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girlinplaits · 2 years

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Screaming. Crying. Throwing myself against a wall; A walkthrough of Netflix’s ‘Heartstopper’ with Set Decorator Maxwell Fine

Image credits: Netflix, Rob Youngson, See Saw, Maxwell Fine

This post has been copied from Maxwell Fine's website for future reference.

My phone didn’t stop buzzing on a random Wednesday in February 2021. Colleagues and friends were tweeting, facebooking and whatsapping me to tell me See Saw was producing a new show called Heartstopper for Netflix and I had to get myself involved. After making a little bit of a name for myself in LGBTQIA+ creative projects earlier in my career It sounded like the perfect fit for my next TV show!

I’m Maxwell Fine and for the past 10 years I have worked as a Set Decorator in TV, Advertising and Music promo. I’ve been in the most bizarre and fabulous situations on set from steaming silk curtains for Kate Winslet on a Lancome campaign to watching Lady Gaga be strung up to a studio ceiling in Japanese ropes for an Art Film. I’ve made panel shows, scripted comedies and fiercely bold dramas for BBC, Disney and Netflix amongst others - the list really does go on and on.

Thankfully, my phone often rings and my inbox is filled with requests here and there “can you do that?” or “Are you available to jump on this?” and on this particular random Wednesday afternoon, the brilliantly bold and BAFTA award winning designer Tim Dickel, asked me to jump on a Zoom to discuss a new project.

I had never heard of (the absolutely delightful) New York Times Best selling Author, Alice Oseman’s ‘Heartstopper’ before the script landed in my inbox. Like a lot of people, once I discovered it I couldn’t get it out of my head. There were so many parallels to my own life and I immediately understood why it was a queer story that just had to be told mainstream. If you can, you must - and so we did!

A few years previous I had campaigned for Switchboard LGBT+ helpline with the launch of my Print and Neon sculpture project ‘Robbed’. I created a load of typographical artworks inspired by a mentally exhausting jaunt I had with an ex partner who struggled with coming to terms with his sexuality.

The Art Department on a shoot take care of everything visual. From designing and building sets, booking Animals and Characters Vehicles, Food styling through to all the props and furniture used to dress a space. Paperclips to Spaceships - it’s up to the Art Department who design, buy and coordinate. As a Set Decorator, I work with a Designer and team to bring their vision to life through … stuff!

Observation is king.

I learnt to be a keen observer really early in secondary school. I was around 14 years old when I found myself squirrelled away at the back of the Art Classroom. I found myself set up on a stool next to the photocopier because I wouldn’t stop talking to my friends all lesson. I soon worked out that I really liked playing with materials and making things and so, headphones in I would sit for hours and hours, in lunch breaks and after school - making things. Painting, drawing, crafting sculptures, working with layering, cutting things out, trying again and again to make something out of nothing - a theme that would take me into this weird and wonderful career in Television!

We were being taught to observe. A weird task perhaps but an important one that would give me grounding for my future career working in TV design! As students, we would look at the world around us and try and replicate. Impressionist brush strokes, shadows and highlights on fruit, the texture of an onion out of papier mache - whatever we were working on - observation was king. Looking back now, I can not stress enough the importance of this life skill.

I gently honed my craft and with a lot of encouragement from teachers I passed my GCSE in Art and moved onto A Levels, then graduated Secondary school to a Foundation course in Art and Design and then onto Central Saint Martins to study Performance design as a University degree.

When we find Charlie sitting alone on the floor in the Art Classroom pondering life, it really made me think back to my own experience at school. Okay - so it’s wasn’t quite the same and our stories are different - but that connection to creativity and our shared curiosity with the world Charlie has is familiar to my story too.

In practice, being lead by our brilliant designer Tim, I tried to take the messy creativity of my own Art Classroom at School through to the Art Classroom at Truham. Together with our fabulous Production Buyer Zoe Seiffert and our Art Department team, we worked to create endless lists of what we were going to put in this empty room to bring it to life as a working Art Classroom.

I dug out some old photos I had of my Art room and we started to observe and take notes. Paint bottles, dirty brushes, coursework, notebooks, portfolios, stacks of paper. “Plants! We always had plants!” Zoe noted - quick - we popped some plants in the space and then our Art Assistants started making sketches of leaves, paintings of trunks to put around the place - as if the students had had a botanical project of some sort and had made work from the objects around them. All the amazing Artwork you see in the space was conceived by Tim and made in house by our team. Themes of Identity, open doors, the eye project, animal and environmental sculptures, self portraits - we were really exploring classic school themes here!

We added layers upon layers to bring life to the abandoned school we were filming in. We brought in coloured glass objects on window sills for light to bounce through, splattered paint all over the walls and repainted furniture. Our Art Assistants made recycled sculptures from coloured cellophane we found at a recycling warehouse on the outskirts of London. Tim has a knack of finding brilliant source images to work from. Sea animals, giant Jellyfish sculptures, Cassette tapes made from string, Fingerprint Artwork made from Newspaper cuttings - the creativity was endless!

You may notice throughout the series the Artwork in the room changes as the story moves through the seasons and our Characters develop their romance. Cacti sculptures come into bloom, Tissue Paper buds begin to blossom and we add more detail as the series progresses - in a way, the props here have their own way of growing with the Characters!

To say this set specifically was a labor of love is an understatement. We moved the artwork around the walls more than you’ll ever know, mounting, stapling, creating labels and really trying to capture the vibe of a busy British Secondary school Art room. We knew it was the one place in School where Charlie seeks refuge and so the relief of uncapped creativity needed to come through the props and dressing in this space more than anywhere else in the School.

Continuing our theme of integrating Alice’s illustrations, the sets in the Schools are almost their own character!

Tim was keen to create contrasting shapes and block colours to define spaces and keep the visual clean and graphic. The team made some epic 3D science posters in the Higgs form room and printed a semi transparent window film of the Periodic table to put in the window panes. Throughout the schools you can find nods to illustrations. From the Hokusai inspired blowing leaf mural (drawn by Alice!) in the Hallway (a beautiful nod to the winds of change!) at Truham to the Julian Opie inspired mural outside by the picnic benches. The best design ideas are often the simplest.

Tim wanted to work with the concept of a Geography classroom in the Truham Form room. Volcano sculptures made by students (actually made by our super talented Art Assistants) and segmented diagrams of Geodes and Rocks on the windows. We even found some really cool sandy beige school chairs from the 70’s to use here. Tim loves using light panels and placed a brilliant display of backlit images of rocks in the corner behind Nicks head for the scene where Charlie and Nick first meet. I loved the idea of rocks being formed under pressure and the metaphor of our characters blossoming romance - it all seemed to fit quite nicely. There are little gems like this all over the sets if you’re on the look out!

How to fill an empty space

Rule number one: Some spaces need to remain empty and some spaces are full on purpose.

Everything you see on screen is intentional, from dying plants to folded post-it notes. The colour of confetti through to the pattern on Nellie the dogs collar - every single item was hand picked by the Art Department with intention. You might think, why does this matter? Well, if it was any other way - we’d be telling a different story!

I talk a lot about contrast in this blog and really it’s the idea of full spaces vs empty spaces, light rooms vs dark rooms that bring the magic of a set together. The Dark, empty hallway Charlie follows Ben down vs the busy bright and colourful Art Room Charlie feels truly comfortable in to discuss his innermost feelings with Mr Ajai - everything we do is designed to support the storyline.

Working from Alice’s source material, we wanted a sense of hand drawn details in our sets. You can see this in patterns on ceramics and fabrics all over our sets. We tried to select elements that had a friendly illustrative element to them, from mugs to water bottles, curtains to cushions. The shapes within objects have softness, curves, uneven lines - we set ourselves guidelines to know what sort of objects to search for when we were buying.

As in most film shoots, we worked to create the perfect environment for our characters to exist in to let the story unfold. Charlie’s room is eclectic and messy because his story can be seen as eclectic and messy. He absorbs everything going on around him, over thinks and questions everything, so our question was; how do we show this through stuff?

Nicks room is more uniform in style. Nick’s life can be seen as more stereotypically ‘together’ than Charlie’s and so his Bedroom reflects this. It looks more settled and more formulaic. For me, the way Charlie embraces his sexuality is a direct result of him being so creatively curious in life. Although he might not think it, he’s bold, courageous and sure of himself. We wanted to create a design contrast between Nick and Charlie’s spaces to show their differences. Having such rich source material from Alice’s illustrations was a brilliant starting point for us to create from.

Our team worked on fleshing out the illustrations and adding layers of British Teenage life to them. We discussed how these characters would have grown up in these bedrooms and what the objects would be within them that make the bedrooms theirs.

There’s magic in the clutter!

We try to create a sense of realism by mixing and contrasting objects and colour tones. Brand new things next to vintage fabrics, hard surfaces next to soft, light next to dark. It can even get as granular as Matt next to Gloss - it’s all in the contrast. People tend to gather things in their environments over time from all sorts of places. It’s our job on a shoot to find the balance and create a convincing space in a super fast turn around -often a matter of weeks from concept to finished set.

Charlies bedroom wanted to be messy but also had to have a sense of ownership. We wanted to give him layers and layers of life that had collected as he’d grown up in the bedroom. We start with working out the furniture and then the rest falls into place from there. Our question often was, if there were 100 objects available what ones would Charlie pick to have in his bedroom? Out of all the things in the world, what represents him the most? Lamps, shoes, trinkets and bedding, books and posters - everything chosen specifically with the character in mind. I like to think the props tell their own story!

Early on Tim was keen to involve graphic shapes in the design for Heartstopper which came directly from Alice’s illustrations. The key to this was pulling reference directly from the Graphic novels. Stripes, stars, squiggles, leaves - you can see it in every scene and every shot. I found the rug from Charlie’s bedroom in a closing down sale in North London. We thought it worked really nicely with its bold geometric shapes in the scene where Nick and Charlie are on the floor doing homework.

I knew from reading my scripts (1000 times) that we had a sleepover here and our Characters would be hanging out on the floor. We found a vintage mattress to pull in on the floor for this scene and a load of random bedding and camping accessories we imagined would have been hauled out of the attic by Charlie’s dad. Charlie’s ‘cabin bed’ is raised up on cabinets which gives us some texture and shape behind him when he’s leaning against it sitting on his bedroom floor.

I found a job lot of amazing vintage erasers - we really wanted a sense of collections and nic’naks on shelves, stuffed behind the bed and on the desk. Our Art Assistants set to work scribbling, doodling, scratching marks into the furniture and remaking various things to turn one thing into another. A camel sculpture wears a vintage Action Man jacket, Toy Soldiers climb around Charlie’s bedroom door. It went on and on, including the excessive Converse piled around the room and plenty of Knitted jumpers noted in the graphic novels! If you looked super closely, we even scratched height marks into Charlie’s bedroom door frame as if his parents had noted different heights as he grew up.

Tim wanted realism in the sets to ground them in something believable and provided us with a lot of creative references to work from. We spent a long time researching what teens had in their bedrooms to guide us! I was asked if I could frame one of my Art prints for Charlie’s bedroom and we thought that the iconic ‘Stand Tall’ print would be the perfect piece to pop on his bedside table. It’s available to buy here if ever you needed an ounce of positivity and encouragement in your life too!

Our fantastic Art Assistant Anastasia Louka is a creative force and is behind most of the hand drawn elements in the show. Anastasia set about doodling and drawing, scribbling and making little personal bits all over the sets. The idea was to show a life lived in these spaces. We love stuff and our stuff (much like our clothes) show the world who we are.

Charlie’s house wanted to continue on the theme of being relaxed and creative. We wanted to create a connection to Charlie’s bedroom with a more grown up feel to it. The house needed to be familiar and cosy - we settled on the idea of his parents, much like Charlie being worldly people who had collected a variety of things in their lives. Peoples homes and bedrooms are often nests where they bring objects back from their experiences out in the world. Human beings are brilliant collectors of stuff and we try to show this when we work on sets for any project.

We set about buying in a load of artifacts from their travels, lots of terracotta and memorabilia from Europe. We thought about trinkets they may have brought home from a holiday to put on Kitchen surfaces, bits and pieces Charlie’s Dad may have collected over time on the fireplace in the living room. Teapots and vases, jugs and magnets - all sorts! I found a patterned sofa on eBay that I thought looked super comfy and something his mum would have bought when they moved in. Maybe something to bring gentle nostalgia for that iconic scene where Charlie is asleep on the Sofa with Nick.

I think the whole vibe of the house is that they’ve been there since Charlie and Tori were kids. There’s something about an old house that is so warm and lovely rather than something new and clean looking that can be a bit more hostile as an environment. Rather than going heavy with pattern, we worked with variations on tone and colour shades within ceramics and various pieces of wood furniture with knocks and deep wood grain to look like they had lived a life. We carried this through to slouchy cushions and floppy tropical plants, everything we put into the space was to create a sense of warmth, the sets here were almost sunkissed.

Nick’s room wanted to be a contrast to Charlie’s. In Charlie’s bedroom we see a lot of personal creativity in the objects he surrounds himself with. It’s almost like his Mum has decorated it for him and he’s added personal touches as a layer on top of that. We start our story with Nick not really knowing much about his sexuaility, so we wanted to add heteronormative touches to his room to ground his Character visually.

Our King of Rugby has a lot of trophies and sports medals. We dressed Robots on the window sill, Tin Spaceships and sports themed games, metal gridded shelving, Aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling and of course a load of hoodies everywhere - it’s a boys bedroom. There are a few bits from when he was younger but we thought maybe his mum had had a good clear out and a redecorated as he grew up. He even has a double bed!

As with all our sets, when we have hard surfaces we needed to cosy it up a bit and we do this here with soft linen curtains, throwback bedding and a slouchy corduroy beanbag. I especially loved Alice’s ‘Straight boy puts up one string of fairy lights for Christmas and never takes them down’ vibe.

Of course, there’s buckets of personality in Nick’s bedroom too but we wanted it to be less free flowing and fluid than Charlie’s. Knowing Nick’s mum was a Doctor we thought there had to be a sense of formality and style to the space to contrast with Charlie’s wholly creative and organic environment. The most ‘out there’ this room gets is the bright yellow sunglasses hanging on the peg board! Crazy Nick ;) There’s more structure to the objects we put into this space, less eclectic and more scandinavian design themes - block colours and cleanly shaped objects in light wood, chrome and frosted perspex. I think this sets the tone for a teen who seemingly has his life together and allowed us to strike that distinction when he realises it may be taking a turn in a different (but fabulous) direction as our story develops. I guess it depends on how much you think ‘stuff’ defines a person.

We had the challenge of bringing life a few more amazingly detailed bedroom sets for the other Characters in our story. We knew we wanted a Top-Shot of Darcy’s room and that they were super super expressive as a person. We set about finding all sorts of things to have on their bedroom floor that they could lay amongst from toys to clothes through to random bits of bedding from their childhood and even some fun fairy lights and streamers to throw into the mix. Elles bedroom was a bit more refined, she’s a talented artist so we made a load of doodles and paintings to put on the wall. The fun part was getting variations between the bedrooms and this comes through in the detail the team put into the sets.

Tao’s bedroom was bursting with Polaroid photos and amazing Artwork made by our in house Graphic Designer Mike Cranston. For this set, Tim wanted to push through that Tao was a film lover so we collected a load of vintage equipment, old cameras and even wire sculptures of cameras to dot around his bedroom. Tim found a gridded wallpaper to use as the base to line up all the wall elements with and it flowed from there - LED lighting behind the bed, cool perspex shelves to display his collection of cameras on - it all came together and was the perfect setting for Tao and Elle’s movie night together!

Tara’s bedroom was one of my favourites - the script said she was surrounded by stuffed toys - so we went to town and covered her entire bed in 40 teddy bears! We also got to work on a snippet of Isaacs bedroom as he sits against a wall (classically) head in a book! With all of the sets, we tried to get a lived in look going by washing bedding on a high heat and leaving out to air dry and putting them on the beds unironed. It’s all in the detail!

Harry’s 16th Birthday party is where it all comes together so we had to make it fabulous! When Designer Tim asked us to arrange Balloons all over the exterior of this magical building I knew exactly who to call. Our fabulous Balloon Queen Jane and team were up for the task! We had some coloured balloon samples sent to our office and plotted out where the balloons would go on a print out of the building. There were 1000’s of Balloons inflated indoors the day before filming and then were strung out of windows for the shot when Charlie arrives at the party in his dad’s car.

Another challenge on this set was to recreate Floral arrangements from the books when Charlie and Nick have their first kiss. I took note of Alice’s illustrations and I knew Jenny Tobin (Florist to the stars!) could do them justice. We referenced Daisies and meadow flowers with their big relaxed droopy heads and floppy leaves. It was important to us the florals were friendly and approachable instead of stiff and corporate. Charlie and Nick run off to find a quiet spot to catch up at the party and we wanted to try and match the florals here to Alice’s Illustrations as best we could in real life. A lot of thought goes into everything we put on screen and most of the florals in Heartstopper are Jenny’s brilliant work.

