#an entire kaiju-industrial complex

[shinobicyrus]

One thing my brain keeps going back to about Pacific Rim (besides the rad giant robots) is the whole existence of kaiju organ harvesters and their implications.

Like, you have Hannibal Chau, a bizarre and interesting character, but we’re presented with a black market operation that seems mostly interested in the “alternative medicine” uses of kaiju parts.

But my brain demands to know: what does the corporate kaiju harvesting industry look like? Sure kaiju blood is toxic, but there are plenty of toxic materials that have useful applications. Are there chemical companies studying kaiju organs? Big-Pharma jumping on the kaiju bone-powder bandwagon? Are bio-tech firms studying kaiju hide to make tougher materials? Agribusinesses clamoring to acquire kaiju crap for fertilizer?

I’m picturing something like the age of whaling, when humans hunted giant animals and carved them up to feed insatiable industries. Whale-oil lighting lanterns for entire cities, whale-bone being used in everything from knick-knacks, tools, umbrellas, and corsets. Ambergris alone was used in perfumes, medicines, cooking. It was even added to wine as an aphrodisiac.

We glimpsed how kaiju affected pop-culture. Now picture a kaiju smashing a city, but the stock market going up for construction companies (rebuilding the cities), vulture real estate (buying the destroyed land cheap), and all the other corporations that profit from the systematic dismantling of a kaiju corpse and making money off of its parts. Sure, a city was roughed up and who knows how many thousands are dead, but it’s a better windfall when a kaiju makes landfall. It’s always less profitable when jaegers kill them too quickly; sea-based extractions are so much more expensive.

Imagine entire industries, entire economies that don’t just make money from the devastation of kaiju attacks, but grow dependent on them. And then the laws, the squabbles over those valuable, resource-rich kaiju corpses. If a kaiju attacks one country but keeps rampaging and is killed in the country next door, who has claim over the body? The party who was damaged more by it or the country where the corpse physically is? Bidding wars over “cleanup” contracts that cut corners and are only interested in collecting those sweet, sweet, kaiju parts as fast as possible, even if their official mandate is supposed to be the safe removal and cleanup of a toxic substance.

Once jaegers started getting efficient at killing kaiju, the people with all the money became less interested in solving the problem of kaiju attacks and switched to merely managing the industries that kaiju-killing feeds.

What? You want to put more resources into R&D to try and close the Breach? Whatever for? The kaiju comes out, jaegers kill it, and the “host country” gets the proceeds from the kaiju’s body. It’s a win-win for everyone. Why waste time, money, and effort solving a problem that isn’t a problem anymore?

Everything is under control.

#Sorry Long Post #Nerd Rant #Pacific Rim #Kaiju #Hannibal Chau #Kaiju Harvesters #Worldbuilding #Capitalism #an entire kaiju-industrial complex #DARPA tech and military budgets build the jaegers #don't try to tell me that there isn't a entire cabal of corporations profiting off of kaijus beyond just simple toys and marketing #(though that also leads me to wonder WHO exactly has the patent on kaiju? #are they public domain or does the PPDC and the UN have an IP on the kaiju they identify and name??? #there's nothing wrong with me I'm normal I swear

[zonedelicious]

An analysis of Ultraman Blazar's ending:

Going into the last episode I was expecting a simple but enjoyable finale. Blazar is a very simple show after all. It didn't have a big plot to keep me on the edge. I even thought about not watching it live and just going to bed. It was late and I wanted to sleep. But I didn't, and ended up watching one of the most beautiful endings to a show.

Throughout Blazar we see Gento's struggle to protect those close to him. As well as his struggle to understand the kaiju and Blazar. He was ready to die to protect the Earth, and I was actually worried that he would die while watching the last episode. But the kaiju are a part of that Earth which is what Gento comes to realise through his role as Ultraman.

There is no villain in Blazar. Well besides the military industrial complex of course. But besides that there's no role of a villain character or villain group that a superhero story usually has. Instead the final opponent of Blazar are aliens who are just as scared of humans as the humans are scared of them.

If the final message is meant to parallel current real world events I don't think it works. Might even be in poor taste. The wars in Ukraine, Syria, Palestine, etc. aren't simply about equal sides fighting for no reason.

But as a more universal message of peace I get what they're going for. Blazar was about protecting the beauty of Earth as well as humanity. And it showed that not caring for the Earth and all its beauty leads to our destruction.

This parts stuck out to me as it showed how all the fighting only lead to more destruction. No side was winning. They were both planning to fight until the other side was completely exterminated. All because they saw the other side as simply an obstacle. A hazard that needs to be taken care of. They did not consider the humanity of those they're destroying.

They needed to stop fighting to save themselves.

But while the humans are struggling to come to a decision, we see the Earth kaiju coming together to save the world. These are kaiju that humans have been fighting throughout the show. And they're now the ones helping the Earth, as they're part of it. The planet itself was fighting to survive.

Which ties well with the final message the humans send to the aliens. The message is only one word. Future. This single word was able to convince the aliens to stop fighting. Because that was when the aliens realise that humans too are people who want to survive. That they both want to live. The aliens realised that they've been destroying someone's home the entire time.

And then to further seal that message, the final power up that saves the day is the bracelet that Gento's son made. Being the bond of a father and his son, the bracelet represents the future of humanity. A better future without violence. A future worth protecting.

Blazar is a very simple show, but I think through its simplicity it ended up with a very heartwarming and deep story.

This is the final frame of the show, and it is the perfect frame to end it on. Because this one frame perfectly captures the show's message.

#Analysis #zone analysis #Ultraman #Ultraman blazar #This show is gonna be stuck in my head forever

[avelera]

Yooo, just had a really interesting discussion about technology in the Pacific Rim world and I work in tech so I have a lot of OPINIONS about how and why technology looks like THAT in Pacific Rim, ie, no cell phones in 2025, no social media as far as anyone can tell and, oh yeah, JAEGERS:

1) Trespasser made landfall in San Francisco in 2012, by all accounts the longest and most devastating Kaiju attack because it was so unexpected. It rampaged for days. My assumption is that this rampage would have taken out the headquarters of all the big name tech companies: Apple, Facebook, Twitter, basically all of Silicon Valley (and a later attack on Seattle would take out the HQ of Microsoft, if they hadn’t already moved by then). Basically, consumer technology as we know it gets stopped in its tracks and these companies never recover from the loss of the majority of their employees and leadership. 

2) You also go, oh yeah, the entire country shifting to a WWII-esque wartime mentality. Combine that with the fact that the only tech companies left (in the US) are on the east coast, that’s aaaall military-industrial complex and some health technology. Raytheon, Lockheed, Northup, etc are now the name of the game in technology, and those guys make weapons, so we see a huge pivot away from any kind of technology being made for civilian entertainment. 

3) Raise your hand if you know where computer chips are manufactured? That’s right, 99% in Asia! Mostly Malaysia, in fact. The U.S. doesn’t have a single factory creating computer chips. With travel across the Pacific in chaos as a result of a Kaiju invasion, the US’s new war effort would lose consumer silicon chips real quick which is where you get that mechanical/analogue renaissance that we see in the design of Jaegers. Digital is just no longer an option, which actually might explain why Hermann has so many old computers lying around his lab: new ones aren’t being made anymore, and/or are extremely expensive ones like his holo-projector thing which are only meant for use by Shatterdomes.

It’s a lot of reaching and very Watsonian. I mean, the Doylist explanation is “GDT wanted it to look cool and hearken back to WWII technology, also most filmmakers his age hate cell phones because they disrupt the kinds of stories they know how to tell too much”. But this is my headcanon for why tech is so different in the fictional 2025 of Pacific Rim.

