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medea10 · 2 months

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My Review of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

Well, I got a couple of open slots for the Fall 2023 anime season. I’ll choose this random series without looking into what it is and why it is. How bad could it possibly be?

#FamousLastWords

Between the time he was eight months old and the time he graduated from middle school, Rentaro Aijou has been turned down by “girls he likes” a grand total of 100 times. The night following his middle school graduation, Rentaro went to a shrine and prayed that when he enters high school, he will get a girlfriend. That’s when he meets God himself.

As one does in this occasion.

God tells Rentaro that he will not only get a girlfriend that is destined to be his true soulmate, he will have 100 girlfriends destined to be his true soulmate. Unless you are Genghis Khan or a main character on Tenchi Muyo, I call bullshit. God explains that the day Rentaro was born, he kinda dropped the ball while filling out paperwork. He accidentally wrote 100 soulmates instead of 1. To make things worse, if he turns down any of these soulmates, they’ll die suddenly. So, this is a matter of life and death for 100 girls.

On the very first day of high school, Rentaro bumps into two of these soulmates, Hakari Hanazono and Karane Inda. A pink-haired girl with big tits and a blonde tsundere. Of course, they are! All three are struck by cupid’s drunken, polygamist arrow. Them being a couple is kinda like with Girlfriend Girlfriend with the exception of them all not living together. Heads up, this is under the comedy genre. So, expect a lot of clumsy slapstick here! Well, Rentaro has met 2 of his soulmates. Throughout the series, he meets three other soulmates. A girl named Shizuka who communicates through lines from her favorite novel. Then there’s Kusuri who is a bit of an absent-minded scientist who occasionally transforms from curvy beauty to a Lolita. And then there’s Nano Eiai (pronounced A.I.) who is as monotone as it gets. If you name your kid that, what the hell do you expect?

Before I continue, I’m going to take a couple of shots in the dark here. I’m guessing that this series will only be 11-13 episodes long. Rentaro will only meet 5-13 girls in this span. And the chances of a sequel will be 15% chance.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: No lie, these were the words when it was announced this anime was getting an English dub. “This flaming garbage is getting an English dub?” Hmm, if Brina Palencia is allowed to do Crunchyroll dubs, I say she’s going to play Eiai. Only by the mere fact that she has a reputation for playing monotone girls. But that was something I used to see happen 15 years ago, I doubt it’s still true that Palencia plays nothing but monotone characters anymore. I gotta get with the times as Eiai is played by someone completely different. As for the sub, a mix of newer and well-known seiyuus. This is Wataru Katou’s second main role and seems to be relatively new. I thought he did a really good job as Rentaro. Okay, here’s the cast.

JAPANESE CAST: *Rentaro is played by Wataru Katou

*Hakari is played by Kaede Hondo (known for Iono on Pokemon Horizons, Sakura on Zombieland Saga, and Haruka on Love Live Nijigasaki)

*Karane is played by Miyu Tomita (known for Riko on Made in Abyss, Crim on Interspecies Reviewers, Miko on Kaguya-sama, and Ebisu on Dorohedoro)

*Shizuka is played by Maria Naganawa (known for Kanna on Miss Kobayashi, Plateletts on Cells at Work, and Komekko on Konosuba)

*Eiai is played by Asami Seto (known for Raphtalia on Shield Hero, Mai on Bunny Girl Senpai, CZ on Overlord, Miyoko on Food Wars, and Mado on Tokyo Ghoul)

*Kusuri is played by Ayaka Asai (known for Lisa on Fire Force)

ENGLISH CAST: *Rentaro is played by Travis Mullenix

*Hakari is played by Sarah Wiedenheft (known for Tohru on Miss Kobayashi, Power on Chainsaw Man, Lily on Zombieland Saga, Ruby on Love Live Sunshine, Ariel on Mushoku Tensei II, and Charmy on Black Clover)

*Karane is played by Ariel Graham (known for Tia on Overlord and Leivinia on Index III)

*Shizuka is played by Sara Ragsdale (known for Saikawa on Miss Kobayashi, Young Dabi on My Hero Academia, Saya on Dagashi Kashi)

*Eiai is played by Cassie Ewulu

*Kusuri is played by Lindsay Sheppard (known for Aria on Pokemon XY and Mia on Love Live Nijigasaki)

SHIPPING: After viewing the first episode, I just see Rentaro as one of those harmless anime perverts. He’s like Brock from Pokemon, he’s just going to ask the girl out and anything that happens afterwards, whatever. And for a while throughout the series, I’m inclined to agree with the same sentiment. I don’t recall seeing him get giddy about fondling Hakari’s breasts or anything dirty like that.

In fact, he tries to be chivalrous to the girls. Rentaro loves someone like Karane despite being the textbook definition of a tsundere. Rentaro helped Shizuka out of her shell and then-some. He showed Eiai that there’s more to life than just numbers. And Kusuri is no longer alone now that Rentaro is in her life. Although, things do get a little raunchy and go beyond holding hands. Rentaro doesn’t play favorites like the other modern harems, he loves all of his girlfriends the same and for some reason, the girlfriends just go along with Rentaro adding more girlfriends.

In short, every girl is best girl to him. But we have to admit that Hakari’s family has the upper-hand due to a couple of firsts. Hakari is the first girlfriend and the first to be a “bride”. And then Mama Hahari…um…Yeah, it’s best to assume that Hakari and Hahari got the upper-hand here.

WTF MOMENT: French-kissing Vice Principal.

That’s right. In an anime where Hakari has sick fantasies and we have a girl like Kusuri, who wears diapers and is an 18-year-old in the body of an 8-year-old, the Vice-Principal tainted everything.

That’s it. That’s what made my soul died.

ENDING: In harem animes, there’s bound to be any number of objections from friends and family members. Mostly family! Would your parents agree to you being in a polygamist relationship? Hakari is told by her mother to end it. Under normal circumstances, yes, that would be the case. But in this anime, Hakari would die. But of course, only Rentaro knows that factoid. If Hakari does die due to break-up, at least she went out in style. She was able to compete in a bouquet toss event that resulted in her and Rentaro dressed in wedding gear and having their pictures taken.