Towards the end of our shoot schedule, in the middle of Summer we started work on the Herne Bay / Pier sets. Our designer Tim had some amazing mood boards of truly British Seaside scenes so we set about pulling in all the various items we’d need to recreate that. Our production buyer Zoe found some fantastic sealife balloons that we thought harked back to our Art Classroom sculptures (we love a throwback reference!) and we filled baskets with all sorts of things you’d find at the seaside. From buckets and spades, through to pool noodles and parasols - if its on a beach we had it.

One of the final scenes we filmed was the merry-go-round fairground ride that was (inside scoop!) filled with crew!! Safe to say, by the 5th time round I was feeling like I was about to vomit but it was far too late to get off as we were already filming and I was right in the back of shot.

Of course there are plenty of other sets that we worked on for the show that I haven’t gone into detail about but overall we worked to create a fully realised splash of queer teen British loveliness throughout. I was continually humbled by the 110% our team put into every day at work on this project, we really were all working at a million miles per hour to make the visual the best we could and try to do Alice’s brilliant world justice.

All said and done, I hope our side of the story has come through in the props and set dressing for the better! It was a massively exciting project to work on and myself and our fantastic production buyer Zoe felt a huge responsibility to Alice, the fans and the LGBTQI+ community to inject as much vibrancy and life into these sets as we could. We knew from the start how groundbreaking this show would be for Netflix and our community as a whole. We made sure we took extra care selecting every one of the thousands of items we put into the sets and felt so lucky to have Tim, Alice, Patrick, Zorana and Euros to guide us each step of the way.

We could not have done it if it wasn’t for the inspiring framework our designer, Tim Dickel had set out for the visuals for the show - his endless creativity and passion for storytelling is compelling and bursts through every scene! Most importantly, we had a tonne of fun pulling it all together which is really, what it’s all about.

As always with the LGBT+ projects I work on, we stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before us and we pay immense gratitude to everyone in the queer space past and present who have created work to better the community we all belong to.

#heartstopper #heartstopper series #Maxwell fine #set decoration #I have lifted the photos and text directly from the web post because I couldn't find a source anywhere else #I just wanted to hold it as reference #there's nothing quite as fascinating as the character of the sets inside a show/movie #it's all in the little details - and to fill a set you need HUNDREDS and nothing has gotten in there just by accident #I could pore over sets for hoursss if I was allowed and to listen to every item being talked about for the why and who and where of it all #SIGN ME UP.#I love that the carousel scene at the end is mostly cast because what a gem of a scene to highlight the growth and the build and the coming #together of nick and Charlie to that point in time #and in terms of the show itself - they couldn't have had that without the incredible team involved #also see me LOVING how Maxwell Fine talks about the differences between nick andcharlie's bedrooms and the thoughts on those UGH YES #set design

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tang-wei · 3 years

Text

ONS Guren LN Vol 1 Chapter 5 Part 2 translation

Title: War and Convenience Stores

Translator: @tang-wei

Raws: Chinese

If you feel the need to re-read the whole series again, the masterpost is here. Don’t forget that this is part 2 of chapter 5, please read part 1 as well!

Important note: Because the previous sources for Volume 1 have been taken down/ made unavailable, I am translating this for the sake of fans who are not able to purchase a copy of the official English translation that is available. If you enjoy Guren’s story, then please support the author by buying the novel!

***

The sun had set.

The town was dyed red.

On the way home from school.

In a place where there were not that many people, a small convenience store.

While Sayuri and Shigure shopped for dinner, Guren waited with his arms crossed, sitting on a guardrail.

At that moment,

“Saito-san! Saito-san! Is it really okay for me to buy any sweets that I want?!” The happy voice of a young boy could be heard.

Guren glanced at the direction of the voice. As one would expect, there was a young boy.

A fair-skinned boy with blond hair and a beautiful face. It was likely that he was not Japanese. Or it was possible that he had foreign blood in his veins.

The boy spoke while smiling very happily.

“I wonder what I should buy to make everyone at the orphanage happy~? Hey Saito-san, if I buy ice cream, do you think the director would get mad?”

It was then the man named Saito-san responded,

“I wonder. In that orphanage, is there even a fridge…”

“Of course there’s one.”

“Then it should be fine. Even the director should allow for sweets.”

“Yay!”

“There now, take this money and go to the supermarket. Will you be alright buying it yourself, Mikaela-kun?”

The boy called Mikaela responded to that question,

“Of course. How old do you think I am? I’m 8!” He smiled. It was then Guren saw Saito take out 10,000 yen.

“Eh, this much…” Mikaela exclaimed, surprised.

Saito smiled.

“It’s for everyone after all.”

“But, is it really okay, to take 10,000 yen…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Now go on.”

“Okay! But if I was going to get that many sweets, it would’ve been good to have brought Akane-chan with me…”

Having said that, with sparkling eyes, the boy named Mikaela entered the supermarket.

“That’s why you are trying to get the sinful people who won’t join the 《Hyakuya Sect》, and therefore will die from the virus, to hurry and join?”

And thus,

“……”

Guren watched this with his arms crossed. Then, Guren’s gaze switched to watching the man called Saito.

Saito wore a black suit.

The man who had attacked Guren ten days earlier had worn the same black suit.

“……”

That is to say, that was the guy that tried to kill him in the elevator, the assassin from the《Hyakuya Sect》.

“Saito? Didn’t you say that your name was Kijima?”

The assassin smiled cordially at that.

“At the orphanage, I go as the kind Saito-san.”

“Hmm. So then is Kijima your real name?”

“I do not have a real name.”

“To put simply, you’re an assassin?”

“Yes.”

“Then, at that orphanage, you like playing the role of Daddy Long-Legs?”

“Haha, that’s what it looks like. Well then, knowing that I am such a kind Daddy Long-Legs, have you become interested in hearing what I have to say…”

“Nope.”

The assassin laughed at the interruption.

“Even so, please call me Saito-san while we’re here. If Mika-kun overheard, there would surely be some confusion.” He said.

With that, Guren glanced towards the supermarket where the boy named Mikaela had gone.

“And? What would you be using that kid for?”

“What do you mean?”

“The 《Hyakuya Sect》 is famous for their human

experimentation. Don’t try to say otherwise.”

“No no, that is a huge misunderstanding. In the end the 《Hyakuya Sect》administer the Hyakuya Orphanages as charitable work…”

“Then where did you come from?” Guren asked Saito.

“Who did that thing to your body? Where did that happen?

There’s no way you’re going to say something like your parents raised you in good health and with love, right?”

“……”

At that, Saito stopped smiling. He then replied in all seriousness,

“…You’re right. It’s certainly true that I came from the Hyakuya Orphanage. But I undertook the laboratory testing of my own free will, and obtained this body.”

“Huh, so brainwashing.”

Then, staring at Guren, Saito continued.

“No, I seriously think that the 《Hyakuya Sect》 wants to guide

this country to the right path. While Guren-sama may not be aware of this, if Japan continues down this path, the trumpet of the end will drag us into decay.”

Such strange things he said.

Still, Guren smiled and replied,

“Hah, so you’ve come out with it. The apocalypse, huh? That’s a signature move used against newcomers of a religion. If you do not believe, you won’t survive the apocalypse? Even we know how to use that kind of talk. So do the Hiiragis. There’s always something that resembles it in doctrines. But so what? By using that, did you think you’d be able to convert me?”

Guren asked.

Saito’s facial expression did not change, but regarded him seriously.

“That was not the meaning of what I said.”

“Then what is it?”

“In truth… if this continues, a virus will spread via an untouchable forbidden magic, who knows how rampantly it would spread, and the people of this world will find no place to live.”

“And, you’re saying that you guys are protecting us from that?”

“Yes.”

◆

Saito smiled and shook his head at that.

“No, as I said, I am not having this kind of conversion conversation. Even up til today, I didn’t have any intention to speak to you about these kind of things.”

“Ah? Then what do you want to speak to me about?”

To this question, Saito replied.

“About war. The one who made the virus is not God, but humans. And these are humans you know very well. The ones named Hiiragi.”

“Wha, that’s…”

Saito ignored that and continued,

“The 『Mikado no Oni』 who stole the seat of the National Magic Organization from the 《Hyakuya Sect》 has run wild, they are using the absolutely forbidden magic. That’s what we are frantically trying to prevent.”

“.........”

Saying this, the corners of Saito’s mouth lifted.

“Well? Don’t you think we have common interests?”

What a thing to say. Saito stretched out a hand towards Guren,

“So, won’t you join forces with us? Before the word ends, to attack the Hiiragi.”

He proposed.

Guren looked at his hand.

He said that the Hiiragi were going to destroy the world with the forbidden magic they got their hands on, and that they were trying to protect everyone from it.

And then, in the dawn of the era of the Hiiragi being destroyed,

“…The position of the Ichinose would rise.”

At that, Saito smiled and nodded his head.

“Of course. Since this about those who assisted the 《Haykuya Sect》 in making history, regarding the position currently occupied by the Hiiragi, it would be between the forces of 『Mikado no Oni』 and 『Mikado no Tsukki』.”

“Hmm. Well, then what? Are you offering an alliance with all of the Ichinose– no, all of the 『Mikado no Tsukki』?”

“Of course.”

“Then, why are you offering it to me? The Head of the

Ichinose House is–”

“Your father, is that right? However, your father is part of the

docile faction.”

At that, Guren smiled once again.

“Then, I’m the radical?”

Saito nodded his head apologetically.

“As I’ve said before, we have also done some investigations into the past. Including yours and your father’s. And so we made a choice regarding who would be the party to participate in this conversation with us.”

“You chose me?”

“Yes.”

“You thought that if it were me, I would readily accept?”

However, Saito shook his head.

“No. We did not think that. However, we thought that before it starts, we should at least say hello to you.”

Or so he said.

Before it all starts.

In other words,

“Even if you did not have the Ichinose, you intend to go to war?”

At that Saito shrugged his shoulders.

“The ones who started it are the Hiiragi though.”

“Besides, by telling me this much information, the start of that fierce struggle is fast approaching. ”

Smiling widely, Saito nodded.

“It is 10 days away. After 10 days, the 《Hyakuya Sect》 will go to war with the Hiiragi House.”

“10 days, huh. I will give you my reply then…”

“No, we need your answer now. If you do not join us today, then the plan for you to also be our enemy will be put into progress.”

Saito said, looking right at Guren.

Guren glared right back in return.

“That’s not happening. In the first place, if I don’t know the truth of what you are saying, how can I accept? Is the Hiiragi House really going wild with forbidden magic? Is it really necessary to stop them? Far from that, it’s also entirely possible that you guys the《Hyakuya Sect》 and the Hiiragis are teaming up to test the Ichinose. In these circumstances, you want me to immediately give you an answer? That is impossible.”

He responded.

However, Saito simply nodded his head, and,

“I see. Then negotiations have broken down.”

“No.”

“What is it? Did you want to join us? Please be decisive. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter whether you are a friend or foe…”

In other words, it is what it is.

If a war began, the more comrades the better.

Even so, they thought that with the power the Ichinose have, whether they have them or not, would not influence the battle at all.

That is a fact.

Nevertheless, the 《Hyakuya Sect》, is a bigger and more powerful organisation than the Hiiragi House, who had the Ichinose under their submission. Of course there was no need for them to bow their head and beg for the Ichinose’s help.

At the end of the day, before the fight would begin, they just came by to say hello. If the Ichinose did not join, then they would be destroyed together with the Hiiragi.

That’s why in Guren’s mind, he was furiously wondering how to best act. What was the best method to ensure a future where the Ichinose House wouldn’t be destroyed. A method to ensure a future where those that belonged to the 『Mikado no Tsukki』would not be destroyed.

Right now, with the answer he had to give, there was a possibility that everything could change.

In that case, what was the best thing to do?

What was the best way for him to move?

As Guren was forming those thoughts in his head, he replied.

“At least, give me an hour to consider.”

“I cannot.”

Saito rejected.

At that, Guren narrowed his eyes.

“Then my answer is ‘No’. I won’t join forces with an organization that w

That night, Guren wrote to his family.

About the contact the《Hyakuya Sect》made.

About how the Hiiragis would run wild, and how it was possible that they would cause the destruction of the world with a virus. About how a war between the Hyakuya Church and the Hiiragi House will begin in ten days.

About how he rejected the 《Hyakuya Sect》’s proposal.

~CHAPTER 5 PART 2 END~

The letter would reach home the same day. Regarding such an important issue, not just the Ichinose, but all of the 『Mikado no Tsukki』 would gather to discuss how to act.

They would begin to gather information to verify the truth of Saito’s words.

Such a large job would take 3 days to complete. And then afterwards it would take a week to make preparations.

But, if what Saito said was the truth, then there was no time left to act at a leisurely pace.

It was possible that a war as going to start.

Furthermore, it was a war that could possibly destroy the whole of Japan―

Then, how should he personally deal with such a war.

“No, we need to carefully consider the best things to do during this chaos”

That night, Guren tossed and turned, thinking about such things.

T/N: I don’t even know where to begin with the apologies or the excuses... but it is finally here!

<<Chapter 5 Part 1 || Chapter 6 >>

#owari no seraph #ichinose guren's catastrophe at 16 #ichinose guren #saito #mikaela hyakuya #shigure yukimi #sayuri hanayori #mushroom translates #guren ln

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razberryyum · 4 years

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So you’re done with The Untamed and want more, what now?

Reposting this since I’ve updated it with new info/links. Again, I entered the fandom via The Untamed so I’m by no means a MDZS expert, just tried my best gathering all the resources I can which I hope will help some new Untamed/MDZS fan out there. If you spot any errors, don’t yell at me, just let me know and I’ll correct it as best I can, especially for any future reposts.

READ THE NOVEL

Read the original web novel the show was based on: The Untamed (aka “CQL” or “Chen Qing Ling”) was adapted from the BL web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (aka ”MDZS” or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (”MXTX”). Yes the novel came first, CQL is only an adaptation. In the novel, you get the uncensored romance of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, where they are canonically married and living happily ever after. The novel goes full into R18 territory so please tread carefully.

All four volumes of the novel can be purchased from the original publishing site, JJWXC. The site’s in chinese but here’s a tutorial on how to navigate it and purchase the books: JJWXC Tutorial Link.

There’s also the option of purchasing the physical copies from Yesasia which might be easier but it’s also more expensive since they’re the middle man: Yesasia MDZS Link

It would be wonderful if you can support MXTX-laoshi by actually buying the books, especially since the cover art is so beautiful and the extra chapter volumes come with a lot of awesome extra goodies, but of course there’s also the option of reading the fan translations graciously provided by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations team at their site:

They translated all the novels including the bonus chapters in their own free time and are providing the fanslations for free so please give them some love for all their hard work.

WATCH THE ANIME (aka “Donghua” in Chinese)

Watch the anime based on the novel: The donghua was released before The Untamed. Two seasons are already available (23 eps total) with a third season in production and a special chibi version of the donghua in production as well. The Eng-subbed donghua can be seen using the WeTV app or on Youtube: YT MDZS Donghua Playlist

Grant it, the donghua is even more censored than The Untamed, but the donghua team still managed to sneak in some easter eggs (f.e. WangXian naked bathing scene in the cold springs from the novel...in The Untamed they were fully clothed) and more importantly, the animation is just gorgeous so it’s absolutely worth a watch despite the censorship.

READ THE MANGA (aka “Manhua” in Chinese)

Read the manhua which is ongoing and is being officially translated by WeComics, available on their app for free. Search under the name “Mo Dao Zu Shi”.

Unfortunately, the official translations are more than 20 chaps behind the raws and there have been complaints about the quality of the translations in the past, but I believe they’re starting to improve so since they’re official, it’s always better to support the official source.

The raw untranslated manhua can be found on the Kuaikanmanhua app. Other than being in Chinese, some of the chapters (f.e. the most recent ones) are behind a paywall, but here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the chapters, provided by @chiharuzushi on Twitter: Kuaikanmanhua Tutorial

The chapters are quite cheap...I purchase 1000 KK coins for 10 rmb ($0.14) and each chapter is only 68 KK coins so even if we end up with 500 chapters it’ll still be...er...quite cheap overall (don’t make me do the actual math). The most painful part is figuring out how to set up the Kuaikanmanhua account, but otherwise, if you can read Chinese or know enough of the story by now that you don’t really need to read the words, the manhua is definitely worth reading because it’s less censored than The Untamed and the donghua.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO DRAMA

Listen to the audio drama, which is at this point the most faithful and LEAST censored adaptation of the novel we will probably ever get! Wei Ying’s voice actor in The Untamed is the voice actor for his audio drama counterpart. (Yes, almost everyone in The Untamed is dubbed by a voice actor, EXCEPT for Nie Huaisang. Ji Li, the actor for NHS, was the only one who used his own voice. Lan Zhan in The Untamed shares the same voice actor as his character in the donghua).

