#if its shounen then i probably saw it though

[otaku553]

Hello! I saw your recent art of sabo, and in the tags you mentioned the big 3 of Shounen. I know it’s One piece and Naruto, but what’s the third? How come you like the character? Lovely artwork, it’s candy for the soul!! Thank you •u•

Ah thank you!!! The big three of shonen (for I guess the previous generation?) are Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach. Naruto and Bleach have already ended but it seems like One Piece is still going quite strong, despite the new generation of shonen anime (including Hero Aca, Demon Slayer, and the third spot is still debated! Probably JJK is my guess though that falls into its own sub genre of shonen dark fantasy I suppose)

Here are my favs! I’ll put the reasons why I like them in the read more because it’s quite long :)

Despite watching Naruto first I could never actually finish it because it was so long so I kind of just osmosed the later parts of shippuden through fanfics and other such media ^^; I think it’s pretty difficult to pick a definitive fav for Naruto because I feel like it tends to fumble a bit of its character writing? I think if I had to pick one maybe young Kakashi but still kind of eh. Maybe I just didn’t watch far enough to get attached

As for Bleach, I picked it up years ago around middle school and then dropped it after the first hundred episodes or so because filler got boring for younger me but then I picked it up again in high school and managed to at least get past aizen! And then I dropped it there because I wasn’t interested in any continuation after what seemed like an already pretty strong ending.

Toshiro is my favorite because he falls into all niches of character tropes that I enjoy including but not limited to: child genius who acts responsible but is still somewhat immature, cold personality along with ice powers but fierce loyalty to close relationships. I especially enjoy child genius characters for the contradictory dichotomy of what is expected of them in terms of maturity and knowledge and the amount of pressure these kinds of characters face and how they handle it! That said, I enjoy him more for the tropes that he falls into and my personal interpretation of him rather than canon writing for him. I think that though canon is an alright base, he doesn’t get much time to shine (character-wise instead of combat-wise).

And Sabo. Oh my goodness I am brainrotting so hard over Sabo right now. The ASL siblings in general have a vice grip on my heart and really are not letting go. There is so much tragedy in the way that they are written, that works because there are three of them. Ace and Luffy spend so much effort trying to save the only brother they have left in the world not realizing that if they go they’ll be the first to go actually because Sabo is still alive, and Sabo could have done so much and changed so much if only he had regained his memories sooner. Why didn’t he remember sooner? I can only assume it’s because he didn’t want to remember, because he grew out his hair to cover a scar he wasn’t proud of, because he was running away from his origins when he lost his memories and maybe that stuck with him. I don’t even remember when Sabo was introduced as a character because I don’t think he was mentioned during Marineford? But he’s such a compelling character because he does so much to save the world and yet is unable to save his own brother! And he’s written to fit with Ace and Luffy incredibly well, being the voice of reason where they can’t be.

#ask #one piece #sabo #toshiro hitsugaya #bleach #sabo’s round bug eyes are so silly to me #I’m not going to ever be able to draw him like that but. it’s really funny to me when people give him the narrow ikemen eyes #he’s such a dork…. a doting older brother……… amnesiac…… what a little meowmeow truly #I think I enjoy Toshiro because gifted kid burnout makes me relate a lot to the pressure and I wish I could handle maturity as well as him #Sabo on the other hand is just. hghgehhfhfh no concrete personal reason he’s just cool #i think anyone who goes into battle wearing a top hat and tailcoat and cravat is awesome #but then he goes and brings out the PIPE and it’s such an endearing little callback to how he grew up among trash heaps and asfnaenfaenf #I didn’t think he was that interesting at first because it felt a bit cliche for him to be a runaway noble #but then they hit him with the amnesia and hit him with the need to help others escape from evils that he can’t even really remember #and then they hit him with fucking……. returning his memories too little too late and his breakdown at being overwhelmed with not only the #memories of his brothers but also the knowledge that one of his brothers has died while he forgot them and was off doing something else and. #ashnasfnaenfeafhhaefh

[yamameta-inc]

okay so. i've always thought it was obvious that yoshiwara in flames arc's main relevance to gintama's overall narrative is as the prelude to rakuyou. like it's not thematically very interesting on its own, right? but it exists mainly for kagura and kamui's sake, establishing the sort of parallelism that gintama lives off of. it isn't really that connected to the red spider arc even though at first it might seem to be.

but i had no idea about the meaning of the name "rakuyou" until i saw @suchira 's post about it earlier today. and before that i also hadn't thought about utsuro's connection to the sun, which they've also talked about.

given everything that happens in rakuyou, this has expanded my thoughts quite a bit! i'm going be thinking through this as i go, so this is going to be me rambling.

housen is one of the few big arc villains who don't feel related to gintoki. jirocho, jiraia, oboro, takasugi--these kinds are obviously meant to be foils to gintoki. isaburo functions differently as a character, but even he gets directly compared to gintoki by nobume. but housen isn't really there for gintoki--he's there for kamui. he isn't a particularly interesting character, nor is his death very satisfying because of the wishywashy writing about hinowa showing kindness to him at the end. previously i'd thought that his thing with the sun was just a weaker example of craving something that would destroy you, and/or running away from one's weaknesses and vulnerabilities to the point that you become a sort of husk.

that's probably still a thing, but the introduction of the sun motif on the much more meaning-dense end of gintama adds so much more. because now the pre-existing thematic framework of gintama can do the heavy lifting for housen (who is, again, a pretty uninteresting character), hinowa (who is cool, but suffers from both Woman and Mom in shounen), and tsukuyo (who is very cool, but suffers egregiously from Woman in shounen).

so what is housen, really? he's the guy kamui chose to go with when making his very bad life decisions, the end result of the path he decided to pursue. for simplicity let's call him kamui bad end, though they aren't very comparable in canon itself because housen doesn't come across as nearly self-destructive enough. but the basic logic is that housen is one of those characters who gave up everything in single-minded pursuit of power--he's a flat character because he already "emptied himself out", as kamui says, before the series started. (but then he got scared and lonely, and all that.)

what's funny is that if housen is a bad end, then the guy who he considers his rival automatically comes to mind as an opposed route. i think it would be a serious stretch to call umibouzu the "good end" for kamui, and that's definitely part of the point in how the yato are written. but in any case, kamui clearly looked both ways (insert roads leading to two castles meme) and saw housen stereotypical villain bad end on one side, and his dad on the other. so obviously he chose housen.

rakuyou is a planet where it's always overcast. you could say that kamui chose to leave that "safety" in order to pursue something that shone much brighter to him, even if it would disintegrate him in the end. or, since rakuyou's name invokes the sun, you could say that he chose to flee the place of his weakness and pain, where his family was, like housen deciding to flee the sun and build an underground paradise.

when i go over my gintama cast tarot assignments, i always hesitate over hinowa. is she the Sun? or the Empress? how can i choose? and i think this is essentially the same conundrum. and i think the fact that she's both (thankfully, actual gintama storytelling isn't restricted to 1 character = 1 arcana) also provides us with the best answer here. hinowa is the object of yearning of both housen (as the sun) and of seita (as a mother). obviously, as i said before, the whole seita-hinowa thing is meant to lay the groundwork for kamui's motivations, and is also why he's introduced in this arc in the particular way that he is. but kamui is both seita and housen. he's the child yearning for his mother, but also the warlord who fears the sun so much he'll lock not only himself but countless others into the dark forever. but housen also desperately longed for the sun. kamui looks down on seita for being weak, and he looks down on housen for choosing to drown himself in vices at the end of his life. in the end, he doesn't kill either one of them.

if the sun is what kamui yearns for, he wants to leave rainy "rakuyou" behind--and/or he misses his home, his childhood, his family, even if these things feel like they will destroy him. or, if the sun is what kamui seeks to avoid, he wants to turn away from "rakuyou", all the things that hold him down so that he can throw himself into single-minded pursuit of self-destruction--and/or he's afraid of the weakness and pain that the sun inflicts on him, and desires to be strong enough that he won't feel them. see, a whole lot of words to say the same thing over and over.

i've always assigned housen the Emperor arcana. and i've often wondered, should it be umibouzu instead? should it be utsuro? and that, i think, is another illumination. thank you tarot for being an icon. it's so effective here because gintama is predictably built on parallels, and overlapping arcana assignments are bound to make you think: why?

in the end, housen builds a city underground in order to avoid the sun, but he also severs hinowa's ankles so that he can hold her, the sun proxy, captive in his grasp. he can't bear to feel sunlight, but he can't bear to let it go either. kamui is much the same, but he's young--he thinks he can let it go, his fears and regrets haven't caught up to him yet, because he still has so much to reach for. housen attained the peak of his strength and notoriety, and then there was little left for him.

what else happens in rakuyou? well, oboro and takasugi fight. oboro is sort of a seita figure in his own right, if seita had burned down yoshiwara in hopes that it would drive hinowa running to him. of course, seita didn't know that hinowa couldn't run; and oboro didn't know that shouyou couldn't, either.

but aside from seita and housen, there's another character in yoshiwara who yearns for the sun--not to possess it, but to protect it, to serve it. tsukuyo is an interesting character heavily let down by the realities of living in shounen jump. from my own understanding of sorachi's character, i don't think the following was intentional on his part. but i do think there are real reasons why these parallels are textually present (mainly through gintoki).

tsukuyo is the closest oboro has in this series to someone similar to him. not in the sense of a reflection in the mirror or hole-sided adjacency, but as in someone who sort of has a similar job and background to him. or had, anyway. as i implied earlier, the few, specific, clearly intentional similarities she has with gintoki (hello red spider) bleed over into her similarities with oboro, of course, because gintoki and oboro are... you know. just look at them.

tsukuyo swore herself to hinowa, but technically she was working under housen. she led housen's paramilitary force--fortunately, the hyakka loved her a lot more than the naraku were probably ever able to have an opinion about oboro. i don't think tsukuyo and oboro would ever get along--but they did have the same job. oboro did it in the heavens, tsukuyo did it underground. anyway, hinowa "saved" tsukuyo by teaching her about fighting from inside one's cage, and so tsukuyo gladly walked into the cage, just like oboro returning to the naraku without shouyou. because they thought it would be worth it. and also because tsukuyo had been groomed from a young age for the Hole (apologies to those who haven't read my ouroboros essay), to give up on her selfhood, and also to kill her sensei (hello gintoki). but hinowa remained around, unlike shouyou. tsukuyo never thought she could really free her--but protecting her, being able to see her, was enough.

oboro's life problem is a bit like if hinowa and housen were the same person. but kamui would see in that pairing only a reflection of his parents. and also, kouka is a bit like if hinowa and utsuro were the same person. but utsuro is already like if shouyou and utsuro were the same person--because oboro's actual life problem is that shouyou and utsuro are the same person.

i've spoken a lot about tarot, but the moon in gintama has little to do with the Moon arcana. in gintama it's the backdrop, the symbol of promises--promises made, promises fulfilled, promises held on to dearly whether they can be fulfilled or not. i don't truly think that the sun as represented by hinowa interacts directly with this. but tsukuyo and oboro share moon-related names, and their promises (or rather, their vows of devotion) towards hinowa/shouyou are one-sided. one-sided promises aren't a problem in gintama--our silver-haired protagonist wouldn't be alive if it weren't for them.

if the naraku, if utsuro, if oboro under utsuro is associated with the sun through the yatagarasu, perhaps it's because of the evaporation of the promise through the eclipsing of the moon. shouka sonjuku, after all, burned down, and utsuro emerged from a pyre. and though i think that the sun is overall a motif much more strongly associated with the yato--that which they avoid, are weak to, and secretly long for--i don't think that's incompatible with the crow-meaning.

rabbits can die of loneliness, you know--or they can die from overheating in the sun. i think the question here is, is this a trick question? are those two the same thing?

#i love starting a post with no idea of what my conclusions will be. thoughts can only be sharpened through writing #gintama #kamui #tsukuyo #oboro

[thewebcomicsreview]

I enjoy how you write action, do you have any tips for writing action in a webcomic? I struggle with the inherently broken up pace of reading a webcomic interacting with wanting a cool action scene.

To be honest, I don't think I'm particularly good at writing action, and wouldn't offer advice on it if you didn't ask! That said, my first advice would be to go read Ten Earth-Shattering Blows, which I think has great action scenes. Will it help you as I writer? I dunno, but it's a rad comic.

That aside, I think action scenes are just normal scenes that happen to have action, and follow all the same rules. A fight scene is a scene with a story within itself that also (hopefully) adds something to the comic as a whole. And, as a webcomic, you probably want something interesting happening on every page, or at least most pages, and you likely can't spend 200 pages on a fight scene over 11 chapters like a shounen manga or such could. So let's take a closer look at Ten Earth-Shattering Blows, and its first major fight.

