Mod Post: Off Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

I looked for good political news, honest I did, home or abroad, but.. well... nope. So, it a gloomy, overcast day, and I have no desire to revel in misery. However, if you want to raise any topics on that front, please feel free.

It's 30 years since Tim Burton's "Batman" hit the big screen. Where DOES the time go? And I'm not sure we've discussed the casting of Robert Pattinson as our next big screen Batman (Which according to some reports might include a Robin!)

Rhino's born in European zoos are being released back into the wild in Rwanda.

One of Mexico's most famous rescue dogs, Frida, is retiring from active duty.

Author Judith Krantz, who more or less invented the "Fabulously wealthy woman indulges every material and carnal passion whilst looking for Mr Right because she just wants a husband" sub-genre of boinkbuster romances has died. Fellow writer (Though in very different areas) Angela Carter once memorably described Krantz's books as "[like] being sealed inside a luxury shopping mall whilst being softly pelted with scented sex technique manuals".

The ongoing situation regarding those protesting against Good Omens is the sort of plot Terry Pratchett would have adored! For those unaware, a petition has gained over 20,000 signatures from a Christian evangelical group protesting that the series, amongst other things, "normalises Satanism" and "mocks God's wisdom", and are demanding Netflix stop making it.

Fans of the series might have spotted two little flaws here.

1) The series is already complete and as it covers the entirety of the book it's based on, there are no plans for more, and

2) Rather more significantly, Netflix didn't actually MAKE Good Omens, it's an Amazon/BBC co-production! and it's not like the branding has been subtle. :)

The two streaming giants are enjoying themselves mightily over this on social media, with Netflix agreeing not to make any more episodes of "Good Omens", and Amazon promising they won't make any more "Stranger Things".

"Stranger Things" Season 3 arrives on 4th July, and it's set to be the last, with the rapidly growing up cast being the primary reason.

"Piano No Mori" (Forest of Piano) Season 2 arrived on Netflix, so if you're looking for a more of the competing concert pianists (gifted kid from privileged background who is good and has a lot of expectations, but has to deal with the fact a kid from "the wrong side of the tracks" is a genuine once-in-a-generation musical prodigy, and also happens to be his best friend, etc etc), with a LOT of rather lovely Chopin music on the soundtrack, this might be for you. (also the rotoscoping on the hands for the piano playing is a little at odds with the animation style for the rest of it, but it just about gets away with it).

I tried a second episode of Saranzanmai... I may need a lie down and a rest before I try a third, because it doesn't get nay more straightforward or conventional, does it?

Been rewatching a few of the regeneration stories in Doctor Who in advance of working up to The War Games. David Tennant's exit "The End of Time" really is an overblown mess, and "The Time of the Doctor", Matt Smith's last story. tries a little too hard to wrap up too many of the very, very complicated elements Moffat had thrown into it and either never addressed, or changed his mind about, or had to work around. Because I forgot to his pause, I also watched "Deep Breath", Peter Capaldi's debut, and though it lurches uncomfortably into the macabre a little too much, it's a good deal better than I remembered.

Comments

[tripodeca113]

New Young Justice Outsiders poster.

The new Usagi Yojimbo series has started. Unsurprisingly its good.

I learnt that BPRD ended, seemingly ending the ongoing Hellboy story. 25 years of story over.

Alan Moore’s last comic has been delayed.

I’ve been reading the new Avatar comic Imbalance. It’s quite good.

Maybe I’ll go see Toy Story 4, since it seems I’ve missed my chance to detective Pikachu.

[zachbeacon]

Earlier this month Alabama passed a law allowing convicted sex offenders to be chemically castrated…

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/us/politics/chemical-castration.html

This is the same state where “alleged” pedophile, Roy Moore, just announced he will be running for Senate again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/roy-moore-running-again.html

I don’t even have the words for how fucked up this is.


Since he’s no longer with us I wouldn’t presume to speak for Sir Terry but Gaiman clearly finds the Good Omens thing hilarious.

I haven’t watched the Netflix Eva dub but I’ve heard some not-great things about them removing “Fly Me to the Moon” and, um, “softening” one of the relationships later in the series. Happy Pride Month, everybody.

