Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

[01] -- Go to IMDB.com and look up 10 of your TV shows.
[02] -- Post three official IMDB "Plot Keywords" for [each of] these picks.
[03] -- Have your friends guess the show names [preferably without looking them up].

It doesn't say what it means by "your TV shows," so I just randomly picked a bunch that I like and that had enough keywords.

1. Acronym in Title; Place Name in Title; Spin Off
2. Babe Scientist; Deoxyribonucleic Acid; Divorcé (guessed by blitzcon below)
3. Bleeped Dialogue; Explosion; Segway (arifyn)
4. Brother in Law Sister in Law Relationship; Evil Capitalist; Smartest Person (blitzcon)
5. Cyborg; Epic; Sword Fight
6. Disembodied Head; Pneumatic Tube; Tank Top (arifyn)
7. Docket Number; Female Boss; Twist in the End
8. End of Mankind; No Cast of Characters in Credits; Post Apocalyptic
9. Evil Brother; Impulse Engines; Positronic Brain (mizuno_youko)
10. Gadget; Insurance Investigator; One Word Title

I managed to get up early enough to leave in the early afternoon. Google Maps suggested a direct route, but Mother suggested a longer one using freeways. I decided to try the former on the way down and the latter on the way back. Navigating was particularly difficult for someone who has only once been allowed to travel outside of town in the last nine years. (Mother did give me permission to do a bit of practice before that time, but it didn't fit my schedule.)

On the leg of the trip with my brother, talking about D&D got sidetracked into my social problems. He gave me a lot of advice, of which the gist seemed to be that people will do horrible things all the time, so I just have to put up with it and be friends with them. It's good to have someone with whom I can talk about these things (as I don't have any friends, and I can't talk with the people at work or gaming), but I think the fact that he doesn't know me is a handicap. He probably hasn't heard about my major psychoses, and he seems to think that I'm able to function like a human being.

When I asked whether he keeps his A/C set on "circulate" for the same reason I do, he said that tobacco smoke in small amounts is actually beneficial to one's health, as it inures the body to its effects. This didn't turn up in my cursory research on the topic. I can understand how difficulty breathing could strengthen the lungs and make them more resistant to emphysema, but it seems odd that one would be able to develop antibodies against carcinogens. Even if so, I still feel that poisoning others for the sole purpose of poisoning yourself is not validated by a side effect. It's like coughing on people when you're sick and saying it helps as a vaccination.

We arrived at our destination in the evening, so our father allowed us our freedom for the moment. Other than watching a bit of Happy Feet and some other stuff, one other incident was that Daniel complained about my snoring, which shook up my perception that it was safe to spend time with him. He also said that it was unhealthy of me to use two pillows.

I remembered the reading I had to do, but I still seemed extremely sleepy for a number of hours after I got up, and I thought up two new short ideas, so I ended up taking until evening to get that done.

As I had also determined that I wouldn't turn on the TV until I did that, I did very little this short day. Other than playing MARIO KART DS (boo Americanized) to try to wake up, I just got in a few hours of TV in the evening. I didn't realize that the episode was new, or why they didn't manage to get Javier and instead had someone with a more obvious accent (as the one in the original movie was noted to be intended to be unidentifiable). They always seem to be able to get people (except politicians) to voice themselves, but I'm not sure about their track record on actors who play existing characters.

Art of War one-upped BATTLES BC in goofy choreography as it not only had the featured general dual-wield (as did Hannibal, Joshua, Caesar, Jadis, Oreius, and the two main Gaulish warlords) but also armored soldiers jumping up and down and spinning around. I even saw one of them cartwheeling in the middle of a mêlée. I'd also been interested in watching another show (as I was inspired by a campaign to put Project Umbra in such a setting), but it never fit my schedule until then.

As I told jubatus, this is a lot easier than actually writing stuff. Of course, I've taken a little time to correct things. . . . Still, I'm not bothering to worry about the fact that only a few of the changed titles are listed as such, and application of years is arbitrary.

