#she's not an ojou-sama

[ewingstan]

I think what I love about Claw is that the protags don’t feel like they’d be protags in other WB stories.

Mia and Carson would be mooks or lieutenants to Coil, Tattletale, or Cauldron that Taylor and Victoria would barely interact with beyond potentially fighting them if need be. Val gives big sierra/charlotte/natalie/presley energy.

Ditto for Pact, Pale, and Twig (no spoilers because idk how far you are in those stories).

But because of this world in particular, they feel perfect for having the spotlight shining on them, if that makes sense.

I do agree that Mia and Carson have the vibe of people who'd be side characters in another story. I mean, the closest character I can think of to Mia's archetype is the vacuum cleaner guy in Breaking Bad, who's very memorable but is barely interacted with. For wildbow characters, she almost feels more like Piggot than anyone else. Piggot in a story where her startling effectiveness and ruthlessness wasn't rendered useless by virtue of not belonging to a superhuman.

There's isolated aspects of her that fit into the typical wildbow protag mold, particularly her ability to gain and use an incredible amount of information others couldn't (traits shared by main protagonists like Taylor and Sy as well as deuteragonists like Lisa, Jessie, etc.) What sets her apart (outside the obvious context of her being an adult parent) is her limitations. She doesn't have Taylor's powers or Sy's charm, which allow them to adapt to new information on the fly and instantly set new plans into motion. Instead, she relies on being so well-prepared that there's nothing she faces that she doesn't already have a plan for.

This changes the whole mode of storytelling. Rather than "how is the wildbow protag gonna use her wits to get outta this one?", its "lets slowly pull back the curtain on the complex machine of a plan the protagonist has put into place for just such a situation." Its a subtle difference, but it has a big impact on how the protag is characterized and what the audience's reaction to big moments are. Like narrating a tense firefight, vs lovingly describing the design of a complex rifle you made a while back and finally get a chance to use. There's a big difference between "oh wow, she just made a bomb to deal with the guys chasing her!" and "oh wow, she's had a bomb in her trunk the entire time on the off-chance someone started chasing her."

Carson's whole "unflappable amoral ladykiller" thing actually is pretty common in protagonists, I've seen bookshelf-filling series that star those types. Whats different about him is that rather than being a hyper-competent one-man army like those characters tend to be, Claw is pretty upfront about the fact that he'd be a two-bit drifter if he wasn't working with Mia. Being that dependent on someone else for your effectiveness bucks a trend not only in shlocky pulp protagonists, but in wildbow protagonists specifically, since wildbow loves taking away his guys allies and resources away only to have them still come out on top and display how they're incredible on their own.

Valentia I might disagree with slightly, if only because she reminds me a lot of Taylor both in her backstory and how her action gets narrated. She fits much more into the "desperate on-the-fly thinking" mold of the average wb protag than Mia "ohoho, you stumbled onto yet another of my landmines" Hurst.

#clawblr #wildbow #mals reads claw #mals says #I don't know why i wrote mia going ohoho #she's not an ojou-sama #oh and ive read pact and twig

[maomao9jinshi]

Maomao saying it took her longer than usual because she had to make Jinshi look like a commoner and stop a national crisis

<3 JINSHI'S "OJOU-SAMA"😭🫶🏻

#Maomao saying it took her longer than usual because she had to make Jinshi look like a commoner and stop a national crisis #<3 JINSHI'S “OJOU-SAMA”😭🫶🏻 #kusuriyanohitorigoto #kusuriya anime #maomao #maomao and jinshi #theapothecarydiaries #love #jinmao #jinshi #anime #aesthetics

[toxins-very-gay-thoughts]

girl was SHOOK

#when she recovered she was supportive lmao #Gyaru Maid to Akuyaku Reijou: Ojou-sama no Happy End shika Katan! #Gal Maid & Villainess: Only Milady's Happy End Will Win! #yuri #yuri manga #wlw #lgbt #sapphic

[emotional-support-waterbottle]

still thinking about my modern bodyguard AU fic dreams for these two (shout-out to the wonderful person who gave me a bunch of recs!). I'm too lazy to write the whole thing myself but if I did, it would definitely have a scene like this in it.

supplies: fineliner, colored in CSP

#akatsuki no yona #yona of the dawn #princess yona #son hak #hakyona #in my head she isn't actually a princess she's just an ojou-sama but he calls her hime to annoy her #i had so much fun with my rainbow light brushes #sorry this is only my second time drawing a comic #hopefully it makes sense #akayona modern bodyguard AU

[shuitsuki]

I kinda wanna buy Huniepop too I like the matching game & stuff and it has ANIME GIRLS in it you know. And like I don't know it's freaking huniepop so I'd feel kinda silly pirating it? But then it's like Ooh this guy owns huniepop. But who really gaf...

#ʚɞ #Guy who plays Hgames for any reason other than the H. I also downloaded this other one just because I was genuinely endeared by the #girl in it. & the mc is so funny & could be a butch if they tried. #Like I drew fanart just because she's so freaking cute. The hell. I love Ojou-sama types

[ritsmew-sakunya]

she would truly be too powerful if they let be gay with her

#shes soooo ojou sama yuri type.... #sos posting

[xbuster]

I love how deranged Princess’s eyes look

#i hope she's a fun ojou-sama

[sylhea-raemi]

i'm going to cry this hits so hard

#i really love how much hits because we got to see makia's life as a student #we got to see her interactions with them and how their bonds get stronger #i really love the school life chapters to balance out the plot-heavy chapters because even the school chapters have importance! #and the build up with school chapters makes nero and makia's lines even more impactful #because we actually got to see them! #we witness them happen throughout the series which is a different feeling to when the mc already got their trusted companions from the past #the school chapters aren't even much they're mostly silly shenanegans #which made these students feel like students rather than what they actually are- important peices of their world #frey the fifth prince of ruschia lapis the black demon king descendant nero the lost prince of hermedes and makia the scarlet witch #(-the reincarnation) all of those titles are set aside when they're in lune ruschia. they got to be students- they got to be themselves #and they treat each other as themselves rather than their titles #even when they knew nero is a 'commoner' even when they knew makia and lapis are descendants of two of the great magicians #even when they knew frey is a prince and even when they knew makia is a guardian they treated each other the same. it applies to beatrice #as well even though she's acting lile your typical high noble ojou-sama she still treated everyone equally in terms of skills and was just #as competitive as makia is #literally gt9 and beatrice are the best part of mtm 🙏 #and sure maybe the other students but i'm not attached to them as i am with gt9 #i really lile beatruce too i hope she and nicholas keeps playing bigger roles especially since she basically knew almost all of gt9 secrets #i really like all the characters here i can't hate a single one of them #sylhea talks maydare #i really really love how they stayed true with 'there's no hierchy ranks here just students and professors' #because ulysses was treated as a professor rather than a prince (people still admired him regardless) and frey is still treated #the same way as before..... or rather was treated worse since the girls avoided him when the fact that he is a prince revealed💀 #actually hold on #no he was still treated the same even after that!

[ova-kakyoin]

saki ojou-sama. pretty please.

#in my saki harem otome game isekai fic im probably gonna make the character she becomes be an ojou-sama #and she decides to commit and really hams it up

[clinko-clinko]

emmie, ojou sama variant she can be quite abrasive

#clinko art #clinko characters #tums with food in them #emmie sb

[yurimother]

Gender Bender Yuri Light Novel 'Miss Savage Fang' Released in English

On February 20, Yen Press released the first volume of Kakkaku Akashi's light novel series Miss Savage Fang: The Strongest Mercenary in History Is Reincarnated as an Unstoppable Noblewoman (Savage Fang Ojou-sama) under its Yen On imprint. The gender bender light novel focuses on a male mercenary reborn as a woman and becomes involved in a bisexual love triangle.

Miss Savage Fang follows Envil "Savage Fang," a renowned mercenary who, after dying in a civil war, awakens inside the body of the very tyrant who started the conflict, Mylene Eltania. Mylene boasts incredible magic and combat skills, and striking vermilion-tinged locks, showing that she is chosen by gods. Using her knowledge and skills from her past life, the new Mylene works to reshape the world. Taking advantage of this second change before it is too late.

Kayahara illustrates the light novels. Kadokawa published the series in two Japanese volumes in 2021. A manga adaptation illustrated by Umashi was serialized on Shueisha's Isekai Young Jump from 2022 until its conclusion in May 2023. Shueisha published three collected volumes of the manga.

Sarah Moon translated Miss Savage Fang into English. Yen Press will release the second volume on June 18, 2024. The publisher has also licensed the manga adaptation for publication in July.

You can check out the first volume of Miss Savage Fang in paperback and digitally today: https://amzn.to/4a0Iy60

YuriMother makes a small affiliate commission from sales to help fund future coverage.