Hakari’s mother Hahari shuts her daughter up in her room in supreme lockdown. It’s a big house filled with security personnel, a guard dog, trip-laser security, and a cat. The cat’s there doing what cats do. Rentaro and the other girlfriends break in to try and save Hakari. With the help of everyone, Rentaro was able to make it to Hakari’s room. But all in vain as Hakari’s room was also attached to the security system and Rentaro was caught. We then learn about Hahari and why she’s being overprotective of her daughter. Hahari fell in love with a terminally-sick boy at age 13. Hahari decides to have his baby. She gives birth to Hakari and later the boy dies. Hahari later regrets the decision she made and doesn’t want Hakari to make a big mistake with a boy like she did.

And then Mama Hahari and Rentaro got the spark and AW SHIT, SHE’S ONE OF THE 100 GIRLFRIENDS!

Hahari shook it off and continued to test both Rentaro and Karane on this unordinary relationship with a lie detector. It showed that despite Karane’s severe tsundere attitude, she loves Rentaro. Rentaro is shown to love all of his girlfriends. And that Karane is somewhere in the A-cup range. But the silliness comes to a grinding halt when Hakari is on the ledge of her second-story bedroom window ready to end it all. Rentaro ends up saving her by falling off the ledge with her into the fountain. At least they’re not dead. Hahari gives up her grasp on Hakari and all seems to be forgiven with a hot bath, pajama party, and Rentaro possibly losing his virginity. Oh come on, I doubt that this anime would go so far as to…

OH, HOLY FUCK! THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED! RENTARO FUCKED HIS FIRST GIRLFRIEND’S MOTHER! HE’S A LITERAL MOTHER FUCKER!

And we go along with the final episode as if we did not see him fucking her brains out. The slumber party went along with usual and unusual moments including: playing cards, spying on Rentaro as he bathes, random acts of lesbianism, a spooky ghost in the window, and other silly shenanigans. We get more serious moments when we’ve got Hahari feel guilty as it feels like she’s betraying her first love (Hakari’s dead father). Rentaro being pure of heart accepts all of her baggage and seals it with a kiss. And then the ghost of Hahari’s first love (Hakari’s dead father) appears before Rentaro.

As one does! While he was quite defiant about Rentaro dating this guy’s first love and daughter, he sees Rentaro is a pure…wrong words to use about a guy who just lost his virginity to this guy’s baby-mama. Pure enough. Ghost dad approves and passes on. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Rentaro’s first 5 girlfriends are easy to see as they all go to the same school as him. How is Rentaro going to see his sixth, Mama Hahari? Simple. Hahari buys the school. Yeah, the episode ends with her announcing she bought the school. We also see four girls that Rentaro passes by that could possibly be girlfriends #7-11. Pfft. I’ve seen that happen before in season finales. Keijo had an ending like that where we saw all these new characters for one second and then the series never came back.

Okay, let’s see if what I said at the beginning of this review still stands.

*This series was 12 episodes long. I was correct that it was only going to last between 11 and 13. *By series end, Rentaro has officially gotten 6 girlfriends. Even if we add the 5 girls we saw at the end of episode 12, that would equal 11 girls. So, I was right about the number of girlfriends. *My 15% chance of a sequel guess was proven wrong immediately as this got the green light for a second season when the season one finale aired.

Shit, this series was something else. I can honestly say there were a lot of moments in 100 Girlfriends I would have never expected to happen. In a normal harem anime, there’d be a lot of fighting between the girls, the first girl might get a kiss, and the anime would end there so you would have to go to the manga to know what happens next. Or, wait nearly 30 years to see proof of a harem like with Tenchi Muyo. But we all must remember that we are in the 2020’s. If this fucking Goddamn decade has taught me anything, anime has gone above and beyond the norm here. We’re in the decade of Interspecies Reviewers and Redo of Healer!

This anime blew away everything that you’ve seen when it comes to harems. Rentaro has kissed every girl. He is loyal to all of his girlfriends and thensome. And unlike a lot of other harems, he lost his virginity by the season’s end and not to the first girl. I gotta give credit where credit is due in this department. And by the looks of the manga, Rentaro is still loved and quadrupled girl intake. Last I saw, he has over 20 girlfriends. The creator and artists are determined to make the 100 girlfriends thing happen whether the anime continues or not. I gotta respect that kind of tenacity. I am beyond curious to see how Rentaro can possibly handle over 20 girlfriends. So, I am definitely looking forward to a second season for this anime.

And if you want to see a harem done right for the 2020’s, get your ass to Crunchyroll and watch this series.

FINAL THOUGHT: If Rentaro never existed, this anime would be a Yuri anime starring these two. Prove me wrong.

#the 100 girlfriends who really really really really really love you #rentaro aijo #nano eiai #Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo #hakari hanazono #hahari hanazono #karane inda #kusuri yakuzen #shizuka yoshimoto

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fairy-writes · 1 year

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SO this is a day late; whoops, I meant to post this on New Years' Eve

I did this last year and wanted to do it again! So here’s a list that no one asked for of the top 10 anime series I watched this year, including two honorable mentions. They are ranked from (in my opinion) best to worst!

Animes I Watched This Year:

Arcane: League of Legends

IDK if this counts as an anime, but I love it so much that I’m including it anyway.

Literally my favorite animated show of all time.

It beats out Moriarty the Patriot, Demon Slayer, all of the animes.

People who have been following me since my Arcane obsession began know of my love for Viktor.

He’s my favorite and deserves the world.

But the show is stunning; every shot is amazing, the music is astounding, and everything about it is breathtaking!

Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Ok, I saw this in theaters, and I wanted to cry because it’s so beautiful.

I already owned the manga and had read it, and the fact that I love the movie more than the manga is something to consider.

There was never a boring moment in the movie, all the characters were memorable (with the exception of very few), and I absolutely adore Yuta.

Like, I already loved Geto because of that flashback arc we had in the manga, but Yuta beat him, he beat Gojo, and he beat everyone in the entire anime as my favorite except for maybe Inumaki.

This was truly Yuta’s movie, and I can’t wait for season 2!

Demon Slayer Season 2

THIS SHOW BLEW MY EXPECTATIONS OUT OF THE WATER

The CGI used was absolutely amazing. THIS IS HOW CGI SHOULD BE USED PEOPLE TAKE NOTES

Uzui is actually my favorite Hashira, save for Iguro (my least favorite is Rengoku, don’t come for me) so seeing a season dedicated to him was great.

