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littleeyesofpallas · 4 years

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Bleach - Name Games

I know I already threw together the master list for these posts, but I realized another set of characters I could still bundle together. Although they aren’t quite as interesting and loaded as a lot of the shinigami names had been. Here’s the Fullbringers!

Ginjou [銀城] Kuugo[空吾]

“Silver Castle” is his family name, which seems dignified, and in retrospect almost feels like an accidental point toward the Quincy. And his personal name is written “Void/Sky/Heavens”+“My/Our” I can’t tell which of the two readings feels like it makes more sense; “Our Heaven” or “My/Our Void” either of which position him as the leader of Xcution, but “My Void” also feels like it describes some of his personal conflict.

Interestingly his name is also a kind of wordplay on Ichigo’s name. The “Silver Castle” is a kind of opposed image to Kurosaki[黒崎] “Black Cape” and like Ichigo’s own wordplay with numbers, “Kuugo” reads similarly to [九五] “Nine + Five.” In a lot of numerological systems, which frequently disregard zero, 1 and 9 are opposed terminals in a sequence. It’s a little hard to tell if Kubo meant for it, but it does kind of scan as if Kuugo is just named like a sort of bizarro Ichigo.

His Fullbring Cross of Scaffold is a dumb name with no meaning, and I only bring it up now because I’ll be mentioning the others’ Fullbrings while I’m at it.

Tsukishima[月島] Shuukurou[秀九郎]

“Moon Island“ and “Excellent Nine(th) Son.“ Curiously it piggybacks off Kuugo’s subtle Nine pun, and I really can’t help but want to draw ties between the “Moon” and Ichigo’s sword, as well as the “Island” and Ichigo’s “Cape/Peninsula.” Without taking these two characters into consideration, the name really doesn’t seem to have any implicit meaning in relation to Tsukishima himself.

Tsukishima is also an actual place in the Chuou ward of Tokyo. It’s the product of a reclamation project centered around what was the namesake island. But I don’t think the name is supposed to reference that, because for one you wouldn’t normally have someone’s family named after a place based on its modern state, and also because it’s not like the small district has any particular features linked to Tsukishima’s character.

Book of the End I feel like was meant to be an attempt at double meaning with Book End, but I don’t think Kubo understood that even though “of” and “the” aren’t really present in Japanese and have to be added in when translating into English, it doesn’t mean you can just take or add them into English in the same way.

Dokugamine[毒ヶ峰] Riruka[リルカ]

The Ga[ヶ] here reads as a possessive, as part of a place name, making her surname “Poison’s Peak“ and the given name, Riruka is just in katakana, so there’s no meaning to read; It is an actual Japanese name, and so there are a few conventional readings it would normally have, but I don’t think Kubo intended for any of those meanings to apply to Riruka. Actually, I think he wrote her name in kana specifically to make her a kind of parallel to Rukia, like Kuugo is a parallel to Ichigo. Also the pigtails, a bit of the attitude, and the poison shtick feels like it was salvaged off Loly Aivirrne’s general design.

Her Fullbring, Dollhouse was, I believe, a reference to the Priscilla album. It’s a little too generic a name to say for certain, but given the time frame and that fact that Kubo went all Jojo and named most of the other Fullbrings after music albums, it lines up.

Kutsuzawa[沓沢] Giriko[ギリコ]

Weirdly his surname translates as “Boots”+”Swamp” which seems almost tailor made for Jackie Tristan’s character, and has no apparent meaning in relation to Giriko... (I won’t actually be covering Jackie in this considering her name has no Kanji at all) And the name Giriko, as you can see above, is another kana only name. The sound girigiri[ぎりぎり] is the sound of grinding, which might actually be part of what Kubo was going for here. i.e. the grinding of gears (of a clock).

(A kind of random sidenote is that the name Giriko was used in Soul Eater for a character who is a living weapon; his weapon form of choice being a chainsaw, so the name evokes the sounds of a grinding chainsaw blade.)

Unrelated to name though, what was up with Giriko originally having what definitely appears to be a riding crop that just never showed back up?? I get this weird BDSM dom vibe from his first appearance, although they pretty quickly resolve the formal wear into his bar tender aesthetic. That may have had its own implications related to “grinding” sounds.

His Fullbring, Time Tells No Lies, is a Praying Mantis album. Between that and the eyepatch he almost feels like a rehash of Nnoitra Gilga’s character notes...

Also, since there’s not going to be any other place to put it: Jackie Tristan’s Fullbring, Dirty Boots is an album by Sonic Youth. And the more I think about this, I wonder if Giriko wasn’t supposed to have Dirty Boots at first, because honestly it would kind of play into that initial BDSM vibe he had, and Jackie’s little leather biker cap feels like a leather daddy kink thing more than just a biker boots thing. And even after her powered up form gave her the little engine and exhaust pipe pauldron thing to kind of pull it together, her boots aren’t even particularly in the American biker style. This isn’t really going anywhere, just something to think about...