Quick recap: Landa (in the dress) is visiting a slummy low fantasy city to try and get help in a quest. She tries recruiting evil goons and they're all "We are evil goons" and she's all "Ah beans". There's some scuffling I'm skipping over before Janflinn, with the maces, secretly reveals to Landa he's been hired to protect her. Janflinn's appearance and position in the story signals to the audience that he's the main hero. His plan is interrupted when a "monster" who saw Landa earlier and freaked out, escapes from a cage that was hanging nearby and jumps on the roof.

Janflinn effortlessly one-shots the monster, and all the characters exposit about how kewl and powerful he is. This establishes him as a powerful badass fighter, and we begin to form a mental image of him and Landa going on adventures.

Except get fucked, the monster gets back up and kills Janflinn with her own face! Your mental image of how this comic was going was wrong!

The monster beats two other guards to prove she didn't just get lucky, then uses Janflinn's weapons to get her mask off, revealing herself to be a woman. She takes Landa hostage, which has plot implications obviously, but also establishes what kind of person she is. She tells the evil goons she'll kill Landa if they attack her, and they're all "We are evil goons" and she's all "Ah beans".

She is challenged to a duel by one of the dudes, and compliments his axe before killing him with a throwing knife. From this setup, you'd expect her next line to be something like "I'm taking it" and taking his axe, but no, she books it. This, again, establishes her character. She's a tough and strong barbarian, but she's pragmatic and isn't going to show off unnecessarily. Also it's setting up a cliche and then doing something else instead.

The goons shoot down at our protagonists with arrows, so the monster pulls them into a building, smashing the innocent rando in the way. This provides a bit of a breather in the fight, so that the Monster and Landa can have a quick conversation establishing why the Monster's still carrying Landa who had no use as a hostage.

Plot points established, goons show up and force our protagonists to move to a new location in a cool and exciting way.

The monster unintentionally drops a sword into the crowd, and yells at the slaves to revolt, creating a bunch of chaos, before fighting a goon who ends up being stronger than he looks and getting the upper hand (Protip! Unnamed goons can still be competent and threatening! Most of the great Indiana Jones action scenes are against competent goons, and good goonery is badly under-rated). While the monster gets out of this jam through some cleverness, this is helping set the tone for her. She's not the Incredible Hulk, and while she's way bigger and stronger than most people in this setting, there are still a lot of dudes even bigger and stronger than her, and she needs to use her wits to survive.

Though, for a finale escape, we actually get a joke at the monster's expense, when her "Ride on a lizard and jump over the wall" plan fails and they have to kind of scrib-scrabble up the rest of the way.

Nevertheless, scrib-scrabble up the wall they do, as people look on in shock at how cool "this woman" is, and she grabs Landa and they ride off on a pig.

So, this whole scene was about 22 pages, with a bit of talking in the middle. What have we learned

This comic will go out of its way to set up a cliche plot and then surprise you with a twist

The monster is our protagonist. Landa is also here, but she is completely useless at basically everything.

The monster has no compunctions about killing people and fighting dirty to do it, and isn't super discriminating about who "deserves" violence.

This setting is full of silly miniboss types, and anyone and any time could potentially be a match for the monster, even if she herself can't always know how tough a dude is until after the fight starts.

The monster is kidnapping Landa for plot reasons

The monster is a strong badass

But she's not the strongest badass in the world, by a long shot, and also has to use her wits to win fights

Her wits are also slightly unreliable, so she has to use determination and pluck to seal the deal.

The monster can start a slave revolt by literally just going "Revolt! >:(". This is not a very stable society.

That's a lot of learning! We are getting a lot of exposition with our muscly violence. Flexposition™! And all this learning and plot development goes miles towards make the fight be a fight scene and not just the comic stopping so people can punch each other for a bit.

As long as the scene works as a scene and does the things you want it to do, all the face punching and chandelier-swinging is the seasoning you add on top.

Of course, a fight scene can have an entirely internal narrative as well, that tells us something interesting (quick example: Luke vs Vader in Empire Strikes Back, and the way Vader starts the fight really casual and bored and gets progressively more pissed off, most good pro wrestling matches, etc etc). The point of your scene can be whatever you want, even "Look how cool this fight scene is!". As long as you know what that point is and keep building to it, you're probably on the right track

#Ten Earth-Shattering Blows #Advice

[rebo-chan]

Continuing the lambo and tsuna discussion:

Oh yeah tsuna absolutely would be a hypocrite and it would be so intersting to see them having a serious fight over it.

Especially bc, tsuna ALREADY as a 13/14 year old doesnt wanna be involved in fights and the like, he just wants to be a fucking teen please leave me alone, but when he's older hes probably even MORE terrified of what they've been through as kids. As a teen when he saw 15 yo lambo he was like "oh yeah he can handle this... Maybe... Probably... Perhaps???"

But the older you get the more you realise what a fucking dystopian nightmare it is to believe fucking teenagers could be in a war, no matter how powerful they end up being or how successful! Most of the shounen protags are AT LEAST in Highschool, Tsuna is a FIRST YEAR IN MIDDLESCHOOL, BABY GOT BARELY OUT OF HIS TWEENS

So while yeah its hypocritical tsuna also has the experience and hindsight now to realize NAH UH NO NO NO NOT HAPPENING NOPE THAT IS A FETUS

Not that Lambo would ever accept that bc yeah its his big brother and (idk how common this is i am an only child and never had friends with siblings) its (maybe) common for kids to look up to their older siblings in a way especially when they are far older and tsuna has done some really amazing stuff. He just doesnt get the whole "too young" for the fight thing, especially bc his background is already mafia related and the Bovino let this 5 YEAR OLD run around with GRANADES AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS.

Child safety? Dont know her - Old Bovino motto

No but srsly i just think tsuna is the very first person that actually brings up this concept in lambos life. Even Nana never sees whats going on around her as any kind of dangerous, even kids his age are nonchalant about it, fucking yamamoto may see a kid in him but he rolls with almost anything, gokudera just shows him disdain which is not exactly concern (in the beginning)

So its JUST Tsuna that looks at this five year old and says "Absolutely fucking not"

I mean technically also Haru but i dont think he registers that bc she just generally coddles the babies.

So Tsuna, his big brother, the one he looks up to the most, does not acknowledge him as a fighter. And while lambo doesnt see Tsuna as his boss, I do think when he grows older it WILL become more and more of an issue between both of them.

I know i basically just rephrased and repeated a lot of what you said in your post but also I HAVE SO MANY EMOTIONS

OMG NO DONT EVEN WORRY I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT LAMBO AND TSUNA <3 <3 <3

A real fight about this topic between Lambo and Tsuna would actually be so interesting though, you're so right. In this case, Tsuna cannot be reasoned with. As you mentioned, the older he gets the more he will look at being 15 years old as being a FETUS. His stress already just skyrockets whenever Lambo is ANYWHERE near the battlefield, he becomes absolutely belligerent (Shimon arc, future, and letting himself get disqualified in Varia) Tsuna is definitely the one most protective of Lambo, though Gokudera is a good second place even Gokudera doesn't realize that is a child though tbf in a world where the strongest are infants I do not blame Gokudera for not blinking an eye.

Child safety, don't know her ksJNGKJNSGE NO FR THOUGH. TSUNA IS THE ONLY ONE LIKE "please for gods sake stay at home my god please please" Its even funnier when you consider the only reason he trusts TYL I-Pin to protect anyone is bc she becomes 1 year older than him through the bazooka. SKJNG this is why TYL Lambo is also called Adult Lambo in his head. But yes, this idea would ABSOLUTELY disintegrate the moment my boy tsuna leaves his teen ages. I think the idea that this will be an area of tension for Lambo and Tsuna is so cool, because oh my god!! Lambo wants to be there. Despite his age, he is rightfully Vongola's Guardian of Lightning and he wants to hurry up and catch up!! Especially when you take into account of what I said about 20yl, like that's a Lambo that loses everyone!!!! Imagine the absolute stress on Lambo's brain when these thoughts flourish in his mind, and then he's got his big brother who would see him in a training room and go "WHAT ARE U DOING HERE. GET OUT?????? DO NOT TOUCH THE POINTY SPEAR THAT IS CHROMES" It's such absolute tasty content and I am more than happy to oblige with the Tsuna/Lambo thoughts. They're so important to me <3

#khr #sawada tsunayoshi #Lambo #Lambo Bovino #thank you for the ask!!

[dweebishboy]

JJK S2 final episode!!

Spoilers incoming 🤓

Note: I speak quite poorly about JJK in this, but it’s just my immediate emotions towards the show following this last episode. I do still love it and the characters, but it’s far from my favourite thing out there. I’m a shoujo enjoyer, I don’t like angst, I don’t usually watch your classic shounen type fighting anime. I like JJK despite this, but my biases and preferences mean I automatically don’t like certain aspects of the show (even if I can recognize how crucial and relevant they can be to the plot)

The way my heart dropped when it showed the name “Fushiguro” WHY HIS SISTER???

I’ll be honest, I don’t really know what’s going on here, or how this could possibly be the end of this season

FOLLOW UP TO THIS STATEMENT: I forgot that arcs can have bad endings 💀 I’m not used to watching things where the worst possible ending actually happens 🫣

YUTA OH MY GOD

WHAT THE HELLLLLLL I SAW THOSE PANELS BEFORE BUT I NEVER???

WHY DID HE CUT OFF INUMAKI’S ARM??? WHY IS HE GOING TO KILL ITADORI??? WHAT IS THE CONTEXT???

GOJO AS AN ACCOMPLICE WHAT THE FUCK?????

YUTA IS GOING TO EXECUTE ITADORI???

Every single one of those statements

Was

Off.

Geto did not survive (not really), Gojo was not an accomplice, Yaga did not incite Gojo and Geto (well, he didn’t cause the Shibuya incident), because Gojo wasn’t an accomplice Itadori shouldn’t be killed— that does ignore the mass destruction Sukuna inflicted though. Regardless I don’t think Itadori should die, he was force fed a billion fingers, all against his will, this was out of his control.

This is a lot to take in bro 💀

Is this the scene from the intro??

When is this?? How much time has passed??

Where is everyone??

I’m quite confused 😁

Idk what season 3 is gonna be like, part of me doesn’t even want to watch it. And I say that solely because I like… joy…? And it sounds like every character I love is going to die, so. Maybe I’ll choose blissful ignorance and ignore the Shibuya incident and everything that comes afterwards 🤗 (I won’t. I like this show too much, it’s really good, it’s got a really good story when I can understand what’s going on. And I don’t love an inconclusive ending so I’ll have to keep watching 👎)

Overall, highly recommend…

JJK isn’t my favourite, nor is it the best anime out there, but it’s still really good. Ranks high regardless of its issues (mappa…)

Yeah, idk. The fact my favourite character (Nanami) DIED, my other favourite character (Choso) is also probably going to DIE, Gojo is probably DEAD, Nobara might be DEAD, Itadori might DIE (doubtful. He is the main character. But even if he was the last one standing I wouldn’t really care all that much. He’s great but not my favourite), all kinda makes me… not a fan. If I knew that all my favs were going to get fucking obliterated I probably never would’ve started JJK. I only watched it because of the Gojo memes but I stuck around because I genuinely enjoyed the plot and all the characters 🦐

And I understand death can help move a story along BUT

I personally avoid angst and shows heavy in character death (Angel Beats being a major outlier 💀) because I just don’t like it. I either need to really like the characters or really like the plot to stick around with a show and JJK has a good plot but I don’t generally care for stereotypical shounen anime. Idk why I’m explaining this to you.

JJK is an incredible show with incredible characters and I love it despite everything I just whined about.

That does not mean I won’t drop it though. (I think I’m just getting sick of all the manga spoilers, it’s really not that hard to put a spoiler under the “keep reading” thing.)

There’s a lot about JJK that’s pissing me off actually, I have a very strong love hate relationship with it.

I could keep going but for the sake of… idk. Someone or something, I’ll stop here.

Watch JJK! I don’t blame anyone for saying it isn’t the best thing they’ve ever seen though. Because it’s really not. It has moments where it is, but at the end of the day it is just another shounen.

