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nvzblgrrl · 8 months

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One Piece Clowns Ranking

This is based on two merits - Clownly power and fuckability, though the order is based on 'closeness to being a true clown'. A joint project between me and @poisonbat, who greatly surpasses me in clownly power.

Buggy the Clown (The Gateway Drug of One Piece Clownfuckers)

He’s a clown in name and in presentation; classic whiteface type, love of bold colors and patterns, showmanship, and commitment to theme (he made his entire crew a circus after all). He was also ASSIGNED clown at birth via his natural red clown-looking nose and just rolled with it as his theme in adulthood. If not for his chosen career (pirate) and tendency towards destruction/anger when his nose is brought up, this man could have made bank on the circus entertainment circuit. He’s 39 (37 pre-time skip) but wearing his age well despite the stresses of his lifestyle, so I guess you could argue DILFy energy if you’re into that I guess, even if he doesn’t have kids.

Fuckability: when this guy is called the Gateway Drug, I mean that not only is he the first clown introduced in the series and remains the only one for a long while, he also hits the necessities - he starts out as the dark horse sexyman type, goes to prison to get a stripped down to essentials look that shows off his long hair and figure for the people who don’t look at something until it’s minimalist, and then starts stacking up the memes. It would be weirder if there wasn’t a sizeable chunk of the fandom that wanted to fuck him.

And while it's still brand new, the Netflix series speedran his popularity by having him in the entire season in arcs he wasn't in originally, in addition to the fact that fans of live action media are for some reason WAY more susceptible to clownfuckery. Just think about all the thirsty Joker/Harley/Pennywise thirst of the past.

Mr. 7 (Previous)

This one is relatively new, as he only had an extremely crude drawing for years prior to the production of the Live Action series, but in terms of clownliness, he ended up coming out so clown that from the trailers, a friend of mine was convinced he was a Buggy crew member. Mr. 7 is the second most clown because like Buggy, he's almost entirely just in on the gimmick, except instead of the classic whiteface archetype, Mr. 7 opts for the Jester type, only missing the typical hood/hat most associated with them ala DCAU Harley Quinn or most old depictions of joker Playing Cards.

Fuckability: Assuming you're not racist and like the color red and want to create more of a backstory for this guy, you could do a lot worse. Pretty decent, all things considered.

Miss Father's Day

A Jester like Mr. 7, Miss Father's day commits to the mixing of that with the theme of "frog". Less traditional, but still clearly a jester, and including the hood Mr. 7 lacks. She might not be more than a passing antagonist during the final battle phase of Alabasta, but her design is memorable and completely filled with clownly spirit… and there’s definitely characters on this list who have had less plot contribution than her. She also has a laugh that’s literal ribbiting.

Fuckability: Pretty decent. She’s a near-standard One Piece woman, which is fairly solid ground - though I’m hoping that if she shows up in the Live Action, we get an interesting person under the froggy hood - and the first person for women-likers on the list, so it’s not a bad place to be. Especially if you like frogs. Cons - the 4Kids dub made her French.

Puggy

‘Who’s Puggy’ you might ask? Well, he’s a character from one of the One Piece Live Attractions. In terms of clownliness, this was a guy who got a job bodyguarding Buggy post-time skip and immediately went all in on the man’s theme, even so far as becoming Buggy’s apprentice. He also appears in the spin-off manga "One Piece Party". He models himself after his Mentor Buggy, though with a mask that contains his non-natural clown nose and large multicolored hair. His general clothing style is a bit more modern, but the taste for bright colors (largely neon pastels) and bold check-pattern still is solidly clown in action.

Fuckability: Do you want a younger, sexier, washboard-ripped, tits-out-all-the-time Buggy? Here you go.

And now we enter into the land of Clowncore - the ‘clownly in vibe, but perhaps not in direct intent’ land where fashion precedes strict function of the role. Still plenty of room to be hot though.

Charlotte Mont-d’Or

A curious entry on the list, given that Mont-d’Or wears the full whiteface, but it’s where he lives. Mont-d’Or lives in the shadow realm between proper clown and clowncore, mixing in the subtype of goth just for pleasure with the skeleton patterning of his clothes. He comes off very halloween scarecrow feeling but is still a lot more clown than some others further down this list, so points for that.

Fuckability: …there’s a proven market, I’ve seen it on AO3 and in other places, but personally, I’m baffled. He doesn’t bring looks or charm to the table and, while there’s nothing wrong with a chubby man, something about Mont-d’Or’s figure unsettles me, with his large potbelly but otherwise spindly body. So, yes on technicality, but it’s a different kind of ‘why’ from me personally.

Charlotte Perospero

While lacking the makeup of his younger brother and not being a traditional clown, his candy inspired look is EXTREMELY clownish and is probably one of the most vibrant looking clowns in One Piece thanks to it. The man’s hair comes with its own polkadot pattern, and it’s a rare look for him to not have another two or three somewhere else on his body.

Fuckability: again, there’s a proven AO3 market. If you like middle aged men, he's 50 and well. Um. His tongue, if you want that. He’s also tall, though most members of the Charlotte family are that. Otherwise, there’s not a whole lot to write home about, beyond the very solid amount of ‘x reader’ fics on AO3. Not my dish, personally, but hey, you do you.

Charlotte Mozart

Are you beginning to see a pattern with this family? While Mozart is less ‘important’ to the story of One Piece than her previously listed brothers (she doesn’t even have a voiced part!), there is no questioning the clownly energy of a woman who styles her hair into a jester’s cap. She also wears standard clown-y patterns on her outfit, though in a more subdued red than the blasting vibrant colors of her oldest brother.

