RareAlone

[heartsaidnoibat]

Making friends with people from other countries is so crazy. I sent my group chat a Big Bird gif.

And this one girl says, “why isn’t he blue?”

I’m like, the fuck you mean??

So today I learned that in the Dutch version of Sesame Street, they do, in fact, have a blue Big Bird.

I was baffled by this so I went on Muppets Wiki and guess what.

In Mexico, Big Bird is green and his name is Abelardo.

Turkish Big Bird (aka Minik Kus) is apparently fucking orange.

This looks like a fuckin alternate universe or smth. I can’t.

[ace-of-clovers]

[midnightsilver16830]

Actually, in the Mexican version (which is the one I saw here in Colombia, and was probably streamed in other countries in Latin America) we had both the yellow and the green bird. That is because Abelardo (the green bird) is the Mexican cousin of Big bird. Initially it was supposed to be the Mexican version of Big Bird, but then it was decided to leave both characters and make them cousins to help explain the kids about the migration wave between USA and Mexico in the 90s

There is even a chapter of the show were Abelardo travels to the US to visit his cousin Big Bird

https://youtu.be/k3XCVOnLKrM

Later, they decided that all the different birds, from all the versions around the world, would be “cousins” too, with the idea of showing the diversity of cultures and teach the kids about unity and acceptance against racism and discrimination

[7thedisasterdyke]

Ok but are y’all just gonna gloss over the fact that cookie monsters name is Luke Eatcookies?

[babyspacebatclone]

I love how different regions are given culturally-specific versions of Sesame Street, and them relevant-to-real-life backstory is given to them.

And then it’s realized that the most relevant backstory is “family.”

And I find that so very very beautiful.

[randomlabs]

The footage no one had ever seen, because i never posted about it. Production years 2011-2013. Scenes from my ‘forever’ unfinished sci-fi 'point and click’ adventure game… Gigabytes of rendered 3D-scenes and places to explore. A lot of game-material rotting on my old PC 🙄

[vgdensetsu]

From Air Duel and Last Resort to The King of Fighters '94 and Daraku Tenshi: the early years of Mitsuo Kodama

Mitsuo Kodama in 2016

In 1987, Irem released the first episode of the R-Type series to much acclaim. With Capcom and SNK, it was one of the major video game companies based in Osaka and it wasn’t rare that their future employees met each other while still in school. Such was the case with Mitsuo Kodama, a designer who studied in a vocational school with people such as Hitoshi Nishio and Ikuo Nakayama who later animated Guile and Zangief from Street Fighter II. Kodama didn’t follow the path his classmates chose after the exams and decided to join a design company, but changed his mind after a few months there. When he entered Irem in late 1989, he was tasked to work on an arcade shmup with a team composed mostly of newcomers, including one person who joined around the same time as him. His name: Kazuma Kujo, a planner who started working at Irem in April 1989, when R-Type II was still playtested. His experience on R-Type II was pretty short since he was too bad at shooting games according to his colleagues, but that didn’t prevent him to direct many shmups during his career at Irem. After the completion of the Game Boy game Shisenshou, he was asked to join Kodama and his team to replace the former planner who had left due to his physical condition. The game they were working on –Air Duel– was made by a team composed of one programmer (R.Shobu / 菖蒲), two graphic designers (including Kodama), one composer (Takushi Hiyamuta) and one planner (Kujo).

Backgrounds from Air Duel designed by Mitsuo Kodama (stages 4 and 5)

During the development, Kodama sat behind Akio, the man who designed the first boss from R-Type and who would later work on Metal Slug alongside with Kazuma Kujo. Kodama and Akio only worked together briefly -prior to his departure from Irem, Kodama designed one of the backgrounds from Undercover Cops, a beat’em up eventually released in 1992- but the second one made a big impression on the newcomer and, although he didn’t stay long at Irem, he tried to match Akio’s level during his first years in the video game industry.

Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!

Air Duel was first location tested in the West at the time of the Final Fight release, one of the best selling arcade games of its era. The income wasn’t very good and the game didn’t sell well. Kodama left Irem to join SNK where he worked on 2 shmups as a graphic designer: Ghost Pilots and Last Resort. The second one is notable for its aesthetic which might be reminiscent of some Irem games in its use of colors and dithering. In fact, Kodama wasn’t the only former Irem employee to work on this game; Yoshio Shimizo who worked on Mr. Heli in 1987, designed at least one of the backgrounds from Last Resort.

