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astoundingbeyondbelief · 7 months

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Kaiju Week in Review (September 3-9, 2023)

I was a bit nervous about GAMERA -Rebirth-; the animation looked dodgy and Netflix has a shaky track record with kaiju shows. I'm pleased to report this is the best entry in the genre that they've put their name on. Good characters, great action (brutal as always), and actual episodic storytelling that effortlessly weaves in elements from the Showa films beyond all the returning kaiju. Watch it immediately.

Tie-ins abound for GAMERA -Rebirth-: a two-part novelization, a manga adaptation, and a prequel manga that sheds some light on [UNBELIEVABLY MASSIVE SPOILERS]. That prequel manga (GAMERA -Rebirth- code thyrsos) is being published online for free in both Japanese and English. You can read the first chapter here.

In unofficial translation news, English subtitles for GAMERA.1999 (1999) and yokaipedia (2022) are now available. The former is Hideaki Anno's making-of documentary for Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris; the latter is a fun, child-friendly fantasy from Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki with a big ol' centipede-dragon at the end. (It's also maybe the first Japanese kaiju film I've ever seen with a major Black character.) I haven't gotten to GAMERA.1999 yet, though from scrubbing through it, it seems like a lot of dialogue was just ignored by the translator. Shame, as that's one I've wanted for a long time.

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We have a teaser for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, as well as a premiere date for the first two (out of ten) episodes: November 17. (I am being showered with Media for my 30th birthday.) The big news from this trailer is that John Goodman is reprising his role as Bill Randa from Kong: Skull Island. I assume that's going to be through flashbacks and old recordings only, since he was eaten by a Skullcrawler in that one. We also catch glimpses of two new creatures, a dragon and a crab from what I can tell. The latter looks to be fighting a Mother Longlegs.

Fandango and AMC have added mostly-empty listings for Godzilla 2000 on November 1. Fathom Events screened Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla on November 3 last year; despite randomly showing Tokyo SOS back in March, I gather they're making a tradition out of Godzilla Day. Note that the listed runtime is longer than the film itself. Predictions for the program: another message from Keiji Ota, the 2022 Godzilla vs. Gigan short, and the Japanese version of G2K. Interesting that they're running the last Toho Godzilla film to receive a wide release in the U.S. exactly a month before Godzilla Minus One has a wide release of its own here.

Gamera isn't a meta-defining Godzilla Battle Line unit... but he's Gamera in a Godzilla game, so I've been using him in every match since I unlocked him. He's gearing towards demolishing flying units, with fireballs that deal more damage against them and knock them back. A pity that he's arriving well after those units were at their most dominant.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #3 still isn't giving me much to write home about, but the kaiju cult creeping to the forefront intrigues. Also cool to see Ebirah in a starring role.

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Marubeni, one of Japan's biggest general trading companies, put out a bizarre commercial featuring samurai, zombies, a meteor, and a refurbished GMK King Ghidorah. The ad now has English subtitles, and you can watch a Ghidorah-centric behind-the-scenes video here.

I cannot believe I have more Cleopatra Entertainment fuckery to report on with regards to their Shin Ultraman releases, but they're truly trying to take the "Worst Film Company of 2023" title from the members of the AMPTP. Their third attempt at a barebones disc is starting to reach customers... but the ones who already received the initial replacement disc are being told no more will be sent. @starestream is trying to figure out if they'll be selling the third edition on their site, since it seems buying it anywhere else is a gamble. (Physically, the third edition looks almost the same as the first two, set apart only by the "SUBTITLED" text on the disc.) Either way, it's another blow to a movie that truly doesn't deserve this.

#kaiju week in review #gamera #gamera rebirth #godzilla #kaiju #yokaipedia #Youtube

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kozachenko · 26 days

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Finished reading Forbidden Scrollery! As I mentioned in my little post about it before, I would make a full review on it once I finished it, so here we are now!

(Also, sorry I haven't been posting as much art recently, life's gotten busy for me and I haven't really had the time to work on anything big, but I hope to get back into drawing soon)

And honestly? Best Touhou manga I have read so far. Full review under the keep reading tag. Also, spoilers if you want to read it.

The writing first of all, was really good, the pacing is perfect (only helped by the actual paneling and layouts being top notch), the character writing was my favourite part of the manga, and the actual story was actually pretty smart.

So, something I love about this manga is that it all revolves around a core idea, that being, the relationship between Humans and Youkai. While each chapter is episodic in nature, it still feels like those little episodes actually have a purpose, it isn't just filler. There's not one major problem they have to resolve like in CDS, but at the same time the events aren't disjointed from one another like in Lotus Eaters. The way that we see Kosuzu slowly get more and more involved with the Youkai of the human village. I also really like how we learn more about the human village and how it operates, as well as learning more about how the Youkai play a part in it. In each chapter we see a different way that this core theme is expressed, like in chapters 20 and 21 where we see how outsiders like the residents of Eientei contribute to the human village, and in chapters 30 and 31 where we see how humans help Youkai out via their fear of the unknown. And of course, you have the infamous chapter 25, where the most memorable moment from there also happens to be the most flanderized (I'll get to that in my paragraph about Reimu, because her character writing in this manga is the best that I've seen in the Touhou mangas so far). The best chapters that demonstrate this theme are probably all in volumes 6 and 7, where things start to get more intense.

Now onto the writing, and boy while this may be whiplash from reading CDS, the writing in this manga was amazing. Each character has their own unique voice, which ends up making the events in chapter 38 even funnier. Since Mamizou has a very distinct way of speaking, it makes it even funnier watching her be disguised as Reimu and accidentally slipping into her own way of talking.

Of course, this scene is visually aided by Moe Harukawa giving "Reimu" the little cat mouth she gives Mamizou, and also the very obvious signifier of the leaf, but establishing Mamizou's way of speaking early on in the manga helps emphasize the comedy of this scene (that being, a sassy old woman trying to impersonate someone in their early 20s with a very different personality to them).

What's even funnier about this scene is that as soon as Mamizou gets what she wants, she just gives up on trying to speak like Reimu and dips (which is the punchline to the setup of Mamizou almost calling Kosuszu "Little Missy" and then correcting herself)

Also, credit to the English translators for finding words and phrases like, "The real Mccoy" and "Reckon," with how different the Japanese and English languages are (and how tricky it can be to translate between the two) they ended up hitting the nail on the head with the localization and translation.

The actual narrative itself is really well paced, with all the events actually feeling like they happen consecutively to one another, only helped by the little bits in the dialogue where the characters mention previous events in the story. For a manga in a series where upholding status quo is the norm, a lot of changes happen in this manga, like Akyuu starting to write novels under a penname, Kosuzu starting to attract the attention of more and more important people in Gensokyo, and Kosuzu eventually being added into Reimu's friend group. The manga also does an excellent job of tying the events of the games at the time into the story, like we're seeing the behind the scenes or aftermath of a particular incident, especially so with the Urban Legend Incident, where we see Reimu and Marisa get more and more concerned about rumors like "The Story of the Bull Head" and the end of the world speading too far before they can do actual damage. I also like the tone that this manga has, it's inviting at first with how cute and lighthearted it is, but it slowly gets more and more serious we begin to see the truth of the human village, and by proxy, Gensokyo as a whole. Also, the set up and payoff with the parade scroll was really well excecuted, with it acting as like a ticking time bomb in the background as the series goes on. I also really like how each chapter feels different from each other in terms of plot beats, it's not really formulaic like Lotus Eaters was, which helps make the manga a lot more exciting to read, despite it not having a grandiose overarching plot.

Now onto the character writing. As you can probably see, I am turning into a bit of a Mamizou fan. She's one of the most well written characters in the manga and perfectly strikes the balance of being hilarious, yet intimidating at the same time. She's a pretty smart character despite her goofiness, and she's always such a joy to watch (or.. well... read, but that doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely (well actually fingers since I'm typing this, but again, doesn't roll off the fingers as nicely (yipeeee I used a phrase correctly). Also, I really like seeing her relationship with Nue as that of a grandma and her grandaughter who's a chaotic scene kid, but despite these differences they get along perfectly. Aya is also one of my favourite characters to read about in the manga, and I was so excited to see her again. She's always such a delight to see, and also captures that sense of goofiness + coolness. In a way, it's kinda the embodiment of Youkai in Touhou itself. Fun and charming yet supernatural and menacing at the same time. In your usual manga/anime series, it's more likely that characters will lean one way or the other (and anytime they step out of their ascribed personality, it's for a gag and is considered an oddity, wheras with Touhou it's commonplace), so it's a really unique writing thing in Touhou that I don't really see other things, which is really cool. Marisa is also written really well in this, she's really funny and plays off of Reimu really well. Kosuzu herself is also fun to read about, as her childlike view of Gensokyo slowly begins to crack as more and more influential youkai begin to interact with her. I also like how the manga doesn't tell you in the beginning that she's a young, naive kid, instead, it shows you little details like her having a curfew, her parents calling her for dinner, her general outlook on life in general. All of that is contrasted with Akyuu, who, while bit pretentious, was also very fun to read. She plays off of Akyuu's naivete well with her wisdom from her past lives and her knowledge on Gensokyo. She acts like how you would expect a teenager with memories of their past lives to act, with maybe a slight dash of maturity in there.

And now for Reimu, who I think is at her best in this manga. There were times when I legit went, "HOLY SHIT REIMU'S SO FUCKING COOL OH MY GOD-" instead of just going, "Ha ha, Reimu's such a dork." Like, she actually knows her shit in this manga, and it explores the "shrine maiden" side of her character in far more detail than we have ever really seen it before (except in arguably Silent Sinner in Blue, which I still need to re-read, yes I will also be making a full review for that as well once I do get around to it). I use this panel from chapter 27 as my example because she genuinely looks so cool here.

Reimu very frequently uses her skills as a shrine maiden to get to find the answers she needs, and she's not afraid to get her job done. As seen in the now iconic panel of Chapter 25...

This is probably what the manga is most well known for, and when I mentioned how this moment is flanderized, I'm more so talking about how people tend to look at this moment in isolation, and to be honest, Reimu isn't helping herself by saying this a moment before she does this guy in.

