No most modern Jokers are not bad rip offs of Heath Ledger's.

At most I would say maybe The Joker we got briefly in The Batman and it's deleted scene can be criticized that way.  But given how little we have to go off there I'm reserving judgment. 

The high profile Joker we've gotten most egregious criticized this way in Jared Leto's in Suicide Squad.  I've already talked about how Jared Leto's Joker is supposed to be Cringe, and pointed people to both Jack Saint's video on the topic and 16 Attempts to Talk to You about Suicide Squad. 

But as far accusing the performance on ripping off Ledger's goes, i really don't see it, he doesn't o that thing his tonge. At most the fact that both sometimes annunciate certain words weirdly could be seen as similar. 

The perception that so many post Ledger Jokers are just pale imitations on Ledger's Joker is really just people saying quietly that they're upset the Joker hasn't gone back to being more of the same they usually got before Ledger's Joker. 

Caesar Romero's Joker, Jack Nicholson's Joker and Mark Hamil's in Batman The Animated Series, as different form each other as they may seme in execution are each in my view the same basic kind of Joker.  For each of them the Clown/Comedy gimmick antics are a means to an end of conventional criminal goals.  And The Joker's has been written like that in The Comics sometimes, he was like that in A Death in The Family much to my personal disappointment when I first read it. 

And those three were the only particularly mainstream well known popular takes on The Joker known to most non Comic Readers before 2008. The Dark Knight was the first time we got a Joker for whom the Madness was the ends and the conventional criminal activity was the means. 

But The Comics had introduced takes on The Joker who didn't have conventional criminal goals at least by the 80s with The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joker.  These stories were quite philosophically different from each other, Miller and Moore allegedly had an argument about The Joker with Moore saying The Joker is Insane and Miller saying The Joker is Evil. 

But even no Comic Readers had gotten a few tastes of this kind of Joker, just off the beaten path of the mainstream. Kerry Shale's performance in the 90s BBC Radio Drama adaptation of Knightfall. Andrew Koenig in the 2003 fan film Batman: Dead End. Even Mark Hamil arguably got his first shot at becoming a better class of criminal in Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker. It is Koenig's performance in particularly that I suspect people would be calling a Ledger;s Joker knock off is came after 2008 rather then before. 

The irony is Jared Leto's Joker in terms of what we can see of what he usually does is arguably back to being the regular Criminal with a gimmick take on The Joker that dominated what we got before 2008. But with the added flavor that he's a cringey edgelord who likes to think of himself as something grander then he actually is. 

My point is every time people talk about the history of The Joker in a way that implied Ledger's take is the soul source of every remotely "Edgy" Joker to come since, they are demonstrates their ignorance of how "Edgy" The Joker already was. 

That includes when some makes a deep philosophical video essays founded on this premise treating the Crigeyness of Leto's Joker as a failure rather then the intention. 

DC Stuff I watched in August 2026

I've now watched Batman Nightfall Part 1.

I've never read the original Knightfall comics, the prior version I'm comparing this to is the BBC Radio Drama from the 90s. 

I'll start with the main positive, it was great finally seeing Tim Drake in animation. The DCAU's Tim was in name only and the Tim in the Unlimited movies was forgettable. 

What made Tim special among the Robins back when he was being written by Marv Wolfman and Chuck Dixon and Geoff Johns and Bill Wilingham (I haven't really read much from the Jon Lewis run yet or Peter David's Young Justice) is that he was being set up to be the Bat Sidekick destined to one day surpass Bruce as the World's Greatest Detective. Looking back on that now results in my making Shinichi Kudo comparisons. And in that area this Knightfall film didn't disappoint.

Now for my criticisms.

First of all they cut Film Freak.  Cowards.

Secondly I have mixed feelings on the Artstyle, why not actually try to evoke the arstyle of 90s DC Comics? 

To amend what I said earlier i have read something Knightfall adjacent, the Robin Flying Solo Trade.  This is not that Artstyle. Is Red River can successfully look like a 90s Anime, why can't this look like a 90s Comic come to life?

Third, I'm amazed by how structurally disappointing it felt.

This end about where Hour 1 of the 3 Hour Radio Rama ended, but it felt like less happened not more. In that both the set up of Jean Paul Valley and Bruce's deterioration felt way more successfully fleshed out.

