#kenta sakura

[acocktailmoment]

Sakura Martini !

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) ginjo sake (such as Ryujin Kakushi Ginjo Namazume Genshu)

5 teaspoons (3/4 ounce) gin (such as Roku)

⅛ teaspoon maraschino cherry liqueur (preferably Maraska brand)

Salt-pickled cherry blossom

Directions:

Combine sake, gin, and cherry liqueur in a cocktail mixing glass filled with ice; stir until chilled, about 50 times. Strain into a chilled martini or coupe glass; garnish with a salt-pickled cherry blossom.

Created by Kenta Goto,

Photo: Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Ali Ramee / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell.

This article was not sponsored or supported by a third-party. A Cocktail Moment is not affiliated with any individuals or companies depicted here. 

#art #design #cocktails #drinks #cocktail #cocktail recipes #recipes #drink recipes #drink #ginjo #sake #gin #maraschino #cherry #blossom #kenta goto #jennifer causey #ali ramee #lydia pursell #sakura #martini

[hornedraccooncool]

A selection of my sketches for various projects 👊👊👊

#art #digital art #fanart #my art #scetch #paradox live fanart #paradox live #gokuluck #bae #bae paradox live #paradox live visty #visty #yuto inukai #shion kaida #kenta mikoshiba #kantaro misuji #anne faulkner #milgram #milgram fanart #sakura haruno #alien stage #alien stage fanart #alien stage ivan #alien stage luka #alien stage hyuna #Ivan #Luka #hyuna

[debbiechanclub]

Bullet Club isn't fine.

#david finlay #el phantasmo #elp #kenta #taiji ishimori #gedo #bullet club #sakura genesis 2023 #njpw #gifs* #njpw gifs* #finlay* #elp*

[rz-jocelyn]

[TRIVIA] Live Spectacle NARUTO: Getting to Know Sato Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Part 01)

Compiled from the Twitter thread: HERE

Sato Ryuji’s Official Accounts

Personal Twitter: @ryuji7117

Official Staff Twitter: @satoryujiST

Personal IG: ryuji_japan

Blog: https://ameblo.jp/ryuji7117/

FANSITE: https://sato-ryuji.com

NOTE: He doesn't have a Weibo account.

1. Ryuji has played Sasuke since 2015. He, along with Ito Yui (Haruno Sakura) and Kimisawa Yuki (Hatake Kakashi), are the members in the current cast who have been with the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) since the beginning.  

2. Ryuji's audition for Narusute was nine hours long.

3. Before auditions, Ryuji asked Matsuoka Koudai (Uzumaki Naruto) to teach him acrobatics (likely because Koudai had done acrobatics during "Musical The Prince of Tennis" (Tenimyu), but neither one of them knew that they were auditioning for the same production until they met at the Narusute auditions.

4. Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke), Koudai (Uzumaki Naruto) and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi) were in Tenimyu in 2013/2014. Then, they were cast in Narusute as Team 7.

5. Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) was inspired to enter the entertainment world by Suga Kenta (Gaara).

6. During the final round of Narusute auditions, Ryuji, Kenta and an unnamed actor competed for the roles of Sasuke and Gaara. Both Ryuji and Kenta read for both Sasuke and Gaara.

7. In an interview during the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021), Ryuji said that Uchiha Sasuke has become something like "his other self". He also said that he and Sasuke have a similar personality, and that he can empathise with Sasuke.

8. Fujita Ray (Yamato / Tenzou) about Ryuji's passion for 2.5D, which he experienced when they co-starred together in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Akatsuki no Shirabe~" (2017):

9. Ryuji does his own makeup for Uchiha Sasuke.

10. When Nakao Masaki (Uzumaki Naruto) joined the cast, Ryuji was the only one of Team 7 who knew Nakao-kun before Narusute. He and Nakao-kun have known each other for longer than even Ryuji and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi).

11. Ryuji and Kitazono Ryo (Namikaze Minato) are close friends who have known each other since 2015. According to Ryo, "Ryuji is the person I’m [he] closest to, so I think [it would be nice] if we [they] are able to remain in such a relationship." Ryo has also said this:

12. When Narusute transitioned into a new phase with Nakao-kun taking over the role of Uzumaki Naruto and responsibility of new company leader from Koudai, Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) supported him by helping him to pull the company along.

