Mab Darogan and William The Conqueror.

I have a theory that specifically Geoffrey of Monmouth’s presentation of the Mab Darogan Prophecy in his History of the Kings of Britain was designed so one could argue it was fulfilled by William The Conqueror. 

Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon who Geoffrey in the final chapters of Book 12 presents as the last King of the Britons and from whom this prophesied Savior wild descend is nominally a real 7th Century historical figure but his biography is almost completely changed.  Others have focused on how the pilgrimage to Rome is actually based on the contemporary King of Wessex.

But what interests me is how Geoffrey ends Cadwaladr’s story with him not in Wales or even Britain. The fact that the medieval Kings of Gwynedd and Princes of Wales descended from the real Cadwaladr not only isn’t mentioned but seems to be something Geoffrey doesn’t want his readers to know.  Rather he ends Cadwaladr’s story in Brittany closely linked with a King of Brittany named Alan.   It’s likely the medieval audience would have presumed dynastic intermarriages would occur between their lines.

Which is interesting given how Alan’s line was already Prophetically significant.  He is in this narrative the direct Heir of Hoel of Brittany son of Budic II of Brittany by Anna King Arthur’s Sister.  Back in Book 8 Chapter XV the Prophecy Merlin gives about Arthur also says it would be Uther's daughter from whom the long term line of succession will descend.  Now Arthur having sisters seems to be precedented before/independent of Geoffrey, but Geoffrey alone has any sister much less his full sister by Uther marry a ruler of Brittany.  The actual Breton traditions about Budic and Hoel do not connect them to Arthur at all.  Budic II does take refuge in Britain after losing his Kingdom to the Franks but it was actually in the court of Dyfed.  Meanwhile Arthur’s full sister is usually married to Loth by whom she is the mother of Gawain and Agravain and Medraut.

So Geoffrey has two different Prophecies tying the legacy of Sub-Roman Britain to Brittany rather than Wales or Cornwall or Cumbria.

William The Conqueror’s Paternal Grandmother was Judith of Brittany a descendent of Breton rulers including at least one named Alan.  And the Dukes of Normandy may have had dynastic ties to Brittany even before her via Sprotta.  And William also had Breton allies during his conquest of England.

One of Geoffrey’s patrons was Robert of Gloucester, a Bastard son of Henry I and a supporter of Matilda during the Anarchy.  So legitimizing the Norman-Plantagenet Dynasty’s rule over the Island was arguably in Geoffrey’s interests. 

Geoffrey is also seemingly the oldest source for a lot of the basis for identifying Arthur geographically with the area of Wessex (I have come to believe based on the older sources that Arthur was mainly in The North).  This fits in with the theory that a lot of Arthurian motifs originating during the Norman period were partly about attributing to Arthur accomplishments of Alfred The Great.

Going back to his sponsor’s support of Matilda, I wonder if this is part of the origin of the Cornelia daughter of King Leir legend I discussed in a prior post?  Cornelia and Matilda were both married to Kings on the Continent before ruling Britain/England.

Housing Complex C is a Great Horror Anime

I've watched it 3 times now, October of 2022, October of 2023 and October of 2024 which was Yesterday.

It's most notable strength is how I feel it has uniquely found out how to make Lovecraftian Horror work in a Visual Medium.  While also going in the opposite direction of what's politically problematic about Lovecraft with it's clear Pro-Immigration theme.

But Lovecraft stories aren't the only Horror stories it can be compared to.

In the context of Anime it definitely has some overlapping vibes with Higurashi When They Cry, if you want something like that but much shorter this is it.

I've seen people more into Junji Ito's work then me say there are some Junji Ito references, but I can't confirm or deny that myself.

The Housing Complex set up kinda reminds me of Lady in The Water one of those later M Night Shyamalan movies many hate on but that I enjoyed.

It's on both Max and Adult Swim, I highly recommend it.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?

Is the name of a Winter 2021 Fantasy Anime I haven’t watched.  I recall trying to but didn’t finish even the first episode.

However I can’t stop thinking about the title.  The implication of that title is that ‘Starter Town” is functionally synonymous with being a bustling Urban Metropolis and what I recall of the first episode confirms that.

So it confuses me because these LN based Fantasy Anime are operating on a very Meta level, the title implies that because its audience would expect it to be the norm.

