RJ Writing Ink

Solar Opposites Valentine’s Day Special

I think Valentine’s Day is overrated. Growing up, it was (and still is) giving people you care about cards and candy. But you shouldn’t need a single day of the year to do something like that; you should try to show affection every day. And everyone makes such a big deal over getting a Valentine, like it’s the end of the world if you don’t. My favorite Valentine’s Day Special is “Ed Edd n’ Eddy’s Hanky Panky Hullabaloo.” Seeing Rolf snapping everyone out of the holiday-induced madness is fantastic! However, the Solar Opposites Valentine’s Day Special might be a close second.

Number three is the Spongebob special.

War on Valentine’s Day

The premise of the special is simple on paper: the Solar Opposites keep going to a restaurant to get their favorite dish, only to forget that it’s Valentine’s Day. That means a holiday-themed menu, which everyone (except Jesse) gets upset about. Their ultimate solution: eliminate love, and thus Valentine’s Day, from Earth altogether. 

This is the sort of thing that fans of Solar Opposites have come to expect from the series, and it doesn’t disappoint. The fact that they’re willing to get rid of love over the pettiest of reasons is enough to leave viewers in stitches. Their scheme of hitting the planet with an anti-love ray is taking the Valentine’s Day hate to its logical extreme. 

The special only gets stranger as things don’t pan out the way everyone expects. Instead of everyone being filled with hate or depressed or even apathetic, they do something weirder. Everyone starts drinking margaritas from tikis, listening to Jimmy Buffett, and buying parrots. It’s the kind of out-of-left-field result we should expect from Solar Opposites, but it is still unexpected and hilarious. That’s not even including the fact that the parrots later rise to overthrow humanity. 

It’s the kind of crazy, irreverent stuff we’ve come to expect from Solar Opposites, especially with its holiday specials. The difference is that this special ends in a way that will affect the status quo for Season Five. No spoilers, though!

Happy Valentine’s Day (or Not)

So, the big question is whether this special loves or hates Valentine’s Day? The answer is both. Like the other Solar Opposites specials, it makes fun of the holiday and everything that goes into it. At the same time, it doesn’t say that the holiday’s worthless, and I would have to agree. I may not be that big into Valentine’s Day, and I think it does put unecessary pressure on people to find romance. But there are other kinds of love, and ultimately, the other Solar Opposites come to see the value in the holiday. Plus, the end does include a tribute to the late Jimmy Buffett. 

So, whether you love the day or don’t care about, Happy Valentine’s Day!

“An Earth Shatteringly Romantic Solar Valentine’s Day Opposites Special” a 4.5/5

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Jay’s Month of Screams, Day 15- Costume Quest

The reason why I do this Halloween special a day is because I can’t contain my love for the holiday to one single day. I want to get as hyped as possible, hence the specials. After all these years, though, I have found a show dedicated entirely to the best aspects of the holiday. From the studio that brought you The Fairly Oddparents and Adventure Time, and based on the cult game of the same game, comes Costume Quest!

How I found Costume Quest

I was browsing on Twitter this morning, checking up on latest celebrity news. That’s when I saw this tweet from Daron Nefcy, the creator of Star vs. The Forces of Evil:

So I followed Daron’s suggestion and looked up the show on Amazon Prime. After that, I spent the whole day binge watching it. I also looked up the guy that Daron mentioned in her thread for the tweet.

As Co-Executive Producer for Costume Quest, Bryan Caselli has an impressive resume. He started out as an intern for another show that I love by the name of Regular Show. From there, he moved on to be a writer and storyboarder for the show Sanjay and Craig. After that, he became a storyboarder for Star vs the Forces of Evil. He even has a page on the show’s wiki!

As for the studio, Frederator is known for creating quality cartoons. They’ve had a long partnership with Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, creating some of their best shows. From The Fairly Oddparents and Adventure Time to their successful YouTube channel, they bring the goods. I couldn’t think of a reason not to watch Costume Quest.

Costume Quest’s Plot

I don’t want to ruin the surprise, so I’ll try and keep spoilers to a minimum.

