Somehow, it all ties together… somehow…
All right, so what (non-Pokemon) things have I been getting into (and out of) these past few months?
WATCHING
Digimon Fusion is still... sigh. So boring. I think I made it 9 or 10 episodes in, which is about as far as I made it with the original, and once again, I might have to stop there. I really can't knock the dub work-- the acting is good, and playing who's-that-digimon-alum with the voices is fun (although I could've sworn I heard Joshua Seth at one point and I nearly lost it because what if they got him back holy crap holy crap consider the implications but it turns out it wasn't him-- phew, I can go back to being ambivalent then). And I know the writers are doing the thing where they have a character spout off some snarky little comment when you can't see anyone's mouth moving, which is normally a major criticism of kids-show dubs, but the source material is just ho-hum enough that those end up being my favorite moments and that's... not right. So yeah, it's a mildly frustrating experience. All I can think when I watch it is where is the plot going, where is the meaningful human-human and human-digimon interaction, where are the fun character-building adventures, where are all of the things that make so many other incarnations of Digimon great and why aren't they in this show?!
Taking a cue from Sailor Moon are we? I mean, DiC butchered the heck out of the episode on the left, and it was still way more moving than whatever is going on on the right.
Also, I think I’m officially over the latest incarnation of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." I mean, okay, the turtles designs are super-cute, and they’re animated really nicely, but everything else is just… yeesh. I really dislike how this show treats its characters. Like, the turtles don't seem to really like each other all that much (they’re supposed to be brothers and I know you don't always like your siblings, but c'mon, show a little compassion to each other every now and then, guys!), and the victims-of-the-day… I mean, they’re really VICTIMS here, and it’s sort of heartbreaking. Thinking, feeling, human beings who come in contact with this Kraang ooze and become mindless, mutated creatures. Bad guys. Monsters to be fought. And then what happens to them? There is no cure, so where do they go?? This show doesn’t address any of that; nor does it bother to take the time to redeem them. Instead, it is almost asking us to view their dehumanization as something that they deserve because of who they are and what they've done: criminals, nosy citizens who just want to get a few hits on YouTube, overenthusiastic fanboy vigilantes… it doesn’t matter. They were in the wrong place in at the wrong time, they just had to insert themselves into the turtles' story… and thus, their fate is sealed. Probably not intended to be viewed that way, but the unfortunate implication is there, and it really doesn’t sit well with me.
Plus, the writers don't seem to know how to treat April as a character in her own right, which SUCKS because based on the main source of conflict (i.e. the Kraang/TCRI stuff; I've made it through most of the first season and Shredder just hasn't ever felt like the real antagonist here), I feel like she should basically be the primary protagonist. It was HER dad who was kidnapped, it’s HER goal to get him back, plus she is the viewer’s anchor to the non-mutant world so she seems like a logical choice to be the lens that filters, focuses, and relates all this weirdness back to us! She can do things and go places the turtles can’t. She seems smart and resourceful and spunky plus Splinter's teaching her fighting skillz and hey guess what she DID NOT SPEND HER ENTIRE LIFE LIVING IN A SEWER, but she's just isn't given much in the way of character development or screentime-- rragh! Plus she gets basically Z-E-R-O respect from the turtles, and I’m really, really sick of that. In the third episode (third! episode!!), Michelangelo says something along the lines of “well of course you were always going to be our friend, we rescued you from the Kraang!” NO. NONONONO do not EVEN go there. She does not owe you friendship, don’t demean her presence, take her for granted, or treat her like an object (also looking at you, Donatello. I’m just as sick of characters with basically one-sided passive-aggressive crushes and I WISH being “the smart one” was still his defining character trait but apparently it’s this now and I just UGGGGGH NO).
I know it doesn’t seem possible to stay mad at that face but I’m totally still mad at that face.
Ahem. So anyway, I really WANTED to like this show, but I'm having a really hard time of it because the turtles are all kind of jerks with seriously underdeveloped moral centers who don’t seem to grow or change at all (even within the confines of their rather limited character tropes) and the show just lets them get away with all of this and so I think I’m just done. At this point, I would much rather see the high-school adventures of April and Irma where April is investigating leads and training to save her dad and basically it could be Buffy with mutant ninjas and aliens instead of vampires and maybe that has the potential to be a better show.
I haven’t even gotten to any episodes with Casey Jones in them but I’m 99.99% sure that April is better than everyone else in this frame regardless.
