Today

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Comfort is key

Uhm- 🫢😳

This

I believe in the separation of church & state (rpf and the real people involved) 🫡

Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: Don’t Stay Gold (OVA)

Title: Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: Don’t Stay Gold

Plot: The anime is based on a short story Yoneda wrote about Kageyama and Kuga’s first meeting. The OVA is included in the special edition of the seventh volume of the manga. ​In collaboration with aarinfantasy^^ Note: This was released via DVD and because of that, it is only available in 480p. We will definitely re-release our subtitles once a better raw is available.  Additionally, we have decided to release the softsubbed version (MKV) for this for those who would like to tweak the subs’ styling to their own liking. Thank you to those who brought up this concern to me!

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Stream links:

480p: aarinfantasy || Dailymotion || Vimeo || OK.RU

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Download links:

MKV: Mediafire || MEGA

MP4:  Mediafire || Google Drive || MEGA

Transformers: The Last Bay Movie

(This is my rough draft, correct me please if you see mistake. College essay here).

  On June, 20, 2017, Michael Bay had the privilege of directing and releasing to the world the fifth installment of the Transformers’ live-action franchise films, or what fans refer to as the “Bay-Verse”. Much to the Transformers-community’s, the viewers’, Hasbro’s, and all the companies associated with Transformers: The Last Knight disappointment, the movie was an utter catastrophe that should have stayed a thought with only its fantastic execution of visual detail and sound saving it, receiving a 15% from Rotten Tomatoes instead of a well-deserved 0%. Although there are (few) people that may argue that the film was enjoyable, there are many aspects of the film that led to its failure and dislike, particularly two aspects: the lack of a plot and the lack of accuracy of the Transformers’ (or better referred to as Cybertronians’) Universe.

  To summarize the plot, Quintessa (a Cybertronian deity and queen) who is attempting to save a dying Cybertron (which was supposedly lifeless by the first movie and is the reason why cybertronians are trying to find sanctuary on earth) by sucking the life out of the earth. A great portion of the film dumbfounded viewers because it jumped from character to character with constant plot and scene changes that were meaningless, and one moment in particular bothers fans the most. It is very unclear if Megatron simply damaged Bumblebee’s voice box or ripped it out entirely in the Bayverse, but the latter is implied. In the previous films, Bumblebee seems to be able to choke a few words once in a while. However, right when Nemesis Prime (evil Optimus Prime) is about to strike the final blow during their fight, Bumblebee speaks in his normal voice out of the blue, saying “I-I’m Bumblebee! You’re oldest friend”. Suddenly Optimus Prime breaks free of his seemingly unbreakable spell. Earlier, Bumblebee had been attempting to find a replacement part for his missing organ, so how did he get his voice back? Did Optimus punch his throat so hard that it began to function? Again, one of many parts of the film that made no sense. One very common comment I received of the film was, “I didn’t understand it at all because I didn’t know what was going on.” There are plenty more essential characters involved in this movie, and even though there is much more left to say in summary, the point is clear: there is no plot, and if there was supposed to be, it did not work.

The sole purpose of the creation of these films began, not only to modernize old ideas for profit, but to bring to life a childhood fantasy to feed the inner fan. In the Transformers’ universe, many continuities create unique backstories for Optimus Prime, the AllSpark, Megatron, and the war to name a few. However, the most memorable series and films have great plots as well as a general accuracy of the Transformers’ history, characters, vocabulary, and biology founded by past series and films. TLK as well as the other Bayverse films were intentionally created to reflect the first generation series, The Transformers, the father of the entire Transformers-Universe, as their base. Yet Hound, a robot, has a dad? Humans are the main protagonists of Transformers? The film even implies the Dinobots procreating offspring, which many ask, how? Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, is now a knight? With the exception of Transformers: Animated and other continuities, a Prime is the highest rank distinction and can be used as an identification for Autobot leaders; a Prime is a combination of a military, political, and even partially a “religious” leader (with some American WW2 leanings), earning great respect from society since only certain are chosen to become a Prime by the higher ranking, wiser characters (usually Primus, the Cybertronian god of goodness and creator of Cybertronians). Optimus Prime universally symbolizes a leader, a father, and a friend in times great distress. By revealing his origins as the human equivalent to a knight, TLK completely transforms Optimus Prime’s identity. Optimus Prime takes on an entire new design featuring metallic abs, tassets, a medieval sword, and gauntlets. The humble Autobot is portrayed (in a sound state) as a bloodthirsty killing machine, horrifically ripping, stabbing, and threatening all creatures in his way. Yes, Optimus Prime is mind controlled throughout most of the movie, but when I watch Optimus Prime as a sane Autobot, I shiver. He is a completely different person; Optimus Prime is not a knight in shining armor.

