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mari-lair · 6 months

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(the hanakou analysis: Here)

Thank you, Anon! That's an interesting question but a bit tricky to answer because I don't think Mitsuba needing to eat spirits to survive is comparable to Kou's trying to see Hanako as an evil spirit but I do want to talk about how Mitsuba's "exorcise me" moment have connection to Kou's journey with Hanako.

Before seeing how each relationship influences the other I wanna highlight their big differences, so bear with me.

Kou does not see Mitsuba as a threat, the 'he eat evil spirits to survive' reveal does not change that. Mitsuba goes out of his way to only eat supernaturals and Kou does not consider killing monstrous supernaturals as something 'evil'. He has seen Teru do it since he was a little kid, has seen Hanako do it to protect him, and even did it himself.

What makes Hanako be considered an evil spirit is that he is capable of murdering humans. Hanako can be genuinely dangerous, and so far, Kou had gotten no reason to believe Mitsuba is too.

Even if Mitsuba shows signs of being dangerous, Kou does not perceive Mitsuba as a supernatural nearly as much as he does Hanako, spending a good portion of the manga confusing him with Sousuke the human, and treating him like someone he wants to get close to, not judge.

Mitsuba is, first and foremost, someone Kou is desperate to be of use to, not very related to his identity as an exorcist.

If Hanako is the one he relies on. Mitsuba is the one in need of his help. Kou's role of being Mitsuba's guide is self-assigned, present even before the supernatural was born, all the way to when he interacted with Sousuke's ghost.

Kou failed Sousuke and Mitsuba many times, so his inclination to help him became a need. As the people he trust seem to not take him seriously he grows desperate for Mitsuba to rely on him.

So Mitsuba saying he wants to be exorcised is a spit in his face. He does not care about how inhuman eating demons is when Mitsuba is basically saying "I don't want to rely on you, I don't believe you can make my dream come true. I give up"

He is angry and frustrated. He wholeheartedly rejects the idea not even Mitsuba needs him. He does care about Mitsuba and doesn't want him to die, but he is also blinded by frustration that even the person he had been sure only had him to count on considers Kou a second option.

Even after he realizes Mitsuba is able to hurt human beings he does not focus on the new information, he does not care about 'how dangerous this supernatural is', his issue with the situation is still not being trusted. Not being needed.

Mitsuba had even commented it would have 'been quicker' if it was Teru who got there to kill him. As if even for giving up, Kou is not the first option.

It makes him feel lonely and incompetent.

The thing that makes him stop being angry is when Mitsuba, who saw him cry like a baby, still says "I am glad I came to see you" he was not disappointed by Kou

It grabs his attention, it soothes his insecurities a little.

But Kou's reaction gets interesting here:

Kou doesn't deny his claim that "you would be sorry to see me go, the same way you would for anybody."

What Mitsuba said here hits hard, because it makes him think of Hanako.

Even when faced with a cruel version of Hanako in the red house, Kou was frozen, aware he can't exorcise him.

Kou run away from every single wish in the red house, but killing Hanako is the only wish that makes him hide behind his hands. He does not want to think about it. He does not want to face the possibility he may need to kill Hanako.

So he can't argue with Mitsuba.

And that makes him angry because exorcising Hanako does not mean the same as exorcising Mitsuba. For Hanako dying is not giving up on a dream, it is a reward, something he craves. Or at least, that's what Hanako consistently tells Kou.

Hanako's beliefs go against Kou's beliefs. This is the one thing Hanako constantly tries to 'teach' him, that Kou refuses to accept.

It is also the only thing Hanako has ever shown to want besides saving Nene. It is important to Hanako, Kou can understand that much. So when the ghost say "I look forward for when you exorcise me." it is a huge show of trust, of expectations.

Hanako only ever explicitly trusted Kou to help with two things: protecting Nene and exorcising him. He seems to be under the impression Hanako no longer trusts him to be of help to Nene, since the supernatural did not share his plans about the severance or trapping Nene in Mei's canvas, and that hurts.

He can't mess up Hanako's hopes of being exorcised too.

He doesn't want to disappoint Hanako again. There is a reason Hanako's asked Kou to kill him in the house the show you your wishes.

Is no wonder that when Mitsuba makes Kou remember Hanako his view on the situation changes, he considers Mitsuba's nature as a supernatural more carefully instead of dismissing his behavior as the personal attack he had thought it was.

The idea that Mitsuba may share Hanako's view on being exorcised is so frustrating to Kou. He fucking hates it, but he is more willing to think about it instead of dismissing his wish with to die with all the grace of a heart shoved in his mouth.

When he does a competition and claims he will exorcise Mitsuba if he wins, he feels more... Detached than usual. Even if he is visibly troubled.

It feels like a more raw version of when he is trying to convince himself Hanako is a threat that should be exorcised, telling Nene of all people this:

Which makes me believe that deep down a part of him wants her to convince him otherwise. Make him believe that Hanako is not an evil spirit he needs to exorcise. But she can't do it.

Kou does not want to exorcise either ghost but Hanako is dangerous, and Mitsuba no longer believes he can be human. So both ghosts force him to think about exorcism.

Mitsuba claim Kou wouldn't have exorcised him even if he had won and that is true. Even if Kou is serious about it, he doesn't have it in him to go through with it and kill Mitsuba.

All he can do is to think about it.

I find that neat.

#the way Mitsuba ask his opinion instead of being like Hanako and trying to TEACH Kou about it's also important but this is long already #i'm sleepy #mitsukou #hanakou #tbhk #toilet bound hanako kun #kou minamoto #mitsuba sousuke #tbhk hanako #jshk #jibaku shounen hanako kun #character analysis #I am always happy to feed the hanakou nation (even if just crumbs)

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isablooo · 10 months

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"Whoever, fameless, wastes her life away, leaves of herself no greater mark on earth than smoke in air or froth upon the wave" (Dante, Inferno xxiv. 49-51)

#my OC ember <3 #shes like... if a classical epic hero was a girl actually... with all the same destructive mentalities #I am once again telling you that quintessence is girl shounen #quote is translated by Robin Kirkpatrick btw!#apparently the dante quote is based on a quote from Aeneid book 5 but I gotta check I didn't bring either book to uni with me </3 #but I thought the quote encapsulated the ideologies instilled in her since childhood #which are loosely based on the ancient greek concept of kleos (renown/glory) & ancient roman concept of pietas (duty to family/gods/nation)#and how these form many of her insecurities through the story #search for quintessence #myart #ember seraphinos #oc #original character #elf #elves

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orcelito · 9 months

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Ykno the common critique I've seen around is that trimax fights r hard to follow & such. And I've always had the kind of thought of like "I mean sometimes it can be confusing, but if u stop to study it it's really not that bad"

Having a fight analysis post kinda blow up tho I'm seeing ppl comment over and over in the tags about how hard it is to keep up with the fights... and I'm just like. Is it really that confusing? Like genuinely. I thought it was one of those overblown fan critiques but it seems like a Lot of people agree with it.

