Bartimaeus

Yeah, Utena doesn't even tell you what happened...a series of extremely ambiguous and seemingly mostly unrelated events occur, and it leaves you to try to figure out what the heck happened. If it straight up told us it was reincarnation, that would at least be a clear answer to what happened - instead it's just unexplained nonsense just like everything else.

We thought he died and reincarnated somehow or something, .

Mm, while the themes of it appeal to me, I don't think the film itself will. You never know, it's possible it might work better actually seeing it, but... *removes bookmark* Ah, Nanami's Egg, the episode that made me bring up this stupid show in this thread way back when and post that hilarious clip of it. I feel like Ikuhara should just stick to making surrealist...not comedy, but definitely comedic something, and not something like this that's instead all serious themes except for when it's not, which, by the way, is a terrible marriage for a show.

Midsommar (2019). It was fine. Kind of knew how almost everything (almost, but not quite) everything would go from the very beginning after you figure out the premise, so not very many surprises, but even with that said, I guess it was a pretty film and executed well enough. Characters kind of left me wanting for more, though. Eh.

I forgot Eraserhead was by him too - the other one I've seen is Blue Velvet, which is probably tame by David Lynch standards, and yet I still just didn't like it. I plan on giving Mulholland Drive a try at some point and if I don't at least like that, David Lynch will be dead to me, . Boring movies I can take, ones that actively annoy me with just silly nonsense not so much. Yeah, so, your post two posts ago is exactly why I have no idea what's going on. Have to pay attention to and connect all that random crap in this highly chaotic, non-linear, and surrealist style in order to make even a smidgen of sense out of what characters are doing and saying? I don't think so! Guess I'll just read the CliffNotes version of the show after I've finished it, . I only have 4 episodes left, and yet it seems like you're way ahead of me...

Dak Prescott refuses to disclose vaccination status, claiming it would be a HIPAA violation for him to do so. That's a double oof there - almost definitely not vaccinated, and...yeah, that is not how HIPAA works. Some people's children, .

I don't think I could (accurately) spoil this show even if I wanted to. You're understanding a lot more (or at least making a lot more intelligible interpretation) of this show than I am - I'm just trying to follow the literal events that are happening in this show, and even just that is proving to be a struggle. Case in point: episodes 22-23 I got literally almost nothing out of it. Dude somehow was a prison of his own memories so badly that he not only stopped aging (since he was "stuck" in them, whatever the hell that means), but he also turns out to be an unreliable narrator because of false memories he's been telling us, including having invented an entire character that's apparently been dead the whole time? The most critical point I've been getting out of this show is that Anthy somehow sets people "free" from their defining memories that are holding them back, but that's impossible to parse in a literal sense since what literally happens has zero relation to what you're supposed to have interpreted to have happened - trying to use themes to explain what actually happened (instead of the more normie reverse of that) makes my brain hurt and I don't like it! ...I've only watched one David Lynch film and I didn't much care for it, . (e): I was wrong: TWO David Lynch films, and I didn't like either! (e): Lmao, speaking of, I found this line on Ikuhara's wikipedia: "He has expressed interest in the possibility of collaborating on a project with David Lynch someday." Ah, the "make a formerly mysterious and cunning character look like a clueless clown for the sake of another mysterious and cunning character you're trying to prop up" trick - always a classic, .

Planned on it, and I know majestic will because he has a compulsory thing where he has to finish everything he started...although it might take him a bit if he's really started to actively not enjoy any of it, .

Yeah, no kidding. When Nanami is your best written character (she's actually pretty consistently written, more straightforward than most other characters, she has SOME although not enough character development, and her character itself is very...DISTINCT, can't be any doubt about that), you have a serious problem with your characters. And it's a good thing she's mostly only around in the more comedic absurdist episodes, because that very "distinct" character would probably be the worst in the more important episodes. Nanami is also who convinced me to try out this show, because there was a clip of her on the Sailor Moon Says channel that was just hilarious. RIP Sailor Moon Says. I'm actually not as down on the show as you are, but I am watching it with someone else and the sheer unintelligible absurdity of everything frequently breaks our brains and provides many laugh-out-loud and/or facepalm moments. The actual thematic stuff...the stuff that the show is so desperately trying to impart at the expense of literally everything else for some goshforsaken reason, is mostly flying over our heads entirely. Like, there's a vague sense of the themes...but trying to actually understand all the details would be like staring straight into the abyss. Just can't do it, it's utter madness. There's a reason I made that comparison to Evangelion once I got around episode 23...what the hell are we even doing here, guys? (e): Although maybe that's a disservice to Evangelion - I think Evangelion's easier to understand and follow, especially on just a surface level when you're just trying to make sense of the literal events that occurred. There have been a few parts in Utena where I can't do even that... (e): Also, in regards to essays and such - to be fair, what I wrote really applies to general film/TV shows and not just cartoons, .