(Do they still have the hospital scene from the movie? That’s the thing I could see some suit being most uncomfortable with)

Hulu added the rest of Star Vs the Forces of Evil last week. I know people are divided over that ending but I liked it. It sort of reminded me of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime; it most important thing is that the two main characters are together in the end and everything else is secondary. Still, I hope there’s no SvtFoE movie where see a Nazi version of my favorite character.

I also caught up on the Arrowverse shows (except for Arrow, which I don’t care about). I’m so happy they’re letting the guy from the short-lived TV show continue to play Constantine in Legends and the animated movies.

I just started into Black Lightning. I can’t believe this is a CW DC show. Tonally it feels more like a Netflix Marvel show.

(guess I should probably finish Punisher and Jessica Jones next)

Akira Yoshida hired JJ Abrams and his 20 year old son to write Spider-Man. Comics creators who actually put the work in and aren't the children of blockbuster directors have been less than thrilled.

[polly1788]

the reason that fly me to the moon was removed was to licensing issues, apparently global streaming for music is a bit of mess.

the hospital scene is still in there, they changed the wording a bit from love to like between shinji & Kaworu cause based on the original translation it can be either or so they say

[zachbeacon]

I assumed the music was changed because they weren't willing to pay for it but if you aren't going to do it right, why do it at all? Hopefully they've learned their lesson and the Seatbelts are part of the Cowboy Beebop remake.

I meant the scene in Asuka's hospital room.

[arilou_skiff]

From my understanding the changes was almost certainly a directive from Anno/Studio Khara. They're apparently really specific about how they want Kaworu to be presented (they made similar changes to some of the reboot movies translation)

[polly1788]

thats my understanding as well cause the translator comes from the creators studio,

hospital scene with asuka is still there,

in japan fly me to the moon is still there, i really believe in the states that having to license all those covers of a sinatra song is just so expensive that they choose not to

[penguinzero]

There was one scene where Kaworu told Shinji he was worthy of love, something that was incredibly meaningful to Shinji because he'd never entirely believed that before.

The new translation changed that to 'You are worthy of my grace,' which isn't a literal translation and doesn't really capture the spirit of the scene at all.

Fans on Twitter immediately began having a field day with that phrase, inserting it as a caption over pretty much any gay romantic scene from anime they could think of. It's had a pretty hilarious effect so far, and if khara wanted it that way to de-gay the scene, the fallout from this is definitely countering that effort.

There's also been an assertion that this is all because of a representative from studio khara going to see a screening of Rebuild 3.0 at Otakon, and being mortified at the crowd's enthusiastic reaction to the flirty elements of the Shinji/Kaworu scenes. It's unverified as of yet, but at least plausible.

[owlbrigade1]

If NGE wasn't causing upset and drama in the fans of the franchise, then it wouldn't truly be NGE. I figure the studio must have been worried that people were liking it too much.

[cygnia]

Is it wrong I want CW to have a Constantine/Castiel team-up in some way? I don't even watch either series...

[icon_uk]

Only if Constantine goes back home to England, and Castiel decides to go with him to go visit his old friend Aziraphale who he is pretty sure settled there. Then Constantine meets Crowley and shenanigans ensue!

[onsokumaru]

Censorship attempts from religious groups will never stop being hilarous... when they fail.

Finished Jessica Jones S3. I was not sure about going into it after the disaster that was S2, but it was way better. It was good, even.
For once, it didn't felt like there were too many episodes.
The villain (not Foolkiller, no. the other villain) was quite well done, with good flashbacks. Hogarth's subplot was not a waste of time in this season, and relevant to the main story. Malcolm's development was great.

Still didn't finish Punisher S2. Don't know if I will. I just don't care about many of the characters, like Russo and his shrink, or Madanni.

[commodus]

I feel in a bad place mentally. I feel it happening, and I try to pull myself out, but it just doesn't always work.

[icon_uk]

Sorry to hear that, is there anything we can do to help?

[commodus]

It's all right. Thank you for your concern, I do appreciate it. I go through this quite regularly, I'm afraid.

