heartofbread

[heartofbread]

Guess who finally got into Frieren?!

Pre-orders available on my linktree! linktr.ee/heartofbread

Help a gal pay rent and afford the doctor after getting a stomach bug.

[heartofbread]

This is also available as a print, if you'd like to help a struggling immigrant pay rent and afford to live and stuff!

I've got other works you might be interested in, too! Thank you so much for 500 notes!

My contribution to the fandom.

[heartofbread]

My contribution to the fandom.

[heartofbread]

Thank fucking god, someone not blaming Denji.

This is my 9/11

[heartofbread]

Your art is amazing, I hope your OCs get as much as an audience in whatever medium you desire for them. I fell in love.

Is fate something you can earn?

[heartofbread]

And haters say they came out of nowhere

Blue Flag - chapter 1 / final chapter.

[heartofbread]

Ao No Flag analysis: Taichi, jealousy, normativity and queerness

I'm slowly rereading Ao No Flag as I purchase the physical volumes and one thing that I've noticed in the story, especially in vol 3, is the topic of jealousy.

I feel like many people got super confused by the manga's ending because the main feeling that they got from Taichi towards Touma throughout the story was of jealousy.

The reason why I think it's so interesting is because it's a very common feeling and overall issue for queer people when we are discovering our identities: do I want to be them? or do I want them?

What I think is funny about Taichi is that he feels he can't compete against Touma because he has everything he lacks. He knows he is jealous of him. However, at the same time, we still see him get jealous of Akiko. He has a particular feeling towards the "type" he thinks Touma has. Therefore, two conflicting feelings are happening here: He is jealous of Touma (because he is good at everything and girls have crushes on him) and he is jealous of the people Touma seems to like (and those who like him).

More often than not, for queer men, the answer to "do I want to be him or do I want him?" ends up being, well, both.

The reason why I think we don't see Taichi realizing this explicitely is because (and this is the other thing that I discovered rereading) he is very normative. He is an example:

Taichi was confronting Futaba because, why was she there with him if she was supposed to like Touma? and Futaba, my beloved, answers with a key point of the manga: isn't it okay to have several people that are precious to you?

But Taichi doesn't understand that. Itachi posed the same question to him before, but he didn't understand it. He doesn't understand it until the very end of the manga. In his head, men and men are supposed to be friends. Women and men are supposed to be more.

If you blush because of a man, it means something negative, you're jealous. However, if you blush because of a woman, then you must be attracted to her. Right?

What kills me is that one of the people who cemented these normative feelings in Taichi was Touma himself when he refused to hold hands anymore because "holding hands is for girls."

It's such a small scene, but it's pivotal to understand Taichi as a character. We know that Taichi thinks in black and white. He thinks that if he doesn't save the cat, then he is the worst person in the universe. He associates situations with single emotions. With rights or wrongs.

To conclude, the reason why I believe that it makes sense that he ended up with Touma is because I can see and understand the complexity of dealing with normativity when you grow up queer and you have stone set ideas of what is right and what is wrong. Since "it isn't right" for men to hold hands, then the strong feeling that you have towards them has to be jealousy, right?

Anyway, I still don't think the manga is perfect and I would have loved to have more development at the end, but I think that Taichi's internal struggles are very relatable.

[heartofbread]

touma’s turn to wipe crumbs off his face

[heartofbread]

OP, I want you to know that because of this post, I read Blue Flag. And I will never be the same again. I was foolish to start it near 1am when I had work in the morning. I stayed up til 4 and after a few hours of sleep proceeded to think about these characters every free moment of my shift.

I just finished it and I feel like a big bang is happening in my chest. Thank you, I love you.

I cry a little every time I'm browsing the Marriage Toxin tag and there's yet another post like "shonen jump would never let Gero/Kinosaki be canon" "I won't get my hopes up that a shonen jump manga could ever be queer*" because

Blue Flag is right there. Marriage Toxin is not the first queer shonen jump manga. If Gero gets to come out, he wouldn't be the first [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS]. Blue Flag is right there and it's so good please I am begging you to read it it is a crime against art and nature and me personally that such a well crafted story isn't better known

Blue Flag is about a high school love dodecahedron where half of them are queer, and the entire manga is about figuring out how to navigate what you want VS wanting the people you care about to be happy VS what society says will make you and your loved ones happy. Which is an inherently, inherently queer theme, and it is a goddamn masterclass of wordlessly showing character interority via body language, paneling, framing, and art. Frankly, the grounded tone is apples and oranges with the wacky comedic action of Marriage Toxin but Pleeeeease please please please read Blue Flag anyway both to make you feel better about the existence of queer shonen stories BUT ALSO because it's some capital L literature that literally everyone should read

[heartofbread]

silly shuggynanigans collection

[heartofbread]

I did this compilation right after Vine went down, and I thought I lost it, but I finally found it

[heartofbread]

He ran out of money…

[heartofbread]

BOOM! POW!

[heartofbread]

hommage to one of my favorite gamess

[heartofbread]

cruelty is so easy. youre not special for choosing it

[heartofbread]

The forehead poke is the highest expression of love for Uchiha 🫶🏻

[heartofbread]