Which is then sort of contradicted when Reimu says this after she does the guy in.

So if she has a legit reason for why she did this, why the heck did she call it needless then? I feel like the best way of answering this would be that yes, she didn't need to do it, but from her perspective she had to. It's her job to do so, as she says so herself. Another thing to mention that contradicts the initial reading of that earlier line is just how seriously she takes this whole ordeal. During the pages leading up to this moment, we see Reimu as being uncharacteristically serious about this,

And when she finally arrives at Suzunaan, we get this really good reaction shot of her eyes, and it really says a lot about her mental state at the moment,

and she also gets very serious during her initial confrontation with this fortune teller guy.

Another thing that contradicts the "needless killing" part is how she handeled that one rich guy becoming a Youkai in chapter 37

Reimu is just ruthless when she needs to get her job done in general. Sure, she didn't need to kill the rich guy, she could have just let him go and not do anything about it, but she it's not about what she needs, it's what Gensokyo needs.

In the same chapter where she kills the fortune teller, we get this bit of narration.

Honestly, I feel like this is a kind of "Reimu knows more about Gensokyo than she lets on" kind of situation, because we never really learn exactly how having a human become a Youkai would screw up Gensokyo, but I have heard theories where if a human-who-became-a-youkai were to still try to be human, then it would be cause for concern because then it's like putting a radioactive rock in the middle of a small elevator with a lot of people (ok I know that doesn't make any sense whatsoever but I can't think of another way to put it). .

Putting that can of worms aside, I really like this manga's version of Reimu. Sure she has her dorky moments, but that's not the entirety of who she is, and I really like that. I really like it when characters have vastly contradicting sides to their personality, it makes them more interesting and also more fun to think about. There is so much more that I can say about Reimu in this manga, but I'll just end off this segment by saying that Reimu is now one of my favourite Touhou characters now and she is in my top 5 list of favourite Touhou characters.

Ok now it's time to finally talk about the artstyle and OH MY GOD THE ART FOR THIS MANGA IS GORGEOUS I WANNA EAT IT SHKGAGSLHSKGSAKJDGHKSLDJGHLAHDGLJH;SLGHKDJAH;GKGHDJK;HFGKADHG;J-

Seriously though, I really want to do a style study for this manga because I love it so much. It's expressive, the cross-hatching gives it this really nice and tactile feeling, and the designs the artist came up with for each character are really good. My only critique would be to maybe give Mamizou more wrinkles, or something more to communicate her age, (and I still like the way Mamizou is drawn in this manga). In my previous post on FS I brought up how good the layouts are, and that still holds up to when I finished this manga. Good manga paneling takes advantage of the fact that it's a manga, and uses that medium to it's fullest. I won't go into any more detail here as I have already talked about how good it's paneling is in a previous post, so go read that if you're interested. I feel like we all know what makes Moe Harukawa's art so good, so I'll just leave this segment at that.

Now, I would normally end this segment here, but really, there's one surprise I haven't talked about

One character who steals the show in this manga

A character so good, I had to write an entirely new segment on him

That's right, it's a dude, and it isn't Rinnosuke.

I'M TALKING ABOUT THE MAN,

THE MYTH,

AND MOST OF ALL, THE LEGEND.

ANXIOUS

MUSTACHED

VILLAGER!

THIS MAN, RIGHT HERE, THE GOAT OF ALL MANGA AND ANIME! BEST CHARACTER IN ALL OF EXISTENCE! ABSOLUTELY INSPIRING STORY THAT DROVE ME TO TEARS! BEST CHARACTER ARC IN THE ENTIRE MANGA! GET THIS MAN TO NUMBER ONE IN THE 2024 TOUHOU POPULARITY POLL LIKE HE DESERVES!

Ok in all seriousness, this manga is amazing, (I mean, it has anxious mustached villager in it) I see why people regard it so highly in relation to the other Touhou mangas. It was a blast to read, and it's my favourite Touhou manga now, and is also one of my new favourite mangas in general.

Ok I'm gonna end the post here now, bye byeeeeeee.

#touhou project #anxious mustached villager #reimu hakurei #I tag her mainly because I talk about her so much in this review #forbidden scrollery #forbidden scrollery spoilers #touhou spoilers

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gddmgttsu · 26 days

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Hello!

(I have a nasty habit of wanting to write only about bad things so let's talk about something else)

I've somehow read all of Dungeon Meshi within the last two days or so. Time well spent I'd say...

The first time I've even heard of Dungeon Meshi was seeing all the Twitter clips from the first episode of the anime. I thought the premise was cute so I decided to take a peek at the anime with a friend.

The first two episodes were alright but at the time it didn't quite grip me as much as I thought it would. While I loved all the characters doing their thing, it was missing something that would really hook me in you know what I mean?

=======SPOILERS I SUPPOSE======

If you haven't seen any of it yet, please go and check it out it's pretty good. I wouldn't want to ruin anything about it for the blind.

After the second episode I just put it off for a bit but a month to so later, I saw a twitter clip or maybe it was a teaser that was about Falin's resurrection. I was astonished to see not a digested corpse coming out of the dragon but a goddamn skeleton of what's left. That was what I was missing in order to get hooked so my interest was fully piqued.

So now I've gotten around to reading the whole thing and MAN was I surprised. The world is so interesting, the characters are all loveable and it gets surprisingly dark every now and then. It touches on alot of themes that I like involving death and the stains of time.

My favorite manga of all time is Berserk so the moment the manga started getting into that stuff I was fully invested.

One of scenes that really stood out to me were Marcille's nightmare and how it sets up that bit near the end. I don't really know much about elf lore and I just beat Baldur's Gate 3 so it was interesting to learn more about how an increased lifespan is just sadness for the elf in question.

Seeing Laois get touched by her nightmare and immediately starts aging and freaking Marcille out just made me go "OH NO IS THAT WHY SHE'S AFRAID" and it makes me sad to think about life without your loved ones.

Another one is Senshi's backstory with the Griffin and how he had to live a long time with that gnawing thought at the back of his head. It thoroughly explains why he's so adamant about eating a balanced meal and how living as healthy as can be is so important to him. I honestly teared up pretty bad seeing those final panels of him eating the hippogriff stew.

I suppose my only nitpicks is that we never really got to hang out with Falin enough. I would have loved to see more of the gang interact with her since from the flashbacks and what little time we do get with her, she's a sweetheart too.

There's also Itsuzumi and how I personally don't think her arc was fully done but at least she had her moment with the succubis.

These are very minor and there are even more minor ones and honestly I don't mind them very much because the story is already like a 10/10.

=========SPOILERS END=========

The volumes kept ending at cliffhangers so I couldn't stop wanting to read more and more so I ended up binging the whole thing.

I'm glad I did though because the manga went into detail a couple of things I've been thinking about recently too. It just nice to see and read thoughts about the little things that bother me right now. Even if it is through a silly manga about eating monsters.

Honestly, the manga influenced me maybe like 10-30% as to doing a bit better with how I treat myself and my health.

To close it off, I gotta say I really loved it and I'm excited to go through it again with the anime. Hopefully my friend won't mind if I drag them with me since I left them at ep2 hehehe.

TLDR: FARCILLE IS REAL DON'T LET THEM TELL YOU OTHERISE

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #how is this now one of my favorite things ever #please watch it or read it #it's good #dungeon meshi spoilers #dunmesh spoilers

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shiny-jr · 1 year

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Spoiler from diasomnia chapter

Yes From what you just said, take the 2nd Halloween event i was pretty annoyed with the fact that only ace sort of scolded mal, like wth no one cares? No one will speak their minds? So yeah I feel like it will end like that but on a bigger scale, 'poor him he didn't knew better ' huuu no, i don't think so

In general all OB guys have gone basically free, i don't mean expel them but ... Nobody is going to do something? The one I've seen more ' punished for his actions' is Jamil bc Scarabia sort of turned their backs at him (which later got fixed but at least we saw some consequences)

🐏(?

FOR REAL. I'm pretty sure I already talked about it here, but in case I haven't, the second halloween event ending was complete bs. I hate how the ghosts, Lilia, and Malleus basically kinda gaslit everyone into believing that everyone else was in the wrong when in actuality everyone was completely valid in their belief that they were fighting for their life. And everyone else just apologized? Nah, be fucking for real. The second halloween event kinda a flop for that. Ace was the only real one in that entire event because he didn't stand for that crap. Not only that, but he was genuinely so worried for the mc and Grim!

As for the overblots, they've been getting increasingly worse. Like, Riddle was bad enough and he was the first one. So let's do a review, shall we? Spoilers all the way from chapter one to what we know of chapter seven.

Riddle. At first, I used to think his meltdown was pretty tame. That is, until I read part of the fight depicted in the manga. The fight in the manga goes way more into detail. I skimmed over it, but basically Cater was stabbed (thankfully it was one of his clones) and I remember Riddle throwing one of the roses bushes at either Trey, Ace, or the MC. The manga shows the fights way better than the game, and it becomes obvious that Riddle tries to hit everyone lethally more than once. However, despite that and destroying his dorm's garden, he's let off with his only punishment being to apologize and to bake a tart. Really? He almost killed people and that's it? And that's just the first one! But, it's a lot more tame than the others.

Leona takes it up a tiny notch. From here on out, I can't go into detail about the fight itself because the fighting is best depicted in the manga and the manga isn't here yet, but we have the game to go off of. We know for a fact that Leona was ready to suffocate Ruggie and even turn him to sand. Hell, if I remember right, he even turned a tiny part of his skin to sand. And he planned to injure an entire stadium if necessary. But all that was done was "oh, because you nearly killed people and your closest friend, your team isn't allowed to play in the tournament anymore" BUT to make things worse, the other teams chime in like "nah, let them play, because we want to beat them." WHAT? People nearly died??

I think Azul stays about the same level as Leona, if not lower. Leona was ready to put innocent citizens at risk, while Azul knocked students around his dorm unconscious(?) after stealing their magic. But afterwards, he just changed his scamming ways to be more low-key and chose to return the photograph he had MC and their gang steal. That was literally it. Like, bruh. I imagine he nearly killed people too, but it wasn't specified so I can't say for sure. But really?

