Web Animation / Sunset Paradise

♫ Meet you in Sunset Paradise! ♫

Can I move on from what I knew?
'Cause I've paid my dues from the rules I've played by
Well I know better than to struggle through and through
And if you're with me, I'm with you
Time to let me loose in this world I came by
I hope it's better, 'cause I want this life to stay

— Opening Theme

Sunset Paradise is a CG animated web series created by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul (better known as SMG4) and their studio, GLITCH Productions. It is Glitch's second fully-animated series, which serves as a Spin-Off of their flagship SMG4 series, starring its resident Breakout Character, one original Inkling-turned-human girl by the name of Meggy Spletzer.

Ever since she finally achieved her dream of winning the Splatfest, Meggy has been faced with an even tougher challenge: finding a new purpose in life. Determined to sort herself out with some much-needed relaxation, she's taken a holiday to Port Aurora, the island paradise home of the Aura Boras, and host to all manner of colorful tourists. Unfortunately for her, the streets have become plagued with criminal activity in the lead-up to its Phoenix Festival, and the closest thing the island has to an authority figure is the inept deputy Auri Bori. If Meggy wants to get any peace and quiet, she'll need to team up with Auri and lay down the law as Port Aurora's new sheriff, leading to one heck of a crazy misadventure.

The pilot premiered on the GLITCH Channel on March 26, 2021, with the premieres of the other 9 episodes beginning on June 4, and concluding on July 30.

Promos: Official trailer

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Tropes describing Sunset Paradise:

• Armor-Piercing Response: Auri dishes one out to the Funky Fource when they offer him a position.

  Auri: I can't join you. Because… the real Funky Fource DIED WITH JOE!

