#janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

#THIS #janina reads hq!! #happy i get to use that tag again <3

[kageyahma-remade]

haikyuu!! + self-care

#hq!! #haikyuu!! #hq manga spoilers #food mention #long post #food becomes muscle #janina reads hq!! #not to be like 'reading this volleyball manga was really good for my mental health and helped me change the way i speak to myself #for the better' but. it did

[ben-barnes-is-my-husband]

Cindy: a troll love story

For @jboobies and @kittykatknits

Troll Headquarters

Location: a basement

 “All right, who’s going to take the 11 am shift on trolling Jeannetesc’s fanfic?” Ethel asked, peering down her oily nose at the group. She pushed her glasses up on her face, making her blue eyes look beadier than usual, and frowned when there were no takers.

 Cindy glanced over at her brother, Roger, and he glanced back at her. What were they even doing here? she wondered, not for the first time.

 “Cindy hasn’t volunteered on anything yet,” Frank spoke up, glaring at Cindy before looking up at Ethel who stood beside the troll schedule. Janina, Jeanettesc, and kittykatknits were at the top and the below was a grid with times on the side and names on the inside claiming time slots for when they would send their messages. They had a quota to hit each day, and Ethel threatened kicking them all out of the group if they failed to meet quota. She didn’t care that some of them were starting to develop tendonitis.

 To the right of the schedule board was another board, a white board, with the author’s names at the top and everyone who had ever commented on their fics underneath them. There were spidery thin black lines going from each person’s name so they could all see how they were interconnected.

 Cindy thought this was overkill. The Robsa community supported one another. All those black lines just looked like one big blob on the white board.

 To the left of the schedule board was yet another white board. This one had a list of comments each Troll was supposed to leave. They were pretty basic and standard, and Ethel encouraged them to change up the comments, sprinkle in a couple from this one and that one.

 The comments read as followed:

 “your a one trick pony this is just the same as all the others”

 “we laugh about ur fics and then go find real writers to read”

 “your not even any good u will never get published”

 “u probably want to fuck your brother u sick fuck”

 “ur such a slut u probably fuck ur brother”

 “for the love of God stay away from children”

 “go hang yourself!”

 Cindy had issues with these comments, and she suspected others did too. Not that there were many of them to begin with. Trolls didn’t have a lot of friends, that was just the nature of the beast. But lately Cindy had been having doubts because, well, she actually read the stories. And she liked them.

 And when she read them, she thought of her brother.

 Then she’d have to go off to the bathroom and make herself cum.

 She wondered if he thought of her too.  He sometimes spent an awful lot of time in the bathroom too…

 But, yeah, the comments. First, the grammar was just bad. Ethel couldn’t write to save her life, and Cindy suspected strongly that was why she was so angry. Rumor had it in Troll HQ that Ethel had tried to write her own fanfic once and had been told never to write again. Apparently, Ethel wasn’t big on grammar. She didn’t even know the how to use “your” and “you’re” the right way. And, since she had no clue how to do any of that, she just shortened it to “ur”.

 Abigail, no longer a member, had suggested they at least try to sound coherent and somewhat intelligent. Ethel had exploded on her. Cindy had thought the wart on her nose would explode on its own at that point.

 It was clear that as far as Ethel was concerned, quantity was more important than quality. Honestly, when Ethel was in a rage, some of the comments were just so jumbled together that Cindy couldn’t make sense of them. They sounded like the rantings of mad Neanderthal.

 And with Ethel’s high forehead, that wasn’t very far off.

 For shame, she thought. You shouldn’t pick on Ethel for looking the part. You kind of do, too.

 It was true. Cindy had her own failings. As did Roger. His hair always looked greasy and stringy no matter how many times he washed it. So did hers, as a matter of fact. Plus, she had acne. Really bad acne. Kids at school called her “pizza face.”

 It was how she had come to find the Trolls. Ethel, Frank, Roger, and Mary were all picked on at school. They were all outcasts in some way, and so as trolls tended to do, they found each other.

 Cindy felt another pair of eyes on her and looked over to where Mary sat, decked out all in black, the white of her face paint already beginning to melt under the humidity of the basement. Mary Mary Quite Contrary is what everyone called her. She was, Cindy thought, at times worse than Ethel. She became a Troll when the Goths at school kicked her out of the group for being a “mean-spirited bitch”.

 Cindy wasn’t sure that was such a good idea on their part since Mary had been plotting their downfall ever since. Mary wasn’t one to be trifled with either. Rumor had it that after Abigail’s Troll membership was revoked, she went after Abigail – showing up wherever Abigail went, and leaving threatening notes in her locker. Abigail had put a restraining order on Mary. On all the trolls actually.

