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#how to fight crunchyroll
uglytintedshades · 3 months
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VIRAL HIT/HTF ANIME ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CRUNCHYROLL- APRIL 2024
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aro-aizawa · 2 years
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i love love love rwby so much but since they took the show off youtube, there is literally no where that you can go to watch it with subtitles easily. it feels incredibly non-inclusive and i HATE it.
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holymusicalmothman · 7 months
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Sweet Nothings -- OPLA!Sanji x Reader
I've only seen the Live Action, so this is new for me. I started reading the manga a few hours ago and the anime is bookmarked on my Crunchyroll. But for now, I'm working with what I've got. So this is exclusively the Live Action. Best friends to Lovers Trope cause I wanted to. I'm not entirely happy with how this turned out so I might redo it at some point.
Also, shoutout to @avidanadvocacy who managed to like and reblog this within, like, five seconds of me posting it. They're probably the only reason I sat down and wrote this lol
Warnings: vague mentions of canon typical violence, reader is very cautious of showing the fact they're rather soft (not sure if that counts as a warning or makes sense, I'm tired lol)
No use of y/n, or those weird descriptor things, reader is gender neutral. Reader is however you imagine them
Word Count: 2.5k
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I spy with my little tired eye Tiny as a firefly A pebble that we picked up last July Down deep inside your pocket We almost forgot it Does it ever miss Wicklow sometimes?
You had known Sanji since you were young. You had both been around twelve at the time Zeff took you in, after you had been abandoned rather unceremoniously at the Baratie. You couldn’t remember much about the pirates who had left you behind, not that it mattered to you. You were thankful, even after all the years since, that Zeff had taken you in. You weren’t a skilled cook, but you were diligent and hard working, so you worked as a head waiter. 
Having grown up around Sanji, you were used to his…antics. He was a flirt to each and every female customer, but whenever you asked, he would wave you off and laugh about it being how he simply ‘gets the customers to keep coming back.’ And you’d roll your eyes and continue on with your business. He had been your best friend for years. When you had initially met, you had simply clicked and that was that. Nothing to it. 
He would make you smile on your worst days and you’d do the same for him. Because that’s what friends do. Right?
The first moment you had doubted that his friendship was just that was the day he lent you his coat. 
You had just stopped in the kitchen to drop off orders and take a quick breather. The lunch rush at the Baratie was merciless on a good day.
The winds had shifted earlier in the day and despite the hustle and bustle of the restaurant, a chill passed through you and you shivered. 
Within moments, a navy blue suit jacket had been deposited around your shoulders.
You turned to see Sanji grinning at you.
“Wouldn’t do for our favorite waiter to catch cold now, would it?” He said before walking deeper into the kitchen. 
You smiled at his retreating form, then slipped your arms into the coat properly and rolled the sleeves so that you’d be able to work.
A bit of time had passed since then, and you stopped to survey the tables around the restaurant, putting your hands into the pockets of Sanji’s jacket.
Your fingers brushed against something and you pulled it out in confusion.
A pebble sat in the palm of your hand. Just as blue as the day you had initially found it two years back.
Zeff had sent you both for supplies and you had spotted it. It was a stunning cerulean blue and you had immediately thought of your best friend. He had told you of the All Blue, and ever since that moment you had associated the color with him. Not every shade of blue, of course, but only the ones that were the most beautiful. One’s that caught the eye and seemed to shimmer.
You had almost forgotten the tiny pebble. But this jacket…Sanji’s favorite. There would be no way he’d be unaware of it being in the pocket. 
You put the stone back. Your mind racing. 
They said the end is coming Everyone's up to something I find myself running home to your sweet nothings Outside, they're push and shoving You're in the kitchen humming All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing
The one thing you didn’t like about the Baratie was the fighting. You knew it was inevitable, especially with pirates. You were old enough now to look past it. It was a fact of life. Sometimes it was genuine fighting, other times customers simply got into little spats that were easier to ignore.
You sighed and wandered into the kitchen. Zeff had stepped out to smooth the wrinkles on whatever argument had broken out. To be entirely honest, the dinner shift had taken it out of you and you were exhausted. 
You plopped down in a chair off to the side with another heavy sigh and shut your eyes.
The clink of dishware being set before you and a chair scraping the ground next to you brought you to open your eyes again. 
A rice dish sat in front of you, a glass of water next to it. Sanji’s eyes watched you carefully.
“What is it?” You knew the Baratie menu inside and out, and this was definitely not on it.
A signature smile graced his face. “Seafood risotto. Nothing terribly fancy, just terribly good.” 
“Does Zeff know about this?” You asked, taking a bite. It was divine. 
Blue eyes twinkled. “What the old man doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Sanji paused, smile fading and voice growing soft. “You seem tired, sweetheart.”
You tried to squash the flutter in your chest. It had been months since you found the pebble in Sanji’s coat, and you had found out that he always carried it. Your heart had run away with that information. And while the blond had called you by the same pet name for years, it felt different now that your affections towards your best friend had shifted. You kept the information to yourself, afraid of change. 
So instead you shrugged, continuing to eat. “I guess I’m a little tired? The dining room has kept me on my toes all day and I didn’t sleep very easy last night.”
Sanji’s brows furrow in concern at that. “Well, make sure you finish eating. And try and get some better sleep tonight. For me, yeah?”
You swallowed. He always looked at you so sweetly. Always treated you so differently than the girls he flirted with for good tips. Now he was giving you that small smile, blond hair in his face as always, but the softness in his eyes was unmistakable.
You nodded, “Of course, Sanji.” 
Your heart was doing somersaults. 
On the way home I wrote a poem You say, "What a mind" This happens all the time
Monkey D Luffy came barrelling into both your lives like a cannonball. One moment life was as it had been for years, the next finds both you and Sanji preparing to leave the Baratie and join the crew of the Going Merry
You weren’t sure why Luffy had insisted you come too. When you had asked him, he had only shrugged with a smile, saying that it had felt like the right thing to do.
So, you made yourself useful where you could. Whether it be helping Sanji, or any of the other Straw Hats. 
Luffy had soon after discovered that you enjoyed writing. 
It was the day before everything went wrong. 
You and Sanji had left the Baratie that afternoon, Zorro was on the road to recovery from his battle against Dracule Mihawk, and everything seemed fine .
A conversation of dreams had even arisen over a meal, and you had shyly mentioned how you enjoyed writing. Not that there was time for it while waiting tables. 
Sanji was surprised and intrigued to find a new side of you. You had never mentioned it to him. It was just a silly little hobby in your eyes and, in the life you led, you had always kept those simple things to yourself. Not even sharing them with your best friend. 
Luffy, however, had been delighted and immediately asked if you would document the voyage.
Granted, his wording had been more along the lines of “write down our adventures”, but same thing.
Later that night, Sanji had found you on the deck, a new journal in your hand. 
“A writer, eh?” He had that soft voice again. 
You nodded, refusing to look at him properly. “I want to be a famous poet someday.” You whispered, inwardly afraid of making such an admission.
The years on the Baratie had led you to shove all the soft spoken emotions deep down, gentleness was not a trait most pirates were fond of. But your new captain was the exact opposite, his kindness earning your trust instantly. You knew without a shadow of a doubt that you had found a new and true friend in Luffy. 
But you’d never replace Sanji.
Your heart seemed to clench and you opened your mouth to apologize for keeping it from him, but when you looked at him, your breath caught and your voice failed you.
The chef was always sweet on you, but he looked at you in that moment as if you had hung the stars. 
“What a mind.” He said quietly, as if he was simply in awe of you. 
Unbeknownst to you, Sanji had been looking at you like that for years. There was a reason he called you sweetheart, why you were always the first to try his new creations, why he treated you so differently than all the other girls. A reason why he was so sweet on you. 
Everyone could see it. Zorro knew. Nami knew. Usopp knew. Luffy knew. The young captain had made sure to bring you both from the Baratie. If it meant he had to separate the two of you, then Luffy would have never had Sanji come aboard as Chef. 
Even Zeff knew. Which was why he had let you both go.
However, you couldn’t see it.
But in that moment, with Sanji looking at you, you were ready to throw it all away. Willing to possibly ruin years of friendship if it just meant you could kiss him once.
'Cause they said the end is coming Everyone's up to something I find myself running home to your sweet nothings Outside, they're push and shoving You're in the kitchen humming All that you ever wanted from me was nothing
Nami’s betrayal had shocked you all to the core. You had only known her for such a short time, but it had still hurt.
Sanji was convinced that her alliance with Arlong wasn’t something she had chosen. Zorro seemed to only see it in black and white, positive that she had made her choice. 
Luffy simply wanted to hear the truth from Nami herself. And only then would he believe it. 
So the Going Merry was currently sailing for the Conomi Islands just to hear that truth. 
It was once again late at night, but sleep would not come. The day’s events play over and over in your mind, keeping you wide awake.
So you headed quietly to the kitchen only to find the light on and an equally awake Sanji sitting quietly with a cup of tea, humming to himself. 
You froze. You had almost kissed him the night before, fear holding you back. 
But he had already seen you. 
“Can’t sleep either, can you, sweetheart?” 
You gave up on resisting, going to sit beside him. 
Without speaking, he poured you a cup of tea, setting it before you.
“Chamomile. Should help.” Was all he said. 
The day had left you both content with each other’s silence as you sat next to each other, shoulders brushing lightly. Sanji eventually went back to humming. 
You couldn’t tell if it was the gentle movement of the ship as it sailed, the tea, or even Sanji himself humming softly next to you, but eventually your eyes shut.
Vaguely, you were aware of being carried and eventually set down gently in your hammock. 
