#i like walking through it but screenshot wise eh

[carpenterisland5]

where the animals cross 

#i havent decided if i like this or not #i like walking through it but screenshot wise eh #animal crossing #ac exterior

[skyhopedango]

anime I’ve been watching recently

Oh hey, I’m alive. Sorta? Between work being overwhelming and my schedule being kind of out of whack my energy to do anything in my off time, other than staring at the screen, has been at an all-time low... so low I can’t even throw words on the screen to make some posts.

But hey, I’ve still been staring at the screen, and I do have some opinions that I really need to get out of my system. So, this is the stuff I’ve been watching in the past months:

Listeners: No screenshot for this one because I don’t have any lying around anymore, but anyway, yeah, this was fun? Sure, the ending was stupid and didn’t make any sense, but then again, I wasn’t watching this show for the story, or with any expectations of it being “great” or “worthy” or whatever. It was a fun way of turning off my brain for half an hour every week, and I really enjoyed the music references which were much better-informed/researched and executed than in most anime or manga (where they usually just throw the reference in your face and be like “get it? huh? getit??? aren’t we smart?? you should feel smart, too!”). So what if it ended with “Uh, we actually never planned this far, let’s just do every mech anime ending ever”, the journey was worth it.

Nami yo kiitekure: No screenshot for this one either. Nami yo kiitekure was... meh? It started out well, with Minare being a fun and relatable lead, but then it kind of... stalled. And to be honest I got really annoyed with all the shouting. I don’t mind shouty comedy at all (some of my favorite anime comedies are like that) but here the pacing didn’t really work. And I never got the appeal of the live radio segments either (even though I do actually listen to a lot of radio!), perhaps because the seiyuu was just hamming it up instead of delivering a convincing performance, which I kind of expected to be the point. Anyway, I dropped this halfway through. Nothing technically wrong with it, but it’s not my cup of tea.

The Great Pretender: I actually wrote about this previously, and I haven’t seen any new episodes since then. Are they already out? :O What’s going on with this show’s release schedule?

Appare-Ranman: Oh, this is back! And I... don’t really like it as much as I did the first 3 episodes? I dunno, in the recent episodes it kind of lost its swagger and instead settled comfortably into that “Show That Could Have Been On Adult Swim In When American Anime Fans In Their 30s Were Watching That” routine that has been so prevalent in the recent Netflix-backed shows that I seriously believe it’s on purpose, to emulate popular shows in the US and appeal to viewer nostalgia. And this means that to me the show has become kind of... boring, really. Like, again, there’s nothing actually wrong with it, it’s by far the best of PA Works’ attempts at trying new things, and I am still watching it and derive enjoyment from it. But I don’t find it particularly interesting, it’s just going through the motions without adding anything exciting, visually, story-wise or character-wise. Like come on, it’s The Year of Our Lord 2020, do something new or interesting! Like for example...

Deca-Dence: Oh yes. See, when the first episode came out and people were raving and doing the “anime is saved!” thing, I was like “...huh? but this was like every damn fantasy adventure anime ever.” I mean it looked nice, sounded nice, but it was soooo derivative and boring. And then the second episode rolled around and I was like “OK, now you’ve got my attention! :D” and my attention has stayed with the show ever since. See, here’s the difference between this and say, Appare-Ranman: it’s not that Deca-Dence is doing anything revolutionary either, but it’s at least doing something instead of just following a template. Its ambitions don’t stop with having cool visuals and cute character designs. 

And another plus for Deca-Dence vs Appare-Ranman: the female characters in Deca-Dence don’t have that stupid PAW “cute anime girl” permablush. God that’s so annoying.

Gibiate: And on topic of shows trying for a retro appeal... yeah. There’s this one. You know those snobbish anime fans who always bemoan the decline of anime, and talk about how back in their time anime as such was better? Yeah, you can tell those people have had a very curated experience of anime “back in the days”, because back in the days, in our case in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, “anime as such” was actually more like this one. Really, Gibiate feels like it’s a zombie of some early ‘90s action show resurrected for some weird experiment, and now it just kind of shambles along aimlessly, not knowing what it’s doing in the present or how it should handle the changes of time. It’s kind of embarrassing, really... well, it was for the three episodes I watched. I dropped it out of secondhand embarrassment, more than anything.

