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huayno · 3 years

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from neon genesis evangelion, vol. 12

The Mysterious Stranger

The Anime, the Manga, and the Mark Twain Novella

"God will provide for this kitten." "What makes you think so?" Ursula's eyes snapped with anger. "Because I know it!" she said. "Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His seeing it." "But it falls, just the same. What good is seeing it fall?"

—from The Mysterious Stranger

There is a short novel by Mark Twain, written near the end of his life and published posthumously, entitled The Mysterious Stranger. The tale is set in a small village in 16th century Austria, where three boys one day meet a young man different from themselves: "he had new and good clothes on, and was handsome and had a winning face and a pleasant voice, and was easy and graceful and unembarrassed, not slouchy and awkward and diffident, like other boys."

The mysterious stranger starts to do small but amazing tricks for them—causing water to turn to ice; conjuring grapes and bread out of air; even making birds that can fly out of clay. At last one boy, the story's narrator, works up the courage to ask the stranger who he is:

"'An angel,' he said, quite simply, and set another bird free and clapped his hands and made it flyaway."

The angel then proceeds to really impress them by making an entire toy castle, complete with five hundred miniature soldiers and workmen that move around by themselves. Naturally the boys get involved with this ultimate playset, making their own knights and cannon and cavalry, and although they get rather nervous again when the angel reveals his name is Satan, he assures them he is not that Satan, but only named after the fallen one.

"We others are still ignorant of sin; we are not able to commit it; we are without blemish, and we shall abide in that estate always." Distracted by two of the miniature workmen, "Satan reached out his hand and crushed the life out of them with his fingers... and went on talking where he had left off: 'We cannot do wrong; neither have we any disposition to do it, for we do not know what it is." Horrified as the other boys are, "he made us drunk with the joy of being with him and of looking into the heaven of his eyes, and of feeling the ecstasy that thrilled along our veins from the touch of his hand.'"

Yes, Kaworu Nagisa made quite an impression on the fans of Neon Genesis Evange/ion, despite the fact that, in the original broadcast version of the TV show (before it got all director's-cutted, box-setted, special-editioned, and platinum-lined) he shows up for only slightly less than thirteen minutes of total screen time, the climax of which being an entire minute where nothing happens at all.

That's what being a beautiful angel will do for you, especially when you make the most of your thirteen minutes on Earth by having a Whirlwind romance with the main character that ends in a lover's quarrel with Prog Knives and finally a voluntary martyrdom at the hand of your boy here. Relationships don't come any more tragic than that of Kaworu Nagisa and Shinji Ikari, and when fans (including this one) first saw it on TV, the affair was so brief and shocking the story logic of it didn't click in until much later.

In the anime, Kaworu is acknowledged as the Final Messenger, and, of all the Angels Shinji has to fight, this is the most ruthless battle, won at the highest possible cost to himself. It took even longer for me to realize that the showdown in episode 24 had also taken us full circle from Shinji's first fight in episodes 1 and 2, which emphasized his personal helplessness against the looming Angel Sachiel. Against Kaworu, it is the Angel who becomes the small, helpless figure, while Shinji is represented only by the gargantuan, frightful helm and arm of his Eva Unit-O1. We never see Shinji's human face once throughout the whole final minute of decision.

So as Col. Trautman would have said instead of Major Katsuragi, "It's over, Shinji! IT'S OVER!" Kaworu v. Shinji (or Kaworu x Shinji, in the doujinshi) was the big final showdown between humanity and the Angels. And with the outcome leaving Shinji at his most wretched ever, wouldn't it be nice if everyone just died—your wish being Eva's command, as it turns out that fortunately humanity hardly ever needed the Angels to slaughter itself.

"I am perishing already—I am failing—I am passing away. In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever...But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!"

—from The Mysterious Stranger

Satan's words near the end of Mark Twain's story also uncannily prefigure the end of the world and the Instrumentality project, both of which follow his death in the TV show in such quick order you picture Anno as a hairnetted fry cook dinging the counter bell. By now you see Sadamoto's handling of Kaworu, and perhaps nothing illustrates the different experiences of the manga and the anime better than his handling of this critical character.

No longer the last Angel to be fought, Kaworu actually becomes an active Eva pilot and fights an Angel—the dude even has the nerve to observe the fight is fixed, based on his knowledge of SEELE's prophecies. Sadamoto of course introduces him at an earlier point in the narrative—at the equivalent of episode 19's end—and then sends him to NERV near the equivalent of episode 22's beginning—before certain important events, to put it mildly, can occur. When one notes this kind of thing, of course, it's important to restate that the Evangelion manga has always been a separate but equal "official" version of Eva, with no particular obligation to align itself with the anime, and indeed it was with Book Five, the first released after The End of Evangelion, that Sadamoto began to truly seem free to go in his own direction.

Nevertheless, as the "other" official version of the Eva story, it is reasonable for fans to view it as an "alternate history" relative to the anime, and the way Kaworu has been introduced makes us realize the manga may end very differently indeed. Despite the fact we know here that Kaworu is an Angel from the very beginning, he appears destined to at least hang around long enough to pick up a few paychecks. It's not clear when your health benefits kick in at NERV, although if Ritsuko is your primary caregiver it might be best to forego them.

Sadamoto's remarks upon visiting the U.S. in 2003 indicated that the Eva manga might (might) be planned as a twelve-volume series in all. There is still plenty of room for speculation, as the slow working pace to which the artist himself often refers has of late become almost relativistic—as of this writing, it has been eight months since Sadamoto has drawn a new installment of Eva in Japan, and hence a Volume Ten is nowhere in sight. It may be small comfort, but those of you reading this are pretty much in the same drifting boat as the Japanese fans.

"An angel's love is sublime, adorable, divine, beyond the imagination of man—infinitely beyond it! But it is limited to his own august order. If it fell upon one of your race for only an instant, it would consume its object to ashes. No, we cannot love men but we can be harmlessly indifferent to them; we can also like them, sometimes."

—from The Mysterious Stranger

And with Book Nine we see the most staggering difference thus far between the manga and the anime; Sadamoto's Shinji doesn't even like Kaworu, much less love him. Of course, you could say the less-ethereal Kaworu of the manga is harder to love. I can't believe Sadamoto had him tell Rei he thought she'd be "heftier." And yet he did.

I don't think any A.T. Fields actually got penetrated in the anime; while I do think Shinji felt sexually attracted to Kaworu, and that you the audience are supposed to feel that he felt it, what Kaworu himself thought was a very different matter. Like Rei, I believe Kaworu to be innocent—coyly, he appears not to be so, because while Rei needed to be reached out to, Kaworu has come to reach out; whereas Rei has spent her existence being observed; Kaworu has come to observe.

Indeed, in the manga, Shinji's irritation about Kaworu's invasion of his personal space seems almost a parody of his attitude in the anime. In the TV show, when Kaworu put his hand on Shinji's, he flinched but did not pull away; whereas in the manga it's easy to imagine Shinji slugging him. Instead he goes to run after Rei, hoping to get closer to her again.

I hardly think the change reflects any phobia on Sadamoto's part (after all, we even get to see Shinji's "Unit One" in the manga), but the fact the manga Shinji is less emotionally bleak and empty, and hence less vulnerable. Shinji's just as negative in the manga, of course, but it's an active variety, rather than the passive negative creep (in the best Nirvana song sense) we know from the anime. We don't have to imagine him slugging Gendo; from the look of surprise on Dad's face in Book Seven he would have smacked the beard off his face if Kaji hadn't stopped him.

Neither is Shinji in a positive emotional situation where we leave him here, either; indeed at this point in the manga there's arguably no one he can turn to—the more brutal fate that befell Toji has cut him off from his school friends, Rei has become hesitant, Kaji is dead, and his perennial self-esteem booster Asuka is going to need to rebuild her internal supply before she can even get back to calling him a loser and idiot.

So, like Misato trying to put her own hand on Shinji's, all I can do for now while we wait for Sadamoto-sensei is to recommend for your winter vacation reading list The Mysterious Stranger, which I can almost guarantee will give you new angles to think about Kaworu, and may even earn you class credit besides. A quick look at the novel's comments on Amazon list a teacher who says fundamentalist students walked out of his class when he taught it; another compares it to The Matrix; those who dislike it call it "sick," "bitter," and "twisted." Sounds like good old Evangelion to me!

—Carl Gustav Horn

[a drawing of Kaworu holding a kitten]

Although The Mysterious Stranger can also be found in a number of print editions, including The Portable Mark Twain from Penguin (haw haw), the story, being from the days when mp3s came on shellacked cylinders, is legally available online at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/TwaMyst.html. The same site has a book called The Holy Bible, King James Version, which fans of Evangelion might also enjoy, although it's technically "Editor's Choice."

#eva #kaworu nagisa #idec if twain didn't write that shit #i'm all over this

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kenpxchi · 3 years

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hellish. || origin

Hell in the world of Bleach is a crazy place.

In the movie and novels, it is given far more lore than in the manga, with its own locales. However, the interesting thing about Hell is that it predates the creation of the three main worlds of Bleach (Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, and the Living World). Moreover, as revealed in Can’t Fear Your Own World, the Soul King was born into a world overrun by Hollows, and was essentially the first Quincy, as they completely eliminated any Hollows they found, but their actions earned grave consequences.

Interestingly enough, the existence of Hell predates the existence of even the Soul King itself. It has somehow always been there, always accepting those worthy of its punishment. Moreover, Hell seems to have an affinity with Hollows and those with Hollow-like abilities, trying to draw out the Hollow within.

In light of this, here’s my theory: Hell is the ultimate origin of all Hollows, and Kenpachi has a connection to it.

I’m gonna be making some crazy cosmology theories below the cut.

Exhibit A: Chains and Fate

Hell is bound by a gate of chains, and any sinners who escape it are forcibly dragged back by chains that link them to Hell. Similarly, when a soul becomes a Hollow, its Chain of Fate is completely dissolved through the process of Encroachment. Moreover, when the soul of a sinner, a Togabito, manages to escape hell, they must constantly hide their face with a mask. Moreover, in the manga (Volume imaginary number 01. the unforgivens, which is helpful if you want icons of Szayel & Aaroniero), it is revealed that Hollows and even Arrancar, who are composites of hundreds of thousands of Souls, retain their original form in Hell.

So, here’s my theory: the first Hollows were Togabito who managed to escape Hell by severing themselves from the chains that bound them and wearing masks to remain hidden, but in the process, they lost their identity and became monsters. As for why Arrancar appear in Hell, it is likely so that the individual souls that make up their being can slowly be torn away and sifted through, so that the innocent souls can leave and the guilty remain trapped. In the beginning, since there was no life or death, there really only remains one dichotomy between the unified world and Hell.

