Harald trying big brain negotiating tactics

What did you think of this week's chapter?

One Piece will be on break next week

blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

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

This is week two of our three-week pause of Albert Barillé's Once Upon a Time... series. Next week we'll finish My Jungle Book, Your Year, and the week after that we'll start Once Upon a Time... The Americas.

"'Fanime Fun Time'? But what is fanime, exactly?"

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, despite finding it inspiring that two teenagers could make a show like this together, I nonetheless decided not to continue MJBYY after episode 3, simply because the dialog's audio quality was just too hard to understand. So this is why I want to revisit MJBYY: if the audio quality was the one thing keeping me from enjoying it, maybe I'll like it better now, especially if I'm joined with some other people who could help fill in the gaps of my own hearing.

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 first half of MJBYY tonight, incl. a few specials/shorts:

• Episode 1 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 2 (c. 9 mins)
• Episode 3 (c. 12 mins)
• Episode 4 (c. 10 mins)
• Episode 5 (c. 12 mins)
• Episode 6 (c. 11 mins)
• Episode 7 (c. 13 mins)
• Halloween special (c. 12 mins)
• Short: "Kyu Kyu Kyu Nyah MJBYY" (c. 1 min)
• Short: "「ribonista」 Caipirinha☆" (c. 1 min)
• Short: "Bubble Pop" (c. 1 min)
• Short: "Halloween Special Cookie Dude Edition" (c. 2 mins)
• Short: "A Very Furi Christmas" (c. 3 mins)

This amounts to ~100 minutes of planned content.

Content warnings and accessibility

Audio description: Not available.

Sign language: Not available.

Captions: Evidently not available, which is particularly regrettably given the audio quality. It actually seems like this show sometimes shows subtitles on screen which don't actually reflect what the characters are saying, as a joke? Hmph. And I doubt I'll have time to type out my own subtitles on such short notice, either, not that I necessarily want to spoil myself by doing that.

Language: English, occasional gratuitous Japanese.

Content warnings:

This series seems to include:

• Teenage girls having their boobs grabbed
• A character coughing up blood
• A character covered in blood
• A character experiencing catatonia
• A character apparently dying

This is based on the plot descriptions and YouTube thumbnails, as well as skimming the TV Tropes page. However, like last week, 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! ♫

“In Japan, where the population is increasingly aging and birthrates are declining, creating manga targeted at Japanese audiences presents significant commercial challenges, especially for works aimed at younger audiences. However, countries in Southeast Asia, for example, have populations where over 50% are young people, making it possible to compete with works aimed at younger audiences.

“To this end, Segawa noted that more than just recruiting overseas talent, the Wordless Manga Contest was part of a larger effort by Kadokawa to expand their presence on the international scene.

“In the long term, we are preparing to establish local development editorial departments at overseas bases to create works [at present, Kadokawa has distinct offices in 19 different countries, including Italy and the United States]. We aim to connect overseas bases seamlessly and establish a global editorial system that breaks through language barriers within a few years.”

Tweet

I bet Peter Falk and Ken Takakura are smokin doinks wherever they are - and I wanna join that rotation

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 25 through 30 tonight.

After that is A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1959), a stop-motion adaptation of Shakespeare’s play of the same name, from renowned Czech animator Jiri Trnka; this is generally considered his magnum opus, and one of the best animated films from the Eastern Bloc. Behold as a trio of Athenian couples venture into the land of fairies, where the mischievous Puck distributes a love potion that causes all kinds of romantic entanglements. Everyone is a puppet animal in this version, and the effects look cool, so let’s check it out.

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/
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream: https://letterboxd.com/film/a-midsummers-night-dream/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159186/parentalguide/
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Sorry, nothing on DTDD or IMDB.

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 A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

• Surrealism.
• Unstable reality.
• Cheating.
• Kissing.
• Sad animal.
• Mind control.

