#now my plots are very self indulgent premise wise but after I get the premise I start thinking of all these complicated things that get in

[sunlitroom]

Gotham s5e09 - The Trial of Jim Gordon

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham:

The river is full of chemicals.  Reunification likely isn’t happening now.  Jim rescued Victor.  Jim made impossible promises to a winsome orphan.  Ivy’s feeding the earth with corpses.  Jim insists he’s going to be part of his and Barbara’s child’s life.  Barbara wants in on Oswald and Ed’s submarine plot.  Lee needs to read a season 4 synopsis, because she’s appalled that Jim is having a baby with Barbara.

So…

This is a summary as opposed to a recap.  

This is one of the hard-fought for – thanks for locking me out of my account twice, Twitter! :) – extra episodes that fans won.  It was filmed last, so while it exists within the context of season 5, I don’t think anything that comes after this episode is dependent on it story-wise – if that makes sense?  

As such – it’s sort of an easter egg.

The recaps I do are pretty much old TWoP-style recaps, if anyone here remembers what TWoP was. They cover what happened in the episode, but there’s also an element of critique throughout.  This is not a ‘hate’ thing.  This is simply what meta used to be: critical analysis.

The thing is, I didn’t think this was a strong episode.  I feel that if I do a full recap of this episode, it’s going to look like I’m meanly picking holes in it every second sentence, and given that this was an ‘extra’ episode hard-fought for by fans (Twitter locked me out of my account during the campaign :D), with cast involvement in the writing side, it would make me feel churlish to spend 7000 words picking it to bits.

On top of that – recaps are a bit of a labour of love.  They usually take a few hours of my weekend and wreck my wrists.  The nature and standard of this episode is such that I’m going to regard it as a sort of fun optional easter egg, as opposed to canon.  It’s sweet that there are so many personal associations in it for the cast (there were lots of genuine smiles in the wedding scene) – but it doesn’t really hold up in comparison with a regular episode.  

As such, I’ll still do meta, because I love a bit of meta - but not as much as usual.  My wrists are so happy.

When I saw The Trial of Jim Gordon as a title, I was excited. Jim’s always had a tricky relationship with guilt and shame and the whole notion of the hero.  He’s also got a tendency to wallow when he’s hit rock-bottom, but never actually goes so far as to apologise and make amends.  He feels bad about himself for a while, turns over a new leaf, and then carries on until the next moral lapse.

This title sounded like we’d get a sustained look at that habit.  Great – fascinating.  And it would be a nod to viewers who have been there since the first episode, because Jim’s sins stretch back as far as season one.  For example, he took Loeb’s one good and pure quality – his love for his daughter – and used it to blackmail him: an incredibly morally murky moment for him.  

And there’s been so many more moments like that over the years.  He went to Carmine Falcone because his ego couldn’t take losing a pissing contest with Oswald.  His actions led to the deaths of cops during the Pyg fiasco.  He let Oswald take the fall for Theo Galavan’s murder.  He allowed Sofia Falcone to propel him to the Captain’s job and screwed over his best friend in the process.  He betrayed Alice Tetch’s trust.  And that’s only naming a few.  

However, it was quickly apparent that his trial would only focus on one thing: his treatment of Lee.  And don’t get me wrong – Jim has done Lee wrong at points. I would say the worst moment was when he didn’t contact her immediately after his escape, despite knowing that she had suffered a miscarriage.  His rationale for that was weak, and I could see how she would be badly hurt by it and feel betrayed.

But.  There’s a couple of big issues created by focusing on Lee alone.

First up - it diminishes her as a character.  It removes Lee’s intelligence and strength and agency and interests and makes her one thing: the victim.  Was Jim the perfect man?  Nope. Did Lee have the ability to call it a day?  Yes, repeatedly. She could have checked out when she didn’t feel he was open enough about their relationship at work, or when he was weirdly slow to commit, or when he went off and murdered Galavan against her express wishes, or when he killed Ogden Barker, or when he lied about killing Galavan…. the list goes on.

Which is not to condemn her for wanting to stay in the relationship, that’s her call and that’s fine. But what you can’t really then do – in telling a story – is to paint her as a passive victim.  Lee had choices.  Which leads to the next problem in focusing on her alone.

