First Impressions: The Lion Guard

While I wouldn't call Lion King my favorite film of Disney, I would not hesitate to tell you that it's still different from all of Disney fare including Wreck-It Ralph. The experimental era of Disney would still stand up against Lion King in terms of ambition but not necessarily the success that LK has.

I don't care about the CGI remake of LK, to be honest. I am far more worried about how they are going to do it. Shot-by-shot like Beauty and the Beast or tell something different but the similar like Jungle Book? Expansion is already an answer because previous remakes expanded on their mythos. The new movie could try to redo the Broken Aesops in the original film or at least write it so it would make cohesive sense. LK works as an emotional story with intelligence rather than too deep storytelling the level of GF or OTGW.

I totally understand why they chose to make a child for Simba and Nala. TLK2 was released twenty years ago. I didn't anticipate the Disney crew to even acknowledge the sequel, knowing how long it had been released. At best, I expected Kion to be the only child and thus the heir of the throne. I was not expecting Kiara to return or even make canon at all. I'm amazed they chose to go back and expand rather than renew everything.

Honestly, I am glad to see her at all because Kiara is a likable character. She isn't perfect but she's a Mary Sue either. She's much more than a Juliet. There are glimpses of her true self in the LG after some troubles with the writing and there are still writing troubles now. The writing in LG tended to sway in terms of writing. It's not VLD thankfully. Yes, I'm going to use VLD as a level of writing, in the same way, I'm going to use GW/OTGW. I am mostly referring to VLD's level of writing as loss of potential due to either sheer obliviousness of what is good storytelling or spite for only part of a fandom which unfortunately targeted the rest of the fanbase and good storytelling.

I want more expansion of her character, please. Don't make her a complete damsel in distress in her entire appearances in the show. Yes, Kiara needed to be rescued twice in the original film too but she could take care of herself since she fucking run away! Don't waste her, for the love of Godoka, writers. The potential is ripe for not just sibling rivalry but how Kion could help her and she could help him. The sequel is right there with potential, not just to connect the dots, but to show how relationships could be hinted in the future and how that could be developed upon. Just look at Kion and Kovu for the love of The Man of the Beginning. You people are exposing TLK2 to a much larger audience than it used to have in the time of its release just as LK is still doing. Make more than just references and connecting the dots, do more with the characters that already existed in the movie! You already proved the adults are useless in the Pridelands but make the Outsiders more relevant than just a cult of the Roar. Just expand these characters, especially Kiara if you want to have a more female presence in the show. More than just original characters that exist in the show but not in the original direct-to-DVD film.

You showed the double standards of Simba's level of protectiveness towards his kids. I know they have different parts of royalty but for the love of god, would you just notice the difference in protection Simba gives. Just do something about it.

I'm kind of focused on the LK2... Seeing Nuka, knowing his eventual fate... eesh... Still, from what I saw from the clips, I honestly expected Zira to straight-up kill Kion right then and there without remorse. And there's no way a cub could be more competent enough to fight a fully grown lion like Zira - no matter how emaciated she looked - at that age. No fucking way.

I'm very sad about Simba's portrayal of this. Simba has shown intense PTSD that would haunt him for life and there's no way I would let something that Disney shows better than the supposed depression that healed insta-clean in Frozen or the PTSD that healed up clean in VLD. Yeah, I'm still grouchy about that. They still show his mundane kingly activities for which I am grateful for. He and many of the adults in this are purportedly useless. I know this is a show focusing on the kids but having reasonable adults that kids can trust can send a better message than adults never helping you when it is needed. At least there are responsible adults in later Persona games. A dead guy is more helpful than the current royal family and advisors.

Since TLK2 is now canon, I worry about the timeline and the convoluted canon that comes with it. That movie is still pretty dark with Lady Macbeth Zira planning revenge to the point of suicide.

