Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Sunsy Oh I'm sure they brought in a well-made Poppu costume too! It's insane how much work goes into costumes. I especially appreciate some cosplays I've seen since I know I'll never have the patience to make a decent costume on my own. It really does sound like an incredible Trolls event. The hair sounds great, and I'm with you on the face paint; that stuff can look cool, and I can tolerate that and effects makeup for a short period of time. But I definitely don't like it on long-term. I don't like most stuff lingering on my skin. Soaps and shampoos are fine though since those are meant to be washed off right away.

My hope is to get some photos uploaded this weekend, but we'll see. I like the nearby Japanese steakhouse, but it's somewhat pricey and in a busier part of town. So I don't go that way often. It's one of two places to get fresh sushi, and the best. The other is a local grocery store where it's freshly made daily; this is good too, they just have less options. I'll take most forms of pizza whenever too lol. Thanks! It was a great vacation. I think I've finally adjusted to my time zone again.

Good morning from Southeast Asia. On a plane about to see one of my best friends, haven’t seen him in five years. I imagine there’s gonna be lots of Smash Bros. involved.

@jedgamesguy Five years is such a long time! Hope you two have a good time. I love Smash a ton, probably one of my favorite game franchises of all time. Is there anyone you main or play the most on the game? I main Banjo and Kazooie a lot in Ultimate, though I used to main Corrin and a ton of Fire Emblem characters a ton before.

@Sunsy Conker is considered "mature" not because it has serious themes but because of its suggestive, crude, and offensive humor and somewhat gory (but sometimes over the top) violence, which is pretty much the entire selling point of Bad Fur Day and its remake and what the games are known for. However, there were at least two messages the game had that I do think were true and important underneath all the raunchiness the game had. It is pretty much your standard platformer from Rare, except more weird and full of "adult" content.

@Pastellioli yeah there’s a difference. A mature game that handles things like death, violence, war, etc isn’t gonna be the same as one that just has a lot profanity, dark humor, crude humor, suggestive themes, etc.

@Yousef- I can remember this cartoon reviewer on YouTube, and he has a secondary channel where he talks about video games. He did a video on Conker but was extremely disappointed with it, which is fine. However, I think why he was so disappointed because when he went into the game, he expected the game to be "mature" in dealing with serious themes and topics rather than being "mature" with its irreverent and inappropriate humor. I think the game is more enjoyable if you go in knowing that it is "mature" for having irreverent and crass material and not serious themes that will make you think very deeply, as well as also knowing that the crude humor (like the toilet humor that is excessive at the beginning of the game) was done intentionally not because the developers thought it was funny, but to be intentionally juvenile and offensive.

@Pastellioli doesn’t sound like someone I know and I feel like I can recognize plenty of old YouTubers, even lesser known ones like The Great Clement, The Happy Video Game Nerd and the French version of AVGN (as in, an actual French speaking person, not just AVGN’s channel with French subs tho that would be cool also).

@Yousef- The guy is popular within the cartoon reviewing community and I think his name was Saberspark, though I wouldn't consider myself a fan or subscriber of his and I don't watch his videos anymore, though the few I did watch were super hilarious, and entertaining. His commentary is so funny (though he does curse a ton sometimes) and I do remember he reviewed this poorly-made movie on his channel. Afterward, I intentionally watched the film just to get a good laugh out of it and because I was bored. I did watch a few of his gaming channel videos but I didn't watch a ton.

@Pastellioli I know who saber is but I’m not a big fan of his work anymore. He fizziled completely once the my little pony stuff calmed down. He was a big contributor of that community so I liked watching him for that, after the hype died down, he seemingly grew out of it and I lost reason to watch him. It www vaguely 2012-ish when that happened. Could be misremembering.

@Yousef- Oh, that is interesting. For me, I did not really know who he was and only started watching him around 2018 or 2019 but stopped a few months ago. I can't remember which video it was, but I think one of the earlier ones I watched was on that movie I was mentioning, I think it was called Joshua and the Promised Land and it was mostly the voice acting and animation in that movie that made it funny from how bad it was. He is now well-known for reviewing other cartoons and mostly Disney and Pixar movies, though he has made longer videos on other stuff like AI. I don't watch what he makes anymore, though it wasn't for a particular reason or a change in his content that made me stop watching him. The Conker video was maybe the only one of two videos I watched on his gaming channel since that was the one thing that interested me. It is somewhat disappointing that he wasn't a fan of it (plus a lot of people said it seemed right up his alley) but I do remember he said he never finished it. It was only one of his friends that actually did.

@Pastellioli it does seem like most people know him by his post-MLP stuff, not too unlike Trixie (who was previously known as Digibro… who was also previously known as Digibrony…)

I don’t watch cartoon reviewers anymore nor do I really care about the animated western scene that much anymore so I can’t provide longer opinions on them. I’ve probably said all I have to say.

