Studio Ghibli: Project Twenty One

I guess this is my first time ever writing about Studio Ghibli here in my blog.

I've only ever watched around 5 of Studio Ghibli's works. I know, pity. I always claim that I'm into Japanese animation thingy but all I always watch are just Digimon, Naruto, One Piece, and other major mainstream pieces and/or 90s Indo-private-stations-aired series. But I'm not that type of a FOMO person so all these years I've always been like... whatever.

Until finally Dad subscribed Netflix for all of us. Something which, I also didn't mind to miss out because first I'm not feeling FOMO and second, I already subscribed Apple TV+ and Disney+ for myself so, why should I have another streaming service?? And then I remembered that, in February, Netflix added all Studio Ghibli movies to their list. ALL 21 OF THEM!

Then I guess it's just about time.

There's no more barrier between me and these 21 masterpieces.

So just today, in this super chilly and gloomy Saturday, I began my initiative to finish these Studio Ghibli movies. Project Twenty One. I began with "Howl's Moving Castle", which I instantly fell in love with. I would never say no to the magic of Studio Ghibli. And with the addition of such peaceful atmosphere, post-rain breeze, some rugs I spread out by the balcony for my snoozing, hot green tea, warm dimmed lighting and the companies of my cat and Sheriff Woody, I just had one of the best weekends in 2021 so far.

I'm sure this is what Danish people say as "Hygge"

Now I watched 6 movies already. But I'll keep the one I just finished today off of my current Studio Ghibli list for me to include later on after I watch more. Here's my rank so far.

1. Spirited Away
2. Grave of the Fireflies
3. My Neighbor Totoro
4. Ponyo
5. Pom Poko

And it'd definitely change as I finish more movies. Not only "change" as if the list adds up, but also "change" as if the ranks get re-ordered -- because I might have different perspective in watching those movies, some of which was done when I was younger. And dumber.

 

So twenty one movies, unlimited time.

I'm gonna divide it to three stages, seven movies each because if I have to write every time I finish one movie, I'm not gonna lie, pretty sure this ambitious initiative would just end up in the trash of unfinished business.

Yeah three stages would do.

So I'll see you after seven movies!

Second half of 2021 would be magical.

Ghibli-level Magical

All Plot Twisted

Oh look at me.

Six races of Formula One 2021 season had finished and this is my first post. Well don't blame me, it's been boring so far, with Lewis dominating the championship as usual and Max occasionally made things a bit fun. The plot we all knew would be happening.

Things got picked up only two races ago, in Monaco, where Charles Lecrerc hit the barriers during the end of Q3, and forced the quali to stop - making him the pole-sitter, and Lewis on 7th HA! Despite Monaco's nature of almost-impossible-to-overtake - which honestly made it a boring one - and Charles' sad SAD home Grand Prix heartbreak which... well, which he didn't even start thanks to the gearbox condition given the previous day's crash, the race eventually ended in such an exciting lineup:

Lando Norris in P3, Carlos Sainz in P2, and, Max Verstappen in P1.

And the whole championship went crazy.

The first plot twist.

Max's win in Monaco made him lead the championship, four points ahead of Lewis. For the first time since I don't know when, finally it wasn't Lewis that leads the championship. It's somebody else. It's Max Verstappen, and to make things spicier, it's his first time EVER leading a championship. Any championship. Of course this made the entire F1 community "freak out". The stats are like a solar eclipse, or a double rainbow, or any other natural phenomenon, where it only happens once in a blue moon.

Next stop was Azerbaijan. And we knew this would be epic. Because the Grand Prix has its own additional interesting stats. Ever since its inaugural start in 2016 - by that time it was still EuropeanGP - Baku never has a driver with most wins. 2016 was Nico Rosberg. 2017 was Daniel Ricciardo - oh my God I miss his heyday. 2018 was Lewis, 2019 was Valtteri and 2020 was none thanks to Covid. Each of them only managed to win once in Baku, and with Max leading the championship, of course WE WANT HIM to prolong the ritual.

And now enter The Race.

Oh God this will be really messy HAHA

I must say, this was the first epic battle of 2021. Monaco was great, but only because of the result. The race itself was meh. This one, the fucking messed-up - in a good way - Azerbaijan Grand Prix, was a crazy race we hadn't seen in a while. Oh and it wasn't only about the race day. Even the Qualifying Round was chaotic. Because there were FOUR crashes, resulting in FOUR red flags!

Stroll was the first to crash. In Q1. Against Turn 15. Front right tyre got instantly dislodged, red flag waved due to severe debris. Giovinazzi was the second crash. Also in Q1, and ALSO against Turn 15 - lol this is getting freaky, eh? Car stopped in an instant, another red flag waved. Third red flag was sadly because of Daniel. In Q2, and this time at Turn 3. Same cause though: not smooth turning.

During these whole quali sessions, it was always been either Lewis, Valtteri, and Max who scored the fastest lap. Typical, eh? Gasly, Tsunoda, and Alonso, however, progressed through and entered Q3, making it a worth-waiting end of quali -- though of course, we already thought that this would end in the usual LVM or LMV setup. However, the second plot twist of Azerbaijan Grand Prix happened in Q3.

Charles surprisingly scored fastest laps halfway through Q3, .2s ahead of Lewis and .3s ahead of Max. Of course this would only be a temporary shit, and things could easily change because their time gaps were oh so tight. This stayed the same until the very last chance for everyone, where Charles still LEADS and Lewis was still OUT LAP, and... Tsunoda crashed. And session was stopped, and we never knew if Lewis could actually get the pole or not.

BUT HEY, WHO CARES!? Charles was on pole and that's what matters! Max was on P3 and this could only mean that the fight for the leader of the championship would still be on!

Fast forward to Race Day - and oh I swear it was the longest 24 hours of my life.

I don't want to chit chat too much because there will be lots of things to talk about. The lights out? Was blah. No overtakes for the earlier laps, though it only meant that Lewis was not leading. Everyone knew Charles wouldn't stay there forever, c'mon, but at least it'd buy some time for Max to charge on Lewis AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS! Also, Sergio Perez overtook Gasly early on, making it a RB 3-4 which would be a good news for the team because if that lasts till the end, given that Bottas was struggling so bad far at the verge between getting points or not getting points, at least Red Bull would still be leading the Constructors Championship.

Ever since Lewis overtook Charles on lap 3 - see? It's as if his pole was nothing! - everything went just as usual. The guy led the race, bla bla bla. Boring, boring, boring, skip, skip, skip, all the way to... Lap 12. Where Lewis pitted, smoothly to be honest, but he got delayed for some seconds thanks to Gasly passing through the pit lane just right on time - Red Bull's masterBlan? Perhaps...

And this was the start of all twists.

Hamilton's prolonged pit stop really benefited Max and Checo. It was 4 point something seconds! And when Max pitted a lap after that, it took only 1.9 second, and when he was out of the lane, POOF, Lewis was of course placed behind him! This was the time I realized we would be seeing something special at the end of this race. A WIN FOR RED BULL, HOPEFULLY!?

Our joy lasted only one lap. Lap 14, it was time for Checo to pit. We knew this wouldn't matter much to the positions because Lewis's 4s stop was too fatal to benefit him. But I swear the power of jinx really existed in F1 universe. Checo's crew had a bit of problem with the front tyre and his pit was also delayed, up to 4 fucking seconds. What the actual fuck? Why would this kind of thing always happen to the fan of any drivers except Lewis Hamilton's? I mean, it was all so smooth and blessed but why should this kind of thing happen, really?

So after the forever-second pit, Checo moved out of the lane. I honestly didn't care anymore if Lewis overtook him because that's what usually happened: other drivers - including their own Valtteri Bottas - did well, we were happy, and then these other drivers somehow made mistakes and Lewis got back on track only to fight with Max, which most of the time was unfortunate as well, so the Brit won. Every fucking time. But... not this time.

