Back in the early years of Game of Thrones dominating pop culture I made a thread on a Message Board, I think it was VGF, that I can't find anymore, where I equated the various Sigils of the Houses of Westeros with various Pokemon.
I tried to remake it from scratch and I'm pretty sure I've remembered what I chose for everyone but Martell which is kind of the hardest to chose one for anyway, heck maybe I just left them out originally, they probably hadn't appeared properly on the show yet when I made it.
This was made back during the Black and White era, but since I never got into those games I had pretty much limited myself to the first 4 generations. The responses I remember getting most objected to Charizard for Targaryen with people saying it should be Hydreigon. Once I learned about the Blackfyre rebellion I figured Hydreigon would be good for the Blackfyres. But now I would instead chose Mega Charizard X for the Blackfyre Sigil.
The reason I think some preferred Hydreigon for the Targaryens is because it's three headed. But in universe the Dragons associated with the Targaryens are not literally multi-headed creatures, the three heads of the Sigil represent there being three Dragons involved in the founding of the Targaryen Dynasty, one ridden by Aegon The First and the other two by his sisters who Ayra Stark talked about in season 2.
The most important thing about the Targaryen Dragons is that they breath fire (they are the Fire of the Song of Fire and Ice), meaning really no actual Dragon type Pokemon fits the bill. The Dragon type in Pokemon is based on Eastern notions of what a Dragon is, which is why it combines with the Water type more often then fire. But to the Western perception Charizard has always been the only true Dragon in the Pokemon universe. (The Biblical Leviathan I can't find a Pokemon to equate with since it's uniquely both Fire Breathing and a Sea serpent, if a hacker gave Fire type attacks to Gyarados you'd then have how I picture Leviathan).
I gave myself a rule against using Legendaries, which was most limiting for the Greyjoys since their Sigil is literally of the god they worship, The Drowned god, who is often compared to Cthulhu, which based on what I've said about Pokemon before can lead one to equating it with Kyogre. However one thing that people forget is Cthulhu would not be a Water Type, the Water is imprisoning him. But that distinction isn't part of how the Drowned god is described, so yeah the Ironborn are basically the Team Aqua of Westeros. At any rate I decided on Octillery for the Greyjoys.
I had initially chosen Stantler for Baratheon, but have now decided Swashbuck can work equally as well.
Choosing Persian for Lannister was one of the easiest. While today there are more Lion like Pokemon to chose from, Persian is still best because Pay Day is a good allegory for $h!ting gold.
Targaryen = Charizard
Stark = Mightyena
Lannister = Persian
Baratheon = Stantler or Swashbuck
Tyrel = Sunflora
Arryn = Pidgeot
Tully = Magikarp
Martell = Castform (Sunny Form) or Solrock
Greyjoy = Octillery
Blackfyre = Mega Charizard X
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
I want to defend Pokemon localization.
I've read a lot of stuff on the Dogasu's Backpack website. It's a great site if you want to see all the differences between the American and Japanese versions of the early season of the Anime documented. However I can't always agree with their opinions on the matter.
People like Dogasu are often people who were already Otaku before Pokemon came to the West, which they say as much when talking about the Polygon episode. So my perspective is different, I'm a part of a generation who grew up on the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon, for whom Pokemon, Sailor Moon and DBZ were our first exposure to Japanimation. Pokemon was I think the first one I knew wasn't an American Cartoon because I was a Nintendo fan first and so knew all about the N coming from Japan.
For most westerners this month is the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon not back when GO launched, though I personally was a year late, my 20th Anniversary with the franchise will be a year from now. Literally the first episodes of the series I saw the day they first aired on Kids WB were Clarify Tales and Battle for The Badge on September 25th 1999. So I certainly can't relate to already being aware of Pocket Monsters before Sting fought Hollywood Hogan at Starcade.
The first thing I want to point out is Nintendo made the decision to change various names for localization just as they do for all their other franchises. In North America the Anime started a few weeks before the games were released, but I'm certain the Games localization was much longer in the making. So like when people mock the Ninja Gym Leader's name being changed from one Japanese name to a different one, know that Nintendo not 4Kids should be given the Credit/Blame for that. Other Nintendo franchises don't have such a vocal crowd of Japanese purists because they never made such a mark in the Anime community.
Now de Nipponizing a game who's map directly mimics Kanto can seem more inherently wrong then one named after an Italian Plumber, or a Tolkeneisque Fantasy. But lots of creatures in the Mario games had Japanese names originally. And at the end of the day Pokemon Kanto isn't real world Kanto anymore then Westeros is England, Tokyo for example is split into two separate cities one of which is walled off. And the Anime never cared about following the Games map to begin with, having our heroes encounter lots of non Japanese places. So really when Purists talk like the show is literally set in Japan I can't help but roll my eyes. Thing is I'm sometimes unsure how serious Dogasu is being in the outrage they express, a good example is the Hollywood rant when discussing Mewoth's origin story episode, they can't possibly really be that offended by adding the word California?
Also one thing many people overlook is most of the Censorship decisions were made by the network/distributor, Warner Bros, not 4Kids. They decide which episodes to skips because they had to much gun-play or fake boobs.
A lot of Dogasu's complaints are things about Anime dubs in general, that Cartoon Cipher and Explanation Point have been doing YouTube videos on. Mother's Basement also has a video defending 4Kids.
I am also unusual in that I love Pun based Humor, every single Pun associated with the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon I love.
Every time Kami is translated something other then "god" people talk about it like it's more censorship. When it comes to the discussion of "God" in the First Movie I agree. However I also know many actual linguists think it's problematic when Kami is nearly universally translated as "god". Yes the word is used of the Judeo-Christian God as well as Beings analogous to the Olympians. But it's also used of spirits more analogous to the Nymphs. The Pokemon Anime at some points used Kami even of the first Gen's Legendary Birds, but in my opinion no Legendaries are truly godlike, even in the Polytheistic sense, till the third Generation.
Much of the crux of hating on the Pokemon Dub revolves around the first two movies. I don't quite care about Pokemon 2000 enough talk about it. But I have a lot to say about the first movie, since it is the only one I have seen in Japanese.
First of all, Dogasu's page on Mewtwo Strikes back actually confuses me on if they're under the common misconception that the Ambertwo sequence was originally part of the movie in Japan. It's consistency added to the film in Japan for all TV broadcasts and Home Video releases, but as Bulbapedia makes clear it was not in the original theatrical release. And that I'm pretty sure is why it wasn't in the American release, 4Kids clearly wasn't afraid to Dub it since they did for the Mewtwo Returns DVD. But the fact that this sequence would consistently be in any bootleged Fansub has caused people like the late Jewario when he joined Suede and Linkara's review to think it was part of the original release.
A similar issue exists with Hypno's Naptime, the Dogasu page on that is unaware that originally in Japan it flashed back to the Beach Episode, but rebroadcasts changed it, 4Kids was given the original, they didn't change anything.
Dogasu is under the impression that in the Dub Mewtwo remembers Ambertwo. I think this is because of the "was it all just a dream" line. But I always saw that as being Mewtwo having vague memories of the life of the Mew he was cloned from.
Now I agree that the more nuanced dialog script of the original Japanese is better, and I would not oppose a Redub someday following it more closely.
But the thing is, the impression I got of Mewtwo's character when I first watched the film in 1999 was not that different from how people like Dogasu describe Japanese Mewtwo. Yet these massive critics of the 4Kids Dub act like they turned Mewtwo into a mustache twirling Super Villain. Watching a Dub with the intent of over-analyzing every difference kind of hurts the ability to just experience what a Normie sees watching it. And in the rest of the franchise this is by no means the only time Dub haters describe a Dub character as one note simply for not being identical to what they wanted. Marina in Legend of Thunder is described as having "no redeeming qualities" in the Dub which I find odd since she has no qualities I dislike.
Now let's talk about the anti-violence message. I find the notion that there is some inherent hypocrisy here really aggravating, ya know Linkara's "NOT LIKE THIS" meme. The fighting in that scene IS different from normal Pokemon battles, the same way a sanctioned refereed Boxing Match is different form two people trying to kill each other in a back alley. The Japanese was not trying to give that specific moral at this time, but I still do not consider it out of place, it certainly doesn't take away form the all life matters message.
Now Dogasu says this distinction I just discussed is implied in something Nurse Joy says but is then thrown out by some lines Brock and Misty say. No, what Brock and Misty say don't overrule what Joy said, they are meant to be understood in the context of what Joy explained. Honestly at this point it's like how Atheists grasp at straws to say The Bible contradicts itself.
Now I agree the execution of this in the Dub is cheesy and ham handed. But that's kinda how a lot of dialogue in this franchise is in any language.
However my biggest area of disagreement with Dogasu is on the score. When I did watch Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japanese, I found the score rather bland and underwhelming. And I'm not the only person who feels that way, here are some comments from a YouTube upload of The Birth of Mewtwo from the Dub score.
Mewtwo's theme from the Dub Score is to me an iconic Theme on par with Danny Elfman's Batman theme or John Williams Superman theme. In later movies (from the 4th through the B&W era the scores mostly weren't changed for the Dubs) the Music does get better. But Dogasu talks about the Japanese scores of these movies like they're on par with the Music in a Ghibli film or Star Wars, but they really aren't. What I enjoyed most musically in Pokemon Heroes is stuff Yuki Kajiura does better in the Soundtrack for Noir.
Now the Music in the Dub of the First movie can be split into two categories. The praise in those YouTube comments is for the Score. While those who'd laugh at the idea of defending the Dub's music are probably mainly thinking of the Pop Soundtrack. The Pop Soundtrack only intrudes on the film when Brother my Brother plays, mostly they're used in the Pikachu's Vacation short and the end credits.
The Britney Spears song never made it into the film at all. Soda Pop is the only song of her's I've ever listed to that isn't a Music Video, solely because of it's association with Pokemon. It wasn't recorded for the movie like most clearly were since it was on her album released earlier in the year, and doesn't seem to fit at all. But I in my overreaching nerdiness like to point out that in the Games you can buy a Soda Pop from the Vending Machine on the roof of the Celadon Department store, it costs 200 Yen. Basically I do kinda like the song and so feel compelled to justify it's association with Pokemon.