(I talked super poorly about JJK, maybe I’ll do another post talking about what I really like about it. But probably not, because that would just be me saying “wow these characters’ relationships are really interesting!” and as I think I’ve established, a lot of characters die. So these relationships sort of become void by extension, the thing I like most about the show continues to fizzle out 🦐)

[shifuto]

alright so.. I'm mostly finished with Thousand Autumns and this series was... something! Really out of my comfort zone and I'm so happy I gave it a try!

the whole thing is about political and territorial disputes, fancy magical martial arts ("wuxia" is its own genre) with a queer plot ("danmei" is basically the chinese equivalent of boys love/shounen-ai)

didn't read the books and won't do that because the main plot actually bored me a little.. too confusing and convoluted (and I think those kinds of political plots that go nowhere ad infinitum are a little nonsensical) BUT the gay stuff? Oh man, that's the real thing

unfortunately with all the censorship and anti-queer crap, you won't get anymore than hints in the animated show, but yeah, sure I'll take it (the extra chapters actually have kissing scenes and alluded to sex, I wonder why they were not put in the main story? This video is the audio drama from one of the extra chapters)

I think I always avoided getting into wuxia/danmei because all the stories look so similar - they have to, it's literally why the genre exists - and I'm not that interested I guess. I always preferred historical japanese stories anyway

a few things really stood out to me in this though

1- the main characters are in his 30s and 40s, and I've never really seen much of that before considering so many queer stories tend to focus on younger characters so this was extremely refreshing to me

2- the main characters are a "hero" and an actual "villain" - and no, the "villain" is never reformed in the end. Love that, love to see it, would love to have more

3- the hero character, Shen Qiao, at first looks like a doll without any personality or will of his own, bound to his "mission", to his "home", and I guess I get it? He's handsome and that's constantly brought up in the series, where characters of all genders are attracted to him and he's just kind of.. there? He is prude and has morals, all that virtuous crap that makes such boring characters until........ you get to see more and more of him and he's actually something huh?! I was so shocked when I saw him killing people, and seeing his internal conflict with the "devil" too, there's just so many cool things honestly

4- Yan Wushi, the "villain", was one of those characters I fall in love with off the bat. He is SO. MUCH. FUN. He's charming, he's probably the most powerful out there and he knows it, he has a terrible personality and, basically, the whole plot of the series is about how he saved Shen and spent the whole time (probably years) trying to get him to turn evil, getting turned down every time, laughing it off, trying again. He also spent a long time flirting and insinuating himself "jokingly" and he was always there, in a way or another

5- they end up together even though they're so different and they make no effort to change each other - one love the other as they come - which, to me, was incredible considering how righteous Shen is and the fact that Yan would be his natural enemy because he is canonically one of the bad guys

there's a few downsides that will make it very likely that I won't revisit this such as the fact that this is a novel (and the actual consummated relationship only happens on extra chapters), the show is in CGi (I can't stand 3D animation), the gay stuff is not gay enough and there's not enough of it for me to hold onto (there's enough wars and martial arts though, if that's your cup of tea)

it was a delight any way!

#thousand autumns #shif writes

[2n2n]

How did you find out about JSHK? I mean it’s not that well-known so I’m curious about it, personally I wanted a peaceful manga *cough cough* but I definitely don’t regret it! It gave me so much emotions… to me it’s a masterpiece

Well. I don't know how to say this. I'm sorry if this isn't the answer you wanted. I'm just... a shotacon... by design.... by nature, so, I've been 'aware' of its existence for a long time, as anything within my interests comes to be known. 'The grapevine', I suppose? I'd seen manga panels just floating around, like this, for years

I actually wrote it off initially because, while Hanako looked great, I don't actually get much out of the BL-bait-y genre haha (sordid past). I thought it was probably of a similar tenor to Black Butler, or even something like Ouran Highschool Host Club. That kind of... genre-referential humor, wackiness nonsense... as it was a shounen, probably interspersed by fighting or something... I didn't really want to bother. If I chased after every manga with some nasty black-haired boy.................. the TOILET themeing KINDOF increased the impression that it would be an onslaught of off-color gags, LOL. This image was really like, "ok, looks like he's putting a condom on his tongue, Like Those Images You Know"-- DIDN'T HELP HIS CASE!

Whenever anyone of my general interests liked it, they also treated it as a nasty manga? I guess I never observed anyone who really stanned it; anyone I knew tangentially even was like, "hot twin stuff" "skanky ghost boy" so I was like, I don't really need that ... *shrugs*

It's kinda interesting, you know, but I feel like almost all chatter misrepresented the manga? Whether it was, "it's a funny peaceful silly comedy" or "it's a dirty fuckfest", neither actually pays dues to the heartfelt, romantic, carefully woven nature of JSHK. The story itself. I agree with you, it's a masterpiece. And reading Iro's other writing, and seeing Aida + Iro's friendship over the many years (they post so many chats and convos... from their old blog to twitter), ah there's this unbelievable charm and charisma, a wonderfully infectious energy....? It's so unique. I guess all the frivolity of the manga, that's also kinda present in AidaIro's entire online presence over years, whether Aida is tattling on Iro for stealing the Bavarian cream off her parfait, or Iro's reporting a nightmare they had about a scary MILF chasing them + Aida, or Iro's mishearing Aida saying 'gingerbread' as 'ginger blood' to a cashier, or the both of them discussing what panties characters of theirs would wear, it's all heartfelt... it comes out in the manga, maybe. I'm more familiar with a typical slightly contentious Mangaka+editor relationship...

There are a ton of images and pages that I think, "I would have read this in a heartbeat if you'd only showed me this first". Aida's art alone is drop-dead gorgeous and I never saw anyone pointing to the background composition, color blocking, expressions, etc, which would have totally sold me instantaneously too... I was either seeing the most salacious caps or panels, or the more plain stuff, something funny maybe, I wasn't being shown like, this stuff.... (I know some things are more recent, just bare with me for what I have saved already to give an IDEA)

I was never given an impression it could be so loving, so careful, so impassioned, so loaded with delicate themes and symbols...

EVEN SPEAKING TO MY MOST CRUUUDE NATURE, you could have forced me to read JSHK instantly by showing me this image...............

I would have said, "I gotta-- gotta get in that," ahaha...

for the record though the nastiness is still... there, and a charm point of it all, it's just kinda fascinating it is threaded with all the heartfelt stuff. I mean Iro will be out there joking that if you tell 100 dirty stories rumor is the Molester Woman will show up. They are. Irreverent and the manga IS loaded with salacious imagery, its actually just... more, interesting, the interplay of all of this, watching it all happen. Feeling like I'm going to cry and also feeling like, baited. I do not think I have ever read anything that did both make me think and feel agony and also make me look at tied up boys. Sometimes at the same time....

#avvy's JSHK

[seeingteacupsindragons]

hello, marr! i was wondering if you could recc any of those queer-character-shounens that you mentioned in passing? i'm sure i will probably have read some of them myself lol but i am always up for new recommendations

(also have you heard of call of the night, by any chance? that's a really fun shounen i've been enjoying recently where one of the central themes is literally the aroace spectrum [and also vampires XD])

Going to address the last question first, because it's quicker: Nope!

As for the other, I'm not going to necessarily going to "rec" them, but I'm going to mention some. Spoilers ahoy!

As for things I'm going to exclude: Any of that "super intense shonen protagonist and their best friend/rival relationship even though one or both has a canon female love interest" because that's extremely common but not what we're talking about. Sorry, Naruto, begone. And I'll also exclude things like GetBackers, because they are canonically interested in women despite being advertised, uh, like this.

I'll probably include some seinen, too, because despite seinen generally getting to cover more series and adult topics because of its older demographic, it's still a male-targeted genre and wowwwww the pin ups in the seinen manga sometimes--people assume it targets a similarly un-queer audience.

And obviously limited to stuff I can think of and know.

Let's get started!

HunterXHunter. Alluka (Killua's younger sister) is a trans girl! Everyone in the family refers to her as a boy or a son or a brother, except...Killua, who is also the only person in the family she gets along with. It's really not subtle. There's also whatever Hisoka is, but. Well. We hate Hisoka on this blog, okay?

Dr. STONE. Look, I just watched this one so I'm thinking of it, but there's basically no way Senku isn't aro ace, and this is actually a really common opinion, given that when someone said they could fall in love with him, his response was, "Please don't." Senku has zero interest in romance or sex or any of it, and just cares intensely for his friends. The aro ace community is claiming him, sorry. I know the anime hasn't covered everything, but I cannot imagine him ever getting a love interest, either. It's been repeated.

Akame ga Kill has a gay man on Night Raid. Spoiler, but everyone on Night Raid dies, so he hardly gets a happy ending, but it's not like that's unique to him.

Nabari no Ou is technically a shonen, having been published in a shonen magazine (that also published things like...well, Black Butler, so annnnnyway), and the detueragonist, Yoite, is intersex and has a...probably homosexual...relationship with the protag. It reads that way, anyway.

Luffy from One Piece is confirmed by the author to be ace, and there's a trans dude introduced lately that everyone's been arguing about, hasn't there? Yamato? (I don't like One Piece)

Soul Eater: Crona is nonbinary

Gurren Lagann: Leeron is gay, and although it's not the most tastefully handled, it's definitely canon. It's seienen or shonen, one of 'em.

Boys Run the Riot is a seinen about a trans boy

The manga adaptation of Tiger & Bunny was actually published in a seinen magazine, and *waves at self-identified okama Nathan Seymour, the most-aggressively-nonbinary-chracter*. Plus I'm not over Kotetsu's joke about how Nathan isn't his type because he's "too tall" and not any...um...gender concerns.

My Brother's Husband is published in a seinen manga, and what do you think it's about, come on here.

So anyway, yeah. There's a list to start, just from my own off-hand knowledge without really looking anything up. I'm sure there's been more scholarly and researched discussions on this.

and the point is really: YuuMori isn't unique in the existence of queer characters, queer themes, an unusually queer or female audience for shonen, or anything. While I love it, it's not the only series that's done it. It's not the first.

I saw someone say it "rewrote the rules" for queer characters in shonen earlier today, which is what that comment earlier was about. No, it didn't. I love it, but it really, truly did not. It's building on a long legacy of characters.

#anime #queer #queer character #queer representation

[randowwriter]

Hello! I used to be really into anime until I got exposed to some scandalizing stuff. I would like to give it another shot, though. I was wondering if you have some wholesome suggestions? :)

I have two favorites right now, so I guess I'll start there? (I thought I saw a lot of anime until I realized my friends have seen way more than I have.) Akagami No Shirayukihime/Snow White With The Red Hair: the anime is super good! It's a Shoujo that definitely focuses on romance, but the romance is pure and genuine, which is amazing! (I feel like few series ever capture that in romance, but this one does!) I haven't gotten that far into the manga yet, but I highly recommend the anime. (The manga, I hear, gets a little more into politics and stuff like that, which I imagine will be quite fun!) I think forgiveness would count as a strong theme in it, because of an arc in Season Two. (They are short seasons; twelve episodes a piece.) Akatsuki No Yona/Yona Of The Dawn: It is a fantasy, technically a Shoujo too. But though it has a different religion has its base, that I'm guessing as something to do with Shinto Buddhism, based off of the fact that some of the translations for the priests in it, call them Shinto Priests, but I say it can be interpreted pretty easily through a Catholic and Christian lens. :) Also, it has a strong emphasis on relying on God as well as a strong emphasis on forgiveness. It has really strong family and friendship themes, and strong romance too, though since that's a slowburn type, it takes a while. Honestly, I'm a sucker for fantasy, and somehow within the deep, very unique characters that feel real and the fantasy themes, it didn't take long to fall in love with it. It does have wars/politics/other themes, so it does have some harder to read/watch stuff. I'm actually all caught up on the manga, and right now, we just hit two hundred and twenty five chapters! The anime though is only twenty four episodes with three awesome OVAs! :) Also, as someone reminded me of and had me think through, this a strong theme of not judging people before you know them? Some characters are definitely bad right from the get go, but other characters, we have to think about more, like get to know basically. Some of this comes through when villagers make hasty judgements on people that the main characters know or when we have to take our time to get to know a character that's a little tough to want to know at first. My Roommate Is A Cat would be a great anime to start off with. It is a slice of life focusing on a mystery writer who ends up adopting a cat, basically. He's never had pets before, let alone a cat, and is a little at a loss as to how to care for said cat. But it happens at a time when he really needs companionship. It's focused on family and friendship, though warning before the series starts, there is some tragedy, so it has sad parts, but it mostly focuses on the happy things. I watched it, because there's a writer and there's a cat, and found that I really liked it! It's only twelve episodes long and is pretty new. 2020 or perhaps 2019 was when the anime came out. I haven't finished even the first chapter of the manga, which is supposedly ongoing. So, can't answer for that yet. I do recommend that you start with My Roommate Is A Cat since it is shorter and also doesn't touch on near as many heavy themes as the other series do. Ooh, FullMetal Alchemist is great, but it's longer and is a Shounen so there is lots of action and hardships. But I recently heard that Brotherhood (especially) was a prolife anime, and when I thought about it that's definitely true. The value and miracle of human life is a common theme within it. Hopefully, I'll start watching some of the recommendations that people have given me for series. (Thinking back on anime, I grew up with, you've probably seen them, and some I wouldn't recommend now.) But I'm still watching the Fruits Basket reboot, and sometimes it makes me want to go back and reread the manga to verify that some of what I'm seeing is from there? But I learned a lot from Fruits Basket when I was younger, primarily from a mom and her daughter in it. :) So, it's a lovely series to me.