I own all the manga, and this was one of my favorite arcs, so seeing it animated was like a birthday present.

Bungou Stray Dogs: WAN!

THIS SHOW IS SO CUTE, BUT ALSO MADE ME CRY WTF

Like episode 10? Had me pretty much bawling my eyes out

I also watched it in dub which was also a treat. I really like the BSD dub, and this was no exception.

Someone, please talk about it with me.

Like I can’t.

I need someone to cry with.

Spy x Family

Normally slice-of-life shows aren’t my thing.

But this one is the exception!

This show is so fun, so colorful, and so just utterly amazing that I can’t help but want to rewatch it a bunch!

I don’t have any complaints about it. It’s just at number 5 cause I love the other shows more.

Chainsaw Man

So I’m collecting the manga right now.

I already read it online and remember pretty much none of it.

This is what I get for reading it during finals week lmao

But the show is so cool!

It helps refresh my memory of what happens and every moment (save for the first kiss) is animated so beautifully!

They use CGI really well, with very few moments looking awkward or just out of pace.

This is only down at the halfway mark because it hasn’t gotten to my favorite part of the manga yet, so I can’t accurately judge how much I’ll love my favorite parts.

The Case Study of Vanitas Season 2

THIS IS SUCH A PRETTY SHOW

The only reason it’s down this far is because I didn’t actually finish season 2.

I didn’t even see the final fight between everyone and the Beast of Gevaudan, or however you spell it

So I really can’t judge this show until I finish the entire thing, haha

Blue Exorcist

I’M ONLY ON EPISODE THREE AND HAVEN’T SEEN IT SINCE 2014 DON’T COME FOR ME

I’m watching it in English Dub, and I think this is the only role that I actually like Bryce Papenbrook in. Anything else, and he just comes across as slightly annoying, but I really like him as Rin!

But this show is such a nostalgia trip. It’s great to rewatch, and the animation holds up really well!

Also, the opening is one of my favorites. I absolutely adore it.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

This one is so bizarre, but I still really enjoy it.

Like the premise is so cool, and the animation is great!

It just fell kind of flat.

They just needed more episodes to really explore everything they wanted to, but overall, 7/10 would recommend it to someone looking for a short but fun watch!

High Rise Invasion

I’m not even done with episode 1, but I already really enjoy the guy with the sniper rifle. I think he’s called Sniper Mask?

Anyway, the whole bit at the beginning of that one cop or whatever trying to make the main girl take off her clothes wasn’t the best.

It is part of what brought it down to number ten.

The other part is just that I haven’t finished it.

I’m noticing a trend with my watching habits, lol

Honorable Mentions

Sk8 the Infinity

Literally, the only thing beating this out of my top ten list is Adam.

I actually had this idea of writing a story of a detective from America coming to Japan and arresting him because that was hilarious to me, and he didn’t deserve the ending he got.

He deserved much worse, and no one can change my mind.

Millionaire Detective: Balance Unlimited

Oh. My. Gosh. This show was SO BORING

I CANNOT

I WAS DYING

The first couple of episodes were really fun and jazzy and whatever, but by the end, I was doing literally everything I could just not to watch it.

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regarding-stories · 11 months

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A guilty pleasure: "Chainsaw Man"

So, I started this show under the wrong impression it had lots of seasons. (Plus I had seen Pochita on shirts and was curious.) I got part-way into first episode, stopped, then took it up again. And then I finished an extremely solid first season rather quickly to my own surprise.

Chainsaw Man at its simplest is the story of a boy who can turn into a guy with a chainsaw as its head and chainsaw on his arms to fight devils that threaten mankind. However, that would sell the story quite short.

(Spoilers, obviously.)

Over the first few episodes we learn the origin of Denji who tries to desperately pay down his father's excessive debts to the Yakuza. As we met him, he lives alone in absolute poverty - having sold body parts to pay down some of the debt. He however befriended a small devil he calls Pochita, which is a mix of chainsaw and dog, and whom he ... uses ... to fight devils, an occupation that pays quite well, except almost all his earnings are taken by his Yakuza handler.

Denji doesn't go to school, doesn't know anybody his age (presumably 16), and his existence would generally be seen as miserable. The debt seems endless, he has no friends, and he can't even afford a proper meal. He dreams of jam on toast. His likely prospect is to die either fighting devils and fiends or to be offed by the Yakuza once they think he's no longer profitable.

Denji, however, made a pact with Pochita. He once saved the wounded Pochita and nursed him to health, and loves the little thing like a pet dog. He promised him his body should he die so that at least Pochita lives on. Outnumbered by zombie fiends created by a devil that killed his Yakuza creditor, he dies from his wounds. In this moment Pochita enters his body and replaces his dead heart, and only his chainsaw starter tail sticks out his chest. In a dream sequence he asks Denji to fulfill his dreams.

Denji turns into Chainsaw Man and slaughters all the fiends, then the devil who created them. His body has been restored, and without knowing he's almost immortal now. His ties to his past are broken, and he's found amid the carnage by Public Safety, an outfit stepping in to fight the most dangerous devils. And the local bigwig Makima recruits him.

And herein lie the seeds of a more complex story than anticipated.

More than one theme

I expected Chainsaw Man to be mostly a focused action anime. And no doubt it delivers solid action scenes. But the action scenes are more rare than you'd think and balanced out by a lot of character development, world-building, and social relationships, hooking me on the series very quickly.

Take for example Makima, his recruiter. She's immediately recognizable as a complex character. Manipulating his simple needs, she enlists him into her outfit and becomes his handler. He falls in love with her, given that she is a pretty woman that actually has been kind to him. But she has no qualms telling him that it's her way or ending up dead. She obviously has use for him, quickly guessing he's extremely powerful and her best bet at aiming high regarding the fight against the devils threatening Japan and the world.

The season reveals her as a powerful and absolutely ruthless witch, but also as deeply knowledgeable about human nature. One of the main themes that makes the series interesting is that Denji is an underdeveloped human rapidly making the experiences he was missing out on.

