#Theoretical Merch

[scraps-n-starters]

I hate. Having a brilliant concept for merch and someone else has not already read my mind and made it

Honedge line hairsticks.

[evercelle]

hello:]] assuming you open your store again, will there be SaiOuma keychains? I bought your doujinshi last time (loved it), but I felt a bit stupid for not buying the keychains even though I fell in love with them. Also, will your store be open in the near future?

well. about that,,, i probably won't be opening my online store again anytime soon because

ya girl got into AX...!!!🎉🎉 so on top of never ending doujin i'll be working on making new arcane/link click/orv/hsr stuff, and probably reprint some of my older genshin/v3 merch. i'll do my best to have leftover sales online after!! i always promised to make prints if i ever got to table, so i'll do my best to get the saiou rep in there too haha

[leletha-jann]

Hey, keeping in mind that this is an ENTIRELY theoretical exercise, and absolutely nothing should be inferred from this nor any expectations set...

Assume all these options are in a reasonable price range for what they are. Whatever you expect them to cost, these imaginary things cost.

Again, this is an entirely hypothetical situation with a list that I, who am not the Foglios and do not influence their decisions, have made for fun. DO NOT assume or expect anything from this, or demand that any of these things be made. I'm just curious.

[fiddles-ifs]

Hi from Maine! Happy (late. so late.) Pride!! And happy (LATE.) update day! I bequeath to you these widdle guys, which I spent a lot of time on in between other projects. They're also to apologize for delayed Greenwarden story update, because:

I've been writing a book! And I finished the first draft literally yesterday! I'm going to shit my pants!! Now that the first draft is done, I have some editing to do, which is going to eat up my time, but now I have some wiggle room to work on Greenwarden again. Check out this (raw, unedited) snippet from The House Loves You as thanks for your patience:

Next period’s bell is a shrill reminder I still haven’t touched my food. I put whatever I was reading away and dump my tray unceremoniously on the way out. The cafeteria is already empty — I don’t think I’ve ever been in a less busy school. Barely a week in, and I already know everyone by name and the general area where they live. It's more information than I want. Eventually, it'll be a new school in a new town with new people, then another, then graduation, and I'll get into a mediocre college in a different town and never look back. I'll figure it out from there.

They seem like small dreams — but they're what I've got.

I float through the rest of my classes in the back of the room. The bus ride home is unremarkable; my one saving grace is my license, but Mom has the car and we can't afford another bill, so the bus it is. Again -- the open wound is smoothed over knowing I'm not alone. I languish in the relative silence with a pair of earbuds in.

I'm the last stop in the evening. The bus rolls along, slowly shedding children like scabs, until it creeps nervously to the mailbox and gravel road that marks the mouth of the holler. It sputters like an anxious horse, shudders to a stop, and hisses open. The doors close too fast behind me, and the bus peels away in a cloud of grit. Finally, I'm well and truly alone.

The trees are tall and wild here, untouched by human hands. Branches knit together in dense braids and then part again, each gap in the canopy scorched by yellow mountain sunlight. The gravel road bends left and disappears into the deep shadows. Rocks crunch near-silently underfoot. Like they're afraid to wake something sleeping in the dark recesses of the holler. Even the birds speak in whispers.

I grab a few overdue bills from the mailbox and shuffle up the road. Mom's not home, so I get some peace and quiet for a couple hours.

The winding gut of the holler rips open in an abrupt hole, and beyond the hole is a clearing. In the clearing, circled by trees with dark trunks and tight branches, are a few rusted, dead tires, an abandoned swing set, some overgrown grass, and a house. My back hurts and my legs are sore, but I still pause at the threshold.

The house is an ugly sore made of cracked, peeling white siding and a sagging porch. Just enough timber has been cleared away to make a front and back yard. The roof seems to bow under the weight of the sky, all dark windows and missing shingles. It's a quiet house. It doesn't talk much. Not usually.

I drag my feet across the hidden flagstones in the grass, and listen to the sound of the screen door squeal open. Once I step inside, the house greets me, as it usually does.

Welcome home, Cash.

[hyenabeanz]

Cuz the curiosity is killing me, and I think there are many of you on here younger than me so you can check me if this is just me being an old and I don't know what's cool, but: thoughts on the PWHL women's empowerment month logo?

I uh ...

I am unimpressed.

[hana-bobo-finch]

i want so badly to go way too in depth into bug fables biology. so many questions. i must make a PowerPoint presentation immediately

[fumifooms]

Hello👋 I came here from your Maki-Angel AO3 fic. I really enjoyed reading your Makima analysis on here. It's always awesome seeing people reflect on her character. I'm also quite normal about her. I remember hating her on my first reading. But as time went on, her whole arc and existence resonated with me. What were your impressions after your first run through Part 1? Did you love her from the outset, or did it take time to build?

