majestic

*mutters something about rather driving rusty nails up his scrotum than clicking on a JP Sears video*

A while ago, when I first heard of I Want To Eat Your Pancreas, I thought it would be a goofy zombie anime, why else would anyone want to eat someone's pancreas? Imagine my disappointment to learn it's one of those films.

And also:

Yeah, like, just google a random scene with Jadeite and Beryl, that should scare you off well and good. Tuxedo Mask is also doing a totally ridiculous mysterious but flirty stranger spiel (I did not find what I was looking for, but I saw something... interesting. *wink* Moon *wink*).

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, episode 2. I'm not sure this belongs here, what with it being a live action show, but... man, I don't know what to say. This waffles between being hilariously overacted (Queen Beryl is a joy to behold) and curiously restrained, the costumes are terribly campy and Tuxedo Mask and his mullet are hard to believe without being seen. Skeletor from the Masters of the Universe film has nothing on her. Nothing. The jokes are delivered in such an earnest way it's hard not to burst out laughing, even if they're really old and tired, like Usagi going into the arcade with a faked one year membership pass with a doodle of Luna on it to drive home how ridiculous it is, and Motoki going "since when do we sell one year memberships?" just a second after she goes inside. The special "effects" are terrible, the CGI is hilarious and the acting is, uh... honestly, it's so bad it's... Dunno where this is going as I haven't spoiled myself yet outside of knowhing that we'll get a DARK MERCURY at some point. I wonder how often these 'swords' broke during filming. Anyway. Luna changing between horrible CGI, a plus toy and a plush puppet where you can see the hand of the puppeteer going into it at times round everything out. Make no mistake though, when Luna is the plush toy Luna, Luna actually is a plush toy. Look at this intro: ❤️ So, anyway, episode two is more or less predictably about Usagi befriending Ami and her awakening. Usagi giving Ami a mini-disc copy of Minako's new album is a really curious sight too. These things never got to be popular here at all, at first I thought she was handing Ami a tape, but... well, a sign of the time when this got made. Too late for tapes, too early for widespread MP3-players. Usagi is as silly as in the anime and Luna is as snarky as in the anime. It feels kinda weird to say this, but if one can deal with the campy side, this is actually - so far - a real joy to watch. If there's a downside, then that it cannot truly stand on its own. Ami's and Usagi's interactions in this episode make sense for someone who has watched the original anime or read certain parts of the manga, but on their own? I don't know. Funny how the transformation sequences begin with the girls already wearing their body suits. I wonder why? Having choreographed fighting scenes in mini-skirts is a lot more revealing than the anime was, obviously, so you win some, you lose some, I guess. Ami has a damaging attack. Cheaper than a fog machine. Heh.

Under duress I bought Wobbly Life, a game that basically revolves around having terrible controls on purpose. What a joy to play.

What in the everblazing fires of hell... no, no, no. Nope. I'm going back to listening to µ's. edit: Hard to believe there's music out there that makes Love Live!'s µ's sound genuinely good.

And, if any of you want to develop ear cancer for some reason:

Sure, but then you realize there are companies shipping pre-built computers with terrible cooling designs or wrongly installed CPU fans, and all of a sudden having a power cable that can end up not being fully secured but looking like it is becomes scary again. Next up on GN, testing the 5000$ pre-built that runs burning hot. Literally.

Slave labour worked to death over building new stadiums? Who cares. Repressive society? Who cares. Women's rights? Who cares. Minority's rights? Who cares. Corruption in the FIFA? Part of the game. No beer at the game? GET THE PITCHFORKS! Proper priority setting, amiright?

Well, there's not much to say. Crash course in Nietzschean philosophy:

Nucular, Lisa. It is pronounced nu-cular.

That's like 70% of all MPs.

I was going to say that Ritchie Blackmoore looks pretty worn out, but then I realized the guy is 77. Where did all the time go? edit: For clarification, I meant his guest appearance in the above video, not this one from 2006.

I watched The Departed because I used to make the effort to watch movies winning best picture, and back in the 90ies that usually meant films that were worthwhile more often than not. Browsing through the list of movies that won best picture, I seem to have stopped after 2007. I wonder, can't quite put my finger on why... Oh, right, because crime dramas were starting to win all the time (yes, yes, an exaggeration), and best picture for Return of the King was a joke - and I say that as someone who enjoyed the trilogy overall. The Departed, to quote the first line that comes from IMDB when googling it: 'And there's not a boring moment in it's two and a half hour running time.' I think I would like to tacitly disagree with the assessment. It's more like not one interesting moment in its runtime...

She was convicted of murder once she stopped being happy with killing peasants and moved on to lesser gentry (or, alternatively, she was the victim of a conspiracy by people who wanted her wealth and/or were not happy with a woman being this influencial in the 16th century). Being one of the wealthiest artistocrats of her time, with extensive holdings and the kingdom deeply in her debt, we can speculate what her opinion on letting peasants decide anything would have been, but it is reasonably to assume it would have been a hearty laugh, and whoever came up with the idea would have been named court jester. She also inherited most of her wealth. Take all that the way you want, but:

I'm going to let @Make a contract with KP post his trademark David Lynch video reaction in response to that.

Some beef: Bone marrow (well, from beef bones ) And getting rid of the leftovers:

Sure, like nothing about this first episode was creepy as hell, not sure what I was talking about there. I don't know how well it would work without the first two seasons, but there's a pretty big time skip in between and most exposition in early StrikerS flows pretty organically. The series falls apart in the final five episodes when they either ran out of time or lost track of what they wanted to do and turned the villain into a Bond level numpty in both exposition and behaviour, but until then that was actually a pretty decent watch. The fanservice is just plain bad instead of eye-gougingly bad because they had the common sense to, you know, no longer use nine year olds for most of it. Like, if you want to check out the early seasons and have misgivings about loli-scenes just leave out episode 5 of the first season. It's also a lot slower paced and not as much about awesome battles as the Wikipedia entry makes it look.

Well, for that, I have to bring out an old friend...

Suddenly, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS doesn't seem so bad, huh?

I was serious with the suggestion though. It's hard to find something as well written as the first two CCS seasons. Might not be your cup of tea, but the craftsmanship that went into the series is almost immaculate. The third season/second story arc wasn't as strong, but still pretty good.

12 issues with each between 150 and 200 pages, apparently. I am uncertain if that is a commitment I want to make right now. Plus a prologue issue with another 180 pages. Yay...

Watch Card Captor Sakura on Netflix, thank me later.