#pacific rim #pr meta #is pacific rim REALLY the worst timeline if Zuckerberg is dead? #maggie their are kaiju destroying the world and climate change hasn't been stopped YES PR IS A WORSE TIMELINE THAN OURS #admittedly this is very US centric but in my defense I am from the US #there's a lot about PR worldbuilding that baffles me like wouldn't trade routes just go AROUND the Pacific? would the world change THAT MUCH #but then I remember it's all a metaphor for climate change and go back to my seat

[gengarprotectionsquad]

bad horror movie ideas i've been compiling b/c @fleetwoodmurk is an enabler:

thankskilling: the family connections of a 19 year old college student allow him to skirt by any substantial sentencing for violent anti-indigenous hate crimes, just in time for him to make it home by thanksgiving. the soothing whispers of how he “shouldn’t have his life ruined for making a mistake” on property staked in stolen indigenous land invite the wrathful presence of autumn’s bounty-- a ghastly, therizinosaurus-like approximation of a turkey powered solely by the anguish of lives taken in the name of american colonialism. after all, if that family wants their son to have some turkey, then he’ll get his eight foot-tall, blade-handed, undying turkey.    

homebody: forced to pull into a run-down motel by a freak storm, a group of friends initially find themselves faced with nothing more harrowing than the occasional cobweb and staff who never meet visitors face-to-face, even finding a note on the front counter that there’s no fee for staying--so long as they “spread the word” if they find their stay satisfactory. but, after waking up each morning to find that they’ve lost clumps of hair, individual teeth, and even a toe among other body parts, they discover the motel’s one and only employee--a colossal, man-like harvestman that severs human tissue with surgical precision (thanks to its spindly, 15 meter arms) in a misguided attempt to better fool human prey by grafting the fruits of its labor onto its own body.     

goliath’s revenge: a japanese kaiju film director finally pushes his luck just a tad too far, killing the suit actress for the lead “goliath” monster as a direct result of the director’s penchant for strenuous, dangerous stuntwork. when his connections allow him to wriggle his way out of the tragedy scot-free, the suit actress’ furious spirit reanimates in her signature costume--now made flesh and blood--in order to exact a vengeful rampage of monstrous proportions that her former boss could only have hoped to have filmed. 

more under the cut!!!

hivemind: a single mother reeling from a devastating divorce seems to find new purpose in her life thanks to a california-based branch of a yoga group that emphasizes the value of both diligence and mindfulness. as the months go by, however, she realizes that she’s so deeply invested her time with the group that she doesn’t even know the names of anyone in her neighborhood that isn’t involved with them. just as she’s having doubts, she’s invited on a week-long retreat to experience what will hopefully become an outdoor facility of theirs, and that even their founder will be in attendance. she and her daughter do indeed meet the group’s founder--a colossal, humanoid queen ant who is rendered inert by her size, subsequently relying on her psychic abilities to indoctrinate human followers to her side and transform them into “suitable workers” that would happily give their lives for her sake   

children of the night: an exorcist, a private investigator, a trio of true crime podcasters, the local sheriff w/ top suspect in tow, a self-proclaimed “vampire hunter”, and a humble gravedigger all converge on the same cemetery when it becomes host to a series of unspeakably gruesome murders--the site being deemed the “vampires’ playground” for the crimes’ bloody nature. but when the self-confessed suspect winds up cleaved in twain at the scene, it turns out they’ll all have to deal with actual vampires--hulking, gorilla-like, hairless bats with the intelligence of a toddler and a permanent, gummy grin filled with teeth far too dull to consume flesh that hasn’t been playfully beaten to a fine pulp beforehand 

think tank: with the untimely death of a silicon valley tech giant who’d racked up a reputation for being as antisocial as he was exploitative, a documentary crew visits his main offices in hopes of interviewing any available employees in order to determine whether or not that open secret had any truth to it. though cooperative enough, the surly defensiveness that seems to increase in prevalence as the crew makes their way up the corporate ladder leads one particularly-intrepid camerawoman to sneak the crew far further into the building than originally intended and into a hidden basement. this brings them face-to-face with the deceased entrepreneur’s dirty little secret, known as the think tank: a captive “psychic existence” brought into being using the harvested, collective brainpower of every employee who refused to take their boss’s shit but was just too talented to let go 

whalefall: the 300 ft tall, walking corpse of a whale dredges its way up from the ocean floor and onto american shorelines, bringing with it tidal waves of pestilence and plague. when japanese fishermen identify the creature as a bake-kujira--a ghostly whale that harbors only misfortune and undead sealife in the wake of maritime disaster--the federal government opts to not only ignore their insight, but outright blame japan and their whaling industry for its presence. their relative inaction in the name of xenophobia and saving face will serve only to prolong the creature’s attack, with entire coastal towns left to deal with the flooding and zombified deep-sea organisms themselves. 

study skin: a group of hunters grow too impatient to wait for their county’s deer season and set out under the cover of nightfall in hopes of snagging a trophy or two. though met with a highway lined with bizarre amounts of roadkill and a totally silent forest, they disregard their unease and set up for the night. they soon discover the true reason for the minimal duration of the local hunting season when they catch a glimpse of an old friend long-thought to have vanished on a hunting trip, bringing them face-to-face with the hidewinder--a mysterious creature that inhabits the skins of deceased animals in search of larger and more complex bodies to call its own, with absolutely no idea how to look or behave “right” in any of its disguises, and a tendency to become enraged once it becomes clear that it doesnt fit in.

calling card: a freelance musician struggling with being sincere and vulnerable in their own work decides to move to a small, quiet town in southern bumblefuck-nowhere to try and clear their head. to their surprise, they’ve practically moved onto the set of a musical--the town’s residents bursting into song at the drop of a hat out of what seems to be the sheer, earnest passion of their feelings. this pleasant novelty soon turns out to be a town tradition established to cope with the presence of lonesome harvey--an upright cicada-man who emerges from underground hibernation every 18 years to rip select peoples’ vocal chords right out of their throats, crudely tying them together in order to fashion a set powerful enough to function as his own (which he uses to shriek out his signature mating call every summers’ night, in hopes of attracting a partner who’ll never arrive). thus, the townsfolk sing their hearts out so that harvey can gauge whose voice he’ll claim for himself (as opposed to having him mutilate everyone in the name of trial-and-error), and the musician has moved into town just in time for ol’ harvey to make his return.

back of your mind: following the very-much-timely (if a tad mysterious) death of their verbally-abusive mother, her only child returns to their childhood home in order to collect any wayward belongings and maybe find some sort of closure in setting foot on the premises one last time. a patch of black mold on the wall that they spot on their way in seems to...change location, somehow. further investigation and attempts to simply wipe away the mold leave it in the blurred image of a gummy, toothy maw--one that begins to whisper to the visitor, claiming to have missed them oh-so-very-much from the day that they left. the strangeness of the situation keeps them coming back everyday, where the mold’s whispers begin to take a familiarly-cruel edge--at first pleading for the visitor to stay, only to take to yelling at them that no-one but the mold will accept them as the “broken, useless husk” of a person that they are.    

miasma: a long line of charlatans and conmen have managed to convince a small backwoods town over generations that their collection of plastic gems and false talismans will heal them better than any medical professional could ever hope to accomplish. with most of the towns residents now being old, grey, and complacently vulnerable to disease, a new con artist moving in with a case of the stomach flu compromises the health of the entire community. and with the enticing smell of illness, comes the arrival of the scavenger--a black-feathered “vulture man” who knocks three times upon the door of his intended target, before politely entering their residence and leaving within the hour, leaving behind a bloated corpse whose orifices are stuffed with posies laying otherwise peacefully on their bed.  

