Groundbreaking 1988 Japanese animated action film / TUE 12-16-25 / Genre for Genesis or Yes, informally / One in a box at the theater? / The IBM Simon Personal Communicator is considered the world's first one / Person in hot pants? / Show extreme fandom for, in slang

Constructor: Jason Reich

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: BOOK / ENDS (71A: After 1-Across, shelf accessories ... or what can be placed "around" the halves of 18-, 36-, 45- and 62-Across) — if you put "BOOK" on either side of the theme answers, you get two new phrases ...

Theme answers:

• COVER STORY (book cover, storybook) (18A: Reason to buy a magazine, perhaps)
• BAG CHECK (book bag, checkbook) (36A: Last stop before security, often)
• FAIR PLAY (book fair, playbook) (45A: Turnabout, they say)
• SMARTPHONE (book smart, phone book) (62A: The IBM Simon Personal Communicator is considered the world's first one)

Word of the Day: AKIRA (40A: Groundbreaking 1988 Japanese animated action film) —

Akira (Japanese: アキラ, pronounced [aꜜkiɾa]) is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk action film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, produced by Ryōhei Suzuki and Shunzō Katō, and written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, based on Otomo's 1982 manga Akira. Set in a dystopian 2019, it tells the story of Shōtarō Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang whose childhood friend, Tetsuo Shima, acquires powerful telekinetic abilities after colliding with a child esper in a motorcycle accident, eventually threatening an entire military complex in the sprawling futuristic metropolis of Neo-Tokyo. [...] Akira was released in Japan on July 16, 1988, by Toho; it was released the following year in the United States by Streamline Pictures. It garnered an international cult following after various theatrical and VHS releases, eventually earning over $80 million worldwide in home video sales. A landmark in Japanese animation, the film is widely cited as an influential work in the development of anime and Japanese cyberpunk. it is also considered a major film in the cyberpunk genre, particularly the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre, as well as adult animation. The film had a significant effect on popular culture worldwide, paving the way for the growth of anime and Japanese popular culture in the Western world, as well as influencing numerous works in animation, comics, film, music, television, and video games. (wikipedia)

• • •

There was a moment really early on where I was quite happy with this one—specifically, the moment when Genesis and Yes (from the BAND clue) did an encore in the clue for a much more substantial answer (PROG ROCK) (6D: Genre for Genesis or Yes, informally). That was a very quick callback that made me smile. "Nice," I thought. Sadly, I did not think "nice" many more times during the course of the solve. The problem with these "both halves"-type themes is that the answers themselves either aren't that interesting or feel a little forced. Today's puzzle does a good job of avoiding forcedness—the themers are all solid phrases. Not terribly interesting, but solid. The revealer, however, felt awkward—the clue is exceedingly long and not exactly crystal clear in its instructions. It seems like it's in some no-man's-land between punny phrasing and extremely literal instructions. The phrase "'around' the halves" is at best ambiguous. "Around the halves"?? You mean ... around the whole thing? "'Around the halves" sounds like you want BOOKs around each half. But you don't. You want BOOKs around the whole answer. On one side of one half, and on the other side of the other half, to create two separate phrases. Why does the revealer clue have a question mark? There's no real wordplay here, except the "around" bit, but there's no need for the "?" if you've already got scare quotes working for you. That clue is fairly literal, if confusingly worded. Why not [... or what can be placed "around" 18-, 36-, 45- and 62-Across to create two new phrases]? That wording makes the work I as a solver have to do much clearer. The theme seems very restrictive and reasonably well executed, but the revealer clue really flubs the landing. I do like how BOOK and ENDS "bookend" the puzzle. That bit is cute.

