#credit to Ninja go Studio 2

[sayuricorner]

ROTTMNT x Monkie Kid crossover prompt idea: Teenage Mutant Ninja Monkey

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Warning 2: Spoilers for Monkie Kid S4

Hey everybody! ^^

So for a good time now, I have been obsessed with rise of the tmnt and Monkie Kid and when I learnt those two shows were from the same studios, I couldn’t just miss this opportunity for a crossover!!! ^^

So here’s a crossover idea with in addition an OC of my creation! ^^

If you want to use this AU go ahead, just tag/credite me in return please! ^^

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Prompt concept:

So, times ago before the turtles’s “birth”, Draxum was still researching to create the perfect soldiers.

He found one day a way to travel through dimensions and time and decided to use this to travel in a dimension to find the “perfect DNA”.

This travel lead him in the Monkie Kid universe a very long time before the Monkie Kid events during the time Sun Wukong was still close sworn brother with Macaque, Azure Lion, DBK, Yellow Tusk Elephant and Golden-Winged Eagle.

Draxum met the demon group and “sympathized” with them, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to get the DNA he was searching for.

However, due to some circonstances, he was only able to get Sun Wukong’s and Macaque’s DNA and was forced to quickly disappear and go back to his world.

He tried to mix both monkies DNA with animals from his world to create powerful mutants without any success but was able to use the DNAs to create a monkie like Sun Wukong and Macaque.

Than thing go like in the ROTTMNT canon: Draxum found the perfect DNA in the form of Lou Jitsu, kidnap him and use his DNA to create the turtles.

He also use Lou Jitsu’s DNA on the young monkey he created to had another powerful mutant.

And like in canon, Lou Jitsu escape and burn the laboratory to the group and escape with the young mutants, the young Monkey include and mutated into a rat.

Lou Jitsu, now Splinter, adopt the four turtles and the monkey and the babies got named: Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangello and Sandro.

Things go like in the ROTTMNT canon with Sandro being the fifth member of the Mad Dogs.

Fast forward to after the ROTTMNT movie, the Krangs were defeated, the planet was saved and the Hamato clan thought that things will be more peaceful.

That was until one day Sandro begin to develop abilities which, much to everyone’s confusion, had nothing to do with the Hamato Ninpo.

New abilities which powerful and that Sandro didn’t had contol at all making him dangerous for others around him and for himself.

Wanting to help their brother, the Mad Dogs turned to Draxum, hoping to get answers which could help and learnt about the origins of Sandro’s creation.

To the Hamato clan one thing was now clear, only two people would be able to help Sandro to control his abilities: The two monkies whose DNAs created Sandro, Sun Wukong and Macaque.

And to ask for their help they will had to go to them, in their dimension.

Prompt details:

-ROTTMNT setting: After the ROTTMNT movie

-Monkie Kid Setting: After season 3

-Sandro’s personnality: In the group, Sandro is the Sneaky Guy, often the one who scout around for traps and to discretly spy for informations, he is good at reading people’s personality types and had a smooth talk, which is why he often work with Leonardo when it’s come to do talking and negociations.

-Sandro’s appearance: Is a fusion of Sun Wukong and Macaque, his fur is dark brown with the fur on his head being long and tied in a low ponytail, he wear a ninja attire and his main color is yellow.

-Sandro's name is a reference to the artist Sandro Botticelli.

-Like his brothers, Sandro like to goof around and tend to do stupid things, by the end of the ROTTMNT movie, he and his brothers get more maturity.

-Because he is good at reading people, he often use it to either fool them either “encouraging them” to do something.

-The rest of the Mad dogs often describe him as a good manipulator while Sandro like to playfuly retorck he prefer the therm “good negociator”.

-Is one of the nicest in the group and is very social.

-His current weapon is a metallic bo staff, others often comment on the fact it’s the same weapon than Donatello’s to which the two always deny it.

-He love to eat fruits.

-Sandro love pizzas but had often debates with Leonardo on if hawaiian pizza is good or not(spoilers: Sandro think it’s disgusting while Leonardo love it)

-Sandro is very close with his brothers and is protective toward them.

-Sandro’s age: 16

-Abilities: Is the most agile of his brothers, at the start of ROTTMNT, he had a little shadow ability which permit him to litteraly fade in the shadows, at the end of ROTTMNT he develop his Hamato Ninpo, as well as new poweful abilities which he had no control.

-At the start of ROTTMNT, like his brothers, Sandro wasn’t a very good fighter.

-The Hamato clan finding a way to go to the Monkie King universe to find Sun Wukong and Macaque to ask them to help Sandro to learn to control his new abilities.

-The Hamato clan meeting the Monkie Kids group and befriending them.

-When Sun Wukong and Macaque meet the Hamato clan and saw Draxum, they had a “YOU!” reaction toward the Yokai.

-The lmk group being shocked to leanr that Sandro was created from Sun Wukong’s and Macaque DNA like “WHAT? SUN WUKONG AND MACAQUE HAD A KID?!”

-Sun Wukong and Macaque not being very happy to learn that Draxum had stolen their DNA, they’re not upset about Sandro himself but they’re still not happy to learn their DNA was stolen and experimented on.

-Michelangello being like “wait! Does that mean Sandro had FOUR DADS?”

-Akward moment regarding the situation.

-Comical shadowpeach references.

-The Hamato clan and the Monkie Kid group bonding and befriending.

-Sun Wukong and Macaque training Sandro and bonding with him.

-Sandro having difficulties to learn to control his new powers and feeling inferior to Sun Wukong and Macaque.

-Michelangello, April and Casey Jr getting along very well with MK and Mei.

-Raphael befriending Sandy.

-Raphael having the time of his life with the baby monkies from Flower fruit mountain and Sandy’s cats.

-Tang and Donatello being nerds with each other.

-Sun Wukong getting along with Leonardo.

-Splinter and Draxum bonding with Pigsy and Tang.

-The Hamato clan helping MK to fight demons who attack the city. 

-The Hamato clan meeting the Demon Bull family.

-Donatello and Red Son becoming rivals.

-How the rest of the prompt go and finish is up to whoever who use it! ^^

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #lmk #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #lmk oc #rottmnt oc #crossover #prompt idea

[ninjago-rebornspirit]

Sing like the sirens.

⤷ dividers/headers: @/cafekitsune ( 1 | 2 )

Radio host Para, coming back into the Ninjagoverse. This is @lavendersartistry secret Ninjago blog, bringing you various OCs and fanarts. All AUs done will be for the Movie-Verse since the Show-Verse of the fandom is overwhelming. Enjoy yourselves.

For now, I'm just working on an interpretation of the Movie-Verse world, adding tidbits of the show into the movie for fun!

Want to support me? Check out my Beacons.AI here!

Asks are forever OPEN but please, do not ask for art requests!

"Tools of the Trade"

Artist 13.3 Pro/iPad Air 3 Clip Studio PRO + Procreate Capcut/Davinci Resolve + Canva Procreate Brushes | CSP Brushes

So, let's lay down some ground rules before we all go ham on this:

We appreciate!:

Fanart! - Go off on it! Be sure to tag me when you do fanart! It'll go to my fanart folder! Fanfics! - Don't really mind this but try to keep the OCs as accurate as possible! Not fond of having my characters OOC! Asks! - Don't be so shy! I'm willing to answer to your shenanigans! Just keep it tame. Comic Dubs! - If and when this happens, do it! Please credit me whether in the video or in the description, though! OCs meeting! - Do it, I want to conjure up their possible interactions! Ships! - I'm a multishipper and I say: Keep talking. The only note is to not try shipping my self-insert ParaNova, that's me guys.

We do not appreciate!:

NSFW in any form! - The mod (me) is a minor. Do this and you instantly blocked. Forcing opinions! - If you don't like my works, you can just scroll or block me. I won't be mad. Just don't think I'll fit to your standards. Forcing Ships! - My ship list for Ninjago are only OC x Canon. Please don't try to shove your ships down my throat or harass me for not liking the same ship as you. I will block you. Rush me! - I'm still in school so art will be slow or just be doodles/sketches! Full-fledged art takes much time too! Creepy Asks! - Again, mod (me) is a minor. It is uncomfortable to me if you flirt or be super suggestive (near to NSFW) with me, you will be blocked. Unwanted DMs! - Do not DM me unless you are mutuals with me or if we have talked closely beforehand. I will be deleting unwanted messages.

➠ Main Tag: ghost commentary ➠ Ask Tag: power up (asks) ➠ AU Tag: zing tattoos au ➠ Fun AU Tag: jade and sea au ➠ Related to RebornSpirit: rebornspirit | lotuslifeshipping ➠ Related to ParaNova: paranova (self-insert) ➠ Related to Ainsley: ainsley juniper (oc) ➠ Related to Azusa: azusa juniper (oc)

Zing Tattoos AU

[Movie-Verse] - AU where if found a soulmate, you get a tattoo after something special about them with a heart and initial. Ships: LotusLifeShipping / RebornSpirit: Lloyd x Ainsley

Jade and Sea AU

[Movie-Verse] - Fun AU where Harumi enters, silent and two-faced, and causes mayhem for the Ninja Force and their allies. Ships: LotusLifeShipping / RebornSpirit: Lloyd x Ainsley

None ATM.

None ATM.

#blog masterlist #ninjago movie #ghost commentary

[coleslostghost]

Okay, summarizing - we have two princesses in Ninjago:

and they:

*Both have elegant and casual outfits,

*Both live in beautiful palaces,

*Both have cute pets,

*And both have daddy issues.

Also, Harumi has her own Disney princess song,

while Vania tried to do vocal exercises in ep 8 but failed miserably-

That proves these two girls are Disney princesses.

#Ninjago #Harumi #Vania #disney princess #disney #credit to Ninja go Studio 2

[turtlethon]

"April Fool”

Season 3, Episode 11

First US Airdate: November 2, 1989 First BBC UK broadcast: June 12, 1990

April is mistaken for a princess and kidnapped by Shredder.

The third season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rolls on with “April Fool”. This episode provides Michael Reaves with his eleventh writing credit for the series, and is the final of his three collaborations with Brynne Stephens.

Normally I go through the plot of each episode first and leave the technical details to the end, but I think it’s worth noting upfront that this is the first episode animated by the Murakami-Wolf Dublin studio, and I feel I should warn you upfront that visually it is gonna be a wild ride.

April is interviewing Emperor Alesiter, ruler of Malacuria, who’s accompanied by his daughter, Princess Mallory. The emperor is visiting New York with a view to selling the mining rights to his nation’s newly-discovered supplies of Lidium-90, which we’re told may be “the most valuable element on Earth”. After wrapping up the story, a very pale and gangly looking Irma tells April she thought Channel 6 was supposed to report happy news, which is a reach given that half the things April covers involve Shredder & Krang attempting to invoke some kind of apocalyptic disaster. She somehow manages to segue into complaining about how she’s still unmarried. April waves this off as she needs to prepare for her next story, a party being held that night at the Malacurian Embassy.

Also, Irma appears to be a stage manager now rather than a secretary. No explanation is given for this very unconventional career move.

In the Technodrome, Shredder complains about the heat, a result of the lack of power to run the cooling systems. Krang explains that the single Lidium-90 crystal on display at the Malacurian Embassy would provide them with enough power to yadda yadda yadda. This is the second episode in a row where the macguffin is a crystal and by my count, the third one so far this season.

The Turtles and Splinter are discussing their repulsions (sushi and pizza respectively) when April appears, dressed up for the party at the embassy. All four of the Turtles and Splinter suddenly begin acting like a wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon, to the point where after she leaves the green teens fall over themselves to chase after her. None of them have ever acted like this before and it’s slightly unsettling.

(Kind of odd, also, that April dressed up for this party then went down into the sewers – a recipe for disaster in itself, surely – then immediately leaves again. This seems like a situation where you’d just use your Turtlecom.)

At the embassy, Princess Mallory is complaining to her father that she’s not allowed to go anywhere by herself. He insists that she’s escorted and that she prepares for the upcoming masquerade by dressing up as a princess.

Outside, April is at the gates when she realises it’s a costume party. Before she can go home to change, she’s confronted by two guards who mistake her for the princess and insist on taking her back in to change into a costume. Instead of being upfront and just saying “No, I’m April O’Neil” she decides to roll with it.

Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady accidentally emerge in a transport module outside the embassy instead of in the basement. They’re immediately confronted by two guards and pretend that they’re attending the costume party. In one of the funnier exchanges of this episode, a guard compliments them on the “creature” costumes (referring to Bebop and Rocksteady). “Thank you!” responds Shredder. “I made them myself”. The Turtles are watching all of this from nearby, and sneak onto the grounds of the embassy via grappling hooks.

Princess Mallory decides to escape from the embassy by hopping out the window. Moments later, April is escorted to the same room and ends up donning Mallory’s abandoned costume, figuring that there might be a news story in it.

The Turtles contact April via Turtlecom to check if she’s okay, and as she attempts to explain her plan, Shredder and his mutants burst into the room. Shredder performs some sort of nerve hold on her that causes her to pass out. The bad guys make their exit, having abducted who they think is the Princess as the first act ends.

When we return, the Turtles make their way into the building as Shredder and the mutants, still carrying an unconscious April, attempt to escape. The villains are confronted by a guard and zap him with a blaster, leaving him in a pile as they enter the elevator.

The emperor unwittingly tramples April’s Turtlecom as he finds a ransom note left by Shredder. It explains he’s taken the princess and will trade her for the Lidium-90 sample. Alesiter orders that all exits are sealed off and after discovering the remains of the Turtlecom, assumes they may be a clue to her whereabouts.

Pretending they’re in costume, the Turtles negotiate the masquerade until the emperor announces the princess has been kidnapped. He demands everyone remove their masks and show their invitations. The Turtles try and escape but are confronted by sword-wielding guards, who demand our heroes comply. Trying to weasel out of it, the team remove their bandanas, which doesn’t help.

Emperor Alesiter assumes the Turtles must be the owners of the Turtlecom, and by extension Princess Mallory’s kidnappers. With no other options left, the team use their ninja skills to flee the scene, and head off to try and find both April and the missing monarch.

Princess Mallory is wandering past a TV store – that has a steel drum reggae band performing outside it for no obvious reason – and sees a news report about her kidnapping. In classic Turtles tradition she also hears the report in full despite the fact that she’s outside of the building and again, there’s a band playing right next to her. She immediately hails a taxi and heads back to the embassy. (In a nice touch, the driver appears to be the same guy from “The Mean Machines” who had his cab stolen by Shredder, and gave a soliloquy to the camera about New York’s cultural decline.)

Shredder and his mutants blast their way into the basement when April (or as Rocksteady refers to her, “the dame repordah?!”) wakes up. As the emperor makes a Tannoy announcement that he’s on the roof and willing to exchange the Lidium-90 for the princess, April escapes. Elsewhere, the Turtles are confronted by a group of guards as the second act ends.

The final act opens with the guards ready to arrest the Turtles when Princess Mallory intervenes. The Turtles mistake her for April, but after this confusion is finally ironed out, everyone quickly heads for the roof.

In another part of the building, April is also attempting to head for the roof and finds herself confronted with two doors – one with Shredder behind it, the other housing Rocksteady & Bebop. They kidnap her for a second time, reasoning that she resembles Mallory enough to allow them to make the trade, and head for the helipad.

Shredder meets up with Emperor Alesiter on the roof, who apparently is unable to tell his own daughter from a (gagged) stranger. Having obtained what they came for, the bad guys leave in a police helicopter and take April with them anyway. Bursting onto the scene, the Turtles cling to the helicopter as it takes off. Mallory and Alesiter are reunited at this point, hastily resolving that plot point.

The Turtles spot their blimp nearby, which was stowed away for use earlier by Donatello. Leaping from the helicopter, they quickly return to the skies in their own vehicle. In one of the more creative shots of this episode, as a triumphant Shredder touches down on the rooftop of a museum in the helicopter, the blimp triumphantly looms over it.

