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brucebocchi · 4 months

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Ranking every new anime I watched in 2023, Pt. 4: #5-1

hey, i just started a ko-fi for my writing and possible other creative outlets. this post will also be available there, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i'm currently between jobs. the tumblr version of part 1 can be found here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

The list is complete! This took a lot of work but I'm over the moon to get this out there. Please consider leaving a tip if you've enjoyed reading.

Here goes, my top five anime of 2023:

5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Zom 100’s debut hit like a freight train, especially coming from a brand new studio. It had everything: Visceral satire of Japanese work culture, incredible animation, vibrant colors in unexpected places, clever cinematography, wish fulfillment for everyone who’s ever wanted to Stone Cold their boss, and most importantly: Zombie titties.

The premise is magnetic: When your job makes you feel like a zombie, an actual zombie apocalypse means certain freedom from the grind. Akira Tendo realizes that he can finally use the vacation time he amassed while being exploited and overworked at a legally dodgy black company, so he writes a bucket list of everything he’s ever wanted to do, with all intention of checking off every single line item before succumbing to a zombie bite. He manages to rescue his hunky fuckboy bestie from college, and they embark on a road trip across Japan to finish out the list, along with a beautiful, risk-averse tsundere and a big-tiddy German weeb.

It's a perfectly fine elevator pitch, and a welcome break from the guns-and-grit quagmire the zombie genre has been stuck in for the past two decades, but what makes any good zombie-flecked media resonate is the human element, which Zom 100 delivers expertly. You’re quickly given reason to care for all the characters, their motivations are clear and relatable, and you want to see them survive and live out their dreams. But more importantly, you just want to hang out with them through their hijinks. It even delves into more serious matters, like what we owe our parents as adults, the ways isolation and bitterness can drive people to act out in their worst moments, and even the factors that push abuse victims to stay with and even return to their abusers.

Above all, though, it’s a powerful (if extreme) story of finding joy in the direst circumstances. Akira, Kencho, and Shizuka are all kindhearted, well-meaning people whose situations kept them from what they truly wanted to do with their lives, and there’s something kinda beautiful to be found in them finding a new opportunity during the possible end of the world (Beatrix is a sweetie too, but aside from the whole zombie thing, she’s already exactly where she wants to be). The final arc of the season, in particular, looks you dead in the eye and asks you: If you were suddenly faced with the ultimate freedom, would you use the opportunity to better yourself, improve the lives of others, or do whatever the fuck you want at everyone else’s expense? You may not like the answer at first if you’re honest with yourself, and that’s okay. The world isn’t over, and there’s still time for you to be your best self.

Zom 100, unfortunately, fell prey to a cruel irony in the form of production issues. Bug Films is a new studio made up of a former team from OLM that was responsible for similarly gorgeous projects such as Komi Can’t Communicate and Summer Time Rendering. They clearly saw so much of themselves in Akira's workplace exploitation that they had to swing for the fences here. The firm he works for is named “ZLM” in this adaptation, for fuck’s sake, and he fully destroys his zombie boss in the first episode. But new studio or old, the anime industry is a grind, and Bug had trouble keeping up; animation quality did take a bit of a dip after the stunning first episode, and episodes were frequently delayed as the summer broadcast season wore on and ended without the entire seasonal run making airwaves. Hell, it was impossible to watch the final three episodes until just a few days before I could write this sentence.

For what Bug were able to pull off, though, Zom 100 is outstanding. The paintball-colored blood splatters everywhere are an instantly-iconic look that strike the balance between horror and spectacle. Everything and everyone looks gorgeously faithful to Kotaro Takata’s art, and delivers an appropriately cinematic look that the manga always deserved. I almost don’t know what else to tell you but that this show is a fucking blast.

There’s also a zombie shark. What more could you want?

4. Oshi no Ko

I spent a good chunk of 2023 just assuming Oshi no Ko was going to be a layup for anime of the year. Shortly after moving on from Kaguya-sama, I rushed to binge Aka Akasaka's subsequent manga in time for the anime's feature-length debut. I was taken in by OnK's bonkers premise and sudden dark turn and quickly fell in love with the characters, and my anticipation only grew. I had high expectations for the screen adaptation, but nothing could have prepared me for just how lovingly it all came together. This is as close to a perfect adaptation as you can find, and the same can be said about both the preceding and following entries on this list.

Oshi no Ko is an audiovisual feast. Doga Kobo cleaned up Mengo Yokoyari’s character designs just a smidge, but put just the right flourishes on them to make every single cast member instantly iconic. One look at Kana Arima’s eyes will tell you everything you need to know about the level of care put into the visual design of this anime. The performances are on point as well; though many of the main cast members are relative newcomers to the world of seiyuu, you can tell they truly came to understand the characters before they even recorded one line. I’ve already gushed about Rie Takahashi in earlier entries, but her turn as Ai Hoshino is easily one of the best voice performances all year. Takahashi makes a meal out of every single second Ai spends on screen and gives you every reason to care about her as a character.

Showbiz manga in general is obviously missing an audio element, and when an adaptation can expand on that aspect well, it can help turn even middling source material into something transcendent (see also: Rock!, Bocchi the). Music is central to Oshi no Ko, and the OP/ED combination is already iconic; YOASOBI’s “Idol” has had the best worldwide chart performance of any Japanese song ever, and the prolonged intro to Queen Bee’s “Mephisto” became a meme in Japan in the same vein as JJBA’s iconic use of “Roundabout.” Rather than taking manga characters’ word for it that someone is a terrible actor, we actually get to cringe along to an amateur actor’s hammy emoting. We get to see and hear what turned a fictional idol group into a national phenomenon rather than just see cute girls posing on the page. All of this is to say that while Oshi no Ko is an excellent manga, it needed a screen adaptation, and especially one of this quality.

Oshi no Ko deserves every shred of its success. I've never seen an anime make a splash this enormous with just its debut episode, even if it’s kind of cheating to say so because the first episode is almost literally a movie, and if I were to give an award for the best single episode of anime this year, it would be that one, hands down. Adapting the entire first volume into a feature-length debut was the correct move (mostly because it’s a tonal rollercoaster, and the Big Event that defines the entire story wouldn’t have happened until the fourth episode otherwise), and the investment paid dividends. The hype naturally died down a bit as the season wore on and settled into a more consistent tone and rhythm, but it remains an essential anime to 2023.

You may have noticed that I have said very little of what this show is actually about, and that’s by design: If you still don’t know the plot of Oshi no Ko’s first episode by now, I refuse to tell you: you need to go in blind. All I will say is that it is an idol anime that glorifies nothing. If you've read this far and still trust what I have to say about anime, I beg you to just take my word for it. It's an incredibly rewarding experience.

3. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

There's just something so wonderful about taking in an adaptation of a work you’re already familiar with and knowing, almost instantaneously, that every single person working on it genuinely loved the source material and relished the opportunity to bring it to life. Nearly every single member of the original cast is in the dub (including the ones who went on to be MCU mainstays), Edgar Wright is back on as executive producer, Anamanaguchi reprise their soundtracking duties from the video game, and even Bryan Lee O’Malley himself helped co-write everything.

That last detail is probably the most important thing about this entire production: It’s not exactly a secret that the original Scott Pilgrim comics are very imperfect portrayals of a very imperfect young man. I knew reading them at the time that the comic did not have a great grasp on relationships and the dynamics between men and women, and that was at a time in my life when I myself was pretty terrible with and to women. O'Malley has said that he would only revisit Scott Pilgrim if it was “the right thing” and that he was leery of a straight retelling of a work he has since outgrown.

So instead, we have the Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim, to put it simply. Takes Off is a completely new story that reexamines the Scott Pilgrim comics, movie, and even game without undermining what came before it. This series is not a repudiation of Scott Pilgrim (the character or the franchise)’s flaws, nor is it purely fanservice; it splits the difference perfectly. It’s both more mature and completely self-indulgent. This show so easily could’ve marched to the familiar discourse drumbeat of “Scott isn’t the hero here” or “he’s actually not a good dude,” but it instead focuses on what should always be the second half of that sentence: “But Ramona still sees something in him.”

Yes, Ramona Flowers is effectively the protagonist of a new work that doesn’t even have her name on it, and it tackles some surprisingly necessary questions: What was her responsibility in creating seven evil exes in the first place? What made them evil? Are they even that evil? This series opens up entire worlds of possibilities within the extended cast and gleefully dives into them. Though Takes Off may not flesh out every single character, it does take its time with several of the ones who really did need a little more meat on their narrative bones, and even gives some characters new roles just because it would be fun to see them in new situations.

