#is like the shounen battle couple

[velteris]

I’ve seen a fair amount of posts complaining about this arc in Frieren and… we are all entitled to our own opinions etc which is why I will be launching into a Defense of Frieren’s Exam Arc :) Keeping it manga spoiler free since it seems like most of these complaints are from anime-only viewers.

For me the main draw of this arc is the world building. We’ve spent all this time with Frieren and Fern as our main perspectives on magic. Because it’s Frieren, the magics we’ve been hearing about have mostly been a little silly and sweet. But now we’re finding out that 1) “mage” is largely still a combat designation, and 2) Frieren and Fern are actually incredibly jack-of-all-trades when it comes to their magic repertoire. The “magic is visualisation” part is starting to be really leant into and we’re seeing more humans as well who seem to specialise in one magic (steel flowers, rocks, clones, ice and water…) It’s cool!! It’s objectively cool! I love being able to see this range that we wouldn’t have had otherwise! Also it’s fucking fantastic to see how much of a BEAST Fern really is when compared to other human mages. And she doesn’t even seem that aware of it.

Coupled with that is being able to see different people’s philosophies toward magic. I think a lot of viewers are kind of down about the sudden huge influx of side characters who they don’t really care about. But these philosophies—Land’s maximum wait-and-watch, Wirbel and Ubel’s vastly different approaches to killing—keep expanding the world and highlighting Frieren and Fern’s own perspectives. It’s soooo good seeing them react to situations not of their own making and people not of their own kind.

We get to see human society that isn’t a village in the middle of nowhere! We get to see Frieren being forced to socialise! We get to see Fern away from her emotional support elf! We get to see how society has changed since the demon king was defeated! I love that Himmel and co ushered in an era of peace, which it is, and yet the world is still full of conflicts. Truly the story continues after the hero is finished.

To address a few specific complaints I’ve seen brought up:

Frieren isn’t about all these nonstop shounen fights.

Agreed! Which is why it’s cool as hell that Frieren’s main badass shounen strategy is “sit very still for 10 hours”. That aside? There actually hasn’t been much actual fighting. You could probably count up the minutes in which actual spells are being cast and it’ll be something like 2 minutes max in the latest ep20. And that’s because it’s not about who beats who, it’s about the philosophies, the worldbuilding, the ways of thinking about magic. This is not a power-measuring contest, much as Genau would like to make it. And the random lucky draw-ness of the Stilles only plays further into that. It is possible to pass this exam without coming into conflict with others, and certainly without battles to the death. It hasn’t ever been about the shounen fights.

The good part of the show was about the delicate melancholy and that’s totally missing here.

I agree that it’s one of the strong points. But the thing with the melancholy is that it only works when juxtaposed against other moments. A story that’s composed of a bunch of unlinked wistful slice-of-life episodes will eventually fall apart because it has no momentum, no driving force. And ten years to Ende is too long to go without at least some conflict. Also, again, ten-hour bird meditation session?

Anyway, there’s melancholy, but how sad it would be if there was nothing but introspection and wistfulness. Frieren is bringing the memories of Himmel forward with her into the future. That means she has to be moving forward, forging new relationships with unrelated people, going into situations that she hasn’t been in before. A Frieren stuck in the past would be against the themes of the show, of remembering and yet moving on.

Why should I care about them spending ages trying to catch a bird?

You don’t like Stille? 🐤 fweet?

Actually I care lots about this funky thing. Indestructible and goes supersonic fast. That’s fucking hilarious. Bird that simply cannot be contained. Genau is a dick for setting up this kind of exam when, Your Honour, my client Stille does not deserve to be imprisoned.

Too many irrelevant side characters who it’s hard to care about, and they’re gonna be thrown away at the end anyway.

Again, it’s the worldbuilding. And also, mild spoilers for stuff that won’t be covered in the anime, but at least one of these side characters does come back and we get more delicious main character development as a result. Though frankly many of these characters are deeply compelling and interesting to me so I don’t rly get this complaint. Give me more Lawine.

Where’s Himmel? What do these exams have to do with the hero party? Frieren is good because of the links to the past.

Frieren is good because of the links to the past, which affect how Frieren responds to the present. The whole point of Frieren is that Frieren’s life continues. And through her new experiences, she comes to understand and reconnect to the emotions she didn’t realise she felt about her past. I don’t care what Himmel would think of the mage exams, I care what Frieren thinks of them now. And the answer is that she doesn’t really give a damn but she’s in here anyway because Fern strongarmed her into it, and then she was forced to adopt two more kids along the way, and all of that is something she never would have done if she was still hermiting in the Central Lands. Somehow we are still getting Himmel flashbacks anyway? So? He’s still haunting the narrative guys. Just because Frieren isn’t saying “that’s what Hero Himmel would do” out loud in these circumstances doesn’t mean his ghost isn’t here.

Even so, Frieren clearly recognises the name Serie. Do not fear. There is going to be more about links to the past.

I miss Stark.

Fair enough. It’s okay, he’s just on vacation rn. Having an appy juice.

It’s taking too long. The arc is too slow.

It’s only been three episodes… I’ve seen people going “it’s already been three episodes!” but what? Really? Is that considered an excessive amount of time now?? Given the amount of story covered I think it’s quite reasonable? There’s still 8 episodes to go in which we cover the remaining exam stages. Have some patience like Frieren. The payoffs are being set up; they’ll resolve before the end of the mage exam arc. In the meantime, let’s enjoy theorising about the soft magic system and hollering for full auto Fern.

#frieren #sousou no frieren

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 406: Secret Menu Hero Name

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was all “NOT EVEN DEATH ITSELF CAN STOP ME!!!” and saved All Might so easily and spectacularly that it immediately became clear why Horikoshi had to keep him on ice for fourteen months straight. All Might was all “thanks for the assist Bakugou-shounen, now please allow me to show my gratitude by lending you my SWEETASS ROBOT ARM that nearly gave makeste a fucking heart attack when she saw it, HOLY SHIT.” Kacchan was all “I JUST LIKE TO SMILE, SMILING’S MY FAVORITE” and he smiled the BIGGEST EVER and indeed has literally not STOPPED smiling ever since, and my heart is warm. <3333

Today on BnHA: A jubilant menace stirs in the air. A chill runs down Kid For One’s spine. A sudden crash behind him. He whirls around, only to be met with the face of Chaos itself in all its raucous glory. The boy is relentless. His pursuit, unending. His blows, unyielding. And his mirth, as perplexing as it is petrifying. What the fuck. Why won’t he stop laughing. He’s laughing. Horikoshi is laughing. The readers are all laughing. You’re laughing. Kid For One is shitting his pants while this cackling sleep paralysis demon gleefully chips away at his frail sanity, one frenetic BOOM at a time. And you’re laughing. :|

doo de doo, don’t mind me, just gonna scroll past the first couple pages of this chapter so I don’t get spoiled for the outcomes of all the other mini-battles I haven’t finished catching up with yet :’)

though I already caught a glimpse of a bloodied-up Shouji before I realized what was happening, so unfortunately that particular cat is now out of the bag. can’t believe the suspense of whether or not Shouji would survive his fight is now completely ruined for me. can you even imagine how tense it would have been wondering whether or not Shouji would get killed off. ...and you know what, even as I type this, I’m realizing that this is really not the type of sarcasm that translates very well across the internet, lol. and even if it did, it could just as easily come across as “WOW, MAKESTE REALLY DOESN’T CARE ABOUT SHOUJI AT ALL, HUH” sarcasm, rather than the “it’s not that serious guys, it’s just that there’s no possible way Horikoshi could ever convince me that he was actually going to kill off one of the kids” sarcasm it was intended as! so yeah. you know what, I’m just going to shut up about all this now and move on. glad he’s okay though

so now back to the Main Character Battlefield, where Kacchan is currently having way too good of a time for someone who actually WAS killed off by Horikoshi fairly recently

All Might is all “he’s so fast!” and yeah he really is lol. ngl, I had a fair amount of Kacchan endgame theory stuff riding on his ability to meaningfully upgrade his speed, so all of this is very satisfying to hear! and to be fair, I do wonder how much of it is owed to the boost from Gearshift as opposed to Katsuki’s own newly acquired exploding bloodsweat. but I’d like to think that even without GS he’s still incredibly fucking fast at this point. like easily still a Top 3 BnHA Speedy Boi

well shit lol now Edgeshot is reminding everyone that even prior to his “death”, Kacchan was briefly able to surpass Tomura’s speed with his upgrade

well there you have it! so yeah, that basically confirms he’s currently even faster than All Might was at his peak. just a homicidal little comet casually zipping around all of these other slowpokes

lol

just for the record, I still have no clue how Kacchan’s bizarre new upgrade actually works, but I am fairly certain that sweat is NOT SUPPOSED TO EVER DO THAT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

like seriously though Kacchan, doesn’t this hurt? like at all?

