Two More Shows
Adventure time has gotten really weird lately.
I mean, okay, it’s kind of always been weird. That’s kind of its deal. But I just realized that I’m, like, twenty episodes behind and in serious need of some catching up. And when I say weird, I’m probably just having a delayed reaction to the most recent Lemongrab episode, Too Old, which I found… odd isn’t a strong enough word.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Earl of Lemongrab, and you have little interest in the show… go YouTube some Lemongrab. He’s weird. (PUT YOU IN MY OVEN!)
Here’s an example.
Yeah. Weird.
But the thing that really sunk home to me was in the most recent two episodes of the series – Fire and Frost, and…well, okay…Too Old. (Which was WEIRD.)
And the thing that bothers me is that I saw Finn doing something that was in-character for him, but was also kind of the wrong thing to do. And in doing it, he damaged a romantic relationship with someone he cared about. He also tried to kindle a new romantic relationship with someone who had already turned him down. It was painful to watch him go through that, because I remember doing things like that when I was trying to figure out dating and how to behave appropriately to young ladies, and all of that.
Everyone goes through a phase at something that they want to be better at where they are Not Good at it. I’ve heard it said that you have to go through stupid to get to smooth. But, man, stupid can be hard to look at. Especially when you’ve been there and done that.
This is maybe one of the many reasons that I don’t enjoy many current sitcoms. They rely on people doing really dumb things which I know are going to wind up being horribly embarrassing. It would cause any sane person not a small amount of emotional trauma, and it seems cruel to put a character through that. I wind up having to leave the room a lot when something like that is on the tv. Seriously, it’s almost physically painful to watch.
And that’s what happened with Adventure Time for the last two episodes. I’m totally hoping that Finn gets it together. I like that character a lot. (Same with Jake.)
I’ve started a new anime series as well, thanks to Crunchyroll. It’s called “The World God Only Knows, and it involves guys who are really into video games, loose souls, female death goddesses, and a bunch of other anime tropes that go into a series like this which is showing the signs of becoming a harem show.
Harem show. Tenchi Muyo is the quintessential example of this. A number of women all become interested in a guy. They all wind up living in close proximity and are thrown together in all kinds of adventures. Sometimes, those adventures involve space. And the guy winds up never really picking one of the girls.
This one has a twist. The protagonist, (whose name escapes me) is under contract to help the death goddess (shinigami in the lingo, in this case protrayed as an attractive young woman) collect “loose souls” which have escaped hell and have attached themselves to people in a parasitic manner. And the way to get them out? Have the person who’s been afflicted confess their love to the protagonist. Which he’s okay at doing, because he’s a video game expert in the ancient and studied art of the Japanese Date Simulator Game. He lands an authentic kiss on the young woman (one where she cares about him and kisses him back), and the heart of the young maiden is so filled with emotion that the loose soul is ejected and the death goddess can capture it.
And each of the young women, upon the loose soul leaving them, loses her memory of falling in love with the protagonist. The protagonist, however, does not lose his memory of getting them to fall in love with him.
It’s going to be interesting to watch how this develops, as they’re just starting to hint at the impact this is going to have on the guy.
And so long as they keep everything at least PG-13, I’ll keep on going with it.
I have set a goal of blogging at least 500 words a day for 40 consecutive days. (Sundays excepted) This is day three. I will see you here again tomorrow.
