I can't read/hear the word Swiss and not think of this ad:


I can't remember when it used to air, but it was constant. It's just burnt into my psyche.

Guardians 3 was pretty good. I felt real human emotion stir within my cold, dead heart at several points throughout the movie. If nothing else, it serves as a great sendoff for the MCU.

Because I don't know that any of the stuff on the horizon is going to be worth a whole hell of a lot.

Disney+ did another batch of St*r WarzzZZ: Visions shorts, with a more international flavor this time around as there is only one Japan-produced segment. I think I voiced my distaste for the first batch earlier in this thread, so my expectations were substantially tempered going into these new entries.

I will say, there's definitely a lot more variety here, as there should be considering it's different stuff from around the world, and overall the visual quality was top notch with a few exceptions towards the end. The storytelling, on the other hand, was mostly what I'd call subpar.

1. About a former Sith who decided to give up on being bad and instead live as a bohemian? This one was CG going for an oil painted kind of look, pretty nice honestly. Good action, easy to follow. The resolution seemed to imply she would be some kind of "neutral" Force user... who knew that was an option? This one was okay, I won't knock it too hard.

2. Child laborers in a mining camp. Of course it manages to end up being about lightsabers and the conflict was absolute nonsense. Although I do really enjoy the animation in this one, and it's probably one of the better ones here.

3. Stop motion is weird now, because I'll admit that CG fakery has gotten to the point where I can't tell the difference. Which is this? I don't know. But it looks really nice either way. Indigenous Force-sensitive (But of course!) sisters fight back against Imperials plundering their homeland. Completely unnecessary backstory about how their mother died rendered in a 2D cave paint art style. This one was kind of bland.

4. This is the Aardman one. Looks amazing, their stuff always does. Absolute dogshit sitcom plot about a family racing competition. Painfully unfunny.

5. This one was really convoluted, and I really don't feel like going over all the specifics. Basically a "seer" decides that if she destroys the means by which they predict "bad" (As in dark side-influenced) events, they can help win the war against the Empire. Uh...? Just too stupid. Again, though, beautifully animated. More lightsaber action. Gotta have it, right?

6. Another one where the setup jumps through ridiculous hoops to establish a conflict. There's this super-lavish cabaret-type tower where Cirque du Soleil-like performances take place, but for some reason this is where the rank and file Stormtroopers go to chill out? They all have the hots for this one dancer chick who uses this to her advantage to gather intel on the Empire because -- SURPRISE -- she's a Rebel! Subplot about how her child was stolen from her when she was young, and you guessed it this fact ends up being very important! Nice to look at with an unfortunately goofy narrative.

7. They just straight-up injected Indian culture into St*r WarzzZZ for this one. Everybody just dresses and behaves like they're Indian people from India on Earth. I actually kind of like this one story-wise. Likeable protags and a cool design for the villain. Downside here is that the CG animation is a little wonky, particularly during the disjointed lightsaber duel. That's right, another one for the pile!

8. Miners again. What are they mining? Kyber crystals, naturally! Basically they dig a hole so deep they can't get back out and their Imperial overlords just leave them down there to die. They sing a song (or maybe it's just a chant?) that draws the attention of the nearby city folk, who magnanimously rescue the miners. This was an odd one, and probably the ugliest of the bunch. It had that kind of faux-anime look you'd find in shows like the Boondocks, which is weird because I think this was the one entry submitted by Japan.

9. Miners... again? Kyber crystals... again! Other than that though, I think this one's probably my favorite? It's done in the aforementioned is it?/isn't it? stop-motion style and it looks really good. The plot is pretty basic, so there's no point in going into any great detail. Cute characters, super-colorful, I wish more of them could have been like this one.

All in all, a better outing this time. None of them made me cringe or otherwise scoff in disgust like the first batch. I think if they decide to do another set they should probably coordinate better so as to avoid so much overlap in plot devices. Then again, it is St*r WarzzZZ... the source material is what it is.

Skip 2 My Loaf gives me super Dress-Up Darling vibes, subtracting the thirst aspect, of course. Just the whole thing of characters overcoming their prejudices and learning to accept one another and all that... so good. So, so good.

It's a toss-up between that and Heavenly Delusion for my favorite of the Spring so far. I've been going back and forth on using romanized and localized titles for shows, I should probably just pick one.

Heavenly Delusion is one of those shows that just fires on all cylinders for me. Beautiful animation, likeable characters, solid action, mystery (I refuse to look up manga spoilers). Although, I'll probably end up going for the manga once the first batch of the anime concludes...

I was contemplating going to see Suzume, but apparently its screening was very limited in my area, so I missed out.

There's a post-credits scene in that one, too! But would you have even known that then?

Not that it's anything noteworthy.

Donkey Kong and everything Donkey Kong-related shouldn't have even been in the movie. You're right that Luigi was barely in it, they shouldn't have been separated at the beginning, and the story should have focused on... you guessed it: The Super Mario BROTHERS.

It made a killing this weekend too, sadly reinforcing the notion that it's actually worth a fuck. No justice.

The Mario movie was fucking whatever. I don't even know what to say. Calling it a "movie" seems far more generous than it even deserves.

The D&D movie, on the other hand, was fucking amazing! Like, holy shit. When I saw its RT score, I was like are these critics for real? As it turns out, yes. Yes, they are. I know, it beggars belief.

And it's yet another new movie that seems to have failed to find an audience, and can probably be considered a box office bomb. Which is a tragedy, but trust that it is in fact a really damn good flick.

A lot of people have accused it of aping the Marvel cinematic style, and yeah, it's totally doing that. Thing is, in my estimation, it's easily the best "Marvel" movie since... Endgame? It takes the formula and makes it feel fresh again.

Okay, enough gushing.

So good, though.

I think I replayed that section half a dozen times before I finally understood what they were trying to tell me. It wasn't an "Ah-ha!" moment for me, either. More of an "Oh, fuck off!" moment.

I played a VN called Paranormasight that was pretty fucking good. Kind of a non-standard VN, there's a lot of dynamic camera stuff and light puzzle-solving, maybe a little closer to a point-and-click adventure game than most.

Loved the character designs across the board. Just beautiful, and all the various facial animations were especially great.

No voice work to speak of, but I actually didn't mind.

He did a fair amount of voice stuff, too. The dude had a very singular set of pipes.

Man, I can't find it now, but there was a pull quote from one critic along the lines of, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is an awful film, but awful in a way that Marvel movies rarely are."

And I was like, "DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!!!"

Bill Murray was in it, but I couldn't tell you why. He's a fucking nothing character who has about 5 minutes of screen time, and then is implied to have died? I think? Just worthless.

Quantumania is kind of fucking bad, y'all. Like, I don't even know what the idea was behind this one. Oof. Big fucking oof.

Even worse than Love & Thunder, I think. That one at least had some highs to contrast its many lows.  This new Ant-Man is all lows, all the time.

I'm honestly wondering if its box office will end up being less than Black Adam's, which would be a special kind of dire.

Right? Like the armorer was all out of breastplates that day.

But seriously, I had heard a little bit about this, didn't really think much of it. Figured he'd get a slap on the wrist for a being an awkward weirdo with a woman he had been seeing, but supposedly there's a lot more to it than that.

https://kotaku.com/rick-morty-season-7-voice-justin-roiland-domestic-abuse-1850026753

Apparently he goes on the prowl for teenage girls on social media and shit? Big yikes.