(Come to think of it, I think most of the series, I like, involve forgiveness as a prominent theme. Fruits Basket, FullMetal Alchemist, Yona Of The Dawn, Snow White With The Red Hair, etc...) (An argument could be made about self-forgiveness in My Roommate Is A Cat though, so even that one kind of fits.)

Heads up, there can be pretty emotional stuff in these too. So, there are sad moments and stuff like that in either all of these or most of them.

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

12/03/2023 – 12/09/2023

Sunday

I checked out the first chapter of Ruirui Senki and was extremely bored by it. It feels like an amalgamation of all the popular Shounen Jump spiritual battle manga – selfless protag who always goes out of his way to help others in need, young-looking grandmother who’s also a mentor for the spirit battles, the spirits being manifestations of negative feelings, etc. My eyes immediately glazed over at the expository magic rules dialogue too, and the motivations for the glasses guy are so thin and basic but being presented like it’s really deep and thought-provoking. The only thing that this manga has an edge on over Jujutsu Kaisen or Dandadan is its immediate fujo appeal: uptight glasses guy who wants to do the right thing/laid-back chill guy who’s secretly a badass who protects glasses guy? Glasses guy literally sleeping on chill guy’s lap??? The fics just write themselves. This yaoibait definitely feels intentional, though I suspect it’ll be set aside once the main female lead from the opening color page is introduced proper. Maybe even a love triangle, who knows. The series is already derivative from the get-go, so why not. And them setting up a “problem solving club” of sorts at the end is just ripe for monster of the week material. I won’t be around to see it, obviously, other than to skim through and see if I’m right. Just a boring manga all around. (Also a weird nitpick, but the lettering in this chapter felt off… Some of the spacing and word fitting was just weird and bad at times… I feel like I’ve seen this letterer on other Shounen Jump works and I hadn’t noticed anything before, but this one looked a little rough. A product of crunch, perhaps? Overall it’s passable, but it’s just something that stuck out to me).

Undead Unluck was pretty good. I liked the random f-bomb being dropped LOL and I also like how the crash is what tears up Enjin’s hat to match how he had it in the last loop. Enjin’s mom is a classic “dying anime mom” with the low side ponytail to boot, but at least she’s a bit rugged and not kind and demure as dying anime moms tend to be. A few weeks ago I mentioned how I was excited to find out more about Enjin, but unfortunately I just find him a little one-note. The whole tough and ambitious delinquent-ish guy with straightforward ambitions and a heart of gold already feels a little played out… But at least with him on board, we can get on with what looks to be an exciting arc ahead.

Wow, the new Oshi no Ko chapter… Kana’s certainly taking a bold approach to things. Baring her own ugly feelings to invoke some emotional truth in Ruby for the sake of her acting…that’s pretty intense.

Dandadan was fun, I liked seeing Turbo Granny’s little adventure. Oh right, the anime was announced last week when this chapter was released! I’m really excited for it, and judging from the trailer I think I can trust Science Saru to do a good job. A quirky studio like that is pretty fitting for a quirky manga like this.

On the other side of the anime announcement spectrum is, unfortunately, Magilumiere… The trailer looked like any other modern shiny anime, and poster isn’t doing too much to sell me on the anime either…

The added crotch shadow alone is annoying enough, but Koshigaya’s whole facial expression has been nerfed so hard, and I don’t understand why they would have Kana hold her ID card when her reading manuals is a pretty big part of her early characterization?? The anime’s artstyle just doesn’t hold any of the original’s charm, either, and what little we saw of the Kaii in the trailer looked like regular anime slop with textures slapped onto it. I honestly don’t know if I’ll watch it… It’ll probably just make me sad.

All of that aside, the new Magilumiere chapter was pretty gripping. I constantly feel on the fence about whether or not Midorikawa will do a double-double cross, and I think I’m slightly leaning towards yes after this chapter. And, not gonna lie, seeing Shigemoto’s desperation at whatever this magic power chip thing is about is activating the gayship radar in my brain… Is he trying to stop them because it would grant Midorikawa more power than Shigemoto would like? Or…perhaps…the chip has some sort of downside that’ll harm Midorikawa, but he’s doing it to further his (and Shigemoto’s??) goals…? If it’s the latter, and Shigemoto subjected himself to these working conditions to protect Midorikawa from going so far as to bring harm to himself… The yaoi alarms are BLARING, especially with that last panel of Midorikawa smiling almost sheepishly as he mentions some sort of promise with Shigemoto… You know, before the betrayal, I was always hoping for some kind of ship fodder for Midorikawa since he seemed like a nice guy, but now the added edge of toxic yaoi is really elevating the flavour… This ship came out of nowhere but I’m a little obsessed with it already.

The One Piece chapter was fun, Kuma really is a good guy, huh. It’s kinda funny seeing Kizaru just hanging out and eating pizza with everyone. And seeing Ace again is so bittersweet…

A cute little Iroha/En moment to start off the Cipher Academy chapter. I have no idea who I actually ship him with since he seems to have chemistry with everyone, but this was pretty cute. And I’m glad we’re getting more insight into another one of Class A’s members! Aw Namasu is pretty cute, too. Cute chapter all around.

We watched a few more episodes of House, but I gotta be honest and admit that I was half-asleep through most of them.

Monday

Uhhhhhh

Tuesday

It’s fun seeing Pochita again in the new Chainsaw Man chapter. He really boils everything down concisely for Denji as he tries to move up through the hierarchy of needs. Will he ever actually attain self-actualization? I don’t know, but I’m rooting for him. I do hope the pets thing is a fakeout, and it doesn’t feel like Fujimoto’s style to kill off a bunch of animals…but who knows.

Watched some more House, but I was making dinner at the same time so I didn’t really catch much of the story. But it’s funny that House is cracking all these homoerotic jokes about Taub and Foreman living together, as if he and Wilson weren’t literally doing the exact same thing like a month ago.

Wednesday

The new extra chapter of Skip to Loafer was cute, but I have nothing to say about it.

We’re popping the biggest bottles today as Huddy has officially broken up! Somehow didn’t even last as long as Cameron and Chase’s relationship but this is for the best for everyone involved.

Thursday

I’m trying to procrastinate some work so I read the first chapter of Yan Ge’s Strange Beasts of China. Having dreamt of being a cryptozoologist in my youth, I do enjoy the premise a lot, and the first chapter shows promise with its light horror vibes and unique monsters. I could do without the pseudo-deep “maybe We’re the REAL beasts” musings but so far it’s passable.

Friday

Story-wise, not much actually happened in the new Undead Unluck episode, but I’m just happy to sit back and enjoy the stylistic direction. Knowing what I know now, though, I FEEL SO BAD FOR MY BOY SEAN AGHHHHHHH SAVE HIMMMMM also YESSSSSSS THE JUIZ MOMENT WAS PERFECT. I really like Juiz’s voice actress, too, she’s been really delivering on the recap and preview narrations as well as in the actual show. Another highlight for me was Shen saying that long sentence in Chinese – I think Hanae Natsuki did about as well as he could. He got pretty close in some places! Also them showing Lake Baikal when the night sky filled up with stars was so nasty (affectionate).

Saturday

A very cute and healing episode of SpyFam today, which is a nice respite after the tense action-filled episodes we’ve had. It’s all very very very cute, with some TwiYor fodder as a bonus, and we got a nice conclusion to Yor’s arc (even if it’s a little “yes I have re-affirmed that I will continue my status quo”). The scene with the adults in Anya’s life trying to impart the importance of honesty to her all while being massive liars themselves was some great ironic humor. I’ve always found it fun that in order to get the most use out of her abilities, Anya has had to learn to be mature in her own way and be receptive to the thinking and contradictions of the adults around her. This rough emotional maturity coupled with her childish whims is what makes Anya so compelling to watch.

Another chapter of Yuria-sensi no Akai Ito! I really enjoyed this chapter – it’s nice to see Yuria take some time off and socialize for once, even if it’s still to help someone else. Little Yuria is also super cute, I think the mangaka did a great job depicting his chaotic energy in a way that felt true to life. And then the conversation between Yuria and Ban was naturalistic and really hit upon some relationship issues that don’t often get explored in manga – even with the bombastic plot points of a secret gay lover and a secret family that’d be right at home in a soap opera, the central sticking point of Yuria’s relationship is about how Yuria herself is unwilling to give up on it, partly out of habit and partly out of stubbornness, and how this has forced her to sacrifice so much of herself and her life. But it’s great to see her take some small steps to reclaiming that time, such as when she admits to herself that she wants to be seen as desirable in her own right. I really love this manga, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Managed to get in the new episode of Kusuriya before this post goes up. The tea party with Gyokuyou and Lishu is fascinating to watch play out in animated form. The silence of the room and the stiffness of ceremony and customs makes each spoken line feel weighty, and the subtle glances around the room feel like sharp analytical examinations of how everyone else is feeling. It’s almost Succession-y. The part where Lishu’s party whisper among themselves stood out to me for how it actually sounded like real whispering – typically you get a sort of half-whisper in anime, but this makes the setting feel realistic. Also now that I think about it, Lishu’s a really interesting character to me. She didn’t stand out to me before when reading the manga or light novel, but seeing her here with her small stature and clear anxiety, I can’t help but feel really bad for her. She’s been used as a political pawn for almost her whole life, and now she’s a teenage girl alone in a den of wolves and meant to navigate the socio-political web of both the rear palace and the country at large…her introduction made her seem almost like a brat, but I’m glad we’re quickly moving past that image of her. I haven’t gotten to any story arc in the manga or light novel where she features as a crucial figure in some political plot yet, but I hope that that’s on the horizon because it’d be really interesting.

Aww the return of the Maomao being tossed out of a room gag is so cute. And a weird thing that I noticed (because I’m insane and also it stuck out to my ear) was how Ah-Duo’s pronunciation of Fengming was weirdly decent and almost accurate, so kudos to the seiyuu there. THE GIRLS PINING FOR AH-DUO ARE SOOOOO REAL SHE’S SO HOT AND IKEMENNNNN. Ooo I really like the use of foreground and background as Maomao and the others walk through the corridor. Feels really alive and almost like a live-action shot. It looks like it’d be a useful animation trick to make a scene feel like it’s moving without actually needing to animate a lot. GAOSHUN SGHDJSFSDH turning a wilful blind eye to his master’s bad behaviour… It’s so funny seeing Jinshi’s childish side poke out, as well as his panic when he gets caught in the act. I also really enjoyed the squishiness in Lishu’s expressions in the scene afterwards, which peaked in her expression of panicked realization at the end. Agh, and a great revelation to cap off the episode. Really fantastic episode overall! Great pacing and dissemination of information, great performances, and great directing to boot. I hope that this is a sign that they geared up the production to bring the first half of this 24-episode cour to a strong finish.

#week in review #2023

[irishanimefan]

One Piece Anime Watchalong: Alabasta Saga 5/5

Alabasta (Eps 92-130):

Started: 14/8/23 Finished: 30/8/23

Here we are at the final arc of this saga. It only makes sense that we end it in the Alabasta kingdom. Here we see the Straw Hats return Vivi to her home kingdom and try and reclaim it before Crocodile's plan of inciting a civil war can come to fruition. But, as always, it isn't that simple, as a number of surprises come their way, such as the Baroque Works trying to stop them, Captain Smoker and his crew showing up to finish what they started, and the introduction of Luffy's brother Portgas D. Ace! Strap in, there is a lot to talk about with this arc.

First point I want to bring up is the country of Alabasta itself. We spend a lot of this arc learning about its history, its politics (and who says shounen anime isn't political?), and how the drought has impacted its society. Vivi's father, King Cobra Nefertari, does what he can to mitigate the issues surrounding the decline of the country, but it comes to a point where the people begin to lose faith in his leadership. Because of the drought, what used to be bright beacons in the country, from the Ermalu, the city of Green, to the upstart oasis Yuba, have all dried up and withered away. It provides such a stark contrast from the lively (but still disparaging) cities of Nanohana and Katorea where we started. The shock of seeing these once prosperous locations in the country in ruins was pretty powerful, despite us not having seen what they were like before. Other series can be hindered by the characters telling the audience about something without actually showing it, but OP being a series that wears its heart firmly on its sleeve and has such intense emotions at all times, it can get away with it. Though, for as good as that stuff was, spending that much time trekking across the desert with very little story progression was getting tiring. Okay, that's a bit unfair towards it. The story is progressing in this part, but the pacing was almost glacial. The stuff in the beginning where we meet Ace (more on him later) was great, and everything after the desert was also great, but after a while I was getting pretty sick of the desert. As a result, it was so satisfying seeing Luffy just outright state that Vivi's plan of just wandering aimlessly across the desert in the hopes of encountering the rebel army was not the way forward, and convincing her to change course by going to Crocodile himself.

