Anime Impressions: Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to

Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout (ep. 1-12 SUB)

WARNING: SPOILERS!
I should warn the prospective reader that there’s definitely SPOILERs here! I consider myself spoiler proof. After all, if it’s ruined just by someone telling you what happens, then it couldn’t have been very good to begin with, right? However, there are plenty of people out there who’d be very angry if they read on only to find a series spoiled for them. So here’s the warning…read at your own risk.

What would you do if you were put into a situation where all your deepest secrets were revealed? A blazing light showers down upon you and exposes all of your insecurities including how you feel about your role in society, your failings, and even your love interests. What if these secrets aren’t accepted in the society you live in? What if you just can’t live up to the expectations of marriage and family because you don’t fall into that perfect spot assigned to you? What if you were gay? Or Transgender? Or simply just a guy who can’t get a date, thanks to your woman hating friend who insists on tagging along with you to the bar in order to “protect” you?

Plot

The astonishingly handsome Jinguuji and his girl-crazy friend Tachibana are about to have their secrets exposed. Jinguuji has been chased by women all his life while Tachibana has struggled to get anywhere with a girl.

The taller, more attractive man becomes resentful towards women in general when he witnesses their jealous and petty behavior as they pursue him. To Jinguuji, Tachibana is the childhood friend he could always count on and a breath of fresh air from all of this drama.

Tachibana, on the other hand, is insecure around his friend’s good looks and ability to attract women. He goes out of his way to be as masculine as possible, or at least what he thinks is masculine. Despite being sociable, grating even, Tachibana is a completely average guy. He’s shorter than average, with bangs that hide his eyes. When he tries to pick up women in bars, he usually winds up drunk with Jinguuji stuck dragging him home.
On one particular night, however, Tachibana is lying drunk on the ground with Jinguuji standing over him attempting to revive him. The drunken man then quietly mentions that he’d rather be the perfect woman and have people fawn over him. 

Before they know it, a window opens in the sky and a shining woman zaps them away to another world. There, Junguuji awakens in time to see Tachibana melt into a green goo, then reform into a blond haired, blue-eyed, beautiful young woman. The Goddess of Love and Beauty, who transported them here, explains that their mission is to defeat the Demon Lord. However, after they insult her, she curses the two heroes with completing their quest before Tachibana will return to normal and they’ll return home.



The “curse” winds up being the “Charm” effect similar to that of a video game which appears over a character’s head. The two aren’t completely defenseless, as Tachibana is gifted with various social skills and Jinguuji is granted super strength.



The duo soon find out Tachinaba’s particular social skills all have a different effect, depending on the person involved. A group of bandits attempt to propose to her,



a village props her up as a goddess, and the beautiful elven chieftain, Telolilo Lilili Lu, displays homicidal jealousy. However, Lilili Lu’s anger might also come from the fact that our heroes burned down her sacred forest,



cut off her sacred braid,



and killed, cooked, and ate one of her sacred beasts.



The new hero, Schwartz von Liechtenstein Lohengramm, sees Tachibana as a fair maiden to be courted, that is until she reveals the truth about her origins.



Even with a magic tiara that keeps her hidden, Tachibana, now going by the name “Hinata,” still keeps running into trouble.

Jinguuji, traveling with Schwartz, Hinata, and a town guardswoman named Lucius, manage to defeat a giant metal knight: a robot piloted by one of the Demon Lord’s child-like henchmen, Vizzd.



It’s through this series of events that we learn Schwartz von Liechtenstein Lohengramm is actually a Japanese high school student who refuses to reveal his true name. He explains that extra dimensional travelers such as himself are marked by the goddesses that invite them to this world. In his case, he bears the mark of Goddess of Night.

With the help of the sleazy tradesman Shen, Jinguuji and Hinata manage to find the temple of the Goddess of Love and Beauty: a place with a lot of assumptions attached to it and, in the end, winds up living up to those assumptions.



