So… I complain a lot about Yu-Gi-Oh. When I don’t complain about it online and accuse it of scamming kid me, I ridicule the story and the many holes in the game rules.

But I actually used to love this manga with a burning passion. I bought it because I was fixated with the cards, but instead I got traumatized. In an awesome way.

So I decided to re-read the manga about the possibly best known TCG game in the world and see how it started, how it evolved, and if the story still holds up.

So, I’m reading chapter 1, and we have to talk about the art.

The art style at the beginning was chunky and sometimes downright awkward. But it was still very enjoyable. The characters were very expressive and the tone of the style could swing quickly from wacky and rubberhose like to eerie and brooding depending on the situation. It makes you forgive odd-looking legs and hands that becomes massive. It is clear that it is someone’s first project.

So, this is Yugi. Possibly the cutest and meekest punk kid who ever lived. Yugi is not an outdoor person, so he spends most of his recesses inside the classroom. He brings a ton of games to school, hoping that someone might wanna play with him, but all of his classmates prefer to go outside and do stuff like basketball. And being a short teenager who practically looks like a little boy means he is not a desirable team mate in any ball game.

This is totally just a theory, but I think Yugi’s signature punk hairstyle is his way of trying to look a bit more edgy to try do something about his cute appearance.

… Yeah, it’s not working. He still looks like a fricking Gummibear.

As Yugi is minding his own business, we meet two familiar faces.

… their names are actually Jounouchi and and Honda, but most people know them by their American names, so I will just refer to them as Joey and Tristan.

It’s so odd to see their old designs. Especially Joey since his hair is not as big and square like as it is today. And what the frick is up with Tristan’s face?!

Anyways, while Yugi decides to play with the most valuable game in his collection, Joey and Tristan decides to mess with him. They make an interesting bully duo where Tristan is more loud and is clearly having more fun bothering Yugi who is too short to put up a fight while Joey seems more stoic and is almost annoyed by Yugi for being a pushover. He even tells Yugi to be a man about it and at least try and take the game back from him by force. So while Tristian just enjoys picking on Yugi for the heck of it, Joey seems to sincerely dislike Yugi.

Luckily, Yugi doesn’t have trouble with bullies as such since he is friends with Tea who is so tough that she actually intimidate Joey and Tristan with sheer attitude. That’s actually impressive.

… A shame she is most of the time just the damsel in distress.

Tea is the only person in class who hangs out with Yugi since they have been friends since kindergarten. And she doesn’t mind staying inside at all since a ton of the guys are jerks who only wanna play basketball with the girls since it gives them an opportunity to look up their skirts.

Yeah, there is a lot of that in this manga. Most of the males in this series are kinda horny. the humor often relies on it, which downright creepy at times.

Even Yugi finds basketball more appealing now that he knows about the skirt-looking.

Lewd panty-shot aside, I think it is a nice detail that Yugi is as pathetic as the rest of the dudes in school, he probably just doesn’t have the courage to try get a look. It makes him less of a pure hero.

Altight, let’s stop talking about Yugi being a closet creep:/

Yugi shows Tea what his greatest treasure is: A LITTERAL treasure.

Yep, this is the famous Millennium Puzzle, practically the mascot of the series. It’s an ancient puzzle found in an pyramid that Yugi got from his grandfather who runs a game store. The puzzle is extremely valuable, both because it is from ancient Egypt and it is made of gold.

… And Yugi brings it to school where Tristan and Joey pushes him around…

Yugi has been struggling with the puzzle for eight years despite being a game nerd. Even though it is a blow to his not that big ego, he keeps trying to solve it since the box says that if he will be granted a wish if he manage to solve the puzzle.

Meanwhile, Joey and Tristan makes the fatal mistake of talking about picking on Yugi while Ushio is close enough to hear it. He is the school’s hall monitor and rumor has it that he is downright psychotic and is feared by most of the students. Heck, some of the teachers are uncomfortable being near him.

And this guy has decided to become Yugi’s bodyguard, something poor Yugi doesn’t take serious when Ushio tells him that.

