#they’re usually slice of life and even a little wacky but have so much love and emotion put into them

[tariah23]

If look back is getting a movie fr, I swear I’m gonna start bawling rn

[deltaengineering]

that was the winter anime 2021 that was

Still not quite ready for a dozen posts about how terrible the likes of Combatants Will Be Dispatched are, sorry. Watch Vivy though, it owns. Here’s some more things that are (mostly) good. As always, worst to best.

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki S3

Yatogame has long run out of hot Nagoya facts and its ensemble comedy never amounted to much, so now it seems mostly content to just spam more and more wacky character designs. About the only thing that it has left going for it is that 3 minutes a week are more effort to drop than to watch, so I expect them to make a movie next. 4/10

Go-toubun no Hanayome S2

Quints is a weird one. S1 was a barely good enough (i.e., well above average) implementation of the ages old harem chestnut. S2 is actually better at the core of its appeal, since it gives all the characters a sharper profile (things like taking Nino from joke to badass and making Ichika a villain are no mean feat), but it does pay a steep price for it. You see, to deliver a steady drip feed of meaningful character moments it apparently has to rush through the source material at a breakneck pace, which completely wrecks the "story" part of this story and makes every episode seem like a recap. And it still keeps wasting precious time on vestigial nonsense like its framing device and the Kyoto flashback scenario that was already the worst part of S1. But by far the most annoying aspect is its insistence on keeping all the options valid, since it prevents any real progress and makes everything seem arbitrary and pointless. So sure enough, after a season of much ado we still don't end up anywhere — you can't really raise the stakes if all at stake was "who wins" to begin with. It's watchable and even enjoyable scene-for-scene but it's getting harder and harder to call it a solid show overall. 5/10

Skate Leading Stars

I was watching this primarily because I didn't like Yuri on Ice much and wanted to see if something that is a blatant attempt to cash in on it would be better — because while YoI delivers on one aspect (being hella gay), it really is an absolute shambles of a sports show. And sure enough, Skate Leading has none of the auteur appeal of YoI, but it just works much better. In particular I appreciate how it managed to make me care even a little about a cast of assholes, which is a nice contrast to the nauseatingly ingratiating way YoI tries to make you love its characters. Also, Skate Leading is just generally cheap and unambitious, so not susceptible to trying hard and painfully flaming out on the presentation side like YoI is. But at some point you gotta let go of these comparisons and on its own Skate Leading is... just fine, I guess? Competent, mildly engaging, not very memorable. And that's probably where it loses to Yuri on Ice in the end after all, even if I think it's "better". 6/10

Idoly Pride

Idoly Pride sold itself on me with a really good (and hilarious/tragic) first episode that was just too bizarre to ignore — I mean, how can you ignore GHOST IDOL MANAGERS. Well, the majority of the show isn't like that. It's a competent and solid version of the idol franchise show, yes, but it really had more potential than that. Especially midseason, it gets lost in these dozens of characters, and while they're all likeable, it does seem like a waste of a good story just centered on Mana/Kotona/Sakura. By the end it comes back around to the heart of the matter with a Maeda-style sob story, which could be a disaster but seasoned veteran Jukki Hanada makes it work anyway. Overall, there's quite a bit of ridiculous hacky melodrama in this, but quite honestly that's the best part and I wish it would concentrate more on it. The rest is just okay. 6/10

Yuru Camp S2

Yuru Camp is still likely the best pure iyashikei show when it gets down to business. Compared to S1 though, this seems to happen less and less. At its peaks (i.e., basically any quiet moment with Rin) it's at least as good as ever, and there's some good cast additions like Mini-Inuko, but it appears that Yuru Camp simply has run out of things you can do with camping and it fills up the time with other... stuff. This stuff includes the generic school club shenanigans it was never particularly good at, and a gigantic helping of crass consumerism. Yeah, I would say the majority of Yuru Camp is just a straight up infomercial at this point, which itself ranges from the perfectly acceptable (which cute anime isn't about food constantly), to the sketchy (I don't know whether the Izu tourism board cut this production a fat check, but if they didn't, Yuru Camp still gives its best effort to make it seem that way) to the highly irritating – I am aware that camping requires gear and you can't just ignore that, but you most definitely do not require whole arcs dedicated to talking about raising funds for the purposes of acquiring the Lamp of Comfy Happiness at your friendly local Caribou™ either. Not to mention an arc where the aforementioned lame school club does the same, for double irritation. Make no mistake, this show is so riddled with scenes that beg for a solution to embed affiliate links in video files that it makes me wish I was watching something as anticapitalist and underground as Love Live. And irritating really is the last thing a show with this core concept, as stellar as it is at that, can afford to be. Bummer. 6/10

SKOO the Infinity

Skoo has one really huge asset: ADAM, its magnificent villain. It also has one really huge liability: Reki, its not magnificent protagonist. To be more specific, it's very good at anything outrageous, physics-defying and silly, such as most scenes ADAM is in, and quite bad at anything serious, dramatic (in a serious way) and down to earth, such as most scenes Reki is in. So, what's the verdict? Well, the rest of the cast is more ADAM-like, and Reki's co-protagonist Langa is fine as the straight (yeah, right) man. The tedious buddy drama is a comparatively small part of this show, and at least it pays off quite well in the end. Seriously, I was ready to give this a 6, but the final episode is probably the best one of the show, in all of its aspects. That's really not something you see often. Skoo's a great time. Except when it's not. 7/10

Non Non Biyori Nonstop

Speaking of the rare good ending, what about we gave one of those to a slim and inconsequential slice-of-life show? NNB has always been solid, comfy and amusing quality with a couple of standout moments (usually something with Renge), and Nonstop has that plus an ending as conclusive as any show of this type is ever going to have. Besides, it does a lot of things right by focusing on more characters than the central 4 (especially Konomi has great material in S3), it expands the universe just enough to not get stale, and it moves things forward — It's definitely a lot better than the movie, is what I'm saying. Apart from that, well, we're three seasons in, if you have any interest in this you probably don't need me to explain what's good about NNB at this point. Bonus points for being nothing but an ad for the manga. 7/10

Wonder Egg Priority

Oh boy, so here's the big one. Wonder Egg is the rare Meaningful Arthouse Show About Real Issues You Guys, as you might have heard. And well, the long and short of it is that it's a very good show with quite a few glaring problems (besides not actually being finished due to production issues, but what we have is enough of an ending to be able to meaningfully talk about it). In particular, one problem: WEP is, at its core, one of these metaphorical Magical Girl-ish series that are just a thin layer of abstraction over coming-of-age or societal problems. The issue is that "metaphorical" in this case means "literal" and "thin" means "basically nonexistent". This show is not subtle regarding what it's about, at all. This is a double-edged sword — on the positive side, some things really should just be said aloud, and I'm really, really fucking tired of the Ikuhara style of "here's some wacky things, maybe a blog post will eventually tell you how it's actually about the most important thing ever" obfuscation — if it's really so important, just spell it out. On the other hand, there are limits to this and when a second, different Ai appears I don't really need a voiceover line telling me that yep, this show is about parallel universes now. WEP spells out many important things, but it also spells out many things that are implicitly clear or better left vague. Not to mention that with being so obvious up front, the show's tendency to leave figuring out what it's actually saying about it up to the viewer can leave the wrong impression. Again, I settled on the opinion that it's subtle after all where it counts the most, but you might easily get the impression that it pulls its punches (Ikuhara does this the exact other way around — once you figure out what the fuck he's talking about it's abundantly clear what he's saying about it).

In fact, this show is so good at subtle, quiet character moments that it calls into question the need for big huge fighting fantasy layer in the first place, especially since I'm not a fan of the fantasy designs and the fights aren't great. Sure, they look impressive on a technical level (this show is very good looking in general), but the lack of actual impact or rhythm makes me think this is not made by people who are very familiar with action and maybe they should have asked some seasoned shounen veterans for this — or just, you know, not do it. They can (and do) impress with character acting in quiet scenes just the same. And while Ai's character story actually does pay off quite nicely by the end we got, and Momoe and Rika are also handled well, Neiru's backstory is significantly less good, not to mention the whole Frill subplot regarding the show's mythology that they introduced just before (and that's the part to be resolved at a later date), which is a huge can of worms. We'll see how well they handle that, I suppose, but as it is it's a weird and vestigial detour that doesn't add much besides thematic headaches.

But yeah, apart from all that — I like it, a lot. Great character writing in the details, cool looks for the most part, tons of ambition, and a message that I consider to be appropriately handled — for the most part, and for now. Not quite ambitious arthouse anime at its finest, but also not a pretentious disaster like Sarazanmai, Monogatari et al. 8/10

[lisbonsteresa]

let me be a clown and send LucyxRyan for the ship ask meme (if you're still doing it!)

CHARLIE 🥲

yes of course we're all clowns here honk honk but i WILL be thinking of these only in the happiest 'Lucy lives; the townfolk are not dicks; Hudson Enterprises is somehow taken down; Everett chokes on his own self-importance; Ryan keeps a small amount of his money and he and Lucy lead a slightly nicer than modest life with Nancy in HB' kind of context

__

1. Who buys flowers for the other

When they first started dating, Ryan told Lucy he'd buy out a flower shop just to make her smile. She'd laughed then, and when she opened her locker a few days later and nearly 100 daisies came spilling out she laughed again and kissed him soundly once she found him (he's mellowed out a bit in his 'old age' as Nancy puts it but he still gives Lucy flowers at any possible occasion - i picture daisies and yarrow and maybe daffodils bc i like lucy and yellow but i'm reading too much into flower meanings now) (also in the real timeline there's a bouquet of pink carnations that shows up on Lucy's grave twice a year - her birthday and the day she died - and no one knows where they come from but also everyone knows where they come from and also i'm sad)

2. Who makes the other coffee/tea

Lucy makes Ryan coffee almost every morning - usually to-go so he can have it on his way to work as Carson Drew's legal assistant (it was an unlikely partnership but the Sables ryan took lucy's name argue with the wall and the Drews are super close and Carson and Kate spoil their goddaughter Nancy rotten)

And Ryan makes Lucy tea almost every night and they sit on the couch with their legs all tangled while he reviews briefings and she grades assignments (she teaches creative writing/poetry at a local community college) (Nancy complains almost every time she comes home from a shift at the Claw or a night out with a certain dishwasher *ahem* to find them like this because 'get over yourselves you're not 17 anymore' but she does it with a giant grin on her face and they always find space for her to squeeze in between them)

3. Who eats the most candy on Halloween

Ryan - Lucy prefers ice cream to candy when it comes to sweets, but she does pick up a back-up bag every year so 'there's some left over for the other children' (they all laugh at it now but Nancy wasn't laughing that time she was 11 and she found the wrappers for all her missing trick-or-treating loot in her dad's office trash)

4. Who tries new recipes all the time

Lucy is the only one who tries any recipes, because somehow even after nearly 20 years and raising a child together, her cooking skills still have yet to start to rub off on Ryan (he's there to assist with anything he can and he always does the dishes to compensate, but any time Lucy is away for the weekend or having dinner out with her mom and Josh, Nancy knows it's going to be a take out night honestly they're both thankful ryan stopped trying after he nearly burned the house down trying to cook a frozen pizza)

5. Who genuinely likes pineapple on pizza

Both - Lucy's loved it since she was little, and Ryan always made fun of her for it until she finally forced him to try a slice and now he won't shut up about how good it is (neither of them can convince Nancy, however)

6. Who wears hats on special occasions

....Neither....Lucy doesn't like how she looks in hats and Ryan doesn't like how they 'ruin' his hair (the only exception - a special occasion, if you will - is when Carson and Ryan get together to watch/go to a baseball game because they Dad-out and Ryan has to show his team his support)

7. Who likes ‘90s R&B

Ryan - technically, being teens in the 90s, they both enjoy it, but I just picture Lucy being more of a singer-songwriter kind of gal

8. Who likes long walks on the beach

Both - they are insanely sappy fight me and they love long walks at sunset (and they also loved when Nancy was younger and they'd swing her between them...when they were able to pull her away from studying the tide pools and/or other beachgoers...) (but also: it takes the Sables a while to warm up to Ryan and him going on long walks with them really helped them get to know/like him more as a person rather than a Hudson)

9. Who buys wacky picture frames

They don't so much buy them, but during elementary school Nancy went through a big moment of making those popsicle-stick picture frames (she colored them horribly with puffy paint and threw pom-poms and glitter all over them) and they have yet to get rid of any of them (even when they start falling apart and she begs them to)

10. Who compares themselves to fictional/celebrity couples

'I mean, to be fair, we kind of were a celebrity couple for a while there' 'Being in the papers for your father tanking his company and being brought up on 12 counts of tax evasion is not really the kind of celebrity you think it is sweetheart'

11. Who can solve a rubix cube

It might take them a few days, but eventually they can get it together (they do not, however, do so very often because Ryan is still pouting over the time his 8 year old daughter solved it in less than half the time it took him)

12. Who would wear Hawaiian shirts on vacation/during the summer

You cannot convince me Ryan would not (it's one of the first things he and Ace bond over - he likes his daughter's taste in men's taste in casual wear)

13. Who wears mismatched socks because they can’t keep up with the pairs

Lucy is meticulous with sock matching whenever she does a load specifically because Ryan's philosophy seems to be 'eh, they're both white....it's probably fine'

[medea10]

My Review of Konosuba

(Short for: KonoSuba - God's Blessing on This Wonderful World)

How did I get into this anime? As you all know, I’m being an absolute lazy-ass when it comes to Isekai animes and have only gotten into the recent hits as of 2019. I already finished the suffer edition and the struggle edition. Let’s check out the light-hearted, wonk-fest! But before that…

Let’s go back to the mid-1990s and rewatch the first episode of Yu Yu Hakusho. We all remember Yusuke Urameshi sacrificing his life in order to save a child about to be hit by a truck followed by being told that the child would have survived regardless if Yusuke interfered or not. So dude just wasted his fucking life for nothing! Let’s amp this trope up to 483 with the way our main lead in Konosuba dies. Kazuma Satou was on his way back home from purchasing a video game when he noticed a girl about to be hit by a car. He pushes her out of the way and yada, yada, yada he’s dead!

He is now in a limbo setting, standing before a goddess named Aqua who tells Kazuma that his death was absolutely meaningless. Not only would the girl have survived, it wasn’t even a car, it was a slow-moving tractor. And Kazuma didn’t get hit by the tractor, he suffered a heart attack due to shock, followed by pissing his pants, followed by doctors, family, and relations laughing at Kazuma’s humiliating experience. And then he dies!

Aqua tells Kazuma that he has two options. He can either go to Heaven or be transported to a fantasy world (much like a game) and try to defeat a demon king. Choosing the fantasy world, Kazuma is given the opportunity to take an item with him on his travels. Now at this point, Kazuma has been annoyed by this goddess’s attitude towards him and decides to be a dick. So Kazuma chooses Aqua to be with him on his journey. Sucks for Kazuma however, because Aqua is useless! And unlike the video games Kazuma’s used to, he and Aqua must do manual labor and pay off expenses in the first town. So they might be there for a while.

Kazuma ends up with two more members in his crew including a witch named Megumin that uses explosive magic and a masochistic crusader named Lalatina Dustiness Ford (or Darkness for short). But don’t get too excited! Megumin’s magic can only be used once a day, wiping away her energy. And while Darkness has a mean sword, she misses every time with it. So yeah, this is a rag-tag team of useless dopes. Let’s watch the wacky misadventures of Kazuma, Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness as they go on missions, drink until they puke, explode castles, and steal underwear.

Yes, Kazuma occasionally does this.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Crunchyroll has been able to bless the masses with an English dub. Can’t let FUNimation have all the Isekai hits. So far it’s been alright and I’m hearing more Erica Mendez and Cristina Vee. All good things here! Plus it gives me a chance to hear the voices of Kazuma, whom up to this point I have minimal time listening to either person who plays him. And annoying as Aqua may be, Faye Mata does a really good job with that range Sora Amamiya set in the original. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Kazuma is played by Jun Fukushima (known for Naruko on Yowamushi Pedal and Makoto on Fruits Basket 2019)

*Aqua is played by Sora Amamiya (known for Touka on Tokyo Ghoul, Chizuru on Rent A Girlfriend, Miia on Monster Musume, Yachiyo on Magia Record, Akame on Akame ga Kill, and Elizabeth on Seven Deadly Sins)

*Megumin is played by Rie Takahashi (known for Emilia on Re:Zero)

*Darkness is played by Ai Kayano (known for Alice on SAO: Alicization, Menma on Anohana, Nana on Golden Time, Ryouko on Food Wars, Itsuwa on Index, Yukika on My Love Story, and Mayaka on Hyouka)

ENGLISH CAST: *Kazuma is played by Arnie Pantoja (known for Watchdog-Man on One Punch Man and Kanbarry on Re:Zero)

*Aqua is played by Faye Mata (known for Rin on Love Live, Aluminum Siren on Sailor Moon Stars, Yukako on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Pt. 4, Frederica on Re:Zero, and a bitch on Shield Hero)

*Megumin is played by Erica Mendez (known for Ryuko on Kill la Kill, Haruka/Sailor Uranus on Sailor Moon S [redub], Raphtalia on Shield Hero, Retsuko on Aggretsuko, Nico on Love Live, and Emma on The Promised Neverland)

*Darkness is played by Cristina Vee (known for Homura on Madoka Magica, Rei/Sailor Mars on Sailor Moon, Mio on K-ON, Sakura on Fate/Stay Night UBW, Kotori on Love Live, and Kanaria on Rozen Maiden: Traumend)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Darkness is best girl, don’t at me!

SHIPPING (sorta): Can we just all agree that Darkness is just a sober version of Cheryl from Archer?

Whoever ends up with her will end up choking her either because she tells you to or she annoys you with her masochistic nature! I seriously do not know how you want me to turn this shipping discussion into anything other than a comment about a bitch getting choked.

ENDING TO SEASON ONE: Kazuma has been able to get a little good luck in his other world as he was finally able to move out of the stables and into a house with the rest of his crew. Although, it didn’t come easy! Then again, what has in this series? In the final episode of the first season, all of the adventures of the town were called to take on a scary foe. Up to this point, we’ve seen these guys take out mutant cabbages and an idiot dullahan. Today we’ve got…

A giant, mechanical spider!

Why do the stupidest stories always rely on a giant, mechanical spider? Kazuma and the rest were able to stop the spider from moving. However, this monstrosity is set to explode and the impact could take out the entire town. Darkness wants to repay the town for all it has done for her and her family. The adventurer men want to repay the town because of all the succubus taverns they love. And Kazuma just wants to continue his journey so he can take out the demon king. Now, because Megumin already used her explosion magic for the day, she’s down for the count. But she was able to do it a second time thanks to Kazuma transferring some magic from Aqua through his spell and with a little help from Wiz. The day is saved, Kazuma and his crew got a hefty reward, and then Kazuma is immediately charged with treason for sending the evidence to a higher up and it exploded.

