Infinite Crisis and it’s tie-ins

Almost every DC Comic Book writer I consider myself a fan of comes with some catch, a part of their body of work I hate just as much as I love the stuff I like. 

Geoff Johns is someone I'm a fan of because I love his Teen Titans run and Infinite Crisis and a few other things. But I hate his contributions to Green Lantern and The Flash’s histories and most of his impact on Superman.  

The irony is Infinite Crisis is great in part because it’s a critique of Toxic Nostalgia, and yet what I don’t like about Johns work is when his own weirdly Toxic Nostalgia for the Silver Age comes in. And 2005 is the year he made Hal Jordan the main Green Lantern again, pandering to Silver Age nostalgia at the same time he’s vilifying Golden Age nostalgia, maybe that’s actually perfectly consistent from a certain POV?

The thing about Infinite Crisis is it’s one of those Events that is viewed as needing all its tie-ins to work, but in my opinion they don’t, certainly not all of them. But the tie-ins can add to the experience.  Some of my favorite scenes from the DC Comics come from unnecessary but awesome Infinite Crisis tie-ins. 

It’s a sequel to Crisis on Infinite Earths, but not in a way where you need to have actually read that to follow what’s going on. 

The build up to Infinite Crisis arguably begins with Identify Crisis or more directly things that happened in the aftermath of Identity Crisis. Identity Crisis itself stands alone perfectly, it’s informed by when in the then current continuity it takes place, but everything you need to know it explains on its own. 

Identity Crisis shares the theme about Nostalgia.  And while CoIIE isn't as a whole about Nostalgia it's eventual sequel being a story with that theme is foreshadowed by it's very last page. 

There were four concurrent miniseries that DC promoted as being the Countdown to Infinite Crisis. 

The OMAC Project written by Greg Rucka.

Villains United written by Gail Simone

Day of Vengeance written by Bill Willingham

Rann-Thanagar War written by Dave Gibbons

But in my view the only one even close to qualifying as necessary, as being the main story of what’s going on in the DC Universe at this time, is the first of those. For one thing the bottom two I still to this day haven’t read and don't feel like I’m missing anything. Villains United is great. I absolutely highly recommend it on its own merits, but the main protagonists it’s following don’t even appear in Infinite Crisis. 

The OMAC Project is the only one featuring DC’s Big Three as prominent characters, it provides what serves as the equivalent to the Red Skies during Infinite Crisis. But most importantly it bridges the gap between Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis while building on their shared theme of Toxic Nostalgia. It is a great story on its own in my view, and also the second most important storyline to Infinite Crisis after Infinite Crisis itself. 

The Infinite Crisis Companion Trade Paperback collects DC Specials that were epilogues to those stories going on during the events of Infinite Crisis. They were needed precisely because Infinite Crisis itself did not tie up all of those storylines loose ends. But the one for OMAC Project is needed mainly just to cap off Sasha Boredeaux’s storyline. 

An Auteurist would suggest other stuff written by Johns this year are what should be considered most important.  I haven’t read his JSA run or his Green Lantern stuff (but it's safe to say Green Lantern Rebirth happens before any of the Countdown storylines start). His Powergirl story from the first four issues of JSA Classified included in the Powergirl Trade Paperback do set up where she is when Infinite Crisis starts and does also add to that theme. JLA Crisis of Conscience is similar, dealing with the aftermath of Identity Crisis in its own way and ending right before Infinite Crisis starts. 

His Teen Titans run’s main tie to what happens in Infinite Crisis is Connor Kent/Superboy’s importance since that’s where his character arc played out which had been his arc since the start of the run in 2003. 

The Future Is Now Trade Paperback first collects a Time Travel arc Teen Titans Vol 3 16-19 which takes place before Identity Crisis (these are as far as I can tell the only comics featuring Time Drake that seem to take place between the deaths of Stephanie Brown and Jack Drake), but it then finished with issues 20-23 an Arc that takes place after Identity Crisis and I would argue is the first real direct Aftermath of Identity Crisis as well as our chronologically first glimpse of the Secret Society of Super Villains. After that comes Teen Titans/Outsiders: Insiders, then The Return of Donna Troy then the framing device of Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files and Origins 2005 and then Teen Titans: Life and Death is events happening concurrent with Infinite Crisis. 

Superman is the main lead character of the DC Universe. So here are the main Superman Trades to recommend. 

Superman: The Healing Touch by Greg Rucka

Superman: In The Name of Gog by Chuck Austen and J.D. Finn

Are the Superman books from right after Identity Crisis. The Day of Vengeance Trade Paperback includes some Superman issues that take place about here as well. 

Superman: Sacrifice ties directly into the biggest climatic event of OMAC Project, and thus much is written by Greg Rucka.

Also regardless of how the cover dates may confuse you, Supergirl:Power the first 5 issues of Supergirl Vol 5 written by Jeph Loeb ends before Infinite Crisis starts.

Superman: Ruin Revealed By Greg Rucka and others.

Superman: Strange Attractors by Gail Simone

Superman: The Journey by Mark Verheiden

Are the Superman books that lead into and were concurrent with Infinite Crisis. 

Superman: Infinite Crisis collects the last Superman comics before the One Year Later leap forward. 

For Wonder Woman this is all happening during Greg Rucka’s run and the concurrent period is collected in Eyes of The Gorgon, Land of The Dead and Mission’s End. 

JLA: World Without a Justice League collects the JLA books during Infinite Crisis which were the end of JLA Vol 1.

The Batman books don’t feel as relevant, references happen but Batman’s mostly in his own little world. Under The Red Hood and War Crimes were the key Batman events this year.  Detective Comics mostly was doing City of Crime, a story that seems like it has to be set before War Games to make sense. Gotham Knights was doing Hush stuff which is best ignored. 

For Tim Drake/Robin the Robin/Batgirl:Fresh Blood, To Kill A Bird and Days of Fire and Madness Trades cover this period, and for Cassandra Cain/Batgirl also Fresh Blood then Kicking Assassins and Destruction’s Daughter. 

Someone Nerdier than I will have to deduce the ideal reading order for all the Comics I mentioned here. 

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.

Lex Luthor is proving a surprisingly difficult character to get right.

I like James Gunn’s Superman movie.  But I’m a bit annoyed by how over half the discussion of the film is about the film’s Lex Luthor with many saying it has the most perfect understanding of the character, when for me how the film handled Luthor is what I liked the least. 

First of all, as someone who likes the CEO Lex Luthor, it bugs me how many modern takes seem to feel forced to include the CEO element when they really just want to do the Mad Scientist.  This is what the Zach Snyder and James Gunn's takes on Lex Luthor have in common, to them the time as a CEO is just a step in the origin they want to get out of the way as quick as possible.  

I want years, maybe even over a decade of Lex Luthor secure in his CEO position before any type of downfall or prison time happens, that’s what we got in the 80s-90s DC Comics and Superman The Animated Series.  Lois and Clark is an interesting middle ground where I’d ideally want multiple seasons in a TV Series but at least getting a whole 22 episode season is better than only one single movie.  For comparison David Xanatos in the Gargyles Cartoon is a good way to handle things. 

However there is another issue I have with this take on Lex Luthor that would apply whether it’s a CEO or Mad Scientist take on the character.   Which is why I still prefer Batman V Superman’s Lex to this one. 

I dislike the very thing so many people are praising right now.

I don’t want Lex to be single-mindedly obsessed with Superman in the way The Joker is with Batman. He should hate Superman only because he’s in the way, Superman currently takes up a large percentage of his energy, and it can over time become somewhat personal.  But this desire to make destroying Superman the only real goal he actually cares about is something I hate.

Gunn cited Allstar Superman as an inspiration and yeah that comic is largely where this way of characterizing Luthor comes from.  And I honestly don’t mind it so much in that story as its own stand alone Elseworld thing.  But as the primary characterization of Luthor in what’s supposed to now be DC’s main Cinematic Universe, it’s really dull and short sighted. 

In the early history of the CEO Lex Luthor I prefer the way he was written by Marv Wolfram over John Byrne, making him a CEO was Wolfman’s idea in the first place and Byrne it turns out was a Right Wing Conservative so always out of touch with why most Superman fans think Superman’s best enemies are Corporate War Mongers and Slum Lords.  After that I again liked how he was handled in season 1 of Lois and Clark and STAS. I liked Lionel Luthor on Smallville (at least the first 3 seasons) as a glimpse of what a fully developed Lex Luthor could be like. And interestingly enough I liked the take on Luthor in season 2 of The Joker Blogs which is not official but an internet Fan Film project taking off of The Dark Knight universe. 

Ya know what story originally with a non CEO Lex Luthor could easily be rewritten as a CEO Luthor story?  Superman IV The Quest for Peace.  Luthor’s plot in that film could easily lend itself to a corporate War Profiter, and then you could also make him the guy buying the Daily Planet as well. 

Shy and Superhero Anime

One topic I talked about on this blog a few years ago is how as someone who was an American Comic Book Nerd for ages before Anime took over my brain, the Anime that to me have a similar appeal to my favorite DC Universe stories are not the ones explicitly drawing on American Superhero aesthetics like My Hero Academia and One Punch Man but rather shows like Code Geass, the Raildex franchise, Detective Conan/Case Closed, and I’d now add Durarara! which I watched this year, twice now.

However starting with the Fall of last year a new Superhero Anime has entered the fray, Shy who’s second season is currently airing.

While HeroAca and OPM put the aesthetic trappings of American Comic Book Superheroes onto a show that is essentially a conventional Battle Shonen, with Shy it is the Magical Girl Warrior subgenre putting on Western Superhero clothing.  That actually works far better because the Magical Girl Genre has its origins in part in western Superhero influences. 

Naoko Takeuchi has admitted to being partly inspired by Wonder Woman in creating Sailor Moon, something the recently re-adapted final arc makes more obvious with the Bracelets plot point.  But there’s also the additional indirect influence from how the Transforming Tokusatsu Superhero genre was inspired by Shazam and the 60s Batman show and so forth.

So Shy kind of winds up feeling like the Genre returning to its roots in some ways.

90s Magical Girl Warriors like the Sailor Senshi and Wedding Peach wear costumes that fit in with how we typically think of American Superhero Costumes from the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages in that it would not feel inaccurate to describe them as some form of “tights”.

Today however your default parody of a standard Magical Girl is more likely to be wearing a frilly or fluffy dress of some kind and that is largely the influence of Pretty Cure which in Japan has long surpassed Sailor Moon as the most popular Magical Girl franchise, (but it's Anthology nature means no single team has had as many canonical adventures as the Senshi).

And so Shy wearing a Western Superhero style costume coincidentally looks more like a 90s Magical Girl then any new Magical Girl Anime we’ve seen in 20 years.

But Shy is not completely removed from the subsequent history of the Magical Girl, it definitely shows some influence from the Post Madoka era of the genre, with what the villains are doing reminding me of Daybreak Illusion more than anything else.

The main difference between Shy and other Magical Girl shows, in fact the main reason it’s probably not officially going to be considered one, is that there are Male Superheroes.  Of course the Nanoha franchise also had males who had essentially the same abilities.  The British Superhero keeps reminding me of the antagonist of Superman Vs The Elite for some reason.

All of this kind of makes Shy the antithesis of how I’ve been thinking about the 2008 OVA School Days: Magical heart Kokoro-Chan.

As one of the very few American Otaku who loves School Days both unironically and not because I view it as some kind of “deconstruction” I was very curious to see what it’s take on the turn the little sister character into a Magical Girl spin off trend would be.  And what I got kind of confused me.

First it starts off by also having a sort of Sentai parody, which would be fine.  But then we get to this classroom scene where everyone starts talking about Superheroes.  And Makoto and Sekai started saying things that sound like J. Jonah Jamenson, in my head I was like “I dedicated one of the most overly long posts on my blog to defending you two and this is how you repay me?”.  Then Setsuna starts talking and I think “finally my Waifu will bring some sense to this” and then she starts spouting a “Superheros cause Villains” monologue.

Basically this Magical Girl Parody decided to have the metatextual commentary of a Western Superhero Comic.  In Magical Girl shows and Super Sentai the villains come first and the heroes are a reaction to them, the exact opposite of what Setsuna just said.

DC Animated projects I’ve seen recently.

As much as I present myself as Enthusiastic about becoming an Anime Zealot I do sometimes feel some guilt for how much I’ve semi Abandoned by older Nerdy interests.  But I haven’t abandoned them entirely.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths Trilogy is fine but I still feel disappointed.  I was fine with the first film not really leaving the Tomorrow Verse much at all.  But I was hoping by the end there would be more from prior Animated DC Universes than just some token cameos.

But even with the token cameos at the end I was disappointed by how few.  Why no love for the Fleischer Shorts? The actual birth of DC in Animation and very important to the history of Animation beyond that.  Or The Batman and Batman The Brave and The Bold which have more vibrant fan bases then the DCAMU verse.

And all the DCAU got was Batman and The Joker (and a Batman Beyond who may or may not actually be the same Terry).  What about the STAS cast who were also staples?  Or Static Shock which is important to the history of Black representation in the Superhero Genre?

I still haven’t seen much of My Adventures With Superman.  I want to change that but I remain cynical of Western Cartoons trying to pass as Anime.

Meanwhile Suicide Squad Isekai is vindicating the optimism I had for it from it’s inception.

Batman The Caped Crusader I wound up liking a lot, and I kinda went in biased against it, feeling very cynical about the implication of Timm saying he wanted to go further then BTAS ever could.  It turns out that really wasn’t anything to be worked up about and all the episodes are pretty great.

That said, I do have some criticisms.  But rest assured nothing that a certain type of whiner is going to complain about bothered me.  I consider one of the literary ancestors of The Penguin to be Casper Gutman of The Maltese Falcon and of the 3 movie adaptations made of that novel, the 1935 film Satan met a Lady already had a woman play Gutman’s role.  So the way I see it the possibility of a Lady Penguin was always on the table.

I kinda hope Barbara Gordon as a Defense Attorney leads to them bringing back a certain forgotten Barbara storyline of the 70s.

I’m glad they went the uniquely nuanced route they did with Harvey Dent, I just……

Spoiler Warning.

…I wish they hadn't killed him off.

With Harvey Dent so much of the discourse is about his origin story and then attempts to Redeem him that may or may not succeed.  Which is all interesting but I’m tired of him actually being an effective Supervillain getting skipped over.

Male Sexual Assault Victims are not just played for Laughs

The YouTube Channel Pop Culture Detective has a video titled Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs Part 2 Female Perpetrators.  It’s a pretty exhaustive and seemingly thoughtful analysis of all the ways Male Sexual Assault is played for Laughs in media. 

However it is unhelpful in actually making progress on how Male Sexual Assault Victims are thought about and treated in society by only focusing on when it’s played for laughs.  Because he denies that it’s actually a “Double Standard” in any way while also emphasizing how allegedly rare it is.

Like by saying “Rape of Women isn’t taken seriously either” followed by a Quagmire clip. That Family Guy scene is an example of Dark Comedy, like most comedy involving women being raped by men, I don’t like these kinds of jokes but I’m not gonna pretend they are something aren't and deny that what’s happening is something everyone considers horrible and traumatizing is vital to the joke working as intended.  All these men being raped by women scenes the video documents are not Dark, they are instead treating the the entire idea of this happening as an absurdity.

But early in the video came the real warning sign of the video's problem.  Yes all these scenes are acknowledging that what the woman is doing is morally and ethically wrong.  Therefore he concludes the problem has nothing to do with people refusing to condemn a woman’s actions.

The problem is there is plenty of Male Sexual Assault in media that isn’t played for Laughs, sometimes a scene happens that almost everyone would call Rape if the genders were reversed, but instead is not only not considered Rape but if any moral judgment is passed on what happened at all it will entirely be that the Man did something wrong to the Woman.

The big example of this in my mind is episode 9 of School Days, which I've talked about before.  Early on it shows how a Girl inviting a Boy to the “rest area” is supposed to go.  Otome doesn’t do that but drags Makoto there, confesses and then assaults him before he can fully respond and then his eyes go weird, the Hentai visual language of Mind Break.

