Tumgik
#absolutely phenomenal work from the animation team on this one
glasswingowl · 1 month
Text
Tumblr media
ep 7 spoilers under the cut
oooo snazzy new intro! love it
the fucking for rent banner lmao
OH
NORI MOMENT INCOMING
THE FUCKING SHADOW CLAWS SICK AS HELL
"get 048" awww friends :3
THEY KEEP THEM IN LOCKERS??
uh where did the sentinels go
oh you are so dead dude
OH THIS IS SO COOL
potential nori moment??? that's gotta be nori right??
hehehe crab
n instantly trying to go back for v ;-;
uzi ;-;
"robots like boxes, right?" tessa. bro. not cool.
oh SHIT
bonk
THAD AND LIZZY THAD AND LIZZY THAD AND LIZZY BELIEVERS WIN
v????
"i deserve this" n sweetie no!!!
oh not this again
AAAA-
THE FUCKING POSTERS-
????
OH. IT WAS THEM. THEY DESTROYED EARTH.
wait why didn't tessa mention this earlier? seems kind of important, no?
homegirls been taking flying lessons! good for her!
FUCKING NIGHTCORE????
oh here it comes. time to meet mama, uzi
Tumblr media
:O
"you look familiar" uhhh. that's not a good thing
"I'm looking for a hunk named Khan" CONFIRMED NORI EVERYONE STAY CALM
"HOW DO YOU KNOW MY DAUGHTER" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
oh it's just j. disappointing.
forgot how much i loved lizzy
Khan??
"MY WIFE"
"having interests beyond cannibalism and NIGHTCORE-"
i take back everything bad i ever said about khan he is the best
oh hey tessa's alive- what the fuck is she doing
SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHO ARE ALIVE
wait wdym you don't know??
"not sure it needs you, buddy" what the fuck is that supposed to mean?
FNAF JUMPSCARE
YEVAAAAAAA
i'm choosing to believe that yeva is mute until proven otherwise
hand cutting again!! (is that meant to be a parallel to n and uzi? because if so...)
aww- o shit. well that explains that
I love nori. so much
poor doll.
y'know when everyone was coming up with predictions for nori's personality, i don't think anyone really guessed "AN EXACT COPY OF HER DAUGHTER" she even tells people to bite her!
i'm too lazy to copy the get a job stay away from her image just pretend it's here again
OH. OH HE JUST FKICING. well that's one way of picking a side
;-;- oh this is the hand scene wait no
SHIT
"your backups will forgive me" oh so he's just a plaything to her just like he was to tessa. man he just CANNOT catch a break can he
NORIIIIIII!
"you're frickin grounded" nori ma'am i love you
oh this is SICK AS HELL
slap
I HAVE TOO MANY THINGS TO DAY ABOUT THIS FIGHT SO IM JUST GONNA SCREAM AAAAAAA
THE CAMERA CIRCLING AROUND A CHARACTER DEFENDING THEMSELVES FROM PROJECTILES/ENEMIES IS ALWAYS COOL I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIME I SEE IT
N-
N YOU FUCKIN DUMBASS
solvers hate her! free you daughter from possession by forcing her to confront her relationship with her sort-of boyfriend!
THE FUCKING DELIVERY ON THIS SCENE IM DYING
oh ;-;
wait. WAIT WHAT
OH GOD OH FUCK. YOU GUYS WERE RIGHT.
Y'ALL AREN'T ALLOWED TO LAUGH AT ME FOR MIXING UP TESSA AND CYN THAT ONE TIME ANYMORE.
i can't tell if this is an effective compromise for the whole "wanting to see what tessa looks like vs no visible human characters" debate
still, sick as hell, and very on brand for liam vickers.
OH SHIT-
LMAOOOO-
WHAT THIS? BY GOD, IT'S KHAN, LIZZY AND THAD WITH THE STEEL CHAIRS!
"prior hazard" yeah you'd know wouldn't you
MYSTERY FLESH PIT
OH THIS. THIS FUCKING SCENE
uh.
OH. OH. THIS IS A HALLUCINATION RIGHT-
AND IT ENDS THERE????
16 notes · View notes
alexzalben · 1 year
Text
Netflix Announces All-New Scott Pilgrim Anime Series, Original Cast of 2010 Cult Film Returns to Voice
The original cast of SCOTT PILGRIM will return for a new anime series on Netflix, from writers/showrunners/EPs Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, as well as EP Edgar Wright.
Tumblr media
Michael Cera is SCOTT PILGRIM and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is RAMONA FLOWERS
Satya Bhabha is MATTHEW PATEL
Kieran Culkin is WALLACE WELLS
Chris Evans is LUCAS LEE
Anna Kendrick is STACEY PILGRIM
Brie Larson is ENVY ADAMS
Alison Pill is KIM PINE
Aubrey Plaza is JULIE POWERS
Brandon Routh is TODD INGRAM
Jason Schwartzman is GIDEON GRAVES
Johnny Simmons is YOUNG NEIL
Mark Webber is STEPHEN STILLS
Mae Whitman is ROXIE
Ellen Wong is KNIVES CHAU
“We’re getting the band back together! Cera and Winstead, Bhabha, Culkin, Evans, Kendrick, Larson, Pill, Plaza, Routh, Schwartzman, Simmons, Webber, Whitman and Wong. A stellar cast, perfectly assembled by Edgar Wright. And, with Science SARU leading the phenomenal animation, we couldn’t ask for a better team for this adventure,” said Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski. “We can’t wait for fans and newcomers alike to see what we and our partners at Science SARU have been cooking up. It’s going to be a wild ride.”
Executive Producer Edgar Wright added, “One of the proudest and most enjoyable achievements of my career was assembling and working with the dynamite cast of Scott Pilgrim. Since the film’s release in 2010 we’ve done Q&A’s, remembrances and charity read throughs, but there was never the occasion to reunite the whole gang on an actual project. Until now... Original creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, along with writer BenDavid Grabinski have conjured up an anime series of Scott Pilgrim that doesn’t just expand the universe, but also…well, just watch it. I’m more than happy to announce that I have helped coax the entire original cast back to voice their characters on this epic new adventure. You are in for a treat.”
“It's official: we've been obsessed with Scott Pilgrim! This series has been a wild ride, full of fresh and thrilling experiences for everyone at Science SARU. Working with such amazing artists and animators under the visionary leadership of director Abel Gongora has been an absolute dream come true,” said executive producer Eunyoung Choi. “Our team is over the moon about bringing the Scott Pilgrim world to life. We can hardly contain our excitement - this is going to be epic!”
youtube
188 notes · View notes
Text
NOBLE Team headcanons and other things I rotate in my mind
from the top:
The Team as a whole
holy shit did a lot of them die
like, until the final roster got locked in, NOBLEs three, four, and five would constantly drop like flies.
the final roster in question is also entirely made up of human cockroaches
it's basically already spelled out that NOBLE is a joint-ops team on loan from the Navy to the Army, but I like to think that their distance from ONI and the rest of the SPARTANs gives them a bit of street cred amongst the Shock Infantry battalions
NOBLE One, Commander Carter-A259
Carter was definitely the first person chosen to "be on" NOBLE Team, but he's not exactly the first member, if that makes any sense. does that make sense?
speaks with a Dutch accent because his homeworld was colonized by South Africans
He's a father figure to some of the others. In another life, he'd be wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron and would simply stay at home to take care of the kids while his high-powered girlboss wife goes to work
If he wasn't a SPARTAN, He'd probably still join the armed forces. I can see him as a high ranking non-com officer. maybe an ODST.
His rank!! So, in the UNSC command structure, a Commander usually has authority over a small line warship (usually a frigate). Not only that, but SPARTAN authority usually trumps that of most officers of the same rank. in summary, Carter's definitely pulled rank in order to commandeer a frigate at some point in his career. probably at Kat's request.
Runs the hottest body temp somehow
NOBLE Two, Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320 "Kat"
She's the real first member of the team.
She absolutely got put there by Ackerson so Carter could keep her out of trouble and stop her from breaching his computer.
It did not work
Speaking of, she and Carter HATED each other for the first few months. I know this, it was revealed to me
They ended up getting fucking shitfaced together after a mission and talked all about their feelings and emotions so now she and Carter pretty much move in synch. they are drift compatible
She can hold her alcohol a lot better than he can though lmao
best at opening locked doors (hacking)
Kat is, most ironically, ambidextrous
She'd FOR SURE be an ODST if she wasn't a SPARTAN. She's too much of a high-powered girlboss to do anything remotely normal
NOBLE Three, Warrant Officer Jun-A266
somehow more catlike than the team member literally named that
likes to lay down on sunny rocks :)
also can't handle liquor for shit
best at opening locked doors (lockpicking)
would not be in the armed forces. he'd be some rich heiress' boytoy in the inner colonies.
...dare I say babygirl?
