#Mine & Daigo will never hear the end of it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

maddogofshimano · 3 years

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Chronicle of Rikiya’s Solitary Fight: Rikiya Sugoroku Event

This one was huge! And very very Okinawa specific! It was really hard to translate! Sugoroku events are board games, so this one had a little chibi Rikiya, which was pretty great.

I tried to put comments on anything that might be unclear, but feel free to message me if something isn’t making sense. Rikiya is bringing a lot of gay energy to this one, honestly.

Summary: Someone has spread a rumor that Kiryu is here to take over the Ryukyu Market, and it had gotten wildly out of hand. Rikiya tries very hard to keep Kiryu from finding out that everyone kind of hates him, and also tries to get to the bottom of who’s spreading this rumor. It....... doesn’t go great.

Haruka: Whaaaat! Uncle Kaz, you mean you still haven't found one yet? Kiryu: Sorry, I went to the supermarket but didn't see anything, so I was out fishing till now Rikiya: Nice to see you guys! Kiryu: Hey Rikiya. Rikiya: What were you two talking about? Haruka: Rikiya-san, have you ever eaten a gurukun? (Tl note: black tipped fusilier fish) Rikiya: Obviously I have! The gurukun is a fish that represents Okinawa itself! It's name on the mainland is takasago, right? Kiryu: That's right, but it's not very popular there. Neither Haruka nor I have eaten it before. Rikiya: Get out of here! How have you lived in Okinawa and never eaten one?! Well! All three of us are gonna go over to the public market right now! You can get all sorts of fresh fish there! Kiryu: We're going there right now? Rikiya: Yes sir! And I shall be your guide! Kiryu: Sorry, but Haruka and I actually have something to do after this... Rikiya: Is that so... Well then, it's up to me to hike out there and buy a gurukun myself! Kiryu: Is that okay? Sorry for the trouble. Rikiya: Next time though, when you have time, let's go together. In truth, I want you to help me look into the people invading the market even more than I want to show you the fish. Kiryu: People are invading the market? Rikiya: Yeah. Haven't the shop keepers seemed scared to you? Kiryu: Outside of the shops specifically for tourists, the place has a bit of a hostile air towards strangers. Especially around an outsider like me. Rikiya: Those guys are master craftsman, but terrible at talking to people. They're like that to locals too, but still, I don't think this has anything to do with foreigners or locals or mainlanders at all. Kiryu: Is that so? Well then, I look forward to the day I can visit the market with you as my guide. Rikiya: Well, I'm off! I'll be back in two shakes with that fish! <Rikiya in the market> Clerk: Hi, welcome! Rikiya: Blast! Clerk: Ah, Rikiya, what's wrong? Rikiya: You don't happen to have any gurukun, do ya? I want the freshest guy you got. Clerk: Ah, I have just the thing! Though, it's rare for you to be cooking, Rikiya. Rikiya: I ain't doing it. This is for Asagao to eat. Clerk: Asagao...? Rikiya: It's that orphanage down on the beach. My aniki Kiryu-san runs the place. Clerk: Kiryu............... Rikiya: This gurukun looks good. How much do I owe ya? Clerk: Ah, uhhhhhhhhhhh, I just remembered, a different customer actually put a hold on this fish! I'm sorry, you'll have to look elsewhere! Rikiya: What the... seriously? Eh, oh well. I'll just have to hit up a different store! <leaves> Rikiya: Hey! You doin' good? Different clerk: Ah, Riki-chan. Rikiya: I'm after a gurukun. Do ya have any here? Clerk: Ah, I've got a whole fish here. Rikiya: Yes! Kiryu no aniki is gonna love eating this! Clerk: Kiryu no aniki......!? Rikiya: Oh, you know him? Kiryu Kazuma. He's my aniki! Clerk: Get out! Rikiya: Eh? Clerk: The store is closed today! Go home now! Rikiya: Wh-What the hell? Ow! Everything's fine till I mention Kiryu, then everyone starts acting really weird..........?? Tourist: Um, were you just talking about Kiryu...? Rikiya: Yeah. Do you know somethin' about him? Tourist: Well, I overheard this at the market...... If that Kiryu Kazuma person is going to take over the market........... Rikiya: My aniki taking over the market??? What the hell does that mean?? Tourist: I don't know if it's true, but that's the rumor everyone's been talking about. Listen. Clerk 1: Isn't this market under the protection of the Ryudo Family? Wouldn't they protect us even if Kiryu did attack? Clerk 2: What a dumb thing to say, the Ryudo Family can't take Kiryu. You know that Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo? Well, Kiryu took that over in a single night. (Tl note: Tsukiji is the biggest fish market in the world) Clerk 1: Seriously!? But we're way smaller than that... Clerk 2: Mhm, plus it only took him an hour to take over. By himself. Clerk 1: Why I oughta stab that Kiryu guy! When he shows up, he'll have to answer to my butcher knife! Clerk 2: Your funeral. The rumor is that the last guy that resisted Kiryu got sold as mincemeat. Clerk 1: What a horrible bastard...! I should have expected as much from a mainlander! Tourist: I've been hearing rumors like that all week around here. Rikiya: Aniki taking over the market?? These rumor has grown like a dang weed, but who's the guy who planted it?! Tourist: Still... They say there's no smoke without a fire. Rikiya: Eh? What do you mean? Tourist: Oh, there's no deeper meaning to it. Well, I'm off... Rikiya: The hell? That woman.........? Rikiya: Ah, aniki! What's the meaning of all this? Kiryu: Haruka's errands ended up being faster than expected, so I figured I'd come over to the market. Rikiya: Ah, no, bad! You coming here is really bad! Kiryu: Why? Rikiya: Uhhhhhh, well..... They are completely sold out of gurukun! Kiryu: I see. Well, I'd still like to take a look around this place. I want you to be my guide and tell me about that invasion you were talking about. Rikiya: Really sorry! I'm already done with the market and on my way back to Asagao right now! So let's come back to the market some other day! Kiryu: I see. I was hoping to poke around and have some fun... Be safe on your way home. Rikiya: Shit! Stop! .......Dang. Aniki gettin stabbed by the market people wouldn't have been any fun at all....... Well, I was the one who got his hopes up in the first place.... I can't just say "Oh, the market's full of nasty rumors about you right now" now can I? What can I even do here...? Rikiya: Maybe I could persuade every one a single person at a time? But that would take so much time.... But where did these weird rumors come from anyways? I know my aniki's a mainlander, but stil... Rikiya: For the time being I better head back to Asagao. Aniki will get suspicious if I'm back late.... <END>

Rikiya, at Asagao: (Man, it's been a whole week and I haven't been able to do anything to combat the rumors about my aniki........ Well, people say rumors only last 75 days, so instead of freaking out about it maybe I should just wait it out..... Nnn. How many months is 75 days? That's so long....) Haruka: Rikiya-san, it's a shame that all the gurukun was sold out the other day, huh. Rikiya: Yeah... it's a really delicious fish! Haruka: I'm looking forward to eating it one day! I've been really interested in getting to know Okinawan cuisine better lately. Do you know souki? (Tl note: Okinawan stewed pork ribs) Rikiya: Of course! Stewed meat and bone done in the traditional Okinawan style. It's suuuuper tasty! Haruka: Uncle Kaz had some a year ago and said it tasted really good. I was going to go with him to buy some, so why don't you come too? Rikiya: Oh, nice. Which store? I'm glad it got my aniki's stamp of approval. Kiryu, appearing: The market. Rikiya: Hey, aniki. I got it. The market huh.... Wait, the market?! Kiryu: It'd be perfect to explore the market with you as our guide. And I'd like to meet those people you were talking about who were being invaded... Rikiya: Th-That's not gonna work! I mean, we really don't need two people to go to the market! Kiryu: What? Why? Rikiya: Because... it's....! Rikiya: Ain't it just blistering today? Hell, if a mainlander like you goes out in it, you'll get heat stroke in seconds! So just let me handle buying the souki, and just have you two stay put! Rikiya: Here, Haruka-chan, I'm gonna borrow shopping bag! Haruka: Hold on...! <Rikiya runs off> Kiryu: He's a pretty intense guy... <Rikiya back at the market> Rikiya: This sucks. I can't keep aniki and Haruka-chan from coming here for much longer without causing some big problems... Rikiya: For the time being I should listen in on how people are talking here at the market. Maybe the rumor just died..... Clerk 1: The story about this Kiryu person taking over the market all by himself. It's really unbelievable, right? Clerk 2: Yeah... It's impossible to think rationally about a story like that. There's no way just one guy could do that. Clerk 1: That's exactly it. So apparently Kiryu uses some kind of associate to work with him in his take overs. Clerk 2: An associate...!? Who is it? Clerk 1: The ryudo family captain.... Rikiya. Clerk 2: Ah! That evil asshole, he is always running around with Kiryu isn't he! Clerk 1: Right? Poor Rikiya has been completely brain washed by Kiryu. Clerk 2: Well, if Kiryu and Rikiya are working together, aren't they going to attack soon!? Clerk 1: Yeah. You're not wrong. Rikiya, bursting in: Hey! Don't be afraid! Clerk 1: R-Rikiya! How long have you been here?! Rikiya: What kinda dumbasses are you? My aniki has brainwashed me? We're gonna take over the market? Where the hell did ya get that idea! It's totally bull! Clerk 1: Well what are we supposed to think when even now, you, who loves Okinawa more than anyone, is wagging your tail over a damn mainlander! You're following him around and calling him aniki, brain washed isn't a strong enough word! Rikiya: You're wrong! I fell for my aniki's manly spirit! Kiryu no aniki is a man among men..... a real man!! (Tl note: THAT IS......... A ROMANTIC FELL FOR............ LIKE, USED FOR MINE ABOUT DAIGO..........) <Rikiya storms off> Clerk 1: Did you see that look in his eyes! It's the same as my cousins when he joined a cult! Clerk 2: He reall has been brainwashed....! Then he's going to attack alongside Kiryu soon! Clerk 1: Kiryu is going to grind our bones and destroy our business! Rikiya, returned: You guys are real nitwits on this. Yeah, Kiryu no aniki has a real intense look about him... Clerk 2: Hey! Look at that! Clerk 1: K-K-Kiryu......!! <Haruka and Kiryu are holding hands and walking through the market> Haruka: It sure is nice and lively in this market, isn't it Unlce Kaz? Kiryu: Yeah... Haruka: But, what's good to eat here? Kiryu: Ah, don't worry. You can make a lot of things from bones.... Rikiya, running over: Hold up aniki! Why'd'ya come here! Kiryu: Hey, you're the one who was so insistent on being by yourself. Clerk 1: Quick, everyone run! We're all going to die! Haruka: What's going on? Why are all the store owners running? Where are they going? Kiryu: What's happening? Rikiya: This is, uhhh.... a disaster preparedness drill! Kiryu: A disaster preparedness drill? Rikiya: Yes sir. We don't want anyone to die in a real emergency, so we're doing a drill... And because of that, you can't shop here today! Kiryu: Oh, well that's a shame. I wanted to eat that bone and cartiledge souki I had here before. Rikiya: Bone and cartelige.... Kiryu: It was cooked so long that you could even eat the bones. Rikiya: Well when the disaster drill is finished, I'll buy you some and bring it back for you guys, you please go ahead and go home aniki. Kiryu: Ah. I don't want to get in the way of the drill. Let's go home, Haruka. Haruka: Yeah. See you later, Rikiya-san. Rikiya: Whew.... that was close. Clerk 2: .....Huh? That bastard Kiryu, just went home? Was this just a reconnesince mission, and the real attack will be at a later date.....? Rikiya: Are you still on about that nonsense? Clerk 2: It's not nonsense, I heard him! Kiryu said in the market that "he's going to break our bones"! (Tl note: `break` is a homophone with `make` in this case) Rikiya: You're wrong. He was talking about souki... Clerk 2: Don't lie to my face like that! Chinpira: Hey, you all, where's Kiryu? Rikiya: What the? You assholes... Chinpira: We're bouncers. We were sent to protect the market from Kiryu. Rikiya: Sent? By who? Chinpira: I don't think this has anything to do with you, dumbass. Now did Kiryu come here already? Where'd he go? Clerk 2: He already left the market, we went that way. Chinpira: Yes! The hunt is on! Rikiya: Hold up. My aniki isn't trying to take over the market! Chinpira: I know who you are, you're Kiryu's little brainwashed Rikiya! How can you believe a shithead like that guy! Get away from him! Rikiya: If you really want to take on my aniki, you gotta get through me first. Chinpira: Heh... This brat's a lively one! He really is Kiryu's partner in crime! Let's get him! <fight, Rikiya wipes the floor with them> Chinpira: Ughh... s-strong! Rikiya: Tell me before you pass out. Who sent you assholes to protect the market, huh? Chinpira: It was... the market green horn club. Rikiya: Green horn club? Clerk 1: It's a group of all the young people working in the market. They get their hands dirty a lot, but they're extremely passionate about the market. Clerk 2: Yeah for sure. The green horn club were the first to detect Kiryu's invasion too. Rikiya: Hold up, then the source of the rumors is the green horn club? Clerk 2: Yeah, though they clearly aren't just rumors, but the green horn club spread the word around..... Rikiya: (So the green horn club is spreading these lies, but why? Should I try to get to the bottom of this right now? No. I still need to bring aniki that bone and cartelige souki I said I'd buy him. If I dillydally, he'll end up coming back to the market...) <END>