Something brushed your forehead and you thought you heard Sanji’s voice before you drifted fully into sleep. You felt almost certain it was a kiss, but you were too deep in the fog of sleep to deem that true. It had most likely been your imagination.
“Sweet dreams, sweetheart.”
Industry disruptors and soul deconstructors And smooth-talking hucksters out glad-handing each other And the voices that implore, "You should be doing more" To you, I can admit that I'm just too soft for all of it
The fight against Arlong and his pirates had once again changed everything overnight. You wouldn’t lie, it was terrifying. But you had prevailed. The Straw Hats won in the end. Nami and her village were safe.
It had brought so many things to light for you. As soon as you had all reboarded the Going Merry, you dutifully recorded the events of the day, from the villagers of Coco Village to the fight at Arlong Park, you made your way to the kitchen, needing solace from your best friend. 
Your emotions had been bottled the whole day. Yes, fighting was inevitable. You were a pirate, it was simply a fact of life. But you still didn’t like it. 
“Sanji?” You called.
The kitchen was empty to your surprise, so you made your way to the deck, finding him by the tangerine trees.
He had the pebble in his hand as you walked up and your heart began to race. He slipped it back into his pocket as he noticed you and you pretended not to see.
Instead you wrapped your arms around his middle, and Sanji instantly returned your hug, holding you close.
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?” 
“I don’t know. I think…” you trailed off.
Sanji released you from the hug, but still kept you within his arms. “You know you can tell me anything, right?” 
You nodded. “I think…I’m too soft for all this sometimes.” You admitted slowly. “I mean, I can do it, don’t get me wrong. But, Sanji, today was terrifying. And the Grand Line is supposed to be worse.”
That twinkle and smile were back again. “You’re not too soft, sweetheart. You’re perfect. You were strong today, and I know you don’t like fighting. But you’re brave, and you protect those you care about. Being soft doesn’t make you weak.”
“But what if it does?” Your voice dropped to a whisper. “Because–”
You stopped, confessions halting on your lips.
“Because what, sweetheart? Stop hiding yourself, it’s just me.”
“That’s exactly why I’m hiding.”
He frowned in confusion, silently imploring you to continue.
“Because you make me feel soft. I kept my writing to myself because somehow it always ended up being about you. Whether it be the way you look at me or even the fact you kept that pebble.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. Apparently he had genuinely thought you hadn’t noticed.
“We’re supposed to be pirates, Sanji. There’s no softness allowed in this profession.”
He gently pulled you a little closer, warm breath now able to be felt on your face as he spoke, “I think we’ve already proven we’re a different sort of pirate than what’s expected, sweetheart.”
You were drowning in an ocean of greyish blue. The little nickname. That tiny sweet nothing. It wore down any and all of the final doubts and reserves in your mind and the two of you melted into each other. 
He held you tightly, arms around you as both your hands grabbed tightly to his shirt, the both of you lost in a kiss that seemed like forever. 
Eventually it ended, and he rested his forehead gently against yours.
“I’m in love with you, sweetheart.” He said gently. “How’s that for being soft, hmm?”
A small smile formed upon your face. The both of you had been oblivious to the other, yes. But at the same time, all of Sanji’s little sweet nothings over the years–both in words and actions–played quickly through your head. The past week had pulled everything straight to the surface. 
“I love you, too.”
All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothings.
Not entirely happy with this but it's late. Let me know what you think. I'm still new to this fandom, and there's a lot of content that I've yet to learn about. But I'll get there.
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herofics · 9 months
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Gojo's nightmare
I’ve been pretty much obsessing over Jujutsu Kaisen lately (or for the past year, but it really picked up in the past week) and Gojo is one of my favorite characters from JJK and also one of my comfort characters. I just needed to write this. I kinda also wanted to write some fluff (or smut) with GetoxreaderxGojo, but I decided to start with this. Also I totally recommend Jujutsu Kaisen, the second season just started and the first season and the movie are available on Crunchyroll (at least where I live). 
“Satoru! Satoru, wake up!” you shook him, as he was muttering and turning in his sleep.
He was having one of his nightmares again. He was drenched in sweat and tossing and turning next to you. You tried to shake him again, but his infinity wouldn’t let you touch him.
Gojo sat up in a flash, and looked around frantically. His hand was on his neck on his scar and he looked like he was in pain. When his eyes landed on you, he seemed to calm down considerably.
“It’s okay Satoru, I was just trying to wake you up, everything is okay” you said gently.
You knew what the nightmare was about. He’d told you about it the first time you asked about his scars. He had a big one going from his neck to his hip, and three smaller ones on his right thigh. His reverse cursed technique was amazing, there was no denying that, but it still left scars. You reached your hand towards him and you could see him relax as he released the infinity to let you touch him.
You pressed your hand on his chest and he placed his own hand on top of it.
You anchored him, he knew that. You brought him back down to earth every time he had nightmares, and just your presence soothed him.
“You were having that nightmare again huh” you said gently, scooting closer to him.
“Yeah, I hate it” he muttered.
“I know” you whispered.
“Sorry I woke you up. You can go back to sleep baby, I’ll stay up a bit longer”
“In your dreams. Come here” you rolled your eyes and tried pulling him down to the bed by his arm.
“I don’t want to keep you up” Gojo said while resisting you pulling him down.
You were nowhere near strong enough to force him down, but you also knew he wouldn’t fight you for long.
“Get your head back on that pillow” you groaned and mercilessly grabbed him by the hair, pulling his head down.
“Ow, ow, ow. You’re so mean” he whined overdramatically, but stopped resisting you and laid down anyway.
“Sorry, but you were being a jackass. I had to bring out the big guns” you smirked.
Gojo rolled his eyes, but you also got a small chuckle out of him.
You were laying on the bed, facing each other, your noses almost touching. You were just staring at each other for a while, before you raised your hand to wipe some of his hair off his face.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to help with the nightmares” you sighed, moving your hand to the scar on his neck, trailing it down to his chest with your finger tips.
“Just you being here helps, I don’t need anything else” he said softly, and grabbed your hand that was on his chest, bringing it to his lips and pressing a kiss on your knuckles.
You smiled at him and pressed your forehead against his.
“You need to go to sleep Satoru, you’ve got a long day tomorrow” you smiled and kissed the tip of his nose.
“I know” he yawned.
You moved down on the bed and cuddled to his side, with your head resting on his chest. His heartbeat was steady and strong, and you could hear it clearly with your ear pressed against his chest.
“I love you” you whispered, closing your eyes and exhaling deeply.
“Love you too baby” Gojo said and kissed the top of your head, hugging you closer.
He never failed to make you feel safe and loved. You loved feeling his strong arms around you. Sometimes when you felt upset, it felt like he was keeping you together by holding you. It was reassuring to know he would be there for you, no matter what. You wanted to do the same for him. Hold him together when he couldn’t do it by himself, calm him down after nightmares and love him, always and forever.
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set-wingedwarrior · 1 year
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Why you should watch RWBY legally
Before I even begin, I want to clarify that it's not my intent to start a fight, guilt-trip, nor force anyone to do anything they don't wanna do. I am merely here to state the facts, as far as I know, and share with you all the reasonings that brought me to my decision. The goal here is to give you all the pieces of information for you to make yours as well.
That said, let's begin.
RT has been awful, employees deserve better, you're angry on their behalf, and I get that because I am too. But I still want and will support the RWBY through Crunchyroll, and here's why:
Pirating is going to hurt CRWBY much more than it will hurt RT. That's the simple truth, in this cases it's always the bottom line that gets the worst of it, so if your goal is to help the employees pirating this isn't the way to go.
Strictly tied to the first one, if a boycott was needed and useful, then they would have told us so. We're not there, we don't know specifically how this stuff works, so deciding to go on a mass protest in their behalf withouth their consent would probably just backfire and put them in even worse conditions. If they'll ever ask that out of us, I will, but for now that's not the case.
All CRWBY, former or not, has been nothing but excited to share their work with us. They want the show to succeed, to keep going and grow, and they're working so hard to achieve that; it just doesn't feel fair to deny them because of someone else's bad actions.
Crunchyroll is the best half-way if you want to support the show without supporting directly RT. Even if I don’t know how the deal works, I’m pretty sure that considering CR doesn’t care about anything else RT might have to offer, any money sent to them would be specifically for the show to continue (and possibly improve)
CRWBY litterally asked us to support them. We can see that on Geoff Yetter's post,
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on A.G. Nonsuch's tweet that Kerry liked (and that even if he didn't I would still trust, because since she did work with RT and met CRWBY, I'm pretty sure she knows better than us)
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and Arryn's (animator) explicit answer when someone litterally asked how to support RWBY withouth supporting RT (also, if you check their twitter page you'll find multiple likes and retweets or posts sharing the same sentiment)
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Again, this isn't to force anyone to do anything they don't want to. I just want you to have all the information, think about what you goal is and act accordingly. Sadly, we can either support CRWBY or hurt RT, with Crunchyroll being the closest thing to get both.
Now, I know that a lot of people might want to support but can’t afford Crunchyroll (or simply don't see it worth it because they don’t watch any other anime). That’s completely fair and understandable but, if you want, I might have a couple of solutions to offer:
Share the account with someone else. It will cut costs, and for just a couple of months it should be bearable.
See if you know someone who already has one and is willing to let you temporarely use it.
Wait until all episodes are released and then make an account; CR offers a 14 days free trial for their premium subscription, and you could use it to binge the volume and still give it views (you don’t have to abstain yourself from watching the episodes as they air, you just need to give CR these views in the end, and if you don’t want to rewatch you could just let them autoplay).
In case someone is wondering, CRUNCHYROLL DOESN’T COUNT THE VIEWS BASED ON THE ACCOUNTS ALONE.
