#reviews?

[murphfight]

gf thinks that that isn’t connor in lk1’s story um her evidence: not scrungly enough, jacket too fashionable and lauren usually doesn’t put clothes on him, beard too full although maybe that’s just the angle?

[thatgirls-notright-inthe-brain]

Guys!! Please read technically you started it by Lana wood Johnson! It was so good, it’s kinda weird at the beginning cause it’s all written in text messages but once you figure out how to follow it it is so worth it!!

[stillness-in-green]

Idk if anyone told you but the MVA OST leaked, with themes for both the League and the MLA. If you haven't listened to it yet, please do! And if you have, what are your thoughts? I think Mine Woman and RE-DESTRO slap for 2 characters that got shafted hard by canon so I appreciate them a lot.

I have listened to them, and I like several of them! I feel like I need to lead with that, because I'm about to add some criticism about my previous responses to BNHA's score for context, so it's important to know that I genuinely do enjoy quite a few of these.

So, I haven't listened to a lot of Yuki Hayashi's scores, but he's definitely done work I've liked! He composed the music for several of the more recent PreCure shows, including their movies; I particularly loved his finale for the 15th anniversary film, which prominently featured a truly delightful medley of every team's opening theme. I'm also very fond of some of his pieces for Kiznaiver and Welcome to the Ballroom.

His BNHA work, though, I feel like suffers from two main problems: the tracks are too short to work up a good head, and yet, despite that short length, they sometimes feel exhaustingly over the top. (Did Shigaraki's theme really need crying children to get across the point that he's bad news?) I've long felt that the BNHA anime wants me to feel like everything is way more Epic and Stirring and Dramatic than I actually find the material to be, so curiously, the music winds up having a distancing effect rather than drawing me in. This is frequently compounded by placement choices that feel so staggeringly poor that I'm often left wondering whether the staff chose the music out of a hat! (Seriously, why does a fairly rote test of character in Nighteye's office warrant doom choirs?)

As to the MVA tracks specifically, I wish there could have been tracks that sounded a bit more fun or heroic, given that the League in MVA really are the heroes for the arc, complete with Shigaraki suddenly having access to Shonen Nakama Tropes and getting all these little comedic reaction takes. It'd be nice if the music could cue in and let the League have some aural triumph without being all doom all the time ("Oh, no! The villains are winning!" Yes, they are; let them have this for one arc, would you?)

But that said, I do rather like most of these! There are some that I do suspect will fall prey to the This Is Too Much Drama, Would You Please Ratchet Back? problem, but there are also some that I can imagine playing better in the context of the show than they do in isolation, and some that feel like they could even be exactly what I was dreaming about, if they go where I hope they will. For some individual thoughts, see below:

The Mission of the Stealth Hawks: A reasonable enough little tense atmospheric piece. Doesn't jump out at me.

Different Ability Liberation Army: I always approach the MLA as styling themselves as an army, but in reality being more of a sect--far more cult than militia-- I appreciate that if they can't have a good dramatic march despite having Army, like, right there in the title, I'm glad I could get church bells instead. On the whole, though, this is a good example of the first problem I mentioned having with Hayashi's work for BNHA--his pieces tend to be pretty short, and it takes them so long to land on a melody that by the time they find one, there's hardly any time to develop it before the song ends. Even a lot of the hero pieces are like that, and the villain songs, even more so. That said, I do like the horror strings that creep in around the 1.25 mark, blossom at 1.45, and float on through 2.10. I just wish they went on longer. Admittedly, "erratic church bells and horror strings" is still not the choice I would have made for the MLA's main theme. I really would have preferred something with a more militant air; as it is, this sort of feels like it scores a creepy prologue that plays before the opening credits kick in and then the episode proper starts. Which isn't a bad description for the way the dinner scene played in the manga, but thanks to the anime's decision to reshuffle everything, I don't think that dinner scene's going to maintain that feeling of "prologue" when we finally get to it.