<Haruka and Kiryu in the kitchen at morning glory> Haruka: Ah! The meat is all sticky! Kiryu: That's because of how long it's been cooked, it lets you even eat the bones. Haruka: Rikiya-san, thank you for buying this cartelige souki! Rikiya: Oh, nah, it was nothing, that stuff's pretty cheap. Hehe.... Haruka: What other delicious foods are there? Kiryu: Well next time, we'll have to take a look around the market. Rikiya: (I'm doomed... They both want to go to the market even more... I gotta hurry up and get this rumor dealt with. Guess I'll have to check in with that greenhorn club.) Kiryu: Something wrong, Rikiya? I was going to check in with Nakahara later this evening. Rikiya: At his house? Kiryu: Yep. Apparently he wants to drink awamori with me. Will you be there too? (Tl note: awamori is a traditional okinawan alcohol that has a snake in it) Rikiya: Oh I really wanna but, I kinda got plans tonight already... Kiryu: Really? Why have you been so busy lately? There isn't any trouble, is there? Rikiya: What are ya talking about! There's no trouble at all! Please, just go have fun meeting with my boss for me! Ah, just remember that my boss has a habit of going wild if he drinks too much, and then getting sick. Kiryu: A drunk huh? I'll be careful with him. Rikiya: Well, give my regards to the boss for me! <Rikiya heads downtown> Rikiya: Man, this whole thing has me wondering if I'm even good enough to have Kiryu as my aniki... I really gotta solve this without bothering him. Alright, time to erase these rumors! Rikiya: Buuuuuut... I haven't found hide nor hair of this greenhorn club... Oh, there we go! Greenhorn member: Who's there? What is it this time... Rikiya: You, you're a greenhorn member of the market, yeah? Member: Yeah. I'm the head of... Wait, you! You're that Rikiya guy from the ryudo family! What's Kiryu's brainwashed crony doing here? Are you gonna raid the greenhorn club?! Rikiya: You dumbass. I ain't brainwashed at all. You on the other hand? You spread those fake rumors around the whole market, didn't ya? Member: Kiryu's takeover of the market... Sure, we made sure everyone learned about it. But it ain't a lie... Look at this! Rikiya: Huh? What's all these letters?? Member: These letters were put in the opinion box set up in the market. Rikiya: Opinion box? Member: Customers at the market write any problems and put it in the box. In the middle of all those was this letter. Read it yourself... Rikiya: "Please help me. Kiryu Kazuma is going to take over the market soon! The Ryudo family protecting the market can't compete with Kiryu. That's because... Kiryu is brainwashing their captain, Rikiya. In addition, Kiryu intends to kill the ryudo patriarch Nakahara." Rikiya: ...The hell is this letter! Who put this in the opinion box?! Member: Who knows. It was an anonymous tip. Rikiya: What, you guys just trust this anonymous tip completely?! Member: Hey, we didn't act on it at first. You own the deed to Morning Glory, if Kiryu did anything you could evict him. And obviously Kiryu couldn't brainwash a guy like you. But then, one day it all changed... Member: Out of nowhere you start calling your supposed enemy Kiryu, aniki, and you start pining* after him! (Tl note: to yearn for, long for, pine for, miss, love dearly, adore..... hot damn) Member: There's no way that would have happened besides you getting brainwashed! So that meant the letter was true!! Rikiya: No, that ain't right at all! It's just....! Member: Thought so. We got a new anonymous tip in the box today. Go on. Read it. Rikiya: "Kiryu Kazuma is going to poison the patriarch of the ryudo family... " Huh? Poison? Why the hell would he do something like that! Member: Huh? Hey, look over there! That man walking around... <Kiryu and Haruka walk by> Rikiya: A-Aniki....!? Haruka: Hey, uncle Kaz? Kiryu: What is it, Haruka? Haruka: Are you really going to give this to Nakahara-san for him to drink? Kiryu: Heh... if Nakahara tries to refuse it I'll just *make* him drink it. (Tl note: this sentence is really confusing, intentionally, but basically Kiryu is going to make sure Nakahara drinks something, which could be the poison) Haruka: Well, I guess you're already pretty strong. Though, is it really that potent? Kiryu: Don't worry. This method has been used for a long time. Kiryu: Well, we should hurry. I'm going to be late for meeting up with Nakahara. Member: See! You heard that just now, right?! Rikiya: Now hold on a minute! There's been kind of a misunderstanding! Member: Everyone get out here! Goons: What is it boss? Member: Kiryu is on his way to kill Nakahara right now! Goons: What! Then that anonymous tip we got today was right! Member: C'mon, let's all go and kill Kiryu! Goons: Yeah! We'll catch him before he makes it to Nakahara! Rikiya: Wait! Calm down! Member: Can it, Rikiya! We'll kill you too if we gotta! Rikiya: Go on and try me then! You're not making it an inch further! <Rikiya obliterates them> Member: Ugh... We gotta protect Nakahara.....! Rikiya: Seriously, my aniki isn't gonna kill my boss.... Rikiya: But what exactly were he and Haruka-chan talking about...? Nah, couldn't be. I do want to head after them and see what's up though..... Haruka: I know you said it's been used for a long time, but is that really true? Kiryu: Yeah, I heard the grown ups in ryudo talking about it. Kiryu: If you drink milk before drinking alcohol it coats your stomach, so it's harder to get sick from it... At least that's what they said. Haruka: Hmm! Well, I hope Nakahara-san will drink this milk. Kiryu: Ah, we're just a corner away from the office now. Rikiya, who has been tailing them: Ah... So that's what it was..... <returns to the greenhorns> Member: Huh? It's milk? That's an awful shitty lie, Rikiya! Rikiya: I think my aniki is just... a little scary with his speaking. And his looks. Even when he's talking about normal things it ends up sounding scary. Are you sure the comment box person didn't just misunderstand something Kiryu said? Member: No. There's multiple reports, and they come at different times of day and have different handwriting. You really think *all* those people listened to him and misunderstood in the same way? Don't be ridiculous. Rikiya: That's... well... Member: The real problem is you, Rikiya! Defending Kiryu with such a horribly flimsy excuse! I think you got brainwashed even harder than we expected. Did he embed something in your head? Rikiya: Huh? member: I saw it on TV! They put a chip in your body to control you remotely! Is that what Kiryu did to you!? Rikiya: Uh, no, that's... Member: D-Don't come any closer! You and Kiryu, that's more than we can handle! You guys... You're no longer human!! You're monsters!! Rikiya: Sheesh... This rumor just keeps getting bigger and bigger... <END>

<Kiryu, back at Morning Glory> Kiryu: Shit... I've already beaten (Tl note: punished, tormented) this guy for 2 hours and they're still hanging on. What a horribly stubborn bastard. Kiryu: I guess next I could submerge them in some boiling water? No, I have a hand at stake here... Haruka: What was that uncle Kaz? Did you drop something? Kiryu: Nah, I didn't drop anything. This frying pan has oil stains. (Tl note: KIRYU I THOUGHT IT WAS A LEECH AT LEAST. WHY DO YOU TALK LIKE THIS) Rikiya: (.....He was talking about oil stains...... For a minute there I thought he was torturing someone..... No wonder the anonymous comment box had messages like that, they must have misunderstood what aniki was talking about...) Rikiya: Hey, aniki. Have you ever thought about, uh, speaking in a little more friendly way? Kiryu: Huh? A more friendly way? Rikiya: Well, you've got kind of an intimidating way of talking, you know? It might make people think you're a lot scarier than you are... Kiryu: Has someone been misunderstaning me? Rikiya: No, nothing like that... Though I'd be pretty bad is nasty rumors started spreading about you at the market, right? It's not like you could go to each person in the market individually and clear up that kind of misunderstanding...... Kiryu: I'm not worried about that. Rikiya: Eh? Kiryu: Where do you go to untie a tangled up string? It's the "root" of it that's tangled, not the tip, right? It might look like a massive knot, but the base cause might be a little twist at the base. If you solve that, the rest will follow. Rumors and misunderstandings are the same. Rikiya: I getcha..... So basically, if you solve the first misunderstanding, it'll solve everything else?! Kiryu: Mhm. Everything stems from the root. Both for tangling and untangling. Rikiya: (All I gotta do is find the original person who submitted that rumor anonymously! Time to find them and solve this misunderstanding! Now that I know that, I better go keep an eye on the opinion box!) Rikiya: Thanks! Aniki! Kiryu: ...Hm? What happened to having nasty rumors spread about me? Rikiya: Wh-What are ya talking about! There's nothing like that happening! All the locals know you're a big softie! Kiryu: Speaking of the locals, what ever happened to that invasion of the market? Rikiya: Sorry! I... Gotta go right now! See ya! <Rikiya hurries to the market> Clerk 1: Hey, did you hear? Kiryu's putting chips in people's heads if they oppose him... Clerk 2: So for the rest of my life I'd end up being a brainwashed slave for Kiryu... Rikiya: (This rumor is seriously out of hand... I better hurry up and catch whoever's putting these things in the box. Though... I've been watching the box for a while now and no one's put in any letters... Well, guess I'll just have to camp out here every day until I catch the person behind it... Hm? Those men...?) <goons enter> Rikiya: (They look kinda familiar... That's right! Those are the assholes from the greenhorn club. Are they here to fight? That would make a huge mess here... Wait, the guy on the right has a letter in his hand...?) <goon puts it in the box> Rikiya: (He put it in! Why would the bouncers...? Are they the ones making up these rumors about Kiryu this whole time!? Was all this so they'd get hired as bouncers?! That's gotta be it!!) <Rikiya barges in> Rikiya: Hey, hold up! Goon: R-Rikiya?! What are you doing here?! Rikiya: I just saw you putting a letter in the opinion box, and I'm gonna check it out. Goon: Wh-What!! You can't do that, that's an anonymous message!! Rikiya: I'm pretty impatient about this. Did you put in another bad letter thinking I wouldn't see it? Goon: This doesn't concern you! You're not laying a single finger on that opinion box! Rikiya: Oh? Are you saying I can't see that letter without laying you out? That's fine! Come at me! I'll keep beating you down as many times as it takes! <Rikiya makes good on his word> Goon: Ow....... Don't touch that letter...... Rikiya: I'm gonna ignore your advice. Now let's see, here's the letter you put in... What do we have here~ "A complaint about the greenhorn club. The greenhorn club has not properly compensated the bouncers hired to prepare for Kiryu's invasion of the market. The greenhorn club should pay the bouncers as agreed." ...The hell? Goon: You happy? This is all your fault... The greenhorns said "we're not gonna pay that much to a bouncer who loses to Rikiya"! They went and cut our pay without even negotiating with us... so this is a letter of protest! Rikiya: So, you weren't the one behind the rumors about my aniki... Well, shit. Goon: I have no idea what you're talking about! Rikiya: Whatever, it's fine. You just head on home. If I see you here again though, I'm not gonna be so lenient. Goon: Damnit! <goon leaves, running directly into the tourist woman from the start of this> Tourist: Kya! Goon: Look where you're going, you moron! Rikiya: Are you okay, lady? Tourist: Ah, yeah, sorry. Rikiya: You... We met before, right? We were talking about the rumors about my aniki Kiryu? Tourist: Yeah, it's been a while! Rikiya: I guess you come to the market to shop pretty often. Huh? That in your hand... is that a letter? Tourist: Ah, this is, uh, well... Rikiya: Do ya mind if I take a peek? Tourist: N-No way! Rikiya: It's not decent to read a woman's letter without her permission, but the circumstances are dire... I'll give it back! <Rikiya swipes the letter> Rikiya: What do we got... "A follow up to Kiryu Kazuma's take over plan. Once he takes over the market, he'll start demanding expensive protection rackets from each store. Anyone who can't pay up, he'll kill, and make it look like an accident." ...So you're the one behind this!! Tourist: Uh, this is...!! Rikiya: This "follow-up" is all made up, isn't it!? Lady, who the hell are you!? What's the meaning of all this?! <END>

