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eeby-beeby-madoka-fan-blog · 9 months

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I woke up this morning and the very first thing I did was watch the next Madoka Magica movie trailer, I will now provide an extensive (and probably excessive) analysis. I'm going to be as thorough as I possibly can and that's a warning! <3333

The phone ringing sound effect at the start is the exact same as the one in Akumura's transformation in magia record (april fools one) (side note this is how I found out Devil Homura actually got into magia record, I saw the transformation and I am so mad)

after that IT'S THE LIZARD :DDDDDDD

very happy to see the Homura lizard I think she's important <3

Translating the ear cuff concept art (google translate so probably not too good a translation but bare with me) the jewel attached to the tail is Madoka's power which is neat, the madoka runes also say "Homulilly" if you're wondering.

The new lizard is a similar representation to the purple one, I believe the lizard is a representation of sorts for her love of Madoka (note how it splatters. My theory is that the lizard is Love, that's why Love didn't show up to Homulilly's funeral.)

It's red either to show it's corrupted or because as aforementioned Homura possesses Madoka's power in the gem her ear cuff carries (that's also why I think her eyes were tinged pink in the Devil Homura form)

The lizard turns into a phone so we'll probably have a pretty good excuse to make Homura Touch Tone Telephone amvs/animations, yippee!

A lot of people have pointed this out as a tarot card meaning illusion, fear, subconscious, etc which definitely fits. I want to add on to this scene though: around the centerpiece there's butterflies with pins through them, in her magia record "coolmura" transformation her glasses turn into butterflies so it might be a callback relating to that.

(In that transformation they go into her soul gem, in this scene they're pinned down, something about lizards eating butterflies? And butterflies representing freedom, the butterflies being pinned then definitely matches what she does to Madoka at the end of rebellion.)

The moon symbol halved like that is also used various other times in the series too, in one notable instance she was even sitting under it like she is in next shot

LIZARD AGAIN WOOOOOOOOOOOO LET'S GOOOOOOOO

Homura gets a pretty new outfit and cool lizard chair good for her tbh

Zooming in I can see that 1: Homura's outfit slays even harder than I thought it did (and it's very similar to the one she wears mid witch transformation in rebellion) 2: the chair is supposed to look like her devil homura form and 3: the lizard she's sitting on has the gem eye so it's probably at least related to the ear cuff

Skipping ahead through the montage, there's this girl

Who the HELL is this. Her outfit looks a lot like Homura's, she even uses Homura's bow and arrow, but it also looks like Madoka's? Like some sort of mix between the two. Even weirder, the ribbons she seems to be fighting with look like MAMI'S. What, does the new movie have magical girl fusion? Is this Hitomi somehow? Is it Mami? Or someone new?

Here's what I think: Homura takes the place of Kyubey in turning people into magical girls, this is one of the girls who she made into one. It makes sense for why she was saying "can you accept the risks and responsibilities? Can you fight against the curse of this world?" Maybe, people contact her through the phone asking to become a magical girl and that's what she says to them. This girl also appears right after the phone hangup noise.

Next, there's this scene. Which... is a little concerning.

There's some pretty unfortunate conclusions you could draw here, but look at the digital stuff around her. Is Madoka going to the endless solitude? Remember, to get there you jump off of the radio tower alone. (To be honest, it's been a while since I've seen magia record because I don't really like it, and I haven't seen season 2, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's some gaps so if there's anything from magia record that could add to the analysis I'll leave that to the fans of magia record)

Homura looks so pretty oh my god. New headband, also she's carrying an umbrella

she had one in rebellion too but this one's cooler. Also it looks like she wears pants under her skirt now! Getting some fun design changes to shake it up I see.

Kyoko and Mami got pretty slight design changes, Kyoko looks exactly the same so I'm not actually sure if anything changed and Mami's top looks pretty different. Nothing to say about that except, cool!

Sayaka looks pretty majorly different though. She now has a ribbon wrapping all over her face. Probably something about how she knew about Homura being the devil, this might be symbolism for her being silenced. Either way it's also cool.

After that Homura's on this really tall tower, somehow there's more than one of her. If you look at the backdrop you can see the fence on the roof of the school.

Zooming in, the tower is apparently built up of books. Behind Homura there's some nails, they look sorta like the needles in the first scene. Something interesting is she's wearing her usual magical girl outfit, except with the shawl and brooch from the first scene. The Clara doll also sorta looks like a lizard tail.

And that's the trailer! Hope you enjoyed my spiral into insanity, it took me two hours to write this :D

#madoka magica #puella magi madoka magica #akemi homura #homura akemi #madoka magica rebellion #walpurgis no kaiten #pmmm #pmmm homura #pmmm madoka #pmmm rebellion #pmmm rebellion sequel #AUTISM🔥🔥🔥#long post #like really really long post

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 3 years

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TATMILB, CHAPTER 3

Penelope spent her life writing love letters, which didn’t seem like a terrible idea until the letters were mailed out and Schneider received one of them. Hoping to fool their exes, they agree to fake a relationship. But are they lying to everyone around them, or to themselves? aka my To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before-inspired AU.

Penelope x Schneider, ODAAT. available on ao3 with extra author’s notes.

Chapter 3: Penelope tries to bond with Alex during movie night; he and Lydia bring the family’s donations to Goodwill. Schneider returns from vacation and confronts Penelope. She panics.

While Schneider was away with Nikki over the weekend, Penelope splurged on a trip to the movies--luring Alex with the promise of food he didn’t have to sneak in.

She was trying to focus on silver linings instead of her anxieties about Elena, and the upsides included her new availability for Alex. Twice as much parent to go around could only lead to more bonding, right?

He had lobbied for an R-rated comedy, which she was definitely not willing to pay for. On her own, she would’ve headed right for the newest Bradley Cooper drama, but no amount of chocolate could convince Alex to sit through that.

So they compromised on an action movie--which would have the added benefit of covering up the sound of her soda later. Agreeing to buy concessions for Alex didn’t make her a different person. Her discount snacks were better than their overpriced junk, anyway.

He grinned at her over his bucket of popcorn while they waited for the lights to go down, and she considered her bribery a success. See, she could be the cool mom. Even if she had Raisinets in her cargo pants.

“Hey, Mom?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you still miss Max?”

Where did that come from? The question hurt, mostly because it was so unexpected. With Max exiting her life right before Lydia’s stroke, neither Alex or Elena had mentioned him much in the last year. They’d all had other things on their minds.

She let the pain pass by before she answered.

“Yes, Papito, I still do. It’s hard to let go of people you love. Sometimes, a part of you misses them even after you’ve moved on.”

He nodded, sipping his soda.

“Do you think you’ll start dating again anytime soon?”

That question was even more out of character for her son, whose world had been so often self-centered since he first came into it.

Penelope narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you suddenly so interested in my dating life?”

“I was just wondering.”

”Well, I’m having fun the way things are. You and me, catching a movie on a Friday night, mother and son time with Elena away. Why would I want to date when I could be doing this?”

She grabbed a handful of popcorn and caught the way he cringed. Or flinched. Whatever it was, there was guilt there. Her mom radar went up.

“Alex, what is it? Is something going on?”

“It’s nothing!” He assured her in a rush. “It’s just...I kind of--did have a date.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. You wanted to go out together, so I rain checked it with Chloe for next weekend. But I mean, let’s be real, Mom. This can’t last forever. I’ll go off to college too, or modeling school, whatever, and then who will you hang out with?”

The trailers started playing, just in time, letting her wallow until the movie started.

Penelope couldn’t keep the sadness off her face as she watched Alex settle in with his snacks. He was growing up so fast on her. Too fast. And Elena was practically out of the house already.

She didn’t want to date just to avoid being alone, but hearing that concern from her teenage son? Ouch. So much for being the cool mom.

Now Penelope was glad that they’d picked an action flick. She was ready to watch some stuff blow up.

****

Alex emerged from his room the next morning waving his phone at her.

“Mom, that was the third text I’ve gotten from Elena since she left reminding us to take that stuff to Goodwill.”

“Good morning to you, too,” Penelope replied.

She was almost out the door, but her son had the luxury of sleeping in on Saturdays until baseball season started. He was taking full advantage of it.

“Seriously, she woke me up--and I need my beauty rest. She’s not gonna stop bugging me until you drop it off.”

“Alex...” Penelope shrugged into her coat, kissing her Mami on the cheek in thanks for the quick cafecito she had substituted for breakfast. “It’s all boxed up, we finished it before she left; it’ll get there.”