Ryuji was also featured in major promotions with Nakao-kun (Uzumaki Naruto) and Ryo (Namikaze Minato) for the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021).

In the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Ninkai Taisen, Kaisen~" (2022), Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) was given the honour of leading the final bow alongside Nakao-kun.

13. When talking about Ryuji in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO (Narusute) ~Ninkai Taisen, Kaisen~" (2022), Naya Takeru (Gaara) called Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) the "King of Narusute" and said, "It is thanks to Ryuji and the others from the first performance that it [the production has connected to the current performance, and I am able to meet with it."

Naya-kun also referred to Uchiha Sasuke (Ryuji) as "the other main character who is a pair with Naruto".

NOTE: Others from the first Narusute are Yui (Haruno Sakura) and Kimi-chan (Hatake Kakashi).

14. In an interview during the "Live Spectacle NARUTO ~Uzumaki Naruto Monogatari~" (2021), Kodama Akiko (director for Narusute) talked about how, no matter how tough the action stunts were and how much he struggled with them, Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) would never complain.

She added that, if she was an actor, she might have said no to all these things that have nothing to do with acting, like the aerial performance that Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) had to do in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) 2015/2016. But, Ryuji never said no.

To quote Kodama-san, "It's likely because he thinks that it [the stunts] are necessary for the production, necessary in expressing the character of (Uchiha) Sasuke, necessary in expressing what it's like to be a ninja."

15. The stunts in the "Live Spectacle NARUTO" (Narusute) are so difficult that Ryuji (Uchiha Sasuke) has texted his parents to apologise if he dies doing them.

#Live Spectacle NARUTO #Narusute #Sato Ryuji #Uchiha Sasuke #Matsuoka Koudai #Nakao Masaki #Uzumaki Naruto #Ito Yui #Haruno Sakura #Kimisawa Yuki #Hatake Kakashi #Sabaku No Gaara #Gaara #Suga Kenta #Naya Takeru #Yamato #Tenzou #Fujita Ray #Namikaze Minato #Kitazono Ryo #About Sato Ryuji #Lyn Translates

[cc-sasuke]

(cc) Naruto: Congratulations, Sasuke! It’s about time you proposed to Sakura!

(cc) Sasuke: I did not, that was a promise ring for her birthday.

When I propose to her, I want it to be a special day on its own.

(cc) Naruto: Oh =/ -might have told everyone with his shadow clones already, lmao-

// inspired by this - with @hana-akari

#kenta scripts : muse vs muse #ccMuse : Sasuke Uchiha #ccMuse : Naruto Uzumaki #// gdi Naruto lmao #ccShip : Sasuke x Sakura | SasuSaku | hana akari #ccBroTP : Sasuke & Naruto | cc | Kyubi Susano Brothers

[cc-naruto-s-rank-shinobi]

-when NaruSaku becomes a thing-

(cc) Sai: I am very happy for you and Sakura, you should have sex with her soon.

(cc) Naruto: What kind of book are you reading to give me advice like that:?!

-so not inviting him for their next mission- So next time it’ll be...

-each person who joins their team teases him about Sakura- Why?!

// inspired by this & headcanons - with @minds-interlinked

#kenta scripts : muse vs muse #ccMuse : Naruto Uzumaki #ccMuse : Sai #// gdi Sai lmao #ccShip : Naruto x Sakura | NaruSaku | minds interlinked

[forumjutsu]

Sakura: Kakashi-sensei has been telling me for years about various encounters with this guy Kenta who he really likes and today I discovered Kenta is a dog

#naruto incorrect quotes #incorrect naruto quotes #team 7 #sakura haruno #sakura #incorrect team 7 #kakashi naruto #kakashi hatake #kakashi sensei #hatake kakashi

[katsona-the-katsequel]

At which age did they awaken their Personas?

Not the age they began fighting with them. Just the age of awakening. I'm trying to get an age range here. Shotout to Aigis for being the youngest user to awaken to her Persona, at the amazing age of "pre-installed upon activation".

