#the new trigun show is actually pretty good so far for me

[vernedip]

Tagging Thing!

Rules: Tag 9 people (or less, because I don't really have many mutuals) you want to know better and/or catch up with, then answer the questions below!

-- Tagged by @sakvnosuke

Last Song: Wanderer's Lullaby by Adriana Figueroa, because of... reasons? I've got a daydreamer's curse, honestly.

Three Ships: Okay okay, I'll be honest, I'm a multishipper and generally prefer to keep my own ships separate from this account, but probably... Ekuserirei (MP100), Gochiccolo (DBZ), and... Hyuroicia/ai (FMA)..? I know, I know, they're weird, but I'm more of a found family person than a romance one, so I'm more a sucker for poly, borderline queerplatonic ships that also just center around a few people taking care of a child or three, I guess. Some honourable mentions would probably still be more domestic ships like KyuTae (Gintama) and Entourageshipping (Pokéspe), or crack ships like Handa x Kawafuji (Barakamon), whatever the heck Tom, Shizuo, and Vorona had (Durarara), or basically any appropriate ship in Gintama... Wait, are these even romantic ships for me anymore--

Currently Reading: Well, with normal books, I've been reading light novel after light novel these days. But not even consistent ones. One minute, it's Durarara, then Bungou Stray Dogs, then Kirby. I dunno either. In terms of fanfiction this very moment, however, I've been bouncing between fandoms a lot lately, so even though I was reading page after page of Yu-Gi-Oh and TMNT fanfics a few months ago, I'm suddenly back on a weird DBZ, Moomins, and Gintama thing. Last one I read was probably this one where Gintoki and the kids get kidnapped by this one dude who wants to enter the Shiroyasha in a galactic tournament or something, with a title that's on the tip of my tongue, if I can just find where I left the tab...

Last Movie: THE NEW PUSS IN BOOTS MOVIE WAS SOOOO GOOD!! I almost wanted to cry from the sheer amount of good it was, man! The visuals, the sound design, the story, the characters, it was all just so--! Gods, I've been loving what these sort of movies have been doing lately, where they're starting to get a bit bolder with storytelling. I love it a lot. I also know I'll be seeing that new TMNT movie coming out this August with some friends later, too! Hope it will live up to this trend.

Craving: I've read so many good fanfics... my standards for stories are only rising higher..! Pretty soon, I'll run out of stories I really want and I'll probably just spontaneously combust and die on the spot when that happens. Somebody..! Please..!! I need regular book recommendations of found family..! Preferably some random jaded adult gaining some kid that isn't blood related to them, maybe a few kids, actually. Or maybe a poly parental unit that focuses more on them raising their adopted kid than on the oddity of the relationship itself please! I dunno, but anything along those lines! I'm practically starving over here.

Ack, sorry, this was probably supposed to be a quick thing, but I've never been tagged before and I got carried away in my excitement to share my super weird story preferences on here.

Tagging: @en-decouvrant-le-monde @vimroy @magnacidebb @doozythebird

[doctor-croctor]

Today, I watched the first four episodes of Trigun Stampede.

Let me first say that I've been a huge fan of the original Trigun Anime since I saw it late at night on either Adult Swim or Toonami, i read the four volumes of the Trigun Manga that my school had and that (Along with DragonBall and Rave Master) are what got me into Manga in the first place.

I am still uncertain of this show, but it is almost in a good way. Vash's character maintains the heart of his goofball antics, and genuinely makes me believe that this world was made for love and peace, at least through his eyes. The art is amazingly and expressive, I like his design, but feel that the glasses are a bit too big, but that also reflects his more wide-eyed personality.

As for Meryl, I actually am enjoying her characterization as a newbie reporter. It allows her to make more mistakes than as the straight man insurance representative. Her back and forth with Roberto, her accompanying veteran reporter, is enjoyable and is great for guiding us through her character arc. Meryl was, along with Misty from Pokémon, basically the character definition of Tomboy, so I'm still at odds with her seeming to lose that aspect of her character, but her compassion is more than noteworthy to keep me invested.

(Below contains spoilers, so click more at your own risk)

I was very surprised when Vash managed to get through to Papa Nebraska, who, in his other characterizations, we never got a deeper sense for his personality. Here, he is still the criminal genius to the brawn of his much more appropriately sozed son, Cozien, but he is constantly putting down Cozien's intelligence while protecting him in an oddly heartwarming way, i love that they managed to expand his characterization while staying unabashedly himself. I quickly believed he could change when Vash brought up helping him and his son, which is something I think neither prior version of vash would have been able to do. Then E.G. Buggy... wait... no... that's not right.

Then E.G.Mine comes in, (nailed it), and Cozien is killed in the first explosion, I was shocked to say the least, but with his death I immediately felt heartbroken for Papa Nebraska, a character who three hours ago I would have never been heart broken for mind you.

I think I'll cut my review of the other characters and villians out for now and come back after ive seen more.

I am definitely enjoying it more than I thought I would after seeing the new design for Vash. The animation is great, the opening is I almost want to say iconic, but the music throughout doesn't drip with that aesthetic I love from the original show. And if that's my main nitpick so far it's doing pretty good.

My only question is, where on Gunsmoke is Best-Girl Stun Gun Millie Thompson?!?

[This post is gonna cost you all 20,000$$, so everybody better pitch in to pay the undertaker]

<Please no spoilers till I've replied to myself with more>

[midmorningsong]

man the trigun fandom has had a grip on me like no other fandom in my life; I've noticed a pretty consistent trend with myself of finding out about x show/book (usually through osmosis via online memes) -> watching said show -> recirculating in the fandom for 1-3 years via fanfic and tumblr memes -> fandom starts waning at some point after the show finishes -> start engaging more with another fandom -> cycle repeats

...and this same pattern is holding true for trigun thus far- except --EXCEPT-- the frankly insane hold it has on me. like I'm sure I've thought about fandom brainrot(affectionate) and all that as a fun little metaphor for being in fandom but no actually this is a valid term for all that I'm experiencing it.

I can measure my obsession with trigun via the very definitive method of 'how many AO3 tabs to I have open on average', because in all my years I'd say anywhere between 3 and 20 (at the absolute most), but right now? the past year? for trigun fics? I actually don't want to go count because it's embarrassing but I would say at least 50 as a lowball, and that's not even considering the entire vashwood big bang collection from last year I'm still working through.

SERIOUSLY in any fandom I'm actively checking for new fics and going through writers' works I might go for 1 in 25 stories I see- but with trigun (saying this now currently in 2024), there will be, say, 8 new or updated fics in the vashwood tag in 24hrs and I am extremely interested in reading like 6 of them. And ALL of them will be some kind of sublimely delicious whether it's a beautiful writing style, extremely poignant character introspection, a super engaging AU with a fleshed out world, the best smut you'll never find again, or, you know, ALL OF THE ABOVE.

I'm so curious as to what perfect storm has made this trigun renaissance- if it's a factor of an old established fandom getting more traffic again with new material, or a certain amount of time passing from the original media (so fandom oldies here for the long haul have had plenty of time to write and read 10k meta analyst posts), and trigun itself being a very complex story that has so many deep themes relevant and relatable to our struggles today.

In any case, I'm just thrilled to be here in the thick of it and am of two minds between having some kind of restriction on myself so I can actually have a good balance of hobbies without descending fully into fandom at all possible moments, OR just enjoying the amazing stories and engagements while I'm on the wagon lol

[yuhi-san]

So for the last day of @tristampparty have just some fun fact about trigun, escpecially july but lets get them done in order.

Despite being very, very obsessed with anime and manga and being quite active in german forums at the time trigun 98 first aired and was popular here… I was barely aware it existed.

I vaguely recall two people from a rpg trying to get me into trigon but they showed me the silly opening, vash skedaddling around like a lizard and him not having a bullet in the first episode. So it didn’t seem like something for my edgy teenage taste (oh sweet summer child I was.)

Trigon stampede didn’t show up on my radar at all either until I was traveling in japan in late july. I have no idea what even caused it but I went through the wiki, snooping for spoilers like any normal person. Which, sins the wiki contains stuff from trimax, 98 and tristamp it was. Uhm yea.

So anyway what I knew after was:

Vash and knives were species plant (which was so like ???? because I was thinking of trees without any context)

Also what the fuck is millions knives, how is that a name, this is almost as bad as the very manly male priest named ‘frau’

I am not going to entertine the section about a group that calls themself the freaking gung-ho guns, is this a joke

There is superhuman stuff going on with vash and also knives who is his twin.

Apparently he blew a hole in a moon??

He has a bounty on his head.. because he destroyed a city I think.

