Bring Me Sunshine Again! The Sunshine Blogger Award is Back!

The Sunshine Blogger Award is still making the rounds in the blogosphere and I am more than honoured to be nominated not once more, but twice! You can check out my first go at this award HERE, but this time I’ve been nominated by Yomu over at Umai Yomu Anime Blog and Curtis aka Ospreyshire over at Iridium Eye Reviews and my humble gratitude to both. They both run great blogs and you should definitely check them out.

Before we get started properly, let’s set out the rules:

Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so that other people can visit them.
2. Answer the 11 questions put to you by the nominator
3. Nominate 11 bloggers of your choosing and provide them with a new set of 11 questions to answer
4. Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts
5. List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award logo within your post or on your blog site.

As I’ve already done this award once before I’m going to skip nominating people this time around, just take this as an open invitation to take part if you want to. I’m also going to keep my questions the same as last time, I’ll drop them down at the bottom as a reminder, but first!

Yomu’s Questions

If you had the ability to hear the voices of inanimate objects, which one would you find the most annoying to converse with?

My keyboards. I don’t think I could take the tiny screams as I tap, tap, tap away at them while I work.

Would you rather have heat or cold resistance?

I already have cold resistance, winter is my favourite season of the year. Summer, however, is my least favourite and for one reason only, the heat! (Shakes fist dramatically). Still, I prefer being comfortable in Winter rather than Summer.

Do you prefer cookies or doughnuts?

Cookies! Where are the cookies? WHERE ARE THE COOKIES?!

What is the best time of year for tourists to visit in your home country?

There’s probably about two weeks in July were you’ll get some sunny weather. I kid, Britain has a reputation for always raining and that’s not true, it’s more accurate to say that it might always rain. Our weather is unpredictable to say the least, we’re a country on the Grand Line for all the One Piece fans out there.

What was your first job?

Outside of work experience at schoole, my first proper job was a sales assistant in a garage (sorry, petrol station, showing my Yorkshire there). I worked the night shift by myself, cleaning the shelves, watching people filling up on the forecourt and fetching what people wanted from the shop. Honestly it was an okay job, I’ve had worse, and I’ve always enjoyed a job that let’s me work at my own pace and in my own way.

What’s the next anime on your watch list?

Well, Fate/Grand Order recently ended and I’m in need of some epic action so I’m thinking a rewatch of Fate/Apocrypha is in order. Then again, my DVD of Attack on Titan season 3 should be arriving any day now and I’m likely to start that as soon as it drops through my letterbox.

What anime high school is your favourite?

I don’t know. U.A. from My Hero Academia? I guessed that would be my top pick, mainly because I’ve always loved superheroes in a school setting. Outside of that…I don’t know, I like plenty of series set in high schools, but I’ve never been all that interested in the schools themselves.

If I gave you 5 dollars, and you had to spend it, what would you spend it on?

Well, first I’d have to look at the exchange rate and see how much 5 dollars was actually worth, but I guess a comic is about that price. Sounds like a fair deal to me, when can I expect the money?

What anime superpower / magic / ability is your favourite?

The ability to be hit by something that should really break every bone in your body and yet still get up to carry on fighting. I’m thinking of a lot of shonen series with this one and, while it is ridiculous, it has led to some pretty amazing fights that I can’t help but adore.

What’s your preferred anime length?

Probably between 12 – 24 episodes. That’s a reasonable length to me, it gives creators enough time to flesh out their world, have a few more involved story arcs and space for a bit of filler to let things breath. Let’s not underestimate the effect that good filler can have on a series.

About that zombie apocalypse, it’s still coming. Which anime character do you think would make for a good zombie?

I’m not sure there is such a thing as a good zombie, but how about a Snorlax from Pokemon. I’m a big guy and I need something I can outrun if it’s the zombie apocalypse. Then again gods help me if Snorlax manages to catch up, I’d be gone in one bite.

And Now, Ospreyshire’s Questions!

Which actor or actress do you think is overlooked by the public and what role would you like to see them in?

Nicholas Briggs. In the Doctor Who community he’s a legend, but more people need to know about the man’s talent. To most he’s the voice of the Daleks (since the show came back in 2005), but he’s so much more than that, writer, director, producer and the voice to hundreds of monsters and characters. Even just going back to the Dalek voices shows the man’s talents. He’s voiced millions of Daleks over the years and still manages to find new voices and fill each one with depth and personality. Personally I’d love it if he got an onscreen role so more of the general public could see his talent, maybe he could play a human Dalek, as that would be fascinating to see.

If you could have a crossover between an anime and something involving Western animation, what would they be and what would the plot look like?

Can someone say DC X My Hero Academia. I love superheroes, and when I say that I mean I really love superheroes, so the chance to see two of my favourite sets of heroes teaming up and fighting side by side would be fantastic. Come on DC, there’s already a Justice League manga so just cross them over already! As for the plot? It’d probably be a typical team up, some sort of dimensional tears appear due to the machinations or villains, or maybe someone develops a quirk that lets them cross parallel realities, the heroes meet, there’s an initial scuffle and then everyone gets to know one another and they team up to take down the villains, who have also teamed up. Deku could meet inspirational heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, swap plans with Batman, all the while Shigaraki could be taking villain lessons from the likes of Lex Luthor and the Joker.

What is your favorite thing about international cinema?

Godzilla movies. There’s lots of reasons to love international cinema, but the main one for me boils down to just the wealth of new ideas and perspective they bring. That being said, I do love me some Godzilla movies, I grew up on them as much as anime and all the new ideas in the world can’t beat the awe of seeing a giant reptile stomping his way around.

