miss-2-multi-fandom

[nicostiel]

#number one anime dad

[nicostiel]

#number one anime dad

[jillianleedy]

[geekgirlintraining]

This is an important message.

[majaminxx22]

I will never NOT reblog this.

[emelinelovesjc]

THIS!!!!

[im-in-way-2many-fandoms]

THANK YOU. I NEEDED THIS

[alwaysuncanny]

Gotta make room for new mistakes in 2021!

[barbie-movie-reviews]

Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses (2006)

Oh this is a breath of fresh air. I’m getting way too emotional over this.

Initial Thoughts: What is the meaning of life? In this tiny speck of a rock we live on, it feels like our singular human lives mean nothing in the grand scheme of the universe. We’re one of probably 100 Billion humans who will live, and our planet is only one of the billions in our galaxy, which itself is only one of billions of other galaxies that exist. The universe is already 13.8 billion years old, it will exist for quintillions of years (probably) after we die. It feels like we mean nothing. But that’s not exactly true. A star can’t observe itself. It has no eyes. A nebula can’t bask in the awe of its beauty. A galaxy can’t marvel at its own vastness. Living things are the sensory organs of the universe. We are here to experience it. Each one of us will experience each marvelous thing in our own unique way. The pattern that is our brain and our being is completely unique, and therefore every second we live, we offer something new to this universe. As Genevieve puts it, “there is a difference only you can make”. That is what this film tries to explain, and it does so in the most beautiful way possible.

Breakdown

The Animation: This is just beautiful. Everything, the character designs, the costumes, the scenery, the dancing. It’s just gorgeous. The attention to detail on each sister, the personality breathed into each of them, it adds so much to the themes and the plot that I wanted to cry. The mo-cap on the dancing looks fantastic. The creators used almost zero source material (the original fable is very short) and wrote an entire ballet out of it (sort of). The characters are expressive and human. They move with an unprecedented naturalness from this studio. The color palate was perfect. I loved every second of this.

The Plot: It handles the main theme so well and it’s able to incorporate so many aspects of the story into it. This movie deals with grief, single parenthood, individuality, non conformity, self doubt, and so much more. All of it is tied up so neatly. Every character’s actions make sense. It’s consistent and believable. It’s obvious the writers started with the fable, asked themselves “what themes can we pull from this”, then started writing everything else. That is how it should be. The script is also remarkably tight. Nothing sounds off or unnatural. It’s engaging, I was never bored. Nothing felt rushed. It was great.

The characters (The good guys):

Genevieve is a leader. Despite being the middle child, she easily takes the mantle with confidence. As the best dancer of the bunch it was obvious she should be the one to open the gate, but beyond that, she was able to inspire her sisters to risk their lives to save their father, and offer them emotional support when they needed it. Her story revolves around her realizing her strengths and accepting her weaknesses. She’s well rounded, even if her development isn’t huge. She’s likable and smart and I love her. (Also I think she’s Annaliese’s mom, they’re both named Genevieve?) 9/10

The sisters are wonderfully unique. Each strength is highlighted naturally and they’re almost all super relevant to the plot. I liked how unconventional some of them were too, stilt walking, entomology, how often do you see a princess who just loves sports? It’s refreshing to see female role models with weird niche interests as well as broad familiar ones. The variety was wonderful and fit perfectly in with the theme. 10/10

Derek was a bit of a simp but can you really blame him? He wasn’t a huge character but he wasn’t unnecessary. 6/10

I feel like the parrot’s accent might be problematic but I am not the right person to judge that. No rating

Twila could have been cut completely. She only distracted from the plot and her character design kinda sucked. 2/10

The characters (The bad guys): Rowena was a great villain. She squandered her money and decided she didn’t like living in debt so when she’s invited to improve the etiquette of the 12 “unruly” princesses she basically says  “nah I’ll just kill the king and take the throne”. In this kingdom it seems like the natural path of the throne goes to the first child to marry or the closest heir. If Rowena could just keep the girls from marrying and kill off the king it would be hers. She does just that in a wonderfully devious fashion and it’s executed nicely. 8/10

I didn’t care about the monkey. 2/10

Themes:

Individuality. Each girl has a unique strength or personality trait. These things are taken away when the antagonist arrives. This is all in an attempt to make them more presentable to the public, to get them to conform to society’s  expectation of what a high class woman should be. They are manipulated into believing that their individuality is a flaw. When the plot happens and they get the chance to explore their uniqueness again, they are able to come to learn that what makes them different is what makes them special (for lack of better words).