  There are many aspects that could be discussed further such as the film’s general inappropriateness, lack of character development, the less than two-minute fight scene between Optimus and Bumblebee, the length, the lack of balance between humans and Cybertronians, the money lost in the making of the film, and the horrific legacy it left for future Transformers continuities which will most likely end in the death of the universe as a whole. On the bright side, there were wonderful voice actors, including Optimus Prime’s original voice actor Peter Cullen, the 4K quality of the film, and the soundtrack was beautiful and exemplary, aspects of the film that were especially outstanding. However, not even Peter Cullen’s great voice acting could keep the film from Michael Bay ruining the sanctity of many people’s childhood. Transformers: The Last Knight deserves to be known as number six of the 2017’s worst films according to Rotten Tomatoes.

“Charles lost the car just in front of me”

Be positive like Nico

nico: “i love lego. my daughter can play with it too!”

Anyone has that clip where Charles is actually filmed doing this?

Charles really loves a Carlos close up

Wanna read this later

furiosa vs. tropes for women in action

This is the second in a series of posts about Mad Max: Fury Road. All contain spoilers.

Read Part 1, a general review of the movie, here.

Read part 3, about Max, here.

Mad Max: Fury Road has already inspired some of the most intense fandom I’ve seen, and been part of, in years. I think it’s partially due to the sheer intensity of the sensory and emotional experience the movie delivers. But let’s be honest. A lot of it is due to Furiosa.

The character has already inspired an outpouring of fan art and cosplay. Even among movie fans who aren’t part of those scenes, people who love her REALLY love her. (And I wholeheartedly include myself in this category.) I can’t remember the last time that multiple, grown-ass adults on my Facebook feed had profile pictures referencing a movie character. Several of them–men and women–have this one:

Art by Hugo Dourado.

Why has Furiosa inspired so much passion? I think a lot of it has to do with the way she blows a giant flaming hole in the standard images for women in action films.

While recent years have given us some fantastic action heroines, they tend to be confined within a few set tropes, with remarkably little variation.

Of course, by far the most common trope for women in action is still to be the person being rescued–to be the prize the protagonist, usually a man, gets at the end of the journey. There are whole franchises built around this concept. I think we can all agree that’s boring and not worthy of a blog post.

But even among women characters who have agency in action movies–as protagonists or as villains–there are still some basic patterns that recur again and again. In particular, there are three basic templates that a large majority of female action characters fall into. The point is not that these tropes, in and of themselves, are wrong. It’s that they’re often all there is.

1. The Girl Hero

This is the default trope for YA. Katniss in The Hunger Games, Tris in Divergent…you’ve seen it many times.

Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

The Girl Hero is virginal (often unusually non-sexual for a teenager). She’s usually small or skinny, sometimes for a logical reason (Katniss grew up starving), sometimes not so much. She seems like an underdog, but proves to be surprisingly good at violence and/or have some unique skill, and through her bravery and grit takes on foes much bigger than she is.

Tris, Divergent

It should be said that plenty of male YA characters share these characteristics–Harry Potter is also small and skinny, a novice in the world of magic, but unusually skilled at a few things. He doesn’t win his battles through physical strength, but through cleverness and bravery. And there’s an understandable appeal in having a scrawny underdog, of any gender, turn out to be a hero, especially in a book or movie geared toward young people. But with a few exceptions (see: Tamora Pierce) the Girl Hero with these qualities is THE template for young women in action/fantasy/sci-fi/speculative fiction.

