majestic

SHUT UP WESLEY, SHUT UP. I love watching Mike and Rich talk about Star Trek (in any form), but I'm finding myself having bursts of aggression whenever they show these interviews with Wesley. How about someone holds up a mirror to you, you ridiculous corporate shill f*ckface? Go to you happy place. Calm down. Happy place. Happy thoughts. Time to pick sunflowers.

That reminds me of something. Posted this before, but hey, who cares. (Time coded to the Black Superman joke). There's another punchline at the end:

Komi is the same as it was when it went on hiatus. It's nice when it is only Komi and Tadano, and falls apart when anyone else shows up. Makes-Komi-eat-a-sausage stalker girl and Dragon-girl have a WHO LIKES KOMI MORE competition. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds.

It is from the same writer and the writing shares some of the ups and downs, so why yes, indeed, and not without reason I would argue. I said it does not make me want to gouge my eyes out and that some of the 3D animation works relatively well instead of being a complete failure. Faint praise, all in all.

The bubbles are an integral part of the film, but there are enough scenes without them, so that's by far and large on the people taking these sceneshots and probably being impressed by them. It does look a bit better in animation than it does on stills, at least - however, that is fairly subjective. You can start laughing half your ass off, at least, because I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Shocking, I know. In all fairness, I'm a bit surprised by that myself. Sure there are some weak points, and to be honest I could have done without the sledgehammer style foreshadowing. It was pretty apparent how this is going to go even without it. However, in all fairness, we're talking about a Japanese film, and I'm not exactly certain how much of a staple the story this is based on is in Japan. Bubble (バブル) The damndest thing happens right at the start as the film opens with a Warner Bros. logo. I'm not watching too many anime films, all in all, so this was new for me, at least. What @Sarex called an exposition dump is probably one of two things, the first being a "the story so far..." segment being narrated by one of the film's characters fifteen minutes into the film. It doesn't matter too much for the film overall, just explains the setting and how we got there. In a live action feature, this would be the intro credits with a whole lot of newspaper headlines that explain why the city in question is all but abandoned and what was going on. This is fine, in my opinion, by far and large. You can leave the audience alone in trying to figure out what happened, or add such exposition organically, but for that it would have to be an entirely different film. The second, more problematic one, is Makoto reading a story to Uta. What this means, and why it is a problem that can and does detract a little - or a whole lot, depending on how forgiving one feels at the time - from the film, will be talked about in a spoiler below. One instance in particular feels like an ex post facto explanation dump for the hard of thinking. There's also a teeny tinesy wittle bit of fanservice, of course, because you can't have anime without it, apparently. It consists mostly of anime boob inflation syndrome and a couple of awkward sitting and standing position to expose the features of Makoto. It's fairly mild and not a whole lot, but it feels more out of place in this film than in other anime stuff, so it's kind of awkward when it does happen. Anyway, the film contains a bunch of characters, and most of them have one thing in common: They're not entirely worth mentioning. The feature is by far and large about the two leads, Hibiki and Uta, and the next most important character is Makoto. So these are the ones to talk about. In an anime series, the other characters would probably also get some character development, but with a movie with a runtime of 1:40, there are limits to what can be done, and I'm certain even at that length this film is going to feel overly long (insert Mike Stoklasa stupid face going "Boooooooooring!" here) for a whole lot of anime fans. So, to "spoil" the exposition dump that happens, because it only sets the background, the film is set in Tokyo after a global bubble rain phenomenon happened. For some unknown reason, an incident at Tokyo Tower (it always is the Tokyo Tower, after all) concentrates all the bubbles in the area, flooding the city and distorting gravity, causing Tokyo to be abandoned. Mostly, at least, beacuse a group of orphans having nowhere else to go and some daredevils, of course, just have to make use of the gravity distortions to create the world's most... unique parkour. Forming teams, they compete for resources, fame, and in the case of one group, streaming viewership. After a brief intro, the film begins with one of these competitions. One thing is fairly notable, and that was a big surprise, this is the first time I've seen 3D animation effects giving some of the scenes depth in a way that did not look completely uncanny. It doesn't work in every scene, but some of the parkour running they do has a certain amount of 3D animation that did not weird me out. I'm not going to say the film looks good, some of the backgrounds are fine, but the character design is, quite frankly, very modern. You know the type. 2010s, 2020ies apparently too. Characters of note Hibiki Hibiki suffers from hyperacusis and for that reason always walks - runs and jumps, because he's by far and large the parkour star - around with earmuffs simply to stop the onslaught of sound. He apparently can hear things the others can't, and for that reason is capable of using what's left of the bubble rain as platforms to jump on, giving him a distinct advantage over other competitors. Otherwise a loner, he by far and large wins the matches for his team. Makoto Not many images online, and I don't feel like making one myself. Makoto has three jobs in this film. First, her bust grows as demanded and is strategically placed where it can be seen, secondly she serves as exposition dump character for both the background story narration and the reading of a certain story to Uta, and thirdly she's a sort of super flimsy explanation as to why these kids are allowed to run around in an obviously dangerous area without intervention. She's a scientist, always collecting data and once mentions that if the kids don't reign their more risk taking adventures in, she's going to have to report them. That suggests whoever is in charge is cool with children being in danger, just as long as it yields decent observations. Sounds creepy, but the film isn't doing anything with that. Uta If you think Uta looks like an anime character, then that's because she is. In a different way than you might think. Uta is the other lead character. Her name means song (歌, spelled ウタ in katakana in the film), which is the name given to her by the group after she sings a song that Hibiki has been obsessing over for a long while. A song that also more or less serves as a small theme throughout the film. Uta looks like she came straight from an anime, with a sailor fuku with a short skirt and stockings with mismatched colors. For all intents and purposes she's a manic pixie girl. She's really strange, but her presence is a positive influence on Hibiki. So that's about all we can talk about without going into spoilers. Ultimately, I wish there would have been less of a sledge hammer applied to certain parts of the film, but overall, this was still really good. Not sure I can really recommend it though. It does have its weaknesses, in the end, but when something works for me, it works.