“I’m just saying, she’s gonna start texting you next, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the lectures any more than I do.”

“Well, I’ve got plans with Jill today--and I’m about to be late. Mami?” She raised hopeful eyebrows in Lydia’s direction.

“Hmm?”

“Can you go with Alex to the Goodwill donation dropoff? I won’t be back until dinner.”

“Si, Lupita. Go have fun with your friend, we will handle it.”

“Great. Thanks. The things I’m getting rid of are in my room, next to the closet.”

“You know, this would be much easier if Schneider had not taken his girlfriend on a vacation.” Lydia frowned. “He could carry much bigger boxes than myself or Papito.”

“Hey, I can lift heavy stuff,” Alex protested.

“Yes, but you should not have to! You should save your strength for wooing your future wife.” Lydia patted his face.

“Luckily for us--and Alex’s future wife--none of the boxes are all that heavy,” Penelope said. “And there aren’t too many of them. Now, I really have to go. I’ll see you both tonight.”

****

Absorbed in work and school, Penelope didn’t give their Goodwill donations another thought until Tuesday, on her way out of the hospital. The two boxes she’d packed in her room were gone, concluding that chore.

Or so she thought.

Penelope was digging in her purse for her keys when she saw Schneider striding her way. “Oh, hey! I thought you were gonna be off the grid with Nikki for another couple of days.”

“No, that trip is kind of...over. That whole thing is kind of over.”

“Again?”

Hurt crossed Schneider’s face before he buried it. He was really good at that, she’d learned--mostly from moments when she was the one hurting him. Way to go, Penelope.

“I mean, I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Eh, I will be. Eventually. It’s not like we were engaged, right?”

Schneider shook his head. “That’s not why I’m here, though. Nikki may have dumped me for one of the jock dads at St. Bibiana’s, but that doesn’t mean I think you and I should blur the lines on the rebound.”

She stared at the creased blue paper he held up as he continued.

“Not that I’m not flattered, obviously. You’re the most badass woman I know, an amazing mom, anybody would be lucky to--”

Penelope’s field of vision narrowed to the letter in his hand, a letter that she definitely recognized. She didn’t hear the rest of his sentence. She could only hear her heart pounding in her ears, making her wonder if she was about to pass out there, next to her car.

How did Schneider get that? What was happening right now?

“I found it slipped under my door when I got home. And honestly, Pen, if you needed to tell me this stuff, you could have just done it in person--we’ve had enough late night chats that nothing’s really off limits at this point.”

She took a deep breath, trying to focus on a technique that worked for her during panic attacks and after nightmares. Since the moment felt like an actual waking nightmare, slowly counting backwards didn’t help much. He was still there. Waiting.

“Schneider, that letter--it’s not what it looks like, I swear. I don’t want to date you. At all. I wrote it because...”

She was still trying to find the words to explain something much too complicated for a parking lot when she saw motion past Schneider’s left shoulder.

Max was exiting the hospital and heading straight for them, holding a bright white envelope in one hand.

It didn’t take a genius to know what he was coming over to say.

Which was good, because Penelope’s mind was not exactly in top condition. It was already a five-alarm fire up in there, and every part of her was screaming I cannot deal with this.

In the fraction of a second she had to consider her options, Penelope acknowledged that the mature response would be to face it now--to explain the situation to her ex-boyfriend and her best friend at the same time.

Or, she decided, as she felt both men’s eyes on her and her palms started to sweat...she could do literally anything else.

Going with her first impulse, Penelope reached up and grabbed Schneider’s shirt with both hands, pulling him toward her. Before Max could get one step closer, she kissed Schneider like her life depended on it.

She couldn’t have explained to anybody why kissing Schneider seemed like a better idea than letting Max think she was still pining over him. Right then, she just needed Max to stay back. To leave them alone.

Did it work? She wondered. She couldn’t check without breaking off the kiss, but the silence seemed promising.

Of course, the quiet only emphasized the situation she was now in. She was kissing Schneider. She was in a hospital parking lot, a few yards away from her ex-boyfriend, kissing Schneider.

Pressed against her, Schneider didn’t react. Not after the initial moment, or several more. He let her kiss him, but he didn’t kiss back. And that was fine, Penelope told herself. That was better.

“Thank you,” she said when she let Schneider go. He stood there, flushed and baffled, looking at her like he had never seen her before.

Though confusion was written all over his face, Schneider nodded. “You’re...welcome?”

Penelope wasn’t willing to push her luck any further. She couldn’t avoid the embarrassment forever, but at least she had managed to postpone it until she got home. She needed time to figure this out.

Without another word, and without glancing back to where Max was probably still holding his own letter, she got into her car and drove home.

****

Her reprieve was brief, not that she’d expected any different. She caught the aroma of dinner as soon as she walked through the door, and barely had time to praise her Mami’s cooking before Schneider arrived.

“Oh, good, Schneider, you are home from your vacación,” Lydia said. “I made enough for you to join us, just in case.”

“Hey,” Alex added from his spot at the table. “You’re back early, right?”

“Yeah, Nikki and I broke up.”

Schneider offered that explanation to Alex, but he was looking at Penelope. She shook her head in response, hoping the tiny movement would go unnoticed by the others. Hoping that Schneider would understand. Not now. Not in front of the family. Please.

His shoulders tensed where he stood, like her silent plea was a blow he had to absorb. But when he finally looked away from her, smiling at Lydia and taking his seat, Penelope knew he would let it go for now. “So you can see why I needed a nice, comforting family dinner this evening.”

“Oh, pobrecito Schneider,” Lydia said, patting his back before she sat down across from him. “You can do better.”

They were waiting for her to settle into her place at the table, but Penelope couldn’t join them until she knew for sure. She headed for her bedroom, straight to the spot where her army duffel would be.

Or where it used to be.

“Mami?” She returned to the table and sat, trying to sound calm. “What happened to my duffel bag?”

“I don’t know,” Lydia said, pouring herself some rum as though her daughter’s world wasn’t spinning out of control in front of her. “Where did you see it last?”

“I keep it in my closet,” Penelope snapped back. “It’s been there for years. Where did I see it last,” she added in a mutter.

“You do not need to take that tone with me,” her Mami scolded her. “I did not touch your ratty old bag. I do not know where it is.”

“Well, I know I didn’t move it, and it’s gone. So can anybody explain to me how it up and disappeared?”

Lydia thought it over. “I suppose...if it was in your closet...it might be at the Goodwill.”

She clamped down even harder on her temper. “Why would it be at the Goodwill?”

“As I said, Lupita, I have done nothing wrong. But your boxes were next to the closet. So if it is missing, that may be why.”

“It was just an old duffel bag, right, Mom?” Alex was halfway through his dinner, but he couldn’t ignore the tension in the room. “You can get a new one.”

“Not everything’s replaceable, Alex. That old bag had a lot of memories attached.” She picked up her fork and tried to focus on her food while her mind reeled. It also had five incredibly personal love letters tucked into the inside pocket. Letters she’d never wanted their subjects to read.

Now Max knew she never got over him, and wanted him back. God, after more than a year, how pathetic he must think she was.

And that didn’t begin to address the other letters. How long until those came back to haunt her, too? What about the man currently watching her while he ate, pretending that he wasn’t? How could she possibly explain any of this to Schneider?

She stabbed at her salad, lost in thought until she was done eating.

Worried she might snap at him next, even Schneider was quiet during the meal. The scraping of utensils against dishes filled the silence until Penelope cleared her plate and went to her bedroom.

Schneider swallowed loudly after Penelope left, but didn’t offer up his usual attempts to paper over the unease that lingered behind her.

Instead it was Lydia who broke the silence. “Lupe hasn’t used any of her old bags in years. I do not understand why she is so upset about this one.”

“Maybe she’s going through menopause,” Alex offered up.

Schneider’s fork clattered loudly onto his plate.

Lydia shook her head. “No, that can’t be the problem, Papito. She is far too young.”

“It can start between the ages of 40 and 50,” Alex argued, ignoring the way Schneider was gaping at him. “Mom’s just inside the window.”

“This is very inappropriate talk,” Lydia scolded him, standing up to clear the rest of the plates.

“Elena wouldn’t stop lecturing me about it, okay? She wanted me to be ready when it happened in case she was moved out already. You know how she never shuts up.”

Schneider left Alex sitting alone to go find Penelope--normally she would be back out with the family after dinner, but if she was going to try this hard to avoid him, she wasn’t giving him much choice.

With Lydia at the sink and Alex’s face in his phone already, Schneider doubted the others would even notice him gone.

He tapped lightly on her door. “Penelope?”

The long silence wasn’t comforting, but eventually he heard a quiet “Come in” and let himself in.

“Hey,” he said as he shut the door behind him. “You know, Max seemed just as confused as me, back at the hospital. He just sort of stared at me, once you drove off, for the longest five seconds in history, and then he left without saying anything.”

“Yeah?” Penelope was looking at the floor more than him, but he could tell she was listening.

“Yeah. I think he wanted to talk to you too. Which made me even more confused. What’s going on?”

A brisk rap on the door sounded before it opened--not giving either of them time to respond.

“Mami.”

“It’s time for dessert,” Lydia told them. “What are you two doing in here?”

Penelope ignored the gossipy insinuation in her tone--she knew better than anyone that it was her Mami’s way of hoping something interesting was about to happen, whether it actually was or not. “We were talking about dessert, actually. I was asking Schneider if he wanted to go with me to get ice cream.”

She raised her eyebrows, hoping he would follow her lead. “What do you say? Dessert run?”

Whatever he was thinking, or feeling, Schneider kept it to himself. “Sure, Pen. Sounds good. My treat.”

“Oh, Schneider, you are such a generous man,” Lydia told him with a hand on his arm--laying it on a little thick even by her usual standards.

“Mami, calm down. It’s ice cream, not new shoes.”

“Lydia, did you want new shoes?” Schneider perked up, and Penelope grabbed him by the arm to pull him past her mom before they could get any ideas.

“She doesn’t need you to buy her shoes. Let’s go.”

Penelope rushed him to the door with one hand on his back, nudging him forward as she opened it.

She was in such a hurry, she almost shoved him directly into Ben--who was standing on the other side, hand raised to knock.

“Oh, hey, Penelope. Is this a bad time?”

#alvareider #one day at a time #odaat #penelope x schneider #to all the men i've loved before #penelope alvarez #schneider #lydia riera #alex alvarez #max ferraro #alvareider fic #odaat fic #my fic

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nanowrimo · 4 years

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30 Covers, 30 Days 2020: Day 13

Today’s novel is brought to us by YWP author Mei M. It is an Experimental novel and this cool cover was designed by Robb Smigielski.

Cookies With A Cup of Poison

He only stayed home with Mami and Dadi. That was it. He never touched a single drop of someone else's blood, nor encountered so much things in his life all because of one choice. He was a shy little half-wolf who is a complete couch potato. Well, that's going to change pretty fast. At least there are cookies and chips involved.

About The Author

Mei M. is a young writer who moved to Maryland recently. When she was young, she tends to write many novels and learns from many other writers. Mostly, she would stare at the ceiling while playing with her pillow to compose a random idea. She is a fan of drawing, anime, manga, reading, writing, and the piano.

About The Designer

Robb Smigielski is a 20-year practicing graphic designer specializing in branding, digital product development, and advertising. He’s long been involved with AIGA and previously served as president of the Kansas City chapter. Having worked in both the US and in the UK, he now serves as the North American Head of Design for VMLY&R where he most recently launched the redesigned brand identity for Intel. He is also an avid collector of modern board games and is frequently found camping with his wife and cat in their vintage travel trailer.

#nano #nanowrimo #experimental #30c30d #30 covers 30 days #mei m #robb smigielski

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lovebishoplosamiguelgalindos · 4 years

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Angel Reyes and Reader: Just Us , Fluff

You were putting the finishing touches on some enchiladas with extra cheese for dinner when you heard the dog bark excitedly . Toro was the stray puppy Angel had found one rainy night and brought him home for protection when he was at the club late. He was a Boxer and Miniature Pinscher mix so he had a lapdog quality but also a good serious bark. Then you heard the familiar sound of Angels boots walking into the hi sue and then being pulled off along with his kutte being hung in the usual place. He came into the kitchen and said “ Hey mami something smells amazing .” You smiled. “ I made chicken and cheese enchiladas tonight . Since you don’t have business for the next day or two I thought it would be comforting,”. Angel smiled. “ It’s good to be home. I missed our bed. Ez’s trailer is nice but the couch doesn’t cut it .”

“ Well papi after dinner I’ll give you a nice backrub and then we’ll get comfy.”

He smiled. “ All right . I do need a shower to get the road dust off me though.”

“ Dinner needs a few more minutes , I need to put dressing on the salad. Go get into your comfortable things and in about twenty minutes we’ll eat .” You kissed him noticing his usual scent of nicotine and cinnamon. He liked a shot of Fireball when he wasn’t in a tequila mood. You watched him walk down the hall to his bathroom and thought damn I missed that ass. It looks sweet in denim that fits in all the right places.

You set the table and mixed the salad dressing placing the bowl in the middle with the serving utensils . Then the timer went off on the oven so you pulled the enchiladas out to cool and placed a jar of Salss Verde beside the casserole dish that they were in. You made a note to ask how EZ’s cold was but knew his girlfriend would take good care of him.

Angel came back wearing a tank top that was gray with a blue stripe and some pajama pants . You smiled. “ There’s my comfy biker daddy so why don’t we eat. “

“ Sounds good to me.” He always pulled your chair out and served you food first before he ate. He said his father had done that for his mother so it had just stuck with him. Then you started to eat together.

“ How is EZ feeling?”

“ He’s a lot better said that chicken soup you made really helped. He’s been getting some extra sleep the past few nights. His girl makes sure of that .”

“ Good I’m glad . I didn’t like that cough.”

“ I know me either .”

You both ate and after cleaning the dishes and letting Toro out to do his thing before bed , you headed to your bedroom.

“ Okay lay down on your stomach papi.”

Angel did and pulled off his tank top slowly. You found some vanilla massage oil and squirted a little into your hands rubbing them together to warm it. Then you got onto the bed and began to rub Angels back and shoulders while straddling him. Your hands moved slowly over his skin and tattoos. He sighed. “ tus manos son magicas.” ( “ your hands are magic ). You loved it when he spoke Spanish and when his voice has that softer husky note to it . Not the usual biker tone. It was sweet and just yours together . You kissed the top of one of his shoulders gently.

“ I love you Angel.”

“ I love you too Y/N”

Then you heard him yawn softly. “ I think someone is sleepy.”

“ I am but I want you in my arms under the blankets.”

“ That I can definitely accommodate .”

You both got under the blankets and you curled in the spot where he liked you.

“ Buenos noches querida .”

“ Good night my love.” Then you kissed and fell asleep holding each other .

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raincoastgamer · 6 years

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Anime Ramble: Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Magical Girl anime have this tendency to provoke a binary reaction. Either you see Magical Girls on the promo material and want to watch the show, or else you don’t. So, I’d like to preface this bout of gushing-about-a-show-that-I-watched by saying that your initial reaction to seeing the below poster should be discarded and you should just watch this show.

No, really, I think it’s safe to say that if you have an initial gut reaction of “I’m not interested” then you are probably going to appreciate this show quite a bit, while those who are avid fans of the Magical Girl genre might actually end up being put off by their expectations. Not because of what this show is, but rather by what this show isn’t.

In the same way that everyone knows that Darth Vader is Luke’s father or that a certain noble from the North loses their head, there are some story twists which percolate into the general cultural consciousness due to sheer popularity and end up becoming common knowledge. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a series which blew up to such popularity in 2011 that you’ve probably seen the characters somewhere before even if you don’t watch a lot of anime. You’ve probably also seen this little guy

around, often in the context of memes in which either 1) he tries to get people to make a contract or 2) people inflict violence on him and his smug little face never changes.

So while I want to say that Madoka Magica will surprise you when it pulls a left turn into darkness and despair, not only have I just ruined that specific surprise for you but the internet at large more than likely already did that job for me. Not only was this show popular, which translates into a more widespread awareness of its overall tone and some of its twists, other more recent shows have pulled a similar deception. Only last year did we have Made in Abyss, which I haven’t seen yet but which I understand exists for the sole purpose of having cute kids set off on an exciting adventure only to be eaten alive by Uncle Lovecraft’s Happy Fun Time Cave. If you’ve been around the anime niches of the internet or, like me, have a former otaku for a sister then you know from the onset that this show is far more than meets the eye based on reputation alone.

