Tristan "Arkada" Gallantnote is a Canadian anime reviewer on YouTube. He is the founder of Glass Reflection
, co-founder of Podtaku, and former member and website owner of The DesuDesBrigade.
Along with Glass Reflection, he has two YouTube channels, one for anime and one for gaming. He is also on Twitter and Tumblr, and has a Patreon page.
Tropes include:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable:
- He is unfortunately prone to this; some more egregious examples include Na-RU-to and Ah-KEE-ra. Lampshaded in his review of Time of Eve; he even has a clipboard with the proper pronunciations on it.Dammit, why am I not better at pronouncing these things?
- One of his criticisms of the dub of CLANNAD is that some names are noticeably mispronounced throughout, specifically mentioning Nagisa's name being pronounced NaGEEsa.
- He is unfortunately prone to this; some more egregious examples include Na-RU-to and Ah-KEE-ra. Lampshaded in his review of Time of Eve; he even has a clipboard with the proper pronunciations on it.
- Badass Finger Snap: This is his Signature Transition, done when he goes into the body of full reviews and just before the Closing Credits. Subverted, however, when he doesn't add the accompanying screen distortion and sound effect.
- Badass Longcoat: He sported a white lab coat up until the review of Summer Wars, in which he debuted his mountie-esque jacket. The lab coat made a return in the CLANNAD review.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He usually wears a dress shirt, tie, and dark red vest for his GR reviews and Let's Plays, although the mountie jacket keeps this getup covered.
- Berserk Button:
- School Days; several GR reviews lampshade his hatred of the show, although he did do a proper review of it.
- DVD packaging that's either flimsy or cumbersome (i.e spindle cases & tins), as indicated in almost any of his reviews where this is present. The latter is made especially clear in his review of Neon Genesis Evangelion where he has to turn the metal tin upside down and let the cases fall out of it because there's no space to lift them out with your finger(s).
- He still hasn't forgiven Kyoto Animation for the "Endless Eight".
- Seasons/Series ending In Medias Res or without a proper conclusion; at the very least, these impact his thoughts on whether the anime in question is worth your time or not
- Call-Back: Ark will occasionally refer to something he's said in a previous review which ties into the one he's currently doing, such as when he revisits ICE and plays a clip from his original review where he says that ICE would possibly be improved by an English dub.
- Catchphrase: He has several, for different occasions.
- His most iconic one would be "stay frosty", which he uses at the end of all of his videos (usually along with the next catch phrase), as well as his farewell in Podtaku.
- Many of his reviews start with a short introduction, then "Ladies, gentlemen, and others. My name is Arkada, and welcome to Glass Reflection. Today [name of the discussed anime]. Let's jam!" *cue finger snap and visual effects*
- "The ending is paramount." For Ark, a show's ending is one of the biggest deciding factors about whether or not he'll recommend it, and a bad ending will taint an otherwise good show and can even break it.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Mostly in crossover videos.
- Enemy Without: In his Desert Punk review, Ark had to go head to head with his real life self Tristan over whether or not it was okay to make a masturbation joke since Tristan has a girlfriend. Arkada wins by pointing out that Tristan has a girlfriend, not him.
- Gilligan Cut: Done twice in the Princess Tutu review. The first time was after declaring that in no way was he ever going to review the aforementioned series. The second time was declaring that he was definitely not following it up with a Cardcaptor Sakura review, which is then subverted when he's instead shown watching Baccano!! after the Gilligan Cut.
- Hot-Blooded: Sometimes.
- An Ice Person: Vixen assigns Ark as this in her Let's Play of Final Fantasy, as he is from the snowy wastes of Canada, eh? He also uses "frosty" as a synonym for "cool" and as something of a personal theme.
- Idiosyncratic Ratings Scale: Arkada formerly combined a numerical score that was a rough aggregate of various factors with a unique overall rating system, but eventually went solely with the overall ratings as the scoring was cumbersome and often confusing and contradictory between reviews. His scale, from best to worst, is:
- Certified Frosty: As he puts it: "A rating reserved only for the best of the best and those shows too important to ignore."
- Buy It: A very good show that's worth shelling out the money to add to your collection.
- Stream It: Worth watching, but only worth buying if you really dug it.
- Skip It: Generally not worth your time.
- Fuck It: Usually reserved for titles that are a complete failure for one reason or another. WataMote, while it had some merit, earned this rating mainly due to its unbearable cringiness.
- Keet: He can get really energetic sometimes.
- The Lancer: Was this to fellow reviewer Professor Otaku back in their D2 Brigade days.
- Large Ham: Arkada's favored acting style. He even admits it. He uses it himself from time to time, albeit he doesn't consider himself to be particularly good at it.... because Lelouch is one big, giant ham. I can be pretty bad like *snickers and leans close to camera* real talk, real talk, I can be pretty horrible...
- Let's Play: Makes them at Arkada Gaming.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He wore his hair long and in a ponytail for some time, though he cut it short again around the time that he put the mountie jacket on hiatus. Former fellow-Brigadier Vixen even lampshaded it on Tumblr once, asking when he grew his hair out.
- Mad Scientist: Plays this up from time to time.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: Arkada's Canadian accent is at times very obvious, and his mountie jacket is the icing on the cake. He also frequently mentions the problems living in Canada causes when it comes to availability of some anime.
- Motor Mouth: Occasionally lapses into this.
- No Ending: Dismissively calls these "Read the Manga Endings", theorizing that quality adaptations like No Game No Life and The Devil is a Part-Timer! only air for a single season because they're marketing tools for the source material.note
- Precision F-Strike: His reviews occasionally have moments of profanity, usually for descriptions but occasionally commentary, such as:[from the Haruhi Suzumiya review]:
Ark: Like, I'm not gonna sit here and call it the greatest anime ever. It has its flaws, like anything else. What those flaws are, well...
Mikuru: That's classified!
Ark: Oh, goddammit! - Real Men Wear Pink: In his review of Princess Tutu, he says "Real men like Princess Tutu". He then quotes it in his "25-ish Anime Recommendations" video.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the Red Oni to Prof.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Acts super bombastic on camera, but has gone on record saying that when it comes to real life social situations with people he does not know (for example, fans at cons) he has a lot of trouble with that. It is not that he does not want to talk to them, he really does, he is just awkward in person.
- Squick: While he's watched and enjoyed many a violent and gory anime, he was too grossed out by the body morphing in Parasyte: The Maxim to be able to do a full Glass Reflection review, instead doing a First Reaction video about it.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: To Crispin Freeman and Steve Blum, but mostly Crispin Freeman, but who can blame him?
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Loves bursting into song.