I'm half an hour into Bubble, and I don't think this is going to have a happy ending. The foreshadowing is... as subtle as being hit with a sledgehammer, and considering who wrote this film I'd be really weird if this won't end in some dour and depressing, well, or at the least really bitter sweet ending. I'm not going to complain about the animation or the art style, it doesn't burn my eyes like Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and it doesn't look as dizzyingly choppy as Orbital Children did, but it's not perfectly smooth either and it looks the way animation looks in this day and age. I can tilt at windmills as much as I want, it's not going to change any time soon. Way too tired from today's social activities to finish the film now. Also, for @KP wants Blue Velvet: Komi is back...

I am going to cry while watching this. Tears of frustration, rage and bitter disappointment while it is running, and finally tears of joy when it is all over and hopefully forever gone to never come back ever again. If George Lucas can be said to have ruined people's childhood with the prequels one could say that Crystal/Eternal/Cosmos sodomizes the Baby Jesus. Everyone involved will end up next to Brutus, Judas and Lucifer in the final ring of hell, frozen for all eternity for the greatest crimes against humanity.

No. No no no no no no no. No. No. Nooooooo! Please no. Dear god why. And why the comments. No. Nooooooo!

Now that I've watched the episode, it does remind me a little of the Voyager episode Unity. Except they way they got there was just... yeah. Bad TV show is bad.

I haven't watched the episode yet, but read the spoiler. I expected nothing, and yet, I was still disappointed. Unbelievable.

My great-grandmother used to tell tales of how it was being caught between the Wehrmacht, the Red Army and Tito's Partisans way back in World War 2. My grandmother and her brother (the latter who is still alive) also told tales of their wonderful childhood. Starvation, death camps, watching former neighbours shooting each other because they were the wrong ethnicity. People losing their livelihood and their life's work over being not German enough, or too German... fun stuff, all in all. Special military operations certainly bring out the best in people.

