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And surprisingly, it was not utter crap as I had feared it would be.

This is also the first time I ever saw it, despite knowing its existence when it was hyped up those many months ago. I suppose from seeing the previews and the new design I found little motivation to actually watch it, dismissing it rather early on without giving it more of a chance. (I thought the preview clip was terrible) But one thing I can say is that it was actually better than the ten year anniversary (or fifteen, I can hardly remember) special from several years back (2008? idk) which I rather despised. (Despite my icon depicting a scene from that episode P: ) Unfortunately one of the biggest problems with that special remains in this one, though perhaps not to such an extent, the pacing.

In "The Powerpuff Girls Rule" everyone talked so blindingly fast they sounded like chipmunks, as if whatever plot and content they had intended for this episode needed to remain in this episode without any cuts, so they instead pressed the fast-forward button to cram it all in. I remember back in the days of the original series, when they'd have a hard time finding content to fill the twenty-two minute time slot they adopted for a while, particularly in the fourth season. You'd have a scene of the Professor in the lab working, and we'd spend five minutes on some overly long gag where the girls are trying to give the Professor a note or removing his items from the counter. There was no dialogue, just sound effects of their heads popping up and down. It was pretty obvious the writers were used to writing their eleven minute episodes, so they had fun filling up what they needed in case their plot wasn't thin enough. These specials however, felt quite a lot like they wanted to throw in as much as possible to appease nostalgic fans (I guess?) and so in order to do so, crammed it all in.

Luckily Dance Pantsed wasn't quite as bad as Powerpuff Girls Rule in that department, but compared to the original it was still too quick-paced for my liking, as if all the dialogue was shoved into my ears and processed through my brain like an obnoxious child shoving a lollipop into my face. The biggest gripe about this special in general is probably the new design and animation for everything. CGI isn't necessarily terrible, just like Adobe Flash isn't necessarily terrible, but in both these specials if you don't do it well it looks especially glaring when it's bad, which both are prime examples of. Powerpuff Girls Rule used Flash and everyone looked like one-dimensional cardboard figures trying to speak on top of each other all at once. The CGI in this special felt...off. It was almost like the animators wielded so much power they had to animate every single thing possible, leading to several "still" shots (It'd be still shots, but it was too fast-paced for such terminology) and the girls or other characters would be constantly blinking, their pupils zipping around staring at things as if everyone has ADHD and their heads would move around like they had some sort of nervous tic. It was seriously unnerving seeing them all like that, not to mention on top of the picasso-like redesigns that made it look far more uneasy than charmingly bizarre.

The plot however, wasn't too bad. To someone who has never seen this show before they'd probably wonder what the writers were smoking, but PPG generally has a lot of rather surreal episodes with such absurd plots you'd wonder if the writers were smoking crack. Since the special was probably meant for a seasoned fan, we'd be used to such ridiculous events. I'd have enjoyed the plot so much better if again, the pacing was handled properly. There were certain scenes I especially liked though, like Buttercup being smashed so hard she went through the Earth's core, screaming during the mantle and grunting humorously through the crust. Bubbles landing in the world's largest pillow on top of that was a nice touch on how I feel the series treats the characters respectively, but I highly doubt they were commentating on such a fact and the gag was just that, a gag. I also especially liked Bubbles' conscience manifesting as Blossom and Buttercup. I had hoped Buttercup would show up as a devil instead though, cliché as they may have been, but it wouldn't have made any sense. Bubbles' comment of "Oh no! My sisters are tiny! ...and dead!" was delivered wonderfully.

As for the voicing, I could clearly tell the VAs themselves were older with the exception of Bubbles because Tara Strong is hax. There's a reason that woman voices in everything. Buttercup sounded lower, and thus older, but I didn't mind too much because that still fit with her character having such a voice. If she wasn't still five-years-old it might actually have been fitting, but again wasn't all that out of place and I still like E.G Daily's wonderful rendition of Buttercup. Blossom on the other hand sometimes sounded perfect, sometimes sounded strained, but especially sounded over-acted. I thought about it for a bit, and if the animation was still like the original probably wouldn't have minded Blossom's constant need to sound morally superior and righteous, but in this animation it felt like it didn't match with how the character looked or her expression at all, which is partly due to the designs themselves and not so much the voice actress, but still.

