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rineneli

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I'd like to announce my new serialized web novel, The ZIL Organization! You can find it at www.thezil.org

"Roughly halfway between the fall of the Soviet Union and today, a group of well intentioned Benefactors came together. They found some promising young people whose lives were threatened and rescued them.

Seeing the potential in these young people, the Benefactors granted them some assistance and mentored them and trained them. They formed a team called ZIL. (ZIL means shadow in several languages.) Then they embarked on a journey of self discovery, development and to do good deeds.

This is their story."

ZIL is free to read. I haven't settled my patreon account, but only content like side stories, adult oriented material and illustrations will be paywalled.

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The Zanzibar Organization will be reorganized and rebooted!


The first volume of my serialized novel, The Zanzibar Organization, will be put on hiatus.

ZZO is actually the sequel to ZIL, and set a few decades later.


In the past year that I wasn't posting ZZO, I was working on ZIL and other ZZO characters. I started with four main characters, but ZZO will eventually have a vast cast of characters, so it's actually a lot of work.


I plan to do a partial reboot of ZZO, separating the ecchi content from the more serious content and also from the main action content. This threefold separation will suit action-oriented/ mainstream readers; those who want deeper/ serious content; and those who like adult content. So ZZO has to be seriously reorganized, and will be on hiatus for a while.


I might also launch ZZO's side stories first, since I'm eager to give them some exposure!

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I am not a fan of Sailor Moon (never even watched it). But recently I have been looking at live action of anime like Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon, so today youtube gave me this (after presumably running out of live action for animes that I do watch).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fFqcxAfU4

Actually got quite intrigued. Because computers are getting better and better. The 'real life' versions here are not actual models wearing makeup, but AI-rendered. It's gotten to the point where if you don't tell me these are created by AI, I would assume it's some Japanese or Korean cosplayer who has gone through some eyelid surgery plus makeup and hair extensions. Even looking carefully, most of them look like 'real human who did some photoshopping to make themselves more attractive).

In another 20-30 years I wonder if we will be seeing 'live action anime remakes' that are actually based on AI renditions of the original anime. I would definitely prefer that over Hollywood products.

Would love to see 'live action Transformers' that are a remake of The Movie, over anything Michael Bay has ever offered or has to offer or wants to propose offering.

btw if anyone is interested in a live action Black Lagoon...

This is intriguing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7crkXF9kSb8 . If only because some of the 'live action versions' may actually be the real-life character models for Rei Hiroe to draw his manga. I'd be betting on Chow Yun Fatt and Maggie Q, who were well known to Japanese in the 1990s when Rei Hiroe started work on Black Lagoon. Samuel Jackson and Uma Thurman are also quite likely, given the influence that Pulp Fiction had on the public consciousness by the time Rei Hiroe started Black Lagoon.

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I'm just voicing my thoughts, throwing in my two cents' worth. Don't take what I say too seriously (I know some people are very passionate and this might offend them.)

Since I am not a professional reviewer nor am I posting this on some review site, I'm really saying what I want to say rather than structuring this as some kind of review for others to decide whether they want to watch the movie.

I've read the six books of the Dune universe written by Frank Herbert and one by his son, Dune: House Atreides. I have skimmed some of Brian Herbert's other Dune books, but was disengaged enough that I didn't really absorb much. I think I've 'read' more than 11 Dune books in total but just never got too deeply into Brian's works. It's not because Brian is a bad writer; it's more like because his books focused on individual side stories, they naturally lacked some of his father's grand visions.

Always have had my own ambivalence about Dune. The series has enormous strengths of course, but also enormous weaknesses and plot holes big enough to drive a solar system through.

One of Dune's biggest weaknesses by far is the relatively limited cast. A universe with trillions of people, and maybe half the main characters plus institutional players have been introduced in just the first book (some get reincarnated, and some, even if not reincarnated, are hardly their own selves!). I know it makes things easier to write and plot and remember. But it simplifies things too much to the point of caricature/ stereotype.

War and Peace would be a better example of how big an epic needs to be. At least 500 characters. Or AsolaF, with nearly 800 characters. Someone online documented 32000 'interactions' between the AsolaF characters! (How did George RR Martin keep all these in his head, I don't know.)

I gave up on A Song of Ice and Fire because I just didn't want to devote that much brainpower to all these characters especially when I have a strong inclination towards non fiction. But I still think that there's no way around it: quality does require a certain minimum quantity.

I once read a comment from a scholar of Chinese history. This scholar observed that China has a long history, a big population, a lot of documentation by scholars, and due to being relatively developed since ancient times - a lot of interactions between its people. The scholar said there are at least 500,000 characters of at least some importance throughout Chinese history. So for someone to really understand Chinese history, and not just a small part or a limited topic, one would have to become familiar with tens of thousands of named figures.