Left: Last Resort, stage 5 by Yoshio Shimizo ; Right: Last Resort, stage 2 by Mitsuo Kodama

After the completion of Last Resort, Kodama worked a year and a half as art director on The King of Fighters ‘94, a game born from a scraped beat'em up called Survivor. Last Resort had a distinctive style and adapting this style to a fighting game wasn’t an obvious choice. Before its release, the game wasn’t highly regarded internally according to Kodama. It was very different from the other fighting games produced by the company and didn’t look like any other game of its kind. The development team had many graphic designers who worked on Last Resort (Eri Kohjitani, Hajime Itō, Sahori Etoh, Khozoh Nagashima, Tatsuya Shinkai, Mitsuo Kodama) and it shows in many ways:

A flame effect from Last Resort reused in KOF 94

Backgrounds from Last Resort and KOF 94 traced from or inspired by the movie Akira.

On a related note, when he was still known as Syo, Kyo had a similar design to Kaneda. Years later, when Syo appeared in KOF 2000, his voice actor was non other than Mitsuo Iwata, Kaneda’s voice actor. Kyo was one of the many characters designed by Shinichi Morioka who later designed Iori from KOF'95 as well as the characters from Skies of Arcadia. Although Morioka also worked as a graphic designer on the game -he animated Heavy D! from the sports team-, the person in charge of Kyo was a newcomer called Yuichirow Hiraki. The character made a big impression when he first appeared, helped by the flame effect designed by Kodama.

Morioka and Hiraki also worked together on KOF 95; Morioka designed Iori while Hiraki animated him. As many of his colleagues, Hiraki later joined Capcom where he modeled Dante from Devil May Cry and worked as a motion designer on Street Fighter V. But before that, they both worked together on a certain fighting game directed by Kodama and produced by Psikyo.

Regarding the backgrounds, Kodama designed the Italy stage, inspired by Miyazaki’s 1992 movie Porco Rosso. He also had to ensure that the characters detach from the backgrounds, which may imply color adjustment.

The Mexican Pao Pao Café, before and after color adjustment. Designed by Eri Kohjitani who now works as an illustrator

Italy, by Mitsuo Kodama.

Japan, by Hajime Itō.

Sahori Etoh took charge of the China stage. She sometimes works as a calligrapher.

Brazil, made by a former Irem designer who also designed backgrounds from Vigilante.

Korea, another background designed by a former Irem employee (he/she also worked on Cross Blades!) According to Kodama, the development team was mostly composed of rookies. The game didn’t get a very high income during the location test ─according to Yujirou Hayami (who animated Rugal and Kim), this was due to the fact that the play time was too long─ and there were some skepticism even within SNK. The balancing phase lasted only 2 weeks and the game eventually became successful, pushing other companies to develop their own “team battle action game” (© SNK). Apart from the title logo and the select screen, one of Kodama’s last contributions to the game was a statue of Guile standing in front of Rugal, as a wink to one of his former classmates. One year later, Capcom answered by introducing Dan in the Street Fighter universe.

6 years after KOF 94, Capcom gave another answer to SNK in Capcom Vs SNK.

In March 1994, after the release of Irem’s then ultimate game (GunForce II), the team behind In the Hunt left the company to found Nazca, an enterprise funded by SNK. This was around that time that Kodama decided to join Konami, shortly after the completion of KOF '94. He worked on Dragoon Might, a little known fighting game which let the player choose between 2 modes: 1 vs 1 and 3 vs 3 (the consumer version of KOF '94 featured the same choice). The hardware used by Konami for this game allowed graphics designers to use transparency effects in the backgrounds.