Jamil finally takes it up another notch. I think he was seriously hoping the fall from his hit killed Kalim and co when he sent them flying. That, or they just wouldn't survive when that far out into the realm, but I can't be sure on this one. Then he hypnotizes everyone in the dorm. Again, like all the other fights, I can only assume there were multiple lethal attacks that weren't depicted well in the game. Even though it seems like he faced the most punishment with his dorm turning their back on him, idk, it didn't feel like enough.

Vil is probably the one I sympathize with the least. Before he even overblotted, he tried to poison and murder Neige but Rook nearly took his place. I'd say it's very safe to say he nearly killed MC, Grim, Ace, Deuce, Rook, Epel, Jamil, and Kalim by how roughed up everyone was after the battle. He also thought if he got rid of everyone else then he'd be the most beautiful, insinuating that he would harm or kill others. Right after overblotting, he says, "The suffering won't last long. You'll stop breathing soon" and later "Do you really think any who look upon my ugly form is allowed to live?" Yeah, he was definitely aiming to kill. And if Jamil and others hadn't discreetly evacuated the stadium, people would've died. Afterwards he apologized and paid money to the team (the reward money he owed for the loss in the contest), but that was kinda it.

Idia... oh boy. I sympathize with him the most by far, but he didn't get the punishment he should have gotten. Where do I even start with him? To put it simply, if the other guys were fires with ranging heat levels, Idia was a fucking forest fire. This guy and his little brother almost caused the destruction of the world, and that's not an exaggeration. First his family's company basically invaded the school and planned to erase their minds of the event afterwards. Not his fault, but he did go along with it. Then he emotionally tormented the previously overblotted guys after the company kidnapped them by allowing those trials that showcased fights with their closest friends. Finally, he planned to release all of the thousands of phantoms on the island which would have caused world-wide destruction. But then he was somehow still allowed to attend school like normal after an apology or something? Honestly, it was such a shitty minor punishment that I actually forgot most of it, because then they were all in the living room playing video games with him like he didn't just nearly put the world on the verge of armageddon. This ending annoyed me the most so far. Emphasis on so far.

Malleus, oh god, I can already tell that his ending will probably piss me off the most. Like, how are you going to top the disaster Idia and Ortho nearly wrought? Well, shit is already hitting the fan in his chapter, and it is concerning considering how early it is for him to be overblotting. Honestly, like Vil, I can't say I sympathize with him too much. But based on the other chapters, it'll probably end with everyone being a-okay with the fact that Malleus cursed the entire island. Honestly, if it were me, I would not be able to forgive Malleus for that. And I know he's gonna get away with it and have little to no repercussions because he's even more influential than Idia.

#shiny rants #twisted wonderland #sheep anon

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eshtaresht · 1 year

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holy. fuckin'. DAMN. I was pretty good at predicting the plot so far, but this episode proved that stampede is going in a whole new direction for real. spoilers for ep 9!!! (and manga a bit)

first of all, we still haven't got a full story of the great fall, but I think it's something they'll reveal in this season, probably during confrontation with knives. and still no scar reveal!! I'm angy but it's something that could be relevant to the standoff with knives, hope we'll get it

the piano scene... oh we're eating GOOD, it's just so wholesome but goes to confirm my theory that twins weren't completely fine on the ship. vash feeling useless because he can't do cool plant shit, knives envying vash for being good at human shit.... oh it's great

so glad knives is getting proper characterization and not just "he evil because he evil"! the fear, the hurt, the genuine care for vash, but then frustration with him – it's right there and I'm eating it up so yummy

the way they recontextualized vash's arm loss is GORGEOUS! I've seen ppl reading this scene differently, but to me it was an act of care from naï. he looks really scared for a reason: we see that the gate consumed all matter, including the hand. vash couldn't control it, so it would only grow bigger and destroy him. NAÏ REALIZED THIS AND SAVED VASH THE ONLY WAY HE COULD

he didn't want to fight him, this was not an act of anger, like in previous versions. all he cared about in that moment was saving his twin..... and what did he get in return? a gun pointed to his face. a gun he gave vash to kill human scum. oh, the DRAMA

ahem, now to the less intense stuff

homeboy has so much trauma, like, damn... how is he gonna fit any more from his impending epic brother fight...... I'm quite curious on how they're gonna characterize him in the next season. concidering that we're taking off earlier than previous versions, he might end up with the same unhinged vibe 98' vash had, as a coping mechanism (if depression didn't work, try dissociation and silliness). but then it would be even more interesting to see meryl's and wolfwood's reactions: they knew him before the accident and saw the big sad

vash has sense in the prosthetic arm, so it must've hurt when he damaged it... probably it hurts less than the real one, and it's clearly painless to take off. but the hand seems to be rather sensitive and fic writers are gonna go crazy for this

age reveal! also brad and luida being in cryosleep makes sense, I was racking my brain on how they're still alive. seems like they're using much more plant power tho... both for cryo and the vegetation, while in manga they tried to keep it as low as possible and send signals to earth

saw someone say that they're probably not doing that here because the earth is destroyed... could be that they decided to go the hard way. but in the manga the earth was still fucked, and it wasn't clear if they communicated with the ppl left on the planet or the fleet that was in some new place. what I'm saying is, there is a possibility that they are looking for help in stampede, we just don't know it yet

meryl was so cute! go off, comedy relief goofy girl, while you can, there is more trauma coming your way :3 yeah, enjoy roberto calling you by your first name... oh it would be such a shame if he gave you his derringer before his untimely death..........

pretty weird that nobody knows why they fell on no man's land, but ppl probably were too ashamed of their past and 150 years later the new generation is oblivious. also so funny that luida has to explain what vegies are..... they have so many plants but haven't see any plants

tbh I wasn't expecting the zazie twist at all, but I'm excited! they are SO gender in stampede, might be the best redesign in the series, love me a genderless bug creature with bold fashion choices. really cool to see that storyline adapted, it was barely touched upon in the last volumes of trimax

btw the multiple bullets story about a plant, worm and human who went around figuring out if their species could coexist and just.... creating this foud family and then building a town there all were equal...... that's my favorite mb story for sure

wolfwood saying "I'm not your friend"... I know what you are. and we got a "you'll have to decide one day"... oh oh the misery, but the context was lacking. it just doesn't hit the same when he isn't daring vash to shoot him in the most homoerotic way possible. on and he looks so goofy trying to ride with his cross

in the last ep's rant I assumed that luida lied about rem saving everybody for some reason?? but no, she actually saved them, I just got a bit confused

so, as I predicted, the gang separated (tho not because of vash) and by the end of the next episode vash'll be in july and meet naï. the poster, man.... that gorgeous futuristic city is getting obliterated for sure

btw vash's gate being opposite to knives and sort of a black hole is nothing new. but there are new layers to this, like vash willingly giving away energy, but destroying things against his will, and knives with the opposite of this. ying yan twins go brrrr

#such a blast of an episode although the middle part on the seeds ship was kinda boring #stampede make more than one model for background chatecters challenge: impossible #every new episode is finding a new way to destroy me.... the season finale will be the death of me #trigun #trigun stampede #vash the stampede #nicholas d. wolfwood #meryl stryfe #millions knives #trigun spoilers #trigun stampede spoilers

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yumedoca · 3 months

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Hi! How are you?

I was thinking about Urusei Yatsura and I must admit I don’t understand Ataru. The more I think, the less I understand! Would you help?

Why is he so insistent with the womanizing? Why he needs it so bad? He really wants the attention of all of these girls or is that supposed to represent his biggest desire for freedom above all else? It’s sort of messed up that he priorizes his so-called freedom and the skirt-chasing above being with the girl he loves and who loves him back and that he knows he’s hurting said girl with his behavior (both the girl-hunting and by withholding affection) and he keeps doing that anyway 😭 (... Not that Lum is a saint either but that's besides the point). Ataru's unwillingness to compromise and to give up on his habit really gets in the way of him truthfully experiencing "True Love", doesn't it? It seems like he would rather lose Lum than commit to her. Do you think he would have acted differently if it was with Shinobu?

Oh, and I've seen some speculation that explained Ataru's lechery as being the result os his relationship with his mother and the lack of motherly love he received growing up, so he actually goes after all these girls because he's that starved for affection. What do you think?

Hai there, Hope you're doing great!!

Sure, I'll help you out!! Ataru is a complicated individual, after all. But first, I think it would help you a lot if you read my write up on 'Ataru's Love for Lum' first since whatever I've mentioned there is very vital to understanding Ataru as well.

And I haven't even started yet but I have a feeling this will be a sequel to the linked post above since this ask does bring up some questions I don't think I've directly touched in that one.. so...

I hope my fellow UY's are having a great day because today on ‘Yuca Analyzes Silly Things (For No Reason)’, we'll be talking more about Ataru and his relationship with Lum!

And naturally there are spoilers so proceed with caution..

Ok now, let's begin!! Your first question is 'Why does Ataru womanize?' As for the initial reason? Not completely sure. The manga shows that he's just always been like that, even as a kid. It's just never been talked about. And I don't believe in the speculation which you stated btw, because I wouldn't say that Ataru had a lack of motherly love. Yeah, Mrs. Moroboshi can be a bit comedically harsh, but most of that ends up being a one time joke. In fact, she actually really does love Ataru and takes really good care of him (to the point where she waits for him to arrive before eating dinner, says she'll save up money on him so he can go to a good college and other details like that which you can catch here and there), she's just worried about his idiotic tendencies, that's all.

The best theory I have about his womanizing is that ever since he was little he's always seen women in a sort of 'very nice and sweet onee-chan' sort of way. What supports this theory is the fact that Ataru's mom seems to be the most involved in his life compared to his dad (who's either at work or buried deep into his newspapers, he does spend sometime though) and has the most agency in the family. Because of that small Ataru probably had a better view of woman, which probably made him want to meet more and befriend them but since he was small and an idiot, he would just cling onto them which naturally annoyed them to the point of there being rumors about him. And as he grew older (and hormones), this 'liking' eventually became lust. Another theory is that it might be genetics since both of his parents have fallen for someone else during the series' run, but that's like the only thing to support the theory. In the end, I'm still not completely sure. Like to be fair, UY is a gag which wasn't exactly written with much thought (yeah, the character development is unintentional. I'm pretty sure it's a result of RT writing each chapter by going with the natural flow of the story, which is why the characters grow gradually. This isn't something any writer can do btw) so not everything would have an explanation.