#yuri #girls love #lgbt #lgbtq #gl #gay #queer #lesbian #anime #manga #Miss Savage Fang #Light Novel #News #Bisexual #Bi

[mageknight14]

Sometimes I often think about Nagi Usui and how she’s one of the best characters to have come out in the past few years.

-One of her main motivations to get back into the real world is so she can play more of her mobile gacha game.

-She gains an instant crush on someone just because he resembles one of the main characters from said mobile gacha game.

-She’s the only one of her team to actually like the Grilled Alligator meal from SBY BBQ.

-The kanji on her shirt changes for every situation she finds herself in whether it’s for fights or eating.

-Some of her other kanji shirts reference The Art of War, kendo, Buddhist proverbs, JRPG terminology, and chuuni terms, among other things.

-One of sayings on her shirt translates to "Now I'm motivated" when in battle which means that yes, Nagi is a DMC Vergil fan.

-In the Field Walk RPG, Rindo wonders about how the letters of her shirt keep changing and Nagi tells him that she changes her shirts in between fights and food. He then wonders about how he never notices and Nagi tells him that she’s mastered the art of changing them in a millisecond before saying that she’s just joking.

-Is the only one out of the team with a dedicated maid outfit.

-Brags about being a one time Quiz Academy Queen Quizster after going head-to-head with a DRS member over the title and winning over him in the manga category.

-Accidentally intimidates other EleStra fans from approaching her through sheer aura.

-Her English VA based her performance off of Peridot from Steven Universe and Entrapta from She-Ra.

-Said VA also confirmed that Nagi would most definitely be a Sonic fan, with her being a fan of Shadow the Hedgehog in particular.

-Surprisingly, she has the most connections on the Social Network outside of Rindo due to her natural ability to understand people

-Gets into a pissing contest in Another Day with a ojou-sama, metalhead fan over who’s the bigger Takeharu Ishimoto fan

-Owns and is raising at least 10 snakes in Another Day

-Only knows how to cook sunny-side up fried eggs from the box, with the yolks described as 'frozen' and the eggs described as unpleasantly chewy.

-Is insanely competitive at fighting games

-She considers video game arcades to be the perfect date location.

-All of her "gurgly sounds" combined make for more than two minutes straight of audio.

-In Japanese, her personal pronoun is a neetspeak version of a pronoun usually used by sagely old male characters.

-In general, she uses a lot of netslang, including the Japanese equivalent of "kek" basically.

-She's too anxious to use a phone and to work a job that requires her to interact with people regularly such as retail.

-She’s the most bloodthirsty of the Wicked Twisters when it comes to fighting Noise and even lets out an evil laugh when unleashing a Grenade Launcher pin

-She really likes jigsaw puzzles and finds them calming; more specifically, the "1000-piece" type of jigsaw puzzles.

-Even with her eccentricities, she’s one of the most emotionally intelligent and empathetic characters in the series, and is never once treated as off-putting for her interests and actually uses the life lessons she took from EleStra to help out others in need.

-Is more than capable of killing a man with her psychic mind powers.

#twewy #the world ends with you #ntwewy #neo the world ends with you #NEO TWEWY #nagi usui

[slexenskee]

At Tea Time

Inspired by this lovely little drawing of Fuyumi and Satoru by @lwx-xx

Oneshot  [Here]

He keeps reaching up to stop it from tugging at his hair, but never seems to manage much else but more tangles. He doesn’t hate having hair this long, but it sure as hell is tiresome. He has no idea how girls can stand it. It’s not even that long, just enough to graze his shoulders and irritate him every time he turns his head. No matter how much it annoys him though, he refuses to cut it. The look of rage and disgust whenever his father sees him is enough to have him put up with it. 

Gojo hides a smirk of amusement. There’s no way that guy doesn’t have decades of smothered homosexual urges, with the way he gets so personally offended whenever his eldest son so much as puts a dress on. 

Really, Gojo’s just doing this for his benefit. If Endeavor could just embrace his own gayness and stop with this quirk genomics scheme, they’d all be better off. He snickers into his hand. The thought of Endeavor in a dress was so hideous he almost wanted to make it into reality. 

“Nii-chan,” Fuyumi whines, pulling him out of his thoughts. “What’s so funny?” 

“Nothing, Yumi,” he replies easily, picking up his little plastic teacup. “Aren’t you supposed to pour me more tea?”

She gasps in horror at the thought of being a poor fantasy hostess, and hastily leans over to splash more juice into his cup. Gojo didn’t really mind playing tea party whenever Fuyumi asked, including dressing up in whatever outfit Fuyum insisted on for him and procuring various sweets for their game, but he drew the line at using actual tea. A four year-old was more likely to scald them both than pour tea into a cup. 

