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tinytanpopo · 4 years

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Now that Gegege no Kitaro 2018 is over, and I remember it's one of your favorite Gegege no Kitaro iteration, what's your overall and concluding thoughts about it? What are your favorite episodes of all 97 (or each season) episodes? The positive and negative? Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)? I would love to know your opinion of the sixth remake!

This is going to be a long answer. And full of spoilers, for those of you looking at this who haven’t watched the 2018 version of Kitaro. Here goes!

What are your favorite episodes of all 97?

I watched all 97 episodes 3 times over the course of its run. I started out watching on my own, then eventually my friend wanted to watch with me. But the crappy Crunchyroll subs got in the way of his enjoyment, so I polished them for him, and then we started watching together.

So for each episode, I’ve…

1.) Watched for my own enjoyment when the raw came out

2.) Fixed the subs

3.) Watched and enjoyed again with my best friend.

Before my friend and I started watching together, I also did a rewatch of the series up to the middle of the Backbeard arc, so, 3.3 times? And it only made me like each episode more, and notice more tiny fun details about it. Sawashiro actually smiles a lot, u guys

Anyways, here are my stand-out favorites. Titles may be self-translated or shortened, as I’m looking at the Japanese wikipedia entry for the episodes, and my opinions are mostly disorganized gushing:

1: The Day the Youkai Awoke. Kitaro, Eyeball Dad, and Mana are all very cutely introduced, as well as their dynamics with each other. Great action, ends with the apparent death of the hero. (I was new to Kitaro.) Got me to watch the next week, that’s for sure! Also, world full of weird freaky monsters, already suited to my tastes.

3: Tantanbo’s Youkai Castle. The episode that earned Sawashiro Kitaro his “Gorilla” nickname from the fandom. Also Mana asked to be friends and made Kitaro bashful and the whole latter half is so sweet. FRIENDSHIP

6: Sunekosuri. This is the first Kitaro episode that made me cry, like I really wasn’t expecting that kind of emotional impact. Another thing that kept me watching was that, even though Kitaro has its formulas (as does everything), I still didn’t know what to expect.

7: Ghost Train. Ah, my first experience with the Ghost Train story. Y'know this is the only one where the human passenger pair are both already dead? I’ve seen many other renditions of this story, but this one’s the darkest.

11-12: The 808 Tanuki arc. The whole Kitaro Family shows off their skills in a big cool battle, and Mana overcomes an intense struggle to save the day (with some credit to Murder Momen Rollo Cloth). As my friend often says, Mana is too good for this world.

13: Wanyuudo. Got some insight to Kitaro and Ratman’s odd, long-lasting friendship. When I first watched this, I didn’t really understand why they were still friends. But over the next 2 years, I would.

The meta reason? Ratman was Shigeru Mizuki’s favorite out of all his characters.

14: Makura-gaeshi. The second episode that made me cry. (not hard for a show to do that, but still) Also shot my already-present respect for Eyeball Dad through the roof.

I’m pretty sure this is the episode that changed GeGeGe no Kitaro from “one of the shows I watch once a week” to “I must find and learn about the rest of this franchise.” I’d looked up characters and little facts here and there on wikis, and occasionally browsed the Kitaro tag on Pixiv before this point, but this was the tipping point.

The door to the unseen world was open, and I jumped through.

18: Kawauso’s Lie. haha, Mana’s a city girl who’s scared of bugs

22: Gyuuki. Body horror, despair, and a really good Catgirl episode.

27-37: The Backbeard arc, or 6th Kitaro’s version of the “Great Youkai War” story. For a refreshing twist, the designated “Witch” isn’t evil in this retelling. In fact, Agnes quickly became one of my most favorite and relatable characters.

She definitely had a rocky start with the Japanese youkai, and watching her develop friendships with Mana and Kitaro was great to see, and even better on the rewatch. My friend likes Agnes a lot, too. Just assume I cried at the Mana/Agnes friendship stuff, I’m sure it happened on the rewatch, too.

Also Kitaro finally invites Mana into GeGeGe Forest! She fucking earned it!!

38: Kasha. I had already seen Reverse Mochi Murder 3 different times by this point, but it’s best whenever freaky ghost-eyeballs are involved.

Also Mana punched Kasha in the face. Well, Kitaro’s face.

39: bang. I lost it.

40: This is the darkest version of Sara-kozo! And I like it. His song was best put to use in the 4th Kitaro series, and even had a callback in one of my most favorite episodes of that series. The song, of course, is terribly catchy.

42: The Great Youkai Trial. Having seen the other versions of this story, I’m glad the writers made the 6th series version stand on its own, weaving it into the overarching Nanashi plot.

43: Odoro-Odoro. This isn’t the first Odoro-Odoro retelling where Kitaro’s efforts are thankless and reviled, but it is the one that shows it the most intensely.