Now I never actually elaborated on the designs earlier, just the animation itself, and that too is a heavy point of contention against the special. By God did it look bizarre. I was imagining how a child channel surfing would think of seeing this randomly on the television, assuming people still do that nowadays what with the cable cutting. Frankly if I saw it randomly as a child I may have gotten nightmares in my sleep that very night. I actually don't mind whoever's responsible for the looks' intentions, because if the animation itself didn't look so uncanny valley-ish maybe it could've worked, but at the same time it was still something I had to take in as well as the fast-paced nature of the episode and the slightly-off voice-acting. It was frankly a tad too overwhelming because of it. Also, why does no one comb their hair? It's like, combined with the fast-paced nature of the episode, leading to the speed-talking and the nervous tics/random blinking that the entire cast of characters had several cans of Red Bull before filming or something. Seriously! I hope the 2016 reboot at the very least fixes the pacing issue of these two specials. I can't take much more of this chipmunk like fast-forwarded kind of animation. It feels like it fries my brain.

Oh, the 2016 reboot. Did I mention that earlier? After watching Dance Pantsed I actually prefer its designs over the 2016 reboot despite the reboot looking far closer to the original style. (At least of the girls, the Professor looked too frazzled for my linking. HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE A SQUARE DAMNIT!) The CGI versions at least seem creative and daring, while the 2016 reboot designs look lazy and uninspired. They don't look different enough to be interesting, nor similar enough to the wonderful style of the original to be good either. They just tacked a few extra accessories or little tabs on the characters and called it a day. With the outlines of the characters being less thick than before, any glaring mistakes in the art style would be all the more pronounced, whilst you could hide a lot of it and instil a lot more imagination with the original style. 

I found a random forum thread about the 2016 reboot and By God was it full of vinegar. I could not believe how many pieces of flying radioactive poop were being flung around because of various issues like why PPG would even need a reboot during a time when literally everything and their dog were getting reboots, or why the original VAs were replaced by new ones. I don't particularly mind new VAs so long as they sounded similar and not annoying (or like chipmunks. PLEASE DON'T HAVE SUCH PACING ISSUES, NEW SERIES!) but I do agree Cartoon Network's handling of the issue was pretty piss poor, having not even told the old VAs themselves they weren't returning when they implied a reboot might happen after Dance Pantsed. For them to see this pop up no doubt on the media or internet before being told privately beforehand would hurt quite a bit, I'd think. The voices of the three are pretty iconic in my mind though, being a nostalgic viewer but I'll keep open about it. I'm especially worried about Buttercup for some reason. That Tommy Pickles voice is just too Buttercup for Buttercup to not sound like that. The voices were so unique and I hope they don't go for some "generic lowish Tomboyish voice". I guess the nasally or gravelly or however you can describe it, nature of her voice is what I think will be difficult to imitate.

Bubbles too would be difficult but having seen the fan crossover MLP animation, Double Rainboom, there ARE talented enough people that can sound exactly the same as the original Bubbles. Is this new voice going to be one of them? Who knows, but I now believe it's actually possible. High-pitched voices can't be emulated just by having a high-pitched one yourself, even in this high an octave voices sound distinct. 

Blossom also would be a challenge to live up to, just because a normal-sounding confident female voice wouldn't cut it. By God I am too attached to these voices, hahaha. But hearing how Dance Pantsed went, the original VAs aside from Voice Not of this World Tara Strong did sound like they were no longer spring chickens, and reprising such a role might make the voices a bit off. But what do you choose, a bit off or something similar but completely new? I just wouldn't know until I actually hear these voices.

