#this goes to show i really like newgen

[chacerider]

I want to get into Ultraman but I don't know where to start any recommendations

tl;dr version: It’s tricky, but Mebius might be a good place if you’re not going to just start with the original Ultraman and proceed chronologically. You could also just jump into New Generations Ultraman with Ginga and go from there, with only minor confusion (and you might want to watch Zero’s movies before watching X or especially Geed). “Canon” is very loose and rarely required knowledge between seasons (though there are exceptions; hi, Orb’s Jugglus Juggler being a major character in Z! Hi, Geed showing up there as well!), so really, you can jump in anywhere.

  expansive version, w/ reasoning and some discussion of official sources to watch Ultraman at:

  Okay, so, here's the bad news: With only a few exceptions, just about every Ultraman series is at least going to LIGHTLY reference past seasons. (The OG Ultraman obv doesn't, and Cosmos doesn't as well -- I think a lot of the early 00s seasons don't, but I can't confirm that myself.)

Now, here's the good news: in MOST seasons, any references WILL be light and fairly well-explained for newcomers. (The largest part of their audience is young children, after all!) If you go in with an open heart and a bit of a detective attitude ("ah, so that's how it is? So, then, it works like this?") you shouldn't have any problems just jumping in-- mostly.

With that being said...

Obviously, you could just start with the original Ultraman and go forward chronologically from there, but since you're asking me instead of doing that, I'm guessing you're not necessarily into 1960s/1970s TV. Which is fair! There's a lot to love in that era, especially Ultraman-wise, but I too have trouble getting into it as much as I get into newer shows. So, skipping forward, my next recommendation would be...

Mebius is a fairly good place to jump in if you can find it -- it's a mid-2000s anniversary season, but it does a really thorough job of explaining/establishing worldbuilding & lore that's still considered mostly-canon today, and as an anniversary it'll introduce you to major recurring characters (the Ultra Brothers, among others). It's also genuinely REALLY REALLY good, and it's a full-length season so there's plenty of content.

After that... Ultraman Zero and his main villain Belial come up a LOT in modern Ultraman, and Zero's super fun, BUT -- he doesn't actually have a season. What he DOES have are a string of movies and DVD specials, so if you can track down those, I'd highly highly recommend them. The watch order goes Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends, Revenge of Belial, Killer The Beat Star, Ultraman Saga, then Ultra Zero Fight finishes it off. There's a TV anthology (Zero Chronicles) that cuts the movies up for broadcast, but the editing's awkward and they do NOT follow the chronological release order for... some reason, idk. (They put Zero's first movie in the middle of the anthology! They spread the first half of Ultra Zero Fight over the end of several episodes! I do not know why!!) So if it's the only thing you can find, it's there, but... It's a mess, ye be forewarned. (The host segments are cute, though.)

At that point you're very well set for New Generations Ultraman (the current modern seasons) -- everything from Ginga onwards, though you could also just start with Ginga! It's a bit of a weird (and low-budget) one, but hey... it's where I started and here I am many seasons later, lol. I've loved every single NewGen Ultra I've watched, though I should mention that Z (the current one) very heavily references Orb and minorly Zero, and Geed also features Zero (though in a very good way!). I should also mention these seasons are shorter than older seasons -- about 24 episodes apiece. (Budget reasons.)

Long story short, though? Just jump in. It's a little tough to start out, but the more you watch, the more you'll get out of it. And hey, there's always the internet for looking up lore you don't know!

Oh, and finally: I didn't really mention where to find this stuff, because, well... It's all over the place. Some of it's on VRV/Crunchyroll! Some of it's on Amazon's Toku channel! Some of it's on Blu-Ray through Mill Creek Entertainment! (I love those Blu-Rays, very much recommend them if they're an option for you.) Some of it you're only going to find fan-subbed, for now at least. If you need a pointer towards something specific, I can try to help you, but... Google. Google is your friend.

(Also: Ultraman Z has been simulcasting on Youtube with English subs... however, episodes are only available on Youtube for a couple weeks, so at this point you’d have to find another source for the first few episodes in order to catch up. After that, though, Z’s great and it’s wild being able to experience it as it airs!)

Hope that helped!

[gakmaurepot]

undefined

⭐ i really like r/b... i thought a lot about the original rbg siblings... please read tsuru-chan’s novel!