People like Dogasu are often people who were already Otaku before Pokemon came to the West, which they say as much when talking about the Polygon episode. So my perspective is different, I'm a part of a generation who grew up on the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon, for whom Pokemon, Sailor Moon and DBZ were our first exposure to Japanimation. Pokemon was I think the first one I knew wasn't an American Cartoon because I was a Nintendo fan first and so knew all about the N coming from Japan.
For most westerners this month is the 20th Anniversary of Pokemon not back when GO launched, though I personally was a year late, my 20th Anniversary with the franchise will be a year from now. Literally the first episodes of the series I saw the day they first aired on Kids WB were Clarify Tales and Battle for The Badge on September 25th 1999. So I certainly can't relate to already being aware of Pocket Monsters before Sting fought Hollywood Hogan at Starcade.
The first thing I want to point out is Nintendo made the decision to change various names for localization just as they do for all their other franchises. In North America the Anime started a few weeks before the games were released, but I'm certain the Games localization was much longer in the making. So like when people mock the Ninja Gym Leader's name being changed from one Japanese name to a different one, know that Nintendo not 4Kids should be given the Credit/Blame for that. Other Nintendo franchises don't have such a vocal crowd of Japanese purists because they never made such a mark in the Anime community.
Now de Nipponizing a game who's map directly mimics Kanto can seem more inherently wrong then one named after an Italian Plumber, or a Tolkeneisque Fantasy. But lots of creatures in the Mario games had Japanese names originally. And at the end of the day Pokemon Kanto isn't real world Kanto anymore then Westeros is England, Tokyo for example is split into two separate cities one of which is walled off. And the Anime never cared about following the Games map to begin with, having our heroes encounter lots of non Japanese places. So really when Purists talk like the show is literally set in Japan I can't help but roll my eyes. Thing is I'm sometimes unsure how serious Dogasu is being in the outrage they express, a good example is the Hollywood rant when discussing Mewoth's origin story episode, they can't possibly really be that offended by adding the word California?
Also one thing many people overlook is most of the Censorship decisions were made by the network/distributor, Warner Bros, not 4Kids. They decide which episodes to skips because they had to much gun-play or fake boobs.
A lot of Dogasu's complaints are things about Anime dubs in general, that Cartoon Cipher and Explanation Point have been doing YouTube videos on. Mother's Basement also has a video defending 4Kids.
I am also unusual in that I love Pun based Humor, every single Pun associated with the 4Kids Dub of Pokemon I love.
Every time Kami is translated something other then "god" people talk about it like it's more censorship. When it comes to the discussion of "God" in the First Movie I agree. However I also know many actual linguists think it's problematic when Kami is nearly universally translated as "god". Yes the word is used of the Judeo-Christian God as well as Beings analogous to the Olympians. But it's also used of spirits more analogous to the Nymphs. The Pokemon Anime at some points used Kami even of the first Gen's Legendary Birds, but in my opinion no Legendaries are truly godlike, even in the Polytheistic sense, till the third Generation.
Much of the crux of hating on the Pokemon Dub revolves around the first two movies. I don't quite care about Pokemon 2000 enough talk about it. But I have a lot to say about the first movie, since it is the only one I have seen in Japanese.
First of all, Dogasu's page on Mewtwo Strikes back actually confuses me on if they're under the common misconception that the Ambertwo sequence was originally part of the movie in Japan. It's consistency added to the film in Japan for all TV broadcasts and Home Video releases, but as Bulbapedia makes clear it was not in the original theatrical release. And that I'm pretty sure is why it wasn't in the American release, 4Kids clearly wasn't afraid to Dub it since they did for the Mewtwo Returns DVD. But the fact that this sequence would consistently be in any bootleged Fansub has caused people like the late Jewario when he joined Suede and Linkara's review to think it was part of the original release.
A similar issue exists with Hypno's Naptime, the Dogasu page on that is unaware that originally in Japan it flashed back to the Beach Episode, but rebroadcasts changed it, 4Kids was given the original, they didn't change anything.
Dogasu is under the impression that in the Dub Mewtwo remembers Ambertwo. I think this is because of the "was it all just a dream" line. But I always saw that as being Mewtwo having vague memories of the life of the Mew he was cloned from.
Now I agree that the more nuanced dialog script of the original Japanese is better, and I would not oppose a Redub someday following it more closely.
But the thing is, the impression I got of Mewtwo's character when I first watched the film in 1999 was not that different from how people like Dogasu describe Japanese Mewtwo. Yet these massive critics of the 4Kids Dub act like they turned Mewtwo into a mustache twirling Super Villain. Watching a Dub with the intent of over-analyzing every difference kind of hurts the ability to just experience what a Normie sees watching it. And in the rest of the franchise this is by no means the only time Dub haters describe a Dub character as one note simply for not being identical to what they wanted. Marina in Legend of Thunder is described as having "no redeeming qualities" in the Dub which I find odd since she has no qualities I dislike.
Now let's talk about the anti-violence message. I find the notion that there is some inherent hypocrisy here really aggravating, ya know Linkara's "NOT LIKE THIS" meme. The fighting in that scene IS different from normal Pokemon battles, the same way a sanctioned refereed Boxing Match is different form two people trying to kill each other in a back alley. The Japanese was not trying to give that specific moral at this time, but I still do not consider it out of place, it certainly doesn't take away form the all life matters message.
Now Dogasu says this distinction I just discussed is implied in something Nurse Joy says but is then thrown out by some lines Brock and Misty say. No, what Brock and Misty say don't overrule what Joy said, they are meant to be understood in the context of what Joy explained. Honestly at this point it's like how Atheists grasp at straws to say The Bible contradicts itself.
Now I agree the execution of this in the Dub is cheesy and ham handed. But that's kinda how a lot of dialogue in this franchise is in any language.
However my biggest area of disagreement with Dogasu is on the score. When I did watch Mewtwo Strikes Back in Japanese, I found the score rather bland and underwhelming. And I'm not the only person who feels that way, here are some comments from a YouTube upload of The Birth of Mewtwo from the Dub score.
Now the Music in the Dub of the First movie can be split into two categories. The praise in those YouTube comments is for the Score. While those who'd laugh at the idea of defending the Dub's music are probably mainly thinking of the Pop Soundtrack. The Pop Soundtrack only intrudes on the film when Brother my Brother plays, mostly they're used in the Pikachu's Vacation short and the end credits.
The Britney Spears song never made it into the film at all. Soda Pop is the only song of her's I've ever listed to that isn't a Music Video, solely because of it's association with Pokemon. It wasn't recorded for the movie like most clearly were since it was on her album released earlier in the year, and doesn't seem to fit at all. But I in my overreaching nerdiness like to point out that in the Games you can buy a Soda Pop from the Vending Machine on the roof of the Celadon Department store, it costs 200 Yen. Basically I do kinda like the song and so feel compelled to justify it's association with Pokemon.
Monday, September 24, 2018
Autumn approaches, Anime Weekly Update
Overlord III with episode 8 is definitely losing me. This darker direction is not what I need right now.
Happy Sugar Life episode 11 was a good episode.
Revue Starlight episode 11 was rather dull.
Attack on Titan season 3 episode 5 was awesome, it reminded me of Battlestar Galactica, the 2000s version.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 20 was pretty good, I’m hyped for the coming episodes.
I’ve dropped Ragnarok and also decided to put Overlord III on hold for the time being.
Lately the Anime I’ve been watching in my spare time have all been Pokemon stuff. Though I still have no desire to really get into Sun and Moon. At any rate I’ll be watching even more Pokemon in the time to come. I think it’s proven to be pretty good for my mindset. Also some Pokemon related content on YouTube, stuff from Suede and Linkara, some Abridged material, and so on.
I'm not sure to what extent I'll be continuing this Anime Weekly Updates project. Next week the two Subs I've followed for the Summer will end so I'll likely try to give some final thoughts on them.
Happy Sugar Life episode 11 was a good episode.
Revue Starlight episode 11 was rather dull.
Attack on Titan season 3 episode 5 was awesome, it reminded me of Battlestar Galactica, the 2000s version.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 20 was pretty good, I’m hyped for the coming episodes.
I’ve dropped Ragnarok and also decided to put Overlord III on hold for the time being.
Lately the Anime I’ve been watching in my spare time have all been Pokemon stuff. Though I still have no desire to really get into Sun and Moon. At any rate I’ll be watching even more Pokemon in the time to come. I think it’s proven to be pretty good for my mindset. Also some Pokemon related content on YouTube, stuff from Suede and Linkara, some Abridged material, and so on.
I'm not sure to what extent I'll be continuing this Anime Weekly Updates project. Next week the two Subs I've followed for the Summer will end so I'll likely try to give some final thoughts on them.
Friday, September 21, 2018
My Top 5 Favorite Pokemon Movies
After I give this list I'm going to talk a bit more about my thoughts on the Pokémon films in general.
This list is of specifically the theatrically released films (in Japan each annual film was theatrically released). I should mention that there are three that exist now I haven't seen as of writing this. The most recent movie from the Summer of 2018 which isn't available in the West yet. But also the first two Black and White generation films, which are actually often counted as different versions of the same film.
There is only one theatrical Pokémon movie I consider bad, and I sometimes think even that I might be kinder to if I saw it again more recently. So don't think a film failing to make this list is some horrible indictment.
I will avoid spoilers and that's part of why these won't exactly be the most informative mini-reviews.
5. Destiny Deoxys.
This movie I to some extent wouldn't describe much differently then most films that didn't make the list. You can say it makes the list by being a near perfect execution of the standard Pokémon film formula. It has a fun interesting setting, lots of material some critics would call "filler" or "padding" but that I love since it's just having fun with the Pokémon which is the real point of these cartoons to begin with. A story that is solid but by no means ground breaking. And an exciting climax.
