#eri meta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

swallowerofdharma · 13 days

Text

So, what is Berserk about after all?

Please be considerate to me, don’t repost this, don’t share it outside of tumblr, don’t copy parts of it, thank you.

I have read really funny critiques and reviews of Berserk. Often they would refer to Miura supposedly saying that he didn’t plan everything out and they would use this statement to support their argument that after the Golden Age arc the story just looked like it dragged on. One, don’t ever fully believe what artists and writers say about their work. Second, without a proper conclusion it is impossible to make that kind of judgement and the story is ongoing. Then, not having a plan or having just vague ideas and taking inspiration here and there isn’t how manga works or how it gets published. When asked in an interview why he started creating Haibane Renmei as a doujinshi, Yoshitoshi Abe replied: “With mainstream publishing, it would've been difficult to do it with that avenue because of this particular approach with everything being adlibbed. I don't know how the story will be developed, how it's going to end up, or what the ending's going to be. If you go to a mainstream publisher, by their general approach, they have to know what the characters are, who they are, what the story's going to be, and how the story's going to develop so they know if there's going to be a serial, continuing storyline. They need to know how it's going to go”. Even though plans can be renewed and renegotiated, Miura still needed to make solid advanced plans and decisions and respect deadlines and page quotas. Even without considering this, the world building of Berserk seems too intentional and coherent to me to think that he didn’t really know how the story would go. Granted he created a reality that could be changed and bent by the human imagination and psyche, from the inside. This happened to be a brilliant choice for a long project like the Berserk manga.

I once read a review that pointed out the weakness of the later arcs and episodes, making the hypothesis that Miura was influenced by the success of stories like One Piece and Pirates of the Caribbean. I can’t really say that I share this opinion, either. Reviews like these make me smile, because they reveal how people missed a very big clue that Miura never really hid. Berserk was inspired by the story of Peter Pan as told by J.M. Barrie and reinterpreted in several different ways, not only visually. He went as far as dedicating to it the Lost Children chapters, immediately after the Eclipse, when the tension of the story was higher than it ever had been. We should read the Lost Children as an homage to the story of Peter Pan and Wendy that plays into the already disquieting themes of the original in darker tones and with much more horrifying elements; but we should also pay great attention to the Lost Children chapters as an important recontextualization of the events of the Golden Age arc. While I want to dedicate proper analysis and attention to this, I am going to add here that in Peter Pan we already had the pirates, the islands with hidden caves and the mermaids. The journey to Skellig island and Elfhelm had to be long enough for Moonlight Boy to make an appearance at least twice before the big reveal of his full identity the third time, and since he can only appear on nights of a full moon, Miura had to make the readers feel that time had passed. But Guts had always belonged in Neverland.

In my rudimentary outline of various elements that contributed greatly in building the world and story of Berserk, I actually ran out of space. And I want to properly address the various points and develop them more. For the moment I just really wanted to show that Miura had a very strong grip over the story and that he was really attentive to nuances. I said to myself, if I want to criticize the writing in Berserk at least I have to make sure I understand it to a sufficient extent.

Also I really wanted to at least give an idea of how important a role Shōjo manga had to Berserk. I hope to be able to fully explore this element soon.

#berserk #berserk meta #kentaro miura #manga analysis #guts berserk #griffith #casca #all the tags because I worked hard on that outline lol #another little bit of groundwork to give context #lost in translation #berserk themes #berserk as a Shōjo manga #eri reads berserk

26 notes · View notes

77dekiru · 2 months

Text

MHA 415: What Will Eri’s Role Will Be? (Theory)

Disclaimer: This is my own personal theory for what will be happening with Eri, and a decent portion of it will be speculation, but I will be including evidence that supports it as well. I’m unsure if I will be correct in the end, but I still think it’s worth putting out there!

Anyways. Since the cliffhanger from the latest chapter dropped, I have seen the majority of people speculate that Eri will be rewinding Tomura back into Tenko, but at this point, I genuinely don’t see that happening.

((Izuku can’t only save “Tenko” because Tenko and Tomura are the same person. No matter what Izuku, the Vestiges, and All For One think, they are not two separate people. If Izuku wants to save “that crying little boy” then Izuku must do so as Tomura still being Tomura.))

Instead, I think that Eri will have a quirk awakening.

(Quirk awakenings have been shown to happen during times of crisis, and while I don’t think that anything bad will happen to Eri, this is still a crisis situation for her.)

Instead of rewinding time with her quirk, I think that she will accelerate it instead.

Eri has a direct connection to the Quirk Singularity theory, (after Ujiko mentions her in his recording that he left AFO) and she is the character that has been chosen to represent this concept.

This was done for a reason.

The Quirk Singularity theory has been consistently brought up, over and over again throughout the series, and soon we will be reaching the climax of that plot point as the series comes to an end.

One For All has already passed the point of singularity, but we still haven’t seen the climax of that yet. I might just be forgetting something, but I don’t believe that All For One (quirk) has been said to have passed the point of singularity (yet).

It’s only been shown that Tomura’s body has been modified with counteracting the effects of Quirk Singularity in mind…

If Eri tries to use her quirk on Tomura to help Izuku, and she accidentally accelerates time instead, I think that Eri’s quirk will be what finally causes All For One to reach the point of Singularity, and will be what finally merges both One For All and All For One together.

((Not to mention, even if Eri doesn’t have a Quirk Awakening, All For One has already been consistently taking damage due to the transferring of the Vestiges.

Tomura can (probably) counteract the regular effects of her quirk, due to his body modifications being made with the effects of Quirk Singularity in mind.

Rewind will just be what weakens All For One enough for One For All to break through the current barrier that’s between both quirks.))

Anyways. A lot of this is speculation, but now that Eri will be playing an active role in this battle, this is the most likely scenario, in my opinion.

#mha #my hero academia #mha 415 #mha spoilers #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 415 #bnha spoilers #eri mha #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #one for all #all for one #meta

48 notes · View notes

siflshonen · 1 year

Text

Trauma Doesn't Make Someone Right or Wrong but It Does Make Them Easier to Manipulate: Tomura Shigaraki and All for One

I decided I should talk about the MHA villains more, particularly Shigaraki.