• Art Shift: While it takes place in the same universe as SMG4, the series in animated entirety in Unreal Engine 4 with an Animesque style rather than being primarily done in Garry's Mod and Source Filmmaker.
• Attack of the Town Festival: The story features the upcoming Phoenix Festival, a once-in-a-100-year festival that is sacred to the local Aura Boras. Unfortunately, the criminals who have moved in threaten not just the Aura Boras, but the very festival itself.
• Boss Subtitles: Non-video game example. Every time Meggy encounters a new enemy, a splash screen with their names and what they're known for appears. Though, oddly enough, this applies to friendly characters too like Auri, and even Meggy herself.
• Busman's Holiday: Meggy took a vacation to relax and work her life out. Unfortunately for her, there's plenty of criminals who need a good ass-kicking, something Meggy's good at and eager to do.
• The Cameo:
  • The Crab King from Ultra Jump Mania makes an appearance in the pilot, albeit much smaller, carrying Meggy's suitcase.
  • Beeg SMG4 makes an appearance as a prize Meggy wins in a shooting game.
  • Tari in her SMG4 incarnation appears on a Hairspray parody poster in one of the magicians' dressing rooms in the background.
• Cerebus Syndrome: After a generally light tone for the first 4 episodes, things take a turn for the serious starting in episode 5 once the Funky Fource arrive on the scene, and things only get worse from there.
• Chained Heat: Meggy and Auri spend the majority of Episode 3 stuck to each other's backs when Auri accidentally covers himself in glue, right up until Meggy uses Whisk's ray gun to separate themselves in the end. It also lends itself to a Visual Pun when the experience brings the two closer than ever before.
  Auri: Supervisor, I've always got your back! So long as you're willing to stick around, of course.
• Covers Always Lie: For a show named "Sunset Paradise", it's anything but paradise.
  • Meggy has noticeable bruises on her face in the thumbnail for episode 7, but doesn't have them in the actual episode.
  • The thumbnail for episode 9 suggests that Meggy is crying because Benedict had succeeded in regaining his true form. Actually, no. She's crying because Auri dies.
  • The thumbnail for the finale implies that Meggy and Whisk will duke it out even with the latter unmasked. Now, the "duke it out" part is true, but the "unmasking" part isn't.
• Crapsaccharine World: Port Aurora is any seaside vacationer's dream during the day, but at night, it becomes a Wretched Hive swarming with criminals, which is bad news for both the Aura Boras and the tourists looking to celebrate the Phoenix Festival. And then there's the Funky Fource...
• Darkest Hour: invoked What seemed to be a lighthearted cartoon turns into a nightmare. And you thought Meta Runner was dark.
  • By the end of episode 6, Meggy and Auri are framed as the ones behind the crime wave, the entire town turns against them, Whisk commits herself fully to Benedict's cause out of spite for Auri's treatment of her, and Auri's house explodes with Meggy and Auri still inside.
  • It gets worse in episode 9. Auri straight up dies blocking Benedict's laser blast to keep Meggy from dying. All Meggy wanted to do was take a vacation.
• "Eureka!" Moment: It seemed like all hope was lost in the heroes' battle with Benedict. Auri straight-up dies in a Heroic Sacrifice, just as the mayor did earlier, leaving Meggy devastated. Then Benedict gloats about how he will be "reborn" in his original form with the Phoenix Egg's power, giving Meggy some hope that Auri can still be saved.
  Meggy: Reborn...
• Fictional Currency: This series has "tullies" as its currency. According to the Reddit AMA, one tully is worth US $5, meaning Aziz charges Meggy $60 (12 tullies) for a single ice cream cone.
• Happy Ending: Unlike the first two seasons of Meta Runner, all ends happily for our protagonists. Benedict and his criminals have been defeated, Port Aurora is saved, Auri is revived and has proved himself to be a good sheriff, and Meggy has finally figured out her purpose in life: helping people.
  • A few of the villains get this too… sort of. The Funky Fource offers Duke a spot on their team after hearing the latter humming, but they aren't allowed to collab until they finish their beach cleaning duties as their punishment. Whisk is the only member of the organization who hasn't been caught and managed to reclaim her mask, allowing her to commit more crimes on her own.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The photograph shown at the end of "Cat-sino Royale" showing Meggy's friends has the face of a certain Italian plumber covered up by Meggy's thumb to avoid issues with Nintendo.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The trailer begins and ends with segments where Mayora Bora attempts to film a tourism ad for Port Aurora. At the very end, he makes a comment about his work that could easily apply to the out-of-universe trailer itself:
  "Hope this trailer works. We need money."
• Leitmotif: Each of the main/major characters have one associated with them.
  • Meggy: "Meggy's Fury"
  • Auri: "Auri Appears!"
  • Spud Buds: "Spud Buds Takeover"
  • Whisk: "Whisk Sneaks In"
  • Funky Force: "The Funky Force Get Fresh!"
  • Benedict: "Benedict Approaches..."
• Lighter and Softer: The show gets progressively more serious starting at the halfway point of season 1, but is still much more jovial compared to the high drama and stakes of Meta Runner, and has much more humorous moments throughout. Notably, this is the first Glitch Productions original series to not end a season on a Downer Ending.
• MacGuffin: The Phoenix Egg. Without its energy, there would be death and ruin for the next 100 years until the next Phoenix Egg hatches properly. It also plays a crucial role in Back from the Dead reviving Auri.
• Moving the Goalposts: Meggy's personal goal of reclaiming her stolen stuff in the first four episodes gets delayed twice, first by Whisk stealing it from the Spud Buds' safe, and then after scaring off Whisk, finding out she stole the contents of the bag.
• Mythology Gag: When parts of a stage fall on one Aura Bora in the trailer, he shouts, "My ovaries!", a reference to Bob from the SMG4 series.