47-49: Nanashi arc conclusion. Each Kitaro anime has its harsh and intense moments (even the relatively gentle 5th series), but 6th is the one that goes hard most consistently. Not just into darkness, but

50-51: complete and utter sweetness KITTENGIRL dgjklfhjlkHFDGKMBHKjl

54: Dorotabo. Sometimes, there is no “right” choice that can make everyone happy. Being a mediator can be hard, frustrating, and sometimes impossible. But despite all the stress, frustration, and repeating the same tragic scenarios, Kitaro keeps on trying.

Also, Kitaro totally carried that frog up to the roof of his house for company at the end of the episode.

56: Vampire Elite. The most sympathetic retelling of Johnny’s story. And a great Kitaro/Ratman friendship episode.

57: La Seine. He doesn’t have a top hat this time. A great retelling of Hand, and a Kitaro/Mana friendship episode. Two vampire episodes in a row, and it didn’t feel repetitive at all.

58: Kamaboko. 6th Kitaro’s crossdressing episode, with Sawashiro Kitaro at his most vindictive. Fun for all sorts of reasons. :3c

59: Ushiro-gami. Also known as the youkai cactus episode, somewhat of a series staple. This one had great horror vibes, and Mana overcoming her fear and risking her life to help Kitaro save the day. Never gets old! Mana’s the best.

62: Kitaro and Ratman fighting like children. Kitaro’s shocked face when Ratman steals his pork. Kitaro’s admiration for Ratman’s persistence to keep on living, and appreciation for yanking him back to reality during the end of Nanashi.

The Kitaro/Ratman friendship dynamic is eternal.

64: Suiko, the Water Tiger. If you find an old jar in a dirty hole somewhere? Don’t open it, don’t drink it, don’t let anyone force you to drink it. And if the jar starts talking, shove some dirt in it.

That town full of assholes totally deserved what they got, though.

66: The Grim Reaper and the Hidden Village. Well, in this context, “hidden village” is more like “Shangri-La,” which is what I changed it to in the fixed subs. The only other version of this I’ve seen is the one from the 2nd Kitaro anime. It’s a well-known trauma episode in the fandom.

In the 2nd anime, Kitaro got the trauma. In the 6th one, Mana did, and Kitaro already knew it was coming.

68: Hell Exile. Yet another one where I wasn’t sure if it’d end cynical or hopeful. One of the fresher takes on the Hell Exile story, too.

69: Ibukimaru. Nicely advances the Four Treasonous Generals arc, and has some interaction between Rei and Mana. Oh yeah, this arc introduced Rei Isurugi, an intense chuuni with Megaman demon powers. It’s neat to watch how Rei and Sawashiro Kitaro bounce off each other as individual characters.

70: Mysterious Footprints. Calls back to another one of 2nd Kitaro’s infamous trauma episodes, incidentally one of my favorites. This was great, but the 2nd anime had more intense face-melting.

72: Iyami. Mana Is Gay. That is all.

73: Yamata-no-Orochi. A great take on Kitaro’s Orochi story, now with more monkey’s paw shenanigans!

74-75: Conclusion of the Four Generals arc. Mana convinces Kitaro not to resign himself to shouldering the heaviest burden alone, as he so often does. Agnes and Adel make an appearance(yay!), and they team up with Mana and Catgirl to help save the day. Rei finally chills out, and gets a new mentor.

77: Neko-sennin. Nurarihyon startles the holy hell out of Kitaro, and further establishes how he’s going to operate this time around, connecting to his previous actions in episode 76.

Also, cats. Kitty Kitaro. Cats are my second-favorite animal, so I appreciate the many Kitaro stories involving cats.

78: Mouryou. This one gets retold in several of the other Kitaro series, with decent variation. This one has its own 6th Kitaro touch, with that fucked-up photographer, and an ending I was positive would be dark.

80: Onmoraki. I’d also consider this story a Kitaro staple, though Onmoraki was way tougher this time. Must have had something to do with Nobuyuki Hiyama. :B This is always the episode where Kitaro puts on his old painter costume, and proves he can’t think up fake names worth a damn. Gets me every time.

81: Hideri-gami the mangaka. I love comics, I translate comics, GeGeGe no Kitaro originated as a comic. This episode’s just a love letter to the medium. And seeing Kitaro genuinely enjoying Hiderin’s Totally Original Comic Do Not Steal was adorable.

83: Houkou. Some kind of disaster usually happens in this story. In the 4th anime version, Kitaro was burned to ashes. This one hit harder. Nobody won. No one was happy. We’re reminded of Dorotabo, and how Kitaro never “gets over” tragic situations like these, no matter how often they repeat. I think it’d be worse if he was desensitized, and gave up trying to make anything better.

84: Mr. Chin. The Japanese dialogue is full of puns involving the word chin and yeah I lost it. Sunday morning changes with the times, and they still get this guy in.

