spurisani

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...I can't believe I'm logging back in again for the first time in like half a decade for this, but apparently I have Opinions on the subject.

I simultaneously emphatically agree and vehemently disagree with this post.

I hate isekai anime. Almost all of it is indeed trash. But I want to love it, because I love the isekai genre.

Allow me to explain.

Basically every single isekai anime out there* started out on free, user-submitted novel sites such as shousetsuka ni narou, kakuyomu or alphapolis**. Think of these sites as more commercial versions (they run on ads, are publisher owned, and/or have other revenue streams) of ao3, but for original fiction.

Normal people*** write whatever the fuck stories they want for people to read for free, and people can bookmark and follow, rate, comment and on some sites write reviews for the story. And if you get popular enough (or you enter your story in one of the periodical themed competitions and get enough votes), you might get a book deal with an actual publisher.

And isekai is one of the biggest genres - if not the biggest genre - on these sites. Hell, isekai was basically born here.

Can you imagine the sort of amazingly wild stories this results in?? isekai is like if someone took a look at Western fantasy and went "...but why is it so serious and shit, though?", and just poured a truckload of crack, fluff and pastel colours all over it. And yes, in a lot of cases also fanservice and/or fucked-up misogynistic shit. Because it's Japan, and the internet, what'd you expect?

But it's easy, feel-good fiction for the tired masses.

You ever see ads for that fish game where you start as a small fish and eat other fish to grow bigger and think "man, this looks like it'd be a great plot for a fantasy novel"? isekai has you covered. (yes, it exists, it's compellingly written and funny af)

You ever wanted to read about a dude who just wants to go NC with his abusive family, live a comfortable life with good food and good friends and maybe try to figure out how to flirt with his genderqueer love interest? Isekai has got your back.

How about a kid gaining the favour of the gods and starting a societal and economical revolution just cause the fantasy world he was in didn't have musical theatre, and he simply could not with that life? isekai is your place to go.

Are you into timid girls who use getting dumped as a chance for self-help, learning that they're actually great and have worth in their own right? Boy, does isekai have like a million stories for you. No, really.

Ever wish Cinderella just went all "fuck this whole suffering meekly thing and waiting for my prince to come, I choose murder"? Isekai, baby.

Are you looking for female protagonists who reject being traditionally feminine and just do whatever they want, telling dirty jokes and not giving a shit about romance? isekai has plenty of that, actually.

Do you wish there was more gay fantasy out there? Oh my god, isekai is so fucking gay.

And let me tell you, publishers love this model. I mean, why wouldn't they, they get to publish novels they know already has an audience and a fanbase. The content already exists, so they can publish super fast with only minor revisions, meaning there's not enough lull that the fanbase loses interest and moves on between releases. (hell, most stories aren't taken down once they get published, and are updated continuously, so there's no real downtime)

The problem is, however, that generally speaking the publisher will want more fanservice for increased mainstream appeal. And then you get even more fanservice for the manga adaptation, and yet more still for the anime adaptation**** (That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, I'm looking at you).

In addition, between the whole sexist idea that male audience media has universal appeal, while female or other "niche" audience media holds no mainstream (read: male) appeal, and the fact that it's cheaper and easier to do an anime for a simple, by the numbers harem series than a more complex story with a larger ensemble cast with actual personalities (easier to sell merch, too), what makes it to the screen is far from the best of what the genre has to offer.

I get why it's like this, but it still bums me the fuck out. And that's why I hate isekai anime.

And no, I don't know if the stories I linked have English translations available. Some of them definitely do (either published or fan translations), so idk, google it if you care, I guess?

*depends on how you define isekai. There are several older anime predating webnovels that technically qualify, but they were made before the term really became a thing and the genre tropes were "set", so they don't really feel like isekai anime.