killing stroke: a promising rising star in the fencing scene is tragically slain in the middle of a prestigious tournament, with the cause of death being attributed to a recklessly-modified underplastron. in actuality, the poor youth’s equipment was sabotaged in order to maintain the career of a legendary fencer. on the anniversary of his death, he rises from the grave and dons his old suit in order to infiltrate that year’s iteration of the tournament--his mission being to cut down not only his rival, but anyone who upholds the same kind of narcissistic greed that claimed his life.  

disassembly line: an upton sinclair-adjacent investigative journalist finds herself looking into the inner workings of a 1900s meat-packing factory in chicago, beholding the full disgusting scope of its exploitative, unsanitary working conditions. managing to acquaint herself with a few of the workers, the lunchtime whispers of one particularly-attractive lady butcher point her in the direction of a devious cover-up involving a nameless employee who “accidentally” wound up in the machinery after making too much of a ruckus about his wages. a nameless employee whose steaming, ground-up remains have now crawled out of the rickety equipment in search of postmortem vigilante justice.    

catch of the day: in spite of the sustainability concerns their operation has racked up over the years, a deep-sea fishing company delves into nigh-uncontested territory--a patch of ocean deemed “dead waters” in reference to the sparse results of other companies’ attempts. their first day dredges up only a single pacific halibut, titanic even by the standards of the species. upon further inspection, the flatfish splits open in a mess of bodily fluids and blackened, inedible meat--as if the fish had already been torn apart and had decayed from the inside out. lost in the shuffle was an amniotic sac containing rapidly-growing, amphibious hagfish “mermaids” that had parasitized the halibut as they had almost all of the other fish in those waters, and that have now been unleashed on a lonely fishing boat sitting miles away from shore.    

razorback bridge: a group of teenaged, amateur paranormal enthusiasts livestream their first “investigation” into a local landmark--razorback bridge, rumored to be haunted by the murderous ghost of a local farmer whose crops were so frequently ruined by invasive wild boar that he snapped and devoted the rest of his natural life to slaying the hogs, eventually losing his life to a boar that proceeded to gobble up his remains without leaving a trace. although officials have long restricted access to that part of the woods due to the aggressive nature of the wild boar inhabiting the area, the teens manage to sneak their way onto the bridge and come face-to-face with ol’ rawhide himself--a ravenous, nigh-unstoppable half-man/half-boar that came to be when the hog that consumed the old farmer had its body possessed and warped by the man’s furious ghost, far too angry to accept even the prospect of his own death.    

vigor mortis: a kindly old mortician prides herself on her ability to restore bodies to exactly how they looked in life, enabling their families to have at least one source of comfort during the difficult coping process of loss. one day, however, she is presented with a body so badly mangled in an accident that she almost suggests to forgo embalming altogether and to simply refrigerate the corpse until the burial service, though she ultimately doesn’t when the distraught client begs for the process to be open-casket. try as she might, the mortician finds herself unable to make any substantial restoration on the body. in the few minutes that she steps away from the body in order to think of what else she could do, she turns back to find that it’s...vanished. she soon finds herself being pursued at every turn by the shambling corpse, now enshrouded in a body bag, and is forced to confront both a mangled revenant and a debilitating case of impostor syndrome.

making up for lost time: a conspiracy theory-themed convention is having its first go in philadelphia, pennsylvania--even hosting an artists’ alley selling everything from “ayyy lmao” keychains to collapsible foam JFK heads. when mysterious burn damage begins to show up on the property, however, the inflated egos of the guest panel speakers representing various “unorthodox investigation” groups not only refuse to give up on the convention, but are so prone to bickering amongst themselves and attempting to assume leadership that they only make it harder for the other attendees to respond to the threat of what seems to be a time traveler. that is, the victim of a first attempt at time travel so badly botched that she’s received what is mostly simply put as “space-time carpet burn”: not only is she burning, but her mind, her soul, and the very concept of her throughout space and time are burning, leaving the unreachable chrononaut in a frenzied panic that threatens to scorch everything she touches right out of existence along with her.    

pearly gates: in the midst of a national emergency, a group of local landlords manage to bully their recently-unemployed tenants into coughing up just enough rent to host a get-together at their luxurious gated community. following a constant sensation of being watched and drowsy recollections of blinding light shining through their windows that first evening, the group awakens the next day to find one of them dead--groveling on her hands and knees with her entire skull seeming to have somehow...inverted. they soon realize that they’re being picked off by an angel--one so enraged by their inhuman greed that it wrenched itself free from the heavens in order to exact furious retribution. 

frontera sangrienta: a softspoken chicanx youth sneaks across the american border on a nightly basis under the noses of both his immigrant parents and border patrol agents, for the express purpose of helping mexican migrants safely make their way over. one night, he is met with a family so terrified that he can make out only one word from their panic--”chupacabra”. the legendary mosquito has developed a taste for american blood after devouring careless tourists and escaped goats, and is in hot pursuit of the family considering that the mother is an american herself. the young man--a “mixed signal” to the chupacabra due to his conflicted feelings over thinking of himself as strictly american or mexican--is now the only thing standing between the family and a pitiful, bloody demise.

52: after a saturation diver is violently wrenched from their diving bell in a freak accident and their remains are presumed lost at sea, a marine salvage team is sent in by the chamber’s manufacturers under the surface-level orders to retrieve evidence for the investigation, but with the underlying message really being to “pick all that shit up so we can just sweep it under the rug quickly and quietly”. upon arrival, the crew begins picking up a bizarre frequency that would otherwise be regarded as whalesong...if not for the fact that it is much higher than the calls of any whales known to inhabit the area. the salvage team then finds themselves being picked off one by one by the source of the noise--it turns out that the saturation diver’s sheer will to live allowed their broken body to adapt to the ocean depths, taking on a warped form not too dissimilar to a beluga whale. now the former diver is left to lash out in frenzied desperation, screaming out a cry for help that falls deaf on the ears of both humans and sealife 

i am but a teenage fool who knows nothing about nothing so please do not dunk on me if nothing i wrote here has any accurate basis in real-world experiences or logic. also i’ll update with more if/whenever i think of any 

#horror #bogleech #monster #monsters #horror movies

[undertheinfluencerd]

https://ift.tt/3DXcz7F #

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

While Marvel’s Phase 4 has been mostly backward-looking for its first outings, in terms of reusing character, Shang-Chi is finally here to change things up. The MCU’s first martial arts fantasy epic is certainly different and unquestionably bold, but does it work, and will Marvel fans take to it as one of the strongest origin stories so far? How does it stand as a new branch for the MCU to nurture in other words?

For the most part, Marvel’s MCU origin stories have been particularly strong. Even ignoring the usual issues with over-emphasis on exposition, comic book movie fans love to see new superheroes take up the mantle. It’s traditionally been in MCU sequels where struggles have been more obvious – apart from Captain America’s seemingly bullet-proof sub-franchise of course. In that respect, Shang-Chi had reason to be confident, even with a vastly different focus to the other MCU kickstarter projects. But at the same time, with the expectations of fans built on 24 movies and billions of dollars, aiming for something different was never going to be completely straightforward. Particularly with the issues presented by the industry at the moment.

Related: Why Shang-Chi’s Avengers Cameo Looks Different From Endgame

Early box office results suggest Shang-Chi is going incredibly well and a 90%+ Rotten Tomatoes review score into opening weekend is always a very good sign. That is a testament to what Simu Liu and director Destin Daniel Cretton have achieved. That said, though, Shang-Chi has some teething issues, even for a movie that is very good overall. In the interest of balance, here’s everything that worked incredibly well in Shang-Chi and the few areas where it perhaps missed the mark.

