Face Doodling: Gabe draws dicks on Sage's face after Tokyo Revelation puts him in an insanity-induced coma. Sage gets his revenge by making Gabe eat a bowl of Lego bricks.
Exaggerated in the Sins of the Sisters review. The sheer awfulness of the dub actors in one scene has Sage facepalming with one hand and hitting himself in the back of the head with the other.
Invoked in the review of The Samurai, as Sage says that the sight gag of Takashi's sister constantly wearing a sheer negligee that her breasts are clearly visible through, with no reason given and no one paying it any attention, caused him to smack his forehead every time she showed up. He does note, however, that this angering him so much was actually kinda funny in hindsight.
Failed a Spot Check: Sage will sometimes ignore obviously plot-relevant stuff for the sake of humor. For instance, his Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie review had him joking about Ken meditating while Ryu is getting his butt kicked by Bison. Sage treats the scene like Ken is just re-leaning some old techniques, when the movie makes it clear that the damage Bison did to Ken has severely scrambled Ken's brain, to the point where he can barely stand up. He isn't meditating to regain any lost techniques, he's focusing his energies to try and regain the ability to walk so he can go save his friend.
Fan Disservice: Bennett isn't ashamed to use his body as part of a joke... even if it's only for this purpose, just like the "Diet Sexy" Coke flavor mention (with a drawing of him wearing barely nothing) when he rants about his earlier kill off on the fanfic from the "TGWTG Slashy Extravaganza" episode of Masterpiece Fanfiction Theatre. He takes this to an extreme at the end of his "Top 10 Anime Abandon Moments" episode when he recreates the "crotch grenades" scene from Mad Bull 34 (fortunately, he's wearing briefs).
Fanservice: Discussed every now and then, usually because of how badly it tends to be done.
Sage really doesn't like it when shows get fanservice wrong, especially when they clearly lack restraint and do things that are laced with Unfortunate Implications. He's also noted how Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, and hates it when works depict most women in their casts as incompetent or nothing more than fanservice fodder. During his review of the 2012 Tomb Raider reboot, he also mentions that he was really rooting for it to be a good game, because he wanted there to be a strong, admirable woman to be a real icon in video games again.
Despite the former points, he will revel in fanservice that is done well, such as in Cutey Honey where he explains that he finds fanservice much easier to stomach if the character providing it is actually likable, citing Honey as one such character and also contrasting her with Naru Narusegawa, who he detests for her abrasive, abusive tendencies while noting how she fills a similar role in Love Hina.
When he reviews the Lady Death animated film and discusses the comic book it was based off of, he views its complete reliance upon sex appeal and unrealistic female body proportions very negatively, and gives the film's subpar animation and writing no passes because of it either.
In the Gunsmith Cats review, he mentions that he finds the brazenness of its fanservice to be rather charming.
Fangirl: He doesn't have any, as memorably said in his Mailbag video. He doesn't get why he has them, even.
Sage: How was the damage? Marc the Engineer: I don't know what you're talking about. It never happened. Sage: Marc, if this didn't happen, then what the hell am I holding? *gestures to video of the movie* Marc: Well it's certainly not the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, because it didn't happen. Sage: Marc, I don't know what you're— Marc: IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Listen, lunchbox, I don't expect you to understand, so let me give it to you like this. *Marc goes on to list many Sonic games, including the less popular ones, and stating how they all "happened". Marc: THAT— Sage: *gesturing to the movie* This? Marc: DIDN'T HAPPEN! Sage: So, Sonic fans handled this...through denial. Marc: YES! Well—err—no. Well...it was either living a lie or booze.
Brings this up in his Golgo 13 review, pointing out how the title character being named after Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified, as well as the number of people at the Last Supper is the most interesting thing about him as a character.
He also discusses this trope with regards to the work of Studio Gainax in his examination of FLCL.
He criticizes Æon Flux for its inconsistent use of Gnostic themes and symbols, asking at one point if Peter Chung just read the Cliffs Notes of Gnosticism and made a show about it.
Oancitizen's appearances on the show are usually to claim that Sage's thoughts about the anime in question are doing this, although in the Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and Æon Flux reviews, Sage quite adroitly refutes him. Kyle even applauds after Sage finishes dissecting the latter.
The concept is lampshaded in the Doomed Megalopolis review, where Sage claims there is nothing as annoying as something pretending to be smarter than it is.
Finger Muzzle: Sage does this to Suave from his chair when Suave starts making bad jokes during the Battle Angel Alita review...while Suave's standing across the room.
Freak Out: Has one in his Love Hina Spring Movie review during the song section, where he chants a parody of the tunnel scene poem from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and starts screaming before Marc comes in to snap Sage out of it.
Sets in to some degree in Ninja Scroll when Sage gets to the scene where Jubei interrupts Tessai's rape of Kagero.
[...] which actually begs the question...how long was Jubei standing there watching Kagero getting raped? *Beat* He's the good guy, right?
This is the reason he gives for B4-4's video "Get Down" being part of his Top 10 Surreal Music Video list.
Also invoked in the X review. He proceeds to scream his head off when he makes the connection.
Fridge Logic: invoked He starts to wonder how it is that Koenma in YuYu Hakusho: Poltergeist Report is not only drowning in the River Styx, but also gargling, when he has a pacifier in his mouth before he interrupts himself with "Wait! Cartoon! Fuck it."
Frothy Mugs of Water: Invoked in the Nuts and Bolts video for the MD Geist review, when Bennett says that he doesn't drink actual liquor in Anime Abandon reviews, specifically noting that the "scotch" he drinks at the end of that review was actually apple juice. Marc is quite disappointed to learn this.
Fun with Acronyms: His definition of a BAD anime: Boring, Annoying, and Dumb.
Gagging on Your Words: After a Virgin Fleet character says that nobody believes in Virgin Energy anymore and that it's an old myth — even though it was established earlier that this energy does exist in the OAV's universe — Sage finds himself forced to apologize to Evangelion: Death & Rebirth.
[holding the DVD in his hand] I'm... I'm s... I'm s... We're cool, right?
Gary Stu: invoked Refers to the title character as Golgo 13 as one.
Gasp!: One is inserted from the "audience" near the end of his 12/30/22 episode of Dumpster Dive when he says that since Violence Jack has received a completely uncut and uncensored Blu-ray release, he might consider reviewing it if he can think of a way to do it.
Girl on Girl Is Hot: He laments that the girl-on-girl scene in Cloud Mows the Lawn comes after virtually nothing but scat scenes.
Giving Up on Logic: Subverted. During his review of Project A-Ko, he starts to wonder about whether he is so used to strange things in anime that nothing can faze him any more. Naturally, we get an immediate cut to something weird that disconcerts him, which prompts Sage to conclude that he hasn't reached that point just yet.
Glurge: invoked Sage feels that Grave of the Fireflies goes way too far in trying to emotionally manipulate the audience, and that it essentially exploits the tragedies of World War II in order to guilt 1980's youth into falling in line and being more like their parents' generation.
Gorn: Sage invokes this at the start of the "Genocyber Part I" review in reference to how horrifically gory it is.
[...] I've reviewed plenty of gory anime before, but in those cases, the gore seemed so over the top that it's hilarious. In Genocyber, though, the gore reaches this level where it stops being funny and starts being uncomfortable.
Gratuitous Rape: He's brought up several times that he hates it when shows use this trope just for shock value. He takes special issue with the incestuous rape subplot in Doomed Megalopolis and seriously considered ending the review right then because he'll just continue to be pissed off about it for the rest of the reviewnote And while Bennett doesn't mention this in the review, in the novel the movie was based on the Brother–Sister Incestwas actually consensual, making it even more gratuitous. Rather ironic considering how he acts in character. He even lampshades it:
I know who I am when I'm saying this, but rape is possibly the worst thing one person can do to another. Such an act, if included in any kind of a narrative, will bring it to a grinding halt. You have to respect your audience and address the issue directly. You do not diminish this violent act by making it the sidestory.
Guyliner: Marc points out in the Nuts and Bolts commentary of Ninja Resurrection that Gabe was wearing this at the time they filmed his bits for the episode, for reasons neither he nor Bennett are quite sure of (though it's mentioned Bennett had just picked him up from the gym). They note that this emphasized Gabe becoming "evil Gabe" and actually managing to get back at Bennett for once.
At the start of his Grave of the Fireflies review, he makes it clear he's fully expecting this when he says he doesn't like it.
Hand Gagging: Near the end of the Guyver movie review, Sage does this to Critic when he's losing his patience and just wants to get the review over with.