**No connection to a/b/o, although the tropes have seeped into Japanese fan culture. why. Don't cross the streams

***For a given value of normal? With some of the plots you see, you have to wonder how the fuck the writer's brain works

****Production values also tend to be shit, since the studios are churning out dozens of these shows

terrified to ask this but i think i need to as someone getting into anime:

what on god's green earth is "isekai" and why are its defenders rabid

So isekai is an anime genre that roughly translates to "in another world." These shows tend to all feature some main character (almost always a teenage boy) who gets transported into another world, usually one which runs on video game logic, and usually one with fantasy/DND aesthetics, (and usually one where he gets to become a hero of sorts [eventually] and wins the attention of 3-6 hot girls with 2-dimensional personalities. You know for wish fulfillment.)

The genre by itself is not the problem. The oversaturation is.

It is what I can only assume vampire fiction was to the teen romance landscape back when Twilight was popular.

And because the isekai formula just Works for the fans, most isekai shows do not have to try at all. They can get away with a terrible plot, terrible world-building, and terrible characters because you don't need any of those to be good to appeal to the core demographic. You JUST need to be an isekai. Make sure it has cute waifus that the whale-fans will shell out $$$ for to own their figurines, and bam, you're set.

And the extreme oversaturation (both of isekai and harem shows) means it's squeezing out most anything interesting, original, or innovative. After all if you were an anime studio why WOULD you take a gamble on something innovative when you can recycle the same isekai plot for the 1,000th time and for a much safer bet at turning a profit?

There are, likely, some good isekai out there. But I'm confident in my assessment that that bad far outnumber the good. Some friends and I do a weekly bad-anime-watch-night and usually we just throw a dart at any isekai on the crunchyroll page and it is almost ALWAYS just JUST awful. And as such, someone who chows down on all isekai as their preferred type of media is going to have nothing in common with me. They would also be mad as hell at me saying that isekai is almost universally garbage.

#spuri rants #isekai #light novel #webnovel #anime #japan is weird

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Ed: Fullmetal Alchemist is now also a live-action movie!!

Al and Hawkeye: yaaay!!

Ed: drama CD, anime, game, etc etc...

Al: I wonder what type of media is left...

Hawkeye: Takarazuka*?

Everyone: !!!!

Takarazuka!Roy: love~ is a fire~

(*for those of you unfamiliar with it, takarazuka is a very over the top (musical) theatre group with female actors playing all the roles. Look it up, you won't regret it)

#fma #yes I live #i can never resist a translation request #even if i have to do it on mobile #spuri translates #japan what are you even

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IDK if I’ve mentioned this before, but since there’s talk of how to approach an accurate/nuanced translation of the word “baka” in anime on my dash, I thought I’d share one of my other favorite bits of oft-overlooked translating-Japanese nuance and how it applies to Sailor Moon. 

Basically every Sailor Moon fan knows Sailor Moon’s catchphrase, “tuski ni kawatte oshiokyo!” which translates more or less into “In the name of the moon, I’ll punish you!”

The fun part, that I learned a few years back from my half-Japanese friend who has, since high school, lived full time in Japan, is the “oshiokyo” bit. 

Oshiokyo does, in a literal sense, mean “I’ll punish you”. It’s a perfectly fine translation. But what it doesn’t get across is that the main people who use the phrase are parents, especially mothers, and it’s primarily used against children. 

There’s not a perfect English equivalent, but it carries a similar tone to “someone’s getting a spanking!” or “you’re going into time out!” or “you’re in big trouble, missy!” 

Basically, it’s not particularly threatening, and anyone who would think it was would be pretty childish. The fact that Usagi uses it as a legitimate threat is adorable in how much is reveals her age. It’s also badass and kind of condescending in that she’s basically treating the villains as unruly children instead of legitimate threats. 

So there you go. Take this information and put new joy into one of the most well-trod parts of the Sailor Moon universe. 

#it's also used in bdsm and kink so y'know #but yes #japan what are you even #language is hard #sailor moon

[spurisani]

Fun fact: This is actually one of the very few times the translation squad for this game truly and epically messed up (because 99% of the time, they did a really great job). These people weren’t talking about Prompto, they were talking about Cindy.

