RJ Writing Ink

South Park and Christmas

Howdy-ho, people! It’s time for another 25 days of Christmas. Since South Park will be wrapping up its 22nd season, I thought it would be appropriate to cover one of their Christmas specials.

More than any other show on TV, South Park has a strong connection to Christmas. The whole reason the show even exists is that Matt Stone and Trey Parker made a short film in their college days called “The Spirit of Christmas” that parodied Frosty the Snowman

Then that Executive from Fox asked them to make a sequel for a video Christmas Card called “Jesus vs. Santa”

The rest is history. Rather than argue about which South Park Christmas Special was the best, I’m skipping that and going with the one I loved the most: Woodland Critter Christmas

A Twisted Woodland Critter Christmas

This is one of the funniest and most original Christmas Specials I have ever seen, and I love every minute of it! It starts off like a simple Rankin/Bass special, with a bunch of cute little animals who “befriend” Stan Marsh and get him to kill the mountain lion that keeps eating the chosen mother of their savior. 

Since it’s South Park, though, nothing is ever that simple. The writers make everyone feel bad when it’s revealed the lion had three cubs. But then they pulled a plot twist on us by revealing the critters are Satanists giving birth to the Anti-Christ! I wasn’t sure if I should be laughing or just saying “Stan, dude, you f***d up big time”.

So even though Stan just wants to forget about everything, the Narrator forces him to go back and stop the critters. That goes about as well as you think, so he has to take the lion cubs to learn abortions so they can kill the Anti-Christ.

Oh, and the critters kidnap Kyle to use him as a vessel for the Anti-Christ.

So the Anti-Christ is born, and now the only one able to stop the madness is Santa, who rides in on his sleigh with a shotgun and kills them all, only for Kyle to let himself be possessed. PLOT TWIST!

Cartman’s Story

The best part, though, is when it’s revealed that everything that’s happened was part of a story Cartman made for class. Kyle tries to stop it, but everyone wants to know what happens next. If I were his teacher, I know I would be curious myself. This was a good story. It also explains why there is another son of the devil. Damian hasn’t been seen since Season 1, but he’s still there. Also, the Satan in South Park can be a chill guy.

So the Mountain Lions abort the Anti-Christ, though how, I don’t know. All that matters is that it’s dead. And as a reward for Stan, Santa uses his magic to bring back the mountain lion mom. 

I have been a fan of South Park for years, and I always look forward to seeing what they make fun of each week. I especially love their holiday specials, and this was one of their best ones ever. After this, there was nearly a ten year gap in Christmas Specials for South Park, so if this was going to have been their final one, they went out with a bang. It’s a great parody of Christmas Specials, though of what, I don’t know.

Who cares? Cartman probably got an A+, Christmas was saved, and everyone lived happily ever after… except for Kyle, who died of AIDS two weeks later. I knew Cartman would jab at Kyle. MERRY WOODLAND CRITTER CHRISTMAS!

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Eden’s Zero Chapter 24 Review/Recap

Picking up right where we left off, Witch confirms our worst fears about Chronophage: 

• There’s no way to stop it.
• There’s no way of telling how many years it will eat.
• Depending on how much time is set back, anyone who wasn’t on a planet at that point will cease to exist.

The people of Guilst only have 60 minutes to get off, or they’ll die or be trapped there forever.

Planetside, while Jinn does show off some new tricks, it looks as though Shiki has him outmatched. The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Sister and Ganoff, who tell him to kill Illega and take everything he owns. But Illega seems to have fled amidst the commotion.

So, Shiki decides to just fight all three of them at once, because, why not? He’s a Shonen protagonist.

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile, Rebecca got her clothes back, so that’s a start. She and the other B-Cubers are looking for a way out, but one of them goes missing (I wonder if that has anything to do with Illega’s flight?) Despite Pino saying it would be inefficient to do so, Rebecca goes back to look for the missing B-Cuber (Copa, they said her name was?) 

Back at Rogue Out’s Church, Weisz and Homura continue their stand-off, until they both hear a noise coming from the basement. They head down to find a woman trapped in what I assume are cables meant to drain one’s Ether. The chapter then ends with Homura stating that the woman is none other than one of the Four Shining Stars of the Demon King, Sister Ivry.

This is merely a theory I am working with right now, but it might have some plausibility. The Sister that we see trapped in the basement is, in fact, the real one. The one who is leading Rogue Out could be an impostor or a duplicate. This is just speculation, though. Only time will tell if anything comes of it. That is, if the Chronophage doesn’t kill them all.

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Christmas can be just as big a holiday in Japan as it is in other parts of the world, but not for the reasons you would think. There are not that many Christians in Japan, so they don’t celebrate for the religious aspects. It’s celebrated more for the romantic aspect, decorating trees, and eating KFC. That is, in fact, a thing in Japan, thanks to a promotional campaign KFC did in the 1970s. 

After reading D&A Anime Blog’s post about anime Christmas Specials, I decided I wanted to do more myself. So I went online and found a Christmas episode for an anime I’ve been meaning to watch, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.

Here’s the synopsis first. This office worker named Kobayashi rescues this dragon from another dimension named Tohru, causing Tohru to fall in love with her. She (Tohru) then reveals she can turn into a human and starts living with Kobayashi as her maid. Then she gets joined by Tohru’s friend, Kanna, who is probably the winner for cutest anime character in 2017. It’s a cute slice-of-life anime, and the dub by Funimation is fairly good. If you like anime that are more laid-back and not as heavy on the action, I’d recommend it. Now onto the episode!

When one of Tohru’s friends from the town mall injures himself practicing for their annual Christmas Eve show at the local retirement home, she volunteers to put it on. So she gathers her friends, which include other dragons living on Earth, a young mage named Shouta, and Kanna’s classmate Saikawa who has a massive crush on her (as you can see in the above video at 1:50).

After trying to think up a bunch of ideas, they settle on a play of The Little Matchgirl. They try getting Shouta to dress as the matchgirl, but he’s too embarrassed. So they settle for Kanna, who is already cute enough (again as seen in the video)

We also get this cute little subplot during this whole thing. When Kanna gets worried they won’t be visited by Santa because they don’t have a chimney, Tohru…installs one for their apartment, right into Kanna’s room. That makes it hard for Kobayashi to give her her present without being caught. The struggle of every adult, I guess.

So Christmas Eve comes, and the play is performed, but it’s not the same as the story. The group ended taking some creative liberties with the story. The next thing I know, Shouta shows up as an old man selling straw hats (have to find out what story that’s from) and they turn into Magical Girls fighting alongside the 47 Ronin. That is literally what happens!

Fortunately, the elders love it, which is the whole point of the thing, so the play is a huge success. They then all head back to Kobayashi’s house for a Christmas Party, and the episode ends with Kobayashi and Tohru going for a ride in the night sky for Christmas. Well, the whole “Santa” thing happens after that, but that’s not the point. 

Overall, this was a nice Christmas episode. Like I said, Christmas isn’t as big a deal in Japan as it is to America, so there are not many anime Christmas specials. I loved this one, though, hilarity and all. Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a fun little slice of life.

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Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts!