#this was a really enjoyable and honestly relatable drama too...!

[kanasmusings]

[Masterpost] SOARA Drama CD - “Gift”

Hello~! It’s been a really long time since I last posted on Tumblr, but I’m probably going to be more active here again (especially since Twitter is in shambles right now orz)~ Life has been a kick in the butt, but I have been working on a few projects that I’ve been wanting to work on, so hopefully my Tumblr blog will look alive (pun intended www) again! 

Let me kick the blog back up with a literal “Gift” translation~! Thank you to @melynir​ for requesting me for this drama! It is based on the plot of IveSta 6, but watching the stage isn’t really necessary to appreciate what the drama CD wants to convey ^^ IveSta 6 is divided into Growth and SOARA versions, but the drama applies to SOARA only, just in case you’re wondering where Growth and ZIX are.  

VAZZROCK translations are on queue, so please look forward to them as well~

Here are some links to where you can purchase the drama and the stage if you’re interested in checking them out: (CD) Movic, CDJapan | (Stage Play) Movic, CDJapan

Tracklist and translations under the cut, enjoy~!

[TRACKLIST:]

Track 01: “Encounter with an unlucky guy.”

Track 02: “Their Validations”

Track 03: “Let’s make comedy!”

Track 04: “The night before the battle.”

Track 05: “N-1 BATTLE”

Track 06: “N-1 Battle - Aftermath”

※ Please don’t re-post or re-translate these without permission!!!

If you enjoyed this, please consider buying me a ko-fi here to support my work! It’ll be a really big help. (o^▽^o)Thank you!!

[uriekukistan]

i wanna talk about this thing gege said

i’ve seen a lot of people saying that this is a bad way to write a story, and i couldnt disagree more. from a writer’s perspective, there is no reason to kill off a character if it’s not going to have impact.

in any case, i think this reaction points out two things i’ve noticed about the jjk fandom.

i. jjk fans prioritize enjoyment of characters over the plot

which is fine, i guess. i’m not gonna begrudge any readers the space to enjoy their fav characters. however, what i disagree with is the constant trashing of gege and jjk as a story because the narrative doesnt treat the characters as you want it to.

i mostly talk about these things from the perspective of someone who has been writing for a while, so i will take a second to acknowledge from the reader perspective. it’s easy to get attached to characters and see them as real people in your life.

but they arent real people. they only exist for the author’s intentions. every time i see someone complain that “x character only died because plot” i just think “yes?” characters exist for the plot. they exist to serve the narrative. they live and die for the plot, and that isn’t a bad thing. this is a story. that is how stories work.

with characters like gojo or choso, it’s easy to look back and see their character arcs and how their ends fit their purpose in the story, but i think people get so caught up in wanting to fuck the character, or fanon, that they forget their original purpose is to do what gege wants them to do.

this is a war against the most powerful, most evil sorcerer in history. of course characters are going to die, and of course it’s going to be characters we love. it’s honestly unrealistic to expect anything else.

and i think it’s really disrespectful to say so many rude things to gege because he is thinking about the story he wants to tell, and not the story that best suits your favorite character.

ii. few people want to feel anything from what they’re reading anymore

which again, is totally fine, but maybe read something else?

tragic stories have existed and enjoyed immense popularity for millennia. and theres nothing wrong with that. there’s nothing wrong with authors intentionally stirring up their readers’ emotions.

i wanna bring attention to the origins of the words “tragedy” and “catharsis”

“tragedy” is a genre that stems from greek drama based on human suffering and the terrible or sorrowful events that befall the main character. the intention of of tragedy is to invoke “catharsis”

“catharsis” is commonly used to refer to the purification of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. in terms of tragedy, this refers to arousing a negative emotion with the intention of expelling it so the audience can walk away feeling relieved.

for all intents and purposes, jjk is a tragedy. it’s meant to make you feel sad. that’s gege’s intention. yet every time people feel upset by a specific event, they call “bad writing.” if anything, according to what jjk is, it’s good writing if you feel sad.

i have seen some people say that jjk wasn’t set up this way, and i disagree so strongly that it’s hard to comprehend.

jjk0 ends with gojo having to kill his best friend, his one and only. tragedy. yuuta’s story is tragic too, having cursed rika and accidentally isolated himself just because he didn’t want her to die.

jjk starts with yuuji faced with execution just because because he wanted to honor his grandfather’s dying wishes. within a handful of chapters, there’s yuuji’s “death” and junpei, and there’s a clear set up of tragedy and repeated loss, despite characters giving their best effort.

i could get into how this relates to my interpretation of the themes of jjk, and sharing burden/responsibility to be stronger together, but that’s another point.

tldr; the point of this post is to say that gege killing characters and making readers feel sad is not bad writing or a bad narrative choice. it’s true to his intentions and the essence of jjk. if you don’t like that, then don’t read. but there’s no reason to disrespect gege and his hard work just because it’s not your cup of tea

[olenvasynyt]

Hello!! I have a few Elucien related asks for funsies:

- What do you think draws you to Elucien as a ship?

- Do you have a favorite Elucien head canon that you’d love to read in their book?

- If you read fan fic, do you remember what your first Elucien fic was? Or do you have one you are currently reading you’re loving?

- Would you prefer to read a super angsty, drama-filled Elucien book that tears at the heartstrings, or more of a romantic comedy with lots of banter and fluff? Or a combination?

Feel free to share these question prompts with your fave Elucien accounts or anyone else you think would like to participate and spread the positive vibes!

Awww thank you😭💕

What do you think draws you to Elucien as a ship?

I think their aesthetics / tropes draw me in! I love a good rake x lady, I think it's so hot and also just really refreshing in this current enemies to lovers shadowboy trope haha. I love their mutual pining / longing, and they are a slow burn too and I just know that after everything they both have been through, they will heal together and fall into their love for each other.

Do you have a favorite Elucien head canon that you’d love to read in their book?

Oh god there is so fucking many. So many people have the headcanon that Elain kept Lucien's jacket that he covered her up with at the Cauldron and oof. Idk how realistic it is but I fucking love it lmao. It's the kind of obsession and pining that is so goooddddd. And I wouldn't consider this a headcanon, it's more of a theory because I really think it's possible it happened, but I hope Papa Archeron talked about Elain with Lucien when they were sailing together! I think his connection with Papa Archeron is really important and I hope it comes up again.

If you read fan fic, do you remember what your first Elucien fic was? Or do you have one you are currently reading you’re loving?

OOOOOH let me look through my bookmarks! I think the first Elucien ones were The Longest Night by NextToSomething , A Court Of Family Secrets by flamesandshadows, and They Say I Did Something Bad by @separatist-apologist Those are at least my oldest bookmarked Elucien fics haha.

I am currently reading @clarafae's Garden Of Wallflowers!!

Would you prefer to read a super angsty, drama-filled Elucien book that tears at the heartstrings, or more of a romantic comedy with lots of banter and fluff? Or a combination?

Oop this is a funny question because if you know me, I love angst haha. I loveeeee my heartstring being just RIPPED APART! But I feel like the Elucien angst we would get would be pretty soft and mostly have to do with them talking about the past and the sort of angst that leads to comfort / a happy ending! I hope Jesminda is brought up because I will ball my eyes out. I will honestly cry no matter what lmao even the fluffy stuff will make me cry.

I'm going to send this to other people too but I also want to tag my amazing Elucien friends who have just been so sweet and supportive and ugh just awesome to talk to and be friends with. @crazy-ache @zenkindoflove @bonecarversbestie @starsreminisce @themadmorrigan @jadedbug @the-darkestminds @works-of-heart @clarafae @fierling @theangryhistoriananna @yennas-stuff @sapphiresandgold @ethereal-lionheart @acourtofthought @shadowqueenjude and many more! Thank you for making this fanbase more enjoyable.

[haunted-radishes]

Hey, you seem to be a Wen Ning enjoyer, can you tell me what you like best about him? I feel like he has a lot of potential that isn’t really explored enough for him to be a fave so I’d like to hear your POV on him!

Honestly, right from the beginning he has always just made me happy :D

But to delve into it, the first thing that struck me about him was how kind he is. He's a sweet guy! I started with The Untamed, only reading the novel later, so my primary impression of him is the version that sneaks down to the dungeons to take out the evil dog and give Wei Wuxian some medicine, so he's going behind his sect's back to do what's right as soon as he has the opportunity to do so. I love how he's timid and gentle, but has the backbone of steel to risk it all to do the right thing.

But he's also kind of. Odd. Sometimes it ties into his hidden nerves of steel, like when he drugs the entire cohort at Lotus Pier to help Wei Wuxian and co. Like, it was an incredible act, but he just. Fucking. Drugged them. No hesitation. Absolutely wild behavior. Especially in the novel where he had only met Wei Wuxian once before this! I do prefer the drama version where his actions make more sense, but his devotion is at least a little unhinged no matter the version. But also, even besides the obsessive devotion, his energy is just. Endearingly strange and off-putting. Like when he decides that the best way to quietly contact Wei Wuxian is to dangle upside down outside his window. Or feels absolutely no need to make himself less terrifying when he power walks towards the tied-up juniors with a sword.

And then! The unexplored depths and unexamined tragedy! You're left to wonder so much about him! How DOES he feel about the whole fierce corpse thing? About his compromised autonomy? Would he have turned against his sect even if Wei Wuxian hadn't charmed him? Does he regret any of his actions before killing Jin Zixuan? How deep do his grudges run? Is there anyone from the Wen sect outside his established circle of family and cultivators who he misses or secretly mourns? What does he think about the other great sect members, especially the leaders? Plus so many more questions we'll never truly know the answers to, because he tucks his problems away and never speaks of them! The closest glimpse we get of his inner turmoil is his verbal evisceration of Jiang Cheng with the core reveal, and that does show us some interesting things about his character! For the first time, we see him choosing to be as hurtful as possible, showing how much he clearly resents Jiang Cheng, but how much of that is personal dislike, how much is anger on Wei Wuxian's behalf, how much is blame for the deaths of his family, and how much is gall at him benefiting from dear late Wen Qing's genius and service without even knowing it? Also, what is he going to do after canon? What is left for him?

Also he's relatable, lol. That awkward uncertainty he always carries with him is very endearing in an "oh, me too buddy" kind of way. He has so much going on inside his head, but all that comes out is, "oh! Excuse me >.<" People are having massive emotional moments right in front of him, and he's just..... There.

Anyway, Wen Ning! Love that guy! Makes my brain go "brrrr"

[plusvanity]

I really actually like that you're able to project and relate to varg in the ways you do. People are so quick to assume how you feel about something so I can see people way too quickly judgmental about that. But honestly, I love it for you and it makes me happy to see you being able to make stuff about it to relate, it's nice to see.

-🩸

The fact that I relate to him is not something I'm proud of even if I didn't have a say in this, but all I create (art & fiction) comes from the bottom of my heart and it's what keeps me alive today. I don't find many things enjoyable/ satisfying/ worth living for, so this is kinda all I do to still stay here.