Still holding April captive, Shredder and his men race down to ground level, where Krang is expected to have deployed a transport module. In a nice call-back to the beginning of the episode, Krang has messed up the co-ordinates, leading it to burrow up inside the museum instead. Both parties break into the building and after April manages to escape Shredder’s clutches... Princess Mallory, Emperor Alistair and about a dozen guards somehow just appear and confront them. How did they know where the helicopter ended up? How did they make their way into a closed museum? How did they travel across New York to the museum so quickly? There’s about a minute of the show left, so we’re not going to get answers to any of these questions.

The bad guys dive into a hole where an unseen transport module is waiting for them, closing it off by pulling down an exhibit of a giant hand behind them. The Turtles attempt to pry it back out only for a torrent of lava to emerge. It looks like the villains have managed to get what they came for; however, Donatello explains that Lidium-90 is highly unstable and won’t be able to withstand the pressures of being handled ten miles below ground.

The emperor presents Donatello with an award, explaining that the Turtles won first prize in the masquerade contest. Donnie is elated, thinking it’s a celebration of their originality, until Alesiter explains it’s a prize awarded for “ridiculousness”.

In the Technodrome, Krang is provided with the Lidium-90 sample just as it explodes. It begs the question of how he knew enough about the qualities of this element to know how powerful it was, but unlike Donatello wasn’t aware of its volatility.

We wrap things up with April meeting up with the Turtles and Splinter in the lair. In a true “I haven’t learned a thing” moment, our intrepid reporter reveals her plans to wear a rubber cap on her head next week to infiltrate “a convention of bald-headed diplomats”. For what must be the first time ever, the show ends with the Turtles and Splinter pointing and laughing at April, who grimaces in her skinhead get-up.

You might say she’s made to look like a fool.

Literally, indeed, an April fool.

This episode is... it’s a lot, quite frankly. Plenty of the standard TMNT ‘87 tropes are on display here: super-powered crystals, April being kidnapped and so on. All of this is paired up with a Prince & The Pauper concept that’s fairly entertaining, and a rare instance of Shredder technically succeeding – okay, the sample didn’t last, but that wasn’t his fault. There are plot holes aplenty, but everyone has motivations that feel believable and genuine, which helps. Not one of the best episodes of this season but far from the worst, writing-wise.

I qualify that with “writing-wise” because as I stated at the outset this is MW Dublin’s first TMNT episode, and it shows. Their work has a very Disney-esque “squash and stretch” vibe that differentiates it from all the other studios contracted to work on the series, and they excel at making everyone hyper-expressive when it’s needed. You can really see them at their best in any scene where Rocksteady and Bebop are present. However, this first go-around has them ironing out a LOT of problems. It’s most evident in the Turtles, who are oddly toothy throughout and sometimes oddly proportioned. A bigger issue is how choppy everything is, with the edges of animation cels popping up on-screen and oddly cropped shots all over the place. I don’t remember noticing any of this in 1990 but it’s all-too-apparent while watching Lionsgate’s DVD transfers.

The good news is... they get better.

NEXT TIME: It’s the Attack of Big M.A.C.C., the robot who’s a totally original new character and definitely not just a poorly disguised expy of Johnny 5 from the “Short Circuit” movies! ORIGINAL CHARACTER DO NOT STEAL.

#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT #TMNT 1987 #Ninja Turtles #April Fool #1989 #April O'Neil #Turtlethon

[doorbloggr]

Sunday 22/8/21 - Media Recommendations #16: Top 3's of Right Now

In terms of new media to recommend this week, there is none. So this week I'm gonna do a bit of a recap/best of media thing. From the categories of Music, Anime, and Videogames, I'm gonna list my top 3 of right now.

What do I mean by Top 3 of Right Now? Well, personal taste in consumable media is very malleable and subject to change over time. So today, I'm gonna quickly highlight what I can declare my Top 3 Favourite Songs, Anime Series, and Videogames are, as the Mitchell of August the 22nd, 2021.

Some of these things I'm recommending I will have discussed in a previous Media Recommendations post, but my discussion of each of the things I talk about today will be very short. So without further ado, let's start with music.

● Top 3 Favourite Songs

▪︎3rd: Caramelldansen - Caramella Girls

I can't really explain in words why I like this song so much, but it's just really good. I am not fluent speaker of Swedish, so I do not understand much of anything in the lyrics, but that's the magic of good music, you don't have to understand. If a song bops hard enough, the lyrics can be complete nonsense and still make worldwide charts even outside their native tongue. Caramelldansen also manages to capture that quintessential excitable weaboo nerd energy that I've come to accept is definitely part of my being.

This spot was the hardest to place out of any other placing in this post. There was about 6 songs I could declare as being my 3rd favourite song of all time, but at the very second I'm writing this, midnight on Sunday, I decided that Caramelldansen is my third favourite song.

▪︎2nd: Foolish Heart - Nyanners

One thing that will always make me enjoy a song is a funky beat. Music that just pumps and jams. Foolish Heart is fun to groove to and there's not much more to it. I also have a soft spot for bitter-sweet lovesongs, and there aren't many songs I know that are as bitter about the sweetness of love than this. I follow the artist who does this song on many of her socials and I was a fan of it the second it came out, and it will probably stay in my regular rotation for a long time.

Honourable Mentions:

Old 45s - Chromeo

A Thousand Miles - Vanessa Carlton

Mr Blue Sky - ELO

Mansion Party - Ninja Sex Party

Roundabout - Yes

▪︎1st: I Want You - Savage Garden

I had actually heard this song a bit when I was much younger, but it was only recently I became obsessed with it. It is the song used in the closing credits during JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4, and I instantly fell in love with it. It's just so funky and goes so damn hard. It's a soft song, but also very powerful. The vocals are so smooth and the instruments are so sexy. It's been my favourite song for many years in a row now, and I think it's gonna keep that number 1 spot for a while longer yet.

● Top 3 Favourite Anime Series

▪︎3rd: Darling in the Franxx

Darling in the Franxx just vibed with me on an emotional level. My very soul was touched by how much love this anime exudes. Studio Trigger are known foremost for their intense action and over the top characters, and sure this anime has those in spades. For someone who hasn't watched it, it may appear to be a cosmic mecha anime, but in fact, it is a romance story first. I can't really explain it well, but Darling in the Franxx just punches you right in the soul with how much emotion there is. It is a beautiful anime.

▪︎2nd: Food Wars - Shokugeki no Soma

There's just something fun about rooting for a snarky protagonist who is overconfident. Especially when, most of the time, they are precisely big enough for their boots. Food Wars is a complete 3 course dinner that fills many different niches of anime. It's a lesson in many different cultures, it is food porn, it's a battle shonen, it even has light romance, but never lets that take centre stage over the journey of the protagonists. I'm admittedly a lover of tasteful fanservice here and there, and Food Wars delivers just the right amount of echi to entertain those into it, but no more than necessary. Food Wars is just... a lot. And it's great.

Honourable Mentions:

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o!

Dagashi Kashi

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime

Log Horizon

▪︎1st: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

FMA is just such a full package. It has a fun and interesting cast of characters. A complex and vast setting that is neither overexplained nor underexplained. A cast of villains that are all unique and the perfect balance of sympathetic to hateable. And most importantly, it does not outstay its welcome. I was very much considering putting JoJo's Bizarre Adventure up here, but the issue is that like, many other series, a series can be too long. A good anime has to be long enough to sink your teeth into, but if drags on for too long, it can become exhausting. FMA spends the perfect amount of time building up the plot and ends where it should. Edward and Alphonse Elric are the perfect dynamic duo, and every character has such fun designs and personalities. I could blab on for ages on why I love Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, and I have in a previous post. So go search that up in my pinned post if you want a longer breakdown. It is an anime MUST WATCH.

●Top 3 Videogames

▪︎3rd: Super Smash Bros Ultimate

The very idea of Super Smash Bros is something that appeals to gamers everywhere. A suite of characters from all over gaming that are all playable in one huge game. You get to play that classic "my favourite character could kick your favourite character's butt" in real time. I'm not a big fighting game guy, but Smash has a very accessible jumping off point, simple controls and a system of combat that's only really as deep as you need it to be. Smash Bros is also a very important game to me socially, since I owe all my current closest friends to meetings I had interacting with the competitive scene. I used to be really into competitive Smash too, and Smash Ultimate in particular had a fairly balanced cast, in that if you were committed enough, you could dominate with any character. But even if I've grown exhausted with that scene, and only ever play the game casually now, I owe a lot to this series.

▪︎2nd: Animal Crossing New Horizons

As of right now, Animal Crossing is not a game I play.... at all. But for the few months after the game released, ACNH was a religious dedication. I'm in a pretty shitty place these days. Can't see friends, can't even go to work, the world is falling apart as our leaders can't get Covid under control. But while I was playing ACNH, it brought structure and purpose back into my life for a while. I had villagers depending on me, museum collections to complete, flowers to breed, an island to transform into my vision of a nice place to live. It was nice. This number 2 spot might be taken by a different game in the future, but this year, Animal Crossing New Horizons was a very important game for me.

Honourable Mentions:

The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

Pikmin 3

Jackbox Party Pack (the whole series)

Shovel Knight Treasure Trove

Pokémon Soul Silver

▪︎ 1st: The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Despite Zelda being a huge part of my identity, I didn't actually get into the series until my mid teens. By that point, most of the later games were very formulaic and linear. And sure that can make for a very compelling story and experience, but BotW just threw that idea out the window. Breath of the Wild is a game you can just get lost in. Spend an hour just dicking around in the middle of nowhere and it's a blast just to move around. The world is tranquil, and also exciting. The game is gorgeous and fun to play and there's just too much to talk about. I've played the game from start to finish at various levels of completion about 5 times now, (one playthrough being a 2 hourish speedrun to the final boss) and every playthrough I found new locations, puzzles, interactions that I never encountered before. It's a game that just matched my being perfectly and I doubt a game will leave an impact like that for many years to come.

#media recommendations #music recommendations #caramelldansen #caramella girls #foolish heart nyanners #foolish heart #i want you savage garden #savage garden #anime recommendations #darling in the franxx #food wars #shokugeki no soma #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemis brotherhood #videogame recommendations #super smash bros #super smash bros ultimate #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #blog #blogpost

[thefloatingstone]

Re Samurai Pizza Cats/Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, I have watched it both subbed (original) and English dubbed (basically rewritten) and found I liked the sub MORE because it’s just so gorram ridiculous. XD Both versions are silly and fun but all the English puns and references always get me. You said to ask you about it, what are your facts and opinions?

I need to rewatch SPC because I have not seen it in literally YEARS but I caught it on tv when I was 5 or 6 and it formed a very large basis and foundation for my sense of humour. So I hope that answers that question, KidK XD and also as an adult I think the character designs are GENIUS, and I absolutely love that the style of the show is anthropomorphic animal characters in Edo period Japan but everything is mecha robots. It’s so fucking amazing.

(She’s a teahouse waitress who is a sheep… and her traditional period-accurate hairstyle is actually missle launchers that fire when she gets angry even though most of the time she’s extremely demure and feminine. That’s fucking amazing)

I actually own a cel of this show.

BUT ANYWAY!!!So here’s what’s up with the dub;

So, the original show was called Cat Ninja Legend Teyandee and is a parody comedy show. Making fun of various tropes in anime and Japanese television. Hence the whole mecha/Edo period fusion style it has.

In the early 90s when many anime and Japanese programming were getting bought by American studios to dub, edit and release for American audiences, SABAN (the guys who did the American Power Rangers which is a re-edit of a Japanese Sentai show) got hold of 52 episodes of the 54 episode series. (the 2 episodes left out were clip shows)

Here’s the problem tho… they recieved all the footage and everything…. EXCEPT the scripts. It’s unclear if the scripts were completely missing or if they were too badly translated to use. Either way, SABAN now has a Japanese show in Japanese, which none of the writers could speak, and they need to dub this show.

So…. what did they do to fix this?

They said “FUCK IT!” and wrote their own damn scripts for the show, going off of the visuals and just making it up as they went.

This is why characters like the Shogun who is obviously supposed to be a fox is referred to as a rat in the dub and named “the big cheese”.

The approach to the comedy in the dub was to go for rapid fire jokes thrown in as fast as they could think of them, creating a sort of Animaniacs style comedy show full of pop culture references, making fun of anime cliches which they didn’t even know were anime cliches, pointing out weird continuity errors, and just generally writing as much as they possibly could. Even the titleof the show was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles parody

They even had the voice actor for one of the characters sing the ending theme… which he did while he was pretty drunk.

One of my absolutely favourite fucking lines in the end credits is “We hope you liked the show, it’s the best that we could do.”

The Samurai Pizza Cats dub is considered to be VASTLY superior to the original Japanese version of the show, which plays more like your average late 80s early 90s comedy show, but not one that really stood out or was really THAT special. Despite its cool designs and setting. It was just kinda average in its jokes and writing.

However, due to the complete batshit handling of how the dub was written almost every single moment in the dub is pure gold.

As a result, the dubbed version of the show is how most DVD and Blu Ray distributors tend to release it, simply because it is an objectively better show.

And that’s the story of the SPC dub.

(Below is the first episode if anyone is curious)

Edit: omfg one of the lyrics in the fucking intro is “As soon as someone finds the script we might begin the show”

consider ☕️Buying me a Ko-fi ☕️

#C-Puff answers #Video #anime #Samurai Pizza Cats #noirandchocolate

[aion-rsa]

What Went Wrong With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze?

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The story of how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went from underground comic book to the highest grossing independent film of all time is the stuff of Hollywood legend. But ask producer Tom Gray about the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, and you are likely to hear an altogether different tale. One of a frantically rushed production, censorship backlash and a change of director and direction. Actors were replaced, there were clashes with the comic book creators and a series of strange and unusual characters were added to the mix – including Vanilla Ice.  

Gray was head of production at Golden Harvest, the Hong Kong studio behind martial arts classics like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, when comedian-turned screenwriter Bobby Herbeck first approached him about a live-action film adaptation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s cult comics.  

It’s fair to say he took some convincing.  

“I hated the idea. I thought it was stupid,” Gray tells Den of Geek. Undeterred, Herbeck pestered Gray for months until the Golden Harvest chief had a sudden change of heart.   

“I had an epiphany and thought we could just put stunt guys in turtle suits and make all our money in Japan. That was why I was interested; making it low budget. It escalated when Steve Barron came onboard.”   

Barron had made his name with groundbreaking music videos for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and A-Ha’s “Take on Me” and sold Gray and TMNT creators Eastman and Laird on his vision for the movie.   

More importantly, he enlisted the late Jim Henson and his legendary Creature Shop to bring the Turtles to life using state-of-the-art animatronics, which came at no small expense.   

Even so, Gray found the project was a hard sell when it came to finding a major studio willing to distribute the movie.   

“George Lucas’s Howard the Duck had just come out and bombed,” he recalls. “When I went around people would say ‘oh no I’m not going to put my name on the next Howard the Duck. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, how absurd.’ Nobody wanted to step up in the major studios.”   

Undaunted by the mass rejection (“Hollywood is always the last to know”) Gray eventually secured a deal with New Line Cinema, then best known for A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

The rest, as they say, is history.  

That first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie came from nowhere in the spring of 1990 to make an astonishing $135 million, becoming a cultural phenomenon in the process. A sequel was inevitable but the results were anything but.   

“It was rushed,” Gray says when asked for his overriding feelings about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.  “Once the first film opened, we figured we had to get another one out as quickly as possible because this whole thing could fade away very quickly if we didn’t come back.”   

Incredibly, a release date for the sequel was set for almost exactly a year on from the original. That seems crazy to think now, in the era where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is carefully plotted out years in advance, but this was 1990 and New Line Cinema. At this point the production company which was working on its sixth Nightmare on Elm Street Movie in the space of just seven years. The quality of those films had varied wildly but one thing had remained consistent: the quick turnaround.  

