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poppun-chan · 7 years

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The Year of Keroro Challenge Update 5 (Yes Sir)

We’re Back! Actually this one was much easier than the last when I actually had the chance to work on it. Either way I’m going to be doing this a little bit differently, the end result will still be the same it’s more a difference in the production process so it will be easier to catch up.

On that note I had a bit of a surprise, I thought I was going to have several bits of writing to cover between the “Room of Reflection” and Labbie’s dry erase board on uses for bread crusts, but now it turns out both of those were more or less covered by Funimation (A few of the room of reflection notes seem to have been missed) so I have a whole bunch of unexpected free space now which I’d like to use to thank everyone who has been following my updates....And to give a special mention to DeadofFrogs who has been commenting on all of them, I just wanted to let you know that I do read and appreciate your comments, even if I can’t always think of something to say in response.

And now as usual, the plan count:

Serious Plans: K66:18 D66:1 MMK:1 TMM:1 (The anime one was a bit hard to classify since it could also be a funding one)

Funding Plans: K66:2

It’s a plan, I Swear!: K66:6 (I threw the birthday one in for good measure)

Oh look! Progress!: K66:3

Also I somehow forgot to bring this up last time but in regards to episode 22, has anyone else realised this? It’s a bit odd that Tamama made such a big deal out of being leader since, unless he’d have to cross Momoka in the process, he technically has an army of sorts at his disposal already in the form of Momoka’s bodyguards (speaking of which, I wonder how he kept everything from that episode from getting back to her)

Episode 29: Oh goodness this episode is just full of fun little easter eggs....And Keroro’s acting, that’s just hilarious. Either way the first is Keroro parody Chigusa Tsukikage, the acting mentor from the shoujo manga “Glass Mask” who has a similar hairstyle to the one Keroro wears in the episode to hide the burn marks on her face. Rabbie’s bit about uses for bread crusts is a nod to a trope in Japan that a staple food for poor characters is the bread crusts that bakeries throw away when making their sandwiches (They sell crust-less sandwiches)

I remember somebody mentioning that the members of the Newspaper club are likely inspired by the human children from Doraemon (less Nobita), and I can sort of see that; but more than that has anyone else noticed the small animal they test the device on looks a bit like Ryo-ohki from the Tenchi series? No really, look at it.

Episode 30: Now let’s all be honest with our ourselves, this episode represents our worst case scenario when meeting our online friends; we all say it’s finding out the other person is really a creep twice our age sporting a moose hat or a serial killer or something like that, but after several years we can assume such people would have lost patience. No, secretly the thing we dread the most is having the other person meet the people we see everyday and reference all the times we’ve vented our frustrations over things they’ve done.

Oh! One thing I noticed was that Taruru mentions being the representative of the 4th year group, not the kindergarten group....granted that doesn’t really tell us that much; in Japan only elementary school has a 4th year, but since Keron is a different planet altogether they could have a fourth year of middle school or high school, or it could be a system where the first year of training starts much later than you’d except (maybe around 11 or 12). Another is at the end Tamama says “Our Generation’s Turn”, not “Your Generation”, but the Funimation release’s subtitles fixed that anyway (my guess it is was a typo, it does make more sense with “Our” though since the age gap between the two doesn’t seem to be that big)

Moving along to part b, regardless of your stance on these sort of things and whether we should show developing characters being insecure about their appearances and working through it or whether we should have them always be satisfied with it no matter what (I lean more towards the former, it covers the people who arrive at insecurities on their own), can we just take a moment to look at Momoka’s Mother? She more or less looks the way Momoka wants to and considering the other ways she takes after her Mother, just waiting a few years to see what happens seems a viable option (Though I have to admit I never understood when other girls compared their appearances to adult women; it’s like comparing a kitten and a cat, you’re a similar thing but you’re not there yet). I have to admit I never really went through this though, my parents didn’t really draw much attention to these things and there’s quite a lot I didn’t notice about my appearance until I turned 20 (Plus I had a back brace I wore most of the day from ages 9-15 because my back muscles weren’t strong enough and after it came off most of the major changes had already happened, like a butterfly)

Episode 31: Aww! This one was quite cute, really there’s no other way I can describe it, this episode has a lot of really adorable moments between Keroro’s excitement over his space craft, the effort he goes through to make it back with his souveneer, and the moments with the narrator. And of course the two sweetest moments of the episode: the interaction with the Mojajin had the same sort of charm as seeing somebody pay a backhanded, yet sincere compliment and seeing Natsumi go searching for Keroro was adorable as well. I’m going to admit, when I first watched the series Natsumi’s way of handling the aliens rubbed me the wrong way and it still does, especially when she does the authoritarian “I’m forbidding it and expect you to just accept it” bit (honestly, I can’t condone that behaviour in anyone), so the opening was a bit dicey for me but the ending makes up for it. Really Keroro and Natsumi have one of the most tumultuous relationships in the show, so the rare moments when we get to see that they do care about each other are always nice to see.