After making a mad escape from the temple, the two wind up invited to a royal party by Shen, who reveals himself to be a secret agent of the King. While at the party, Hinata witnesses the Princess Yugraine try to throw herself from a window and saves her.



Hinata runs away to join Princess Yugraine’s rebellion after getting into a fight with Jinguuji. It’s here that Hinata comes over the spell of Kalm, another of the Demon Lord’s henchpersons. They were the one who freed Vizzd from prison with the intention of using Hinata to pilot a megaweapon created by the Goddess of Love and Beauty. It’s up to Jinguuji, with the help of Schwartz, to stop the giant robot and free Hinata.



It’s only after an incredibly long string of compliments pointing out everything he has admired about her that Jinguuji is able to convince Hinata to stop her attack.

The Review

This show has a lot to say about different social issues, such as friendship versus love versus lust, society’s expectations of men and women, and expectations of different classes and occupations like royalty, law enforcement, and “heroes” in general. However, most of the characters eschew their societal expectations. Hinata is the “ideal” woman, but still drinks heavily and talks to Jinguuji in a coarse masculine tone. Yugraine is a far cry from a polite, law abiding, demure princess. Lilili Lu is psychotic in her rage against the heroes, rather than cool and collected like you’d expect from an elf. And the stoic Japanese salaryman, Jinguuji, has deeper motivations than what is assumed at first.

Conversely, the show also reinforces some stereotypes and tropes surrounding female characters, such as when Lucius is summarily left naked and humiliated on the battlefield. However, when these concern Hinata, they are turned to comedic effect. Jinguuji ties Hinata up in a cloak after stating that she was showing too much skin. A group of bandits make the assumption that the duo is especially weak because one of them is a woman. Hinata must wear a costly magic tiara that subdues her powers of attraction. And, at one point, she tries to use her Charm ability on Jinguuji in an attempt to get him to buy her something, but he places a paper bag over her head as a defense.



The men of the show use physical powers, like Jinguuji’s super punch and Schwartz’s magic sword “Gram ” to fight; almost all the women are left to use deceit, magic, and/or technology during combat. Vizzd relies on power armor, Kalm uses magic to disguise herself and control others, and Yugraine uses deceit and manipulation on Hinata in order to use her beauty to inspire the rebel troops to keep fighting.



I was very happy to see that Yoshiki Fukuyama was responsible for the opening theme Akatsuki no Salaryman (“Salaryman at Dawn”), and has also worked on the excellent Makka na Chikai from Busou Renkin.
Like with other shows such as Tiger and Bunny, the relationship between the two protagonists is left ambiguous. Is it a budding LGBTQ+ centric romance? A comedic misadventure between heterosexual buddies? The audience is left to decide for themselves. For the most part, I felt this was more of a gay romance due to the fact that Hinata is also affected by the curse and able to be Charmed. At different points during the series, both Jinguuji and Hinata fantasize about marrying each other and starting a family. Only for these reveries to end in a comedic slap to the face.



Amongst all the social commentary, the viewer should remember the most important aspect of the show: it’s a comedy, but a smart comedy. It’s not afraid to explore, and make fun of, gender roles. Regardless of their nature, our heroes know when to beat a hasty retreat. No, our heroes aren’t evil. They’re just a bit careless and self centered enough to be enjoyably horrible at this whole adventuring thing. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say this is the most hilarious show I’ve seen in a long time. Watching Hinata sometimes not-so-inadvertently enchant an entire town, then seeing Jinguuji scramble to get her away before she bankrupts the peasants or is kidnapped by bandits is just incredible. It’s also something you should check out when you have the time.

Editor: Rickie Paszek

Revised Stream Schedule for Winter 2024

New Twitch Streaming Schedule for Winter 2024

I’m going to be taking Cyberounk 2077 off of the stream rotation for now, as I’ve got my hand full trying to get the Mystikk Tales blog back up and running regularly. I’m also going to be sprucing up the Twitch and Youtube channels with better thumbnails and organization.