BNHA presentations masterpost

BNHA presentations on Ao3

Let’s mosey under the cut.

The color key is not necessary, exactly, but I will be referencing my other posts with similar color keys. I thought it would be helpful to give a quick visual refresher to what they are. I’m going to referencing the other stuff I’ve written a lot in this one when it’s time to get into the details, so please be aware of that.

Regular white text can also be neutral and mean none of these things, but I think you’ll see what I mean by including All for One on here when you see the graphics.

There is Tenko Shimura and there is Shigaraki Tomura. One of them is the scared child who looks like the perfect victim in need of saving. The other is the obstinate, stubborn, short-sighted and naive social deviant shaped by his trauma and grooming. The only thing he seems to exhibit individuality over is his love of video games and which kinds he prefers.

They are the same person. Traumura Shigaraki. Tenko Traumura.

Shigaraki is sometimes hard to pin down as a character because his individuality beyond his PTSD is rarely allowed to shine. However, I do believe that there are common threads between Tenko Shimura and Tomura Shigaraki. He sincerely wants to make connections, and he sincerely wants to do right by those that accept him, though his own desires and emotional responses often get in the way - as do the desires of another teeny, tiny influence upon him.

His fucking Master, All for One.

Part of what inspired my initial Bakugo presentation was showing how he breaks down the tropes of “hero”, “antihero” and even “antagonist” in shonen manga. The entire cast of Heroes and Villains (remember, they are also social designations and legal definitions in the world this manga) are doing this to some extent. Shigaraki, in particular, is headlining how there is nothing inherently special that makes someone a villain or hero. The determining factor is the perspective of the observer (or affected society.)

Shigaraki may be an antivillain in this story, but to him, that makes him appear the hero of his own story - all while still wearing the self-determined label of “villain”.

Arguably, the actions he chooses to take as a result of his trauma and fear of rejection also make him the villain of his own story at the same time, but we’ll get into that later.

Deku also has at least one mentor (in the Second User) that makes no bones about telling him that his life and well-being is less important than achieving the goal of stopping All for One. But at least he is honest, I guess.

Still destructive, though.

Most of the characters act truly heroically not in moments of glorious victory, but moments of pain, suffering, or even failure (Early-series Deku does this a lot, like when he falls to earth after heroically saving Ochako in the entrance exam. Bakugo, who is sent crashing to the ground in the ironically-named “Katsuki Bakugo: Rising” chapter after putting himself in harm’s way to save someone else, also has a habit of doing this over and over again), which is not the expectation for an archetypal hero in a storybook or comic.

Shigaraki’s glorious rise with cape, model hair, and awesome suit is likewise a moment that does not bode well for him, though he doesn’t know it in the moment.

I don’t make a slide for it, but as he ascends, Shigaraki becomes, well, ethereally beautiful. As his post-family-death amnesiac self, his suffering made him more fragile, frayed, and conventionally ugly in appearance. But after going through All for One’s training and modifications, he was given a new, beautiful facade.

But he was still on the fast track to misery either way.

This discussion isn’t super duper political, but this is your heads-up that many of these “big presences in power” characters also stand in for political ideologies or even entire countries, in some cases.

Endeavor is, roughly, the Japan before modern foreign influence. I’m sure Horikoshi could give us the specific party or movements he had in mind, but he’s not the focus of this post. If you want a more in-depth breakdown of Endeavor and the Todoroki family, please see this post.

The Kirishima Presentation post I made has the most relevant information to the topic of Westernization’s impact on Japan’s attitudes and military power, though it isn’t quite for the same approach and purpose.

All Might, the “band aid” on the My Hero Academia society, is a Japanese guy wearing the appearance of the West while wielding a power that was given to him by someone else, and at seemingly random from an outside perspective. While Toshinori’s true heroic qualities have nothing to do with his nationality (and neither do the features and purpose behind One for All or All for One, when all is said and done), it is important when understanding what Toshinori represents to Endeavor and how he views him.

Both the Heroes and Villains in this series make an entire journey and daytime soap opera of fucking themselves over, honestly.

All for One doesn’t just want to be a dictator or tyrant or king. No, he wants to be the ultimate evil and unapologetic about it. He is the big bad and he is reveling in it. He is going to make himself a cartoon, and then he is gonna rule this cartoon world. Why? We’ll find out eventually. But maybe we’ll never know! I don’t really care. He’s meant to be a static evil.

Naruto tried to be real cool by having their big bad talk about how they were gonna take over the world through hijacking the economy and using that as their in to take over all the Ninja Villages and be real fascists or whatever, but My Hero Academia jumps over that angle by taking a more emotional and universal storybook (or comic book) approach. I greatly prefer it.

I also prefer that the story is blatantly framing the movement it opposes by calling it out as a fucking cartoon villain, though there’s also a twist to this that I think Horikoshi has very intentionally performed.

Fascism most recently swept over Japan as a result of influence from the West. Bam. Easy. So it’s no surprise that, regardless of where he is from, All for One doesn’t just look like a white guy, but like fine art of a white guy from the West. Pretentious. But it’s also kinda funny since he looks like a Greco-Roman god and is trying to flatten his marble curves into lowbrow comic form.

Nazi Germany and the Italian flavor of fascist regimes dressed snappy and loved their high art. Surely y’all know how Nazi Germany defined and tripped all over themselves at the idea of an Aryan race.

Meanwhile, American comic books are a Jewish invention. Superman and Captain America were staunchly anti-Nazi, anti-fascist, anti-all that. For All for One, icon of the type of art branded as “Aryan”, to do what he’s doing in the form of a comic book and saying he likes them is... oh, it’s truly disrespectful of him, to put it mildly. It reminds me of the discussion and fallout surrounding Captain America being part of Hydra for some issues.

Anyway, All for One is rebranding again to sneak into the hearts and minds of those with more modern sensibilities (read: “lowbrow”) to do his same routine. It’s truly villainous, selfish, and disrespectful. Fuck this guy. Rip him apart.

...All of this is a compliment. A hateable static big bad is a good thing when it is what the story wants to achieve.

One could split hairs and say, “All for One’s approach doesn’t resemble fascism! It’s like X!” And if you want to do that, great. Pick your poison of specific flavor of awful Authoritarian or Totalitarian movement that causes extreme suffering. Go nuts. I chose this one because I think a broader approach is more applicable - All for One is a timeless, recurring evil with worldwide reach.