2. The Sexpot

When the Girl Hero grows up, she can be properly objectified as a different trope, the Sexpot.

Lara Croft: poster girl for this trope

You’ve all seen this trope in the many, many superhero and comic book movies that are currently squirting out of the studio pipeline. She’s that one token woman on the team with four guys.

Yeah, that one.

The Sexpot gets to fight–and sometimes even gets artfully bloody and dirty–but she has to do it in a latex suit and while appearing cool and sleek and having a good hair day. (She has long hair, so she can flip it, and so we’re extra sure she’s a girl.) Her fight style is extra bendy and flippy and maybe when we break out the slow motion. She may use her sexiness as a weapon (a la Black Widow) or it may be just a bonus quality. She can be powerful, but only if we can look at her conventionally attractive body move around in tight clothing while it’s happening.

3. The Ice Queen

The Ice Queen is almost always the trope for female villains. She sits at the top of some kind of power structure–a state or a criminal enterprise–issuing commands to her minions but rarely doing the violence herself. She’s probably got a sharp suit or a uniform and a severe haircut. 

Delacourt, the villain of Elysium.

She’s allowed to be older than 35.

President Coin, Mockingjay

The Ice Queen has institutional power but rarely fights; physicality is the low pursuit of men in her world. She may be smart, crafty and manipulative, but she will not punch you in the face. She’ll snap her fingers and get someone else to do it, although she may sit on the edge of her desk to watch.

Jeanine, the villain of Divergent

Maya, Zero Dark Thirty–an Ice Queen protagonist, sort of

The point here is not that there’s no variation on these themes. And there have been iconic female action characters who stood totally outside them before. Alien’s Ellen Ripley and Linda Hamilton as the original Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, doing pull-ups on her mental hospital bed frame, come to mind as the most obvious.

But it’s striking how often the women that do exist in the thriller, action, sci-fi and speculative fiction film universe fall into one of these three boxes. Which is why any character who doesn’t map onto one of these templates is so exciting.

Here’s Furiosa.

She fights a hell of a lot. She does not flip her hair.

She’s intensely physical, but you never get the sense that her fights are choreographed to perform her sexuality for you. They’re choreographed for her to fucking win.

When Max shows up, they have a knock-down, drag-out fight with each other. Max doesn’t pull any punches. Why? Because he makes no assumptions that she’d be less lethal to him than a man. They beat the shit out of each other in a big, messy, grunty, scrabbly fight.

For significant portions of the movie, Furiosa is driving a truck, which means Charlize Theron is essentially acting from the biceps up. You literally cannot look at her boobs. You have to look at her face.

She gets to be dirty. Really really dirty. This picture alone highlights how weird it is that all the other women above are so clean.

She gets to be ugly and make weird faces in the middle of fighting.

She gets to yell and be angry the way one might be in the middle of a nonstop road battle when you’re full of adrenaline because you’re fighting for your life.

In short, she gets to look like an actual person who is actually fighting, instead of a statue that can do a back walkover with the help of a wire rig.

So it’s hardly surprising that she’s racked up a lot of fans. She takes all the images of clean, pretty, carefully sexualized women we’re used to seeing, even in action, rips them to shreds, sets them on fire and then drives over them with an 18-wheeler.

This is all even more remarkable given that Furiosa is played by an actress who is very feminine-presenting in her everyday life. Charlize Theron is one of the very few actresses who’s been allowed to pick roles where she radically changes her gender presentation.

Here she is in Aeon Flux, playing about the most Sexpot-y character imaginable:

Here she is in Monster:

I think there are a lot more actresses out there who could take on these kinds of transformations, radically altering the way they look, move, and perform their gender, the way male stars do all the time. But the equivalent depth and diversity of roles for women just doesn’t exist in Hollywood right now.

Furiosa’s popularity shows how starved we are for images of women who are actually powerful and physical in the same ways that men get to be in blockbuster after blockbuster after blockbuster. It’s not that all the images of women in action have to look like this–it’s just that we hardly ever see a female fighter who looks this way. Furiosa reminds us that there is so much more out there than we’re getting in terms of what women can do and look like on screen.

