pairings' dynamics are quite opposite. Deidara and Sasori love art but have differing opinions on eternal vs explosive. Hidan and Kakuzu represent religion vs materialism (money). And Itachi and Kisame represent treachery vs loyalty. Itachi isn't loyal to Akatsuki, Kisame is.

They also wonder why is Itachi taking the matter of kidnapping Naruto so lightly. He could have done it very easily. We know now that that wasn't his intent and his objective to visit the village was something else.

As popular as 'Itachi knocked on the door before kidnapping Naruto' meme is, the truth is, he wasn't there to kidnap him at all. Replace Itachi with Kisame alone for a moment. Knock on the door? No, sir. Naruto would be half-dead. Or replace him with Hidan and Kakuzu. They're sadistic bastards and would have damaged Naruto in the worst possible way.

Furthermore, when you think of it, he revealed 'Akatsuki are after jinchuriki' years prior to the Akatsuki even began collecting the tailed beasts. It was a message he left because it was important. His job in the Akatsuki wasn't to "pass on the info to the village." It was to keep tabs on them so they don't attack Konoha.

After the massacre, Sasuke's unwavering faith in Itachi despite being put in Tsukuyomi. At first it doesn't seem too much, but we later discover that Itachi used to be a kind and gentle boy. So this bit isn't just Sasuke is blind, but also that Itachi was a kind child before the tragedy happened.

Sasuke's flashbacks in chapter 220 also hint towards Itachi being trapped in the politics of the village/clan. Fugaku is speaking to his own son but the discussion is so intense that he has to activate his Sharingan to convey the message to Itachi.

These are the flashbacks from the chapter #221 that further shed light on Itachi being a spy.

He's the "pipeline between the clan and the village" - a spy. Later Obito says Itachi was callously used for his devotion towards the village, this is an example of his clan doing this to him.

This is Itachi right after being accused of Shisui's murder. He looks in grief, while also processing the news. Once the narrative delves deep into Itachi's story (through Sasuke's eyes) in VOTE1, he continues to look miserable, lost, in pain, and in dire need of help. And once we begin to see more of him before his death, he is quite human. But again, Kishimoto had his whole story figured out by that time, knew what he was to do with Itachi's arc and Sasuke's future there.

In the chapter 224 (during the battle between Sasuke and Naruto), the flashback goes to this moment: Itachi tells Sasuke that he'd be one of the three people to awaken Mangekyo.

This connects to the chapter 385 when Sasuke vs Itachi happens. Sasuke asks him about the third person who had the MS.

_______________

Kishimoto isn't a terrible writer because some people choose to ignore what's written right there or cannot accept happened. Usually the deniers of this are those who question his morality. His morality is never the subject of the debate because Itachi isn't exonerated for his crimes. He's a part of a world that's cruel and violent and his actions align with it very much. The ones who "praise" him have their own bias, and that gives him nothing in return. Characters in fiction always, I mean, always respond to the information based on their morality. When Hashirama praises Itachi, it's because he grew up in the warring era and lost all his family. He learns there's this kid who chose a path with the least damage but at the cost of his life, he's a good Shinobi. Hiruzen also has his bias as well as his guilt. Naruto's praise for Itachi is not only because of stopping a war, but also for loving Sasuke. No one other than Sasuke sees him as a person whether anyone likes him or hates him. He's praised by other Shinobi for doing things that are expected from a Shinobi.

Either way, at the end of the day, Itachi himself doesn't see himself who is worth forgiving, worth loving, worth being remembered. That's his whole arc.

Some things above in the post I took from this thread. Some information I ommited from it, so feel free to go through it, please.

[synergysilhouette]

5 Things I DESPERATELY want for the Winx Club reboot

A balanced, inclusive story. Seasons 1-3 of the original series were amazing, but Tecna and Flora felt super neglected in terms of their world and backgrounds (I remember it's said in the RAI dub that Tecna is an android, and I'd love for that to be canon). It'd also be fun to see more of Andros and the merpeople without having to wait 5 seasons for it.

Male fairies. They've been shown in the background of the original show, but their designs are very basic and without any transformations.

The specialists are developed, fleshed-out love interests and we nix all of the toxic moments. We don't know a large amount of them outside of Sky, and the Sky/Diaspro/Bloom love triangle is just messy and unnecessary. Riven deserves an arc where he overcomes his toxic masculinity and sexism due to how his mom abandoned him and see the Winx and specialists help him with that. Plus I kinda want them to be magical rather than guys with magical weapons; they don't really stand a chance against magical villains, and their skills don't seem as cool next to sorcerers, fairies, witches, and wizards. I'd also like for Nabu to be a part of the group from the get-go, and Nex and Roy can be supporting characters. And let them have more clothes!

Meaningful transformations. In the original, Charmix is about overcoming insecurities, Enchantix is earned via sacrifice, and everything afterwards is a group project (even if some of them have nice designs). More meaningful requirements that contribute to their mental and emotional growth should be incorporated into the transformations--if they end up going beyond Enchantix.

Clarify what Daphne's situation is and let Bloom ENJOY Domino. At first Daphne was cursed by the witches to become a disembodied spirit, and then it was clarified that it was her Sirenix transformation that was cursed. I liked the idea that Sirenix could turn you evil like Politea, though Daphne being a disembodied spirit as a result of the transformation felt like an odd retcon. If they want to use Sirenix later, perhaps have it exist as an evil transformation, resulting in why Bloom has to fight Daphne while Aisha fights Tritanus. And I just want Bloom to be able to enjoy her time in Domino when it's restored rather than immediately going back to business.

And I'll just be that guy: is there ANY way to get the 4kids cast to do the English dub? If not, I made a post with my own fancast for the girls and the specialists. Haven't made one for the villains yet, though.

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Aaand we’re back!