Next is 'Why is he still womanizing? why does he want these girls?' Because he's young. He's still a teenager and he likes women and he has for years to the point it's a habit. Habits are hard to break so he can't suddenly be dedicated to someone out of straight up nowhere (especially if she basically got them 'married' instantly when he's still just a teenager). His love for women is just a huge part of his personality, it's just not something he can throw away in an instant and because of that he remains attached. What does not help matters even more is the number of gorgeous girls who're usually around him on a daily basis, girls who are incredibly cute, beautiful, sexy.. tell me, just tell me exactly how easy would it be to break his girl hunting habit when that's the case??

As for Lum, Ataru doesn't emotionally hurt Lum with his womanizing for the most part. Sure, the hope he would stop does linger in her but his infidelity for the most part only makes her mad more than anything else, and she recovers from her anger pretty quickly. Lum getting deeply hurt, is actually quite rare (and has happened very few times in the series) since she's mostly very outgoing. Whenever she's that hurt, we, the readers are made aware of her feelings because unlike a certain idiot, she doesn't keep how she feels to herself. But for the most part, Lum just goes into furious rage rather than any sort of deep feelings when it comes to Ataru's womanizing and yes, Ataru is completely aware of that so he knows he isn't hurting her in any serious way.. and if he did hurt her in that manner, he would probably want to fix things with her..

See how Ataru wanted to talk to her here when he thought she was emotionally hurt? But it was actually buildup for her rage..

The next bit I want to talk about is how both of them love teasing, irking and messing with the other, Ataru likes poking at Lum's temper and Lum likes messing up Ataru's enjoyment with women because to them, their daily antics are like a game which neither wants to lose because of their pride. Like that, their 'he flirts, she zaps, she chases him' thing isn't something they take to an emotional value. It's their game, a game which neither wants to give up.

Now with that done, I want to talk about what you said regarding 'Ataru prioritizing his womanizing over Lum' which has evidently shown to be incorrect. One example is in the 'Electric Jungle' arc, when he left a date with some girl just so he could go on his date with Lum. It's not always a girl accepts Ataru's request; the chances for that is most probably lower than his chances to go on a date with Lum, yet he still left his date with the girl anyways because he knew Lum was waiting for him. Another example is the fact that Ataru won't accept a harem if it doesn't have Lum in it. If Lum isn't in the harem, the harem means nothing to him. Heck, the reason why he wants a harem is because he needs Lum with him, even if there are other girls. Lum is what matters the most to him.

Next is the topic of Ataru and 'true love', Ataru isn't someone who yearns and is desperate for 'true love', but he still does hold it with value. To Ataru, 'true love' doesn't mean flirting, kissing, etc., it means something much deeper, something that comes from the heart. The former can be done even if you don't love someone truly, but the latter is what 'true love' is. There's also a bit more to it but I've already talked about this in the above linked analysis, so I'll just copy-paste that part here instead of writing it from scratch:

Now if he does love her, then why doesn’t he agree to do couple stuff (here I mean stuff like kissing, flirting, saying “I love you”, etc.) with her? That’s because he does all those things with other woman to the point they have lost that specialness. It may still be special to her, but not to him because Lum isn’t any woman, he’s the only one he actually cares about and he doesn’t want to give her the same treatment he gives other women.

So, yeah, it's exactly what I said..

And finally the question 'Would he have acted differently if it was Shinobu?' Of course, we all know that they used to be exes and we do get to see how it was back then as well so we'll just use that info. The womanizing part remains the same for the most part, Ataru would chase skirts if it's either Lum or Shinobu. But the difference would be in whether he shows affection. With Lum, Ataru knows that she'll never leave him and that she will only love him (which is true) but Shinobu isn't like that. Shinobu didn't have any other options and she was already friends with Ataru which is why they started dating. But when she's presented with a better option (temporarily Rei, though only in term of handsomeness, she turned him down because he's an idiot, and later Mendo) her mind immediately wavers and prefers the better option, after all she wants the one who is the match made for her. Because of this, Ataru can't hide his feelings (which he eventually ended up losing anyways) or else it's literally over. It's also easier for Ataru to show affection towards Shinobu since he's always been friendly with her, unlike Lum who he treated terribly at first.

And I think that's it! This ended up being hella long and I ended up spending a lot of time on this (so.. to those reading, please like and even more importantly, reblog! pretty please?) and I hope I was able to clear all your questions anon! Ataru's a tough nut to crack but once you do it you'll see why it is that way. Anyways, that's it, thank you for taking your time reading this and have a great day ahead!!

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i-read-that-manga-for-you · 3 months

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Given

Admittedly, I read this manga a long time ago. Like when chapters were still coming out. I was still in high school at the time (holy fuck) and couldn't really articulate my feelings as well as I can now.

I had left this review (bits and pieces of it) on a manga site and decided I might as well put it on my tumblr, finetuning it, of course. First post, because in spite of its flaws, Given is still close to my heart. And I reread it again (somewhat) to make this a better review. I hope each person who reads this will reimburse me with 50 cents each (jk don't). So here it is. My impression of Given, with !!some!! talk about how SA is treated in BL/Yaoi culture in general.

Or not, this is just my two cents with no anthropology degree.

Do take what I say with a grain of salt, a piece of creative media does not exist in a vacuum, but this review treats it as one at times because I'm not really skilled enough to talk about any wider implications. I'm just some guy giving my review.

Spoilers ahead. Go ahead.

TW: Sexual Assault.

Honestly, this manga made me feel a lot. Good and bad feelings. But let's focus on what I liked.

Ugetsu.

He's on the phone, shhh.

I found Ugetsu to be a very compelling character, and it was a huge shame that he vanished partway through the manga. Basically? I have no criticisms about him as a character, he has his flaws and he's nuanced. He's interesting and compelling, and it's clear that he's someone who is still growing and learning to walk on his own two feet. I won't deny that his relationship with Akihiko was very toxic, but I definitely think this isn't something that can be blamed solely on him.

But with this out of the way. Let's talk about the pairings.

Let's talk about Akiharu.

Kizu Natsuki is an amazing artist... Even when I have certain issues with this manga.

Well. I have a lot of qualms with Akiharu.

For starters, Akihiko assaulted Haruki. I'll never forget that. The fact that they ended up getting together anyway was a huge point of contention for me. Given was framed as a story about love more than a traditional story about BL/yaoi which (sorry) usually leans towards the sex. (This is not to say that sex and romance are separated, well they are but they are linked rather than being one in the same. You can have either, like they're hot/cold water but they come from the same faucet.)

But I feel that having this scene in rather than an argument feels completely wrong. I'm someone who will digest pretty much anything the world throws at me, but the Akiharu assault scene came off wrong and it came off scary. (Note: I say scary but I definitely mean much more than that, I just feel like "shouldn't be romanticized" doesn't encapsulate all of it. This topic is not something I'm qualified to talk about, so I don't want to overstep any boundaries.)

And to be honest, that's good because SA shouldn't be romanticised, for that, a big well done to our author. I just wish the aftermath was dealt with better.

This is terrifying. Please retract your words.

In spite of the SA scene being scary, afterwards all seemed to be resolved the moment it was revealed that Akihiko had nowhere else to go.

Everything for them goes uphill from here. Yay.

I just have to wonder what was the point of that buildup if you were just going to allow things to end nicely like that. With a scene like that, you'd think that the manga was saying that "SA is scary, it's terrifying and it's something that you shouldn't forget even if it's BL/Yaoi." But, why did it end up like this.

What I'm trying to say is: What does it matter that Akihiko apologised (twice), he still assaulted Haruki, he assaulted a friend. Even worse is the way that they're framed as a healthy couple afterwards, this just made me all the more uncomfortable. I feel like this is saying "SA is scary" but also saying "the power of love and friendship absolves everything". I've seen some people talk about the fact that SA happened, but haven't seen them say how it was "resolved". I think it's more to do with yaoi/BL fiction culture, that we've grown to accept SA that is unaddressed in our media to the point that Akihiko's apology is like a prayer more than something that's not even worth a second glance.

Saying that Akiharu started off rocky is an understatement, but if I pretend it never happened, I can say for sure that they are much healthier than Akigetsu, and they deserve each other. It's just not good storytelling especially because I don't really understand the motivations of Haruki liking Akihiko.

I once said that Haruki's character arc was based on Akihiko and that was my bad. I was wrong. Haruki, in fact, has a minor character arc, that isn't really to do with Akihiko, about how he feels insecure surrounded by geniuses in the band and this gets resolved by Akihiko saying that they wouldn't be able to function if all of them were geniuses, and Haruki himself seeing Akihiko hard at work. But I had completely forgotten about this arc, my bad, but my point still stands. Haruki deserved a better character arc.

I don't have a smart comment for this unfortunately. Eat your veggies??

In spite of saying this, I'm not an Akiharu hater, I swear. But I just found that ship much less compelling than Akigetsu in general. Akigetsu was a relationship where they were both incredibly toxic towards each other, there was an imbalance in the fact that Ugetsu literally owned the place they were living in, as well as how he'd kick Akihiko out whenever things were rocky. However, I think the end of their relationship was dealt well on both sides, their toxicity towards each other was framed in a negative light as it should have been. They ended the relationship and went their separate ways, this was the best ending for them. For Akiharu and Akigetsu: The difference between these two relationships is that one was dealt well and the other was dealt wrong. Akiharu deserve each other and Ugetsu deserves to learn how to grow by himself.

Anyway, another point of contention was, in spite of the healthy nature of Akiharu. Somehow, the friendship between the two couples seems to have waned and it was pretty disappointing to see. I think it started before this, but the first time it was obvious to me was this scene.

I know you're in the middle of something, but don't be mean to Mafuyu >:(.