Joey and Tristan are unaware how screwed they are as they keep having their fun bothering Yugi without our hero knowing it. Joey managed to steal a piece from the puzzle box before Tea interrupted, and Joey decides to throw the piece in the school’s swimming pool so that the puzzle becomes worthless as it can no longer be solved. I gotta say, that is pretty twisted and surprisingly sneaky of a teen bully. It’s downright creepy.

Speaking of creepy…

This is Yugi’s grandfather Sugoroku. He runs the game shop that Yugi lives in and is a living encyclopedia when it comes to games of all sorts.

And he can’t just tell Tea that she has grown. He HAS to mention her breasts as well. Da fuck is up with all the sex talk and panty shots in this series?! Does Kazuki Takahashi(the author) have some sort of issues?!

Yugi’s grandfather notices that Yugi is STILL trying to solve the ancient puzzle and warns Yugi that the puzzle is supposedly cursed. That the archeologist and his team died mysteriously shortly after finding the puzzle and the last one to kick the bucket said something about a “shadow game” with his dying breath.

That however makes Yugi even more determent to solve the puzzle. If it really is magical then chances are that he will be granted a wish by completing the puzzle.

Personally, I would call the nearest museum and sell the dang thing before it could kill me with it’s insane cursed magic.

Speaking of insane, Yugi realizes that he should have taken Ushio serious when he said he would be his bodyguard.

Yep, the SOB has dragged Joey and Tristan behind the school building and kicked their asses through and through. Tristan is in so much pain that he is barely conscious and Joey is so pummeled that all he can do is watch as Yugi shows how surprisingly brave he is as he demands that Ushio leaves them alone, even refer to them as his friends and that they were just trying to make him a man.

Yeah, picking on someone because they are too timid and demanding that they fight you despite knowing that they hat violence is the right way to make someone a man. Hip hooray for toxic masculinity!

Yugi defending Joey and Tristan results in him getting a beating as well.

One of the interesting things about early Yu-Gi-Oh is the raw and ugly violence. We talking dirty violence where people get kneed in the chest and kicked while they lie down. Not just off-screen, we witness our heroes be pummeled, making the series a bit more gritty and frightening. And this series is not for those with a weak stomach.

Joey is stunned, partly because Yugi defends him, but way more of the short spiky-haired kid’s courage. But Yugi is anything but afraid. After all, he refused to fight Joey, but he still tried to get the puzzle back(not successfully, but he made an effort instead of just squirming).

After Ushio finished kicking poor Yugi’s ass, he tells him to bring him money as “payment” for his “bodyguard service.” And we talking 200000 yen, that’s a lot of dough.

Ushio even pulls a god damn knife(!), just to show how god damn crazy he is!

Yugi goes home to see if he has money enough to pay Ushio, but he only has 1656 yen. In frustration, Yugi decides to solve his unsolvable puzzle, just to think of something else than the brute with a knife who is waiting for him at school.

But what do you know? Yugi finally get the hang of it. He sees that some of the pieces just needs to be rotated differently and he finish it in a couple of minutes.

… Or he WOULD have. He finally sees that one of the pieces are missing, breaking his heart and making his awful day even worse.

But Grandpa has the last piece. He tells Yugi that one of his friends from school had found it and asked him to give it to Yugi. And that he was soaked despite it not raining.

As Yugi is happy about being able to finish the puzzle and returns to his room, his grandpa thinks about that the boy was Joey and that he asked him not to tell Yugi it was him that came with the puzzle piece. Joey also told him about Ushio blackmailing Yugi, so Grandpa secretly puts money in Yugi’s schoolbag so he won’t get in trouble.

And this is where it get’s freaky.

Yep, here it is. the iconic moment Yugi gets blessed by the puzzle so that he can turn into the split personality we refer to as Yami which is Japanese for “Dark”.

Yugi then calls Ushio and tells him to meet him outside school at midnight.

Ushio is surprised as he sees that Yugi is wearing some sort of costume and that he looks way more cocky than before.

Yugi tells Ushio that he has the money he demands, but he has twice the amount. Fricking 400000 yen!