Anonymous asked:

Do you think the rest of the TWST staff will get cards?  I really really wanna see Vargas' vignette.  The Camp Vargas events were peak writing; "how can I help my students get stronger?  I'll hunt them down and make them think their friends are being taken by a horrible beast!".  Also I like that the non-sports clubs handled things better than the sports clubs

God those events were so much fun, they were so unhinged at times lol To be honest, I don’t remember how both groups handled the main “challenge”, but the non-sports club got concerned about people disappearing faster, that’s for sure. The sports clubs just went “idk, who cares? Maybe he’s just asleep somewhere”…

Whenever Vargas gets to talk, it’s always wild and mildly concerning, the man is crazy. Now that I think about it, seeing his vignette would be great lol

It would be a shame if we never got the rest of the staff cards. They don’t get a lot of screen time, but all the tidbits of information that we get about them are so interesting. I’ll bet that we’ll get those cards eventually, but it’ll take quite some time…

Anonymous asked:

Sometimes I don't like the TWST localization changes but other times I tell myself that at least it's not as bad as the original Digimon Adventure English dub...Apocalymon my boy, out of context you're the greatest thing ever but in context you are so so painful

I feel lucky and unlucky at the same time that we didn’t get to experience EN dub of all the shows that were popular back then haha. Like yeah, it’s great that we jumped straight to sub, but it’s I am sure it was an unforgettable experience…

But hey, at least we had the “I loved you…like a father, Kunzite” in our version of Sailor Moon. Talk about daddy kinks sheesh.

Anonymous asked:

Hi! about the pussies headcanons, reading that ♀️Kalim doesn't masturbate was unexpected!  I can't see the character like that because of his family history, wouldn't be a pervert either... just a shameless fool... I can see him/her having an occasional erection as he/she hugs Jamil, but Kalim just keeps there, rubbing it "no malice", until the itch becomes pleasurable while Jamil agonizes... I wrote a minific but single words cannot explain how much I hallucinate about this idiot's misbehavior

Hi, Anon!

I don’t think Kalim is completely innocent and doesn’t have any sexual desire whatsoever, I just headcanon that she would be more focused on Jamil.

There is this weird “gap” about Kalim: she (or he) seems childish, as if she doesn’t care about these things at all; she is flirty, but in a way that you would think that she doesn’t understand the difference between friendly and romantic flirting, so it’s easy to look at her and think that she is this non-sexual being that only wants to have fun, fool around and dance. But in actuality, she is sexual, she does have desires, feel arousal and pleasure. The thing is, she finds Jamil so hot that her sexual awakening felt more like “I want to touch Jamil”, not “I feel good when I touch myself”. One leads to the other, so the scenario you’ve described is possible! It’s not like she absolutely can’t masturbate; I just picture her being more interested in having sex with Jamil. If she feels “the itch”, she could just call Jamil and all.

[aromantic-shadow]

Fuck it.

What Actually Happened to Sonic in Forces?

Rules of engagement (since I had to wade through discourse in my research): This is not meant to dictate your headcannons or even how you view cannon, just to lay out what I think happened for myself and anyone else who’s interested. It’s also not a critique per se- while I will make fun of the writing, I have no interest in blasting specific writers. We’re here to have fun. Speaking of which, TW for discussion of war, torture, solitary confinement, real-world inhumane prison conditions and its effects, mental illness and psychosis, and possibly other stuff I forgot. Take care of yourselves.

So.

Remember this?

[ID: Sonic Forces loading screen. Amy and Knuckle’s sprites are shown. Knuckles says, “He’s captured in the orbiting prison. My spy there says he’s in a solitary confinement cell, and they’ve been torturing him for months.]

If you’re at all familiar with Forces, or Sonic in general, you know that Sonic was captured by Eggman and presumed dead for six months, and that when they found him, Knuckles, casual as ever, says that he’s been tortured for months. Sonic is just as casual when he gets out- you’d think he’d had to sit through a boring chemistry lecture rather than torture.

This insane addition is characteristic of Forces- a story chock-full of dark elements that beg to be taken seriously despite no follow-through. There’s also the matter of translation; it’s common knowledge at this point that both lines referencing torture were added in the English dub, though what the Japanese version says varies depending on who you ask. There’s an interesting story buried somewhere under the mess that is Sonic Forces, and while rewriting is fun, that’s not my goal today. My objective is to take the information we have and try to make sense of it.

So, what exactly happened to Sonic during his captivity?

The Writers’ Original Intent

Before I move on to the actual detective work, let’s clear up the translation issue.

In the English version, Knuckles makes this announcement to the Resistance:

“Sonic is alive!... He’s captured in the orbiting prison. My spy there says he’s in a solitary confinement cell, and they’ve been torturing him for months.”

Later, the resistance contacts Rouge- who is implied to be the spy Knuckles referenced, or at least their contact. This is their conversation:

Knuckles: Rouge. It’s about time! How’s Sonic doing? Rouge: He’s been better. They’re getting ready to banish him into space. Silver: What? You can’t be serious! Rouge: Eggman’s been keeping Sonic alive all this time. He’s been waiting to show him his completed empire before banishing him. Knuckles: And torturing Sonic just to pass the time. That’s low, even for Eggman.

These are the only two mentions of torture in the English dub, and they’re shockingly out of place. So what did the Japanese version say? (Since I don’t speak Japanese, I got these lines from a fan sub on YouTube.)

Knuckles (to the Resistance):

“He’s locked up in a prison out in space. Reportedly, he’s been there for months, and they’ve been giving him a hell of a time…”

Rouge’s Briefing:

Knuckles: Rouge! Took ya long enough. How’s Sonic doing? Rouge: Not particularly good. He’s just about to get thrown into space. Silver: Wha… What did you say?! Rouge: Seems like Eggman’s been planning from the start to make him see the Eggman Empire’s completion, then chuck him out into space when he’s lost all hope. Knuckles: So he’s just been messing with Sonic to kill time then… Eggman, you bastard! You won’t get away with this!

I was surprised at how dark these lines were. No, torture was not mentioned specifically, but the characters are all taking this seriously, and Sonic’s clearly not having a good time. Also, there are… implications. “They’ve been giving him a hell of a time” and “he’s just been messing with Sonic to kill time” are not things you say about a villain following the Geneva Conventions. (We’ll get there.)