There are the two girls milly and meryl

Wolfwood dies (I vaguely remember seeing his death in a top then tragic anime deaths from watch mojo, I think)

when I came home from japan I just binge-watched it before going back to work.

So I went into stampede with very little context, but still some. I guess a lot of easteregs and hints went past me at first but that meant I was also unbiased (*cough*Roberto*cough* Milly *cough* new design *cough*)

I was delighted to hear johnny young bosch but a little disappointed we didn’t get any robin-esque gremlin cackle.

Was just a little surprised that wolfwood lived but I did eventually catch on that it was sort of an alternate prequel so to speak.

But then there is lost july.

See, I was vaguely aware vash destroyed I city. Sort of. But I don’t think I really took notice of july when skimming the wiki.

So the finale comes. Everything goes horribly. Roberto dies. At least meryl and wolfwood live. What knives does to vash is terrible. The fight isn’t looking too good for vash. The way knives kills the officers that attack vash.

and like vash was probably expecting it to be a suicide stunt to get the cube so far up in the air and detonate/fire (?) it. And in such a tragic way, it kills knives too (or at least that’s what it looks like to an unsuspecting audience and DEFINITELY to vash).

Everything is horrible but at least he managed to save the city.

Except it explodes anyway.

I was like WHAT!? WHAT!?

I’m telling you guys, I was shocked. I did not see that coming. In the slightest. I think I was still reeling from it by the credits.

Somehow, despite all the spoilers I’ve seen and read (also the couch…) I somehow managed to not expect lost july and was so blindsided by it

Edit: I posted this like three minutes ago but it just hit me what triggered me getting into trigun!! I’m pretty sure I never had trigon posts on my dash but somehow I had a post on it suddenly that was like this:

A screenshot of wolfwood saying to vash: don’t call me that! I’m Nicholas the punisher!

Then a short text about how he was trying to make himself and others believe that this was all he was or something along these lines and then the screenshot of the title drop “Wolfwood”

And then something really clever about how this was set up, as if right after wolfwood insisting he was just the punisher, the title drop immediately tells is otherwise. Like, no, no matter what you tell others and yourself, you are still wolfwood.

Actually if anyone has an idea what post that was hit me up.

[yokakaiju]

tristamp thoughts/live watch ramblings

preface: i already have a very bad impression of tristamp. i literally have been into trigun for maybe a week now and i have seen most of 1998, but im trying to go into tristamp with a clear head and view it objectively, but i genuinely looked at the character designs and legatos redesign made me resent it immediately tbh...

ANYWAY, im live watching as i write this, so apologies if its sporatic

okay so the good stuff so far

uhh... its very pretty!!! ill give it that. it really shows the evolution of 3d anime over time, and as someone who typically doesnt enjoy it i think tristamp is absolutely beautiful. first 3d anime i ever saw was knights of sidonia and i have a deep appreciation for where 3d anime is now compared to a decade ago

i kinda like meryls new design the best? i like her hat, its cute. everyone else is so... eh, tho. merylls redesign is chill with me tho

roberto is fine ig. i like old men characters sometimes and like, idk whenever im not sad abt milly not being here im okay enough with roberto existing

now on to my ever growing laundry list of complaints that ik will get worse if i keep watching (spoilers for trimax probably)

one, WHY IS VASH LIKE THAT?? LIKE WHY IS HE SUCH A WHINY CRYBABY?? LIKE SHUT UP DAWG!!! idk, ik vash is a silly emotionally explosive highly insecure funny little fella and i love him for it, i think vash is a great character, but why did they make him kinda a pathetic bitch in stamp? like, i usually dont watch dubs but i am for trigun cause my tv is kinda far from my bed and i dont wanna sit uncomfortably to read subs rn (BLEH!!!), so maaaaaaaybe sub vash is better, and no shade to the va i like his voice a lot for vash tbh, but bro pls stop crying every two seconds im gonna lose it. why is vash lowkey proslavery (THIS IS A JOKE), BUT FR!!! why is he more like... idk chill with plants being used ig ????? im sure hes not really, but like... dude, you arent the same

two, okay this made me actually mad, but why in the actual fuck was knives immediately introduced and why is he like some weird well known plant stealing cave hermit??? like??? no??? he wouldnt do that??? also why is he so present in this world LIKE DOES LOST JULY NOT EXIST IN THIS CANON??? WHAT IS THIS??????? i literally hate this rewrite. like... trimax is right there dawg... you did not have to rewrite literally everything. addition as i watch episode 3, why is he like that? why can he make purple? why does he have razors??? he doesnt talk like that ever??? why is he so??? i hate him actually??? this is not the knives ik and love??? who is this skinwalker????? HE DID NOT ACT LIKE THIS IN TRIMAX WHO IS THIS??? I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THEY REWROTE KNIVES THIS WAY OH MY GOD

three, why did everyone get an objectively bland redesign? like... i dont mind vashs hair. idgaf, but i literally hate his fucking totk link "lost power source" green ass arm. why cant it just be an ugly brown robot arm with a gun in it. whys it gotts be all "cool" and "green" and "mysterious", like IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE CYBERCORE TECHWEAR NEOFUTURISM ASS SHIT!!! i havent seeeeeeen wolfwoof in action yet, but i fucking hate his tristamp design. WHY IS HE A TWINK??? WHERE ARE HIS BOOBS??? WHY IS HE NOT A PRIEST??? LITERALLY TURNED A PERFECT CHARACTER INTO A BASIC BITCH FOR NO REASON. also like... knives. why is he... why is he like that. put shoes on plz the sand is hot babygirl. why are you wearing a tumour coat and ugly matrix ass bodysuit? where did your shoulderpadded objectively cooler dio-esque military outfit go? especially tho, i DESPISE legato and livios redesigns. i think they are SOOOOO butt ugly in tristamp and FOR WHY??? WHY DID THEY MAKE LEGATO SO FUCKING UGLY??? LIKE HE WAS SO HOT IN 98 AND ESPECIALLY IN TRIMAX OH MY GOD HES SO HOT LITERALLY DROOLING THINKING ABT HIM RN MY BABYWABY BOOBOO BEAR. THEY BUTCHERED HIM SO BAD AND IT PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH!!! AND LIVIO OH MY GOD WHY DID THEY DO THAT TO HIM??? HIS TRIMAX DESIGN IS OS FUCKING PEAK HE IS SO AMAZING AS AN EYE OF MICHAEL AND ESPECIALLY AFTER HE REFORMS AND BECOMES A COWBOY BABEYYY!!!! BUT NOOOO THEY MADE HIM AN UGLY ASS CYBERPUNK ASS BITCH!!! THEY MADE HIM SO FUCKING LAME AND BORING!!! PATOOEY I HATE HIS FUCKING DESIGN!!!! okay so wolfwood just showed up, can officially say hes the weakest version of wolfwood and that i do not like him. hes giving non sonic fan perception of shadow vibes. ALSO WHERE IS HIS MELANIN THEY TOOK IT AWAY!!! THE MELANIN VACCUM STRIKES AGAIN!!! tbf, he didnt have MUCH but he was a little brown, not literally just a white man

four, where. the. fuck. is. milly. i LOVE milly. she is one of my faves ever, im so sad she isnt here. genuinely...

five and probably last for rn, why is the pacing so bad. like its not good in trigun or trimax really, and especially bad in 1998, but it SO ASS!!! like its so blink and you'll miss it, which kinda stands for every trigun... but expected this to be like at least a liiiiittle better i dunno

conclusions: im gonna keep watching it maybe? but like... i dont like it. its bad imo. literaly have been into trigun for one week and am in mourning that trimax will likely never have a proper adaptation. i just wanna see angel knives in his full glory, not whatever tf tristamp is trying to push here

[dazzle-writes]

Hello, saw you were doing match ups so wondered if you'd do one for me, with trigun characters

I'm an 160cm thin girl (20 y/o) with long brown curly hair and blue eyes, kinda look like merida from brave if that helps, enfp

I'm a lot like 98' vash (my biggest ever kin fr), goofing around and having fun, making dirty jokes with my friends, very clumsy and bubbly when in good mood, tho i don't shy away from being tough from time to time

I'm friendly and like meeting new people but keeping connections is my biggest flaw. I mostly keep it going with the ones i click with

I love being around people, but don't mind being alone for some periods of time, reading, watching something, drawing or doing whatever hobby i picked on

I'm an archeology student, have passion for history and literature, love psychology and philosophy, love things like true crime and paranormal stories, definitely would like to travel and see what the world and people have to offer. I'm the "do it for the plot" type of person, getting into random situations for the sake of seeing how it'll end and if i'll have a story in the end

When i was younger i was more like some kind of vash-milly combo, but now I'm more aware of people, i can't stand when someone is judgy from the beggining, when someone is too negative about the world and people, because even tho i myself get disappointed in people often, i still think that we should look for positive things in everyday life. Kind of "if life has no meaning, might as well find meaning in small things"

Sorry if this was too long, thank you if you've read this far ^^ and keep up with the good writing, you're doing amazing!