(Mentioned makiangel fic here! Give it a look maybe~)

This is like really long lol I recount my reading experience like a dramatic play. For the occasion it's now my Makima central post for talking about my personal thoughts on her and all, I also recommend some fics and fanart at the end.

Have my little Makima shrine that I look at with wistful sighs. I want the Yoyo studio bust of her so bad but it only comes as a purchase bonus for an expensive af figure. Also the zaohua figure but I'll keep dreaming

I actually may have the weirdest chainsaw man reading experience... I actually read Chainsaw Man part 1 FOR Makima. She was my fuel and my drive to keep reading, knowing more about her and what happened to her was the thing keeping me reading. At the time I didn't know fujimoto like that™️ yet so I didn't really have built up trust in his writing and I took everything at face value sort of. The humor, the shonen-ness of some of the story really wasn't for me, and as an ace I don't like putting sexuality and romance on a pedestral of importance, when it isn't done self-awarely.

I like to say about csm actually that it does this really interesting thing where it starts out making you suspend your disbelief about red flags. There's obviously something wrong about Makima from the very get-go, but it's not really like Aki and Power were nice healthy buddies for Denji at first either. Everyone introduces CSM as being this craaAAazyyYy series so sure, okay, a messy morally ambiguous cast à la Dorohedoro, love that! Her weirdass direct and smiling behavior had me intrigued scene 1.

And having a character be blatantly uncanny and ominous despite having done nothing much actually wrong yet is the best way to activate my charitability neurones... I was consciously dismissing the red flags listen I drunk the koolaid- it actually gave me this very interesting experience of being in denji's shoes about Makima. Early on I shipped Denji Makima and I clungggg to that hug in the first meeting, I clung to that warmth I clung to every bit of humanity she showed. I clung to it maybe being a underdog x underdog story, I thought... I thought she could have a redemption arc like Power and all, I thought Denji could fix Makima I thought he could complement her very cold practical mindset and ground her 😭😭 I cheered when she didn't die in the train, I cared about nothing else.

So obviously that did not go very well for me. When she died let me tell you I MOURNED Makima, I also had to mourn their relationship alongside her- it was really masterfully done of just pushing and pushing until it couldn't be denied in the slightest that the relationship was abusive, plain and simple, and that Makima wouldn't change. That the way Denji defeats her works because she never cared about him in the slightest at all- tough pill to swallow that crushed my soul, 10/10 unforgettable Fujimoto I trust you with my life now. But you know, I couldn't help myself from still loving her, for my heart still aching for her and wanting to see the humanity in her- Denji's sushi reaction about still loving your abuser rang so true. Makima feels like she was MY abusive partner 😂 So i see her as someone who couldn't be saved from herself, sort of. Denying to yourself that you crave connection and love never goes well. So in the end the thing about Nayuta and giving her the hugs Makima couldn't receive really comforts me a lot. You can't save makima, but you can do good in her memory, even if all she left you was empty adoration and hurt. Am the #1 hater of the "the control devil can only be evil" theory.

And then the next level of this is that for like a year I did not actually complete my read of Chainsaw Man. That's right, I dropped Chainsaw Man... It's only with part 2, which is much more my thing story wise, that I started reading again- still avoiding reading what I skipped in part 1. Last year I eventually did binge part 1, but I really had to prepare myself mentally for it for a long time first.

What was so bad I dropped you ask? Reze. Reze's debut. I'm not kidding lol, even now I still dislike Reze, sure it's some of what she did too but it was mostly what she represented, the tropes and plot progression she brought with her. Reze showed up and Denji started crushing on her, and immediately I knew where the story was going. Immediately I knew it wasn't going the Makima redemption route. Ah shit red flags real. You don't introduce a secondary love interest in a story like that like THAT without setting up themes of moving on and letting go and noooooo no I did NOT want to let go of Makima. So I skimmed ahead and my fears got confirmed and then I stopped. I wallowed. Then an hour later I go to the chainsaw man wikipage for Makima and spoil myself on everything. Oh she's the control devil? Checks out. Oh she wants to set her own world order and wants to have an authorotarian government? Yeah she would... Too true...... And then I did read the last chapter and I did grow a lot of appreciation for Fujimoto and the whole story. Ah shit it was about abuse all along and u played me like a fiddle. Sob. So when I say I mourned makima, -gestures-.