Truth be told, Gojo has no idea what you’re even supposed to do during a game like this. Fuyumi seems to have a plan in mind, so he’s just winging it. Maybe it’s just his adult mentality, but it just seems awfully boring. Fuyumi just pretends to be some old-fashioned Victorian lady asking about the weather and playing at being an adult. Why would anyone want to be an adult? Gojo honestly can’t fathom it. 

It’s about as weird as having a sister in general— especially now that she can talk and play games and follow him around ceaselessly. The only reason he’s even here indulging her at all is because she’d cry if he left to fuck around with the neighborhood kids. 

“Do you— do you like the tea?” She stutters out, trying and failing so terribly to affect a refined, lady-like voice that he almost falls into laughter again. 

“Yeah, it’s great.” He takes a sip and plays along. “Not as good as the cake though.” 

He’d gone all the way to the bakery in the next neighborhood over for it. The obaa-san behind the counter had gushed over how cute it was, for a little girl to be running errands for her mother. Gojo hadn’t bothered to correct her. 

Fuyumi wrinkles her little nose at him.

Gojo sighs, and affects a very snobbish voice; “Yes, ojou-sama, the cake is really quite delicious. My compliments to the chef.”

Fuyumi bursts into delighted giggles. At four years-old, she has little to no grasp on formal speech, so she instead subjects Gojo to using it at her behest. It occasionally reminds Gojo of his unfortunate true childhood as the young master of an estate, where everyone demurred to him in such a manner, but he can ignore it easily enough when he’s trussed up as a girl playing tea party to appease his little sister. 

He sighs again. “May we please cut the cake now? I’m feeling rather famished.” 

“Yes, of course!” Fuyumi nods eagerly. Then she stares at the cake with a perplexed expression. Gojo quickly reaches over before his four year-old sister can attempt wielding a knife. 

//

He stops playing tea parties, and all of Fuyumi’s other favorite childish activities deemed too effeminate by his father the year after, when the man decides he’s old enough for ‘real’ training. Fuyumi’s despondent about it for weeks, but there’s really nothing Gojo can do about it. Fighting with his father over it would just cause more tension in their already untenable household, and by then Fuyumi has a willing victim in little Natsuo, who’s finally toddling around on his own. 

He’s not sure why he’s remembering it all so fondly now, when at the time he’d found it all quite the chore. 

Fuyumi liked all the things little girls liked; playing dress-up as princesses, playing house, making fake tea parties and playing with her assortment of dolls. Gojo had mainly been bemused and distantly fascinated by it all, having never had a little sister before, but still found indulging her to be tedious. He’d done it anyway, mainly out of pity. She’d been such a lonely kid.

“What is this?” Eri asks him curiously, holding up a very familiar teapot. 

Earlier, Fuyumi had dropped off the rest of her old clothes and toys that had been squirreled up in the attic, looking rather nostalgic as she’d handed over the plastic bin to him. She’d stayed for dinner and doted endlessly on Eri, who seems to be slowly but surely warming up to her, but with work tomorrow she’d left soon after, before Gojo could even start going through the bin. 

“That’s a teapot, Eri-chan. It’s for tea parties.” He crouches down next to her, rummaging through the unsorted mess of toys and clothes. “Have you ever played tea party?”

She blinks at him, brow furrowed. She slowly shakes her head. 

He laughs, as he unearths one of the matching teacups from the set. “Is that so? Well, why don’t we play before bed then?”

He uses real, lukewarm chamomile tea in a half-hearted attempt to have Eri in bed at a reasonable time. This promptly proves to be a lost cause, as Eri gets terribly excited over the whole affair as he sets up a fake tea table with flowers and cake and all of Fuyumi’s fake plastic servingware, and dresses them both up in something appropriately frilly. Somehow, wearing an entire fake wig of hair is a lot less uncomfortable than a little bow. They even get the cat involved, dragging him into her room and outfitting him with a generously sized bow he immediately hates. He still has no idea what the hell you’re supposed to talk about during these little fake tea parties, so he instead just teaches her how to sing Anti-Hero. Eri loves singing along with him, even if she has no idea what she’s saying. On the downside, this means she knows far too many curse words and unknowingly sings an awful lot about sex, but on the bright side her English pronunciation is improving by leaps and bounds.

