Month: June 2020

Happy Sailor Moon’s Birthday

It is the official birthday of Sailor Moon today. As is fitting for such an event, the studio has released a video displaying the transformation sequences of Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon for the upcoming Sailor Moon: Eternal movie, as reported at Sailor Moon News.

Here is the video; the transformation starts about two thirds of the way in. Anyone familiar with Sailor Moon Super S, the series of the original anime that followed the Eternal arc, will notice the influence.

This movie is set to continue the (decidedly troubled) Sailor Moon: Crystal anime series, which sought to follow the manga more closely than the original anime did. Although it had a few innovative ideas (I am one of the few who likes the more developed backstory on the sailor scouts and the four Kings of Heaven), the show was troubled by poor animation and a variety of bad choices. Although a new director and new character designs improved the third series considerably, it still pales in comparison to its predecessor.

I can’t honestly say what I think about the upcoming Eternal movie, though I’ll be interested in seeing it. Super S is generally considered the weakest series of the old anime, so at least the new movie has less to compete with. It seems the production on this film has taken an awfully long time, which means either they’re being meticulous with it or the difficulties of the reboot are continuing.

Also, as I’ll explain later, I have a certain fondness for Super S, though I agree it’s not as good as the series that immediately preceded it. Its most notable feature, oft ridiculed, is a story arc in which a prepubescent girl falls romantically in love with a talking horse. A lot of people think that’s weird or creepy.

I think it’s funny as hell.

Tropical Pedo Beams, or, The Danger of Roman Polanski

I recently came across a thoughtful and challenging essay entitled “Slippery-slopism and False Gods” by Paul Lucas. I will summarize his thinking in order to make my own comments, but I am unlikely to do him justice, so I invite you to read his own words.

The case he makes is that it is morally wrong to consume the art of morally depraved artists both because this gives the artist further financial support to practice his depravity, and because that depravity is almost certainly injected, perhaps in a subtle fashion, into the artist’s work.

That is an extremely brief summary; if you are inclined to dismiss that out of hand, I again urge you to read the original.

Lucas makes his case well, using Roman Polanski as a concrete example. Polanski committed a variety of vile acts, including drugging and raping a thirteen-year-old girl, before he escaped justice. He also regularly got standing ovations and spirited defenses from Hollywood types—the same Hollywood types who would later, hypocritically, throw Harvey Weinstein under the bus when they realized which way the wind was blowing.

Lucas argues that defending the art of a wicked artist leads inevitably to defending the wickedness of the artist himself, hence the “slippery-slopism” in the title of his essay.

Continue reading “Tropical Pedo Beams, or, The Danger of Roman Polanski”

Sneak Peek: ‘Jake and the Dynamo,’ Volume 3

I finished the essays I was working on for a side project, so now I’m back to working on the third volume of Jake and the Dynamo, currently under the working title of  The Shadow of His Shadow. Here’s a foretaste. As always, there is no guarantee that this will be in the final product.

On an added note, I am still waiting to hear back from some publishers to whom I’ve submitted, so I have no updates on possible releases of the previously published volume or its sequel.

At last, these treatments were apparently at an end. The bespectacled goblin sniffed once, made another mark in his ledger, and threw a loose silk robe over Jake’s shoulders. Then the trolls dragged him through yet another dank hallway, finally depositing him in the Bedchamber of Darkness, where he fell to the floor in a heap.

The trolls bowed respectfully before turning, leaving, and shutting the door behind themselves.

Jake raised himself to his knees and blinked against the gloom. He saw a large, four-poster bed atop a pedestal reached by steep stairs. On the walls hung an array of bizarre devices, most of which were unfamiliar to him—but the collection of coiled whips and handcuffs had an obvious purpose, as did the bloodstained rack standing in one corner. Ropes and chains dangled under the canopy above the bed.

He swallowed loudly.

On the bed lay the coldly beautiful woman he had earlier seen in the inner sanctum of the Temple of the Moon Princess. In a filmy dress of glossy black, she had one broad hip exposed, like an imposing hill in the middle of a plain. Her full, blood-red lips were slightly parted, and her round breasts rose and fell with her breath. Her raven-dark hair splayed across an embroidered samite pillow.