UWAAAA I'm so glad you like my writing! I've been swamped with work lately, so sorry this is taking a while!!

For trigun 98, I most definitely match you up with Wolfwood! You are just that little ray of sunshine he needs to keep going. Plus, he loves that you and him make sex jokes to each other about everything that you can. You two get kidnapped and held by Knives? Non-stop dick jokes. At first you try to at least mutter them under your breath, but soon enough you're both just spouting them out as fast as you can think of them. Knives is just standing there in shock that you can think of so many in a short amount of time. I also think you two would be like, surprisingly close beforehand. He a big cuddler too (have you fucking seen those titties MMMMM) and I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL BUT WOLFWOOD IS TERRIFIED OF GHOSTS!!! Yall go ghost hunting and he is ATTACHED TO YOU LIKE NO OTHER. Homie is throwing round the holy water like he's a raincloud. You one day dig up and old book and are pretty sure that its haunted? He's hiding being his giant cross and shaking in his tight ass pants.

In trigun stampede however, Vash latches onto you like white on rice. You are exactly what this poor bean needs in his life!!!! You teach him to appreciate the little things, and show him that he's allowed to have wants and needs. He enjoys taking you around old crashed spaceships and letting you go wild with the archeological zoomies. In this universe, you also get kidnaped by Knives so Vash follows to come and save you and once again, you make so many dick jokes. The only difference is that Stampede Knives has never seen a wiener in his LIFE and doesn't get any joke you make. Do with this information what you will. Vash also really likes showing you his Plant siblings when his spilled the alien beans. You'd probably enjoy just quietly hanging with the Plant girlies because they just watch you draw or read or they nap! they are very nice when you need to recharge a social battery but don't want to be completely alone. Vash is also a big cuddler and understands having trouble keeping connections with people!! He's always moving so he gets sad thinking about all the people he wanted to grow closer too.

If we wanted to hit up the manga, then id actually pair you with Legato! I think you'd be just the right person to help him let himself be a better and softer person. Your love of psychology would really interest him, and I think you'd be that enemies-to tolerated-to friends-to lovers thing. He also likes learning about humans and the past, and I think that's he would really appreciate you showing him to good side of humanity through psychology and even true crime by showing how people come together and how people react to catastrophe and stress. He needs to see people doing good things, and you are just the person to show him around the world and prove it to him

ALSO SORRY THIS IS LIKE MONTHS LATE I got another job and started school SOBS!!! But I hope you enjoy!!!!

[pbear]

Going to include some opinions on this one. Warning on spoilers for any of them.

Tokyo Revengers: Honestly kind of slogging through this one. I don’t exactly dislike it but I don’t think it’s for me. The time travel concept I do like but I’m not really into watching middle schoolers beat each other up. Still in the middle of season 1.

Horimiya: Literally watched all of season 1 in 2 days. Very enjoyable. It doesn’t beat around the bush and I like that. (Hori and Miyamura actually become a couple before the series ends so you see their dynamic before and after and it’s not some super dramatic moment where they get together. It just happens.) The characters are all extremely likable and I love watching their antics. I’m watching Horimiya: The Missing Pieces as it comes out and it’s great even though it’s mostly just everyday activities with the gang. Love them all.

Trigun 1998: Moved pretty slowly through this one. Finishing one episode didn’t make me want to watch another and it wasn’t because I was disliking the plot or characters. I got to the end and enjoyed it overall, but I never really had a clue what was going to happen next which didn’t make me anticipate the next episode. Wolfwood is my favorite even though the main four were all great. It also gave me Cowboy Bebop vibes.

Jujutsu Kaisen: On Season 2. Very good and animation is good as always. The flashback of Gojo’s time at Jujutsu Tech is bittersweet. Riko’s death is so painful and sudden. You see Geto’s change and it makes the current events of the series more personal. Shibuya arc is coming up and from the manga fans’ reaction, I’m expecting a lot of pain.

Bungou Stray Dogs: SEASON FIVE BABYYYYYYY. THIS SHOW HAS MY HEART AND SOUL. So far, the pacing has been better than last season. Mourning Akutagawa smiling as he lets Atsushi escape. Bones has left out some bits and pieces but it’s been very enjoyable. It’s weird that we’re catching up to manga events very fast though. I’m not sure where this season will end yet.

Black Clover: My new obsession. Watched it because it gave me Fairy Tail vibes and I love it for a lot of the same reasons I love Fairy Tail. The magic types are so cool to watch. The found family in the Black Bulls is a peak example of the trope. I love them all. A lot of the characters I’m super invested in. Favorites right now are Luck, Klaus, and Magna though. I keep making posts saying I just started but I’m like a third through the series already. It hasn’t made me cry yet but I know it will.

D20 Fantasy High Sophomore Year: Not as good as the first season but still great. I still have to finish the last episode but the arcs and development for all the Bad Kids is amazing. Dimension 20 in general is great for how it can switch between fun antics and telling a truly great story with touching moments. Standout moments include Hilda Hilda, Fabian learning to dance, Kristen trying to fly with a dance ribbon, Gorgug learning to be an artificer to talk to Zelda, and Fig and Ayda.

[hikennosabo]

trimax vol 8 random thoughts

i feel like i'm still emotionally caught up in volume 7 lmao... but we march on! mercifully i have less to say about this one than the previous volume, but this still turned out pretty long lol. maybe i should split my posts up more...

chapter 1:

the cross in the foreground of the title page... lmao. subtle storytelling techniques.

we know legato's skill is controlling someone else's body, we've seen him do it before. however. i've been rewatching bits of stampede here and there, in which his power is more like... idk, general application telekinesis? for example, he uses his power to affect the engine on the sandsteamer. it's not that important i suppose but it's a change i'm wondering about.

this has me wondering. what's the relationship like between humans and plants on earth? it's been brought up a few times that humans stripped the earth of its resources. so is it just as exploitative? ...does knives plan on "saving" the plants on earth, too...?

meanwhile, wolfwood... wait a sec, is this...? --IT IS!!!

THE RETURN OF WOLFWOOD'S STUBBLE!!! THANK GOD!!!

...ahem. i mean, the poor man looks exhausted and miserable. but fr i missed his stubble so much, i was sad when he showed up clean shaven way back in trimax vol 1 lol.

...aaaand then the stubble is absent again. glad to have that one panel though.

okay, wolfwood intermission over, back to the conversation between vash and knives. everyone's already said so much about it already, and i've already gone over some parts of it, so i don't think i'm really adding anything here... but i want to talk about some aspects of it that didn't really fit into my other post.

i touched on this in my volume 7 post. vash wants to wait, knives doesn't. and this is interesting to me, because... knives isn't actually wrong here? we saw the Last Run along with knives, we've seen how badly plants are treated. vash answering "that's the way it is" seems, i don't know... passive? like, knives's actions aren't GOOD, but i think his sense of urgency is a little warranted compared to vash just wanting to... wait it out?

and as we know, the reason why humans were trying to emigrate to a new planet in the first place was BECAUSE their resources on earth had run dry. so knives isn't really wrong about that either.

also, the page has already been posted a million times, so i won't repost it again, and also i've already said this, but vash getting so emotional at the mention of tesla that he breaks out of legato's control is crazy. he already fought against legato's control to crawl his way to knives and it wasn't even the full extent of his will.

also "don't you turn away from me, knives!" ...i'm repeating myself atp but god. he just sees right through him, doesn't he.

his ass is not listening at all. knives, honey, he's saying YOU need to look inward!!! vash can see right through you and he's telling you that you failed at truly facing your pain!!! BUT YOUR ASS IS NOT LISTENING!!

chapter 2:

and we're here with livio and wolfwood... livio's mouth doesn't really open when he talks so i can't tell when he's the one talking lol. he... didn't really say much in stampede.

livio is huge, what the hell! why'd they twinkify him so much in stampede!

i must say, so far i haven't met a trigun character that i didn't like. (aside from like, random unimportant one-off villains that i don't care about.) but i like everyone who's been important/recurring. even characters like legato and knives, with all they've done wrong, all of their genuinely heinous actions, i still love them. i get emotional about them and think they're well-written and interesting to think about. that being said... chapel is kinda pissing me off lmao.