 And, after Abigail had left them, a transformation had taken place seemingly overnight. Abigail’s own acne cleared up, she started showering on a regular basis, and she no longer felt her goal in life was to try and ruin someone’s day to feel better about her own shitty life because her life got BETTER.

 She became so beautiful it hurt to look at her. She got friends, and even a boyfriend and girlfriend. Cindy had begun to wonder – could that be me? Could I experience a miracle like that if I just stopped being a Troll?

 “Well, Cindy?” Mary said, a sneer forming under her black lipstick. The wart at the corner of her lip twitched.

 “Yeah, Cindy,” Frank pressured her. She looked at him. The wart on his chin quivered.

Wait a second…

 They all had warts! She did too, right on her forehead. Even Abigail had had a wart once.

 But not any longer. Not since she left the Trolls.

 Maybe there was something to be said for leaving them. She darted another glance at Roger who was rubbing the wart by his nose. She couldn’t leave her dear brother.

 “I’ll take it,” she said in a small voice.

 “Guys!” Roger exclaimed, “Kitty just posted.”

They all looked down at their respective devices. They refreshed the page every two minutes just in case someone posted.

 “Janina did too,” Frank said.

 “I’ve got Kitty,” Mary said with a smirk.

 “I’ve got Janina,” Frank said.

 “Well, since we’re all here, we might as well just take them both,” Ethel said with a gleam in her eye. “Together.”

 Oh boy, Cindy knew what that meant. It was a no holds barred session. They’d go at it for hours.

 “Before we start, I’ll get us more Twinkies, Cheetos, and Dew,” Roger said, heading to the stairs. When he made it to the top and opened the door, bright light shone down the staircase, making them all squint.

 The scent of cookies wafted down to them, breaking up the smell of unwashed bodies and stinky shoes. The light lit up the dank room. The stained carpet and sparse furniture. The walls that needed painting. And all the trash on the floor – Twinkie wrappers, Cheeto bags, and cans of Mountain Dew.

 Cindy looked longingly up at that light until the door shut and they were shuttered in the dim light once again.

 She got to reading on Kitty’s story. Good God, it was hot. So very hot. She kept imagining doing those things Sansa and Robb did with Roger. Oh, she wanted it so badly!

 She glanced up to see how everyone else was doing and was stunned by what she saw when they all thought no one was looking.

 Frank was practically drooling. In fact, at a certain angle it almost appeared that he was hard…

 Then there was Ethel who licked her lips and leaned closer to the screen. And Mary…Mary was rubbing her thighs together.

 Suddenly, Cindy couldn’t take it anymore. She was so turned on.

 She wanted Roger. Badly.

 And she was going to get him.

 “Excuse me,” she said.

 She started for the stairs. “Where are you going? Bathroom again?” Mary drawled.

 “I’m going to help Roger,” Cindy said and walked up the stairs.

 The door creaked open and the light was blinding. She gasped and stepped into the kitchen. A plate of cookies sat on the counter of Ethel’s kitchen counter. Or rather, her parents’ kitchen counter. It was so warm up here. So bright. She spied Roger out on the deck, gathering air into his lungs as the hot sun shone down on him making his hair appear less stringy.

 With a deep breath, Cindy opened the door and stepped outside with him.

 His eyes went wide as he whirled around. “Cindy!”

 She put her finger to her mouth, the universal sign for “Ssshhhh…”

 She stepped into the sun and felt its rays upon her skin. Already she felt different. Whole. Alive. It felt as though the acne on her face was shrinking and fading away.

 She looked at Roger and found him even more handsome than usual. 

 Oh my. The sun worked miracles!

 And then Roger took her in his arms and kissed her passionately. He didn’t taste like Cheetos. He tasted minty fresh.

 “Bathroom!” she said urgently.

 “Yes,” he growled.

 They ran down the hall to the bathroom they never used and hurried inside.

 “I’ve wanted you for so long, little sister,” Roger said deeply.

 “Oh, Roger, I’ve wanted you for so long too.”

 He smiled. “Shall we fuck like Robb and Sansa?”

 “Yes!” Cindy exclaimed.

 They tore at each other’s clothes, and then once they were naked, Cindy hopped up onto the bathroom counter and Roger fucked her just like Robb did to Sansa.

 It was glorious and perfect and Cindy knew she was going to crave Roger the way Sansa always seemed to crave Robb.

 They clung to each other, panting, and then slowly parted, just looking at each other. Their eyes went wide.

