Let the spectrum in! The Colo(u)rful Stories Tag!

It has been a long time since I’ve been tagged on this page, but it has happened. I was tagged by 7mononoke from Anime Rants. Thank you very much! This sounds like a very unique tag to be a part of. Also, bonus points if anyone gets the music reference in my title for this post.

Here are the rules for this tag:

#1 Share your favourite stories—movies/books/anime/manga/drama/songs—by classifying them on these seven colours’ traits:

• red: passionate, exciting, invigorating
• blue: peaceful, calming
• pink: romantic, caring
• orange: warm, motivating
• black: mysterious, thrilling
• green: fresh, unexpected
• white: random

#2 Send this challenge invitation to at least one of your friends. Let them fear your superiority, as you—decide their fate.

#3 Link back to the original post here! And, enjoy!

Alright. Let’s do this!

RED

Paprika

This would be my pick for red. Paprika is certainly experimental like most of Satoshi Kon’s work, but it’s very exciting and passionate with the imagery and multi-tiered storytelling. Some of you know about my strong feelings when it comes to an obvious film plagiarism issue associated with this movie, but I’m going to focus on the obvious original factors. Paprika also plays with passion or in Konakawa’s case lack thereof and the journey between dreams and reality is surreal, but forces you to pay attention.

BLUE

Alamar

This is more of a recent-ish watch since I first saw it a couple of years ago. There’s certainly lots of blues since most of the movie takes place near or on the ocean, but this really was a calming movie. Alamar wasn’t some deep watch, but it was very relaxing with this father and son bonding near the water. I first saw it during the winter when it was insane with the extreme polar vortex and with tons of snow on some days. It was a peaceful movie of characters just living life and there’s a healthy family relationship that doesn’t involve family drama nor does the father die in this film.

PINK

The Place Promised In Our Early Days

This one was tough because I’m not a fan of romantic movies. The closest thing to a romance work that I really like is Makoto Shinkai’s first full-length film. The Place Promised In Our Early Days would be far closer to describe as a war drama with some sci-fi elements given the concept of the parallel universes playing a major role in the plot. This has one of the best love triangles I’ve ever seen in movies and there was some great characterization. Of course, most anime fans will Stan harder for Your Name, Weathering With You, or (GOD FORBID!) The Garden of Words, but The Place Promised is still an impactful watch even years later.

ORANGE

Hikaru no Go

Hikaru no Go is one anime and manga series I’ve enjoyed since I was in high school and it still holds up. I’ve certainly praised it for it’s originality, believable characters, and destroying multiple shonen anime tropes. Heck, this series was a major inspiration for the last single and video I made (notice the go imagery) late last year. This was a motivating series to watch not just with learning about the game of go, but it also shows perseverance in a non-cheesy light while being genuine about it.

BLACK

Maasai: The Rain Warriors

Even more recent than watching Alamar, I discovered this Kenyan movie not too long ago. I don’t want to just put anime on this list even though I certainly have a reputation for talking about that subject on one of my other blogs. Maasai: The Rain Warriors was a very fascinating watch with it using actual Maasai actors, using the Maa language as opposed to English or even Swahili, and incorporating Afro-fantasy with a low-key magic realism to it. There’s mysterious aspects with the adventure to stop this demonic lion from cursing the land with drought. There were some nice twists and turns while being respectful to this indigenous tribe in Kenya. No, there is absolutely no pun involving the choice of movie with this color, so calm down.

GREEN

Lunch Time Heroes

This is the first Nollywood movie I have seen! I know there were some pacing and plotting issues, but Lunch Time Heroes was one movie that I thought was better than what most critics said. It was fresh and unexpected with how much I enjoyed this movie. Sure, the plot is simple with a teacher thrust into a classroom full of troublesome students while taking part in an academic competition against other schools in Nigeria, but how they did it was entertaining and in some cases deconstructive. I’m not a fan of “save our students” plots, but this was done right. Lunch Time Heroes was also the 2nd “save our students” movie I’ve seen in my life that DIDN’T resort to white savior tropes (the 1st is Stand and Deliver) even if it was due to the geographic location. Not only that, but it’s an African movie that takes place in a middle-class setting which is something Hollywood wouldn’t dare show that side of the continent. Lunch Time Heroes was a simple, yet very unexpected watch for me.