This is very obviously a Rape scene to me.  But because the popular narrative around this show as a whole is that Makoto is a selfish indecisive womanizer who deserves what happened to him at the end no one is willing to even consider the possibility that he was ever the Victim in the first 11 episodes.

That’s just the most blatant example, he had previously been kissed while sleeping and I frankly consider his consent to everything he does with Kotonoha in the last episode questionable at best.

Then I often think about the movie Poison Ivy: The New Seduction, where in one sequence Violet seduces Joy’s boyfriend by taking advantage of his Drug Addiction.  And one online review I read a long ago found laughable the notion that we’re supposed to feel sorry for him when he calls her out on that later.

DC Comics is filled with examples of Villainesses raping Superheroes but the writers being very inconsistent on if they want to acknowledge his lack of consent.  Most notoriously being how Grant Morrison retconned Talia.

Update July 2024: Going back to School Days, in the VN it's Kotonoha who rapes Makoto.

In the scenario that comes from episode 5 being The Video Tape Kotonoha repeatedly assaults Makoto on the train against his protests, and once starts jerking him off while he's still asleep, and more.  Twice in these scenes a prompt will come up for the player but our options are only say no or nothing, no option to actually consent.

In a scene leading up to Bavarois/Lust after he tells her he loves Sekai and wants to break up she undresses in-front of him and tells him to touch her and when he doesn't she walks over and forces his face in her breast.

The issue today with how society treats Female on Male Rape is less a denial that it's theoretically possible and more having a different barrier to considering that's definitely what happened.  When it's a male assaulting a female at least most self described Feminists understand that any Consent given after an encounter begins as non consensual is dubious at best.  But in the scene I just talked about will go "look how easily he starts sucking on them" but I'm like "he barely even looks aware of his surroundings".

Then there is the matter of SA victims themselves often not being willing or able to recognize that's what happened to them.  And for male victims an added reason for that is this very double standard.  But because people enter this franchise with such a baseline cynical view of Makoto it's easy to go "even he admits he did something wrong...." when that's not how human psychology works, people feel guilty about things that aren't their fault all the time.

Update November 2024: Makoto is also a victim of Statutory Rape in Summer Days/Shiny Days.  And at first I thought the Game wasn't taking that as seriously as the examples from School Days I talked about.  But then I realized the parallelism in Futaba seeing Makoto with Youko in the MILF route timeline and Makoto seeing Futaba with Shun in most timelines if you make it to episode 4.  That tells me the writers do see them as the same.

The MILF routes are locked behind some very specific choices that it's unlikely anyone would make by accident. I truly believe all scenes in them were written with the expectation that you've probably already experienced a version of Episode 4 including Makoto seeing Futaba with Shun. So Futaba seeing Makoto with Youko I believe is what's written to echo the other scene even if it technically takes place sooner on the timeline.

Futaba never admits to seeing herself as a victim in her relationship with Shun, in fact in the present she's the one actively seeking to continue it while he's seemingly trying to cut it off, which makes it easy for a cynical viewer to see her as some pervert's fantasy of a totally willing underage girl.  But we don't see how her relationship with Shun started, it's the content locked behind the MILF routes that hints at the true subtext.  Specifically the version of the "Captivated by the Twins" ending predicated on Futaba answering Karen's phone and Makoto at first assuming it's Kazuha.

Futaba's interpretation of what she saw is that Youko is seducing and taking advantage of Makoto.  So no matter how much she pretends she's consenting in the relationship with Shun when she sees the same thing happen to someone else she can only recognize it as predation.

But what's really telling and kind of sad is why she chooses to frame this plan as just helping Kazuha get with Makoto, why she seems to feel only Kazuha can Love Makoto enough to Save him.  The obvious subtext to me is that like many rape victims she sees herself as tainted and unworthy of love.  She returns to Shun in episode 4 (which doesn't happen if the Twins Seduce Makoto in episode 3) because she thinks that's her only option.

But it is worth criticizing that this one element of Subtext is it.  A casual play through not looking for this kind of thing will easily see the Milf routes as just unironic fun while there is no way to miss the negative framing of Shun and Futaba or what in some routes happens to Kokoro.  

Update June 2026: I want to confess that the systemic forces that lead to this effects even myself. I have found female character likable for things I could not still consider a male likeable if they did them. It's a pervasive issue I'm not pretending to be above or immune to. 

Re:Creators and the Crisis on Infinite Earths

 So I finally watched Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One recently now that it’s on MAX and I liked it, the unique framing they chose was pretty cool.

It of course get me thinking about the 2017 Anime Re:Creators again. One of the things I’ve been thinking about that show since I finally first watched it last year was that it has, perhaps by pure coincidence, some structural similarities to Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The scale is ultimately much smaller but the parallels you can make are neat.

Souta Mizushino plays the thematic role of Pariah to some extent.

Meteora is The Monitor and Altair the Anti-Monitor.

Mamika plays a role similar to Supergirl.

Magane Chikujouin plays the kind of wild card role you cna expect The Joker to play in a Crisis event.

My thoughts on this really weren’t all that worthy of an entire post, but that’s fine.  I might take a break and not post anything else till sometime in May, it all depends on if inspiration strikes me.

Update: And I did not know when I wrote this that Amazon let the license to Re;Creators lapse so now it's not possible to legally watch at all.  Very frustrating.

The Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages of Anime.

I notice a lot of online Anime Discourse, at least back in 2016-2017, talking about what was the Golden Age of Anime treating that term as just meaning whatever is the best when that's not actually what the concept of a Golden Age means.

The Golden Age of something is it's first era of greatness, some stuff can have came before but they're basically Pre-History in the grand scheme of things.  No fan of Western Superhero Comics actually thinks the Golden Age had a higher baseline level of quality then fully developed modern comics, or that most of the absolute best Comics ever made were made then, but they call it the Golden Age anyway.

Likewise I am going to say the Golden Age of Anime began with the premier of Astor Boy in 1963 and ended with the final episode of Lupin III Part II (Red Jacket) in 1980 even though I am personally into very little from that era.  

I will then define the Silver Age as spanning 1981 through 1994 and maybe even the first season of 95.  

The Bronze Age is then 1995-2010 (or maybe it wouldn't be completely wrong to include the Fall of 94) while the current Modern Age began with 2011 and is still going on as I write this. 

Significantly over 50% of all the Anime I've completed on MAL is Modern in this definition.  Partly because how much Anime gets made each year keeps increasing, but also because it was a few years into the Modern Era that Anime became a full time interest of mine.

However I would have to say the Bronze Age is probably the age I currently like the most, it contains most of the few Anime I actually do have Childhood or YA Nostalgia for.  And there are so many interesting kinds of Anime I feel were only made then.

Now my definition for the Golden Age is perhaps the most self explanatory.  That it ends right before Millennials begin being born makes it easy for us to see it as the Antiquity of Anime History.  

The Silver Age is then contemporary with the earliest Millennials growing from Babies to starting High School.  But I'd also say the key 1981 milestone to kick off this age was Urusei Yatsura while the swan song of the Silver Age was Sailor Moon S the last season of that Anime with Tomita, Yanagikawa and Sumisawa on the writing staff.

I already have a Post on this Blog about Anime in 1995 showing what a game changing year it was. But the argument for starting the Bronze Age in Fall of 94 would be Macross 7 & Magic Knight Rayearth and how DNA seems ahead of it's time as an absurd Harem premise. And I also already have a post on 2011 Anime showing how it launched many of the trends that define modern Anime Culture.  And even in that post I had not yet accounted for Psycho-Pass or some other shows I watched more recently, or how for Detective Conan the Holmes' Revelation Case can definitely be considered the start of the Modern Era for that show and Movie 15 the first movie to truly feel like modern Detective Conan movies.