Assuming the translation is accurate, this and the English version constitute “cannon”. (I’m too tired to research other translations.) However, I did a little research into earlier versions of the script in an effort to figure out the writers’ intent: was the story originally dark, and got toned down? Or was it grimed up in revision and translation?

Researching this was literally the worst. Apparently, someone leaked what they claimed were several earlier script drafts. From what I saw, they seemed legit, but the original leak got taken down- so for at least one draft, the only evidence I have of its existence is a wiki and a couple screenshots. Naturally, this phantom draft is the most interesting one. Just my luck.

Let’s start with the more credible draft, which you can view here . It’s an interesting read, but let’s focus on the most relevant passages. First, we have yet another version of Rouge’s briefing:

Rouge: Knuckles, can you hear me?      Knuckles: Rouge, huh… How's Sonic doing?    Rouge: Not good at all. Sonic will soon be… executed.          Silver: What? Is that true?  Rouge : It seems that Eggman has been planning to make Sonic fall into despair upon showing him the completion of the Eggman Empire before executing him from the start.

(They said he was going to be executed out loud. Dang.)

Second, let’s see how this draft shows the first prison scene:

Sonic: What's with these tremors…?      The power of the device that binds Sonic's hands turns off. Zavok appears.          Zavok: Sonic. It is a little early, but your time has come.         Sonic: Looks like something troubling is going on… Does it have anything to do with all the shaking?      Zavok: Shut up. That is none of your concern. Best prepare yourself and stay quiet. Sonic: Prepare myself? Now that my handcuffs are off, I probably don't need to do that.     Zavok: How foolish… Even if your body is free, you're just going to be defeated by me here.         Sonic: I haven't fought a good fight in a while. Let's go, Zavok!        

(Uhm. Zavok just fucking tells this poor kid that he’s going to die. Damn.)

That’s the most complete, mostly credible early draft I can find. There’s one more interesting tidbit, from a draft that I can ONLY find in this wiki and a couple photographs I found floating around. It’s yet another version of Zavok and Sonic’s conversation:

Sonic is bound with energy manacles. His head is bowed and he appears tired and beaten. He barely looks up when Zavok appears. Sonic: Hey, what's shaking? The energy holding Sonic's arms in place cuts off. Zavok: Sonic. It's a little earlier than planned, but your time has come. Sonic: Is that right? Maybe you should take care of that shaking problem first. Zavok: Never mind that. Come quietly to face your end. Sonic raises his head, revealing a feral smile. Sonic: You think you're gonna end me, huh? Now that I'm free, get ready to be disappointed. Zavok: So foolish, little hedgehog. You may be unchained but you are not free. I will defeat you right here. Sonic: I'm free all right. Free to cut loose! Let's dance, Zavok!

(Fuck. Fuck that’s dark. I’m half convinced that this was fully made up it’s so dark.)

So, if these early drafts are credible (keyword IF), then Forces was originally intended to be darker than it came off in the final draft.

That said, these aren’t cannon. They’re early drafts, and while they give us insight into the writing process, they aren’t the story we got. So let’s focus on what happened in the cannon versions.

What Actually Happened:

So let’s look at Sonic Forces. I’m going to ignore the dialogue we’ve already discussed going forward. Those lines’ purpose was to feed us information rather than show it, and with the translation differences, it can be easy to get caught up on details rather than the big picture.

Here’s what we know so far, regardless of translation: Sonic was captured by Eggman and held for six months on the Death Egg. He was presumed dead, and did not have a fun time in captivity, whatever that means. He’s going to be executed (banished, thrown, whatever it’s basically killing him even if it's a stupid method) in a few days.

Alright, enough listening to people talk. Let’s look at our only real glimpse of Sonic’s imprisonment.

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces. Sonic sits in his cell, restrained, as offscreen Zavok says, “This is the end, Sonic.”]

Sonic is restrained, looking around as sirens go off. This is when Zavok shows up to escort him to his execution:

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces, looking over Zavok’s shoulder into Sonic’s cell. The door is barred, and Sonic’s arms and legs are restrained with glowing blue restraints.]

Note the barred door and the size of the room. Also, if you look closely, you can see that he also has glowing restrains on his legs. Keep that in mind.

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces, showing a wide view of Sonic’s cell, which looks around the size of a boxcar. Sonic sits on a bench, his arms and legs restrained by glowing blue restraints.]

Again, note the size of the room and the restraints on his legs.

The Death Egg continues to shake, the power shorting out for a second, and Sonic’s restraints come off. (Brief note: in earlier drafts this was implied to be Zavok freeing him so he could walk to his execution; in cannon it seems more like a glitch caused by the Resistance’s efforts.)

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces the instant after Sonic’s restraints turned off. He is still in his restrained position, and he looks surprised.

(I don’t know why but the above frame is really funny to me. He looks so surprised.)

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces, focused on Sonic’s legs as he examines himself, kicking his newly-freed legs experimentally.]

This frame is awkward but important. After his restraints turn off, Sonic looks over himself, smiling as he kicks his legs experimentally.

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces. Sonic stands, walking towards Zavok and the open cell door as he says, “The end huh? Let’s see you try something now that I’m free.”]

The moment the restraints come off he’s ready to fight. I’m getting the sense that he didn’t get out of those very often.

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces. Sonic leaps out of the way of Zavok’s punch, grinning.]

Sonic he is trying to kill you why do you look like you’re having fun

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces, showing Sonic as he jumps away from his cell.]

Don’t mind me I’m still trying to figure out the size of his cell

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces. Zavok stands ready to fight, with a cell like Sonic’s in the background, filled with cheering prisoners.]

Apparently there were other people imprisoned nearby- all the way across the arena, but at least there was something.

[ID: Screenshot of the Japanese version of Sonic Forces. After defeating Zavok, Sonic says, “That was a blast! Bring a better toy with you next time.”]

(Japanese version)

Dude he literally just tried to kill you stop taunting him

After the boss fight, there are a few comments Sonic makes that are relevant:

[ID: Screenshot of the Japanese version of Sonic Forces. As Sonic escapes, he says, “Time to kiss this cramped up little space goodbye!”]