In happier, less-annoying news, my sister got me the complete Samurai Pizza Cats for Christmas and AAGH GEEZ I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW GREAT THIS SHOW IS but I should probably save my gushing about it for another post.
You probably, um... shouldn't ask. Don't worry, I’ll explain later.
I’ve also been making my way through “Dollhouse” which is pretty intriguing (and creepy). Topher is probably my favorite (dorky nerd-genius with a touch of arrogance, yeah I talk about these kinds of characters a lot, I think they're... kind of my type) Plus this show has made me realize that Alan Tudyk is really awesome…? He was in “Firefly” (WAAAASH <3) and since then, I’ve seen his name crop up in several random places (recently he’s been doing some voicework for Disney-- both "Wreck-It Ralph" AND "Frozen"), and darn if it isn’t a pleasant surprise every single time.
King Candy. Also, this guy.
LISTENING
Trying a bunch of new and different music lately. I discovered Freshlyground, a band from South Africa, a little while ago, and I’ve been listening to them a lot while I work because they're so mellow. My favorite album is probably "Ma’cherie." Plus the lead singer (Zolani Mahola) is just… man, she’s really cute. She has the most beautiful smile! Also been listening to “Stairwells” by Kina Grannis. Mostly because my introduction to her music was this video (and yes, that is stop-mo with jellybeans-check out the making of! O_o).
And also, February was Musicals Month. As in, I had songs from musicals going through my head for pretty much the entire month. It was awful… I mean awesome? I mean… I don’t know which one it was! So conflicted!
It all started when I saw “Frozen.” Generally, I liked the movie, but it did have problems. There are sisters… that’s great! Of course, one of them was a walking plot device who was a champ at avoiding responsibility and the other was… a little too trusting and totally unable to respect other people’s boundaries. That’s… eh… less great. Basically, it seemed like there were several areas where a little plot/dialogue tweak probably could have helped solve the movie’s internal logic problems and its own set of unfortunate implications. Of course, there wouldn’t have been a movie if Katara could have been there somehow. She would have been all like, “Elsa, sweetie. You’re not a freak, you’re a waterbender. It’s cool! Let me just, you know, give you some pointers on how to handle it. BOOM. You’re welcome.” I’m sure there is a fanfic out there like that somewhere.
The answer to all of your Snow Queen (and Azula) problems.
But sisters! And super-catchy songs! And a stupidly optimistic snowman! Which brings me to…
THE BOOK OF MORMON. Er, you know, the musical.
OK, so my own dear sweet sister (the Anna to my Elsa, if you will, or maybe the Elsa to my Anna) is super-obsessed with this thing. And with reasonably just cause. We saw it last fall, and it was great (I mean, it’s terrible… but still great). And since Robert Lopez was a songwriter for both it and "Frozen" and Joshua Gad is Olaf and Elder Cunningham, it just made sense to give a little listen to the original Broadway recording.
BIG. MISTAKE.
THESE SONGS ARE SO CATCHY and they are the worst things imaginable to have stuck in your head! And while my sister is a big Andrew Rannells (Elder Price) fan, I’m more into Josh Gad, I think. His voice is like some sort of ever-changing kaleidoscope of weird, geeky earnestness, and it means that Elder Cunningham is basically the most adorkable thing EVER and I just… UGH.
C’mon, hobbits!
(Alternate caption: Ooh, Arendelle! Land of gnomes… and trolls!)
So yes. That is how I spent my February and I'm still sort of recovering from that. -_-
PLAYING
My SO and I bought ourselves a PS3 at the tail end of last year (yeah, we’re an entire console generation behind, whatevs) which means we finally get to play Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time! I’ve never mentioned this before, but we are both HUGE Sly Cooper fans (like, every one of our computers/phones/other major electronic devices are named after a character in game series, that’s how bad it is). Again, I will save discussing it for another post but I will say I’m in Episode 2 which is the Old West and “Tennessee Kid” Cooper is BASICALLY A HUGE DORK AND ALSO MY FAVORITE ANCESTOR (so far) <3
No really, he is.