To start with, take a good look at the promotional material for this show, such as the trailer. The production team did their damndest to ensure that from the outside the show would look like the most derivative Magical Girl show ever made, up to and including keeping Gen Urobuchi’s involvement in the production a secret. Gen Urobuchi (aka ButchGen aka The Urobutcher) is a writer who is known for being a bit of a downer, having been involved in projects such as Fate/Zero and Psycho-Pass. He’s very outspoken when it comes to his distaste for heroic archetypes played straight and his tendency to drag his characters through the mud, so his presence as the show’s writer was what you might call a dead giveaway.

So what happens when a writer like this tackles a genre known for being all about hope, courage, and the power of friendship and love? There are many people who argue that Madoka Magica deconstructs the Magical Girl anime (Magical Girl Warrior subgenre) as codified by Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura. Some even say it’s the Neon Genesis Evangelion of the Magical Girl genre. As NGE showed us just how psychologically messed up a Giant Robot show would be if populated by actual human beings, Madoka Magica is about how having child combatants fight monsters in an urban environment with no support network does not make a well-adjusted childhood.

The effects of this kind of pressure and isolation on a bunch of adolescents is one of the elements of Madoka Magica, but fighting monsters with magic isn’t the only thing that makes a Magical Girl story. They’re traditionally as much coming-of-age stories as they are stories about definitions of femininity and self-determination. Madoka Magica has the trappings of a MG show: an all-loving protagonist, a dark and aloof rival, a tomboy friend, a non-magical friend, transformation sequences, fighting against the manifestations of dark emotions, and a cute(?) mascot. It’s talking the talk, but at its heart this is not a story about Magical Girl stories in the same way NGE was about Giant Robot anime (that’s what Revolutionary Girl Utena is for). It certainly plays with many common elements of the Magical Girl anime, but at its heart Madoka Magica is about hope, despair, idealism and selfishness. It’s a psychological drama and grand tragedy. It just happens to be wearing a Magical Girl outfit.

Which is not to say that one is superior to the other, of course. Just set your expectations accordingly if you’re already a Magical Girl fan. If you’re not, well, you might be in luck...

Twelve episodes isn’t a whole lot of time and Madoka Magica does a lot in those twelve episodes, so while I’m willing to spoil the tone of the story discussing the plot itself is a bit trickier. Kaname Madoka is our pink-haired milquetoast protagonist who doesn’t think she’s anything special, and just wants to make friends with everyone. We’re introduced to her via dream sequence, where she witnesses a dark-haired girl fighting against an enemy ravaging the city. A strange white bunny-cat creature asks Madoka to make a contract and become a magical girl, and then she wakes up. It turns out that when not dreaming of plot foreshadowing, Madoka has a pretty good life; a cool mom, a loving dad and good friends. But today it turns out the new transfer student at school - Akemi Homura - is the same girl from her dream. Homura warns Madoka to never change, to stay exactly as she is if she doesn’t want to lose her friends, family, everything she has ever loved. We wouldn’t have much of a story if Madoka never changed, though, so it isn’t long before the bunny-cat creature from the dream crashes into the narrative as well and introduces himself as Kyubey.

Kyubey offers Madoka and her best friend Sayaka an opportunity: make a contract with him and he will grant a single wish, any wish. In return the wisher receives magic powers and must now fight Witches. Not the pointed-hat, broomstick-riding variety, but rather strange, eldritch beings which bring about despair, death and suicide among ordinary humans. It sounds like a good deal: get magic powers and a superhero job on top of a wish? Who wouldn’t want that? But the catch is that this job is for life. If you’re spending all your free time saving the world, you’re not spending time with friends, getting a boyfriend, even just having fun. Is your wish worth dedicating your life to?

This story has a lot to say about good intentions. Our characters are living pretty good lives, so is there really anything worth giving that up for? Perhaps the wish is better spent on someone who needs it. But, remember, make a wish and you’re essentially fighting on behalf of that wish for the rest of your life. Is what you wish for really what you want, or do you really want some other outcome? Say you wish for a dying friend to heal; do you actually want them healed, or do you really want their eternal gratitude? All the characters in this story have the best intentions, but there’s a gap between intention and execution. If you don’t know what you really want, all the idealism in the world isn’t going to save you from your own regrets.

The phrase “I just wanted what was best” is a damning one. It's key to remember that the characters are adolescent girls, with all the contradictory vulnerability and immovable self-righteousness which comes at that age. It's the age at which ideas of how the world should be collide rudely with how the world actually is, and a person can either deal with it by changing themselves and developing coping mechanisms - healthy or unhealthy - or else break themselves on the impossibility of making their ideals fit with the system. Then again, it might be possible to change the system itself... but that’s a long shot.

At one point Madoka’s mother gives her a piece of advice: if you see your friend hurting themselves while trying to to the right thing, maybe the best thing to do is to do the wrong thing for them to break them out of their self-destructive cycle. After all, they’re all still young, they’re at an age where recovering from mistakes is supposed to be easier than when you’re an adult. But this advice happens to come at the wrong time, because these kids are stuck in a situation where a mistake can cost one’s life.

As it happens the relationship between Madoka and her mother is one of the highlights in the series. Mom is a career-chasing businesswoman who still takes the time to talk to her daughter, and though she may not be working her dream job she’s living life on her own terms and is obviously an inspiration for Madoka. Her relationship with Madoka plays a surprisingly important role in the story, which is a refreshing change since parents are usually a non-factor or killed off for backstory purposes. The rest of the characters fit much more neatly into standard archetypes. Madoka herself has a big heart and wants everyone to get along, while her much more outgoing friend Sayaka is the go-getter who will take on problems head-first. We’re introduced early on to a much more experienced magical girl named Tomoe Mami, and she ends up taking a sort of big sister mentor role. All three of these girls believe in helping and protecting others, though each has their own take on the best way of doing so. Homura on the other hand is the dark and mysterious loner who for some reason is fixated on Madoka. We feel like she’s an antagonist, but another character who enters the story later turns out to be even more hostile. The red to Sayaka’s idealistic blue, this new magical girl feels like the antithesis to the magical girl ideals we’re used to: selfish, violent and hedonistic.

As elemental as each of these characters is, by the end of the story each one ends up in a very different place than where they started - or else had their starting position shifted altogether. Not everyone is what they seem. Homura’s backstory in particular hits like a truck when it finally arrives and ends up being key to the resolution of the plot. That said, Madoka Magica is not a story that goes in for particularly complex characterization. Its twelve-episode runtime forces a fast buildup and resolution. Friendships and other relationships don’t really have the time to mature on screen, and a lot has to be left to subtext or inference. Each character’s arc takes them where they need to go for the story to progress, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Some of these character arcs are desperately tragic tales of misunderstandings and misplaced idealism, but in the end these are still archetypal characters, though perhaps not the archetype you expected. Ultimately, they serve more as conflicting views on the show’s central themes than as the driving force of the story itself. The short length of the show is a weakness, keeping the story from being able to develop the cast as much as would have been ideal.

On the other hand, the show’s compact twelve episode structure is also its strength, and the ‘realism’ of the characters is much less important than what each one represents in the story as a whole. It’s hard to say whether or not Puella Magi Madoka Magica would’ve been able to hit as hard as it does if was any longer. This is a story very much focused on building its plot and keeping a steady pace, layering the tone and atmosphere and absolutely killing it in the aesthetics department. It is a straightforward story when all’s said and done, but it is densely constructed and cohesive. Every element of the show works as part of a whole and builds on the others, the visuals, the cinematography, the music, and even in the way the plot is structured. It’s got no time for cheap fanservice, it makes full use of every moment, and it only gets better on repeat viewings. This isn’t a show that supports casual viewing, and it expects you to be paying as much attention to the way a character is being framed in a shot as to what’s being said (or not said) in the dialogue. This is ultimately a simple story, yes, but it’s dense and constantly being told on multiple layers.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s ace in the hole is its mixed-media action scenes. Whenever our characters are fighting a Witch the show pulls a Terry Gilliam and starts doing very strange things with the animation. The medium of the art itself changes, with our cel-animated characters fighting against and among stop-motion objects. Paper cutouts and cotton balls. Lace and embroidery. The effect is unnerving and psychedelic and sometimes overwhelming. It can be difficult to follow the action whenever this happens, but then again these are supposed to be things that aren’t quite in sync with reality, beings which practically run on magic. The fact that these unreal things and spaces are being represented with real-world objects intruding into the animation is a clever touch. It’s an effect that I’ve rarely seen used in anime, and never in an action-heavy context.