Because when Checo exited the pit, he was APPARENTLY STILL AHEAD OF LEWIS! With so small gap though, BUT HEY, HIM BEING P2 WAS WHAT MATTERS! The teamwork of both RB drivers would be tested here, and Checo's game of defense would totally be maxed out. THIS IS THE BATTLE BETWEEN RED BULL DRIVERS - plural - AND MERCEDES DRIVER - singular - WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Then Stroll crashed in Lap 31. Tyre failure, to be exact, and then hit the barriers. It was actually so sad because he hadn't pitted, and seemed to be waiting for someone else to make errors let's say at... Turn 15? But apparently he was the one having the crash. And just right in front of pit entry, so no one could take advantage of this unfortunate event...

After the race resumed from Lance Stroll's incident, Top 3 remained the same and it was looking really, REALLY fine. The way Checo defended his position from Lewis' attacks was so crazy, and shrieks-making - I lost count on how many screams I did that night. Another battle worth draining my emotion was of Sebastian Vettel, whom went charging on like his old bull self -- overtaking Charles just at the beginning of the restart, and Gasly some laps afterwards.

Everything looked all on track, but then God of F1 said: "Hell no, this ain't over for you guys." And the major plot twist of Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021 happened.

Max Verstappen crashed.

The leader of the race, the leader of the championship, crashed. On Lap 46, out of fucking 51. It wasn't a crash between two cars -- it was a crash as a product of another tyre failure. The second tyre failure of the race - and our arch nemesis changed from Turn 15 to Pirelli.

Can you guess how I reacted to this? Well, wrong. No screaming, no screeching, to couch banging, no table flipping, no wall punching, no. Nothing. I was out of words. The only voice that was out of me was so soft, even the most annoying light-sleeper baby wouldn't dare to wake up. I was mindblown, because, BECAUSE OF COURSE I WAS MINDBLOWN -- SHOULD I REALLY TELL YOU WHY???

Max was fucking on a roll, and it was so close for him to win. To win the race and resumed his position on top of the championship. TO WIN THE RACE AND EXTEND THE GAP BETWEEN HIM AND HAMILTON. It was 5 more laps. I swear one minute before the crash I complained to my fellow F1 fans just how 5 laps felt so long and then it fucking happened. Five. More. Fucking laps, and WHY THE HELL SHOULD HE BE HAVING THIS TYRE FAILURE!?

Proof of my complain and how the plot twisted just less than a minute after.

I may be letting all these right now, but back in that day this happened, I really was out of words. It was bullshit. All these emotional rollercoasters since the beginning of the race, oh wait, SINCE YESTERDAY'S QUALIFICATION, all gone, all wasted and useless because this fucking race was going to end like it always ended. "Lewis Hamilton is the winner of Azerbaijan Grand Prix!" oh God I could even hear Croft said that already, even before the race restarted.

I mean, seriously, how did this kind of shit never happened to Lewis? He was a good driver, yes, I can't deny it, but others are as good! But others sometime ran out of luck, so why did this luck never leave Lewis??? Everyone seemed to agree that he's got so much luck, but I just couldn't take that anymore. What happened to Lewis is God play, and it's just beyond my logic.

Well there was a gap between Perez and Lewis, right? Red Bull can still win? Ha ha, of course that's not what happened. Of course God was still with His "Hell no, this ain't over for you guys" crap.

So came the Red Flag.

The fifth this weekend, the one that didn't really feel joyful to me. It was a safety car at first, but then it grew to a questionable red flag and a fucking standing restart. I mean, it was Lap 50 already with the safety car, WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU STOP THE RACE!? So that it would not end under safety car? No, more like so that it would be Lewis who wins. Gosh, I always had these negative thoughts on him but all these can't be just coincidences, right???