Context: This is Chapter 40. Akiharu are in a moment of intimacy and Uenoyama is knocking at their door trying to get advice.

We've seen that Mafuyu is a very reserved person, to see that Akihiko was so ready to tell Mafuyu to stop coming over (even if it is to stop him from coming over so suddely) right to his face was extremely immature.

Basically, imagine if that had been Mafuyu. Personally, I feel like Mafuyu would have been hurt like hell and closed right back up. This scene is something played for laughs and that's something so disappointing. Given is shown to be a band of friends, but in the end it seemed more like two couples who hang out sometimes. Also the fact that both Akihiko and Haruki are pushing Uenoyama to get Mafuyu to rejoin the band. That's something else that bothers me heavily. That they're treating Mafuyu as Uenoyama's responsibility because they're dating. It's a band that is sure to fall apart if you are not making an effort to support each other equally. I mean, it doesn't have to be entirely equal but points for effort and they get no points here. It's funny because they were at least a little self-aware of this prior.

Dating in a band is something that is nuanced, of course. But it sure is funny to see them practically go down the same route they condemned.

That's my criticism of Akiharu.

So, what about the other instance of SA? I'm talking about Shizusumi and Hiiragi, of course.

Let's talk about Shizuragi.

Here they are! Let's talk about them!

Admittedly the first time around, I wasn't particularly into Shizuragi, I was too busy mourning the absense of Ugetsu. But it was during their sex scene where I realised something was very wrong. I was having flashbacks to the Akiharu assault chapter but this time it was played as "love" rather than something reprehensible. Once again, assault was in the manga and it, once again, resolved with badly.

I feel like sexual assault being played off as "love" and being resolved literally the next chapter with the victim being all kosher with it, should be garnering people's "??? what the fuck"s and not to bat for the opposing team for once but where are the complaints. I've actually seen some people talking about this chapter, but I would have expected more.

Hiiragi said he was scared and was crying, but they still fucked anyway. :D <- smile of shock.

Um what. Haha... ha........ :D <- terrifed smile of shock.

I don't know whether it would have been worse that he knew he was assaulting Hiiragi or whether he didn't know at all. But he knew.

Shizusumi confessed his love the morning after and it was all okay. But, to be honest, the fact that it was played off as being "all okay" makes this even worse. It's normal in yaoi/BL for SA to be played off as love, but you'd think that the last place you'd see this is in Given of all places. SA is SA and the fact that Hiiragi was so accepting of what happened to him afterwards says something about this the culture of BL/yaoi and how we just go along with it says something about this sentiment of how "yaoi is always going to be yaoi".

We're done? We're done.

There are no more SA scenes (that I can remember). But I do want to touch on Mafuyu and Uenoyama as briefly as possible (This is a recount of my experience after all). So, Mafuyama.

Ah, yes. The start of everything.

Admittedly, I didn't actually find their relationship super compelling. This is because I tend to get tunnel vision on characters I like (in this case, I heavily tunnel visioned on Ugetsu). I do like them both, they just didn't fit within my vision. I thought they were sweet but I also see a lot of complaints about how Mafuyu was stuck on Yuki and Uenoyama was getting backseated and I do agree with this. Kind of.

I think Mafuyu's story is about growth as a person, it's like what people say: You don't move on or lose your grief, you grow around it. Grief doesn't get smaller, you just get bigger. The person he loved died and I don't think it's fair to say that he has to get over Yuki. Grief is something that sticks with you everywhere, something you have to carry every day. They're still teenagers, they're still young and still have room to grow.

But as a story? Sheesh, instead of Haruki having no place in their circle. I felt like Uenoyama, even when he's the protagonist, wasn't given his spotlight in his own story. There is no character arc for him, there is nothing for him and that's just not fair. There are two people in a relationship, so why does it always feel like, narratively, Uenoyama always comes as an afterthought?

You could have had a character arc about this... Relationships are meant to be balanced, sweetie...

I just think it's a shame, but they're nowhere near as unhealthy as the other couples in Given, so I'm giving them a gold star.

(Minor irk, I do not remember when this happened but why the hell does Yayoi (Uenoyama's sister) get a character arc (where she comes to an understanding about Mafuyama feelings for each other, but also the gay in general) but the man himself doesn't?)

So, with Mafuyama, I feel like the story could have focused a little more on Uenoyama's side. But I feel like it's similar to how Haruki's story kind of got the backseat to Akigetsu drama happenings at the time. Shrug, we can't have it all.

He's beautiful...

That's honestly... all my thoughts. Wow! That was a lot of them. I think there's a lot to be said about how yaoi treats SA and dub-con in general, even in a manga that's not even focused on the sex.

With that said, I don't think BL shouldn't have SA or dubious scenes but the aftermath should be dealt with better afterwards. I think with Given, it's a start that the SA (at least with Akiharu) wasn't romanticised, but the aftermath was just poorly executed.

But I'm not the yaoi police, I hold no authority and I don't support purity culture. I'm not an anti-anything and I also believe that fiction should be fiction. What people enjoy should no way equate to a person's worldview. But, this was just all my perspective and my opinion. I said it and now I'm done. Haha... Anyway, my paypal is—

#given #given manga #manga review #murata ugetsu #akihiko kaji #haruki nakayama #shizusumi yagi #hiiragi kashima #just my thoughts #my silly silly thoughts #GIVE ME YOUR MONEY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (jk don't)

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truedarkhunter · 23 days

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LET'S Talk about SNAKE!!

**Here's your spoiler warning. So don't read on if you aren't caught up on the manga to the point of Snake's history in Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler. **

We finally get a glimpse into Snake's history and there is a little clue hidden in it that this is probably the real end of the line for the Phantomhive Footman. So the first has fallen and is a precursor of all that is to come as promised by the throne Ciel sat upon that rested on a hill of bodies so long ago.

So if you happen to go digging into Snake's background, the manga mentions that his mother was Sarah Kemble. This wasn't a throw-away name. Looking it up, Sarah Kemble was the maiden name of the actress Sarah Siddons. (When you see née before a surname/last name, it means it was the name before marriage.)

So if you happen to go digging into Snake's background, the manga mentions that his mother was Sarah Kemble. This wasn't a throw-away name. Looking it up, Sarah Kemble was the maiden name of the actress Sarah Siddons. (When you see née that indicates the name before marriage.) She was a real person who lived from July 5, 1755 to June 8, 1831.

The clue was in her acting specialty: tragedies. She was specifically called a tragedienne, and known as "tragedy personified". Obviously, Kuroshitsuji has been playing fast and loose with timelines already. Charles Phipps (December 10, 1753 - October 20, 1786) and Charles Grey (March 13, 1764 - July 17, 1845) had a good 11 year gap between them, so make unlikely peers. So it shouldn't be assumed that Snake is actually from the 1700's.

However, as his mother was chosen for being the embodiment of tragedy, Snake's story is to show how sometimes people die without getting to answer the big questions in their life. Moreover, his life being the height of tragedy also means we aren't likely to see him turned into a Bizarre Doll. Earlier he and Finny were rejected as having something off in their blood. Finny's is from the experimentation done on him. Snake's is from whatever illness or genetic deviation that gave him his scales. Even if Undertaker or an underling with the knowledge of how to convert a person into a Bizarre Doll were on hand to try to "save" him, those differences would probably cause the effort to fail. Again, hinted at by the rejection of his blood type as well as the descriptor given of his mother. So we shall be left wanting Snake to know the great "Why's" but not getting to see him learn the answers. Although I would be deeply interested in seeing a chapter dedicated to his judgement and Afterlife options. We haven't really seen the angelic side of the series make an appearance yet. Ash/Angela from the anime have been replaced by the two Charles. It would be interesting in seeing what the Heavenly Host are like here or even a bidding war for Snake's soul based on his goodness of character and his misdeeds done on behalf of his "family".

My apologies on how late this analysis has taken. It's been hard to have the energy and time in the same place to work on this, but I've been excited about it since the chapter dropped. Thoughts? @abybweisse @tirnelsutcliff

#black butler #kuroshitsuji #Snake Character #Deep Dive

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kurisus · 1 year

Text

Chapter 104 thoughts

I'm back from posting purgatory and have rewritten, more or less, what Tumblr deleted, so now it's time for my favorite game: Ina Tries To Figure Out What The Fuck Happened In The Latest Noragami Chapter. Spoilers under the cut.

So at the beginning we see trash dad cut himself free from Fujisaki and revert to his original form, while Fujisaki wakes up in Yukine's old house, far from home. I'm really interested to see how much he knows, which I said last time--whether he was aware he was being used or if he's basically been unconscious for the past year. I think he has to be aware on some level, because he knows Father's true name and has to invoke it to summon him from Yomi, but it would also be funny if he flies into a panic, follows the newly created lake, and ends up with the main cast. How far are they from the house, anyway?

Come to think of it, I've been reading Alive since last month (Adachitoka's first manga, which was written by their mentor while they drew the art) and while I'm not done yet, the north of Japan features prominently as a setting for that story and as the final showdown for this one. I'm not sure why, maybe they're from there, but it's interesting.

I'm so glad Yato slammed into trash dad after he insulted Mizuchi. It shows he does recognize her as a victim, and is willing to let things mend between them, since she's had her own character arc since Yato released her name. Don't get me wrong, that was still the right choice for him at the time--but they've both changed since then. And I always love the character development in this manga so this had me bouncing in my seat.

YATO ALSO SAYING HE'S NOTHING BUT A DEAD PERSON LIKE YESSSSSS GET HIM GET HIM KILL HIS MISERABLE ASS

Ahem. I wish Yato had been able to land at least one punch on this horrible man, but it's time for a shounen powerup.

Using the koto no ha on himself grants trash dad access to Izanami/Izanagi level powers, which I think is a temporary powerup that will end with Izanami taking him back to Yomi, because of how he can "feel her breath" on his neck. He plans to then escape again, and possess another body.