What I mean is that they count rewatches as views of their own, so if you share an account with multiple people and you’re all watching the show, all the views from each of them will be counted, and it will still support it (if you’re wondering how I know, I maild their Support and asked them directly).
That’s all about Crunchyroll. Technically, no one stops you from waiting a year and watch it on RT's platform; they'll be accessible with FIRST accounts only at first, then become free with ads later as usual. I doubt any of you would want to do that, but a lot of people seemed not to get that it won't stay behind a paywall forever so I thought it was worth sharing. I did say I wanted you to have all of the information after all.
And that’d be all, I guess. As I mentioned, this isn’t meant to guilt trip anyone: everyone is entitled to their feelings and what they feel is right. You do you. But as for me, I’d rather accidentally benefit some assholes in the process of helping someone who deserve it than having innocents get hurt because of the actions of some assholes higher ups.
RWBY is a unique show that deserves to live, and CRWBY (and I mean all the people, past and new) has been working so hard, for so long, to get to tell their story and make their dream come true. I don't want all of their work and struggle to be in vain as much as I don't want to lose my favorite show. So, I will listen to them and help them the way they ask me to. That's my goal.
Find what your goal is, and act accordingly.
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goinghostie · 1 year
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Stars Align delves into topics most anime wouldn't dare address , ie. Yuu's situation exploring their gender identity and Maki's well-communicated explanation of Shou being trans (FTM).
While Stars Align incorporates many stigmatized topics into its plot, it approaches them carefully and never shows the abusive side in a positive light. The scenes are raw, emotional, and incredibly realistic.
I have respect for Akane-sensei and the production team for tackling issues kids don't typically see in a series - ones that they may be struggling with themselves and aren't aware how negative an impact they can have on them since that is all they know.
Stars Align is a series you could say is ahead of its time. One that resonates with many who can relate to the issues & struggles presented. It isn't a show for escapism, like most anime out there. It is a series that faces real situations head-on.
To some, this is a weakness. But to me (and many others who resonated with a kindred spirit in the series), Stars Align is a series that makes us feel seen or heard. It shows that anyone can be struggling, even if they might not openly show it.
Stars Align's premature halting of production fits a little too well with an overarching theme on the show - the boy's soft tennis team was threatened to be shut down, and it takes a LOT of hard work for the kids to grow and save their team.
If even one scene resonated with you, please show support for Stars Align. While the odds of this series getting finished seem slim, support and attention can help the creator find a studio willing to finish the second half.
We need to come together and show support for a series that was cast aside, just like our favorite soft tennis team. To join together and fight for the second half of the story, in whatever way possible.
Spread the word - the more people who legally watch the series on Crunchyroll and Hulu will show streaming platforms that the anime means something to subscribers. Start conversations about the topics presented and the impact the series has!
Create content - art, fanfics, edits, theories...posting about the series helps spread the word to people who haven't heard of it or forgot to watch in the past. To this day, new fans are discovering Stars Align because of this! January is #MakeTheStarsAlign month - we have prompts each week to help inspire people to join in spreading the word!
Akane-sensei has thanked fans for continuing to support the series. He feels the best chance for a continuation will come from an overseas production studio, and so building our numbers is the first step of achieving some kind of renewal.
It can be hard to keep talking about a series, but the tendency to move on is exactly what makes support for a series fade away. The fight needs to continue, even if time passes! Shows can be brought back YEARS later, but support needs to still be there for that to happen.
While 3 years have passed since episode 12 aired, please don't forget about this series or the emotions it made you feel. Continue to raise awareness and spread the word to show there is support for impactful series like Stars Align. 💙
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carnalgarnish · 12 days
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My life is so hard. How am I supposed to rewatch House and NBC Hannibal and Merlin and The Witcher and New Girl and How I Met Your Mother and Given and Ted Lasso and Fight Club and Dead Poets Society and BBC Sherlock and still have enough free time to keep up with Dan and Phil uploads? And how am I supposed to have Crunchyroll and Prime Video and Netflix and Disney Plus and YouTube Premium to DO all of that?
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animeyanderelover · 2 months
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Ah yes, there is nothing more beautiful than watching the Crunchyroll Awards when I am in a masochistic mood and still come out crying. I’m not even a seasonal watcher but even I could predict all of the winners when I checked out the nominations. I didn’t vote by the way since I don’t even use Crunchyroll. Since me and my friend already complained about it, I’ll rant a bit too so please take my salt.
I don’t think that Jujutsu Kaisen should have won Anime of the Year for the simple reason that apparently the Shibuya Arc didn’t even count for this nomination since it aired in Autumn. That means that pretty much only the first 5-6 episodes were a contender for this nomination and that isn’t even half of the show. They should have either completely excluded it from the nominations this year and instead nominated it next year or should have put in all of Jujutsu Kaisen. Instead now the season was split in parts and I will bet my liver that the Shibuya Arc will be nominated next year again. 5 episodes of an incomplete season are not better than other nominated Anime like Vinland Saga or Oshi No Ko. I’m not even sure if I would put Demon Slayer as a nomination since I liked this season but it just did not reach for me the same level that previous seasons had reached and I am sure that there were other Anime that were a lot more deserving of a nomination instead of Kny.
Best Continuing Series I already suspected either One Piece or Jujutsu Kaisen to win. I can’t say much about One Piece since I am currently at the Water 7 Arc but I will take it over freaking Jjk with its 5 nominated episodes. Once again I would be hesitant to put Demon Slayer in here since for me best continuing series implies that the newest season is either on the same par or even surpasses the previous season. Demon Slayer did not do this with the Sword Smith Village Arc for me for a couple of reasons. The antagonists felt very shallow and boring, the fights weren’t as good for me and whilst the last episode was quite good, it did not reach for me what the Entertainment District Arc did. Bungo Stray Dogs would have been in my opinion a better nomination than Demon Slayer.
Not surprised with Chainsaw Man winning Best New series but since I haven’t watched any of the shows nominated, I can’t say much about it. Same goes for Best Movie with Suzume as the winner and Best Original Series with Buddy Daddies as the winner.
Is anyone surprised by Demon Slayer winning Best Animation? I’m not and that was the only thing that for me was as good as previous seasons, although I do know the whole argument of them using 3D this season for some of the demons but honestly, that was nowhere near the worst CGI that Anime has given us such as Berserk 2017. I see why people would be upset since other contestants for Best Animation were shows like Mob Psycho 100. With Jujutsu Kaisen as a nominee I am conflicted due to the whole arguments of this season having the worst Animation in comparison to the first season and the movie but the poor Mappa employees were on such a tight schedule and the fact that they still delivered such amazing fight scenes despite the terrible treatment deserves respect. Also, where is Bleach in this nomination?! You cannot tell me that they couldn’t nominate it since Disney owns it considering that there were actually some categories where Bleach was still nominated for some reason!
Best Character Design went to Jujutsu Kaisen… How??? How did school uniforms win against the character designs of Hell’s Paradise, Oshi No Ko and Demon Slayer? Is it just Gojo that carried this category?? Am I the blind one for not loving him as much as other fans do??
Best Direction went to Jujutsu Kaisen.
Best Camera Work went to Jujutsu Kaisen.
Best Art Direction went to Demon Slayer.
Best romance was won by Horimiya: The missing Pieces. I’m not sure if that’s true but isn’t this series basically some sort of flashback where the characters look back on their school time. I’m pretty sure My Happy Marriage, Insomniacs after School or Skip and Loafer can beat what, if my memory is correct, is basically a series that shows all the scenes they couldn’t feature in the first season.
Best Comedy was won by Spy x Family and my friend was quite upset by that since she is a big Bocchi The Rock fan but I haven’t watched any of those shows.
Best Action was won by Jujutsu Kaisen. Considering that only the first arc of the series was nominated, I do not agree with this win. If Shibuya Arc would have also counted, I wouldn’t have complained but as it stands I would have preferred something like One Piece or Bleach to win this award.
Best Fantasy was won by Demon Slayer… Again. Guys, what is this? I love Demon Slayer but you can’t tell me that a show playing in a real historical period of Japan with the only fantasy element being the demons as well as maybe the Breathing Forms is a better fantasy show than Mushoku Tensei or The Ancient Magus’s Bride.
Best Drama was won by Attack on Titan The Final Season Chapter 1. What does that mean? Will the second chapter be nominated again then next year?! Oh, come on. How did an incomplete season win Best Drama against Mister I have no enemies?! Vinland Saga should have won that category.
Best Slice of Life went to Bocchi the Rock and since my friend was happy, I was happy too.
Best Main character was won by Luffy. I guess I can live with that. I’m actually surprised that they didn’t nominate Gojo in here but since the whole award show was basically sucking Jujutsu Kaisen off, I am happy to have a few categories where I am not haunted by Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen. I am just more biased towards Thorfinn in this category since his character development was amazing. If they really only counted the First Chapter of Attack on Titan in these Awards, I am not sure about putting Eren as a contender in this category since he had barely any screen time.
How are you going to take Jujutsu Kaisen’s Hidden Inventory Arc for the 2024 Crunchyroll Awards and then nominate Gojo as a side character?!?! He was the bloody main character in that arc since it was his past!! And then Gojo also wins this category where he absolutely doesn’t belong!!! The same counts for Suguru!! How can you nominate two guys from Jujutsu Kaisen who were on top of that main characters in this short arc?! Why not nominate someone from another Anime instead?! What about Bungo Stray Dogs?! What about Hell’s Paradise?! What about literally every other Anime that aired this year with an actual side character?! Why did Gojo win?!
I don’t care about the Must Protect At all Costs award going to Anya Forger. It’s just a weird award in my opinion.