Each episode art of the audio drama is AMAZING. Google Translate works well on the site, you’d want to see the listeners’ comments cuz they’re just adorable and hilarious.

Official links on Maoer FM:

Season 1: Maoer FM S1 Link

Season 2: Maoer FM S2 Link

Season 3: Maoer FM S3 Link

The audio drama was supervised by MXTX-laoshi, the author of the novel, so a lot of love and care went into the production, and it shows. The audio drama is behind a paywall but I remember it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s the tutorial on how to purchase the audio drama from the Maoer FM site: Maoer FM Tutorial Link

Ngl, it was tough at first navigating all that, Google translate helped, but once I figured it out, it was all so worth it because in addition to the MDZS, the site houses a lot of other wonderful audio dramas. There are also MDZS fan songs on the site that are near professional quality and oh so good.

Suibian Subs have kindly translated the episodes and their translations are available here: Suibian Subs MDZS Audio Drama

Show them some love too for translating the episodes, but please if you can, purchase the episodes so you can support the audio drama team which have done an amazing job.

There’s even a Japanese audio drama which the Chinese AD team helped spearhead, available on the MIMI FM app. Here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the eps (half of the first season is out): MIMI FM Tutorial

It’s in Japanese but just follow the pictures. I’m hoping that the Japanese audio drama will end up being the MOST uncensored version of MDZS since Japanese BL dramas are not afraid (and allowed) to go all the way to R18. XD

MORE THE UNTAMED CONTENT

Lastly, if you’re just thirsting for more Untamed content, there are two spin-off movies you can watch. The first one, The Living Dead, is kind of centered on Wen Ning and Sizhui post-CQL.

The second one, Fatal Journey, is focused on the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, with a cameo by Jin Guangyao. It takes place prior to Wei Ying’s return from the dead.

Of the two movies, I definitely recommend Fatal Journey more. Both movies are available on the iQiyi app, which offers a one month free trial for first members. Each month afterwards for VIP is $6.99.

You can also go on the WeTV app for even more Untamed extras: WeTV put out a special edition cut of the show which tightened up the story AND features the original ending that was intended before censorship forced the production team to come up with the more ambiguous one we saw in its original run. It was a simple matter of rearranging certain scenes and getting rid of the separation part, but imho it really made all the difference to the ending.

There’s a ton of behind-the-scene cuteness that you can watch and also concerts with the cast in Thailand and Nanjing. VIP subscription to the WeTV app is $5.99/month and the Nanjing concert is for rent for 3 months at about the same price.

The show also put out two official soundtracks, one for the vocals and one for the score. Both are available on Amazon and iTunes. For Amazon though, you can search under “The Untamed” but they did this weird thing where the vocals one is listed as “The Untamed (Chinoiserie Music Album)” (wtf) while the score is just listed as “The Untamed (Original Soundtrack)”.

Finally, most of the male members of the cast took part in a fan meet and greet at the start of the show, before it became hugely popular. The entire meet and greet is available on youtube subbed: The Untamed Fan Meeting

That’s it for The Untamed and MDZS. If you end up liking the novel enough to want to read more by the same author, MXTX-laoshi has also written two other BL novels, The Scum Villain Self-Saving System (aka “SVSSS” or “Scum Villain”) and Heaven’s Official Blessing (aka “TGCF” after its Chinese title). Both have been fully translated by fans (but always try to buy the original if you have the means, as a way to support the author!):

SVSSS Translation: BC Novels Link

TGCF Translation chaps 1 - 24: Sakhyulations Link

TGCF Translation chaps 25 - End: Suika & Rynn Link

As with reading any BL novel (aka “danmei novel” for Chinese BL books), please heed the warnings and if it’s not your cup of tea, just exit out of the page and move on with your life. No big deal, right?

Anyway, hope all this info dump helps someone! If you’re brand spanking new to this fandom, welcome, and I’m so jealous of you! Would love to relive stepping into the world of MDZS/MXTX/danmei novels all over again since I feel like I’m already running out of stuff to read and I’m beginning to panic a little.

Happy watching/reading/listening!

#The Untamed #CQL #Mo Dao Zu Shi #MDZS #WangXian #MXTX

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yetanothergamingcouple · 3 years

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24 Hour Gaming Event

Better late than never. Here is our piece on the 24-hour gaming event we went to last September. There will be a post in the next couple of days explaining our silence but for now please enjoy our account of the event.

The awesome Rachel and James over at Bake Battle & Roll organised a mammoth 24-hour gaming event in aid of Sheffield Children’s Hospital. The event kicked off on Saturday 12th September 2020 at 14:00. Katie (occasional guest reviewer) and Kirsty’s mothership joined us for the first 2-hours, and we kicked it off with a couple of games of Side Effect. Katie won both games and the mothership was completely confused by it.

Next we tried a new game to us all, Chronicles of Crimes. Kirsty had been eyeing it up for a while and was excited to try it but was left a bit disappointed. The premise is good, but it was a bit awkward and clunky to play with 4 of us as we had to keep passing Kirsty’s phone around us all.

Kirsty forced the group to play one of her new games, Ghosts Love Candy, we didn’t quite play it right but Andy was surprised at how decent the game was. It’s a fun card drafting game with a cutesy spooky vibe. Kirsty absolutely destroyed the rest of us and won by 10 points.

The last game we played with Katie and the mothership was Cards Against Humanity. Katie had been wanting to play this for years but since she only turned 16 this year the answer has always been nooooo…until now! She was thoroughly disappointed in her crap cards and had to skip a turn to change her hand. As their time was coming to an end we decided to play to 5. It was a close game with us all having 4 wins, but Kirsty managed to steal the tie-breaker game…with rock, paper, scissors.

Kirsty’s mothership and Katie then said goodbye and we were left to fend for ourselves. Kirsty has had her eye on Arkham Horror which is a very heavy/complex board game and a fellow gamer, Chris, became very interested in playing with us and offered to help out. He showed us the basic game mechanic and rolls and we got stuck in to fighting the monsters and teleporting to the Netherworld. Between the three of us we beat the game and a great time was had by all. It’s definitely one that we’d like to buy, but we feel it’d be better with more players.

After such an intense game we felt like something lighter, so we broke out Fluttering Souls and took it easy for a while. It’s a light card drafting game that’s based on the Japanese legend of The White Butterfly. This is one of the games we own and brought with us. Andy won all of the games this time.

After a quick snack another player, Josh, came and asked to join us. Josh chose Side Effect, another game from our collection we brought with us, and we explained the rules to him quickly. As an avid board gamer, Josh picked up the rules easily and won many of the games we had together.

Next up was Everdell. This is a beautiful game with very tactile pieces and a large cardboard tree, which the Meeples of Bake Battle and Roll, James and Rachel, keep on display in a glass cabinet rather than deconstruct it after each play and stored in the game box. We setup the board and managed to read the rules but as this was a new game to both of us and a game of Monster of the Week was due to start we packed it away. We did intend on coming back and playing it later, but Monster of the Week ran over, and we never managed to go back to it.

Neither of us had heard of Monster of the Week let alone played it but it turned out to be a simpler Dungeons & Dragons with simple character creation and rolling. The Keeper (read as DM in Dungeons & Dragons) was Chris and we were playing as ghost detectives a la Scooby Doo. Andy was a street thug/gangster and Kirsty’s character was a mundane. Chris was an excellent Keeper and let us get away with lots of silliness in the name of fun. We gave the NPCs silly names like Mrs. Mister Brown (a drama teacher) and Jason Barson (The bartender’s son). Andy dealt the final blow to the boss ghost with a holy shotgun and we all cheered. Subsequently we have purchased the game book for this and hope to run our own campaigns with our friends.

After saving the world from evil-doers Andy headed over to the Switch to play Mario Kart while Kirsty played Dungeon Mayhem Monster Madness with the James, Rachel, Chris and Josh. James and Rachel had previously played the base game Dungeon Mayhem before so were familiar with the rules and both Chris and Josh picked them up quickly. Josh was the first to be knocked out quickly followed by Chris. It was a close as to who would win, James knocked out Rachel and then Kirsty knocked James out but there was only 2 HP in it.

Kirsty was very much peopled out by this point and decided to have some solo time while Andy played Dungeons and Dragons. This was a team battle royal. All players fighting against progressively harder monsters using pre-created characters. Andy chose a wizard and spent most of the time stood still casting spells galore. Some players were upset that there was no levelling in the event, but we had lots of fun. Everyone was getting pretty tired and James was struggling to run the game so we called it a day.

While Andy was still playing Dungeons and Dragons and once Kirsty had recovered a little she played a couple of games of Rhino Hero. It’s a relatively simple game premise but a lot of fun, especially when you are able to box other players in. You choose a superhero and build platforms with the aim of moving up to the top. You have to roll the dice to see if you move or down, and if so how many levels, or stay where you are. If you are on the same level as another superhero you have to battle to determine who remains there and who moves down. An added complication is the need to hang monkeys from some of the platforms. They are tricky to attach and often fall off when adding new platforms.

We had a small break with some food and coffees and was invited to a game of Talisman. A large game which took a while to play. Players have to work their way from the outside of the game towards the centre. Fighting monsters and trying to find a talisman in order to progress. There were a few laughs and people being turned into toads which raised a lot of laughs. Kirsty fought off all the opposition to claim the victory and we all concluded it was a fun game but not a good game.

Kirsty was very excited to see Bake Battle and Roll had Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas board game in. It’s a very basic game that leaves a lot to be desired. We decided to pack it away mid-game in favour of a bacon sandwich. It had so much potential, but it just fell short.

After a quick run to a nearby café to grab some bacon and egg sandwiches Andy invited Chris to play Space Crusade. He’d been excited about it since the start and didn’t want to disappoint him. This was a quick run of the mission Seek and Destroy and some rule bending to make the game fun. The game ended in a firefight between the Dreadnought, Chris’ Commander, and his plasma gun Marine. With the Dreadnought closing in on him, Chris managed to destroy his enemy and claim the victory. Andy was happy to have killed some of Chris’ Marines and shows that the alien player can win too.

While Andy was playing Space Crusade, Kirsty played Disney Colour Brain with Rachel and Em. You have eleven cards in your hand and one or a combination of cards will answer the question. Getting it right is only half of the battle to scoring a point you need the other players/teams to get it wrong to walk off with the points. It was simple and mind-numbingly easy to grasp but highlighted Kirsty’s need to watch more Disney-Pixar films. Kirsty just managed to scrape a win before moving on to a game of Red Panda. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards or be the last player standing. The graphics are super cute and colourful. It’s very much a luck-based game and although it’s clearly a game aimed at children and families it’s a nice filler game for adults.

As exhaustion was finally settling in we opted to play games we were familiar with and cracked out Side Effects again. We played two games with each of us claiming a victory before moving on to Fluxx. It’s been a while since we played the physical copy of Fluxx as we’ve got into the habit of playing it on our phones. Neither one of us can recall just how many games of Fluxx we played nor even who won. Sleep deprivation really took out Kirsty’s competitive nature. After Fluxx we went back to Fluttering Souls, once again neither one of us remembers who won.

We decided we’d see if we could use sleep deprivation to our advantage and tap into some psychic ability to play The Mind. Andy didn’t have high hopes for success and Kirsty was unsure she could count to 2 let alone 100 but we still tried. We’re still unsure what dark magic was afoot but somehow, we managed to reach and complete level 12 with 2 lives remaining. It was as if we were thinking as one.

Being on a high from the win of The Mind we thought we could successfully take on Forbidden Dessert. Oh how wrong were we. We started well, got everything set up and a strategy of who was going where. That quickly went downhill as Andy started to move Kirsty’s pawn and Kirsty kept getting confused by which way the wind blew. All in all it was a disaster and we soon realised we weren’t in a fit state to play Forbidden Dessert so we packed it away.

Andy was a little amazed that Kirsty had never played Dobble before and decided it was due time she did. We played all 5 variants of Dobble in the rule book before Chris wondered over to join us. We played 3 more games of Dobble with Chris before moving on to our final game of the 24-hour event, Sushi Go! Chris hadn’t play Sushi Go! before so we invited him to join us. Andy quickly explained the rules and our final game was underway. Chris picked the rules up well and if not for having the least amount of puddings would have come in 2nd, Andy thought he had the most with 3 but unfortunately for him Kirsty had been squirreling them away and had 4. Andy did manage to win this game though by 3 points.

The 24-hour gaming event was brought to an end with the raffle draw. Between us we came away with a £30 voucher for Punch Menswear in Doncaster, Men’s hair products from Anarchy Hair Salon,

2 Reaper miniatures and 2 hand-made cotton cloths. Kirsty did also win a Big Potato plushie but gave it to the raffle drawer as he seemed disappointed his dad didn’t win it.

It took Andy a couple of days to recover and get his sleep pattern back to normal and Kirsty was just about recovered a week later. It was a fantastic experience with some truly amazing people and games. We would definitely be up for repeating the experience…Kirsty would just need to book a week off work to recover.

A huge thank you to everyone that donated and sent messages of encouragement. When Rachel and James first started they wanted to raise £1000, between donations, sponsorship and raffle tickets they’ve managed to raise £2245. A massive congratulations to both of them for organising such an amazing and successful event.

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papermoonloveslucy · 4 years

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THE PORTRAIT ARTIST

August 6, 1948

"The Portrait Artist” aka “The Portrait Painter” aka “The Portrait” is episode #3 of the radio program MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on August 6, 1948 on the CBS Radio Network.

Synopsis ~ Liz is having her portrait painted by a handsome but gruff artist. George gets jealous and fakes illness, and he is attended to by a sexy young nurse - causing the green-eyed monster to rear between both Cugats!

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cugat) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cugat) was born as Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father's garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz, a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), was one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

GUEST CAST

John Hiestand (Cory Cartwright) served as the announcer for the radio show “Let George Do It” from 1946 to 1950. In 1955 he did an episode of “Our Miss Brooks” opposite Gale Gordon in which he once again had the surname Cartwright.

The role of Cory Cartwright was originated by Hal March but Hiestand very quickly replaced him. March did, however, stay with the show and appears from time time as various characters.

Jeff Chandler (Damon Welch) was known for his prematurely gray hair and striking good looks as a young man. On radio, he was on “Our Miss Brooks” as Mr. Boynton with Eve Arden. When the series moved to television in 1952, Chandler was replaced by Robert Rockwell. Chandler died at age 42 from blood poisoning after an operation.

William Johnstone (Doctor) is best known for his voice work as the title character on “The Shadow” from 1938 to 1943, replacing Lucille Ball’s friend Orson Welles. He played John Jacob Astor in the 1953 film Titanic.

Mary Shipp (Nurse Mary Ann McCarthy) was a radio and TV actress and the second wife of CBS Executive Harry Ackerman. Shipp played a recurring character on CBS’s “My Friend Irma” (1954-55) which featured Gale Gordon’s mother Gloria and Hal March, who was the first actor to play Cory Cartwright.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series on July 23, 1948. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

This episode aired on Lucille Ball’s 37th birthday, August 6, 1948.

At this point in the series, George and Liz are still named Cugat. Their surname will be changed to Cooper in 1949 to avoid confusion with a famous Latin bandleader. No, not Desi Arnaz - Xavier Cugat! Also, the show had yet to introduce Iris and Rudolph Atterbury, the secondary characters, similar to Fred and Ethel on “I Love Lucy.” The character of Cory Cartwright, a handsome bachelor friend of the couple, will shortly be phased out. He was initially played by Hal March, but here played by John Hiestand.

Marital jealousy and painting were also the subjects of “My Favorite Husband” the CBS television show on November 29, 1955.

THE EPISODE

Announcer Bob LeMond sets up the premise of the series:

Ten years ago the town’s most eligible bachelor, George Cugat, married socially prominent Elizabeth Elliott. The lavish wedding kept the society columns all over the country in copy for weeks. The New Yorker said:

“The bride and groom were dressed with the nth degree of smartness. The best man was a polo pony.”

The Hearst Papers said:

“The bride and groom were dressed handsomely and attracted comments from guest Douglas MacArthur.”

And The Reader’s Digest said:

“The bride and groom were dressed.”

The joke lies in the brevity of the Digest’s comments. The Reader’s Digest was known for their publication of abridged novels, short stories, and articles that could be read in one sitting. Ricky was seen reading the Digest in “Lucy Writes a Novel” in 1954. That same year, a biography of Ball by Eleanor Harris was included in the Digest - condensed, naturally. Ball appeared on the covers in 1990 and 2003.