If you could switch a theme song from a movie or TV series with a different song, what would it be and why?

It took a while to come up with this answer, mostly because I only really remember the good theme songs, but then the answer finally came to me! Sabrina the Teenage Witch, I loved the show growing, and still do in all its goofy cheesy glory, but the one thing that always annoyed me about that show was the opening. A theme is meant to get you pumped for what you’re about to watch and what does Sabrina get lumbered with? A boring, uninspired guitar riff that is as generic as possible. If beige could be a sound, it would be this opening. I’d replace it with anything, even the animated series’ song, but since I can chose, I’d probably go with something like ‘Season of the Witch’ by Donovan.

What book would you like to see adapted onto the screen? This could be a novel or comic book, by the way.

It won’t happen, but Runemarks by Joanne Harris. It’s my favourite book, honestly, it feels like it was written just for me. Spunky young heroine, magic, norse mythology, order vs chaos, I love it and I knew I would the moment I read the first line, ‘500 years after the End of the World, and goblins had been at the cellar again’. It’d be perfect for a Netflix series.

What band would you like to see compose an entire soundtrack? What kind of movie would they score?

That’s a tough one, I guess it comes down to what the soundtrack is for. If it were something set in the 1920s I’d want some Electro Swing, so somebody like the Swingrowers would be perfect. If it’s something a bit more offbeat or possibly folky, then I’d pick Katzenjammer as they usually have a good variety of styles on their albums. Something a bit more mainstream? Then I’d go My Chemical Romance, Panic! At the Disco or Against The Current. Have I mentioned my music tastes are eclectic.

What is the least favorite thing from a creator you really like?

I love Scott Snyder’s run on Batman, it’s one of my favourite runs with the character in modern comics (closely followed by James Tynion’s Detective Comics run). It has it’s flaws sure, but on the whole it was fantastic. His Justice League run however… now admittedly I bailed early on into the run, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t for me. Don’t get me wrong, there was a wealth of terrific ideas and just insane plot elements (sometimes too many, which could put some people off), but the nail in the coffin for me was the dialogue boxes. Now I have nothing against dialogue boxes, as long as they’re used properly, which to me is when they let us peer into the internal thoughts of a character, or to quickly establish a scene or time. When dialogue boxes are filled with purple prose describing what I’m looking at it makes me think the writer doesn’t trust the artist (even more so when this was never a thing in his Batman run). Comics are a visual medium, use it! You want to write a prose novel? Go write a novel! Wow, I got way angrier there than I actually feel.

Who would you like to see voicing over a documentary that has never done so before? What would the documentary be about?

Peter Capaldi, if his time on Doctor Who proved nothing else (outside of how great an actor the man is) it’s that the man knows how to talk. Seriously I could listen to his speeches in Doctor Who on a loop for all eternity, so, yeah, I could listen to him talking about anything I reckon. What would documentary be about? Probably a nature one, those are the only documentaries that I really watch.

Which actor would sound ridiculous if they tried an accent outside of their own?

I’ll abstain from this one because I honestly can’t think of one, that and I know I’m terrible at accents myself (unless I’ve been listening to a native speaker for a few hours, then I can probably imitate them). There are plenty of bad attempts at accents out there, as a Brit I always find it incredibly hilarious whenever any american tries to do an English accent (seriously, americans always go for either a posh accent or a cockney one, you do realise that’s actually a relatively small proportion of all the accents we have, right?).

Who do you think is the most overrated film or animation director?

I’m always hesitant to call a film, or anything, overrated, mostly because I do my best to avoid what other people think of something until I’ve seen it for myself (I learnt a long time ago that hype can kill a story for me). Occasionally people’s opinions might filter through to me, but I never know whether that’s how everyone feels, or if it’s just one small, loud corner of the internet. I just can’t say if something is overrated with any confidence and by the time I’ve watched it, if I didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else seemed to then I just shrug my shoulders and say it wasn’t for me.

What is your greatest wish for cinema and/or animation? This could be realistic or a pipe dream.

This probably is a pipe dream, but I’d really love for the idea that animation is just for kids removed from public consciousness. We’ve made great strides in this arena and there are more and more people who appreciate animation as the art form it is each generation, but that stigma still clings to it here in the West and I want it gone. Whenever I hear someone comment about how ‘cartoons are for kids’ or anything like that, I have to genuinely control myself because I feel my blood boiling. Whether it’s just someone asking an innocent question, a snide comment or just one of my friends trying to wind me up, I’d like it to stop thank you very much. Surely we’ve got enough proof to dismiss the idea by now.

And now my questions! Mwahahahahahahaha!

My Questions: 

1. What one silly, inconsequential thing makes you happy every single time you come across it (for example cat videos or that moment you get to pop some bubble wrap)?
2. What’s your favourite fandom to be apart of?
3. Do you prefer Summer or Winter? Why?
4. What’s one language you’d like to master more than any other?
5. What’s your party trick?
6. This question is mostly filler, what score would you give it out of 10?
7. What’s the one piece of technology you couldn’t live without?
8. Your house is about to be sucked into a black hole, what’s the one thing you grab before you try to escape?
9. You get to travel to one fictional world, where are you headed?
10. Your life is now a musical, what’s the opening number called?
11. How much anime is too much anime?

Feel free to answer them if you want and I hope you have as much fun with my questions as I did with Yomu’s and Ospreyshire’s. See you next week!

Chris Joynson, aka the Infallible Fish, is a writer, blogger and lover of animation living in Sheffield. The blog updates every Friday.