The Caped Crusader season 2 failed to engage at all, couldn't finish one episode.

I've also watched the new Supergirl movie now.  It's a good movie, it's entertaining, but it's not the kind of movie I want for Supergirl.

It felt more like a Star Wars movie much of the time.

I like the bronze Age Supergirl. 

I've also been watching Lanterns since my family currently temporarily has HBO for free. It's good so far.

Maybe an Adaptation is never too late after all?

A number of years ago I wrote a post on this Blog titled When An Adaptation is Made too Late. Where I singled out Magic Kaito, YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound of This World and Boogiepop and Others as examples of 90s source materials that didn't get a proper Anime adaptation till the 2010s where I felt it had become impossibly for them to aesthetically feel true to their source material because Modern Anime simply can't look enough like Classic Anime because of how much the very stuff it's made out of has changed. 

But 2026 has released some Anime with Artstyles that feel surprisingly true to older classic art styles.

Red River is based on a 90s Shoujo Manga older even then Inyuasha, somehow this Summer 2026 Anime has captured that vibe. 

Goodbye, Lara is a current Original Anime but also feel like a very Classic Anime style. 

The Spring season had The Klutzy Class Monitor and The Girl with the Short Skirt which a very a Pastel Color Pallet, like that kind I'd just recently seen an AniTube video say has not really been possible in the Digital Era. 

Petals of Reincarnation doesn't particularly remind me of anything old, but it was different form the standard in the Color Pallet in a way I found interesting, but I had to drop it because the story just felt like discount Fate/. 

There was also this Japanese Commercial this year that seemingly perfectly recreated 1979 Gundam Animation. And speaking of Gundam two episodes GQuuuuuuX last year also recreated the feel of Classic Gundam in a similar way but while still feeling polished in a way the retro style commercial doesn't. 

Fall 2025's My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds The Hero's was also described by other as looking stylistically like a 90s Fantasy Anime, though I didn't quite see what they were talking about.

This makes me really want to see new attempts at both Boogiepop and YU-NO.  I doubt they'd do this with Magic Kaito since that franchise when it does new Anime likes to remain consistent with Detective Conan.

But also what other old Otaku media is long overdue for an Anime?

Shizuka and Kizuato are the original Visual Novels should be on the list.  Tsui no Sora and Cross Channel as well. I'd also love to see early Overflow Games get Anime made like these, even if they are Censored a bit. 

Or heck, go back even further to some of the 70s Classic Manga of the Year 24 Group. 

I'm late to talking about Watanare.

Full name There's no freaking way I'll be your Lover! Unless...

This was somewhat hyped in 2025, but that it was going for an actual Poly resolution was not something I recalled coming up. As much as I am a long time Yuri fan I have spent the last few years feeling less obligated to watch every Yuri, especially when so many are still not even being Dubbed. 

I have talked on this blog before about by enthusiasm for Polly Anime of all form but also wanting them to come in more forms then just some variation of 1 guy and multiple girls. Even the excellent Dusk Beyond the End of The World as much as it wants it's world building to be about more then that the main trio we're following is still 1 guy and two girls. 

So a Yuri Anime with a true Threesome resolution is something I wish I'd heard about sooner. 

This is still only the start.  I want more Yuri Polycules but I also want Yaoi Threesomes and Polyandry and a Polycule form of Anime's common 3 girls and 2 boys School Club dynamic. And also some with Non Binary characters. 

I would like to see an Anime adaptation of the Light Novel/Manga Kono△Love Comedy wa Shiawase ni Naru Gimu ga Aru by Chihiro Haruna it is a 1 guy and 2 girls Threesome in the end but the girls are explicitly unambiguously also in love with each other (there is some slander going around right now that this is a Homophobic story turning the girls' straight, that is not what happens).  It is a good story, you can argue the Threesome nature of the resolution felt abrupt, but I think it worked. 

Getting back to Wartnare. Besides having this satisfying ending it's a good build up, lots of Comedy and Drama and all the characters are fun. Where the Anime currently ends it's just a Threesome but it seems like it could expand to a full 5 person Polycule. 

So this is now tied with In Another World With My Smartphone for being the best Poly Anime. 

Lucky Star is set in 2006

I find it interesting how many YouTube videos about Lucky Star the 2007 TV Anime as being a time capsule depicting what Otaku Culture was like in 2007.