^ men will literally do... whatever this is instead of going to therapy.

(also this page is giving sephiroth vibes lol... this isn't the first and won't be the last time i will make this comparison. he IS a very sephiroth-like character.)

the chaos and destruction?! THIS IS ALL HAPPENING SO FAST HELP, ALL THIS AND A SEVEN MONTH TIMESKIP??

OH, WHAT A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES!! i didn't realize how much i missed them until they showed up... :') and yay, luida's here too!

chapter 3:

oh, even brad is back!! :) (i recently rewatched the episode of 98 where he DIES... crossing my fingers he makes it to the end of the manga lol)

meryl... ough :( i wish we could've seen her grapple with and work through all the trauma, talk with milly about it, etc... on top of having to face the sudden apocalypse... gal's been through so much. and she hasn't been able to talk with vash about what happened, the last time they saw each other was... well, it was a rough parting, to say the least. we didn't see her journey but we see her here, on the other side. more tired than before but still moving forward, able to talk honestly about the trauma she faced, and doing what she can to help people. she is so... cool.

also knives keeps making people just Vanish Outright like what is he doing exactly? eating them?? (<- this is a joke but actually.)

the plant memory... knives was brought to his knees by it. and his expression... ough

KNIVES BREAKDOWN.... 2!!!!!!

two breakdowns in two volumes... uaaagh, the effect of his face splitting apart is so GOOD. although i can't tell if the plants are deliberately showing him this, or if it's more of a side effect from absorbing so many...

and yeah, thinking about ordinary people, of course they wouldn't be the ones abusing plants. they don't have the power or authority to do so, especially not at a large scale. but knives doesn't see that - or hasn't seen it until now, rather - and thinks all humans are the same. so the real solution is to dismantle the structures that allow for plant abuse.

ELENDIRA MY BELOVED!! SHE'S SO COOL <333

also i LOVE the image of ww and legato that we end the chapter on. ww gets so many cool compositions, man.

chapter 4:

OUAGH, I LOVE WOLFWOOD. legato i love you baby but you deserved to get shot. also vash using his angel arm to escape...!! i mean, it's not like he has any other weapons he CAN use, but it's still... new to see him willingly using it like this.

I LOVE THE COMPOSITION HERE!!! IT'S SO GOOD!!! the "amen" shaped like a cross? INSANE... and livio's face being in shadow so we only see the skull mask... this panel is SO good

i don't have that much to say about the fight... it's painful to watch. i already know ww and livio's history from stampede, and i don't know how much more of it we're going to get here in the manga, but juxtaposing scenes of young livio against his current self is... all we really need to know. and i love wolfwood's prayer so much, it's just... so sincere and desperate.

i'm absolutely flabbergasted by the level of vashwood. everything about this is so fucking romantic, holy shit.

like. just the act of shielding ww is romantic in and of itself, but. also the fact that he answered ww's prayer. and that vash has been so afraid of his own power, which he's now using to protect... ugh. and their brief banter on the page directly after this is so good.

AND THIS IS JUST. SO GOOD. vash doesn't care about his own life, but HE CARES ABOUT WOLFWOOD!! SO MUCH!! oooggghh THE VASHWOOD OF IT ALL!!!

and then he uses his angel arm again, and it's the fanciest it's ever been... powered up with love... he has full control over it now.

but also, i already talked about this line in my other post, but knives begging vash not to go and saying "we only have each other"...i only talked about knives's feelings in that post - it's true for him. he only has vash. but vash has other people who he loves and who love him. and that love is why vash is doing what he's doing right now. maybe it's what knives was reacting to, when he touched vash with his feather... he realized he couldn't make vash stay. and that's why the end of the chapter says "it's over." just put me in the microwave already. ugh. i should've put this in my other post but i'm having Revelations in real time as i write lmao.

chapter 5:

oh hey! this is the first appearance of the little glass vial (a little glass vial? A LITTLE GLASS VIAL!!) that tristamp ww was constantly drinking from! aka the biggest death flag known to man. i was wondering when we'd see them.

also, ww is finally being honest and telling vash about himself...! :') it's all stuff i already knew from watching stampede, but still... it's rough. and the way stamp adapted it made it even more horrific and grotesque. ww looks, idk, around 14 or so? he was robbed of some pretty important years... i think his mind has more or less caught up to his body by now, but even if he wasn't a victim of experimentation, his childhood would've been cut short either way. it was already cut short the moment he was given a gun...

JUST HOW MANY WW DEATH FAKEOUTS ARE THERE GONNA BE. YOU CAN'T FOOL ME WITH THEM. two within a few pages of each other... is anyone keeping a tally?

VASH BLANKIE MODE!!! he even has slippies on... :') he's cozy

also wolfwood burrito :')

AND OH, MARLON'S BACK TOO!! i didn't expect to see him again, i'm just as happy as vash that he's here, lol. so many old characters coming back! and oh, meryl... :') they haven't seen each other since that day, and maybe vash thought she never wanted to see him again... this small gesture of hers was a massive relief to him. no words needed.

chapter 6:

okay since this is a spinoff/bonus chapter how are we counting the numeration. is this chapter 51. the trigun wiki says it's 50.5 but i know the wiki sucks ass so... (not like it matters...)

simple yet effective way of telling us roughly when this takes place - this was before he met vash. i love how this is where he got his "priest" schtick from, just... rolling with maylene's assumption and then carrying on with it lol.

this just hurts, especially coming right after ww's flashback. his life was put on rails the moment EoM took him.

ALSO BABY WW SOOOOOOOO CUTE

MY SON

ehhh... i don't really have that much to say about this chapter that hasn't been said already... it's an interesting look at ww pre-vash. and the villain is annoying lol

there's a lot that can be said of this chapter and ww's views on freedom, and i think other people have already done that better than me. but this panel sums up his priorities very concisely. no regard for his own wishes, doing as he's told, going "quietly" along... it's better inside the cage.

ummmm. i'm not ready for volume 9.

[tantei-armin]

ANIMES I'VE WATCHED - WINTER 2023

I'm going to make these from now on, just for fun. This is about the animes I've watched this season, my short opinion and my rate on each. This is just my personal opinion.

-

DROPPED SHOWS: Tomo-chan is a Girl! (2 eps), The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Collegue (3 eps) and Kaina of The Great Snow Sea (1 eps).

First, let me be clear that none of these shows are bad. I will not rate them, coz I don't think it's fair since I've watched less than 3 episodes of each.

Tomo-chan was funny, but after 2 episodes it just felt generic to me. Ice Guy is a super pretty show and rly cute, but I just got bored and not rly invested to want to know more. Kaina, idk. Obviously the CGI animation can't be compared to Trigun Stampede, but it's not by any means bad. It wasn't the animation that made me drop the show, it simply did not hooked me at all, and after the first episode I completely forgot about it. Let me know if you think I should give them a second try.

Now here are the animes I've finished and my ratings for each (in no particular order). Beware for a few spoilers!

High Card

This one was good, but tbh, I couldnt really connect with any of the characters in the show. I actually enjoyed the episodes where it was just dumb fun with getting to see new characters and their weird powers, more than the episodes with actual plot. So the whole thing with Chris at the end, didnt rly appeal to me much, I felt like I barely new anything about him to actually care. Would I watch it again? Probably not, but I did enjoy it and will most likely give S2 a try.

Rate on MAL: 7/10 (Good)

Bonus: Favorite ED this season.

-

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

I didn't expect to like this show as much as I did. I assumed I would lose interest quickly like it happened to Ice Guy and Cool Colleague. But the show, aside from being visually super pretty, have a nice (even if not the most creative) premisse and I rly liked the characters. It was one of the few anime that I was actually excited to watch a new episode every week. The only downside for me, is that the plot became repetitive halfway through. Ann gets screwded over by others, coz she is a girl and they are jealous of her talent. That made it get quite tiring near the end. But I am still excited for S2 and I hope the plot moves on a bit more.

Rate on MAL: 8/10 (Very Good).

-

In/Spectre S2

Tbh, I feel like this show might be better in manga form than anime. Because there's A LOT if talking. This season (so far) did not have much of a plot, more like 3-4 episodes arcs, that you can watch in random order and it will not affect the experience at all. I like the puzzles and the mystery, but thats about it. I actually waited for each arc to end and watched those episodes on a row, rather than watch weekly. I didnt have to force myself to watch the show and I quite enjoyed each arc. But I wouldnt rewatch it, specially since I know the answer to the mysteries now.

Rate on MAL: 6/10 (Fine).

