Looking for romance (or magical girl like sailor moon) animes to watch with my wife that aren't "odd."

No upskirts or weird non-character sexualization (if the main characters are attracted to each other it's vastly different than sexual harassment by schoolmates/teachers/the invisible camera man..)

No children (obviously, but 🤮 at so many titles in this genre)

Either apolitical (impossible), or at least empowering to women and not the typical Western/Japanese "your job is to be your husband's token"

Edit: Non hetero-normative animes fully welcome but I would be lying if I said she wouldn't be pissed at a lesbian anime if it's overtly and obviously written for/by men.

https://animecorner.me/top-anime-producer-kadokawa-says-crunchyroll-american-dominance-led-to-more-careful-negotiations-over-prices/

I cant believe Ritz went political.

IMPORTANT NOTE: please use a VPN whenever visiting Blorptube, or anywhere else on the internet, for that matter. Protect your privacy.

For this edition of Saturday Anime Night, first up is Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985), the sequel to Mobile Suit Gundam (1979), and the series that made Gundam into a national phenomenon. Expect a whole lot of robots fighting each other and war melodrama resulting thereof, as a task force assigned to clean up the remnants of an evil empire turns evil itself. Still considered one of the best Gundam series of them all. Episodes 37 through 42 tonight.

After that is Leafie, a Hen into the Wild (2011), a Korean animated feature about a hen who escapes from her farm and hatches a duck egg, adopting the baby and adapting with it to life in the wild. Together, they must avoid all sorts of hazards, such as hungry weasels, as their familial bond grows. Birds rock. This is one of the highest-rated Korean cartoons on Letterboxd, and it looks adorable. Director Oh Sung-yoon also did a feature called A Dog’s Courage (2018), which is like this film, but with a dog; we might have to check that one out too.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: https://letterboxd.com/film/mobile-suit-zeta-gundam/
• Leafie, a Hen into the Wild: https://letterboxd.com/film/leafie-a-hen-into-the-wild/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159186/parentalguide/
• Leafie, a Hen into the Wild: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1971466/parentalguide/

CWs for Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam:

• Sexual innuendos.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Explosions.
• Nudity.
• Death of child.
• Death of parents.
• Deaths by crushing.
• Blood and gore.
• Profanity.
• Smoking.
• Alcohol.

CWs for Leafie, a Hen into the Wild:

• Cruelty to animals.
• Deaths of animals.
• Animal corpses.
• Carnism.
• Child endangerment.
• Deaths of parents.
• Eye injury.
• Blood.
• Death by falling.
• Profanity.
• Terminal illness.

Links to movies:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 37: https://tankie.tube/w/7fG1BgD4z7mi4PNdCn25Gp
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 38: https://tankie.tube/w/jQfyynogU4qMYavkPcqebD
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 39: https://tankie.tube/w/64EwXYj25P9rnbCu6N56kc
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 40: https://tankie.tube/w/amR4VkzWBSdWewVahruojN
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 41: https://tankie.tube/w/qsM1k8E6f2s2GKwVmtAZvJ
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 42: https://tankie.tube/w/nVWPKSt8DLjL4ycgz2QpFz
• Leafie, a Hen into the Wild: https://tankie.tube/w/tY5RWfBKGY2bkrjcawysaK

blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

※Remember to turn on your VPN and make sure you have a Hexbear account.

This is the final week of our pause of Albert Barillé's Once Upon a Time... series; next Wednesday we'll start Once Upon a Time... The Americas, although unfortunately it doesn't seem like all the episodes are available in English. See the bottom of this post for details.

But anyways, that's all a problem for next Wednesday. This Wednesday it's fanime we'll be watching!

"OK, but what's 'fanime' supposed to be?"

A fanime (etym. blend of fan + anime) is basically when someone makes an anime-style cartoon show by drawing frames in MS Paint; compositing them in Windows Movie Maker with pirated music, stock sound effects, and dialog recorded in one take on potato microphones; and posting the result to YouTube. This isn't necessarily accurate of all fanime, but the throughline is in any case that fanime is a form of democratized amateur animation combining anime aesthetics with "Internet Ugly". The style is most associated with the Western anime fandom of the mid-2000s through mid-2010s, where it was often difficult to distinguish sincere fanime shows from parodies of the genre.