I still cannot believe they got Science Saru to make this show. “They made a Scott Pilgrim anime” and “They brought back the movie cast” are already good enough fodder for that Vince McMahon meme, but “It’s produced by the motherfuckers who made Devilman Crybaby” had me falling out of my chair. The animation maintains O'Malley's chunky, cartoony character designs and works wonders with line weights and simulated camera effects to give everything a tactile, weighty feel, like it’s somehow (and very appropriately) splitting the difference between a comic, a film, and even a video game. There’s a wide array of visual effects that helps to place all of Scott Pilgrim’s influences further on its sleeve: Dynamic action scenes, camera depth and chromatic aberration, and our beloved pixel art inserts. It looks like every Scott Pilgrim, everywhere, all at once.

The live action film’s cast did a (mostly) great job reprising their roles for animation, and there are some wildly unexpected cameos in there. Voice acting is not quite the same as stage or film acting, but everyone pulls their weight, and dialogue feels far more naturalistic than your average anime dub. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong and, surprisingly, Chris Evans are outstanding in their respective roles. I’m gonna have to watch this again in Japanese, though. Fairouz Ai as Ramona, Aoi Koga as Knives, and Yuichi Nakamura as Lucas Lee? Sign me the fuck up.

This is not an apology or revision of Scott Pilgrim the character or work, it is a celebration that still acknowledges and improves on the flaws. If you’re a Scott Pilgrim fan who’d been clamoring for a proper cartoon adaptation, Takes Off may not exactly be what you’ve wanted, but it may be what you needed. Chances are pretty good that you’ve grown since the first time since you read, watched, or even played something with Scott Pilgrim’s name on it, and it’s a blessing to say that while the character may not have grown, Scott Pilgrim the franchise finally has.

2. Jujutsu Kaisen, season 2

I’m so glad I picked up JJK this year, if only because I would’ve otherwise been caught in a mudslide of memes I didn’t understand.

Season 2 follows in lockstep with the manga from where season 1 left off, beginning in extended flashback with the Hidden Inventory/Premature Death arc, covering Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto’s high school life and the events that would eventually create the rift between them that came to shape Jujutsu Kaisen’s story. We see very different versions of Gojo and Geto here, much younger and more naive, but only marginally less powerful as they’re sent on an escort mission with the future of the jujutsu world in the balance. Because this is Jujutsu Kaisen, and because Jujutsu Kaisen is for masochists, nothing happens as planned.

We unfortunately do not get the precious slice-of-life hijinks the OP suggests, but if you watched season 1, you should know better by now than to trust an OP. While the initial arc does have its quieter and goofier moments (and some delicious homoerotic subtext), it wastes little time in declaring that this is a new version of the Jujutsu Kaisen anime: Lines are thinner, character models are looser, and action is buckwild. Two of the best fakeouts in the series happen in the span of five minutes. Those unfamiliar with the source material may have wondered for a bit why there needed to be a five-episode prequel arc to start the season, but the pieces would soon fall into place.

And then came Shibuya.

The Shibuya Incident arc was what made Jujutsu Kaisen a must-read in every new issue of Shonen Jump. It reset the status quo for the story and shaped it into something far beyond another “teenagers with special powers go to a school for teenagers with special powers” battle shonen. Needless to say, the hype for its anime adaptation was astronomical.

The Shibuya arc sets the stakes early: Nobody is safe and there may be no happy ending. Triumph is short-lived, and every threat is existential. Everyone who has been in the series up to this point plays a role, and you’re not going to like a lot of what’s needed of them. This arc punches you in the gut, repeatedly, and in between each blow is some of the most intense and innovative action you’ve ever seen. It will hurt, and you will beg for more.

I liked this arc a good amount in the manga, but by the end I was ready for it to be over. I didn’t get the hype around Toji, thought the deaths were cheap, and was so. FUCKING. sick of Mahito. Seeing it in fluid motion onscreen, though, everything just clicked for me and I couldn’t get enough. I fully get now why the girlies have been wetting themselves over Toji; the character modelers were HORNY horny this season. I see now how even the most unceremonious deaths fit into the narrative, or at least one will make perfect sense to me once Gege Akutami and I have a little chat :). And holy hell do I understand now that Mahito is one of the best shonen villains in the history of the medium, that sick bastard. Season 2 was my Rosetta stone for Jujutsu Kaisen; I see it all now. My sixth eye has been opened. Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the literate one.

JJK’s second season has a markedly different feel from the first from a presentation standpoint, and I feel it’s for the better. Every aspect of the presentation is on point, and I want to call attention to the audio element: The production music, with a heavy focus on jazz piano, is wonderfully unique for the genre, and the voice acting remains top notch. These are banner performances from the likes of Yuichi Nakamura, Kenjiro Tsuda, Takahiro Sakurai, Asami Seto, and Nobunaga Shimazaki, but the performance that defines the Shibuya arc (and by extension the entire season) is Junya Enoki as Yuji Itadori.

Enoki’s been great this year in lead roles in goofy works like KamiKatsu and Girlfriend Girlfriend (not to mention minor roles in Skip and Loafer and the vending machine isekai), so it’s no surprise that he continues to crush it as JJK’s protagonist; Yuji Itadori is a goofy dude. But the Shibuya arc, for as much ground and as many characters as it covers, is ultimately Yuji’s story as he is forced, time and again, to endure the cycle of the “suffering builds character” meme. His peers and mentors in the first season told him repeatedly that the life of a jujutsu sorcerer is a short and unhappy one, and he now has to shoulder that burden for everyone. Enoki nails every single part of a wide spectrum of emotions Yuji is forced to endure over the course of the Shibuya arc, be it determination, naive confusion, or just pure unbridled trauma. If this isn’t the best voice performance of the year, it’s top five at worst.

Like every major battle shonen release in the age of social media, this season has had its detractors. Reviewers at Anime News Network kinda hated the story, but that’s something you take up with Gege Akutami (and get in line behind the manga readers). I've seen people complain about the animation. Which, like. If you don’t like the new visual style, sure, fine, that’s up to personal taste. But if you think this season isn’t well-animated, you just plain don’t know ball. It may not have a cohesive look, but that was the draw for me: Season 1 was good, but at times I felt like it looked a little too rigid, a little too shiny, a little too samey. Season 2, especially the Shibuya arc, looks like everything. Sometimes it looks like an action film, sometimes it looks like Mob Psycho 100, and at points it looks, most crucially, like Akutami’s most iconic panels brought to life, stroke for stroke.

The varying styles weren’t an accident: Nearly each episode had its own director, and those resumes cover top-tier animations like Mob Psycho, Devilman Crybaby, Kill la Kill, Heavenly Delusion, Oshi no Ko, FLCL, even Akira and goddamn Golden Boy. While the episodes don’t look entirely consistent from one to the next, the variance is less jarring and more “holy fuck, what am I going to see next?”. The looser style of animation is what Jujutsu Kaisen always needed; Akutami’s art is very loose and dynamic, and his action panels are borderline inscrutable at times. Season 2 nails the feel of JJK to a degree that its adaptation always needed and lets its directors, storyboarders, and animators run wild. At times, characters will look like they leapt right off the page; others, they will look like something you have never seen before in your life.

It is unfortunately impossible to talk about this season without also bringing up MAPPA’s working conditions, and how animators were frequently overworked against nigh-impossible deadlines. It was an open secret last year as Chainsaw Man aired that MAPPA’s animation schedule was a meat grinder, but that came bubbling to the surface quickly as JJK’s second season aired. Word got out midseason that MAPPA had its animators sign NDAs about their work conditions, but complaints still broke containment and several staffers took to social media to apologize for their work looking incomplete, and some even publicly announced that they are leaving the studio. It is stunning that the finished product looks the way it does under such conditions, and I respect the animators for putting in such incredible work, but something has to give. Several major series suffered from major delays this year, some of which I gave significant praise, but MAPPA is lucky that all of JJK came out on time. I wish I knew what could push them to treat their workers with the dignity and respect (and pay) they deserve, but that’s a conversation that covers much wider ground than just anime.

MAPPA has already announced that the series will continue through the next major arc. While there is quite a bit of it that I would love to see on screen, I can only hope that the animators get to rest. For now, though, we can be proud of what they made under duress, even if some will forever wonder what it would look like if the staff were treated like something a notch above cattle.

1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Fucking hell. This is why I watch anime.

I was curious about this one because a couple major anitubers I watch had reviewed the manga and were effusive in their praise. I knew the anime adaptation was on the way, so I decided to hold off on reading and see what the anime would be like, and with Keiichiro Saito (director of Bocchi the Rock! and key animator for Oshi no Ko’s instantly-iconic OP) at the helm, my excitement was piqued. That guy turned a B-minus 4-koma into an innovative hit comedy, so what can he do with a beloved source material and the backing of a legacy studio like Madhouse?

I've had so much to say about Frieren since the premiere, and I still have so much to say now, but to talk about what I love about this show is to talk about everything about this show. When the first four episodes dropped, I described it as “Mushoku Tensei without the baggage,” and I stand by that. There were multiple points throughout Frieren’s first cour where I'd nearly forgotten that I wasn't watching Mushoku Tensei. Every single element is on point: The animation is fluid and expressive, backdrops are consistently gorgeous, voice performances are quickly memorable, and the music is evocative and instantly iconic. This is, plainly, one of the most beautiful pieces of television I have ever seen on nearly every level, be it visually, sonically, or thematically.