Best Anime Song going to Idol from Yoasobi was no surprise and was deserved for the sheer impact it had not only on the Anime community but also the international success it earned.
Best Soundtrack going to Attack on Titan is no surprise. Hiroyuki Sawano, if you worked there again I will accept it.
Best Opening and Ending go to no one’s surprise to Jujutsu Kaisen and at this point I have no energy left anymore to be angry. Congratulations…not.
Best Japanese VA performance goes to Yuichi Nakamura for voicing Gojo Satoru… Why is Eren here again? That dude barely spoke any lines in the first half of the Final Chapters. There are a ton of other Japanese Va’s that not only spoke more than Eren but were also far better. Whilst I am not really suited for picking any since I don’t watch seasonal Anime, I think Uemura Yuuto for his performance as Thorfinn or Miyano Mamoru in his role as Dazai were far more deserving of a spot in here. Yuki Kaji, I really love you but you shouldn’t have been nominated in here for your performance as Eren in here due to the lack of a performance.
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bluesylveon2 · 6 months
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AOT Season 4 The Final Chapters Thoughts:
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Crunchyroll won't let me screenshot so I will write out my thoughts instead:
I like how this part of Season 4 is Armin-centric. The first part was dedicated to Eren and then the second part was dedicated to Mikasa
Yall I lowkey forgot Armin gets kidnapped by the okapi titan
The cgi continues to improve for aot. However, you can tell MAPPA's budget went to jjk because of the amount of fanservice they are giving 😂
The Survey Corps vs past titans shifters fight was so good!!! I liked watching it more than reading it because you could see what happens in the action. Also the scene with Pieck running toward the Warhammer titan was hilarious
I like the detail of the gray people and the colored baby. The baby represents the future and it being colored represents the hope of getting through the Rumbling. I like how everything became colored once the titans stopped moving.
Levi finally killing Zeke was satisfying. Now Zeke can be reborn as Toji in jjk because we know stuff is going down there too lol
Can I just say that I love the aruani scenes? Like Annie immediately asks where's Armin but tries to play it off and Mikasa was not buying it! Then there was the other part where Annie saves Armin and AHHHH I loved it!! Her dad better be impressed if Annie got with Armin cause he is so cool
Okay that hallucigenia thing needed to go. We don't even know where it went after Eren died. We assume it died with him because everyone turned back to normal. Also, I guess every titan had a piece of hallucigenia in them, specifically in their spine that connects their CNS and their PNS. It turning others into titans was it's way to "multiply" and keep it alive
The eremika kiss was not as creepy as I remember in the manga. The lighting helped it a lot. I remember reading that part and questioning what was Isayama thinking when he wrote that
I like to think of Eren as Lelouch from Code Geass, except Lelouch lived to see the effects of what he did. Eren had no choice but to die after wiping out 80% of humanity.
On that thought, there was one part where Armin was like "we can't have conflict if we destroy the outside world." Well, we already saw at the beginning of S4 that is not the case. There will always be conflict in the world. We even see it today. Sure, Eren could have killed everyone, but you still have conflict within Paradis. We saw it already with the Jaegerists. Eren helped his friends have a peaceful life but that would end eventually once they passed.
I sobbed at the part with everyone reuniting. It was sweet in the manga, it was sweet now
Historia's daughter is so cute!!!!
I like the ending even if it is slightly different from the manga. Of course you get the 104 + Pieck coming to Paradis (Jean looking great as always lol), Mikasa seeing birb Eren, Onyakopon and Yelena (finally) helping out, Levi with the kids, and Falco/Gabi planting a tree to signify new beginnings
Now...my only complaint about this episode was the credits. WHY DID THEY MAKE IT SMALL??? i WANTED TO KNOW WHO MIKASA MARRIED!!!! I liked the detail with the other kid tho. The boy sees the tree with a hole and walks in. I think this is Isayama's way of showing that titans can return and Eren would be the new Ymir. I'm not too certain, but it would suck for Eren because he would not be free. Maybe the kid could be the new Ymir? Who knows? My question would be how would titans survive modern day. Obviously they would evolve, but can they survive modern technology. We may not use swords much anymore but there is nuclear technology.
(Edit: it is possible Mikasa married Jean based on what we see in the anime/manga. I feel like that's not a good ending for either one of them because a) Mikasa's heart belongs to Eren. It's like Rose from the Titanic. Basically, Mikasa won't love Jean or whoever she married fully. b) Jean seems to be busy conducting the peace talks with the others. Idk if he would have time for Mikasa unless they were both cool with it. c) I think it's just not a good ending for either of them. I felt bad for Mikasa throughout the whole episode and that as her ending is...idk...I would feel even bad for her)
I know Isayama is done with the series but i have questions I want answered!!! 😭 Still, I got into this fandom back in 2013 and it has been a good 10 years. I met a lot of great people from the fandom who I still talk to today. Aot is my favorite anime and I plan on rewatching the anime or buy the manga in the future. Now it is time for me to go to the next fandom aka twst lol
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uglytintedshades · 25 days
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Viral Hit/HTF anime official opening and ending themes:
OP theme:
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ED theme:
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enemyoflactose · 1 month
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I finished rewatching season 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh. My redemption arc is 1/5 complete. (I have to watch the dub because I don't wanna support Crunchyroll and I don't know where else to watch the sub)
My main thoughts are about voice acting since of all the arcs, Duelist Kingdom and Domino City side stories make me the least angry.
So to start off, a comparison between Dub and Sub acting and which voice I like more as of now.
Yami: His sub voice in season 1 is honestly so cute. He just sounds like he's having a constant blast.
His dub voice on the other hand, sounds so hot 🥵. And Dub Yami is what's keeping me from doing drugs.
Overall, I like both a lot. I do however think Dan just makes the character.
Little Yugi: similar thing as Yami, only his dub voice doesn't sound hot. Just cute. I love both voices and honestly can't pick between them.
Joey Wheeler: I like his dub voice more. That's where the personality is. His sub voice just sounds generic.
Tristan: For the first few episodes of the dub, Tristan has this really stupid voice that I just don't like, so for that alone I like his sub voice more.
But then from the Rex duel and onward it's Greg Abby, and then I like both his sub and dub voice.
Téa: I think I prefer her sub voice. Just a little less grating. (I still love you Téa)
Ryou: He sounds like Gachapoid in the sub 🥺. I love Gachapoid!
His british accent tho 😩
Yami Bakura: Gachapoid doesn't suit him unfortunately. I like his dub voice more.
Pegasus: stunning. Both of them. The performance is impeccable. But Dub Pegasus never said "Jesus Christ".
Seto Kaiba: a hard one. In the sub he screams so much, but in the dub he doesn't sound like he's one insult away from killing himself... I can't decide.
Mokuba: they both sound the same.
Mai: I think I prefer dub. Just sounds deeper idk.
Weevil: I love him and his voices.
Rex: I prefer his sub voice. Just less grating and he doesn't sound like he has bronchitis.
Everyone else: meh. Could go either way.
Now to talk about the characters, and if I relearned anything:
Téa's friendship speeches are so sweet and cheesey I can't believe people don't like them. She is always there for her friends and clearly cares so much. I will never forgive Téa bashers for what they did to her during the great Yaoi Revolution.
Joey isn't as stupid as I remember him being, just a beginner at Duel Monsters. Nothing wrong with that. He's trying. His utter determination to get that money for his sister's operation is seriously so heart warming. I love whenever he says "Time roulette go!"
Tristan threw a dead body at Satan. And grabbed Ryou's leg while climbing the tower because he was getting impatient.
Yugi being uncertain of Yami until the Bakura duel is crazy. Like he wasn't even having memory issues. Bro huh? He's also so supportive! Like baby boy was the one to suggest he and Yami fight PaniK for Mai. He told Yami not to attack Kaiba and send him falling to his death. He gave Joey Time Wizard! Yugi is a bro.
Yami is such a good friend. Helping Joey out with duels, got Mai her star chips back, freed both Mokuba and Kaiba's souls because Mokuba asked, tried getting pink shirt his star chips back, and never believing that Joey couldn't duel by himself.
Ryou was, certainly there. Honestly his impact doesn't really matter. He just explains Duel Monsters to Tristan and Téa whenever Yugi is dueling. His first appearance isn't even that impressive because instead of killing himself to save everyone like in the manga, Yami switches the places of Ryou and Yami Bakura. So even if he tries to help, someone else always helps way more.
Yami Bakura is so hot. I'd suck his dick if he asked. I also just love how his deck can not only do tarot readings, but is also really annoying to go up against. Like boy had 3 morphing jars, an electric lizard, a man eater bug, and change of heart. Those cards were fucking devastating back in the day. He also would have won that duel if he used Just Desserts one turn later, but oh well. Why did he lick the millennium eye tho? I get the tarot reading, but why did he lick the eye?
Mokuba. Oh sweet Mokuba. He just wants to help his brother, but he suffers so much.
Kaiba is awesome. He hacks into Industrial Illusions and causes a satellite to crash into an office. Killing people. He helps Yami win a duel. He rips a Blue Eyes. He annihilates with Crush Card Virus. My man uses Saggi the Dark Clown. His devotion to rescuing Mokuba is amazing and is really what has me start caring for him when I first watched the series 5 years ago. His comebacks and sheer distaste for the Yugi gang are fun and amazing to watch.
Pegasus, the star of season 1. He's in my top 5 favorite characters list. I absolutely love eccentric villains, especially when they love cartoons and are actually threatening. Pegasus is a beast. If we ignore his millennium eye for now, he's a fantastic and fun duelist! His deck is interesting and entertaining to watch, neither of his duels were boring, and the man is so funny. "Do I spin it like a top, or roll it like a ball!" I love him. He's also (so far) the only villain I feel genuine empathy towards. Y'all, I'm a sap. If a villain's reason is being evil because they lost their Significant other than I'm sorry I'm crying. My poor guy.