I'm glad that I can provide a deeper look into the mind of someone who was also 'mystified' by media in a way, so people can understand the thought process and the mechanism behind pathological narcissism.

However, they are quick to judge and assume that you're like Varg and you hate Øystein, which is absolutely not true because I invest a lot of time and energy in drawing Øystein. He is someone I deeply respect, even if I'm not fond of Mayhem as a band. I've seen people act like we are in a 'ship battle' with me or something childish like that, like you cannot enjoy vargelle and eurodead at the same time, it MUST be one way or another. I'm not interested in childish arguments. I enjoy both, and I don't come for anyone.

I've been dragged into useless drama before when someone tried to make me and Old Mayhem 'fight' against one another, and I hope to never repeat that experience.

I will keep minding my own business and investing in what brings me comfortable because, as stupid as it is, it's all I have, lol.

Thank you so much for your support, anon 🫂🖤

I wish more people were like this

[vivalgi]

Yeah, I did enjoy it. MAH was a pleasant surprise for me. I thought it would be some silly teenage drama that I'm getting too old to relate to, but it was actually much more than that. What really made MAH enjoyable was the amount of heavy and sensitive subjects from the loss of loved ones, grief and guilt to the hardships of coming out of closet, dealing with bigotry, social pressure and much more. I honestly didn't expect to experience such a whirlwind of emotions beyond lust and second hand embarrassment from a modern Choices book.

In typical Choice fashion, the murder solving part was predictable and formulaic, but even though I already got spoiled a long time ago (it's hard to avoid such spoilers when PB makes a special artwork for the murderer because everyone wants to be the first to share CGs), solving the case was still fun. It helped that the story had, I'd say, the most relatable MC ever, which was a great help for immersion. It's going to be really hard to beat my new spirit animal (detective Rose who?) There were a few parts where I would have acted differently but those can be excused with teenage inexperience. Too bad Perdita's case will remain unsolved but I guess it served its purpose as the MC's (superhero) origin story and character development.

A couple of things annoyed me. One was that after Gabbie's secret lover had served their purpose for solving the crime, they were relegated to a walking closet and used as a mental manipulation tool to guilt trip us into buying diamond outfits. The other was the lack of choices for female romancers. I wasn't particularly fond of Stevie due to her illegal endeavors and the prospect of having to babysit her little sister wasn't helping to sell me her diamond scenes. Luckily MAH offered a rare chance to ignore the potential LIs altogether and save a few diamonds or connect with them platonically. It's truly been awhile when you could be just buddies with male LIs and do fun stuff with them, like teach your dog to skateboard with Donovan. Although sometimes the scenes were still weirdly charged.

Yeah, an enjoyable book that offered lots of emotions that I've been missing on Choices. I'd like to see more books in the future that dare to touch heavier topics as I'm getting beyond tired of those hollow and lustful soap operas. Gonna miss Puck though 😢

[raining-dreams]

My Top 15 Favorite Cartoons

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

Miraculous is truly my favorite show at the moment. Avatar may be a bitter better in terms of quality (it's next on this list) but I always have so much fun watching this show. Miraculous gets way too much criticism. It's just a fun show about two dorks in love who don't realize it because of secret identity shenanigans. This show is at it's best when it's not taking itself too seriously. My favorite episodes are Evillustrator and Simpleman. Two of the funniest episodes!

Avatar: The Last Airbender

A timeless masterpiece. Avatar is one the best shows of all time. This was my favorite show growing up. Though I like to say Miraculous is my favorite show right now because I'm actively watching that one and participating in the fandom, Avatar is probably my true favorite. I would frequently pretend to be a waterbender when I played in the pool. And this was the first TV show I watched that got me interested in the behind the scenes of what goes into making a cartoon.

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia

For the first few episodes of Trollhuntes, I honestly wasn't that interested. I actually stopped watching for awhile with no intention of continuing. I thought this show was a bust. But then, I had a friend convince me to give it another chance. And oh boy, am I glad I did. The show ended up being incredible!! It has the perfect balance of drama, action, romance, and comedy. And all of the characters are very likeable! Which seems pretty rare (except for Merlin. He sucks. Worst character. My favorite character is Steve). The others series in the trilogy, 3Below and Wizards, are great too. But Trollhunters is definitely the best one. (The movie sucked though. Worst ending....)

The Owl House

The Owl House was cut way too short. This show had so much potential. What we got was still amazing but it had the potential to be even better had it been given the chance. But despite being cut short, it was still an amazing show! My favorite character is Amity.

Gravity Falls

Mystery is my favorite genre and I wish more cartoons would have a little mystery in their plots. It's so fun to play along with the characters and try to solve the mystery yourself. It can be really satisfying when you get it right or it can be an exciting twist if you get it wrong! Gravity Falls gave me a new interest in codes and ciphers.

Steven Universe

I didn't like Steven Universe at first. Back when season 1 was airing and it would come on tv, I changed the channel. Season 1 was a bit boring for my taste. But I exposed myself to the spoiler that Garnet was actually a fusion all along which sounded really interesting to me so I thought maybe just one time, I won't change the channel. And the episode when Peridot first started staying at their house was on and I immediately fell in love with Peridot! I watched the entire arc of Peridot learning to appreciate Earth and by the time I finished watching those episodes, I was hooked! And of course, I love the songs!! No Matter What is my favorite one.

Adventure Time

Adventure Time is such a fun and goofy show. It always makes me laugh. But what I loved the most were the scenes with Marceline & Ice King. Their relationship was such a beautiful and tragic story.

Amphibia

I love Amphibia way more than I thought I would. I first started watching Amphibia during an Owl House hiatus because I needed something new to watch while I waited and I thought I'd give this a chance. I binged the entirety of season 1 in a day. Unfortunately I fell a bit behind and I still haven't seen season 3 yet (I've heard it's a sad ending! 😨) So I need to get on that!!!

Bluey

I'm honestly so surprised by how good this show is. When I first heard about it I expected it to be really cheesy and only enjoyable to really young children. But boy was I wrong. This show tells touching and relatable stories and reminds me of a happier time. My favorite episodes are Rain and Flat Pack.

Danny Phantom

Danny Phantom's ending was a bit rushed and they kinda completely forgot about Valerie's whole arc. I was looking forward to seeing where that would go but it ended abruptly. Like, the episode immediately before the final episode set up a whole story that we just never got. But other than that, I really enjoyed Danny Phantom. I love that they let Jazz discover Danny's secret so early on instead of dragging it out. (As many shows do now.) My favorite episode was Reality Trip.

Kim Possible

Kim Possible is always a fun watch. I love all of the characters! Shego and Dr Drakken are my favorite! (They're a bit of a package deal) and Rufus is a close second. And my favorite episode is Emotion Sickness.

American Dragon: Jake Long

Something about secret identities is so appealing to me. This is like the fourth show on the list, I believe, that involves secret identities lol. This is another show that had a bit of a rushed ending in my opinion. They tried to tie up too many loose ends in two short episodes it seemed (at least The Owl House did three long episodes) But still a great show nonetheless! Sometimes when I Jake talks, I can't help but hear Zuko 🤣

Teen Titans

I loved Teen Titans as a kid! (and still now of course). We were robbed of a Starfire centered season with this show!!! When I was a kid, Starfire was favorite character (I lean more toward Raven now). But every character got an arc that lasted a whole season long, except for Starfire. I kept waiting for it to come but it never did. Not only that, but the show ended on a cliffhanger! I think that's why I hate Teen Titans Go! so much. They could have brought this show back and continued Tara's long awaited story as well as finally give Starfire her season long arc! But instead they made a goofy parody of the show... I'd still really like to see this show come back some day, for real.

Lilo and Stitch: The Series

Lilo and Stitch was probably my favorite Disney movie growing up. So, naturally, I became a fan of the series as well! I always related a lot to Lilo. And Lilo and Stitch did a few crossovers with other favorite shows of my (such as American Dragon and Kim Possible) which made the show even more fun!

Winx Club

This was my all time favorite show as a kid before Avatar came out! I was obsessed!!!!! Winx Club made me obsessed with fairies. I wanted to be a fairy so badly. I always tried to make my friends play fairies with me. I tried to get all my friends like this show just as much as I did. Unfortunately it was very underrated. Now that I've re-watched a few times after growing up, I definitely understand why. Some of the dialogue is pretty cringy and the 4Kids dub changed a bunch of stuff for no reason. Although I will always stand by the 4Kids dub being the best one.

[luckyqueenreign]

Honestly I still really love this season so far, I think I just like the story of this season so far, I could see myself replaying it more then any season since s4, it’s not perfect and has some flaws but overall I have been pretty entertained and actually excited for each volume so far. I like this season way more especially since there is no Amelia. 🥹

I feel like the odd man out cause the litg discord and the reddit seem so annoyed about this season every volume. I get the season has problems but some of the issues people have with it is hyper critical? Like being stolen all the time, it is annoying but like in this season it does actually make sense we are supposed to be like Priya level bombshell. We are the weather reporters. 😭 Even though we have been stolen we also are in control with who we spend time with, I’ve spent no time with Travis because they let us spend the time with our OG LI or someone else if we want. Their biggest problem is the fact they can’t branch well. It’s just people act like this is worse then s6 when I think it’s improved from s6. If this was s6 we would be stuck with Bonnie forever. 🥹

I want to go back and play s2 because I enjoy this season so much because it’s made me happy? 😂

Am I too forgiving to fusebox for this season?

I actually agree with you that for the most part this season is actually still enjoyable and I def want to replay when it’s over. The writing has improved from previous seasons and it feels like there’s a lot going on in the background that doesn’t necessarily effect MC and the drama isn’t only happening to us - which I appreciate. I didn’t even mind being stolen especially since we had full say with who we shared the bed with multiple nights! My biggest gripe I think has to do with continuity. For example - we are currently coupled up with Travis. Even if you have a girl chat saying you’re sleeping with alex (my li) I still feel like there should’ve been a short chat where she talks to Travis about it and lets him know as well. Then we get flowers in our bed and instead of chatting with the guy who’s standing right there!! We run off to the dressing room and have to guess who gave us those flowers and confirm with uma?? Like why couldn’t I have just said alex, hugged him and ran off to get dressed for bed?? Then this week when we’re getting ready for bed they made it seem like mc was waiting for alex to climb into bed with her. You’re not coupled up!! He would’ve been going to bed with Estelle! I think that cliffhanger should’ve happened in the hallway or living room. Because why would MC be waiting for him in the bedroom when she’s literally just ran up on him outside for multiple days now. Another thing that isn’t related to us but a continuity issue.. in my playthrough after Mc and alex come back from their date Uma is straddling and attempting to kiss Raf and Daphne catches them. And then later when they’re sent home they completely brush off what happened earlier. Like Uma trying to kiss Raf is one thing, but STRADDLING him lol. I’m sorry but how do you get in that position with no objections? And then you’re all yea can’t wait to be together on the outside and perfect couple? I just feel like there should’ve been more tension with raf and daphne on their exit. (Also did they leave on everyone’s playthrough or was I just a savage when I picked them to leave lol)

[izartn]

I ended the CFC extras this morning (finished the main plot yesterday at unholy hours of the night) and I started writing a post and like. I don't have any idea of wta to talk about first so I will post first my main impressions very quickly.