 “Cindy! Your hair!” Roger exclaimed.

 Cindy reached up to touch it. It was soft.

 She hopped down from the sink and turned to look in the mirror. Her hair was auburn just like Sansa’s. It was long and sleek and soft. Not stringy anymore. It looked so shiny and healthy. And her acne – it was gone! As was the wart on her forehead. Her face was clear, her complexion was beautiful!

 “Cindy,” Roger said urgently.

 She looked over at him and her mouth fell open. His hair was curled like Robb’s. Soft waves that made him look like a dashing rogue. The beard he’d been trying to grow had filled in, not so patchy anymore, and also reminding her of Robb.

 “We’re healed, Cindy,” Roger said in awe.

 Cindy nodded. “I denounce the Trolls,” she declared and a soft white, ethereal glow encompassed her entire being.

 “I denounce the Trolls,” Roger said too, and the same white ethereal glow surrounded him.

“I feel like I want to spread this feeling of happiness,” Cindy said, feeling overwhelmed by the joy in her heart. “I feel like I want to make others happy!”

 “Me too,” Roger said, sounded awed still. “I want to be nice to others not try to tear them down because really…I like Janina, Kitty, and Jeanette. I like their stuff!”

 A tear rolled down Cindy’s cheek. “Me too! I have all along.”

 They dressed quietly and quickly, and then hand-in-hand, left the house and stepped out into the sun and into their new lives.

#it really makes them sillier than they are doesn't it? #takes all the sting out and just makes them look as sad as they are #i got your back girls

[ps4peter]

FINALLY CONVINCED MY GF TO WATCH HAIKYUU WITH MEEEEEE

#and she LIKES IT so far !!!!! #janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

honorary mentions for fave hq volume covers which didnt make the cut for the polls/tournament :-)

#janina reads hq!! #no votes at all for daichi's cover fisjfj rip #and i'm surprised tsukki's shield illustration didnt make top 10! i was expecting it to beat out moonrise tbh #more fans of the moon imagery than the shield imagery perhaps 🤔 #and vol 37 my beloved didn't get many votes but whoever voted for it i love u i see u

[ps4peter]

haikyuu!! volume cover illustration poll tournament bracket :-)

QUALIFIER 1 (volumes 1-27)

QUALIFIER 2 (volumes 28-45)

round 1 game 1 (vol. 40 "affirmation" vs VOL. 32 "PITONS")

round 1 game 2 (VOL. 1 "HINATA AND KAGEYAMA" vs vol. 27 "an opportunity accepted")

round 2 game 1 (vol. 10 "moonrise" vs VOL. 24 "FIRST SNOW")

round 2 game 2 (vol. 45 "challengers" vs VOL. 42 "BECOMING")

round 2 game 3 (Q2 seed VOL. 36 "I WIN" vs vol. 32 "pitons")

round 2 game 4 (Q1 seed VOL. 16 "EX QUITTER'S BATTLE" vs vol. 1 "hinata and kageyama")

semifinals game 1 (vol. 36 "i win" vs vol. 24 "first snow")

semifinals game 2 (vol. 16 "ex quitter's battle" vs vol. 42 "becoming")

bronze medal game

FINALS

#janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

explained to my gf that on top of everything that happens in the final rally the part where oikawa slips on the table cloth doesn’t actually happen in the manga and they decided to add that in the animation

#janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

hhrghrrtg

#i literally just woke up for this lmaoo #uhmmm still processing the 110 chapters/2movies 🥴 #but at the end of the day the manga remains to be the sexiest thing ever so it simply must be read ! 🤷‍♀️ #janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

#they are so tiny T^T #janina reads hq!!

[kageyahma-remade]

furudate is consistently good at showing characters’ different perspectives to similar problems in tandem to help weave haikyuu’s story together. i’ve always loved how hirugami’s backstory was introduced just as asahi’s guilt and overwhelming sense of responsibility was revisited in the kamomedai game -- here, it is something that hirugami had learned to leave behind and something asahi has to learn to bear.

this page brings with it a transition from hirugami’s backstory and back into asahi having to face the pressure kamomedai puts on him. i never paid too much thought to it until now, but the inclusion of tsukishima’s panel made me stop and think about hirugami’s relation to tsukishima.

tsukishima had adopted a careless and detached attitude as a way to cope with a fear of innate failure and akiteru acknowledges that his distrust in his own abilities is what allows him to see things clearly. tsukishima's shackles falling away meant that he finally allowed himself to acknowledge his strengths and desires. his freedom meant leaning into his emotions and his pride.

hirugami's shackles were that pride. he had pride in his abilities, his family's volleyball legacy, and the responsibilities that he sought out and chose to take on upon joining a powerhouse in middle school. he overworked himself until hoshiumi taught him how to let all the weight he put on himself go. hirugami's freedom, what allows him to play so well now, comes from emotional detachment, while emotional detachment was representative of tsukishima's shackles. 