I died at “three rainbows” ghjghjk

89: Te-no-me’s Curse. Te-no-me is a youkai who either shows up in the youkai trial story, or has an episode for himself. Also, we finally get to see that Kitaro can just pop his hands on and off. Well, maybe not as casually as in the comics…

90: Sazae-oni. Normally you’re not “supposed” to do “it was all a dream” endings, but this is the first time they’ve done that with Sazae-oni, and the dream reveal means we just saw inside Sawashiro Kitaro’s mind. The fancy sushi restaurant exterior, the plain sweets shop, the body pillow how does he know about those?! Does he know why they look like that?!!

Kitaro seemed disappointed that he didn’t get to sing on stage. And Rei was in his dream-audience! An adorable episode.

93: The Phantom Train. Catgirl got Homuhomu’d. But KitaNeko is finally canon. This whole episode left the fandom reeling, as usual for 6th Kitaro. Best retelling of the Phantom Train story yet.

94: Hot Springs Trip. Mana carried Kitaro over 90 episodes ago, and Kitaro doing the same for Mana repays that favor, in a way.

Kitaro also admits he has Terminal Kitaro Face.

95-97: The end. I did not think they would poof Kitaro. That’s the deadest I’ve ever seen him, in any version. And the most broken, worse than a giant hate-baby crushing his dad. Kitaro giving Ratman his chashu pork made my heart explode, Mana’s sacrifice made the heart-pieces explode, and Mana reuniting with Kitaro 10 years later made my heart whole again.

Nurarihyon offing himself made sense, especially with this being his most dignified characterization in any version. Glad they let Shu-no-bon live, even if he was an actual hardass this time. Shu-no-bon’s usually a teddy bear in comparison to dual-wielding gatling guns

I’m sure the prime minister didn’t keep her position for much longer.

Episode 97’s subs left out most of Mana’s text to Catgirl at the end, so here it is:

“Cat-Sis! Here’s the pic Nebutori took for us on our recent trip! Also, I found a sweets shop near my workplace. Let’s ask Kitaro to go there with us!”

A very sweet ending, indeed.

The positive and negative?

I wish we’d gotten to see more of Agnes and Rei outside of their own arcs, and the conclusions of other arcs, though they clearly had their own lives to live and paths to take.

We didn’t get Akamata or Shisa or a bunch of other youkai I was hoping to see in the episodes. We didn’t get stories for Jami or Kamanari, both of who showed up as bit characters at the very end. But I can accept this, too, as writers and staff working within limits, and telling the story they wanted to tell as best as they could.

I’m glad they focused more on new stuff than old, though. Maybe they didn’t want to risk a repeat of 5th Kitaro’s non-ending, but they were ready to end the 6th anime with the Nanashi arc. Even with a 2nd year, though, the writers didn’t lose their focused storytelling, and ended the series in a way that left my heart full.

Characterization of Sawashiro Kitaro and the other Kitaro family (including Mana)?

Sawashiro Kitaro continues to be that weird youkai kid, that boy who lives in the woods. He’s chill and has a bunch of comic book youkai powers, a unique sort of superhero, while also not being a cop, thank goodness. Every Kitaro is a bit of a pessimist (except 3rd anime’s Toda Kitaro, I guess), but Sawashiro is especially so. This made his gradual development even more fun to watch. The fact that he never could give up on that dream, not completely, made me appreciate that development even more.

Sawashiro cried the least out of all the Kitaros—twice, and it was only onscreen once. He kept everything in so much, it’s no wonder he imploded and went to Ultra Hell when the prime minister pot-shot him.

And, Sawashiro Kitaro is so pure and cares so much it hurts.

Eyeball Dad. Since Isamu Tanonaka passed away in 2010, the legendary Masako Nozawa (the original voice of Kitaro) took on voicing the role. Like Kitaro, Eye Dad’s characterization changes a bit with each anime, though not as much. Nozawa’s performance made Eye Dad feel more laid-back this time, I think, and more patient. In older series, he had more “Showa dad” tendencies. And we got to see him outside of eyeball or mummy form! 6th series spoiled us!

Ratman. He’s usually the same between every adaptation, save for the voice. Sometimes he’s nicer, sometimes he’s more of a bastard. But he’s always Kitaro’s friend. He may nasty, greedy, and cynical, but he’s usually right about how the world works, and his priorities are hard to disagree with entirely. He knows how to survive, even when treated like dirt for centuries. Ratman’s got a particular brand of wisdom, if you look past the ringworm.

Catgirl. In other versions, she looks like she’s in elementary or middle school, and 6th anime is the most mature she’s ever looked. This is also Catgirl at her most tsundere, but with zero “mean girl” tendencies. All it takes is Mana shooting pure admiration at Catgirl for them to become friends, and that’s cute. I always like Catgirl, and the 6th anime is no exception.

The Kitaro Family. Sandy’s mostly unchanged, except now she doesn’t own the Youkai Apartments, and can use modern technology to make a shitload of money. Old Crybaby is 100% the same, down to his old person banter with Sandy.

Rollo Cloth’s minor interest in finding a girlfriend got turned up to 11. He’d get a lecture from every previous Rollo.

Wally Wall has less vocabulary, no wife and kids, and they thankfully didn’t show his mouth this time. Still a good dude.