In the context of Jim’s sins – the fact that Lee at every point had other options means that she’s probably one of his less hard-done-to victims.  Alice Tetch was terrified and without any other help when he betrayed her. Harvey has repeatedly said that working with Jim is essentially what keeps him going day to day – but Jim took his captaincy and left him feeling judged and alone and obsolete in a hospital bed.  Oswald was powerless when he abandoned him in Arkham.  Barbara only asked to be recognised as a human being when she was released from hospital.  It’s these kinds of people he has to answer to: the people who were vulnerable and powerless and desperately in need of help when they came to him.

And when the story just chooses to ignore them – then what we’re left with is the underlying message that those kinds of people, the freaks, the outsiders, the ones on the edge, well - they just don’t count.  Not to Jim Gordon, and thus, tacitly, not in the moral system of this universe.  They’re somehow not valid – their suffering matters less, and Jim doesn’t have to answer for how he’s wronged them.

For the narrative here to send and endorse that message is so difficult to reconcile to the show’s narrative as a whole that – for me – it simply can’t be accepted without major problems.

On practical level, too – the trial premise doesn’t really make sense.  Lee’s willingness to still have Jim in her life doesn’t exonerate him from past wrongs. The trial is an interesting idea.  Examining whether Lee wants to rebuild a relationship with Jim is an interesting idea. The two don’t really mesh well, though.

Overall, as a concept – it just didn’t really come off successfully, which is unfortunate, because the kernel of the idea had promise.    

Most of that main plotline is also plagued with inconsistencies, which didn’t help. Last week – Jim told Barbara that he didn’t want to see her in jail and take their baby away from her.  This week? That doesn’t hold water.  She’s excised from her own child’s life all over the place.  Alfred tells Lee she’ll make an exquisite mother.  Jim’s hallucination has Lee offering him the baby.  You can easily acknowledge that Lee will be the baby’s stepmother without erasing Barbara – but the story doesn’t seem to know how to do that. Fumbling it like this makes characters look callous.  Another odd moment was Ivy’s sudden willingness to see Selina dead.  That doesn’t follow on at all from the last time we saw her. On top of that, it felt a bit wearying for the women to all be at odds in this episode - and in such a simplistic good vs bad way.

Thinking a bit more about inconsistencies, the story seems not to acknowledge that season 4 happened.  It’s pretty glaring that season 5 hasn’t touched on Ed/Lee at all.  Whether or not you personally liked it, it was a big relationship that seemingly revealed a lot about Lee, and what’s seemed apparent this season is that they simply don’t know how to write their way back from something as big as the climactic ‘I do see you’ moment.  

This episode continues to ignore the repercussions of that relationship, which is fair enough, since the rest of the season has too – but it also ignores just about all of the rest of season 4.  You can’t really have Lee calling Barbara a psychopath when we saw her shoot Sofia in the head and knife Ed in the gut.  If you do, then you’re going to make her look like a moral hypocrite.

Last up, you have Oswald and Barbara in Sirens.  It’s maybe a very concentrated example of a problem the show has had over the years in handling shifts of tone.  If the story were consistently light and camp, and never touched on deeper themes, and the characters were purely comedy villains – then the notion of Oswald and Barbara not being invited to the wedding is a sly nudge in the ribs joke. But because it does frequently examine darker territory, and because it has showed us that they’ve both saved Jim’s neck repeatedly, and because it did show us their trauma, and did made us engage with them emotionally – excluding them causes problems.  It creates an ’us vs them’ when the show has been at pains over the years to stress the idea of nuance and shades of grey.  Much like the Madonna/Whore thing it creates with Lee and Barbara – think hard.  Is this honestly what you want your story to say?

And…it’s not.  Not really.  Which is fundamentally the issue.  The story just doesn’t really feel like it was constructed with attention to the narrative first and foremost.  And there are reasons for that, and as a sentimental nod – I’m sure it’s very sweet, but as a story it’s ultimately much too self-indulgent and, as a result, not really up to par.  

General Observations

Things that I’m unclear on going forward

Will we have a vengeful Ivy running about - seeking revenge for the failure of her plan?  I’m assuming not?

Will Jim and Lee be described as married by other characters – or just ‘together’?

Are the gangs settled now?  This one seems a big deal in terms of the city’s stability

  To finish on a positive note:

Bruce and Selina were sweet.