Yukio[雪绪] Hans Vorarlberna[ハンス･フォラルルベルナ]

Yukio’s given name reads as “Snow Thread,” although the kanji used for “Thread” here is a weird archaic form that isn’t really used, but it is closely related to a more modern kanji that reads as “chord” or “thread.” Hans Vorarlberna is not a real name, but Vorarlberg is a state of Austria; I have no idea what the name means though, and I just assume Kubo picked it just because it sounded cool...

It feels like there was supposed to be some kind of parallel or theme in him getting paired off to fight Hitsugaya; Both kids, both light hair and ice/cold themed names and demeanor. (I almost get the feeling Kubo wanted him to have white hair until he remembered/was reminded that he already has like 5 other white haired characters running around.) We knew by that point that Kubo had a penchant for clever thematic fights like the Ants and Dragons fights during the Arrancar Arc. Yet there’s not really anything it this one?

His Fullbring, Invaders Must Die, is an album by The Prodigy.

Shishigawara[獅子河原] Moe[萌笑]

Family name is “Lion River-Beach” with Shishi referring to the animal itself but also the mythical lion dogs often depicted as guardian statues outside shinto shrines. The given name Moe[萌笑] reads like “Bud(ding) Laughter” as in the start of a laugh. The same “Budding” phrase can refer to showing symptoms of something like an illness.

I don’t actually know what to make of this name either; his general disposition as a bit of a goofball seems pretty aptly reflected in the given name, but the surname feels oddly specifically chosen for one that doesn’t seem to impart much meaning... I’m wondering if there’s not a more subtle or even just superficial form of wordplay that I’m missing here by not being fluent or more familiar with casual conversational phrases in Japanese.

Like Ginjou and Tsukishima, his Fullbring falls outside the album theme. Lucky Knuckles are just an actual thing: Gold plated knuckle dusters with slot machine lucky 777s on them.

#bleach #fullbring #xcution #ginjo kugo #tsukishima shukuro #riruka dokugamine #yukio hans vorarlberna #jackie tristan

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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65. Special - Sonic Live!

Previous / Table of Contents / Next

The Last Game Cartridge Hero

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Karl Bollers

*deep breath* …oh boy.

So this issue is kind of infamous for being, well, terrible. At least, this first story is. Even I, usually being willing to put up with a lot of crap from Penders, think this story is just a royal mess. You'll see what I mean in a second.

Anyway, the customary intro page of this issue makes some kind of allusion to Sonic being about to enter some strange other zone that's unlike anything he's ever experienced before. Indeed, the beginning shows Sonic rushing to try to rescue Sally, who's been captured by Robotnik, only to be blasted by energy bolts from behind - which, as we all know from when this exact thing happened to Robotnik in StH#21, just means he'll be catapulted into another reality instead of killed. Which reality is that, you ask?

Ha. Haaaaaa.

Oh yeah. That's right, folks. It's one of these. Kenders actually recruited both his real life son and niece to be photographed and placed into the story of the Sonic comics as actual characters. Luckily this only lasts for this one issue, and they weren't made recurring characters or something, but like, damn. These children are grown-ass adults right now. I wonder what they think of this? What they think of their father/uncle respectively? If they cringe looking back at this, or look back on fondly as a cool thing they got to experience as kids? Side note as well, as I've mentioned before Ken had never played a Sonic game while he worked on the comics, nor did he own a Sega console. That's why, when Steve "dies" in the game the screen simply appears to turn off, and, if you look closely, he's not holding a game controller, but rather holding a regular TV remote sideways. Oh, Ken. Why this? Why?

Well, anyway, Sonic finds himself floating in a strange void seemingly unable to move or see anything, until the faces of these kids start looming in his face and talk about seeing him in the TV as they try to turn on their game. Sonic, worried they're going to try to turn off the TV and I guess strand him in there for longer, somehow reaches out and pulls them in instead.

Great going, Sonic! Now these two kids who have no superpowers of their own are stuck in a dangerous war zone with you. Indeed, this goes as well as you might expect. He and the two kids are able to breach back into Sonic's home zone, where Robotnik has captured the rest of the Freedom Fighters and is planning to launch missiles into space to create… some kind of doomsday device? It's not really explained well beyond "killer satellites," but either way, Sonic doesn't like the idea of this, and so he starts beating up the swatbots in his way. This stops briefly when Robotnik decides to take his villainy to the next level and threaten to shoot the two random innocent kids just because they happen to be with Sonic.

Of course, the swatbots aren't as fast as Sonic, which begs the question of how they even managed to blast him at the beginning of this story in the first place, and he beats the rest of them up and escapes with the kids. He takes them to the control center to shut down the missile launch, which has begun its countdown due to Sonic accidentally knocking Robotnik down onto his launch remote. Great job, buddy!

They manage to shut down the missiles, but just as they do, Robotnik, Snively, Sonic, and the two kids are all pulled into a strange beam of light. Once Sonic and the kids get their bearings, Robotnik begins gloating, since apparently, during the split second between when he entered and when Sonic entered, he contacted a bunch of alternate universe copies of himself and got them to build him a big mech suit shaped like himself. Apparently, they're in yet another strange zone, and Robotnik realizes he can conquer the whole multiverse from here, not just his own version of Mobius. At least… I think that's what he's implying. Honestly, it's so unclear and all the dialogue so scattered, it's hard to even properly tell. Anyway, Robotnik throws Sonic and the kids in a prison cell with several other… humans?

