Quarantine Control #143: It’s a Wacky, Psychotic, and Parasitic World
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on how the year wasn’t as bad as it could have been from a worldwide perspective, though it was hardly good. At least the mid-terms in the United States went better than expected, and fascists like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil lost elections. But we’re still in a pandemic despite the number of people who’ve convinced themselves that we’re not, and are currently dealing with a so-called “tripledemic” of viruses. Cases could rise in all of them for those who saw their family members over the holiday, assuming they even made it to see them.
Drew Young
Animaniacs (2020)
Source: Hulu (and not HBOmax for some reason, seeing as Discovery hadn’t happened yet)
Episodes: 26*
I’m a big fan of shows being brought back from the dead… perhaps simply by virtue of being a fan of longstanding WB punching bag that deserved better Young Justice (which appears to be dead again following the Discovery merger).
Hearing that Hulu shelled out the cash to make Animaniacs exist again was wonderful news to my ears. Sure, I was concerned that I might have outgrown the original material, but that’s the risk you always take by having two decades’ worth of life experiences since watching a show.
I was a bit concerned that the cast had been trimmed down to the core; The show focuses on the Warners and Pinky and the Brain with an original bit tossed in now and again. The rest of the old cast could have been leaned on if I couldn’t get into the new core segments, but luckily it didn’t have to come to that. There are in-universe explanations for their absence. Thaddeus Plotz retried from being the studio’s CEO (but makes a cameo later), Hello Nurse is abroad on a tour of duty with Medecins Sans Frontiers, and Chicken Boo has been off being a serial-killing everyone else.
By and large, you’re getting the same sorts of shorts the original show had, with a few new bits tossed in here and there to help make up for the diminished variety in segments. The Warners still spend their time goofing around and punishing random jerks who get too full of themselves. They visit historical eras. They sing (which unfortunately underscores how much older the voice cast has become). They satirize Hollywood dealings, the media landscape, the news and (especially) themselves. Pinky and the Brain likewise picks up where they left off, though the changing of the times has allowed for plenty of new and interesting ways for a plot to take over the world to come together and also completely unravel.
Though there has been a bit of recycling that becomes all too obvious in a binge watching setting. The Pinky and the Brain segments keep trotting out caricatures of the same three real-world dictators when there are (sadly) plenty more out there to choose from. Almost a full half of the Warner siblings segments make a joke about Yakko’s “Nations of the World” song, which gets old very quickly.
Overall, the revival does not live up to (my memory of) the best material of the original run, but isn’t bad. I don’t regret the time I spend with Animaniacs even though it didn’t have the same impact.
There is good news for those who want even more. At least 10 more episodes are coming.
And it’s good that Animaniacs is on Hulu, because we now have no idea if HBOmax’s upcoming Tiny Toon Adventures hard reboot even still exists now. Perhaps it’ll at least land on Cartoon Network. But that will be a story for another time.
Geoffrey Barnes
Hopefully you had a good Christmas. I’d rather not talk about mine, though I can envision how it could have been worse. Anyway, a movie.
Strange World (2022)
Source: Disney Plus
Episodes: 1 movie
It was easy to see why Strange World had a difficult time in theaters from merely watching a few trailers. There has been a moderate effort to interest the younger audience in sci-fi adventures with tales and aesthetics inspired by those from pulpy magazines and older stories from the mid-20th century. But nothing has convinced them to care even though, uh, older people like me enjoy them. That was in addition to other factors that weren’t in the movie’s favor, like the sheer number of Disney animated movies that have gone straight to Disney Plus, perhaps shifting expectations for the audience to watch them there instead of in theaters. Previously-released Disney and Pixar movies haven’t done well either, like Lightyear and Encanto to a lesser extent. It’s no surprise that this one struggled.
It’s for this reason that I was hoping this movie would be a hidden gem, which could help it overcome the predictably ridiculous and cartoonish negativity surrounding it and become a moderate hit on the streaming service. Strange World contains glimmers of greatness, but doesn’t quite cut it.