By the way, I would never be commenting on all this if I haven't been on a PPG binge this past week. A wave of nostalgia hit me like no other, and I had to rewatch everything. Luckily I own the entire series on DVD! At the time when I bought it I was slightly regretting it because for some reason a poor person like me had sixty dollars on hand, and remarkably during this very brief, mythical time-period I had nothing to spend the money on. What madness, I say, when nowadays I'd want that money to fix my computer, laptop, phone, obtain more hard drive space I desperately need, purchase various useless pieces of plastic I don't desperately need and everything else you'd use money on. So I walked through the DVD aisle and found the PPG boxset and bought it on impulse. But I am glad for such an impulse buy because this is a series I'd love to rewatch, filling my childhood with such joy and violence. 

Violence! Having rewatched it now (not all of it, I just finished season two P: ) I saw this review on a few episodes and it pointed out something that happened quite a bit in the DYNAMO episode but is a prevalent theme throughout the series, casual death. Like, there's a scene where a blimp is hit by a beam and catches fire, and it crashes down onto the stadium below. This normally would already be a rather troubling sight for a kids show, but you actually hear screaming during this sequence. Not to mention the various people being shown actually being eaten and never recovered when the monster was killed and basically we were seeing random helpless citizens dying on screen without any censor at all on a children's television show. This really was created by a college student meant for older audiences (its original intent) wasn't it? Regardless as a child I NEVER NOTICED THIS AT ALL. I was just like YAY DYNAMO AND PUFFERFISH ARE FIGHTING, BADASS! 

This kind of casual violence and black comedy occurred even in the movie, which sparked a few well known comments from critics on why a kids show was so bloody violent. (I still love the car gag where it smashes into a building as a guy is hitting on a girl by telling her about this car, omg) And when blood itself (not just in a random assortment of alien colours to dissociate it with real blood) but actual, red human blood is shown in the series, it's quite a theme indeed. (Bubbles' wiping the blood off her mouth in Bubblevicious is one of my fondest childhood memories) but hey, if violent video games don't cause kids to grow up to become psychopaths, this show shouldn't do it either! 

So it's all the more amusing when PPGZ, an anime based on PPG and sent back to the Western Audience with a dub, that they censored out violence in certain episodes. Yes, the Mahou SHOUJO anime with really no real sense of violence whatsoever and is filled with cutesy, girly plots, was CENSORED for violence in certain episodes (the Kaoru's father wrestling one is a prime example) when it's based off such a straight-laced unabashed violent show itself. FOREVER AMUSED, I AM. That's like all sorts of levels of irony which I don't know if I'm using such a word properly, but who cares!

Which leads me to another point, the dub didn't retain the original voices from the original show, and when I did listen to it I heard screechy and irritating teenage girl voices that put me off ever attempting to watch the dub again. I think it's such a missed opportunity for the original VAs to not voice them considering how different the personalities can be. Hearing original Blossom geek out about Anime and boys? My fucking god what could that have sounded like? That Clipsville episode where they're teenagers with the RRB is the closest example I can think of, but instead of a manic nerd it's more valley-girl idiocy than anything. Hearing Bubbles not...be Bubbles would be kind of interesting I guess, hearing that high-pitched voice being proper and polite and the like, though not quite as jarring or hilarious as Blossom might've been. Now Buttercup I would've loved to hear as well even though Weeb B-Cup and OG B-Cup are the most similar of the three, just 'cause Kaoru acts like some sort of shounen protagonist being all hot-blooded about spirit and inspiring young children to never give up. OG Buttercup is supposed to be the unfavourite bratty middle child, to hear her be a role model would be interesting at the very least! 