“New Line wanted it out on pretty much the same date, maybe a week earlier in fact. So, we rushed into the production, got a script together. The overarching thing was speed. We had to get it out,” Gray remembers. “I think that’s probably the reason why it doesn’t top many people’s list of the best Turtles movies.”   

A Change in Tone

One of the first challenges facing Gray was a tonal one. While the first TMNT film had garnered praise for maintaining the dark and dangerous feel of the original comics, not everyone was happy.   

“We started getting some pressure from parental groups. They felt it was a little too dark and a little too frightening for children,” Gray says.  

In the US, there were reports of Turtles toys and merchandise being banned in schools over worries they encouraged aggressive behavior in kids. In the UK, the characters were even rebranded the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles amid concern among censors that the word “ninja” promoted violence. Michelangelo’s nunchucks were also banned. It wasn’t just the censors who expressed concern either.   

“The toy company was also telling us that maybe we shouldn’t be too dark,” Gray said. “And then, of course, then there was Jim Henson himself, who died while we were making the first film. His whole thing from the beginning was that he didn’t want to make a really dark film. Steve [Barron] was able to convince him it was the way to go even though it was different from the Muppets and everything he had done before. They had a great relationship. Jim trusted Steve.”   

The decision was made to approach the material with a lighter tone, with Todd Langen’s original script undergoing a major rewrite to address the change. Despite the change Gray insists an attempt was made to retain some of the darker elements.   

“We tried to get somewhere in between but probably didn’t succeed.”   

Ultimately, however, the looming deadline left little room for nuance.    

“If you sit down and think about this thing too much, you’re never going to get underway,” he reasons.

A New Director  

In another notable shift that fans have questioned down the years, Barron did not return for the sequel.  

The Irish filmmaker told Flickering Myth that the shift in sensibilities was the deciding factor.   

“[It was] lighter, and all the instructions that had gone on from the first film were coming from the producers about keeping the color and lightness and getting away from the dark edge in number two,” he said. “For me it was poppy, and that wasn’t my sensibility.” 

Gray tells Den of Geek Barron didn’t come back “for reasons that I won’t go into” but during the interview paints a picture of difficulties during their work together on the first film.   

“I fought with the crew every single day but they did a hell of a job. Budgets were not adhered to but I’ve always given them credit because of their vision,” Gray says.   

The producer also revealed that the first film was re-edited from Barron’s original version after his bosses were left unhappy with the director’s cut.  

“The studio did edit the film in the end to come up with a different version.  It was felt it was cut so you didn’t get to see the roundhouse kicks and fighting which was the hallmark of Golden Harvest. When the bosses saw it in Hong Kong, they complained that they couldn’t tell what the turtles were doing. They wanted to see these guys kicking and fighting. Steve’s style was good but we wanted another look.”   

Despite Gray’s diplomatic tone, it’s not difficult to imagine such developments might have created tension. In Barron’s place came American filmmaker Michael Pressman, who Gray knew from his days at United Artists.    

“What I liked about Michael was that he was a disciplined director. Having gone through the problems with the first picture I wanted someone who shot fast and stayed on budget. That was my main motivation,” the producer says.    

A capable director who has gone on to enjoy a long and varied career in television, little of the blame for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2’s failing can fall at Pressman’s feet though it’s undeniable that some of the creative spark of the first film was lost with Barron’s exit.   

So was much of the original’s violence, with the Turtles rarely shown using their weapons in the finished film while the action set pieces were also significantly watered down.  

Eastman and Laird

Despite the criticism levelled at the sequel for failing to retain the tone of the comics, all of what went into the movie was greenlit by the TMNT creators. Part of the deal inked by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman saw them retain final approval on anything in the film. But that created other issues both at script and production level, as Gray recalls.  

“Kevin was certainly more malleable with going along with things because of the budget but Peter was very difficult to get things by because he would say ‘Oh, well Michelangelo would never say that’. So, it was very hard from the point of view of the writer trying to figure it all out.”   

Read more

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With Barron no longer around to mediate and sell them on the plans and with time ticking on, the pair’s reluctance to sign off on ideas led to increased tensions.  

“We argued a little bit,” Gray says. “These things are never sweet or nice. It gets down to what we can do and, in the time provided. It’s about compromise. In the end they approved Langren’s changed script.  Maybe it was reluctantly but we weren’t going to meet the demand and get this out if they kept changing things.”   

Tokka and Rahzar

One of the most noted criticisms of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 concerned the decision to introduce two new sidekicks alongside returning villain Shredder, rather than draw on the wild array of mutant animals that had featured in the comics and TV series. 

Many fans had expected to see Bebop and Rocksteady, the mutant warthog and rhinoceros supervillains made famous in the cartoon, feature. However, that cartoon outing proved both a blessing and a curse. 

“I didn’t want them in any of the movies,” Laird later revealed on his personal blog. “It’s not so much that I disliked the characters so intensely, but more that I found their constant one-note shtick in the first animated series to be extremely annoying and silly to the point of being stupid.”  

Gray’s version of events differs slightly.   

“We wanted new villains because we would get a piece of the royalty, which we didn’t have with the first movie. We figured if we created something they didn’t come up with we would get a piece of the pie. It was a business decision.”   

Together with the creatives at Henson’s Creature Shop, they “threw together” Tokka and Rahzar, a mutant Alligator Snapping Turtle and wolf respectively, based on pretty much whatever was available. 

“Those things were basically the Henson Creature Shop’s ideas, because they had to figure out, technically, what they could do, how big they were going to be and how they could move,” Gray says. “They had to design all this stuff, put someone in the suit and then wire them up or get the animatronics going to make it work. So, we just went to them and said we need a couple of villains.” 

Indeed, the resulting animatronics proved less complex and less compelling than the heroes in a half shell – and it showed on screen.   

“They were just big models,” Gray admits. “We cut corners, there’s no question about it.”   

Sweaty and Claustrophobic

Meanwhile, the turtle suits themselves had undergone little in the way of upgrades since the first film, when the actors playing the four leads experienced any number of issues. Not the least of which being the claustrophobia and sweating that comes with wearing up to 70lbs worth of turtle suit.  

The animatronics also, despite being state-of-the-art, continued to suffer their fair share of glitches.  

“We knew what the difficulties were and they were unbelievable,” Gray says. “There were days when we couldn’t even get these things set up.  We were filming right near the Wilmington Airport. We set up a shot and when it came time for action the Turtles would not speak. We realized they were on the same frequency as the airport.”    

Gray blames the lack of a major upgrade, in part, on the lack of additional budget.    

“The budget didn’t exponentially go through the roof, because of the speed,” he explains. “I have read things saying it was $20 million. It wasn’t, it was $16.5 million.”  

A New April O’Neil

Away from the animatronic issues, the human cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 proved a mixed bag.  Corey Feldman didn’t return to voice Donatello after pleading no contest to a drug possession charge while, more notably still, Judith Hoag was replaced by Paige Turco as April O’Neil.  

Hoag later told Variety she was never approached about the sequel, claiming her omission was a result of the fact she complained about the level of violence in the first movie and the six-days-a-week shooting schedule.  

“Everybody was beating everybody up,” Hoag said. “I thought the movie suffered because of that. It was something I spoke to the producers about, I think they thought I was too demanding, and moved on.” 

Not that Gray felt the production suffered as a result of either changes.  

“No, not at all,” he says. “Certainly not with Corey Feldman because it’s a voice. Remember when you play that movie around the world it will be in 40 or 50 different languages and subtitled anyway. It makes no difference and nobody overseas even knew Corey Feldman was doing a voice…With Judith, we thought it might be of concern but then again it’s all about the Turtles. People aren’t showing up for Judith – though she did a fabulous job – it was really all about the Turtles.”   

Elias Koteas also failed to return as the ice hockey stick-wielding vigilante and ally Casey Jones – though that was more down to the film’s shift away from adult themes and one of the more violent human characters.   

“Casey was discussed but the reason he dropped out – and I don’t think this was a major issue – was the direction we wanted to take the film,” Gray says. “We wanted to go lighter. That was part of cleaning up the act.”   

In his place came Ernie Reyes Jr, a rising martial arts star who had served as a stuntman on the first film and was introduced as Keno, a pizza delivery boy who befriends the turtles. It was a stark departure from Koteas’s character but, once again, it was one Gray says came with the backing of the TMNT hierarchy.   

“If Peter and Kevin had wanted Elias back, he would have been back. So, either we were able to convince them that we wanted to go with Ernie and they went along with it.”   

Vanilla Ice

Quite how they were convinced to include rapper Vanilla Ice in the proceedings is anyone’s guess, with the rapper turning up in a mid-film nightclub scene to perform new single “Ninja Rap.” His cameo continues to delight and horrify fans to this day. Few will be surprised by the commercially-minded circumstances that led to his appearance.   

“SBK the record label producing the soundtrack album said ‘You gotta have Vanilla Ice in this, he’s hot’ so we put him in…We had a good album out of it. Sometimes you don’t make the movie for the reason of art you make it because the thing could go away in a heartbeat. I’ve always been fairly honest and upfront about our motives. It is a business.”     

While others might disagree, Gray stands by the inclusion of Vanilla Ice in the film.  

“He actually did a very good job. He’s a very cool operative and he loved doing it.”   

Shredder or Krang?   

Looking back on the sequel, as much as anything, the most disappointing aspect was the decision to resurrect Shredder rather than explore different villains in the way other comic book franchises have.  

While Shredder has always been the main antagonist, as with Bebop and Rocksteady, there remained a plethora of colorful villain characters that could have been plucked from the pages of the original comic or the animated series. But the decision to stick with Shredder was not one takem lightly by anyone, and others were discussed.  

“We went through the whole catalogue of villains and certainly Krang and all these other characters were in play,” Gray says. “We thought of them but we stayed with what works and that’s what you do in these situations. Don’t try and get too clever.”   

As much as anything he blames the Hollywood system and a refusal to take risks. New Line too, would have no doubt been happy to press ahead with a Shredder-oriented sequel, seeing him as the TMNT’s very own Freddy Kreuger of sorts.  

“Nobody trusts their instincts,” Gray says. “You go with what worked before and try to modify it a little bit. If it works [and the plethora of Freddy sequels suggests it did] then you are justified in using the same thing over and over again.”  

Once again though the decision to stick with Shredder and avoid the kind of time and expense required to create something like Krang, a brain-shaped alien carried around in the waist of a robot man, was influenced by that release date.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze opened in theaters on March 22, 1991, less than a year on from the original. It went on to make over $78 million to become the second most successful independent film of all time.   

Despite turning a profit, the film garnered mixed reviews and left Gray and others disappointed.  

“It didn’t deliver on what we had hoped because there was this race against time to get it out one year after the first one. When you do that, you really have to compromise.”  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III 

After the rush to make a second film, it was decided that they would take more time over the third one.  

But anyone hoping for a return to form was left disappointed by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in TIme, which saw the gang head to 17th century Japan.  

“With number three, we were aiming something at the Japanese market, which was the number one market for foreign films,” Gray explains. “That’s why we had the time travel storyline with the samurais. That was definitely one of the motivations.”  

There was just one problem though.  

“We hoped it would get the film released in Japan. To this day, it has not been released in Japan.”  

Though Gray returned to produce an animated fourth film in the 2000s box office returns diminished with every film. By the time Michael Bay got involved in the franchise, Gray was long gone. He now considers himself “out of the turtle game” with this being one of the last interviews on the subject. But despite the highs and lows endured on the second film, Gray remains proud of what was achieved. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“These movies were made by committee. It’s amazing they turned out so well.”  

The post What Went Wrong With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[shadoninja]

Shadoninja’s Year in Review (2013)

Piano

Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire - Ruby Board

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Sharance Village (Day)

Advance Wars - Olaf’s Theme

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Cabanela ~ A White Lovely Lanky Man

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - Combat Preparation

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Spring

Little Nemo: The Dream Master - Dream 1: Mushroom Forest

Little Nemo: The Dream Master - Dream 7: Topsy Turvy

The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse - Pete’s Peak

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose - Spook Mansion

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story - Fawful is There

Seiken Densetsu 3 - Ordinary People

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Scarlet Battle Soul

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Title

EarthBound - Saturn Valley

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Don’t Wait Until Night

Pokémon Black/White Version 2 - While Shooting in Pokéstar Studios!

Soul Blazer - Solitary Island

Soul Blazer - Lonely Town

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Version - Route 24 (GB Sounds)

Kirby Super Star Ultra - Masked Dedede

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - Hyrule Town

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Shi-Long Lang ~ Speak up, Pup!

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Confess the Truth 2009

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Version - Spotted! Artist

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - High Spirits

Dr Mario/Puzzle League - Game Selection

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - The Mogmas

Batman Returns - Gotham Plaza

Mother 3 - Volcano! Inferno!

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Spring

Mario Kart Wii - Toad’s Factory

Shin Kidō Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel - City (Wing & Wing Zero Stage)

Swapnote - Main Theme

Pokémon Trading Card Game - Club Leader Duel

Darkwing Duck - Credits

Darkwing Duck - Bonus Stage

Darkwing Duck - Game Over

Darkwing Duck - Job Well Done!

Darkwing Duck - Stage Clear

Darkwing Duck - Boss Battle

Darkwing Duck - Steelbeak Stage

Darkwing Duck - Moliarty Stage

Darkwing Duck - Megavolt Stage

Darkwing Duck - Bushroot Stage

Darkwing Duck - Liquidator Stage

Darkwing Duck - Wolfduck Stage

Darkwing Duck - Quacker Jack Stage

Darkwing Duck - Stage Select ~ Where should we go now, DW?

Darkwing Duck - Title Theme

Pokémon Platinum Version - Battle! Frontier Brain

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - DESTROYER

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - A Break in the Action

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Acme Looniversity

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Go, Buster! Go! Go! Go!

Kid Dracula - Go-Go in the Great Castle

Skullgirls - Learning One’s Craft

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Sol Terrano Desert

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse - Mad Forest

Pokémon Black/White Version 2 - Battle! Champion Iris

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Winter

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness - Battle! Wild Pokemon

Final Fantasy VI - Another World of Beasts

Kirby’s Adventure - Orange Ocean

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Version - Sinnoh Underground

Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon - Sharance Tree (Night)

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 - Sand Canyon 1

Dr. Sudoku - Music 1

The Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse - Final Boss

Pokémon X/Y Version - Snowbelle City

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Town

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - In the Amber Valley (Piano Duet Arrangement)

Pokémon Trading Card Game - Normal Duel

Seiken Densetsu 3 - Splash Hop

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time - Sewer Surfin’

Mega Man Battle Network 2 - Marine Harbor

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Concert 2 (with Ocarina)

Kirby’s Dream Land 3 - Game

Pokémon Card GB2: Great Rocket-Dan Sanjō! - Team Great Rocket Duel

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature - Festival 1 (Fun)

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Version - Battle! Team Magma/Aqua

Dark Cloud - Owl Forest

String Quartet

The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse - Dark Forest

Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Space Storm Galaxy

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver Version - Cianwood City

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Blue Badger March ~ Gatewater Land Theme

Wind Quartet

Pushmo - Intro

New this year: 87 (82 Piano/4 String Quartet/1 Wind Quartet) Overall Total: 87 My first year on Tumblr. A good majority of these pieces I created for another site and I just cleaned them up. Other Years

#Shadoninja #Year in Review #Sheet Music

[hexadecimalmantis]

Argonaut Games Research

This post was originally going to be an absurdly long documentary video, but I realized it would have been a bit boring, so I ultimately decided on making a glorified blog post. 

