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mach-speed-spin · 2 years

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Mayblade day 10: song (reminder that Nickelback was once featured on official Beyblade merch)

Nelvana and Hasbro decided they wanted to make Beyblade be more than just spinning tops with a tie-in anime series. After several attempts, I think they kinda gave up because non of them were successful. Beywheelz, Beyraiderz, and Beywarriors all flopped (despite some cool ideas). Their trading card game back in the og series is so obscure that I can’t get any info on it besides “it existed” and “it seems poorly thought out.” And at one point they got into music. After finding this YouTube playlist with Beyblade songs (openings, endings, the dub insert songs, etc), I noticed that for some reason it included How You Remind Me by Nickelback, California by Phantom Planet, and an AMV. After some research, I found that those songs were released on official Beyblade CD’s back in 2001-2002. So I’m gonna give some thoughts on every single song in that playlist in the context of Beyblade (also to make up for yesterday’s shorter post since I didn’t have much time)

Normally I'd add a cut here but my laptop's still broken and I don't know enough about the Tumblr app to use it properly

Catch a Cannonball by White Pony: This song is considered lost media and if anyone can find it please DM me or something

Let’s Beyblade by Sick Kid ft Lukas Rossi: The original series English dun opening. It’s very early 2000′s and serves as an opening pretty well. I just wish there was an extended/ full version

Fighting Spirits by System-B: As a standalone opening, it’s pretty good. As far as Beyblade goes, it’s wildly different than any opening we’ve gotten since, which makes it stand out even more

Cheer Song by System-B: Not sure how I feel about the song itself, but if it works for anything, it’s as an ED. Also, it’s so different from Fighting Sprits that I had a hard time believing they were both made by System-B

Beyblade by Giorgio Vanni: The Italian opening for the first season. The combination of rock with what sounds like bells(?) later in the song create a weird but interesting feel to it. Also “Boy-blade” is such a stupid pun that it had to have been made ironically, right. Right?

OFF THE CHAIN by TOSS & TURN: Song is a banger. I have no idea who thought it’d fit Beyblade as an opening. Love how it’s in ALL CAPS. Also I don’t speak a word of Japanese but there’s enough English that I can kinda guess what the song is trying to say

URBAN LOVE by Shiori: Another song in all caps, this time as an ED. While I’m normally not a fan of less energetic songs, this is pretty good

Jet by Fairy Fore: The scream at the beginning of the song makes you think you’re gonna get a much harder song than the first verse. And the it slowly ramps up until by the end, you’re back to the same energy as the beginning. Brilliant

What’s the Answer? by Retro G Style: Like OFF THE CHAIN, there is just enough English for me to get a vague idea of what the song is about. I like it, but wish that they had used the song by Retro G Style in G-Revolution for obvious reasons

Beyblade vforce by Giorgio Vanni: IMO a nice improvement over the first Italian opening, but goddamn “Boy-blade” is still here. Why?

Poroporo by Hana Hana: The ED for the V-Force movie. Every other beat is out of tune but it’s done on purpose so I can’t consider it a flaw. It grew on me over time but the decision to be out of tune on purpose is still weird

Victory by Dynamite SHU: I couldn’t find official information on the artist but someone said Victory was performed by Dynamite SHU so I’m rolling with it for now. Also it may be called Victory or Victoria. It’s unclear. It’s also part of the V-Force movie soundtrack and honestly I think it’d make a better ED than Poroporo, if only because Poroporo isn’t really enjoyable on your first listen (even if it really grown on you later)

Go Ahead by Motoko Kumai: Amazing OP for G-Revolution. Probably my favorite from Bakuten Shoot. It gets you pumped for the episode and it fits the tone of early G-Rev perfectly

Oh Yes!! by Sista with Yuka: As an ED, it’s pretty good. It’s also a great way to conclude the early episodes of G-Rev

Kaze no Fuku Basho by Makiyo: Somehow manages to be an improvement over Oh Yes!! while also fitting the middle portion of G-Rev better

Identified by Springs: Finally we learn that the G in G-Revolution stands for Good. It’s also the perfect OP to end the original series on

Sign of Wish by Makiyo: Like Identified is the perfect OP to end on, Sign of Wish is the perfect ED to conclude the original series. I know that the last episode used Kaze no Fuku Basho for the epilogue, but Sign of Wish was perfect for the BEGA arc, itself a great conclusion to the original story

Never Gonna Take Me Down by Anthony Vanderburgh: I’ve been fighting every night an day. I’m gonna do my best to put you away. It’s perfect for more friendly but intense (like most of the minor battles in tournament arcs). Like most of the dub insert songs, they’re bangers but sadly misused

Round After Round by Jason Dean Bennison: Like Never Gonna Take Me Down, it’s perfect for battles where both bladers want nothing more than to just fight each other

All Across the Nation by The Black Europeans: The fact that this was used for any battle in the season 1 tournaments (you know, the ones with multiple countries) is weird, but the song itself is still good

Let’s Go Beybladers by Krystal Band: The vocals have this strange quality to them, like the musical equivalent of a 2004 homemade video project made by a high school student. Objectively bad but charming in its own way

Swing Low by Jason Dean Bennison: The vocals feel out of place, but damn that bass is epic. Also you can kinda hear samples from Fighting Spirits in the background (that “DORAIGA” scream is hard to miss after a few listens)

Underdog by Mudd: In all honesty it’s a shame Mudd didn’t go one to have more success after Beyblade. Underdog was great

Always Be In the Game by Jason Dean Bennison: Normally I’m not a fan of rap vocals over rock instrumentation but Jason pulled it off. Not sure how or why, but it works

Switchblade by Lenz: Good song but someone messed up when they rereleased it. Also the contrast between the music and the lyrics in the chorus is fairly specific. Maybe it was written to be a character theme?

Hang On by Chris Szczesniak and Mike Dunca: It took 20 years for this song to be released. Amazing bass, amazing vocals, and I can’t think of a song that better fits Kai vs Brooklyn (the time where Kai wins, that is)

Rise Above the Storm by Daniel LeBlanc and Creighton Doane: Oddly uplifting yet very energetic. When I say this is one of the most uplifting songs I’ve ever heard, I am not exaggerating

I’m Not Going Down by Jonathan Evans and Gerard Tevlin: If Hang On fits Kai vs Brooklyn, then I’m Not Going Down fits Tyson vs Brooklyn. It’s just a powerful declaration of victory, being the musical embodiment of that final battle

Start the Circus by Far From Heroes: Good song but I don’t see what it has to do with Beyblade. Still a banger

Cinderella by Adam Crossley with 9 Point Landing: Just like Start the Circus, a banger that is completely unrelated to Beyblade

What the Girls Say by Jennesy: For a show with such a skewed gender ratio for characters, this song feels extremely out of place. It’s good, but manages to feel more “off” than Cinderella

Running Away by Project Wyze: A friend of mine likes to say that early 2000′s music was 80% pop rock and 10% rap metal. Running Away is part of that 10% and it is the perfect example of what rap metal is. If you like rap metal, you’ll like this song. If you don’t like rap metal, you won’t like this song

Let It Rip by Ego Massive: It truly relates to Beyblade and it isn’t an insert song. I’m surprised. The song itself is alright, but pales in comparison to some others

Split the Atom by Edwin and the Pressure: Great song. Unrelated to Beyblade. I’m starting to notice a trend

Pretty Girls by Prozzak: Good song and I have though the glass break sound effect was real and in my house on one occasion

Girls & Boys by Good Charlotte: This song is 50% less out of place than What the Girls Say

Year 3000 by Busted: Possibly a warm take, but the Jonas Brothers’ cover of the song was a downgrade

Buck Rogers by Feeder: I first heard this song playing Gran Turismo and forever associate it with that game. I can’t judge the song on its own because of that

Movies by Alien Ant Farm: Honestly it’s probably the weakest song that released on that CD. It’s not bad per se, but it’s less good than the rest

Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus: Hit early 2000′s song that was shoehorned into Beyblade merch and honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea

Nothing by A: Google “A Nothing” and see if you find this song. Other than that, it’s great. Love it

How You Remind Me by Nickelback: It’s Nickelback. That’s all there is to say. Take that how you will

California by Phantom Planet: If only Beyblade saw the US as more than New York and Las Vegas (and later, Moab, Utah). The west coast isn’t even acknowledged. Had they made one of the characters be from California (like any of the All-Starz), this would’ve been more fitting

Metal Saga by Clifton David: While the English OP for mfb isn’t bad, it feels like a remix of the Japanese OP, but without being different enough to stand out

Metal Fight Beyblade by YU+KI: YU+KI did an amazing job in every season of mfb, and the first opening is no exception

Boys ~To the Radiant Tomorrow~ by MASH: I thought Boys was the artist for far longer than I should. It’s a great ED, and has IMO some of the strongest visuals for a Beyblade ED even though it’s very simple

Beyblade Metal Fusion by unknown artist: I don’t know who made the Italian opening for Fusion but it was pretty good

Galaxy Heart by YU+KI: It takes everything that made Metal Fight Beyblade good an multiplies it tenfold. Absolutely amazing

Oozora wo Koete Yuje by Odoriba Soul: Pretty good ED. It kinda gives me similar vibes as Oh Yes!! but I’m not sure why

Beyblade Metal Masters by unknown artist: An improvement over the Italian Fusion opening, taking it from good to great

Spinning the World by Noa: Love it. Great ED for the Sol Blaze movie. Probably on the same tier as Kaze no Fuku Basho for me

Kokoro no Yuki by YU+KI: the 4d opening slaps even harder than Galaxy Heart

Destiny by YCHRO: Just like Kokoro no Yuki managed to outdo Galaxy Heart, Destiny managed to outdo Oozora wo Koete Yuke. God 4d had great music (if only it wasn’t a shortened season)

Shine On by unknown artist: Absolute banger. That’s all I have to say about it besides that the artist deserves to actually be credited

Let It Rip by The Lodge: I did not expect bars of this level from a song made for a toy commercial. Even though the dub adding rap in anime is usually an unpopular decision, this was good

Game Changer by the Lodge: Another banger

To the Extreme by the Lodge: Why couldn’t the XTS toyline go as hard as this song?

Deploy and Destroy: This song is great and makes Stealth Battlers seem a lot cooler than they were irl

Own the Dome: Somehow a team of people got Hasbro’s worst stadium ever, and made the best commercial out of it. And part of that has to do with this absolute bop of a song

Stunt, Race, Crash by the Lodge: Like To the Extreme, Deploy and Destroy, and Own the Dome, this was a great song that advertised a terrible product

Zero-G Bey! Go! by YU+KI: I’d rank it between Metal Fight Beyblade and Galaxy Heart. It’s good, but not as much as the previous Japanese OPs (granted the bar was pretty damn high)

Looking Up Smiling (We Go!) by YCHRO: It manages to be just barely better than Destiny, which is pretty impressive

Beyblade: Shogun Steel by Sugar High Bunny Punch: Does it fit Beyblade? Not really. Is it good? Maybe not great, but better than I’ve seen people give it credit for

Let the Games Begin by Arunachal: The Beywheelz OP that was used for the English and Japanese versions alike. Like the English OP for Shogun Steel, I think it’s better than given credit for. Although like Beywheelz, it pales in comparison to the other seasons

A Better Place by Jonathan Evans: One of the guys behind I’m Not Going Down makes his return. A Better Place is a pretty good ED< even if it doesn’t stand out

Beyraiderz Theme by iSH and Nicholas Walsh: I’ll be honest the chorus is the only part I like from this. The rest is serviceable as an opening, but I wouldn’t call it good

Come Around by SPACEMAN MUSIC: I like Come Around, and consider it an improvement over A Better Place, but I don’t think it fits Beyraiderz as a season

Beywarriors: Cyborg by unknown artist: A better OP than Beyraiderz, but still a tad below Let the Games Begin

Hold Tight by unknown artist: Like anything relating to Beywarriors, the artist name is hard to find. It’s a strange ED, but I can’t put my finger on why. Like Poroporo, it’s interesting, even if I’m not sure whether I like it

Burst Finish! by Tatsuyuki Kobayashi: A good OP that fits the first season of Burst. It’s great

Believe by SHIKURAMEN: The only Burst ED to get a full version, and it’s certainly deserving of it. Like Burst Finish! it fits the first season of Burst perfectly

Our Time by Steven Allerick Chen: A great opening in par with Burst Finish

Battle Above My League by Fenwick & the Futures: The instrumentation is ok I guess. The vocals have this weird feel to them, like lofi but not really. Like Poroporo and Hold Tight, this song interests me because I don’t quite understand what I’m hearing

Evolution Burst! by unknown artist: The Beyblade Burst God OP is great. I'd call it the best of Japanese Burst openings but Cho-Z exists, making Evolution Burst! a worthy second

Beyxercise by Señor Hanami: If we ignore the visuals in the ED (so no Markiplier dancing), it goes from hilariously good to just regular good. The beat is catchy, but the vocals really make this song. It's performed by Hanami's VA, which makes that last "BASUTO FINISHU" so much better

Beyxercise 2 by Señor Hanami: It's Beyxercuse but again. The beat is different, and a bit of a slightly downgrade, but everything else is as good as the original Beyxercise

Evolution by Dave Vives and Steven Pagano: It's a great opening. Not much to say other than it's really good

Made for This by Vaski and Ian Everson: Amazing. Absolutely amazing. It's hard not to sing along and go "We were made for this"

Chouzetsu Muteki Blader by Ryosuke Sasaki: Easily one of my favorite Beyblade openings ever. Everything about it is fantastic

Bey-Pop! by Shun Kusakawa: Catchy and cheery is the best way to describe this. Lovely song

Bey-Pop Swing! by Shun Kusakawa: It's Bey-Pop bit more energetic. Still catchy and cheery, but with a tad bit more excitement

Turbo by Nate Wants to Battle: Best of the English OP's according to many, and a very close second best in my personal ranking. Nathan Sharp has delivered everything one could ask for from an opening

Gatti'n'Roll by unknown artist: I genuinely dkn't know why anyone though this was a good idea. I guess they thought they couldn't beat Chouzetsu Miteki Blader at its win game and went in the opposite direction, being very cheery rather than adrenaline-pumping. For what it's trying to be, it's pretty good. It just doesn't really work as an OP

Rise by Jonathan Young: IMO the best English opening in all of Beyblade. Jonathan Young made a high-energy OP that gets you pumped for the anime. Also his JJBA OP covers are great

Journey Into Tomorrow by Tony Rodini: I have a hard time deciding between this and Made for This for which is the best eyecatcher theme. Journey Into Tomorrow is just as good as Made for This and Made for This was great

Sparking Revolution by unknown artist: Not a bad OP but it doesn't really stand out. It's good, but it's just "there"

We Got the Spin by Konrad OldMoney and Johnny Gr4ves: Like Gatti'n'Roll, they were trying to go in the opposite direction of the previous opening. However, GT was a more lighthearted and comedic season, while Sparking is more serious than its predecessor. This means that to fit the season, we'd need something as intense as Rise, or at least Evolution, and instead we get this. And unlike the original series or mfb using rap on occasions, We Got the Spin lacks the energy present in songs like Shine On and Always Be In the Game

Clash! Dynamite Battle! by NORISTRY: Great opening. Probably my second favorite Japanese Burst OP behind Muteki Blader

We're Your Rebels by Nate Wants to Battle: Massive step up from We Got the Spin, and it's just what we expected from the guy that made Turbo

#mayblade 2022 #beyblade #mfb #beyburst #beyblade burst #beywheelz #beywarriors #beywarriors cyborg

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ja-khajay · 2 years

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Mature animated film recommendations

My followers expressed interest for this, so here’s a post compiling some animated films. Please note “mature” does not mean adult, some of these are watchable by family audiences, but they are not meant with children as a target audience in mind. I will also be excluding animation for adults that goes straight for crudeness. The criteria for my choices will be the following:

They have to be films I have seen in full and recommend, but I will describe them as objectively as possible.

These are not series, but either feature length movies, or shorts. All picks here will be watchable as standalones.

They have to be animated. This includes stop motion, full CG, traditional media, as well as a mix of techniques.