GITS:SAC 2045: Oh yes, there’s this one as well. As I predicted, it was crap. It kind of feels like the creators were contracted to do a new series, but they had no actual ideas for a GITS:SAC sequel, nor any inspiration, and also nothing particular they wanted to say with the new show. Hell, apparently they didn’t rewatch GITS:SAC to refresh their memories of the show they were ostensibly trying to create a sequel for. OK, Imma rant about this a bit (copy-pasting something I wrote elsewhere).

1. The visuals are shit. Look, I'm not biased against CG, a lot of shows I enjoy have CG, a lot of them have bad CG. I tend not to care a lot about animation quality be it amazing or crap, as long as I enjoy the rest of the show. But this show looks like shit. The characters are rubber dolls floating in virtual space, physical character interaction is distracting, and all the action is hilaribad. Character animation is fucked up so often, like, they tried to give the Major a sexy hip sway but the result has her walking like she has a stick shoved up her butt. Hell, often they couldn’t even animate lip flaps properly, which doesn’t make the soulless masks the characters have for faces any more expressive. Also, character design-wise, the Major sticks out like a sore thumb, looking like a Sexy Dollfie among all the semi-realistic character designs. It’s kinda offensive, really. 2. Again, I could have lived with the visuals, if the rest of the show was any good. But it's not. With the exception of that one episode with the bank robbery, that was good and felt like real GITS:SAC, this is like someone's subpar fanfic, which is sad considering the writers behind the show. Characterization is weird and fucked up and doesn’t follow SAC. The worldbuilding went from the rather well thought out backdrop of SAC to a mess of ~edgy~ concepts mixed without any particular depth given to them. "Sustainable war!!! Thinkpol!!! 1984!!!!!" 3. The concept of post-humans is such a huge missed opportunity. Paired with the whole "ThinkPol" thing (as eyeroll-inducing as that is) there was a pretty good chance there to explore the dehumanizing aspect of the internet, and tie it into the "anon vigilante crowds" thing the story seems to be trying to get going. But nope, they just went with the stupidest routes. Also, the whole idea of "post-humans" doesn't flow organically from the worldbuilding of SAC, it just feels like something they came up with because they had to do something new. It also kinda feels like someone watched Darker Than Black one too many times.

So yeah, so, so disappointing. I’ll be watching S2 when it comes along because eh, more GITS, but I’m not gonna pretend this is anything but a subpar attempt to cash in on the franchise.

#appare ranman #deca-dence #listeners #gibiate #gits 2045 #the great pretender #appare-ranman #Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex #nami yo kiitekure

[ericsonclan]

Meat-tivity

Summary: Marlon and Mitch get a brilliant idea.

Word Count: 1387

Read on A03:

Clementine walked into the breakroom to find Marlon and Mitch tittering and chuckling as they both crouched over Marlon’s phone at the table. Raising an eyebrow, Clementine made her way over to them, trying to get a look at what was on the phone from behind.

Marlon was the first to notice her. “Oh, hey Clem. Just got in?”

“Yep. What are you guys giggling about?”

Mitch snorted. “We were laughing at this whack ass list of Christmas nativities Marlon found. People do the weirdest things for Christmas,”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Clementine leaned forward to see the photos. There certainly were a lot of them. Some of the nativities were kitschy like a clay owl nativity or a balloon animal one while others were geeky like a Star Wars nativity featuring only R2Ds and another comprised of all the Justice league superheroes.

“Bet Aasim has the R2D2 one at his place,” Mitch commented with a smirk.

Marlon chuckled. “Wonder what Ruby will think when she sees that,”

Clementine smiled at the pair’s banter as they continued to scroll through the nativity pictures. The nativities didn’t seem that crazy to her, but she was glad that these two were having a good time with them.

“Now that one’s cute,” Marlon commented as they scrolled past a picture of an all dog nativity.

“Eh, this one is more my speed,” Mitch pointed to a nativity featuring various kinds of alcohol as the figures. Suddenly Mitch stopped scrolling through the list on Marlon’s phone. “Holy shit, this is the best one of all!” He held it up so both Marlon and Clementine could see it clearly. The photo showed a casserole dish on top of which was all the standard pieces of the nativity: barn, shepherds, baby Jesus, but every piece was composed entirely of meat. “It’s a meat-tivity!” Mitch exclaimed with glee.

“Dude, that’s awesome!” Marlon chuckled before taking a screenshot of the nativity. “Gotta show that to Sophie later. It’ll crack her up,”

“You don’t think…” Mitch began, slowly eyeing Marlon then looking up at Clementine.

Clementine raised an eyebrow. “Think what?”