4. Pokémon: I Choose You.
I only just recently saw this movie, and I'm as shocked as anyone else to see such a recent film make the list. It broke with the usual pattern of these films, but not at the expense of giving me what I came for. There are some flaws but those mostly just hold it back from breaking the top 2.
It's an alternate continuity of the Anime that re-imagines Ash's early journey. Many people who are nostalgic for the original Indigo League Anime are not gonna like making Ash competent from the start, but after the pilot of Pokémon Origins I like finally seeing an Anime version of Red who doesn't start his adventure seemingly brain dead.
Also I like Verity. I would kind of preferred this role being given to someone with Leaf's character design and a Squirtle, or heck just Dawn if they insisted on a Piplup and Sinnoh references. But as one of the few first generation Pokémon fans who hasn't forgotten that Misty was a horribly unlikable character I love seeing her retconned out.
I see that some people are saying "these new companions are serving the same function as Brock and Misty anyway so what was the point?" I find that stupid, Verity has nothing in common with Misty besides being female and seemingly a preference for water types. But she is not a Tsundere and has a dynamic with Ash that is much more comparable to May and Dawn, however her backstory is distinct from any of them. Sorrel is like Brock in being the more knowledgeable veteran, but that's it.
Apparently the 2018 film is a sequel still in this new continuity. So I'll see when the time comes if it shakes up this list.
3. Pokémon Ranger and The Temple of The Sea.
I love this movie, it gives a spotlight to May who I really like, something Dawn never got in her generation's films.
I like how it's clearly influenced by Pirates of the Caribbean, coming out in Japan the same year as the second POTC film and in America the same year as the third. Jack Walker is basically a more unambiguously heroic version of Jack Sparrow, and the villain is basically Barbossa. And it's premise is like that of a POTC film, which is in turn basically an Indiana Jones premise but on the high seas. But to me it's more re-watchable then an actual POTC film because I like Pokémon more then I do Johnny Depp.
2. Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias.
I have a lot of personal nostalgia for this one, I never got to see it in theaters but I recall renting it frequently from Family Video back in the day.
The Master Quest theme is my second favorite Pokémon theme song topped only by the original. I can't help but wonder how much that's because of it being in this film where it was used wonderfully to a Water Pokémon race through the canals of Poke Venice.
Speaking of which, I love this setting, it's beautifully designed and brilliantly utilized.
I also love Annie and Oakley. Pokémon films I think are generally at their best when they have no villain, or are just fun villains like these (a slightly more competent version of Jesse and James). Pure evil villains don't suit this franchise well, (not the Anime version anyway), and the complex character studies are better done by the show where they can draw it out more, not that the show usually does that well either.
In a way this film as the fifth of them sets the standard formula of most that follow it. But still makes one move that Pokémon movies rarely make.
1. Pokémon The 3rd Movie: Spell of The Unown.
This movie being number one was an easy decision and probably not a surprise to anyone. It's not just great compared to other Pokémon movies, it truly is my second favorite Anime Film period topped only by Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind, and no that's not the only Miyazaki film I've seen. In fact it's better then any Western Animated film I've seen as well. I'm convinced this helped inspire Frozen which I consider my favorite western animated film.
The Pokémon battle during the theme song is the best of them I think, introducing the character of Lisa who in-spite of having such a small role managed to become one of my personal favorite characters in the entire Pokémon franchise.
This is also one of my go to examples for how you can have a great Fantasy/Adventure story with no villain.
I really don't wanna say much more cause I don't wanna spoil it. Maybe I'll write something more in-depth about it in the future. The gist is if you want to show a Pokémon movie to someone who's not already into Pokémon as a concept, choose this one.
On Pokémon Movies in general.
As I said above, most Pokémon movies are good, they satisfy the main thing I look for in them and rarely do anything to piss me off. The only theatrically released one I've ever called bad is Jirachi The Wish Maker, and even that I might have been too hard on, I've still only seen it once.
I qualified "theatrically released" above a few times. There are three Pokémon TV Specials long enough to maybe count as a movie. Legend of Thunder is I feel on par with the average Pokémon film, and if you want to enjoy a Pokémon project with no Ash I'd recommend it. The worst animated Pokémon project I've ever seen is by far Mastermind of The Mirage Pokémon, it was so uninspired and dumb I simply don't know what they were thinking.
However Mewtwo Returns is a personal favorite of mine. Would it break my top 5 if I didn't specify theatrical? Probably not, well it would have before I saw I Choose You. The reviews of it on YouTube are all pretty negative, (there is much more variety in opinions on the theatrical films with even the 3rd having detractors in Digi & May). I don't care about those criticisms however. It delivered what I wanted, Giovanni finally being front and center, and in addition gave me another of my absolute favorite characters in Domino aka The Black Tulip, another perfect example of what Pokémon villains should be like. I also think it used Jessie, James and Mewoth better then any theatrical films (though I do love their Greek Chorus style contributions to the 3rd film). As a stand alone film it's not gonna hold up as well as Mewtwo Strikes Back, but for me personally it's much more fun and re-watchable.
That my preferences tend towards the first two generations shows a bit of a Nostalgia bias. And yet the only movies I actually saw in Theaters were the first two and they didn't make the list. They are both good films, and perhaps by traditional critical standards hold up better then any but the 3rd. But I found the first movie a little underwhelming and felt 2000 was trying too hard to be epic. However they do have major Nostalgia value for me, and Mewtwo Returns shouldn't be watched without the context of the first film.
For the series I kind of have just as much Nostalgia for Diamond and Pearl as I do the Advanced Generation, so how come none of their movies made the list? Well I did thoroughly enjoy the entire Trilogy, while the last one was forgettable but inoffensive. It largely comes down to Dawn, my personal favorite of all the PokeGirls, never getting the spotlight the way May did.
I've looked at the opinions on the films given by people who haven't followed the Anime since before Misty left but gone through all the movies. And they seem to observe that the Advance Generation films demonstrate May's character better, they seem to get her character from them and as one who's seen enough of the series their perception is pretty accurate, while they don't feel like they know Dawn's character at all. And yet at the same time the Diamond and Pearl movies actually treated Ash and Dawn as equals in a way no other generation's films have. And this is a factor is why Dawn has kind of always been the only one I ever really shipped with Ash. Though Verity has maybe changed that a bit. I think most people who call Dawn the most boring of the PokeGirls are judging her off only the movies.
The Kalos generation only got three movies, all of them I saw basically just as recently as I Choose You. I found them all pretty average for Pokémon films. I suspect that Serena fans feel just as shortchanged as Dawn's fans. The most interesting observation I have about them is how in the last of them the 5th Gen Mythical Pokémon added was Megearna which happens to be the most logical choice since her Lore with the blatant Nikola Tesla analogue allowed Clemont's gimmick to fit into a movie's themes for once. (It's kinda funny though that in the Games the Volcano is the one associated with Poke France while the Metropolis homage is the one associated with Poke Hawaii.) I also think that one was among the better ones at utilizing Team Rocket. A number of people seem to hate the Hoopa movie the most, yes it's kind of the most ridiculously overblown of them, but it was Fan Service that I enjoyed.
So in summary, most Pokémon movies are good, but some are better enough to be worth noting.
This list is of specifically the theatrically released films (in Japan each annual film was theatrically released). I should mention that there are three that exist now I haven't seen as of writing this. The most recent movie from the Summer of 2018 which isn't available in the West yet. But also the first two Black and White generation films, which are actually often counted as different versions of the same film.
There is only one theatrical Pokémon movie I consider bad, and I sometimes think even that I might be kinder to if I saw it again more recently. So don't think a film failing to make this list is some horrible indictment.
I will avoid spoilers and that's part of why these won't exactly be the most informative mini-reviews.
5. Destiny Deoxys.
This movie I to some extent wouldn't describe much differently then most films that didn't make the list. You can say it makes the list by being a near perfect execution of the standard Pokémon film formula. It has a fun interesting setting, lots of material some critics would call "filler" or "padding" but that I love since it's just having fun with the Pokémon which is the real point of these cartoons to begin with. A story that is solid but by no means ground breaking. And an exciting climax.
4. Pokémon: I Choose You.
I only just recently saw this movie, and I'm as shocked as anyone else to see such a recent film make the list. It broke with the usual pattern of these films, but not at the expense of giving me what I came for. There are some flaws but those mostly just hold it back from breaking the top 2.
It's an alternate continuity of the Anime that re-imagines Ash's early journey. Many people who are nostalgic for the original Indigo League Anime are not gonna like making Ash competent from the start, but after the pilot of Pokémon Origins I like finally seeing an Anime version of Red who doesn't start his adventure seemingly brain dead.
Also I like Verity. I would kind of preferred this role being given to someone with Leaf's character design and a Squirtle, or heck just Dawn if they insisted on a Piplup and Sinnoh references. But as one of the few first generation Pokémon fans who hasn't forgotten that Misty was a horribly unlikable character I love seeing her retconned out.
I see that some people are saying "these new companions are serving the same function as Brock and Misty anyway so what was the point?" I find that stupid, Verity has nothing in common with Misty besides being female and seemingly a preference for water types. But she is not a Tsundere and has a dynamic with Ash that is much more comparable to May and Dawn, however her backstory is distinct from any of them. Sorrel is like Brock in being the more knowledgeable veteran, but that's it.
Apparently the 2018 film is a sequel still in this new continuity. So I'll see when the time comes if it shakes up this list.
3. Pokémon Ranger and The Temple of The Sea.
I love this movie, it gives a spotlight to May who I really like, something Dawn never got in her generation's films.
I like how it's clearly influenced by Pirates of the Caribbean, coming out in Japan the same year as the second POTC film and in America the same year as the third. Jack Walker is basically a more unambiguously heroic version of Jack Sparrow, and the villain is basically Barbossa. And it's premise is like that of a POTC film, which is in turn basically an Indiana Jones premise but on the high seas. But to me it's more re-watchable then an actual POTC film because I like Pokémon more then I do Johnny Depp.
2. Pokémon Heroes: Latios and Latias.
I have a lot of personal nostalgia for this one, I never got to see it in theaters but I recall renting it frequently from Family Video back in the day.