The show takes place in the fictional town of Auburn Hollow, renowned for its supply of mineable nougat (yes it’s a thing). With Halloween coming up, four friends, Wren, her brother Reynold, Everett, and Lucy are shopping for costumes. That’s when they come across a junk shop run by a man named Norm, whose costumes have the power to transform them into what they’re dressed as. As cool as that is, they have a powerful secret connected to the town.

The kids learn that a hundred years ago, an army of powerful monsters, the Repugnians, came to Auburn Hollow from another dimension to steal its nougat. Nougat’s like a drug for them; when they eat it, they get jacked up and turn into super-monsters. They could have conquered the universe with that power, but a group of four kids with similar costumes drove them back. With the portal to Repugnia set to open again that Halloween Night, the remaining monsters are active once more, trying to steal the nougat. Therefore, it falls to Norm and the four kids to use their costumes and imaginations to stop the Repugnians before they can conquer the universe!

Everything I love about Halloween in one Show

Part of the reason why I ended up binge watching Costume Quest is because it includes a lot of the different aspects I love about Halloween. First and foremost, it takes something fun like Halloween costumes and turns into an imaginative concept. Seeing the kids transform into all manner of creature or fictional character is entertaining, because they become almost anything. They can even turn into inanimate objects like cars and work just like a real one would. It’s like Ben 10 meets the Power Rangers.

In addition, there’s the fact that the entire show takes place in October, when Halloween is on everyone’s mind. This means the Halloween fun is spread out over an entire month, leading up to a final, giant fight on Halloween night; with giant monsters. It’s like it was made for me!

Finally, there’s the fact that show revolves around protecting a candy. In the show, it’s treated like a combination valuable ore and super-drug. That can’t disguise the fact that it’s a candy, though, and that’s one of the most important and fun parts of Halloween! That, and scary monsters.

The Repugnians

Speaking of monsters, here are the villains, the Repugnians. They’re monsters that hide amongst the people of Auburn Hollow using ridiculously good costumes. It’s almost impossible to tell them apart from humans, hence why the kids can’t rely on anyone outside of Norm. When beaten, they turn into tiny monsters called Grubbins, but that’s about it. They can’t destroy them because it’s a kids show, and because people would notice if others went missing.

They’re led by Bob, a ruthless monster who has all the hallmarks of a villain. He’s ruthless, he’s calculating, and a terrible boss to his minions. Even without nougat, he’s still a dangerous enemy, and he knows how to use every advantage possible.

A Good Halloween Inspired Show

While it’s certainly not as scary as some other Halloween shows, Costume Quest is a good show. It’s well-written, the animation is appealing, and the level of creativity is plain for all to see. I couldn’t stop watching it! If you have Amazon Prime, then go watch it right now. The second half of the first season just came out last week. Until then, Happy Halloween!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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

Jay’s Month of Scares, Day 12 (Late)- South Park

I would like to apologize once more for missing my Halloween quota last night. Therefore, to make it up, I’m doing two for one tonight: a Halloween special and a movie! Let’s start off with a classic Halloween special, “Pinkeye” from the earliest days of South Park.

Patient Zero

It all started like how many classic South Park stories do, with Kenny dying a gruesome death. His body gets taken to the morgue, and through the power of South Park writing, his body gets pumped with Worcestershire sauce, turning him into a zombie. Zombie Kenny then proceeds to infect the entire town. Since most of the adults in the town are dumb, they believe the infection to be pinkeye.

I can see why the writers consistently portray the adults of South Park as dumb or immature. While I normally get annoyed by this level of ignorance, South Park wrote “Pinkeye” in a way that makes it so funny to watch. One minute people are walking down the street with zombies, then they get devoured.

The boys are completely oblivious to all this, though. It’s Halloween, so they’re focused on having the best costumes and candy. This was a fun subplot throughout the episode, though I was more focused on Cartman’s costumes then Stan’s misfortune of dressing up like Raggedy Andy. Cartman dressing up like Hitler is what I’d expect from him; his “ghost” costume was even worse though.

Zombies, South Park Style

However, I think the real humor comes from how it parodies the zombie film. Once the boys realize the danger they’re in, the episode turns into a full blown parody of the zombie apocalypse film. The boys slash zombies up left and right with the preferred zombie deterrent, a chainsaw. It’s gory, but the episode makes it fun to watch.