Speaking of Vivi, as much as we want to see Luffy beat the ever-loving crap out of Crocodile, this really is Vivi's story at the end of it. Even though she wasn't the central focus of the previous arcs, and we only got a glimpse of what she was capable of in Drum Island, she really gets to shine here. Going into the final stretch of this story, a lot of pressure was riding on Vivi, not only is she tasked with saving Alabasta, but the reputation of her father as a leader is on the line if the kingdom falls. Seeing the gradual change over the course of this arc to become someone who is worthy enough to lead Alabasta was so satisfying. She obviously couldn't do all this without the help of the Straw Hats, who give her the push to take things into her own hands again while also reminding her to not be afraid to rely on the help of others. We also get to see a glimpse of her past and the friendship she formed with Koza, a young boy who is very outspoken and critical of Cobra's neglect of the people. At first they don't along, probably due to the class divide, but over time they begin to build a mutual respect for each other, with Koza even saving her from a group of bandits. However, now their relationship is mired by the fact he is the leader of the rebel army. I think the real sign of growth I saw throughout the arc was her ability to take the initiative. One example I was impressed with was when she reaches the royal palace in Alubarna, already in the midst of a war between both royal and rebel armies, and she gives the order to blow up the palace. It isn't a decision to make lightly, because the palace had over 4,000 years of history and is a symbol of power in the kingdom, but Vivi finds it necessary to destroy it because what matters to her is getting the truth out there. Of course, these attempts are all intercepted by Crocodile, which is always soul-shattering when it happens because we've invested so much emotional energy into seeing her save her country. Then there is her decision at the end of the arc, whether she wants to stay in Alabasta or to continue to journey across the Grand Line with the Straw Hats. She decides that she cares too much about her country to go with the Straw Hats, and since she is still a princess, at the end of the day, her connection with them would only label her as a criminal. Despite this, she still wants them to acknowledge her as a friend, and they respond to that by showing their back to her and raise their fists to show the X mark on their left forearm, to let her know that it is a symbol of their friendship. With "We Are" playing on top of that, it's a very magical moment.

Speaking of Crocodile, after being built up throughout the saga as someone not to be reckoned with, he does live up to those expectations. He is such a devious bastard, using his status as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, pirates who are affiliated with the government, to manipulate the people of Alabasta and to pull the strings from the back. He just knows how to push each character's buttons, and he just relishes in every moment of their agony. Does he have his stereotypical villain moments -- monologuing his plans, maniacal laugh, and just being plain evil? Yes, but he doesn't need to have these complex motivations to work. He's a pirate with substantially more backing from the government to do whatever the hell he wants, and what he wants is to destroy and entire country. That in and of itself is a terrifying thought. And that's what makes Luffy beating him so satisfying. Admittedly, their first battle was heavily skewered in Crocodile's favour, with him actually stabbing Luffy and burying him in the sand. However, through that defeat, that's when Luffy found out how to actually get a hit on him, since he can turn his body into sand, making his body solid by dousing him with a liquid, in this instance water, is the only way to beat him. Yay, go science! Despite this revelation, Luffy still hasn't managed to weaken Crocodile, only getting him closer to destroying the country. By the time their third and final battle commences, Luffy had covered his hands and feet in his own blood so he can get a hit on Crocodile. That is one of the rawest things I've seen in anime, let alone in One Piece. Even when Luffy is exhausted, has lost a considerable amount of blood, and was poisoned by Crocodile's hook, he never gave up for as long as Vivi gave up on getting her country back. Luffy's attacks go from strength to strength until we arrive at the finishing blow, sending Crocodile flying into the air, defeating him, and finally putting an end to this war. All of which is set to Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. The way I was cheering and jumping out of my seat when I heard those first notes of the 1st movement as Luffy was laying the first of his many punches in his Gum-Gum Storm finisher. I fucking love One Piece.

We have some new members of the Baroque Works that the Straw Hats need to fight to protect Vivi, so let's go over those characters in the order of the battles. First off is Usopp and Chopper's fight against Mr. 4 (along with his gun-dog Lassoo) and Miss Merry Christmas, who is a mole-woman. What all of these fights have in common is that it shows the Straw Hats at disadvantage for the majority of it and they have to work out how they will beat them by knowing where each of their weak points are. The first fight is unique because it's the only one where two Straw Hat members are teamed up to fight the Baroque Works. While Usopp and Chopper's fight is pretty fun, with Usopp most of the time either running away or goofing about, the crux of the fight was when they were told that Luffy was dead, and were making fun of how "weak" he was. However, Usopp, right after getting his face broken by Mr. 4's hammer, is still raring to fight them because they insulted Luffy's dream. This was the stand out moment in this fight because we've seen time and time again how Luffy defends his friends and to uphold their dreams in the face of adversity, and in this moment, Usopp is paying it forward.

Next up is the fight between Sanji and Mr. 2 Bon Clay. Before we get to the fight, I've just got to say that I thought Sanji was so cool in this arc. Since he's the only Straw Hat member who isn't on the Baroque Work's radar, he can discreetly make his way past detection. However, as seen during this Out of all the Baroque Works agents, Bon Clay is definitely my favourite. His design is camp-tastic drag excellence and classic OP levels of goofiness that is hard to resist. Unlike all the other agents, he works alone, and in one line he describes himself as embodying both man and woman in his duties. I really want to know why that was the case but it was never explored. He also grows a fondness for the Straw Hats, having befriended them before knowing they we enemies, and even after he had done was he was told for Baroque Works, he continues to view the Straw Hats in high regard, and even helps them escape from the clutches of the Navy at the end. The fight itself was pretty unique, since it was all legwork -- literally! With Sanji being a cook who prioritises his hands and Bon Clay being a ballet dancer, this was a pretty evenly matched fight. I don't exactly know how Sanji's final kick could have Bon Clay's body spin around like that, but, hey, it's One Piece. Also, props to animation director Kenji Yokoyama for making it look so kinetic and stylish, almost like it was a dance performance, which is appropriate.

Then we have Nami going up against Miss Doublefinger, who ate the Spike-Spike fruit that turns any part of her body into spikes. Before the fight starts, it is prefaced by a one-to-one conversation between Nami and Usopp about how comparatively weaker they are in combat than the rest of the crew. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, be since this mission is so important to Vivi, and since Nami has been shown throughout the saga to be a shoulder for her to cry on, Nami feels the need to show that she's more than just a pretty faced navigator. I love how she has this conversation with Usopp, who is probably the only other person in the Straw Hats who can understand where she's coming from. While it is very entertaining to see the rest of the crew perform these impossibly strong and grand acts of heroism (well, as heroic as a pirate can be) Nami and Usopp are my favourite Straw Hats because of the fact that they cannot attain that power for themselves. But, I digress. Anyway, Nami requests Usopp to make her a pole that can be used efficiently as a weapon, so he hastily makes her the Clima Takt, a pole that derives its power from the forces of nature. However, she's learning how to use it whilst she fights off against Miss Doublefinger, and she quickly finds out that the pole is mostly used for entertainment purposes. As amusing as this was to watch, these revelations doesn't help Nami in terms of surviving. She sustains a lot of injuries during it but, after frantically reading through Usopp's incomplete instructions, she finds herself getting to grips with how to use the Clima Takt, using the fact that it shoots out hot, cool, and electric bubbles to eventually make a thunder cloud. There is, however, one special move that the Clima Takt possesses, the Tornado Tempo. The only caveat is that it can only be used once, so if you miss, you won't be able to use it again. A lot is riding on this attack working, so Nami aims a close range at Doublefinger, even using her already injured leg to pierce through the spikes so there is better control (Nami's line of "this pain is nothing compared to what Vivi is going through" was so badass), she fires and... it appears to be another spring toy, all the hopes of winning draining from Nami's soul, until the springs wrap around Doublefinger and sends her flying through multiple buildings, knocking her out cold. Incredible stuff.

Lastly, we have Zoro's fight against Mr. 1, who ate the Steel-Steel fruit that turned his entire body into steel. Yeah this fight was pretty awesome. Not just because of the fact that Zoro is an undeniable powerhouse of a swordsman, but also that we got to see him gain a deeper understanding of his craft. The biggest obstacle that Zoro has to overcome was him figuring out what the riddle his teacher taught him when he was training. When asked about whether it was possible to cut through steel, his teacher responds with, "There are swordsmen out there who are capable of cutting nothing." For the longest time, Zoro has wondered what he meant by that. However, just when Zoro is at his lowest moment and we think that Mr. 1 had gotten the better of him, he finally understands what his teacher meant by those words. I love how its presented almost like a meditation session, where Zoro can actually sense the individual rhythms of his surroundings, like time virtually stops when he's in zen mode. And that is when he is able to slain Mr. 1, with only one fricking sword, no less! And with slaying Mr. 1, later revealed to by Daz Bonez, Zoro now has his first bounty, a price of 60 million berries. It's ironic how the bounty hunter became the bounty hunted... That was terrible, I'm sorry!

Other thoughts I have: We are introduced to Portgas D. Ace, who is revealed to be Luffy's older brother. He didn't stick around for too long, as he heads off before the crew reaches Yuba, but I doubt this will be the last we'll see of him. There were a few episodes that perhaps didn't progress the plot that much, but it gave more opportunity to learn about Alabasta and focuses on some of the characters that live on the outskirts of the desert. These were pretty fun episodes and served to expand upon the country and make it a more well realised place. My favourite moment from these episodes, however, doesn't really involve that, but instead are little character moments for the Straw Hats, specifically the one-to-one chat that Zoro and Chopper have about their feelings towards Luffy. Even though they think that Luffy is far from being a typical pirate captain, they still view him in high regard. The scene where Chopper and Tashigi accidentally bump into each other was diabete-inducing -- I cannot handle their combined cuteness! Konosuke Uta, the GOAT himself, directed episode 107 (the episode which sets Operation Utopia into action) and it was such a visual treat. Oh yeah, Smoker and Tashigi are there too. To be honest, they didn't contribute a whole lot to the arc up until the very end, but their continuously developing relationship with the Straw Hats was extremely fascinating. Luffy ordering Zoro to save Smoker from drowning after escaping Rainbase, even though he's technically an enemy, was a really nice moment, and the fact that he let Luffy off the hook was the cherry on top. And that blush action! Who knew Smoker was such a tsundere -- I love it! I also really liked Tashigi wrestling with her sense of justice; does she try and capture the Straw Hats or do they aid them in preventing a national catastrophe? It was really compelling and Smoker being frustrated about receiving a medal and higher rank for something that he didn't do, and telling the big guns at the top to "go to hell" was the cherry on top. Finally, Pell's sacrifice as he was carrying the cannonball up towards the sky to save the country was such a gut-punch to the feels. We didn't even know that much about him, and yet his noble efforts to serve and protect what he loves is so beautiful.

So, overall, this was a fantastic arc, if you couldn't tell by how much I've been gushing about it. Great moments throughout, lots of emotion, it has probably the best fight in the series so far, and every Straw Hat member had something to do. I can see why some people consider this the best arc in this saga. However, if I'm being completely honest, it's not my favourite arc. It's clear that it is going for this grand, epic Lawrence of Arabia styled adventure story, and it does succeed at executing that, for the most part. However, I think that first third when they were traversing the desert meandered a lot and, even though it was setting up that is vital to the later parts of the story, the road getting to that stage was kind of tedious. And just in terms of personal preferences, I think the (slightly) smaller scale stories like Drum Island have always resonated with me more, so while Drum Island doesn't necessarily reach Alabasta's highs that arc remained consistent throughout and just provided better emotional payoffs in the long run. For a first attempt at crafting a large scale story arc like this, it was a valiant effort, but it's clear that its being held back by a lack of refining and smoothing out some of the rougher patches. Hopefully, some of those issues can be ironed out the further we get into the series.

Anyway, here's my ranking for each arc in this saga: Drum Island Alabasta Little Garden Reverse Mountain Whiskey Peak

And there you have. We have finished all of the Alabasta saga! I finished it at the perfect time too because, at the time of writing this post, Netflix's live action One Piece series will be released tomorrow. I don't know about you, but I am so unbelievably excited for this to drop. Judging it from the trailers and promo videos, you can tell that everybody behind it has so much love for the series. There could still be a chance that it may suck, but I will be absolutely devastated if it did. Either way, I will be making a video on it. After that, well, I'll continue to slowly work away at other projects that aren't One Piece related (I mean as fun as it is talking about OP I do have other interests outside of it). I'll see you next time, as we gain a new member of the Straw Hat, and we venture forward to our next saga, Sky Island. See you soon!

