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“Say, friend, in Almyra such a display nets you the kiss of a princess. Where’s my prize?”

An open mouthed round of boisterous laughter resounded, and his smile certainly doubled in size. The Almyrans around him were busy snorting and chuckling, clearly entertained by their quick witted sharp shooter of a leader.  

Byleth would not give him the victory over her feelings, however. She continued to twirl the arrow in her hands around, focusing on the sharp little end and little else. The words would hurt – they had to – but maybe they could kick him off of his high horse, bring him back down to reality and forego the flirting entirely.

“What a shame it is that I have no daughter, then.”

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From Chapter 7 of “For Whom The Stars Shatter”

It’s not much but I wanted to draw this because that part destroyed me asdf

Also thank you so much to Cirrocumulus for taking the time and talking to me I really am grateful and I really hope you like this!

I’m gonna make more just you wait

Oh and here’s a sad song attached –> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSZ-KpVDzcw

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Hand in my hand and we promised to never let go We’re walking the tightrope High in the sky We can see the whole world down below We’re walking the tightrope Never sure, never know how far we could fall But it’s all an adventure That comes with a breathtaking view Walking the tightrope

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If you’re a fan of Claudeleth I beg of you to read “For Whom The Stars Shatter” by Cirrocumulus

It’s really, REALLY good and I cry so much 

I thought “Tightrope” from The Greatest Showman was fitting with how the story portrayed Byleth’s fears and love for Claude

Enjoy my crappy attempt at backgrounds again

Fanfic —>  https://archiveofourown.org/works/20315896/chapters/48166156

Song —> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7XpZnhxKw

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where’s that one “pakige” post bc like

AO3, Basic Logic, God, Everyone: You posted a chapter five minutes ago, and should get comments gradually over the next few hours! Me, .5 seconds after posting, sitting with my face pressed up against my AO3 inbox: commente

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Thanks hamliet, I didn’t need my heart anyway.

Just realized in Blanca’s last convo with Ash, Ash is dressed exactly like Natasha in the flashback (and Blanca is dressed in a similar manner too) as if the anime really wants to hurt you and make you remember that Blanca projected the loss of Natasha onto Ash in encouraging him to leave Eiji to protect Eiji… with disastrous consequences since that directly led to Ash’s death/Blanca reinflicting the very trauma he wanted to avoid.

Just. You know. In case you wanted to suffer today.

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I love your TG posts!!!! I really could not agree more with all of what youve said!

Thank you so much! =) I have since distanced myself from the Tokyo Ghoul fandom, mostly due to a lot of hate mail that some friends of mine and I got and while I did not like the ending, I still keep Tokyo Ghoul close in my heart.

If you’ve got any questions regarding what I thought of certain plot points, you can still ask me, though, of course! =) I’m hoping to get back into writing meta posts, soon.

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Someone: “Why do you get so heated while discussing lore of stuff? And why is it so detailed? Why do you have several thousand words devoted to this shit?”

Me: 

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Art in Banana Fish, Part 3 (Episodes 17-24)

Or, the promised meta on how the art pieces in the background of different scenes in the anime symbolically depict what is happening in the scenes as they occur. I’ll go episode by episode, in three different parts. Join me in possible occasional over-analyzing, but all in good fun.  This is the last part, and it contains the episode that first made me pay attention to the paintings in the first place (episode 19).

For part 1 (episodes 1-8), see here! 

Part 2 (episodes 9-16) here!

Keep reading

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Art in Banana Fish, Part 2 (Episodes 9-16)

Or, the promised meta on how the art pieces in the background of different scenes in the anime symbolically depict what is happening in the scenes as they occur. I’ll go episode by episode, in three different parts. Join me in possible occasional over-analyzing, but all in good fun. 

For part 1 (episodes 1-8), see here!

Episode 9: gee I wonder what the scimitar going through his head means that the eventual fate of that bodyguard is going to be. Also, Yut-Lung is positioned in front of golden vessels, showing again how people see him and Ash both as things to be poured into and objects to be exclaimed over how beautiful they are, to be controlled, instead of as people with wills and desires of their own. 

Yut-Lung’s also in front of the unidentified ominous artwork, eyes closed, while Dino comments on how beautiful he is. In other words, Yut-Lung is artwork at this moment. It’s dehumanization.

We see a colorful painting behind Eiji when he wakes up but we never see the full shot, because Eiji is putting the pieces together at the moment. He doesn’t understand what is going on. 

OHHHH IT’S THE OMINOUS PAINTING FINALLY.