The Master Quest theme is my second favorite Pokémon theme song topped only by the original. I can't help but wonder how much that's because of it being in this film where it was used wonderfully to a Water Pokémon race through the canals of Poke Venice.
Speaking of which, I love this setting, it's beautifully designed and brilliantly utilized.
I also love Annie and Oakley. Pokémon films I think are generally at their best when they have no villain, or are just fun villains like these (a slightly more competent version of Jesse and James). Pure evil villains don't suit this franchise well, (not the Anime version anyway), and the complex character studies are better done by the show where they can draw it out more, not that the show usually does that well either.
In a way this film as the fifth of them sets the standard formula of most that follow it. But still makes one move that Pokémon movies rarely make.
1. Pokémon The 3rd Movie: Spell of The Unown.
This movie being number one was an easy decision and probably not a surprise to anyone. It's not just great compared to other Pokémon movies, it truly is my second favorite Anime Film period topped only by Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind, and no that's not the only Miyazaki film I've seen. In fact it's better then any Western Animated film I've seen as well. I'm convinced this helped inspire Frozen which I consider my favorite western animated film.
The Pokémon battle during the theme song is the best of them I think, introducing the character of Lisa who in-spite of having such a small role managed to become one of my personal favorite characters in the entire Pokémon franchise.
This is also one of my go to examples for how you can have a great Fantasy/Adventure story with no villain.
I really don't wanna say much more cause I don't wanna spoil it. Maybe I'll write something more in-depth about it in the future. The gist is if you want to show a Pokémon movie to someone who's not already into Pokémon as a concept, choose this one.
On Pokémon Movies in general.
As I said above, most Pokémon movies are good, they satisfy the main thing I look for in them and rarely do anything to piss me off. The only theatrically released one I've ever called bad is Jirachi The Wish Maker, and even that I might have been too hard on, I've still only seen it once.
I qualified "theatrically released" above a few times. There are three Pokémon TV Specials long enough to maybe count as a movie. Legend of Thunder is I feel on par with the average Pokémon film, and if you want to enjoy a Pokémon project with no Ash I'd recommend it. The worst animated Pokémon project I've ever seen is by far Mastermind of The Mirage Pokémon, it was so uninspired and dumb I simply don't know what they were thinking.
However Mewtwo Returns is a personal favorite of mine. Would it break my top 5 if I didn't specify theatrical? Probably not, well it would have before I saw I Choose You. The reviews of it on YouTube are all pretty negative, (there is much more variety in opinions on the theatrical films with even the 3rd having detractors in Digi & May). I don't care about those criticisms however. It delivered what I wanted, Giovanni finally being front and center, and in addition gave me another of my absolute favorite characters in Domino aka The Black Tulip, another perfect example of what Pokémon villains should be like. I also think it used Jessie, James and Mewoth better then any theatrical films (though I do love their Greek Chorus style contributions to the 3rd film). As a stand alone film it's not gonna hold up as well as Mewtwo Strikes Back, but for me personally it's much more fun and re-watchable.
That my preferences tend towards the first two generations shows a bit of a Nostalgia bias. And yet the only movies I actually saw in Theaters were the first two and they didn't make the list. They are both good films, and perhaps by traditional critical standards hold up better then any but the 3rd. But I found the first movie a little underwhelming and felt 2000 was trying too hard to be epic. However they do have major Nostalgia value for me, and Mewtwo Returns shouldn't be watched without the context of the first film.
For the series I kind of have just as much Nostalgia for Diamond and Pearl as I do the Advanced Generation, so how come none of their movies made the list? Well I did thoroughly enjoy the entire Trilogy, while the last one was forgettable but inoffensive. It largely comes down to Dawn, my personal favorite of all the PokeGirls, never getting the spotlight the way May did.
I've looked at the opinions on the films given by people who haven't followed the Anime since before Misty left but gone through all the movies. And they seem to observe that the Advance Generation films demonstrate May's character better, they seem to get her character from them and as one who's seen enough of the series their perception is pretty accurate, while they don't feel like they know Dawn's character at all. And yet at the same time the Diamond and Pearl movies actually treated Ash and Dawn as equals in a way no other generation's films have. And this is a factor is why Dawn has kind of always been the only one I ever really shipped with Ash. Though Verity has maybe changed that a bit. I think most people who call Dawn the most boring of the PokeGirls are judging her off only the movies.
The Kalos generation only got three movies, all of them I saw basically just as recently as I Choose You. I found them all pretty average for Pokémon films. I suspect that Serena fans feel just as shortchanged as Dawn's fans. The most interesting observation I have about them is how in the last of them the 5th Gen Mythical Pokémon added was Megearna which happens to be the most logical choice since her Lore with the blatant Nikola Tesla analogue allowed Clemont's gimmick to fit into a movie's themes for once. (It's kinda funny though that in the Games the Volcano is the one associated with Poke France while the Metropolis homage is the one associated with Poke Hawaii.) I also think that one was among the better ones at utilizing Team Rocket. A number of people seem to hate the Hoopa movie the most, yes it's kind of the most ridiculously overblown of them, but it was Fan Service that I enjoyed.
So in summary, most Pokémon movies are good, but some are better enough to be worth noting.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom is Dope
It's what I've been wanting from a Jurassic Park sequel since The Lost World.
People are gonna hate on it, but I don't care, it's different from prior movies and a lot of fun.
A few things bugged me. Mainly that common sequel trope where the couple who got together at the end of the first film we find out broke up somewhere in between so now the romantic plot is them getting back together rather then the more difficult for writers task of continuing the relationship. Ghostbusters II was the first time I saw it so it still doesn't bother me there, but I started seeing it as a pattern with National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
What I want from Jurassic Park films is like what I want from Pokemon films, they don't need to be perfectly flawless pieces of art like the very first JP film and Spell of The Unnown though it is great when they are. What I want is to have fun with the titular monsters. Now with Jurassic Park what I expect is much grittier while Pokemon is a Cartoon, but still there is a lot of ridiculousness I'm fine with.
Now that said, this movie did have more emotional resonance then I was expecting, even as someone who already loved the first Jurassic World film.
We could have had Colin do Star Wars Episode IX, instead we got Abrams again, someone who's good at starting things but not at finishing them.
If you like the previous film you'll probably like this one even more. If you're a snob about your Dinosaur blockbuster films then you'll probably nitpick this to death but I don't care.
People are gonna hate on it, but I don't care, it's different from prior movies and a lot of fun.
A few things bugged me. Mainly that common sequel trope where the couple who got together at the end of the first film we find out broke up somewhere in between so now the romantic plot is them getting back together rather then the more difficult for writers task of continuing the relationship. Ghostbusters II was the first time I saw it so it still doesn't bother me there, but I started seeing it as a pattern with National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
What I want from Jurassic Park films is like what I want from Pokemon films, they don't need to be perfectly flawless pieces of art like the very first JP film and Spell of The Unnown though it is great when they are. What I want is to have fun with the titular monsters. Now with Jurassic Park what I expect is much grittier while Pokemon is a Cartoon, but still there is a lot of ridiculousness I'm fine with.
Now that said, this movie did have more emotional resonance then I was expecting, even as someone who already loved the first Jurassic World film.
We could have had Colin do Star Wars Episode IX, instead we got Abrams again, someone who's good at starting things but not at finishing them.
If you like the previous film you'll probably like this one even more. If you're a snob about your Dinosaur blockbuster films then you'll probably nitpick this to death but I don't care.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Pokemon Bat
This is an idea for a Pokemon Rom Hack. I’d like it to be a Third Generation Romhack (Mainly LeafGreen) in-spite of the fact that one 4th generation Pokemon gets name dropped. I can't make it myself so I encourage someone else to elaborate on the basic ideas I'm laying out here.
The region is called Gotham
You play as Bruce Wayne, a ten year old. It is the two year anniversary of your Parents being gunned down in front of you by Pokemon thieves. After having a nightmare about it you run into the woods behind your house and fall into a cave where you befriend a Zubat, and decide to go off on a Pokemon journey with the Zubat as your starter. Your Butler Alfred Pennyworth will function as both Bill and Oak, managing all the PC stuff for you. And Jim Gordon will play the role of Looker.
The rival character is Selina Kyle, who’s starter Pokemon is a Meowth.
The evil team in this one is more like Team Rocket, being mainly interested in money as opposed to later Teams that are basically cults. It is called Team Umbrella, and it’s leader is known as The Empoleon of Crime. His real identity is Oswald Cobblepot, a trainer of Bird Pokemon who runs a Pokestop called the Iceberg Lounge, that among other things houses the Ice Type gym. He won’t actually have an Empoleon on him though, this game’s roster should be limited to Pokemon you can use in FireRed/LeafGreen. He is particularly obsessed with the Bird Type Legendary Pokemon, which includes the Kanto Trio and Ho-Oh (and Maybe Lugia). Selina gets caught up in that storyline because of her interest in the Catlike Legendary Beasts whoa re tied to Ho-Oh.
The Gym Leader of the IceBerg Lounge gym is Victor Fries.
The other 7 Gym leaders include, Drury Walker, the Bug Type Gym leader, Lester Buchinsky, the Electric Type Gym leader and Joe Rigger, the Fire Type Gym Leader. I like including the three filler bosses of the Batman 89 NES game in any Batman video game ideas I come up with.
Pamela Isley, the Grass/Poison Type Gym Leader.
Jonathan Crane, the Ghost Type Gym Leader.
Jervis Tetch, the Psychic Type Gym Leader.
Natalia Mitternacht, Dark Type Gym Leader.
The Elite Four will be League of Assassins Members, Bane (Fighting type), Onyx (Rock Type) Bronze Tiger (Steel Type), and Lady Shiva (Dragon Type).