But Yugi only “owes” 200000 to Ushio, so he suggest that they play about them in a dark and twisted game.

Yugi and Ushio take turns stabbing the stack of money placed on their hand. They have to stab hard enough to take more than one single bill. The winner is the guy with most yen bills.

As they play, Ushio seems to be winning… but when it is his turn, he can feel that his hand is way too eager to stab.

This is not just a weird-ass game. This is a “shadow game”, a game that shows your true nature. Ushio’s greed is now collected in his hand, and he so desperately want to win the game that he can’t control it. He realizes that if he stabs, he won’t be able to control his strength and he will penetrate his own hand. Ushio has to either A) give up and keep his hand or B) win the game with one hand less.

Ushio picks C.

Ushio tries to kill Yugi, but that was a mistake. The puzzle has made him super human and he leaps from the ground, evading the knife.

And cheating in a shadow game is a big no-go as the host of the game has authority to punish you.

Yami Yugi curses Ushio with “Illusion of Greed”, meaning he will be doomed to live in an imaginary world where he sees nothing but money everywhere.

Next morning, he is still outside the schoolyard like a drooling idiot who yells about all of his imaginary money.

Yugi has no memory of what happened but is glad he no longer has to be worried of Ushio who is a harmless nutcase. Not only that, he has finally finished his puzzle… and Joey offers him his friendship.

And that was the start of the horror manga turned card game commercial. It has a lot of charm, is very eerie and I think I prefer Yami Yugi’s first look that is more child like. making him look downright creepy.

This retrospective will continue ASAP.

Till then, I’m Waezi2, and thanks for wasting time with me.

Logically, "A Christmas Carol" should be Dicken's worst book. It is super short and he wrote it to get some quick cash after he had suffered from major flops.

But this tale not only became Dicken's most well-known book, it also redefined the modern Christmas.

But what exactly makes "A Christmas Carol" brilliant?

First of all, Ebenezer Scrooge is a very different sort of evil person.

Really, what makes ol' Scrooge so bad besides that he is cheap? It's his money, he earned them fair and square, why should it be anyone's business what he does with his fortune? It's not like he is bothering anyone.

Simple: It's all about power and responsibility. Scrooge has money, and that gives him power. Power over his own life and most definitely power over others' lives as well. Scrooge is the one who has the power to say if the people who borrowed money from him should be allowed more time to pay their depth OR if they should be homeless. Scrooge has the power to help the poor by giving a donation to charity or let them die to help ease the over-population. Scrooge has power over his clerk Bob Cratchit's life where he can either pay him properly and let his family get food or the table or underpay him so his family have to settle for the bare minimum.

So Scrooge's crimes is not so much what he does to other people. It's more about what he doesn't do. He is guilty of neglect to the entire world. After all, it is important to remember that the ghost of his former partner Marley is forced to walk around with all the money he could have spent to help others, so Marley is being punished for lack of action.

Worst of all is that Scrooge is not even good to himself. He has a giant house, but barely uses any of the rooms. His meals are cheap and far from delicious. You would assume that a rich guy like him would allow himself some luxury, but he won't even use money on himself. He is his own worst enemy.

But that also means that Scrooge is redeemable. In fact, he is the definition of the redemption ark characters. All the Zukos, Catras and Pacificas would most likely never have existed if it wasn't for "A Christmas Carol."

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future are of the utmost importance for Scrooge to get that he has to change.

Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge that the reason to why he is the way he is can be explained with ease; he has been hurt by the world. Scrooge is very afraid of being vulnerable, so he bought safety with wealth since money gives him power. Scrooge is changed by the visit of the first ghost because he has done everything to forget his past, forget that he has been hurt as well as forgetting that he gave up happiness because he much more wanted to stay safe in his bank than in the home of a loving family. It also explains why he doesn't like his nephew since he reminds him too much of his dead sister, reminds him of pain.

Ghost of Christmas Present is best known for showing Scrooge how shitty Cratchit has it, but he also shows Scrooge of what he is giving up by not wanting to have anything to do with Christmas. He sees people much poorer than himself be happier since they have each other company and he sees his nephew and the family he is missing out on despite said family inviting him over year after year. And again, Scrooge is being reminded that he has the power to make the world a bit brighter but doesn't.