Yeah, I can't mention PPG without the PPGZ even if many purist fans either hated it or never gave it a chance in the first place. I can't blame them as it's such a stark genre shift, especially with the changed settings, changed origins, changed familial relations, and especially the changed personalities, but what can I say, I'm a masochist for nostalgia. (Except Sailor Moon) Blossom turning into the standard shoujo-protagonist instead of her usual self is rather disappointing, but I really do like how Momoko is designed with her hair like so especially, so if I could somehow ignore her boy-crazy selfish ways I'd be fine with her. (She feels like a combination of Moon and Venus, but without any of the character development and maturity they had, soooo yeeeeeah) In fact the easiest way to describe the personality changes is that Blossom had all her maturity sucked out of a hose, which was then sprinkled onto her sisters. It explains everything, like how Buttercup is no longer bratty but more like a voice-of-reason role model and how Bubbles is absolutely perfect, leaving her childlike ditziness behind just for plain ol' purity. 

And yes, despite the massacre of Blossom's personality it is actually Bubbles' changes that I dislike the most. What can I say? I love OG Bubbles. (This doesn't stop my brain from shipping, but we'll discuss that later on in this post >_>) OG Bubbles is just so quirky and funny, and well, Weeb Bubbles simply isn't. The writers may have tried to make them similar but I think they missed the entire point of Bubbles. Sure Bubbles is girly and innocent, especially in contrast to her sisters, but that's not the core of her being. She can become violently angry and is a little slow at understanding things compared to her sisters. She's the most emotive of the three! None of these points are touched on whatsoever in the Anime, with maybe the exception of the slowness, but that was only around in the early episodes and it made Weeb Bubbles seem off with her head entirely in the clouds as opposed to charming and amusing. It actually feels like Weeb Bubbles emotes the least of the three girls because having extreme emotions isn't what a proper Japanese lady should have! Damn you, Yamato Nadeshiko trope! Damn you to heeeeell!

And then there's Buttercup.

If I despise Yamato Nadeshiko in Anime, there is one thing I find the exact opposite, the Bokukko. I love the Bokukko. And well, Buttercup became that. Yes, the three of them essentially became Anime Stereotypes, but if you were expecting quality from PPGZ you are barking up the wrong tree, sir or madam. I don't know why I like Japanese tomboys so much more than just the standard tomboy. I guess in their society where sexism is a lot more pronounced (though not as overt in such a conformist hushed culture) being a tomboy and staying that way feels a lot more daring and brave. It's so nice their school doesn't require uniforms, about the one stereotypical thing this anime doesn't do, so that Weeb Cup (I wonder if you're still following my ridiculous slang usage here) can dress anyway she pleases. Her outfits remind me of my clothing choice when I was younger (and aside from the sudden prevalence of pink nowadays it's still not too far off from before) and really, with the OG girls being so violent, Weeb Cup is the closest thing to the original show's spirit. She tries to solve all her problems with violence (at least the superhero ones) which was basically the defacto way of solving EVERYTHING in PPG, but since this is mahou shoujo world all the most mild of conclusions can occur. Like, an eraser and a pen have become monsters. In PPG they'd have punched them into bruises, black eyes, and missing teeth and thrown them in the slammer even if they didn't deserve it (Mime for a Change, never change!) but here, the pencil and eraser learn their lesson and leave Weeb Bubbles to travel the world and find their true calling in peace. ....wat.

And the funny thing is, more often than not, Weeb Cup's violence works. I was rather surprised considering I was used to Sailor Moon's formulaic approach to the bad guys, that Weeb Cup (I'm sorry I'll call her Kaoru now, lol) Kaoru would be finishing off the monster most of the time even though she wasn't the main main character, Blossom. This was all because she wielded the hammer, so she'd do the most damage and thus have the most impact. How lovely.