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was a five-star general and Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s. He played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. At the time of broadcast, he was running for President of the United States, but was defeated in the primaries by Dewey, who was narrowly defeated in the election by Harry S. Truman. In “Lucy and the Submarine” (1966) Mr. Mooney(Gale Gordon) tells Lucy he’s going on a two-week training, but warns her (in his best deep-voiced, measure tones) that “I shall return!” These were the immortal words spoken by MacArthur when he escaped the Philippines after being surrounded by the Japanese in March 1942.

It is morning at the Cugat home and while George is having breakfast, Katie the maid is trying to help Liz fit into a tight-fitting and slinky evening gown in preparation for having her portrait painted. Katie suggests wearing a different dress for the portrait, but Liz is worried that they might move to Boston one day, and she doesn’t want her portrait banned!

"Banned in Boston" was a phrase employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, Boston officials had wide authority to ban works featuring "objectionable" content, and often banned works with sexual content or foul language. In 1944, just a few years before this broadcast, Boston banned the book Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, which was referred to on “I Love Lucy” as Forever Ember.

Liz goes down to breakfast in her slinky evening gown and tells George that she is having her portrait painted by noted artist Damon Welch.

LIZ: “They say he’s very big and strong and muscular like, uh...who’s that rugged tall actor in the movies? The one with the big arms and broad shoulders?” GEORGE: “Marjorie Main.” LIZ: “No, Victor Mature.”

Marjorie Main (1890-1975) was a character actress who just a few months before this broadcast earned an Oscar nomination for The Egg and I. In 1954 she was a supporting player in Lucy and Desi’s The Long, Long Trailer (1953).

Victor Mature (1913-99) was a stage, film, and television actor who starred in several movies during the 1950s, and was known for his dark hair and smile. Mature and Lucille Ball acted together in Seven Days Leave (1942) and Easy Living (1949).

Bachelor Cory Cartwright (John Hiestand) visits the Cugats with exciting news about his date last night:

CORY: “She had a smile like Lana Turner, a voice like Dinah Shore, she kissed like Paulette Goddard.” LIZ: “Do you date her or buy tickets to her?”

Lana Turner (1921-55) achieved fame as both a pin-up model and a film actress. In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in Hollywood and one of MGM) biggest stars. In 1943, she did a cameo in Lucille Ball’s Du Barry Was a Lady. Turner was mentioned in three episodes of “I Love Lucy.”

Dinah Shore (1916-94) was a singer, actress and television personality, as well as a top-charting female vocalist of the 1940s. She achieved even greater success on television, mainly as hostess of a series of variety and talk programs, although she guest starred on “Here’s Lucy” in 1971. Ball made numerous appearances on Shore’s talk shows as well.

Paulette Goddard (1910-90) was major star of Paramount Pictures in the 1940s. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943). She did three films with Lucille Ball between 1933 and 1934: Roman Scandals, The Bowery, and The Kid.

George comes home from work and asks Liz about progress on the portrait. Liz was impressed by Welch’s world experience. George feels inadequate. He makes her tell him how much she loves him.

LIZ: “Hold me tighter. Make believe I’m a tube of toothpaste and pop my cap off!”

Dejected that Liz wants him to take up painting like Damon Welch, George goes to bed without his supper.

The second act begins with George deciding to stay home, pretending to be sick in order to keep an eye on Liz and Welch. Katie admits Damon for their sitting. Welch doesn’t believe George is sick.

DAMON: “You should get out-of-doors; do some exercises. Run the mile, do some chin-ups, push-ups, chop some wood, mow the lawn, pull some weights...” LIZ: “Tote that barge, lift that bale!”

Liz chimes in with lyrics from the song “Old Man River” by Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern, written for the 1927 musical Show Boat. A revival of the musical ran on Broadway in 1946. There was a radio adaptation in 1944. In “Never Do Business With Friends” (1953), Lucy Ricardo analogizes her housework without an electric washing machine to that of the slaves who sing “Old Man River”:

LUCY: “Carrying this heavy basket - up and down, up and down. My muscles straining, body all aching and racked with pain. Fold those shirts, lift those sheets.” RICKY: “Now, look, Old Man River, will you dry up?”

The doctor arrives and examines George, finding nothing whatever the matter with him. His diagnosis is extreme jealousy-itis. He summons his new nurse, Mary Ann McCarthy (Mary Shipp), whose beauty stops George in his tracks.

Downstairs, Liz is still being painted by Damon, but not nearly fast enough for her liking. She complains that he still hasn’t painted her hair! She doesn’t like seeing herself bald!

LIZ: “I look like my mother was frightened by Guy Kibbee!” MONTY: “I’ll paint in your hair when I see fit, and not a second sooner. Until that time you’ll remain an egg-head and like it!”

Guy Kibbee (1882-1956) was a stage and film actor. In the 1935 film Mary Jane's Pa, Kibbee prepares a breakfast dish which consists of a hole cut out of the center of a slice of bread, and an egg cracked into it, all of which is fried in a skillet. It became known as Guy Kibbee Eggs but is also known as eggs in a basket. Liz is no doubt comparing her bald head on the canvas with the eggs. I didn’t hurt the comparison that Kibbee was also bald! Kibbee appeared with Lucille Ball in Don’t Tell The Wife (1937) and Joy of Living (1938).

George hears Damon and Liz laughing and comes downstairs to confront them but Damon sends him back upstairs. Liz wonders if George is jealous just as George is heard laughing upstairs with Nurse McCarthy. Liz goes upstairs to confront her husband! George says he’s had a relapse!

GEORGE: “I accidentally plugged my electric heating pad into the radio and H.V. Kaltenborn got into bed with me!”

Hans von Kaltenborn (1878-1965) was a radio commentator who was heard regularly on the radio for over 30 years, beginning in 1928. He was known for his highly precise diction, his ability to ad-lib, and his knowledge of world affairs. In 1948, Kaltenborn played himself in The Babe Ruth Story which co-starred William Frawley (Fred Mertz).

George, still suspicious of Liz and Damon, goes downstairs to discover that Liz has dismissed the painter so George wouldn’t be sick and Miss McCarthy would go.

After a message from the announcer about participation in community projects (a post-war endeavor), George and Liz engage in some bedtime repartee before they kiss and say goodnight. End of episode!

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duhragonball · 5 years

Text

Dragon Ball Z 228

Last time, Gohan “””fought””” Dabura, until Dabura suddenly took a powder and left. Vegeta was already pissed about Gohan’s lackluster performance, but now he’s extra furious because he had to watch that turkey of the fight and it didn’t even accomplish anything.

I know I already complained about Gohan vs. Dabura, but just to recap why the fight sucks:

Dabura made them wait three episodes before showing up to fight.

Everyone complained the entire time the fight was going on.

Nobody won.

So now we’re right back where we were five episodes ago, when Goku killed Yakon.

So tensions are running high in Stage 3 of Babidi’s ship, because they’ve been stuck there this whole time, unable to proceed with the mission. So Vegeta takes out his frustration on Gohan, because who else is he going to yell at? The Supreme Kai is God, basically, and Goku will kick his ass and he knows it.

Vegeta makes this a Saiyan thing, telling Gohan that he should have gone for the jugular in his fight with Dabura, and let nothing stop him from killing his opponent.

“You’re right, Vegeta, I should have finished him off as quickly as possible. Just like you did when you killed Cell. Oh, wait, you didn’t kill Cell, did you? You screwed around with him for twenty minutes, and then you let him become perfect because you were bored,” is what Gohan would say in the Sassy Gohan AU that I just made up.

Then Vegeta starts ranting about how dumb it is the way Gohan and the others fight for “justice”.

Then he goes on about survival of the fittest, which is pretty cliche, even for Vegeta. It’s almost like he’s auditioning for someone... “You know, it’s a good thing I’m on your team. If I was on Babidi’s side, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you all, and none of you would be able to stop me! But that would never happen... unless...”

The only point Vegeta makes that really leaves an impression on Gohan is that he was fighting for the lives of Piccolo and Krillin. Remember, they came here to kill Dabura, becaue that’s the only way to undo the magic that turned them into stone statues. If Gohan had tried a little harder, if he had trained more diligently over the past seven years, they might be back to normal by now.

Goku sticks up for Gohan, but kind of half-heartedly, like he knows Vegeta has a point, at least to some extent. But Vegeta won’t have it. All he cares about is fighting Goku, and all he’s been doing is farting around on this dumbass spaceship because everyone’s too scared to blow it up.

The Supreme Kai (once again) tells him not to do that, because if they accidentally break Majin Buu’s seal, he could destroy the whole earth, even at partial strength. Vegeta flat out tells him he doesn’t care about the Earth or anyone on it.

Finally, Goku steps in and tells him to knock it off, and Vegeta backs off. I’ve never really understood this scene, but now I think I finally get it. In the past, Vegeta wouldn’t just talk about blowing up the ship; he would just do it, in spite of anyone’s protestations. Remember when he wanted to fight 17 and 18? Everyone told him it was a terrible idea, but he refused to listen, and no one could stop him, so he did it, to hell with the consequences.

But in the Babidi Saga, he’s repeatedly suggested that Majin Buu probably isn’t that big a deal, and that they could settle this quickly by dispensing with the games and just blowing up the whole ship, and the Supreme Kai tells him not to, and he just backs off. This is like the third time they’ve had this argument. Don’t tell me Vegeta defers to the Supreme Kai, because I don’t buy it.

I think what we’re seeing here is some of the maturity Vegeta has learned since he first started living on Earth. He still wants to take the direct approach, and to shout down anyone who says otherwise, but deep down, he knows that’s unwise. It bit him in the ass against Android 18 and Cell, and on some level he knows it could work against him here. That’s why he threatens to blow up the ship, but he never actually follows through. He’s waiting for Goku to stop him.

Meanwhile, Dabura has returned to Babidi with the idea of turning Vegeta against the others. Babidi’s been watching them in his crystal ball, and he likes what he’s seen. Vegeta’s not like the others, and it’ll be easy to control him, and it’ll save him from having to risk Dabura’s life in battle.

On Stage 3, the Supreme Kai starts to suspect that this is what the bad guys are up to, but it’s too late. Babidi casts his spell and Vegeta starts grabbing his head and crying out in pain. Also he poses like a complete diva, because he’s still Vegeta, after all.

Vegeta turns Super Saiyan for some reason, and the Kai tells him what’s going on. Babidi’s trying to exploit the wickedness in his heart, so he should empty his mind and not think of anything. Not even the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?

Now, later, Vegeta will claim to have fallen under Babidi’s spell intentionally, but it seems kind of at odds with this scene, where he appears to be resisting Babidi.

But Babidi seems confident that he’s already won. Kind of weird how he says Vegeta is “ours” now. Who else is he referring to? Dabura? The rest of his crew? They’re all mind-controlled slaves just like Vegeta. But Babidi seems to be rather cordial toward his henchmen, treating them almost like friends. I suppose he would enjoy their company, seeing how they wait on him hand and foot and cooperate with him in everything he does.

Having secured Vegeta’s mind (I guess?), Babidi starts amplifying his power. Remember, Yamu and Spopovitch were much stronger as Babidi’s minions than they were before, so this is apparently a side effect of the spell.

But Vegeta was already one of the strongest guys on this whole show. If Babidi can make him even stronger... hoo-boy.

And when the whole process is finished, Vegeta ends up with an “M” symbol on his forehead. In the dub, they actually call it an “M”, I think, and Shin explains that it’s Babidi’s symbol. The Japanese version doesn’t bother with this, probably because by this point we’ve already seen the “M” on all of Babidi’s stuff. All his henchmen have it, it’s on his belt. It’s printed on the hull of his spaceship, on all the doors, and on all of his equipment.

Fans call this incarnation of Vegeta “Majin Vegeta”, although I’m pretty sure that’s not official. “Majin” is a term for Buu specifically, because he’s an evil djinn. Evil = “Ma”, “Ma” + “Djinn” = “Majin.”

As far as the symbol goes, I’m pretty sure it’s intended to stand for “Madoshi”, which is Babidi’s title. But this never gets spelled out in the source material, perhaps because Babidi’s from outer space, and it wouldn’t make much sense for him to use the Latin Alphabet for his monogram. In-universe, it’s probably just an alien glyph that just happens to look like a stylized “M”.

The other thing is that you rarely ever see anyone refer to any of the others as “Majin”. No one talks about “Majin Puipui” for instance. I did see that once on an ad for a DBZ wall scroll, which featured all of Babidi’s gang. for some reason, the ad copy listed them all as “Majin Buu, Majin Vegeta, Majin Dabura, Majin Puipu, Majin Yakon, Majin Yamu, and Majin Spopovitch.” It’s like they were getting paid by the letter. But that’s about the only time I’ve seen that.

The Supreme Kai is all upset because he never expected this to happen. There’s a lot you didn’t expect, Shin. You kind of blew this whole mission.

Then Babidi teleports them all to the Tenkaichi Budokai stadium. I’m not sure how he even knew about this place, unless he read Vegeta’s mind or something, but this is convenient, since the show has been switching back and forth between these two sets of characters. Mr. Satan is in the middle of celebrating his second world championship victory, and the crowd is going nuts.

Chi-Chi is pleased about this, because she thinks that if Goku beats the shit out of Mr. Satan right now, in front of everyone, then he’ll have a valid claim to the prize money. Yamcha’s pretty sure it doesn’t work that way, but Chi-Chi’s pretty sure this is C-Z-fuckin’-W. She wants Goku to drop Mr. Satan through a table covered in light poles.

The World Tournament Announcer is confused, but he sees Goku and just walks past Vegeta while he explains that the tournament’s already over, and that’s what sets Vegeta off. Okay, so that’s brilliant, because he’s literally standing there, glowing yellow, and all WTA can think about is chatting with Goku. That’s just Vegeta’s frustration in a nutshell.

So Vegeta powers up, and his aura is so intense that WTA and Mr. Satan get pushed aside.

Satan crashes into the retaining wall, and I feel like that’s the second or third time this has happened to him today.

So Babidi’s all set to take this dude for a test drive. First order: Beat up Goku, Gohan, and the Supreme Kai and take their energy for Majin Buu.

Vegeta’s reply: Fuck you sideways, Babidi. All he wants to do is fight Goku. Period.

Babidi’s shocked, because this has never happened before. Vegeta isn’t entirely under his control, but he figures that he can still work with this.

Meanwhile, Mr. Satan finally realizes that these are the guys from the Cell Games. You’d think he would have caught on before now, but Toriyama did a pretty careful job of keeping Mr. Satan away from the other tournament participants until the Z-Fighters left the stadium. He only knew Goten and Trunks had super powers, but he didn’t realize that his opponents in the adult division tournament were part of the same group. But with Vegeta in full on Super Saiyan mode, there’s no mistaking it.

Just so there’s no confusion about Vegeta’s priorities, he points at Goku...

Then fires an energy blast at him. Maybe this is Big Bang Attack? I don’t know. Goku blocks it...

But he can’t stop it from hitting the stands.

And it blows right through the crowd, and through several buildings along the way.

Fortunately, Goku’s pals are in a different part of the stadium, although Bulma might wish it were otherwise. She’s so horrified by Vegeta’s actions...

... that she faints.

So yeah, there’s no room for interpretation here. It’s about to go down.

