hey so thanks a ton for being so accepting of my long past for the last WAN, I usually only post a little but you guys seem to either A) really like long form content, or B) really liked high score girl. 

I wasnt going to post a new WAN for a bit until I watched some more stuff on netflix, but since I’m currently snowed/iced in, figured why not. I want to talk about a show I watched when netflix first started streaming stuff, and they had like 20 anime on there total, I want to talk about jyu oh sei. I still dont know how to feel about this show. I have watched it like 15 times and I still am not sure if I hate it or love it. 

it starts off like the single most cookie cutter sci fi anime possible, then turns into the most cookie cutter tournament anime possible, then turns into fucking bat shit insanity for like the last 40 minutes. 

our story is as follows Three hundred and fifty years have passed since humans first settled the Balkan star system, located approximately 150 light years from Earth, where a number of planets have been terraformed to resemble Earth. Two 11-year-old twins, Thor and Rai, live on the space colony Juno until they come home to find their parents have been murdered. The unknown assassins drop Thor and Rai on Chimaera, a secret planet used as a penal colony. Thor learns about Chimaeran society’s four “Rings” and how to leave Chimaera by becoming the Beast King from Zagi, who rescued Thor and Rai after they immediately run into trouble on the planet. Thor proceeds to the Ochre Ring where he gets swept up into that Ring’s politics and winds up defeating its Top, bringing him closer to becoming the Beast King.

 After several years Thor faces off with Zagi who has violently taken over the Blanc ring and is determined to rule over and change Chimaeran society. Their encounter ends with an uneasy truce and a plan to force Juno to negotiate with Thor. When Thor finally meets Odin, the President of Juno, the mystery of Thor’s and Chimaera’s secret origins are revealed. Odin tells Thor he is a genetically engineered human created from the DNA of all the previous Beast Kings. His mother Eve was the lead researcher at the facility where he was created, and was a surrogate mother to him. Thor’s genes adapt to survive under any circumstances, so they mimicked Eve’s physical appearance. This is the reason Thor appeared to be Rai’s twin. Odin also reveals no new children are being born in the colonies, and that Thor is humanity’s last hope for survival. 

Finally, Odin reveals a long-kept secret: that Earth was destroyed by an asteroid collision long ago, and humanity cannot return there, so they must adapt to survive in the Balkan Star System. However, Odin’s plans involve dissecting Thor in order to mass-produce more genetically engineered humans capable of surviving in Balkan, and terraforming Chimaera, which would kill the planet’s current inhabitants. With the help of Third, Thor stops the terraforming process, though Third dies in the process. Thor returns to Chimaera to live with Chen, Zagi and the rest of the planet’s inhabitants.In the end, it is revealed that Thor’s genes have adapted once again, causing him to take on Third’s physical appearance. He and Chen appear to be together. He adopts an orphan girl they both found, naming her “Tiz”, saying it means hope.

like….I hate the first two thirds of it, but that last episode where they reveal all the stuff about thors genetics etc, and how he was like a farm animal almost, idk man that tickles a certain dystopian sci fi part of my brain that I just want to dive into it and learn more….but then they deflate the whole thing and of course thor wins and continues living on this awful planet, likely with no friends as every character you have gotten to know over the course of those 11 episodes have all died by this point except thor and chen….really dumb man.

I miss that about OG netflix and like blockbuster, where you could find these weird shows that otherwise you would never watch. I think thats why I like doing this whole WAN thing, because like. shows like the Lensman, Venus wars, the slayers and stuff like Now and then here and there and Golden Boy. You cant just happen upon those shows, you sort of have to search for them, and I spend an inordinate amount of money at thrift shops, Goodwills and used video and game stores doing just that. 

I love that the first few weeks of a new friendship involves me getting to hand these shows to new people. that I can send someone youtube links to golden boy and ask them the next day about it. 

regardless, thanks for reading, have a good one my dudes.  

~Hoover