-

Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari

Went into this one completely blind. I actually kinda loved it. Unlike other shows that I started losing interest by the end, with this one I started to enjoy more as it went. The first episode gave the impression that it would be just another dumb shounen. I didnt expect the romance and actually rly liked it. The characters are very endearing, and it was refreshing seeing a MC that started as an edgelord and turned out to be a complete awkward dork instead of the other way around. Whats so funny to me is that practically nothing big happened by the final episode. It started as classic shounen and kinda ended like a Slice of Life. Would watch it again, and will definitely check out if theres a S2, since it's clear this was just the beginning of the story.

Rate on MAL: 8.5/10 (Very Good)

-

Revenger

Another show I went in completely blind and enjoyed it... for like half the show. Would not rewatch it. It's okay, I'm not big on historical shows, but it was interesting for most of it. To be honest, I would have rated this show higher, wasn't for the last episode. If tristamp had the best finale of this bunch, this show had the worst.

(Major spoilers ahead)

There was a whole lot of complicated built to the finale only for it to be SUPER BORING. The villain was so generic and during the entire show he was like this super smart guy, always one step ahead of the heroes... only to die in the dumbest way possible. Seriously he literally standed in front of the guy trying to kill him and say "hey come on join me" and got murdered. And then there was this whole thing during the entire show about having the main dude, forgive himself and find another reason to live and whatever. It kept building up and then in the last moment he was just still depressed and got killed by a character that appeared like twice and they never explained why the kid even did that or why he was so angry at him to begin with. Look, I'm all for sad endings and stuff, but this one just felt like the ending basically made half of the show's point completely useless.

Rate on MAL: 6/10 (Fine)

-

Buddy Daddies

This one was great! Very wholesome. It was a lot of fun, but also with some quite good drama. Not gonna lie, I teared up more than once. I expected it to be just dumb comedy, but it turned out to have quite the right amount of fluff and angst. A lot of people expected it to be SpyxFamily Gay Edition, but thats not it. I do have to say though... probably unpopular opinion, but I do NOT like Miri. Honestly she annoyed me to no end. Which makes her more realistic as a kid I guess. Do not go into this if you are expecting some homoerotic tension between the two guys. It's not about that, it's about found family for all parts involved and it's absolutely wholesome. I'll definitely rewatch it some day. Highly recommend.

Rate on MAL: 9 (Great).

-

To Your Eternity S2

Aw man this is hard. I absolutely adored the first season, it have probably the most beautiful first episode of all anime. Unfortunately... S2 did not do it for me. I desperately wanted to love the show as much as I did the first season, but it just didn't happen. By the end of the season, I felt detached from it and also disappointed. It didn't give that rush of feelings from season 1, and by the last couple episodes I felt like all the things about loosing people were thrown in the trash with all the revivals. The big reunion was kinda boring too, I was so excited for it, and yet it was just, meh. There were definitely some great highlights, but overall this season was incredibly inferior to S1 imo.

Rate on MAL 7/10

Bonus: Best character development of the season: Bon.

-

Trigun Stampede

Listen. LISTEN! If you follow my blog you know. But listen. This show! I'll say it right now: Anime of the Year. Haven't hyperfixated on anything this hard since Banana Fish.

No, I did not watch Trigun, I tried years ago and dropped after like 3 episodes for a bunch of reasons that I''ll not gonna go into rn. Tbh the main reason I decided to watch Stampede was over the visuals. I am a big fan of Studio Orange. I find their shows visually beautiful and just really pleasing to the eyes (where's my Houseki no Kuni S2, Orange!??), and I was instantly attracted to it when I watched the trailer. So I hopped on the first episode for the eyegasm.

But boy, oh boy this show is gorgeous. After the first episode I was hooked solely for the visual experience and the fun ride. By episode 3 I was hooked by the plot, and by episode 4 (with Wolfwood's introduction), I was in love with the characters.

I love the visuals, the designs, the story, the music, everything. Some of the changes people complained about werent actually changed, just postponed (which I theorized would happen halfway through the show), and some of the stuff that is actually different from the 1998 anime are actually the things I did not like in Trigun 98. And thats just a personal preference. But I do think that the fact I didn't watch the 98 show as a kid (it wasnt even released in my country) gave me the opportunity to fully enjoy Stampede without nostalgia getting in the way and clouding my opinion on it. I'll say that I agree that the pacing was quite fast, but I also understand why Orange and Kenji Muto did that, specially after we realized this entire season was a prequel. I do hope S2 slow down the pace a little bit.

But guys. The finale. Holy shit. The finale. I was rendered speechless. The final episode alone was a masterpiece. That's how you raise the bar on how to do a finale. The second cour of 86 had an AMAZING finale, but this here was something else. The animation was stunning, the music (ohmygod the scene they fell from the tower holy shit, when Vash's wing appeared), everything was absolutely incredible.

This was the show I couldnt wait for a new episode. This was the show I kept rewatching the episodes over and over while waiting for the next. And every time I did, I would find a new detail that I didn't notice in the previous watchs. Look, preferences aside, it is crystal clear how much love and passion was put into this show. From the gorgeous animation, to the character's expressions, to the small details everywhere, to the way the studio's staff interacted with the fans on twitter, this show was put together with a lot of effort, passion and thought.

I can say right now that Trigun Stampede easily became one of my favorite shows of all time, and this is coming from someone who have been watching animes for over 20 years. I'm not really planning to try watching Trigun 98 again, but I am planning on starting the manga, specially since I already got spoiled about some big events.

Bonus: Favorite OP of the season.

Rate on MAL: 10/10 (Masterpiece)

Anime of the Year for me 100%. I do not see any anime taking Tristamp's place, not even SnK's finale, and this is coming from an originally SNK obssessed blog. Thats how much Tristamp impacted me.

-

That's it!! If you think there's an anime I missed this season and should check out, pls leave it in the comments which is and why I should give it a try.

[hecatombi]

Here's my wishlist of threads and interactions! Just things I hope to eventually get, if you want to thread any of this with me sometime feel free to always slip into my dms about it! I will on and off write / add to this.

I hope these don't really feel super samey, but i apologize if they do!! ALSO, more AU's are always on the table, you can ask more detail about au ideas i have in mind. trust me, i go to INSANE depths for my wishlists. but. i do want to keep this list as general and accessible as possible in case any one of youse want to pick one to play around with.

GENERAL;

good omens or OFMD muses would be cool to interact with!!

More super hero muses interacting with my more powerful guys.

Miraculous ladybug portrals of any kind for randy / rex would be fun!!

RANDY:

MORE RC9GN MUSES!!!!!!! OF COURSE...

Action threads with any of my muses would be pretty fire actually but i'd love it with randy particularly

MORE NORISU NINE MEMBERS!! I would love to establish who becomes linked to a kaiju and who could take on more roles as a ninja! so far, the only established new member has been hachi of @standbowed!! i need 7 more, though. and 8 more spirits to go with every ninja!! dm me if interested :D

travelling through the remaining 8 lands of ninja legend would be sooo fucked but so fun.. twirls hair.... who wants an Adventure long termmmm...

identity reveal. superhero shenanigans. PLAY VIDEO GAMES WITH MA BOY! just hang out with him, it'd be nice.

CHAI:

chai and vash .. i do personally ship them but i'd never force another vash to ship it with me. even them interacting would be so fun though!!

chai moving to somewhere safer or people joining his resistance is always a fun time

honestly i just really want a ship with chai in general. who wants to smoochie the default mii

i have so many ideas for him living with others, trying to find work elsewhere, his status as a brand ambassador to the megacorp that vandelay is,

HACKING HIM. HE CAN BE HACKED. HOW FUCKED IT WOULD BE TO EXPLORE THIS!! YET HOW FUN

If your muse is a musician, specdifically a famous one, oh my god let chai fanboy over them!!!!!!!!

i have a million more ideas but i'll refrain from putting them LOL so many ideas.

VASH:

A non freaky interaction with knives who don't ship plan.tcest would be nice :'D younger vash interactions, dream interactions, fucked up pre death interactions.... anything. would be interesting to explore since we saw so little of them.

bUT ALSO anyone from trigun!! I don't really ship vash super easily personally, but there's like 5 versions of him imuse. i don't really do vashwood personally but i can see why it would appeal to some.

i think vash deserves to not be feared so a thread where he gets appreciation for something he did would be nice. since he gets it so little

someone he could confide in and help heal with given how much he bottles up ..

getting comfortable enough with a muse that he can show off his uncanny true plantlike form!!!! which is SO RARE for him!!!!!!

interactions with other powerful protagonists or people who challenge his morality strongly would be so epic to interact with. it would be so cool.