#speculation nation #in the original manga Yea fights were pretty hard. took me a Lot of squinting to figure out what actually happened with the Nebraskas #but idk most of the fights r just vibes. u follow along and feel what the characters r feeling and the fine details dont matter.#a lot of times i do end up flipping back and forth between pages bc there r details revealed later on that make earlier things make sense #or just looking for clarification. that kind of thing.#so yeah it kinda does take some work to fully understand it but i kinda figured that's like... how manga fights go...#i much prefer this over the common shounen trope of stopping the fight to explain every single move that's done #so im just like 'come ON i already understood it!!! can we keep going already????'#is it the fact that nightow doesnt do this that makes it so confusing??? so ppl dont get the play by play as it happens???#this all probably sounds obnoxious but im just genuinely trying to make sense of it.#i guess im also just a perceptive person when im paying attention to smth. maybe that's what it ultimately boils down to.#one person commented saying theyd kill if i did play by plays for all the trimax fights lol #i probably wont for All of them bc that sounds like quite a project #but if another catches my attention in this same sorta way... then maybe.#i guess understanding nightow's fights is a skill. probably at least partially assisted by being able to read the sound effects.#oh yeah. that's another thing lol. i can read the sound effects. and that especially helps with knowing how many shots there are #stuff like that. 🤔 yea i dunno. i wasnt expecting that post to get so many notes.#but it's well over 400 now and still counting. waking up to 99+ notifications is... an experience lmao

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aijzeni · 1 year

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Bandai killed this Chainsaw Man Figure WAAY better the Figma. 2023 cannot come sooner

#s.h.figuarts #bandai #bandai tamashii #bandai spirits #tamashii nations #chainsaw man #denji #csm denji #tatsuki fujimoto #shounen jump #jump plus #anime and manga

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shiikadai · 2 years

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Maybe it’s a product of being a fan of Naruto for near ten years now and considerably evolving in my perceptions of it, but it’s always strange to see how despite it being near as long since the main series ended, so many people still unabashedly miss the point. Naruto sympathizing with and talk-no-jutsuing almost every villain he comes face-to-face with isn’t an arbitrary thing that Kishimoto employs because he’s an incompetent writer. It’s a narrative device used time and time again to illustrate that there are truly no villains or heroes in this world, only victims who are the product of an exploitative, violent environment funded by the feudal-state system. Even the worst people we come to know in the narrative are a product of that environment and of the cycle of violence that refuses to be broken, so yes, empathy is the point, even for the villains who seemingly belong at the bottom of the barrel. Understanding their circumstances is about understanding the desolate environment that created them and how such an environment should never have existed in the first place. It’s never about excusing them for their actions. Recognizing that ultimately the system is to blame and not the individual people in it is vital to Naruto’s thesis as a whole. We can argue about whether the conclusions and sequels to the main series actually stick the landing with that thesis, but at least for the bulk of the main narrative, it is important and intended for readers to recognize that Naruto’s empathy for others is born out of social intelligence and compassion, not naïveté.

#naruto uzumaki #naruto #*meta #like does he end up becoming the poster child for nationalism? sure. and i hate that truly #but every time i come across people deliberately missing the point #with why naruto empathized with nagato or itachi or obito #my eyes roll soooo far back in my head. like please #maybe if you weren’t so stuck on acting like kishi has the writing competencies of a fifth grader #you would stop projecting those same tendencies onto your analyses of the work. . .#amazingly enough he does happen to know how to write about complex themes!#he just also happens to be a shounen mangaka who slaves for fifteen years and wanted easy money in the end #but that shouldn’t detract from understanding the themes he tried to execute #and i do think universal empathy is like. a really important critical one lol

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tumblingxelian · 1 month

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Near Uniquely RWBY - Main Characters

I was chatting with my sibling the other day and we were joking about the fact in 90% of the media I consume I generally don't like the main characters.

Not in the sense I necessarily hate them, but I generally don't find them to be the most interesting, engaging or enjoyable person on screen or page. Instead I tend to gravitate towards secondary or minor characters and even minor antagonists before any of the big names.

Some of this is rooted in my often rooting for what tends to feel more like a real underdog or characters that feel like they got dealt a bad hand by the author unfairly. But its also that in a lot of media the main characters tend to immediately, slowly or quickly go into personality lockdown.

Becoming less a personality and more the embodiment of expected tropes and themes, or they lose their unique edge or circumstances because the plot demands one benefits or personality changes be heaped on them to keep the tone and story going.

Some examples of this would include say:

Ichigo from Bleach, with him and his supporting cast being very unique and super interesting during the initial arc. But as Soul Society came in, he became a much more standard Shounen determinator a the expense of his personality and his supporting casts were largely watered down & left behind.

Or how in Naruto or Dragon Ball the whole underdog/hard worker aspect of the characters felt undercut by legacy power ups and an endless wellspring of natural talent, alien biology, ETC.

I know these are just two examples, but they cover the general gist of what I mean.

So, what makes RWBY different?

Well, off the cuff, is simply that the four main characters are women.

I've often felt simply putting anyone other than a cis-het guy into the main character slot of say, a battle Shounen, or Isekai stands a good chance of making it more interesting by default. Even if the author does nothing with it the audience reaction would be different because the MC would be an exception to the norms.

In that vein, while one can call RWBY some sort of Shounen or adventure fantasy or magical girl show the main four are unique in how they manifest on screen at the very start. From how they participate in action, to how said action is structured and framed and the kind of adventures and topics they tackle.

But being unique alone is not enough, that would simply make it more interesting than the bog standard but what elevates RWBY is the execution and exploration of such elements and its characters.

Going into every aspect would be difficult, but in light of what I said above would be how each of the main four are initially presented as familiar archetypes, only to subvert or deconstruct them.

Ruby is a peppy goth who just wants to be normal but has inborn powers from her mysteriously vanished mother and serves as a beacon of optimism to others.

Except Ruby's version of normal still involved fighting death monsters with a sniper rifle scythe and she is actually one of the more ruthless characters. Her peppy persona obscures that she can have a pretty vicious temper when pushed and has displayed strong bloodknight tendencies.