The initial four-episode debut was a masterclass in establishing the setting, building emotional investment into the characters, and slowly but deliberately laying out the premise of the season to come. The titular Frieren is an elf mage who, for a very brief decade of her millennium-long life, lent her skills to an adventuring party to slay the Demon King. Though she helped save the world, she was never one for stuff like adulation or socializing, so she breaks away from the group to continue her hobby of collecting various spells and arcana. She regroups with them after 50 years, having kept in contact with none of them, only to find them older and frailer. The party’s leader, the hero Himmel, passes away shortly thereafter, and Frieren breaks down at his funeral, having realized exactly too late how important he was to her and that she’d never really bothered to get to know him as a person.

Some time later, she’s called by the surviving human member of the party, Heiter, under the guise of translating an old text, but soon realizes that he duped her into helping train the young orphan girl he adopted, Fern, as a mage. Upon Heiter’s death, Frieren and Fern head out together, carrying out odd jobs and retracing Frieren’s steps from the journey that changed her more than she realized. They soon learn from the other surviving member of the party, Eisen, that (ooh) heaven is, in fact, a place on earth, and that Frieren may be able to properly pay Himmel his final respects in person. In order to do so, they must make a trip to the north, past the Demon King’s castle. The story of Beyond Journey’s End is, quite literally, a nostalgia trip.

Frieren's story is one of grief and regret, but also how we can use those emotions as a way of moving forward rather than looking backward. Her history is a long one and her memories seemingly everlasting, but she uses them to pave the road ahead of her rather than let them shackle her to the past. This is best exemplified by Fern herself, as well as the other companion they pick up the way in Eisen’s former trainee, Stark. Frieren can carry on the legacies of Heiter and Eisen by helping their young wards grow into the capable young adults they’re meant to be, while Himmel’s legacy lives on in the memories of the towns and villages he helped save along Frieren’s new path, and most importantly, in Frieren herself.

The degree to which Himmel truly mattered to Frieren becomes more apparent to her as the story goes on, and it becomes more evident in her actions. Himmel was a gentle, selfless (if self-aggrandizing) man who was every last bit the hero the modern world believes him to be. With every statue of him she cleans, every flower she plants in his name, every core memory that returns to her, we are watching Frieren become more and more like him in real time. You would expect a thousand-year-old woman to be pretty set in her ways, but we see her holding off on old, bad behaviors because of how Himmel would react to them back then. As Fern and Stark grow into young adults, we see her beginning to treat them the same way Himmel treated her. Frieren doesn’t realize it until later in the season, but it’s apparent to us early on that Himmel well and truly loved her, and I feel that it’s dawning on her that she loved him too and didn’t recognize it. That is tragic in and of itself (this show absolutely is a tearjerker at times and I will cop to getting misty-eyed as I write this), but there is something beautiful, well beyond my grasp, in being able to honor the memory and carry out the legacy of a loved one in how you treat those around you. I don’t think anything could have made Himmel prouder.

Frieren herself is a really goddamn good character too (and expertly voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki, best known for voicing Anya Forger in Spy x Family). Though she is portrayed as quiet and uncaring for the early part of the story, it’s been really delightful to watch her open up, and above all, inadvertently reveal that she’s actually just Really Fucking Weird. For as self-assured and put together as she always seems on the surface, it was great to learn that she’s just an enormous slob (she just like me fr), and any outward expressions of smugness or her offbeat sense of humor are always a joy. “Deeply weird person trying to act normal” is always fun, and there’s just something so consistently delightful about seeing someone so typically calm and intelligent get caught in a mimic chest every single time.

I still can’t get over how fucking good this show looks. Beyond Journey’s End features some of the most intricate, loving animation I’ve seen for stuff as simple as someone putting on a jacket. Action scenes are few and far between, but not a single frame is wasted when shit pops off. Not everyone is as detailed as possible at all times, and they don’t need to be, but everyone looks incredible when they need to be. It’s well above my pay grade to accurately say so, but this show could be a lesson in proper animation budgeting. I could go on and on and on, but I’ve written nearly eighteen thousand words about anime, so I’ll wrap it up.

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it. I say with no hyperbole that this is one of the most perfectly realized things I’ve ever seen on television. This is an essential watch for anyone who likes fantasy anime, anime in general, or fantasy in general.

#anime reviews

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freakartack · 4 months

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I love your Orbulon and space bunnies are sea creatures propaganda how do you even come up with that it’s so cool‼️

Thank you!! A fun fact about me is that i am actually insane about invertebrates. So when wario presented me with two made-up invertebrates i went a little insane. I do play it kind of fast and loose with these guys so i'm sure an actual specbio enthusiast would not be impressed but i'd say 40% of my creative decisions are also based in what would be the funniest (such as making sure the polyp looks like a bowling pin)

I have hinted at this via my orbiology poster but i have an entire orbulon corkboard living in my head so here is the bulk of that iceberg

Based on orbulon's aversion to heat, big ol' sunglasses, and milky complexion, i think that he is the interstellar equivalent of a cave olm. Instead of an underground cave i think he lives on a gas giant far from his system's sun, which would be cold, dark, and have a thick atmosphere for him to "swim" through. ("What about the air pressure?" You say. "Hold your horses" I say. "It will all be worth it in the end.") This reason i think it is worth it is because my model for this is uranus, the gas giant whose atmosphere contains notable amounts of, and i cannot stress this enough, methane. Tell me a more warioware planet

I also think that his planet is predominantly blue, not just because of the youranus thing but also because whenever he gets really scared he literally turns blue. Check it out

I think this is NOT the same as blushing, but a fear response similar to cuttlefish changing color to camouflage with their environment via chromatophores in their skin. Unfortunately when orbulon is scared shitless he does a bad job of it and just defaults to his home planet color, but when he actually thinks about it he can change his color and shape to be whatever he wants (such as a pretty woman).

3. On a similar note, orbulon does not have teeth but he can shapeshift his mouth to create the facsimile of teeth. This is a cool party trick but you need to know that the fake teeth are still squishy and it's really gross.

4. Orbulon's eyes are uber-sensitive to light which is why he needs those impenetrable coke-bottle sunglasses. He also doesn't have eyelids, so during his 24-hour naps his eyes are open the whole time. Sweet dreams.

5. This is going to veer out of plain biology and into his society so i'm not going to go too deep into this but basically i think that telepathy is an integral part of intraspecies communication and that their society is very communal as a result. Think like ants with pheromones, not a hivemind in that they lose their individual identities but they're definitely less atomized than humans. They're also wildly intelligent and have canonically developed time travel technology to the point where the average person can just have a time machine built into their car. This gives a little insight into orbulon's mindset here

(I don't think he's very clever by orbulon standards)

This is getting too long and crazy so i'm going to top it off with one more thing. I know orbulon is supposed to have smooth skin but in my heart i wish he had the texture of these bad boys

#If any of this is contradicted by the new game that just came out do NOT tell me i will cry #not art

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iwantescapism13 · 2 years

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Sasha not forgiving Marcy is totally within her character.

For those of you who said she sounded hypocritical in ‘The Beginning of the End’, be honest with yourselves. If you’re in Sasha’s situation, would you really forgive your friend for getting you stranded in another world without your consent?

If your answer is “yes of course, because she’s my best friend”, then you’re missing the point.

Forgiveness is not something someone gives because they are blood-related or they’re someone important to them or it’s something that they deserve. A person forgives because they want to make peace with themselves... to set themselves free... to let go. And most importantly: because they truly want to. It’s not for the sake of others. It’s not an obligation.

I have heard people argue regarding her intense reaction to Lysil’s and Angwin’s predicament in ‘Olm Town Road’ and why, if she could be that passionate about shouting at Parisia to give those two olms (that she just met) a chance, couldn’t she give the same chance for Marcy when they’ve been best friends since forever?

And my thoughts on that is: the circumstance is completely different.

Marcy’s actions most likely hurt so much more than Sasha could ever admit. Actually, she even said it herself.

People were probably too preoccupied with the bitchy, manipulative Sasha to recognize the fact that she had suffered in her own ways too. And unlike Anne, she had no support on her journey. Only enabling her bad traits.

Remember what she’d been through. When she appeared near Toad Tower, Grime imprisoned her for who knows how long. She was able to survive because she was charismatic enough to befriend the guards and it all worked well in her favor. Yes, she was eventually appointed a high position next to Grime... but overall, she suffered most of the time. And she had to, for the sake of trying to find her friends.

She was put in a position where she had to forcefully grow strong and independent. It’s good for her, sure. But did she ever want that? In the first place, no. She’s the head of the cheerleaders, she’s a queen in her school, and she was an influence. And (you all like to say this) she’s a kid. Who would want to be put in a world where you have to act like an adult?