#one piece #one piece anime #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #usopp #sanji #straw hat pirates #watchalong

[concernedbrownbread]

Aki from csm

Omg a character ask??? I've never gotten one of these before I'm so excited! Thank you!

Since there's no number mentioned, I'll just pick the ones I can actually talk about. I'm super new to this fandom so I'm still discovering stuff.

WARNING: contains manga spoilers (for part 1)

1.My first impression of them:

Okay, I'll be honest I knew that I would love him just from his first scene alone. I love stoic black haired characters that are probably insane. I was a little sus of him when he beat up Denji tho -- not my baby boyyy :<

When I first saw Aki though I had no idea how much he'd make me cry tho ugh.

10. Describe the character in one sentence:

"Local tragic bastard somehow still loves in a world that constantly punishes those who do"

(No pls my hands gonna slip soon and I'm gonna write about this asshole and his stupid kindness and heart and typical-shounen-bullshit-spun-on-its-head)

12. Sexuality headcannon: not-a-complete-disaster-bisexual, maybe devil-sexual lol (he loves Angel in my mind and it's tragic as hell)

13. Your favourite friendship they have: Denji, Power and Aki are literally THE friendship. Like, every single domestic scene with them in the manga I ate up like a rabid animal. Absolutely feral for them you do not know. As someone who almost always sways towards gen, platonic and/or queerplatonic relationships, they. are. everything. (Reasons why I can't move on to part 2 of the manga aaa)

21. When do you think they were their happiest? This scene:

ID: screenshot of a scene from the Chainsaw Man anime. Aki, Power and Denji are grocery shopping in the frozen isle. Aki is examining something, Power is grinning and throwing food into a trolley that Denji is pushing. END ID

The way he turned and smiled at them when they weren't looking??? MAH HEART. I think that this and every other quite, domestic moment he gets with Power and Denji are him at his happiest. After all, even years with Himeno couldn't get Aki to do what a few months with these two did: give up revenge. Damn.

23. Future Headcannon: the future is the best! (I swear to god if I hear "future" and "aki" in the same sentence I'm going to stab something. Future devil did him dirty showing him that last premonition >:<). I think that unlike Power, who can be reincarnated as the Blood Demon, Aki's fate is very much sealed at the end of part 1. Baby is not coming back :(

30. The funniest scene they had: I have two

The entire Power moves in scene. It's so funny how Denji and Aki are on the same page for the first time ever. The Anime made it 10x better by adding those head movements for Aki lmao.

At the end of chapter 72 (which is such a quietly emotional chapter, as all Aki chapters tend to be), Aki eats food that Denji and Power made for him (aww) and then promptly throws up. I expected it but it was still so funny (the last funny scene in pt 1 I think. I like to pretend the manga just ends there.)

Thanks again for the ask! Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!

#chainsaw man #aki hayawaka #ask #my first character ask I hope I didn't write too much lmao #thanks for the ask! #keep em coming #chainsaw man spoilers #aki is just *keyboard smash* for me #him and denji and power are my babies let me protecc themm

[curestardust]

Dust Watched: Jujutsu Kaisen 0

Genres: Shounen, Action // 1h45m movie // Orig (x)

Don’t kill me please but wow, that was underwhelming.

✧  story  ✧

This is probably the first Shounen movie I’ve ever seen that was more underwhelming than its series counterpart. I usually don’t expect much on the story front from Shounens but plot of this movie was kinda all over the place.

I’m simply not sure who the target audience was here. The first hour of this movie is more or less the exact same as Jujutsu Kaisen’s just swap the characters out. Yuuta is our MC who has no idea what’s going on and gets sent on missions with Maki-Toge-Panda gang. Everything we see in this half of the movie is something you already *know* if you watched the first season though. Maki’s lack of cursed energy, how Toge’s cursed words work, seeing Panda fight in a later scene. The second half of the movie was much more interesting with Getou showing up and wreacking havoc. 

However, there is a LOT that comes out of nowhere or never gets resolution. One of them of which is the after-credits scene where we see Yuuta hanging out with Miguel and then Gojou shows up. The only problem is, that the last time we saw Miguel he was working for Getou. If I wasn’t already reading the wiki page during the credits where I was informed that Gojou basically bullied Miguel into joining their side and then sent Yuuta with him back to Africa to study, I would’ve thought Yuuta was the one who ended up joining Getou’s side and they were found by Gojou?? Kinda an important thing to leave out.

Last tiny complaint is just the usual, pretty cringe Shounen tropes. Most of the humour was 50/50.

✧  characters  ✧

Yuuta’s character development is also more told than shown... when it’s told anyway. He uses a skill in the final battle that I have no idea how he got. Anyway, I did come to like him near the end but the movie tries to pretend we’re already attached to him in the first 30 minutes which I wasn’t.

For someone who hasn’t read the manga and came here after the show, this felt like a backstory for Getou rather than Yuuta. Yuuta is fucking around in Africa during the events of the first season while Getou is a villain shrouded in mystery and intrigue, so Getou’s shenanigans obviously interested me more because I know he’s central to the story. Unfortunately, because so much of the movie is taken up by redundant content, his story doesn’t have enough time to be fleshed out either. Specifically I’m talking about his lackies who show up once than disappear. We didn’t even get to see their powers properly! The movie also just drops a bombshell that Jujutsu users in the “boonies” are treated differently (abused? ostracized?) but doesn’t elaborate further.

Lots of seemingly contradicting stuff is also going on; Getou not going all out on the kids because he “wouldn’t harm young Jujutsu users” but is basically massacring everyone else by sending out his curses despite Jujutsu users already being few and far between. Gojou basically knowing what Getou’s real plan is and would’ve definitely been able to one-shot Miguel to go help the kids but fucks around instead. His motives being nonsensical without needing ANOTHER prequel to know the relationship between Getou and Gojou.

✧  art  ✧

Absolutely floored that this movie has less impressive fight scenes than the show, never seen that before. They’re leagues above most stuff you’d find, don’t get me wrong, but compared to the quality the show set it falls behind. A lot less movement, too many jump cuts, half of the attacks are literally just flashing lights. Everything is also very washed out and lacks that pop of colour that made the original show’s fight scenes so mesmerizing. 

The background shots/enviromental detail though is just *chef kiss* fucking beautiful. Every one of them are wallpaper quality.

✧  sound ✧

Music was great of course. I don’t know if I agree with the choice of the VA for Yuuta though. Ogata Megumi is a legend (Kurama my love) but her voice just wasn’t as... naive? Childlike? As I would’ve expected Yuuta to have. Just a tiny nitpick though, doesn’t ruin the movie.

✧  overview ✧

So who was this movie for exactly? Manga readers I guess. They are the only ones who would know all the left out details from the movie and just enjoy the manga in animated form. For people who watched the first season, the first half of the movie is repeat information. It was a lot more of a “turn your brain off” movie than I expected. 

My Rating: 6/10

#dusty reviews #Jujutsu Kaisen #ffs i wanted to love this movie tho #the orig show set the bar so high! truly suffering from success

[nhkamira]

MY ANIME WATCHLIST FOR WINTER 2021☃️❄️✨

Finally got some time to do this. Winter is here and we got a marvelous season ahead! Here is my watchlist for this season + the ongoing series i’ll be watching. I already watch every episode that came out, but I’ll do a proper first impression in different posts.

Horimiya (堀さんと宮村くん) I can’t believe this one is finally getting an adaption TT. Yes I’m part of the manga readers group, and I’m really really excited! CloverWorks is in charge and so far they have shown an amazing work! just look at that poster. Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Romance.

Dr.Stone: Stone Wars (ドクターストーン ) If you haven’t seen season 1, go and do yourself a favor. Been waiting for this so bad, season two is finally here, and hopefully is going to be even better than season 1. As a women of science this story really gets me excited. TMS Entertainment is working again with this series so im expecting the same amazing job. Genres: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Shounen.

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki (弱キャラ友崎くん) This one looks interesting in a weird way, i was really excited that this season got more than one romance anime, so im looking forward to this one. Project No.9 is the studio in charge, their anime has never been that iconic or memorable, hopefully this is a different situation. Genres: Drama, Romance, School

Kemono Jihen (怪物事変) Honestly i saw the poster and thought “this probably going to be a really good but underrated one”, the sypnosis catch me right away and im really curious about the mc. the studio working on this is Ajia-Do, they brought us the marvelous Kakushigoto last year so i have high expectations. Genres: Action, Mystery, Demons.

The Seven Deadly Sins: Dragon’s Judgement (七つの大罪 憤怒の審判) I love Nanatsu so bad, i hated the way they animated last season. Studio Deen normally does a great work but damn, las season was awful. I REALLY hope they do the proper work this anime deserves. This arc is so amazing to be ruined like the previous one.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (無職転生 ～異世界行ったら本気だす～) As one may say, there isn’t a good season without the typical Isekai story. But this one seems to be like everything good from an average Iskeai. The trailer gave me the thoughts that this probably would be the surprise of the season + the studio working on this one is Studio Bind which is apparently new since i couldn’t find any previous work. Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Magic.

Wonder Egg Priority (ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ) Oh this one looks so beautiful. CloverWorks did such an amazing work with the design an animation. It looks like a movie. Sypnosis didn’t makes sense and was kind of confusing but I got excited and i can’t wait to see more. Genres: Psychological, Drama, Fantasy.

Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World Season 2 Part 2 (Re:ゼロから始める異世界生活) Man, I love Subaru so much, Re is amazing everyone should watch it. Its seems this part is really important for Subaru’s development, and it would probably get really fucked up as always. WhiteFox keeps working on this amazing story. I can’t wait to see everything that’s going to happen, because last season was really good but so crazy and hard. Genres: Psychological, Thriller, Drama, Fantasy.

BEASTARS 2期 This series is back and I’m dying of excitement, i really don’t know whats going to happen, and what new challenges Legoshi would have to confront but everything tells me is going to be amazing + Orange is bringing again the best CGI work on an anime ever. If you haven’t watch season 2 go and do it you won’t regret it! Genres: Slice of Life, Psychological, Drama

The Promised Neverland Season (約束のネバーランド) I’m really dying of excitement this season. FINALLY Yakusoku is back and with nothing more that worries and uncertainty for me. My kids are back and out of the farm and I’m really nervous to see whats going to happen next. Genres: Mystery, Fantasy, Psychological, Thriller.

Ongoing series from last season I’ll be continuing watching:

Jujutsu Kaisen Next arc is reallyyyyyy good.

Shingeki no Kyojin My slowly death till the end, manga ending got a date now and I really don’t know how this is going to end.

Digimon Adventure 2020 nostalgic and all time favorite.

Black Clover This arc looks insane and animation looks so good in that latest episodes, please keep it like that TT

One Piece I still need to catch up but always one of the best things to watch.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, I’ve always love this series, though i still prefer the old animation, I loved this remake, everything is making more sense now (maybe because I’m older🤣) and explanations feels less confunsing + horror is amazing.

#horimiya #hori to miramuya #dr stone #dr stone stone wars #jaku chara tomozaki kun #kemono jihen #nanatsu no taizai #meliodas #escanor #gowther #mushoku tensei #wonder egg priority #rezero #re:zero #natsuki subaru #beastars #legoshi #yakusoku no neverland #the promised neverland #ema #norman #ray #anime #animation #animes #one piece #black clover #jujutsu kaisen #digimon adventure #shingeki no kyojin

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 294: A Half-Assed Escape

Previously on BnHA: Mirio was all “SURPRISE I’M BACK THANKS TO OUR RESIDENT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WHO RECENTLY EARNED HER BACHELOR’S OF BEING A TOTAL BADASS.” Kacchan was all, “you know what, Dabi’s been trending long enough, time to remind the fandom what a real G looks like,” and he blasted his little bleeding body back into the fray and was all “FROM HERE ON OUT CALL ME DYNAMIGHT!!” Mirio was all, “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, you’re serious,” and Kacchan was all “!!”, and so that’s the story of how my son got murdered twice in one day. Meanwhile in the Todoroki Drama Zone, Deku was all “STOP MURDERING MY FRIEND” and Dabi was all “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” and fandom had a whole big debate about Whether Or Not Dabi Trying To Murder Deku’s Friends And Mentors Is Any Of Deku’s Business, which went exactly how you think it went. Anyway, so then Deku yelled at Dabi, and Endeavor was all moved by his manly words and randomly went to go uppercut Machia in the chin. And, seeing as how the Momoserum finally chose that exact moment to kick in, Machia is now down for the count.