As with any MCU origin story, there’s a lot of necessary exposition in Shang-Chi. The majority of this is conveyed via flashback, which works, and could have been a little jarring was the narrative importance of the past not been handled well. That typically means there is less space for character, which is often particularly true of a movie with such major fantastical elements and action set-pieces, but not in Shang-Chi. Simu Liu positively radiates charisma, even as he guards his character (to protect his secrets), promising an awful lot more in the MCU’s future. Awkwafina’s Katy is not just the audience’s eyes in Shang-Chi’s world, but she’s also the breakout character (the same way Ratcatcher was in The Suicide Squad and Michael Pena’s Luis was in Ant-Man). The fact that she returns in future, as set up by the end, can only be a good thing. Add to that, the performances of legends like Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh – not just in combat, but in quieter moments – and it’s a truly great group.

Speaking of Tony Leung, his Wenwu – wrongly named The Mandarin or “The Real Mandarin” throughout the marketing – makes a strong claim to be one of the best human MCU villains alongside Michael B Jordan’s Killmonger. Even faced with being overshadowed by a colossal winged demon in the final act, Leung’s dramatic chops back up his stunning martial arts work to create a bad guy who is not only empathetic but compelling in his cause. He is in pain, haunted by his own part in his wife’s death, and corrupted by the power of the Ten Rings and what lies beyond Ta Lo’s portal. Though he also had a more traditional hunger for power before meeting Shang-Chi’s mother, he puts that one-dimensional motivation aside to be a man pushed to desperate, catastrophic measures by his grief. To contrast that with how Iron Man 3 originally portrayed the supposedly same character is night and day.

While the dynamic between Wenwu, Shang-Chi, and Xialing is great, Shang-Chi is best when it’s examining their personal story. Unfortunately, the shift in gears in the third act that sees them arrive in Ta Lo and face the impending arrival of the Dweller-in-Darkness feels like a similar situation that undermined how good The Avengers was. Suddenly adding the Dweller as the final act “big boss”, plus an army of otherwise unmentioned flying soul sucker drones is very much like Whedon’s use of the Chitauri army to escalate matters for the heroes in his final act back in 2012. That’s not to say there aren’t impressive moments in the battle – and who doesn’t want to see what amounts to the MCU’s first kaiju on kaiju battle? – but there’s not quite enough tension when the personal story is ripped away.

Related: Is Shang-Chi Officially An Avenger Now?

The benefit of adding a martial arts master to the MCU is immediately obvious as soon as Shang-Chi gets into its combat groove. The opening fight sequence on the bus careening down San Francisco’s famous hills is remarkable and it’s far from the best. Elsewhere, Tony Leung, Simu Liu, Andy Le, Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhan, and young Arnold Sun (a revelation as teen Shang-Chi in training flashbacks) all put together gravity-defying martial arts set-pieces that are unlike anything seen in the MCU. So far, the MCU brand of martial arts has looked more like the bruising style of Florian Munteanu’s Razor Fist, but here there’s balletic grace mashed up with the physical drunken boxer humor of Kung Fu Hustle (referenced lovingly not only in a poster in Shang-Chi’s wall, but also in the casting of Yuen Wah as Ta Lo Master Guang Bo. The slow-motion can get a little over-indulgent, but there’s no doubting the obscene skill involved.

Despite the mastery of the fight choreography and the incredible environmental designs that go into Ta Lo in particular, some of Shang-Chi‘s CGI is on a par with the worst moments of Black Panther‘s notorious early trailers. There’s more than one regrettable ragdoll sequence, including part of the otherwise excellent bus fight, and while the Great Protector battling the Dweller-in-Darkness is a fun spectacle, some of it is too muddied by an attempt to presumably hide the heavy effects work involved. The moment that sees Shang-Chi run up the otherworldly beast, in particular, is near-impossible to follow.

The MCU has been accused before of being too focused on shoe-horning humor in to meet the expectations of the lucrative family audience, and even some of the best Marvel movies too have clunking gags in them. Shang-Chi, though, brilliantly balances humor and heart and drama. Awkwafina’s Katy and Sir Ben Kingsley’s return as Trevor Slattery take care of much of the leg work, but Simu Liu’s comic background helps a great deal, though his jokes come less frequently than his “sidekicks”. There’s never any attempt to really undermine heavy, dramatic moments with humor, which is where Marvel stumbles a lot and crucially, Shang-Chi being an insider on his lore means there’s no reductive mockery of the mythology behind his powers and his family.

Shang-Chi is a stand-alone almost to the same degree as a Phase 1 movie, and that’s great, but there are obviously expectations to tie it back to the rest of the MCU, and – as ever – use its end as a stepping stone to what comes next. Had that ended with Wong’s recruitment of Shang-Chi and Katy and the impromptu, hilarious karaoke sessions, that would have been perfectly fine, but then Shang-Chi‘s mid-credits scene goes too far. Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner’s inclusions feel too much like big-name appearances for the sake of familiarity, particularly because both add very little to the discussion on the Ten Rings other than a bemused shrug. They’re there so that Marvel can remind the audience that there’s always something bigger coming, but it didn’t need to be done this way when Wong’s mysterious tease of what he needed Shang-Chi for was satisfying enough.

Related: How Marvel Retconned Its Iron Man 3 Mandarin Controversy

Now that there are 25 MCU movies and a number of Disney+ Marvel shows to throw into the mix, the requirement to do Marvel homework before each release is getting to the point where casual audiences simply will not do it. Luckily, Shang-Chi exists on its own merit strongly and without the crutch of the rest of the franchise, meaning any pre-watching is limited. Yes, there are nods to the post-Endgame world in posters about Snap Anxiety, and Wong and Tim Roth’s Abomination appear, but the only substantial link is to Trevor Slattery’s arc in Iron Man 3, and he is played in such a way that he’s no more than a jester brought along to help Morris become the next most memeable Marvel character. His arc is entirely explained within Shang-Chi anyway, so that serves as all the required reminder. The reason this is such a big plus for Shang-Chi is that it has to be how Marvel moves forward when establishing new MCU IPs, like X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, and whoever else comes along: not everything has to be tied to the nostalgia machine. Shang-Chi proves it’s still possible to strike out onto a new branch without everything being a set-up for when the next cameo will happen.

While Tony Leung’s Wenwu is great (particularly in how he retcons Iron Man 3‘s Mandarin mistake), and the fight sequences involving both are hugely entertaining, it’s difficult not to feel that both Razor Fist and – even more so – Death Dealer aren’t rather undernourished. The former’s complexity is as limited as you might expect from someone who drives around in an SUV with his own name spraypainted on the side (even when it’s achingly hinted for about two seconds that he fears for his master’s mental health), and the latter is a plot device killed off for effect. Neither is given anything like the charisma to hide their lack of development and backstory and it’s a real shame. At least Razor Fist’s likely return might afford more of an opportunity.

Not only is Shang-Chi a great stand-alone, but it is fundamentally different from what MCU fans have seen over the past decade. While it has the same hallmarks of familial conflict and daddy issues as lots of previous Marvel movies, it balances that with martial arts, new mysticism, a dragon, a giant kaiju-like demon, and the suggestion that more lands like Wakanda can exist beyond portals to other realms. There can be no accusations of deferring to type or Shang-Chi being somehow formulaic, and after 24 films, that is an impressive thing to be able to state. It also makes forthcoming new creative endeavors – like Eternals – that have a similar burden of expectation to be new and exciting a lot easier to back to succeed with the audience. The start of Phase 4 has looked backward a little more than some may like, but Shang-Chi is bold and unafraid to be wildly different to its stable-mates, and that should give future MCU creators cause for confidence.