JOSEPH:

any interactions with fellow jjba muses! especially caesar, lisa lisa, suzi q, jonathan, dio, johnny, gyro!

would love a thread where he does magician stuff since he's canonically into street magic

any thread where he gets to pull a your next line is and stun your guy. idc the context i just think it'd be REALLY funny

oldseph threads would also be really fun to have if i can get enough peeps interested........

him learning how to make bubbles from caesar or like caesar if caesars dead atp. :D

TEACHING HAMON TO OTHER MUSES!!!!!!!!! ASK WHAT THIS WOULD ENTAIL IF YOU DONT KNOW

GARY:

Tbh more of him dancing and goofing off would be really fun

Adopting more kids always. he's such a good dad!!!!

Maybe someone who breaks his isolation sooner than Avocato did in season1 before everythang went to shit..?

i'd generally like to rewrite season 3 and beyond. like i love final space but i dont like the direction it went all that much personally.. <:/

help him get more comfortable with a new look, as i hc him to be more transfeminine nowadays! would be nice helping him get comfortable in his own skin.

ASH:

MORE SLASHERS. this is my only real note for now

well that and maybe more. like. medieval interactions.... since mine's a knight and all given AOD.

AIDEN:

HACKING INTO SOME BIG PLACE FOR A SECRET MISSION WOO YEA WOOWOO YEAH FIXER MOMENTS

be on a fixer mission with aiden. you can be co worker,hostage, or even his torturer. i dont care as long as its cool.

meeting more watchdogs muses in general though there.. doesnt seem to be many of those aside from myself

if anyone wants to deal with his edgy fuck ass be prepared for him to be relatively standoffish / prickly, but he can warm up to you if he has to be your work partner.

BEE:

she needs to make herself some PROPER FRANDS.

Intergalactic jobs on your muses planet!! that would be so fun!! Like imagine she gets a temp job working for your muse....

Terrible room mate anyone? :) give her more roomies cause i doubt there's another puppycat active atm..

bee also flexing her insane robot powers could be epic. rare, but epic. i dont know if she entirely processes how unusual that is though.. huh!

REX:

escaping providence would be nice.

thread where he's deprogrammed from the culty weird propaganda of providence

doing normal kjid things like hanging out at th epark, learning memes, playing video games, going to school stuff -- this is allt hings he's never been allowed to do!!

Drawing your muse and entering them into his JOURNALS... ohh the importance of those can NOT be understated.

curing your muse from turning into an EVO!

[kayjayo1227]

Hello there, sorry to be interrupting!

I was curious about what issued you've personally encountered with Stampede!

I'm completely new to the series, I know there's an older adaptation also but supposedly it was very inaccurate to the story and I'd love to know the differences between iterations before sticking to one.

I am definitely 👌 close to just reading the manga and nothing else though, given that Stampede didn't really spark joy for me as I'd have hoped it would.

Thank you for your time either way!

Wishing you a stellar day :)

You asked so I’m gonna probably write a whole lot lol 😝

I am not by any means a Trigun 1998 purist or anything, I actually got some issues with it too later on once they deviate from the manga. Personally, I think between the three the manga is ABSOLUTELY the better version just in terms of storytelling and visual style and whatnot. I very highly recommend it.

Trigun 98 nails Yasuhiro Nightow’s visual style perfectly. It’s got absolutely iconic music, and it’s one of those animes that helped make anime a big thing in the US. Plus, I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for it personally because I watched it first and as a kid. It’s very good.

The problem with 98 is that the Trigun manga took a hiatus and was republished later under a different magazine, and from that point on is known as Trigun Maximum (if you do watch 98 this split starts to happen right after the stuff with Eriks and the little timeskip) so it misses out on a LOT of good stuff and makes up it’s own ending. But up to that point it’s a phenomenal adaptation.

Trigun Stampede is… it’s a weird case for me. Because while on the one hand I don’t hate the cg style here, I also feel like it’s wrong for Trigun. It’s so crisp and clean instead of gritty. They seemed to be leaning a lot more into the sci-fi side of Trigun than space western and it’s just a surprising choice?

They’ve done a great job characterizing Vash. I was actually very excited to see Knives using y’know KNIVES lol and (while I haven’t got there yet) I know the ending of the series plays into 98/the manga somehow. But it felt weird to me watching it when so many characters were weirdly different.

They made changes and I don’t get why? Like changing the planet’s name from Gunsmoke to No Man’s Land lol why? I personally was really hoping they would give us more accurate manga adaptations but instead they gave us something that was neither. It keeps a lot of that original Trigun peace and love to it, but every character change leaves me just looking at the screen and going “WHY”

Just for example about what I mean (and the biggest example of it)

One of my favorite manga characters is Livio. I love Livio. He isn’t in 98 at all. But he has a big part in the manga. The second he showed up in Stampede I was pretty annoyed. They took one of my favorite character designs and just…made it real bad. And so far the characterization doesn’t seem right either, although I’ll admit it bothered me enough I haven’t watched more yet.

None of these things make me consider it an abomination or anything, I do believe there s a lot of good stuff there. Just makes it hard for me personally to keep watching. It could be better!

Some comparison photos of Livio

And some comparisons of Knives

It’s just…it’s not bad but it’s not what it could have been 🥲 I don’t believe there is anyone out there that has read the manga that would think either anime adaptation is superior to it

Anyway, sorry for the novel! I love the manga and have been screaming at my friends to read it for years lol

Definitely check it out!

[chamomeowletea]

Hi! Trigun anon here, I wanted to explain my reasoning. The first 10 to 13 or so episodes of the original anime are very very fun and follow the first two volumes of Trigun's manga pretty closely plot wise (though half of those episodes are actually just for the anime, they're fun and get you attached to the characters) after that there's a divide from both it adapting an unfinished manga and the rating shift Trigun's manga went through, so the latter half, whilst good on it's own is not the best. I recommended those episodes before Stampede though because Stampede has a lot of pacing issues in my opinion, not letting you breathe or really get attached to the characters if you're a new fan. Going back to finish the 98 anime is a fun time but not required to me, especially if you read the manga - because that latter half is once again built off the back of an unfinished story and doesn't do the story a lot of justice in my opinion (especially in regards to character choices and just the fact that they were running out of animation budget. Literally like 10 minutes of episode 21 is still frames.)

I do hope you enjoy though, and I'm glad you love Milly and Vash so far!!

i'm really enjoying it! i love the storytelling and the very 90s anime way that the show is, too. i am,,, maybe a little in love with the characters. my favorite thing so far is vash's ridiculousness vs meryl's done-with-your-shit-ness. i really appreciate everyone's guidance on this!!

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- Trigun (Anime) - The Trigun fandom is the only reason I still go on Twitter, it’s been pretty insane there.

- Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe (Anime) - This was a pretty cool little series, it was nice to see the batshit world of Jojo again, and I quite like this story style of “Fucked up modern day folk tales but Rohan Kishibe is there”. Anime has trouble pulling off good horror but the ideas here are pretty solid, if nothing else the uniqueness of them was a nice treat. 

- Alien Stage (Webseries) - Animatics and original web animations set to music are some of my favorite things, so I was deleted to find this little queer sci-fi musical death game series. The animation and world design is lovely, I love the storytelling through visuals, and the songs have been really solid so far-Ruler of My Heart being a notable earworm. I’m looking forward to the next installment, which judging by the match up will be heartbreaking.

- Tengoku Daimakyou (Anime) - Not much I feel like saying for now, but still enjoying the what the hell is happening ess of it all.

- Dr, Stone (Anime) - May or may not rewatch the whole series in between the new episodes. I shouldn’t, as I’m pretty busy, but also it gives me seratonin and I need more of Senku’s enthusiastic science shenanigans. 

- Monster High (Cartoon) - Watching the Monster Doll Show, it’s definitely targeted towards a far younger crowd than me but I’m enjoying it for what it is, the character designs are very cute and I like how emotionally intelligent the characters are even if it means that conflicts get resolved way to quickly for any realistic stakes. I’ll save most of my thoughts for when I finish it but my opinion is positive overall. 

- The Greatest Estate Developer (Webcomic) - Honestly just copy and paste what I said about Doctor Stone here but replace Senku with LLoyd and science with engineering, I just really like seeing wholesome stories about people using technical knowledge to improve the lives of everyone around them.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - I have no idea how I hadn’t watched this yet given how much I love musicals and how often I’ve listened to songs that are literally from it, but yeah, I’m finally watching this musical series. I’m liking it more than I expected, I had kind of thought I would like around half the songs and be unimpressed with the rest of the show at large, but it’s been consistently funny, endearing, and most the songs are actually bangers. I wouldn’t say I adore any of the characters, but their more likable than I thought-I’m glad to be here.