This leads to an actually very interesting scene. Denji, being the naive and uncultured teenage boy he is, thinks that grabbing an actual boob is the height of delight. Power is a devil and colleague, and after saving her beloved cat Meowsy (and herself), she pays Denji back by allowing three solid grabs of the goods. Except he realizes it doesn't make him happy. He goes in a downright funk, no longer sure what his motivations are, and takes his worries to Makima. She shows her mastery of understanding the relationship between sensations, emotions, and mental fantasies by completely wrapping Denji around her finger, titillating and teasing him until he can't process it anymore at all, then makes him commit to her goal - defeating the Gun Devil.

At this point I'm not even sure about what we can or cannot expect from Makima, her character is in fact one of the big mysteries of the story. But in a few skilled strokes and scenes it all transported the ideas behind Maslow's pyramid of needs (without ever mentioning it) and navigating it becomes Denji's personal character arc. We also learn how innocent and naive he is, and straightforward and pure - hidden by his completely bratty and immature demeanor.

Motivations and losses

We learn the motivations of the cast over time.

There's his senpai Aki, somebody who doesn't really show emotion. The Gun Devil incident claiming 1.2 million lives killed his family, and he will sacrifice his lifespan and anything to seek revenge for it. His fighting powers are enhanced by devil contracts.

We're not exactly sure what originally motivated Himeno, but she's Aki's senior partner in turn who has seen too many of her partners die over the years. Protecting and finally loving Aki is her motivation, and she dies doing it. Her letters to her family reveal how much she had been hoping for Aki to drop out of the death spiral that is Public Safety. Her contract with a devil that can manifest ghost arms was her main fighting style.

Power is a blood devil, basically a being obsessed with blood as sustenance and killing for it without scruples, that bonded with a cat. Getting that cat back from a powerful Bat Devil bonds her to Denji, and together with Denji she's a large part of the comic relief. (They're hilarious in their naive stupidity! Both of them technically didn't have "an ubringing.") She can form blood into weapons that obey her will.

Kobeni is a cowardly girl that possesses insane speed. She's extremely anxious and afraid and only "in it for the money" as it was either this or become sex worker. Apparently her family really did a number on her, seeing her just as a way to make money to support more "worthy" family members. It is said that becoming mentally unstable is actually a boon in devil hunting, and after Kobeni cracks, she becomes kind of badass.

Another facet of the story is that the cast expands and contracts over time as it is apparently not afraid to kill characters for appropriate dramatic impact. This leads us to the oddity that characters appear in the opening and closing credits who are no longer alive - usually a sign of their long-term significance. Nya, nya, you've been had.

A word of warning

Yes, the show is gory. But the entrails and other parts you will see over time are no better or worse than what happens in other shows. The action sequences are certainly extremely well-executed, choreographed, and at the forefront of anime effects at this point in time.

My word of warning is about another scene that is both sickening and very clever. I will not spell out what exactly happened at the party with coworkers, but let it suffice to say that it still actually physically revolts me whenever I think of it. They even pixelated it out. Doesn't help any.

So, prepare to have yourselves massively grossed out.

(Not that scene.)

But I said it's clever. Let's detour into a peculiarity of Japanese shows. The drinking age is 20. Whether it be through censorship or self-censorhip, Japanese shows make sure that adults don't give alcohol to "minors" or even adults (18-19 year olds) under the drinking age. Either the minors themselves will refuse or the adults change track when they learn somebody's age.

This can play out in a variety of ways - in shows like My Teenage Romantic SNAFU and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (actually, the scene is as of now only present in the books) the protagonists just plain out refuse their 20-year-old temptresses. In Rent-a-Girlfriend a 19-year-old college student reminds the other guests at a drinking party that she's under-age and therefore doesn't drink - but then gets as stupid as the rest, lampshaded by the main character.

So, Denji, being probably 16 (he isn't sure), isn't included in the drinking, and through contrived circumstances gets drunk anyway! I can't help but think the whole thing is actually flipping the bird at the rules while technically abiding by them...

Anyway - super gross scene, you've been warned, I wash my hands of this...

Otherwise, you would find a show firmly rooted in Japanese culture in many ways, with good world-building, great characters, clever action scenes that are not overdone, and a surprising lot of story, scene-setting, and ideas in general. It's pretty damn funny, too.

(Some would call it "good cringe...")

And now I can't decide if I hit the manga instead or wait the long, long, dark wait for a second season...

#chainsaw man #anime series

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foxxiatto · 1 year

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Favorite Fall 2022 Animes

This past fall season has been pretty impressive in terms of anime, and I'm sad to see it come to an end. These three were the ones that got me through each week and looking forwards to the next episode. Of course, these are just my personal opinions <3 So do keep that in mind.

!!!!!! SPOILERS AHEAD

Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War

Probably one of if not the most anticipated animes of the season, the beginning of the final arc of Bleach did not disappoint. The animation, the music, and the scenes were all on point.

The one scene that has so far hurt me the most is when Ichigo arrives at the Soul Society, which is in shambles. The first person he goes to is a dying Byakuya, a proud man and one of the captains you just don't imagine losing. With tears in his eyes, he begs Ichigo to save society. It broke my heart. I have loved watching Byakuya's development in the series. (Poor man getting tossed into a pool like a sack of potatoes was pretty funny, though.)

youtube

Chainsaw Man

Another series that many were looking forward to, having not read the manga, I was very curious myself. I'm really glad I gave the series ago. The storyline is very interesting and compelling. I honestly love how the main character, Denji is so humble and just wants to live a good life. He finds joy in the simplest of things after having lived such a rough life. His goals in life might seem silly and trivial, but it means something to him.

However, in this series, the scene that got me was seeing Aki's past and what drives him forward. His desire for revenge on the Gun Devil who destroyed his family in an instant. I really look forward to the next season and seeing what happens next!

Spy x Family

What an incredibly wholesome and sweet series. I enjoyed the second season every bit as much as the first. There were so many touching scenes, and it just warmed my heart. It's adorable how hard Anya works to help Loid and Yor, how Yor works hard to be a good wife even if it is supposed to be a marriage of convenience.

It's hard to pick one scene that I loved; there were so many, but I did love how Loid broke into the school to ensure Anya passed a test. Anya had been studying very hard, and Loid was worried the mission would be jeopardized by a failing grade. However, while he intended to change her test scores, he did not because Anya had managed to pass on her own. Even if it was just barely, he was proud of her for trying so hard.