Great, now I'll have even worse nightmares, because right now I'm imagining a scene like Salma Hayek's snake dance in From Dusk Till Dawn, except with giant, oversized, eight-legged, eight-eyed freaks spewn forth by the final circle of hell.

It's probably pretty hilarious too with the voice actor gang consisting of DIO, Toya, Allen and Prince Dios. That seems like a dream combination for just that sort of nonsense. Also, yeah, okay, I wasn't sure with the tag. I can't even disagree in general. It's not just your brain*, there really is a whole lot of flat guitar playing in a lot of music, some even to the point of me not being actively able to make out the guitar track in the music, even though it's there - why else have a guitarist around. They surely don't pay a guitarist to pretend to play, I mean, that would be weird. I get paying people to sing lip sync like what was that, Milli Vanilli, but yeah, mockup guitarists would be weird. In this case though, well, dunno, it's probably too easy to win me over with good singing - or rather singing I would consider to be good, that's not really entirely objective. Well, there are objective ways to measure singing quality based on technique and breath support, but that's something else. As such I don't have any issues listening to Evanescence, even though the band is just, let's say terrible. I would not turn off Creed when it's on, but I would actively attempt to get rid of Metallica, and anyone noticing that would spell an instant loss of all metal credibility. *For me that's by far and large saxophones and (short form, by far and large) trumpets. The former makes me tune out, and the latter actually makes me irascible. I also really, really don't like it when music feels like it's everyone doing their own thing and there's a distinct lack of melody and harmony - or in other words, that's a whole lot of deliberate breaks where there should be none in terms of pattern prediction. It's doubly bad when this brain dissonance is caused by vocals. That pretty much kills all of jazz, with very, very few exceptions. That's not to say everything needs to be perfectly melodical or easy listening. Some groups I enjoy listening to employ quick timing switches from a base 6/8 time signature to an irregular 5/8 and 7/8 and it doesn't feel wrong. Hard to describe. A decent example is Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me. Ugh. Can't cope. Impossible.

A while back a new neighbour moved in. Mostly she's the quiet and reserved type. Actually, most of the time you barely notice that someone new is around. Might also be because she apparently works night shifts and doesn't come out of her living place all day long. Just every now and then, at night, she leaves and you can catch a glimpse or two. I managed to snag two pictures, with relatively bad image quality because, uhm, well, it was night, my iPhone camera is pretty bad (I still got a first generation iPhone SE) and quite frankly, she gives me the creeps so I'm sure as hell not going any nearer than I was when taking the pictures. To say she's hideous would be an understatement, so really, if I hadn't walk by her door to get to mine I'd totally not even go anywhere near where she could show up. Hence, the images are in spoiler tags. Don't complain if you click on them and have a heart attack or scream like Prince John when he goes to visit Latrine in Mel Brook's Men in Tights. She also has the nasty habit of just throwing her leftovers out the door. Sheesh, who does that? Saw her today, not looking forward to the inevitable nightmares that will follow.

Just in case: Bishounen is a tag for the aesthetics of the male characters, not necessarily the target demographic. It just means pretty boy (bishoujo meaning pretty girl). I mean, yeah, literally it means pretty youth because technically shounen means something like "few of years" or "little years", but it at some point came to refer to boys instead of being gender neutral. *shrug* Yue from CCS is the most bishounen character ever, probably. edit: Might as well post a picture for everyone who hasn't (and never will) watch the show. Blasphemy, how could you not like a song performed by not one but four really good vocal... eh, okay. That answers that. Okay, in all fairness, it's probably not the strongest of the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles songs, but I really like the live performance. Definitely a case where seeing them on stage having fun enhances the experience a good deal. Unlike, uhm, that µ's thing that just gets worse when being subjected to the video instead of just the audio.

Not talking about edge issues that happen once every blue moon, that's fine. Specifically, it's a product (well, service) that a branch provides to its customers that has very little to do with what our system was created for, and they come with issues every time. Square peg, round hole and all that. We try to be as accomodating as possible, but there are limits to what we can do without negatively affecting the system for everyone else.

What? Of course there would be evil, western, capitalist rhetoric. There was plenty of that in Nazi Germany.

