INTERVIEW: WWE Superstar Xavier Woods Talks God of High School - Crunchyroll News

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INTERVIEW: WWE Superstar Xavier Woods Talks God of High School - Crunchyroll News Posted: 27 Jul 2020 10:00 AM PDT He is a WWE Superstar and makes up one-third of one of the greatest teams in modern WWE history, The New Day. He is a multiple-time WWE Tag Team Champion. He is a content creator, a video game enthusiast, and the host/founder of UpUpDownDown, a YouTube gaming channel with 2.18 million subscribers. And he absolutely loves anime. He is Xavier Woods. And considering his adoration of this fantastic medium and his career in the WWE, we at Crunchyroll figured that he'd be a great person to talk to when it comes to the new Crunchyroll Original Series The God of High School.  So, what came first, an interest in anime or an interest in wrestling?   Wrestling came first. I was not introduced to anime really until I saw Akira and after that I watched Robot Carnival and I was beyond hooked. Were there any anime characters that you saw and thought "I want to be like THAT guy or girl?"  Yusuke Urameshi is and forever will be my dude. Absolute love Yu Yu Hakusho and he is an amazing character. Xavier, there is a video of you yelling about how Yu Yu Hakusho is the greatest anime of all time. First of all, yes, it probably is. Second of all, well, what is second place?  Hmmm, I'd have to say Case Closed would be my second favorite anime. I love a good murder mystery and I do not know an anime that does it better. If you had to replace your entrance music with an anime theme, which would you choose?  There is only one choice for this, and I actually used to use it as my theme music: "White Reflection" from Endless Waltz. Okay, so the owner of WWE, Vince McMahon swaggers over to you and growls "Xavier, I've discovered this anime thing, and I want to know what show I should start with." What anime do you recommend as the starting point for Vince McMahon?  I would ask what movies he likes. If he is into psychological horror and gore, then I would say Attack on Titan. If he likes that 80's era of coming of age and leaning on other people as a team type of stories but needs something short that I wished there was more of, I'd say High School of the Dead. If he was into space stuff, then Gundam Wing. It is all about finding what movies someone likes and trying to find something that at least touched a little on those vibes. You work for a HUGE majority of the year, and when you are not entertaining millions of fans in the ring, you are working out and traveling. How do you fit in some sweet, sweet anime time?  I must admit I am so behind on current things I have still got episodes of My Hero and Food Wars to watch, I am so behind :( I get an episode here and there when I can though. If every anime character got into a fight, who comes out on top?  Saitama considering he trained so hard it made him go bald. Dedication. What anime character do you think would flourish in the WWE?  Ippo Makunouchi — he is already used to fighting super weird characters in front of a live audience, so it makes sense.  What about God of High School is appealing to you?  I am a sucker for tournament arcs so any type of progression through opponents while learning about oneself is something I am very drawn to. Do you have any favorite characters so far?  Not yet, I reserve judgment until the third episode cause I usually end up really enjoying someone when I start an anime and then three episodes later it turns out they want to burn the world to the ground. The God of High School uses the backdrop of a huge fighting tournament to tell its main story. WWE uses constant matches to tell their stories. What makes this such an effective form of storytelling that people love to get behind?  Because it is something that people can understand regardless of the language that they speak. It's easily digestible and honestly really entertaining. If you had to enter the God of High School tournament, what would your strategy be? Would you use a weapon?  I would probably use some sort of dagger so I could bob and weave my way into slicing up hands and disarming my opponents. My martial art would be bathed in disrespectfully beating them with their own weapon. Limbs are weapons .... What would you say to anime fans that are thinking about watching The God of High School?  Honestly, it is not like you do not have the time. You already know you are going to like it so just watch it :) Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter! Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

