Cartoons (Part 1)

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Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is somehow some of the most emotionally intelligent and sharp TV science fiction currently running(?) Absolutely nothing about it should work: it stars a horny boy who hangs out with a bunch of girls. it’s kinda both serialized and an anthology show, it’s teen issues playing out in a metaphorical scifi style like Buffy or X-men or Haruhi but with no villains or world ending threats, like if the tone was 5% different it wouldn’t work at all but the fact that everyone in the cast acts like humans instead of anime characters and the stories are so utterly grounded in real emotion makes it a very satisfying show. It’s a real surprise to me. Looking forward to the movie.

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oo

fruits basket is getting a new anime in 2019

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oh

hey

that work about girls who didn’t ask to be considered dead by society, who need to wear make-up to be seen as human going out of the house, who overexert themselves until they fall apart as they’re expected to, and who struggle with public pools of water as well as standards of sexualization?

it’s, it’s got some textual form of The Gender.

a little perspective from some trans jiangshi on how that turned out?

it’s not quite there, which is far better than average, but a fair number of people will still laud Zombieland’s already solid mix of absurdity and character pieces and detailwork. it’s the representation, you know. it’s not going to be ideal, but it’s going to help a few more people with just a little more normalization, and in a context like this where bigotry has animated the well into a poison elemental that’s kind of nice?

I’m also kinda amazed that anybody would miss this, and I’m reminded of the notion that Nerds won’t recognize lesbians unless they both make-out in front of a camera and then stop to assert they’re gay. the episode featured fears of puberty, teenager shittily discussing deadnames and a brushing off of the relevance of one’s junk, plus an overworked girl disconnected from her grieving dad having a literal heart attack over dysphoria. her casual outfit is literally blue and pink and white, too. of course, the standard for gender here is in a hazy mess of malevolence and alienation and fetishization, so of course people weren’t expecting any transness at all. certainly, it’s also nice to be able to just exist in a less mundane work, considering that those focused on being acronym are easily disatisfyingly idle (shout outs to the best of those Our Dreams At Dusk, which better get an anime so people stop bringing up bloody Wandering Son).

I don’t know what to make about the narrative’s actual politics, though. it goes more for sentimentality than making an explicit supportive message beyond the acceptance by one’s peers, having Lily forgive her mellowed-out father in a heartfelt song to him while also refusing to explain or return. it’d be nice for a work to assert parents should properly love their fucking daughters and sons before they literally die, after all. on the other detached hand, lily not going back to her father and sticking with a chosen family that accepts her and as she feels most comfortable with (most alive with), regardless of that emphasizing the show’s weird status quo, has obvious virtue to it. found families and being allowed to function after leaving one’s parentage and so on and so forth. the point of how she’s happy with being dead because she avoids amab puberty is stilted too, something also embroiled in the work’s central parody conceit. the whole “industry that processes people into product will throw the already-dead on stage and nobody will notice or care” premise, distracted by it ending up becoming idol anime anyways, is definitely using “these girls may get better but they’re not allowed to grow up” as another subtle slung knife. still. bring up hormones, or have her get a trans friend who actually goes on those in the second season, damnit.

altogether it’s the usual exhausted throwing up of arms at mainstream minority sores poking- it’ll help many with another token of support but is nowhere near revolution. lily’s a good girl and she gets to enjoy herself in a ridiculous physical comedy about the dead, anyway.

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Spent a large chunk of today watching Tex Avery cartoons.
They were influential enough that a lot of their humor is kind of stale now, but it’s interesting to see where these old gags come from
the ones with Red seem like his best work

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That’s the big one, yeah. The one people regularly cite.

I find it interesting to see how these animators moved back and forth, seeding competing studios that in some cases bloomed into very much their own things. Harman and Ising quit Disney and helped kick start WB’s animation team. Avery sidled over from WB to MGM. Hanna and Barbera danced from MGM into their own little world. Even Disney is a refugee from… Universal, I think? Don’t want to bother looking it up.

EDIT: Right, the Disney thing is more complicated than that. I’d forgotten most of the details. Disney was a fascist, though [not exaggerating], so I don’t really care if I get his life story right.

currently giving Devilman Crybaby a second chance

thoughts so far

OP’s as catchy as I remember
not certain exactly when that first sequence is supposed to take place
poor kitten
jumping ahead a bit, but I still regret that more wasn’t done with Akira’s original personality

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looks like netflix spent some of their actual billions of dollars to license the unlicenseable

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Devilman Crybaby

Deadman Wonderland

Baby Wonderland, the unreleased Amiga cart???!!!

How deep does the rabbit hole go?

Love the brief shot of Pen Pen in the rapid montage of fear, injury, war, and suffering

I mean. Might as well, right?

It’s cool to dismiss things, and granted I haven’t watched the thing in 20 years, but Evangelion is a hell of a story.

(God, I hate the English dub so much though.)

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Yeah my post sounded sarcastic, but I really mean it, I love that they played up the GRIM DRAMA to the max and so perfunctorily included the mascot character anyway.

Now I do sort of wish they marketed it as a flat, wholesome shounen comedy to maximize the unease and confusion of new viewers when the really weird and mean episodes begin!

I know, right? Part of the “joy” of Evangelion is the sort of shared trauma of experiencing its shifting tone.

“Hey, it’s a fun robot anime series. Look at this jaunty intro! Whee, isn’t this neat. I… oh holy shit.”

Anticipating weird mainstream media think pieces about how, now that it’s available for just about anyone to watch, Evangelion is the story we deserve in these times.

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Given how horny, misogynist, and fake-deep it is, I expect Evangelion to get very popular in the states again

It will be anime’s answer to game of thrones

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At least Thrones had a couple choice one-liners

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Still a hell of a story, whatever its problems.

this is fine

when can I buy it on disc again

he says after spending much of the Thanksgiving holiday gorging on random Netflix “original” anime, not cognizant that he’s part of the problem

just because I stream doesn’t mean I’m not a dinosaur who needs physical totems and 24hz playback

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I genuinely can’t wait to watch End of Evangelion in high definition. I’ve only ever seen it on my letterboxed, slightly muddy Manga Entertainment DVD.

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