Her unrelenting optimism and desire to fix the world is a complex mix of true beliefs, coping mechanism for trauma and her grappling with positions forced on her against her will. Her inborn power is potentially useful but also not that much of a game breaker outside specific contexts & said power sure as hell didn't save her mom.

Weiss Schnee is the Tsundere heiress of a powerful family, with a haughty attitude that hides her loneliness.

Except the "Tsundere" is more of a defense mechanism born of coming from an abusive home where every member of her family manifested a different trauma response. Freeze (Mother), flight (Sister), Fight (Weiss) Fawn (Brother).

Despite her upbringing & some projected trauma, she's far from ignorant as to the worst excesses of her nation early on, and her journey was more about overcoming the impacts her abuser had on her and finding a family in her team that let her be safe enough to let down her walls. Also despite being "The ice queen" she's actually one of the characters least inclined towards more ruthless actions and is extremely empathic.

Blake Belladonna is a mysterious and silent rougish woman, something of a shrinking violet even, but she carries with her a wounded heart thanks to her old flame, the edgy Adam Taurus.

Or more accurately, Blake is the daughter of activists and politicians who represent the worlds main discriminated against minority. She spent her youth on the road as a protestor and where even her father could be nearly killed by a lynch mob. She was targeted & groomed by a man who claimed to want to fight the same injustice she did but who was only interested in using the movement to grow his own power.

Her initial aloof-ness was a trauma response to having spent years under his thumb and overcoming him and the idea she had to 'save' him was one of the main corner stone so her character. Also, despite the "Revolutionary fighter" backstory she like Weiss is much less inclined towards ruthlessness than her team in large part because her past experience with it.

Yang Xiao Long, introduced as the fun loving big sister of Ruby & boisterous bruiser of the team who loves to party & flirt.

Except no, Yang was parentified as a child and forced to raise her own sister as their family unit fell apart. Her "Party girl" persona was outright framed as judging a book by its cover in her own trailer and something she put on or took off as she needed.

She became disabled over the course of the series run as well as entered a Sapphic romance with her partner Blake. Unlike the stereotype of characters with her design, Yang is actually an excellent student, fighter and engineer/mechanic. Plus much like her sister she tends to be of the more ruthless and pragmatic persuasion despite being from the "Normal" background.

Character Conclusion

So, all the characters break out of their initial archetypes, which already makes them more interesting. What's more, these sorts of characters just being oput together and made the main characters rather than circling a dude is in of itself unique.

But there are other aspects of the writing which endear me to how it handles the main characters and what keeps them interesting.

Anger & Violence

See, while in various media women do express anger at times it is still often far less so than men. What's more, often women's anger tends to be presented in... Less flattering lights.

With the anger obscuring fragility while in a man it conveys strength. Or implying a sort of hysteria rather than an appropriate or controlled response. Or worst of all being demonized in general unless its rooted in or coming from traditionally feminine places.

The same tends to be true when it comes to violence with a lot of media either trying to find some way to make women in battle less... Brutal than their male counterparts. (More more like fanservice) Along with rarely letting women fight men, unless they are a special exception to the norm.

RWBY does not do this.

The main characters, hell, all the women in the series express a multitude of different forms of anger and violence. They battle men, they battle each other, they battle monsters all with no distinction nor fanservice shot in sight.

What's more though is that said anger and violence are not presented as, for lack of better words, wrong. The writers don't draw overt attention to this fact, they don't hang a big sign up saying "Girls can fight & shout too" or the like.

They just present these women with a range of emotions, motives and actions that are treated according to what fits the theme of the show rather than hewing closer to gendered lines.

This isn't to say anger & violence are lionized, but more that the experience and usage of them is not demonized or undermined because of the characters gender.

I suppose what I am saying is that CRWBY by and large lack double standards when it comes to exploring these things that I see so often in other media. The women in the main cast, among the villains, both sides respective allies and beyond can be flawed, or angry or do both good and terrible things.

But the writers are always treating everyone's pain as equally valid regardless of gender or situation. Which means that the situations that cause anger exist within a tone of respect that forms the depiction and framing of anger itself.

Which is just something I really enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

#RWBY #Save RWBY #greenlight volume 10 #Team RWBY #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #Some other series that do this or touch on it are She-Ra #The original Sailor V manga but less so Sailor Moon #& to varying degrees the Owl House #Thanks to Adam for helping me with the conclusion!

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badass-queer-couples-battle · 6 months

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Don't you think it's funny cause actual canon gay characters in BL manga will say "I love you" but only the shounen bromance can spew out some of the most romantic shit akin to a 19th century poet writing a letter expressing his surpressed love for his lover 😭.....

Genuniely can't tell if it's bait or not, but I'm going to treat this ask seriously anyway.

Here, have some examples of beautiful and poetic expressions of love in BL media!

I'm going to start with my favourite murder husbands, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu from Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers!

This happens in episode nine, less than one third into the story- it's that early, they've known each other for like a week and are already able to tell they're meant to be. They've made their decision to be together, and over the course of the story:

They defend each other multiple times and fight side by side in multiple episodes, sometimes protecting their adopted kid/mentee Chengling as well

Zhou Zishu is willing to go against the whole martial arts society for his boyfriend. With zero hesistation, might I add.

They both know the other has done horrible things (lots of murder on both sides here) and that's not only okay, it's a big part of why they're soulmates and get each other so well!

Zhou Zishu is slowly dying (poisoned nails in his chest, long story) and Wen Kexing can and will risk his life to save him. Don't worry, they get a happy ending both in the show and the novel even if the show's last episode is behind a paywall and Netflix didn't even include it for some reason?

But enough about them, let's move on to the immortal fantasy genre boyfriends Hua Cheng and Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing!

Please note how Hua Cheng is ready to accept Xie Lian in whatever state he's currently in- as a god, a fallen outcast, even grieving and angry and at his absolute lowest. He's stood by Xie Lian in his worst moments, even if at the time Xie Lian had no idea it was him.

Hua Cheng has loved Xie Lian for 800 years, ever since he was a boy Xie Lian saved from falling to his death during a procession.

Xie Lian became a god, then fell due to horrible circumstances, almost committed a war crime against another nation that destroyed his country, spend 800 years wandering the mortal realm as a poor cultivator with his powers greatly reduced, and eventually ascended to become a god again. Throughout it all, Hua Cheng loved him and did his best to help him and then find him.

They're both adorable and the definition of a power couple once they're reunited- no spoilers, but they eventually fight an incredibly powerful god side by side and win & the last scene in the story is them reuniting for good since there's no more obstacles to their immortal love.

Let's move on to my favourite Japanese BL, Our Dining Table (also available as a series that came out semi-recently, but the examples below are from the manga.)

