I've always been intrigued by the artstyles of the witches, love me some fun monster design.

But wondering what the show is like. As I get older I find myself having less patience for certain types of anime bullshit (libertarianism, loli, that kind of cringe)

So, is Madoka worth watching or is it

For this edition of Saturday Anime Night, we’re starting early, at 7:30PM EST, to watch Charlie Chapin’s The Circus (1928). We were supposed to watch it after Gangs of Wasseypur last night, but due to our late start, itself due to the terrible changes to Vimeo’s free account system, everyone decided to go to bed instead. Therefore, we will watch it this evening. We have, surprisingly, never watched any Charlie Chaplin films, despite having dipped into Buster Keaton’s filmography a few times. The Tramp joins the circus as a handyman, and falls in love with the owner’s daughter; hilarity ensues, including all sorts of animal antics. This is considered one of Chaplin’s best films, so let’s give it a whirl.

After that, the people demanded more Sailor Moon, and so, we’re continuing on, with episodes 43 through 48 of the 1992 series, the definitive magical-girl anime. This is the completely unabridged, unexpurgated, uncensored, Japanese version of the show, including everything that the English dub butchered, altered, and/or cut, which is quite a bit. Tonight’s episodes see the conclusion of Season 1, and with it, the Dark Kingdom arc; it also sees the beginning of the anime-only Makai Tree arc of Season 2.

Last for the night is Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998), a French cartoon about an African folk tale about a small boy who must journey into the mountains to free his village from the curse of an evil witch. Excellent reviews everywhere for this one, and there aren’t very many movies about African mythology, so let’s check it out.

We’ll start at 7:30PM EST on Hextube, right here:

https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• The Circus: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-circus/
• Sailor Moon: Sorry, not on Letterboxd. Here’s the MAL page: https://myanimelist.net/anime/530/Bishoujo_Senshi_Sailor_Moon
• Kirikou and the Sorceress: https://letterboxd.com/film/kirikou-and-the-sorceress/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• The Circus: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018773/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg
• Sailor Moon: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103369/parentalguide?ref_=tt_stry_pg
• Kirikou and the Sorceress: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/22666

CWs for The Circus:

• Slapstick violence.
• Smoking.

CWs for Sailor Moon:

• Nudity.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Bath scenes.
• Age-gap romance.
• Panty shots.
• Cutting of flesh.
• Blood and gore.
• Animal abuse.
• Children in peril.
• Smoking.
• Alcohol abuse.
• Sexual harassment of schoolgirls.
• Kissing.
• Deaths of parents.

CWs for Kirikou and the Sorceress:

• A whole bunch of nude children, including the protagonist throughout the movie. However, they are all drawn with more-or-less Barbie doll anatomy.
• A whole lot of bare-breasted women.
• Child endangerment.
• Age-gap romance between a child who transforms into an adult and an adult woman.
• Deaths of animals.
• Snakes.
• Implied sexual assault as part of villain’s backstory. Not depicted.
• Kidnapping.
• Claustrophobia.
• Childbirth.
• Babies.
• Black character dies first.
• Drowning.

Links to movies:

Forthcoming. I have the files, but the most convenient way to upload them is to replace one of the earlier videos while a later video is playing.

Started watching Revolutionary Girl Utena, and holy shit Chuchu is FUCKING ADORABLE! Up there with Pochita from Chainsaw Man.

Who is your cutest anime animal? Bonus points if that anime is also really good.

Games? Trash, poo, pants, arse.

if he's working with the guy behind "suicide girl" this won't even have the benefit of a director who is trying to handle topics with sensitivity and giving the writer the benefit of the doubt

Reminds me of the old Toonami days in the summer showing DBZ movies like World's Strongest with the Japanese orchestral soundtrack, takes me right back. Way better dub done by fans, an actual hire fans moment.

VEGAPUNK'S GONNA SAY SOMETHING

What did you think of this week's chapter?

