Quarantine Control #75: Everything Flows Over Eternity’s Wall Tomorrow, Rick

DC Staff | September 9, 2021 | Animation, Features, Movies, Television | No Comments

It’s tempting to stop paying attention to the news to avoid the newest info about the mass death still occurring in the world, thanks to a virus that should have no longer been a problem in first-world countries by now. But it’s also good to stay informed about what’s happening. The lesson here is to consume it in moderation. There’s nothing wrong with looking away for a bit, as long as it’s not to the point where you have no idea what’s happening. Whichever choice made here remains a vast improvement over believing horse deworming medication usage is a better alternative to getting vaccinated.

Geoffrey Barnes

The Tomorrow War (2021)
Source: Amazon Prime Video
Episodes: 1 movie (with a sequel coming)

One glance at the scenario and a trailer for The Tomorrow War is enough to know what anyone should expect from the film. The scenario is viewed through the lens of Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), family man with a military background passed over for a promotion. But he gets his chance to fight when a military from Earth’s future arrives in the present time demanding help with fighting an alien force, with the latter getting the upper hand. Humanity’s numbers have dwindled to perilous numbers by 2051, to the point that a draft needs to be instated for every able-bodied person to travel to the future to fight. There’s a promising premise here, but the action-focused trailers were enough to show how there was no chance this movie would fully explore every possibility too deeply. Hell, it doesn’t even try.

It doesn’t take long for questions to manifest. How was the team from the future able to transport a bunch of people to the past, and take even more people to the future with them? How come the federal government and smaller state and local governments were okay with this? How come most of the citizens and government officials immediately believed them and largely agreed with sending American citizens to future locations? Will saving the future create some kind of alternate timeline? The last question there could be reserved for a sequel, which is pretty-much confirmation. But it’s unforgivable that the others are barely addressed, if they are at all, a sign that the production team didn’t want to think too deeply.

Not that any of this is surprising given the kind of movie it is: It is very, very much a shut-your-brain-off dumb sci-fi film. For that purpose, it mostly works.

The story of Forester being a military man who eventually fights the kind of war no one in the movie’s universe envisioned is nothing new, and The Tomorrow War does little interesting with the dynamic. So it’s good, then, that it’s also the kind of concept that could coast by if accompanied by a bunch of dumb-fun action. In that way, it ends up delivering as an entertaining-enough way to spend a little more than two hours.

The pacing isn’t too good early on with the establishment of Forester’s normal life, thanks to some shoddy writing. But it doesn’t take too long to get to the action, the movie’s strong point. The action set pieces in indoor and outdoor locations are well done, and the alien designs were made and rendered with great CG work, good enough to not take anyone out of the experience. Once the action starts, it doesn’t let up.

The movie’s premise wouldn’t be out of place in a SyFy Original movie (assuming they still make those?) or one from the garbage churners at the Asylum. For all its flaws, in fairness this movie’s concept is better realized than any of those, which tend not to show their poorly-designed creatures until the second half of the film. I’d be surprised if they weren’t at least working on their own clone as of this writing. The concept makes it a miracle that the movie contains such good acting talent, including Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, and JK Simmons, all of whom outperform many of the lesser-known actors. Don’t mistake this as me complaining too hard, because I love dumb movies. I only wish the writing wasn’t as sloppy and that the overall plot was given a bit more thought, even by the standards of this kind of film.

Yet, it appears to have paid off. The Tomorrow War was exactly the kind of dumb action film audiences like to see over the summer, in theaters and — as this movie shows — at home with a direct-to-streaming release. It explains why a sequel has already been green lit. The movie story doesn’t leave itself wide open for a follow-up, but I’m sure they’ll come up with something. I just hope they actually give some thought to it, but perhaps I’m already expecting too much. Or maybe they’ll surprise me.

Angela Moseley

I could go on about the terrible situation with COVID, but I’m sure Geoff has that covered in the introduction paragraph. Instead, I’m going to talk about the fact that we’re nearly half-way into September and a huge anniversary is fast approaching. That’s right, on Saturday it will have been 20 years since the horrific events of September 11^th, 2001. Sure, I could have rushed out a fitting movie or another piece of media ahead of the event, but I’d rather save my actual thoughts for Saturday. Let’s switch topics again and talk about something else controversial.

Rick and Morty, Season 5 (2021)
Source: Adult Swim
Episodes: 10

The best thing to come out of Adult Swim ordering 70 episodes of Rick and Morty is that long waits between seasons seem to be effectively over. A year’s wait versus two or three years feels like a godsend. At ten episodes per season, we’re guaranteed about another six seasons. As for season five’s overall quality—it was a mixed bag. The highs were really high and the lows were very low. Even so, there wasn’t a single episode in this season I truly hated– although “Rickdependence Spray” almost pushed that envelope a little too hard with the incest angles.