Given how TLK2 has its own fanbase, the show writers must honor the fans of that movie, no matter how obscure it is. There are references littered calling back to the film which makes me a happy camper. It does show the writers at least went back to watch the decades-old sequel.

Now, for Lion Guard itself, as a show for very little kids, it's fulfilled its purpose. It's not the best-written show for LK, not even Tangled the Series level of writing and definitely not Gravity Falls. While GF left some things unresolved like how would Dipper reacts about Mabel's part in Bill's plans and her willingness to participate in the destruction.

There are still questionable writing like why the hell is the Lion Guard, composing of children mind you, are so goddamn overpowered? Even if Nuka is not trained as well, there's no way Kion would be able to take out Zira and overpower her as a cub. In the original, Simba and Nala barely escaped with their lives when Mufasa came to the rescue. Even Kovu and Kiara scarcely escaped death from crocs due to their own smarts. I am still dubious about the Roar though.

For one thing, I hope they continue to make their own spins of Shakespearean tropes in LG. There is a reason why people remembered LK as a Hamlet with Lions movie. It has more shades of Henry VII, Macbeth, and Sundiata Keita though it's not quite as well-known as being a Hamlet movie. It's mostly remembered as Hamlet with lions while there are traces of such, there are more Shakespearean tropes involved to make it a universal story. Again, there are more than just Hamlet used.

It would be great to introduce Shakespearean themes and tropes to make little kids to seek out Shakespeare and what inspired it. Just look at One Piece with the list of inspirations from Treasure Island to sea legends around the world.

It would be great for that to happen, given how everyone knows Shakespeare is a large inspiration for LK. And the reason why it's so different from other Disney fare of its time and current is the very fact it's deprived tropes of Shakespeare and other mythic stories out there. I hesitate to call it a Hero's Journey just like Star Wars ended up being.

I am not expecting a Shakespearean tragedy with a kill em all ending on the same level of Titus or Hamlet.

The show, from what I seen from clips, can get dark at times. While I doubt it would be as dark as Zira's original suicide or even TLK2 tone, it could be dark at times. Kids show can get dark, I am not hammering that kids shows should be light and soft all the time. I just worry because a lighter and softer series are aiming at toddlers and kindergarteners, not preteens. As long as they kept the levity just fine, I'm happy. Joaquin Dos Santos does not understand the point of levity in a dark series and why you should never ever do a series that focused so much on darkness for darkness' sake it becomes more narmy than alarming. Kids show can get dark by implications. Just look at OTGW and GF. Even kids shows in Japan that is not shounen or shoujo, I do mean aimed at preschoolers and young kids such as Pokemon and Yugioh does have their darkness that they won't even hide via implications.

What my dearest hopes and wishes are that they use the potential right there for the eating. After VLD, anything has better standards than this. Even SU, no matter how much I say the story is getting blander the more it's going, is better than VLD any day of the week. Sorry, VLD is really bad of badness that was ripe of potential ripped apart by people who don't understand the potential who want things done their way and refused others' consideration or advice.

There is no way in hell am I going to have my wedding at Disney Resort. Ever. As much as I would love others to do my planning and adjustments, my wedding would be waste-free, environmentally friendly while still fabulous. I don't want too much fuss nor do I want to waste so much money. I want my ceremony to be low-key while still emphasizing geeky nature. I want little flowers as possible while using geeky features. I want to put something tasteful while still emphasizing that geeky nature. All I want is a tasteful yet geeky wedding. Like I want to reuse my centerpieces as house decor like in one table there would be a Gunpla and another table would be the Pokemon Starters with Psyduck and another table would have a Thousand Sunny. Or I could put up numbers instead of those and let people see for themselves what geeky centerpieces they have along with favors. I want kimono-like designs for my bridesmaids and groomsmen with pins that relate to anime. Probably, my bouquets could be the Sailor Scouts' wands. I don't want something weighty to carry around so I wouldn't mind carrying around something small. Eh, I'm not a girl who looks at wedding mags for my future wedding, mainly just to see how pretty everything is.