Victor was a joy throughout. As well as quoting Dickens a few episodes ago, he gave us some Shakespeare this week.  Also, he’s a vegan now.  Victor: officially more well-rounded than several main characters. I think that the last time we’re going to see Victor (on Fox, anyway) – so catch you later, Mr Zsasz.

Lee should get to wear 40s-inspired stuff every week - she really suited that shape of wedding dress.  That’s been a real missed trick in her costuming.  

Lucius and Ed are a match made in heaven.  Not only did we get Lucius’ ‘we’re perfectly bonded – like carbon and oxygen’ line, but he also seems to get walloped round the head as often as Ed.

Normal service will be resumed in a fortnight :)

[miragablog]

Top 10 Mahou Shoujo Shows for Babies (Part 1)

I’ll be the first person to admit, getting into Mahou Shoujo is hard.

With the lacking amount of accessible critique and over the top presentation shows of the genre adopt,

It can be genuinely uninviting for many anime fans to get a foot in the door that is Magical Girl.

After my last video, I received a handful of comments asking about what I’d recommend as great gateway shows for a newbie.

While a recommendations list is all good and well, giving context to why these shows are worth your time is what i’m more interested in talking about today.

Before getting into the list I’d like to clarify that the choice being presented arnt tiered based on quality nor personal preference.

Some of these shows I love more than others and others not so much; However when recommending shows to try in a sub genre like Mahou shoujo, I find it counterproductive to introduce ratings when breaking down audience bias.

Also I’m judging the viability of these shows on their first five episodes, maybe a few chapters of the manga.

With that out of the way, let's get into the first section….

Kill la Kill

In a world where facism has taken hold of Japanese government, scissor blade wielding badass Ryuko Matoi is on a quest to avenge the death of her father. This brings her to Honnouji Academy, a school run by the iron fist of Satsuki Kiryuin. 

For the sake of finding her father’s murderer, Ryuko must demonstrate pride in her body and fighting spirit with the help of a bloodthirsty seifuku known as Senketsu.

Let's say you made a magical cheesecake. Amongst the common choices, of strawberries, banana and cherries you dig through and find the tangy lemon that is Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Kill la Kill.

Trigger has done some fantastic work in its six years as a studio, revolutionizing modern anime as we know it. 

However what I never hear ANYBODY talk about is how Imaishi and co.’s work has pushed the concept of the Magical Girl.Kill La kill is a bombastic, stylish addition to the genre and a fantastic entry point for introducing others to Mahou Shoujo. 

It has a really fresh, fun take on the Magical warrior, in its most literal form. The use of a mascot character being the transformation item is rare enough, but including symbiote-esc elements to the costume as a whole is something i’ve never really seen done outside of comic books stateside. 

While some may critique the shows use of “Fanservice” to be pandering or perverted, I don't think it should be a roadblock in trying KLK out. Most of the nudity presented serves into a message about confidence and having pride in who you are.

It's not trite BS like what you see in Queens Blade or (shudder) Master of Martial Hearts.

If you’re trying to get your little brother or a friend to try Mahou shoujo without having to preface starting crunchyroll with a disclaimer- about how your a real man, throw this on with a bowl of popcorn and a pitcher of lemonade. You’ll have a blast.

Shugo Chara

Amu Himamori is, for all intensive purposes, popular.

Or is she feared?

The “Cool and Spicy” character surrounding Amu pervades the relationships she tries to make with others.

Despite her crushingly shy nature, classmates interpret everything she does in a rebellious lense, perpetuating rumors without making the effort to get to know Amu outside of her reputation.

But in a miraculous turn of events, she is given the chance to rectify her social standing with the blessing of three strange eggs known as Chara, portions of Amu’s buried personality that act as guardian angels.

Originally watching the show while airing in 2008, I can say that Shugo Chara is a contender with the likes of Pretty Cure when it comes to presentation. I’m surprised I don't hear more people talk about the series to be honest.

Transformation sequences are minimal but catch the eye.

The concept of having multiple characters to change in and out of when needed lends to keeping the audience guessing, especially when paired transformations with new Chara come into play.

In combination, Peach-Pits colorful art design and Kenji Yasuda’s directing kept me glued to the screen.

While the shows premise isn't horribly original, Shugo chara stands out for it’s “heart on it’s sleeve” approach to character development.