Mana Inuyama. The 3rd anime had Yumeko, but even if she wasn’t damseled as often as you’d expect from a typical 80s cartoon, it still happened a lot. In the 6th anime, Mana clearly has more agency from the get-go, and refuses to leave herself out of Kitaro’s business. She’s serious about being his friend, and never stops being serious about it, even when things worse than she could ever imagine happened.

All she has are good memories with Kitaro.

Like my friend said, she’s too good for this world.

What’s your overall and concluding thoughts about the 6th Kitaro anime?

What an emotional roller coaster. The writers pulled no punches with this, and very much managed to make “their own Kitaro” while still firmly being “Kitaro.” With the dark and cynical twists it sometimes took, I often didn’t know if there’s be a happy ending to an episode, or a bitter one. It’s a Sunday morning cartoon at its core, but very good at making the audience forget that.

6th Kitaro was my introduction to Kitaro as a whole, and I was hopelessly obsessed by episode 14. Well, because of episode 14, probably. I downloaded all the other Kitaro anime series, got into the comics (official ones by Mizuki, official ones not by Mizuki, and a shit-ton of doujin), and now my brain is just “kitarokitarokitaro” all the time.

I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon.

#gegege no kitaro #ask #books-are-my-life-stuff #long post

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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RWBY Recaps: Vol. 5 "Lighting the Fire"

This is a re-posting from Nov. 4th, 2017 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

I would like to begin this review by extending a heartfelt apology to Yang Xiao Long. I should have never doubted her.

A few posts ago I mentioned how surprised I was that Yang would choose her Mom over Ruby, especially given her character short on top of an already single-minded personality. If there’s one thing that can be truly said to define Yang, it’s the love and protective streak she has for her sister. So I was thrilled at the reveal that this whole trip was essentially a strategic smokescreen. As Yang puts it bluntly: “I’m not here for you.” She’s always been heading towards Ruby. The only reason Yang is making this emotional pit-stop is because Raven can save her time.

We’ve known since the train that Raven can open portals, but until now it’s been up in the air whether that’s her semblance, something extra (like Qrow’s morphing ability), something that was bestowed on her, etc. Well, it turns out that first time’s the charm. Raven’s semblance allows her to bond to certain people—Yang, Tai, and Qrow—and form portals to their immediate location. Pretty nifty when you think about it, especially since Yang knows Qrow will have found Ruby by now. If she gets to Qrow, she gets to her sis. Except for the fact that Qrow is off looking for more huntsmen. Potential problem?) Still it’s a wonderful twist, especially since RWBY already has enough character arcs about kids trying to reconcile with their abusers. Given Yang’s headstrong nature, it just didn’t feel right for her to try and bond with a long-absent mom. Demand a favor though because “nothing is going to keep me from my sister”? Yeah. That’s Yang.

Not to say she hasn’t changed, of course. Though many are still uncomfortable with the way her PTSD is being written, I’m glad to see that this persistent shaking remains. Obviously not glad in the sense of, “Yay kids suffering!” but glad that we’re given acknowledgment that trauma has lasting effects and Yang will need to continue to work at her new life and against her new fears—things aren’t solved through one good crying session. We get to see her in a real fight for the first time since Beacon and, as many guessed, her new arm is outfitted with a gun to balance out the other half of Ember Celica, doubling as a decent shield in a pinch. It’s also notable that Yang’s style has changed a bit. Her movements are more controlled; graceful even, more like Weiss’ (and isn’t that something given the end of the episode). In short, Yang’s hand-to-hand has become more measured, as opposed to the ‘charge and hit as hard as you can’ technique that we saw pre-Volume 3. It makes sense, given that the last time Yang rushed in without thoroughly evaluating her opponent she lost that arm. Even her conversation is a little cooler. “Good to know, thanks.” This is a Yang that retains her confidence, but with less of the arrogant taunts. She’s growing up and though much of that growth stems from trauma, it’s still lovely to see.

Back in Haven training has begun. Ruby is… really not good at hand-to-hand. But she’s improving! This whole sequence is a study in excellent facial expressions, as two kids—both of whom are uncomfortable with this situation—attempt to beat each other up the old-fashioned way. The animation moves smoothly from comic fear to stubborn determination. Oscar actually manages to land a punch that knocks Ruby down and I laughed aloud at his frantic apology. He shouldn’t have lost focus. Ruby comes back with a swing of her own seconds later.

However, as usual there are significant details paired alongside these humorous scenes. After Oscar takes his hit Ozpin asks, “Mind if I give it a shot?” and immediately takes control. This is interesting, given that just last episode (only a day earlier?) Oscar had to focus and deliberately give up control to Ozpin. It took time. Now we don’t even get to see whether Oscar agrees to the switch—Ozpin is already there.