I admire Sasha for being honest about this because forgiveness shouldn’t be something that she should do for the sake of making sure that their friendship dynamic stays intact. She needs to really genuinely forgive Marcy. And with all the things she had been through, the doubt is understandable. You could say... it was Sasha’s “trauma”.

That’s why Anne’s speech was important. Not only did she learn to forgive Hop-Pop (where he inadvertently got her stuck in Amphibia longer than was supposed to by hiding the Calamity Box), but she also learned to acknowledge that she needs to make peace with herself. She can’t keep holding a grudge. It’s not good for her mental health. That’s what she wants Sasha to learn too.

And well, the good thing is, she did. She understood what Anne’s trying to say. However, even if she did agree with Anne, it doesn’t necessarily mean that she has automatically forgiven Marcy... but I know she’ll try her best (as she always do).

That’s... such a great development.

If it wasn’t for the 11-minute restriction, we could’ve had more pauses and more time for Anne and Sasha to talk about this. But even with this kind of restriction, it turned out okay anyway.

#amphibia #amphibia spoilers #sasha waybright #just a thought #that second to last sashanne screenshot tho #it gave off so much romantic vibes #is anne actually flirting with sasha over there #seems super suspicious #sashanne

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tomato-fendo-writes · 2 days

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Fun Fax: OLM Chapter 14

hit a LOT of roadblocks with this chapter for both personal (see last bullet point) and poor planning reasons, like the amount of false starts i had with this chapter was insane hsdjkf. first it was gonna start with a Lee pov, then Jin, then i had to go back to Kaz. i was gonna show the scene with kaz accidentally kicking Jin’s hand, and that snippet is still tucked away in my misc doc. i was gonna have Jin be awake when Kaz came to see him, then sleeping, then no, awake- oh my gosh someone please help me 😭

the thing with animals loving Jin and vice versa was a headcanon i saw floating around somewhere i think, but it makes total sense to me. his mom loved nature so much she could hardly cook from the stress of ecological impact, it makes sense that she would pass that love and adoration down to Jin. trying hard to make Jin a lot more layered and have a lot of softer parts, im having a lot of fun with it!

i was gonna have Jin get sick from being out in the rain at Kazuya’s behest, to follow up with that tiny thread from before, but it felt unneeded and illness from being in the rain is more of a myth anyway, so i changed direction to something a little more up in the air

ngl Kaz wearing his gloves in this scene was purely so i could have him temp check with his cheek, let me live

once i actually got things moving in this chapter, i was grinning like a fool through a lot of it. softening Kazuya with time is an art and while i pray im doing it well enough, it makes my face go red sometimes :'D

the line "... Kazuya just wished that he had something to chuck at the man's head that didn't require ripping a sconce out of the wall," originally went "... that didn't require prying his own shoe off," and its was SO funny to me, but as a japanese man especially, i felt that he would definitely not be wearing shoes indoors shdjffd. tragic, but the image of his ripping a light fixture from the wall to throw at lee is also very funny

most importantly in this round of FF, around the time of writing this chapter, my old karate sensei passed away. he was someone i cared for a lot, and his teachings and the effect he had on me personally are probably something i will never truly quantify. as you know from other fun fax, i draw quite a lot from my own experiences in karate, and how i remember him teaching me and my fellow students. fair to say, his passing has had quite an effect on this project and my writing in general, and i stared at what felt like a blank slate for ages before powering through the mess this chapter felt to be. i will miss him dearly, and half of this fic (and my life) would not be anywhere near as easy without his help - thank you sensei, for far more than i can say 🙏

#tomato talks #fun fax #one last miracle

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bowlofmeat · 1 year

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“I’ve been in that thing’s head,” or: how does Marcy view the Core?

In the last episode of Amphibia the Core decides to ram the moon into Amphibia and kill everyone on the planet because it is such a sore loser.

Ramming the moon into Amphibia is sort of an extreme action to me, so I do wonder what would lead it to do that. How lucky is it that Marcy says it for me, then: "Fear. I've been in that thing's head. I know that more than anything, it's afraid of being destroyed. Of being irrelevant. It will do whatever it takes to defeat us and claim the stones as its own. If that means destroying an entire civilization, then so be it."

You don't know how much this line means to me. Marcy of all people saying that the Core is scared, just, wow. But why? Why her? She's been in its mind but how does she know? The Core would never admit this, the Core would never tell her that, so how does she know that it is scared? (And why does her voice go flat? Why does she look so tired when she says that?)

Well, there's this word that Marcy uses. "Irrelevant." "Irrelevant" is an interesting word considering it applies to both Marcy and the Core: "I am scared of being irrelevant."

And, I gotta say, getting your friend to steal a music box for her birthday present and riding on the pipe dream that it might send you to a place where you'll never have to grow apart is. Sort of an extreme action to me? You'd have to be really desperate to do that.

Marcy: "I'm sorry. I was so scared about moving away. The thought of losing you was just so big. I was afraid that if we weren't together, we wouldn't be friends anymore."

Do you understand? The Core has Marcy's actions and thoughts blasted up to eleven, pushed to extremes. "I am scared of being irrelevant. I am desperate. I will do whatever it takes to keep us together, even if it means sending us to another world."

Because if Anne defeats Andrias the pushover and Sasha defeats Darcy the control freak then does Marcy defeat the Core? Does Marcy understand? She's been in its mindscape, she's been in its fantasyland. She's rejected its fantasy adventure, she knows she's not it, but does she look at the Core and does she understand, viscerally, what she's looking at?

Marcy: "You know I bet I can fit in your pocket."

There's something to be said about Marcy going "boundaries, Marcy" and then immediately climbing into Andrias' pocket. Ignoring boundaries like that, like the Core does all the time.

(Edit: Okay I just rewatched "the Beginning of the End" and in the flashback in the beginning Marcy spoils the movie they are watching. And Sasha goes: "Whoa! Spoiler alert!" Then Marcy apologizes, and, notice this, opens her mouth to spoil the other twisty twist right after apologizing.

Again, "boundaries, Marcy," she thinks. The thought is fresh on her mind she literally said it out loud - and then she gets the bright idea to climb into Andrias' pocket. No hesitation, no delay.

The Core is a thousand times worse in its actions, make no mistake about that, but on a base level they are the same! And Marcy would recognize that!)

There's something to be said about Darcy going for the mind pain thing when Andrias is being pissy about his long-dead friend, forcing him to follow its orders.

Marcy: "But forcing them to follow my dreams is wrong. I learned that the hard way."

There's something to be said about Marcy using her own selfish wish as Anne's birthday present and Andrias going "Yes ... it's ... everything I've ever wanted," because Mars & Dars both have a tendency to not consider what other people want in favor of what they want.

There's something to be said about immortality and lasting forever.

Marcy: "What an amazing adventure. Makes you wish it could last forever, huh?"

Actually, let's go on a tangent. In s3e22 (episode 13a) Mother Olm says this: "These conquerors, with their arrogance and greed, created an unnatural thing that does not sleep and will not die."

Mother Olm really is hyping the Core up as the spookiest and scariest villain of all time, and for me as an individual I know that's not true. I don't view villains as scary, I don't tend to buy the hype.

Crucially, I don't think Marcy buys into the hype either. Does she hate it for what it has done to her? To everyone? Sure! Why not. But I don't think Marcy finds the Core scary, she doesn't buy into its hype, because 'scary' is a word used for things you don't know and she's literally been in its mind. (And also did slap away Aldrich's hand and reject the Core's sick fantasy that was so cool btw.)

Anyway, tangent over, back to "the Hardest Thing".

Something interesting happens right after Andrias betrays the Core, and the interesting thing in question is that the Core-as-Aldrich says this: "Fools! You cannot stop ... a god!"

Considering the Core canonically feels emotions, I'd imagine that it feels quite upset, because in the previous scene Andrias betrayed it and it failed the invasion so epically. (Rest in piss buddy.)

So if we take it saying the above in the context of the Core being upset, there is a certain interpretation I can and will make.

That is, do you think it wants to be a god?

Do you think it wants to be "an unnatural thing that does not sleep and will not die"?

Do you think it wants to be a machine computer? Do you think it wants to be anything but a bunch of losers in a trenchcoat that don't know everything, that aren't gods but pitiful mortals like the rest of us, that get scared and frustrated and make mistakes?

Because I am sure it would love to be an emotionless machine and god-emperor. I am sure it would love to be a thing, a machine computer that doesn't feel fear or uncertainty, only here to conquer and control and restore Amphibia to its former glory. I am sure it would love to be a god, far above mortal things, soaring the skies instead. But the Core isn't a god. The Core isn't even a computer. It is very, painfully mortal, and capable of being destroyed.