<directly following the previous one, Rikiya is questioning this tourist lady> Rikiya: Why the hell are you doing thing...!? These rumors about my aniki...?! Tourist: They aren't rumors! Kiryu Kazuma comes to my shop every week. Rikiya: Shop? Tourist: I'm a waitress at a coffee shop on the outskirts of ryukyu. Rikiya: My aniki goes there? But these rumors, it's just not adding up! First of all, why would a normal kid like you even know who Kiryu is? Waitress: Because he keeps calling himself that name on the phone... Rikiya: Phone? Waitress: He's always talking to someone. Every time he answers he says "It's me. Kiryu Kazuma." Rikiya: Okay, yeah, that's how aniki answers the phone, but who's he talking to? Waitress: I don't know. But every time he's always making plans to take over the market... First let's brainwash the captain of the ryudo family... Then let's poison the patriarch... Rikiya: You heard him say the stuff in your letters? Waitress: Yes. I didn't think there would be anyone who could protect the market... but if I could warn them, then at least Kiryu wouldn't be able to kill anyone... Rikiya: So you put a message in the opinion box then. Waitress: Yes. I'd heard that the greenhorn club were pretty strong. So if I could let them know, maybe they'd be able to stop Kiryu.... Rikiya: Miss, the guy you've been seeing at the coffee shop is not Kiryu Kazuma. It's a fake. (Tl note: Rikiya this is a wild assumption. I love it) Waitress: I can't believe that... But, how about you come to the coffee shop right now and see for yourself. Rikiya: What, right now? Waitress: Yes. Middle aged man: Could you wait a moment? Right now, did you say that Kiryu's in a coffee shop? That's strange. I just saw him and the convenience store. Rikiya: Eh? Middle aged man: I'm the manager and was just at the store a little while ago, and I saw Kiryu arrive. Rikiya: Was Kiryu possibly talking on a cellphone? Manager: Yeah. He was talking to someone, I don't know who. It was about a plan to take over the market... So, I eavesdropped, and I wrote this letter on what I heard to put into the opinion box. Man: I wrote the same thing in my letter from when he visited my store. Rikiya: You too...?? Man: He was in my barber shop. I heard him talking to someone on the phone about a plan to take over the market. Rikiya: Hey, hey! Is there a fake Kiryu Kazuma running around town!? We gotta get to that coffee shop! Lead the way, lady! Waitress: Yes! <they go> goon 1: Do you think it worked at the convenience store? goon 2: It went great. The manager was pretending not to listen, but he clearly was! goon 3: The barber too. He wrote down the whole conversation! goon 1: Hehehe... Perfect. It worked even with no one on the other end of the phone. goon 3: Well, think it's time to head back and see what the greenhorn club has to say about these letters? goon 1: Yeah. Seems they hired some chinpira to be their bouncer, but a goon like that can't handle Rikiya. That's something I plan on taking care of myself. goon 3: So, next time they'll hire a stronger guy, right? They're counting on someone to save the market they love so much. goon 1: Well, if they can find anyone that has the balls to take on Kiryu. With Kiryu seen as a threat ryudo family will lose their backing. They're gonna be shaking in their boots. Then the market will be easy pickings for us... the Tamashiro Family. goon 3: Hehehe... Man, inciting the citizens to wipe out Kiryu for us is a great plan. goon 1: Ain't it! We don't even get our hands dirty, they'll do all the hard work for us. We're gonna fly up the ranks of the Tamashiro Family for this one! goon 3: Yeah. But we gotta keep it a secret from the higher ups till it succeeds, I don't want them stealing all the credit. goon 1: Yeah... Alright! Let's head back to the office. Heeey! Check please! Rikiya: Yes sir. Three iced coffees comes out to 15 dollars. goon 1: Sure. Give me a receipt. Rikiya: Right now we're offering a free bonus to all Tamashiro Family members of being beaten half to death. goon 1: Oh, got it. Beaten half to... goon 1: Hey! You! Rikiya of the ryudo family! Rikiya: What made you think this was a good idea. Are you all idiots? Didn't you just join up last year? Your only saving grace is that I didn't tell the higher ups about this plan. If I told them, wouldn't all of you get kicked out of the family entirely? goon 1: What are you saying! This plan is going great! Once Kiryu bites it, the market is ours! Rikiya: Moron. You're the one who's going to bite it. goons: Let's teach this brat a lesson! We'll kill you first! <Rikiya kicks their asses> goons: Sh-Shit...! Don't think this is over! We'll have that market!! <they run> Rikiya: Heh, what a bunch of losers. Waitress: Should you chase them down? They might start spreading fake rumors in the city again... Rikiya: Don't worry about it. After today, no one's gonna believe rumors about my aniki Kiryu. Waitress: Are you going to tell the truth to everyone in the market? Rikiya: Yeah. But I can't be the one to say it. Everyone thinks I'm brainwashed, remember? So, can I count on you to explain things? Waitress: You want me to? Rikiya: You're the one who put in the original anonymous message, so it makes sense. If you tell them the truth, it'll unravel this whole tangled web. Waitress: I understand. I'm going to go tell them the truth. Rikiya: Please do. <she leaves> Rikiya: <answering the phone> Hello? Man's voice: Rikiya, you bastard! You've really done it now! Rikiya: That voice... The greenhorn club's leader? Boss: A surprise attack's a real dirty trick! Rikiya: Surprise attack? What are you talking about? Boss: Right now, you've sent Tamashiro members to take over the market! Rikiya: What?! Boss: I should have known Kiryu would brainwash the Tamashiro family too! goon 1, through the phone: I'm smashing everything! This is Kiryu aniki's orders! Boss: S-Stop it!! Rikiya: ...Shit! Those Tamashiro bastards got desperate! I gotta get that lady back from the market!! <she's back at the cofee store> Waitress: What were you talking about when you called me just now? Rikiya: The Tamashiro family is attacking the market! I gotta go stop them! <at the market> goon 1: Ain't this great! Today this market is gonna belong to Kiryu aniki! goon 2: Protection money starts at 1,000,000 yen! Pay up if you don't wanna get squashed! Clerk: Kiryu brainwashed the Tamashiro family too! If I pay that much, I'll go bankrupt! goon 1: I think you'll be lucky number one to pay up. Unless you want Kiryu to show up tomorrow and kill everyone? I'm sure all of you are adults, you can get the money from somewhere! Otherwise Kiryu aniki will... <Kiryu steps in> Kiryu: Otherwise I'll what? (Tl note: YESSSSSSSSSSSSS) goon 1: Ah, this is Kiryu aniki. One second, I have to talk to... goona 1: ....Eh? Kiryu?! Why are you here?! Kiryu: Am I not allowed to shop? I thought the market was open to everyone. goon 1: Y-Yeah...! This market is for everyone...! Especially for aniki! Hahaha! goon 1: Please enjoy the market as much as you like!! We're just gonna get out of your way..!!! Kiryu: Wait. Kiryu: How about you step aside? Something doesn't feel right here. goon 1: Y-Yes sir. (This is my first time seeing him in person, he's so strong! I'm scared!) <Kiryu looks at the letter submitted> Kiryu: I've brainwashed the Tamashiro Family? I'm going to take over the market? Kiryu: Well, looking back on how Rikiya has been acting and talking lately, I've got a pretty good idea on what the situation has been. Clerk 2: K-Kiryu really did come here!! Please, spare my life...!! Kiryu: I'm not going to take over the market or kill any of you. All of that has been a lie from the Tamashiro Family. Clerk 2: You can't fool me! You're a villanous mainlander! Aren't you going to kill me if I can't pay protection money?! Clerk 2: Well, I'm not just gonna roll over and die! I'll cut you to shreds... with this butcher knife! Kiryu: I'm not going to kill you, are you even hearing what I'm saying? Clerk 2: Yeah. I'll believe you if you just let me stab you quietly! Not like that's gonna happen! Do you have weapons hidden around here? A gun? A dagger? What are you going to kill me with? Kiryu: Nope, I came to this market unarmed. Kiryu: Stab me. The heart's on your right. Clerk 2: I-I'm gonna do it! I'm really gonna stab you! Kiryu: Yep. I'm ready. Clerk 2: Hnn....! Hnnnnnn.....!! Dieee!!!!!! goon 1: (Woah! he did it! That's the end of Kiryu!) Kiryu: ...What is it? Why did you stop? clerk 2: What is this? What the hell is all of this!? Kiryu: I want you to believe me. So, this is what I'm doing. clerk 2: You'd throw away your life for a reason like that...? Kiryu: Believing in someone isn't a superficial thing. Especially when you're a stranger to me, trust is hard to build. But, I have to believe in people. I do it for all the orphans living at morning glory. Kiryu: If I, the caretaker, go behind their backs like this, those children won't be able to keep living here. clerk 2: So this... for those children? Kiryu: Yes. I would gladly risk my life to care for them. clerk 2: You, who only thinks of those children even at risk to your body... Can't be the same person who plans to take over this market... clerk 1: I feel the same... You just aren't the kind of guy I've heard about in the rumors! clerk 2: I've decided! I believe Kiryu! clerk 1: Yes, me too! goon 1: (Shit! This is all falling apart!) Kiryu: Hold on a minute, Mister Tamashiro Family Member. goon 1: Wh-What for..?! Kiryu: I'm not the one that needs anything from you, it's them. Clerk 1: Is this all your doing? You spread these terrible rumors and scared us all? Clerk 2: We'll make you feel just as intimidated as we were! You dirty rat! (Tl note: the actual phrase here is an okinawan one meaning he can't be place upwind cause he'd make everything downwind stink) <fade to black> Rikiya: Ha.. Ha...! Where are they? Where's teh Tamashiro family? Goons, beaten to shit: H-help me...! Rikiya: You're, Tamashiro family? goons: We're never gonna come back to this scary ass market again! Rikiya: They hell is going on??? Clerk 2: Rikiya. Rikiya: Meat clerk? Clerk 2: You really weren't brainwashed... We were all wrong... Please, forgive me! Rikiya: Oookay, why are you saying this all the sudden? Clerk 2: We were all brought to our senses. By that guy's manly energy. <Kiryu walks over> Rikiya: A-Aniki!! What are you doing here!? Kiryu: Shake off that shock, you've got a market to show me around, right? Rikiya: What do they mean by, you brought them to their senses with your manly energy? Kiryu: Don't worry about that. There is one thing I don't understand though. You've known about these bad rumors the whole time. Why did you hide it from me? If you'd told me about it earlier it never would have gotten this messy. Rikiya: That was... I had told you before that the people at the market were all kind hearted, and my pride as your otouto (Tl note: opposite of aniki) wouldn't let me make myself a liar like that... I wanted to solve it myself! I didn't want to bother you aniki! Kiryu: We haven't actually exchanged oaths. You just call me aniki. Rikiya: ................ Kiryu: However, if we were really kyoudai, you should bother your aniki a lot. That's the otouto's job. Rikiya: Eh? Kiryu: You said that's your pride as an otouto? I have the same pride as an aniki. I can't allow myself to be taken care of by my otouto. So next time, when there's any trouble, come to me right away for advice. Kiryu: ......Then I'll be happy for you to call me aniki. Rikiya: Uuu... Aniki! Thank you so much! Clerk 2: Hehe. You got yourself a real fine aniki Rikiya! Kiryu-san, we can't apologize to you enough. I fell for those rumors and thought you were a terrifying person. I'm so sorry. Kiryu: It's all fine. By the way, you run a meat store, right? Clerk 2: Yes. We've got every delicious thing you could want, I'll give it to you on the house! Kiryu: Oh, no. I couldn't impose on your like that... That butcher knife however... Clerk 2: The knife... Wh-What do you want to use it on...? Kiryu: For offing. (Tl note: the specific term is シメる which is yakuza slang for killing someone, based on strangling them) Clerk 2: Offing? Kiryu: Why do people never understand me. I'm going to use it to kill. Clerk 2: But I thought... that you weren't a scary person! H-H-Help me!! <he flees> Rikiya: Hold up, what did you mean by that?! You were gonna kill with it?! Kiryu: Hm? Oh, I just bought this at the fish market... Rikiya: That's... a gurukun!? Kiryu: I came to buy it, since it had been forever and you still hand't brought me one. If you ask the fishmonger for a very fresh one, he'll sell you ones that are still alive. But since it's hard to carry with it thrashing around in the bag, I wanted to just off it here. Rikiya: So that's what you meant.......... Aniki, you remember what I was saying to you a while ago? About trying to speak in a more friendly way? Kiryu: Yeah. I've been working on that little by little. Rikiya: Then what was that! Half of this whole thing is your fault cause you sound like a really bad dude! No one would have believed the rumors if you actually sounded like as nice of a guy as you are! Kiryu: Heh, finally the old, hotblooded Rikiya has returned... Great, now I can finally enjoy Rikiya's guided tour of the market. Please show me around thoroughly. It's time to begin our tour. Rikiya: Wait, aniki! Stop just running off on your own...! Jeez~ I guess it can't be helpeddd~ <END>

Bonus facts: okay this isn’t really a fact but my husband walked by while I was reading this and said it was a Rikiya dating sim

By the way, here’s the word I was kind of losing my mind about. It’s uh. It’s a lot tbh.

He also has thoughts on most of the Y3 cast as he goes around the board, here’s his one for Kiryu.

Kiryu no aniki I had no idea a person even greater than my boss existed... No, greater than anyone in the whole wide world!

#rggo #ryu ga gotoku #ryu ga gotoku online #yakuza #Kiryu #Haruka #Rikiya

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itsybitsylemonsqueezy · 4 years

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Hi! I happened to stumble across your analyses on both Majima and Saejima and boy am I blown away by them! You captured their personalities so well it’s awespiring. Is there a chance you’ll write a post about Kiryu as well? It’s just that originally I’ve had a hard time liking him as a character because of the numerous mistakes he has made across the series (and the fact that others don’t really address them for some reason). Despite that I’m a huge fan of kazumaji and that’s why I feel conflicted sometimes. Anyway, I would really like to hear your thoughts about it!

Awww, you’re very kind ^^; Thanks for asking for more c: So, the reason why I haven’t yet made a post about Kiryu is NOT due to my lack of feelings about him, it’s quite the opposite. I have essays worth of feelings about Kiryu and just... have not found the time to really give those feelings credit ^^; But, since you ask and you’re having a hard time with his character, let me at least start.

As a preamble, let me first say that there’s a difference between a character making a mistake and the writing making a mistake. This is not to say Kiryu never makes mistakes, far from it. I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu’s mistakes, they’re one of the reasons I love him, but a lot of the more egregious fuck ups are the writers making weak or poorly thought out choices. For example, like you point out, Kiryu makes mistakes and no one ever calls him out for it... that’s a writing flaw, not a problem with Kiryu.

(Please note that to give my best reading of Kiryu, I’m going to reference as many games as I have seen, which is through game 6. If you do not wish to be spoiled through at least game 5 (I never reference game 6 if I can help it), do not read further.)

Continuing with that example... I cannot tell you how simultaneously OVERJOYED and FURIOUS I am about game 3 when Mine, MINE YOSHITAKA, a character who was introduced that game and then never appears again, is the only person who criticizes Kiryu’s decisions when he has DEMONSTRABLY made bad ones! Like, Mine’s criticisms are ENTIRELY valid, but because they come out of his mouth it’s hard to say if the audience is meant to sympathize or not. Especially since Mine is sort of the antagonist of that game and he’s not really pitched as a sympathetic character. You have to really be willing to be critical of Kiryu to hear what Mine’s saying there and agree with him. The way the scene is played, you’re sort of supposed to still identify with Kiryu and insist that he’s never done anything wrong ever, even though he’s put all of his friends in a vulnerable position and IS arguably to blame for the state Daigo’s in now, as Mine points out.

And the writing is on some level aware that it is Kiryu’s fault or they wouldn’t have brought it up. They wouldn’t have had Mine say that if they didn’t see that problem. But the problem is they’re afraid of letting Kiryu be flawed. They’re afraid that if Kiryu’s wrong, even once, he won’t be The Good Guy anymore and the audience won’t like him anymore. This is weak and cowardly writing. Characters aren’t compelling because they’re never wrong, characters are compelling from what they do when they’re wrong. Any character who’s never wrong is unrealistic and, ultimately, boring. We all fuck up, we’re all only human. You ultimately will not identify with an infallible god because they would make choices you wouldn’t. I’m sure we can all think of characters who were pitched to us as infallible that, sooner or later, we ended up hating because of this very trait. So trying to pitch Kiryu as infallible is a ginormous mistake. But an understandable one, especially in a franchise that depends on the likability of its main character. But this means that they don’t trust their own writing, they don’t trust Kiryu’s inherent appeal and they fuck up the story around refusing to take risks. It’s one of the most heartbreaking writing decisions for me that those words come out of Mine’s mouth and not one of Kiryu’s friends.