And speaking vaguely (as we were) of Trey Parker and Matt Stone-ish sorts of things, I am at least a little intrigued by The Stick of Truth. It’s supposed to be The South Park Game That Always Should Have Been, plus there are a lot of throwbacks to the days when the show was actually funny (I'm a recovering South Park fan; I stopped watching around season 8, and the last episode I can actually remember laughing at was the one about Casa Bonita because HA ACCURATE XD), so yeah. May get it someday, when it drops in price. But eh, maybe not.
Underpants Gnomes and the only business plan you’ll ever need.
(Alternate caption: Ooh, South Park! Land of gnomes… and trolls! OK, I’ll stop now X3)
MOSTLY FANGIRLING
So, I’m almost caught up with XY. Didn’t put in the effort to do another “liveblog” of it because the other one made no sense, but here are (hopefully) some more articulate and less random thoughts:
ALSO DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS AN OFFICIAL POKEMON MUSICAL AND IT IS THE BEST WORST BEST THING EVER AND ANDREW RANNELLS WAS JAMES AND THEN HE DID SOME VOICES FOR THE SHOW DURING SOME SEASONS THAT I NEVER SAW AND UGGGH WHAT HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE THAT THIS WORLD CAN BE SO AWESOME YET TERRIFYING
Wow. This entry is really long and all over the place. But, to recap, we went from ‘mons to Whedon to Disney and Nickelodeon to South Park and back to… ‘mons. Darn it, I’m so predictable!
WATCHING
Digimon Fusion is still... sigh. So boring. I think I made it 9 or 10 episodes in, which is about as far as I made it with the original, and once again, I might have to stop there. I really can't knock the dub work-- the acting is good, and playing who's-that-digimon-alum with the voices is fun (although I could've sworn I heard Joshua Seth at one point and I nearly lost it because what if they got him back holy crap holy crap consider the implications but it turns out it wasn't him-- phew, I can go back to being ambivalent then). And I know the writers are doing the thing where they have a character spout off some snarky little comment when you can't see anyone's mouth moving, which is normally a major criticism of kids-show dubs, but the source material is just ho-hum enough that those end up being my favorite moments and that's... not right. So yeah, it's a mildly frustrating experience. All I can think when I watch it is where is the plot going, where is the meaningful human-human and human-digimon interaction, where are the fun character-building adventures, where are all of the things that make so many other incarnations of Digimon great and why aren't they in this show?!
Taking a cue from Sailor Moon are we? I mean, DiC butchered the heck out of the episode on the left, and it was still way more moving than whatever is going on on the right.
Also, I think I’m officially over the latest incarnation of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." I mean, okay, the turtles designs are super-cute, and they’re animated really nicely, but everything else is just… yeesh. I really dislike how this show treats its characters. Like, the turtles don't seem to really like each other all that much (they’re supposed to be brothers and I know you don't always like your siblings, but c'mon, show a little compassion to each other every now and then, guys!), and the victims-of-the-day… I mean, they’re really VICTIMS here, and it’s sort of heartbreaking. Thinking, feeling, human beings who come in contact with this Kraang ooze and become mindless, mutated creatures. Bad guys. Monsters to be fought. And then what happens to them? There is no cure, so where do they go?? This show doesn’t address any of that; nor does it bother to take the time to redeem them. Instead, it is almost asking us to view their dehumanization as something that they deserve because of who they are and what they've done: criminals, nosy citizens who just want to get a few hits on YouTube, overenthusiastic fanboy vigilantes… it doesn’t matter. They were in the wrong place in at the wrong time, they just had to insert themselves into the turtles' story… and thus, their fate is sealed. Probably not intended to be viewed that way, but the unfortunate implication is there, and it really doesn’t sit well with me.
Plus, the writers don't seem to know how to treat April as a character in her own right, which SUCKS because based on the main source of conflict (i.e. the Kraang/TCRI stuff; I've made it through most of the first season and Shredder just hasn't ever felt like the real antagonist here), I feel like she should basically be the primary protagonist. It was HER dad who was kidnapped, it’s HER goal to get him back, plus she is the viewer’s anchor to the non-mutant world so she seems like a logical choice to be the lens that filters, focuses, and relates all this weirdness back to us! She can do things and go places the turtles can’t. She seems smart and resourceful and spunky plus Splinter's teaching her fighting skillz and hey guess what she DID NOT SPEND HER ENTIRE LIFE LIVING IN A SEWER, but she's just isn't given much in the way of character development or screentime-- rragh! Plus she gets basically Z-E-R-O respect from the turtles, and I’m really, really sick of that. In the third episode (third! episode!!), Michelangelo says something along the lines of “well of course you were always going to be our friend, we rescued you from the Kraang!” NO. NONONONO do not EVEN go there. She does not owe you friendship, don’t demean her presence, take her for granted, or treat her like an object (also looking at you, Donatello. I’m just as sick of characters with basically one-sided passive-aggressive crushes and I WISH being “the smart one” was still his defining character trait but apparently it’s this now and I just UGGGGGH NO).