I am sure it would love Mother Olm hyping it up as a villain like that, cuz it makes it big and it makes it relevant. I am sure it would love to be an object, a great and terrifying thing instead of a person (people?), because why be made of flesh and blood when you could rather be a machine computer?

Now, this analysis is about what Marcy thinks of the Core, so let's bring it back to Marcy, shall we?

Marcy is an escapist.

Canon gives very little information about her home life which is honestly such a shame, but I can't imagine that it was the greatest, considering she did what she did.

Marcy: "I started this whole mess because I wanted to escape that reality. But I won't run away from it anymore!"

In Amphibia Marcy is the chief ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard, because why be the clumsy klutzy Marcy of Earth, the place where your pain comes from, when you could rather be a super cool ranger/artificer?

Because if Anne defeats Andrias the pushover and Sasha defeats Darcy the control freak then does Marcy defeat the Core the escapist?

...

I guess the Core would be sort of unnerved by Marcy because she can cut through its hype and see it for what it is: A bunch of old amphibians long past their expiration dates, still trying to bring back the nonexistent greatness of a millennia ago. It's honestly sort of pathetic, that they can't freakin' let go. That's what you get for being the antithesis of change, I guess.

#ugh satob my magnum opus ...#amphibia #marcy wu #darcy amphibia #analysis tag #Mars&Dars tag #can we talk more about how Marcy was lying to Anne and Sasha about using the music box to go home? that was so messed up actually!#on a meta-textual level of course you'd want to hype up your villain lol #it/its Darcy my beloved #I am absolutely obsessed with the Core Amphibia if you haven't already noticed #'heartbreaking! if the worst person you know was raised in the same way as you that person would look a lot like *you*.'#<- which is something I intend to explore in my Darcy fanfic look forward to it :3 #flesh post

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shihalyfie · 1 year

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Am I the only one who thinks Digimon is in a better place now than Pokémon?

I do understand the sentiment considering the subjectivity of "better", but in terms of franchise longevity and chances of not dying, Digimon is in a far worse place in almost every way imaginable:

We still aren't sure if the anime will make it past Ghost Game or if we're going to get another franchise hiatus

In fact the entire franchise is barely surviving by the skin of its teeth mostly due to the card game, which is in a market that's infamously difficult to penetrate past the "big three" (of which Pokémon is one and has comfortably been in that spot for years)

Bandai's handling of its many simultaneous franchise branches is sloppy and things that should have been timed together are not (the flip side of Pokémon's often-criticized franchise stagnation is that because its quality control is incredibly strict, it rarely if ever falls out of sync to this degree)

Toei has near exclusive rights to Digimon anime production, but they have to juggle it with more profitable IPs like One Piece, and getting a station to agree to air Digimon on it is infamously difficult, especially overseas (OLM has also apparently been struggling with production as well, but their overall influence on the IP is much lower, and they can still justify making full-length theatrical movies for kids when Digimon absolutely cannot right now)

For that matter Digimon localization quality (game translation, official subtitles, and overall handling of localization "consistency" like terminology or Digimon names between works) is infamously awful, both in terms of the lack of releases and the actual translation quality usually ranging from messy to downright unreadable (Pokémon got this one right from day one)

This of course extends to kids' anime dubbing still being very difficult to pull off if at all, we only barely know a reboot dub is happening but we've heard little information about it or what network it's even airing on, and it's hard to predict because Digimon has turned such poor financial figures that most networks outside Japan refuse to entertain it

Digimon's game design quality and QoL is arguably not that much better than Pokémon's, and depending on the person it may be much worse, it's just that we expect more from Pokémon because it's better-funded and more famous (and this goes for other things like Bandai's sloppy localization and quality control; we take for granted that TPCi should get this right, but with Bandai we're used to it being an incomprehensible mess anyway, even when they outsource to studios bigger than Game Freak)

Pokémon can afford having actual physical store locations in Japan

The overwhelming majority of hardcore Digimon fans have been fans for over 16 years, meaning the "turnover rate" for gaining new fans is dangerously low and the franchise risks losing its fanbase if more and more adults lose interest

...and so on and so forth. In fact, as far as financial figures go, Digimon has never remotely held a candle to Pokémon for even a second, with the "rivalry" being mostly media engineered for sensationalism (the similar genre of "monster collecting" means they might be somewhat worth comparing in terms of fiction content, but definitely not at all in terms of overall franchise health or whatnot).

Of course, in terms of quality of content, that's subjective and even as a Pokémon fan myself I have concerns about its potential stagnation (if anything, Digimon is at least much better at risk-taking), but while Digimon's definitely at the highest point it's been since it nearly died the first time in 2003, it's still very much getting by on life support and could easily end up going back on hiatus or even dying completely if things don't pan out. Pokémon has a much more comfortable safety net in comparison.

#shiha's ask box #jaredthedecimator #digimon multi series talk

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yousei-no-mori · 1 year

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Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san - Rant

I am currently watching season 2 and I have some thoughts (about both seasons).

First of all why did I start watching this anime? Erm... So I know what the target audience is, it's people who self insert as Naoto and want to date Nagatoro. As for me? Oh, it's the other way around. I think Naoto is cute and I want to bully him. I thought maybe my female friends were similar but the only friend I have who read the manga wants to make out with Nagatoro. Sorry, I forgot lesbians exist.

Uh, anyway yeah Naoto is cute and I want to be Nagatoro. Not sure if girls like me watching this was intended since these anime are usually made for lonely dudes, lol. Anyone else feel like me though?

The scrunkly.

Okay, so, my thoughts on season 1... Lemme check the episodes to bring back my memory a little bit, as I watched that to calm down from the stress that is social work during last Winter.

The first two episodes made me really scared to watch this series, for real. Nagatoro just straight up mentally tortured Naoto, and not in the hot way. I felt really bad for him because I know what it's like to be the shy nerd kid. Anyways at around episode 3, I think, Nagatoro starts showing her softer side more. And she hardcore crushes on Naoto.

The dynamic between Nagatoro and Naoto is really cute in my opinion, even if it is very simple. Nagatoro has her first crush because she finally found a guy that doesn't bore her to death but she doesn't know how to handle it so she bullies the fuck out of him. Naoto is pretty much the opposite? He doesn't really realize how much he likes Nagatoro sometimes and thinks he would rather not be around her. He tries to manage that by fighting her off in which classic anime romcom things happen. You know the "Holy crap you did something on accident, PERVERT!" thing, except it sometimes works really well. Maybe it's just because I think both of them are really cute, but I like when they have their little "Oh god, we both fucked up" moments.

Then there's the more obvious romance aspects and they're by far my favorite. The momens of honesty and the cute glances... Yep, they're adorable. I don't want to give away too much, sorry. Just know it's, in my opinion, the best thing in the series.

I don't care for the side characters by the way, but they can be enertaining when they point out how obviously both of our main characters are trying to "prove" that they don't like each other. They're the audience, the "just kiss already!" guys.

Also funny face cute. I like when she snaps. I like her. The cutesy. Okay no, for real, I love when Naoto and Nagatoro support or protect each other when they really need it. They can be a bitshitty towards each other sometimes but in the end they're actually kinda... healthy? Like Nagatoro is creepy but I love when the girl is a creep instad of the guy, since Naoto is actively watching out not to disturb Nagatoro. And how she will constantly accuse him of being a creep makes sense later when you realize that she's actually much worse than him, lol.

Okay let's get to season 2, since I keep using too many screencaps of that season anyway.

Oh boy, another anime studio took over with season 2 (now OLM, before it was Telecom) and it's very noticeable. The animation is stiff and sometimes just straight up doesn't move right, the art is a lot more bland, in season 1 there were a lot of beautiful warm colors and lineart, and the voice direction is very strange... That and also our main characters seem to regress a bit? Now being overly flustered over small things that they would've been fine with in season 1? I get it, they're supposed to be cute and awkward but it's the classic romcom regression...

I'm in the middle of watching season 2 and sadly the things I loved in season 1 just aren't that apparent anymore. It's still cute and I love Naoto and Nagatoro together, but I can hardly pay attention to that when Naoto is animated like Chargeman Ken.

^ little appreciation for the beautiful lighting in season 1!?

Anyway, Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san will forever be my biggest guilty-pleasure comfort anime and I'm only a little ashamed.

Love ya

#anime #otaku #rant #anime review #ijiranaide nagatoro san #nagatoro #don't toy with me miss nagatoro #naoto hachioji #hayase nagatoro #anime rant #weeb #romcom #comedy anime #romance anime

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mdhwrites · 5 months

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Do you think Amphibia's dedication to its themes was too much in certain aspects? I'll try to explain:

Sasha was the first commander of the resistance, but it was Anne and Sprig who brought the newts and toads to their side, and it was ultimately Anne who made them all work together. Amphibia wants Anne to be, in simple terms, "the most important person" in the show, but it leaves me wondering what exactly were Sasha and Grime doing for most of the resistance's progress to happen after Anne returns.