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - I’m starting to get where the shippers are coming from with how fruity this is getting, which I’m on board with. I also feel bad about how much I like Riette as I don’t typically like characters who are mean to their siblings but her personality, design, and dragon-shifting make her so fun, I hope she joins the cast and flirts with Moon. And goes to family therapy with her brother. 

Listening to: All Alien Stage songs, Various Crazy Ex Girlfriend songs including Hello Nice To Meet You and I Hate Everything But You, Jet Lag by Simple Plan, Nothing is Going Right by Meiyo, All This And Heaven You Too by Florence + The Machine, All Too Well cover by Jake Scott, That’s All by Genesis, The Dismemberment Song by Blue Kid, Eat Your Young and All Things End by Hozier, Wrecking Ball by Mother Mother, Anthropology by Akward Marina.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 23: Enter Mousse! The Fist of the White Swan

*yawn* Wow, I finally got some good sleep. Back to the Ranma Rewatch, then. Hey there, long time no see, going to try and get back on track. This week we’re still in the middle of the season 2’s opening story arc, and another main character shall be introduced to us. Will I like him better than I did ten years ago? Only way to find out is to look at the next paragraph, from when I’ve watched the episode.

This episode raised my hopes and then gently lowered them a little, but on the whole I’m happier than I thought I would have been.

The story starts with Akane taking Ranma to see Dr. Tofu, under the assumption that as someone with lots of experience with Chinese medicine, he’d be able to fix what Cologne did to Ranma. Sadly, the technique used is something only a master could do, far outside of his wheelhouse. However, there is one thing he could do.

To counteract the Full Body Cat Tongue, Tofu hits a different pressure point in Ranma, one named after old men from Tokyo. Why? Because apparently they’re well known for being able to stand even the most scalding heat in their baths, and this technique gives the user that same ability. Sure enough, it let’s Ranma return to his uncursed state, but there’s a catch. Kasumi calls, turning Dr. Tofu into a bumbler before he can give the warning, so Ranma and Akane just head to school.

After class, Akane harangues Ranma into taking her out for food, which their classmates immediately notice has a lot of romantic energy to it. Then Shampoo and Cologne appear, amazed that Ranma somehow found a way around the elderly amazon’s strategy, but Cologne seems sure anyway that this won’t be an issue.

But wait! Out of nowhere, someone new appears. His name is Mousse, and he’s a man from the amazon village who has been in love with Shampoo since they were kids. He has terrible eyesight, so bad that he frequently mistakes people for the love of his life, and after a series of confusions he learns that Shampoo is dead set on marrying Ranma.

Mousse attacks Ranma, and challenges him to a manly duel for Shampoo. But she refuses that, so instead makes the duel over Akane for seemingly no reason, which Ranma agrees to. Oh, and he’s known for using ‘dark magic’ which is in practice more sleight of hand and weapon-based techniques.

That evening, Akane is doing what she frequently does when pissed off, namely training in the dojo. Ranma shows up, clearly aware he really stepped in it and wanting to make amends by making it clear there’s no way he’s going to lose to Mousse.

But Akane makes it clear that isn’t why she’s mad. The reason she’s upset is that she doesn’t belong to Ranma, and she won’t belong to Mousse. She’s her own person, and this duel doesn’t respect that. Hell, if he loses that’s fine with her, she’ll just beat up Mousse herself. The entire family shows up, interpreting this as kind of a romantic confession to Ranma.

The next morning, it Dr. Tofu calls and gives the warning he’d meant to tell them earlier: the technique he used is a one-use, so if Ranma gets splashed, he’s stuck again. Akane only finds this out after Ranma takes a dip in the pond while sparring with his dad, and they all freak out over what he’s going to do. Why none of them think to just tell Mousse that Ranma has a Jusenkyo curse, I have no clue.

Someone, Cologne probably, turned the match into a huge spectacle, with food carts and seating around the arena and everything, there’s a huge crowd. Ranma’s late, but that’s only because he made a disguise to hide his cursed body. He clowns around a little at first, having prepared a bunch of lame magic tricks, but then ‘does a trick’ by ‘turning into a girl’, giving him an excuse for how he looks.

Mousse buys it, but he’s angry that Ranma’s not taking it seriously. He takes of his...robe? Tunic? Whatever, either way he’s buff as hell under there, and an attack from his barbed footwear ruins the front of Ranma’s stage assistant outfit, bearing his boobies to everyone. This causes a bunch of men in the audience to storm the fighting area so they can sexually assault Ranma and then I paused Hulu and stared at my computer screen for three full minutes before continuing the episode.

*sigh* Anyway, the Kuno siblings show up, interfere with the fight, Mousse gets deadly series, then Akane reminds Ranma he can use his new technique in battle, which he does to win. Then a bunch of his admirers crowd Ranma, and Akane is annoyed. Done.

Let me get into the stuff I found really interesting with this episode, to start with.

The first half was honestly just really enjoyable. Akane and Ranma had a really good chemistry going on, it reminded me a lot of the episode where Shampoo first showed up. There was a casual closeness to them, still tempered with occasional arguments, that was just cute.

I also liked that they thought to try asking Dr. Tofu for help, since his expertise has helped so often in the past. Making it clear this was a problem he could only barely help out with, and only one time, sold how Cologne and what she’s done to Ranma isn’t something that’s going to be solved easily.

What was a bit odd in that scene was we actually got to see the curse take effect, as Ranma’s torso changed, something I’m fairly sure we’ve never gotten that much detail on. It’s usually either off-screen or a cutaway. But I like we saw it with the curse turning him back to his uncursed form, since it emphasized this was Ranma regaining the body that felt right to him.

I’ve talked about this before, but I also couldn’t help noticing throughout this episode the weird dichotomy in who uses Ranma’s preferred pronouns and who doesn’t. Akane, Shampoo, and Cologne all call Ranma ‘he’ even when he’s in a feminine form, but Akane’s siblings call him ‘she’ instead.

The dojo scene was also a treat for me. I just kind of love how it put the focus on how this whole arrangement devalues Akane. Both the engagement from their parents and the terms of this duel take away her say in what she does with her life, and she isn’t having it. It almost sounded like she was comforting Ranma, taking a burden off his shoulders, when she told him he didn’t have to stress over the fight because she’d be fine either way. I am here for Akane stressing her independence and making it clear that no matter what happens in the fight, she is her own person.

That was a lot of nice stuff, but sadly the second half of the episode didn’t really carry it through. It wasn’t terrible, but the fight wasn’t really anything special, and the whole bit with the guys storming Ranma...yeah. Didn’t care for that. But hey! It’s finally time to do another Character Spotlight!

Unlike Cologne, who I am still holding off on doing a Spotlight for since I don’t feel like we’ve gotten to really see enough of her yet, this one episode basically gave us most of what we need to know about Mousse, so let’s just do it.

In terms of voice acting, his English performer is Brad Swaile. He’s done quite a few things, but he’s most well known for being the voice of Light in Death Note, which is quite a funny comparison. Both characters have huge egos, that’s to be sure, but Light is usually taken seriously, while at least in the dub Mousse is basically just a joke the entire time. Swaile plays him very comedically, which does fit the generally goofy tone of his character.

It is in contrast, however, to his original Japanese voice actor, Toshihiko Seki. Like a lot of the seiyuu, he has done a million things, but of particular note are his roles as Legato Bluesummers from Trigun, another anime I love quite a bit, and as the Japanese Dub actor for the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who. Honestly, finding out the Japanese dub castings is a treat every time I do a Spotlight. But anyway, Seki largely plays Mousse more seriously, as a confident warrior, only going for comedy with how over-the-top some of his attacks get, considering how silly they are. I’m going to tentatively say this is another performance I think works than the dub, which is fairly rare for me as far as anime go.

So, who exactly is Mousse? Well, like I said before, Mousse is Shampoo’s childhood friend, and the first member of their tribe we’ve met who is a guy. His character motivation is literally just that he wants to be with Shampoo, and will beat up/kill Ranma to get her. Pretty simple.

What makes him silly is the combination of his terrible eyesight, a fairly common trope that now that I think about it is kinda ableist, and how he fights. He’s a master of hidden weapons, but more often than not the items he’s fighting with are silly things, like a toilet or a yoyo. Combined with his high self-confidence, and Mousse is fairly Kuno-like, only quite a bit sillier.

