I only draw a few characters regularly so I will rank them and then include two things I really like drawing
1. Jon Sims, his angles are fun and I'm in love with him
2. Henry, who is a guy I made up. gaunt as all hell and looks bad. Plus I like him a lot
3. Martin. You'd think Martin would be most fun due to my proclivities but my mental image of him is so specific that trying to draw him is actually an agonizing exercise of useless perfectionism and about 90% of the time it ends with me being pissed off nevertheless I persist
4. Teeth. Go-to doodle item
5. Fingers. Fingers are basically the characters of the hand
Gertrude Robinson (you gotta admit this woman was pretty unhinged considering she was like a hundred years old. Tim's words not mine)
Well, Tim was right for that.
I find Gertrude a very interesting character, but I do have a grudge or two against her because of: a) Michael 🥲😭😭🌀🌀 and b) Gerry “please don’t put me in a book like my mother did to herself” Delano Keay (she did put Gerry in the book, right? Sorry, I can’t remember it too well)
I admire her, though, and her position as the “Head Arsonist of the Magnus Institute”. Elias was scared of her.
All I have to say is - Gertrude was wild, man. Wouldn’t’ve liked to stand in her way 😐
You recently reblogged a post of the "waifu bait" twitter post, and mentioned not watching modern anime. I tried looking up anime on your blog and you said you liked Tokyo Godfathers, so I trust your taste lol. Can you recommend some other anime you liked? Preferably movies, but this doesn't really matter.
OMG thats very sweet of you haha. my anime tag is actually "animu" but a lot of it is just aesthetic posts/gifs. i find i still gravitate toward anime from the late 90s - early 00s but not for lack of trying. what i like most about anything animated is the animation itself so i place a higher premium on anime that isn't mostly static intricate paper dolls with mouth flaps or is at least nice to look at. i prefer slice of life over action or mecha/sci-fi in any kind of media, so while i've heard really great things about ghost in the shell, gundam, etc. i've never seen them.
i also have a very low tolerance for most shonen ("h-his power level... it's over 9000!" playground battle tactics) and most sexual tropes/fanservice ("onee-chan let's compare chest sizes!" type shit). it's probably more accurate to say i like some japanese animation rather than "anime", if that makes sense. essentially anything rating fairly low across the weeb-ass-shit scale.
recs under cut cause it got long!!
= movies, in chronological order:
obligatory ghibli favorites: my neighbor totoro (1988), kiki's delivery service (1989), only yesterday (1991). only yesterday is a little more obscure than the other two but ghibli films have pretty much a universal seal of approval so i doubt a pitch is necessary. onward!
little nemo: adventures in slumberland (1989): hey does this count as anime? i hope so. one of the pivotal founts of nightmare fuel from my youth (beaten only by brave little toaster, perhaps) this film has eluded seemingly everyone i know in my age group and i'm not sure why. while it's not nearly as inappropriate as its early 20th century source material it may have fallen to scarcity due to its "pg" content, like tobacco use and several frightening scenes, a la the failure of disney's the black cauldron. regardless, the animation is fluid, the songs are cute, the backgrounds are beautifully painted, and there at least a handful of shots that will flash in your mind before bed.
princess arete (2001): hits a lil close to home since it's about a girl named arete trapped in her room and yearning for autonomy, to create things with her hands, and to participate in the outside world. a bit slow paced and quiet but i think it adds to the atmosphere and immersive isolation, and it does pick up near the end a bit.
interstella 5555 (2003): obligatory. more of a feature-length music video than a film but still has a cohesive narrative. hope you like french house!
MIND GAME (2004): my feelings about mind game are fairly similar to my feelings about burning man: grateful i had the experience, but once is enough. i personally don't care for "trippy" stuff, but the animation itself does have some great visuals, switching up different styles and even incorporating live action footage and rotoscoping for an experimental "patchwork" feel. nishi, a down-on-his-luck loser, grapples with purpose and the meaning of life after a handful of near-death experiences, including being swallowed by a whale; anything "biblical" after that is all knowledge-wise. like princess arete, this one's also by studio 4C but is intended for mature audiences (lots of sex. and a rape, as a warning). if you liked tekkonkinkreet (another 4C production) or paprika (satoshi kon), mind game is worth a shot.