I’ve taken the qualities of Ur-Fascism, or “Eternal Fascism”, listed above from this article, which is also an abbreviation of a longer work on the topic by Umberto Eco. I don’t want to regurgitate the whole thing here, so I encourage you to read it. I did incorporate two of the 14 qualities into other items on this list, but I think you’ll find that All for One checks all of these boxes.

If you read the article or essay, please pay attention to language used like “in the name of liberation”, or how these movements tend to start in another movement with one similar ideal or begin to absorb other movements. Think about how that relates to what happened to Re-Destro’s group and ambition, and the fate of the Liberation Army as it was absorbed into Shigaraki’s/All for One’s. Think about how fascism is contradictory in many ways, but still considers itself a single movement.

For more further reading - @transhawks hits the nail on the head regarding what the League of Villains are in relation to Hero Society and All for One. They’re not really revolutionaries or a unified band of anything standing against their evil government for ideological reasons. They’re being used. If you want to enter a more extreme political pick-apart or commentary of this series, this is a good place to look and a crucial thing to understand.

It would be real cool if the USA was truly a well-meaning, if hasty, rude, and entitled do-gooder superhero, but, well, this is a comic book. Y’all know that Star and Stripe is meant to be the idealized USA rooted in Democracy and Liberty and all that stuff, right?

But even the superpowered and ideal version of the USA can be corrupted. The USA has neo-Nazis (and a total shitshow political scene, particularly conservatively but not exclusively limited to that party, currently) and stuff, too. The “We Are All for One” sign in the My Hero Academia panel of violence and chaos in the United States’ establishing shot is a good way to represent how the conditions for All for One to take control can come about anywhere.

This dude, and the fascism he represents, is a parasite.

Anyway, that’s all big-picture stuff. Let’s talk about All for One’s specific approach to getting his hooks into Shigaraki and the League of Villains.

Public opinion is one of All for One’s most important tools, especially when starting out.

Again, All for One is a parasite. And I think the moth wings Shigaraki sports in figurative representations in the manga are meant to suggest the lower two of a Death’s-head hawkmoth, which has an association with death in Japan and some other cultures. I’m not totally sure about this, though.

As for me, personally, I am familiar with this genus of moth because I grew up with the Five-Spotted Hawkmoth’s larvae, which we called tomato hornworms, in the garden. Parasitic wasps like to lay eggs in the backs of the hornworms and then the larvae in the eggs eat the hornworm from the inside out before maturing. I don’t know if Horikoshi had those in mind when he made this manga because I think they’re only in North America, but, well, I thought about them.

My point: Shigaraki was an easy target and a natural choice for All for One.

Tenko fucked his whole family over when his quirk destroyed everything. The damage was not limited to his father. His family may not have stopped his father and maybe could have done more to try and stop him (and Hana could have not sold out Tenko and blamed him for their intrusion into their father’s office), but killing them didn’t exactly help anyone.

As @transhawks pointed out, the message of “destroying the existing system (house) to root out the existing power causes more sacrifice than it is worth” is a comparatively moderate one.

But for a boys’ manga series, the major idea that, “hey, maybe try to help one another and don’t act in negative emotion - and DEFINITELY don’t become a fascist ‘cause it’s a trap” is perhaps a more immediately relevant one for that audience than a more complicated political critique. The readership of a boys’ manga is at (or about to be at) high risk for becoming the vulnerable youth Shigaraki, Spinner, and perhaps even Dabi or Toga represent.

Sometimes, things can be as simple as the story of a shitty dad doing shitty things to his family because he sucks. Sometimes, this story can also be an allegory at the same time, if it helps your cause. Dabi certainly thinks about it like this!

Shigaraki seems to flip-flop between these hikikomori and NEET categories.

The Kirishima Presentation post talks about this in great detail with more articles.

When I think about this turn of phrase, I think about Princess Mononoke and how the musket ball inside the boar god is what turned him into a monster and sent him on a rampage, and then infected Ashitaka. There’s a lot to unpack here about that, but this is long enough.

It seems that quirks, while not a definite indicator of what a person is like, has an impact on these characters’ individuality, themes, and preferences in the story.

He rises from the ashes always, it seems. And this isn’t even his final form.

“I hurt, so I want YOU to hurt!” If you don’t know much about folks affected by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, well, Shigaraki is pretty much a perfect textbook example.

And you could have it all... my empire of dirt... I will let you down... I will make you hurt!

People are individuals. Degrees of and conditions for suffering are all unique. But the end result of trauma upon people is the same. They hurt.

So, I think now is a good time to link to this discussion regarding Tenko’s name.

I don’t know if this alike-sound is obvious to the Japanese readership or not, or if it’s just an English speaker’s ear making the observation in similarity between words. Sometimes, what sounds like a pun to an English speaker is not a pun to a native speaker. I really do not know because I am not a native speaker. But even without knowing that for certain, it’s interesting to think about and good, relevant information regarding some of Japan’s general history. If anybody knows, please let me know.

For the longest time, I thought his name was ironic because “ten” sounds like “heaven/sky” and “ko” like “child”, so he would be named “heavenly child” or “child from the heavens”, which contrasts with his “villain” status, though remains accurate because of his incredible, otherworldly power and appearance by his transformation’s end. But it’s not written like “heaven child”. I asked. But I still think it’s funny.

Anyway.

This is a story, so I literally cannot do anything about this situation except say that I am certain that a hero will come for him. I know it’s a cop-out and I am no different than the old woman who left Tenko on the street, but, well, that’s all I’ve got.

I hope they reach him soon.

#shigaraki tomura #all for one #afo #league of villains #lov #tenko shimura #dabi #bnha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #toya todoroki #star and stripe #izuku midoriya #fascism #ur-fascism #eri #eri bnha #eri mha #bnha meta #shigaraki presentation

362 notes · View notes

yellowbluemoonshine · 1 year

Text

You Lift The Fire In Me

Both Shouto and Touya used same phrase to express their feelings, using the fire metaphor. But they used it different way. For Touya, it was the cause of his pain and for Shouto, it was his salvation.

