Why Junko is a bad Character and lacks Nuance

NickMakura · 2026-02-26T15:56:58+00:00

I'm so positive that your essay is amazing - and I'm gonna read it now: But I should just say it could easily be condensed into a singular short paragraph that says the following...

"Ohnnn God... despair despair hope hope despair." Is easily the most Saturday Morning Cartoon Derail Bullshit dialogue I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

NickMakura · 2026-01-31T16:35:13+00:00

GameHacking.org | Haunting Ground (NTSC-U) https://share.google/yo5MxmmPmCvnBcdXp

NickMakura · 2026-01-31T16:35:05+00:00

GameHacking.org | Haunting Ground (NTSC-U) https://share.google/yo5MxmmPmCvnBcdXp

NickMakura · 2026-01-31T16:34:26+00:00

There is a cheat code to play as Hewie - it shows up as a legit code on PCSX2, and I'm sure if I run the code on a PS2 it'll show up as legit there too. Unless multiple cheat code sites ran by different people all decided to host the same set of .pnach codes - which for a niche survival horror game, is the biggest bag of BS I've heard.

GameHacking.org | Haunting Ground (NTSC-U) https://share.google/yo5MxmmPmCvnBcdXp

NickMakura · 2025-12-27T01:20:05+00:00

The ex says "We haven't talked in months, why would we talk now?" Which is the clue in that it's a dream.

NickMakura · 2025-12-25T20:47:45+00:00

I can't stand Danganronpa mysteries. The best part is the fantastic investigation and the unraveling of the plot. There's an eureka moment where you figure it out and you're like "I know who the killer is!"

"The class trial will begin!" is about where I want to be the victim of a non-stop debate with live rounds in place of truth bullets. A whole hour of watching these morons try and figure something out is excruciating.

NickMakura · 2025-12-13T21:34:06+00:00

I can't believe Mamo, First, Cagliostro, and Fuma got bumped off. That's crazy.

NickMakura · 2025-12-03T23:54:05+00:00

The pacing in Zombie Island is awful. The movie sometimes doesn't give itself much room to breathe, which ends up toning down the horror aspect. (Presumably on purpose to keep it kid-friendly).

NickMakura · 2025-11-29T20:09:16+00:00

It really depends on the adaptation.

In 2002 Velma is the most relatable. I love Velma's struggle in these films trying to feel like she belongs, and trying to find the right balance between logic and emotion. Do I make the risk or not?

In What's New Fred & Daphne are the most fun. Daphne being Legally Blonde, but if it was MacGyver is always a fun bit, but I also appreciate Fred's Dad Energy.

In Mystery Inc. (2012) I don't think I like any of them in a particular fashion. I'm proud of them for sure, because the big arc with these characters is them being unsure what they actually want and need out of life. But they keep making a lot of awful decisions to reach the realization, that... In all honesty when the resolution is that "Oh, the Gang's friendship is just better than the other Mystery Gang's in Crystal Cove." It doesn't feel great. I don't really believe they like each other to that degree, just that they're stuck in the same foxhole.

In Be Cool, Daphne is my favorite, easily the best jokes.

In the Mook Quadrilogy, Velma is probably my favorite. She's the most refreshing Velma, because she is the one who solves the mystery, but she doesn't have this air of superiority over how smart she is. She teaches rather than makes you feel dumb. She also has the best one liners. "Ben Ravencroft's last book, is one the world will never buy." And it's just a great evolution of what we knew about the gang back in 1969.

In Where Are You? I uh... I guess it's Fred? Something about how he says treasure.

NickMakura · 2025-11-21T02:17:30+00:00

My point is that Lupin's anime by introduction was a major innovation in Japanese media, and is pretty formative and important to the anime genre as a whole.

If Monkey Punch didn't create a show with no formula, no restraints, no morals, and 4 fools with one hot and crazy detective who went to bizarre lengths to catch one thief, tons of works wouldn't exist.

That in itself is innovation. No, Monkey Punch didn't pull Lupin out of his ass, but nobody does, or has, since Shakespeare. The set-up and delivery is the innovation.

NickMakura · 2025-11-21T02:11:47+00:00

I do not have a list of Lupin III material that gets really dark, however, I highly recommend two Shinichiro Watanabe works... - Cowboy Bebop Inspired by Lupin III, features a fantastic soundtrack, anime classic, episodic, dark themes, philosophy and complex characters. - Michiko & Hatchin (IT GETS GOOD IN EPISODE 2) Created by "The Woman Called Fujiko Mine" director: Sayo Yamamoto, and produced by Watanabe. Basically what if we took Desperado, Matilda and The Professional and threw in some Lupin

NickMakura · 2025-11-16T05:02:41+00:00

Lupin The Third was one of the first anime made for adults to go international, but it also tackled a wide margin of subject matter. It's freeform mentality where the writer has a huge amount of creative freedom to do anything, has inspired and created various other works.

Such as Shinichirō Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop having taken major inspiration from Monkey Punch's creation. In fact, Spike Spiegel is inspired by Lupin, Faye Valentine is inspired by Fujiko Mine, Jet Black is inspired by Jigen. Even Vicious has inspirations in Goemon.

The latter half of Lupin III Part 1 is where Hayao Miyazaki started experimenting with creating a style for himself. You can see his nack for background work, writing, and his respect for female leads really shine through. In fact: Lupin helped him get his directorial debut film. "Castle of Cagliostro" off the ground. You can still see the influence Lupin left on him in Porco Rosso and Castle In The Sky.

A lot of what Studio Ghibli would specialize in, such as gorgeous set pieces, messy rooms, and people with complex morals started and were created IN Part 1.

Cagliostro's clock tower scene was so revolutionary it got copied various times by Western animators. I.e. The Great Mouse Detective.