A background from Dragoon Might designed by Kodama

Kodama then joined Psikyo where he worked on Sol Divide, a shmup illustrated by Katsuya Terada, Sengoku Blade, a shmup illustrated by Tsukasa Jun, and Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels. Daraku Tenshi is a fighting game released in 1998 that sold about 300 units but gained some popularity in the early 2000s, when people discovered it through emulation. Since the game sold poorly and featured unused content, it wasn’t rare to read that it was a prototype of an unreleased game. Mitsuo Kodama worked with many people from the KOF '94 development team on this game: Hajime Itō designed the backgrounds, Shinichi Morioka created the illustrations and Yuichirow Hiraki animated Haiji. Kodama directed the game, designed 3 of the characters (Taro, Cool and Carlos) and adjusted the colors of the characters for each stage, a rare feature for a 2D game –Art of Fighting 3 (1996) did something vaguely similar with a shade effect in one of its stage.

He also added a light effect to the characters in one stage, something Capcom Vs SNK (2000) reproduced 2 years later.

Daraku Tenshi, Art of Fighting 3 and Capcom VS SNK

While the game sold poorly, its designs “influenced” other companies.

Daraku Tenshi (1998) and Street Fighters Ex 3 (2001), the obvious one

Daraku Tenshi and The King of Fighters '99 (1999)

As you may guess, Kodama wasn’t very pleased to discover that some of the characters from KOF 99 shared more than a few similarities with some of its own creation (including Cool). However, he didn’t burn the bridge with SNK and worked on another fighting game with his former company about 10 years later. After a brief appearance at Square, he founded his own company -K2- in 2000. K2 is credited on series such as Tenchu and Valhalla Knights and became one of Capcom’s subsidiaries in 2008. Its last game as an independant company was the arcade game Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, AKA Samurai Spirits Sen. Capcom choose to keep Kodama at the head of his company which has since worked on the Resident Evil series.

Kazuma Kujo left Nazca in April 96, shortly before the release of Metal Slug, and took a few months off before joining Irem where he stayed until the company decided to leave the video game industry (again). He then founded his own company: Granzella.

Akio stayed at SNK until 2010 or so then became a freelance illustrator working mostly on trading card games. He recently created an illustration for Street Fighter V Arcade Edition.

Sources: Picture of Mitsuo Kodama: https://www.famitsu.com/news/201604/28102220.html Nishio, Nakayama and Kodama were classmates: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/819520623751770112 Kodama worked as a designer before joining Irem: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1026477524644069377 Akio and R-Type: http://shmuplations.com/rtype1/ Last Resort and Akio https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/859012420919939072 Undercover Cops https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1049276762452971526 Air Duel - stage 4 by Kodama https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1025746592945459200 Air Duel - stage 5 by Kodama: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042832485304823809 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042832492837855232 Air Duel - location test https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1007482830866141184 Air Duel development team https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1009102775358066689 Air Duel didn’t sell well: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1009104596642304000 Kazuma Kujo: Irem from April 89 to March 1994. Nazca from April 94 to April 96. https://www.facebook.com/kazumakujo/about?lst=805134629%3A100002300604575%3A1529758534&section=education Kazuma Kujo - test play on R-Type II https://web.archive.org/web/20080330075000/http://forums.insertcredit.com/viewtopic.php?p=281726 Shisenshou: The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers, Vol.2 p321 Air Duel planner: https://web.archive.org/web/20070819205310/http://www.gpara.com/contents/creator/bn_271.php Kodama and Akio at Irem: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1009429117949759488 Ghost Pilots: in-game credits Last Resort, Yoshio Shimizo: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042842696170102784 Last Resort, how to play + logo by Kodama: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042829426193424384 Last Resort Stage 2 by Kodama: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042832485304823809 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042832492837855232 KOF ‘94 concept art: The King of Fighters 94-97 Orochi Hen Perfect Art Collection Mitsuo Iwata: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=1045 Shinichi Morioka / もりおか しんいち http://www.flickr.com/photos/44726285@N04/sets// https://twitter.com/hayamiu/status/580705747199266816 http://www.mmcafe.com/cgi-bin/forums/bbs/messages/13643.shtml#78890 Yuichirow Hiraki / 平木 雄一郎: https://www13.atwiki.jp/game_staff/pages/335.html https://game.capcom.com/cfn/sfv/column/112606 http://impatiens.blog123.fc2.com/blog-entry-3998.html?sp https://twitter.com/takaNakayama/status/732537309321519104 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042693147367661568 http://www.mmcafe.com/cgi-bin/forums/bbs/messages/13594.shtml#74143 Flame effect in KOF 94: http://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/kikakuthetower/dotter-taidan https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1063319785113452544 KOF 94, Italy, Porco Rosso, Kodama: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042258265999007745 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042013154517995520 KOF 94 Mexico color adjustment: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/859010803118231552 KOF 94, Japan, Hajime Itō / Hajime Itoh https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1019156206944858112 http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,405525/ KOF 94, China https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042262237837111297 KOF 94, Brazil + Vigilante https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1043852059789783041 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1043857097673269250 KOF 94,  Korea + Cross Blades!  https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/996409711095234560 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/996408632919998464 KOF 94 developed by a team of rookies https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/812164162960773120 KOF ‘94 wasn’t highly regarded at SNK: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/848859514648444928 KOF 94 location test: https://twitter.com/hayamiu/status/957508284629467136 Yujirou Hayami / 速水融次郎: https://twitter.com/hayamiu/status/590175475084828672 https://twitter.com/hayamiu/status/422039616581955584 KOF 94 developed in 1 year and a half,  balancing phase in 2 weeks: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1010881676518436865 KOF 94, Kodama, title logo, how to play, etc. https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1042016871820681216 KOF 94 statue: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/993865480870838272 Nazca funded by SNK: https://web.archive.org/web/20070819205310/http://www.gpara.com/contents/creator/bn_271.php Nazca: http://gaminghell.co.uk/NazcaStaff.html Dragoon Might: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/987876123324309504 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1044713563607060480 Dragoon Might - transparency effect https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1044720333767421952 Sol Divide: in-game credits Sengoku Blade: https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/922409372721889280 Daraku Tenshi sold 300 units https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/823926066481795072 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/930376895866183681 Daraku Tenshi: Taro, Cool and Carlos designed (animated?) by Kodama https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/824494834693976064 Daraku Tenshi - Kodama adjusted the colors of the characters for each stage https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/1010916997494857731 Daraku Tenshi: Cool and Haiji VS KOF 99 https://twitter.com/mitsumame1212/status/824492478115885056 Samurai Spirits Sen https://web.archive.org/web/20070815212154/http://www.gpara.com/contents/creator/bn_270.php Bio Hazard: Umbrella Corps https://www.famitsu.com/news/201604/28102220.html