Today on BnHA: The Miriosquad handles the Nearly High End Noumus, freeing up Jeanist to jasphyxiate (okay that one doesn’t really work so well) the rest of the League. Compress is all “TIME FOR THIS MILD-MANNERED SIDE CHARACTER VILLAIN TO SHINE”, except that by “shine” what he actually means is “use his quirk to punch a literal hole right through his own ass to free himself.” The rest of the chapter is basically just a back and forth between him and Jeanist, with Jeanist trying to recapture him, and Compress repeatedly thwarting him by chopping more holes out of himself because HE’S FRESH OUT OF FUCKS, AND THE ONES AT THE STORE ARE ALL SOLD OUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. Anyway, so with Compress basically dying and all, Horikoshi is all “you know what that means”, and delivers a freshly-baked villain flashback revealing that Compress is a descendant of Harima Ouji, a.k.a. the Peerless Thief, a.k.a. some famous guy whom Gentle mentioned this one time for like two seconds back in the day. The chapter ends with Compress finally demasking himself and dumping Tomura back onto the ground, a.k.a. The Worst Possible Place For Tomura To Be. ( •﹏•)

WHY IS CRUST HERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

-- OH WAIT, SHIT. OH

AIZAWAAAA you’re alive and receiving medical help thank GOD. HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HAVE. AND MIRKO!! HOW MANY LIMBS DO YOU HAVE, OMG

so is this Aizawa dreaming about Crust’s final moments, then?? jesus. with All Due Respect to Crust’s memory, does Aizawa not already have enough misplaced guilt on his conscience as it is?? “nope, we’re gonna keep piling it on. that’s all he is now. three limbs, an indeterminate number of eyes, sexy hair, and Guilt” well shit

motherfucker y’all really out here placing an oxygen mask on Gran Torino’s corpse. fucking shounen characters. each one comes with a lifetime warranty

DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THESE CLOSE-UPS OF HAWKS’S UNCONSCIOUS FACE ALL WHUMPED OUT AND EXHAUSTED. HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS ARE WE GOING TO GET. ARE YOU PLANNING ON KILLING ME WITH THE UPCOMING CONVALESCENCE ARC, BECAUSE IF SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME AHEAD OF TIME SO I CAN MAKE A WILL

for a moment I considered going back and checking my previous recaps to count how many times I’ve already made a joke about Dabi’s fire incinerating Hawks’s wings but not touching so much as a hair on his five o’clock shadow, so that I could calculate whether or not I could possibly get away with making that same joke one more time. but then I realized I could just do it in this kind of roundabout way I’m doing right now instead. so there you have it

FFFFFFFMT LADY AND MIDNIGHT NOOOOO

PLEASE BE ALIVE. PLEASE RESPECT THE SIGN ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THE ONE THAT SAYS “NO LADY CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO DIE”, WITH THE FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM “AT LEAST NOT UNTIL HORIKOSHI GIVES US LIKE TWENTY-SIX MORE OF THEM FIRST IF THAT’S THE WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY IT.” IT’S A GOOD SIGN, PLEASE RESPECT ITS WISHES!!

so anyway though, Jeanist is giving a speech about how god knows how many people all worked together to bring Machia down. and now RHA is getting in on those fabric puns too, I see. “A SINGLE STRAND MAY BE THIN BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A STRONG ROPE” oh so you think you guys are funny eh? I’m a frayed knot

MEANWHILE EXCUSE ME BUT WHY ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING BLOOD, HOLY SHIT

fffffff. so much for him taking over as the Number One once all this is over. so let’s just recap real quick, because Horikoshi has long since made it clear that one of his plot goals for this arc is to wipe out every single member of the Billboard Top Ten. so how we doin?

Endeavor - was just figuratively eviscerated in front of the entire nation by his homicidal zombiepunk son. also burnt half to death and possibly down a lung. will almost certainly be forced to retire after this one way or the other

Hawks - lying prettily in a medical tent. wings status: gone. hair status: still perfect

Jeanist - WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS FINE BUT APPARENTLY HE’S OUT HERE DYING, JESUS CHRIST

Edgeshot - MIA, last seen fighting Re-Destro. I really want him to have kicked RD’s ass because fuck that guy, but realistically they probably fought to a draw at best

Mirko - alive but in critical condition and missing something like 1.5 limbs

Crust - dead, currently haunting Aizawa’s traumatized dreams. now he’s gonna be triggered the rest of his life by people giving him the thumbs up, THANKS A LOT

Kamui Woods - was set on fire which is His Weakness. thoughts and prayers

Wash - last seen floating hospital patients to safety as Tomura’s wave of decay descended towards him. probably dead ffff

Old Man Samurai - haven’t seen this fucker in a hot minute, who even knows where he’s wandered off to

Ryuukyuu - currently being treated for her wounds, looked pretty bad off. but it’s hard to tell how hurt she is since most of the injuries were acquired in her transformed state. SHE BETTER GET WELL SOON

anyways, so yeah. so much for the top ten. guess that’s another reason Horikoshi brought Mirio back now, huh

so there’s a big panel of everyone fighting the Noumu while Machia lies there all “blurgh.” good riddance my dude. it took like twenty chapters and a hundred people to stop this guy so I really fucking hope he stays down. you’ve had your fun

anyway so Jeanist is sending another steel thread towards Dabi! and he’s all “just a bit more!!” fklklj this is gonna go real well isn’t it

meanwhile Mirio’s fighting a Nearly High End with all of these weird rock formations jutting out of its skin. go on and kick his ass then, Mirio

“each of these guys is probably just as strong as the Noumu from Kyuushuu” hold on I thought Ujiko or Tomura or someone said that wasn’t the case? not that Mirio would know I suppose. anyways let’s just hope he’s wrong cuz if not these kids are probably screwed

kLSDKFHLSKHGLKLK OH MY GODDDD

IIDA FUCKING TENYA YOU’RE A PEACH. THINKS THE NAME IS OUTRAGEOUS, CHECK. USES IT ANYWAY, CHECK. “JUST BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE SUPPORTIVE.” WHAT A CLASS ACT

AND KACCHAN IS RESPONDING WITH AS MUCH DIGNITY AS HE CAN MUSTER

WOW, SON. IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO, OR SOMETHING!! although listen up, real talk, the fact that Kacchan of all people can’t muster the energy to yell at someone questioning his ability to kick ass is HIGHKEY troubling and we may be in need of an intervention here soon :/

now Jeanist is finally turning his attention to the League! was... was it not already on the League. omg

ACTUAL SCREAMING AHHHHHH FUCK FUCKLK LK AHHLKHKFFFF

hey so um. what the actual fucked up hell. my soul left my body. imagine if you saw the reflection of this panel on your bedroom window. you would never sleep again

OKAY RHA TRANSLATORS ARE YOU HAVING YOURSELF A LAUGH AGAIN

THIS CANNOT BE WHAT HE’S ACTUALLY SAYING RIGHT. BUT IT’S RIGHT IN THAT UNCANNY VALLEY OF NOT BEING QUITE SURE, THOUGH... (　ﾟдﾟ)

(ETA: just a next-day clarification here, apparently my sleep-deprived ADHD word-skipping brain completely skipped right over the “a” in that last panel, so what I read was, “and Shigaraki’s limp noodle.” so yeah, the moral of this story is always read the speech bubble carefully before you start making running jokes throughout the rest of your post, folks.)

oh wow he’s really freaking out lmao

to be fair though, I’d argue that Dabi has gotten pre-tty close at this point :’) thrilled for him, really I am

but anyway, well then figure something out you big dramatic robot-armed fiend. didn’t you just say you could touch your own ass? can you not just Compress yourself to break free?? does it not work on you? or would you be stuck afterwards lol

(ETA: I was picturing him compressing his entire body at once, not just chunks of it. ghhhlkh.)

um

holy shit Jeanist. are you stupidly trying to cut off their air, or are you going for more of a sleeper hold (jleeper hold??) thing instead. the latter would be way smarter and faster and probably safer as well just saying

but unless Spinner is just being super dramatic, it sure looks like he’s fucking strangling them djslkjlk. this will certainly cement his popularity among the villain stans. good thing you’re not running for office any time soon bud

anyway so I have no idea what these guys are trying to do now. what is this

do you even have till the count of 5 at this rate. I mean

OH MY GOODNESS

HE’S REALLY FUCKING DOING IT!! HE’S COMPRESSING HIS BUTT!! OMFG. TOMURA HIDE YOUR NOODLE!!!

WHAT THE FUCK

DID YOU COMPRESS A PIECE OF YOUR OWN ASS. FUCKING WHAT. PUT THIS MAN’S PICTURE IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE WORD “LOYALTY”, HOLY CRAP

HOLY SHIT COMPRESS

“HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH HIS OWN ASS IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS VILLAIN PALS. FUCK IT, HE DESERVES TO ESCAPE”

jeez, talk about... A HALF-ASSED ESCAPE ATTEMPT :D :D :D hahaha. but real talk though, Horikoshi has clearly never tried to leap twelve feet straight up in the air multiple times in succession with only half his glutes though. everyone, I regret to inform you that this panel right here on the left may be slightly unrealistic

also where the hell is he going to go?? did you pack a jetpack away in one of those little marbles sir. and what about Dabi?? and Skeptic too, I guess, but we don’t really care about Skeptic

(ETA: at this point I had to stop reading for about two hours because I had to go out and take care of something; that’s also why this is being posted later than usual lol. anyways so where were we.)

oh my lord

the existence of a translator’s note here implies that the earlier line about Compress being able to reach Tomura’s junk was not, in fact, ad-libbed. hmm. hmmmmmmmm

anyway so now he’s grabbing Compress again because OF COURSE HE IS, so now we’re right back to square one! except now Tomura and Spinner are secured inside of little marbles, and presumably Compress is the only one who can release them

oh nevermind he’s just maiming himself again instead, SHEESH

Skeptic a man is dying please have some goddamn respect

so, uh. is he gonna die, though??

I really can’t tell wtf is going on here, this is the most confusing the art has been in a while. Horikoshi put all of his spoons into that creepyass close-up panel earlier, that bastard

OMG WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS

DON’T FUCKING TELL ME THE “COMPRESS IS RELATED TO THIS THIEF GUY FROM OLDEN TIMES” THEORY IS ACTUALLY TRUE WHAAAAAAT. OH SHIT

so apparently Harima was a Robin Hood type guy who stole from... heroes?? wtf. are heroes the 1% in this scenario. y’all didn’t have any Fortune 500 CEOs to steal from?

THAT’S THE BLOOD THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOU, OH SHIT. and in a related oh shit, the fact that we are getting a Compress flashback now of all times doesn’t bode super well for him. ffff

MEANWHILE THE TODOROKIS ARE STILL TODOROKI-ING

listen here boy if you touch one freaking hair on Shouto’s candy cane head I swear to god --

WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY!!!

SHOUTO NOOOOOO. WTF YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONE GUY WHOSE WEAKNESS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIRE. DABI YOU SHIT, YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF!! I’M PRINTING OUT A COPY OF THAT COMPRESS PANEL!!! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THAT BEDROOM WINDOW YOU PUNK!!!

SO NOW POOR SHOUTO IS UNCONSCIOUS AND FALLING!! SOMEONE SAVE HIM!! WHO CATCHES THE CATCHER

COMPRESS LITERALLY HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS HAPPENING

PLEASE DON’T CALL TOMURA LEADER OF THE “PLF” YOU KNOW I CAN’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU DO THAT. ARE YOU DYING. ARE YOU JUST A FUCKING HEAD NOW WTF

(ETA: “masks are removable, makeste” you know what it’s been a long day okay lmao. or I suppose Compress is really the one who is lmao.)

GASPPPPPP

okay. okay. looooool okay then

WHY WERE YOU COVERING THIS SEXY MOP OF HAIR UNDER THAT HOOD YOU TOOL. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SO GOOD WITH THE TOP HAT. I’M SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW

as if it wasn’t enough for him to demask himself, he also had to get all shirtless and then do this weird attempt at a sexypose too huh

hard to say exactly how much of his torso is currently missing, but safe to say that’s proooooooobably not good. :///// fuck

on the other hand, Kacchan also has a torso hole and he’s still flying around like he just drank a dozen red bulls, so

this man lost his ass and he’s still out here monologuing like it’s the last two minutes of The Prestige. one might say he is monologuing his ass off

so he let Spinner and Tomura free, but is Dabi still trapped in his marble?? wasn’t he all on fire and stuff?? hopefully he can still turn off his quirk in there because if not that’s a pretty fucked up way to die. somewhere out there Snatch’s ghost is all “YEAH I’LL SAY.” oh how the turntables

last but not least, sooooooo. Tomura. back on the ground. that’s. um. ...shiiiiiiiit

#bnha 294 #mr. compress #...and actually that's pretty much it lol #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #sorry this is up later than usual (and mostly unedited as well) #just one of those days

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Winter Anime 2022: Cloverworked

I was maybe not as selective as I should have been this past season.

