Stanning And Politicking

he's so clingy

(comm info/ kofi support)

taking care of them, even after death.

“For some time, Hollywood has marketed family entertainment according to a two-pronged strategy, with cute stuff and kinetic motion for the kids and sly pop-cultural references and tame double entendres for mom and dad. Miyazaki has no interest in such trickery, or in the alternative method, most successfully deployed in Pixar features like Finding Nemo, Toy Story 3 and Inside/Out, of blending silliness with sentimentality.”

“Most films made for children are flashy adventure-comedies. Structurally and tonally, they feel almost exactly like blockbusters made for adults, scrubbed of any potentially offensive material. They aren’t so much made for children as they’re made to be not not for children. It’s perhaps telling that the genre is generally called “Family,” rather than “Children’s.” The films are designed to be pleasing to a broad, age-diverse audience, but they’re not necessarily specially made for young minds.”

“My Neighbor Totoro, on the other hand, is a genuine children’s film, attuned to child psychology. Satsuki and Mei move and speak like children: they run and romp, giggle and yell. The sibling dynamic is sensitively rendered: Satsuki is eager to impress her parents but sometimes succumbs to silliness, while Mei is Satsuki’s shadow and echo (with an independent streak). But perhaps most uniquely, My Neighbor Totoro follows children’s goals and concerns. Its protagonists aren’t given a mission or a call to adventure - in the absence of a larger drama, they create their own, as children in stable environments do. They play.”

“Consider the sequence just before Mei first encounters Totoro. Satsuki has left for school, and Dad is working from home, so Mei dons a hat and a shoulder bag and tells her father that she’s “off to run some errands” - The film is hers for the next ten minutes, with very little dialogue. She’s seized by ideas, and then abandons them; her goals switch from moment to moment. First she wants to play “flower shop” with her dad, but then she becomes distracted by a pool full of tadpoles. Then, of course, she needs a bucket to catch tadpoles in - but the bucket has a hole in it. And on it goes, but we’re never bored, because Mei is never bored.”

“[…] You can only ride a ride so many times before the thrill wears off. But a child can never exhaust the possibilities of a park or a neighborhood or a forest, and Totoro exists in this mode. The film is made up of travel and transit and exploration, set against lush, evocative landscapes that seem to extend far beyond the frame. We enter the film driving along a dirt road past houses and rice paddies; we follow Mei as she clambers through a thicket and into the forest; we walk home from school with the girls, ducking into a shrine to take shelter from the rain; we run past endless green fields with Satsuki as she searches for Mei. The psychic center of Totoro’s world is an impossibly giant camphor tree covered in moss. The girls climb over it, bow to it as a forest-guardian, and at one point fly high above it, with the help of Totoro. Much like Totoro himself, the tree is enormous and initially intimidating, but ultimately a source of shelter and inspiration.”

“My Neighbor Totoro has a story, but it’s the kind of story that a child might make up, or that a parent might tell as a bedtime story, prodded along by the refrain, “And then what happened?” This kind of whimsicality is actually baked into Miyazaki’s process: he begins animating his films before they’re fully written. Totoro has chase scenes and fantastical creatures, but these are flights of fancy rooted in a familiar world. A big part of being a kid is watching and waiting, and Miyazaki understands this. When Mei catches a glimpse of a small Totoro running under her house, she crouches down and stares into the gap, waiting. Miyazaki holds on this image: we wait with her. Magical things happen, but most of life happens in between those things—and there is a kind of gentle magic, for a child, in seeing those in-betweens brought to life truthfully on screen.”

A.O. Scott and Lauren Wilford on “My Neighbor Totoro”, 2017.  

every time this shows up on my blog, I’m rescheduling it to show up again at a later date so I can keep remembering how important a child’s perspective is.

This has been sitting in my notepad for months now. I had no intention of sharing it because it’s just pure comforting self indulgence I wrote for myself after reading the manga, but I can’t stop thinking about the trio. I really love Hayakawa family. 🥺

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Waking up to the smell of cinnamon and freshly brewed coffee and the sound of two very loud voices coming from the living room. A third voice chimes in, softer and quieter than the others. “Be quiet, y/n is alseep!”

You stifle a laugh as you get out of bed, slightly shivering from the chilly weather. You turn and see the sweatshirt Aki left folded up on the dresser for you and smile. You stretch and sigh contently, slipping the warm sweater on and heading out to join the others. You are greeted by Power first who yells enthusiastically “Y/n is awake! Good morning y/n!” with fork and knife in hand as she bangs them on the table impatiently waiting for the breakfast Aki’s prepared for you all to enjoy this morning. Denji gives you a sleepy “Morning, y/n.” as he yawns. You give them a wave and a smile telling them good morning too as you walk over to the kitchen to Aki.

Aki’s face lights up when he sees you, he gives you a soft smile as you wrap your arms around his side. He places a kiss to the top of your head. “Morning, sorry if they woke you. I was trying to keep them quiet but that’s easier said than done.” He sighs.

You smile up at him, lifting your head from his shoulder. At times, it really does feel as if you and Aki are the parents and Denji and Power are your troublesome kids. “It’s fine. I was awake already.”

day 29: wendell & wild (2022)

Bats illuminated by lightning

That’s about as Halloween as it gets….

Oooo bitch ain’t this THE MOOD!

Louder!

This this this!

👏👆🏻👏👆🏻

halloween pochitas

i dont know exactly how to articulate this in a way other people havent but everything is too fast now. 24/7 news cycle, online focuses that last for hours instead of months or years, songs written just so ten seconds can go viral. movies and books churned out to meet some nebulous income quota. idk. im motion sick

The fact that Anya wears a bunch of outfits during the cruise arc while Yor was busy working supports what most of us suspect already - Twilight is totally the one who picks out all the cute clothes for his daughter

New official Naruto art 😍❤️

My two recent narusasu drawings for snsmonth!

-No Country For Old Men

-Texas Chainsaw Massacre

-Sadako vs Kayako

-Jacob’s Ladder

-Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

"Don't forget 3 Oct" I say as I post this on 4 Oct

I just loooove how both of their energies match sooo much ❤️