(Japanese version)

[ID: Screenshot of the Japanese version of Sonic Forces. As Sonic escapes, he says, “Getting to run around freely again really is the best!”]

(Japanese version)

And finally,

[ID: Screenshot of the Japanese version of Sonic Forces. Sonic talks to the Rookie, saying, “I can’t tell you how happy that makes me! Haven’t had anyone to talk to lately.]

(Japanese version)

So, to summarize: Sonic was kept on a space station, in a cell about the size of a boxcar (?), with a barred door and both his arms and legs restrained. His wonder when his restraints came off and his comments about getting to run freely imply that he didn’t get much exercise. He hasn't had any meaningful interaction in a while.

Eggman, Meet My Friend the Geneva Conventions

The moment you’ve all been waiting for- legalese!

Even though it isn’t Earth, Mobius probably has a version of the Geneva Conventions, which is basically a set of international laws regulating war and defining war crimes. And guess what, Eggman, now that you’ve started a war those laws apply to you! Let’s see how he shapes up.

We’re going to focus on the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which you can read here. I’ll summarize the important bits.

According to Article 4, “Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war,” are considered prisoners of war if captured. Sonic falls under this umbrella, so he qualifies as a POW and falls under the protections of this convention.

Next, let’s look at these sections from Article 13 and Article 17.

Article 13 says, “Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention… Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.”

Article 17 says, “No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.”

We could stop here. Ignoring the torture bit for now, Sonic was about to be executed- that flies in the face of Article 13! Also, based on how Zavok treated him, Sonic was clearly subject to intimidation and insults, if not acts of violence. These are clear war crimes.

We could go on and on about Eggman’s Geneva Convention violations (Articles 22, 25, 42, 47, 71- particularly Articles 21, 38, and 70), but it would get redundant. So let’s take a break and look at the definition of solitary confinement.

The Mandela Rules define solitary confinement like this:

“For the purpose of these rules, solitary confinement shall refer to the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact. Prolonged solitary confinement shall refer to solitary confinement for a time period in excess of 15 consecutive days.”

All sources agree that prolonged solitary confinement can cause long-term damage to the victim’s psychological health.

Solitary confinement facilities vary, from the size of the cell, the type of door, what educational or entertainment material is available, etc, and the effects tend to vary accordingly. People with preexisting mental health conditions tend to be affected the most, especially people with ADHD or ASPD; but even people with no preexisting conditions suffer long-term harm from solitary confinement.

Remember how Sonic was imprisoned:

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Forces, showing a wide view of Sonic’s cell, which looks around the size of a boxcar. Sonic sits on a bench, his arms and legs restrained by glowing blue restraints.]

In both the English and Japanese version, Sonic's captivity definitely fits the criteria for solitary confinement. He was kept in a cell alone, isolated from meaningful human contact, for six months. His comments imply that he wasn’t even let out to exercise- most people in solitary confinement get at least a little. His cell is much bigger than most solitary confinement cells, which is good; but he’s also restrained, possibly 24/7. (I haven’t been able to find any specific regulations or research on restraining a prisoner while they are in their cell, maybe since it’s self-evident that it’s inhumane. One could argue that Sonic’s speed meant that extreme measures were necessary, but that doesn’t make it any more humane.)

According to the Mandela Rules, both prolonged solitary confinement and indefinite solitary confinement amount to torture.

Now What?

Wow that got dark. I feel bad for Sonic, especially after reading exactly how solitary confinement fucks with people’s heads.

Unfortunately, Sonic has several risk factors that would worsen the damage of solitary confinement. First off, he’s fifteen- this stuff is worse for kids than for adults. Second, ADHD is specifically referenced in research as making solitary confinement much harder to handle.

(ASPD is another high risk factor. This is already too long without going into the specifics of “does Sonic have a personality disorder”; if you’re interested @/neurotypicalsonic has some cool posts about Sonic and BPD, if I remember correctly?)

Basically, for all the reasons we already knew Sonic would hate this, solitary confinement would suck for him.

How exactly it affected him is unclear- partially because he has main character syndrome and doesn’t act like anything’s wrong for the rest of Sonic Forces. Based on his risk factors and the research I’ve done, he probably experienced psychosis as well as PTSD, “cognitive impairment”/brain fog, and long-term struggles with social interaction.

Are the writers going to follow through with that? Well… I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe.

[ID: Screenshot of Sonic Frontiers. Sonic is on Kronos Island, arms crossed with a slight frown.]

Sonic in Frontiers is a lot quieter than before. He’s pretty down-to-business compared to usual. (He tells Sage, “Sorry, kid, but I’ve got a job to do,” instead of a taunt or quip. He sounds resigned.) His voice is subdued, even at the beginning of the game before he was cybercorrupted. And he certainly doesn’t blink twice at a disembodied voice telling him what to do. (My personal favorite explanation is that he’s used to hearing directions from alters- pretty sure @/sonicaspeed123 originated that- but according to my limited knowledge, this fits past psychosis as well.)

I doubt that the writers are intentionally writing Sonic coping with the long-term affects of solitary confinement, but it is a very interesting possibility.

If you’ve gotten this far… I’m sorry for subjecting you to this. As a final point, Sonic in Frontiers is still, well, Sonic. He’s still arrogant, he still loves to run and explore, he still cares deeply for his friends. Trauma or torture or whatever, he’s still there, living. (And getting into stupidly dangerous situations like it’s just another Tuesday. Where are your self-preservation instincts you sweet reckless child-)

Remember to take care of yourselves. Here’s a photo of my cat to cheer you up.

[ID: My cat Vonnie, lounging on my laptop.]

[krisingtons]

Random question, but when you're writting dadmight fics, do you read/imagine the characters voices in the original japanese voices or the english dub?? This isn't me trying to start a sub vs dub discussion, but instead genuine curiosity, especially because i've noticed how the characters personalities can slightly differ and certain things can be missed in translation between the original and the dub.

So fun fact about me - I have aphantasia, meaning I can’t really visually imagine things. That’s multi sensory for me so it includes sounds. I can kind of remember visuals vaguely and musical sounds (I get songs stuck in my head all the time), but voices don’t really make the cut for me. The only two senses I seem to have some grasp of imagination in are taste and touch, and I imagine fics mostly through emotions.