Updated Twitch stream schedule for Winter 2024:
twitch.tv/romeomoon1

Tuesday-7:00pm Baldur’s Gate 3
Wednesday-6:00pm Horror Wednesdays
Friday-7:00pm SWTOR
Saturday-9:00am Star Wars Fallen Order
Sunday-7:00pm: Guild Wars 1 or 2

Whether you love the Druids and Drow of Baldur’s Gate 3 or the Jedi and Sith conflict of Star Wars, stop by and check our stream on Twitch.

State of the Blog 2024

Upcoming Reviews

I’m very excited to announce the next Anime Impressions review featuring Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to (Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout) is up now for subscribers of my Patreon and should be available publicly on January 16th. I know it’s been a long time coming, but apparently the most popular vote on the Patreon Anime of Winter 2022 poll turned out to be a bit more of a complex show than I expected. As a result, I had to take a more top down view of the series instead of digging into the nitty gritty of it’s many themes. Otherwise the blog wouldn’t be “brief review of anime that strike my fancy” after 10,000+ words exploring gender roles and LGBTQA+ rights in Japan. Maybe someday I’ll have the attention span to do all that work.

Our next review will be Leadale no Daichi nite (In the Land of Leadale) followed by Gensou Sangokushi: Tengen Reishinki (Fantasia Sango: Realm of Legends). Leadale sounds like a nice cozy watch comparable to Freren, where an Isekai’d hero returns to the realm to find it a very different place. Gensou should be interesting, hopefully not in a bad way, in that it’s based on a mobile game.

We will have another vote focusing on Spring 2022’s lesser known shows. I’ve written about a few popular anime in the past, but now I kind of want to take a look at anime below a certain view count on My Anime List. As usual, Patreon subscribers will be the key voters in picking three more shows and will be able to see the reviews before they go public. Hopefully, my experiences recorded here will shine a light on good shows that may have been overshadowed by other popular series. It might also serve to warn people of mediocre or bad shows.

Paid Content

Paid content will mostly stay on Patreon until it’s released to the public here on WordPress after aproximately 1-2 weeks. I am contemplating a newsletter or series of short stories for WordPress Subscribers. However, I feel that would require a larger reader base, and thus a larger possible Subscriber base, to really justify charging people for content.

New Editor

And finally, I’m happy to anounce I have found an editor for the blog: Rickie Paszek. They’ve already edited the newest Anime Impressions review and have been paid that work. Rickie has a background in writing and has been pleasant to work with in real life as well as online. I’m hoping Rickie can take a look at any short stories I manage to finish as well.

That’s all for now!

Patreon Vote for Anime Impressions Review!

Hi all! Just wanted to let everyone know that tomorrow (25-Feb-2023) is the last day to vote on the subject(s) of the next Anime Impressions review here at the Mystikk Tales blog. Pledge $1 and you can vote for up to 5 series from the Winter 2022 season on the list provided. Shows with multiple votes will take priority according to how many votes they each get. If there’s still a tie, I’ll review them in alphabetical order. Head on over to the Patreon page today and pledge to cast your vote (and also get other neat stuff like the chance to team up with me in a game, gain access to the Discord with a special role, early access to content like Anime Impressions Reviews, and even some art).

https://www.patreon.com/Romeomoon

Anime Impressions: Sirius the Jaeger (ep. 1-12 D/S)

WARNING: SPOILERS!
I should warn the prospective reader that there’s definitely SPOILERs here! I consider myself spoiler proof. After all, if it’s ruined just by someone telling you what happens, then it couldn’t have been very good to begin with, right? However, there are plenty of people out there who’d be very angry if they read on only to find a series spoiled for them. So here’s the warning…read at your own risk.