1. Confirmed; this is my less favorite by Meatbun. Still better than other danmei I've read, in terms of enjoyment and even writing, and honestly I have no problems with the pairing, but by the end I was having to draw my attention back, unlike Yuwu or Erha.

2. I didn't care about the plot despite having interesting and well thought elements; I was annoyed that they keep interrupting my HeXiw time, instead of suffering the angst of it gladly like when the plot is well written.

Related to the above-> 3. I would have loved a book about HeXie without an overarching plot, just about them dealing being a mess, their even messier relationship and their illness. Posts incoming about the development of their charas and then as a couple bc woah. I really like them.

4. CFC is the book of Meatbun where I cared less about the secondaries and the antagonists adding to me being meh about the arch plot. Unlike Erha or specially Yuwu where strangely for me (I usually only care on second or third reads if there's anything to care about), I read attentively and enjoyed the drama of the secondaries, here they felt very window dressing.

4.5 Given that Qingcheng had become basically an human robot by the start, someone impossible to truly connect with and He Yu only cares about XQC and other people incidentally as they relate to his gege.... Makes sense that secondary charas aren't as drawn bc these mains are so self absorbed; in fact the ones I connected best were XQC fam, bc he cares, and even then it was harder.

5. I can't take the sex too seriously, sorry not sorry those mad about it. I enjoyed how it was used as a vehicle to show the state of their relationship bc HeXie won't talk about their feelings or explain anything to each other unless theyre about to die. So like. It has a very clear function on the story and it's also too clearly fantastically porny. Meatbun is clearly enjoying herself so It is what it is. And HeXie are deranged about each other. Nothing new, that. I will comment mor eon those incoming posts.

6. The search of home, and that what keeps one living are the people who love you and the way the lack of this affects so so clearly the characterization of both HY and XQC??? Perfect, super sad and poignant. Typical Meatbun theme, but driven home even harder bc of the way the mental illness aspect, however fantastical, is presented making it a issue to deal with for the rest of HeXie lives. This stuff is why I wanted the story to be even more about them and not Duan Wen and DCZ.

7. XQC wants someone to fully dedicate himself to, bc he has 0 self (although he's learning by end of canon) (that's why he loves kids btw), and HY gives him that lifelong project bc HY will need him the rest of their lives. HY being on suicide watch those two years XQC was recovering and they were investigating HY cure left that very clear. That XQC was going to go the same way via willfully neglect of himself until his sister had his niece and even then was a husk of himself... Two way street. Codepent messes (affectionate and worried) that they both are.

8. He Yu whole everything could have leaned so much more into the Gothic, he had all the elements. Xie Qingcheng too. Meatbun!!!!!! The moment the narration took itself serious were chef kiss for that mood. But if the book were that way all the time I guess it'd be super depressing to read about these two, and anyways I laughed a lot so. /conflicted

9. Finally: Meatbun really wants magic to play with. I'm sorry but it was kinda funny how all the so called low scifi was at the same time trying to be low key and so fantastical in it's effects. The brain transplants, the seruns, the mind control... The Mandela island illusion cover was really well thought though. I really liked that one. And the holograms. She really could have just gone with a low key urban fantasy setting though, she was itching to go there for her plot points.

That's all for now. Expect incoming posts bc yeah, it's rotating in my brain.

[sevicia]

give me the movie recs instead! scary is ok

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Under a read more cause I looove talking, and the sections are ordered by like, priority of recommendation if that makes sense ... I also tried 2 actually rank them but I am not very good @ that LOL

Personal Enjoyment ONLY!!!:

No theme besides personal enjoyment "just for fun"/not relatable edition:

The Batman - I love it I just love it. I watched it bc my sister put it on and my pen's battery had run out. I was CLUELESS

Spree - That's my attention whore wife that would kill me for views !!!!!!

Jacob's Ladder - The best fever dream anyone could ever ask for !!! Everything about this movie is perfect. And this doesn't really matter TOO much ....... BUT …….. !!!! Tim Robbins in short shorts towards the end .......... save meeeee .................

Antiviral - I rewatched this one just before writing this LOL. It made me crazy when I first saw it back in 2022 and it makes me crazy now too!! The entire movie feels cold & sterilized but it's still Completely Sexual. Syd March I know what you are. OH also I like to think Mr. Cronenberg Sir is proud of his son bc this ruuuuules

Martyrs - This is like the ultimate "can't rec it as-is" movie bc of the amount of people that are genuinely disturbed by it & don't get me wrong I am one of them!! But there's just something here that has me thinking about it so often. The violence is amazing and the feeling in my stomach is horrible every time !!

No theme besides personal enjoyment mental illness edition:

Pulse (AKA Kairo) - Extremely close to my heart, the way loneliness relates to the internet & technology in general is such an interesting topic it would be enough to make this movie stand out for anyone, but I have such a personal fondness for it because of how much I felt it understood me. In a few ways.

Pearl - IDGAF how many people have gone "just like me fr" cause I am also one of them. I don't get the whole "female rage" thing that gets mentioned a ton (on account of me being some guy), but the theme of never being able to escape a life you hate ??? Absolutely fucking terrifying & hits super hard for me specifically

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - The RESENTMENT, the ANGER, the DESPAIR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It resonated w/ me a lot more in the past but not so much anymore, which is good LOL

HORROR!! YAY!!:

Horror SERIOUS edition:

The Thing - certified classic I legit think everyone should watch this one at least once in their lives. The practical effects r amazing, the story is GRIPPING & many of the actors r hot. Literally what else could u ask for…..

Hellraiser - Huge DUH ….. The short story is so good too Mr. Clive Barker I owe you my life !!!!!

The House That Jack Built - Pretentious, yes! But also really fun/satisfying to watch. I've seen some people comment on this kinda movie being typical for the director? But IDK who that man is & I don't care either. Like at all.

Ringu - Just a classic. So creepy I have to hype myself up to watch it LOL

Persona - INSAAAAANE INSANE INSANE. I saw someone say it's toxic yuri which like. Yeah I think. But also it left me confused in a rly good way

Noroi: The Curse - honestly should be self-explanatory @ this point. GENUINELY scared the shit outta me

Repulsion - Also a drama (besides a horror), the way the main character's paranoia escalates is just .... haunting, I think is the word. There's some degree of irony in here, because of who the director is, that I can't really articulate.

Gorefest / not too serious:

Creep - INSANE found footage about a guy making decisions that seem questionable if not stupid to most people, but not to me. I understand him. (disclaimer that this one could also go in the prev. category ..... I don't knowwww)

Intruder - I was on a slasher kick a few years back and this was one of the better ones. The convenience store setting is so much fun & something I'd never seen before! Or since.

Rec - SOOOO anxiety inducing, there's a lot of moments where people r talking/yelling over each other & the part towards the end that explains the whole thing is just. 0_0. to me. Bc it's among the top 3 things I do NOT fuck with !!! (same disclaimer as w/ Creep).

Hostel - I actually really like this one & don't understand most of the criticisms besides the obvious misogyny. It irks me a lot that it gets called "torture porn" so often when it's just … not that bad ? As edgy as that sounds !!

Cube - go there. in the cube? go in the cube.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes - Zero excuses for this one, you just gotta embrace your shit taste sometimes

Terrifier - Separate from the 2nd one cause that one is different in more than a few ways ..... but this one is just like charming to me in a weird way. It 's fucking filthy like, visually tho cause of the abandoned building & other such things ....

Terrifier 2 - This one I also enjoyed a lot though it IS really really long, I found it fun! The whole family aspect of it I liked a lot bc fictional siblings my beloved :3 though Art's backstory is still rly muddy (4 me at least) I do think it's like, a fun silly slasher if you've got 2 hrs and a lot of patience LOL

Just fun overall!!:

YAY!!!!!!!!!:

ROBOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Oh my GOD I love this movie. I love this movie so much it's probably my favorite childhood movie. It's funny as fuck, really pretty AND has a good story. IK it may sound like nostalgia's involved but I just truly believe it's an amazing movie<3

Birds of Prey - This one is just a serotonin machine for me I love Harley so so muchh

Wendell & Wild - Visually insane I looove the look of this movie. It's also just rly enjoyable, I watched it multiple times at one point since it's on Netflix I think ? My mom got sick of it LOL

Bottoms - Absolutely bonkers it's such a fun movie. Gay and untalented and ugly and yet one of the most lovable movies I've ever seen ?? They need to print more of these

A Trip to Infinity - This one's actually a documentary on um. Infinity. Which is lovely because watching scientists be enthusiastic about their work and gush about it is just so good for my brain + it made me cry

The nostalgia I have 4 these ones is craaazy:

The Butterfly Effect - this was on TV SO OFTEN it was insane. I watched it so many times as a kid I always insisted on not changing the channel

The Voices - SO fun & silly I think of it so fondly .....

Paranorman - I love this movie so so much forever it's just so beautiful & funny

Zombieland - It's just fun man IDK what else to tell u

Sucker Punch - Another one that was often on TV, it's just embedded in my memory forever. I learned what a lobotomy was bc of this movie!!

MISC!!!:

These are dramas !!:

Parasite - Just watch it if u haven't. Everyone says you should watch it and they're RIGHT !!!

The Devils - I love horny church stuff so much

Let the Right One In - fucking loved this one. Freezing cold, very pretty AND probably the best vamp movie I've ever seen. Though I haven't seen a lot

Girl, Interrupted - insane behavior from the girls here but they're literally in a psych ward so who cares

These r good but I don't remember them much SOB:

The Eyes Of My Mother - this one gets called slow/boring a lot but I really don't gaf I still liked it

Wolf Creek 1 + 2

The Descent

Phenomena - The 1st game of the Clock Tower series was based on/inspired by this movie! Nothing else 2 say I just think it's cool lol

American Mary

A Clockwork Orange - I watched this nearly an entire decade ago but it goes here because of the fact that sometimes I still hear that dumb cunt Alex DeLarge go "I've suffered, and I've suffered, and I've suffered!" inside my head a lot. Also I have to mention that he did look good beaten up despite everything going on w/ him.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2023: It builds character

Yuri is my Job!

I really wanted to like this one. As a noted Marimite enjoyer, as much as I like the stilted, abstract and operatic vibe of Class S, I also always felt that it's also a prime avenue for metafiction that takes a closer look at how bizarre that setting really is when looked at from outside. So this show about a bunch of girls that have to act out Class S gayfabe in a themed cafe seemed to have limitless potential.

There's only two problems with Watayuri: The first one is that it's not that show. It does not really engage with its setting much and is mostly interested in just being straightforward heightened yuri drama. This seems to be a case of the Re:Zeros or Mob Psychos: The writer is intimately familiar with the tropes, but isn't really interested in actually engaging with them beyond surface level, so they just wrote essentially Another One Of Those with a few jokes.