Links to movies:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 25: https://tankie.tube/w/cqou3TrPa3VYUZQf88ZmW7
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 26: https://tankie.tube/w/pdeUcz7GBxdg5bc4fZQjZz
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 27: https://tankie.tube/w/pfLZ5u3xZ8MPKFhMcMKzwX
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 28: https://tankie.tube/w/kz7CJ2N91ChTSWB6LjnT5T
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 29: https://tankie.tube/w/xuccfmEJ9ojBZD2tCkGrAk
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam ep. 30: https://tankie.tube/w/1A9iGkc5LRtXDVr2UABpCf
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream: https://tankie.tube/w/vJaJZNHg1gVGY2pKAdXzNb

blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

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

Since I'm feeling kind of burnt out on Albert Barillé's Once Upon a Time... series, we're pausing it for three weeks to watch some fanime instead.

What is fanime, you ask?

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.

As we will soon see, though, sincerity and parody are not mutually exclusive, and although the heyday of fanime was 15 years ago, fanime is today still far from a dead genre.

What's the chef cookin' tonight?

SPARKLE ON RAVEN: The Life of DrillGirl (also styled Sparkle On, Raven!) is an ongoing action-comedy magical girl parody webseries with strong slice-of-life elements. It premiered in 2022 and is described by TV Tropes more specifically as "an affectionate parody of late-2000s fanime presented with a steadfast earnestness, playing around with anime tropes and clichés while forging its own identity at the same time." (paraphrase)

Plot description: Raven, a high school senior, has a split life of a student and a magical girl. Her best friends are her classmates, Berrycream Frosting and Dark Shi. This year, a school down the road blew up and its students had to transfer to her school, bringing many new faces to their lives with new potential friendships to form. Raven's biggest goal is to have the most perfect school year for herself. Unfortunately, someone with more sinister motives has her eyes on her, with the wish to ensure they get the best school experience instead.

※Plot description courtesy of Fanime Realm and the Sparkle On Raven Wiki; TV Tropes has its own plot description.

We will be watching all the currently released SPARKLE ON RAVEN official content tonight:

• Episode 1: "The Perfect Perfect School Year" (runtime: c. 10 mins)
• Episode 2: "Knife to meet you!" (runtime: c. 14 mins)
• Minisode 1: "Half-House ~ ★☆SPARKLE ON DARK SHI☆★" (runtime: c. 4 mins)
• Episode 3: "DrillGirl Saves Santa Claus!" (runtime: c. 14 mins)
• Episode 4: "Room 424" (runtime: c. 17 mins)
• Episode 5: "What the Heck Happened to you, Berrycream?" (runtime: c. 22 mins)
• Minisode 2: "🎃 ~ ★☆Sparkle On, Scare Club☆★" (runtime: c. 8 mins)
• Minisode 3: "The Life of Raven ~ ★☆SPARKLE ON DRILLGIRL☆★" (runtime: c. 6 mins)
• Song: "WALKING TALKING MAN" (runtime: c. 3 mins)
• Episode 6 trailer (runtime: c. 1 min)

≈ 100 minutes of scheduled content.

I don't know what we'll do when episode 6 comes out. The SPARKLE ON RAVEN YouTube channel has also uploaded the show's convention panels at Kalawacon 2023 and 2024 — we won't be watching those videos since they're super long, but I figured they were worth mentioning.

Content warnings and accessibility

Audio description: Not available.

Sign language: Not available.

Captions: The first episode has subtitles available in Albanian, German, Korean, and English. The second episode has subtitles available in Korean and English. The remaining episodes, as well as the first minisode, only have human-made subtitles in Korean; if you need English subtitles for these videos, you will either need to use auto-generated captions, or machine-translated subtitles from Korean. The other videos we'll be watching only have auto-generated captions.

Content warnings:

This series seems to include:

• Blood spurting
• Children fighting, fake-out killed, or otherwise in peril
• Buildings exploding
• High school bullies
• Implied use of a recreational substance by a child
• A non-human sapient is killed

This is based on the plot descriptions as well as skimming the TV Tropes page, although I couldn't read it too closely to avoid spoiling myself. I've already seen the first episode and would describe it as pretty tame, and I expect this to remain the case for all the other episodes. So keep in mind that these content warnings are all for very cartoony scenes played for laughs.