Most series set in the first part of 20th century Japan show the modern world slowly encroaching on traditional Japanese life. Technology like trains and guns are depicted as unique marvels of science to be looked upon in awe, or fear. Villains like Demon Slayer’s Muzan Kibutsuji are dressed smartly in pin striped suits and fedoras while the opposing forces of the Demon Slaying Corps are dressed in the traditional haori of the Taisho era. In contrast, Sirius the Jaeger’s 1930 Showa era setting reveals technology that is already deeply embedded in everyday life. Cars are commonplace as are guns. 

Meanwhile, a gang known as the Hyakko Party lurks in the shadows, desperate to pull Japan into the preceding feudal era. The series’ meta is also steeped in 1930’s pop, right down to the stylish, Bella Legosi like Kershner funding the creation of a Frankestien’s monster abomination. There are shots of classy detectives staring up at office buildings, high speed car chases, and extravagant parties with wealthy, unsuspecting young ladies.

Sirius introduces its major conflicts early on, saving the viewer from overwhelming and dull exposition for a short time. Unfortunately, the main plot fails to come to a satisfying conclusion, instead settling for an ending rife with sequel-bait teasers despite the fact that most of the major storylines have concluded.

Plot

The central conflict revolves around the Vampires and those that hunt them, a group of international fighters known as the Jaegers. This war is exemplified when the Jaeger Yuliy Jirov discovers his older brother Mikhail is still alive, but has aligned himself with the vampires. Through flashbacks, we also learn that Willard, the leader of the Jaegers has been hiding a devastating secret: he is inadvertently responsible for the destruction of Yuliy and Mikhail’s village. A massacre carried out as the Vampires search desperately for something. It turns out, they are succumbing to an insidious disease that may eventually lead to their extinction. The only solution is the mysterious artifact known as the Ark of Sirius thought to be located in the village. With his brother now a Vampire, it’s up to Yuliy as the only surviving “Sirius”, a.k.a. Werewolf, to find the location of the Ark and stop it from being used for evil. Along the way, he discovers the legacy of his father in relation to the Ark, makes friends with a Japanese nobleman and his daughter, and finally comes into his own power. Of course, Major Hideomi Iba of the Japanese Imperial Army is hot on the trail of the Jaegers as he investigates a string of murders and winds up entangled in events far larger than he imagined.

Review

Sirius the Jaeger revels in its environment and packs it full of violent action. It’s clear the Sirius villagers, covered in scars, live an unpredictable life in the wild of the unforgiving frozen wilderness. Vampires like Kershner ooze a hammy charm and insist on using old school tactics, like sword fighting, against their enemies.

A direct correlation is drawn between them and the Japanese traditionalist Hyakko Party. Both groups are relics of the past struggling to maintain relevance in this new modern Japan. Both are slowly dying out; literally from disease of the body in the case of the Vampires, and figuratively from corruption in the case of Momosei Naotora and his gang.

With all of this world building and its unique cast of teammates and villains, the series should be listed as a must-see. For the most part it rings hollow, though, especially when it comes to the dispute between the brothers. What should be a heart pounding, high tension conflict, fizzles. Mikhail’s hatred of the Vampires is made evident with the fact that he was forcefully turned. It may have been better if he were legitimately convinced to turn, maybe out of a misdirected hatred for his brother. Thus making the eventual reconciliation much more rewarding. It would have been incredibly cliche, but most cliches and tropes can work if done well. And this show is very full of everything that has been done before.

Another weak point is the side characters. We see very little of the motivations of the other Jaegers, with the exception of Phillip whose parents were murdered by a Sirius werewolf. Even this revelation only leads to a brief spat before the status quo is reestablished with the group, although it does explain Philip’s sarcastic behavior toward Yuliy. 

Dorothea gets a little development when she flirts with fellow Jaeger-turned-Vampire Bishop, but that might just be a last ditch effort to have her do something other than tease the other characters and spray bullets from a variety of guns. 