Endeavour lifted the fire in Touya but the fire Endeavour lifted is destructive, it is out of control and made Touya burn and later became the reason he became villain. Deku lifted the fire in Shouto. He remind of his passion to him. The fire Deku lifted is warm, healing and remind Shouto the reason he wanted to be hero. Fire is good metaphor to explain their pain.

Shouto was repressing the fire (his pain, his anger) and it lead Shouto to freeze. Freezing fits Shouto's feelings because he was stucked. He was mentally in prison. His expressions are faint. Like a robot. He is still not sure about what he wants to do and who he wants to be. He is stucked. He is frozen and thats why the gentle fire Deku lifted in him is his healing. He awoken the fire inside of him.

In Touya's case, fire is out of control. He even says "fire dont go away". It is there and he cant stop it. Maybe, the reason his fire is blue is another way to show how unstable his mental state became. (Also, i love to see Touya origin music slowly turning into Dabi dance music because he is loosing it.) Compared to Shouto who is freezing and cant move, Touya is full of tension and cant stand still. This is why what Touya needs gently put out the fire. He needs his fire to calm down so that he can heal, like Shouto is.

Another difference is Deku's fire made from his desire to help Shouto, it is a selfless wish and even lead him to loose fight he desperately wanted to achieve because Allmight told him to.

While Endeavour's fire made from his ambition, it is from his selfish desires, he had many chances to stop to fire but him constantly putting his own desires above the well being of his family, neglecting and abusing them made it even worse. He didnt just ignore the fire, he also put oil into it.

Fire and ice are not really bad thing, what makes it worse is that when it is extreme. It can be good thing, depends on how you use it which we saw it with them. Shouto used to see his fire (his anger) as bad thing. (For Touya, fire was good amazing to him at first, he most likely view it as bad like Earlyroki did now). He later learnt to use them to help children. He used his ice to make playground and he used his fire to warm the little girl (and other children). Even with Dabi when he burnt the house Toga was abused, he used his fire to rebel against abuser and comfort the little girl. It is also parallels in a way.

It is about how you use it.

#bnha analysis #mha meta #todoroki shouto #todoroki touya #dabi #midoriya izuku #todoroki enji #endeavour #endeavor #toga himiko #bnha parallels #tododeku #eri #touya origin ost #dabi dance ost

128 notes · View notes

deadboyswalking · 1 year

Text

Why The Overhaul Arc Matters

Strap the FUCK in I just realized the actual narrative significance of the Overhaul arc.

Eri-Tomura Parallel

At a surface level, Eri and Tomura have obvious parallels, right?

Visually, they look very similar with light hair and red eyes. Quirk-wise, they both have incredibly powerful, devastating Quirks that caused a fatal accident with their real families.

Eri hated herself because of the poison that Chisaki put in her head. Tomura hates himself for the same reason but with AFO.

They both were groomed to feel fully responsible for their traumatizing childhood accidents and for their only self-worth to be related to being useful towards their manipulative abuser and his goals.

Their parallels have been discussed at length by many people, so I'm not going to go into it except to say: no, they aren't literally blood related like some people argue. I also don't think AFO gave either of them their Quirks. Did AFO give Decay? Analysis Thread

Overhaul-AFO Parallel

That leads me to my next point: Overhaul and All For One are the same character.

As leaders, they prey on vulnerable people and buy their unquestioned loyalty (the Shie Hassaikai, Dr. Garaki, Machia, etc)

They will use these people for their purposes and then discard them at will, without any emotions or ethics to consider.

Their relationship toward their charge is NOT exactly parental. There is zero affection or even pretended affection towards Eri or Tomura and, in fact, others are doing their actual day-to-day care (various Hassaikai members, Kurogiri).

They speak in the same way to and about their charges. "You're a cursed human." "Another death on your hands." "Symbol of Fear" "You have within you the impulse to destroy that even you can't control." A huge part of their abuse is based in manipulating their charges to despise themselves and think they're inherently evil, so said charges give up on being a regular human. Further literary parallel: Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Deku's Connection

AND FINALLY, my point: the Overhaul-Eri situation is directly responsible for Deku's current empathy toward Tomura and drive to save him. When Deku saw AFO take over Tomura and use his body for his own purposes during the war, especially with what he saw in the vestige realm, I think the parallel with Eri clicked.

Tomura is what would've happened to Eri if she hadn't been rescued. I fully think that if Eri had survived to adulthood without being rescued, Overhaul would have groomed her to live entirely for his benefit with full live-or-die loyalty for him (like the rest of the Shie Hassaikai, but stronger due to manipulation from childhood onwards). She would have grown to hate society for not saving her AND for being against Overhaul's goals. I honestly think she would've been even scarier than Tomura since Tomura at least had Kurogiri (who has been show to genuinely care for him on some level) rather than random gangsters as his primary caregiver.

Don't you see? It's all connected to Deku's endgame: pulling Tomura away from AFO and saving someone else who has been damned because of their Quirk and abuser. Of course, saving Tomura, a grown man who has committed A LOT of violence, is going to be much harder than saving a wholly innocent little girl, but the SEED was planted during the Overhaul arc.

I believe this is also WHY Deku chooses to see the Tenko that still lives inside Tomura.

Final Thoughts

This might be super obvious but I'd been scratching my head for MONTHS about how the Overhaul arc is significant to the narrative since the Quirk bullets storyline went nowhere and I'm not a fan of the "Eri rewinds the villains or the whole world!" take. I was so quick to discard the Overhaul arc as unimportant when the bullets didn't impact the story much, but I just completely missed the big picture.

I SAW the Eri-Tomura and Overhaul-AFO parallels but I couldn't quite figure out how the pieces went together beyond the surface parallel of two similarly abused children and two abusers. Understanding this connection also fixes what I had considered to be a huge logical plot hole in the story: why did Deku have a sudden 11th-hour change of heart and shift his focus from defeating Tomura to saving him?

Overhaul-Eri to AFO-Tomura is a direct link for Deku's endgame and the total themes of the story, I just couldn't see it before.

#bnha meta #shigaraki tomura #eri chan #bnha eri #all for one #bnha overhaul #chisaki kai #bnha analysis

122 notes · View notes

quirkwizard · 4 months

Note

Could Eri, technically, use her quirk to undo the damage AFO did to All Might those years ago?