(Author’s addendum: I’m aware that director Akiyuki Shinbo’s thing is this mix of visual styles. I do think its usage in Madoka Magica is still notable, if only because it works really well here.)

Even when it’s being more conventional Madoka Magica is visually accomplished. Even though the wide-faced character designs threw me for a loop at first (so wide!) they did eventually grow on me. There’s something about how the eyes look almost penciled-in which keeps them from straying into overly-cutesy territory. The cinematography is likewise superb. Strong, stylized color work drives home tone and emotion. The setting often dwarfs people within vast, empty cityscapes, the background itself being a reflection of the characters’ emotions and the series’ tone. In dialogue-heavy scenes we get momentary flashes of expression and action illustrating what’s happening inside a character’s head, and the framing of characters in a scene tells you everything you need to know about their relationships without saying a word. Whatever else you might think about Madoka Magica, it looks beautiful and tells much of its story visually through color, framing, light and shadow.

Going further than that, the structure of the plot is beautifully constructed as well. You could divide the story into four arcs of three episodes, each following the development of a different character, or else three arcs of four episodes, each one ending with a new point of no return. The third and tenth episodes mirror each other as well, each one shifting the stakes and giving us new context for everything which came before. The reason why this show shines so much brighter on a rewatch is because things that seemed like inconsequential melodrama or lazy writing the first time around take on a whole new meaning once backstory and motivation are revealed. It’s for this reason that I’m not terribly concerned about revealing Puella Magi Madoka Magica’s swerve into darkness; high stakes and dark subject matter are not the only secrets that this series has got up its sleeve. By the end of the story we’re not only dissecting the intentions and desires of our characters, we’re asking hard questions about why this story had to happen the way it did at all, questions which lead to what might be one of the most satisfying conclusions to an anime I’ve ever seen.

That is perhaps what makes Madoka Magica the show that it is. Though the ultimate shape of the story is straightforward, we journey there through layers of twisting color and twisting plot. Though we have our perspective on the events of the story constantly re-contextualized about once an episode, it’s always building to a conclusion that both feels inevitable and yet less likely the closer we get. And when the end does arrive, it takes everything that has happened so far, every mistake, every hope, every good intention gone wrong and it makes them matter. Though the ending is theoretically open ended, it’s entirely self-contained. It has introduced us to a new world, revealed the lies underlying this world, and has shown us what these characters do about it. It raises questions, and in the end tells us what it’s been saying all along. Few shows, anime or otherwise, use such a cohesive combination of visuals, narrative, and music to deliver a message. Beautiful to look at, beautiful to listen to, and beautiful in how it unfolds.

As it turned out, a sequel movie was made anyways. I refuse to provide any comprehensive thoughts on Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion for now, because doing so runs the risk of being flayed alive by the fandom no matter your take. Suffice it to say that it’s incredibly self-indulgent, visually stunning, and it will make you regret wishing that the ending of the original series could have been happier.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is beautiful, and you really should watch it.

- Taihus, the wish-granting @raincoastgamer

(And I somehow manage to write all of this without actually discussing the soundtrack. The thing is, I don’t really know how to critique a soundtrack. It’s good, its use of leitmotifs is masterful and actually brought me to tears in episode 8, Magia represents the show’s true face behind the pleasant pink facade, and I’ve still got Sis Puella Magica stuck in my head.)

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm #madoka magica #review #ramble #anime #anime ramble #anime article #anime review #I wrote a thing #gen urobuchi #akiyuki shinbo #studio shaft #aniplex #ume aoki #yuki kajiura

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ktrxs · 5 years

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8.29.19

That was so exhilarating. I haven't ridden my bike in 3 years. I stopped commuting to work 4 years ago. Afterward, I tried to keep the habit up, but no Bueno. 2017, on the farm, I had nowhere to go to bike. So she stayed locked up in a shed. 2018, in the trailer park, I had 1 trail. It was 2 miles. I did not date offend her with that measly offering. So I got a bike trainer. I rode like that sometimes, but it's not the same without the wind zipping by, without the sun on your face, the breaths of fresh air, the sounds of animals and vibration you feel from the ground. Today I rode for the first time outside in 3 years. I wanted to do a test run because I wore down her back tire on the trainer and I wanted to see how she'll do on the streets. And she did wonderfully. Of course. However, I did not. Since I used to bike 10 miles a day through the hills and steep bridges of Pittsburgh, I figured after 3 years, I would still be physically able to conquer the streets of a neighborhood. Well, fuck me in the ass. We go on morning walks. Mom and aunt Kim complain over these small tiny hills they have to climb. I don't feel them walking. But oh my fucking gad I almost died on them with the bike. My thighs, man. And then this one street was so brutal that I had absolutely no idea it was even an incline when I walk it. Well, I know it's a hill now xD So yesterday, I barely did 2 miles. I just wanted to see how she'd do. But today and the rest of the week, I'm doing 5 miles. And then next week, I'm doing 10 a day 5x a week. Look I'm not easing my way into doing 10 miles. When I began commuting to work, I couldn't ease myself into 10 miles. I was forced from the first day to bike 10 miles if I liked it or not. There was no other option. I HAD to get to work and I HAD to get home. There was an 8-hour break between the two 5 miles. I'm not really looking to duplicate that system since if I go outside between 12-6, I'm going to fucking die of heat exhaustion. So we'll see where this takes us. I miss being fit. I wasn't an athlete but I had so much having stamina. I could run 15 - 20 minutes straight. I could climb a shit ton of stairs without gasping for air. I could just go without my body holding me back. Biking to work did that for me. It also aided in my weight loss which is cool because I would love to lose 10 more pounds before New Year's. But biking gave me independence and freedom. I didn't have my license and I shared a car with Brandon but I couldn't just drive that thing and park in the city. I would've paid out my ass for parking. It would've taken more time to get to work. I was faster than a car driving downtown. I got to be both a pedestrian and a vehicle. I was in the streets when I needed to be and I was on the sidewalk when I wanted to be. I went back a few months ago and saw new bike Lanes. That would've been cool. I just love biking. ------ We got new blinds today. Now I can get dressed in my room without flashing people outside. Now people won't peer in on me as I'm working. I also took the valences down. They were Mamie's but our styles are different. I like the plain windows. We'll do minor things here and there to make space better. This window thing was a major one. But it was only $25. ----- I am looking into colleges and sending my transcripts out. Brandon wants to go back as well. If we have to choose one, we're going to let him go back to school. But trust me, I'm going to do my best to make sure both of us do. I have a lot of shit happening. And I am so overwhelmed but I'm making decisions and actions to conquer them. For one, freelance work. Basically what is paying the bills right now when it used to be extra, is stressing me out. It's making me take on more because I HAVE to instead of I want to. However, I'm in the works of quitting web dev and will be free if clients by the end of the year. Then it'll be me and writing until I can get my business to start doing shit. ----- I have a few more days of this overwhelming August. Then September is going to be a storm. I will be throwing myself into my work. I will be completing two business challenges. I will be doing a zero-waste challenge. I will be taking deliberate steps to lose some weight and get healthy. I will be starting another degree. I will be paying off debt. It's a lot. And honestly, I feel like I won't be able to do it. But time management will be the key. Today is day two waking up at 4 am. I didn't get out of bed until 4:30 and I have to work on that part, but this is happening. I work on my business and the challenges during my working hours which end at 2pm. Then I'll do 1-2 hours of freelance work. That right there helps out 3 items on the list. That makes half of it doable! The debt comes down to budgeting and I won't have to focus on that except once a week when I get paid and do budgets. Booom! 4 things down. The losing weight thing will be hard because I'm an emotional eater and just want to eat junk food when I'm stressed. However, between 7:30am-10am, I have a huge break to bike and take a morning walk with the family. Plus I have to eat every day, so I'll just fill those moments with healthy choices. I'm committed to buying less junk. If you don't buy it you won't eat it. And the 6th thing is how the hell am I squeezing a degree in my life. AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT STUDY SATURDAYS. I'm going to take my ass to the local library I'm gonna leeeaarrrrnn all fucking day long Hahaha, that may not be enough but I'm a fast learner and I'm hacking the shit out of this degree. AND I basically am halfway done with my transfer credits. ----- I got a lot of shit to do and a lot to prepare for. But yo. I'm doing it. And if it all goes to shit, I'll be fine.

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danayescanaverino · 7 years

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5 Cool Gadgets You Should Check Out

Here's the latest from my blog:

I know I keep mentioning how much of a geek I truly am.