That wraps that up. It was a great season, and while I am not really familiar with anything I have seen for the Winter season, I hope there are some gems there too. If anyone has any recommendations, I would love to hear them!

#Anime #spy x family #bleach tybw #chainsaw man #opinions #Youtube

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veiledfox · 2 years

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TAG PEOPLE YOU WANT TO GET TO KNOW BETTER!

Favorite color: I don’t have any one specific favorite, ones I like using more often though are red, gold, purple, and some pinks like hot pink

Currently reading: technically nothing? but I’ve been working through the Manga for BNHA and Demon Slayer, keeping up with Nagatoro, and need to read the new Chainsaw Man stuff and all of Berserk

Last song: Fallen Down from the Undertale OST

Last series: Rising of Shield Hero Season 2 since I just watched the first episode

Last movie: Thor Love and Thunder, but my Dad and I are seeing Nope tomorrow

Sweet/spicy/savory: Spicy, though my body hates it, but I like sweet too

Currently working on: catching up with anime that I couldn’t since I was working through One Piece AND making some builds on Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, soon to be continuing my Pokemon White playthrough so I can get to Pokemon Black 2 for the first time ever, also I have three drafts partially filled that I need to finish

Tagged by: @wxrk-is-never-dxne (sorta, they tagged a different blog of mine)

Tagging: whoever wants to do some munday type shit on a Wednesday or Thursday

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales: Jaw$! or How Lena Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Webby (Lena Retrospective Commissioned by WeirdKev27)

Trigger Warning: Part of this review contains discussions of abuse which can’t be avoided but I still want to be senstive to my audience and any trauma they’ve gone through. Welcome back weblena world to Shadow Into Light: My Lena Sabrewing Retrospective. And Jaw$ is here, long live Jaw$. Tiffany was a shark who bites the law she was in an episode i’m reviewing called Jaw$.

And it’s the money shark before the storm as next month i’ll be going from two Ducktales reviews a week with the Lena retrospective and the last few episodes.. to three, as i’ll ALSO be covering the Della arc from season 1 in the build up to shadow war. And if your wondering if I expertly planned this to coincide with the finale, to the point the shadow war review and those leading up to it will be on the same week as the finale.... nope. I just got REALLLLY lucky as I already had all of that planned out, and the schedule for the new episodes happened to synch up perfectly, ending just in time for me to revisit the series start and having Magica’s big in person appearance reviewed a week after we get her backstory in Life and Crimes. Though I am VERY happy it worked out this way as I get to properly celebrate the series end with more ducks than ever, and get to cover the pilot the same month as the finale, all things i’d of loved to do anyway and probably would’ve rejiggered my schedule to do. Point is lot of Ducktales content coming for this blog if you like that so stay tuned, but for now join me won’t you under the cut as we dive into a money bin of gay ducks, shadowy machinations, and Bad PR.

We open as Lena and Donald awkwardly sit on the couch, waiting for Scrooge and the Kids to get home. Understandably it’s just.. dead silence.Given their a cynical teenager secretly working for and forced to obey a horrifying shadow monster and a 35 year old man who dosen’t like living in this house due to painful memories of his presumed dead sister.. and painful memories of pain in general, you have a huge awkward bowl of chips and “I really don’t want to be here right now”.

Our heroes return though, and Louie tries to take some of their haul for himself but Scrooge stops that “It goes in the bin not to next of kin. “... Man in a Hurry if you would please.

Thank you. Man in a Hurry everybody. He has to go now, he’s in a hurry.

As you can probably guess I do not like this, as it reminds me WAY too much of Scrooge’s worst “quirk” in the comics: how he’d barely pay his nephews, who are often hard up for cash mind you and one of whom is supporting three children ALONE, take them around the world and reap all the benefit for their hard work. It’s not like he did nothing, he did, but it’s way to exploitive for my tastes and can often sink a story if taken too far. It’s not AS bad... but they all went on the mission they all deserve at least something. I DO get keeping the rarest and most dangerous stuff for himself, as he is bankrolling things and does have two bins and a massive garage to safetly store them. But this just comes off as douchey for this version, who while liable to make mistakes with them, is far more nurturing towards his boys and girls.

Thankfully this was course corrected next season. While Scrooge’s greed was properly restored.. this sort of treatment wasn’t. “Treasure of the Found Lamp” had him undergo character development and realize simply hoarding his treasures isn’t right or fair, and set up a musuem wing so both duckburg and his descendants can see them and get the stories behind them. And on not getting to take things clearly he’s eithe relaxed or stopped the policy as our heroes do have souveneers from time to time. Not a LOT mind, but little things like Dewey having a giant sword or Scrooge outright giving Louie one of his things show he did soften up. Though Della’s return and likely lack of tolerance for this stupid policy in the first place probably helped a lot, I also like to think he did change a bit and realize it was deeply unfair they didn’t get more than a few treasures of their own. So the writers did realize they kind of went overboard here. I suspect this was more to setup for the episode’s subplot and to make Scrooge’s karma at the end feel justified. Speaking of which we get the start of said Subplot as Beakley comes in with a money cart and the news the board called. Why they called his house instead of his phone I don’t know, some things slip through the cracks when you running both a billion dollar company an da trillion dollar fiendish organization for world larceny. I mean they clearly worked themselves so hard the other two apparently died between seasons. That or it was the diet of whiskey, orphan tears and grease in a wine glass both had. Bradford always told them it’d kill them though to his credit he only said I told you so twice at their funeral.

For once no their not mad Scrooge is spending all the money they use to buy fowl jetskis, but because the Company’s having a bit of a PR nightmare now that Scrooge is back in the adventuring game. And we cut to the beanstalk they just adventured on having tore up a good chunk of the town and destroyed large swaths of it just to sell the point this isn’t their normal old man yells at other old man for spending all me money schitck, but a serious problem. As such they’ve booked him an interview with Roxanne Fetherly to improve his image and the companies.

Scrooge scoffs at this, baffled why he has bad pr as his adventuring is GOOD for the city in the long run: He pays for any damages it causes, and likely at a cost no less which is a LOT coming from scrooge, and puts most of the money he makes on these adventures back into the city and his company, creating more jobs and better living conditions. He does get a wakeup call via truly hilarous gag as Launchpad pops his head up to say “Good news mr. mcdee, it missed the orphange!” before getting ready to chainsaw the stalk for him. He quickly realizes MAYBE he needs some PR and agress to the interview.