[thezmage]

Toy Story 4 was great. There’s not really a post-credits scene but if you stay through the credits you are rewarded. Hard to say anything else without spoiling a minor thing

Men in Black International deserves far better reviews than it’s getting. Just because it doesn’t have that Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones patter to it doesn’t make it a bad movie

The new season of the No Sleep Podcast just debuted. With special guest star Elijah Wood. Honestly, I love his post-Lord of the Rings career trajectory. It seems that he made enough to just take the projects he’s excited about, and he has good taste, whether it be a basic-cable remake of an Australian show, a quirky animated miniseries, or a podcast

[icon_uk]

I just watched a 2009 thriller whodunnit movie he made with Sir John Hurt "The Oxford Murders". The plot is... not terribly good, but the performances are great, and I have to agree with the director's comment that Elijah Wood's eyes are probably the most striking out of his entire generation of actors.

[cyberghostface]

This isn’t the last Stranger Things. They’re at least doing another season and they’ve talked about doing five.

Deadly Class is officially cancelled which is a huge bummer as it was a really fun show. The comics IMO weren’t as good and the Lin storyline which was one of the most interesting parts of the show isn’t in the comics so we’ll never get closure there. :(

If anyone has HBO Euphoria started and it’s pretty good.

[icon_uk]

I was sure I'd read this was the last Stranger Things, oh well, here's hoping.

(Though a look around suggests the producer is very keen, but Netflix haven't confirmed it yet)

[cyberghostface]

Well Netflix at least isn’t going to cancel it, they’ve been milking it like crazy.

[leahandillyana]

I find Sarazanmai to be the most straight forward story the creator has written in 20 years though. In case of most others, I couldn't understand what is going on. In Sarazanmai, the metaphors are clear, at least to me, especially since plenty of plot borrows from Sailor Moon, both manga and anime.
Mo Dao Zu Shi anime will begin airing in July. It will be the second season, but the first was a prequel to the proper events of novel/comic. It has extremely high animation value, best I have seen outside Japan when it comes to 2D animation.
I worry about the project, as Chinese government is cracking down on danmei (BL) content, with the website the original novel has been published on being forced into self-censorship under threat of taking all stories down.
I am disappointed in people's lack of interest in fic exchanges. I signed up for two, both having deadline on June 30th. In one, me and my partner are the only participants so far. The other doesn’t have any stories. I find it disheartening.

[arilou_skiff]

That reminds me, I need to find a way to check out that Karl Marx animated series the chinese government was putting out...

[dr_archeville]

My brother got married this weekend! Here’s how it went down at the planetarium & the aquarium at the Greensboro Science Center:

Friday night was rehearsal, during which I learned I’d be walking Chris (my brother) down the aisle! And our mom would walk Tatsumi (his fiance) down, since none of his family was able to make it. Ran into some problems during the rehearsal, but that’s what rehearsal is for, finding and smoothing those things out.

Actual wedding was Saturday. It started in the planetarium part, with a video of how they proposed to each other –- though done like the ending of the film Clue, showing multiple variations (one where Chris proposed via message hidden in a video game, one where Tatsumi proposed while they were at a drag show, one where Chris idly asked Tatsu while they sat on a couch glued to their phones) –- followed by some assorted photos of them, solo and together. But at the end, the video started ‘glitching,’ and the tech guy apologized for the trouble.

“TROUBLE?” Tastumi yelled form off-stage.

“THEN MAKE IT DOUBLE!” Chris replied.

And we walked them down the aisles of the planetarium, as they recited a parody of Team Rocket’s theme, in Japanese, and the audience -– all ~50 of them –- went nuts. As they reached the end, they struck a pose, and mom & I did jazz hands behind them.

(They wore white suits, with black shoes & bowties, and rainbow socks. Also, vests: red for Chris, blue for Tatsumi.)

Mom & I quickly rushed to our seats so the officiant could begin, telling the story of how they met, their friendship blossomed into love – at a point when neither was yet out to their families – and how they’ve supported and encouraged each other to be their best, most authentic selves. Then they exchanged vows (which they’d written themselves), exchanged rings, and walked off, as the closing theme to one of the Sailor Moon series played…

… and then quickly returned, because Chris had a surprise: a video of Tatsumi’s friends & family who could not make it but wanted to wish them well! Including one of the contestants from s11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race! (They’d all met at a drag show in Tokyo some time ago.) Tatsumi cried.

Now the wedding part was over, and my duties at Emcee began. (Though first mom & I went to act as witnessed for the signing of the marriage certificate.) I rushed to the aquarium – where the rest of the evening’s events would be held – and welcomed everyone, then got to announce the newly-married couple. They emerged from a set of double doors, Chris holding a wine glass, Tatsumi wearing a Godzilla mask.