Fallon is even more one dimensional and is relegated to the role of Muscle Man of the group. Also, if you’re going to boast a cast with varied international backgrounds, then you should make use of accents for characters. I might just be spoiled by the English dub of the Hellsing franchise, but imagine my disappointment when Fallon opened his mouth and instead of a beautiful Irish brogue, he had a modern American accent. Now, Fallon is supposed to be Irish-American, but since the show tries so hard to visually represent the time period, one would think the showrunners would have also focused on cultural aspects of the characters such as speech patterns. He probably would have sounded like a Bostonian. I’m not sure if it was due to the limitations of the voice cast, or if it was an effort not to be racist or maybe to avoid stereotypes. I’m also not familiar enough with Japanese to be able to tell if they used various accents for the original Japanese version.

The other supposed antagonist/ally in the form of Iba provides an outsider point of view to the events and a little tension during the action. However, as with the other supporting characters, he’s surprisingly flat. We see him sort through papers and stare intently into the distance, but we’re never really allowed inside his head. 

The aforementioned nobleman’s daughter, Ryoko Naoe is also a good civilian counterpart to her guests, but the love story between her and Yuliy remains one sided without much sexual tension to really drive it.

Her conversations with Dorothea about love allow Ryoko to have a little bit of growth, especially towards the end when it seems that that love will never be realized. Even so, she is relegated to the background for most of the story.

Some other critics laud the action scenes as basically the saving grace of the show. However, series like Black Lagoon and Hellsing offer up far more intense and visceral action. Sirius isn’t just lacking in depth, it’s also lacking in the extreme violence viewers have become accustomed to in anime horror. There’s still plenty of blood and guts, but it’s lacking in stylish flare and exuberance making it pretty boring to watch. The result is a toothless offering of a Vampire show. It simply doesn’t give itself enough time to ponder the central sibling rivalry, the idea that the Vampires aren’t as immortal or invulnerable as thought (we see plenty of them destroyed by magic bullets), or even build a decent team dynamic between Yuliy and his fellow Jaegers.

The entire show feels like twenty six episodes of plot points crammed into twelve. Plots and subplots are churned out, but few of them are resolved in a satisfying manner. The Ark mentioned is a nebulous Mcguffin in the shape of an FX laden orb, that along with its twin, forms a font of power. Its abilities are never really defined. Another mysterious orb is introduced to explain that the first orb is too mysterious for most people to use except for the Sirius clan. Unfortunately, beyond that the secondary orb’s powers are also not defined. This vast knowledge also apparently doesn’t seem to transfer to the main villain Yevgraf, who selfishly uses it to become a super regenerating monster who then neglects his promise to use the Ark to heal the Vampire clan. This is really the only time the Vampires feel dangerous. Even the evil child characters of Larissa and Tamara don’t come off nearly as creepy or menacing as they should, although they are stylish.

The ending is really the ultimate disappointment here. Yevgraf uses one half of the Ark to upgrade his powers and while he does feel more like a threat, his super powered character design looks like a cheap J-Rock costume. 

After Yevgraf’s defeat and Mikhail’s subsequent death, Yuliy, having become one with the Ark, heads out on his own aboard a train. He’s seemingly made peace with his brother and learned compassion for his Vampire enemies in his search for a cure. Willard preps his team as Jaegers from all over the world are put on alert to search for Yuliy and the Ark. But don’t worry, Willard’s group is out to find Yuliy before the others do. There’s something of a set up for season two, ala John Wick, with Yuliy being chased around the world with his former comrades hot on his heels. It’s all just so mediocre. 

If you’re really into Vampire anime or are trying to work your way through a challenge like watching all of Netflix’s anime series or all of the series for the Summer season of 2018, then you’ll inevitably wind up watching Sirius the Jaeger. For everyone else, there are far better Vampire action shows to scratch that itch.

Anime Impressions: Carole & Tuesday Review (Ep. 1-24 English Dub)

WARNING: SPOILERS!
I should warn the prospective reader that there’s definitely SPOILERs here! I consider myself spoiler proof. After all, if it’s ruined just by someone telling you what happens, then it couldn’t have been very good to begin with, right? However, there are plenty of people out there who’d be very angry if they read on only to find a series spoiled for them. So here’s the warning…read at your own risk.

Everything I can say about Carole & Tuesday has already been said, but I’m going to say it anyway. It’s not a perfect show: contests are lost and the protagonists still experience a modicum of success (as happens in the real world, too); missing parents show up with convenient backstories; creepy stalkers are thwarted and injured artists recover with little to no evidence of the physical or psychological pain they’ve suffered. Everything is tied up a little too neatly and I never really felt the protagonists were in any real danger aside from the attack by a stalker and (vague) threats anti-immigration policies and the (blatant) threat of police brutality. However, the show does have a lot of charm and expresses a real love for music with well crafted design.

Plot

Tuesday Simmons is a poor rich girl running away from home when she stumbles upon poor-girl-rich-in-spirit Carole Stanley on a bridge in Alba City, Mars. The two flee a policeman looking to arrest them and wind up at Carole’s place, a run down storage room inside a small store. They play a guerilla performance at the Mars Immigration Memorial Hall and wind up an online sensation due to Roddy, a sound technician, recording and uploading their performance. This leads the girls to Gus Goldman who becomes their manager and starts them on a journey of a lifetime.

They participate (poorly) in concerts as back-up, enter American Idol style competitions (somewhat successfully), perform at more concerts (more successfully), meet their idols (for good and for bad), encounter stalkers, and meet their competition in the form of former model Angela Carpenter and her overbearing mother Dahlia.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s mother and brother find themselves embroiled in political intrigue as her mother, Valerie, tries to run for Presidential office under a platform of bigotry pushed upon by her campaign manager Jerry. Angela’s issues are also on display as she deals with her abusive mother, a despondent music producer who favors AIs over humans, and a series of incompetent assistants. Tao, Angela’s AI obsessed producer, ends up angering Jerry and his corporate backer who wants to exploit Tao’s AI engineering genius to use the data to set up a puppet government headed by Valerie. Eventually, the would-be President steps down from her campaign, leaving Jerry’s plan in shambles. It all culminates in a gathering of all the artists we’ve met in the series in a final concert to end the political tension, ala “We Are the World.”

Review

First and foremost, you can’t discuss this show without talking about the music. Shinichiro Watanabe, the director behind Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, was behind this series. His love for integrating music into his shows is also on display with this series. The songs are for the most part memorable, especially the starter song “The Loneliest Girl.” Even now, hours after finishing the series, I can still recall the melody. That’s not easy for a woman in her 40s with memory issues. Watanabe also explores other genres here  including EDM, country, rap, opera, hard rock/metal, and even electronic orchestra. The characters behind this music are fittingly unique. My favorite happens to be the mysterious GGK, who believes the universe is forcing her to perform and that she dies whenever she starts singing and is resurrected when she stops performing.

Pyotr is also great, and while he displays the usual self centered tendencies of many influencers, I never felt truly annoyed by him. He just happened to have the heart and talent to actually pull off his first time singing. There might just be something behind his need for self validation through his social media presence.

He could have easily been the main villain of the show but he wound up being a decent, supportive person. Crystal on the other hand, comes off as the typical wise mentor/idol, beautiful and kind but also bland.

She doesn’t show up a lot, though. Instead, the true role of mentor goes to Gus and Toby, Carole and Tuesday’s music producer.

They both work to mold Carole and Tuesday into performers worthy of putting out an album. Angela is your typical abused starlet, lashing out at the world like a spoiled brat and hurting everyone around just as she has been hurt.

Great critiques of what to and what not to do creatively are prevalent. For example, the Mermaid Sisters and their use of great melody to back lyrics that would make a sailor blush.