So those are vines, not snakes, and the painting is actually kind of garish up close, and floral. In fact… it strongly resembles (not in color but in shape) the flowers that Yut-Lung later states are used to make Banana Fish, which were first shown to us on Professor Dawson’s computer two episodes prior.

And which, of course, are associated with Yut-Lung. It’s fitting we don’t see a clear shot of this artwork until we’ve already seen the flowers on Dawson’s computer in episode 7, and Yut-Lung is presented to Dino standing in front of it, since he is the one who will eventually explain these flowers to us. 

Oh look where the scimitar goes in this shot, and that’s exactly what happens to Arthur (Ash literally slashes that side of Arthur’s throat).

Keep reading

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Art in Banana Fish, Part 1 (Episodes 1-8)

Or, the promised meta on how the art pieces in the background of different scenes in the anime symbolically depict what is happening in the scenes as they occur. I’ll go episode by episode, in three different parts. Join me in  possible occasional over-analyzing, but all in good fun. 

Episode 1: Dino’s mansion: vases and statues.

Dino has a display of vases, one of which is a distinctive jade color (jade of course being associated with Ash and with Dino’s commodification of him). Behind Ash is a semi-erotic male statue with the statue holding guess what, a vase, upside down. The meaning is a bit unclear but the vase is clearly a motif so I’m going to guesssss that it symbolizes how Ash, far from being the statue Dino likes to carve and mold and create, is about to turn Dino’s world upside down by refusing to let Dino control him. Vases, or specifically vessels, are also sometimes symbols of pupilage, which does fit in that Dino does view Ash with a utilitarian form of education: he pours into Ash knowledge and power and expects Ash to receive, but that isn’t what Ash wants at all and he expressly rejects what Dino wants for him. 

Behind Ash’s head is a painting difficult to make out, but it loooooks like a painting of a cliff, which is fitting because Ash is about to dive off a cliff metaphorically speaking–in part because of this conversation. 

To the side of Dino is also what could be a mirror, or could be an undefined painting with crimson coloring and splotches that absolutely resemble blood. A mirror is interesting considering Dino meets his end thanks to a character who mirrors him (Foxx), and of course, the blood symbolizes everything about Dino. He wraps himself up in a pretty frame, but his a bloodthirsty pedophile. 

Interesting pattern. Admittedly, I’m at a loss with this one. It looks kind of ikat to me (which is interesting since ikat means “to bind”) but I am admittedly no design expert so if anyone has a suggestion tell me I’m wrong. 

Graffiti time! “Happin”=happening, yes it is. It’s in front of a mural of New York City, which Ash stands in front of in unsubtle symbolism. The woman without a head and with angel wings and a joking shoe is… interesting. And of course, the truck says “Live” on it and has birds on the longer side (birds=Eiji). 

Not much to say except note the use of green as a hue to frame the scene. Green in this case=sickening, Ash acting in a way that he doesn’t like (also not Alex, Kong, and Bones on Ash’s left, and others who later side with Arthur on his other side, standing alongside the gun (okay that’s not painting analysis it’s just a fun shot).  

Dino round 2.

It’s an angel pouring a vase into a fountain. The angel (associated with Ash) is a child (the symbolism isn’t subtle, since Dino is a pedophile). A snake (a devilish symbol, Dino since he’s the one who in the end falls into literal hellfire for his death) is about to bite the child angel, who pours a vase out (callback to the statue) into a fountain. 

Keep reading

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I totally agree, link.

I find that most of the flaws that we as meta writers find in the narrative or fault in how Kaneki is presented to us is the fact that Ishida, wanting to forego tragedy in favour of a happy ending, cancelled out the red thread that he weaved through the narrative for many, many years.

The problem with such things is that although Ishida as a person outgrew the fatality of tragedy, Ken as a character never did. Ken, up until the end of the Dragon arc, was still set up as a protagonist following the Fool’s journey who is destined to fail if he doesn’t see the Big World. This Big World being the narrative that Furuta set up of the world being wrong and in need of fixing and only through fixing the status quo can enlightenment happen.

But we were out of time to show such depth with Ken, who up until now upheld the mindset of the Small World (his family and friends) being the core of his being. Which, given the fact that we are now sailing to a Happy End but Furuta is still right about his personal worldview…makes Ken look like quite the unsympathetic douchebag. 

Not because he GETS his Happy End.

But because he DOESN’T EARN IT.

We hold a narrative focused character like Furuta up to an unwilling protagonist like Ken. Someone who himself said from the get go that a story with him in the leading role must lead to tragedy. And that red thread of Ken just wanting nothing to do with being a Main Character goes through the entire story arc of Tokyo Ghoul. Which is why he sucks as King - because he was put there by two people who were victims of their own upbringing. So he fails. But Furuta still desperately needs him to play his part of Hero.