For each pick will be included a short spoilerless description, some of the major themes, as well as any content warnings that might apply. More movies might be added to this post in the future.

The rabbi’s cat

2011 - France - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

Contains descriptions of colonialism, antisemitism, racism and misogyny. A single on-screen fight scene has two men stabbed to death.

Philosophy, adventure, religion, humor

An animated adaptation of the comic of the same name, that compiles several of its stories in a single one. The rabbi’s cat has the wild adventures, talking beast premise and pacing of a fairytale, but whose characters are individuals full of personality.

A charming movie with unusual pacing and great acting. Watching the original french dub is a must.

Is on Amazon Prime to stream. Moderatly famous movie, should be easy to find copies of.

Bob spit - We do not like people

2021 - Brazil - Stop-motion

Has nudity, cartoon gore/violence, implied sex. And lots of drugs

Art and being an artist, life journeys, comics, post-apoc, 80s

Part pseudo(is it?) documentary, part fantasy, it’s a film where brazilian cartoonist Angeli is interviewed, talking about his creative endeavors and the current crisis he’s in, half set insides his imagination, where his ugly and weird creations set on a journey across the wastes to prevent him from killing them like he loves to do to his characters.

While made by a fan of and acted by said artist and his friends, you can enjoy this film without knowing anything of his work. The physicality of the stop motion puppets and backgrounds works delightfully with the grimy punk vibes of it all and it’s not afraid to get weird.

Unfortunately not widely available, but english subtitles exist.

My friend who shines in the night

2020 - France - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Death, friendship, slice of life

A staggeringly normal guy finds a lone ghost in his garden and decides to help them find out who they might have been in life and why they’re stuck here, unable to pass.

This is a student film of exceptional quality and heart-warmingly down to earth for a story about, well, not being quite on this earth.

Watch here for free (english subtitles)

Redline

2009 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly(*)

(* Has swearing and 1.5 instances of bare tits. No other content warnings apply)

Sports, cars, sci-fi, anime extravaganza

Participants from all over the universe compete in the titular car race, a high stakes, no limits, completely illegal event that hypes the entire galaxy, much to the dismay of the planet the cars land on.

On a technical standpoint, Redline is insane. Animation, pacing, writing and music are perfectly calibrated to deliver a film that builds up hype the entire runtime. Don’t expect depth, you won’t need it - this is a movie that is just pure adrenaline and fun. Not liking cars shouldn’t be an obstacle, it’s to racing what Dragonball Z is to kung-fu.

I recommend watching the english dub. It’s fully on YouTube, albeit in bad quality.

Egg

2018 - Denmark/France - Hand-drawn 2D

This is an extremely hard film to watch. See description for content warnings.

Mental illness, dysphoria, eating disorders

Depicts the inner monologue of a woman trying and failing at battling her eating disorders. Alone in a room, she sees herself, her surroundings and her thoughts morph into monstrosities.

A gutting and raw depiction of the suffering caused by mental illness. While a remarkable movie, it’s one of the most disturbing ones I have seen, and heavily recommend skipping if you are having second thoughts about the topic discussed.

Watch here (NOT free)

La traversée (The Crossing)

2021 - France - Paint on glass animation. Family friendly

Depictions of genocide and child abuse

Persecution, immigration, travel, growing up

A brother and a sister flee their village to escape a pogrom, and soon find themselves alone, traveling through a fictional continent, trying to find ways to go further at each step, meeting a gallery of people along their way.

Literally an animated painting due to its technique. The story was inspired by the one of the creator’s own family, and she voluntarily chose a calm, down to earth, focused tone to depict the difficult subject matter. Never does this film try to push emotions onto the viewer, letting you travel alongside the protagonists instead, with no commentary, to experience their journey.

Unfortunately not localized that I know of.

Tekkonkinkreet

2006 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D and CG. Family friendly-ish (*see description)

Pretty graphic descriptions of violence towards children

Growing up, change, imagination

Two street kids watch the neighborhood they call home lose itself to gentrification. Their situation takes a dire turn when the local mafia in charge of operations decides to get rid of them once and for all - progress cannot be stopped by nobodies who exist outsides the law.

Although suffering from a rushed ending, it’s a story that provides many layers to get lost in, served by superb visuals and music. The two little protagonists and their sometimes troubled relationship are extremely endearing, and the film is emotional without being cheesy. (*)While I consider it an adult film, I’ve seen many fans say they grew up with it...hard to judge.

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Ruben Brandt: Collector

2018 - Hungary - 2D and CG mix. Family friendly-ish

Unreality, child abuse

Crime, fine arts, psychology, dreams

A psychiatrist is haunted by terrifying nightmares, ruining his life. Featured in all of them are famous paintings he, an art connoisseur, knows well. His clients learn of his troubles and decide to help the man fight his demons through a therapy they’re familiar with: high crime.

Ruben Brandt is a love letter to painting and art that does a lot of things very well. Charming characters, an investigation to follow, both fun and disturbing. The art style, voluntarily semi abstract for it’s characters, might take some time to get used to, but is very striking in it’s weirdness.

Should be on Netflix.

Yûl and the Snake

2015 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Child abuse

Slice of life, growing up, petty crime, authority

A boy accompanies his older brother during a visit to his boss in a remote corner of the wilderness. The two men play power games, taunting each other, and lash out at the boy.

This movie stands out for how naturally it’s written and acted. It’s intense and upsetting because it feels so real.

Watch here for free (french)

Summit of the Gods

2021 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Child death in a single scene

Mountain climbing, investigations, human relationships, nature

A journalist interested in the quest to scale Mount Everest catches a glimpse of a Japanese mountain climber long thought to be dead. He decides to track down the man and discover the truth.

This is a film you forget is animated very fast, but who’s animation itself is great, daring realism and an eye for technical detail.

Should be on Netflix soon.

Millenium actress

2001 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Love, life purposes, acting, passion

A dedicated fan interviews a once-famous Japanese actress. In front of his camera, she relives her entire life, role by role, revealing the motivation she’s had all this time: reuniting with the man she fell in love with when she was young.

Lighthearted, earnest and charming, just like it’s leading star; it has fantastic animation and a unique, fascinating way to deliver its story. A classic for a good reason!

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Just A Guy

2020 - Germany - stop motion, paper animation, hand-drawn 2D, claynimation

This is an extremely hard film to watch. See description for content warnings.

Love, sex, violence, shock, fan culture

The animated interviews of three women, telling of their relationships with a violent serial killer and rapist, whom they willingly contacted when he was in jail, awaiting his death sentence.

A wild ride of an animated short due to its blend of techniques, animation style, and the brutal honesty towards its subject matter. While cartoony and not containing any footage of the crimes committed, it centers around a very real criminal and details the fan culture around him, especially the sexual aspects, viewer discretion is advised and all that...

Watch here (NOT free)

Chapped lips

2018 - France - Hand-drawn 2D

Transphobia, suicide

Childhood, gender

A child, seated at lunch, has been sent home from school for causing trouble yet again. “He” tries to tell “his” mother about what weights on “his” mind. The conversation is tenuous.

This is a slow, raw short about the difficulties faced by transgender children, which is depicts very honestly. Not sure how to word this, but it might be very upsetting to watch for people who have experiences similar situations.

Watch here for free

Rooty toot-toot

1951 - USA - Hand-drawn 2D. Family friendly

No content warnings

Musical, old timey, justice, crime, humor

A beautiful little lady stands in court for the murder of her man. Her attorney is ready to defend her. This cartoon is paced like a musical, and its art is at the peak of famous USA company UPA’s iconic art style, that still influences productions to this day.

Peak 1950′s illustration style, delightfully animated and really fun.

On YouTube fully in 480p

Mind Game

2004 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D and paper cut

Mild violence, some sexual scenes. The beginning of the movie has a pretty graphic scene of sexual assault.

Life and what it’s about, trippy, wild

After dying in a shitty way, a young man cringes himself back to life, which he decides to live to the absolute fullest to prove God not a single instant of that second chance he’s taking will be wasted.

You often hear of the merits of 2D animation that it lets you depict abstraction you just cannot reach with any other medium, and MindGame is the perfect example of that notion. Every part of this movie is drawn to a beyond ridiculous intensity, following the characters’ mindsets across the adventures they live together. It’s a masterpiece in animation and a one-shot kill for your suspension of disbelief.

Famous movie, should be widely available to buy/rent

Iâhmès and the Great Devourer

2016 - France - cut paper. Family friendly

Child death

Death, mythology, childhood

A child just died. He finds himself in front of the gods, ready to weight his soul, but he refuses to go this way and tries to run away.

A dreamlike, sensible movie about death who uses a rarer and interesting animation technique.

Unfortunately not localized that I know of.

The Apostle

2012 - Spain - stop-motion. Family friendly(*)

No content warnings in particular but could be too scary for young children.

Folk tales, religion, history

A thief finds himself the host of a remote village in the middle of the Spanish countryside, posing as a pilgrim, while he tries to retrieve the loot his fellow criminal anc convict instructed him to get... But the village is off. He wants none of it, of course, but he cannot escape the things that happen in the night.

A story about local legends that itself plays out like a folk tale. Both fun and spooky, it’s an especially interesting look into european catholicism - the old, old type, who’s weird rituals feel strangely...un-christian.

Available to buy on their website for under 10 euros.

Junk Head

2017 - Japan - Stop-motion

Some mild puppet gore and body horror

Post-apocalypse, adventure, comedy, just some guys hanging out

In a far future, one of the remaining humans is sent to investigate the underground for the sake of science. Blown up before he can reach solid ground, his head tumbles down there, from a floor to another, encountering the friendly locals who each time, give him a new body and welcome him to their weird little micro societies, before some slapstick disaster promptly makes his head fall once more...

This film was animated by a self taught solo artist (animation, music, puppets/props, writing and most of the voices!), which is already insanely impressive. Should it be the lack of any pressure from higher ups or no being told what to do by executives, but Junk Head is a batshit movie that screams fun for its entire runtime - and a lot, lot of heartfelt passion for movies. It’s weird, it’s funny, it’s touching, because it wants to be these things. A rare gem who stands out as utter opposite to corporate cinema.

Benefits from rare theater screenings, otherwise hard to obtain legally. No US release yet.

Memories

1995 - Japan - Hand-drawn 2D

Unreality (Magnetic Rose), no other warnings.

Scifi, thriller (Magnetic Rose); adventure, comedy (Stink Bomb), dystopia (Canon Fodder)

Memories is not one movie, but rather three short films mashed together with no transition in the hour and a half format. Each of these stories is fully independent and has its own art style, and all three are worth your time. I will present, in order, each individual short.

Worth noting - as I write this (summer 2022), a remastered version has been announced to get back in theaters! Otherwise, it is a remotely famous movie that should be easily obtained online.

Magnetic Rose: the crew of a spaceship follows an SOS signal which leads them to a long abandoned hunk of metal. Two of the men enter, determined to rescue whoever sent the signal. The deeper they go, the stranger the world around them becomes, as they slowly fall prey to a labyrinth of grandeur and illusions.

Of all three, Magnetic Rose struck me as the best film in the compilation. Great atmosphere and visuals, and very emblematic of that bygone 90s anime art style that flirted with realism.

Stink Bomb: a guy goes to work at his lab with a killer cold. Tired of sniffling all day, he tries out a new form of medecine, only to wake up a day later, only person left conscious amidst a disaster he knows nothing of. The national alarm is raised, and he sets off on a one man quest to help the nation, unaware of the damage he has done.

This is an over the top, expressive and very, very silly film. Nothing too deep, but it’s a really good time, and showcases some insanely good animation.

Canon fodder: one full day of the daily life of a mother, father and son, living in a gigantic dystopian nightmare town who’s culture is centered around a single thing - shelling an invisible enemy.

Writing-wise, the weakest of the films, but compensantes with incredible art, more illustrative than animated in style but animated nonetheless, like a strange, obsolete children’s story book from a non existing place and a bygone era... This is a weird, uneasy movie that does not tell much but keeps you watching.

Backflip

2022 - Germany - CG, live scans and AI animation

No content warnings

Comedy, AI, content creation

Speaking to us viewers using his own synthesized voice, a 3D model of the author explains to us his quest - using a computer simulation to learn how to do a backflip.

Hard to summarize or explain, this short film is a treasure of creativity that uses techniques I have never seen in animation.

Unfortunately not yet distributed.

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proofread and corrected by the nerd @redthepear

Films I will not be including:

Akira. There is no point including Akira on a list of films to discover. Of course, I recommend watching it, but at this point who hasn’t? Not family friendly, CWs for body horror, gore, and medical trauma

Waltz with Baschir. An interesting and shocking film but who I did not enjoy enough to recommend it. Not family friendly, CWs for war, trauma and genocide, including actual footage of dead bodies

Anomalisa. Extremely interesting visually but again, not a movie I enjoyed. Not family friendly.

Perfect Blue. There is already a Satoshi Kon movie on the list, and Perfect Blue is a film I have issues with. Not family friendly. CWs for rape, violence and stalking depicted in the movie, as well as ableist writing.

Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika - not included for the same reasons as PB, but I also haven’t seen it. I will some day!

Films on the to-watch list:

Belladonna of Sadness

Angel’s Egg

Persépolis

A Scanner Darkly

Mad God

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Updated on July 7th 2022 (The Apostle, Junk Head, Memories, Backflip) + addition of list of the films I won’t be adding.

#j #so many of these are about people dying and so many of these are french.#welcome to animation #animation

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meandmyechoes · 3 years

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Star Wars Visions review Part 1

binged them all in subs! will revisit the dub. first pass viewing order is 548621793.

[Part 2] [Part 3]

The Ninth Jedi: Yay, Kara my girl! Look, I know it wasn’t the smartest decision to stan her out of all the girls even before we’ve seen the full series, but I’d like to be somebody different! I have, what you could call the highest expectation of this story. I heard it is actually two standalone concepts merged into one, that it has the grandest of a worldbuilding mechanism. Incidentally, that feels like it turns on itself - that the deviation from “canon” makes it almost its own fantasy story. And I say that going in knowing the rule book.

The aftertaste is: I watched a trailer. which is true, because that’s where the concepts started out. It feels like they set up a world, a quest, the main character and threw in the coolest fight scene to hook you on, and it frustrates me because Ninth has the longest runtime of them all. The lightsaber-smith is such a Japanese/traditional concept that I can understand the inspiration, just that I prefer building your own saber and a Jedi being more than a weapon. However that theme wasn’t lost in seeing Kara has to strengthen herself to earn her namesake. Kara turns out to be a bit ‘main-chara’ (in a perfectly fine but underexplored way) but I do like the confirmation of what I first saw in her: the optimism and fearlessness. Kind of reminds me of Ahsoka bouncing around with that green saber of hers! The character I’m more interested in learning though, ended up being the old pilot droid(s). My verdict for The Ninth Jedi is, I like its details and clues, but I’d like it better if it was its own story.

8:2 / 7 (Japanese : Star Wars ratio + score out of 10)

The Village Bride: This one, expectation and reality matches up! This with T0-B1 are my favourites, but I think this is a close second because I’d have liked it to be a feature-length film! There are enough materials covering the village’s past and invasion, building up the characters like how Haru and Saku came to differ, Asu’s role, and how Van and F met! It doesn’t feel like a trailer like Ninth because instead of asking you to look forward to the next chapter, Bride feels like an extract with its dialogue delivering just the crucial story, and giving us a concluding climax. I super-love the costumes and visuals. The unconventional lineart and colour choices leave a refreshing impression. Music is killer. Chills every time the vocal hits. I think this hits that perfect mark of melding Japanese (mountain) culture (animism) and Jedi heroism.

5:5 / 10

Lop and Ocho: Lop puts a Japanese story inside the Star Wars framework more than the other way round. The industrialization and family feud works in Star Wars, while rooted in Japanese stories. Lop has the most palatable art style so it is very easy for a layman like me to go 'wow this has money' staring at the rich backgrounds and frame rate. The zinc rooftops, rundown alleys, shitamachi neighbourhood shops are very close to heart. I’m seeing old Kowloon while seeing old Shinjuku haha. The retrofuturism is an essential element of Star Wars that often gets overlooked (at least to me) and I’m glad it is the foundation for the aesthetic and conflict of this short.