When I joined BioMedia Project last year, I was tasked with researching Bionicle: The Game and its sequel Bionicle 2: City of Legends. I have talked about both games in great detail many times before, and I think we all know about the issues that plague both of them by now. Bionicle: The Game is seemingly incomplete, and filled with content that was cut early on, and Bionicle 2: City of Legends never made it past a private movement demo. For context about Bionicle 2: BioMedia Project managed to obtain an Xbox build of the movement demo a few years ago. It has a few issues, such as broken audio and some missing graphical effects. I began reaching out to former developers in an effort to piece together the entire story of Argonaut Games, and uncover more secrets about both games. (Initially) With the assistance of Liam Robertson of DidYouKnowGaming?, I began contacting some of the developers. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Argonaut Games was split into two different facilities during the development of Bionicle: The Game. The first being Argonaut London, and the second was Argonaut Sheffield. I decided to reach out to the former developers from the London branch first. I initially didn’t get any replies, but I remained persistent. After waiting a few weeks, I eventually I got a reply from a former artist. Keep in mind that personal details about the former developers I contacted will be expunged in order to protect their identities and to prevent harassment and spam.

This is the first message I received after I inquired about Bionicle: The Game:

“Hi, yes I was lead artist on Bionicle. I'd say that it was a game that we cared a lot about, and to be honest we had high hopes for, at least initially. As always with game dev there wasn't just one cause of the games problems, but probably the biggest was we fell in love with the games setting and bit off far more than we could chew. We should have started with far more cautious goals, but we wanted to tell the whole story. I'm surprised if there was that much unused content on the disc TBH but the original scope of the game is definitely visible in naming conventions etc. we had intended each character to have toa levels and toa nuva (if thats the right term?) their powered up versions - before adding the 7th. Given that they have different abilities that was a huge ask of the team.

(Redacted)”

This message was about what I expected, the devs were a bit too ambitious and were unable to complete their ideas during the given development time. I later asked about the developer signatures stored within the BIGB archives, and asked them if they had worked on any of the Kopaka areas, since I found their signature within a subset of those files:

“the 'signatures' probably just refer to the designers - which is a relatively small subset of the team as a whole. I oversaw the project from an art perspective, so characters env, frontend etc then I ended up doing some animation work on the bull, onua, the weird door thing. I didn't work on Kopaka - that work was done up in Sheffield, I used to visit their studio to review stuff & sign it off.”

I’m sure the Bull was probably the Kane-Ra seen in Onua Nuva’s level. There are some pre-release trailers that show a Kane-Ra attacking the player with unique animations too. After that, I asked him about Argonaut Sheffield and their work on Bionicle 2: City of Legends. To my surprise, I got this:

“No, I didn't I thought they were disbanded alongside Argo”

This essentially meant that nobody from Argonaut London was aware of the development of Bionicle 2: City of Legends. With this information, it was easy to conclude that Bionicle 2 was created solely by Argonaut Sheffield as speculated. After failing to get more replies from former developers from Argonaut London, I shifted my focus to Argonaut Sheffield, intrigued by the messages I received from the former artist.

After a bit of waiting, I got a reply from another former artist.

“Hi,

Yes, I worked on Bionicle as a character artist along side artist (redacted). He was my mentor back then as it was my first industry job. I think we modelled about 130 odd characters/modular models back then between us. The character concepts we're drawn up by (redacted).

Argonaut Sheffield was previously Particle Systems who made I-War, the PC Sci Fi game and some other iterations. It was a technically adept small team and great to work with. I didn't have much to do with the London branch. We went on to try and make some failed movie tie-ins alongside them at a later date. Catwoman, Zorro, Star Wars, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and also Bionicle 2.. which was going to be a fluid parkour type platformer. Which never materialised as after being there just shy of two years, London shut us down.

I'm actually working back in the offices where it all happened now. Which seems strange. I did work at Sumo Digital as a lead Char artist for ten years in between. I know there's a basement full of hard drives still here as one of the old directors still rents some space here.

(redacted)

(redacted)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I received concept art for both Bionicle: The Game and Bionicle 2: City of Legends in this message. The art was later posted on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/HexMantis/status/1099883979942084608

Aside from the plethora of art, this message provided some insight about how Argonaut Sheffield came to be. It was previously known as Particle Systems before it assimilated into Argonaut Games. After this exchange, I reached out to a former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time I provided a set of questions for the developer to answer in an effort to obtain specific information. After waiting for nearly a month, I got a reply:

The questions I asked will be enclosed within [ ] to avoid confusion.

“Hey!

There's some incomplete credits here (redacted)

but you could try contacting (redacted) as he was the lead programmer there. He used to work at PKR too, also owned by (redacted).

(redacted)

[Asked about the main development platform for the games]

1) Yep it was PS2. The PS2 version was handled by Argonaut Edgeware and programmers in Sheffield did ports for the other platforms

[Asked about the cut content from Bionicle: The Game]

2) Sorry, I wasn't involved with that bit. I was responsible for adding the hyper threading features on the PC (redacted)

[Asked about interactions with the London branch]

3) Yep, we worked together on it. Designers and Artists in Sheffield were working on assets for the main game.

[Asked about I-Ninja’s compatibility with Bionicle: The Game]

4) I think they should be compatible with each other. I-ninja came out a bit later though.

[Asked about Bionicle 2: City of Legends]

5) Maybe, not sure as it was a long time ago and I then moved to the Edgeware studio. If they did I guess it was just a prototype for a pitch

Good luck with your fact finding!“

I later asked if they knew of any early builds of either game, and I got this reply:

“Hey!

Sorry for the late reply. I believe everything was archived by Argonaut and EA. I'm not sure if anyone archived it personally at Argonaut or not but there were a lot of people working on it. They created archive PCs with everything you need to make the game from the source assets.

Thanks,

(redacted)”

The concept of the supposed “archive PCs” was interesting, but I doubt any of them are still around after all this time. After this, I contacted another former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time with a focus on Bionicle 2: City of Legends:

“Hi William, I must admit, I'm curious where you found my name in the demo. Do you have a source code drop to go with it, or did I leave my name in an error message in the binary package itself?

Either way, yes I did work on the demo, albeit briefly. The engine the demo is built on is largely the same engine used in Bionicle (the original PS2/Xbox/PC game), Catwoman, and I-Ninja. It has an older pedigree than that too, but those were the games it was used on while Argonaut Sheffield was part of the Argonaut group. I was one of the programmers who ported the engine over to PC & Xbox for the original Bionicle, which is why I was involved in the demo in some capacity.

I'm still in touch with a lot of the designers who worked on the movement demo; the lead designer, (redacted), has said that I can pass on his contact details if you'd like to get in touch with him. You can contact him at (redacted).

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I was not surprised to get confirmation that Bionicle 2 used the same engine as Bionicle: The Game, since most of my existing programs I wrote for Bionicle: The Game were compatible with the Xbox demo. I asked if a PS2 port of Bionicle 2: City of Legends ever existed, since the Xbox demo we have has DualShock button mappings present in the game:

“Ah, I'll bet that's because I'll have compiled and built the disc image, so it's embedded my PC's name into the image. The level select would have just been for test levels where I was looking at specific bugs, performance problems or new features.

I really can't remember if we did PS2 or PC builds of the demo, other than the development binaries the design team would have been using. It's unlikely we'll have done a full ISO for the PS2, because the spiders caused real performance problems and we'd have wanted to show it to the publishers on the fastest available hardware.

By the way, the Xbox version will have reference to PS2 hardware because the original engine was PS2 only. The easiest way to port the engine was to, as far as possible, just get the Xbox and PC versions to pretend they were doing exactly the same thing as the PS2. For example, the game scripts don't need to know that when they get a button press from Cross or Circle, they're actually getting button presses from A or B. So although the names are going to be PS2-centric, they're still doing Xbox specific stuff.”

I was surprised to find out that the Morbuzakh Spiders were the primary reason for shifting Bionicle 2 to the original Xbox. I guess it makes sense, given how little time Argonaut Sheffield had to optimize the game. Switching to the original Xbox appeared to be a quick and easy way to avoid the hassle of optimization.

I later asked about the audio issues present in the Xbox demo, and for some general information about Bionicle: The Game.

“Hi William,

I'm afraid I've got no idea why the demo would be silent - it's been far too many years for me to remember the exact details, and I have no idea which version of the demo is the one which has been circulated. The full code for the audio system will have been present, because it was just a continuation of the engine used on Bionicle, and I'm sure the designers would have had at least some placeholder audio to hook up.

Audio is habitually the last thing to get hooked up in any game development, and since most developers prefer to have a silent build and listen to their own music while they work, it's not unusual for it either to be neglected in early internal builds, or for it to have been hacked to be silent (assuming the demo was one built locally rather than for showing to a publisher).

In terms of the development situation on Bionicle, although we weren't directly in the body of main developers, I think most of us were aware that the game wasn't progressing as well as it should. As well as the code team doing the porting work, our design and art teams were making the 'adrenaline levels' - which were the short lava/ice/tree surfing levels. They were only supposed to be short breaks between much larger levels, but it became increasingly obvious towards the end that these relatively small levels were still a large percentage of the actual content, and the other larger levels weren't coming online as fast as they should. QA in particular do full play-throughs on a regular basis, so they have a very good view of how fast the game as a whole is coming together.

I'm not 100% sure on all of the reasons for the delays in development, having been a relatively junior developer in a satellite studio at the time, but the reasons discussed at the time with leads and producers are fairly common ones that I've seen and heard about on other projects since. Inexperienced publishers or IP holders who haven't worked with game developers before often don't understand the lead times involved in producing content.

It's very hard to explain to customers who are used to working with companies like advertising agencies, who can turn around a complete change of direction in a matter of days, that you need to make and lock down decisions months or even years in advance. I think the penny finally dropped for Lego about three months out from submission that if they kept holding up approvals and kept requesting changes, they weren't going to get any game at all on the shelves - which of course meant we all had to crunch like hell to get the content in good enough shape to ship!

Cheers,”

An example of the aforementioned “Adrenaline sections” is the Tahu Nuva level from Bionicle: The Game. This level is actually internally named “Ta Adrenaline” as well. It’s obvious at this point that Tahu Nuva was originally going to have more than just surfing sections in his level, given the evidence in this message and the fact that he has a full set of unused walking animations.

I eventually contacted the designer mentioned by the former programmer, and got a reply after a month. (This designer was kind enough to restate my questions in his message):

“Hey,

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get back to you. I was launching a game and I completely forgot about this.

1. What was your role as a designer like when working on both games? What kind of work did you do?

I was lead designer at Argonaut Sheffield, and we were brought in to help out on Bionicle the Game. We were responsible for what was known internally as "the adrenaline sections". The game was split into third person. exploration and combat levels (which were developed by the main Argonaut office in London), and the fast moving on rails sections that we created. As well as leading the team on these sections I was directly involved in the Tahu Nuva Boss Race near the end of the game.

2. Were you aware of content being cut or removed when working on Bionicle: The Game? Did you work on anything that didn't make the cut?

Like with any game there's work that involved that never sees the light of day. There were a lot of changes to the design over time, sometimes for practical reasons, other times because Lego wanted them.  I seem to recall that in the original design you would play as each Toa normally and each one again in their Nuva form in large open levels - with the platform adventure and the adrenaline sections seamlessly blending into each other. Quite soon after we were brought into the project a much clearer separation was made between the two, but I'm sure there was lots of the preparatory work for that ended up on the disc.

3. Do you know if any other character models aside from Matau (The green character) were created for Bionicle 2?

No other characters were made for that demo. I think we had a matter of weeks and everything had to be done very quickly.  That build represents a build that we sent to Lego (And Giant who eventually became TT Games) for approval and hopefully for more funding for the company. And we spent a lot of time agreeing the visual look of the character, as it was very different from what we'd done in the first game.

The work done on Bionicle 2 was entirely done up in Sheffield so we had a lot more control over the content. We knew that the Bionicle audience was getting older, and their gaming needs were becoming more sophisticated and we wanted to do something that would appeal both to that audience and be an interesting game in its own right. We felt that the first game had been so compromised by production issues that it ended up being very disappointing. We wanted to make something fluid and interesting that was a joy to play as a platformer, and had the dynamism and the sense of scale that the Bionicle world deserved.

4. Do you know if any other builds of the Bionicle 2 movement demo exist? Like a build that has working audio?

I don't remember for sure if we ever ended up with a build with audio. But it feels a bit unlikely that we would have got to the stage that we did without their being something in there, especially if the audio assets were on the disk. Somewhere in the depths of my home I think I have a PS2 version of the demo, so I may see if I can get that up and running and find out. As I think - so far - the only people who have had access to the game have played on Xbox, right?

Thanks”

Of course LEGO was being difficult during Bionicle: The Game’s development. They did something similar with Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui, and that certainly did not end well. This message was a big deal for us at the time, not only did we get a lot of information about both games, but we also got confirmation that a PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends actually exists! Unfortunately, this developer never replied again, and I was beginning to lose motivation.

I decided I had enough of Argonaut Sheffield at that point, and shifted my focus to Argonaut London once more. After waiting a bit, I got another reply from a former AI programmer.

“Hi William, sure thing, although it was a long time back so may not remember too much :)

probably easier to use my email (redacted) though as I rarely login to Linkedin.”

We later communicated via email:

“Hi William,

on the unused level front, it’s entirely likely that a bunch of the designers and strat coders ’play areas’ would have ended up in the build. Not sure if you’ve had any background info on how a lot of the Argonaut games were built, but here’s a brief rundown :)

So, when I started at Argonaut in 1997 , I joined the Croc 2 team, who were using the first updated iteration of the engine they built for Croc that had its own scripting language written (originally for the level designers to use) to write all the gameplay elements, while the engine coders focused entirely on the main engine for the PS1 (and a separate small team handled porting the engine to GameCube/Dreamcast, PC etc.). The idea being that ASL (Argonaut Strategy Language) Strats would be cross platform as they were just interpreted by the engine.

As it turned out, ASL strats were a bit too complex for the level designers to write themselves without coder assistance, so Argonaut let them focus on the actual level design itself (using the editor that just became known as the Croc Editor) and got gameplay specialist coders (like myself) to work on the strats. This worked out great as we could focus on individual items or groups of them independent of what was happening with the engine and we could quickly tweak a strat and run it on the devkit without doing a full build of the game (which took *AGES* back then ;) ) as well as some basic debugging capability.

This meant that most of the level designers and strat coders usually had a level slapped together with all the bits they were trying out. I don’t know if my one with all the Matorans following you in a chain still exists, but there were some pretty strange ones. In theory these wouldn’t end up on the disk but the build system was pretty clunky, so it’s entirely likely that some ended up there.

So by the time I got drafted onto the Bionicle PS2 project, I’d worked on Croc 2, Aladdin Nazira’s Revenge, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Bionicle Matoran Adventures on GBA. All but the last one using revisions of the Croc Editor and ASL.  (The Emperor’s New Groove, Harry Potter 2, Malice, Catwoman & iNinja also got written with the engine). I say revisions as not a lot was actually added to either over time. Also, by Bionicle PS2 I was kind of an emergency response coder for strats, as I got parachuted in after the project started to help fix a lot of problems with how ASL was being used and design issues with the levels.

There were a lot of issues with Bionicle (not as many as Aladdin or Catwoman started with and my 4 days on Malice were certainly interesting, but they’re entirely different stories ;) ). Mostly from inexperience as the team working on it had a lot of new hires or ones that had been drafted from other teams that didn’t use ASL or the Croc Engine, so they weren’t familiar with its limitations. There were some HR issues going on too, but I’m not going to get into those. The team were mostly all professional and good at what they did, but struggling with a relatively clunky engine. By this point Argonaut had split off most of the engine coders to the “Tools” team and we had to officially request any engine or editor changes we wanted through their chain of command (and they weren’t interested in working on the ‘old’ engine).

There were also some issues with inexperience in games from the Lego UK side too. So a lot of the overall design rules were a bit flaky and lead to a lot of levels and gameplay getting changed. The “No Weapons” rule was one we thought was pretty odd, considering the swords, pikes etc. in use. Apparently they’re tools, not weapons. So we weren’t allowed to use them as direct combat weapons for gameplay, only for magical ranged effects. There was also a lot of issues of really big levels being designed without consideration for what could actually be rendered on screen at the required frame rate on PS2 with the old Croc engine. Even updated to PS2 and with everything the engine coders could do to optimise it, the engine and ASL were struggling to do what the designers wanted.