So that's a disappointment, but since this genre is so rare in anime I'd still have gladly taken it if it was good. But... it's not. Not only is it not Metamite, it's not even a bad Marimite; It's more like a bad Citrus. Drama like this requires really good characters, and all the characters in Watayuri are gimmicky and shallow: Hime's base characteristic is that she puts up a fake personality, which is treated with all the nuance an isekai writer exhibits when they make their main character OP via giving them a cheat skill, and she has just forgotten than Yano used to be her best friend. All other drama derives from this bad idea, so none of it really works. I could go through the entire cast but this review is already too long, so suffice it to say, if they seem interesting that only lasts as long as it takes for their drama to arrive.

It's really a shame, because even with these simplistic, unlikeable characters you could have made an entertaining, (early) Kaguya-ish comedy — which is why the few instances where they do exactly that save the show from being worthless. But still, having to admit the best episode in the entire thing is the one where the new uniforms make Yano's breasts look too big really points out the problem here. 5/10

Skip and Loafer

Skip and Loafer does raise a profound question: Can a show be so much of a 6/10 that it becomes a 5/10? I'm honestly surprised how little I enjoyed this show, because there's nothing really obviously wrong with it: it's lighthearted, cute, amusing, relatable, etc., and I've enjoyed many a banal Kiraralike in the past. But in the end, I think the reason is that there really isn't anything substantive to Skip and Loafer. It's bland and inoffensive to a fault and devoid of anything even remotely edgy. It's not funny enough to work as a comedy, it's not a romance because it really doesn't commit to that, and we'll get to the "drama".

The only really driving factor (and the show's biggest asset, as it were) is Mitsumi's tryhard but good-natured personality, and that can only get the show so far, especially since all the character development she gets is to become more normal and boring. As an aside that doesn't really fit anywhere else: I also really dislike hearing the clipped, stilted way Kurosawa delivers her lines in this show, which is weird because she's usually a very good actress. Shima is just boring from the start and has no chemistry with Mitsumi, and when he imports some contrived crazy ex drama into the show at the end it's eyerollingly stupid, but hey, that's as close to "something happening" as the show ever gets. Not that it matters with how inconsequential it is. The supporting cast is generally mildly amusing, but they're just sort of there and don't offer anything meaningful besides their presence.

Sure, none of those issues are close to dealbreakers, but what's lacking is a deal in the first place. I can understand why someone would like the show and I would not recommend against it, but it's just way too shallow. Even for me. 5/10

Jigokuraku

If you want to know what's bad about Jigokuraku, here it is: Glacial pacing, an intense amount of jargonbabble, flashbacks in the middle of fights everywhere, running commentary by bystanders on everything that happens, random powerups galore, and no ending.

However, I would assume that nobody saw the first episode and went away thinking "oh boy, sure hope this isn't an extra edgy shounen fighting manga". It most definitely is what it is, but with expectations duly adjusted, Jigokuraku is... fine, actually. It's got cool visuals, good production values, a fantastic OP (if nothing else, the show's a good excuse to listen to that song once a week), and most importantly really good characters for a show like this. None of them are particularly deep, but when they're just there to:

Be mammals,

Fight ALL the time,

Have the purpose to flip out and kill people,

I'm already content if they're more interesting than the ISO standard Shounen Jump (i.e., Dragonball Z) cast. It's just fun seeing Sagiri fret over whether she's really good enough at beheading people, or Gabimaru doing everything for a wife that may or may not exist, or Yuzuriha getting out her... well, let's stop this here. This show is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. 6/10

Otaku Edomae Elf

I was pretty skeptical of this one at the beginning, because self-serving otaku jokes tend to get very old and also because the author uses RPG Elves as a shortcut to "immortal ancient being", which isn't a sign of high ambitions, especially nowadays. And while the elf part doesn't really matter one way or the other, the majority of the show is indeed Elda being a nerd and doing nerd things. It's not a large majority though, and the rest of the show provides an interesting thematic framework to hang the jokes on. The real core of the show is the odd couple relationship between Koito and Elda, with the former desperately wanting to be an adult while the latter has been around for practically forever while still being completely immature. It's very cute and sweet, and it's even better in the occasional moments where it becomes bittersweet because both of them are well aware of the only way this can end up. Skip and Loafer take note: you don't have to have much, but you have to have something.

It of course helps that Edomae Elf (the name that I prefer, for obvious reasons) is well made; It's very expressive and has good comedic timing, which are the key factors for a sitcom like this. I'll also note the OP; it goes unreasonably hard and is possibly even better than Jigokuraku's. And even if otaku jokes are a low-hanging fruit, the show usually does a good job with them. The exactly one (1) legally obligated history lesson per half-episode feels a bit too forced though. And that's pretty much it with this anime, it's not the most ambitious but it's very charming and moderately thoughtful, even if its structure is holding it back somewhat. 7/10

Heavenly Delusion

Very rarely do we get a TV anime where the main artistic impulse just seems to be "we don't give a fuck what you think, lol", but here it is: Heavenly Delusion is mostly just wild. Sure, postapocalyptic roadmovies aren't exactly a new idea, but I usually like them, so that's a good start, and this one in particular comes with an interesting setting and a bunch of great characters. But what really elevates Heavenly Delusion is its command of tone, or in particular, its ability to run circles around tone issues. This show can snap from comedy to drama to mystery to action to horror unpredictably and quickly, and it's a marvel that any of this works at all, but on top of that it has a fondness for exceedingly touchy subjects and each episode could probably come with its own unique set of trigger warnings. It really reminds me of a Fire Force without the shounen bullshit, and that's high praise.

Clearly the writer has a lot of skill, but the anime direction and production takes it to the next level. Heavenly Delusion has great direction and movie-level production values throughout, and then does flexes like getting a bunch of KyoAni guys in to make a mawkish KyoAni episode that's better than anything KoyAni has made in years, and later getting a bunch of TRIGGER guys in to make a wacky TRIGGER episode that's better than anything TRIGGER has done in years. Ya love to see it.

But given all the hairy stuff this show attempts, it can't have a 100% success rate, right? And no, it does not always succeed. It's not even a surprise that it happens, it's rather a surprise it only happens so late, at the ending – where it hurts the most. For starters, it doesn't really have an ending. That's to be expected from an ongoing and long manga, but it's still a bummer. But more critically, said abrupt stoppage happens right after one of the grimmest arcs in the show. This is sadly the one point where the tone falls apart; they didn't want to end on a down note, but it just doesn't work to go from ultra rape o'clock to "our fun adventure continues, bye :D" in one and a half scenes. The show has dealt with heavy material before and it has proven it can pull off the swerve off, but in that instance it just runs out of air time before it can actually do it. So while it's unreasonable to expect the show to be several times as long as it is, it would at least have sorely needed one more episode to uncompress its ending. I guess that if you consistently play with fire, you get burnt eventually, but at least there were pretty lights. A second season would be much appreciated. 8/10

The Witch from Mercury

Back when G-Witch started its break, I said that "all they have to do was not mess with a good thing". Obviously, they messed with a good thing and Sulemio cuteness was replaced with them both suffering alone for the majority of the second half. So now what? The plot in this second half is best described as "messy". Notably, it's lacking in throughline: First it's all about opaque machinations and corporate backstabbing, then lol jk that doesn't matter and everyone pulls a Death Star out of their ass, and then that gets resolved with the Power of Love™ and vague Newtype mysticism. Gundams gonna Gundam, I suppose. Towards the end it also obviously runs out of time, and everything needs to happen very quickly, yet it still keeps on piling on subplots for various reasons — be it corporate franchise mandates like "we made a Schwarzette toy, now deal with it somehow", some thing that was set up ages ago that now has to pay off somehow no matter what (like Notrette's whole deal) or just the pure mechanics of shuffling pieces into place for something that never needed to be this complicated in the first place.

However, despite this large-scale jank G-Witch still ends up a very good show purely based on its writing detail. It doesn't really matter all that much that scenes barely fit together and are jammed against each other without connective tissue when the scenes themselves almost always deliver on their own terms. In particular, G-Witch consistently has great character moments no matter how weird the route to get to them is. That dumb Lauda subplot that's only there to sell HG Schwarzettes? Its true payoff is the best Felsi moment in the show when she just walks in and aborts the misbegotten plot tumor. Was it really worth it making a whole "Guel stumbles into Iron-Blooded Orphans" episode when the show desperately needed more time to wrap up its main plot? Maybe not, but Guel getting told by random ass mercenaries that he needs to man the fuck up before him doing exactly that is just an extremely satisfying moment no matter what.

And while the epilogue is a bit flat on the plot side, it has to be said that while cheesy as hell it takes the time to send every character off properly and gives everyone a happy ending (Sulemio paying off in the end isn't much of a surprise since I don't think that Ookouichi wants to spend the rest of his life in the witness protection program). That is pretty much the show in a nutshell, ultimately it's less well constructed than it sh/c-ould have been and it's held back by being a Gundam show after all, but it's always entertaining, and that is what matters the most. 8/10

Insomniacs After School

While I don't know why I dislike Skip and Loafer, I am also not quite sure why I love this show so much. The concept takes some suspension of dislike right away, because I am extremely skeptical of "sadboi stumbles into magical girlfriend that's prefect but only compatible with him in this one specific random way". But boy, once it gets rolling it nails the whole "first love, also big seishun energy" in a rare form that we haven't seen since Tsuki ga Kirei. It's all in the characters once again, and Ganta in particular is exceptionally well constructed. He seems whiny and self-centered at first, but as it turns out, yeah, he's supposed to be like that (his first big character development milestone is him realizing that other people have problems too and that his woe-is-me attitude isn't helpful), plus he has a very understandable reason. He still has that attitude, but now we know he can't help it. It's the rare case of "relatable" and "backstory drama" done right - the drama is there, but it's in the past, can be established in a tiny amount of time and doesn't suck the enjoyment out of the present. And then you can drag it up and swiftly deal with it when the story calls for it — The point is not to have maximum drama onscreen, but to motivate the characters. Magari has this going too (even if I think she still ends up being a bit too "perfect" for my taste, to be honest), and even Yui, someone we know almost nothing about, ends up feeling unique and well rounded, so I think it's fair to say that Skip and Loafer's lacking characters are just a skill issue. Add to that a more one-note but enjoyable supporting cast, and you have a banger of feelgood, wholesome and yes, monumentally cheesy puppy love about a bunch of cute dorks that you can't help but grin about. The production values don't always quite hold up, but who cares when it knows what it wants to be and goes all in when it needs to, and yes, it does have as satisfying and ending as you can expect from one of these. Grand fromage avec compétence is probably not the palate cleanser for everyone, but it's my blog so skill with it. 9/10

[austencollins]

day 148 kodansha daily review challenge

Today's Manga Is: What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Posting the Finally! Some Good Fucking Food gif and calling this review a wrap would be cheating... but it would sum up my reaction. Like almost everything I've ever read by Fumi Yoshinaga, this is a good series. And it's especially good when I was girding myself for yet another mediocre fantasy series aimed at men who don't seem to understand that they're the same species as women are.