So to answer your question, I imagine neither. Any character dialogue is more just "understood" than heard for me, and any “hearing” I do is probably best described as if I were attempting to read the characters’ voices out loud myself. I generally watch the dub for what it’s worth, although I have seen the sub version, too.

I’m sort of fascinated by this question now though because does that mean that some people can take the voices of the Japanese voice actors and imagine them speaking English when reading and writing fanfiction? If so, that somehow explains a lot about the sub vs dub debate that I never thought about before.

[sfsolace]

My thoughts on the Hakumei & Mikochi anime

Having recently finished watching the series again, i felt like giving my opinion on the anime adaptation of "Hakumei & Mikochi".

Warning: this post will contain spoilers for season 1 of the anime, so if you just want a quick overview of what to expect, please check my other post.

(Believe it or not, i couldn't find a decent picture of the cover art. The one on imbd is the english version with the horrible font and the one on myanimelist has approximately 5 total pixels)

So here's my general thoughts on the anime: I like it a lot! It's what first introduced me to the series and i think it's a great adaptation of the source material. They did a bunch of smart things in adapting the manga and created something that can stand on it's own as a season of television. It's still my go to anime to recommend to someone to watch while they're sick or feeling a bit down, since the 12 episodes can be watched in a relatively short timeframe.

I really like the vibe of the anime, everything has sort of a warmness to it. From the sound design to the color palette to the pacing, it all has a soft, warm, homely feel that hits exactly right.

What I also like is that some shots are actual panels, giving it sort of a manga feel. This, together with the vignettes that are always matched to the content of a given scene, is a great choice by the director and adds to the unique style of the anime.

I already talked about the music in this other post, so I won't repeat too much here; but the soundtrack is honestly one of the most varied and creative anime soundtracks I've ever heard. It amazes me how the composer can use this many different instruments while still making it seem unified instead of messy. The soundtrack really elevates the anime and makes the emotional beats hit so much harder.

Plus, the ending is also an absolute jam and i love how they used it to close out the final episode with all of the characters we've met. I'm pretty sure this is one of the original additions to the anime, as I can't find an equivalent in the manga.

Which brings me to my next point: it's awesome that the creators of the show took the episodic nature of the manga and used it to make more of a "greatest hits compilation" of the first five volumes instead of going through the chapters chronologically. This way certain stories/chapters were moved to the same episode, so they form more complete arcs.

The anime lets it all culminate in the final episode, where we get to see the next harvest festival, with all the characters we've met throughout the series being there to celebrate. It's a fun sendoff to the stories that were told in this short season and i think they gave a lot the characters ample time to shine.

I think the anime nails the artstyle of the manga. Sure, a lot of the more intricate drawings from the original are hard to top; but the creators of the anime focused on getting the characters and general feel right, which should be the top priority.

The voice acting also makes a huge difference when comparing the story on page and on screen. The original japanese dub just has amazing performances all around. I especially like Jada's voice, because it adds such a unique touch to her character. When she appears in the manga, i instantly read the lines in her voice.

On this recent rewatch i watched the english dub for the first time (didn't know there was one) and I gotta say: It's pretty good! Hakumei and Mikochi are pretty well cast, Conju and Iwashi are great; however, a few characters feel like safe/uninteresting choices. Also the translation and voice acting is a bit "uneven" at times.

I don't think that's the fault of the team that did the dubbing, a lot of these moments feel like they just needed another pass over the script or another take for a scene and simply didn't have enough time for it. I can defnitely recommend the english dub to people who don't watch anime with subs.

All in all, I think the anime is a wonderful adaption and even if you don't follow the manga, it is a nice 12-episode anime to watch and recommend. The team behind it seems to have passion for the story and used the limited resources they had to make something really special.

I don't think we're gonna get a season two, since the anime didn't perform too well; but I'm very grateful to have found this anime before it disappeared from streaming.

If this was at all interesting to you and you like cozy anime: please give it a watch! It's only 12 episodes and it's something really special.

Thanks for reading! <3

[adarkrainbow]

Lost media quest: H&G Epic Tales (part 1)

Some times ago I stumbled upon the trailer for an animated storybook adapting "Hansel and Gretel". I even made a quick post about it and then moved on my way. However, what I was not expecting was that my casual search would end up throwing me into a whole "lost media" investigation...

So I present to you the first report of my search for the lost media "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

"Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" is the English title of an interactive, animated storybook originally created by a Dutch team - hence why it exists also under the Dutch name "Hans en Grietje - Epic Tales".

Its trailer (posted around 2012/2013) is still around the Internet - on both Youtube and Vimeo, in English. It showcases you all the effort put into the product as well as the quality of it all - because when you think "Interactive storybook" you think "Just some still pictures you flip over while a voice narrates in the background". But here, not at all: you have entire animated tableaux allowing for a true point-and-click kind of game, intercut with entire animated segments and sequences - making this interactive storybook quite close to a full cartoon or simplified video-game.

In fact, I am not the only one to say this: numerous reviews pointed out this application could be considered a full cartoon in itself. And if some comparisons are left a bit generic "A cartoon feeling", "It could be a Saturday morning cartoon" I have seen one review even going as far as to compare this traditional 2D animation to a Disney movie!

I especially love the art style here which is reminiscent of classic, old fairytale cartoons - and I will come back to this element later because I do believe the game has easter-eggs or nods to classics of the fairytale animation.

Not only that, but as the trailer indicates, this game was supposed to be the first of an entire line of animated, interactive storybooks, the "Epic Tales" line, each reinventing fairytales, all narrated by the same storytelling character you see in the trailer, Silvertongue the (elf? dwarf?) who beats up gnomes to bring books to life... To have such a big project coming from Dutch folks isn't so surprising given the strong Dutch love for fairytales (it is the land of the Efteling park, after all).

In fact, the Epic Tales line had not only its own website (that you can see in a different promo for the app, here) but also a Facebook page and a Twitter account to promote the release of the game.