Believe it or not, but a lot of these quests end with a giant middle finger to them. Almost like Curb Your Enthusiasm!

EPISODE 11: The special episode that followed came with some more misfortune for Kazuma. A trip to Wiz’s shop ends with a choker around Kazuma’s neck that’s going to strangle him in three days if his wish doesn’t come true. So to figure out what Kazuma’s wish is, Kazuma has all of these girls fulfill his greatest desires in the hopes of one of these humiliating tasks will release Kazuma from the choker.

As you can guess, because this is an OVA, it will be filled to the brim with degeneracy compared to the television series. Fuck yeah it was! Kazuma used this opportunity to use Wiz’s tits as comfy pillows, have Megumin play “Strip Rock/Paper/Scissors” with Yunyun, have Aqua fetch him food, and watch Darkness jiggle her breasts. Even when he thought he was at death’s door, he uses this special time to tell each girl with him at this dramatic moment that they are nothing more than tits and ass. All except for Aqua! No love for her. Not even a pity erection! So when the spell on the choker was released due to a simple wish, Kazuma was then killed by Aqua and quite possibly everyone else and Kazuma was sent back to the goddess chamber as he learned a powerful lesson.

Don’t ever do that again!

Damn…Kazuma died 3 times so far in 11 episodes. Subaru got you beat by a country mile. He’s probably looking at you like, “You damn, lucky dumbass. I got frozen, shanked, stabbed, sliced, maced, and eaten by bunnies”.

SEASON TWO: As I mentioned at the end of season one, Kazuma is charged with treason and usually that comes with a death sentence. Unfortunately for Kazuma, his unintentional crime was against this big, fat, smelly noble who has many higher-ups wrapped around his finger. The townspeople can’t really help him out otherwise they’d risk being charged as well. And you have a prosecutor wanting Kazuma’s head on a pike not only for the major charge, but for being a pervert. The writing is on the wall, Kazuma is screwed. However, thanks to Darkness (and her family lineage) she was able to take one for the team by saving Kazuma (for now) and have that big, fat, smelly noble do God knows what to her. Also, the kingdom repossessed a lot of things from Kazuma’s crew.

So they’re worse than “square one” at this point. They’re at “square -57” with how much debt they’ve all accumulated.

ENDING TO SEASON TWO: Things are starting to look up for Kazuma and his crew. They were able to abolish their debt, got the treason charges lifted, and they were able to gain back some respect around the village. So what better way to celebrate then to go on a bit of vacation. The gang decided to head off to another town for some rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, the town they spent their time off at is full of religious wackos. And what I mean by religious wackos, I mean WORSE than Jehova Witnesses, Evangelical Christians, and the Heaven’s Gate cult all rolled into one.

…Okay, I’m obviously embellishing here. I just really fucking hate all of those ones I just mentioned. This cult is so fucking annoying! At every turn they’re trying to convert Kazuma, Megumin, and Darkness into their fold.

Oh wait, it gets better! This cult worships the goddess Aqua! And of course our favorite idiot Aqua was using this to her advantage. That is until a priest didn’t believe her, starting a chain reaction with the townsidiots all leading up to them chasing Kazuma and crew out with pitchforks and fire. Apparently, Aqua did a big no-no by purifying the hot spring water and now it’s just regular water.

Unfortunately at that same time, a general to the dark lord was in area poisoning all of the water in this town. Yeah, this guy is serious trouble since he’s on a higher level than Wiz (back when she was working under the demon king). But he’s a slime and works with poison. In this world, Kazuma doesn’t stand a chance. Surprisingly, this battle went well (albeit Kazuma dying inside the slime), but we got to see Aqua at her baddest of ass. Now you’d think the town would be grateful to Kazuma and his team for ridding them of a demon king general. Hahaha, never trust religious nutjobs! They still found fault with Aqua purifying their hot springs and they were thrown out.

In the 11th episode (or second side-story), Kazuma thought he was meeting a new fan in town. So he regales her with tales of his expoditions to woo her. Turns out the girl is a new member of the local tavern and one of her jobs is to listen to useless adventurers to boost their morale. And this girl was totally not digging Kazuma. I think this hurt Kazuma more than all the times he’s died in this series.

MOVIE: We head off to the land where Megumin and Yunyun were born and raised. While there was some miscommunication into if the town and their families were in trouble to begin with, trouble sure found Kazuma and the gang once they arrived. Another general of the demon king ends up causing quite a stir in the town. Sylvia was extra hard to take down in this story. Just when you thought she was dead, she returns from death’s door and brings the poison slime from season two and the dullahan from season one to wreck havoc all across the land. Luckily, Kazuma, his crew, Wiz, Yunyun, and the rest of the townspeople were able to put an end to Sylvia and her cohorts.

But man, Kazuma got some really shitty deals in this movie. His trashy and perverted reputation isn’t any better. Megumin’s father wanted to kill him. Megumin’s mother locked Kazuma and Megumin in a room together in hopes of doing the nasty, was messed with by a chimera of two genders, and was killed in a gruesome way that even the angels had to throw up when they saw the state of Kazuma.

On a positive note, Megumin seemed to have grown a little with this adventure as she was even thinking of putting her explosive magic on hold and give a whirl at other options. But she still gave a giant explosion that’s worth 120 points.

Konosuba was amusing. Definitely worth a few chuckles! I know it won’t be for everyone as comedy in anime can often be hit-or-miss. But the combination of characters with many quirks, the animation, the setting, the tasks, and misunderstandings, you’ve got yourself an anime version of Curb Your Enthusiasm. So…yeah, not for everyone, hit-or-miss! But in the big five isekai animes, this one is a little more light compared to some of the others. Overlord can get quite gory. Shield Hero will anger any sane person to a point of madness. And Re:Zero is just a misery blanket! Konosuba is that light-hearted comedy where sometimes the main protagonist dies horrificly in battle, but will return like Kenny from South Park. So if Shield Hero and Re:Zero depress you, maybe you might need a break with the silly, zany antics of Kazuma’s crew in Konosuba.

Results may vary on your views of Aqua.

If you would like to watch Konosuba, the entire series is available on Crunchyroll. That’s the first season, second season, both OVA’s, and the movie in several different languages!

Okay, let’s pick our next Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Amazon exclusive!

Alright! An anime like Black Lagoon if it involved gay boys! Banana Fish time.

[zen3to5]

J/H 4-26: Everybody Loves Casey

Okay, back to the full scripts! Jackie and Kelso broke up early in this timeline, which means other events might be moving up too. And what does Hyde think of that?

(We assume, following production order, that 4-25, "That '70s Musical," is unchanged. I admit that's a bit of a stretch, given the "Love Hurts" number, but since Jackie and Kelso never explicitly state they're together outside of Fez's fantasies, and because that episode is pretty much a one-off within Season 4, I think we can get away with it.)

FF.Net AO3

***

SHOW TITLE   INT. FORMAN KITCHEN - DAY   A sunny afternoon. ERIC is at the stovetop, scraping peanut butter out of the jar for a PB&J sandwich. HYDE enters from the living room and crosses to the fridge.   ERIC: Oh, Hyde, get this. Casey just came by to pick up Donna, and he was out in the street just revving his Trans Am real loud, and then he peels out in the street, and he started doing donuts. And then, out comes Donna, all smiling and, like, looking at him.   Hyde grabs some juice and crosses to Eric.   HYDE: What a slut!   ERIC: Look, if she wants to date him, that's fine. But he doesn't have to be all loud and jerky about it. Jerky, loud, donut jerk.   RED and KITTY enter through the patio door, grocery bags in hand. Kitty hurries to set hers down and cross to the boys.   KITTY: Oh, guess what, boys? I entered the big wiener contest at the Piggly Wiggly, and I won a year's supply of all-beef hot dogs! (laughs) I'm a wiener winner! (laughs again)   She gives the boys a chance to react; they aren’t impressed.   KITTY (cont’d): Well, anyway, we're having a barbecue.   RED: No, Kitty! I thought we were going to talk about that.   KITTY: Mm-hmm. (to Eric) Oh, and I saw Donna at the grocery store, and she said she's bringing her friend Casey.   ERIC: What? No. I hate Casey. He's Donna's new boyfriend. You have to uninvite him. (to Red) Dad, tell her.   RED: Kitty, you've done a horrible thing. It could scar the boy for life. Now, let's do the right thing and cancel that barbecue.   KITTY: No. We're having it, and it'll be fun. (to Eric) And... and we just... we won't give Casey any relish.   She and Red step out to fetch more groceries. Eric turns to Hyde.   HYDE: All right. Once Casey finds out he's not getting any relish, he'll dump Donna for sure. (laughs) You are so screwed.

