#this is like a s*x scene to me. one of admittedly many this episode

[samuelroukin]

"Hang on. You're serious about taking the ship?" "What the fuck did you think?"

LUKE ARNOLD as John Silver & TOBY STEPHENS as James Flint in BLACK SAILS (2014—2017) Chapter IX

[crusherthedoctor]

Can you list anything you unironically like in the games (and cartoons and comics) that you don't like?

I won't bother mentioning music, since that goes without saying and is to be expected for a Sonic game... unless you're Chronicles.

Sonic Adventure 2 (mixed gameplay-wise, annoying story-wise) - While I prefer Sonic's SA1 levels for a number of reasons, I still think his and Shadow's gameplay in SA2 is fun on its own merit. I also don't mind the treasure hunting gameplay returning or how big the levels are this time around, since Knuckles and Rouge are still fast and not '06 levels of slow. It's mainly the gimped radar that creates the unfortunate domino effect of making them a problem.

- Introduced Rouge, one of my favourite characters for how playful she is and how she's a lot more nuanced and intelligent than you'd expect.

- Some genuinely good scenes, like Eggman's trap on the A.R.K and Sonic escaping from the G.U.N. helicopter.

- Had some good ideas going for it, like the Pyramid Base and the Biolizard as a scientific monster instead of an ancient one.

- Despite my thoughts on the backstory itself (or rather, its execution), Shadow has enough depth and subtle qualities and occasional unintended hilarity to stand out from the typical dark rival characters you see in media.

- The Last Scene's music in particular is one of my favourite cutscene tracks in the series.

Sonic Heroes (mixed gameplay-wise, loathed story-wise) - The gameplay is fun when you're not being screwed over by repetitive combat, overly long levels and/or ice physics.

- Boasts some of the most consistently Genesis-worthy environments in the 3D games, up there with SA1's and Colours'.

- The in-game dialogue that isn't the same tutorial drivel repeated ad nauseam can be interesting, funny, etc.

- Reintroduced the Chaotix, which provided me with another character I quite like in the form of Vector.

- Bringing Metal Sonic back in full force and front and center in the plot after a long absence (not counting cameos and the like) is a perfectly fine idea. Just... not like this.

Sonic Battle (decent yet repetitive gameplay, mixed story-wise) - Emerl's arc is compelling, and it earns the emotional weight of having to put him down at the end.

- While some characters are iffy (read: Amy), other characters are extremely well-handled. Shadow is probably the prime example.

- Gamma's belly dance healing animation is fucking hilarious.

- When I was young, and the game was first announced, I was really excited about being able to play as Chaos. This proved to be my downfall when it turned out he was arguably one of the worst characters in the game due to being slower than me during the writing process, but I still recall that excitement fondly.

Shadow the Hedgehog (comedy classic) - The sheer amount of legendary stupidity this game has going for it makes it practically impossible to actually hate. It helps that it's not quite as white-knighted on the same level as '06... usually. You know you're in for a unique experience when you hear a gunshot every time you click something in the menu.

- By extension, Black Doom never gained an unironic fanbase like Mephiles/Scourge/Eggman Nega did, which means I'm a lot more willing to take Doom's dumbass brand of villainy in stride. He even has a unique design... a terrible one that rips off Wizeman granted, but alas, even that is a step-up from Fridge Shadow and Bumblebee Eggman.

- Despite being... well, Shadow the Hedgehog, some of the environments would fit right in with any other Sonic game, like with Circus Park, Lava Shelter, and Digital Circuit. Even the Black Comet levels look pretty cool.

- This game understands amnesia better than IDW does.

Sonic '06 (what do you think?) - The obvious one: Shadow's character was handled pretty well, even if it came at the cost of everyone else being a dummy and being forced to interact with Mephiles.

- Like SA2, there are some good moments, like the Last Story ending sequence with Sonic and Elise.

- In the greatest form of irony ever, I like Solaris as a concept and design(s), and its backstory has potential to serve as a parallel with Chaos without being a complete ripoff. Iblis sucks, Mephiles sucks, but I'm fine with Solaris.

- Introduced legendary characters like Sonic Man, Pele the Beloved Dog, Hatsun the Pigeon, and Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove.

The Rivals duology (apathetic outside of Nega-related grumbling) - There were some cool zone ideas in both games that were sadly let down by the restrictive and limiting gameplay. I particularly like Colosseum Highway for thus far being the only full-on Roman level in the series instead of merely having a couple minor hints of Roman, and Meteor Base for the unique scenario of the space station being built into an asteroid. These level concepts and others deserve a second chance IMO. (At least Frontier Canyon got a second chance in the form of Mirage Saloon, amirite?)

- Ifrit has a better design than Iblis. Not saying it's amazing, but the Firebird motif it has going on is a lot more interesting for a fire monster than the Not-Chaos schtick they had with Iblis.

Sonic and the Secret Rings (a very frustrating gaming experience) - Erazor Djinn, A.K.A. Qui-Gon Djinn, A.K.A. Dr. N. Djinn, A.K.A. I'll Take It On The Djinn, A.K.A. Not From The Hairs On My Djinny Djinn Djinn, is one of the best villains not associated with Eggman in the series. He's a Mephiles-type character done right, and there's actual weight and reason to his actions, however sinister or petty.

- I don't have strong opinions either way on Shahra as a character, but the Sonic/Shahra friendship is sweet and well-handled.

- The ending is one of Sonic's greatest moments. The sheer contrast between how ruthlessly he deals with Erazor and how comforting he is towards Shahra speaks volumes... Still gonna make fun of the mountain of handkerchiefs though. (Before anyone lectures me, I understand the significance of it and can even appreciate it from that angle... doesn't mean I'm not allowed to poke fun at it. :P)

- Another game with some redeeming environments. I love the aesthetic of Night Palace, and Sand Oasis looks gorgeous too.

Sonic Chronicles (my personal least favourite game in the series) - Uh...

- Um...

- Er...

- I like Shade's design?

Sonic Unleashed (overrated game and story IMO) - The obvious two: the opening sequence and the Egg Dragoon fight deserve all the praise they get.

- Seeing Eggmanland come to life was an impressive moment to be sure. While part of me does feel it didn't quite measure up to what I had in mind (ironically, the Interstellar Amusement Park ended up being closer to what I had in mind), it still looks badass and works well for what it is. I also don't mind the idea of it being a one-level gauntlet... key word being idea.

- Obviously, the game looks great. Not a fan of the real world focus (real world inspiration is fine, but copy-pasting the real world and shoving loops in it is just unimaginative), but it can't be denied that the environments look good.

- This game pulled off dialogue options a lot better than Chronicles did, since they didn't rely on making Sonic OoC.

Sonic and the Black Knight (just kind of boring all around) - Despite my gripes with the story (Merlina wasn't nearly as fleshed out as her unique anti-villain status deserved, which ends up severely undermining the ambition of the plot in more ways than one, and the other characters go from being useless yes men for King Arthur to being useless yes men for Sonic), I will admit it provides interesting insight into Sonic's character.

- Like '06 and Secret Rings, the ending is very nice... well, aside from Amy being an unreasonable bitch ala Sonic X at the very end.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (apathetic) - The admittedly few new concepts sprinkled within had promise. They may not have been as fleshed out as they could have been, but level concepts like Sylvania Castle and White Park, bosses like Egg Serpentleaf and the Egg Heart, and story beats like the Death Egg mk.II being powered by Little Planet, all could have been brilliant had they been better executed.

SatAM (apathetic outside of SatAM Robotnik-related grumbling) - I'm not a fan of the environments on the whole due to them looking too bland or samey, but there are some exceptions that look pleasant or interesting, like the Void.

Sonic Underground (apathetic) - The character designs make me feel better about myself.

- Does "large quantities of unintentional meme material" count as a positive?

Sonic X (mostly apathetic outside of Eggman's handling) - Helen was a better human character and audience surrogate in her one focus episode than Chris was throughout his entire runtime.

- Actually, most of the human characters not named Chris were legitimately likable. Including everyone in Chris' own family not named Chris. Hilarious.

- Despite arguably having the most Chris in it, I actually don't mind the first season that much, partly due to slight nostalgia from seeing it on TV when it was new, but mostly because Eggman actually acted like a villain for the most part, and certain other characters weren't quite as flanderized yet. It's season 2 and onwards where things started going off the rails IMO. (Incidentally, Helen's episode was part of season 1...)

The Boom franchise (apathetic) - Along with Chronicles, the games provide yet more proof that just because someone isn't SEGA/Sonic Team, that doesn't mean they're automatically more qualified to handle the series.

- The show had some good episodes here and there, and Tails' characterization was probably the most consistently on-point out of the cast.

- Despite not exactly being favourite portrayals for either character, even I'll admit that many of Knuckles and Eggman's lines in the show on their own were genuinely funny.

Archie Sonic (pre-reboot is mostly terrible, post-reboot is mostly... bland) - Whenever I doubt myself as a writer, I think back to Ken Penders, and suddenly I'm filled with a lot more confidence.

Sonic the Comic (apathetic) - Fleetway isn't a comic I tend to recall much of aside from how much of a loathesome cunt Sonic is, but IIRC, Robotnik's portrayal is pretty good. Different, but good.

IDW Sonic (stop pissing me off, comic) - Putting their handling aside (and being too obviously "inspired" by MGS in the latter's case), Tangle and Whisper are good characters IMO.

- Same goes for Starline, before he was killed off-screen and replaced with Toothpaste Snively.

- Execution aside (noticing a pattern?), the zombot virus was a fine concept on its own and an interesting new scheme for Eggman.

- I get to remind myself that I've never drawn scat edits and posted them publicly on Twitter.

[satoshi-mochida]

Some thoughts on my last Gamefly rental, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

*Though most people are familiar with DBZ, especially the three main Sagas in this game, given how often they’re played out in games, I’ll put a spoiler warning here just in case. Also, I didn’t try out the DLC stories, yet, so this will just be about the base PS4 game with it’s current updates. I may buy the game and try those out in the future. I also say a lot about the game.

The game spans from the Saiyan Saga to the end of the Buu Saga(not counting DLC). Pretty much every important scene is played through, though a few parts are skimmed over or skipped, like:

Goku traveling Snake Way, his brief fall into Hell, and training with King Kai(shown a bit and mentioned but not playable) 

Piccolo using Hellzone Grenade against Android 17(you can have him learn the move and do it yourself, though).

Future Trunks’ battle with Cell where he found out the speed-loss disadvantages of Super Saiyan Third Grade(that moment isn’t shown or mentioned, though he does still fight Cell in that form)

Vegito still attacking Super Buu after being turned into candy(which means we don’t get to see him beating Super Buu up as a high-speed jawbreaker). Also, Goku and Vegeta freeing everyone trapped inside Super Buu happens offscreen.

And possibly a few smaller moments. They aren’t too important in the long run, though, plus some were probably for better pacing or something.

There was some added stuff, too:

Several times, you’ll be able to meet, and occasionally do sidequests for, several older Dragon Ball characters, like Nam, Eighter and Launch.

A new fight for Goku against Kid Buu to end the main story before he launches the Super Spirit Bomb at him.

There's a fairly small amount of playable characters(who can also be put in a party as Support Members): 

Goku

Gohan

Vegeta

Piccolo

Future Trunks(Android/Cell Saga and Epilogue, only)

Gotenks(only in two battles against Super Buu)

Vegito(in one battle against Super Buu, which, considering how powerful Vegito is, is more of an epic beatdown than a fight)

And a few characters that are support only:

Krillin

Tien

Yamcha

Chiaotzu

Goten

Kid Trunks

Android 18

All characters, Main and Support Only, have a ‘Super Attack Skill Tree’ that you can use Z Orbs that you find/earn to give them new skills and attacks. What you can get increases based on the character’s level and story progress(example, you can’t get Super Saiyan 2 for Gohan until he unlocks it during the fight with Perfect Cell).

Throughout the game, you’ll collect ‘Soul Emblems’ to place onto several ‘Community Boards’ to increase various ingame bonuses, like more EXP or cooking benefits. You get Soul Emblems both from the main story and side quests. They can be leveled up with Gifts to increase the Community Level, giving more bonuses. This seems to be the best setup for all of the emblems that I found.

At campfires and at Goku’s House, you can make food from items/materials you have to give yourself a stat boost. And Chi-Chi can be asked to make the party Full Course Meals at her home, which also increase the Base Stats of whoever eats them.

A certain filler episode from the original series where Goku and Piccolo are forced to get a Driver's License also happens in this game(though unfortunately without the outfits they wore in said episode). After doing so, you unlock the ability to make cars and battle walkers from Bulma, as well as Time Attacks for both types of vehicles(which I didn’t do much of).

Like the first Budokai game, this one has story’s events shown in cutscenes, which the later ones just had them happen in dialogue to speed things along, probably. And they did a really good job of animated said scenes, matching the look and feel of the series VERY closely.

The flying also feels well done, and true to the series. Aside from flying normally, which is fairly slow, you can hit L3 to start flying faster, at the cost of your Ki slowly going down and not being able to sense Ki with R1. This is the best way to travel the the large maps. Goku and Gohan can also use the Flying Nimbus, though you can’t pick up items that you need to hit Circle while doing so. Also, ramming into weaker enemies while flying will defeat them instantly and give you EXP. It’s a bit hard to aim yourself at enemies correctly, sometimes, though. 

Going underwater functions the same as flying, except with an air meter to keep an eye on. If it runs out, you get kicked back above where you entered the water as the only penalty. Take a peek down under whatever bodies of water you find; there’s always stuff to see and collect, depending on the map, especially on maps with oceans.

You can also dash on the ground by hitting L3, and unlike when flying, you can still sense Ki while doing so. 

I feel like this game’s flying controls are about what it should feel like for a Superman game. Probably might need a few tweaks to fit more with that series, but this feels like a good base for that kind of game.

The game’s many maps are pretty large, with lots to see and explore, including towns, caves that you need to be a certain level to enter, materials to gather, fishing spots, and more. They include plenty of well known DBZ locations, insulting Kame House(and the ocean around it), West City and Capsule Corp., Korin’s Tower and Kami’s Lookout, and so on.