“Like a robot... he watches... logically sorting information.” / “All of my shackles... have fallen away.”

this inverse trajectory of hirugami’s and tsukishima’s stories and what it means for their blocking was an interesting acknowledgement in the middle of the flow of the game and of asahi's development and it’s done very seamlessly.

#hq manga spoilers #haven't been hit with Haikyuu Thoughts right before bed in a while goodnight #hq!! #janina reads hq!! #hirugami #tsukishima #asahi #food becomes muscle

[ps4peter]

i am in love with how personal nekoma vs karasuno feels. if inarizaki vs karasuno existed to establish everything everyone had learned to do in the face of the new and unexpected, nekoma explores how far they can take it. we are so familiar with all these characters and how much they influence each other to grow that it makes you well up with pride nearly every chapter of this game

#hq season 5 when #janina reads hq!! #hq manga spoilers #??

[kageyahma-remade]

every time food/eating/hunger is mentioned in haikyuu!! i want to scream

#janina reads hq!!

[kageyahma-remade]

the use of team banners in haikyuu to highlight a character or team’s personal philosophy at key points in the story is so sexy. we have the incredible chapter 400 with the banners of the msby and adlers players as a demonstration of the culmination of their growth and a final statement of who they are and who they grew to be, but it works so well because it was something that was done throughout the course of the series. 

we have karasuno’s revival at the same time shimizu finds their banner to put on display again. we have daichi laying a solid foundation for his team to fly in johzenji’s match, complemented by their “SIMPLICITY AND FORTITUDE”. the concept of task focus (fukurodani’s ”GIVE EACH PLAY YOUR ALL”) is revisited with akaashi’s acknowledgement of kamomedai’s “HABIT BECOMES SECOND NATURE”.

inarizaki’s banner (my personal favourite) in the manga had been completely hidden until That moment, when the twins pull off their reverse quick, when inarizaki makes the statement that the past is nothing to dwell upon or mourn, that the past is food that builds your muscle, that it’s always good to search for how you can build upon it and improve. tsukishima looks at the banner and smirks before he hits a serve that’s barely in and someone comments “he’s always been about the ‘just get it in serve’ before now!”. daichi does something completely unexpected after kita figures he’ll do something predictable and his spike hits off of kita’s receive and lands directly on the banner.

oikawa’s re-introduction as the setter of argentina’s olympic team hits so hard because of the amount of times he has stood in front of that “RULE THE COURT” before hitting karasuno with a no touch service ace. there’s one moment where he’s in front of karasuno’s banner before a serve and he completely obscures it!

basically these banners are the perfect punctuation marks to a display of someone’s character n it’s one of my favourite aspects of haikyuu!!

#this would be better if i found actual screenshots but i just wanted to talk about it because i'm so excited for friday #hq spoilers #just in case #janina reads hq!! #hq!! #hq m

[kageyahma-remade]

ch.13 - ch. 283

#that last one happened very quickly in the anime but i've always thought it held so much weight #look at how much their relationship has developed over 270 chapters! #hq!! #kageyama #tsukishima #long post #janina reads hq!!

[kageyahma-remade]

Oh that post on what you could talk about for hours you mentioned the haikyuu and hunger thing ?? I saw that on some posts you use the food becomes muscle tag??? It seems interesting so could you explain it a bit !! I wanted to know what your thoughts were !!!

yeah!! i use the "food becomes muscle" tag pretty broadly, for any post that features food & growth, eating & self care, and hunger & evolution.

the “food becomes muscle, eat and grow stronger” phrase is from the netflix translation of the scene following karasuno’s first loss to seijoh. haikyuu’s emphasis on learning and growing and taking care of yourself weaved into its storytelling is something I was very pleasantly surprised by, especially since haikyuu was my first sports anime and i’d only previously been exposed to mildly off-putting western storytelling surrounding sports (which i’ve found is very ”meatheaded-no-pain-no-gain-win-or-die-i’m-gonna-talk-about-how-important-teamwork-is-but-never-really-demonstrate-it”).

i adore the concept of food as a love language, and i love that haikyuu is such a labour of love with “food” being something so prevalent and recurring in the series. there are so many direct mentions of self-care, so many moments deliberately drawn and animated where characters are eating, and food & hunger slowly worked their way to becoming a major theme and motif in the Tokyo training camp arc, the ball boy arc, and especially with Inarizaki (the game and the team).