Because it’s Kiryu’s friends who deserve to get to say that. It’s Kiryu’s friends, the people who are directly affected by his actions and the people who CARE about Kiryu, who have the right to criticize him. Not some fucking young blood with a chip on his shoulder. Having Mine say it makes the criticism look biased an illegitimate when it isn’t. I understand the writing impulse to not let us criticize Kiryu, but think how much more compelling it would be to show that Kiryu’s relationships are strong enough to handle criticism. That the trust and love is there for a friend to come to Kiryu with this and to force Kiryu to confront himself and listen rather than ignore the problems and insist that he’s never done anything wrong. But to make that call, to let us doubt Kiryu, you, as the writer, have to trust your story, you have to trust your character, and, worst of all, you have to trust your audience. Many many writers of popular media do not trust their audiences. They don’t trust that if they let you doubt, you’ll come with them and see where the story leads. They’re afraid you’ll lose interest and turn away. Many writers feel that they cannot take the risk of trusting their writing for fear of losing their base and therefore their income.

And, again, part of the issue is the aims of the story. At the end of the day, RGG is here to produce a fighting video game, that’s it. Wrapping that up in a compelling story makes it more sellable, but their primary focus isn’t the story itself. It’s getting you to buy a fighting video game. If the mechanics aren’t up to par, if they fights aren’t cool and interesting, the rest doesn’t matter. RGG came up with a story to link the games together and invested in making an interesting protag, but it was to sell the games. If the point of this story was the story, I think we’d be seeing different writing decisions and maybe some of these flaws could have been avoided. And I don’t actually mean to point this out as a criticism and say why aren’t they creating art for art’s sake? I mean it really as a grain of salt that I personally use to try not to hold the writing here up to the standard that I would a novel or something. That may not be useful perspective for anyone else, but it’s a thing I like to keep in mind.

So, part of what we see in Kiryu is that the writing fucking sucks. And it’s fair not to want to redeem Kiryu’s character or dig deeper into him when the writing hasn’t provided you with much. So no one feel bad if you’re not persuaded by my assessment, I’m not here to shame or convince anyone, I’m just offering my two cents.

And now alllll of that said... Let’s talk about my boy, Kiryu Kazuma.

I said earlier that characters are compelling based on how they react to mistakes, how they deal with them. Let me tell you, Kiryu is aware that he’s made mistakes. And he has regrets.

What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he tries so fucking hard to do the right thing, all the fucking time. What I find compelling about Kiryu is that he wants so much to make people happy, to make people proud of him. He is scared all the time of doing wrong by people and making himself untrustworthy, making himself scary. He has lost so much, he has lost everything and he still gets up every goddamn day and tries.

Does he fuck up? YES. ABSOLUTELY. ALL THE FUCKING TIME. But he gets up. Every. Fucking. Day. And tries. And you can’t buy that. You can’t ask for that. That’s just who he is, a guy who tries.

I don’t... have time to explain the depths of my love for Kiryu, but let’s take my favorite Kiryu, what I think the best characterization of Kiryu is in the entire fucking series: game 5. Game 5 Kiryu is my favorite fucking Kiryu, including 1, including Zero, bar fucking none. I fucking love game 5 Kiryu.

And Game 5 begins with a colossal mistake.

Before the game starts, Kiryu is convinced, either earnestly or nefariously, to leave his little family and specifically abandon AHEM release his daughter Haruka to someone else. This is the stupidest fucking thing Kiryu’s done since giving up the chairmanship. But he does it because he is told that he is a greater threat to his family WITH them than abandoning them. I want you to think about that. Kiryu loves his family so much he would sooner leave them than do them harm. I need to remind you that Kiryu has already destroyed and rebuilt his own life once already. He has repeatedly given up everything for his dream of having a family and for all his beautiful kids more than once. And he just loves his little Okinawa home so much, he can’t stand the idea that he would bring it harm, so he fucks off. This is categorically the wrong decision and any other reasonable adult would know this. I’m sure you yourself understand intuitively why a parent, no matter how dubious, can’t just leave a brood of underage children to fend for themselves in the world.

But here’s the thing: Kiryu’s made a number of dumbass decisions that have led him to this point in his life. He doesn’t have any adult, peer friends to counsel him about this. He’s deliberately estranged himself from Majima, from Date, from all the people who could have helped him out here and told him not to. And deep down Kiryu’s always been worried that he was unworthy of this. He’s always been afraid that he didn’t really deserve to be happy, deserve his little family of innocents. And the plot SURE AS FUCK has confirmed that for him, repeatedly putting the kids in danger and reminding him that you can never actually leave the yakuza. Kiryu knows he’s fucked up. He knows adopting his family was a mistake, but it was too late, what was he gonna do now? But here comes this little insidious voice confirming his worst fears, telling him he needs to go, and Kiryu listens. He has no one else to listen to and he’s been so beaten down by the plot by this point, he’s lost so fucking much now, that he doesn’t have the strength to believe in himself anymore. So he goes. Believing that he is doing the right thing.

And then, as it always does, the plot comes for him, telling Kiryu he needs to come help, telling Kiryu only he can fix it. And Kiryu, for the first time in his life, puts his foot down. He’s so fucking tired, he won’t fucking do it, not one more time. Because every time he gets his ass up to help, what happens? Someone else dies. Someone else dies and it’s Kiryu’s fault all over again, and it’s Nishiki all over again, and Kiryu can barely fucking live with himself for all the guilt that he feels. He starts to help and he just loses. Every fucking time. So this time, no, this time he won’t do it. He can’t do it anymore. He just wants... everyone to be okay. And he’s so sure that everyone would be better off without him.

If that’s a huge screaming red flag for anyone else IT SHOULD BE. Kiryu is in a depression spiral. He’s suicidal. He’s cut himself off from all his meaningful relationships, he’s not participating in his favorite hobbies, he’s alone and isolated in a new city where he doesn’t know anyone. He’s Not Doing Good. Game 5 is about finally, FINALLY confronting Kiryu’s demons, all the pent up unresolved guilt and turmoil that we never fucking addressed for 5 games running. (And if you’re hearing Bitter Resentment in the way the games have handled Kiryu’s emotional reactions OH BOY YOU BETCHA but that’s for another post.)

So Kiryu finally says no. He won’t fucking do it. But the plot comes for the fucking carotid. It’s Majima. It’s Majima. The only person Kiryu really, truly trusts. The person Kiryu was relying on to still be there, to be strong, to do the things Kiryu couldn’t. It’s Majima this time. And Kiryu loses his goddamn mind. That was the one thing you had left to take from him, his belief in Majima, and you took it. Kiryu nearly has a psychotic break at the news and decides, fine. Fine. I’ll go fix this, and then I can die. Then it’s over. Because there ain’t nothing left for him now.

And he does. Kiryu gets his ass down there, he solves the fucking problem, and then he does his level best to die there. Because it’s what he feels he deserves. He’s let down everyone. All those losses, all those people... they’re his fault. If he was really the hero, he could have saved them. If he was really a good person, these tragedies wouldn’t keep happening. It must be his fault. Fuck, even Majima died, even Majima... and he wasn’t even there, he couldn’t even have helped him, he just... He abandoned him. And Kiryu feels intensely that guilt and grief for his mistakes and his missed opportunities. And all he can think to do with that feeling... is die. It’s what Nishiki did before him. It’s what Kazama did before that. That’s what you do when you’ve fucked up and you don’t know how to fix it. You die. Then no one has to deal with you anymore.

But Haruka. His daughter. The best thing he ever did. She’s up there on stage and she loves him. She still loves him and wants him to be her dad. She’s been with him the whole time, she knows all about it. And she’s not scared. And she doesn’t think he’s bad. Maybe... maybe he can stay alive then. Maybe it’s okay if Haruka is still his daughter. And against all belief, he finds his way back to Haruka. He stays alive for her. He won’t repeat the mistakes of the past. And maybe... he can learn to do something different this time.

Kiryu... makes mistakes all the time. But he knows. And he feels so guilty. The writing doesn’t always do a great job of showing it. We don’t process Nishiki the way we should. We kill Rikiya for no reason. We forget that game 3 should have been TRIGGERING AS SHIT. And we awkwardly no homo out of Kiryu’s most important relationship while still insisting that it is Kiryu’s most important relationship. The writing is spotty and flawed and sometimes you can barely piece together a coherent narrative out of it.

But at its white burning core is a guy who just keeps trying. Who gets up the next day and tries again. Because he’s lost so much. Because he loves so much. Because he believes there is value in being nice to people and being a good person. And I love that.

#Kiryu Kazuma #Yakuza #I have a lot of feelings about Kiryu Kazuma #have some #major spoilers for game 5 #floweysky

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theropoda · 3 years

Text

remember when i said id post yakuza train of thoughts here. well heres one of those lol, mine yoshitaka flavor. spoilers for yakuza 3

ok so confession. ive spent like 2 or so hours on this post because i have one main thought but its so mangled with 500 other useless thoughts about mine that ive had to write and rewrite and restructure this entire post like 20 times god help me!!!!!! so if this is written in a goddamn incomprehensible manner IM SORRY

b4 i start i wanna say i like mine but i hate the way he's written. i like him cause he's really entertaining to me and yet he feels unpolished in my eyes. on that note if you disagree with that or anything else here i'd love to hear why tbh, maybe you'll change my mind! maybe you won't, but even then i'd come out of it with a different perspective. even if i disagree with someone's ideas on a character i still like hearing them

but here's the Main thing and its that to this day i dont understand mine's motivation. what was he trying to do and why? i have an idea of what an why but if it's true, and it's what the game was conveying,then wow it's really. uh stupid

from what i understand, all of mine's actions in the game stem from the fact that he thinks daigo's gone just because he's in a coma??? like idk if mine thinks daigo's going to die for sure, but it seems as though it doesn't even matter if he's dead, cause to him the moment he's put on life support he's useless???

he literally says (in the remastered version, at least), "if Daigo-san were still alive right now, I never would have gotten involved." "Daigo-san is good as dead." and when kiryu says what the fuck he's literally right there breathing he responds "He's nothing more than a tangle of tubes now. That's not a life worth living." ????????

all his actions are a result of him thinking daigo is dead, gone forever, but he.s Not hes right there son he could come back alive. this shit makes NO sense to me, and it'd've made so much more sense if daigo actually was presumed dead but turned out to be alive at the end of the game, just in hiding or something. mine's actions being the result of him thinking that being on life support is a pathetic existence is SUCH a fucking trip, its so bad. it's true that comatose patients are at risk of passing away, but daigo hasn't!!! he is in a state in which he MIGHT pass away but he hasn't!! why does mine assume he's gone when he's not even..,, i dont understand. ???

COULD THE ENTIRE PLOT OF THE GAME BEEN AVOIDED IF MINE ACTUALLY KNEW HOW COMATOSE PATIENTS AND LIFE SUPPORT WORKED??? MAYBE?? if that's the case then this is such a fuckig liquid snake moment of "i did everything i did because i dont understand how biology [in this case, human medicine] works" ?? GHDFHKJ

hell a more compelling story could've been mine wrecking havoc at an attempt to bring daigo back from his coma, since he himself says "I can't bear to see [daigo] like this"

oh and as for WHAT he's actually doing: ??? i dont know. from what i understand he's just trying to make the tojo more powerful by working with black monday to get that resort $$$?? i guess the moment he thought daigo was gone he just went "oh dw daigo ill make this clan more powerful"?

man idk. if you have a better idea of wtf is going on id be more than happy to hear it thru an ask or w/e

i have a bunch of other issues w him but im too tired. to talk about them so that's for another day ig. toodles

#talking #yakuza #y3 #yakuza meta

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machinegunkissu · 4 years

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Hello there! Can I request for some soft Mine headcanons? After playing Y3 I honestly think this poor dude needs some sweetness in his life.

|| me : trying my damnedest to remember him at first....me 5 hours later : mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm minnie boy.

Mine Yoshitaka

Mine is another one, among many of the cast of characters, that needs a lot of care. It’s very difficult to earn his trust due to his guard being so high up. That is obvious. And if Daigo doesn’t like you, I’m sorry fam but he is not going to like you. Plain and simple. Changing his mind is going to be extremely difficult

Take Him On A Date To The Batting Cages. Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk

He needs a ride or die. When you walk into his life, you need to be prepared to be at his side through good days, bad days, ice cream, and murder. He will give you his all and everything, so please do the same in return. You walk into Mine’s life, you best believe that you are best be there until the end. No dipping out, you hear me?

Assuming his partner is from Japan and native, he happily will teach them English. If his partner is the other way around, he will teach them Japanese. Mine likes to see that excited face light up when they get a phrase or word right, making him proud. This is one of the ultimate bonding activities for him. He feels useful, without being used, and gets to spend time with his partner. Shoulders touching, sleeves rolled. Red pen circling phrases that need to be worked on or corrected

His favorite thing is coming home after a frustrating day and plopping down besides his partner. They pull him over so his head rests upon their shoulder and they play with his hair. “You wanna talk about it?” they’d ask softly. Mine sometimes rants about the day but other times he just relished in the quiet with his partner, playing with his hair. It calms him down and makes him feel truly loved and relaxed. He really couldn’t ask for more.