And the Champion will be Ra’s Al Ghul. Who’s Pokemon team will actually be the Legendary Beasts, Lugia, Celebi and Mew who he mentions was his starter centuries ago. I feel like that fits his Eco Terrorist agenda. What I'm doing with Ra's here is the most unprecedented in Canon Pokemon, having any NPC use Legenderies. (Though in Stadium a Rocket Grunt has a Moltress). Ra's Immortality is why I feel it works. It's sometimes implied that Mew is something that wasn't so rare in the distant past. I thought about referencing that immortality gimmick with an all Fossil Pokemon team, but decided that'd be more Vandal Savage, plus Fossils are all part Rock so don't have enough type variety for a Champion. The Johto Legendries have been the most strongly tied to the franchise's environmentalist themes so I see them fitting Ra's the best. Plus in this version of the Universe these characters are not necessarily Evil.
The region is called Gotham
You play as Bruce Wayne, a ten year old. It is the two year anniversary of your Parents being gunned down in front of you by Pokemon thieves. After having a nightmare about it you run into the woods behind your house and fall into a cave where you befriend a Zubat, and decide to go off on a Pokemon journey with the Zubat as your starter. Your Butler Alfred Pennyworth will function as both Bill and Oak, managing all the PC stuff for you. And Jim Gordon will play the role of Looker.
The rival character is Selina Kyle, who’s starter Pokemon is a Meowth.
The evil team in this one is more like Team Rocket, being mainly interested in money as opposed to later Teams that are basically cults. It is called Team Umbrella, and it’s leader is known as The Empoleon of Crime. His real identity is Oswald Cobblepot, a trainer of Bird Pokemon who runs a Pokestop called the Iceberg Lounge, that among other things houses the Ice Type gym. He won’t actually have an Empoleon on him though, this game’s roster should be limited to Pokemon you can use in FireRed/LeafGreen. He is particularly obsessed with the Bird Type Legendary Pokemon, which includes the Kanto Trio and Ho-Oh (and Maybe Lugia). Selina gets caught up in that storyline because of her interest in the Catlike Legendary Beasts whoa re tied to Ho-Oh.
The Gym Leader of the IceBerg Lounge gym is Victor Fries.
The other 7 Gym leaders include, Drury Walker, the Bug Type Gym leader, Lester Buchinsky, the Electric Type Gym leader and Joe Rigger, the Fire Type Gym Leader. I like including the three filler bosses of the Batman 89 NES game in any Batman video game ideas I come up with.
Pamela Isley, the Grass/Poison Type Gym Leader.
Jonathan Crane, the Ghost Type Gym Leader.
Jervis Tetch, the Psychic Type Gym Leader.
Natalia Mitternacht, Dark Type Gym Leader.
The Elite Four will be League of Assassins Members, Bane (Fighting type), Onyx (Rock Type) Bronze Tiger (Steel Type), and Lady Shiva (Dragon Type).
And the Champion will be Ra’s Al Ghul. Who’s Pokemon team will actually be the Legendary Beasts, Lugia, Celebi and Mew who he mentions was his starter centuries ago. I feel like that fits his Eco Terrorist agenda. What I'm doing with Ra's here is the most unprecedented in Canon Pokemon, having any NPC use Legenderies. (Though in Stadium a Rocket Grunt has a Moltress). Ra's Immortality is why I feel it works. It's sometimes implied that Mew is something that wasn't so rare in the distant past. I thought about referencing that immortality gimmick with an all Fossil Pokemon team, but decided that'd be more Vandal Savage, plus Fossils are all part Rock so don't have enough type variety for a Champion. The Johto Legendries have been the most strongly tied to the franchise's environmentalist themes so I see them fitting Ra's the best. Plus in this version of the Universe these characters are not necessarily Evil.
[Update 2024: I've changed my mind and decided Ra's team should be the fully evolved Johto Starters, Tyranatar and the Johto Eveelutions.]
There will be an Unnown cave in the game where they are being researched by an Edward Nygma who trains them exclusively, you can battle him but it’s not required.
It’s companion Game is Pokemon Cat, where everything is basically the same except you play as Selina and Bruce is the Rival. And a different Origin story, someone else will have to write that. And Holly Robinson (your friend with benefits) will replace Alfred.
I made a conscience decision not to shoehorn in every Batman villain, Black Mask, Two-Face, Deadshot, are all ones that wouldn’t work in this premise.
And that goes double for The Joker. There are many great Batman stories with no Joker in them. So given the Joker overload of the Arkham Games I figured a video game Batman universe that opts out of forcing in The Joker would be nice.
Those left out can also be viewed as being saved for a possible Sequel. I was limiting this to the Pokemon available in the Advanced Generation games which are what I’m most Nostalgic for.
It would be easier to come up with a Two-Face story-line in the Black and White Generation where the core Legendary Pokemon are Yin-Yang themed which makes them a fitting target for Two-Face. Other Pokemon that tend to come in duality themed pairs include Plusle and Minun (the first Pika clones), and Espeon and Umbreon the second Gen Eveelutions who are thematically day and night, (that factors into why they’re used in Pokemon Colosseum). He could also be someone who only fights in double battles.
Hell, thematically the Sun and Moon generation fits my Bat & Cat contrast better with the Mascot Legendaries being a Solar Lion and a Lunar Bat.
A Joker based Pokemon trainer would likely have a pair of Poochyena/Mightyena as homages to The Joker’s Hyenas, and maybe he'd have a Mr.Mime or Mime Jr.
There will be an Unnown cave in the game where they are being researched by an Edward Nygma who trains them exclusively, you can battle him but it’s not required.
It’s companion Game is Pokemon Cat, where everything is basically the same except you play as Selina and Bruce is the Rival. And a different Origin story, someone else will have to write that. And Holly Robinson (your friend with benefits) will replace Alfred.
I made a conscience decision not to shoehorn in every Batman villain, Black Mask, Two-Face, Deadshot, are all ones that wouldn’t work in this premise.
And that goes double for The Joker. There are many great Batman stories with no Joker in them. So given the Joker overload of the Arkham Games I figured a video game Batman universe that opts out of forcing in The Joker would be nice.
Those left out can also be viewed as being saved for a possible Sequel. I was limiting this to the Pokemon available in the Advanced Generation games which are what I’m most Nostalgic for.
It would be easier to come up with a Two-Face story-line in the Black and White Generation where the core Legendary Pokemon are Yin-Yang themed which makes them a fitting target for Two-Face. Other Pokemon that tend to come in duality themed pairs include Plusle and Minun (the first Pika clones), and Espeon and Umbreon the second Gen Eveelutions who are thematically day and night, (that factors into why they’re used in Pokemon Colosseum). He could also be someone who only fights in double battles.
Hell, thematically the Sun and Moon generation fits my Bat & Cat contrast better with the Mascot Legendaries being a Solar Lion and a Lunar Bat.
A Joker based Pokemon trainer would likely have a pair of Poochyena/Mightyena as homages to The Joker’s Hyenas, and maybe he'd have a Mr.Mime or Mime Jr.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
September Anime Update Week 2
Episode 31 of Hugtto!PreCure was an upgrade episode, but I still don’t have much to say about it.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 19 was very good, I think this quasi sequel may indeed prove to be worth it.
With episode 7 of Overlord III it looks like they’re finally trying to make up for lost time in actually making our villain protagonists look villainous. Not exactly what I was in the mood for right now.
Episode 10 of Happy Sugar Life was a pretty revealing episode.
The 4th episode of Attack on Titan season 3 was interesting.
Revue Starlight had a good start, but it’s been slowly losing me. It’s visual Aesthetic shows that this is being made by a protege of Ikuhara, but they don’t have Ikuhara’s true talent. I was watching episode 10 on my Laptop with earphones in while my brother was watching a friggin lifetime movie on TV, and the lifetime movie was managing to distract me from my trippy Yuri Anime.
After watching episode 8 of Ragnarok, I’d have to say my enthusiasm for that show is waning a bit as well.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m getting bored of Hugtto!PreCure. For the first the half of 2018 it was phenomenal, looking to be a 10 out of 10 show. But the last few weeks have like it’s entered stall mode, and now episode 32 felt like a chore to finish.
Basically the Summer season is looking pretty weak now, with the only one keeping me particularly engaged is the carry over form last season, and even that is inferior to the show it’s a spin off of.
It may be over a week before I post the next update.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 19 was very good, I think this quasi sequel may indeed prove to be worth it.
With episode 7 of Overlord III it looks like they’re finally trying to make up for lost time in actually making our villain protagonists look villainous. Not exactly what I was in the mood for right now.
Episode 10 of Happy Sugar Life was a pretty revealing episode.
The 4th episode of Attack on Titan season 3 was interesting.
Revue Starlight had a good start, but it’s been slowly losing me. It’s visual Aesthetic shows that this is being made by a protege of Ikuhara, but they don’t have Ikuhara’s true talent. I was watching episode 10 on my Laptop with earphones in while my brother was watching a friggin lifetime movie on TV, and the lifetime movie was managing to distract me from my trippy Yuri Anime.
After watching episode 8 of Ragnarok, I’d have to say my enthusiasm for that show is waning a bit as well.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I’m getting bored of Hugtto!PreCure. For the first the half of 2018 it was phenomenal, looking to be a 10 out of 10 show. But the last few weeks have like it’s entered stall mode, and now episode 32 felt like a chore to finish.
Basically the Summer season is looking pretty weak now, with the only one keeping me particularly engaged is the carry over form last season, and even that is inferior to the show it’s a spin off of.
It may be over a week before I post the next update.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
My Life as a Shipper
I’m not sure I can accurately name this post since it’s not an attempt to comprehensively go over every ship I’ve ever shipped. I just wanna share some things. And this won’t exactly be chronological either. Some of this reminiscing is about Fan Fiction I did read, but plenty is also more about stuff I imagined, that I would have written myself if I wasn’t so lazy.
It may surprise my followers (if any exist) to learn that my earliest ships were all Het, I’ve been a Yuri shipper for a long time now, but not quite from the start. And to a certain extent I’ve never abandoned my Het shipping, I am still ultimately a Cis-Het Male after all.
Early on I did a lot of imagining myself into shows having storylines with the female characters I was attracted to.