(While here in America he bought a lot of Godzilla: King of the Monsters merch -– he loves Godzilla toys, and these ones would cost at least 3x as much in Japan!)

(The aquarium had several enclosed displays, one with a fishing cat, one with about a dozen penguins, one with several schools of fish, one with some fish and a moray eel and two sharks, and one with an octopus. And an open tank with rays that you could reach in and pet!)

This kicked off the cocktail hour (beer & wine, lemonade/pineapple punch for those who did not want alcohol, and tiny plates of cheese & crackers and grapes), followed by the dinner. It was catered, buffet style, with salad, corn on the cob, bbq baked beans, roast veggies (asparagus, mushrooms, red onions, red peppers, and squash), pulled pork bbq (with both Eastern and Western NC bbq sauces), and smoked bbq chicken. This also lasted about an hour, and was topped off by toasts & speeches. One of Chris’s friends gave a toast, then I have a short speech (mostly talking about him), then one of Tatsumi’s friends gave one (mostly talking about him).

Cake cutting & eating was next. They had a three tier cake that had Godzilla footprints around it, and also chestnuts. Why chestnuts? Chestnuts are kuri in Japanese, and the Japanese approximation of Chris’s name is “Kurisu,” which is often shortened to “Kuri.” (I never found out if they were actual chestnuts, or marzipan ones.) And when they cut the cake, surprise, it was rainbow layered inside! That got lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’.

Dancing was next, with Chris & Tatsumi dancing to Michael Bublé’s “Save The Last Dance For Me.” And they busted some moves – they’d taken dancing lessons! And – unexpectedly – roped mom, me, and our sister into the dance with them! The five of us bowed at the end, then opened the floor to everyone else.

Dancing went on for about an hour (with such hits at TLCs “Scrubs” and Vanilla Ice’s “Ninja Rap” from TMNT II), then I had to announce that we had to leave in 10 minutes or the staff would lock us in and hunt us for sport. By this point somewhere between a third and a half of the guests had drifted off, but those who’s remained help the catering & museum staff clean up, and we were all out in no time.

Several folks said it was the best wedding they’d ever been to! Several also told mom what “a fine young man” Chris is, and what a great job she’d done raising him, which made her feel really nice.

And now they’re at Niagara Falls for their honeymoon! They return to Japan Thursday, and back to work on Monday.

[icon_uk]

Sounds like a pretty awesome wedding by any definition! :)

Congrats to the happy couple!

[kamino_neko]

Your brother and his husband are total dorks and I love them forever, despite never having met them.

[polly1788]

its amazon not google for good omens

[icon_uk]

Ahem... well spotted that person!

Thanks for the catch!

[cyberghostface]

Also the final season of Legion started up last night, one of the final casualties of Mickey Mouse's Fox takeover. This season will include Harry Lloyd as Professor X. We'll probably never get another show like this again so enjoy it while it lasts...

[deh_tommy]

Has there been any word on The Gifted or New Mutants?

[cyberghostface]

The Gifted's already been cancelled. New Mutants keeps on being delayed and at this point I wouldn't be surprised if it just gets dumped on the Disney streaming service.

[icon_uk]

Especially after the drubbing Dark Phoenix is taking in the cinema's, and that was an established franchise.

[cyberghostface]

Reading the plan for the two-part film proposal with the Shi'ar Empire was depressing. I think Kinberg was making a genuine attempt at doing something faithful until Fox canned it.

[thezmage]

They’ve said that New Mutants will be released, probably without any reshoots.

[bruinsfan]

Aw, I'd hoped that Dan Stevens asking Patrick Stewart to guest star on the series during some talk show would actually pay off.

[deh_tommy]

When I was younger, my family and I went to go see Peter Jackson's King Kong. This being my first general exposure to Kong himself, I wasn't expecting the ending and left the theatre absolutely miserable. My Father tried to console me by saying that Kong would be okay, because when they tried to lay his body to rest he would break out of his coffin and go off to save the world from Godzilla.