This whole subplot really plays into one of the series main themes, one Frank brought up a few months back: Risk vs Reward. Adventuring is entirely about this, that adventure is dangerous, can cost you a lot as we see with Della and the aftermath of her terrible decision making, and can hurt people.. but it can also help people, bring money to those who need it, free those who are being oppressed and open new worlds to everyone. This subplot distills it down great: Scrooge is right that his adventures do bring in money, and as seen with the first episode brought in clean water and power with no drawbacks and only asked to be paid for it, which is fair given he still has to run machines and likely help relocate any workers whose jobs are now redundant to other parts of the company and retrain them. But it costs people their homes and jobs, not forever but still as long as it takes to construct, tears up roads and puts people in danger. It’s plots like this that make Bradford the perfect final boss for the series: He’s someone who blinds himself to the reward of all this and only sees the risk, and raises valid points even if he himself is deeply wrong. He’s right Scrooge causes a lot of danger and threat to the world.. but wrong in that he dosen’t see it’s all worth it for the good of everyone.

But enough about future story arcs let’s get back to this one, as Webby excitedly greets Lena and hugs her, realizes she’s not hugging her back then gives her another squeeze anyway after claming to hate hugs when just a LOOK at Webby would tell you that’s false. The two are having a sleepover, Webby’s first ever.. and given Lena’s essentially an Emo Hobo and the closest thing she has to home is that starlight ancient amptheater that’s never properly explained. Seriously ancient ruins near Duckburg dosen’t suprise me, but at least tell me what they are and why Magica chose them. And why Louie hasn’t tried to sell tickets to Dewey boxing a gorilla in them. Or probably a possum I mean their on a budget and gorillas snap necks, but still i’d pay to see that as would we all.

Point is it’s their first sleepover and naturally Webby’s first bit of smalltalk.. is how tucking in can be used for interogation techniques. I’d be more suprised if earlier this season it hadn’t already been shown Beakly regularly enrolls her daughter in the no murder, unless you really want to, hunger games every year. The fact Webby hasn’t become the bat is only because she hasn’t found a costume that’s the right combintion of pinks and purples to instill pantswetting terror yet. That shit takes time.

Lena goes to the bathroom.. to talk to Magica who we properly get to meet. She did speak last time, but this ep is the one that properly establishes her personality for the reboot: she has clever plans, tons of power, if sealed currently, and is a genuine threat.. but she’s also a bit of a ham, in love with the old ultra violence and really short sighted in her plans, something we got hints of last time as her best solution to the Beakly Problem was to just leave her to die and hope scrooge and webby, two people who love solving mysteries and unlocking puzzles, don’t investigate the horrifying death, accident or not, of their only friend and grandmother, and that neither, especially the 12 year old spiraling with grief, would suspect a former spy died. Thoguh in fairness on the spy thing it’s plausable Magica didn’t know that, but still it’s a bad plan. Magica has good ideas but is just so obessed with the brute force way of doing things she forgets the subtle approach works better.. and so far it has well for Lena. Problem is it’s VERY clear by this point that Lena likes Webby, maybe not romantic styles JUST YET but it’s getting there. Webby on the otherhand has been in love with Lena from the freaking concept art which showed her blushing around her.. and that was in her 87 design.. which they thankfully changed. It’s not terrible but it just dosen’t fit well with this universe. Point is Lena is catching feelings and Magica realizes this and tries to gaslight her telling her she’d never acccept the truth abotu her and so on. As we all know and as we’ll see that’s bullshit but it’s an effective manipulation. We also find out Magica’s plan: she had Lena sneak a jewel into the treasure going into the bin, and it’s going to turn into a monster that will seek out the Number One Dime for them. She also vaugely hints that there’s something Lena needs from Magica.

Once Lena returns, and Webby let’s her rabbit know the interogation isn’t over, she gives her possible future girlfirend a gift: friendship bracelets! They both put them on and it’s really fucking cute.. and will be both a tangible symbol of hteir friendship and a plot point several times, something I honestly hadn’t thoguht about till now. Lena, put off by the gesture not because she dosen’t aprpciate it because of the crushing guilt of lying to the one person who cares about her under the insucrtions of a sociopath, goes to Webby’s big old corkboard which is always fun to look at.. especially since it’s clearly the ONLY glimpse at Hortense we’re going to get all series.

We’re not getting Grandma Duck either. Though at least Frank actually regrets that one. But the important part is one of the posts mentoniing Scrooge hates magic, something Webby elaborates on: He hates spells, hexs curses and what not and feels them a shortcut. From the man who has a garage full of them.

I do kid as I did realize there’s a valid expliantion for this: Scrooge will use magical items, protection spells that sort of thing.. but he uses them like anything else as needed. He’s too pragmatic to not say, use the jewel of atlantis to give a city clean energy and water he can montizie, or the split sword against FOWL.. but more often than not he just dosen’t need them. He collects them because it’s fun, oftne profitable.. and their simply SAFER in his museum wing, garage and second bin will get to in two weeks. He’s seen time and time again how people misuse magic, forget it has a price, or just rely on it instead of actual skill. He’s also clearly been on the bad end of a LOT of evil sorcerers and soreceresses, especially magica. Magic isn’t inherently bad, which in itself is a BIG message of Lena’s arc, it’s just somethign that’s the OPPPSOITE OF everythign scrooge is: sacrifcing others for power, relying on something besides yourself, distance attacks versus up close and personal phsycial attacks.. it was never going to be for him and tons of bad experinces with it only cemented it. He’s just not so stubborn outside of the santa thing to avoid something if it’s going to net him a profit or come in a pinch.

So naturally Scrooge has banned any magic books from his house, as he has no use for spellcasting and any he’d need to keep for saftey or history’s sake are likely at the archives, but just as naturally, Webby smuggled one in and wants to try it with Lena ducking it and asking to play some games. I”m sure Huey has a few yugioh decks in his room go bug him. But before they can decide on one, the boys attack for a PILLOW FIGHT.... which is a sweet gesture and them just wanting to hang out, but ends with them all eating the ground and questioning why they thought attacking the duck equilvent of cassandra cain was a good idea. Louie decides to salvage it with a swim.. but since their pool has a boat in it he has a diffrent location in mind: the bin.