There's not much to say about the content of the series, since this is a slice-of-life series that slowly fleshes out the characters and the society they live in, bit by bit; and nothing extraordinarily traumatic or tragic happens. It's all very mundane drama. I guess one could call it cozy (and certainly the domestic tenderness between the leads is cozy feeling); but honestly Fumi Yoshinaga's works are always just a tad too insightful and incisive to feel completely cozy to me.

For example, I wanted to use this panel as the above-the-cut image, but it also reminds me that most of the characters say and think fatphobic things, and that's a bit uncomfortable for me.

But it doesn't really feel like the narrative is necessarily condoning these attitudes or remarks -- just as it doesn't condone the homophobic attitudes it occasionally depicts or acnowledges. It's just depicting them. Which can be uncomfortable to read if you're feeling sensitive -- but generally I find it easy to handle this sort of thing in Fumi Yoshinaga's works because she allows readers to maintain a bit of emotional distance from her characters. We're not always aware of exactly what they're thinking or feeling; and often her characters are not aware or can't decide what they're really feeling. So although the characters are easy to relate to and sympathize with, it's also easy to step back and feel for them the way you'd feel for a friend who's going through some shit, instead of feeling like it's also happening to you yourself.

That all makes for really enjoyable and compelling work -- but as I said, it's not really cozy to me, in the way that I think slice-of-life genre is often stereotyped as being. A cozy vibe to me feels like it ought to feel reassuring. Less realistic series like Dungeon Meshi tend to feel cozier to me than slice-of-life stories, even when there's gore and necromancy & so on, because the fantastical aspects of those stories place them in a narrative tradition which typically guarantees a Happily Ever After sort of ending --whereas the realistic slice-of-life genre that What Did You Eat Yesterday is in allows for bittersweet and sad endings, that don't reassure readers that everything worked out great for the characters.

And wow is Fumi Yoshinaga good at those moments! This series, however, proves she's also good at warm, tender resolutions. What Did You Eat Yesterday is a very far cry from containing Ōoku: The Inner Chambers levels of bittersweet, sad & tragic moments. Which I appreciated, because these characters are all easy to relate to and care about. It's nice to read about middle-aged people muddling along, especially since there's a great deal of thought put into how people's issues and perspectives change over time. (I also got a bit of a laugh out of realizing that the Kenji and Shiro here are roughly the same age as Askeladd & Thorkell are during the later half of Vinland Saga's prologue arc.)

I must admit, though... I skimmed past the recipe bits. SoThe art and descriptions make the food sound delicious, but trying to parse long and detailed recipes when I barely know anything about cooking felt a bit overwhelming. Sorry, but I'm just not a confident or experienced enough cook to really appreciate those bits! It does make me curious what someone like my father, who loves cooking, would think about the food scenes. I know from a mutual on here that there's a live-action version, which would probably appeal to my dad a bit more than the comic, so I may track that down and show it to him next time we're in the same place. It would certainly help for us to have a food-related show that's not The Bear, since as great as that show is, it's a bit too intense for casual viewing or for binge-watching.

One other thing that was interesting (that I sort knew in the back of my mind, but had forgotten when I started reading this chapter) is that this series started serialization in 2007. That wasn't immediately noticeable, because the series is so focused on stuff that happens in person (like cooking, eating, etc); but it slowly became more obvious as I read further, and the series started showing more flashbacks into Shiro and Kenji's pasts (and revealing more about Shiro's parents). The occasional glimpses into what technology looked like back then felt pretty nostalgic. Combined with the series' overall emphasis on the value of mundane material things (like cooking), this definitely felt a great read for times when I need reminding to go touch grass (and eat something healthy, I guess).

[reni-reads]

Reni Reviews

XOXO by Axie Oh

Finished: 26th August, 2024

Genre: Romance

May be for you if you like: K-Pop, music, unlikely couples, female leads with agency, regular girl/celebrity romance

Synopsis

Jenny didn’t get to be an award-winning, classically trained cellist without choosing practice over fun. That is, until the night she meets Jaewoo. Mysterious, handsome, and just a little bit tormented, Jaewoo is exactly the kind of distraction Jenny would normally avoid. And yet, she finds herself pulled into spending an unforgettable evening wandering Los Angeles with him on the night before his flight home to South Korea.

With Jaewoo an ocean away, there’s no use in dreaming of what could have been. But when Jenny and her mother move to Seoul to take care of her ailing grandmother, who does she meet at the elite arts academy she’s just been accepted to? Jaewoo.

Finding the dreamy stranger who swept you off your feet in your homeroom is one thing, but Jaewoo isn’t just any student. Turns out, Jaewoo is a member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world. And like most K-pop idols, Jaewoo is strictly forbidden from dating anyone.

When a relationship means not only jeopardizing her place at her dream music school but also endangering everything Jaewoo’s worked for, Jenny has to decide once and for all just how much she’s willing to risk for love.

Review

I'll be honest, I started reading this book at the behest of my coworker. I was new at the job and wanted her to like me, so I reluctantly bought it, not expecting to be a huge fan, since I wasn't a romance reader at that time. Well, this is the book that turned me into a romance reader lol.

I liked everything about it, but let's dive into a bit more detail, shall we?

The Story

is honestly super goofy and reads like a fanfiction, but I mean that as a compliment here. It has just the right amount of suspension of disbelief to be enjoyable, and just enough realism to be identifiable for readers.

We have the classic "ordinary girl falls for a celebrity"-romance, but the development is actually pretty cool. At the music academy, everyone is a gifted musician, so the band doesn't stand out too much - however, the massive drawbacks from being a celebrity (or dating one) are also nicely represented.

The relationship issues Jenny and Jaewoo face really are more external, so we are spared these unnecessary, constructed couple fights just for the sake of drama.

The story's development and pacing is engaging, but not overwhelmingly fast. It's really comfortable.

The resolution was pretty bold for the genre, and I loved it!

The Characters

are amazing! Jenny is a female lead with actual agency, a personality, and goals beyond "kiss the cute boy" lol. She is smart, witty, somewhat reserved, but also a dedicated friend and (grand-)daughter who faces the very relatable struggles of wanting to find her own path and satisfying her mother's wishes. She grows so much over the course of the novel and I really loved watching her. By the end, she felt like a friend whom I could be proud of.

Jaewoo can be described in two words: green flag! He initially appears to be aloof, intelligent and dedicated to his band, but he's also charming, funny and a little bit dumb. He is a good foil for Jenny, with his own ambitions not getting out of his sight, and they just bring out the best in each other.

The side characters were all great. Jenny's halmoni was so cute and charming that I really wanted her to adopt me!

My personal favorite however was Sori, Jenny's arrogant, conceited roommate at the academy. She was the worst - until she wasn't.

To make it short: I loved everyone in the cast.

The Worldbuilding

is great. After a brief excursion into Jenny's American life, we travel to Seoul to attend the academy with her. Having been to Seoul only once in my life, I did feel like returning there for a while. The scenery felt very alive and authentic.

The Narration

is light - not too fast, not too slow. Not too flowery, not too boring. Very fitting for the genre, and it made reading the book very relaxing and entertaining.

Final Thoughts

What can I say? I loved it. If you want to swoon and giggle and kick your feet, read it!

XOXO - Reni

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Plot and Storylines: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Characters and Relationships: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Writing Style and Narration: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Setting and Worldbuilding: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Entertainment: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Other Titles in the Series

ASAP

[footfungus96-blog]

Reality TV: Where Drama is 'Real' and Controversy is the Main Prize

Week 4

Ah, reality TV - the pinnacle of human storytelling. Who needs scripted dramas with their fancy writers and character development when you can watch Tiffany Pollard in Flavor of Love?

A unique feature of reality television is its ability to let audiences indirectly experience a "real" world by observing the challenges and struggles of others. These shows emphasize the formation of personal relationships, participation in competitions, and the resolution of conflicts. They encourage viewers to emotionally invest in the participants' journeys and relate to them. The inherent curiosity people have about others plays a key role in making these programs appealing and enjoyable (Nabi et al. 2003).

What started as harmless fun (Survivor, anyone?) has evolved into a full-blown circus of chaos, complete with manufactured drama, questionable morals, and enough memes to break the internet. Let’s dive into how digital fandoms have turned reality TV into a battleground of hashtags, viral moments, and, let’s be honest, some truly questionable life choices. Buckle up, folks - it’s about to get messy.

The 'Reality' of Reality TV

Let’s talk about the so-called “reality” of reality TV. Sure, it’s called “reality,” but the only thing real is the producers cackling behind the scenes as they edit the footage to make someone look like the villain. I mean, have you seen The Bachelor? It’s supposed to be about finding love, but let’s be real - it’s really about who can cry the prettiest or start the most Twitter fights. And don’t even get me started on Love Island. If you think you are too emotional or dramatic to function normally, just spend some $$$ to watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians - it’s like a trainwreck, but with more the-men-always-cheat and catchphrases.

Digital platforms like Tumblr and Twitter have turned these shows into full-blown meme factories. Fans don’t just watch the drama; they live-tweet it, dissect every moment, and turn the most ridiculous scenes into viral gold. Remember when Tiffany Pollard gave us “Good morning. NOT YOU YOU CAN CHOKE” and The Real Housewives gave us “Who gon’ check me, boo?” Iconic. And by iconic, I mean the kind of content that makes you question humanity but also keeps you hitting “refresh” on your feed. Reality TV may not be real, but the memes? Oh, those are very real.

Flavor of Love

Flavor of Love - the show that redefined “quality entertainment.” Because nothing says “must-watch TV” like watching a group of bold, unapologetic personalities compete for the affection of Flavor Flav, a man whose clock necklace was arguably the most stable thing about him. The premise? Simple: take one eccentric rapper, add a house full of individuals with personalities bigger than their hair, and stir in a generous helping of chaos. What could possibly go wrong?

Let’s talk about the iconic moment when New York (Tiffany Pollard) and Pumpkin had that fight. You know the one - where Pumpkin threw a drink at New York, and New York responded with the kind of energy that made us all simultaneously gasp and cheer. It was messy, it was ridiculous, and it was everything. Fans on Tumblr and Twitter lost their collective minds. Memes flooded the internet, think pieces were written, and suddenly, “I ain’t come here to make friends!” became a cultural catchphrase.

What made Flavor of Love so special wasn’t just the drama - it was how fans turned it into a shared experience. Tumblr was filled with GIFs of New York’s epic clapbacks, and Twitter threads dissected every moment like it was the Zapruder film. The show wasn’t just a trainwreck; it was our trainwreck. And honestly, isn’t that what reality TV is all about? Giving us something to laugh at, cringe over, and bond over with strangers on the internet? Flavor of Love may not have been high art, but it was high entertainment, paved the way for future reality shows - and sometimes, that’s all we need.

The Controversy Industrial Complex

Let’s be real: controversy isn’t just a side effect of reality TV – it’s the main ingredient. The more outrageous, the better the ratings. Producers know exactly what they’re doing when they stir the pot, and if you thought that epic fight was real? Cute. It was probably staged over something as trivial as who got the last Diet Coke in the fridge.