I don’t think it’s a case of biting off a bit more than they could chew (we successfully wrote Harry Potter from scratch in 9 months in time to release with the film using the engine but that was very much a dream team of all the right people with the right skills and a publisher working well in sync). More a case of it being a new team of people not so experienced with the system and a publisher that wasn’t entirely sure what it wanted. So things were that bit harder to get done in the time available.

In theory, some older gold disks are likely still around. (redacted) was one of our engine guys on the project and “Master of the Build” (he was the only one who had enough tasteless Hawaiian shirts for the numerous submission build days). I’ll have a dig through my CD collection, but it’s unlikely I’ve got any Bionicle builds surviving. I *might* still have some strat code floating about on an old hard disk. I do seem to have some of the Catwoman build code that used mostly the same (although slightly updated) engine though.

One thing that I think got axed was my chain of Matorans. The idea was a level where you’d be picking them up from around the level and they’d follow you to a rescue point. Normally this wouldn’t actually be that difficult to code, but ASL never actually had any arrays! I’d been asking for them for a couple of projects by that point but they never got added, so my Matorans were each working as their own array elements and frantically messaging one another in a chain, which never quite worked reliably enough with ASL, so we shelved the idea.

(redacted) was one of the strat coders working with me on Bionicle. I think he’d just joined Argonaut then, but luckily, knew his stuff.

(redacted)”

I guess a few of the unused levels I found in the PS2 port of Bionicle: The Game are examples of “play areas” given how small some of them are. This message also provided some insight about ASL, the proprietary language both games were created with. This gave me a good idea about how difficult ASL was to use as well. The fact that Arognaut also had many new hires that couldn’t handle ASL’s idiosyncrasies certainly didn’t help Bionicle: The Game at all.

I later reached out to another former AI programmer affiliated with the previous one. They had some interesting things to say:

“Wow, I'm really surprised that anyone is that interested in Bionicle, because I didn't think it was a very good game, but I'm happy that you felt strongly enough to do this, I guess. That's quite an impressive bit of digging.

[Asked about ASL]

Q1) ASL wasn't a great language to use, it was being developed at the same time as the engine so it was constantly changing and was occasionally broken as well. The turnaround from making a change in code to testing it on the target device was quite slow. And coming from C++ the lack of modularity was frustrating. There was some talk in the team about wanting it to be object oriented, but anything that made it cleaner and less prone to repetition would have been good. My memory of it isn't that good since it was 20 years ago. I remember the collision and animation systems being awkward and crude as well though. Do you know about the other games that the system was used for? Catwoman took the animation engine a bit further, but it was really horrible trying to program the animation blending for finite state machines with a language that was so hard to debug.

[Asked about scrapped content in Bionicle: The Game]

Q2) I don't remember much about what was scrapped. There were different teams working on different levels and playable characters, I mainly worked on the Tahu levels and the final boss. I think there might have been some stuff scrapped from the other characters. One or two of them were developed by the team who were doing the cross platform conversion for us, and we didn't see much of what they were doing and only saw it quite late.

[Asked if any early builds of Bionicle: The Game still exist]

Q3) I have no idea - perhaps Sony or EA have archives of the earlier builds. Someone on the engine team might do, I can't think how or why a strat coder would have one.”

The issues with the collision system they mentioned are definitely present in Bionicle: The Game. It’s quite easy to glitch out of bounds, as speedrunners have demonstrated many times. We later talked about general programming concepts and discussed ASL further:

“Reassuring to know that I'm not imagining Bionicle being pretty bad! I think object oriented was just flavour of the month in 2003, Java was a highly respected language at the time and we thought it was the future. It would have been nice to work in a language that was used in other places, because having ASL on your CV was a pretty crappy prospect for seeking other work. At least if you used Fortran or Pascal it was recognised by employers as a mainstream language. WTF is ASL? I worked in two other organisations that had proprietary languages and it was annoying. The good thing about starting work at Argonaut at least was that ASL was a proven language that you could make games with, and it did let you get down to the relevant bits of gameplay you wanted to take control of. Before that I worked at Phase 3 studios where they had never made an action game before, and we spent a lot of time programming systems that had hardly any effect on gameplay. So I was grateful for ASL and the toolchain for making it easy to do some limited things. I was very impressed by someone on the iNinja team for getting ropes to work with a vertlet algorithm, we stole that later for the green Bionicle to use. I think the High Voltage Software studio might be using a different language with the same initials? I can't see how it could possibly be Argonaut's language. I'm pretty sure there was some talk about opening it up as middleware to sell other studios but I don't think we ever got there. Many of the staff from Catwoman went on to work at Rocksteady, Sony and Ninja Theory, but I think they just started using whatever engine was in place there. You could find hundreds of people who had brushes with the language.”

I asked about other studios using ASL for their games:

“What release date were the games? Argonaut folded in 2004 I think, so the creditors might have managed to sell off the technology as cheap middleware of last-gen consoles

or perhaps they were licensing the tech while we were using it, and I just hadn't been aware of it”

I sent him some notable examples of games using ASL from other studios, such as The Conduit and Ben 10: Protector of Earth:

“That fits the picture then - liquidation in 2004, sell the technology in 2005, two years of learning the systems and developing content, release in 2007

The PS3 would be the current gen console by then, but the PS2 had a large enough user base to make it a viable market, especially for movie tie-ins and children’s games”

I later asked if there was any possibility that Argonaut received parts of ASL from other sources:

“That's an interesting question... I don't know but I think Argonaut were using strats since 1993 and the language gradually evolved from Starfox to Croc and so on. I think it was around before High Voltage existed. It does seem like a massive coincidence that the header is VOLT but there aren't many words that sound cool to programmers so I still suspect it is just a coincidence. Programming was Argonaut's strongest suit, it doesn't make sense that they would buy tech in like that. I was only at the company for two years or so, ask someone who was there longer.”

Then out of the blue, another former designer from Argonaut Sheffield reached out to me about Bionicle 2. After that, I asked them a few questions:

“Hi William,

Great to hear from you. Let me see what I can do to answer your questions!

[Asked about the development process of Bionicle 2]

1. Designing the demo was a bit of a break from the usual licensed Dev. We had creative control so got to decide what direction we'd like to take things in (hence a departure from the 'standard' platforming fare of the time!) My role was predominantly as a technical designer - that was, creating ideas and prototyping/building in the tools. For the demo I was responsible for populating and scripting some of the functionalities in the level.

[Asked about the broken audio in the Xbox port of Bionicle 2]

2. Not sure on the silence in the build tbh... I seem to remember doing some work on creating and implementing some spot FX and seem to remember we put some audio track on the front end screen. With this being a closed pitch demo, I honestly can't remember if we'd created the track or sourced it from elsewhere!

[Asked if they knew about any other builds of Bionicle 2]

3. I believe a have a variety of unreleased games and demos on various formats somewhere. Most of them will be PS2 from that period.

Thanks”

When they mentioned owning a variety of unreleased games and demos, I was immediately intrigued. I later asked if they had a PS2 build of Bionicle 2 and offered to send him a copy of our Xbox build of the game in exchange for it, and to my surprise I got this:

“Hey William,

Cool, I'll have a search when I get some time and attempt to extract it for you!

Thanks”

I was ecstatic. Finally, after months of searching, I was about to get something tangible! But the days passed, and those days turned into weeks. I was beginning to lose hope until I got this message:

“Hey William,

Quick note on my progress - I've not forgotten! I delved into my garage over the weekend and came away with 3 CDs labeled bionicle 2 with various dates on!

I'll attempt to create an ISO of the latest date and share with you when I get a mo (most likely the weekend again!)

Thanks”

Not only did he have a build of the game for the PS2, but THREE of them! After seeing this, I decided to wait for the weekend to arrive. Unfortunately I would be very busy on this particular weekend, but Bionicle was still my top priority! So I proceeded to bail on my friends to wait for an obscure as hell prototype game from a discontinued children’s toy line to show up in my inbox. However, on Sunday, the weekend was coming to a close, and I had heard nothing from the former designer. My waiting and persistence later paid off after I got this message:

“Hi William,

Give this a go - no idea if it works - let me know!

(redacted)”

At last! I finally got it! The latest known PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends! But there was a problem. The game didn’t boot. Just my luck. But I wasn’t ready to give up. I ended up rebuilding the entire iso with some proprietary tools, and by some miracle, it booted up in my emulator. It’s about what you would expect: It’s similar to Xbox build in many ways, but it is also different. Unlike the Xbox port, the audio works, and there are some extra graphical effects and animations. I was also able to get the game to boot up on a real PS2 without issue.

I can’t say exactly when BioMedia Project will release this build to the public, but I'm sure it will happen soon. Until then, feel free to watch some gameplay footage of the demo on my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/Dvmzz92F3oo

These past couple of years have been pretty crazy for Bionicle. The Legend of Mata Nui was found TWICE, and there has been so much more activity within the community as a result. I’m glad I was able to make my mark and get this unreleased build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends into the hands of the Bionicle community where it belongs. If you made it this far, Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, don’t forget to share it. I spent a lot of time researching this, and I would really appreciate it. Special Thanks:

BioMedia Project

Liam Robertson

Fraug L. Coolman

#bionicle #lego

[love-sapphirerose]

5 Reasons Why Boruto Is Flop (& 5 Reasons Why It Isn't)

https://www.cbr.com/boruto-reasons-why-flop-isnt/

Many people had ambivalent feelings when Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was announced. After Naruto ended there was immediate speculation of what was going to happen. Shortly afterward, it was confirmed that a series with Naruto's son at the focus would come out. 

Shonen Jump needed help to fill the void left by Naruto and so with Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, they would try to fill the gap. The manga became an immediate hit with its first chapter sparking a lot of controversies. The fans were overjoyed with the quality of writing in the manga. It was pretty obvious that it would get an anime adaptation. However, it hasn't worked out well. So, in this post, we will discuss five reasons the series is a flop and five reasons why it isn't. 

10. Flop: Inconsistent Level of Animation

Animation is one of the keys to success for any anime series. Boruto doesn't have bad animation, but it is not among the best either. The anime is produced by Studio Pierrot and all the animators work to the best of their abilities. Some times the animation can be of the highest quality, but the other time it is not as good. Boruto is a weekly anime and producing a weekly anime is always difficult and there is very little time to get the job done. Other seasonal anime like My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan have better animation due to the time allotted to them.

9. Not Flop: Sales

One thing that is pretty clear and obvious about Boruto are the sales. Even if the series hasn't really kicked off, there has been no shortage of support from the fans especially those who are just Boruto fans and haven't watched Naruto. It is among the most-watched series and it quite unreal to believe at times that it has managed to become so popular despite the other cons present in the series, which will be fixed hopefully. 

8. Flop: Too Many Fillers

If there is one thing that tarnished the reputation of Naruto it was the huge amount of fillers. Naruto's reputation took a major hit due to the fillers. At first, they were okay but their number just kept on increasing and it didn't go down well with the fans. Unfortunately, Boruto is going down the same path, which is a big shame. 

But, the studio can't really do anything when there is not enough material to animate.

7. Not Flop: Story

There is one thing that is undoubtedly the best quality of the series and that is the story. If you have read the manga then you will know once the material will be adapted, it is going to be awesome. Boruto manga is a hundred times better than the anime. At the moment, the anime seems like it is directionless. There is no real in the anime and most of it is just filler. However, the manga is completely different and it is very well written. So, if you are facing trouble while watching the anime just hang in there because the wait will definitely be worth it. 

6. Flop: Rushed

Boruto is a series that has been rushed and it is easily noticeable. It wasn't really thought out. The people working on it definitely didn't plan it properly. It feels that they just wanted to bring out the anime so that the Naruto fans would have something to watch. With Naruto ending, Shonen Jump needed something that would fill the void. They wanted the sales and everything that Naruto brought to Jump, so they probably thought that bringing out Boruto would help. While there is no doubt that the sales are very high, the fans are disgruntled.

5. Not Flop: Huge Fan Base

One of the few things that the series can boast about is the immensely large fan base. When Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was announced Naruto fans were jumping up and down with joy that they would be able to watch their beloved "Gutsy Ninja." 

Almost all Naruto fans read Boruto, so that is already a huge number of people. Adding to this, a lot of other people watch the series as well. This increases the overall number and helps the series have an incredible amount of sales. 

4. Flop: Power Scaling

Recently, the Boruto anime really messed up the power scaling. In the recent arc where Urashiki Otsutsuki was beaten by a bunch of kids and Jiraiya. It was an Otsutsuki with so much power and yet they managed to bring him down. It didn't seem to please the fans.

3. Not Flop: Naruto and co.

As mentioned time and time again that a lot of credit for the success of Boruto goes to Naruto. Most of the Naruto fans who have carried on watching the series is due to Naruto being present in the series. Along with Naruto, there are several other characters who are present in the new anime. So, that has made a bit more watchable especially when you consider the immense number of fillers in the show. 

2. Flop: Character Handling

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is focused on the next generation of ninjas. Obviously, there were going to be new characters and everything. A lot of characters have been introduced and they have not dealt with carefully. A good example would be that of Iwabee. He looked like an interesting character at first. But, he has suffered a lot due to not getting enough screentime. He hasn't even been introduced in the manga. Even the other characters have not got proper screentime.

1. Not Flop: New Concepts

One thing that has impressed the fans are the new things that have been introduced in the series. The first thing is the influence of scientific technology in the series. We have seen plenty of technology being used in the series. From artificial arms to laser beams, the series has shown its creativity. Another unique thing that has been introduced is 'Karma.' The concept of Karma is very interesting and it looks like it will have a very big role to play in the series. Also, there is Kara which is a new criminal organization in Boruto.

#anti boruto #naruto uzumaki #naruto shippuden

[riotatthemovies]

Officer Downe (2016)

There are movies that make me angry just because I wonder how certain people get money and others don’t. Makes you think how zero budget filmmakers would be if someone gave them money and not to some video game stoner bros that just happen to know the right people to get a real film budget.  

I saw a review for this movie on IMDB mocking the film for having no budget and that is not the truth. Mocking it for having toy props. But that was on purpose cause this movie thought that was funny. If this was actually a zero budget film like that of Sheets, Bonk or Polonia (like I usually talk about) you would consider something as ridiculous and rude and heavy metal macho as being fun and quaint if it was done by real homegrown movie makers. If this was made in back alleys , shot on video with grungy sound and friends as actor that would shine through as ok and maybe even funny. But no this was made in a studio with agent filed actors , specially effects companies that live in Hollywood. Yet it was technically an independent film they had money.. just wasted money. This movie may be cheap but it had 2 chefs and 4 chefs assistants listed in the credits... if you know REAL zero budget movies that is not a thing. 

Someone gave the Clown from Slipknot a movie budget. Again granted not a real budget but a budget to show tons of cgi blood, mutants, killer nuns with lots of machine guns and in splattered body parts , cheesie nu metal and awkward sex scenes that are neither hot nor funny. A ninja villian that mocks being a dubbed kung fu character and well Officer Downe the zombie cop that can't be stopped. LAPD has a super cop which is an insane stereotype of a cop who is ultra violent and unafraid of being shot and luckily he has a way of being repaired every time he is maimed and or blown up.

Imagine the scene in Robocop where he shows up and shoots up the drug dealers factory and then just that over and over again. But Robocop is a dumbass cowboy Kim Coates of Bad Blood. Add in some random comic book homage writing on the screen to purposely seem stupid and other odd ball sci fi / comic book references to homage Judge Dredd and Heavy Metal magazine. Which in both those publications I am a huge fan but when you make it into live action you are forced to realise the immature idiocy of it all. Which is why I often tell people stop demanding comic book / book adaptations to be exactly like the comic, cause some shit just seems less stupid on paper. They have a made up science behind how Officer Downe gets his immortal powers which I can not tell is supposed to be just weird and shocking or supposed to be smart and original... either way they fail at both sides.  The movie also tried to legitimise why people would do this and try to show you honor in man.. blah blah blah yawn and bullshit. The arguments from the characters are stupid... the use of the word motherfucker are so pointless they ruin how great a word it is. The gore and action is fine but filled with dumb gimmicks that you you can not lie to yourself and you have to admit that giving music video directors money to make whatever they want is a fucking stupid idea. Made by a member of Slipknot that makes their videos , even has Corey the singer as one of the villains but no actually Slipknot songs in the soundtrack. Maybe the music label knew better.  