@Yousef- I don't watch a bunch of cartoons either, and the most I did was when I was smaller. I think the last cartoon I watched recently was the Rescue Rangers cartoon two years ago after I saw the Disney+ movie cuz I was obsessed with it at the time, so I think my lack of interest in watching cartoons is why I stopped watching Saberspark. I mostly watched his stuff while I was drawing, and I only really watch film reviewers occasionally. However, I wouldn't say that I am a huge television or movie person.

I haven't seen any new cartoons, anime, shows, or movies this year besides Kiki's Delivery Service, some of Shrek Forever After, the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, at least an episode of Toilet-bound Hanako-Kun and Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, Wonder Egg Priority (though that one got worse in its later episodes with its writing and story and I didn't like how it depicted and treated some of its characters by the end of it) and the Bocchi the Rock! anime that I need to get back to watching soon, but the media I did watch this year was released decades ago or only a few years ago.

There aren't a lot of 2024 films, shows, or cartoons I want to watch since none of them interest me. There was the third Spiderverse film that was supposed to be released back in March, but they had to delay it to an unknown date because of production issues. But given that they released the second film only just last year and the films have very high-quality animation and production, I do think it would be impossible to rush a third movie out a year later and have it retain the same quality. The only new film releasing this year that I want to see is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which I am hoping me and my family can see in theaters when it releases in December. Gotta hope for no delays!

Also, how is your day going? Hope it has been going well.

@Pastellioli avatar the last air bender is the last cartoon I care about, and mainly because “over analyzing avatar” helped me really stay in touch with it. That’s uhhh… channel name, not referring to myself there.

Shrek is a masterpiece. Still one of my favorite films. The social commentary and political drama aspect of it really solidified it as a favorite.

I watch a decent amount of anime but they’re usually tied to things I already have an interest, for instance I’m a gigantic history nerd of 3rd century ancient China, particularly the Three Kingdoms era, so watching Ya Boy Kongming was mandatory viewing to me. I advise watching the opening. You’ll likely be sold.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gNn9NxZH2Vo&pp=ygUSeWEgYm95...

It stars an idol and a resurrected Zhuge Liang, a real life well known strategist who served under Liu Bei of the Shu Han dynasty/kingdom. If this is all sounding vaguely familiar, you guessed it, this is what Koei/Omega Force base their mainline Musou franchise Dynasty Warriors on, which is my second favorite gaming franchise after Grand Theft Auto, so this amine is tied to two of my interests. Don’t you fine it crazy it hit two birds with one stone for me?

JJK is cool but I’m mainly interested in collecting the manga physically in Kuwait alongside Full-metal Alchemist.

Bocchi the Rock is worth watching for its current cultural presence, but otherwise I wasn’t a fan.

I don’t expect myself watching many theatrical movies in the upcoming months. Not because of interest, but because time. The theater in kuwait is already annoying to attend. It’s a 20 minute drive and parking spots are annoying to get. Not to mention the food is expensive and we don’t actually book our tickets online because it’s less convenient than in-person booking.

My day? It’s going quite well, quite well indeed. Saturday is the calmest day of the week here. In Arab countries, Friday and Saturday are the weekends as opposed to Saturday and Sunday due to Friday being a holy day with its own prayer. After we perform the prayer, we usually do a lot of work so Friday can still feel like an extra work day just without the usual restrictions like having to wake up at 7:00 am.

Just now I made a lot of tea so I’m just relaxing.

Normally I’d prefer having a fellow arab acquaintance here to bounce off with all the cultural explanations about customs but however, there was an Egyptian guy here who’s not part of the forums anymore (but I chat with on discord, he’s cool), an Iraqi guy who appears inactive as of the time I’m writing this and a Saudi guy who’s active on the NL discord server… of which I’m not a part of.
But hey, maybe a new cool fella will come, I can at least hope and pray (no pun intended), right? Jokes aside I’m fine with it. I still enjoy being a chatterbox.

@Pastellioli ik this isnt to me but i really need to watch the kikis delivery service movie !!! ive read the book countless times and love it so much! im also looking forward to spiderverse-i loved the second one a lot. seeing it in the theaters is just amazing. its hard to recreate the feeling of a movie theatre at home. ill be sad if movie theaters die out hopefully not soon !! anyways sorry for the yap, hows your day been 😸

@OctolingKing13 no need to apologize for yapping. Spiderverse 2 was cool though I wish it didn’t end the way it did. Still excited for 3. I’m a big sucker for characters overcoming seemingly impossible odds that do feel impossible.

Spiderverse 2 is something i needed to see really badly in theaters but it was banned in Kuwait amongst a few other countries, Barbie was banned too which I haven’t seen yet but I’ll likely do eventually.

My day been fine. Filled with tea as always.

@Yousef- I had heard of that Kongming anime, and the premise sounds interesting! I'll have to find what platforms it can be watched on. I have also heard of Full Metal Alchemist. I had heard of Jujustsu Kaisen for years and watched it cuz why not but I really liked it. The ending songs for the anime are my favorite. Lost in Paradise is such a banger!

