#mixed thoughts

I think my main issue is that they made Victor very unlikeable (which is good, you shouldn't like him) but they took away any shades of grey from his actions, but then made the Creature not actually do anything wrong which meant the third act didn't feel right as he suddenly had to be full monster and I did not like Victor's redemption (not really a redemption but that was the vibe).

I thought Jacob Elordi did a really good job in his physicality of the Creature but if they wanted him sympathetic I think the speech was too inconsistent between 'Monster' and 'Creature'.

Something I really like in the novel is that Victor has a supposedly perfect and loving childhood and then still creates a Creature that is responsible for so much horror. BUT that's part of the thesis on morality and beauty as purity and the cult of Sensibility that Shelley was writing about. ANYWAY in regard to the film I was not against the change in backstory BUT it meant they needed to work harder to make Victor more nuanced and I just wasn't convinced by it.

I get doing the cycle of abuse as a theme and it could have been really interesting but it felt so heavy handed that it was almost slapstick.

Also, Elizabeth wasn't a person. She had so little screen time where we learnt anything meaningful about her. She and the Creature only had two scenes together and that would be fine if they weren't suggesting a romance.

It also undercut the Creature's development and relationship with the cottagers to have already been shown kindness. And actually the cottagers in general were all over the place in showing the kindness of humanity but also the reactionary violence to the Other being innately human.

The score being so jaunty in places really ruined the tone for me as well during the creation. It gave magical whimsy rather than gory, hard work.

i will be traveling a lot, eventually. this makes this third-way life nearly my only option during those times. unless someone wants to pick up from where they live, to follow me when i leave their country…it’s their only option, to engage with my “outsider” life in this way.

you go on a date. you find out what the other wants, it arises at some point. and the really shallow either-or ones, who need this concept explained further after you’ve described it, will finally then tell you that you’re “trying to have your cake and eat it too”, by doing anything other than those two flat options. as if it’s a bad thing to step outside of these roles…something blameworthy….

there can be a lot of beautiful romance in scenarios like this! you can be old-school lovers, become infatuated, learn almost everything about one another. connect intellectually. deeply. write letters, make art! (muse/artist or mutual collaborators) let it exist, for what it is, and maybe even let it burn out. make peace with that in your heart. maybe visit this person again, years later, and let it resume, if you’re both feeling it.

it used to be that gay people in particular had the freedom to redefine relationships, and seek their own ways of building something, in this way. now it seems like it’s being boiled down in people’s imaginations into a flat black-and-white terrain, where either emotions don’t exist at all, or always exist (but with a rent/mortgage/kids attached), not just str8 but gay people’s too. which feels like not just a hetero, but a very conformist hetero mindset to have: “you can have your college experiments, kid, but then you have to settle down, heh heh heh.”

and meanwhile, outside of that conformity, there were always both lgbt and cis/het people, artists, “bohemians” and free spirits who defied the typical options presented for a life.

even the way that people usually do polyamory fits this either-or scenario: either it’s a network of people hooking up with fwbs and keeping “transparency” of these fwbs with other partners, or else it’s committed “polyfidelity” where they close the triad (usually it’s 3-4 ppl max) into an exclusive group who live together. that’s still so limited! there’s no imagination in it! you’re still being forced to pick one or the other: total commitment, or little-to-no emotionality involved.

they don’t want to go on any other journey with you. and for me, this feels like a worthwhile type of journey to take. maybe the only worthwhile one, with where i am in life right now.

the thing about this kind of life is that you either get it or you don’t. if i bother to explain, it usually ends up with me feeling hurt and misunderstood, that i’m inevitably yet again interacting with someone who can’t and won’t “go there” with me. what i want is always “too much” (or too little), somehow. i need the people who really get it and want to take that path with me.

and, ironically, the only way i can feel safe beginning to build a long-term relationship, would be if it started in this exact way: with neither of us strictly NEEDING to have it become serious, tying each other down, yet knowing that it COULD become deeper if we both wanted it to. something that grows organically, rather than being forced to say “yes, i want a long-term-forever” on the earliest dates. i don’t know that! i don’t know you yet!

being fluid is the only way you can have the room to decide if it can, if it’s worth becoming more solid later. wtf. why do too many people not get this?

i need freedom in my life. freedom doesn’t mean meaninglessness. doesn’t mean no commitment or all.

if you can treat sex as meaningless, you don’t respect sex or what it means. or the other person.

if you treat love as always-and-forever, you might not accept human limitations…not everyone can do that with you, can be “that one love”. sometimes it’s healthy if they can’t be that. sometimes it leaves the door open for others, later. sometimes you can enrich each other’s lives and then move to future enriching loves.

There’s one more thing I want to clarify before we start. 

I will be addressing Anzu’s character in three perspectives.

You have her manga counterpart.

Her Japanese anime counterpart

And her 4kids version. 

I will not be including her game counterparts by Konami. Nor will I talk about her movies versions either. Because Pyramid of Light isn’t essentially part of the main story as a whole.  And Dark side of Dimensions takes place after all the main Yu-Gi-Oh! events. And while yes the movie does take place in the manga universe. It’s still many years after the release of the books.  

Now… with that said let’s officially start.

As someone whose been both watching the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and reading the manga there’s a number of things I’ve seen be changed in both versions. Besides the larger obvious changes, (such as duels, plot points, etc.) there were some smaller ones that I noticed when I reread the manga.

And thus we get to Anzu’s character as a whole.

And as the picture says.

Anzu’s manga incarnation is my least favorite of the three versions.