But 2010 as the end of an Era is also interesting to break down.  War on Geminar was the last real OVA saga, since then OVAs have almost only been for bonus episodes of TV shows and Hentai.  Oreimo season 1 was the last real Otaku Rights show before Otaku culture became too tolerated for such a premise to feel relevant anymore (with that element being downplayed even in future Oreimo Anime).  White Album and Yosuga no Sora were the last Anime adaptations of retro Visual Novels made before modern Anime styles got in the way of such adaptations feeling Retro (I love YU-NO's 2019 Anime but I do wish it could looked more like a 90s Anime).  For Pokémon Diamond and Pearl is the last generation I personally feel can be considered a classic gen.  Legend of The Legendary Heroes was the last major Fantasy Anime before the influence of SAO and LN Isekai took over (a few shows and movies with the vibes of these kind of Fantasy still get made but they get drowned out).

For both Superhero Comics and Anime the change from Golden to Silver is shockingly clean, with if anything a brief gap that feels like neither rather then a transitional period that feels like both.  With Anime it's only the change from Silver to Bronze I consider debatable at all, Fall of 94 and Winter of 95 can each go either way.  I similarly do consider the transition from Silver to Bronze for Comics the most stylistically complex (other transitions are only debated more by DC nerds because this is the only one where the continuity didn't change).  None of the shows airing in both Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 I consider defining shows of either era.

What to call the era that follows the Bronze Age after it's no longer Modern is what isn't so standardized.  For DC Comics it's the Post-Crisis era, I'm of the generation of DC fans who grew up with the Post-Crisis era being the current Modern Era.  But when did the Post Crisis era end?  During the early-mid 2000s we felt like it was still the Post-Crisis era but in hindsight a lot of what was special about the Post-Crisis era to many who consider it their favorite era of DC comics was already being eroded by 2002, I consider the reviving of Oliver Queen in the Quiver arc from 2001 a key turning point.

So with about 15 years seeming to be the average, we Anime fans may well be near the end of our current era, which is perhaps what a lot of people tired of certain current Anime trends are hoping for.  But we probably won't notice the change as it happens just as DC fans didn't and just as I don't think we noticed the huge shifts happening in 2010-2013.  Madoka Magica was a big deal immediately, but how soon did people realize just how much it had changed the game for it's Genre?  Maybe the upcoming Madoka movie will help end the very same era the original show helped start?

But what will we call this era?  DC fans were lucky being given a convenient name early on, though it was originally used to denote continuity changes more so then an era.  We have been using some terms to describe the modern state of Anime, but they tend to refer to specific subgenres of what's going on now rather then all of it.  What do Dark Magical Girls, Isekai, VRMMOs, Magic Academies, endless Fate/ Spin Offs, and Battle Royal/Death Games all have in common?

I know sometimes the Post Crisis era is also called the Dark Age of Comics because of Watchmen/DKR influence.  And indeed some of those Anime trends are Dark but not all of them, Isekai is usually the opposite and plenty of classic style Mahou Shoujo have coexisted with the Madoka Clones.

Maybe "The Light Novel era" works.  LNs were a thing during prior eras and they portably will still be in future eras just as the Edgy Anti-Heroes of 90s Comics didn't just disappear.  But it does feel like this is an era where even some things that aren't LN based often seem like they are because of how pervasive their influence is.

Update: One could just continue the Greek Mythological inspiration and call the 4th age the Iron Age.

Donna Troy: The Woman and The Hero

Is one of many now long dead Internet 1.0 Fansites that was a pretty important part of my early history as an Internet dwelling Nerd.  But in-spite of how Nostalgic I am for it I sometimes misremember the name by dropping the definite article as "Donna Troy: Woman and Hero".

The Website is Archived via the Waybackmachine, but in a way that concerns me.  My first instinct going there is to want to find what the website looked like when I first found it in 2003 or 2004.  However while it says there are Captures from those years they don't properly load.  So the closest I can get is a Capture from June 2005 when the latest Update was the March 2005 Update when it covered the Return of Donna Troy special being announced, I remember when I saw that update happen, 2005 was a very pivotal year in my DC Fandom.

The most recent Capture before that which actually loads is an August 2002 Capture when the latest Update to the site had been in October 2001.  The revelation that even Waybackmachine Captures aren't guaranteed to last forever has me worried about a lot of our preservation of a lot of Internet History.

Now those of you who know Donna's history may have noticed that I just outed myself as a Donna Troy fan who is strangely most Nostalgic for when she was dead.  That's because this is when I became a fan, see I got into Donna reading this site I stumbled upon before I'd yet read a single Comic Donna actually appeared it.  

It's interesting really to become a fan of a Western Comic Book character while they're Canonically dead, especially during this Post-Crisis yet pre Infinite Crisis era, the same phenomena applied to my Stephanie Brown Fandom.  It's hard to be as mad at the story that killed her as most of her fans are when that was already part of her Lore when I got into it.  And hard to be that upset at not getting any new stories (for awhile) when all her stories are new to me.  I'm first learning this character's history as a story with an already defined beginning middle and end, or in Donna's case several beginnings and a long winding middle and an end.

Donna Troy is one of a few DC characters for whom how her origin keeps being messed with by Crisis related shenanigans is a commonly made fun of Meme.  But as things stood during this period I really saw her history as indeed uniquely complicated but not incoherent.  Like each new Retcon was adding to what we already had in a way that fleshed her out rather then replacing or discarding anything.  But maybe it only felt that way to me because this Fansite did a good job of presenting her History as one cohesive Story.

However in time DC grew obsessed with starting absolutely everything over from scratch every few years.

This site's last update was in 2009.  Now we finally have her in Live Action and while on paper The Titans show doesn't give her a history very similar to this Era of the Comics, Conor Leslie's performance is great and somehow managed to feel like exactly the character I became a Fan of in part via this Website.

What movies I've seen recently.

The most recent movie I've watched is Morbius and it was good, I think the best live action theatrical Superhero movie since Endgame, it's refreshing to see one that isn't about the a plot to destroy the entire city or world or universe and also isn't a semi self parody.

The first almost 40 minutes were flawless, then when it became clear Milo was gonna be the villain I felt that could have been handled better.  Giving them the ability to Fly when they don't grow wings was stupid, and I didn't like the fridging at the end, but plenty of flaws comparable to those exist in great movies.

I think the hate this movie gets is mostly just the weird hate boner much of Internet fandom has developed for Jared Leto.  What flaws this movie did have were not on Leto at all, he was great.

I also re-watched The Batman, and I still think it's decent. I had commented before on it being the most like a Film Noir of any Batman movie so far, and it is.  But a pure Film Noir would have ended during the scene of Batman talking to Riddler in prison, a good Film Noir ending would have ended on Batman reacting to the revelation that he inspired the villain, and Riddler's hysterical reaction to learning his idol doesn't approve.  It even had already had a full feature length runtime.

The final act with the plot to drown the city is the typical Superhero movie BS, and I increasingly feel Batman is exactly the Superhero who doesn't need that.

I also finally watched Cloud Atlas, it was a great movie, but the best Wachowski film is still Speed Racer.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 was also great fun, I highly recommend it.

The Anime films I've watched I'm pretty sure I've already talked about on this blog.  Except maybe the latest Prisma Illy movie, that was pretty good, didn't disappoint, but I am getting annoyed at the cliffhangers and wondering when this Arc will finally end.

Incase I hadn't mentioned it anywhere, I also saw Redline and it was phenomenal.

I now own the Heaven's Feel movies on VUDU, I may give them a rewatch in the near future.

What does Anime Inspired even mean?

As I've been thinking more about my past complaints about allegedly Anime inspired cartoons in the West, I realize the inspiration they are taking is all Art Style.  Catwoman Hunted is allegedly "Anime Style" but the actual content and writing of the story is the same as I'd expect from any Catwoman movie.

There was a time when a Cartoon being as "Dark" or "Edgy" as Netflix Casltevania would have been very rare if at all in the West.  But the way that show was written draws more from Live Action American Dark Fantasy like Game of Thrones then it does something like Berserk.

For me the actual art style isn't much of why I like Anime.  Yeah I do prefer it to what the Internet calls the Cal Arts style, but there is plenty of Western Cartoons I think look great like Batman The Animated Series.  And actually the only animated content I've ever found literally unwatchable solely because of how much it's art style doesn't appeal to me are Anime, like Pokémon Sun and Moon.  Even my old complaining about the New 52 artsyle of the DCAMU films was more about my DC fandom hang-ups then any preference for Anime and I was able to enjoy some of them regardless.