Digital fandoms take the chaos to a whole new level. Fans don’t just watch the drama - they live-tweet it, dissect it, and sometimes even start petitions to get their favorite villain kicked off the show. It’s like a collective hive mind of chaos, and honestly, it’s kind of impressive. Reality TV is basically a soap opera, but with worse acting and more product placement. And yet, here we are, glued to our screens, because nothing says “entertainment” like watching people argue over avocado toast while hashtags trend worldwide.

But beyond the entertainment factor, dramatic reality shows have a deeper impact, especially on younger viewers. Shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Selling Sunset glamorize extravagant lifestyles, making wealth and luxury seem like the ultimate measures of success. The constant display of designer wardrobes, luxury vacations, and multimillion-dollar mansions creates unrealistic expectations about what success should look like. For many young people, this fuels a mindset where self-worth is tied to material possessions rather than personal achievements or character (Zhao 2018).

Moreover, these shows reinforce the idea that conflict and drama are necessary for social relevance. The way cast members handle problems - through explosive arguments, public call-outs, or shallow apologies - can shape how impressionable audiences approach real-life relationships. Instead of encouraging communication and empathy, reality TV normalizes toxic behavior, making manipulation and betrayal seem like acceptable social strategies.

At the end of the day, reality TV isn’t just mindless entertainment - it subtly shapes how we see the world. And for a generation growing up with social media and constant comparison, the obsession with curated perfection and manufactured drama, in my opinion, is doing more harm than good.

(People got someone publishing a 'sex tape' as a public figure now is embarrassing)

(Kendall Jenner cutting a cucumber is the most "It's a banana, Michael, what could it cost, ten dollars?" thing I've seen a rich person do in a long time)

___________________________________

References:

Nabi, RL, Biely, EN, Morgan, SJ & Stitt, CR 2003, ‘Reality-Based Television Programming and the Psychology of Its Appeal’, Media Psychology, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 303–330, viewed <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S1532785XMEP0504_01>.

Zhao, C 2018, ‘“Keeping Up With the Kardashians” Could Make Viewers Colder Toward Poor People, Study Finds’, Newsweek, viewed 15 February 2025, <https://www.newsweek.com/keeping-kardashians-could-make-viewers-cold-towards-poor-people-study-finds-1054780>.

[nightowlfury]

asian dramas watched in 2024 data!

since i did smth similar for movies, i figured i might as well look at the stats for the series i watched in 2024 too since i logged them on mdl :)

details + reviews under cut !

interesting stuff... i didnt end up including ongoing series/'currently watching'. i hadn't actually finished a gl in 2024 (have since bc pluto finished on saturday) but i did drop two. one was 23.5 because it ended up boring me and the other was petrichor. im sorry women

the production year one is also interesting. obviously w/ bls they became more popular post-2020. and from what ive seen the ratio of qls to gen series produced has shifted dramatically over the years as well (only like one or two announced for 2025? lol). but it's funny to me that there's a dip in 2024 for me... if i were to make a chart though you'd see that the amount of 2024 series i dropped is way higher lol. i guess i got pickier?

top series ratings + reviews

*disclaimer: my rating system is based on how much i liked or enjoyed the series when i watched it. i don't come at it from a technical/film critic approach (though quality often impacts my enjoyment)

1. Moonlight Chicken (2023) — ★ 9.5

definitely my favorite so far — also one of the first thai bls i watched afaicr. i remember my school president was one of the first, and i liked fourth's acting a lot so when i saw that he was in this i figured i'd give it a try as well (i think it was also here where i discovered the whole cp thing. i was like why are the same actors (fourth + gemini) playing a different couple in a totally different series?? lol).

i wasn't necessarily expecting anything mind-blowing, but it was so much more sincere and impactful than i would've thought. ive since learned this is sort of par for the course for the director (in terms of the sincerity of his works), but this series still stands out the most to me. idk if its the multitude of relationships that take center stage (jim + li-ming, jim + wen, jim + gaipa, li-ming + heart, wen + alan, jim + leng and gaipa + leng even. and even wen + li-ming!) — every single one of them feels so sincere and heartwarming (or heartbreaking) and realistic. idk how to explain it's just so touching. i was especially drawn to li-ming + jim's relationship. fourth really did do a fantastic job in this role.

i also think it's funny looking back bc i like, didn't even give gaipa + alan's actors a second glance on the first watch lol. random men that would later sucker punch me in the gut

the only reason i didn't give this series ten stars is bc of my beef w product placement. lmao

2. Only Friends (2023) — ★ 9.0

if a show doesn't have product placement there's like a 50% increased chance i'll like it better. that being said i think i mostly just like this show bc it's like. chaotic and hot. i like when characters are messy :)

honestly i think the main reason this is so high on the list is just due to ray (kt's character). smth about him draws me in. maybe i sort of related to him in a way. maybe it's bc he's a bit of a pathetic wet cat. i find his psyche rly interesting... just like how he thinks and the habits he has, most all stemming from his past trauma and mental health problems. like everything he does you can pinpoint the reason for. hes an alcoholic bc his mom was and died in front of him. he keeps drinking because he feels worthless because she always hated him, his dad never showed affection. for that same reason he thinks that buying people things is his only way to show affection, doesn't realize the problems with that. idk ive already spent so much time thinking about him i just like him a lot (doesnt hurt that he's played by kt)

otherwise... i do find the other characters + relationships rly interesting as well (just not as much as ray). on first watch boston pissed me off so much for obvious reasons (stirring shit for seemingly no reason), but on rewatching he became a lot more interesting to me. possibly bc on rewatching i can focus more on the themes, and boston encapsulates a lot of them. trying to understand his motivations leads to a lot more sympathy on my part — and i think he didn't deserve what he got, since the underlying reason most of the characters seemed to dissaprove of him is due to his non-monagamy. like, he did shitty things, but it really isn't fair that mew forgave top but not him. i know that's not how life works a lot of them time and there's reasons mew acted that way he did, but doesn't mean i like them 🙄 anyway i could get into all that more (already have rly) but this isn't the time

gave it 9 stars cuz i just enjoyed it a lot. themes and narratives and men fucking each other etc. but i didn't find the ending super satisfying (which is arguably the point but doesn't make me rly like it)

3. A Tale of 1000 Stars (2021) — ★ 9.0

(ok im just now realizing on mdl it doesn't say "a thousand" just "thousand" which i assume could maybe mean "one thousand". ive been calling it atoats this whole time should it just be atots or. atoots. ato1000s? help)

im gonna be honest, going into this series i didn't expect to like it very much. the description sounded a bit odd — like, a guy gets a heart transplant and suddenly decides he needs to live his donor's life or smth? and the gender of it all made me squint. from that description i was concerned it was going to be a thing where like, he's suddenly attracted to men because he got a straight woman's heart or smth lmao (which. i guess wasn't technically disproven now that i think about it but it's not spoken of like that at all)

but it was rly good! rly sweet and cute without being too cutesy (my current gripe with a lot of shows recently aired...). it's another series from the same director as mlc which i think is why it turned out so well. i think the focus on the community is rly important and heartwarming/satisfying to see. im noticing that most of my favorite bls are actually like this (the show focuses on more than just the main couple's romantic relationship, including familial or community or platonic relationships and their themes as well).

it also wasn't quite as fantastical as it was made out to be. i mean it was a little, like seeing torfun/the heart donor in his dreams or wtv was silly, but it wasn't like... ~ooooh magic heart~

i like the messages as well, not just the community stuff but tian's personal growth as well. gives me a little hope for myself and others yk...

anyway 9 stars bc i liked it a lot, but again product placement was pretty annoying and there were a few bits that felt a little too staged or silly for me

4. The Eclipse (2022) ★ 8.5

i dont really have many excuses for this one. it's like arguably not very high quality and there's a lot of moments that feel pretty silly/staged. However i still liked it a lot. sort of became a bit of a comfort show, it's just kind of cathartic and i really like the relationship/dynamic btwn akk + aye. codependency my beloved. the plot might be more standard and there's a lot of tropes, but it does interest me a lot, and i like the themes and growth the characters experience.

akk's role is fascinating to me... i like characters that are under pressure and do horrible things as a result. i liked his struggles with this, and the guilt and consequences he had to come to terms with. i think the arc of his character growth was realistic and satisfying, i.e. he didn't suddenly become cured of all his problems and it took the whole series for him to learn to voice his feelings. plus first did a wonderful job sobbing and crying in this role 👍 i am number 1 men crying fan

aye as a character is Slightly less intriguing to me compared to akk, but i still like him a lot. at the beginning of the series he's consumed by vitriol and his desire to find justice for his uncle, messes with akk in response to being scolded, is generally uncaring of everything but the mystery he's trying to unfold. but then akk starts to grow on him and you can see the... idk the care seeping back into his bones. like he'd become this shell whose only purpose was vengeance and suddenly he's not a shell anymore because he's feeling something else besides anger and depressed apathy. okay maybe hes just as intriguing as akk in his own way.

anyway i like how they fit together and the codependency and Feelings they convey just hooked me i guess

8.5 stars for reasons stated — enjoyed it a lot, especially the relationship dynamic, themes, and character growth; no product placement(!) yippee; but from a technical standpoint not as high quality

5. The Warp Effect (2022) ★ 8.5

again also enjoyed this more than i expected to? started watching cuz i heard it had some kink themes but i got rly into the story/mystery as a whole.

i think it had a good balance of humor and sincerity. i think the main actor was also really good in this role, managed to present the character in an endearing way despite him being a bit of an idiot. i also really liked the main relationship (alex + jean), they had a rly good dynamic for that brief moment in hs and then the subsequent fallout was really intriguing, interesting to see the pieces slowly put together.

im not sure really how i feel about the kink representation, in this case it was mainly pet play. it's not my cup of tea personally, so like i don't fully understand it, but i feel like the relationship between the characters involved sort of frustrated me a little. like it didn't seem very healthy and by the end i wasn't necessarily feeling all that much better about it. also didn't love the humorous kazoo music associated w the pet play like it's not... supposed to be funny. idk :/

overall mixed opinion but i liked the plot and the characters enough to give it 8.5 stars. even if the ending was a little weird

in terms of other favorite series, honorary mentions to let free the curse of taekwondo (2024) and not me (2021), those would probably be no. 6 and 7

least favorite (completed) series

has to be 2gether (2020). i respect it for its formative role in the thai bl industry and i loved fong obviously (only bitch in that show w a braincell) but overall i just. didn't like it. can't rly pinpoint why, maybe it just felt a little too ridiculous or the plot didn't appeal to me or whatever but i ended up giving it 6.5 stars

technically i gave Blacklist fewer stars (6.0) but it's a bit more complicated than that. i gave it that rating because of the last two episodes — up until then i actually really liked it. but then the fucking, like, plot twist of the teacher being some kind of mentally tortured lesbian preying on high schoolers (who is then like? forgiven by said high schoolers???) was just. bad. hated that, felt stupid and out of nowhere and rife with problems. which is sad bc i liked the series up until then :/

dropped series

i dropped (i.e. watched at least one episode of and then didn't finish) a lot of series as well (12 total, most from 2024 perhaps bc the gaps inbetween currently airing shows gives me more time to lose interest), and i do have opinions about several of those.