[mork-borg]

[oldschoolfrp]

(The Firemen, 1994)

[obscurevideogames]

(Human Entertainment - Super Famicom)

[decadot]

Panic! — Sega CD — Data East (1994)

[obscurevideogames]

developed by Sega

[kazucrash-deactivated20191209]

Geo Storm / GunForce II Publisher: Irem Developer: Irem / Nazca Corporation Platform: Arcade Year: 1994

[rarealone]

This isn’t a comment I usually make, but: Given this final boss for Geo Storm (example video of her in more action than this small gif provides), as well as the final boss for Irem’s Blade Master, I think someone on the Irem dev team at that time (whom later left the company, and formed Nazca of Metal Slug and Neo Turf Masters fame) must’ve really, really liked either snake women/lamias/nagas, centipede/bug women or just monster and/or anthro/furry women in general.

Like, there is literally no non-furry/non-teratophilia explanation for these two bosses; especially by the same development team, and especially when they both come out of left field in their respective games

[oldgamemags]

Play dirty in ‘Three Dirty Dwarves’ on the Sega Saturn. @edannunziata 

[vgprintads]

‘Three Dirty Dwarves’

[PC / SAT] [USA] [MAGAZINE, SPREAD] [1996]

[lucy-takes-simileum-deactivated]

[vgprintads]

‘Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman’

[PS1] [JAPAN] [MAGAZINE(?)] [1999]

via @lucy-takes-simileum

[hype-kaminari-kun-deactivated20]

I found another video of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Japanese Dub.

Trivia: The Power Rangers American was more popular that his counterpart japanese Zyuranger in Japan (Yes!!, the zyuranger was considered a average compared others sentai… i can guess others version power ranger are also even more popular original ones, other example SPD is also very popular in japan)

And not… This version is not dub by original cast (for reason Geki actor not that level hammy voice and original yellow ranger was a boy)

[bob-dude]

Honestly? I’m not surprised if MMPR was more popular then Zyuranger. 