Non-conformity. It’s more subtext than anything, but it’s obvious these girls don’t exactly fit into the expectation of what a “perfect woman” should be. They’re interesting characters with depth and individuality and to them, that comes before etiquette. this movie does a fantastic job of saying society’s made-up rules about what you’re supposed to be are stupid. So long as you’re a decent person to others you are allowed to be whatever you want.

Single parenthood. It’s been a maximum of five years since the girls’ mother died. Their father feels he’s been struggling to bring up good daughters on his own. He likely feels very alone. It’s no wonder he called in his cousin for help. He was pressured by the people around him to force his daughters to conform and he eventually succumbed. He realized they were very wrong when his daughters demonstrated that he’d taught them to be loyal and bold, traits that he likely values over the populace’s acceptance.

The dress transformation: While not particularly interesting, it is pretty. 5/10

How gay is Barbie? I don’t know. She doesn’t interact with a single female character that she isn’t related to so we can’t really know for sure. Her romance is done well enough though, so I’m not particularly mad. Even though it felt forced, I actually was okay with the wedding at the end. It cements Genevieve as the next ruler over the kingdom seeing as she was the first to marry. She’s definitely the best out of her sisters to fill this position. I’ll stick they gayness rating at 5/10.

Final thoughts: The music is fucking amazing. I can’t even describe to you how moving it is. The best score by far. This movie is just fantastic. It seriously helped me discover my interpretation of the meaning of life. It’s beautiful, heartwarming, and made with obvious care. I thank the creators for this gift.

[queen-erika-the-songful]

I made some bookmarks featuring the beautiful bookworms from Barbie movies! These took a while to make, and they’re a bit thicker than I’m used to for bookmarks but I’m happy with how they turned out! 

BONUS BOOKMARK:

(please like/reblog if you save)

[llamascanbepurple]

why haven’t we memed the original barbie movies yet???

like

they

have

so

much

potential

like

ahhhhhhhh

tbh the most memeable one is princess and the pauper.

[fullmental-amethyst]

[muunicons]

“𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴!”

[justselfloathingthings-blog]

Magical Girl Anime and Filler OR: How People Completely Miss The Point.

So I was looking through Youtube for Sailor Moon commentaries on a whim, and I found somebody complaining about how much “filler” early Sailor Moon has. Now, I have a slightly contrarian opinion on filler in general, but to make this complaint about magical girl anime, in my opinion, is incredibly myopic and completely misunderstands how Magical Girl anime are structured and written because evidently all MG anime must be paced like Madoka and Nanoha. 

I think before we discuss exactly why filler is important we should ask a really simple question that people don’t answer correctly: what is Sailor Moon about?

I think a good way to answer that question is looking at the start and end points of the narrative. 

The first episode is all about Usagi and it honestly isn’t very flattering. Here is Usagi’s day after rescuing Luna: she’s punished by Ms. Haruna for being late because she slept in, she gets a 30% on a test and one of her two friends notes that this is hardly out of the ordinary. Partially because she failed that test, she can’t buy some jewelry she wants. She then runs into Mamoru, who himself mocks her over her low test score. She then gets in trouble with her parents. And then instead of actually engaging with her responsibilities regarding her homework she takes a nap, ensuring the cycle will begin anew. At the beginning of the episode, she herself admits to being a klutz and crybaby. 

In the final 2 episodes, she basically watches 5 close friends that are willing to actually die for her… well, die one by one. She has a complete and total breakdown half way through, and in the end just wants to give up and run away. But memories of her friends (and the boyfriend she now has!) cause her to not give up, and help push her on to, as calmly as she can, face her brainwashed boyfriend and the villain behind all her suffering. And she wins. She manages to beat a powerful sorceress and, despite all the odds being against her, turn her boyfriend back to normal. And then she’s brave enough to face the end of the universe with a smile, giving up all the happy times, all the meaningful moments with her friends, all the memories of her boyfriend, and all the times that she was able to not be “clutzy crybaby Usagi” and be a genuine hero. Largely because she cares about her friends and wants them to have happy, normal lives. 

If these don’t sound like the same character, that’s because they’re not. And so much of that comes from all those “filler” episodes. The early episodes people call pointless absolutely do have a point; they show that Usagi isn’t good at this. She stumbles, she gives up. She often either lucks her way to the solution or has Tuxedo Mask save her. But then, slowly, she learns. She becomes stronger. Braver. She figures out ways to beat her enemies without Tuxedo Mask;s help at all, to the point that he can turn evil and she can still manage to succeed, with the help of her friends.