My Villain Academia: Better on the melodic front; I enjoy the drama at .43, the dancing tension at 1.05, and particularly the minor strings from 1.25 that just keep climbing until everything else drops out around 2.10. I do wish it found a better place to end rather than noodling on for a further thirty seconds, but the melody will get a more central, and more bombastic, treatment in the final track, so it's probably okay for it to trail off here. (It's also apparently a reprise of a villain theme from the very first season's OST, which is rad. More on that in the Track 11 blurb.)

Second Coming: This is a bizarre one because, while I complained that Hayashi's BNHA tracks are usually short, this one is a full six and a half minutes--except that it falls clearly into movements of about a minute each, with clear lulls in between. I wish it was twelve minutes and everything was twice as long! As it is, I'm highly doubtful that we're going to hear this one played in its entirety anywhere, since I can't imagine what scenes would require this specific sequence of musical passages at this length. 0.00 - 1.01: I love that the song kicks in comparatively quickly; the first minute's passage has a great, thrumming drive that very nearly hits major key towards the end. 1.02 - 1.53: The drive picks up pace in the second minute before the chorus arrives, and for once, I am very prepared to love a BNHA choir piece. I hope this is what plays when Deika's going up in ash. 1.54 - 3.01: I love the melodic line being carried by the intentionally hard to distinguish violin and whatever brass instrument the violin's trading off with in the third minute. It's bit out of place with the rest of the track, but I like it quite a bit on its own, and it does have a similar sound as some of the "dirty" brass in RE-DESTRO and Mine Woman. It's probably too long for RD's childhood flashback, but I wonder if it'll play for an MLA character somewhere? 3.02 - 4.07: The fourth minute has some very fun drums, but otherwise doesn't jump out at me as much of the rest of the track. I'm very curious to know when this will play, though. 4.08 - 5.32: The fifth minute, god bless, has some proper march drums--I like this passage a lot, particularly when it come back in the sixth minute accompanied by the choir. I like this because the key is minor but it's not "oooo scaaaary" minor; it's more dramatic, a bit tragic, but triumphant too--pretty much perfect for Re-Destro, Spinner and Machia's moment of revelation in the crater. I wish it were longer. 5.33 - 6.36: And here for the end we're back to the driving guitar and some fun low-thrum strings and percussive chain sounds. Like the fourth passage, it's fun, but jumps out at me less, particularly as the song's finale.

Gigantomachia: This is an extremely boss kaiju song. Seriously, that brass in the opening could come right out of a Toho flick. Extremely good walking calamity number, love that distorted synth stuff towards the end. It's going to sound great when (if) it plays over Machia leaving the villa, the hand rising up through the floor behind Toga, Momo and the other students surveying the desolation left in his wake, and so on. (I know that's all Season Six material, shhhh. I hope they use this piece there.)

Mine Woman: This is so fun. And so extremely superior that that awful Christmas insert song! I'm glad Curious got this at least, and I love the moment the beat drops at the one-minute mark, and that interwoven sax. So good. It's hard to imagine the fight between Toga and Curious being paced to this song, mind, but it's real good, anyway.

TOGA's Nature: This one showcases the other problem I have with Hayashi's BNHA work, especially his stuff for the villains: it feels very on the nose in a way that tips over into being Too Much. The birdsong, I think, is on the nose but in an effective, playful way, with the natural beauty of the birds undercut by the lovely but ominous piano/synth melody. I am considerably less kindly disposed to the creepy child laughter, which just feels on the nose in a thuddingly obvious way--though I do like the way it slides in when the birdsong fades. I like, too, the sort of cloudy roaring reprise of the melodic line that kicks in around the 1.10 mark. It feels like an effective echo of Toga--cute but creepy as a young girl, and then, after she snaps, creepy in the same way but now you can't ignore it.

Symbol of Fear: The beginning doesn't do much for me, but I enjoy the howl that gives way to the organs at 1.15; while it's too action-heavy to be Tenko, the transition does still put me in mind of Tenko wandering the streets, internally crying for anyone to help him, and the person who finally does is--well. I like that the organ nurtures that howl into something considerably more dire, though you still get a return to that guttural cry periodically. While it is, again, difficult to imagine this scoring the scenes between AFO and Tenko's first meeting and Tenko being formally named Tomura--it's much too bombastic--it does still feel like an excellent representation of AFO sculpting Tomura's formless, aimless rage into something that really could tear down the world.