The Trainee (2024)

i actually rated this one because i watched 11/12 of the episodes lol, but technically count it as dropped since i didnt finish it. i gave it 5.5 stars. not sure where to start really. i honestly did like it well enough up until the last few episodes — i liked the main character + couple at first, i liked the setting/film production company setting. but then the main couple started feeling kind of dry, and i didn't rly like the way the creators handled their relationship after jane found out ryan liked him. just felt sort of needlessly complex and vague, and generally uninteresting.

my main issue was the side couple bamhee and uh. tae? like their whole arc was just. not an arc. they broke up bc they werent working and bamhee liked a woman, and then in the end she decides actually nvm she wants to get back together with her boyfriend? leaving judy high and dry? like what was even the point of all that. felt kind of offensive tbh. rly did not like that and didnt watch the last ep as a result

Tonhon Chonlatee (2020)

like. i wasnt even gonna watch this bc i heard it was bad but i mustve gotten especially bored one day or smth. i think kt was cute in it from what i saw + i liked uhh. miriam. but other than that. i rly did not like tonhon from the start he just irritated me and seemed like a general prick. did not understand why chon liked him and rly wanted him to get over him lol. and he kept doing shit that made me want to yell at chon to stick up for himself. some of the humor made me a little uncomfy as well.

i dropped it after episode 6 bc like. the absolute whiplash i got from tonhon's complete change in opinion was. not good. like it made no sense to me and was way too abrupt a change in personality/thought processes/etc. just like immediately put me off so i stopped watching it lol. oh well!

Summer Night (2024)

not too much to say other than the plot started to annoy me, felt sorta insubstantial, and i was starting to kind of hate the main girl's behavior lol. i watched the first 4 eps but dropped it after that. sort of sad bc i rly liked a lot of the cinematography/imagery in the first couple eps

Kidnap (2024)

i got up to episode 6 and i think maybe partway through 7? but i wasnt super invested and some of the character choices + relationship dynamic sort of annoyed me. and then there was that like. scene in the car where they were acting way too exaggeratedly cutesy and i was just like yeah no. not for me. stopped watching in the middle of the scene lol

My Love Mix-Up (2024)

i like fourth as an actor a lot and he did a good job in this as well but i stopped watching after episode 7 (maybe partway into 8?) also because it was getting too cutesy (to clarify when i say cutesy i mean in the sense where a scene's so clearly staged to be cute that it feels ingenuine). honestly i liked the side couple's characters/actors as well but idk. maybe i dropped it also bc i watched the original and really liked it so i was sort of comparing it in my head. idk

23.5 (2024)

i dropped this after episode 6 i think mostly bc it was just starting to bore me. seems to be a trend w most 2024 high school shows. i liked view's character a lot but the others i was sort of nitpicky about. ongsa sort of frustrated me at times and the others just felt a little flat maybe. but overall i just dropped it out of boredom

Hidden Agenda (2023)

story behind this one is i started watching the first episode way back in like. april or may? and then never finished it for wtv reason (i think maybe my friend mentioned the end was unsatisfying or smth). but then w the actors being in thk i was like well maybe i should check them out in something else. and this was within the past few months. so i started watching it and it was pretty cute, but after the main couple realized their feelings or got together or wtv i just lost interest again. i guess this is a trend, like once they get together the story kind of feels like it falls flat in a lot of series. i did like the main actors but not enough to keep me interested

the other series that i dropped i only watched one or two episodes of so dont have as much of an opinion

that's pretty much it! although i feel like i should give a shoutout to The Shipper (2020) as Series that Broke Me the Most. legit hardest i cried all year maybe ever. i had 0 warning

we'll see how things go in 2025! currently im watching 4 airing series (The Heart Killers, Perfect 10 Liners, ThamePo, + Ossan's Love Thailand as of yesterday) but who knows if i'll stick with all of them to the end, esp. given recent trends. the only one im like 95% sure ill stick with thru the end is thk. in 2025 theres a few series im excited for but i suspect my interest in thai qls in general might drop at some point... remains to be seen!

[my-current-obsession]

Tengoku Struggle: Strayside - Thoughts

I'm a bit late getting to this game, but I enjoyed it quite a bit! I definitely have some frustrations both minor and major, some of which I'll get into below, but overall it was a fun and engaging ride and one of few VNs where I can honestly say I like ALL the routes and romances - with the caveat that I have a bone to pick with one of them.

I think the premise of the story, the transient (amnesiac) daughter of the Lord of Hell being assigned to capture several escapees from Hell alongside four handpicked former prisoners (all of which are presumably heinous villains themselves), is very fun and creative. I was immediately drawn into the story and loved all the world-building relating to the Six Realms and Hell specifically.

It helps that in addition to the colorful main cast, the supporting cast in this game is fantastic. I particularly love Fujimori, King Enma, and Nono-sensei.

My play order was: Kiku -> Yona -> Sharaku -> JacK -> Goemon.

My thoughts and criticisms are down below. Beware spoilers if you haven't played/beaten the game yourself!

First off, while it's not necessarily a criticism, I do think it's an... interesting choice to clearly establish in the very beginning of the game that she knew and loved one specific love interest prior to her death, and then to further establish at the end of the common route that he remembers and loves her too. While I know most otome have a favored/intended canon route, pushing one guy this hard this early is kind of shooting itself in the foot, IMO. It's hard to really get into and love the other possible relationships when Rin is this obviously "meant" to be with Goemon and you're aware of it and imagining him quietly pining for her all while she gets cozy with another man. I can think of multiple other otomes which also have a similar conundrum, but at least in those cases you don't know about the history and connection with a specific love interest until actually doing his route, allowing you to fully enjoy all the other routes first.

But you could consider the early Goemon reveal more of a double-edged sword, because while it might dampen your enjoyment of the other romances, it would also encourage players to not give up early for any reason, wanting to make it to his route to get answers and resolution to what exactly his past with Rin is.

Kiku: I think his route was a good one to start with. Outside of his own backstory as well as his connected "villain", Azami, there are no major reveals here. There's also nothing I found particularly amazing OR frustrating. His route was solid, I liked it, but it didn't wow me either. His romance with Rin felt very light and fluffy. You could tell he was falling for her pretty fast and hard early in his route, and the two got along really well.

I also do really like Azami as a character and as the antagonist in this route, although if I have one complaint it's that the situation honestly could have been MORE dramatic and messy than it was. Maybe this is entirely on me for getting my hopes up, but I assumed there would be more to her backstory and behavior than there ended up being. I figured she was either gay, adding another layer to her general dislike of men and her immediate and enduring friendliness to Rin, OR... she might have secretly had incestuous feelings for her brother, further complicating THAT situation. Neither turned out to be true, which left me a tad disappointed. But I can't hold something that I created and wanted in my head against the story too much. Her backstory and behavior is perfectly understandable for what it is, I just wanted a bit more drama I guess.

Finally, I really like how Fujimori was incorporated into this route and I thought his budding friendship with Kiku was incredibly sweet.

Yona: I spent the first half of his route too frustrated to really enjoy it, to be honest. The story hammers home the idea that samurai are supposed to be honorable, yet Yona immediately fights dirty and nearly gets Rin killed as a result. And while the other guys (and Goemon in particular, which was a nice touch) were understandably furious at him, Rin herself WASN'T. If anything she blamed herself - the VICTIM - for letting things get out of hand.

What made matters worse is that while Yona IS overall a good, honorable guy, and he DOES actually have a good reason for his deep mistrust that led him to act out... we don't get it until literally the end of the route. We have to just sit back and forgive him and wait several hours to hear an explanation as to WHY he did what he did. It doesn't help that for me, his backstory just feels weaker than everyone else, which makes withholding it until the very end all the more unreasonable.

We got like 85% of Kiku's backstory in the beginning of his route, which helped in understanding why his relationship with Azami was so fraught. Sharaku opens up about his backstory a little over halfway through his route in a moment of emotional intimacy, which helps in understanding/justifying his outlandish behavior before and also significantly shifts the tone/feeling of his relationship with Rin moving forward. And we're drip-fed Goemon and Rin's semi-shared backstory throughout his entire route, like getting one piece of a puzzle at a time and finally getting to complete it near the end.

Even if you disagree that Yona's backstory of growing up an outsider, desperate for love and attention, ultimately getting deceived and dying before getting what he wanted isn't as compelling as the others... the placement of it (not even told to Rin as part of bonding and/or apologizing! told to Sansaburo to try and get through to him and keep things "honorable"!) still bugs me. We should have gotten some or even all of it early on in the route, so that we could understand and forgive what he'd done. Because personally without any context, I wasn't okay with how his fighting dirty nearly got Rin killed, and the fact that SHE was okay with it made it all the more vexing.

My issue with the beginning of this route then rippled out to impair the middle a bit. Because while I could definitely understand why Yona would like Rin so much... every scene of her being super into him just felt unearned. And the fact that it was discovering he read books that might sometimes have smut in them being what DID briefly turn her off from him? Ugh. It's fine if he's a dumbass who nearly got you killed for (seemingly) no good reason, but I guess liking porn is inexcusable. Priorities, girl!

IN ISOLATION, I think nearly all of their romantic moments are very solid. It's just that because their starting position was so poisoned for me, it was hard to reconcile Rin liking him at all at that point. All that said, the route definitely got better over time and the last few chapters were very solid. By then there'd been enough development that I could buy the romance despite my initial hangups, so I could fully enjoy their relationship when it finally blossomed. And Yona's confrontation with Sansaburo was pretty good too.

Once again, this route made good use of Fujimori. His dynamic was certainly more strained with Yona than Kiku, but the story used that to give Yona a necessary wake-up call, I think. I love that both guys got something valuable from the other, with Yona getting more accepting/comfortable around technology and how things are now compared to when he lived, and Fujimori being shown that looks and strength alone don't define a person or make them happy/successful, which encouraged him to be more confident in himself and accepting of others.

Sharaku: I'll admit that I had a bit of a bias going into this route since due to his VA and certain mannerisms, I already liked Sharaku a lot. He reminded me of Marius from Tears of Themis (same Japanese VA, similarly flirty and overtly manipulative in a childish way that I find endearing rather than upsetting).

That said his route is certainly... a lot. And I can bet he'll be a "love him or hate him" type for a lot of people. Personally, I love him, though I absolutely understand why he might turn off or really upset others. He comes on STRONG in the beginning, pushing for sex as a way to "bond" and "develop trust" with Rin.

That's obviously not okay, but for me it's enough that after Rin electrocutes him and sets a boundary, he doesn't cross it again (arguably. We'll get into that). Rather, while he still brings up the idea of having sex often, it's more playful/joking, and he physically keeps a safe distance. To me this reads as him making it clear that while he's still down for or wants it himself, he IS respecting her wishes by not pushing for it. He's just letting her know it's still on the table as an option if she ever changes her mind.