“—at tea time, everybody agrees—” 

Gojo glances up as he hears the door open, smirking widely as Hawks catches sight of him and almost face plants into the carpet. It’s been a while since he’s put on his ‘Toru-chan’ look, hasn’t it? 

“I stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror,” 

Hawks fumbles with the door, but eventually makes it into the room with a dazed expression. He’d told the blonde he didn’t have to ring the doorbell every time he came over and could just let himself inside, yet still Hawks looks a little hesitant about whether or not he’s allowed to intrude. 

Gojo winks at him and beckons him over as he finishes up his little sing along. “It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero~”

Eri’s voice trails off in an offkey warble as she looks up and sees Hawks. She’s still shy about singing in front of others.

“Hi,” he says with a smile, holding out a teacup to the winged hero. “Want some tea?” 

Hawks looks a little mystified, settling down on the floor with them. “Uh— sure? What are we doing here?”

“Playing tea party, of course!” Gojo answers, cheerfully. 

“Right,” Hawks agrees, taking the cup so Gojo can pour him some tepid and terribly oversteeped tea. “And… what is that, exactly?”

“Eri didn’t know either,” Gojo laments, chuckling. “Let’s just say you learn a lot of interesting things when you have a little sister.” 

“Oh. Is this a game you used to play with Fuyumi-san?” Hawks trails an appraising eye down his outfit; the blatant approval in the hero’s gaze almost has him blushing a bit. “I think I like it.” He purrs. 

Gojo rolls his eyes, glad the wig is covering his reddening ears. “We’re princesses. You can either join us as a princess or— or you can be the butler, I guess.”

Hawks raises a brow. “No prince charming to come and rescue you from the evil dragon?” He jerks a thumb up at Meow in the corner, the dragon in question, who looks miserable in his bowtie. 

Gojo turns his nose up. “We don’t need one of those. We can save ourselves.” 

Hawks laughs. “That’s how it is, huh? A butler is fine, then. Devoting my life to making sure you’re always left satisfied… I’m on board with that.”

Gojo coughs weakly into his cup. He definitely doesn’t remember his tea parties with Fuyumi leaving him this flustered. 

“Just drink your goddamn tea,” he hisses at the other man, shoving a slice of cake in his direction. 

Hawks snickers under his breath, but gamely complies. 

--

lol not a Swiftie and no hate for her at all but I usually don't like her songs at all, but I recently discovered Swiftie rock/punk covers...

#fic may death never stop you #mdnsy oneshots #mdnsy art

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2023 Anime Overview: I'm in Love with the Villainess

Premise: Rae is reincarnated as the heroine of her favorite dating sim. But she has no interest in romancing any of the boys- she's head over heels for Claire Francois, the villainess of the game. Claire is horrified to find the major target of her bullying suddenly enjoys it, often pleading "step on me harder". But Rae isn't just here to flirt with Claire- she has a plan to save her beloved from a horrible fate.

I'm allowed to have a problematic gay fave. In fact, I would call it my right as a lesbian. And I enjoy I'm in Love with a Villainess a lot, despite some bumps in the road. It's tropey as all get out and a story that shows signs of having an inexperienced author, but it has real heart to it, it's full of joy, and connects with me in surprising way.

I'll try not to ramble too much, since I'm planning on writing a longer article on this series-- so keep your eyes peeled.

I'm in Love with the Villainess might not always be polished or expertly crafted, but it is very fun and entertaining. Rae ignoring all the male love interests to stan for her mean girl fave is ultra relatable to me, and her gremlin energy is off the charts. Claire is also a super fun character-- if you love ridiculous ojou-sama characters, she is max ojou sama. But she's also hiding a lot of insecurity and of course, a secret soft side-- her character arc over the course of the series is really satisfying.

However, Rae's pushiness might be a sticking point for some. Her worst moments are mostly contained to episode 2 where she does inexcusable things like ogling Claire while she's changing (against Claire's wishes) after having wriggled her way into a position as her maid (against Claire's wishes, though Rae does have secret noble reasons for that one). This is her worst moment and she calms down a bit from there as the story starts to find itself. Her pushiness remains, but gets a bit less uncomfortable as it becomes clear Claire likes her too.

This pushiness clashes a bit with a really interesting thing ILTV does--which is engage bluntly and honestly with homophobia and stereotypes. There's a great moment in episode three where the series. Rae is asked point blank if she's gay, she responds yes. When Claire moves away from her in response, it's pointed out to her that's a form of homophobia, and it's pointed out how screwed up it is to believe anyone who's gay is automatically going to creep on every girl they see. Rae also gently corrects someone who gives her the common "she just happened to be a woman, you're just falling in love with the person right? Your love just transcends gender?" line, (which is a common line that's used to avoid talking about queerness directly in manga and anime) with "no, I'm a lesbian, I only fall in love with women."