On the topic of change: Isn't it a bit weird that neither the ending nor Marcy's journal showed the girls potentially dealing with trauma after they return from Amphibia? I understand that they want to portray change as inevitable and a part of life you have to accept, but I can't help but feel they missed on a bit of nuance in the process. It could have been due to lack of time or space tho.

Best wishes!

The latter one of these two I actually find more interesting, even if it's slightly more infuriating too for reasons I'll get into, but let's get the first out of the way.

Mostly that... What? Anne takes a HARD backseat in S3B. It is about Amphibia and its people and while she has a couple episodes where she gets to be the one helping out, a lot of them are about the frogs themselves. Hell, Sasha is doing about as much as Anne is except that Anne can leave to promote the resistance and act as a fighter because Sasha is busy with the full time duty of a commander. There's a reason stories focus on a general's top soldier, not the general himself. That's just storytelling conventions and Anne still doesn't overshadow Sasha much. Hell, the Olms are MUCH more brought in by the Plantars and Sasha than anything Anne does. More Hop Pop above the rest even, not just Sprig.

As for getting them all to work together... Do you not remember that episode? Anne fails for 80% of it before she LOSES IT and makes them all realize that even if they hate each other, they hate Andrias more. Hell, she only leads them because she has mediation experience and again, she fucks it up for the most part. It's still Sasha who technically brought them all to one place. I will admit that Anne gets an episode with Tritonio but I've already talked about how Sasha was the leader for bringing in the Ohms. Sprig helps bring in the toads specifically because he pisses them off so much as to end up in a dual where he needs to expand his own way of thinking and looking at others in order to win.

None of this glorifies any of them. Anne just points out rightfully through empathy that Tritonio does care about his people. Sasha pushes the Olms hard enough to force them to listen to her and give them a chance. Sprig is bigoted but in fixing that, he starts to let go of it. None of this is glorifying anyone, especially with how hard each of them has to fight to get these people to budge enough to even bother working together to save their world, something the show depicts... Because the show DOES acknowledge change is difficult and something people push back again.

Anne spends literally an ENTIRE season breaking her old habits and changing into a more mature person. She spends the first season constantly wanting to default to how things used to be for her, or how she wants them to be for her before learning to appreciate the new world she lives in, both literally and figuratively. Even then, Anne is still Anne. Two seasons later, she still devotes herself to pleasing her best friend during Sprig's birthday because old shackles haven't broken. They've loosened but change takes time.

Amphibia itself reflects this. Quick change DESTROYS IT. Forced change destroys it. The entire world is wrecked by someone trying to make it become something it is not and to bend to his will. Its people though do not simply forget their grudges because of this though because letting those things go, the humiliations, the traumas, etc. inflicted by each other (especially on the frogs) is something they cannot drop. It takes a literal world ending threat to BARELY make them work together. It actually presents a lot of interesting potential for what in fact does happen to the world afterwards.

But if you NEED it to be about trauma... What the fuck did you miss about Sasha's arc? Losing to Anne almost KILLS HER. In fact, she is willing to die because of utterly defeated she is, especially by the fact that in that moment, she has to acknowledge that Anne is a better person than her, not just a fighter. This causes her to lash out so badly that she spends ALL of S2 in denial until she finds a way to possibly put herself on even footing with Anne. When she has to acknowledge the actual pain this caused though, everything that she's held onto that is now ripped away from her, it puts her in a spiral of self doubt until she figures out a new direction to go.

But Sasha is still Sasha, even changed like this because, well... It's almost impossible to entirely change a person or people. She still wants to be leading. She still gets grossed out the nastier parts of Amphibia. All that changed was that now instead of being self serving in her desires, she understands what leadership actually means and the true value of other people. Even then, she still is struggling with accepting all of this which is why she wants an out when it comes to Marcy. To not have to deal with something so hard.

THIS is part of why I am SOOOOO tired of trauma talk in cartoon fandoms. Anything remotely dark happens and people seem to entirely forget what actually is on screen and cry out for therapy. Remember: Amphibia is a fantasy, slice of life, comedy that eventually gets more of an adventure edge in S3B. They still however make comments on bigotry, the long term damage due to that bigotry, trauma and our responses to it, the change that that can sometimes require and the lengths we'll go to to avoid addressing that, etc. etc.

But because we never get an entire season dedicated to Anne sobbing about Marcy, no one actually cares because it's not as blunt as Barrel's Hammer. Everyone seemed to miss that Anne was so overwhelmed by what happened in True Colors that she couldn't even recap it all without frying herself and that was WITHOUT acknowledging her friend's death. That she works herself to the bone until people convince her that destroying herself won't fix those mistakes faster, it'll just make more mistakes. I LOVE how Amphibia deals with actually acknowledging some of this stuff while managing to still recognizably BE AMPHIBIA.

Heck, the fandom explicitly DOESN'T want the deeper discussions the epilogue implies. That all three of them went through so much shit for and BECAUSE of one another that staying friends would be hard. Other people won't remind them of getting stabbed, scarred, betrayed, etc. but the trio WILL. And so they needed time in order to properly cope with it all. They didn't disconnect but they gave each other space until they were ready to properly handle what their relationship could be now.

Or, you know, just because they were forced to work together for the sake of other people they cared about, they should totally be blood sisters for the rest of eternity. Let's not talk about how two of them literally had to let go of the third to let her DIE for the sake of those they cared about. How do you cope with that? Does that torture Marcy because she can't protect Anne after moving? Is she thankful to have an excuse to disconnect because it means she'll care less if Anne ever dies again? And that's just ONE of the BILLION questions you have to ask about what Marcy does when she finally gets a chance to breathe.

The season the fandom wants about trauma is NOT what they would get. Fandom trauma is where you have a character angst, cry, get a hug and a cookie and then everything is okay. It's an excuse to have big emotions that lead to stronger bonds. It still romantices it into something that can only be for the best for a person and not actually that hard to get over. Trauma doesn't work like that. PEOPLE don't work like that.

Just as a personal example, and sorry this goes for so long: In October I had a session with my therapist specifically about getting into trauma inflicted by my brother pretending to be mentally disabled, something I actually am, and betrayal/bigotry shown to me by a TOH Discord group. These scars were over a year old. Over two years for when my brother started his shit. I had technically talked about these issues with other therapists before but now it was to specifically talk about them with the context of me having worsened my Avoidant Personality Disorder.

It destroyed me.

I went from taking random walks and having a potentially positive, excess energy in me STRAIGHT to complete lethargy, non functionality and, of course, though not as blunt because Tumblr doesn't have a spoiler text option I can find, dangerous thoughts that even scared me more than usual on some nights. It took me over a week to function again. To get back to about where I had before. And mind you, this wasn't a session about FIXING these issues. This was just me talking about them to let my current therapist know what was on my mind and what had happened. It made such not progress that I'm actively scared about how many sessions it will take to actually make me progress on these issues.

Meanwhile, I am not some cinnamon roll who needs pets because of these issues. I get REAL upset when people treat me like a ticking time bomb who is about to start sobbing any second now. The main effect it has had on me is that I am TERRIFIED of publishing my own work. I had my experiences invalidated and my personhood made less and so my deepest expressions of those stand on extremely shaky ground where despite knowing I'm a good writer, nothing sounds good enough to my brain and it just causes more anxiety the harder I push. It's a large part of why I haven't written a lot this year and published nothing original that wasn't written LAST YEAR.

Now translate all of that complexity, and all that boredom that comes with it, to a full season of Amphibia about the girls processing the end of their journey and saying goodbye to their families. Even just a couple episodes about it. How entertaining is that? Is that ANYTHING like what you enjoy about Amphibia in the first place? Is that ACTUALLY what you want?

Because you know what? I made a story about depression, anxiety, trauma etc. and while people like the fanfic version, it's not my most popular fanfic and the published, original version of that story has mostly gone entirely overlooked, almost like those topics actually REALLY suck to read about and have explored properly rather than just being an excuse to have your ships hold each other a little tighter. Most people who read the fanfic were there to see Lumity angst that led to them getting together and were then shocked and pleasantly surprised how there were actual therapy techniques they could take with them and the like in it because they were there to see a couple they liked suffer so their bond could grow stronger.

And I want to be clear real quick: I do not begrudge anyone for enjoying Crises Girlfriends like that. I am actually just happy you enjoyed it at all and in a way that was healthy for you (and I've had people talk about needing to put it down because it fucked them up so badly). There are games I am SCARED to play because I fear what my emotional reaction will be to their themes. Celeste is one of those games. I don't like when my media wrecks me like that but that is a part of actually tackling these very serious subjects that ruin people's lives like trauma or depression or the like.

And... I just don't think most people actually want that. Let alone want that from their silly frog cartoon. it's just what people keep telling them to want because 'trauma' is the big buzzword of the day. The thing that makes it not like other kid's cartoons.