So, just some general thoughts on...film theory (or whatever you want to call it) from having watched Steven Universe, Sailor Moon, and now Utena (though I still haven't finished Utena). There are a few distinct elements in shows like these: plot (both main as well as smaller individual ones), themes, and characters. There are others, such as the world and setting among other things, but these are the three I'm going to examine. This might get a little lengthy (but absolutely no spoilers on any of these shows, especially because I really only mention Sailor Moon at length), but I promise that there's a point to it all and I think it helps explain why some shows (or parts of shows) are written inconsistently or bizarrely and yet other parts are written brilliantly with even the same sets of writers. Okay, dissertation over, tl;dr: good characters should pretty much always come first, good plots/themes second and only where they're natural and actually work.

You'll see soon enough...

Episode 31: insert barfing gif here

Episode 30 of Utena. Yeah, so I'm 'bout ready for this show to end. There's only so much of...............THIS that I can handle. Just 9 more episodes...

Jay has a few different types of recommendations that I know of - specifically, I try to watch the "boring" ones (e.g. this) and the "offbeat/weird" ones (e.g. Censor recently). He has other types of films he recommends, but I'm not as much into the "horrific perverted nightmare" ones as much, .

The Assistant (2019). A simple little film that is just a look at one day in the life of an assistant at some big company working for a crappy boss (though interestingly, said boss is literally never shown, and I greatly appreciated that because it allowed the film to not be obnoxious and instead focus more on the main character). Lot of stylistic and even some thematic similarities to Jeanne Dielmann (I didn't expect to bring this one up again so soon, but here we are): if you like super boring films where basically nothing happens and instead you're just given a look at someone's life and the issues surrounding it in a flat, realistic manner with no expectation of any kind of grand resolution, then this is great. I actually liked this one a lot more than Jeanne Dielmann - lot more personable main character, a bit more direct plot that shows more of what's going on, and visually a little more cinematic. Dielmann was a bit too realistic for me, so this was more up my alley. (e): Oh, also, it's only an hour and a half-long, as opposed to Jeanne Dielmann's THREE AND A HALF HOURS, so there's that as well, .

The Bucks are the first team I've actively followed and been a fan of for a decent amount of time (since the 2016 season, to be exact) that have won a championship (note: I only started following the Packers in 2012, so I missed their 2010 SB; wasn't allowed to watch sports growing up, so it was a pretty late development), and I have to tell you guys...I really didn't get as much out of winning as I thought I would. It sure beats LOSING (especially with how many playoff heart-breakers I've seen in just the last ten years), of course, but at the end of the day, what I really enjoyed most were the actual great game moments (plays, camaraderie, personalities, etc.) in the high stakes playoff games. So that's kind of weird. I might legitimately be one of those "it's more about the journey than the destination" people, I guess. Or maybe I just need to experience like 40 years of a losing team first to really get it.

Whiplash (2014). Decent enough movie about how hard some musicians are pushed in order to be great, but really, I think J.K. Simmons was born to play anti-villains.

For most of my life, I've had low blood sugar problems, where I could literally just about pass out or even temporarily lose my vision because of it if I wasn't paying enough attention - when I started having gut health problems a few years back and consequently cut out all breads and the worst of most simple carbs/sugars, suddenly I didn't have low blood sugar pretty much ever anymore - it only happens once every few months now, it's way less severe, and it's usually the result of me eating stupidly for a day or two. Dietary changes can be pretty wack. Interestingly, I've even also managed to put on a little more weight, which is probably a good thing because I used to be borderline unhealthily skinny. A seemingly weird result from eating more healthy, but given how sickly I was for a while there, it probably makes sense.

Indeed. Sometime last month, I finally created a uBlock filter that erases the Political series of threads from being seen by me, to remove all temptation of going in there and getting mad at people I shouldn't be getting mad at or saying stupid stuff. Sailor Moon's Bizarre Adventure...I'd watch that. And probably like it more than the normal Jojo's, .

I think the Sailor Guardians legitimately wear those DBZ outfits really well (especially Usagi, Minako, and Rei - Makoto and Ami could use just some slight tweaking to get there as well). So I presume you actually mean that the Z Fighters look better in the Sailor Guardian outfits than the Crystal Sailor Guardians do, .

More like "can't look away", right? I bet it sucks to be the only moderator who ever checks the anime thread,

a friend felt compelled to send this to me that wakaba episode ending up getting averted from the usual formula was a welcome reprieve

Probably Giannis' best game of his career - 50 points on 60% shooting + 17/19 FT, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocks...insane. And in a closer game in the Finals. Awesome. Also, just a couple of weeks after nearly ruining his knee in the conference finals...people were certain he wouldn't even be able to play.

The power of feeling external pressure to make time and effort to watch something!

That's been my feeling as well...that, and they're much more enjoyable. Good luck with 20-23, .