#parting thoughts

[crehador]

brother crab's spring 2025 parting thoughts: kowloon generic romance

i'd say overall a captivating story with captivating characters, but one which to me suffers from the same imbalance your forma did. specifically, i found some elements (the mystery) far far far more compelling than others (the romance)

though a lot of the shortcomings here feel like they could be intentional given the title of the series (which doesn't necessarily make them better, to me, but could be an interesting creative choice)

the mystery of the city, of generic terra, of the hebinuma group, and of kujirai b... all very compelling to me! the theme of finding and living as your absolute self... loved it. the characters, interesting in the best of ways

the actual romance between reiko and kudou? bland. boring. generic

(which is why i say well maybe that was intentional, it is in the title and all)

the history between kudou and kujirai b was deeply fascinating to me, and i think we saw it unfold in the story in a very effective way. but the thread of the actual 'present day' romance, so to speak, was so incredibly dull to me compared to everything else that was going on. it did feel like a necessary component of the story, like a catalyst or even foundation for the rest, but every other dynamic in the series was imo stronger than this one

maybe seeing it unfold in the manga would have been a different and better experience, i'm sure a ton was cut seeing as i hear 11 volumes were packed into 13 episodes and given an anime original ending (impressive, by the way, that the anime managed to not feel super rushed to me despite all that it covered)

but as is, to me as an anime-only, the romance between reiko and kudou is far and away the weakest part of the series. nothing about their chemistry felt real or appealing, i feel we were told about the romance without actually being given a reason to be invested in it or to even find it especially believable

i did enjoy pretty much every other aspect of the show though lol

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[sadclowncentral]

sometimes it's not even enemies to lovers. sometimes you get handed the leash of a snarling, barking dog against your will and realize with dawning horror that you are now responsible for teaching it not to bite

[otaku553]

Turning around an idea in my head recently :)

Lost Shepherd (Time Travel) AU

In which Truthless Recluse doesn’t experience rebirth and awakening upon shattering his soul jam, but the explosion of his and Shadow Milk Cookie’s combined power in a twisted space where all time coexists as one sends him back in time to his childhood.

When Pure Vanilla Cookie searches for his lost sheep, he finds a lost shepherd to take home as well.

[mlm-blues]

“lmao imagine liking men” OK!!! ON IT BOSS 🫡🫡🫡 it’s beautiful here

[goldfishinaplasticbag]

thought about damian’s unique position as a son of the al ghuls and the bats for too long and got sad about it. also i miss my grandpa + listening to sad music on loop = i have to make this everyone’s problem.

chinese version below! thought i should start including two translations since i’m fluent in both and i might as well allow more people to enjoy the same art. i would also do a japanese version but i can’t be confident in that one at all HAHAHAHA

我知道我寫的字很醜、我太久沒手寫中文了。請您們原諒我⋯囧rz

[bacchuschucklefuck]

couldnt draw my thang for mid-autumn so treated myself to a calne redesign instead

[crehador]

brother crab's fall 2024 parting thoughts: murai no koi

i'm gonna be so honest with you guys this was fucking awesome. teacher/student romcom is not something that would catch my eye normally but i picked this one up for the cast (amachan AND haruki hello) and i'm really glad i did

the romance itself, ngl, was pretty predictable and for much of the show i wasn't really invested in it. when the love triangle cropped up later on i was even actively rooting for the other teacher guy because like. he is just a hot mess emphasis on hot

but anyway it's your standard "we knew each other when we were Much younger, before we were teacher/student" deal with a... reasonable resolution to the teacher/student issue i guess. i'm not like a hater about the main romance but it's probably obvious that isn't the thing i really loved about the show

what i did love was

IT'S FUCKING HILARIOUS. okay the humor is amazing, the comedic timing, the delivery of the voice actors, even the subs absolutely nailed the humorous tone. like for me, in this romcom, the com part is definitely what really shined

the ride and die friendships between the students were also just so much fun to see. kiriyama is going in the little guys of all time hall of fame immediately. the boys will be boys energy he, hirai, and murai have together is just plain fun, and the other friends surrounding them are all entertaining characters too

most people will have gripes about the animation i'm sure, but just like with gokushufudou (it's the same series composition guy) i honestly liked it. i seriously, genuinely do not think this is Bad animation. call it slideshow animation if you must, but imo it's a perfectly fine stylistic choice that was done well and worked perfectly with the tone of the show. like i know i'm in the unpopular opinion camp here, but to me it is a genuinely enjoyable style of animation that's particularly well-suited to this kind of comedy. i felt this way about gokushufudou and i feel this way about murai no koi, i will absolutely watch more of whatever work yamakawa susumu does next

anyway

tl;dr as a romcom the rom was just fine but the com was banging, the whole cast of characters was entertaining but for me kiriyama hard carried this from fun to excellent, i personally liked the animation boo me if you must

[andstuffsketches]

um, can you play a song with a beat?