Now yes, they’re eventually meant to merge into one person, or at least share this body in a way reminiscent of that. That’s presumably the end goal (unless Shannon McCormick’s recent comments hint at something we don’t know yet). However, the fact that we see Ozpin’s power over Oscar in the same episode that Raven drops her cryptic comments brings back the theory that Ozpin isn’t quite as benevolent as we’d like to believe. The only true evidence for that (given his actual kind nature and the fact that Raven herself definitely can’t be trusted) is because that’s just how these stories go. Oh, I have no doubt that he’s doing things for “the right reasons,” but like Dumbledore and Gandalf before him, Ozpin’s quest to do what’s right for the world no doubt involves a great deal of sacrifice, complicating the morality there. If Raven considers Ruby a “lost cause” for so much as associating with Ozpin, that’s a pretty heavy implication--if we choose to believe her--that anyone near him will get chewed up and spit out by this war, regardless of what Ozpin might do to try and stop it. AKA, Pyrrha. Casualties are inevitable. (In fact, there’s a lot of potential similarities here between the corners Ozpin is backed into and Qrow’s semblance. For both, everyone around them suffers, regardless of intent). Ozpin’s screen-time this season has been just a little too lighthearted and his persona just a little too grandfatherly. I’m waiting for when these complications come back up and bite everyone on the ass, reminding them that they’re in the middle of a war.

Anyone who spends five minutes with me in the RWBY fandom knows that Ozpin is my favorite and I’d like nothing more than for him to remain the wise, kindly headmaster figure indefinitely. I want him alongside Team RWBY to the very end. However, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Raven drops some very uncomfortable information about him next episode, the “truth” that she insists Yang and Weiss don’t know about yet. She could be referring to Ozpin’s cursed nature, but Raven has already admitted that she was once in his employ and can clearly never go back to that, so I suspect there’s far more to her discomfort than just a little reincarnation. Whether we believe her—whether that will be enough to turn the audience against Ozpin even more than they already are, especially when it’s coming from someone like Raven—we’ll have to wait and see. And no doubt all of this will tie back to Raven’s work in securing the Spring Maiden.

The implications of all this are still at least a week off though. For now the training session remains as happy as possible when you’re preparing to take down your world’s embodiment of evil. Ren has a lovely moment where he explains various theories on semblances: how they might be a reflection of your personality, or vice versa, or have no true connection to who you are at all. So basically... semblances could be anything. The magic structure keeps getting flimsier as time goes on. Regardless, Ruby confirms a long-held belief that her semblance came out during training one day (with Qrow?) and Nora was… struck by lightning. And survived. Good god this girl’s life is horrifying.

The big question then is: What is Jaune’s semblance? And what is Oscar’s? It honestly never occurred to me that he’d have a semblance of his own to unlock, rather than just inheriting something from Ozpin. In fact, what’s Ozpin’s semblance? Does he still have one? Or was it lost long ago after his first merge? I'd like to think that he has at least two at all times: his original semblance (or magic, perhaps) and whatever his host is capable of. I'd actually be interested in seeing an Ozpin who retains the semblances of every person he's merged with, but given that Cinder managed to kill him, I doubt we'll be seeing that kind of power. I suppose time manipulation is still a possibility given how that fight was animated, but again, I think we’d have already heard about such a powerful ability if that card was on the table. It's certainly not the curse itself… that was forced onto Ozpin by the Gods. So maybe—just maybe—Volume 5 will give us three semblance reveals instead of just one. And Ozpin’s comment that there are heights to achieve beyond just unlocking your semblance opens doors for power-ups within our main cast.

This is actually a lot packed into the shortest episode of the Volume thus far and if you thought we were finished…

Weiss: “Your mom kidnapped me?”

Yang: “YOU KIDNAPPED HER?”

I nominate this as one of RWBY’s greatest moments. I honestly couldn’t have asked for more from their reunion. Harking back to last week’s episode, Weiss demonstrates that she really doesn’t need anyone to save her. Yes, she was still in that cage, but only because she was going for subtly and strategy over a brute-force escape plan. (Remember, that’s Yang’s territory.) When she sees that Yang is somehow here that plan goes straight out the window. One knight at full strength and Weiss has busted out of her prison, running to back up Yang in a very outnumbered fight.

RT knows when to cut things back though and reminding everyone that, ahem, the Grimm are still a formidable enemy was a smart move. Raven might not have any qualms about fighting family, but she won’t let that anger draw a whole horde of Grimm to her camp. She gives Myrtenaster back to Weiss and invites them inside for that talk.

But first we have this.

I love that Weiss hugged first. I love that she freely abandons Myrtenaster in hostile territory to do so. She never would have done that a year ago. They’ve been through so much though and the fact that she can freely say how much she missed Yang says heaps about her character development.

It’s a beautiful shot to end the episode on. And if you listen closely, there’s the sound of Freezerburn shippers sobbing happily in the distance…

Other Details of Note

Raven’s bandit sitting waaaaay far back on Yang’s motorbike. Bet you ten lien he tried to wrap his arms around her waist and got another punch for his trouble.

The click of gears we hear as Yang stretches her arms. Nice touch there.

“I’m her daughter, after all.” There’s some of the taunting Yang we know and love.