@powerdadbatman

Pretty sure this is the one: Mapplethorpe, Calla Lily, 1984

It was even sold at Christie’s... Maybe acquired by one Wayne buyer ?

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/robert-mapplethorpe-19461989-calla-lily-1984-6018091-details.aspx/

bubreherro replied to your photo

@powerdadbatman Any chance anyone knows which photograph it is?!? Wanna see it in HD! #SoMuchToResearch

Unfortunately Zack didn’t specify and I don’t have a HD quality screencap on hand. Before you start your research, please know Mapplethorpe’s work is mostly NSFW. I mean, full frontal male nudity. All the time. 

However, I think Bruce would choose something less vulgar. Take the flower series for example:

That is totally penis inside of vagina but you know what I mean. 

With the popularity of the upcoming anime, I decided to make a master post for fans new and old, as well as for those who are curious about the series!  What is Banana Fish? Banana Fish is a manga series by Akimi Yoshida. Originally published in 1985, it follows the story of Ash Lynx, a charismatic gang leader, as he grapples with figuring out the mystery of “banana fish” that turns his life upside down. The story also centers around the close relationship between Ash Lynx and Eiji Okumura, a young Japanese photographer’s assistant who came to New York to photograph the city, but ends up getting caught up in Ash’s violent life.  DISCLAIMER: Banana Fish is definitely not for everyone. Some of the topics Banana Fish deals with are violence, drugs, rape, pedophilia, child abuse, gang warfare, racism, prostitution, and death. None of the sexual content is shown explicitly. I recommend not investing in this series if these topics make you uncomfortable.

Manga - The main story consists of 19 volumes. VIZ Media licensed a english translation in 1999-2002, with flipped L to R pages and censored dialogue. VIZ later released a full re-translation of the series of all 19 volumes. Both have since been out of print. Can be read in full here, in English. The manga is also getting a gorgeous box edition which can be found on Amazon. (Japanese only) 

Side stories - An extra volume, titled Banana Fish: Another Story consists of five side stories that take place before and after the events in the main story. Highly recommended to read after you finish the main story. Raws 

Angel Eyes -prequel that tells the story of how Ash and Shorter met. Included in VIZ’s translation of Banana Fish.

The Garden with Holy Light - Epilogue to Banana Fish. Included in VIZ’s translation of Banana Fish. Private Opinion - Prequel that tells the story of how Ash and Blanca first met. Untranslated. Fly boy, in the sky - Prequel that tells the story of how Eiji and Ibé met. Untranslated.

Ura Banana - Short, comedic story about Ash and Eiji discussing fan mail with Akimi Yoshida. Untranslated.

Media   Anime- A Banana Fish anime is in the works! Set to premier July 2018, it is being produced by the studio MAPPA and will consist of 24 episodes. The biggest change will be that the story is set to modern day. You can find more information here on ANN. (Will update this section when we get closer to the date) Radio drama - A radio drama for Banana Fish was produced in 1996. @bananafishlovers was kind enough to compile the drama CDs into a playlist which can be found here. Untranslated, but you can follow along with the audio if you have the manga close by. Stage adaption - A stage adaption for Banana Fish was produced in 2012. Very hard to find outside of Japan, here’s a preview  (Warning: stage silliness) Asrun Dream - A song from the album Mars by Gackt. In an interview with Akimi Yoshida, “Asrun Dream is an older song of his [Gackt], inspired by Banana Fish. He said that when he wrote it, he imagined Eiji asleep in bed while Ash looks out the window to the night sky.” (lyrics + source) Extras Angel Eyes - Not related to the side story of the same name, Angel Eyes was a Banana Fish art book by Akimi Yoshida. The short story, That Summer, is also included in the art book. You can read it here and here  You can find copies of the book on Amazon or on Japanese bidding sites, but please be warned that the price for it has skyrocketed since it is a rare book.  Banana Fish REBIRTH - Official guide book to Banana Fish. This book includes an extensive analysis on the story and characters, and the setting of New York City. Harder to find than Angel Eyes, but also just as crazy expensive. I hope this covers everything. If you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections, let me know! I’ll also be updating this post as more information about Banana Fish is released.