u/DevouredSource

Right so to fill in the 200 word requirement I’ll list some notable Iseaki.

Ascendance of a Bookworm: what you get recommend if you’re a real bookworm

The Greatest Estate Developer: absolute water

Konosuba: the definitive parody of the genre

Mushoku Tensei: the discourse around Rudeus as a character should be enough to perpetually provide Tokyo with energy

My Instant Death Ability Is So Owerpowered: Main character Yogiri gets clowned on by powerscalers

Overlord: good early start which devolved into a fine mess

Re:Zero: committed to the fact that dying when you respawn would be incredibly painful

SAO: yes it is a digital world but it still counts

Spirited Away: yes an incredibly old one that is closer to Alice in Wonderland than the modern breed of “portal fantasy”. However it still shows how a main character can go from the normal world to the fantastical.

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Synopsis/recap: The Godfather is a story about a son taking over his father’s business. The end.

“Pretend you wanted it”: can’t you now enjoy all of the onscreen action?

Surrounding topics: Did you know that they recasted the lead of Back to the Future in the middle of filming? Oh and the creators have decided that there won’t be any other movies after the third. Though there is actually a telltale game where…

[Insert emotion]: I have never been laughed louder than when I watched Looney Tunes the Day the Earth Blew Up. Truly this is a modern classic that everybody should watch

Refuse to elaborate: 2001 A Space Odyssey could not be made today for obvious reasons. It is truly the best sci-Fi movie of all time

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I tried to fill the poll with examples, but there are bound to be others.

Regardless Damsel in Distress and Fridging both can lead to accusations of misogyny. Which is why the Mario movies have deviated from the games and John Wick went for a dog dying instead of wife.

Granted it makes for more sense for the villain in John Wick to have messed up by killing a dog than having killed a person.

However characters can get kidnapped or be killed, it is all a matter of execution.

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Keep in mind that you must find most of the material good or at least mid. Which is not the case for the usual suspects discussed here.

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave

By far the weakest connective tissue of all the stories, especially with Gromit going to jail and Wallace taking in all the sheep.

Also how come Gromit gets thrown into jail, but the owner of the robot dog seemingly has to face no consequences for all the sheep stealing?

Not to mention the final battle is anti-climatic since it amounts to running on a treadmill before Shaun sends a bag flying which ends up knocking the robot dog into the death machine.

In general the sheep shenanigans are enough to keep people entertained, but if cool set pieces are the only thing offered then a simpler story like A Grand Day Out is the better option to go for.

Rivalry is in quotation marks since it might be a bit strong off a word and there is often consensus about what counts as bad writing among the hosts. Like Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm could have be given to any of them in the poll.

Regardless which future rants are you looking forward to? Or previous remakes you’d found insightful?

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This post is partly to highlight that EFAP do cover a lot of movies. Oh sure they always go for what they are interested in and you won’t see much indie movies, but there is still plenty of coverage to pick from.

Regardless each “box” only contains one movie per decade. Spanning from the 80s to the current 2020s.

Yes, it does mean that it is rare for EFAP to cover movies before the 80s but shockingly they are interested in movies that came around their lifetimes and modern blockbusters. There is no rule about avoiding movies before the 80s, the only rule is covering and talking about what they want.

Though any notable movies you think deserve a shout out? Regardless of whether EFAP has covered the movie in question or not.

Action: >!Die Hard (80s), Terminator 2 (90s), The Incredibles (2000s), John Wick (2010s), The Batman (2022)!<

Drama: >!The Little Mermaid (80s), Jurassic Park (90s), The Prestige (2000s), Joker (2010s), The Father (2020)!<

Fantasy: >!Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (80s), Toy Story (90s), Lord of the Rings Return of the King (2000s), How to Train Your Dragon (2010s), Nobody (2025)!<

Horror: >!Child’s Play (80s), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (90s), Final Destination 1 (2000s), Jigsaw (2010s), Shelby Oaks (2024)!<

Science Fiction: >!Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (80s), The Matrix (90s), Lilo & Stitch (2000s), Interstellar (2010s), Project Hail Mary (2026)!<

>!Yes, I split Empire and Jedi between Fantasy and Science Fiction due to the notion that Star Wars is actually Science Fantasy.!<

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Velma and Smiling Friends are in the same block due to both being Adult Swim comedies. Well calling Velma a comedy is a stretch, but that is what it tries to be.

Arcane might be a popular pick since at least the visuals of season 2 are pretty.

Some of you may chose One Punch Man since at least the writing still has some worth, but the production value of Season 2 and 3 are far from good.

Still no matter what you choose there is still a risk.

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Due to how longer video games can take than movies the amount is down from around three to just one.

However if the “bullet” hits then you must do a full playthrough of the game in question. Hypothetically speaking of course.