After finding out that they'd be doing a standing restart I was like, okay, it's done. Lewis would be easily snatching the first position from Perez, and oh guess what, the Mexican was having problem with the engine. WHAT ARE THE FUCKING ODDS? :) Might as well just shut down the entire Red Bull team and let Mercedes not only win this one, but each and every single F1 race all the way until 2052 no??? So yeah, that was it for this race.

Lewis would be back on top again, points added from winning Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while Verstappen stuck with his current points. The gap would be too big for the Dutchman to catch up. The only miracle that would refrain Lewis from winning was if he jeopardized himself, crashed himself to the barrier or to the corners, in the name of sportsmanship and honor to his fight with Max. But lol what the hell that wouldn't happen. He was on the verge of winning, and the chance he'd ruin it was like 1:infinity.

I tweeted that 1:infinity wish, not knowing what would happen next...

Around 30ish minutes passed and the race was finally restarted. Though it was like against all odds, I honestly still had a pinch of hope and that's why I stayed to watch. But of course the hope was false. Not long after the lights out for the second time, Lewis overtook Perez.

Of course. That's what meant to happen. Of course Lewis would win. Of course his luck would bring back his favorite position and of course we couldn't do anything about it. All I could do was just stomping the ground in anger and agony, cursing to God only knows who.

However...

You do remember the time when I said "the power of jinx really existed in F1 universe" right? While everything looked all messed up, God of F1 said, for the final time that night: "Heavens no, this ain't over for you guys."

And the ultimate plot twist of Azerbaijan Grand Prix happened.

LEWIS HAD A MAN-MADE BRAKE ERROR CAUSING HIM A MASSIVE LOCKUP CAUSING HIM TO DRIVE WAY OFF TRACK!

AND I WAS LIKE OH MY GOD IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?? I JINXED LEWIS HAMILTON! AND THAT GUY WAS RUNNING OUT OF LUCK! THIS WAS MUCH BETTER THAN SEEING HIM CRASH! THE RACE RESUMED AND LEWIS WAS ON THE FUCKING BACK OF THE GRID, SEEING HIS EASY WIN JUST FLEW AWAY FROM HIS GRIP!

I SWEAR I NEVER CELEBRATED THAT CRAZY OVER AN F1 RACE, EVEN WHEN DANNY RIC WON. THE TWIST WAS SO UNBELIEVABLE TO THE POINT THAT I THOUGHT I WAS A SORCERER OR SOMETHING!? I BET EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE NON-MERCEDES F1 OUT THERE WAS SCREAMING AND YELLING IN JOY AS LOUD AS I WAS THAT DAY, AND EXACTLY NOW AS I AM WRITING IT.

Phew, okay, caps lock off starting now but SORRY I CAN'T HELP IT! I'M WRITING THIS POST IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE I WANT TO TELL HOW UNEXPECTED THE TURNTABLES WERE!

At first we thought Max would win, and then Lewis would win, and then Max would win, and then the crash, and I swear that crash, I lost all my hopes and faith in everything, EVERYTHING, I WAS LIKE, WHAT KIND OF VOODOOS AND SANTETS AND DUKUNS DOES THIS BRITISH GUY OR HIS TEAM IS USING!? His luck - and skill, of course, but luck fucking takes roles too! - are unreachable...

But then it was Perez who won the race, such a worthy pairing to Max's crazy speed, and Vettel came second OH MY GOD VETTEL! We would really do anything to see him win again! And his performance during this race was fucking uncanny! If things went smoothly and both Max and Lewis were still in the race, he'd be placed 4th and still it was a freaking awesome result! What happened was somehow God's doing, a gift to him for all his amazing hard work. He deserved that podium, really.

I had a shooting the day after the race, and of course I had to wear this.

Anyways, CRAZY RACE!

I know I've said that a whole lot time in this blog - although as a fan, it wasn't enough because we want each race to be crazy! - but I swear this time the craziness was different.

The plot twists were unbelievable.
But then again, we F1 fans love
To be twisted!