While Robotnik suddenly finds himself threatened by the other versions of himself, not content to be used for slave labor, Sonic has a chat with these people. Apparently, this isn't just any old zone - it's the kids' home zone, AKA, Earth! Now, this definitely isn't our Earth. These guys claim to be the designers of the Sonic games, but for one, they're decidedly not Japanese, and two, there's no mention of Sega at all. Apparently, the concept art for Sonic the Hedgehog in this world was created when they received strange interdimensional transmissions showing images of him, and they decided to make a game out of it. Not only that, but now these video game designers slash scientists have apparently created a weird prototype device that was responsible for sucking Sonic and co. into this world through a strange dimensional link. Yyyyyeah. Go ahead and try to make any sense out of this crap.

Well, anyway, Sonic and the kids notice Robotnik and Snively about to be vaporized by the angry other-Robotniks, and decide to step in and save them from certain death, or maybe just another instance of zone-hopping. Come on Sonic, this is what, the third or fourth time you had an opportunity to let this guy die and have all your problems be solved? How many other people have died in this war because you refuse to let Robotnik be killed by his own hubris? Of course, the swatbots and other Robotniks don’t like this, and so to save themselves, Sonic and the kids need to shut down the prototype linking them to this world. Turns out the way they do this… is through Sonic game cheat codes!

The code recited by little Steve here is actually a real code, something I'm mildly surprised about given Ken's weird disdain for the Sonic video games. It's the level select code for the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on Genesis (non-Japanese version). If you've got a Genesis and a copy of the first game, try it yourself and see. In this world, however, it's apparently the shutdown code for the swatbots, and thus everyone is saved. The game designer scientist guys use the prototype's dimensional link to send Sonic, Robotnik and Snively back to their own zone, and Sonic has a happy reunion with his friends, who have been mysteriously freed from captivity in the meantime.

Oh, boy. Someone needs to tell Kenders that the Sonic games don't actually depict Sonic from the comics. These kids aren't gonna have any idea what the Sonic they were traveling with is up to, because all they'll be doing is playing as a different, more turquoise-colored Sonic, battling some weird dude called "Eggman" and collecting seven multicolored Chaos Emeralds to save a planet that definitely isn't called Mobius. Shame.

The Substitute Freedom Fighters

Writer: Rich Koslowski Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Karl Bollers

So you may be wondering. How exactly did the Freedom Fighters even get captured in the first place, and how did they escape while Sonic and the others were stuck in the "real world"? This story is here to answer our questions! Apparently, while Sonic is just off derping around somewhere else, the others are watching Rotor create a new micro-cam that he can attach to his bandolier, working kind of like a body cam so they can review footage of battles after the fact and learn from them. Fortunately for them, some swatbots immediately show up to let them test out their new invention. Unfortunately for them, they get overwhelmed and dragged back to Robotnik.

Hey, look who it is! Larry Lynx has made his comeback, and he's noticed everyone's disappearance… as well as the ongoing live feed from Rotor's micro-cam. Realizing everyone is in danger, he rallies the first people he sees training - Cyril Eagle, and Sally's old recruits. They team up and fight their way into Robotropolis, Larry using his famous bad luck to make sure the swatbots lose every time, and they're able to eventually find the captured Freedom Fighters and liberate them. After finding Sonic as well, they head back to Knothole, where Sally forms the six of them into a new team, the Substitute Legion of Freedom Fighters, as a backup squad that can continue the fight against Robotnik if the Freedom Fighters are unable to.

This is cute, but it does bring up an interesting point. Clearly, the Freedom Fighters are not always able to win their battles, and it's dire enough that Sally's started forming backup teams. It's not said directly that it's in case the main team dies or is roboticized or something, but we know that's a very real possibility in this war. Makes you wonder how this war was even fought when they were all tiny kids, and if something like this has ever happened before…

Knuckles Quest 2

Writer: Kent Taylor Pencils/Colors: Pat Spaziante

Well, no need to worry about that. Knuckles is at it again! This time, he's found his way to a strange cottage in the forest, and is set upon by a bunch of vicious mythical creatures, most of which he names off and mentions hearing in fairy tales. It's interesting, because as far as I'm aware, none of these are real-life mythical creatures, which means we're getting a tiny bit of lore and worldbuilding regarding the kinds of mythical creatures Mobian children are told about in this world.

Anyway, Knuckles is totally confused about why he's fighting all these creatures that are supposed to not even exist, but eventually reasons that they indeed can't be real, and are magical projections. Once he announces this, they dissipate and he finds himself talking to an old fox wizard, who directs him to continue his search elsewhere. He then reveals that he used to serve the king in his youth, and that his name is…

…Merlin Prower? Any Sonic fan worth their salt knows that Tails' real name is Miles Prower and that "Tails" is just a nickname, indicating that this strange wizard may be somehow related to Tails. Hmm, wonder if we'll ever hear any more of him…?