That's the thing, the Cal Arts style is being thought of as the antithesis of Anime style right now, but it's Steven Universe that drew actual thematic inspiration from Sailor Moon and Utena, while High Guardian Spice drew on Little Witch Academia.

A lot of what I like about Anime is the Meta, characters within Anime who are Anime fans, Anime that are in part about Otaku culture, and the only reason I have any desire to see Americans successfully make an "American Anime" is so we can finally see the particularities of Otaku Culture in the West represented in that, the representation American Otaku visiting Japan get in Anime is pretty bland, even Patty in the otherwise phenomenal Lucky Star.

So yeah I'd like to see what a show with the basic premise of a Lucky Star or a Yuri Yuri [or Comic Party] would be like if it was set in America and written not by just any Americans but specifically American Otaku who are long time fans of those kinds of shows and the Anime they reference.  Or if you're gonna need fantastical elements to get the budget do something very directly inspired by Anime adapted from SciADV games, or an Isekai where it's an American Otaku who gets randomly transported to a JRPG Fantasy world, but of course American Otaku Gamers would probably use Final Fantasy or SaGa as the model rather then DragonQuest and that itself is something I'd enjoy seeing.

Miyazaki's whole complaint about the state of Anime is how insular it is, it's pretty much all being made by Otaku for Otaku and only drawing inspiration from other Anime.  So called "American Anime" is being made not by Otaku but by at best Anime Fans who're nostalgic for what was well known in the U.S. in the 90s and early 00s.  

Even western Magical Girl shows are still made by people who've only seen Sailor Moon and maybe Cardcaptor Sakura, or think Utena counts, and maybe super recently might have seen Madoka.  But the true Magical Girl experience also requires exposure to Pretty Cure, Nanoha, and at least one Post Madoka show (hopefully they'd choose Yuki Yuna), but I'd really be hoping for people who've dug even deeper then that and seen Symphogear, Pretear, Wedding Peach, Pretty Sammy and Prisma Illya.

Don't confuse this with another "Style vs Substance" dichotomy, visual style and writing style are both styles.  In Anime especially Style is Substance.

No Anime still isn't Mainstream

Like a week or so ago I stumbled upon a Twitter thread where someone lamented how Superheroes have become Mainstream now, among responders were people saying that Superheroes have "always been mainstream" and that is of course debatable.

Then someone made a comment implying that Anime is just as mainstream as Superheroes, and I of course objected to that sentiment as someone who gets "Anime PFP don't take seriously" anytime I insert myself into an Internet conversation not specifically in the Anime community.

One argument thrown out as proof that Anime is mainstream now is that you can buy it at Walmart.  And I found that very odd, there is plenty of niche stuff at Walmart, at least in the entertainment section, heck the book section seems to be only stuff I haven't heard of.  The only reason there is a narrower range of DVDs and Blu Rays you can buy at Walmart then at a place like FYE is that FYE sells more older and used stuff.  Yet all that said the Anime selection at my town's Walmart isn't great actually, Ghibli films, Sailor Moon, Pokémon, DBZ and maybe a few things that are indeed mostly known only within the community.  But apparently even Fate/ stuff is still too obscure for our Walmart.

Then this person went on to respond "just because not all Anime is mainstream doesn't mean Anime isn't mainstream", which floored me a bit as I was preparing to make the exact opposite argument, just because some specific Anime are mainstream doesn't mean Anime is mainstream.

And at this point I guess we have to define our parameters.  The context is comparing Anime to Superheroes, which is perhaps an innately flawed comparison, one is a medium the other is a genre, there are after all Anime about Superheroes, even by the narrowest definition of what makes a "Comic Book Superhero", One Punch Man and My Hero Academia are clearly drawing on American Superhero aesthetics and tropes.  And not coincidently those are two of the most popular mainstream Anime franchises born in the 2010s.  

However Superheroes in the strictest sense of what we're thinking here are strongly tied to a specific medium, American Comic Books.  And in that sense you could almost argue Anime is more mainstream since with the Anime that are mainstream it is the Anime people are watching, the mainstreaming of Superheroes is largely via adaptations into other mediums, actual Comic Books have not improved their sales at all.  However most Anime are adapted from some even more niche (at least to Americans) source material, like Manga (basically Japanese Comic Books), Light Novels, Visual Novels and certain kinds of Video Games, and fans of those mediums feel a similar resentment towards the Anime being what most people know that Comic Book fans feel.

But setting all those semantics aside, the reason Superheroes as a concept are mainstream now but Anime is not, is that while plenty of specific Superheroes still aren't household names yet, the moment a new Marvel or DC character gets a role in a Movie or Streaming App TV show announced they will start trending on Social Media just as much as the latest Batman news.  The same is absolutely not true for Anime.

Now you could say that's more about Marvel and DC as brands, but then you have shows like Invincible and The Boys becoming huge Pop Culture talking points for being alleged "Deconstructions" of Superheroes.  Anime "Deconstructions" rarely gain such automatic notoriety, even Ikuhara's 2010s work didn't get noticed much outside the Anime community.  And Anime does have at least one corporate Brand that can compete with DC and Marvel, Toei Animation, a number of Toei franchises are among the most globally mainstream stuff Japan has produced, but is every Anime they make cared about simply for being Toei?  No absolutely not, even Pretty Cure still struggles to get noticed in the English speaking world.

This debate was also about how mainstream Superheroes have become recently, their current mainstream status is the product of the last decade, maybe 2 decades.  In the 90s certain Superheroes already had their place in pop culture, even ones that hadn't had a big Blockbuster movie yet like Wonder Woman, The Flash and a handful of Marvel's.  But most of what people who'd call themselves a Comic Book Nerd cared about was not, if you told one of them in the 90s that within their lifetime the Goddamn Peacemaker would be the star of a hit HBO TV show, and there would be big budget Hollywood Blockbuster movies with Multiverse shenanigans, they would laugh in your face.

Anime Fandom currently is where Superhero Fandom was in the 90s, our existence is acknowledged more then we used to be, but only so we can be the cultural punching bag that people who knew what Pre and Post Crisis meant used to be.

The Anime equivalent of the Goddamn Peacemaker getting an HBOMax show would be Summer Radish Vacation getting a Netflix Live Action adaptation.

I actually miss Episodic Television

I watched a YouTube video on Smallville recently, and one of the complaints about the show of course was that there was "soooo much filler".  It's kinda funny coming back to Smallville discourse after spending years in the Anime Community where "Filler" has a mostly different meaning.

When I look back on Smallville comparing it to the modern state of Superhero TV shows, the "Filler" is exactly what I miss.  To me what makes Clark Superman is how he deals with small things as much as the big things.

If you follow the discourse among actual DC and Marvel Comic Book readers, you'll notice one thing that has been lamented about the state of Superhero comics for well over a decade now is how everything is "written for the Trade" and thus you don't get simple short one off stories anymore, not in the main continuity at least.

Well Superhero based TV is finally catching up to the Comics in this regard.  And while for now everyone is excited about the possibilities, I feel like the one person noticing that this is leading to exactly why so many of us Comic Book Nerds started preferring TV and Cartoons to the actual Comics in the first place.

Saying Smallville was good actually may be mildly controversial, but saying that about Batman The Animated Series is not.  Michael Baily has lamented how since The Joker killed Robin and crippled Barbara Gordon in the late 80s you can't just tell one off Joker stories anymore, not in the main continuity, he became too big for that.  In the 90s BTAS became the source for new short one off Joker stories.  And it did the same for all of the villains.

The reason none of the modern attempts at creating new Batman villains have truly become Icons like the ones who've been around since at least the 70s is because those classic villains had who they are and what works about them defined by tons of short and simple one off villain of the week stories.  Then later writers started trying to find ways to make them work in more Epic and long form stories with varying degrees of success.  But now every new villain is introduced as the Big Bad of a huge status quo shaking event, and they may have worked great for that event, but attempts to bring them back just reveal their short comings.