“Should we maybe… make a meat-tivity of our own?” Mitch’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.

“Hell yeah!” Marlon raised his hand in the air for a high five which Mitch immediately returned. “Let’s do it!”

“You guys have fun with that. I’ve got work to do,” Clementine declared as she walked out of the break room. Both guys were still discussing the meat-tivity as she left. It was good to see them getting into the Christmas spirit, that is, if a project like this counted.

“Alright guys, the moment has arrived!” Mitch announced as everyone gathered round the table in the break room. Louis had allowed the morning meeting to be interrupted when Mitch and Marlon declared they had something special to show the whole crew. Marlon stood behind Mitch, proudly holding a tinfoil casserole dish covered by a dishcloth. Placing it in the center of the table, he began a drumroll. “I present to you the MEAT-TIVITY!!” Mitch bellowed “1…2…3!”

The dishcloth was pulled back to reveal the most bizarre nativity any of them had ever seen. The base of the casserole dish was a meatloaf, forming the foundation upon which the nativity would be built. Slabs of meatloaf had also been cut out of the corners to be used as building blocks for the stable in which the nativity took place. The stable ceiling however was made of bacon, draped over a tinfoil skeleton and baked to crispness.

All the figures from the shepherds to the wise men to Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus were made from miniature sausages. Their clothes appeared to be a mix of bologna and more bacon while their arms were made from toothpicks. Peppercorns formed the eyes of all the cast and the three wise men all had teeny tinfoil crowns. Some of the animals had been made out of sausages as well, though these ones seemed to be stuck together on burnt pretzel bits.

“Well, what does everyone think?” Mitch asked with a cheeky grin.

“What’s that?” Violet pointed to a vague brown blob resting against the side of the stable.

“That’s a camel,” Marlon replied. “It’s made out of hamburger,”

“It looks like manure,”

“It sort of… melted after we baked it,”

Ruby looked truly pissed. Her arms were crossed and her eyes narrowed as she stared down both boys. “Well I for one find the whole thing offensive. It’s sacrilegious!”

“More like sacri-licious,” Mitch quipped, popping one of the wise men in his mouth.

Louis stepped forward to deescalate the situation. “Well you two, as much as we love your enthusiasm and creative spirit, we can’t have you keep your, um, ‘meat-tivity’ here at work. It could be seen as funny, but it also could understandably offend people,”

Marlon’s eyes were sad as he looked down at his meat-tivity then back at Ruby. “Sorry, Ruby. We didn’t mean anything by it. It was just a joke,”

Ruby’s eyes softened. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it, Sug, but it just don’t sit right with me to see baby Jesus wrapped in bacon and lying on a meatball manger,”

“It is a bit much,” Brody agreed quietly.

“I think it’s awesome!” Willy declared, smiling over at his big brother who’d let him stay for the big reveal.

“Yeah!” AJ agreed, high-fiving Willy. “It’s the best nativity ever!”

“Clearly opinions are split. That’s why it has to go. Sorry, guys,” Louis said with a shrug.

“Well what are we supposed to do with this?” Mitch asked with an exasperated huff. “I don’t want this thing stinking up my fridge at home!”

“You could throw it out…?” Louis suggested.

“But we put so much work into it!” Marlon protested. ‘It’d be a shame to just throw it all away!”

“You could eat it,” Clementine suggested. “It is made out of meat after all,”

That piqued the guys’ interest. Marlon and Mitch shared a long look before both nodding. Sitting down on opposite sides of the table, they dug in, shoving their hands into the meatloaf and pulling out large chunks.

“Good Lord, use some cutlery!” Ruby protested. “This is a restaurant for goodness’ sake!”

“This is how real men eat!” Mitch shot back, his mouth full of meatloaf. “Anyone who wants to join in, go right ahead!”

They didn’t get very many takers. Most people headed out after Louis gave a few quick announcements. A few lingered to watch the carnage while the adventurous few tried a couple bites themselves. Willy and A.J. were the first volunteers and the most invested in eating some of the mysterious meat-tivity. Clementine watched her little brother in amusement as he dug in with his bare hands and participated in the manly destruction of the meat-tivity. She was glad this had taken place on a Saturday so A.J. could join in the fun. Pulling out her phone, she snuck a few pictures of the meat-tivity being devoured.