---
= series, in chronological order:
oishinbo (1988-92): almost like a shonen, but with gourmet cooking. as part of their cultural division, a japanese newspaper tasks two journalists, yamaoka and kurita, with creating "the ultimate menu" to broaden japanese culinary horizons. yamaoka is the estranged son of a highly venerated food critic and engages in a persistent rivalry with his father to both prove his expertise and to challenge the rigid traditions. kurita is an average working girl of the 80s providing the audience perspective as we learn the elaborate methods of the gourmet cooking world alongside her. nostalgic for its music, setting, and style, this was a big comfort anime for me, though despite its several seasons it never wraps up the story of the manga. also kurita has a unique outfit almost every episode, which is a nice detail. i only found out about it because of @/80sanime!
tenchi muyo + tenchi universe (1992-95): harem anime crossed with a feudal japanese space opera of sorts. i first saw the show on toonami as a kid, and what hooked me instantly were all the different personalities of the girls. if you're familiar with the cartoon the owl house, it's said that eda is HEAVILY inspired in personality, character design, and even voice by one of the main characters, ryoko hakubi, a space pirate hiding out on earth from the galaxy police. mostly comedy with obligatory hot springs and beach episodes, but has spaceship battles and magical sword fights too.
neon genesis evangelion (1995-6) + the end of evangelion (1997): i should not have watched this as a 12 year old. although i think anyone of any age who watches end of evangelion walks away permanently changed. (due to the nature of the series, it is unclear whether the "rebuild of evangelion" films are remakes or sequels, but i personally don't recommend them either way.) if you are somehow not familiar with evangelion: teens pilot giant robots against extraterrestrial threats called "angels". things become... much less about giant robots.
azumanga daioh (2002): this was one of the first series i had ever seen (western or japanese) about girls being friends that wasnt preoccupied with getting boyfriends or being "girly". still has the occasional fanservice tropes, but mostly comedic or quickly over with. since it was adapted from the 4 panel comic strips, it retains a lot of the short-form humor as quick vignettes or gags. not as exaggerated and boisterous as nichijou but similar, and way less insipid than k-on but still has sentimental and cute moments between the girls.
ashita no nadja (2003-4): nadja, an orphaned dancer in london, is on a quest to find her mother. she travels across (mostly) europe with the dandelion troupe, a group of entertainers with their own fraught backstories. she is intent on helping everyone she meets, sometimes to her own detriment, and learns lessons along the way about who she can trust, how a person's past can change them, and that not everything can be fixed with a smile and a song. meanwhile there's a kind of tuxedo mask thing going on between a pair of twin brothers, and nadja struggles with romantic feelings for both of them. overall very much a feelgood "girl cartoon", but i liked the dance sequences, the animation quality, and the evolution of nadja's character. i got to vicariously travel and dance alongside her, and i liked cheering on someone with a good heart working hard to make her dreams come true.
paradise kiss (2005): MAN i should watch this again. reserved overachiever high school student Caroline stumbles into the world of underground fashion and street culture as a model, blowing open the confines of her previously sheltered life. while she finds a home in ParaKiss she also has to confront the dark sides of fame, the fashion industry, and the strain it puts on their relationships. as a fairly introverted raver with model friends i related to a lot of it. also for queer points, george is bisexual and isabella has been praised as positive representation by trans women, especially for a series from the aughts. also WHATTT THE FUCK PATRICK SEITZ VOICES GEORGE IN THE DUB??? OHHH MY GOD okay anyway
the ancient magus bride (mahou tsukai no yome) (2017-2023): stunning animation, and a series i've yet to catch up with purely because i end up crying virtually every episode. it's a bit of a wish fulfillment thing (teenage girl discovers she has special powers and is whisked away from her abusive home life to a medieval fantasy world where she is betrothed to a tender monster-man) but has a lot of great worldbuilding and poignant storylines. it's ghibli-esque in a way but with more of an overarching melancholy and sense of foreboding compared to the average ghibli film. and just to get it out of the way for some inexplicable reason a few of the side characters have HUMONGOUS hungolomghnonoloughongous
---
ive seen quite a bit of anime in my day but these are the ones i actually remember watching and enjoying. like i recently watched all of slayers and most of slayers next, and while it was satisfying in a 90s nostalgia way i wouldnt necessarily recommend it. also there are some very highly acclaimed films and series that i haven't gotten around to yet (full metal alchemist brotherhood, cowboy bebop [I KNOW IM SORRY], the animatrix, etc.) hopefully this is enough to go off of for now!
tumblr dot com slash hotdrinks/733574048668385280/id-a-drawing-of-an-anthropomorphic-baseball
You made a typo in your id of the post above "What are you gonna do with that big bar?" It's a bat in the post
It's OK really I just wanted to let you know bc the typo changes the meaning a bit, I thought about adding this to the tags but I decided to send an ask in case you wanted this to be more private ✌️
AH! Thank you so much for letting me know, I fixed it!
Ooooh, Trevor!! He is very unhinged and, to be honest, very capable of doing whatever he sets his mind to. His statements were especially interesting to read and I’m glad Julia and him teamed up later.
