#reivew

Do you want to read how the Robin mantle was transitioned in the Batman Animated Series universe? Read this.

I mean that's basically it. That summary is all you probably need to know if you want to read this comic or not.

I am a little sad that they didn't include the Nightwing name coming from Superman (seeing they do reference the other heroes in this series and have cameos every now and then and I think it's a really sweet part of the Nightwing lore). But I also understand that this is a Batman comic and as a result they might not want to include that scene. The fact they never show where Dick gets the name from means I can still imagine it did come from Clark.

But other than that one incredibly personal gripe this series is just as good as all the other Batman Animated stuff. It's just as well paced, with the same good character and same general just being a fun time.

SSSS.GRIDMAN THE GATTAI Full Powered Girdknight

Missed the preorder window on this one, but managed to snag the second one that popped up on Mandarake. And I'm glad I did, because this thing is great. This should be the same mold as the upcoming THE GATTAI FP Gridman, and it is a startling improvement. This isn't just some simple retool; it's an entirely new mold. Not even Gridknight is the same, overhauling him to better fit his role as the center of this robot, something the original Gridman failed to do.

The Good: Gone is the flimsy DX Full Powered Gridman. To start, Gridknight has been fitted almost entirely with ratcheted joints, meaning he can now much more easily hold the weight of all his machines. Not only that, but they took a page out of the Moderoid's book and made a stronger, more posable replacement torso, but also fixed the issue I had with it by giving it its own head, so you can display both Gridknight and FP Gridknight at the same time. But even if you choose to forgo it, Gridknight is perfectly capable of holding everything up.

Onto everyone else, this set actually comes with two Calibers of different sizes, and a handle so you can use the larger one's chest piece as a shield. Max, Borr, and Sky are functionally the same as vehicles, but Max's cannons now stop at the appropriate height so you don't have to fiddle with that during transformation.

Powered Knight Zenon may not look much different from the original, but has quite a few new tricks going on under the hood. For starters, it requires no adapters; everything is designed into the vehicles themselves, including the very impressive neck joint they added (which just blows my mind how they pulled that off). They also gave it a much better A-stance, actual ankles to accommodate it, and you can use Sky's transformation joints to give it some inward arm motion.

And Full Powered Gridknight is an impressive feat, being both taller than the original and around its scale to Dynazenon seen in the film. The transformation is also so much cleaner. Everything feels better, connects better, is much more solid, even more so than Dynazenon. They even made the cuts in Sky's wings the actual transformation joint, which several of the releases haven't done. And he is ridiculously posable. It has every joint; I don't know what else to tell you. It also comes with open and posable alternative hand. They even added dedicated engineering into Borr that allows for a brand new combination with Goldburn.

The Bad: Not everything is exactly perfect, though. While you can get the new Gridknight to work as Rouge Kaiser, the elbows are too long, meaning you have to twist the arms in a weird way to get them to fit, and Dynasoldier is less stable.

And both Zenon and FP have mediocre ankles. Like, they work, but Zenon's require a bit of fidgeting and you often have to display them on their toes. FP on the other hand just doesn't have enough rock, making more wide-legged, dynamic poses an issue. I recommend using the included stand to help with those (...which I did not take pictures of).

Overall, the difference is quality between this and the original DX are dirt and stratosphere. If you were disappointed by the original, or if you liked the Moderoid, then I highly recommend this one, or just waiting a few months for the V2 to come out.

This is going to be a hefty one. Hopefully I can catch up a majority of everything I missed before I get busy again next week. Let’s do this. Time for more gender envy.

Seven cities?

Oh yeah. The son died last time. 

Oh god. There’s another one dead. And all of them have some on them. Why doesn’t he just blow all of them up? 

That is a very creepy villain. All his mannerisms are so damn good. He is also clearly very injured/scarred with all the bandaging. We don’t see any of his face. 

Who’s the random wanderer?

Oh god he really does care for the other people. He just got so serious. And he cares for any life really, even if they caused harm. 

OOOOO its the twin! And the twin killed the bomber. I love the music in this!!!!

I just realised one his jacket, he has a logo that says project seeds. And with the brother saying that the plants belong to them, I’m assuming the facility that the brother destroyed was making the plants as a sustainable energy. It’s also why Vash knew so much about them at the start of the series. (sorry if this was known beforehand. I just only picked up on it now)

The brother is so creepy. Ooo. He’s been brought back in time and the gun has been destroyed. The scientist is definitely about to die. 

They do really well with suspense and cinematography to portray the fear and chaos required for the shots to work. It is so damn good. 

And now there are monsters. And the brother’s feet are covered in blood. Good imagery. Who’s this new guy?

Yissus this episode is harsh. 