So while they head off to get head injuries, Beakly tries to prepare Scrooge as the Media are vultures and looking for the next scandal with public figures and it’s accurate. But given Scrooge’s natural mood is grumpus, this dosen’t go well at all and even a spray bottle dosen’t exactly help.. I mean it is the best method to deal with grumpy old men but it can only do so much.

At the bin we get a lovely bit as Dewey prepares to dive and his brothers treat it like an olympic one, with both doing commentary, Dewey’s apparently response to if he was worried about brain damage was Nerp, and we get the wonderous national anthem of dewdonia. Just nice as well as lovely to see the brothers just having a crack and enjoying each others company with their own weird injokes but without the injokes feeling as forced as they were in “Beagle Birthday Massacre”. Things take a turn though as we see just what magica created with the stone... a giant shark made of scrooges money who eats that fucker in a single bite.. in this case Dewey. Louie and Huey naturally run off panicked.

So while Huey and Louie gain another scarring memory to tell their therapist when their older, Scrooge begins his interview with Roxanne Fetherly who.. honestly just weirds me out. Not for any personality stuff but because she has green feathers. And it just.. really feels WEIRD. I mean green ducks are a thing in real life.. but it just looks off to have such a pastel color on a duck when the other colors are white or tones meant to invoke real world races, allowing ducks to be black, latino, asian and so on and so on coded. That’s fine and blends in fine.. but with that metaphor the green just really dosen’t fit well at all. It feels like an early decision they made, but decided not to retcon or go with for anyone else which makes it all the more weird. We’re 3 seasons in , almost at the end, and the only other green duck we’ve seen was like that because of magic and the offputting nature of it WORKS for magica. Here I just don’t get it and I never well. But naturally Roxanne starts in on invasive, gotcha questions with no real good answers or time to respond, so fox news level questions, and then asks what part of ireland he’s from.

Naturally that sets him off so while that rant goes on, literally next time we see him he’s still going on about it, we cut to the girls playing truth or dare.. and given Webby’s first question is about deepest darkest secrets the boys once again save her by running in... to report on the monster she created that just ate their brother. Lena brushes it off but does get them not to go to scrooge claming he’ll throw them to the shark himself. I mean he’s not comics scrooge so he probably woudln’t but their also two scared 11-12 year olds so it works well enough. They just need a way to go after the money shark. Enter launchapd who in the second best bit of the episode, says he sensed his best friend dewey was in danger. Beck’s delivery is what sells it.. and I’m not going to question it. He’s somehow alive despite presumibly living off a diet of spaghett-o’s, barely avoiding a car accident on his best days, and as we’ll find out later believing children in costumes are monsters he summoned when he was 8. The fact he suddenly has spider sense specifically related to people he cares about is honestly less of a surprise than the fact he’s not in heaven crashing God’s Speedboat into God’s Golden Castle with God’s Golden Lion riding shotgun.

So they do the natural thing and.. steal Donald’s houseboat while he sleeps. He has no more involvement in this episode other than noticing it’s back and not in great condition at the end. I bring this up because this is one of Donalds ONLY apperances this season, and it’s part of the larger more irritating problem that he’s hardly ever used.. despite promoting him as a major part of the series.

I will talk about this more during the Della arc as i’ts more relevant there, but needless to say it bothers me a lot and not knowing how to ballance it’s massive main cast was a constant struggle for the series even up to the final episodes going on right now.

So our heroes head out on the bin late at night, where could the Jaw$ be she’s nowhere in sight. So they decide to use other treasure as a lure they either fished out of a bin or out of scrooge’s bathwater. How bathing in coins gets him clean I don’t know and frankly I dont’ think we want the answers to that and the idea of scrooge fully naked is so horrifying I forgot what I was talking about.

Ah yes our heroes are playing bait the money monster and find out it’s a shark, and Lena.. is not okay with that and goes to talk to Magica inside the boat. Magica tells us she has a name, Tiffany. Awww what a lovely name for a money shark. I would of gone with Rags to Bitches, but I may have brain damage. Lena understandabily does not like the idea of getting eaten by a shark, asked to be informed and while Magica is mad at her for going after the thing, Lena reasonably points out that it was this or Scrooge got involved. Up top Huey tries catching it with a bit of treasure on a rope.. after not shutting up about shark facts because “Facts comfort me when i’m nervous!” Precious angel. But Huey’s leg gets caught and he and Louie, somehow on the latter get thrown up in the air and chomped. Back bellow Webby has a suggestion: using magic. Lena naturally not wanting to blow her cover or really liking magic period is against it for now.

Back at the interview, Roxanne brings on a special guest to prove people don’t like scrooge: GLOMGOLD!

Glomgold may create some issues for the subplot and we’ll get to those in due time, but damn if it isn’t always a pleasure to see him. He’s also on good terms with Roxanne... are.. are we sure this is local news and not fox news? Taking the word of a conservative greedy billionare over a progressive one seems like a fox move. Though I might actually watch fox news if glomgold was a commentator. “I propose a red new deal instead of this blasted green new deal, I throw Scrooge to a tank of sharks connected to a generator, the tank turns red with his blood and that somehow creates power! HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT MCDUCK”

So we get the best bit of the episode as Glomgold tries to complain about his building being destroyed which would be fair... if he hadn’t tried to blow up Scrooge’s bin twice this week, with Glomgold going for THREE.. for threee.. for three... it dosen’t go off but it does get scrooge to say he’s glad the building was destroyed. Which is fair but NOT super great PR.

Back at the shark things don’t get better as Webby and Lena argue over the use of magic, I mean as much as they can argue Webby just wants to know why she’s so cagey about this while they go with plan “Launchpad crash into it”. Launchpad also gives a hell of a monologue. Good on you bud. As you can see launchpad’s gotten 100% better since his low point in our last episode. That’s because it’s clear the writers had some struggle ballancing his amped up stupidity with actual competence, making him primarily jokey comic relief in the first few episodes and I wouldn’t be shocked if Terror of The Terra Firmians was written before a lot of the later episodes despite airing around the same time. But by mid-season he’s got his much more lovable charactersation of a dangerous moron..l but one who CAN be competent and is genuinely charming due to how much he cares about his friends and his job. They also dialed down the stupid down to an acceptable homer simpson level: still a danger to himself and others but hilariously so. Point is they fixed it and while i’ll complain about mistakes the show made I will give this crew all the credit for course correcting time and time again and actually listening to fan feedback.