This was so close to being the next Turbo kid/Hobo with a Shotgun and those two movies walk the line of stupid pretty dangerously as well. But have characters you give a damn about enough and the memories come from the clash between ultra violence and actual tenderness. The machoness just seems like dated stupidity and the logic in the movie seems like fake bullshit. Yeah this movie annoyed me. There is irony in how the cops sense of honor is just being as much of a sociopaths as much as the comic villains. Which is interesting except I don’t know if the movie is totally aware of how deep that irony is. To go into a cop honor monologue to a villian that speaks dubbed because he knows kung fu... yeah.. fucking dumb. 

 This is a movie solely for a nerdy kids that eats doritos while hitting a bong and playing Call of duty cause they wish they could be a soldier solely to get revenge on the guys that bully him in school.   Seriously people how could I dislike a bizarre movie with gore , battle nuns, ninjas, mutants and zombie cops so much?  I mean it looks pretty good. I kind of liked the evil Nuns and would be interested in more of their story instead of the other cops. The fight scene with the nun gang is the best part. They hint towards magical backstory without directly mentioning it and the fights and gore are the best in that scene too.

The imdb reviewer who also disliked this but complained it was cause it was cheap said they felt bad for Kim Coates but I will accept that this thought is just my own but when a group of ninjas finally start to get the edge on him I rooted for the ninjas. I know Robocop 3 says otherwise but seriously a group of real ninjas would kick Robocops lead ass.  Fuck this movie just made me bad mouth Robocop... sonofabitch. Fuck why am I still writing... fuck this.

#officer downe #slipknot #slipknot very good #bad movies

[thedcdunce]

Blue Devil

“Killing demons has kept me plenty busy.” - Blue Devil

Real Name: Daniel Patrick Cassidy

Aliases:

Kid Devil

Gopher

Gender: Male

Height: 6′ 8″

Weight: 385 lbs (175 kg)

Eyes: Yellow

Hair: Bald

Skin: Blue

Powers:

Demonic Physiology

Abilities:

Acrobatics

Acting

Martial Arts

Mechanical Engineering/Gadgetry

Weaknesses:

Weirdness Magnet

Technological Reliability

Equipment:

Blue Devil Costume

Blue Devil Trident

Devilmobile

Trident of Lucifer

Universe:

Earth-One

New Earth

Base of Operations: 

Oblivion Bar

Metropolis

Los Angeles

Malibu, California

House of Weirdness

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: 

Special Effects Artist

Stuntman

First Appearance: Firestorm Vol 2 #24 (June, 1984)

Powers

Demonic Physiology: In his original superhero form, Blue Devil's abilities were largely the result of the technological devices built into his costume. Danny was reborn as a genuine demon after he was defeated by Neron in Hell.

Superhuman Strength

Superhuman Agility

Superhuman Durability

Accelerated Healing

Enhanced Senses

Enhanced Hearing

Enhanced Vision

Abilities

Acrobatics: Danny was an experienced stuntman. The Blue Devil suit then enhanced his strength and agility dramatically.

Acting: Danny worked in the film industry as an actor, stuntman, and special effects artist. He starred alongside Wayne Tarrant and Sharon Scott in the film, Blue Devil, as the title role.

Martial Arts

Boxing: Dan was an amateur boxer who retired undefeated in his last twenty fights, and was able to hold his own against Van Vanucci.

Mechanical Engineering/Gadgetry: Danny's greatest technical achievement was building the original Blue Devil suit and rocket propelled trident.

Weaknesses

Weirdness Magnet: After being fused into the Blue Devil suit, Norm theorized that Dan's fusion of science and magic made him a "weirdness magnet" that attracted abnormal activity to him. This was dismissed as a joke until until Dr. Kylburn had the statisticians at S.T.A.R. Labs substantiate the claims. They even gave him money to put his uncanny probability to the test in Las Vegas. The theory became conclusive upon meeting Cain, who confirmed the existence of such a concept, even pinpointing the positively charged force radiating from his abdomen. It's unknown if this phenomenon was caused by the magic of Nebiros or Danny's family history which has faerie blood on his uncle Seamus' side.

Technological Reliability: Although the suit was organically grafted to Danny, it was still mechanical in nature and vulnerable to being hijacked by the the correct frequency. His former friend and fellow stuntman Larry Bolatnsky managed to remotely control Blue Devil to fight Firestorm.

Equipment

Blue Devil Costume: Blue Devil's powers originally came from a highly sophisticated stunt suit Danny built for practical in-camera effects. The techno-organic exosuit disappeared when he was reborn as a true demon.

Superhuman Strength: Increased Danny's strength at least twenty times the norm.

Super-Leaping

Superhuman Durability

Accelerated Healing: After being grafted to Cassidy's body, the costume became organic and gained the ability to self-repair at an extremely fast rate.

Superhuman Agility

Enhanced Senses

Enhanced Hearing

Enhanced Vision: Infrared night vision.

Enhanced Vocals: Voice modulator.

Amphibious: The suit had "mini-gills" built into it, allowing Danny to breathe underwater.

Explosives: Exploding bubble effect from cuffs.

Blue Devil Trident: The trident had cybernetic relay connections to the suit, allowing it to be summoned and controlled remotely. In his original superhero costume, Blue Devil relied on the rocket-powered trident he had created to fly into action. It was built to support the weight of at least 20 people and traveled at approximately 60 mph.

Flight: Though mostly used enhance his super-leaping, the rockets could also provide sustained flight.

Flame Effect: The trident could be used to shoot fire.

Devilmobile: Danny's civilian vehicle was converted overnight by Jack Edison and James Jesse into a themed Devilmobile. Its gadgetry included an oil slick, a mist bomb, an anti-gravity disk, an ejector seat, booster rockets, and pyrotechnic and explosive features. It also had a reclining "make out" function.

Trident of Lucifer: Allows him to find demons on Earth and banish them to Hell.

Reluctant Hero

Dan Cassidy was a special effects wizard and stuntman whose credits had included The Battle of the Las Vegas Showgirls and Space Ninja when he was hired by his friend, film director Marla Bloom, to create and play the title character in the Verner Bros. monster movie Blue Devil. Cassidy's specialty was somewhat unusual - rather than create optical effects that would later be applied in post-production, Cassidy specialized in "in camera" mechanical and cybernetic effects. To that end, Cassidy created a full-body costume for Blue Devil, complete with a powered exoskeleton and built-in pyrotechnic devices. Cassidy also created a rocket-powered prop trident which was, among other things, capable of flying.

During location filming on the mysterious Ile Du Diable, Wayne Tarrant, the "hero" of the film, and his co-star Sharon Scott, accidentally freed a demon named Nebiros. Though Cassidy faced incredible odds and a near-death experience, he was able to effectively use the devices built into his costume to drive the demon back to its home dimension. Unfortunately, he was blasted with demonic energy in the process. After the fight, Cassidy found that the blast had permanently grafted the Blue Devil costume to his body. Cassidy, a devout Irish Catholic, was stuck in the "skin" of an unholy Blue Devil.

While trying to find ways of escaping his costume, the newly-named Blue Devil soon found himself involved in conflicts with super villains such as Metallo and The Trickster. Nebiros, who now had an affinity for his "little brother," would return time and time again to harass the Blue Devil, and just as often Cassidy would banish him to his own dimension. Cassidy's friend Norm Paxton, a cinematographer, theorized that the blast that had made Cassidy a Blue Devil had also turned him into a sort of "weirdness magnet." Though he initially insisted that he was no super hero, it took him little time to adapt to the realities of his existence. While he continued to seek a way to regain a normal life, Cassidy became more comfortable in the role of hero over time, and even gained an unwanted sidekick in the form of Kid Devil - actually Eddie Bloomberg, Marla Bloom's nephew.

Blue Devil would spend the next few years working with superheroes as diverse as The Creeper, Black Orchid, the Omega Men, and Superman. Later, he would also encounter Cain and Abel, who would go on to rent Blue Devil a room in the other-dimensional House of Weirdness, sister structure to the House of Mystery and House of Secrets. That house contained mystical doorways into a Malibu beach house, a house outside of Metropolis, and several other places.

Retirement and Comeback

After joining the rest of the heroic community in fighting the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Blue Devil found that he was attracting less and less weirdness to him and his friends, and went into semi-retirement as a hero. Though his younger sister Frankie was later revealed to have been a sleeper agent of the Manhunters, Blue Devil did not publicly participate in the Millennium affair or any of the subsequent major events during which the super-hero community banded together.

After a several-year period during which Cassidy's and Marla Bloom's careers suffered a downturn, Blue Devil resolved to help both himself and his good friend. Sensing an opportunity when the Justice League instituted an open-door membership policy, and sponsored by the mysterious organization known as the Arcana, Blue Devil came out of retirement and joined the team in order to make a "comeback" as a celebrity. Though he was only barely tolerated by some of the more serious members of the team, Cassidy's heart was in the right place, and he embarked on a quest to increase both his powers and his fortune.

Shortly after Blue Devil joined the team, the demon Neron took control of Hell and began seeking souls on Earth. Recognizing Cassidy's sense of thwarted ambition, Neron approached him with the chance to be a movie star, which the latter eagerly accepted. Cassidy had no way of knowing, however, that the true cost of his bargain would be the death of his close friend Marla Bloom. After performing the seemingly innocuous task of destroying an automatic electrical substation far in the desert, a chain of events was set in motion that would result in Bloom and her pilot dying in a helicopter accident. Blue Devil got his wish - sympathetic movie offers began to pour in - but the price was too high.

Guilt-ridden, Cassidy made the ultimate heroic sacrifice: he cheated Neron of his soul, but died in the process. Soon after, he was reincarnated as an actual demon, with an increase in power.

Demonic Existence

After the JLA disbanded and reformed again, this time with an invitation-only membership, Cassidy found himself without a team. Having long before lost the companionship of his movie-studio friends, he joined a new "Justice League of France" consisting of himself, Firestorm, the second Amazing Man, the surviving Crimson Fox, and a woman who claimed to be Icemaiden. Unfortunately, the latter was in fact the villainous Nash in disguise, and she killed nearly all of her erstwhile teammates. Again, the Blue Devil was destroyed, and again, he was restored to life, this time by the magician Faust, who used the Devil's bones to reanimate him. Facing Nebiros for the last time, Cassidy was granted the demon's Trident of Satan. Controlled by Faust, Blue Devil joined the Sentinels of Magic, where he worked alongside Ragman and Enchantress among other supernaturally powered beings. He was finally freed from his obligation to the team when Faust restored his last bone to him - however, Blue Devil soon lost his life a third time while fighting Hermes Trismegistus.

The Shadowpact

The Blue Devil did not remain dead long, however, and was soon seen roaming the Earth and banishing demons back to Hell. Cassidy began working as a bouncer at the Oblivion Bar, working for Nightmaster. There, he joined with Ragman and Enchantress once again, as well as Nightshade and Detective Chimp, in battle against the Spectre, who had declared war on all magic. He soon became the strong-man of the newly-dubbed Shadowpact, able even to wound Eclipso, and has since decided to stay with the team. He now helps his new teammates to contain the wild magic set free by the Spectre's actions.

Shortly after the Infinite Crisis, Blue Devil and his teammates were trapped inside a "blood shield" that grew over the town of Riverrock, Wyoming. While inside the town, Cassidy met a member of magic-based villain group called the Pentacle named Jack of Fire. Jack, who wore a bandana over his mouth and wielded pyrokinetic abilities, claimed that he was Cassidy's brother, and that Cassidy's deal with Neron had cursed the entire Cassidy family to Hell. In addition to becoming demonic himself, Jack claimed that Blue Devil's late parents had been pulled out of Heaven, and that his "sisters" Mary and Frances were also cursed. The veracity of these claims is questionable - though Cassidy does have a sister, Mary Frances, he had never before mentioned a brother or another sister. Oddly, Blue Devil claimed to have no recollection of having any siblings at all - a mystery that has yet to be solved.

One day, Blue Devil's former sidekick Eddie Bloomberg, now a true demon himself, came to Cassidy inquiring about his aunt Marla's death. Blue Devil admitted that he had not been honest with Eddie regarding the circumstances of her demise, and the teen responded hastily in shock. Before he could explain the truth to Eddie, Cassidy was told by his former sidekick to stay far away.

Cassidy then found himself under threat by the former Justice League member Zauriel. Because of Blue Devil's popularity as a demon, he had unknowingly given hell and demons a better image, prompting others to make their own deals with demons. As a result, Zauriel was tasked with killing Blue Devil and doing away with his bad influence on the populace. However, when Zauriel realized that Blue Devil wanted nothing more than to combat hell, Zauriel agreed to give him some time to repair his mistakes. Blue Devil is currently in hell bargaining for his soul with a lawyer. After briefly resuming his human body with a more powerful exosuit, Cassidy is given back his Trident and demonic powers by Jack of Fire, but as a "demon with a soul".

His most recent appearance was with Zatanna and the Phantom Stranger at the desecrated grave of Batman in Blackest Night. In typical fashion, he cracks that the Stranger brought them there to "hold hands and sing Kumbaya." That changes when black rings take control of Crispus Allen. While Zatanna was sent to gather the Justice League, Blue Devil and the Stranger attempt to stop the Black Lantern Spectre, failing miserably. He and the Stranger head to Nanda Parbat, where the Stranger helps Deadman remove the black ring from his body. Blue Devil is then tasked by the Stranger to protect the body, being told that it is of "singular importance".

Fun Facts

Blue Devil's body gives off the aroma of brimstone.

Danny's an Irish Catholic and therefore has prayed at times of great need or during Mass. He still burns whenever he sets foot on holy ground.

#blue devil #daniel patrick cassidy #daniel cassidy #Shadowpact #justice league of america #jla #Justice Society of America #jsa #sentinels of magic #Spirit Squad #dc #DC comics #thedcdunce

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

One Punch Man 13 (S2 Ep 1) | Afterlost 1 | RobiHachi 1 | Kimetsu no Yaiba 2 - 3 | BSD 25 - 26 (S3 Eps 1 - 2) | King of Prism - Shiny 7 Stars 1 | Shield Hero 14 - 16 | Double Decker! EX 3 | Sarazanmai 2

The shows that have made it this season will be getting their tags...soon. Because I fell behind early in the season, trying to read ahead is nastier than it really should be...

Update: I forgot to roll out the tags...! Sorry about that.

One Punch Man 2 1

This season’s name…sounds counterintuitive, to say the least.

I love how Genos is carrying a box of hijiki (which looks like hair) and Saitama’s wearing a shirt that says “hair” (in kanji) all over it. It’s funny for a bald man and his “work of modern art”.

I never knew Genos was so blunt. Maybe because the last season was a good 2 – 3 years ago…and was by Madhouse and Shingo Natsume, and so this feels slightly different.

Oh, Sonic…! I didn’t realise how much I missed you! (Not to mention, you look hot with the off-the-shoulder shirt, y’know?)

“Enoki” is a type of mushroom.

Oh, Garou!...Oh wait, there isn’t much more of the episode left, is there…?

Afterlost 1

Oh great…this is the second time the subs don’t work on my device of choice. Then again, it seems to be a problem with the ad blocker and not the video…Okay, fiddling with the ad blocker worked.

Let’s play Spot the Main Character Amongst All the CGI Guys! Yay! (obviously sarcastic)

Without the volume…this OP is, to not put it lightly, s***.

Shoumetsu means “extinction”, not “lost”.