(ETA: hahahaha. ouch.)

well whatever!! if Tomura was able to bypass Erasure’s loopholes with all of his hand nonsense, then Kacchan’s sweat has my permission to zoom around inside his bloodstream and randomly explode inside him to somehow make him faster without actually harming him in any way, AND THAT’S FINE. the time for nitpicking ended roughly around the same time that a soft-spoken paracord man dove inside of him to forcefully restart his organs

LOL

“DON’T GET ME WRONG, I COULD EASILY KILL HIM ANY TIME I WANT! I JUST DON’T FUCKING FEEL LIKE IT RIGHT NOW, OKAY. THAT’S DEFINITELY WHAT IT IS, AND IT’S DEFINITELY NOT BECAUSE HE JUST EXPLODED ME SO HARD THAT I SAW THE FOURTH DIMENSION”

meanwhile back in Dekutown it looks like Tomura has maybe finally broken free of his impromptu Blackwhip toddler leash

whatever man. how are you still not redeemed yet since I last saw you in chapter 369. you had like an entire year’s worth of chapters. get it together already!!

lol what in the actual fuck is “instadeath”

is this just a Funny Ha Ha fanscan way of referring to Decay?? or were there some additional Tomura quirk developments that I missed out on which were somehow even wilder than the infinityhands

Deku keeps saying that he’s for serious REALLY going to run out of Gearshifts now, but I don’t fucking believe a word this kid says tbh

it will be the “final one” once the fight is finally over, and not a moment sooner. if I know anything about Deku, which I do. and Gearshift, which to be fair I really don’t

-- oh, fuck yeah

what the hell is up with that swirly hand shit though, Kid For One. you better knock that off right now

OH MY GOD THIS FUCKING GUY FOR REAL THOUGH!!

:/ well at least this time you’re being ignored because he’s actually scared shitless of you. shh. don’t tell anyone

holy shit this chapter keeps hitting me with these random bits of information Destiel meme-style and it’s the wildest fucking thing

so while I did obviously clue in to the fact that something must have gone down in the Endeavor+Hawks+Toko+Jirou VS AFO battle, on account of AFO very clearly not being in Jakku anymore, I have not yet caught up to that part of the series, so I don’t actually know anyone’s status! hopefully they’re all alive and relatively unmaimed! although they very clearly failed at their One Job, but oh well

that being said, “AS STRONG AS DARK SHADOW” looooooool omg. DS what did you do. my boy left an impression. I cannot wait to read that, oh goodness

KFO YOU LITTLE TWERP, DIDN’T ANYONE EVER TELL YOU YOU SHOULDN’T LOOK DOWN ON OTHER PEOPLE OR ELSE YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE YOUR OWN WEAKNESSES

seems like someone ought to have told you that. could have spared you a lot of pain and agitation to come. more’s the pity

hee hee hee

hello there

so now my feral wolfchild is having a big internal monologue about how he’s finally mastered his new superquirk through the power of being an unrepentant masochist

fsdkfj. listen up Kid For One, he may be “nothing but a pebble”, but I promise you, if you could fucking hear this kid’s thought processes right now, you would already be halfway across the planet. living out the rest of your days in hiding while checking underneath your bed every night to make sure this little hobgoblin isn’t secretly waiting there to pounce at you

FSDLKFJSLDKJFL SDFLKWJEFLKWLF WLKJFLDKS

(ETA: you guys will never believe this but I found a sneak peak of the as-yet-unreleased soundtrack which will accompany this scene in season seven of the anime! SPOILER ALERT!!!)

ACTUAL GHOUL. I AM ACTUALLY SCREAMING. MY SON HAS BECOME GENUINE NIGHTMARE FUEL

THIS IS MY FAVORITE, FAVORITE, FAVORITE THING EVER YOU GUYS. HOLY SHIT. I CAN’T BREATHE OMFG

OUCH. HA! HAHA.

(ETA: once again, I know this sounds highly improbable, but I actually found some 100% authentic footage from the anime version of this scene! I’m telling ya. once this hits the airwaves minds are gonna be blown.)

HE IS THE “WHO” WHEN YOU CALL “WHO’S THERE”!!! HE IS THE WIND BLOWING THROUGH YOUR HAIR

you have to admit though, this really is the exact type of behavior you’d expect from someone who literally just got spat back out from the pits of hell

oh my god hold up what is this sudden tonal whiplash?

you guys I seriously had to sit back and take a deep breath and calm myself down for a moment, because Final Form Katsuki is just So Much. like actually just THE MOST. that I had to physically force myself to slow down and take these next few panels seriously and resist the urge to keep on making jokes about how CLEARLY EVEN HIS PARENTS ARE TERRIFIED. LOOK AT THEM. MASARU IS SOBBING AND MITSUKI’S HAND IS TREMBLING. IN THE WORLD’S MOST EPIC TWIST, AFO GOES DOWN ONLY TO BE REPLACED BY KACCHAN HIMSELF AS THE FINAL VILLAIN!!!

but yeah I had to stop and calm down from all of that because, oh. Masaru has his head in his hands. and Mitsuki’s trying to get him to turn around, but her hand really is shaking though. and it just really hit me that the two of them have spent the last... thirty minutes...?? swept up in the highs and lows of almost losing their child, and then getting him back, and then watching him be so strong and so good and SAVING ALL MIGHT and RESTORING EVERYONE’S HOPES AND DREAMS. and they must be so incredibly proud, but at the same time he’s still caught up in this fight, and the fight is still not over, and they know the tide could still turn again at any moment. and I can’t even imagine what that must be like. especially with them having already watched their son die once today

oh my god Horikoshi you cannot freaking do this to me!

goddammit. and now I’m all caught up in my Bakufam feels. DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI, THE MITSUKI TEARS WERE THE LOWEST OF BLOWS

and now Kid For One is once again whining about this “pebble” who’s pissing him off even worse than All Might. you love to see it!

OH MY GOD?!?!

oh my lord?! is it finally happening?? ARE WE FINALLY GETTING THAT SWEET, SWEET CONTEXT AT LONG LAST? WILL A MAN FINALLY HAVE A NAME??

-- Horikoshi I swear to god

YEAH NO SHIT. NOW THAT YOU MENTION IT, THEY DO KIND OF BEAR A RESEMBLANCE. YOU KNOW, IF YOU SQUINT

okay, color me intrigued. so that is indeed why AFO was crying when we previously saw this flashback! this is actually so interesting to me, because it’s literally the one and only time he’s ever shown real emotion outside of generic battle-related stuff (anger, shock, surprise, etc.)

so he says Kacchan pisses him off because he looks like Two. and every time he gets reminded of Two, he remembers how his brother died. and, I guess, made him feel sad for the first and probably last time ever???

holy shit, Kacchan was right

he really is AFO’s Final Boss. like even more than he realized

*~*~*OH MY GOD*~*~*

HOLY SHIT YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!

OFA DOS PARTIAL NAME REVEAL AT LONG LAST!! FULL NAME REVEAL AND ADDITIONAL FLASHBACKS TO FOLLOW NEXT WEEK...?? YES? MAYBE? PLEASE????

I swear to god, if Horikoshi deliberately kept Two’s quirk and name Top Secret for YEARS only for them BOTH to wind up NOT ACTUALLY BEING REMOTELY SPOILERY OR WORTH ANY KIND OF SUSPENSEFUL BUILD-UP IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER, I will. just sit here and be puzzled, I guess. lol. “sometimes I just like to fuck with people like that.” OKAY?? WELL GOOD JOB, THEN??