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #special - sonic live!#era 2 the freedom fight #writer: ken penders #writer: rich koslowski #writer: kent taylor #pencils: ken penders #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: pat spaziante #colors: karl bollers #colors: pat spaziante

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fanfictionfrustration · 7 years

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Picture This ~ Sonamy One Shot

A/N -

Sonamy!Boom

Sonic has a picture of Amy tucked away, and he accidentally drops it.

The picture [ X ].

“I got it!” Sonic shouted jumping to hit the incoming ball.

The team where enjoying a game of volley ball, one of their favourite past times. It was Sticks, Knuckles and Tails verses Sonic and Amy. Sonic and Amy where in the lead and had just scored another point.

“Yes! Another point for team Sonamy!” Sonic shouted.

Amy cheered and gave sonic a high five.

“Aren’t they adorable.” Sticks said flatly.

“Come on guys, I think we know you’ve won, let’s go get some food.” Tails said frustrated with another loss for his team.

“Good idea buddy.” Sonic said happily.

They began walking, when Knuckles noticed a piece of paper on the floor, he knelt down and picked it up. It was a picture, a picture of Amy. She wasn’t looking at the camera, she was looking off over the ocean. It looked as if she wasn’t even aware the picture was being taken.

“Hey guys wait up! I just found a picture…” Knuckles shouted as he ran towards his friends.

But before he could finish the picture was out of his hand.

“That mine.” Sonic said quickly as he stuffed the picture into his scarf.

Sonic couldn’t even look at Knuckles, he didn’t want to even know the expression that was on his face. What he didn’t see was a look of confusion that melted into a massive grin.

“Oh, is it now.” Knuckles said in a teasing voice.

“What was it Knuckles?” Amy questioned.

“Nothing. It was nothing. Let’s go to meh burger, I’m starved.” Sonic said walking off towards the restaurant.

The group caught up with Sonic, with Tails and Knuckles bring up the rear.

“So, what was the picture you found?” Tails asked quietly.

“It was a picture of Amy, she was sat looking at the ocean, and I don’t think she even knew she was being photographed.” Knuckles said describing the image, to the best of his memory.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! And he just carry’s that around with him? Why on earth hasn’t he asked her out yet?” Tails complained.

The fox was getting incredibly tired of the two hedgehog’s painfully obvious feelings for one another. It was so obvious that they liked one another, so he couldn’t understand why they couldn’t tell each other. It was very frustrating. He just wanted to see his friends happy.

“You’ve got me dude, I mean he’s carrying that around with him, so there’s no doubt in my mind he likes her.” Knuckles said as he watched the two hedgehogs interact with one another.

Suddenly Sonic stopped and looked back at the two men walking slowly behind the group, he spoke to the girls then ran over to them.

“About earlier…” Sonic began flatly. “I’d appreciate it if you kept what you saw to yourself.”

“My lips are sealed…I told Tails.” Knuckles explained grinning sheepishly.

Tails laughed nervously, as the blue hedgehog directed his attention to him.

“Look guys, she can’t know.” Sonic said stepping in front of them both.

“Why?” Knuckles asked confused as to why the pink hedgehog wasn’t allowed to know the truth.

“Because! Please guys just keep this to your self’s.” Sonic sounded desperate, it was actually a little painful to hear.

“Fine!” They replied in unison.

Internally Sonic was having a mini freak out. He dropped the picture, how could he have been so careless. What if Amy had found it? She would think he was creepy carrying around a picture of her, let alone it being one she didn’t even know existed. Tails could keep a secret he knew that, what worrying him was that Knuckles knew. He wasn’t the best secret keeper, Sonic shuddered remembering all the surprise parties that had been ruin by Knuckles accidentally letting the secret slip.

“Guy’s come on!” Amy shouted to the three men trailing behind her.

Sonic gave a solitary nod to the men and then sped up to catch up with the girls. They found an empty table at Meh Burger and ordered there food.

“So, what shall we do after this?” Sticks asked before tucking in to her food.

“I was thinking we could go back to the beach.” Sonic suggested.

“Why? So you can take more pictures of…uh I mean…” Knuckles blabbered.

“What are you talking about Knucks?” Amy asked the flustered echidna.

“Me oh nothing. You know me, sometimes I just say random stuff. Like Sonic carrying around a picture of you, why would I even say something like that, who knows?” Knuckles jabbered on and on, trying to dig himself out of a never ending hole.

The whole team froze, Amy switched he attention to the blue hedgehog who was sat frozen solid, dripping chilly from his chilly dog. He stared back at her, what was he meant to do? His flight or fight instincts kicked in. He chose flight. Sonic darted off as fast as he could, leaving a very stunted group.

“He…he what?” Amy stuttered

“What? Sonic, nothing. Knuckles was just joking. Right Knucks” Tails said trying to laugh off the situation. It failed to work.

“Hehe…yeah.” Knuckles smiled sheepishly.

“He carries a picture of me?” She said standing and looking off into the direction Sonic had ran off to.