The unified world was where good people lived in peace, and Hell was where bad people were punished. Or, at least, the bad people who got caught. And this has remained Hell’s purpose for the entirety of time immemorial: to punish Togabito and make them suffer. Which brings me to my next point.

Exhibit B: The Denial of Suffering

Now, as we all know, due to the Soul King completely erasing the Hollows, the balance of the world began to destabilize. The Soul King was willingly split into pieces by the original five Noble Houses of the Soul Society, and the world was divided up into three different pieces: Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, and the Living World. However, there are some pretty significant plot holes which I hope to address.

Why would the Soul King’s actions destabilize the world if there was no life or afterlife, and therefore, no balance of souls between them?

Simple. Hell was being denied its suffering. By completely annihilating a Hollow, you’re essentially destroying it quickly, cleanly, and without any punishment for its misdeeds. Hell, obviously, is going to be very angry about this, as it was robbed of its escaped prisoners, assuming my cosmology theory is correct. This would definitely lead to a destabilization event. The caretakers of Hell, the Kushanada, are indestructible juggernauts who eat sinners (this is what we in the business call foreshadowing, kids).

You would not want them getting mad and coming out of Hell to ruin your day, Soul King or not, because not only are they entirely indestructible, they can pool their power together into a single entity (or person, if you’re the protagonist) capable of damning someone to eternal torment. No matter what you can do, no matter how strong you are, if the Kushanada deem you a sinner, and all unite to come after you, prepare for literally eternal pain.

So, now the decision to take a nigh-omnipotent and omniscient god, cut him into pieces, stick him in a crystal, and split the world apart sounds a bit more reasonable considering the alternative would be to doom the entirety of all sentient beings to unending agony at the hands of the Kushanada.

Why would the Soul King agree to being sealed in the first place?

Simple. He realize that if his actions doomed the entire world to Hell, that whatever fate awaited him there would be worse than being dismembered and sealed away for eternity acting as the lynchpin between all three worlds. Faced with this choice, any sane person would take the option with less pain... as grisly as that option may be.

Why would the Soul King create a place for Hollows if he wanted to kill all of them?

My guess is that if the Soul King was kind enough to be hacked up for the sake of the world, the reason he was completely erasing Hollows in the first place was in order to protect them from eternal torment in Hell. Unlike the Kushanada, who thrive on making sinners suffer forever, the Soul King likely held the belief that people can change, and don’t deserve such cruelty. So, Hueco Mundo was created as a world that gives Hollows some respite from the horrors of Hell, which are apparently worse than a desert full of cannibalism and death. However, that’s me psychoanalyzing a character who has no dialogue in the manga proper, and is mostly used as a plot device until he dies. Nice job killing him, Ichigo.

Now, having patched up some of the plot holes with liberal application of assumptions and theory, let’s move on to Kenpachi’s connection to it.

Exhibit C: Suffering in the Separate Worlds

So, the Soul King and his five teenagers with attitude noble family heads all managed to appease Hell somehow. However, this likely wasn’t all they did to keep Hell from engulfing everything. Remember how earlier I said that the original, unified world was a place where only good people lived? Now, look at the three disparate worlds.

Hueco Mundo is a barren wasteland ruled by the strongest, who exploit and devour the weak. Soul Society is an authoritarian nightmare with a disparity in class living conditions so stark it’s worse than some caste systems. The World of the Living is... well. We all live in it, and we know how it’s going. So what happened to each of these three worlds to make them so bleak?

My guess is that Hell demanded to have its own little piece of itself in each of these new worlds, in order to make up for all the suffering that was lost due to the Soul King’s actions. It’s why Bleach is a horrifically depressing world. The Soul King defied the guys who believe in eternal punishment. Disproportionate retribution was bound to occur in that situation.

Now, to sprinkle in a little more theory. There are locations in these three worlds that have a strong connection to Hell. They aren’t set in stone; they’re simply the locations where the most suffering occurs. Kushanada are drawn to it, since it’s usually where their prey is causing trouble. One such location might be the Outer Rukon.

Specifically, Northern District 80: Zaraki.

The Nameless Boy

So, in light of all this headcanon lore and all these attempts to plug up the plot holes of Bleach, we come to the origins of Kenpachi Zaraki, the man who was born in the most hellish district in the Rukon. I’m still going with the idea of him being the son of a sex worker who fell pregnant and fled to Zaraki. However, we don’t know who the father is.

The mother goes into labor and dies in childbirth. Shortly after, her baby dies. However, because the baby is born in a literal actual hellhole, there’s an innate connection to the energies of Hell, which thrive on suffering. The baby wound up forging a connection to it, as its death in such close proximity to Hell at such a young age would likely grab the attention of the Kushanada, who would be somewhat miffed that they were denied such good suffering.

So what do they do? They decide to put a little piece of Hell into the baby, as retribution for their loss. And so, the baby boy comes back to life. He eats the corpse of his mother, grows old enough to escape the basement he’d been hiding in his entire life, and goes out to start killing.

This gives us a few interesting implications:

The reason Kenpachi doesn’t stay dead is because he cannot stay dead. He’s meant to be a piece of Soul Society forever corrupted by Hell, and to act as an agent of the Kushanada. It’s why he heals so quickly and just keeps getting back up no matter what he gets hit with.

Kenpachi’s impossible durability and horrifying strength come from his connection to Hell, as does his seemingly unending pool of reiatsu, mimicking the Kushanada.

Because Kenpachi gets stronger every time he dies, even after unlocking the unconscious seal he placed on himself, he’s tapping more and more into his connection to Hell whenever he dies.

When Kenpachi goes to the Living World, he is literally Hell on Earth.

tl;dr - Kenpachi is Bleach’s version of Ghost Rider.

Anyway, that’s my spiel. If there are any inconsistencies, feel free to DM me and let me know.

#;; under the patch #;; headcanon #;; drabble

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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Bookshelf Briefs 9/30/20

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter, Vol. 6 | By Reai and Suki Umemiya | Seven Seas – Another series down to “once a year” release—I had to jog my memory at the start to recall what had been happening. Many things are going wrong for our heroine, who is trying to be strong and tough but is also starting to break down, and I felt that the scenes with her and Dean struck just the right balance of comforting and letting the heroine cry without making her seem weaker. This sets the stage for her comeback, which is extraordinary. (And also has a corrupt Church, a constant in Japanese light novels, though at least here there are also honest and good religious people in it.) That said, eventually Dean’s identity will come out, and I do wonder how this very good “villainess” isekai will handle it. – Sean Gaffney

The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Jack Flash and the Faerie Case Files, Vol. 1 | By Yu Godai, Mako Oikawa, and Kore Yamazaki | Seven Seas – A faerie switched at birth for a human child, Jack never fit in in either world. Only in the mortal realm could she earn money for anime collectibles, however, so she decided to make herself into a tough, capable woman like her literary heroes and set up shop as a detective. Together with her fellow changeling, Larry the werewolf, Jack takes on supernatural cases in New York City. In this volume, Lindel tasks them with tracking down a missing dragon egg. I liked the resources Jack uses to obtain information, which include a dapper theatre ghost and a spell with components of rat whiskers and taxi tires because “Nobody out there knows this city better than them.” I still found this a bit hard to get into, though, especially the parts involving a perpetually tearful off-off-off-off-Broadway actress and her pickpocket boyfriend. Still, I will check out volume two! – Michelle Smith

Black Clover, Vol. 22 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – At long last, this interminable arc comes to an end. I enjoyed a lot of it, but I cannot deny it should have been about two volumes shorter. Most of the book is taken up by shonen battles, with the villain being nigh unkillable, the heroes almost breaking themselves to stop him, etc. Fortunately, the day is saved, and even the Wizard King turns out to be… sort of alive again? Shota fans should be happy. Asta fans perhaps less so—the sheer amount of damage done to the kingdom in this arc means someone has to be blamed, and give Asta has the “dark evil magic” it’s gonna be him, especially when he takes the incredibly obvious bait they use to get him to fight. Oh well, if Asta were smart, this wouldn’t be Black Clover. – Sean Gaffney

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro, Vol. 3 | By Nanashi | Vertical Comics – Part of the problem with titles like this and the other teasing works (Takagi-san less so as Nishikata doesn’t fall into the category) is that they are, at heart, the classic “extroverted girl acts overtly extroverted to bring introverted guy out of their shell,” and that’s not really a plot that feels comfortable in the Gen Z days, where you’re more likely to say “why doesn’t she just let him be in his quiet, safe space?” And by she I mean they, as Nagatoro’s two friends appear far more often here, which offers some good two-way teasing action, as they clearly see her crush on him, if not why. It’s still sort of hard to read, but if you pretend he’s more OK with it than he actually is, this is cute. – Sean Gaffney

Failed Princesses, Vol. 1 | By Ajiichi | Seven Seas – The concept of “popular girl meets unpopular girl” is a common one in yuri manga, and we do indeed hit several of its tropes in this first volume. The amusing thing is that Kanade, the shy outcast girl, is perfectly aware of how things are supposed to go, and keeps pulling back a bit to try to save Nanaki from, well, making herself an outcast by associating with the wrong people. The best part of the volume is that Nanaki really doesn’t give two shits about any of that, and seems set on making Kanade her best friend… and also making her over, which backfires a bit as Kanade cleans up nicely. I hear this gets a bit dramatic later, but for the moment it’s a cute and fluffy proto-yuri story. – Sean Gaffney

In/Spectre, Vol. 12 | By Kyo Shirodaira and Chashiba Katase | Kodansha Comics – The first story in this volume is another “Rikka tries to make people understand Kotoko is an evil Machiavellian schemer,” this time with one of her ex-classmates, but again the response seems to be “we know she’s a manipulative bitch, but she’s a good person anyway.” The larger story, which will continue into the next book, seems to be a chance to write Kuro and Kotoko as an actual romance, as the man we meet here and his relationship with a yuki-onna… as well as his penchant for attracting misfortune… very much parallel them. That said, they’re very cute together, which is why I hope he avoids the murder charge he’s now being investigated for. Still a favorite. – Sean Gaffney

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 8 | By Petos | Kodansha Comics – The author knows what people want to see, but also knows that the best way to get readers is to drive them crazy by not showing it. We finally get what we’ve been begging for here, as Tetsuo asks Sakie out on a date. (This is after rejecting Kyouko’s love confession, both because she’s his student and also, as he is forced to admit, as he likes Sakie.) The stage is set for the date… and the rest of the book is thus spent with the three main student girls going to Kyouko’s for a fireworks viewing and meeting her family. They’re good chapters, and I really liked showing how difficult Kyouko has it as a dullahan in terms of everyday life, but GOD, please get back to the teachers, I beg you! – Sean Gaffney

