pop reads

Movies: I just watched Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) this week, which was creepy fun, if a little slow for me. (I felt that it had a cracking pace in the beginning, then really slowed down; the people in my horror club mostly felt the opposite.) Creepy from the beginning, especially with that doll, showing off a particular horror of the child star. Bette Davis is like a haunted doll come to life in this, but Joan Crawford keeps pace with her. They are so good at their characters' particular varieties of co-dependent dysfunction, and the twist at the end (which you can see coming, tbh) just intensifies the horror of what they've done to each other. And I know Joan Crawford was an odious person but, my gosh, she was so beautiful.

TBH, though, some of the other camp, like the voice acting on a couple of side characters, was a little too much for me, and I did think it dragged at some points, so it wasn't unqualified enjoyment for me.

Bleach: I have continued my watch and I've now finished 212. I enjoyed the flashback arc. Urahara is so terrible 💔 sometimes I love his terribleness and sometimes he's just the worst. ( Read more... )

Random, but I do always laugh at the backstory that reveals why Hisagi has 69 tattooed on his face.

I thought maybe if I'm getting back into Bleach I should also get back into Naruto, but when I reread the first few chapters of that I mostly felt too old for it 🤣 Last time I read Naruto I think I dropped it one arc after the timeskip. I got to see some cool Gaara stuff and then was like, okay, I'm done. I feel like Bleach I can reread because it's slightly more mature, even if not actually particularly mature. Like, at least he's 15 when it starts and half the characters are 100+ years old.

Weirdly on this reread & watch I've gotten really hyped by Kenpachi's moments of mature adult-ness?! Like obviously mostly he's there for a bit of biffo, but I love the flashback where he tells Ikkaku to knock it off with the death wish and grow tf up, and the bit in Hueco Mundo where he tells Ichigo it's not his job to save everyone and everything because the captains are there to do that.

Not just reading Bleach again, but watching it again. I never finished the old anime (and I guess the new one of the final arc isn't done yet but should be this year?). I wasn't sure where I was up to last time I watched, which would not be an issue if it were still on Crunchyroll, but alas... I was pretty sure I'd already seen the Shunsuke Amagai arc, which is the absolutely most boring filler arc. I will take no arguments on this. So I started the episodes just after, and it seems like that's a good choice, because it all seems to be Hueco Mundo episodes I haven't seen.

I remember last time I was watching I was excited to get to the end of the boring filler and get to animation of bits I enjoy from the manga, but I must have gotten distracted by the dozen other things I was watching at the time. Now I've reached episode 204... which turns out to be more filler, hahaha! But at least I got to see some cool fights before that.

Nnoitra v Kenpachi felt a little dragged out animated, but I do like the ending, the way the flashback makes it clear that they fight for totally opposite reasons. Kenpachi is so fighting obsessed that it's always a shock when he has his moments of adult sense and maturity, but it is in character for him, and I do like him telling Ichigo that fighting everyone and saving everything is not his job (I mean, we know that Ichigo is the main character and that therefore saving everything is his job, but it is good to see a semi-responsible adult tell him he doesn't have to be responsible for everything). I feel like Byakuya vs the guy with all the eyes was more exciting to me in the manga; the problem with how slow the anime is (and I get it's A. because they didn't want to outpace the manga too much and B. because this is aimed at 12-15 year olds, and therefore characters talk slowly; tbh, it's helpful for me as a language learner that they talk slowly) is that some things hit stronger for me in the written form where I can read at a pace that makes the impact strongest. But I do love Byakuya being ice cold in service of saving Rukia and how far he's come since the soul society arc. Mayuri vs Szayelaporro is like, fine, whatever, I liked it in the manga but I don't like Mayuri so I mostly wanted it over and done with.

But as soon as this new to me filler is done (please be only one episode), I get to see more cool stuff animated! For the first time for me! More of the Ulquiorra-Orihime-Ichigo not quite love triangle, my boy Yumichika showing up again, that fuckhead Ikkaku getting absolutely told, etc. etc.