Yutaka is a lonely salesman who meets Minoru, a restaurant worker and his much younger brother Tane grieving the death of their mother.

Yutaka and Minoru hit it off by bonding through food they cook and share. The series is incredibly heartwarming, and as seen above Yutaka becomes a much happier person thanks to both his new relationship and big brother-like bond with little Tane.

As a little bonus, the whole found family together!

This post can't be complete without Golden Stage (or Golden Terrace, as the English official translation calls it).

Fu Shen and Yan Xiaohan aren't even in love at this point! This is at the beginning of the story, when their marriage has just been arranged by the emperor and they're still bitter rivals.

Yan Xiaohan is already protective of his future husband- later on, he also builds him a mansion meant to accommodate his disability (nerve damage in both legs, which requires a wheelchair and/or crutches). They're both incredibly powerful military generals, and the emperor was an idiot thinking an arranged marriage would humiliate them.

Of course they fall in love, of course they're a power couple, of course they send each other letters through trained geese when they're separated during the war, of course they run to each other as fast as they can across a wide cold river when they're finally reunited! Of course they're important to me!

....Aaand how about some Wangxian to wrap up this post? They need no introduction, an absolutely wonderful and complex relationship in a complex fantasy/intrigue story available in several forms - the books, the animated series (as seen above), the live action series, the audio drama, there's so much!

Some of their most beautiful moments:

Lan Wangji writing a song for Wei Wuxian and naming it Wangxian. Years after it's composed, Wei Wuxian plays it and LWJ is able to recognise him even in a different body.

LWJ begs WWX to come with him to Cloud Recesses, to safety, after WWX makes himself an enemy of the whole cultivation world for protecting innocent people.

They confront the final villain together, and work together to expose his crimes. This is also when their final love confession happens, and it's hilarious- in front of everyone's salad, WWX declares he also wanted to sleep with LWJ.

Despite censorship, the animated series was still able to allude to their wedding, showing them in red wedding robes (unfortunately can't find a gif rn)

Respectfully, if you genuinely think BL doesn't have beautiful love confessions and displays of romance, you need to find better BL.

#bqcb asks #mdzs #golden stage #golden terrace #word of honor #woh #bokura no shokutaku #our dining table #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #tian guan ci fu #wangxian #hualian

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stackslip · 8 months

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chapter 140 thoughts under the cut

fujimoto's goal of rewriting fire punch with a bit more silliness continues (i love the chainsaw pews)

fujimoto said i know writers who do subtlety and they're all cowards

BROBENI CONFIRMED. now to know if he's her younger brother who was gonna be put through college by kobeni's exploited labour (which..... gd damn that parallel with denji and nayuta......). also i've been told nobana is traditionally a female name.......... hm.

real, though in this context it sounds more like anti usamerican imperialism language repurposed for nationalist ends..... it's not fujimoto is uncritical of america either though considering the gun devil in part 1. fascinating to see where this might go and how much that kind of language parallels irl pro-japanese imperialism and nationalists' own discourse.

i find it fascinaing that kids are considered the only acceptable members of the cult only to be introduced to an adult leader several pages later lol. but obviously the cult (because this 200% is a cult) is filling a gap--the first half of part 1 showed us how much it fucking SUCKS to be even an ordinary kid both irl and in this world, the lack of agency and the poverty and being preyed upon by adults or abandoned entirely, and then mocked on national tv when they take the deaths of their classmates and friends seriously..... so of course so many would end up here, being told that adults really ARE dangerous and incapable of seeing the world the way they do. cleverly done, i hope fujimoto expands on this and doesn't fall back on Let Adults Take Care Of This

similarly i hope this doesn't fall into the liberal storytelling trap of "the government is bad, but this new group has appeared that's Even Worse, so the government is actually good now" that also appears in so many shounen tbh. i don't think he will bc even outside of the church public safety is still so fucked up

denji's expressions this chapter are top tier lmao. genius move to make denji the "straight man" in the previous few chapters where he's genuinely flabbergasted by how batshit everyone else is

FUCKING CRYING. yeah the implications are dire but. HOWL

again jokes asides there is SO MUCH to unpack here. you'll get married AND THEN become a member of the church (implying marriage is a requirement or, as said later, strongly encouraged to join the cult at all). sex is consummated immediately in the next room. so far we've mostly seen men and boys in charge of the church, except for fami/kiga......... which...... does not bode well. makes me wonder how many are pressured into marriage/sex both as a way to attract new male followers and as a way to keep control over all

speaking of which. it says student but they mean /high school students/, maybe even middle school students, aka again children! and again the language of Modernity Has Lied To Us, Child Marriage And Ownership Is The Way right there being recited. the appeal to nationalism and what is "natural", kids as property of their parents and the church,.... and yes i AM reminded of behemboth(?), the patriarchal city-cult of fire punch whose entire horrid existence is justified with "it's natural" and "we are saving people by giving them shelter here". the patriarchy is central here!

and of course the part about kids being born and raised into the church themselves...... after shinzo abe's death, japan's having a bit of a reckoning re the influence of cults in political life and vice versa, and particularly the impact on children raised in said cults. there's also been a reactionary backlash to the idea of *foreign* cults (like the unification church, originally from korea) having "too big" an influence on japan, versus the Good National Japanese Cults that are spared some of that backlash. so i find it interesting that fujimoto firmly grounds this as a *japanese* nationalist cult that claims to be trying to save the country from foreign influence. obviously i'd love to know more, bc i'm sure there's a lot of language and references in the original that i'm missing and that mirror irl japanese politics and reactionary tendencies.

denji's backlash in forcing kids to get married.... i do wonder how much of his backlash comes from the idea of forced child marriage (and being forced in general), or if he would have been okay with someone being pressured to have sex with him without marriage, or he wouldn't have thought about it tbh.

i want to see the chainsaw man bathroom............

the hybrids all coming together.... wonder if this means reze and quanxi will be back PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. but also in the context of the church.... the weapon hybrids were used as various governmental projects and living weapons for years--japan, china, the ussr, and i imagine the usa and other western powers had their own as well. then they got controlled by makima, and now they're in the church.... i hope we explore more of the abuse and parallels they have with denji, and see just how and why miri trusts in the church so much as a refuge compared to his previous abuse. ALSO BRING BACK REZE AND QUANXI GD PLEASE......

this is 200% the guy who was in the shadows telling haruka it was all planned. and again the irony of nobana talking about how this is a church by and for children, only to immediately be threatened by someone who is very obviously an adult in charge

his eyes REALLY freak me out btw, fujimoto did a great job at his expressions lol. also really love the detail of the suspenders and the

barem.... the closest i could find for that name's meaning was the hebrew for "son of nation" which. hm! worrisome!