   > rambling below!

i know this season isn’t that well liked, it’s far from perfect, the power borrowing thing isn’t my fav gimmick (though they seem to be planning to keep doing it so haha oh well) etc etc.. 

but i personally love it! family relationship as an important plot point always makes me warm and ⭐ happy! ⭐

tsuru-chan broke my heart in a lot of ways, i love her so much... her relationship with asahi.... *chefs kiss* i can talk about them all day!!

the ring of light... why do you gave her a monster power? this thing seems to be ruining relationships left and right wwwww first gai and juggler, then tsuru and her bros, then fuma and gerg? i wanna know more about the 0-50 lore!

it makes me a bit sad seeing people dissing tsuru in favor of aizen.. he was really fun and all and his end could’ve been better but dismissing her as only “a goth girl” is... :’)

is it the screentime fault? that change in direction is pretty abrupt!

i wonder what can the newgen shows be if they got 40+ episodes like the old shows! i mean, the orb season only covers one of so many planned chapters that never see the light of day! they’re all so ambitious, 20 something episodes are just not enough!! after their victory over the copyright stuff and building more budget, i hope tsuburaya can produce a more well polished, better planned, ultraman series!

i’m pretty much in love with katsumi. Isami cute i love how his actor is a huge ultraman nerd who fanboys every week with z on his twitter

everything about the minato family makes me smile and everything about the rbg family makes me cry

in a perfect world the only content we have of rosso-nii and blu-nii isn’t just that one blurry picture from the r/b book and like 3 seconds of their backs in the show...

the novel goes over tsuru-chan’s life before r/b! i’m cursed to have my fav character’s depth hidden behind (sometimes) exclusive jp only novels that not everyone would bother reading  (this is about someone from kingdom hearts too maybe cough cough)

what timeline has rb origin saga and how do i access it

when gruebe defeated tregear in the movie... it’s technically the original rbg siblings whose life got ruined by reugosite getting their revenge.........aughghgh that’s so auhaguahgugaga my longest yeah boy ever

y’all mind me going cheesy and embarrassing for a second...

i  wuv them all.......................  please live and rest 🖤🖤🖤 happily ever after ❤️💙💛

[titoslondon-blog]

New Post has been published on Titos London

#Blog New Post has been published on http://www.titoslondon.co.uk/lvmh-prize-winners-where-are-they-now/

LVMH Prize winners: Where are they now?

The mythology of the fashion prize is part of the industry’s folklore. So it goes that an obscure young designer working away with impecunious inventiveness is discovered by a fabulous fairy godmother and given a fast-track ticket to international acclaim. Off they go, happily ever after. The end.

In reality, it’s less of a fairy tale and more of a cautionary tale. For, as every young designer knows, the challenges of establishing an independent label can make it almost impossible to do, even with financial support, chattering buzz and thousands of Instagram likes. One could argue that the seemingly glittering spotlight can even go as far as to be a deterrent to real sustainable growth and brand building. For every success story, there is a defunct label that once showed a promising start.

The LVMH Prize is the brainchild of Louis Vuitton executive vice president Delphine Arnault. It’s open to designers under the age of 40 who have produced at least two collections. The winner receives €300,000, plus a year of mentorship from LVMH and its network. It also offers a runner-up Special Prize of €150,000 and similar mentorship opportunities. Thanks to the prominence of its sponsor and the eminence of its jury—a pantheon of the conglomerate’s star designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Nicolas Ghesquière and Marc Jacobs—the Prize has quickly established itself as one of the most prestigious and valuable contests in the world for young fashion designers. This year, more than 1,300 designers representing 90 nationalities applied.

Of its winners, many have gone on to become the most exciting names on fashion-week schedules—Marques Almeida, Wales Bonner, Marine Serre, Jacquemus, to name just a few—and even others who haven’t won have gone far. Virgil Abloh, for instance, was merely a finalist in 2015—three years later, he’s the new artistic director of menswear for Louis Vuitton.

So what makes this prize so special? “You’re being judged by designers,” says Marta Marques, one half Marques Almeida, which won the LVMH Prize in 2015 and has since established itself as a steadily thriving business. “To speak to them about the struggle of creating a brand, and balancing the creative and business sides—you don’t get that with any other prizes, and that helped us with cementing where we were going.” Marques points out that what also set the award apart was the mentorship from Sophie Brocart, senior vice president of LVMH’s fashion ventures and CEO of Nicholas Kirkwood. “To have that huge level of expertise on the other end of a phone call or email was really precious. We could bring expert knowledge to the fields that weren’t our strong point.”

“I wouldn’t have been able to carry on without winning it,” asserts Grace Wales Bonner. The London-based menswear designer won the LVMH Prize in 2016 and is now one of the star attractions at London Fashion Week Men’s. “It gave me security to build the foundations of what I wanted to do and the support to strategise and consider,” she adds, also mentioning that the process gave her a much-needed confidence boost.