This is a hard question to answer given All Might's condition. In theory, it could still rewind him five or six years ago to regain his old body. In practice, for all the Quirk's showings, we have yet to see it heal anything of that caliber. Yes, Eri can heal grievous injuries like Izuku's destroyed limbs, specific issues like Mirio's Quirk being repressed, and the horror show that was Overhaul, but those were at least still present for her to work with. All Might's wound is of a whole other caliber, having lost a good chunk of his lower organs with that wound. It may just be that there isn't anything to work with that she can heal. I suppose you could use the Rewind Drug that Garaki made as an example of it potentially healing the injury, as the drug was able to regrow missing body parts for All For One, but that could have been the result of All For One's own healing Quirks working in tandem with it and the drug being tempered with it to specifically heal people. So while I'm not saying it's out of the question, I do think that it may simply not work depending on the specifics of "Rewind".

#My Hero Academia #Quirks #Eri #Rewind #Toshinori Yagi #All Might #All For One #MHA Meta #MHA Theory

16 notes · View notes

hotwaterandmilk · 1 year

Text

Another thing that arrived in the mail while I was away was my copy of the first Futari wa SxS volume. I keep vague track of magazines like Ciao and when I saw Kumaki Eri launch this series last year I knew I'd have to invest in the print edition when it was released.

If you're not already familiar with the series, Futari wa SxS (which is short for Futari wa Super Secret, the English language title on the back cover being We are Super-Secret) is an original magical girl series by Kumaki Eri with a hint of sci-fi.

Although the title and the character designs immediately call to mind the OG Futari wa Precure, I'd liken the actual work more to something like Akimoto Nami's 90s classic, Miracle☆Girls.

Asai Reo and Yoruno Michiru aren't exactly twins like Mikage & Tomomi from Akimoto's work, but they were born on the exact same day, at the exact same time, in the exact same hospital.

Due to this connection, Reo & Michiru can unlock psy abilities like telekinesis when they hold hands. This is a "super secret" between the two of them until they save a bullied kid's school bag using their abilities and put this secret at serious risk. Enter a boy named Takarada who threatens to put a wedge between these oddly matched childhood friends!

This is a total kids comic and that's awesome? I can think of several young family members who would love to give this a read! The focus in Futari wa SxS is the friendship between Reo and Michiru above all else, which is great to see. Reo is athletic and happy-go-lucky while Michiru is a glamorous on the surface but actually a die-hard otaku at heart. Although Michiru can get frustrated with Reo's desire to jump in and use their powers to help people, ultimately she can't say no to her energetic BFF.

In another move that reminds me of Miracle☆Girls, our heroines here may have psy talents but they don't have any magical ability to transform (unless you count cosplay). There's no magical compact or toy to sell to kids here (which isn't great from a marketing perspective), these girls just hold hands and use their powers.

That's another thing I quite like, it's well defined from the first chapter that although Reo & Michiru have some pretty cool powers, they do need to touch their hands together to unlock them. This means we're shown a firm limit to their talents from the get-go so (at this point anyway) nobody is powering up every chapter or maxxing out their abilities. I like that and while it does lean towards the SF side of things more than the magical power-wise, I think that the tropes at play overall tend towards Futari wa SxS being a magical girl title at heart.

Kumaki's artwork is quite playful and childish with firm clear lines, big eyes, and lots of chibis for conveying comedy. I think it works nicely for a kid's comic, but it might not be for everyone. While Kumaki's previous series have overwhelmingly been romances, the fantasy at play in Futari wa SxS is primarily based on the close friendship between the leads. The whole "Wouldn't it be amazing to have a best friend you could do anything with? Even if you and the friend were polar opposites?" (although with all the hand-holding you're welcome to read more into Reo & Michiru's relationship too I imagine).

Takarada throws a spanner into the works here with his interest in Reo and his online success threatening to expose the girls, so it will be curious to see where his part of the story goes. Right now it seems as if the heroines have an unbreakable bond so good luck with winning anyone's heart, bro (though this is shoujo manga so I don't doubt romance will factor in eventually).

Overall a cute little series, nothing too serious or ground-breaking but it's rare to have magical girl series that aren't part of a media mix or an adaptation of an existing property so in that sense Futari wa SxS is a welcome change. I get the feeling it won't run too long or shake the foundations of the genre, but I'd love to be wrong about that. There really aren't many original magical girl titles these days and this one is perfect for youngsters who also enjoy things like Precure or PriPara (and have never read Miracle☆Girls because lol they're v e r y similar).

Edit: Presently this series is not available in English. The first Japanese volume was released on March 29th 2023 and it is currently ongoing in Ciao magazine.

55 notes · View notes

alwaysbewoke · 1 month

Text

10 notes · View notes

violetlunette · 2 years

Text

Canon EraserMic

Okay, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how people react to this, but with this being one of the most popular ships in BNHA, I decided to go back and look at the canon relationship between these two.

No images as I’ve heard they mess with mobile users, however, if my followers prefer it, let me know, and I'll add them in future posts.

So, summary first;

Aizawa and Hizashi met in school through their mutual friend Oboro. Mic—seeing the shy boy—decided it was his job to loosen him up. They became friends and ended up in a trio. They were all close enough that the three made plans to open an agency together one day. However, that dream fell apart when Oboro died during a villain attack in his school years. Despite Aizawa pulling away from everybody, Hizashi remained at his side loyally, even when all he could do was just be there. After graduation, Aizawa threw himself into work but kept close enough contact with Mic that the two were always kept to date on each other’s status.

Eventually, they came to work at U.A. together as teachers, where Hizashi continues to support Aizawa to the present.

So, where to begin?

At first glance, these two are opposites; Mic is energetic, wild, loud, and wants to add fun to all that he does. Aizawa is a man who tends to brood, sleep when he can, and keep to himself while pretending to be rational.

Despite that, it’s easy to see that these two are friends. Aside from the fact that they’re always together—90% of Mic’s scenes are with Aizawa, or concerning Aizawa—the two share a fun banter with one another, play pranks on each other, feel at ease in the other’s presence, and usually offers support whenever the other needs it (one more than the other, but I’ll get to that). And—believe it or not—the two do have a few things in common.