Can’t say I was a fan of the music during the RJNR-Ozpin-Oscar chat scene. It felt… sitcom-ish? That’s not quite right, but too upbeat and noticeable for the moment. I shouldn’t be distracted from the conversation by whatever the music is doing.

I found Raven’s first greeting to Yang creepy in the extreme. You’re so strong and patient, doing everything you can to make your dream a reality. Talk about trying to butter someone up when you don’t actually know anything about that person. Raven’s attempts at welcoming Yang ring so false that it just hits home how estranged they are.

We've had a lot of 'crane shots' (for lack of a better word) this Volume: during Salem's conversation with Lionheart, before Sienna's assassination, now as Yang confronts her mother. I'm not sure what exactly to make of this yet, only that it's been a frequent technique the last few episodes and has definitely caught my attention.

#rwby #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

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chest-mimic · 6 years

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Long text post about putting Neo back in RWBY for a story arc

Been thinking about RWBY recently because of BB:CTB, and just some ways I would write the series. One thought came into my head that I figured was unlikely enough to actually happen to be worth sharing.

What if Neo was Jaune's sister?

As best as I can remember, there's nothing on screen that happens to make it impossible. The only times they would have met (during the tournament), Neo is in disguise. We know for a fact Jaune has seven sisters, and Neo's last name is currently unknown. She doesn't come up in conversation much, and team JNPR isn't involved in the Roman/White Fang stuff. And it's not out there to think any time Ruby or Yang mentioned Neo, the connection just doesn't click. Maybe she's got hair dye or dresses unlike what Jaune would have known. Hell, maybe Jaune did know and kept his mouth shut. Point is, it's possible with a little effort. And if the series can muddy how aura works, some rando on the internet can work with a contrivance.

So, fun fan theory with circumstantial evidence. What could someone actually do with this detail? The first thought I had was it provides a possible way for Jaune to have gotten through the vetting system, AND gives us a reason for Ozpin to have missed it, all in one go. With Blake, it's implied Ozpin let her in because her background and credentials were enough that he could trust her, and at worst he'd keep his eye on a potential spy. Jaune doesn't have the kind of history that would appeal to Ozpin's weird brand of preparation. And as funny as that Dumb RWBY comic is (http://eunnieverse.tumblr.com/post/123075118473/i-dont-care-what-his-transcripts-say-that), it's more likely that Jaune would have needed the help of someone with a reputation.

We know Cinder has ties to Lionheart, one of Ozpin's most trusted allies, early enough to pass as one of his students. So Neo slipping in a nonverbal "hey give my bro a letter of recommendation" (or convincing Roman to ask for it) with some implied violence thrown in isn't out of the question. Had Cinder found out, just pretend Jaune is a potential pawn with delicious blackmail attached. Leo writes something convincing about how grades aren't everything, Jaune is in with the knowledge that his recommendation had a moral cost, Team Kill All Humans has a potential mole that they never end up needing to use, and Ozpin is none the wiser. The series wouldn't need this specific of an explanation for what amounts to a bureaucratic loophole, but who looks at Jaune in volume 1 pinned to a tree and goes "yup that's super hero potential right there".

Incidentally, it could also provide a reason Tyrian singles out Jaune as an interesting person. He can't be a maiden and he's not a wizard (at least we all hope), but family of an ex-coworker in his line of work is worth keeping tabs on.

Okay, enough retcon work on logistics. Where could the series actually go with this? First and foremost, Neo has to show up for it to mean anything. Last we saw Neo, she was "gently" floating down from the sky in the middle of a Grimm attack. But any genre savvy supervillain knows that not seeing the body means they may as well be perfectly fine. In addition, Ozpin's initiation for the first year students is to launch them off of a cliff into the forest. Weird as it is, if he's expecting total newbies to survive the fall, why can't Neo?

With Roman gone, there's not much reason for Neo to stick with Cinder's group. The White Fang stopped working with our big bad, Neo isn't a faunus and can't expect any protection under Adam the Edgehog. Plus, she has no reason to actually go after Ruby or Yang. It's not like they're hard to find, and even if they were, Ruby's going off to pick a fight with Salem, the lady who is so scary Raven is afraid to openly confront her. Considering Neo's reaction to even seeing Raven, we can get a sense of scale for how strong she thinks Salem is. If revenge was a motive, from Neo's perspective Ruby's pretty much doing it for her. So Neo, surviving a brush with death and having a hand in the potential end of mankind, goes home to take a nap.

Team Ruby's friends, following the road to plot, wind up getting near Jaune's hometown. Because it was so conveniently on the way. How convenient. The writers can play it off as wanting to show how a non-huntsman supported town thrives. And since this is RWBY, the answer is probably big guns taped to things that probably aren't guns, so yay more anime guns. But now in the hands of a population with no idea that Huntsmen can be made bullet proof (recall Jaune had to be told what Aura is and how it worked after initiation began). Yeah, World of Remnant covered that, but that's a conversation for another day. Point is, we the audience get to see it in action.