Detroit author's 'Bird Box' sequel has eerie connections to face masks in 2020 - Greater Milwaukee Today Posted: 27 Jul 2020 06:58 AM PDT DETROIT — Like the title character of his new book, "Malorie" — the sequel to his bestselling "Bird Box" — Josh Malerman has a strong viewpoint on face coverings. "It's this little piece of cloth, you put it over your face and it decreases the chances of you and someone else getting sick. Great! Done!," says Malerman, 44, speaking by phone a day after the start of Michigan's new mask requirement. "Malorie is 100% that kind of person: 'We know this works. Why would we try anything else?'" In the metro Detroit author's terrifying 2014 debut novel "Bird Box," blindfolds were key to surviving a world where just looking at mysterious creatures turned humans violent and insane. And how's this for a parallel to 2020's coronavirus pandemic? For much of the book, the characters stay quarantined inside to protect themselves from a threat that they can't — or, at least, shouldn't — see. The 2018 Netflix adaptation of "Bird Box" became a huge hit and — thanks to memes, gifs and late-night TV jokes — a cultural phenomenon. The movie was so popular, it turned Malerman's taut novel into a New York Times bestseller five years after its original publishing date. Now, readers can find out what happened to the cautious heroine played by Sandra Bullock in the movie. Seeped in tension, the sequel also is prescient in its echoes of current COVID-19 fears. "Malorie" picks up at the location where "Bird Box" ended, at the school for the blind that Malorie had reached as sanctuary after taking two children on a perilous river journey. Then it jumps ahead a decade to the life that she and her son, Tom and adopted daughter, Ophelia, both 16, have built at an abandoned summer camp in Michigan. Fiercely protective of her kids, Malorie keeps them on a strict regiment of safety precautions against the creatures. But when a stranger brings news that people close to Malorie may be alive in the Upper Peninsula, she risks putting her family in jeopardy with another dangerous trip. The possibilities for a sequel intrigued Malerman, 44, after he watched a pre-release screening of the "Bird Box" movie with his fiancee, Allison Laakko. "By the end of it, as silly as it sounds, I turned to Allison and I was, like, "Well, now I want to know what happens to her.' And Allison rolled her eyes (and said), 'You could find out if you want!'" The success of the movie spurred Malerman to finish a rough draft of "Malorie" by February 2019, relying in part on a plot thread that had been trimmed from "Bird Box." The Washington Post describes the world of "Malorie" as "utterly compelling," noting that "Malerman balances the novel's various elements — family drama, road novel, supernatural thriller — with skill and genuine compassion for his characters and their blighted lives." And, of course, a film based on the sequel is in development, according to Malerman, but he says that is all he knows for now. It's been a long journey to overnight success for the writer and musician, who began crafting novels and short stories while touring with his Detroit-based band, the High Strung (whose song "The Luck You Got" is the theme to Showtime's "Shameless" series). Before "Bird Box" was published, the West Bloomfield High and Michigan State alum had written 14 novels without trying to sell them. The book received good reviews, and Malerman's spare, sharp prose drew comparisons to the stylish horror of director Alfred Hitchcock. But it was the Netflix movie that put Malerman on the publishing map. It was viewed by 45 million accounts worldwide in its first week on the streaming site. He says the movie opened many doors for him and has led to meetings on projects with actors and producers. And he was able to buy his first house, in the small upscale village of Franklin. Malerman hesitates to make comparisons between the plot elements in "Malorie" and the pandemic, because his book is "a good scare," not a real tragedy that's causing massive illness and death globally. But certain themes resonate with the realities of COVID-19, starting with the real-life political divide in America over taking the virus seriously and following the safety measures recommended by medical authorities. "There always has been a thing in the 'Bird Box' world of those who live by the blindfold, as Malorie does, those who would wear mask, and those who say this is mass hysteria … a group psychosis." According to Malerman, the biggest parallel between the book and 2020 is not masks and blindfolds, but "the not knowing when this is going to come to an end." In recent months, people have been gravitating toward entertainment that delves into the details of imaginary pandemics, from the 2011 movie "Contagion" to Stephen King's "1978 novel "The Stand." Malerman thinks such works can be oddly comforting. When you watch or read a comedy, "you're aware of the fact you're escaping something, whereas, if you watch something sad or scary, maybe you'll also be aware that you're facing something." As a writer and singer/songwriter, Malerman often seeks ways to add collaborative projects to his schedule. When "Bird Box" initially was published, he and Laakko put together readings where audiences were blindfolded. Last year, he staged a theatrical reading from his 2019 novel, "Inspection," in the chapel at Detroit's Masonic Temple. The performers wore papier-mache heads created by Laakko to portray the students from the book's isolated, menacing all-male school. Michigan's shutdown hasn't slowed Malerman's urge to multi-task creatively. This spring, he released a serialized novel called "Carpenter's Farm" on his website for free and invited others to create their own art inspired by it. He received a novella, poems, a short story, music and a 76-minute "official score," all of which he linked online to the novel. With "Malorie" just arriving, Malerman sounds open to continuing the "Bird Box" saga, perhaps with a third book. He muses about a situation where the creatures seem to be gone. Who would still keep their blindfolds on and for how long? How can you know for sure they're not there? "That is a freaky scenario: They're gone!," says Malerman. "That's a great title for book three: "They're Gone." You as a reader are like, 'No they're not'!"

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