So I decided to share my geekiness with you and take you on a journey into my brain and the things that make me tick.

Mainly, it’s just a bunch of cool and possibly weird stuff on the interwebs that I pay attention to.

I have to stay on top of tech trends and specifically anything having to do with IM (internet marketing) so I always stumble across the cool and the weird.

Augmented reality sneakers have arrived

We both know it was simply a matter of time before these kicks popped up. AR is going to continue to be the “new thing” with all the hype and new products that come along with it.

Japanese footwear company Onitsuka Tiger teamed up with fashion label Anrealage to create their new augmented reality sneakers.

I’m not really sure what the trailer is conveying, but it’s pretty cool to watch.

youtube

The folks over at Mashable tested them out and were pretty underwhelmed, noting that it only works on one shoe (the left).

Would I buy this? This techie is not nearly excited enough to want to try these. I’ll wait till they look a lot cooler and do more before I get all pumped.

Blimp Drones?

First and foremost: Mommy Likey.

If you’ve read about my gadget lust before, you’ve probably seen several mentions of drones. I like them.

A lot.

So when I saw these blimp drones by a new company called Spacial, I was majorly geeking out.

Would I buy this? Absofrigginlutely! There is no more thinking on this one. I would buy this in a heartbeat and spend oodles of hours creating all kinds of cool videos.

vimeo

Pedalboards

I always get excited when I read about anything that helps make my outdoors enjoyment more enjoyable.

If it makes water sports, running or riding more enjoyable, I’m in!

The Mirage Eclipse by Hobie promises to do just that.

I want one and I want one now.

youtube

Would I buy this? This is a super easy “Heck Yeah!”

Piggyback Driver

According to Mashable, this product is for those who think a parent’s “self respect is overrated.” PiggyBack Driver enables kids to “drive” their parents while on a piggyback ride.

Would you get one for yourself or someone with a kid?

Would I buy this? I am not sure that I would buy this. Then again, it could turn into a huge thing. I’ve been wrong about many an item that later becomes super trendy.

youtube

Foldio3 Portable Studio

Foldio3 is a portable studio that allows anyone to take high quality photos. The third iteration is currently on Kickstarter and has raised over $800,000.

It is super compact when folded for easy carrying and dramatically expands into a 25 inch x 25 inch studio.

It has a magnetic structure which enables setup to be in 10 seconds. It has both white abd black backdrops, three LED strips and a Halo bar for different lighting options that are controlled by a dimming controller.

Would I buy this? Yeppers. Mami needs to up her photo game. I will be hitting the purchase button on this puppy as soon as I’m done with this post.

youtube

I’d love to hear which was your favorite and what you would actually spend your hard earned cash on.

The post 5 Cool Gadgets You Should Check Out appeared first on Danay.

via WordPress http://www.danay.net/5-cool-gadgets-check/

#IFTTT #WordPress #Danay Escanaverino

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fostersffff · 4 years

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It’s nearly the end of the year, and barring me entering some kind of wild hyper-focused fugue state, I don’t believe I’ll be finishing any more games by the 31st. So with that said, instead of doing a strictly best/worst thing, here’s a list of awards- both positive and negative- I made up to assign to games that I felt were worth talking about in some way.

The Exceeded Expectations Award

A tight race between Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Devil May Cry 5. I really don’t think anyone was expecting Three Houses to be the smash hit it would become, but the surprising and exciting E3 timeskip trailer was followed by a steady steam of promising information about the gameplay and story that wound up coalescing into fantastic experience. Ultimately, DMC5 wins out for Hideaki Itsuno making the unbelievably bold claim that the game would “exceed fans’ expectations” to an audience with the second highest expectations in the history of the industry, behind only Final Fantasy VII Remake, and then actually delivering on that claim with one of the finest action game experiences I’ve had in recent memory.

The Most Clearly Sent Out To Die Award

Daemon X Machina. It didn’t stand a chance in it’s release window and was cannibalized by its own publisher putting out like three other high profile games both before and after it. As such, this game will most likely be remembered by people thinking back to E3 2018 and going “whatever happened to that really cool mech combat game?”, and by people who did play it for the weird crossover DLC like Code Geass and The Witcher 3.

The Most Overrated Game of the Year Award

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition. Yuri Vesperia is every bit as good a character as people said he was, but if this is the peak of the “Tales” series, it’s decidedly not for me. It was honestly kind of upsetting to see that this game occupied one of my “most-played” slots on Nintendo’s "Year in Review” page instead of Valkyria Chronicles 4.

The Least Overrated Game of the Year Award

A Hat in Time. A lot of the praise I saw for this game came from people who were disappointed with Super Mario Odyssey back in 2017, and as someone who gleefully played Odyssey like five times in a row, I figured it wouldn’t resonate with me in the same way, but it’s every bit as good as people said it was. The base game was perfectly satisfying on its own, but it was an absolute treat to see how well both the Seal the Deal and Nyakuza Metro DLC turned out and how much better Gears for Breakfast got with every aspect of the game over time. The only genuine problem I have with it are the technical issues present in the Switch port, the most severe of which have been patched out at this point, and while it’s still not the optimal way to play, the issues with Hat’s Switch port didn’t really impede my enjoyment at all. Speaking of which...

The Be Careful What You Wish For Award

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. I really love the Switch both in concept and execution, and up until August of this year I was adamant that all but the most technically demanding games should try to put out a Switch port. That’s changed thanks to the Switch port of Bloodstained: it was goddamn near unplayable at launch, and even with the multiple-month-delayed SUPER PATCH, I still encountered an unacceptable number of crashes and atrocious visual glitches while dealing with a compromised-under-the-best-possible-circumstances version of the game. It was so bad I genuinely considered stopping near the end to restart on the PC version, but I soldiered on. It’s a shame too, because in terms of actual content, Bloodstained is a success story on par with A Hat in Time or Shovel Knight, but it’s gonna be a while before I give a better optimized version of the game a whirl.

The Returning Champion Award

Capcom. The four-hit combo of RE2make, Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, and the announcement of RE3make to close out the year following the kickoff of the Mega Man Apology Tour in 2018 firmly cements Capcom as being back after what felt like a full decade of mediocrity and disappointment across the board. Square-Enix gave them a run for their money here between Kingdom Hearts III, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Dragon Quest XI S, and Collection of Mana, but barring THE BLUNDER OF THE DECADE I think they’ve got this particular award in the bag for 2020.

The Dropped Ball Award

Super Mario Maker 2. I actually didn’t care all that much about no local multiplayer, but between that and the online multiplayer being offensively broken in terms of how awful the lag was, it seems like Nintendo let what should’ve been an evergreen Switch title flop to the ground and start gasping for air. Either that, or the original Super Mario Maker only succeeded because there was so little else to do with a Wii U. Granted, the recent Zelda update is super neat, but coming a full six months after launch with almost no fanfare when other Switch games like Splatoon 2, Mario Tennis Aces, and even Arms had more consistent post-launch support is such a strange and bad look.

The Stuck Landing Award

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove. After six and a half years, Shovel Knight has delivered on all of its Kickstarter campaign promises, and while the original game and the Plague of Shadows campaign were excellent, Specter of Torment, King of Cards, and Shovel Knight Showdown all went far above and beyond what people were expecting of Yacht Club Games by creating new stages with remixed music, wildly divergent gameplay mechanics, a fully fleshed out card game, and a Smash Bros.-tier multiplayer game. It’s the only game I can think of in my entire history of playing video games where the price has gone up over time and I’ve found myself nodding in agreement.

The Still Good One Year Later After The Hype Has Faded Award

Mega Man 11. Still excellent!

The Achievements In Localization Award

Another tight race, this time between Collection of Mana in recognition of Square-Enix deciding to localize a 23 year old game from scratch when a total remake is coming out in less than a year’s time, Judgment for having two separate scripts for the English dub and the Japanese dub’s subtitles, and Trails of Cold Steel III for NISA doing a genuinely terrific job that had no obvious cut corners in a game with this much text that was consistent with the naming conventions established by an entirely different localization company, even hiring back like 99% of the other company’s voice cast. Despite all of that praise for NISA, this one goes to Judgment for what I hope will become a standard in the industry.