so idk if fujimoto was TRYING to give this dude the vibes of a sexual predator but between the cult's pressuring kids to get married and have sex, his role as one of the sole adult "humans" around, his treatment of nobana, and his general demeanor and manner of speech + the themes of sexual abuse and predation in the series in general........ gd he gives me the absolute creeps lmao, incredible design and tone. also what he says here about asa which gives me SO MANY red flags and makes me think more of the patriarchal aspect of the cult too

the name of the chapter is "scales"..... which is associated with kiga, as the horseman of Famine. and of course during the whole chapter we hear about how the church is necessary and its actions help save lives etc etc etc. just as we heard the yakuza justify their existence to makima, just as public safety justified its own existence in terms of killing devils while really using them as a way to terrorize the population and threaten other nations.

i find it interesting that in a way, kiga gave a similar deal to asa but in far more positive a view. do these things for us, become this weapon for us, and this person you care about (or think you know even if briefly) will live. kiga was just a lot better at presenting it and obsfucating the actual horrors that would follow--denji however is in too deep, and doesn't buy into the bs anymore. so he's given much more stark and open a choice! just as public safety tried to threaten denji to keep quiet lest they kill nayuta and raise her as their own all over again! gd he and asa's lack of agency..... fuck me up so so bad

wondering if we're eventually going to come back to denji's motif of choosing a third choice and refusing the dual choice entirely! wonder if asa herself will only see a single solution in front of her every time......

anyhow. good chapter. there's gotta be a lot that i'm missing here in terms of relations to current japanese political context and i'd love to learn more on it tbh.

#eli talks #csm #chainsaw man #csm musings

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duckiemimi · 3 months

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i find it crazy that while the culling games and world-ending battles are happening all around japan, the rest of the world is clueless, (save for some political figures, thanks to kenjaku’s careful planning) and people are waking up and going to sleep in peace everywhere else.

(also as a sidenote, those barriers must be insanely strong, considering everything we’ve seen happen inside of it. well—kenjaku did have a millennia to plan everything.)

a total government shutdown like this would have drastic implications on international trade and diplomatic relations, japan’s foreign affairs (especially after what kenjaku pulled), but other than that, the world is none the wiser. actually, this scenario vaguely reminds me of panem in the hunger games (but don’t quote me on that, it’s been a while since i’ve read the series).

i do wonder if we’ll get to see a rebuild of the country and of the jujutsu system after (if there is an after) (if gege decides to write it anyway), but it looks like it’ll be difficult work considering (once again) what kenjaku’s done in regards to global politics.

two scenarios i think might happen after this week’s leaks (but don’t count on it, gege’s been unpredictable these days):

the merger happens and sukuna decides to fight whatever entity it creates; or

the merger doesn’t happen and japan rebuilds amongst the many political threats from abroad and the very real dangers to their weakened nation.

i wish we knew why kenjaku wanted to force CE evolution besides their idle, “because it’s interesting” reasoning (considering they’re a very, very instrumental figure here), but alas, i guess we might never know. though i do hope we get a glimpse of the global repercussions of everything that’s happened, considering gege did bring up politics. (i don’t have much hope for this.)

anyway, r.i.p. kenny, you could’ve been the biggest bad contemporary shounen’s ever seen.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #kenjaku #jjk 248 #jjk leaks #jjk spoilers #jjk meta

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youareinacomawakeup · 1 year

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Hey, you should watch Kyo Kara Maoh, and here’s why:

I feel like, when I try to get people into Kyo Kara Maoh, all I ever say about it is “You know how there’s this thing in shounen anime where there’s always some rival character that makes you wonder if he’s kinda gay for the protagonist? Yeah, in this one, it’s canon, and blatant about it. It doesn’t make you wonder for a second. It’s just upfront about it and you can watch him being gay on main the whole time.”

But like, that’s not the only reason I like the anime. Far from it. It’s just what I think is most likely to draw a new fan in. But it really is just a solid story with or without that.

It’s an isekai--and I know, I know, isekai are a dime a dozen now, but at the time this came out the only thing I really had to compare it to was Chronicles of Narnia--about a guy who goes back and forth between our world and a fantasy world where magic exists.

And he’s your typical plucky shounen protagonist, energetic and kind and willing to make friends with absolutely anyone. You know the type. Not really covering any new ground there. But unlike One Piece or Naruto or, I don’t know, Black Clover, he has no interest in becoming the best of the best. He kind of just wants to go home and be a kid and play baseball.

But the thing is, he’s king of this world by divine right. He was chosen to become king before he was born and he’s just been left to incubate in our world until he was older. His whole family has always known this, though he doesn’t find out until he’s magically pulled into the world and it’s sprung on him right away. And he wants nothing to do with it at first. It’s not something he has to do, either. He’s given the option of turning down the position and going home.

But.

There’s been this cold war going on between magic-users (”Mazoku” or “Demons” though the use of “demon” is more of a reclaimed slur than anything literal) and non-magic-users (humans). The real bloodshed has been put on hold for a while, but there’s a real threat of that cold war turning hot at any second. There are laws against humans and Mazoku being in romantic relationships, their mixed children face severe prejudice both from the people and institutionally, for instance being shoved into ghettos and left to starve, and tensions are high. And the protagonist realizes quickly that these people have been living this way for so long that peace is not going to happen naturally. They need someone with fresh eyes who can see that peace is possible. And that someone needs to be in a position of power to do something about it.

So the protagonist accepts the job. Not because he wants to--he HATES it; there are so many scenes of him complaining about all the paperwork and the struggles of trying to learn the cultural norms and mores of surrounding nations so he doesn’t fuck something up in his position of power and accidentally start the war he’s trying to prevent just by unintentionally insulting another nation’s leader or something--but because he feels responsible. He has to do something to bring peace to this land because he might be the only person who has both the power and the good intentions to do so. Hell, the MacGuffin of the series is the protagonist trying to steal four magical nukes from other countries so he can seal them away where they can’t be used. (They’re just wooden boxes, nothing impressive about their appearance. Not romanticized at all. They’re as boring and dangerous as war.)

And that’s...basically the series. Kid gets sucked into a fantasy world and becomes a king because he actually has a political agenda to make the world a better place and he saves the world with the help of a found family of nobles who are fondly exasperated by his incessant pacifism because they don’t think it’s reasonable, until he gradually and sincerely starts to change their mind and they all reevaluate their own prejudices. (And the prejudice reevaluation is really subtle, too. They don’t have big awakening moments like, “Wow, I’m not racist against half-humans anymore!” They just...slowly get better and bit by bit see the world the way the protagonist does.)