Only enough though, he’s more similar to Kodachi than to Tatewaki. Why? Well, because he’s deadly. Of all of Ranma’s primary rivals/reoccurring antagonists, Mousse is easily the one most ready to kill, not unlike Shampoo. When he gets serious, he trades in the silly weapons for genuinely dangerous weapons. He started choking Ranma with his bare hands in their first encounter, then tried doing it again with rope not long afterwards. Ryoga might talk a lot about killing Ranma, but Mousse has done a lot more to actually attempt that.

All of that said, I’m pretty ambivalent on Mousse. I don’t hate him, but of all of Ranma’s primary rivals, he’s easily the most boring. He doesn’t have the je ne sais quoi of Ryoga or the pompous elitism of Kuno, he’s just a deadly joke character who’s obsessed with Shampoo. Maybe my opinions will change over the course of the rewatch, but for right now I’m still pretty meh on him.

But you know what I’m not meh on? This episode! Even with the weaker second half, the first ten minutes or so were good enough that I’m overall pretty sunny on it. Listen, I’m an easy mark, give me some Ranma/Akane fuel and some decent drama, and I’m happy. I’ll put this in the top half of episodes so far between the ending of the fight between Ranma and Kodachi and the climax to Shampoo’s introductory arc.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’  

Episode 12: A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 15: Enter Shampoo, the Gung-Ho Girl! I Put My Life in Your Hands

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 19: Clash of the Delivery Girls! The Martial Arts Takeout Race

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 13: A Tear in a Girl-Delinquent's Eye? The End of the Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!

Episode 23: Enter Mousse! The Fist of the White Swan

Episode 17: I Love You, Ranma! Please Don’t Say Goodbye

Episode 20: You Really Do Hate Cats!

Episode 16: Shampoo's Revenge! The Shiatsu Technique That Steals Heart and Soul

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 11: Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 22: Behold! The 'Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire' Technique

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 21: This Ol' Gal's the Leader of the Amazon Tribe!

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Episode 14: Pelvic Fortune-Telling? Ranma is the No. One Bride in Japan

Episode 18: I Am a Man! Ranma's Going Back to China!?

But once again, this arc still! Isn’t! Done! No, the end of the Phoenix Pill Arc, if you want to call it that, comes next week with “Cool Runnings! The Race of the Snowmen". Most of my memories of this episode come from a YouTuber I used to follow hating on it, but I’m ready to give it a fair shot. See you then!

[kvotheunkvothe]

Real Take on Neon Genesis Evangelion

So I just finished watching this series and The End of Evangelion. I would call the series a rewatch, but my initial viewing of this series was... in a very unfortunate format, and I missed an episode or two. So I’ll call the version I saw on Netflix my first official watch.

And honestly--I wouldn’t watch it again.

I’ve tried to keep this vague enough to be spoiler-free, but no promises. So here goes:

There were some good elements to it, for sure. Its influence is all over mecha anime to this day, and it’s bled over to Western productions, including big blockbusters like Pacific Rim. I’m not really a fan of mecha in general. But that’s not the issue. In fact the fight scenes with the angels were some of the best animated parts (more on this later). The characters were also all pretty strong, with pretty deep emotional backstories. I liked the tech they used, I liked the concept of the magi, the Eva designs of course were great, and I liked the lore.

But I suppose that’s where I’ll make my first gripe: the lore. I didn’t feel terribly satisfied by the end of the series or even with the movie to explain exactly what the origin of the angels was, how Adam and Lilith came about, or how that Human Instrumentality Project was supposed to even work(among like another 20 things). When I dug around in the online fandom wiki, I was far more intrigued by all of that Seed of Life business. I think Lilith is sort of holding hers in the end of the movie, but I wouldn’t have minded maybe a flashback episode where we could have seen this--like when Trigun showed Vash’s origins with Knives.

And that brings me to the next problem: the animation. Yes, those robots and angels look pretty neat when they’re fighting. But so much of the rest of the shots are repetitive or direct copies of prior scenes, and they position the camera so they don’t have to animate anyone at all. And don’t get me started on those scenes where they repeat the exact same sentences again and again with a door slamming or where they just repeat shots of characters from earlier episodes with new dialogue, while they’re in the midscape. It isn’t atmospheric, it’s obnoxious. Now I had heard they had a budget or animator issue, particularly with the final episodes. But a lot of it just felt annoyingly cheap.

And another problem with the animation: all the focus on the anime titties. Okay, Shinji is supposed to be a 14 year-old boy. I’m not. And I don’t need to see that. And the weirdly sexual connection Shinji had with Misato. Again, his hormones might be excused as his age. But that was not an appropriate way for a grown lady to act with that little boy. If anything it was ickier in the movie. Also, his characterization in the movie felt really damn weird. I mean they start off the damn film with him masturbating to Asuka’s unconscious body. What the actual fuck. Did they want us to hate him?

I will say, I don’t feel the hate towards Shinji I’ve seen elsewhere on the internet prior to this. The whole “get in the fucking robot, Shinji!” thing actually wasn’t a big deal for me: in the series, I was actually on his side. These assholes (his dad especially) were just using him and were ready to dispose of him if he wasn’t risking his life constantly. He was 14, had basically no supports, and was clearly extremely depressed. Again, the movie characterization was weird here, too: in the show he freaked out but then acted (sometimes rashly), but in the movie he pretty much was a wet sack of soggy potatoes for half the time while being literally shot at. Goddamnit, Shinji. Like, I also wasn’t thrilled with how Asuka got shunted aside at the end of the anime (although they developed that and it made sense)--but hot damn she came back with a vengeance there, briefly, didn’t she? Shinji, take notes.

In sum, it was an interesting show. It has good visuals (iconic at times, particularly at the end of the movie), a good concept behind it. I do think it’s probably worth seeing once. After that? I might just stick to gifs.

[satanandmeappreciation]

Spotlight #7 - inkyd00

http://inkyd00.tumblr.com/

Tell us a bit about yourself I am a high school art teacher by day and I have a rock band that usually plays at night.  I’m way too busy for any vigilante justice these days.

When did you get into the fandom and how did you stumble upon it?

SaM was actually recommended to me by a couple of students.  We all geek out about it pretty hard.  Do I worry about losing my job because kids shout things like, “OMG YOUR DRAWING OF SATAN IS AMAZING?!” while in class?  Yes.  Does it stop them from shouting at the top of their lungs about it?  No. Who are your favorite characters/pairings?

I’m a sucker for kind of mostly platonic Natan. Favorite moment in the comic?

Ugh…the end of the Run arc.  So good.

What is your biggest inspiration as far as your art/writing goes? When I was a kid, I was really into fairytales and mythology, but I was also into turning these stories on their heads and seeing what would happen if the elements were changed, so I guess I approach fandom in the same way where I’ll find a thread that really interests me and then just deconstruct it until it looks completely different or we’re now seeing it from a new angle that hadn’t previously been contemplated.

What would you say is your favorite piece that you’ve done so far? In the SaM fandom, definitely “…goes unpunished” is my favorite that I’ve done so far.  I’ve got tons of ideas and not enough time to get them down on paper or drawn, but I’m glad I got that one done.  Is it perfect?  No.  Is it kind of pretty cool regardless?  Yes.

What would you say is one of your favorite things to draw/write? I love writing deconstructions to almost anything.  I guess I kind of have a soft spot for characters who have to figure out how to work with each other to get to a place where they can understand one another and have it feel natural and unforced.  Like, not ANGST, persay, just two people who slowly start to see where the other is coming from.  As far as music goes, I’m very interested in unreliable narrators and writing from the the point of view of a main character who is not always innocent in the situation.  As far as drawing goes, I’m super into watercolors right now… What do you think influences your art/writing style?

Mythology, fairy tales, religion, current events, advances in science, personal experiences…all kinds of things.

What are some of your hobbies you enjoy? Playing the guitar, singing the songs, drawing the things, writing the stories, and just learning new stuff.  I’m pretty much a nerd.  My current venture is building effects pedals for guitar, mostly just because it’s so weird to be so unfamiliar with how guitar pedals work when I rely on them all the time.

Before joining SaM, what was a fandom you were part of and are there any fandoms you’re into outside of SaM? My first fandom was Trigun.  Since then, I’ve been in the fandoms for Fullmetal Alchemist, Once Upon a Time, and The X-Files.  I’ve dabbled in other fandoms, but not in any intense kind of way.

Is there anything else you’d like the fandom to know about you or anything you’d like to say to the fandom as a whole? I really like being part of this fandom.  Everyone I”ve met through it has been super cool and nice and my experience has been very positive.  Keep up the good work, team!

Please check out inkyd00′s writing and art tags and show them some love!

http://inkyd00.tumblr.com/tagged/fanfic

http://inkyd00.tumblr.com/tagged/fanart

http://inkyd00.tumblr.com/tagged/fanfic