I know it doesn’t seem possible to stay mad at that face but I’m totally still mad at that face.
Ahem. So anyway, I really WANTED to like this show, but I'm having a really hard time of it because the turtles are all kind of jerks with seriously underdeveloped moral centers who don’t seem to grow or change at all (even within the confines of their rather limited character tropes) and the show just lets them get away with all of this and so I think I’m just done. At this point, I would much rather see the high-school adventures of April and Irma where April is investigating leads and training to save her dad and basically it could be Buffy with mutant ninjas and aliens instead of vampires and maybe that has the potential to be a better show.
I haven’t even gotten to any episodes with Casey Jones in them but I’m 99.99% sure that April is better than everyone else in this frame regardless.
In happier, less-annoying news, my sister got me the complete Samurai Pizza Cats for Christmas and AAGH GEEZ I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW GREAT THIS SHOW IS but I should probably save my gushing about it for another post.
You probably, um... shouldn't ask. Don't worry, I’ll explain later.
I’ve also been making my way through “Dollhouse” which is pretty intriguing (and creepy). Topher is probably my favorite (dorky nerd-genius with a touch of arrogance, yeah I talk about these kinds of characters a lot, I think they're... kind of my type) Plus this show has made me realize that Alan Tudyk is really awesome…? He was in “Firefly” (WAAAASH <3) and since then, I’ve seen his name crop up in several random places (recently he’s been doing some voicework for Disney-- both "Wreck-It Ralph" AND "Frozen"), and darn if it isn’t a pleasant surprise every single time.
King Candy. Also, this guy.
LISTENING
Trying a bunch of new and different music lately. I discovered Freshlyground, a band from South Africa, a little while ago, and I’ve been listening to them a lot while I work because they're so mellow. My favorite album is probably "Ma’cherie." Plus the lead singer (Zolani Mahola) is just… man, she’s really cute. She has the most beautiful smile! Also been listening to “Stairwells” by Kina Grannis. Mostly because my introduction to her music was this video (and yes, that is stop-mo with jellybeans-check out the making of! O_o).
And also, February was Musicals Month. As in, I had songs from musicals going through my head for pretty much the entire month. It was awful… I mean awesome? I mean… I don’t know which one it was! So conflicted!
It all started when I saw “Frozen.” Generally, I liked the movie, but it did have problems. There are sisters… that’s great! Of course, one of them was a walking plot device who was a champ at avoiding responsibility and the other was… a little too trusting and totally unable to respect other people’s boundaries. That’s… eh… less great. Basically, it seemed like there were several areas where a little plot/dialogue tweak probably could have helped solve the movie’s internal logic problems and its own set of unfortunate implications. Of course, there wouldn’t have been a movie if Katara could have been there somehow. She would have been all like, “Elsa, sweetie. You’re not a freak, you’re a waterbender. It’s cool! Let me just, you know, give you some pointers on how to handle it. BOOM. You’re welcome.” I’m sure there is a fanfic out there like that somewhere.
The answer to all of your Snow Queen (and Azula) problems.
But sisters! And super-catchy songs! And a stupidly optimistic snowman! Which brings me to…
THE BOOK OF MORMON. Er, you know, the musical.
OK, so my own dear sweet sister (the Anna to my Elsa, if you will, or maybe the Elsa to my Anna) is super-obsessed with this thing. And with reasonably just cause. We saw it last fall, and it was great (I mean, it’s terrible… but still great). And since Robert Lopez was a songwriter for both it and "Frozen" and Joshua Gad is Olaf and Elder Cunningham, it just made sense to give a little listen to the original Broadway recording.
BIG. MISTAKE.
THESE SONGS ARE SO CATCHY and they are the worst things imaginable to have stuck in your head! And while my sister is a big Andrew Rannells (Elder Price) fan, I’m more into Josh Gad, I think. His voice is like some sort of ever-changing kaleidoscope of weird, geeky earnestness, and it means that Elder Cunningham is basically the most adorkable thing EVER and I just… UGH.