“Kacchan of the Bakugous” was so out of left field and I am grinning so, so hard right now. BAKUGOU NO KACCHAN. that’s officially the second Heroes Rising reference in as many chapters! sure feels like A Certain Mangaka is building up to a Certain Reveal about SOMEBODY maybe possibly still having SOMETHING which will remain unnamed for now, but which rhymes with “done for mall”! and that’s all I’m gonna say about that

except that it’s not, because I’d be lying if I said I didn’t also have fifteen other entirely different emotions about him proudly introducing himself to AFO not as Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight, but as someone even more powerful. “BEHOLD, it is none other than I... Kacchan!!! ( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و lolo get fucked you big dumb fart”

heh. but seriously. just me sitting here basking in the fact that he uses the name Deku gave him. the fact that he decides not to go with his formidable, much-agonized-over hero name in this one moment, but instead chooses to use a far more terrifying moniker, even if AFO doesn’t realize the significance. because Dynamight is a hero, yes. one of the very greatest and strongest!

but Kacchan? Kacchan is the boy with a dream. Kacchan is the boisterous child laughing at the danger, unafraid of the challenge. smiling in the face of the tallest wall. Deku’s motherfucking Image of Victory. hahahahaha. ouch

anyway so yeah! what a chapter. this may have actually derailed me because now my brain just wants to write a bunch of character metas even though I STILL HAVE THIRTY MORE CHAPTERS TO READ. and not to mention I still have to actually post all of them as well lol. but whatever! we’ll make it work. long live Kacchan of the Bakugous, and may his Secret Menu Hero Name always strike fear in the hearts of his enemies

#bnha 406 #bakugou katsuki #all for one #ofa dos #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[oshiawaseni]

What pulled me into my love of MHA is the relationship between Bakugo and Deku... and seeing out they are now after reading recent manga chapters makes me so excited about all that is coming up... I don't know what about BKDK speaks to me... but I can practically feel the love between them, and complex, deep, and layered love is my biggest weakness. (I envy them.) <3

I cry over bkdk because their love for each other now is just so perfect, but circumstances kind of outside their control have torn them apart over and over. And it’s so hard to see characters who love each other as much as they do never get to tell that to each other, and knowing that both of them have gone through Katsuki’s death without having said everything they wanted to say. In that same kind of desperate way Katsuki went feral over Izuku falling into a coma and not being able to tell him everything that was now filling his head up completely. That he is sorry for all he has ever done to hurt Izuku and that he cares so damn much about him.

"You better not die on me Izuku, because I need you, and there's still so many things I have to tell you."

This was also probably why they added that extra scene of Katsuki thinking of Izuku after waking up. It helped convey his new and open concern for him. His "tsundereisms" until now had only been assumed, because the “dere” side of his "tsun" had been almost impossible to see. Hori had kept this side of him very well hidden - possibly with an intention to get his desired bkdk romance across the shounen jump finish line.

So all of Katsuki’s hospital scenes confirmed suspicions that this soft side has potentially always existed, only now he was no longer holding back his “dere” for Izuku. He wasn't keeping it caged inside his heart anymore. And this is why I started getting my hopes up for for bkdk canon.

Anyway, they wanted to be the one that’s always there for the other but they kept failing in that, lzuku’s many failings to save Katsuki up until now or the way Katsuki had failed to see Izuku’s love for him, which lead to the breakdown of their relationship for so long. The failure of both of them to connect to one another emotionally, communicate how they feel and really fight for each other and overcome the issues before so many misunderstandings had the chance to take such stranglehold over their lives.

Narratively, all of their problems and lack of understanding each other's emotional selves, despite being so close, has been built up to culminate in a singular point that we are still yet to see.

The purpose of showing how well they know each other and can predict each other’s future strategies and their connection in the battle sense… Hori wrote them like this to juxtapose it against their never ending misunderstandings of the heart. It highlights how connected their emotions should also be, hinting that that their feelings were headed straight for each other until the day they crashed into each other violently and beautifully. All the events as of late have mostly been about Katsuki coming to terms with the contents of his heart and now the time has come for Izuku to do the same.

A lot of what has been shown is Izuku’s tainted vision of their relationship, or Katsuki’s lonely perspective of never being able to say what he really wants to say the most. And sometimes it’s been about both of them not feeling heard. There has been a veil between their true feelings for so long and it’s high time it is lifted and they meet together as two hearts that can truly see each other without anymore of the pretence. That’s what some of us think will happen in the upcoming chapters, and why Hori keeps having the other couples make references and parallels to them in a lead up to “?” and also why this was drawn:

I take issue with people who don't acknowledge these overarching narratives that are guiding their characters together - and that they are very much "Not Done" with Katsuki's apology. Their many misunderstandings and hidden feelings for each other must be revealed to reach the conclusion of this story. Because bnha is THEIR story. The only reason I can come up with as for why people deny this future intimacy they'll share... is that if people were to admit these two aren't done with Katsuki's apology, they're also admitting the fact that BkDk are going to become even MORE closer, and they can see the writing on the wall if that ever were to happen...

#bakudeku #bkdk canon #bnha meta #asks #sorry I maybe went off on a bit of a tangent anon LOL #tsundere kacchan

[ichihime]

Hi, what are your favorite IH romance tropes that they've got in canon?

hiya! at the risk of sounding like a bit of a wet blanket, i'm not too into assigning tropes to stories or couples or relationships bc it sometimes feels a bit reductive and limiting i guess?

that said, i can list some stuff about the IH relationship portrayal that i'm drawn to and enjoy:

i like how they have a shared theme of losing a parental figure at an early age. and even more specifically, blaming the having that figure return as a hollow to challenge their guilt and grief. these events set them on their own independent stories that allow them to be highly empathetic and understanding of one another's circumstances.

what's more, i think these events also help to shape the shared importance and concept of "family" that ichigo and orihime both have in common.

i love how protective they are of one another, and while this is simply part of their inherent nature as characters and they will extend this protection to others they care about, both ichigo and orihime consistently single one another out as someone they must singularly protect.

i love the progression of their relationship from strangers, to acquaintances, to friend of a friend, to friends, to trusted ally, to lovers! i think the progression of their relationship is very natural and realistic.

i like how their relationship also deals with a very real issue of communication, feelings of inadequacy, and the desperation of wanting to protect someone all on your own-- both ichigo and orihime learn that their way of going about things is not viable in the long term and both grow independently of one another AND together. i love their miscommunication and conflict in the HM arc, the question of "can they trust each other" being challenged by the villains and each time they come back with a stronger resolve and answer "yes. we may not fully understand each other because we're all fundamentally different people, but we have a bond that cannot be broken. so of course i trust you"

the portrayal of the feelings they have for one another is so uniquely tender and honest within the genre. ichihime is truly in its own league compared to other shounen couples!

i like how they share the same interests and banter with each other; that they can hold conversations as friends and still be romantic as well. its really important to me when it comes to the believability of a romance-- i need to believe they can be each others friend too!

i love how well their fighting styles complement each other in battle! they truly are like a sword and shield

those are just off the top of my head, but i hope that can answer your question!

[j-ellyfish]

I was today years old when I discovered that, apparently, Shounen Jump doesn't allow women to be editors/helpers 🙃 now it may be false information, but that would help explain why WS is the way it is now... To this day I am baffled that Hetalia is considered shounen/seinen... I understand that unfortunately shoujo/josei isn't as popular, but I very seldom see men, even jp men (which are apparently the supposed main audience) be fans of Hetalia or supporting its merch. Most of the money Hetalia gets seems to come from jp women. Hell, it doesn't even seem to be a Bungou Stray Dogs case where they make the series appealing for both genders. With it's lack of shounen-esque battles, latent homoerotic content (especially in the ye old days), fanservice which even to this day is 90% of the time focused on the male characters... I have to wonder, what does this series have going on for a male cishet audience? The very ocasional boob joke? The (now practically nonexistent) historical content? I'm confused...

Sorry for the rant, I hope it isn't too much 😅

[Sorry this post became pretty long because I can't shut the hell up!]

I looked a bit into it and, unfortunately, it seems to be true. Apparently they use "you need to understand what's in a young boy's heart" as an excuse to sort of gatekeep women from having a career as an editor with them.

I have read a couple articles about this, and the way Shueisha seems to dismiss the issue is pretty disturbing. The later deleted tweets from the (female) author of Rocking You!!! really speaks volume of the situation beyond any corporate clarification Shueisha released on the matter:

[Source] [Source]

Sadly, the manga&anime mainstream/dominant scene is still pretty sexist and it's no wonder that many female and/or queer artists prefer to engage in more niche, somewhat still frowned upon genres like BL or Josei, at least they probably have more freedom there when it comes to sharing stories since they don't need to appeal to what a narrow-minded, sexist and conservative mindset still deems as manga's main demography - cishet male teens and young men ... Which is, well, the reason why most shows are required to have cute lil' objectified girlies as fanservice (I'm not against fanservice per se but you know what I mean, it's how unbalanced it is between genders in "romance/sexual-neutral" stories - like Shounen are supposed to be! - what makes it overwhelming and insulting) even if they don't even need it as a crutch for engagement.