[artbyblastweave]

I'm not the first to mention this, but one bit that I thought was really clever in Steven Universe is the ways in which the show subtly justifies the cartoonism of the principle cast always wearing the same outfit for ease-of-animation purposes. The gems are a gimme in that they're all hardlight-projections, and even before that's solidified as a plot point they're otherworldly and superheroic enough that you don't really think to question it. But Steven canonically just owns hundreds and hundreds of those star shirts, which are leftover merchandise from his father's fizzled-out career as a rock star. Into which you can read a whole bunch of other stuff if you really want to, right? And I do want to. It's reflective of Greg's misplaced optimism that he got hundreds of those made in the first place, and it's a benign but visible example of how Steven's life is shaped by the knock-on effects of decisions his parents made before he was even alive. He's got his mother's superpowers and he's wearing his father's shirts.

[inkskinned]

i keep thinking about how rfk said that autistic people "will never write a poem." i keep thinking about that, about if humanity is calculated on the back of old verse. how far we measure personhood is in baseball and stanza breaks.

i keep thinking - i have over 7k poems on here alone. language can be a special interest, after all. did you know the word autism comes almost direct from the greek word autos, meaning "self"? self-ism.

maybe he is right - i haven't really played baseball. i was a ballet dancer instead. and besides - my sister once accidentally hit me in the face with an aluminum bat. i'm not sure if the injury gives me half points. am i only a person in the dugout? hand in a mitt? swinging?

does softball count? does cricket? am i a person if i throw the ball to my dog. am i a person as long as the ball is in the air, or do i stop being a person as it rolls into the bushes. i took my girlfriend to fenway recently; was i a person in the sun, with my hands up, with the game laid out at my feet in a diamond. i felt like a person, but that was back in the summer, and i often feel my most person-like then.

am i more of a person because of the sheer number of things i've written? does quality matter, or is it quantity? i used to write entire books every summer in high school - i wasn't doing well. i felt the least like-a-person back then. but then - does any person feel human in high school?

in the library, ink on my skin, i feel personhood shutter at the edges of myself. actually, writing feels blissfully like not being myself. it feels birdlike; escaping into creation so my body dissolves and i survive only by muscle memory. i am not there, i am writing.

but who can deny the falconlike focus of warsan shire, the tenderness of mary oliver, the sheer skill of amanda gorman. those are poets. they are certainly human. you could line them up with the way their words have influenced us and measure their literary shadows like wings.

perhaps it was very assumptive of me to want to be a poet rather than "a [ label ] poet." i wanted the work to fill itself in, rather than be stained by what i am. i do not write in despite of my neurodivergence, i am just neurodivergent and writing.

does the poem have to be in english or can i send it through my palms into the coat of my dog. does the poem have to make sense. does the poem have to love you back.

if i break a glass, will the poem appear naturally? or is the act of breaking the glass human-enough. the shards of my life glittering out beneath me - do i have to write the poem, or is it self-evident in the pile of glass splinters? i cannot grasp this world the way other people can. regardless, i endeavor to touch - even the mess - very gently.

i broke my toenail against my coffee table recently. i released a bug outdoors. i made coffee. i walked my dog.

i didn't write a poem about any of these things.

something else, then. existing without humanity.

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

i liked repairing space bridges

[tazmiilly]

[softaestluv]

obsessed with the idea of onlyfans model! reader x Simon

Maybe you’re one of the biggest creators on the platform and you’re very well known after doing it for a few years. Except, you only do solo content, despite your peers constantly asking to collab or getting requests from fans to see you getting fucked.

Then, one day you post a video showing off some new panties and Simon’s tattooed and scarred hand just appears, squeezing the meat of your ass, claiming and possessive. A subtle message he’s sending to your audience as he spreads your cheeks apart, sliding your panties to the side and shows off your pretty pussy dripping with his cum.

[mochasucculent]

Was looking at refs and since Viktor has two different leg braces I was wondering, do we think he wears them simultaneously?? The refs don't perfectly line up perspective-wise so it's hard to tell but parts of the one he wears during the Hexcore scenes look like they could maybe line up with the brace that he wears over his clothes, but also some parts really don't and look like they'd be super uncomfy. Also HOW does he take these on and off. Experts weigh in

[milkamel]

AU idea: PV never regains memories, ancients don't reunite and the beasts are freed. Soul jam's powers are weak so SMilk aims to forcefully make PV remember and takes him to the spire (Little does SM know he'll get attached to this little compassionate Healer)

More details about this AU (currently called Slumbering Truth AU): Basically it starts off with Smilk being terrible and basically doing what he was doing in the 8th episode, trying to make PV remember and playing with his mind for his entertainment. He knows who PV used to be but PV knows nothing about him or his own past. He's confused as to why would this powerful cookie need him but decides to submit in exchange for the village being safe.

At first Healer is uncomfortable and nervous but gradually despite Smilk's intimidating look decides to play along his games and get to know him better. Smilk is surprised by the other's behavior (and unexpected wits and trickery) and what started with the urge to break PV down slowly became an urge to keep the other close since the other's intentions to know him were genuine and comforting and SMilk hated the thought of losing that (not that he'd admit that. he needs that Healer to see him suffer, right?).

Now he doesn't want Healer to remember, he doesn't snap at that cookie as much, he wants him to stay in this blissful lie because if PV knew the truth then he'd definitely leave Smilk and lock him again. If Healer knew the truth he'd turn against him instantly, Smilk was sure. For the first time in a long time, Smilk felt like he found someone to who he was connected and he wasn't going to let anything ruin that.

(It's a wip so I might change some stuff along the way)