So the theme itself seems fine. A bit on the dull side, a little clunky in the finish, but fine. The rest of the puzzle, however .... [heaves a very deep SIGH] ... I dunno. Or, rather, I do know: this is some of the weakest fill I've seen in a while, and that's saying something, since gunkiness is an ongoing concern. The NE and SW corners are abysmal. I have green ink angrily scribbled all over those portions of the grid. OK maybe not "angrily." "Frustratedly." That's better. USONE crossing EST INRE and NE-YO. That is a gunk density that only OOXTEPLERNON (the god of short bad fill) could love. And across the grid, things are somehow equally bad, with AUS ASOF UMHI (!?) and OHGEE making a big ugly dogpile. Why isn't the REF throwing a flag? He's right there! Between the extreme lows of the NE and SW lie other, lesser lows, a string of less densely packed but no more lovely answers like DEKES OTOH EFILE SSNS EWER ERS WECARE SEEYA ETA ASCII ASP. The puzzle really did peak with PROG ROCK. I guess GOOGLEABLE is supposed to be giving a star supporting performance, and it is original and showy, I'll give it that, but do I actually like seeing that "word"? No, not really (11D: Easily found on the internet, say). RAISINET would be great in the plural, but it's a little sad in the singular (41D: One in a box at the theater?). EGO MASSAGE is fine, but overall this one really, really punching up in the fill department. I'm looking at the "WE CARE" sign right now and thinking "Lies!"

OTOH ... I loved seeing AKIRA. Kurosawa is a great director (Ran was released in the U.S. 40 years ago this month), but it's nice to see this other important AKIRA get some attention. Both the film and the manga it's based on are genuinely groundbreaking and rightly legendary. And today, since the puzzle wasn't already drowning in pop culture trivia, I was happy to see the AKIRA clue go in that direction. I also loved the clue for LIAR because it has layers. It doesn't tell you the popular saying it's referring to directly (e.g. [One whose pants are on fire, proverbially]), but lets you suss it out yourself. "L ... I ... LIAR? How are a LIAR's pants hot? ... oh!" Always nice when the clue for short, ordinary fill shines like that. And I liked SKIFF (32D: Shallow boat with a square stern). Can't explain. Just really enjoy the way that word looks and sounds. I never really enjoy seeing NE-YO, but at least today I learned something about why he is called that (13D: Grammy-winning R&B artist whose stage name is said to have been inspired by "The Matrix").

Bullets:

• 19D: Golden Age studio known for many Astaire/Rogers films (RKO) — love the Astaire/Rogers films, not just for the dancing, but also for the frequent guest appearances by my favorite character actor of '30s/'40s cinema: Eric BLORE (I write his name all-caps because I wish he were famous enough to be a crossword answer). He co-starred with Fred Astaire in six movies. I think about him saying "Susquehanna" in Shall We Dance (1937) literally every time I see the word "Susquehanna" (and since I live on the Susquehanna River, it happens a lot). 

[the video quality here is terrible, but that's not keeping me from literally laughing out loud as I watch this bit for the umpteenth time]

• 46D: Penalty in Monopoly (RENT) — never really thought about how Monopoly codes RENT negatively. As a "penalty." An onerous burden. A form of oppression. Is Monopoly sneakily anti-capitalist? 
• 27D: Mike in "Breaking Bad," for example (EX-COP) — since he does ... let's say bad ... things, I misremembered him today as an EX-CON. But no, he's very much an EX-COP. That actor, Jonathan Banks (who received five Emmy nominations for playing Mike in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), can currently be seen in the Clare Danes/Matthew Rhys psychological crime thriller miniseries The Beast In Me as possible wife-murderer Matthew Rhys's awful father.

Time once again for 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲!

This is Woody, who has been featured in Holiday Pet Pics before (returning pets always welcome). Woody's five-year-old human likes to dress him in pink. Woody seems like the perfect dog to handle that kind of attention. Look at that sweet patient face. He seems to have destroyed part of the tree and strewn ornaments and wrapping paper around the floor, but good luck staying mad at that face.

[Thanks, Matthew!]

Next up are Kala, Lux, and Knox. Nothing really holiday-ish about this picture, but let's just say they're celebrating the Festival of Lights (in that they're aggressively snuggling each trying to compete for the biggest patch of sunlight)

[Thanks, Iolande!]

It's Emma's first Christmas, so don't be mad that she doesn't understand how to string the lights yet. She'll learn!

[Thanks, Beth!]