And then I feel so dumb not realizing the time-skip haha! I was the one who sieved the trailer and I couldn’t make the connection! I was initially imagining more of a cheerful quest not unlike Ninth. Well wouldn’t you like to be wrong! I do like this more than I expected.

Felt just the slightest bit rushed. Ocho’s transformation and fight sequence are amazing. The final frame with the sakuras at the background just took my breath away. The inscribed lightsaber is a novel idea, but right where my mind swam towards the ‘Japanese’ side than the ‘Star Wars’ side. There were so many details in a frame I would go back to see the Easter eggs. This story is so pretty and when you peel all that away, at its core is a drama that is… an age-old tale. And I’m not complaining, because that's what Star Wars is, a ‘cliche’ that works. It brings novelty to Star Wars, but those are elements I’ve seen in classic stories I grew up with. In the end, Lop works, it is definitely a very high-quality work, but I don’t think it can quite secure a most special place in my heart.

6:4 / 9

#star wars visions #sw visions #my sw meta #The Ninth Jedi #The Village Bride #Lop and Ocho #guess I have to watch I.G.'s fall anime about a princess joining an eight-member all-female pirate gang now #oh there's already seven dubbed episodes out there #I sew half a Kara costume and for WHAT #heading my downtown to make Haru and F's #what would i GIVE to have F's look to go to school #(look I know that's not a very ambitious place to be but)#it is a dream to go to school in hakama pants ok #since that's what they started out for girls anyway #but honestly ain't hopeful hk's winter is getting any winter-er #Haru and F are like my projection oc's because i'm 14 and emo and gets Nana even though i've never watched/read it #adjusted score considering the rest

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the-bejeesus · 3 years

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To Those Who Say “I’m not gonna catch up on One Piece until it’s finished. Why would I watch/read 1000+ episodes/chapters when I don’t even get to know how the story ends?”

Now for the past few years, when I came across somebody who said this, my rebute would be something like “Well the series is great already. It doesn’t really matter if I don’t know how it ends, because the journey itself is enjoyable.” or “Man if that’s your excuse, who you gonna explain why you read/watch stuff like Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and My Hero Academia? Newsflash, they aren’t done yet.” But it came across my mind that I can now apply a completely different approach:

“If you start watching/reading at this pace right now, it will be over by the time you catch up.”

If you’re a fan of the series, you’ll know that for awhile now Oda has been saying that he plans to end the series in just 5-4 years. Now he’s made lots of claims in the past that turned out to be ridiculous. However, many One Piece researchers have compiled his claims and found out that they only get more accurate as time goes on, with the most ridiculous claims being found to be myths. And with the most recent claims of ending the series in less than 5 years, even his editors who are usually skeptical have started to trust that he can do this. After all, he has officially set there to be only one more saga (which isn’t necessarily one arc, but it’s either going to be 1-2 major arcs or an anthology of 5-6 shorter arcs). And now that we can trust this claim, we can essentially extrapolate how many chapters/episodes are left and what pace we have to binge to catch up at just the right time.

If you plan to read the manga (black and white):

The manga in black in white is a perfectly fine way to enjoy One Piece. It’s what Oda draws, it’s how he intends it to be viewed, and best of all, it will be the first version of publication to finish.

Out of the 1223 weeks since the first chapter published in July 19, 1997, 1000 chapters have published, meaning on average he publishes 42 chapters per year, or in other words, there are only 10 hiatuses per year (including holidays where WSJ does not publish). Now if I wanted to be more accurate, I’d only look at the chapters published this year, to exclude outliers like how he had no hiatuses for the first 200 chapters, or how he had a 4-week hiatus during the timeskip, but 2020 has been a bit crazy, so we’re not doing that for this or any of the others.

Going off of this, the final chapter would be chapter 1212 in December 28, 2025 (yes, the 28th would be a Sunday again.) So here’s how you’d calculate the pace in which you need to read One Piece, and really this is how we’ll calculate it for every version)

Now I know math is boring, but the reason I’m showing this to you is because the amount of weeks until One Piece ends will vary based on when you start this binge. Chances are you aren’t going to start the day you see this post, and there’s an even greater chance you won’t see this post the day it’s posted. For every example I’m going to assume you started binging on December 28, 2020. Now let’s try to use it for this example.

And there’s your answer, just read 4-5 chapters per week. By the end, One Piece should be nearly over or have very recently ended. To put that into a different perspective, you could purchase and read just two volumes per month and you’ll be at prime pace. Or you could read one chapter every day, but only on weekdays. If you want to, you can see this calculation in action in graph form.

While this is a very rudimentary graph, it’s a basic visualization of what we’re calculating here. We’re calculating what speed we need to binge to catch up at exactly the right moment. I say exact, but ultimately no one can predict how many chapters there will be exactly, nor how many hiatuses Oda will go on during it. It will be important, as you’re nearing the end, to find a spoiler-free way to keep up on how close One Piece is to ending. To know whether you ought to speed up or slow down.

If you plan to watch the anime (subtitled):

For years now people have hated on the anime “terrible animation!” “terrible pacing” but at the end of the day, it’s the more popular version. Or the more viewed version I should say. And personally, I think that once you acknowledge its problems and learn how to deal with them, it’s a perfectly fine experience. There’s enough good voice acting and enough good storytelling that you’re easily able to ignore the problems. Plus, the animation has substantially improved since Wano.

Now for this we’re going to have to change a lot of variables to get this right. We’re going to have to adjust when publication started, and recalculate when One Piece will end by looking at how slowly the anime adapts the manga, and how behind it is. The anime aired on October 20, 1999, and has aired 956 episodes since then. This means on average they air 44.9 episodes per year, meaning there is pretty much only 7 breaks the entire year. With these 956 episodes, they have adapted 955 chapters, making the pace almost exactly one chapter per episode. However this is really inaccurate, considering all the better-paced arcs earlier on in the story. Looking solely at episodes 2012 and onwards, the anime adapts at a pace of 0.65 chapters/episode.

Knowing that there are roughly 212 chapters left, and Toei adapts at 0.65 chapters per episode, we can assume that there are going to be roughly 324 episodes left. That sounds like too many, but keep in mind that there will be several, several instances where the manga will be on hiatus whereas the anime will keep on airing. Knowing there are approximately 324 episodes left, and that the anime only takes about 7 breaks a year, we can assume that it will take 7 years, or 374.49 weeks before the anime will end. So now we have the information we need to do the math again.

x = 1280/374.49

x = 3.417 episodes/week.

It may seem like a more relaxed binge, since you get a whole 2 extra years to binge, and you only have to do 3-4 episodes per week, compared to the 4-5 chapters. But keep in mind that these episodes are 24 minutes each. Still not at all bad, but you will be spending more time on it overall.

If you plan to watch One Pace:

One Pace is a fan project that edits the anime so that filler and padding is cut, other edits will be made to make the anime more manga-accurate, such as reorganizing scenes, or adding title cards where absent. Originally only used by a niche number of One Piece fans, One Pace has grown in popularity, and has tried to improve its quality to accommodate more fans, such as making their episodes Dual Audio (meaning you can switch between the dub and original Japanese audio tracks), and including Spanish subtitles.

You’d think we’d have to adjust for when One Pace began, how slowly One Pace catches up, and the works, but there’s not much to calculate. Fortunately for us, no matter how far behind One Pace is on editing the current arc, they always like to wrap things up just a few weeks within when an arc ended, if not the very same week. So really all we have to calculate is how many One Pace episodes there will be by the end of all this, so that we know how many you’ll need to watch per week.

Looking solely at what they’ve covered so far, One Pace has taken 573 episodes and condensed it down to 259 episodes. That’s a pace of 2.21 anime episodes/ paced episode. Earlier we calculated that there would be 324 episodes of the anime left, making for 1280 episodes total. This would mean that there would be around 578 One Pace episodes by the end. And One Pace would probably wrap up in, let’s say 376 weeks, because as I said, they’ll probably finish editing the final arc a week or two after the last episode airs.

x = 578/376

x = 1.53 episodes per week

Now that’s a relaxed pace. 1-2 episodes per week? That’s so slow, I’m not even sure if I’ll remember what I watched last week next time I watch some episodes. The only problem is some of the pre-timeskip still haven’t been edited. They’ll probably be done by the time they finish the final arc, but that’s not gonna work out fast enough. You’ll hit your first roadblock about 7 weeks in when you need to watch the Baratie arc and it’s not done. And don’t even get me started on how many arcs aren’t done in dub or Spanish sub yet. Hopefully you could just switch to the anime or manga when you hit these arcs, readjusting how many episodes/chapters you need to watch/read when you do. But that’s a bit of an excessive amount of math for something that’s supposed to be fun. So yeah, if you’re still convinced you shouldn’t get into One Piece until it’s ended, maybe this is the option for you.

If you plan to read the manga (Colored):

Since 2012, Shueisha has made a colorization of One Piece. It’s not a fan coloring, it’s as official as it gets. Many consider the color schemes portrayed in this version as the most canon, as the majority are pulled straight from whatever colored illustrations of Oda’s they can find. And quite frankly it makes the manga at least 10 times more beautiful. It’s especially great if you have trouble interpreting dense, small black and white panels.

This one is a doozy. You’d think all I gotta do is calculate how far behind the colored manga usually and just adjust from there, right? Wrong. Because how far behind the colored manga is, or how frequently they release volumes in full color, is one of the most inconsistent things I have ever seen. You wanna see what I’m talking about? This is how they’ve chosen to release each volume since 2012:

Volume 1-12: July 15, 2012

Volume 13-23: September 28, 2012

Volume 24-63: December 4, 2012

Volume 64-65: April 4, 2013

Volume 66-68: December 20, 2013

Volume 69-70: August 25, 2014

Volume 71-72: September 16, 2015

Volume 73-75: October 4, 2016

Volume 76: December 2, 2016

Volume 77: March 3, 2017

Volume 78: July 2, 2017

Volume 79: September 4, 2017

Volume 80: December 4, 2017

Volume 81-82: March 3, 2018

Volume 83: October 4, 2018

Volume 84-86: August 2, 2019

Volume 87-92: September 16, 2020

How I am supposed to find out how long it will take for Shueisha to colorize the final volume of One Piece is beyond me. I guess the first step would be to look at how far behind the manga each release was on average, but I’m going to ignore all the ones before 2013, because those were clearly just Shueisha catching up really fast cause they just started and didn’t want to be dozens of volumes behind forever. So of the 14 publications between 2013 and now, on average the last chapter of the last volume they colored was 97.78 weeks after that chapter had published in Weekly Shonen Jump. This means that if the final chapter of One Piece is chapter 1212 on December 28, 2025, then you can expect the final colored volume to publish November 14, 2027.

x = 1212/359

x = 3.37 chapters/week

So if you prefer the manga but don’t want to read 5 chapters every week for 5 years, this might be a better option for ya. But yea, I have no doubt my prediction is at least a little off for this one.

If you plan to watch the anime (dubbed):

Unlike the 4KidsTV and Odex dubs of One Piece, the FUNimation dub is a perfect way to enjoy One Piece. The DVDs come with enjoyable commentary and a marathon mode, great for binging.

FUNimation’s releases of the dub are inconsistent, although not nearly as erratic as the colored manga release. However, there was recently a 2-year hiatus we only just got out of. Since Episode 1′s dub in May 27, 2008, the dub has gotten as far as Episode 614. But that’s only looking at the DVD releases. If you’re willing to stream on FUNimationnow, the dub is as far as 641, and if you’re willing to digitally purchase it from an e-shop such as the Microsoft store, it goes all the way to Episode 654. With that being said, that would mean that on average, FUNimation dubs 1.004 episodes per week. Although if we go back to before the two-year hiatus so as to exclude it from the average, it’s actually 1.10 episodes per week. Not a huge difference, actually. And then if we look solely after the two-year hiatus, it’s actually 2.25 episodes per week, which is insanely faster. It’s hard to tell what the future of the dub will be. I can’t assume they’ll go this fast forever, so I’m just going to take the average of all 3 and say it’s 1.45 episodes per week. Don’t know if that’s the best mathematical approach, but the number seems about right.

So knowing that the dub is at Episode 654 and looking at our previous guesstimation that the anime will be 1280 episodes long, we can predict that it will take 431 weeks before the dub catches up and ends. That would be in 2029! Sounds quick at first until you notice it’s 4 years behind!

x = 1280/431

x = 2.96 episodes per week

Looks like it’s almost exactly 3 episodes per week. Not as much less of a workload as I expected, compared to catching up to the sub. You know, I figured those 4 extra years would make you binge a lot slower.

Final Thoughts:

There’s a lot of my math that was estimation, approximations, extrapolations. Feel free to correct me or fact check me, especially if you plan on using this. I figured this would be a fun thought excercise. There’s also a lot of smaller variables I simply didn’t want to take into account because of how long this is already. For example, reading the black and white manga. The calculation can vary slightly depending on if you read it the day it’s published (which I assume would have to be a fanscan unless you can read Japanese), reading the weekly publication legally on Viz.com, waiting for the physical volume release. The dub can also vary depending on whether you buy from Microsoft, wait for the FUNimationnow release, wait for the DVDs, or wait for the Collection sets. So feel free to take this into account.

#One Piece #OP #ワンピース #Wan Pīsu #anime #manga #FUNimation #dub #One Pace

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gregorygrim · 3 years

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Dragon Prince Hot Takes

!!! Full Spoiler For “The Dragon Prince” Seasons 1-3!!!

So I finally got around to watching The Dragon Prince. Timely, I know, but better late than never i guess. I’m not completely caught up yet as I only got as far as S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” in this first sitting. Considering I haven’t binged any series in almost two years, I think that’s pretty respectable. This means I won’t discuss the last few episodes here, except for a couple of things I was unfortunately spoiled for already, hence full spoilers.

These are basically my first thoughts and opinions after the binge and a good night’s sleep. It’s gonna be a lot so if you don’t care or don’t want spoilers…

TL;DR: 7½/10. Generally enjoyable, there are some aspects I’m not exactly fan of, but no dealbreakers

Firstly to everyone who told me that this was the new ATLA: you all need to rewatch Avatar stat! Like seriously. There are definitely parallels and given the cast and crew I think that’s what they were going for too (which is why I think it’s fair to compare the two), but still, no.

Secondly I love most of the worldbuilding and love that the series at least tries to give it to us in a bit of a non-linear fashion, even if it is kind of clumsy at times. I know some people are put off by expository dialogue and flashbacks, but I’m an epic fantasy nerd, I need that sweet, sweet lore to live as much as you mortals need food.

I like that there was clearly an effort made to integrate the worldbuilding in more subtle ways. For example you may initially find it kind of weird that all these different human ethnicities are existing perfectly integrated in what looks like a medieval society, until you remember from the opening monologue that the Human Kingdoms are the result of a massive diaspora following the human exodus from Xadia, so obviously people got all mixed up everywhere. It’s representation with an excellent in-world reason and that just brings me joy.

I also love the magic system(s) even though we haven’t really gone into that just yet. it really feels like there was a genuine effort made to create underlying mechanics for the magic rather than just making each spell a vaguely elemental themed ability. I really hope we’ll dive deeper into that in coming seasons.

I also like the little nods to other works of fantasy: Ezran’s ability to talk with animals is a reference to Tolkien’s world where some royal bloodlines had the ability to speak with animals, specifically birds; Primal Magic and its spells being cast with Ancient Draconic runes and words might be reminiscent of the Ancient Language from the Inheritance Cycle etc.

Thirdly the main cast is great. Callum, Ezran and Rayla are all interesting and relatable characters in their own right and as a group. I’m not going into each of them individually here, but while I think the series as a whole falls short of ATLA, as protagonist parties go I dare say this one is nearly on nearly on par with the gAang.¹

And yes, I love Bait, which I really did not expect following the first few episodes. I love his weird pug-toad-chameleon design, I love that he works like a flashbang whenever somebody says a quote from Scarface (I wish they hadn’t dropped that later on) and I love how done he is with everything and everyone at all times. I’ve only had him for 25 episodes, but if anything happened to him I would kill all of my followers and then myself.