- X what you've seen
- O what you've started but haven't finished
- Italicize what you haven't seen since you were in elementary school [This one may be a bit off.]
- Leave unchanged if neutral [?]

Classic Disney
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942)
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941)
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[X] Mary Poppins (1964)
[X] Peter Pan (1953)
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[X] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[?] Song of the South (1946)

Disney's Dark Age
[?] The Aristocats (1970)
[X] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[X] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[?] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986)
[X] Pete's Dragon (1977)
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973)
[X] The Sword in the Stone (1963)

The Disney Renaissance
[X] Aladdin (1992)
[X] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[X] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[X] Hercules (1997)
[ ] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[X] The Lion King (1994)
[X] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[X] Mulan (1998)
[X] Pocahontas (1995)
[X] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[X] Tarzan (1999)

Disney's Modern Age
[X] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[X] Bolt (2008) (last week)
[ ] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[ ] Dinosaur (2000)
[ ] The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[X] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002)

Pixar
[X] A Bug's Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[ ] Finding Nemo (2003)
[X] The Incredibles (2004)
[X] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[ ] Ratatouille (2007)
[X] Toy Story (1995)
[ ] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[X] Wall-E (2008)

Don Bluth
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[X] An American Tail (1986)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[X] The Land before Time (1988) (the eight million sequels don't count)
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[X] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[X] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

Claymation
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[X] Chicken Run (2000)
[X] Corpse Bride (2005)
[?] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[X] Nightmare before Christmas, The (1993)
[X] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[ ] Flushed Away (2006)
[ ] Coraline (2009)

CGI Glut
[X] Antz (1998)
[ ] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[ ] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[ ] The Polar Express
[ ] Robots
[X] Shrek (2001)
[ ] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek the Third

Imports
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[X] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years
[ ] The Plague Dogs
[ ] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz with Bashir (2008)
[ ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki
[X] Grave of the Fireflies
[ ] Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[ ] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[X] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[X] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors the Yamadas
[X] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War)
[X] Porco Rosso (1992)
[X] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[ ] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] The Cat Returns
[ ] Whisper of the Heart

Satoshi Kon
[X] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
[ ] Memories - "Magnetic Rose" (1995)

Shinkai Makoto
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[X] Voices of a Distant Star (2001) [Only the self-voiced audio track]
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

Other Ănĭme Films
[X] Adolescence of Utena
[X] Akira (1989)
[ ] Appleseed
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina
[X] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate)
[X] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[X] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden
[X] End of Evangelion
[ ] Fist of the North Star
[ ] Galaxy Express
[X] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[ ] The Girl who Leapt through Time
[X] Lensman
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids)
[ ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo
[?] Ninja Scroll
[ ] Patlabor the Movie
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13
[X] Project A-ko
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle
[ ] Silent Mobius
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra
[ ] Steamboy (2004)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie
[X] Vampire Hunter D
[X] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force

Cartoons for Grown-Ups
[ ] American Pop
[O] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World
[X] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[X] Final Fantasy: Advent Children
[ ] Fire & Ice
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Looking
[ ] Lady Death
[ ] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (AKA - Coonskin)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

Other Animated Movies I Can't Categorize
[X] Animal Farm
[ ] Animalympics
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[X] Batman and the Mask of Phantasm
[X] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie
[?] Care Bears: The Movie
[X] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[X] Fern Gully
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie
[?] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords
[O] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword
[X] The Hobbit
[O] The Iron Giant (1999) (Yes, I know. Shut up)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier
[X] Lord of the Rings
[X] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[?] My Little Pony: The Movie
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[ ] The Prince of Egypt (1998) [Did see a music video made from it in class, though]
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell
[ ] The Road to El Dorado (2000)
[ ] Rock & Rule
[X] Space Jam
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
[ ] Superman: Doomsday
[ ] The Swan Princess
[X] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman

What I've learned from this:

1. I've actually seen some movies he hasn't.

2. Apparently CGI is not Ănĭme. Or is it because they've had theatrical releases in places other than Japan?

3. Only two of the animated Tolkien films qualify. The other one was made for TV.

4. I still haven't bothered to watch my copy of Toki o Kakeru Shōjo. My fixer has noted Sora o~, but this part may be news to her?.