Fuckability: If you like women, I think her design is more appealing/attractive than Miss Father's Day since it's a little more pulled together and coherent in a fun way. Also she's 37, so hey. If you like older ladies, that's another plus. Her face and body are fairly standard for One Piece women, but that’s kind of the plague of being a tertiary ‘just above background’ character. Doesn’t stop her from being attractive though.

Donquixote Rosinante

Maybe a bit more contentious than some on this list, however, Mimes are part of the clown family; and Rosinante is much more themed than people below him here. Like, only slightly but…it's there. He wears a fairly involved make-up pattern (though the argument that those are tattoos just increase his ‘clown’ factor via dedication alone) and doesn’t shy away from an aesthetic theme, as his dedication to heart motifs in his clothing shows.

Fuckability: high, but in a ‘most common denominator’ way. He’s a DILF in the same way (though to a slightly lesser extent) that fandom darling Din Djarin is, he’s not so ‘out there’ that those less dedicated to clownfucking (or those not adverse to the concept) are chased off, and he’s soundly average in build. There’s also a small advantage in the fandom art space likes to build off of his canon design and make him pretty. So yeah, if you’re into vanilla with a shitload of sprinkles, he’s very fuckable.

Ann

Who's Ann? Again, we go to the Live Attraction - and then to Stampede, because our girl managed to break into the Big Time of One Piece animation! While her design was obviously meant to be pop idol-ish, it honestly comes off waaaaay more casual clowncore with the curly two toned kinky hair and asymmetrical patterns and bright colors, though it cannot be denied that she’s more of a dedicated idol than a straight clown. Also gets points for originating in the same Live Attraction that Puggy did as a (somewhat unwilling) member of Buggy’s crew.

Fuckability: High, she's really cute and has a bonus of actually looking unique in terms of the younger One Piece women designs, with freckles and a different looking facial structure than the standard, even if only slight. She also has a very sweet personality, even if she’s a bit of a ditz in action. She may not be the most clown-y but she at least has enough to offer a compelling case more than a lot of the other women on the list, it must be noted.

Giolla

Slowly getting to the least clown-like but still enough for my clown obsessed friend to consider making the cut. Giolla mostly makes it just on her two toned bright frizzy hair and kinda ehhh grandma fashion. Fuckability: underground. Even if you’re good with a character rendered in the Gonk style or her younger more conventionally attractive looks, the ‘chillness with child abuse’ is a massive turn-off on every possible level. Personally, I also find her Picasso-esque art another attraction killer, but I can be very opinionated about that, so the ‘child abuse’ thing should probably be your primary reason not to fuck her.

Charlotte Marnier

The twin sister of Mozart, she's this low because she's really barely serving the circus peanuts as far as being clown themed goes, at least in the anime colors, but even if you only take her manga illustration for her hair, her outfit is really extremely plain and a big circular fro is really, really plain, though some small points can be granted for said ‘fro being multi-colored.

Fuckability: Average, she has a nice unique face amongst One Piece women with pretty lips. A good - though not great - choice if you’re shopping amongst the background characters. She also has nice legs if you value legs. But hey, she hasn't abused children or her siblings from what we know so this is a way better girl-liking pick than Giolla. And she's on the older side, being a twin with 37 year old Mozart after all. Spin that into a twin-fantasy if you like.

Now we slip into the area of both ‘barely a clown’ and ‘surprise clownly vibes’.

Franky

Franky has the demeanor and ability to be a clown if he wanted to dress more for the part, if he wasn't dedicated to the mechanic grind. He loves bright colors and patterns but they're more tropical man wear than anything else - though Film Z did see him edge into proper clowncore territory during the sakura viewing party at the beginning. But it's the spirit that super counts here.

Fuckability: This is not a conventional man and thus he isn’t for conventional tastes, but anyone that’s into (literal) washboard abs, speedos, and massive amounts of Florida Man energy definitely knows that Franky is a man for those of taste (even if that taste is for a good ol’ burger, fries, and cola combo meal). Clownfuckers might not naturally fall into that market though.

Catarina Devon

Look. Look I know it's not conventional at all, but every one of her outfits by pattern and especially color – recently especially in the anime and she's extremely clown-y. If she had bright hair and makeup on her face it wouldn't feel like a stretch, would it?

Fuckability: Higher than average. If her harsh facial features do not bother you (and why should they, she's like a sharper Usopp) than she's extremely tall with nice curves. On the other hand, she’s always down to murder anyone she thinks is prettier than herself (and collect their heads) and she was in the ‘only evilest motherfuckers allowed’ level of the highest security prison of the world for a very good reason. Also highly implied canon bisexual. But she hasn't abused children and has a nice voice in Japanese and English so. Judge for yourself.

Caesar Clown

A very literal clown in name only, really, though his taste for patterned jumpsuits gives him a slight - and I mean 'razor thin' - edge in retaining some level of qualification here. Could probably use his powers to do balloon animals, but I wouldn’t trust him not to use poison gas in the process.

Fuckability: if you were down to fuck Orochimaru, you’d probably be down to fuck Caesar Clown, because you’ve already established your ability to love a paste-white man with long black hair, gold eyes, and purple lipstick with a penchant for experimenting on children.

Gecko Moriah

Fuck you that’s not a clown. That’s not even a Juggalo with depression. That's a Tim Burton Halloween creature. He belongs next to the citizens of Halloween Town or in the Beetlejuice afterlife waiting room, not with clowns. He’s naturally that white people, it’s not face paint. Fuckability: there’s a small market, but I understand it even less than some of the other mystifying ones on this list. Maybe it’s a size difference thing or just Tim Burton fans doing their thing, I don't know.