I stewed in my feelings for a long time and just sorta digested my emotions and thoughts and curled up in a ball on the floor rolling sobbing chanting her name in misery. My appreciation for Denji and Fujimoto's writing grew directly as my unconditional love for Makima wilted. I have a lot of love for Denji and a lot of respect for Fujimoto.

I tend to have a character reading style where I get my enjoyment and emotions from growing to understand and be attached to characters more than events happening and keeping action going. Sort of instead of "what happens next" my drive is "what happens TO THEM next". By latching onto bits of psychology I find interesting or promising that means i got really attached to Makima hard and fast. I knowww pass me the clown wig.

She does target a lot of my specific interests in characters though. My favorites things ate the undesirable and the dehumanized- and the control devil Makima plays into both (because her desirability is limited by her feeling uncanny and it being an instinctive red flag) but mostly the latter, hard. I love people having a hard time finding somewhere to belong, I love nonhuman characters willingly or nof craving being human, I love characters struggling with their humanity (even when they aren't human! But you can't outrun a desire for bonds and emotions), I love characters who don't know how to give or receive love. Even when characters are pure evil I will always attempt to humanize, even if it's just for the sake of understanding them onesidedly. Seeking the humanij thd inhuman is MY SHIT!! Esp as someone who gets dehumanized for not being born intuively understanding socialization, either. Part of her resonates with me, the afab autism vibe and demeanor, the scripted way she approaches socializing, the perfectionism to compensate, the rigidity and the self-preservation of denying she has feelings. If denjima was endgame it WOULD have been addictive to me, reading redemption arc longfics 1000 times. Well the reveal Denji is 16 did have me horrified but in a perfect world yk. But no instead makima is an exercice in things being tailored for me, yes being humanized in canon which considering her character ia frankly surprising, but being told very firmly "No, they can't get better". Don't get me wrong the angst is great and I love pain, but man, even with like Metal Sonic's chronix self-destructive obsession there are silver linings. So no instead i just get to read fics about her and her dogs chilling together with crumbs of happiness and make my peace that she's doomed, that this is doomed. She's tragic, that's what she is to me. Falls down a flight of stairs

I yearn for a world where I could love her unconditionally and the meta IS part of the angst for me. I watch this edit a lot:

Makima with Washing Machine Heart really does go unfathomably hard "I know who you pretend I am" not as 'you love another' but as 'you hold onto this version where I am nice instead of untrustworthy, as this idol as- Ughhh ugh ugh ugh ugh I love trying to understand her I love the slope of her eyes I love the way she emotes and moves and her petty or opiniated words whenever she lets herself intone I love whatever I can glean from her impersonal unfeeling brick wall persona, I love the person I pretend she is.

So yes I never hated Makima but she did hurt me a lot.

Recommendations time!!!

Slice of life Makima is a fic genre I really like, I have a couple of wips in store for that I might get around to too. Here are my Makima fics ao3 bookmarks:

Sanctum

Girl Synanthrope

In this world, we walk on the roof of hell gazing at flowers

(No preview this time just read it)

I actually discovered makiangel on a binge of fics like this, with the tags Makima + character study on I think, with Terrible Fish which I also really recommend. I love exploring characters and making them have arcs specifically through relationships they have a lot, which leads me to shipping being important to me. No ship with her fit quite right for the longest time though, they're all doomed of course, but Denji doesn't provoke much in her, I like Makima x quanxi and I also entertained x Kishibe and x Power, but makiangel just CLICKED. You've already heard my manifesto but I'll have to make a makiangel ramble on tumblr too eventually I swear.....

Say no more, fellow of huge brain size. I am on the boat

Fanart wise, I only really have one peeson to recommend, Psicheanima.

They also hold this Makima rp twitter account reviewing movies and talking about everday situations, which like I mentioned I love, Makima slice of life 🫶

And while I'm here, linking my Makima spotify playlist again.

It's very cathartic for me to write about her even when you can never overstate the rot that she is, the aching infected wound, the destructive ruthlessness of her.

I'm aware this post may make me look insane but whatever lol, art can make emotional fools out of all of us and that's precious I think.

[aro-culture-is]

Aro culture is buying pride merch with the agender flag because people always forget about us

.

[cuteniarose]

No you don't get it I live in a world where there's more readily available merch for a goddamn turkish soap opera masquerading as a harem drama than there is for LoK, how am I supposed to function in these conditions???

[thesnailtail]

I am beaming Enabling waves directly into your brain talk about it I want to hear

;; i have received the enabling waves and you shall hear about it

;; so minoharu role swap where minori was in asrun and haruka is her fan!

;; minori is still super energetic and retains her entire personality basically. best way i can describe her with asrun is that she's similar to aya maruyama from bandori, very sincere and proudly herself but just professional enough. she still has her ability to become the definition of the word "tomato faced" though.