Personally, I believe Hetalia's og target as a Seinen wasn't wrong. I think that Himaruya being a man did have an impact in how Hetalia came to be and how its comedy and characters, and even art style developed. It wouldn't feel right to me to call it a Shoujo or a Josei. The problem with this traditional classification is that what's a Shoujo/Josei wasn't quite established as "what girls want to see", but rather "what boys typically aren't interested in." And obviously, this soon led to the over-simplified and kinda sexist idea that Shounen=Action-packed battles; Shoujo=Romance. Many Shounen and Seinen have quite a large female presence in their fandoms despite being traditionally seen as the "boys/men's manga", whereas it is less likely for a boy or a man to be very into a Shoujo, and even less into a Josei (or, rather, it is less likely for a male to share this interest because of good ol' toxic masculinity).

In any case, while searching some stuff to form my own opinion and answer, i came across this page where they said "if a series does not fit into any other category such as Shonen or Shojo, then it will be put under Seinen", and honestly I think it makes the most sense for Hetalia.

For how I see it, the "problem" with targetizing Hetalia is that Himaruya never thought about it becoming popular when he started it. His mindset was "let's post this random silly one-time thing I came up with after engaging in a thread on 2Chan while passing time as a student in New York". There wasn't any intended 'commercial use', there was no business planning beforehand. It'd be like trying to put a target on, I dunno, some everyday life meme-y comics you find daily on social media. They have no inherent target, though they might end up resonating with one group of people more than others. But you cannot know until the thing actually starts resonating with an audience.

The 2Chan threads in question, according to the informations I gathered, actually dealt with topics that tend to resonate with a male audience more: a debate about military weapons and strategies used in WW2 that culminated with talking about Italy's military failures of the time; and how Japan will literally make moe girlies as personifications for anything. Himaruya just had this idea, definitely influenced by his time spent in a multiethnic background while he was in the US, to fundamentally make a comic inspired by those moe female personifications but have them be moe guys instead.

It would've been very hard for Himaruya to foresee the attention his work would've gotten, let alone the kind of audience that would actually be interested in it. Sure, Himaruya apparently called himself a Fudanshi once (I have no source for this though so take it with a grain of salt!) and it's not hard to believe, but Hetalia is very atypical even for a BL-leaning series.

Let's not forget that the first one-shot Hetalia strip was posted on Hima's blog in 2006. And, let's say, things back then were quite different. Yaoi/BL wasn't nearly as popular as it became later, and mainstream media didn't really discover the power of fanservice aimed at a female audience yet (that would come much, much later and kind of peaked with Free!, which I believe really made a difference in how anime business would perceive the true power of this kind of fanservice from then on). In 2006, not even Junjou Romantica had gotten an anime yet, and as much as I honestly dislike JR, it played a big role in making BL more popular because prior to that BLs could barely aspire to get anything more than a couple OVAs. The few that did get a proper anime season (like Gravitation, Loveless and Sukisho) still didn't get as much of a hype to make the "male-dominated mainstream community" notice their existence like JR somehow did.

I'm not even sure the kind of "fanservice" Hetalia made/makes use of was a thing in 2006. Like, you know, all those anime we have now that have tons of homoerotic subtext, a predominantly or exclusively male cast, are targeted at least partially at a female audience but never actually dip into romance or make anything really canon? I'm no expert, but I don't think they were a thing back then, and if they did they were quite niche. Perhaps Hetalia also changed the male perception of female audience in manga/anime spaces. Hetalia fans back then were quite ostracized and shamed merely for being girls enjoying a show with a kind of content that most cishet males - used to their shows with everything geared towards them (and girls confined to the "Romance Shoujo enclosure") - couldn't quite comprehend. I've seen so many male anime fans, back in the day, making fun of us simply for being girls and enjoying a comedy that features hot guys with all the homoerotic subtext they wouldn't bat an eye at if it was between female characters.

However it is worth noting that, while most Hetalia fans are girls or women, it has a minority of male fans as well. One of the two friends that actually introduced me to Hetalia was a boy, and I was introduced to it together with three other friends, one of which was a boy too - we all loved it at first sight! An Italian Youtuber I occasionally follow revealed that his very first manga was Hetalia and although he only picked it up to get closer to the girl he liked, I guess he didn't hate it enough to just drop it and "unlike" that girl lol I saw reactions of a few other guys to Hetalia episodes and none of them hated it, they even laughed at some jokes! I believe that many men are simply prejudiced against Hetalia because of internalized sexism or toxic masculinity, especially if they're aware of the fandom's main activity being shipping (lol).

I don't think Himaruya made any of his """fanservice""" with an actual fanservice-y intent, he simply, genuinely drew what he, before anyone else, enjoyed drawing. Unlike a lot of fanservice out there, Hetalia's never feels forced, it is very genuine.

[Conclusion; if you wanna skip what's above lol]

I don't think it's fair to say that Hetalia willingly attempts to appeal to women. I feel like Hetalia, at least pre-HWS Hetalia, appealed to Himaruya before and foremost. It just so happened that Himaruya's taste aligned more with a female audience, despite being actually funny in a gender-neutral way that way too many cishet guys dismiss because of (I guess?) fragile masculinity and fandom prejudice.

So, keeping that into account, I really do not think it'd be fair to call Hetalia a Shoujo or a Josei. And it isn't fair to call it a Shounen either, because we see how Hetalia's essence and humor was undoubtedly butchered by Shounen Jump+'s editing and rules, that simply do not align with either Hetalia's spirit nor its main audience's expectations.

As a Seinen, Hetalia had freedom to be whatever it wanted because Seinen tends to have more loose rules for what is or isn't allowed in one. Because its target of "adult men" is basically, de facto, a neutral catch-all label. Josei tends to be too involved in classic Shoujo dynamics and themes, albeit in a more mature sauce, and while there are exceptions I feel, in all the (few) Josei I crossed path with, there is a certain je-ne-sais-quoi that makes it undoubtedly more inherently feminine than Hetalia is.

It's funny because this whole debate over Hetalia's target kind of reminds me of how the very first BL, Kaze To Ki No Uta, is classified as a Shoujo because back then Yaoi didn't exist as an official genre. When you make something revolutionary that defies pre-existing rules and boxes, it's hard to slap a specific label on it that feels right.

#hetalia #this is long but I hope it wasn't too boring lol #actually I'm curious so I'm going to make a poll about this #what genre is Hetalia?? HETALIA IS HETALIA lol #ary spoke #ask

[exo-raskreia]

U being anti IH what if the same thing happens to gjhm and they become canon but don't have as much material as other ship?

I'm not sure if you're asking this with malicious intent or if it's a genuine question from a fellow shipper, but here we go.

(Oncoming lengthy response)

I've actually had this thought before. What if despite his different writing style, the general hate the Bleach ED got, & just how ridiculous it sounds, Gege pulled a Kubo? After all, he's a fanboy of the man (I wonder what he thinks of the Bleach ED? Is he aware of how it was received?).

I would be shocked, conflicted, & worried.

To start with, while neither ship should be compared due to how fundamentally different they are, I will say this. Despite several interactions, IH severely lacked chemistry, trust, & meaningful moments. Meanwhile, GojoHime with less on-screen interactions & a playful dynamic, have shown us a deep trust for each other & have worked together to achieve their shared goals. Despite being a minor side character, Utahime is one of the few people Gojo trusts & one of the three adults he calls by first name with no honorific. This already puts them leagues above IH, who were barely friends at best & acquaintances at worst.

So, I wouldn't want GjHm to somehow get the IH treatment in the end. I wouldn't wish that on any shipper, heck, I even feel sort of bad for the IH's, cuz despite becoming "canon" out of nowhere 7 years ago, they still. don't. have. content (especially from the author himself, who has shown no particular interest in his endgames. They don't even have a family sketch 🫢). Makes you wonder who really lost here (as IR has still gotten some content over the years post-ED...).

GjHm already gets enough hate for simply existing, despite it being a smaller ship with a smaller fanbase in the JJK fandom (the antis are threatened by the potential it has, not to mention it's the most popular JJK straight ship in Japan), so if Gege were to pull a Kubo, the hate would increase, especially towards Utahime, who of course would amass the most hate from this freakin' fandom that's obsessed with Gojo. It'd be a tough time for us fans of the ship & Utahime.

After dealing with the aftermath of the Naruto Shipping Wars as a soldier in the NaruHina army lol (don't even get me started on why NH is NOT like IH, plus we actually have content 🤪), & then witnessing the disastrous Bleach ED & the general hate it got, I do NOT wish to go thru this again. Whether you win or lose, if it isn't done properly, you'll still deal with criticism left & right... (why can't more battle shounens be like Fairy Tail when it comes to slowly developing the ships throughout the story? There'd be less drama...)