Marlon paused and smiled for a photo as he saw it was being taken. His face was covered in bacon grease and bits of meatloaf littered his chin. “Can you send me that photo, Clem? I got some shots of the meat-tivity in its different stages and the finished product. That picture will round out the set,”

“Sure, Marlon,” Clementine glanced over to see Louis hesitantly nibbling on one of the sheep. She captured the moment and grinned as her boyfriend self-consciously blushed at being caught in the act.

“It’s not half bad,” he murmured, biting into the miniature sausage torso.

“If you say so. I think I’ll stick to photography,”

They got about two thirds of the way through the meat-tivity before all the participants were too full to continue and the rest of the creation was inevitably thrown into the trash. As Clementine scrolled through the pictures of the impromptu feast, she felt a happy glow within herself. Had meat-tivity actually kickstarted the Christmas spirit within her? She supposed crazier things had happened. Tucking her phone away, Clementine headed toward the front of the house to start her shift. In the end, the meat-tivity had indeed brought several of them joy; it truly was a Christmas miracle.

#twdg #twdg mitch #twdg marlon #twdg clementine #twdg ruby #twdg louis #twdg aj #twdg willy #marlon mitch brotp #fanfic #ericson's diner au #twdg christmas #ericsonclanchristmaschallenge

[insightfulllama]

Batim Chapter 5: Theories, Observations, and Questions

OKAY. So there’s a lot to unpack with the new chapter and my brain feels a little bit like exploding. I don’t think the ending we got was bad, but I do think there’s a lot to unpack. People smarter than me will probably make better theories, I just really need to get these thoughts out. Questions in bold. Answers I could come up with bolded and italisized. Observations normal font. Be warned: There are spoilers everywhere. 

Firstly, the largest question. What the frick frack snack was that ending?

I don’t believe that the game is a dream or a time loop. The dream is a tired cliche, and the time loop kind of just raises more questions than it answers. I think the ending scene with Joey is either an encounter Henry is remembering, or some sort of dream. Yes, I know I tossed out the dream thing earlier, stick with me.

The last thing we see before Henry appears in Joey’s house is white screen. If we’re going by trope logic, Henry is probably experiencing a vision of some sort, or he passed out. The scene in the house plays like a planned meet up between Joey and Henry, with the last line basically being the last line from the letter we see in the beginning. I don’t see why both the letter and the meeting would exist. I can only see one of them being the thing that prompted Henry to return to the studio. So which is real, the letter or the meeting? I have no idea, but I’m thinking the letter is more likely. If the letter is the only thing that’s real, then that scene could be some sort of dream that Henry’s mind created, basing it on the letter he received and filling in the cracks. Or maybe Joey has some sort of connection to the studio, and is trying to communicate a message to Henry as our protagonist lies unconscious. The dream/memory ends with Henry remembering the beginning. (And probably waking up right after.) Bottom line, the ending scene where Joey speaks to Henry in the house is either Henry remembering an event, Henry having a dream about why Joey would have sent him to the studio with the letter, or a mixture of both. After it is over, Henry will wake up in the studio and be able to return home, having freed the souls trapped there by defeating the ink demon. 

On to the next several questions, which are smaller. Who is writing the hidden messages? 

Anyone can guess. I read another post suggesting that Joey wrote them. Considering the drawings we see and the idea that Joey has some connection to how the studio is now, that theory has some merit. All we know for sure is that whoever it is has some sort of knowledge of the future, based on the message that knew Good!Alice would leave you for dead and the fact that the messages are instructions on what to do. We know that Good!Alice has been reading them, but does not understand their meaning. If you’re a fan of the timeloop idea, you could guess that Henry himself is writing them. The writer could be anyone, but Joey is who I instinctively blame, given his connection to the studio. 

Why did Henry leave the studio?

Thanks to Henry’s podium in the archives and the picture we see framed in the house, we have at least a little information. Henry left the studio for unknown reasons at some point, before the studio shut down. My first thought was that he left because Joey took credit for making Bendy, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. The picture signed by Henry says “Your success”, implying that he already left. But it is signed, “your best pal”, meaning they were probably on good terms. So why did Henry leave if they were on good terms with each other. We can only speculate, seeing as Joey and Henry seemed to be on good terms based on the picture we see framed in the house. (Or maybe Henry is a super sarcastic person who decided to send a back handed message by saying “your best pal” when they clearly weren’t. But then why would Joey have it framed?)

What did Wally do?

