@dandock
Writer at Crunchyroll, Polygon, WIRED, Vulture, GamesRadar, Inverse, Pokemon, Paste Magazine and other places / Rep'd by Aevitas Creative / Author of Monster Kids: How Pokémon Taught A Generation To Catch Them All / Picked Charmander
Heading into the next part of #iamthenightclub with "On Leather Wings."
It's cool how much the BTAS opening exemplifies the show, not just in an aesthetic sense but a narrative one, too. It can be seen as a full movie. By the time you finish it, you "get" Batman. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmU...
me and the other scheming viziers are wearing shoes gifted to us by the king that are way too big. we look ridiculous. the whole court is laughing at us behind our backs. honestly this is a pretty low point for us, the scheming viziers
Excited for my first academic text to be "American History Through Weird Al"
I don't know! We used to be a country that MADE things.
Weird Al is such a fantastic cultural barometer. An archive of pop culture zeitgeists and songs about lunch
Who are the major musical acts at the time? What do their music videos look like? What movies have saturated our collective consciousness? What is everyone referencing or bewildered by? What celebrities are particularly recognizable? What are people eating?
Weird Al, y'all
If you are attempting to dissect cultural trends between the 80s and today, I would argue that one of the most comprehensive resources you can find is the discography of "Weird Al" Yankovic
as a jrpg fan, my primary interests in video games are raising and lowering sewer gates, such as to manipulate the water level
I had two of these! The first, I got for Christmas and the slime didn't last very long before it collected every speck of dirt that it accidentally came in contact with. The second, I bought at a yard sale in a big haul of (mostly intact) SW toys.
Yes!
I like the 4Kids opening. It's a power ballad. But it and this opening are night and day and that's a testament to 4Kids' treatment of music as a whole - they wanted it to be more akin to how music is often treated in American kids cartoons. Punchier and bigger.
But one of the reasons that I have such an affinity for the "Indigo League" portion of the anime is that there's such an intense curiosity in the idea that, even without Pokémon, the adventure and the world are fascinating on their own merits. Nature is something to get lost in.
Very few of the openings harness this kind of atmosphere. Mostly because the anime is a pillar in a massive franchise that's trying to introduce you to an eternally escalating cast of friend-pet-warrior critters. There's little time to slow down and enjoy what is essentially one long camping trip.
The original Japanese opening for Pokémon is great, not only because it's catchy and shows off a lot of marketing-ready monsters, but because it gives the world a sense of real scale. It focuses on the fact that you're just a ten-year-old kid on an incomparably huge journey.
The key to Darkwing Duck is that while it's a parody of superheroes and pulp fiction and noir, it also really stands on its own. It's a fun watch even if you don't care for the references.
Anyway, that's it for #iamthenightclub now. Next up it's X-Men and "Night of the Sentinels"
"On Leather Wings" is everything - detective story, superhero caper, monster movie. A truly perfect first episode.
I interviewed episode director Kevin Altieri for the book, and one of his favorite memories was screening this episode at a convention back in 1992 and the way the audience jumped when Batman suddenly smacked against the side of the blimp.
I spoke a few weeks ago about the fact that a few horror writers have reached out about my book, and when you watch BTAS, you get how it could be a breeding ground for an interest in horror.
"It's in ME, Batman" is such a fantastic moment.
An underrated bit in this episode is the way the lab equipment warps Langstrom's features to foreshadow the fact that he's about to transform into a monster.
I love cartoons so much
I adore the framing here and how it accentuates the characters. Bullock, throwing his weight around, is often in fuller view. Gordon, the conflicted moral centerpieces, gets a close-up. Mayor Hill, aloofly mediating, gets a medium shot. And Dent remains both mysterious and ultimately powerful.
I really need to get you a copy of my book. I'll DM you about it.
We rarely talk about lighting in cartoons and that's a shame. Because BTAS is such a beautiful example of playing shadow against light. In the series, light doesn't just appear. It pierces. It's the only weapon the city has against the dark. It's kinda why the city needs a Batman.
Heading into the next part of #iamthenightclub with "On Leather Wings."
It's cool how much the BTAS opening exemplifies the show, not just in an aesthetic sense but a narrative one, too. It can be seen as a full movie. By the time you finish it, you "get" Batman. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrmU...
Luke and Leia
Threepio
Chewie and Han
Vader
Absolutely LIVING for these Russ Manning-drawn teaser ads for the Star Wars newspaper strip
I got to ask some questions to AiNA THE END about her favorite anime, her approach to music, and what it was like to create an opening theme for DAN DA DAN: www.crunchyroll.com/news/intervi...
I wrote about One Piece: Into the Grand Line and what it means to adapt a story that has only gotten more detailed since it was originally told: www.crunchyroll.com/news/feature...
I need to look it up