On top of that, and speaking as someone who god knows is really not into shipping, I love Rayla and Callum’s relationship. It’s believable, it’s refreshing and it brings out the best in both characters without changing basically anything about them. Just two good friends who fell in love. A++, maybe even S tier.

Unfortunately though I can’t sing the same kind of praises about the villains. None of them are terrible (as in terribly written, most of them are pretty awful people), but with one exception they just don’t stand up to the protagonists in quality.

I could simply not take Viren seriously. Even now that is probably the single most powerful magic user in the world, he just has such strong Karen energy, every time he finishes a speech I am overcome with the urge to say “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” and it does not help the mood. I’m not even sure why. It might’ve been the voice because the guy who did Viren (Jason Simpson) also does a lot of kinda slimy characters in various anime dubs, it might be that over-the-top walking stick, idk.

What I’m saying is that as a primary antagonist he simply did not work for me. Which is doubly a shame because this kind of tarnishes the real “Big Bad” of this story by proxy. Aaravos, even as an invisible ghost, with his voice coming out of a caterpillar and next to no info on his backstory, has more style and gravity than all the human antagonists combined. It helps that he is by far the best designed character and Erik Dellums has the voice of a young god, but I’d argue even without that unfair advantage he has the potential to be a top tier villain. While he is stuck as Viren’s “little bug-pal” though he is just being dragged down.

(I’m aware that as of the final episode the caterpillar familiar is undergoing metamorphosis, probably to create a new body for Aaravos’ spirit to inhabit outside of the magic mirror, so I’m definitely hyped for more of him in the coming seasons.)

As for Soren and Claudia, I’ve got mixed feelings. This was one more aspect of the show that a lot of people compared to Avatar and while I see the parallels to Zuko & Azula, they are still very different, at least where Claudia is concerned. I’d also just like to mention that a lot of people told me that they thought the direction in which their storylines went were really surprising and I can’t disagree more. I predicted that Soren would defect to the protagonists on episode 5 right after Viren told him to kill the princes and I knew Claudia was going to stick with her father from episode 12 onward. My point is, it didn’t feel like some kind of plot twist, the way some people made it out to be, and which I don’t think was the intent.

I definitely got the sense that Soren was at least a Zuko-type character, though still not a Zuko clone, and as with Zuko I was consistently able to empathise and sympathise with him and his predicaments. I also appreciated that his dilemma is the result of his convictions and not him being kind of dense, which would’ve been all to easy and probably would’ve ruined his character for me. As it stands he is extremely milktoast, but perfectly functional for his purpose in the story and I can definitely see him evolving further and getting more interesting as we go on.

Claudia is where it gets complicated. Again, I can see the Azula parallels. But unlike that character, who is her father’s animal 110%, Claudia doesn’t strike me as a victim of Viren’s manipulation the way Soren undoubtably is. The way she talks about and uses Dark Magic, how she talks down to Soren and how even Viren finds it difficult to communicate with her, tells me as an audience member that she is an independent person. Which tells me that the cruelty and enthusiasm for causing harm she regularly displays is her own will. And that was before she straight up leads Callum on to manipulate him.

On the other hand I can absolutely relate to her devotion to her family, her big sister role (even though she is younger than Soren) and the way both the separation of her parents before the story and Soren’s injury in episode 16 must’ve affected her because of this. I know that, if my brother had become paralysed from the neck down and I knew a way to heal him, I would not have hesitated to kill that fawn either. Then again her relationship with her father is very different from parental relationships I am familiar with, so I can’t really say I see why she is so devoted to him, other than she promised her mother to stay with him years ago? ¯\(o_Ō)/¯

So basically Claudia falls into an emotional grey space for me. I can’t really tell how to feel about her either way and I’ll just have to see where she goes from here, which, while fine, isn’t necessarily great for an end of season cliffhanger imo.

Seeing as I’ve already talked about some of the show’s shortcomings, I think it’s time to dive into some of the what I would consider flaws.

Firstly this show needed at least 12 episode seasons. I have never made a secret out of my dislike for the modern short seasons and while I recognise that in the current climate in the industry giving everything full 25 episode seasons isn’t really doable, the pacing of this show, especially for the first season is just outright bad at times. It works as of the second season, but the first season alternately feels like it’s either rushing through or crawling along the whole way through.

The believability of Rayla’s and the princes’ relationship really suffers from this the most. It comes a bit out of nowhere on the boat ride and is then taken for granted way to quickly. Like Callum, seriously, this girl tried to kill you and your brother not even a day ago and you are currently cut off from all allies you have ever had until now. A little skepticism isn’t misplaced here. I also wold’ve liked if we’d just gotten a bit more of a sense of movement with the characters. I get that this is not the kind of show where we can just make an entire episode about the characters travelling and camping, intercut with plots centred around a more expansive supporting cast, but still I really would’ve preferred if Xadia didn’t feel quite so around the corner.

Another issue is with setup and payoff, which I think is partially a consequence of the pacing as well. A lot of smaller plot points are set up within the same episode as the payoff just wreak havoc on the narrative structure. A good example is the episode where they ride down the river in a boat and Bait tires to go into the water, but is saved by Ezran, who then explains the story behind Glowtoads and how they are pefect bait for large water predators. Then Bait falls into the water and is attacked by a massive water monster. This happens within five minutes of one episode and never comes up again. To me that looks like sign of rushed editing, which is probably not entirely the crew’s fault, given that they are on a schedule from Netflix, but it’s still a point of critique.

It unfortunately also manifests in the occasional line of horribly forced dialogue, often for things we can literally see happening on screen. Again, this is mostly the case in the earlier episodes, but it never completely goes away.

Finally, and this is where i get into serious issues that made me want to write this, we gotta talk about representation in this show.

First: disabled representation, meaning Amaya. Why is Amaya deaf? Because it’s good to have disabled representation.

Why is Amaya deaf and a high-ranking military officer? Because they didn’t think it through.

I know this may be a contentious opinion, but it is my belief that the purpose of representation, particularly of disabilities characters may suffer from, in fiction is to, y’know, represent people as they are in life. That includes especially the struggles they face and have to overcome, sometimes their whole life. This is not just me talking out of my ass either. A couple years ago I discussed this with several people that are disabled, specifically blind or otherwise severely visually impaired, in a different context obviously, and the general consensus was that it’s better to have representation that shows their life and their abilities as they are, rather than how they might wish they could be.

A mute or deaf person cannot be a medieval fantasy army general, no matter how good they might be in melee combat or who’s sister they are, because at the end of the day, they’re not able to give commands while they are holding a sword and shield. That such a massive logical oversight, especially in comparison to the extremely well done example of representation I mentioned above, and has so little impact on the plot that it leads me to believe, this aspect of Amaya’s character was tacked on in the last minute without being given any thought for the sole reason of the story having a disabled person in it. All this does is necessitate the existence of two otherwise entirely unnecessary characters, Gren and Kazi, both of which achieve nothing, aside from sometimes being literal set dressing.

That is where representation ends and tokenism begins.

And unfortunately this generally lacklustre attitude also extends to the LGBT+ representation on the show.

As of S3E7 “Hearts of Cinder” we have had two onscreen gay couples on the show (onscreen in the sense that both partners were onscreen and they were somehow confirmed to be in a relationship on the show). One of these, the queens of Duren, literally die in the same flashback they are introduced in, which incidentally also features them invading a foreign nation to poach a rare animal and subsequently starting the conflict at the series’ core. Not a great look.

Aside from serving as a tragic backstory for their daughter, the most impact they had on my viewing experience was that they made wonder how the fuck royal succession works in Duren. (People who know me are rolling their eyes right now because I’m bringing anarchism into this Dragon Prince review, but I’m telling you, this why fantasy monarchies aren’t compatible with LGBT+ politics in the same setting. Dynastic governments are inherently bigoted, you can’t have it both ways.)

The other couple are Runaan and Ethari, Rayla’s caretakers, although if I’m being honest you wouldn’t be able tell based on Runaan’s treatment of Rayla in the first episode. By the time we actually meet Ethari and find out about their relationship with Rayla, Runaan is suffering “a fate worse than death” (direct quote from the show) trapped in a gold coin.

I mean come on. That’s about as “technically not ‘bury your gays’” as it gets.

I think I need to reiterate here that my point is not that this show or its creators are somehow malicious. As i stated in the TL;DR: I don’t think this is a dealbreaker for liking this show. But it does demonstrate that they are prone to slipping to some potentially harmful tropes and this needs to be criticised and pointed out to them.

In conclusion, I really love this show. It’s not ATLA, it never will be, nothing else will ever be ATLA no matter how badly (and terribly) Netflix tries. But it does and should not have to be.

What it has to do though is improve. A lot of the building blocks are already there, such as Aaravos or Claudia’s development, Callum’s father, the origin of Ezran’s ability, the purpose of the “Key of Aaravos”, the true fate of King Harrow (we all know his soul is in the bird, right?) etc. Some things like the treatment of Amaya’s disability unfortunately won’t be fixable as far as I can tell, but if they at least manage to fix the gay representation I can make my peace with that.

¹ I know I said I wouldn’t go into each of the characters individually, but a) you should never trust a stranger on the internet and b) I really want to talk a bit about Callum. Specifically the “mystery” of why the hell he is connected to the Sky Primal. I write “mystery” because I think it’s fairly obvious from whence this talent came: there is only one humanoid species we know of with innate access to the Sky Arcanum and one of Callum’s parent’s is unidentified, presumed dead. 2+2=4. Callum’s father was a Skywing Elf. That’s why he recognised Nyx’s boomerang weapon. He remembered one like it either from his very early childhood (remember that he has photographic memory) or Sarai kept one and he found it at some point.

On top of that the name “Callum” or at least the pronunciation is clearly derived from Latin “caelum” meaning “sky” or “weather” and I already mentioned that Ancient Draconic is just bad Latin. It’s not very subtle. Unless they pull a complete 180 concerning the lore about Primal Magic he’s definitely going to be a half-elf, which would also just so happen to make him the perfect mediator between the Human Kingdoms and Xadia. Hmm, it’s almost as if they are planning ahead.

My question: How the fuck did that happen? Or rather: how did that fuck happen? I don’t think even Harrow knew or he probably would’ve a) paid more attention when Sarai advised against poaching the Magma Titan, because obviously she’s gotten around Xadia more than him, if y’know what i’m sayin’ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) or at least b) put it in his final letter to Callum. Unfortunately we know basically nothing about Sarai except that she was a soldier alongside Amaya and already had Callum before marrying Harrow. So does Amaya know? This is probably the most interesting plot thread in the whole story and as far as my friends told me it’s not going to be touched on anymore in the last two episodes than it already has thus far, which is basically not at all.

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medea10 · 3 years

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My Review of Trigun

How did I get into this anime? Let’s just say this was one of those animes that used to air on Saturday nights back in the day that I would every now and then come across while waiting for either Full Metal Alchemist, InuYasha, or Cowboy Bebop to air. But I never did watch a full episode or know a damn thing about this anime. So I’m just jumping into this anime blindfolded. All I know is that this was Johnny Yong Bosch’s first anime role.

Who is Vash the Stampede?

A frequent question that comes up throughout the series! Rumor has it that he wears a long, red trench coat and sports a Mohawk hairstyle. Some say he’s a notorious lecher. Many recount him shooting up their villages to a pile of rubble just for the heck of it. He has quite the reputation as he has a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head and is often known as the “Humanoid Typhoon”.

In reality, Vash the Stampede is…a bit of a dingus. He just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and things kinda get out of hand. But that doesn’t stop two insurance agents (Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe) from following him around to confirm Vash’s identity and keep his actions to a minimum. At first, it’s hard to tell if he’s a stupid-genius or just flighty and gets lucky one too many times. But when shit goes down, don’t be surprised when you see this doofus get serious.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Okay, what sad company did this use to belong to, Geneon, Bandai, or ADV Films? Oh, Geneon! That means good voice actors from L.A. put in really shitty roles. On the contrary, this was a fairly decent English dub. And on a severely positive note, this was indeed Johnny Yong Bosch’s very first anime role (and a main role at that). This was like fresh off his time as a Power Ranger! And I gotta give props for giving this guy a chance at voice acting. This role was the launching point to what has been a very successful career for Bosch. As for the sub, let’s just say I’m happy any time I get to hear Hiromi Tsuru in something besides Dragon Ball. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Vash is played by Masaya Onosaka (known for Bill on Pokemon, Isaac on Baccano, Jadeite on Sailor Moon, Kero on Cardcaptor Sakura, Leeron on Gurren Lagann, France on Hetalia, and Spandam on One Piece)

*Meryl is played by Hiromi Tsuru (known for Bulma on DBZ, Ukyo on Ranma ½, Yubel on YGO GX, and Mika on Gravitation) [R.I.P.]

*Milly is played by Satsuki Yukino (known for Kagome on InuYasha, Mion/Shion on Higurashi, Tae on Gintama, Amakata on Free!, Hiiragi on Natsume Yuujinchou, Mutsumi on Love Hina, and Yoruichi on Bleach)

ENGLISH CAST: *Vash is played by Johnny Yong Bosch (known for Ichigo on Bleach, Lelouch on Code Geass, Makoto on Free!, Izaya on Durarara, Artemis on Sailor Moon redub, Koizumi on Haruhi Suzumiya, and Yukio on Blue Exorcist)

*Meryl is played by Dorothy Elias-Fahn (known for Kaoru on Rurouni Kenshin, Naru on Love Hina, Tomoe on Rozen Maiden, Hakuei on Magi, Houki on Fushigi Yugi, and Amane on Tenchi Muyo GXP)

*Milly is played by Lia Sargent (known for Dorothy on The Big O and Judy on Cowboy Bebop)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Milly! I don’t need a reason, it’s Milly!

SHIPPING: I didn’t really start thinking about shipping until more than halfway into this series. I thought there might be something between Vash and Meryl, but then again maybe not! Then I saw the backstory of Vash’s “younger days” and falling for the one woman who showed him compassion.

Yes, this is the same woman we consistently see in Vash’s flashbacks, Rem. Ooh boy, it’s one of those stories! So yeah, never mind my thinking with Vash x Meryl ever happening. I feel like Vash will mourn Rem’s death for a long time that I don’t think the whole thing with Meryl will ever work.

And as for Wolfwood x Milly…

FUUUUUUUCK! WHY DID YOU RUIN THIS CUTE COUPLE?!

MILLY WAS HEART-BROKEN!

…At least she got to have one night of passion with Wolfy-boy before the unthinkable happened.

THAT DARN CAT: If you watched this series, you might have noticed a little black cat spotted in nearly every episode. It’s there in the opening theme. It’s there in random places throughout the series. It’s there in the ending theme. What’s up with this cat? Well, there are a lot of theories surrounding this particular cat (or Kuroneko). Some say it’s really Rem inside that cat since you see it in literally every episode around Vash. Others say it’s because the creator of Trigun wanted to just mess with your minds with the kitty walking around in random places and towns. Seriously, it will always appear in every new town Vash and the gang comes across! As an avid cat enthusiast, I’m fine with whatever the result. Just as long as no harm comes to the little Kuroneko.

HALFWAY POINT: Halfway into the series we notice something more when it comes to Mr. Vash the Stampede. First of all, those horrifying scars all over his body! Second, that mysterious girl he often thinks about. I mean, we see flashes of her in the opening sequence. And third, the reason why he never kills. Vash has the ability of causing so much damage when pushed to a breaking point. One of the many reasons why he’s known as the “humanoid typhoon”! And that was perfectly shown when Vash chases the residents out of a town (so there would be no casualties), totally demolished the town during a fight, and made an indent on the moon!

But the story takes a sharp-left turn into WTF territory when we learn about WHAT exactly Vash is. Vash is a plant. Vash also has a brother named Knives. And while Vash has a mentality that all beings have a right to live, Knives has a “kill them all and let God sort them out” point of view. Now the existence of Vash and Knives came with a lot of controversy, especially in the ship that they were on. But that girl who Vash cares for, Rem cared for them regardless of what they were. Rem had high hopes for a peaceful world with coexistence. Too bad Knives had other motives and killed her.

