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media diary - july 2024

LONG VACATION

as summer hit this year i was faced with the awkward situation of needing to stay at my family's place as i'm inbetween moving, from a dorm i left in june to a house i'm moving into soon, so i've basically been in stasis as i wait during what is pretty much my summer vacation for the year. it hasn't been all bad, though -- i've got all my stuff, and i've had plenty of opportunity to check out cool media, some of which i documented in the previous media blog.

the first major thing i checked out this month was a butt-ton of GAMEBOY GAMES, after ordering an everdrive GB for my gameboy color. the excitement of getting to play these games on actual hardware for the first time was overwhelming, it's something i've wanted to do for the longest time and it's the perfect summer doohickey. i got to play a lot of games i wouldn't otherwise check out, much of which i ended up really enjoying. importantly this got me into MR DRILLER after i played its gameboy color port, a port that let me discover just how fun it is. some other highlights include the unexpectedly good MAGICAL TETRIS CHALLENGE which features disney characters, CAVE NOIRE which is the gameboy's own "rogue like" rpg, ports of beatmania, tower of druaga, heiankyo alien and space invaders, as well as the DRAGON QUEST ports -- i started playing I as soon as i could, but after a sudden SD card corruption incident my save was lost just a few days after starting, which really demotivated me. (it's fine now though! i just swapped cards)

this voyage through the gameboy library inspired me to start designing my very own homebrew game in GB STUDIO, and while i wanted to make it short, i put it on hold due to a wave of demotivation that i'm hoping will soon pass. the photo above is from that very project, though! seeing it run on actual hardware makes the process worth it, and i can't wait to dig into other indie homebrew titles.

[08/07/2024] MISSION HILL

dammit, this show is Precious.

MISSION HILL is a show created by two of the best writers for "golden-age" simpsons episodes, bill oakley and josh weinstein, which alone is enough of a selling point because they're literally responsible for steamed hams. and if THAT didn't sell you, it's literally all available on youtube because WB doesn't care whatsoever about their old tv shows apparently, so please go try it out if you wanna see what i mean. i can't recommend this show enough, i really fell in love with it, and i'm glad it just exists even if it didn't last long or get renewed at all.

being an animated sitcom from the late 90s (technically also early 00s, though that was because the original network canned it), it's got a particular view on the world and modern culture, and this reaches through to its aesthetics too. rather than animating digitally, the show is cel animated, giving its unique art style a really authentic and mellow identity despite its bold, neon color scheme. the color palette will literally change from scene to scene, giving it an overall dynamic visual identity that you don't often see with animated sitcoms, and it's overall really memorably pretty to look at.

overlaying its art is the writing & humor, which as you'd expect is consistently funny, but also shockingly progressive for a show made during the SOUTH PARK age. many elements of its humor and character wouldn't be out of place if the show was made now, the only stuff that shows its age at all is when they dunk on MTV or portray contemporary celebrities but it never leans too hard on referential gags or one-note social commentary, which, again, for a show from this age is really refreshing. a lot of the gags, rather than lingering or getting too in-your-face, tend to just Happen, and the spontenaity really caught me off guard every time. the traits of this high-quality writing are represented strongly in the neighbor characters, gus and wally, a gay couple (gasp!) who, rather than being the butt of homophobic jokes, have some of the funniest scenes in the whole series that also show how much they legitimately love each other. in fact there's an entire episode that reveals how they fell in love while making a low-budget 50s monster movie, and it's legitimately really sweet with a strong message about creating art to boot.

generally, the entire show is strikingly socially conscious and it feels, like, hand-crafted for someone like me, as it deals with ADULT SITUATIONS and MODERN LIFE while never being too cynical or depressing. the only parts of the series i didn't like that much were plotlines solely about the younger brother doing high school stuff, or the one obligatory comic-con episode which, like a lot of shows from the time i guess, thought it was cool and funny to do star wars references. the weaker moments are still made up for by the stronger moments though, and when it's at its peak it's a high god darn peak. also, tom kenny is a recurring voice actor, and a lot of the time just does a spongebob voice, which i couldn't stop giggling about whenever it happened.