#dragon ball #2019dbliveblog #babidi saga #goku #vegeta #gohan #supreme kai #babidi #dabura #piccolo #krillin #mr satan #world tournament announcer #bulma #chi chi #master roshi #puar #yamcha

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keepyourpantsongohan · 4 years

Text

Ayesha Liveblogs Free! S3

I will never get tired of Makoto offering Haru a hand out of the water

OMG I guess some things do change Makoto’s been dunked and I kinda love it

“I’m never gonna be a normal person” wow who is this this Goth Diet Haru

I love the phrase “hot minute” actually thank u for ur teen slang Asahi

Offering people his lecture notes and texting back right away will anyone ever be as good as Makoto? Trick question no

“I’m still young and innocent” “That’s a weird thing to say” I love that Haru’s meeting a bunch of people who aren’t used to his antics

This flashback seems to indicate that Haru felt Some Kinda Way about Ikuya which is weird because they look almost the same

“Don’t worry too much about the family” LMAO Sosuke has received a blessing from his cousin to follow Rin to Australia

“Just inferior copies of Ikuya” that’d be more meaningful if Ikuya had done anything other than stare broodingly

It’s telling that the Iwatobi team is dressed like the Wiggles in this outro

All this outro really told me is that they aren’t really that good at differentiating main character design

“We have to try not to spoil them too much” I approve of Ikuya’s brother and his co-parenting buddy

“I’m not going to move ever again,” said Asahi, with the full confidence of a twelve-year-old boy who knows absolutely nothing about anything

Okay but for real Ikuya and Haru straight up look like siblings this weird rivalry energy on top of that fact is a little bit Much

[Rose and Rosie voice] It’ll never work out their hair is the same colour

“Is Haru the guy who was all dressed up and riding a camel in the recruiting video we saw?” UNBELIEVABLE their Arabian Nights outro from S1 was actually their recruitment video Iwatobi do u take constructive criticism

“I’ll even be good enough to compete against you” how many rivals does one young man really need my god

Hey Trenchcoat Man maybe introduce yourself before telling these teens how to live their lives

Dude you’re so controlling trying to prevent Ikuya from seeing his friends

Ahhhhh I love Haru being in touch with his emotions and apologizing to Ikuya tbh I give Makoto and Rin a lot of the credit for his ability to communicate lmao

“I’d prefer you didn’t keep him too long” listen I get where you might be coming from since Haru hurt Ikuya’s feelings but also stop that

“Thought I’d give you a wake-up call” I really don’t like the vibe of Hiyori

“Japanese guy! Friend of yours, maybe?” An accurate representation of what it’s like to hang out with white people lmao

There’s a different vibe from a teenager who giggles about swimmers’ muscles to an adult swim coach who is coaching swimming at a university giggling about swimmers’ muscles put that away Mikhail

Hiyori gives me the straight up heebie jeebies every time he opens his mouth

I can’t read Japanese but I have to assume Rin was gonna call Haru and reminisce about their bed sharing night lmao

Natsuya is some kinda Swimming Capitalist Nomad I’m not mad about it

“How many of these dreams do you have?” that’s valid lmao Rin has #calledout for being a rival slut

“His face told me that what matters most to him is not here” I can’t tell if this is a reference to Ikuya or to Natsuya’s white-haired rival-friend-boyfriend-probably

You know what, in the context of this show: Boyfriend

“Hey, calm down. Listen, Archerfish--” HARU PLS

I don’t know Misae but the fact she calls her boyfriend Archerfish has already won me over

Hiyori would you fucking stop interfering this isn’t fair to Ikuya

“Ikuya’s too busy to waste his time reminiscing on childish things” well that should be Ikuya’s decision shouldn’t it like not 2 get 2 real but this is all the markers of an abusive relationship if someone does this to you please tell someone

God this stubbly weird man and his ominous advice STILL without any introduction

“I’m getting sick of hearing you speak for Ikuya like you’re his damn boss” ME TOO ASAHI

YOU CANNOT DECIDE WHO IKUYA’S FRIENDS ARE HIYORI YOU ABSOLUTE SHITPRETZEL

HA Ikuya knows you’ve been giving the boys the runaround fuckweasel

“If I swim with Tono, maybe it’ll help me understand him” Makoto coming after jerks with his best weapon: empathy <3

“People you swim with all seem to end up suffering, don’t they” LISTEN YOU ASSBANANA IT’S NOT HARU’S FAULT THAT PEOPLE GET OBSESSED WITH HIM HE’S JUST A GOOD SWIMMER

Omg I enjoy the drama of Sosuke interacting with the one (1) person in Japan who has seen Rin lately

“I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed there isn’t a single pudgy person here” like I know this is probably gonna be a running gag for their opposite body preferences but it’s also a self-burn for the creators of this show only drawing different scales of one body type

I really do love that Rei is swim team captain now my boy has come so far

Oh Romio is there anyone in this swim universe that doesn’t have some kind of Traumatizing Swim Experience

“Think about what your reason for jumping in is” Sosuke’s advice sounds like beautiful nonsense I don’t know how that’s supposed to help him concentrate on start times

Lmao I love this Overbearing Friend Gesture of Shizuru and Nagisa putting seaweed on Romio and Rei’s plates without asking kjhfkghfghfk

“Actually, if you don’t mind, we have a proposition” $500 says that Nagisa and Rei are about to propose a relay race

Update from 8 minutes later: Someone owes me $500

“Can you tell how proud I am?” Natsuya is such a good big brother <3

Hahahaha “a guy he wants to swim with again some day” Natsuya is also a good wingman for Rin lmao

Based on his inner monologue Sosuke should also be a swimming coach except in the vein of Cryptic Trench Coat Stubble Man who just offers random unsolicited advice to any teenage swimmer he passes by in the street

“I’m so proud of you” jgjhgjhg Shizuru I love you and your tears for Romio

What kind of child welfare laws are there in Japan that Hiyori’s parents were allowed to just leave him alone in the park

“When I saw [Haru] again, the weakness I thought I left behind came flooding back to me” the moral of this story is that competitive swimming makes you gay

Ikuya used to be fun and sweet lmao what made you so broody my dude

Lmao @ Hiyori being mad that Ikuya thinks of Haru as his Prince Eric instead of him

Wow I love Nao being a guiding force for this group of nerds

“I’m not hearting anything for you” Asahi understands Stranger Danger

It took Ryuji a solid six eps to even get a name u’d expect him to have a more important character connection than Rin’s Swim Coach’s Rival

“Then you should start swimming other stuff” I Love Misaki, Adopted Child of Haru and Makoto

Well this wistful playground vibe has taken a strange turn

“It’s none of your damn business okay!!” TONO JUST GOT DUMPED HA

KJGHKJGH THE RAGE IN HARU’S VOICE ABOUT THE MACKEREL

Ryuji: He can just buy me dinner or something. I’m not picky. As long as it’s not mackerel

Haru [through gritted teeth]: I’m ready when you are

AH I LOVE KISUMI AND ASAHI BABYSITTING TSUKUSHI

“After all we’ve been through, why does it have to be like this?” U MADE IT LIKE THIS HIYORI

HAHAHAHAH Makoto and Ryuji had a standoff of wills and Ryuji lost

“Maybe it’s time for you to approach things more seriously” Nao has declared it’s time to stop sowing your wild oats and settle down Natsuya

Kazuma only shows up to remind Sosuke he is free to run away to swim whenever

“Hope you’re well” “Hey relax I’m not your dad” [Natsuya immediately begins acting like their dad]

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH GO HARU LEADING HIS CATEGORY

“I don’t think he’s all that bad of a guy” that’s Stockholm Syndrome Ikuya

I’m glad Ikuya is finally fucking having a meaningful conversation with his friends

“In the water I’m alone. No one’s gonna save me” Get therapy Ikuya!!!

Wow Haru joining a race purely to have an Emotional Confrontation with Ikuya is some kinda growth I’m just not sure what exactly

“That guy’s the only one anyone ever talks about” to be fair if your sample size is Iwatobi swimmers they are all a little in love with him

“That’s our BOYYYYYYYYYY” Aw Asahi <3

Ghjkghk I love Makoto teasing Haru for being Ikuya’s hero

“Oh, you’re wise now?” AWWWW Ikuya is fun again good for him

I know that Ikuya reaching out in friendship to Hiyori is supposed to be a sign of emotional security but I haven’t forgiven him for the way he’s manipulated Ikuya!!! Ur a seawitch not a Prince Eric!!! >:((((

I’m super thrown about them going straight from the qualifiers to the next race what will the last four episodes of this season be about

“I’ve been giving myself pep talks in the mirror. ‘I am a genius. I am a genius.’” HAHAHAHA I LIKE FUN IKUYA

“Looks like you beat me” “Just in free” Haru has released Ikuya into the universe for Hiyori and I don’t like it (for Ikuya’s sake) but that’s how it be I guess

How many siblings are there in the Mikoshiba family lmao there’s a new one every season

“But gender doesn’t mean anything in a competition” I like u Lady Mikoshiba

“You mean you were Russian this whole time??” this is a lot to digest

I LOVE RIN’S PUDGY CAT STEVE LOL IS IT THE SAME IN JAPANESE

“The water likes you. I can tell” ALBERT PLS, Haru is already FULL-UP on homoerotic swim relationships

It’s killing me that they keep cutting to Makoto like Haru’s cheating on him though

Not to undermine the subplot of these last three episodes but hasn’t Haru... lost races before hgkjhgk

“I thought something soft and cute would help balance out that scary face of yours” omg STOP this cuteness

Gghkhgk these flashbacks and Rin crying over Sosuke’s surgery are SO cute I never thought I would feel so proud of Rin way back in S1 he’s grown so much!!

Makoto being surrounded by ladybugs and butterflies like a wholeass Disney Prince

WHY are ALL of these swimming weirdos SOMEONE’S UNCLE

“You’re still as weird as ever, Haru’s the exact same way” I should start tracking how long in a conversation it takes characters to bring up Haru

Gnjghkjhg Makoto gets through to Haru in 0.5 seconds after two weeks of him ignoring his own coach. The power of fish metaphors and Love™

Kinda seems like they are setting it up like Makoto will also get to travel the world for swimming and let me say... I’m not mad about it

Update from like 2 minutes later: I WAS RIGHT

“That’s the evil king who wanted the magic lamp” the Arabian Nights references kill me every time

Djkhdkjhd Ryuji labelling Mikhail in his phone as “Muscle Freak” that’s tru friendship

“You should say, ‘I’m totes hip with the kids, yo’” Ryuji pls

“You’re so cute, you must be Iwatobi’s famous Kou” KHGKHGKJHKJ 3/3 MIKOSHIBA KNOCKOUT KOU

Awwwww Rei is so nervous for nationals my sweet baby boy

I ADORE that Rin and Haru are literally running across the city right before their most important meet bc they want to see their friends swim

Rrgjhgr the one and only backstory in this show is former childhood friends and it applies to every single character

OMG Rei get his own flashback but with his boy Nagisa I love it

“I think he’d make a good rival for you actually” Makoto Tachibana: Rival Matchmaker

GOOD JOB BOYS U DID GOOD (ALSO TEAM PHOTO I WEEP)

“Try not to cry when I beat you” SOSUKEEEEEEEEEE

Wow this final episode is already clutching at my heart right out of the gate baby Haru 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Makoto letting four more boys pile into his one bedroom for the night bc he’s the Best Boy Alive

HJGHJKGH THIS EXCHANGE

Mikhail: That’s what I call ‘totes hip with the kids’

Nearby youths: [Giggling]

Mikhail: [Soft indignant gasp] Ryuji!!

Natsuya and Ikuya have the cutest sibling relationship gjkghk THEY

The theme of this season is people hugging each other and crying over the lanes and I LOVE THAT 4 THEM

Rin and Haru and Makoto........... are good boys

“What is this, some kind of teen drama” that is exactly it, Rin

“He won’t stop talking about stupid crap like friendship and bonds” I love three (3) boys

Bonus: Out of Order Liveblog of Free! Take Your Marks + S3E0

Haru dropping his pants in Makoto’s apartment without the immediate context of them being near water was the most high stakes moment in this entire anime I had no idea where that was going

Haru leaving his apartment hunting until the day before he moves: Mood

Sidenote: Makoto and Haru going apartment hunting is domestic as HELL I love it

“The two of you are inseparable, huh?” “We’re friends, deal with it.” Let people be gay Kisumi

Lmao @ Nagisa and Rei’s yoga pose video Iwatobi is the cutest swim team in the world

“Then one day even those tears will dry out in the Tokyo desert” who hurt you, Ms. Amakata

“Allow me to welcome you to Tokyo, the city where love and lust intertwine” Free! Love and Lust could really be a subtitle of this anime lmao

“I’m talking about the whole bunkbed situation, you know, top and bottom” lmao shout-out to Sloane for that one art

I love the wordless communication between Makoto and Haru (and for that matter, Sosuke and Rin) I’m so glad they worked things out

I’m also happy Rin and Kou are cool now they used to have quite a gap

“Rin wasn’t that honest with himself” rjghg Rin and Haru miss each other

“This is the one,” said Haru, next to Makoto, His Completely Platonic Best Friend Who Dreams About Them Sharing An Apartment and Dropping Trou

I LOVE STEVE THE FAT CAT. AN ICON. A BEAUTY. CHUNKY BABY

“The treasure is inside the red shark’s mouth” there is DEFINITELY a Rin joke to be made here and the writers knew it

I don’t know what I love about this more that Aii and Momo are TERRIBLE at scheming or that that they are throwing Rin and Sosuke together on White Day lmao

This team vacation... Sosuke giggling bc he was tickled... !!!!!!! THANKS

I’m loving all these teams getting presents for each other jkhgkjg

Oh am I finally going to understand this Momo and Capybara backstory

Lol @ Natsuya pouring his heart abt Nao to Sosuke wholly unsolicited

“What were you about to ask” “Oh, not anything important (I’ll wait for you Sosuke)”

OHHHHHHHHHH THE CHARM BACKSTORY SOSUKEEEEEEEEEE

Oh Christ alive am I about to watch the Arabian Nights recruitment film

Hhhgjgjhg I gather the only reason Haru got his license was to compete with Rin

“I’m the evil king who is after the lamp for his own selfish reasons” I hate this... but also... I love this???

“I am a mysterious peddler. I travel carrying mysterious bundles. While riding atop of my mysterious partner Chappy the Camel” HARU STOP

OH MAKOTO HONEY U POOR SOUL JHGKHFKJGH

“Makoto. When I’m nervous I think about mackerel” I am going to expire

“I think the three of you should implement your own version of it” Fhjkhgk Haru is telling them to exploit their bodies for school recruitment but also that’s not really anything new so fair enough

Nagisa: Rei is Perfect Killer Muscles Handsome in my heart!!!!!!

“Maybe I’m never going to understand him” Omg @ The Jilted Middle School Exes of Haru Club

“How David had to give up his love.... And then Veronica, knowing they couldn’t see each other anymore” call me crazy but I think Rin is projecting his own issues onto A Rat’s Life LMAO

Tjehjkhkje Sosuke needing to call Rin bc he got lost on his way to the bathroom... Useless Husband Energy

HAHAH Rin is so upset thinking Momo and Kou are dating

At least Rin recognizes that he doesn’t get to decide who Kou dates he can only express his approval or disapproval

“Momotaru Mikoshiba is a man who lives by passion” gjhgjhg stop this

“Rin would never lose to a persimmon, ever!” MAKOTO R U OK

“You are not less than a persimmon!” THESE BOYS. U R SO DUMB BUT ALSO GET U A FRIEND LIKE THE IWATOBI SWIM CLUB

“It’s cool if you need to cry” “If you stay in the pool no one will ever notice your tears” I LOVE SOSUKE AND HARU TEAMING UP TO TEASE RIN

I also deeply appreciate that even though I’ve never heard their Japanese voices I know exactly who is saying what line in this outro just by dialogue and tone of voice

“I have a crippling fear of mascot costumes” “Then why did you take this job” kjhgkjhgkjh if that isn’t a work mood

Wait... if Makoto is going to be the substitute wrestler... WILL HARU BE THE SUBSTITUTE MASCOT AHHHHHHHH

WAIT NO I HAVE GRAVELY AND HILARIOUSLY MISUNDERSTOOD MAKOTO IS GOING TO BE BOTH MASCOT AND WRESTLER

“Iwa means ‘boulder’ and ‘tobi’ means ‘black kite’ so it’s a boulder-headed bird!!” Well that’s more of an explanation for the appearance of the Iwatobi mascot than I ever expected, Nagisa

“You don’t have a crippling fear of mascot costumes, do you?” No but I have feeling Makoto is about to develop one

Oh it’s THIS FUCKPUDDLE who asked u to be here Hiyori

“I don’t exactly hate it” high praise Ikuya lmao

Thkjhtkjh I love Natsuya’s long distance relationship it’s sweet

HAHAHA is the beak thing supposed to be a ploy so people see Makoto’s face

“I cannot let Haru see me like this” “Hi Makoto” HAHAHAHAH I LOVE THIS WHOLE INTERACTION AND ALSO HOW HARU JUST GOES ALONG WITH ALL OF IT

Also I don’t know how Makoto was planning to hide his identity after he was addressed as “Mr. Tachibana”

LMAO @ MAKOTO BEING RECOGNIZED BY HIS LEG MUSCLES I’M SCREAMING

“Hey Makoto, use a backstroke!!” HARU PLEASE

“Well done, you’ll be a great mascot someday” “Thanks? I think?” This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen and I loved it

Oh my goooood Haru bringing Makoto presents for his siblings.... they have ascended to the college relationship levels of Natsuya and Nao

Man Ikuya could not radiate stronger “leave me alone” vibes

“Wow you boys make a dashing pair” you said it Suit Lady not me

#ayesha talks anime #liveblogging #ayesha liveblogs free #long post

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shellfish-honkon · 6 years

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Perfume: English Translation of the Interview on Ongaku to Hito 2018.09 (vol.1)

Vol. 1

The introduction and a personal interview for A-chan

Perfume

Future is in your hands

"You have not been mistaken. And it will start again from now on”

I felt as if someone talks to the 3 like that. Unlike our expectation, Perfume's new album "Future Pop" does not have the future-bass tasted sound arrangement that was strongly expressed in the single "If you wanna". Despite having tracks with that taste, the impression I had after listening the whole album was that their vocals were strongly featured, and that there is a perspective of mature ladies, not innocent girls. In this interview, this big change expressed in the album was examined through personal interviews of the 3 and a group interview. I guess the 3 ladies would have expressed anxieties and confusions if they had faced a great change like this. However, Perfume of the present has an overwhelming confidence. I can see their absolute conviction that they would absolutely be alright. Where do those come from? I took time to ask them about this in these interviews.