;; haruka meanwhile is like her younger self we see in beyond the dream on that day. except she never sees the idol that she saw in canon. you know how minori has her bad luck in canon? well haruka has a problem with her smile. canonically in her introduction haruka does say "i couldn't smile very well when i was younger. i developed a bit of a complex about it." and that's what's happening here.

;; the main story doesn't change much other then haruka taking minori's place. minori's imposter syndrome and amount of guilt she feels at any given moment is off the charts it's.. concerning.

;; the funniest change is that rather then minori stopping airi from getting into a fist fight with the cheerful*days memebers, haruka walks in front of her and stands there until airi realises this is a bad idea.

;; rather then blue the glowsticks in sekai during the show are orange because minori!

;; with event stories they swap with two exceptions. haruka keeps you deserve it break time because penguin and then to balance that out minori keeps the zookeeper one that happened recently!

;; other vaguely related facts?

;; so in canon haruka calls saki and ichika, tenma-san and hoshino-san until the sport festival, she still gets dragged onto the sport festival in this au but she only ends up calling them by their first names after around the bon voyage event..

;; kohamino are the haruan of this au. because we're going to ignore canon and say that they met earlier (still due to something similar to the animal caretaker committee)

;; dynamic wise more more jump doesn't really change, other then the minoairi dynamic being perfectly summed up as "learn how to shut the fuck up." "nah!"

;; as i said minori still has her ability to become the definition of the word "tomato faced". except it's a mutually shared ability with haruka that activates whenever they are within each others presence. they are both idiots /aff.

;; shiho watched as the only person she talks to in class gets called out to specifically, by the random new idol in class. 1-a trio is absolutely insane. kohane is the only braincell between all of them. that's just canon though...

;; 1-c is really chill and when minori and haruka first meet, haruka expects ichika to be the one who came up to the roof and starts to ask a question before realising "..you're not hoshino-san."

;; minori has in fact bragged about haruka to anyone who will listen. it's almost as bad as haruka in canon.

;; there's probably more i need to put here but i cannot remember everything so i might add stuff in reblogs eventually

;; enjoy some of the stuff ive written for this au for now

;; this ended up being way longer then i expected. oops :3

[mrvelocipede]

Advertisement

This is awful, I've been working on stuff and thinking about this all week, and the only thing rattling around my otherwise empty skull is:

T-shirts (and a couple of stickers) on Threadless: https://polychroma.threadless.com/

A few random carefully curated collection of silk scarves on Big Cartel: https://polychroma.bigcartel.com/

[calyroco]

At this point, the fact that Chaz keeps getting merch makes me wonder if the show is gonna pull a "We didn't show the body!" and bring him back for another episode

[frumdyke]

i meannn i could maybe afford meet n greet if i was okay with not getting any merch

[hermithomebase]

All I'm saying is don't buy stray kids merch....😐

SHUTTHEBFUCKCKUPUPP SHUTUPPPP

[wcdonaldo]

theoretically i understand why the anime merch stores at the mall only has merch for the most recent popular shounen, but consider: they should sell t-shirts for my favorite 20-year-old non-localized eroge

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I feel like my biggest fear would be twst shutting down after the book 8. Like. Please no. If that were to happen I'm praying that the book 8 would last at least 7 more years/j

As I have previously stated (I believe most recently in this post):

“Gacha games DON'T terminate service as soon as they finish their main story. Live service games will generally only shut down if they have insufficient interest or revenue to keep it going, and that is most likely not the case for Twst seeing as how it has tons of merch, as well as several ongoing adaptations (anime, manga, light novel, etc.). Like, I'm pretty certain Twst regularly brings in several million yen a MONTH. One way or another, there will almost certainly be a follow-up to this first ‘arc’ of the main story.”

Don’t believe the doomposting and fearmongering going around. As a long-time gacha player and someone who follows banner sales and other stats (out of curiosity), there’s little reason for me to believe Twst will terminate service. The only exception would be if the fandom or sales significantly dwindles in however long it takes for book 8 to be completed (which we cannot accurately predict right now). At that point, the companies involved would likely cut their losses and end the game rather than conclude the story—right NOW, Twst is still popular and profitable, with plenty hype for a main story continuation.

I’m just praying that the theoretical book 8 is more of an “epilogue” and therefore closer to the prologue length, not progressively longer OTL Book 7 took over 2 years, almost 3 if you count the wait time between the end of book 6 and the start of 7… and 7 was almost 2.5-4 times the length of 6 (depending on how you count the multi-chapter installments). If 8 holds that pattern, it very well could take 7 years to release and be 10 times the length of book 7 😭