This new power is an ass pull as fast-moon put it, but it's also not the first of its kind in Noragami. Think back to Yukine getting cut in half and becoming a hafuri, Amaterasu appearing out of nowhere to give Hiyori the hint that saved Yato's life in Yomi, and how the main characters were saved from the covenant which provided the entire basis for the current arc (due to unresolved tensions between them and the rest of heaven). Basically, in Noragami these things happen with good reason and/or hugely impact the rest of the story, so I think it's best to wait and see how this trash dad development plays out before making judgments on how it affects the writing quality.

There's an old Noragami theory that Father is Izanagi, or stole his power, and it's been mostly dismissed in recent years (but there's an echodrops post about it here if you're interested in the points it made) and even more so since we got snippets of his backstory, but I think it's worth bringing back up now. Izanagi has been suspiciously absent from the manga, and I'm not sure he's even been mentioned, so I wonder if the koto no ha ties into that somehow. Honestly if Izanami killed him in this version of the story and used his power to make the koto no ha, good for her.

Anyway, trash dad reveals he's not just some human who came back from the dead. He can use these powers of creation; it's unclear whether he's used them before, but Yato has never seen him do so--Mizuchi seems to know what he's doing, but it's also unclear whether she's seen it either. I said years ago I don't think it was easy as him just returning from the dead and being granted godlike powers, but I haven't been insistent on it so much because I did a reread of the official translation two years ago and that version heavily implies the only thing trash dad did to get his powers was come back from the dead. I wonder how they'll reconcile that when this volume gets translated (please hold for another 2 years, lmfao).

Is this Izanagi's power, or Izanami's? Did he steal Izanagi's powers next after he paid Izanami a visit? Did he know what using the koto no ha on himself would do? Was it an educated guess based on Izanami's power? Is it still possible he could be a reincarnated Izanagi that believed himself to be human? I don't know if I'd like that last one, but these are the questions I hope to have answered.

Taking a brief detour to discuss that Kiun and Mayu have joined forces to look for their gods, and Ookuninushi is alive but has with him three freshly reincarnated gods--Yatagarasu, Kagutsuchi, and Shinatsuhiko. I'm shocked he lived and they died, but it may lead to an interesting change in heaven where he has to reconcile how they threw away their shinki lives even after they were explicitly told not to use them. The way heaven (and most gods) treat their shinki as not people but disposable tools has been a long-running theme of this manga, and it's been clear larger-scale changes need to be made.

So back to the main event, trash dad creates a biblical sort of flood, but one that brings images of the past. Alongside the tree where a young Yato named Sakura, we also see a cottage and a multi-level house. The cottage may be where Yato and Hiiro were raised, or it might be the one from the Father flashbacks: Check them out side by side:

(103-2; page 1 [Father and Kaya village]; 104, page 21; 45, page 33 [Yato, Hiiro, Father cottage] if you want to check for yourself)

Next, there's that multi-story building, which could be the place where Yato made his first kills, or Hiyori's grandmother's house. There isn't much visible, so it's hard to tell, but here's another side by side:

(46, page 9 [where Yato made his first kills]; 104, page 21; 85, page 42 [Hiyori's grandmother's house])

If this enchanted world functions similarly to Hiyori viewing Yato's past while he's asleep, Hiyori will get to experience trash dad's past as it really happened. I've mentioned before it bothers me how the gravekeeper has been narrating the events even though he wasn't present for any of them, so it's entirely likely Father manipulated the facts of his history, or they naturally changed over the course of a thousand years.

I also think Hiyori could find out trash dad's weak point, his true name, if/when she witnesses his past. She could then become his lifeline and decide to let the secret die with her. Or he could possess her, but I'm being optimistic.

The tree she sees is the tree where Yato named Sakura, but it could also have some significance to Father and Kaya; if the cottage where he raised Yato and Hiiro was in the same general location as that village, he could have some memories there.

So if we get Hiyori and Sakura interaction I will cry. If we get Hiyori and Kaya interaction I will also cry.

Next few chapters I'm really excited to see where this enchanted lake dimension thing goes. Yukine could also be caught up in it, depending on how far it has spread, and it'll be interesting to see how Amaterasu reacts to it too.

I don't normally say this, but reblogs are appreciated. This post required a lot of skimming older chapters to tie my thoughts together, and my original draft got half erased when I was just finishing it up so I had to rewrite a lot of it. Plus it seems like everyone was pretty confused by the events of this chapter, so a reblog would help to spread it around and hopefully shed some light on the events. Thanks!

#Noragami #Noragami manga #Noragami spoilers #ngl I am sad it's not a full chapter but did yall see the new springtime lottery art. I cried #I might be back with more thoughts later cause I feel like I couldn't recall everything I had written previously #it is time to create a master doc of my thoughts I suppose. fun project #live update

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imtiredmandontquestionit · 7 months

Text

Realistically thinking about recent bsd chapters

So people have been so delulu over the new chapters so I'm gonna do some realistic thinking. Most of the characters that have "died" will most likely survive. I feel like the only reason Asagiri would kill off Dazai is to add some major character development to Atsushi, and any other character who knew him. It's still entirely possible Dazai will indeed die, but a small chance. Sigma is a character I feel is entirely possible to kill off. The reasons he would die is 1, to keep Fyodor's ability a well-kept secret, 2, because he's Asagiri's favorite. I feel like it's a 50/50 chance if Sigma lives or dies. Aya next. Knowing how Asagiri writes, I feel like Aya will survive this. There's a few different possibilities I've thought of since she's one of my favorite characters. 1; She will die, get turned into a vampire, and then be alive again when the vampirism is cured. It's highly unlikely all the vampires will die. There's no way Asagiri would kill off THAT many characters/people. 2; She will gain an ability before death. Seeing as a lot of our characters focused on do have abilities, combined with the fact she is still quite young, could mean she does have an ability and just doesn't know about it, which is entirely possible seeing as Atsushi didn't know about his ability. 3, the least likely one, Bram will save her just before she hits the ground. As soon as he regenerates his limbs, he could possibly save her. It's unlikely, but still possible. I'd do theories on how Dazai could survive, but there's plenty of those out there already. Now onto the vampires, I personally don't think there's a possibility that the vampires will die once the vampirism is over. There's WAY too many characters as vampires, plus, a ton of other people around the world are vampires. There's no way that many people will be killed off. Plus, both Atsushi and Dazai have tried to "wake up" vampires from their vampire state, they didn't succeed, but that implies that it's possible. Another reason is Francis said in season four that he always sides with the winners, and the Detective Agency will win this. This could indeed be incorrect, but I've chosen to take it as foreshadowing. Moving on, the agency members. Fukuzawa is most likely going to die. There's just no way I can see him surviving, except Yosano coming to save him, but we don't even know where she currently is. Tanizaki and Kunikida, I personally believe they will survive. Fukuchi has no current reason to kill them that I'm aware of, correct me if I'm wrong though, it's been a while since I've read the manga in extreme detail. Ranpo, he'll probably survive, he's so far only been stabbed in the hand and knocked unconscious. I'm pretty sure he's just laying unconscious on the road somewhere. Atsushi, we saw in chapter 110 that he's about to become a vampire, but it's possible the table will fall on Akutagawa or something like that. IF Atsushi DOES become a vampire, which is unlikely but still possible considering the amount of times authors have turned the main character into the thing they're fighting (ex, Demon Slayer where Tanjiro states "If I ever do become a demon, I trust someone in the corps will behead me for the greater good. DEMON SLAYER MANGA SPOILERS; Then at the end he becomes a demon and is cured later on.) it is still possible for Atsushi to become a vampire and be saved later on. We haven't seen much of the Port Mafia so I won't be saying much about them. But I will talk about Chuuya. SO, I feel like Chuuya is somewhat conscious. AND the gun he has, I'm pretty sure he showed up with. That can lead to all the theories about how Dazai will survive, which I will not be getting into today, maybe another day though. I personally am really hoping for Verlaine to show up. The "storm" he's waiting for in Stormbringer could be the apocalypse or something similar. It's implied he can still manipulate gravity, but just not as well/long as before. Even without his gravity powers, he still is the King of Assassins, and the person who trained Gin, Kyouka and many, many others.

Seeing how skilled those two are, having only been trained by Verlaine, we can assume how powerful Verlaine is, even without his gravity manipulation. Another theory, way less likely, is Kyuusaku (Q) making their reappearance. We don't know what happened to them after season two, so for all we know, they're alive somewhere, perhaps back at the Port Mafia, or living their life somewhere. They stand a pretty high chance at beating Fukuchi once and for all. They, however, have no motivations to fight him. They love chaos, which is exactly what is happening. BUT, they seemed to have a character change when John tortured them in season two, so perhaps they'll not even care and just fight him for fun, or to add even more chaos to this. Also, in an interview, Asagiri mentioned teaming up Tetchou and Jouno as rivals later on, so I'm excited to see how he goes along with that.

TLDR; Most characters will probably survive, with the exception of maybe Sigma, Fukuzawa, and Dazai(?). Atsushi probably won't become a vampire, Aya will probably get an ability. Detective Agency will probably win.

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yatorihell · 3 months

Text

Noragami Reread Volume 22-27

I've finally reached the end of my reread. I am reading the final chapter tonight, and I haven't seen a single spoiler for the cover nor ending. This is going to be crisp.

Vol 22

Nora trying to keep up with Father walking away knowing she's being abandoned

Yato realising he abandoned Yukine like yes the mommy issues are now here

Yukine partying and living it up like he did when he first got named, but now he's more self aware

Remember when Yukine started become an ayakashi and then

'Your god is not your dad' Nora projecting the abandonment but yh she's right

Nora with the 'please say my name' I hate this

Takemika is ripped fuck damn bitch

Kofuku figured out Yato's plan to kill Father

Ojkjbj Takemika spins Ebisu to divine the Sorcerer's location

Oh the seahorse he buried is called Takemika how cute

Adult Yukine vision like we didn't need the reminder he won't grow up

I WANTED TO GROW UP

Hagusa is born and its a bad time for like a year

Oh Father's so evil (he is hugging Yukine) and he's going to the house

Yato can't believe Yukine is stray bitch same

Nora seems to have turned a corner with Father leaving her (this lasts like 10 chapters)

'Can I even be normal again' (as of right now I have read the chapter nor been spoiled so idk!!!!)