Floating around these maps are enemies you can fight. They grow in strength as you do/the story progresses. If you’re strong enough and are fast-flying when running into an enemy, you’ll defeat it and gain EXP right away.

Speaking of Korin’s Tower, you can eventually unlock the ability to grow Senzu Beans there, which fully heal you. Once they’re unlocked, they will gradually grow and can be collected from Korin, with a Senzu Bean icon appearing next to it on the World Map if there’s any available. He will hold up to 9 at once, so check back once in a while.

Fishing is pretty easy to do; just hit one of the face buttons(X, Triangle, Square and Circle) when the marker is in a marked area, then hot one again when the closing circle is within another marked circle(this might make more sense when you see it yourself). You’ll get items for cooking from fishing, and some sidequests need them, or just certain types of fish, to clear. An amusing detail when fishing is that Goku and Gohan, even when he’s a teenager, use a fake tail as a lure while Vegeta and Piccolo fish like normal people(I forgot to check and see what Future Trunks does, but probably the latter).

After clearing the Frieza Saga, you can collect the Dragon Balls on Earth during Intermissions. They give off a small orange slow when sensing for Ki, and you’ll hear a low humming sound when you’re close to one. You can get several different wishes from them, with three of them always being for Z Orbs, Zeni or Rare Material Items. Other wishes are reviving certain dead characters to fight them again, and can only be done once, unlike the three listed above. At first, you can only make 1 wish at a time, but as the game goes on, it gets upgraded to 2 then 3 wishes at once. After making a wish(s), you ‘ll need to wait 20 ingame minutes before the Dragon Balls can be found and used again. They seems to have a couple set locations on whatever map they end up on(two locations are west of Orange/Satan City, for example).

Speaking of Mr. Satan...I know that his actually Japanese stage name, but I always end up calling him Hercule due to hearing that for so many years(and just liking how that sounds better). Also, ‘Satan City’ just sounds really funny. XD

You probably won’t need to really grind in the base game; you should get enough experience from doing sidequests and story events to get by. Gohan especially; he ended up quite a few more levels than everyone else just from the story EXP alone, and his Unleashed Potential ‘form’ from Elder Kai makes him do quite a lot more damage. Also, gained experience is shared among all party members, even those not currently set to fight.

One of the sidequests you can do throughout the game is defeating ‘Villainous Enemies’, who are fairly strong, and are covered in a red aura. You should at least be at or around their level before fighting them, since you can’t run from fights in this game. It may be best to do them during Intermissions when you can select your party members, and bringing someone who can stun with Solar Flare(like Krillin), can be really helpful. 

In the epilogue/postgame, in addition to being able to play as Future Trunks(talk to him outside of Capsule Corp.), you can also use his time machine to redo Boss fights, and do any sidequests you may have missed.

The game’s opening has the old opening for the show, ‘Cha-La-Head-Cha-La”, and this is the first time I really listened to it. It’s really good, and kind of reminds me of the opening to Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, too, for some reason.

There’s a few parts where there’s some nice attention to the series’ details:

At several story points when Saiyan characters are healed, like with Senzu Beans or the healing pod on Namek, they gain experience, while others, like Krillin, don’t get that bonus, which does make them, admittedly accurately, start lagging behind in strength.

If you use Ki Sense on Androids, and a certain researcher in Capsule Corp., you won’t see anything emitting from them.

If you have Piccolo and/or Android 18 in your party while eating a Full Course Meal from Chi-Chi, they won’t eat any of it. Saiyan characters(again, forgot to check Future Trunks) eat it ravenously(even Vegeta), while human party members eat normally.

Only Goku and Gohan can use the Flying Numbus.

These aren’t really important observations, but some events in the game made me think:

Did Piccolo destroying the Moon to stop Gohan’s Great Ape form have any effects on Earth? Or did nothing really happen?

How in the world did Supreme Kai and Babidi survive being so close to Majin Vegeta when he used Final Explosion while Piccolo and Krillin hightailed it out of there with Goten and Kid Trunks? 

I noticed a possible(intentional) goof at the end. In the cutscene after beating Kid Buu and going back to Kami’s Lookout to reunite with everyone, Dende is a kid again for some reason. Apparently, both the original anime and manga made this goof too, so maybe it’s a nod to that? It is kind of jarring, though. XD

A couple technical issues I found were that sometimes when loading a map, and in some battles later on, the game would hang for a couple seconds, and one time it crashed while it was loading into an area after traveling to another. Thank goodness for autosave. Also, be careful using the stronger version of Goku’s Spirit Bomb attacks; it caused major lag for me a couple times.

This ended up being one of my favorite DBZ games that I’ve played, close runners up including 

Budokai 3

Budokai Tenkaichi 2(mainly for just how many characters that one has, including most of the movies from around that time, outmatched by Budokai Tenkaichi 3, which I didn’t play)

Legacy of Goku 2(I didn’t get the chance to play Buu’s Fury back then)

Next game being sent is: Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel

[cole-grey-writes]

Kiss & Ditch

Universe: Gossip Girl

Timeline: Season 1, Episode 10

Character(s): Carter Baizen

Pairing(s): Carter Baizen x Male Reader

Warning(s): swearing

Summary: based on a dialogue prompt I found. credit to whoever it was, because it was not me. “You look so sexy when you’re ignoring me.”

A/n: my first carter baizen story! I'm so excited, you can’t even believe it. I've waited to do this for so long because I had no idea what to write for him and also, I kinda wanted to wait till i had more characters to add to the list but I just couldn’t put it off any longer. Here is my first carter baizen story and I hope many of you out there will want more because I do. Enjoy!

You stuff mini pressed sandwiches into your mouth, doing your damn well best to drown out the girls fawning all over the obnoxious douchenozzle of a socialite, Carter Baizen. Not that it’s in any way easy, but it’s the best you can do unless, of course, you want to be shunned for losing your cool and knocking him out silly with one of the fragile china teacups.

You wish you could be anywhere but here. In fact, the only reason you’re even a part of cotillion is because you were, and still are, Ms. Rhodes assistant during debutante season. You would be just sitting at home, watching episode reruns of your favorite shows, if not for Ms. Rhodes taking you in as her assistant all those years ago when you were just figuring out who you were in high society.

Your family had only come into fame and fortune when you were just a kid. Your mother had finally gotten the lead role in a remake of a very well known movie, leading her to quickly becoming one of the most sought after actresses. And your father, in turn, had received a modelling job right after that from a very famous clothing company. Your father was practically walking the runway before his interview was even over.

Ms. Rhodes was nice enough to put you to work at such a young age. Although, you know for sure that she used to have some sort of ulterior motives, you’re not an idiot, but you let her do as she pleased. You assumed that she would’ve just thrown you out when she got whatever it was she wanted, but you are still her assistant. You figure Ms. Rhodes got used to having you shadow her constantly. Perhaps she thought keeping you around was better than doing debutante season all by herself or taking the time to hire someone else when it wasn’t necessary.

It gives you something to do either way, so you haven’t ever complained, until now.

“You know,” you jump violently, swearing under your breath. You were so lost in your own mind that you hadn’t noticed Carter approach you. “You look like a chipmunk shoving all that food into your mouth.”

You whip your head around to see if anyone is watching your interaction, but no one is. Facing the man, you scowl as mean as you can but Carter, the bastard, smiles back, seemingly unbothered. You turn away from him, quietly wondering, “What the hell do you want?”

Carter steps so he’s standing next to you instead of behind. You still don’t look his way. “What, I can’t just want something to eat?” Biting your tongue, you choose to ignore him. In response, Carter hums in a deep rumble. You refuse to admit to yourself that it’s a very hot noise, coming from deep in his throat. “You look so sexy when you’re ignoring me.”

You immediately pause right before you’re about to shove another chocolate truffle into your mouth, which is still filled with the last one. You take a deep breath and swallow what’s left in your mouth. Your turn to Carter with a stern set in your eyebrows. Before you open your mouth to speak, you take note that Carter seems to have lost the smile he no doubt had when he was flirting with you. You tell him pointedly, “You know what you did,” before you turn away from him for good this time.

Carter sighs and you can almost feel him hang his head in shame. “I do know. And I’m–”

“Y/n!” Ms. Rhodes’ high and frilly voice interrupts anything Carter was going to say. You look over at your boss. “Come on, dear, we need to discuss your cotillion wardrobe.”

You forced an accommodating smile onto your face. “I’ll be with you right away, Ma’am.” You turn back to the snack table to grab another truffle when Ms. Rhodes nods in understanding, avoiding Carter still. When you turn to leave him standing at the snack table all by himself, Carter’s hand shoots out to touch your arm.

You flinch unexpectedly. Carter pulls his hand away without hesitation when he sees, but he leans slightly closer to you regardless. “If you’re willing to listen to my apology… come find me at cotillion,” he whispers.

You glance towards the man. You watch the genuinity pool in the blue-grey of Carter’s eyes, but you don’t speak. You turn away, walking away to catch up to Ms. Rhodes as she walks away from the hustle and bustle of the Waldorf’s tea time. You feel Carter’s eyes on you until you follow Ms. Rhodes around a corner.

The cotillion turns into a complete disaster.

It started off how you expected with Carter glancing your way every few minutes, eyeing you up from the moment he arrived until he had to join Serena for the presentation statements, which, actually, turned into another problem. Someone had apparently changed Serena’s presentation statement from the reputation building statement into something far more lewd. Admittedly, you had found it funny but that’s not the point.

You don’t know how the statement was changed because you’d gone over them dozens of times before the ball. You even went over them with Ms. Irlock, the presentation speaker, right before the statements started. And Ms. Rhodes, nor even Ms. van der Woodson, found it as hilarious as everyone else had.

The night only got worse from there.

You thought it was just going to be those two flukes, minor inconveniences really, and then you could just enjoy your night. You could bask in the payoff from the hard work you put into this ball.

You were very, very wrong.

When the dancing started, you noticed rather quickly the odd behavior from Nate and Chuck. You thought nothing of it. You knew the drama that seemed to follow this particular group of Upper East Siders so you chose to ignore it. You figured that they wouldn’t dare cause a scene at such a major event, but you should’ve honestly known better. You’ve known these people since you were all children so you have no one else to blame for the mistake except yourself.

The icing on top of the shit cake that was being served at this cotillion is when Nate abandons the dance to punch Carter in the fucking face. It's how you end up pressing a cool glass of apple cider to Carter’s cheek.

“I suppose,” you begin, grabbing Carter’s attention. “This isn’t really what you had in mind when you said to come find you.”

Carter hums, almost sounding amused. “It wasn’t,” Carter agrees. He pauses to gently take the glass from you. “But, I’m not actually upset that you're still here.”

Pressing your lips together, you stare down at your hands as they rest in your lap. You think hard about how you want to phrase your next words. “I… think… that I’m not entirely upset, either,” you lick your lips subconsciously before you continue. “I had planned to find you at some point, anyway.”

There’s a moment of silence that passes between you and Carter. It’s not uncomfortable or awkward, just slightly heavy as you both think over your confessions.

“What I did,” Carter bites his lip, “back when we were teenagers, it was wrong. I know that, knew that. And it happened to me a while ago, so I know how it feels now.”

You scoff. “Oh, so it had to happen to you for you to regret it?”

“No, I regretted it way before that, but it was my karma for doing it to you,” Carter tells you. Sitting up straighter in his seat, Carter leans towards you. “I’m sorry, Y/n, for… kissing and ditching you. I’m really, really sorry.”

You breathe in deeply, processing his apology, before you smile. “Well, I’m glad you apologized.”

“So, is this the part where we kiss and make up?” Carter wonders cheekily, a small smile gracing his lips. Smirking, you lean forward teasingly to kiss Carter’s cheek, right over where he was punched. Carter smiles back. “While I find that peck comforting and sweet, I would also like a kiss on the lips.”

Playfully, you look off into the distance and pretend to think about it. Ultimately, you shake your head. “Not quite time for kisses on the lips yet. You still have a lot of making up to do.”

(NOT MY GIF)

Main Blog // Other Side Blog

((NO ONE HAS MY PERMISSION TO REPOST MY WORK ANYWHERE EVEN WITH CREDIT))

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: The Top 10 Anime OPs of 2020 According to YOU!

  As we near the voting period for the Anime Awards where we will collectively determine the anime bests of the year 2020, the well-worn adage of “never skip the OP” comes to mind. I’m confident we’ll make the best choice, but there were many great OPs this year that won't make the cut to be highlighted in the nominations. So let’s take a look back at some of the year’s greatest not determined by our admittedly extremely qualified panel of judges, but by numbers and you, the fans.

  We’ve been posting up OPs on YouTube all year and have even made a playlist for 2020 — so what better way to unbiasedly look at the year's best than with the most important votes of all? Views. Below I’ve composed a Top 10 list of anime OPs featured on Crunchyroll Collection YouTube Channel by views at 30 days so as not to give an unfair advantage to OPs posted earlier in the year. This is not a perfect metric — as I’ll get into a bit later — but delivers either an interesting look at what people have been watching this year or, at the very least, some great new additions to your playlist on YouTube ...

  10. Black Clover - "Everlasting Shine" by TOMORROW X TOGETHER

    The collision of anime and K-pop will become a theme on this list, so it’s only natural that it should begin with the collaboration between TOMORROW X TOGETHER and the anime that has never missed an OP. Black Clover hit off its next slate of anime-original content under the supervision of Yuki Tabata with a killer opening highlighting the magic knight captains. "Everlasting Shine" cleared 800k views in its first month and joined the series’ killer playlist snuggly between songs by Snowman.

  9. HAIKYU!! TO THE TOP - "Phoenix" by BURNOUT SYNDROMES

    BURNOUT SYNDROMES brought in the new year with a bang, heralding the beginning of Haikyu’s spring tournament arc with yet another absolute banger of an OP to compete with their own iconic "Hikare Are" and "Fly High!" Phoenix rose to claim 900k views in 30 days, especially impressive since Karasuno had no highlight opponents facing them down in the first half of the new TO THE TOP season.