The Ghosts of Christmas Future delivers the final blow. The true terror that the ominous spirit shows him is not so much that Scrooge is gonna die since, well, we are ALL gonna die. What is truly terrifying is how no one is gonna give a damn about the fact that he is gone forever. That he left so little an impact on the world despite being able to do so much good. That Tiny Tim will die simply because Scrooge didn't care enough to treat his clerk with decency and pay him a proper salary. That all the money he made can't be brought with him to the grave and therefor goes to waste.

When Scrooge wakes up the next morning and is so darn happy to still be alive, he wastes no time being good to others as well as himself. Because "A Christmas Carol" is not just about being good to others, it's about being good to yourself as well, to have the courage to love and hope to be loved in return.

I figured out how to beat the fish-man: By blowing air directly into his gills and suffocating him.

Sorry, human, but that’s not how this works. Fish actually breathe by taking water in through their mouths and expelling it through their gills. Air being blown directly into my gills would probably still not be very healthy for me, but it is just mildly irritating and the air will likely be expelled almost immediately as I continues to breathe.

Really? How interesting.

Wow, I’m so hungry I could eat a whale!

I MISS SANJI!!!

If you were a kid from the 90s like me, you most likely grew up with Darkwing Duck. This lovable hero was like a weird fusion of Batman and Donald duck, just more narcissistic. He had some great villains such as Liquidator, Megavolt, Bushroot and Negaduck.

But would you belive me if I told you that the darkest and most messed up of DW's enemies was in fact Quackerjack?

Quackerjack is a classic supervillain. He is a talented toy maker and even used to run his own toy company. But video games happened, and none of his toys could compete with the electronic giant that took kids with storm. So he became a supervillain in order to take take revenge and ended up crossing paths with the Duck Crusader. Tad Stones, the creator of Darkwing Duck, wanted Quackerjack to be a bit darker and even tragic compared to the other bad guys DW faced, but the toy maniac ended up being mostly a joke character much to the disappointment of the series' creator.

But the comics fixed that...

There was a period where Quackerjack stopped being a villain and began working in a company where he designed toys again. And for some time, he was happy. He even got himself a girlfriend named Claire. But despite having his dream job, despite been given creative freedom, despite making friends... Quackerjack was a paranoid control freak. There is a reason to why a man thinks the best way to handle losing his company is by becoming a supervillain. He is not right in the head.

Quackerjack was horrible when it came to social life in the office. His friends from work knew how to act around people, meaning they could get promotions or simply be friendly with the boss. But the paranoid Quackerjack thought that they were phonies and traitors. Feeling isolated and surrounded by "villains", Quackerjack found it more and more difficult to actually do his job as a toy designer, and he did not take challenges well. Worst of all, Negaduck had destroyed his favorite toy Mr. Banana Brain that functioned as his superego. So Quackerjack didn't even have his little imaginary toy friend to rely on, meaning that he was even more alone.

So Quackerjack is essentially his own worst enemy. He saw others fortune as an attack against him. He made a mental prison out of rage. He grew angrier and angrier till the day he simply snapped and then decided to take revenge on the company he blamed for making his life a living hell.

So he became a supervillain again. But he became much more violent and meanspirited. He was unbelievably cruel and crossed lines he wouldn't cross before. Like his ultimate revenge on video games where he highjacked the master server to a popular online game very similar to World of Warcraft so he could turn all people around the globe playing the online game into toy dolls.

Quackerjack had made a new Mr. Banana Brain, one that was meaner looking and therefor suited his new and darker personality. Darkwing tried to reunite Quackerjack with his old and newly repaired Mr. Banana Brain doll in the hope that it would remind him of better times where he may have been a villain but not as ruthless as he had become. But this only confused Quackerjack as he became conflicted with who he really was.

Completely broken, Quackerjack went to his girlfriend Claire's house and used the machine to turn himself into a toy, leaving a note for Clair saying; "This is the best I will ever be." Essentially a kid-friendly suicide.