MAIN CREDITS   BUMPER   INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - DAY   A gathering of the guys. Eric sits on the back of the couch, FEZ in the far seat of it, and KELSO in the lawn chair. Hyde ambles in from his room, records in hand. He sets them down by the record player and starts going through them. “Good Times Roll” by The Cars plays on the radio.   FEZ: (to Eric) So your mom invited Casey over for hot dogs? Well, that's a plump, juicy, all-beef burn.   KELSO: Ah, it's just typical women stuff. Like Jackie kissing that guy.   Hyde lunges, frogs Kelso in the arm.   KELSO (cont’d): Ow! Hyde!   HYDE: Yeah. Okay? I've decided if anyone brings up any more stupid girl stuff, I'm gonna throw something at 'em. This time, I threw a fist.   He goes to his chair and sits.   KELSO: I'm sorry. It's just - everything reminds me. And I dumped her over a week ago, and she hasn’t once called to say “hi” or offer me sad-but-hot break-up sex!   HYDE: You two broke up?   KELSO: Yeah, and it’s the worst one yet.   FEZ: All because of the cheese guy?   KELSO: Hey, I changed, and became responsible, and stopped my cheating. Then she goes and makes out behind my back, and keeps calling me names and putting me down?   He pouts, folds his arms, taps his foot.   KELSO (cont’d): You know what? If she’s not gonna call me, then I’m gonna go over there and yell at her some more.   He stands and exits out the basement door.   ERIC: You guys, I've been thinking about Donna. And I –   Hyde grabs a magazine from the coffee table, tosses it at Eric.   HYDE: This time I threw a magazine.   ERIC: No, guys, seriously. This barbecue might work out in my favor. You see, Donna's only seen Casey around his smelly, tattooed Molly Hatchet-loving friends. But when he comes to the barbecue, he'll be around us. Good, clean, Lynyrd Skynyrd-lovin' Americans. And the comparison will not be kind to him.   HYDE: And then Donna will come running home to you.   ERIC: No. (beat) Well, maybe. You think?   HYDE: So, instead of pounding Casey like you should, you came up with this zany scheme? Forman, you've officially turned into Daffy Duck. (doing Daffy) You're “dethpicable!”   He makes a show of shaking his head.   FEZ: You know, I have lady problems too.   Hyde grabs a Packers’ football and chucks it at Fez, who dodges it without even looking up.   FEZ (cont’d): Rhonda won't let me get past second base. I even said “please.” Magic word, my ass. Hyde throws another ball, and this time, it hits. Fez frowns at him and chucks it back, and they get into a throwing war.   BUMPER   EXT. FORMAN DRIVEWAY - DAY   Concurrent with the previous scene from Kelso’s exit. He storms around the house and into the driveway. From the other direction comes JACKIE. They meet, lock eyes.   JACKIE: Hey.   KELSO: Hey.   JACKIE/KELSO: I just came by -/I miss you.   They step back.   JACKIE/KELSO: What?   JACKIE: Did you say you miss me?   KELSO: No.   JACKIE: Look, just say you miss me!   KELSO: Fine, I miss you!   Jackie takes his hands in hers.   JACKIE: Michael, I miss you too. And, look, I was thinking - since we broke up because I kissed another guy, what if I let you kiss another girl? I mean, we could be even, and we could get back together.   KELSO: Jackie, if you think that me kissing another girl is gonna bring us closer together, I'm totally willing to make that sacrifice.   JACKIE: Thank you, Michael.   KELSO: Yeah! (beat) I better go wash my face.   He pulls his hands free and heads down the street, and Jackie heads into the Forman’s kitchen.   BUMPER   EXT. FORMAN DRIVEWAY – DAY   The weekend, and the barbecue, have arrived. A table loaded with hot dogs, condiments, and drinks is out on the driveway, and a healthy population of neighbors enjoy the party.   Hyde and Fez, on the porch, lean against the house. Eric comes around the house, crosses to them.   ERIC: Okay, Fez, when Casey gets here, ask him for advice about your second-base problem. My advice is gonna be way better than his, and Donna will see that he's a greasy dolt.   HYDE: Hey, Forman, I have an idea. Set up a wacky system of ropes and pulleys, and when Casey gets here, drop an anvil on his head.   It gets a laugh from Fez, at least.   FEZ: (to Eric) Because that's what Daffy does.   ERIC: Yeah, I got that. DONNA and CASEY walk up the driveway, arms around each other’s shoulders. DONNA: Hey, guys.   ERIC: Hey.   CASEY: (to Eric) Hey, Foreplay. Getting a little shaggy up there, buddy.   He ruffles Eric’s hair.   ERIC: Okay. Well, that's enough of that!   He throws Casey’s hand away.   ERIC (cont’d): Okay. So, uh... hey, you guys are just in time. Fez was telling me about, uh... (to Fez) Some kind of problem you're having with Rhonda?   FEZ: Yeah. Rhonda won't let me get past second base, and I really want to explore further.   ERIC: Gosh. Well, I don't know. I think if you're patient and you're respectful, when Rhonda's ready, she'll, uh... she'll wave you over.   FEZ: Well, thank you, Eric. That is very gentlemanly advice.   ERIC: Gentlemanly? Well, uh, guilty as charged, I guess. (to Casey) Hey Casey, what do you think?   CASEY: Well, sometimes a seasoned lady like Rhonda, she's gotten used to the usual order of things. So, I think the next time you're fooling around, just skip second and go right to third.   ERIC: What?   FEZ: It's genius! (to Eric) No wonder you never get any.   DONNA: (to Fez) Yeah, with Rhonda, you know, that just might work.   ERIC: (to Donna) Wait, you like that?   DONNA: Well, the words are wrong, but they sound so good coming out of his mouth.   CASEY: (shrugs) I got a way about me. He pats Eric on the shoulder, and he and Donna head into the party.   Hyde comes up behind Eric. HYDE: (doing Daffy) That worked out “thuper.”   CUT TO:   EXT. FORMAN BACKYARD – DAY   More of the barbecue, not as crowded as out front. Several of the local ladies have gathered in this part of the house, and Kelso strolls up and down, checking them out. Behind him follows a scowling Jackie. Kelso keeps glancing behind him to see Jackie’s reactions; he’s enjoying this.   KELSO: Let's see... which chick do I want to kiss?   Jackie takes his arm, spins him around.   JACKIE: Oh, no, no, no, no, Michael. I get to pick the girl.   KELSO: But you'll pick an uggo.   JACKIE: (shrugs) You didn’t call “no uggos.”   KELSO: I just thought of something. Your plan’s good and all, but what if the girl that you pick doesn't wanna kiss me?   They both consider that for a moment, then break up laughing.   KELSO: “Doesn't wanna kiss me!”   They laugh some more.   CUT TO:   EXT. FORMAN DRIVEWAY – DAY   The party continues. Red works at the grill. He passes a hot dog onto Eric’s plate, and Eric takes it over to Donna, who is at the table with Casey.   ERIC: Hey, Donna, would you like a hot dog?   DONNA: Um, maybe half. Casey draws a bowie knife from his back pocket. He takes the plate from Eric and slices the hot dog in half. ERIC: Whoa, man, you carry a knife?   CASEY: Yeah. You never know when a lady's gonna need a half a hot dog. It's funny, man. You're the boy scout, but I'm the one who's prepared.   He and Donna head toward the basketball hoop. Fez crosses to Eric’s side.   FEZ: He's like a gladiator.   ERIC: Okay, that's it. I'm bringing out the big guns. Oh, yeah. I'm introducing him to my folks.   He spies Kitty coming out from the kitchen. He takes her by the shoulders, steers her over to Casey and Donna.   ERIC (cont’d): Oh, hey, Mom, meet Casey. This is Donna's new boyfriend.   Casey gives her a nod. Kitty stares up at him, wide-eyed.   KITTY: Well, you're certainly not a girl. (laughs)   CASEY: Nice to meet you, Mrs. Forman. You know, you couldn't have picked a prettier day to win a year's supply of hot dogs.   KITTY: (laughs) Yeah, sure is a hot dog.   She falls into laughing again. Eric leads her away.   ERIC: Mom!   KITTY: Sorry, honey, it's just, he's just... I am sure you are much smarter.   Red crosses over to them.   RED: Kitty, the idiot neighbors drank all my beer.   ERIC: Uh-oh. You're in a bad mood. Hey, meet Casey.   CASEY: (shakes Red’s hand) Pleasure, sir. Hey, maybe I can help. I always keep a spare case of beer in the Trans Am. Little tip I picked up in the army.   He walks off down the driveway. Beaming, Donna crosses over to the porch to talk to Hyde.   Red and Kitty turn to Eric. Red seems impressed, Kitty smitten.   RED: I don't know. Seems like a pretty good kid.   KITTY: Uh-huh. On the porch, Hyde is back to leaning against the house as Donna stands across from him. HYDE: So, you and Casey, huh?   DONNA: Look, Hyde, whatever you heard about Casey, he's changed now. He's... he's mature.   HYDE: Oh, yeah. He's real mature.   DONNA: Well, I like him! We're together, and if you can't deal with that, then you can just go to hell!   She turns, runs after Casey.   HYDE: Hey, that's not barbecue language, young lady!   Donna meets Casey as he comes back up the driveway with a case of beer. A grape soda is balanced on top. Casey hands the case to Red.   CASEY: Here's that beer, sir. I got a soda for the minor.   He hands Eric the soda can.   CASEY (cont’d): (to Eric) Now, you make sure to drink that real slow, 'cause I don't want you to get a tummy ache, little guy.   He pats Eric on the stomach.   KITTY: Well, that's thoughtful.   RED: Yeah, he cramps up easy.   Eric, at a loss for words, shifts on his feet and cracks open the soda.   FADE TO BLACK   COMMERCIAL   BUMPER   EXT. FORMAN BACKYARD - DAY   Most of the gang has moved back here. Eric and Kelso lean against the door into the garage. Kelso’s eye scans the crowd, lingering on all the women; Eric looks down at the ground with his arms crossed. Further into the yard, Hyde and Jackie sit and talk on lawn chairs.   ERIC: Casey and Donna, man. (to Kelso) Hey, remember when we were 12? We didn't even like girls yet.   KELSO: (still scanning) I liked girls when I was 12.   ERIC: Well, at least I gave it my best shot, right? If Donna loves Casey and not me, then... I mean, I guess it's over.   Kelso stops scanning, turns to Eric and puts a hand on his shoulder.   KELSO: Forman, you can't give up. Look, who knows what’s gonna happen with me and Jackie, but what you and Donna had? That was, like, real. And I'm telling you, as his brother, Casey is bad news. He's either gonna get bored and split, or something worse is gonna happen. So, you gotta do something.   ERIC: (beat) Hey, since when did you get all serious?   KELSO: Well, I’ve been broken up with Jackie, and she cut me off for a while before that, so I think the lack of lovin’ is making more blood flow to my brain.   In the lawn chairs, Hyde massages his temple; Jackie’s just explained her plan.   HYDE: So, you’re letting Kelso kiss some other girl so you can get back together with him?   JACKIE: Yeah. That way, we’ll be even.   HYDE: Jackie, by that logic, “being even” means that you sleep with, like, four guys. This is nuts.   JACKIE: Steven, I don’t care if you don’t think it makes sense! If this is the only way for Michael and me to get back together, then that’s what I’m going to do!   She stands and storms off. Hyde stands too, looks around at the guests.   HYDE: This is a hot dog party, people! Not a yell-at-guys-with-good-advice party!   CUT TO:   INT. FORMAN KITCHEN – DAY   The next day. Fez and Hyde sit at the kitchen table, bowls of soup in front of them. Red sits on a stool at the island. Kitty comes over from the stovetop with one last bowl and a tray of sandwiches. KITTY: Okay, everyone. Here's lunch: hot dog soup!   HYDE: (groans) No more hot dogs! I'll just eat the grilled cheese.   He picks up a sandwich.   KITTY: You mean, grilled cheese with hot dogs!   Hyde throws the sandwich back down.   RED: Kitty, for God sakes, I ate 14 hot dogs yesterday!   KITTY: Well, what do you want me to do, Red? They're everywhere. They're a curse on this house!   RED: Oh, fine. Let's make some calls. Maybe we can unload the damn things on a nursery school.   He stands and leads Kitty out into the living room.   Eric enters from the basement, sits down at the table. ERIC: You guys, I’ve let this thing with Casey go way too far.   HYDE: Yeah, no kidding. Donna's pretty far gone. She's starting to lash out at people at barbecues. You gotta kick his ass, man.   FEZ: Hyde, Eric cannot beat Casey with his fists. He's a special boy who must beat him with his special strengths. Now, let's think. What is Eric's special strengths?   He puts his hands together in thought. Slow pan in, and we cut to:   INT. GAME SHOW SET   FANTASY SEQUENCE. A true ‘70s game show set – tacky as hell. Boxes are everywhere. Fez, in an equally tacky suit, spins around and flashes a grin for the camera. Two boxes flank him on either side. FEZ: Welcome back to TV's favorite game show - Get Into That Box!   The title flashes across the screen as he says the name.   FEZ (cont’d): Now, let's meet our returning champion, Eric Forman!   Eric’s head pops out from the box on Fez’s left.   ERIC: Thanks. Good to be back, Fez.   FEZ: Let's meet our challenger, Casey Kelso!   Casey walks onto set, to the applause of the off-screen audience.   FEZ (cont’d): Casey Kelso, it's time to...   He points out to the audience.   AUDIENCE (v.o.): Get into that box! Casey steps inside the box on Fez’s right. He tries to sit in it, but it bursts open at the side and Casey spills out onto the floor. CASEY: (to Fez, indicates Eric) How does he do it?   Donna, in a tacky dress, comes running from off-stage to hug Eric – or, rather, his box.   DONNA: He's so tiny!   She caresses his box as Eric shakes his hands in celebration.   CUT TO:   INT. FORMAN KITCHEN – DAY   Back to reality. Fez nods contentedly at his fantasy.   FEZ: I would watch that show.   ERIC: (beat) Okay. That was great. Guys, I'm going over to Casey's. And I don't know what I'm gonna do. But if things get physical, I'm just gonna have to drop the hammer.   HYDE: And if all else fails, kick him in the stones and run like hell.   ERIC: Yeah, that's what I meant by “drop the hammer.”   And out he goes through the patio door. BUMPER   INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - NIGHT RHONDA’S POV. She makes out with Fez on the basement couch. Fez pulls back and smiles. FEZ: Rhonda, your lively tongue has made me thirsty.   He lifts up a soda can, takes a sip through a straw, and offers it to Rhonda.   FEZ (cont’d): Would you like to wet your whistle?   Rhonda (the camera) nods. Fez passes the soda can. A long, loud slurping sound unnerves him; Rhonda’s drained the whole can.   FEZ (cont’d): Wow, thirsty lady. Well, we're off to a nice start. Shall we move on to second base? He reaches his hand out, places it where Rhonda’s breasts would be. His smile grows at first, but quickly falls when Rhonda’s big hand closes around his wrist and pulls his hand away. Her other hand shoots out and takes Fez by the throat. FEZ: Ai, no!   CUT TO:   INT. HUB – NIGHT   A decent nighttime crowd. “I Just Want to be Your Everything” by Andy Gibb plays on the jukebox. Jackie and Kelso stand near the counter, Kelso nursing a soda. He scans the crowd for women, and one walks by. KELSO: How about I kiss her?   JACKIE: No way. She's too tall, too tanned, too rich.   KELSO: Damn, Jackie, I don't wanna kiss a short, pale, poor girl.   JACKIE: Okay, look, Michael, all I know is that I don't want to stay broken up. Okay, you know what? You choose. Kiss any girl you want.   Kelso makes a brief show of looking around, then bends down and snakes a kiss from Jackie.   KELSO: I choose you.   JACKIE: Michael, that is the most romantic thing I've ever read, heard about, or seen on TV.   KELSO: Yeah, it was pretty romantic. I could tell while I was doing it.   Jackie sighs and sits down at the nearest free table. Kelso joins her.   KELSO: What?   JACKIE: No, it's just... look, one week you break up with me, and the next week you're Prince Charming?   KELSO: (shrugs) I'm an incredibly complex man, Jackie.   JACKIE: Michael, I can't do this anymore! Look, Michael, if you wanna choose me, then choose me. I mean, really choose me.   KELSO: Jackie, you gave me a free pass to kiss any girl I wanted, and I kissed you. And that was a big choice, ‘cause there’s a lot of hotties here.   He waves his hand to indicate the other patrons.   KELSO (cont’d): But there’s only one girl I wanna be with forever. And that’s you.   JACKIE: (beat) You want to be with me forever? You want to be together forever?   He nods. She takes his hand in hers.   JACKIE (cont’d): Okay, then, Michael, let’s commit to that right now. Let’s get married.   Very slowly, Kelso leans back. His jaw hangs slightly open, and he can’t stop blinking.   KELSO: (beat) Hold on. You wanna get married?   JACKIE: Yes, Michael, yes, I accept!   She jumps to her feet and kisses him on both cheeks.   JACKIE (cont’d): Oh, my God! You know what? I gotta go tell my dad. And you - you have to buy a ring! Just think about it! We are gonna be the “Burkhart-Kelsos.”   She runs out the door, squealing in delight.   KELSO: (in shock) The Who-hearts What-os?   He looks up to the window; Jackie is no longer in sight. He leaps to his feet, races out of the Hub, and takes off down the street in the opposite direction she took.   CUT TO:   EXT. KELSO HOUSE – NIGHT   Casey sits alone on the porch, reading an auto magazine. Eric walks up to him. ERIC: Casey, we need to talk.   CASEY: Well, I'm a little swamped right now, Foreplay.   ERIC: I think Donna thinks you love her, and if you don't, you shouldn't act like you do.   CASEY: What are you? The love police? Hands up! Love police is here.   ERIC: Hey, all I'm saying is that if you don't love her, just don't be with her, okay? Because she's a really special person, and someone out there could really love her.   CASEY: Someone out there or someone right here?   Eric doesn’t have a ready retort to that. He’s spared thinking of one by Donna stepping out from the house.   DONNA: Oh. Hey, Eric. What are you doing here?   CASEY: He was just leaving.   DONNA: Oh. Well, I gotta go, too.   CASEY: Hey, Pinciotti.   He stands and gives Donna a lingering kiss on the cheek.   CASEY (cont’d): Love ya.   DONNA: Oh, well, I...   She turns away from him to Eric, who looks down at his shoes.   DONNA (cont’d): (to Casey) Thank you. Okay, well, I'll... I'll see you later.   She walks off. Casey crosses to Eric.   CASEY: You see, Forman, it's just words. You don't have to mean it.   ERIC: If you make her cry, I'm coming right back here to kick your ass.   He walks off too, the opposite way from Donna.   FADE TO BLACK   CREDITS INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - NIGHT   THE CIRCLE. “Barracuda” by Heart plays on the radio. For once, the weed hasn’t made Kelso laughy. He looks downright paranoid. KELSO: You guys, I found something worse than Jackie kissing another guy: she wants to get married! TO ME!   He looks frantically around the room, the stairs and the door especially.   Pan to Eric.   ERIC: Well, if kicking Casey's butt is the same as babbling at him from a safe distance, then boy, did I do it! But seriously, you guys, the days of Daffy are over. It's time for action. I'm goin' Road Runner on his ass. Meep, meep! POW!   Pan to Fez.   FEZ: Good. Because thanks to his stupid advice, Rhonda dumped me. I tried to steal third, but she blocked me. And choked me. Now there’s no more baseball for Fez. It's back to handball.   Pan to Hyde.   HYDE: Girls, man. They'll make you miserable. Well, I got a date. (doing Daffy) Tho long, thuckerth!   He stands and makes for the door.   END.

[catbowserauthor]

Dragonball 30 Day Challenge: Day 21 Favorite Movie

So I actually really like most of these movies. I’ve never been bothered by the “it wouldn’t fit into canon” argument. I view them as fun AU adventures so I just judge them based on their individual traits. I won’t be including the specials in here as I think that’s a different topic.

So, let’s do a quick countdown to my favorite, from the worst to the best!

16: Resurrection F: Sorry, I have never been a huge fan of Freeza. He was fine as a villain in the Namek saga and his unexpected return until he was killed by Trunks was interesting. Beyond that, I don’t find him an engaging bad guy. He’s a Bond villain. He’s not fun for me to watch and him growing that much stronger in four months is stretching my sense of disbelief even for Dragonball. Vegeta getting robbed of that kill was crap and introducing Whis’ ability to rewind time killed any tension for future battles for me.

And I don’t wanna talk about what they did to Gohan.

15: Lord Slug: There’s nothing “wrong” per say with this movie but it’s just...well, it’s Piccolo Daimao all over again. So, it’s kind of boring. I do like seeing the colder climate as Toriyama didn’t draw that very often (claims he hates the cold so it’s usually summer or spring in his manga) so we didn’t get to see it as much. I also love the brief interaction Goku has with Gohan during the battle and Gohan and Icarus are way too adorable.

14: Bio Broly: Okay so I don’t hate this movie. It’s not good but I don’t think it’s utterly horrible like some people do. But the reasons I like it might be different than others. I like this one because you get to see Goten and Trunks’ friendship. You see them pal around, you see them argue but then when they’re close to getting killed you also see Trunks refuse to leave an unconscious Goten to die alone. I freaking LOVE that.

13: Return of Cooler: I think my issue with this movie is the same issue I have with Super in general. It’s focused on Goku and Vegeta almost the whole way through. We get small cuts to the others but otherwise it’s just them. I like both these characters but I like to see a mix of the cast so that’s why it falls lower.

12: Dragonball Super Broly: Okay so I really like the adaption of Dragonball Minus. It turned out way better than I hoped and the animation in this movie is absolutely amazing. I’d recommend it just based on that alone. I really enjoyed the new characters. But again, not a fan of Freeza and the fact it was really only Goku and Vegeta—again—really hurts it for me. Still a fun movie though.

11: Wrath of the Dragon: This one has a really fun plot and it’s neat to see Trunks really bonding with someone. I think the brief interactions at the BBQ are some of the best. The downtime in this movie has some of my favorite moments. The final battle is fun but I think it would have been better if someone other than Goku got the finishing blow.

10: Super Android 15: This one, again, I really love for the downtime! Seeing Goku’s family shopping, going out for lunch—I love that kind of stuff! The Androids themselves are interesting enough and while I know a lot of people don’t like it, I really like they gave 15 a redneck accent in the dub. Gave him some character. I also love Gohan and Krillin trying to help even though they are completely outmatched. Gohan throwing himself in front of a blast to protect his father who is creating a spirit bomb is one of my favorite small scenes.

9: Broly Second Coming: The interactions between Videl, Goten and Trunks are pure gold. I’d love to see them just...shooting the breeze with each other. The battle against Broly is fun but I love the ending where Goku pops in from the Other World (presumably) to lend his aid. That entire family Kamehameha is just brilliant.

8: Battle of Gods: So this is going to sound weird because Beerus and Whis are some of my favorites in DBS. I did not like them here. No idea why, just didn’t. The Super Saiyan God ritual is kinda weird but I love all the character interactions before this! This is what I really love about Dragonball, all these interesting personalities working off one another. I like how Goku and Beerus’ fight goes and the animation is really well done. Pretty solid. And Vegeta defending Bulma—awesome.

7: Bojack Unbound: This is how I pictured Gohan growing up into after Cell—still studies but plays outside and still trains and ChiChi being okay with it. This is the personality I love Gohan with—confident but not overly confident, shy but with pride in himself and a great blend of his human and Saiyan sides.

Freaking. Love. It.

The rest of the movie is meh. Save one element—Goku saying “screw it” to the rules and intervening to save his son

and Gohan utterly owning everyone with SSJ2.

But I have to rank it high with having my absolute favorite characterization of Gohan.

6: Broly the Legendary Super Saiyan: Yes, I’m ranking the old one higher than the new one. I don’t care. I watch this one more.

I like the aliens, I like all the other characters being involved. I love the fact that Gohan is a kid in this one. I love Vegeta’s being utterly and completely terrified. I love Piccolo coming in for the save, I love Goku forgetting about the battle and Broly and rushing to try and save his kid. And when Broly threatens his son...

“Kakarot, how much do you love your son?”

“Gohan, leave.”

“But Father—“

“NOW.”

I think having more characters and introducing peril to all of them makes it more engaging.

5: Dead Zone: Quick trivia fact, this is the movie that got me into Dragonball. I caught the end of it on Cartoon Network and was intrigued from them on. I really like that this has a younger Goku. Goku from the Saiyan Saga to the Android Saga is probably my favorite characterization of him. That really shows here. He doesn’t care what beef Kami and Garlic Junior have. He’s there for his kid. “Return my Gohan!” There’s so great choreography in this one too and more martial arts than just ki blasts which I always love seeing.

4: World’s Strongest: Little Gohan is fun. I love seeing him interact with Goku’s friends and an enemy that still thinks Roshi is the strongest makes for some great throwback scenes. I like seeing Goku’s friends get involved in the action. Goku intervening to protect his son against a brainwashed Piccolo and Gohan having to watch the two men he admires most in the world fight makes for great drama.

3: Fusion Reborn: This movie is just fun. It’s wacky, it’s crazy, the fights are insane, the dialogue is hilarious, it’s bright and colorful and Goku and Vegeta while being the main heroes don’t completely dictate the plot. There’s enough fun stuff going on with other characters that I can enjoy any aspect of this movie.

2: Tree of Might: The scents between Goku and Gohan are why I love this movie. Them playing in the tub, Goku letting him keep Icarus in a cave in the yard...the ENTIRE scene of Goku trying to break through to Gohan once he’s become a giant ape just breaks my heart. “Gohan! It’s Daddy!”

Then having time cut off his own son’s tail to save him and ooo, Goku’s “I’m so done” glare to Turles. I adore that when Goku is at his lowest, it’s his son’s voice that gets him to stand back up.

1: Cooler’s Revenge: I like these slice of life moments and this movie has lots of them. I love Goku and his friends and son just wanting to go on a camping trip. I love that Cooler comes not to avenge his brother but because Freeza being beaten by a Saiyan looks bad on their entire family. That is brilliant.

This scene:

Daddy Goku for the win here. I love how they show his relationship with Gohan in this movie. They’ve always been my favorites so I’m biased by nature. I love how the battle against Cooler goes. I love how they have to struggle not to use their ki when they’re tending to Goku. The characters and scenarios in this movie really make it for me.

One thing I noticed as I did this list is that most of my top movies have Gohan as a kid. I don’t think that’s random. I much prefer his characterization at that age and I like it when the others can still contribute to the plot. But as I said, except for my top most disliked one, I really like all of these in some manner. They’re always a fun time!

[mspaleoart]

Psittacosaurus – Early Cretaceous (126-101 Ma)

I’m a mess. I’ve been running this blog for a long time, and I barely talk about dinosaurs. I was thinking about the dinosaurs I’ve drawn, and I haven’t even covered most of the famous groups, including ceratopsians. Mess.

So let’s talk about a ceratopsian. Ceratopsians were the dinosaurs who looked like Triceratops; frill, facial horns, beak, etc. This little guy is named Psittacosaurus, which means “parrot lizard.” It was about the size of a golden retriever, and was a more basal sort of ceratopsian. It has no frill, only a ridge on the back of the skull. It had two spikes on its cheeks—one species even has horns protruding from the front of the skull, but it’s likely convergent evolution, not a directly ancestral trait for future ceratopsians. It was still a biped, though, even as an adult. Its remains are found in eastern Asia, from Russia, China, and famously, Mongolia. We’ve found hundreds of fossils of 11 different species and from all stages of life. This is one of the dinosaurs we have an almost complete image of.

Psittacosaurus was an efficient little herbivore, with a tough beak and a battery of self-sharpening teeth. Desert plants tend to be hardier and thicker, and these teeth let it slice through those tough desert plants without a problem. It also swallowed stones to aid the digestion process. This is a behavior seen in many herbivores today. Plants are kind of hard to digest, so plenty of animals swallow rocks to help grind up their food. Psittacosaurus had big eyes and, surprisingly, a pretty big brain. They built nests and took care of their hatchlings. They were probably comparable to a sparrow in terms of intelligence, which is a reminder that despite popular thought, dinosaurs weren’t stupid.