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Vol. 16 | By Aka Akasaka | Viz Media – The series has gotten to the point where the more rewarding chapters are the ones as part of a larger arc. Not that the one-shot chapters are bad—though Maki’s journey to India may be the most pointless thing in this entire series to date, we do get Chika’s iconic “shut up or I’ll kill you” here. But the larger arcs, featuring Miyuki and Kaguya attempting to date without interruptions, and setting up Ishigami and Iino for a romance—though given the number of limbs broken in this book, and Iino’s own horrible lack of self-awareness, it may be a ways out—are better. This series is still hilarious, but we’ve come to read it more for the heartwarming moments. Heck, there’s even some serious drama here. Very good. – Sean Gaffney

Nineteen | By Ancco | Drawn & Quarterly – Although it was translated and released second in English, Nineteen is a precursor to Ancco’s internationally award-winning manhwa Bad Friends. The volume collects thirteen short comics originally published in Korea over a decade ago which absolutely remain relevant to today’s world. While understandably not as polished as some of Ancco’s later work—one can observe her style evolving and growing over the course of the collection (which is fascinating)—the comics still carry significant emotional weight and impact. Nineteen includes diary comics, which tend to be more lighthearted, as well as harder-hitting fictional stories, many of which also have autobiographical inspiration. As a whole, the collection explores themes of young adulthood, growing up, and complicated family relationships. In particular, there is a compelling focus on the relationships among daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. Some of the narratives can be rather bleak, but a resigned sense of humor threads through Nineteen, too. – Ash Brown

Ran the Peerless Beauty, Vol. 8 | By Ammitsu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Shoujo manga that has couples getting together BEFORE the end of the series is inevitably going to have an arc dealing with how far the lead couple should go now that they’re dating, and this is Ran’s turn, as she and Akira and their friends go to a beach house Ran’s family owns and have some beach fun. Unfortunately, the cast gets winnowed down one by one until it’s just the two of them… and her overprotective father, who arrives in time to provide the cliffhanger and no doubt ensure that nookie does not ensue. Not that I think it should—these two kids are even purer than the couple from Kimi ni Todoke, and I think they should mature a bit more before going further. Plus, watching them blush and kiss is wonderful. – Sean Gaffney

Spy x Family, Vol. 2 | By Tatsuya Endo | Viz Media – Having spent our first volume establishing that our found family can really come to love each other deep down, this volume shows off how they are also, at heart, fundamentally awkward and unable to socialize normally. This is unsurprising—hints of Loid’s life we’ve seen show him as a war orphan, Yor is a contract killer, and Anya basically grew up being experimented on by bad guys. As the school soon finds, this leads to issues. The second half of the book introduces Yor’s sister-obsessed little brother Yuri, who turns out to be a torture expert for Loid’s enemies. As always, half the fun is that everyone except Anya has no idea who their real selves are, and the cliffhanger tells us we’re in for some hilarious family fun. I love this. – Sean Gaffney

Spy x Family, Vol. 2 | By Tatsuya Endo | VIZ Media – After a brief spell atop the waiting list, Anya officially makes it into Eden Academy. Loid is anxious to progress to the next stage of his mission and, believing there’s not much chance in turning Anya into an elite scholar like his agency wants, focuses instead on having her befriend the younger son of his target. It does not go to plan, of course. Anya is very cute in this volume, and I also really appreciated how Loid genuinely listens to Yor and values her input. The arrival of Yor’s brother, a member of the secret police, is going to be a fun complication, and another cast member with a secret, but my favorite part of this series is probably always going to be how much love these three are already feeling for each other. So unique and good! – Michelle Smith

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, Vol. 6 | By Tomo Hirokawa, based on the story by Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – The weakness of this manga is the same as always—it’s written to tie into the games, and features several characters I just don’t recognize, which can be a problem given this is the big final let’s-save-the-world ending. That said, this is still a decent SAO title. Kirito gets to be cool and badass, but because this isn’t written just by Kawahara others do as well, and it’s a nice balanced effort that focuses on heroine Premiere. I also really liked the point where all the NPCs are worried when everyone has to log out for several days for maintenance. While I’ll still remember this as the “SAO only everyone is alive” manga, I enjoyed reading it, when I wasn’t confused. – Sean Gaffney

By: Ash Brown

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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feynavaley · 4 years

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i'm not the same anon who asked about chronic illnesses and such but i decided to ask anyway -- do you have any mental health headcanons for any of the FACE family?

Thank you so much for this question, it’s a very interesting one! I also have to admit that this is a topic I’m quite hesitant to tackle, however, as I’m not an expert and I don’t want to dismiss or oversimplify complex and sensitive matters with careless words. That said, I can certainly talk about what my impressions from the manga are! Hope it all makes sense. 😊

First of all, I must make a specification: nations aren’t humans. Just like their bodies and healing rate are different from those of a human, the same goes for their brain and mental health. I often see people complaining that, for having lived through so many hardships and tragedies, personifications shouldn’t be as well-adjusted and cheerful as they are generally portrayed in the manga. I disagree with this. I think that if the manga tends to portray personifications in a certain way, that’s how they are. And the fact they aren’t weighed down by their past is, once again, due to the fact they aren’t humans. Think about it for a moment: we – humans – aren’t mentally and psychologically meant for immortality. After a bit, we just would collapse under the weight of everything we went through. Personifications, instead, are born to be immortal. Therefore, I’m also convinced that they have a different brain biology, different neural pathways – different ways to process memories and withstand trauma that make them more resilient. In short, unlike many people, I don’t think personifications suffer from PTSD or MDD by default.

—

Now, back to the characters you asked me about. I would be hesitant to ‘diagnose’ them with specific mental health issues, but I can see some things they would struggle with.

I’ll start with Canada because I think he’s the easiest one. It’s canon that he has awfully low self-esteem and sense of self-worth in general. Based on his interactions with other people, I would say he also has very high anxiety levels. (Social anxiety, in particular.) He wants to make a good impression but he feels like he never knows how to behave and ends up being awkward and self-conscious, he’s afraid of what others might think of him and he wants to please everybody and berates himself a lot for the fact he doesn’t… his not feeling worthy of other people’s time and attention (feeling like he has to do something to earn it) doesn’t help. I don’t know if Canada’s anxiety could be bad enough to be officially diagnosed or give him real anxiety/panic attacks, but it certainly has a significative impact on his relationships, holding him back a lot. Tied to his self-worth issues, I can also easily see him falling into the mindset of the impostor syndrome. (Since he feels like he isn’t good enough, when somebody claims he is, Canada thinks he has deceived them.) I also headcanon him suffering from some psychosomatic issues due to the fact he tends to bottle up negative emotions to avoid conflict. In spite of this, Canada manages to keep a positive outlook that pushes him forwards. He doesn’t cry over himself but keeps doing his best to improve. I wouldn’t say this is completely healthy (after all, he wants to improve so much because he feels like he isn’t enough) nor that he never has a breakdown, but his mental health issues aren’t (generally) so severe as to prevent him from going on with his life.

England also suffers from self-worth issues that he, instead, hides under a self-deprecating humour. He asks a lot out of himself and he’s a perfectionist to a level that isn’t healthy. He works as hard as he can in order to rise above others and looks down upon those who don’t work as hard in order to try to assert his confidence, but deep down, he will never believe he’s truly good enough. Moreover, the neglect he suffered during his childhood means he has a hard time developing healthy relationships. He’s mistrustful and hesitant because he’s afraid of getting hurt, but he also ends up feeling extremely lonely and isolated, which weighs a lot on him. He’s also unable to process his emotions in a healthy way, he bottles up and denies his feelings and ends up lashing out at people. Once again, England’s struggles aren’t bad enough to prevent him from going on with his normal life, but they make an impact. He has a pessimistic overview of everything and always sees a problem behind each corner, it’s very hard for him to be happy and satisfied.

As for France… with his melancholic personality, France actually is the character I can see suffering from minor depressive episodes when he finds himself in particularly bad spots. He does his best not to let this win over him, but there are moments he truly sees everything bleak and experiences nothing but despair. It’s particularly bad if he’s alone, and this is partly why France’s almost unable to stay without anybody. His constant need to be surrounded by people also partially stems from the fact he’s an extrovert and likes company, but he does tend to carry it a bit too far. His need to be liked by everybody can also cross the boundary of unhealthy. France wants to believe in himself and he tries to convince himself that he has a healthy self-esteem, but deep down, he has a lot of insecurities he doesn’t want to deal with. People not liking him always make those seeds of self-doubt resurface, he can’t shrug it off so easily. Aside from the first one, however, the others are fairly minor issues. Compared to many others, France is a fairly well-adjusted individual. And I think that the fact he doesn’t deny his emotions but instead deals with them plays a big part in this.

I think America is decently well-adjusted as well. He’s such an optimistic character, always able to find a positive spin in everything and focus on the opportunities each situation gives him instead of the drawbacks… if anything, I would say that his main problem is that his self-confidence is a bit too high and he’s too self-centred, but neither reach truly worrisome levels. America does have some issues, though. I’m thinking about attachment issues, in particular. America feels lonely and unappreciated, which makes him latch very tightly to people he’s close to. Moreover, due to what happened with England and Canada, part of him is afraid people are going to leave him so he turns possessive and clingy to avoid it. He also carries protectiveness to an annoying level. He backs off and apologizes if somebody makes him notice his wrong behaviour, though.

Now, I want to address another thing about America as this is a very widespread headcanon: I’m firmly convinced America doesn’t have an eating disorder in canon. First of all, I don’t think America has the right mindset for it. An eating disorder isn’t only an issue of body image, but a manifestation of deeper insecurities America has never displayed to such extents. Yes, it’s true that he tried many diets (without ever being able to commit to one). However, America’s wish to lose weight wasn’t tied to body image issues, but to health concerns. At a point, America realized he ‘weighed too much’. I have no trouble believing he could be at least slightly overweight according to the BMI: he isn’t slight-boned – which means he will always be more on the higher side of the BMI – and he has very developed muscles, which weigh a lot more than fat. In fact, many athletes would be classified as overweight if this weren’t taken into account. However, America wasn’t aware of that and he just thought he was overweight. Which does pose health concerns. America has never wanted to be thinner to look better, he just wanted to lose weight to be healthier. I’m so sure of this because it was explicitly stated in the manga. [x]

Had it been an eating disorder, America wouldn’t have stopped dieting once he had realized his weight wasn’t actually unhealthy. It isn’t so simple. But he did, which means the entire problem was rooted in a concern for his health, not a body image issue.

—

Since I envision the mental health struggles more tied to the characters’ personalities than historical events, I generally would headcanon them being the same in a human AU as well. Of course, the backstory of each character – their formative years, in particular – should be tailored to justify those struggles.