It's not just the Superhero genre though.  Perhaps with something like a High School Drama it's harder to easily tell the difference between something episodic and something trying to be a 20 hour movie.  But I can still sense that I generally prefer the former to the latter.

For hour long live action TV shows my ideal is somewhere between purely episodic and every episode being a huge earth shattering plot development.  I want there to be an overarching storyline in the background, but for most individual episodes to work as their own stand alone stories.  That was how Buffy/Angel, Xena and Smallville operated back in the day. and it used to be that was also how most long running TV Anime worked.  

Now it seems like if a new show did what I like it would be viewed as a step backwards.  I look at how Netflix's Daredevil was praised from season 1 as a new evolution of the Superhero genre making everything that came before and contemporary with it look amateur in comparison.  But all I see is how the potential for interesting one off stories with a Superhero who's also a Defense Attorney were squandered by the obsession with making a 13 hour Kingpin movie.  Season 2 I liked more then most people in-spite of not doing what I prefer, then season 3 won back the season 1 people and I hated it.

And even with Anime what I like is becoming rarer, with Light Novel and Visual Novel adaptations dominating the market.  And Manga meanwhile hasn't had the same history as Marvel and DC Comics, they were always "written for the trade" to some extent.  So it's mostly original Anime, or Anime that diverted from the source material in ways purists hate like classic Sailor Moon and FMA that are structured the way I most prefer.  The later of those mostly isn't allowed anymore, and even original Anime are often written for the Binge watcher even if it aired weekly since most Anime don't make their profits from the TV broadcast anyway.

I love plenty of shows that aren't structured this way, I'm simply sad that this kind of TV is dying out.  

Justice League, Both Cuts are good movies

That’s my double Hot Take, each has their advantages and disadvantages.

I wasn’t expecting to have this reaction.  I’ve always known I’m not as much of a Snyder Fanboy as I sometimes come off to others, but clearly I myself was overestimating our alignment.  So much of what I liked about the Theatrical Cut that is not in the Snyder Cut I really assumed would be.

I’m quickly growing to have a similar relationship with Justice League as I do Superman II where my ideal hypothetical version of that movie combines elements of the Theatrical and Donner versions.  However the differences in Aesthetic Style here make doing a Fan Edit not nearly as easy.

I can say that while the Theatrical Cut should have been longer, 4 hours I would not have tolerated for a movie theater viewing where I can’t pause it.  No Superhero movie should in theaters be longer than The Ten Commandments.  However like the LOTR Extended Editions home viewing is different.  The same runtime as the Avengers movies would have been the ideal.

The best “superficial” praise I can give the Snyder Cut is that every scene or moment which is on paper the same in both versions is better executed here, better editing and cinematography and special effects and definitely a far more cohesive Musical Score.  And a lot of the longer scenes, and other stuff one might say adds nothing to the “plot” and may therefore get criticized as padding actually helps the film’s Gravitas and Characterization.

As far as the actual story goes the chief improvement in the Snyder Cut is everything involving Cyborg and his Father and the characters connected to them completely cut from the theatrical, he is the heart of the film and who was most done dirty by the theatrical cut.  Most of what I now dislike about the theatrical version are the alternate scenes with them.

However there is one more detail of the Theatrical Cut I would be completely adverse to including in an ideal hybrid cut and that is the Flash landing on Wonder Woman’s boobs gag.  One of the few Anime clichés I’m glad I (usually) don’t have to worry about in a Hollywood movie.

The Flash is overall also done better by The Snyder Cut, but I also like everything with him in the Theatrical besides that one gag I just mentioned.  However I don't consider major extra Flash scenes to be necessary.

Aquaman comes off about the same in both versions, which is good, he’s cool.  

Steppenwolf I don’t care about either way.  He is different but I really don’t care about his greater depth.  As I said before in Super Team formation films I’m fine with the villain being just a plot device.  The DeSaad and Darkseid scenes I enjoyed as a Nerd, but I don’t think what they add to the film really matters, they were there to set up future films that still might never get made, and Darkseid is the kind of character I feel should be ominously mentioned for years before he's ever even glimpsed.

However what I would most prefer to be gone are the Injustice inspired bad future visions, and I now want that gone from BvS too.  I was hoping that storyline would be resolved by the end of this film.  I don’t want more Evil Superman BS, that was supposed to be done away with once this film finished Clark’s Hero's Journey.  It turns out Snyder was planning more than a Trilogy and that disappoints me.

The Theatrical version of Justice league for all it’s plot holes and imperfections is still a fun movie that gets most of the core characters right.  And compared to The Snyder Cut is far better as a Superman movie, or a Batman movie and sure as hell a better sequel to Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman films.

The Theatrical Version despite having less than half as much Runtime feels like it has twice as much humanity.  Patrick H Willems talked about how Whedon’s Avengers movies have more glimpses of the normal civilian population and their reactions to the Superheroes then the Russo films, and that same contrast exists here.  

That Instagram video of the kids recording Superman at the beginning, that goon Batman uses to bait a Parademon, the Opening Credits sequence, having civilians around they need to protect during the big final battle, and other little moments right before cutting to the end credits.  All of that adds a lot of humanity to the theatrical version that I missed here.

I want to talk briefly about the Mustache controversy of the theatrical version.  People keep saying it's something you can’t not notice, except when I first saw it I hadn’t heard about any of this and I indeed didn’t notice it.  That one particular screenshot people like to meme to me just looks weird because of Cavil’s facial expression, in a way lots of freeze frames in a film will.

I hate the inclusion of the Black Superman Suit.  A lot of people think it's a requirement for a Superman returns from the Dead storyline, but this isn't a direct adaptation of Reign of The Supermen.  I would have been fine with it if it was only temporary like in those Comics, but him having it in the closing shirt rip shot symbolizes what I’ve already complained about and feel betrayed by.  I’m one of many who defended Snyder’s choices for Man of Steel and BvS on the grounds that it's Superman’s beginning.  Instead The Snyder Cut has revealed that Darker Edgier Superman was the long term plan.

With Batman I’ve already praised that scene where he coaches Barry and how much I liked that.  I also liked that Lois calming Superman down was Bruce’s plan, in the Theatrical Cut that’s the pay off to Barry’s future warning, in the Snyder Cut it only adds to that to set up a final pay off later.  I also like when he says to Alfred that Clark is more Human than he is.

In the Snyder Cut Diana kills that British Terrorist, this isn’t exactly contradicted in the Theatrical but it's clear that’s something Whedon chose to cut because he knew it didn’t fit with how Jenkins’ Wonder Woman movie ended.  A lot of people have been praising the moment with the little girl soon after saying “how could they cut that?” they aren’t looking at the context.  There was no way to include that while still hiding that Snyder had filmed Wonder Woman killing someone.  In addition to that I also don’t like her being so determined to decapitate Steppenwolf either.

I also miss all of the interactions between Bruce and Diana unique to the Theatrical Cut.  I do not interpret them Romantically, Alfred is just being a naggy parent who wants grandkids.  I like that they talked about Steve Trevor, something only briefly alluded to in the Snyder Cut.  I like that Bruce is a dick in one scene but not going to Frank Miller levels.  I like that he sees Diana as the one who should actually lead the team.

As stand alone works of art The Snyder Cut is more “Auteur”, but both were in truth collaborative projects.  I appreciate both and I hope the Theatrical version is never buried and forgotten.

What are good Entry Point Anime for Western Superhero Comic Book Nerds?

It's kind of surprising to me how much these two fandoms don't overlap.  I tried to make a variation on the Dio meme that was about the Captain Atom/Monarch fiasco and nobody got it.  Plenty of people who are deep into one of those rabbit holes is familiar with the most well known Normie examples of the other, but that's about it.

As someone who's DC fandom is far older then my Anime fandom, and yet has come to now view Anime as what I'm more of a fan of then anything else.  I'm perhaps uniquely qualified to try and identify how to reel others in.

The Anime that are most explicitly made to evoke Western Superhero aesthetics, stuff like One Punch Man and My Hero Academia, actually don't appeal to me.  They're just Battle Shonen (one of my least favorite Anime genres) with more Capes and Masks.