His partner is his rock. He can go to them for anything and never feel like he is unworthy or being used, The way to know you truly earned that trust is when he finally starts to open up about his feelings and stops talking about work and Daigo. Ask him how he felt about a situation, that’s a perfect way to make him pause and go, o h. You...you actually want to hear about how I felt? Just, invest your time and support in Mine, and he will never leave your side. Once you show him that you would never manipulate or harm him, you are his everything

#mine yoshitaka #yoshitaka mine #yakuza 3 #yakuza #Ryu ga Gotoku #ryu ga gotoku imagines #ryu ga gotoku 3 #fluff #headcanons #i feel like i went in circles with this #ahhh #its 6 am

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dangerouscommiesubversive · 4 years

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Souji/Ian??? Or King with anyone? 7?

Thank you for giving me an out on this one, Anon--I can absolutely see the basis for Souji/Ian as a ship in the show, but I’m not super comfortable with it myself. I can and will, however, happily write you some King/Ucchi (with low-key hints of King/Amy, Ucchi/Amy, and the attendant OT3) with a romantic kiss. (Also, figuring out the details of this one led to a very fun conversation in the car, which started out at “would Ucchi know what chocolate is”--no, he would not--and ended with a ton of goofy headcanons spinning off of the 100 Years After special.)

The Spirit Base has all sorts of little rooms that he doesn't typically go into, but it doesn't seem to have electricity at all, so he's been curious about where Torin might have been hiding a washing machine. As it turns out, there isn't one--Ucchi, when Daigo finds him, has his jacket off, his sleeves rolled up, and his hair up in a bun, and he's doing laundry in a tub of soapy water. His back is to the doorway; he doesn't hear Daigo come in.

"Hey, Ucchi."

Ucchi jumps, nearly splashing himself in the face, and scrambles to his feet. "King-dono! I wasn't expecting you. Please, ah, hold on a moment." He casts around for a moment before finding a towel sitting on a nearby table and drying off his hands and arms. "What brings you here today? Is there a monster to fight?"

"No, not today. Fortunately. Actually, I was looking for you." King holds out the box he brought with both hands, grinning. "Here."

Ucchi accepts the box, looking puzzled. "Thank you, King-dono. Ah...not that I'm not delighted to receive a gift from you, but what is the occasion?"

"They're Valentine's chocolates."

Ucchi's forehead wrinkles.

"Oh right, right, they didn't do Valentine's during the Sengoku, did they, never been great at history. It's a holiday, you give chocolates to guys you like."

Ucchi nods slowly. "Forgive my ignorance, but. What are chocolates?"

Daigo stares at him for a moment before the realization hits. "They didn't have chocolate in the Sengoku either, did they? It's a kind of candy, it tastes like...it's really hard to explain, it's easier to just try them."

"I see." Ucchi still doesn't any less puzzled. "And you give these candies to...comrades?"

"Well, not exactly, mostly it's women giving them to men." Daigo scratches the back of his head nervously. "You know."

There's a long moment before realization dawns, and Ucchi flushes slowly, attractively pink. "I. I see." He looks down at the box in his hands. "Thank you, King-dono. I...regret that I didn't know about this custom, or I would have gotten some for you."

Daigo relaxes minutely; he'd half-expected Ucchi to hand them back to him, or somehow contrive to leave the room and then avoid him for the next few days or forever. "That's all right, you didn't have any reason to know about it." He gestures to the box of chocolates. "Anyway, these are chocolate-covered strawberries, I thought you might enjoy them. Would you like to try one?"

"I'd like that very much, thank you." Ucchi carefully slides the ribbon off the box and takes off the lid, revealing the strawberries in their little paper cups. He lifts one by its green top and inspects it, looking fascinated, holds it to his nose and breathes in the chocolate scent.

When he finally takes a bite his eyes flutter shut. Daigo realizes that he's staring, and furthermore that he's jealous--either of Ucchi, for getting to taste chocolate for the first time, or of the strawberry, for being the subject of Ucchi's reverent attention.

"That is..." Ucchi drops the top of the strawberry back into its paper, blinking. "I can see why one might give these to someone they...admired." He gives Daigo a shy upwards look, which is impressive from someone barely a few centimetres shorter than him. "May I share one with you?"

"I'd love one, if you want to share. Chocolate-covered strawberries are a favorite of mine."

"Here, then. For you." Ucchi picks another strawberry from the box and holds it out.

Grinning, Daigo ducks his head and eats the strawberry directly from Ucchi's hand, lips brushing his fingertips. Ucchi sucks in a sharp breath, but doesn't jerk his hand back, or for that matter look away from him as he savors the bite.

There's an awkward silence between them once Daigo swallows his mouthful, and he breaks it with a question that's been starting to worry him. "Look, like I said, I was never great at history, were there, like...attitudes about kissing during the Sengoku?"

Ucchi turns bright red. "Certainly nothing like the current views on it, I'm sometimes shocked at what people now feel is acceptable in public. Kissing is an extremely intimate act."

"Well..." Daigo glances around. "We're alone right now. Can I kiss you?"

Ucchi swallows visibly and nods.

Daigo takes the box of chocolates from his hands and puts them aside, closing the gap between them with one step. Ucchi doesn't kiss him at first as much as let himself be kissed, but after a moment he sways forward into Daigo's embrace, and his eyes close in the same way they did when he was eating the strawberry.

The laundry sits forgotten in the tub next to them.

Torin glances in through the door of the laundry room and immediately steps back and heads out to the main room of the Base. "I was wondering when King would get around to that."

Amy appears in the entryway a moment later and brightens up when she sees him. "Torin! Hi! Have you seen King anywhere? Or Ucchi?"

Torin glances at the two large, flat boxes she's carrying--both marked "Läderach," one tied with a red ribbon and the other with gold--and makes some quick calculations before saying, "They're both in the laundry room."

#kiryuu daigo #utsusemimaru #kyouryuuger #fanfiction #anonamouse

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yakuzacanons · 9 months

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Hello there 🌷

I really appreciate your work 💖 enjoying every single post hehe ☺️

Can I request hcs, how the boys would react when they find out that s/p has cheated on them? (like s/o has been lonely bc the boys are always busy...) Thank you in advance. Have a nice day 🍀

Sorry for the late response, this one is going to be tricky. I don't think there's really ever a good reason to cheat so I won't be justifying why the boys get cheated on, but I will cover how they react to it. Having said that, this one will be fairly brief but I hope you like it. Headcanons below the cut as always.

Also, first time introducing Shinada to the gang. Get hyped.

Kazuma Kiryu

Disappointed more than anything. Kiryu doesn't ask for much and always does his best and in the end he will blame himself for your infidelity. He won't outright end things but he'll never be the same. Eventually, he will break it off down the line as he feels the trust is shattered and no matter how much time has passed, he can't shake the feeling that it could happen again.

Majima Goro

Hope you're ready to get ghosted if you cheat on this man because that is absolutely what will happen. The second Majima finds out, he's gone. You won't see or hear from him again. There's no if, and, or but about it. After all it took for him to open up and trust you, you broke him. That's exactly what he was always afraid of and you just proved him right.

Akiyama Shun

Goes straight into denial mode. Might actually BEG you to stay because he'll blame himself for not giving you enough. Mostly, he blames his trauma from past relationships. Chances are you won't hear from him for a couple of days because he'll go into a little depression hermit crisis mode. He'll stick around to try to make it work but you can tell his energy is totally sapped from the relationship.

Saejima Taiga

Doesn't get mad, just gets distant. Out of all the boys, he's most likely to try to forgive you for this. He may even actually "get over it", in a sense that the thought of it doesn't upset him much anymore. However, he will be noticeably more distant. He won't call or text as much and when he does, his replies will be much shorter. He'll be less open with you.

Tanimura Masayoshi

Gets dejected as hell. He knows he's a busy man but damn if he didn't try his best only for it not to be enough. Very inexperienced with love and chances are you are his first or second relationship ever, so it's a huge blow to him. Will try to hide how upset he feels to make things work but he's terrible at hiding it. Cries himself to sleep when he first finds out.

Ryuji Goda

He'll just break up with you on the spot. If you're living together, he'll arrange for one of his employees to pack your things and drive you into Sotenbori. He won't even see you out the door. He is hurt but it's more so that he feels all the work he's put into the relationship was a waste of time and Ryuji hates to waste his time and energy. Moves on the quickest out of all the boys.

Nishikiyama Akira

Will never stop asking why, even if he stops asking you directly and out loud, he will never stop wondering why it happened. It's a huge blow to his confidence. He will become much more timid because he's afraid of doing something that will cause you to cheat again because he thinks it's his fault. Will likely ghost you slowly over time.

Daigo Dojima

He'll cry when he's entirely alone. Things are so hard for Daigo as is. He is trying very hard to not let this break him. Will try to salvage the relationship but he's also not trusting of you at all so it'll end up being a sleeping-in-separate rooms situation, all the while he stares at the ceiling late at night wishing it could be the way it was again. Daigo genuinely panics and feels trapped, wondering what he could've done, if he can prevent this from happening, and if he even wants to bother trying anymore. The chances of him leaving you are low, so he'll likely let himself get cheated on again unfortunately.

Mine Yoshitaka

King of giving you the cold shoulder. He won't shut you out entirely but if you want to fix things, you will have to WORK at it. Mine's logically driven so he'll be watching to see if you can prove that this relationship is what you want. It's basically like winning his heart over from the very start all over again.

Tatsuo Shinada

Only one of the boys to cry outright upon hearing the news. Will be inconsolable. Cries loud and hard. He'll let you decide what to do with the relationship because once this happens, he just doesn't care anymore. He's so dejected and hurt that if you wanted to leave, it wouldn't bother him because he's already feeling his lowest. If you decide to stay, it will take a LOT of reassurance to get him back to himself in any capacity.

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restoringinterest · 5 years

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Dororo episode 17

I need to talk about this one. It seemed like such a pure episode the first time I watched it, but now that I’ve watched it again, I’m seeing it in ways I didn’t see the first time around.

My findings:

1. Jukai fears that he has ruined Hyakkimaru’s soul by raising him and teaching him to kill.

2. Hyakkimaru is sometimes like a living doll from a horror movie but also is so precious I could cry.

Long Summary + Analysis

At the start of the episode, we see that Jukai has given up on helping people. He just goes between bodies passing out limbs that dead men can’t use. He’s completely resigned to death when Hyakkimaru shows up.

And Jukai’s flashbacks create a clear image of how he feels about Hyakkimaru.

He remembers him as a very small child, giving him limbs, him sitting in the river, and then he remembers teaching Hyakkimaru how to fight, him returning home covered in wounds. The scene cuts back to the present. Hyakkimaru is there, covered in the demon’s blood. He was once a sweet child, then Jukai taught him to fight. Now he’s a murder machine.

“You’re so… How terrifying you are.”

The only thing worse than these words is Hyakkimaru’s reaction to them.

No reaction.

He does react to Jukai nuzzling his forehead by copying the action and smiling. I think there’s only two options. He either doesn’t understand Jukai’s words or he does, but that doesn’t exactly matter. In both cases Hyakkimaru just assumes this person is saying something positive because why wouldn’t he? Jukai has only ever done good things for him as far as he knows. Jukai is a good soul that gave him food and legs and sword arms and a goddamn spine.

Then, in the category of “things that must have happened,” Hyakkimaru doesn’t speak or show that he can hear while Jukai washes Hyakkimaru’s clothes and cleans the blood off of him. It’s great because this is what their relationship has always been. Silence, caretaking, and cleaning up blood.

It’s sweet to see Hyakkimaru able to say what’s going on in his head to Jukai. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much exactly what Jukai feared. After a very sweet reunion, Hyakkimaru points out his leg. “This. I use it to fight. I want another. The same. I want.”

Hyakkimaru has always been a bit doll-like, but in this episode, he really takes it to horror movie levels. The way he says “I want” (hoshii) repeatedly through the episode is a bit unsettling. It doesn’t help that he’s like… half naked during this part of the episode.

When Jukai changes the subject, Hyakkimaru asks again. He grabs the prosthetic leg he wants and says, “This. I want this.” Jukai is surprised, insisting on making food first. It’s pretty clear that he’s stalling.

After Hyakkimaru explains that he doesn’t need help with food anymore because he can feel hot and cold. He also just lets his little bag with the crest fall to the floor without reacting. It’s one of those little things that makes him look less human if only because the natural response is to reach for anything you drop. I know his hand are full, but it’s still bizarre to watch. Hyakkimaru doesn’t always have normal reactions to things.

He also tells Jukai all about Daigo, the demons, his body, and the deal. He tells Jukai everything. He hugs Hyakkimaru. Again, Hyakkimaru smiles when receiving affection. It’s cute but super weird. “I found you and raised you, only to make you live in hell.” These aren’t words that make people smile.

Then Hyakkimaru points to the leg again. “I need that. I want that.”

This is when Jukai finally backs off of Hyakkimaru. Hyakkimaru has finally revealed just how one-track-minded he is when it comes to killing demons and getting his body back. He revealed how hasn’t thought through what destroying Daigo’s land will do to the people. Hyakkimaru is mechanical. He doesn’t put thought into why he does anything. He just knows to kill red souls. There are demons, and, regardless of who it effects, Hyakkimaru wants to kill them.

“You may look more human on the outside, but have you not become less human on the inside?”

Damn man. Jukai knows Hyakkimaru has killed people, that he was more “innocent” before he started getting his body back, before he started fighting. I would say, yes, in that sense, Hyakkimaru was more human before he grew an obsession for regaining his body. However, he didn’t really become obsessed until he learned about Daigo.

When Hyakkimaru could not hear or talk, Jukai could apply whatever meaning to Hyakkimaru’s actions that he wanted. It’s pretty common to apply your own feelings to another person and think they feel the same as you. Now that Hyakkimaru can talk, Jukai is confronted with the reality that Hyakkimaru has his own mindset, and, as far as Jukai knows, it’s the worst-case scenario. Hyakkimaru only wants to keep killing. He’s only here for a leg because it’s easier to fight demons when he has legs.

Jukai knows that killing more demons will only put the blood of humans on his hands. He doesn’t want Hyakkimaru to be a killer. He doesn’t want Hyakkimaru to live the with the guilt of killing people even if it isn’t clear if Hyakkimaru would ever feel guilty. He wants Hyakkimaru to be good and to be as human as he can.