I tried to select game IPs which EFAP have touched upon a lot, which made it easy to decide on the “bullets”.

Though Pokémon is included more so due to have at least one Nintendo pick. Yes, Game Fréak are the ones who make the games but Nintendo still own 1/3 of Pokémon.

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If it isn’t obvious this is just for fun.

Though there isn’t an absolute consensus on whether Garfield’s Spider-Man or Holland’s Spider-Man are worse, so the one you hate the most is the potential “bullet”.

When it comes to classic Disney and Ghibli while there are many acclaimed movies not all of them are stellar. Which is why “choice yourself” is included as the boon.

Admittedly anime filler movies aren’t guaranteed to be bad, but they are quite beholden to the status quo of the TV show which limits the storytelling potential.

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Travis Knight: Wildwood

While I do know upcoming movie is based on a book, I’m not familiar with said book.

However Knight’s prior stop motion movie Kubo and the Two Strings had a solid plot and spectacular visuals.

Hopefully Wildwood is at least on par with Kubo and the Two Strings.

Hiromu Arakawa: Daemons of the Shadow Realm

The Fullmetal Alchemist franchise is one of the most acclaimed anime franchises out there, but it has long since been put to rest.

However the lady behind the two Elric brothers eventually decided to explore a new sibling dynamic with the twins Yuru and Asa.

Still while there is some shared DNA Daemons of the Shadow Realm is not set in the same world as FMA.

There are multiple volumes of the manga to catch up on or you can watch the new anime adaptation that is still being aired.

Nowadays there is an expectation for AAA games to be a certain length. Around 50 hours worth of playtime minimum.

Doesn’t mean that for example the story campaign of COD or Battlefield must be 50 hours, since multiplayer is where most of the playtime is spent on.

However more story driven games like Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 are expected to have a long campaign, only to have a relatively short one.

Of course there are also replayable games which people can sink thousands of hours into like Minecraft, Spelunky, Super Metroid, etc. but they are besides this point unless they also are prices at the standard AAA price which currently ranges from 60-80 USD.

Additionally replayability is irrelevant for some people so it doesn’t factor into the total playtime.

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The inspiration behind this post is The Little Platoon loathing how Bowser Jr. in the Super Mario Galaxy Movie spills out his evil scheme in his very second scene. Thus ruining the potential to have his plan be unraveled as the story progresses.

The Incredibles: the disappearance of superheroes

Not as in them going into hiding after the events of the prologue, but the fact that Syndrome has been using them as fodder to create the perfect Omnidroid.

There are multiple clues and hints before the iconic Project Kronos reveal such as:

- the newspaper Bob is reading saying that Gazerbeam has disappeared, or more so accurately his secret identity

- Bob and Lucius talking about having less contact with other superheroes

- the skeleton of Gazerbeam is a rather overt hint that leads directly to the full scale of what Syndrome has done

Fullmetal Alchemist: the philosopher’s stone

While the 2003 versions did take longer to reach the reveal than the manga/Bortherhood it is still revealed in the first half of the work.

Still the ultimate point as Dr. Marcoh put it: it is the devil’s work. That in order to bypass the normal rules of alchemy you must use human souls.

However while philosopher’s stone themselves are a dead end to Ed and Al getting back their bodies, there are still more details to uncover about their origins and those who employ them.

Both 2003 and the manga/Brotherhood get a lot of mileage of exploring the truth within the truth.

Creative differences can certainly make a lot of friction, sometimes so far as for a creative and a company to split up.

If you have a case in mind that isn’t on the poll then please make a comment about it.

Cristopher Nolan

Pretty simple that Nolan likes cinema and isn’t found of being delegated to streaming.

George Lucas

He certainly willingly sold his company to Disney, though that doesn’t change the fact that all the initial ideas for the ST were thrown out the window.

John Lasseter

Sexual allegations resulted in him leaving Disney and now he is working for Skydance.

Jeffrey Katzenberg

He hated Eisner and founded Dreamworks.

Hideo Kojima

Konami didn’t want to work with him anymore, but Kojima certainly landed on his feet with Kojima Studios and deals with PlayStation.

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Their scheme is not an underpants gnomes’ plan, but rather:

1. make new games or remake/remaster old games

2. make movies related to said games

3. profit due to game sales and box office returns

However instead of actually taking advantage of what makes their games unique they go for a safe and sterile approach.

Meaning we are probably stuck with:

- generic animated action comedy Mario movies: look a power-up

- generic fantasy Zelda movies: look Epona, look a grassy field, look the Triforce, look totally clever Ganondorf

- generic animated action comedy Donkey Kong: iconic Seth Rogen laugh, let us point how absurd fighting over bananas is

- barely any horror atmosphere Luigi’s Mansion: the games have never had any gore, but they still have their moments of dread

While not guaranteed, Nintendo still seem inclined to use safe molds. No matter how unfitting those molds are for the IP on question.