The game was released on iOs format and distributed by Apple. You could get it on your iPad or iPhone by just buying it on the App Store or iTunes store. And it was met with very, very positive reviews. Everybody agreed on saying this game was awesome, the dub very good, the interactions fun, the music delightful - in a word, absolutely perfect. Here is a handful of positive reviews I could find in English ; coupled with another handful of articles in Dutch this time. Mind you, some people do complain about the story being a tad bit too "light" for their taste - as in everybody agrees it is a visual treat with splendid visuals and a goofy tone perfect for kids, but some do complain about a lack of "darkness" (one review even regretted the "psycho-drama" of the original story, absent from this light-hearted story). I personally think there's enough dark Hansel and Gretel retellings out there to allow us a nice light-hearted, goofy, innocent version, but oh well, that's just my opinion... I'll return to these changes in a later post.

These online articles are notably quite precious for bringing additional screenshots of this now unfortunately lost media...

Lost yes: for if you check the App stores and iTunes pages today, it seems Apple has removed the game from their offer. And given Apple was the only distributor... it seems you cannot get it anywhere else.

The Epic Tales website (epictales.com) has been brought down - though you can still find it back thanks to Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, which did preserve several versions of it. The Facebook page for Epic Tales is still here too, though inactive since the app's release. As for the Twitter account... it seems that after a few years of inactivy it was briefly taken over by a little girl who posted goofy pictures of her on it... Was it the account-owner's daughter, niece or little sister? I don't know but it seems clearly that this account is a dead-end too.

Now, outside of the trailer, official accounts and online reviews, the last remaining official bits of this animated project (because there is one un-official element I will go to later) are the Anikey Studios videos. Anikey Studio is one of the two big teams that worked on the "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" project, alongside Cloud Castle Interactive, and while the Epic Tales line seems dead and gone, Anikey is still working a lot, regularly creating and publishing animated shorts. They have a Facebook, a LinkedIn, an Instagram - but more interestingly a Vimeo account on which they regularly post videos (itself doubled by a Youtube channel). And they post yearly Demoreels collecting bits and extracts from their animation projects. Including "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

Now, unfortunately they only use the scenes from the trailer of the interactive storybook, so nothing new - but still it worth checking out. The extracts most prominently appear within their Demoreels of the years 2016 and 2012 (I am using the Vimeo version, not the Youtube ones).

And so far, at first glance, this is it. If we do just a superficial search, it is a good-looking app that got removed by Apple ; a big hopeful project with a lot of effort put into it that everybody forgot about or did not notice ; a whole line of fairytale animations that got cancelled right after its first instalment. A first instalment seemingly disappeared into the limbo of "lost media"... But for me, it was only the start of the investigation - because if you know me, you'll know I can get incredibly frustrated when I see something cool I just happened to miss ; and as an enjoyer of both traditional hand-drawn animation and fairytale adaptations, this app seemed so wonderful...

As such, I am currently undergoing a sort of investigation to collect everything I can find and save about this animated storybook. Given I am not an expert "lost media hunter", I might find nothing at all - but at least it will be a fun ride playing the investigator for once! Plus something within the occult forces of the world seem to constantly condemn my blog to focus on "Hansel and Gretel"... I don't know why but every time it gets brought back to me one way or another. So who am I to oppose the mysterious flow of nature?

If any of you ever heard of this app before - if maybe you downloaded it some time ago, if you know someone who played it, or maybe if you still have it somewhere in your Apple product, please do contact me! Even the slightest memory can be of incredible use for such an investigation. Myself I am going to perform a breakdown of all the information I could find, and the following posts of this series are going to try to "reconstruct" what the app was about, and how the story unfold in this version - because here's the thing, it isn't just a regular, straightforward Hansel and Gretel retelling. They actually added and changed several elements in it... But that will be for another post.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. The application is somehow listed within the catalogues of several Dutch libraries. I don't really know much about how these libraries work, but if somehow there is a Dutch person who sees this post, could you eventually bring me some help? It would be very appreciated!

[its-a-kasshu-thing]

Escaflowne Voice Meme

@coverteyes suggested I do this so here’s my take on Escaflowne as a whole:

Anybody that wants to fill it out feel free. I will tag it ‘escaflowne voice meme’ to easily find the original.

1. When did I first discover Escaflowne?

I first heard about it around the time (2012) I discovered Gundam (G Gundam and Gundam Wing to be exact) but never watched it. I saw many of the English voice actors for Gundam Wing were in Escaflowne like Kirby Morrow (Van/Trowa) for example. I figured I’d give it a shot just recently this year (2023) and liked it a lot. Yasuhiro Imagawa was originally set to be the director but instead he left the project to work on G Gundam. I thought Escaflowne looked interesting regardless but add a mere mentioning of Imagawa, I was sold for sure. (Fun fact it was Imagawa that came up with the name ‘Escaflowne’) G Gundam is my all time favorite anime so I’m glad things worked out the way they did and the director that actually worked on Escaflowne did a better job then what was initially planned with adding Tarot and making Hitomi into the strong female lead we know and love. I ended up watching the Funimation dub and I believe it was a stellar performance.

2. Favorite character and why?

Van hands down. Him and Domon (main character of G Gundam) share the same Japanese voice actor which I think is kinda funny because their characters are pretty similar. Glad that the director kept some of Imagawa’s initial concepts. I also just really like Van. Like Domon, he’s pretty relatable to me and those are the characters I go for. I loved the way his character progressed throughout the series too and I just want him to be happy. He’s quite adorable :)

3. What do you think happens after Hitomi leaves Gaea?

Don’t know. All I can say is she’ll be back lol. Aside from her mother, I don’t really think there is anything calling her back to Earth. Her friend likes her crush and he seems to like her back plus she seems really depressed when she does return. Why would she go back when she could be a queen in Gaea? Not to mention, she finds true love in Van which isn’t easy to come by so why just throw that away? She can take her mom with her and start a Tarot reading business :D

4. Least favorite plot point?

When Hitomi did that reading for Millerna regarding her marriage to Dryden. I like Dryden and he wasn’t a bad guy at all. He literally saved Van when he paid the bill for Escaflowne’s repairs. Plus, I couldn’t see the appeal anymore for Allen either towards the end… I know Hitomi is only fifteen and understandably boy crazy but that was just plain mean and manipulative what she did. Van suffered from that dirty stunt too.