“Hey, don’t you have a picture of Sonic in your purse!” Sticks said remembering their trip to the volcano.

“Sticks!” Amy snapped, she didn’t want the world to know her secret.

“Oh for crying out loud you two are so frustrating! Just go find him Amy.” Tails shouted slamming his hand down onto the table.

Amy jumped at the fox’s sudden outburst but nodded and ran off following in Sonics footsteps. She ran around frantically, looking everywhere she could think of, but couldn’t find him anywhere. After what felt like hours she gave up, she’d just have to look for him tomorrow. She walked home in defeat. When she finally arrived she found Sonic sat on the step outside her door.

“Sonic?” Amy said approaching him slowly.

He stood up and walked over to her. He rummaged in his scarf and dug out a small piece of paper and past it over to her. It was a picture of her, looking out over the sea. She saw a date scribbled on the bottom, it was from a day she’d spent with Sonic on the beach. It had been a wonderful day, just the two of them, enjoying each other’s Company. But she wasn’t aware of the picture.

“I’m sorry.” Sonic spoke softly, snapping Amy out of her memory.

“For what?” Amy responded surprised.

“For not telling you, and for being creepy, and for….” He began listing off things.

Amy stopped him by pulling him into a heartfelt hug.

“You’re not a creep Sonic! This is the most romantic thing you’ve ever done.” She said holding him tightly.

At first he hadn’t registered what was happening, but slowly he wrapped his arms around the pink woman. His heart erupting in is chest.

“Plus I have a picture of you in my bag so we’re both creeps.” Amy said as she nuzzled into his chest.

Sonic chuckled, “We’re not very good at mushy stuff, hyh.” He said resting his head on the top of hers.

“No I guess not.” He heard her reply softly.

“Ames, I’m only gonna say this once, so listen up. I like you a lot, and I wanna be…um…well you know.” He stated.

He was pretty proud of himself, he was never very good with feelings, but he thought he’d got his point across pretty well.

“I like you a lot too, and yes I’d like that to.” Amy responded pulling back so she could look up at her blue love.

They both lent into one another touching lips softly. They pulled apart, Amy took Sonic’s hand in hers and pulled I’m into her home, closing the door gently behind them.

A/N -

Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed this new one shot. Its a little longer than my usual one shot but ah well. I drew a little picture to go along with this one, [ X ]. Tis the photo of Amy that Sonic keeps.

Sorry about my spelling, dyslexia makes me sad.

Have ideas you want me to write, send me a message and ill give you a yay or nay. :D

#sonamy #one shot #sonic boom #boom!sonamy #sonic the hedgehog #sonic x amy #amy rose #amy rose the hedgehog #my fanfiction #fanfic #picture this

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bloodborne-on-pc · 6 years

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Over the course of three days - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday(today) - I have, with one of my siblings, watched all the Showa era Gamera movies. And I, I have come out a changed man. Or woman. Person. I dunno anymore. Back on subject, I just. Need to talk about them. Screaming into void about movies I recently saw is therapeutic - especially if they piss me off. And hoo boy were there times when I couldn’t stand these fucking movies - as in, there were only two whole-ass movies, out of eight, that I liked unironically. Everything else was either unintentionally funny, or just made me angry. Especially after being introduced to Gamera through the Heisei trilogy, which is AWESOME as FUCK. Probably raised my standards. Also, I’m just gonna put the rest under a “Read More” because this is gonna get reeeaaalllyyy long.

First, we got Gamera, the Giant Monster. This is one of the genuinely good ones. Technically this isn’t my first time seeing it - I saw the English dub, Gammera the Invincible. But I may as well have been seeing it for the first time - aside from the English version adding a bunch of new footage, there’s also this awful fucking song that I’m like 60% sure has some kind of amnesia curse on it, because it seems longer every time I’ve ever heard it, and I barely remember the English version except for two parts, one of which has the previously mentioned cursed song playing during it. BUT. Back to the original, un-cursed version of Gamera. Gamera gets woken up when a plane carrying nukes crashes in the Arctic, and he busts out of the ice, making a regular mess of things. He sinks a research vessel, rampages through Tokyo a bit - knocking over Tokyo Tower, which is kind of obligatory in these sorts of movies - and then stomps all over a power plant and eats some fire, ‘cause that’s just what he does. The humans try all sorts of tricks, ranging from just good old gunfire to freezing him - but none of it works. Dude’s just unkillable. So they lure him to an island by spilling a bunch of oil on the ocean and setting it on fire(insert BP joke), and then they trap him in a big rocket, which they launch into space.

Then, we get to Gamera versus Barugon. Not to be mistaken for Baragon, a completely different monster. This movie is...boring. The fights between Barugon and Gamera are kind of entertaining, but they happen near the beginning and at the end. The middle of the film just really drags on and on and on and ON. Barugon is kind of an interesting monster, at least. He has a chameleon-like tongue that shoots gas out of the tip and freezes stuff. He can also shoot rainbow lasers out of his back - which can be reflected back at him with a big enough mirror, something the humans do once the movie decides to stop being boring and let things happen again. Until Gamera shows up and just drowns the fucker. Also forgot to mention - the whole “shoot Gamera into space” thing was made moot when a meteor smacked into the rocket transporting Gamera to Mars and broke it open, freeing Gamera. He then just flew back to Earth and went back to stomping on power plants and eating fire.