NOBLE Four (1), Warrant Officer Emile-A239
the only member not technically reassigned to the unit
they found him by pure coincidence half-dead, surrounded by corpses
Jun immediately pack-bonded with him
he's surprisingly kind of normal, actually. he just thinks skulls look cool
second physically strongest member of the team behind Jorge
best at opening locked doors (kicking them off their hinges)
sure, he could be a phenomenal ODST, but to be honest I think this guy would be a crewman on some support vessel in the Navy, maybe.
NOBLE Five, Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052
second to last member of the final roster.
everyone else on the team initially thought that he'd been transferred in to replace Carter
not quite a father figure. More of an uncle, but not biologically - like it's mom's college friend but he still gets the title
went clean shaven randomly one time and gave Kat a heart attack
god could this man make a fucking stew
he'd probably work in a refugee assistance organization if he wasn't a SPARTAN.
NOBLE Six (1), Warrant Officer Thom-A293
not part of the original team, but got transferred like six months in
very cheerful guy
A bit of a yapper
friends with all sorts of animals but Carter doesn't let him keep any :(
if not a SPARTAN, he'd be a cartoonist
NOBLE Six (2), Lieutenant [REDACTED]-B312
if NOBLE Team is a found family, Six is the dog
Has a UNICOM rank instead of a NAVCOM rank specifically because Ackerson didn't want any oversight in Six's operations (also because bungie forgor)
Probably knows Halsey is Miranda Keyes' mom, or at least would if not for forgetting it.
kind of a dumbass because who needs to know shit if your job is killing people and blowing shit up???
14 notes · View notes
real-life-senshi · 11 months
Text
This is @the Keiko haters out there.
(And yes I am venting coz this needs to be said)
I went and rushed to get the old clip of Keiko and Kotono in the variety show subtitled because I learnt Keiko was receiving some hate for landing the Sailor Cosmos role, and I think that is absolutely stupid and trash especially when no one has actually seen her performance yet because THE FILM HASN'T even been released! (NO, one line from a trailer does NOT count.)
While Keiko is primarily a TV show and movie actress, this is not her first rodeo voice acting in animation films.There was also The Magic Tree House (2012) and Anpanman: Dororin and the Transforming Carnival (2022).
Just because someone wanted another VA, possibly a more recognized or acclaimed VA to voice Sailor Cosmos doesn’t give them the right to bash the actual voice cast chosen by the producers.
Besides, people saying Keiko took the role from Kotono is such bullshit??!!!! Kotono is already voicing Usagi and Chibi Chibi, like that’s already such a big part of the film? Kotono is amazing, but at some point there is only so much on screen chemistry that can be achieved doing lines against a different variation of your own voice?!!!!!
The fact that Kotono took the extra step and said Keiko is “brave” and “thoughtful” on Twitter? You bet they all monitor the public’s reaction and Kotono is making a stance to show her support by recognizing the work Keiko has put in voicing Cosmos.
Kotono and Keiko have so much respect for each other and have a good, positive relationship! It’s very possible Kotono had a hand in Keiko landing the voice acting offer. (No, I’m speculating, there’s no source, but often big time cast members are asked for their opinion before production crew sends out offers, like RDJ had a hand in Tom Holland getting Spider-man.)
Just, fucking grow up people. Keiko shouldn’t have to apologize for a job offer she received that she’s excited and was already nervous for. Girl has so much love and respect for the Sailor Moon franchise she went and asked her live action Senshi team for thoughts when she received the offer because she wasn’t sure she should take it. She was practically gushing talking about the opportunity, about Kotono and about the live action in the stage greet event Q&A!!!!
I get being critical of her performance if she didn’t necessarily meet your expectation, but give her a chance to prove herself!
She was phenomenal and, dare I say, the best part in the live-action. She’d definitely have given 120% in her voice work, that I have no doubt!
24 notes · View notes
twistedtummies2 · 4 months
Text
Year of the Bat - Number 30
Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. EPISODE QUOTE: “My, my. Can we actually have a brain beneath that pointy cowl of ours?” Number 30 is…If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
Tumblr media
This episode acts as the first appearance and origin story for Edward Nygma, a.k.a. the Riddler. The story begins with Nygma working as a programmer and video game designer for an electronics company, run by a greedy sod by the name of Daniel Mockridge. Nygma has created a best-selling puzzle-based video game, called “Riddle of the Minotaur,” where players have to traverse through the legendary labyrinth of the Minotaur, evading various traps and solving various puzzles along the way. Mockridge fires Nygma, who – due to a loophole in his contract – loses all rights to the game and any legal grounds to even receive royalties. Furious, Nygma adopts the guise of the villainous Riddler, and goes on a quest of vengeance against his old employer. The Riddler, for those who don’t know, has always been one of my absolute favorite Batman villains – second only to the Joker himself. (I should also add this was LONG before Paul Dano’s version; I liked the Riddler before it was cool, as the kids say.) I think that John Glover’s portrayal, from the animated series, might have been the very first version of the Riddler I ever saw. I remember renting a VHS tape from a Blockbuster as a little boy (yeah, anyone remember those things?) which had two of Riddler’s episodes on the tape. Both of those episodes, perhaps not coincidentally, are on this main countdown. You would think, with all that said, that this first outing for the criminal genius would be much higher in the ranks. Well, it’s hard to say why, because there’s certainly a lot to enjoy about this episode. Glover’s smug and smarmy Nygma is one of the chief versions of the character out there, and set the standard which many later incarnations – both in and out of comics – would look to for inspiration. The team behind the animated series took a character who had been perceived as “a two-bit gimmick villain” and transformed him into one of the Dark Knight’s cleverest and most cunning adversaries. The tricks and traps (and, of course, the riddles) that the Riddler uses in the story are also pretty ingenious. I also have to say that the ending of this episode is just phenomenal; one of my favorites in the entire show. I won’t give away what it is, but trust me, it’s great. I think the big issue is the Riddler’s origin itself. I like the idea of the Riddler being a programmer and game designer, and they use that to great effect in later stories, too. It’s also something that’s continued to be part of the character, with him being gifted with electronics and technology. However, I feel the turning point for the character doesn’t quite match: while it’s clear that Nygma always had a high opinion of his own mind, and loathed humiliation, it’s hard for me, personally, to make the jump from “disgruntled employee” to “highly theatrical supervillain,” at least in the way the episode presents. The animation is also sort of…iffy, to say the least. Most of the episode looks pretty good, but there are some scenes where the animation or the shots feel a bit “messy,” or a bit “stiff,” for lack of a better word. Still, these are minor nitpicks on the whole: for a first outing of my second favorite Batman villain, this certainly made a good impression. I probably wouldn’t like the Riddler as much as I do now if it weren’t for this episode.
Tumblr media
Tomorrow we move on to Number 29! Hint: “The final stunt IS the best.”
8 notes · View notes
vanadisvalentine · 1 year
Text
RWBY Volume 9 Episode 10: Of Solitude and Self
i have thoughts. here are some of those thoughts.
I am going...to try and keep this in chronological order, but it's midnight, and I tend to ramble the longer I've been awake. So bear with me.
First off, okay, so we're definitely going to get details of exactly what happened with Summer later down the line. Presumably, she, Raven, and Qrow ('cause who else would Raven have portaled too yanno), along with maybe some others who knows, went on the offensive vs Mommy Salami and things didn't work out. If that's the case, boy does that color Qrow's character even further. It's no wonder he used to stay far away from the people he cares about. Also wow Raven nice to see you again, been a couple of volumes.
I'm glad that Rubes got to have a sort of posthumous pep-talk from her mother, even if it's something as simple as "I love you the way you are". I appreciate that she didn't need to be talk-no-jutsu'd into getting the theme of the volume, but rather it's a conclusion she came to herself. After a whole volume of seeing her all morose and depressed, it put the biggest smile on my face to see her finally accept that she is Ruby Rose, and that's all she's ever needed to be.
On a less profound note
WHOOOO RED LIKE ROSES PART III FUCK YEAH BABY THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT. Whoever animated that first little sequence of Ruby going ham on the cat with Crescent Rose? I want to kiss you. You deserve the world. Brings me right back to volume 1. (Was it Arryn? I feel like it was Arryn considering how much they love Soul Eater but I can't remember if they've done any combat sequences aaaah)
The Cat got the shit kicked out of them in a great team fight. Doing a whole ass 5 v 1, even with someone as formidable as the CC in the fray, couldn't have been easy to choreograph, so props to the whole team on that one for making it feel sick. The Cat is a bit of a more tragic character in retrospect with the tale the Blacksmith told (also--the Ever After is the primordial world? The Brothers didn't make it? Shit, color me surprised), but at the same time...yeah RIP Bozo.
'Twas curiosity that killed the cat or something like that idk
The fuckin piano reprise of This Will Be the Day oh my GOOOOOD. Chills. The music in this volume has been absolutely phenomenal. Of course there are the vocal tracks, but the score??? Martin Gonzalez you beautiful man. Bless your heart, bless your body, bless your soul.
