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https://blacknerdproblems.com/lazarus-coming-to-adult-swim-in-2025/

Adult Swim surprised many fans today at New York Comic Con this year by screening the full premiere episode of Lazarus, the new globe-trotting thriller from Shinichirō Watanabe. When we first got glimpses of the new series last year from San Diego Comic-Con, I was locked in seeing only a taste of a series that I knew that I wanted to watch.

Featuring a character being chased throughout that first short preview trailer from last year, one could see that the animation was smooth, sleek even, and worth re-watching for its short one minute and thirty-one second run time. There was enough Mirror’s Edge-like parkour to make me dizzy and a variety of characters on screen to keep me interested and speculating until we get more.

And we got more this week with a slightly longer clip of English-subtitled first look video of Lazarus this time around with Axel voiced by Mamoru Miyano–running and being parkour God once again.

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Adult Swim describes the story:

The year is 2052 – an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity prevails across the globe. The reason for this: mankind has been freed from sickness and pain. Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist Dr. Skinner has developed a miracle cure-all drug with no apparent drawbacks called Hapuna. Hapuna soon becomes ubiquitous… and essential. However, soon after Hapuna is officially introduced, Dr. Skinner vanishes.

Three years later, the world has moved on. But Dr. Skinner has returned – this time, as a harbinger of doom. Skinner announces that Hapuna has a short half-life. Everyone who has taken it will die approximately three years later. Death is coming for this sinful world – and coming soon.

As a response to this threat, a special task force of 5 agents is gathered from across the world to save humanity from Skinner’s plan. This group is called “Lazarus.” Can they find Skinner and develop a vaccine before time runs out?

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I have really always loved the science fiction worlds in the anime projects that Watanabe has been involved in. He’s also had a great hand in collabs with musicians and artists that I love listening to. Last time around, I took a look at the cats involved and admitted that I was a little star-struck with some big names attached including Kamasi Washington, which made me know that the music was going to be on point.

According to Anime News Network: Senior vice president and head of anime and action series at Adult Swim Jason DeMarco confirmed that Watanabe is directing every episode. Chad Stahelski (John Wick stuntman and director) is designing the action sequences for the science-fiction action anime. The anime will feature a score by jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, and producers, DJs, and musicians Floating Points and Bonobo. Sola Entertainment is producing.

As reported by Gizmodo, here’s a run through of its Japanese voice cast and where you might’ve heard them before:

• Koichi Yamadera (Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop) as Dr. Skinner
• Megumi Hayashibara (Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop) as Hersch
• Mamoru Miyano (Chrollo Lucilfer from Hunter x Hunter) as Axel
• Maaya Uchida (Alluka Zoldyck from Hunter x Hunter) as Chris
• Yuma Uchida (Megumi Fushiguro from Jujutsu Kaisen) as Leland
• Makoto Furukawa (Saitama from One Punch Man) as Doug
• Manaka Iwami (Akane Kurokawa from Oshi no Ko) as Eleina
• Akio Otsuka (Yujiro Hanma from Baki Hanma) as Abel

I am very much looking forward to Lazarus and this hella jazzy (electronic, house and perhaps all the genre mashing) soundtrack it will serve with it. I love sci-fiction, especially in the realms of anime and from the house that Shinichirō Watanabe builds. I love that we’re getting more and more glimpses of the series, even little by little to make us all anticipate this come 2025. I don’t know for certain what Axel’s backstory is or what he’ll bring to Team Lazarus but I enjoy seeing him evade cops, flip and parkour around and just be fun to watch run around on screen. I love how the collective of fans are feeling early 2000’s anime vibes (in a good, not great way) with this newer series which means most of all will be eagerly awaiting Adult Swim’s latest.

Lazarus is slated to premiere on Adult Swim in 2025.

Watch Adult Swim on Max: http://bit.ly/3Gy0aXA

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The post FIRST LOOK: ‘Lazarus’ Coming to Adult Swim in 2025 appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/cult-classics-an-appreciation-of-don-mancinis-polarizing-seed-of-chucky/

Since 1988’s Child’s Play, Don Mancini has been the driving creative force behind the long-running franchise. After the first installment, which he co-wrote with the film’s director Tom Holland (Fright Night) and writer John Lafia (who’d go on to direct Child’s Play 2), Mancini continued to pen every screenplay. 

It wasn’t until Seed of Chucky that he made his directorial debut, which hit theaters on November 11, 2004. Unfortunately, it didn’t do well at the box office, making it the last Child’s Play movie to premiere in theaters. Some fans consider it the worst in the franchise, though others, especially the LGBTQ+ community, regard it as a campy cult classic. 

With the 20th anniversary approaching and in honor of the unceremonious cancellation of the Chucky series, let’s look back at this polarizing film that the studio considered “too gay, too funny…” and had “too much Jennifer Tilly” (as if there’s ever such a thing).