Both are trolls who like to tease others, though Mic does this more and louder. They’re both protective and supportive of the ones they love (Aizawa of his students and Hizashi of Aizawa). And they like cats.

They banter a lot and even argue, but it never comes off as malicious or cruel. It's more like an old married couple. They’ve known each other for years and it shows in even their smallest interactions.

It’s difficult to explain, but there’s a reason it’s one of the most popular pairings in BNHA, to the point where it’s the main background couple in fanfics when it’s not the main couple. So does that mean their friendship is perfect? Sorry, but no.

There are a few minor flaws, but nothing worth mentioning, and one big flaw;

Mainly that there’s a huge imbalance in the emotional labor. Namely, Aizawa does none of it.

Hizashi does all the work in their relationship, emotional and physical. HE’S the one always reaching out to Aizawa and made sure to keep contact, as otherwise, Aizawa would have completely pulled away. I mean it, so far in the main series, the vigilante spin-off, and school briefs, Aizawa has only reached out to Mic once in the entire series, ONCE. And that was when he said that if “Mic’s going, he will too.” That’s honestly all I could find. And even then that could be read as him doing it more for Oboro’s sake than Mic’s. Okay, if I want to stretch it, he did have the students carry Mic out of a doorway after they obliterated him, but my point stands.

Mic on the other hand—as I said—is always reaching out to Aizawa.

He invites him to hang out, keeps him updated on his life, takes an interest in Aizawa’s, and supports him non-stop. Even in small things, like when people criticize Aizawa for expelling students, Hizashi always takes Aizawa’s side.

But the biggest thing he does is all the emotional labor. Hizashi does everything he can to take care of Aizawa’s emotional needs, whether it’s having others give him space, just being there, or even sacrificing his own needs. We see this both times with Oboro.

The first is after Oboro’s death. Hizashi is so devastated that he can’t even speak, but then laser-eyes starts talking and completely misses the fact that THEIR FRIEND DIED. Laser eyes doesn’t mean anything and in fact, means well—something Hizashi can see—but he knows that’s not what he needs right now. So, he immediately locks his feelings away and focuses on Aizawa.

Now, don’t think I’m blaming Aizawa for ANY of this, because I get it. Aizawa was traumatized after Oboro’s death. Pulling away was a defense mechanism to save himself more pain. And when Hizashi does try to reach out it’s never a good time as Aizawa has to take care of his students. (That and Aizawa just isn’t ready to confront his feeling.)

I’ll also say that it appears that Hizashi doesn’t need as much support as Aizawa as Hizashi seems perfectly fine. He’s always laughing, and smiling, and is easily able to balance three jobs. Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that Aizawa doesn’t realize Hizashi needs support at times as well. And to continue being fair, Hizashi doesn’t, not often anyway.

After Oboro died he had to force himself to keep himself together to take care of his best friend who all but fell apart. He didn’t have the luxury of falling apart or into depression, not if he wanted to keep his friend. He had to pull himself together emotionally, he had to move on and live his life without Oboro. He forced himself to heal, as I explained in depth here.

That’s probably why Mic is the most logical of the pair as he’s had to put aside his emotions for years to protect Aizawa.

A good thing though is that Hizashi’s work did pay off. Despite the snarky comments Aizawa makes, it is obvious that he has complete faith in Hizashi. We see this in how he trusted Hizashi to capture the doctor they needed to save Oboro. A smaller moment though is before that, on the way to see Kurogiri for the first time. Aizawa is emotionally wrecked and reaches out subtly for Hizashi to offer comfort.

There’s also the fact that Aizawa does genuinely feel relaxed in Hizashi’s presence. At Tartarus, Hizashi was able to calm Aizawa down, despite both being upset. There’s another scene in School Briefs where Aizawa—in his very Aizawa way—is shy and uncomfortable around All Might. (Not in a bad way, just a, “I don’t know what to do” way). The moment Hizashi shows up, however, Aizawa instantly relaxes and is put at ease. (Shame he’s already drunk by that point.)

In their school days, he seemed to admire Hizashi, who was Jack of trades. Even now, Aizawa respects Mic’s skills, though he spends most of his time reminding Hizashi to do his job right and not show favoritism. (Hypocrite.)

I will also say that his “rejection” of Hizashi is never cruel. He doesn’t like hanging in crowds like Hizashi does and doesn’t like the hangovers that come the next day, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to go out drinking. Because he works so much he’d rather spend his breaks sleeping. (Plus, his quirk tires his eyes out, something I sympathize with.) And I already stated why he can’t help Hizashi out emotionally.

So, while he doesn’t always show it or return the labor Hizashi puts in, it’s clear that Aizawa appreciates Hizashi and his efforts. And though he’s too much of tsundere to ever admit it, Shouta does care about Hizashi.

When thinking about the people he wants to protect, the ones Aizawa thinks of are Oboro AND Hizashi. Plus, Aizawa lets himself be dragged places by Hizashi. (The man brawls with villains larger than him daily, I think he could escape Hizashi if he wanted.) And even though Aizawa makes no secret he doesn’t want to be at gatherings, he doesn’t do anything to ruin anyone’s fun. He doesn't even try to leave, save a few feeble attempts. He’s not happy and finds hanging out a waste of time, but he participates to make Hizashi happy.

Conclusion;

Despite the definite slant in their relationship in canon, it is blatantly clear that these two are close, even though they’re polar opposites. I wish both sides were explored more, and we got to see Aizawa return the care Hizashi gives him, but all in all, I love them. In my opinion, their friendship is one of the better parts of BNHA.

169 notes · View notes

kyeterna · 6 months

Text

OC-tober day 15 prompt: meme

Featuring K.A., Kali, Adam, Kaylyn and Eri from Universe Building Tutorial (first just one of those draw your ocs prompts and then just normal meme edits)

Sixteen teenagers are tasked with the creation of a universe, problem is three of them are control freaks and half of the others don't get along well. Plus there is no tutorial out there for how to achieve such a thing. Who let a bunch of teens handle such an important task-

For this prompt I only chose five of the characters. The afformentioned control freaks are K.A. and Kali (Denis is not present here), while the other 3 are chosen because: Adam is K.A.'s unfortunate guyfailure punching bag, Kaylyn (gay intent), and I really really love Eri's design (plus despite her overall foul behaviour she s one of the few people that can get along with K.A. so i thought it would make sense for her to be here)

I could go on for days for the complicated dynamics between all sixteen members of the cast but this is not the relationship prompt entry.