Speaking of bipedalism, this animal has kind of a weird relationship with the concept of walking on two legs. Its young may have been quadrupedal, suggesting it evolved from a quadrupedal ancestor. So, this means one of two things: 1) Ceratopsians evolved from quadrupeds, became bipeds, and then went back to walking on all fours, or 2) This is a more derived ceratopsian that branched off from the line leading to the big guys from later on. The former isn’t as wacky as it sounds—other animals have done it in their history. The latter is just as likely, though. This sort of thing is really hard to determine in animals who are a hundred million years old.

Unlike its descendants, Psittacosaurus was agile and quick on its feet. Later ceratopsians were more like tank builds. When something wanted to eat a Triceratops or its babies, it’d hunker down and wave its horns and frill and warn the predator to piss off. But in Psittacosaurus’ case, it was the one doing the pissing off. It was small, so it makes sense that it would want to run away instead of trying to fight. We’ve also learned, through molecular studies, that its skin was countershaded. Countershading is a type of camouflage common in a lot of animals, where the top half of its body is dark, and its belly is lighter. This makes it harder to see them by messing with their shading. Deer, dolphins, and manta rays are some of the many animals that do this today. Psittacosaurus likely depended on this to avoid being spotted by theropods, who hunted primarily with eyesight.

Another cool thing we learned about this guy fairly recently is the brush of quills on its tail. Now, this is kind of weird for a few reasons. Dinosaurs are divided into two big groups, Ornithischia and Saurischia. Birds originated in Saurischia, and many, many Saurischians had feathers. The exception is sauropods, although they might have had quills on their back. It makes sense to think that feathers originated in this branch.

BUUUUUUUUUUUT

A few groups of Ornithischians had quills, like Psittacosaurus. So, it’s been proposed that feathers are an ancestral trait for all dinosaurs, and that the most recent common ancestor of all of them was at least fuzzy. Although, the quills in Psittacosaurus were different from those of their distant birdlike cousins. They had a conelike structure and might have been filled with some sort of fluid. They may have even been covered in keratin, making them quite different from what we usually call ‘feathers.’ They’re also only found on a very particular and unusual part of the body. The most convincing study on these weird quill things has concluded that they aren’t really similar enough to be considered homologous to theropod feathers, and probably evolved independently. Mind you, we don’t know for sure, and fuzzy Coelophysis isn’t completely unreasonable. Given sauropods may have had quills, maybe those were the ancestral structure, and theropods just went buckwild with them.

Also, this means Triceratops may have had a sparse smattering of quills on its butt, which I like a lot. I’ll draw a bigger ceratopsian with quills at some point and it’ll be a fun time.

One more thing about Psittacosaurus, and it’s not really particularly scientific, but this thing is SO CUTE. I want one as a pet. Maybe it would be kinda spiky, and maybe it wouldn’t be great for petting, but I think it would be a good friend.

That’s all for today’s animal, a dinosaur whom I love very much. I think from now on, I will make more of an effort to draw more famous dinosaurs, because a lot of them are well-known and I like a lot of them. I just don’t want to get it all out of my system at once, you know?

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Buy me a Coffee, if you’d like!

[fishy12233]

Chronicles of Sturgia

Prologue Part 1: “The Garbled Gossip”

In order for a story to make sense, the reader must know who the main characters are. After all, the main characters are the ones who drive the story. Imagine a middle school cafeteria, bustling with chatter, like a theater before the show. The cafeteria is bright and cheery with its checkered floor and artistic walls. Hundreds of children are chattering at once, some talking about the newest member in a famous band; others are talking about mysterious rumors of aliens, but everyone knows rumors like that are only real in comic books and movies. The chatter continues, an endless garble of noise. Anyone in the cafeteria can see a variety of different students. Six girls walking by while wearing coordinated outfits, a typical guy surrounded by his strange friends, a girl who chooses to doodle on her tablet by herself. However, none of them are our main characters.

As lunch begins, a girl sits down at an empty table with her lunch. Her name is Maddie, and she is the first of our six main characters. She wears a school uniform in a school that doesn’t require school uniforms and has a poppy in her hair. Her eyes are dark, mysterious, and a little sleepy, though her left eye is partially covered by her one-sided bangs. Maddie prefers to spend her time reading spooky novels or playing spooky video games. Her lunch is chopped beef with a slice of devil’s food cake on the side. Maddie isn’t the one who talks very much at her table, but when discussing her interests, she takes full control of the conversation. During an everyday conversation, Maddie is the type of person who tends to listen and observe. This is great for Maddie since she always knows exactly what type of gifts to give her friends on their birthdays.

The chatter continues. Sometimes, when you listen closely, you can listen in on gossip. This can tell someone a lot about what others think of them. Gossip isn’t always the best form of entertainment. But passing students continue to eavesdrop nonetheless.

“Did you see Maddie? She’s so elegant and graceful!”

“She’s like everyone’s big sister. They shouldn’t need to be so dependant on her! She acts like some concerned mom sometimes.”

“But she’s a total goth too! Have you seen her clothes? She looks like she came right out of boarding school! I bet that she’s secretly a witch or something.”

The children continue with their daily routine. The coordinated girls eat healthy salads. A nerdy girl talks to her friends, making sassy remarks with a deadpan voice. Meanwhile, a bratty kid is playing pranks on other people. But none of them are our main characters.

A second girl sits down to eat with Maddie. Her name is Susan. She’s Maddie’s little sister and her total opposite. Susan wears a purple A-line dress with pink flowers on it and keeps a white lily in her hair. She also wears black stockings and flowery shoes. Her eyes are bright, happy, and excited. Susan loves cute things, especially cute things from Japan. She likes doing things like watching cute anime or buying cute plushies. Susan makes her own Japanese bento lunch, complete with octopus sausages and onigiri. But sometimes, Susan decides to go all out and create a cute and elaborate bento lunch with cute characters and a large variety of food. When Susan first saw how cute bento boxes could be, her eyes sparkled with awe. She saved up her allowance so that she could buy her own genuine bento box. Her friends always love her bento box designs and ask her if she could make lunch for them. Susan is extroverted, which in this case means she loves to talk, but is overly dependant on others and sometimes comes off as rude and annoying. Anyone who calls Susan annoying isn’t her friend. During an everyday conversation, Susan is the type of person who gets distracted by her surroundings and always carries the conversation. Susan truly cares about her friends, but always forgets things like their birthdays. Fortunately, she has her sister Maddie to help her remember.

The garbled gossip goes on and on. Everyone wonders what people think of them. They get self-conscious and anxious just thinking about it. Gossip is always behind one's back, but it’s not always well hidden.

“Have you seen Susan? OMG! She’s soooo cute!”

“She may be cute, but she’s annoying. Why can’t she just leave us alone? She should just go back to relying on her sister for everything.”

“She’s also a total weeb! Susan is so into anime and cutesy stuff, it’s sickening! Also also, she totally copied my style!”

While the peanut gallery rambled on, the kids kept eating their lunch. One of the coordinated girls finishes eating and walks over to another table to talk to her other friends. A snarky girl who looks rather similar to Susan gossips and acts as if the leader of her group, even though she’s not. Meanwhile, two sisters and their friend talk about the latest horror movies. But none of them are our main characters.

A third kid sits at the table with the sisters. This time, the kid is a boy named Peter. He wears a propeller hat and a shirt with a smiley face and blue-and-yellow-striped sleeves. Peter also wears a heavy backpack, filled with a ton of schoolwork, his lunch, a bunch of colorful yo-yos, some robot parts from the robotics club, and a huge album of trading cards. His eyes are simple, yet optimistic and determined. Peter likes geeky things like robots and trading cards. He always has the coolest toys. His favorite food is ground beef and rice with ketchup that his mom makes for him. During lunch, he also likes to have a grilled cheese and pizza bagels alongside the beef to share with friends. Peter and his friends love to trade and share their lunches. Peter is outgoing and friendly but sometimes is too distracted with building robots to talk. During an everyday conversation, Peter is cool with listening to others talk, but he can easily carry a conversation if needed. People like talking to him because conversations with him are never boring.

The students continue to talk incessantly. Not everyone who talks with friends is a gossip. Sadly, many girls tend to be labeled as gossips just for being outgoing. The saying, “It takes one to know one,” definitely rings true here.

“Peter’s kind of cute. He looks really cool with his gadgets and toys!”

“Are you kidding me? Peter’s a DWEEB!”

“Geez, shut up! Takes one to know one, dweeb.”

Lunch continues on. The coordinated girl and one of her friends decide to do their friend’s hair in wacky hairstyles. A cooler girl sits with the snarky girl that looks like Susan and chat about other people. The bratty kid gets into an argument with some other students. But none of them are our main characters.

A girl named Lisa, the fourth friend, sits at the lunch table. She wears a large tie-dye shirt and worn bell-bottoms. Lisa wears way too many bracelets and keeps her curly dyed hair up in two large pigtails with scrunchies. Her eyes have more makeup than her friends’, which makes them look more flashy. Lisa likes doing fun things like having parties and playing dolls. She likes playing dress-up and usually likes having sleepovers with Peter. Sometimes, Peter and Lisa would play shovelware games and laugh at them during their sleepovers.

Lisa always likes to sneak candy into her lunch, which usually has fun, bizarre food. She always trades food with Peter. Lisa is chatty but very kind, even to people who don’t like her. During an everyday conversation, Lisa is usually the one to start it. She always talks about the latest trends, but Lisa always gets bored from running out of things that she wants to talk about. Lisa knows that people think she’s a girly gossip, but she really wants to get rid of that view people have on her so that she can live a more free life.

The chatter continues. Some people don’t really care about gossip. They’re the smart ones, ignoring others’ opinions and focusing on being themselves. Like a stone wall, harsh words don’t get through to them. But even a stone wall wears down over time.

“You know Lisa right? That weird girl with the flashy accessories?”

“Yeah, what’s her deal anyway? Who’s she tryin’ to impress?”

“I heard that it’s Peter, they always hang out together. What losers!”

Lunch continues, but there are still some students waiting in line for their food. The sister of the girl with the wacky hairstyle writes in her journal while listening to emotional music. While the girl who looks like Susan continues to gossip, the true leader of her friend group sits quietly. She writes poetry and hums a familiar song. The girl with the tablet continues to sit alone and draw in peace. But none of these students are our main characters.

A fifth student sits with Maddie, Susan, Peter, and Lisa. She is carrying a tray piled with food along with her lunch box. Her name is Annie, and she’s wearing a faux raccoon tail hat and a worn plaid shirt with worn jeans. Annie’s eyes are stern but friendly. She’s a tough girl who loves camping and tasty food. Her dad has taken her out hiking and fishing countless times. She’ll eat anything for lunch. She loves meat, and is always down for eating out. Annie’s eyes are much larger than her stomach. This always results in Annie leaving lunch too full and having lots of leftovers to give to her friends. But she doesn’t really mind. Annie volunteers at the local food bank every day, which gives her the opportunity to donate any extra food that she’s gathered during lunch. From time to time, Annie’s friends also volunteer at the food bank. Annie is strong and motivating, but can be insensitive at times. During an everyday conversation, Annie always finds a way to brighten someone’s day. She tends to rush through life, but her friends help her to slow down and appreciate the world around her more.

Almost everyone has settled down to eat. Many students have already finished their lunch. But the chatter is louder than ever. In the end, others’ opinions don’t matter. But even still, when a person spends too much time taunting people and belittling friendship, they get annoying. People start ignoring them and getting bored of them. Sometimes, one has to wonder if that person turned out well.

“Do you know Annie?”

“Yeah, she’s that tomboy. What’s her deal?”

“She can be so insensitive, giving false motivation. What a hypocrite.”

Lunch begins to close. Students are finishing their food and packing up. The coordinated girls reunite and begin heading back to class. The strange friends of the regular guy begin finishing up, but still chatter. Everyone else, including the bratty kid and the artistic girl, throw out their trash and begin to leave. But none of them are our main characters.

Before lunch begins to end, one last person sits with his friends. He arrives at the table with Annie. His name was Chris. Chris is considered a nerd. He wears large glasses, a bowtie with a school uniform, and has his hair slicked back. Chris is shorter than his friends. He’s a studious kid who loves reading and math. Chris was the last to join his friend group. When he first joined, he was apprehensive. He was too scared to ask them to let him join their group. But what he wanted more than anything else was to have a group of friends he could be a part of. He simply needed to build up his courage. His lunch normally consists of hard boiled eggs, tuna, and salty crackers. Chris is kind, but is also shy and awkward. During an everyday conversation, Chris is the type of person who listens, but really wants to speak. He may be shy, but he has his friends to take care of him and help him become more social.

The cafeteria is almost empty, but the chatter still lingers. The students walk back to class, yet our six main characters still remain, being the last ones to pack up and leave. In the end, gossip doesn't matter. Only your own actions matter. In the future, things may get better. Sometimes, it doesn't get better. The best we can do is make the best of it. But we must also strive to improve our lives for the better.

“You know Chris, right?”

“Who?”

“The kid who always follows Annie around. He's like her minion or something.”

“Oh yeah, the egghead! He just, like, doesn't stand out to me a lot.”

Finally, everyone leaves, heading back to class and taking their noisy chatter with them. The garbled gossip fades away, leaving the cafeteria empty. But just because lunch is over doesn’t mean that the story is. A show always begins on an empty stage. Just like a play, the story is only just beginning...

[thesinglesjukebox]

DEMPAGUMI.INC - PRECIOUS SUMMER [6.62] When we last covered them, it was 4 years ago and they had 2 fewer members. We got a lot of catching up to do.

Taylor Alatorre: This sounds like someone hired a group to do the opening theme for the next YuruYuri OVA but they were deemed to be too fast and too loud, so they decided to get even faster and louder as revenge. It's cosmically hilarious that anime openings are one of the places where the insurgent spirit of punk rock remains most vibrant, albeit filtered through happy hardcore and caked in moe sensibilities. Dempagumi themselves have a mixed record when it comes to anime songs, with "Punch Line!" being weighed down by panty-related punnery that's unfortunately quite relevant to the plot. Here, with no media property attached, they're free to chase the wildest, most high-velocity sounds possible, and the listener is free to imagine whatever cute and wacky scenarios they want. The yearning power pop outro is the meaning of the song's title belatedly coming into view: that those carefree summer days are indeed precious and cannot be made to last forever, no matter what BPM you charge at them with. It makes the preceding thrill ride all the more worthwhile. [9]

Katie Gill: Initially, I was ABSOLUTELY confused because I didn't realize that "DDR song from the early 2000s mixed with that one song I can never full combo in Love Live" was a genre. And yet it is! "Precious Summer" is an example of a denpa song, a song characterized by traits like off-key vocals, an intensely over the top tune, and a generally 'weird' or 'out of touch' feel. "Precious Summer" succeeds in that regard: this song does not stop. It makes me feel like I have a caffeine buzz just by listening to it. And despite the very real people performing this, "Precious Summer" sounds amazingly fake. The vocal manipulation borders on the uncanny at times, more Vocaloid than actual person. But that's possibly the point. This is a long-winded way to say that initially I was completely baffled by this song, and now...I'm still completely baffled. But at least now I know that it's a 'this is probably not a genre for me' sort of thing. [5]

John Seroff: Combo after combo.... look at all those combos! I'm very glad this kind of frenetic jpop denpa nerdmetal exists and, in proper dosages, I've been known to indulge. It's just that when I go one toke over the line (say, past that third repeat), I feel like I'm gonna hyperventilate and die. Helluva drug! [6]

Iain Mew: One of those bits of fantastic music writing which has stuck in my brain forever is MG's groovesnjams description of Girls' Generation's "I Got a Boy" as an arcade machine attract reel. The first couple of minutes of "Precious Summer" is more like someone impatiently hammering through the game's lavish menus, intense cues piling on top of each other as they're not even given the chance to play out before the next one slices in. After that it stays exactly as ultra-demonstrative but slightly less ultra-fast, which is as close as a concession to the reasonable as you get with them. [7]

Ryo Miyauchi: The frantic electronic beat of "Precious Summer" turns up the speed by 1000% with saturated colors bleeding as if to signify the effects from the beating sun. The line distribution moves back and forth just as intense, enough to inspire some motion sickness. It's more or less what you'd expect from a Dempagumi single cashing in on the season. While the group delivers exactly what's called for, if you're familiar with Dempa, you know you don't necessarily have to wait until summertime to enjoy this kind of music from them. [6]

Jonathan Bradley: It's been a little while since I last checked in with the frenetic and eternally glitching Dempagumi.inc, and it was welcome and faintly disappointing to hear how familiar "Precious Summer" is. Welcome, because there is still so much glee in this act's overclocked call-and-response shouting and jump-cut arrangements. But listening to Dempagumi should be an off-kilter experience, one in which the horizon has not only been lost, it might have been rendered entirely unlocatable, and this song traces its shifts in pace and tone in ways that propose the confusion is a recurring set of convoluted compartments bolted together rather than ever-replenishing chaos. Still, fitting for a tune with a title Joyce Manor could borrow, "Precious Summer" is the nearest this band has come to pop-punk, and that's a good fit for them; the counter-melody on the outro could have been sung by Tom DeLonge on a Blink-182 track in 2001. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: There's a lot of innate energy in a colorful denpa song like this, but the longer it goes on, the more that any and all excitement is squeezed out. While the normalization of these ostensibly disparate elements is fine, it reveals how "Precious Summer" could use stronger songwriting to compliment all the accouterments. The vocal melody that graces the outro almost convinces me that the rest was worthwhile. [5]

Rebecca A. Gowns: I know next to nothing about J-pop, so I usually abstain from writing about it. This time, the video intrigued me, resurfacing fuzzy memories of watching Lucky Star and K-On during a lazy summer 10 years ago. The association isn't random, as it looks like Dempagumi.inc's whole thing is being a group of otaku girls who got together to try and make it as an idol group. Musically, it reminds me of those shows' openings: plucky girls singing rapidly, stream-of-consciousness, shouting interjections, quirky and cute in an extremely conscious way. Wikipedia tells me that Dempagumi's music is not just idol music, it's also denpa, which I haven't seen other writers reference here before. Suddenly the anime theme songs and Dempagumi's songs are outlined with a more cohesive thread -- this is the sound of electromagnetic waves infiltrating your brain. Now I get it. This performance is exactly what you dream about after watching too many episodes of "Lucky Star" on a hot summer day. The memory comes to me more clearly now, and I appreciate this song for what it evokes; that feeling of being a young girl with in the throes of a sticky, depressed mania, and grabbing onto cute pop culture and happy make-believe as if it was a life preserver. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[scoundrels-in-love]

Rainy recommends Kdramas

So I was slightly encouraged to make a kdrama rec list and, of course, I went overboard and went and wrote a long-ass list, but if it helps even one person, I will be happy. Besides, it’s excuse for me to rant about dramas I love and you know I can’t pass that up.