Part of the success of the LVMH Prize has been how it has rejuvenated the conglomerate, which had experienced its own scandal (Galliano-gate!) and an increasingly spinning carousel of creative directors. By aligning itself with the patronage of a younger generation—just as Topshop once did by sponsoring the British Fashion Council’s NewGen scheme—the company attracts positive publicity and creates an association with fresh, new talent.

Despite the prestige, however, some critics question just how sustainable the prize is for a generation of designers who are starting businesses at a time when the traditional retail and wholesale model is in flux—especially as most of the jury is more familiar with the conventional fashion system. “Design isn’t what makes a fashion brand today—and they need to reward the most progressive view,” luxury brand strategist Ana Andjelic says of the prize. “The question is: how do you use this prize to make something more sustainable? Of course, you can do a fashion show and do wholesale, but do you really want to start your career by being 50 per cent off at Nordstrom?”

Andjelic has a point. Whereas prizes in other industries recognise innovation and disruption, fashion has a tendency to stick to what it knows—Karl Lagerfeld, for instance, famously boasts that he doesn’t interact with marketing executives in his work for Fendi and Chanel. Today’s designers require an arsenal of skills that range from direct-to-consumer e-commerce and digital marketing to brand content and sustainable production. She continues: “Once you’re in the LVMH Prize, you’re in the fashion system. We are now questioning whether seasonality even makes sense anymore, so we need mentors from different industries, and to take the prize further and make LVMH work harder for these designers.”

Winning the Prize does not automatically guarantee success. Thomas Tait and Hood By Air, both winners in 2014, are no longer producing collections. Although Hood By Air’s Shayne Oliver has made a successful transition into a freelance career by designing one-off collections for Helmut Lang and Diesel, Tait is admonitory of why fashion prizes can be a blessing and a curse.

Before winning the inaugural LVMH Prize, Tait struggled with the battle of putting on a show in September and only being able to pay for materials in August, when most Italian factories are closed, which usually allowed him just a few days to create an entire ready-to-wear collection. “To some people [€300,000] might seem like an enormous amount of money, to some people it could seem like something that could go overnight,” Tait told me in 2015, less than a year after winning the Prize and months before he would quit the catwalk.

“There’s a lot of people who have this false idea that you’ll be fine—just keep it up for a few years and somebody’s gonna hand you a creative director’s position,” he added. “That might not happen. The sensationalism of fashion creates this false sense of comfort where people think that you can really get yourself into a huge financial mess and then some kind of magic trick is gonna clear out all the debt and you’ll become a big star.”

There’s also the question of whether a younger generation of designers covet those creative directorships, which were once seen as the holy grail for lesser-known names. “I think now that everything is so fickle and contracts are so short, it’s not something that is desirable in terms of job stability because everyone is getting hired and then quitting or being fired,” says Vejas Kruszewski, who won the Special Prize in 2016 and has recently put his label on hold to work on Pihakapi, a project with Italian leather manufacturer Pellemoda that allows him to bypass many of the challenges that young designers face. “You go into a situation where all the infrastructure you need is in place, but the downside is that you have to deal with corporate process and all the numbers.”

For many young designers straight out of college, negotiating the relationships with manufacturers, publicists, sales agents and distributors can be hard to manage. It can also lead to overwhelming overheads, which affect pricing and make it difficult to position one’s label in a competitive marketplace. “I’m based in New York and do production in Japan and show in Paris, so my challenge is always a lot to do with budgets and the cash flow,” says Kozaburo Akasaka, who won the Special Prize last year. “I need to keep doing that unless I have more people and there’s also the issue of quality control as you want a certain level of craftsmanship for the product—especially as if you can afford to order more materials, you get a better price.” As a result, pricing can be somewhat skewed. One of Akasaka’s exquisitely handmade coats, for example, retails for $2,000—a price which can prevent younger consumers buying into the brand.

There is, however, a new outlook on the horizon. Marine Serre won the LVMH Prize last year and is the first winner not to hail from Central Saint Martins. The prize enabled her to find a studio that wasn’t her bedroom and to employ a few people to help her and start creating a collection made from upcycled materials that would be shown at Paris Fashion Week. “For me, luxury is not a €7,000 dress,” says Serre, who says that she wanted to start her label with accessible prices and alternative methods of circular production. “I knew I wanted it to be recycled deadstock materials and the other solution is not trying to develop 45 prints and cancel 25. I had nothing cancelled in my last collection and I produced everything.” She’s already developed a full line of accessories—ball-shaped bags, silk-scarf earrings, crescent-moon jersey sock boots—that is being snapped up by several of the international retailers who are already selling her label, which was only officially started eight months ago.