And yes, homophobes got big mad at this scene. How dare a yuri anime be gay! I'm in Love with the Villainess does not let homophobic yuri fans feel safe.

It's really refreshing to see a silly isekai series directly engage with stereotypes and lesbian issues like this, and it was a very pleasant surprise when I read the novels.

However, this message is a little muddled by the fact Rae did harass Claire, so Claire has every right to feel uncomfortable around her. The show does acknowledge this. The story makes it clear it knows Claire has a right to distrust Rae and it's her responding badly specifically to Rae saying she's gay is the problem. But it's still very weird to simultaneously have a "gay people aren't automatically predators!!!" coupled with "well also our gay main character does commit a little sexual harassment sometimes".

(Some of this weirdness could have been rectified if the story had character besides Claire act badly to Rae saying she was gay, and have them get the lecture, since the point was supposed to be that gay people don't hit on every member of the same gender they meet...but again, that point falls flat if the lecture recipient is Claire, since Rae has already been hitting on her).

I don't really begrudge the author this- Inori was obviously just engaging in the unfortunately typical anime tropes, but also decided to also use her story to passionately educate about and defend gay people and couldn't quite reconcile the dissonance. However, it is very "have your cake and eat it too".

But ILTV does do a very interesting thing with the common anime trope of the overly demonstrative lesbian character who does wacky hijinks and declares her love in a "funny" way. Rae reveals she's so used to being treated badly and rejected by friends and crushes for being gay that she treats her feelings as big joke as a defense mechanism. Because she’s so used to being rejected for her sexuality, she’s given up on earnestly pursuing Claire from the beginning. She doesn’t think she has a shot and she doesn’t want to risk being rejected. However, if she’s loud and obnoxious about her love for Claire, the inevitable rejection doesn’t hurt so much.

She makes it so Claire’s rejecting her for being a weirdo, not because she’s gay. If it's a joke, then when everyone laughs at it and dismisses it, it doesn’t hurt…and she can still be honest about and open about being gay. She can fool even herself and stay around Claire without any of that heartbreak and awkwardness that destroyed relationships the other times she confessed her love.

Rae's arc throughout the show is overcoming her assumption that Claire would be happier with a man and there's no point in earnestly courting her. She's so used to being degraded, she thinks it's impossible she could give Claire a good life and impossible that her real feelings will be accepted.

It doesn't excuse Rae's actions, but it does make her a very interesting character, and one that's meaningful to me as a lesbian. It adds surprising depth to a usually tired trope.

There's also some other interesting aspects of the anime, like how Rae simps for Claire but doesn't simp for her classism. She often gently challenges her on it, and the "commoner uprising" plot, while pretty weirdly paced and (temporarily) resolved, does treat the commoners sympathetically. Considering how other kinds of isekai regularly excuse shit like buying slaves, it's nice to see one that very much sympathizes with marginalized.

Though the commoner uprising plot does lead us to the other huge caveat with the anime- incest. Yeesh. There's a plot twist where it's revealed that side characters are in an incestuous relationship, and they're treated as tragic and sympathetic, they have a love that cannot be accepted, etc. The anime makes this worse by having Rae say "homosexuality isn't the only kind of forbidden love", which (unintentionally?) equates queerness and incest, which is something homophobes often do too. (The novels aren't innocent either, Rae laments "Why can't people be free to love who they want" at one point in a way that less explicitly equates the two things). However I was able to stand this because it's mainly executed as a plot twist. We don't get any details about the character's relationships, we barely see them even stand next to each other, and they're out of the plot fairly quickly. I can absolutely see this being a deal breaker for someone less numb to anime bullshit through.

And finally, a character comes in who acts fairly manipulative and skeezy towards Rae herself, though the drama she does stoke is great stuff.

So yes, I mean it when I say it has problems! But I find the fun shenanigans, blatant lesbian wish fulfillment, honest advocation for queer people, and the joy and earnestness of the series worth it enough I can grit my teeth through it all. It should also be noted that Inori, the author, is a trans lesbian, and that's another big reason why this is so special to many people-- it's a lot easier to forgive a new author for some uneven writing when she has a stake in telling queer stories.