Grandpa: he trained Joey and Yugi, he gave Yugi his deck, he appeared in dream sequences to help Yugi beat his opponents, and he gave Yugi the puzzle. If this man didn't exist, Yu-Gi-Oh wouldn't happen.
Duke Devlin: I forgot how much I hated him when I first watched his dumbass Dungeon Dice Monster 4 episode showdown. He's so fucking mean.
Rebecca: not much to say other than I like her.
The duels:
Seto vs Yami (first duel of the series): a fantastic way to start off the series. Kaiba finds out Yugi's grandpa has the Blue Eyes White Dragon card he's been searching for, he steals it, rips it, and Yugi challenges him to a duel.
Yami takes control and is surprised by Kaiba's duel arena having the ability to make life-like holograms of the monsters on the cards.
The duel begins and for the entire thing, it's honestly pretty equal. Yami summons a monster, Kaiba destroys it. Kaiba summons a monster, Yami destroys it.
It's a back and forth kind of deal until Kaiba pulls out his own Blue Eyes White Dragon card, shocking Yami. He surprises Yami again by summoning another Blue Eyes, but then gets hit with swords of revealing light.
Kaiba summons Judge Man, and it gets Destroyed by the Dark Magician.
During this, Yugi is having his doubts about winning because of Kaiba's Blue Eyes and can't seem to draw cards. Especially when Kaiba summons his third Blue Eyes White Dragon and destroys the Dark Magician.
This leads into Yami and Yugi having an inter monologue with Grandpa about Exodia. How Exodia is split into pieces. Pieces like a puzzle.
Yami gains the courage to draw and he gets all five pieces of Exodia! Instantly winning the duel!
Kaiba is then given a mind crush and starts to question all his life choices.
Rex vs Weevil (half a duel): in this not really a duel, we are introduced to two characters. Since they have names they are obviously important to the plot.
The duel starts with Rex summoning King Rex and instantly getting vortexed. Then Weevil summons his Basic Insect and equips it with Insect Lazer Cannon. This lets him wipe out all of Rex's Life Points.
Weevil is then named Regional Champion, and Rex is the runner up.
Yugi vs Pegasus (second real duel): this is where we are introduced to Pegasus as a villain.
He makes Yugi duel him on a 15 min time lock.
During this duel, Pegasus is cheating. Not just with his millennium eye, but he's sending subliminal messages to Yami. It's not mentioned in the dub, but it still happens.
Yami finds out that duel monsters was created in ancient Egypt and Pegasus starts talking up a storm so he can waste time.
Pegasus wins the duel due to the time limit and steals Grandpa's soul.
Weevil vs Yami (the third duel): This duel was initiated because Weevil decided to be a little dick and threw Exodia off the ship to Duelist Kingdom.
Yami bets his deck and star chip, Weevil bets both his star chips.
The duel begins, and we find out about field power bonuses. Insects get lower from the forest, warriors get theirs from the meadow, dragons and winged beasts get theirs from the mountains, zombies get them from the wastelands, and fiends get theirs during night time.
Unfortunately, Yami doesn't get many bonuses.
During the duel, Weevil summons a full board of monsters. He gets mirror forced.
Then he plays his Petite Moth and Cocoon of Evolution combo. He gets Burning Landed.
He then summons his Great Moth. He gets Makiyued and Summoned Skulled.
This is a simple explanation of what happened, but Yami wasn't met without struggle.
A lot of his monsters that he summoned got destroyed. They usually only lasted one turn.
Anyways, Yami won and has three star chips. Joey steals Weevil's dueling glove.
Joey vs Mai (Duel 4): this is Joey's first duel! Hooray!
He doesn't understand that his land monsters can't attack flying monsters, and gets demolished.
Mai adds several equip spells and uses Elegant Egotist to multiply her Harpie lady card.
Joey finds out Mai is cheating with perfume.
Joey then summons Baby Dragon and the Time Wizard and uses them to win the duel.
He got a star chip and his first rival!
Mako vs Yami (duel 5): Yami duels Mako Tsunami.
Mako's monsters are in the water and can't be attacked.
Yami attacks the moon and then uses his Burning Land card.
Yami wins
Mokuba vs Yami (half duel): Mokuba is trying to keep Yami from dueling Pegasus because he wants to save his brother's company.
He loses the duel.
Yami vs Ghost Kaiba (duel 6): Kaiba jumped off a cliff and died. Now his ghost is dueling Yami.
He's psychology tormenting everyone except Tristan. Mokuba quickly became distraught.
Ghost Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes one at a time, and they all get destroyed.
The first one is destroyed by the real Kaiba because OH MY! He ain't dead! That's just some fat ass pretending to be Kaiba! (Or he's Kaiba's dark half)
The second Blue Eyes gets destroyed because Yami summoned Mystical Elf and Raised the Attack points of the Blue eyes he stole from the graveyard.
Yami wins the duel!
Mokuba got rekidnapped tho.
Joey vs Rex (duel 7): Rex is dueling Joey because he wants to duel Mai, but Mai will only duel him if he beats Joey.
Joey again gets his ass beat and is saved by Time Wizard.
His spoils are some chips and the Red Eyes Black Dragon!!!!
Yami Bakura vs Yami (duel 8): in this duel we are introduced to two new characters. Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura.
Before the duel, the gang and Ryou are talking about their favorite cards (important). Then Ryou challenges Yugi to a duel, Yami Bakura appears, takes them to the Shadow Realm, puts the squads souls in their favorite cards, then tries to steal the puzzle.
Yami challenges Yami Bakura to a duel and when he summons the Cyber Commander, he finds out that all of his have had their souls placed inside their favorite cards.
Tristan dies to the white magical hat or some shit and Joey Flame Swordsman gets summoned. Then Tristan Cyber Commander gets resurrected, then Yugi Dark Magician gets summoned, then Téa Magician of Faith gets places face down. (She's a flip monster)
Throughout this whole ass duel Yami and the gang are getting their ass handed to them.
Yami gets Morphing Jared like 3 times, had Man Eater Bug eat Joey, had Just Desserts taking life points from him, and Yami Bakura was looking at him like
(𓁹‿ 𓁹)
The whole time.
Anyway, Yami Bakura plays the Change of Heart card and we get to see Ryou in a dress.
We get to see Ryou in another dress because he betrays Yami Bakura and takes control of his Lady of Faith and tells Yugi to attack him.
Yami then thinks about how Yami Bakura took the souls of his friends out of their bodies and put them in the cards and then wonders if he can do the same. He can he does.
We then see Yami Bakura in a dress but he doesn't slay as hard as Ryou.
Yami Bakura is defeated but he took a page out of William Afton's book because he comes back instantly.
Yami vs PaniK (duel 9): This duel starts immediately after Mai gets defeated by PaniK.
Yugi calls this fucking giant of a man a bully, PaniK tries to kill him with fire, and the duel starts.
PaniK is hiding in the dark and Yami calls him a pussy multiple times.
PaniK sure is a duelist. He loses his temper easily and doesn't think about the opponent's strategy. This Leads his Reaper of The Cards to get caught in a Magic Circle (I can't remember the name) and destroyed by his monster.
PaniK gets Swords of Revealing Lighted and his Castle of Dark Illusions has its floatation ring knocked off. His monsters get destroyed and he loses.
Mai got her star chips back :D
Joey vs Kaiba (duel 10? Does this one even count?): the entire duel is Joey getting annihilated. He loses. Badly.
And Kaiba gets insulted.
Joey vs Bonz (duel 11): This duel happened because Joey got kidnapped.
We also get introduced to Bonz, Sid, Zygor, and Bandit Keith.
Bandit Keith used to be the intercontinental champion, and he hates Pegasus.
Bonz is just a little guy who doesn't really like Bandit Keith, but he wants to duel with his zombie cards. Keith is helping him out. So they just gotta work together.
Sid and Zygor are Bonz's friends. They're just kinda there.
During this duel, they are in a cave and Joey is getting scared because Bonz is ugly (no he's not 😤) and zombies are spooky.
Joey is managing pretty alright for the first half because Keith keeps making Bonz play not zombies and they keep getting destroyed.
However, Keith wanted this. Because he put a Call of the Haunted in Bonz's deck. This means that Bonz can bring his monsters back from the graveyard as zombies, they're indestructible, get stronger each time they come back, and they keep destroying Joey's monsters.
Bonz then summons his Pumpking and makes his zombies stronger, but it gets destroyed by the Red Eyes Black Dragon.
Then Red Eyes gets destroyed by ways I don't remember.
Now all Joey has left is his Battle Warrior and Sword and Shield.
He summons Battle Warrior , uses Sword and Shield, wins the duel!
The Yugi gang are now trapped in a cave and Bonz and his friends get their shit rocked by Bandit Keith.
Joey and Yami vs the Paradox brothers (duel 12): Ryou leads the gang here.
We meet the Paradox brothers. A pair of eccentric twins who can't shut up and keep rhyming.
The duel is a tag duel. Meaning they take turns, if one opponent loses all of their life points that team loses, and they can help each other out.
The duel is in a maze. Each card can move up a space for as many levels as it is.
Beaver Warrior gets destroyed instantly by the Wall Shadow, which gets destroyed by KUNAI WITH CHAIN.
Some other shit happen, Yami and Joey gotta face some tank and a worm and spider.
Don't know what happened to the tank, the spider got stabbed with Mystic Box, and the worm had something something Magical Hats.