From bweirdart's OC-tober prompt:

While I am doing this challenge mostly to keep an archive of my characters on tumblr (and to incentivise myself to draw them), if you, person stumbling upon this post, are curious and wanna learn more, my askbox is open >:3c

#oc-tober #bweirdOCtober #kyeterna oc #Universe Building Tutorial #unibtut: K.A.#unibtut: Kali #unibtut: Adam #unibtut: Kaylyn #unibtut: Eri #they dont know these used to be au ocs........#not telling what series tho ehe #unlike most of my other stories I will not be publishing anything about this one #it serves more of a purpose in the meta story if anything #i do like outting them in situations though #they are like little dolls i play with heeheh #K.A. Kali and Denis are all horrible horrible people. Then again teenagers- they are all scary #I love them nonetheless though I love you my dysfunctional little kids #Adam deserves better treatment tho

10 notes · View notes

nighttimeebony · 1 year

Text

The Scars of MHA

This might be a really weird thing to notice or care about, but I absolutely love the way MHA does scars. The scars in MHA are rough, jagged, off-color, asymmetrical. How often have you seen an animated property where scars are thin lines that are almost more like beauty marks than injuries? But not in MHA, where not only are the scars imperfect, but their appearance also reflects the nature of the injury.

Kirishima got the little scar above his right eye when his quirk first activated and he cut himself by accident. Since it was a relatively minor injury that happened so long ago, the scar is more silver/white in color but unmistakably there.

Izuku's scars are comparatively new, hence the red coloring to his scars, but they're also jagged and rough and give off the impression of major injury. Even his crooked right hand, which does have more faded-looking scars, but it was due to a healing Quirk, and even if the scars don't look quite as bad as the red one on his arm, it still gives off the impression of internal damage that, while healed on the outside, he will have to deal with for the rest of his life if he isn't careful. And speaking of the big scar on Izuku's arm, he's shown wearing a compression sleeve over it, implying that he has issues with chronic pain because of all the damage that's been done to his hands and arms.

Similar principle applies for Aizawa's scar that he got from the USJ. Because it's a new injury, it's still sort of pink in color, but it's also jagged and rough-looking because of course it would be after getting his face slammed into concrete. Even the placement of it is kind of significant. Because it's so close to his eye, you really feel just how close it was to completely fucking everything up, because Aizawa needs his eyes to use his Quirk, and if his eyes are put out of commission or damaged, then so is Aizawa's effectiveness in a fight. Aizawa is instrumental in almost all the fight scenes in this series, and we KNOW that if he were to get taken out, it would be bad for everyone involved.

Shouto's scar was a major, severe injury and was caused by a burn, so it's red, splotchy, and takes up most of the left side of his face. It's also surprisingly smooth when compared to other characters scars like Izuku's or even Endeavor's, and it's because burn scars are bright red and kind of smooth-feeling in comparison to the normal texture of human skin. This makes even more sense when you consider that Shouto's scar is technically a freezer burn, and when you compare the look and texture of irl freezer burn scars to Shouto's, the similarity is even more obvious. (No, I will not be putting images here, cuz it can be kind of gross if you're squeamish about stuff like that, but feel free to look it up yourself if you're curious).

Eri's scars are clean but numerous and entirely cover her arms and legs. This is due to Overhaul's continuous experimental dissections that were clinical and precise but relentless. And I think it's also notable that (with the exception of hospital robes) Eri always wears long sleeves and tights to cover them, which implies that she's self-conscious about them, which is a really good little character detail.

I just really like that the characters of MHA are allowed to be scarred and have physical imperfections that aren't glossed over or hand-waved, and they aren't treated like something that needs to be "fixed"; they just become a part of them and become natural integrations into their design. I just, I fucking love it.

43 notes · View notes

swallowerofdharma · 11 months

Text

What Guts is for Griffith

a dispassionate analysis written for a better understanding of both characters and of Berserk

Part 4: Why Charlotte?

I have so many things to say about princess Charlotte. It would be easy to write her off as a secondary character, indispensable for the plot to advance: the woman who comes between Griffith and Casca, between Griffith and Guts, and the woman Griffith commits treason for sleeping with. But it is possible that Miura has given us something more about her that we dismiss because, let’s be real, we have a habit to dismiss characters that have an abundance of feminine traits, that are gentle and soft spoken and wear beautiful dresses. We criticize female characters more harshly, we certainly give more praise to the depiction of strong or competent women, or I should say, women that act like men, that show more masculine traits - but still offer to the view their pleasant feminine forms. That’s part of the generalized dismissal of feminine qualities as something secondary, ornamental and frivolous: contempt for the weak and disdain for women, femininity and non-standard expressions of sexuality and gender are traits of the culture of machismo still prevalent today. And I will talk about how Casca isn’t just that strong woman type either, but one thing at the time. So Charlotte first. Charlotte can be feminine, she doesn’t need physical strength and fighting abilities: as a princess, she has the privilege of being recognized as someone who matters already. What I appreciate are the subtleties and the details behind the cliches. And the cliches are there, she is a princess, she is to be a romantic interest: she stumbles and Griffith has to catch her, her horse is spooked and Griffith has to save her. But she isn’t the unassuming character that we see on the surface. Certainly sheltered and mostly innocent and not aware of the reality of the common people in Midland, Charlotte hasn’t been blind to the things that surround her. Midland has been involved in a hundred years' war that preoccupies the men around her, her father, her uncle the supreme general, and the talks of the nobility and the political machinations revolve around the war. She isn’t cheerful and carefree, she is asking questions about the purpose of that violence. When she is approached by Griffith at the hunt or at the Royal ball, she is initially somber and a little gloomy, bothered by the intrinsic violence of the hunt and by the fact that the ball and the festivities only try to “divert everyone’s attention in the castle even but a trifle from the weariness of the war”. In both cases, Griffith is the one who cheers her up for a while. And he paid attention to the questions she asked, bringing back the topic when they are alone. He has been thinking about what has been driving him to violence too, pondering about war and the senseless deaths of his soldiers: “Martyrdom for a merciless god. What a waste. On the battlefield, the life of a common soldier isn’t even worth a single piece of silver”.