Now, I really do like Anzu as a character. I don’t hate her. But I’m not going to lie that I used to be one of those people who would bash on her simply because she existed. But looking back on that I found just how unfair and bias that was.  Then I got to take a closer look at her character and I found, that her manga incarnation (to me) has to be her worst version mostly because of how she behaves in it.

Now no hate to Kazuki Takahashi, but Ima be frank, the only female character that I thought was well-written was Mai, and Ishizu to an extent. The rest… well could use some work. More particularly Anzu, now I do understand considering the manga was first published in 1996. In a time where women’s roles were a bit different then how it is today.

I’m no expert on Japanese customs, and how women are and were treated. But I do know there is a difference in Japanese culture and Western culture. Especially with woman empowerment in the recent years.

Now beyond that small detail, I already came clean that manga!Anzu wasn’t exactly a favorite. I’m not saying she was all that bad, as she clearly has her good points but I think what made her bland and off-setting is how she reacts to certain situations.

Warning: I’m heading into romantic territory.

I think more of less her crush on Yami Yugi/Atem. More specifically during the time they went to the water park. What seriously made me ticked off about Anzu was that she intentionally put herself in danger in order to see “cool other Yugi” in action.

And that’s one thing that bothered me a lot. Because the reason she even got a crush on Atem is mostly because he saved her from being shot. Which isn’t inherently bad. But you think she could be more concerned about the fact that the guy died. By being lit. On. Fire.

Who had been sitting right next to her I might add.

Granted she was blind folded, but you think that a person who bets her life wouldn’t be playing games by using fingers. (Granted Atem’s intelligence is off the charts when it comes to playing games). She should be scared shitless of the “mysterious” person and for her life. But still she falls in love with a stranger who DIRECTLY caused a criminal to be lit the guy on fire. I can understand that she falls in love with him because he saved her life. But if setting up a trap so a person can be lit on fire willingly doesn’t scream a manipulative psychopath, then I don’t know what to call them then.

Now going away from that fact, I think another thing that really bothered me is just how distinctly she cares little for everything else when dealing with Atem and her not so secret crush on him. And that would always involve little-miss-friendship one way or another to cast Yugi aside, just so she can spend some time with Atem. And to me that was just irksome. (So much for being childhood friends)

Something else that tends to grind my gears has to be the fact that she always, somehow is the victim of being captured and being used as a ransom or cause troubles for the whole gang. (Not to say that the anime hasn’t done this, it’s just not as much as it was in the manga).

Though, I won’t deny it must suck being the only girl. Especially during that “don’t make a sound” trial in the Death-T arc.

Now the reason why I prefer her anime counterparts compared to her manga version, is mostly because they were able to add more to her character beyond the basics. As well as tone down some of her negatives to something that sounds realistic and what a normal teenage girl could have.  

Now I’m not saying that her anime version hasn’t done wrongs. As at times she would get frustrated over nothing. And her jealousy rivalry with Rebecca can get out of hand and just straight out made for the basis of comedy. But to me that’s still miles better than her manga counterpart (especially in the earlier works).  

But if I had to be honest, I think her Season 0 counterpart, as well as her 4kids version were my favorite incarnations of her.

Yes, even her 4kids version. Friendship jokes aside they able to give her a less annoying personality. (And the fact that they got a voice actor that didn’t try to sound like a stereotype cute anime school girl) And whether you like Tea/Anzu or not, she does have a spunky personality, which is a lot more evident in both Season 0 and her 4kids counterpart. This gal is the embodiment of friendship goals!

She’s a friend who will always have your back and is willing to go through thick and thin. Not to mention if you’re feeling down she will try to find a way to lift your spirits. If not listen to your problems and comfort you.

Say what you want, but if she were real. I would like to have her as a best friend. And just in general, going back to her Season 0 counterpart, (as many consider to be her best version) and quite frankly I agree, and I think what made her such a good character in it, is that some of Anzu’s lesser great moments were given to Miho. Who has a cute and scatterbrain personality, not only did it give Miho personality, she was usually enjoyable to see on screen. Sometimes she was annoying, but not to the point were it was overbearing. And it meshed pretty well with those faults and still make her joy to watch on screen. Because of this we got to focus on more of Anzu’s stronger traits, and be a supporting independent character. For instance, the chono-sensei episode, where Anzu stood up for a class mate because her love letter was going to be revealed to the whole class as punishment.

Or starting a petitions to give students a chance to get a job while they’re in school. Or the fortune teller scene, where she reveals that she doesn’t believe in fortune telling and that she can shape her own future because she makes it happen by her choices and will.

I think more or less I think some of my more favorite changes has to be these two scenes.

Like this one:

changing to this:

These two are from the Season 0 and first manga volumes. The differences being instead of Anzu being the turned into a toy first, it’s Miho and later on Anzu joins, but out of her free will to fight along side her friends.

...

Then there’s this one, it changes from: 

To this:

The second comparison is from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist vol. Where she’s being controlled by Marik and would be forced to swallow a poisoned capsule if Yugi doesn’t duel a controlled Jounouchi/Joey

And the second one being that she’s strapped down to a chair and instead of being poisoned she will instead be crushed under a large metal crate. This allows Marik to release his control on her, since she’s locked. Which then allows her to watch the duel.

Being free of Marik’s control she’s able to tell Kaiba and Mokuba this:

And to me that makes a huge difference because it shows how much of strong and caring character she is. She’s willing to die for her friends so that they don’t have to.

(Though to be fair in the original manga she probably would do the same if she was in control). But I think that small change grow and expands her character even more.

And to me, I simply just prefer her anime counterpart in comparison to her manga version. I sincerely believe that both animes fixed what made her a bit intolerable in the manga. At least to me that’s what I feel