I don't want trauma regarded like that though. Nothing so serious should just be a token signifier to others that your story is 'deep', let alone when the story actually does show responses to trauma and how people handle that like Amphibia does.

======+++++======

For funsies, have an old blog that's admittedly about TOH but also applies to fantasy trauma in Amphibia as well because the genre is EXTREMELY awkward about trauma due to its fantastical nature. I think Amphibia does fantasy trauma better but, well... The Plantar's trauma about herons still applies to one of the types I describe.

Also, best wishes to you asker. Sorry for ending up using your ask to unload some frustrations I have about the topic.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#amphibia #amphibia critical

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ecargmura · 4 months

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Delusional Monthly Magazine Episode 1 Review - A Very Weird Premiere

Sometimes, you just want to watch an anime that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Delusional Monthly Magazine is one of those animes. It’s a huge “WTF did I just watch” type of anime and I’m all for it, honestly. I’ve noticed that I do have this odd tendency of reviewing anime that no one else watches. I just hope that this turns out to be something decent and not be a train wreck like The Marginal Service.

To be honest, this anime doesn’t actually explain a lot. What I’ve deduced from this episode alone is that this scientist in green, Goro Sato, is searching for the Delusional Monthly Magazine publisher in hopes that they’d publish his article about the elusive Mo Continent and the remnants of the lost continent, the MOParts left by the residents, the Motarians. Goro is in possession in one of the MOparts and because of this, he is targeted. He drags Delusional Monthly Magazine editor Taro J. Suzuki, his assistant Jiro and his dog Saburo into all of the mess. From the get-go, I can tell that this is a premise about the lost continent of Mu and OOparts. The tale of the Mo Continent is almost like the tales of the Mu Continent. The only difference is that Motarians are most likely furries while Mu people are not. I do think that the Motarians are inside the MOparts, which is why Taro changed into one.

I also noticed that in this show, the characters have their names in Western order. Instead of Taro having his name as “Suzuki Taro J”, it’s “Taro J. Suzuki”. Goro’s name isn’t ordered as Sato Goro, it’s Goro Sato like how it’d be said in a Western country. While their names are Japanese, it kind of shows that Most City isn’t exactly in Japan and that it’s more of a western city as we have characters with Western names like Catherine, the editor-in-chief and Nancy, the receptionist lady at the marriage consultant place. The summary of this show even states that the city is located in an unknown country. Love the self-awareness.

The characters don’t really show much other than a few traits. Taro is a slacker in life and his dream is to be a househusband so that he doesn’t have to work. He has this weird scar on his forehead, but he doesn’t become Harry Potter; instead, he becomes a furry. For being the protagonist, he doesn’t really show much. Other than his weird scar, he has some hypersensitivity towards supernatural beings, as shown with him freaking out over the little spirit that looms over Goro. Jiro is a kid who doesn’t like being treated as a kid. He has mysterious healing powers that he doesn’t show to people. Saburo is a dog and probably the smartest character in the show. Goro looks more like a leprechaun than an actual scientist. Also, I’m surprised he’s 18 years old. He seems to be that one dude who’s gonna be Taro’s total opposite in terms of passion and drive. His main trait, other than being fascinated with the Mo Continent is that he has corns on his toes. Why do we need to know this? Anyways, I do hope that we know more about these characters because a lot was shown but not told. I don’t even know anything about the side characters. I can tell this show doesn’t take itself seriously because of how those villains in shades acted. When Goro was asking if they were after his MOparts, they were wondering about that to themselves.

The animation is decent. For a OLM studio production, it’s average in terms of quality. Compared to how beautiful Pokemon Horizons and The Apothecary Diaries look, this looks a bit underwhelming, but it’s the first episode. I’ll let that slide. The music is actually really annoying. It’s really loud and I can’t hear some of the dialogue at times. All of these trumpets remind me of Gen 3 Pokemon games; instead of a symphony, the trumpets used here feel like a cacophony.

The voice actors are actually pretty good for a show like this. Four of the characters here were in Boeibu! Taro’s voice actor Takahide Ishii was in the spinoff sequel of Boeibu, Happy Kiss as the main character Nanao Wakura. Jiro’s voice actor Kazutomi Yamamoto voiced Yumoto Hakone in Boeibu. The dog Saburo is voiced by Yusuke Shirai who voiced Io Naruko in Boeibu and he’s also Sasaki in Sasaki and Miyano; yes, Sasaki-senpai became a DOG! The last Boeibu actor is the blue-haired guy in the end who is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, who voiced Yumoto’s brother Gora. This feels like a Boeibu reunion and I’m enjoying it. Goro’s voice actor is Shunichi Toki, who voiced another green coded character in Hokusai from Paradox Live—the voice he uses for Goro and Hokusai are so different; I can’t believe they’re the same person.

I honestly have no clue what’s going to happen in this anime, but I think that’s the fun of it. It’s crazy and weird and that interests me. How much weirder will it become? That’s why I’ll be tuning in until the end to see if I regret my life choices later on. If you’re watching this show, what are your thoughts on the premiere?

#delusional monthly magazine #gekkan mousou kagaku #taro j suzuki #Jiro Tanaka #Saburo #Goro Satou #review #anime #anime review #ecargmura #arum journal

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professorlizzard · 6 months

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Week #44

302. Sights Untold: A HUD goggle store. These big, ornate and unwieldly goggles will allow you to see and analyze new experiences at ease! They also make you look as nerdy as the average Baldarf in average baldarf fashion looks like.

303. Skeleton Warriors: A LARP equipment store. The equipment are provided by skeletons, for skeletons, but really, anyone can try out what it feels to be a cliffhanger prone skeleton. They also sell adventure modules too, such as the "What? HOW?" series, that tries to explore the possible origins of the adventure skeletons.

304. Mountain Hillworks: A mountaineering center. There are indeed a few mountains, on the Azure Court, and the novanosed are quite adept at guiding tours on them. Despite them being subterranean, they know how to make a molehill out of a mountain.

305. Cave Skeptics: A scientific society of non scientists. The Cave Bishops might gain powers from all kinds of cave myths, but surely, not all of them are true. The cave skeptics analyze the claims of cave based blessings, and figure out which ones originate from different sources, like bites from radioactive olms.

306. The Underground Lighthouse: A tower that provides light for a cave system below. Under the guidance, Baldarves can show the intrigued hikers what it feels like to live underground. Its all controlled and safe, even if its more lit than actual caves.

307. Museum Of Extra Fine Art, Fine Like Diamond Dust Fine: An art museum. Contains many pieces crafted by the Worms Of Grace, all rather dadaist, or inexplicable like "Bootalism". And yet, each of them reflects your very soul.

308. Zilleon's Short Tours: The house of a private tour guide. As a Zeppeldrake, he will slowly float across the town, and tell tales about the various cultures setting up shop in Embassy Town. Stickmen and Holeworms particularly like these tours, as the slow pace allows them to take in the wonders unheard of on their insular homelands.

#plart #city23 #nthspace

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karigarihakase · 6 months

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Drive Head and Earth Granner were not flops in Japan

Let me start with a small disclaimer. I’m not writing this because I’m a big Tomica fan and I don’t like seeing their anime slandered. I’m also a big Spider Riders fan and have no problem telling you that it was a flop of epic proportions. I’m also not writing this to slander Shinkalion. I think it’s a great show.

This seems to be an ongoing misconception, mainly outside of Japan though I’ve seen some Japanese fans too that assume this (and usually get shot down right away because this is just not true).

I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is Shinkalion, as it’s often the context for this discussion coming up in the first place. Shinkalion was a smash success in Japan. It was the perfect storm. Trains are huge, so a series devoted to them, packed with accurate train facts and detail, was going to be big. The work was targeted at young children, but attracted an audience of older railfans as well. The series had a ton of popular seiyuu, so it attracted older otaku who watch for seiyuu. The series had Google as a sponsor, so it had big money behind it from the getgo. It had collabs with hugely popular properties, including Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla. So yes, it attracted fans of Vocaloid, Evangelion and Godzilla who weren’t going to watch it for any of the other reasons listed above. So yeah, there’s no denying Shinkalion was a big success in Japan. But there’s no denying Frozen was a big success in the west (and Japan, and all over the place.) An argument that Drive Head and Earth Granner weren’t successful because they never reached Shinkalion’s level of popularity is like saying Tangled or Big Hero 6 were flops because they weren’t as big as Frozen. (And to be honest, I’m not in Disney fandom. Maybe there are people that argue that? But if there are, they’re idiots.)

Let’s start by talking about the origin of Drive Head a bit, because it’s rather important for explaining what happened. Drive Head was the first TV anime made to promote the Tomica brand of die-cast cars. It was neither the first Tomica anime, nor their first TV series. But it still was something of an experiment, given the brand has existed since 1970. Drive Head was billed as a co-production between OLM (a.k.a. the Pokemon studio) and XEBEC. But as anyone who takes the time to look through the credits can tell you, OLM had very little actual involvement in it. And XEBEC was on its last days. Drive Head had a dismally low budget, with constant off-model animation and two recap episodes, which is another reason that western anime fans were not impressed. Ignoring the fact that the series was aimed at children in Japan as a vehicle to sell toys, not sakuga fanatics.