And as a side note, the moment with the frog was absolutely hilarious; I always love it when you see characters based on an animal species interacting with that animal (Honestly, I’m shocked that after four movies Equestria Girls still hasn’t done a “Pony meets Horse” joke)

Episode 32: I’m going to take a moment to ask the one question that’s been burning in the back of my mind since I first saw this episode and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s wondered this: What would happen if they used this thing on a frog? Would it turn into a Human or a Keronian? There’s the potential for quite a few humour moments with this one and I would have loved to see that explored a bit. Also does anyone else find it funny that when Keroro explains why a Panda would make a good ally he basically describes a role that’s already filled by Tamama? Having a cute appearance, but becoming violent when you get too close. Actually Pandas aren’t especially aggressive towards humans, they have attacked them, but usually out of irritation (Dolphins would fit the cute yet deadly bit better than a Panda, some species such as the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin hunt for sport).

Having said that I’m guessing the Zoo they visit is based on the Ueno Zoo since that Zoo is located in Tokyo and did have a Panda at the time; though that Panda was male, also the Elephants they had during the war died of starvation, there’s a memorial, and a historically inaccurate picture book about it and everything

Episode 33: Now this one is interesting, my goal is to be a director/producer of animation (I’ve actually been working on a story board for a fan project) so I always enjoy a peek into the production process, especially for shows. It’s doubly interesting since the process they show is very different from in North America where the voice acting is typically done first, while the method shown here has it as the last step (it must make dubbing foreign shows easier though, if you usually do something similar anyway)

Though there are a couple of options for a difficult to draw pose that weren’t in here that I remember from the classes I took, one is taking a picture so you don’t have to have a model standing for as long. The other is a bit controversial considering the sensibilities I’ve seen from some fan artists, but it’s something called a swipe file. Basically it’s a collection of pictures that that catch your interest that you can use for inspiration, reference and things you can’t get to look right. I know some people don’t approve, but some professionals do actually trace poses and details they have trouble with, especially if it’s something like key animation where you have to make a large number of drawings in a short period of time with nothing to work off of (in-between animation is easier since you’re working off the key drawings and most of the image is the same once you figure out how the character will go from pose a to pose b, and the inking stage of cel animation even more so, enough that Walt Disney replaced the entire inking depart with photocopy machines after Sleeping Beauty released in theaters because the film did poorly and the studio was in financial trouble as a result). If nothing else it’s a good way to practice since you can build muscle memory.

I just wanted to mention this since I remember a while back in another fandom that a lot of people were scandalised when it came out that one artist known for drawing comics had been using screenshots to get the basic pose he built the character on top of and I thought people’s reactions were a bit unfair given how quickly he had been putting his comics together. Especially since nobody was bothered by vector tracing and it’s apparently something that the animation industry has done for years (Some actually do more than that, I remember reading a book from overseas that mentioned a possible shortcut for monochrome pieces of keeping a stack of travel and real estate brochures and catelogues to cut out background from. That I don’t know if you’d be able to do here though)

Episode 34: Oh I remember this one, to be honest I prefer the ending in the anime version, not just because everyone gets to go, but also because it acknowledges the fact that Keroro never needed a ticket to begin with (on a side note, I feel the Tamama shaped canon on Momoka’s powered suit is a fun little touch).

As for part 2, actually I don’t think I’ve watched either part of this episode very many times, but watching it again I’m surprised that one Duet with Keroro & Fuyuki doesn’t play, the one about finding a pebble while walking....Having said that I remember back when I first watched the series, the song boulevard of broken dreams played on the radio a lot and I think this episode was the reason for a parody that always popped into my head of Keroro singing it as “Boulevard of broken plates” (By the way, the best way to fix ceramics is to moisten it and use crazy glue; it needs moisture to stick so running it under the faucet should work)

Episode 35: It’s the birthday episode! I remember this inspiring an entire discussion trying to work out the approximate Birthdays of each character based on astrology (Fuyuki & Momoka have actual hints since we see their birthdays celebrated; Fuyuki’s is likely mid-October and Momoka’s in late March) we actually worked out a few, though I remember we had trouble with Dororo, Mois, Koyuki & Saburo & I’m not sure what we ultimately settled on.

