This is a big reason why I try to watch movies outside my normal tastes: I love catching little nods to other movies and seeing connections that might go over a lot of other people's heads.

I'm watching Paprika for the first time. The opening scene has a woman hitting a guy over the head with a guitar with a photographer saying something about doing it again. This is a copy of a Roman Holiday scene with Audrey Hepburn. Very much a blink and you'd miss it scene but one I appreciated seeing. I might not enjoy the rest of the movie, but now I'll remember it for that alone, if nothing else.

I watched a few episodes of My Adventurea with Superman on HBO Max. It’s a new anime-styled series about the early career of Superman. It’s ok, but I likely won’t keep watching.

I have to admit to not getting into much of Superman. I've seen quite a few of the Superfriends episodes from, what, the 70s? 80s? He's just never been my favorite. Maybe partly because I couldn't get over how no one recognized him wearing glasses, partly because he's just a little too wholesome...

Too wholesome, and too powerful. The comics always had problems finding enough challenges for him. I know we’re in an age of Batman overkill, but he’s always been a much more interesting character.

I watched another DC movie that was a crossover between Justice League and an anime-influenced series called RWBY. I’ve never seen RWBY, so that part went over my head, and I don’t feel compelled to seek it out. Crossover fail.

I realized that for last year’s challenge I had watched only the first episode of Lower Decks season 3, so I’ve jumped back into it. New season airs in September, so remind me to watch that in next year’s challenge.

New Puss in Boots is on Netflix and pretty good.

I tried Lower Decks when it first dropped. Couldn't get into it. Felt like a typical current generic frenetic cartoon with Trek slapped on top. Didn't help it at all that I'm not a fan of current "TV" animation styles.

I watched two Studio Ghibli films tonight, Ocean Waves and My Neighbors the Yamadas. Ocean Waves was alright. I didn't realize until after I looked it up that it was actually made for TV. The plot seemed a little superficial, to be honest, not quite up to usual Ghibli standards. I still have no idea why Taku was attracted to Rikaku. She treated him poorly throughout the whole film.

The Yamadas was cute, split into several short sections rather than have one cohesive plot. I don't know that it is particularly memorable. It's only been a couple hours and I can only think of 3 of the themes off-hand.

With those two films, I have seen all the Ghibli films except the most recent, The Boy and the Heron, which has only just been released in Japan, so maybe by next summer it'll be out on disc.

I didn’t get into it at first, but they had some better storylines that had me interested. That said, I was underwhelmed by season 3, not sure why.

I’ve only watched bits of Fox and [adult swim] animated shows.

I have 6 grandkids - the 3 oldest (who live close to me) came over *lots* when they were younger and watched tons of the modern stuff (and older stuff via my library). There are a few I enjoyed, two of which are Teen Titans and, to a lesser degree, Teen Titans Go!. They still have some of that "bouncing off the walls" aspect I'm not too fond of but overall are enjoyable.

I can't think of a single Adult Swim series I've seen that I enjoyed. My oldest grandson liked a few when he was too young for them (all it took was grandma walking in at the "wrong time" on one and they were banned).

Even though the challenge is nearly over, I think I will keep watching next month. Not only do I not do the September challenge, but I’ve really enjoyed going back to my childhood with my DVD sets. I’ve actually almost completely finished Season 1 of Transformers.

I've been watching the 2012 TMNT and it's pretty good. It's leans more into body horror than you'd expect from a Nick kids show and they've also had some strong sci-fi/horror homage/parody episodes. I'm 45 episodes in (not even half way); with a total episode count of 124, I can indulge as much as I want. Good times.

Netflix has the first two seasons (52 eps). There are five seasons total, so that's really annoying, but I bought the box set, so I'm still good to go. Fah! On you Netflix for being too cheap to pick up all 5 seasons (unless it was some sort of stupid rights reason)!

Grampa busted

Several years ago I learned this anime series was Tosho Daimos but what I likely saw on cable in the early '80s was Starbirds, a dubbed movie adaptation. All I remembered was the elaborate launch sequence of the truck and car, the super robot transformation and pilot's control movements for fighting, and the super robot backflip with spears jettisoned out of the legs and combined into a longer weapon (Daimos shaft!).

