....enjoy this show.



I think I'll pass.

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When pondering the above missive in the presence of others one should ensure that one is smiling and maintaining one's composure so as not to cause any unnecessary distress or alarm.



Because that's what heroes do.

My Hero Academia has been really really good this season. Despite its very Japanese trappings this show is touching on some of the best aspects of American superhero comics and exploring the themes of the genre in ways that would make Lee, Kirby and Ditko proud.  Even the dashes of melodrama one expects in an unironic superhero show have been pulled off with superb skill and astonishing sincerity.

_{Product Warning: May cause...allergies.}

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...or ( if you're not on this side of the planet) just Ambient Irony, Pixy's embedded several AMVs including this really well edited piece built around a song from Shaka Ponk of all things...

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more...

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Is becoming the bane of our heroine.



From episode 5 of Ascendance of a Bookworm in which our heroine discovers the cost of ink and has her most cunning plans embezzled in good faith.

Also that "eye thing" remains unexplained, but potentially disturbing.
A few possibilities:
1: It seems to be associated with her despair and when it manifests itself, her soul seems to become somewhat un-moored from her body. She only recovers when she remembers some obligation or connection to life. Lutz mostly. So since her whole situation is tenuously preternatural all she needs to do is give into despair and poof, she's dead again.

2: THIS ISN'T HER BODY. Remember our heroine, Motosu Urano, died in an earthquake and woke up in the body of a 5 year old named Mai(e)n, who had presumably just died of being...sickly. This appears to be the case and is pretty bad in and of itself but it could mean that...
3: The real Main is not dead, but possessed by Motosu Urano and the "eye thing" is Main trying to get her body back from this crazy person who's running it into the ground.

Also worrisome, but less likely is the possibility that Otto has eyes for Lutz.


Anyway, minimalist animation aside, I'm still enjoying this show.

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I've seen several places lamenting the fact that  Blade Runner was set in November of 2019 and we haven't achieved the milestones presented in the film.

Oh Please:

Paraphrasing Lowther, It's true we don't have flying cars, but L.A. is a festering third world disease ridden hell hole. Technology focused Mega Corporations have bribed the powers that be and use their products like a jack boot on the throat of humanity.  The outlook for the individual is bleak despite impressive economic growth and while Mr.Musk's Mars plans are are 5-10 years in the future, a number of people DO look at them longingly for a better life (or at least a more rewarding one) in the off-world colonies. Intimately tied to why people might look at a spartan,tenuous and perilous existence working to hew from the bareness of of Utopia-Planatia, Occator or Rheasilvia, homes for future generations is that there are are now beings among us who look human but are childlike in many ways, have pre-programed violent emotional responses to certain phrases and are a fairly dangerous and worrisome addition to society.  

So really the differences come down to no flying cars and artistic license in that the SJWs don't look like Rutger Hauer or Daryl Hannah.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:50 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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...the first episode of My Hero Academia season 4.



It's pointless filler that has nothing happen and sort of but not comprehensively re-caps the first three seasons.

Start with this season's episode 2 (#65). Because then you won't drop this series and thereby miss the next two episodes, which are really good.

In this world, there are overpowered supervillains.




But there are also criminals who are actually very good at what they do.


Wow.

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Three episodes in Ascendance of a Bookworm seems to be living up to its initial promise.

It appears to be a very low budget show animation and art wise, but the story of a librarian who finds herself stuck in a 5-year old body in a parallel world's dark ages remains quite engaging.



Our heroine is saddled with myriad obstacles (for one thing, she's stuck in a 5 year old's body) but she's really determined and I particularly like that not everything she tries works, more-so that she learns from her mistakes and tries different things.

This is actually better than I'd hoped. I initially thought she was a Renfaire enthusiast and/or had experience making paper for calligraphy, but no. It turns out that Urano/Main doesn't actually have any hands on or technical knowledge of what she's trying to do. However, she has some historical knowledge of vaguely how it happened in our world and given that she KNOWS it can be done, she's doing experiments to figure out for herself, how to make a book.

The bit with the numbers was nicely done. It makes perfect sense given what we've seen that her otherwise illiterate 'mother' could do math and being a college graduate this would be something our heroine would pick up on quickly, after all the numbers, whatever their symbols, are constant.

Also, it was cool that while those basket-weaving classes didn't directly help with her goal she is still very glad she took them.

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Motosu Urano is a Japanese Librarian.

Presumably, she is a very NAUGHTY one, because when her library collapses on her and burns during an earthquake she dies and goes...TO HELL. A very special hell reserved for naughty librarians.