Ken wants none of that. 

Ken likes his place in life as long as everyone leaves him and his Small World alone. And because Ken magically gets handed the keys to the kingdom, in this case a Happy Ending where almost all his friends are alive, he has a wife and a kid and gets to enjoy growing old, he seems like the most obnoxious character with a terribly narrow point of view when he tells Furuta “WELL THAT’S JUST LIFE.”

So the message, trying to stay clear of tragedy for Ken due to Ishida’s change of heart, becomes “The world isn’t wrong it just is (as long as I get personal happiness).” when for Furuta it is “The world is wrong and I’m trying to fix it to the point that I’m dying for it." 

Furuta is like Ken in that he only wishes for a normal life but unlike Ken, he doesn’t get that. He gave up trying to achieve it to cripple the powers that cause such tragedy. Ken doesn’t see that. He doesn’t even ATTEMPT to keep Furuta or Rize alive. All he does is not laugh about Furuta’s wish. Nothing more.

Furuta dies.

Alone.

Young.

Without Love.

But our protagonist gets to parade around the fact that "that’s just how life is you either win the lottery or you lose it” and that’s why so many of us think Kaneki is an unempathethic main character who does not deserve the love poured out for him. Because he doesn't even try to understand the person in front of him who has the same wish as him but was set up by the world as someone unable to ever have it.

The sky can always be blue if you are on the greener side of life.

Furuta's plan wouldn't hace work without kaneki a person that made bonds with ghouls and ccg investigators, reason being when you unite people to fight against one big enemy it is only momentary peace since once the enemy is wiped out they return to fight against each other and being hostile. Like the countries of the first world during war and after it. They still view each other as enemy or resources. So furuta's plan wouldn't have work because it was an ilusion of peace

Seeing the bad in you or other person or system doesn’t make you change anything.  No one cares because it is not someone of their circle, you only get them to care if you emphatize. 

I’m sorry i can’t with the narrativa you are painting of Futura the only hero the only one who did things when reality is kaneki wouldn’t have achieve it without furuta’s plan and furuta’s plan wouldn’t have worked without someone like Kaneki. Eto also played her part with aogiri by showing that ghouls are not just this monsters. You guys just take away any other characters achievings abd put it only to Furuta.

Anon, I’m not against empathy. I love the power of empathy and reaching out past your own circumstances and stories of how understanding can humanize people who actively look beyond the point of no return and actively seek to dehumanize themselves.

1) It’s a Furuta meta of course I talk about Furuta. I barely talk about Kaneki because anons asked me to stop talking about Kaneki so much in my furuta metas and only talk about Furuta.2) it’s a Furuta meta that talks about the period of Tokyo Ghoul in which Eto is specifically dead. 98-143 about where Kaneki is acting as the bureau chief. Of course Eto doesn’t have much of an impact because she is dead and outside of the narrative. Eto’s actions at that point are leaving Kaneki and I already did analyze what that was, it was creating a narrative to move people the same way that Furuta did. 

My problem with Kingneki isn’t that he used empathy to solve things and that I think empathy is a weak solution to these kind of problems. I was actively counting on Kaneki to show empathy and to shake off Furuta’s narrative and escape from it by showing him that people are willing to have hard conversations, and talk things out if it will lead to mutual understanding and it doesn’t have to follow a narrative that hard manipulates people. I wanted Furuta’s narrative to be broken by the power of genuine human connection with Furuta thought he had to forgo because people couldn’t be convinced to care by any means other than trickery. 

I’m not trying to spin the narrative of Tokyo Ghoul in any way. Of course it’s my reading but my reading doesn’t invalidate your reading. Feel free to not listen to me. I am in fact a dumbass. But what I’m writing is my honest reading of the source material. I’m going to give justification for why I think certain things and back up my arguments and that’s the best I can do. I’m fine discussing this with you anon, and I don’t think my reading invalidates yours in any way. But I can’t read something the way you do, we are in fact two distinct people with different perceptions. 

I want Kaneki to be empathic. The parts of his character that I take issue with aren’t his empathic traits, it’s his violent traits. Kingneki is pretty much by far the least empathic Kaneki of them all. 101 starts with Yomo and Take just going “We don’t need to talk things out, we can just believe in the same person even if we don’t agree with each other as long as we’re fighting on the same side.”

Like this isn’t mutual understanding empathy. It’s a decided effort for the characters to just not talk about their feelings and not make an attempt to work out their differences, because it’s easier for them to both blindly follow Ken Kaneki rather than go through the awkward process of trying to work things out. This conversation gets no follow up, and basically the rest of goat is like that.