Neo. Neo Neo Neo. Neopolitan, baby girl...I'm gonna miss you, as I'm sure a lot of people will. Even the people who hate this show like you because you're just so much fun. I remember back in the day when I was a kid and unironically used the word waifu to describe female characters I was fixated on, you were my precious little Ice Cream Wife and I would burn the world for you. It's so weird thinking about your origins as a character (Inspired by a genderbent Torchwick cosplay, Monty threw you in at the last second in order to not have to animate Torchwick escaping...though I'm sure there's more to it than that), to how you've progressed, to where you are now. This is the last we're gonna get of you for now, I'm sure. But at the same time, I can totally see you showing up for the final fight vs Salem or Cinder or whoever to get your licks in. You were a welcome addition this volume, even if you DID drive Ruby to drink the Bad Tea. It's hard to hate you when you're so fucking cute.
I am...not going to pretend to not be a little disappointed that Boomer Jaune was but a temporary thing. When The Blacksmith was talking about Alyx fixing what she'd broken, I was expecting like, idk, his sword to be repaired, but I quickly realized that she wasn't even the one who did that, and then I was like "oh no" and before I knew it, BAM back at it again with the yee-yee ass haircut. At least next volume comes with new designs so we won't have to deal with that any longer. I appreciate the streaks of grey, symbolizing that it's not like he's regressed in any way, but...Jauney Boy, get that wolf's tail back. You rocked that shit.
That's all I can bring myself to write down for now. I'm sure I'll be talking about this episode--and this whole volume--for a WHILE. I'm gonna sit on it for a bit, but I think it might take volume 6's spot for my favorite of the bunch, which is impressive because volume 6 is hella good y'all. Thank you so much to the crew (GOD I hope certain people who worked on this volume return for the next one, I could feel the love they have for the craft and for this show and I've adored getting to see their thoughts on each episode as it aired these past few weeks) and everyone involved in bringing to us. It's been rough lately, that's for sure, but I mean it when I say that RWBY is one of my favorite shows out there, and I wish nothing but the best for its future and the future of everyone who brought it to life.
now I wait probably about a year or so to see Nora/Ren/Sun's reaction to Blake and Yang finally getting together. Until then, I will drown myself in fanfiction.
21 notes · View notes
giornosaiyaman · 1 year
Text
unpopular opinion TCW time
AV Club’s Kevin Johnson once said he feels TCW starts going downhill post season 2, and I unfortunately agree with him-though he has changed his opinion over time.
For context, I hate Dave Filoni and love Genndy Tartakovsky.
Here is my take on TCW:
The TCW movie is underrated and a solid B+. Yes it has animation issues, but it also functions really well as the series pilot. It does a great job developing Anakin and Obi Wan’s friendship, Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship, and Ahsoka’s psychology. She’s impulsive, hotheaded, slightly rebellious, and insecure. She really feels like a walking talking avatar of George’s love for teen rebellion-the Korra to Luke’s Aang. Her rebellious nature forces Anakin to mature, just like George wanted when he assigned her to him-yes really.
Throughout the movie, Ahsoka overcompensates for her insecurity. This overcompensation grates on Anakin throughout the film. Eventually, he asks her why she’s acting so unruly, prompting her to reveal her insecurity. This motivates Anakin to reassure her, which again, solidify their big brother little sister relationship and reveal Anakin’s maturity and compassion to the audience.
This scene is hands down the best scene in the film. 
To make matters better, a phenomenal voice cast does a great job brining all of this solid character work to life. Although his British accent could be better, James Arnold Taylor brings so much charm, life, and humor to Obi wan. Matt Lanter injects Anakin with infectious senses of humanity and charisma, and Dee Bradley Baker does masterful work as the clones-even though his casting choice is problematic to say the least.
And of course Ashley Eckstein absolutely shines as Ahsoka. She delivers a truly phenomenal child hero performance, second only to Mark Hamil himself imo. 
Now onto the show proper.
IMO Season 1 of TCW is the best of the bunch. Yeah, it makes some narrative mistakes-it sucks how Filoni nerfed the regular battle droids and grievous-but, for the most part, it didn’t mess with the prior established canon-with the exception of the godawful lair of Grievous-The writing team was-dare I say it-CREATIVE. A Filoni series being creative? What a novel concept.
Back then, the great Henry Gilroy-who worked on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go and Batman TAS-and Steven Melching-who would later work on Transformers Prime-headed up the writing. They alongside Lucas reigned in Filoni. Furthermore, they, alongside talented writers such as the great Paul Dini and Katie Lucas, delivered some really well done one of stories: Tresspass, Ambush, Rookies, Hostage Crisis, Cloak of Darkness, the Malevolence trilogy, Jedi Crash, the Ryloth arc, mystery of a thousand moons and so on. Gilroy-who unfortunately penned lair of Grievous-and Melching had years of experience writing comics and episodes of tv animation under their belts, and you can feel that experience all over TCW season one. It feels like a really well done SW anthology comic in animated form. I wish the entire show was like that. No bloated arcs, no messing with the prior established canon, no rehashing material from Micro series. Just fun, thoughtful, one of episodes. Once Gilroy and Melching left, Filoni took over, and things go to poop.
Not to mention, to paraphrase, Anti Anakin, Ahsoka genuinely shines in season one and season 2-with the exception of lightsaber lost-as the audience surrogate.  Ahsoka works larelgy because the writers try to make her feel like an actual teenager rather than an idealized version of a teen. That said, her depiction can unfortunately come off as somewhat stereotypical and dated by modern standards. Furthermore, the writers occasionally take her “hot headed, rebel teen” character too far-think her stupid interrogation of Gunray for instance. Before we discuss the later seasons, let’s discuss the animation, although the movie and show suffer from stiff, weightless, animation and unimpressive posing, the actual artwork-delivered by the great Killian Plunkett-looks fantastic. When adapting Genndy’s style to 3D, the crew wisely tweaked his designs to look like oil painted wooden puppets-a la Team America-and the style simply works. It fits SW’s living painting aesthetic and pulp sci fi tone like a glove, and it straddles cg animation’s weakness of making human beings look like plastic toys. Furthermore, the crew supports the style with beautiful matte painted environments, and painterly lighting and character texturing-those last two elements were delivered by the truly talented Joel Aron in the later seasons.
Now back to the writing.
Season 2 has some really good episodes, but it’s also when Filoni’s gigantic ego, obsession with Ahsoka, and lack of creativity start rearing their ugly heads.
The good stuff in season 2 includes the cad bane trilogy, the boba fett arc, bounty hunters, the Zilo beast two parter, the last 3 episodes of Geonosis-landing on point rain bores me, and the deserter. Unfortunately, it also contains garbage like the mando stuff-I don’t like Karen Travis, but it doesn’t excuse what Filoni did to her, and a direct rehash of microseries in the form of the stupid cat and mouse.
Season 3 has good eps like heroes on both sides, clone cadets, but the cracks really begin to expand here. The show rips off microseries during the mortis arc-Anakin has ANOTHER vision of Vader, really Filoni-Ahsoka begins to transform from a really well done if dated portrayal of a teenager into a downright problematic “hero” whose faults go unpunished by the narrative, the show bastardizes the original backstory of the night sisters, and character assassinates Quinlan Vos.
Season 4 features the show stopping umbara, maul, Ventress,  and Obi wan undercover arcs-that last one loses points for throwing in a pointless Dooku fight.  However, it also throws in THREE unimaginative and pointless Anakin vs dooki fights, rips off microseries AGAIN with the water war arc, and fails to recognize ahsoka’s cold behavior to Anakin during the zygerrian arc.
Season 5 rips off microseries AGAIN during the youngling arc-for the record I like that arc, but also featured the solid if a bit bloated onderon arc, and the maul and Ahsoka arcs.
I want to love those last two arcs, but they are built on some immoral story choices. The maul arc relies on s2′s mando story and the s3 nughtsisters arc-both of which steamrolled the eu. Meanwhile, the wrong jedi arc, which has my favorite moment in all of fiction-Ahsoka leaving the order, character assassinates Barris.
S6 features the eu steamrolling fives arc, the problematic Clovis arc, the ok jar jar arc, and the darth bane disrespecting yoda arc.
Let’s not bother with Rebels seasons 2-4 or TCW Season 7.
It’s a shame that such a talented cast and crew were squandered on a talentless asshole like Filoni.