I have already talked about how picture things for Francis [x] and Matthew [x].

In Arthur’s case, I imagine him having a hard childhood and growing up in a quite dysfunctional family. Whether his parents mean it or not (maybe, because there’s a single parent with four children), Arthur ends up being often brushed aside and growing up without the support he would need. (If not with outright scorned and looked down upon by emotionally and verbally abusive parents.)

As for Alfred, I can picture his attachment issues coming from him having lived through the loss of an important person in his childhood (or also missing a parent, maybe). He never completely processes it, and whether he realizes it or not, this makes him more afraid than what would be normal of losing the other people he cares for.

#hetalia #hetalia headcanon #aph canada #aph america #aph france #aph england #feyna's headcanon #feyna talks about hetalia #face family #anonymous #feyna answers #thanks for stopping by!#still without my laptop :(#but turns out I actually had backed up the file with my references #so I could write this

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divine-identite · 4 years

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On another episode of Bastille and ships! I’ve talked about many last year ( @thegreatunxter, @oceanschiild , and many others actually) time we are taking a look at “ The Silence “ from Bastille’s “Bad Blood” who I have it with - @forgevalor Alex Benedetto. This song is a favourite despite its catchy riff and chorus its quite depressing. My favourite saying “If you give it a name, then its already won. What you good for? What you good for?”

song meaning(why it fits perfectly with the verse);

you hear the first phrase “Tell me a piece of your history that you're proud to call your own?”

The way I've always interpreted the song is someone having difficulties coming to terms / putting into words their own feelings of depression, when they somehow feel like they are unwarranted.

Tell me a piece of your history That you're proud to call your own Speak in words you picked up As you walked through life alone

I've always seen the narrator as cynically talking to himself, pondering why he/she feels this emptiness, when according to himself, has no reason to. He prides himself on not being a 'sad' person, not being a 'lonely' person', and yet he does feel very much alone.

He/ She attempts to convince himself that he's/she’s just 'hit a wall' and that it's 'not his/her fault' and that undoubtedly, these feelings on unease will leave him/her ... but they don't.

It is not enough to be dumbstruck Can you fill this silence? You must have the words In that head of yours

The initial shock of this feeling has past and being 'surprised' about it is no longer an excuse.

Fill in the blank: what is he feeling? What's the word for it?

Depressed?

No.

No. Not that. It can't be that. He's/She’s not THAT kind of person.

Tell me a piece of your history That you've never said out loud

But what if he/she is?

Wrap me around your fingers Break the silence open wide Before it seeps into my ears And fills me up from the inside

Oh God, what if he/she is.

If you give it a name, then it's already won What you good for? What you good for?

And he's/she’s is so afraid that if he/she does admit he's/she’s depressed, it will be like admitting defeat. Because he/she feels like if you're diagnosed with depression ... well, that's all you are now, and what good is that? And he's/she’s so afraid of that word, of that conviction, that it's easier for him/her to deny it, to not fill in that blank.

To keep that silence.

This is why I feel like The Draw is a follow up to The Silence, with the first part being the narrator refusing to believe the people around him would do anything but pity him/her or shun him/her for how he/she feels.

Don't listen to your friends See the despair behind their eyes Don't listen to your friends They only care and want to know why

And yet, he/she learns over time that yes, his /her friends DO sincerely support him, and yes, they DO want him/her to get better.

Just listen to your friends Trust that they're fair, look in their eyes Just listen to your friends They only care and hope you're alright

He's/She’s not denying this Draw he feels, but at least now, he's/she’s learned to fill the Silence.

The background story on the character and connection to the song;

How this correlates with Alex from Gangsta falls perfectly with her very dark background;

Not much is known about her past, At some point Alex was raped by an unknown person. After her father and mother passed away she took over taking care of her younger brother soon after- filling in as the parental figure. She left with Barry to go to Ergastulum ( i estimate she was still very young maybe 16 - 17), with promises to come back for him after they get a place soon after. During her time with Barry, he started giving her TB medications ( it affects her mentally to the point it makes her docile and easy to control) and soon after made her a prostitute. She remembers very little from her past but seems to remember a character named Nic from when she was younger when she was getting raped.

(she’s 24 around this time )Years later, under the TB effect have rendered rather passive, and manageable and seem to affect her memory. Recalling little of what happened actually.

in the manga and anime, you first find Alex as she is laying on the ground below Barry, who is counting her earnings as a prostitute in the city. Unhappy with her return he berates her and sends her off to earn more money by visiting clients.

It’s at one point shes actually hit in the face by client actually she causes her nose to bleed.

It is clear she is very unhappy with this lifestyle but has no way out of it - since has nowhere to go. When she returns back to her favourite alley that is perpendicular to Benriya’s building. To her surprise, Worick is waiting for her. They converse and it is revealed they have been seeing each other through the window for months and yet never talked. Also, he questions why did she become Barry’s woman. She simply responds that she has nowhere to go.

Suddenly sad, she asks him to leave because Barry will get mad at her. Worick does but not before telling her that Barry will never come back. Alex chases after him, guiding herself by the gunshots. She arrives at the massacre of Barry’s gang. When she sees her former pimp's corpse she kneels at its side. Suddenly full of rage she grabs a nearby gun and shoots the corpse several times. After these events, she’s liberated and gradually free’s herself from the effects of the pills, which cause withdrawal symptoms, hallucinations and etc with Benriya, who tell her eventually she will have to leave soon. She stays behind to look for her long lost brother the whole time. She remembers little of her past at all since her time in Ergastalum. As the TB pills affect wane, we get to see more of personality, but sadly she still has some series of depression. However, things have turned for the worse now in the series for her.....

The song essentially emphasises those very bleak and forgotten parts of Alex life and the depressing situation, fitting quite similarly to the person in the song. The only difference is that Alex acknowledges her depression as it without having to fully diagnosing herself to figure this out - or in short, she can fill in this blank but still, she easily segues into the theme of the silence into the draw.

#verse: █ ▌❝ Good Lesson ❞#headcanons: █ ▌◆ ❝ Good Lesson ❞#ooc: █ ▌❝ Tuning Out... ❞#verse: █ ▌❝ the silence ❞#headcanons: █ ▌◆ ❝ The Silence ❞#forgevalor

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friedesgreatscythe · 6 years

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This post is inspired by this scene, gif’d here.

So upon my good buddy’s @cincosechzehn‘s rec, I started watching Yuri on Ice this weekend (after spending many months ignoring it, or kind of dreading what it was because first impressions are rarely the right ones). This change in decision was mostly motivated by the fact that the same animation studio that handled YOI are also doing the Persona 5 anime, and because aforementioned buddy told me a lot of really interesting things about YOI that piqued my interest.

The main point being that it’s a romance for adults.

That doesn’t mean it has graphic content in it, or that its humor or approach to physical expressions of romance is made for an older audience--it’s a romance for adults in the sense that it’s a romance for people in a specific generation who feel lonely, overlooked, frustrated, etc. I’d go so far as to say it’s a romance for the millennial generation, but since millennial seems to be a western-centric descriptor for a certain age group, I’m pretty sure that’s not the best label to use on a Japanese show (and manga).

It’s also a romance for adults in the sense that it shows you that there are countless different kinds of love. It’s not just romance, or sexual love, or infatuation, or family affection and support. Love is fluid and shapeless, and it can be found anywhere. As someone who is a total Romantic, I enjoy this premise completely.

The two main characters in YOI (indeed, the main couple) are people who should technically be settled into life, but are obviously lacking and lonely. They’re adults in age (23, 27), but their ages are no indication that their lives are satisfying or even what they want them to be. They’re adults in name alone, and I understand how awkward and embarrassing and frustrating this feels perfectly.

When you’re a kid, or a teenager, or even a young adult, you can tell yourself, “oh, maybe I’ll know what to do when I get older.” But when you’re an adult there’s no hope for “figuring it out later.” You have to figure it out now, and that’s confusing and scary and there’s no guarantee that any of your hard work or plans are going to pay off.

As someone who is enduring the same thing in her life, this speaks to me tremendously. I know I’m an adult; I’m going to be 31 in two months, and yet I feel like I barely have my act together. Worrying that I’m a failure, a fuck up, and that I’m not going to get anywhere is constantly in the background of my mind, along with attempts to reassure myself of the contrary. So to say that I relate to Yuri’s feelings at the start of YOI is a massive understatement.

Yet it soon becomes clear that Yuri is actually surrounded by love and support. His family, his friends, his hometown, his teacher--they all care for him tremendously, and they want him to succeed. But even with all this love around him, Yuri admits that he always felt like he was fighting alone. This is a combination of him feeling guilty, and his total lack of confidence--the love is there, but he doesn’t feel like he deserves it, or that he’s done enough to earn it.

And then Victor comes along, literally extending a hand to Yuri at his most vulnerable and bleak moment, offering help and encouragement. And suddenly Yuri realizes not only that he isn’t fighting alone, but that love has been around him all along, in all these different forms, just waiting for him to embrace it. And he realizes that no one embodies this more than Victor himself. It’s this love, the love he’s found in working with Victor, that Yuri wants to hold onto more than anything else. It’s a love that has allowed him to see how love exists everywhere.

As I mentioned in another post, my breakdown in therapy last week happened the second the words, “I try so hard” left my mouth. Because I do try hard--I am trying. And more often than not it feels like I’m fighting alone. Even if my friends love me, even if my family cares about me, even if I realize bit by bit just how much I love New York (and I do, really, I do love it here so much), all this love somehow isn’t enough. I don’t know why, but there’s just... something else, something missing. Something intangible, something that embodies love that can’t easily apply to labels--that’s what I’m looking for.

And maybe the lesson to take from this is that I have to look at the love I have, as painful and fractured and fragile as it is, and accept that. But that’s a theme for therapy to tackle.

But to go back to this scene, this gif--I burst into tears when it happened. I had to pause the episode (it’s STILL on pause) because my tears were so intense, and also because my heart was just swimming with overwhelming warmth. This scene is such a quick thing, but it’s a small moment that perfectly captures the heart of this show, Victor and Yuri’s relationship, and what makes it so compelling for me. Their relationships is woven through with all different things (rivals, inspiration, friends, coach, etc.), yet ultimately defies any label you apply to it.

And the scene in the gifs expresses all this with just a few quick gestures: Victor and Yuri’s hands go from one on top of the other to intertwined; Yuri presses his forehead right up against Victor’s and stares him down. Neither of them flinch or blink, and they stand there eye to eye, face to face, hand in hand--and then Yuri says his line. Don’t you dare take your eyes off me.