  8. Black Clover - "Stories" by Snowman

    Black Clovers 11th OP had a lot of weight to carry introducing the first post-manga content the anime had to offer and nailed it with a Snowman collaboration so good that the group not only got signed to return for OP 13, but Daisuke Sakuma voiced an anime-original character designed just for him in Episode 140. "Stories" came just under 1 million views in its first month at 950k, joining the pantheon of hit Black Clover OPs.

  7. Rent-a-Girlfriend - "Centimeter" by the peggies

    I don’t know about you, but ever since Sarazanmai’s spectacular ED "Stand by Me" featuring the peggies, I’ve been waiting for more anime music by the group, and it is absolutely not a surprise to see their next collaboration on this list. They delivered an absolutely addictive song which TMS elevated with some great dance moves and brilliant color work. A smart move, as we’ll see later in this list.

  No metric for measurement is perfect and "Centimeter" may be the best example of where this list sells an OP short. The song barely cleared 1 million views in its first month and placed the peggies in the Number 7 spot, however, the viewership on Rent-a-Girlfriend’s OP has only accelerated since, and it now sits comfortably at 6 million views, tying it for second place in overall viewership. Looking back again in another six months, it might even be Number 1 ...

  6. Black Clover - "Black Catcher" by Vickeblanka

    The original Black Clover OP artists returned to close out the anime’s last wildly-escalating manga-adapted arc with a killer OP that got served up twice. First in a dark black-and-white aesthetic going into the series climactic battle, then again in brilliant color after the conclusion of the epic conflict. 

  "Black Catcher" brought in 1.1 million views in what is an astonishing sweep in popular viewership for this list. Every OP Black Clover dropped this year made it into the top 10. A spectacular feat for a series that serves up a new one every cour.

  5. Re:ZERO Season 2 - "Realize" by Konomi Suzuki

    In a series so notorious for outright ignoring it’s OP and/or EDs for the majority of its episodes to pack in as much extra time as possible for Subaru’s continued suffering, it’s absolutely amazing how quality each of its OPs has been. "Realize" rapidly ascended to 1.5 million in its first month and has since aged like a fine wine as the events of the series slowly added context to many of the unusual and intriguing visuals therein.

  4. JUJUTSU KAISEN - "Kaikai Kitan" by Eve

    Launching one of the most anticipated new series in years and adapted by studio MAPPA, who has acted as the headline studio of 2020 with multiple hit productions, "Kaikai Kitan" was a shoo-in for this list. JUJUTSU KAISEN didn’t disappoint with a slick OP directed by one of the all-time animation greats and Naruto alumni Shingo Yamashita. "Kaikai Kitan" cleared 2 million in its first 30 days, and if anything, is only accelerating as the series’ sterling production continues to draw more fans. Also, TOHO released the video early on their own channel, where it’s performing even better.

  3. Boruto - "Hajimatteiku Takamatteiku" by Sambomaster

    This ED stands out as a love letter to Naruto in an anime that is essentially one big love letter to Naruto. Returning to the franchise after crafting what may have been the original Naruto’s most iconic OP, "Rhapsody of Youth," Sambomaster delivers yet another bop, while Pierrot seeded the visual sequence with references to many iconic Naruto OP visuals. "Hajimatteiku Takamatteiku" cleared 2 million views in its first month and was the perfect introduction for the series' slow build toward the manga’s Kara arc.

  2. The God of High School - "Contradiction" ft. Tyler Carter by KSUKE

      Subtlety is not The God of High School’s thing and "Contradiction" dropped like a punch in the face with some completely wild visuals and music. Techno doesn’t often make appearances in anime OPs, so a song composed by KSUKE featuring the American metalcore vocalist of Issues, Tyler Carter, was a galaxy away from ordinary even in a year where an avalanche of K-pop has been dropping into anime. The accompanying visuals could only be described as aggressive with fight scenes set under a color-swapped psychedelic blacklight style effect. 2.5 million viewers tuned in in the first month, and the song recently cleared 6 million to continue competing with Rent-a-Girlfriend's "Centimeter" from the same season.

  1. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - "Easy Breezy" by chelmico

    It really couldn’t have been anyone else. Storyboarded by Masaaki Yuasa himself and animated with some surprisingly analog techniques by the talented French animator Abel Gongora, "Easy Breezy" cleared 3 million views in its first month and has breezed its way past 10 million over the course of 2020. This OP was easy, it was breezy, and it was super meme-y. The riffs of the girls of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! dancing to chelmico’s addicting tune were absolutely legion and for good reason, the loud colors, the simple style, and the Drake references were a perfect breeding ground for some truly inspired fan content, making it, in my opinion, the only choice for OP of the Year for 2020.

  Gotta say I’m overjoyed to see Eizouken at the top of the list even after spending half a year working that earworm out of my head, as well as so much love for Black Clover's OPs which have really been an achievement in quality even against Pierrot’s own storied legacy in Naruto and Bleach music.

  And don’t think I’m stopping here. While many fans studiously never skip the OP, I also never skip the ED ...

  What's your favorite OP from this list? Let us know in the comments. And tune in tomorrow for the top EDs of 2020 according to YouTube!

      Peter Fobian is an Associate Producer at Crunchyroll, writer for Anime Academy and Anime in America, and an editor at Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features! 

By: Peter Fobian

[parachutingkitten]

Imma Rant About How Pixal Deserves Better (cuz what else is new)

I love Pixal. That’s no secret. But the writers need to make up their minds about if they want her to be a member of the core cast or not, cuz it’s driving me nuts. Now, this is not a ‘pixal needs to be a ninja!’ post, cuz no, she doesn’t. Her being samurai x is an awesome and coherent move story wise. Moving from samurai x to the water ninja was a natural transition for Nya (even if I personally didn’t like the execution that much, but whatever- that’s a rant for another time), but if they tried to do it for Pixal, it wouldn’t make any sense. This doesn’t mean I’m against Pixal having the potential for ice powers- I wrote a fic about her reaching her true potential for goodness sake- but that also isn’t what this is about. This is just a post about her being a member of the team, because the writers have been playing her with only one foot in the door for four seasons now, and it’s NOT working. 

Remember in season 1 and 2, when Nya was samurai x? Yeah, sometimes she would stay behind, but most of the time, she was going on the missions with them. She got to interact with all of the boys. When the ninja got captured, she got captured. When the Ninja went on a large scale mission, she went with them. Down. Out of the Bounty. She worked with the Ninja, beside them, not in a totally separate B plot with just Wu. Her role in the team was admittedly different, but it was still equal. But now, samurai x, as Pixal, is the designated ‘stay behind’ character. And it’s played like this big sacrificial move, and she does some cool things while the team is gone but the one big problem with it is THE TEAM ISN’T THERE TO SEE IT! So it doesn’t expand her standing within the team. It doesn’t give the satisfaction of a big heroic moment, because it’s a B plot! The one purely Pixal centered episode EVER was the one in season 11 where she fights the preeminent. Guess what? The only team member there is Wu, it’s a b-plot filler episode, and it’s never brought up again. 

And yeah, that’s the only Pixal focus episode in the whole series. She’s a side character in season 3, she’s non existent in seasons 4-7, season 8, her reveal episode is cluttered with baby Wu/Harumi drama, and she’s not even physically and mentally there until the last few seconds of the episode (that rewrite is on it’s way, promise), season 9 she’s drowned out by the EMs, season 10 she has half an episode to shine where, once again, she ‘stays behind’ in a b plot with 0 character growth, which leaves the one episode in season 11 where she is the true 100% focus, and even then... it’s ‘stay behind’ b plot filler. Pixal hasn’t even been given a decent character arc... ever! She has like 2 (and a half) arcs total in the whole series. Season 3′s ‘getting a heart and falling in love’ arc, Season 8′s ‘I am samurai x arc’ which they don’t even explore that well, and then arguably, if you really squint, season 4′s ‘becoming part of Zane’ arc, but even then, that’s pretty much discovered and wrapped up in one episode. Complain all you want about Cole not having his own full season, but at least he’s got himself several well written, entertaining, A-plot, multi season arcs. The ‘Holy crap I’m a ghost’ arc, the ‘frustration with my best friend’ arc, and the ‘I am a father now’ arc. Say what you want, but he’s a main character of the show, and one of the go-to characters the writers love to throw stuff at, with distinct relationships with his cast-mates. 

Pixal’s interactions with the team all feel so forced. Like the writers want to include her, but don’t know how to. Mainly cuz they don’t know how to write her when she’s not around Zane. Her scenes with Zane are drop dead adorable! And... I suppose her alone time with Wu was...okay. But it’s like when she’s not alone with Zane the writers forget who she even is. That season 11 episode? They play her weirdly innocently. I’m sorry, that’s not Pixal at all. It’s been established since season 3 that she’s our grounded, painfully realistic, sass robot. Where is this “does that mean you’re not mad at me?” stuff coming from? Thing is, later in the episode, she’s acting like herself. So... idk what happened in the middle there. But because they don’t know how to write her in the context of the team, most of the time she’s reduced to standing around in the background. Even in fight scenes. Why? WHY?! You obviously want to include her? How do you do that? Maybe, I don’t know, HAVE HER INTERACT?!

Seriously, this isn’t that hard to fix. You split up the team all the time. Just have her go on a mission with Jay. Or Cole. Or Nya. Or anyone other than Zane. Play it for laughs. Play it seriously. Play it for those sweet sweet wholesome vibes. Idk. Just have her do something! These characters have stuff to bond over! Jay has a fascination with Borg industries in general, that would be fun to play off of. Cole and Pixal both have a pretty DEEP untouched emotional baggage. Lloyd and Pixal both have this sort of “not part of the pilot cast, joined later and never really integrated 100%” vibe going for them. Kai and Pixal have beef! This could be one of the great Ninjago rivalries! Nya and Pixal can bond over samurai x, that’s a total gimme one! These characters have relationships ripe for building, but they just DON’T TALK TO EACH OTHER! 

Every main character. EVERY MAIN CHARACTER has at least one episode (but likely many more) dedicated to them, where they do something real cool, single handedly save the day or something, and the whole team comes and hugs them and says “wow, great job!” “You’re an important and valued member of our team!” “This is why you’re great!” and... I just want one of those for Pixal. Please. Pretty please. Just so she can have some validation. Just so that the main cast can acknowledge her existence. And as trivial as this one episode may seem, I think it’s really important. She needs her big ‘save the team’ episode. She never had a sort of “true potential” moment when she really proved herself, and I think that’s really what she needs. Think about how good the Royal Blacksmiths episode was for Cole. He spills about some of his baggage, each of the team members is forced to interact with it, and try to understand it, and in the end they all work together to help him get past this rough patch in his life, and he ends up looking like a boss and saving the day in the process (also note, probably the best group hug ever in Ninjago history). Now, you could argue that since she doesn’t have a element, her being samurai x could work to give her that episode. Great. Cool. That makes sense. But Pixal doesn’t have a “true potential” episode- she has a “reveal” episode, where the ninja have to fight her cuz she’s evil and she doesn’t end up saving the day, Nya does. You see why even though it’s technically “focused” on Pixal, it isn’t meaningful at all to her character?

Thing is, I wouldn’t even be that mad... if she were a Skylor type character. I like Skylor as much as the next chick, and say what you want about her screen time, but at least she has a defined role within this universe! If Pixal was Zane’s cool robot gf/ samurai x - secondary protector of the city - that popped up for a cameo once in a while and played a larger role in seasons that merited her, I would be fine with it! Borg isn’t a big character, but he gets appropriate screen time, some seasons more than others, and he still feels like a cared about piece of the canon! This would work pretty well for Pixal too! Would I like this better than her being an active part of the main team? Hell no! I think her being on the team is the right way to lean, but as of right now, she’s just doing nothing of substance. I’d rather the screen time she has be meaningful than have her as a token nothing in the background of every episode.

That’s my main point here. Either start respecting her as a character, or stop pretending she’s on equal footing with the team. We already know season 12 isn’t gonna improve on that. The ninja go into the video game world and Pixal stays behind. Granted, Zane doesn’t go either, so maybe we’ll get some good content. But again, it’s the B plot, and with Zane. Nothing we haven’t seen before. (I could keep going about how the show has been pushing Zane out of the picture even back in season 3, but again, a rant for another time) 

Anyway, this rant pretty much sums up why most of my fanfic is Pixal-centric. It’s a character the writers just REFUSE to write for but has a decent amount of screen time, so there’s a lot of possibilities. Might do another rant about the whole ice powers thing. Idk. Just needed to get this out. thanks for reading :)

[murfeelee]

Video Games Pt3: Video Game Challenge

I saw this list on Pinterest out of nowhere, and what better way to ring in the new year than with another questionnaire, about my favorite pastime! This is the spiritual successor to Part 1 and Part 2.

Day 1 - Very first video game: Pacman and/or Mortal Kombat and/or Samurai Shodown on arcade machines (way back in the day when laundromats had arcade machines and gumball machines and such in them--good times, good times U_U); Tetris on computers; and a buttload of PS1 titles (again: back in the good ole days when consoles came with promo demo discs--I had Frogger, Need for Speed, Medieval, and a bunch of others).

Day 2 - Your favorite character: Here’s my Top 10 Males post and Top 10 Females post.

Day 3 - A game that is underrated: I will preach the greatness of PS1′s Legend of Dragoon till my dying day. It was doomed to dwell in Final Fantasy 7′s shadow, which came out earlier that same year, and it’s a real shame, cuz LoD was E V E R Y T H I N G.

My favorite aspects of the game are:

Its lore and worldbuilding. On top of the fact that the premise of the game is could be an anime series in its own right, you just get SO EXCITED to visit each new location, and uncover more about the world’s history, and see the different architecture, technologies, cultures and different races (I LOVE the Winglies, of course). It’s actually a gorgeous game for its time.