Sailor Moon is a story of growth. It’s Usagi growing as a superheroine, but also becoming a stronger person. And you need those episodes because they help us fill that gap and really understand how she became that way. The original anime isn’t a tale with a streamlined plot that is about beating the bad guys. It’s a tale of people changing and getting stronger. It’s a tale of slow gradations, until eventually things that were so hard become easier. A tale of how you and your relationship with those around you changes before you even notice it. And it’s not just Usagi either.

There is a great bit in the Sailor Moon R movie. The Senshi are essentially burning through all their power to help Usagi, almost certainly risking their lives. And as they do so, they think about how much Usagi has done for them, actually flashing back to scenes from Season 1. It’s very remiscent of Smile Precure’s bit in Episode 32, and the show probably got the idea from this scene. It’s a really powerful moment, but only because we saw it. Only because in real time, we saw Usagi start to change their lives for the better. 

One of my favorite moments in the first season is when Usagi is attempting to infiltrate the Dark Kingdom to get her boyfriend back, and it continually looks like Usagi is caught and in danger. While the others desperately want to intervene, Rei insists that they stay where they are. After a while, Makoto accuses Rei of not really caring about Usagi at all.

And it makes sense. Throughout the season the two are constantly fighting, and in the first portion of the season (from her entry to around 20 I’d say) Rei is hardly subtle about how she thinks Usagi is a shitty leader. There’s reason to think that maybe Rei doesn’t think hugely of her, and she clearly didn’t at the beginning of the show. 

Then Rei takes out Usagi’s most precious possession, and notes that she wouldn’t have trusted Rei with that if they didn’t trust each other, and right now she is going to trust Usagi, and that requires sticking to the plan and not intervening. It’s a genuinely powerful and touching moment because, while we didn’t necessarily see this change occur, we did see everything that happened that might have caused it. Every little thing that might have caused the two to get closer and earn each other’s respect and love (platonic or no.), and it’s because of that that the moment makes complete sense, 

You get a similar moment in Rei’s final scene before her death, where she tries to tell Usagi in her last moments that despite how much they fought, she really does care about her. In fact, Episode 45 is one of the best episodes Sailor Moon ever had, and that’s partially because you get to see Usagi’s friends sacrifice themselves for her sake, but also because you’ve spent so much time with these characters; watched them grow up little by little, and become stronger people, in small ways and big ways. It makes the brutality and suddenness if so many of the deaths so incredibly stark and painful. If you start heavily clipping episodes, you start to rob the episode of that emotional power. It just starts to be characters dying, not Rei and Minako and Makoto and Ami dying; characters that mean so much because through the good episode and not great episode alike, they are characters you’ve grown to care about.

You, of course, don’t need a 40+ episode season to be sad when characters die. But this doesn’t just make you feel sad, it helps the deaths resonate and connect with Usagi, because just as you saw them die, you also saw them live. And that does mean something, and make those losses all the more powerful. The series’ emotional core lies in the little things just as much as it does the big. 

I could touch on other seasons or series right now (I can tell you offhand that if you only watch the “important” episodes, you tear most seasons of Pretty Cure apart, Futari wa and Smile especially.), but this is long as it is, and I think I’ve made my point.

In many ways, though I like both of them, I would argue that Madoka and Nanoha are focused on the end point of the story and working backwards to get there; personally I think this is demonstrated in how the longest, StrikerS, is also the weakest season by far. Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, Cardcaptor Sakura (though that one honestly could have used a bit of trimming) and so on are not just about the journey, but walking you through it step by step. And that’s part of what can make them incredibly… well, magical. 

[gettinyinggywithit]

So I rewatched the Sailor Moon R movie and it’s a cinematic masterpiece with the best on-screen kiss of all time

Gonna have to do some screencap redraws after exams

[saciro]

“One look into your eyes, and I knew that you had called me here.. and we weren’t alone anymore.”

[renchy07]

Baby gay mamoru🥰🥰🥰

[sailorsnapshots]

Fiore comes to understand the origin of Tuxedo Mask’s rose.

[vanishingpals]

professional comedy is two men on a stage dressed like they are in 20th century russia crying to each other about a pie that could potentially hold ravens even though it is an expression of love

[devilschurch]

I too want to look like an “off-duty vampire” with my confirmed goth boyfriend, Noel Fielding

[enigmaticpink]

[win-x]

Winx Club + Text Posts