And now, this is a new start from here. You will not awake from a dream you dream with Perfume, not yet.

Interview: A-chan

"Perfume is something that must continue. I don't have a sense of vocation like that now"

- Did you go to the Budokan concert of Chatmonchy?

A: Yes, I did!! My eyes were full of tears. The set list was crazy as well, you know? All the 3 songs for the encore were the ones written by Kumiko-san!!

-That's right.

A: I had goosebumps all the time during the concert. In the past, Chatmonchy evolved again and again, and was born again and again. But at the time when they brought down the curtain, they made us realize that all of those processes were Chatmonchy. They showed off how talented they are when they close the band, and left the stage after making it so obvious that everyone was going to miss them. That's what a real hero does. If stocks of Ecchan and Akko-chan were available, I would definitely love to buy and invest them, LOL!

- LOL! But when you witnessed the end of a band you love that much, didn't you identify yourselves with them?

A: Recently, I think less and less about those stuffs. Not only Chatmonchy, Namie Amuro-san is also retiring. However, when I listen to a news like that, now I don't really think like "This will happen to us someday..." I guess it just doesn't connect. Although a day like that will come to anyone in some way, I still don't feel that the day is coming to Perfume, not yet. But it's not that I don't want that day to come. It's more like it exists in a different dimension.

- After covering you for nearly 10 years, I've seen the times when the 3 of you held anxiety or chancy-ness. But recently, your conviction like "Perfume is absolute" is getting stronger and stronger, I feel.

A: Exactly. Right now, I really enjoy being Perfume. In the past, I used to be pretty strict to myself during a tour or interview period. 'Cause I thought I had to be in the best shape as Perfume for concerts, interviews, shootings and things like that. So I put myself under the pressure and tried not to meet friends, strictly checked what to eat and so on. I pushed myself pretty hard to be Perfume everyone wanted me to be.

- Like you had to be like this as A-chan of Perfume?

A: Yeah. I just can't help it, 'cause all of my family members act like that so... LOL!

- So, that's caused by the blood of Nishiwaki family, LOL!!

A: I guess it's from my father's side, LOL! But little by little, I have been able to forgive myself.

- So you mean you can face Perfume from a neutral point of view now, right?

A: Well, you know what? Things like "Perfume is something that must continue!" I don't have a sense of vocation like that now. We can keep on our activities if people want us to, and we can take a rest a bit if we're tired. We can try anything if we find it interesting, even if it's something we've never tried before. And if we're asked to do something, we would go for it if we feel like it. Now we can stay honest to ourselves. When trying something different from what we have been doing, there definitely would be negative things. But if we think we would find positive things more than negatives, we can try, no matter what it would be. And even if we fail, we can just start it over again. Now I can take everything positive.

- I know what you mean. In the past, you used to be scared of losing something when you were taking a step for something new, and when you decided to try something new, you also became so desperate to meet the expectation.

A: That's right. We squared up when no one asked us to do so. And one more thing, until recently, I had to take an initiative to announce what the 3 of Perfume would like to do. But nowadays, the other 2 started to express their wills little by little. That might make it easier for me.

- Ah, I see.

A: In the past, there were times in which they didn't tell what they really thought or didn't say their opinions in front of others. But when we talked by ourselves or texted each other, our real feelings we couldn't tell on those moments came out. "Then you should have said it at that time" there was a time I sometimes thought like that.

- Ah, I see. And I can't imagine it happening to you recently.

A: Nowadays, both Nocchi and Kashiyuka express their opinions when we discuss with our team. That might be why it becomes easier for me.

- I guess it was difficult for them to express their opinions.

A: I guess it was because of the lack of confidence, rather than difficulty to express opinions. Because expressing opinions means that you've got to be responsible for what you've said. But it was same for me as well. I wish I can be more confident. But it would have been kind of weird if it was only me who gained the confidence despite working on same activities all together, right? I guess it's our characteristics to be in sync in those points as well.

- So, even though you didn't have confidence in yourself, just like the other 2, you regarded that it had been your role to express Perfume's opinion. Because someone had to say that, right A-chan?

A: Yes, and now it's changing little by little. That might be why things going so well recently. I can enjoy things more and more.

- I see. Then, what do you think is a right way for Perfume of now to aim for?

A: Personally, I'd love to see Perfume performing stuffs like "Reframe (*"Perfume x TECHNOLOGY" presents "Reframe", held at NHK hall in March)" more. It would be wonderful if Perfume has a show studio or something like permanent theater where people from all over the world can visit to watch our performance when they come to Japan.

- So you mean a stage combining technologies and entertainment together?

A: Yes, it's like a stage combining technologies and humanity together, I guess. When you listen to a word "Technology", you might have a cold impression. But actually it's not. There always are human hands involved with it and it has warmth as if it has flesh and blood. And it can convey the emotions men can not directly put into words. That might represent a kind of "Japanese-ness" in some way, I guess. We could only hold "Reframe" show for 2 days. So I'd love people in Japan and around the world to watch a performance like this as a new entertainment of Japan.

- You think in that way because you'd like to meet the expectation?

A: Because I love to challenge! However, this 3 women has always had a desire to meet the expectation, since we had spent a long time without being expected.

- Until you made a breakthrough, right?

A: Not being wanted and expected is such a sad thing and makes you so miserable. I used to blame myself like "I dedicate myself to this job without hanging around and having fun with friends and yet we remain unwanted and unexpected, why? Why do we get our greetings ignored even by the people of our management office? It must be our fault..." Those feelings I had back then have never gone away, even though we're so privileged to have so many amazing jobs like we do now. Since we remember so well about the fear we felt back then, the joy we feel when we see someone paying attention to us and we're wanted has never changed even now. A cover page of a magazine like this, TV commercial, things like that..., because those mean that there're people who would like to use us.

- Those are what you've been waiting to happen.

A: As we're expected, we would like to meet the expectation at any cost. I really wish Ongaku to Hito magazine would sell over 1 million copies, LOL!!

- That would make this magazine the best-selling magazine in Japan, LOL!!

A: However, we would love to work as hard as we can for that goal, rather than taking responsibility of the result, I feel. Oh, by the way, I started to learn English again recently. And my current teacher is Gyaru.

- What? Gyaru?

A: Yeah, her mother is Japanese. She has lived in LA for a long time and started to live in Japan 3 years ago. She and I have girls' talk in English and that's so much fun! For example, she was trying to tell me "Isn't he trying to hit on you?" in English but...

- What kind of English lesson is that? LOL!!

A: It's basically girls' talk, so..., LOL!! But I couldn't pronounce the phrase well so I said like "Ah, that's difficult..." And she told me "Alright then, listen to this!" (*starting to play a song from her smart phone) This song basically sings like "I'm a man who hit on" all the time.

- I see. You 3, including A-chan, are about to turn 30's. Do you realize any change of your perspective?

A: I do. People from younger generations started to appear on the scene more and more. People you see on the screen come and go through the time, and it's same for the bands appear on rock festivals. Therefore, I do realize that we get older pretty much. You can see that from our outfits, recent costumes are more conscious of those mature-ness and elegance.

- Ah, that's right.

A: 'Cause you know what? I even started Yoga! And I actually enjoy it pretty much!

- So, you are pretty positive and active on what you do now.

A: Exactly. I enjoy getting aged, and as I get older, I've got more things I'd like to try. It's such a pleasure to reach the end of my 20's with the mindset like this, LOL! As for Nocchi and Kashiyuka, they're reaching the end of 20's this year. Moreover, both of them are turning 30 during the upcoming tour. "What should I do on those days?", I'm thinking right now. Since we stick together all the time during the tour, it's pretty difficult.

- Difficult to give them surprises, right?

A: They'll be keeping eyes on what I do, you know?

- I'm so sure that they'll notice like "Ah, A-chan is up to something"

A: Nah, Nocchi tends to be like that, but Kashiyuka is not that kind of girl! But when I give her a surprise, she would tell me like "Ah, I knew it's coming". I'm so sure about that, LOL!

- You haven't changed ever since when you were teenagers about those points.

A: That's true. But back then, we had never imagined that we would be able to remain to be Perfume until this age. We thought it would be pretty lucky if we could continue Perfume for 3 years. After the hit of "Polyrhythm", there was a time we were in a mood like "This will be a great memory for us. There's nothing left to regret anymore"

- Like "We could come this far, so it's enough for us", you thought?

A: Yeah, I think we felt that our hard work paid off and we were finally rewarded. Since then, we have been kind of like updating every year, like "Can we go any further? We made it, we could reach further! It seems we still can go further! ...Is it okay to go further? Shall we go? ...Let's go as far as we can get!" And it seems we still can go further on this year as well.

- But you don't feel anxious when you think like that, do you?

A: No, not at all. I guess it's because we're now confident on what we have piled up until this day. And also because there're so many people believe in that, not only our staffs, but also our fans. Therefore, we have confidence about that and we would feel sorry for them if we're not confident in that. So now I'm trying to make all of my dreams come true, no matter how small it is. I'd like to be a hope for them.

- What's your small dream you fulfilled recently?

A: Sleeping on a bed I've been longing for a long time, for example?

- A bed you've been longing?

A: Yes, placing a huge bed in my room has been my dream for a long time. There's a furniture studio I really admire in Shizuoka Prefecture and the bed called "CONTINUE" manufactured in the studio is the one I've longed. It's all hand made by a craftsperson. I don't know for how long I've been dreaming about this and I've finally bought it after the fan club tour! And it's huuuuuuge!! I can even fall asleep like this! So happy!

- Huh? Ah, I see. You can sleep with your both hands wide open.

A: Like "Am I in heaven or what?" LOL!! Though it might be such a tiny dream, making it come true gives me a confidence. It also makes me think "I've got to work hard 'cause I've bought this" and gives me a strength to move forward in the hard times. I can't help thinking what an easy person I am, though.

- But it represents your personality very well, I think.

A: Money-wise, I could have bought that bed much earlier than I actually had. However, I used to hesitate fulfilling goals a bit, even a tiny one like this. I was kind of scared like "What should I set as a new goal if I fulfill one?" But now, I've got a tons of new dreams and enjoy fulfilling them one by one. That's what I come to think. What's left is... marriage maybe? That's the toughest one, LOL!!

- You had never imagined to turning 30 without getting married, yeah.

A: It's like I've kept walking uncharted territory, LOL! But oh, as we all know, the Olympic is coming to Tokyo in 2 years. So it would be wonderful if we can show our achievement, something we've been doing through the career, on the stage like that. I feel that my life will become different whether we can do something for that big stage or not.

- ...Ah, may I ask you? Is there any project you're involved in actually in progress?

A: Nope, not at all, LOL!!

- Oh, I thought something is actually under way behind closed doors, LOL!!

A: No way! We don't have a power like that, LOL!! But I really want to do something for the Tokyo Olympic! Please, I'm begging you! I'll do anything!!

- Hey, I'm not an appropriate guy for you to beg, LOL!! However, what you said means that you'd like to give shape to what you've piled up, right?

A: That's right. Like "We fulfilled this, we fulfilled that..., we were able to do that so we should be able to do this" As we piled up so many stuffs, we now have more things we're capable of doing. And it's same for our dreams, we still can have more to expand our dreams.

- I think Nakata-san himself knows it, too. That might be why he tries to tell that the future of Perfume who are about to turn 30, is starting from here with this album.

A: I'm so glad about that. But I once again feel I can have dreams like this because Nocchi and Kashiyuka have always been with me. You can't dream alone. Since the 2 are with me, it becomes alright.

#prfm #prfm_um

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booksandchainmail · 5 years

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nanoha vivid liveblog: episode 9

We left off in the opening rounds of the competition, with Vivio and Miura slated to fight each other at some point.

The other belkan girls!

I think I remember them being friends

Soft music and slow-mo here, as we get our first look at sieglinde’s eyes

... which are entirely ordinary

huh, i was kinda expecting more heterochromia

… RIGHT SHE HAD A DUMB NICKNAME

THEY BOTH DID

look I know youre overdramatic teenagers but I promise you giving yourselves nicknames about how good you are at fighting doesn’t actually make you seem good at fighting

also, i like to imagine that victoria’s been trying to get people to call her victor for most of her life, and sieglinde is the only one who will. victoria gave her her own nickname in thanks, and sieglinde was so happy about having a friend to give her a nickname that she didn’t care about the theme

have you considered losing the waist long twintails?

awwwww

weirdly wholesome considering the subject matter

who’s this boss? Presumably one of the other competitors we’ve seen, and I’m guessing harry as the only one who runs a thing (as well as one of the only returning successful contestants)

please tell me she didn’t pick that nickname/title herself

theyre cute together

and sieglinde pulls her hood back on as soon as more people arrive

i guess i shouldn’t be surprised that the ojou and the delinquent dont get along

at least it looks like it runs both ways

i really do like this dynamic of harry and victoria constantly trying to fight, and meanwhile sieglinde’s just there in the background trying to calm down her friends

oh hey the last unintroduced girl from the op! presumably she’s a returning fighter considering she seems pretty familiar with the others

… I can’t tell if “violator restraints rule master” is one skill, two skills, her job, or her personality

would they be wrong?

let the fangirling commence!

oh gods shes trying to hide behind that popcorn

it is very much not working

i feel like this scene should be one of those draw the squad memes

also, these four are great together, more scenes with them please

I do like how in the returning champions we’re presented with three people who all hate each other, and then one person who they all like. it’s a good setup for comedy and shipping

awwww, even while being shy, she’s still nice to einhart

come to think of it, i wonder if she also has memories of belka, and if so does she recognize einhart

sdjklaghklfaghlj

those chains were completely ineffective i guess

i like to think that harry and victoria didnt break out immediately because they didnt want to hurt els’ feelings

gods

els is extremely indignant and harry is just having a good tiem

okay that’s cool, they edited the OP now that we’ve seen sieglinde with her hood down

how do these two know each other? I mean I’ll believe it, but I’m curious now.

so what were the fights we saw last episode?

I guess prelims for the qualifiers? Which explains how some people are seeded already

this tournament sure has a sense of the dramatic

she is actually a rule master school president

and brought her council with her i guess

OH THIS IS THE PERFECT MATCHUP

I mean, I would take harry fighting just about anyone, but this is an excellent clash of anime character archetypes

The fact that there is canonically Japanese immigration to midchilda is one of the weirdest things about this setting to me. I mean, Nanoha and Hayate just moving to another planet with magic and magitek and spaceships is weird enough, but Subaru’s family immigrated generations back. How the fuck did that go? Can you imagine being a random Japanese peasant circa the 1700s and then suddenly you’re on a different world that has magic and also computers.

oh gods

she looks so happy and i love her but her nickname is so stupid

and thats saying a lot considering the competition

extremely on brand

… that is the most “go ahead please” face I have ever seen

and theeeeres the competition making an abrupt return

i mean, she could still totally call you that even if you win

“tension”

i dont know if she planned it in advance, but letting harry see and underestimate her power beforehand was pretty smart

A ranged attack?

OR NOT I GUESS

she just... blew up her own arm

That’s kinda clever. And also really metal.

WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK HARRY

Thank you for the reasonable reaction

the kind of attack name you expect from a girl called buster head

Well that was fast

Oh okay they have a set time to get back in the ring. makes sense considering how easy it is for a lot of them to send people flying

nove suddenly has competition as the best punchy redhead in this show

shes so good

…you entered a martial arts competition without looking up the injury rules

I’M STARTING TO AGREE WITH ALL THE NUNS WHO DIDN’T THINK YOU WERE MATURE ENOUGH TO ENTER

i cant decide if this is smart and practical or really creepy

that is some powerful simulation

Idk if it’s just saving on fight animation, but while their powers are cool, the actual fighting technique doesn’t seem equal to what we’ve seen from vivio and einhart

gods

please get hurt less

where did that bandaid come from?!

~tempting faaaate~

SHES BITING THROUGH CHAIN?!!!

Oh no wait shes pulling on it with her teeth

That’s… more reasonable, I guess?