Night Thrasher

After his parents were murdered before his very eyes, the traumatized Dwayne Taylor swore to take out his anger on all criminals. With his waste fortune, Dwayne made a combat suit and a bulletproof skateboard in order to fight crime as Night Thrasher.

What makes Night Thrasher unique is the fact that he realized pretty early on that he wouldn't last long in a world where an awful lot of criminals, even the petty ones, had superpowers. So he made his own superhero team called the New Warriors who focused more on smaller scales crimes that the Avengers and FF were too busy to take care of, but still bigger than a single hero could handle

Colonel Stars and Stripes

Sal Bertolinni was a mafia enforcers till the day he saw the errors of his ways and became a born-again Christian. Sal decided that the best way to try and make up for all his mistakes was to become a superhero. He adopted a German Shepherd, made a costume, painted a ball bat with the American flag and named himself Colonel Stars and Stripes.

When he is not beating up perverts and child traffickers, the Colonel is doing service to society in general by serving meals to homeless people and makes sure drunk teen girls get home safe. His fighting style is without elegance, but he can beat the stuffing out of actual gangsters. He also lead the superhero team Justice Forever that he was the founder of.

Connor Hawke

Son of the original Green Arrow ad a woman he had a one-night stand with, Connor was sent to be raised in a vihara (Buddhist monastery). Connor knew the identity of his father and idolized the Emerald Archer, even training to be a bowman himself. When GA had a crisis and decided to live in the very same vihara as Connor, the young man decided not to tell Oliver who he really was besides that he was his biggest fan. They became friends and even decided to leave the vihara to fight crime together as the Green Arrows.

After Oliver Queen died in an explosion, Connor decided to keep fighting for justice as Green Arrow. Despite not being as good an archer as the original GA or having any of his trick arrows, Connor was a formidable superhero with his cool head, his precise aim and his talent for hand-to-hand combat.

The Phantom

Hundreds of years ago, Kit Walker's ship was attacked by pirates. Kip was the sole survivor and managed to swim to the beach of the African country Bengalla. The natives took care of him. Kit repaid the kindness by helping the natives when their village was attacked by pirated by dressing in a suit similar to a demonic god the the people of Bengalla worshipped. Kit then swore to fight pirates and evil of all kind and became known as the Phantom.

Kit's son became the Phantom after his father died. And so did Kit's grandson who used his acting skills gained from performing with Shakespeare to convince people that he was his grandfather as well as immortal, thus gaining a new name: the Ghost Who Walks. Even today, Kip's decedents are fighting evil, using both skills gained from harsh training as well as the reputation of being a demigod to strike fear in the heart of anyone who dares to prey on others.

The Cat

Cat is a masked vigilante in Twilight City, a town cursed to be in a state of eternal night. With his amazing reflexes, a high tolorence to pain and a quirky sense of humor, Cat...

Wait, I can't use heroes of my own making? Oh, okay.

Ah... fifth hero is...

...

OH! I know!

The Red Bee

Rick Raleigh was an assistant district attorney in Superior City. Dressed in a red and yellow costume, he fought crime with his trained bees and "stinger gun". His favorite bee is named Michael and lives inside his belt buckle.

I couldn't make up this shit, even if I tried XD

This is not just a comic about racism, it's about what a mess it is to try and fit in when you are a minority. Even when you are a white one.

The comic takes place in 1946. The two heroes of this tale is naturally Superman as well as the little Chinese-American girl named Lan-Shin Lee who has to deal with her new name "Roberta" since her dad wants the family to fit in as much as possible when they move from Chinatown to Metropolis. Mr. Lee got a great new job as a scientist in a fancy lab, and he wants his family to stick out as little as possible so they don't attract trouble. Roberta has great difficulties fitting in the new and mainly white neighborhood since she is rather awkward and misses Chinatown that she can't even visit due to her weak stomach that can't handle the bus ride. Her brother "Tommy" however has no problem with moving to Metropolis and even joins a baseball team, which makes it somewhat WORSE for Roberta who thinks her brother is kind of a "fake".