7 notes · View notes
zabiume · 8 months
Note
I saw your post about sports anime and I can see you’re a fan of Kuroko no basket. I haven’t watched it or read it but from what I’ve seen it does look good. Are there any other sport animes/mangas you like apart from KNK ?
i am OBSESSED with kuroko (the series and the character), i watched half of it for the first time when i was around 14 but i never got around to finishing it, and then last year i decided to give it another go and my life has never been the same since.
i always say this about knb, but it's one of those shows that's extremely hit or miss. the people that love it REALLY love it, but it doesn't work for everyone! for me, personally, the strong characterizations and character arcs are what pulled me in and i loved the themes the show was trying to touch on, even if it doesn't always execute them perfectly! it's so fun and flawed and since it's only 3 seasons long, i rewatch it frequently 😅 it helps that the VAs seemed to have a lot of fun doing it and the OSTs are phenomenal – genuinely some of the best i've ever heard! i also think it's the perfect example of a series that has a protagonist and deuteragonist and actually knows what to do with that duo throughout the show. the story is kagami's just as much as it is kuroko's and their individual arcs really tie the whole thing together in a way that is just so fun! the partnership carries the series. it also has amazing antagonist redemption arcs in the first half of the series...god i just love a lot of the characters' arcs and resolutions so much!
i liked the anime better than the manga, though i've heard some fans say some of the characters are more one-dimensional in the anime (i disagree, but i'm not going to bore you with the details!)
ANYWAY. other than that, i have – extremely slowly – been reading the manga 'real' by takehiko inoue and it is just an absolute masterpiece about a bunch of boys with disabilities playing basketball! if knb is a silly show that is extremely flawed but you love it anyway, real is a classic. it has amazing characters, a really grounded story, and the art is so BREATHTAKINGLY beautiful, you will not believe it! inoue is so good at drawing people! as someone who used to love barbara gordon from the batman comics, it's really refreshing to read about disabled characters written thoughtfully again! after i'm done i'm going to try slam dunk, obviously, but it'll probably take me a while to finish it since the 'real' manga is still ongoing.
i tried giving haikyuu a go a few years ago but couldn't get into it (same with yuri on ice). nothing against either of the two, they just didn't grab me. i've been wanting to read a girls-centric sports manga too, but i've only done limited research on that so far and haven't seen anything that interested me all that much.
[side note: this is not an anime but a tv show but i really enjoyed yellowjackets, which is a showtime drama about an all-girls soccer team that gets stranded in the woods for 19 months. the actresses are all fantastic and i'm really looking forward to season 3, even if season 2 was a bit of a dud].
4 notes · View notes
tamelee · 2 years
Note
Damn I read some of previous ask/answers and I can't help but wonder why Naruto fandom is so unfortunate and at each other's throats so often. I mean, one thing is disliking a ship of something specific about it, but another haressing fic writers, artists and even original anime staff. I'm not a die hard fan so I'm mostly outside fandom thus I never had any bad experience myself, but from what I saw almost everyone who makes content or metas got harressed at some point. It's basical principle of fandoms: my kink isn't your kink and that's fine + dont like? Don't interact principles
Yes, the more popular the fandom the more this and that people would it attract; one cannot invite sheep without expecting wolves to appear too. But idk what made ppl feel such degree of entitlement and self-righteousness to police others... I honestly hope they're under 16 and would know better when grow up.
On separate note your art is top notch! It's so beautiful :D and I agree about your post how Kishimoto might have planned for Hinata to die at some point bc it'd fill in the gaps of Hyuga slavery thing and Naruto never doing anything regarding her confession
Hi @noa-ciharu !!
lol
“my kink isn't your kink and that's fine”
No, but imagine everyone having the same hand-kink like me. I’d feel sorry for all of you. Also let's keep this a secret.
Half-jokes aside, you’re right! Naruto has such a huge fandom and it never ceased to be even when they robbed us from a satisfying ending or seeing them grow up in their twenties in a way that makes sense. And instead of seeing Naruto work towards becoming Hokage, as there was a lot more to it, we get this bullshit… and yet a lot of us can’t help but read/watch/secretly side-eye his demolished, adult self to see what’ll happen. 
That in itself already says a lot. 
Naruto.. if it had stopped at Chapter 699 or if they left it open-ended in another, similar way, then nothing of the sort would’ve happened. The SNS fandom would’ve been satisfied with the nested story within Naruto as we picked up on it already, SS and NH never happened anyway and for sure the War Arc would’ve turned out differently.  
Right now Naruto and Sasuke are dumbed down only to fit two girls who are in love with them, which means a guy should reciprocate otherwise he’s an asshole, right? Also.. babies. NH aren’t satisfied because Naruto is “a bad father, never at home, doesn’t show love for Hinata” which makes him an asshole anyway they say. SS aren’t satisfied because Sasuke is “a bad father, never at home, doesn’t show love for Sakura” but he isn’t an asshole he’s just Tsundere. (I’m being sarcastic). And non-shippers aren’t satisfied because: what the fuck. 
So I absolutely agree with everything you say! I’m just not surprised that the separation within the fandom has always been so prominent.
By spoon-feeding every single “group” a little bit of ‘content’ here and there with phenomenal timing from the marketing team, that is literally what they’re creating as that is what has been a huge source of income for so long. And the dissatisfaction is what eventually makes them go to Twitter and harass the company for more content.
That’s never okay, but they’re also kind of asking for it since they’re giving it to them easily too and they know it. Soon they’ll come back for more. *Sigh*   
That’s why I never really blame the fandom, not even the wolves. 
 “But idk what made ppl feel such degree of entitlement and self-righteousness to police others…”
Admittedly this is annoying though 😂
“On separate note your art is top notch! It's so beautiful :D” 
Thankyouuuuu so much! 🥰 Drawing wasn’t working out today, but reading this helped me finish my next post (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و💕💕
“and I agree about your post how Kishimoto might have planned for Hinata to die at some point bc it'd fill in the gaps of Hyuga slavery thing and Naruto never doing anything regarding her confession”
I swear, the more I think about it, the more it starts to make sense. Especially when you take out ‘Boruto’ and then go from the beginning. It’s almost perfectly set up.. aaah, I want to make a post about it.
I still think the Naruto fandom is laid-back compared to other fandoms I've been in and really, really quickly left 😂 (I've been in Korea for a few months, I'll take anime over kpop anyday.)
Hope you have a nice day! 🧡~
23 notes · View notes
carriagelamp · 2 years
Text
Tumblr media
Spent a lot of time reading outside in the sun this month, which is, of course, the ultimate bliss of summer. Under the tree, by the lake, while camping, next to the creek...
Blacksad
Tumblr media
Blacksad is a crime noir story following the titular private investigator in the 1950s, though with anthropomorphized animals rather than humans. Like an adult version of Zootopia. I picked up this omnibus of the first three volumes because I was in the middle of playing the PS4 game and quite enjoying the world it laid out, though I ended up having mixed feelings about the series as a whole. It explores some complicated issues of American society during the 1950s, like racism, fascism, and nuclear armament, and since the creators are both Spanish rather than American themselves I liked the sort of outside perspective. It laid things bare in a way that you don’t always get from other works. 
That being said, some of the issues definitely hit weird, the stories often felt like they were trying to tackle more than they had space to actually tell, and the way they portray women is just absolute shit. It’s one of those “the men definitely Are Animals and the women Have A Lil Nose And Maybe Some Non-Descript Animals Ears”. It made the sex scenes VERY uncomfortable, to have a Definite Animal and a Definite Human. 
Tumblr media
Still, the art itself is almost able to redeem all other faults.
Demon Slayer 5,6
Tumblr media
I continue along with this series, which follows Tanjiro as he travels with his demon-turned sister, trying to find a cure and develop his skills as a demon slayer, to get revenge on the monsters that killed their family. I still like the premise, there’s something very pure about it, like a platonic ideal of shonen, and Tanjiro is a delight. These last two books though I found a bit more lackluster. Also we have entered Character Have Just The Weirdest Design that a lot of shonen seem to hit sooner or later.
Dennis the Menace: To The Core
Tumblr media
Stumbled across this while cleaning and had to stop everything to read it. One of those cute classics you just can’t go wrong with. It's simple but always cute.
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation 2
Tumblr media
This series owns my soul. I am currently reading the third and trying to make it last because I will be going insane while I wait for the fourth book which doesn’t come out til WINTER. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wanji are complete fucking morons and I love them with my entire heart. This book was a little rough for deep, long sections of backstory that followed other characters. While I did technically enjoy those sections and I liked the characters in them, they often ended up feeling VERY long. I would have liked for them to have been a bit more interspersed with the actual protagonists. Still, I’m loving the lore and the world and the politics… ending of book 2 had me absolutely losing my shit.
Tumblr media
and listen, adult novels that still give you full page illustrations? I'm a simple person and I love this.
Grease
Tumblr media
Okay, so I am a sucker for a well done novelization. This is not that. I have never seen an author fail to understand their assignment so badly. This person has framed the story so that SONNY, a random T-Bird, is the narrator. You know, everyone’s favourite character. This also means it EXCLUSIVELY shows the POV of the T-Birds, and absolutely nothing about the Pink Ladies or Sandy except for when they intercept the T-Birds, and layered through Sonny’s sexist narrative. It honestly sucks so incredibly much. I did not finish this and was tempted to toss it in the river.
