Bent Corner

The smell of wine and cheap perfume.

Japan

Superman used to be a racist, hateful jerk

In March of 1943, the United States was embroiled in a massive war with Imperial Japan. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Instead of using all his various superpowers to quickly bring an end to the war, Superman (government name Clark Kent) used his superpowers to stoke the fires of racial hatred and bigotry. No wonder Batman wanted to kill him.

 

Is Superman still a racist?

It’s sad to see the son of Krypton have such contempt for a whole group of people based solely on their race and nationality. In hindsight, it seems so unnecessary. Superman could have ended World War Two in a Metropolous minute. In fact, he could have done it without death or bloodshed.

My hope is Superman still doesn’t hold such racist, hateful views towards Japan. Modern day Japan is a wonderful country filled with amazing people. I’ve been there once and I hope to one day visit Japan again.

If Superman still harbors hatred and contempt for Japan and its people, I recommend he eat some sushi and watch some good anime. Maybe listen to some J-pop.

The YouTube algorithms are out to get Boogie2988

Steven Williams, the man who plays Boogie2988 on YouTube, has scanned his current threat environment and has identified a new threat to his wellbeing: the YouTube algorithm.

He posted a video complaining about YouTube and its algorithm the other day.


If I understand what Boogie is throwing down, and maybe I don’t, he expects people who’ve subscribed to his channel to see his videos appear as a Recommended video.

I’m not sure that’s how it’s supposed to work.

I think everyone uses YouTube differently. I have my subscription feed bookmarked and when I want to watch a YouTube video, I go to my bookmarked link. Just because I subscribe to a channel doesn’t mean I ever watch videos on that channel.

Why subscribe to a channel if you don’t watch the videos? Because if a YouTuber’s video is generating buzz elsewhere, it’s easier to find and watch that video if you’re subscribed to the YouTuber’s channel. It’s not like it costs anything to subscribe to a YouTube channel. There’s no drawback to subscribing to a YouTube channel you never watch.

Boogie2988 currently has 4.4 million subscribers. Very rarely, especially recently, do his videos get that many views. For example, the video above in which he complains about YouTube and its algorithm shows 87,000 views.

That’s a fraction of his subscriber base.

Most, if not all, of Boogie2988’s most watched videos, were made years ago when he was doing a bit and playing one of his characters. Most people didn’t realize it was a bit. His most watched video is Dramatic Fat Guy Splash. It was published in 2011 and has over 35 million views. It’s a 37-second video of a shirtless Steven Williams falling backward into a swimming pool.

Boogie2988’s second most watched video is Francis Rages – Where’s My Goddamned Mountain Dew?  It was published in 2011 and has almost 17 million views. It’s a bit where he is “Francis” sperging out about not being able to find his beloved Mountain Dew.

His most recent highly watched video was Open Letter to Logan Paul. He published it three months ago and it has a little less than 3.5 million views. I think most of that video’s viewers were probably Logan Paul fans or people curious about the incident where Logan Paul was in Japan and made a video about someone killing themselves in a forest. I didn’t watch it. I don’t like Logan Paul and I have no interest in an open letter to him.

Most Boogie2988 subscribers do not watch his videos. If they did, each of his videos would have around 4.4 million views.

Steven can address that fact in different ways. He can try to make better content so people will want to watch his videos, or he can blame YouTube and its algorithm.

It appears he chose the latter.

I freely admit I’m not a typical Boogie2988 viewer. I watch his videos because I think most of the stuff he says is so absurd, it’s entertaining. I don’t watch any of his Francis videos because I don’t think they’re funny. When Steven tries to be funny, I don’t find him to be funny. What I find funny is when he is completely serious, especially when I catch him in a lie or better even yet, multiple lies.

That’s not to say I’ve always felt this way. I used to watch his videos because I thought he was a nice guy who had interesting things to say. I then gradually realized over time he was fake, lied frequently, and was often just trolling for sympathy he didn’t deserve.

Update (4 April 2018)

In light of the YouTube shooter Nasim Najafi Aghdam, Steven removed his video complaining about many of the same things Aghdam complained about.

If he believed the things he said in the video, I don’t understand why he would remove it.

Highly articulated six-inch Mechagodzilla action figure for $94.99

S.H.MonsterArts is a releasing a Mechagodzilla action figure, the foe from the 1974 movie Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. The figure is ultra articulated, stands a little over six inches in height, and comes with a suggested retail price of $94.99. That’s a lot of money for an action figure. I get the part about it being highly articulated, but that is still a lot of money for something that will end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust. Then again, a quick search of eBay shows they tend to retain their retail cost on the secondary market. Some do much better. Still, I never imagined I’d live in a world where six inch action figures retail for around a hundred bucks. And to think I thought $44.95 was too much for a nine-inch Thrasher Suit Batman action figure. Compared to the Mechagodzilla action figure, that now seems like pocket change.

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Japanese man has cat in campaign posters

Satoshi Shima is running for elected office in Japan and for some fantastic reason, has featured a beautiful white cat in some of his campaign posters.

His posters seem to follow the common-uncommon-rare format found in Magic The Gathering and other collectible card games. The normal, common poster shows Mr. Shimo without a cat. Then, there’s a less than common poster with the cat in the lower right corner, in scale with Mr. Shima. Then, there’s a rare version featuring the cat in place of Mr. Shima, while Mr. Shima is shown in the lower right at a smaller scale than the cat.

I of course am a fan of the rare version.

Too bad I can’t vote for Satoshi Shima. Maybe I’ll write his name in instead of the non-choices have waiting for me this November. I don’t know what Mr. Shima stands for, but I know he’s better than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. I wish there was a way to get my hands on one of these. Maybe an Etsy artisan will rip off the image and start selling them.

Scarlet Johansson in ‘Ghost in the Shell’

Paramount and Dreamworks Pictures released the first image from the upcoming movie Ghost in the Shell. It’s a live-action version of the popular anime of the same name. The image shows Scarlet Johansson in the starring role of cyborg Major Kusanagi.

In the anime, Major Kusanagi is Japanese. Scarlet Johansson is not Japanese. Some people are bothered by this fact.

The director on the film is Rupert Sanders. He’s the hack who directed Snow White and the Huntsman, a truly awful movie. It featured Kristen Stewart in the title role and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen. The movie didn’t work for all sorts of reasons, but one of the most glaring issues in the film was the casting. Snow White is the most beautiful woman in all the land. This gets her in all sorts of trouble with the Evil Queen, who used to be the most beautiful woman in all the land.

In what universe is Kristen Stewart more beautiful than Charlize Theron?

Kristen Stewart always has a look on her face like she just smelled Adam Carolla’s socks after some vigorous unicycling. Charlize Theron looks like Charlize Theron. At no time in the film was Kristen Stewart made to look more attractive or Charlize Theron made to look less attractive. We know Charlize Theron can be made less attractive.

It turned out Rupert Sanders was fornicating with Kristen Stewart during production of the film, so his judgment was probably… clouded.

Getting back to Scarlet Johansson playing Major Kusanagi. I don’t care that she’s not Asian. To me, it’s not a big deal. When the live-action movie based on Attack on Titan was released with an all Asian cast, I don’t remember anyone complaining. In the anime version, the characters, all except one, are western.

Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan

I don’t think this movie should even be made. The original anime is a classic. Not everything needs a movie version. In fact, most things don’t.