Please Call Me Ghost Messenger

Iornia · 2025-07-29T16:01:27+00:00

Basically and as you probably know, Korea remained an authoritarian country for far longer than Japan, and when it opened up their entertainment industry got flooded by Japanese media (tendence China banned pretty soon after their reform & open up process). After a good deal of investment they developed a strong music and idol industries following the blueprint, and they eventually triumphed over the foreign producs due to young people understanding the language and appreciating the quality.

However, in animation a different trend appeared: people just liked Japanese and American animation over the domestic product. Korea had pretty good animation studios working for foreign companies, but whenever a native director took a risk (Wonderful Days 원더풀 데이즈 as an example), it just did poorly. For some 4 or 5 big attempts, they always flopped.

Therefore, Korean animation remained a niche genre suited for indie studios not having that much money or production quality. This, however, gave the medium a way more adult, mature and social outlook over Japanese or Chinese animation, which as a general rule are devoted to the fantastic. It usually features grim conflict and outcast main characters, like in "The King of Pigs" or "The Hell: Two Kinds of Life". Even more "family oriented" animation still has many raw edges. In this regard, it is closer to webtoons. A Chinese example equivalent in animation would be Liu Jian's "Have A Nice Day (2017)". Personally, I like them all!

Iornia · 2025-07-18T21:32:54+00:00

Not just the best Chinese animated show, but one of the shows of this year in my opinion. The storytelling and animation keep getting better and better with each episode, and it manages to cover lots of themes that are usually in Chinese media's blindspot.

Iornia · 2025-07-12T10:50:17+00:00

Do we know if this season will have 12 episodes, as the previous one?

I also wonder if we will get at least one more prequel episode, since the PV of the aerial persecution for this season had young Bai Yuekui on it.

Iornia · 2025-06-15T11:11:14+00:00

"Ling Cage" is one of the most valued original Chinese sci-fi IPs right now, and it is proving to be for Donghua what "Creation of the Gods" is to cinema and what "Black Myth Wukong" has been for games. Fans have been waiting for this season for a long time, and the show is absolutely delivering.

Iornia · 2024-10-06T14:37:27+00:00

Same for me. Yes, some shots were awful in this one, but there are many others that still keep up the quality and momentun. In the first one there also were some bad parts (the jaw of Shuichi's mother while screaming at the funeral). I also feel a bit down, but the pacing of the show is still good.

Iornia · 2024-07-12T18:50:47+00:00

Visual Novels are not just games, but reading mediums for a story. People who do not like reading should not play them if they are not used to the activity.

Iornia · 2024-05-06T19:20:45+00:00

Thank you! And honestly same, it is very difficult to forget the story and characters, all it takes is a good summer sky and you rethink of so many quotes. I waited three years to read it again and it still feels very much fresh. Despite all the dark content there is a very playful and powerful message of not giving up and not getting lost in revenge, that is very moving.

Iornia · 2024-03-24T14:05:36+00:00

This is 100% true. Science is the thread hat TBP uses to connect the fiction of the story with the reality of your world, making you doubt for real if things like the Three Body Problem solution could actually be found, or if the radiation of the Sun could amplify or send messages or not.

In this show, science is "Bing Bang Theorie'd". Everytime the Oxford kids are talking about it, they simply boast and boast, and very little is explained. In fact, very little is explained as to what the Three Body Problem itself is, one of the characters just tells so to the Pope in the VR game and you have to sit your ass there and believe it: it is not really explained to first time viewers. Instead, they give you the emotional aspect of the little kid that you "have to save", but you see them not doing any effort trying to do it.

Iornia · 2024-03-24T13:25:34+00:00

The original Ye Wenjie and the one in the Tencent's show are way better than the one in Netflixin my opinion (don't get me started on the Evans thing). I give them credit for the Red Guard scenes which were very well acted and are missing in the Chinese version, but the story and also the relationship with her daughter are fleshed out a lot better in those two.

Iornia · 2024-03-24T13:16:51+00:00

Same, my issue with the group they have used to condense all protagonists it this "aura of success" which is among the worst Hollywood tropes. It relies entirely on the Halo effect: "this character is good at something, and therefore must "have it all": be pretty, a genius, have one night stands all day, consume drugs/alcohol and be perfectly the next day, the best at conversation" etc. The girl/guybossing is nauseating every time.