Next: Every Upcoming Marvel Movie Release Date (2021 To 2023)

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[anonymousreview]

Pacific Rim

Dir. Guillermo Del Toro

Who doesn’t like a good old fashion Kaiju vs Mecha fight; I sure as hell do. Guillermo Del Toro takes a fresh approach on executing an action packed story, recreating how Kaiju monster movie are really all about.

Pacific Rim was one of 2013’s most commercially well-known films. It had a lot of good expectations which didn’t leave entirely unfulfilled. It set a reminder that Kaiju movies should still exist, and should approach a more “fun” oriented tone. There were a lot of pro’s and con’s for Del Toro creation and approach.

The film was a success in the sense of its “fun” tone and focus on action. There was nothing dark or eerie about the film, just simply mankind saving them with giant mecha’s. The story was coherent and very easy to follow. It wasn’t complex or really “explored” in any aspect; I think Del Toro really sought out to create something every audience could enjoy. It was very surface level, but also very safe. The same goes for the characters, none of them were complex at all, however this has had drawback because every character seemed really “scripted”. They didn’t appear real or believable. As far as chemistry between characters went, well it’s the same.

In 2013, Pacific Rim had some pretty good CGI. As a matter of fact, that entire film was created through a green screen and computer graphics. The Jaegers looked amazing however, and the Kaiju’s been original and also had nice visuals. The combat was engaging and there was never a dull moment throughout the scenes.  The visual team did a good job on creating how giant monster and machine would move and actually fight; that being a steady and heavy movement for each blow.  

One thing I appreciate from Del Toro the most is his casting. There were no Hollywood stars in the film, many unknown but given an opportunity to shine in a Hollywood film. The cast was diverse and included a Japanese role for a Japanese actress, Rinko Kikuchi (one of my favorite Japanese actresses to star in the American industry). Although the acting was not perfect and the dialogue was also much “scripted” they didn’t do a terrible job. In fact, I would blame the cons of their chemistry and acting on the writing, for its very basic and surface approach.  The fact remains, Del Toro puts the right people in the right role.

Pacific Rim is no perfect film. The best aspect is how fresh it feels. We need more Kaiju movies such as this with a laid back tone and something has pure enjoyment. However, it dulls in basic areas, giving drawbacks to the film. Scripted dialogue, scripted characters, and dull editing, only bring down points in their favor.

Verdict: 6.5/10 “A refreshing American Kaiju movie that actually hits the nail, reminding us that those films can still exist and the U.S. can do it right, if we tried”

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[jillmckenzie1]

Almost, But Not Quite, The Abyss

If you’re a regular viewer of movies, you know you can track the seasons by the kinds of movies playing. Are the theaters jam-packed with big, loud blockbusters? You’re in summer. Do you have a wide variety of Oscar bait to choose from? Congratulations, you’ve arrived safely in the fall.

The depths of winter are when studios give up. They already released the films built to either make an assload of money or attract awards. What’s left is the cinematic equivalent of the island of misfit toys, and production companies frequently throw these redheaded stepchildren into theaters with a hasty prayer to any deity still willing to listen.

It gets a little more complex, though. I’ve found that while a good chunk of January and February movies do legitimately suck, decent films sneak in under the radar saddled with an undeservedly poor reputation. These are films made with intelligence and skill that never quite find the audience they deserve. It’s a pity, but there is an occasional upside: a theater all to myself.

And so it was that I boldly strode into my local cinema palace and found that I was the only human being there. If I so chose, I could have treated myself to a full Thanksgiving dinner. I could have tripped balls. I could have viewed the film sans pants. Guys…I did none of those things because a) I take moviegoing far too seriously* and b) my attention was grabbed by the new creature feature Underwater.

As a quick aside, did you know that space travel is easier for us than undersea exploration? I’m not arguing that it isn’t easy to die horribly in space. It is! With a complete lack of breathable air, you have perhaps a minute of survival before things go pear-shaped. I’ll take that over the alternative. The bottom of the Mariana Trench is the lowest point of the ocean, over 36,000 feet below sea level. If you’re able to make it that far down and an accident occurs, you don’t have to worry about that single minute of survival. With water pressure that’s more than eight tons per square inch, you’ll be crushed into a pink mist within picoseconds. Survive that and you also need to reckon with the alarming fact that 95 percent of the ocean floor has been unexplored. So, it sucks all the way around.

With all that in mind, it’s no wonder the heroes of Underwater barely get a moment to breathe. We’re introduced to mechanical engineer Norah (Kristen Stewart), working a job on a deep-sea oil drilling facility at the Mariana Trench. She’s not the most positive person in the world, and you kind of can’t blame her. As soon as she finishes brushing her teeth, things go straight to hell. An earthquake hits, causing catastrophic damage. The hull starts to break up, so Norah does what many of us would do-try to get outta Dodge with a quickness.

The good news is that she picks up a number of her co-workers, including Rodrigo (Mamoudou Athie), Emily (Jessica Henwick), Smith (John Gallagher Jr.) and Paul (T.J. Miller). The bad news is that one of her co-workers is T.J. Miller. The better news is that Captain Lucien (Vincent Cassel) also survived, and he’s a competent and decent enough sort that the group has a fighting chance of survival.

Or maybe not. It turns out all of the escape pods in their facility have either been demolished or used. Plan B is to suit up, take an undersea stroll to another facility a mile or so away, and utilize the pods there—if there are any left. With all that going on, they’ll discover that something else is down there with them, and it’s very, very unfriendly.

It is my pleasure to report to you that Underwater is genuinely pretty good! Permit me another quick aside, but my kid and I were fans of last year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. We didn’t care for the ham-fisted moments of pseudo-drama and the attempts to wring two dimensions out of one-dimensional characters.** We absolutely went cuckoo bananapants for the outstanding portrayals of kaiju demolishing everything in sight. Unfortunately, we had to wade through some garbage to get to the gold.

Director William Eubank must have heard my cries of frustration, and it’s almost as if he responded to me, personally, with Underwater. He knows why we’re watching this movie, and he does not screw around. Less than five minutes after the opening credits, there’s running, screaming, people being crushed, and assorted aquatic chaos. Jump scares are kept to a minimum, and tension is effectively developed through a combination of murky cinematography by Bojan Bazelli and Eubank’s skillful usage of geography. While the characters frequently don’t know where they are, Eubank always makes sure we know where they are and where they’re going.

The script by Eubank, Adam Cozad, and Brian Duffield is fairly solid. I appreciated that they kept the action with our primary characters and never had a superfluous b-plot about rescuers up top. I felt like there were a few too many moments of tragic character backstory, but the script never dwells on it for long. It’s constantly moving onto the next moment, and for a movie like this to work, it needs constant momentum.

The cast is a mixed bag. If I’m being honest, there’s only one problematic element, and we’ll get to that shortly. Overall, everybody is solid, with Kristen Stewart being the entirely unsurprising standout. She excels at understated and subtle performances, and as Norah, she does nice work playing an intelligent woman doing her best to get through impossible situations. I like that Stewart has been taking part in genre films, and I very much want her to continue. I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing a rare heroic performance from Vincent Cassel. He excels at playing oily aristocrats and arrogant nogoodniks, and I appreciated him shifting gears to play a guy that you would be happy to be stuck with during an underwater disaster.

The problematic element of the cast would be one T.J. Miller. Between allegations of sexual assault, calling in a bomb threat on a train, and wildly unprofessional behavior on the set of Silicon Valley, Miller is doing a bang-up job of making himself persona non grata within the entertainment industry. Bad enough that he brings a lot of baggage with him, but as far as his role in Underwater goes, it feels like he’s in a different movie than everyone else. He’s playing the comic relief here, yet his wisecracks are never terribly amusing, and he can’t quite sell the terror that everyone else is experiencing.