WHITE

Shinesman

You know, my interests can be quite random. I can delve into avant-garde and arthouse works, but at the same time I can watch something wacky from time to time. I’m not always this super serious or highbrow person, everyone. I do have a sense of humor and a sense of levity. Shinesman is one of my favorite anime comedies and parody works in general. When I tell other people about this, I mention that Shinesman is like a mix between Power Rangers and The Office, but that’s scratching the surface. It has one of my top 3 dubs that are better than the original Japanese version. The humor consists of over-the-top tokusatsu spoofing, low-key zingers, and even makes some cheeky jokes about anime fandoms. This still makes me laugh to this day seeing this obscure 90s OVA series. I would also like to see a remake and if they could get as many of the original dub cast members to reprise their roles, I’d be elated.

I will nominate the following people:

Never Argue With a Fish

Fiddletwix

Traditional Catholic Weeb

Aizen_Kuro

James Humphrey

Red Metal

Scarlettiger

All photos are property of their respective owners and used under US “Fair Use” laws.

Paprika is property of Satoshi Kon, Madhouse and Sony Pictures Classics. The GIF is from Gfycat and is property of Satoshi Kon, Madhouse and Sony Pictures Classics.

Alamar is property of Film Movement. The screenshot is from Cinema Tropical and is property of Film Movement.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days is property of Makoto Shinkai and ComixWave. The screenshot is from Madman Entertainment and is property of Makoto Shinkai, ComixWave, and Madman Entertainment.

Hikaru no Go is property of Yumi Hotta, Takeshi Obata, Studio Pierrot, and Viz. The screenshot is from YouTube and is property of Studio Pierrot and Viz.

Maasai: The Rain Warriors is property of ArtMattan and Facets Video. The screenshot is from ArtMattan and is property of ArtMattan and Facets Video.

Lunch Time Heroes is property of PHB Films and FilmOne Distribution. The screenshot is from YouTube and is property of PHB Films and FilmOne Distribution.

Shinesman is property of Production I. G. The Japanese DVD cover is from My Anime List and is property of Production I. G.

10K+ Views Pt. II: Q&A Answers

Here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. I get to answer the questions I got last week for my 10K+ view milestone!

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“What was going through your mind when you wrote all those 455 posts? I mean did you ever run out of ideas or did you always had a topic in your mind(if yes you did run out of ideas, what did you do to bring yourself back up)?”

from Eggsandwich04

Well, I certainly have more than 455 posts at this point in time now. Haha! Okay, in all seriousness, my mind has been at different points when I made certain posts. I mainly focused on the Ospreyshire project for my spoken word stuff with the poems, recordings, and videos. I expanded to talking about news events and my opinions about different things. I ranged from sad, angry, serious, and occasionally comedic if the time calls for it. However, I think most of my poetry tends to lead towards sad or angry in hindsight.

I can’t say I’ve ran out of ideas since new ones pop up. Some of them will affect this blog since I still have more things to do with what Ospreyshire was made for.

“Who would say is or makes your blog audience?”

from Khaya Ronkainen

That’s a question that I legitimately thought about. I guess the people who I know mostly view and comment on my posts are usually other poets, some bloggers that cover serious issues, and anibloggers given my prowess in multiple blogs. Funny how I have that kind of crossover appeal with different types of bloggers.

“Do you have any favorite poets or collections of poetry?”

from Eggheadluna

Some of my favorite poets include Langston Hughes, Buddy Wakefield, The Last Poets, and so much more.