Gege keeps saying the manga will end soon, so that means if he wants to make anyone canon by the end, he'll have to start now. JJK is a battle shounen with no romance, but if despite this, GjHm are to be canon, then their moments leading up to it will have to be quality > quantity. Is there enough room/time to develop them the way we would wish? Doubt it, so we'll need at least a couple flashbacks to further justify them (and boy, we're still waiting for their flashback after Gojo's unsealing, if that ever comes...).

Basically, even if it's a few moments, they need to be impactful enough to make even the casual readers/viewers think, "I could see them ending up together." Subtlety & slow burn are usually the best fit for battle shounens, after all, &/or maybe a little further (once again, like Fairy Tail). With that said, out of all the potential ships in the series, I personally view YutaMaki as the most likely to become canon by the end; their moments, far & few in between, are enough to convince me that they could be endgame (that is, if the capricious Gege so wished 😓).

So far, we've seen nothing of what Gojo & Utahime truly think of each other. To reiterate, they have a silly dynamic but have shown to trust each other implicitly. Why this is, we can only guess. I mean, Utahime has risked her life for Gojo twice already (investigating the mole & buffing him against Sukuna). Where is this supposed "hate" she holds for him? It's stated in the databook that she hates him most of the time, so how does she feel at other times? 🤔 And Gojo, despite his teasing, has shown he cares for her, saved her, & obviously trusted her with the aforementioned important & risky tasks.

Just what is going on with these two? Is it really so impossible that there could be something more here? Whether now or later? Gege would just need to give us a little more... Though at this point, there's only so much we can hope for, considering his writing style & how things have been seemingly going... Gotta keep our expectations low...

(What if—delulu plot twist—GjHm are already together, either secretly this whole time—like some ppl have wondered, as this could further explain the immense trust in each other—or got together during the timeskip, & all we need now is the big reveal with a/some proper flashback(s) to explain it? LOL. Just a silly idea 😜).

Anyway, in general, I wouldn't want GjHm becoming canon at the cost of its beautiful potential. We'd need some more moments to justify it, or else I'd have to put back on my old "army uniform" to defend my ship if need be. So, despite how unlikely it would be, I can only hope Gege does NOT pull a Kubo (well, he's more likely to kill everyone off or something like that 🙄).

I'd rather he pulled a Sorachi (author of Gintama) & left things open-ended, keeping the fandom from turning into utter chaos...

(Maybe only that side might lose it, tho, lol. They get bothered by anything that doesn't adhere to their ship despite them being down here with us in Delulu Land, oop-).

#gojohime #gojo and utahime #ask #reiapost #anti-ichihime #anti bleach ending

[duckiemimi]

trying to wrap my head around WHY gojo had to die but all i can think of is how the story literally came to a standstill when he was in the prison realm. how they all fought to get him out of the box bc he's the strongest, he's gojo satoru, he's their savior.

and then gege just threw in a 2 month time skip, a bland shonen fight scene (i stand by it being bland! throwing in fancy techniques =/= a strong fight scene. this fight was poor executed in that it lacked meaning on both sides. maybe if we saw megumi tear up or gojo react in some way to his students and megumi...) just to kill him off at the end.

what i don't get is why he had to come out of the box for that? the main characters developed really well when he was in the box, to the point where i thought we were going to get an all out fight with yuji, yuuta, maki, AND gojo against sukuna; this would've been a cool full circle moment with gojo's goal being accomplished before he died. then, he would've died knowing that he isn't the sole strongest.

(that's the kind of meaning geto was looking for too, i think)

but the way it's being done now, it feels like we're just gearing up for another gojo level up? (also who is kashimo i'm all for jjk's power system but WHEN will we get to see nobara's tomonari and yuuji's new cursed technique and even yuuta and his absolutely op copycat technique again???)

idk it feels like we're erasing the entire culling games arc and all the progress we made during it just to get to where we are now... gege please explain what are we thinking...

like? they spent multiple arcs trying to save him, thinking he’d be their savior, and it didn’t pay off at all 😭 there are effective ways to build up a tragic character storyline and a “you’re best is never enough” theme! this isn’t it! had the wait been shorter, and had we been given a couple panels of gojo and his thoughts in the prison realm, then maybe it would’ve worked, probably loosely. but even then, this is an event-based plot driven story that keeps moving forward and the trajectory gege set in the beginning doesn’t line up with where we’re at now. sure, the existential nature vs. nurture theme is still there (gege really wedged in that “are u strong, or strong are u?” question to salvage some consistency), but the development of everything we’ve watched bloom is thrown away for…what? a quintessential shounen fight to live up to other shounens? a “PEAK” battle that’s rushed?? gege used to be so good at drawing circles closed, but it’s been confusing loops these days.

(oh, and i viscerally feel you. many people praise the technicalities and powerscaling of this arc, but just like the recent writing, gege’s power system isn’t consistent. and even if it was completely consistent per character and per CT and understandable as a whole, fight scenes without “meat” to them lack story! i wanted see more characterization! i wanted to see that the battle went deeper than surface-level! fifteen chapters of cyclical back-and-forths with barely anything else to pay attention to is boring…if gege wanted to keep every reader engaged, he should’ve added sukuna’s characterization during his fight with gojo. and if he really wanted to land that tragic character storyline for gojo, he should’ve added more scenes of gojo’s introspection and inner-conflict, or at least a thought process we could follow. as it is now, ending him like that betrays the trajectory for growth gege set for him in the beginning.)

#jjk #jjk 236 #jjk 237 #jjk spoilers #gojo #asks

[gudaho]

Kimetsu no Yaiba is my current favorite shounen of all time for a couple reasons but the main one is I thinks its a naturally funny series

the voice acting is spectacular which makes the slap-stick scenes enjoyable and believable. the slapstick also serves the situation and the characters, its not at all surprising that a guy who dedicated his entire life to the point of erasing his identity to live in obscurity and make swords, would be pissed to the point of violence when one of his unfinished creations is put into battle

but more what appeals to me more is the subtextual comedic tone which is never really addressed by the characters (spoilers ahead)

the most special strongest unique bestest warrior died before the story started (of old age)

muzan spent centuries looking for the blue spider lilies and because of his inability to recognize the value of life- killed the one woman who knew where they grew

tengen uzui being The Most. from a ninja family, is a demon slayer, has three wives, his descendant is a professional gymnast

Demon: im going to consume your flesh and with it become stronger and revitalized Genya: no u

see also: genya bringing a gun to a sword demon battle

the insect girls with butterfly motifs are the most deranged and bloodthirsty of all demon-slayer families

'no one likes giyu', not bc of the autism but bc hes just kinda a dick

demon ptsd, this is my favorite part i love demon ptsd it goes so hard. specialist boy ever traumatized one guy so bad that now everyone suffers from panic attacks when they are remotely reminded of the bestest warrior man they never met

#kny #kimetsu no yaiba #yoriichi tsugikuni #muzan kibutsuji #tengen uzui #genya shinazugawa

[foryoupeko]

What’s up with Mukuro x Peko?

Last question for today bc I really got to work on projects for my father and this ONE PERSON recommended the PERFECT kuzu/peko song and I'm trying to figure out how to answer that ask like a normal person (I will fail).

I hate Mukuro x Peko so much. (Stop reading if y'all aren't ready for biased/controversial opinions)

From what I've seen, fans of the ship want Mukuro and Peko to help each other heal from their similar trauma. BUT THAT'S EQUATING FUYUHIKO TO FUCKING JUNKO? And I won't stand for that! And ppl thinking Peko and Mukuro are in the same situation then how the fuck do these two people who can't define themselves supposed to help each other? That's like two blind rats trying to navigate a mine field.

I don't like it when ppl are like WOW BATTLE COUPLE. This isn't a shounen setting!!! Why would we want two people who only known violence in their life to bond over that? WOW MUKURO as a solider I hope you don't have PTSD bc I sure would like to bond in deadly combat. I think it also erases the fact that Peko DOES NOT like mindless killing. She kills to protect. Meanwhile Mukuro will kill with no hesitation.

Please do not read this as homophobic bc in reality I just hate when things get reduced to gender. But I DESPISE when ppl are like ANY LESBIAN SHIP is better than ANY STRAIGHT SHIP. Peko x Mukuro is automatically healthier than Peko x Fuyuhiko based off gender alone!!!

Like I said in a previous ask, I really do think Mukuro is a 10x unhealthier version of Peko. And every time I see ppl misinterpret Peko it feels like they're talking about Mukuro.

The comic sums up that these two wouldn't mesh as well as ppl think.