The Magical Girl Warrior Subgenre was influenced by Superhero comics in a very particular way.  If you're of the opinion that Wonder Woman was only great in the Marston era and everything since Denny O'Neil has been a hollow shell, then Sailor Moon or Wedding Peach might be exactly what you've been looking for.  But I know there will be others that won't be able to get into that genre, at least not without being phased into the Bishoujo first.  So my focus today shall be more Seinen.

For me the show that wasn't my first Anime but the one that really felt like a unique and interesting approach to tropes and ideas I was already into from my prior Nerdiness was Code Geass.  There was a thread on IMDB once about comparing Lelouch to Simon Bolivar, I wasn't as familiar with that piece of history as I am now (which is still not a whole lot), but I left a comment on how I liked to compare Lelouch to Alexander The Great and Paul Atredes and Batman and Spiderman and Ozymandias, but there was also overlap with what I loved about the Star Wars Prequels.  Later when I started getting into Paul Feval his John Devil was added to that list.  The show also had Shakespearian qualities in some of it's dialogue exchanges that are more subtle then literal Iambic Pentameter.

But one thing I kept noticing when I rewatched the show earlier this year was how many Anime tropes and clichés it had that I wasn't prepared to recognize as such when I first watched it.  This was my first Absurdly Powerful Student Council, my first School Festival and even my first taste of some of Anime's special kind of degeneracy (wasn't my first sample of Yuri though).  It introduced me to those things but not in doses unbearable for someone who'd prefer not to have them.

Thing about Code Geass is while it was great for me others might need something even less perverted.

Death Note is a show I watched because it's lead was often compared to Lelouch.  The show provides a great Holmes vs Moriarty style battle of wits, for a certain kind of Comic Book Nerd it's exactly what they want.  But I'm more looking for what will appeal to those who's tastes are less dark.

For people like Linkara, I really recommend starting with A Certain Scientific Railgun (but skip the second episode on your first watch) and then the show it spun off from A Certain Magical Index.  Railgun is a Seinen show that could easily pass for Shoujo, and at times I feel like it has an appeal that is very similar to why Teen Titans is my favorite DC franchise yet I can't really explain why.

Railgun is better then Index at least in their Anime versions for a number of reasons.  The main thing that makes it a better entry point for Normies is having none of Index's egregious fanservice, only the most G rated allusions to that aspect of the culture.  

But also during Railgun T especially it proves to be a show where the battles actually put thought into making interesting use of the characters' various powers and abilities.

Once you are into this universe, you probably will want to check out Index and Accelerator eventually, because there are aspects of the universe only those shows can get into.

Update January 2022:  I wish I'd watched some Detective Conan before I wrote this, it's a show I was aware of but it's different then I expected.  Some of the shows above involve dual identified but how they function is a bit different.  There are occasional episodes of Detective Conan where Ran is very much on to Conan being Shinichi, and they way they play out constantly reminded me Lois Lane in the first act of Superman II.

Update Again: Months later and Conan is still holding up, it combines the Teen Drama Superhero antics of Spiderman with the Gadget wielding non leathal Detective antics of Batman.  And in time it develops an interesting cast of recurring villains.  

Also magic Kaito which it spun off from is good too, it's Manga is older but the Anime is newer.

The movies are often more action orientated then the show, and have on average gotten less cleverly written as time as gone on, but I find mostly all of them, even the dumbest Conan film is smarter then any MCU film.

Update August 31st 2024: I also now want to add Durarara! to the list, it has a lot of qualities that remind me of those DC Comics where you just kind of hang out in the DC Universe.

"A Kingdom Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand"

This is a Bible quote most famous in America for how Abraham Lincoln used it (changing Kingdom to House), but I find it amusing how his use of it is perhaps undermined by acknowledging that Jesus was specifically talking about the Kingdom of Beelzebub when He said this (arguing it is absurd to accuse Demons of helping someone cast out Demons).  Doesn't necessarily debunk it's applicability, but it's funny to think about.

What I want to talk about today however is the weird irony of how often writers of fiction want to believe the Kingdom of Beelzebub is exactly the Kingdom that would be incapable of following this advice.

A lot of kids' shows in particular want to preach the value of teamwork by suggesting that the bad guys always lose precisely because they can't actually work together.

It's a lot more jarring however when these same tropes pop up in more "adult", "serious" or "realistic" settings.  Where the big bad thinks making the cashing in of their bounty on the hero a competition will increase the odds of success when what it really does is cause the assassins to spend half their time saving the hero from each other.  In Arkham Origins when it turns out it was The Joker doing it to cause Chaos it works, but when the real Black Mask does it in the recent Birds of Prey movie.... I like the film overall but that part does annoy me a bit.

Or when in Rise of Skywalker General Hux betrays the First Order to the Resistance because his personal hatred of Kylo Ren suddenly now trumps his devout loyalty to Authoritarianism so strongly established in The Force Awakens.

However the example that is most pertinent on my mind right now is Sailor Moon.  You see one of the things Manga fans really harp on the 90s Anime for is the way this trope is strongly at play in that version but really never was in The Manga.  However 90s Anime fans feel the Satou and Ikuhara versions of these villains have more "depth" since we spent more time with them.  But when all that depth merely functions to make them less effective as antagonists it's ultimately a hollow depth, to some viewers at least.

Thing is it could be all this infighting was partly because of the 90s show drawing things out longer, they need to explain why it's taking so long for this many super powerful black mages to accomplish anything.  But it's also partly because 90s Toei didn't want the Senshi killing the bad guys as directly as they did in the Manga, so Zoisite kills Nephrite, Mimette kills Eudial, Tellu kills Mimette and so on.

I've been slowly but surely watching my way through Cutey Honey Flash, the 97 Cutey Honey reboot designed to serve as a successor to the 90s Sailor Moon Anime, and this trope is again at play here in a way that as far as I can tell currently it isn't in other versions of Panther Claw, but I'm no expert on that franchise.

Perhaps it is inappropriate to bring The Bible into this particular trope discussion, since this quote was about Demons not Sinful Human Beings who have presumably more complicated motivations. However villains in Magical Girl shows and Power Rangers sometimes are treated as more Demon then Human.

But more importantly this Trope often happens for the trope's own sake without putting any thought into why these characters are acting this way.  If they don's care about this cause enough to put it ahead of their personal animosity for certain co-workers why are they fighting for it at all?  If this villainous organization itself isn't driven by an ideological goal what is driving it?  Those questions could have good understandable answers, but usually the show is hoping we won't ask in the first place.

A lot of those Sailor Moon Manga fans frustrated by the 90s Anime love the mid 00s Live Action show commonly known as PGSM.  On that show the Shitennou wind up not being all on the same page but why actually does make sense in the context of that re-imagining of the story.  Parts of what was done with them in the 90s Anime work great, I love Nephrite/Naru and Kunzite/Zoisite.  But the complete picture is never painted at all, the 90s Anime is the one version to never even explain the part about them being originally Prince Endymion's loyal retainers.

The Black Moon Clan has it the worst, for them the 90s Anime almost completely removes their motivation.  They were supposed to be the most ideologically driven of any of the Sailor Moon villains so them spending the Anime constantly betraying each other over petty BS is completely nonsensical.

But the Infinity Arc is the most Lovecraftian Sailor Moon story-line, the Deahtbusters are meant to be like one of those cults Nyarlahotep founded, so their infighting in Sailor Moon S doesn't make sense either.

You can have villains fighting each other because they weren't part of the same "Kingdom" to begin with.  You can have rivalries within an organization so long as those rivals can put that aside when it's time too actually fight the heroes.  You can have someone in a villainous organization who actually has their own agenda.  Or you could attempt to debunk these rules I'm making altogether by making it make sense.

But a lot of the time villains are undermining each other for no reason other then people expect villains to behave that way.

Update: The closest thing to a TVTropes page for this says it's not a pervasive trope at all but rather that it's a rarity when this happens.  I guess when a Trope is annoying you at the moment it seems more pervasive then it actually is.

Update November 2024: I just watched episode 14 of Corrector Yui and it's entire moral is again about the bad guys not being able to cooperate.