Their body language in that scene is exactly how Victor and Yuri are to each other, in each other’s lives. Eye to eye, hand in hand, face to face, completely tied together. They’re... not a mirror image, not exactly, but they do reflect each other that’s like a balancing act, a way to steady the other. Their love is shapeless like water, but it’s also flat, even, smooth, sturdy like--well, like ice, haha.

And I just don’t know what to do with all these emotions besides screaming about how much I love them.

#luna speaks #krist watches yoi #romance #nb #messy thoughts sorry

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ramblyravingnnjashark · 5 years

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Nier Automata - Genius and Madness

the works of Yoko Taro are something that have eluded me for most of my life, and that I have given very little attention to. Probably for good reasons because from the outside, the gameplay of his games range from Mediocre to Average at best and I consider myself a very "gameplay First" person. Some of my Freinds would rave about Drakengard and how weird it is but that didnt quite convince me to look into them much further. However, one Fateful Day a little game called "Nier Automata" was announced, a sequel to Yoko Taros Xbox 360/PS3 game Nier with a little line of Text that would change things in an instant

"Developed by PlatinumGames"

now friends of mine will know that, PlatinumGames is one of my alltime favourite Game Devs for their Crazy High skill Character Action Beat em up titles, containing Larger than Life characters and great and tight Gameplay that owes their roots in the Arcade games of old, which is something I have a appreciation for.

So, with a combination like this I finally decided to take on this series, by means of watching Youtube essays about it because goddamn, the gameplay in these games can get rather mind numbing sadly but honestly? Yoko Taro mighta earned himself now a nice cushy place as one of my favourite Directors, right next to Hideki Kamiya and Hideo Kojima themselves.

But there is one thing I realised from watching these Essays and actually playing one of them it is one thing to watch a guy sum this series up for you, its a whole different thing to watch the Insanity for yourself

because the works of Yoko Taro arent stories about Heroic Knights slaying Demons and Evil Dragons, or Loving Fathers/older Brothers trying to survive the Fall of Humanity with their Daughters/Little Sisters

they are stories about Love, Hate, War, the meaninglessness of the Universe and the Hope growing from it, what it means to be Human, and what it means to lose all reason and go complete and genuinely Mad

(there will be spoilers, so be warned if you wish to expirience these games yourself!)

so originally, this was gonna be a brief recap of Drakengard and Nier, but then I realised I couldnt do these games justice so I just link this and this recap of these games that should give you a good idea what these games are about but to keep it brief

Drakengard is essentially to RPGs what Evangelion was to Mecha Anime, and thats a fairly approviate comparsion when you just look at, this

its also notable for how it handles its different endings, usually referred to as Ending A, Ending B etc, Ending E of the first Drakengard game was a Joke ending that nontheless became the basis for the setting of Nier, a ruined Planet Earth set hundreds of years after the Fall of Humanity about a Father (in the Western Releases) or a Older Brother (Japanese release) having to fend for himself and his Daughter/Younger Sister in a world under constant threat of creatures known as Heartless Shades

both these games are interesting, because their gameplay is nothing special, in the case of Drakengard its outright terrible,they got mediocre reviews and poor sales and yet these games have a dedicated Cult following and tons of Novels, Audio Dramas, Manga and even Stage Plays that expand the Universes of these games and its lore

and thats for a simple reason: these games may have mediocre gameplay but, their Stories, their Characters, their Art Direction is actually of fairly high quality featuring intriguing Characters and worldbuilding that makes you invested in them regardless I mean, theres a entire exchange in Nier thats entireley between two Magical Talking Books for cryin out loud, and its one of the best parts of the game!

however, these games have thus far had a life as just that, Cult Classics, that didnt manage to garner a mainstream audience due to its aforementioned quirks, the Gameplay just could never stand up to the well written stories of these games

this is where PlatinumGames comes into play

now, the gameplay of Automata I honestly felt like was more on par with what Revengeance offered: there is stuff you can do with it but all in all its below the likes of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry 3 but thats not to say its poor, of course not, it doesnt encourage you to try anything other than just Mash about, but thats Fine, theres also Chips that your characters can even equip Chips that enhance their abilities and giv e them new ones such as a Bayonetta style Parry and Witch time or give them Heals upon Killing the enemy and while the actual enviroments can be a bit of a chore to go through (until you get Fast Travel), it still felt good to Parkour your way through them, nice snappy and smooth which gives me hopes they take a cue or two from this game for Bayonetta 3 in that regard at least

another thing I loved is the Soundtrack itself. Now I dont consider myself a musical person, however I can tell when a Song is used perfectly, and in Automata? Every Song is used to actual perfection. Music to me can be the deciding factor wether a Area or Scene in a Game or Movie is Garbage, Forgettable or Legendary, and for Automata, every song makes each area fall niceley into the latter fortunatly. One Standout track for me is Birth of a Wish (Become as Gods) a retake of an earlier song that adds in additional Chorus, and the Theme for Pascals village which is a cute Melody involving Children singing.

now onto the game itself, Route A puts you in the sexy and Lucious Thigh High boots of YoRHa Unit 2B, whereas Route B puts you in the cute Boy shorts of her Partner and mostly Good Boy YoRHa Unit 9S both tasked with ridding the world of Machine Lifeforms and making Earth inhabitable for the Humans stuck on the Moon again Both Routes play out roughly the same, 2B plays like a Standard Character Action Heroine with Lights and Heavies and such, whereas 9S is mainly focused around his ability to hack enemies and engage into brief SHMUP segments.

of the two I felt like 2B was a little more fun to play all in all, the Hacking was fine but also felt a teeny bit like a pace breaker but not too much, at least until late in Route B the game throws curvebals and unique hacking segments into the mix

a thing Yoko Taro games have been very good at showing, is showing the process of a Person losing their mental stability and throwing it all away to become a one track minded Mad Man and I find that interesting.

Drakengard had a good example when the Character Inuart completley loses it and becomes obsessed with bringing back his Dead Love interest, causing here to turn into the monster posted above. Automata meanwhile, shows this also but with Machines, being that shouldnt even go mad in the first place but become Insane with concepts like Revenge, Fear or other. Now I am not a Psychology Major or anything but I cant help but feel "this is Intriguing", not sure if thats a bad thing or anything but thats how it is.

now, Route C is where officialy the PlatinumGame ends and the Yoko Taro game begins, in that things become utterly, utterly Bleak. Not to say it was happy funtime before, many of the sidequests end on a very sour or outright terrible note, but here? Shits gon Bad!

YoRHa falls, everyone on the Protagonists homebase dies or becomes infected with a Virus that makes them go insane, 2B dies and 9S is severeley wounded and has his mental state utterly ruined by seeing 2B, his Love interest, die. from this Point onward, you play as Either A2, a former YoRHa gone Rogue and 9S as he tries to kill every last Machine Lifeform, and as hes utterly loses his mind. Focusing entireley on his one Goal so that maybe, he can find Death and be with 2B in the Afterlife.

this is where the game really became interesting to me. Gradually 9S goes from this sweet pure boy to a Violent Mess that only wants to Kill and Kill and Kill, Over and Over, its a Interesting Development for such a Character I feel. A2 meanwhile, while still a Great Character and a Blast to play, I felt like was severeley underutilized, getting very little playtime compared to 2B and 9S, with most of her greatest character Development limited to a Japan only Stage play that got a short text recap on a terminal. and it just goes from there and it keeps going, plot twists happen, reveals happen, callbacks to the first Nier and Drakengard 1 happen, its just this huge Mountain of themes and stuff to uncover and analyse. references to old Philosophers and the Concept of Nihilism itself ebing explored, little details that popped up in the early game and now have much greater meaning, its....actually incredible?

I dont think I ever played a game that had so much going on, the last time I think I did was, Metal Gear Solid 3, maybe?! I think....this might actually be one of the best written games I ever played?

and there is still so much content I could go through, the Stage Plays, the Novels, theres probably a buncha Audio Dramas for it too already its like, Jesus christ. and then theres Ending E, which while rather difficult (and probably causes at least 4 people to fucking hate my Guts) was probably one of the best ending sequences I seen in recent years, I'm not gonna go into detail what it is because, it needs to be seen to be belived, but I find it genuiley incredible.

I dont think theres a single game in the Drakengard and Nier series I would actually consider my "Favourite Game", maybe Nier Automata but thats up for consideration still, but I think I can safeley say that both games story as a whole is easily up there with Metal Gear as one of my favourite Game stories out there, and friends and followers of mine would know by now how much I love that Franchise and its wacky insane story, Drakengard and Nier are special little series that you dont see enough of these days, but maybe thats for the better

I'm not gonna say "Nier Automata rekindled my love for video games" or anything, but I am glad I got to expirience these two series.

#Recent Ramblings #Ramblings #Ninja Original

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degurechaff-tanya · 7 years

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“Shields Down” A Youjo Senki Fanfic

Okay, so I wrote a fanfic! The first chapter is under the read more cut. I was inspired to write the story after this drawing by @kawacy took my breath away. I got so excited that I immediately started writing.

So, the summary: Ten years into the future, the 203rd Air Mage battalion has kept World War 1 going, and the Empire just won’t fall. Things get complicated, however, when the Entente Alliance decides that they must get rid of the Central Powers’ ace, Major Tanya von Degurechaff. Conflict leads to conflict, leads to conflict, leads to conflict. And what’s going on between Degurechaff and Serebryakov, anyway...? They’re getting closer, it seems...

Misc. notes: - This is based off of what the anime has so far explained. I haven’t read much of the manga yet. - If you liked this fic, feel free to drop a like, or reblog it and share with others!

Chapter 1: Preordained

“I must say, Major Degurechaff, that you’ve substantially turned the tides of the war over the course of your career.” Colonel Hans von Zettour paced behind his office desk as Tanya stood by.

“Thank you, sir,” she nodded. “I couldn’t have done it without the men and women of my battalion.”

“Of course not. But we certainly couldn’t have gotten this far without your astounding military prowess. If you hadn’t earned that Silver Wings Assault badge so long ago, we wouldn’t have recognized your ability. And without you being deployed to the Rhine, and then later forming your mage battalion, we would’ve had a quick defeat. Strategists were predicting that we’d have to surrender after four or five years. But alas! We’re coming up on ten, and it has no sign of stopping.”

“Have you called me here to discuss an end to the war, sir?”

He shook his head. “No. I believe the it will eventually diffuse on its own, but we have to give the Entente Alliance enough time for their motivation to die out. You’re unstoppable, major. Your battalion will disintegrate any hope they have of winning. As long as we keep the confidence of our citizens strong and our allies hopeful, there will be treaties coming through every mailbox, telegraph, and radio transmission of the Empire… in due time.”

Tanya smirked. “Well then, if you don’t mind me asking, why have I been summoned?”