I'm currently thinking about trying this silly Star Trek: Picard 'absolute candor' thing. I'd say by the end of the week I'd no longer have a job and my family would stop talking to me, but at least I'd be left in peace and all by myself. It is so incredibly tiresome to pretend to care about anyone else's ridiculous sensitivities. No, user, I don't want to spend an hour working on an issue that is only an issue because you can't stick to the defined process and that branches with a hundred times your workload have no issues with. No, user, if you print a picking list and change the storage location afterwards, it is not going to automatically update itself on the paper. No, this is not complicated. No, user, if you print a picking list after removing a package from storage it will not have a storage location printed on it. The package is no longer on hand. No, the system can't know you did not intend to remove it from storage unless you tell it so. No, this is not complicated. No, user, I don't want to listen to you griping about software not doing exactly what you want it to do when it was not developed specifically for your needs. Just deal with the fact that your use case is an edge case that barely fits into the entire concept in the first place. No, customer, I don't want to call you, you have an insignificant amount of shipments and make up less than 0.001% of all revenue, me talking to you about issues that are demonstrably on your or your IT service provider's end on the phone costs the company more than we make off of you in a month. No, dear colleague, I don't want to make time to go to a COVID-19 antigen test because you invited me to your marriage ceremony. I don't want to go in the first place and only agreed because you'd be a prissy bitch about it if I'd decline. No, dad, I already spend half of my time at work reading and writing emails, I don't want to be your secretary just because 'I type a lot faster' than you do. *sigh*

As long as it's not the Techno-Necromancers from Alpha Centauri...

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (2005) - S01E03 - The Sword that destroys Evil It's been a while since I started this, and with a whole lot still open, this is as good a place as any to start. It sure feels extremely weird to see Shaoran, Sakura, Arashi, Sorata (these two are from -X-) and Kaito (Clear Card) in some other anime where they play similar characters. Generally, I'm not sure what to think of these shared universes, however in this particular case it was just a bad idea. I'm sorry, but using Sakura and Shaoran in anything but Cardcaptor Sakura is just a bad idea. Clear Card was a bad idea, and that was a sequel. Anyway, what else can I say about this. It's not terrible, but it's also not very ineresting. Yet, I hope, at least. One thing that is great is the music. This is part of a concert that's also available on YouTube, and part of the encore. They all just disappear at the regular end of the setlist, then and come back in their band-shirts instead of wearing their normal stage clothes. I don't know why, for some reason this never fails to entertain me. Although there's quite frankly nothing less I expect from a Yuki Kajiura soundtrack. It's also really great to see Fiction Junction performing on stage without it being equal parts hilarious and making you feel ashamed for liking anime. Unlike, let's say, a certain amount of other performances. If you think I'm going to link one of those now, then you're right! Alas, my go-to one has disappeared, probably got copyright struck from YouTube. A pity, but this will serve as a decent replacement. Actually, an even worse one. Frighteningly worse. Oh dear. When something makes you want the "Dancing stars on me" video back, then that's saying a lot, huh? There's a nice flashback in the episode with the scene where Tomoyo banishes one of the characters of the show for being a total shounen moron who says he doesn't care who lives or dies, he just wants to become more powerful. On the one hand, that's great, on the other, we're now stuck with him in the party, and even though he continuously grumbles about not wanting to be part of the team and leaving at the first chance, I'm afraid we'll not be rid of him that easily, huh?

Well, there's a slight upside to taking extended walks when you're not that far away from a national park. When I was little it was possible to ice skate here in winter. Goes on for a bit beyond the bend. While they're not on the picture, there are several white lilac shrubs lining the way further into the park, the air is heavily fragrant with their scent. Not the worst way to spend some time walking.

Obviously I wouldn't show my male chicken to anyone, so you just got to trust me on this! Eh. That went terrible really quickly.

What if the government would mandate to be always against what the government mandates? Let me guess, this came up?

Guess it beats Russian missiles having a malfunction in their guidance system and hitting a Polish airfield in response to Poland accidentially losing a hundred tanks.