The show revels in its theme of music, from episode titles to character names to even caricatures (I thought I saw Willie Nelson in there somewhere!). If you’re a music buff, you’ll love looking for all the little Music Industry easter eggs sprinkled throughout the episodes.

The dubbed-in singing can be a little jarring since it feels so separated from the audio of the dialog, especially the original Japanese language version. Angela’s vocals, in particular, seem to fluctuate between different singers, sometimes auto-tuned on top of everything. An overall unfortunate issue I’ve noticed with Netflix’s anime is that the Japanese audio tends to come through as a bit tinny, with an echo like it was produced in a small room. In contrast, the English dub comes through crisp and clear. I first noticed this when flipping through the dub options for another show, Super Crooks. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this is an effort on Netflix’s part to steer audiences in the direction of the English dub. I wouldn’t be surprised if investors were concerned about Netflix producing anime, when live action shows might reach a larger audience. There’s another, non-conspiracy reason Netflix wants you to watch the English dub. It’s good. Very, very good. And that’s coming from someone who almost exclusively watches the original Japanese version of shows. It features many of the voice cast I recognize from other Netflix English dubs like Seven Deadly Sins. And fortunately Netflix provides a way to see the difference between the English dub and Japanese version. Simply by turning on the English with Subtitle option, you can see the alternate English translation. Just in case you didn’t know about that.

The animation of Studio Bones holds up, and while some of it is a little stilted, the best stuff is saved for the rotoscoped/motion captured dance sequences. The lighting and colors are beautiful and the special effects for the stages really pop.

Clichés and the convenient plot devices that pop up to solve the girls’ problems, and the show still really tries to reinforce just how difficult it can be to climb to success in the entertainment industry. Happy coincidences like meeting their idols also prove just how much luck plays a part in finding that success. Even diva Angela’s downfall, as predictable and foreshadowed as it may be, is still depressing. She’s one of the main antagonists, and although she rarely interacts with the others, her face is literally everywhere: billboards, TV, and the internet. However, Carole and Tuesday’s march through the industry is sometimes realistically slow and uneven.

Something that should be mentioned is the show’s noble push back against the involvement of AI in the development of art. It goes through pains to acknowledge the merit of independent, human based creativity. Yet this message is coming from the Japanese animation industry: an “art factory” of sorts, known for exploiting its labor for little pay and sparse living arrangements. It’s also a message coming from Netflix, a massive corporation known for using every AI trick in the book when it comes to generating algorithms used to grow its audience. Tao would be proud.

In the end the production winds up being very far from the handcrafted projects it tries to hold up as an example of human merit.

The show also straddles the political divide. On one side it presents a diverse cast and highlights left leaning issues such as police brutality, immigrant rights, and revolution against the status quo. On the other hand, the protagonists fight against limiting self expression and free speech, a point of view that is often associated with Libertarian and right leaning philosophies.

This dichotomy of views is further exemplified in the protagonists themselves with Carole being an immigrant from Earth and Tuesday being the daughter of a presidential candidate who has recently adopted a right wing anti-immigration platform in her bid for office.

So is Carole and Tuesday worth the watch? If you’re looking for a hard bitten look at the trials of entering the music industry, then this isn’t for you. But, if you’re interested in an uplifting tale of two young women looking to make their dreams come true with the backdrop of political turmoil, then this is your show. It offers a bright outlook with a happy ending. The antagonists are either converted to the side of good, or lose their jobs, or die from natural causes not directly related to the protagonists. Sometimes, the villains redeem themselves as they’re passing away. The show also doesn’t shy away from occasionally showing the dark side of the entertainment business as we get a look at Flora, a stand-in for Whitney Houston, and her rise and fall from glory.

We see the lead singer of a megahit rock band drunkenly stumble over the edge of a stage, and Angela nearly suffers the same fate before her industry friends give her the strength to recover.