Still fucking badass

this is gonna be brutal

yup.

also, anime nosebleed

awwww

i love harry’s emotionally supportive girl gang

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOU HURT YOURSELF

this idiot

For some mysterious totally not screen-time related reason

That said, I do like them establishing that vivio&co are unusually talented even by this competition’s standards. I’d have a hard time buying that there are that many fighters on their caliber in the tournament

because as is well known the inter-middle tournament involves fighting buses

she’s just from a completely different samurai anime than everyone else

magic infused or something?

...no

Oh fuck.

Okay, scary sword girl vs. the wolkenritter’s student

…and whichever of them wins, vivio still has to fight

I feel like I have a lot in common with this announcer man

Is this like a general shyness thing, or an actual issue, or something minor that you’ve made into an actual issue…?

come to think of it, she mentioned leaving the tournament a year ago before she could fight victoria. did she also skip out on fighting mica? or was something in her fight with mica why she left

also, kudos to micaiah for having a sensible nickname

call and...

... response

the purpose of having a gang is to force your friends to be supportive of each other

How many times do you think vita’s gotten mistaken for a contestant? Actually, how many times do you think she’s got asked if she’s old enough to compete?

aww

in nanoha terms, i’m pretty sure this counts as a love confession

Oh yeah, vivio&co have a personal connection to both contestants. That’s gotta be awkward

Also, does everyone bring an entourage to this tournament?

Actually, considering zafira and vita are there, it looks like you get a couple helpers (which I think is a thing in actual fighing tournaments), and presumably most people have a coach or friend or parent, we just happen to have seen a bunch of fighters with minions

~tempting faaaate~

Okay, I get the whole “magic doesnt cause actual injuries, we just simulate them” but like micaiah isn’t using magic. That’s a real sword.

Well that’s a hell of a lot of damage from one attack. I don’t think Miura can afford to be hit again at all.

I mean, I don’t know about her but I’m definitely thinking that

haven’t mentioned this before, but miura’s outfit with the heavy shinguards is really cool and well-suited to her fighting style

pot meet kettle

miura backstory! and yeah, this makes a lot of sense. she’s very cheerful, but the way she’s nervous all the time and latches onto team nakajima so quickly makes her seem pretty isolated form her peers

and here we can see a demonstration of why carrying swords of different lengths is useful. Miura’s within the reach of Mica’s longer sword, so she switches to the shorter one to drive her back

fancy kick coming up!

Sword draw? Since she doesn’t seem to have one, I’m guessing it’s a kick that uses similar principles. Now the question is, is Miura’s secret weapon a technique that happens to be similar in principle to Mica’s fighting style, or is it a copying technique?

1) this is a very pretty shot

2) it would be really funny if instead of powering up her own sword draw, mica just ran over there and stabbed miura before she can power up the breaker

Didn’t seem to do a whole lot of damage for a special move

Oh ok, she can keep kicking like that for a while

Disadvantage of using a weapon: it can be broken

its pretty interesting that the show sets up various rematches and rivalries and thematic fights that can’t all happen by the design of the tournament. it makes the fights a lot more suspenseful when there would be plot and character reasons for either side to win

...remember what i said about how wanting to fight people in nanoha is basically a love confession?

#magical girl lyrical nanoha vivid #nanoha vivid #nanoha vivid liveblog #magical girl lyrical nanoha #vivid #mahou shoujo lyrical nanoha #long post

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darkzorua100 · 6 years

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I have to give it to episode 64. Not only did we get the first half to the backstory to how Yusaku and Kusanagi met and teamed up, this episode was just hilarious in general, even during times when it was supposed to be serious but I still got a good laugh out of them for the Easter eggs and just how ridiculous some scenes were.

For example, the beginning of the episode. Takeru’s expressions to Naoki just appearing out of nowhere while Yusaku goes from “I have to deal with this on a normal bases. I’m honestly just used to it by now.” to “Boy, if you start talking sh*t, I will flat out murder you.” Then we cut to Ai flying around the city and what does Kusanagi do? He takes advantages of it and makes Ai a living advertisement. I feel like this is A.I. abuse but this is kinda what they are made to do so...you’re the one that decided to turn Yusaku’s duel disk into a helicarrier, Ai. You really should have known better if you thought that Kusanagi wasn’t going to use that to his advantage against his competition XD

Speaking of which, Takeru goes out of his way to buy Kusanagi a thank you meal from a hamburger place for saving him from Blood Shepherd only for Ai to crash land right into him and I love how Takeru and Flame’s first reaction to this is “Huh, duel disks fall from the sky here! No wonder everyone is a duelist here!” But after finding out that it was Ai, and that he upgraded Yusaku’s duel disk to be able to fly him around, Flame gets the bright idea to turn Takeru’s duel disk into a vehicle. Takeru’s reaction to that was basically mine. Thanks Ai, you gave Flame ideas. I won’t be surprised if he somehow is able to actually do that in the future. Also interesting thing to note, it looks like Takeru might still be living with his grandparents after all since Flame says that if they turn his duel disk into a vehicle, he wouldn’t need to take a train home anymore. I know Japanese schools work way differently then the ones in the U.S. so him going to a different school to improve his education greatly after slacking in it for so many years seems like a good excuse to actually go to Den City to help Yusaku but wow, I have to give Takeru so major credit. He really is going out of his way to help Yusaku since he’s going through all the trouble to what I assume is back and forth trips each day from his home town to Den City. We don’t even know how far these two places are either so that train fare can’t be cheap. Where is he even getting the money for this anyway? Well I guess his grandparents I should assume. Since he’s finally going to school again, and making friends since I’m sure he told them about Yusaku, they probably pay as much money as they can to keep Takeru happy like this after so many years of being completely shut off from the world. Just something I found neat.

And then we cut to this and I seriously just want to know what was going through Yusaku’s head when Naoki said this. Apparently murder judging by his facial expressions he made during this scene. Naoki, Yusaku already has to explain the whole Takeru situation when him and Ryoken meet back up. You really need to stop trying to make this whole thing into a love square because it seriously is never going to happen. I do like how the show is just running with the whole soulmate line now. Sure they weren’t being settle before about Naoki being super gay for Playmaker but now they are just not even trying anymore. And what did I tell you guys about the Naoki blackmailing Yusaku should he find out he was actually Playmaker? He actually would do it apparently. Does he actually know that Yusaku = Playmaker though? Hell no. I’m sure this is just going to end in another fake out just like the Go situation, which now thinking about it we never actually got an answer to that question, and Naoki is just going to pull a fast one on Yusaku and states that he knows that he is actually Playmaker’s number 1 fan or something. In which case, yep totally, Naoki. He loves Playmaker so much that he dresses up as him in his free time. You discovered Yusaku’s dirty little secret, please don’t tell anyone!

So we start getting the backstory part of the episode and wow, Jin was so messed up when he was rescued. Completely shut down. The human mind processes things differently between humans but it really is so fascinating how out of the four kids we know about, they all took in this experience differently. Like I said, Jin’s mind completely shut down, Spectre got a kick out of it and wanted more, Takeru had no drive to do anything and became depressed, and Yusaku tried to move on with his life but when that didn’t work, he sought out revenge against the people that did this to him. I just want to know who the last two kids are now just to know how they reacted to the Hanoi Project. But yeah, after realizing that Jin wasn’t going to get better, Kusanagi took it upon himself to find out what happened to his brother. In doing so, his career plans changed a lot. Apparently he wanted to be an athlete at one point, then became a hacker, and now he owns a hot truck. This guy is all over the place.

We find out that these flashbacks take place during when the Knights of Hanoi were out destroying the Cyberse cards. Revolver said it himself, when Playmaker showed up and he saw that he was using Cyberse, he was shocked by this since he thought his organization had wiped them all out but the question I have to this is just how did Link Vrains get access to the Cyberse-type in the first place? Five years before the start of the show, Ai sealed the Cyberse away and he was on the run since. We learn in the preview for 65 that Yusaku found his Cyberse deck in the ruins but in answering that question leads to even more questions. What are they doing in the ruins? Who was using them before Yusaku got his deck? The Ignises, who created the Cyberse-type, didn’t interact with humans before Revolver showed up but they were clearly in a duel disk, not just laying around on the floor. What kind of aztec stuff is this? There seriously has be a seventh Ignis, the divine one, we don’t know about yet because I don’t know how this is going to be explained otherwise. Add in Yusaku’s Link Sense and how he felt like he has done Speed Dueling before it was even a thing again...oh this is hurting my brain.

Kusanagi ends up witnessing a murder happen and is about to get murdered himself by some Knights of Hanoi goons but is saved by Playmaker...well Unknown at the time. Yusaku didn’t name Playmaker yet in these flashbacks which really makes episode 65′s title make sense. I very much want to see how that name was chosen since Playmaker is a pun of Yusaku’s name and I’m pretty sure at realizing that, Kusanagi is going to suggest the name for him. Because if you are going to be the hero that Link Vrains needs, you need something better then “unknown”. Also, I just loved how much Playmaker was just done with anyone in these flashbacks XD He just wants his revenge but instead he has to save people and beat up goons who can’t tell him anything.

So against his warnings, Kusanagi returns to Link Vrains and ends up getting into trouble, again, and Playmaker has to save his ass. Kusanagi logs out and Playmaker ends up out right destroying a Knight of Hanoi with a starter deck. Before he used Cyberse, he used the 2018, I believe, starter deck and just wow. Revolver, how bad are your henchmen if they are getting OTK by a starter deck?! Like I said, this episode was just so funny, even for serious moments like these. Also buy the new starter deck apparently. But yeah, afterwards, Playmaker gets outnumbered, even though I pretty sure he can take all of them at once, but just doesn’t because they know nothing that can help him in his quest for vengeance, and this time Kusanagi is the one to rescue him by getting him a way out and afterwards tells Playmaker to meet up with him at Cafe Nagi. And right after that, we get the real life meeting between Yusaku and Kusanagi and can I just say I love Yusaku’s outfit! I’m a sucker for hoodies, what can I say (also copying your boyfriend much, Yusaku? You and Ryoken even have similar ways to approaching others who you wish to team up with (Ryoken to Spectre and Yusaku to Kusanagi) but boy, why can’t you wear this more often or at all?! You look out right ready to shank someone and it is amazing! I also just loved the way Kusanagi convinced Yusaku to team up with him.

“If you’re the strongest spear to fight the Knights of Hanoi, I’ll be the strongest shield to protect you!” I really like this quote for some reason and perfectly sums up their partnership. What does that make Takeru then? The armor? Since time and time again, he goes out of his way to protect Yusaku from dueling Go and Blue Girl so he wouldn’t have to worry about them and out right protected him from Blood Shepherd’s trap. I think it makes sense.

And yeah, the episode ends with them agreeing to work together. Like I said before, the preview shows them working together in their first real mission to get Yusaku his Cyberse deck. Overall, I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this episode. It was just funny and the backstory was just good and gave us answers to questions we needed answers for. I hope next week’s episode is just as good and I really hope we do get a Ryoken/Revolver cameo during it because it makes sense to throw him in there just to foreshadow what Yusaku and Kusanagi have to face off against together in the future.

#vrains #vrains spoilers #Thoughts #theories

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jazd801 · 6 years

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Let’s talk about why artists who have their works published in Lezhin Comics refer people to ONLY read it from Lezhin website:

This is originally posted from my Twitter, and is only copy/pasting it here. I am too lazy to edit shit.

I SAW SOMETHING TODAY IN MY TL THAT IS WORTH DISCUSSING AND SHOULD BE ACKNOWLEDGED OF. This is for everyone who are maybe planning to read or are reading #LoveIsAnIllusion by Fargo (yes, they have twitter but I will not mention them because there's even the slightest possibility that Fargo may also be following the #LoveIsAnIllusion hashtag, coz why not, and also can see this post of mine; I honestly won't even mind if Fargo can actually see this post.)

This is a message to remind everyone.

Thing is, I saw a post that Fargo had replied to (which the OP had deleted after for various reasons) today, because I am following the creator's twitter as well (coz y’know im such a stalker and because Fargo posts a lot of Dojin's sexiness in their TL, haha)

(I decided to delete the OP’s username and even their profile pic to “protect them”)

This OP had asked where else to read the #LoveIsAnIllusion webtoon, aside from Lezhin Comics, which is the official legal site you can, frankly, should only read the webtoon from. You know, asking a question like this is ab-so-lute-ly fine.

However, please remember that Fargo and every creator and artists who have their works published in Lezhin Comics, that these comics they pour every bit of their sweat, effort and time (and honestly, even their physical health), are their other "source" of income in real life.

I am sure these creators/artists are aware that there are other sources where people can even read the webtoon outside of the Lezhin website. And yes, there are a lot generous people who can afford to purchase the chapters and even share them to others who cannot afford to buy each chapters from Lezhin (and even all the Japanese manga out there.) This is the exact reason why scanlation groups exists, because a shit-ton (probably a million, thrillion, quadrillion) of people cannot afford because they are either broke students or unemployed.

My point is, YES, you can read them for free (go thank these generous people who buys the chapters in Lezhin and shares them to you broke doods) but DO NOT forget that Fargo and every comic artists who has their works published legally (like in Lezhin website) and are up for sale, depends on us, people, their supporters and fans, to place food on their tables and pay their monthly bills. If you genuinely enjoy their works, and if you finally managed to land a well-paying job, go and support these wonderful artists and creators!!!

You should also respect all the scanlation groups when they tell you to “please not share their releases outside their Discord/community/website, etc., because in the end, you are only going to make yourself cry. Why? There’s a fuck-ton of reasons why I could think of that you couldn’t but let’s list down the three main possibilities what would happen that would make you cry and for people to hate you, and eventually yourself because fuck what have I done???:

POSSIBILITY #ONE: Let’s assume the original creators of these webtoon already know that scanlation groups exists. They can’t do anything about it (coz they only have themselves) so they acknowledge it as long as there are other people who reads their work and still support them by BUYING EACH CHAPTERS FROM LEZHIN.

POSSIBILITY #TWO: If the original creators of these webtoon start to consider the possibility of “threat” of scanlation groups, they will ask Lezhin or some legit legal company that protects the comic artists from people who illegally do stuff with their comics, coz yeah, scanlating is illegal. These scanlation groups you are reading free webtoons from will take the blame, and they will get scared if they get those scary cease-or-desist letters from legit companies, and they will either stop scanlating altogether or go waaaaay underground, and away from people’s greedy selves. ***Some scanlation groups actually experienced this scary shit because they were working on some licensed titles by Libre Shuppan. This is why scanlation groups never work on any licensed manga and are asking people to stop sharing them when they have become licensed. You don’t want that to happen, right??

POSSIBILITY #THREE (in which you ignore the other two possibilities above): These original creators of these webtoon can always decide by their selves to stop whatever they are doing. They can. But they won’t. How then would they pay whatever bills they need to pay every month or place food on their tables if they stop this other source of income they could think of, because they maybe cannot work outside like normal people do, because maybe they would then jeopardize their physical health???

I hope you all understand whatever I am trying to say...

Honestly, you can and are freely to gush and fangirl over whatever webtoon you like, you can even message the original creators of these webtoon and let them know how you genuinely enjoy their work. Comments like these fuel each artists’ motivation and inspiration.

BUT never make a post with the word “scanlation” or even ask where else you can read the webtoon when it is only available in Lezhin, and mention the artists’ username in one message.

If you don’t know all this, then I am sure you do not know or is not aware, by ignoring these possibilities, how you can ruin a creator or artists of these webtoons’ every day lives. And even the lives of the broke students who are busy studying their majors to hopefully get a job of their own in the future, and the unemployed fans.

Always think before you act.

BY THE WAY, this is also for all the manga you are reading for free in mangago, mangafox, mangareader, mangahere, and any other manga reading sites that is illegal.

Scanlation is illegal. But there are people who are part of these scanlation groups who actually purchase their own manga/manwha/doujinshi and JFC, everything else they can fucking scan that isn’t in English and scan them for the scanlation team they are a member of. So these scanlation groups, even though it is illegal shit/business/hobby/fucking whatever, still have their own rights to be mad when someone decides to fuck them over :)

Again, always think before you act.

Thank you for reading.