Next, is Gamera versus Gyaos. This is the other good film. The explanation of Gyaos’s biology is pretty strange, though. There’s some shit about it having two spinal cords and two throats, which is how it can produce the sound necessary for its sonic beam - and these features essentially make it impossible for it to turn its head; something that plays into Gyaos’s defeat. Gamera gets behind and just whales on it, and Gyaos can’t do shit because it can’t turn its head to shoot the sonic beam. Also, Gyaos can’t stand sunlight - being out in the sun gives it god-tier sunburn. That was another contributing factor to its death - Gamera beating the snot out of it during the day make things a little easier. It also had this weird ability to shoot yellow gas out of its torso that put out fires. Seemed kind of random, but when you have a turtle that breathes fire, eats fire, and flies by spewing fire out of its leg and arm holes, it makes for a more interesting fight.

And from here on out, it’s downhill motherfuckers.

Film number four - Gamera versus Viras. This is the first film where a different but equally annoying song about Gamera shows up - and is then in almost every other movie afterwards, each with its own slightly different rendition of it. It’s enough to drive someone insane after hearing it enough - and watching this series, you are going to hear it a lot. There’s a lot of bullshit in this fucking movie. At one point, Gamera get stuck under a forcefield with a submersible - ya know what fucking happens? Gamera lifts up part of the forcefield to let the submersible out - but then, doesn’t continue to lift it up to free himself. He just sits there like a dumbass. Then some aliens read his mind, and look at stock footage of the fights from vs. Barugon and vs. Gyaos. Then they mind control him, and make Gamera wreak havoc on Earth, depicted through even more stock footage - some of it from when he destroys a power plant in vs. Barugon, and some of it from when he smashes Tokyo in the first film. Oh, did I mention that the first movie was in black and white, and the others are all in color? This means there’s a random part in vs. Viras that’s just in fucking black and white for no reason, because it’s fucking footage taken from the original movie! There’s also this one big plothole: at point, a pair of kids(b/c the protagonists of these movies from Viras forward are annoying-ass children) are trapped on the alien’s ship. They get shackled to the wall, but manage to free themselves, and try to find a way off. At one point, they find a monster in a cage. Eventually, the kids decide to distract the aliens(who are identical to humans) so they can teleport themselves off-ship. They run into the control room with the aliens and yell about how oh no the monster is free! And the aliens fall for it - not even questioning why the kids aren’t imprisoned anymore. If that sounds stupid, it gets worse. The monster? Is their fucking boss, Viras. Even worse, they’re not even actually humanoid, but the exact same type of creature - they’re just wearing human skins as a disguise; kind of horrifying in hindsight, but at the time I was too busy being confused by how this made no sense. After that’s revealed, they all fuse with the boss monster, making him tall enough to fight Gamera. They duke it out, kind of interesting, especially the bit where Gamera gets impaled several times in a row by Viras. Reminder that this is when the franchise became aimed more at children. Gamera wins by flying high into the atmosphere, which freezes Viras, and then chucks Viras back down to Earth, killing him. There’s a lot more bullshit I could have covered, but I need to save my energy for the next four films and I feel exhausted writing about this already.

Next, Gamera versus Guiron. A pair of kids accidentally steal a spaceship and end up on another planet. This is witnessed by one of the kid’s sister, who tries to tell her mom, who denies that aliens even exist - even though, in the previous movie, the UN surrendered to aliens after Gamera’s mind control-fuelled rampage. On the planet, the kids meet two nice lady aliens who are the last of their species there - everyone else left because there’s a bunch of silver Space Gyaos making a mess of everything. The alien ladies have control of another monster named Guiron, who helps fend off the Space Gyaos with the giant knife on his head and telekinetic shuriken that rest on the underside of the knife. Oddly enough, they never actually showed the back legs of the suit on-screen - sometimes there’d be a puppet where you could see Guiron’s back legs, but never when it was a guy in a suit - I can’t help but wonder if the suit was unfinished and they tried to hide it. Anywho, Gamera - who chased after the ship to try and save the kids - is kind of a little bitch in this one - he seems to make a much bigger deal out of relatively minor wounds in this one than some of the others. Like, as previously mentioned in vs. Viras, he got fucking impaled and kept going right away - but here he makes a big stink about getting hit with one of Guiron’s shuriken. Also, the ladies are actually planning to eat the kids, but seem to switch back and forth between raw and cooked - not in “they argue about their preferences” way, but in the “in one scene they say raw and another cooked” kind of way. They also read one of the kid’s mind to see how strong Gamera is, resulting in stock footage from the previous three films. Ultimately, said annoying kids help Gamera kill Guiron - after Gamera lifts up Guiron and drops him on his head, getting him stuck in the ground thanks to a pointy head. Guiron shoots his shuriken at Gamera, but Gamera manages to dodge them; the kids shoot some missiles at Guiron, but they miss. Gamera managed to catch one - the hole where the shuriken were resting Guiron’s head is now empty, so Gamera throws it like a dart into the hole and breathes fire on the missile, causing it blow up. You see Guiron’s corpse fly into the air, headless, but then you see it on the ground with his head still attached, just slightly scorched, which is bizarre as shit.