The team exploring town eventually would get to Ruby and Yang finding Neo. Or maybe the whole team. I'm trying to keep this from being straight up fanfiction, but since this is a post about justifying a bit of fanservice, let's just say a rematch occurs because they can't escape from crossing fate. Jaune steps in before a winner is confirmed to point out they're fighting his sister, to which Ruby or Yang rebuts with a reference to the attempted murder.

Now the meat of the potential conflict. Ruby and Jaune stand on opposite ends of a very serious accusation. Ruby has to deal with the fact that one of her friends is related to someone who tried to kill her and her family, Jaune has to accept that his sister is part of the reason Beacon fell, and neither one is going to turn on their family for no reason. Any of what happens next depends on what kind of person Neo is.

Yang already had her lesson in forgiveness in V5, but Ruby hasn't been in the same boat. Weiss's reason for leaving the team was very different than Blake's, and Ruby seemed initially more open to forgiving what Blake had done. Having Jaune defend her assailant would be a betrayal of Ruby's trust, but she's fully capable of understanding wanting to protect your sibling.

The group travelling all have different ideas about dealing with dangerous opponents, but have all been more or less following Ozpin. Yet the limits of Ozpin's knowledge are vague, and whether he's willing to take that chance on someone who is okay at best is unlikely after Lionheart. Neo being relateded to Jaune could give Ruby an important moment of leadership by deciding if the two can be trusted. This might even lead to usurping Ozpin and Qrow's choices as the de facto correct path, or casting out Jaune and Neo as potential threats they can't risk having around. Depending on how it's done, it can even tie back to how Jaune's forgery making or breaking the final decision.

There's more I could write on the topic, but it's already pretty long and I just want to get across a couple possible writing choices that could be made with one additional character background detail. There's flaws in my proposal, like why would Neo have aura unlocked and not Jaune, but a decent writer could fill those holes with good character defining or world building moments. I like RWBY, flaws and all, but I'd love to see more use of side characters instead of just making a new one every time the writers needed more conflict. Maybe I'm making assumptions about characters that I shouldn't be making for this proposal to even work. But if the alternative is getting more new characters established for two scenes then never seen again, then what's wrong with a little bit of fanservice.

Tl;dr give us more Neo.

#RWBY #neopolitian (rwby)#ruby rose #jaune arc #writing experiment

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seasaltmemories · 7 years

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top 5 things you'd change in arc-v

Ok so to make this simple I’ll refrain from talking about current/unfinished plot lines like Zarc and Ray, also understand that is is largely based off my individual preference, some of these criticism is more what would make it the perfect story for me personally, might apply to the Yugioh franchise as a whole, and only work in an ideal setting where we have an unlimited amount of episodes, no scheduling problems with VA’s, and no requirement to actually sell cards

1. Make Yuri able to express a wider range of emotions

A character like Yuri is not inherently bad, I had just as much fun with with faces and over-dramatic nature at first, but especially in season 3, the routine just got stale

He was just always smug, always untouchable, always teasing and making wild expression, it stopped being novel, and so much screen time was just him doing the same thing over and over again

Now for me the most obvious way to change things would either be to go with the memory-erasing headcanon or the tragic monster route

I was never a big fan of the memory-erasing headcanon tbh, but that could give him a conflict of his own, and he could still stay a little shit, but angry that he was tampered with

I would prefer a tragic monster route, because again he could stay just as smug and evil, but if it was portrayed in a, “he is awful but dear god they made him this way” light it would be much more emotionally satisfying, some already view him in this light, but I don’t think his backstory was tragic enough for it to work, while he was alone and groomed to become numb to carding, a lot of characters have some aspect of loneliness or being alone in some fashion (I could argue it is a central theme of sorts) none of the Academia kids had even a semblance of friendship/family, so Yuri doesn’t stand out enough

If it was brought up in the present it would work much better, not through subtext of why he became so obsessed with fusing with the others, like actual emotional distress, show him angry or pissed, or frustrated, just more than all smug

I think tbh Yuri just reminds me a lot of Nui from Kill la Kill, she was introduced as this crazy evil gal who was super OP, and always smiling, and after like ten episodes of this, she was starting to get on ppl’s nerves, then though she got humiliated, her arms cut off, and she finally lost her temper, and ppl began to like her much more after that bc you can only do one thing for so long before it gets annoying

So TLDR: Give Yuri a breakdown or a reason to at least care about something

2. Replace the XYZ arc with a back to Standard Arc

Regardless on your feelings on the XYZ characters, it’s hard to find much meaning for them to go to Heartland, while there was conflict with Academia, it’s hardly exclusive to XYZ, basically we found a destroyed city, which we knew what it was like due to flashbacks

That’s why I think it would have been more effective for me if instead we had spent a few episodes back in Standard

There was a possible plot-line with Himika having her own agenda, or going over the top with her militarizing, or if the writers weren’t going there we could have dove deeper in the Akaba family drama so that Ray’s relation could hit even harder, at the very least we could get some planning of their attack on Academia and maybe include some back-up forces to make it feel grander and epic