This list will be divided in multiple parts because I am a troubled watched. The titles will explain. (Genres I’ve written as per my opinion and are listed in alphabetic order cause I can’t decide how to do it otherwise, and dramas are too.) I also stopped added humor genre because most of these dramas have a fair share of humor and kept the tag only for the ones that felt purposely humor-made.

Disclaimer: This list is purely my opinion and I will not fight anyone who dislikes any drama listed here and I hope you will not fight with me. Or unfollow me. #awkward laughter. Also let it be noted I have at least one issue with each of these dramas, I do not proclaim anything perfect.

And now, finally, onto actual fic rec list, under the cut.

Kdramas I’ve 100% watched

Goblin Drama - Fantasy - Romance There seems to be only people who love it to pieces or quite profoundly dislike it. Obviously, I belong to the first group. It’s a visually stunning story that draws you in, makes you laugh your heart out and then sets it on fire. I tagged this as drama for a reason! In a way, it’s story of humankind, both at its worst and best. It’s a story of 300+ year old men being total adorable dorks. Of love and friendships that can be lost in twists of fate, but transcend a lifetime. It comes with 2 OTPs and no love triangles in conventional sense, OST that might blow your mind in best way and cinematography that takes breath away. Beware if your squick is visual age difference, though!! If not, watch away and beware: (lots of) tears may be shed.

Go Ho’s Starry Night Office Romance - Romance - Slice of Life A short and lovely watch that may surprise you. It tears into such topics as sexism, bigotry, prejudices and others, while not being too in your face about it.  As I once said,  It has all the good things of romcoms, but somehow pretty much deals with the fallout what would come with one. What’s more, it appeals to my love of jerks with heart of gold trope, in most pleasant way. Entertaining fun that isn’t all empty.

Hello Monster / I Remember You Crime - Family - Drama - Romance Though I added romance tag, this is just a side factor in grand scheme of things, though it does not feel forced and is emotionally satisfying. This is story of mistakes, of losing and finding what matters, of situations where there is no right answer. One of my greatest draws to this series was the acting, especially by three important men. Psychos that are so charismatic it hurts. Ambiguous good guys. All that good stuff.

It’s Okay, That’s Love Drama - Medical (sort of) - Psychological - Romance It’s not spoken of much and I feel the need to always rectify that, because while it might not be the most accurate portrayal of mental health care or even these issues, for me, while it might end up brushing over the end of some plot points a little too easily, there were many things that screamed deep and personal to me, that made me cry again and again as I stayed up till 5am to watch the final episodes because I could not stop anymore. Perhaps it’s one of those hits-one-in-a-hundred watch, but do give it a try, move past the eyeroll of first episodes and the male lead you may dislike (or female). What’s more, the acting is amazing and it’s chockfull with lovable side characters that have/create great and meaningful relationships and friendships.

Kill Me, Heal Me Drama -  Psychological - Romance What can I say, this drama is an experience on its own. It may lack in psychological accuracy and the female lead may seem like a screeching harpy at the start, but overall it’s very emotional ride with amazing acting and made me feel and cry quite a bit. At one point, if certain song came on, I knew I’d probably cry! But it’s not all sadness and gloom, in fact there’s so much humor and funny moments they’re brought up through drama cracks years later. And the male lead’s acting may just floor you. 7 (!) different characters and they all truly feel different, grow and change subtly.

Shopping King Louis Humor - Romance - Slice of Life Definitely a feel-good watch of chaebol (rich heir) and girl from countryside living in the capital and navigating the difficulties together. It’s cute, wacky and all around adorable, until it suddenly makes you quiver lip a little. It’s easy, sugary brain food and sometimes we need just that. (+ Male lead is played by same actor as in Hello Monster and the vast differences between characters are likely to wow you.)

Splash Splash Love Fantasy - Historical - Romance -  Time Travel If you want to spend 2 hours with easy, lovable watch, this may just be your thing. I heard a lot of positive feedback about it and thought it couldn’t be that great, but somehow it was! Pretty costumes? Check. Time Traveling? Check. Modern gadget shenanigans in historical era? Check. Sweet and troubled love? Check. Happy ending? Check. Don’t expect it to answer all your questions, it won’t, but face value of it is still worth it!

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo College/High School  - Romance  - Slice of Life My first drama and I would suggest it as first to watch for others, too. While the humor and even the characters may make you roll your eyes sometime, the theme of growing up and dealing with new and old wounds is handled with love and wiseness of heart. The eventual couple is amazing sorta enemies to friends to lovers trope embodiment and absolutely adorable. It’s a feel-good watch, until angst comes and smacks you in the face, and then you’re crying and healing along with the characters. The acting is excellent, it’s visually beautiful and there’s something charming about it. Give it a try, even if slice of life and college content isn’t your cup of tea. They aren’t mine either.

Kdramas I’ve not 100% finished, but I have watched most of it + finished with gifs, meta and clips and am still absolutely recommending and 100% plan to finish when I am emotionally and physically capable

20th Century Boy and Girl Friendship - Romance  - Slice of Life A drama lot of people ‘slept’ on because it was so quiet and subtle in some ways, and perhaps the writer was not quite sure what to do with it in the end, stretching some things far too long and not even delivering an upgrade, but... Somehow, I like(d) it a lot. So, so, so much. The female friendship of it made my heart soar, the gently blossoming romances made me physically grin so much it hurt and there were so many good, unusual dynamics about it you don’t usually see in a kdrama. If you’re in for a boat ride down a beautiful, slow and wide river where sometimes there’s a sudden bump with group of wonderful friends, this may be drama for you.

Because This is My First Life Friendship - Subtle Drama - Romance - Slice of Life Another girl friendship story. Well, it’s not just about girl friendship, but without it, the story wouldn’t be half of what it was. For me, this drama hit a lot personal spots, with our girls who are 30, but are still looking for their way in life and getting lost and finding themselves. It’s gentle, painful and reassuring all at once, there are tropes and then they’re flipped on the head in most amazing ways. The romance is slow and strange and pretty much wonderful. Maybe the characterization suffers a little in the end, but overall, I think when I do finish it, I will be satisfied and moved and feel like it was fitting conclusion for characters whose stories are in quite unique. And by this, I don’t mean just our main couple, but essentially the whole supporting cast, even rather minor characters!

School 2017 Friendship - High School - Romance - Slice of Life I am not one for high school stuff, and I don’t know when I will properly watch and finish this, but I do know I want to. Why? Because it gives me lovely characters with issues both on the superficial and deep level, fitting and transcending age group the characters are in. It’s well acted and has lovely friendships, a cute romance that is right up my alley, as it’s boy goes from fight me @ world to smitten kitten for his girl and also a lovely story of finding yourself as you grow up.

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon Fantasy/Superpowers - Humor - Romance This is a problematic favorite of mine, personally.  You won’t stick with this drama for plot, but you may for an OTP that consists of kookie, super strong girl and rich CEO who hires her to be his bodyguard because he’s already 10 feet in love with her despite his denial. It’s the ‘powerful women and pretty boys who would die for them’ trope incarnate, the heartgame is so strong you feel it through the screen. And yes, there are issues with side characters, with consistency, too many jokes about pee and so forth, but if you want any of what’s mentioned above + some feels, this may be for you.

Suspicious Partner Crime - Romance This drama may have benefited from being few episodes shorter and better pacing of romantic and crime story lines, but overall, it’s one that’s likely to draw you in and feel for the characters. It’s not just the main couple that are straight up adorable, especially when they can get beyond that I’m distancing/hiding things for your safety/happiness point, but plenty of interesting side characters with meaningful relationships and stories to tell. Besides, the acting’s wonderful and Ji Wook is one of most likable and considerate male leads (other than hiding things aspect) I’ve ever seen in kdrama (or anywhere). His confession speech is just, #swoon.

While You Were Sleeping Crime - Fantasy - Romance It’s a drama that started strong and then puttered out some, but if you’re in for a story that once again asks questions ‘what would you do if you saw future’ and gives it’s own kind of answers, this may be for you. It’s got interesting characters, cute romance and lovely friendships are made along the way, as they struggle with some truly difficult problems of morality and otherwise.

Things I have started, kept up with via media and have mixed feelings about, but still kind of am fascinated by, so I suggest you give them a try

Black (tagged on my blog as OCN Black so there’s no mistags) Crime - Fantasy - Romance (??) Personal Status - Unfinished, plan to finish It’s a wild mess, but intriguing one. I did not get further than 4 eps yet, but I do plan to try. The acting is pretty good, the story’s very twisted and I have heard mixed reactions to the way its solved, but it strays so far from anything I’ve ever watched I can’t help but be kind of drawn to it. It’s got tons of gory and/or disgusting moments, though, as its humor kind of rides on that, so be warned.

Tomorrow With You Drama - Time Travel - Psychological - Romance Personal Status - Unfinished, but plan to finish This one is a strange one, because it’s slow and with awkward push and pull dynamics, but and at the same time, that’s what makes it so real it hurts. You might want to punch some senses in characters at times, but that’s how we just are, especially if we are as troubled and traumatized as our leads. It’s a story of learning, growing as a person and healing and perhaps, if it was that, I’d be done with it and added it to the bottom list, but the eventual crime aspect felt jarring to me and I got frustrated with that story line and lost part of confidence my questions could be answered and whole drama wrapped up well. It’s just so emotionally and psychologically meaty and good otherwise, I am afraid to head into disappointment. But one day, I will wrap it up and judge for myself. W / W of Two Worlds Drama - Fantasy - Romance Personal Status - Unfinished, plan to finish Perhaps the one drama I ruined watching of to myself because of spoilers and now I can’t bear to watch the rest, unsure if I will be part of love or hate group (another one to divide the followers very deeply). What I can say, though, is that I loved the start of it, it really doesn’t hesitate to surprise you and make you think, especially if you are any sort of content creator. Very likely to make you Feel at some point.

Kdramas I plan to watch, but already love because of meta, clips and other content I’ve seen

Fight For My Way Friendship - Romance - Slice of Life Hwayugi Fantasy - Romance

Just Between Lovers Drama - Psychological - Romance - Slice of Life

I can’t say much about any of these, but at the same time, I feel like there’s lot to be said. Especially about Just Between Lovers, which, so far, appears to be the top tier Drama drama, with traumatized characters, profound storytelling and a way to both wrap you up in warmth and devastate you.

Kdramas that I’ve heard a lot of good about/have been recommended to me/I may be planning to watch

Age of Youth 1 and 2 - Another Miss Oh - Bring it on, Ghost - Cheese in Trap - Chicago Typewriter - Coffee Prince - Descendants of the Sun - Go Back Couple - Healer - My Love From Another Star - Pinocchio - Reply series - Save Me - Signal - The K2

[kohakuneko]

12 Days of Anime 2017 ~ Day 1: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Thinking back, I honestly don’t remember what got me to start watching this show in the first place. The most likely answer is probably that I’m a sucker for nearly anything gay, so there was no way I was gonna avoid this show for long, but I also recall finding some clips on YouTube and liking them enough to watch it. Funimation also picked this one up for SimulDub and I’ve got a subscription with them and follow them on social media, so I did see a number of promos for it as well.

But the thing that I really think got me hooked on this show was that it aired at the exact right time for me. I won’t go into details, but basically at the beginning of this year I just really needed something that would lift my spirits. And that’s what this show did for me. Okay, I can’t remember roaring with laughter while watching it, but it really made me smile. Every time I rewatch part of it I just start smiling like an idiot. I love the opening theme, too, it cheers me up any time I hear it. Maid Dragon isn’t what I’d call an amazing show, but it’s definitely a very heartwarming, feel-good one that makes you get all tingly inside. And it still makes me very happy.

Also, the SimulDub for this show was very well done. I like this show equally in both Japanese and English. And a big part of that has to do with the cast and crew. All of them very clearly loved and cared a lot about the show they worked on and I really like seeing that. (Sarah Wiedenheft, Tohru’s VA, even bought a Tohru tail pillow and wore it to recording sessions like how’s that for dedication lolol)

(Not featured from the main cast: Garret Storms as Fafnir, Jeff Johnson as Takiya, Alison Viktorin as Shouta, Sara Ragsdale as Saikawa, Jamie Marchi as Lucoa (she also adapted the script, I think), and Rachel Glass as Elma)

seriously tho i love all of these people and they did a phenomenal job on this show send them all some love and check out all their other work

Moving on, when trying to select a moment for this year’s 12DOA feature, I initially went for their first meeting in episode 12, where we see how Kobayashi got completely wasted and accidentally invited Tohru to live with her. It’s easily one of my favorite moments in the show since it’s simultaneously hilarious and full of feels. 

But as much as I loved that scene, in the end I’m really gonna have to go with the final episode instead. Within the first ten minutes or so, Tohru gets forcibly taken home by her disapproving father, leaving Kobayashi and Kanna to deal with her absence for most of the episode.

To be perfectly honest, the first time I watched this episode when it aired, I actually found this portion to be underwhelming. I don’t know, it just felt too slow and quiet and I guess I expected something more from the series finale. Besides, I feel like I and a lot of people have seen this set-up before, with the girlfriend leaving and everyone else moping.

But the more I rewatched this, the more I realized that this was actually a whole lot more tragic than I first gave it credit for. And to understand why, we have to look back on the series as a whole.

I’ve been trying to think about what really separates Maid Dragon from other similar slice-of-life shows. Because after all, there’s been plenty of these “magical girlfriend from another world comes and falls in love with someone while bringing in more wacky people and shenanigans with her” anime in the past (that was very specific but I’m sure you know what I mean). These days, it’s kind of a tired set-up and come to think of it, you don’t really see too too many of those anymore; there’s still a couple every year, but I think this genre really peaked in the 2000s and maybe the early 2010s (don’t quote me on that; I’m a weeb not an expert). So yeah, we all know this story by now.

But something about Maid Dragon always felt different to me; something always set this one apart from all other shows like it. Of course, there’s the fact that Kobayashi is a woman and our main pairing is a same-sex couple, but ultimately that doesn’t really change anything since Kobayashi’s still the jaded protagonist who’s missing something in her life and Tohru’s still the wacky magical girlfriend who comes and shows her the way. The rest of the cast is typical for this sort of show, too, and throughout the whole thing we kind of go through all the motions of a fantasy slice-of-life: beach episode, hot spring episode, shrine/festival visit, boob fanservice, y’all know the drill by now. So then what is it that Maid Dragon does different? I think I’ve found out what it is: the relationships between the characters and the actions they all take feel very real and genuine.

The moment where I first started to realize this aspect of the show was episode 4, when Kobayashi and Tohru are talking about Kanna getting all excited for her first day of school. Specifically look at this part here, where they’re watching her through the bedroom door.

The way they’re talking about her while she sleeps, the way they smile at her like that from the door, it all makes them look like two parents watching over their child, no? There’s no real prompting for them to be acting like this; there’s no scene where they go “whoop we parents now gotta start acting like it”. They don’t even comment on the fact that that’s what they’re acting like until a bit later, but I’ll get to that. This is something they just settled into naturally. And I’m not speaking from personal experience, but I feel like that’s how it is in real life, right? 

This really put the rest of the series into perspective for me because it made me realize quite a lot. Maid Dragon spends a lot of time in the background building up Tohru, Kobayashi, and Kanna’s relationship together. Nothing about them changes incredibly drastically - all of them are still very much the same people/dragons they were at the start - but there’s subtle changes in how they start talking to and treating each other. Kobayashi, whether she realizes it or not, is very quick to start talking to Kanna like a parent would their child when she starts encouraging her and giving her advice. Same for Tohru: Kobayashi is quick to pick up on how to deal with her antics and through that comes to learn what she likes about her, just like a real couple might. So when Kanna tells Kobayashi and Tohru that Kobayashi’s like a mom to her, it may be played for laughs, but it honestly doesn’t seem all that surprising. I think all of us viewing think the same way by now, too, whether we realize it or not. 

A lot of their daily behavior is also something they gradually start to settle into throughout the show. We never get a scene where they lay out their morning routine together, but then one day we see Tohru make everyone breakfast, send Kobayashi and Kanna off to work and school, then get her chores done in time for everyone to have dinner. There’s no real attention drawn to these moments even the first time they happen, so it all feels just as natural to the viewers as it does to them. We still have Tohru being her usual silly self about it, of course, but that’s become natural to us, too, at this point.

What I’m trying to get at is that the way they so seamlessly fall into these roles without much fanfare really solidifies their connection and their growing dynamic as a little family. I feel like most other shows I watch like this tend to have a lot of cheesy scenes or dialogue to call attention to how the characters are acting, but it’s so much stronger in Maid Dragon because of how natural everything is played.  

And that’s why episode 13 hits so hard.

Just look at this first bit where Kobayashi and Kanna are just silently trying to figure out what they’re going to do now that Tohru’s not there anymore. There’s not a whole lot of dialogue exchanged between them and then they’re just silent; neither of them know what to say or what’s going to happen next, which is just such a genuine reaction. 

Speaking of genuine reactions, that’s exactly what they have for the rest of the sequence without Tohru. Their numb acceptance of everything is just so real and I think maybe even relatable. Both of them know there’s nothing they can do about their new situation, so they just figure out what they think they have to do now and try their best to resume their normal daily life without Tohru.

First and foremost is Kobayashi, who’s running around doing the best she can to take care of herself and Kanna. One of the big moments in this sequence for me is when Kobayashi’s not only picking up some of Tohru’s jobs, but also when she making sure Kanna can take care of herself in case she works late. It legit feels like she’s learning and doing her best to be a good single parent.

Then there’s Kanna, who’s always wearing her usual expression and not complaining at all to Kobayashi so as not to worry her, but she’s clearly affected by Tohru’s absence; the shot of her erasing a doodle of Tohru gets me every time. And if you thought that was sad, we then get the little scene of her at Saikawa’s house where she finally just breaks in front of her and starts crying.

There’s even Takiya, who in any other show might be doing the “GO AFTER HER YOU DUMMY” thing that best friends are supposed to do. But instead he’s super considerate and supportive, doing his best to give Kobayashi the space she needs while also looking out for her to make sure both she and Kanna are doing alright in the wake of this loss, like maybe a real co-worker/best friend might. 

Honestly this doesn’t feel like the season finale of a slice-of-life anime. It feels more like the opening to a movie about a widowed parent trying to cope with the loss of their wife while raising their kid. I mean yeah, we all know Tohru’s not gone for good, the show wouldn’t do that. But the way this part of the episode is done, she might as well be dead.