William Eubank has stuffed a disaster movie and a monster movie into a Brundlepod and given us Underwater. I’m saddened that the film has flopped at the box office, and I hope it finds a second life streaming or on home video. Give it a shot, since its relentless pacing and a strong performance from Kristen Stewart makes it rise above the usual debris released in January.

  *Ordinarily I get bent out of shape by people futzing with their phones and talking during a movie. When I’m the only one there? I gave myself a pass for hooting with laughter and, when a specific cast member is sucked out of his pressure suit, yelling, “HOO-BOY, THAT’S INCONVENIENT!”

**Hoping for three-dimensional characters in that movie is like hoping Donald Trump develops a conscience. It’s so vanishingly unlikely, why bother thinking about it?

from Blog https://ondenver.com/almost-but-not-quite-the-abyss/

[i-am-very-very-tired]

// Google search Lainey Gossip The Best Films of the Decade (2010s): Part II December 20, 2019 at 8:46 PM by Sarah Popstar: Never Stop Stopping and Moonlight movie posters 352741 For Part 1 of The Best Films of the Decade, please click here. The final half of the best films of the decade. As always, this list is alphabetical, not ranked. The Love Witch (2016) A film of singular artistic vision, The Love Witch is produced, written, directed, edited, AND scored by Anna Biller. Done in the style of early 1960s Technicolor films, and with nods to everything from exploitation cinema to Hitchcock, The Love Witch is critical examination of gender roles and the femme fatale trope. It is absolutely DIVINE to look at, but it will leave you with something to think about, too. The Lure (2015) The Eighties synth-pop cannibal mermaid musical you didn’t know you needed, The Lure reimagines The Little Mermaid as a cautionary tale for a world that preys on women, exploiting talent and sexuality for commercial gain. Honestly, this is the only live-action Little Mermaid we really need. MacGruber (2010) Will Forte (along with his writing partner John Solomon, and Jorma Taccone) turns his SNL character into an absurdist takedown of toxic masculinity, lampooning the kind of hyper-masculine patriotism and macho-worship that defined the conflict-ridden aughts. As America tired of endless war and bad men in the 2010s, though, MacGruber gained a devoted following, turning one of the decade’s biggest bombs into one of its biggest cult films. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) One of the few things we can all agree on this decade is that Fury Road is AWESOME. One of the best crafted and executed films of the decade, with some of the coolest and most bonkers stunts, Fury Road is also a rare sequel that rethinks its own universe and updates its lore in meaningful, resonant ways. A beautiful action film, and a harrowing survival tale, Fury Road remains unsurpassed in its ambition and accomplishment. Moonlight (2016) A coming of age and coming out story, Moonlight is a sensitive portrait of queer black manhood that resonates with affection, romance, disappointment, joy, and an almost unbearably fragile feeling of hope. This film is so emotionally evocative it is almost impossible to describe, because it will touch every viewer in different ways, and hold such personal meaning for those who embrace Barry Jenkins’ multi-faceted storytelling style. Moonlight is one of the most powerfully affecting films of the decade. The Nice Guys (2016) A period piece that does not revel in nostalgia for its era, a buddy comedy about two guys who don’t really get along, and a father-daughter tale in which the daughter is more paternal than her dad, The Nice Guys is full of contradictions and escalating tension. Pound for pound one of the funniest films of the decade, it’s also a refreshing sleuth story where no one is a super genius Sherlock type. It’s just a good old-fashioned mystery with wit to spare. Paddington/Paddington 2 (2014/2017) The kindest, sweetest, most earnestly sincere family films of the decade, the Paddington films are also the only sequel pair so quality and thematically consistent they effectively register as one film. Paddington and Paddington 2 are also notable for their tremendous style and great comedy villains, particularly Hugh Grant’s definitive performance as Phoenix Buchanan. Parasite (2019) It feels like all of Bong Joon-ho’s work this decade built to Parasite, a complex class parable that considers how impossible it really is to climb the socio-economic ladder. In turns a horror, comedy, thriller, and family drama, Parasite is one of the most unique visions of the decade from a master filmmaker. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) Like MacGruber, Popstar bombed upon release, only to immediately develop a cult following. A pitch-perfect satire of contemporary pop music and the music industry itself, Popstar is This Is Spinal Tap for a new generation. It also doesn’t hurt that all of the original songs are signature Lonely Islands bops, equal parts funny and catchy. Style Boyz for life! The Raid (2011) This is the reason every action movie and TV show this decade has a hallway fight. Arguably the most influential action movie of the decade, with direct influence on some of the decade’s biggest movies, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, John Wick, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Raid is single-handedly responsible for bringing back practical, hand-to-hand combat stunts in American action cinema. Shin Godzilla (2016) In the same decade that Hollywood struggled to understand Godzilla, Japan’s legendary Toho production house reinvented the kaiju for a new era of nuclear catastrophe. This Godzilla secretes radioactive waste and moves through cities like a tsunami wave, a clear allusion to the 2011 tsunami and ensuing Fukushima Daiichi reactor meltdown. Shin Godzilla also lampoons burdensome bureaucracy that is ill-equipped for fast-moving disaster, making it a sharp political satire as well. The Social Network (2010) David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin combine power to craft this loquacious but chilly drama about the founding of Facebook, one of the decade’s most influential media companies. This film stands the test of time less as a portrait of Mark Zuckerberg and more as a dire prediction for our future, in which social interactions happen online and a social media platform has the power to threaten democracy itself. The Social Network was originally dinged for inaccuracies about Zuckerberg, but it was scarily prescient about how Facebook would come to shape our world, for the worse. Sorry to Bother You (2018) Boots Riley blew the doors down with his debut film, crafting a scathing socio-political satire of racism and classism that is simultaneously funny and deeply upsetting. Riley pulls no punches in his multi-directional critique of corporate America, particularly how it exploits black excellence to maintain white supremacist ideals. This is a gonzo, bizarre, unforgettable film from one of the boldest new voices in America cinema this decade. Under the Skin (2013) A lonely film about what it is to be human, to be vulnerable, and the inherent unknowable nature of humanity, Under the Skin is film that evolves and shifts as we each apply our own understanding of ourselves to its blank-faced protagonist (a decade-best Scarlett Johansson). Chilly, abstract, and impenetrable, Jonathan Glazer gives us one of the most unique sci-fi visions of the decade. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Just when you thought the mockumentary trend was dead, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement deliver a mockumentary about the undead so perfectly constructed it accounts for the endangerment of the cameramen. This is one of the funniest comedies of the decade, but it also sneaks in a poignant love story and is a rare celebration of healthy male friendship. Also, it is stuffed to the brim with jokes, every one of which works. There isn’t a bad line in this entire film. Young Adult (2011) Young Adult unspools like a sour jaw breaker, both bitter in taste and difficult to digest as Mavis (Charlize Theron as one the decade’s great anti-heroines) rampages through the lives of her former classmates, trying to relive her high school glory days. Equal parts funny and challenging, Young Adult examines the challenge and necessity of growing up and letting go.  Tags: Movie Reviews and Previews , Top Reads Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys attend the Premiere of Disney's "Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker" on December 16, 2019 in Hollywood, California 352731 Outfits of the Week: Keri Russell Keri Russell wore the first Outfit of the Week we started doing almost two years ago. And since then December 20, 2019 at 7:53 PM by Lainey Zach Braff out in LA, December 18, 2019 352742 Celebrity Social Media, December 20, 2019 Jia Tolentino’s The Age of the Instagram Face is only a few weeks old, but it’s already a reference December 20, 2019 at 9:40 PM by Maria Related on LaineyGossip No Related Articles Need a Distraction? by TaboolaSponsored LinksYou May Like Bushmans River Mouth Woman Was Playing on This Free Slot Machine App, When All Of A Sudden She Won Big Download on the App Store | Neverland Casino South Africans Are Making A Fortune With Online Trading. Read How ThinkBig How South Africans Make A Fortune With Online Trading in 2019. Read Now homefinancetoday 4 Reasons To Invest Online! Convert Trading into Constant Income. 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[recentanimenews]

Celebrating the Birth of a Legend with Hideaki Anno's Top 10 Works!