Anyway since I am typing so much about PPGZ, yes while I was rewatching PPG I also rewatched PPGZ and found that, perhaps since I am older that it was far harder to sit through this time around. The plots are just so childish and juvenile! The plots are also played so straight it's not funny. When a lot of media does its best to subvert expectations and you return to an old show where it does nothing of the sort at all it really doesn't age well. I mean, why are half the episodes about inanimate objects coming to life attempting to gain my sympathy because some people don't want to use them anymore? Why is the other half about love? Every named character and its dog (YES, LITERALLY THE TALKING DOG) falls in love or is the subject of love at some point of the show. About the only characters who aren't are the Rowdyruff Boys, but you try telling that to the ninety percent of fanfiction writers for both of these shows! (I wanted to read some nostalgic fanfiction and well, to say I was frustrated is putting it very lightly. There's a huge reason I never really involved myself in the fandom) Regardless of all these facts, there are like, a handful of episodes I still enjoy and plenty of concepts I found interesting the PPGZ did that the original never did. Like for instance, Sedusa! Because she was basically a walking censorship slip she didn't show up very often in PPG, but in PPGZ she got a pretty interesting backstory and a Jekyll and Hyde take on her existence. I also like her design a whole lot in PPGZ, which helps. This has led to me pretty much enjoying every single Sedusa episode in PPGZ, which I can't really say the same for in PPG. (The PPG ones were sure suggestive though P: )

Princess also was given a reason for her villainy (aside from the stupid plot point in the beginning that is the origin for practically every hero and villain in the show >_>) and for whatever deranged reason I really like her older sister, Miko Shirogane. (Or Duchess as the dub calls her...eh, not fond of it) I don't know if it's because her name is Miko and she's purple like another amazing purple Miko I like, or that she's a ridiculous super prodigy...like another amazing purple Miko I like, or that she's cunning, conniving and ultimately won in the end in her one spotlight episode ...like another amazing purple Miko I like...I WONDER WHAT THE REASON IS? But my god, is she deliciously cunning. What a manipulative bastard. Her design is really nice too. I feel like she overshadowed Princess' presence (which I think is the point, but I mean in the way that I like her more even though Himeko has the character development/backstory stuff, or in other words far more depth) I'M SORRY I DON'T KNOW WHEN I DEVELOPED SUCH A WEIRD TASTE IN CHARACTERS.

But in the end the best part about PPGZ is WEEB CUP er I mean, Kaoru. I'm not actually fond of shows explaining away tomboys by giving them a family full of masculine influence, what with Kaoru having only male siblings and looking up to her wrestler father. (A certain cartoon by the name of Weekenders does this to the extreme with Lor's thirteen fourteen sixteen indeterminate amount of brothers) I mean granted, you could explain my own tomboy phase by the lack of feminine influence as a child, but still. There are plenty of reasons people may become a tomboy and it's not such an obvious easy explanation like this, but asking for anything more complicated or intelligent from such a stereotypical mahou shoujo anime is probably pushing it. But wow, my crush on Kaoru back in the day was intense. I mean, I probably didn't mention it as much as my crush on Kazumi or whatever (My type is either, characters I love to the point of LOVE, seriously, or characters I find intriguing and interesting. For example, Miko is a crush love, where I think she is the greatest thing since sliced cheese, whereas Weiss is someone I find endlessly fascinating and wish to write all the things for. You won't see me trying to write a story about Miko. Though I dunno if this example is entirely accurate since I saw a lovely picture of Weiss in a boyish outfit once and declared her my husbando...)

Oh, I am super digressing. WELL. I really like androgynous characters okay. Even normally girly, feminine characters dressed in male-traditional outfits will bring such a reaction from me.

MOVING ON, 

I forgot to mention the most glaring flaw of Dance Pantsed. WHY DOES BUBBLES HAVE ICE BREATH? WHO DECIDED THIS MADNESS? THIS IS BLOSSOM'S SPECIAL UNIQUE POWER YOU DIMWITS! YOU DIMIWITTED DIMWITS! She even used it more than once to emphasize the fact that it was Bubbles' unique power for whatever reason. Blossom meanwhile was shooting lasers out of every orifice.

NO SERIOUSLY. WHY?

Well at least Buttercup didn't have anything special, as per usual. (Poor OG Cup...)

...y'know, I'm wondering why with the sole exception of Hetalia, that my tastes starting with Negima all became shows and games with predominantly female casts. Okay, I love Dangan Ronpa and that's pretty even, but even with it, I seem to be attracted to stuff with tons of females in it. You know the reason why? Because even though I grew up a tomboy and despised all things girly, I've been and likely always will be, a romantic at heart. And not a generic romantic by enjoying all the romantic comedy movies in the world, but specifically when one girl likes another girl and my mind explodes. And super specifically an ANIME girl liking another ANIME girl because that's just how weeb my tastes are. Egads.