Bonus: Straw Hat Theatre - Circus Time (not here for fuckability reasons but it's just cute)

#one piece #buggy the clown #clowns #clowncore #one piece live action #clown girl #rating all the One Piece clowns we could find was a little hard and we might have missed some others but we're good with what we got okay

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pinchraccoon · 5 months

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Pinch complains about Castlevania art direction

how the fuck did konami go from this excellent Ayami Kojima classic box art

to THIS.

They did my boy so fuckin dirty, Soma and every character from Aria deserved to look better.

"oh, ayami didn't work on the DS games, she was working on the consle ones!" THERE WERE TWO OF THEM!!!!! Granted, yes! Those games *did* require character design work, and took a lot of time, but I feel like at MINIMUM, Dawn could have had A COVER produced by her?

What's worse, is that it's not like they flattened out the entirety of Dawn, in fact that game, whenever you don't see one of those "would be dubbed by 4kids" ass fuckin character sprites, looks GREAT!

Ayami Kojima (and Masaki Hirooka)'s style(s) best represent the sense of adventure and the poetry of the series' larger narrative. The intricate character designs, androgyny, and intense rendering style all served to really capture that feeling of "vampires and tragedy!"

I would even go so far as to argue that some of the traits from the more "Frazetta-esque" early games ARE reflected naturally in the progression from Rondo of Blood forward. A similar type of high contrast, gender celebratory, art that highlights that sense of Adventure.

And, to touch on Rondo of Blood, which is FAMOUSLY known for being far more "anime" in it's aesthetics than ANY other game in the series until four years later in symphony. THIS GAME plays it straight! It has charming, limited cutscenes that use the assets wisely.

It comes off as far more natural due to this game's incredible attention to detail in it's pixel art everywhere else. Because of the fact that this game's aesthetics are *rooted* where they're meant to be, and are trying to honestly convey events in greater detail it manages to be much more favorable in it's anime aesthetic.

Returning to Dawn of Sorrow, the only explanation, and the one that's been admitted to, is marketability. This aesthetic was selected because the Mid-00s saw the rise of a much flatter style of anime that could be more easily replicated, and the aim for quantity of art over quality of that art was clearly placed in high regard. It's anime slop because at the time, anime slop sold well, regardless of how it would age.

anyway, I'm streaming this game tonight

#castlevania #castlevania art #castlevania nocturne #castlevania netflix #pinch raccoon #vtuber

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winxwiki · 9 months

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First of all, I'm going to assume that European merchandise licensors were much more open and less demanding than American licensors. Iginio Straffi's interviews regarding his relationship with the United States... have never been particularly positive... So even when Winx was successful during the 4kids days in anglo countries, they always did their own thing with merch instead of importing from Italy (as it was the case in Europe. There is very little info on merch in Asia and North Africa, nor do I know anything about Latin America). Rainbow also continued its own english dub with cinelume to release in Italian dvds as a second language option, even though most of these DVDs never came out outside Italy (all texts on the cases are in Italian)

Second, of course Winx was much more popular in Europe and its native country! Im sure this is due to different broadcaster laws, allowing for anime to fester on free TV mostly everywhere in Europe. Some countries like Spain had stuff uncensored, while Italy, which never had proper censorship laws, was entirely relying upon the broadcaster's will to censor or not. Laws regarding "cartoons must be educational on free channels" do not exist.

...so, in short, Winx Club did very well in ratings since it aired during the classical "anime" slots, at least in Italy. In fact, Pretty Cure took its place whenever Winx Club had finished airing and another series was needed on Rai 2 back in 2005 and onwards, until Heartcatch (then Saban came and ruined all international deals for Precure).

Third, magical girls dominate Europe. The anime import far outweights american animation import, girly toys sell more, so you have a ton of magical girl anime doing better in Spain, Germany and Italy than anywhere else. 4kids said Doremi and Tokyo Mew Mew were unmarketable? Doremi and TMM toys, dolls, school supplies and magazines were all the rage in Italy. Watching Shoujo and Magical Girls has always been common in Italy, to the point it became a media case on Sailor Moon being too popular with boys (this was before Dragonball was redubbed in Italy, and then took over a new generation). Iginio Straffi confirmed that viewers were half boys and half girls in old interviews and recently said that during tests boys were in love with the Winx girls.

Winx came out at the peak of fighting magical girl popularity and had the "Playing at home" advantage. Marketing with no japanese gigantic licensors in between was so much easier, coming straight from a small Italian company instead.

#text #reply #winx club

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midnightbluerose93 · 4 months

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Question - any favorite duelists (Classic, GX, 5Ds, or just in general)?

Well the obvious one I really like Yugi, Joey (using the english names because I grew up on the 4kids dub), Jaden, Blair, Alexis, Jesse (the reason I wanted to build a Crystal Beast deck), Yusei and Jack.

#jt2zemax #yugioh #yugi mutou #joey wheeler #blair flannigan #yugioh gx #yugioh 5ds #alexis rhodes #jesse anderson #yusei fudo #jack atlas #4kids dub

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annon-guy2 · 10 months

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#SaveCosmo: What can they do if they are spared in an adaptation?

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Galaxina The Seedrian

Cosmo's older sister who was tragically killed by the Metarex. As DeviantArt User Galaxina-the-Magi said, Galaxina has a LOT of potential had she lived. Aside seeing more of her personality, we maybe can also see that compared to Cosmo, Galaxina could not be very trusting of animals like Sonic initially until she's shown and proven that she can. Like Cosmo, she could also survive the final battle against the Metarex and go on to live with her sister and her new friends.

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Earthia The Seedrian

Cosmo and Galaxina's mother. Like Galaxina, Earthia was tragically slain by the Metarex years after losing her home world to war, witnessing her husband turn to evil and transforming into a tree to give birth to Cosmo.

While at the end, she reconciles with her husband in the afterlife and that can still be a thing, maybe sparing her will give Cosmo and Galaxina a chance to be with their mom again. Plus, Earthia can serve as something of a recurring Big Good character. Not to mention to give Vanilla (Cream's mom) a fellow parent to spend time with 😊.

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Molly

A girl from Planet Cascade and Captain of the Resistance. This poor girl had it rough as her planet was destroyed by the Metarex. Interestingly, while Molly died in despair at her friends betraying her and went down fighting in the Japanese Version, the 4Kids English Dub had Molly take Shadow's advice to not give up hope and fled into space to continue fighting. In an Adaptation, SEGA should go with the 4Kids Fate to explore Cascade's history and give Molly a new place to call home with Shadow and the rest of Team Dark.

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Metarex Kingape

A one time villain and one of the main antagonists of "Desperately Searching for Sonic" alongside Eggman. Primarily a comedy villain, he served as a threat to Amy, Cream and Cosmo as they fight and run away from him for the Planet Egg of the Jungle Planet. So, why spare a Metarex? He can serve as a reoccurring comedy villain like Fang The Sniper in the Classic Sonic Games. Even when the Metarex are completely destroyed, Kingape would be the sole surviving Metarex causing mischief for the heroes. To explain how he doesn't die, maybe he's sent flying into space instead of just getting blown up.

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Hope this explains the idea.

#Sonic X #Galaxina The Seedrian #Earthia The Seedrian #Molly #Metarex Kingape #SaveCosmo #SaveGalaxina

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ravenwitch45 · 1 year

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Winx S1 Rambles

Yep, I'm doing this again but with Season one this time cause it has been far too long since I've watched this era of the show plus @yantarnii promised some gold frames which should be fun. Now full disclosure I'm watching the 4kids dub as I've never watched this dub and I wanted to expirience it since some people seem to like it, so if I refer to a line that isn't in the dub your familar with, that's why. I'll only be doing the first episode for now, as a bit of a teaser till I can really get into it and such.

Starting off with a positive of the dub, the intros got a cool song, while the CONSTANT "We are the winx" get's old the sequence referring to each girl is cool "Magical Flowers, Digital Powers, Rhythms and Tunes, The Sun and The Moon, Keep on searching far and wide for the Fire burning deep inside" I like stuff like that, though the lack of Aisha is already making itself known unfortunately. This is gonna be so weird. :(

I know I'm not the only one to note this but Gardenia looks so much more unique in the first three seasons, a ton of warm greens and yellows, make it feel like, well a garden. It's cool.

Okay three things here, Kiko looks completely fine despite being terrified seconds prior, and Bloom brings her suddenly complete apple with her despite biting into it instead of putting it in her now empty bike basket. Good to see inconsistency was pretty common already

Not Stella making her debut by kicking a demon across a clearing, again OG Stella was so cool.

Also is it just me or were the winx more powerful in their base forms then they are after Enchantix, Stella clears half a dozen monsters in one spell and I'd love to see Sirenix do that and such.

Buff Kiko, that is all I will say.

Bloom is both floating and on the ground at the same, it's hard to see with all the light but it's there.

Bloom hitting the imp so hard it literally dissappears is hillarious but honestly this kinda makes me want the Winx to have some more physichal weaponry, it would avoid all the spamming of energy blasts we get in later seasons.

Stella already has her scepter, Maybe a sword for Bloom, classic fairytale and all. Not sure if Flora or Aisha for a whip, both could work. Musa could have like one of those harp bows that she also plays for spells and stuff. No idea for Tecna though, maybe like an arm blade? Idk I'd love to hear any ideas you may have in replies tho.

The lighting of this season is beautiful btw.

Either Blooms hair is absolutely sopping wet or she needs to get a new robe, there are drops going through her hood.

Oh right Mitzy. Who fun fact voices her, Icy, Musa AND Digit in season 2. Girl got range.

Oh and then the Hunter Troll, with a... very uncomfortable looking design. Who approved this, I know he's a monster and all but he's somewhat humanoid so this design still makes me feel weird everytime he's on screen, just give him pants or overalls like Knut has.

Is it gay to call the scantilly clad girl you met in the woods just yesterday amazing? Sorry but how Bloom is with Stella feels like a crush to me XP

*Cue Mario 64 level enter sound* But seriously, Where did these kinda portals go? Like seriously just make sure every winx has a copy and the Omega Dimension incident would have been a slight hiccup rather then us thinking Tecna was full on dead! if you have portals in your universe, just use them smartly, please. Also Bloom isn't even looking at her XP

I forgot how OG red fountaion looked, looks nice, fits in a lot better with the other schools.

Brandon would scream, but he has no mouth, and neither does Sky I think. Also I will be saying there real names throughout this despite the whole ruse they have going on.

Cloud Tower! Still the only school i'd probably attend. it's purple, how can i not love it.

Cannot wait for these queens to be threatening again, also these outfits slay, even if I would never wear them.

I did not appreciate Magic Winx my first go around, but it is gorgeous, still beats Sirenix, fight me.

Again on the "The Winx and Specialists cannot keep track of anything useful" What happened to Riven's... rope? I don't know what to call it but I like it. Would have been handy if he kept it. Also Sky's sheild, maybe you wouldn't have gotten amnesia if you had a good way to block attacks princey.

Not much to say, just thought this was pretty.

And that's it for the moment. I'll get to the rest of season 1 when I feel like it but hope you enjoy this everybody.