My first real ship was shipping Dawn and Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It’s weird looking back on that now since it’s not the kind of thing I’m likely to ship today at all. But I have fond memories of exploring now long dead Dawn themed fan fiction sites, where I mostly got into stories about this ship but did read others. And for context you should know I’m exactly the same age as Michelle Trachtenberg, so I wasn’t seeing Dawn as the little girl of the show, she was rather the only character I could come close to seeing myself in. But I shipped her with Spike not because I had any attraction to James Marsters but because she canonically had a crush on Spike and so I wanted her to get what she wanted, and they did have chemistry.
The early Het Ships I shipped that I still care about are the Zelda ones interestingly enough. I was a big Link and Malon shipper, which included Link/Marin and Link/Romani and also Link/Cremia. I read an old Zelda Universe article called The Girl with the Red Hair: Malon + Link, which I really liked, and it still exists.
https://zeldauniverse.net/2010/11/28/the-girl-with-the-red-hair/
I think that’s a reposting however, because it’s dated to 2010 and I’m confident I’d read this before Twilight Princess came out. Because as we were learning more about it I felt like it was confirming the theory of that article, TP Link must descend from the Hero of Time and Malon. YouTube videos about Malon theorizing seem to be when on her as a love interest mostly just indirectly repeating that article but then adding the TP element.
The Fan Fiction I was into back then, on both the Dawn subject and the Zelda subject, included a lot of angst. I was into scenarios about triangles and jealousy and unrequited love. Some of them even got pretty Dark. I think I would have become a Non-Monogamous shipper sooner if I’d simply learned of that being an option sooner. But make no mistake, my current desire for everyone being happy in the end stories doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal of angsty triangle melodrama. A number of Dawn fics were between seasons 5 and 6 or between episodes of season 6. I was also interested in the idea of stories about a post Majora’s Mask Link having his dark side drawn out by the Fierce Deity Mask.
It’s hard to say where my Femslash interest truly began. When I was into Dawn fics I read some Femslash ones about her, some with Buffy, some with Faith, possibly one with Tara. But they weren’t what I actively shipped.
Noir was my introduction to Yuri. I first stumbled upon that show by surfing my family's On Demand service and seeing it on Anime Network On Demand, where episode 9, the second part of a two parter, was the earliest episode currently up. Watching that episode was the first time I ever saw 2D Girls Kiss. And as I continued the show I got really into Chloe and her unrequited feelings for Kirika. However it took awhile strangely for me to realize Kirika and Mireille were also canon, I still had some heteronormativity to get over. I remember that the first time I saw the word Yuri was on Noir’s IMDB forum, someone had posted a thread called “Noir Yuri Pics” or something and I originally assumed it must mean something more specific then just lesbian.
Around then was also when I started actually reading DC Comics, and Stephanie Brown became my favorite Comic Book character, and it didn’t take long for me to start shipping her with Cassandra Cain. But another niche Het Ship I supported was Tim Drake and Darla Aquista. I also like Linkara supported the controversial Donna Troy and Terry Long relationship. There was an old fansite I really liked that is now gone called Donna Troy Woman and Hero.
I’ve also engaged in some Pokemon shipping over the years. More so game characters though, filling in the blank slate that is Leaf. Anime wise that I like May and Dawn way more than Misty makes me pretty controversial. My imagination always treated Lass as a single character rather than a class, a Fille Fatale who flirts with both Red and Leaf. Basically there were little if any existing fanfics I found to serve my tastes there. I did enjoy a series on FanFiction.Net about Leaf and Dawn.
I was also someone who’s interest in the Twilight ignited Vampire craze lead me to research the Pre-Dracula stuff, which lead to me reading and really liking Carmilla. Because of Paul Feval that Vampire interest lead into and overlapped with my French Pulp Fiction interest which allowed me to learn about Eugenie Danglars and Louise d’Armilly.
The Vampire craze also lead me to The Vampire Diaries, where I found another of my top Het Ships, Jeremy and Anna, played by Stephen R McQueen and Malese Jow. That ship was prominent in my early Tumblr activity.
Then came the era of Pretty Little Liars being my favorite TV show, I became a strong Sparia shipper and looked into other ships as well.
Back to Zelda. Prior to Skyward Sword I quite liked how Nintendo was mostly avoiding making Link and Zelda a couple. But then Hyrule Warriors comes along implying they’re always destined to fall in love and I was quite annoyed. So I’ve always had hostility towards Link/Zelda shipping. However the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga included in the Hyrule Historia (which I saw glimpses of before I properly got to read it) kinda won me over on it. Though that’s technically Link and Hylia.
Zelda is one franchise where my Het Shipping is still strong. But I have became a supporter of Zelda Femslash. For both Skyward Sword and Hyrule Warriors I like to ship Zelda with Impa, and for Twilight Princess I like Zelda/Midna, and I see Ashe as a Lesbian on principle. I also now support the theory that Cremia actually had feelings for Anju in Majora’s Mask.
I developed an interest in various Tolkien and Silmarillion related Femslash ships. Like Nienor Niniel and Nellas, as well as viewing Nessa, Haleth and Tar-Telperien as Lesbians.
I started a Final Fantasy Femslash tumblr that I’ve mostly let die since my interests there are limited. I ultimately view Terra Branford as Asexual and yet I still crave material about her and Celes. I also strongly support Agrias and Ovelia from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Since getting much more actively into Anime starting in 2014 there are a lot of ships I’ve become supporters of, from Magical Girls to Cute Girls Doing Cute Things to the better Harems, and the occasional specifically Yuri show/OVA. But I’ve supported some Het stuff too and even learned to appreciate Yaoi and Otokonoko. But strangely nothing I’ve found in the last year and a half has really compelled me the way my old ships did. Though perhaps they just need time, again I haven’t been rewatching stuff as much as I used to.
However recently learning about SaGa Frontier thanks to Yahweasel has made me a supporter of the Femslash potential it provides.
It may surprise my followers (if any exist) to learn that my earliest ships were all Het, I’ve been a Yuri shipper for a long time now, but not quite from the start. And to a certain extent I’ve never abandoned my Het shipping, I am still ultimately a Cis-Het Male after all.
Early on I did a lot of imagining myself into shows having storylines with the female characters I was attracted to.
My first real ship was shipping Dawn and Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It’s weird looking back on that now since it’s not the kind of thing I’m likely to ship today at all. But I have fond memories of exploring now long dead Dawn themed fan fiction sites, where I mostly got into stories about this ship but did read others. And for context you should know I’m exactly the same age as Michelle Trachtenberg, so I wasn’t seeing Dawn as the little girl of the show, she was rather the only character I could come close to seeing myself in. But I shipped her with Spike not because I had any attraction to James Marsters but because she canonically had a crush on Spike and so I wanted her to get what she wanted, and they did have chemistry.
The early Het Ships I shipped that I still care about are the Zelda ones interestingly enough. I was a big Link and Malon shipper, which included Link/Marin and Link/Romani and also Link/Cremia. I read an old Zelda Universe article called The Girl with the Red Hair: Malon + Link, which I really liked, and it still exists.
https://zeldauniverse.net/2010/11/28/the-girl-with-the-red-hair/
I think that’s a reposting however, because it’s dated to 2010 and I’m confident I’d read this before Twilight Princess came out. Because as we were learning more about it I felt like it was confirming the theory of that article, TP Link must descend from the Hero of Time and Malon. YouTube videos about Malon theorizing seem to be when on her as a love interest mostly just indirectly repeating that article but then adding the TP element.
The Fan Fiction I was into back then, on both the Dawn subject and the Zelda subject, included a lot of angst. I was into scenarios about triangles and jealousy and unrequited love. Some of them even got pretty Dark. I think I would have become a Non-Monogamous shipper sooner if I’d simply learned of that being an option sooner. But make no mistake, my current desire for everyone being happy in the end stories doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal of angsty triangle melodrama. A number of Dawn fics were between seasons 5 and 6 or between episodes of season 6. I was also interested in the idea of stories about a post Majora’s Mask Link having his dark side drawn out by the Fierce Deity Mask.
It’s hard to say where my Femslash interest truly began. When I was into Dawn fics I read some Femslash ones about her, some with Buffy, some with Faith, possibly one with Tara. But they weren’t what I actively shipped.
Noir was my introduction to Yuri. I first stumbled upon that show by surfing my family's On Demand service and seeing it on Anime Network On Demand, where episode 9, the second part of a two parter, was the earliest episode currently up. Watching that episode was the first time I ever saw 2D Girls Kiss. And as I continued the show I got really into Chloe and her unrequited feelings for Kirika. However it took awhile strangely for me to realize Kirika and Mireille were also canon, I still had some heteronormativity to get over. I remember that the first time I saw the word Yuri was on Noir’s IMDB forum, someone had posted a thread called “Noir Yuri Pics” or something and I originally assumed it must mean something more specific then just lesbian.
Around then was also when I started actually reading DC Comics, and Stephanie Brown became my favorite Comic Book character, and it didn’t take long for me to start shipping her with Cassandra Cain. But another niche Het Ship I supported was Tim Drake and Darla Aquista. I also like Linkara supported the controversial Donna Troy and Terry Long relationship. There was an old fansite I really liked that is now gone called Donna Troy Woman and Hero.
I’ve also engaged in some Pokemon shipping over the years. More so game characters though, filling in the blank slate that is Leaf. Anime wise that I like May and Dawn way more than Misty makes me pretty controversial. My imagination always treated Lass as a single character rather than a class, a Fille Fatale who flirts with both Red and Leaf. Basically there were little if any existing fanfics I found to serve my tastes there. I did enjoy a series on FanFiction.Net about Leaf and Dawn.
I was also someone who’s interest in the Twilight ignited Vampire craze lead me to research the Pre-Dracula stuff, which lead to me reading and really liking Carmilla. Because of Paul Feval that Vampire interest lead into and overlapped with my French Pulp Fiction interest which allowed me to learn about Eugenie Danglars and Louise d’Armilly.
The Vampire craze also lead me to The Vampire Diaries, where I found another of my top Het Ships, Jeremy and Anna, played by Stephen R McQueen and Malese Jow. That ship was prominent in my early Tumblr activity.