But Superman is in the story as well, and he has his own problems as a minority, even though he looks like a "real" American. Everyone assumes he is a human who somehow got amazing powers, and the last son of Krypton is not correcting them since he really want to be a part of the country. But he soon enough learns that he can't run away from his alien roots and must accept the fact that he is different, even MORE different than he thought.

Roberta and Superman meet because of the Clan of the Fiery Cross (*cough* KKK *cough*) who doesn't take kindly to a Chinese family moving into Metropolis. Superman must fight these racist son of bitches with help from Roberta, something that is challenging than expected.

This series has great art work as well as great characters. the Lee family is complex with Roberta who must face the fact that perhaps she is unconsciously fighting to NOT be comfortable in Metropolis, Tommy who finds it MUCH too easy to be one of the boys, Mr. Lee who is so desperate to appear "white" that he refuses to accept help when his family if attacked by the clan(especially since the chief of police if black), and poor Mrs. Lee who barely speaks English at all.

We also have the boy Chuck Riggs who at first looks like a regular racist douchebag... and he kinda is. After all, he is in the clan since his uncle is the "Grand Scorpion" of the clan. He loves his uncle for taking care of him and his mother and consider him a father figure. But Chuck also idolizes Superman, meaning he has to consider if his uncle's values are worth sharing.

And then we have Superman, the more or less ultimate American. Him being an immigrant is a facet of his character that has not been used enough. He has reached a point where he has to decide if he will keep pretending to be a white guy or embrace his background, something I can relate to a half-Persian who just so happens to have my mother's skin color. The story also plays with the idea that Superman moving from just jumping to actually flying being him suppressing his powers so he will keep looking like a very powerful but still human guy instead of a creature not of this world. We even get the origin of his costume and why it is great at hiding his identity as Clark Kent.

"Superman Smashes the Klan" is the best comic of 2020. It's a great Superman story, it is a great superhero story, it is a great minority story, it is a great anti-racism story, it is a great American story, it is just genuinely GREAT!

Most of us feared the worst. Few were way to optimistic. So... was chapter 196 a somewhat happy ending?

Kinda:)

So, Haru and Legosi are gonna get married... for better or worse.

We are presented to an issue we have not considered before: The amount of stress Haru has to suffer from being with Legosi who is a wolf as well as... well, LEGOSI! So even if Legosi can keep himself from eating Haru, she has to suffer a lot of stress, something that is not healthy for smaller animals. Seriously, some animals can actually die of being in a way too stressful situation. And a cop sees them hug and assumes right away that Legosi is trying to attack Haru. That will most likely never change. But they love each other very much and will face a difficult future together.

Gouhin is now working in an actual hospital. His job is not exactly without risks, but it is a heck lot safer than being the vigilante shrink of the BAM, and he deserves to have a more relaxed life after all the shit he has gone through.

Cherryton has interspecies education again, important for the future of herbivore/carnivore relationships in the future.

Yafya stepped down from the position as Sublime Beastar, but is still fighting crime as a vigilante.

Some thought it was weird that Yafya would retire if he intended to keep doing what he always did. But here is the thing... Yafya has realized that he is a very flawed creature and has only recently done things to try and make the relationships between meat and plant eaters more relaxed. So he doesn’t think he deserves the privileges, wealth and power he gets as the unofficial ruler of animal society. But he can still do his part in improving society on his own with help from the rats. Hopefully in a less prejudice and harsh manner.

The lion mobsters are in the slammer right now. But they will get out eventually and get actual jobs in Louis’ company(most likely very well-paid jobs). Sure, it sucks that the ONE THING they got arrested for was “kidnapping” Louis, but it could be far worse AND their future looks rather bright.

Louis married a female he doesn’t love for the sake of business. But he still intend to try and make the relationship work in a way so it is not all business. Azuki is his wife now, but she can also be his companion. They may never get to actually love each other, but they can appreciate and care for each other. I think it is great that Louis makes an effort to make their relationship as... “friendly” as possible.