Haikyu 42-45
Tumblr media
I! HAVE! FINISHED! THE! SERIES! Man, I can’t think of many manga that made me read for fourty fucking volumes but Haikyu managed it. Absolutely phenomenal sports manga, the way this author was able to follow so many different characters and make you really care about their development and struggles… absolutely masterful. And not just the main character, not just the main team, this manga-ka did a really fantastic job of placing you into the POV of other teams and I think that went a long way for keeping the series feeling fresh and exciting. And every time a character you cared about got better it felt like such a success! Admittedly, the last few volumes, which showed the post-high school lives of the characters, were not my favourite ending ever. Having the characters fail to win the Spring Tournament, as cliche as that may have been, took a lot of the wind from my sails and I never really got it back. The final match in the last book was enjoyable, seeing how Hinata has grown into a truly superb player was epic, and I love the peek at the Olympics, but it didn’t have the magic that the rest of the series had for me.
Love Stage
Tumblr media
Disappointing. I’ve read a lot of other books by this author and have always really enjoyed them. I usually don’t by yaoi sight-unseen these days because I don’t trust like that, but I decided to give it a go because this author has never steered me wrong. This one, unfortunately did. It had funny moments, but the squickiness completely overpowered everything else. Would not recommend, unless you really enjoyed a very specific, standard yaoi format that was common in like… the mid-naughts.
Neon Sign Amber
Tumblr media
Now this one was good. I had to read it in French because it never got an English translation, but it was worth the weirdness of having a French-English dictionary next to me while I read smut. It was a charming single book story with really nice art. If anything, I wouldn’t have minded another book just because the ending felt a bit rushed — one character has a lot of baggage about people knowing he’s gay, and the other is only just coming to terms with his sexuality, so seeing how these two adults navigate an actual relationship would have been very interesting. Are they open about it? What sort of road bumps do they have to sort out together? I dunno, I had more questions, but what it gave me was still very nice.
Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun 1,2
Tumblr media Tumblr media
…Okay, I’ll be honest, I read the name, made some VERY specific assumptions, and pointedly avoided this manga. My cousin decided to actually read the back though and that’s how I found out my assumptions were wrong and it’s actually pretty cute. It’s about a “Hanako-san” ghost… which is normally a girl ghost, though not in this case. He helps keeps the other mysteries of the school in check, and ends up getting a human girl wrapped up in the local supernatural activity. It feels like a slightly more childish xxxHolic which isn’t an itch I ever expected to have scratched by another series, so that’s exciting.
What Did You Eat Yesterday 1
Tumblr media
Just a cute domestic romance that’s all framed around the meals one of the main characters cooks. It has middle aged characters, which is a nice change from a lot of romances/yaoi, with more adult dilemmas to work through. And each chapter dedicates several loving pages to walking you through exactly what’s being cooked, to the point where I’m pretty sure you could cook along with the main character if you wanted. It was lovely.
7 notes · View notes
callgespenst · 1 year
Text
Finished Media, November 2022
I’ve barely been on here for the last month but that’s only because I’ve been having a weird time lately. Going to try to get back into the habit and start by going through all the stuff I watched last month.
Velocipastor: saw this at a friend’s house for their birthday party. Possibly the best b-movie ever made. Definitely best watched with friends for optimal riffing. Toes the line on how dumb it wants to be flawlessly in a way other b-movies have attempted, but have come just short of.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: Absolutely flawless escalation. Starts out normally enough and before you know it, Al and Madonna are reenacting Metal Gear Solid 3. Daniel Radcliffe is an extremely convincing young Al, even when playing against actual Al Yankovic as a label producer. The more Yankovic lore you know going in, the better, but probably still entertaining otherwise.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: this is the first Marvel movie I’ve seen since...Endgame? The movie’s biggest strength is definitely divorcing itself as much as possible from the rest of the goings-on of the MCU so it can be just a Black Panther sequel. Almost all of the screen time features black women, and when it’s not them, it’s M’Baku, which is also good. The first two thirds are a compelling statement about loss, and I was so into it I forgot about the obligatory CGI slugfest that would come at the end. My main criticism is that it feels ever-so-slightly too long.
Scooby Doo Meets Courage: A crossover that works so well it feels like a miracle it happened at all. Has some really good CG (very expressive and fun car chase scene) and some not so good CG (Giant CG cornfield? That’s a little much).  Scooby spoke in too many complete sentences for my liking but otherwise, good fun.
Flying Phantom Ship: An absolute must watch. One of Hayao Miyazaki’s earliest works (as a key animator) from 1969. Completely bonkers in a way nothing else I’ve ever seen is. Lots of early voice work from now legendary seiyuu (Goro Naya, Kosei Tomita, and Masako Nozawa as the main character).
Phantom of the Paradise: Another one of those movies that influenced almost everything that’s come since, and yet the original still stands above the rest. Draws from a lot of classic stories and mashes them together in a fascinating and compelling way. Phenomenal music, too. A film everyone should see at least once.
Glass Onion: Just as good as the first Knives Out. Long, but doesn’t feel long at all. Best use of celebrity cameos in a movie I’ve seen in a hot minute. Pulls together at the end in a way that feels almost viscerally satisfying. Daniel Craig plays Among Us, like, literally, that’s not a joke or anything. Might have to watch this again once it’s available on streaming.
That’s it for November! And here’s what I’m up to now:
Playing: Spider-Man PS4
Watching: Witch from Mercury, Do it Yourself!, Pop Team Epic S2, FMA:B, Slime Diaries, Urusei Yatsura (2022).
Reading: Spy x Family
0 notes
Text
Love, Death & Robots (S3) Ratings
SPOILERS!!! Also, this is just my (very biased) opinion so feel free to agree or disagree!
Three Robots; Exit Strategy: 8.3 - The episode was (intentionally) very heavy handed with its politics and even though I agreed with all of them, the intensity with which they were pushed kind of brought me out of the episode. That being said, the humour was good, the animation was incredible (especially all the setting work), and I did like the reveal of the cat at the end. Good episode, would love to see more of the Three Robots in the future!
Bad Travelling: 9.4 - Easily my favourite short film of this new season. I thought the plot was interesting and unique, the characters were lovably hate-able, and the animation was phenomenal. I particularly loved the reveal that all of the crew mates had voted to release the Thanapod on the town rather than risking their own lives because even though it made perfect sense for how they were all acting, I still didn’t expect them to be so heartless. The ending scene was epic and had me sitting on the edge of my seat. My one note would be that the episode was excessively gore-y, which I counted as a plus because I like that sort of thing, but I understand that some others might be more uncomfortable with it.
The Very Pulse of the Machine: 8.4 - This was a weird one. When I was watching it, I kept wondering to myself “what the fuck is going on?” and then the episode ended I was left with a confused and slightly bored impression. But the more I reflect on it, the more I’ve come to realize that it was actually really well done. The concept of a planet speaking through the corpse of an astronaut’s crewmate that they need to drag around to get oxygen is something I’ve never seen before, and it was just existential enough to pique my interest.
Night of the Mini Dead: 7.3 - I thought this was very good for what it was. There was an obvious schtick which was stuck to and executed in an hilarious and interesting way, but there was also really only one schtick. I liked the progression of events from just a few regular zombies to thousands of them (and also some mutant fire breathing ones); it was a cool representation of just how fast something like this would happen in the real world. The episode was also the right amount of time to convey the message, which I appreciated. It should be noted that I have a deep fear of zombies and zombie films (which may have affected the rating), but I still managed to make it through this episode and still have a good time. 
Kill Team Kill: 6.2 - I just didn’t enjoy this episode. I wasn’t a huge fan of the humour, I don’t really enjoy gun/action-heavy military stories, and I absolutely HATE stories where all the characters die in the end because it feels like a waste getting invested in them. That being said, the animation was a nice pace, very fast and stylized, which is something that I appreciate in 2D animation. I liked how distinctive and unique the character designs were (sucks a lot of them died right off the bat) and the concept of an unstoppable robot war-bear as the primary antagonist is something I found really funny.
Swarm: 6.8 - My biggest criticism with this episode is simply the pacing. The concept was fascinating and the work that was in the episode was extremely well designed (both visually and story-wise), but the whole thing felt like they tried to cram an entire movie into a 20 minute short film. There were plot points (like the aliens at the beginning saying they’d be back in 600 days) that just went no where. There was no build up to the female scientist’s character, so I didn’t really care when she was assimilated (?) into the Swarm because I had no attachment to her. Also, the line at the end by the male scientist abut how humans would never become parasites... like, bro we already are wtf? There were a lot of things that just bugged me, but I did genuinely like the story overall.
Mason’s Rats: 8.5 - I had a good time with this one! The animation was smooth and detailed and the sound design really matched the actions within it. The comedy was hilarious and believable, and despite it not being a super original plot, it made me feel like I was watching it for the first time. My one thing was that I thought it was weird how fast the rats cane around to Mason. He was the sole reason they were engaged in this long, brutal, and devastating war, and why so many of them died, but just because he ends it means they forgive him? Other than that a very solid episode.