The sixth film, Gamera versus Jiger, does not have aliens or stock footage, making it more tolerable than the others. Mostly it’s the latter that pisses me off, but there’s a lot of aliens in these movies. Jiger is, instead, an ancient monster from the fictional Wester Island off the coast of Africa. The statue that kept her imprisoned is removed and she is free to wreak havoc. Gamera tries to stop her, but Jiger shoots spears out of horns on her snout and impales Gamera’s limbs, then knocks him onto his back - bad news even for giant turtles. Jiger then swims off to find the statue in Japan. Gamera pulls out the spears and makes chase, but gets his ass beat a second time. He gets stabbed by the stinger in Jiger’s tail and falls comatose half-submerged on a beach. Turns out she laid an egg his lung and the baby Jiger is sucking his blood - which is fucking weird, because the stinger didn’t have a hole in it or anything. So a pair of kids steal a submersible and steer it into Gamera, then accidentally kill the baby with white noise from a walkie-talkie. The adults set up a giant speaker system to kill big Jiger with while the kids connect a bunch of powerlines to Gamera’s heart to jumpstart him. The first thing doesn’t work, the second does - they fight again, Gamera manages to dodge stinger and spears, and wins by picking up the statue then shoving it into Jiger’s brain. There was also some shit about how the statue was able to imprison Jiger because it made a low-frequency sound, which was harmful to Jiger because she could shoot high-frequency heat beams, and those two things are “opposite”, and, I dunno, this doesn’t make any fucking sense.

Now, we have Gamera versus Zigra. More aliens. One of who is a big fish, Ziger, who grows larger in Earth’s ocean because of the lessened pressure, even though that’s not how this shit works - the reason most deep-sea animals die when brought up isn’t because they suffocate, but because they can’t survive in lower/no water pressure. There was also some shit about SeaWorld or whatever. Fuck SeaWorld. There was also a part where some people got hypnotized into having dolphin brains, and the only way to fix them was to scream into a walkie-talkie. That, at least was hilarious. I honestly can’t remember much about what happened even though I watched it today - I think the other Gamera song might have an amnesia curse too.

And now, last, and agreed by everybody to be the least - Gamera: Super Monster. This, I actually did not watch all of - partway through, one of my parents texted me to make dinner, and by the time I finished the movie was basically over. Based off what I did see, and the fact that it’s primarily stock footage, I have no intention of seeing anymore. It started off kind of wacky, with a bunch of alien ladies on Earth doing some kind of Superman/Power Rangers type transformation. There was also another evil lady alien hunting them down. There was also a kid, who got a pet turtle, and then released it a couple days later because his mother convinced him that the turtle would be “happier” in the pond, and that makes me angry because that’s how invasive species happen, and please don’t release your pets into wild, people. There was some stuff where this kid played the organ and sang a really annoying song. There was also some boring stuff I can’t be bothered to write down. Then there was some stock footage of Gyaos from the third movie, because a new one just kind of showed up, I guess. That’s all I saw, then I had to make pizza burgers. I apparently didn’t miss much, though my brother mentioned there was one part where there was a train or something in space that was clearly ripped from some kind of animated movie, and Gamera chasing after it, probably also stock footage. Fuck this movie - I haven’t seen it all but fuck it.

In conclusion, fuck the Showa series, except for the original and vs. Gyaos. Those are the only good ones. Honestly feeling kind of disappointed. I expected more from these movies.

I think I’m gonna go watch the Heisei trilogy, AKA Gamera movies that are consistently good. My hands hurt from typing too much.

#film talk #gamera #seriously though i'm feeling disappointed and mad as hell #i thought they'd be at least half-decent but nah #it's a really mixed bag

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lvlsrvryhigh · 7 years

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LVLSRVRYHI-044: Spurz

Hey man, how it's going? I usually start off with introductions, so, for anyone who doesn't know, who are you and where are you from? I'm Spurz, a producer/DJ originally from a small town in Canada, now based in London because I felt like my life needed a shake up and I wanted to chase some things I love. Aside from my own music, I also run a label called Drama Hands with one of my best friends, Jesse.

Now that you're in London you're ostensibly within spitting distance of places where a lot of your musical touchstones (grime, dubstep, jungle, garage) were born and developed - Was that a part of the decision behind the move? Did you come with specific expectations? Yeah, honestly that was kinda the biggest reason for the move. I was growing very disheartened by an increasingly bleak music/club scene in Vancouver where I've been for the past few years, but I'm a firm believer in the idea that if you don't like your situation or surroundings, you change them. More than that, I really wanted to experience firsthand not only the birthplace of all these sounds and scenes I cherish, but to better understand the societal factors that influenced their conception. I didn't move over with any concrete expectations besides the rent being pretty astronomical, but having a really solid network of London-based friends that I speak to on a regular basis helped give me an idea of what life was going to look like.