The tale focuses mainly on the Cade family, and the struggles the men of each generation have with each other. The opening establishes how much of a legend Jaeger Cade (Dennis Quaid) was, as a brave and gutsy adventurer. But the constant adventures become too much for his son Searcher Cade (Jake Gyllenhaal) to tolerate, which drives a long-lasting wedge between them. Searcher eventually settles down with a family, with wife Meridian Cade (Gabrielle Union) and son Ethan Cade (Jaboukie Young-White). It’s while the family is living their lives in a largely-normal fashion that they’re whisked away on an adventure into a, you know, strange world due to issues that they can’t ignore.
The characters themselves are a lot of fun, alongside the actors who play them. Quaid does a good job as the outgoing and energetic Jaeger, while Gyllenhaal does great playing the more laid back Searcher, both of whom previously worked together in The Day After Tomorrow. The same goes for Union as Meridian, who plays the motherly part well. Searcher and Meridian are, notably, an interracial couple, though the subject fortunately doesn’t come up. This is the first time I’ve heard Jaboukie in an acting role, being familiar with his work as a correspondent for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and his Twitter activity. He’s great at playing a kid who’s more than a decade younger than he is. Ethan, like Jaboukie in real life, is gay and interested in another boy, something written in a way to feel natural, though he also takes an interest in his grandfather’s adventures. Having an interracial couple and a gay kid was enough to trigger a certain audience, but both of these aspects are handled well.
I also enjoyed Lucy Liu’s performance as Callisto Mal, the woman in charge of the expedition into the strange world. I didn’t even realize it was her until the credits rolled, the result of me forgetting how much range she has.
In addition to the acting, the movie also nails the retro-futuristic aesthetics that inspired the entire adventure. The color palette for the environments and backgrounds features heavy usage of greens and browns to resemble classic artwork in motion, and the strange creatures the characters run into wouldn’t be out of place in those adventures, all with the kind of fantastic animation work expected of a Disney film. They’re enough to make me think the real target audience of this movie wasn’t children at all, though it’s still friendly for them to watch.
Strange World nails several elements integral to a solid presentation, but it’s a pity that it falters in one key aspect underneath that. By the time the tale reached its end, I realized that I wasn’t seriously invested in any of the characters or their fates. The writing and character development were lacking, neither of which could strike the necessary emotional chord that several memorable Disney animated works have. This is a significant factor, enough to doom the movie to an “okay” status. Perhaps the premise would have been better for a TV series that would have allowed more time for them to develop the characters.
I previously posted a blog about how this movie and other examples could force Disney to go through some tough times. I’ve seen all the movies that underperformed, and Strange World is the worst of them. Now that the animation teams are staring into the abyss, albeit without the shackles chained by the now-notorious Bob Chapek, perhaps they can come out all the better for it. Even if they must resort to safe projects like another Frozen sequel or a Disney princess team-up film, they can eventually bounce back with better-quality and well-advertised original animation projects. An even greater shift to live-action works is the last thing I’d want to see, especially if they’re as soulless as The Lion King (2019).
Angela Moseley
We’ve reached the final Quarantine Control of 2022. I don’t know what 2023 will bring, but here’s to hoping for some positivity.
Mob Psycho 100, Season 3 (2022)
Source: Hulu, Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12
I realized I’ve never directly written much about Mob Psycho 100. Other than an entry in my Big Anime Queue Purge from 2018 (which also doubled as a stand in for Drewsdays), I’ve only mentioned this series in various Naughty and Nice entries. It’s time to change this huge oversight.
My interest in Mob Psycho 100 initially started because I discovered it was created by One, the same manga artist responsible for One Punch Man. When I tried the show out, I was expecting an action series with a similar feel to OPM. What I got was very different. It was more of a supernatural, coming-of-age anime with entertaining fights occasionally sprinkled throughout. The art style didn’t feel as sleek as One’s breakout superhero hit either. I had debated on if I wanted to keep going with the series, but I kept returning each week. It was then that I realized the series itself was animated quite well, which is unsurprising given that Bones was the lead animation studio. The characters and the entire premise of the show grew on me. Ironically, it was OPM that got me to watch Mob, but in time my interest in Mob would completely overtake Saitama’s adventures.