1. The Fantastic Four and the four charter members of the Incredibles (who have a name worthy of a MARVEL comic—in fact, one of them is incredible, to go with the amazing, uncanny, and so on) each have an odd man out. Who are these two?

2. Of the numerous one-time regulars on LAW & ORDER, which actor was played by Harvey Keitel?

It's that time* again. Does anyone want anything? This one should ship around 2009.01.18 and take about a week to get to me.

*I have a lot of ranting to do about limited editions, but it turns out that they're making things even worse for me: the due date for buying last S's issue of SayuriHime was before the main mook was released, so I couldn't have gotten it unless I made a completely separate order. Since I don't have a home, I can hardly even justify one order per quarter, much less two or three (since the new mook doesn't seem to want to compete with either existing one). I really don't understand why people are willing to put the work into drawing comics that so few people will ever get a chance to read. They should at least put them in the compilations—which is another problem altogether.

blitzcon stopped by last weekend for the Feast, which gave me an excuse to watch a reasonable amount of video for the first time in a number of months, even though there were plenty of people there making fun of me. In case you actually want to get me to post about some of them, here are your choices (I'm sure he'll point out if I've forgotten any; it was a bit haphazard due to using a random computer without proper codecs):

「Candy☆Boy」 0–2
「チョコミミ」/Choko-Mimi 1
「恋姫†無双」/Koi-Hime†Musō 1
「スレイヤーズR」/Slayers R 1–3

Of course, all (except the one I've only downloaded for nostalgia) are already reviewed on Yuri na Hi-Bi, so the only two people who may give a damn can just read those ones.

A recent few that I haven't noted:

1. I thought of a nifty conversion for the Ork Warboss from Black Reach (not BLEACH Rack) that I bought on impulse. It's too bad it was a dream, because I like nifty conversions, and at present I don't know of any real use for that miniature. Still, it is nice that they allow me to buy things that aren't normally available without buying a bunch of other stuff that I don't want, particularly now that the source has cracked down on such practices.

2. Ms. Sōryū and Shinji had finished a fight, so they decided to take a shower in a nearby waterfall. (Yeah, I imagine that L.C.L stuff is pretty unpleasant. Then again, I don't even like water.) Ms. Sōryū ended up falling asleep before getting dressed, so Shinji tried to kiss her. Fortunately, he was interrupted by their mascot chara, who appeared to be an unidentified creature from somewhere in Class Carnivora. This mascot was similar to a figurine of wondrous power, except that its figurine form was the same size as its living form and was mutable. In this case, it did its job by transforming into a loud gramophone. The shower scene may have come from the fact that I had just decided to use such neta in one of my shorts, but why did I have to throw in a bloody man? At least his conduct was less repulsive than the scenes where Ms. Sōryū was sleeping at the beginning and end of END. (Speaking of which, I'm still not sure whether END was one movie or two like GRAY SIDE and BLUE SIDE, as it's from back when I had no reliable sources.) Sadly, from a series like Eva, it doesn't seem too far out of character for her to strip in front of him even when she's awake.

3. In the first episode (probably of CSI: MIAMI or some such, judging by the content and continuity), the husband got kicked out of the mansion. In the sequel, he decided to infiltrate and rob it. This was probably inspired by an episode from Sunday, but I don't remember much, including whether or not it was actually after I watched it. . . .

4. As Tony Stark (not Tony Stark), I was a member of an élite team of commandos, their MVP due to the fact that I was the only one who could hover and fire highly miniaturized explosives, which I used to effect during a skirmish in an abandoned factory. Unfortunately, when dealing with non-laser-sword diplomacy, continuity errors ensued, as I couldn't remember whether my mask retracted to the front (as with the knights of the Northlands in Project Artificer) or rear.

The subject line is another plug for my constantly expanding line of shorts (on which I'll comment further in another post). The theme for the titles is somewhat troublesome due to the fixed number of choices.