Other little details you might want to know are:

The protagonist has a Yu-Gi-Oh-esque alter ego. (The anime is from the mid-2000s, after all.) The protagonist himself isn’t super skilled in magic, despite having the ability to use it, and it’s...left kind of vague, but it seems like the magic itself takes over his body from time to time. But it’s not as helpful as that trope usually makes it. His alter ego is basically a big self-destruct button. It’s just an eruption of power that leaves the protagonist unconscious nearly every time. The typical result is that he wakes up a day later with his head in the gay rival’s lap and the two of them in a cell because, guess what, passing out on a battlefield isn’t super convenient. The alter ego is treated a bit like training wheels the protagonist needs to grow out of, and it’s extremely cathartic when the final conflict of the series is solved without the alter ego. Not because the protagonist can use strong enough magic that he doesn’t need to lose control to get the same result, but because the solution is not to use magic at all. To put his money where his mouth is and show himself as the pacifist leader he spends the whole show trying to be.

The protagonist is the reincarnation of someone who died in the war, a woman who overexerted herself trying to heal the injured. Unlike the alter ego, the protagonist’s connection to this woman is treated as a strength rather than a weakness. She, like the protagonist, wanted peace, but unlike the protagonist, she wasn’t the king and lacked the power to achieve that peace. Her gentle and kind heart shines through in the protagonist’s nature and actions, and those around him who knew her, and who know that he is her next life, can’t help but see how little she’s changed from one life to the next. All the features the protagonist inherited from her, that were treated as feminine, are his biggest strengths. This shounen anime is so far from toxic masculinity and it’s beautiful.

To be entirely transparent, this is an older anime, and as such, there are some problematic tropes that were common around that period. For instance, “Hahah an adult is creeping on a teenager, that’s funnie.”

I’m not the biggest fan of that, either, don’t worry. I acknowledge this as a flaw in the show. But if Master Roshi and Shigure could get away with it while DBZ and Fruits Basket are still beloved series, I’m willing to roll my eyes and overlook Gunter and Cheri as well.

And another thing I feel I should be transparent about is that the first half of the first season A) Is devoted to fleshing out the characters and the world, and B) Doesn’t have the best animation quality. What that means is that you’re going to have to sit through some wonky drawings and not a whole lot of plot for the first twenty episodes or so. But there’s a point--I won’t get into spoilers, but the shift is VERY obvious--where the plot really kicks into gear halfway through the first season. The animation quality starts to skyrocket at around the same time, and the entirety of the second season is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

Also one of the supporting characters is this beautifully tragic character who is slow to trust the protagonist because he’s half-human and he’s never had a reason to believe in a leader before. It’s treated not as a thing that character needs to get over, but as a completely reasonable doubt, and the protagonist understands that. He actually gives that character quite a bit of power--basically the keys to a very powerful weapon--and tells him, more or less, that if they ever need that weapon, it’s up to him to decide if they get to use it. Like the equivalent of giving a post-WW2 Japanese refugee the full power to veto the use of hydrogen bombs, and I love that. ...This character, who is very serious and very cool, is also a drag queen. This removes nothing from how cool he is. He’s still an utterly sincere character, because this show is cool as fuck.

Last thing: What I’m advertising here is the first two seasons of the show. It’s something like 80 episodes. That was where the anime proper ended and should have stayed ended, imo. I know some people like the third season, but the first two seasons tell a complete and extremely satisfying story whereas I find the third season (as well as the OVAs) has the vibe of a straight-to-video sequel to a great movie that tried its hardest to further a great story but only managed to invalidate all the original movie’s strongest moments by making them suddenly mean nothing in the face of new information. If you want my advice, stop where the story was originally designed to end and only watch the first two seasons. (I’m also saving you from having to look at the bad CGI skeletons. You don’t want to look at the bad CGI skeletons.)

Those first two seasons, though? Go. Go watch them. Watch them right now. They’re so fucking good. You won’t regret it, I promise.

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#kyo kara maoh #kyou kara maoh #kyou kara maou #there are so many spellings of this damn show #kyo kara maou #kkm #anime rec #it's gay go watch it #but also watch it for the reasons beyond it just being gay

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sleepyconfusedpotato · 2 years

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Task Force 141 Mostly Random and Domestic Head Cannons

Here are few questionable head cannons of the boys that nobody asked for that I came up with on a whim cuz I can't sleep.

💰 Captain Price 💰

Price can play saxophone and trumpet. More towards the saxophone. He has a collection of Kenny G album vinnyl disks that he'd play in his house.

He has a calico cat named Greg.

Collects watches as a hobby, from the antiques to the modern ones.

Supports Liverpool and sometimes would catch their matches on TV. Not a crazy fan like Ghost and Gaz though.

King of Poker. Nobody in the task force can beat him.

🇬🇧 Kyle "Gaz" Garrick 🇬🇧

That one British dude who likes coffee more than tea.

Fan of Arsenal. Actual Gooner who has posters and mugs with Arsenal logo printed on them.

Earlier of his teenage days, Gaz randomly wanted to learn beatbox. He got good at it and would often show it off to his friends. Over time, he lost interest in it and forgot about it. If you ask him to do some beatboxing he can still do it, but you gotta wait for it for the muscle memory to come back.

Arguably the most fashionable man in 141. When off-duty he'd show up with drip. His effortless swag goes along with any clothes.

🧼 Soap 🧼

Learned music theory and actually was a member of his high school vocal group and church choir, Soap has a beautiful barritone voice that can belt out "Why Do The Nations So Furiously Rage" by Handel and "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose."

INVESTED in Eurovision. Would watch every country's song and critiques each one. Could go MAD about it.

Definitely the dude who sings in showers.

Fan of Take That. He dreamed of singing Million Love Songs to his one true love.

Idk why but I feel like Soap is that guy who can solve rubik's cube.

💀 Ghost 💀

Actual fan of Machester City. Would fight other clubs' fans if they're losing on TV and would 100% stomp on them.

Proficient bass guitar player. Can definitely slap.

Ghost can sew. In fact, he costumizes all his skeleton attributes himself. From numbers of masks to gloves, he made it all himself.

Watches Anime. He watches the classic shounen animes like Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball. He likes the actions and the thrill of it.

CLEAN FREAK. Contrary to his rugged look and personality he always keep his belongings clean and neat.

🦵 Alex Echo 3-1 🦿

Another one of idk why but I feel like Alex's real name is Alexander Hamilton. His parents were either a historian or a musical enthusiast, no in between.