I mentioned the UK dance spectrum already, but something I've noticed just from hanging around you a lot lately is the breadth and depth of your listening habits; from Carly Rae Jepson to Lorenzo Senni to house and techno tracks I'm not even going to pretend to know. What were some of your first beginnings with music, electronic or otherwise? Is there anything you've revisited recently that's left an impact? I owe a lot of those eclectic tastes to my parents. My dad holds Delta blues musicians in the same light that people worship saints, while my mum worked the pop spectrum from the ‘50s onwards. Mum accidentally turned me on to electronic music, actually. She used to instruct aerobics classes and was always on the hunt for music with a solid beat, which at that time (mid 90's) meant a lot of "dance music" (the catch-all term at the time). The fact that she openly hated it all, referring to it as "circle music", made it extra appealing to me in the same way some kids gravitate to punk or metal. There was an underground rave DJ in Toronto, Chris Sheppard, who used to put out these Pirate Mix cassettes that I used to horde as soon as she bought them, that was really the entry point for me. While they had some questionable Eurodance content, they also had a lot of house and rave classics that served as a great gateway.

As for retrospection, I've been diving back into the LOL Boys catalogue. A lot of their productions were transformative for me, and there was something innocent and explorative about that time in electronic music, at least for me, and I miss it sometimes. Their Fader mix is one of the only mixes I ever revisit with any frequency.

Once I hear it I'm sure I'll start to pick out elements of that erratic taste of yours on your album - Loud Futures (which just dropped on Apothecary Compositions) - but if you had to give a sort of elevator pitch for the record what would be the main points to mention? It's mainly a study in contrasts, whether it be weight, textures, tones, etc. I suppose it's meant to be a more cohesive narrative, repurposing fragments of my influences while aiming for something that sits slightly out of any one pocket.

What brought you to release on Apothecary? Why the effort to put something physical out as well? Joseph (Druid Cloak) has been a friend and huge inspiration to me for years, not only as a producer but as an example of an artist who isn't afraid to put his vision and values above everything else. He was an early supporter of my music and it had always been a goal to work with him in some capacity. In a night of mutually drunken text messaging, we started bouncing around the idea of doing a full LP.

The physical element stems entirely from my younger days. I fully endorse digital consumption of music, but part of me will never be able to fully divorce from the feeling of owning a physical recording as an immersive experience. For this release, it was a great opportunity to add some extra layers to the record, and having my dear friend Markus Garcia (former LOL Boy, now Heartbeat(s)) supply his art on the project makes it really personal for me.

Drama Hands, the label and club night you co-run with your house/soulmate Jesse Rhodes, moved its operation to London the same time the two of you did. How do you see this change of base affecting something that started out as a specific response to the absence of a local scene or platform? Where do you plan to take the label now that you're here? You're right, it is a bit of a 180. Drama Hands was born out of a complete lack of spaces for local artists we loved that needed a platform. Even though we've moved to a place with one of the biggest possible platforms (albeit with ever-dwindling spaces), I think our goal is still very much the same. I feel that with the brighter spotlight London offers to some, it means others get left in even darker shadows, so we'd like to continue to help amplify the voice of artists we believe in. Our club nights will be up and running in London soon, and I'm excited about some of the upcoming projects we've got in the wings as well.

With both Drama Hands and Loud Futures in mind, I wanted to ask about what kind of influences you might have outside of music, and also how you adapt or recast those within your productions? A lot of my influences are actually spaces and moments, I write a lot of music to be a score to small, passing everyday scenes or structures. I'm inspired heavily by design, architecture and fashion, so in a way, my music is a way to build and sew in a sonic medium.

Where and how did you record the mix? Did you set out with any particular idea when picking out the tracks? The mix was recorded in my flat, on Ableton, which I tend to shy away from usually, but for mixes such as this one, I view them as a statement or composition, so I can add extra elements and utilize the elasticity that Ableton provides. Track selection was basically like any of my DJ sets, random grab bag of tracks I've been enjoying lately with a few older tracks peppered in. For me, nostalgia is an extremely powerful emotion when I'm on the dance floor so I usually try to work something timeless into my sets.

What else do you have planned for 2017? A bit later in the year, I'll be releasing a mixtape/cassette of productions titled 'Vexed 2 Rest On U'. I'm hoping to follow that up with a small collection of my writings accompanied by a sibling collection of more ambient works. A few other EPs/projects in the works for Drama Hands and some other labels too.

And finally, if you had to pick something for people to listen to immediately after this mix what would it be? If you enjoyed the Jungle / DnB direction the mix was headed in, I'd highly recommend revisiting some of the earlier Moving Shadow catalogue.

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If you'd like to cool off, Steven Hauschildt's newest one 'Strands' is fantastic, as is Emika's new 'Melanfonie' project.

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#Spurz #Apothecary Compositions #Loud Futures #Mix #Interview #words #the levels are very high #lvlsrvryhi #mix series #garage #grime #dubstep #jungle

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