The combat -- I STILL have some of the Addition patterns memorized to this very day! They get progressively harder as you level up, but once you get used to the timing you feel so dang good. Die, More and More!

The soundtrack and cutscenes. The NOSTALGIA? O_O Bruh. The story is just really good, and was the very first video game to make me cry when certain...events...happened. Play the game and find out for yourself!

Day 4 - Your guilty pleasure game: The Sims, Dragon Age...any and all EA games. Effing ashamed of myself every time I give that nest of corporate demons at Electronic Farts money. “Surprise mechanics” my arse. 

Day 5 - Game character you feel you are most like (or wish you were): Has Jar Jar Binks been in a video game yet? Then that’s me. XD But I wish I was most like Lara Croft, as explained in my Top 10 Females post.

Day 6 - Most annoying character: For females it’s Lightning from Final Fantasy 13, and for males it’s Vaan, from Final Fantasy 12. I don’t mind as much when supporting characters are effing annoying (Vanille, Hope, etc), but when it’s the MAIN protagonist?! WHY, Square Enix? WHY.

Lightning was just a negative nancy debbie downer. I wish they had swapped Serah and Lightning, I seriously do. I just couldn’t stand her dry and soulless personality. She wasn’t being edgy or bada** or cool or sexy or FANG or anything; she was just a bitter jaded unhappy wench.

And with Vaan I just effing hate that dude. Why was he even there? They tried so hard to make this pushy entitled kid relevant, but I was like no, the story could’ve easily been told without him, and I wish it had been; he’s a effing idiot.

Day 7 - Favorite game couple: Yuna and Tidus from FFX (hardest I ever cried playing a video game -- THE FEELS I TELL YOU).

Day 8 - Best soundtrack: I used to think it was Skyrim, but nope, it’s Witcher 1, 2 and 3. Just listen to ALL of the songs CDPR ever produced for the entire franchise, including all the unreleased tracks, and enjoy the eargasm.

Day 9 - Saddest game scene: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice had me legit depressed for a good week. Get your tissues and holy water ready; it’s seriously effed up. The entire game is the saddest I ever played, jfc.

Day 10 - Best gameplay: Witcher 3, duh. Main quests, side quests, combat, dialogue, plot, graphics, worldbuilding, creatures, bosses, soundtrack, characters, Gwent, NEED I GO ON.

Day 11 - Gaming system of choice: Playstation for life. But the Nintendo Switch is effing brilliant, ngl; once they put Skyrim & The Witcher on it I was like SOLD.

Day 12 - A game everyone should play: At least ONE Final Fantasy game. There’s 15+, and Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts. It’s not just a game, it’s an experience.

As much as I rag on FF13 and FF15, they’re still admittedly LEAGUES better than a lot of other crap out there. I just happen to feel that Square Enix is out of its frikkin mind lately, and tbh I’ve been rapidly losing my hype for the FF7 Remake. I was never much of a FF7 fan to begin with, aside from being a rabid Sephiroth fangirl and watching Advent Children a billion times. But Square’s gotta be drunk as a skunk if they think I’m paying all that money for god knows how many of these effing “episodes” they’re gonna piecemeal us to dangit death with. HAYUL no. I’d rather not get too attached.

Day 13 - A game you’ve played more than five times:

Day 14 - Current (or most recent) gaming wallpaper: Huh?

Day 15 - What game are you playing right now: Speak of the devil, I’m replaying God of War for the zillionth time already.

Day 16 - Game with the best cut scenes: In terms of graphics and story impact IMO might be Red Dead Redemption 2. That game was frikkin gorgeous, and the story was SO DANG GOOD. Braithwaite Manor!? O_O

Day 17 - Favorite antagonist: For females it’s either Edea from FF8, or Yunalesca from FFX. For dudes it’s Sephiroth, from FF7. That man needs some serious counseling.

Day 18 - Favorite protagonist: Yuna from FFX for the ladies, and TW3′s Geralt of Rivia for the dudes. 

Day 19 - A game world you would like to live in: The more Middle Eastern-inspired scifi/steampunki-medievalesque world of Ivalice from FF12, or the medieval French/Swiss Toussaint from The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine.

Day 20 - Favorite genre: RPGs and JRPGs, and pretty much action-adventure games with swords and sorcery.

Day 21 - Game with the best story: Red Dead Redemption, which is a good thing and a bad thing. A lot of the time I felt I was watching a movie, rather than playing a game. But it was still an Oscar worthy movie. XD

Day 22 - A game sequel which disappointed you: Technically it hasn’t come out yet, but from what we’ve seen of the Nioh 2 beta release, omfg what’s going on? U_U Now, don’t get me wrong! Nioh 2 looks AMAZING. But....that’s cuz it looks exactly like Nioh 1, just with new yokai gameplay thrown in. o_O Uh...is this a DLC expansion pack or what? Cuz it sure ain't lookin like a full-fledged sequel! :P Dare I call it an asset flip. Come on, don’t do this; do MORE. Unless this is actually an expansion you’ll sell for half the price. ;)

Day 23 - Game you think had the best graphics or art style: For graphics it’s RDR2, but for most unique art style it’s always been Okami for me. <3

Day 24 - Favorite classic game: Spyro the Dragon. Their reboot for PS4 was AMAZING.

Day 25 - A game you plan on playing: Cyberpunk 2077. I’m so bummed, knowing the game’s been delayed to September 2020 instead of April, but oh well. As long as CDPR gives us that master-class level of Polish we all know and love from The Witcher 3, then take as much time as you need, I guess. At least they’re not like effing EA or Bethesda. XD

Day 26 - Best voice acting: BOY. Freaking iconic, Kratos. :P

Day 27 - Most epic scene ever: Ciri beating the absolute tastebuds outta Caranthir in TW3, not once but twice. Most OP Witcher EVER, girl; WERK.

Day 28 - Favorite game developer: Though I effing hate them, I’m still a Square Enix fangirl at heart. It’s just saddening to see this weird turn they’ve been making recently, with garbage like the Quiet Man, and especially with Final Fantasy, my favorite game series of all time. U_U I’m not looking forward to the FF7 Remake anymore, tbh. I just hope FF16 is more of a return to form.

Day 29 - A game you thought you wouldn't like, but ended up loving: Skyrim. I was never a big fan of Elder Scrolls games, and when Skyrim came out I was very meh at first. But then the mods started coming out for it and I was like wow. O_O

Day 30 - Your Favorite game of all time: Legend of Dragoon on PS1, Final Fantasy X on PS2, Skyrim on PS3/PC, The Witcher 3 on PS4, and The Sims on PC.

________________________________________________

Thanks for reading!

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Bob Snow & Francisco Angones

Storyboard by: Stephanie Gonzaga, Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

Don't eat the cake.

The episode begins with Scrooge noticing that something is terribly wrong. He checks through his manor, opening a few doors to see. Webby, Lena, and Violet are dealing with a giant beast, Mrs. Beakley and Dewey are messing with a tempest in a teapot, and, in what is specifically deemed "very wrong" by Scrooge, Della actually bonding with a child that isn't the blue one. Okay, he's actually reacting to how they're both dramatically shouting about being the Legends of LegendQuest, but that doesn't seem too out of character for Della. Maybe for Huey.

After checking the whole mansion he goes back to his room, and he notices his seat is occupied by a familiar face.

Goldie: Morning, Scroogie.

Scrooge wonders why she would be here, and Louie shows up to tell him he invited her in. This episode continues the Louie Inc plotline that we last saw in "The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!". That plotline left off with Louie having a choice for his company: use Scrooge's hard work, or will it be the choice that Louie would actually pick. That choice ended up being "team up with the untrustworthy frenemy of Scrooge". Louie sees himself as a professional, he can handle this!

Not even after the opening credits roll, we see that Louie couldn't handle it, as he gets locked into a chest. Louie starts crying, saying that Louie Inc was his dream, and he thought he can be as clever as her, even calling her his hero. Goldie sees through this "crocodile waterworks" pretty much immediately, but takes kindly to Louie's training in the art of cons. That, and she needed a kid for her next con: getting into a "septleventh birth anniversary" for rich families. Who’s the birthday boy?

It turns out to be this reboot's version of Doofus Drake's big birthday party. Oh boy. Admittedly, the annoying living fat joke being retooled into an awkward and spoiled rich kid with creepy tendencies isn't exactly a terrible punishment for our eyes. When I imagined the Louie and Goldie adventure back when that was teased, I never expected anything like this, that's for sure.

Going away from that, anyone can guess at least one of those things Scrooge McDuck closed the door on was going to be the B plot, and it's not about that beast or the tempest in a teapot. We learn that during her adventuring days, after Donald and Scrooge would go right to sleep, Della would play a video game called Legends of LegendQuest. Huey decides to join in.

I do like the subtle joke that the "very wrong" epic speech they were doing was during the game's really long loading screen, which takes until this scene to load 100%. I would hate to say I liked it because it was the only subtle joke in this B plot, but I have to say it.

The rest of this B plot takes place inside the game world. This isn't a case of a magical video game that sucks them in, they just happen to have avatars that look exactly like them with some subtle differences. Della is this strong warrior woman with a strong resemblance to Zero from Mega Man X, with what looks like a scouter from the early days of Dragon Ball Z. I am sure this show is beyond referencing that ancient "over 9000" meme.

Her son decided to go with the joy of being an ordinary farmer who farms under a giant force field, protecting his garden from the bugs that manage to get past it. The joke is that Huey is boring, but Della is fun! Huey kind of reminds me of that other red accessory wearing kid from the other show in this episode, and not the good version of her.

We see Doofus's party, filled with more Beagle Boys than one might expect. Sorry to say, they do not appear that much. He has all the party quirks that would fit someone of his obscenely rich and richly obscene personality. Instead of bobbing for apples, he has bobbing for splinters. His birthday cake promises that it's not full of hair. Even Louie starts to talk to himself about the obvious joke that it will lead to, until he and Goldie get distracted by the party bags filled with gold.

Louie tries to take one of those party bags, only for Doofus's parents, or "servants" as Doofus calls them, to slap his hand. These bags are meant for departing guests, and are filled with priceless heirlooms from his late Guhmeemama Frances.

Doofus's parents: Guhmeemama.

Oh yeah, whenever her name is said in this episode and Day of the Only Child, they have to whisper to themselves her name. It gets a good payoff here in many more ways than one.

Louie tries to run off with two of the bags again, this time pretending to leave the party, only for Goldie to stop him this time. Apparently, she does not want Louie to be a bad party guest! Oh, and she wants all the bags. She also will not tell Louie her plan to do so, because he would not learn anything. Oh, and she doesn't know what her plan is. A lot of her dialogue is like that.

But enough about her way of talking, the "servants" announce that the "universe's perfect widdle (sic) angel" is making his grand entrance. A closed clam shows up, surrounded by angels. It's a scene very similar to a certain painting, and I really don't like where this is going.

Thankfully, they don't go with him barely covering himself up with a long blonde wig. Somehow, him just popping up right behind Louie is the second worst thing that could have happened with that. As he speaks about how seeing all of his guests with their loving parents reminds him of the only parental figure he knows, he sniffs that some of these families are filthy liars that only went to his party to get his gift bags!

One of those people turns out to be Percival P. Peppington, a guy that sort of looks like Willy Wonka and has at least enough money to hire Johnny, formerly of the Ottoman Empire, to pose as his kid. I looked Percival up, he's not a character from the comics, and he never appears again after this episode. Exposed, Percival ends up getting sentenced by Doofus to go into a trapdoor into his honey bin.

Percival: Don't you mean "Money Bin"?

Doofus: No. (hits button)

We never see this honey bin, but judging by the sound of bees and Randy's face when he looks down into the trapdoor, one would be wishing Doofus could just wish them into the cornfield instead. Thankfully, Doofus has mercy for the not-so-child actor, as he merely gets ejected via spring.

Seeing this, Louie whispers to Goldie that he can smell lies. He and Goldie will then talk about the plan to expose the two obvious phonies to Doofus, leaving them as the only people worthy enough to grab those money bags. They say this all out loud, because there's no way Doofus would hear them despite Louie's fear about him smelling lies!

It may be possible that Louie is heavily overestimating Doofus's abilities to smelling crooks, considering who those two phonies are and at least one of their plans. There's Glomgold, with a son named Sharkbomb that always seems to stay on his right arm, and Mark Beaks, who now has a son named Boyd. Clearly, one is way more unbelievable than the other. I mean, Mark Beaks having a kid? Maybe I'm underestimating how many fangirls he has. As he shows off his family selfies, all of them with his kid with the same exact face, he says this:

Mark Beaks: Yeah, I love this, uh, what is this, uh, uh, son!

This line outright blurts out that this son is completely fake, but anyone should expect that. Doofus does not smell this lie, as he just mentions that looking at his family selfies reminds him of his family memories.

This leads to Doofus sobbing and kissing his father's stomach, which happened to have a tattoo of his Guhmeemama...

Doofus's parents: Guhmeemama.

...riding on a Doofus centaur. Maybe it is best not to ask.

Glomgold also shows off his own family photos, which are surprisingly more convincing than the tech guru's, and Louie has to think fast. Thankfully, a quick trip to a nearby photo booth and Louie's not-too-convincing smiles clears that up. How it seems like Louie isn't even trying and still manages to win just seems to weaken him to me, but don't tell that to Goldie, who now wants to go on the offensive. Who is the first mark? It's not Beaks, as much as they seemed to be setting up for that joke.

All of the guests get into the pool, not by choice, and Louie tells Glomgold he wants to talk to Sharkbomb alone. Glomgold decides to try his best at ventriloquism while he's underwater to expected effects. He tells Sharkbomb about how Goldie has the hots for his dad. It's cool to see that plot thread from "The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!" get referenced, and that reference also interests Glomgold, who suddenly comes out from the water to ask if it's true.

He tries to cover it up by having his puppet son say "as if", only for Glomgold to take his own puppet son's words as an insult. Considering "Duke Baloney", this whole fight may have a bit more depth than one could see here. I don’t think it is intentional, but that is something.