I Don't Kill My Friends: It would have been really nice if they'd let the most significant, unadulterated personal triumph of the arc sound actually fun. Why does the Sad Man's Parade song sound so upset?? @aysall predicts that it'll play over Twice's confrontation with Hawks and death scene, and I can see it working extremely well there, but it's a pretty weird call for the Dead Man's Parade bit, if that is indeed what this is intended to evoke. Quibbling about the title aside, I do like the way this pulses and throbs, something like an exposed wound, which is not a bad description of poor Jin's mentality. I still hope this isn't what scores his breakthrough, though. As I said previously, the villains are the heroes for just this one arc, and it'd be nice if the score could reflect that at least a little.

RE-DESTRO: I like this one a lot. I love the interwoven layers of that dirty sax and the Big and Dramatic orchestral strings + brass, but both of them undercut with that regular, machine beeping that could almost be a heart monitor, but mostly isn't--right up until the long beep at 1.52/1.53. It feels like a strong illustration of the titular character's different personas--his attempts at casual, friendly villainy (like menacing Giran or chatting with Shigaraki on the phone), him when he's thundering full-volume about the weight of his legacy at people (THE BLOOD OF DESTRO FLOWS THROUGH THESE VEINS I AM RE-DESTRO), and, beneath it all, the constant little thread of stress that Rikiya can never escape (right up until Shigaraki). I probably wouldn't love it so much in isolation, but I'm easy to win over with the right character association. XD

Paranormal Liberation Front: Very fun grubby guitar intro. It also has much the clearest melodic throughline, which inclines me towards it. What inclines me to it even more is the knowledge (per @aysall again) that it's the same main melody as the track Villains Theme from the very first season's OST. That track already having used its allotted Doom Choir quotient, this track makes do with less synth and a lot more orchestra and chunky bass backing, which is much to its benefit, I feel. I do wish it had any of the MLA's theme in it, to represent the merger, but admittedly, it'd be hard to make that very audible when the MLA theme has…next to no central melody, percussive rhythm, etc. Still, as an evolution of the League to something bigger, classier, and far more dangerous, it's real good--just long enough to develop into itself and explore its central leitmotif. Probably my favorite track simply on its own merits.

Thanks for the ask, anon! I'd listened to the tracks once driving around for work, but sitting down with them properly gave me a greater appreciation for them, and now I'll definitely have an ear out for them when we get to this material in the anime…

….whenever that winds up being. *sob*

[lady-charinette]

Me: Sees people commenting on fics I hadnt updated in forever

Me:

[gazeopard]

Beastars Chapters 194 and 195 (My Thoughts)