A more accurate translation would be something like:

Dude 1: Did you see the blonde with the bangin’ bod walking around town?  Dude 2: And she had a really cute face, too Dude 1: Chicks like that are awesome. But I’ll bet she’s high maintenance.

How can I tell, despite the only defining characteristic being “blond(e)”?

The term stairu ii used in the first line is slang referring to someone with very nice body proportions: Tall, or tall-looking due to long limbs; slender; and mature-looking (ergo, a certain amount of curves). I’m not gonna say it’s never used about guys, but... usually not? Either way, it’s not really a term you’d use about Prompto, he’s too... cute.

Similarly, they use ko, which usually refers to either a child or a young woman. Also, the last line, yappa burando-hin suki toka, otakai kanji kana? 

Burando-hin, or brand items, refers specifically to high-end brand name fashion (Hermes, Burberry, etc), and the guy is saying that there has to be a downside to a girl that cute, so he’s convinced she would expect expensive brand presents from whoever she was dating. Not only is the market for burando-hin smaller for guys, it’s stereotypically (in Japan, at least), seen as something women are into.

So either there were words the translators didn’t know, or they were like “blonde??!” “...Prompto, I guess?!??!” “....wtf, that makes no sense, but okay?”, and completely forgot that Cindy was in town. Or they figured it was a bit too misogynistic and went a completely different direction. XD

😍Prompto has admirers😍

#final fantasy xv #assassin's festival #spuri translates #feel free to ignore

[spurisani]

As I mentioned before, I’m taking a break from social media/the net in general to focus on writing. This is one of the things I’ve been working on, so I’mma just leave it here, and disappear back into the aether.

Happy birthday, Noct!

#final fantasy xv #promptis #noctis x prompto #spuri writes #happy birthday noctis

[spurisani]

Hey, sorry that I've been absent lately, guys. I took a mental health leave from social media to focus on some writing projects. It's doing wonders for my productivity, so I'll probably not be on much for a while still.

#real life stuff #spuri blathers #feel free to ignore

[spurisani]

the thicker your thighs are the more kittens can lay on your lap

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Note to self.

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#*ded* #spidey

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Submission by anon

How about a positive thing?

So, I’m going to stay anonymous here, but I write fanfic. I am also asexual, and though I never described myself as asexual or any of the characters in my fic as asexual, I somehow wound up with a pretty fair-sized ace following for one fic. Can people recognize their own kind through my writing? Is it just because I’m writing what I want to see [emphasis on romantic and platonic relationships rather than sexual ones] and it attracts people with similar desires? I don’t know. Regardless, like I said, decent-sized ace following.

I noticed that two of my most, for want of a better word, loyal readers had become friends through the fic, and I was like, “Hey, that’s cool. Maybe I can introduce more people each other with my fic, spark more friendships,” so I made a Discord server for my readers.

And within the first week or two of the Discord being up, someone nervously came out as ace.

And almost everyone else online at the time raised their hands and said, “Same here.” And one person said, “I’m not asexual, but I’m dating someone who is, and we’ve been happy together for years.”

And, I just went back to make sure, the woman who came out started crying. She wasn’t expecting that level of support, and she certainly wasn’t expecting a whole group of people–masculine, feminine, nonbinary, cis, trans, different races, different countries, different romantic orientations [including aro], ages ranging from early teens to late twenties, hell, even people who didn’t ship the couple from the fic and were just there because they liked the idea behind the story–to be just as asexual as she was. She was so goddamn happy. It was an incredibly beautiful moment, and I was so fucking floored by the realization that I’d helped facilitate that.

So amidst all the hate and the bullshit, don’t lose hope. Don’t think of yourself as less valid. Don’t forget that you can find happiness. Pride month is all about accepting and embracing who you are. And anyone who spouts that same bullshit rhetoric that has been used in biphobic and transphobic and even anti-lesbian arguments throughout history? Well, they’re missing the point entirely.

We’re here. We’re QUEER. Get FUCKING used to it.

And for the love of all life on Earth, please support each other. Don’t put down your fellow queers. There are more than enough people outside of the community who do that already.