ENDING TO TV SERIES: Vash has tried so hard to keep Milly, Meryl, and Wolfwood out of harm’s way. He knows there are some pretty bad people after him, including his polar-opposite brother, Knives. Vash hates death and wants to save as many people as humanly possible. He doesn’t want to see any more needless death. Probably from his flashbacks and losing Rem! Unfortunately, this doesn’t go so well.

I can see how iconic this death was now after witnessing it. Wolfwood, the priest who would hook up with Vash every now and then when they’re up against some ruffians, now finds himself in a crucial decision. He gets orders that he must eliminate Vash. And Wolfwood ends up dying instead in a very dramatic death scene. God-damn! And just that scene where Milly is sobbing freakin’ eats you up inside.

At least she had one night of passion before the unfortunate happened!

Vash hates the thought of having to kill anyone. But he might not have a choice if Knives is coming after him and even hires a powerful foe from a previous episode and the guy that killed Wolfwood to take you out. Once Vash met up with Knives, he winds up having some pretty sick flashbacks of Knives. But our homeboy was able to take out Knives, the desert area gets water, and…

I’m gonna have to read the fucking manga for more, right?

Tap dancing fuck!

BADLANDS RUMBLE: 12 years after the series ended, Japan decides to release a side-story in the form of a movie, bringing back our favorite characters like Vash, Wolfwood, Milly, and Meryl. And yes, reuniting the cast…in Japan.

By 2010, Geneon was as good as dead and FUNimation licensed Trigun. In short, they managed to get Johnny Young Bosch to reprise his role as Vash the Stampede. But everyone else was replaced. And surprisingly, the people they got to do Wolfwood and Milly were pretty freakin’ close to their original voices. Meryl’s voice, come on I know Luci Christian any-damn-where! Vash helps a young lady take out a big-bad guy (who turns out to be his father). And it has the feel of the original series where it’s set in a western town with lots of booze and shoot-em-ups! It’s an interesting side-story to the Trigun trilogy.

Trigun was a pretty good anime. I mean, not one of my favorites, but I can definitely see a lot of people sticking by this classic. Maybe you can chalk up my blah attitude to the fact that I’m not fond of westerns and I kinda took it out on Trigun. Or the fact that there was so much more that the anime could have covered before the end and the ending kinda felt off to me! Like I thought I was expecting more. But I suppose that’s what mangas are for. To be honest, the stories that really grabbed my attention were the back-stories with Vash and Knives and Wolfwood’s final episode.

*sniffles* At least Milly got one night of passion before he died!

If you would like to check out Trigun, all the episodes are available through FUNimation and Hulu (in both Japanese and English). And if you really like the anime, why not purchase the hard copies? Both the series and movie are available for home video.

Okay, that took me a while, but I’m glad to finish Trigun. What’s next on the FUNimation list?

EEHHHHHEEEHHHE

Fuck is that supposed to mean? What is that? Is that even in English?

YOU WILL BE HORRIBLY MUTILATED: The Isekai

Do you mean Re:Zero? That’s great…but that review’s not ready yet. And it probably won’t be until after April 2021! So let’s cast caution to the wind and pick another FUNimation licensed anime.

You’re watching Sarazanmai next. It’s best if you don’t ask questions.

Sarazanmai? The fuck does that even mean?!

OH. MY. GOD.

#trigun #vash the stampede #meryl stryfe #milly thompson #nicholas d wolfwood #knives millions #anime review

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fostersffff · 3 years

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Robot Carnival Review

When I first started my blu-ray collecting kick, Discotek was hyping up their release of Memories, an anthology movie organized by Akira’s Katsuhiro Otomo. While doing research on it, I saw it was recommended in the company of Robot Carnival, another anthology movie Otomo was involved with, with more animators and thus individual shorts, and a unifying theme of “robots”. As a robot enjoyer, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with this, and I was right! This was a joy from start to finish, where even the weakest segment still had plenty to offer. If this sounds like it might be up your alley, it’s available to stream for free on RetroCrush and YouTube!

Additional note before I get into talking about each short individually: with the exception of Cloud, the music for every short was composed by Joe Hisaishi, who has way more range as a composer than I would’ve ever expected, considering I knew him exclusively as the Studio Ghibli composer. Additional additional note: I watched the anthology in the original Japanese order, the version on RetroCrush and YouTube uses an alternate order from the international release.

Opening/Ending (Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira and Atsuko Fukushima, key animator on dozens of anime projects, including Akira) - A mobile fortress (literally the above Robot Carnival logo) traverses a post-apocalyptic wasteland, bringing death and destruction wherever it goes. The Opening sets the bar for what you should expect going forward in terms of production values, and the Ending is a nice send off for the whole thing, but I don’t really have much else to say about these shorts.

Franken’s Gears (Koji Morimoto, Director of Memories: Magnetic Rose) - A mad scientist attempts to bring their robot to life, succeeds horribly. I think of all the shorts in this movie, this one has the most impressive mechanical animation. The whole thing takes places in the scientist’s lab, and the emphasis really is on all of the ways the environment is struggling to bring the robot to life, to the point that once it does so, it begins to crumble and break apart. But the animation on the scientist himself is also really charming; the way he moves almost makes him look gooey, which is apt because my sister pointed out he was probably designed after a snail, what with the big orb on his back.

Deprive (Hidetoshi Omori, Animation Director for Char’s Counterattack) - A super android has to mamoru his imouto from an invading alien robot army. One of my favorite shorts in the anthology, this was an entire action movie expertly condensed down into not even ten minutes, complete with an awesome soundtrack. I’d actually go so far as to call this one perfect for what it is, but it’s not much more than that.

Presence (Yasuyomi Umetsu, Character Designer and Chief Animation Director of Megazone 23 Part II) - A man builds an android for companionship, and he gets more than he bargained for. Longest piece in the compilation by a mile, and the first one with voice acting. Despite enjoying some of the other shorts more, I think I would call Presence the “centerpiece” of this anthology, as it’s definitely the most story-rich. It even has some prescient worldbuilding: the people of this setting do not see robots as sentient beings, which is shown right at the start when a bunch of kids knock the head off of an android and play with it while absolutely no one in the crowded plaza reacts. This sets the tone for the main character’s interactions with his creation, and provide additional context for the things he does besides the obvious explanations.

This was also the first short where I noticed something off about the animation, where it seemed to animate too well in for certain movements. As it turns out I was right; the liner notes explain that the director was using this project to experiment, and he would animate different movements on different frame counts. It’s not terrible, but it is a little distracting to see how smoothly something like a simple head turn will animate while more complex motions look more standard. Also, unrelated but fun coincidence: the liner notes also explain a reference in the script to a story called Daddy Long Legs, about an orphan girl who receives funding from a wealthy philanthropist she never meets, which explains a reference that went over my head Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

Star Light Angel (Hiroyuki Kitazume, Character Designer and Animation Director for Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and Char’s Counterattack) - What could have been the most effective piece of robosexual propaganda ever made: a girl and her friend are at Tokyo Disneyland ROBOT WANDERLAND and are having a wonderful time, until she discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her, at which point she retreat into the park and winds up on a virtual reality ride. Meanwhile, a robot performer attempts to find her and return the locket she dropped while she ran past him. This is tied for my favorite, alongside Deprive, because I’m a big sucker for romance and the main song for the short is so perfect for the content. I was also delighted to find the explanation for this short was that Kitazume, who’s work up to this point was all mecha anime like Aura Battler Dunbine and Zeta Gundam, really wanted to try to flex with character expressions, and it came through brilliantly as the range and level of facial expressions was the first thing I really took notice of in this. Funny enough, though, Kitazume also apparently said he considers this and Deprive to be the weakest pieces of the anthology, and I suppose he’s right in that they have the least meat on their bones and are also probably the least technically impressive, but still: my two favorites!

Cloud (Mao Lamdo, a prolific animator on many projects, but probably best known for this) - A robotic boy wanders past a series of ever-changing clouds. Cloud is definitely a stand-out short for a number of reasons, from the way its animated to the incredibly tangential connection to the “robot” theme, and to be perfectly honest I got a lot more out of it after I read the liner notes. The short was adapted from a self-published book Mao Lamdo had written years prior that had nothing to do with robots, and his interpretation of the short and the change to making the main character a robot was that it represented his frustration with the trend in the anime industry at the time trending towards a being obsessed with the mechanical world, while he still preferred to draw and animate nature. As I mentioned at the top, this is also the only short to not have music composed by Joe Hisaishi, instead the piece used is by Isaku Fujita, and as far as I can tell, this is his only credit. Still, it’s a good credit to have; Lamdo said the song evoked the idea of having a conversation with God and asking the big questions, which I can completely see.

Strange Tales of Meiji Machine Culture: “The Westerner’s Invasion” (Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Director of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA and Golden Boy) A terrible steampunk mech invades a Japanese town, and is warded off by a team of youths piloting their own terrible steampunk mech. I watched this one with the English dub first and then again in Japanese because it’s been a fuckin’ minute since I heard a dub this racist, complete with changing r’s to l’s and vice versa, only to be cracked across the skull by what I am certain was a Japanese man doing his very best to phonetically read English in the Japanese version. In spite of that, though, this is easily the funniest short for all the right reasons, and it kinda clicked once I found out that the director was also responsible for Golden Boy; it’s that exact kind of humor, complete with a protagonist who could very well be Kintaro Ue’s ancestor.

Chicken Man and Red Neck, a.k.a. Nightmare (Takeshi Nakamura, director of Catnapped! The Movie) - A robotic magician wreaks havoc on a city by transforming everything in sight into robotic monsters, and a vagrant gets caught up in the chaos. I initially wrote down “this one has the energy of a Don Bluth movie, particularly In the Dark of the Night from Anastasia”, although the liner notes say he actually was inspired by Night on Bald Mountain, which is definitely a more flattering inspiration and more accurate, to boot. I think of all the shorts in this anthology, this one gets the prizes for “best overall animation” and “best use of robots”, and it also has the most intense PS1 RPG sounding music, which once again speaks to Joe Hisaishi’s talent as a composer for doing that a full decade before the PS1 even existed. Also, fun trivia, the director turned down an offer from Hayao Miyazaki to be animation director on Castle in the Sky to make this, which… was maybe not the best career move, but still this was a terrific short and I’m glad to have it.

Again, the movie is easily accessible for free streaming, and I’d heartily recommend you check it out if you haven’t already. But if you’re into collecting physical media, the blu-ray is crammed full of tons of goodies, including the liner notes I’ve referenced, art galleries for each segment, and a lot of other production materials. Discotek also announced they’re doing a 4k UHD release of this soon, which won’t include all the extras due to the way UHD discs work, but I gotta be honest, this would be worth double dipping for if the resolution bump is noticeable enough.

#Robot Carnival #Katsuhiro Otomo #mecha #giant robot #robot #robots #anime #animation #blu-ray

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ughseoks · 4 years

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novaturient | 01

» pairing; prince!jungkook x reader / platonic!ot6 x reader

» genre/rating; fantasy!au / royalty!au / pg15

» word count; 6.6k

» warnings; weapons, fighting, mentions of injuries, poisoning, very slight references to dub/non-con, insults? they don’t swear but they aren’t very nice to jin either

» summary;『 Prince Seokjin of Tanbarun notices you because of your unusual hair, so you flee your home and end up meeting the prince of a neighboring kingdom, Jeon Jungkook. (Based on the anime Akagami no Shirayukihime). 』

✩ series masterlist | main masterlist | next chapter ✩

“There it is!” you grin, bending down towards the green herb at your feet. The long leaves are striped with brown, a tell-tale sign that it’s Spellamiso, the herb you’ve been looking for all morning. Gently pulling it from the ground, you place it in your satchel before standing up and stretching your arms.

The forest sings with life around you; a gentle breeze flows through the trees, and the dewdrops from the early morning mist glisten on the tops of your shoes. Birds chirp, their sweet melodies wafting through the air before settling lightly in the ears of all who will listen.

The ringing of the clock tower interrupts the peace of the morning, causing you to jump in surprise. If I don’t leave now, I’m going to be late opening the shop, you think to yourself, quickly closing the brown satchel and swinging it to rest on your lower back before running towards the exit of the forest.

A cool gust of wind caresses your face as you break past the treeline, the white hood covering your head flying backwards and rippling behind you as if it’s made of liquid. The terrain below you shifts into a steady decline, your feet skidding as you slid across the wet grass towards the stream below. Tendrils of your soft hair flicker across your cheeks and temples, kissing your skin wherever they touch.

Looking at the view ahead of you, your heart skips a beat. No matter how many times you gaze out at the kingdom you lived in, Tanbarun, it never ceases to amaze you with its beauty. The sunlight dances across the roofs of houses, shops, and taverns. By now, you’re almost certain that the residents are slowly filling the streets, and you can hear the quiet hum of warm greetings and small talk as if you’re already there.

There is no doubt in your mind— Tanbarun is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall….” Prince Seokjin looks down at his perfectly manicured nails, inspecting them with feigned interest as he speaks arrogantly, “Tell me, who is the fairest maiden in all of Tanbarun?”

“That isn’t a mirror, your highness. That’s the informant from town.”

Seokjin drops his hand, shooting a glare at his aide, Sakaki. “You’re no fun.” The aide gives no response, ignoring the daggers that Seokjin shoots at the side of his head. After a few moments, the prince shakes his head, returning his attention back to the informant before him.

“Informant! What information do you bring?”

“There is a girl, sir,” the man answers, keeping his gaze trained on his shoes, “She has exceptionally red hair, like an apple. She is well known amongst the townspeople, a kind herbalist who—”

“Excellent! Bring her to me.” Seokjin interrupts the informant, waving him off with a dismissive hand.

“At once, sir.”

“Thank you, miss!” the young boy grins at you before practically sprinting out the door. You give him a small wave as he does so, unable to keep the corners of your mouth from turning upwards as you prepare to help your next customer.

“What can I do for you today, Mrs. Kino?” you turn to face the wall behind you. The shelves are full of bottles and boxes holding different herbs, ointments, and medications. Ink black writing stands out against the crisp white labels, although you barely needed to look at them anymore. You love what you do, and you do it well.

“Oh, I don’t need anything today,” the old woman supplies, her response prompting you to look over your shoulder at her in confusion. “I came in to look at your beautiful hair. As silly as it sounds, seeing it brightens my day.”

“That’s awfully kind of you,” you smile, touched by her compliment. The uniqueness of your hair wasn’t lost on you. Wherever you went, you caught the attention of everyone walking past— hence the reason you often wore your white hood and cape. “But while you’re here, do you need anything else? If your back is still bothering you, I have some leftover Milkweed Root that might help—”

“I just wish your grandparents could see you now,” Mrs. Kino sniffles, your eyes growing wide with shock as tears begin to slip down her cheeks, “You’ve become such a fine pharmacist! They would be so proud!”

“O-oh, thank you,” you stutter, reaching over the counter to take her hands in yours. You run your thumbs across her knuckles, trying to soothe her as she sobs in the middle of your shop. Although it was a bit of an odd sight to walk in on, your heart flutters at the sentiment. It’s nice to know that somebody else believed that what you were doing was something your grandparents— the ones who raised you— would be proud of.

Once she calms back down, the elderly woman gives your cheek a pinch before walking out, insisting that she’ll come back tomorrow to check in on you again. You gave her a kind smile in return, reminding her that if she ever needed anything, you’ll be right here.

Not even thirty seconds later, the familiar tinkle of the bell above the door rings in your ears, alerting you of someone’s entrance to the shop. “Already back, Mrs. Kino? I still have that Milkweed Root—”

Oh.

That is not Mrs. Kino.

Standing in the doorway is a man— a very tall man— in a soldier’s outfit. He’s a soldier. Why is there a soldier in your shop? You aren’t important enough for the palace to be turning to you for medicinal reasons (they have a Royal Court Pharmacist for that), and you don’t recall breaking any laws as of recent.

“C-can I help you?” You silently curse your voice for faltering, not wanting to show any weakness.

“Ms. _____?” He inquires, voice deep and booming as he steps further into your shop. The top of his shadow brushes the tips of your toes, the door slamming shut behind him, “The Prince requires your presence at the castle.”

“M-me? Why?” What in god’s name could that idiot of a prince need from you?

“You are to be his concubine.”

