Tag Archives: family

Movies and Shows

Kotaro Lives Alone: How To Break Hearts

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Netflix has no right messing with my soul like this. The clip they show look like a silly show about a child who lives alone in an apartment complex who does random shenanigans. Seems like a fun show to watch where you can turn your brain off and relax. Then episode 3 comes around and you find out that Kotaro’s mother is dead, her life insurance is how he affords the apartment, but he’s not told she’s dead and its from a generous donor, and he has a restraining order against his abusive father. 0-100 very fast. Thank God its only 10 episodes and doesn’t look like its being renewed for a second season.

The rest of the show is sadly an attack on the soul. You find out Kotaro spent a lot of time homeless and was eating tissues and leaves to survive. Kotaro does help his neighbors out with their problems.

Karino, an artist, Kotaro helps learn deadlines and responsibilities. Tamaru, he helps repair the relationship with his son. And Akitomo, he helps her run away from her abusive boyfriend. The show’s goal is to show people what really matters in life. Love and family.

Kotaro and Karino have a good father and son relationship. Karino becomes one of the best father figures in anime I’ve ever seen and in the final episode, hides a terrible secret from Kotaro. That his mom is dead. He gives Kotaro hope that they might one day meet and makes sure he will protect him from his abusive father and his past.

The show is highly rewarding, but incredibly sad. One of those shows where you cry in the end, but it’s a happy cry, because you know Kotaro will never be alone or unhappy again. And maybe that’s why I’m glad the show might not continue. We don’t need 10 seasons of him getting better. We can watch the final credits roll and know its going to work out for him.  That he will get the love from his neighbors that blood relative could never give him. And maybe that’s the best kind of ending.

Artwork from Dream by WOMBO AI Art

Simptastic Joe

Wrestling

Mark Briscoe: What’s Next?

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Mark Briscoe is dealing with real life issues that are more important than wrestling. In no way am I trying to be disrespectful to him and his wrestling ability.

With the tragic passing of his brother Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe is on the verge of fading into irrelevancy and unemployment. The Briscoe Brothers were one of the best tag teams in pro wrestling. And the only reason they aren’t a household name is because they had the misfortune to be employed by Ring of Honor.

For those of you that don’t know, mainly because ROH isn’t on any tv channel and the company is terrible at trying to grow the company, The Briscoe Brothers have held the ROH Tag Team Championship for 12 times. Jay has held the ROH World Championship 2 times in his career while Mark has held 0 individual titles.

Jay had IT, Mark does not. Jay can be the top of a company, he could deliver promo, he looked the part, could sell a move, great finisher, there was nothing Jay couldn’t do in the world of wrestling. Mark is good, but not great. Teaming with Jay took a lot of pressure off Mark, which is why they were such a successful tag team.

Mark acts like a wild animal in the ring. He doesn’t wrestle, he fights. Which obviously is his character, but it doesn’t look good in long matches or against top talent. Jay has been at the top of the company. Put on great matches against Adam Cole, Samoa Joe, Jay White, Bandido and a ton of other opponents I watched in preparation for this article.

What happens to Mark now? Where does he fit in on AEW? As I said before, a successful singles career is not in his future. Are you going to team him up with someone? Who? Now the WWE has given us some interesting tag pairings that looked strange at first, but were successful. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, Team Hell No, Ricochet and Aleister Black, The Bar were all fun to watch.

Who does Mark team with? I’ve looked through the AEW roster, I don’t see any pairings that work. The only thing that would work is some big faction, maybe Lance Archer, Mike Bennett, but the more I write this the more ridiculous it sounds.

Mark was his own unique character. Teaming with Jay fit the theme they were trying to portray. There is nobody in wrestling that I think fits with Mark. And now that Jays gone, Mark is lost in the shuffle. Looking at the current AEW roster I found 60 wrestlers more equipped the be the head of the company in some capacity over Mark and none of them seem to mesh with Mark in a tag or faction capacity.

Tony Khan is doing a terrible job at managing his 5 shows. Dynamite, Rampage, Dark, Elevation and ROH are all clumped into one roster and you might go weeks before a feud or one of your favorite wrestler is on tv. For Mark to survive in the company, he needs to be placed at the top of a show and be on a roster of wrestlers that aren’t head and shoulders above him.

Where do you think Mark Briscoe is going in AEW and how would you book him going forward?

Simptastic Joe

Movies and Shows

Will Smith: Damage Control

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After “the slap” Will Smith’s career is in jeopardy. Smith has already resigned from the Academy Awards (whatever that means) and will be facing legal charges from Chris Rock in the coming weeks. Apparently, Bad Boys 4 and his upcoming on Netflix are on pause for the moment.

My prediction is that Smith is going to check himself into some kind of rehab for a bit. His family will be completely silent on the incident. Smith will plead not guilty to any Rock lawsuits and get it dropped to no jail time, some rehab and a big damages settlement. Rock already had hecklers at his comedy special shortly after the Oscars so he can easily say this incident has impacted his career.

The real truth is that Smith doesn’t care about his actions, he cares about his punishment and that’s why he’s getting a jump start on his redemption path. Right now, he and his wife are working on his apology to the world. He’s going to donate a big portion of his next movie paycheck to some kind of abusers group.

In a few years, people won’t forget about the slap, but Smith’s career will be just fine. His agent will start casting him in big ensemble movies where Smith can be a supporting actor and the movie won’t be boycotted. Smith will go back to roots and act in cool stuff and not Oscar winning movies that nobody will ever see or heard existed.

But where do you see Will Smith’s career going forward?

Simptastic Joe