#love is an illusion #webtoon #manga scanlation #Lezhin Comics #Lezhin webtoon #Fargo #jaztalking #i am fucking tired of these people who arent even aware that they are ruining everyones lives #fuck shit i added more stuff from my actual twitter post #and my brain is overheating already #fuck me im dead #how to tag

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princessknightt · 6 years

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Why You Should Give Yuri A Chance

So I made a reddit post and I’m just gonna dump all the text here and link it so you lovely folks could give it an upvote ;) I’ll link it first and just lol, do a read more thing under it if you’d rather read it on tumblr.

https://www.reddit.com/r/actuallesbians/comments/9paqmt/yall_should_try_reading_yuri_mangamanhwa/

So I've noticed a lot of lesbians and other wlw don't really read yuri manga or manhwa or manhua. And yes those are all different. Manga is Japanese, manhwa is Korean, and manhua is Chinese. There's also Thai yuri but I'm not sure what their comics are called. I have an idea why wlw don't read them and I'll agree with you gals. Yuri is sexualized and does have a bad reputation. BUT, and here's a huge but, it's definitely getting better. I could go into the history of yuri and why it was low-key, even high-key homophobic or sexist back in the day, but it's definitely getting better. If you only know of yuri from anime, then please throw that idea right in the trash. Yuri manga is different, there's actual lesbian authors and just woman authors in general that save the genre.

I guess we can call this my Defense of Yuri. First of all, what yuri do people usually see and what's usually popular? It's stuff like Citrus and NTR that are popularized because they were animated. Also Happy Sugar Life and that new Loli Maid anime that's super gross. These manga are not really serious and end up being gross representations of what lesbians are like. And yet it's what's popular, leading people to believe most yuri is like this. This is wrong. There's a lot of yuri that is not fetishized and are published in yuri exclusive magazines such as Comic Yuri Hime or Yuri Shimai or Tsubomi. They also might just be original doujins that aren't officially published.

This brings me to my second point. Because the popular yuri titles are fetishized and really just paint yuri in a bad light, people wouldn't want to try diving into the genre. And that's the sad part because there are definitely queer authors who are making really good stuff that just isn't seen and supported enough to become popular. Nakatani Nio's Bloom Into You is a better yuri manga about discovering the MC's sexuality that isn't sexualized and is actually a serious work. It's also getting an anime adaptation so hopefully more people will give anime a chance. It's noteworthy that Nakatani Nio is a woman who, while she may not be queer, she actually understands how women think. That's honestly more important since the fetishized yuri tend to be made by men who have no clue.

So basically what I'm trying to get at is that the popular yuri titles are bad examples of what yuri is and can actually be, I'll list some examples of good yuri manga and a few manhwas and manhuas too. Before we go to the examples and recommendations, I just want to make sure that I reiterate that the popular yuri anime ain't shit and honestly you shouldn't really stream them either. Citrus is literally pseudo-incest, NTR is about cheating, Happy Sugar Life is about a pedophilic yandere, and the Loli Maid anime is pedophilic too. So yeah, just don't bother with them, they were definitely not written with women in mind. What you should do is try and support the queer and/or women authors who produce actual good yuri.

1. Tamen de Gushi by Tan Jiu (Chinese): So this one is one I think a lot of lesbians have actually read but this shit is super cute and about those two high school girls figuring out their feelings for each other. Unfortunately because of China's censorship laws, the author isn't allowed to show any explicit or even overt homosexuality in the story but it's still a really nice slice-of-life.

2. What Does the Fox Say? by Team Gaiji (Korean): Ah yes, another one that is fairly popular with lesbians I think. It's basically a dramatic romance between two office workers that's also a bit of a love triangle. It's very dramatic, kinda like a kdrama, and it's also very much gay. There's explicit gay content and you get invested in the story easily. (VERY NSFW)

3. Pulse by Ratana Satis (Thai): This is a more racy story about a heart surgeon and her patient haha. So it's definitely very dramatic but also very gay. Like wow it's gay as fuck. And the story itself is interesting and I got heavily invested in the drama too. (ALSO IT'S NSFW)

4. Collectors by Nishi Uko (Japanese): So this is a gem following the lives of two women who are avid collectors of things, and their relationship together. This is one of those rare ones where they're already together and it's just navigating their day to day lives in a very mature way. It's really nice.

5. Wife and Wife by Minamoto Hisanari (Japanese): So this is literally what the title says. It's slice of life with two women who married each other and it's their newlywed life. It's super cute and diabetes inducing and gay.

6. Bright and Cheery Amnesia by Tamamusi (Japanese): This one is a comedy about the trope where your lover gets amnesia but it's super cute because said lover immediately falls in love with you again. Except with two women and the humor is on point.

7. Strawberry Shake by Hayashiya Shizuru (Japanese): This is also a comedy, even going so far as a gag comedy about two idols and their love story. It's super funny and cute and one of my favorites because I read this when I was like, 15 and still questioning and it really just made me laugh. It was nice having a romantic comedy with a lesbian couple, er, pining lesbian couple.

8. Cirque Arachne by Saida Nika (Japanese): This is an interesting story about being in a circus and falling in love there. I'm not really sure how to describe it but it's really good.

9. The Love Doctor by Chamsae (Korean): This is a story about a college student consulting a "love doctor" about why she can't get a boyfriend (she doesn't actually feel any attraction to guys *hint* *hint*). And the doctor happens to also be gay oh my. But it's a nice drama that was honestly pretty relatable for me because I completely understood where the MC was coming from. And their relationship does get really cute and like all Korean manhwas, it's very reminiscent of a kdrama.

10. Bloom Into You by Nakatani Nio (Japanese): I already mentioned this story but this is a high school coming of age story. It's navigating the feelings the MC has and how those feelings "bloom." I think it's a very mature take on the typical high school love story and there's even an asexual male side character. I think it was nicely written and you can even buy the printed translated copies if you wanted.

These are just a few recommendations I have so if this post gets a lot of attention, I can make another post of recs that I think are good reads. You can find sites to read these through googling them and adding manga online or something, but most are found on dynasty reader (google it). Oh right, and also it's important to note whether it's Japanese or not because the Japanese ones are the only ones you read from right to left, the others are left to right. As an additional note, if anyone wants me to do like, a history of yuri or something, I can probably do that because god, I read too much. Or if you want more recs haha.

#yuri #lgbt #lesbian #its legit good stuff yall #dont knock it just cause its called yuri

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midorichan10 · 6 years

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KnB Stageplay Ignite Zone Finale Live-Viewing Report

I watched the finale via live viewing in my city! For my previous report of when I saw it at the actual theater refer to this post here. I’ll only mention the stuff that’s new/changed etc here

Himuro’s first appearance-dramatic turn with zoom-in

Kiyoshi’s rambling English

“Hello hello, nice to meet you! My name is Kiyoshi, I’m Japanese, where did you go did you go to Sugamo, Ueno, my grand-tocchan (referring to grandfather in half English half Japanese) special place”

Himuro: Calm down calm down Besides half of your introduction was in Japanese....

Kagami’s hurt expression after Himuro tells him off for holding back during the flashback

Onsen scene

Tsuchida made a pun about New York and went KITAKORE

“shut up Tsuchida!”

Hyuuga tries to pull the ‘water’ down to embarrass Imayoshi, but Imayoshi dodges by going behind him. And then Imayoshi goes “IMAYOSHI DRIVE”

When Wakamatsu appeared, Tsuchida looks down at his...er.....ahem...manhood, and looks back up at Wakamatsu with a look of defeat on his face

When Sakurai ‘dives into the water’ to get the paper, Imayoshi goes “Could it be, Sakurai Drive???”

For the finale, Akashi had his Bokushi contacts!

End of Touou match

Aomine couldn’t stop crying. He did his best to hold it in for the Kuroko fist bump scene. Kuroko also was tearing up.

Everyone in Touou was bawling. For the baton pass scene from Imayoshi, Imayoshi had to pause to get himself together. When he turns away to face us (away from the team) the camera zoomed in on his face where you could see tears streaming down his cheeks (and even snot coming out from his nose). Sakurai and Wakamatsu were sobbing as well.

Momoi goes to find Aomine where he asks her to go shopping with him for new shoes. However, Aomine couldn’t hold back crying anymore and was just full on bawling that Momoi started crying again.

Aomine: *sniff sniff* .......bashuu (basketball shoes)....*sniff sniff* .....*sniff*.....I wanna buy *sniff* new ones *sniff sniff* Momoi: *teared up* Okay, but why so suddenly? Aomine: *sniff*....*sniff sniff* .......*sniff*.....Iwannapractice *sniff sniff* Momoi: *sniff* okay! But you gotta treat me! *runs off* Aomine: *sniff* ......’kay *sniff

It’s been a gag since the last play where Kuroko always asks for a longer time for the halftime break. (It’s supposed to be just 20 min)

Finale adlib Kagami: So Kuroko, how long of a break do you want today? Kuroko: 20 min Kagami: *appalled* What? You’re really okay with that? Kuroko: Yes. Let’s go Kagami-kun! Kagami: Oh! *runs off stage Kuroko: *follows then stops, then turns to the audience* 1 hour break!! Kagami: *walks back on stage giving him this judging look* Kuroko: ....................Damn it!! (referencing the scene when he’s cursing about being useless in the Touou match) Kagami: *still staring* Kuroko: ...... 20 min break... *dejected*

Midorima and Takao *cough* I mean MIDORI and TAKAKO return

Midori: Himuro-san! I have something to give you! Takako: So unfair! I want to give it to him too! Midori: Wanna janken? Takako: Of course we’ll janken! Today I worked out the secret of janken. Midori: Secret? Don’t you mean that your focus ran out? Takako: You’re a bit wrong, I didnt’ run out. I LET IT RUN OUT. MISDIRECTION JANKEN OVERFLOW!!! *runs off stage* Midori: ....She left....oh well. HImuro-san can I take a pic together? Takako: *runs back* I WANNA JOIN TOO~!!!

Turns out Himuro wears tights and taped knees....

Himuro was trying not to cry after Yosen lost, but you can hear it in his voice.

Curtain call greeting today was Ono Kensho himself!

He went on about how he’s been playing as Kuroko for a long time in the anime, and now this was his third year as Kuroko for the stageplays.

And that the stageplays won’t end yet and announces the fourth installment. No one knows details yet.

Kagami has a turn at his own greeting.

He thanks each team individually for putting up a great match

For Touou after Kagami thanks them, Imayoshi runs up to each Seirin member and shakes their hand.

Everyone: TOO LONG TOO LONG (at Imayoshi)

Kagami thanks Yousen and Okamura too copies Imayoshi and shakes everyone’s hands in Seirin

He thanks Shuutoku for being there despite them not playing this time.

He says thank you for making him look cool lmao

He thanks the Igniters (ensemble members) for making their matches possible because they couldn’t have done it without them.

Kagami: *turns to Akashi for his turn* YOJIROU! Akashi: ????? Eh? Yojirou?? Kagami: YOJIROU!! Akashi (and everyone): You mean not as Akashi??? Kagami: YOJIROU!!!!!!! Akashi: Okay yes? Kagami: something along the lines of “I know you just started but this is what Kurosute (knb stageplay) is! Althought you did try to stab me with scissors. Akashi: Can I say something? Kagami: No Akashi: EH!? Kagami: fine fine Akashi: Okay. So I’ve thought about this. KUROSUTE IS THE BEST!!!

There was a total of 5 curtain calls!

For one of them Imayoshi got Touou together and they all did a group bow

For the third or fourth one they all lined up in one line and held hands and bowed together.

Akashi was in the center between Kuroko and Kagami, like dead center, and he looked so nervous like ‘can I even be here in the center’ sort of face lol

Apparently I heard from a friend that Midorima and Takao were fighting over whose hands should be on top of the other

Akashi was always polite and majestic with his bowing but for the last few curtain call bows he lightened up and did a lot of cute waves

For the last curtain call Akashi and Aomine did a bro-hug and bro-shake

Fukui would bow to Kuroko and Kagami (since they’re the last ones to always exit) just before he leaves

Bonus: Apparently Kise’s actor went to see the finale!!!!

And that’s pretty much it! Support the plays by purchasing the DVD/Blu-ray if you can! Let’s support them so they can make the entire storyline!

#kuroko no basuke #kuroko no basket #knb stageplay

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negatistic-nocturnities · 6 years

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12-January-2018

Hello everybody! I AM EXHAUSTED but it’s alright, I can chat awhile.

Today I helped my grandmother clean more (it’s a whole house, so sue me, houses take a while). Spent quite a bit of today there. I got some good news from an affiliate, so that’s cool, gotta keep that one vague.

I wondered something a few days ago at work.

I was the only one left late at night and a customer asked me if I’d keep an eye on her as she went to her car, for added security. Of course I said yes and followed suit. The thing that I wondered was if anyone else writes about me. Not directly referenced, no. I mean as in the background character that did something nice or sad or funny or wrong or right. It’s like the thought of how many pictures one is a part of in the background.

I had a talk with my grandmother about college and I think I’m ready to apply again and commit to a path.

It seems like languages would be a good one.

I will try <3

Oh, I thought a few things on a character called Liminal. He’s a changeling with auburn to orange ‘mane’ and classic chitin(let me add that I really don’t know what gender/sex to have ‘him’ as, I mean, he is a changeling and, other than Queen status, we haven’t seen any real differences between the sexes of drone, if there are any). The role I realized that I could put him in would be as a train ticket booth pony in Appleloosa. The thought behind this was his namesake, Liminal.

Liminal spaces! Here’s a fun little tidbit. It’s like a ‘threshold’ of warped reality. Usually it’s like the unreal air in a Lovecraftian ritual but it can be used towards areas of unreal quality like… empty train stations!

…Or K-Marts. *shudders*

Here’s a video!

Have fun!

Okay, so he’s a lone changeling not affiliated with the ‘Chrysalis Hive’ or whatever. My version is a little different than the current timeline with no Thorax or possibly Tirek (under debate).

He’s still hiding from ponies and the like so he found a good cover job.

He basically lives in that ticket booth.

Luckily ponies in Equestria give affection towards any act, even with buying a ticket! Ponies!?!?! Am I right?!!

Okay, so, I’m back to Russian after a day-break and back to writing a little. It’s good! Especially with music!

I wonder if I can write Star Trek fanfiction with original characters.

I think I could, I’ve had ideas for years on that!

I bet people would like me to rant on that rather than these weird colorful ponies!

I also changed my font size, though y’all probably won’t notice, I type up these journal entries in Microsoft Word. The size used to be sixteen point Calibri but now it is twelve point size of the same. I’m listening to some awesome fanmixes for Marvel’s Defenders.

God, I ship Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones, they work so well together. They both mean well and are sarcastic or, at least, appreciative of sarcasm.

It’s odd, but, like I say(So Sue Me).

Did you hear about the Apple company’s history with that phrase?

Here, I’ll copy-paste:

History[edit]

Sosumi is a short sample of a xylophone, which gained notoriety in computer folklore as a cheeky response to a long-running Apple Corps v. Apple Computer trademark conflict.[1][2][3][4][5] The sound has been included in all subsequent versions of Mac OS, including Mac OS X.

During the development of System 7, the two Apples concluded a settlement agreement from an earlier dispute when Apple added a sound synthesis chip to its IIgs machine.[6] As a result, Apple Computer was prohibited from using their trademark on "creative works whose principal content is music".

When new sounds for System 7 were created, the sounds were reviewed by Apple's Legal Department who objected that the new sound alert "chime" had a name that was "too musical," under the recent settlement. The creator of the new sound alerts for System 7, Jim Reekes, had grown frustrated with the legal scrutiny and first quipped it should be named "Let It Beep", a pun on The Beatles' "Let It Be". When someone remarked that that would not pass Legal's approval, he remarked, "so sue me". After a brief reflection, he resubmitted the sound's name as sosumi (a homophone of "so sue me"), telling the Legal Department that the name was Japanese and had nothing to do with music.[7][8][9]

Cool, right? I heard about it years ago.

Alright, before I exercise my butt off, let me thank all of my friends that are there for me and let me be there for them.

Including (but not exclusive to):

@bravemccoy: Hanna, my friend for many months before now and definitely many months after now, stay cool and stay in school!

Jessica, my friend of many years and who is seriously cool, saving the world, one college course at a time.

Demarkwan, my good friend of work and even better friend of Ratchet & Clank! We need that memory card!

@set-l-hijinx:Deewe, Chris the human (he might be a pony, you never know on the internet)

http://thegreatomens.tumblr.com/ (BECAUSE IT WON”T LET ME TAG YOU) @thegreatomens:Lily, Benny and Skye, my (current) roommates, as we part ways, I hope it is only at this fork and not all the crossings down the line. I’ll come over and play Team Fortress 2 with y’all sometime, not like we don’t work with eachother!

Let this year, two-thousand-and-eighteen, be a year of growth and joy and the accomplishment of any goals that we all have.

Your friend Seth-Ray, signing off!

Here you go!

http://8tracks.com/mixes/8609029?s=w8

I know you really read these for the music links, hahaha.

PostScript. This felt long but it was onlyseven-hundred and forty-nine words

I need to up my goals for word-count.

I need goals for that first!

#me #journal #january #12th #love #lordy #so many tagged names #Oh well #03.03 #thegreatomens #bravemccoy #set-l-hijinx #Liminal

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