“His what?” you all but shout, your jaw dropping to the floor as your eyes fly open.

“His concubine. Consort. Companion. Call it whatever you want, they’re all the same to him.”

“But I’m just a commoner.” Your mind is racing, trying to come up with any excuse to change the soldier’s mind. “I-I’d be an embarrassment to the prince.” Something inside of you— your pride, you assume— protests at that, but you shove it down. Now isn’t the time to be proud.

“The Prince has taken a liking to you,” is his only response. He’s never even met me, you huffed internally, how the hell could he have taken a liking to me? “I would dress nicely tonight while you still can.”

“But—” You’re interrupted when the soldier swiftly crosses the room to tower over you. Placing his hand on the hilt of his weapon, he glares down at you with an empty expression, flashing the slightest bit of metal sword at you while you gulp.

“Someone will be here to collect you tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.”

You blink.

And then he’s gone.

After a long day of pretending like everything's okay (which it most definitely isn’t) and trying to form a plan of how to avoid your so-called fate, you find yourself packing your satchel full of food, bandages, and some essential herbs.

You’re running away.

What other choice do you have? You refuse to give up your freedom just to please the prince. This was your story, and you’d be damned if you let someone else think they could write the next page.

You knew your journey wouldn’t be easy. Prince Seokjin may have been an idiotic embarrassment of a prince, but he was stubborn. When he wanted something, he took it, no matter how far he had to go.

But not you. You weren’t an object to be claimed.

Buckling your satchel closed, you took a deep breath, double checking that the bulk of medicine you’d prepared on the countertop would last everyone at least two weeks after you were gone. You weren’t the only pharmacist in Tanbarun, so you weren’t worried about your patients having to find someone new to treat them— but you wanted to make sure they had plenty of medicine just in case of an emergency.

Moonlight poured through the window behind you as you clipped your cloak around your neck, saying silent goodbyes to the shop and people of Tanbarun who you loved so dearly. When you turned, you caught sight of your reflection in the glass, your red hair still vibrant even in the pale light. You fished around in your pocket, looking for the pair of scissors you’d packed. Once you found them, you gripped them tightly with your dominant hand, holding up the end of your ribbon-tied ponytail with the other.

“It isn’t your fault,” you gently assured the lock of hair you were holding before you snipped it off, leaving it on the windowsill as a ‘gift’ for the prince. Only giving one final glance at the shop, you snuffed out the candle on the countertop and closed the door behind you.

It was time to begin a new chapter in your story.

It’s roughly two days later when you stumble upon a large white house in the woods. Although clearly aging, it’s still habitable. A cobble wall roughly nine feet tall surrounds it, and long green vines weave an intricate pattern across the worn stone. The gravel path crunches beneath your feet as you walk towards it before coming to a stop.

“It’s going to be dark soon,” you comment to yourself, taking note of the setting sun in the distance. Up until now, you’d been sleeping in the back of the horse-drawn cart you’d managed to catch a ride on. But once you’d crossed the border of Tanbarun, you’d thought it would be safer to travel on foot for the rest of your journey.

Taking a deep breath, you knock on the door three times, calling out to anyone who might be home. No answer. After a few minutes of waiting, you decide to sit to the left of the door until the owner returns. Even if the house is a little worse for wear, you don’t want to risk intruding if there happened to be permanent residents.

As the hours pass by, you feel your eyes begin to droop, the exhaustion from your journey beginning to take a toll on you. Before you know it, you’re lost to the dream world, the comforting sounds of the forest at night lulling you into a deep slumber.

Chirp!

You lazily blink your eyes open, the heat from the sun causing the hood of your cloak to warm against your cheek. A small bird sits atop your satchel, its beak poking inside the pouch of pistachio nuts you brought with you. Gently smiling at the sight, you sit up and stretch, the bird flying away due to the sudden movement.

“Hobi! Yoongi! I’m going on ahead!” A deep voice cuts through your sleep-hazed mind, your head snapping towards the wall to your right.

“Be careful, showoff, or you’ll hurt yourself!” This voice was lighter; playful, but with a hint of warning lying underneath.

“I’ll be fine, Hobi!” The first voice speaks up again, this time much closer than before. Is he running towards you? Maybe he’s the owner of the house—

Oh.

Oh, wow.

Remember when you said that Tanbarun was the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen? Well, that was before you laid eyes on the beauty that was Mysterious Forest Guy.

It’s as if the world is in slow motion as he leaps over the wall with practiced ease, bright rays of sun creating a halo effect behind a mass of wavy black hair. His doe eyes sparkle with mirth, and a smug bunny-like grin is plastered on his face. Yeah. Forest Guy is definitely the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

When the two of you lock eyes, time seems to stop. Your breath catches in your throat, and if at all possible, his doe eyes grow even wider as his mouth drops open in shock. The distraction causes him to hesitate slightly in his jump. His foot catches the edge of the cobblestone, and you squeeze your eyes shut when he begins to plummet facefirst towards you.

A few moments later, your ears pick up on soft groans of pain. Eyes blinking open, you’re slightly shocked to see the boy from before clutching his forearm, dramatically hunched over on the balls of his feet. Before you can say anything, two people come sprinting around the corner, both panting and wearing worried expressions.

“I told you so, Jungkook!” Oh, so that’s Forest Boy’s name. You recognize this voice as the second one; Hobi, is it? His eyes are wide with fear as he skids to a stop in front of Jungkook, placing his hands on his knees while he frantically asks questions. “Are you okay? Did you hit your head? What’s one plus one?”

“Purple,” Jungkook grumbles, looking up slowly with a dazed look in his eyes, “Wait, what’s your name again?”

“Oh god, oh god,” Hobi mutters before yelling, “It’s me! Hoseok!”

“Oh, was that your name? I forgot.” You flicker your gaze towards a voice that you haven’t heard yet. It’s deep and smooth, the speaker’s disinterested tone floating past his lips with a small grumble. He’s much shorter than Hoseok, standing a few feet away his arms crossed. His eyes are catlike, and although his expression is schooled into one of aloofness, you can see a glint of humor in his eyes.

“Yoongi!” Hoseok whips his head towards the cat eyed man, shooting him a sharp glare, “Not helping!”

Jungkook begins to laugh, his back still towards you as his shoulders shake. It’s then that you realize— you have no idea who these people are, or if they’re dangerous. They don’t seem malicious, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Cautiously, you attempt to crawl away, hoping to remain unnoticed. However, as soon as you begin to move, Jungkook’s laugh cuts short, his sharp and analytical gaze flicking over his shoulder to make eye contact with you.

“Stop.”

You freeze.

He stands up slowly, swinging his sheathed sword around to rest on his shoulder casually despite his serious tone. “Mind telling me what you’re doing here? In the woods? All alone?”

“U-uh…” you stutter, sitting back on your behind as you subconsciously pull the hood to your cloak lower, “I-I was just coming from home. I was in a hurry, and ended up following a random road, and then I got a little lost so now I’m here—”

You’re cut off when the end of his still sheathed sword appears in your vision, just inches away from your face. Eyes widening, you hold your breath, waiting nervously for him to do something. A small frown appears on his face, eyes critical as they scan yours. Suddenly, he thrusts the tip of his sword upwards, causing your hood to be thrown backwards. You gasp as your hands scramble upwards in a futile attempt to cover your hair.

“You have unusual hair.” The statement from Jungkook is blunt, but there’s a hint of curiosity hidden beneath his words.

“So I’ve been told,” you shyly smile before suddenly noticing the purpling bruise on his forearm, “Oh! Your arm, it’s—”

“I’ve had worse,” he shrugs.

“I’m actually an herbalist,” you explain, already beginning to sift through your satchel, “I have healing poultice in my bag here that might help with the pain.”

“No thanks. You could be trying to poison me. I’m not going to fall for that trick,” he pointed his sword at you once again, the frown returning to his face, “Trust is earned, not given. We’re done here.”

“O-oh…” you sit dumbfounded, a little taken aback by the return of his bluntness.

A smirk forms on his lips, his voice almost teasing as he nods towards the path back into the forest. “Off ya go, then.”

Guess I’ll just have to convince him I’m not a threat. Taking a deep breath, you school your features, a glint of determination sparkling in your eye. Before you can think twice about it, you grab the end of the sheathed sword before twisting it and bringing it down on your own forearm, wincing at the immediate sting that follows.

“Wh…” Jungkook’s mouth drops open, a gasp coming from Hoseok behind him. He stumbles a few steps backwards in shock as you stare at the injury, pleased when a bruise already begins to form.

Pulling out the poultice that you’d been looking for before Jungkook basically told you to get lost, you slather some of the goo onto a bandage, slapping it on your arm confidently and smirking up at the trio.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I don’t usually make a habit of carrying around poison.”

Hoseok breaks the silence with a boisterous laugh, clutching his stomach and shaking so hard you think he might collapse. Yoongi has an amused smirk on his face, and Jungkook begins to laugh with Hoseok after the initial shock wears off.

“S-she really got you there, Jungkook!” Hoseok continues to laugh, wiping a few tears from his eyes. Yoongi slaps him on the back, causing him to sputter and throw the shorter man an empty glare.

“Sorry about that,” Jungkook tosses his sword to the ground and kneels before you, resting his arms on his knees, “My name is Jungkook. Yours?”

“_____.”

“Well, _____,” he holds out his injured arm, the teasing lilt to his voice much kinder than before, “Mind helping me out? I’m pretty sure this is your fault, anyways.”

“This house is abandoned, so we spend a lot of time here,” Jungkook explains as you carefully wrap the bandage around his arm. You hum in acknowledgement, gaze flickering over to the two men playing chess in the corner when one of them groans.

“The one losing at chess over there is Hoseok, but you can call him Hobi,” Jungkook announces without even a glance over his shoulder, winking at you when the man exclaims loudly in protest, “And the one winning is Yoongi.”

“How do you know I’m losing?” Hoseok shouts, a look of betrayal plastered to his face, “You aren’t even paying attention to the game!”

“I don’t have to be paying attention to know that you’re losing.”

“I’m not—”

“I’m destroying you,” Yoongi interrupts calmly, causing Hoseok to stick out his lower lip and pout. It’s clear that the three of them share a strong bond, and you can’t help but feel a little sad that you’ve never had something like that before in your own life.

“All fixed up,” you say softly after tying the end of the bandage off with a knot. Jungkook moves his arm from your grip, flexing his fingers and admiring your handiwork.

“I’ve gotta admit, you’ve got some impressive skills, _____.”

“Let’s just say I’ve had a few years to practice,” you wink, placing the materials back into your bag, “I am an herbalist, after all.”

Jungkook grins, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Tell me, why would such a talented herbalist run away from home, hmm?”

Your freeze, a shiver running straight up your spine. For a minute, you’d almost forgotten that you’d run away— that the crown prince of Tanbarun was most likely looking for you at this very moment. It makes you nauseous.

Pushing your satchel off of your lap and to the side, you stand up abruptly. “Excuse me. I’m going to take a walk.”

Jungkook’s face immediately falls, shock and confusion evident on his features. But before he can say anything, you’re already out the door.

You’ve come to find that exploring the forest is much different with company.

After exiting the house, you’d barely made it five steps before Jungkook appeared at your side, his sword by his hip as he not-so-subtly stared at you. Rather than saying anything, the both of you have been completely silent for the entirety of the walk so far, choosing to take in the nature around you rather than attempt to hold a conversation.

“Why’d you follow me?” You break the silence, glancing over at the boy walking beside you. His hand rests on the back of his head as he looks away from you, the typically smug gesture seeming much softer on him.

“I couldn’t let an injured girl walk around these woods alone,” he explains, purposefully deepening his voice, “That would be ungentlemanly of me.”

“I can handle myself, you know,” you chastise, stopping to crouch down at the base of a tree in order to inspect a flower growing there, “I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods. Training to be an herbalist makes you quite comfortable being in places like these, after all.”

A breeze begins to flow past, the small flower swaying with the wind as your hair floats around your face. Standing back up, you lean against the tree, tilting your head to gaze up into the leaves and branches above. “I’ve always found something about the forest to be special— it’s like the time flows differently here. I actually prefer it compared to the crowded streets of the city. It makes me feel free.”

Silence for a moment, followed by a quiet “I couldn’t agree more.” Something about his tone strikes a chord of sympathy in you. There isn’t any of his underlying amusement or mirth in the statement. It’s something more akin to longing, with a hint of sadness hiding underneath.

“Well, I— Ouch!” you yelp when you feel a sharp sting on the back of your head. Jungkook quickly comes over, leaning in close to you to inspect as you flinch away from the unexpected pain.

“It looks like your hair got caught,” he mumbles, his deep voice right next to your ear, “You have a strand that’s longer than the others.”

“O-oh…” you look away, “Can you cut it for me? It doesn’t have to be straight.”

Jungkook simply hums in response, taking a few steps backwards with a smug smile on his face. “I can’t cut a lady’s hair without proper reason. If you tell me why you cut your hair, and if it had something to do with why you ran away from home, then I would feel comfortable helping you.”

“You’re a terrible person.” you seethe, glaring daggers at him while he holds his hands up as if he’s surrendering, the smirk never leaving his lips.

“You were asked to be a concubine?” Jungkook yells, jumping up from his seat next to you on the log. You shoot him a warning look, causing him to gulp and sit back down slowly, holding his tongue so you can explain.

“Yes, for a... very famous boy. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and when he heard rumors of my hair, he thought it was unusual and wanted to keep it for himself. Like some sort of trophy,” you scoff, wiggling your feet awkwardly in front of you, “If I’d agreed, it would’ve been like he was buying an apple at the market.”

“____—” Jungkook is cut off when you suddenly stand, smirking at him over your shoulder.

“And that’s when I thought I should give him at least part of what he wanted. My hair.” You gesture towards the short length. “Now he can stare at it until he gets tired of it.”

Jungkook stares at you for a few seconds before bursting out laughing, the sheer volume of his cackling startling a few birds in the trees above.

It’s adorable.

“Well, props to you for getting away from that idiot,” he manages when he finally calms down, picking up his sword and moving to stand in front of you, “It is your precious red, after all.”

“Huh?”

“Well, red is the color of fate, right?” he swings his sword to rest on his shoulder once more, gazing down at you with deep brown eyes, “And color has meaning. You might not like it now, but your red may lead you to something great when you least expect it.”

“T-that’s…” you stand there, dumbfounded, “I’ve never thought of it that way before.”

“Well, I am kind of a genius,” he winks, “Glad to know I finally earned some of your respect.”

“What’s that?” Jungkook mutters, running ahead of you to inspect the basket sitting on the front porch of the house. After finishing your conversation, you’d decided to head back, both of you more than a little hungry.

Jogging after him, you skid to a stop in front of where he stands, staring curiously at the basket. A purple cloth is covering the contents inside, and a card covered in swirling letters peeks out from the side. Your eyes flicker to where a purple ribbon is tied to the handle in a pretty bow, the golden fringe on the edges glinting in the sunlight. When you realize what it is, you shiver, feeling like a bucket of ice water has been poured over your head.

“Oh no,” you whisper, looking up at Jungkook with panic in your eyes, “That’s the ribbon I tied my hair with.”

Jungkook’s eyes widen, the basket almost slipping from his grip, causing the purple cloth to slide off of the top and reveal the contents inside.

Apples. Red apples.

“So, you’re from Tanbarun, huh?” Jungkook looks up from the card he’d been reading. He’s sitting directly across the coffee table in an armchair, the basket of apples sitting between the two of you. “I gotta admit, this guy is pretty determined. He traveled all the way to the border just to find you.”

“I guess you could say that,” you chuckle, yelping a bit when he slams his hands on the table and glares at you.

“This isn’t funny!” he barked, a dangerous glint in his eyes, “How important of a person is he for you to have crossed the border just to get away from him?”

“Very important,” you mumble, casting your gaze down to where you’re holding the ribbon tightly, “The first prince of Tanbarun.”

“Seokjin? That moron is the one who’s bothering you?” Jungkook yells, causing a grim smile to form on your features.

“Guess he’s so idiotic that even the people of neighboring countries know it,” you grumble.

“It’s a good thing you ran. I’d guarantee that he has people stationed at every border crossing trying to find you.”