The Worst Ending and Voice Acting Award

While I appreciate how committed to the joke WayForward was, the ending of River City Girls gets worse the further away I get from it, especially since they could’ve actually alleviated so many problems with one extra line of dialogue from Hasebe and/or Mami about how they were the ones who “abducted” Kunio and Riki (by sending them to the spa) and that they also sent the text that kicks of the plot just to fuck with Misako and Kyoko. Also: in general, don’t hire e-celebs to do voicework for your project if they are not actual voice actors, either by trade or by aspiration. At least most of them were kept to shopkeeper cameos, but I’ll never understand the decision to cast Big Capital-“Oi” Irish Brogue Jacksepticeye as recurring character Godai other than “CLOUT PLEASE”.

The Best Ending and Voice Acting Award

Dragon Quest XI S. This game should be front and center when conversations come up about having to earn a happy ending, because the ending you get when the credits roll is perfectly satisfactory... but you can do better. And not only can you do better, you can get what is effectively the most perfect ending that can be in the entire history of Dragon Quest as a gaming franchise, which sounds like a dramatic overstatement until you see it. And, to contrast the previous award, I really appreciate how DQXI’s voice cast didn’t include anyone I was familiar with and thus I never had the experience of “oh shit it’s x from y”, but this award exists in particular for Serena’s voice actress, Jessica Clark, and her reading of the line “I hate to ask, but would you mind awfully not going anywhere for a little while? I think I’m going to cry...”

The Most Wrong I Ever Was About A Story Award

Final Fantasy VIII Remastered. For years, I thoughtlessly regurgitated the opinion that “parts of FF8 are good, but it’s definitely a bad game with a lame romance and Squall is a terrible protagonist” based on the memory of playing the demo as a child and enjoying it, but seeing the internet at large bash it without mercy. I was wrong, because not only is it not bad, the central romance is totally compelling and Squall has become my favorite Final Fantasy protagonist, in the very same year that I finally also played Final Fantasy VII and came to terms with the fact that Cloud has been good all along, actually.

The 2019 Was A Ridiculously Good Year For Games In General Because I Didn’t Actually Play It That Much Despite The First Game Being My GOTY 2016 And This Game Is An Improvement In Every Single Possible Way Award

Dragon Quest Builders 2. I cannot believe how little of DQB2 I’ve played! And it’s so good!

#long post #video games

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lightscameramagicrp · 5 years

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Congratulations, Dani Montez! The role of Ashton Reyes for True Devotion is yours! We can’t wait to see what you do in your new endeavor!

Show: True Devotion

Role: Ashton Reyes

Audition:

The audition process for Dani wasn't normally like this. She very rarely flew by the seat of her pants. She liked to spend as much time as she could prepping and researching the character. She'd engrain the lines to memory and make sure the scene was perfect before she even dared walk into a room full of blank expressions. But, part of Dani wonder if that was for the old her, because now? Her agent had gave her a brief summary of the potential and confidential new TV show and, instead of spending hours rehearsing or prepping, instead of delving into who she thought the character was and journaling details of backstory she had made up in her head, instead of all the prep work, she set up the tripod in her trailer during a break before she needed to be on a flight to LA to hype up the season finale of Operation Unknown. She knew next to nothing about the role, besides the fact that they weren't casting by gender and her character, if she ended up getting the part, would end the season by becoming a clone. But, here she was. Red light blinking as she stood there, with only an eight year old to read lines back to her. Unprepared and raw with emotion.

"Daniella Montez. Reading a scene from 'Asylum of the Daleks'," She spoke into the lens, before turning towards Gabby and shooting her a little wink. She waited until her girl shot her a thumbs up, before she began.

"Oh. That is cool," Dani let out a breathless whisper as she completely let herself fade away and into the role of Oswin. "Tell me, I'm cool, chin boy," She beamed. A slight air of cockiness in her voice as she cocked her head up, gleefully.

"What... did you do?" Gabby asked, the hesitant eight year old's voice pipped up, clearly reading off of a piece of paper before her. But, the adorable voice didn't seem to phase Dani as she continued on with the scene.

"Hang on. I think I've found the door thingy," Dani mused.

"No. Tell me what you did."

"The Daleks, they have a hive mind. Well, they don't, they have a sort of telepathic web," Dani shrugged as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"The pa- path web. Yes," Gabby said, stumbling over her words every so slightly as she read back to Dani.

"I hacked into it. Did a mass delete on all the information connected with the Doctor."

"You made dem forget me?"

"Good, eh? And here comes the door."

"I've tried hacking into the path web. Even I couldn't do it."

Tilting her head up proudly, Dani shrugged once more, "Well, come and meet the girl who can. Hey- you're right outside. Come on in."

"Oswin, we have a problem."

"No, we don't," Dani shook her head back. "No. Don't even say that. Joined the Alaska to see the universe, ended up stuck in a shipwreck first time out. Now come on. Rescue me, chin boy, and show me the stars!" The words flow off her tongue. A delusion. A hopeless plea floating in the air as Gabby's voice pips up once more.

"Does it seem real?"

"It is real." Dani's forehead scrunches up as she replies, barely missing a beat. The amount of certainty coming off of her is heartbreaking to watch as Gabby says back-

"It's a dream, Oswin. You dreamed it for yourself because the truth was too terrible."

"Where... where am I?" The voice is barely a whisper. Her lips tremble. Her voice begins to shake as she continues to ask, "Where am I? Where am I?"

"Because you are a Dalek."

"I am not. I am not a Dalek! I'm human."

"You were human when you crashed here. It was you who climbed out of the pod. That was your ladder."

"Where am I?" Her voice seems all too far away as she asks again. "Where am I? Where am I?"

In that moment, Gabby drops the script and moves towards Dani. The harpy holds out her hand towards her as if begging to take Dani's pain away. But, Dani just shakes her head lightly as she continues on. The tears pooling around her eyes as she skips ahead in the script in order to finish the scene.

"Why?"

"Why what, mommy?" Gabby pips up, tugging at the leg of her pants as she looks up at Dani with worried eyes. It's the first time Gabby has ever called Dani mom and she wants to break character and scoop the small girl up in her arms. But, she also knows this is the only chance she's going to get to finish the tape. So, she pushes on.

"Why do they hate you? So much? They hate you so much. Why?" Dani's voice breaks once more. The tears begin to fall. Tilting her head back up to the camera and slightly off to the side, she looks almost frozen there. Like a doll who had just realized their world was nothing more than sheer plastic. "I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks and I am human!" Rage seeps through her voice as she squares off at the camera, before she lets her eyes turn almost lifeless again as she lets out a low, barely audible whisper. "Remember... me."

She stands there giving it a moment for the scene to sink in and wash off of her, before coming out of character and bending down and scooping Gabby up in her arms. Pressing a kiss against the girl's cheek as she points to the camera and explains once more that it is just acting. "It's all pretend. See?"

"O-okay. You aren't going to go away again though, are you, Mami?"

"No hija No ahora. Estoy aquí. Lo prometo. te quiero. ¿Estás bien?" Dani let's out a little laugh, nuzzling her nose lightly against the others as she asks Gabby if she's okay.

"Sí," Gabby smiles up at Dani, giving her a light kiss on the cheek back, before Dani puts her back down on the ground and tells her to go play.

"Sorry about that. But, thanks for your consideration? And sorry if this isn't what you're looking for?" She adds with a small shrug, as she turns and flicks the camera off. She's well aware that the tape is unlike anything people have seen of the 'Dani Montez' before. It's a softer side of her. Her acting is more raw and real. It's rougher than her normal work and far from perfect. But, as she pops the tape out and packages it up to send off to Manager, she knows that it's more of a showcase of her range than she has done in an audition in a long time. And if her acting and Gabby weren't able to win the directors over, then she wasn't sure what would.

Note: Is Becca grammar checking this? No. Should she? Probably... Oopsy? 0:)

#castingbtm

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corkcrab7-blog · 5 years

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True Detective Season 3 Spoilers -- Cast, Premiere Date

True Detective Season 1 was Good. It was about how time is a flat circle and long, uninterrupted shots are cool. True Detective Season 2 was Bad and was about...Chinatown but with a train and Vince Vaughn being apoplectic or something? It was confusing. Season 2 was so bad, in fact, that HBO almost seemed like it didn't want to do another one. Maybe Season 1 was a fluke, the thinking went, and what was good about it came from director Cary Joji Fukunaga, who didn't return for Season 2, and not from creator Nic Pizzolatto.