Rick and Morty is an episodic series with sprinklings of serialization in each season. It is easier to talk about overall themes compared to a synopsis because each individual episode would have to be broken down. In fact, I had this very dilemma in Quarantine Control #9. If season four was about Rick losing control of the Smith family, then season five was Morty’s growing independence from Rick. He’s slowly realizing for himself how toxic and one-sided their relationship is as highlighted in six out of the ten episodes.

The season started off strong, the middle of the season sagged, and the season finale was one of the best in the series. Episode one and three, “Mort Dinner Rick Andre” and “A Rickconvenient Mort” respectively are still two of my favorite episodes. They showcase how Morty wishes to live his own life and will rebel against Rick at times. Unsurprisingly, both have to do with Morty potentially finding love and how it all goes sideways for the teenager. In one case because Rick didn’t fully explain the ramifications of using a time dilation doorway, Morty’s actions inadvertently cause an entire civilization to be built and quickly advanced around exacting revenge against his actions. All over a couple bottles of wine. In the other episode Morty falls for and rescues an expy of Captain Planet named Planetina who goes from an eco-heroine to an eco-terrorist. As a result, he has one of the most gut-wrenching break ups I’ve seen since Bojack Horseman.

Another standout episode was episode eight, “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort” which actually helps lead into episode ten, “Rickmurai Jack.” Episode eight establishes more of Rick’s backstory as he seeks to fix and revive his best friend, Bird Person who was deactivated as Phoenix Person in episode ten (“Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri”) of season four. In trying to save Bird Person’s life, it’s revealed that Rick wasn’t completely lying about his backstory in the premier of season three (“The Rickshank Rickdemption”). His wife Diane and a young Beth really were killed by a random asshole Rick hailing from a different universe. Not only that, but at some point he went on a revenge rampage against other Ricks across the multiverse before settling down with a Beth who was abandoned by her father in yet another universe.

This is further expanded in “Rickmurai Jack” as the details were fleshed out. However, the more interesting part of this episode is the return of Evil Morty who hasn’t been seen since episode ten of season three “The Ricklantis Mixup” aired in 2017. Fans speculated he might return this season, but I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. Then in a classic Rick and Morty off-handed manner he returns. The part leading up to seeing him again wasn’t specular, but his grand plans and his execution of those plans were. The non-reveal of his backstory showed that almost any Morty could become like him. Evil Morty’s actions (executed while an epic version of his theme played) have also single-handedly broken the multiverse that Rick carefully crafted. This means there’s both the potential for greater threats to arise and a bigger multiverse to explore. If we never saw this rouge Morty for a very long time I’d be fine with it since his actions have been so impactful.

A lackluster middle aside, season five of Rick and Morty set up greater possibilities for season six and beyond. I fully expect season six to return to the episodic format, with maybe one or two canon episodes. As for the debate among fans over serialized or episodic content, I find myself falling on the episodic side of the debate. I enjoy the random episodes and even “bad” episodes are a cut above most other adult animation. The serialized episodes always feel special because of how rare they are and I’d like to keep that formula for the foreseeable future.

Joseph Daniels

Don’t you wish life made a bit more narrative sense? It would be great to be done with COVID-19 by now, but it’s been more than a year and there are people still deluded enough to believe conspiracies about vaccines and who swallow lies willingly and then claim it’s their ideological opponents who are misled. They literally have nothing to gain from this nonsense and still they persist, so it’s looking like we’re going to have to plan some big special Quarantine Control #100. Given how a certain number of people insist on continuing to spread the virus they claim isn’t real, our planning won’t go to waste.

Man, I wish this was Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Jean-Luc Picard could just shame anti-vaxxers with a moving speech and then Beverly Crusher could solve the entire COVID-19 crisis with a hypospray.

Over the Garden Wall (2014)
Source: Hulu
Episodes: 10

I think what frustrated me when I watched something like The Lion Guard, a series which insisted on including at least one song in each episode and which suffered as a result of this requirement, was that I knew shows could do better. Songs in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were of higher quality and weren’t always shoe-horned in when they were completely unnecessary. Even some of the ones that were unnecessary were still fun. There were still plenty of them in each season, and some of them were a bit bad, but they weren’t included so frequently that the song writers had trouble keeping up. That said, both the original My Little Pony & Friends and My Little Pony Tales insisted on including one song per episode and they were rather terrible, although I don’t remember cringing as much during My Little Pony Tales.

Still, I got the impression that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was including songs for the sake of including songs because that’s what the franchise always did, that’s what the target audience is supposed to want, and it wasn’t really trying to be musical theatre. There’s a difference between including songs because you think the target audience needs songs and including songs because it fits the medium of the story being told.