#asks #anti mukupeko #antipekomuku #whatever #im sorry for the hate

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

jjk. chapter 255 spoilers under the cut !!

WWAUUUGHHHHHHHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 ONE OF MY FAVORITE SHINJUKU CHAPTERS FOR SUREEEE I CRIED I SOBBED I THREW UP MULTIPLE TIMES THIS IS SO UP MY ALLEY I CAN’T EVEN DESCRIBE IT????????? I DON’T HAVE THE WORDS????????

okay i’m gonna TRY to be coherent . gonna try to behave. but i LOVED this chapter so much it gave me so much i’ve been wanting from this manga for so long…. hhhh…………… :((((

FIRST OF ALLLLLL:

LARUEEEEE 😭😭😭😭😭😭 HE’S HEREEEEE HE’S HOME…… MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT CANONICALLY QUEER SIDE CHARACTER……. the narrator referring to the two of them as ”team geto” made me SOB but more on that later i’m just. so happy to see him??? one of my favorite side characters???? i never thought he’d get more screentime?????

and that goes for miguel too!!! i adore them BOTH and they looked so pretty this chapter …. T_T hhhhh

miguel is so handsome ….. just one chance plspls king :’3 i’m hoping more screentime will get him more fics…… maybe specifically x reader fics…….. just a thought……….. (yes i have a miguel/reader drabble in wips no i don’t know when i’ll get to writing it 💔) and larue my gay bestie he rlly is so pretty!!!!!! hhhhh i missed them sm :(((((

ALSOOOO absolutely loved their interactions w yuuta in the beginning….. all the lil moments. larue calling miguel hun….. miguel having beef w gojo and wanting to see him beg for his help….. yuuta offering to beg instead and miguel getting freaked out 😭 THEY’RE SOOO FUNNY

I <333333 THEMMMM

and and and ….. while we’re on the topic of gojo………… THE CRUMBSSSSS THIS CHAPTER GOD HE’S SO PRETTY :(((( RETURN OF THE CIRCLE FRAMES!!!!!

he’s so cute …. andddd while we’re talking abt this interaction!!! i loved loved loved that miguel got the chance to lecture gojo on his racism. and so blatantly too !!!!!! it feels so refreshing to have a shounen manga where casual racism is acknowledged and not just treated as a gag…. and gojo apologized (albeit a lil casually but i do think it was genuine. that’s just kinda how gojo talks </3)

SPEAKKKKK YOUR TRUTH KING ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ LET HIM HAVE IT ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ personally i think gojo should’ve let his infinity down so miguel could get a couple good smacks in but that’s just me. (miguel looks so good here also!!!)

aaaa and !!! before i get to the Main Dish of this chapter i just wanna say :3 MAKI SWEEEEEEP OUR QUEEN OUR KING OUR LORD AND SAVIOR 🙏🙏🙏🙏 SHE’S BACK AND COOLER THAN EVERRRRRR LOOK AT THAT GRIN

serving cunt since day one ….. where would we even be w/o her……. i AM very worried for my boys and that black flash at the end but :’3 this chapter made me feel hopeful….. it’s nice to see a good ol jumpjutsu kaisen 5v1 battle.

BUTTTTT with that out of the way!!!!! let’s talk about my absolute favorite part of the chapter (and why it’s one of my favorites in shinjuku)….. which is ofc. the talk between miguel and larue. i absolutely unabashedly ADORE geto’s family and i’ve been waiting to see them again for so long!!! to learn more about them, their feelings towards geto, their feelings after his passing…… and i finally got it. and it was just…. so, so good. wow.

like …. this page almost made me cry. genuinely. i adore larue so much and it was so nice to see him again….. he’s definitely my favorite member of geto’s family (excluding geto himself ofc) and clearly the most heartfelt!!! there’s the scene in shibuya where he stops the rest of the family from harming each other because he knows that’s the last thing geto would want, he calls everyone by their first name…. it just feels like he understood geto the most. understood that what geto cared about above all else was his family, not his own plan (hot take maybe?? but i’ll die on that hill).

and goshhhh…… ”we all loved suguru-chan” :((( you don’t UNDERSTAND how emotional i feel rn. i mean we basically already knew this but it just feels so nice to get confirmation on how loved geto was!!! not just by a couple members of his family, but by all of them!!!! i think it’s so telling that even miguel, who acts a bit colder than someone like larue, was willing to help geto and grew to love him. geto is just such a sincere character at his core and i think that’s how he won them all over. but aaaa i’m just :((((( they loved him!!!!! and he loved them just as much!!!!!! i’ve said this before but i NEED a slice of life spinoff manga only featuring geto and his family.,, they mean so much to me.

and i haven’t even MENTIONED larue’s speech????????????? how lovely it is?????? how sick it is????????????? his version of mourning makes me so unbelievably emotional :(((( geto would be so fucking proud of them i can picture him looking up at them from the fiery pits just CHEERING as they punch sukuna…… sniffle sniffle. he loves them!!! and they love him!!!!!!

also obviously i NEED to mention this bc it broke me. i’ve seen people making jokes about what miguel says AND I GET THAT bc i too love joking about how geto is definitely in hell but. this line is very tragic to me!!! or maybe not tragic but it’s definitely somber. i don’t think it’s meant to be humorous, it’s there as a grim reminder of the things geto and his family did…. they loved each other but they were villains. there’s no denying that. larue is obviously a bit of a romanticist but miguel is enough of a realist to call him out on it, and i think that gets his personality across so well. because he still ends up agreeing to join larue in the fight!! those words got to him!!!! seeing his expression crumble in this page made my heart ache :((((… they were villains but they loved each other so earnestly. and i just adore them so so much!!!

okay i think ….. that’s all …….. suchhhh a wonderful chapter. it made me insane!!!!! i love miguel and i love larue and i’m hoping they’ll survive this :((

(….. but . i mean … if they end up dying ……. there’s the slightest chance we’ll get an afterlife scene of geto and his family, so …. um ……. yk …….. 👉👈 maybe . some sacrifices will have to be made……..)

#i am Thinking very hard abt the shibuya moment #abt how larue tells the family that one day they’ll share a table and break bread again #so . yk…. if we DO get that afterlife scene it’ll definitely be at a table . last supper style. and geto will be there #and i will cry and throw up and literally never shut up about it so!!!! better pray my boys survive this 🙏🙏🙏🙏 #ty akutami ily akutami #in his author’s comment he said his allergies r getting awful bc he wasn’t prepared…………… which is just . so…. akutami coded somehow…… #anyway stan larue and stan miguel that is all 🙏 #ari noises ✩ #jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #jjk leaks #jjk 255

[epicfranb]

@mortpee: if you could come up with a manga, what would it be abt ?

Hmm well i have an idea that i would love to make a comic abt, and it is strongly inspired by the mahou shoujo genre, so it counts hehe :3 it's about magical girls whose powers are based on forms of art! I think about a lot of things that bother me about this genre, missed opportunities, or limitations due to the fact that most of those series are for kids... But my main gripe is that, if you look at action shounen series, even if they're made for young teens, they're still interesting to watch for older ppl, but with mahou shoujo it's like you always have to keep in mind: this was made for kids, and so the conflicts (even tho they can be pretty mature) are aimed at kids, so can be pretty watered down or underdeveloped :"3 and you get SOOOOOO many cool shounen series that do very cool things with the tropes and expectations (mp100, one punch man, hxh), but in the mahou shoujo genre you get the sub-genre of "edgy magical girls" inspired by Madoka (and i don't personally think Madoka actually belongs to that genre, it's a deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre, but it is still a pretty traditional mahou shoujo). Edgy magical girls rely on shock factor a lot of the time. Like, Magical Girl Site and Magical Girl Raising Project are literally just shounen series but with magical girls - it's not really the same. Funnily enough, Kill la Kill, which is literally a shounen series, leans into the mahou shoujo genre and borrows a lot from it, to the point where it feels more like mahou shoujo than the previous 2 i mentioned 🙃 So i would really really love if the mahou shoujo genre continued to evolve, be taken more seriously, more experimentation to be done within it, etc while still remaining a mahou shoujo genre, with magical transformations and friendship saving the world, and turning into a big god-like magical being and having the final battle in space :"D

So, after explaining my motivation, here are a couple of things i would do in my story:

- older characters. Magical girls in these series are usually aged between 13 and 17, and any more is like an older magical girl. The magical girls in my story would still be young, but i would set the minimal age of all characters to 18.