We will for example never get an attempt at a Splatoon movie in the same vein as K-Pop Demon Hunters. That mold isn’t even that complicated and meshes well with Splatoon:

- big climatic song at the climax, which the Splatoon games themselves love to use as seen with the Calamari Inkanation remixes and Ebb & Flow remixes

- main characters are mostly female and Splatoon is heavily skewed towards female idols and the females player character option

However betting on a musical is too risky, so no a potential Splatoon movie won’t take advantage of the games strengths.

Instead if we ever do get a Splatoon movie it will do an Avatar and go for as safe and generic music as possible.

There is something absurd with how Demon Slayer is flourishing financially thanks to being committed to its own identity (hate it if you want but the series has its own style as literally seen with how the attacks are animated), yet Nintendo are all in on watering their content down for mass consumption.

Most likely this will be a battle between Lord of the Rings and the OT.

Admittedly I’m showing bias by including the Cornetto Trilogy on the poll, but while not as famous as the others it is still a stellar trilogy.

Flexibility is also allowed for what counts as a marathon, but all three movies of a trilogy must be watched. Meaning the Godfather might suffer since I’ve heard mixed opinions on the third entry.

If you want to bring up another trilogy, then just make a comment.

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Morbid curiosity counts here, which judging by prior sentiment is Rheinland way Toy Story 5 gets picked here on this sub.

Regardless only Dreamworks and Laika are betting on something new. Though Dreamworks is stuck with Illumination under the Universal umbrella, but they are still currently separate.

Aardman, Illumination, and Pixar are all playing it safe. Though Shaun the Sheep had never overstayed its welcome unlike the Toy Story and the Minions.

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Western TV shows are not the only ones capable of being driven off a cliff.

Now there are potentially a lot of series to being up, so take the poll as inspiration rather than absolute law.

Still to expand upon the shows included in the poll:

Bleach

There is an argument to be made that the recent adaption of the final arc redeemed the show, but there has been plenty of discourse around Bleach which nets it a spot on the poll.

Naruto/Boruto

Milked to death and beyond. The series still makes a profit though so makes sense.

One Punch Man

The first season is one of the greatest seasons of television ever made and then Bandai Namco threw the show at J.C Staff to continue with a season 2.

Season 2 was a mess but the recent Season 3 was so bad the meme One Frame Man was born.

The Promised Neverland

A relatively niche series, but going from an excellent execution of the initial premise to an unmitigated mess is a sight to behold.

While I want to avoid spoiling the first part, suffice it to say the later parts had a Batman V Superman Martha moment.

[Insert initially good Iseaki series here]

This is kind of cheating but Isekai is such a popular genre that it might as well be included. Though keep in mind the first season or at least first episodes must have actually been good, before the quality was isekaied to another show.

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Three dimensional characters is a rather nebulous term, but everybody gets the gist.

However it has to be both character and event/reveal. After all a character does not exist in isolation but is rather dependent on the portrayal in the story.

Lord of the Rings Two Towers: Frodo deciding to give Sméagol a second chance

While abandoning the rest of the Fellowship (aside from Sam that tagged along) after Boromir’s betrayal was a necessity, Frodo giving Sméagol a second chance was not.

It is a major decision Frodo did of his own volition, even if Sam isn’t very enthusiastic about the call.

Additionally Frodo reaching a hand out to Sméagol shows how he chewed in the words Gandalf said about Bilbo’s decision to spare Gollum.

Fate Zero: Kiritsugu Emiya blowing up an airplane

In a lackluster version Kiritsugu would have killed a bunch of strangers to save the many, but no his adoptive mother was on that very plane.

Yet he is relieved for taking down the ghouls that had been made out of all the plane passengers. People were saved this time from dark magic, unlike when he as a child failed to kill his infected childhood friend.

However he can’t find any real solace over having killed the person who had taken him in and taught him to survive.

He can’t do nothing besides breaking down and crying, cursed to kill in order to protect. After all if he didn’t make the harsh decision then even more would have died.

The intention here is more so potential “pallet cleansers” than “improve your media diet”

We ultimately engage with what we want to engage with, it isn’t more complicated than that.

Vinyl and CD

The quality certainly beats the lowest quality offered by streaming. Though a lossless CD and a lossless stream are in theory of the same quality.

VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray

Doesn’t matter which physical media you use, so long as you don’t use a streaming service.

Retro and vintage video game consoles

In a previous poll the 2000’s were the most popular

Books and Audiobooks

You know the good old let your eyes watch something else besides a screen.

Your current collection

There is always stuff to rewatch or a backlog to clear.

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