He breaks the leg. “I cannot save you. I cannot.”

Hyakkimaru remembers his mom saying something similar, but I feel like these are different sentiments. I my mind, his mother was saying she couldn’t save Hyakkimaru’s body and life from the demons he was sacrificed to. On the other hand, Jukai is saying he can’t save Hyakkimaru’s soul that he played a part in ruining.

Then a landslide traps them in the cave. (It’s a bottle episode!)

Hyakkimaru starts digging out the cave entrance while Jukai questions him. Does he really want to go back into a world full of evil? Does he really want his body back? His body might be a burden, does he really want it? Hyakkimaru continues to say he wants his body sounding increasingly desperate, but then Jukai asks him why he wants it back correctly guessing that Hyakkimaru hasn’t thought through why he wants it.

“Because it’s mine.”

Jukai agrees that he doesn’t need a reason to want his body back, but he explains to Hyakkimaru that he’ll have to kill a lot of people to do it. He’ll make an enemy out all of Daigo’s people and end up having to kill his family. He’ll be alone with only corpses, and he won’t be human.

Hyakkimaru stops digging. “Alone?”

“Yes, alone. I fear that--”

“No. There is somebody.”

“What? Who?”

“Right now,” Hyakkimaru puts his hand where Dororo would usually be and pauses. “Not here.” This is seriously the best dramatic pause I’ve seen in a while. It’s uncomfortably long. The music stopped for it. It’s completely silent with no animation. It gets your attention, and I love it. Having just seen Dororo’s silhouette in the scene before, it’s easy to think of him as trying to figure out why the soul that’s been following him for weeks isn’t there anymore or trying to remember what it felt like to have Dororo there. It’s perfect. And it’s the first hint to Jukai that Hyakkimaru actually thinks about anything besides killing demons. It’s a very small, very humanizing moment.

Hyakkimaru goes back to digging.

When they get out, there’s a demon tree and Hyakkimaru does his thing. Jukai contemplates how he may just be like another demon to Hyakkimaru. He doesn’t know how Hyakkimaru sees souls, and he just took away his prosthetic leg as well as whatever damage he did to his soul by helping him live long enough to become a killer. When Hyakkimaru finishes his spree, Jukai looks at Hyakkimaru like he’s completely resigned to believing Hyakkimaru is both unsavable and unstoppable, even without a new leg.

Somewhere off screen, it looks like they had to clean Hyakkimaru up again. He’s always getting covered in blood. Jukai returns the bag with the crest and tells Hyakkimaru that the person he mentioned might be able to keep him human.

Hyakkimaru asks Jukai his name by pointing at himself and saying his name, then pointing at Jukai. Dororo never taught him the word for “name.” Jukai tells Hyakkimaru that he’s nobody, that he doesn’t need to know. Hyakki-face-touch-maru does the thing and says “I know what you are… You’re mama.”

Poor Jukai starts crying and laughing. “Silly you. That’s not what I am.” While Hyakkimaru leaves, a monster bites Jukai’s leg and dies. Jukai realizes monsters weren’t attacking him because he was so depressed, they didn’t realize he was alive.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but he moment where Jukai starts laughing is really sweet. He finally understands that Hyakkimaru isn’t just being a weird doll boy who hangs around for free limbs and food. Hyakkimaru isn’t just going through motions to appease Jukai or faking at being human. Jukai broke the leg Hyakkimaru wanted, he made his life harder, and he challenged his views on killing demons, then Hyakki-face-touch-maru called him his mom. Hyakkimaru finally said something that showed Jukai that he has affection for him even if he doesn’t get what he was after. Jukai finally knows that Hyakkimaru has feelings beyond “I want to kill demons.” Hyakkimaru turns out to be more human than Jukai was willing to let himself believe. He’s a good mom.

I’m not crying, but I am suffering. I love this episode so much...

#dororo #hyakkimaru #jukai #spoilers

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megatownac · 5 years

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I still have no solid ideas for writing. But today I am going to walk more than 11 miles, probably, while I do sightseeing. That's on top of the walking to and from the station close to where I am staying, which will bring me to more than a half marathon.

I don't mind walking a lot. I have a steady pace that I think of as my "ground-eating walk." That's a Discworld reference, though so obscure it might as well be nothing. The Night Watchmen walk at a pace described in that way. The kind of walk that you can keep up all night long. Speed is not given. Mine is not fast or slow. Some people pass me. Many don't.

I heard back in college that there was a belief in Japan that walking brought wisdom. This is why, in the PS1 game Brave Fencer Musashi, you raise your wisdom stat by walking around. It certainly gives me too much time with my thoughts. I don't like that. So I am writing, I guess.

My goal was never to write about my trip, but I keep doing it regardless. I won't today. All I'm saying is that I am walking a lot. Probably a personal record, and I once walked all the way over a mountain because I misread a sign. To be fair, that was only a few miles, and there were stairs for a lot of it.

Have you guys been watching this year's Dororo? It's on Amazon Prime, but you can freely watch it on twist.moe if you'd prefer. And don't mind being a law breaker.

It's up to episode 23 now. Probably of 26. I've only seen up to 22, which ended with a cliffhanger so mind-blowingly insane that I almost lost it. I didn't lose it. I never do when it comes to TV shows.

It's a remake of a manga from the 1960's. There was a cartoon back then as well, plus a live action movie and even a PS2 game released in the States as "Blood Will Tell," because "Dororo" is a bad name. It's terrible.

Dororo is just some kid. Not the main character. Barely the main character's sidekick. Maybe ten or eleven years old, tops. That's true in all versions except the movie, where Dororo is played by a woman in probably her early twenties. It's weird.

The story is that Lord Daigo, on the night of his son's birth, makes a deal in the Hall of Hell with a group of demons that he will give them anything in exchange for the power to unite his land and end the wars. His wife then gives birth to a boy who is missing most of his body parts. Daigo takes this as a sign that the demons accepted his deal.

One might wonder why there is a Hall of Hell. That's actually the most believable part of the story to me. I've visited temples and balls dedicated to evil Tengu. The idea is that giving them respect will keep them happy enough that they won't fuck with people. So that's probably the idea of the Hall of Hell.

In most tellings, 48 demons each took one of the baby's body parts. An eye. A heart. That kind of thing. In this year's version, it's only 12, and they were trying to take all of him. Thing is, #12 failed. He was stopped by a statue of a goddess kept near the baby's mother.

Either way, mom is upset, but Daigo tells her that they can just make another baby. And they do! They dispose of the old one by putting him in a basket and sending him down the river, which is like the story of Ebisu, which is itself like the story of Moses. Like the others, the baby survives and is found by a doctor who is able to build him enough prosthetics to survive on his own. In most versions, those prosthetics were made with alchemy and included weapons. In the new one, they're just wood.

The baby is named Hyakkimaru, which basically means "hundred demon guy," and, once old enough, he packs his shit up and goes off to hunt the demons and reclaim his body.

Thing is, this is usually seen as unambiguously good. Demons are bad. Problem is that in the new one, those demons held up their end of the bargain and stabilized Daigo's land. Hyakki is fucking up his homeland by killing them. And he doesn't care. He is not a good guy. He's basically a force of nature at first, unable to speak or hear. It isn't until several demons in that he gets ears, and another demon to get his voice back. He's just a blind deaf dude stumbling around stabbing things with the swords he has instead of hands.

At one point, he meets back up with his adoptive dad, who asks him why he wants his body back so badly that he's willing to hurt so many people for it. He simply says "俺の物だ," or "they're my things." Nobody asked him if he wanted to sacrifice his arms and eyes to help the land. They just took from him, and he's angry about it. His is not a tale of salvation or redemption. It's purely revenge this time. He wants what is his. Nothing more. And I love it.

Episode 22 ends with him finding that someone, other humans, are using some of his body parts as replacements for the parts that Hyakkimaru himself cut off of them in an earlier battle. His reaction is what you'd expect. He flies into a complete rage, yelling "俺の物だ." "Those are my things." He can't see the world with his own eyes because someone else has his eyes. He can't feel the world with his own hands because someone else is using them. He's very upset about it. He's an angry, sixteen year old boy, and he's childish enough to not care who he hurts to get what he wants, even the people he's already hurt before. I love it. I can't get enough of it. But I will. It'll end. It has to. Everything does. In Japan, it's called the pathos of things, 物の哀れ. Cherry blossoms are beautiful because they last only a short time. That kind of thing.

No point. I just like the show and killed half an hour writing about it.

#non ac #text post

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maddiesmt-morphina · 6 years

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7 minutes in heaven- Chapter 4- Truth or dare - part II

Autor's note: Guess who is back?! And Oh my god!! Thank you all for your kind words!! Your comments are my source of inspiration and I've received such a wonderful feedback that I couldn't help myself and wrote a longer chapter! I've had such a fun writing it and I really hope you guys have fun to read it as well. See you guys next time!

Damn that stupid bottle. Erina cursed her cousin, the bottle, the game, and even her so called luck for having abandoned her. She looked to her challenger and found out that she was not that scary. Yuki kept a friendly look on her face. She did not appear to have bad intentions. With that, Erina allowed herself to relax a little, massaging her shoulders and neck that looked like pure concrete, such was the tension.

"So Erinachii, do you prefer truth or dare?"

"The truth, of course" The blonde said confidently as she smiled slightly and could have continued this way if she had not been reminded by the challenger herself that she would have to drink the contents of the glass. The heiress let the liquid burn her throat and felt all her senses being work up. She could not deny that the taste was peculiar and not bad at all, but the force with which it snatched her papillae and the way it left her head spinning reminded her that a few more glasses of that liquid could make her forget who she was.

"So, Erinachii, what's going on between you and the good-looking professor?"

"Excuse me?" Erina's eyes widened. She didn't want to believe Yuki's question.

“Oh! And Quit to say it's nothing because everyone here already saw how”- Yuki seemed to choose the words carefully – “close you both are.”

The blonde felt her cheeks explode. She felt extremely betrayed by her friend's question. But also, it was not her friend's fault. Yuki had already taken at least 3 cups of Sakaki's drink. In the end, she realized that she couldn't escape the question and tried to answer it as clearly as possible so that she would not be misunderstood. She cleared her throat and made sure her voice did not flinch as she spoke.

"Professor Asahi and I have absolutely nothing. He is forcing a situation that doesn't exist, at least not for me."

"For the time being." Erina looked in the direction of the voice and saw her cousin smiling innocently as if she had not thrown any more straw into the fire.

"As I was saying, before being grossly interrupted, Professor Asahi is doing everything on his own and I have by no means encouraged such behavior."

"But you have tea with him, don't you?" Alice was becoming more and more inconvenient, and Erina felt her patience dissipate like water on a hot day.

"Yes. But only because he insists a lot. I think the correct answer to your question, Yuki, would be tea. This is it, conversations and tea, this is what has happened between me and Professor Asahi. The heiress switched her attention to her cousin and referred to her when she asked.

"Happy, Alice?"

"Not even close"

A dark aura settled in the bedroom. Everyone could see clearly the clash of the cousins to reach beyond physics.

"Next" someone, who Erina could not identify, said. She could only face her cousin and send threatening messages to her through her eyes. On the other side of the circle, a certain redhaired paid a special attention to the situation. Something in him complained insistently and he could not tell why he was uncomfortable after hearing Yuki's senseless question. He looked at his own hands and noticed that his fists were closed and ready for combat. But why? And who did he want to fight against? Or against what? He did not continue the line of thinking once he had noticed the bottle stop spinning and pointed in his direction.

"How convenient" Alice couldn't barely contain her laugh.

Soma looked at her challenger. Shoji did not seem to have the best intentions for a challenge and the boy was not willing to find out what kind of perversion his friend had in mind. Before the boy could ask the question, Soma began to turn the drink of the glass and almost choked on the power of the drink.

"Truth? Oh really? You disappoint me Yukihira"

"I'm not willing to perform the perverted challenges hovering in your head Shoji." He took the rest of the drink and completed it, letting a half smile emerge on his face "At least not yet".

"What a killjoy! Well, since you chose truth, could you at least clarify why you challenged Professor Asahi to a shokugeki?"

Soma was terribly sorry. He should have taken the challenge.

"Well, actually it was he who challenged me. He was full of himself saying that he would defeat me easily and well, that made me very angry and also ..."

The room was completely silent, everyone seemed focused. Erina and Megumi blushed as they remembered the situation and wondered if the boy would go all the way in his story.

"And" Yukihira heard Shoji encourages him to continue. He didn't know why it was so difficult to reveal the motives behind the shokugeki. To tell the truth, he had not yet understood what happened that day.

"And also, because he said that he was the only chief who could satisfy Nakiri and that made me very annoyed"

Soma didn't notice, but the revelation had a double weight for a certain heiress who listened carefully.

"So, you want to satisfy Nakiri?"

The young man seemed to reflect and put his fingers on his chin as he answered.

"Yes. I could say that. But the point is I got there first so if he wants to try something he needs to get in line, you know?"

The first seat observed, without understanding, his friend’s jaw drop. Sakaki was the first to speak.

"My god Nakiri! I knew you had admirers, but have a queue? That's what I call power."

“Hihihi! I didn't know that my cousin was so seductive like this”

The blonde, who was already redder than normal, didn't know what to think. She did not know if she was irritated or tried to clear up the situation. The problem was that even she didn't understand what was happening, so she would be satisfied to be extremely annoyed for the time being.

"That's definitely not it, Alice! at all!"

The gossip was getting out of control and she could only hear part of them

“Erinachii! You need to tell me what is your secret?!” Yuki commented with a wink.