But the show isn't set in 2007, it's clearly set in 2006.

The first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is clearly currently airing, one scene depicting Konota's reaction to the episode Someday in The Rain which aired May 28th 2006, neither she or the people she talked to online had seen it before.

Another show presented as current is Code Geass.

Full Metal Panic is presented as no current but still pretty big.

The only 2007 show I recall being mentioned in any capacity was El Cazador de la Bruja but that was only a promotional poster, it aired in spring 2007 and was hyped as a spiritual follow up to Noir and Madlax so it could have had prominent posters already in 2006.

To be honest I don't think there is a coherent timeline if you overmilitarized everything. But this show is also a Spring 2007 show so it likely entered production before 2006 was over.  it's a product of vaguely 2006 Anime culture. 

The Ribbon Hero is a Masterpiece

It more then lived up the Hype.  It made me Cry more then once. 

I don't have the ability to judge it as an adaptation, I don't think adaptation is the best word anymore, more like Reimagining. It does justice to the legacy of the original in exactly the metatextual way I was hoping.

There is no exposition about Saphir having a Heart of Both a Boy and a Girl, but she is still called a Knight, from my perspective the original Androgyny is still there. It's just a lot of the traits that were inherently masculine for a Anime Girl in the 60s have been more commonly Anime Girl traits since. 

I love the line that's an Attack of The Clones reference. 

There are also parts of this film that look like what an Anime adaptation of The Fall of Gondolin could look like. 

I gave a 10/10 and am currently listing it as a Faveorite on my Anilist. 

The Ninth Jedi is what the Sequel Trilogy could have been.

It manages to do much better the seeds of compelling new ideas The Sequel Trilogy introduced and squandered, but without all the falling back onto wanting to also be an OT Remake. 

The sequel trilogy wanted us to believe that Kylo Ren wasn't a Sith but something different, but no meaningful distinction was ever made.

Nawaan in The Ninth Jedi is the opposite of a Sith, while the Sith are all about indulging in your emotions Nawaan's ideology is about trying to empty yourself of Emotions.

And that context finally provides a new meaning to Balance. The Jedi are not the opposite of The Sith but the Balance between these two opposite approaches to Emotion. The Jedi's flaws in the Prequel Trilogy are a result of being a little too much like Nawaan. Nawaan is what most people wrongly think Stoicism is, The Jedi are at their best true Stoics. 

Now explaining why Kara makes a better Star Wars protagonist then Rey is going to be difficult to explain because of the sentiments I don't want to be mistaken for endorsing.  I don't agree with calling anyone a "Mary Sue", I don't even think having a protagonist be perfect from the start never making mistakes is an inherently bad thing in general, but it doesn't work for Star Wars. Kara makes mistakes and has to grow and learn in exactly the way Rey didn't. 

There are even other smaller ways in which this comparison is fascinating.

We have a story where one of our Mentors' has a valid reason to feel responsible for the villain's fall. But if this scenario or something close to it was done with Luke it would not have felt like a complete reversing of his core ROTJ characterization the way TLJ's twist does.  

There's also a character whose role resembles what Leia's could have been. 

Even the Kaiber Canon somehow does this,  Functionally it's the same as Starkiller Base, how it's an ever bigger superweapon then the Death Star is exactly the same.  But the context around it manages to make it more interesting. 

Also of course the fact that it isn't aesthetically repeating the Rebels vs Empire, or even prequel Aesthetics, it is mostly all new Stuff, lots of compelling Seeds for a new Expanded Universe.

It introduced what are essentially Star Wars Dwarves but without feeling cheap and unimaginative. 

The confrontation between kara and Nawaan in episode 4 felt evocative of Luke vs Vader in Empire Strikes Back but without feeling like it was simply copying. 

As an Anime it also satisfying what you would want from an Anime. Kara even turns a Bounty Hunter to her side by defeating him like a Battle Shonen. 

Update August 18th: Once again something about the Sequel Trilogy has made me act like the kind of Internet reviews I hate. I always get annoyed when other people base their praise of something on trashing something else. 

I bet to their fans how much The Ninth Jedi echoes the Sequels in it's decision making is a vindication of them.  They are now a part of Star Wars for new Star Wars stories to include among their inspirations. 

But The Ninth Jedi also deserves better then this.  It's a great show period, it doesn't need to be compared against something worse to look good.