Frowning against bruises and stiff muscles, Jake carefully pulled himself to his feet.

Am I … am I about to score with the Dark Queen?

The Queen said not a word. She merely reached out with one shapely yet bone-white hand tipped with sharp nails as red as her lips. She patted the comforter once, twice. At the same time, she raised an arched eyebrow.

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: ‘Jake and the Dynamo,’ Volume 3”

Women and Swords



This particular subject has come to my attention more than once in the last few days. As it happens, I recently submitted an essay for a book on writing (I’ll let you know if my submission is published) on how to create likable and believable “strong female characters.” This expression, “strong female character” gets tossed around a lot these days by people who never clearly define what they mean by it; and the characters presented to us nowadays in comics and film as “strong female characters” seem often catty and unlovable as well as overpowered.

My perennial interest in this topic has led me recently to return to the first two Alien films, which created a memorable and believably tough character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, and I’ve also been exploring the original Video Girl Ai and Battle Angel Alita, manga that are now considered “old” according to the short memories of weeaboos, and both of which offer some high-octane feminine ass-kickery.

I’ve recently started watching Shadiversery, a YouTube channel by an Australian sword, history, and RPG enthusiast. The channel is mostly him going on about his subjects of interest, and I’m sure other enthusiasts or qualified experts would disagree with him on points, but he nonetheless appears for the most part to know what he’s talking about, and he offers an array of interesting opinions and factoids. When writing Jake and the Dynamo, I relied on him (and a few other YouTube channels) for the descriptions of Magical Girl Lady Paladin Andalusia’s sword work. Without the miracle of the internet, the descriptions of her sword would have probably been more Hollywood-ish.

Discussion

I’m fond of Shad because he avoids political dogmatism and just discusses his hobbies and interests with honest enthusiasm. Here, he takes on Andrew Klavan, another YouTuber I’ve sometimes appreciated, who sharply criticizes The Witcher for its depiction of women and swords. Shad reasonably breaks down the subject and corrects Klavan’s over-generalizations. Especially, Shad points to actual, real-life European martial-arts competitions that are mixed-sex, and in which women can effectively compete. He admits the disadvantages of reach, strength, speed, and endurance, but also emphasizes that weapons and skill can sometimes overcome these.

He points out something here that also happened to come up in another interaction I had recently: Klavan drastically overestimates the weight of a typical sword. Another acquaintance of mine, the prolific pulp author Ben Cheah, commented that he was reading an isekai series in which a guy who could handle an AK-47 could not lift a sword because it was too heavy. Cheah points out, correctly, that the sword should be considerably lighter than the variable-fire rifle.

Back to the original topic, I notice this issue coming up a lot when I listen to people skilled in martial arts talking about women in combat. Knowledgable as they are, they often get quite rigid on the subject. They correctly point out the physical disadvantages that a woman will almost always have in a fight against a man but tend to ignore other factors like differences in skill or technique—or chance.

Biology

After rebutting Klavan, Shad explains, reasonably, why it was practical, historically, not to have women in combat. He points specifically to biology: Men are naturally more aggressive, women are severely disadvantaged physically when pregnant, women are needed to produce the next generation when the men are off killing each other, and men naturally want to protect women.

Something else I would mention that he doesn’t—females generally fight differently from males, as attested by bar bouncers, soldiers, and anybody who scrapped on the playground as a child. Men create honor codes and fight for pride, and they peacock around before they start beating each other. Women, by contrast, can go from zero to claw-your-eyes-out in under a second. The reason for this may also be rooted in biology: Males establish social rank, either individually or nationally, through combat and dominance. Women, however, fight to protect their lives or their children. That’s why it’s usually the men go to war while the women only fight when the men are all dead.

Edit: As an additional forehead-slapper, someone in the comments on Shad’s video mentions St. Joan of Arc as a real-life warrior woman, so it is worth pointing out that, although St. Joan rode with the troops, she never fought herself and claimed she never personally killed anyone. However, I am made to understand she was a decent strategist who advocated an aggressive use of artillery, but that’s a role quite different from wielding a sword and hacking people.

Tod on Historical Armor

Came across this interesting video from Tod’s Workshop on why movie props in “sword-and-sandal” films are often inaccurate. As he explains, the reasons are often purely practical rather than because of poor research.