C’mon, hobbits!
(Alternate caption: Ooh, Arendelle! Land of gnomes… and trolls!)
So yes. That is how I spent my February and I'm still sort of recovering from that. -_-
PLAYING
My SO and I bought ourselves a PS3 at the tail end of last year (yeah, we’re an entire console generation behind, whatevs) which means we finally get to play Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time! I’ve never mentioned this before, but we are both HUGE Sly Cooper fans (like, every one of our computers/phones/other major electronic devices are named after a character in game series, that’s how bad it is). Again, I will save discussing it for another post but I will say I’m in Episode 2 which is the Old West and “Tennessee Kid” Cooper is BASICALLY A HUGE DORK AND ALSO MY FAVORITE ANCESTOR (so far) <3
No really, he is.
And speaking vaguely (as we were) of Trey Parker and Matt Stone-ish sorts of things, I am at least a little intrigued by The Stick of Truth. It’s supposed to be The South Park Game That Always Should Have Been, plus there are a lot of throwbacks to the days when the show was actually funny (I'm a recovering South Park fan; I stopped watching around season 8, and the last episode I can actually remember laughing at was the one about Casa Bonita because HA ACCURATE XD), so yeah. May get it someday, when it drops in price. But eh, maybe not.
Underpants Gnomes and the only business plan you’ll ever need.
(Alternate caption: Ooh, South Park! Land of gnomes… and trolls! OK, I’ll stop now X3)
MOSTLY FANGIRLING
So, I’m almost caught up with XY. Didn’t put in the effort to do another “liveblog” of it because the other one made no sense, but here are (hopefully) some more articulate and less random thoughts:
- Clemont continues to be my favorite character. Actually, if this show ever turned into the Amazingly Adorable Family Adventures of Clemont and Bonnie Featuring Ash and Pikachu Sometimes I would probably be OK with that. Uggh, I need help.
- Also, I learned that his name in the original is Citron. Citron is French for lemon and guess what his English name is cLEMONt so I hope whichever writer/translator came up with that got a ton of high fives and a raise <3
- I don't mind Serena. She likes to cook and sew and decorate and she kind of reminds me of Mimi maybe? Only yeah, with a little bit less personality. Pity. And Ash didn't even remember her omg Ash you are such a butt.
- Bonnie and Serena are becoming best friends tho UGGH YES LADYFRIENDS
- Most of the main plot of the Furfrou episode already happened like... 750 episodes ago :/
- Haha, f'reals though, episode 9 was pretty great :D
- I liked 10 as well! Chespin has some serious chuzpah and I kind of like how all of Clemont's pokemon outside his life as a gym leader seem to be earth/grass types. That boy could use some... grounding (AHAHAHA I crack myself up)
- Ash dressed up like a Spupa (???) was sort of the dumbest thing-- Ash, just because you're pretending to be a pokemon doesn't mean you can't use actual words anymore XD
- I'm already over the recycled Team Rocket intro animation, but considering the animators probably blew most of their budget on battle scenes and all of the cute things Clemont does I'll forgive it. Also, I don't understand why James is suddenly some sort of computer expert these days, and I sort of miss him and Jessie cross-dressing.
- I really like the shy kid from “Kindergarten Chaos” (Randall?). He had a cute character design (dat haaaaat! <3) and sort of presented a counterpoint to the overwhelming opinion of OMG EVERYONE LOVES POKEMON POKEMON R THE GREATEST because he had been attacked/traumatized by one when he was younger so he had a very natural fear of them! Of course, he was completely cured and declaring that he wanted to be a Pokemon Master by the end of the episode, but I liked where they started going with him, anyway.
ALSO DID YOU KNOW THERE WAS AN OFFICIAL POKEMON MUSICAL AND IT IS THE BEST WORST BEST THING EVER AND ANDREW RANNELLS WAS JAMES AND THEN HE DID SOME VOICES FOR THE SHOW DURING SOME SEASONS THAT I NEVER SAW AND UGGGH WHAT HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE THAT THIS WORLD CAN BE SO AWESOME YET TERRIFYING
Wow. This entry is really long and all over the place. But, to recap, we went from ‘mons to Whedon to Disney and Nickelodeon to South Park and back to… ‘mons. Darn it, I’m so predictable!