#winx rewatch #winx bloom #winx stella #winx club s1 #I'll add more tags later but i'm lazy XP

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sunkern-plus · 7 months

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i was tagged by @shinydudunsparce about like. 10 comfort shows of mine! so i'll list 10 shows (i may have watched illegally maybe or caught on tv once in a while, though i'll probably list 20 to give everyone a better idea of my taste) that i feel give off a comforting vibe...to me <3

1.) quantum leap (yes, the one with scott bakula)

2.) mythic quest (the first episode was GOLD and ashly burch in particular, to me, is a standout)

3.) healer girl (one of the best shows on crunchyroll right now and it's SOOOOOO underrated)

4.) the bernie mac show (a classic staple of my household)

5.) johnny test (not even joking)

6.) nichijou (this show always picks me up when i'm down)

7.) uma musume: pretty derby

8.) any of kouji kumeta's shows (either sayonara zetsubou sensei for a nontraditional comfort series, or for a more traditional comfort series, kakushigoto)

9.) kira kira pretty cure ala mode (i have GOT to finish beyond episode 3)

10.) columbo (i know, stereotypical for a tumblr user)

11.) the librarians

12.) frankie drake mysteries

13.) sailor moon

14.) cardcaptor sakura

15.) revolutionary girl utena (another very nontraditional comfort show but i love it nonetheless)

16.) rockman exe beast, ESPECIALLY the episode where phakchi first appears. i could rewatch JUST that episode all month and i've done that sometimes (because autism)

17.) bananya (my token "turn your brain off" baby anime)

18.) bluey (i'm sorry)

19.) anything muppets related (whether it be sesame street or that one muppets abc sitcoom where fozzie bear gets a microaggression thrown at him)

20.) slayers, ESPECIALLY the dub (as it reminds me of old 4kids era stuff without all the censorship)

i'm tagging @beebeetle @fortunetellerflaps and anyone else who wants to do this!

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butterscotch-brigade · 2 years

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yeah ofc 4kids fucked up bad w a lot of their dubs but if u EVER disrespect their theme songs u can gtfo. every pokemon theme they did? legendary. gotta go fast? classic. one piece pirate rap? silly but still catchy as hell. kirby right back at ya theme? dont u EVER insult this song. i will fucking kill you

#vanilla talks #even their tokyo mew mew theme fucks imo even tho its very different from most of their other stuff #they could NEVER make a bad song!!

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hergan416 · 2 years

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Fucking making Dorian Gray about Yugioh because why the fuck not. It's my blog I do what I want. Welcome to tumblr dot com.

This is long as hell and kind of convoluted. Click read more if you want to hear my rambling thoughts about about queer coding, language, and censorship, within the context of comparing the classic work of late 1800s literature The Picture of Dorian Gray, a work credited with loosening the grip of the pervasive and stifling Victorian morals, written by Oscar Wilde, who was famously tried for gross indecency because he was gay and this was considered a threat to society, and the 4kids dub version of Yugioh, first aired on children's television networks in the early 00s over a century later, and famously censored to make regular facts of life, such as death, more terrifying in order to make the show "suitable for children" and "suitable for network TV."

Ok. So. It's chapter two. Dorian Gray has just objected to being called "boy," to which Lord Henry says something like "you know you want it."

Specifically on p. 104-105

"And I don't allow anyone to call me a silly boy." [...] "And you know you have been a little silly, Mr. Gray, and that you don't really mind being called a boy." "I should have minded very much this morning, Lord Henry." "Ah! this morning! You have lived since then."

The significance of this objection, according to the annotations, is that to call another man a "boy" "was frequently understood as a veiled announcement of homosexual or homosocial desire." (p 105) The annotations provide Lord Alfred Douglas' nickname "Bosie" as evidence. (Lord Alfred Douglas was Oscar Wilde's lover, and his father is the one who's charges eventually put Oscar Wilde in jail.)

Lord Henry is, quite frankly, being quite creepy here. "I don't want this." "Oh but you do." 🤮 [If I had a quarter for every time I had a conversation that went like that...]

Even before the 1891 book version, Lord Henry can't really be seen as a good influence on Dorian Gray. At best he is an amoral influence, as he's said himself, but it's quite clear from his own thoughts that he doesn't really believe that. (Earlier: "Lord Henry watched him[Dorian Gray], with his sad smile. He knew the precise psychological moment when to say nothing." p. 97) He's been screwing with Dorian the whole time. And sure, there is language to assert that the ideas that Lord Henry espouses (which are many, and quite contradictory) merely awaken something already within Dorian Gray, it is still clear that Lord Henry is meaning to be manipulative.

This is further evidenced by annotation number 22 on page 97.

Lord Henry brings a combination of intellectual detachment and pleasure to the task of influencing Dorian that is positively Mephistophelian in its connotations. Later, he will refer to Dorian as his "own creation." Lord Henry knows that there are moral consequences to the advice he gives Dorian, but he finds "an exquisite pleasure in playing on the lad's unconscious egotism." There has been much critical speculation about what motivates the combination of pleasure and detachment -- about whether it is a sublimated expression of erotic desire, whether it has a purely philosophic or pedagogic basis, or whether it is a sign of Lord Henry's own moral corruption.

It is clear, however, from all the context of the annotations and the words on the page themselves, at least, that Lord Henry makes Dorian Gray uncomfortable, and likely made the audience uncomfortable as well.

Especially when the rationality for the discussion above harkens back to the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889, which was still very much in the public consciousness. (Wilde's manuscript was published in Lippencott's magazine in July of 1890.) The link is to wikipedia, because I'm only going to allude to the social impact of the scandal here. Go ahead and read it if you want more information.

Anyway, this brings me to Yugioh, and the (Dub portrayal) of this man:

I'm going to have to take a few steps back because I want to talk about Pegasus as queer coded villain, because I think that flipping from the Cleveland Street Scandal to the character of Maximilian Pegasus is not super obvious.