Hiyori doesn't want to be stuck this way which is good

Nora mumbling to herself about Hiyori

Nora played pretend family because she's a good girl

Foreshadowing of Nora asking why it's easy for girls to come into the world because she never made it

Shinigami protecting Hiyori from Nora and it turns out its actually her grandpa

Grandma Iki's death and her telling Hiyori to go to the person she loves

'If you wait until he's gone it'll be too late' I hate this manga

Seeing grief affecting the family reminds Hiyori she has to come back

Plot to hide Nora's names revealed

God it was all a ploy to befriend yukine

Hiyori and Nora the unlikely friendship

Ebisu trying to throw salt on Kofuku to protect the economy nsnd

Old Ebisu talking to himself is so cute and sad when we know what he's been through

Oh we've reached the refrigerator I'm so sad Adachitoka you make me so sad

Oh they're at the old house I hate this

Yukine's been dead 35 years which was a surprise

Hiyori laying flowers on the fridge and praying

Oh he's learning who he was and the barber wouldve been his friend I'm so sad they forgot about him right when they were talking

Yukine's dad was handing out fliers to search for murdered son this plot is dastardly and I don't believe we'll get resolution because that's how the world is

Sobbing they knew there were problems and thought Yukine chose to stay

Yukine finding out his life wasn't all sunshine and not wanting to know more mood

Vol 23

Oh it's Yukine's grave and sister's house I'm so sad

'Even you've got one or two assholes you don't want to probe'

Yato thinking Yukine would want to kill his family

Yukine wanted the dogs to eat him that killed Suzuha hate!!!

Living Yukine encouraging his sister to live and run towards the future he wouldn't see

Father goading Yukine into finding his family and talking about giving him a proper burial I've had enough of this dude

Gunna throw up there's a beer can in the fridge

'Even now my father is still killing me'

Yukine's had his reverse Kaneki phase

Fuck offf with the flower Father you heartless bitch

Oh Yukine's gone baby boy he's Hagusa nke

Yato's face that Yukine is changed and the ending saying unprecedented agony fucking mood

Yukine's mother is dead reveal

'He's my hafuri'

Yato apologising and explaining immediately why he did it

Yato's hesitation to draw his sword against Yukine

We've got a catboy on our hands

Sorcerer was human and has a grave finally a plot to kill him for good

Yukine seeing his dad in Yato

Yato protecting the tree and cutting Yukine's hand because he chose that spot for Yuka to think of her brother and he's actually there

Yato laying absolutely fucked up on the grave of the boy who just did it to him

BISHAMON AWAKE

Oh Yukine doesn't even realise it was Yato he thought he hurt his dad

Hiyori's got a letter for Yuka oh we were dying to know what it said for ages

'You'll die you idiot' and Hiyori's face like I didn't believe it would happen

Hiyori death foreshadowing tracker: 7

Hiyori and Nora holding hands when they meet Yuka

Oh I'm so sad Yuka thinks Haruki is alive and had children Adachitoka you make me so sad

Yato not wanting to draw on Yukine because of his dad

Remember when we got that panel of Yuka and it had showed up in chapter 3 like 1p years ago the foreshadowing is insane

Yukine's possession of people is a good thing tbh but it goes too extreme

Once again the art is insane rip Adachitoka

Yuka has the letter ndnd

Yuka forced the divorce and the were forced to rock paper scissors to decide who would stay behind

Bishamon is kinda up I wish she did more in the final

Throwing up screaming thank you Okuninushi for blessing Yatori's plaques I can't wait to see what the effect of that is in the final chapter

Oh the return box of letters all torn up I hate this

Yukine's power just shows the good of humanity but its still flawed like humans

Ooharai begins and lasts like 25 chapters

Volume 24

Yato's back in the trashcan

Nora doesn't hate heaven but Yukine does because he cut it accidentally trying to save Yato logic

Father laughing about taking Yukine to the fridge he is the worst man

OK so Rekki can't cut the word interesting

'Daddy's just gunna have to take another one away from you' and trying to name Kazuma

Shocked pikachu face that Yato sold him out to Heaven

The expressions are really popping off

Father mentioning Yukine's dead in front if Kazuma hhfn

Yukine let Yato get away <3

'Mind full of nothing but viina just like normal'

Takemika and Ebisu the unlikely friendship to go lookinf for the grave

Yukine on a rager about finding his dad and Father hitting him here we gooo

'You're not allowed to have desires and wishes because that's what a god is'

Father back on his breaking Kazuma bullshit

'Kazuma's love is unphantomable like a bog'

Father neck cut tracker: 2

Adachitoka really got us with the earplugs for Kazuma a bit of common sense finally

'Yukine is mine, Hiyori will die someday, so why bother running from me'

Nora backstory

It's strange how an ayakashi could latch onto Nora before she was born

'I wanted someone who knows neither good nor evil'

Baby Yato and his ear necklace ft Sakura's tree??

Father is the delulu king he thinks Yato's putting on an act to save him

Oh the image of baby Yaboku fighting father sjbdbd

Father was this close to getting killed and then nothing

Takemika and Ebisu did a room of requirement finding the island tbh

Amaterasu feeling the net

'Heaven has missed things so we have to find someone to punish' logic

How did we go from Father's pinned down to back fighting

How dare Yato betray him after getting food water shelter

Oh Yukine can't look when he's told to attack Yato I hate it here

Gods are getting stuck in the net

Saving Yukine is priority over killing Father <3

Kazuma gets called Kazune and makes up a sweat song ldndb

We're so close to saving Yukine and then it gets worse

Volume 25

Oh the letter Yuka never got his letters and he's asking why she won't wrote back I'm so fucking miserable

AND IT LED TO HIS DEATH oh I'm so sad Adachitoka you make me so sad

Kazuma trying to fly to Yukine with Rekkis scarf sjdb

Oh yes we're getting Okuninushi fucking it up like I wished

Nora be like I'm not stupid he's trying to use me and then....

Ah now the gods are calling the shinki when they shouldn't

Oh Nora why did you have to go to him

Nora's just so happy to be useful again

Damn the town's really just burning

'Someone like me who's ever called her Nora doesn't have the power to call her back' hopefully Nora gets/choses a name for herself irrespective of shinkihood

Likening having a name to being given life

Fathers lost it he doesn't even want to do what he wanted he's just angry and wants to kill Amaterasu now and Nora's like no

Grave has been found and the gravekeeper family was a surprise

The Sorcerer killed someone who escaped justice and saved the gravekeeper

Lol remember when we got Father's backstory and people were trying to argue that he didn't kill the monk

I wonder if he stole the clothes off his body they're awfully similar

Nora is absolutely fucking them up go girl

Father used Heaven's systems to his advantage to name Nora, control ayakashi and create Yato

Father calling himself a necessary evil and Amaterasu clapping back that Yato is the necessary one

Amaterasu starts taking Nora's names

Father flashback to Yomi and Kaya revealed

Yukine stopping Amaterasu as she tries to release Chiki

Oh all the vents opening

Amaterasu can't take names made with the word

Yato's back in the fight let's gooo

Father does have a bit of a point to be like why do gods do this to the world

Father's finally been shot

We never really get Amaterasus story, was she reincarnated to keep young and manageable, is that just how old she grows

The living live and the dead die

Yukine's finally realised what he's done to the world

'To death do we part and in death we shall meet again' oh I'm so sad that's such a Yatori thing Adachitoka you make me so sad

Yukine's gone to Yuka oh he sees her as a young girl I'm so sad adachitoka you make me so sad

Oh this is the last time Yukine sees Hiyori before That happens I'm so sad this is awful

Their mother was absolutely spinless she just have the letters back to him and gave him money and she never heard from her son again

Oh Yukine's realised he's dead and he sees the truth and Yuka I'm so sad

Oh I'm so fucking miserable Yukine's memories and the burial and he's at the postbox and he's got the protection charm Yato and Hiyori gave him and Yato's hand reaching out and he's called him name and he's gone back to blond I'm actually so miserable this is awful

LIKE SNOW FALLING INTO YATO'S ARMS!!!!

Oh he knows he's dead I'm so fucking miserable this is the worst chapter in my opinion (so far)

Vol 26

100

Oh Hiyori can smell Yato now I'm

DID YOU BURY ME YATO

Oh I'm actually so sad this is the worst manga in the world

Kazuma still blissfully ignorant of death <3

Father's lost it again he's so mad

Bishamon shown up

Bishamon wondering where Kazuma is and that she won't forgive herself if something happened to him hsdbdb

Yat about to finish the job and Nora has to go break Kazuma

101

Oh Bishamon can feel Kazuma fading

Nora was holding back all that time hdhd

Kazuma believes he and Nora are even

It's been quite a day yeah it started with Hiyori and Nora meeting Yuka and it ends with That

Back to Father's backstory

Father saved the village from a boulder and was enshrined by the villagers who keep his grave

Takemika is just ready to destroy the grave

Oh Yuka says about visiting Haru's grave if she knows where will Hiyori even get the chance I hate this

Father I'm begging you just die Yato isn't coming back to you this wasn't a little prank

Oh Hiyori no go home

'Because I love my father'

Oh Hiyori's tail is hanging by a THREAD

Hiyori death foreshadowing tracker: 7?

102

Nora healing Hiyori's blight and sorting her body before leaving she is a good girl really

Remember when we found Hiyori couldn't go back to her body shdhf

'You're gunna be fine' my mantra until That happened in 108

Quickly flashback of baby Yato foreshadowing what's about to happen

Ebisu figuring out the gravekeeper does soul calls

Remember when we thought they were gunna kill that whole family jdbdb

Father is the queen of gaslighting himself

Father neck cut tracker: 3

The reveal that the gravekeepers family were ghosts was so good

Ebisu promising to keep going but I know that his name will never be revealed not even to us for that fourth wall content

Love how the gravekeeper just died like immediately thank you king

'I'm going to go on with them living in a world without you' please please please final chapter they get to live together (they can't <3)

Oh Yato's hand is small in Yukine's he's ready to reincarnate

103

Oh Kazuma is remembering

Oh we were so pressed that he said he could go home and he vanished but its because he's gone back to Bishamon I'm so sad

DISAPPEARING WITHOUT A TRACE WOULD BE A FITTING END FOR ME this is the worst I'm so sad this is awful I hate foreshadowing

It's just endless isn't it Father with 5000 lifelines

Back to Father's backstory ie how he got killed over rice and then rejected dkndn

Oh he made a mask that looked like her

Father likening Kaya to paradise in death

Oh I'm so fucking miserable Kazuma returns to Bishamon and asks if he's in Heaven this is peak romance

'Can you just shut up and die already' fucking mood

Father with the two lifelines like just die

Vol 27

104

We are shook that Father's original form has appeared

Poor Fujisaki's gunna feel so hungover been possessed by that musty bitch for like 16 years(?)

