Shinnosuke and His Devilish Red Crayon

Since most places I’ve been to that’s centered around Anime and Manga have zero clue on who this child is (because if I’m gonna be dead honest, a huge chunk of those shops clearly only like bootlicking One Piece and later Dragon Ball and… yeah, that’s pretty much it), I’d have to do the honors of explaining in front of the class. So, this is Shin-chan (or going by the full title mainly used for the Manga, Crayon Shin-chan), one of those weird animes from the early 1990s that never quite figured out who it’s targeted towards. It’s around an absolutely dysfunctional family at it’s raw core. A very loving family shockingly, but one where everyone are special nutcases in their own selves. From Misae, the mother who has a worse violent temper than a chimpanzee to Hiro, the breadmaker of the family who either is a surprisingly responsible and caring father figure or a complete woman-lusting basketcase who always takes the chance to tease his wife who he surprisingly ACTUALLY loves (He’s still an alcoholic though, so baby steps here. This ain’t gonna FULLY destroy every 2000s adult animated sitcom trope by itself), to their little baby daughter, Hima, who’s… ALSO a model lusting nut who’ll grab ahold onto anything shiny and clearly hasn’t reached the stage of “think before you act”. But the main son, Shin, is the prime example of how unearthly everyone in that house is. He takes the crown for one of the WEIRDEST kids ever written, especially when it comes to how he is towards anything he likes; He shoves entire boxes of japanese cookies down in one gulp, he one minute will go completely bonkers over a woman (are you seeing a pattern here?), but then the literal next second will cross-dress and does anything to seduce his male friends in school, he swings his dick around and calls it an elephant out in public (which actually ended up being a MAJOR problem when it came time to localize the series to other countries), he bare-ass dances around and somehow makes him run faster, I’m like 95% confident he has some kind of ADHD due to how he’ll switch his focus on like 5 different things in the matter of seconds. 

Now, this might sound like a recipe for disaster for a series, but the most surprising thing is… I really REALLY love this show. I adore the absolute unfiltered attitude everyone will randomly have to make as many amazingly solid jokes and gags as possible, I love the crudely modeled yet surprisingly fluid animation, this being a popular series from Japan to the surprise of nobody turns out as many off-the-wall weirdness and near Looney Tunes-like wackyness as possible which is ALWAYS a plus to me, but I think what I love the MOST about this whole thing is how surprisingly well-written everyone is. It’s one of the more realistic portrayals of a chaotic family that to the outside world would never work as a group that would even want to live with each other, but in reality, very does care for one another. All of them are weird heavily flawed people yet they still know they wouldn’t want to leave each other for anyone. It’s something most pieces of animation aimed at adults fail at time and time again, and this is (depending on the dub) mainly aimed towards children.

Now, the question of do I like the regular version more than what most people think of when they hear of Shin, which is the late 2000s heavily jokeified-dub done by Funimation… Yeah, I prefer the original. Early season 1 of the Funimation dub has its fair share of solid jokes newly written, but after season 1 and towards season 2, it REALLY outstays it’s welcome, especially since they decide to do the amazing idea of making the actual uniquely written family just like EVERY OTHER FUCKING FOX SITCOM FAMILY! Because we CLEARLY don’t have enough of those and it CLEARLY won’t ruin the chances of these characters ever getting a comeback in the states since Funimation couldn’t calm it the hell down with the writing. You think Disney’s gonna save their asses?! They straight up REJECTED the tamer dub made in the early 2000s despite it being cool with literally every other country. Same company that made Brandy and Mr. Whiskers around the exact same time by the way.

That Treasured Chase Game

Pirates love any kind of goods they can get their hands on, so it’s fitting that the most commonly written trope when it comes to pirates (them actively involved in a treasure hunt for all kinds of gold and jewels) is so hugely in their DNA that people STILL can’t get over the fact that “NO, Pirates never used treasure maps and dug buried treasure on islands because realistically the only kind of person who would try that stunt is either a sociopath or Alex Hirsch creating the most cryptic scavenger hunt known to man solely because he got cold-feet when being asked about the early production stages of Gravity Falls and didn’t like being reminded that he wasn’t as good as an artist when he was in school (this isn’t a diss, I HEAVILY can relate to feeling that way towards alot of my older artwork, but like.. Bro, it’s NOT that deep though).

I had nothing new to highlight for Talk like a Pirate Day, so here’s pretty much a redo of the original pencils from when I first created Betty, Lotta and Jade’s piracy-active ancestors back around very early 2021.

Treasure Island's Homemade Popcorn

Everyone has to make money in a world modeled after the study of capitalism somehow (especially legally to some degree since all the nearest ports had heavily increased their security), and selling products has always been the most common way of doing so. The idea of trading goods for money is surprisingly a normal practice for most pirates, since most of them would travel to any small area of civilization and ”trade” their own resources and goods in exchange for things that have an insanely higher value price (i.e. spices). Now, if they did so without massive amounts of violence and kidnapping though… Yeah, they'll get back to you on that. But Betty seems to have found a secret way of getting her own plunder without killing anyone (which is the most shocking thing here)

The plan’s simple; Hijack the nearest popcorn plant in town and force the owners not to say anything or else she MIGHT hurt them, season the batch with the cheapest yet actually pretty tasty sea-salt, pose for the packaging and advertising in her most sexy poses and then market it to horny people at the club SOLELY for her looks with the idea of eating popcorn before a big game (how else do you think Frito-Lay stays in business when sport season’s over?) and making sure to sell it in quick-marts that never price their products for some dumb reason and you only ever find out once it’s already been rang up. That way, they'll never truly find out that you’re selling bags of unoriginal snacks in a bag that’s been heavily vacuum-sealed and filled with over 60% of air for $8.00. I mean… I never said she’ll do it morally, but given how Betty IS, especially when she’s locked in on pirate mode, that’s honestly the safest route for everyone else.