The anime is obviously one that doesn't have a lot of resources (and I missed some of Rae's interior monologue, which gets more into what a nerd girl she is) but it does a decent job with what it had (though I would have liked it to condense or cut some of the magic duels and Rae doing harassment to focus more on the stories strengths, but alas). I have my fingers crossed for a second season, but the yuri don't tend to get those, so I'm not holding my breath.

Is ILTV's pacing sometimes weird? Yes, the commoner uprising doesn't get as much attention as it should. Is it sometimes clumsy? Oh yes. Do I still get a joy like no other when Rae kicks aside the screen prompting her to choose a male interest to yell for Claire instead, or when she fantasizes about herself and Claire being warriors together? Hell yes.

ILTV is often silly, often flawed, but you know what, queer people get to have our silly, flawed, but still occasionally touching stories as well. Straight people have has a monopoly on it too long. It's not a series for everyone, but it's a series that spoke to some struggling queer people regardless, and it's a series that makes me smile, and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

#i'm in love with the villainess #wataoshi #i favor the villainess #watashi no oshi wa akuyaku reijou #rae taylor #claire francois #anime overview #my reviews #fall 2023 anime #yuri

[tsunflowers]

I wish I could describe the sound of her laughing here. it's not the ohoho ojou-sama laugh you might expect. she sounds like a dolphin

#sweet baby rayearth

[nozomijoestar]

LIFTING THE SPOILER WARNING ON THIS POST FOR LAUNCH DAY

Here's my initial analysis and thoughts on Asuka's ending (character episode) in Tekken 8

caught yearning in 1080p

handsome

thinking abt getting students now that the Zaibatsu ate shit (btw you don't find out the Zaibatsu is pretty much on track to being done with no leader again, which is why they continue the tournament presumably after the final battle unless you look through the character episodes, not the main story, for some fucking reason)

Asuka finally smiled at her accepting her and the feeling is mutual, this ending had great role reversal in the sense instead of previously only getting clear insight into Lili's feelings and thoughts now we're openly getting them from Asuka in response- she also felt tempted to give in to her old reaction first think later ways but here she's finally thinking before deciding it doesn't matter why, she enjoys fighting Lili and she finally seems to recognize what Lili's schemes are about on a level (wanting Asuka's attention and getting back at her for having lost), this is the closest so far we've ever gotten to a "I like you too"

this is on top of the teasing and compliment she gave Lili's ability in the same scene, and also correcting Lili on the Kazama Motto Asuka learned, which only Asuka could have told her at some point suggesting further closeness

"Softness overcomes hardness" you two are (HOPEFULLY) starting to change your relationship to be softer (also the hilarious hypocrisy of Asuka BARELY being a person living by any softness in practice)

I love that she even refers to Lili as "That noble (rich) girl", an ojou-sama, which is far better than calling her by nothing or using a rude form of You (anta) as in the past (and generally she's given up calling Lili by rude terms be it in the story mode or otherwise including Shaheen's ending, which is honestly more about AsuLili than him lol, it's also incredible seeing Asuka glad Lili's life was protected and joking about Lili being a handful with someone else)

And despite provoking Asuka in a very shitty way reminiscent of Feng, the premise of this ending is Asuka beating Lili at the tournament so Lili will honor her word of putting Asuka's dojo back the way it was before she bought it- which Lili does after losing rather than refuse out of spite, even if she then uses taking it in a fight to provoke Asuka again, it's nice that she IS willing to listen to Asuka when it comes to promises

honestly if you cut the entire scene into only my screenshots here it still looks so fucking gay

Video source ( @ 1:03 )

This is the de-facto best Asuka ending yet, at last she's happy, hopeful, not confused, and at some form of peace and connection in her life

ALSO ASUKA DIDN'T CALL LILI A DINGBAT SHE CALLED HER AHOU (Idiot/Moron) LIKE ALWAYS AND IT WAS SOFT THIS TIME 😭😭😭😭

Plus Asuka might finally get the dojo back up and become the next leader with Jin's image being fixed and thus how people would see Asuka since they're related, as well as the current war being over- though Reina's new devil bullshit will probably ruin this in the future

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION

PAIR OF BIRDS; BIRD MOTIF FOR KAZAMAS RETURNS

I doubt these are Jun's birds specifically it's more likely just symbolic of Asuka and Lili if it means anything at all. Also doesn't have to specify meaning lovebirds, in general their characters will always be put together. But it is funny how Jun's birds always appear to show her connection to someone she loves, so there could be a parallel here that Asuka's bird imagery would represent the same sense of connection. If it is a visual metaphor for lovebirds though by the time we get Tekken 9 then, the cinema of it all.

