2320. Voltron, Ben 10 and the new Anime

Voltron is back! As a tremendous fan of the classic and straight up hater of the last efforts to evolve something from that classic, I’m very happy. This is what a reboot ought to do. This is a show that takes some of the key tenets of the original as well as some of the funner aspects developed along the way and adds just enough of the intelligent writing and conflict driven scenarios reflective of a new generation to make it feel original. I was a fan of Ben 10 and while the art is highly reminiscent of that show, the work here was done by the team who did The Legend of Korra. You can see their fingerprints on every panel and in the way the action unfolds throughout each scene. The elements of classic anime abound.

People are going to make of the new series what they will. For example, one of the characters is being portrayed by some outlets as a transgender character. That characterization falls terribly short of the truth. In truth the character is has shown no proclivities towards sexual orientation one way or the other. Instead the character is following a classic trope to avoid detection and a reduced sense of equality. In other words, this is based on the idea of gender roles as opposed to any real desires on the part of the character.

Though only six episodes into the first season, I’ve already connected my dynotherms and activated my interlocks for the long term. This is a reboot of a classic of my generation that I am going to enjoy sharing with the new generation of talisleggers.

2319. Twitchy

Today some dude in a powder blue polo knock off just got named Madden 2016 champion. Its a thing. Really. The 2017 cash pool is a million dollars. The cash value of the grand prize for the NBA 2k16 Road to the Finals tourney that ended on June 1st was 256K. In other words, gaming is big money. Not just the playing of the game but the podcasting of the games and vlogging and live streaming through Twitch, etc. In fact, the top twitch streamer is someone named Syndicate who has over 38 million channel views. That is crazy coverage. That is also the new media and part of a world of digital sports that have built a realm of digital communication around itself.

With that thirst for communication comes the requisite seedy side and, of course, profit. Those two walk hand in hand and mostly take human form as buxom female gamers who do everything but get nude in order to curry more views. Is it working? Yep. There are multiple top ten lists of the hottest twitch streams out there. Some are straight up posing like porn stars. Others are legit gamers who are also playing on their looks to build a following. Of course they are. This is a business and this is really big money nowadays.