• Oh, Crap!: After being defeated, Benedict finds himself in purgatory where he meets Aloysius, who's more than ready to take Benedict down. This causes Benedict to scream in fear.
• Odd Name Out: While the rest of the episode titles (besides the pilot) reference some form of media, the last episode breaks this tradition, being simply titled "Rebirth".
• One-Word Title: The last episode is titled "Rebirth".
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whisk is unmasked in the thumbnail for Episode 10, yet has a very serious expression. Presumably, things have gotten real. Actually, this is a case of Covers Always Lie.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The password to the Funky Fource's defense system? Funk. It's even lampshaded by Meggy.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: Besides the first and last episodes, every episode title is a pun on or reference to a movie, book, song, and/or video game title:
  • Episode 2: "The Silence of the Yams (The Silence of the Lambs)
  • Episode 3: "Reservoir Cats" (Reservoir Dogs)
  • Episode 4: "Cat-sino Royale" (Casino Royale)
  • Episode 5: "The Funk and the Furious" (The Fast and the Furious)
  • Episode 6: "Saturday Night Funkin'" (Saturday Night Fever and Friday Night Funkin')
  • Episode 7: “What Comes Next” (Hamilton)
  • Episode 8: "Mad Meggy" (Mad Max)
  • Episode 9: "All Fall Down" (Ring Around the Rosie)
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Meggy of all people is Dual Wielding pistols aimed at the camera in the thumbnail of "Mad Meggy".
• Sequel Hook: Meggy saying she will come back to Port Aurora someday opens the possibility of a Season 2. Also, Whisk is the only criminal who hasn't been arrested yet, hinting that she will return.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • Port Aurora's main population is a group of small, physically weak creatures, its main source of income is being a tourist attraction (meaning its population relies on foreign visitors taking vacations there to sustain itself), there is the upcoming Phoenix Festival drawing in a crowd, and the closest the island has to law enforcement is a child who has no idea what he's doing as deputy. Needless to say, this is the perfect recipe for a foreign criminal element to move in and cause trouble, and is causing a financial crisis that threatens the island.
  • Due to the locals' weak stature, their default response to criminals causing problems is to try to avoid them if possible, and they're not going to step in and risk their lives for someone else. Meggy refusing to take the hint gets her luggage stolen when her chauffeur quits in response to her refusal to ignore the problem and go check into her hotel, and the Spud Buds steal it in retaliation to Meggy interfering.
  • Auri is the island's only police officer. Is he an One-Man Army, or is at least a Badbutt? No! He's a wimpy Aura Bora who is Just a Kid riding a unicycle, and his only ability in terms of law enforcement is giving tickets and not even real training with his spear, and his grandfather is implied to have never actually taught him how to be a real officer! When face-to-face with real criminals for the first time, he's very quickly overwhelmed and would have been easily beaten to death in the pilot had the experienced Meggy not come to haul him out of the fire! Part of the "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune shows that Meggy is going to have to train Auri herself just to boost his competency.
  • Of course the townspeople are going to side with international heroes instead of two kids who have (in their eyes at least) done nothing but cause trouble and property damage.
  • Whisk, after being arrested and broken out by Benedict, chooses to commit fully to his plans. Not only is Benedict paying off her debts, but Meggy agreed with Auri's decision to arrest her rather than agree to let her off.
    • However, despite her animosity with Meggy, the two girls REALLY don't want to fight to the death over the fate of the Phoenix Egg, and when Whisk gets the upper hand thanks to her Fear Gas gun, she makes offers to Meggy to leave, even if it pisses off Benedict. While Meggy refuses and defeats Whisk, Meggy makes a similar offer, which a maskless Whisk takes.
  • Just because you manage to kill someone in the past doesn't mean you're no longer afraid of them and what they did to you. When Benedict gets hit by the fear gas during the final battle with Meggy and Auri, he hallucinates Aloysius Bori attempting to arrest him... who had cursed him and stripped him of his main pride, his status as a Genius Bruiser crimelord. He tries to eject out of fear, only for his malfunctioning throne to blow up with him in it, trapping him at the mercy of Aloysius for eternity in the afterlife.
• Theme Music Powerup: The final battle with Benedict uses an instrumental version of the "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune.
• Title Drop: Non-verbal example. The sticker in the windshield of the Mayor's bus reads: "Welcome to Port Aurora: Your Sunset Paradise". It's the final thing he sees before his death.
  • Meggy almost delivers a verbal version in the last episode, but is cut off.
• Villain Episode: What Comes Next pretty much focuses on Benedict's take over of Port Aurora and storming the lighthouse. While Meggy and Auri only appear in two scenes.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Mario's face in Meggy's picture is covered by her thumb to avoid getting trouble with Nintendo; Luigi is absent from it (he took the photo). Boopkins and Bob are shown face-and-all, though are stylized to look different from the Spike and Garo they're modeled after. The fact that their models are simply minor enemies from games in contrast to Mario probably helps. SMG4 is also sporting his alternate look (essentially a cartoony Luke in his usual costume) rather than being a Mario recolor.
• Wunza Plot: Meggy's an Action Girl who just wants a good, old-fashioned vacation. Auri is a well-meaning but inexperienced Aura Bora who's Port Aurora's sole line of defense against crime. Together, they have to clean up the streets of Port Aurora in time for the Phoenix Festival.

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"I hope this trope page works, we need money."

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