So… one more chapter left, huh? SPOILAHS. Link (will edit once the chapter is in English): https://imgur.com/a/qmEQ0p0 With Louis and Juno seemingly going their separate ways, I’m still kinda salty about it. From their kiss at Cherryton, to Louis being unable to get Juno out of his head or make love to Azuki, to Juno going out of her way to confront Louis during his time as the Shishigumi’s boss, to her asking Legoshi for advice on interspecies romance and going as far as to confess her love for him on live-TV, it looked like the manga was going to end with them coming to terms with their attractions to each other and start dating. To have Louis conform to this loveless political marriage like this, it’s really disappointing to see. I hope he’ll realize his love for Juno and go back to her, but since there’s most likely one or two more chapters left in the manga, and with the manga ending so quickly, I have a feeling that they won't get together. It’s a shame because there’s so much stuff to be wrapped up that cannot really be wrapped up in the span of 3 chapters. For Louis to be forced into a relationship with somebody like Azuki, somebody who only loves his job and not really him as a person, and to try to ignore his feelings for Juno... it really doesn't feel right. The sudden pace in these last few chapters is just killing my love for this finale. I still can’t shake off whether it’s Paru’s editors that are forcing her to end it quicker, or if Paru has had enough of Beastars and wants to move on to something else. Considering how badly Bleach ended, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the former. At the same time, I wouldn’t be shocked either if this ending was how Paru intended, since it’s her first long manga and first long works aren’t always perfect. So in the latest chapter (195), Haru is back with Legoshi, and it feels awkward to me since I still feel like she should’ve appeared more in the previous few chapters. Since Haru’s promise to Melon was dropped, much like how other plots in this arc were, and she seemingly vanished from the manga for a while, much like Louis and Juno’s lack of more relationship screen-time… it feels a little weird. Aside from that, this chapter was really good and I really hope Legoshi will say yes to Haru’s proposal, since it’s what they deserve after everything they’ve gone through. And Haru didn’t really mean she wanted a divorce after their marriage, as she only said that to scare Legoshi to see if he’ll truly stay with her after he accepted her proposal. At the same time, with everything Legoshi learned about interspecies couples and carnivore-herbivore hybrids throughout this arc, a part of me fears he’ll decline and they’ll end up going their own separate ways. If they had a kid together, that same child would suffer the same way Melon did… but on the other hand, that same kid would still have the parental support Melon lacked in his youth, so depending on their upbringing, they may turn out different. I don’t know if that would be enough for their child, since everyday life was a living hell for Melon since he couldn’t taste anything or feel anything. The other option I can see Legoshi and Haru doing if they do end up getting together would be an adoption, if they couldn’t bear the thought of putting their child through so much agony. To have them go their separate ways and to simply remain friends, after everything they went through together, would be a big letdown anyway, especially since them getting together was the driving force of the story.

That said, I still really wish there had been more scenes between them and Louis and Juno developing their respective relationships more in this arc, as it feels like Haru was mostly shunted to the side most of the arc, especially if you compare it to how much screen-time she had in the first and second arcs. Reading it at first felt like I missed a few pages, since the pacing keeps rapidly switching to different characters’ POVs each chapter. To me, I think this moment would’ve been a LOT stronger if Haru had had more to do in this arc, if she hadn’t just vanished throughout the rest of the arc, and if Legoshi had fought tooth and nail for her if Melon had threatened her life like he should have done, considering how interested he was in her. I hope these two will get their happy ending, and a part of me still holds on hope that Louis and Juno will rekindle the spark of theirs, but with only one chapter left… I can’t see how the latter would happen. If Louis stays in a loveless marriage, that’d suck so much. Unless a sequel comes along, I can’t see how Louis would get back together with Juno, or how Melon would meet his father, which I’m already accepting is not going to happen (which begs me the question of why—never mind), and I also wonder just what that dark part of history that Jack learned at class that had made him temporarily suicidal. I also thought Legoshi and Louis were going to become Beastars like Yafya and Gosha after stopping Melon, since Legoshi’s speech to him in Chapter 158 and one of the guys from the turf-war writing “BEASTARS” on the board in Chapter 190 made it seem like it... So many plot-threads gone to waste… Shame… It seems the Louno ship has indeed sunk. I don’t see why Paru would make a sequel either, since all the major conflicts seem to be resolved. Unless Melon somehow escapes, or some other big catastrophe ends up happening that threatens the world, I can’t think of what would happen in a sequel. So, here’s to hoping a good finale and maybe an epilogue.

[starlightshoals]

So we watched that Bandersnatch thing last night and I guess it was about what I expected? Which is to say, the concept of branching path television is great and I want more but Bandersnatch itself was just kinda okay, nothin' amazing. It was fun watching it together though!!

Really wish we could have skipped scenes we'd already watched though, like in a visual novel? It was funny 'cause Joel started getting pissed when we had to rewatch the same stuff over and over to get all the endings xD

[lajulie24]

hey! Just dropping by to say i Live for your pre-esb stuff! love you, keep up the great work, it’s appreciated

Hey! Thanks for dropping by, and for the lovely compliments – I appreciate it. Writing the pre-ESB stuff is especially fun, since a lot happened in those three years.