Eventually, that fight ends with him beheading his own son right in front of Doofus' eyes. Needless to say, Glomgold's attempt to put Sharkbomb's head back on with his spit does not please the manchild of the day. Doofus decides to send Glomgold to the honey bin.

Glomgold: Don't let go, Sharkbomb!

Sharkbomb: Don't tell me what to dooo! (lets go)

Gotta say, Glomgold and Sharkbomb ends up being one of the highlights of the episode. Kind of wish we got to see more of them.

Instead, we get to see Mark Beaks and Boyd, the latter of which suspiciously doesn't want to put his head below water! Also, he seems to have the strength of a million and seventy men. I guess he really shouldn't complain. But I have a feeling he can't go out for a walk without rusting in the rain. I guessed this as soon as I saw him, anyway; it would be fitting for the tech guru.

Speaking of tech, they do cut back and forth between this party plot and the video game plot, and, unlike the last episode, it doesn't do any creative transitions between them. One minute, we're watching Louie plot his schemes. In the next minute, that plot pauses so we can see a close-up of Huey talking about how the fate of the land is in Della's hands...that land being the garden. The joke is that Huey is boring!

Unlike Huey's insistence on staying in his force field bubble and playing FarmVille, Della wants him to explore the world, go to a checkpoint, and use all of that XP he's getting from those bugs to become super-powerful. This is all a metaphor for Huey not wanting to leave his comfort zone even with his mother goading him to do so. How subtle do they make this metaphor?

Huey: Hey Mom? I think I should step out of my comfort zone.

By outright saying it. As an aside, being one of the adventurous nephews, is Huey really the person that needs this lesson?

Back to the more exciting plot, Boyd sure plays some mean pinball, and Doofus is taking a liking to him. Louie tries to find some dirt on Boyd, looking through Mark Beaks' Waddle profile and looking at all of the pictures with his kid. Ignoring how Boyd has the same face in every picture, the biggest tell that this kid may be a fake is that there's no baby pictures!

Louie: Where are the baby pictures? Beaks would never pass up that sweet clickbait!

Goldie: Click-what, now?

Louie's not wrong, and it's good to see one scam Goldie would never take a part in. However, they need something more obvious. Eventually, Louie gets one, as he gets connected to the Beaks Optimistic Youth Droid's Wi-Fi network.

Even though Goldie isn't tech-savvy, even she can recognize an acronym when she sees it. Not willing to outright tell Doofus about his new best friend being a robot, Louie decides to just ask the B.O.Y.D. what he did two days ago.

To make a long story short, it doesn't work out, as the B.O.Y.D. starts shooting lasers out of his eyes. Wow, I guess I can't avoid reviewing shows with laser-eye-using children.

Eventually, his fake eyes melt, and he ends up falling into the pool. Mark Beaks laments that he's going to need a big bag of rice right before he'll need something to wash off honey, bees, and whatever else is in the honey bin Doofus sent him to. Goldie is impressed, and sends some praise to her not-really nephew about how they should team up on a more permanent basis.

Doofus is really upset that his newest best friend had their eyes melted, apparently at least the second year in a row this has happened. Much like Calvin and Hobbes' "noodle incident" and whatever led to his father getting a tattoo of a centaur Doofus, one's imagination can fill in the blanks far better than even the mighty DuckTales writers could on how that could happen. Only a minute after that aforementioned praise...

Goldie: Llewellyn Duck, I am so disappointed! Ruining poor Doofus' party, trying to take all the extra bags by yourself! Who raised you?

(a minute later)

Goldie: Sorry, Sharpie, I only work for myself! I want you gone, mister!

Oh, Goldie! For reasons only Doofus seems to know, he decides to arrange that last plan with the help of the BOYD. He's able to do this thanks to him grabbing the phone that just happened to slip out of Beak's hands when he sent him to the Honey Bin earlier. Doofus presses the “Kill” button on the stolen phone, and the B.O.Y.D. rises up from the pool water, mostly unharmed. So much for needing the rice.

Doofus essentially does his “psycho rich kid” shtick again, saying that his party wouldn't be complete without him beating a pinata, and he wants to hunt the most dangerous pinata: man. As he controls the BOYD, we're left to wonder if Goldie will just take the money and run, leaving Louie to get beaten by a robotic kid.

Oh, of course Goldie decides to save Louie in the end, putting herself between the rapidly spinning bat and the "Sharpie". Doofus ends up saying this was all a test to see if Goldie could be a loving parent or not. This doesn't completely add up to the cover story, but maybe that was what Doofus actually wanted, as we'll soon see.

Meanwhile, in the video game, Huey finally manages to get out of the "comfort zone" by stepping out of it. This turns the force field off, causing an alien to zap it and kidnap his mom. He initially thinks that he should have just stayed in his comfort zone, but he then realizes he needs to save his Mom. He runs towards the checkpoint, and his level begins to rise. Or, as Della says...

Della: That power level... (scouter explodes)

Oh, dear.

Della: ...it's over 9000!

Well, I guess they were not above it after all! Do not get me wrong: I don't hate this, and at least the line still fits. Huey becomes a Super Saiyan God The Duke and destroys the alien monster with his raw fisticuffs. That's pretty much it for this B plot; it ends with a scene where Della has to wrestle the keyboard away from him because he was getting too "not comfortable". Eh.

In the A plot, we get to see the aftermath of Louie and Goldie's plot: Doofus gives Louie all of the gift bags, and Goldie's good parenthood gets rewarded by becoming the new Goldiemama.

Doofus's parents: Goldiemama.

Don’t worry, that’s not the only payoff, and the other one is so satisfying, one needs to watch the episode because I will not spoil it.

It should be obvious even from this episode that being that Goldiemama is not a pleasant reward to say the least, even without the glass dome Doofus is keeping her in. Louie, knowing this, fights with himself with whether or not he should just take the money and run. Goldie did just betray him a few minutes ago. Maybe it would be a deserved punishment to let that betrayer suffer by being in the Doofus household.

Oh, of course Louie decides against taking the money and running, and goes to the rescue of his Louie Inc partner. This was a turn of events about as expected as Goldie not willing to let Doofus break the living pinata. I mean, it's not like they're just going to shoot someone into the moon...okay, that was a bad example.

Actually, come to think of it, Louie Inc doesn't really come up in this plot. Considering a future episode, he would consider stealing a business opportunity, but he has to find some way to make it technically not stealing.

As standard for my DuckTales reviews, I am not going to entirely spoil the ending of this episode. While it shouldn't be much of a spoiler to know that Louie will not be rich at the end of this episode and Goldie will be rescued, there is a very pleasant scene to see for people who just want to see Doofus' parents get something good for a change, and to see Doofus finally get something he deserved.

I'll also show this: this episode ends with this oddly touching shot of Goldie slipping in one of the on-the-spot pictures of Louie, right next to a picture of dear ol' Scroogie. Awww.

How does it stack up?

At first, I didn't really like this episode, but repeated viewings did lead me to see some of the good of this episode. However, I couldn't shake off that I didn't really like the B plot. It's not the worst, but it's not great, either. The best part is that it's not the mama's boy this time.

Despite the good moments with Glomgold, and I did like the ending of the A plot, this episode didn't do as much for me as most episodes of this show. I'm not going to send it to the Honey Bin, though.

Next, a nightmare!

← What Ever Happened To Donald Duck?! 🦆 A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill! →

[blueikeproductions]

So having watched the first season of Transformers Cyberverse, I’ve got some thoughts to express. Overall I thought it was boring and a bit uninspired in places, but I generally think that’s more on me as a veteran fan. The first season aims to tell the abridged origin of the Great War, which seems loosely based on the Aligned and IDW origins: the Decepticons came to power to overthrow a oppressive government. As such it doesn’t do much new, so it’s nothing I, or other veterans, haven’t heard before, but as an entry point for new fans, I think it serves its purpose to give them the general gist of things. Interwoven with the backstory is Bumblebee and Windblade’s exploits on Earth, as they dodge enemy Seekers, fix Bee’s memories (which is where the flashbacks come from), and locate The Ark to reunite with the other Autobots. Like the Bumblebee movie, the titular Autobot has lost his memories, and fumbles his way around in a child like manner, needing Windblade’s Cityspeaker skills to refresh his memory so he can tell her where the Ark is. This part of the story is a little better, as it offers more original material, with additional flashbacks as to how Bee and Windy met. Their friendship is rather touching, if mildly cliche from a teenage romcom scenario. Back on Cybertron, Bee was a charming dork while Windblade was the new girl in town (like in IDW, she’s from Caminus), and feel in with the popular clique: Starscream’s jets. Charmed by Bumblebee’s antics and disgusted by Starscream’s cruelty, Windy decides to hang with Bee and a friendship is born. The sparse prewar segments are generally the best parts, showing a simplified glimpse at what Cybertron was like. There’s a hint of mild Shapeism, in that the jet Transformers think they’re the cream of the crop, and look down on ground vehicles. Similarly, cars don’t have a high opinion of the smarmy jets either. Nevertheless, everyone seems to generally get along just fine at MacCadam’s Old Oil House, with Soundwave and other Seekers providing musical entertainment. MacCadam’s is probably the best episode of the first season, which shows the subtle collapse of Cybertronian society though small timeskips. Cities are reduced to rubble, tensions are high, but the Oil House stood firm for the longest time, helped by MacCadam’s strict no fighting policy. When Megatron intends to rip the place apart looking for Deadlock, owner Mac transforms into an unseen form to frighten the tyrant off, and lets the future Drift stay for as long as he likes. Also a new Cybertronian sport, Cube, is shown, which seems to be Quidditch mixed with football. It’s honestly not that interesting, but Bumblebee was such a big fan of the sport, he tries to sneak into the stadium to see it, ultimately interfering in a game (though at this point he was trying to stop a bored Starscream from ruining the game). Worth nothing Cyberverse’s sister series, Rescue Bots Academy, also includes Cube and it’s other biggest fan Hot Shot. The present day stories though do have their flaws. There’s really no point for the Autobots to be on Earth, as it feels obligatory more so than anything else because that’s what previous stories did. The Robots in Disguise factor seems largely abandoned as nobody bothers to scan Earth modes, and freely run around in their space forms. Grimlock seems to be the only one who scanned an Earth form however, though this wasn’t made immediately clear in flashbacks since he still had saurian like kibble. (Hindsight suggests he probably turned into a vaguely saurian tank however). Really, outside of Grimlock’s brief backstory and Shockwave’s plan to raze Earth in order to kill the Autobots and collect the Allspark, the Transformers could’ve been running around Pluto or Mars instead. Nobody interacts with or befriends humans, so there’s not much of a drive to defend Earth beyond it’s the right thing to do. And also the Ark, but still. Character work is probably the worst aspect of the show unfortunately. Outside of Grimlock, MacCadam and Teletraan X, nobody really has any interesting personality or quirks. Bee is transplanted from his Movie and Prime incarnation, while Windy seems mostly defined by her sisterly relationship with Bee. As such she doesn’t really work on her own, as she lacks any of the traits possessed by her earlier counterparts. At best I can say she’s loyal and a good fighter, but without someone to bounce off of, she’s uninteresting. Bee doesn’t have anything new going for him either. He still speaks with his radio and is the little buddy, but that’s about it. Oh, the Allspark apparently reacted to him on Cybertron, implying a greater destiny, but nothing else is said about this for the time being. The only other major presence are Slipstream’s Seekers, but they might as well have been Vehicons, as there’s little to no character development for any of them. They’re all little more than dumb thugs. At most, Slipstream wants to look good in front of high command, but this isn’t explored much. Really the only interesting Seeker is Acid Storm, who due to animation errors and, perhaps a lack of communication between the show runners and Hasbro, is said to be gender fluid to cover up the error. It’s actually a fun idea that could be fleshed out more, among other things, on how other Decepticons view it (Slip is fine with it, but Shockwave sees no combat value in it), but I fear they’ll not be allowed to do so. The other legacy Autobots and Decepticons seen have nothing new to offer, and are who they’ve been in the original G1 cartoon. Grimlock is an exception as he has a split personality, being prim and proper in robot mode, but his classic caveman brute in beast mode. In an example of telling, not showing, Grimlock was revealed to have reigned on Earth during the dinosaur age, allegedly creating an advanced dinosaur society. It’s another cool idea, but as we’re not really shown how this worked, it feels half baked at best. Many wish we would’ve gotten a spotlight episode of Grim and his dinosaur friends instead, but who knows, maybe a possible IDW Cyberverse comic might dip into that more. Because of the show’s 10 minute time frame, a lot of more emotional and impactful scenes are stunted pretty badly, most notably a flashback detailing a heroic sacrifice by Blurr, but it’s clear the writers are doing their best with what they’ve got to work with. Similarly new Decepticon Shadow Striker also gets the shaft in development. Characteriszed as a shortfused, competitive girl, Shadow was at one point the Decepticons’ top bounty hunter and sharpshooter, but an accident following the capture of Optimus left her severely crippled. Now having a mishmash body cobbled together by Shockwave, she’s no longer able to do a lot of what she was able to, and is driven by an insane fury to get revenge on Bumblebee, who played an admittedly minor role in her accident. They’re supposed to be arch enemies, but their limited interactions feel very forced. If anything she had more chemistry with fellow impulsive wreckloose Hot Rod. It does feel like there might be set up for her to switch sides, as Bee has been shown to cut her some slack that she partially acknowledges, but I might be looking too hard into it. Overall, Cyberverse repackages what came before it, but does very little new to innovate. The season finale ends with the Decepticon Battle Fleet zeroing in on Earth to wipe out the restored Autobots. This at least suggests a straight forward 80’s style clash between Bots and Cons next season. I’m hoping the second season has some better stories, but talk of killing off a lot of the characters (a jokey comment in particular says Optimus dies immediately in the second season, with another implying Bumblebee becomes Goldbug), makes me a bit skeptical of the show’s story going forward. I’m still gonna check it out though, and if the Goldbug thing is true, I wouldn’t mind seeing that side of Bee again.