The Orbital Children

Orbital Children was a disappointment in all aspects, and I didn't even expect much given that I think that Dennou Coil is pretty mediocre. Everything makes sense though, since the good parts of Dennou Coil were the one-off filler stories in the middle, not the main story. Orbital Children is a miniseries, so it's all main story, baby, and the main story stinks. The long and short of it that just like Dennou Coil, this is an arch-boomer waxing poetic about how children totally "get" technology while he doesn't get it himself, perfectly encapsulated by every tech problem being solved by hitting the "hack" button. This time we're talking about AI, which is a pretty well explored topic in scifi nowadays, and Iso has precisely nothing to add apart from some irritatingly vague metaphysics. But that's only the main theme, the show is also shockingly bad at suspense and character, which is sort of bad for a character drama based on a failing space station. In fact it's so bad at those that it (probably unintentionally) comes close to being a biting technology satire, but it never commits to that and by the end it just wants to be deep af about AI anyway. And finally, it doesn't even look all that good, at least for something advertised as coming from an animation auteur. Really the best I can say about it is that it has some expressive faces, and that ain't much, champ. 3/10

Tokyo 24th Ward

Speaking of things that think they're saying something, here's the show that saw the trolley problem meme and decided to base its entire social commentary on that like it's an Uchikoshi game. This eventually ends up with the glorious revelation that given the choice between an authoritarian surveillance state and total anarchy, we should try democracy (without further commentary, as if that's an epic mic drop). As you may be able to tell, it's not as smart as it thinks, but it's better than Orbital Children anyway because it's sort of adorable in its ineptitude, like a ten year old that's proud they figured it all out by themselves. To be honest though, I was hoping for a more amusing twist than "brains in jars", but in hindsight that would be just expecting too much. There's also some mediocre action, I guess. Chuckles were had, but this show is bad by any standard. 4/10

My Dress-Up Darling

So here's a fairly controversial one. I do have to admit that I can see this show's appeal, in the abstract - plenty of people seem to like unfunny romantic comedies with annoying main characters. But first, let's talk about the cosplay, because that's ostensibly the selling point. There's a whole lot of uninteresting cosplay detail talk and not a lot (none, until they introduce Juju) of talk about why cosplay is a thing. This seems to check out for something that's aimed at people who are super into it to begin with, but since the shallow obvious thought about cosplay is "it's just thots in skimpy outfits", I was ready to get schooled. Well, the show's retort to that is "yeah totally, but if you have a very specific skillset said thots will line up to form a harem for you", which I'll just have to accept coming from the experts. In any case it's less of a theme and more of something that's just there to provide a framework for exposition and our leads getting together. So, about those leads. Gojo starts out as an annoying sadboi and very slowly gets a little better, while Marin starts out fun but turns into a migraine once she develops a crush. It's not funny and only very occasionally romantic, a death sentence for any romantic comedy. 4/10

Vanitas no Karte Part 2

Remember when I said that Vanitas is worst when it tries to go on these fighting shounen-esque arcs and just turns into a worse version of Fire Force? Well, as of S2 that's all it really does, and it's fucking terrible. The first arc starts promising but then turns into a drama about characters nobody cares about, while the second arc is close to unwatchable because it has one of the most annoying villains I've ever seen in anything, while everyone else is sad/mad and shouts a lot. The random comedy is, of course, more misplaced than ever in the midst of all this epic drama/tragedy/whatnot. To be fair, there's still trace amounts of sexy Jeannecute etc. left, but that doesn't make up for the other 95% of the show being a slog to sit through. It seems Vanitas has decided on a direction, and so we will have to part ways at this point. 4/10

Magia Record S3

First off, this isn't really an S3, it's very obviously just the rest of S2. Which makes forming an opinion pretty easy, because it's just more of the same, which is to say, pretty bad. The first episode of "S3" is actually the best, since it explains a lot of stuff about the story that was sorely missing, but the rest is just the same overblown and undercooked narrative about characters I can barely remember the names of 3 years in. The flashes of brilliant animation are now completely absent, so it's all a wash of substandard Madoka-like things. Could be worse, but not by much. 4/10

Fantasy Bishoujo Juniku Ojisan to

This is a show that I only watched because I couldn't believe how little I hated it, given that it's basically a potpourri of everything I hate in anime ca. 2022 - isekai, video game references, reactionface manzai and so on. And I have to report that all of that stays a factor all the way through, and I spent a sizeable part of the show cringing. So, definitely not good. However, Fantasy Bishoujo has an unexpected asset, which is the chemistry between its two leads. It's honestly great, and cute, and occasionally even funny, and of course a big part of the show. I guess having a better pedigree than "some loser's manifesto on Narou" will do that. A begrudging NOT BAD/10

Slow Loop

Guess what, Connect made a Kiraralike about fishing. These shows are rarely ever truly bad (even if this season's RPG Fudousan is trying very hard to provide a counterexample), and Slow Loop is definitely... competent. Cute, a little funny, a little gay, relaxing, etc, all the safe and easy things a show like this could do. It's just also nothing special or rare at all, and while it doesn't do a lot of things wrong, what it does do wrong is the tedious fishing tutorials it drops frequently. Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater already was little above average and it's a better show than this, but Slow Loop is still okay. Ish. 5/10

Lupin III: Part 6 Part 2

Surprise, Part 6 Part 2 isn't much different from Part 6 Part 1 (though it indeed doesn't have anything to do with it narratively). It also has a mediocre main story and filler episodes that range from really bad to pretty good, even though it's missing the fantastic Oshii episodes. Overall it's maybe a little better, but not by so much it makes a difference. And while the main story is not strictly worse, the fact that it promises something major and then ends up going "lol no, j/k" is more of a bummer (especially since it's almost the same thing that The Woman Called Fujiko Mine pulled and I didn't like it back then either). All in all, Part 6 gets by on Lupin's franchise tentpoles guaranteeing at least some level of entertainment, but it's nowhere near as good as Part 5. 6/10

BanG Dream! Garupa☆Pico Fever!

It's Pico, and Pico is good. I have to say that I'm feeling it less nowadays because it seems to have run out of the truly off-the-wall ideas and is trending towards the more conventional, and it's also starting to recycle some episode concepts. But it's still a fine use of 3 minutes per week. 6/10

Sabikui Bisco

Sabikui Bisco has a lot of things going for it that elevate it above the unwashed shounen masses: Fun characters, a kickass visual design, some cool action, a great OP, and a delightful Kenjiro Tsuda villain performance. So why is it hanging around just slightly above the middle of the pack? Well, for starters the pacing is sluggish and occasionally interminable, no doubt an artifact of its light novel source material. Also, the writing is functional at best and likes to pull non-starters like trying to convince me that the main character dies just before the finale, which was so unlikely to stick that they might as well not have bothered at all. But overall, Sabikui Bisco is a show with quite a few ups, some notable downs and a whole lot of dead air in between. 6/10

Kaijin Kaihatsu-bu no Kuroitsu-san

So here's something you don't see every day: A comedy that's actually funny most of the time. Now, there are two angles of attack to this show's humor: It's both a tokusatsu riff and an office comedy. I don't really care much for the former, but it's clear that Kuroitsu has much love for goofy spandex nonsense with fun characters, and it's kinda infectious. The real good stuff is the jokes about working in a villainous corporate environment though. I laughed, what more do you want? That said, it does have a few off episodes, and is also painfully cheap, so it's more "c-tier show punching above its weight" than a true highlight. But that's totally fine. 6/10

Ousama Ranking

So I already let it slip at the midway point that I'm feeling Ousama Ranking, and that hasn't changed... fundamentally. Right off the bat it's really solid, featuring excellent looks backed up with a thoughful exploration of fairy tale morals. You do need to get used to how this show rolls, since the "front" story quickly becomes less important and mainly just a delivery vehicle for character backstories. It does have a few pacing problems because it spends a lot of time just manouvering characters into position where they can deliver their tragic past payload, and a tendency to oversell emotional moments wildly, and Bojji is a relatively uninteresting character compared to everyone else, but those are not major problems as long as it keeps delivering... right? Well, that's where we're at at about halfway through the second half, when what I'll charitably call the "standing around in a courtyard arc" starts and all the previous issues come to the foreground to such a massive degree that it's very nearly the show's undoing. Because once every character is in the perfect position for maximum backstory density, the show just stops dead in its tracks and becomes tragic flashback central to an obnoxious degree, only punctuated by characters doing the fighting shounen "react and explain" thing. And I have to mention that all of this is so tedious that it even completely lets the air out of what is likely the best looking fight scene you're going to see this year. It's not great, to put it mildly, and after that is just a quick wrapup that's better, but pretty insubstantial.

And there is another thing: I would not usually drill down the morals of an adventure anime, but Ousama Ranking is a deeply moralistic show and extremely upfront about it too, so I can't ignore that towards the end the show pulls a few fast ones on that front. You really should not write a story about how everyone is more complicated than you expect and then make your inciting incident a whole country of people who are just all 100% dicks. Or let Bojji be the naturally correct arbiter of tough decisions just by protagonist fiat. A lot of this is so obvious, and so far below the writing level elsewhere, that I would assume that there's more to this than we can see right now. But none of that is in the anime, so I can't let it just slide, even if it's such a small aspect it doesn't impact the quality of the show much.

So yeah, still a good show, but that's mostly based on the first half. I would definitely watch more of it, but I'd also dearly hope that it doesn't nosedive at a critical juncture again. 7/10

Ryman's Club

Ryman's Club isn't quite done yet, but I doubt my opinion on it is going to change much and it's definitely a show that I don't want to let fall under the table. It's pretty funny — I wasn't looking for another sports anime, but was drawn in by the goofy absurdity of the setting (note that I am not knowledgeable enough about Japanese corporate culture to say whether "ultra intense company badminton team" is fictional absurdity or IRL absurdity, but it's absurd either way). Then it became apparent that the whole corporate aspect of it is more than a mere gimmick and that it was worth watching just for Mikoto's quest to bring spring onion soda to the market. But then that plot ended and we were just left with a pretty generic sports anime... except Ryman's Club is actually exceptionally good at being a generic sports anime. By that I mean that while the writing isn't anything special and consists mostly of well-worn sports story building blocks you've seen before, this show is expertly directed and manages to make Badminton matches really exciting. Not to mention that even when in full sports mode, there's still the benefit that the characters are at least a little bit more mature than your usual highschoolers. Yeah, this is really solid stuff, actually. I'd recommend it. Tentative 7/10, and on the higher end of that.

Akebi-chan no Sailor-fuku

So apologies to hypothetical readers who are here to watch me nitpick popular anime, because Akebi-chan might just actually be perfect. It's not that this is the one that brings the original ideas, but what we have here is top tier execution of something that is often attempted. It's a fusion of coming-of-age-drama, slowburn healing anime and archetype comedy. I can vibe with any of these, but most of the examples I've seen have major flaws; I'll just mention that I think it's most similar to Euphonium S1, but lacks the silly overblown drama. In fact, Akebi-chan features what I'll call "microdrama", but it's executed so well that it makes a girl learning to play the guitar badly seem more profound than all the gigantic brouhahas of Euphonium combined. More strong points? The characters aren't complicated deep dives, but they're all unique in personality and looks without seeming cookie-cutter, including the OP heroine (this one could easily be described as "reverse manic pixie dream girl", but it's the "reverse" that makes the difference). The tone is very lighthearted without falling into the "ultimately not being about anything" trap that the likes of K-ON and Aria find themselves in.

What really pushes Akebi-chan to the next level though is not the concept, but the production. This show is all about the details (even the plot is frequently about that), and the level of production is high enough to actually show all the details. There isn't many shows where the way hair falls or how someone moves their hand really matters, but this is definitely one. This level of detail is incredibly important to how real the show feels and how it really does transport you to a carefree world of adolescence. It's delightful. By the way, this level of detail also means that you have to be comfortable with watching a bunch of middle schoolers really closely, but you can't really fault a show for being exceptionally good at what so many others attempt anyway. If that is a concern, I would suggest sticking to Toonami-approved shounen. 9/10

So. Perfect show, less than perfect score. Why? I still think a true 10 is reserved for things with a bit more impact than this one, but you should keep in mind that this is a show in a niche that I have stated, on record, to top out at an 8 – and this is a high 9 we're talking about here. Akebi delivers and then some and I think it's the new gold standard for not only one, but several genres.

#anime #review #winter2022 #the orbital children #tokyo 24th ward #my dress up darling #vanitas no karte #magia record #fantasy bishoujo juniku ojisan to #slow loop #lupin III #bang dream garupa pico #kaijin kaihatsubu no kuroitsu san #sabikui bisco #ousama ranking #ryman's club #akebi chan no sailor fuku