Daimos along with Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman) and Shogun Warriors toys was my introduction to anime and cemented my fondness for all things mecha. With Daimos under my belt I will need to check out the remaining Robot Romance Trilogy series.

Given that I only had one episode left, I decided to finish Season 1 of Transformers. The final two episodes are some of my favorites, because both the Insecticons and Constructicons were introduced respectively. I got to thinking if maybe a renewal was up in the air after Season 1. Given the way that the Decepticons were beaten at the end, but yet a final scene that did leave them an opening to return.

I cannot believe it's already the last day of the challenge! While I didn't personally get a ton of watches in, the ones I did got quite a bit off my to watch list. Either first watches entirely or first time I've watched my copy of a movie. I have one last one, Appleseed, that I'll watch sometime this afternoon, but I think that'll be my last for the challenge.

Don't forget you can get double credit with the Criterion Challenge today!

Thanks to Game Pass, I was given a 75 day trial to Crunchyroll Premium . It really has opened a lot of options. There are so many shows that are locked behind the paywall. I’ve nearly completed the series Beast Tamer with it. Since it’s a short series of only 13 episodes.

Well... I *was* planning to watch a few things this month and it just didn't happen. Every time I'd go to pick something animated a non-animated movie or TV series would jump the line! And I was planning to get in the latest Looney Tunes release from Warner Archives - may still try to work in a few later today but I'm not holding my breath...

All of Adventure Time is just $10 at iTunes right now. Glitch probably won’t last long.

Some other good ones on crunchyroll (if you've got enough time left):

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale
Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill
The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent
KONOSUBA -God's blessing on this wonderful world!
Dr. Stone

I decided to slip in a few more watches so went on to season 2 of Harley Quinn. It’s fine but nothing special. Appearances by Batgirl and Catwoman were the highlight for me.

I can be a mood watcher so sometimes I end up not watching anything since I want to watch something that won't count for the challenge and I can't make myself choose something that counts to watch.

That being said, I'm pleased at what I did watch this month even though I don't have a large number of them. I did get to Appleseed tonight and I ended up liking it. I chose it because it was on one of the icheckmovies lists and I'd seen it listed before, but the summary didn't really seem like something I'd really enjoy. I was pleasantly surprised when I got sucked in.

And in spite of not thinking I'd watch that Looney Tunes release I did - in its entirety. But that's due to the "lazy" way the disc was authored. I like to select a single 'toon (or episode) at a time so rarely (aka never) use "Play All" from a menu. This disc is authored in that stupidly lazy way that al lows you to easily select a single 'toon to watch but then proceeds to play *every single one after* as if you chose "Play All." So... I just let it play until the entire disc finished. I must say, the 'toons on that disc look excellent though there are a few who have the audio mastered lower than the others which forces you to have to adjust volume from one to the next. Not a deal breaker but also lazy mastering. And it contains a nice selection of material with lots of variety in characters. The discs with a focus on a single character is one thing that somewhat annoyed me about the Golden Collections. I like Bugs very much but a full disc of nothing *but* him (or any other character) gets tiring and sometimes feels repetitive - and those releases did that with several characters (with the worst, IMHO, being the full disc of Roadrunner 'toons on one release. That one gets old for me after just one as I find those incredibly repetitive).

Anyway - it's a highly recommended release in spite of a couple of issues. The 'toons look better than ever - better than you'd have likely seen in the screening room when first produced. I hope it's not the last in the series.

Ugh, that happened to me with the Pink Panther set. I really enjoy the cartoons, individually they're great. Watching an hour of them, one after another? Not so much fun.

Thanks for running consecutive challenges again, LJG!

I just saw that offer yesterday. Too late to help me for this challenge, but still of interest,

I did that on a couple episodes of MeTV’s Popeye And Friends that I had set my DVR to record. Rather than watching the entire hour in one sitting, I would watch two or three episodes and stop to finish another time.

Considering that it took a couple weeks to really get into it, I think 74 was a respectable number to end on. Though I do wish I had had it in me to at least make an even 75.

Thanks for a fun month LJG