Mob, aka Shigeo Kageyama, is a middle school student in possession of incredibly powerful psychic powers. (Psychics in this universe are also known as espers.) Our protagonist is afraid of losing control of his emotions and in turn his own powers. To get a better handle on things, Mob has suppressed his emotions and he became an assistant of Arataka Reigen. Unknown to Mob, Reigen is actually a con-man who doesn’t possess psychic power and has lied about this fact. Fortunately for Mob, Reigen has a heart of gold and actually helps the middle schooler to keep his expectations and power in check. Together they help clients solve problems of a supernatural nature. This ranges from ghosts haunting people to cults with sinister plans.
In previous seasons, Mob defeated various other psychics and taught them humility. Additionally, he sought physical self-improvement and found a supportive club in school. As Mob as navigated life as a normal person not wishing to use his powers, he’s ultimately won over others with his humble attitude. Of course, his emotions and power explode from time to time when they reach 100%, thus giving us the title of the show.
Seasons 1 and 2 left off on amazing, fulfilling notes. So I wasn’t sure what to expect with a third season. After all, Mob conquered psychics hellbent on world domination, and even dealt with his growing independence from Reigen. Where else could the show possibly go? Turns out, the point of season 3 was to have Mob look inward. As much as he relied on not using his powers, except when absolutely needed, he never dealt with his habit of suppressing his own emotions. The entire issue comes to a huge head near the end of the season when circumstances cause Mob’s power to flow out of control. In an incredible callback, his friends and everyone he’s defeated comes to stop him from himself, as they’ve all made positive changes in their lives. It is touching to see how Mob’s actions have impacted everyone. If that weren’t enough, Mob’s friends also receive growth of their own as they work hard to support each other.
In a year when everything feels cynical and mean-spirited, the third season of Mob Psycho 100 is a ray of light. It’s okay to help others, the strong protect the weak, it’s okay to connect with your emotions, and violence isn’t the only answer. The power of wanting to improve one’s self and relying on friends may feel cliché at times, but it comes off as positively sublime in this series. Add great animation and the wildest fight scenes to the mix, and this show is an unusual treat. If you haven’t watched Mob Psycho 100 yet, I suggest getting on this series. The entire anime as of this writing only consists of 37 episodes.
Joseph Daniels
In Parasite Eve, if you load your save in EX Mode, you get to use the weapon and armour you built up from the previous playthrough, and you also get to distribute a large amount of bonus points right away. You also get extra bonus points with each day’s end, meaning you could load them all into the strength of your bullets and make enemies and bosses on the first three days just melt. You could also pump most of your points into your armour and suddenly you can take a lot more hits than before.
This year, I finally tried the Chrysler Building as well, which unlocks only in EX Mode (so it’s appropriate that I saw a lot of people saying “Merry Chrysler” this year just randomly on the Internet, as if everyone knew about my Parasite Eve run in particular), and while the first two bosses can be cheesed due to the strength of your weapon and armour on day five, the third boss has a nasty move which blinds Aya in the second phase of the fight and also does significant damage, so killing it will require moving some stuff around on her armour. It doesn’t help that I couldn’t seem to put more than three abilities on the armour I was wearing and couldn’t expand its slots, meaning that I couldn’t block every negative status effect in the game and still keep the ability to use auto potion upon death. Plus, I would need to use Super Tools to swap things around, due to armour being destroyed if you remove something from it using just a regular Tool. Super Tools typically don’t show up in the normal game until much later, around day five, and by then you’re already well on your way to the game’s point of no return, so you need to make sure you don’t accidentally lock yourself out of being able to go back to the Chrysler Building. Plus, I’d waited until day five to challenge the building, thinking the enemies were going to be tough right away. They weren’t.
Next year, I’m planning on using this year’s save file and pumping as much defense into my armour as I can. If I can’t swap things around easily, I might as well survive as long as I can. I did find out something else about the game which I hadn’t realized: the bonus points Aya earns at every level up can be accumulated by showing skill in battle, namely by doing your best to avoid enemy attacks. This is, in fact, cumulative. You gain more and more points after every battle, and I noticed this after making it through the first ten floors of the Chrysler Building and heading to Chinatown to save. I fought a couple battles in Chinatown to level up and my bonus points went through the roof. (This was because the battles I fought on those first ten floors awarded so little experience that I didn’t level even a single time, and I fought a ton of battles on those floors.) In theory, I could go to an earlier area and just grind for hours to augment my weapon and or armour with a lot of extra bonus points.