Sometimes family is two wives and their tiny dragon child. (yeah, Kanna says it’s like having a big sister and a mom, but come on, we all know what’s up) From start to finish, everything about these characters is very real and human (barring the fact that everyone’s over-the-top anime and most of the cast consists of dragons), which is a big part of why every moment, happy or sad, hits home for us. Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid isn’t as much a story about romance as it is about the bonds between members of a family, whether that family is even blood-related or all belongs to the same species. And it’s beautifully executed the whole way.

damn remember when i said this show made me happy

[tuchimuchibrainvomit]

My Thoughts On Neo Yokio — I Might Just Surprise You!

Since I have a little time before I power through a 4-5 hour drive to Maryland. I wanted to try reviewing something that has taken over my eyes and mind for the past few days (and no, it is not Madoka). A tangent before we start, I tend to be one of those “Main-Subculture Hating Hipsters”, that will wait until every high up, every gossip, every hipster and every anime fan has shut up about something they deem as good before I check it out. Hence why I hit Madoka much later — when no one was talking about it. I wanna go in as blind or unbiased as I can. Call it being an “Asocial Hipster”, but when the internet finally shuts up about something, I’ll experience it and then come back to see what happened on the net and explore my own experiences solitarily. But the thing I’m reviewing today is quite different from that usual attitude of mine. Today, we are reviewing Neo Yokio!

Netflix’s, Ezra of Vampire Weekend’s and Jaden Smith’s anime... And... *sweats* Why I think it is a good show. In fact, I liked it a lot! Let me add a point of bias: in most shows, I don’t watch it sober on my first viewing. When I tried Neo Yokio sober, I was disgusted by the art style — but when inebriated, I could take in little moments and the bigger picture. Before watching it again whilst sober, taking in more detail and falling in love with it. It may have a role in why Madoka Rebellion was PERFECT THE WAY IT WAS AND DON’T CHANGE IT, HOMURA WAS IN FUCKING CHARACTER, FIGHT ME!! ... Ahem... Anyway, Go ahead boo now. I’ll wait... ... Now, LET’S BREAK IT DOWN!! Firstly, Neo Yokio tells the story of Neo Riche “Magistocrat” Kaz Khan, played by Jaden Smith. And honestly, the series is just a short slice of life. Simple and very clear that it’s just not anything special. But that’s the brilliance — in my opinion — of the series. With a kind of similar attitude as The Boondocks but less focused on Black Culture (Excluding Kaz and his posse Lexy and GollieB), and more on parodying both anime of the 90’s and early 00’s and the 1%. I want to focus on this 1% idea, and why it was very interesting and successful angle to attack with comedic parody.

We are in 2017. The political climate worldwide is ABSOLUTELY unbearable — hence why I live my life as a 23 year old loser artist as apolitically as I can. Even if it’s practically impossible... — And this is why Neo Yokio genuinely made me chortle the entire way through. So, let’s start with the main character: Kaz. Kaz is dubbed by the masses as “Neo Riche”, the highest class of Neo Yokio, and while he does his damnedest to deny it, he proves quickly that he IS Neo Riche in the first 3 minutes of the series — and it works. This aspect added a lot on my second sober viewing — where the jokes and satire made a bit more sense after I had my time with the laughs and visual insanity that Neo Yokio is. That’s when I found something charming and actually worth my time. Kaz — is the perfect MC for this ridiculous world. I like fashion. My boyfriend really likes fashion. And the idea of being the 1% is insanely charming and a way we love to playfully act together. And Neo Yokio plays into that — Kaz being just as flamboyant and unconnected in one way as his rival Arcangelo is flamboyant and unconnected in another, both stereotypical yet enjoyable plays of the 1% that many people despise so much in the political spectrum. Kaz doesn’t care about politics, and this is a perspective I rarely see about the 1% until Kaz and his friends start observing it, serving to — while confused in tone ending — comment on what often goes unseen by the 1% that is not focused in politics but in their day to day life. And it’s petty, stupid and hilariously over-the-top, as many people see the idealized lives of the 1%. Let’s talk about Kaz. I feel like Jaden Smith’s monotone mannerism and voice fit ABSOLUTELY perfectly for the kind of character Kaz is. He’s overly dramatic in a drab, pretentious way. He’s from an almost alien lifestyle and he is presented as such. Jaden fits personally with this and adds charm to it. Look at one of the BEST bits from Episode 1, where Kaz — depressed over being dumped AND failing an exorcism goes to a graveyard with his OWN grave just to lay there and wallow in his despair. This moment shows how we should see throughout the show Kaz — as weird, inconsequently rich, ignorant and yet funny and lovable. This makes him a great character to experience the world inside of Neo Yokio’s other classes. He is ignorant and therefore he is called out for it in many funny ways that can add some depth to him. Charles works in that manner, being a robot butler, who snidely chastises his master’s lack of consequence. But has a similar charm and enjoyment at Kaz, almost playing the role of audience proxy. And the more characters that come, play off of Kaz very well comedically. And from Kaz as well the references to Toblerones, high fashion like Louis Vuitton and Chanel, and the absolute joke they make out of Kaz’ bachelor status make him very personable. Next, I want to talk about the animation. When I first saw it, my gut reaction was “TRASH, BURN IT!!”

But after really seeing what the show tries, I started to understand it was —consciously and unconsciously — parodying: Shitty anime from the 2000’s, lazy techniques in anime as a whole and it made for a charming exterior. Seriously guys, Sailor Pellegrino’s name written in Sailor Moon’s title font, that’s hilarous! And whether or not, Ezra or the community says “it’s a serious story”, I’m basing this review after my experience and things I saw. In that, I want to talk about some of the social commentary. It all doesn’t work. They have an interesting episode showing Kaz’ ignorance in his inherent misogyny — but also, I feel like it doesn’t know whether it wants to comment on it or make fun of it. I saw it as really a mix of both. Some successful, some not successful, nobody’s perfect and yet I enjoyed it. There are some bits that I liked — being gay and all, Arcangelo’s VERY FLAMBOYANT portrayal was absolutely hilarious, I loved it! I love when they play up flamboyancy comedically, it often makes me fall love with a character. I loved Lexy chasing after the hottest lesbian in the town, knowing he wouldn’t make much out of it — even if he got Ranma’d to being Kaz’ date. I liked him calling out Kaz’ bull misogyny as both a good moment for Kaz and an interesting commentary, and using Ranma 1/2 as inspiration. I think that’s why I like gender benders as a whole. They tend to be wacky, campy and bring up new perspectives. But that’s just me, whether you take offense or not, is up to you. I can’t dictate that and I don’t judge people for their reactions to things. I just personally find most campy portrayals too ridiculous to be taken seriously, even if it is meant to be derogatory. Sure, they’re not great for LGBT or Women’s civil rights, but for the sake of a show that makes me laugh, I don’t take it seriously. If I wanted a serious commentary about more real life issues, I’ll go outside of anime and comedy films. As for other comments and the one’s it tends to get right: The ignorance of the Neo Riche. Kaz doesn’t even think of himself as Neo Riche, yet he is. And the character, Helena plays with that — while also making an army of fangirls, who follow everything she does in a completely hysterical manner. They are a nice poke at the masses that follow someone famous to the ends of the earth. Charles also plays with that around the penultimate episode — not spoiling. ;3 On to sound, while I didn’t pay much attention, classical style music is everywhere. No tracks stood out to me because classical is not my forte, but I think it fit with the Neo Riche-style. The acting is hokey, plays the gamut from Jaden Smith monotone to Lexy’s VERY black mannerisms — it made me feel remarkably at home. My family is absolutely like that in voice styles and ranges. It made me laugh even more. I personally liked the acting, seeing it as intentionally “bad” for the sake of comedy. The story itself plays between slice of life and a serialized story, which kinda mucks up the sudden tone shift in the end. Unlike Cowboy Bebop, we don’t have as much time with the cast as a whole to feel much for them in the end. But I’d hope for a Season 2 to really explore more of the side characters. I want to know more about Lexy and GollieB’s hole-in-the-wall bar, I want to see more of Helena’s followers — especially after the ridiculous things they do to be just like Helena, and the ending kinda shook me in a way I didn’t expect that was very cute going forward. I could go on, but I think it is time for me to sum up my thoughts on Neo Yokio: “It’s very good at what it does, but it’s not for everyone. It’s audience is like the Neo Riche, small and niche.” That is the best way to put my thoughts on it.

Some people will get it and enjoy it. Most others, will write it off as trite. And I understand that point while also saying: “Try watching it inebriated. Take in the campy ridiculousness of it all.” No matter what the creators and critics say, everyone’s personal experience will be different based on where they come from. I read it as a parodic farce and enjoyed it very much as such. As a serious story or social commentary — it fell a lot more than it rose. And that’s OK. The best parts of the show are when Kaz is with Helena, the Helenists, and his boys, Lexy and GollieB. Laughing when he’s dealing with his aunt (voiced by Susan Sarandon, so yes!) or wallowing in the “misery” of being privileged bachelor. I recommend it for those who want something that you can make fun of — as I found it making fun of itself. To people who love the fabulous rich lifestyle of fashion, fame and camp! And I recommend trying it alone or with friends, but most importantly — drunk and/or baked as hell! Always bloom proudly guys, —Tuchi OUT!

[xtremedespair3d]

Anime Spring 2019 Final Impressions + Plans for Summer

My favorite anime season, Summer, is almost here! As for this Spring season, it feels like this was the most shallow season yet in terms of how many shows I watch. I usually watch over 10 shows total, with one or two every day, but now I only had Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays to watch anime.

It’s more like I’m going back to the good old days where I watched one or two shows before I started watching like a crapton of shows since around 2016.

Regardless, this season still packed a couple of good titles (and one I really wasn’t fond of) that I can’t wait to talk about!

Before I rank all the anime I watched this season, I’m gonna address something:

In my previous Anime Winter 2019 post, after Kemurikusa 12.1′s release, I added this sentence: “ I don’t know how long this is going to be but I’m sure it could be a weekly release,” which I was hoping to see more of what happens next, well, lately I’ve been obsessed with wanting to see 12.2 because there was no way this was going to be just a one-off short given the cliffhanger, but a little while ago as of the writing/publishing of this post, I noticed this tweet from Tatsuki which I had it in my history, I reread the tweet and I just noticed that “there may not be 12.2″... WHICH I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH WANTING TO SEE 12.2 FOR NOTHING, I MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS TWEET OR I’VE NEVER USED GOOGLE TRANSLATE OTHER THAN THE MICROSOFT TRANSLATION FROM TWITTER... Oh well, I guess Kemurikusa 12.1 really is going to be a one-off short, I wanted to see more Wakaba interacting with Ryou, Ryoku and Riku, oh well, looks like we’re going back in full circle with Kemono Friends 12.1. I had to address this so I wouldn’t constantly update the previous post and nobody would have read it anyways (just like every post I make).

Anyways, sorry for making a long speech that drags the purpose of this post, so let’s get right to my rankings! Starting with my brand new tier list, then I’m going to explain what do their rankings mean:

1.- Kimetsu no Yaiba: This is it. This is the GOAT of the season. I have become quite the Ufotable fan since the Fate specials with Emiya-san chi no Kyou no Gohan and FGO x Himuro no Tenchi, and now it was the perfect time to keep up with their recent projects, and I did not expect their next big TV project would happen to be a Shonen Jump series.

Not only I would expect the good old exact same animation from Ufotable from Fate, Tales or even Touken Ranbu, but they have delivered something MORE than that, they delivered like really wild new additions to their style, like the water splashes from Tanjiro’s attacks and stuff. They even started doing CG on the characters when they’re like really far from the camera, which it’s a first for Ufotable and I’m VERY impressed, I’m so impressed to the point where I’d really love to see a Ufotable anime with their inhouse CG 100%, I don’t care if it would look good or bad, I just want that to happen.

I was initially disappointed that they didn’t deliver this face (pictured) like I wanted, but later episodes are really bringing the hilarious faces from the manga (I really haven’t read much, but I did see an image in 4chan which compiles the hilarious faces in one image. I read the first three chapters and then chapter 26 just so I can see when does Inosuke’s face reveal happen).

It’s even better that this is a two-cour series, I’m always really looking forward to watch Kimetsu no Yaiba every Saturday!

Ufotable continues to be the GOAT! I don’t give a shit about tax fraud and stuff, they just keep going!

10/10 - Rank: S++ - 100%

2.- Bungou Stray Dogs season 3: After seeing the film, Dead Apple, I was so ready to watch season 3 if this great series. And surprisingly this season only lasted for one-cour compared to the previous seasons (I always thought it was just like one season but with two-cour episodes and they just called it season 1 and season 2).

Anyways, I hope Bones will continue making more Bungou Stray Dogs seasons. Cheers to another great season of Bungou Stray Dogs!

9.5/10 - Rank: S++ - 97%

3.- Isekai Quartet: This is the perfect isekai crossover I had hoped for, and thank god there’s a second season happening. Now, who are the new characters going to be introduced in that season as teased in the first season finale...? 🤔

9.5/10 - Rank: S+ - 95%

4.- Watanuki-san Chi No: To be honest, I really liked this one a lot than Virtual-san wa Miteiru. There’s just something about the production values(?) that makes this stand out and become way better than Virtual-san wa Miteiru, it’s doesn’t include much over-the-top craziness and stuff like that. Unlike Virtual-san wa Miteiru, this one’s classified as a “drama” (or dorama even) and it’s hard for me to classify this as an anime like Virtual-san wa Miteiru.

Why do I keep bringing Virtual-san wa Miteiru a lot? Well, I think we’ve come to the point where anime with Virtual Youtubers such as this and Watanuki-san Chi No is becoming part of the animation industry’s future. Instead of handdrawing the VTubers (which I would definitely prefer for a VTuber anime 100%), how about just using Unity?

Anyways, let’s go to the topic of Watanuki-san Chi No because I’m dragging this with all the Virtual-san wa Miteiru talk. Though, to be honest, there isn’t much to discuss here. It’s a slice-of-life show with three sisters (Played by Tokino Sora, Sarugakuchou Futaba and Hibiki Ao) and all kinds of random situations happen, that’s about it.

...You know, I think I should rewatch Virtual-san wa Miteiru. I don’t want to disservice how poorly made and wonky it can be, they’re trying to be really wacky as possible (but there are moments that did cringe me out but whatever), this and Watanuki-san Chi No could be one of my Top anime of the year.

By the way, there’s something I forgot to address on Watanuki-san Chi No. Yes, there are torrents, but surprisingly no one has done any subtitles for them and Crunchyroll or any other streaming platform has picked up this series (yet). And everytime I watch an episode of Watanuki-san Chi No, I want to subtitle the series myself.

8.5/10 - Rank: A- - 87%

5.- Attack on Titan season 3 part 2: Seems like the wait was quite worth it, this second part of the third season really delivered some really good plotlines, twists and everything. And season 4 is indeed coming out... and it’s going to be the last.

The planned release for season 4 is, get this, Fall 2020. It’s long ages away and I can’t even process how would WIT Studio be able to adapt the manga’s ending if it’s possible, because Fall 2020 sounds like a good time for the manga to have ended since, depending on when will it be.

I really hope this fourth season could be two-cour, or maybe even more if they can, they’ve come a long way from the long delay for the second part of season 3 only for season 4 to be one-cour to adapt little material, it would be a huge waste if that were to happen. And I really hope we won’t get an anime original ending or something.

Maybe it could be like a Tokyo Ghoul:re situation, where they started doing the anime adaptations when the manga was about to finish (or has already ended?), then the second season came and it adapted the finale. That could defintely work for Attack on Titan, except WIT would definitely adapt the manga properly, unlike Pierrot because they had no idea what to do.

Anyways, we’ve come a really long way to see Attack on Titan end, especially the anime. With the manga and the anime ended, what will it be for the future of Attack on Titan, or even Hajime Isayama himself?

8.5/10 - Rank: A+ - 86%

6.- Fruits Basket 2019: This remake of Fruits Basket, even without reading the manga or seeing the original anime, is definitely quite solid.

Speaking of the original, I started to feel like I wanted to the original just for comparison, but I don’t really feel like watching the original as much as like I did with Kemurikusa. Besides, there are some changes that I’m not too comfortable with in the original, such as minor details like character appearances, and a big one I recently found was Akito’s gender (she’s female in the manga, the original anime made her male), so I don’t need to watch the original and just stick with this one, instead.

Like Kimetsu no Yaiba, this one is going to be two-cours (or seasons?) too, so I’m looking forward to see the ending of the series adapted.

8/10 - Rank: B+ - 82%

7.- Miru Tights: This is one of the shows I legit have mixed feelings on but I don’t know why. I’m trying to find some logical reasons why I shouldn’t make a disservice for this show. Like, this series is supposed to be targeted for Yom and tights fans, which it’s fine, but I’m kind of too biased on stockings than tights, and secondly, there isn’t much of a story that’s supposed to have, all we can do is just watch tights, that’s all. The animation is really quite solid for a newly founded studio and for a 3 minute short series, and they made a pretty good job on recreating Yom’s art style really well.

If what I mentioned sound positive, then why do I feel mixed on Miru Tights? ...I honestly don’t know. 😂 

Maybe I’m on the same field as Virtual-san wa Miteiru, this is not for the faint of heart for normal people and such (I searched on YouTube and there was one akidearest video where, even from the title and description, I can tell that she’s confused. I’m not gonna watch the actual video, so I’ll let you watch and interpret from what you saw).

I’ve been expecting someone to ever say this, and it breaks my heart to say this myself, but... Yom, you’re better off doing only illustrations and never do an anime like this ever again.

At least the one thing I can highlight is that it can be viewed on YouTube with English captions and... uh... I just noticed that episodes 2 to 7 are... Privatized... (As of the publishing of this post, the series is up to episode 8)

Okay, I’ve always been feeling mixed on Miru Tights for a while now, but now I have found an actual reason to HATE Miru Tights! Way to waste accessibility for Western viewers, TRUSS.

Some people say that it could be for the Blu-Ray release, I don't fucking believe it because they have uploaded these episodes and I already witnessed them all, how come they could privatize these videos for the BD release? And I can't even bother to care to support TRUSS at all.

Anyways, the other and BETTER highlights are that they actually made the Twitter accounts of two of the main characters featured in one episode. Yua’s account, Ren’s account. This is the kind of meta easter eggs I love to see. Things from in-universe that are in real life.

One last thing, TRUSS...

6/10 - Rank: C - 64%

It definitely deserves these scores!

UPDATE - July 27th:

Now that the series has ended (and a 13th special episode is underway), my impressions on the series remains but I might have slightly changed a bit: This is the most boring anime I’ve ever watched in my life and I can’t stress enough on how TRUSS wasted their YouTube accessibility by privatizing... every episode...

WELL, I’LL BE DAMNED!