My day has been fine, it's morning here, so I only woke up a few hours ago and I'm just getting started with the day. I'm replaying a bit of Conker on the Xbox and all snuggled up in my blanket. Going to watch a few of the featurettes included on Rare Replay right now. I don't know what to do later, probably still game more. I haven't been drawing recently cuz I am feeling a bit burnt out of ideas, but I think I'll get back to it next week.

I also didn't wish Spiderverse 2 ended the way it did! Cliffhangers are so upsetting I do love the feelings movie theaters have but that does seem annoying. I do like watching films at home sometimes because full theaters can be a bit annoying. I have a feeling that if me and my family do see Sonic 3, the seats might be full because of how hyped a bunch of people are. Hopefully, we do find a nice theater with a decent amount of free seats. When we saw Sonic 2 a few years ago, the seats were sort of full but also sort of not full. There were a lot of families and children there, and I absolutely loved hearing how the children reacted to the film, because that is how I probably would have reacted to it if I was a kid. I was a pretty huge Sonic fan back then, and I watched the heck out of the 90s Saturday morning cartoons they made for it. The only snacks we buy when we see movies are just a bag or container of popcorn and share it to save money. Most of the time, I don't eat stuff while watching films. I also don't snack a lot on stuff like that since its unhealthy a lot.

And a random question, but are there any places you want to travel to? I want to travel to Japan and the United Kingdom one day, the latter especially because of Rare.

@OctolingKing13 it is fine! You don't have to apologize. I have watched a few of Ghibli's movies, but Kiki was the only one I never watched. I saw it for the first time about two months ago for Mother's Day with my mom and brother, and I liked it. I am a huge fan of the Spiderverse films, but I do think we will have to wait a few more years for the sequel. Disappointing, but I think a product taking its time in the oven is better than rushing it out to meet criteria and satisfy demand.

@Pastellioli oh I didn’t see the exit at first. The message was a lot shorter when I first checked but now I’ve taken a second read.

I’ve traveled to a lot of places already including the Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Jeddah, Riyadh, Hafr but I currently have no plans or big desire to go to a lot of countries. Traveling is quite expensive and really tiring and also distance is quite. A trip here to the states or Toronto would be a 13 hour flight minimum. Not to mention, my unfamiliarity with European countries and European culture will be a big challenge despite the fact that I’m pretty comfortable in the languages like Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. And some French. But knowing languages does not equate to knowing the culture.

That said, London would still be an easy answer for me as I do know people there and tons of Kuwaitis go there so it might feel like a second home to me. I’ve also never rode a subway so I’d like to experience that at least once. Those London buses also look a lot of fun. The United Kingdom and Britain as a whole is a place I need to go to. Lots of cool places to see, lots of cool people to meet and most importantly, tons of good food. I heard London culture in particular is slowly being influenced by our own culture so I could see a lot of familiar sites and restaurants.

And as a last note, since Rockstar is my favorite studio and it’s a British studio then perhaps it’ll be fun seeing Britain in person for the first time.

@Yousef- Yeah, traveling does seem to be a bit expensive and far away. The only language I can speak and understand is English, so I am worried about going to Japan and not being able to speak or understand the language or text. I do know a few Japanese words and what they translate to, but it doesn't make me a skilled Japanese speaker. I am very poor at speaking other languages, and my family is Hispanic, but I am not fluent in understanding or speaking it, and my pronunciation is always off lol.

Because of that, I am more confident about going to the UK, though I don't think that will be until a few more years later and I wonder how I will convert US dollars to pounds. That is pretty much the only thing I am worried about when I do go to the UK. Even though I won't go to the UK anytime soon, I am already thinking of where I could go to. One place I want to go to is Twycross since that is where Rare is located, since I love them and their games a bunch, so just seeing the game studio there would be a dream for me. I do wonder what Kuwait is like. It sounds nice too especially with you mentioning the game stores that stock rare Switch games.

@Pastellioli I can probably walk you around in Kuwait and show you all the cool spots. I also can assure you language barrier is never gonna be a problem in Kuwait. 20 languages are spoken in Kuwait and two of them are English and French, used by us for international communication (though I’m not fluent in French) so many people, myself included, can easily help you out and tell you where to and what cool places to visit. I can easily show you great places to walk around like beaches, souqs, restaurants, etc. the food is also quite delicious and so is the tea, snacks, everything.

@Yousef- Sounds nice! Yeah, when the time comes in the future more years later, I could maybe go to those three, if I also have an endless amount of cash xd. I do wonder if Japan has a huge language barrier, I think some people there do speak English but I have a feeling not a lot of people do. The UK won't be a problem though, but there are a lot of slang words I don't know about. I should probably do some research in case so I know what to do if I ever go to the UK, Kuwait, and Japan.