So, yes. Watch it for the character development, world building, political intrigue, and, most importantly, Watanabe’s joy and enthusiasm for excellent music.

New Job!

A lot has changed in the last few months, beginning with the start of a new job at a manufacturing plant across town. I started back in August and things hae really improved including my finances and overall outlook on life. I’m now in the Union of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, who have worked with management to close the plant during this incredibly cold polar vortex that has frozen Wisconsin today. I make more money than I’ve made in my life. Plus I finally have a regular schedule. I’m also working in the medical field, specifically assembling anesthesia machines to be shipped around the world. The increased income from the new job has even allowed me to buy the new (refurbished) tablet and keyboard I’m currently using to write to you. Overall, life is good and I couldn’t ask for more.

New Vidme Channel

Things have been changing almost constantly in the Youtube Universe (Youtubeverse?). Every now and then these changes take the form of migrations to alternate video hosting sites like Dailymotion and Vimeo, only for some to find these platforms to be lacking in some way. It seems one the newest and most popular to crop up is Vidme.

I’ve been talking to my fellow live streamer, Matt Winchell, who says he’s had quite a bit more success on Vidme than the other places. He gets more views, connects more easily with other producers, and he can collect tips without the hassle of Google’s Adsense. So, I’ve decided to start uploading some of my stuff over there, starting with the Secret World Legends videos. You can start watching here: https://vid.me/Romeomoon

EDIT: Vidme has unfortunately shut down. Good thing I didn’t invest too much time in it.

I’m on Patreon! Finally!!

After 5+ years of hemming and hawing, rewriting, re-editing, reposting and wondering whether or not it was really worth going through a crowd funding campaign, I have finally launched my Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/Romeomoon

You can’t imagine what this means to me to even come this far. The live streams for Anarchy Online have been doing really well, despite my graphics card starting to fail:

And I’ve quite a few people on Twitch who want to see me keep going. Now I have a way to reward them a little more directly through the rewards program on Patreon. While I’ll have digital stuff available such as banners and avatars for the lowest level donations, I intend on sending out physical items like trading cards and digital prints for higher tier supporters.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about how this will pan out, if it ever does, but I at least I tried. Hopefully, starting up a Patreon is only the first step really improving on the quality and quantity of my productions. We’ll have to see what the future holds.

 

Farewell to Carrie Fisher

I was in the prep kitchen of the deli at Metcalfe’s Market Hilldale quickly panning up the rotisserie chickens and seasoning them for cooking. One of my co-workers over in Artisan Cheese had come over to wash a cutting board, when he turned to me:

“Did you hear the news?”

“No.”

“Carrie Fisher died.”

At first I thought he was kidding me. BBC News had reported her in stable condition after suffering a heart attack on a flight from London to L.A. Many of us, her fans, thought everything was going to be okay. Some of my more crass friends even told bad jokes about how we’d recently sacrificed George Michael to 2016. The deadly year wasn’t allowed to take Carrie Fisher, too. I simply couldn’t believe it.

I have been a Star Wars fan for quite a long time, after seeing the original when I was five-years-old. For the next few years, I would dig up whatever movie books I could find in the school library and at old junk shops in town. I would try to find and watch other movies in which the stars of Star Wars had appeared. I was thrilled while watching Blues Brothers to see Carrie Fisher show up once again in a badass persona, this time carrying a rather large assault rifle and hunting down the titular characters of that movie. Much later, I learned she had written a memoir, but I was too scared to read it thinking it might taint my image of her as Princess Leia.

I think I will read it now. Especially upon learning about her advocacy for the treatment of mental illness and the fact that she suffered from bipolar disorder, an illness my dad was diagnosed with a few years ago. I’m learning a lot about her now that she has passed on. I wish I had taken the time and saved the money to possibly meet her in person. I heard she was wonderful.

R.I.P. Carrie Fisher – ” [She] drowned in moonlight, strangled by [her] own bra.”