Most, if not all, horror franchises run into the same problem after a few sequels — the slashers stop being scary. To avoid that, Mancini subverted expectations by steering the Child’s Play films in a more comedic, self-referential direction, beginning with 1998’s Bride of Chucky directed by Ronny Yu (Freddy vs. Jason). There were still horror elements but it deviated from the story of Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent and Justin Whalin), the young protagonist central to Child’s Play 1–3. The film introduced Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) fabulously twisted ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Valentine, played to perfection by Jennifer Tilly.

After bribing and then killing a police officer to obtain Chucky’s remains, Tiffany stitches him together and recites the Damballa voodoo spell to resurrect her old lover. Tiffany spent a decade looking for Chucky, believing that he planned to marry her but he laughs in her face at the idea, so she locks him in a playpen, later taunting him with a bride doll. At this point, Chucky has come back from the dead four times; a measly cage doesn’t hold him for long. After killing her in a very cool Bride of Frankenstein-inspired death, Chucky traps Tiffany in the bride doll, which she gives a serious glow-up in a makeover montage. 

To transfer their souls into humans, the doll couple needs the Heart of Damballa amulet, inconveniently located 6 feet under in Hackensack, New Jersey, with Charles Lee Ray’s corpse. Tiffany pays her neighbor Jesse (Nick Stabile) to deliver the dolls, and he brings along his girlfriend Jade (Katherine Heigl). 

The two couples go on a wild road trip leaving several bodies in their wake. After witnessing Tiffany committing a gruesomely creative murder involving a waterbed, a mirror, and a Champagne bottle, Chucky finally puts a ring on it. But their violently rocky relationship hits a few speed bumps along the way, and by the end, they’re literally at each other’s throats in a cemetery. Tiffany tries to kill Chucky, but he stabs her instead, and then Jade shoots him to death. Before the credits roll, Tiffany briefly wakes up and gives birth to a slimy, sharp-toothed (kinda cute) baby doll. 

Seed of Chucky picks up six years later and we learn that the screeching infant was found by a British guy named Psychs (Keith-Lee Castle), a cruel ventriloquist who forces the ghoulish-looking doll (voiced by Billy Boyd) that he dubbed Shitface to be the dummy in his act. The orphaned doll has a kind and gentle heart but is plagued by murderous nightmares.

Meanwhile, in Hollywood, actor Jennifer Tilly (played by Jennifer Tilly) is on the set of Chucky Goes Psycho, a horror film based on the legend of the dolls inhabited by the souls of serial killers. The last time we saw Chucky and Tiffany, they were burnt to a crisp and riddled with bullets, but they’ve since had a makeover. Luckily, their offspring sees them on TV with the same Made in Japan markings, then flees England and runs away to Los Angeles to find their family. Better yet, they have the amulet to bring them back to life. 

While he’s mostly referred to as male, the character’s gender is ambiguous. Chucky wants a boy, Tiffany wants a girl, so their child is called Glen or Glenda (an homage to Ed Wood’s cult classic). Tiffany sets her sights on transferring her soul into Jennifer Tilly and Chucky’s into hip-hop superstar-turned-director Redman (playing himself). The plan is to impregnate Jennifer and whatever baby pops out is for Glen or Glenda. 

Considering their brief but nightmarish introduction in Bride, this “Dickensian waif” who wets his pants when he’s nervous was not what fans expected. Instead of a natural-born killer with their parents’ same lust for murder, Glen/Glenda is firmly against killing, at least a part of them. As they struggle with their gender identity, they also confront their killer instincts.

Seed haters couldn’t get on board with the meta-Hollywood aspect. Jennifer Tilly playing a version of herself while still voicing Tiffany, and later playing Tiffany in the body of Jennifer Tilly, is a lot to wrap your head around. She pokes fun at herself by playing a washed-up actor, annoyed with doing horror when she wants the juicy parts given to Julia Roberts. She’s determined to land the role of the Virgin Mary in Redman’s “Bible epic.”

Many often critique the multiple plot points, believing there are too many things going on when all that should be happening is Chucky killing people. Still, the film has some pretty cool kills. Glen/Glenda takes out sleazy paparazzo Pete Peters (John Waters) with acid and sets Jennifer’s assistant Joan (Hannah Spearritt) on fire, both accidents. Tiffany disembowels Redman after he fires Jennifer for being pregnant (though Mary would indeed be pregnant).

The comedy is very much of the time back when people thought it was cool to hate Britney Spears and celebs like Martha Stewart and Anna Nicole Smith were frequently referenced. But there’s still some humor that holds up. Glen/Glenda knowing nothing about himself other than the Made in Japan manufacturer mark and informing his personality is just hilarious.