My Top 10 DC Animated Movies

DC Animated movies seem to be one of the few areas where I'm more critical than conventional nerd culture wisdom rather than less, saying DC is overall better at Animation is silly to me when no Live Action Superhero film will ever be as offensive to me as that Gotham by Gaslight disaster.  And I'm not even as in love with the fullness of the Timmverse as most people, but that's a rant for another day.  That said I have still gained plenty of enjoyment from them, even the ones I’ve been very critical of in the past history of this blog have had some redeeming value I’ve enjoyed.

So I figure it’s time I talked about which ones I like the most.  There do exist DC movies I haven’t seen.  But I’ve seen most of what people generally recommend.  The recent line of DC Super Hero Girls movies are the main thing I’ve missed out on, also the straight to DVD Lego movies.

Now the usual structure of a list like this is from the bottom up.  But in this case the very top of the list is actually very predictable, what I consider the very best, maybe even the entire top 3 is a pretty common conventional wisdom.  So I’d rather list these from the very best to the least of the best so the focus of the post can stay on where my opinions on them diverge from most.

1. Batman: Mask of The Phantasm.

As I said, a predictable opinion, why it’s so great is already better explained by others.

2. Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker.

Also an opinion I’m fairly certain is far from uncommon.  Again others have no doubt talked about it at length.  But my appreciation for it has only increased since I’ve seen Akira and now recognize the blatant Homage (the Laser fired from a space satellite looks exactly the same).

3. Justice League: New Frontier.

Perhaps I’m still unfairly biased towards this one for being the first of the 2007 initiated line I actually liked.  It’s a pretty decent Adaptation of an interesting Comic drawing on ideas popularized by Watchman and DKR, so it’s interesting how it got a movie before they did.

4. Scooby Doo & Batman The Brave and The Bold.

I already dedicated a blog post to this one.  It’s absolutely hilarious.  There is still more I could say and perhaps will after the next time I re-watch it.

5. Superman Unbound.

I’ve also already written about why this is my favorite animated Superman movie.  But I now feel more comfortable saying it may be my favorite Superman movie period.  Also the Superman animated movies I hadn't seen yet when I wrote that I have seen now and it hasn't changed anything.

6. Batman Under The Red Hood.

In a way I’m disappointed that this is by a significant margin the best we’ve gotten from a Batman animated movie not directly connected to a TV series.  But don’t take that as too much of an insult.  It arguably improves on its source material by streamlining things and cutting out the tie ins to other DC story-lines of the time.  I just wish Black Mask had been represented better and it’s Joker didn’t recycle jokes.  Kelly Hu is fantastic in her supporting role, she’d probably make my top ten list of performances from the main line of animated movies.

7. Justice League Crisis on Two Earths

This one was the biggest surprise for me, I was not expecting how well it would hold up.  Probably my main agreement with SUPER FRAME’s video on the DC animated movies is how high up he places this one (his unlike my list here is of only the specific line of films).  It’s another one that I could write an entire post on someday.

I only have room for three more, I think these bottom three might be the most influenced by my current mood and moderately interchangeable with the honorable mentions.  Above the order of 3-7 is also perhaps subject to change, but basically that is a pretty solid top 7.

8. Batman/Superman World’s Finest

Even though it’s transparently a 3 part episode of a TV crossover spliced together, it’s still the best take on how Superman and Batman first meet to date.  And no it's not the only multi-part episode once packaged as a movie I counted as a movie for consideration for this list.  I also love how it used both Mercy and Harley.

9. Allstar Superman

Most seem to like this the best of the animated Superman solo films.  I do enjoy it a lot clearly since it’s on this list, but even as someone who hasn't read the comic I sense how this is an abridged version of something larger.

10. Justice League Flashpoint

The most recent film from the actual line I consider even worthy of consideration for this list.  What I hate about it comes right from the Comics, as an Adaptation of a flawed Comic story-line this is perhaps even better then the above mentioned Red Hood.

The honorable mentions that almost made it would include both of the Adam West and Burt Ward animated movies made just before West passed away.  Together they might be a perfect send off for the Bright Knight.  Both Superman/Batman animated films which again arguably improve on their source material but the second of them is held back by an art-style I don’t like and the first by cutting Katana.  Both Green Lantern animated movies which I found pretty decent introductions to the GL mythos for newbies, but I controversially actually like the Ryan Reynolds movie more.  And finally the two Dark Knight Returns movies executed a lot perfectly, maybe even improved some details, and had great acting, they could have been on the list if they were one movie with the length of Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya and weren’t afraid of using voice over narration.

A failure to make that top 18 out of over 50 hardly means I hate it, I’ve given on this blog overall positive reviews to even stuff from the New52 based series, there are only a handful I have significantly overall negative feelings for. 

But those are the ones that exemplify what Superheroes can do in Animation.  I wish Marvel had made enough for me to consider such a list for them, but their only true shining achievement is Into The Spiderverse which was actually made by Sony.

Infinity War has reignited my excitement for Superhero movies.

It's difficult to explain my feelings here.  Since on an individual basis I have generally been liking the Phase Three MCU films the best so far, and yet at the same time was kind of tiring of them as a whole.

But I really wanted the DC Cinematic Universe to be better as someone who's more of a DC fan.  And so when I wound up feeling disillusioned with Batman V Superman it began a slow fading out of my interest in the genre.  And it helped that my discovery of Anime gave me something to fill that void.

It would never have been completely gone, as Batman in particular is my oldest Fandom and and for a long time this genre was the center piece of my Geekdom.  But the last three DC movies were all ones I left the theaters with initially high praise for but that I slowly soured on.  And that it's been basically the same with the new Star Wars movies had me feeling that I may have only Anime to rely on.

But Infinity War was amazing, it managed to truly feel like a Crisis level Event done on the Big Screen in Live Action with Live Actors.

And the knowledge that Donna Troy will be coming to the Titans show they're making also livens me up.

So my investment in this genre is renewed.  Anime is still gonna gonna be what this Blog talks about the most.  But I no longer feel like it was going to inevitably become an Anime only blog.

Superhero Genre Flexibility

One of the things talked about a lot with Superhero movies is how they can be combined with many different genres.  Now this is something that some including I have been saying since before the MCU started.  But over the course of MCU Phrase Three it's become a greater emphasis in how people praise the genre then ever before.

It's primarily the Films where this aspect becomes a big part of their very promotion, and perhaps sometimes other Comic Book adaptations.  And that's Ironic because in a way the adaptations have been less flexible.

You see this ability to experiment with genre has always been in the Comics.  One of many things Frank Miller is endlessly mocked for his Film Noir obsession.  But the films especially have been fixated on designating specific genres to specific heroes, if a Genre has two Superheros it's because Marvel and DC each threw one at it.

It is apparent right from the comics how some genres suit certain Superheros more then others.  But it's not as rigid.  Wonder Woman and Thor aren't the only Superheros who've encountered ancient mythologies.  Spiderman (and Superman in Prequels) isn't the only one to deal with High School Drama.  And obviously Frank Miller isn't the only writer to draw from the Film Noir well.

Now the serialized nature of Comics gives it more room to let the same Superhero have different kinds of stories, which is why TV sometimes does more of this, or used to.  Smallville did a lot of experimentation.

But even understanding that reason for it.  It bothers me to hear things like the WB being concerned Wonder Woman and Aquaman can't both be about mythology and so they decided to down play the Greek Mythology aspect of Wonder Woman, and that's probably why the gods were killed off in the back story.

This is another reason why I'm glad I've gotten into Anime.  Anime truly surpasses even Superhero comics with it's ability to flat out defy Genre.

The Justice League movie was a Ten out of Ten

I know I don't exactly have a reputation as someone who's praise for DCEU films means much.  But I did have conflicted feeling towards MOS and BvS.  That conflict is gone here.

They finally got Superman right.

Wonder WOman was still awesome.

Batman was dope as usual

The Flash was used pretty well, since I gave up on the TV show, Ezra is my Barry Allen now.

Aquaman and Cyborg weren't bad either.

Stay thorough the credits, DC finally did a full all the way after the Credits scene.