"I wouldn't blame Yukihira for trying to defend his territory" Daigo, on the other side of the circle, also gave his opinion on the subject. Meanwhile Soma was confused. It seemed he was not speaking the same language as his friends. Why, suddenly, they were talking about how much Nakiri was attractive? In what part of his answer had he mentioned it? He didn't even remember thinking that way. But again, on second thought, those violet eyes combined with the pink of her cheeks when she was angry always attracted him and he couldn't help but wonder how much that combination of colors made her look more appealing. Although, he was sure he'd never mentioned anything of the kind in his reply. So, he decided to find out what the hell they were talking about.

"What are you guys talking about? I just said that Nakiri's tongue was mine!"

The moment he let slip the untold detail, he knew he was fucked.

"Yukihira!" The heiress's shrill cry made him look at her in alarm.

"What? But that's what I said wasn't it, Tadokoro?"

Megumi couldn't believe his friend was that naive. Even she had understood the double meaning of that phrase. But she couldn't help him this time and he actually said that Nakiri's tongue was his.

"Oh yes..that's what you said."

Erina no longer knew whether she wanted to die or to kill. A vein was already pumping in her forehead.

"For God's sake, Yukihira! Either you shut your mouth or I'll have to go and shut it myself!"

"I'd like to see that!" Alice punctuated and Erina swore her to death at that moment.

"What did I said?" No word would define more Yukihira Soma at that moment than: lost.

It was then that Issihiki intervened in favor of his friends. He was amused by the situation, but he understood that this was their problem and that it should be resolved when they both understood more about themselves.

"Guys, I think we should get back to the game. Soma has already answered your question isn't it Shoji? I believe he has answered too much already"

"Fine. We still have a lot of game ahead" Shoji shrugged and once more the bottle turned.

The next round was in charge of Mito Ikumi and Zenji.

"So Mito, truth or dare?"

“Truth” The girl took the drink and felt the temperature rising. She was grateful for the clothes she wore to be cooler otherwise she would be suffering from instantaneous combustion.

"By any chance do you have a crush on someone in this very room?"

Mito expected all sorts of scientific questions, but never a question as personal as this.

“Wha...what?”

"Yeah Nikimichii do you have a crush on someone here? !" Ikumi could hear Yuki's voice echo through the room.

“W .. Well ... Hmm .. I..I think ..y..yes.”

“And who is it?”

At that very moment, Ikumi remembered an important rule of the game. And she smiled in relief.

"I'm sorry, Marui. But I've already answered your question"

"God Marui! How are you the brain of the dorm if you can't even ask a proper question in a game like this?”Shoji complained

"Honestly Man!" Daigo complained with his right hand flat on his forehead.

The game continued without any great news until the bottle stopped again in front of Erina. Honestly, she no longer had the strength to control the flushing of her face. He drank again and felt her conscience prepared to say goodbye. This time she would be Daigo's victim. At least she was escaping from her cousin's questions.

"So Nakiri, since you have so many admirers like that, I can’t help but wonder: How good is that god's tongue of yours in matters that do not involve food?"

"I'm sorry, what?" She looked at him curiously.

"Oh you know ... God's tongue ... it's a nickname that is open to interpretation"

“Excuse me?!” the girl didn’t want to believe what she was hearing.

“Nakiri..I'm sure you already know what I mean, right?"

Daigo raised one eyebrow and winked at the blonde. Still shocked by the question, Nakiri swallowed and felt the taste of the drink still linger in her mouth. She took a deep breath and remembered a passage from a manga she had read recently. She was really tired of being passive in this game and decided she would be the dominant one.

"Ahh, of course." She gave a seductive laugh, and in the sweeter voice she could muster, added "Hm, I think we'll have to find out, will not we?" She finished, running her tongue lightly on her lower lips and biting them in the process.”

The Boy smiled as if he had won the lottery and wasted no time in approaching the heiress, closing his eyes and pouting in the process. However, he just felt himself being stopped by something cold on his lips. The texture was nothing like a woman’s lips. It was then that the boy opened his eyes and found a finger on his lips and the almost devilish smile on the blonde. She wasted no time in revealing her true intentions.

"But unfortunately for you, I chose truth and not dare, didn't I? Then you can go back to your little place.”

While some laughed and mocked Daigo, Soma could not erase, what he had just seen, from his head. The way she looked at Daigo, the smile she gave him, that damn tongue moistening her reddened lips, the blush ever presents on her face, and especially that voice he had never seen her use. He imagined himself in that situation and found himself wishing her to use that voice to talk to him and only him. He didn't notice, but his low eyebrows and the narrowing of his lips showed that he was not happy with what he had just seen. Unfortunately, he was not alone.

"Soma? Are you alright?" Megume looked worried and was not alone.

"Yeah Yukihira! Looks like you're ready to kill somebody" A few steps away, Takumi also noticed his friend's behavior.

"Of course, I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" Soma said much louder than he should, and of course everyone in the room notice it.

"Because Daigo here just got almost kissed by your girlfriend" He heard Shoji gasp with laughter.

"We're not together!" Erina and Soma spoke together and blushed as they looked at each other.

"All right lovebirds, we'll let you stay ignorant if that's what you prefer."

“Alice! If you continue with these nonsensical pranks I swear to god you're not going to see the sun tomorrow.”

“Oh, my! I'm terrified! Ryo! Defend me from that mad woman!”

“Ahh, very well! Now I'm the crazy one?! Ah Alice, do me the favor?! Just shut up!”

“Hmpf” Alice just shrugged and waited the next turn to start.

The bottle spun and Erina almost shrieked with joy as the bottle pointed toward Alice, only the challenger this time was her best friend.

"I think it's time for revenge, it'sn't dear cousin." Erina let out all the venon she had in that sentence.

"You wished it had stopped for you, didn't you, Erina? Too bad that it didn't" The red-eyed girl looked at Hisako confidently. She did not show even the slightest fears.

"All right, Miss Alice!" Truth or dare?"

"Dare, of course."

Hisako seemed to think for a moment. She wanted to get revenge for Alice having put her on a date without her consent, wanted revenge for the jokes and situations in which she had put her best friend. And then looked at the girl's side. Stoic as always, Ryo showed nothing through his eyes. Hisako smiled. She knew exactly what was the weakness of the girl in front of her.

"I dare you to stay an entire day without Ryo's company. No phone calls, messages, conversations by any other form of communication and of course without seeing each other. You can start tomorrow."

Alice narrowed her eyes and everyone could see that the challenge did not please her at all. A few feet away, Hayama could not help but stare the pink-haired girl. He let out a smile. He had subjugated her and no longer regretted having agreed to go out with her. At least they had one person in common to bad-mouth about.

"What kind of dare is this one, Hisoko? Ryo is my aide, I can't afford to stay a whole day without him" Alice was uncomfortable, but she did not move from her confident pose.

"Just an aide? You're sure, Miss Alice?"

"What are you implying Hisoko?"

"I'm confident that in your so called 'mature' mind you have already understood what I mean"

"Hmpf. This is bullshit. But fine. This will be an easy one after all" Alice folded her arms and gave up. At his side, Ryo had no emotion at all. The only certainty that he was still alive or paying attention was when he himself stretched out his arms to turn the bottle. However, when he did, the bottle seemed to lift flight because of the force applied. Hisako noticed and smiled, maybe he was more upset with the challenge than he looked like.

"Hisako, there wasn't something more difficult or humiliating for you to challenge Alice to?

"Erina-sama, if my suspicions are right, this challenge will be harder than you think."

As they talked, the game continued, and they only listened again when they heard Takumi's indignant voice.

"Isami! What do you think you're doing ?!"

"Calm down Nii-chan! I promise you'll enjoy the challenge."

Hisako turned to Yuki to ask what was happening and heard the girl laugh as she spoke

"It's just that Ibusaki dared Isamichii to challenge his own brother"

"Is it fair?" Erina seemed to doubt that this was legal in the game.

"Well, Alicihii said nothing, so I suppose it's legitimate"

The three girls turned their attention to the game just as Isami revealed his challenge

"I'm sorry nii-chan.. but it's a challenge then ... " Isami seemed to think and at the end gave a friendly smile "Let's make it something fun, why don't you call Tadokoro to dance?"

Megumi felt her cheeks burn and Takumi's eyes widened with his brother's daring.

"YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?"

"Ah nii-chan you've always been a waltz and I'm sure Tadokoro will not bother, especially after you've offered to take a challenge in her defense" "It was not like this Isami! Do not make it sound like something that is not."

"Whatever. I'm sorry nii-chan but game is game."

The younger Italian finished with a raised hand as if to say that he could do nothing.

"But we don't even have music!" Takumi tried to argue once again and was silent with the sight of all of his friends showing off their cellphones with various music streaming programs. The blonde sighed and gave up. He rose in the direction of the blue-haired girl.

Megumi shivered in anticipation. She knew how to dance, but she had never danced with Takumi, much less in front of an audience. The girl saw the boy reach out his hand and almost got lost in his blue eyes.

"Tadokoro, do you give me the honor of this dance?"

She shivered at his chivalry. She felt like a princess in the eyes of a prince, and she began to realize how much she liked this feeling.

"Hmmm ... yeah ... alright " She let a shy smile grace her face and the two stood in the center of the circle.

The music began to play and they began to dance slowly at the sound of first notes. Takumi wrapped one of the girl's hands in his and let the other fit on her waist in a firm, protective grip, meanwhile Megumi, still nervous, followed in his footsteps and let the trembling hand become accustomed to a place on his broad shoulder. Concentrated on follow the dance steps, they did not even look into each other's eyes. Megumi was afraid of drowning again in those blue eyes. Takumi was sure that if he looked into her eyes he would be lost forever. The music advanced and Takumi gained confidence enough to make her whirl in the chorus. He took advantage of the closeness he gained after turning her around and bent to whisper in her ear with the intention of soothe her.

"Calm Principessa*. Try to relax a bit, I promise we'll be done soon"

The problem was right there. She wasn't sure if she wanted that dance to end. She felt his fingers caress her hand in an attempt to make her relax and thanked him mentally for the concern and attention he was giving her. Takumi felt the girl's body relax in his hands and breathed in relief. He knew it had not been her choice to be there, but he would do whatever he needed to make her feel as little uncomfortable as possible. After all, she was not to blame for the wrong choices of that stupid game. It was only when the music was over and that the cheers of their friends resonated around the room that they remembered that they weren't alone. Takumi disengaged himself from the girl leaving a chaste kiss in her hand.

"Thank you, Tadokoro."

In that moment, when he met her eyes, she almost thanked Alice for suggesting that game. The two returned to their proper places amid praise and cheers, but without taking the shy smiles from their faces. The game continued with Shun being challenged by Isshiki to wear his apron. Ryo being challenged to eat one of Soma's culinary abominations, and Zenji being challenged to spend at least a week without complaining about parties in his room. And when Mito asked Isshiki what his greatest regret was, they all listened intently the boy's story:

"I'd say that my greatest regret was to never paid attention to how Nene felt. I regret not having done anything before and the consequences reflect on our almost non-existent relationship. I miss her, what we were, and perhaps what we might have been if only I had been more attentive to her feelings, "Isshiki confessed without ever taking the smile off his face. But everyone could see how his eyes conveyed something mixed with pain and missing. Daigo and Shoji were the first to speak.

"That's some deep shit bro"

"Yeah...that's fucking deep"

"I think there's still time, Isshiki-senpai! Why don't you try and talk to her? " Megumi advised and was backed by Yuki.

"Yes! Isshiki- senpai! See this as an extra challenge."

The brown-haired young man smiled and accepted the challenge.

"Since I have the support of my dear kohais. I accept the challenge."

And then the bottle was turned one last time for a certain pair of young people. When it stopped it made it clear that the final battle had finally began. The Nakiri's looked at each other menacingly. Erina was already feeling the effects of the drink turn her conscience and she was afraid of losing her senses at any moment, but she couldn't let her cousin threat her dignity even more by choosing a challenge. She looked into her cousin's red eyes and turned her last glass of 'juice' from the night.

"Ask your question at once, Alice."

"Calm down dear cousin. I know you can't wait to reveal your secrets, but we're going to have to filter them, right?

“Fuck off Alice”

"Apparently, the drink is already making your tongue very loose, isn't it, Erina?"

Erina needed all her strength to keep control of herself and waited patiently. Meanwhile, Alice seemed to think hard about the question she would ask. She didn't want to waste questions like Marui or even be as predictable as Yuki. Alice smiled and raised one eyebrow.

"So, Erina, is it true that you think Yukihira's food is delicious, but doesn't admit it because of your pride?"

Erina's eyes widened. Alice had cornered her like an animal waiting for the hunter's slaughter. How had she discovered this that was one of her deepest secrets? True, she didn't know why she felt strangely happy when she was in his company. And she didn't know why she always felt her stomach turn when he smiled in her direction. But there was one thing she knew from the first day she'd seen him at that entrance test. And this was the fact that she recognized that day that the boy's food was indeed delicious and that her pride and his attitude had forced her to not admit it. She tried to untie the knot that was stuck in her throat and ended up feeling the taste of the drink still lingering. Everyone was looking at her with curiosity, especially a certain redhead. She stared into her cousin's eyes and let pride predominate in her response.

“Dare”

“I beg a pardon?”

“I choose dare”

Principessa* = Princess in italian.