In the last recording we hear form Wally, he explains that he found a chocolate cake while cleaning. Based on his language, he probably ate it. Then he says “I hope no one finds out what I did.” This could be referring to the cake, but it seems odd to word it that way. Could the cake be a metaphor for something else? Or maybe there was a cake, but Wally is talking about something else in the same recording. There aren’t many recordings in the last chapter, so the fact that it’s there means it must be important. Based on his recording, Wally must have done something that made him afraid he would get in trouble. We don’t know what it is yet, but it was definitely something. How related it is to a cake is also unknown. 

Where is everyone else?

It doesn’t look good. We know that Tom is the Boris we work with near the end, and we can assume that Good!Alice is Allison. But what about everyone else? We haven’t been able to see many images of the secret messages in other chapter, but we do have some clear screenshots of the coffins (credit to @procrastinatorat), and you know what’s on them? NAMES. 

Things aren’t looking so good for the employees of Joey Drew Studios. There is a very strong implication that they are dead. (Or worse, as in the cases of Susie, Bertie, and Norman.) Side note, we don’t actually know that much about the fates of Tom, Allison, and Wally. The letters in the Joey house sequence suggest a happy ending, but if that scene is a construct of Henry’s own mind, that might be him hoping for a happy ending that didn’t actually happen. Also, the fact that Wally is mentioned continues to point at him being extremely important story wise.

Is the ink demon evil? 

This is a matter of speculation. When the ink demon in early chapters touches you, you die. However, this may not be intentional. We don’t honestly know enough about it’s nature to determine decisively. In the final chapter, the ink demon back hands you across the room after reaching his final form, but doesn’t actively attack you after that. You only die if you stand in his way, at which point he tramples you. When you insert the “the end” tape, you turn and see him reaching for you, but his intentions are unclear. It’s kind of hard to tell what a persons intentions are when they don’t have most of their face. The reaching could be interpreted as an intent to hurt or mere curiosity. The answer remains to be determined. 

What was that whole part where you had the ink demon break some glass pillars full of ink? 

Heck if I know. It was clearly important, but why, I have no idea. Bendy immediately showed up when you switched it on, so it may have been a summoning spell of some sort? Really, I have no idea.  

(EDIT: Forgot this question, whoops.) What is Henry?

Sorry to be from the department of redundancy department, but there’s not really a way to say for sure. We never see Henry, not even so much as a shadow or a hand. The most we can gather about him is that he’s short. But based on interactions, we can guess at a few things. I believe that when Henry entered the studio, he was human. However, we know that the ink changes things. Pretty obvious examples are given in the form of Sammy, both Alices, etc. Henry has died like a billion times by the end, and is constantly walking through ink showers. I’m not sure how, but he has definitely changed him. This is further supported by Good!Alice saying, “We don’t know what you are.” Not who you are, what. Henry may have started out human, but I’m pretty sure he’s not anymore. What exactly he is remains to be seen.  

That’s all for now. Whoo, that took awhile to type. This is disorganized word soup, but I hope it was somewhat helpful in getting brain juices flowing. I have a lot a feelings about the game, and most of them are good. Thank you so much to TheMeatly and all of the amazing people responsible for this game. I’m not going to forget about it in a hurry, I love it to bits, and I know it was an enormous labor of love for all of you. Stay amazing, all of you! Might come back and edit this later, not sure. You all have a good night! 

(One more tiny thing. I have a niggling thought in the back of mind that while the studio and all that happened there is not a dream, it is somehow a construct of Henry’s mind. There was a screenshot I wasn’t able to get with a secret message on Henry’s desk saying “he was born here”. This could mean that the studio, at least the one Henry is in, is all in Henry’s head. As in, the version of Henry we play as was born there. There seems to be a lot of evidence pointing to this. Like, he defeats the ink demon by showing it “the end”. Maybe it’s a metaphor for how he is trying to let go of Bendy, let go of some anger or issue he has been hanging on to, to end it. This could also be the reason that no one can come with him into the machine. He has to let go of this himself. I’m not sure I particularly like this theory, but I can’t get it out of my head. So if someone wants to either prove me wrong or spin it in a way that isn’t as much of a cliche, feel free! It just now occurred to me that “he” could mean Bendy. Eh, I don’t feel like rewriting that whole paragraph. Cheers everyone!)

#bendy and the ink machine #bendy and the ink machine chapter 5 spoilers #batim spoilers #batim chapter 5 #batim chapter 5 spoilers #bendy and the ink machine spoilers #theory #theories #susie campbell #alice angel #tom #batim #henry batim #batim henry #henry stein #joey drew #thoughts #seriously spoilers #the llama tries to be insightful