Disclaimer, this is obviously all opinion. While I'm relying heavily on scholarly annotations regarding Dorian Gray, with Yugioh I can't even claim to have a very informed opinion outside of being in fandom and watching it with my eyes. Also, I lived during its historical context. But, I've never taken a media studies or GWSS class.

That being said... to me, Pegasus' queer coding all comes down to his voice and his vocal tics. Here:

To me, the more obvious way that Pegasus is queer coded is the sing-songy lilt in his voice, which is not dissimilar to the stereotypical valley girl speech that was often assigned to gay men by bullies at my school in popular culture at the time. This could be written off as an English language interpretation of a vocal tic... especially since he has a vocal tic in the original Japanese that would be hard to translate and also sounds sort of similar.

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I do not know enough about Japanese culture to comment on whether this verbal tic from the original anime had any queer connotations whatsoever. I can't even say that the creative choices made by 4kids were a bad way to represent Pegasus' Japanese actor's voice in English, and I certainly can't speak to their intent regarding the perception of Pegasus' character. I can only say what connotations I as a viewer brought with me to this creative choice.

Regardless, Yugioh was being aired in the United States divorced from its original context, and heavily censored. So, if the audience has a connotation about the way Pegasus talks.... the audience has this connotation. The resources to look for why this choice might have been made weren't meant to be available to US viewers in the 00s. I had them right after my viewing because I didn't watch Yugioh until I was an adult, sometime around 2015.

Back to the lilt. Obviously Pegasus isn't meant to be gay in the "falls in love with other guys" sense. The story gives him a female love interest, who dies. This motivates him to get the Millennium Eye and "become evil" because it's a 00s era kid's show and we only get extremely cut and dry morality, so characters are usually either good or evil. (Please ignore Kaiba here, I understand he's allowed to toe the line of being antagonistic without being evil, but most other characters do not get this treatment.)

Instead, Pegasus is meant to come off as creepy towards the teens on the show. He's already doing a LOT of bad shit, like say kidnapping Yugi's Grandpa, kidnapping Mokuba, and holding Kaiba Corp hostage. But this needs to be hammed up even further.

This is where predatory stereotypes come in. Specifically, I want to connect Pegasus' verbal tic of calling Yugi "Yugi-boy" and Kaiba "Kaiba-boy" to the predatory stereotypes that began with the Cleveland Street Scandal.

Ok. See the connotations of the word "boy" in the 1890s above. Sure, it is less recognizable that this language is meant to imply homosexuality today, but Pegasus' words still come off predatory and creepy in a modern sense. Add in the already threatening visuals, and some creepy music, and you know this is a guy you want to stay away from.

When finding clips for the above video, I never heard him use this pattern of speech on Mokuba, an actual boy. He only uses the phrase on the teenagers who are defying his will. This honestly makes the choice in language more threatening to me, because it's not simply something he says of other people. It something he says to specific people at the very least as a way to unnerve them.

Even if the Cleveland Street Scandal wasn't something in the public consciousness a tad over a century later, the same "gay man after teen boys" stereotype still permeated media and culture.

This was an era where tragedies like Brokeback Mountain were considered revolutionary positive portrayals of gay people in media. If your audience was meant to feel sorry for or empathize with gay characters, you were doing good by them, no matter how much the character suffered. Obviously, to be gay was to suffer. That's what made Brokeback a good portrayal.

More commonly, however, queerness was the butt of a joke, and lumped in with jokes about Michael Jackson or Catholic priests and molestation (source, once again: school bullies). These were people you stayed away from. And I feel that 4kids was drawing on this stereotype in their portrayal of Pegasus.

Still with me? Cool.

At this point, I believe I've demonstrated why I see shared character traits between Pegasus and Lord Henry, that these traits are primarily things the audience would view as predatory, and that these traits would be seen as predatory for similar reasons.

Ok. So let's talk about censorship.

If you haven't been following these posts, and you've made it here, holy shit congratulations. Reward yourself. I'm verbose AF.

And, I'll note that I'm reading The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray, which is an annotated and illustrated edition of Oscar Wilde's typescript that he sent to Lippencott's magazine. I've mentioned Lippencott's already, in contrast to the 1981 book. Most people who read The Picture of Dorian Gray, read the 1891 book that Oscar WIlde re-worked after extreme negative backlash to the Lippencott's magazine version, both for its homosexual allusions, but also for the way that Dorian Gray treats women and for his promiscuous heterosexual life. Better modern printings of the novel will include both the Lippencott's version and the book, so that readers can see the differences. But it took until 2011 for Wilde's original typescript to be reprinted, which is what I've checked out from the library and have been reacting to. [Check out the "#liveblogging the uncensored picture of dorian gray" for my other posts.]

Anyway, the reason the typescript is important is because Lippencott's had already censored a fair amount of the manuscript, and Wilde would not have been able to review these changes before the magazine was published. Because of the magazine publishing culture at the time, it would have been highly unusually for a magazine to go back to the original author and get an ok to edit their work. So the typescript is the closest we have to a version of the novel that Wilde would have written and published were there no societal pressure whatsoever. It is, as the title claims, uncensored.

I assume my audience is more familiar with the history of 4kids as a company and its use of censorship to make foreign animation palatable to the post-9/11 US parent in the midst of what essentially amounted to a moral panic.

In spite of both media being censored in order to protect impressionable people (the cause of the uproar over the Lippencott's version, as well as the raison-d'etre for 4kids removing death, alcohol/drugs, foreign foods and foreign names from any anime they touched), both characters retain this malignant queerness in the final versions of their respective media.