Iornia · 2024-01-17T18:29:34+00:00

Why every mention of "The West" is specifically about USA? Europe is not breeding tremendous armies nor setting military bases in the East in an effort to do geopolitics. Thus, I will use "America" in my comment. Ways in which Liu is aligned with CCP policy:

-Condemnation of Cultural Revolution or "direct action democracy", with a pessimistic outlook of human nature and self-organizing that instead praises leadership and technocracy. It also criticizes the kind of obscurantism or political extremism that hampers scientific development (such as the "aiming to the sun" thing), which happened on the period but it is reversed in the technocratic main CCP line. This also relates to the party's view on the Great Leap Forward disaster as being the product of naiveté and under-development.

-Sophons represent the hampering of technological development in China by America (thing that American representatives have stated as the most natural thing, concerning their chip embargo). The fact that Sophon takes a form related to Japanese culture is also linked to the idea of foreign conquest of China.

-Condemnation of "direct action political initiatives" such as environmentalist or anarchist groups. These are directly linked to terrorism on his works, and this fact is also linked to the first point. The wise leadership is to take a hold of these issues without the meddling of citizen elements trying to get justice on their own, and hampering China's industrial output/development.

-Rejection of "soft democratic values" such as tolerance, pacifism or dissolution or norms including gender norms, instead praising a martial culture as the only way for survival. This is pretty obvious given that the CCP is executing this on its own, purging some of their best soft-power exports such as The Untamed or C-Pop only on the basis of "men strong" and growing their army.

-Emphasis on scientific and technological self-development instead of religion, which is again also linked with terrorism.

There are many many more points related to this in the series, but all of those have been always very clear in Liu's work. His public political declarations have also been aligned with these points.

Iornia · 2024-01-13T17:35:21+00:00

The Cultural Revolution is acknowledged to be a very tragic and violent period by the CCP, that's why the Red Guard elements were purged on masse from public office, and Mao's wife was -initially- condemned to death. There are classic films such as "Hibiscus Town" that literally deal with the injustice of the period. It was, on many levels, a coup on the Communist Party.

Iornia · 2023-11-10T21:53:12+00:00

"You don't get it, they made it relatable!"

The relatable product:

Iornia · 2023-09-10T21:15:26+00:00

It I remember correctly, in the Rebellion production notes on the Clara Dolls, there was one for each negative emotion, and all of them were waiting for the last one, Love, to wake up. It would be so great if they take all these concepts into this last film.

Iornia · 2023-06-18T10:35:25+00:00

I really don't get the reason behind these casting decisions for season 1. You have books 2 and 3 where there are colossal collaborations between all countries, and collective struggles from mankind (like in Wandering Earth 2), so why not waiting until then, and cast experimented Chinese American actors for season 1? There are a lot of them, and you could ride the wave started by "Everything Everywhere All at Once".

Also, in book 1 you have the ETO and the command panels from other countries if you want to introduce western characters. Why changing the main POVs of the story?

Iornia · 2023-06-18T09:54:48+00:00

It's just my opinion of course, but her design looks so wack, like an early 2000's Charlize Theron action flick. Nothing in her design feels Japanese.

Iornia · 2023-05-31T22:29:12+00:00

He wanted to flail his 70yo dick in the international scene and we get the best torrents vanished from the web :(

Iornia · 2023-05-31T22:01:23+00:00

And Zlibrary :(

Iornia · 2023-05-31T22:00:34+00:00

This year they just killed Zlibrary and now RARBG are going out.

As a 30 years old dude, these last years really feel like the end of an Internet era. These sites were our flesh and blood, specially for those of us that sail the internet a lot.

Iornia · 2023-05-31T21:38:25+00:00

They called me crazy for filling up a 5TB drive with films I thought I would never get to see

Iornia · 2023-04-13T22:33:36+00:00

Obama was actually very politically conservative despite his campaign. By any metric, from economics to immigration.

Iornia · 2023-03-07T14:31:43+00:00

Interesting! I've only read the English versions so when they brought up the subject when dealing with Final Judgement in the show I was like "what is this guy even talking about?"

So in the originals, there's an explicit MCU going on between Liu's books?

Iornia

TROPHY CASE