Having said that Keroro’s does fit really well, there’s one person my family knows (the mother of my closest friend growing up) who has her birthday the day before Keroro’s and there are certain....similarities in their behaviour (To give you an idea, my mom first met her when I was in kindergarten and she asked my mom to be the emergency contact for her son who was in my class and my mom agreed to avoid her asking someone dangerous)

Also the gifts Giroro gives Natsumi are space versions of the items the title character of Kaguya Hime asks five suitors (one per suitor) to bring her to win her hand in marriage, in the end all of them fail since the tasks were supposed to be near impossible (it was more to stop them bothering her parents). Either way Giroro’s comment that he casually picked them up for her would probably have been a bit more believable if he had taken that claw/fang out of his head first....just a thought.

#keroro gunso #sgt frog #Year of Keroro Challenge

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mrandyzavala · 7 years

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The OLD Dolphins

There are definitely many reasons why I consider myself lucky. One of those reasons is that I've had the pleasure of knowing more than my fair share of Old Lady Dolphins. Considering today is Mother's Day in the U.S., I think today's topic is pretty fitting. In fact, I'd like to go even further and talk about a very special lady I got to know at my last job.

Happy mother's day!

There are probably many of you dolphin trainers (extant and extinct) who will know exactly who I'm talking about....and you probably have a lot of stories of your own to share. So PLEASE do.

#goals

First, let's just talk about Old Lady Dolphins (herein referred to as OLDs*). I have written about a few of these gals before (Nellie, Pebbles, Panama, Delilah) but I feel like it's worth revisiting the classification of this very special personality type.

Second, some of you work with social animals who are matriarchal in nature (I'm really looking at you, elephant keepers). What I write today may ring true for some of the golden girls in your life, so correct me if I make this too specific to dolphins, but....

....dolphins are "special". Like, they are the High Maintenance Animal of the universe. I haven't talked to any extinct species, but I would be utterly shocked if we found out that deinonychus or wooly mammoths were as ridiculously dramatic as dolphins. I mean, dolphins as a family are pretty successful evolutionarily speaking. So the whole diva thing must really be working for them.

THAT'S what she was trying to tell me?!

This is not just a personality trait, people. While I will admit there are laid back dolphins, most of them are basically insane. Bottlenose dolphins are top predators. They are so good at what they do in the wild that they have tons of free time on their hands to terrify sharks who are just trying to do shark things, like breathe, eat, and avoid human beings. Dolphins also have a lot of sex, like to the point where I feel like it must offend other ocean creatures who struggle every day just to put food in their bellies and/or not die.

We all know that the ocean is not a quiet place, and not just because Chatty Cathy dolphins live in it. We know that the other vertebrates and invertebrates who populate the seas make noise a lot. Why? Oh, I'll tell you why, and I don't need a PhD in marine blah blah blah to know that 96% of oceanic animal sounds are essentially just a bunch of critters pointing out how annoying dolphins are.

Parrot fish: Oh great, there go the dolphins again

Sailfish: If I see one more dolphin penis I'm gonna gag

Menhaden: How DO they find the time?

All day all night

But life is balance, right? You may have dolphins acting like the confident, world rulers that they are....but they also poop their figurative pants because a bubble appeared 78 feet away from their left eye (little known fact: this is unacceptable to many dolphins). Oh yes, there is another side to this coin. If there wasn't, how could dolphins survive more than a few months without having major stress-related strokes and/or psychotic breaks?

OLDs.

"HEY. HEY YOU"

OLDs are around to calm the waters, literally and figuratively. They are the emotional bomb squad of the dolphin world. If things have gotten entirely out of hand (you know, Flippy can't possibly sit next to Dolly, because she once moved her head too suddenly and plus she totally stole Flippy's football four years ago), you can almost always count on an OLD to settle the score.