Okay, forget about the whole thing about TRUSS privatizing every episode as a new one comes every week, problem solved! 👍

However, my impressions on Miru Tights still remains, it sucks. Not only I’m not the biggest tights person (as I’m mainly biased to stockings), the anime overall is very boring. It has some decent moments here and there and the animation is great too, but the series didn’t impress me and give me high hopes like I wanted to.

I wish I wasn’t this negative on the series but for some reason I feel conflicted about it.

One last thing to say: Getsuyoubi no Tawawa is way better than this.

UPDATE - July 30th:

I randomly checked TRUSS’ channel and... episodes 2 to 11 are gone once again. Jesus christ, this is unbelieveable...

Literally as soon as episode 12 went live, all of the episodes were available, but now you just privatized the rest of the series again? I fucking hate you guys so much.

End of update.

And finally...

8.- One-Punch Man season 2: One-Punch Man 2 was destined to be my worst anime of the season, if not of the year, two seasons in a row (Kemono Friends 2 was my worst of Winter), and boy, it really delivered. The moment I heard that they were changing studios from Madhouse to J.C Staff, I always knew things weren’t going to be right and indeed happen.

There’s a lot to talk about what’s wrong with OPM2 and I can’t even process, let me get straight to the point.

For starters, the story of the season is relatively faithful to the manga. The next arc after the Boros starts with King casually walking, finds a monster and then King runs away freaking out that he’s not a real hero and stuff, that’s the first thing I caught on. I really can’t remember what I read from the manga for a long time, other than the Metal Bat vs Garou and, of course, the Miss Blizzard vs Do-S fights, but still, my point remains that story is faithful.

The story being close to the manga should be one of the things why season 2 shouldn’t be bad, but you’re wrong, let’s talk about the most important thing I’ve been looking forward to find out if it turned out to be good or bad: The ANIMATION.

The animation, well, the animation is not My Sister, My Writer-tier, or worse, Marchen Madchen-tier god awful, let’s get that out of the way. But it just doesn’t go in par with season 1′s visual style and everything. Let’s start with the metal textures because, look at this!

The metal textures just look AWFUL, even worse when they’re in motion, they just don’t blend with everything else. Maybe they tried to emulate Murata’s style with the metal, but they failed miserably.

There are also a couple of moments that had some action but they’re ruined by motion blur, I wouldn’t like to judge their decision on why they’re doing this, I mean, dimming the screen down is one thing, but motion blur? That shit can get really confusing, and the first season never had these kinds of blurs, it’s always been more smear.

There was this one episode from the Metal Bat vs Garou fights that had a giant centipede monster that was fully CGI. Seeing CG in OPM is something I never knew I needed, but it actually looks really well animated and well blended with the background and visuals, this was one of the few decently animated moments from this entire season. (Here’s a GIF of it)

The later episodes definitely have some sakuga, but even so, they couldn’t even come close to redeem myself on being optimistic with this entire season, I just can’t forgive its existence in general.

One last thing to talk about the animation, THE MOST INCRIMINATING THING EVER, was to show this flashback from the first season and LOOK HOW THEY KEPT THE SEASON 1 VISUALS AND STUFF!

Everytime I’m seeing clips of the first season, it’s always so painful to see how awesome they were and then look at season 2, what a big downgrade.

Voice performances and music are the highlights of this season. Though, in terms of the music... JAM Project’s opening for this season is SO DISAPPOINTING. I seriously expected something to top THE HERO!! or be around the same level of awesomeness as THE HERO!! and the Genos character song, Burning Blue ～蒼炎のソルジャー～ , but no, this opening is just boring. While at times it was stuck in my head, but it shouldn’t be somewhat catchy, I wouldn’t like to judge their direction too much, but come on...

And I think that’s pretty much everything I needed to discuss. Overall, I’m not really hoping for a third season of One-Punch Man, or maybe I do want it but with, you know, Madhouse? Just what kind of excuse was for the change of studio from Madhouse to JC Staff? All Shingo Natsume and Madhouse did recently was the new Boogiepop anime with mediocre character designs. But then there’s also the fact that this Monsters Association arc in the manga is taking forever to finish, so we might not see a third season in like another 4 or 5 years.

For some reason One-Punch Man 2 is still praised by Japanese viewers, I saw a screenshot of a NicoNico stream with over 80% of “I really liked it”, even ONE and Yusuke Murata still praise, which I don’t really mind if they like it, but we, Westerners, hate it to death because it’s just not the same at least in terms of animation. The story is mostly fine but it just cannot be told properly with poor animation. Season 1 may not be a perfect adaptation, as there are some things that doesn’t do the manga justice, especialy this, but it did have heart and some really clean animation that season 2 completely lacks.

At least the good thing to spawn from season 2 is more Miss Blizzard fan arts and started to give Do-S fan arts and cosplay. (I’m a simple person, don’t judge me.)

Another weird thing that this second season spawned is... a video game. Like, really? Why a video game of all things now? Not to mention that it has Boros on it, and this game would most likely cover the first season, which it’s been like 3 and a half years (I wish I could say 4 years but not without doing the math) and we’re already into season 2, which is what Bandai Namco is trying to capitalize.

Anyways, let’s settle this:

Ups:

+1: Story faithful to the manga, performances, soundtrack, etc.

+1: Few moments with decent animation.

Downs:

-98: The god awful animation and tryhard sakuga moments, even some action scenes ruined by motion blur.

Overall:

2/10 - Rank: D - 22%

At least One-Punch Man 2 deserves a bit of high score unlike Kemono Friends 2 which I gave it a perfect 0.

Let’s move on to the hottest titles I’m looking forward this Summer!

(Get it? Hottest, because... it’s Summer... and... it’s really hot... uh...)

1.- Girls’ Frontline short anime - Late July: I really want to watch this so bad and yes, it was supposed to be slated for a Spring release but nothing came of it, and I’m angry, but now we definitely have some more information that it’ll come out in Late July... As for Late July when ,exactly? As of the writing/publishing of this, there’s still no info about this series, hopefully they won’t delay it again until the Fall season with a definitive air date or something. (although, if they were, please make sure it’s going to be on October 4th)

Another interesting thing I just discovered was that I saw a random Japanese person tweet this GIF which kinda looks suspicious... I asked them where did they find it and they gave me the Imgur link, which happened to be posted on... JULY 16TH, 2018. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!

I don’t know how long this anime has been in development, but for a scene to be leaked as a GIF in Imgur last year is quite something. A scene happened to be leaked but nobody has ever even talked about it, and with how long this has been in the making, only to be announced to Chinese and Japanese streams now really boggles my mind.

Anyways, I really hope I get to watch this Girls’ Frontline anime at long last, at least the one with the story characters like the AR Team and 404, the other one... speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve ever heard about that one either. What if that one is going to be this short series instead of the one with the AR Team and 404? Whatever it ends up being, just give me this Girls’ Frontline short anime series, please. I’ve been waiting so long not to watch it... or if it could ever get downright cancelled.

2.- Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - July 6th: Episode 0 from the Fate New Year in December 2018/January 2019 was relatively solid and I’m definitely looking forward to watch this series. The one thing that’s kind of holding back the interest is that, first off, this is going to be a two-cour series, which it’s cool, but the first cour is going to be entirely anime original, and then the second cour is going to adapt the first volume (or first couple? I can’t remember), like... isn’t that troublesome, especially for the Type-Moon community. At least the author, Makoto Sanda, is supervising the series, but is it really necessary to make an entirely anime original first cour and then the second cour to adapt the volumes? Was there some sort of proper communication or Makoto Sanda really wanted this?

I feel like there’s definitely some Fate anime fatigue going on, people might be getting burned out on these adaptations recently, Fate/Apocrypha and Fate/Extra: Last Encore, neither of which were kind of well-received. I really wouldn’t like to rely too much on opinions from the people I trust or I think way too highly of them, but if that’s what they feel, then I wish to stop talking to them in my entire life.

The thing is, I definitely started to have quite the hatred for fandoms and stuff, not only they could be annoying but I always picture them as hardcore elitists, extremists, etc. (Yes, I have that kind of an outlandish imagination), because I always feel like if I say something like I didn’t have problems with an adaptation, or that I really enjoyed it, I stan it, etc., I feel like I’m gonna get my ass contradicted and I hate when people do that to me. You should learn to respect other people’s opinions and let them have the right to enjoy things you don’t like. That’s why I want to be independent, I want to be alone and have all my interests to myself, instead of being in communities, because people tend to be really hateful on things I don’t care, I don’t have problems with or things I outright love. (I’m very sensitive about my tastes, okay?)

Anyways, I’m still going to watch Lord El-Melloi II Case Files, and then the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia series on Fall and so on. I just love watching Fate anime adaptations regardless of what people think of Apocrypha and Extra: Last Encore (Especially the latter because I have indeed played the original Fate/Extra game, while it did kind of freaked me out with the changes in a negative way, I’ve come to really like Last Encore, I might go so far that it’s an underrated masterpiece for the Fate/Extra players like me, who has high positive opinions on the games, unlike UQXveva sebz ECT Fvgr)

3.- Danmachi season 2 - July 12th: I wish I had seen the film before I start watching season 2. Hell, the film was even on Mexico, but I had to choose John Wick 3 over the Danmachi film.

UPDATE - August 9th:

Long after started watching the season, around the premier day, I had watched the movie which thankfully it got torrented, I thought I had to wait forever for the subs because movies tend to take so long to release, but now I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

End of update.

4.- Okaa-san wa Suki desu ka? - July 12th: I plan on watching this mainly for one thing: Recreating Iida Pochi’s art style faithfully, and from what I’ve seen in the trailers, JC Staff did a very good job, it looks solid. (At least this is one thing I forgive JC Staff for, unlike that piece of shit that is One Punch Man season 2)

So, with this isekai mom series, will we get an Ane Naru Mono adaptation some day?

5.- Fire Force - July 5th: I have never watched Soul Eater but this series is by the same person who did Soul Eater, with David Production doing the adaptation, from what I’ve seen and given that it’s David Production, this is legit giving me Cells at Work! vibes, this is like Cells at Work! but with fire fighters.

(Speaking of Cells at Work!, season 2 babyyy)

6.- Granbelm - July 5th: This little original project seems interesting. Well, probably the main selling point for me is the Re:Zero artist doing the character designs. Since this is an original anime with mecha, I hope the outcomes and everything turns well, because original mecha anime tend to be controversial. Look at Evangelion and even Franxx.

Watching the trailers, for some reason this kind of gives me Princess Principal vibes, but it’s not really like Princess Principal, unless I’m talking about interesting looking original anime with character designs by well-known illustrators. (Speaking of Princess Principal, when will we get updates from the 6 films and who’s going to be the new voice of Ange?)

7.- Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? - July 3rd: I can already feel pain and regret from watching this because I recently decided to quit going to the gym because I was getting bored. 😂

8.- Tejina Senpai/Magical Sempai - July 2nd: I’ve seen some crossover/mash-up fan arts of the heroine and Hotaru Shidare from Dagashi Kashi and I believe that’s quite a lovely selling point. I was feeling 50/50 before but now I’m definitely feeling like doing it.

Why would the English title be called “Magical Sempai”, with Senpai being an M?

Thanks for reading this post, what is your anticipated anime of the season? And make sure you’re well hydrated because the world is fucking burning and I can’t stand a moment without having the AC on.

---

Carrd.

I can’t dividers on Tumblr anymore?! THAT SUCKS!!!

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Somewhere Over The Swingset“

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Julia Vickerman, Diego Molano

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Swingsets! Rainbows! The worst GIF I have ever created!

…is that a rainbow? No, it can’t be. There’s not as many memes anymore, so they must be learning from previous mistakes, right?

A carny with rainbow eyes introduces a new swingset, and challenges all of the kids of Townsville to stay on it. At the first second, I already know what the twist is. I think having an overly happy fat guy introduce the swing is a good enough hint; we didn’t need the rainbow eyes. Not only that, but the swing’s seat is rainbow colored, and a rainbow also shows up in this introduction. There's foreshadowing, and then there's just giving it away.

Big Joey, the big kid that exchanged with Donny in Odd Bubbles Out, tries to conquer this challenge, but almost immediately flies off into the distance, causing a mushroom cloud. Because it was funny in Spongebob, so surely it must be funny here, right? It turns out, no kid can last more than 3 seconds on the swing, as we see a bunch of children lying on the ground. Maybe they should try not letting go? There must be someone who could figure that out, especially kids that have powers beyond any mere mortal.

The Powerpuff Girls show up, dressed up in fancy costumes. I think they’re trying to go for some sort of Siegfried and Roy effect, but all I’m seeing is a desperate plea to the toy makers. Yeah, I have a feeling all of this is for naught.

They walk up to the swing, because the director never realized how awkward that is, to a bunch of cheering fans. All of this gets interrupted by the Professor.

This seems to be a recurring spot for the Professor’s character: he’s going to tell them to do something, which they will do anyway, and he’s going to end up being right in the end. Blossom tells him that they do dangerous stuff all of the time, citation needed for the reboot, but the Professor is only okay with putting his “kids” in danger if it’s for the safety of Townsville, also citation needed for the reboot.

That rascally little green princess outright tells the Professor that they’re not showing off, they’re just showing that they can do something other people can’t. Like lifting buildings full of people and fighting giant monsters, but clearly being on a swing set is more impressive.

We get another Blossom stock image monologue, another reaccuring bit of joy. Her speech concludes that they want to inspire and show the power of “female determination”. Because the Powerpuff Girls are girls. The writers wanted people to know that. Oh, and they want to go on the Townsville Book of World Records. Makes me wonder; does the DC universe have a world record book? Do they have to disqualify Superman and The Flash from breaking every record in it? Thinking about that is more entertaining than this.

Needless to say, the Professor doesn’t budge. He urges them to promise not to go on the swing set. They promise…

Buttercup: …to wait until you fall asleep, then go down in swing set history.

Blossom: Got to hand it to you, Buttercup, it was sneaky for you to wait this long to finish that sentence till just now.

They send out a group text to all the kids, waking them up past their curfews, so that they can have an audience. I guess that’s required for that world record book. By the way, that book doesn't show up again, because it fufilled its purpose of being an excuse.

Even though the only challenge was stay on the swing, they decide to up the ante by swinging over the bar. Swinging over the bar is a physical impossibility for a human being to do by themselves. In fact, even with help, the Mythbusters couldn’t do it. Well, I guess that's why the Powerpuff Girls can do it and nobody else can.

The Professor shows up at the last second to try to stop them, but it’s too late. They go over the bar, and they seemingly disappear in an explosion.

They find themselves back in bed. They immediately assume they must have been knocked out after falling out of the swing. Sad that even the Powerpuff Girls know how easy they can get knocked out in this reboot. The Professor comes in, and he apparently took it very well!

Professor Utonium: Good morning, girls!

(laugh track)

Yes, a laugh track. An ironic laugh track, but a laugh track nonetheless. At least I can know what lines were supposed to be funny.

Not only is he not mad about the girls doing that dangerous stunt, he was impressed! They eventually get a call to the Mayor's office. Something is clearly not right; this is the reboot, we don't have time for actual emergencies!

It turns out, there isn't one. They go in and find a Mayor that is competent. He can open jars of pickles by himself! He wins Nobel Prizes! He even has assistants! Huh, I guess assistants can be "fitting to our messages" if they're generic and not strong independent women. Why did the Mayor need the Powerpuff Girls? Beats me.

He then cartwheels into a helicopter, because running would take more money away from the marketing would be less impressive. Honestly, even the Cheat would scoff at the animation for this television show. The Powerpuff Girls get another call, saying that they're needed back home!

Reboot Jojo and Reboot Fuzzy are there, but they're not tearing up the place. The villains are all good guys now, and are more interested in book clubs rather than causing crime! Insert long and unfunny scene about books.

If you haven’t noticed, this episode is a ripoff of Tough Love with dashes of Speed Demon, except done in reverse. Not just in the way everyone’s so positive and not hateful, and that this world is apparently a utopia, but also in the quality of the episode.

Well, maybe there’s one good scene. They see the Professor in a mirror, crying over his missing girls. It certainly sets the Twilight Zone tone of this episode. If only they could go all the way and have the Narrator play the role of Rod Serling.

Other than that, it's just wacky scenes that are wacky. Maybe if this episode started with a call to the Mayor's office to open a pickle jar and them beating up Reboot Jojo and Reboot Fuzzy, there could have been some contrast. Sure, I know the Mayor usually has trouble with pickle jars and that Reboot Fuzzy doesn't act like this, but how is anyone going to know from this slice-of-life non-superhero comedy?

The Powerpuff Girls instantly decide that this "perfect world" is too much for them, and go outside to find a way out. In episodes like this, there's usually some pondering about whether they should stay in this world, and that doesn't exist here. Whoever is doing this is doing a terrible job. Speaking of which...

After seeing the entirety of Townsville welcoming them to their new home, the rainbow swing set guy from the opening descends down from the heavens on the giant swing set. He talks about how this is the perfect place, and they can stay forever! He swings forward…

…and Allegro swings back, turning the world into a rainbow nightmare. If the traumatic flashbacks aren’t coming back, this is the villain from Painbow, the episode that proved to me that not only will this reboot not live up to the original, but not even live up to my lowest expectations. He's happy that all of that energy the Powerpuff Girls used to go over the bar revived him! Painbow II: Electric Buttercup Boo-a-Hoo.

The townspeople are wandering to them like zombies. I guess this is supposed to mirror the affection they were trying to get by going over the bar. Blossom laments that she shouldn’t beat up people they know. After the Mayor tries to eat her, just go with it, they decide it’s for the best. A fight scene? Maybe?

The girls beat up all of the Townspeople, who turn out to be Allegro’s party minions in disguise. Not in any clever disguise, but they just poof into their real forms when they get punched in the face. Of course, much like most of the violence in this show, it’s ruined by more Nike product placement!

At first, I thought it was the usual “gotta make it G for the toyset“ censorship, and it is, but I noticed a peculiarity when I made that GIF. I decided to cut out every frame of that dreadful hit flash, and…

…I realized the hit flashes didn’t cover anything, they’re just there. Sure, there isn’t a frame where Buttercup’s fist makes contact with Barry’s face, but the mind fills the blank. All the hit flash does is make the scene pause for a quarter of a second, distracting from the action and making it not as exciting as it should be.

Three paragraphs on this one little fight. I’m really delaying the inevitable.

Since Allegro is too busy partying, he’s not on the swingset anymore, and the girls plan to get on it to go back home. Blossom calls on the other girls to join in. Buttercup shows up immediately, but Bubbles is a too busy doing…

You know what, 🚚🚚🚚 this.

Remarks:

None.

Final Verdict:

Next episode, who cares.

← Snow Month ☆ Anything Else →

…

Nah, I won’t do that, but I really should have.