[curestardust]

if you want: great animation / vampires 

I was initially drawn to this anime due to the character designs. And that’s basically all I got as well.

Let me start with some of the good stuff first. The production value is up to par. The animation is great and especially shows its strength during melee encounters. The music was also a amazing to me with mostly electronic and synth heavy tracks. And umm...yeah.

Now, what was my main problem with Sirius? It completely breaks the “Show, don’t tell” rule. As in, this anime takes monolouging and flashbacks to the next level. As i said above, the fights are nice, however they’re not very long and don’t seem to have any structure to them (just go, shooty, stabby, boom boom and it’s over). This is a problem because these fights are the highlights of the whole thing. The rest of the time we’re either watching a 10 minute long fight scene or someone giving us some mad exposition to either themselves or some other character who don’t respond to anything they’re saying. It becomes so mindnumbingly boring after a while that I wanted to scream everytime it happened after a while.

The second problem is the characters and how many there are. Too many, is the answer. We have our main character Yuliy, his gang of 4 characters. Then 2 other unrelated characters shove themselves into the protagonists bussiness and then we have the antagonists aka the vampires. It’s even worse that almost everyone has a different plotline and we don’t see them interacting much so there’s no time for us to get invested in them. In my opinion, the 2 unrelated characters could’ve been easily cut out of the story and nothing would’ve been lost.

And the last thing is the story. It’s just so...meh? The initial clonfict is that there are jaegers and vampires and they’re trying to kill each other. Right. Then we find out about some artifact that everyone wants and then rest of the story is just people chasing after the item. The item which we don’t really know anything about or what it does. Riveting stuff.

Listen, if you want some nice animation mixed with some supernatural stuff, you might like this but if Sirius didn’t catch your attention the first time, no reason to go back to it. [6/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: well, it’s BNHA lmao / amazing animation / amazing music / shounen / superpowers and heroes / to have a good fucking time

So yeah, I’ve finally gotten around to watching BNHA and goddamn, does it deserve the hype surrounding it.

I don’t want to draw this out much. Everyone knows what BNHA is at this point so giving an extensive review for it would be kinda useless. Let’s see...the animation is incredible and I could count on one hand the wonky characters I saw throughout all 13 episodes and those were all faraway shots. The music also falls into the same category, nothing to complain about. Same with the voice-acting. Like DAMN. Most importantly though, not only is the technical aspect of the anime more than up to par, they work together in way where if even one aspect was worse, we wouldn’t have gotten the same quality. The flawless and detailed animation gives a feeling to the fights while the music swells and quiets at exactly the right times to make your heart beat faster and get you as invested as possible. It’s truly amazing and I can’t praise it enough.

The story and the characters lack in some areas but not in a drastically bad way. They don’t take away from the overall experience at all and my complains are more nitpicky than anything. They did well with the short runtime the first season had. Besides the (2) main character(s) we have a few more who are part of the main cast, who get the most screentime. Then we’ve the rest of the class. Making all of them unique characters and giving each of them at least some amount of screentime was a great choice that pays off in the latter half of the season but some of them still felt really expendable and could’ve been removed without any detriment to the story. Still, it’s fine. 

They managed to fit a surprising amount of plot into these episodes. Our main character goes through an entire personal arc, then we have the school arc and then the ending arc. Throughout the first two, there’s also a rivalry plot that further develops our characters and their relationship. 

This is a shounen and it’s obvious that the target democraphic is kids. The sometimes ridiculously cartoonish superpowers and constant flashbacks to certain scenes remind you of that. And it’s...and incredible anime of its kind. Watching it made me feel like when I watched Naruto as a young kid. The world, the characters and the powers got me completely immersed and absolutely hyped. [9/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

if you want: immature and over-the-top comedy / virgin beta male main characters

Grand Blue is admittedly wild and all over the place and yet, it left such a small impression on me that I don’t even know what to write about it.

As last season’s most viewed anime were surprisingly decent, I decided to go ahead and check out the 2018 Summer Season’s most popular original anime: Grand Blue.

We start out with a quite normal set-up. Iori is going to start going to college and has decided to move to his uncle’s diving shop for the time being. At about 5 minutes into the first episode, all hell breaks lose. Iori immediately runs into a bunch of buff naked guys loudly shouting in the lobby at which point he decides to peace out and go back home. But we wouldn’t have this anime if he succeded so this is where he gets introduced to 2 members of the diving club who very enthusiastically urge him to join as well. Later on, the diving club grows in numbers by one of Iori’s female cousins, Chisa, a weirdly aggressive weeb guy, Kouhei, and another member whom I won’t spoil.

Now, don’t get confused. Grand Blue isn’t a diving anime, even though the majority of the time we’re watching the various messes the diving club gets into.

GB is a comedy. The jokes are basically that everyone is constantly getting drunk and naked. And that when characters’ react to things their faces morph into overly detailed ridiculous expressions, reminiscent of Asobi Asobase. But would that be enough to shoot this anime to the top? Ha. The reason this is such a fan favorite is that the main characters are virgin beta males. I’m guessing the general weeb audience finds this very relatable (lmao). When I read a review saying that this was finally a “manly anime” because it had beta cucks and buff guys, my brain basically went blue screen and tried to reboot itself. 

I ain’t gonna lie, I laughed and chuckled at a lot of stuff. However, about halfway, Iori and Kohei somehow befriend a group of other virgins from their class and we suddenly got segments of them hanging out and I HATEEEEEED all of those scenes. The whole thing was that they wanted to FUCK the wohman VERY much. And it was so boring and just plain not funny. Not to mention, all of their friends were completely despicable and disgusting and I just UGH.

No one has a personality in this anime. Iori goes from “I respect wohman” to “I wanna fuck the wohman very much, boobies” in 5 seconds, depending on who he is with. Everyone else has about 1 personality trait which are only used to make jokes. I don’t even remember anyone’s name, I had to look them up for this review.

Sometimes Grand Blue is hilarous. Sometimes cringe-inducing. Honestly, if you want some mindless, meaningless and really over-the-top comedy, you may like this but if you’re looking for anything else from an anime then no, it isn’t worth watching. [5/10] (x)

Recommend: HELL Yeah! | Yes | Eh??? | Nope | This anime killed my parents

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

For the fandom ask; Doctor Who, Disney's Atlantis, Inkheart or Shakespeare. Just answer with the ones you're comfortable with!

Okay then. I’ll try and answer all these. 

Doctor Who: Favorite Male Character....the War Doctor? I just really like John Hurt. I haven’t watched any prior to Nine...so.... Favorite Female Character. I have no idea....probably Donna Noble? I like her. Didn’t make her fall in love with the Doctor so that’s a major plus....haven’t seen any of the episodes with Bill so don’t have any real opinion on her. Least Favorite Character...hm....probably Amy Pond? maybe Rose?....hm it’s been ages since I’ve watched Doctor Who. Favorite Ship......No clue. No clue at all. Favorite Friendship.....um....The Doctor and the Brigadier? I don’t really know. Maybe Eleven and Amy? They had an alright friendship at times if memory serves. Favorite Quote...probably that one from the end of the Doctor and Vincent. That was the first episode of Doctor Who I saw so....This Made me So Happy you have No idea. John Hurt as the War Doctor. That was pretty sweet. Saddest Moment..can I say that moment in An Adventure in Space and Time when William Hartnel says he doesn’t want to go? Does that count? Fav Location: Hm...not sure.

Disney’s Atlantis: Fave Male Character: Milo Thatch. Favorite Female Character: Kida. Least Favorite Character....Rourke I guess? Everyone else was pretty cool. Favorite Ship.....uh...Milo x Kida? Are there other ships? Favorite Friendship: Milo and the Crew? Favorite Quote: Atlantis is Waiting. 

This Made me So Happy you have no idea....the initial launch of the Ulysses . Saddest moment. The death of the King. Favorite Location: Atlantis...duh. More specifically the Crystal Chamber.

Ink Heart. I’m guessing you mean the whole series. Going with that assumption. Fave Male C: The author. I forget how you say his name. Or Dustfinger. Favorite Female C, definitely Elinor. Least Favorite character...I don’t know. It’s been ages, and I’ve never been to great with answering least fav...maybe that other Silver Tongue character. Orpheus? Favorite Ship...uh...I don’t know. Maybe Maggie and Farid? Fave Friendship, Elinor and Darius. Favorite Quote, I’m not sure. This moment made me so Happy...again difficulty remembering. Perhaps when when the Adderhead died? Or ....hm. Don’t know. Saddest moment: When Dustfinger sacrificed himself to save Farid. Favorite location. No freakin clue. I must admit, it’s been some years since I’ve read them. Sorry. Feel free to note another Fandom like FMAB, ATLA, CotIG, or some other anime. If I’m familiar I’ll answer to the best of my ability....

Shakespeare. This one will be easy in some regards, and the most difficult thing ever in others. Favorite Male Character. Feste from Twelfth Night. With Falstaff, Richard the Third, Lear’s Fool, and Lear on his heels. Favorite Female Character...I’m thinking....Beatrice from Much Ado about Nothing Rosalind from As You Like It in a close second. Least Favorite character...I have a great dislike of Antonio from Merchant of Venice, and a greater dislike of Pertruchio of Taming of the Shrew. There are many Assholes, Bastards and horrible pieces of Shit to be found in Shakespeare, but Antonio of Merchant and Pertruchio come instantly to mind. And that’s including liars and murderers like Richard 3 ,Edmund, and Iago....they have likeable traits. Pertruchio begins with their being potential...but it goes down hill pretty damn quickly. Favorite Ship...Beatrice and Benedick. No question they are perhaps the best ship in Shakespeare. And I’m not just saying that because the ship name would be BeaDick. Not at all. Favorite Friendships. This is tough....trying to think of genuine friendships..one might think Bassanio and Antonio, but I’ve already stated my dislike for Antonio...hm. Probably King Lear and his Fool. I don’t know, I’ve always imagined them as friends on top of their relationship as King and Jester.?

This Moment made me so happy you have no idea. The scene between Feste and Viola/Cesario at the beginning of Act Three Scene one from Twelfth Night. It is likely my favorite scenes in the entire Cannon. Or at least one of my favorites. 

Favorite Quote.....favorite Quote? For one thing I’m terrible at remembering quotes with some exceptions, one of which being Shakespeare. But with Shakespeare....there’s just so many. There’s Falstaff’’s speech on Honor, all those monologues which are understandably recited. But my favorite? Such a difficult task. Hm....Wit if it be thy Will, put me into good fooling. Those Wits that think they have thee very often prove Fools, and I that knows I lack thee may pass for a Wise Man. For what says Quinapilus? Better a Witty Fool than a Foolish Wit. Basically just about anything uttered by a Fool, Clown, or what have you. They’re my favorite bits usually and have some of the best lines. 

Saddest Moment: again another difficulty. I could list one of the many deaths...or I could note poor Malvolio’s treatment in Twelfth Night. Though I think one that makes me sad when it happens is whenever Lear’s Fool is shown to die. It’s not set in the text he’s to die. He may just leave, or stay til the end in some capacity taking the lines of another, but seeing him die in productions is very Sad. There is also Hal’s Disowning of Falstaff (even though Falstaff was admittedly a horrible and negative influence). The Forced Conversion put on Shylock while not shown to be sad in the original context....just.....I lack the words. There are many reasons to cry in Shakespeare.

Favorite Location. This is difficult since the locations are set, but they are not necessarily fixed. Being what it is you can replace Verona with New York, or Scotland with Feudal Japan or tons of others...which makes picking a favorite Location very difficult. I think....either the Grave Yards of Elsinore, the Boar’s Head...or Prospero’s Island.

Hope those were sufficient. Anyone is free to ask regarding other fandoms. If I’m familiar with the thing I’ll be sure to answer to the best of my ability.

Make of this what you will.

Al, the Chronographing Cottager.

[fuzziekins]

6. What made you realize your current labels fit you?

if it’s ok i’m gonna combine this with question 10, which is when did you realize you weren’t cishet, since when i think about it i usually group the two ideas together. And because it’s a long story and i have no idea how the hell to shorten it i’ll have it under the cut.

So my current label i use is demi-whatromantic asexual [with a slight aesthetic preference toward females]. I include the aesthetic attraction in brackets because sometimes i use it and sometimes i don’t, and maybe that’s because my label in general makes attraction confusing to me or because i’m just plain obsessed with Elsa from Frozen. But because that’s a lot to explain, i usually just say i’m ace or queer. Even if people still don’t know or understand asexuality, sometimes saying i’m queer is just enough to get the point across without needing to go into a needlessly detailed explanation. And while i know everyone has their own personal feelings about queer, as a label or as a word, i like the inclusivity of it. It’s enough for people to know i’m not straight, but it also leaves the door open if people want to know more. There was no specific moment that made me realize queer can fit my just as much as demi-whatromantic asexual; just the occasional tagged queer content on tumblr and the reassurance of some posts that the community has reclaimed the word and whatever each individual’s relationship or feelings are to that word, it’s perfectly ok and valid. I’m allowed to use that word for myself if i see fit. The rest of my label is slightly different.

I figured out first that i was asexual. Except i didn’t realize it until maybe 6 or 7 years after first even seeing the word. I saw it for the first time here on tumblr with the most basic description and i just thought, ‘ok that sounds like it could be me.’ But ultimately i decided it was a problem for future me because i had school to worry about. And even after that it took some times to realize that’s what specifically fit me. And i can’t just say that i had this light bulb moment where i looked up more details about asexuality and knew it was right for me, because that feels like it negates all the steps it took to get there.