As long as I don't involve Frozen in any way and shape and form, I will be a happy camper.

Change the Channel is back! Sort of...

Listen, I think for Channel Awesome to finally move forward in terms of that hashtag, they must have a subpoena and investigation. If the response is anything to go by, the major heads still have the documents.

That is what I think what has to be done. It might be bringing up bad memories but still if we want the channel to change and Michaud to leave and give up his part in the IP of the Nostalgia Critic, we must have a court order. Yes, that means the former producers must be interviewed and yes that includes Brad Jones and his friends. It might be full of tension because of the bad blood and broken connections. Many people must be interviewed including the significant others.

That is what I think must happen. Because Michaud is the head and doesn't have a committee to stop him, that would be hard. Therefore court orders must happen. I'm sorry but if we want Channel Awesome to suffer any consequences, we have to do more than just pull support. We must have those who been wronged to have a court order, more specifically a subpoena.

And by the way, people are allowed to enjoy something made by bad people. We can separate the art from the artist. There is something called Death of the Author. The point of the Change the Channel movement is for Michaud and the Walker Brothers to apologize for their mistakes. We must not go into a black and white morality but a gray and grey morality that the real world operates in. Even if some people might forgive rapists and murderers, some don't and it's okay. It's okay for forgiveness because it's not Destroy the Channel, it's Change the Channel. These guys who have been wronged was willing to extend an open hand and help the channel, even when these guys had hurt them repeatedly and never learn.

The Right Opinion is definitely the most objective and I would prefer anyone to watch that because he is unbiased in the matter.

First Impressions: Ace Attorney Anime

I love the Ace Attorney series very much. I enjoyed everything about it including my two ships, EdgeWright and Klapollo.

I had heard the anime was not up to the par that the live-action film looks much better in comparison. In my opinion, the live-action film did its best and did better than other known anime live-action films. Rouruni Kenshin was a great live-action adaptation while Another was hilariously bad. PGSM was a good series although others would disagree. I enjoyed the series regardless. We are getting a live-action Tiger & Bunny and One Piece in the future after all.

Now, Japan had done live-action stage shows before. SailorMyu and HetaMyu were popular enough. I cannot rid that the actor who played North Italy sounded exactly like Namikawa. There's a Tokyo exhibit of performance for One Piece. In USJ One Piece summer event, there were actors who play their characters.

I'm getting off-topic. Now the AA fandom had been waiting for an anime adaptation at least. They already had a live-action film and merch. Even if the adaptation might not be up to par, it's still an anime adaptation. Which leaves a lot of stuff out.

The point of adaptation was to make sure you have the spirit of the original, keeping what made the stuff great or good at least while maintaining its qualities.

For example, if I am adapting the Persona series into the live-action series, I need to consider town and persons as well as Jungian psychology. As much as I love police officer Akihiko in Trinity Souls, the anime contradicted actual Jungian psychology in parts. Akihiko should still have his Persona, growing stronger the older he gets. They got that people gotta be broken in order to have potential. I need to understand the Tarot cards and fortune-telling because the series always give accurate readings from Igor. Fortune-telling and urban legends is a big thing in SMT overall while also considering that we're dealing with real-life actions here and consider place and time. I had to think of themes appropriate. The series under Kashino's hands had color schemes as well as dealing with true-to-life situations and character flaws. Adachi's story was a Japanese cautionary tale after all and I need to get that out because he's not a sociopath in any way.

How about One Piece? I know the series runs on silliness. I need to adjust what I need and making sure it looks great and not as narmy. I need to know when I could make it cost-effective. Games of Thrones was one of the most expensive shows to date. I mean I get that money needed to pour in to make this a great product to watch. I know people would criticize which so I need to employ those who wanted to work and not to half-ass.

I'm getting off-topic but ya'll get the idea of an adaptation.

Just from the first episodes alone, you know it wouldn't be the same as the game. They need to translate the game into anime. The fun of the game was the problem-solving including THAT ONE LEVEL.