In the end, the “pinkeye” infection is quelled by killing Kenny (you bastards!) and everything returns to normal. Or does it? Yes, it is. Kenny comes back next episode normal.

This was a classic South Park episode, and the first of at least half a dozen Halloween specials over the years. Its fun, and as far as gore goes, it’s pretty tame. If you want to watch a classic, 90s Halloween special, then this is a good one. Plus, it has Chef dancing as Michael Jackson!

Happy Halloween!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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

I’m really sorry guys, but I got so busy today writing my Sunshine Blogger Award post and the review for the finale of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic that I didn’t get to write a Halloween post. Don’t worry, I will one short one tomorrow, plus an extra long one for a Halloween movie I plan to watch.

Jay’s Month of Scares, Day 11- Blockhead

Since I was too busy watching the Joker movie, I couldn’t watch a Halloween special. As a compromise, I rewatched these old Halloween shorts from this guy on Newgrounds, The Swain’s Blockhead.

Blockhead’s about the titular character, and he’s this yellow, unbelievably dumb guy who annoys everyone he meets. The other main character is Blockhead’s Conscience, who say he’s the only thing standing between Blockhead and the Earth’s total destruction. Unfortunately, Blockhead never listens to his Conscience and destroys everything he touches, especially on Ghostmas Day.

Ghostmas Day is this holiday Blockhead in place of Halloween; and on a random day of the year. No one really knows what it’s about, beyond Blockhead committing random acts of vandalism. That, and singing a nonsensical song.

I liked watching these videos when I was younger, and I still think they’re good for a laugh. Blockhead always gets away with his nonsense, no matter what it may be, and seeing the back and forth between him and his Conscience is like a comedy duo at work. It’s funny, and the Ghostmas episodes are Blockhead at his best. Happy Halloween Merry Ghostmas day!

If you want to see Blockhead commit his senseless acts of vandalism, click here. You can find The Swain’s shorts on YouTube! The Ghostmas episodes are 4, 8, and 11, plus this standalone special. Thank you for your patience, and I promise I will be back tomorrow with a Halloween special. Plus something else special!

Oh, and maybe the new episode of Sword Art Online: Alicization.

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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

Jay’s Month of Halloween, Day 3- Futurama “The Honking”

We all know how Matt Groening’s The Simpsons comes out with a Halloween special every year. Did you know that there was a Halloween special for Groening’s other hit show, Futurama? Titled “The Honking”, it aired first week of November, 2000, and it was awesome!

While staying at a castle he inherited from his deactivated Uncle Vladimir, Bender gets run over by a were-car! He then gets cursed as a were-car himself and starts making roadkill out of everyone! The only way to stop the curse is to hunt down the original were-car and destroy it!

Classic Horror Meets Sci-Fi

This episode contained a lot of the hallmarks of classic horror films. The initial setting’s in a Gothic castle in Eastern Europe. It’s appropriately scary with a cemetery, spiders, and robot ghosts. The real draw, though, was the were-car. I don’t know how the curse actually lets Bender turn into a car, but I didn’t really care. It’s like watching a Transformer!

Since Futurama’s a sci-fi show, the horror tropes got a nice adaptation to fit it. The curse is explained as a virus transmitted from robot to robot, but that wasn’t the cool part. I though the cool part was how Farnsworth explained how the robot ghosts existed. Programming leaked into an old modem and infected the castle; of course.

I may not be a big fan of The Simpsons outside of the Halloween episodes, but I’ve been a fan of Futurama for years. It’s still one of the funniest sci-fi shows ever made, and I binged it on Netflix before it got taken off. Here’s to Halloween, and to the memory of Bender and Futurama.

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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

Jay’s Month of Halloween, Day 1- Avatar: The Last Airbender Special

Good evening, boys and ghouls of every age. Welcome to the first day of my month of Halloween. To start us off strong, I’m going to start with one of my favorite shows of all time, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I was a huge fan of Avatar growing up, and my love remains as strong as ever. While it may have come out a week after the holiday, the Season Three episode “The Puppetmaster” is meant to be a Halloween special. It says so on the Avatar Wiki!

The episode opens with Team Avatar telling ghost stories around a campfire at night. This helps set the tone for the episode: it’s going to be as scary as a kids cartoon can be. We can share in the kid’s nervousness and subsequent relief when they meet a woman named Hama. Hama seems very nice, if a little eccentric, with Katara quickly bonding with her. Especially when it’s revealed that she’s not only from the Southern Water Tribe, but the only other Waterbender left. 