The chapter that I'm reading right now only has one textual change listed. It is to make Basil seem less homoerotic, like most of the changes in the first chapter had been. Nothing was done between the parts of the typescript that I quoted and Lippencott's, nor Lippencott's and the 1891 book. From my understanding of the general and textual introductions, the 1891 book overall actually drew on Lord Henry more and is more explicit about his negative influence on Dorian Gray.

4Kids was famous for censorship, but seemingly went out of their way to make Pegasus a queer-coded villain, despite this explicitly not fitting with his redemption arc and backstory. While this could be a consequence of trying to translate a verbal tic, if this interpretation was considered problematic, it would not have made it past their censors. 4Kids historically chose censorship over accuracy with much smaller things.

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While homosexuality was/is considered bad for society and bad for young people, portraying it was never "bad" if it was clear the media was treating the homosexual character as a "bad person." That didn't change for over 100 years.

#liveblogging the uncesnored picture of dorian gray #ygo #pegasus #homophobia #homophobia in media #censorship #4kids censorship #essentially an essay #long post #Youtube

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sword-and-nightingale · 2 years

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hits you with my cardcaptor sakura beam. dont watch the dubs the classic one is 4kids and cut shit out and the new one i think has icky voices

You about to decimate me.

Also noted. I hate 4kids dubs.

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wild-battlebond · 3 years

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i still remember pretty clearly when i was a kid & tried watching yugioh and didn’t like it, but then tried yugioh gx and LOVED it purely because kuriboh was the protagonist’s little talking motivational card friend

#more things change the more they stay the same ect ect #yugioh #fiftytenpost #i also remember it was on the 4kids site b/c back then you could watch like #90% of their shows on there at the time #which is also how i also watched other life-changing classics like the ojamajo doremi dub and dinosaur king

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t4tails · 2 years

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hi! i'm not sure if you've been asked this before but sonic seems very cool and you seem very knowledgeable so i was wondering if you have any advice for getting into sonic? all i know is cool speedy hedgehog with cool friends, rings, colorful emerald things, eggman. thank you if you answer :D

hello yes! id be happy to help!! putting under a cut to not clog ppls dashs ^v^

okay obviously the way most people get into the sonic franchise is through the games, but these also have the biggest hurdle to jump through to consume them (money + proper consoles). here is a list of the mainline sonic games in chronological order (out of universe that is; in universe a few are switched around), and here is a list of EVERY sonic game. try to play any that seem interesting to you! the classic games (1 + CD + 2 + 3&Knuckles) and the adventure games (SA + SA2) are the most essential viewings. the classics are all getting rereleased on switch in june as sonic origins and are otherwise very simple to understand, and the adventures have large cutscene movies you can watch on youtube!

if you like darker and more serious storylines, i say check out sonic 2006, shadow the hedgehog, sonic forces, and to a certain extent sonic and the secret rings, and sonic and the black knight.

if you like more lighthearted cartoony stories, check out sonic heroes, sonic unleashed, sonic colors, sonic generations, sonic lost world, and sonic mania.

note that i make no guarantee of quality because some of these are infamously bad but its okay because liking bad storylines and games is a part of liking this series 💗

okay other than the games theres also animated media you can check out! there were three american animated sonic cartoons in the 90s, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (aosth), Sonic the Hedgehog (satam), and Sonic Underground.

aosth is a super lighthearted cartoon thats just about sonic and tails running around defeating robotniks schemes together. its not much in terms of story or meat, so if you dont like eggman, or sonic and tails, then its probably skippable. my personal favorite episode is Tails New Home. all of its on youtube.

satam is the darker cartoon of the mid 90s. its about an underground revolution against the dictator robotnik by the village knothole outside the city of robotropolis. this would get cancelled after 2 seasons, and would get a comic adaptation which ill talk about in a second. all of its on youtube as well.

sonic underground is a nonsense show lmao. sonic has blood siblings in this one and they fight robotnik using magic amulets that turn into magic instruments. a nostalgic favorite for many fans, and its notable for being the only cartoon tails isnt in because the writers chopped up his personality and split it into other characters. again, its all on youtube!

theres also 2 japanese anime adaptations of the series!

the sonic OVA is a 40 minute movie that was originally a pilot for a series, but it wasnt picked up. i personally adore the animation used in it, its adorable and its length makes it fun to watch on the regular. its normally on youtube but currently down i think, so you can watch it on places like dailymotion and vimeo.

sonic x is the story driven anime adaptation from the mid 2000s! it got dubbed by 4kids in the us, but they censored tons of stuff so everybody tells everybody to watch it subbed. theres three seasons, and while i havent seen this yet ive been assured its actually very well written and a good watch. the dub is on youtube, but since again you want to see it subbed, both versions are on hulu. its also on uh. other sites <3

and we're back in the us for recent stuff!

sonic boom is the most recent sonic cartoon from 2014. a cartoon adaptation of series spinoff game Sonic Boom and the Rise of Lyric, everybodys designs and personalities are slightly off, especially knuckles. its not necessarily in character half the time, but its funny enough nobody cares. its like a sitcom with sonic characters and everybody loves clipping stuff out of context. you can watch it on hulu! and other sites <3

THE MOVIES! everybodys seeing the movies. what are you doing if you arent seeing the movies? pirate the first one off paramount+ and then buy your ticket for the 2nd one right now. theyre genuinely good movies and are super super fun to see with friends!!

okay thats it for cartoons! finally, theres multiple comics you can read about sonic.

Archie Sonic is the first, american made comic series with over 500 issues if you include spin offs. this is the satam continuation. its infamous for its behind the scenes drama with ken penders and its terrible relationship drama in comic. it gets good when ian flynn starts writing though. you can read these on any comic sites online, and heres a reading order, since it gets super complicated to keep up with.

Sonic the Comic is the british version of the series. commonly dubbed fleetway sonic by fans, its lore re sonic and eggman is vastly different to the rest of the series. its much shorter than archie, with less than 200 issues. again, you can read these online, and heres a much less complicated reading order.

finally, theres IDW sonic. started in 2017, its a spiritual continuation of archie in some ways due to the returning writing staff after archie ended in 2014. its also a literal continuation of sonic forces, and you should know what happens in that game before reading these. this is most peoples favorite comic run, due to it being the most consistent in story and art quality. its more recent and still ongoing. you can read it online, and heres a reading order as of the issues released when typing this up. thank you tumblr user thankskenpenders for both this and the archie reading order!

thats.. basically it! theres more that i have not mentioned here, but you can do research into the nooks and crannies yourself after checking out any of these and deciding if you like it! i hope i could help and i hope you end up liking the funny animal guys ^_^

#og post #ask #anon

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one-time-i-dreamt · 3 years

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I was reading a TV Tropes article about an anime from the early 2000s called “GUYS”

The show was about a crew of female space explorers with an ironic acronym G.U.Y.S. as their name. They had an arrogant captain, a mechanic, one crewmate who wore mostly red who was generally quite annoyed at the captain, and a lot of other characters I don’t remember.

When 4Kids got the rights to dub the show, they reanimated everyone in the crew to be boys (for example, the captain was given shorter hair and her yellow crop top and miniskirt was changed to a t-shirt and shorts, although some characters like the crewmate in red were not changed much at all) without changing anything else about the characters’ dialogue besides switching pronouns, which led to the “male” characters commonly talking about stereotypically girly things like playing with dolls as a kid.

As a result, the show became a cult classic among transgender anime fans, headcanoning every character as trans and the opening line from the theme song “Hey don’t you remember when we were all boys” becoming an inside joke.

#dream #dreams #submission

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 3 years

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King I love your sonic movie memes but please, a primer on who they are?

- sincerely, someone whose only exposure to the sonic universe is the Sonic Rush Adventure and the film

Ok so Sonic Prime is an upcoming Sonic show that is going to have Sonic explore multiple dimensions. The company making it owns the rights to the 90s tv shows (SatAM, AoSTH, Underground) so we're all really hoping part of the multiverse is the other Sonic canons, hence all my memes.

So, quick rundown:

Prime!Sonic - Gameverse, from Sonic Adventure onwards; we got confirmation a while ago that the main Sonic in Prime will be gameverse. I also lump IDW!Sonic in with him for now but we'll have to see if those comics go off-game canon at some point.

Classic!Sonic - Gameverse, everything from the original Sonic the Hedgehog to ~Sonic R. He's been featured as a separate character in Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces so we're counting him.

Nicky/Shogakukan!Sonic - from these early manga adaptations from Shogakukan. They're super hard to find and not much is known about them but basically Nicky is an anxiety boy who turns into Sonic when there's trouble.

Fleetway!Sonic/StC!Sonic - from the British comic Sonic the Comic published by Fleetway. He's known for being a lil ruder than Sonic normally is and for his SuperSonic form being fucking evil so that's cool as shit

AoSTH!Sonic - Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, 1993 comedy tv show that's basically a mix of Roadrunner and Garfield and Friends. Sonic in this canon is a dumbass and also more powerful than God.

SatAM!Sonic - Sonic the Hedgehog 1993-1994 tv show, the commercials always put "SatAM" by the title cause it aired on Saturday Mornings so that became shorthand for the show. Post-apocalyptic rebellion show, this Sonic's fighting to free his world and definitely has a lot of trauma. Also note that in this canon he's dating Princess Sally Acorn, my beloved, who's basically the only one in the rebellion with a braincell

Archie!Sonic - Sonic the Hedgehog Archie Comic series. So much shit happens in these comics I can't even get into it here. Basically started out SatAM adaptation and then mixed in gameverse and its own shit and it's wild

Scourge - From the Archie Comics, fucked up and evil Sonic from another dimension. We’re not allowed to use him rn because bitchass motherfucker K*n P*nders has custody.

OVA!Sonic - from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, called the OVA by the fandom cause i think it stands for "Original Video Animation" or smth? An anime pilot film that never got picked up for a series but was pretty and fun. OVA Sonic is a lovable asshole who fistfights Metal Sonic. This is also the canon with Cowboy Hat Knuckles.

Underground!Sonic - from Sonic Underground, it was basically a studio trying to make SatAM more marketable while putting less work into it. I cannot recommend it as a good show but I do recommend it as a really funny show to laugh at. In this canon Sonic is one of three royal triplets (the others being Sonia and Manic, yes those are their real names) and they use magic instruments they summon from amulets to fight Robotnik and find their Mom. Yes that's all canon

X!Sonic - from Sonic X, an anime adaptation from the early 2000s that made its own original story to tie in with gameverse. The Japanese version is the best Sonic adaptation imo, but unfortunately the English was dubbed by 4kids who are notorious for being shit at translating. Anyway X!Sonic is the only Sonic with a braincell and also he can turn into Dark Sonic if you piss him off enough.

Boom!Sonic - from the Sonic Boom tv show/games, he's basically Sonic but with his flaws heightened for comedic value. aka he's a self-centered adrenaline junkie but also he's super tired of everything in life and he basically comes across as a bored college student. So I love him. You can tell him from the other Sonics by the neckerchief.

Filmverse!Sonic - from the Paramount 2020 film adaptation that's clearly spinning off into a universe of his own. aka Sonic Wachowski this is the one with two eyes and fluff, probably chaos emerald magic, and the least experience with Mobius's bullshit as well as the most experience with Earth's bullshit

I’ll get you a chart of which model is which character when I get back from grocery shopping.

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