They skipped over stuff I know they could have got into depth. I like the VA's and animation just fine.

From what I see, they can expand and omit details that are not necessary. They still kept the craziness of the courtroom AA is known for, which I am thankful for.

I mean I wouldn't call this anime the epitome of what a video game to anime would be like. It's still flawed and isn't a perfect translation of how one can transition a video game to an anime format.

They made some of the more NaruMitsu moments even more romantic. I am a big sucker for those guys so I am thankful for those moments.

If I were to pick between which is the better adaptation of the games, it would be the live-action movie surprisingly. Maybe it's flowed better while sticking just close enough to the text. That is what I did and say about the live action Bleach movie after all.

Overall, from what I figured, the anime is underwhelming. It fulfilled its purpose of being a game anime adaptation in the same way the Persona series' adaptations are.

...Fans of Into the Spiderverse, be aware that these guys are terrible writers and planners. They do not deserve any benefit of the doubt. They deserved their firing from DW while Tim Hendrick deserves his promotion. Just look what happened to VLD for Godoka's sake. Even now, I'm still crying about the loss of potential or just plain good storytelling with these guys at the helm. They need people to keep them on a leash. Sony, please keep them under supervision before things go bad like how they did with VLD. Keep under them supervision and if they ever try unprofessionalism and other bad things they did at the helm of VLD, don't ever let them try.

If you have any doubts for what I am saying about them being terrible storytellers, look no further than sheer lack of planning and research. And that's not getting into darkness for darkness' sake and lack of empathy for the story and characters. Remember, they tried to recreate VLD as their original Voltron and failed miserably. The fact they don't understand mecha, especially Miss Montgomery, is a blaring red flag.

There were red flags for me as a mecha fan... These two don't know anything or try to know anything about mecha anime. At least, Gen Urobuchi knows about magical girl and Kamen Rider conventions enough to deconstruct them but not at the price of a good story and characters. I recognize the conventions Urobutcher deconstructed so that makes me an easy fan so much so I recommend both works. JDS and LM would sacrifice a good story and characters for their own pride and that's evident in their writing. And their pride consists of terrible writing layers of cake in one-dimensional characters and toxic messages and the dubious honor of being poorly written as an icing. The cake is a mix of baked and underbaked/dry combined with bland icing. Just look at the last season of VLD for the love of Godoka and the Man of the Beginning. And that's with Dreamworks doing damage control on these guys. As a result of this, Code Geass is a better mecha than this - and I honestly feel like I'm insulting CG with the likes of VLD because CG used mecha conventions while VLD refused to touch a single piece of mecha convention, not even a Char Clone for Godoka's sake. Lotor is the closest thing to a Char Clone and they don't take advantage of it at all. - and I think mecha fans would think the same because the use of Voltron is pointless and the Lions became plot devices to the worst degree. They can't clear the line between Real and Super Robots. Is the Lions Real or Super because it's hard to even tell! They should've watched some Gundam or even ask mecha fans about mecha anime conventions. Guillermo Del Toro knows about such conventions which makes Pacific Rim a glorious treat. Yes, PR - not the sequel - is more mecha than VLD and I wholly recommend it if you want to see an American reinterpretation of Japanese mecha.