In Vaulted Halls Entombed: 6.5 - I am a sucker for Lovecraftian horror but I’ve also always been of the opinion that it often doesn’t translate very well to film. That’s how I felt about this episode. By showing the creature at the end, it removed much of the fear that had kind of built up. I also thought the spider things at the beginning of the episode felt very separate from the actual monster. Just like Kill Team Kill, the entire team was wiped out only this time I felt very little connection to anyone on the team from the start. The lighting and setting were absolutely beautiful, but the character facial animation could have used a little work (gave me very Supermassive Games vibes). However I did really enjoy the ending with Spencer (?) all “enlightened” walking into the desert.
Jibaro: 4.2 - Just as Bad Travelling was easily my favourite episode, this was easily my least favourite. I thought the animation was extremely rough (it reminded me of “photorealistic” 2011 video game graphics) and the audio design, especially for the knight’s armour, was really annoying. The constant action cuts near the start legitimately hurt my head to watch and made it very difficult to understand what was going on. I did like the plot of the episode, what little of it I could understand, and I thought the ending “battle” between the knight and the siren was very well done in conveying the desperation and rage of the scene, and the beginning scene was (despite all the constant cutting) hilariously brutal.
Conclusion (spoiler free): As usual with Love, Death and Robots, the episodes were very hit or miss this season. There were some phenomenal episodes, including one episode that I would consider one of my favourite in the entire show, and there were some very average episodes. Despite some of my lower ratings, I didn’t hate any of the episodes this season and did genuinely enjoy watching all of them. I think increasing the number of episodes, even if it was just by one episode, was a good decision and increased the odds of coming away feeling fulfilled. I definitely would say I enjoyed this season more than season 2, but season 1 still remains the best by far simply because of the length of it. The animation was great in almost all the episodes and I really enjoyed how creative and unique the stories were, even in episodes with more cliched plots.
1 note · View note
small-gremlin-thing · 2 years
Text
MY THOUGHTS ON TOH S2E11 & AMPHIBIA S3E10:
I decided that this time around I was gonna combine my posts about TOH and Amphibia, so just a disclaimer: if you haven’t watched both episodes of both shows feel free to scroll by, or just go to the specific segment you’ve seen. I’ll keep this brief overall as to not actually type a full blown essay on my phone.
Amphibia:
The first of the two I watched was Amphibia, and man, this episode works so well as a season 3B opener! We got to see a good chunk of all of the earth characters one last time before the big send off, and I feel like that was just great overall from an emotional perspective. I also enjoyed all of the little easter eggs scattered throughout, such as the Cynthia Coven book in the van in that one scene.
I, like many, expect A LOT out of season 3B. There are a lot of loose threads to be addressed in a short amount of time, and it’ll be a challenge for the show to pull off. With all that being said though, after seeing the teasers and this episode I am confident that the Amphibia team will give this show’s story a phenomenal conclusion.
The Owl House:
I feel like this episode was a great introduction to 2B as well! I’m glad that right off the bat we still have major plot points back to back, and what seemed like a filler episode from the title ended up being extremely important (much like Knocking on Hooty’s Door). I also enjoyed the snippets of characters we haven’t seen in a while, like Willow and Gus and even Lilith! Plus, the animation during the multiple battle scenes was absolutely stunning as always, and the Lumity moments were *chefs kiss*.
I have no doubt in my mind that the rest of season 2 will be phenomenal and will tell an amazing story. I’m so pumped for next week to see what the rest of the season holds!
29 notes · View notes
ot3 · 3 years
Text
i watched red vs blue: zero with my dear friends today and i was asked to “post” my “thoughts” on the subject. Please do not click this readmore unless, for some reason, you want to read three thousand words on the subject of red vs blue: zero critical analysis. i highly doubt that’s the reason anyone is following me, but hey. 
anyway. here you have it. 
Here are my opinions on RVB0 as someone who has quite literally no nostalgia for any older RVB content. I’ve seen seasons 1-13 once and bits and pieces of it more than once here and there, but I only saw it for the first time within the past couple of months. I’ve literally never seen any other RT/AH content. I can name a few people who worked on OG Red vs. Blue but other than Mounty Oum I have NO idea who is responsible for what, really, or what anything else they’ve ever worked on is, or whether or not they’re awful people. I know even less about the people making RVB0 - All I know is that the main writer is named Torrian but I honestly don’t even know if that’s a first name, a last name, or a moniker. All this to say; nothing about my criticism is rooted in any perceived slight against the franchise or branding by the new staff members, because I don’t know or care about any of it. In fact, I’m going to try and avoid any direct comparison between RVB0 and earlier seasons of RVB as a means of critique until the very end, where I’ll look at that relationship specifically.
So here is my opinion of RVB0 as it stands right now:
1. The Writing
Everything about RVB0 feels as if it was written by a first-time writer who hasn’t learned to kill his darlings. The narrative is both simultaneously far too full, leaving very little breathing room for character interaction, and oddly sparse, with a story that lacks any meaningful takeaway, interesting ideas, or genuine emotional connection. It also feels like it’s for a very much younger audience - I don’t mean this as a negative at all. I love tv for kids. I watch more TV for kids than I do for adults, mostly, but I think it’s important to address this because a lot of the time ‘this is for kids’ is used to act like you’re not allowed to critique a narrative thoroughly. It definitely changes the way you critique it, but the critique can still be in good faith.  I watched the entirety of RVB0 only after it was finished, in one sitting, and I was giving it my full attention, essentially like it was a movie. I’m going to assume it was much better to watch in chunks, because as it stood, there was literally no time built into the narrative to process the events that had just transpired, or try and predict what events might be coming in the future. When there’s no time to think about the narrative as you’re watching it, the narrative ends up as being something that happens to the audience, not something they engage with. It’s like the difference between taking notes during a lecture or just sitting and listening. If you’re making no attempt to actively process what’s happening, it doesn’t stick in your mind well. I found myself struggling to recall the events and explanations that had immediately transpired because as soon as one thing had happened, another thing was already happening, and it was like a mental juggling act to try and figure out which information was important enough to dwell on in the time we were given to dwell on it.
Which brings me to another point - pacing. Every event in the show, whether a character moment, a plot moment, or a fight scene, felt like it was supposed to land with almost the exact same amount of emotional weight. It all felt like The Most Important Thing that had Yet Happened. And I understand that this is done as an attempt to squeeze as much as possible out of a rather short runtime, but it fundamentally fails. When everything is the most important thing happening, it all fades into static. That’s what most of 0’s narrative was to me: static. It’s only been a few hours since I watched it but I had to go step by step and type out all of the story beats I could remember and run it by my friends who are much more enthusiastic RVB fans than I am to make sure I hadn’t missed or forgotten anything. I hadn’t, apparently, but the fact that my takeaway from the show was pretty accurate and also disappointingly lackluster says a lot. Strangely enough, the most interesting thing the show alluded to - a holo echo, or whatever the term they used was - was one of the things least extrapolated upon in the show’s incredibly bulky exposition. Benefit of the doubt says that’s something they’ll explore in future seasons (are they getting more? Is that planned? I just realized I don’t actually know.)
And bulky it was! I have quite honestly never seen such flagrant disregard for the rule of “show, don’t tell.” There was not a single ounce of subtlety or implication involved in the storytelling of RVB0. Something was either told to you explicitly, or almost entirely absent from the narrative. Essentially zilch in between. We are told the dynamic the characters have with each other, and their personality pros and cons are listed for us conveniently by Carolina. The plot develops in exposition dumps. This is partially due to the series’ short runtime, but is also very much a result of how that runtime was then used by the writers. They sacrificed a massive chunk of their show for the sake of cramming in a ton of fight scenes, and if they wanted to keep all of those fight scenes, it would have been necessary to pare down their story and characters proportionally in comparison, but they didn’t do that either. They wanted to have it both ways and there simply wasn’t enough time for it. 
The story itself is… uninteresting. It plays out more like the flimsy premise of a video game quest rather than a piece of media to be meaningfully engaged with. RVB0 is I think something I would be pitched by a guy who thinks the MCU and BNHA are the best storytelling to come out of the past decade. It is nothing but tropes. And I hate having to use this as an insult! I love tropes. The worst thing about RVB0 is that nothing it does is wholly unforgivable in its own right. Hunter x Hunter, a phenomenal shonen, is notoriously filled with pages upon pages of detailed exposition and explanations of things, and I absolutely love it. Leverage, my favorite TV show of all time, is literally nothing but a five man band who has to learn to work as a team while seemingly systematically hitting a checklist of every relevant trope in the book. Pacific Rim is an incredibly straightforward good guys vs giant monsters blockbuster to show off some cool fight scenes such as a big robot cutting an alien in half with a giant sword, and it’s some of the most fun I ever have watching a movie. Something being derivative, clunky, poorly executed in some specific areas, narratively weak, or any single one of these flaws, is perfectly fine assuming it’s done with the intention and care that’s necessary to make the good parts shine more. I’ll forgive literally any crime a piece of media commits as long as it’s interesting and/or enjoyable to consume. RVB0 is not that. I’m not sure what the main point of RVB0 was supposed to be, because it seemingly succeeds at nothing. It has absolutely nothing new or innovative to justify its lack of concern for traditional storytelling conventions. Based solely on the amount of screentime things were given, I’d be inclined to say the narrative existed mostly to give flimsy pretense for the fight scenes, but that’s an entire other can of worms.