But then last summer, more than two years after the Season 2 finale, HBO announced that True D would be back for Season 3, which premieres Sunday, Jan. 13. It will air about three and a half years after the previous season, a long gap even for an anthology series. Hopefully that means they're taking the time to get it right. We're cautiously optimistic about Season 3, because from what we know about it so far, it has a lot going for it, with more in common with Season 1 than Season 2.

Here's what the green-eared spaghetti monster told us about Season 3.

It will be set in the Ozarks. Season 1 took place on the Louisiana coast, while Season 2 moved to industrial Los Angeles. Season 3 will head back east and settle in the Ozark mountain range. Don't expect to run into Jason Bateman, though; Ozark is set in Missouri (and shot in Georgia), while True Detective is filmed on location in Arkansas.

It will experiment with time again. Season 1 was set in 1995 and 2012 and moved back and forth to great effect, and Season 3 will be even more ambitious with its nonlinear storytelling, adding a third timeline to its murder investigation.

An Oscar winner will star. Moonlight's Mahershala Ali will play the lead role of Wayne Hays, a state police detective from Northwest Arkansas. And his and his co-stars' Jimmy Carter-era style is on point.

The rest of the cast is top notch, too. The female lead is Selma's Carmen Ejogo, who plays Amelia Reardon, "an Arkansas schoolteacher with a connection to two missing children in 1980." Vape pitchman Stephen Dorff will play Roland West, "an Arkansas State Investigator whose career has been influenced by a baffling crime." Halt and Catch Fire's Scoot McNairy will play Tom, "a father who suffers a terrible loss that ties his fate to that of two state police detectives over 10 years." The Good Wife's Mamie Gummer -- Meryl Streep's other daughter -- will play Lucy Purcell, "a mother of two children who finds herself involved in a crime." Justice League's Ray Fisher will play Hays' son Freddy Burns. Other cast members include Fear the Walking Dead's Michael Greyeyes and 13 Reasons Why's Brandon Flynn.

Nic Pizzolatto is writing the whole thing, with one notable exception. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Episode 4 is co-written by Deadwood creator David Milch, who may have advised Pizzolatto on other story-related matters as well. If the dialogue contains a certain ten-letter word, Milch probably wrote it.

There are three directors. Part of the magic of Season 1 was that one man, Cary Joji Fukunaga, directed the whole thing, and he had a very clear vision for what the show was supposed to be. Season 2 had six directors, and the vision got muddled. Season 3 will split the difference, with the first two episodes of the eight episode season directed by Green Room's Jeremy Saulnier. The remaining six will be split between by Emmy-winning TV vet Daniel Sackheim and Pizzolatto himself. We don't know exactly how many they'll do each.

The trailer lays the masculine brooding on thick. "Things I've seen, things I know, won't do anything but cause harm," Ali gravely intones at the top of the trailer. He's a very haunted cop. He's done bad things like tying someone up with duct tape and putting them in the trunk of a car. But he's doing it to protect his family, probably, even though he can never talk to them about it, even when he's an old man. He's a True Detective, and being a True Detective means you don't communicate with your wife very well.

True Detective Season 3 premieres Sunday, Jan. 13 at 9/8c on AMC.

Source: http://www.tv.com/news/true-detective-season-3-spoilers-cast-premiere-date-15252128270056904/

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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Seven Reasons We're Already Screaming for Junji Ito Collection

Manga horror master Junji Ito is currently celebrating 30 years as a manga creator -- and he'll be capping off celebrations next month with the hotly anticipated Junji Ito Collection. While it's not the first anime based on his works (that honor goes to 2012 OVA Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack), it's looking to be the most "on-brand." Our early looks reveal the presence of Ito classics like Tomie, Slug Girl, Souichi's Diary of Curses, and many others making their way into the anthology series.

So why can't we wait to see Ito conquer the small screen? We'd be here all day with reasons, but here are just a few:

Seeing His Art in Action for the First Time

Ito's style fluctuates between fairly generic character design and hyperrealistic body horror -- and while that tonal shift from page to page is amazing in book form, it's not a style that lends itself well to animation. The human-based monstrosities of Gyo bear his signature style, but character design overall was altered.

Fortunately, director and character designer Shinobu Tagashira has been a fan of Ito's work since she was a teenager, and has said in interviews that she put extra time into creating designs that both retained his style and allowed for ease of animation. From what we've seen in trailers so far, she nailed it.

Horror That Pulls No Punches

Fans of Ito's work know it's rare for a character to get away unscathed. Stories end with people dead, disfigured, dismembered, insane, or one looming shadow away from any of those.

The point of his horror is, more often than not, the horror itself, and not the characterization. He has a very small stable of recurring characters, most of whom are either the horrors themselves or complicit in them, and the one-shot character he creates are either very generic or slightly unlikeable. Normally that would be a negative... but this means you can watch terrible things happen to them without any emotional ties tangled up in it.

If your morbid curiosity has ever made you wish a horror film would just follow through on the eldritch curse or hideous transformation, just so you could see what happens, Ito's got you covered.

The Cast Is Already Amazing

We only know a handful of the stories making it into this anthology series so far, but the voice actors tied to roles are already impressive.

Hikaru Midorikawa (Zelgadiss, Heero Yuy, and many more memorable characters) will be appearing as the mysterious Handsome Man of the Crossroads in an adaptation of "Lovesick Dead." The original story takes place in a misty town where the locals play "intersection fortune-telling" -- a game where they hide their faces and ask a random passer-by to predict their future. The Handsome Man of the Crossroads seems to have an otherworldly hold on the young women who seek his advice.

Hiro Shimono (recently in Tsuredure Children and Rainy Cocoa) will appear as Oshikiri, a young man whose house lies on a border between parallel worlds. Veteran seiyuu Yuji Mitsuya appears as Souichi, a strange boy with an affinity for cursing people and chewing on nails. Arale herself, Mami Koyama, will be playing a fearsome fashion model.

And that's just the seiyuu with roles attached to their names. Romi Park (Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist), Daisuke Hirakawa (Rei in Free!), Daisuke Namikawa (the latest voice of Goemon in Lupin III), and many more have been attached. But their roles are being kept secret for now. Listening for them as new characters appear -- and finding out their fate -- will be half the fun!

More Tomie!!!

Unsurprisingly, we already know we'll be seeing the return of Junji Ito's very first (and arguably most popular) character. Or should that be "characters"? The beautiful Tomie is alluring, mysterious, and unkillable. Like a terrifying shoujo starfish. And where you see one, you're bound to see more. Especially if you, like all the men she attracts, feel oddly compelled to kill her.

Her manga appearances span 13 years and many installments, so there's plenty to work from. We don't know yet how often we'll see her, but we're definitely hoping for more than once.

It'll Take Some of the Sting Out of Losing Silent Hills

Well, okay. Nothing's going to take the sting out of losing Silent Hills except getting Silent Hills.

However, between Death Stranding and Junji Ito: Collection, we're getting to see the ill-fated project's creators still at it. It won't be the same as Ito injecting his weird and wonderful imagination into something new. But it will still be the ability to watch his madness on a TV screen with our friends. We just won't be controlling it and messing up QTEs as we do.

Localized Anime = Localized Manga

We're very fortunate to have titles like Dissolving Classroom, Tomie, and Fragments of Horror available to us in North America, but Ito's massive back catalog still has a lot to be mined. When an anime becomes available, there are good chances the manga will, too.

Case in point: we already have Shiver, a 394-page hardcover anthology of selected stories, coming our way this month. This is already extremely cool... but could it mean we can expect more coming our way once the series airs?

We Are Macabre Freaks Who Like Macabre Freaky Stuff

Look. We've gotta level with you, Junji Ito has created some of the most disgusting, disturbing, twisted manga on the face of the earth. There was one once where a stalker hides in a girl's pipes and pulls her sister down the shower drain. Down the shower drain. That's an actual story he did and it ends with the girl's toes sticking out the drain. These are messed up stories.

But we love them. We have no idea why because they keep us up at night. They're terrifying and weird and gross. And we can't wait to see this terrifying, gross stuff brought to life. We're probably going to lose sleep and hide our faces for half of it. But we're ready.

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Junji Ito Collection comes to Crunchyroll this January.

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Kara Dennison is responsible for multiple webcomics, blogs and runs interviews for (Re)Generation Who and PotterVerse, and is half the creative team behind the OEL light novel series Owl's Flower. She blogs at karadennison.com and tweets @RubyCosmos. Her latest stories can be found in Whoblique Strategies.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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janeenray16323-blog · 7 years

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The Secret Behind Kamasutra

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