Gate Guardian is a thing and Yami says it's in the class of Exodia even tho it's not an instant win. (Shout out Gate Guardian for getting support 😔✊)
Yami and Joey won the duel with Black Skull Dragon and make it out of the maze with some coins.
Yami vs Kaiba ( Duel 13): this duel starts after Pegasus told Kaiba that dueling him was a privilege, not a right.
Yami and Kaiba duel with the new Duel Disk system. They're using the advanced rules, that's why it's one monster at a time.
With the duel system, you can recall your monsters and replace them with a different one.
Yami falls for the Crush Card Virus trap and can now only use weak monsters.
He makes his Kuriboh wall, and Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to try and get past it. He doesn't.
Yami then uses his stupid fucking arrow card that I can never remember the name of because it's so stupid and dumb to fuse his Mammoth Graveyard to the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.
The dragon starts to decay, Kaiba has a panic attack and threatens to kill himself, Yami says "Bet", Yugi stops him, Kaiba wins.
Téa vs Mai ( duel 14): Téa wants to get Yugi his star chips back and challenges Mai to a duel.
During this duel Téa summons a bunch of wimpy cards like Petite Angel and most of them get destroyed by Mai's Harpie Lady.
Mai has a bunch of equip spells on her Harpie and Téa Wabokued her once.
Shining Friendship gets summoned, gets an equip spell, and Téa activates De-spell to remove Mai's equips.
Mai surrenders and Téa gives Yugi some chips.
Pegasus vs Kaiba (duel 15): in this duel Kaiba is trying to get his brother back.
Kaiba tries to get Pegasus to use his new Duel Disk system, but it doesn't go well.
The duel begins and Kaiba destroys some of Pegasus's monsters, but then Pegasus steals a Blue eyes and turns it into an Ugly Ass Toon.
Kaiba starts losing.
We learn that toon monsters are hard to destroy because they hide in a book.
Also Kaiba falls for his own Crush Card Virus trap and loses.
Mai vs Yami (duel 16): I'm pretty sure Yami was originally being sexist, but I watched the dub so Yugi is the one actually doing most of the dueling here. He doesn't want Mai getting hurt.
Yugi and Yami keep falling for the stupid Mirror Wall thing and their monsters keep getting wrecked.
Then we see Harpies Pet Dragon.
Yugi Mind Controls it and puts it on a catapult to destroy the Mirror Wall (shit looked epic).
Harpies Pet Dragon comes back and we get three Harpie Ladies.
Yugi let's Yami help and they do the Black Luster Soldier ritual and win.
Joey vs Bandit Keith (duel 17): I love this duel.
Joey gets his entry card stolen and Mai gives him hers, so wholesome.
During the duel Joey is fucking shit up. He's doing so good.
Then Keith starts cheating. But Joey prevails.
He uses trap hole, kunai with chain, time wizard, baby dragon, red eyes black metal dragon, and time machine!
Bandit Keith is using Machines and everyone is wondering why. Like bro, machines are a good monster type with a lotta cards.
Anyway Keith is pulling cards out of his wrist band, tries to use Shield and Sword to wipe out Joey, it doesn't work, Keith loses.
Then Keith tries to say that Joey didn't use his own tournament entry card, but Joey shuts that down
Then Keith gets accused of cheating and is sent falling to not at all death.
Yami vs Joey (duel 18): we have to sit through a long ass montage.
Joey throws some cards away, Yami wonders why.
Yami falls for a few traps, then Joey falls for some traps, this whole time Ryou is explaining the birth of the universe to Téa while Tristan kinda stares off into space.
Joey uses his last Time Wizard of the season to bring out his Thousand Dragon, but Yami planned this.
Yami's Dark Magician has become the Dark Sage and he uses Makiyu to stop Joey's attack and wipe out Joey's life points.
Yami wins and I cried the first time I saw this duel.
Pegasus vs Yami (duel 19): the final duel of the arc.
Pegasus tells Yami that if he wins he gets whatever he wants, but if Pegasus wins he gets his soul and the puzzle.
Yami says he wants Mokuba, Kaiba, and Grandpa's souls to be released and Pegasus says "Damn I thought you hated Kaiba", but Yami just doing that for Mokuba.
The duel starts, and Yami is immediately having trouble. He can't destroy the rooms and the Gorgon's Eye is keeping him from defending.
Pegasus also turned Summoned Skull into a toon and it's being creepy.
Yami keeps getting his mind read and Yugi comes in like "what if we switch places?" And Yami says they should.
This gives Pegasus some trouble. It gives him so much trouble that the toon world gets destroyed and he takes the duel to the Shadow Realm.
Yugi dies.
The Yugi gang feel this and send him some good vibes.
This means Pegasus still can't read Yami's mind.
Pegasus does some shit with Relinquish and Yami tries his Kuriboh stunt and his Magician of Black Chaos is there.
Yami wins and gets the souls back.
Pegasus does like 10 minutes later.
Other shit that happened that was interesting/Important:
During the Pegasus and Yami duel, Tristan and Yami Bakura go off on an adventure to find Mokuba's body. This leads to the ring getting thrown in the forest.
The ring goes back to Ryou because love or something.
In the sub Mai offered Rex anything he wanted during their first encounter. This was changed in the dub.
We still don't know how Ryou snuck in the ship to Duelist Kingdom.
Shadi doesn't even try to find Yami Bakura. He just goes to one person (Yugi) and gives up.
I'll never forgive 4kids for editing out Yami Bakura sexily licking the Millennium Eye.
If Joey had a Magic Jammer he would have won his duel with Yami.
Domino City side stories:
Rebecca's cool. I like her.
Rebecca vs Yami (duel 20): this duel happened because Grandpa got accused of stealing Rebecca's Blue Eyes White Dragon card.
Rebecca's strategy is also pretty good for the time. Her deck is centered around milling cards to power up her Shadow Goul, and she uses cards like Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan to do this.
During the duel Grandpa is having flashbacks because he had a duel go exactly like this. We find out Rebecca is the granddaughter of Grandpa's friend, Arthur.
Yugi drew Soul Release, but didn't use it because... I don't know. We find out that's how the duel between Arthur and Grandpa ended.
Arthur appears, says some shit, and we never see Rebecca again.
That dumbass game thing:
I wasn't paying attention to this because there weren't any actual duels and I didn't like this part.
Duke Devlin:
This bitch really gonna say Yugi cheats in his duels and steal all the girls. Bro.
Duke vs Joey (duel 21): Joey almost wins, But Duke does an ass pull and wins at 50 life points.
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Duke vs Yami (Dungeon Dice Monsters): Duke doesn't explain shit because Yami is King Of Games and should know how to play a game he's never heard of.
Duke makes fun of Yami for not knowing how to play the game he never explained, gets angry when Yami figures stuff out, and is just an ass this whole game.
I wasn't really paying attention, until shit actually started to happen because there was just a whole lotta nothing.
Eventually both players have monsters on the field, some are doing magic, others are just standing there.
Orgoth the Relentless is certainly a thing. He gets beat by the Dark Magician.
Yami wins.
Other thoughts on the Domino City stories:
I laughed when Joey told Duke "I like ya game, just not you."
More characters gotta duel like Rebecca.
The existence of Adina is weird. If Kaiba made her, ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ. If the Big Five Made her, then fine I get it. Mokuba is like a damsel in distress. I just don't like it.
I hope you enjoy this long ass wall of text. My redemption is going steady. I have noticed no change other than being slightly more unhinged.
Imma do this every time I finish a season.
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best-underrated-anime · 2 months
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Best Underrated Anime Group F Round 3: #F4 vs #F7
#F4: Young boxer in futuristic Japan fights in tournament
#F7: Transmigrator heals a reincarnation revenge story
Details and poll under the cut!
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#F4: Megalo Box
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Summary:
Follows the story of a young man that only goes by his ring name “Junk Dog”, set in the late 21st century. People live in a large metropolis, those without citizenship forced in slums called the Restricted Area. Junk Dog fights in fixed matches in the Restricted Area in a sport called Megalo Box, which is boxing augmented by metal exoskeletons.
One day, Junk Dog almost crashes into the CEO of the Shirato Company on his motorcycle, and he tries to pick a fight with her guard, Yuri. Yuri ends up fighting Junk Dog in a match, beating him and challenging him to fight him in a tournament called Megalonia. Forging an ID and taking the name Joe with help from his coach, the young fighter only has 3 months to win enough matches to rank high enough to get into the tournament and face Yuri. Not just for his pride, but also because of threats from the mafia, who wants money from Joe and his coach that they don’t have.
Propaganda:
Megalo Box is a series that got some recognition during the Crunchyroll Awards. It even aired on Adult swim’s late night anime block, even gaining a second season. But it seems like after the initial season, all interest of the show evaporated. It’s rarely talked about in fandom spaces or in anime video essays.
Which is a shame! It's a solid watch. The music is stellar. The characters are enjoyable, even if the plot of the main character Joe being a massive underdog that claws his way through a boxing tournament is a little predictable. But to be fair, this show was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the boxing manga Ashita no Joe.
Still, the anime keeps things fresh. It has added political commentary about class and race dynamics. Joe is brown-skinned, looks mixed, and is an undocumented citizen in the city he lives in. He has to fight in illegal fixed Megalo Box matches in the slums in order to make ends meet. Even that provides little protection, as he and his coach Ganbu get threatened by the mob for more money that they can’t produce. It also touches upon how children are abandoned and abused by the system with Sachio.
Joe is the ultimate underdog story. He ends up going by “Gearless Joe” because he fights his matches without wearing any Gear—aka the metal exoskeletons use in Megalo Box. He’s essentially boxing old-school style against others an unfair advantage with tools that augment their punches and movements. Joe did this in the first place because he was too poor to buy a new Gear, his old one falling apart, so he felt he was better off training and using his natural body in matches.