I’ve watched the first 11 episodes of Zyuranger and I can tell you about maybe TWO of the five titular rangers? Why? Because 90% of the show is spent on a bunch of kids and developing their plot of the week over the actual rangers themselves.

MMPR might have been campy as hell but at least removing the kids meant you spent more time with the rangers as characters and actually got to know their freaking personalities, one dimensional nature or not. Plus, targeting the actual rangers personal lives is way more logical from a strategy standpoint then attacking some random helpless kids of the week (Oh no, Bandora is attacking kids, the most helpless of all humans. How very dangerous and threatening).

But, I will say this much. Loved me some Geki. Dude’s a solid leader with a good head on his shoulders and was a red back in a time when Red Rangers didn’t need to shout a catchphrase or be a few robots shy of a Megazord to lead. Honestly, guys actor is almost restrained by comparison to a lot of reds of the 2000s on Sentai wise. 

[mmanalysis-deactivated20181103]

Zyuranger only gets good once Burai shows up.

I will say Goushi gets better and he has a really good episode that makes me wonder why they didn’t do more with his actor.

[mikeymagee]

I’ve got to agree. I love Sentai, and I’ve seen plenty of seasons thanks to  fansubs, but Zyuranger is frustrating because we get so many episodes where the focus is only on random kids that we’ll never see again. I would have loved to learn more about Boi, and the rest of the team, but that never happened because random kid #16 was having trouble with their sibling, and everyone had to stop what they were doing to fix it. 

Zyuranger has its own kind of charm (I like it more than Go-Onger at least), but it’s not really my favorite.  

[skekteksfurby]

Movie Thoughts: A Warrior’s Tail/Savva: Heart of the Warrior/Hero Quest (2015)

I know it’s been a while since I watched this movie but I just. Can not. For the life of me. Get it out of my system. So yeah, Movie Thoughts attempt on it it is. That being attempted because this movie was so all over the place that I had a hard time following it. Let’s dive into Savva/A Warrior’s Tail/Hero Quest. 

Plot summary:

In a fantastical world, a small village was once protected by the great White Wolves. However, they disappeared ages ago under mysterious circumstances. A boy named Savva lives alone with his mother in said village. She tells him stories about how one day, a great warrior will bring peace to the land. When a group of hyenas attacks the village and takes some civilians captive, Savva’s mother included, he sets out on a journey with the seemingly only remaining White Wolf and a few other friends to free the villagers and the land from the tyranny of the hyenas, the three-headed monkey queen and the king of mysterious dangerous creatures called the Rickies.

This movie just…. It’s just so… All over the place, I guess is the best way to say it. It feels unstructured. It feels like it tries to be too many things at once. One way to explain this is by looking at the character designs. Let’s have a look at some of them:

Does… does it look like these all belong in the same movie universe to you? Because to me: no. Some of them look serious and more realistic and pretty good (the wolves, Savva, the Rickies), but then there’s the cartoony and goofy as fuck looking comic relief tagalongs, monkey villain, hyenas, etc. and it just doesn’t work? It’s just very tone deaf. 

The humor is done in much of the same way. It’s trying to be an epic animated fantasy movie, which I’m honestly all for. I’d also get it if there was some humor sprinkled in, after all, even Lord of the Rings and Narnia has some comic relief in their movie adaptations. But then there’s this. It just has random comic relief scenes come right out of nowhere or ruin the tone of a more serious scene and it just completely messes up the movie. 

Ah well, now, for the story, it’s not too bad. It’s pretty standard for fantasy movie standards, a story about good versus evil and discovering your true self. Honestly I feel like it could’ve worked, but the tonal problems mentioned above just completely botches the execution. It’s also supposed to be this grand reveal at the end where Savva turns out to be the warrior who would save everyone, but it’s so predictable by the way earlier scenes are executed that it doesn’t really feel like a great moment and more like an “oh, yeah, right. Of course it’s him.” moment. We don’t really have anyone else who could possibly fit the role, except for maybe Anggee (the White Wolf prince), but he clearly plays a different role in trying to confront his evil father.