There are interesting points here. In a few of these cases, I can possibly think of ways of getting around these problems. He points out, for example, that sabatons—pointed armor shoes&dmash;are a safety hazard on-set. He’s undoubtedly right, though they could possilby get around that by making them with rubber instead of metal, something that’s often done in movies anyway for armor or other props used in stunts.

Some of his other points, though, are things that probably couldn’t be got around easily: Brightly colored props causing strobing in the camera, helmets covering A-list actors’ faces, and swords with sharp points presenting an insurmountable safety issue.

Project Update

I’m currently collaborating on a project I’m rather excited about. I think it would be imprudent to give specific details as it may still turn out that my work isn’t a good fit, but I’ll let you know about it when the time comes if everything moves forward. Probably for the next few days, I’ll still be concentrating on that before I can get to other things.

I Seriously Need to See ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’ …

Anyone know of a good version on a streaming service or something?

Television Review: ‘Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future’

All hail to the machine! All glory to my Lord Dread!

This review originally appeared, in a slightly different form, on my previous blog, which is now defunct. I am working to move my redeemable material from there to here. I recently introduced the magical girl to this show, so I think it’s time to bring this review back online.

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, starring Tim Dunigan, Peter MacNeill, and Sven-Ole Thorsen. Created by Gary Goddard and Tony Christopher. Head screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski. Landmark Entertainment Group, Mattel, and Ventura Pictures Inc., . 22 episodes of 20 minutes (approximately 440 minutes). Not rated.

Jim Bawden of the Toronto Star once called Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future “the most ambitious series ever made for television,” and he did not exaggerate. For a short period during my childhood, this show was all the rage, but it lasted only one season: Mattel pulled the money when the toy tie-in sold poorly, so it swiftly fell into obscurity, though it continues to enjoy a cult following. There were VHS releases of all the episodes back in the ’80s, but aside from those, Captain Power was for many years available only on fan-made bootlegs. However, in , VSC produced an official DVD release. This is a great boon, for Captain Power is a show that should not be lost.

Captain Power’s history much resembles that of the similarly ambitious and ill-fated Battlestar Galactica—though Captain Power has yet to see a melodramatic, humorless, and oversexed remake. There were attempts to remake it, and for a while a new show called Phoenix Rising</cite >was in the works, though as far as I have been able to discover, it died in preproduct ion hell.

Funded by Mattel and billed as children’s TV, Captain Power sparked controversy for its high levels of violence. It was expensive, costing a million dollars per episode, with innovative special effects—including the first regular appearances of CGI characters in a live-action TV series. It is of continued interest in part because the lead writer was for a time J. Michael Straczynski, who went on to create Babylon 5. There is even a place called Babylon 5 in Captain Power, so Straczynski had that name in mind even back then.

But what really made Captain Power unique is now hard to appreciate: It was the first and last interactive TV show. The Mattel toy line included action figures and a few other items, but the most important toys were the XT-7 and the BioDread Phantom Striker, both futuristic jet fighters. They were light-sensitive, and they would react to certain special colors on the screen. With the toys, you could shoot the villains, and they would even shoot back. Hitting them earned you Power Points, and getting hit took your Power Points away.

But that’s not even the coolest part: If you lost all your Power Points, the cockpit would eject and send your action figure flying across the room, which was hella cool to an eight-year-old boy. The toys also had a “room mode” that allowed you to shoot them at each other like laser tag. It was good, clean, potentially-put-somebody’s-eye-out fun. Unfortunately, the interactivity hasn’t survived the digital transfer, so don’t expect to dig out your old XT-7, load in the DVDs, and blast away at BioDreads on your flatscreen.

I know it doesn’t work because I’ve tried.

Continue reading “Television Review: ‘Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future’”

Chobits: Peace and Fear

I hate Chobits, as I’ve made clear more than once. I have enough on my plate that my essay on it is long in coming, but in the meantime, I recommend the above YouTube video from a user by the name of “Hiding in Public.”

Hiding in Public has a very different take on Chobits from my own, but I find it quite thoughtful, so I think it is worth hearing, and after I get my own essay up, his discussion will make for a good counterpoint to what I’ll have to say. Check it out.