Jed is thrilled with his dreidel menorah. Absolutely, completely thrilled. Can't eat it, can't play with it, but sure ... this is great. This is Jed's thrilled face. 

[Thanks, Lisa!]

And lastly, there's Riley, who'd just like to say "Guh....... Hi! Hey! What's up? Like my hat?" Actually, I'm told this photo was taken during the two seconds Riley allowed it to stay on his head. He just shook it right off. And can you blame him? "Santa wouldn't be caught dead in leopard print!" You tell 'em, Riley.

[Thanks, Sally]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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"___ a lot!" (Dracula's expression of gratitude?) / WED 10-5-22 / Ancestor of a termite, surprisingly / "Silent" prez

Constructor: Jason Reich

Relative difficulty:  Medium? I "check puzzle"-ed once (8:48)

THEME: We are adding an O to some phrases for absolutely no reason in the entire world!!!!!

Theme answers:

• Memoirs of a dance contest champion?-- LIFE AND LIMBO
• Brushing, flossing, and avoiding sugar?-- FINE TOOTH COMBO
• Disney classic without any extra features?-- JUST PLAIN DUMBO
• What Mary might have had if she were into Italian sports cars?-- A LITTLE LAMBO

Word of the Day: HEDY (Actress / inventor Lamarr) —

At the beginning of World War II, she and avant-garde composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Although the U.S. Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are similar to methods used in legacy versions of CDMA and Wi-Fi. This work led to their induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

• • •

Hey besties! It's Malaika, here to hang out on a rainy, fall Malaika MWednesday, and before we dive in I would like to briefly advertise the Boswords fall themeless league. Every Monday for eight weeks, a new themeless puzzle is released. One of them is written by me, but I'm not allowed to say which one :) We've already released the first puzzle, but there's still time to join and solve and compete with us!

Okay, onwards to our regularly scheduled programming. This puzzle took me under ten minutes to solve. I listened to this song (it starts at 1:38) three times during the solve. I got trapped at the top: I refused to believe the Times would allow such an egregious dupe in ARE NOT / ARE SO, and I had "said no" rather than TOLD NO, and "Doom" rather than THEM (I don't watch old movies or horror movies). So I hit the trusty "check puzzle" button and that helped me see where I went wrong.

I think some people consider that to be a DNF, or a "did not finish" but that kind of confuses me... I did finish the puzzle! And, to be clear, there are some puzzles that I simply do not finish. Natan's on Saturday is an example; it was too hard-- I got a few entries, and then stopped solving. I did not reveal the grid, or look anything up. I just put it down and never came back. To me, that's a DNF. But maybe I am just not clear on the jargon.

Anywayyyyyy... themes like this are doomed from the start on the "Impress Malaika" front because I simply do not think that a phrase can be made funny by adding a letter. I am a lost cause. I have solved many puzzles and these never make me laugh. The only hope is to find a good revealer, like ATTACHE, to make me say "Okay, cool, yeah." When there is no revealer, I shake my fist at the sky and say "What was the point of all of this???"

On top of that, there were no long answers that were non-theme (although FAIL UP was nice). And some weird stuff like RIEN and LIC and OLAS and TRA and ACT I and NHL FAN and SMALL B and NON US. I suppose I am, in a word, underwhelmed! What about y'all? Whelmed? Overwhelmed? Let me know in the comments.

Bullets:

• [Stars that are blowing up?] for NOVAE — I don't like how there are some plural words (like NOVAE / novas) where both answers are acceptable and the clue doesn't give us any hint to the final letter. It's the same vibe as [That, in Spanish] and you don't know if it's "eso" or "esa." 
• [Inc. or Ms.] for MAG — This took me a sec because I expected titles to be stylized in some way (italics or quotes)
• San Luis OBISPO — I filled this in with no crossings and I have no idea why. Why do I know this?? Is this in crosswords? I don't even know what this is! A city, presumably? But where? Who put this info into my brain???
• [Champagne name] for MOET — Me and my sister were discussing whether we could tell champagne from Prosecco in a blind taste test. She thinks we both could, I think that she could but I couldn't. We both agree that we don't prefer one to the other.

xoxo Malaika

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