5. What would you want to see in a possible sequel?

The sappy ending Imagawa would have definitely delivered lol. Hitomi could help Van rebuild Fanelia. I honestly think this is what the movie should have been but instead they took out the Tarot and I personally didn’t like the way her depression was handled. Her friend literally laughed at her suicide note (what kind of friend is that?) and her depression was already starting to show at the end of the anime. I think they should’ve just went with it as a continuation of the anime and eventually bring her back to Gaea to stay but that’s just my opinion.

Thank you for inviting me to take part in this. It was fun to really organize my thoughts on the series!

[lupizora]

So...

The DetCo Episode One OVA...

I don't know where to start from to talk about it. Honestly, I really really liked it!

Like, even though I haven't read the first manga chapter, I'm pretty sure I figured out which scenes were additional material for kicks and giggles to give context to an audience that might be seeing the series for the first time, but also a nod or even fanservise for the long-time fans. Although, some of these cameos were a bit on the nose for me since I knew who the characters were and what role they play in the overall franchise.

I admit, I kinda teared up from hearing the very first opening in the beginning (and having scenes from that same opening during the ending was such a ridiculous nostalgia trip) and I have been going through the series only for a whole year now.

I mean, it was another OVA with almost a movie budget and animation quality like The Two Worst Days in History one. Ran's karate tournament fight was seriously INTENSE! The animators had a lot of fun with it, by the looks of it lol.

But man, I didn't wanna get depressed again over Ran's and Shinichi's relationship. This OVA hammered in the definition of tragic irony, considering I, the audience, knew what was coming after this date. It hurt seeing them pining for each other and being all cute together, only for the plot to happen 😭 I have to say though, it was a bit funny how Shinichi was the one who had the delusional fantasies this time around. They are such dorks *screams into a pillow*

Another thing I found interesting was how Shinichi's voice changed into Conan's voice in his thoughts after the police had taken him to the health center but before he truly saw his reflection in the mirror. Like yeah, the actors probably had to switch anyways, and the fact the original English dub had kept Shinichi's VA narrating Conan's thoughts is the one thing I find cool about that localized dub. But it's fascinating to consider that, in-universe, Shinichi had been hearing his childlike voice as Conan for several hours at least. Maybe that made his inner voice change as he got used to the idea he had shrunk, like some sort of subconscious acceptance of the situation. (another case of me focusing on the most random things it seems) 🤔

At this point, I still don't know how to feel about the BO scenes. Like you have them being all threatening, obviously dangerous and bloodthirsty and then there is that part with Korn and Chianti about the ferry's wheel lmao. Shiho was beautiful as always though, no contest 😊

[mxmasters]

any opinions on dubs vs subs

steakshift: okay real talk: I collect basically everything and I'll watch damn near anything steakshift: but I cannot STAND dubs. steakshift: something like 1/5 of English dubs are decent! some actors actually get the characters, like Steve Blum as Spike in Cowboy Bebop steakshift: but 3/5s of them are just plain BORING. lots of ppl phoning it in steakshift: then you get the shit that's capital-b Bad, like 4kids, where they chop the OG show up so hard it's barely recognizable steakshift: those are actually kinda fun to hate-watch bc lmao goddamn what were they thinking whistl_stahp: that seems like an extremely cynical way to engage with media! steakshift: wha whistl_stahp: dubs are perfectly valid way to adapt these stories for international audiences. steakshift: t whistl_stahp: It may not be a perfect 1:1 translation, but it doesn't have to be! it's a different experience with the same heart whistl_stahp: furthermore, I don't think you're in any position to judge whether those voice actors were "phoning it in"! you're not a localization expert and you weren't there in the time and place that the work was done. steakshift: penny wat are you ding here steakshift: *doing whistl_stahp: what?! whistl_stahp: you typed this out in the groupchat, dumbass! whistl_stahp: are you stoned? steakshift: no I'm just a lil out of it. got my wires crossed steakshift: tbh I didn't know you cared whistl_stahp: I got into anime through dubs. I don't think they're inherently better or worse than the originals whistl_stahp: but yes! I do care. steakshift: alrighty then steakshift: in that case, what's your take on 4kids cutting Laboon and replacing him with an iceberg whistl_stahp: that was objectively ridiculous but I don't blame the VAs for it. steakshift: fair

[ogamagirl]

Hello! I've been thinking about getting into magical girl anime recently and I noticed you reblogging stuff from a lot of different ones, so I figured it'd make sense to come to you with this: Do you have any good starter magical girl anime recs? I'd prefer something light and fun if possible :>

OH GOODNESS I am more than happy to recommend you some magical girl anime, I LOVE magical girls, it's one of my favorite anime genres!! I hope you don't mind me answering this on my blog haha, gives me an excuse to ramble x3

My favorite magical girl franchise is Pretty Cure - most often abbreviated and refered to as Precure. It's a sprawling franchise that's been going on for the past 21 years now so it SEEMS daunting, but the cool thing about Precure is each season is its own self contained story with its own plot and cast of characters. There are two continuities with two seasons (the original Futari wa Precure and its sequel Futari wa Precure Max Heart, and Yes Precure 5 and its sequel Yes Precure 5 GoGo!), but otherwise each continuity is one season, usually between 47-50 episodes long (each season lasts one full year of broadcast time).

The best way to start with Precure imo is to look at summaries/character designs and see which one sounds most interesting to you - there's no "order" to watch them in since they're all their own stories! Precure is a children's franchise so things are generally light enough, but there are definitely some seasons that touch on/deal with heavier topics. If you'd like my personal recommendations for "light and fun" seasons of Precure, I'd recommend Smile Precure and KiraKira Precure a la Mode!