- a lot of magical girls! What i liked in Magia Record (the game, idc about the anime) was that there was a lot of them! It was established in the original madomagi that girls establish their territories on which they work (i think they did it in Raising Project as well), which implies there are a lot of magical girls. They did do too many in Magireco (they didn't ALL have to be in this one city xD), but i love the idea. With my idea, it would also mean i get to create a lot of unique characters based on different forms of art :D

- RULES!!! It isn't always explained in stories HOW people use magic. In Witch Hat Atelier, you draw your magic! In Tweeny Witches, you need parts of fairies, such as their hair or feathers! For my story, it would make sense that the girls can use any magic they can imagine. But with them doing different arts, they would naturally imagine things differently! "How to use magic?" "What is magic?" They would all have different answers to these questions. Maybe one music girl would use sound waves to deafen their enemy, but another one would play relaxing melodies to put a monster to sleep, a third one could heal their allies because they believe music has a healing effect.

- Worldbuilding! Why are magical girls a thing? What is their bigger purpose? Where did their cute mascots appear from? What are the monsters that keep appearing? How did nobody know about all this before?? How long has magic even been a thing??? I'm certainly borrowing from Madoka with these questions, and i plan to have a "FUCK. OUR LIVES ARE MEANINGLESS" moment in the end, but 1) nobody dies 2) ppl recover from this and find new hope 3) they defeat the evil and lose their magic as an exchange, but it's ok because their art and their friendships are the real magic 🥰🥰

- more diversity! I can't represent absolutely everyone of course, but i would want to have characters of different ethnicities and genders and sexualities at least. There isn't a rule that only girls can be magical, it's just that I'm going to focus on girls, but there will be magical boys and enbies too lol :D i have ideas for some disabled magical girls and trans magical girls and i just have sooo many ideas for designs and backstories in my head!!! (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

So yeah, hopefully i could get to that at some point.... ^_^; and i hope you liked reading my rambles :"D

#life updates

[thyandrawrites]

What's your favorite thing about Shoto? What about Toya? Personality or action wise?

Shouto: (well, this applies more to the first half of the manga, a little less now) I like that he thinks with his own head instead of accepting authority by default. He fights for what he believes in, and he actually makes a point to act on said beliefs instead of simply preaching emptily about them, unlike a good portion of the cast. He doesn't like powerlessness and pushes back against any system in place that promotes inaction to protect the greater good. I find that very admirable

Personality-wise... I really like his dry humor, particularly when it couples with his candid obliviousness. Like, he's not sarcastic to be caustic, he just... doesn't have much of a filter and he literally says anything that comes to mind even when his understanding of the situation is slightly off. For that reason, his dynamic with Bakugou amuses me a lot

Touya: how headstrong he is. Someone might cite this same trait as his fatal flaw, and to an extent it is, but I find that an "heroic" trait turned sour. Even when everyone tells him that he's not good enough, Touya doesn't take that as the end of the line and instead decides he just needs to work harder. Which can easily turn in that self-harming mentality we see in canon, yeah, but it's also the mentality behind a typical battle shounen protagonist. When no one believed in him, Touya believed in himself and didn't want his inner child to die a meaningless death. How beautiful is that? To stubbornly believe you deserve that chance to do good. To take any loss not as a failure but as the starting point for your next attempt. I wish I had half of his drive

Personality-wise... mmhh... I like that he shows care with his actions and not his words.

#ali replies #bnha

[ichinoue]

Good point about Kubo not adding a significant amount of IH during the SS arc due to bleach being a shounen. And those links you shared were very informative. Based on this, IR from a romantic perspective was never an option. But I think Kubo was hesitant to make IH blatantly obvious until the last chapter because he'd receive hate from the majority of shippers (who were pro IR). I think he also wanted the IR fans to continue buying his manga because once IH become official, they no longer would

See, I don't think he was ever hesitant when it came to IchiHime. To me, it was blatantly obvious since the arrancar arc. There may not have been tons of hugging and hand-holding or a kiss scene like you would find in a shoujo, but for a shounen? Ichigo's enemies targeting Orihime the most because he had a weakness/soft spot for her, his friends, family, and mentors teasing him about her or playing matchmaker for them, Orihime's love confession, Ichigo bowing before Orihime when he made the promise to protect her, Orihime being the love interest that wore her heart on her sleeve for him as the moment that changed the entire course of the Grimmjow battle, and Ichigo rising up from the dead for her, chanting how he'll protect her even after he attacked his own friend, and then battling side by side with her against the final boss?

For a shounen series, that's laying it on thick, and anyone who wasn't blinded by the fact that they already declared IR as their OTP in chapter one should have seen it. And hell, even the IR fans could see how obvious IH was in the HM arc. After the lust arc, they were despairing on the online forums, ready to throw in the towel and drop Bleach altogether because IH seemed inevitable at that point. But then, a fan-essay detailing how the lust arc was actually spelling out the imminent downfall of IH managed to reel them back in. They considered that essay their bible and it kept them going for years in denial, even as Kubo continued to churn out more and more IH content.

If he was afraid of IR's dropping his manga, he wouldn't have written half of those things for IH that I listed all throughout the series. He would have just kept writing tons of IR nakama moments while depriving IH of any significant screentime until the last few chapters.

Instead, the opposite happened.

IchiHime may not have been made official until the final chapter (per typical shounen formula of couples not getting together until the final chapters, and again, Kubo explained the reason for them getting together offscreen was because romance was supplementary), but it was there all along, dating back to Orihime's romantic feelings being introduced in chapter two.

I don't think Kubo cared about backlash from IR shippers--he even told them off on twitter when they spammed him with hate about Orihime. He said comments like that made him want to write more scenes for her out of spite. They begged him to write an IR vs Yhwach battle, and he gave it to IchiHime instead. That's how little he cared about keeping them satisfied.

Because if he cared what they thought, or feared their backlash, he would have given Ichigo and Rukia more screentime, and yet their moments and interactions completely plateaued after the SS arc (as I outlined here), while Ichigo and Orihime's screentime and development kept gaining more momentum. IR fans were starved of content for years, and never managed to regain what they had in the beginning, while IchiHime shippers had been well fed since the end of the SS arc.

And I really admire Kubo for that--even with Bleach's declining sales and popularity, he didn't write something disingenuous to him just to win back fans or please the IR masses.

[psychewritesbs]

Don't you think it's funny cause actual canon gay characters in BL manga/manhwa will say "I love you" but only the shounen bromance can spew out some of the most romantic shit akin to a 19th century poet writing a letter expressing his surpressed love for his lover 😭.....

ok but when you put it like that...

This is an interesting conversation to have because I am not sure it's so much about the demographics (shonen is more of a demographic than a literary genre although it does have certain characteristics that define it because of its intended demographic), as it is about writing skill and being able to show vs. tell.

Because, as a fujo who went through a thirsty fujo phase, I consumed a lot of bl. Like... A LOT. And I came out of that phase accepting the cold realization that I did not like most bl/yaoi because it is highly clichéd and relies on tropes entirely way too much.

Like I literally used to say "I read yaoi for the plot" because...

GIVE ME THE CHEMISTRY, GIVE ME THE DYNAMIC, GIVE ME THE DRAMAAAAAAAAA!!!!

To your point under the cut 😂 ...

Man, I just can't get over how well you put it.

Anyways, given how you framed your ask, so do you think it's a male perspective thing? I ask because I do recognize that sometimes the way male friendships are portrayed in animanga feels very intimate and very unique to Japanese media, although I could be wrong.

Because, if we're talking about the big battle shonen bl manga out there, jjk, naruto, bnha, hq, etc. are the big "offenders" and these are all male authors (well, we're not sure about hq). So I can see why you feel like these characters are able to express their perspective for each other in a way that you don't see in other manga.

Personally, I am a big fan of how CLAMP (who are all women and very possibly all queer) executes LGBTQ+ dynamics. An example found in a shonen manga that I particularly love is kurofai from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

And the thing about this pairing is that you never hear them say "I love you." Instead you are shown through their behavior towards one another and the subtext how much they have grown to care for each other.

In addition to the majority of CLAMP's m/m dynamics (across a variety of manga published for different demographics), another couple of examples of gays I love include Tomoko Yamashita's pairing in Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru (although I didn't care for the ending), Yoneda Kou's Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai, and obvs Sayo Yamamoto and Mitsurou Kubo's Yuri on Ice. I haven't read/seen Banana Fish but I understand that's another bl fan fave classic that is good.

So there are some good dynamics out there outside of shonen lol, you just have to dig for them like a maniac... or so I've been told ehem.