With Charlotte, like he tried to do with Guts, Griffith is able to talk openly about his thoughts. Griffith fits with the princess, he enjoys talking to her in those idealistic and philosophical terms, he has been educating himself not only to achieve his ambitions, but for pleasure also, he collected books and read extensively on things that aren’t all only useful to his goals. Those are things he can’t share with his soldiers and companions. He simultaneously has a burning need to reach the highest place in society in terms of power, and he strives for the betterment of his life and those lives and those deaths he cares about, those of the commoners who followed him in battle, those he is indebted to.

Griffith’s connection to Charlotte is surprising, he has paid attention to her behind what is in his interest only, behind the performance of the seduction. Once I understood it this way, it didn’t seem strange anymore then he went to her when he was wounded by Guts. Casca has been too emotionally dependent for Griffith to be able to weigh on her, or to seek her out when he needs support for himself. He feels too much that his role with Casca is to be the strong one, whenever she is trembling, because he feels responsible for her. If he falters, what would become of her? With Guts gone, Griffith only has Charlotte left.

The Griffith who talks to Charlotte about dreams is the same Griffith who first talked to Guys about striving to know what is his place in the world: “That’s what I want to know! What is my place in the world? Who am I? What am I capable of? What am I destined for? It’s funny… you’re the first person I’ve ever spoken to like this”. Between Charlotte and Guts, the one who has been feeling intimidated is Guts. Charlotte accepts Griffith and makes some thoughtful observations about him: “Lord Griffith… you are a wondrous person. When I heard that you were common-born, it was very difficult to believe. Somehow… it is as if… you are nobler than any of the nobles in this castle (1). But, at the hunt when you taught me how to sound the reef whistle, you seemed very… simple and carefree (2). You were just like some village child used to playing in forests and rivers… and right now… you say the kinds of things a philosopher would say (3)”.

Charlotte doesn’t fall in love with Griffith because of how he looks or because of his heroic performances in the war, she is seeing him like maybe only Casca did, but she is also able to share with him the same sense of weariness and disdain for most of the nobles (1), the same innocent and childlike side (2) and the same interest to look at things like philosophers would do (3). It is this exchange with a person like Charlotte that brings along the discussion about friendship: “I imagine all of your friends, too… must have come so far with you, attracted by that charm”. Before speaking, Griffith’s looking down. Charm and charisma, he knows that those are the things that let him have a hold on people. But it has been bothering him, because that charm is also blinding others and keeping them from seeing the other characteristics of Griffith’s personality or his feelings. “They are… excellent troops. Together we have faced death so many times. They are my valuable comrades, devoting themselves to the dream I envision. …But… to me, a friend is… someone who would never depend upon another’s dream… Someone who wouldn’t be compelled by anyone, but would determine and pursue his own reason to live… And should anyone trample that dream, he would oppose him body and soul… even if the threat were me myself… What I think a friend is… is one… who is my equal”.

Even after listening to this, Casca is still determined to be a silent and strong presence at Griffith’s side, his “sword”, but she missed the implications of him saying “someone who would never depend upon another’s dream”, she says: “I want to be at his side. I want to be something he can’t do without in achieving his dream”. Regardless of his undoubted ambitions, Griffith feels that he has a duty to follow his dream for the sake of others, to give a meaning to the numerous deaths under his command, and to give a purpose and a sense of achievement to those who are still alive: “A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to the god named dream…” is the conclusion of a speech that started with: “For no other’s sake. To accomplish it for him… for himself. A dream”. It is a conclusion that is contradictory to his premise and reveals a disconnect between what Griffith is saying and what he is feeling. There is a thread of irrationality that is looming dangerously on him. He shoulders all the responsibility and the burden that comes with his ambitions and with war. A friend would look past Griffith’s charisma and his goals: “someone who wouldn’t be compelled by anyone, but would determine and pursue his own reason to live”.

Griffith’s desire to be challenged hides his need to find a compromise between following a dream that is too big for him, for a sense of duty and responsibility, and being himself, a confident young man who wanted to know what his place was in the world and wouldn’t accept to live his life passively, but doesn’t have that absolute conviction or lack of self doubt and insecurities.

Guts is shattered by those words, because he never had the chance to think in those terms, having learned only how to survive the brutality of a mercenary life. Because he has been approaching his relationship with Griffith like he was with Gambino, Guts thinks that he has to gain attention, respect and affection, he has to prove that he meets some requirements. As a consequence of this conviction, he takes Griffith’s speech at face value, like a life lesson and mission. And he will be unable to look further, behind those words, to the times Griffith talked to him, acted recklessly for Guts’s sake, to all the signs that Griffith has relayed on Guts emotionally, the fond memories of their first duel that Griffith treasured, the soft spot that Guts occupies.

There is evidently a hard side to Griffith, he has been having success so far because of his confidence: “That is how I have achieved everything so far”. The sheer satisfaction he shows when he learns that Julius is dead and Adonis too is undisputable. Adonis’s death wasn’t part of the plan but it is extremely lucky in connection with the deepening of Griffith’s relationship with Charlotte, because Adonis was expected to marry her once he was older. That “luck”, those coincidences and incidents that continue to happen since the appearance of Zodd, arguably since Griffith acquired the beherit, are tied to an irrational force or to whatever causality that is pushing towards a certain direction, without none of our characters being the wiser. Griffith met Charlotte under those ambiguous auspices. But at the same time, Griffith really bonded with Charlotte, there is a sincerity to it. And there is sincerity and emotional depth in his personality, the darker traits intertwined with lighter and quite candid qualities. To become what the Godhand asks of him, he will need to be thrown into the deepest darkness and loneliness: “I’m sinking… farther from the light. Where?” And then: “The crystallization of your last tear shed. When suffering so profound as to make someone rip himself apart is confronted… a heart is frozen”.

More about Griffith and Charlotte on a later date.

#berserk #berserk manga #berserk meta #griffith #griffith x charlotte #guts berserk #beherit is a better transliteration than behelit #manga analysis #eri reads berserk #charlotte

64 notes · View notes