So Webby figures they tried the Jaws option and lost the boat and launchpad, time for plan Magic. They hold hands, EEEEEEEEE, and try a spell.. and it clearly starts working but almost works TOO well, as Lena starts glowing first purple.. then blue. Hmmmm... intresteing. Lena breaks it off and Tiffany breaks out of the bin.. just as scrooge says on the news his adventures aren’t dangerous.

Scrooge naturally goes to face it while Webby wonders why Lena didn’t go for it. To make it a triple Scrooge shows up in time to distract tiffany.. with the number one dime, which as lena found out earlier is on his person rather than at the bin like the public thinks. So while Scrooge puts up a good show.. seriously it’s really awesome and really neat looking, though he also gets VERY upset that people are naturally holding out buckets for the cash shark, which he’s not happy about because well.. he did EARN that money. Most bin money is stuff directly earned by him so fair enough. But while he’s you know, Scrooge Fucking McDuck, and thus puts up a good fight the monster eats him.. and gets the dime stuck in it’s tooth with Magica wanting Lena to grab for it, forgetting that minons, while mildly disposable, aren’t really replaceable when your SOUL’S ATTACHED TO THEM. That’s where Magica’s weakness is. her plans aren’t half bad but as I said, she’s far too bloodthirsty and short sighted. She has better ones than glomgold but ironcially they share the same problem of not thinkign them through. And Magica cares so little for lena she’s blinded to the fact her own personal saftey is tied up in her.

Lena naturally dives for her future girlfrriend and heads into the belly of the beast. And it’s here her REAL moment of truth is. While the one last episode was noble.. it was also easy enough to brush off internal as pragmatisim. Letting Beakly die would’ve brought too much heat and been too easy to quickly go terrible, while saving her got her off Lena’s trail and gave her free reign of the manner. But here? Webby is about to slip into Tiffany’s stomach and whle she hasn’t digested anyone yet given who made Tiffany with it’s likely just because she hasn’t had enough mass to create chainsaws to carve them all up. It’s the Dime or Webby. Lena’s own freedom or the girl she loves. Nothing good comes from saving Webby.. other than Webby. Other than the one person whose truly loved her. I mean think about it: She was created by magica, abused for a good decade and a half. No one but Magica has had a chance to care about her and as we’ve seen Magica only sees her as a weapon to get back at scrooge and not as a person. Webby was the first person she’s ever made a genuine connection with, that’s been there for her, that loves her unconditionally and woiuld be there for her no matter what. And it’s in that moment Lena realizes she can’t sacrifice her for her own good... that after years of having to be selfish to surivive being chained to that monster... she can’t be this time. No mastter what it costs her.. Webby is priceless. So Lena recites the spell, growing bright blue and blowing up tiffany. Lena gladly hugs webby who reciorpates, awww gaybies, and Launchpad hugs dewey. Awww... what it’s still precious he’s a good surrogate uncle. The wacky kind who sleeps in a van on your lawn.

So Scrooge is glad.. though it’s here his subplot falls flat. Him getting attacked by the media and getting a compupance by loosing tons of money from tiffany is fine. Evne if he earned it, his lack of care did bring this on him.. hte problem is they take it too far by having all his nemies show up, him unable to say anything and glomgold blatantly doing so just to steal from him. Otherwise the subplot is fine, a bit heavy on scrooge being a dick but it has to to work and puts him in an awkward situation. But this ending just feels to over the top to realy enjoy. And the series does do over the top humor well so I don’t know what happened here. But having a bunch of outright thieves steel his money instad of a bunch of citizens who didn’t know better and deserved it for the damage, feels wrong and it tastes wrong.

Speaking of feels wrong and tastes wrong we get an INTEINTONAL dose of that as back at the amptheater, Lena and Magica argue about the situation and Magica trying to kill her. Lena tries to walk away but can’t.. phsyically. Magica won’t let her. And this is honestly a very crushing and very well crafted metaphor for how abuse victims sometimes CAN’T escape their abusers. Magica is verbally abusive, treats lena like she’s disposable and constnatly downtalks her self esteem. To Lena magica is nothing but a tool.. but like MANY children caught in horrifcally abusive situations Lena can’t get away. It’s a literal metaphor, an da good one, for how you can’t ALWAYS escape abuse easily, and this especially true for kids who have nowhere to go and hte law on their abusers side more often than not. It’s hard to escape an abusive parent and even harder when they dont’ consider you a person. I thankfully have no personal experince with this but it dosen’t make it any less of a problem nor any less noble of this show to tackle the subject in a frank, if fantastical, way, and a good chunk of Lena’s arc is overcoming this abuse and not letting her abusive past drown her. But for now.. all she can do is agree to do what Magica says till she can hopefully be rid of her. But the light at the end of the tunnel’s coming.. there’s just a whole lotta darkness first.

Next Time: We take a break from the episodes to cover some Lena related comics for a double feature; The first Spies Like Us has everyones faviorite lesbian ducks go on a spy adventure that was never printed in the us for silly reasons we’lll get to and then the 87 ducktales comic dime after dime which features Lena’s predecessor Minima.

Later Today: Close Enough Season 2 is here! I”m going to talk about it! Exclimation Points!

If you liked this review feel free to follow for more. And if you have an episode of Ducktales or another animated show you’d like me to cover just hit me up via my asks or direct messages on here and comission it. And if you’d rather just support me on a monthly basis, head over to my patreon. THE LINK IS RIGHT HERE. Even a buck a month would help and the more of you that donate the closer we get to my Duckcentric stretch goals. The current closest ones are 15, which would lead to reviews of The Goofy Movies and Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and 20 which would lead both to a review of the Super Ducktales mini series, and monthly darkwing duck reviews! So if you like me talking about ducks and want to bolt some duck reviews to the schedule, even a dollar a month would inch me closer to that goal. Eveyr bit helps. But money or not, it’s been a pleasure and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #weblena #lena sabrewing #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #bentina beakly #donald duck #launchpad mcquack #dewey duck #huey duck #louie duck #magica despell #tiffany despell #jaw$#jaws

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