But my general experience with the Fantasy Genre is the opposite, the Hero’s Journey usually starts in the Boonies, from The Hobbit and LOTR starting in The Shire to Luke Skywalker growing up on a farm far from the big city on an outer rim planet to Pokémon starting in Pallet Town (which in the Games and Anime seems smaller then it’s real world inspiration) to even Zelda usually starting Link off in some obscure settlement like Kokori Forest, Outset Island or Ordon Village.

But only one of those fits all the requirements for counting as a JRPG and even it is an edge case. 

In Japan the by far most popular JRPG franchise is Dragon Quest with Dragon Quest III specifically being the main blueprint for what most of these Japanese Gamers would think of as a standard RPG formula.  And indeed that adventure does start in the Castle Town where the King lives.

Even the original Final Fantasy also has the first city you visit be the Royal Capital of a Kingdom.  And VII starts in Midgar.

In the Mairo RPGs Mario’s house seems not to be in any town but located very close to Toad Town where Peach’s Castle is located.  The Thousand Year Door starts in Rogueport, a Mos Eisley style port city.

I also notice in Anime about playing MMORPGs you usually spawn in what seems like an Urban Center so that meeting up with other players can be done conveniently.  

And I think that is why RPGs so often depart from the Tolkien set precedent.  RPGs are a kind of game where the Multiplayer form is the original and the Single Player form came later.  The Quest needs to start in a place where players from diverse backgrounds can believably happen to meet up and form a party.

The association of the Last Dungeon with the Boonies I still don't get though.

It's easy to be mistaken for a Contrarian when you like more stuff then you dislike.

Because unfortunately much of Internet Culture has been built around considering negative opinions far more indisputable then any positive opinion.  We are a society where Good Art can only be Good in Contrast to what is popularly considered Bad.

I like the overwhelming vast majority of any piece of Entertainment media I watched to completion.  And even among those this I didn't finish it's very rare for me to actively dislike any.  And nothing that I do dislike I consider objectively indisputably Bad, there is nothing that I am offended by the existence of people liking it.  That third point has not always been true, younger more immature versions of me have gotten invested in hating things, but that's all in the past.

There are times when there is something popular I don't like as much as others do, and so that contrasted with all the popular to hate on things I love gets taken out of context to present me as a contrarian.  The most recent example may be Frireen, as a few times I'd talked about it can be mistaken for hating it but all that really bothers me is how so much Frieren praise has to be in contrast to all other contemporary Fantasy Anime, I like Frieren and Isekai.  I haven't given Frieren a definitive rating yet because I want too rewatch it first, but I currently expect to give it a 10.

I've also sounded harsh on Matt Reeves' The Batman by virtue of liking every other Batman movie more, but the movie is mostly fine, and I'm really enjoying The Penguin so far.

The fact is most really popular things I've seen I like, and if I haven't seen it then I don't have an opinion at all.

The closest I come to being a contrarian is sometimes how I rank certain instalments of a saga or seasons of a series may look partially inverted compared to popular opinion.  But that's always in the context of seeing value in even what I rank at the bottom, or if there are some I actively dislike in any even mild capacity it's only 3 tops out of more then 20. 

But even that isn't universal, how I rank the different seasons of the 90s Sailor Moon Anime is pretty conventional actually.

Once I was in the chat for a Trixie The Golden Witch Livestream on Chat and mentioned the fact that I like The Godfather Part III the best of The Godfather movies, and she called me the ultimate contrarian, even more Contrarian then she is.  The Contrarian opinion on The Godfather movies would be say that only Part III was good, I like all three movies, if I have any criticism of anything in the first two movies it's that I don't think Part II works as a cohesive whole all that well, but every single piece of it is great and still to this day very influential on my tastes.

Trixie's opinions on the Pokémon movies are more contrarian then my opinions on The Godfather movies.  Trixie and her Ex are the only people I've ever seen dislike the 3rd Pokémon movie, most Pokémon fans consider it the best of the movies, if the first two do better on mainstream review aggregate websites it's only because they've been seen by more people.  Suede and Linkara liked it the best and they are pretty reflective of general opinion.  And Uniquenameosarus also had a Video Essay praising it.  And I recently discovered Gingy Dave.