Dune is basically trying to encompass the universe with under a hundred characters, which results in a huge loss of richness and depth.

Anyway, I couldn't help this reaction to Dune the movie: it's boring. It's sparse. It's arid (pun intended).

As per my usual custom I was watching on a faster speed, and even on 1.5x it was too slow moving. This movie could easily have been much shorter.

If you wanted to go the other direction, then you should make the movie longer, and in turn give all characters adequate airtime, so that all factions are introduced.

The production values are good. The visuals - backdrop, architecture, sets - are excellent. The ornithopters are really fun to watch in action because they so much resemble real dragonflies. I was surprised to hear later that there isn't even a single working 'thopter model - all the wing movements are CGI.

Yet there are still things that don't come off right.

Most especially the sense that there are just not enough unique people and factions in this universe to justify all these titanic and planetary struggles. There are big fight scenes, but these are just chaotic jumbles of people whom you don't care about fighting. Dune already had a simplified number of factions and individuals - the United States House is far more complicated. And now this movie has simplified things even more to the point where it's basically just the Atreides vs Harkonnens plus Emperor dealing in oblique fashion.

I don't know if this is a result of filming during pandemics. But Chinese, Japanese and Indian movies will definitely use lots of extras. Consider the Kurosawa movie Ran for instance. Or the Chinese movie Hero.

Now I also want to praise a certain directorial decision.

I liked it very much that they turned Liet Kynes into a black woman.

In the novel, Liet Kynes was a man. But gender or race were never important for Liet Kynes. In fact, I could have gone even further.

Even back in the 1980s when I read Dune, and before the current level of gender/ transgender awareness in our world, I had this vague notion of Liet Kynes as hermaphrodite.

This must have been because Liet Kynes was portrayed as both an environmentalist/ ecologist, and an imperial bureaucrat of sorts. He performed 'male' and 'female' roles, nurturing plants surreptiously even while answering to bureaucratic patriarchy. Right from the start Kynes was walking in multiple worlds - eg assimilating into the Fremen and leading them even while retaining the trust and support of the Emperor, traveling and communicating between different factions in Dune, etc.

Anyway, I think the casting of Liet Kynes was a superb choice. It really gives an underrepresented demographic some airtime in a pivotal character - while challenging our preconceptions. After all, why does Liet Kynes have to be a white man?

But there is also some unhappiness with the overall casting, and I thought I'd mention this here because most reviewers will have missed this.

Some associations of MENA people have pointed out the total lack of actors of middle eastern background. As they point out, Dune is heavily based on their culture - the world of the Arabs and the Muslims. Yet all main characters are non-MENA people.

I do feel that if you're shooting in a different country, you should hire local actors as extras. In this era where we're concerned about shipping things around the globe and the high carbon impact of flying, do you really need to hire actors from far away? Desert scenes were filmed in the UAE and Jordan. I hope they made a serious effort to hire local extras.

It's a pity that Dune could not have been filmed in the locations where it would have been most resonant: either Saudi Arabia or the Sahel. I've always imagined that Frank Herbert got inspiration for the Fremen's blue eyes and so-called spice addiction from the Indigo people - the Tuareg, who wear blue and usually have their skins dyed indigo as a result of dye running off their clothing.

Hans Zimmer score was praised by many people, but I just didn't feel it was particularly good. As the saying goes, ymmv - your mileage may vary. It really wasn't memorable, unless you like bagpipes.

Unfortunately to me, Bagpipes symbolize British imperialism and not freedom or democracy or anything that you might want to praise the Atreides for. To me, the Atreides are merely more benevolent dictators than the Harkonnen.

And that is a big problem with Dune in general. The books were totally undemocratic. Now if you want to praise a future benevolent dictatorship more than 10000 years in the future, that's fine with me. But don't try to sell me the notion that House Atreides are somehow the good guys and everybody loves them.

Even 10000 years in the future, that's unbelieveable.

Humans have always had their tendencies towards both freedom and dictatorship. In good times everybody wants to be free. In bad times people look for strong leadership.

Or else endless political gridlock makes people long for strong leadership. While a stable situation with no foreign threat makes people feel that they don't need a centralized autocracy.

In any case the entire Dune series of books, as well as the Dune movie itself, do not give me the impression that there's a legit reason to love the Atreides faction. These guys are the heroes because they're cast that way, not because their cause is so just or worth believing in.

Having some historical background helps.

The Holy Roman Empire, which the Landsraad is loosely based on, was not a centralized autocracy. It always had its quasi-democratic free cities and communities that functioned as republics.