Flippy: Oh my god seriously, if I have to station next to Dolly I am seriously going to flip out

Dolly: OMG OMG OMG OMG OKAY I WILL NEVER STATION NEAR YOU OR AROUND YOU OR IN THE SAME POOL IN FACT I WILL JUST NEVER STATION AGAIN I WILL JUST SIT IN THE CORNER AND BARF

Flippy: GOOD! But I'm still going to chase you just because I CAN

OLD: Listen. Both of you better grow the eff up, because I will use all 600 pounds of my beautiful self to set you straight

Oh, did I mention that most OLDs are huge? Like, huge. Maybe 100 pounds heavier than the other animals. Nellie had rock hard abs, not even kidding.

How DOES she find the time?

They command respect, but not usually through aggression (although it may come to that in extreme cases). OLDs use leadership skills that many animal trainers could stand to follow once they get a senior or supervisor title next to their names (sorry not sorry, it's true). Most of the time, they are the dolphin everyone wants to be with. They are the dolphin that swims past and everyone just stares in admiration. And when someone steps out of line, they do the least amount of nastiness possible, returning quickly to their calm, wonderful selves.

Got the picture? Good. Now let's talk about Nani.

Squeeeeeee

Nani was the oldest dolphin at National Aquarium, who unfortunately passed away a couple of months ago. I was privileged to get to know her, and work with her. Um. Work FOR her.

Nani was the queen of the clan. She had a way about her that made all mammals near her - humans and dolphins alike- instantly fall in love. Maybe it was her gorgeous, dark skin. Maybe it was her little teddy bear eyes. Or maybe it was because she was smarter than everyone she knew.

"Did you get my snacks yet?"

While I only worked with her for eight short months, I racked up a good amount of Nani stories in which I was further made aware of my puny standing as a naked ape. For example, like many OLDs, she had figured out that hanging on to her toys at the end of the day meant she would get an extra snack. However, she was one of the only OLDs I knew who would approach you, let go of her toy and place it JUST out of reach, and try to house the extra fish you were feeding the other dolphins for stationing. And you know what?

Not a single dolphin dared taking that toy. Every other place I have worked, if anyone (OLD or otherwise) let go of a contraband toy, someone else snatched it up. But not with Nani. Those rare times another dolphin attempted to steal the leverage, Nani pulled her Boss Lady card and the mistake was not repeated.

Yes, Miss Nani.

She also completely controlled husbandry training of her kids. Her adult kids. Now, that might not surprise some of you when you think about how female bottlenose dolphins stay with their moms their entire lives in most cases. So yeah, when her daughter Spirit was in a blood layout, Nani would sometimes come over and yell at both human and dolphin, causing Spirit to kick out of the layout. Pretty sure Nani knew this maneuver would result in lots of splashing that filled up our boots with water so we had gross, soggy whitefeet for the entire day.

Actual dolphin trainer foot

But she also did this with her adult son. As is typical, Nani did not live with her adult son Beau. And still, when he was in a blood layout, she would interfere in some way from entirely different habitats. And he, the obedient momma's boy, would immediately stop what he was doing, as if he was just caught doing something wrong.

Nani: BEAU! BEAU BEAU. ARE YOU IN A BLOOD LAYOUT IN THERE?

Beau: NO! No ma! I don't know what you're talking about, I would never do that! No!

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. You don't let those two-legged freaks touch your precious flukes."

There were many attempts to smooth this issue with training, with some success. According to trainers who had been there a while, Nani had gotten much better and most times, you could work your husbandry approximations without interference. Correction: whatever we did made Nani comfortable ALLOWING us to continue. But every once in a while, she had to remind all of us who was really in charge.

Like all OLDs I knew, she was extremely maternal. Not just towards dolphins, either. She stared at human babies like they belonged to her. Maybe that creeps some of you put, but I thought it was pretty adorable.

Nani (left) and her daughter Spirit staring at me and my daughter!

Nani filled a lot of hearts over a long period of time. She was an extremely bright, confident animal who knew how to keep a family together. Her loss was and still is profoundly felt. She is definitely one of the most memorable OLDs I have ever met. And if you never had the honor of knowing her, I hope you feel like you knew her after reading this.

Thank you, sweet Nani.

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OMG...I so did NOT even intend for that acronym to work out so perfectly. I'd love to have you all believe I'm some sort of English wordsmith genius but too many of you know me for who I really am: a former dolphin trainer who really wishes she was R2D2.

from The Middle Flipper http://ift.tt/2pLeogv

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