2. The Visuals + Fights
I have no qualms with things that are all style and no substance. Sometimes you just want to see pretty colors moving on the screen for a while or watch some cool bad guys and monsters or whatever get punched. RVB0 was not this either. The show fundamentally lacked a coherent aesthetic vision. Much of the show had a rather generic sci-fi feel to it with the biggest standouts to this being the very noir looking cityscape, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like something from a batman game, or the temple, which my friends and I all immediately joked looked like a world of warcraft raid. They were obviously attempting to get variety in their environment design, which I appreciate, but they did this without having a coherent enough visual language to feel like it was all part of the same world. In general, there was also just a lack of visual clarity or strong shots. The value range in any given scene was poor, the compositions and framing were functional at best, and the character animation was unpleasantly exaggerated. It just doesn’t really look that good beyond fancy rendering techniques.
The fight scenes are their entire own beast. Since ‘FIGHT SCENE’ is the largest single category of scenes in the show, they definitely feel worth looking at with a genuine critical eye. Or, at least, I’d like to, but honestly half the time I found myself almost unable to look at them. The camera is rarely still long enough to really enjoy what you’re watching - tracking the motion of the character AND the camera at such constant breakneck high speeds left little time to appreciate any nuances that might have been present in the choreography or character animation. I tried, believe me, I really did, but the fight scenes leave one with the same sort of dizzy convoluted spectacle as a Michael Bay transformers movie. They also really lacked the impact fight scenes are supposed to have.
It’s hard to have a good, memorable fight scene without it doing one of three things: 1. Showing off innovative or creative fighting styles and choreography 2. Making use of the fight’s setting or environment in an engaging and visually interesting way or 3. Further exploring a character’s personality or actions by the way they fight. It’s also hard to do one of these things on its own without at least touching a bit on the other two. For the most part, I find RVB0’s fight scenes fail to do this. Other than rather surface level insubstantial factors, there was little to visually distinguish any of RVB0’s fight scenes from each other. Not only did I find a lot of them difficult to watch and unappealing, I found them all difficult to watch and unappealing in an almost identical way. They felt incredibly interchangeable and very generic. If you could take a fight scene and change the location it was set and also change which characters were participating and have very little change, it’s probably not a good fight scene. 
I think “generic” is really just the defining word of RVB0 and I think that’s also why it falls short in the humor department  as well.
3. The Comedy
Funny shit is hard to write and humor is also incredibly subjective but I definitely got almost no laughs out of RVB0. I think a total of three. By far the best joke was Carolina having a cast on top of her armor, which, I must stress, is an incredibly funny gag and I love it. But overall I think the humor fell short because it felt like it was tacked on more than a natural and intentional part of this world and these characters. A lot of the jokes felt like they were just thrown in wherever they’d fit, without any build up to punchlines and with little regard for what sort of joke each character would make. Like, there was some, obviously Raymond’s sense of humor had the most character to it, but the character-oriented humor still felt very weak. When focusing on character-driven humor, there’s a LOT you can establish about characters based on what sort of jokes they choose to make, who they’re picking as the punchlines of these jokes, and who their in-universe audience for the jokes is. In RVB0, the jokes all felt very immersion-breaking and self aware, directed wholly towards the audience rather than occurring as a natural result of interplay between the characters. This is partially due to how lackluster the character writing was overall, and the previously stated tight timing, but also definitely due to a lack of a real understanding about what makes a joke land. 
A rule of thumb I personally hold for comedy is that, when push comes to shove, more specific is always going to be more funny. The example I gave when trying to explain this was this:
saying two characters had awkward sex in a movie theater: funny
saying two characters had an awkward handjob in a cinemark: even funnier
saying two characters spent 54 minutes of 11:14's 1:26 runtime trying out some uncomfortably-angled hand stuff in the back of a dilapidated cinemark that lost funding halfway through retrofitting into a dinner theater: the funniest
The more specific a joke is, the more it relies on an in-depth understanding of the characters and world you’re dealing with and the more ‘realistic’ it feels within the context of your media. Especially with this kind of humor. When you’re joking with your friends, you don’t go for stock-humor that could be pulled out of a joke book, you go for the specific. You aim for the weak spots. If a set of jokes could be blindly transplanted into another world, onto another cast of characters, then it’s far too generic to be truly funny or memorable. I don’t think there’s a single joke in RVB0 where the humor of it hinged upon the characters or the setting.
Then there’s the issue of situational comedy and physical comedy. This is really where the humor being ‘tacked on’ shows the most. Once again, part of what makes actually solid comedy land properly is it feeling like a natural result of the world you have established. Real life is absurd and comical situations can be found even in the midst of some pretty grim context, and that’s why black comedy is successful, and why comedy shows are allowed to dip into heavier subject matter from time to time, or why dramas often search for levity in humor. It’s a natural part of being human to find humor in almost any situation. The key thing, though, once again, is finding it in the situation. Many of RVB0’s attempts at humor, once again, feel like they would be the exact same jokes when stripped from their context, and that’s almost never good. A pretty fundamental concept in both storytelling in general but particularly comedy writing is ‘setup and payoff’. No joke in RVB0 is a reward for a seemingly innocuous event in an earlier scene or for an overlooked piece of environmental design. The jokes pop in when there’s time for them in between all the exposition and fighting, and are gone as soon as they’re done. There’s no long term, underlying comedic throughline to give any sense of coherence or intent to the sense of humor the show is trying to establish. Every joke is an isolated one-off quip or one-liner, and it fails to engage the audience in a meaningful way.
All together, each individual component of RVB0 feels like it was conjured up independently, without any concern to how it interacted with the larger product they were creating. And I think this is really where it all falls apart. RVB0 feels criminally generic in a way reminiscent of mass-market media which at least has the luxury of attributing these flaws, this complete and total watering down of anything unique, to heavy oversight and large teams with competing visions. But I don’t think that’s the case for RVB0. I don’t know much about what the pipeline is like for this show, but I feel like the fundamental problem it suffers from is a lack of heart.
In comparison to Red vs. Blue
Let's face it. This is a terrible successor to Red vs. Blue. I wouldn’t care if NONE of the old characters were in it - that’s not my problem. I haven’t seen past season 13 because from what I heard the show already jumped the shark a bit and then some. That’s not what makes it a poor follow up. What makes it a bad successor is that it fundamentally lacks any of the aspects of the OG RVB that made it unique or appealing at all. I find myself wondering what Torrian is trying to say with RVB0 and quite literally the only answer I find myself falling back onto is that he isn’t trying to say anything at all. Regardless of what you feel about the original RVB, it undeniably had things to say. The opening “why are we here” speech does an excellent job at establishing that this is a show intended to poke fun at the misery of bureaucracy and subservience to nonsensical systems, not just in the context of military life, but in a very broad-strokes way almost any middle-class worker can relate to. At the end of the day, fiction is at its best when it resonates with some aspect of its audience’s life. I know instantly which parts of the original Red vs Blue I’m supposed to relate to. I can’t say anything even close to that about 0.
RVB is an absurdist parody that heavily satirizes aspects of the military and life as a low-on-the-food-chain worker in general that almost it’s entire target audience will be familiar with. The most significant draw of the show to me was how the dialogue felt like listening to my friends bicker with each other in our group chats. It required no effort for me to connect with and although the narrative never outright looked to the camera and explained ‘we are critiquing the military’s stupid red tape and self-fullfilling eternal conflict’ they didn’t need to, because the writing trusted itself and its audience enough to believe this could be conveyed. It is, in a way, the complete antithesis to the badass superhero macho military man protagonist that we all know so well. RVB was saying something, and it was saying it in a rather novel format.
Nothing about RVB0 is novel. Nothing about RVB0 says anything. Nothing about it compels me to relate to any of these characters or their situations. RVB0 doesn’t feel like absurdism, or satire. RVB0 feels like it is, completely uncritically, the exact media that RVB itself was riffing off of. Both RVB0 and RVB when you watch them give you the feeling that what you’re seeing here is kids on a playground larping with toy soldiers. It’s all ridiculous and over the top cliche stupid garbage where each side is trying to one-up the other. The critical difference is, in RVB, we’re supposed to look at this and laugh at how ridiculous this is. In RVB0 we’re supposed to unironically think this is all pretty badass. 