So, from oldest to youngest:

Unknown. Adult

37 years old

Takashi Hanya

Takuto Maruki

Zenkichi Hasegawa

Junko Kurosu (assuming she had a Reverse Persona like the other admins)

33 years old

Ginji Sasaki

28 years old

Takahisa Kandori

27 years old

Baofu

Tohru Adachi

25 years old

Katsuya Suou

24 years old

Ulala Serizawa

Unknown. Could have been a teen or an adult

Tatsuya Sudou

18 years old

17 years old

Yasuo Inoe

Makoto Niijima

Naoya Toudou

Maki Sonomura

Masao Inaba

Kei Nanjo

Eriko Kirishima

Reiji Kido

Yukino Mayuzumi

Lisa Silverman

Jun Kurosu

Anna Yoshizaka

16 years old

Hiroki Sugimoto

Haru Okumura

Hidehiko Uesugi

Yuka Ayase

Minato Arisato/Kotone Shiomi

Junpei Iori

Yukari Takeba

Fuuka Yamagishi

Yu Narukami

Yosuke Hanamura

Chie Satonaka

Yukiko Amagi

Naoto Shirogane

15 years old

Rise Kujikawa

Akira Kurusu

Ryuji Sakamoto

Ann Takamaki

Yusuke Kitagawa

Unknown. Between Ages 16-18

Kanji Tatsumi

Goro Akechi

Futaba Sakura

Sumire Yoshizawa

Kenta Yokouchi

Tomomi Fujimori

Kumi Hirose

Michiko Matsudaira

Yuriko Yamamoto

Unknown. Could have been a child, a teen, or an adult

Takeda

Unknown. Could have been a child or a teen

Eikichi Mishina

Akihiko Sanada

Shinjiro Aragaki

Unknown. Could have been a child

Mitsuru Kirijo

Takaya Sakaki

Jin Shirato

Chidori Yoshino

13 years old

Maya Amano

Akari Hoshi

11 years old

Ken Amada

9 years old

Randolph Carter

8 years old

Tatsuya Suou

2 years old

Morgana

The moment she was born

Aigis

Koromaru

???

Teddie

Sophia

#no way i'm tagging everyone #persona 1 #persona 2 #persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #i like to make lists!

[nodutra19]

Persona Stand Name Headcanons

Only for the stuff I'm familiar with tho, so the mainline games and PQ1. I'm ignoring doubles and ultimates tho.