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

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/34162696

• Previous part

The previous part, which itself links to parts 1-6, has some discussions and glosses of other anime that might help you. The plot descriptions in these quizzes are based on those from Anilist, so you can use that site for reference. You can also use things like title structure, character names, and occasional numerals to help you figure things out, or you can ask me for hints like the meanings of individual words, and I may or may not provide. I'll also be providing a few hints off the bat.

It's maybe a little weird to provide a CW for text in a language no-one else speaks, but I figured it was better to overapply CW's than underapply them.

When you make a guess, please spoiler your answer. If you're right, I will reply with the Evangelion congratulations emoji and provide glosses. And remember that just because someone else solved a title first doesn't mean you can't have a go for yourself.

Also, I can't guarantee that every translation here is perfect, because despite inventing this language, it is still not my first language.

Edit: Meltyheartlove pulled a hat trick today, being the first to solve all three titles. But since all the answers are spoilered, you can still make your own guesses!

Some hints not specific to any title

1: sinćtiv rómski l***e^[Solved by Meltyheartlove]

Buhi : tárej́eski.

Fe : yáxav laneyv 2: yalana sijbe eye ňa deňa so eyni, dej́este, u skǒyv hiḱaj́eskey; u yalanav "yaMiseýa" me rananey ňa deňa so žuňi, sńey, skǒyv rananskey, u dej́estevde. Kav 1-ska xi sokruňeyne bviret́ede he, L***e so žariv 14 šekot́ede 01-bra to yesokruňeynev bviśke: "Yeyket́ev ane yebonevye. Yezini lá, tavfa." čay.

L***e sindet́i, šo yalaneyv 2 : tárej́eskeyde lo dum šetruňet́e. Yebze koto yalanav pska u yalanav yaMiseýa, zbat́i zút́e kay?

2: ANDOGE^[Solved by Meltyheartlove]

Eyni iḿet́e R**ǒv Ogeska so "yÁrlaydayǒ", na fe, šo ša : yazoĺǒv virckade u raňgiśkade, šo zdet́a yaXaymisa. YeLan̋ane fut́e u bviret́e R**ǒ čay sule xaysǒnt́ot́e yaLana, na fe, šo yasuleyv R**ǒ bzeskey kruňet́a na kayta Andoge — yǒgebonev lobuhe. Yekruňevfe zbat́e yeYd́ev Xaye Arlaí, deňe so štrey, šo ĺent́ey sindet́a Andoge, u yǒgevše u giriḿevše ridabǒ, so šo ńahkade yÁrlaydayǒv dara — yašráv vurade yaLana.

Sint́ yaštoḱavfa: yárlaya M. D. L**ya. So žariv 17, ša nay arlaydumska: nay dum kőde, nay ran kaney, u nay zureyna, šo yoyet́ey ňaney. Šo ňa, L**ya nay kum o dum yérlaí to yezuruňe: yepse ňa, L**yav súśinska šahkade arlaya na yaĺeneyvša na órev numećke, deňe so eyniv dari u nanski, u možev yesindev Andoge. Yakoḱeyv yaxisńav L**ya to draste ňa šasokot́ey so yayavša: ńezdet́i koto yaXaymisa, kot́i óriv graymej́eski, raňkaysulet́i morǒyv jeśki, u dot́i nǒniv vircki — buhe va ńekot́e Andoge.

3: OGEDOGIYA!^[Solved by Meltyheartlove]

Fe : yéxev ariḱev wataśke so Ó. Ś****ǒ iḿej́eske. Uše žariv 15 u kožev punkyercke, u xi byaḱot́e Wataśiya he, šéyt́e yǒynjuynevše na Britaniya. No kav anskagunska he, raykbra kot́a še. "To A***e" čay — á, yadrav yǒyna, šo ukeynt́a yǒynjuynev Ś****ǒ! U yabra xit́a, "yekot́i Wataśiya" čay! Wáy!

Yespinziniv xampev ariḱiv u wataśki u britanski ňa yáhasuliyavfa sinódmožet́ey e — u Ś****ǒ, u A***e, u guni.