The characters are all very standard. Savva is our main hero who doesn’t make many mistakes and of course goes on his journey of self-discovery. Nothing about his journey really sets him apart from other generic hero-arc characters. There’s also Anggee, who I did enjoy for his design, but his character is rather standard as well. Most of them are, to be honest. There’s also two “dobby-looking motherfuckers” (as I referred to them in my initial liveblog of this movie. They’re called Puffy and Fafl, but who cares, they look like monkey and anthro Dobby respectively), who really just have comic relief. There’s a mosquito king character who is practically pointless throughout the entire film until the climax where they need someone to control the evil monkey queen’s mosquitoes. There’s Nanty, granddaughter of the shaman. I really didn’t have any opinion on her other than that her voice was very annoying, as it sounded like it was pitched higher. She’s also there to be Love Interest. That’s her role. I’m sure she does some other things, but her main reason for being added is Love Interest.

The villains are, much like the rest, all over the place. We have the much more comedic three-headed monkey queen villain (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg), who honestly doesn’t pose any threat. Nothing about this movie made me afraid for our main characters from what she has them do. Then there’s the more serious villain, Anggee’s father and king of the Rickies. He was more threatening, but I honestly didn’t even remember how they defeated him. He had that little of a presence. Our main villain is the monkey queen. I honestly think it would’ve been much better if we just scrapped Whoopi Goldberg villain or had her be a miniboss and instead had the Rickie king be the main antagonist. He’s much more threatening and with a proper rewrite could be memorable. 

Now for some positives. Because, yeah, surprisingly enough, there actually are some good things in this movie. I already mentioned that some of the character designs aren’t too bad. Savva, the wolves, the Rickies, the dragon and some others are pretty decent actually. The other designs could’ve maybe worked, but in a more cartoony movie, and not in this.

The animation also wasn’t bad per se. It’s definitely no Pixar or Disney, but it wasn’t horribly cheap either. Movements were pretty fluid and overall did look okay.

One thing I also love are the background environments. Just look at some of these:

Again, if they were going with the more serious and less tone deaf idea, these really could’ve worked in the context of the movie. I honestly can’t find too many images of these backgrounds, but they look really good. 

The voice acting was…eh. Some of it was good or at the very least decent, but the pitched-up female voices on the Shaman’s granddaughter and I think also the Magician was really annoying. Savva also had this permanent somewhat hushed and disinterested tone to his voice, which especially didn’t work since he’s the bloody main character.

The music was okay. Really, nothing about it stood out to me positively, but not in a bad way, either.

The best word one can use to describe this movie if you ask me is: a mess. The story, backgrounds and animation may be pretty good, but the character designs, humor and tone are all over the place and don’t flow together well at all. 

Overall score:

★☆☆☆☆

1/5 stars!

I didn’t really have much expectations for this movie going into it. To be frank, the only reason I got into it in the first place was because I just really dug the character designs for the wolves. But yeah, there really is not much else aside from that to appreciate. Maybe the backgrounds, but that’s it. It’s just all over the place and I honestly was just really easily distracted throughout most of the thing because of this problem. 

If you want to see my very confused liveblog of this thing, here you go: https://twitter.com/Skylacine/status/1159422575094706176

[useless-germanyfacts]

i’m sorry but the german spongebob dub is way better than the original english one like, yeah, german dubs usually suck ass but the spongebob dub is a fucking work of fucking art, fucking fIGHT ME.

[regenerative-farming]

nothing can ever top this

[useless-austriafacts]

Honest to god, German Spongebob is the only true Spongebob amen

[applejuicewerewolf]

ICH HAB ERST JETZT GECHECKT DASS DAS DERSELBE SYNCHRONSPRECHER IST AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[sparkling1duck]

How does the English version of this look like? I mean…This scene is epic as heck but I doubt they have Benjamin Blümchen in America.

[useless-germanyfacts]

In the english version he says he’s “Harold Flower” but that’s not a special person or reference to anything really, he just sees a flower on his desk so he goes with it lol. “Benjamin Blümchen” is definitely the funnier idea :’D

[rohamburger]

This needs some further explanation because the joke is pretty meta. The voice of Mr. Crabs is also the voice of the, for a long time insanely popular, Benjamin Blümchen.