The banner itself, “WHO NEEDS MEMORIES?” is a direct expression of the accumulation of experiences that make you the person you are, the food that builds your muscles, the fact that you can always improve, and how that can be a great thing. Kita’s character is an expression of the merits of hard work and self care. Atsumu is a representation of love, someone who constantly works to become better than the person he was yesterday. And he along with Osamu feel the hunger with wanting to improve, relating volleyball to a good meal. And it’s amazing how the three of them are so directly tied with food post-timeskip! Kita as the supplier, Osamu as the provider, Atsumu as the receiver. And it’s all tied together with love and connection and pride.

Speaking of pride, the hunger motif first shows up directly around the beginning of season 2, when Yachi figures everyone has their own motivations for wanting to win, and Hinata and Kageyama equate it to the level of eating when you’re hungry. The Tokyo training camp brought with it Karasuno’s desire to improve, something Coach Nekomata describes as a baby crow’s evolution through omnivory.

The hunger motif in To The Top is shown really well in this gifset by @/ousamu. A hunger for height, a hunger for improvement, a hunger for volleyball. This is when Hinata is denied food at the Miyagi select rookie training camp and starts to be conscious of the food that he eats. He asks Coach Ukai, “what should I eat?” because Ukai had always reminded the team how important it was to eat a good meal after practice. HInata starts to learn and understand the basics of receiving because for once, he’s not allowed to do the jumping and spiking he excelled at. And going back and learning the basics of the sport in this arc was tied with the basics of food and hunger and taking care of yourself.

The Brazil arc is its own story about connection and self-improvement, and a detail that has always stuck out to me was in this spread:

Hinata is always eating something in the panel directly following one where he is training. If there’s one major takeaway from haikyuu, it’s that food is important.

#i'm sorry this took so long for me to answer i just have so many thoughts that i needed to shorten dghdfgkhfj #long post #hq manga spoilers #hq!! #food becomes muscle #janina reads hq!!

[ps4peter]

i'm obsessed with how sports anime use the rules and positions and culture surrounding their sports as a way to support the narrative

like haikyuu uses this so well to reflect how characters interact with each other -- the third years comprising of a particularly good receiver (the captain, who provides a good foundation in order for the team to fly), a setter (a provider who supports the hitters without as much flashiness), and an ace hitter (who the team relies on to score a point when they're in a pinch, who has to shoulder their expectations and is supported by their faith). Asahi the ace hitter and Nishinoya the libero who constantly indirectly rely on each other and want to take the pressure off of each other. Tsukishima the middle blocker, the shield to Yamaguchi's spear. and this extends well outside of Karasuno, too.

diamond no ace also revolves around a team sport and while the positions aren't accorded as directly to characters as it is in haikyuu, every single player has an almost equal sense of responsibility and desire to improve in their own abilities. yes, baseball is a team sport, but having a player up to bat against a pitcher really does appear to be a one on one battle at first glance. it's first and foremost in their individual performance that they support and connect the team once the ball is in play.

kazetsuyo being an anime about running means that there's no positions and not many rules to build on or explore. when you run, you're alone, and that's where the story adds something new to fill the space -- it asks why the charaters bother running at all. kazetsuyo is a sports anime starring college students rather than high school students and that's incredibly fitting. a high school setting makes sense for these stories where tournaments and training seem to take up all of a character's time and thoughts, but in college, you're busy. there's always something going on, and the constant of it all in this anime is running. i think it's incredible how at the end each character is explored one-by-one because we are able to spend some time with each of them on their own, far away from the rest of the team as they run a long distance relay.

yuri!! on ice does something really interesting with the fact that the characters perform the same routines over and over -- the music and the dance carrying specific symbolism and meaning and the actual results of the performance reflecting the characters' current state. i also lose my mind from time to time thinking of how yuri's performance always ends w him pointing at victor fkdnfkdj

sk8 made a big point of talking about how it's much harder to make a living out of skating rather than most other sports and how it's associated with delinquents. the anime is incredibly colourful to match the aesthetic of skateboarding, but very dark (and very liberal with injuries) because of it essentially being an isolated sport where when you're on the board and have to race or compete you're on your own. at the end of the day, there's always the insistence that the sport is meant to be fun and there's incredible value in the connections it allows you to make with friends.

#i feel like it's important to note that i don't play sports cksbfksn but this is what i've observed #janina reads hq!! #long post #325