So this is a pretty nice ending all things considered:)

Battlin' Jack Murdock

Jack Murdock is one of the most famous superhero dads in comics ever. The simpleminded palooka who desperately wanted his son to be smarter than him and even refused to take a dive while his son was (metaphorically speaking) watching.

In the comic series "Battlin' Jack Murdock" we see the story from Jack's perspective. He has anything but high thoughts about himself and we get to see a man desperately trying to be decent as well as staying alive, something that is easier said than done when you are an old boxer who also works for a mobster.

The comic has a gritty artstyle provided by Carmine Di Giandomenico who also worked on Spider-Man Noir. His style matches the tone of the story perfectly.

Pug

Jake Mahoney is an old washed-up has-been contender who has nothing left besides an EXTREMELY patient stripper girlfriend named Kitten, but that actually makes Jake feel even worse in some ways. But he finally gets a job... as a money collector for a sleazy loan shark.

Jake has lost a lot. Did he lose his self respect as well?

"Pug" is a pretty standard story all things considered. But it is a work of art with its art style as well as the craftmanship behind the comic's structure. There is some pretty solid symbolism, like something ringing at the first and last panel of every chapter... or rather "round". Every chapter starts with young Jake at his corner where he gets more beat up as the story progress and Kitten is even ring girl, holding the number of the chapter and she is part of the symbolism of the story as well.

Rocky

"Rocky" is one of those movies that it is a miracle that it was even made at all since it is a low-budget movie among low-budget movies. But it still worked. Not only that, it is one of the best movies ever made since it is partly about a gentle giant who is a bum due to being dealt an unlucky hand in but then gets the chance to prove his worth, but it is also the love story of two extremely awkward people. A piece of beauty, simple as that.

Gladiator

Tommy Riley is a young man with a big problem: His dad is in debt because of gambling. Tommy agrees to fight a single fight in an underground boxing arena to get enough cash to make the collectors leave him and his dad alone for a while so they can figure something out. But that was a mistake since Jimmy Horn, a former boxer turned promotor of these illegal fights, thinks Tommy has talent. So he pays the dept, meaning he owns Tommy till he has worked off his dept in the ring.

This movie shows us boxing at its absolute worst. Brian Dennehy plays Horn who takes advantage of teenagers in the extremely poor neighborhood that Tommy lives in by making them fight for cash in matches that are potentially deadly since the referee is basically just a spectator who can count to ten. The movie can give you a bad taste in your mouth which is the intention as Tommy is surrounded by awfulness and violence. But that makes the ending so much more satisfying when Tommy not just takes a beating to save a friend but also figures out how to beat Horn in his own game.

Saotome Senshu, Hitakakusu

The series follows 16-year-old Saotome Yae, a highschool boxing star who is described as ”the hope for all of girl’s boxing”. Everyone admires her and has high expectations of her as a boxer. Unfortunately, this is the reason to why she gets rejected by Tsukishima Satoru, a guy who is also in the school’s boxing club, only he sucks at it despite his impressive knowledge about the sport. It’s not that Satoru doesn’t like her or that he is intimidated by strong women. He likes Saotome a lot. He just worries that he would distract her as she is on her way to become one of Japan’s greatest amateur boxers. That, and he is kinda worried that if them dating goes sour that he would become the school’s persona non grata.

However, the rejection really bothers Saotome, and being a teenager who has hormones and stuff AND is already under a lot of pressure and stress due to her status as a boxing prodigy makes her somewhat more vulnerable. After their coach learns about the confession disaster, she suggests that Satoru with his waste knowledge about boxing could become Saotome’s trainer as well as secretly date her.

This series deal with the definition of masculinity and femininity. Saotome likes boxing and she is amazing at the sport, but the prize she pays is that she is seen as somewhat less feminine. Because she is a girl athlete, she is expected to devote her entire being to the sport and her training, and it makes people like the city’s mayor and her school’s principal very happy that she intimidate boys at her own age, so she won’t “waste time” with a boyfriend. If that is not a gender double-standard, I don’t know what is. And even before she became her city’s hero, she has been used to not being treated like a girl simply because she is tall and has big hands.