Watches NFL. Idolizes Tom Brady as the god-quarterback. In fact he ALMOST got drafted into NFL but got into the millitary instead.

Plays Tekken on a daily basis and unexpectedly mains Yoshimitsu for his eccentric design and moves.

Alex got a full-sleeve tattoo on both arms to cover the cigarette stick burns he got during his millitary days.

Skilled in playing the guitar. His fingerstyles are GODLY.

Alex sometimes sketch a few doodles on his journal.

🦗 Roach 🦗

Owns a grey Great Dane named Ms. Bella Donna, who's apparently oblivious of her size and a total lap dog. She'd leap at Roach when he gets home after deployment.

A fan of the Star Wars franchise. Major fan of Darth Vader and would quote him every chance he got. Collects figurines of Vader and Maul and even plays Star Wars : Battlefront.

True to his name, Roach isn't afraid of cockroaches, or any animal, really. Gary is the Task Force 141's #1 animal control man.

Roach can play the drum. He had a drum kit given to him by his parents as a kid and started doing them as a hobby.

-----

There it goes! This is the result of my domestic-HC-cravings which I decided to indulge myself. Feel free to add more LOL ◉‿◉

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orcelito · 1 year

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ok really though does my lifelong love for naruto inform how i write my fights. be honest

#speculation nation #discacc shit #dkfljsdlfkj i could do a poll for this but i dont think i will actually #since this is. a rhetorical question.#really i think it's more shounen in general. the malleability of the metaverse informs how i write fights #and as such it ends up having that sort of like. dramatic quality that shounen fights are known for #thinking about that moment where goro sprints up to kick morgana like a football #honestly i kinda have it in my mind that he's like. naruto running lmfao #maybe not outright in his arms hanging behind his back but it certainly isnt an arms pumping kind of run #it's DRAMATIC. shounen! he's running like a Bullet to get there then using that momentum to lay INTO morgana. BOOM #idk what's the point of writing fights if they're not fun ykno?#i mean eventually i will get to write fights outside of the metaverse. at least one. so i will have to play around with realism there #but you didnt hear That minor spoiler from me. lmfao.

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gachagon · 1 year

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Isagi Yoichi is a weak protagonist

And that’s why he’s perfect for Blue Lock. I like Isagi a lot as the protagonist but many people who are reading and watching Blue Lock for the first time find him to not be that suitable as a protagonist. I’ve already written about how Isagi is a great protagonist for Blue Lock’s themes on egoism here

But I want to talk about how he sort of deviates from the normal shounen protagonist role and how that might be why some people also don’t like him as the protagonist. In many other shounen, the protagonist is an Under dog that we the viewer get to see rise up in their own world and become #1. Right off the bat, some of them are already incredibly confident in their own abilities and believe they can reach the top all on their own.

However, often times these protags can’t reach the top in the beginning and are nowhere near strong enough or smart enough to be #1. For example, Luffy proclaims he’ll be King of the Pirates one day, even though he doesn’t have his own crew, he’s never really been in a fight before, he has no experience being a “real” pirate in the beginning. He’s an underdog who’s talking big when we all know he hasn’t quite reached that level yet. And often times these characters are also unaware of just how “weak” they are in the beginning, they’re so blinded by their own self confidence that they don’t actually see their own flaws until it’s too late.

Isagi however is a bit different then this:

Chapter 1 we see that from the get go Isagi is really determined and that he’s already got his own goal in mind. Sure it’s not a “huge” goal, but we’re actually seeing him fail and lose from the jump rather than learning about the unfortunate circumstances of why he failed in the past.

Isagi has no sad backstory for why he didn’t make it to nationals, there’s no terrible consequence for him losing this game other than his own disappointment.

Even when his own team is sobbing because they’ve lost and this is the last time they’ll play together, Isagi is just disappointed because he lost the game. There’s a clear separation between him and his teammates that becomes really apparent just from this panel. And compared to the guy who did win? Isagi almost looks like a background character in his own manga:

Blue Lock starts with us seeing the failure of the protagonist, and we see what skill he is at from the very first chapter. Isagi lost a simple game that he had everything riding on, and he lost to a character who looks marginally better and more charismatic then him. So when this scene happens

its clear to the reader now that Isagi’s motivations are entirely selfish. He didn’t care that he would never get to play with his teammates, he didn’t care that it might be his last year playing beside his team, he only cared about winning. So now we have this “bad” quality that is attributed to our own main character, this selfishness even in the face of loss makes Isagi look a bit like a sore loser.

And I can see why this would kind of make people not like Isagi from the jump, since he’s being incredibly selfish here. He’s upset for the “wrong” reasons when it comes to losing the game, he isn’t okay with just playing “for fun” and to be with his friends. All of the usual friendship tropes many shounen protags are not present in Isagi at all.

Isagi’s selfishness and ego can also feel “unearned” to some people because of this. Isagi has no sad backstory, he wasn’t “the best on his team”, he was completely unremarkable and even says so himself

“He has no feats” is what some might say to prove how lame Isagi actually is. At this point in the story there is no reason one would really believe Isagi could make it anywhere because that’s just how boring of a player he is. But despite this he has the audacity to feel upset he lost, and not only is he pissed that he lost, but he’s got an ego that says he should’ve won. If he hadn’t passed then, if he had just taken the chance to actually try and score on his own...if he hadn’t decided to rely on his teammates in that moment, he feels like he could’ve won that game.

Its why he becomes so angry and frustrated in chapter 1 because he realizes he made the wrong choice in deciding to rely on players who he deems were lesser than him.

So not only is our main character incredibly selfish when it comes to soccer, he laments about his choice to rely on his own teammates in the moment he was at his lowest. And this can feel “unearned” to people because there’s nothing Isagi has really done to let us know that he could��ve won without the help of his other teammates.

However, I don’t think that is really the point of these scenes in chapter 1. Or at least, it doesn’t actually matter if Isagi had the skill to win. What matters here is his ego and selfishness despite how mediocre he is. It doesn’t matter to Ego Jinpachi that he lost this game, all Ego cared about was how deep Isagi’s ego runs and whether it can persist in the face of adversity.

If Isagi had decided to be humble and calm himself down in this scene with weak platitudes about how “Soccer is a game played by 11 and not 1″, if he had decided to be content with losing because “At least he got to play with his friends one last time”, he wouldn’t have ever stepped foot in Blue Lock, or even been invited.

Teamwork is not the end goal here. “Working together” to win is not the goal. Playing as a team is not the goal. The goal is to simply be better than everyone else, and that includes the people you’re working together with.