Overall Shugo Chara has a very child friendly plot while addressing overlooked themes in most bishoujo.  

Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt

Keeping this one nice and sweet as i’ve already mentioned Hiroyuki Imaishis contribution to the genre with Kill La Kill.

If you want to test your expectation or others of Mahou Shoujo while indulging in some vulgar toilet humor, then Panty and Stocking is worth checking out.

While shows like this may not be everyone's cup of tea, Gainax has definitely cranked out a fantastic parody addressing the more sexual undercurrents usually glossed over in Magical warrior.

You don't see many studios that have the confidence to implement pole dancing into their transformation sequences.

Atsushi Nishigori, Masahiko Otsuka, Yoh Yoshinari- Shit even my girl Sayo Yamamoto is here. With the diversity in staff, you’re bound to find something you like whether its the experimental realism in “Vomiting Point” or a saving private ryan homage with sperm ghosts in “Pulp Addiction”.

As someone who's watched all of Panty and Stocking through in both Japanese and English; I’d highly recommend the dub.

Not only does it help jokes stick but stays really close to the original intent while implementing some Adult Swim level humor.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be swept away by the shows poppy, powerpuff girl-esc art and Teddyloid’s contributions to the OST, introducing punchy playlist worthy electronica. Just don't listen to it with your mom or anything.

Cardcaptor Sakura

Sakura Kinamoto is your typical fourth grader.

She's outgoing, participates in sports at school and is beloved by her fellow classmates.

One day, when returning from class Sakura hears a strange sound from her father’s study. Investigating the bookshelves, she opens a strange tome containing “Clow Cards”,

a magicians tarot deck imbued with the powers of aspected spirits.

However, with a gust of wind the cards are lost and with the help of the books guardian, Kero- Sakura must recollect the deck and discover her true self.

Cardcaptor Sakura is by far one of the least abrasive gateways into long form Magical Warrior.

I’m 20 episodes into the series and while I know I dont have the free time to watch another 50 I kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddaaaaaaaaa dont careeeeeee?

The scenery is beautiful, pacing is mellow and everybody, whether it be top tier camcorder waifu Tomoyo to the cuckoo lander childhood crush Yukito will find a way to melt your heart.

When others talk about the typicality of magical girls, I find that Sakura presents many unorthodox takes on commonalities to the subgenre.

The show doesn't have transformation sequences, but rather invests its runtime on  inventive fight scenes and dynamic character development.

On the Manga side the series is much more compact read, with about 12 volumes not including the newly announced Clear Card Arc. Mokona and gangs luxurious, carefully laid linework are in the forefront, taking a less hi-scifi approach than their other titles.

When it comes to wholesome, genuine Mahou Shoujo- Cardcaptor Sakura is a great series to snuggle into a blanket and watch with a friend.

Sailor Moon

YOU DON'T NEED A PLOT SYNOPSIS FOR THE DRAGON BALL Z OF MAHOU SHOUJO. IF YOU DO, YOU’RE EITHER LIVING UNDER A ROCK OR TOO YOUNG TO BE ON THIS SITE. FUCK.

Yes, the Dic dub is borderline horrible if you didn't grow up with it and the shows a popular prototype for what we now consider the Magical warrior, which for some is pretty stock. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN IT ISN'T FANTASTIC AND WORTH THE BINGE.

As far as Magical Warrior goes, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon is a staple introduction to modern Mahou Shoujo.

While early sections of the series do contain buckets of filler, the show makes up for it with a lovable, diverse cast, Beautiful transformations and a fun premise.

Season three alone, Sailor Moon S is arguably one of the best installments in the genre and worth every second of your time as it showcases director Kunihiko Ikuhara, of Utena and Mawaru Penguindrum fame.

The story is nothing too crazy mind you; but if you’re interested in Sailor Moon manga-wise, Naoko Takeuchi’s illustrations are TO DIE FOR, drawn with meticulous detail and colored with a mixture of ink and translucent watercolors.

Look i’ll even make it easier; because I have no life and completed the show six times. A month or so ago I put together a “Abridged Viewing Guide” for people wanting to cut out useless filler so if you’re interested the link will be in the description.

Sailor Moon broke ground in the 90’s for what is now considered a “typical magical girl”. Truly, You would be doing yourself a disservice passing the series up.