“It wasn’t something I was planning to do,” adds Serre. “I wanted to have a brand but I didn’t think it would happen tomorrow.” The challenge for her now will be turning overnight success into a lifelong career. By the look of things, however, she’s already one step ahead.

1/14 Marine Serre 'Young Fashion Designer', LVMH Prize 2017

Image: Getty

Marine Serre fall/winter 2018-2019

Image: Getty

Marine Serre fall/winter 2018-2019

Image: Getty

Grace Wales Bonner 'Young Fashion Designer', LVMH Prize 2016

Image: Getty

At the LVMH Prize 2016 annoucement

Image: Getty

Grace Wales Bonner, fall 2018

Image: Getty

Kozaburo Akasaka at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris

Image: Getty

Marques'Almeida spring/summer 2017

Image: Getty

Thomas Tait at the 'LVMH Young Fashion Designers Prize' winner announcement in Paris

Image: Getty

Thomas Tait spring/summer 2016

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Louis Vuitton executive vice president Delphine Arnault with Simon Porte of Jacquemus

Image: Getty

Jacquemus fall/winter 2018-2019

Image: Getty

Shayne Oliver with Kendall Jenner

Image: Getty

Hood By Air spring/summer 2017

Image: Getty

The post LVMH Prize winners: Where are they now? appeared first on VOGUE India.

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

Open Thread: This Week in Style News

The 1980s are coming back, at least according to Tom Ford and Marc Jacobs. This did not fill my heart with joy.

Raf Simons trucked 50,000 gallons of popcorn to the old American Stock Exchange building for his Calvin Klein show, and it was most entertaining, even if a lot of guests started complaining about the dry cleaning bills, and there was some social media protest about wasted food.

Politics and position-taking were largely avoided, except by Kerby Jean-Raymond in a moving Pyer Moss show that was a subtle ode to the black cowboy. Remember his name; he’s one of the most interesting of the NewGen designers in the city.

People often ask me how I get ready for fashion month, and the truth is I don’t, really. I wear the same thing almost every season, so packing is easy now, and I stay in the same hotels, so I know where the closest pharmacy and grocery stores are anyway, in case I have an emergency.

For me, the most important prep is really just brain rest. Seven days of skirts can start to blend together in a big blob of ennui.

So I’ll go to as many trapeze classes I can fit in, since once I get on the plane to Milan all exercise goes out the window, and I’ll spend the weekend with my family getting my Olympic fix, especially of Johnny Weir, who is throwing some serious fashion shade (I actually think his outfits were more interesting than a lot of the shows in New York). I try, in other words, to remind myself of the context in which all these clothes function.

To that end, check out these “Black Panther” stories, check in with Leslie Jones’s Olympic fashion criticism, and spend 48 hours with the designer Prabal Gurung to see what Fashion Week is like from the other side. Talk to you from Milan!

Your Style Questions, Answered

Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.

Continue reading the main story

Q: Is there such a thing as a fashionable puffer coat? I need something light and warm for the chilly Los Angeles nights and for when I spend five weeks in N.Y. in the fall. I wear a lot of sweaters that come down to my mid thighs. I am a 70-year-old artist and I am looking for something interesting (but no belts, please!) – Eileen, Santa Monica

A: Take it from this similarly belt-adverse person: yes, absolutely. In fact, fashion has developed something of a thing for puffers. I literally just saw a puffer wrap on the Michael Kors runway, and some pretty great shearling trimmed puffers at Tory Burch.

Those won’t be in stores til August though, so for some more immediate gratification, I asked T’s style director, Malina Joseph Gilchrist, what she would recommend. Here’s what she said: “Look at Moncler and Marques’ Almeida for more fashionable options. Moncler cuts for women where the waist is taken in and gives a more ‘fashionable’ shape, sans belt. Marques’ Almeida has been incorporating puffer coats on the runway. Other good options are Norma Kamali’s sleeping bag jacket, which was stylish in the ‘80s and is still good today. Or try Uniqlo, and opt for their knee-length quilted thinner down jacket.”

I’d also add another Italian brand that is less expensive than Moncler (though not cheap), as an option. I was standing outside a show the other day and chatting to another critic when I started admiring her puffer — silky, with a wide turtle neck à la Audrey Hepburn — and asked where it was from: Herno was the answer. You learn a lot waiting for a show to start. — VANESSA FRIEDMAN

Continue reading the main story

VANESSA FRIEDMAN

The post Open Thread: This Week in Style News appeared first on dailygate.