Isagi’s egoism is entirely selfish and it isn’t rooted in his own ability, it exists simply because he wants to win and he feels like he deserves to because he, like Ego Jinpachi, felt that he shouldn’t have relied on others to try and win that game.

In a sense, Isagi’s egoism is almost like that of a villain rather than a hero. He doesn’t become this way after failing over and over again, but rather because he passed the ball in a moment where he could’ve scored. He held himself back so he could play “as a team” and he regrets it.

So Blue Lock’s protagonist is one that is different from others in the shounen category because unlike the others, he’s a selfish, egotistical person right from the beginning and he has no intentions of ever changing that. In fact, throughout the manga he just gets “worse” at this, and all the moments he does score goals are because of this selfish nature of his.

#bllk #bllk isagi #blue lock manga #character analysis #blue lock isagi #isagi yoichi #blue lock #Villain Isagi #Gachagon analysis

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best-underrated-anime · 6 months

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[Test Poll] Format #3

This is to test what format would be best for the poll posts during the tournament. The media featured won’t be part of the tournament. They’re just shows I recently watched (and are not necessarily underrated), but please vote as if this were the actual tournament. (I wrote some serious propaganda just to make this test realistic, so pleeease.) I will gather some feedback later. You may also leave feedback in the replies of this post.

Best Underrated Anime – Group C Round 1: #C1 vs #C2

#C1: Good guy pulled into soccer “death game,” turns into your worst nightmare

#C2: Depressed genius detective pulled out of slump by naive police officer

Titles, summaries, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#C1: Good guy pulled into soccer “death game,” turns into your worst nightmare

youtube

Title: Blue Lock / ブルーロック

Genres: Sports, shounen

Trigger warnings: none

Summary

After reflecting on the current state of Japanese soccer, the Japanese Football Association decides to hire the enigmatic and eccentric coach Jinpachi Ego to achieve their dream of winning the World Cup. Believing that Japan has lacked an egoistic striker hungry for goals, Ego initiates the Blue Lock—a prison-like facility where three hundred talented strikers from high schools all over Japan are isolated and pitted against each other. The sole survivor of Blue Lock will earn the right to become the national team’s striker, and those who are defeated shall be banned from joining the team forever.

Selected to join this risky project is Isagi Yoichi, a striker who failed to bring his high school soccer team to the national tournament. After choosing to pass to a teammate who missed instead of scoring on his own, he could not help but wonder if the results would have been different had he been more selfish. Using this golden opportunity given by the Blue Lock Project, Isagi aims to clear his doubts and chase his ultimate desire—to become the greatest striker in the world and lead Japan to World Cup glory.

(taken from MAL)

Propaganda

It’s different from all other sports anime I’ve watched before in that there is no “power of friendship” and “teamwork makes the dream work” bullshit. Blue Lock only cares about one thing, and that is winning. All those inspirational/comforting messages like “at least we had fun together” are dismissed to mere excuses right from the first episode.

Each episode is also full of hype, and there is no telling what will happen next. It subverts a lot of sports anime tropes, especially in the show’s second arc. I also love how it doesn’t follow typical sports anime arcs. They’re technically not in high school, so we don’t have “Nationals” or special training episodes. Just adrenaline-filled matches all the way through—not official matches, but it sure feels like it because of how high the stakes are (if you lose, your dreams are dead).

I especially enjoy seeing Isagi turn into something like a villain once the game starts. He’s so nice and polite off the field, but on the field he’s everybody’s nightmare. It’s also really refreshing to have a shounen protag revel in the act of breaking other people’s dreams.

But hype aside, it also does not lack on the emotional aspect. Characters are forced to break through their limits and let go of what’s important to them in order to move forward. That important thing could be a long-standing belief, an old dream, or even a friend. And the OST of this show really helps drive home the messages it sends. Some scenes would literally have orchestra music playing in the background, and each plot-relevant character also gets their own cool character soundtrack

Lastly, like all other shounen sports anime, expect some homoerotic stuff. You don’t even have to be a shipper to notice it. It’s really obvious in the second arc.

#C2: Depressed genius detective pulled out of slump by naive police officer

(Admin: I could not find a good trailer on youtube with english subs and none of the audio cut out, so I decided to edit the subs in myself…)

Title: Deranged Detective / Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions/ Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective / Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri / 鴨乃橋ロンの禁断推理

Genres: Comedy, mystery

Trigger Warnings: Just typical tw’s for a crime show… blood. murder, dead bodies, etc., but nothing extreme

Summary

Despite lacking the skills suited for his role on the Metropolitan Police Department investigative team, Isshiki Totomaru wants to solve murders and help people. Following the advice of one of his seniors, he ventures out to enlist the aid of the reclusive Kamonohashi Ron. Five years ago, Ron was the most promising detective from the illustrious Detective Training Academy Blue; yet for reasons unknown to the public, he sank into obscurity.

Totomaru expects a well-dressed, composed man; but what he gets is a messy-haired and uninhibited eccentric. After years in solitude, Ron barely resembles his former self and he refuses to even hear out the detective. However, as quickly as Ron rebuffs, he flips on a dime and dives headfirst into the current serial murder case.

The true reason Ron withdrew from the detective world was not from lack of desire, but rather from something out of his control—and Totomaru might just be the key for his return to his former calling. Together, the wide-eyed officer and deranged detective tackle each mystery that comes their way.

Propaganda

The anime is currently airing with only a few episodes out as of this moment, so my propaganda will be based more on the manga (which is by Akira Amano, the same person who made Katekyo Hitman Reborn).

The first few eps/chapters of Deranged Detective tackles some basic crimes, but later it will get more complex. Episode formulas are like that in Detective Conan, but they’re made more enjoyable with Ron’s eccentricity and the well-balanced comedy.

The plot is nothing mind-blowing, but it’s definitely solid and well-executed. We have this recluse detective who wants to get back to doing detective work, but then we find out that he’s not supposed to be playing detective. It would literally cost him his life if caught in the act. So now we have some tension as well as an overarching mystery—who wants Ron dead and why?

But Deranged Detective isn’t just about the mystery. It’s also about Ron and Toto. It’s about how Ron, who was depressed for five years, regains his life because of Toto. And it’s how Toto will always believe in him despite all doubts against him. Can’t really blame Ron for being so gay for him.

The animation is clean, and the OST is also good. The opening song is by the same band that made the iconic Kekkai Sensen ending song.

If you enjoy gay detectives, you should definitely check this out.

#just me pitting my two fandoms because i can #deranged detective #poll test #ron kamonohashi's forbidden deductions #kamonohashi ron no kindan suiri #rkdd #krdd #ron kamonohashi deranged detective #blue lock #bllk #ブルーロック #miyamiwu.src

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