Back when Kyle Rayner was the only Green Lantern in the DCU, he faced a villain who was his match since he was an artist just like Kyle.

But unlike Kyle, Alexander Nero was a nutjob. An artistic, schizophrenia man who had a yellow power ring. Scary, right?

No?

Kyle made a name for himself by being the most CREATIVE Green Lantern. His artistic mind made all sorts of constructs with energy from his ring. And he even pushed the limit to what you could do with the ring. Kyle even realized what he SHOULDN'T do with the ring, such as splitting an atom in half. He uncovered all of the ring's secrets and knew what to do and NOT to do.

Imagine someone just as creative and artistic as Kyle... But with NO boundaries and with a PERVERSE imagination.

Not very nice, is it?

Nero was deluded and a mental wreck, possibly because his parents abused him(do not that there were no proof of this, so maybe Nero just THOUGHT they abused him). He had this idea that he was a hero picked by a hire power. that idea got PLENTY of fuel after he got a yellow power ring, one that suits even more in retrospective when it is canon that it specializes in making others afraid.

Kyle realized how dangerous Nero was and ended calling in the whole JLA, telling them that THIS might be the guy they actually had to kill.

Nero's first performance as a villain was terrifying. His ring had gotten a boost due to events in the series that are too complicated to explain, but he masterfully FIRST defeated Alan Scott and THEN terrorized a whole city while the JLA could do nothing but keep his creations from making more destruction than they already did. Kyle managed to defeat him by making light object with the shape of Nero's parents.

Resulting in... off, THAT:

Gallery

Nero was a prominent villain in the under appreciated Judd Winick run on Green Lantern and only ever made ONE cameo afterwards. He wasn't even made a member of the Sinestro Corps... but that makes sense since even though he was a master at instilling great fear in others, Nero was not exactly a... team player.

Pina is a fan favorite, and I get why. He is smug, in-universe handsome and aware of it, EXTREMELY honest to the point of being rude. But he is also the kindest character in the series since he, unlike most of the Beastars cast, is happy about being the kind of animal he is, meaning he is not burdened by self doubt or self loathing. And he spends that mental energy he has plenty of to be kind to his fellow students just... because.

But Pina is a side character. You could argue he is a plot convenience character. But he does have his own solo chapter where he deals with the fact that he is most likely going to be murdered.

In chapter 87, we see Pina flirting with a cute goat girl, something he often does since he is sort of a "player”. But he is losing his touch as he accidental calls his current fling by the wrong name. Forgetting or mixing up names is a classic sign of stress.

And Pina SHOULD be stressed. He KNOWS that Riz is the murderer of Tem.

And he even has negative thoughts that grows worse and worse as the chapter goes on.

Pina starts to think things like he is the right guy to die tragically at the end. He is naturally referring to the school play. But it has a double meaning since he is LITERALLY in danger. As he thinks about his role in the play and how it is sort of a sick reflection of his situation and society(the play is about the grim reaper who reaps the soul of a handsome love interest) he tries to get by through dark humor...

Buuuut then Riz takes him by surprise and sucks his finger to prove his dominance. And we see Pina being sincerely shocked and scared out of his mind for the first time. This smug SOAB actually looks... fragile for once.

This chapter has a somewhat similar feel to chapter 100 where Sebun realizes that she is suicidal. Pina is a nonchalant guy who takes the relationship between meat eaters and vegetarians lightly. He triks himself into thinking that he is that way because he accepts reality for what it is. But the truth is that he HAS to be smug and joke to get through another day. Having reality smack him in the kisser by making Riz suck his finger is so shocking for Pina that he drops his guards and is horrified how relieved he is that the bear actually didn’t eat him. that he is desperate to live. Coping mechanisms can be quite unhealthy.

So... Pina must face the fact that he is scared. How does he handle it?

He declares on stage at the drama club (while playing his role) that he may be afraid, but that is not the same as saying that he has to cower before the bear.

He is terrified, but not paralyzed. He won’t let the psycho bear get the satisfaction of watching him squirm. He may be a handsome twink who is only good at dating chicks for five minute each, but he still has pride enough to face the end standing tall.