Has a Type: The female characters Sage finds most interesting are what he dubs "Valkyrie Bitches"—self-assured, fun, slightly insane women who don't take crap from anyone and are eager to rise up against the challenges that come their way. He feels Leona from Dominion Tank Police is the best example.
Hate Sink: Invoked by Bennett in the Nuts and Bolts video for Sins of the Sisters toward Hans, the principal male character who is a callous, obnoxious, self-righteous jerk. Bennett point-blank calls him one of the most hateful characters he's ever encountered while doing the show.
Heel Realization: He must have erased the Critic's common sense along with the memories of all these bad sequels. Then he told him to jump off a cliff, and the Critic did so. He is the devil!
He has a literal BSOD while trying to process the underground rave scene in Devil Man, which cuts to a "We'll be right back" screen showing a cartoon of Marc carrying a stunned Sage in a wheelbarrow.
Has something to this effect towards The End of Evangelion, pondering his life choices.
Sage has one when he tries to review Violence Jack due to his moral boundaries, to the point where the entire review is him and Marc trying to puzzle out a format he thinks he can stomach, until he decides to not do a review at all.
The Gainax Ending of Tokyo Revelation shuts him down completely, forcing Gabe to give the "next time" teaser at the end.
During the review of Ninja Resurrection, Gabe reveals to Sage that he spent the last two days in that condition following the viewing of that show which Sage has totally repressed his memory of.
After the combined insanity of Sins of the Sisters and the nightmarish sequence after, Gabe finds Sage sitting in his chair staring into nothingness, his pen hand just twitching and making scratch marks in his notebook. It takes Gabe ejecting the DVD for his hand to relax enough to put the pen down, but he still isn't out of it before Gabe leaves the house.
Increasingly during the Ninja Resurrection review as he starts remembering watching it before, symbolized by a ringing sound and blood coming out of Sage's nose and mouth.
Censor Kaiser has one in the Apocalypse Zero review, when Sage badgering him to not censor a particular shot causes him to rage so hard that he explodes. This, of course, leads to his resurrection in his fully animated form...and he still refuses to show the scene.
Hidden Depths: Suave gets to show off some of his in the I Dream of Mimi review, mainly during his rant about why he doesn't like the male lead. He eloquently explains why he finds the character to be unlikeable, why he thinks it's unrealistic that anybody would want to be around him, and why he finds the lack of negative consequences for him to be insulting and offensive. In the process, he also shows that while he's a shameless pervert, he's not really a bad guy.
Hilarious Outtakes: The Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland review's credits include an outtake of the "whimsy shotgun" scene in which Bennett (as Savage) accidentally snaps the gun's front handgrip off and repeatedly tries to get it back on, corpsing the entire time.
If he catches very blatant examples, he'll call attention to it and lampshade it for comedic effect, such as in the interactions between the leads in Psychic Force:
Two close friends, grunting and panting together, remarking about how they've "come" to save each other. Is there such a thing as homoerotic overtext?
He's got a few good examples of it himself, most notably in the Sonic review where he graphically tells Doug (acting like Doug, Critic was dead at this point) to give him a blowjob and Doug's fine with it.
During the Virus Hunter Serge review, he brings this up as a pervasive element in Masami Obari's work, noting that his female character designs, while fanservicey, are distorted and unattractive while his male characters have supermodel-like physiques and are often costumed so as to show off their abs. In Serge's case, he also notes that Serge's "weapon" against the Virus is a collar, there are multiple slo-mo shots of Serge undressed, and more heterosexually-focused scenes are brief and quickly cut away from.
Hypocrisy Nod: In the 8 Man After review, he acknowledges he's hardly one to criticize the pronunciation of names, then cuts to the still shot of the SEELE monoliths from the original Neon Genesis Evangelion review and clears his throat.
Idiot Ball: During the Angel Cop review, Sage refers multiple times to the title character's idiocy, with the crowning moment being at the climax when an obvious solution to the issue isn't even considered.
Sage: *counting off* Complete bitch, a total hypocrite, dumber than a bag of hammers, and now, skull-fucking incompetent. [...] The asshole rapist from Doomed Megalopolis is lower than fucking pond scum, but at least he was somewhat intelligent. Bitch Tits here? Completely irredeemable.
During one of the fugue sequences in the Violence Jack review, there are several empty bottles of scotch lying on the floor, and he kills one while he's talking to Gabe.