Smile Precure is about Miyuki, a girl who loves fairy tales, being tasked by the fairy Candy from Marchenland to assemble a team of 5 Precure to collect Cure Decor and revive the queen. It's bright, cheerful, and silly - I love the central cast and art style so much! A word about this season - this season was dubbed into English under the title "Glitter Force", which changed all names to English ones and cut out a handful of episodes (I believe the ones most heavily focused on Japanese culture that the dub team couldn't easily change to anything else). I personally do not recommend watching it like this! In all cases as far as Precure is concerned I recommend watching the original subtitled Japanese version.

KiraKira Precure a la Mode is about Ichika, a girl who loves sweets and dreams of becoming a patisserie. She meets Pekorin, a fairy that can detect "kirakiraru", an energy contained in sweets that represent their feelings, which evil fairies start to steal. Ichika becomes a Precure to protect the sweets and forms a team of Precure that open up their own mobile sweet shop together. One of the things that's unique about this season are the fights - one of Precure's claims to fame is the high amount of physical fighting/hand-to-hand combat it contains. KiraKira tones that element down after previous seasons were seen as "too intense", so the fights in this season are more magic/special attack based. This annoyed some people, but I personally think KiraKira's a great, fun, unique entry to the franchise! (And the fights came back next season, so it's not like they were gone forever lol).

Apart from Precure, I'd also recommend Ojamajo Doremi!

It's about Doremi Harukaze, the self proclaimed "unluckiest pretty girl in the world"; one day she stumbles upon a mysterious shop run by an old woman who looks like a witch. When Doremi calls her out, she turns into a "magic frog" - she WAS indeed a witch, and this is what happens to witches who are discovered in the human realm. The witch, Majo Rika, therefore enlists Doremi as a witch apprentice to help her turn back to normal. Ojamajo Doremi is really special - it's a more episodic series (tho there is an overarching plot each season) that really cares about its world and characters, it's so well written and wonderfully charming and funny and warm, really can't recommend it enough!

And for a final recommendation for now, I'll mention Cardcaptor Sakura!

A true classic of the genre, this is about a girl named Sakura Kinomoto who discovers a mysterious book in her father's library; upon opening it she scatters the deck of cards contained within and releases the creature that was sealing them. This creature, Cerberus (but you can call him Kero-chan), informs Sakura that she must now track down and capture these cards, called the Clow Cards, to prevent disaster from occuring. The card capturing element grants it a "monster of the week" flavor, but this is another sweet series focused on Sakura and her relationships first and foremost, and it's a real treat.

I think these are enough to get you started! If you want more recommendations definitely don't hesitate to ask - I started with these because you asked for light and happy, but I also enjoy darker magical girl anime as well so if you ever want to explore that route I'd have recommendations there too!

[yaviae]

The problem I have with Cas Crowfeather pt. #1

Usually, I am not doing serious posts in which I talk about characters I don’t like. I did it for fun on my Winx sideblog on which I did/do a post series in which I bitch about season 5. But that is fun. This is serious business. So why that? I started watching Weirdsister College yesterday again and Cas was just the most unlikeable new character ever in a first episode. But let’s break this down:

We see her first when she rides her bike to college and gets stopped by Ethel’s car. She’s angry and switches the traffic light to red. Fine. If I was in her situation I’d be pissed too. Too bad, that I hate riding a bike and therefore as a car driver hate those who do but lets get back to the show.

The first time she attracts negative attention is when she enters Milly’s room, sees Ethel and immediately starts bitching:

And Ethel (at least seems to be) is really sorry and apologizes and what does Cas do?

Ohh, you blame it on the servants! Girl? Ethel DID not drive! So how is that blaming the servants when the chauffeur maybe has a problem with bicycles? Every car driver has a problem with bicycles.

So Cas stays a total bitch and so Ethel volunteers to make the breakfast in the morning as an offering of peace. For Ethel’s standards that is the nicest thing in the world. Yes, we know she only tries to be on good terms with Mildred so that Mildred draws a picture of the all-seeing eye so that they can all pass. But firstly: Cas does not know that Ethel is a bit fake friendly here and secondly Milly does this for Nick only and gets upset later on when he wants to go before Ethel so that the all-seeing eye will also let her pass. So Ethel actually never had the chance to pass the all-seeing eye with Milly's help because she wouldn't help her anyway even though Ethel acts nice now. So Ethel does not even benefit from acting nice.

So but what happens next? It’s the next morning and Cas says this:

(At least that is what she says in the German dub I don’t really understand her accent very well in the English original)

So. Excuse me? Yes, Ethel failed with the breakfast but she did it anyway! Why does Cas need to bitch here again? It’s obvious, that her character is only there to be Milly’s cheerleader. She has no reason yet to be so negative about Ethel. If she’d know her like Milly, yes, then it would be fine if she mistrusted her but out of nowhere?? That’s just pretty damn uncool from her.

And now look at her face when Ethel passed the all-seeing eye:

What.A.Fkn.Bitch.

So don’t get me wrong. Ethel is a bitch herself and we love her for that. The problem I have with Cas is that she treats Ethel like shit from the start without knowing her. I am also pretty allergic to talking behind someone's back. Cas has zero reason to behave that way and while doing so she proves that SHE is the actual bitch in here.

Sorry if you like her but she is just the worst. A badly written character only there to be on Milly’s side in every situation. I really wished they had brought Maud back. She was a lovely bestie and a well-written character who even had some arguments with Milly. But Cas? Is always there to defend Milly out of nowhere for no reason. Milly does not need a cheerleader. We also don't need someone to bitch about Ethel. We know that Ethel isn't the nice girl next door without Cas being bitchy about her

What f*cks me up too is this scene:

It's just the worst to talk about someone's iconic fashion statement as something bad. Especially calling it childish. I'll never forget wearing two normal bunches (without braiding) at age 14 and my friend telling me that it looked childish. Ew. Eww. I remember Cas also criticizing Milly's fashion style later on and wanting to change it - which Milly does. It is not wrong to try something new or to change one's style to make a step into a new stage of life. But one has to do it on their own. Without people judging. It has to be the own free will. And I hate Cas judging Milly for that. It's okay if Milly wants to change it herself but Cas talking bad about it is not okay.

There will be a part #2 eventually if I have to vent again while rewatching. I love the show and just had to get it off my chest lmao.