And the reward for Jankiest CGI this season belongs to…

Okay…this is stupid…if it f**ks up even more, I’m out of here!

I know the horned owl is your mascot, but that doesn’t mean you needed a real owl.

Waittttttttt…how did the scientists know Yuki’s father was responsible for this stuff anyway?

I feel like Takuya was shoehorned in. I mean, there’s a better example of this character type in Naofumi (Shield Hero).

This guy’s name, as we know it, is Geek. Wow (sarcastic). Also, I find it funny Takuya has a “ta” on his licence plate.

“…she’s just a package.” - Welp, you don’t get any more blatant than that for female denigration! I think Anime Feminist had a field day with this one.

Come to think of it, I saw some helmets back at Geek’s place but Takuya never seems to use one…

You had one job, Takuya…*sigh*

I swear I said a few previews ago I don’t like 1st person cam…no one ever listens to me, do they???

Not dis shitto agen!

Okay, enough complaining. It seems Yu-no wasn’t bad enough, so they had to produce something like the Chaos Dragon and Seisen Cerberus of old…

RobiHachi 1

It’s Takamatsu being Takamatsu again. Also… I forgot to mention this earlier, but…Taiga Umatani seems to be related to Kurari Umatani (who is credited for Boueibu), so…I wonder if it’s a collective writer’s name for Studio Comet, like Izumi Todo for Toei? The only thing that goes against that is the fact “Kurari” existed during the Diomedea days of Boueibu. Also Isekandar seems to be related to Yamato’s Iscandar (which Takamatsu seems to like, based on the fact he once used Matsumoto metres as a shorthand for being in space). If you don’t understand, Yamato’s endgoal contains a place called Iscandar and that’s by Leiji Matsumoto.

Okayyyyy…what are these rabbit creatures…? But yes, it does smack of Boueibu simply because the episode layout’s the same.

Hmm…? So Robby seems be En (the do-nothing life) in spirit, but Kinshiro in background, but also he runs away from his fortune. “Hmm” indeed.

Oh! That’s what this string of misfortunes reminds me of! The monsters of the day from Boueibu.

Acrymalide.

Hatchi is a Kinshiro in looks but an Atsushi by being a goody-goody.

Hmm…they actually bother to show girls now…apparently Takamatsu went to a boys-only school, which is why his original works focus on dudes (as in, you can pick out when Takamatsu is adapting someone else’s work because it has a heavier focus on girls as supporting characters).

Mechs and spaceships are probably two of the only ways I accept CGI…and you, Takamatsu sir, have just done it (the latter)!

Aw! Lookit his (Hatchi’s) face light up like a Beppu’s! It’s cute!

Hatchi getting out the hatch…lame, but still somewhat effectve on me (because that’s my wordplay game you’re playing, Takamatsu…!).

LOL, it’s a transforming mech. It seems my words from a few comments earlier were basically foretelling the future.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 2

Yikes, “Sakonji Urokodaki” has a lot of strokes…

My Little Sister Lives For Headpats…hey wait, don’t all anime kid sisters do that(?)

For some reason, I know the “Don’t Lose Your Way” meme from Kill la Kill and yet I’ve never…watched KlK…?(!)

I swore that was Giyu (it’s the haircut, I swear), but it’s a random demon…

When all you have is a hatchet…use your head. (LOL)

Ooh, nice eyecatch!

This is really black comedy, in a sense. (I remember this demon fight from the manga which is why I say that.)

Hmm…this wispy stuff wasn’t in the manga.

Come to think of it, I don’t know how Tanjiro got his scar…

If you squint really hard, you can see CGI Urokodaki and Tanjiro…

He probably has no footsteps because of his shoes. Or the fact he’s a ninja. Were there ninja in the Taisho era…? Update: Tanjiro has the same kind of shoes…oops.

Come to think of it, Daisuke from DN Angel had to dodge traps every day before he became Dark…(thinking of this because I reread the first volume of DN Angel recently)

Oh! Manga panel preview! That’s quite fun, really.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 3

I just really like how Tanjiro’s eyes grew larger with what was clearly resolution before he closed the door.

Why do the non-descript hunters look like Giyu too…?

I’ve never seen KnY so comedic…and that’s coming from someone who thought the Head Demon fight from last episode was funny.

Welp, this is…kinda interesting (<- says a fan of Touken Ranbu).

This letter writing…it reminds me of Kekkai Sensen somewhat.

This realistic water…it’s beautiful, but it looks like it came straight out of Niagara Falls. Is that…too realistic for anime?

“No matter…”

It’s a fox version of Speed of Sound Sonic! Then again, the real Sonic is around this season and probably won’t be happy about that comparison…

Is “that guy”…Giyu? Or the demon who slaughtered Tanjiro’s family?

Spider lilies! I didn’t mention it last time, but the symbolism of the spider lily makes the ED real cool.

Bungou Stray Dogs 26

I’v read the wiki page for Chuuya enough to know the next few eps involve the LN Fifteen, so even though I haven’t read a translation of the source material, I know some of the ins and outs of it already.

Ooh! Kitty! (If you’re a manga reader, you’ll know the cat’s significance.)

I think at this point in time, all viewers are used to Dazai’s bulls*** by now.

Is it just me…or did Bones use CGI for the city? It actually looks kind of good…! Sasuga Bones!

I have a fic that predates Fifteen and could be set in the same period (the fic’s vague enough that it could’ve been them at 15, 18 or even 12)…and basically the only thing I got wrong was the fact Chuuya doesn’t have his hat (because I wrote Chuuya as having his hat in the fic). Also, the banter is tenser than I imagined it, but that’s subjective and something only I, the fic writer, can compare.

I wonder who the yellow-tinted Ability holder is…? Update: That’s Randou. Spoke too soon.

There was a box in the subs…I wonder what symbol that might’ve been.

“…closest to the explosion.”

BSD 3 2

Oh, so that’s what Randou was for! I see now.

Chuuya may be OP, but he’s one heck of a fun character…also, he’s not as OP as Saitama, so…yeah.

Oh, the ED from last time is the OP. I should’ve known.

I like the almost storybook-style of this episode!

I thought Dazai was faking releasing the hostages…I was wrong.

Face-stealing aliens return! (They were around last ep too, I think, but they were harder to see then.)

Again, watch for the cat!

Well, with only one suspect (or 3, if you count the Sheep kids), it was quite easy to figure out one of them was behind it. I kind of suspected Randou, anyway, considering what I’ve learnt from all the mysteries I’ve read.

Because I was watching this episode with the volume down low (so I could hear the OP and ED), the volume really did work wonders for the plot this ep…!

King of Prism – Shiny 7 Stars 1

This is the final debut of the season, so basically how this and Shield Hero perform will decide what will stay and what will go. Oh, yeah…apparently this is the companion to a movie, but the movie and TV series have slightly different content.

This dude’s (the one at the very start’s) so grumpy.

…welp, I didn’t expect it to be that much CGI.

This chunk of exposition…makes me feel like I missed something. It was probably in the previous movies, come to think of it…

Basically, this is…uh, Makura no Danshi or Room Mate all over again??? I’m noping out of here…! Bye!

Shield Hero 14

I’m putting this on the chopping block…just so you know.

…uh, age gap romance? It’s hard to tell at this stage, but they (Filo and Melty) sure act like it is romance.

Welp, this survived the chopping block. “Raphtalia backstory” is a good enough reason to stick around for, isn’t it?

Double Decker! EX 3 (FINAL)

I always miss the OP when I’m not watching Double Decker, but I miss the ED even more…

I can’t believe they tried to get away with a Spirited Away parody…!

I can’t believe I get to see Dr Apple all buttered up like this…

I love how Kirill is censoring himself. (At least he can prove he’s not a girl, unlike Valery/Milla, whose entire shtick is the confusion between genders.)

Oh! I think I know the answer to the case already! It was Kirill’s soap, so Doug is the “killer”. But then…why is it Derick, of all people???

LOL, the angles were so reminiscent of Detective Conan…

Underwear-stealing sextuplets…? Why does that kind of sound like Osomatsu-san…?

Ahh…I really am going to miss this ED. See you next time!

Shield Hero 15

I never thought Raphtalia would be so angry…that’s Naofumi’s job.

Okay…it’s the age-old question: do demis listen with their animal ears or their human ears? Do they even have human ears??? (That’s 2 questions, isn’t it…?)

Uh…CGI dinosaur, much?

Shield Hero 16

…and of course, the Queen is a loli. Of course (<-sarcastic).

“Why’d I even have to feed this KFC farm?” – LOL, but I wonder what it sounded like in Japanese…? (i.e. I didn’t listen to it and when I try to do that, there’s always something over the top of it…)

Sarazanmai 2

I wonder if I’ll ever get used to watching Ikuhara on a weekly basis…?

Kappamaki…geddit?

Wait…y’mean, Keppi’s breath smells like cucumbers? Uh…okay, TMI.

Enta’s Japanese house kind of looks like the one in Mawaru Penguindrum.

Wait…why does the Japanese word for “Fish Buffet” (Osakanazanmai) end in –zanmai? Does that mean Sarazanmai is…Dish Buffet?! (LOL)

Notably, one of the signs said “Union” in katakana. It must be an English play on words…y’know, trade union and union = connecting with each other? I’m surprisingly enjoying myself a lot with Sarazanmai, by the way. I didn’t think I would, but I am!

I think that might be Irohassu water. Or Dasani. I saw both those brands in Japan, but I don’t remember which had the green flowers.

Oh…my goodness! Nekoyama (Cat Mountain) Mokichi (written with kanji for “hair” and “luck”). It’s a Boueibu monster! Frick, I’m laughing too hard!

It’s very small and very thin, but the word next to the cat in the eyecatch is neko.

“…Meow God!” – It’s a pun on “Oh, My God!” but with a “meow” in it. It’s pretty forced, but it does get the nuance of the joke across…

Why the heck did the subbers choose “herb” as the word for weed in this? “Weed” is sufficient, right? Right…?

Well…if that spurt of water wasn’t symbolic…I don’t know what is.

The title translates better as “…but I want to steal”. Y’know, add a little force into it.

The two As and the “sara” below it seem to make a zombie face, huh?

Ooh, that ending…

#simulcast commentary #one punch man #sarazanmai #tate no yuusha no nariagari #Chesarka watches Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari #the rising of the shield hero #RobiHachi #double decker #bungou stray dogs #King of prism - shiny seven stars #Kimetsu no Yaiba #shoumetsu toshi #afterlost #Double Decker! Doug and Kirill #Demon Slayer #Chesarka watches KnY #Chesarka watches OPM #chesarka watches bsd #Chesarka watches Sarazanmai

[avoutput]

Ulysses || Waterworld

Somewhere in 1996, a young boy and possibly his cohorts are sitting on a dirty couch or splayed across a carpeted den floor ridden with crumbs or something like it. In the VCR is a rented copy of an infamous film of one kind or another from the local discount video rental which ran a special every Thursday, 10 videos for 10 dollars. If a new film was considered especially bad, it skipped the “New Releases” and made its way right to the genre section. Children are especially gullible. Or inexperienced. Or stupid. But they do know a bargain and have more than enough time to waste. The stack probably consisted of a few new and repeat rentals: Thunder in Paradise, Surf Ninjas, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Twelve Monkeys, Billy Madison, Clueless, Bad Boys. Basically, anything our parents wouldn’t want us to buy. (My parents notoriously lacked the ability to understand the ratings system of both film and later games.) And yet, there was one special gem that stands out as being universally un-cult, un-loved, and yet known round the globe: Waterworld. Fast-forward twenty-three years and those same ugly kids are sitting on nicer couches and carpetless floors about to make the same mistake all over again. A recently rebuilt, full length, uncut copy dubbed “Ulysses” was released. A 3-hour cut made up of unreleased material and television edit made for a surprisingly nostalgic afternoon. It was like wasting time as a kid all over again.

First, a couple of thoughts on the new version that was released to give you an idea of the overall changes.The “Ulysses” cut of Waterworld seems to be some kind of fan created cut, including all of the cut material from the theatrical version, some scenes from the television cut, and an altered color palette that made everything more crisp and bright. It differs largely from the VHS version I had seen as a kid, obviously sharper with high definition, but jarring in that it had more than the 3 colors associated with the end of the world. Strangely, the new scenes somehow didn’t seem out of place. It was longer, but I couldn’t tell where the old content ended and the new content began, though there are some scenes edited in that were clearly never finished. You can see an island in the background that shouldn’t be there and there are a couple layers of post-production missing. What I can say for certain is the brighter color palette was not the best decision. While it made the ocean look a deeper shade of blue, it felt less gloomy. This was supposed to be a dystopian world covered in both water and despair. This new cut made it feel a bit more like a children’s adventure film without the fun, wonder, or sense of adventure found in films like The Goonies or Pirates of the Caribbean. It was like slapping some color on Twelve Monkeys and busting it down to a PG-13 rating. Still, it's the best the modern world has to offer.

The most memorable thing about this film for me has always been Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper. If you can’t remember, the characters largely live by their titles and don’t have traditional names. Costner played the lead as “Mariner”, a mutated human with ability to breath underwater. The Mariner’s character arc is inadequate and unfulfilling. It confused me as much today as it did when I was a kid. Let’s take Terminator 2 as an example. Cyberdyne Model T101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has more character growth in both action and attitude than Costner’s drift wooden Mariner. They both have similar interactions with their allies, but the Terminator actually gets along with both kids and mothers, like Kix cereal. In the 80’s and 90’s this was a pretty common character dynamic, stoic-seeming adults learning from kids. You might think Waterworld is going to follow this dynamic, but instead its sets a course on an endless desert ocean, drained of character and depth, and opts instead to make our hero as bland as his surroundings. The Mariner isn’t without his good points though. He does sail spectacularly and has some fun tricks up his sleeve both on and off the boat. But Costner appears to have absolutely no feeling in every delivery. Even when he's mad, it doesn’t feel right. I thought the extended edition would give me a deeper glimpse into his arc or growth, but it’s non-existent. Costner plays a truly mutated character.

Waterworld does have an ocean of visual treasures to offer, to borrow a washed out metaphor. The seafaring is entertaining and well shot. The props all have carved Styrofoam look that remind you of a swashbuckling children’s film, but oddly it doesn’t detract from the dystopian feel the production is meant to have. The floating sets really do feel like functioning habitats, but if you look to long, you get the feeling that the design department went a bit too far in trying to make the barges look like they were made from debris, to the point that it becomes a comical game of “I Spy”. This stage-like quality was especially present in the new “Ulysses” cut, which also has the added benefit of having the film upgraded to 4k (or visually adjacent) which gave definition where it was strategically vague in its initial release. The murky browns, greys, and blurred lines of the 90’s era VHS cinematic apocalypse have given way to the fine lines and details of technological advancement. Like human age, its both a service of time and largely for the better, but it has its downsides. Stunts that were hard to make out are crystal clear and even more impressive, although in its clarity, it looks like a professional stunt show from Disneyland or Universal Studios, which makes perfect sense. I think I read that Waterworld was one of the most popular attractions at Universal Studios despite the movie not being a hit.

Finally, the overall nature of the world our characters reside in is epic in physical size, the whole world (presumably) is covered by water, but quaint in execution. This level of focus becomes a strength. The actors get to take a stand in front of this expansive stage and put on their best pirate act. If you can imagine, spending lots of time on the water could be stressful, and you get the feeling that the actors felt taxed by working in this manner. There is an underlying tension to every scene, even the more lighthearted ones. The production was plagued with bad weather, lost time, rebuilds, and a lengthy edit that caused the director to quit. But from this hellscape, there is a salvageable adventure story that rides at the precipice of an ever crashing wave, teetering between campy fun and a bizarre wipe-out. There is even a faint religious reasoning to the actions taken by the villains that didn’t make much of the theatrical cut. The people of the barges breed a life for each one lost, but the raiders believe in a sort of manifest destiny, take everything they can see and living much more freely than their environment can withstand, evident by the large number of children living on their ship in terrible conditions. But even the films darkest moments play for bold laughs and bravado.