Then came the era of Pretty Little Liars being my favorite TV show, I became a strong Sparia shipper and looked into other ships as well.
Back to Zelda. Prior to Skyward Sword I quite liked how Nintendo was mostly avoiding making Link and Zelda a couple. But then Hyrule Warriors comes along implying they’re always destined to fall in love and I was quite annoyed. So I’ve always had hostility towards Link/Zelda shipping. However the Skyward Sword Prequel Manga included in the Hyrule Historia (which I saw glimpses of before I properly got to read it) kinda won me over on it. Though that’s technically Link and Hylia.
Zelda is one franchise where my Het Shipping is still strong. But I have became a supporter of Zelda Femslash. For both Skyward Sword and Hyrule Warriors I like to ship Zelda with Impa, and for Twilight Princess I like Zelda/Midna, and I see Ashe as a Lesbian on principle. I also now support the theory that Cremia actually had feelings for Anju in Majora’s Mask.
I developed an interest in various Tolkien and Silmarillion related Femslash ships. Like Nienor Niniel and Nellas, as well as viewing Nessa, Haleth and Tar-Telperien as Lesbians.
I started a Final Fantasy Femslash tumblr that I’ve mostly let die since my interests there are limited. I ultimately view Terra Branford as Asexual and yet I still crave material about her and Celes. I also strongly support Agrias and Ovelia from Final Fantasy Tactics.
Since getting much more actively into Anime starting in 2014 there are a lot of ships I’ve become supporters of, from Magical Girls to Cute Girls Doing Cute Things to the better Harems, and the occasional specifically Yuri show/OVA. But I’ve supported some Het stuff too and even learned to appreciate Yaoi and Otokonoko. But strangely nothing I’ve found in the last year and a half has really compelled me the way my old ships did. Though perhaps they just need time, again I haven’t been rewatching stuff as much as I used to.
However recently learning about SaGa Frontier thanks to Yahweasel has made me a supporter of the Femslash potential it provides.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
I just watched Pokemon Generations
I was someone who was a little disappointed by Pokemon Origins, so I didn't even take much notice of this project originally. But I happened to be interested in revisiting Pokemon the last couple days and saw this could be view legally for free on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWzKIaERirwv9M89dxN3bNLY0PyuChOU
And I really enjoyed it, it was surprisingly good, in fact I'll even call it great. And it looks much better then Sun and Moon. I hope they do something similar again.
The premise is a series of Anime shorts in a Universe separate from the Main Anime and more similar to the Games. And they focus on other characters rather then being from the player characters' POVs, though some of them do cameo.
My only complaint is all of the Cameos from player characters were male. With Origins I accepted it'd focus on Red the original protagonist but was still annoyed that Leaf couldn't even cameo, here the focus was supposed to be on different characters. It's even implied Red's two episodes are in separate continuities due to the Starter Pokemon featured, so there is no reason one of them couldn't be Leaf instead. For the generations where the female Player character got to be an Ash companion in the main Anime I would concede it's fair to give the Male ones their time in the sun here. But Gold and Crystal had analogues in the main Anime via the Legend of Thunder special, so the fair option should have been using Lyra here.
Unlike Origins this project wasn't afraid to make some decisions that homaged the Main Anime. Origins made a point to downplay Pikachu which the first episode of Generations sought to rectify. The second episode implies Kanto region police use Growlith/Arcanine. Rayquaza and Deoxys have a battle with each other like the 7th movie. Then there was the spotlight put on Iris in scene that belonged to the Player character in the Games.
I have never seen much of the Best Wishes era of the Anime, so I can't say much to compare that and this Iris characterization wise. But Generations is arguably being made for an older Age demographic which shows in how this Iris does look sexier.
When X and Y first dropped I remember there being a fan theory that their Evil Team were like Nazis or Neo-Nazis, partly because of how Kalos was based on France. So today watching this Anime made in late 2016 and early 2017 I couldn't help thinking "are they Trumping up Lysander?" But then the DC Nerd in me realized this Lysander both looks a lot like Alexander Luthor Jr, and is kind of doing the same stuff. Which reminds me how back in 2006 when I had a chip on my shoulder towards a certain film I kept pointing to Giovanni as a model for how to do a CEO Luthor right, now for a second Time Nintendo has done Luthor better then the WB can. And that reminds me how the CEO Luthor was kind of based on 80s Trump and how he became President in 2000. It's a weird world we live in.
Anyway I hope Nintendo decided to make more projects like this. I have no interest in the main Anime for Sun and Moon, but I'd be intrigued to see a Generations style glimpse at the world of the newest games.
And maybe they could even consider making similar things for other Nintendo properties. I mean how the player characters are handled here shows you could make Zelda shorts that keep Link silent and avoid mentioning him by name.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWzKIaERirwv9M89dxN3bNLY0PyuChOU
And I really enjoyed it, it was surprisingly good, in fact I'll even call it great. And it looks much better then Sun and Moon. I hope they do something similar again.
The premise is a series of Anime shorts in a Universe separate from the Main Anime and more similar to the Games. And they focus on other characters rather then being from the player characters' POVs, though some of them do cameo.
My only complaint is all of the Cameos from player characters were male. With Origins I accepted it'd focus on Red the original protagonist but was still annoyed that Leaf couldn't even cameo, here the focus was supposed to be on different characters. It's even implied Red's two episodes are in separate continuities due to the Starter Pokemon featured, so there is no reason one of them couldn't be Leaf instead. For the generations where the female Player character got to be an Ash companion in the main Anime I would concede it's fair to give the Male ones their time in the sun here. But Gold and Crystal had analogues in the main Anime via the Legend of Thunder special, so the fair option should have been using Lyra here.
Unlike Origins this project wasn't afraid to make some decisions that homaged the Main Anime. Origins made a point to downplay Pikachu which the first episode of Generations sought to rectify. The second episode implies Kanto region police use Growlith/Arcanine. Rayquaza and Deoxys have a battle with each other like the 7th movie. Then there was the spotlight put on Iris in scene that belonged to the Player character in the Games.
I have never seen much of the Best Wishes era of the Anime, so I can't say much to compare that and this Iris characterization wise. But Generations is arguably being made for an older Age demographic which shows in how this Iris does look sexier.
When X and Y first dropped I remember there being a fan theory that their Evil Team were like Nazis or Neo-Nazis, partly because of how Kalos was based on France. So today watching this Anime made in late 2016 and early 2017 I couldn't help thinking "are they Trumping up Lysander?" But then the DC Nerd in me realized this Lysander both looks a lot like Alexander Luthor Jr, and is kind of doing the same stuff. Which reminds me how back in 2006 when I had a chip on my shoulder towards a certain film I kept pointing to Giovanni as a model for how to do a CEO Luthor right, now for a second Time Nintendo has done Luthor better then the WB can. And that reminds me how the CEO Luthor was kind of based on 80s Trump and how he became President in 2000. It's a weird world we live in.
Anyway I hope Nintendo decided to make more projects like this. I have no interest in the main Anime for Sun and Moon, but I'd be intrigued to see a Generations style glimpse at the world of the newest games.
And maybe they could even consider making similar things for other Nintendo properties. I mean how the player characters are handled here shows you could make Zelda shorts that keep Link silent and avoid mentioning him by name.
Saturday, September 8, 2018
The First Week of September Anime Update
Steins;Gate 0 episode 18 was a very intense episode, I’m unsure exactly what happened at the end.
Episode 6 of Overlord III was okay.
I couldn’t get far into episode 7 of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, so I’ve decided to drop it for now. Mother’s Basement decided call this a good show and Ragnarock bad, in some ways yes narrativly speaking Ragnarock does more of what annoys me. But it’s this show that has the over exaggerated Ecchi I simply hate.
Shera I would enjoy a lot more if her character design was like Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War. Deedlit’s character design is the main reason I keep trying to give that old fantasy Anime a shot, but it’s story keeps failing to engage me. Yet I got idiots telling me how annoyed I am by these ridiculous mounds of gelatin must mean I don’t like breasts, but I am a Makoto Kino fan, and back when I was more a Western Comic Book Nerd I fapped to Power Girl plenty. Yes, you read that right, in Ecchi Anime there are breasts so ridiculous I’m now thinking of Power Girl's as plausible and realistic in comparison.
With Rem I feel like it doesn’t match her character how much skin she’s showing, she gives off a much more modest vibe, so how she’s dressing just feels inconsistent.
Happy Sugar Life episode 9 was gut wrenching.
Revue Starlight episode 9 was good. It’s weird how they introduced the time loop twist as this big thing in episode 7 but them seem to have pretty quickly resolved that aspect of the plot.
Episode 9 of Ragnarok had me thinking of The Ten Commandments. This show continues to amaze me.
With Episode 3 of Season 3 of Attack On Titan the story is finally getting interesting.
Episode 6 of Overlord III was okay.
I couldn’t get far into episode 7 of How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, so I’ve decided to drop it for now. Mother’s Basement decided call this a good show and Ragnarock bad, in some ways yes narrativly speaking Ragnarock does more of what annoys me. But it’s this show that has the over exaggerated Ecchi I simply hate.
Shera I would enjoy a lot more if her character design was like Deedlit from Record of Lodoss War. Deedlit’s character design is the main reason I keep trying to give that old fantasy Anime a shot, but it’s story keeps failing to engage me. Yet I got idiots telling me how annoyed I am by these ridiculous mounds of gelatin must mean I don’t like breasts, but I am a Makoto Kino fan, and back when I was more a Western Comic Book Nerd I fapped to Power Girl plenty. Yes, you read that right, in Ecchi Anime there are breasts so ridiculous I’m now thinking of Power Girl's as plausible and realistic in comparison.
With Rem I feel like it doesn’t match her character how much skin she’s showing, she gives off a much more modest vibe, so how she’s dressing just feels inconsistent.
Happy Sugar Life episode 9 was gut wrenching.
Revue Starlight episode 9 was good. It’s weird how they introduced the time loop twist as this big thing in episode 7 but them seem to have pretty quickly resolved that aspect of the plot.