Ooo. do we get to see a face? Nope guess not. Partial one. 

The weapon is really cool though. Terrifying but cool. 

We’re getting snippets of the face. 

DID THE CHILD JUST DIE??

And now Vash is being cast out. 

----Between episodes thoughts----

What the actual fuck? This show was already mental but now. Wow. They did so well setting the brother up as a threat. What started as just a small look has become world destroying. Wow. Just wow. They’ve done so damn well with this. 

----Episode 4----

For some reason my player has decided to break. Fun.

Ooo. New person. 

I will say it again. This opening is sick. I need to check out a translation. 

Thats a lot of bugs. 

He got properly smacked. I feel like her driving is making things worse. 

Oh god. Everyone is dead. Ominous noise is ominous. And there is a child as well. 

This man is praying for others but doesn’t know the prayers. Who is this man and what is he trying to do while carrying a cross with him?

Worm? 

Yes. Worm. They have been eaten. 

The reporter does not trust this new man. 

That is one nimble child. And now two people have been attacked. 

Noice. Two very different ideologies. And he might be an assassin. Nice. And Roberto is gone. 

I really like Vash’s personality. And they were just snorted out. Wow. And they’re back inside again. Noice. And the kid is a worm controller. 

OOOOO. They look so cool!! I love the kid’s design. 

The cross was a gun. Why am I not even surprised? That is such a convoluted design. It’s great. He must really hate worms. 

New party member. 

THEY’RE WORKING TOGETHER??

Ominous threat is ominous.

----between episode thoughts----

Not as crazy or heart wrenching as the previous one but an excellent introduction to the new characters - leading us to question their motives. Why does he want to be connected with Vash? 

There is a morse code message in the closing. 

But one that isn’t complete? Or wrong?

(.- ... .-.. -.--- --.)

The fourth letter has too many dashes, if you remove the last dash it is:  ASLYG

Anyways. Just noticed that as I was typing the between. And it is blatantly morse code so yeah. 

----Episode 5----

More new characters?

We actually know nothing about his arm, don’t we? Why does he have a metal arm?

Nicolas changed Vash’s nickname. Nice. 

Spoopy threat for the episode. Unknown monster and child. 

More shooting. And a creepy monster. Nicolas is helping him though. 

The mother is going to sacrifice the child, isn’t she? Yeup. Imagine overhearing that. Oo the scene got smaller and smaller. That was cool. 

The child was a thing from the past. Understandable. Oooooof. This backstory is harsh. It got worse!! Is the thing they’re fighting the child? 

Fuck. 

Vash knew the kid as a baby?

Oh no. He dead. 

The wind came back when the child died. 

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Nicolas is working for the Brother!!!

----after thoughts----

Damn this show has such good writing, then the cinematography and the music/ It’s so damn good. I love it. 

Also the morse code is the same at the end of every episode. 

Edit:

Just found out that the morse code says Okaeri which means Welcome home. That is so touching and devastating. In the terms of the anime as a whole its nice for a welcome home as the anime is remade. But in the case of the story with the closing showing the connections between the twins, that is terrifying if its a welcome home from the brother. Vash is in serious trouble if it’s coming from him.

Before diving into the meat of Oracle and Bone’s A Summer’s End, I want to talk about the women behind this game Tida Kietsungden, and Charissa So. So and Kietsungden have done nothing but impress me since the announcement of A Summer’s End. They have repeatedly demonstrated their immense effort and dedication to creating a beautiful and thoughtful experience. Through conversations with the studio and reading their blog entries, I gained a remarkable understanding of how this game is both a tribute to classic cinema and a love letter to the Yuri and LGBT community. Through careful research and thoughtful expression, the two women navigate and acknowledge complicated issues, including Asian LGBTQ history and Hong Kong’s delicate political situation with grace and maturity. I am in complete awe of both women and their work. However, regardless of my profound respect for these creators, I still endeavor to offer my unfiltered thoughts on the visual novel, giving praise and criticism where appropriate.

A Summer’s End – Hong Kong 1986 is a Yuri visual novel set, as you may have figured out, in Hong Kong in the year 1986. The game follows a young office worker, Michelle (Fong Ha) Cheung, who has a chance encounter with a free-spirited woman named Sam (Ka Yan) Wong. Both women feel drawn to each other, and the game explores this mutual attraction and the budding relationship which emerges from it.

-I hated that snobby teacher I'm glade she's gone

-i hope the bates a life long happiness and love

-i still don't care for Mary. Sorry but her having multiple men interested in her while her sister is basically a spinster

Something I hate to admit...but I love cheesy Nicolas Cage movies...

WHY? WHY do I do this to myself?

You know what you are getting yourself into EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Watching Willy’s Wonderland is exactly the type of mindless Nicolas Cage[ness] that the soul needs.