But Perdition has bitten off more than it can chew and this badass bibliophile is about teach Gehenna itself a lesson it won't soon forget, as she embarks upon: The Ascendance of the Bookworm.

more...

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God's Blessing on this Wonderful World!  was first published in 2012. Therefore, as SakimiChan so expertly points out here, everyone's favorite explodemologist is 20 now.

^{Support Sakimichan's art on Patreon and Gumroad!}

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It was all that and a bowl of grits.




I will likely not see it again as it is dark to the point that I found it hard to watch, (It really deserves its R-rating) but it is absolutely riveting and amazingly well done.

I'd heard that he'd done a good job, but Joaquin Phoenix just knocks it out of the park,  acting with every muscle in his body to give a performance for the ages.

The art direction and set design are superb. It's a period piece that looks like it was filmed in the period in which it was set. 

This is just a superb piece of filmmaking.

And high-octane nightmare fuel.

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Thanks to Mauser in the comments for alerting me to this.

New character designs are new.

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They set this up  so it could be a half season or more, which with a normal shounen story would be.

Not here!

No, that whole 'Rescue the Renard Arc' was a bit over two and a half episodes if you count the foreshadowing.   This was brilliantly paced with an incredible amount of badassery from various characters...

^{NOT a Mary Sue.}

...each example of which would, in a normal show, be spread out over one or two episodes. This one, they wrap it up good and tight, and tie a bow on it with any loose ends.

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Indeed it did.
Mostly off screen.

Astra: Lost in Space has been a really good series, where our young heroes have survived against all odds in the face of all manner of interesting science fiction scenarios. In the process of surviving those perils, they have uncovered a conspiracy, another, much larger conspiracy of incredible scope and the series has expertly set up the fact that their getting home is going to start an entirely new set of adventures that could easily provide fodder for an entire new season including some genuine conundrums and really interesting concepts with sinister implications.

Instead, these many fascinating plot threads involving many perils and a gut punch to their entire civilization is wrapped up in a convenient retrospective monologue after a time skip.

To be fair, the show has a logical resolution . It just happens off camera.  This really could have gone on for 12 more episodes even if there were additional twists. Instead, we get 15 minutes added to the episode length and a lot of exposition. The troubling and sinister implications of the larger conspiracy are only hinted at.

Among the sinister implications: how an entire generation was silenced. Also: the fact that that everybody is disarmed and all weapons have been outlawed...yet this is a very heavily armed world government....A government that has decided to perpetrate a incredible lie "for the sake of peace". Note that this very rosy reading of the motivations behind the conspiracy comes from the guy who has been raised to die.

However, the biggest disappointment to me, aside from the "missing" 12 episodes, is the fact that Acting Dr. Gyru and Pinky McTwo Tone, two absolute geniuses who saved the day multiple times, DO NOT get their promised places on Kanata's spaceship. They stay home and do girl stuff. .

It looks like the series got cut short and the writers dealt with it as best they could. As it stands this was still a very above average series. The last episode is just SO perfunctory that it is a genuine disappointment.

On the other hand, the result is that this ends up being a show that is much more about the journey and the destination, and despite the let down of the journey's end, the road show itself was a hoot.

The first 12 episodes were good enough that I still recommend it though. With the caveat that the last episode is an afterthought.

(And I eagerly look forward to the show being finished in the fanfic.)

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Astra: Lost in Space continues to surprise.

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"Reeeeeee!1!" in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, .....

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It's vanishingly unlikely that any show could really live up to this trailer.



Indeed, after that awesome opening scene, the show reveals mediocre production values, a contrived and bizarre situation involving a cosmic space wedgie and unchaperoned teenagers in outer space. In addition to the aforementioned teenagers, there is a ten year old who talks through a hand puppet.

BUT WAIT!
By the end of the first episode , it is beginning to appear that our adolescent heroes predicament is not nearly as random as they thought  and from that point the show begins to live up to the promise of that trailer...in a completely different way than expected.

This is a throw back to the old Sci-Fi juvies. While only a 2 or 3 on Moh's scale of Sci-Fi hardness, there are a lot of interesting of sci-fi ideas and they are explored intelligently. The characterizations are solid too and the show manages to develop, maintain and ratchet up a surprising amount of tension as our heroes learn more and more disturbing facts about the pickle they are in.  Additionally the series manages to maintain a near perfect balance between being absolutely horrifying and surprisingly upbeat.

I'm really enjoying this show right now.

And boy, howdy that latest episode...

I have no idea where this is going, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the trip.

Recommended!

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