#anonymous #that's wonderful anon #like #I legit cried #and I think there's something in the water with aces and fic #because almost all my favourite writers have turned out to be aspec #to a HILARIOUS degree #and yes #it is amusing to me too how much the rhetoric is recycled #maybe if we give it another ten years it'll blow over #asexuality #submission

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Just block rebelbaze. I've seen her for weeks just constantly posting on any post about asexuality yelling and arguing with people; she's never going to change her mind. She's not worth your time and attention.

Yeaaaah, I just did. The hypocrisy is just hilarious, though. And I wonder what it’s like, to see the world so black-and-white. And how you get your logic that convoluted.

Ah well, people come in all types, and life goes on.

#spuri replies #Anonymous

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rebelbaze replied to your post: rebelbaze replied to your post: ...

Aces are invisible and that isn’t oppression, that’s just unfortunate. What y'all need is an awareness campaign which y'all don’t need the lgbt community to do

Except, we’ve tried to do awareness campaigns. It’s called Asexual Awareness Week, and LGBT people came fucking down on us like a ton of bricks for daring to want to exist. Either the date was wrong, and if we moved it that was wrong, and literally everything we did was wrong. Because we’re ace, so we don’t matter, or whatever.

I literally gave you examples of gay, lesbian, bi and trans people being invisible in other countries, and how that doesn’t mean there’s no struggle. How is their invisibility oppression, but ours isn’t?

You seem to really enjoy cherrypicking and making strawmen, and making very US-centric statements as if they were universal truth, when they have... very little relevance outside of the US. And making it all about the violence people in the community face, and none of the other issues. I wish you luck with that, and all the best. A kindly anon told me this is like a hobby of yours, so I’ll let you go ahead and do this dance with someone else.

It seems that no matter what I do to fight for other people’s rights, or how badly I don’t fit in with cishet straight society, I’m not enough. But hey, if you’re a representative of your community and the atmosphere there, then I honestly think I’ll pass. I’d considered joining in more Pride events than just seminars and debates on issues faced that were open for all, but really, the hostility I’ve seen is off-putting. You say I should stick to ace spaces and ace communities, and that I’m oppressing “your” people for showing up in the community. You don’t give a fuck about “your” people showing up in my community for the explicit purpose of making it unsafe, because LGBT people have never done anything to ace people. Right. Really, A+ hypocrisy.

Have a great life, hope you find your zen, I have better things to do. Like watching paint dry.

#rebelbaze #spuri replies #acephobia #feel free to ignore

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#the truth it burns

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rebelbaze replied to your post: rebelbaze replied to your post: ...

Being agender wouldn’t make you gay so of course you couldn’t make a gay joke??

....I wonder at your reading comprehension. Of fucking course I can’t. That was my point. But if being agender is “enough” by your standards, since I’m neither cis nor het anymore, why is it okay to exclude me from the community for making a poorly thought-out comment, but gay men who make misogynist or transphobic comments get to stay, or any other combination of originating group making a comment about someone else? 

I said that if you were gonna exclude everyone who made jokes about other groups in the community, that it’d be a small one. You literally said I was making the space unsafe because I wasn’t either trans or attracted to my own gender.

You said I made those spaces unsafe because I made a crap joke, but anyone else who’s not aspec making those jokes don’t??

#rebelbaze #aphobia #spuri replies

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rebelbaze replied to your post: rebelbaze replied to your post: ...

on the day of the pulse shooting, you’re literally saying the equivalent of “at least people know about you to murder you”

I have not once said that the consequences of that visibility can be incredibly fucking dangerous! And the violence faced is abhorrent! It’s a real pretty strawman you’re making, but that’s all it is.

But visibility also means you have a voice. You have role models. You have resources. Since you don’t seem to understand ace erasure or ace invisibility, I’m gonna talk about gay and bi erasure and invisibility, and maybe you’ll understand it then.