P１ ＣＡＳＴ

Naoya Toudou - A Simple Game

Kazuya Toudou - Changeling

Maki Sonomura - Ojalá

Masao Inaba - Uknowhowwedu

Kei Nanjo - Reflections

Yukino Mayuzumi - Kurayami De Dance

Eriko Kirishima - SEARCHLiGHT

Hidehiko Uesugi - Slim Shady

Yuka Ayase - Turf Dancing

Reiji Kido - Sixteen Tons

Kenta Yokouchi - Shame

Yuriko Yamamoto - Guilty As Charged

Michiko Matsudaira - Rock the Casbah

Kumi Hirose - Suicide Lane

Takeda - Instanbul

Tomomi Fujimori - Elton John

Takahisa Kandori - Bitches Brew

P2 ＣＡＳＴ

Tatsuya Toudou - Stargazer

Maya Amano - Spanish Doll

Lisa Silverman - Nana

Eikichi Mishina - WOLF DOWN THE EARTH

Jun Kurosu - In the Wake of Poseidon

Joker - Starless

Tatsuya Sudou - False Start

Junko Kurosu - Triplicate

Anna Yoshizaka - 1200

Ginji Sasaki - All Hail the Crimson King

Takashi Hanya - ...Meets His Maker

Ixquic - Funky Motion

Youichi Makimura - Don't Stand So Close to Me

Yasuo Inoe - Sadist Tastes Copper

Hiroki Sugimoto - constellations

Tamaizu Nirasawa - Mysterious Traveler

Musubu Torikiri - Maze

Katsuya Suou - Hotel California

Ulala Serizawa - Waffle

Baofu - KRS-One

JOKER - Munshun

Philemon - Somewhere Far Beyond

P3 ＣＡＳＴ

Minato Arisato/Makoto Yuki - The Mystery

Minako Arisato/Kotone Shiomi/FEMC - The 18th Letter

Yukari Takeba - Umbrella

Junpei Iori - Party and Bullshit

Mitsuru Kirijo - Bright Lights, Big City

Akihiko Sanada - The Moody Blues

Fuuka Yamagishi - Harvest Time

Aigis - Remember That

Koromaru - Canserbero

Ken Amada - Mature Opinion

Shinjiro Aragaki - Nobody Speak

Elizabeth - Final Home

Takaya Sakaki - completed nihilism

Jin Shirato - Evolution Rush

Chidori Yoshino - My Witch

Metis - Black Birds

Theodore - Extension

??? - Giving Up the Ghost

P4 ＣＡＳＴ

Yu Narukami - John Dope

Yosuke Hanamura - AMERICAN MUSCLE

Chie Satonaka - Warzone

Yukiko Amagi - Anger of the Earth

Kanji Tatsumi - Hit 'Em Up

Rise Kujikawa - Super Shy

Teddie - Inexplicable

Naoto Shirogane - Walk the Walk

Margaret - Yerbatero

Tohru Adachi - Radiologue

P5 ＣＡＳＴ

Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya/Joker - The Offspring

Morgana - Rasputin

Ryuji Sakamoto - Apocalypshit

Ann Takamaki - Change the World

Yusuke Kitagawa - Imagination

Makoto Nijima - Under Pressure

Futaba Sakura - The Number Song

Haru Okumura - Breakdown

Goro Akechi - Keeping the Motion

Caroline and Justine - Duality

Sumire Yoshizawa - crushcrushcrush

Takuto Maruki - Don

Zen - Starch

Rei - Winter Lane

#Persona #Persona 1 #megami ibunroku persona #Persona 2 #persona 2 innocent sin #persona 2 eternal punishment #Innocent Sin #Eternal Punishment #Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #shin megami tensei #megami tensei #megaten #smt

[fagcrisis]

my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion. 

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it. 

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in. 

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer. 

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average. 

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter. 

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group. 

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will. 

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either. 

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind. 

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you. 

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY 

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld) 

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani  (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)

#njpw #wrassle #yall this is nearly 5000 words please read it and watch njpw i worked so hard. for you to watch njpw. its so extensive #i explain literally everything

[pochqmqri]

Some other people found out from the teaser that Saki has a ring on one of her fingers, likely a wedding one. It doesn't seem like any of the other girls have rings, so she might be the only one in this sequel that is married, initially at least.

My hope is that she's married to Mai, or Michiru, I'm not picky, but it's most likely to a man.

Off the top of my head, there are two possibilities from the original Splash Star. The first is Mai's older brother, Kazuya, who Saki is very clearly crushing on throughout the season, but it seemed more like an unrequited love a young girl might have for an older boy the same way in Cardcaptor Sakura where Sakura has a crush on Yukito.

The other option is Kenta, the boy that Saki occasionally banters with, and he also seems to crush on her a few times early on, but as the season progressed, their "romance" didn't really develop, like Saki never really saw him as anything more than a friend. I wouldn't be that opposed to him being her husband, since he's not bad compared to some of the other guy love interests in this franchise later on.

They could also just make up a man for Saki to be married too, and it's not like that's unrealistic, you don't always end up marrying your childhood friends/first love. In my opinion, that would feel a bit odd, because OtonaPre has about a 10-20 year timeskip from when we last saw these women, so to start off with Saki married to someone we know basically nothing about, feels a bit cheap, unless there is enough backstory to make it work. Even so, it's still up in the air how many episodes OtonaPre has, so I'm not sure they'd want to spend too much time laying the groundwork for that potential new character.

Moving onto Mai, it would be really sad if Saki was the only one of the two who got married. Like, for better or worse, in Splash Star, Saki is shown to be crushing on guys, while Mai didn't get as much development regarding romance, other than acting like a third wheel for Saki's endeavors. I don't recall Mai ever falling in love with a guy, in fact, you could say she was in love with Saki instead.