I loved this book. It’s been a while since I enjoyed a book this much. I felt like it was hard to put down and felt my heart racing at every turn.

This book is about a woman named Lou. It starts with her, dressed as a man, plotting to steal a nobleman’s ring - which is magical. In this world, some women posses magic - they’re referred to as witches. . . and they’re burned at the stake for it. There is a group of men that hunt the witches, called Chasseurs, and they’re run by the archbishop. (Sounds a little historically familiar, doesn’t it?) During the robbery, things go a bit wrong and Lou barely manages to escape with the ring. She thinks she’s safe until she takes a tumble with a copper haired chasseur. . . one that keeps appearing in her life.

I loved Lou and Reid. They remind me a lot of Nina and Matthias from Six of Crows. Lou is so strong and fighting so hard to survive. Reid has a huge heart, even if he’s been brainwashed into a hateful mindset. 

I dislike the archbishop. Even though he’s supposed to be a holy man, he never redeems himself for his sins. And he definitely has SEVERAL chances to. I mean, he’s the bad guy though, so why would he?

I liked the magic in this story, it was unusual. I mean, I’ve heard of blood magic before (that’s really nothing new) but pattern magic? Now that’s new and interesting. The author took something commonly written about (magic) and given us something new to look at. (At least new for me, I read a lot but I haven’t read everything!)

The only thing I disliked about this book was that the author builds Lou up to be a badass, and we don’t see much of that from her. She’s a bit of a damsel. I’m hoping to see a little more action from her in the next book.

More books: The next book comes out this year and looks like it’s going to be called Honey and Blood.

What is sad about the movie is that now - people are using Joker as a symbol of revolution.

He isn’t.

He is a sick man.

That is why the story fails. It kept rationalizing Joker’s actions.

Not everything means something. Not every death is with motive. Some people just kill without empathy, without reason.

I thought I would see this in Joker 2019. I thought I did. But the movie contradicts itself by giving Joker a voice, a platform to speak about his view on society. They gave him a moment where people listened.

In reality - no one ever gets this chance. To speak your mind, to say the right thing, in the most opportune time.

That’s where the cliche hit hard. That’s where the movie fell apart for me.

Psychopaths/Sociopaths - whichever he is, they don’t give a damn. They have no reason, no motive. Or even if they did, they wouldn’t know; let alone be able to speak of the reason behind their illness so eloquently in front of so many people.

While Joker may have gained confidence by accepting who he is - the show doesn’t even bother to tell you what he is. They just show you what he has become - a symbol of revolution against the oppression of the elite – which apparently – he’s been wanting?

But everything he has done contradicts this - he killed his mentally ill mother, his friend whose motive was never clearly shown to the audience, his imaginary girlfriend, Murray, and the three train dudes.

He never wanted to fight against the elite. That was never his intention. He was a weak willed man. He was mentally ill. And he was supposed to break.

Instead - he finds his purpose?

While you may argue that my confusion as to his character is exactly what they wanted to show - wasn’t it enough to show a crazed Joker? The writers should have instead shown how the mass just imputed their own biases to Joker’s actions. Instead, they let him give a speech about the tough life of a poor, mentally ill loner… so he could be understood? By this point in the movie, you’d think he’d hardly care anymore. He’s clearly already made his transformation to psycho killer anyway.

I watched the trailers a million times. And as I typically do, I created my own version of Joker. Sadly, he did not materialize. While the trailers gave evidence leading to my assumptions, the movie created was far from it.

I thought I would see a Joker, a character I’ve never seen before. A broken man, trying to do his best to act within the norms of society. And it is killing him everyday.

That was what I thought they’d show - that mental illness doesn’t need rationalization, it doesn’t need over the top external attributing factors. But every scene they get, they plunge Arthur into a ditch not every mentally ill person needed to fall into to be categorized as such. Sometimes, people are just prone to sadness. And his history of child abuse was more than sufficient.

I thought it would happen, my understanding of the character. That after he was cut off from his meds, which typically makes patients feel like completely different people, that would be his trigger to realizing that - wait, it’s okay to be me. It is okay to be sick. And I love it.

I thought this movie would show me a Joker who let go of (twisted) societal norms and who simply accepted who he was. Instead, we’re given another lecture on the ultra rich v the poor. Instead, we’re supposed to pity him. Instead, they’ve rationalized the Joker, brought his character down to our level, for us to use in our stupid, useless posts about fighting “The Man”, when we very well know that this discourse has been overused and is utterly counterintuitive.

I thought Joker would equate to chaos. He didn’t. It turned out to be the story-telling instead.

I thought I was going to watch my first ever supervillain movie. Alas, it turned out to be another superhero flick.