ALSO Harada has said Jun attracts animals because of her spiritual mastery over martial arts. She's at a level of power where animals don't run because of sensing her aura; she can suppress her fighting spirit. With how at peace AND in control of herself Asuka is in this ending, maybe the birds imply she can move in a similar direction from here on. And it makes sense too because Asuka has returned to a state of equilibrium now that she doesn't have the stress of the world being in chaos affecting her. As a person who prefers being in control, she's back to feeling some control over her life.

----

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE:

1. It's great that the tone of their relationship is now friendlier, but like in story mode and other places they appear as a pair, we're never shown anything on how they started transitioning from fighting all the time to agreeing to listen and partner up in general, nevermind during a global war they're supposed to have their own personal stakes in beyond not wanting to die (those personal stakes ended up being entirely irrelevant anyway which is it's own problem)

There's a problem present where you're shown the end result of an emotional shift with none of the journey or even a simple scene explaining how they got there, much like the main story and other characters in general many plot points and character changes are resolved off screen showing only the results with no explanation the majority of the time. In the main story this gets even more egregious because even how a character knows specific information usually doesn't get explained at all either unless it relates to Jin understanding the devil gene. This writing makes a lot of things simply happen like it's checking off a list.

In essence, WHERE is a scene connecting Asuka who did nothing but fight Lili and get pissed with her to the Asuka who's tolerant of her, is more catty and accepting than outright angry, is now willing to joke and play around with her, who taught Lili the Kazama Motto she learned (though I guess this one you can say Lili found it while looking up Asuka's family, something we ALSO don't get Asuka's thoughts on beyond surprise) and so on

2. The fact this scene ends with provoking another fight, as much as I like that it's friendly now, isn't the best direction. This fits again into problem 1; there's no on screen room to let these characters breathe and illustrate what made them change now to the viewer. There's no fresh angle given about their relationship outside fighting or even a new approach on their relationship within it. There's no pause in the formula which many people are tired of (and people are already back to calling Asuka a useless piece of shit who's a complete fucking joke, and I can't really blame them entirely because on a surface level all they see is the exact same situation as it's been for twenty years of cutscenes).

Also the logic of having this scene exist is confusing in itself. Nothing in the game story clarified if Asuka sat the tournament out or did participate but was eliminated and decided to follow Lili's progress in Rome as a spectator. A scene explaining either of those would give better weight and context to this one.

3. Zero mention of Asuka's father or his current condition

4. Having Lili imitate what Feng Wei did to dojos like Asuka's is the cruelest way she's ever provoked her. Whereas before it was often ridiculous, silly, and teasing, involving an event that led Asuka to spiral adds something uncharacteristically spiteful toward her from Lili's end. Insofar as what Lili has previously used to get her attention anyway. Keeping Asuka's trauma out of it has always seemed to be a line Lili was willing to respect. And it's off too because this is happening when they're supposed to be becoming friends/are friends now. It's too personal to be brushed off the way it is.

The only way I can rationalize it is if Asuka has let go of her anger towards what Feng did in part (but she still has a special intro where she wants to attack him on sight saying they finally meet so, I don't fuckin know, that may as well have been included as an easter egg if they're gonna do nothing with it) or she never really gave enough of a shit about the entire thing in the first place. You can make a loose argument using prior games to show Asuka never really cared about the revenge aspect as much- but her behavior sorta contradicts this at the same time. So really who fucking knows. Based on how she reacts here I guess it's not a big deal at this point cuz she doesn't get mad and jumps into messing around with Lili like a friend anyway.

Maybe this could be explained too by whatever made them act friendly now in the first place, but again we never saw that. So instead it comes out worse than if we knew.

5. WHY THE FUCK DID THEY MENTION THE ENTIRE MAIN KAZAMA FAMILY WAS ELIMINATED BY OGRE IN THE STORY MODE THEN HAVE THE NEWS NOT IMPACT ASUKA AT ALL

We also never see them discuss what Lili knows about the family in any depth between themselves

Viva le sex gay I guess but now I have more questions than answers and that's a problem when the game acts like I've been given answers it never provided. I got something I wanted but with nothing to show for it.

EDIT 1/27/2024 : However that won't discount that I do love what I received and the potential it represents; I adore this shit.

#tekken #hey gorilla. just say you care already. like actually say it not imply it. #i like this ending more than i dislike it but the parts i dislike still suck lol #asuka kazama #asulili