“We’d like to award medals to several of your soldiers for the bravery and patriotism they’ve represented. I’d certainly give you one as well, but you’ve already earned the highest honor that the Empire has to give.”

Her assault badge gleamed cheerily by the light of the oil lamps.

“The only thing we need is for you to approve of the nominations.”

Tanya gave a nod and waited for him to continue.

Zettour paused in his pacing and set a hand down on the back of his desk chair. “But first, I’m interested to see if our opinions line up. Who would you say deserves recognition the most?”

“Lieutenant Victoriya Serebryakov. Easily.”

“Oh, is that so? I didn’t have her on my list at all. I was thinking of Schwarzkopf, or K--”

“Serebryakov is the most deserving soldier I’ve ever known,” Tanya replied quickly. “I don’t only say it because I know her well. In fact, I would never nominate a soldier subjectively. She’s simply the most improved, most patriotic, most determined and most passionate soldier that I’ve met.”

“Really? Despite her original homeland being the Russy Federation?”

“If anything, that’s more reason to be recognized. Her spirit is greater than most soldiers I’ve known who were born in the fatherland. She’s accepted it as her one and true identity, and I believe that’s admirable.”

Zettour was silent for a moment. His lips tugged upward at a small smile. “Very well then. I’ll allow the committee to consider it.”

-XXX-

It was a bleak June morning when Tanya led her battalion back out to the sky. There were no current orders to ambush, capture, or burn anything. Today was a routine border defense tactic that they’d all done a thousand times.

“Commander, we have an incoming mage company from the west,” Victoriya reported, lowering a pair of binoculars.

Tanya scoffed. “That’s fine. Usual routine, everyone. We’ll--”

“Oh, wait, another is incoming from the east!” Victoriya turned herself slowly, surveying all directions. “I see another in the northwest, about 900 meters away. This doesn’t feel like a usual invasion…”

The major cocked her gun. “No, it appears to be a direct assault against the battalion.”

“You know why this is happening, right?” One of the soldiers turned to Tanya. The look of panic on his face sent an uneasy feeling down her spine. “You’ve been the greatest threat to the Entente Alliance’s victory ever since this war began. They must have decided--”

“--That if I’m dead, they have a shot at victory again.” A laugh escaped her throat on the last word. “That’s the most obvious thing I’ve heard all year. But it’s another obvious fact that the 203rd Air Mage Battalion doesn’t fall to Republicans.”

Victoria smiled a bit when she heard that, bringing a fresh air of determination to her face.

All of a sudden, there was a horizontal rain of gunfire. The battalion seemed to be stuck right in the middle of a deadly crossroads of mage companies. Everyone took off into a dance of evasive acrobatics, jumping and flipping through the air. Tanya could faintly hear a man’s scream over the gunfire and looked over to see him holding onto his arm. He was singled out quickly, and two men on equipment that resembled metal skis swooped in on him. As they dispersed, his body fell down through the air.

“Dammit, soldiers! Focus or you’ll be prey to the war!” She took a few enemies out quickly, beginning to notice a rather concerning aspect of this fight. Some of them were on skis, some rode metallic horses, and others were using equipment she’d never even encountered before. This was definitely a team-up mission to decapitate the Empire’s ace mage battalion.

She saw, with rising horror, that her men were being wiped out right from under her command. “Oh lord, please bestow me with-- agh!” A bullet flew straight past her face. How close had it been to…? Her cheek was starting to feel warm with blood, and she cursed herself, realizing the bullet must’ve grazed her skin. “Dammit! For wanting me to pray to you, Being X, you’re making it difficult!”

“Commander!” She heard Victoriya’s scream, and all of a sudden there was a massive force at her back. A man grabbed Tanya from behind and pulled her right into his arms.

“Little fucker...” She could feel his breath on her ear. “I got you good!”

BOOM! His grip loosened, and he fell as Victoriya rushed forward out of seemingly nowhere. The barrel of her gun was smoking.

Tanya gave her a nod of approval and they kept on fighting. She thought her group could handle this, but they seemed to be completely blindsided. It’d been so long since the battalion had seen a true threat like this, and Tanya knew she’d be cursing herself over and over again for letting everyone get so cocky… herself included. But right now, it was time to focus and fight--

Three more of her mages fell. A glance down at the ground revealed that the land was speckled with what could only be body parts: the entrails of the empire. The 203rd Air Mage Battalion was truly becoming prey.

“Serebryakov! Notify HQ that we need backup right now! We’ve been trapped in a wide range assault!”

“Yes ma’am!” Victoriya began yelling into her headset, so Tanya decided that the only thing she could do was find a safe point to say her prayer and charge up with energy. She flew up high, higher, higher still, trying to make sure there would be no interference.

Her body parted the clouds and shot forth into ice air. It was harder to breathe here, so it wasn’t likely she’d be followed. It was even less likely that the enemy’s equipment could handle this altitude anyway.

The distant echoes of gunfire still rang through the air, but everything was still up here. There was usually a great deal of wind when she flew this high, but not today. It was eerily quiet -- as if the wind was waiting for something, holding its breath.

“Oh lord, deliver us from our time of need, and use your gracious power to bring meaning to the lives lost while protecting the fatherland today.” She swiped her hand across the air to reveal a translucent screen of iridescent mechanics, splayed out like a dashboard. She zeroed in on each enemy soldier, locking on for the coming attack. Precision and thoroughness were key here, so as not to hit any of her own mages…

Tanya began to take notice of something rather alarming. Where were all the enemy soldiers?! Only about half of the ones from before were still visible. There plenty more bodies on the ground below than when she’d last checked, but it was too far away to tell which uniforms the bulk of them were wearing.

She sensed something. There were several magical signatures nearby - closer than she would comfortably allow. They were increasing rapidly, and she had a feeling there wouldn’t be time to lock them into her assault. Tanya would have to fire this shot and then turn in time to apprehend whoever was coming at her from behind.

The commander’s decision was officially set when she saw a man aim his gun in Victoriya’s direction. The soldier didn’t seem to have noticed yet, and without fast action it would be too late to save her. Tanya hoisted up her rifle and allowed that burning, familiar sensation to return to her eyes. It didn’t hurt; it felt like a mixture of pure adrenaline and absolute devotion. The strange power brought to her by the one and only damned Being X.

Her rigid fingers pulled the trigger over and over again. The first one took Victoriya out of harm’s way, ripping her attacker into pieces as it exploded on impact. He didn’t even have time to scream. A number of similar, more panicked deaths began to follow suit.

As soon as that was settled, the commander turned, beginning to mutter another prayer. It would be a lot of power to draw at once, but if she truly focused, she might be able to regain her golden-eyed state --

“GOTCHA!”

“Damned girl!”

“Devil of the Rhine, eh? This is the one? I thought she’d be a little more feisty in person--”

With a flash of her bayonet, the man’s arm stiffened around her body. His head rolled right off his shoulders and fell to the ground below, his body following soon after. The other Republican soldiers recoiled in shock, but that wasn’t enough to make Tanya’s escape a whole lot easier. Glancing downward, she noticed that even more mage companies had arrived, and not in uniforms of the Empire. They never seemed to stop coming. All directions -- all countries -- seemed to have their eye on one spoil of war: Major Tanya von Degurechaff herself.

“You touch me one more time with your filthy hands, and I’ll break each and every one of your necks. All of you,” she glared. Even as an adult, twenty-one years of age, she was small compared to these militarymen. It really infuriated her when things came down to brute strength instead of magic. Of course, that only meant she had to show even more confidence in that regard.

“You’re tough, sure, but you’re on your own now. We’ve got you surrounded,” one of them grinned. “The men under your command are dropping like flies, so you really don’t get to be so cocky anymore.”

One of them gave a particularly nasty smirk. “With that pretty young figure of yours, you’re really more suited for other purposes than fighting, anyway. Maybe when we bring you to HQ, that can be put to the test.”

Those were the last words to blow the fuse in Tanya’s head. Her left eyelid twitched.

“Oh Lord, allow me to cleanse this battlefield of its sins and protect the fatherland. I offer you my utmost strength and gratitude.”

“She’s praying for her life!” one laughed.

“Let’s get this over with,” another added. Meanwhile, more and more enemy mage companies were ascending through the sky toward their current location.

Tanya began to plan. If timed right, she could take a considerable amount of them out. Blowing a hole in the enemy’s forces might give the remainder of her battalion a chance to escape.

“Lord, grant my wish and offer me a chance to experience your gracious--” she flew up higher, narrowly avoiding another attempt to grab her-- “blessings.” She could feel the power drawing from her physical energy as it came, but that strange, supernatural heat began to return nonetheless. It was building in her computation jewel and resonating deep within the core of her torso, etching itself miles into her soul and intertwining with every fiber of her being.

Tanya raised her gun just as someone grabbed onto her foot. There was only a fraction of a second to do this, and do it needed to be done right. She was no longer sure if it would save her, but it might still be able to save--

BOOM!

The soldier fell from Tanya’s ankle as Victoriya flew up next to her. This was the second time she’d pulled through and saved her superior. “W-we can still do this,” she panted, “But please hurry, commander!”

Tanya pulled her trigger. A huge explosion, bigger than before, ripped through the sky. Like a downward tsunami, a horrific mass of fire began to wipe out entire mage companies. Nothing in its vertical path survived.

Just as planned, a hole opened up in the enemy’s mass of soldiers as they either fled or fell victim to the flames. “Go go go!!” Tanya yelled, making sure Victoriya was at her flank as they flew on the scorched turbulence of the fire spell. Everyone was a little disoriented, but their fellow empirical mages seemed to understand the plan. They all kicked into top speed and began to retreat.

Despite the stench of charred flesh that burned their nostrils, Tanya could see that plenty of enemies survived. One in particular -- the one who’d made the sick remark about her body -- hadn’t died either. He was hot on her tail, in fact. And the worst part of it all wasn’t that she hadn’t been able to eliminate him in any of her two all-out attacks; it was that she still wasn’t sure if she’d make it out of this whole ambush without becoming his country’s prisoner.

Men everywhere were trying to round her up like a farm animal, but it was just a little bit farther to go… the ground was so close…

So close…

A gasp to her right. Victoriya’s rifle fell from her hand and disappeared into the air below them. Tanya felt specks of fresh blood simultaneously hit the side of her cheek, and she turned her head anxiously to assess the damage.

It had just been her left hand, but now Victoriya was defenseless.

Then, like the snap of a Republican’s fingers, the lieutenant was gone. They were moving through the air so fast that it looked as if Victoriya had disappeared from thin air, and it took a Tanya a moment to understand that someone had grabbed her.