“Do you think you’ll still be blogging in five years and if so, care to guess how many views you’ll reach by then?”

from Lynn Sheridan

I believe I’ll still be blogging in the next 5 years. I don’t know if I’d be working on multiple blogs at once, but I could see myself managing at least one of them that far in the future. If I were to gauge how many views I could get then, I’d say 20-30K by then. It took 4 years to get 10K here, so I don’t know.

“What do you think is the best story you’ve written?”

from Scott of Mechanical Anime Reviews

Hooray! I’m glad there are people who know about my fiction/author exploits! That is a really tough question. Hollandus Landing was a very important book for me since it was the first time I showed off my cell phone novel projects let alone a full story to everyone as I serialized it live back in 2017. Another important story I wrote would have to be in the Revezia series like Praxis of the Disenchanted or the Electrum Trilogy. By the way, you can get Hollandus Landing for free or donation!

“It seems that you still have some hangups about yourself as it pertains to anger about self-worth based on what others have done to your self-esteem, so having said that, has this blog done more to aid you in self reflection and instilled in you a true sense of self worth or are you letting others get into your head and instill their thoughts, their prejudices, their biases as it pertains to you being bi-racial?”

from Shelby Courtland

Yeah, I still struggle with these issues, but I do appreciate you checking up on me. It definitely shows with some of my poems and some of the news stories that touched a nerve with me whether it’s racial issues or when I did that infamous rant against a certain movie last year. One of my weaknesses is that I can care too much about what others think of me. It’s NOWHERE near as bad as when I was younger, but it still slips in from time to time.

This blog has certainly helped with self-reflection and catharsis. I am slowly rebuilding that self-worth that was diminished after dealing with bullies and people getting away with their abusive behaviors even when I would call them out. There are times where I wished I was more aware about subtle forms of derogation like projection, dog whistles, or low-key insults when I was much younger (I guess taking a psych class might have helped for some of that in hindsight). Speaking as someone who is biracial, I did get my wake-up call years ago about how those who are mixed tend to be treated whether they have a white parent or not. Knowing about that reality certainly allowed me to do my own research about things I wasn’t taught (various historical events mainly like Black Wall Street being a major one for me then). At the same time, I’ve had a bad habit of having to prove my humanity, competency, and authenticity to anyone regardless of my ethnic background whether online or offline. I’m not singling anyone out because I’ve sadly had that mindset with anyone I communicate with. Getting rid of these prejudices, biases, or even assumptions out of my head has been quite the task. Hopefully, this answers your question.

“If you could witness the writing of a poetry collection (or novel), whose would it be, and why?”

from Ashley Capes

If I had to witness the creation of such books, I would’ve liked to have been there to have seen the process of the Circle trilogy from Ted Dekker (I read all the books years ago) or if I were to cheat with manga, I’d say Hikaru no Go. Wow, I sound like such a stan with the second example.

Thank you so much for your questions. I still have something else planned for this milestone!

I got the Vincent Ehindero Award!

Sorry for the nearly 2 month wait, but I was nominated for the Vincent Ehindero Blogger Award from Dr. Y! Thank you so much! You have an amazing blog and I’m honored to receive this award. This is a new award I’ve never seen or been nominated for, so this was very cool.

Here are the rules:

-Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

-Post the award logo.

-Post the rules.

-Nominate up to 20-30 other bloggers and notify them.

-Notify Vincent of your nomination, via comment.

-After notifying Vincent, he’ll check out your blog, follow and give you your unique award for the good work on your blog.

-I’m not sure if we are supposed to have some questions for the nominees, but I’ll make some for them.

1. Do you have long or short hair?
Long hair, currently. Weirdly enough, my hair was short this time last year after donating 13 inches to Wigs For Kids.

2. Fantasy or Historic Fiction?
Fantasy. I certainly write a lot of it with my Revezia series and [spoilers minimized] some parts of the Hollanduscosm.

3. What book do you like a lot, but you dislike the author, because of background, etc.
I really can’t think of any at the moment.