Sokka, however, is crazy suspicious of her and thinks something’s off. The show even drops several hints that he’s right. As This suspicion comes to a satisfying conclusion with the climax of the episode. Under the full moon, Hama reveals her ultimate skill. The power that allowed her to escape captivity when no one else did: bloodbending.

Blood-bending Made my Blood Freeze

I’ve seen far scarier things, but something about bloodbending made my skin crawl in fear as a kid. Think of it: someone controlling every muscle of your body like a puppet master. The worst part is that you’re conscious the whole time, and can’t do anything about it. That’s a terrifying thought.

I’ve seen far scarier things, but something about bloodbending made my skin crawl in fear as a kid. Think of it: someone controlling every muscle of your body like a puppetmaster. The worst part is that you’re conscious the whole time, and can’t do anything about it. That’s a terrifying thought.

Katara beats Hama, but has to use blood-bending to do so. She had to in order to save the lives of Sokka and Aang, but it means Hama still won. The final shot shows her on the ground in tears over what happened, driving home how messed up this was.

The Scary Puppetmaster

This episode was dark, as dark as a kid’s show could get. The legacy of this episode ended up being far-reaching. Blood-bending plays a key role in the first season of the sequel show, The Legend of Korra. If the technique wasn’t scary before, that show made it terrifying. That fear stems from this appropriately named episode, “The Puppetmaster”, though. I loved it, and to this day, I don’t regret watching it even if my parents had grounded me for a month. NOT SORRY! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year.

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

Hello, everyone, and how are you? As you might recall, last year I did a special event where I reviewed a different holiday special in the days leading up to Christmas. I had so much fun doing that, I decided that this year, I’m doing the same thing for my favorite holiday. I’m talking about Halloween. All rise for the anthem of the holiday!

To say I love Halloween is an understatement; it’s my favorite holiday. I love the specials, the costumes, the decorations, and the candy. So I want to help everyone get hyped for the coolest holiday with my month long tradition. Everyday leading up to Halloween, I’ll be posting a review for a different special, episode, or scary movie.

Here’s the ground rules I’m setting for myself: I’d prefer to use something Halloween related, though it doesn’t have to be directly related to the holiday. If it’s indirectly related to the holiday or an episode that came out with Halloween-tones in mind, I’ll accept it.

Rule two is that unless it’s part of a series, I’m limiting myself to one special per show. This way, I can encourage myself to see new Halloween stuff alongside the classics of my childhood.

See you tomorrow, and who knows? Maybe I’ll do something you love, or something you should see.

Click here to see the FANDOM Article I did for Halloween last year

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

Let me tell you a tale: four years ago, there was only one thing that I wanted for Christmas. I didn’t care if I didn’t get any other presents that year! WHAT I WANTED… was to The Last: Naruto the Movie for Christmas. Christmas day came and went, and like I knew I would, I couldn’t see the movie. It was only coming to N America in February. But then, on December 29th, I got my Christmas miracle: someone, somewhere managed to upload a watchable copy of The Last: Naruto the Movie onto YouTube, WITH ENGLISH SUBS. *Cue “Hallelujah”. I didn’t take any chances, and just dove in right then and there. It was one of the best gifts I ever got.

And that’s why this is my honorable mention for my “25 days of Christmas”. I know it’s not a Christmas movie, but I have my reasons beyond this for why it’s on here.

Reason 1: the Rinne Festival

Part of the film revolves around the Hidden Leaf Village getting ready for a holiday known as the Rinne Festival. What is that, you ask? It is a holiday where people exchange gifts with friends and loved ones. Sounds an awful lot like Christmas, doesn’t it? On top of that, it’s snowing in the Hidden Leaf. I didn’t even know it could actually do: up until this movie, we only ever saw the Hidden Leaf in the spring or summer time. That’s including in October when Naruto was born. No falling leaves. They were all green.

Reason 2: Romance Plays a Big Part in This

Romance was never one of the strong points of Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto, the author and creator of the franchise, even admits that he didn’t really know how to write a good romance. The Last: Naruto the Movie was his way of trying to make up for that, particularly regarding an unresolved plot thread.