Whether you’re a casual anime fan or a diehard follower, chances are you revere, worship, or at the very least know the name of Hideaki Anno. As an eclectic and ambitious director and one of the founders of GAINAX studios, his career has had no small part in revolutionizing anime as we know it. His influence persists through some of the most memorable mecha anime and monster animation, dating back to Hayao Miyazaki’s classic, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, where he received recognition for helping animate many of the more complex scenes in the film's climax. His style makes him a certified nerd genius, meaning he knows exactly how to make some of our favorite franchises and genres great because he grew up with them much in the same way we did.

To celebrate Hideaki Anno’s 59th birthday, we’re listing off our top 10 favorite works as we fondly look back on a filmography that is as timeless as it is visionary.

10) Rebuild of Evangelion

It’s difficult to gauge how good something is when it hasn’t finished yet, especially when its conclusion has been more than eight years in the making. So we’re settling with the reimagining of Anno’s most influential work at number 10. Whereas the original Evangelion broadcast lacked the budget to achieve Anno’s true vision, the Rebuild movies were able to capitalize on its popularity and create visual spectacles that were closer to his ambitions. The new story may take some controversial twists and turns, but Rebuild is certainly an experience that Eva fans shouldn’t miss out on.

  9) Love & Pop

In 1998, Anno made his first venture into live-action filmmaking, which expanded his passion for pop culture, and comes in at number 9. This harrowing coming-of-age story follows a group of Japanese high school girls who are embroiled in the seedy industry of compensated dating. In the transition from animation to live action, Love & Pop loses none of its creator’s creativity. The film was reportedly filmed almost entirely on handheld cameras, and uses odd perspective and camerawork to convey emotions. As a poignant commentary on Japanese society and the importance of self-worth, Anno succeeded in carrying out his patented brand of visual philosophy in his first live-action project.

  8) His and Her Circumstances

This 1998 anime comes hot off the heels of End of Evangelion, but represents a departure from Anno’s usual beat up until that point. Whereas he told very humanizing stories through the lens of sci-fi, His or Her Circumstances brought his drama back to much more realistic settings. The show focuses on a young girl who feigns perfection in high school despite her numerous personality flaws, and the relationship drama that she and her friends face.

According to Animefringe writer Adam Arnold, Anno did research on actual high school students in order enrich the anime’s plot and characters with a touch of realism. His introspection into the sociology of people’s relationships was supplemented by a unique art direction that featured scenes depicted using panels from the original manga, and lines of dialogue that featured little to no animation. Anno’s sense of style and storytelling is in full force, even without giant robots or monsters to complement the character drama, earning His or Her Circumstances a comfy seat at number 8.

7) Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water

For a series inspired by Jules Verne, conceived by acclaimed anime director Hayao Miyazaki, and directed by Anno himself, is it any wonder that 1990 anime makes number 7 on our list? The show revolves around the titular Nadia and her inventor friend Jean who join up with Captain Nemo and a host of other characters to try and stop the Neo-Atlanteans from taking over the world.

The series earned several Anime Grand Prix Awards in 1991, including “Best Work” of that year. It also placed at #72 in a 2001 Animage list of top 100 anime productions. It’s been lauded for its dark and mysterious narrative undertones being expertly woven into the show’s charming and upbeat nature.

6) Cutie Honey (2004 Live Action Film)

As another one of his live-action films, Anno took on the sizeable task of adapting Go Nagai’s classic and influential magical girl series. That’s a winning combination for number 6! The 2004 film stars award-winning actress Eriko Sato as the titular outfit-changing superhero, and features a ton of original character depictions, such as making Honey’s best friend,Natsuko Aki,a police inspector. Various scenes featured wacky visuals and magical action that oftentimes likened the movie more to a glorified motion comic than a film. However, a stylistic choice like this could be traced back to Anno’s love for classic Japanese pop culture stories, and a desire to bring that charm to life in its purest form.

5) Re: Cutie Honey

Of course, Cutie Honey shines as an anime, and Anno succeeded in bringing the project back to its roots. Re:Cutie Honey is a three-part OVA that came out only two months after the live-action movie. While the story remains the same between the film and the OVA, its characters received more development and many scenes retained the charm that Cutie Honey is known for.

  Though Anno is credited as the director, he worked with three different directors across each episode, each of them bringing their own style and polish to connect with Anno’s vision. Its stylized visuals, quirky anime dialogue, and homages to other classic anime make Re:Cutie Honey one of the more memorable works that Anno had a hand in.

  4) Gunbuster

This classic mech mini-series marked Anno’s directorial debut back in 1988. Inspired by 1986’s Hollywood film Top Gun, Gunbuster tells the story of Noriko Takaya, a clumsy but determined young girl who enrolls in a mecha pilot training school in order to follow her father’s footsteps in the battle against malicious aliens.

  As Anno’s breakout directorial work, this already featured many hallmark elements that we know him for today. From unique mecha and monster designs to a compelling and emotional narrative with a dash of fan service thrown in there, Gunbuster remains a pillar of 1980s anime and truly set the precedent for what Anno had in store for the world. The show’s final moments also featured his patented “vision exceeding budget” technique of having to cut corners on action sequences during the finale.

3) Neon Genesis Evangelion

  You probably saw this coming a mile away, because Neon Genesis Evangelion deserves no better place on this list than in the top 3. Anno and Evangelion are practically synonymous, as his show remains one of the most influential and memorable works in anime history. Evangelion dared to tell a harrowing and visceral introspection on depression and the human condition through the trauma of young and immature mecha pilots, reflecting Anno’s own depression at the time.

  Since its premere in 1995, it's been widely credited for revitalizing anime during a time where the industry was in dire straits. In a 2009 interview, anime producer and current AT-X President Keisuke Iwata once posited that it even played a major role in anime's initial global appeal. It challenged other creators at the time to tell stories of psychological depth and gave rise to more impactful and emotional anime. Acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai himself stated that anime as it is today owes a great deal to Evangelion. There’s really not much else to say about how revolutionary Evangelion is, or how imaginative Anno was in creating it.

  2) End of Evangelion

Of course, Evangelion literally wouldn’t be complete without End of Evangelion. With a proper budget and a reputation as one of the most popular and memorable creators of his time, Anno was able to transcend Evangelion’s controversial final episodes and deliver something truly special within this 1997 feature length film.

End of Evangelion marked a major achievement in Anno’s career by allowing him creative catharsis. The trauma and development behind the main cast is brought to a head as Anno’s vision is fully realized. Shocking and intense visuals and a healthy dose of Anno’s trademark psychological and existential drama made for a much more direct, if not considerably surreal, conclusion to Shinji Ikari’s tale.

1) Shin Godzilla

In his most recent 2016 live-action film, Anno adapted one of Japan’s most iconic pop culture characters, and he did it rather perfectly. Known as Godzilla: Resurgence in Western theaters, Shin Godzilla received critical acclaim in Japan for Anno's unique yet faithful take on the classic kaiju. Though the monster was generated with CGI, its visceral organic design was made to emulate the feel of a traditional tokusatsu monster suit as an homage to Godzilla’s roots. However, he also implemented his own twists on the character, showing off a gradual evolution of the monster and displaying considerably epic upgrades to his classic Atomic Breath.

  The film won an abundance of Japanese film awards, including the 40th Japanese Academy Prizes for Film of the Year and Director of the Year for Anno and Shinji Higuchi, a close friend of Anno’s who worked previously worked with him on several of Anno’s projects, including Evangelion.  

Reportedly, Anno initially turned down the project while he was in the midst of a depressive episode after completing Evangelion 3.0, citing that he didn’t feel confident enough that his film would meet the standards that previous Godzilla films have set. But with the love and dedication he put into the film along with the accolades it built up, its place as on our list one of Anno’s best works is a no-brainer for us.   

  Honorable Mention: Anno as portrayed in Blue Blazes

While Anno certainly didn't direct this 2014 Japanese drama, this endearing depiction of the acclaimed director deserves a shout-out on our list. Based on a semi-autobiographical manga by Kazuhiko Shimamoto, the show provides a fictionalized record of his student years at the Osaka University of Arts, which he attended alongside Anno and several other notable anime creators in the 1980s. 

  Anno was portrayed by Ken Yasuda, who presented a hilariously-dramatized version of Anno who would act out his favorite kaiju battles with his friends and flaunt his eclectic knowledge of animation techniques, character habits, and tokusatsu suit actors. The show also showcased many of Anno’s impressive animation assignments and even recreated his charmingly-homemade Ultraman student film project.

Hideaki Anno is nothing less than an iconic anime visionary, whose imagination and deep appreciation for pop culture knows no bounds. As a creator, he's spent his career constantly climbing out of the depths of depression to create impactful and outstanding work in both anime and live-action filmmaking. It's no exaggeration to say that anime as we know it wouldn't be the same without Anno and his boundless creativity!

Which of Anno's work is your favorite? How would you rank his shows and movies? Drop a comment and let us know!

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Carlos is a freelance features writer for Crunchyroll. Their favorite genres range from magical girls to over-the-top robot action, yet their favorite characters are always the obscure ones. Check out some of their satirical work on The Hard Times.

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[avelera]

A few headcanons about what was going on with Newt’s parents during the Uprising years (that I’m writing out for organizing my thoughts for fic purposes):

- First of all, I personally headcanon Jacob and “Uncle” Illia Geiszler as a married gay couple rather than as brothers. I see Monica Schwartz as Newt’s biological mother but who is either 1) a good friend of theirs who agreed to be their surrogate 2) a woman Jacob had a fling with before he married Illia. Either way, Newt’s parents are Jacob and Illia and Monica is his “mother” but not really part of his life (and part of his joke about “Only my mother calls me Newt” is for Hermann’s benefit because Hermann knows he has two dads). I know this contradicts canon and all, but honestly, born-in-the-1990s Newt probably WOULD refer to his second dad as “uncle” to avoid trouble with bullying and whatnot in those days and it just fits his personality, I think, with being comfortable with himself and his sexuality and going to protests and stuff like what we saw the Drift that he would have that social awareness from a young age. 

- I know the canon also says that Newt is from Berlin but like... Charlie Day just isn’t portraying that. At all. So I’m totally willing to keep that Jacob and Illia are from Berlin but to my eyes, Newt either born in Boston or moved there so young that he has no other cultural identity. The man oozes New England in his mannerisms.

- So onto Uprising, while I do think it’s possible to keep Hermann and the PPDC at arm’s length I do disagree with the idea he cut off contact entirely, even with Hermann. I think he definitely isolated himself, and contact was sparse, but I don’t think it ever got so sparse that suspicion could be raised enough to prompt an intervention. 

- But the thing is, Newt was clearly a workaholic all his life. If we keep the ridiculous “6 PhD” thing or even if we don’t, the guy’s enormously accomplished by a young age at 35. I know people see Newt as messy and alternative but he is not lazy or a slacker, he simply couldn’t be with his background or what we see on screen. He is intellectually and just action-wise extremely high energy and proactive. Tragically, this leads me to believe his years at Shao wouldn’t necessarily raise any alarm bells with his family.

- Whether you see Jacob and Illia as living in Berlin or Boston, Newt’s move from Hong Kong to Shanghai wouldn’t impact them much travel-wise since they’re only a two hour flight apart but at least a 15 hour flight from both those locations. Aside: I tend to headcanon the latter, basically my fictional biography of Boston Newt is that he got extremely lucky at a young age at a time where over medication of kids with ADHD was extremely common, and instead of getting drugged to the gills he had loving, artistic/engineering dads who saw his potential and got him enrolled at an MIT kids program that quickly morphed into going straight into MIT at a crazy young age and effectively channeling all his overabundance of energy and intellect Matilda-style into a place that could actually handle him. Most kids are not so lucky and this only worked out because they were living down the street from MIT.

- So basically, you have a situation where Newt has been living away from home at least since he joined the Hong Kong Shatterdome, which is 5 years, but he was bouncing around to Shatterdomes before that. His dads are probably used to not seeing him except over video calls (when even THAT is possible given Kaiju disruption of communication lines) or a few times a year during good years in person. So him going to work for a high-powered job in Shanghai with a company that demands a lot of his time wouldn’t really change things very much. 

- The one thing that might raise eyebrows is that he’s working for a weapons manufacturer at all, but that’s only if you headcanon (like I do) that Newt was protesting the military industrial complex with his dads ever since he could walk. But again, a lot changes with the Kaiju, and even more changes for people like Newt especially when the Kaiju go away. Him making a dramatic switch in field might be odd, but who knows how losing the focus of his life’s work with the closing of the Breach would impact him? And he was working for the PPDC, a military organization, so him going to work for a weapons manufacturer isn’t really that out of the blue given the way private and public sector tend to pass people back and forth.

- While I think the Precursors would work to keep Hermann away, I think Newt would be able to convince them that he needs to keep at least light contact with his dads or they’re going to worry and maybe try to intervene. But again, we’re talking the occasional video call and a few in-person days of meetings (at most) maybe once a year. Either with Newt flying out for a “whirlwind” stopover in Boston/Berlin, maybe for just a few hours during a business trip because he’s “in the area” and he’s gotta rush out of there, or with them coming to Shanghai to visit and him being “tragically” busy with work so he can only grab a quick dinner with them. Again, sad, but probably not all that different from his Shatterdome schedule.

- The more gut-wrenching thing I can think of is: Newt’s making seven figures. He’s firmly upper class now, and with Jacob and Illia being a musician and an electronics engineer, they’re probably middle class but hardly wealthy. That means it would make sense for Newt to support them financially. And you know what supporting someone financially helps you buy? Control. Wielding status as a financial benefactor could mean he puts his dads in a position where they can’t really ask questions or make demands on his time without feeling guilty, and he can hold that over them, something I can 1) see Precursor Newt doing because he’s a douchebag 2) see as serving the Precursors’ plan for Newt very well. 

And frankly, his dads would be getting older at this point. Probably not traveling as much, not able to come out to Shanghai as easily if he doesn’t come out to where they are, and probably living on retirement and savings. Their senses may not be as sharp and therefore able to pick up the micro-expressions of distress Newt puts out. And Newt has probably always been pretty self-sufficient from a young age given when he got his degrees, so besides a certain coldness and level of distraction, there’s nothing you can really pin his odd behavior on except that, well, he’s working as a corporate douchebag now and that environment changes a person. But he’s making good money and he’s not in trouble or anything, so you can’t really intervene, can you? At least there will probably be the wedding at some point when he finally gets hitched with this Alice girl he can’t stop talking about, right?

#pr meta #maggie's writing progress #newton geiszler #pacific rim #this got long forgive my rambling