Sizzlin' Smoked Sausages

Summer’s just about to fade out of the year, as per usual with every other season of every other year, and that means EVERYONE is grilling whatever they can find in their house one final time before the mighty Blue Rhino returns to its natural habitat and hibernates for the upcoming winter. Everyone, including Betty, because when it comes to the Black & Decker grill, the chubby girl’s a wizard at it! Freshly cooked shrimp, corn on the cob, hot dogs and hamburgers; each piece of meat and vegetable coated to an even balance with all sorts of spices she found in her spice rack and pressed onto the grill with such harsh yet delicate force creates a mark only a skillfully crafted cook in the house can stamp. The only downside Betty has is, because both she and the boys love her cooking so much, Tom ends up trying to sell them off to people in town for cash. The money isn’t the problem, but rather her having to cook 20 burgers and 10 hot dogs at a time for a random person on the street, which isn’t… her ideal way of spending an afternoon outside.

Which Is the Rooster and Which Is the Hen?

That’s the wrong bird, Betty! But I can’t fault her too much, since her hearts in the right place. Especially since it surprisingly seems to be working as planned… for Tom, anyway. Tom Jr. on the other hand… not so much. Nobody tell him about the real horror that is him being in the same situation in just the next couple of years, since he IS past the puberty stage (which we are NOT showing because even they deserve to have some kind of privacy.

The REAL New York Pizza

Listen, All I’m saying is that if you’re aiming to order yourself a New York-style pizza, get it from THE source. Especially since, if you know anything about Betty Boop (More specifically early Betty Boop), that’s as New Yorkish as you can get!  There’s huge clearly untested rats sprinting all around the pizzeria who’s willing to “help” out which may or may not result in most of the food being eaten, well-fed boyfriends hounding all over their girlfriends just READY to win themselves a free pizza, with the lovely sounds of rusty car horns, faded screaming gibberish and multiple gun shots flying all around the street.

Weirdly enough, the item this is based off

of (which I've posted below) isn’t from New

York, but actually, an exclusive 2000 snow

globe… from Illinois. Yeah, the most random

state you can think of when heavily showing

off people tossing pizza dough. Then again,

I’ve never been to Illinois before, so I don’t

know if they’re just AS popular for their

pizza over there. So, in conclusion, that

showoff of a fat apple better get to work

crafting their own Betty Boop pizza snow-

globe because they’re lacking behind the

competition, because how the HELL do

you lose to Illinois of all states?!

 Daisy Duck; It's Daisy's Birthday (2014)

Synopsis: Gladstone and Donald’s luck helps them quickly get some last-minute presents for Daisy’s birthday, but the gifts HAD to come from somewhere.

Katrien is jarig (H 2012-248) | I.N.D.U.C.K.S. 

"Katrien is jarig" follows the usual formula of Donald and Gladstone completing using their own good and bad luck in the hopes of pleasing Daisy, who despite always being Donald’s pair in pretty much every single piece of media around them, always seems to ping-pong between the duck and gander in the world of Disney comics. The most interesting thing about these stories is how they usually go about the idea of who Daisy goes with, as it’s more comparable to something like MAD’s Spy Vs. Spy comics. By which, I mean you never know who ends up winning and who ends up losing. Sometimes it’s Donald who wins Daisy’s heart, Sometimes it’s Gladstone who outsmarts Donald (although that’s usually in-part of Donald’s “bad luck” of trying to cheat his way in winning but ends up making it worse for himself) and sometimes, like this story for example, neither one of them wins, as Daisy’s actively angry with both of them. How it’s presented here is pretty alright for being a small 4-pager story. Both Donald and Gladstone forget about Daisy on her birthday and both actively decide to pretty much cheat their way out of the problem by simply just hopeing their luck fixes everything for them. This makes the ending feel alot more satisfying since it’s clear neither one of them actually tried in winning Daisy’s heart fair and square, so you don’t feel bad for them being punished.

As for the artwork… It's fine. You can tell this was made more as a filler story than as a main headliner, since it’s not as polished or heavily expressive as a regular 10-pager. Alot of the expressions don’t try to push any creative boundaries yet it still contains some very fine layouts and decent posing, and honestly, that’s the most I like to get out of these shorter stories from Holland.

Honestly, I don't blame Daisy at all for being completely annoyed. This random lady screams for her arrestment with zero proof that it was even her who took the necklace in the first place, and then as soon as she got it back from the actual thief (A.K.A. T. Crow), she doesn't even say a single word to Daisy at all. Not an apology, not a pardon, NOTHING. And then, you have dickward Gladstone over here laughing it up and doesn't regret or feel the slightest bit sorry at all when Donald calls him out in forgetting her birthday. Look at his face when Daisy gets upset! No wonder Donald hates his cousin's guts!