And that's a genre they never understood. Utter lack of empathy for clones is anything for one. Kuron... The clones in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Kingdom Hearts, and Tales of the Abyss are treated much better than Kuron on any day of the week in their original universe, even when the universe is clearly working against them. In fact, the current Tsubasa trio is working towards saving Clone Sakura and Syaoran right now and we still don't have a clue whether or not it's Asch or Luke or both who came back. Kuron is a signal that JDS and LM have no clue what storytelling actually entails. They don't even look at Young Justice? They humanized Kuron yet expects the audience to not like him. Um... then why show him vulnerable and above all human? Their incompetent storytelling is detailed right there and that's just one example. Let me tell you that VLD has many examples of bad writing under the helm of these two idiots. And the show is an example of how not to do a multi-seasonal show with micromanaging toxic bosses. If SU is an example of how to not do professional art in a series, then VLD is much worse. VLD, above all else, is a disappointment with cruel themes and poor storytelling. It would be a horrible full course meal to sit through and I wouldn't recommend going through with it except with a couple of seasons that has potential... But other than, yeah, VLD as a recommendation would not sit through. Only watch VLD for how not to do anything storytelling and animation really especially when the potential is spelled out in the first season alone. Ironically, the first season is probably the most well-written of the entire show and that's what makes it worse.

I wanted to give them a chance so badly. But their attitude keeps me from even trying to make peace. I sincerely wish them the best on whatever route they take but if they wanted to become better, they have to improve their attitude for the story and characters. When even George R.R. Martin cared more about the story despite his kill count, then those two are doing it wrong. With no empathy for the story and characters, how can they call themselves writers? Did they even see how Lord and Miller acted in their writing? The script is all out there for the world to see. I can feel the love in there just as much as I can feel the love in Bojack Horseman! JDS and LM don't share love and empathy as writers and readers that are made evident by their own writing in VLD. That's one of the worst things about them.

When the above-mentioned works are doing better than these two, then I refuse to give them anything resembling mercy. I am merciless if anybody ever acted this disingenuous. I am scrutinizing them for their next works because I hope to Godoka they get better. That's all I want from them: just get better from your stupidity and toxicity towards the marginalized, workplace, and storytelling in general.

You guys have this warning: Beware of Joaquin Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery. Don't say I haven't warned you guys if these guys continued their behavior.

If they want to become Alex Hirsch level of fame and professionalism, they are not it to look up to. They want to be Hirsch but they can't. Their level of toxicity and unprofessionalism refused to even touch Hirsch and hell even Miranda's level of professionalism.

So, Mr. Vic Mignogna is currently in a controversy. I had heard about sexual harassment about him before this mess.

I'm surprised the Me Too movement had yet to hit the American dubbing anime industries yet. Internet Youtubers had been hit after all. Just look at Tobuscus, Channel Awesome, and Austin Jones to name a few. I was actually expecting Vic to be in the midst of the Me Too movement.

Regardless of anime's growing popularity, anime is still a niche so people don't know any true news. Netflix doesn't seem to know how to pattern off the good anime from the not so good ones. I have to flat-out tell my cousins never to watch some of these or up to a point because it's terrible. I did recommend watching Neo Yokio simply for its insanity.

So to know that it's basically headline news... I hope Funi recovered from this because their reputation would take a hit about not doing anything about Vic's behavior at cons. Funi, Vic, and the accusers won't come out of this unscathed. If by some miracle, Funi managed to salvage it, then it's fine.

As for me, I'm just surprised it took this long. Although Vic, you really shouldn't let it out in the public eye so soon because as part of the Me Too movement, your repute would still take a hit. Nobody would let it slide you harass underage fans. Even when it's hard to even know the complete truth from both parties, reputation would still be in doubt for both. Thank god, there are no rape allegations but sexual harassment is still not okay. Just because you are famous in a niche doesn't mean you have the power to do any of this to another woman and taking advantage of their adoration to do it. You are bringing it to the forefront but you still won't win with reputation intact.

And I have a feeling that Sabo would have to be recast. FMA already ended so I don't have to worry about a recast. Many of his current roles like Broly might be potentially recast. Although I hoped the English dubs would still be up because they can't erase him from anime dub history. He is the voice of Ed after all and till this day, I still have the dub of the 2003 anime in my collection. I don't have Brotherhood because I preferred reading the manga anyway and yes, it's part of my collection in the Shounen section.

Yes, I have sections. However, I would buy English ones if it's a particular favorite of mine. I have dozens of CLAMP manga but I put in alphabetical order, then volumes.