One of Kingneki’s acts is straight up using right of the strong to convince Naki rather than talking things out with him, you know that incredibly unhealthy worldview that Yamori taught him that drove him insane earlier. Then he ends the fight not trying to convince Naki that there are better ways for him to live than rihgt of the strong, and also that he as a ghoul should be fighting to uplift himself from his station which is what the purpose of Goat should be about. Kaneki word for word tells him to die like a dog. 

Like, Kaneki very consistently says in his kingneki phase that he doesn’t care about people unless he directly knows about them or is invested in them in some way. That’s not empathy.

Even Naruto when fighting to protect his friends goes out of his way to learn the stories of the villains he’s fighting against and empathizes with their circumstances that led the to this place. Like, the narrative calls on Kaneki again and again to try to show empathy for these people and he just doesn’t as Kingneki. Kingneki cares about a very selective few group of people and the rest he doesn’t look at. He doesn’t empathize with Mutsuki, he doesn’t empathize with Hajime. 

Like, even the people that Kaneki personally cares about. Remember how Hinami had an emotional breakdown because she had to keep being around Akira for Kaneki’s sake and it made her very uncomfortable and she felt like she couldn’t share her feelings with him? Was Kaneki ever challenged by the narrative to come up with an understanding of Hinami’s personal feelings and grief in that case and understand that while Akira might be important to him Hinami might feel differently on the matter? 

I love the theme of empathy changing the world, that empathy can get people to be convinced to care, however that’s not the way Kaneki’s story resolves. Kaneki wins because he’s a figurehead as king. It’s a nameless king because it could have been anybody, he just needed a lot of followers to obsess over the idea of him to move and motivate them. It’s not like Kaneki showed those ghouls any special care or compassion, he basically almost starved them to death because of his own personal hangups about killing CCG officers. Yet at the same time if he cared so much about the CCG he also made no effort to contact his friends among the CCG or try to reach out to them and convince them he was still a person even if he had sided with ghouls and that he still cared about them and the bonds he made at the time still mattered. 

Kingneki doesn’t really reach out to people, even his old friends at the CCG, he very consistently tries to rely on right of the strong instead. He says “Good, I get to fight to proect” when him and his old friend Juuzou are about to kill each other without even trying to have talked things out. Even though Juuzou doesn’t even want to be working for Furuta at this point Kaneki doesn’t try to sway him.

I do think there’s a genuine empathic part to Kaneki’s character, but it’s really present in earlier nekis like Kuro -> Shiro -> Haise. Those are the kanekis that make an active effort to imagine the circumstances of other people actively outside of themselves. I don’t think empathy is just caring very selectively about the people around you that you care about. I think empathy has a distinct quality of reaching out and trying to understand the circumstances of people who are not directly right in front of you, who don’t think about the world the way you do. It’s acknowledging that people besides yourself have feelings, and that those feelings matter.

i believe in a narrative of empathy to change the world has power, I believe in caring for people, I don’t see it with Kaneki though. Specifically kingneki and the king and dragon arcs. What we get is don’t care, and right of the strong. What we get is Kaneki telling a child soldier who was born into servitude to die a half life that the world isn’t wrong or in need of reform, it simply is. See the thing is, my point is, that may be true for Kaneki, but it’s not for Furuta. For Furuta the world was wrong and it needed to be fixed in order for him to overcome his circumstances. There wasn’t a chance for him to pursue personal happiness in spite of the world and try to find fulfillment in some small part of it, because he would have just died for fodder of the Washuu.  Kaneki isn’t trying to transform the world with empathy, he basically only cares about the people he already cares about and loves and that doesn’t change throughout kingneki nor is it challenged. I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong for Kaneki to try to fight for his friends, and want to be motivated by small personal bonds rather than the whole world but as I said if Kaneki wanted that he shouldn’t have gotten involved in the politics that affected several other people besides his small friend group that he decided to take responsibility for. That’s just a contrast of their narratives until the end, Furuta was a character deeply involved in the politics and conflict of the world because he was born into it, Kaneki’s is a personal narrative from beginning to end. 

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I think that one has to consider the contexts of the time when Banana Fish (the manga) was published and popular when trying to understand Yoshida's point of view. 

Yoshida wrote a gangster themed cold-hard-cash sort of series that portrays child abuse in a tasteful and meaningful way, which has a gay, interracial relationship as its central focus. And the whole thing got published in a Shoujo magazine for girls full of sappy romance stories, but became incredibly popular among guys, too. And this was the 80's! 