After my dad passed, art became a sore topic for me to the point where i couldn’t even enjoy it for myself. But being a creative person, i had to do something. So i put my focus into writing, specifically roleplaying, which is something i hadn’t done since college. And honestly, i wish it didn’t take that to make it the first step because i know had i been able to realize any of this sooner and gotten the chance to tell my dad, he would have been more than accepting and i really hate that’s a moment i missed out with him. Anyway, i happened on a roleplay group kind of my accident but it gave me the chance to not only revisit a couple of OC’s i created back in high school, but also create new ones. The first LGBT+ one didn’t come around for me until a year later; before then the characters i made were straight because i didn’t think much or know better. But the more i roleplayed with these characters, the more i got to explore. When i created more characters i really got to think, ok does this person have a preference?; can i imagine this character eventually in a relationship?; is it ok i just automatically think this character is a lesbian? And the first thing with that, that really hit me, was with the first OC i ever created. My online friend and i were plotting, trying to figure out which of our characters might be friends. And she had just created one similar to one of my characters. Another online friend, he shared a birthday website as kind of a joke and kind of inspiration to help with relations; there was a date compatibility thing or something on the site. It turned out to be funny because some of the characters with pre-existing relations based on that were totally accurate and others were way off. But with two specific characters my friend and i were looking at, the site said they’d make a great couple. And at that time, that particular OC of mine had gone from being hetero to simply open-minded, since she never thought of relationships before and i never particularly saw one for her. But as soon as we read that, it clicked. And not only did the plots and inspiration start coming, but it led to so much character development for my OC. A character i created in high school to basically be a one-dimensional bookworm who was now not only questioning her newfound friendship but her sexuality. And as i wrote her discovering that, i noticed i was putting some of my own tendencies into her - her awkwardness and the way she reacted to certain topics, for example. My friend commented my character was probably ace in addition to realizing she was a lesbian. I didn’t think much of it then, but that was kind of the first piece.

The second piece came in the form of the show The Bold Type. Admittedly the show hasn’t been as good since its first season, but that’s beside the point. But from the first episode we’re introduced to this one character, Kat, and in her interactions with another character you could feel the chemistry between them. And part of her arc for that first season was coming to terms with her feelings for that woman and realizing she wasn’t straight. And for me, someone who was only a few years older than her 20something year old character, that was something i didn’t know i needed to see. I’m naive, childlike, and oblivious. Even if i had known anyone who wasn’t straight up until then, i wouldn’t have noticed or asked anything. But seeing that on screen, someone in my age group who actually didn’t know who she was and was starting to figure something out about herself, it gave me permission to question. Even if that question was, why the hell am i enjoying this so much?

But what really did it for me was the show Andi Mack on Disney Channel. It was one of the few shows i actually enjoyed at the current time on Disney Channel, even though by all accounts i should’ve been done with all that ages ago [except i’m a disnerd]. And after the first season ended and season two was rapidly approaching, the big question and anticipation was in the form of a character’s coming out. Fans have been picking up that one of the characters may have been gay and were waiting for confirmation. And that confirmation came in the season two premiere. And, if memory serves, there was a reason why it was met with acclaim the way it was. The scene in question involved two characters, Buffy and Cyrus, sitting at the diner. And there was that slow build up, just knowing that Cyrus needed to tell Buffy something. And when she asked if he liked another boy, Jonah, Cyrus nodded sadly and said “I feel weird. Different.” Ultimately, she ended up promising him in the most comforting and encouraging way, “you’ve always been weird. But you’re no different.” 

And for me, even as an adult, hearing those words just made everything click. I had no idea how much it meant to hear that. I always knew i was different from other kids growing up. I was treated different. I knew i was weird. And for the most part, i accepted that. But i didn’t understand what made me so different. At that point, i had the faintest basic knowledge of a few different sexualities courtesy of creating OC’s. Only one of them, at that current point, had identified as ace by choice. And suddenly i looked deeper into the meaning of asexuality. And just about everything about it fit for me. Why i didn’t experience attraction the ‘normal’ why. A potential reason why i never had the powerful urge to date or why i pushed the idea to the side so much. It even explained my childlike nature; i’m a kid at heart, but knowing that a “stereotypical” ace is someone who is naive, childlike, etc, it made sense why that was such a huge factor in my personality. Because i was a stereotypical ace. I told one of my best friends about a month later, and then i think 3 or 4 months after that, i posted on my Instagram about being ace. It’s felt right ever since.

Sometimes i do get specific and say i’m a s-x repulsed ace, because the topic really makes me that uncomfortable. But even if i don’t use it out loud all the time i know, as far as the asexual umbrella goes, that’s exactly specifically what fits me. So since hearing “you’ve always been weird, but you’re no different” and learning the full definition of asexuality, that’s what made me realize that fits me.

As far as my romantic orientation goes, it’s more of a grey area and sometimes i still struggle with it. While i’ve openly identified as asexual officially for two and a half years, i’ve had my romantic label for maybe no more than 6 months. When i read that asexuals can be anything from heteromantic to gay to bi to aro...basically anything...originally it felt like there were so many possibilities open. It made me feel good to know that i could basically be anything. But it also made me terrified because how the hell was i supposed to know? Now that i knew my asexuality basically screwed up my attraction to begin with, i also had to admit that it took a lot for me to get close to people to begin with. And, even more so, since my dad passed, the wall i already had up became bigger and stronger. I felt for a time like i lost a lot of support during that dark period and the last thing i wanted to do was let new people, or anyone in.

The obvious answer was that i was probably, if anything, demiromantic. Because if it took so much for me to open up to actual friends in the first place, to get close with them and develop a friendly bond, how much more time, effort, and energy would it take to get close to someone romantically? I thought about using that label for a little bit, but it didn’t fit. And, as someone who feels her emotions so strongly, powerfully, and, to a point, near uncontrollably, i questioned what the hell could be wrong with me that i couldn’t knowingly feel a basic romantic attraction? Aromantic was probably much more accurate, but from what i recall reading online, it’s also perfectly normal for anyone who is aspec to feel broken or like there’s something wrong with them because they’re missing something so “important”. And especially when i already hated so much about myself, finally feeling comfortable with myself about one thing - my asexuality - and knowing that it was right for me and that there wasn’t anything wrong with me about that, the last thing i wanted was to put myself down and feel more shame about who i was. 

I think it was sometime last last year, in 2019, that i first started seeing the word quoiromantic pop up. I think it was on one of the LGBT+ blogs i follow, or maybe an asexual or aromantic specific one. And another word for quoiromantic is whatromantic, since quoi means what. What is romantic attraction? What’s the difference between that, aesthetic attraction, and sexual attraction? What makes someone know they feel that specific attraction? And as someone who naturally asks “what?” or “what’s that?” albeit jokingly, it felt plausible. And it felt like a reasonable explanation for why i really didn’t know anything for sure. Because, even when i tried to think back to when i was in school, did i ever really feel attraction? Was it so faint i didn’t even recognize it? Was i mixing it up with maybe platonic attraction? I had no fricking clue. Simply saying “what” summed it up so simply for me.

I don’t include anything gender related in my label. As far as i know, i’m cis. My body is female and, to my knowledge, i’m comfortable enough that i don’t think i need to identify as anything else, save for really not being comfortable in dresses or heels. But if someone called me dude instead? I don’t care. I use dude as a term for everyone regardless of gender (unless someone tells me otherwise for the sake of their personal comfort). My gender doesn’t feel like something that needs to be changed or defined, unlike my sexual and romantic orientations.

When i saw my whole label together, i think about it, and i connect all the dots, it makes sense for me. Sure, i could simply say whatromantic asexual and leave it at that. But whether it’s platonically or maybe it really does have the faintest connection to romantic attraction and it’s so faint and confusing i wouldn’t know it if it slapped me across the face, keeping demi felt right. Quoi- or whatromantic, to my current still-baby LGBT+ knowledge, is generally seen as a microlabel. It’s something under the aromantic umbrella that is so super specific that a lot of people wouldn’t understand why it needs to exist. It exists to bring a sense of comfort. And that’s exactly what it does for me. It’s the main romantic label for me while demi serves as the microlabel. And ultimately, as someone who has the overwhelming need to always explain themself, i want to have a label that encompasses everything. Even if i don’t always explain my identity or simply say i’m queer, i want to know the details for my sake. 

And i think ultimately, the more i say it to myself in my head, and think of all the ways i may have to explain it to people, the more i know it fits me. 

[daleisgreat]

2019 Summer TV Season Recap

Previous TV Season Recaps - (2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19) Hello everybody and thank you for joining me once again for my annual trek through binging a few summer TV seasons that conveniently drop on streaming services throughout the season to tide me by until the annual fall season kicks in later this month. I seem to average about three shows each summer these past few years, and that has transpired once again! Let us get on with the recaps!

Jessica Jones - The final season from Netflix’s original lineup of Marvel TV series came to an end with the third season of Jessica Jones. The second season was a major step down from the excellent debut season, but luckily things step back up again for the final season, however it is not quite a redemption season as was Daredevil’s third season. The final season sees Trish gain new powers after the experiments she put herself though in season two, it was also fascinating watching her and Jess try and bury the hatchet after what happened between them in the final scenes of season two. I dug the primary antagonist for season three in the form of a serial killer going by Sallinger. How we find out about him by new unwilling Jess sidekick Erik was fascinating to watch unravel as I got a kick out of Erik’s lame superpower ultimately being an ‘Asshole Radar.’ Ultimately Trish cannot control her powers and desperate measures causes Trish to break away from Jess and Erik to get things done on her own. The first half of the season outshines the second half, but the second half is not bad by any means, it is simply a couple notches under the strong buildup of the first half. Watching struggling lawyer Jeri Hogarth come to terms with her developing ALS kept me interested in her arc this season, and even Malcolm losing control of his sex drive was another silly side-arc that kept me intrigued and built on the hints alluded to it in the prior season. It was still a gratifying conclusion to show, but a hair too predictable, and it is a shame Marvel and Netflix could not come to terms to keep Jessica Jones going. Grade: B

Veronica Mars - I have raved on here before about my fanfare for Veronica Mars. I loved the original TV run and the movie from several years back, but never kept up with any of the cast or crew’s social media. Somehow for the presumably year or two back the new season was announced and in development I honestly had no idea about it so several weeks back I did a double take when booting up Hulu and saw how Hulu had the exclusive for a new season of Veronica Mars! It is a super quick watch at only eight episodes, and it means no episode overstays its welcome and minus a couple exceptions it was fun to see almost the entire cast return in noteworthy roles. A bomb blowing up a hotel during spring break in Neptune has Veronica and her father on the case. Taking in Veronica and her dad piecing together the clues and interview countless suspects and witnesses was the usual fun jaunt to follow along with. Kristen Bell did not miss a beat with her excellent on-screen chemistry with her father played by Enrico Colantoni. The two have countless witty exchanges that continue the show’s pedigree of having dialogue being far too smart and clever to be genuine, but remains incredibly entertaining in its own right. Most of the supporting cast old and new has their own mini-arcs throughout the season. Logan is the bodyguard for a controversial senator candidate, Keith is on edge awaiting CTE test results, Wallace now has a family and is a teacher and JK Simmons is a terrific addition to the cast and is another actor that has A+ chemistry with Colantoni. It was fun anticipating which of my favorite supporting actors would show up and for how big or minor a part they played. Some long last favorites caught me off guard and the couple major names that did not return were at least referenced a couple of times. I had to put my Patton Oswalt tolerance hat on for him being the conspiracy theorist pizza delivery man this season has a big emphasis on, but Oswalt is admittedly a pro in the role and I can at least take solace in Veronica having a fitting final line for him in, “What a dick!” Wonderful final words Veronica! Minus one bummer moment in the final episode, this was a fantastic return season of Veronica Mars and I hope to see Hulu keep more coming! Grade: A

GLOW - GLOW has become a summer ritual I anticipate for a third straight season. This year sees GLOW’s management take the promotion to be a regular act in Las Vegas. The premiere episode has a awfully entertaining exchange with Ruth Wilder’s evil Russian persona ‘Zoya’ being a guest on a morning TV news station during a historic moment in the 80s that goes all kinds of wrong. Seeing GLOW in Vegas was a fresh and fun twist on the show (and accurate to what happened to the legit GLOW promotion). The wrestling takes a bit of a backdrop this season minus a couple episodes, but that is fine because by this point most of the cast is fairly developed and most of the supporting cast got an episode or two of their own to shine in. Marc Maron delivers another five star performance once again as the affable scumbag promoter, and I could not help but root for him to get his daughter’s screenplay green-lit. There are too many plot lines to cover here for the supporting cast, but most of them I was won over by. There is a great camping trip episode this season that is probably my favorite episode this season where the ladies all come together, get wasted and bond over personal moments. Only qualms I had with this season were a couple of heavy-handed political themes that seemed unavoidable due to a couple of episode’s plots, yet still gratingly preachy nevertheless. The season finale Christmas-themed episode was also a riot and left some interesting cliffhangers on the future for the show with Debbie getting a new big-time TV station deal. The actual GLOW promotion in the 80s only lasted four TV seasons, so if this GLOW presumably returns again next season I hope it will not be the last because it seems like it still has at least another few seasons of life left in it. Grade: A- Past TV/Web Series Blogs 2013-14 TV Season Recap 2014-15 TV Season Recap 2015-16 TV Season Recap 2016-17 TV Season Recap 2017-18 TV Season Recap 2018-19 TV Season Recap Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series Baseball: A Ken Burns series Angry Videogame Nerd Home Video Collections Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1 | Season 2 OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30 RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13 Roseanne – Seasons 1-9 Seinfeld Final Season Star Trek: Next Generation – Seasons 1-7 Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle Superheroes: Pioneers of Television The Vietnam War: A Ken Burns series X-Men – The Animated Series: Volumes 4-5

[monkey-network]

Mini Stuff of Good: 2019 2nd Quarter

We’re doing a lightning round of anything up to this point, no holds barred! 3. 2.. 1...