When it comes to the Pokémon movies the closest thing I have to a contrarian opinion is that I rank 2000 near the bottom, there are only two theatrical movies I rank below it (Lucario and Jiirachi) and one TV Movie I rank as the absolute least, the Mirage one.  However I have enough Nostalgic fondness for 2000 that the gap between it and those below it is pretty significant.  Mostly my issue with it is just it being overdone, I never needed a Pokémon movie to be that epic, so it's a similar issue to the most recent Detective Conan films, which I still very much enjoy.

Septimal Anniversaries of Fall 2017 Anime

Well it’s the Final Season of this 2017 Septimal Anniversary series.  

For continuing shows there was of course the second cour of Fate/Apocrypha which I still love.

Animegataris I remember fondly, it's been awhile since we’ve had a fully Meta Anime like that.

The second season of Yuki Yuna Is A Hero and the TV Anime version of Washio Sumi were both great..

Code:Realize - Guardian of Rebirth was a show I watched for its Shadowmen relevance but hasn’t stuck with me much, wouldn’t say anything was Bad about it though.

And that’s actually it for stuff I watched to completion at the time.  At least two other shows I started back then but didn’t complete till later.

A Sister’s All You Need I’ve actually become more fond of over time, though I still wish the “little brother” character was Trans Feminine instead of what they actually went with.

Kino’s Journey The Beautiful World. I found this show a perfectly adequate reboot but I definitely prefer the Aesthetic of the classic version even though I have never properly watched it.

Two shows I watched later are King’s Game which I do not recommend, and Dies Irae which I can’t particularly recommend either but at least that one I don't regret watching.

Two shows I’ve dropped from this season are ShoBitch and Recovery of an MMO Junkie.  What the appeal of the latter was supposed to be is done better by the 2016 show And you thought there is never a girl online? Aka Netoge, as well as 2023’s My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999.

One of the Gundam The Origin OVAs came out this season, I still have mixed feelings on that series.

For movies we got the first Heaven’s Feel film and the first Girls und Panzer Das Finale film which are both great.  As well as Gundam Thunderbolt Bandit Flower which I didn’t like.  I did love December Sky which is from 2016 but was probably 2017 when I first watched it. 

And for Specials 2017 ended with Fate/Grand Order: Moonlight/Lostroom which is weird and I’m not sure what’s going on in it since I don’t play Grand Order.  It’s certainly well animated with neat moments.

Halloween Anime recs for 2024

I feel conflicted about doing one of these this year, I don’t want to do a big Halloween Anime Recommendation post every single year.  But last year I chose a framing device doomed to not age well.  

A bunch of stuff left Hulu at the end of August 2024 one of them was Blood-C leaving that entire franchise now with no legal streaming option.

Fortunately I didn’t list anything only on Funimation, but the way Crunchyroll and HIDIVE have been I have no idea what is and isn’t still on them.  And even RetroCrush and Tubi keep changing.

I should follow up on the one show that was still in progress last year, Zom100. Its first season ended strong, I still highly recommend it and hope we get more.

There is a new Horror Anime this season, by the time I publish this at least one episode of Uzumaki should have aired.  I personally won’t be watching it though, I watched Thought Slime’s video on the Manga once (I’m pretty sure it was on the ScardyCats channel) and it’s neat and all but not the kind of Horror I’m into.  But I do hope this Anime will be one the Manga fans can enjoy.  It sounds like it will be airing on Adult Swim meaning for streaming it should also be on its streaming App and maybe also Max.

I’ll probably rewatch Housing Complex C again this October, I considered it an instant Halloween classic in 2022 and it held up on rewatch in October of 2023.  But they say the third time you watch something is when you really know what you think of it.  I’m assuming it will still be on both Max and Adult Swim.

My number one is still the 2006 Studio Deen Higurashi Anime, but it’s not streaming anywhere, only the very frustrating Gou.

That’s all I really have to say for this post, check out my past Halloween tagged posts for more the Halloween seasonal Anime I recommend, just be prepared that where it’s watchable may have changed.

Update October 9th: I wound having a lot to deal with this month, so I may not even find the time to watch any of what I was intending to watch this month.

Update October 20th: Well I did find time, Housing Complex C still holds up and I also rewatched Occultic:Nine which is also still cool.  

Update October 23rd: I've also now seen Elfen Lied for the 3rd time and it too still holds up.