If you know most of the Naruto fandom, you will hopefully about Naruto’s friend and fellow ninja, Hinata. Since the start of the manga, Hinata has admired Naruto due to his self-confidence and kindness towards others. That admiration eventually become love, something that everyone else they knew noticed. Even I noticed it in the anime, and I was ten at the time. Naruto was the only one who didn’t realize it because he’s dense about romance.

By the time of the movie, two years have passed since the climax of the manga, and Naruto is now considered the greatest ninja alive and adored by everyone. Especially girls. They just run right up to him and give him gifts. With the Rinne festival coming up, Hinata decides to make Naruto a home-made scarf in order to finally tell him how she feels. But then her sister gets kidnapped, the moon starts falling, and next thing you know, NINJA’S ON THE MOON!

My point is that romance plays a huge part in this film, as Naruto grows to understand how much Hinata cares about him and realizes how much he actually cares about her. At one point, the two of them end up walking around an abandoned city together. It actually felt like they were on a date. And Christmas Eve is associated with romance in Japan. Get my point now?

In Conclusion

So, yes, this is not a Christmas movie in the slightest. But it does draw on the cultural depictions of Christmas in Japan: a time of gift-giving and romance. I will accept that. But I wanted to include this because it was, honestly, the second best gift that I ever got for the Holidays. I just watched the film from start to finish in my room without stopping, and I loved every second of it. The music was good, the plot was interesting, if not a little convoluted (ninja’s in space. That’s both cool and dumb), and Kishimoto made a genuine effort to appease the fans who were left hanging. So on that note, Happy Holidays!

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I would like to thank cakedablerd from Pop Culture Uncovered for giving me the idea to watch this. Go check out her original post. I have never been one for work by Sanrio, but Aggretsuko might be an exception, especially since the main character is the opposite of Hello Kitty. Retsuko is a 25-year-old accountant in some random company… and she hates every minute of it. A lot of her co-workers are annoying, her boss is a jerk, and she just wants out. A lot of people can relate. Most of her co-workers don’t know, but she channels her anger by singing death metal karaoke.

So, I spent a whole day binge watching the first season, because the Christmas Special came out today: We Wish You A Metal Christmas.

We Wish You A Metal Christmas

If you remember my posts about the Fairy Tail and Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Christmas Specials, you may remember that I said Christmas is more about romance in Japan. That, and eating KFC, but that’s beside the point. It’s Christmas Eve, and everyone is making plans for the holiday. Everyone except for Retsuko. She’s been too busy trying to get Instagram likes to make plans, and then her jerk-boss, Ton the pig, gives her extra work. Because he’s a jerk.

Meanwhile, Retsuko’s friends, Haida and Fenneko are out drinking. Haida has had a crush on Retsuko, but she turned him down, and he still hasn’t gotten over it. So he’s getting wasted to get over the pain. Especially since he thinks Retsuko has plans.

Fortunately for him, Fenneko’s social media detective skills help her realize that something’s up with Retsuko’s Instagram posts and that she doesn’t have anything to do for Christmas Eve. So Haida tries to rush over and help her, only to find out she already left. Love is never easy.

Luck is on Haida’s side, though, as he happens to run into her as she’s out with some of her friends, and they end up getting some time together. It’s a cute way to end the episode, but the clincher is the heavy metal version of “Jingle Bells”. I never knew how badly I needed that.

Retsuko Is an Exception

As I said before, Sanrio is normally not my cup of eggnog, but I’m glad I tried this show out. It’s got enough of anime in it to keep me interested, while the premise is relatable enough for non-anime fans to get into it. What makes this enjoyable, though, is that it serves as a reminder of how no one should be alone for the holidays. Yet many people out there are. They don’t have any family or friends nearby, so the holidays can be a sad and lonely experience. But when you have people you care about with you, they become a lot brighter.

I also find this to be an interesting commentary on how some in our generation go out of their way to look amazing on social media to make up for the fact that they don’t like where they are right now. While stuck at work, Retsuko even fakes a fancy dinner photo just get people’s approval.

My advice: social media is fun, but it doesn’t beat having physical friends to hang out with. But I don’t want to preach, so instead, I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas!

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