The second season also explores Joe's struggles with depression and drug addiction as he trains another Megalo Boxer, which is interesting and adds another layer to him.
Plus, the show also has racial diversity in the side characters. The English dub cast voice actors of the same ethnicities for Pepe, Chief, and Maria. Also, Kaiji Tang voices Joe, the lead.
Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore.
The anime is about boxing, so characters get beaten up quite a bit (even in fantastical ways). However, there’s also some other violence threats (like Joe’s coach Nanbu getting his eye cut and threatened to earn money by the mafia). Also, a kid named Sachio joins the group to help Joe and gets beaten by thugs and threatened a few times through the series.
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#F7: There’s a Pit in my Senior Martial Brother’s Brain (Wo Jia Dashixiong Naozi You Keng)
Official English title: What’s Wrong With My Big Brother Alt Title: My Dashixiong Has a Pit in His Brain
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Summary:
Dongfang Xianyun transmigrates as the eldest disciple of the Care-free sect. But the only thing that goes through his mind is to make sure he doesn’t end up dying by the hands of the “main character.” He believes he’s just a side character. He just wants to relax and survive all the mayhem surrounding him while dealing with one of his jealous sect teammates, who grew corrupted in the past life.
Propaganda:
This series is kind of insane but also just a lot of fun! The thing is, the shidi (junior martial sect brother), Yin Feixing, felt betrayed by his dashixiong (eldest senior sect brother), Dongfang Xianyun, after he was seemingly rejected for ending up studying the demonic arts. After he dies, he decides to take revenge in the next life, and this is where our story starts off…
The only problem is his dashixiong has been replaced by a transmigrator. And our new Dongfang Xianyun is not as cold or uptight as the past dashixiong (but as the story unravels, was he even that bad?); rather, this version is silly and goofy and fun. And because he believes wholeheartedly that Yin Feixing is the protagonist, he doesn’t act the way a dashixiong is expected to—but it’s in this silliness that one can find sincerity…
So as Yin Feixing exacts his revenge, turning Dongfang Xianyun into a demonic arts practitioner, Dongfang Xianyun’s new soul means he won’t follow the same path as Yin Feixing. Rather than fall to ruins like Yin Feixing, his empathy and creativity means he challenges this entire world by making his fellow demonic practitioners into law-abiding heroes, even as people hate him for the demonic arts. So as multiple plots unfurl, we get a pretty emotional, thematically interesting story, even amidst all the (very funny) crazy comedy, and a clever parody of xianxia* and other transmigration stories. 😆
(*Xianxia (仙侠 xiānxiá) – literally means “Immortal Heroes”. Fictional stories featuring magic, demons, ghosts, immortals, and a great deal of Chinese folklore/mythology. Protagonists (usually) attempt to cultivate to Immortality, seeking eternal life and the pinnacle of strength. Heavily inspired by Daoism. Source)
Oh, and Gong Changsheng is best puppy! He’s such a good sunflower boy with the biggest crush on Dongfang Xianyun, and I love them so much. I think lots of others will love them too if they gave this series a chance. 🥺
The slightly evolving names for each season are fun too:
S1: 我家大师兄脑子有坑 (My Dashixiong Has a Pit in His Brain (aka “he’s really dumb/ridiculous”))
S2: 我家大师兄是个反派 (My Dashixiong Is a Villain)
S3: 我家大师兄有点靠谱 (My Dashixiong Is a Bit Reliable)
(Plus, besides the original manhua, there’s a fun chibi OVA where the cast are like actors!)
Trigger Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore. The donghua isn’t as intense as the manhua, but there is one character who flirts in a somewhat creepy manner.
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When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.
If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.
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Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.
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keep-on-trying · 10 days
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Alright, my mobile data allowed me to watch WonderPre ep 12 from Crunchyroll without lagging, nice nice!
Couple thoughts on the ep. It seems my mobile data is bad with uploading images so, no images, despite me taking screencaps lol.
The way Satoru reacted to Iroha being happy to see him (because she knows Satoru knows about animals all alike so asking him about Yuki's odd disappearances is perfect!) was really, really cute, but also, the classmates clearly know Satoru has a crush on Iroha because they giggled with Satoru not understanding why lol.
Then, the way Mayu reacts to Iroha saying they're friends. Mayu clearly has some sort of background where either she's been unable to make friends with anyone before, or whenever she's made friends in the past they ended up backstabbing her or smth. I just know I kind of relate to her reaction here? She feels genuine happiness at Iroha being her friend. She even acknowledges her reaction to it is a bit odd and tries to act normal to Iroha.
Also, the episode really showcased cats well imo. They're elusive, able to do all kinds of tricks to get where they want (be it outside or hidden rooms or just out of a room lol), and well, can either be loving or very, well, "staring into your soul because not entirely happy". Yuki mostly seemed low-key pissed in today's ep lol.
Then the scene where Mayu rushed off after Iroha and Komugi because the girls really didn't realise they should have told Mayu to stay put and wait in peace because oh my god she got attacked by Garugaru and was shown to be in genuine horrified fear and my god the animators did an excellent job at that scene! Then Yuki- ahem, mystery Cure comes to save her and only utters same words as the blonde girl last ep did: You mustn't get involved. Yuki cares about Mayu so much fellas-.
Ahem. We also see that right now, Yuki is fighting Garugarus like a traditional Precure would. Physical fighting. It would seem she doesn't consider Garugaru to be corrupted beings, as well, no one has told her so. She thinks they need to be dealt with no matter what. It's only after Cure Friendy goes in front of the Garugaru that she stops attacking. Because Friendy knows it's a corrupted animal. That they don't deserve to be attacked for being corrupted, that deep down they're gentle animals deserving to be rescued. Nyammy's reaction to that says enough. She starts feeling conflicted about that, for sure. We'll see if she starts struggling next ep or whether she's not convinced about the change of battle style to chasing style yet. I guess she'd need to learn more from Friendy and Wonderful. Because those two have been told all the necessary info. While Nyammy is all alone, fighting Garugarus to make sure no harm can come Mayu's way. She's such a loving cat y'all-
So like, considering this ep pretty much aligns with my thoughts on the chasing scene decision and all, I'm quite curious of how things will develop. it is entirely possible the fighting scenes return later with a proper, perfectly reasonable way. Like the big bad wolf that's been teased couple times not being a corrupted being but actual, genuine bad fella who needs to be taught a lesson.
But yeh. For viewers it's clear who Nyammy is, but for the cast it's not yet. I am totally looking forward to seeing how Mayu's precure status comes to play, and how Nyammy ends up joining Wonderful and Friendy. Gosh this series has me hooked so well so far.
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tobiasdrake · 29 days
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The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato, Episode 1.
I like how, back in Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, I said they should just stop the movie halfway through and end it on everyone settling into the new reality and accepting this world as it is. But the movie disagreed with me.
But then they cancelled the show and when they brought it back they decided that they want to make a show in the new reality instead of going back to the original canon.
So I feel kinda vindicated by that.
Anyways, Yuki show on Crunchyroll with screenshots provided by shady piracy website, let's go!
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I am so confused by the status quo of Yuki World. Specifically Kyon. But also specifically the continued existence of Yuki World post-Disappearance.
Melancholy was always pretty up-front with the fact that it does not operate on Multiverse Theory. There exists only one timeline, with time travelers moving back and forth between points on the single line - and, in fact, the presence of people from the future in the past is already baked into the present.
Kyon had to travel back in time to meet Kid Haruhi on Tanabata and give her the idea to go to North High because that's how the history goes. Kyon was always there on Tanabata giving Haruhi the idea to go to North High.
So I am already baffled about what this world is. Kyon is part of the Literature Club and has dinners with Yuki and Ryoko, which implies that he remembers the events of the movie. We don't know much about Alt Kyon but we do know that he and Yuki never spoke two words to one another.
So it could be, like, a What If scenario if Kyon chose to stay and not end Yuki's new reality. But this can't be Original Kyon because he's on good terms with Ryoko. Our Kyon was quite understandably freaked out by the girl who tried to stab him with a knife.
Are we in "Out-of-continuity Loosely Based On" territory? Because they're making references to the movie in the first two minutes so it feels like a direct spinoff. Even though it's metaphysically impossible to be a direct spinoff, because this reality doesn't exist anymore.
(Also Haruhi made her intentions pretty clear that she wanted to form an SOS Brigade on this side of the temporal fence so the fact that Yuki World still has a Literature Club is another mark against a direct spinoff.)
I dunno. My mind is spinning.
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RUN YUKI
RUN LIKE HELL
"But she has no powers in this reality--" SHE'S STILL HARUHI
Wonder if Yuki still has Haruhi's powers in this reality? Huh.
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Also, I like how Yuki Show begins where Disappearance was. This world was created in the days leading up to Christmas, so it figures that a Christmas Party would be the first thing we're doing. The chronology is consistent.
Which. Again. Makes it so baffling. Are we spinning canonically out of Disappearance or doing our own thing? Make up your mind!
That being said,
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New Yuki is such an neurodivergent disaster girl. XD
Yuki: I want to be able to experience a full range of emotions and feelings. Monkey's Paw: I mean you're like 15 which is a pretty overwhelming time hormonally but sure. Here you go. Unlocking full range of emotions to process for the very first time ever in your life.
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I wonder how much Ryoko knows? Her appearance at the end of Disappearance implied that she retains at least enough understanding of the situation to kill Kyon with a knife without even questioning why he was trying to shoot Yuki full of science gun.
I don't think she's still a Space Robot because if she had Space Robot powers that fight would have been much different. But she fully understood the situation when she showed up with knife in hand. And I think we can be pretty sure that she did that on her own; Yuki did not intend for her to kill Kyon.
But also, it's not clear how much of Disappearance actually applies to the reality of Yuki Show since Yuki doesn't remember meeting Haruhi and Haruhi hasn't formed this world's version of SOS Brigade.
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One way or the other, at least she's still secretly vicious. I love her. Ryoko is making a compelling argument for Best Character and we're only six minutes in.
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And then they put a knife in her hand hahahahaha.
Spinoff or alt continuity, they at least know exactly what they're doing with Ryoko.
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I like how Ryoko is filling our Crazy Asshole quota but she's a very different flavor of Crazy Asshole from Haruhi. Haruhi was a gleeful crime person while Ryoko (who I think I recall being Class President?) is Lawful Menace. She'll stab you, sure, but she's not about to permit a hot pot on school premises. That would be inappropriate.
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And she ships it.
Yeah. Okay. Ryoko is definitely Best Character. She isn't my character, of course; My character's Haruhi. But she is quickly making a name for herself as this show's MVP.
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She ships it so hard that she's prepared flirtation cue cards. Everyone should have a bestie like Ryoko Asakura. She reels in the crushes and knifes anyone who looks at her bestie the wrong way.
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Oh shit it's them.
I guess it was too much to hope that Mikuru and Tsuruya still hated Kyon's guts in this reality.
How does he even know these two? They're upperclassmen. He only ever met them in our timeline because Haruhi violently abducted Mikuru.
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I would like to have a moment of silence for Mikuru.
Because Tsuruya just got her stabbed. She is so stabbed.
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The "Yuki vs. Mikuru" fight is definitely going to end with Yuki, Kyon, and Mikuru going out for lunch while Ryoko and Tsuruya resort to street brawling each other.
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They have the space heater!?
The one they got for performing in Haruhi's film? The absence of which from this reality was specifically one of the ways it deviated from the original?
...come to think of it, they don't have the computer. The presence of which was one of the ways it bizarrely did not deviate from the original.
This really is a continuity-free Loosely Based On, isn't it?
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Lawful Menace. Ryoko found just the right hoops to jump through in order to obtain formal permission to violate the rules.
I love how she brings just enough Haruhi-esque attitude to the show while still being so distinctly separate from Haruhi in personality and behavior.
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AWWWWWWWW They kept that! YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
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Oh no, she is going to be part of the show.
Yuki. Yuki, run. You have no idea. You have no idea. RUN.
^_^ This show is so cute. I think I'm going to have a good time with it.
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weatherman667 · 2 months
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RWBY: Ice Queendom
I have a well earned reputation as a fandowner, but the real reason I didn't watch it's initial run, (aside from a long running argument with sony/crunchyroll/funimation/rightstuf), was RWBYxJL.
Despite my pessimism, I am willing to give series another chance, if I see progress. If we take Star Wars, they utterly ruined it. But, then we got The Mandalorian. I didn't watch it, but to anyone that asked, I said i would, if we got a second good Star Wars thing. They then fired Gina Carano because she wouldn't submit put her pronouns in her bio, and then wouldn't get onto a livestream with 50 pissed off Communists to be shamed about it.
For RWBY, Justice League was that chance. It gave us Jess, (let's be honest, we fucking stole her), and... added nothing to either RWBY or JL.
But, Ice Queendom looked like it was a work of love. It looked like it was made by people who genuinely loved the series, or at least had a good idea of the characters and story.
For off, the quick list:
Animation is sub-par.
I have to watched it subbed.
Now, I've been a weeb for nearly 30 years, so neither of those matter. How the characters move is wonderfully planned out, the movements themselves are simply stiff. The subtitles is really fucking weird, considering they are doing this with the approval of the rights holder, and so could easily get the voice actors, and crew, to dub it. But, neither of those are especially important.
No, the true sin of RWBY: Icequeendom is FRAMING. It's framed like it's a manga, as the start and end of the movements are beautifully decided, it's simply getting there. The camera is way too close to the action, because with this much action, the characters move way too much that the narrow framing doesn't let the eyes adjust to the movement. They honestly would have been better off if they had Weiss prepare to lunge, lunge, and then you just see her blade piercing the Arma-Gigas, (mild not spoilers).
The biggest problem RWBY had is that nothing was planned. They threw a bunch of cool shit into a pile, and it was great. Until they had to actually connect the dots, and come up with an extended story.
Well, Icequeendom has the benefit of hindsight. They include a number of story and world elements, and introduce them in a much more organic way. Even to the point of having the mysterious narrator... narrate. They even add a counterpoint, so firen lhain is not said out of malice nor enmity.
The characters are all much more rounded then they were in RWBY, (we can forgive CRWBY, as there is only so much you can do with 5 minute episodes). They do the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood thing, where they expect you to know certain details, and so don't need to explain them. The characters and their motivations are introduced in a much better way, so that novices to the series can get just out as much out of it as veterans. Characters are introduced much earlier, and in a much more organic way. Jacques Schnee and Adam are made more monstrous, and more Human at the same time. Taiyang is made more fatherly, and less male feminist coward. Yang's motivations to Ruby are are lot clearly, (she wants to enable her, no, not that kind, you perverts). Whitley has more vitriol but less hatred. Bumblebee makes and early appearance, along with actual detail into the White and Black trailers. Last but not least, Zwei is present from episode one.
When RWBY was animated in Poser, they focused on high-octane, over-the-top fights. When they switched to Maya, they focused on making them more realistic, but forgot they are supposed to be using over the top anime fights. Ice Queendom takes a middle ground. The animation for the fights is not as smooth as either, but has far, far more weight. They decided how strong the characters are, how strong their Aura is, how strong their Semblance is, and stuck to it. Most of the firearms use actual bullets, and the effects of dust are actually quite well thought out. Grimm have realistic toughness, at least for creatures made out of enmity and darkness. Maybe I should say they have an established and consistent toughness. This makes the fights feel both a lot more dangerous for the Humans, and a lot more possible. In theory, a mundane Human could kill a Grimm, if they could get their sword into it enough times. Instead of Grimm being invincible, and only defeatable with Aura, they instead act like realistic creatures.
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duckielover151 · 1 month
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The One Piece Diaries
Episode Count: 450
Holy shit, guys... I'm back. I took another several months-long hiatus from One Piece... Mostly unintentionally... (I've been bouncing between a lot of other fandoms these past few months but have been brought back by the live action.) Where to start...
We've been in Impel Down for most of the last 40 or so episodes since my last update post. And not to go off on a tangent, but you know... I've noticed One Piece lumped in as one of the shows that's swamped with filler. And that really hasn't been my experience so far.
What I have noticed is that, around this point, the pacing gets pretty atrocious. There's a lot that happens in the journey to try and break Ace out of Impel Down... But is there 40 episodes worth of stuff? I have to argue no. It gets to the point where the first third of the episode is all recap, and barely anything is actually getting accomplished each episode. So that is a little off-putting.
But! There is a lot of good to be found in this arc too!
Okay, admittedly... Buggy was never my favorite... (outside of some brilliantly written fanfiction by stereden on AO3) And I would have been content to never see Mr. 3 again... But it is really cool to meet back up with so many of the old villains who only met their downfall and ended up here because of Luffy and to have them be on our side now. Really puts into perspective the morality of it all. Luffy's always fighting for the right things... but in the eyes of the government and greater world, he's a villain as well.
I've finally met Jimbei... (Jinbe? Jinbei? I've seen all 3, but Crunchyroll's subtitles use the 'm' spelling, so that's what I'm going with.) I haven't seen a lot of him yet, but I like him so far. He's tough, clearly, but also almost goofily polite, in a way that really complements Luffy's general blunt insensitiveness. I think it's still a while before he joins up as the last member of the crew, but I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.
This arc makes it really clear how Bon Clay came to be as beloved in the fandom as he is. And there's a lot that could be said about Ivankov... A lot that would very quickly derail this update and which I'm not totally, personally qualified to weigh in on...
Listen, One Piece's portrayal of queerness isn't perfect. But it's a hell of a lot better than the way so many other shows handle it, especially given the time this aired. (The Impel Down arc was originally adapted throughout late 2009-early 2010. Frankly, the 90s often included more and better handled LGBT+ characters than the 2000s era anime did, up until pretty recently.) Just the fact alone that this group is so out and proud about it and undeniably allied with and wholeheartedly accepted by the main protagonist is a fucking statement all on its own. It's beautiful. I can't underplay that by nitpicking the places the representation fell short by today's standards in a storyline that's 15 years old now. (I know there's a lot of shit in the future that goes down with Sanji in particular... So I may have less generous things to say later, but that's where we stand right now.)
And as for the arc's villains... Magellan's okay. This last episode particularly, the venom demon attack was pretty badass. (That image of the mushrooming skulls as it formed it was so good.)
And Hannyabal... Okay, there were some early moments that made me laugh. The gag about how he's clearly lusting for the warden's job and not great about hiding it could be pretty funny. But by the time he's defeated... and the anime starts in on a dramatic backstory for this asshole, trying to make him sympathetic... All I could say was, 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me...' I know it's kind of One Piece's thing to try and redeem everyone, but I was so bogged down by the pacing at that point... I did not have the patience for it. Good riddance to that dude in particular.
Episode 450 ends with our ragtag group officially making it out... And man, it's cool to see some of these older characters again, but I already miss our crew so much... Especially knowing what's coming...
I'm sure I've already mentioned that I know the bigger Marineford spoilers... But I'm still not sure I'm ready to see it firsthand.
Wish me luck.
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