I may not have mentioned to some of you that if I ever evolve to more machine than man, I want longer legs and a mask that makes me sound like James Earl Jones (or at least James Earl Hyneman).

I bring this up as a pre-tangent (?) to a reminder that the line "Luke, I am your father" is a myth; it does not appear anywhere in STAR WARS. It was fabricated by combining other lines to make something that sounds better out of context. However, I had forgotten that Darth Vader did speak the line once. However, despite the fact that Jones had appeared on the show before that, apparently he was only parodied here.

In other news, he sure doesn't look like he's in his 70s. In one episode, Gen. Lee used the fact that the other Jamie didn't seem to age as much as his cohort as support for the ongoing rumor that he's also more machine than man. Or maybe he's just a master of Hiten Mitsurugi-ryū.

Another observation: I can get actual discussion if I post something completely incomprehensible.

As a follow-up, Gordman's later printed a male version. It shows more skin proportionally, but due to the double standard, this one would be allowed to go out in public if his pants weren't plaid (since I believe underwear is considered a separate category regardless of its opacity).

Of course, the link I give only shows the most current one, so you'll have to look quickly (or find me a better link) if you want the visual aid to this paragraph. It proves what I'd always suspected: that ladies' (and Japanese dead people's) clothing costs a lot more than men's (and Japanese living people's). (Speaking of which, that reminded me to check another thing to deal with the incomprehensible settei in BLEACH: apparently shini-gami are alive.) That's the law of supply and demand for you.

The other night, I noticed that I had a tennen tate-roll (just one, on the right). This reminded me, I don't know where the stereotype that such a 'do is sported by rich ladies (as exemplified by the source for the subject line, which applies just as well to me as to Ms. Azumano; also includes three-point ellipses, which are somewhat half-assed according to the Yuri Dōjō in a recent issue) originated. The only support that comes to mind is Ms. Daitokuji from PROJECT "A" KO, which was itself a parody (in her case, of a character from the original Macross, if memory serves; I never saw it anyway).

Closer to my heart is the much more commonly obvious trope of the character with a lot of melanin in the skin but not in the hair. (I call it a trope because it doesn't seem to appear in real life, except where darker hair has gone gray/white or has been artificially changed. I've never encountered any accounts of such localized albinism. It's probably also popular because of the abstraction needed to differentiate characters when all but one human race in the real world seem to have the-same-colored hair, a point that the Japanese unsurprisingly have a tradition of stylistically avoiding. Incidentally, I also have found myself unable to find reference information about races' physical characteristics on Wikipedia, which makes it difficult for me to check the authenticity of my work. On example that I don't plan to use but that has bothered me for a while: I don't recall having ever seen a man of American descent with facial hair. Is this genetic or cultural?) As far back in time as I've traced it (through idle thought, not actual research, as I don't know any good places to look for such information on Japanese media), there are two main possibilities:

1. Ms. "Storm" Munroe of Ame-comi fame. As Watsuki's liner notes often illustrate, these are well known in Japan (although not enough that she influenced him to use a similar character design in Ruro-Ken, even though, despite the fact that all but five of the characters in the 28 books are native Japanese, he goes quite far in variety, including at least a 1,000% range in height of grown men; maybe he was just too lazy to cut all that tone). Unless we can find someone way back there who was so direct about his influences, it would be pretty impossible to pin this one down.

2. The Dark Elves from Lodoss-tō Senki (an island whose name, despite the official Romanization, is spelled exactly the same as "Rhodes"). In case you were living under a rock in the '80s as I was, this series was a thinly veiled retelling of a Basic D&D campaign, as illustrated by the fact that the starting lineup consisted of six of the seven classes from the original "blue box" (excluding only the one that was stolen entirely from Tolkien's creation). Even back in those days, there was already the policy that the dark-skinned subraces of the good peoples are the evil ones, but D&D avoided some flak by saying the drow were actually black-skinned, not a human skin tone. Whether it's because they hadn't made that point yet or because of creative differences, that safety was not present in Lodoss, so (other than the being evil part) it translates just fine to humans in versions of the real world. This one could be easily confirmed or denied by asking someone who's actually watched the major Japanese animation and read Japanese comics from before that whether or not there were any examples then, but I don't think I know any such person.