Said in the second part of the Genocyber review when he dubs over a genuinely heartwrenching scene at the end where the doctor is having a breakdown about the wild child (who she thinks is her dead daughter) with dialog from Golden Boy where the biker chick is begging Kintaro to screw her. The joke comes from Laura Chapman being the dub actress in both roles.
If I wasn't going to hell before, I certainly am now.
Indecisive Parody: Discussed extensively in his review of Agent Aika, but to humorous effect. He notes that the excessive amount of Fanservice can either be seen as a parody or just indulgent.
In-Series Nickname: Marc the Engineer often refers to Sage as "Lunchbox."
Insane Troll Logic: What Bennett used to figure out Linkara's old Fanfiction Dot Netpenname. While not being lucky at the first try, he proceeded on watching Atop the Fourth Wall until he focuses on a single clue: Linkara's love for Pokémon. He analyzes his personality further, until he "deduces" that his pen name used to be "Psyweedle", and ends up finding his old fanfics within seconds.
In an example that doesn't involve him, he got kidnapped by The Nostalgia Critic for a crossover to review Speed Racer, and there's a montage of Gabe having fun. Sage later returns to his house. Who expected Gabe to be starting to host his own episode of Anime Abandon?
When he did review A Girl in Gaea, he invoked this a second time, holding up Digimon The Movie...but he seems aware of the fact that some fans were expecting him to hold up The Pyramid of Light instead.
He did this yet again at the end of his review of Judge, where he says that his next title is "one of the most manly anime to have ever come to the States"...yet he holds up Riding Bean, instead of what many fans had expected (and had been requesting), the OVA adaptation of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusadersnote he had already reviewed The Movie for Fist of the North Star, and he wouldn't review the live-action adaptation of that without a good reason.
In the review of the aforementioned Riding Bean, he ended the video by saying that next month would be Gundam month...yet instead of holding up Mobile Suit Gundam Wingnote the most popular Gundam anime in the states, and the one that made the biggest impact; he did eventually review Endless Waltz or Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memorynote the first Gundam series he name-dropped on Anime Abandon, as well as a title he's refused to talk about on Toonami month, due to him needing to talk about Gundam at length to do so...he holds up Mobile Suit Gundam F91, which results in him being booed.
Jailbait Taboo: Along with his hate of treating rape cavalierly, Sage doesn't like when young teens are used in blatantly sexual contexts.
Sage is horrified when the two leads of Plastic Little are revealed to be 16 and 17 respectively during a scene of them bathing together completely naked. When the review comes back from the commercial Sage is on the phone with his lawyer.
This comes up repeatedly in De:vadasy. For instance, after a particularly innuendo-laden bit from Not-Asuka, Sage looks shocked while a blinking, klaxon-blaring subtitle lampshading the sexual tension pops up, then he slaps it off the screen and yells "Fourteen-year-olds, assholes!"
He mentions repeatedly that he wishes Elfen Lied had less underage nudity in it, though he says that to the show's credit, he doesn't think it's generally meant as fanservice.
Jungle de Ikou!'s protagonist and her friends are twelve years old and are shown in outrageously fanservicey ways. This leads Sage to multiple fits of screaming rage and eventually to end the review on the spot when the main character's friend starts doing her own transformation dance, which is even more erotically charged than the main character's and even includes a close up shot of liquid falling on the floor from between her legs.
In the Gunsmith Cats review, he mentions being uncomfortable with Kenichi Sonoda's tendency to use young-looking characters for fanservice, citing May from Gunsmith Cats and Cannon God Exaxxion in general.
He cites this as one of the problematic parts of episode 12 of Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, noting that Toonami chose not to air the episode at all, although he has far more issues with it than just that.
Combined with What the Hell Is That Accent?, it's brought up in Plastic Little, as some of the crew speak in obvious forced accents so odd and weird that it makes Sage begin to doubt one of the characters in question even speaks English to begin with.
The racist caricature character in Wild Cardz speaks with such a thick, fake, vaguely Chinese accent that Sage can barely figure out what he's actually saying and can't figure out what he has to do in the story because he's barely understandable.
Unfortunate Implications. He's also noted how Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil, and hates it when works depict most women in their casts as incompetent or nothing more than fanservice fodder. During his review of the 2012 Tomb Raider reboot, he also mentions that he was really rooting for it to be a good game, because he wanted there to be a strong, admirable woman to be a real icon in video games again.
corpsing the entire time.
a close up shot of liquid falling on the floor from between her legs.