NO BREAK NEXT WEEK

sometimes i see people on here saying "yuri is for the male gaze." this has always been a massive oversimplification, many examples i see cited are shoujo, but i'd like to present my favorite example of yuri that is antithetical to the very idea of male gaze yuri, and a good example of how many, if not all blanket complaints about manga and anime as an artforms go away when you start to stray into josei territory (seriously, read and watch josei! check out showa genroku rakugo shinju if you haven't!)

she loves to cook and she loves to eat is an ongoing manga that's been running since 2021. it's about 2 neighbors who wind up with a mutual relationship. nomoto loves to cook, but can never finish her meals and would like to be able to cook larger and more complex dishes. her neighbor kasuga is a big eater, but doesn't cook very much and is more than happy to join nomoto for dinner. they grow closer, you can probably see the tragectory

now, what makes this so good? first of all, it's about adults. with jobs. it's one of the most grounded manga i've ever read. the 2 main characters are constantly receiving little microaggressions, but never in a way that feels preachy. it's just something they have to go through as queer women in the world. when nomoto's mom is pestering her about how she needs to get a boyfriend and belittling her relationship with kasuga (even before she falls in love, at a point when it was a platonic relationship!) it isn't a massive thing, it's just a shitty thing that makes her feel bad until she can start dinner with kasuga. when men flirt with them or just generally make shitty misogynistic comments it's treated with gravity but it never overwhelms the story

and it manages to avoid making it depressing! there are a few especially serious chapters but they have content warnings before them and it always ends with them eating a meal together and feeling better. when nomoto realizes she's a lesbian she has a fever dream that mixes together all the casual homophobia she experienced, but there's always a light at the end of the tunnel

it acknowledges the complexity of identities (nomoto isn't sure if she's asexual or not, and one of her close friends is openly asexual, which is really nice to see when asexual people are very underrepresented in art) and kasuga is definitely not neurotypical and is definitely overweight without the manga making a big deal of it while acknowledging the difficulties this can cause. this isn't limited to the manga itself, as the mangaka uses the volume extras to support the campaign for marriage equality in japan. her twitter is very good as well, where she mostly talks about trans rights and marriage equality and retweets things about the genocide in gaza (and has a trans flag on her display name!)

i don't mean to make it sound like the politics/representation is the only thing there, though it is there and it's very well handled. they have a very good relationship, and it's a very well done romance about adults with jobs and responsibilities that i would absolutely recommend to anyone. the way they talk about cooking and eating is imo very good as well, with a focus on what's good for each individual person. kasuga isn't judged for eating so much, nomoto's friend yako isn't judged for being a bad cook, the pair's other neighbor isn't judged for their eating disorder. it's a little bit of a feeder thing but not enough to be offputting to anyone who isn't absurdly sensitive. it's ongoing, with 3 volumes translated into english currently, and volume 3 was easily the best. i'm very excited to continue reading it! i'm also planning on checking out the live action drama that's currently airing, but the manga will forever be #1

tl;dr it's very good and you should read it. also just read josei. that's where all the good stuff really is

though i think there's a solid argument to be made for most of these being conservative, even if not in ways this guy would necessarily recognize as such. name a series on this and i could find a legitimate, not a bit reason it's reactionary. that goes triple for one piece

link

I know it's not strictly anime but we can choose not to be petty fucks about animation.

Just watched S1 of this and I can't help but see a strong allegory. Hell is literally a prison for undesirables that heaven regularly comes down into for the purposes of doing various genocidal exterminations. The population of Hell are unable to fight back. Then a major upset event occurs that makes everyone realise that heaven can bleed.

I can't help but think all the way through this show that Hell desperately needs a liberation army to break out of their imprisonment.

Anyone seen it? Thoughts? First couple of eps felt a bit ehh but it finds its stride when it starts leaning in on being a musical and some of the characters are genuinely really fucking good, looking at you Alastor with your incredible radio voice.

Anyway if you haven't watched it I kinda recommend it and not to be put off by the first couple eps feeling overly edgy/cringe. It finds a good rhythm after them.