That said, the Chrysler Building also seems designed to be done a bit at a time. The first ten floors are no more difficult than day two or three were, and the next ten floors could probably comfortably be done around that time, too. Preparing for the blindness the third boss uses would mean floors twenty one to thirty could be comfortably done on day three or day four, and then I assume you could get all the way to floor forty by the end of day four. Day five will have to be when I do the final push towards the final boss of the building, all the way up on floor 77. I am definitely going to be pumping as much as I can into Aya’s armour for that challenge next year, and maybe add some extra item slots as well like I did in 2020 to make sure Aya could carry as much as possible.
Unfortunately, the Chrysler Building is also an example of tedious game design. Unlike most of the rest of the game, the Chrysler Building is not designed well. It instead is designed to be randomly generated, similar to a roguelike. There’s a treasure room on each floor, occasionally two, and you have to hunt around to find them while trying to keep track of where you are on the floor in a mode that doesn’t give players a map to follow. The building is also arranged in small little sections of a map, often corners or straight hallways and occasionally forks in the road and dead ends. Each small section can also contain a random encounter at any time, so you could go several screens without fighting anything, or you could fight things three or four screens in a row. I’ve seen criticism of the way the caves and other dungeons in Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure were split up into small sections that all look the same, but at least the dungeons in that game had a deliberate design to them, they weren’t randomly generated and you could easily make a map in one playthrough that you could carry over to the next. This is not so in the Chrysler Building. There is also no easy way to go back unless you work your way back down the way you came, so if you want to keep all the loot you accumulated before a boss fight, you’ll have to go back down all ten floors, fighting even more enemies as you go, then save the game, then go back and fight your way back up to the boss floor and fight the boss. If you lose against the boss, you have to fight your way back through those ten randomly generated floors before you can try again. It takes at least an hour to get through ten floors, so I don’t know why I thought I could maybe do the Chrysler Building in one day, especially since day five is the longest day in the game.
The only saving grace is that each boss drops a key that lets you use the elevator up to the floor you fought the boss in, so you don’t need to start at floor one every time you return to the building. Still, it takes the problem the sewer has (small “rooms”, and lots of them), and adds extra problems (randomly generated, no way to save until after the boss is defeated, losing a lot of progress if you do die). It sort of feels like the Chrysler Building is not a good fit for my real time Parasite Eve playthrough, and should be challenged when I’m willing to give myself more time for it.
So that was my playthrough of Parasite Eve this year. The main game is so much easier when you play it in EX Mode, but that doesn’t extend to the bonus dungeon. I’ll be more prepared for it next year for sure.
~ ~ ~
With that, 2022 is about to come to a close. However, the Year of the Tiger still has a month to go. Considering how much of the holiday season takes place at the last minute, so to speak, it might do everyone a world of good to spend some time doing the tiger’s favourite pastime, napping off the holidays. I’ve often repeated over this past year that self care is important, and now is definitely no exception. If anyone should understand the need to rest, hopefully it should be family. No one can keep going forever, and once that energy is depleted, it does active harm to try to keep going. Now that the presents have all been unwrapped and food been prepared and eaten, it’s the perfect time to get off your feet and close your eyes for a few minutes and take a breather. 2023 is going to be another year, and I get the feeling it’s going to be just as much of a challenge, so you’ll need all the energy you can get.
January will also be the final month I’ll be looking for tiger content to focus on in Quarantine Control. I don’t know if I’m going to be focusing on rabbits for the entirety of 2023, or if I’ll just go back to normal. I might be able to find enough rabbit related media that I haven’t already covered, anime fans are well aware of all the bunny girls the genre has to offer, but I imagine there won’t be a lot of goats or oxes when their turns come around. I guess stay tuned for that.
Have a great last few days of 2022, everyone, and we’ll see you in 2023.
Regardless of whether your 2022 was good or (more likely) bad, it’s time to bid it adieu and hope — hope! — for a better 2023. Good luck out there, even though it’s realistic to acknowledge how the world’s situation regarding wars, viruses, and the economy are all pointing to ominous signs for the new year.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