And even if those weren’t pursued, we’d get to see some fan favorites for a while and catch our breath before the final arc, because while it has been a long time for us, this has all been so fast for the characters, and I think it would have been nice for them to get a chance to breathe and sort out just what has happened and their emotions on the subject

It wouldn’t even have to be as long as the XYZ arc was, just a few episodes to readjust ourselves

3. Give the XYZ Characters better characterization/utilize flashbacks more

The XYZ characters didn’t have the worst, but for as early in the series Yuto was introduced, I still don’t feel like I completely know him (mainly due to the bit of retconning with the smiles speech) partly because he never got to have importance to the plot, Shun had the best overall, but his anger always got tiring a bit, and as I talked about earlier, Ruri had nothing about her as an individual that was interesting

I think the most important thing in general would be for less flashbacks to focus on the destruction of Heartland, and more of them to show what they were like before the invasion, we got a few of those later on, but I feel if we got more then it would have helped ground them as real people

With Shun I have similar criticism as Yuri, let him show a wider range of emotions, we got the anger at it all, which is totally fine bc that’s what some ppl focus on, but we never really got to feel how much he missed Ruri, it was his motivation for the majority of Season 1, and then we rarely hear about it any more

I don’t like comparing the Synchro and XYZ characters bc the former have their flaws (though I have to admit I am more biased to their character types), but jeez it’s amazing how much better they could do with one group than with the other, with Yugo we never forgot how much he missed Rin, a lot of it was used for comic relief, but we also got to feel the real desperation, the flashbacks did so much for them by showing their relationship beforehand effectively so that we were invested in the relationship when they reunited, and when episode 117 hit, it hit hard, the XYZ characters had much more time to build up things (besides the ‘pattern’ there was no need for Ruri’s first line to be in 104 when the series was 2/3 of the way over) I know a bit of this comes down to preference since in general I tend to like stoic characters that remain stoic less, but I feel like with a more organized arc, the XYZ characters could be so much better

4. Either take out the entire mind-control plot with the bracelet girls, or expand it further

I know the main reason for the mind-control plot was to get Rin and Ruri to duel, and for that I am extremely grateful since I had worries about them not dueling at all, episode 117 was one of my favorite episode of season 3, but at the end of the day, the overall impact on it was nothing, and it feels like our time was wasted, especially considering Yuzu did nothing while under it, having repetitive duels trying to fix it could get old, but if they did it right, then we’d get a lot of great emotional moments, if they wouldn’t put effort into it, though we could always have Obelisk Forces or just Academia students in general come after them, and then we get tag duels with their real personalities yay!!!!

5. Give the Counterparts less screen-time alone together

This is going to sound crazy but hear me out:

In my opinion the counterparts with the good characterization are Yuya, Yuzu, Yugo, Serena in that order, Yuto and Rin have decent characterization while Yuri and Ruri are just a bit of a mess due to hype and lazy writing

While they are an important part of the show, the focus was never on their relationships to each other, I believe that’s what drew a lot of people in, but the show was designed in a way, interaction was difficult for them

And personally I was totally fine with this, I don’t blame ppl for being disappointed that the anime didn’t focus on their interactions (for them what I’ve seen of the manga, that might fill your itch so possibly check that out) but the fact of the matter is more of emotion and development was in the Standard/Lancer cast, and when they started leaving them out slowly, it really began to show

The BB duel was kinda pointless, but man the Yuya and Gongenzaka relationship was strong, Reiji and Yuya tag dueling and building each other up added ten years to my life span, but around after 131 it became the counterpart show with a bit of legacy characters and Yusho thrown in, and because of that the emotional moments suffered a lot, Yusho’s death was really good (especially considering the brief amount of time he got to interact on screen with Yuya) but you can tell the plot was being designed around forcing interaction with the counterparts after keeping them separated for so long, and it was frustrating all these great characters we know and love got to do nothing

I admit, it would be hard to force Zarc to happen and it would take a lot of changing to fit it in if you didn’t put the rest of the cast out of commission one by one, but the counterparts alone did not have enough strength as a group to carry the emotional weight, and I think it really showed

That’s not to say individual relationship failed, I loved the bond Yugo formed with Yuzu and Serena for example, Yuya and Yuto had a sweet partnership going, I would kill to make sure Yuya and Yuzu and Rin and Yugo get home together safely, and Yugo and Yuri had a decent rivalry of sorts

But as groups of four they had nothing, and to put the sole focus on them alone really hurt

#seasalt talks #rambling #thanks for the ask!!#I hardly know what I wrote #again a lot of this is personal preference #as much as I enjoy the show there's a lot I could go over #but to summarize give your characters a chance to show a wide range of emotions #and let them have stakes and important relationships #arc v #I know some of these characters are really important to ppl #and I can hardly claim my precious moonlight child has had the best writing #so this is how things would work best for me #Anonymous

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