“Really?” You knew he was determined, but to think he’d gone that far just to find you was almost unfathomable. Scary, even.

“When he wants something that badly, he already believes it’s his.”

Silence followed his question, tears filling your eyes. Up until now, the reality of the situation hadn’t quite hit you. It was just an adventure; a temporary absence until everything blew over. But now, you understand that you will never be able to return to your home; to Tanbarun.

“Guess my red isn’t all that lucky after all,” you whisper, a single tear slipping down your cheek. You don’t notice the sympathetic look on Jungkook’s face, or the saddened glances Yoongi and Hoseok share with each other upstairs.

Reaching out carefully, you pick up an apple from the basket, gazing at the shiny surface of it. But before you can take a bite, a large hand encirlces your wrist, your gaze traveling up the arm until you make eye contact with Jungkook. He lifts the apple in your hand towards his mouth, taking a bite while keeping his gaze focused solely on you.

“How rude.”

Jungkook jumps backwards at the sound of Hoseok’s voice, his ears turning as red as a tomato. Hobi is leaning on the banister to the stairs, and his chin propped up on his hand, causing his speech to be slightly muffled. Yoongi is sitting on the stairs behind him, calmly examining his nails while Hobi continues to tease.

“That’s her apple, Jungkook. If you wanted one, you could’ve just gotten your own.”

The man beside you begins to protest, but before any words can come out, he starts to cough, choking on the bite of your apple that he’d taken. Smirking, Hobi begins to berate him as if he was a parent talking to their child, “You should either talk or eat, Jungkookie. Don’t do both. It’s gross.”

“Nobody asked you!” Jungkook wails once he swallows the food, pointing accusingly at his companion, “Stay out of it!”

“Hey, now you’re just being rude—” Hoseok pouts, only to be cut off by Jungkook.

“_____,” the young man warned, having turned his back to Yoongi and Hoseok in order to speak to you, “Don’t eat that apple.”

“Wh— Jungkook!” you gasp as he begins to sway. Hoseok’s once playful attitude is gone in an instant, his face hardening as he jumps over the railing just in time to catch Jungkook as he falls. Yoongi is right behind him, staring down at his friend with worry and confusion.

Thinking quickly, you rub the apple frantically against the bandage on your arm before bringing it up to your nose, smelling carefully. “Ragweed oil,” you murmur to yourself, cursing under your breath before shouting, “It’s poisoned!”

“Can you help him?” Yoongi snaps his head towards you, asking the question with such ferocity you hesitate for a moment.

“L-let me see,” you drop to your knees and begin to rummage through your satchel, examining the various vials within the bag. Nothing. In your panic, you fail to hear the sound of the front door opening behind you. “It’s no use, I can’t make the antidote he needs with what I have on me—”

“How surprising….” You freeze at the familiar voice, nearly dropping the glass bottles that you were holding, “It seems that someone else has consumed the apple. My apologies, it was intended for Miss _____.”

“Who the hell are you?” Yoongi snaps, immediately grabbing his sword and pointing it at the soldier; the same one who had come into your shop three days ago to inform you of your fate.

“This certainly makes things a bit more complicated,” the soldier drawls, ignoring Yoongi’s question entirely.

“Where is the antidote?” you growl, unafraid as you march up to him and stick a finger in his face. He calmly pushes it away, throwing you a look of disinterest and exasperation.

“Calm yourself, little lady. A certain individual possesses it. I trust that you will now come with me quietly?”

“Oh, I’m so thrilled that you made it! I have to say, I’m quite surprised by just how red your hair truly is. I was almost certain that the hair you’d left behind wasn’t real.”

Prince Seokjin pauses for a moment, noticing in the outrage clearly written on your face. “It wasn’t my intention for your friend to be poisoned in your place, so don’t go giving me that look.”

“I’m here now, so will you just give him the antidote?”

The prince tuts as if admonishing a wayward child, plopping down in a chair casually. “All in good time, Miss ______. Are you aware of the disruption that your escape has caused? Ever since I graciously courted you and you ran away, I’ve become a laughing stock! Public opinion of me has never been lower... However, I can assure you that the unanimous opinion is that all of this is your fault.”

“Is that so?” you gritted out, only a few seconds away from slapping the smirk off of his face.

“It is indeed. My main concern now is clearing my name from the shame that you’ve caused me, and in order to do that, you must become my concubine!” He states cheerily, as if he’s doing you a favor, “I would never dream of causing any woman embarrassment, even a lowly commoner girl such as yourself. You can thank me for my generosity anytime now.”

“Are you kidding me?” you all but shout, gesturing wildly around you, “My friend is dying, and you want me to thank you?”

“I completely understand,” the prince pouts, “However, there isn’t much I can do for him until you give me a clear answer. If you accept my proposal, I will have the antidote delivered to him promptly. However…” he stands up from his spot, holding an apple in his right hand, “If you refuse… I can always have this delivered instead.”

He tosses the apple in the air with a chuckle, seemingly amused at his ultimatum. Was this seriously just a game to him?

“So, lovely,” he let the apple drop to the floor, leaning down to whisper his next question in your ear, “What will it be?”

Before you can answer, shouting from down outside of the door reaches your ears, causing you both to turn around in confusion. No more than a few seconds later, the doors to the large room fly open, an angry looking Jungkook making eye contact with you from where he stands in the doorway.

“I OBJECT!” he yells, pointing his still sheathed sword at Prince Seokjin. A soldier from the hallway comes rushing in, swinging his sword at Jungkook with an angry yell. Jungkook simply steps to the side, spinning around and blocking the blow with his own sword. The two dance around each other while you and Seokjin stand paralyzed with shock, unable to move until Jungkook knocks the soldier out with the hilt of his weapon.

“Will you stop spewing such utter nonsense that dirties this girl’s ears?” Jungkook hisses, each and every word practically dripping with malice. When he takes a few steps forwards, you spot Hobi and Yoongi in the hallway, the unconscious bodies of two guards laying at their feet.

“Jungkook?” you exhale, running across the room to stand before him. When his gaze lands on you, his face immediately softens, a small smile forming when he sees that you’re okay.

“Hey, _____. Mind tying this for me?” He holds up his injured arm, showing how the bandage had come untied during the fight. You nod your head feverishly, gently wrapping the loose bandage back around his forearm and tying it with a knot.

“What about the poison?” you ask, confused as to how he seems perfectly fine standing in front of you when not even an hour ago he was passed out in Hoseok’s arms.

“I’ve been building up an immunity for the past few years in case something like this ever happened—”

“Ah…” Prince Seokjin speaks up, a smug look on his face, “So you were the one who ate the poison apple! My sincerest apologies. It was intended for Miss _____, not you.”

“Why am I not surprised that it was you?” Jungkook seethes, trying his best not to roll his eyes. Seokjin stops pacing, turning to glare daggers at the man.

“Watch how you speak to me, commoner,” Seokjin scowls, “Peasants like you should learn to have more respect for royalty.”

“Ah, pardon me, First Prince of Tanbarun,” Jungkook drawls, stepping away from you to pull out his sword. He holds it horizontally to the floor, shoving the hilt near Seokjin’s face in order to show him the emblem stamped upon it. “I hate having to give formal introductions, but you’ve given me no choice.”

“Wait, I recognize that emblem…” Seokjin mutters, the gears visibly turning in his head.

“As well you should, you imbecile,” Jungkook snarls, lowering his sword back down, “I am Second Prince of Clarines, Jeon Jungkook.”

“A… prince?” you whisper to yourself, unable to believe what you’re hearing. Jungkook seemed special, yes… but a prince? The poison must be messing with him.

“Jungkook, get a hold of yourself! Is this the poison talking?” you run over to him, placing your hand on his arm, “What’s one plus one? Do you know who I am?”

“I’m not lying, _____,” he smiles down at you before returning his attention to Seokjin, “But I never thought I’d be poisoned by an idiot prince from a neighboring country. This could be seen as a declaration of war.”

“N-no!” Seokjin stutters, clearly becoming more flustered by the minute, “Y-you have no proof that I poisoned the apple! It’d be hearsay!”

“Are you sure about that?” Yoongi glares, unable to contain his scoff.

“I think an official inquiry would prove otherwise,” Hoseok provides, the same murderous glint in his eyes.

“So,” Jungkook advances forward, causing Seokjin to stumble backwards, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground, “If you don’t want your deceptive and disgusting actions to be a matter of public record, then swear you will never come near _____ again. No— you won’t even speak her name again.”

“How do you even know—” Jungkook takes another step forward, causing Seokjin to frantically crawl backwards until he bumps the wall, “Okay, okay! I swear!”

Jungkook’s shoulders relax at that, and he turns to look at you over his shoulder, giving you an encouraging smile. “I’m sure you have a few things to say to him. Now’s your chance.”

You nod confidently, walking past Jungkook to crouch in front of the prince on the floor. After a moment of consideration, you reach out, handing him the apple that he’d dropped to the floor earlier. “Give Jungkook the antidote.”

“Y-you don’t have anything else to say—”

“Now.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jungkook sets the now empty vial of antidote down on the table next to him, throwing you a confused look. “What’re you apologizing for, _____?”

“I-it’s my fault you were poisoned,” you cast your gaze to the ground, the guilt pooling in your stomach.

“It isn’t something you need to apologize for.” You’re surprised to hear Yoongi speaking, since he’d been so quiet up until now. His eyes were soft as they looked at you, a special warmth in them helping to put you at ease. “Jungkook made the decision to eat the apple himself. You didn’t force him to.”

Both Jungkook and Hoseok nod in confirmation, sending you reassuring smiles. Yoongi pauses for a moment, glancing over at Hoseok with a small quirk to his lips. “Although, Hoseok was carrying on as if it was the end of the world. He couldn’t stop crying.”

“Hey! Shut it, Yoongi!”

“It was tragic, really.”

“Okay, okay,” Jungkook places a hand on Hoseok’s chest to prevent him from responding, although a smile is playing at the corners of his mouth. “Do you remember what I said to you in the forest?”

You nod, looking up at Jungkook from where he now stands in front of you. He crouches down to your level, his voice a gentle timbre floating through the silence of the large room. “I meant every word. I believe that fate brought us together for something good.”

“Really?” He gives a firm nod in return.

“I don’t think this is the end of our story. It’s the beginning of a new chapter. Come with us.” He stands up slowly, extending his hand out towards you, “If it’s what you want, that is.”

You stare at his outstretched hand, the glow from the sunset filtering through the window and illuminating his delicate fingers. You hadn’t even known him for a day, but something deep inside of you told you he was right. Your meeting wasn’t purely by chance; it was fated. And who were you to question destiny?

You placed your hand in his.

a/n; i’m so happy i finally posted the first chapter of this series (i was so excited i posted it a day early lol)!!! and i can’t wait to post the rest!! i’m sorry that seokjin is such an asshole in this chap. i promise, he’s a redeemable villain! if you’re wondering where the rest of the boys are, just hang on tight. they’ll get here eventually! (sooner rather than later)

i would also like to mention that for simplicity, minor characters who aren’t replaced by a member of bangtan are going to keep their names from the anime.

✩ series masterlist | main masterlist | next chapter ✩

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ladyloveandjustice · 4 years

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Winter 2020 Anime Overview: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! follows three high school girls: Midori Asakusa, Tsubame Mizusaki and Sayaka Kanamori, as they work together to create their own anime. They form a club on their high school campus, which they dub “eizouken” (the rough meaning of which is “film association”).

Awkward and spacey but endlessly creative, Asakusa takes on the job of director and also handles background animation. Mizusaki is a part-time model who has to dodge her parents disapproval over her pursuing anime, but she’s a whiz at character animation. And finally, there’s the tough-as-nails, blunt-as hell Kanamori, who doesn’t have much passion for animation itself but has a lot of passion for selling a good product, and she wrangles the two artists and reminds them of the bottom line.

Eizouken! is a vibrant artistic triumph bursting with wonder and ingenuity. I can’t really communicate just how good it is- this is truly a show that speaks to the existence of nerds, creative weirdos and (if you identify with Kanamori), the poor souls who have to deal with how ridiculous creative weirdos can be.

The show finds great visual ways to express the creative and planning process for an enterprise, having the girls literally climb around in the settings and concept art they create, struggle to fly the planes they’ve designed, and so on. By doing this, it transforms what could have been a more standard narrative into a more unpredictable tale that switches between being a a thoughtful meditation on the different aspects of the creative and production process and a rollicking, wacky adventure story.

And it’s all carried by very strong characters. Even their designs are bold and distinct- its very rare to see a main protagonist female character in ANY sort of animation have a constant, unflattering grimace like Kanamori does, but it suits her cynical self perfectly. Eizouken! focuses on female characters, but unusually for anime, and let’s be real, animation in general, it doesn’t sand off any unique edges to make them as generically cute’ as possible. Mizuasaki is the closest to a standard conventionally cute design, but that suits the fact she’s a part time model. Thanks to the great animation, the girls also have a wonderful expressiveness that matches their striking designs. The great article The Glorious, Geeky. Goofy Girls of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken goes into this more in depth.

(As the article mentions, the storyboard director of episode 1, Mari Motohashi, said they animated the characters in a consciously gender neutral manner too, saying of the original manga that“ she liked the "gender neutral" feel of it. She described Asakusa as like an elementary schooler, Mizusaki as having some girlish aspects still left in her, and Kanamori as like an intellectual yakuza. She said that Kanamori's pragmatism was refreshing, and felt true to life regarding how the anime industry works, which may be why creative people tend to enjoy the manga. “)

It’s not just the main three! Side characters are distinctive too and unusually diverse for an anime taking place in Japan. The setting itself encompasses this diversity, you see signs in many different languages and so on. The mangaka has stated it was based on her own experiences attending a public school, saying on twitter: "I was attending a public elementary school. There were Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Americans, Iranians, Brazilians, Egyptians and Nigerians. Those are normal. And there were various skin colors, religions, and various names."

Of course, strong designs and animation need strong writing to match them and Eizouken! provides. All the characters are deeply loveable in their quirkiness and struggles, and they play off each other well.

Kanamori became particularly beloved with the fandom- she could have easily been a one-dimensional greedy producer type, but while she takes no shit and wants that money (oh boy does she) she also really genuinely hates seeing great small businesses fail due to poor management, and knows how harsh the world is and wants people to succeed in it.

Also, because the student council leader genuinely smart and take-no-shit pragmatic too, her rivalry with Kanamori actually becomes fun to watch instead of being the usual generic one-sided battle we typically club anime- they’re equals.

Asakusa and Mizusaki also have really strong character focus too-for example, when we get into why Mizusaki loves animation, you find a surprising attention to detail and practicality hidden behind her starry eyed passion. One of Eizouken’s greatest strengths is how, while its brimming with joy and love of artistry, it doesn’t bullshit its audience and try to define artists in vague, idealistic terms, or act like it isn’t incredibly tough out there for animators, or anyone trying to make doing something they enjoy. The anime is defined by the tug of war between the wonders of imagination and the harshness of the actual world.

But it also acknowledges that like, sometimes high schoolers just wanna animate a girl fighting a tank with a sword cuz like how cool is that.

It makes for a message that’s still hopeful and inspirational to people who want to do what they love, but more in touch with the actual world (and the dire conditions of a lot of the anime industry, even if it doesn’t directly talk about it). Like with it’s characters, the show doesn’t sand off the rough edges of trying to make and sell art!

In the end, Eizouken! is both an ode to and a peak example of incredible creativity and all the effort that goes into getting art out there The only real flaw in it is that sometimes the info-dumps on the animation concepts can get overwhelming, but even that just means more cool stuff to comb through if you’re in the mood for it.

And there are a million strengths to offset it. Like how It’s funny and smart, striking a great balance between snappy, relatable moments and deeper musings on artistry and trying to make it in a confusing world. It’s got a lot for animation and anime geeks to snack on and is clearly made by people who both know what they’re talking about and don’t feel the need to sugarcoat it. It captures both the ridiculousness and loveliness of nerdery (you WILL see these dweebs arguing about giant robots in wonderfully/horribly specific detail). It’s a visual feast that switches art styles to express different feelings, and revels in every colorful detail. It’s full of great girls being awesome dorks.