If it ain't Anime or animesque, I don't give one flying fuck about the romance. This includes every and all cartoons as well as live-action thingies. Well okay, I have that hopeless PinkieShy pursuit that will never go anywhere and has been crushed countless times by not only canon but the hundreds of thousands of fans that have declared their love and support for everything that breaks this pair, but ponies look kind of Anime-ish anyway! And it's a very small part of why I enjoy MLP. It's not like RWBY where shipping is partly the saving grace. I genuinely enjoy MLP as it is even if its more recent seasons have been becoming more and more bizarre and cartoony. So I become all the more frustrated no matter how hypocritical it may be when it feels like the only reason a fandom exists for something is the shipping. "I want to discuss how this episode impacted so-and-so character" "OMFG BUTTERCUPXBUTCH!" "..." This problem existed during my Nickelodeon tween sitcom phase (I will not claim my tastes are ones of high quality >_>) when all everyone cared about was this female character with this male character and that female with that male and ARGH. Even if the show isn't that objectively good I still want to talk about how the show handled this and that, but noooo. 

So anyway that meant I obviously ran into a very strange double problem when I did ship something and wanted to read stuff about it but ran into the MOUNTAINS AND SCORES of stories for this other ship. I mean, OG PPG? Fine. Whatever. I have a small collection of general or horror or adventure or humor fanfictions I can flee towards. If you ship the PPG with the RRB and want to swim in the fifty billion fanfictions about them, fine, go ahead. BUT WHY WOULD THIS BE THE CASE IN PPGZ!? The RRBZ are children like five years younger than the girls and all they do is be rude, inconsiderate and gross. At least the OG RRB had like, the ability to punch people and such. The weeb boys? They're just...immature schoolchildren. They have no superpowers. The incompetent weeb Mojo created incompetent RRB. It's so very sad and tragic. It's even more sad and tragic that despite their godawful disappointing adapted selves, that PPGxRRB fics still take up ninety perfect of the category. I just don't...why? Just why? WHY? WHY!? I know I am being melodramatic, but that's what I do on this blog and I truly feel as if this PPGxRRB thing is some sort of divine punishment for whatever sin I committed in my past life. It's just so PREVALENT. It's everywhere! By this logic maybe I should like it too when everyone in the world seems to enjoy it, yet I do not! And now, since FFnet's filters are some of the least useful around, my only hope to find non-RRB stories is to SIMPLY BROWSE past them, and I swear I could almost feel physical pain having to go through pages and pages and summaries and summaries of these stupid boys, over and over and over and over and over again! I'm sorry if you happen to like them, BUT GAAAAAAAH! RAAAAAGGH! WAGRAGVGE@ HFBSBSJFSBDHfAF HFGYWEUQ~

!

Ah, KaoruxMiyako. I love this ship. They're like a non-douchebag version of the original Mahou Shoujo girl ship, NeptunexUranus! (I would've liked them if they weren't douchebags. I swear) Oh what's this? A Deviantart group? With five images? Oh what's this, some fanfics? Around six or seven? 

And then I look across the grass and see all the happy hoppy people sharing and laughing on their giant cruiser of a yacht, hanging around the PPGxRRB. It's so lonely on this floating tiny little raft.

Anyway if someone really likes PPG and is disappointed I spent most of this ranting about PPGZ for some reason, well what do you expect? It's inevitable. I like them both, even if I can't sit through most of PPGZ anymore. It's got the crush and the ship, which is a huge factor to my fandoms while PPG is nostalgia and childhood, which isn't as much (but I still love it in the pure, "I WAS THE TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC OMG!" sense) And if you've read this blog before, I can spend so many words ranting about ships and crushes over nostalgia shows without those two factors, so I mean...

This has been Spotto.