Just the Ticket

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. the Animeister I generally schedule my posts to publish at midnight, and this is the twelfth issue of Anime Spotlight . So today's content is brought to you by the number twelve! If you've read my Anime Spotlight  on Midnight Occult Civil Servants , you know that I have an interesting relationship with midnight, and that I enjoy anime about supernatural crime-solving. And last week, I covered an anime about an unconventional type of pop idol ( Zombie Land Saga ). This week, I'll cover two  anime. Both are about time travel (this was the best I could do as an intro and segue  regarding time without having access to my own time machine so I could take more time to write something better while also grappling with pressing academic deadlines), one is about supernatural crime-solving, and the other is about an unconventional type of pop idol. We begin, as time travel so often does, with the latter. Vivy: Fluorite Eyes' Song  takes the I, ...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. the Ticketmaster I've been a big fan of Stephen King for a long time. He's an ambitious writer with regard to world-building and character alike, especially in his early works and through the resulting Dark Tower  series, which used existing characters and themes from throughout his portfolio (including collaborations, short story collections, Richard Bachman works, and obscure genre explorations like The Eyes Of the Dragon ) and popular culture, and archetypes and meta-references to the conclusion of The Dark Tower  have cropped up in his more modern works ( Cell , Lisey's Story , Duma Key , Doctor Sleep , etc.). including adaptations in other media like comic books, streaming series, and movies. And his sons have taken to the family business, as well. For a brief detour into my past looks at Stephen King's works, here's a set of links for your enjoyment and my improved analytics: The Dark Tower :  Cover Charge #2: The Heroic Jour...

 Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. The Last-Minute Animeister Before I began writing this, I had it stuck in my head that I had already done a Critical Quickie -length review of the first season of today's Spotlight  selection, and I was planning on doing something like I did with Fire Force and Soul Eater   last week . But I didn't even have anything started in my offline files, let alone a posted review to work from. So this is all fresh! In the spirit of today's content, I recently went to a local school surplus sale and bought a new desk (plus all of the unused stationery and plastic organizing trays that were left in the drawers) for twenty dollars. Which means it's used, but it's new to me. One of the drawers needs to be repaired with wood glue, but this thing is of a quality you just don't see anymore: dovetailed construction, thick bolts and screws, solid-wood components.... You can't get a pressed-wood desk one fifth the craftsmanship of this desk f...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, Showing you what you cannot see. Ever since it subverted slasher movie convention by introducing a villain so monstrous that it could dismantle multiple incarnations of the 80s action hero trope single-handed (as well as nearly every known celebrity not-yet-former-governor, and Shane Black--a.k.a. the writer of Lethal Weapon  and the director of THE Predator , a.k.a. "the pussy joke guy"), the Predator  franchise has had its ups and downs. Many would say there have been nothing but  downs since the original  Predator  graced movie screens in 1987, but still, even the lower quality entries had their bright spots. I may do a full franchise review at some point, but for now, you can revisit my thoughts on the AVP  movies and Predators  at the links here: AVP  & AVP:R  - Ticket Stubs #32: Rogue V. Prey (Part I) Predators  ( Prometheus focus) - Just the Ticket #65:   Rogue V. Prey (Part II) I'll try t...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. the Anime-BAWklogger AniMonday is back on schedule! And this week, we'll be looking at the works of Atsushi Ohkubo. For those who don't know who that is, Ohkubo- sensei  is the mangaka  behind Soul Eater and Fire Force. I'd like to give the latter its time in the Anime Spotlight , but first (and so you can opt out of the linked post above if you choose, because opting is a choice, duh), here is a reprint of my thoughts on Soul Eater : "High school students with magical powers and goals that amount to “be the best.” People who transform into weapons. Supernatural villains of the week. Ancient, all-powerful villain buried under the school. Teachers with mysterious pasts. Heroes struggling with their dark side. Channel friendship and punch really hard for a guaranteed win. If you’ve seen one show like this, you’ve seen this show before dozens of times. However, in the face of often-tread territory,  Soul Eater  does a good job at carvi...

Article by Sean Wilkinson, a.k.a. the Anime-BAWklogger This week in anime, we start looking at the long list of backlogged series that I had tacked onto my Anime Spotlight  posts once upon a time. 86Eighty-Six --We begin with a series about silver-haired, albino racists who force the diverse, "inferior" masses into military servitude against an army of soul-stealing, artificially intelligent robot crab tanks. Enter handler Millize, a platinum bombshell in a military uniform designed for the adult film industry because anime, and the quest for social equality begins. Unlike others of her race, Millize treats her "Eighty-Six" (the titular oppressed masses, so named for the number of the slum district they live in, and also diner lingo meaning to cancel or discard an order) as people, especially one codenamed "Undertaker" (after a near-death experience, he gained the ability to hear the hive mind of the Legion, and has taken it upon himself to kill any of his...

 Status Update: So, my plans for last week's AniMonday fell through in a big way, thanks to diarrhea and vomiting! I didn't think much of it because I always abuse caffeine when I'm studying, and I'd gotten used to having to spend half of the morning on the toilet under those circumstances. But the next day, I woke up at two in the morning and spent most of the next eight hours evacuating the contents of my stomach into a large, porcelain chair (and the surrounding floor treatments). Despite being able to temporarily stomach dry toast, instant pudding, and a glass of Pedialyte, I was suddenly gripped by the kind of flaming, throbbing, sweat-inducing abdominal pain that only results in screaming, howling, and telling your nearest and dearest to stop asking stupid questions and engage in various demonetizable acts of self-gratification. I was rushed to the emergency room shortly after, where I received pain management normally reserved for cancer patients and large zoo an...