Episode 9 of Ragnarok had me thinking of The Ten Commandments. This show continues to amaze me.
With Episode 3 of Season 3 of Attack On Titan the story is finally getting interesting.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
I want a return of the Bright Theatrical Historical/Biblical Epic
In the vain of DeMille's The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis and yes even the oft maligned Cleopatra staring Elizabeth Taylor.
I even love some of the lower budget examples of this genre, like The Robe and Demetrius and The Gladiators, or Solomon and Sheba, or really obscure ones like The Story of Ruth, The Prodigal and The Silver Chalice. Also Richard Burton's Alexander The Great and The 300 Spartans. Not to mention the related Sword & Sandal aka Peplum films made in Italy in the 50s and 60s.
There are still movies being made about History and The Bible, but everyone wants to make them Gritty and "Realistic" now, or occasionally a weird 300 approach, likewise with stuff based on Greek Mythology or Arthurian Legend (and yes I consider Wonder Woman part of this). I guess they think audiences can't take that older approach seriously anymore, and yet with the Comic Book Superhero genre at least some are learning that the dark and gritty approach has a limited appeal and audiences do love bright colorful fun films as shown by the praise of Guardians of The Galaxy and how 2008's Speed Racer has been vindicated.
I don't exactly want new films to look indistinguishable from how they did back then, the technological advancements of the industry should be taken advantage of. I'm fine with using CGI for the crowds so we no longer need to pay for a literal "cast of thousands". And I like that now we can do more justice to the actual battles then they ever did.
What I want to see is a similar spirit or tone. The SciFi Dune miniserieses and the Star Wars films show that that older theatrical style of acting can still be enjoyed by audiences, in fact the Thor movies have also been similar in that regard, influencing parts of the Avengers films.
In fact The Lord of The Rings films are comparable to what a modern version of this genre might look like, though I'd prefer a brighter color pallet. Just avoid the pitfalls of The Hobbit films (though I still enjoy plenty of stuff in those).
But what really makes those old Epics not comparable to modern Blockbusters is their length. Superhero films and Star Wars films are generally 2 or 2 and a half hours, with occasionally a cut approaching 3 hours getting a DVD release later. It takes a Tolkien adaptation to warrant getting a 3 hour theatrical release. It took the insane business The Dark Knight did to allow Nolan to get 2 hours and 40 minutes for Rises.
Well here's the thing, the cheaper end of those above films didn't have as long of a length. The super long ones were typically like that because they were kind of trying to chronicle someone's entire life. So as much as I personally want more 3 hour theatrical films, this genre can be recreated without needing to go that far. But those examples I called cheaper are also generally lesser known, so some probably don't realize it's possible to make a film like this with a shorter run time.
The thing about my calling them "cheaper" is I'm pretty sure that, adjusted for inflation, modern Hollywood can recreate the spectacle of the biggest ones with the budget of the smaller ones.
My LOTR comparison might be an argument against them working shorter. But you see sometimes I feel the individual discs of the Extended Editions work as stand alone films, especially FOTR, that could have easily just been two movies. Some have said they'd have preferred the LOTR been 6 movies equating to the six books Tolkien wrote them as. That would be more viable today then it was back then as it's almost a Cinematic Universe in reverse, the second movie is the only one with all the Fellowship together.
Basically they work shorter if you try to cover less in one movie. Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra covers less then the second half of what the Burton and Taylor Cleopatra film covered, and Charlton Heston made a movie for it that was five minutes shorter then The Dark Knight Rises. Even a The Ten Commandments remake could work split into two films, or a trilogy with the third covering the wandering stuff DeMille's film didn't. But suppose for the sake of creativity you want to cover subject matter old Hollywood didn't. A Maccabees film wouldn't need to be too long if you stopped at the first Hanukkah. There are a lot of potential interesting film ideas that haven't really been tapped yet.
Basically just find a visionary director who really likes and appreciates those old films and I'm confident they can find a way to re-imagine the basic appeal for modern audiences. Maybe Spielberg or Colin Trevorrow would be interested since there are aspects of their appeal in both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World (I still haven't gotten to see Fallen Kingdom yet) perhaps more so the latter, Spielberg also likes to go the gritty route sometimes so he'd be a risk. George Lucas could be perfect since his appreciation of these old school films are where Star Wars and Indiana Jones came from, one of the reasons I love The Prequels is because they remind me of these films a lot, I already talked about that in relation to Ben-Hur.
I even love some of the lower budget examples of this genre, like The Robe and Demetrius and The Gladiators, or Solomon and Sheba, or really obscure ones like The Story of Ruth, The Prodigal and The Silver Chalice. Also Richard Burton's Alexander The Great and The 300 Spartans. Not to mention the related Sword & Sandal aka Peplum films made in Italy in the 50s and 60s.
There are still movies being made about History and The Bible, but everyone wants to make them Gritty and "Realistic" now, or occasionally a weird 300 approach, likewise with stuff based on Greek Mythology or Arthurian Legend (and yes I consider Wonder Woman part of this). I guess they think audiences can't take that older approach seriously anymore, and yet with the Comic Book Superhero genre at least some are learning that the dark and gritty approach has a limited appeal and audiences do love bright colorful fun films as shown by the praise of Guardians of The Galaxy and how 2008's Speed Racer has been vindicated.
I don't exactly want new films to look indistinguishable from how they did back then, the technological advancements of the industry should be taken advantage of. I'm fine with using CGI for the crowds so we no longer need to pay for a literal "cast of thousands". And I like that now we can do more justice to the actual battles then they ever did.
What I want to see is a similar spirit or tone. The SciFi Dune miniserieses and the Star Wars films show that that older theatrical style of acting can still be enjoyed by audiences, in fact the Thor movies have also been similar in that regard, influencing parts of the Avengers films.
In fact The Lord of The Rings films are comparable to what a modern version of this genre might look like, though I'd prefer a brighter color pallet. Just avoid the pitfalls of The Hobbit films (though I still enjoy plenty of stuff in those).
But what really makes those old Epics not comparable to modern Blockbusters is their length. Superhero films and Star Wars films are generally 2 or 2 and a half hours, with occasionally a cut approaching 3 hours getting a DVD release later. It takes a Tolkien adaptation to warrant getting a 3 hour theatrical release. It took the insane business The Dark Knight did to allow Nolan to get 2 hours and 40 minutes for Rises.
Well here's the thing, the cheaper end of those above films didn't have as long of a length. The super long ones were typically like that because they were kind of trying to chronicle someone's entire life. So as much as I personally want more 3 hour theatrical films, this genre can be recreated without needing to go that far. But those examples I called cheaper are also generally lesser known, so some probably don't realize it's possible to make a film like this with a shorter run time.
The thing about my calling them "cheaper" is I'm pretty sure that, adjusted for inflation, modern Hollywood can recreate the spectacle of the biggest ones with the budget of the smaller ones.
My LOTR comparison might be an argument against them working shorter. But you see sometimes I feel the individual discs of the Extended Editions work as stand alone films, especially FOTR, that could have easily just been two movies. Some have said they'd have preferred the LOTR been 6 movies equating to the six books Tolkien wrote them as. That would be more viable today then it was back then as it's almost a Cinematic Universe in reverse, the second movie is the only one with all the Fellowship together.
Basically they work shorter if you try to cover less in one movie. Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra covers less then the second half of what the Burton and Taylor Cleopatra film covered, and Charlton Heston made a movie for it that was five minutes shorter then The Dark Knight Rises. Even a The Ten Commandments remake could work split into two films, or a trilogy with the third covering the wandering stuff DeMille's film didn't. But suppose for the sake of creativity you want to cover subject matter old Hollywood didn't. A Maccabees film wouldn't need to be too long if you stopped at the first Hanukkah. There are a lot of potential interesting film ideas that haven't really been tapped yet.
Basically just find a visionary director who really likes and appreciates those old films and I'm confident they can find a way to re-imagine the basic appeal for modern audiences. Maybe Spielberg or Colin Trevorrow would be interested since there are aspects of their appeal in both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World (I still haven't gotten to see Fallen Kingdom yet) perhaps more so the latter, Spielberg also likes to go the gritty route sometimes so he'd be a risk. George Lucas could be perfect since his appreciation of these old school films are where Star Wars and Indiana Jones came from, one of the reasons I love The Prequels is because they remind me of these films a lot, I already talked about that in relation to Ben-Hur.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
September Begins
There is no guarantee I’ll bother to comment on every Hugtto!PreCure episode from this point on. Episode 29 was okay filler.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 17 was quite a ride.
Overlord III episode 5 was a nice fun episode.
How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord episode 6 was okay. I may wind up dropping this show, it’s not bad but I can only take so much Ecchi.
Episode 9 of Food/Stay Night dropped, and it was a fun episode. But I can’t help but notice that Caster/Medea is perhaps the most changed character in these Parody AUs, she’s much more submissive than the awesome Witch we originally got.
Episode 8 of Revue Starlight was very good. I’m still apprehensive about the time loop plot twist, but this episode was quite good.
Episode 8 of Happy Sugar Life was great, the show is really getting interesting now.
Episode 6 of Ragnarock was partly a Hot Spring episode and then some other filler.
I watched Sword Art Online Alternative and may decide to make a post on it, or maybe not, the short versions is I liked it.
Steins;Gate 0 episode 17 was quite a ride.
Overlord III episode 5 was a nice fun episode.
How NOT to Summon A Demon Lord episode 6 was okay. I may wind up dropping this show, it’s not bad but I can only take so much Ecchi.
Episode 9 of Food/Stay Night dropped, and it was a fun episode. But I can’t help but notice that Caster/Medea is perhaps the most changed character in these Parody AUs, she’s much more submissive than the awesome Witch we originally got.
Episode 8 of Revue Starlight was very good. I’m still apprehensive about the time loop plot twist, but this episode was quite good.
Episode 8 of Happy Sugar Life was great, the show is really getting interesting now.
Episode 6 of Ragnarock was partly a Hot Spring episode and then some other filler.
I watched Sword Art Online Alternative and may decide to make a post on it, or maybe not, the short versions is I liked it.
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