#sorina #shokugeki no soma #soeri #soma x erina #polar star #food wars #takumegu #akisako #ryoali #fanfic #7minutes #takumi x megumi #akira x hisako #ryo x alice #isshiki x nene

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des-shinta · 6 years

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Discussing this publicly as...Y'see, me getting comments like this DM'd and Emailed to me? That's why I even keep bringing Zi-O up or have stayed even tangentially involved. it’s not to keep sniping at it, it’s putting out there that you can choose another target, as this horse is out of this race until it is all said and done. Hell, that was the entire point of the last post about it. I’ve been through this song and dance and want people to stop bringing it to me. Though I am not calling out KaijucorpsTokuandrobots and his opinion of my work or in any way attempting to publicly shame him. Frankly, his is the most civil DM I’ve received on this thus-far and why I have chosen to cite it. They have otherwise escalated to Death Threats for me not wanting to watch a show that It’s clear I won’t like. I just...I’m seriously just done with this fandom. Marzgurl’s two twitter threads on the missed concept of the ‘Ally of Justice’ are so on the ball for how bad it’s been getting. I WANT to do and have been doing exactly as KaijuKorpsTokuandrobots is demanding and leave it alone for others to hate or enjoy as they wish to, and as I stated my position and bowed out weeks ago I would like to leave it be. I mostly have kept silent on my commentary since outside of...what, a handful of posts in the time it’s been running, not counting repetitions of the same subject such as the show being predictable, expanded reply threads, or snarking at crap? Though That’s part of why I format my videos and reviews the way I do, to better explain the positions I take. The extended in-depth length is for those unfamiliar or familiar with the media to see more of it than is present in shorter-length ones that's just the opinion piece, with my perspectives and analysis set between the recap. Doing this allows it to be more objective than others, and provide a better explanation for my perspective. It is not done to lead them to a subjective conclusion that ignores facts on a matter simply to make others opinions align with mine. That’s just manipulative and arrogant and...well, if you knew me or paid attention to my conduct, you’d know that isn’t me. If I did and was, in the Kyoryuger videos I could’ve just said “you’re all wrong about Daigo”, instead of addressing how there were legitimate grievances one could have against him due to his character archetype being one that grates on a lot of people and super sentai overuses, and also ones that had been blown out of proportion in the face of those who have legitimately erred in the same fields Daigo was blamed for but didn’t actually do. I could’ve just ignored the fandom complaints instead of acknowledging the reasonable ones and providing evidence against the ludicrous or exaggerated ones. For if you notice, I always supply evidence of why I have the perspective I do. For It has not nor has ever been about my opinion being the right one, it's about putting thought into one’s entertainment and seeing if it holds up under scrutiny. That’s what a reviewer’s job is. I’m an analytical and introspective person, I THINK about things. I LIKE Informing people about things, I believe facts and trivia are neat and fun to share, and media content regardless of genre, age or demographic that put in that extra effort to have all these big allusions to other work seamlessly woven into them and work for their story gives them a whole new layer of depth that is absolutely wonderful, especially if it is to other things I have enjoyed. And conversely, when I see something that has held itself to higher standards in the past acting as if it could not care less, I am compelled like many to call it out for that, and explain why that is. To paraphrase Linkara, “By teaching you how something is Bad, you learn how something is good, and if you are a creative type yourself, these are then tips to avoid creating something horrible.”

I don’t see how that can be viewed as being smug or any different than anyone else that does the reviewer thing, as my presenting of facts and the evidence supplied from interviews, analysis, data, records and what-not in the video content I make (and often these large blog posts) is always divorced or set separately of my Opinion or snark about something so it is uniquely distinguishable on which is which. My opinion does not superceed all of that, my opinion is a result of knowing and being aware of all of this, seeking out this information as I love to learn facts and trivia about stuff I enjoy, and presenting them all in a condensed collection of content. Analyzing the common themes, tropes and plots the writers on a show make use of in their original works (the Toshiki Inoue Drinking game, anyone?), and the conduct and statements they and the producers have made over the course of their careers inform the direction their work can take, as all of that can play a factor in the final product that results. And it’s not like I’ve never been wrong as a result of my research being erroneous or the knowledge I’ve gathered being faulty, and I’m more than capable of admitting it and have done so when told. if you’ve seen my videos on the Garo Franchise, I’ve had to do so a number of times because there are Not a lot of good, Reliable sources on it, and some of them have misreported information or treated Fanon opinion as if it were canon fact without verification. In example I had believed that Shou Aikawa and Toshiki Inoue were the writers to The series Garo The Crimson moon because it was originally reported they were the only ones writing on it. That turned out to not be so, and I was unaware of that as no-one had written differently in any of my usual resources. That wasn’t malicious ignorance or smug self-assurance, but operating off of the information that had been provided. Since that new information corrected me, I haven’t repeated something that wasn’t so.

But It is NOT about people lying to themselves about what they enjoy. To cite the specific gripe, I don't think Kyuuranger fans are lying to themselves in liking it and have never at ANY point said that about THAT show or any other media, I think they didn't see what others, including myself, disliked about it or didn’t find it disagreeable themselves. That’s not lying, that’s having a different perspective on it and what angers/annoys/frustrates others they don’t have a problem with. Everyone has a different perspective, I just put a lot of thought into explaining mine, why I have the gut reactions, revulsion or love I do for something. That doesn’t make me automatically right, that’s giving you all the evidence to why my perspective is the way it is, and the reasoning of my own instincts. Hell, in the entire year Kyuranger was Running, I only discussed or made mentioned of it around a dozen times in any significant manner in that period after I dropped it. Most of them? When it was Relevant to discuss it or refute something that had been spread in the fandom which was a factual Lie or blown out of proportion. I otherwise left it alone for people to enjoy or hate on as they wished and stayed out of it...until people kept berating me to give it a second chance. After MONTHS of this I finally caved and watched more of it.. and proceeded to predict every episode of the series simply from the ‘next time’ trailers. One of the bigger things I called before it happened? Revelations of Quervo’s betrayal and his related possession by Don Armage. Why could I? Because it was a cliche. Raven’s and crows by Proxy of Tengu (quervo’s creature themes) in Japanese Literature/mythology are most commonly used as either Divine Messengers or traitors to their cause; the latter often from selfish, self-serving motivations or malevolent corruption. Quervo ended up not diverging from that latter interpretation. And I saw them as taking that route with it (as opposed to Just Redoing Utsusemimaru's story from kyoryuger with Tsurugi as...well, Kyuranger redid a lot of stories from previous sentai), because of the derisive and flippant manner the show treated Death as both a consequence and tragedy before making it reasonable that they would do so. All that informed because of my experiences with Japanese storytelling tropes, mythology and the Eastern take on The Heroes Journey Monomyth. But I dropped it in the first place because it was clear it was not going to be something I would enjoy and I would be spending the whole year bashing it, but I didn’t want to do that. I went and did the ‘don’t like, then don’t watch’ thing people often want from those in the detractor camp of series people like when they don’t want to hear a dissenting opinion, and instead went to watch “wander over yonder” and other series I did like which did many of the same things Kyuranger did in ways which were more appealing to me. As That Pointless hate and bile was not something I wanted to spread or have infest my life. I did not want to rally a crusade of bloody vengeance against the show for every perceived slight. For That’s not the person I am or want to be. And with how horrible 2017 was for me personally (including my Stepfather withering away from an incurable disease before dying and relatedly being thrown out of my home), it was something I could do without. I decided I was done with it, and made my exit calmly and rationally as a Mature adult would when they decided they didn’t like something, and only brought it up when it was relevant to bring it up after that, until other people dragged me back. Would you honestly have preferred it if I spent week after week angry at something and pointing out every single way it was messing up? ‘cause anyone can do that. Many people still did. it’s not like I was ever a deciding voice, just another sharing the same perspective. I would’ve just done it with the framing device of explaining the context of why people disliked it, as opposed to bashing it on the principle of it existing. So why Should I be the guy that Goes onto every blog, every forum and lambasts any person that ever said something good about it with a bulletpointed list of reasons? Hell, I avoid the Tokusatsu forums in their entirety because OF my experiences with that fandom Toxicity. And The reason I ended up predicting the content as I did when I finally gave in? It was Because I am very well-versed in Science fiction and space series tropes Kyuuranger as a series called upon (star trek, star wars, babylon 5, farscape, gundam, Battlestar galactica...the list goes on as I prefer sci-fi stuff to fantasy series) alongside super sentai ones due to me having watched over half the franchise and the afore-mentioned mythology awareness, and thus could ask myself ‘From what I’ve seen before and this show has been doing thus-far, how could they go about doing this plot they’ve teased in the next episode?’ Watching the first Five episodes of the series was more than enough to provide that. And Five these days is considered lenient now, many Reviewers have reached the point of doing it in One, depending on their familiarity with the general signs of poor execution in the genre, medium or premise of the related story. Once more, it wasn’t about being right, it was about thinking on and applying the experiences I have had to the subject matter, and speculating on where it’s going, only to find it was as I had Guessed. My continued dislike of it being because those predictions included ‘what are the bad ways they could do this story’ as well, and finding more times I guessed that to end up being true. And I do this with...basically everything. My roommates and family are astounded by how often I call plot twists in advance of the story’s seeding of it. One of the reasons I don’t like M Night shyamalan movies (besides all the other reasons people cite) is his twists are ridiculously transparent to me. I literally had the response to the twist that Bruce Willis’ character in the Sixth sense is dead of “yeah, and?” because I didn’t think that was what they were building up to, I just thought that was the quirk of the movie’s story. the same with the old lady being the Devil in “Devil”. Months ago My roommate showed me the movie “Cabin In The Woods”. I had never seen nor heard of the movie beforehand. AS I later learned, It is Notorious as a movie where people do not see the plot twist coming. In the first few minutes of watching? I guessed the plot twist. It is actually a very good one that I do not wish to spoil here and was pleasantly surprised at how they went about executing it, but I Figured it out because I’d seen a lot of the works of The movie’s Writer Joss Whedon. If someone were to propose I had a superpower? That’s basically it, I predict narratives from precedent of their content, it’s genre, and their creators. I am VERY good at doing this once I know where they’re going. That is, after all, how I guessed the entire second half of Kamen Rider Ryuki’s story without having seen it beforehand from making a Phoenix Down Joke. My roommates and I love the Venture bros, Season 7 is currently Airing, it has been wrapping up a number of it’s previous hanging plot threads and story seeding. Of them I guessed from the watching of previous seasons: Vendata being the blue Morpho and the Monarch’s Dead “Father”. The Monarch and Rusty Venture being Half-siblings as Jonas Venture Senior had Sex with The Monarch’s Mom. And Rusty being a clone. There are others, but there’s spoilers involved.

I was excited about all of that, because the series had been building up the suspense about answers to those questions for years or seeded paralleling stories to them previously in the series (I.E Hank, Dean and Dermott’s relationship). I was elated to learn I’d been following the deeper lore of the show as they’d intended from their intermittent seeding of the story, that I’d connected the clues as they’d wanted them to be connected. And for all of that to add up? That’s Good storytelling.

And it’s not like I’m always right about that stuff either or desire media to bend to how I predict it would go. if I’m not experienced with a certain story engine, I’m less likely to be right and more willing to go with the flow to explore it, and conversely really open to things that defy my expectations.

I’m a huge fan of .Hack and the Megaman battle networks series, and other stories using Virtual settings for storytelling (though Not SAO, I’m in the camp that dislikes SAO), thus was very experienced with the tropes, storypoints and themes Kamen Rider Ex-aid was making use of. I played this same ‘game’ with it...and It proved me wrong very often with how it was taking things. I didn’t see where it was going, as the show was not Predictable nor following the expected formula’s. Sometimes I disagreed with or was critical of what it was doing, such as the lacking focus on Hiiro Kagami’s relationship with his lost Love Saki and her impact on him. For how important it was to the series and his Character it was very poorly grounded, established and explored even with the Later Snipe miniseries going back to her death to further flesh it out, as it was something that needed more than the show was able to give for it to fully justify where they took it and all the connected links in the story it chained together. Or, say, Kiriya’s Death in how Toei tried to make money off of a character death by selling commemorative shirts to it, as that’s a scumbag thing to do and made it seem like they ordered his death just to sell merchandise. it wasn’t true and was just a bad marketing decision, the reaction to it being so hostile as Toei had pulled crap like that before and had shown itself tonedeaf to that conduct.. But for the most part, I adored how original a lot of it was by it’s end, most of my early criticisms they took the proper steps to mediate, and at the end it used all of it’s assets very smartly. I enjoy it not because it conformed to some pre-scripted narrative, but because it defied and exceeded my expectations of it, and tended to blow up my expectations in the best ways possible. whatever nitpicking that’s applicable to it doesn’t negate the overall good it did and quality it put out week after week.

And even with those nitpicks and any other criticism I voice, it wasn’t about me being personally right and the show wrong about how it did it, but areas in which the product was flawed and the areas in which it could have been improved. Pointing those out? That’s what a reviewer does.

But To bring it back to Zi-O as this is ultimately what this is all about with people wanting me to shut up about it despite me already having done so for the most part...with the extensive experience concerning the Writer and Producers I have had in almost everything they’ve worked on, how Negative that experience has been, Time travel stories being something I really adore and read/watched/played a lot of, awareness of how easy it is to screw it up if you don’t care about addressing contradictions or think of how to do it without such, and the first episode and the ones I’ve been dragged into commenting on since by people sending me messages Just like this one, I’ve done this ‘how would they likely do this from everything that’s been presented’ exercise with them and ended up being mostly spot-on with the predictions Thus-far. I’m not going out of my way to do it or bash every little thing, I’ve been trying to do what I did with Kyuranger and Leave it be unless there’s something relevant to say, or someone drags me back.

Again, the post I linked to up top? That was another attempt to do that, showcase what is the standard expectation I have for a series using a time travel story device so you see where I’m coming from on this. And yet, half a dozen people instead shot me angry messages and death threats, some of them telling me ‘Beast Wars Transformers is Shit and makes no sense and zi-oh was already doing it better than that because it intentionally decided to not play by any rules, even the ones it made up.’ ...The fact it ‘explaining’ it’s ‘rules’ and calling people losers for bothering to care about story consistency is locked behind a subscription paywall instead of it being part of the main series seems to be lost in this. ...Is this the one people want to fall on their sword over? Really? Guy’s, it’s a show run by a man who’s known for crappy conduct and screwing people over. There are better targets for this, and people who are more active in shaping public opinion than the one who’s moving towards retiring from doing web-video content altogether because of medical reasons!

You want me to leave Zi-O alone, just let others enjoy it blindly? That’s what I’m doing. Stop bringing it to my doorstep and dragging me back. You’ll just see come occasional snark when I’m given the prompt, that’s it. If there’s no supplied prompt you won’t even see that.

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