Because guess what, that exists too. Gay, lesbian, bi and trans culture as it is in the US is not universal. If you go to, say, Japan, the culture is very different. In many ways, gay, bi and trans people can live relatively safe lives, with little chance of violence, because the general populace treat it like it doesn’t exist. Oh, they know it exists logically, but it wouldn’t happen to anyone they know.

So you can live your life safely. But it might take 30 or 40 years to realize you’re not straight because you had no info. You might think you’re never gonna find someone, because no-one is out. You can live your life just fine, without violence, but you live it in the closet.

Are you saying that because Japanese gay/bi/lesbian people are less likely to be beat up or face violence because they’re less visible, that they’re not oppressed? Of fucking course not. They’re living in a society where they don’t fit in because of their sexuality or gender identity, and that comes with a bunch of problems. Just because those problems manifest slightly differently doesn’t mean they’re not there.

And the invisibility and erasure that ace and aro people face works in a similar way. Invisibility is not a privilege. Both come with pros and cons, and neither is “better” than the other.

And there are countries where gay, lesbian, bi and trans people for the most part don’t live in fear. They can practice their sexuality or gender identity openly (sexuality more than gender identity, unfortunately), and 99.99% of the people don’t give a shit. Where the idea of conversion therapy is abhorrent, and the majority of the population scoffs at priests who refuse to wed same-sex couples. 

But they still celebrate Pride, and they treat it more like a party. It’s kind of like how people celebrate Christmas, even if they’re mostly meh about Jesus or Christianity. Or celebrate 4th of July or whatever national holiday, without really caring all that much about the origin. I am not saying the roots of Pride aren’t important, because they are so incredibly important, but as I’ve said, events take on a life of their own, and after a while, a lot of people participate for the event itself, not for its origins.

I’ve only sporadically participated in my hometown Pride week, but I don’t think I heard mention of Pride’s origins once there.

#rebelbaze #spuri replies #aphobia #homophobia

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I dont want to speak for everyone here, but like.. it's not 'bi aces are bi' for me, really? It's more like 'bi aces are ace'. Ace isnt the modifier for me, bi is- my orientation is ace before it's anything else. ('No one' is the 'who' and 'biromantically' is the 'how', if that makes sense?) And while that might not be true for ALL aspecs, I know I'm not the only one. There's so few of us that aren't either trans or lgbpq anyway, and if they're largely the same, that's.. still not very straight?

Yeah, that’s how I see it too. I’m ace before I’m aro, kinda-thing. Maybe it’s because romantic attraction seems more... vague to me than sexual attraction, but... idk, I’m aro first and foremost.

And literally everything in my screams at the thought of being lumped with straight or cishet people. There’s nowhere I feel like I belong less, it’s so incredibly jarring whenever I’m in straight spaces, how much I don’t fit in.

#spuri replies #asexuality #Anonymous

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rebelbaze replied to your post: rebelbaze replied to your post: ...

your “accidental” homophobia and transphobia as someone who oppressed both gay and trans people is DANGEROUS to us

I’m not gonna pretend it’s accidental, it’s the result of years of living in a homophobic society, and it’s something I have to work on, because I’m human and I fuck up.

But gay men making transphobic or misogynist jokes make the community unsafe for trans and wlw people, and vice versa. You are very eager to lump me with cishet people, because then you can justify the distinction. But like I said, I don’t even know if I’m cis. More than half the time, I consider myself agender. I just haven’t had the energy to find a label that seems to fit my gender identity.

Would it suddenly become unproblematic for me to make a homophobic joke if I’m agender? Of fucking course not. I still fucked up, and it was a joke I shouldn’t have made, and I need to do better.

And you keep treating it like attraction is the only way to measure sexuality. That because I’m not attracted to my own gender (what the fuck would that even be if I’m agender?), I can’t belong in those spaces (which seems kinda dismissive and bigoted towards NB people??), but my lack of attraction towards my perceived opposite gender is also a big deciding factor in what privilege I receive and don’t receive.

#rebelbaze #spuri blathers #aphobia #all the phobias #all the bigotry #feel free to ignore