Similarly, in the original Futari wa, Nagisa was the one who got most of the romantic development. Hell, in Max Heart, Honoka barely got episodes focused on her while Nagisa had several where she tried to vie for Fuji-P. Should they be in OtonaPre, and although I don't want it to happen, Nagisa would probably end up with Fuji-P. It would be such a shame, because one of her traits in the original anime is that she's popular with the girls, even getting love letters from them. She exclaims how she'd rather be popular with the boys than girls, but in a later episode, she says that if Honoka was a boy, she'd be in love with her, which I think does a good job at hinting towards her closeted feelings. I really detest the trope where romance between girls is seen as a thing to "grow out of," like it's just a schoolgirl fad.

Regarding Honoka, they don't really give her much in hetero romance. There are like, three guys that I can think of that only maybe could be paired with her, barring another new man they invent. The first is Fuji-P's friend/teammate, Kimata, but he barely interacts with Honoka at all, and I would hate that, because it would feel like a "consolation prize" if Nagisa ended up with Fuji-P. The second is Kiriya, the former Dotsuku Zone denizen who infiltrated their school to try and defeat them, only to end up developing a strong bond with the sisterly Honoka, but I never really saw this as a budding romance, especially on Honoka's end. Plus, Kiriya basically dipped by the end of the original Futari wa, and didn't even show up in Max Heart, so it would just feel like an afterthought if they paired them together with that missing development. The third option is Nagisa's younger brother, Ryouta, who has a crush on Honoka, but, lmao, that's really just played as a joke.

In fact, I think the anime actually portrays Honoka as being mostly uninterested in boys, despite being popular with them. She rejects all of their advances, says that if she were to go out with a boy, there'd need to be mutual respect, which implies that she doesn't feel respected by them and thus doesn't even consider them. There's also the fact that she admires Nagisa's popularity with the girls, which I feel hints at something a bit more about her romantic desires. I could go on here, but I hope this gets my point across.

To sum it up, Saki ending up with a family while Mai doesn't would create such a disappointing incongruity for these two women who were very intertwined in the anime we watched them in. The same is true of Nagisa and Honoka should they also appear. I would rather none of them end up with any romantic conclusion (thus leaving it up to interpretation) whatsoever than only some of them having it.

#saki hyuuga #mai mishou #honoka yukishiro #nagisa misumi #otonapre #otona precure #precure #pretty cure #splash star

[amelikos]

Quick summary of the talk show that took place at AnimeJapan today (March 23), it was divided in three parts ("growth", "friends", "battles").

First part focused on Liko, Roy, and Dot and their VAs talked about their characters and the ways they've grown. They showed a clip show of HZ016 when the trio was fighting Spinel to illustrate the theme. Yoshino Aoyama (Dot's VA) also talked about how she feels about playing Dot and growing alongside her character.

Second part mostly focused on Orio, Mollie and Murdock. They showed a clip show of HZ021 when Orio and Murdock argued about the state of the ship and eventually shook hands to show Mibrim they had made up. They shared a behind the scenes story. Kenta Miyake (Murdock's VA) was apparently the one who came up with the pun "nakayoshi namakobushi" in that episode and asked Sakura Ayane (Orio's VA) for cooperation when they voiced their lines.

Third part focused on Friede, Amethio and Spinel. They showed a clip show of the battle at the castle in HZ025 between Friede and Amethio. Yashiro Taku (Friede's VA) and Horie Shun (Amethio's VA) shared their impressions and feelings about the characters and their dynamics. They also showed a clip show of the battle between Friede and Spinel in HZ044 (that just aired yesterday!) and Makoto Furukawa (Spinel's VA) shared his thoughts as well.

They revealed the VAs for the Elite Four in Paldea. Saiga Mitsuki will voice Chili, and it's the second time she voices a green-haired character in the anime (because she was Shuu's VA back during the Advanced Generation series).

#hz event #event notes #saiga mitsuki often voices handsome ladies kind of characters #like she voiced shalala in a precure season last year etc

[smilingperformer]

Today's news regarding the next Pokemon series involves introducting Professor Friede's crew, Rising Volk Tacklers? I think?

Starting from right:

Orio, voiced by Ayane Sakura, partner Metagross.

Murdoch, voiced by Kenta Miyake, partner Rockruff/Iwanko.

Molly, voiced by Kei Shindo, Partner Chansey/Lucky.

And finally, Landau, voiced by Ikkyu Juku.

Also a picture of their airship!