While war was commonplace, limited war was also part of the landscape. In general their many wars featured limited deaths and destruction, simply because there was so much usage of mercenaries on all sides. Mercenaries are in war to make a living, so they won't risk their lives too much. There's no point being too vicious or aggressive against other mercenaries who could be their future comrades. Furthermore they need to make their living sustainable. If they totally destroyed everything on behalf of one ruler, they'll end up with no future employers except their current employer - and no reason for this employer to keep them on the payroll because everything has been unified under one ruler!

Dune's battles, both in the books and the movie, feature too much fighting to the death. Even during the most vicious fighting in WW2, many soldiers retained basic humanity. Few battles resulted in the total slaughter of the losing party.

Even on the very brutal Eastern Front where POWs had a very low chance of survival, relatively few POWs were ever killed in cold blood - nearly all POW deaths occurred via cold, malnutrition and disease in POW camps, tucked away from the consciousness of active duty soldiers. It's not human nature to murder shamelessly. Most people prefer to call for criminals to 'rot in prison'. Hardly anybody wants to be the hangman.


(There are a couple of interesting historical manga series about executioners. Samurai Executioner and Innocent. Both feature historical characters with their real life dilemmas. Even hundreds of years ago when life was cheaper and people were accustomed to a high death rate, nobody wanted to be executioners.)

It escapes me how all factions in Dune are able to completely secure their troops' loyalty and fanaticism, and to fight in a manner that completely eliminates the other side. I have never bought into the notion that Harkonnen and Sardaukar troops are so hateful that they won't surrender in a losing situation, or that the Atreides/ Fremen will never take prisoners. The idea that you can slaughter everybody and not expect this to affect your troop morale and loyalty is too computer-gamerish.

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Here is a charming little exchange from the original Cowboy Bebop anime. Only 78 seconds. Yet it brings out so much of what the live action missed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5x6WG-1T4

Tensions:

Spike and Jet didn't like Faye all that much in the anime. There was always this level of mutual antagonism. They were allies the way bounty hunters or mercenaries become allies - just very different people thrown towards working together because they needed each other's skills and resources.

There was friction almost every episode in the anime. It wasn't a 'hostile working environment' from anybody's bigotry; it was a 'harsh working environment' because life in the Bebop universe is harsh with high income inequality and lots of people struggling to survive. Our characters bickered all the time because they didn't have the resources to pursue two leads simultaneously.

I was horrified in the live action that Jet so easily accepted Faye on his ship, and Faye so happily joined despite her trust issues.

And the whole thing about Jet getting Faye an antique videotape player was completely wrong. In the anime they devoted an entire episode to hunting down the correct machine. That's a very realistic anecdote, when sometimes such important secrets are locked in a hard to access format and you literally have to travel the solar system to find the right machine.

In the live action, Jet just played the rich godfather or something, and got Faye a videotape player without any difficulties or even charging her a cent. Just like that, this cheapened the entire process of finding out Faye's past.

Chemistry:

Faye and Spike had chemistry in the anime, but due to their personal trust issues they couldn't get any further. Instead they resorted to mutual name calling and insults.

This spark is missing in the live action. They may not call each other names, but they aren't really that engaged with each other either. It comes across more like a US corporate environment, where they work in different cubicles.

Subtlety:

A lot of the emotional subtext in the original anime was buried beneath insults because nobody wanted to look vulnerable. Spike definitely played the role of Male Jerk quite well. But when Faye is not around, Spike is not afraid to show another man that he does treat her words seriously.

Consistency:

Spike mentions not wanting to eat out of a styrofoam cup all the time. The anime was full of such references and incidents that convey the image of HUNGER. These are bounty hunters, they're hungry, they're not very successful, they lead hard lives. And to a lesser extent,

The live action is not so consistent at portraying hunger. That's a big part of why I found the post-coital scene between Faye and the mechanic so wrong. Both women were clearly too well fed, too comfortable, too easily fulfilled.

That orgasm talk showed how badly the scriptwriter missed the point. Anime Faye couldn't have gotten orgasms. Even if anime Faye were to have sex, she would probably be too tense during intercourse, thinking about ways to scam her john or steal something important.

Yes, that may reflect what middle class white women in their 40s and 50s may want. After all, they're a big part of the original demographic that watched Cowboy Bebop in the 1990s. But these women have forgotten what it was like for them in the 1990s. When they first watched Cowboy Bebop in the 1990s, they were college students and entry level employees. Pretty near the bottom of the pecking order.

The original anime drew a lot from the musical traditions of Bebop, Jazz, Blues. For very good reason. The original black musicians were poor, hungry, marginalized people who sang to a similar crowd. That's why their music was so resonant with both black people, and the hungry, unwashed masses of European immigrants.

The live action is more comparable with white suburban people singing and playing the blues. They're not getting it. They don't get it that you have to be a Hard Luck Woman, or that Real Folk have Real Problems.

They've forgotten their youthful struggles.

And this makes the live action Cowboy Bebop so weak.

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