You’ll notice right away that Over the Garden Wall includes songs as well, but it feels more like musical theatre when they do it. It’s like the difference between The Lion Guard and The Lion King. Actually, that’s not quite the analogy I’m going for. Over the Garden Wall is more like The Polar Express in how songs were included. You don’t go into it expecting that it’s going to be musical theatre, and it turns out to be musical theatre. The songs also don’t overpower the movie, nor do they overpower Over the Garden Wall. The difference here is that The Polar Express sucks and at least one of the songs is awful, and it pales in comparison to the original book, but Over the Garden Wall uses its medium to great effect and tells a compelling story of two children trying to find their way home, where the music doesn’t interfere with the story.

The series is very gorgeously animated, and this goes right back to what I was saying last week about Dug Days. Try to do too much in too short a time, and your animation is going to suck. Dug Days focused on telling five short slice-of-life stories about Dug and worked exceptionally well. The studio that made Over the Garden Wall was able to complete its entire series of ten episodes by making them shorter. The entire series has a total run time approximately equal to a full length animated feature.

It’s also interesting that the series leans very heavily on fantasy elements, leading viewers to make assumptions about the world, but one assumption after another is torn down as half-brothers Greg and Wirt continue their journey trying to figure out the way home. Over the Garden Wall is a lesson in how to pace a series well and also in how to subvert expectations in such a way that it doesn’t ruin the story when you finally figure out what all is happening. You go into it expecting something like Hilda or Gunnerkrigg Court and what you get is… I’m not going to say, because spoilers.

This is the kind of series that stays with you and makes you think more on what happened to the half-brothers and to everyone they met. I suggested that you’d finally know what’s happening by the end, but that might not be entirely true. The series also shies away from epic boss fights because that’s not the kind of story being told. It’s a pretty low key series that delivers a kind of cozy feeling akin to curling up by a fire with a cup of tea or hot chocolate and relaxing for the evening.

She and Her Cat ~Everything Flows~ (2016)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 4

Do you have a cat in your life? It’s amazing how independent and kind of standoffish some can be, but others are loving and affectionate. Cats are one of those animals where you never quite know what you’re going to get until you take one home.

Everything Flows is an original story based on a manga about a girl and her cat and feels just as cozy as Over the Garden Wall, even if not a lot really happens in it. It’s a story about life, about companionship and about the almost supernatural way in which cats improve our lives. It’s pretty short and there’s not a lot else I can really say about it.

To Your Eternity (2021)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 20, second season confirmed

There’s nothing like listening to enough Jpop that you begin to recognize singers, and as I listened to the opening theme, my first thought was, “This sounds a lot like Utada Hikaru, and I’m reminded of her theme song to Kingdom Hearts II.” Sure enough, it is Utada Hikaru who sings this anime’s theme song, “Pink Blood”.

I think one of the things I like the most about anime is that there is always a new concept that comes along which is strangely compelling and is something you haven’t really thought about before. Although it’s based on a manga, To Your Eternity is unique enough that I don’t think I’ve heard of anything in anime quite like it.

The plot of the series revolves around a glowing orb that is released into the world, presumably around the North Pole, I guess (more on that in a moment), and it learns through imitation. It remains laying there as a rock in the snow for an undetermined amount of time before a wolf dies near it and it suddenly takes on the shape of the wolf and continues the wolf’s journey. Eventually, it reaches a nearly deserted village and happens to find the companion of the wolf whose body it’s wearing.

Throughout the series, this unnamed being, who inherits the name Fushi and the male gender, wanders the world, collecting information and experiences and is almost completely immortal. I say almost, because it seems he has one weakness, a being capable of stealing his experiences, called a Nokker. He can reclaim all he loses by defeating the Nokker, but these enemies dog him for much of the series.

To Your Eternity is also a pretty slow burn, only introducing the Nokkers in episode six. With twenty episodes per season, they can afford the time to set things up, and with a second season on the way, there really is no rush to tell the whole story in one sitting.

I get the feeling that the world of To Your Eternity is an alternate version of our world, starting in Alaska with architecture that reminds me of Japan. The settlement of Ninannah sounds a lot like the real life settlement of Nenana, and the nearby city of Yanome is basically Nome with an extra syllable added to the beginning.

Historians will be able to tell you of the Great Race of Mercy in 1925, where diphtheria antitoxin had to be transported by dog sled from Nenana to Nome since the train from Anchorage couldn’t get through to Nome due to bad weather. Unfortunately, Ninannah and Yanome have a bit more of an antagonistic relationship than their real life counterparts.

To Your Eternity is created and written by Yoshitoki Ōima, the talent behind the critically acclaimed A Silent Voice. It is her most ambitious project to date.

Although To Your Eternity’s first season of twenty episodes is over, a second season is scheduled to start in late 2022. I, for one, am looking forward to it.

Keep the advice in the lede in mind if you want to make it through all this without being depressed all the time, assuming it wasn’t already a plan you adopted. That way, you’ll only be depressed some of the time. Every minor improvement helps.

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