But even as masterful as CLAMP is at executing soulmate dynamics, if you specifically take itafushi for example, Gege's ability to vest that bromance with so much beauty is just off the charts something else. As a woman I find the container of this dynamic to be deeply aspirational. There's this shared and unspoken understanding between the two characters, not to mention love that... idk.. it just has this... je ne sais quoi.

idk... I am curious about more #thoughts on this because there's a lot going on here in terms of self-insertion into male characters, equality in dynamics, just so much to unpack.

Please feel free to send all the #thoughts to whomever else reads this!

Thanks for reaching out anon!!!!

#ask the mental gymnastics anime girl #you say fujoshi like it's a bad thing

[hamliet]

Thanks so much @hamliet for sharing your writing tips and your analysis....Just so you know, your blog are more helpful to me in understanding literature than my lit teacher 😆

Can I ask something? I love reading fanfics, and most of them are non canon mlm couples from shounen series.... Why do you think there are many shipping from sports and battle anime (I'm not complaining)? Sometime I even enjoyed it a bit more than reading from canon mlm couple stories or BL manga/manhwa....

Also, why do you think there are quite a lot of fanfics from wangxian, hualian, bingqiu, and laurent/damen (eventhough all of them have canon mlm couples)? I love reading their original stories and still want to read their fanfics, what do you think?

Sorry if I'm rambling too much....

I've talked about this a bit before, so I'd suggest doing a search on "emotional energy" on my blog, and you'll find some links! (See also this!)

The reality is that a lot of the famous ships have a lot of emotional energy between them, whether or not they are canon. And some characters and ships, canon or not, grab us, and we want to explore all the aspects of what we like about it. It's why different AUs can appeal to us, different scenarios we'd like to explore that bond in, etc.

#ask hamliet #shipping

[xian1na]

buncha words about buncha spring animes

I've had a bit of a break from anime for a last couple of years but I spontaneously decided to watch some new things from this season and now have a burning need to share my opinions with strangers on the Internet. Enjoy!

Hell's Paradise (eps. 1-3) - I read the first volume of the manga some time ago and remember thinking it was pretty cool and could be even cooler animated. Lo and behold, here we are. Now, I have a bit of a problem with shounen anime. I used to gobble battle shounens up like they were spaghetti but I just don't enjoy them as much anymore. Still, this one looks like it could be a good fun. I love the creepy imagery and vibrant colours of the island, especially when contrasted to toned down colour palette of the first two episodes. I'm also excited for how the characters will not only fight each other but also the hostile environment. There could be some nice juicy drama in future episodes. I'm not entirely sold on the main characters on their own yet (I think of all the spring shows I've watched, they might be the least engaging leads) but I like them conceptually, so to speak - Gabimaru being a wife guy is very sweet and really humanizes him and Sagiri... well, I'm not entirely sold on her subplot but she's a sword chick. Love me some sword chicks. And I like her design, too!

My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999! (eps. 1-3) - I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this one, I'm not a big fan of romance, rom-com, slice-of-life, and so on. This show reminds me of Bofuri, or at least scratches some similar itches. See, I played one MMO game a lot when I was a kid (I still come back to it sometimes when I feel nostalgic) but I've never been particularly good at it. Seeing anime about people playing games in an unusual way, not power-gaming their way to the highest level but instead messing around with their friends just reminds me of good ol' times. That said, I enjoy other things about this series as well. For one, it's very funny. For two, almost all characters are terrible but in a very relatable way and I kinda love them. I'd like the romance to be mostly built on the characters' personal growth, I get a feeling it could be a very satisfying story if it goes that way. But even if it doesn't, it could still be a nice little series.

Oshi no Ko (eps. 1-2) - Man, watching that first episode sure was An Experience. We went from an old guy being creepy about teenage girls to this weird breast-feeding scene, then to some really interesting insights into idol industry (and show-biz in general) and THEN to the finale, AND THEN to what the actual plot will be? I'm still a bit on the fence to be honest but I'd lie if I said I weren't intrigued. I think the character writing and visuals are amazing. Ai's characterisation in particular was phenomenal. You know how you sometimes watch a series where all the characters talk about this one supposedly super charismatic and special person but you just roll your eyes because you don't see any of it? That is definitely NOT the case here. I couldn't take my eyes off her, there is just something so hypnotizing about the way she's animated. That said, I'm not a fan of humour and dialogues here. I don't like how everything is spelled out and nothing is left up for interpretation (I have similar problem with Hell's Paradise, by the way). But those are minor flaws and I definitely want to see how the story unfolds.

Heavenly Delusion (eps. 1-3) - Frankly, I think this the best show from this season that I've watched so far. The characters are likeable and they have a fun dynamic, the setting is interesting and it's presented very well (they're showing, not telling and all that), the dialogues are natural sounding and the visuals are gorgeous. There are some things I wish weren't here but I'm willing to look past them (at least for now) because the rest is so solid. So I say this is 'the best' show but is it my favourite? Hard to say. The thing with mystery shows like that is that it's very possible that once all the mysteries are solved, there won't be much else to enjoy. Also I'm a bit wary of where Kiruko's plotline is going. I really hope this series is good. Sadly, often anime that I think is going to be the best of the season doesn't deliver in the end and leaves me sulking and disappointed. That said, Heavenly Delusion is based on a manga and the manga is apparently good, so maybe all these worries are unfounded.

and finally Skip and Loafer (eps. 1-3) - I said that I didn't expect to enjoy Yamada-kun as much as I did so when I sat down to skip and loaf, my expectations were pretty high. I had to re-adjust them a bit though. From some screenshots here and there I'd seen before watching I expected a different kind of show, maybe a meaner one?But instead Skip and Loafer is very positive and cute. Both Mitsumi and Sousuke are very observant and empathetic characters and watching them interact with their classmates (and each other) is a lot of fun. I really liked the subplot with Egashira in episode 3. Egashira was kind of an asshole in episode 2 and when we see her again she's being kind of an asshole again but then she has this moment of anxiety when she compares herself with Yuzuki. And that by itself would be fine character writing but then Sousuke actually notices that she's feeling down and compliments her a little, despite what happened between them in the previous episode. It's such a kind thing to do and the whole show seems to promote this kindness and wholesomeness without being sugary sweet. In this bleak, dark, dark world something like Skip and Loafer is a real balm for the soul.

That's it for the currently running series. I hear there's even more good stuff though, so maybe I'll get around to it next week. I also started watching two older shows.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (currently on season 1, prologue + eps. 1-3) - This, ladies and gentlemen, is my very first Gundam. So far I'm pretty into it. I should probably mention that I haven't watched Utena (yeah, yeah, I know, shame on me), so I only heard about similarities between the two shows (or rather homages paid by GWitch). So I pretty much just take GWitch as it is and don't think about wider context. I really like the characters so far. Suletta is a little ball of anxiety but what I really appreciate about her is that despite how shy she is, she's always speaking her mind. It's kind of inspiring, to be honest. I often keep my thoughts to myself even when I want to speak up because I lack confidence but I when I see Suletta I feel like I want to become a better person. This probably sounds very corny, or maybe sarcastic but I'm 100% honest right now. Miorine is also great. Based on her design I thought she'd be a quiet and withdrawn type but boy oh boy, she isn't that in the slightest. At this point I don't know what the main plot will be exactly but one thing I do know, is that I love these girls and I'm rooting for them, whatever their goals'll end up being.

Spy x Family (eps. 1-3) - I wanted to watch it when it was airing but first I missed one episode because I was busy, then the second one because I was tired and ultimately I missed the whole thing. Now that I'm in anime watching mood again I decided to give it another go. I'd read a little bit of manga before anime even came out (2 volumes iirc) so I'm not going in blind for the first 8 episodes or something like that. And I actually re-watched the episodes I've already seen. There isn't all that much I can say about these first three episodes, other than Anya is wonderful and the whole show's a perfect blend of funny and wholesome. Man, so many wholesome shows these days. I wonder if it's a good or a bad sign. Anyway, episode four is the interview in the school. I recently reread the first volume of the manga and was literally laughing out loud during these chapters so I'm curious to see how it was adapted.

That'd be it from me. Thank you if you read all my ramblings ^^ Sometimes writing down my thoughts helps me in organising them and even realising what they are exactly. And I think it's a good writing exercise, too, so I'll probably write another post like this next week. Until then!

#anime spring 2023 #spring 2023 anime #anime #jigokuraku #hell's paradise #my love story with yamada kun at lv999 #yamada kun to lv999 no koi wo suru #oshi no ko #heavenly delusion #tengoku daimakyou #skip and loafer #skip to loafer #the witch from mercury #kidou senshi gundam: suisei no majo #spy x family