By the way, in one of the extra stories from Sapphism, Ms. Lee (Ley?) tries to talk Ms. Yang down by telling her that her loss would devastate all the dark-skin fetishists. Of the examples given, I recognized only Akamatsu (no doubt due to my lack of attention to mainstream stuff), but all were called "-Sensei," so I imagine the other two are of the same ilk. But from what I've read of Akamatsu's, he's less so than I am: no major character in his first work, one who starts ranking at fifth-most-important then is displaced further by new ones in his second. As if it's not maniac enough already, my taste is mostly restricted to the illustrated versions, as in real life I'm more narcissistic, preferring my own two races (now that I've been out of high school long enough to break down my prejudice against non-white blood). I feel as if I don't much like real-world African features, which is a hell of a generalization considering that they're thought to be the oldest and thus now most diverse human race. (The aforementioned Ms. Munroe looks good, particularly with the 'do in the third movie.) I don't seem to have any such preconception about ladies of South Asian or American descent, probably because I don't see as much of them in American TV and movies.

In terms of more general tropes, is there some name for the one where the hero thinks up a clever plan but keeps it a secret from his friends in order to maintain audience suspense? I'd look around on the eponymous wiki, but from what I've seen it just seems to be a bunch of people typing whatever they feel like typing, so I'm not bothering to learn how to find things there.

Some other points about "Spaghetti Western（仮）" that I neglected to mention:

*Although I'm told that "Hispanic" is technically not a race but an ethnic group that includes both blacks and whites, I plan to make them all a tan tone to emphasize the difference from the outsider protagonist. For the same reason, I'm also tempted to have them speak Kansai dialect (mostly because of the "sai"), in which I'm even less fluent than standard. It might be more logical to give them stereotypical rural accents (using the copula verb "da" after verbs and adjectives and the emphasis particle "be"), but that always annoys me because it sounds like bad grammar.

*Also, since it's set in a Spanish-speaking area, I can hardly resist using the first-person pronoun 「予」 ("yo"). Unfortunately, I only know one character who uses it, so I don't have much on which to base the speech patterns. (He's an emperor, so it may not even be appropriate for anyone in the setting.) I've commented before on all the new first-person pronouns I encountered when I first read that series, but I never saw any of them again, except the one that's used by two characters therein, which turned out to be all over the place.

As you may have noticed, I made a tag and a database for my shorts.

Expanding on my comments on the first one, I'm not sure why I claimed that I would learn better, as that doesn't seem plausible. Also, I likely misremembered the character limit. In yuri shimai (which I've been rereading for other stuff), at least, it was far dinkier than 400. I may just end up posting all my comments on the Web and just say 「こちらではスペースが足りませんので、下のURLへどうぞ」 or some such.

Meanwhile, the fact that I've been using plurals should tell you that I've thought of another one, even if you can't access the database. I just thought I might make a spaghetti Western for the hell of it, and it happened to be in relation to the YuriHime Bumon that I thought up an actual story for that genre. (At this rate, I oughta call it "Project Ichijinsha Taishō" or something.) Of course, I've barely even seen any Westerns (probably less than the number of space Westerns), and I'd require a hell of a lot of research to make it historically accurate. This is also my only chance to use 19th-century firearms, so the ideas I can only use there bring more clutter to the plot.

Incidentally, it's interesting that Clint's famous line is not actually from a Western, just from a character who acts like he's in one. It doesn't seem to be listed on Wikiquote, but as you can see here, the line is completely changed in Japanese. Fortunately, I was planning on wording the official translations to convey my messages and to sound good, not to be exact translations of the English (or vice versa).

Also, it occurred to me that even Project AnthraXX has much more focus on male characters than anything published in YuriHime Comics (unless you count the one with the transsexual), so maybe that wouldn't be such a good place for it either. Maddie's Maids might work, but considering it takes place after the events of AnthraXX, there's no need to be thinking much on that anytime soon.