I've been waiting nearly fifteen years for Godzilla vs. Kong. While I wasn't too gone on King of the Monsters, I rather liked Gareth Edwards' Godzilla and I thought Skull Island was pretty good, so I hope this new film's at least decent. Plus, that's being directed by Adam Wingard, and I really liked his other stuff (Death Note notwithstanding).

[skjam]

Took the day off to go to AAA and get my ID renewed; they are somewhat faster than the DMV, at least when you get there before the doors open.

Tomorrow's my birthday, took today off instead so I can catch the food truck at work.

Latest review at my blog is of an all time SF classic: http://www.skjam.com/2019/06/25/movie-review-the-day-the-earth-stood-still/

[bradygirl_12]

Took the day off to go to AAA and get my ID renewed; they are somewhat faster than the DMV, at least when you get there before the doors open.

I went the AAA route, too. I swear the DMV trains its employees not to smile...ever! Or be anything but grumpy.

[cygnia]

Got to take part in a Doctor Who LARP at Origins that was wonderfully silly. I was Benny Summerfield from Big Finish and my husband was Davros. And we had 3 Doctors AND Missy.

[scorntx]

Think given End of Time was both Tennant and RTD's send-off on Doctor Who, it gets a little leeway with being overblown.
It's a finale.
Better that than the fifty-five minutes of buggering about and "A merry Christmas to all of you at home" some certain performers got from Who.
(Or "The Parting of the Ways", which while not awful by any measure at all, is Stare At The Wall inducing. So grim...)

I'd be generous to "Time of the Doctor", given Moffat apparently had to write it in a rush, buuuut... nah. It's still got a lot of the stuff that drags down Moffat's work (the pointless "look at all the things I've shoved in here for no reason", the buggering about, the narration-posing-as-character-development, previous plot twists dismissed with 'glib' one-liners...) with the additional drag factor of being one of his X-Mas episodes, which are usually pretty dire anyhow.
Plus, it killed Handles.
Deep Breath... nyeah... also a lot of the same. Better than most of the rest of Capaldi's tenure, but that's nae saying much.


While I think Burton's Batman is highly overrated (sorry, Keaton may be a good actor, but he's a pish Batman), it did give us the Animated Series, which automatically justifies everything forever.
... well, maybe not DC's current obsession with overselling Harley Quinn, but apart from that!

[icon_uk]

I'd probably be more forgiving towards "The End of Time" if A) it was any good as a story (It's not, and it retcons a LOT of things about the Time War, though I also notice they mention "The Moment" for the first time) and B) RTD and Tennant's Doctor hadn't used up all my goodwill with those wretched specials "Planet of the Dead" etc, instead of just ending things with "Journey's End" when everything could have been wrapped up properly.

I'd watch "Twice Upon a Time" ten times over (even if, like Bill though I do, I'd rather have had Carole Ann Ford come back for a cameo as an older Susan) rather than watch "The End of Time" again.

No matter how poor the story Capaldi was in (Though I think there's some rose tinting going on in relation to how poor they were compared to come others in the past, "Fear Her", "Planet of the Dead"), give the man a monologue and you could not take your eyes off him, even if it's just him ranting about his new eyebrows at a passing stranger.

[scorntx]

Wouldn't really say EOT dramatically retcons things (at least, non-Dalton things, and even then it's not a big "everything you knew was wroooong" retcon).
There was always hints that the Doctor was being coy about how he ended the Time War, right from "Dalek", and the reveal he was aiming at Gallifrey wedges right on in there.
Not like certain 50th anniversary specials and their "Gallifrey's just full of nice wee kiddies. Evil Timothy Dalton? Don't know what you mean. LALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU!"


-give the man a monologue and you could not take your eyes off him-
It's all that acting he was doing.
Can't be having with actors actoring everywhere. Only encourages them.
(I'd be slightly generous about Capaldi's first year. Into the Dalek s'alright, and Robots of Sherwood... well, it's pretty blatant from the off that it's gonna be a silly one. But... Kill the Moon? Forest of the Night? No actoring saves those ones.)

[zachbeacon]

Remember that politician that stole from vets and his own campaign do things like buy video games on Steam? Turns out he's also a bad husband.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/federal-prosecutors-allege-hunter-repeatedly-misused-campaign-funds-during-affairs/ar-AADpiN8

So far this guy has tried to pin his embezzlement on his wife and son. Looks like he'll probably move on to "Mistresses" soon.