One Punch Man 2

The story certainly made up the utter downgrade of its animation. If anything, I’d seriously stick with the manga if we’re talking good spectacle. (Grade: C+)

Care Bears: Unlock the Magic

I can say this is Turner’s answer to Hasbro’s My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic. The look of it is a plus and the episodes are on the same level of quality as MLP, but I had my doubts that this would get the same level of traction, especially since it’s Boomerang. It’s not bad, just not much to write home about. (Grade: C)

Uglydolls

An upbeat movie that I say didn’t deserve the disdain it received. Like yeah, it’s pretty by the numbers, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t entertaining in the slightest, and surprisingly heavy in its racial undertones if you’d believe me. (Grade: B-)

Avengers Endgame

Was certainly conclusive and fun, but inferior compared to Infinity War, especially when it unfortunately has to undo everything that happened in that movie. Not as many good memes from this as the interchangeable Thanos snap meme. (Grade: B)

Tuca & Bertie

Honestly a fun series that makes its cancellation just depressing to hear. The duo themselves made every episode enjoyable and while I wish certain plot points could’ve been better, the overall story arc with our MC’s friendship was very investing. In the least, the season ended on a good, optimistic note. (Grade: A-)

Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart

Essentially the Adventures of Puss in Boots, anime edition. Not to say that’s a bad thing, because there are plenty of differences, but come on, the similarities between the two leads and the premise are eeriely similar. As such, it gets the same grade (Grade: B+)

Shazam

A DC comic book movie that actually tries to be a comic book movie. Bonus points for the director being one that mostly made horror movies. (Grade: A-)

Scooby Doo and Guess Who?

Scooby Doo and self humor doesn’t sit well with me since the fun came in taking its campy nature straightfaced while having some good sitcom laughs, i.e. Monsters Unleashed, Mystery Incorporated, or Be Cool, Scooby Doo. The celebrity guests are almost always a highlight, but they also admittedly take away from the characters we’re meant to see. (Grade: B-)

Archer 1999

Finally, a season of Archer that has everyone together doing space adventures, and it’s not the final season! (Grade: B+)

Dick Pikachu

Lovely to look at, not so much in remembering it. It has the same grade I gave the game it’s based on. (Grade: C+)

Gokushufudou: The Way of the House Husband

The most perfect yakuza based slice of life comic around. (Grade: S)

Burning Effect

I honestly haven’t seen a webcomic that went this hard before. It’s like Bakugo from My Hero Academia went into every character design and impacting visual, with a story and premise that gradually makes sense the more you carry on and a female lead that is a upcoming warrior in every sense. (Grade: A)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

There’s a Youtube channel that reviews this show episode by episode and I found them more insightful and entertaining than this series. A shame since I like the original She-Ra and I was hoping for a good series about princesses fighting. But this series was slog to get through and it doesn’t help that my attachment to most of the characters has fizzled out. Season 3 certainly picked things up, but it shouldn’t have took this long to pick things up. (Grade: C+)

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Just as good as the first one, if not better, which I bet many who reviewed this will probably say otherwise. The scene near the end is honestly cemented in my mind, it just worked. (Grade: B-)

SMG4, The Anime Arc

This definitely fun. A middling 1st half, but things definitely pick up in the 2nd half. There are some contrivances and conveniences, but man was that the most engaged I’ve ever been with this Youtube series overall. (Grade: B+)

Aladdin (2019)

Oh wow, another remake that pales in comparison to the original. A takeaway from all this is Disney needs to hire directors that aren’t boring. (Grade: D+)

MIB: International

Oh wow, it’s Jurassic World: Men In Black edition with two great actors that are heavily underutilized in it. Where’s Taika when you need him? (Grade: C-)

Lion King (2019)

Oh wow, a remake that doesn’t understand why the original worked. This here was honestly the final straw for me as I am distancing myself from these remakes because unless one actually looks and feels appealing, my sensible bias towards them will never change. I feel annoyed that I DON’T know what people see in these. (Grade: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!)

DC Super Hero Girls

Honestly what I wanted Nu She-Ra to be, better animated, better characterized, and reminds me of the new Ninja Turtles series with how it is setting things up. As a DC fan, I am more than impressed. (Grade: A)

X-Men, Dark Phoenix

They honestly weren’t trying and this movie resulted in me getting Ligma. (Grade: D+)

Our Cartoon President

We had our laughs a couple years ago, but let’s be real. Trump is a dried up meme and there was no reason for a 2nd season of this. (Grade: F+)

Final Space

Season 2 has its hits and misses but I am very much enjoying this series still. The latest episode deep down made me wish it didn’t try to make things drama heavy for the previous episodes, like it’s trying to recapture the sharp turn that was season one’s episode six. Needless to say, they’re certainly keeping the momentum going for this series and I’m all for it. (Grade: B+)

Aero (Comic series)

Imagine if Nejire from My Hero Academia was a Marvel superhero. The dialogue and writing is generic and simple, but you not only get a nice grasp of our heroine but this is one of the first anime looking Marvel comics that looks incredible. This really stood out at my comic shop and I am very intrigued to see more of this character and this artwork. (Grade: B)

Infinity Train

Very compelling, nicely visualized, and the 10 episode work to a good strength of pacing. Though I will be honest, One-One wasn’t a character that stood out to me, I dunno, I felt distant towards him compared to the other characters. But I enjoyed this no doubt and I’m glad there is more to come. (Grade: ???)

Twelve Forever

This is one of those rare shows where I’ll gladly say it’s good but not entertaining. As much as I enjoy randomness every now and then, I felt bored watching it. The Butt Witch was the saving grace, immediately being my favorite character, but she wasn’t enough to make me keep going. I’ll give it a good grade tho with the effort they put into everything. (Grade: B)

Rocko’s Modern Life, Static Cling

I already reviewed this before, but I honestly considered this a great comeback to a very nostalgic and influential show. (Grade: A)

Meta Runner

A new series with surprisingly good pacing and a empathetically great main character. The dialogue can be give and take, with a villain that’s honestly too evil for his own good, but I can’t help but say that this is an engaging series. And it’s youtube sooo bonus. (Grade: B+)

Amphibia

A series that definitely got better as it went along. I like the episodes that had good ties to the season’s climax, the main four are especially the highlight with their personalities, and the character growth felt natural if on the nose sometimes. I’m stoked for part 2,,, hopefully they schedule it better. (Grade: A-)

Angry Birds 2

It was fun. Probably forgettable to many, but I won’t deny that it’s one of the better popcorn flics of the Summer (Grade: B+)

Toy Story 4

I grown tired of people questioning whether or not this movie was pointless, so I’ll come out the gate to say that this is the best movie of the Summer so far. It was a more solemn movie that was organically thoughtful with itself, there were plenty of laughs, I loved Bo Peep, and the way they handled the antagonist is something that rocked the franchise’s themes to the core sensibly. This film makes for one of the few times a fourth sequel can actually come out great. (Grade: A)

T I M E’S U P ! ! ! ! ! !

Welp, looks like the spring and summer have indeed strengthened itself for the better. Can the latter half of 2019 keep the momentum as we reach the new decade? Stay tuned.

[thelillykane]

uggggh i cbf looking @ the questions so! 1-10 for veronica mars and 10-20 for btvs!

Veronica Mars: 

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

People who ship Veronica with Piz like….what gives!!! Sure Piz is “nice” – a total throwaway word/phrase, mind you – and he has decent taste in music (he skipped a Yo La Tenga concert to see Veronica for like six seconds that’s dedication I always gotta give him props for that I would never miss a Yo La Tenga concert for anyone) and he knows what he wants to be when he gets older and has like The Plan or whatever and all of those are objectively admirable qualities. Veronica before Lilly died & the whole town of Neptune + the world + her two remaining best friends + her mom proceeded to fuck her over would’ve really enjoyed that I think and they would’ve been compatible. He would’ve been a “nice” run-of-the-mill, generic college boyfriend. 

Fact is, they don’t meet under those circumstances. That version of Veronica – softer, less jaded – doesn’t exist anymore, especially not for somebody who didn’t even know her then. Fundamentally, Veronica needs to be with somebody who will let her tape people to telephone poles and black mail them and break the law when necessary because that’s what Veronica needs right now. She’s angry and she wants to make people pay and she doesn’t need to be with the guy who listens to her get cat called in the Cafeteria and tells her to “let it go” and that “karma will get him eventually.” This is Neptune, California and Veronica’s lived there her whole life and she’s seen practically every shitty thing the place has to offer and eventualities and letting shit go doesn’t work for her. She needs to be with someone who gets her ruthlessness and her grudges and that permanent taste of copper in her mouth. Piz isn’t that person. 

Also, Veronica and Piz have two conversations that stick in my mind the first is during 3x01 and they’re watching Logan fight some guy in the cafeteria (re: taser him) and Piz doesn’t know that’s Veronica’s boyfriend so he comments, “I’m a lover, not a fighter” and Veronica gives him this sort of indulgent, I-have-no-idea-what-you’re-talking-about smile because they’re watching Logan fight and that is Veronica’s boyfriend and Veronica’s the one who gave Logan the taser to use in the first place and because Veronica knows that if the roles were reversed and she was stepping in to stop a friend of hers from getting their ass kicked she’d be doing the exact same thing as Logan. Then, Logan walks over and gives Veronica her taser back and they kiss and Piz gets this look like “Oh” because Veronica’s dating the ~fighter~ in this scenario (even though Logan Echolls is both, but) and exchanging chaste, tender kisses with him afterwards and that means that Piz, right away, is not in her equation anywhere. Because Piz would never do that. The series goes on to show us that Piz would never do that. 

The second is their infamous conversation in 3x10: 

PIZ: I figure, you know, I mean, I know what I like. Why waste my time?

VERONICA: Like, why bother with something not good just because it’s something?

PIZ: Especially when you know the difference, which not many people do. I mean, do you?

VERONICA: I…I think I do.

PIZ: You see, I think that’s like ninety percent of life, just knowing the difference.

And Veronica knows the difference and she’s thinking of Logan and immediately following this conversation with Piz she drives to Logan’s and kisses him with that lovesick, yearning look on her face and they get back together and Piz see’s them together the next morning in cafeteria and he’s hurt because during that conversation he thought he and Veronica were maybe talking about one another or whatever and then he realizes that Veronica was talking about Logan because Veronica loves Logan and she wants to be with Logan and Logan is her “knowing the difference” and I just don’t get how people can watch these scenes and think that who Piz is as a person aligns with who Veronica is as a person 

anyway that gotta hella long but i feel strongly about this! 

Have you received anon hate? What about?

I haven’t! I’ve sort-of received anon hate by proxy, which means that I wrote this and my best friend reblogged it and then received this ask, even though she herself hadn’t actually said anything on the topic and had merely reblogged my heated I-can’t-believe-we’ve-been-having-this-fight-for-years post. 

Most disliked arc? Why? 

I have a lot ranging from “this makes no sense plot wise” (everything that happened in My Mother, The Fiend for example) and “I will stab whichever writer did this” (the feminists-fake-a-rape storyline comes to mind for that category). 

Ultimately, or at least for right now, it’s gotta be them making Meg Manning get pregnant with Duncan Kane’s child ffs, putting her in a coma, revealing that surprise! she’d been abused her whole life, killing her off, and then having the only thing left for Duncan to do to get custody of this kid be kidnapping the child and relocating to Australia. First off, Meg Manning didn’t deserve to die and Second off, Duncan Kane is from a wealthy, prominent family, had documentation that Meg’s parents were abusive, and had written documentation from Meg expressing intent to have the child raised by a distant relative. All of that means that Duncan could have easily obtained custody of the child. I get writing his character off, I don’t mind that, but seriously? They couldn’t think of fucking….any other way to accomplish it. Almost anything else would’ve been better. Killing Meg off was cheap and the storyline was cheap and it just…I’m not a fan. 

There’s tons of other storylines I despise as well. For a show I love it sure did a lot of shit I could do without in my life, but this one always sticks with me because it made no sense and cost a great female character her life. Ugh. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: 

Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

I’m a sucker for season six. And by “a sucker for” I mean that I’m pretty sure season six is my favorite season (i’ve only watched the show all the way through once, which amazes me, but I’m fairly certain folks).  I live for episodes like “Once More With Feeling”, “Tabula Rasa”, “Older and Faraway” and I think I’ve watched season six episodes more than any other season. 

I know a lot of people don’t like the season – including SMG – and there are a lot of valid reasons not to, but I think the show ending up in this place was inevitable, especially for Buffy’s character. She’d been visibly suffering from depression and PTSD in season one and in every season on, but she’d always managed to bounce back or to hide her from her friends or to keep going and not get sort of broken down by it, and in season six she loses her ability to do those things, which I find to be very human and relatable and raw. And for other characters as well, like Willow, her magic abuse and her control issues and such were shown again as early as season one, so I think her really manipulating people and using her magic in such a negative way was also an eventuality. The season made a lot of decisions that I think were unnecessary, but I think it also really cemented that the characters were human and that all the trauma they faced and dealt with built up until it was it’s own kind of monster. 

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

Getting called a rape apologist for shipping Sp*ke x Buffy is not my favorite. This has died down thankfully, and I haven’t been called this (or alluded to this) in a long while, but for a solid year I think this was inescapable and highly unpleasant. As a sexual assault survivor like…yikes. Hard pass. 

Additionally, while Sp*ke x Buffy is no picnic in this arena, Sp*ke isn’t the only love interest** of Buffy’s to violate and disrespect her consent and her agency, which nobody ever wants to talk about. Faith rapes Buffy in season four when she has sex with someone in Buffy’s body, someone iirc Buffy had previously sexually rejected and then Angel is kind of super yikes in that regard as well – for starters he’s 26 and she’s a minor and then there’s that whole Angel plot line where they sleep together a lot when Angel’s human and then Angel erases her memories and shit of the day (erases the day altogether), which is the same type of rape shit Willow pulls on Tara in season six. 

Now, admittedly I ship all three, but I don’t like it when people won’t acknowledge that these things happened or that these are issues? Like, none of the above behavior is “okay” or “excusable” and it makes me tired. And a lot of fans act like the shows’ issues with consent and rape culture are limited solely to Seeing Red when in actuality they’re infused in almost every arena of the show from season one on (this doesn’t make Seeing Red okay at all. I’m not saying that and I don’t believe I have ever said that nor will I fucking ever. What I am saying is that it needs to be a broader conversation but) 

** listen like almost every character I think violates and disrespects Buffy’s agency/consent in some manner. But I gotta limit it to just this category