The commander had a fast decision to make. She knew that at this point, she would most likely escape, successfully retreat, and head back to HQ alive and well. Or… she could return a favor that she’d been given twice already today. The salaryman inside of her was absolutely against that idea, but in this very moment, she was feeling more like Tanya Degurechaff. If that was the case, though… was Being X winning? She decided to address that issue after saving Victoriya.

Forsaking what every nerve in her tired body was screaming for her to do, Tanya turned herself around and bolted back into the bloodshed. They had a gun to Victoriya’s head, holding her like a hostage. In hindsight, this had probably been a lure to force Tanya back into the battle, but it wouldn’t have changed her mind about what she had to do.

The commander didn’t really have a plan for this. After expending so much magical energy already, both her body and mind were lethargic. Se knew she wouldn’t be able to draw out any more divine power if she tried, so praying would be of no use. There was only one thing she could do. Tanya held up her gun, aimed, pulled the trigger--

No ammo.

It was two of them this time. One soldier pulled the rifle from her hands, narrowly avoiding another swing from her bayonet, while another pulled her body against his chest and gripped her like a vise. Victoriya called something out, but Tanya didn’t process what it was. She just thrashed against the enemy’s grip. Without her gun, her magic, or her energy… all she had was her power of will. And that alone didn’t suffice.

The man holding her gave a familiar snicker. “Hey again, pretty girl.”

Oh no. The reality of this situation began to dawn on her.

“You set me up for this moment, didn’t you, Being X?”

The military men just laughed and boasted amongst themselves, not hearing her words.

“All of it was for this, wasn’t it? Why else would you really dare to give me access to all of that power…? You didn’t have to drag so many people down with me.”

She could picture him saying something along the lines of, “You’re the one who brought them down with you. If you had just kept faith from the beginning, your precious friend wouldn’t have to die as well.”

“Hey! I have a request,” she called out.

This time, they all turned. Some of the men were still wearing ignorant, triumphant grins, as if they’d just netted a mythological creature.

Tanya pointed to Victoriya. “I know why you want me, but don’t take her. She’s just an average soldier.”

“She’s still our enemy. And none of the enemies get away scot-free,” one replied. “Let’s take ‘em back.”

Everything after that was a blur. The farther they were dragged out of the Empire’s skies, the colder a sensation Tanya began to feel. It was the opposite of the way she felt when her body was charged with magical power. She felt tired, dizzy, and some other things she couldn’t exactly explain. It was enough that her eyes began to roll back into her head as they flew. The last thing she wanted to do was lose consciousness in this man’s arms, but it didn’t happen voluntarily.

Her senses dimmed to a slow blackness as they crossed the border of the Empire.

#chapter 1 is done!#If this has a positive turnout I'll probably post it to FFN too!#youjo senki #saga of tanya the evil #fanfiction #tanya degurechaff #victoriya serebryakov #tanya von degurechaff

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Premier League Fans’ Verdicts: Bernardo Silva should win Player of the Year

The Premier League continued this weekend with Liverpool beating Cardiff to stay ahead of Manchester City, who were victorious about Tottenham.

Elsewhere Manchester United and Arsenal's hopes of finishing in the top four were hit by defeats.

Here, Sportsmail gets the fans' verdicts following the latest round of action …

Liverpool fans were informed as their team beat Cardiff to return to the top of the table

MANCHESTER CITY

Steven Allweis (View From A Blue)

All the talk has been around Sterling competing with Van Dijk to be named Player Of The Year.

In my eyes at least, Bernardo Silva should win the award. Against Spurs, he was as sensational as has been all season. He worked tirelessly, twisted Spurs' defense all over the place, ran with the ball as if it were attached to his foot and created the winning goal with a delightful jinx inside and cross in the box.

He is simply a joy to watch and has defined matches consistently for us this campaign. It's about time he receives the praise he so richly deserves.

Star man: Bernardo Silva

TOTTENHAM

Barnaby Slater (barnabyslater.com)

To be fair, Spurs put up a lot more or a fight than I fear we may be able to after our historic Champions League victory.

We could easily have had three in the first half, but equally it never felt like we deserved to get a result from the game.

Star man: Juan Foyth

[Idon'tcareforthatmuchthoughasamstillbasinginthefeelingfromWednesdayandecstaticaboutourupcomingsemi-final Bernardo Silva put in another fine display as Manchester City got the better of Tottenham

BOURNEMOUTH

Peter Bell (Cherry Chimes)

Bournemouth might have been confident. They expected the goal to come and found themselves in a real contest for possession. Chances went early on and Fulham took full advantage. Even with three strikers on the pitch, Bournemouth couldn't unlock the door.

Fulham fans were happy singing "1-0 to the Championship". Eddie Howe is still looking for consistency.

Star man: Jefferson Lerma

FULHAM

Russ Goldman (Cottage Talk)

Scott Parker wanted the team to play with pride and reconnect with supporters. Now hey is getting results, too. It is unfortunate that this has come too late to keep us in the Premier League but we are seeing building blocks for next season. The way Fulham played suggested a new beginning.

Star man: Sergio Rico

HUDDERSFIELD

Harry Greenwood (Better Than Klopp)

Another defeat along our embarrassing relegation road. Siewert switched things up yet again as he assesses the squad ahead of a huge summer. Although we had chances in this one we were toothless yet again.

Watford capitalized with a second before Karlan Grant – one of our very few shining lights – score a consolation. With Liverpool and Manchester United to come, things look bleak.

Star man: Juninho Bacuna

WATFORD

David Anderson (Golden Pages Fanzine)

What a season this is turning out to be! FA Cup dreams aside, it was nice to get back to winning ways in the league and take the lead in the race for seventh place and potentially Europe.

It was reassuring to see us manage without Troy Deeney and we did so capably thanks to the magic of Gerard Deulofeu. He was quick off the mark to give us an early lead and it meant the rest of the afternoon could be enjoyed rather than endured.

Star man: Gerard Deulofeu

Watford fans celebrate during their side's victory over Huddersfield on Saturday

WEST HAM

Graeme Howlett (KUMB.com)

For the second successive week, West Ham were denied a goal and two points by a mystifyingly bad call from the match officials. These things just yourself out over the course of a season, it has been said. Which may be true for some clubs, but certainly not West Ham United, for whom such things are becoming something of a regular occurrence.

Star man: Lucas Perez

LEICESTER

Phil Simms (LCFC World)

A lively end to a match, for long periods, bore all the hallmarks or an end-of-season run-out in the sunshine. The players were on the beach. Harvey Barnes' injury time goal at least sent the Foxes faithful home with a smile.

Star man: Jamie Vardy

WOLVES

Ben Husband (Wolves Fancast)

The sun was out and it felt very much like pre-season fare as a pedestrian Wolev's struggled to break down Brighton. The Seagulls came to the Black Country without any ambition but left with a point. Antoerh example of Wolves failing to get the job done against the lowly sides. Nuno's men now have four games to ensure the season doesn't fizzle out.

Star man: Ruben Vinagre

BRIGHTON

Simon Cox (Brighton Fans)

Not often does a 0-0 feel so satisfying! I wanted to be last on MOTD! After our recent farces this mundane, but disciplined, bore-draw was a breath of fresh air! Team selection was Chris showing fans the dressing-room divide, and that at least £ 50million has clearly been wasted.

We red our luck, but we certainly earned our point. Kayal was a patient, professional and should start at Spurs.

Star man: Beram Kayal

Brighton fans watch on their sides with Wolves at Molineux on Saturday

NEWCASTLE

Tom Bore (Read Newcastle)

What a day for Ayoze Perez. Silencing his critics in the most emphatic way – a hat trick at St James’s Park to all-but-confirm survival. His movement and build-up play has been superb in recent weeks and he was rewarded in full against Southampton.

It feels unlikely with three games to go that Newcastle will make the necessary steps required to equal last season's 10th place finish, but with 41 points already on the board, the feeling among the fans is positive nonetheless.

Star man: Ayoze Perez

SOUTHAMPTON

Jack West (Fresh Saints)

Newcastle capitalized on a dismal first half that proved pivotal in dictating the result. The second half was the complete opposite and we arguably deserved to take something from the game. Hassenhuttl's tactical changes were spot on.

Star man: Mario Lemina

EVERTON

Joel Parker (Toffee Analysis)

Everton absolutely dominated a dreadful Man United team, and for one of the first times this season were clinical. Silva's system is always better against teams that want to retain possession, but we struggle to create great chances.

Today was different, we started off quickly and had total control for long periods of the game. The goals were absolutely incredible and Everton thoroughly deserved the victory.

Star man: Gylfi Sigurdsson

MANCHESTER UNITED

Sam Peoples (The Peoples Person)

When will United rebuild the club properly? We're a shambles from top to bottom. So many of those players should be sold. There is no way this can all be done in one summer. Sir Alex retired.

Star man: The Away End

Manchester United's players look after a conceding fourth goal to Everton

ARSENAL

Peter Wood (Le Grove)

Unai Emery spluttered at a critical part of the season, arrogantly underestimating Palace. Mustafi in defense, Jenkinson anywhere near the team, Guendouzi and Elneny in midfield … it was always going to fail and it did.

Arsenal have blown a huge opportunity and it looks like the manager has it all on the Europa League. A very dangerous gamble.

Star man: The Final Whistle

CRYSTAL PALACE

Jay Crame (The Eagles Beak)

Roy got this one spot on and the players pulled off a big result against the Gunners, and fully deserved it with the hosts finding the pace and speed on the break hard to deal with.

Benteke has had his critics but we play so much better with him as the lone striker, he just hasn't been able to match that with goals. Today was a very good all round performance from the Belgian. Big call from Roy to drop by Aanholt but it worked.

Star man: Christian Benteke

CARDIFF

Callum Ellis (Inside Wales Sport)

Competed well in the first half but it was always going to be difficult once they took the lead. It looked like a penalty on Salah for me – and one of our fans would have been furious with that child or decision did not go our way. If we keep playing like this, we'll stay up.

Star man: Bruno Ecuele Manga

LIVERPOOL

Chances were wasted and Cardiff survived until half-time, but the Reds eventually become them down in the South Wales sunshine. Wijnaldum's strike was a thing of beauty and Milner has balls of steel.

No doubt the Salah diving agenda will rear it's head once again, but it's all nonsense that was a clear a foul as you'll ever see . Many Kopites are hoping for a favor from arch rivals United this week. Not me.

United don't even have a snowball chance in hell or stopping City. My fading hopes are with Sean Dyche and the Burnley bash brothers, Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood. Or Brendan. Imagine that.