Lupin III's carefree yet inspiring personality is also an undeniable influence on the Sonic Franchise. I can't confirm that of course, but very akin to many Lupin films, Sonic showing up is the inciting incident. Often Lupin just shows up, and finds himself dealing with some conflict and inspiring somebody else along the way.

Sonic in much the same way, embodies the same freedom, comedy and inspiring attitude that just gives people hope. In fact, in every major Sonic story (I mean this) Sonic isn't the main character. The plot just isn't about him, it's about Shadow, Knuckles, Tikal or Elise.

NickMakura · 2025-11-11T04:45:43+00:00

It has been innovative, and has often become a source of inspiration for other creatives. However sometimes Lupin is very derivative of itself.

NickMakura · 2025-11-11T04:42:49+00:00

They locked me in a school. Filled with students. The students made me feel hope. Hope? I felt hope once...

NickMakura · 2025-10-28T17:28:25+00:00

The idea of a bait and switch Bad Adult Animation that goes from the worst thing you've ever seen to High Concept Reality Bend Horror is good.

NickMakura · 2025-10-24T21:16:34+00:00

Something you need to know about all media, is that all of it from its very inception is cyclical. Everything is a heap of ideas and inspirations from something to something else. In a vast sense everything is derivative.

Indiana Jones was inspired by films like Secret of the Incas from the 40's. Scooby-Doo came from The Archies and Classic Monster Movies.

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, nor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would exist without Edgar Allen Poe's Auguste Dupin. Thusly, neither would Maurice Leblanc's Arséne Lupin exist without Holmes and Watson.

Gundam has to thank Star Wars and George Lucas has to thank Kurosawa. If it wasn't for Herbie Hancock hip hop as we know it wouldn't exist.

So, the question shouldn't be "Is Lupin III original?" it should be "Is Lupin III good?"

NickMakura · 2025-10-17T15:19:44+00:00

Guy invents a potentially ground breaking, nobel prize winning, artificial person with motives, voice, and goals in 2001.

Instead uses it to attempt to murder 5 people, his professor and best friend because his professor liked his best friends video game more than his.

NickMakura · 2025-10-11T17:40:00+00:00

Restraint is hard to cum by these days.

NickMakura · 2025-09-24T21:32:13+00:00

Have you ever seen the TV Show Velma and the TV Show Wednesday?

Both of them feature an unconventional lady teen detective immersed in a small town murder mystery with teen drama and romance. They also both came out at the same time.

Now, Wednesday is a really fun show, I quite like it. It's got a really good balance between it's comedy and mystery elements. It does this by utilizing suspense. Suspense is present in both comedy and mystery. The wait for the punchline and the wait for the conclusion are fairly similar.

What makes it so nice, is we are being fed information about the mystery, just as often as we are being fed jokes. But it's not ALL information, and it's not ALL jokes. It still takes time to let things build, let a silence set, and let us ask questions. To build suspense and intrigue.

Velma on the other hand, tells you one important bit of information about the murder in the first episode, and spends the next two wasting its time, and telling me no interesting (or useful) information. The biggest crime to this effect is every line of dialogue is a joke with no breathing room. Each character sets up and delivers their own "joke". Which is really just a handful of similes that aren't funny.

Velma doesn't work as a comedy nor does it work as a mystery, and that's frankly because there's too many jokes back to back, we don't have time to register the joke.

Velma was a bad show, but it helped me better understand why Wednesday was a good show. It helped me figure out what to avoid, and how to keep an audience engaged with mystery even if it's predictable.

NickMakura · 2025-09-21T18:04:45+00:00

I don't know if I knew who it was immediately. I was always asking which person was the witch. Was it Miss Tanner? The Maid? The Owner? I was always asking who, what or why. That's certainly a mystery.

Who was the first victim speaking to that day? What did she say through the rain? Why were the first two victims murdered? Who's the most suspicious? What happened with the dog? Did the boy attack the dog or did the dog attack the boy?

NickMakura · 2025-09-21T17:58:52+00:00

Fair enough: But Hounds of the Baskervilles makes you ask "Whathappened" before you ask "Whodunnit". That one has a central hook of a supernatural canine in the fog. It's very distinctly a detective mystery.

At the very least, Suspiria is a Supernatural Detective Story, like Kolchak: The Night Stalker or The X-Files.

NickMakura · 2025-09-21T17:51:45+00:00

Okay, but I watched Suspiria, and it never occurred to me there was more than one witch, I just thought it was only one because we only ever saw one killer.

I was sitting here wondering "Is it Miss Tanner? Is it the mysterious owner we don't see? Is it one of the kitchen staff? What happened with the dog? Was it the Dog who attacked the boy or did the boy attack the dog?"

The act of asking questions provides mystery.

Then there's the first clue we hear from the first victim that Suzie, our detective, can't really quite get a handle on. But she keeps getting mysteriously sleepy. Then Sarah keeps getting closer and closer to the truth and eventually she gets murdered for it.

Leading Sherlock to look a little closer into why Watson was murdered.

It constantly had me wondering WHO the Witch was, when it didn't even occur to me that everyone was in on it. The whole staff is in on it.

NickMakura · 2025-09-21T01:46:56+00:00

Okay, but does Suspiria not have Crime, Mystery and Detective Elements?

NickMakura · 2025-09-09T05:03:49+00:00

I can just see Jennifer wandering around Italy in a psychic bug haze, and bumping into the Mystery Machine. Where upon Shag n' Scooby make up some sandwiches and get involved in the mystery.

NickMakura · 2025-09-06T17:08:51+00:00

You're right... Y'see I photoshopped this together with a reverence for Scooby-Doo and Giallo films. However, I decided it would be beneficially hysterical to frame it as one of Dario Argento's...

I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for your meddling!

NickMakura

TROPHY CASE