I could at least, with a very, very, very tiny sliver of honesty, say that the scene from Painbow could be defended. Blossom and Bubbles were hypnotized by the dancing lobsters, and Buttercup reacted with disgust. It was supposed to be gross. Here, Bubbles is just shaking her butt with a hippo out of her own volition, and it’s treated as another “oh, that silly Bubbles” joke.

It’s not funny, it doesn’t add to the plot, and it doesn’t really help Bubbles’ character. This scene could have been removed, and only one thing would have changed: this reboot would have one scene involving barely-out-of-kindergarten girls twerking instead of two.

There is no point in continuing, but I might as well say what happens at the end: They beat up Allegro while on the swing, he turns into a gummy bear again, and the Powerpuff Girls successfully return to their own universe. The Professor, while glad that they’re okay, still grounds them. Aren't your expectations subverted?

I would say if they took out that scene, they could have room for the hearts, but they didn’t really save the day here. They stayed up past their bedtime, too. Odd in this episode that rips off two episodes of the original, they couldn’t be further from the original’s tagline.

Remarks (for real this time):

Is the title accurate?: I guess they do go somewhere when they go over the swingset.

Better use for the title: A Wizard of Oz parody would have been better. A 12 minute still shot of a jar of mayonnaise would have been better, but still.

Fun fact: The Powerpuff Girls, the real ones, co-hosted an airing of Wizard of Oz on TCM back in 2002. They were big in the early 2000s.

Final Verdict:

It’s slightly better than Painbow in that it doesn’t have any tired memes, and there is some logic in this episode in that I don’t have to ask why the Powerpuff Girls aren’t affected by Allegro. Still, it’s not much of an improvement, and when you’re not much of an improvement over Painbow, that’s not even a mediocre sign. As it stands, the only alternate universe where this episode is good is the one where it doesn't exist.

Next, probably the falsest title of any episode of anything judging by the reboot. Yeah, even falser than “The Return of Slade.“

← Snow Month ☆ People Pleaser →

[recentanimenews]

Anime NYC 2018, Day Two

Yesterday was light to nonexistent. The same for tomorrow. But today? We had ALL THE THINGS! Starting off with the joint Kodansha and Vertical panel, which was in a nice big panel room and there was no line. A good start!

Ben Applegate was there from Kodansha and Tomo Tran from Vertical. They talked about all the giveaways they had at the booth, with Summer Wars stickers, After the Rain music download cards, Devils’ Line stuff, Pop Team Epic “shitty merchandise” (nicely done), and some of the Monogatari art exhibit being available to look at. Vertical then announced a new artbook from VOFAN, the artist for the Monogatari Series novels. This is actually a collection of his non-commercial art, so it should be far more intriguing than just another collection of stuff you’ve seen before in a larger size. It’s coming in Fall 2019.

Kodansha ran through some of their titles currently being released, including the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition, and mentioned the Sailor Moon musical is coming to NYC and DC. They then got on to new titles, though one is a collected edition: Princess Jellyfish is getting a Complete Box Set! Given at one point they weren’t sure they’d even finish the series, this is terrific news. Tales of Berseria is a three-volume series from Ichijinsha’s Comic REX, and is a fantasy title based off of a video game – I think it has an anime as well.

Fate/Grand Order gets its first manga adaptation license with the mortalis stella series, a 2-volume manga that is also Ichijinsha, from their Comic Zero Sum. I believe this stars Mash. Lastly, Kodansha is doing a new Cardcaptor Sakura edition with all the bells and whistles – hardcover, some new covers, new translation – the whole nine yards. I was a bit surprised by this, given it wasn’t too long ago that Dark Horse had re-released the series, but I’ve heard this will be worth the repurchase.

There were also two new digital announcements, coming out the first and second week of December, respectively. Red Riding Hood’s Wolf Apprentice (Akazukin no Ookami Deshi) is a Betsushonen title with Little Red Riding Hood as a beast hunter, and it’s supposed to be amusing. And on a more ridiculous note, we have Crocodile Baron, a Weekly Morning title that is three volumes long. Kodansha emphasized that the synopsis was irrelevant because there was a crocodile in a top hat on the cover. They’re not wrong.

After this there was Q&A, but I had to leave right away to get to the debut panel for Denpa Books, run by Ed Chavez (ex-Vertical) and Jacob Gray (ex-Fakku). They had special guests at the panel, though they quickly had to leave, so weren’t the focus – Range Murata, character designer for Last Exile and others, whose futurelog artbook is out next month and has ALL the bells and whistles – seriously, I could not believe how tricked out this artbook is. Hiroyuki Asada is known here for Tegami Bachi, but is putting out a more experimental title via Denpa, PEZ.

Most of the titles talked about have been mentioned before in some way or another. I was most interested in Invitation from a Crab and Maiden Railways, both of which seem to come from Hakusensha’s Rakuen Le Paradis, as well as Dining with the Emiya Family, for Fate/Stay Night fans who know what the most important thing in the Fate franchise is – FOOD.

The new titles included Super Dimensional Love Gun, a Shintaro Kago title that Fakku had previously released, but this is a nicer edition. It contains the usual Shintaro Kago warnings – if you aren’t a fan of his, you’ll likely be grossed out. Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyou) is a brand new seinen series running in Kodansha’s Afternoon, and Denpa managed to license it before the first volume was even out in Japan. They’re super excited for it – it’s post-apocalyptic slice of life, a popular genre lately. The creator may be better known for SoreMachi. The last Denpa title was Pleasure and Corruption (Tsumi to Kai), from Square Enix’s Young Gangan. Honestly, it feels more like a Fakku title than a Denpa title, but it’s being sold to those who liked the sort of dark sexuality of Flowers of Evil. Expect BDSM themes.

After eating lunch, I had a choice: I could go to Viz, or go to Vertical’s Katanagatari panel. I chose the latter (sorry, Viz, I always seem to miss you at these events). Vertical’s panel had the translator, Sam Bett, who walked through some of the things they’re doing with the title – the footnotes, which are half gag and half serious, as well as the hardcover omnibus editions. Given its author, you can imagine how much sword wordplay and how many sword puns there are. Most of the audience has already seen the anime, but Sam was quick to note that even given the novels are short (each is approximately 100 pages in English, meaning the omnibus is 300), there is a lot the anime had to adapt or leave out.

Even leaving aside that it was Nisioisin, translating it could be difficult – these are not “light” novels, and there’s lots of obscure or archaic Japanese terms that need adapting. He also explained why he used “mutant blades” rather than “deviant blades” – he felt the latter made them sound more evil than they really should be seen. It takes him longer to do Nisio’s translation than other titles, but not a LOT longer – about 20% longer, on average. He said even a Japanese reader might find themselves reaching for a dictionary to look up words with this one.

Despite not being at the Viz panel, I will be looking at their announcements anyway, at least the manga ones. My Hero Academia SMASH! is a 5-volume comedy series that ran in Shonen Jump +, and is, as you might have guessed, a wacky 4-koma take on the popular series. This license was obvious, but I am quite pleased nevertheless. Komi Can’t Communicate (Komi-san wa Komyushou Desu) was a very popular license announcement, being a Shonen Sunday title with a lot of buzz. Komi is the cool, aloof beauty according to the school, but in reality, she’s just bad at communication.

Beastars is a Weekly Shonen Champion title (nice to see Akita Shoten stuff out over here in a (mostly) post-Tokyopop world), and it’s an award winning manga about anthropomorphic high school students. It’s 11+ volumes, and looks dark but cool. Lastly, Haikasoru has a new sci-fi novel announcement with Automatic Eve, that seems to be a steampunk title.

I was lurking waiting for Yen Press, so I checked out the GKids panel. They’re a group that puts out a lot of the “anime movie” series we’ve seen recently, the most recent varieties being Mirai and Fireworks: Shall We See It from the Side or the Bottom?. They’re also now in charge of the Ghibli line, with nice handsome DVD/Blu-Ray releases of those titles. They are clearly cery excited about getting these releases into theaters, and the trailers for the movies looked exciting and fun – I particularly liked the Miyazaki documentary.

My last panel of the day was Yen Press, but they also announced the most titles – easily. The panel room filled up rapidly, being near standing room only 15 minutes before, but I think everyone who wanted to get in was able to. Announcing for Yen were Kurt Haessler and Tania Biswas, as well as Carl, Ivan, and Anna, who sadly remained last name-less. Unlike all the other panels I went to, Yen knew it had a pile to announce, so did not do a run-through of any recent releases – through they did have some poster giveaways, including Psycome, much to my surprise.

We began with the novel of Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki. Yen had previously released the manga, but they now have the novel adaptation of this popular movie. (Anna spoiled a death when describing the plot, which Kurt mercilessly mocked her for.) Whenever Our Eyes Meet is a yuri anthology a la Eclair, but this time the protagonists are all adult women, for those who are tired of the usual high school girls. Speaking of yuri, we also have Killing Me!, a one-volume title from Comic Cune about two high school girls who are a vampire and a vampire hunter. It looks very much like a “yuri for guys” series.

Also one volume is Little Miss P (Seiri-chan), an Enterbrain series about an anthropomorphic period. As in menstruation period. The audience was taken aback, but Yen clearly really enjoyed talking about this one, and think it will be great fun. Last Round Arthurs: Scum Arthur and Heretic Merlin is a brand new fantasy title – brand new in Japan too, so there’s not much info about it. The author did Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor, the artist does Index. It seems to be about an Arthurian tournament, and is two volumes to date.

On a darker note, they have both the novel and the manga for Torture Princess (Isekai Goumon Hime), whose artist has also done Black Bullet. It’s a Media Factory title and is apparently quite violent, about a man who is reincarnated in an artificial body and the demon hunter who wants his help. The German subtitle is Fremd Torturchen, and the manga runs on Kadokawa’s Comic Walker site. We also get an Enterbrain light novel called The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’ Hero (Megami no Yuusha wo Taosu Gesu na Houhou). No, not that kind of dirty. The demon lord just wants to eat tasty food, but heroes keep trying to kill them. So… they summon their own hero.

Back to manga with The Monster and the Beast (Bakemono to Kedamono), a BL title from Asuka Ciel, about a nice monster and a nasty older man, and their budding relationship. Yuri Life is another yuri title, this one taken from Pixiv artist Kurikurihime, and also features two women in their late twenties, not late teens. It’s very sliec-of-yuri life. For fans of Beasts of Abigaile, we have a title from the same creator. Kaiju Girl Caramelizer (Otome Monster Caramelize) runs in my old nemesis, Comic Alive (pauses to shake fist at sky), but looks good anyway, and is about a girl who has an affliction that when she gets upset, her body parts “monsterize”.

More light novels with Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun), a Shogakukan title (in other words, expect print-only for this one) about a loser gamer guy who thinks the world is awful, and a winning gamer girl who shows him the “cheats” to help him succeed at life. It gets points for not being a fantasy title, I’ll say that. The artist is also pretty fly. (I’m so sorry.) Back to manga for God Shining Moonlight Howling Moon (Mahou Shoujo Flaming Star), by the creators of Trinity Seven and High School of the Dead. Given that combo, you know there will be breasts a plenty. It also runs in Bessatsu Dragon Age, which sort of clinches that, and is about a Magical Girl called upon to save the Earth… but is she one of the good guys?

The last one is another light novel, The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious (Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru), a fairly recent Kadokawa series. A fantasy world is in desperate straits. They need a hero. They get a really strong one… but he’s far too wary, never wanting to attack unless he knows he can win. What makes this interesting is that the book is from the POV of the goddess who summoned him, and she has to find a way to make him do what needs to be done. It’s five volumes in Japan. After that came Q&A, but honestly, let’s just move along now.

And with that, I wrapped up my second and busiest day of Anime NYC. Again, I was pretty happy. The staff was nice and knowledgeable, the crowds were large but reasonable, and I got to see everything I wanted. Tomorrow I have no panels I want to see, so will take in Artist’s Alley, and may also scope out the AMV contest.

By: Sean Gaffney

[theultravioletcatastrophe]

Remember when I said I would make this a weekly thing? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, it’s time for another episode of...

Earl’s Anime Roundup!

This one will be a bit light because there’s really only two series I’m watching at the moment. As usual, after the cut.

So both the shows I’m watching right now are kind of ridiculous, but in different ways. The first one is about a bunch of light novel authors and all the fun they have hanging out together and being goofballs. The second one is about a dude who lives with an ever-growing number of demi-human girls and of course they get into ludicrous situations almost constantly. Here we go!

Imouto Sae Ireba Ii.: (aka A Sister’s All You Need) I saw a bunch of screencaps of this one before I decided to start watching it. Like many of the series that @ama-nee posts about, I thought this one was going to be a purely ecchi series, but there’s actually a story to go with it and the ecchi bits are just kinda fanservice (for the record I was similarly pleasantly surprised by Love Tyrant, which I thought the same thing about based on the screencaps but it turns out there’s a (much stupider) story behind that series too). I went into this expecting... well, I’m not sure what I was expecting. The main character is obsessed with either the “little sister” trope, or little sisters themselves, and I thought it was gonna be another show like Oreimo or Eromanga Sensei. It’s really not. I had to wonder though, because every single review I read was like “DON’T JUDGE THIS SHOW BASED ON THE FIRST 3 MINUTES OF THE FIRST EPISODE” and I was like okay, how bad can this be? Turns out... well... I’m not gonna tell you to watch it yourself and see unless you read the rest of this review and decide that you wanna watch it yourself. It’s actually a really good show, it’s just that the first few minutes are really fucked up. Anyway the show focuses on a guy named Itsuki Hashima, who is (as I mentioned earlier) a light novel author who has inexplicably made a name for himself despite writing weirdly-obsessed tales about guys and their little sisters. It’s a shame he’s the main character, because I can’t fucking stand him. He’s basically a snotty little brat, is what he is. I guess he’s a decent enough guy to his friends when he wants to be, but he puts up this front that I can only assume he thinks is cool, but he’s actually being a huge douchebag. Fortunately, the show is saved by its otherwise-stellar cast and its general lack of actual plot (it’s very much a slice-of-life type of show). The other characters include Haruto Fuwa, who is a more popular author than Itsuki and despite this the two of them have such a great bromance going on; Miyako Shirakawa, an otherwise-unrelated college student who somehow gets roped into all this despite not being an author herself; Chihiro Hashima, Itsuki’s younger sister brother (lol definitely not a spoiler, it’s immediately obvious that she’s pretending to be a boy for reasons that will hopefully be elaborated upon later); Setsuna Ena, the illustrator for Itsuki’s books and a fine upstanding young man who just happens to be obsessed with asses; and possibly one of my favourite characters from any series in recent memory, Nayuta Kani. Nayu is completely in love with Itsuki for some reason (apparently she read one of his books when she was going through a really shitty time in her life, and was so moved that she was, I dunno, “saved” or whatever) and is a much better author than he is. Seriously, her thirst for Itsuki is so real; she mentions at least twice per episode how much she wants to bang him, and he acts like such a cold fish toward her even though he CLEARLY is attracted to her too, which is one of the reasons I hate him. Anyway, I do recommend this series, as the characters (besides the protagonist) are so endearing and well-written, and visually it’s pretty nice. You just have to get past the weirdness that is the first episode and you’re good to go. Oh, it would also help to have at least a passing understanding of Japanese cultural tropes (particularly those commonly seen in anime). Current rating 8/10.

Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou: (aka Monster Musume, aka Everyday Life with Monster Girls, aka MonMusu) This is actually an older series (it premiered summer 2015), but I just recently got into it. Like with Imouto Sae Ireba Ii., I was expecting this one to be a fanservice anime, and BOY HOWDY IS IT EVER. This one is definitely not hiding the fact that it’s pretty much all cheesecake, all the time. It is explicitly a harem anime, so if that’s not your thing then you’ll probably wanna give this one a pass. There is somewhat of an interesting story to go with it, though. So this series focuses on a totally ordinary guy named Kimihito Kurusu, who lives by himself in his parents’ giant house, because his parents work overseas (and I guess he figures it’s better than paying rent? I dunno). In this world, there are a great number of non-human species trying to integrate into human society, and so the government has set up an Interspecies Exchange Program. Kimihito finds himself suddenly thrown into it when a maliciously inept cultural exchange coordinator named Agent Smith gets the wrong house (sure, sure) and ends up sticking him with a homestay resident, a lamia named Miia. Lamias (lamiae?) in this world are a bit different from the original Greek mythology; they’re essentially women who are snakes from the waist down. (And Miia’s top half is normal-sized (well, except for her breasts), making her snake half friggin’ huge - she’s probably about 12 or 13 feet long in total.) Throughout the course of the series, Kimihito gets roped into taking care of a bunch of other creatures, including a centaur woman named Centorea, a harpy named Papi, a slime girl named Suu, a mermaid named Meroune, and a spider woman named Rachnera. One of the provisions of the Interspecies Exchange Program is that humans and non-humans are not allowed to harm each other; for some reason this also extends to prohibit romantic and sexual involvement of humans and non-humans. So guess what happens? Right! All the monster girls living with Kimihito want to bang him! And refreshingly, he wants to bang them right back, but tries his best to avoid doing so, because he doesn’t want to go to jail! What a wacky setup that has definitely never been done before. Sorry, give me a minute to wipe up all this sarcasm that dripped all over the place. It’s actually pretty well done, for a harem anime. The characters are all (mostly) loveable, except for Smith, who is a useless irresponsible fucking bitch and I hate her, but I’m sure there’s more back story I have yet to unlock (I’m only about halfway through this so far). The ecchi scenes can be pretty over the top and ridiculous, but I find it doesn’t take too much away from the series as a whole (this could just be because I kind of have a thing for monster girls and subsequently I find most of it incredibly hot). It’s actually kind of an interesting exploration of what a world with a bunch of non-human-but-still-mostly-human creatures living in it would look like. For example, as more of the girls move into Kimihito’s house, the program coordinators keep having to make adjustments to his house. For example, when Miia moves in, he gets a gigantic pool-sized bath tub to accommodate Mia’s enormous snake body. When the mermaid moves in, she gets a super-deep pool to swim around in (when she’s not in the water she’s in a wheelchair, and she’s apparently covered in mucus so she doesn’t dry out, which of course makes it so that her clothes slide off really easily). It’s actually worth a watch, in my opinion. Rating so far is 7/10.

(Oh, also, Jess and I are watching (well, I’m re-watching) season 2 of New Game!, and we also watched the first couple episodes of Tamako Market, which is a REALLY strange series, but I think I like it. At least visually, it’s a great series - you can’t really expect any less from KyoAni, though. I might do a longer write-up on this one once I’ve watched a bit more.)

LOL I said this was gonna be a bit light, didn’t I? I guess I wasn’t planning on writing that much about each of these. Oh well.