What's the chef cookin' tonight?

My Jungle Book, Your Year (abbrev. MJBYY) is a 15-episode slice-of-life comedy series released from March 25, 2011 to November 17, 2012, with a two-minute 10 year anniversary special in 2021, and a few other specials/shorts contemporary with the original "broadcast". I first learned about MJBYY back in 2019 from this 19-minute video review, and was so sold on it that I immediately binged the first three episodes. However, I didn't continue after that point due to the audio quality. Last week's binge of the first seven episodes was a hit, however, and much easier to understand than I remembered, so I'm looking forward to finishing MJBYY tonight!

I should mention that one of MJBYY's co-creators, Dagian Drupe, is STILL making fanime to this very day; and both Dagian and MJBYY's other co-creator, gigisxcircus, seem to be pretty accomplished artists today. I should also mention that, even after 13 years, episode 6, as well as episodes 8~14, as well as all the specials/shorts, have still not cracked 10K views on YouTube. This is to say that finishing this show means joining a "club" of <6,900 people (least viewed full episode), alternatively a club of <1,600 people (least viewed short).

Yeah, this show is OBSCURE obscure!

Plot description: The series is about Ribbonista Hime and Demonica Bishi, who is studying at a high school. Demonica Bishi is aiming to become Student Council President. The reason why is because of her vanilla-caramel ice cream, which is sold at the vendors around the school. Fuu Fuu Furi Furi Pupi is also aiming for the same goal, but he wants to become President to remove all the vendors in the campus, so he will stop crashing into them. Demonica doesn't want that and wants to makes sure she gets the title. Demonica and Ribbonista team up for the elections and Fuu Fuu Furi Furi Pupi teams up with Marbel and Cones.

※ Plot description courtesy of Fanime Realm

We will be watching the second half of MJBYY tonight, incl. a few specials/shorts:

• Episode 8 (c. 10 mins)
• Episode 9 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 10 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 11 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 12 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 13 (c. 13 mins)
• Episode 14 (c. 17 mins)
• Episode 15 (c. 17 mins)
• Special: "My Jungle Book, New Year!" (c. 4 mins)
• Special: "My Jungle Book, Your Year! 10 Year Anniversary" (c. 2 mins)

≈ 110 minutes of scheduled content

Content warnings and accessibility

Audio description: Not available.

Sign language: Not available.

Captions: Not available.

Language: English, occasional gratuitous Japanese.

Content warnings:

• Sexualization of minors, incl. teenage girls having their boobs grabbed + pantyshots
• Blood / (profuse) bleeding, incl. a character coughing up blood, or covered in blood
• Vomiting
• Gore / a skeleton
• Strobing lights
• Loud noises
• A character experiencing catatonia
• A character apparently dying

But bear in mind that this show was literally made in MS Paint, so it is pretty tame on the whole.

♫ Uniting nations at the speeeed of liiiiight ♫
[epic sax solo]
♫ Station of the '20s — TV☆3SIS! ♫

I'm reading volume 2 of The World of Narue right now and honestly it's better and more amusing than I remember volume 1 being. Way fewer panty shots, too!

Oda I kneel.

Revolutionary heroes ranging from John Brown to Kim Il-Sung are isekai'd to a fantasy world that parodies shows like 'the rising of the shield hero' to break the chains of slavery in all forms once more and liberate the fantasy workers and the peasants from the yoke of feudal oppression while hunting down so-called "heroes" summoned by the feudal lords who intend to use them as tools to preserve their power and the economic base of their feudalistic slave economy.

Show me Stalin riding a chocobo or some shit leading a calvary charge against slaver caravans!

Show me Marx, Engels, and Lenin working together in the cities inspiring the proto-proletariate to take up arms against the feudal robber-barons and their land-leechs that bleed them dry

Show me Mao, Tito, and bonus character Jan Žižka, on a rural bro-venture with the three in a competitive rivalry to see who can organize the greatest peasant rebellion between the three!