Can you imagine the minefield that she had to navigate as a young, suddenly popular author with a series that was SO out there, especially for its time! BF has abuse, gang wars, drugs. 

But it also has gay relationships, interracial relationships, shows disabilities and the trauma caused by war. On a backdrop of 70's New York. And this is a Japanese product.

In the 80's.

Point being, no matter her response to questions, people would easily become upset. The dude bros who loved BF for the violence wouldn't want to see AshxEiji as more than a bromance. The Japanese readers wouldn't want to see a sexual relationship portrayed between its main pairing due to Japanese views on innocence and love. (Which is why nothing happens between Ash and Eiji, despite BF being full of sexual abuse.) 

Parts of the readers wanted to see the bad guys get kicked down, Yut Lung included. Parts of them wanted to get more closure for Ash. Some were probably slightly racist. Others homosexual and disappointed by the chaste nature of the main relationship of the series. 

Some wanted a better ending. But the very nature of Banana Fish would make any ending that Yoshida wrote it's own war that cannot be won. Banana Fish is inspired by a short story of J.D. Salinger, the author of The Catcher in the Rye, which is visibly tragic because the main character commits suicide at the end of it. 

And like the banana fish, the audience of Banana Fish gorged themselves on a narrative that was so beyond its time that no one opinion could satisfy them. I think that's why Yoshida is so confusing to understand in her interviews.

To do anything else would cause parts of her audience to leave the cave, when any one story depends on their audience gorging themselves to the point of being stuck, with no way to disentangle yourself from the emotions that grew in you.

iust curious— where did yoshida say she hates yut lung? its a little counterintuitive of a writer to hate their own creation..

In this interview from 1990. But like I’ve said, Yoshida’s interviews are wildly contradictory, so I really don’t take them too seriously. I think she’s just not well spoken in them, but I have nothing but respect and gratitude towards her for writing Banana Fish even with my opinion on the ending being more negative than positive, because those characters are some of my favorites of all time.

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even Jesus

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Ishida drew art for Halloween.

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Secret Revealed: How do Match-ups work?

Haise: Welcome to the meeting everyone! We’re here to discuss writer-artist matchups! First, let’s go over the schedule. Kuroneki, could you please read the notes for us?

Kuroneki: According to the schedule, artists should have finished submitting their WIPs yesterday; and… f-from October 25th to 29th, writers will be able to choose from a spreadsheet of anonymous WIPs their top three fanworks they want to work with, and submit it via a google form and… and um…

Child kuroneki: Sasaki-san! What extra info will the writers be able to see on the spreadsheet?

Haise: I see you’re paying attention! Extra information that will be available to the writer, besides the WIP and a short description, would be the rating or trigger warnings the artwork may have. It will also include suggestions from the artist on what kind of fic they are hoping to read and what themes they are uncomfortable with.

Shironeki: So, artists will dictate what authors write?

Shironeki: Oh, really? Then what if some WIPs don’t get any claims, huh?

Haise: Hey hey! No arguing! Though, that’s a relevant question, Shiro. It is highly unlikely to happen, however. Just to be on the safe side, writers will be given the option to work on two pieces. Beyond this, we do have a safeguard in place if a piece still doesn’t get claimed. Let’s continue where we left off, shall we?

Kuroneki: Hai, Haise-san! Well, um, after the writers pick which artwork they want to work with, artists - author match-ups will be announced between November 1st and the 3rd. Then we have…

Child Shironeki: Sasaki! Say, an art piece gets picked as the first choice by two people. What are you going to do then?

Haise: Well, we will make the match either based on necessity or on how it falls; one person might need to work with their second or third choice, or there is a possibility both people will get to work with that artwork!

Kuroneki: Um, Haise-san? Is it possible that somebody won’t get to work with any of their top 3 choices?

Haise: Absolutely not. All authors will be matched with one of their top three choices (unless they claimed incorrectly, i.e. claimed NSFW when they’re underage). Now then, can you tell us what happens after the match-ups have been announced?

Kuroneki: Everyone meets their bang partner and we all start working together! The next dates to keep in mind are fic outline submissions and beta match-ups from November 29th to December 13th.

Haise: That’s right! Is everything clear? Does anybody else have something they’d like to say?

Shironeki: How did it feel when you abandoned your kids?

#240: AARRGGHHHHH!!

*crashing sounds*

Haise: Thank you all for coming, please check out our detailed timeline here. If you have any questions, you can send them here or ask us on discord and we’ll get back to you shortly.

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The Banana Fish Experience

At the Start:

At the End:

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Savage