#pokemon #pokeani #anipoke #news #orio #murdoch #molly #landou #pokemon horizons

[cc-sasuke]

(cc) Sasuke: -got super drunk with Sakura, wakes up in a random inn-

What happened? Let’s ask the owner -who’s super scared of him-

-realises they didn’t stay at the inn, they actually took over the inn-

// inspired by this - with @hana-akari

#kenta scripts : muse vs muse #ccMuse : Sasuke Uchiha #ccShip : Sasuke x Sakura | SasuSaku | hana akari #// gdi Sasuke lmao

[cc-naruto-s-rank-shinobi]

Naruto the Movie 3: Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom.

#ccMoments : Naruto Uzumaki | the Orange Hokage #his Cherry Blossom : Sakura #ccMuse : Rock Lee #kenta screencaps : Naruto

[ashhearthelps]

Below the cut will be a list of some of my favorite Japanese names. I like to write a lot of original characters that are based in different animes, so I thought this would be useful to have. These will be placed under a read more, as this post got quite long. There are 70 feminine names, 75 masculine names, and 31 gender neutral names. Please like or reblog this post if you found it useful. Thank you. :)

Feminine Names.

Airi.

Aina.

Amane.

Ami. / Aimi.

Anzu.

Asuna.

Aya.

Chidori.

Chiharu.

Chou.

Danuja.

Doi.

Ema.

Emica. / Emika.

Emi.

Emiko.

Etsuko.

Gina.

Hatsue. / Hatsu.

Hana.

Hanae.

Hanakao

Haruka.

Himari.

Himwari.

Hina.

Honoka.

Kairi.

Kaori.

Kanna. / Kana.

Karin.

Katsumi.

Kyoko.

Machi.

Mai.

Manae.

Mari.

Matsuri.

Mayumi.

Megumi.

Mei.

Midori.

Mika.

Mina.

Mirai.

Misa.

Misaki.

Miyah.

Miho.

Naho.

Nako.

Nami.

Nanami.

Naomi.

Reina.

Rei.

Rena.

Rika.

Sakura.

Saori.

Sarina.

Sayuri.

Seika.

Seina.

Shizuka.

Tae.

Tora.

Yuka.

Yuna.

Yurina.

Masculine Names.

Akane.

Akihito.

Akito.

Anji.

Arata.

Benjiro.

Choei.

Daihachi.

Daiji.

Daijiro.

Daisuke.

Daishiro.

Eiji.

Enzo.

Etsuji.

Genji.

Gorou.

Hajime.

Haruto.

Hatsuo.

Hideji.

Hiro.

Hiroshi.

Hiroto.

Hisaki.

Hyuga.

Judai.

Jun.

Jun'ichi.

Junpei.

Kaito.

Kakashi.

Kanji.

Kazuki.

Keitaro.

Kenji.

Ken'ichi.

Kentaro.

Kenzo.

Kiyoshi.

Koji.

Kota.

Kyo.

Masao.

Michaiki.

Mitsuhide.

Mokuba.

Naoki.

Naoe.

Renji.

Riku.

Ryo. / Ryu. / Ryou. / Ryuu.

Ryota.

Ryuuji.

Sasuke.

Satoshi.

Satoru.

Seto.

Shinji.

Shino.

Shintaro.

Soma.

Tadashi.

Taichi.

Takahashi.

Takeshi.

Taro.

Tooru.

Yota.

Yudai.

Yugi.

Yuji.

Yuma.

Yusei.

Zenji.

Gender Neutral Names.

Akari.

Akira.

Akihito.

Asuka.

Ayame.

Chiyo.

Dai.

Daichi.

Haku.

Haruhi.

Haru.

Hikaru.

Hikari.

Hinata.

Ino.

Kaeda.

Kai.

Kaoru.

Kenta.

Kita.

Minato.

Mitsuki.

Nara.

Noa.

Reiji.

Ren. / Rin.

Sato.

Shin.

Shion.

Shun.

Shuya.

Sora.

Yui.

Yuki.

#masterlist #mine #my masterlist #japanese names #japanese names masterlist #japanese names list #feminine japanese names #masculine japanese names #gender neutral japanese names #feminine names #masculine names #gender neutral names