Oh he called Nora a dumpster baby now its personal

Oh Yomi powers we've got the final form and new nation

Shiiho calling Arahabaki dad <3

Oh Okuninushi and the reincarnated gods I'm so sad

Hiyori is in the nation and the Sakura tree is there I hate this I wanna stop

Oh he's put Yato and Nora in their weakest forms I hate him die die die

Oh Nora has completely given up same

And now it's world domination some men just need therapy tbh

It's interesting that all the sacrifices of the real world are apparently in the new nation and Father really thought he'd find Kaya alive in there djbdbd

People say he's a good dad and I agree <3 (he is attempting deicide)

This is the worst manga in the world the fridge is full of sakura blossoms and Yukine is coming to save Yato and now he's a fucking ayakashi dog he's fully evolved into a furry

105

If you told me this was the final boss fight when I joined this manga I'd be like how the hell did we get here

Now we've got the human possession

I wonder if the people who were killed will come back or if the gods just had to kill them for real

The gods telling their shinki they have to kill and like this is a fucked up situation but it needs to be controlled ig

Nora beginning to question Father and what he does and realising she's scared of him and she's been a pawn

So Sekki is able to break the barrier

106

Oh Hiyori you're looking rough

Oh Yukine is disintegrating help

It's strange how we never get an inkling he's looking for Kaya and this new nation, it was about culls and removing the gods not finding her

Amaterasu really doesn't interfere she just watches or sometimes gets involved

How is it that the shinki can be seen by the near shore now its still the true world

Father be like I've returned from the dead and I scare you why don't you love me you were crying

Someone says divine punishment and immediately Father is like the gods did this specifically like he didn't play a part in her death

Father bitches that forgiveness is for the weak but thinks Kaya would forgive him

Father says he couldn't do anything but the belief system back then meant that he could be recalled after death did he even try?

Daikoku refusing to kill that child like a normal person

'He's been seeking something his whole life just like me' and there's the shrine and Yukine

We fr thought we'd found Kaya lol I mean I guess we did but Father thought she'd be normal and not like the others he called sacrifices

Oh he's so sad it's giving Pedro Pascal (I think I said that when it came out and I was shot)

Screaming throwing up Yato knows Hiyori is here

Oh I'm so fucking miserable 'we shall meet again those words have come full circle' I gate this life

For a brief shining moment I thought it was a trick and the real Hiyori was elsewhere but then SOMEONE had to go and do THAT

LET'S GO HOME

Oh I'm actually so fucking sad Yato's voiceover saying its his fault he wouldn't fix her problem with the flashbacks and then Sakura's words about you can never see them again when they die Adachitoka you're the worst

Kiun seeing sense and letting the young lesd because times have changed

Kofuku calling Daikoku's actions irrational like he's just not only locked him in a phone box for a bit instead of killing him

I wonder who summoned all the shinki though because how are Kuzuha and Kuruha helping with containment, Bishamon's not around

Takemika saying that Amaterasu may never change

'Why would you do that to her' because he's a bitch!!!!!!!

Oh I hate this manga Father's trying to name Hiyori and he pulls her head back and the light is gone fron her eyes and there's a tear and I'm ending it after tbe final chapter

Oh he's naming her I hate my life Yukine's nearly gone too

All this time all the warnings we never believed we'd get this

Oh its all her memories and one page is just Yato and he's thanking her for the shrine I'm so sad Adachitoka you make me so sad why did you do this

Oh the shattered image if Hiyori like reflections of my life

FINAL FATHER NECK CUT TRACKER: 4

OK so theory is that because Hiyori was a shinki made within the nation of the word, she was able to destroy it?

Also if the brush is gone then Chiki and Yuuki should be gone

108

Yukine's back oh I'm so sad

Oh I'm so fucking miserable Hiyori looks so innocent and Yukine nearly says her name but Nora stops him and then Yato nearly says her name and then he realises he can't and then he screams and so do I

Father die challenge?????? Stfu

Yukine furry form is here to stay ig I wish he mauled Father a bit but he found her body!!!!!

Yato saying be can't handle a world without Hiyori but he can't destroy it like his dad would

Oh I'm so sad 'this world she protected is the grave where she sleeps' worst manga ever

'You can make miracles happens can't you'

DON'T GIVE UP YET

Remember when we thought Yato was looking up to Amaterasu for help lol

Kazubisha having a quick catch up

Now is not the time but Yato looks good jdhdb

Hiyori just not got a clue whats happening

Father's still being a little bitch

The fact he has no lifelines like when did Yato cuts Fujisaki's ties???

Nora finally standing up to Father

Father has drowned, ignored by his children <3<3<3<3<3<3<3 my heart is so full

Oh I'm so sad they've been there so long there's snow on their heads and Yukine is crying and I hate it

But that also means they keep Hiyori clear of snow to keep her warm I hate it here!!!

Yato disappearing because everyone who knew him was dead and he breathed Hiyori back to life and saved her (and himself I'm maifesting)

Oh now they're both crying for Yato and Yukine's hugging him this is the worst day ever

I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THAT I AM

Oh this really is the worst day ever the final kiss of life and HIS TEAR IS ON HER FACE WHEN SHE WAKES UP

Oh she nearly says his name I'm so sad how is this going to end there is so much to unpack in this manga

#noragami aragoto #hiyori #noragami #bishamon #kazubisha #kazuma #daikoku #kofuku #daifuku #yukine #yato #yatori #goodbyenoragami

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innerchorus · 11 months

Note

How do the various adaptations of The Heroic Legend of Arslan compare to each other and the original novels by Yoshiki Tanaka? I'm specifically interested in a general comparison of the manga adaptations by Chisato Nakamura and Hiromu Arakawa.

Oh man, this question probably warrants an essay to answer it properly, and tbh I don't think I'm in the position to do it because 1. I still haven't read Nakamura's version in full and 2. there isn't a translated version of it available either, which makes it a lot harder to compare nuance (I have to run the pages I'm interested through a translator first to try and decipher it).

I used to think that Nakamura's manga was a very straightforward adaptation of the novels, but recently realised that's not the case. I'd apparently only read a little of it before because I think it was back when I was still avoiding spoilers. But I've learned Nakamura wasn't afraid to add scenes if she thought it would benefit the characters in some way (see additional conversations between Isfan and Zaravant, and Hilmes and Irina). I feel as though Nakamura is sensitive to the emotions of the characters and that's what's driving these scenes; she wants to show the connection between them and, in some cases, make them feel better. There's also the incident where Elam and Alfarid encounter Sam, which is presumably used as an opportunity to show that Sam has a good heart even though he's ended up with Team Hilmes.

Both Nakamura and Arakawa will cut or abbreviate stuff at times. So in Nakamura's manga, Isfan's night raid got cut and Guiscard killed the mage instead. Perhaps she thought it best for the pace of the storytelling? It's not a major plot change, but it does get us through that section a bit faster. Arakawa's manga also doesn't adapt every novel scene. For instance, in the novels there's a scene where Hilmes rejoins Zandeh in the final stages of the hunt for Team Arslan as they near Peshawar Fortress. Arakawa didn't include it, opting to show a panel of Hilmes travelling fast, obviously heading back to pursue his prey, and then later he and Zandeh are shown together when they confront Narsus and Alfarid. Why did that scene get cut? Again, pace maybe (the same as the missing Hilmes and Zandeh scene before Hilmes sneaks into Peshawar), or Arakawa didn't like how sarcastic Hilmes is to Zandeh there and decided to omit it on that basis, lmao

As for more major changes, I'm inclined to say Arakawa's manga has more of those, certainly now we're heading towards the conclusion. Nakamura's manga stays closer to the novels than I'm expecting Arakawa's to as far as the ending of Part 1 (Book 7) goes, though the final scene of Book 7 is absent, allowing for it to feel more conclusive. But I think it's obvious at this point that Arakawa's version is already modifying novel events in a bigger way, and is probably aiming to answer some questions and deal with all outstanding plot threads by the end, so I'm excited to see where that goes. Just don't kill off my faves, please.

On the whole, Arakawa's tweaks feel like they have been very carefully considered to stay true to the heart of the novels and preserve the characterisation. I still have to translate the extra Hilmes and Irina scenes from Nakamura's manga, but I am amused that Tanaka directly said 'Hilmes didn't go and talk to Irina at this point in time' and Nakamura said 'yes he did'. Nakamura seems slightly more wilfull about doing what she wants in this respect (but again, she doesn't make big, plot-altering changes... even the added stuff with Sam slots neatly into the novel canon plotline without causing ripples).

You might have seen this post already, but @colleyuriko discussed a specific instance with regards to the tone difference of the Daryun and Narsus relationship in Nakamura and Arakawa's versions, regarding Daryun's comment about Alfarid (my reblog here with some of my thoughts too). I think that's worth a read.

Nakamura's manga takes 13 volumes to reach the end of Book 7, while Arakawa's version will hit 19 next month when the next volume is released and obviously hasn't finished yet. So from that alone I guess Nakamura's treatment of canon is briefer than Arakawa's (even allowing for some of the content added by Arakawa, such as early scenes with Etoile).

Obviously, there are stylistic differences in the art etc, but those are self-evident so I don't think I need to go into them. Hopefully this has at least started to answer your question!

#arslan senki #the heroic legend of arslan #chisato nakamura #hiromu arakawa #if anyone else wants to weigh in i'd love to hear opinions!

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