And the reason that the creators just didn’t care? Well, besides the fact that it was experimental in ways, and that it was just made to sell toys to pre-schoolers? Because Drive Head was merely designed as a placeholder for Shinkalion while it was in production. Takara Tomy wanted Shinkalion to be big. Drive Head was a throwaway. Even the toys themselves were just retools from the Hyper Series line in the first wave.

But Drive Head was a big surprise to the Takara Tomy execs. Because it was big with its target audience. Now, the target audience of Drive Head is not on social media. They’re not the type pouring out fanart on Pixiv. Probably, they can’t even draw (some of the fan-submitted art on Drive Head News Channel, the live-action variety show it spawned proves this.) They’re pre-schoolers! That being said, Drive Head does have aspects that can appeal to adults (as long as they care about more than sakuga). Yeah, I did write that essay and a million fanfics about the villain/heroine romance straight out of Megamind that probably wasn’t written with the target audience in mind. Drive Head did somehow manage to trend on Twitter whenever new episodes aired. Heck, the series character designer posts fanart on Twitter that often treads NSFW territory and has an audience for it. But, Takara Tomy also doesn’t care about that audience, nor should they. They care about selling toys to kids.

Now, the first wave of Drive Head toys went out of print pretty quickly, when the robots were replaced in-universe by their mid-season upgrades. And the price of Sonic Interceptor, the main character’s first mech spiked up right away. There was still a demand for it. This probably should’ve been the first sign the toyline was doing well. Takara did take notice, and this placeholder show that was originally only planned for 37 episodes (an unusual amount when most kids shows run for 4+ cour) was expanded to have a sequel web series and movie. It has been officially stated from the staff that the series was planned to end at episode 37, and changes did have to be made to expand the plot. It must have been early enough in its run for this to be decided. However, given that the web series was primarily recap episodes (and even the entirely new ones were short episodes) and the movie was about an hour long and didn’t have significantly higher production values than the TV series, they clearly still rushed to get these made. The success of Drive Head was said to be unexpected. Even with the movie, they were still surprised. They had planned for two interactive Drive Gear linked screenings (the Drive Gear being a toy that made certain sounds in response to the show itself). Drive Gears were available for loan at these showings. Not only were these showings sold out so quickly that they set up a few more, but many kids brought their own Drive Gear from home, not needing to borrow one. The movie itself was also shown only in limited theaters, which led to enough complaints that they were forced to expand locations (and it still wasn’t enough). Though the movie wasn’t a box-office topping success and it’s actual revenue remains unknown barring in Korea where it seemed to indeed be a flop, it still proved popular with (once again) its target audience. Two theatres even kept playing it for a couple months after all the rest stopped.

Drive Head has continued to be rebroadcast on satellite networks and various streaming services. It is -still- popular with its target audience. You get posts on Twitter like, ‘my kid loves Drive Head and is asking for the toys, but they’re $200 on Amazon. Help!’ There’s still that much demand for these toys.

Unfortunately for these kids and parents, Drive Head hasn’t seen a single re-issue on the toys since its end, and has barely been acknowledged by Takara Tomy at all. There are a number of reasons for this. One is Shinkalion itself. The show that Drive Head was designed as a placeholder for and that Takara Tomy expected to be successful was so successful that it ended up running for longer than planned as well. It held onto the timeslot on TBS where Drive Head once aired until it was prematurely cancelled itself thanks to TBS wanting that timeslot to promote the ill-fated 2020 Olympics. So while there was talk from reliable sources about a Drive Head season 2 happening, it never got its chance to happen. The next reason is TBS itself. They screwed over all their anime programming, barring late-night fare, and it wasn’t until Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury came out in 2022 that they would even consider daytime anime again. So all of Takara Tomy’s properties jumped ship to TV Tokyo. And Drive Head, unlike Shinkalion, is so intrinsically tied to TBS that the likeness of their headquarters and even some of their staff members are featured in the anime. Though, given that real-Sasagawa no longer works for TBS, and has expressed interest in reprising her role one day, it could be feasible to get her on board if a TV Tokyo sequel ever happened. But for a time, there would definitely be some messy legal hoops involved, and there still could be for all I know. Thirdly, XEBEC. While Drive Head could be given to another studio easily enough (perhaps Studio Mother?), XEBEC is no longer of this world. A sequel under a new studio could lead to a radical staff change which might help or harm it. That and well… time’s passed. The time Shinkalion had the timeslot, Covid screwing with anime production after that… Despite new kids discovering the show through streaming platforms, the original target audience is older now and has moved on. It’s the kind of show that could get a nostalgia sequel 10 years from now but for a direct sequel at this point, that ship has sailed, for better or for worse. Even when Shinkalion got its long-awaited sequel, it was mainly focused on new characters and mecha, with the old cast reduced to cameos. And Takara has been releasing toylines with similar gimmicks and aesthetic, such as the currently-running Jobraver. So for that reason, the coveted re-issue of the Drive Head toys is basically doomed.

But now, Earth Granner. The special anime released to commemorate Tomica’s 50th anniversary. I mentioned above that the Tomica brand was born in 1970, so you do the math. You should see right away why that was an unfortunate year for a big 50th anniversary celebration.

When Earth Granner’s toys first hit the shelves, late April 2020, the biggest of the lockdowns were happening worldwide. While Japan’s lockdowns were not as long lasting or extreme as some countries (barring its extreme embargo on foreign tourism), they did happen, and toy stores were certainly deemed nonessential and were shut down for a brief period. So while yes, you could order the toys online on Amazon or the like, right from the get-go Takara Tomy lost their chance to have kids see the big cool $50 robot toy in the store and beg their parents for one. When it was revealed in a first-quarter sales report that the Earth Granner toys sold less than expected, there was almost gloating from a certain section of Shinkalion fans (-not- the target audience of either show) who were not happy that a new Tomica anime debuted before Shinkalion’s season 2 did. Despite the fact that new Shinkalion toys were still being produced and the brand was still very much alive even without a currently airing anime. This clearly ignoring the global crisis which was quite likely to blame for this new line to not have stellar sales from day one. And note that these low sales were quite temporary. Come December, Earth Granner was -the- hottest toyline for young boys. According to lists of the top Christmas toys, it was outselling both Rider and Sentai. That does not seem like a flop to me.

Earth Granner actually appeared to be a quite ambitious project from Takara. They’d learned from the success Drive Head had and planned all sorts of things for it. This included having tokusatsu-style costumes designed in real life of the two main heroes, who would allegedly appear at events and perform stage shows. But again, this was 2020. There was never one stage show. The costumes were only used for a few special events late into the anime’s run where they had drive-in advance showings of new episodes and Raiga and Kuga would be around to greet the kids though their car windows, assumedly. It’s unknown if there were ever plans to make suits for the remaining three Granners, or exactly what would’ve become of the franchise if it had the chance to be what Takara Tomy clearly wanted from it. But Earth Granner simply ended after its year run without even getting a movie like Drive Head and Shinkalion did, and it’s gimmicky extra-packed Blu-Ray box was canceled, having done poorly on the crowdfunding. Clearly, the show was again not a huge hit with adult fans, perhaps even less-so than Drive Head in Japan which did get a BD release. But the toys were still a top seller that year, despite the circumstances they had to deal with.

Again, Takara Tomy barely acknowledges the franchise anymore, and the toys are out of print. However, it also seems that Takara Tomy is going in a direction of less new anime, given their toys themselves prove to be more successful than the probable cost of the shows that promote them. With Tomica’s current Jobraver line, it’s clearly doing well enough that it’s survived for over a year. Its anime is merely sporadically-released all-CG-animated episodes on Youtube. The other currently airing Takara Tomy works include Go! Go! Vehicle Zoo (2-minute long episodes that air sporadically, and cross-promoting three toylines at once, including Tomica), Bouken Tairiku Ania Kingdom (10-minute episodes, and entirely done in stop-motion), a rebroadcast of Punirines (an all-CG 10-minute-episode anime from last year), Duel Masters (which has been running near-endlessly since 2002), and Beyblade (another long-running franchise which only recently made its return to TV after being relegated to streaming only for a while). Shinkalion may be a special exception due to its massive crossover appeal, but even that has no anime currently, rumors of an upcoming new series aside.

Tldr; Drive Head and Earth Granner did great with their target audience despite being screwed over by outside circumstances. You just don’t hear about them because you don’t chat with too many 4-year-olds in Japan.

#drive head #earth granner #takara tomy #shinkalion #tomica #god this mobile app seems to be destroying my formatting but I’ll have to try and fix that later

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