Not only is he a pop culture icon since 1977 but they also acknowledge the voice-actor’s other work from a different franchise by name. @briwookie

[official-german-translationen]

Seriously that scene was simply one of the best things that someone ever thought of :D (I must also strongly disagree with “german dubs usually suck ass”)

[tetsufierro]

German dubs rule! We voice act nearly everything.

[vgprintads]

‘Manic Game Girl’

[PS1] [SOUTH KOREA] [MAGAZINE] [2002]

via PlayStation DataCenter

Manic Game Girl is a half adventure, half beat-em-up hybrid game, where you assume a role of Amber, a college freshman who doesn’t know a thing about video games, but becomes quite good at them once she brings the brand new console, Game Stealth, to her room. Soon enough, the city is overrun by terrorists also obsessed with video games, and Amber is selected as a resistance fighter against evil corporation responsible for this turmoil, which plans to take over the world by their equally evil video games. It’s a noble concept, but there’s a certain problem with their writing. Games with such meta premise has tried catering to their target audience in some way – Segagaga, a similar game with official Sega’s backup, had gone over their duty to include tons of minigames or others that references their products, and some like Neptunia, without that kind of support behind, utilized a load of tongue-in-cheek memes.

In case of Manic Game Girl, it also tries the same thing, but maybe the developers weren’t that knowledgeable about video games, because the reference is kinda superficial and limited. You can try talk to students around the college, but the best they can offer is a short gossip that video games are awesome, without going into what and why they are. The game does feature some goofy titles – the first one is ridiculously sounding Otaku Crisis, which is apparently a million seller – but they don’t seem to be based on any particular games. In fact, you don’t actually get to play them, or even watch over someone playing them, which is rather a disappointment for a game like this. Probably the closest call to actual video games would be an amusement center nearby that hosts some arcade cabinets inside, although only one of them is playable, a rhythm minigame machine that doesn’t sync to the music at all. ~ Ed Murphy, @hardcore-gaming-101

[mizushimo]

Where to start with Transformers? This property has been going on for so long that it’s spawned 20ish continuities across three countries, but with so many choices, picking a place to begin can be a little overwhelming. The upside is that the shear variety of material means there’s a show or continuity out there for almost everyone.

Like action/superhero cartoons from the 90s/2000s?- Try Transformers Animated.

Want something aesthetically darker? Do you crave drama with more bad guy backstabbing and epic battles? - Start with Transformers Prime.

Are you into meme culture? Do you delight in continuity errors and strange logic leaps - G1 is the show for you

What about being nostalgic for 90s war/hero anime? Like the early Gundam series or the live action sentai shows - silliness and gravitas mashed together in awkward harmony - Check out Transformers Victory

If you are a furry with a open mind about early 90s Cgi animation and love strong characters - Beast Wars is a perfect fit

Are kids shows just not your thing? Is even transformers prime too juvenile for you? Do you like speculative sci-fi comics made for adults with political backstabbing, grey morality, assassinations and intrigue? - Give Robots in Disguise (idw phase 2) a whirl.

Is time a commodity you don’t have much of? Would you like to watch and entire season of an action packed show with good world building in 3 to 4 hours? Then Cyberverse is your place to begin

Do you like comics, but get frustrated with character interaction/development is dumped in favor of the plot? Do you like it when comedy, action/adventure and romance are done well in a series known for explosions and robots punching each other? Do you ever wish that the cast of your favorite sitcom could go on an epic space adventure with actual stakes? Are you a sucker for the found family trope, or when characters in an action story are shown to deeply care about each other? Do you like gallows humor, or the sensation of finding something funny and horrifying/awful/terrifying at the same time (hilarifying). Do you want to discover just how hard you can relate to a vehicle-transforming 20ft tall alien robot when they lose someone very important?. If you said yes to any of these things, go read idw’s More Than Meets The Eye #1 and keep going until you find yourself feeling an emotion for the lovable idiots who populate the series.

And finally. Is 8 years worth of comics in the same universe too intimidating? Do you want a fresh start without having to read with the wiki open so you can figure out what’s going on? Are you into watching a comic universe unfold organically as the issues come out? Lucky for you, the idw universe just rebooted. Join the rest of the fandom at the very beginning with Transformer #1 2019