The PFL arc of the original RVB existed to show us that setting up an elite team of supersoldiers with special powers was something done in bad faith, with poor outcomes, that left everyone involved either cruel, damaged, or dead. It was a bad thing. And what we’re seeing in RVB0 is the same premise, except, this time it’s good. We’re supposed to root for this format. RVB0 feels much more like a demo reel, cutscenes from a video game that doesn’t exist, or a shonen anime fanboy’s journal scribbling than it feels like a piece of media with any objective value in any area.  In every area that RVB was anti-establishment, RVB0 is pure undiluted establishment through and through.  
203 notes · View notes
ahtsumu · 3 years
Text
cOuNtRy BoY i LoVe YoUuU–– miya atsumu.
Tumblr media
GENERAL HEADCANONS
☆ y’know that kid everyone hates but all the parents love? that’s miya atsumu for you
he’s such a mama’s boy ugh
she’ll see him with mud all over his jeans and be like “miya atsumu! what’d i tell you ‘bout goin’ muddin’!?” and he’s like “sorry ma! just got too excited”
and what’s she gonna do? nothing. absolutely nothing. she just laughs and shake her head because atsumu’s boyish charm is adorable
osamu hates this !!! they’re always competing for mama miya’s heart LOL
☆ says “mornin’ ma'am how’s your day been so far” to the gas station lady and then roasts the life out of his friends
anyone older than 30 adores atsumu to death and anyone his age thinks he’s the annoying dumb hot guy LMAO
☆ plays quarterback on the football team and he’s damn good at what he does !! he’s taken the team to nationals three times already and he’s hoping to end senior year with a first place trophy
☆ teachers also love him to death bc he’s such a sweet-talker and asking questions as if he actually cares about differential equations and antiderivatives but nooo LOL bby’s just trying to make the GPA cut for travelling
it’s a 2.2
☆ on days without practice he’ll hang out around the school parking lot with the Gang™, leaning against his pick-up truck and blasting music from his car speakers to look “cool”
rlly he’s just wasting his time and even his friends think it’s stupid asf like omg no one is looking. atsumu how r u not embarrassed
☆ drives stick shift and thinks he’s hot shit 😭😭😭 he’s not wrong it is hot tho
☆ plays country trap around the boys
when “old town road” first dropped lil nas x was on repeat for 2 months
atsumu has a playlist of EVERY SINGLE REMIX and he’s like “they’re differENT juSt liSTen!!!”
out of all of the boys he has the WORST taste in country music it’s deadass just lil nas x, florida georgia line, luke combs, and morgan wallen
sometimes he’ll spice it up with a little luke bryan but that’s pushing it 😭
his guilty pleasure is that one farmer song by lil tracy and lil uzi vert 
do not trust him with the aux
someone come collect him pls
☆ atsumu’s favourite southern meal undoubtedly has meat in it–– ribs, fried chicken, pulled pork, you name it
but he’s weak for peach cobbler and a side of vanilla ice cream for dessert bc homeboy’s got a massive sweet tooth
☆ he may be helpful in helping out with farmwork but this boy cannot fish to save his life
he has a picture of him holding a MASSIVE trout on his instagram and tinder (which he downloaded illegally for his ego lmfao) but really osamu caught it for dinner one night while camping and atsumu stole it for a 30 second photo
☆ owns camouflage but ironically ! 
whips it out on days he thinks suna might pull up in camo
why? no one knows. it cracks him up tho LMFAO
☆ atsumu actually dresses quite well–– his style is the typical southern prep: 
a pair of jeans/shorts and a crisp button-up paired with double monks
loves a good leather belt
his favourite leather is BROWN leather, thank you very much !
☆ owns cowboy boots and he’s so proud of them
they’re steel-toed and decorated by a simple stitch pattern but it gets all the city folks fawning over him so it’s his most prized possession
HE USES THEM TO IMPRESS CITY FOLK LOL he’s like “howdy” and they’re like 😍🤤😍🤤😍🤤
flirts by asking if they’d like to see his horse i––
☆ like his twin, atsumu is undoubtedly great with animals
dogs love him !! like they’re just naturally attracted to him plus he gets so smiley and happy around them
he was probably a golden retriever in a past life lmfaoo
he’s a phenomenal horse-rider too
he rides the horses out at night bc he just loves the wind in his face,,, like a dog
where he differs from osamu is that he hates the actual work of taking care of an animal lmao
☆ works a summer job at six flags because he loves going on rides for free he’s so cute ugh
Tumblr media
DATING HEADCANONS
☆ aside from football atsumu also starts the inarizaki high school slam poetry club, which is, coincidentally, also just the entire football team 
listen it’s rlly cute how the slam poetry club was founded ok don’t laugh
after developing a massive crush on you, atsumu realises that he’s got too much of a meathead reputation to stand a chance LOL so he goes out of his way seem more “intellectual”
basically he’s like “i’m gonna venture into poetry bc girls love sensitive guys” and convinces the entire football team to host slam poetry nights in hopes you’ll show up at the shows
he starts leaving little poems in your locker and it’s like rupi kaur shit 😭
“you’re the brightest rose
in this garden
and you 
don’t 
even
know.
---a.m.”
☆ anyway you don’t even show up to the slam nights (you have ✨taste✨) but you do show up to his games!
☆ and eventually he works up the courage to actually ask you out and ofc you say yes bc he does it in such a cute way ugh
he stops you in the parking lot after a game and goes like “hey, uh, yer in my econ class and all yer comments are always so funny and..” and he’s just word-vomiting and eventually he gets to the point where he’s like “anyway i was wonderin’ if yer free friday night?”
☆ your first date is actually at an empty field near school
you’re just talking and getting to know each other better in the back of his pick-up truck under a bright moon, covered in blankets, each of you cradling a hot mug of cider
it’s kinda chilly but atsumu is literally a furnace
and atsumu just opens up the notes app on his phone and he reads you six poems and they’re all like 4 lines with weird enjambment HAHAHA
“you look. 
just like the moon. 
---a.m.”
most of his lines are actually plagiarised from popular country songs and you definitely recognise them but he just looks so darn cute awh you can’t rlly call him out rn (but you definitely do later in your relationship)
around two hours into the date he’s like “actually i’m the president of the slam poetry club” and you’re like “oh that’s cool!” (no it’s not omg ur praying he doesn’t start slamming right then and there bc you’ve heard rumours of what horrors the club has produced)
☆ if you like driving be prepared to Not Drive once you start dating atsumu (... or at least drive Less Frequently… unless you cut him a deal of some sort...)
he LOVES picking you up for school and this is the only time he’ll change the music playing in his car !!
he puts on the little playlist he made just for you and it’s got songs like:
cruise by florida georgia line (he literally always runs up to you and randomly sings “baby you a song” 😭)
burnin’ it down by jason aldean
play it again by luke bryan
but your song is “our song” by taylor swift ugh he knows every single line and he’s been dreaming of having a relationship like the one she describes ever since it dropped
ps: he’s actually the world’s biggest swiftie and thinks her earliest albums were the best
he got osamu on board too LMAO they go to her concerts whenever she visits their state. now you do too!!
☆ always drives with one hand on your thigh bc he’s just like that 🥰
☆ tried to learn how to play the guitar to serenade you but it was a miserable fail (he just can’t do the barre chords bc they’re so hard and what for !!)
☆ he’s such a good line-dancer tho
he’ll take you out to dance and it’s just such a vibe to see him smiling under lights, spinning you around at the barn dance with the goofiest smile on his face
☆ any time you guys fight or argue he’ll head out to the pasture behind his house and brood under the moon in the back of his pick-up truck LOL he’s so dramatic but it’s so cute!!
187 notes · View notes
sanseru · 3 years
Photo
Tumblr media
I finished watching episode 13 of Wonder Egg Priority...
This is in remembrance of what was, at one point, a phenomenal show. Holy shit was the finale awful. I think it was made worse by how excited I was for it. 20 whole minutes of recap and 20 more minutes of... I don’t even really know. I feel like nothing was explained or resolved. It didn’t even feel like the same show that I had started watching. 
However, I know the crew worked really hard on the anime and it really shows. The ending of WEP found the same fate as other shows by Cloverworks which is incredibly painful to see. I hope the team that made WEP can make something equally as wonderful one day and actually get a chance to finish it properly.
Now... that being said... I was still so angry with the finale that I finally decided I had to make something nice to remember it by. Momoe was my favorite character so I absolutely had to draw her. She’s just... gosh Momoe is amazing. So much so that I spent way too long drawing this. I keep pushing myself to make the backgrounds more and more detailed and I think I’m really starting to improve (I mean, I hope).
Anyways, please watch Wonder Egg Priority if you haven’t already! There’s debate on whether you should only watch episodes 1-7. I personally liked all of the episodes (disregarding 8, it’s literally just a recap episode) up until episode 13. However, I absolutely understand why other people aren’t so fond, mostly because past episode 7, the show begins to lose its focus on mental health and becomes more disconnected from reality.
(Unblurred background below the cut because I’m kinda proud of it)
Tumblr media
27 notes · View notes