Seed is also very much about acceptance. Tiffany tries to fight what she sees as an addiction to killing and knows that she wants to be a mother first (with some murderous tendencies). Jennifer gives birth to twins, allowing Glen/Glenda to split their identities in two. Even Chucky finds self-acceptance. Since the beginning, his main motivation has been to transfer his soul into a human body for good. But here, he realizes that he would rather embrace his serial killing nature in doll form, declaring “I am Chucky, the killer doll. And I dig it!”

Seed of Chucky is not for everyone, namely anyone looking for something truly terrifying. Mancini took a big swing making a full-on comedy that plays into the absurdity of killer dolls while touching on poignant topics like gender identity, addiction, and acceptance. For those who can accept that Seed of Chucky is a meta off-the-rails comedy, it’s a gory, good time. 

Seed of Chucky is available to rent on Prime Video and is streaming on Netflix through October 31, 2024.

The post Cult Classics: An Appreciation of Don Mancini’s Polarizing ‘Seed of Chucky’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

https://www.themarysue.com/best-feminist-books-for-teens-ranked/

It’s time for a new generation of feminists to take up the torch. But where to begin? Should teens hit the ground running with The Feminine Mystique? Or maybe a fantasy novel about dismantling entrenched structures of power? Yes and yes. If you need suggestions, here are 10 feminist books for teens.

10. We Should All Be Feminists

We Should All Be Feminists is a long-form essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a New York Times best-selling author and leading light in postcolonial feminist thought. Adapted from her TEDx talk of the same name, We Should All Be Feminists is an eloquent and deeply personal piece of prose about the importance of embracing feminist thought, no matter who you are. Combining personal anecdotes with observations of society as a whole, the book is a call to action for feminist thinkers everywhere.

https://nerdist.com/article/agatha-all-along-pop-culture-witches-costumes/

In the seventh episode of Agatha All Along, we finally reach a moment we knew was coming from all the teasers and trailers—our Westview coven dressed up as famous pop culture witches. This occurs within the portion of the Witches’ Road trial, the Tarot Trial, designed specifically for Patti Lupone’s divination witch Lilia. But why were each of these witches paired with those specific pop culture enchantresses? Each one has a very specific meaning, and reason for being paired with them.

Agatha Harkness/The Wicked Witch of the West

Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) enters the trial and transforms into a semblance of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. She seems amused by this, saying to Billy “She’s based on me, you know.” This implies that at some point, she met Oz author L. Frank Baum, no doubt left a horrible impression on him and he based his novel’s villain on her. Agatha seems to relish having the embodiment of the evil witch cliché based on herself. So it’s no wonder that became her appearance in the trial. Also, let’s not forget that Agatha killed the Maximoff family’s dog Sparky in WandaVision. This of course reminds us of Margaret Hamilton’s iconic Oz line “I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!” Interestingly, this series is humanizing Agatha somewhat, just as the novel/play Wicked did for the original Wicked Witch.

Billy Maximoff/Maleficent

William Kaplan/Billy Maximoff’s witch was none other than Maleficent from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. We know from the glimpses into his bedroom posters in episode six that he’s a big fan of classic Disney animation. Let’s face it, of the great pop culture witches, Maleficent is the most diva-esque of all. So it’s no wonder that Billy (Joe Locke), a gay teen, would idolize her over the others. It also makes sense that he’s not just doing Maleficent drag, but it’s more like gender-bent cosplay. Maybe the biggest clue as to why Billy is Maleficent is that she famously has a secondary form as a giant dragon. Now, we doubt Billy is a dragon, but he was certainly adept at hiding his true self for several episodes. Luckily, Billy is better at dodging swords than Maleficent was in Sleeping Beauty.

Jennifer Kale/The Old Hag

Speaking of Disney witches, Jennifer Kale’s witch is actually the Old Hag persona of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This makes total sense, of course, because the Evil Queen was obsessed with being the “fairest in the land.” Jennifer’s whole business was selling (bogus) age-defying beauty products to unsuspecting customers. Potions were also her specialty, and the Evil Queen mixes magical potions in the classic film. Jennifer didn’t manifest in her glamorous Queen persona in the Tarot Trial, probably because inside, she knows that she is far older than she looks. No doubt her biggest insecurity is that despite any appearances to the contrary, inside, she’s really a very old hag.

Lilia Calderu/Glinda the Good Witch

No one hates the representation of witches in pop culture more than Lilia Calderu (Patti Lupone). We learned this from her very first appearance in the show. So it makes sense that for her Tarot Trial, pop culture witches would be the theme. Lilia was transformed into a version of Glinda, the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz. Honestly, this is probably the witch stereotype that offends her the least. Given the nature of this episode, it also makes sense she would embody Glinda. In The Wizard of Oz, it was Glinda who revealed to Dorothy that she contained the answers within herself all along. In a sense, Lilia had the answers to her time leaps within her all this time too. She just didn’t know how to access it until the very end.

The post How AGATHA ALL ALONG Paired Pop Culture Witches with the Witches’ Road Coven appeared first on Nerdist.