4. Have you ever watched a movie that was better than the story that it was based on?
I guess Persepolis was slightly better as a movie, but the original graphic novels are totally worth reading, too. To be fair, Marjane Satrapi worked on both versions.

5. If you could visit one place in the world right now where would it be?
As a geography nerd, I find this to be a very difficult question. Hahaha! The only place I’ve visited outside of America is Ecuador so far. I guess one place among several that I would really like to visit is Rwanda. I’ve been seeing how beautiful and amazingly clean Kigali is, it’s very modern, stable, and there’s a lot of tourist attractions I never expected in that country.

Here are my questions for my nominees:

1. If you could get one singer, band, or composer to score a movie based on your life, who would it be?

2. Which three countries would you like to visit that you have never been to before?

3. What is one thing you wish you could do right now if COVID-19 didn’t happen?

4. Describe how you feel at the moment when you post this award post in a haiku form.

5. Which fictional character would you want to hang out with for an entire day? What things would you do? What conversations would you have?

Here are my nominees:

1. Irina
2. Merlin
3. Scarlettiger
4. Never Argue With a Fish
5. Angela Grant
6. K At the Movies
7. T Crow
8. Another Anime Review
9. Kielder Ospreys
10. H. M. Gautsch

 

Things I Learned from Disney Movies (or How Jaded I’ve Become with Reality and Adulthood)

WARNING: The following poem is scathing in it’s honesty and has elements of caustic sarcasm in it. I’m normally a literal person, but the rare times when I get sarcastic, I’m merciless with it. Don’t expect me to hold back and not just because I’m not a fan of this company.

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The Happiest Place on Earth was all a lie in hindsight.
I certainly wanted to be happy and joyful, yet I was never meant to have that kind of positivity. I could die not visiting those castles in Orlando and Anaheim, and I’d be okay with this (Sure, I’ve been to Orlando, but I never went to THAT place).

There were things I learned, but I never realized some of these things until I was in my teens or even as an adult.

I learned that beauty always equals goodness because ugly people are worthless at best or evil at worst.

I learned that happy endings come to those who don’t work hard or work smart. Well, only for certain people, that is.

I learned that originality is a sin, so it’s better to adapt, buy the rights to something or outright plagiarize someone else’s work.

I learned that princes don’t look like me.

I learned that true love is the only things that matters.

I learned that if you’re female, then you better be a size 2 at worst. Being very emaciated or obese is tantamount to being evil for those lacking a Y chromosome.

I learned that wishing is the best way to get what you want. Well, only for certain people.

I learned that fantasy is more important than reality.

I learned that you can sing your cares away because nothing EVER bad happens in musicals (Bjork reference!).

I learned that Africa is more appealing to the animators when there are no humans who look like they are from the continent. It’s a lascivious fantasy for both furries and open racists. Yeah, I said it!

I learned that stories should be recycled for that cash flow.

I learned that poverty and homelessness aren’t really THAT bad especially if you’re a stray animal.

I learned that cultural appropriation and racial degradation is the name of the game although the Polynesian community managed to be taken respectfully though.

I learned that you can’t be a hero unless you have at least one dead parent. I guess broken home lives are better for them?

I learned that life isn’t like the movies and I wished more people would notice this. Not everyone will have the same experience and some are targets of ridicule. I pity those edified by a mouse.

My friend Jeannette’s Character Study on Reki from Haibane Renmei

https://jeannettejonic.blogspot.com/2018/12/character-study-reki-from-haibane-renmei.html?showComment=1544841523065#c2041517840176548783

I haven’t cross-promoted many posts recently, but I want to post an article from my friend Jeannette Jonic. She’s an author who also blogs about various media such as movies and anime. I recently got her into Haibane Renmei which is one of my favorite anime series of all time, and she enjoyed it. Jeannette did an article covering the characterization of Reki (one of the main characters) and it was amazing. Reki was a character I found to be very relatable especially when I re-watched it a while ago.

I’m sure all my anime fan friends would appreciate this article that she wrote.