This was, in my mind, the story of a person, basically a god amongst the people of his world, who wanted nothing but to take. He could breathe underwater and dive so deep that he could get soil, the currency of the world on top of the water, pay for whatever he wanted, and leave them with nothing. Its true, he couldn’t help everyone, but he chose to help no one. Until of course he owed a debt. A debt he tries to renege on a few times throughout the film. There was something there to explore, but they only ever scratch the surface of the Mariner. Instead, we go a long way to see a man make a single grand gesture that absolves him of all of his sins. Ultimately, Waterworld is an excuse to make a sci-fi/fantasy action movie on the water, floating on an inflated ego and a bloated budget in the middle of a monsoon, and yet somehow, it stays afloat until the credits.

~* 6/10 *~

#Film #Review #Waterworld #Kevin Costner #Dennis Hopper #Tina Majorino #Jeanne Tripplehorn #Fantasy #Scifi #Cult #Cult Film #90s Film #Universal Studios #Jack Black

[dcarevu]

DCAU #17: The Cat and the Claw (Part 2)

“Oh, I've been going to the Paris Grand Prix for years... You know, one of these days I think I'll enter it.”

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. So how much did Part 2 of our first Catwoman story satisfy? Does it get a bowl of cream, or a spritz of water?

Episode: 16 Robin: No Writers: Sean Catherine Derek (story), Laren Bright (story), Jules Dennis (teleplay), Richard Mueller (teleplay) Director: Dick Sebast Animator: Akom Airdate: September 12, 1992 Grade: C

The first part of The Cat and the Claw had me interested, but certainly not blown away. It was a hit-and-miss episode with enough good ideas in it to allow me to enjoy it and wonder where the story was going to lead. I liked that it did give out a sense of substance, but honestly, I don’t think that the substance held steady between the credits of part 1 and the first scene of part 2. Part 2 does continue the story, but sucks out a lot of what made part 1 worth watching, and if I had never even watched part 2, I would not have been missing a damn thing aside from the realization that Catwoman ends up okay and the day is saved. But I think it was safe to assume that anyway, you know what I mean? Part 2 left very little impact on me, positive or negative, and for that reason I’m labeling it a C. Ironically, this is probably the episode with the highest stakes so far, right? With a conclusion that has a pretty epic scale. But it’s just not handled in an epic way. The concept is there, but the execution is lacking. Even if a studio like TMS or Spectrum were the ones to take care of the visuals, it still would have given the same feelings. The team knew what they were doing, giving it to Akom. Yeah, Akom’s work here is pretty bad, and Part 1 is more visually appealing in addition to being simply more entertaining. Even though it didn’t look the best, I could appreciate Sunrise’s unique style. When Sunrise failed, it still made for something that you don’t see everyday. Akom’s work was just plain old underwhelming. This is especially noticeable during the climax with their work on the fire (yeah, fire count, by the way). 

That fire looks like something from a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, guys. I’d expect to see similar on Scooby Doo. You don’t get a sense of the danger or the heat coming off that thing, and so you don’t get a sense of worry as Batman tries to get the hell out of there. Another very Akom scene is the car chase that happens when Bruce and Selena are together, out of costume. It looked laughably lame. That scene could have been so exciting and dynamic! But, at the same time, like I said, I understand why Atom was chosen. Even if the animation got me a little bit more invested, it still would have felt empty because of a lack of why I should be invested. It’s like watching a Transformers movie. Just brainless action. And why waste money on sending this episode to a better studio when a much better episode could be? The only real Akom-caused highlight was the train stuff. That looked pretty cool, likely because even though the train was moving, it still provided a static, stable platform for our characters, so it required less technical stuff to animate. All of the other cool stuff to look at was definitely in the storyboards. I liked the bit where the Bat Plane flew across the moon, kinda emulating that iconic moment in the 1989 film. And my favorite visual moment was when Selena’s secretary put on her glasses, and we see it via a POV shot. But then once things are crystal clear, a second later she walks into the shot, seamlessly transitioning it from POV to third person. 

More things like that could have probably almost created a B-level of enjoyment, admittedly. This part is also campier than part 1, with a lot more cheesiness thrown in, and that is to the episode’s detriment. The idea of Red Claw’s group of terrorists stealing a vial of disease from a military-guarded train is a really cool one, and I’ll take that over another standard police chase any day (until those chases start getting more god damn interesting). But something about watching them ride their little vehicle, leap on top of the train like ninjas, walking around on the train effortlessly, and dismantling it was pretty hard to take seriously. 

(This thug was in the last episode too, and he’s got this constant, static grimace. Makes me chuckle.)

Seeing Batman glide in with the bat-glider for the first time was neat, but then again, we get flown into a corn field. This is some of the cheesiest dialogue/line delivery on the show so far, even dwarfing the stuff from I’ve Got Batman In My Basement. No easy task! It’s like the writers here were aware of the serious tone, and trying, but still could only make a guy dressed like a bat so rational. I especially cringed at Batman’s shock that Red Claw was a woman. Having Catwoman be an admirable, strong character is doing feminism in a cartoon right. But this episode was too on-the-nose about it. Another instance is when Catwoman and Batman are tied up. Catwoman says something about their savior being a “woman’s touch”, and then she claws them out. Outside of the show trying to push a feminist message, why, in universe, would she say that exactly? Batman was not being sexist toward her. Red Claw certainly wasn’t. Red Claw is a woman for crying out loud! And how are her claws particularly feminine, anyway? Are they supposed to represent those stereotypical secretary nails? C’moooooon. Lame, lame, lame. I’m a feminist, and I’m all about cartoons showing that women are every bit as capable as men are. But if this is how they do it, then just don’t even try. And to add insult to injury, after we get Catwoman saving both of them, we end with her getting the shit beaten out of by Red Claw in a fight, merely because she does absolutely nothing to defend herself. Catwoman is an athletic cat-burglar who, in the previous episode, managed to give Batman a challenge. And now she’s just letting Red Claw kick her over and over in a way she easily should’ve seen coming. What a…confusing approach. 

While the superhero stuff was seriously below par, it’s slightly made up for because of how it explores Bruce and Selena’s relationship a little bit more. I liked seeing them on another attempted date, and so did Char! They’re really charming together, and it was incredibly satisfying to see Selena begin to enjoy his company. But as things start to go right for him, things also start to somehow go more wrong, and he discovers that Selena is Catwoman. To me, it’s believable that he wouldn’t have made that assumption right away. First of all, what are the odds. Second of all, a much different environment, mindset, and appearance. Plus, it’s not as though he was seeing Catwoman every single night, right? Most of his interactions of her was as normal human beings dressed in normal human clothes. Bruce mentions that he hasn’t felt a fondness of a woman like this in a very long time (Mask of the Phantasm entered my head for a second), and it feels so genuine. Somehow over these 16 episode and pilot, with a pretty small amount of spoken words for a main character, we’ve gotten to know Bruce…or…Batman…quite well. We can tell when he’s being phony, we can tell when he’s being sincere. This was sincere. And because his Bruce persona is such an exaggeration of his decency, spotting cracks in that just makes you feel something, man, especially when it shows us that hint of affection. This can be compared to Bruce Wayne talking to Harvey Dent about how proud he was that Harvey was seeking psychological help (Two-Face Part 1). These moments show us that Batman still has this warmth to him. It may be like a candle in the wind, fighting to stay alive, but every now and then there is a spritz of gasoline. For a second, Bruce Wayne and Batman are one. But y’know what? This is all well and good, however it makes me wish that the Red Claw stuff was absent. In part 1, it was different. I wanted to know where it was going. But without decent payoff, there is no reason for the terrorist story element at all. This would have been so much stronger if it were a half hour dedicated to building up the relationship of two troubled adults, fighting for what they believe in, succumbing to a certain level of darkness, all while not being able to find common ground. Paul Dini could have done it. Alan Burnett could have done it. Y’know what, Tom Ruegger probably could have done it. But no. We got writers who felt the need to add in that unnecessary, goofy superhero stuff that was not meant to be the focus of Batman the Animated Series when it didn’t need to be. But if there is one major strength of the superhero stuff, it’s the very ending. Because despite what Batman and Catwoman just went through together, saving countless people, Batman still needed to put her in handcuffs (and not in the way he probably wishes he could). 

(Blurry screenshot, apologies...by the way, are bat-handcuffs really necessary, Batman?)

That was paaaaaainful, but the right kind of painful (again, not in the way Batman probably wishes it was). Having Batman state that he didn't want her taken away like a common criminal was a great addition, and I really want to know which writer came up with that line. Whoever did got what makes Batman and Catwoman so interesting. If only they could have gotten a crack at this episode on their own. As some final words, despite me giving this episode a C, I went back and forth between a C or a D many times. I’m still not entirely sure which is my true grade. It depended on what I was writing about. When I was complaining, I was sure that I should make it a D. But as I was talking about some of the more positive elements, I thought maybe a C was more appropriate. Bottom line, I’m not sure. I think a C is the most fair, though, because aside from just being a middle of the road grade, it could also represent me being completely confused on my opinion. Is that understandable?

(Here we clearly see that the section of the train that was bombed is still very much intact)

(Batman was very much on model throughout the episode, particularly in the face)

Fire count: 8 Char’s grade: B

Next time: See No Evil Full episode list here!

#batman tas #dcau #dc animated universe #batman the animated series #the cat and the claw #the cat and the claw part 2 #part 2 #catwoman #red claw #batman

[gaycollegehoe-blog]

Anime in 2018 saw serious money however no surprise hits

What do a 24-year-old kid detective, a gaggle of seriously relaxed  campers and human blood cells have in common? 2018, that’s what.

 “Anime could be a medium, not a genre” could be a common refrain, and in an exceedingly field as numerous as Japan’s animation trade, it are often laborious to nail down trends that apply across the board.

 But here’s one: The trade, as a whole, is creating some serious cash. the parents at the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), simply free their yearly trade analysis, that showed the whole anime market topping ¥2 trillion for the primary time last year. it's been growing systematically since 2009.

 According to reports from AJA, less of that overall financial gain is from ancient sales channels like home video, whereas additional is from a comparatively new phenomenon: live events. nearly each weekend, concerts, special screenings and stage appearances ar drawing crowds of fans to Akihabara et al.. the foremost unforgettable event I attended this year was dedicated to the boy band-centric series “King of Prism,” and concerned many fans observance a movie they'd apparently already seen dozens of times, screaming lines at the screen and waving glow sticks to the song and dance numbers in unison. Afterward, 3 of the film’s voice actors appeared on stage, speaking in character, because the fans howled in ecstasy. laborious for home video to prime that.

 On the massive screen, 2018 was a reminder that, in an exceedingly traditional year — that's, one with none surprise hits like 2016’s “Your Name.” — established, family-friendly franchises build way more cash than upstart originals. Films within the long-running “Detective Conan,” “Doraemon” and “Pokemon” franchises all did well — in reality, this year’s “Conan” film, the twenty second within the series, became the second-highest-grossing film in Japan. (“Conan” conjointly created headlines this year for agitating the mock ire of U.S. chat show host Conan O’Brien.)

 The only nonfranchise anime film that even created it into the box workplace prime twenty was Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai” — even then, it brought in but half his 2015 hit “The Boy and also the Beast.” in the meantime, 3 films marketed because the next potential “Your Name.” — “Penguin road,” “Maquia: once the secure Flower Blooms” and “I need to Eat Your Pancreas” — did not crack the highest fifty, despite the latter being supported successful book and live-action film. Audiences, it seems, will solely abdomen most duct gland.

 Here’s the obligatory note that box workplace success doesn't essentially equal quality filmmaking (and vice versa). i assumed “Mirai” was a way additional attention-grabbing film than “The Boy and also the Beast,” which “Penguin Highway” and “Maquia” were promising debuts for his or her individual first-time administrators. however their failure to usher in the massive yen could be a reminder that hits are often elusive beasts. Speaking of elusive, “Your Name.” director Makoto Shinkai had been keeping quiet regarding his next project however a surprise announcement Th discovered details of his much-anticipated future feature. “Weathering With You” is about for unharness on July nineteen, 2019.

 Meanwhile, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki assured fans this year that 77-year-old Hayao Miyazaki’s latest is well into production, however most likely won’t be complete for an additional “three or four years.”

 Over on the tiny screen, anime series continuing to be created in record numbers: 186, by my count. If that seems like AN unwieldy quantity for one anime author to do to hide, well, it's (send help!). additional to the purpose, it’s AN unwieldy quantity for the trade itself to produce: As has been the trend in recent years, there weren’t enough animators to travel around, and in 2018 studios round-faced delays, quality problems and outright cancellations. AN animator on much-maligned series “My Sister, My Writer,” in apparent protest against the show’s unreasonable production schedule, listed his or her name within the credits as “in serious hassle.” in an exceedingly separate incident in Nov, director Mitsuo Fukuda took to Twitter to report a production assistant at his studio had worked fifty nine hours in four days, which such effortful hours weren’t notably out of the normal. The anime market could also be transportation in record amounts of cash, however things ar still robust for those on the bottom.

 But 2018 wasn’t all unhealthy news on the TV front. deliciously animated shows like “Violet Evergarden” and “Hanebado!” reaffirmed however nice Japanese animators are often once given adequate time and budget. Tokusatsu superhero-themed “SSSS.Gridman” and sci-fi boxing drama “Megalobox” were charming tributes to beloved shows from the past. “Cells at Work!” delineate cells within the anatomy as, well, humans, operating laborious to deliver gas and rebuff viruses. The show even earned  praise from real-life doctors for its accuracy and academic worth.

 Meanwhile, wish-fulfillment isekai (parallel universe) shows, whose bungler protagonists ar transported into fantasy worlds within which they're enclosed by buxom ladies, cussedly continuing to exist.

 If there’s a through line to be found in 2018’s anime lineup, it'd be, to quote the Talking Heads: “The women need to be with the ladies.” In “Uma Musume Pretty bowler hat,” athletics horse women cheer one another on with no a horse boy visible . In flaky comedy “Asobi Asobase,” 3 middle schoolers avoid male classmates in the least prices. In “Laid-Back Camp,” “Encouragement of Climb” and “A Place additional than the Universe,” teams of young ladies get along and go habitation, rising and travel all the thanks to Antarctica, severally. is that this the anime industry’s defy #MeToo, or a mirrored image of Japan’s semipermanent trend of young men and girls having very little interest in every other? (Or is it potential that with 186 titles, you'll be able to pluck out enough examples to suit any narrative you care to spin?)

 As if there weren’t enough shows on TV, 2018 was the year once Netflix began rolling out its own original material. a number of those series, like Masaaki Yuasa’s “Devilman Crybaby,” garnered some serious crucial praise and over a couple of fans. The firm looks to be pleased with the results therefore far: it's simply proclaimed another block of series, as well as one supported the “Pacific Rim” films — that were part galvanized by anime within the initial place. The streaming large conjointly recently discovered plans for a live-action remake of 1998 sci-fi western anime “Cowboy Bebop,” whereas elsewhere Adult Swim ANd Crunchyroll simply proclaimed an anime series supported “Blade Runner” — with “Bebop” creator Shinichiro Watanabe acting as artistic producer.

 Japanese and Western creators still dip their toes into every other’s properties (this year’s “Batman Ninja” for example), however don’t ignore China, which, says AJA, is answerable for AN ever-increasing quantity of overseas anime consumption. Co-productions ar flowing therein direction, too — contemplate 2018’s art film “Flavors of Youth,” created by CoMix Wave Films, (of “Your Name.” fame) and China’s Haoliners Animation (two of the film’s 3 administrators were from China).

 Apropos of overseas consumption, AJA says sales outside Japan currently account for pretty much 0.5 the whole anime market. There’s very little doubt we’ll still see additional anime created with a non-Japanese audience in mind — although studios ought to most likely detain mind that for several fans, anime’s Japaneseness is that the whole purpose.