Star man: Georginio Wijnaldum

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#Premier League Fans’ Verdicts: Bernardo Silva should win Player of the Year"

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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Bookshelf Briefs 5/21/18

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 8 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – This was more of a band volume than a romantic triangle volume, and I appreciated that. Momo and Yuzu have to learn here that in order to survive, they have to write songs that are for other people, as well as songs that occasionally make compromises—such as being easier to sing. They do this by running into two annoying idols whose annoyingness turns out to be half front (and half being annoying). Elsewhere, Miou is having trouble dealing with being in a relationship when she’s still in love with Yuzu, and tries to deal with both issues at the same time, with limited success. And as if that weren’t enough, BATTLE OF THE BANDS again. Shojo’s Beat’s most addictive potboiler. – Sean Gaffney

Baccano!, Vol. 3 | By Ryohgo Narita, Shinta Fujimoto and Katsumi Enami | Yen Press – This final volume of the manga is a relatively straightforward adaptation of the first volume, with a few Easter Eggs thrown in for hardcore novel fans, such as a flashforward to Firo and Ennis’ wedding (Christopher! Rail! People blocked by an annoying arm!). Of course, the manga is cagey about when that wedding takes place—trust me, it’ll be a while. As for other aspects of the adaptation, it’s worth noting that Enami more than the anime or the novels is making Isaac and Miria explicitly a romantic couple rather than a mere comedy double act. There’s some really sweet moments here that shows off their love. Baccano! fans who saw the anime and read the novels will want this too. – Sean Gaffney

Black Clover, Vol. 11 | By Yuki Tabata | Viz Media – There’s a lot going on here, and as always with Black Clover very little of it will take you by surprise. We see brainwashed villains overcoming it (as well as villains in love), Asta manages to control his anti-magic and become more powerful, and an arrogant sneering villain gets to apologize. We also see Vanessa face off against the Queen of Witches, which gives us a nice opportunity to talk about how much Jump loves found families. A whole lot. The whole is not greater than the sum of its parts—honestly, the whole is about the same as the parts—and I suspect I’ll forget what happened in this volume before the next. But I do enjoy Black Clover as I read it. It’s dumb fun. – Sean Gaffney

The Bride Was a Boy | By Chii | Seven Seas – It probably isn’t much of a surprise that The Bride Was a Boy was one of the manga releases that I was most looking forward to this year. It’s fairly rare in translated manga to see realistically portrayed characters who are transgender, but rarer still is the opportunity to read a manga that is both about and by someone who actually is transgender. The Bride Was a Boy is the autobiography of Chii. It’s an adorably sweet manga about her experiences as a transwoman in Japan, including aspects of her transition and her marriage to her wonderful husband. Some may criticize the work for being too free of conflict–that it doesn’t adequately show the hardships that so many transgender people face–but it’s incredibly refreshing to see such a charming and positive work. Happy, hopeful stories about transgender lives are valuable and important to have, too. – Ash Brown

Chihayafuru, Vol. 11 | By Yuki Suetsugu | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Mizusawa’s karuta club has earned a spot at the national tournament no matter what happens in their final match against Hokuou, though it’s still a disappointment when they don’t come away with the victory. Part of the problem is that Chihaya is looking ahead to her next game against Shinobu and spends the entire first half trying to improve her accuracy rather than relying on her real strength—having a higher number of “one-character cards” than anyone else. I love that her resulting funk is short-lived and that her perseverance also serves as an inspiration for her sister, who’s having a bit of a career crisis. After a nice bit of encouragement from the wind instruments club, the gang is off to nationals. I consistently love this series more with every volume and don’t foresee that ever changing. – Michelle Smith

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 5 | By Ryoko Kui| Yen Press – The joy of getting Falin back lasts for about five pages into this fifth volume, and I hope you weren’t looking forward to her as part of the team. But no, instead we get a new villain, the “Lunatic Magician,” who shows the reader what they had guessed all along—Falin came back wrong. Hopefully we’ll see more of her later, but for the moment our heroes have to go back to the surface—they’ve finally gone as far as they can living off the dungeon. We also meet a few other groups, some of whom are familiar with Laos and company, and learn that Laos and Falin are viewed as… rather creepy by everyone else in the area. The series is getting darker, but I’m still enjoying the places it’s going. – Sean Gaffney

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 8 | By Izumi Miyazono | Viz Media – The series proves to be very good at looking at multiple aspects of a long term, non-married relationship, and that’s good news for the reader but bad news for Asuka, who has to deal with her workplace hearing she’s involved, and thus demoting her as they expect her to leave to be a housewife. This is so very, very Japan and it’s sad that everyone treats it as “yeah, that’s what happens.” Asuka and Ryu try their best, but she’s also hammered on by the folks in the United States that they need Ryu to be there—and not with Asuka. As such, the end of this volume is sad but inevitable. Fortunately, it’s not the end of the series. This was a bit excruciating, but well told. – Sean Gaffney

Haikyu!!, Vol. 23 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – This is the second volume in a row not to deal with the main Karasuno club, as we’re still playing out Nekoma’s match for the majority of the book. It’s a good match, but I must admit it does not exactly lend itself to new things to say in a review. Cool things happen, people learn about volleyball, their are heartfelt flashbacks, and eventually a team is the winner. The next volume definitely looks like it’s heading back to Kageyama, though, as he’s been picked as what sounds like the equivalent of an All-Pro. Can be do actual teamwork with a team other than his own, though? And what does Hinata feel about this? Fine out next time, same Haikyu-time, same Haikyu-channel. – Sean Gaffney

Tales of Wedding Rings, Vol. 2 | By Maybe | Yen Press – There’s a bit of fanservice here, but for the most part Tales of Wedding Rings impresses me by not going for the obvious harem fantasy tropes. We travel to the country of the elves to meet the next princess (described in the blurb as well-endowed, presumably to separate her from the well-endowed main heroine). Unfortunately, Nefritis is a massive introvert with a fear of others, and her brother not only has a massive brother complex but also seems to have a hate-on for the ring bearer—the two may be connected. There’s some emotional scenes and a nice battle in among the cliches here, and while I’m expecting more well-endowed girls next time around, I still think this is worth your time. – Sean Gaffney

Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty, Vol. 4 | By Megumi Morino | Kodansha Comics – Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty has always been good, but I was not expecting so many feels. It all starts so well. Shizu has come so far as her true self, and has a lovely evening with Tetsu at the summer festival. Tetsu patches things up with Chihiro, whom we learn sees a lot of himself in Shizu. With Chihiro’s encouragement, Tetsu begins to ask the spirits occupying Shizu about their lingering regrets, hoping to maybe help them move on. It’s so hopeful! And then evil dad returns and we’re plunged into bleak darkness. Thankfully, it’s brief, as Tetsu has come to care too much about Shizu to let his guilt over being paid to befriend her keep him from helping her escape her dad’s clutches. Evil dad won’t be happy with this turn of events, but I personally can’t wait to see what happens next. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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My Week in Manga: October 16-October 22, 2017

My News and Reviews

Well, it was a very quiet week at Experiments in Manga last week. I was hoping to post my review of the first omnibus of Takako Shimura’s Sweet Blue Flowers, but a variety of things came up–little dude’s preschool open house, helping family members with their cross-country move, spending most of a day on the road for an out-of-state taiko performance, to name just a few. But never fear! I’ll almost certainly be posting the review later this week instead. I haven’t been online much recently either, but I did catch a couple of thing of interest last week. The first was an announcement from Dark Horse, which will be releasing Kentaro Miura’s official Berserk guidebook in March of next year. The second was Brigid Alverson’s discussion with Akira Himekawa, the two-person creative team behind most of the manga adaptations of The Legend of Zelda.

Quick Takes

Goodnight Punpun, Omnibus 6-7 (equivalent to Volumes 11-13) by Inio Asano. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve read the fifth omnibus of Goodnight Punpun, but in reality it’s only been a few months. Perhaps it seems so long since Goodnight Punpun can be such a hard-hitting, exhausting experience which requires time to fully recover between volumes. (At least, that tends to be the case for me.) Goodnight Punpun is a surreal and extremely dark coming-of-age story. The series is intense, easily earning its explicit content warning with the manga’s portrayal of emotional, psychological, and physical violence. But while much of Goodnight Punpun is incredibly bleak, there are also moments of hope. Granted, that hope can also be extremely painful. Goodnight Punpun worked best for me when it was exploring the inner turmoil of its titular protagonist. I was actually frequently reminded of Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human as the series approached its conclusion. The manga’s second major plot involving the cult wasn’t nearly as compelling or convincing, coming across as superfluous and tangential to me. But having now reached the end of Goodnight Punpun, I find that I want to read it again. The manga has multiple layers to it and I’m fairly certain there are elements that I either missed entirely or didn’t fully appreciate my first time through the series.

Waiting for Spring, Volume 1 by Anashin. Although the basic premise of Waiting for Spring makes it seem like the manga’s setup could easily slip into a reverse harem territory, after reading the first volume I don’t think that’s the direction Anashin will be taking with the series. However, it does still look like there will be at least some romantic rivalry involved. If there’s one thing that Mitsuki wants from high school, it’s to finally make some friends. She’s having a difficult time of it, though. The other young women in her class aren’t really hostile towards her, but she hasn’t been able to really connect with them, either. But things start to change when she gets mixed up with and is unexpectedly befriended by the four stars of the men’s basketball team. In general, most of the relationships in Waiting for Spring are very well done. The blossoming romance between Mitsuki and one of the basketball players is very sweet, but I’m particularly enjoying the friendships in the first volume. Mitsuki treats all of the guys like they’re real people. She isn’t blinded by their good looks and athletic talent (though she can still appreciate them) and doesn’t hesitate to give them what for when needed. This is actually something of a novelty for them, but it’s what allows their friendships with her to naturally develop. The already well-established relationships between the four young men are also very entertaining.

Attack on Titan Adventure: Year 850: Last Stand at Wall Rose written by Tomoyuki Fujinami and illustrated by Ryosuke Fuji and Toru Yoshii. Growing up, I was a huge fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure series and other types of gamebooks. (I’ve even held onto a few particularly well-loved volumes from my youth.) And so I was very curious about Last Stand at Wall Rose, an interactive novel set during the Battle of Trost which takes place early on in Hajime Isayama’s original Attack on Titan manga. The mechanics of Last Stand at Wall Rose are interesting, incorporating elements of roleplaying games. Since I’m used to standard branching-plot stories, the book wasn’t as linear as I was expecting and in some ways was even more interactive than I thought it would be. Keeping pencil and paper nearby while reading can be very useful. Last Stand at Wall Rose was fun, but I did find some of the formatting and gameplay to be annoying. The most egregious issue was the amount of unnecessary flipping of pages which made the narrative more disjointed than it otherwise would have been. I also almost wish that page numbers hadn’t been included since the novel’s navigation is based on a system of independently numbered story sections rather than pages. (Also of note: Readers of the first printing of Last Stand at Wall Rose will want to refer to the errata posted online.)

By: Ash Brown

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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