It’s likely to stand out as among the best of years to come and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it still going strong in “anime of the decade” lists when we hit 2030. I definitely recommend this series with no reservations- not just for artists and lovers of animation, but anyone who wants to have a blast.

So please feel free to use this humble Tumblr post to spread the word about this show, though never forget Kanamori’s wisdom:

For we must always hold this knowledge deep in our hearts.

#keep your hands off eizouken #eizouken #sayaka kanamori #kanamori sayaka #tsubame mizusaki #mizusaki tsubame #midori asakusa #asakusa midori #anime overview #winter 2020 anime #my reviews

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cringeyvanillamilk · 4 years

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Who are your top ten favorite black clover characters and ships? Talk about them.

YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A LONG TIME AND I’M READY TO DELIVER 1/2 OF YOUR REQUEST! I’ll post my top ten ships on your other ask~! <3

Sorry for the long text! I kind of went overboard with my explanations!

My Top 10 Favorite Black Clover Characters!

1 Asta

Before I got into Black Clover, I always heard a lot of negative comments about Asta as a character. “He’s too loud” “He’s extremely annoying” “He’s just a generic character”. After hearing so many of these types of comments, I was curious to see if what people said about him was true. And now that I’m up to date with the manga and seen every episode of the anime (except the recent filler episodes), I can confidently say, “WHO THE HELL WERE THESE GUYS REFERRING TO AGAIN???”. Like… hello?? I don’t know if maybe I’m just not that critical as a person, but I found Asta’s character to be quite endearing! People hated his voice but I thought it was pretty fine! It may be because I watched the dub, but even his Japanese voice isn’t that bad. Asta is just seems like an overall solid character to me! He’s not generic because he has a lot of quirks that makes him unique. One thing I noticed about his character was how family-oriented he was. You can tell by how he played around with other kids or comforted them that he has a lot of experience with kids! It’s honestly adorable how great he is with kids! And even though he grew up in an orphanage, he was able to find happiness as a peasant. I liked how he dreamt big even though he was starting from the very bottom. He didn’t have magic at all but he still had the determination to fight against all odds and strive to be Wizard King. Do you know how inspirational that is? And he’s not just doing it for himself, he’s doing for his family back at the orphanage! He said it himself, as Wizard King he’ll fix up the church and spread the message that it doesn’t matter if you’re a peasant or orphan, anybody can be Wizard King. Asta truly has a heart of gold because his goal isn’t just full of self-interest. I also like how he wants people to be held accountable for their actions. Asta is a very fair person and isn’t one to automatically kill the opponent to save the day. No, Asta wants these bad people to serve their time and make up for what they’ve done. Like??? Wow, Asta, you have a lot of mercy for a shounen protagonist. I think that’s what I love about Asta’s character. He represents hope for other people. And I’m a sucker for characters who fight for what’s right and not because of some heroic prophecy or selfishness.

This is where I list out random things I like about Asta’s character: Asta’s crush on Sister Lily is hilarious because it truly represents ‘fighting against the odds’ in a comedic way. Asta’s short stature is so cute, I hope he remains short for the rest of his life and grows to be proud of it. I really love Asta’s character design. He’s short, his ash blond messy hair is cute and unique, his sharp green eyes are beautiful, his shoes are two different shoes sewn together, and his fashion sense is simple yet nice to look at! A very distinct design! And his anti-magic and demon possession is a cool addition to his character! I’d gush more about him but I think this is already too much lmao.

2. Fuegoleon Vermillion

I’m going to push aside my thirst for this man and actually talk seriously about what I love about his character. I’m going to first talk about his character design. I really love how Tabata designed Fuegoleon. For one, I really love how he’s wearing eye makeup. I think it’s a unique family tradition for each of the kids to wear this distinct eye makeup no matter the gender. His eye makeup and burned symbol on his forehead really made him distinct from other characters! It’s subtle but visually pleasing! And ‘subtlety’ is a good word to summarize Fuegoleon despite how ironic that word is. When we look at Fuegoleon’s hair in comparison to his other siblings, his smooth hair tells us he’s more orderly and responsible but his curly bangs tells us that he isn’t completely cool-headed. His red eye makeup could also tell us that he has a fierce side to him, as if his eyes are glowing red with fire. And comparing his face with Nozel’s (both are around the same age), Fuegoleon looks older with his eye wrinkles, telling us that he’s more of an old soul and matured fast for his age. That and he probably overworked himself with a lot of responsibilities. His color scheme is also very attractive! He has a balance of warm and cool colors which makes him look… balance!

Now as a character, I really love the trope he represents! He’s the mentor figure for Leopold, Asta, and Noelle! For a character who isn’t part of the main cast, I find it impressive how impactful his words of wisdom was to the major leads. But it makes so much sense after all the things we’ve learned about Fuegoleon as a character! Fuegoleon has a lot of strengths as a character that I couldn’t help but fall for. Firstly, his debut of a character was short but memorable for me. During the Magic Knights exam, he was the only captain who passionately yelled about the rules of the next test. That was such a character defining moment because those few seconds perfectly described how intense and serious he is. He could’ve calmly announced the next test but the fire within him told him to jump up and yell those words with all his heart. The next time we saw him, we finally got to know him a lot better as a character and man did he win a lot of respect from me. Despite being a royal, he stood up for Asta when no noble did. He was the first noble to treat Asta fairly right away. In comparison to other nobles we’ve come across, Fuegoleon was a breath of fresh air! He wasn’t discriminating or condescending, which made him a lot more likable! I liked how he came from a privileged background but his sense of justice was still a 5/5. You just can’t hate this guy! His visuals are not only attractive but also his personality! He charmed me even more when he was the first to act and became a temporary leader for the other captains! His leadership, inspirational words, and fairness makes him an overall respectable character! I found him even more endearing when we saw his socially awkward personality. Serious + awkward are perfect combinations for a cute character. I also find his fire magic, salamander, and fire arm to be cool as well! He’s just a great character to me!

3. Finral Roulacase

Okay I’m going to try and not write too much like I did with Asta and Fuegoleon lmao. I need to chill-. Finral is the type of underdog character I always loved in anime. The character people don’t think much of at first but then they undergo a lot of character development! I liked how we saw subtle changes within Finral throughout the series and the resolve he gained as an older brother to Langris. His character arc was overall satisfying to me, especially during his final clash against Langris! Finral just has that good amount of light-hearted times (mixers, casanova wannabe personality, cowardly moments) and family drama! I would never expect a lot of depth in Finral based on his character trope but here we are. Finral is such a likeable guy. I just can’t hate him. I also like how he isn’t a perverted character. He just wants LOVE. Also his spacial magic? I love how unique it is! He’s a walking taxi but the fact that he developed a new magic spell to use it during combat is amazing! I also love how kindness is a big part of his character! A very peaceful libra~! I think what made him above Noelle was that I found his character to be charming ever since the very beginning! That and the fact that he can be considered the ‘underdog’ of the Black Bulls!

4.Noelle Silva

Oh Noelle! You beautiful and frustrating character! I’ll be honest, I had mixed feelings about Noelle when I first got into Black Clover. I was never a fan of overly exaggerated tsundere characters and so I would get frustrated with her tendency to act this certain way in the beginning. It was the true definition of slow burn but it’s through this gradual liking toward Noelle that made me feel strong and positive emotions towards her today. Slowly but surely, Noelle began finding her worth as a person and magic knight. All her life, Noelle was put down by those she called family and other noblemen for her lack of control over her magic. And it’s through this understanding of her backstory where I truly get why she wears that tsundere mask with other people. She can’t take a compliment normally because not only had she never been complimented before, but she grew up in an environment that taught her how she should act as a royal. She was bound to be unlikable at first, but it’s through a lot of character development and understanding where I found my love for Noelle. Noelle to me is how most shounen female leads should be. She has a crush on Asta but that’s not her entire character. She has internal struggles outside of her love interest and went through so much development that she became one of the most powerful young magic users in the series. Like the power ups she went through?? HOLY SHIT. The fact that she made me forgive her tsundere tendencies shows how great her character was.

5. Magna Swing

Man, I’m also a sucker for characters like Magna! I just love the delinquent with the heart of gold! Magna appears like your everyday punk but he really is such a good guy! It’s fun to see characters that subverts expectations and Magna is no exception! It’s small actions from this guy that makes him so likable! I really love how aggressive and uninviting Magna was in testing Asta only to heart warmingly accept Asta into the squad once he passed! He does this again when he makes fun of Asta for having a very small room but then tells Asta to send letters back home so that his loved ones aren’t worried! LIKE HELLO?? Why are you so lovingly contradicting?! Magna really tries to uphold his tough guy image but does sweet things right afterwards!! Magna’s character said never judge a book by its cover! I also find his loyalty toward Yami to be so sweet! He’s willing to gamble his clothes for this man and I call that DEDICATION. Magna is that ride or die friend that I’d love to have in real life. His interactions with other characters are also hilarious and his presence always brings a smile to my face!

I know I keep talking about character design but I can’t help it since Tabata’s character design is GREAT! Magna’s design… I LOVE IT!! He has the cliche leather jacket and skull motifs to bring his delinquent look together! And Tabata had to give him blue shades!! The perfect accessory to complete the look! I also love his hair style and color! Magna is this close to having a pompadour but stuck with a Mohawk look instead! I also like how his hair has two different colors! It tells me right away that people dye their hair in this world! Interesting information for subtle world building! Light gray and black is such an nice color combination, too! I like how he becomes more of a pretty boy when his hair is down! It’s a nice surprise~! And his most iconic character trait. HIS SMILE! I love anime characters with toothy smiles! We can literally count how many teeth they have- LDKAFJSA. Reminds me a lot of Totoro!

I JUST LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

6. Klaus Lunettes

Klaus… Santa Klaus… I think I may have a type because in my top three characters I’d date, he and Fuegoleon are up there together! Both are serious and high strung characters with a dorky side to them. These two truly captured my heart-! Klaus is overall a great character! Klaus is the straitlaced character who wants to be respected by others. Sadly nobody gives him that respect and I find that hilarious! I love how short-tempered he is despite how cool and collected he wants to appear to others! Everything about him is contradicting! His hairstyle and earrings are punk rock but his glasses clash with it. He seems disciplined and mature, but is the first to crack and get overworked by emotions. Klaus acts stern, but can be very protective and nurturing. His character did a literal 180 after Asta and Yuno saved them all from Mars. And when he gets worried over Asta and it always warms my heart!! Klaus is lowkey a tsundere but is actually subtle about it- wow! He’s so… comically dedicated. He doesn’t half-ass anything! Overall, he’s a solid character to me! I hope to see more from this nerd!

I’m just going to list out other things I liked about Klaus: I love how his character quirk is him readjusting his glasses. Like get some new glasses if they don’t fit you nerd. I bet he does it to look cool or something. Smh. I also love his outbursts! I mentioned that he reacts quickly and emotionally and I find these traits to be very charming! I like how he doesn’t make his worries towards Asta obvious. We only know this side of him through other characters! That’s so cute~!

7.Julius Novachrono

I deadass thought this man was shady af. I'll have to blame OP 3 and Tabata for clowning me like that but despite the initial suspicion, I really enjoyed his character! I really love how dorky and childish he is! I can never get tired of his fanboy moments in the anime! He's literally the strongest mage in the series but still gets excited over rare or unique magic! I also love how humble he is! He doesn't let his title give him a big head. Despite this quirky side to Julius, I liked how realistic and competent he is as well. He isn’t one to give hopeful answers to other characters. When he said in order to be Wizard King you must have merits, I respected his honesty. Having good morals isn’t all you need to be Wizard King and Julius made that very clear. When he killed off a few members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun, that’s when his character became more real to me. Julius has the experience needed to be a well respected Wizard King and his support towards Yuno and Asta made me like him more! Julius just has a lot of depth and I really appreciate that in a character! I found the path Tabata put Julius in to be very interesting to me! I’m actually glad he’s still alive but as a kid! The series isn’t ready to lose their Wizard King yet and there’s still a lot from Julius I’d love to see in the future! Julius truly brings a lot of humor and epic moments in Black Clover which is why he’s in my top 10 favorite characters!

I also love his character design! I think the short and blonde hairstyle with the royal king aesthetic is pleasing to the eye! He could’ve been a total snob like King Augustus but he strayed away from that trope! His name is similar to Julius Caesar in which represents his leadership and powerful authority as Wizard King, but subverts negative traits associated with Julius Caesar! Clever Tabata~!

8. Vanessa Enoteca

I’m going to have to shout out Vanessa’s arc for making her character be in my top 10. Like if it weren’t for the witches’ forest arc, she wouldn’t have made it in my top 10. I thought Vanessa’s character was a given for a shounen series where we have at least one sexy female character for fanservice, but I’m pleasantly surprised at how deep her character was! Who would have known that there was an actual reason for her to have a revealing design! I think it’s fine to have a character who wears revealing clothes for the heck of it, but I feel like Tabata went the extra mile to be pretty thoughtful about it. For one, she was always caged in (literally and figuratively) ever since she was a child. This backstory indirectly tells us why she wears such revealing clothing. That’s because it symbolizes her freedom as her own person. She went from the modest dress she wore when she was caged in to a sexy dress! I really understand this mentality!!

As a character, I found her lack of freedom to be very relatable. I also felt sympathetic towards her character when she didn’t receive healthy motherly love. I felt a lot of emotions for Vanessa and that made me appreciate her character more! I feel like her character started to leave a positive impression on me when she acknowledged Asta’s strength and determination as well as her helping Noelle as a proper older sister figure! Her arc solidified herself into my top ten when she gained the powers of red thread of fate because of her love for the Black Bulls. That power up shows how much she values the Black Bulls and it always makes me feel soft just thinking about it! Her magic ability is also pretty cool. Thread magic? There’s a lot you can do with that magic! I like how she had a prominent role of maneuvering Asta during the Veto fight, too. Vanessa is another female character with an incredibly strong magic power. It became so useful in so many moments in the series!

Other comments I’d like to say about why I like Vanessa is her sexy witch aesthetic. I think she looks very pretty and her color scheme is beautiful!

9, Charmy Pappitson

OH GEMINI QUEEN. I love you so. What I like about Charmy was how many times she surprised me. When I first saw her, she looked like she’s a kid but she’s actually 19 years old. What? Then when I saw that she was the glutton, I thought she’d be selfish with her food but then she shares it with others. Huh? Then I assumed she was a harmless character but then she knocked out that witch when she mistaken her for stealing her food with her sheep magic. Oh? And just when I thought I saw everything I needed to know about Charmy, it’s revealed that she was a dwarf and has food magic. HELLO? Like what else am I going to learn about Charmy?! She’s such an unpredictable character and that’s what makes her so fun to watch! The thing is, she still remains the same after all these reveals! She doesn’t really go through a lot of character development but these surprises make up for it! Charmy is overall a feel good character. She’s not one to be taken seriously all the time and that’s okay! She’s just there to have a good time! She radiates good vibes and I like how light-hearted Charmy is! She’s also pretty badass, too, so great combination!

10. Gordon Agrippa

And finally we have Gordon. Gordon. is. such. a. good. boy! There’s no bad bone in this man! He’s so dedicated and loyal to his friends! And it makes me feel bad that he doesn’t get the love he deserves in the canon story! Everything about him is so pure and soft! I love how he’s very quiet and mumbles a lot but the words he says are very sweet! I’d love to listen to his friendship speeches all day! Gordon is the type of guy I’d definitely want as a best friend. His quiet voice and my deaf ears aren’t a great combination but I don’t care! Gordon’s personality is perfect to me! I really hope we get to see more from him in the future!

In terms of character design, I absolutely love it! His goth aesthetic contrasts so much with his actual personality. I love the Marilyn Manson inspiration behind Gordon’s design. His character design is so distinct from other characters which makes him stick out like a sore thumb. This is random but I love how thick his lips are. The black lipstick and eye shadow also looks great on him! His nose is also cutely big!

Gordon is one of the best boi. No question!

#black clover #answered #THANK U FOR THE ASK BTW!#My top 10 ships will be completed soon....#I'm finally relieved though #I hope my thoughts make sense?

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