[12/07/2024] THE STRAIGHT STORY

a few months ago i watched through most of -- not all of -- david lynch's filmography, checking out the movies i'd heard the most about or seemed the most relevant to my then-current watch through of TWIN PEAKS. i didn't watch everything, mainly because watching any of these let alone all of them back to back is intense emotionally, but i knew at some point i would go back and check out the rest. and so, out of wanting to just watch something i knew would be pretty high quality, i checked out THE STRAIGHT STORY.

shockingly, this movie is rated G (or U, in my region) and was distributed by DISNEY in the states which is just wild for lynch. it means that this whole thing is clearly took some amount of experimentation from the guy to make something so safe for the first time, after making some strongly disturbing and shocking movies, and interestingly it works out really well!! the end result is a very sweet and tender movie about a stubborn old man travelling a long distance in a lawnmower just to see his brother. it's very very American, in a way that's patriotic but less in the gross bigoted gun-lovin' way and more with a love for the country and the people who populate it. it's the kind of thing i still can't meet eye to eye with, but from the perspective of someone who lives there i'm sure it's more resonant.

as sweet as it is, overall i'm struggling to remember anything that really stood out aside from its family-friendly status. it was really light, and more than anything it eased me back in to lynch's work by being so relatively laid back, but there were no moments where i felt anything very strongly -- it is Fine, and it's sweet enough that i enjoyed it, but it didn't really grip me at all. it wasn't really made for me, and that's fine i guess!!

[XX/07/2024] ONE PIECE

oh no!

so i don't really watch much shonen anime, or anime in general really, but recently in a call with my pals from the HORSECORD (you know who you are) we watched the first few episodes of ONE PIECE. or, well, sort of. we watched the edited version, ONE PACE, so called because it attempts to "fix" the pacing issues of the anime to line it up with the manga, and while the effort is cute it makes for a weird first viewing experience. after that first few episodes, i decided to check it out on my own, and began watching the original series from the beginning on a crunchyroll account owned by my friend.

i felt far more at peace with watching the series as it was officially produced, but this also meant getting used to the structure of a shonen anime from the late 90s. it started off okay, but around 10 episodes in when the arc introducing USOPP began, the pacing issues that evidently plagued a lot of episodic kids shows of the time began to really be clear. since the end of this arc i instinctually haven't continued watching, not necessarily because i don't want to but i guess i wanted a break after, like, five or six episodes in a row of the same singular battle. that's an entire movie's length of these guys battling at the same slope by the shore, and it was just difficult to get through. before watching it someone on discord told me that one piece is a good background show, and seeing how long it can stretch out for, i suppose they were right.

that considered though, i've had a generally good time with it -- it's interesting to see the visuals of an anime made on the cusp of digital animation going mainstream, and it's aided by the original mangaka's art style. i also love luffy, as a hero, and i know that you're Meant to love the main protagonist of a show like this but luffy is the only one i've seen with values i can admire, in how he would do anything to achieve his outlandish goals and help his friends out along the way. i get why people tend to like shonen anime, but it isn't often that i find enjoyment out of it whatsoever, and this is a pretty remarkable exception to that. also zoro is hot.

[22/07/2024] UNIVERSITY OF LAUGHS

i finally reached a point where i was emotionally ready to watch another koki mitani movie, and this one got picked for the GOBLIN BUNKER FILM CLUB recently, so i decided to watch it. UNIVERSITY OF LAUGHS was, unlike the other two mitani movies i've seen, not directed by the guy. rather it's an adaptation of a stage play he wrote, and i'm not sure if it was a TV movie or theatrical release but it was produced with fuji TV's involvement either way.

i knew before i even started watching that i would enjoy this movie, it really seems like anything mitani touches is full of phenomenal humor and a lot of heart, and so it wasn't surprising that uh yeah this fucking banged. i was strongly impressed by the entire thing, especially the amount they do with such a limited setup which is an obvious result of its stage play origins -- i could vividly tell what it would look like on stage, the spacious room and the table in its center being a clear parallel, and it's what happens in that room that makes this movie so special.

the main setup is that a playwright is desperate for approval from a government censor, and because the playwright is so persistent and unwilling to water down his writing for the sake of censorship, he keeps finding ways to work around the inforced script censors. at first, the two are at odds with each other, but as time goes on they begin co-operating in order to do what's best not just to navigate strict censorship regulations but just to improve the play overall. this results in the censor, who formerly worked as an army officer (note: i forget specifically what role he says he had), finding it in his heart to love the artistry of comedy and the joy it brings him despite his cold rock-solid mannerisms. that character arc, and the way it's portrayed, literally brought me to tears because of how genuine it felt, how gradual this change of heart is and the way the story understands the human relationship with art and the way it can resonate with anyone just went so god damn hard.

it blows my mind how passionate this play about a play is about the art form, and it helps that it's a strong and wildly funny script itself. the relationship these characters develop feels so legitimate, and romantic in a lot of ways (which is even joked about), making the ending such a tragic punch in the gut. it's the first time in a very long time, heck, for as long as i can remember, that i cried at a movie, so i want you to know that the amount i cried is proof of how potent this whole movie is. it's so beautiful, literally one of my favorite movies of all time at this point, and i'm very serious about that. please watch this movie, it's available on archive.org but be warned that the included subtitles are full of typos.

[30/07/2024] KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 DAYS

...i may or may not have begun recording footage for the next kingdom hearts video.

august >>