Personally I don't think the idea that he's "coercing" her into it holds water when, later in the route, she DOES decide she wants to have sex with him in a moment of desperation, but he TURNS HER DOWN. By then, he knows her well enough and CARES about her enough that he doesn't want to do anything she's not fully onboard with. Consent isn't enough. He wants her feelings to matter, too. For them, for the bond they now have, sex is no longer a means to an end, and he won't let her reduce it to that even when that was once what he wanted.

Sharaku is a very messy individual. His backstory is HEAVY. I might have a small corner of my mind permanently stuck ruminating on how he was forced to live as a prostitute for an unknown length of time just to make ends meet, and then eventually got OUT of that life and started supporting himself financially with art instead, just to ultimately die at the ripe old age of eighteen. Because he eventually got caught for the crime of mercy killing women who BEGGED him to do it. It's just... a lot.

All the characters' backstories inform their personality and behavior in the present, but I really feel it with Sharaku. He's been desensitized to sex, possibly as a coping mechanism for what he's been through. From his perspective, it's nothing more than a physical act at this point, and what better way to "get close" to someone? There's also the idea that prostitutes are trained/perceptive when it comes to romance. It's a trait that all the "prostitute" characters we see share, even Shinobikuni. While I doubt anyone would argue that Goemon knows Rin as a person best, it's definitely Sharaku who notices the budding romances on every route. He even took it a step farther and tried to play matchmaker for Yona! He's also the one to notice and call out that Goemon is softer towards Rin right from the start, even if he tries to hide it and act as uncaring/aloof as the others.

I think this also extends to his route though. When Rin really starts to fall for Sharaku, HE NOTICES. He's completely unsurprised when other people infer that Rin is in love with him. The "school uniform date" and his kissing her were prompted by him responding to her feelings. It's just that there's a miscommunication here. He hasn't let her know how HE feels (and to be fair at that point he might still be figuring it out, going along with things because that's what he's used to doing), thus she assumes he's playing with her feelings and gets upset.

Something I really love about Sharaku's route is that he takes it upon himself, multiple times, to try and change or open up to Rin, without being forced or prompted to. His most sincere, vulnerable moments are predated by him unintentionally hurting her, and then resolving to do better. Which he does! When he sees how their blood bond has barely risen, it's clear that it hurts Rin. And he KNOWS it's his own trust issues to blame, so he pushes through the discomfort to open up to her, at least a little, prompting the first big spike in the blood bond. When he takes their "date" too far by kissing her and Rin runs off crying, he finally opens up about his past to her once he finds her.

Rin herself ALSO makes an effort to change, after Sharaku calls her out for being overbearing and falling back on her training to mistreat the prisoners. This isn't really an issue in other routes, since she has a good relationship with the other love interests, but here, her initially strained relationship with Sharaku makes it harder to shake off her training and treat the men the way she WANTS to treat them. The struggle makes it more impactful than the other routes where she just decides to change and then... does, without effort, IMO.

Sharaku as a person and his relationship with Rin is just... so much more complicated and messy than the other routes. Outside of JacK where she's literally romancing the enemy, this is the only time she has any real conflict WITH her love interest as opposed to a conflict elsewhere. But it makes perfect sense that these two would butt heads given their near polar opposite personalities and his... wealth of romantic/sexual experience compared to her literal blank slate. If anything it's a miracle they reached a compromise!

This route COULD have been a disaster. With Sharaku's backstory and obsession with sex, it could have gone to some truly unpleasant, unforgivable places. But for me, this route was beautiful. This is a route where two VERY different individuals both decided, of their own volition, to try to be better for the other person. They weren't being forced to change by an outside party, nor were they fundamentally changing who they were. Rather they were allowing themselves to be vulnerable, exposing their soft underbellies to the other. To meet the other halfway. This was harder for Sharaku, naturally, but they both managed it and from their initial tense and distant acquaintance, a healthy and beautiful love bloomed.

JacK/Tetsunojo: This route had the misfortune to sit between Sharaku, who I clearly hyper-fixated on, and Goemon, who has a lot of "true/final route" reveals to dig into. Thus I admit I probably didn't give this route as much attention as I should have.

That said, from what I remember, it's solid. I appreciate that the more you learn about him, the more Tetsunojo comes across as just a chuuni. A total loser playing at being edgy and cool. His mostly one-sided vendetta against Goemon is also a lot of fun. It's hilarious to think about how Goemon didn't know or care about him at all until his own route, where he ultimately DID "beat" Goemon entirely unintentionally, by stealing his girl.

I was a bit miffed for a decent chunk of the route because it seemed the writing couldn't decide how much, if at all, Tetsunojo actually liked Rin or if he was just using her all along. He certainly turned HARD on her when he got what he wanted. But then the story slowly walked it back and he DID like her, he was just pushing her away. The execution was a bit sloppy and frustrating, but not terrible I guess.

I'm torn between liking and hating that this is the route where Rin finally gets to be proactive. In general I like it when the heroine is more assertive and goes for what she wants. But where was that in the other routes? You're saving it for here, the route where from a logical standpoint it makes most sense NOT to pursue him, especially once he's threatened your life? It feels like she's only proactive because this relationship would never get off the ground otherwise, whereas living with the other guys - most of whom are confident and willing to make moves themselves - gives plenty of opportunity for romance without Rin forcing it.

Ultimately while the romance was okay, this relationship was probably still my least favorite because it lowkey took Rin away from her other love interests. That's her found family! It's like Sholmes' route in the Code Realize FD. Even IF the route and relationship is solid, you don't take the girl away from her group of friends! Thankfully Tetsunojo joined the group at the end (even getting his own mug! Truly Goemon is a softie to do such a thing for the guy that stole his girl) rather than completely taking Rin away, but this route still felt removed from the group dynamic we see everywhere else.

Goemon: He was SO soft and attentive to her, in general but especially his own route. You'd think after a few hundred years he would at least start to move on, but no, he's clearly still down bad for her. VERY cute.

I loved getting little peeks of his jealousy in other routes. When he lost his cool at the manager asking if Rin is a virgin, wishing to himself that they WERE having a rendezvous when Sharaku caught them together, a lot of his behavior in JacK's route... It all got me amped up for his route, for sure.

I have basically no complaints about the romance in this route, or at least nothing too critical. The pacing is a bit wonky at times, but I think that can be explained as Rin is essentially starting at 0 for Goemon while HE is starting damn near 100 for her - as shown by the blood bond, even! He near fully loves and trusts her from the start, so the route is just getting her to the same place he is and revealing their shared backstory.

They have a lot of sweet moments together. I love how she made him "poison" onigiri which he then made sure to warn off others so he could keep them to himself. I love how for a good chunk of the route Rin was despairing over being in a love triangle with HERSELF. I do wish she had confronted him directly, told him it hurt to be compared to or a replacement for that girl. But we got something similar at least that FINALLY led to him telling her the truth.

As for their backstory, it really is a tragedy. Their own hesitations and insecurities kept them apart. He didn't want to drag her into his problems, she didn't want to tie him down since she was blind and he was a free spirit. And yet even though they never got together she was STILL killed just because of her association to him. Which meant he was right to blame himself for it, to an extent. The fact that her ONE sin that sent her to hell was telling a lie that hurt him is the cherry on top of this painful sundae. Oof.

The plot/conflict outside of the romance is where this route loses me a little. It just has a bit too much going on, including TWO separate twist villains! Surely one of them could have been used elsewhere? Personally I would say Sharaku's route because the idea of finding Oshichi's lost love is brought up there too and yet for some reason it's Goemon's route where they have the idea to have Sharaku draw the guy based on Oshichi's description.

I mostly liked Fujimori's inclusion in this route once again. The bond he and Goemon had in the past and start to form again is very sweet. That said, I don't really like how it's implied he was also close with Rin (to the point where he called her sister at one point and she also felt like he was a little brother to her) yet we NEVER got interactions between them in flashbacks. It's hard to buy that relationship when we don't actually see it.

I think both twist villains were done very sloppily. Kamuro's actions just don't seem to fit with what we've learned about angels and how they're basically stupid and useless and GOOD. How on earth did an angel with those kind of restrictions for getting into Heaven (remember, telling a SINGLE lie that hurt someone got Rin cast into Hell) end up even capable of evil? And Shiroku...

He was an incredibly weird combination of OVERLY foreshadowed and not nearly foreshadowed enough. He has a very distinct silhouette so it's clearly him we see in Rin's nightmare flashback at the beginning of the route, making him immediately suspicious. And yet in all his prior appearances and up until the end of the route, he does nothing to raise suspicion. If not for that one moment we'd have NO reason to doubt him. And then again, literal minutes before the reveal, we get the second piece of evidence against him. Which is... Sharaku - the MOST guarded and untrusting of the group - thinks he's suspicious and doesn't want Rin to go off alone with him. Again, a rather heavy-handed piece of foreshadowing, and yet it's potentially ruined or overlooked since it's coming from Sharaku.

In theory, I'm fine with Shiroku being a twist villain. Especially since Goemon's primary "flaw" is that he's too soft/trusting towards those he cares about. So having a trusted longtime friend stab him in the back makes sense. It's just the execution sucks. And Shiroku as a villain is not nearly as interesting or likable compared to the main five. His motivation is... feeling spurned that Goemon left so he decides to go full evil?

Meanwhile the five escapees are all seemingly GOOD or at least neutral people who just lived awful lives - or in Asaemon's case, he was a guy with a really bad job. But someone's gotta do it - and now want a chance to live happier, peaceful lives as opposed to continuing to suffer in Hell as if their lives before death weren't bad enough.

Compared to all the others, Shiroku taking over as the last minute true bad guy was disappointing. It made sense that Goemon wouldn't fight Shinobikuni since she seemingly wasn't a fighter, but what I really expected and felt outright ripped off not to get was a fight with Okuni. Of ALL the escapees, Okuni got the least development and time to shine. But since it was established she KNEW Goemon and she had a really cool power that COULD be used in a fight, I expected her to be the "final boss", as it were. Instead she literally never faces off against anyone directly, instead just retaliating against Yona in his route when he fights dirty against Sansaburo. She was SO cool and SO underutilized.

She was shafted in favor of a pretty shit twist villain though. In the end her "importance" boiled down to being the source of a popular legend that Rin secretly liked - after death, being cared across the Sanzu River on your lover's back. At least that concept finally got to come full circle when Goemon carried Rin home on his back after the final battle. That was a nice detail. He wasn't able to go to her in death, but they first reunited at the riverbank that she was staring wistfully at, and he got as close as he could to fulfilling her wishes in the end.

I suppose it was too much to expect a violent battle between a man and a woman in an otome, especially with the woman as a final boss of sorts. At least Rin got to contribute to the fight. Not directly, but her powered up ability was instrumental to the fight and the gang couldn't have won without her. So I'll take it.

Misc: A few random final thoughts/observations - this game is very punishing in terms of the choices. A single wrong choice will land you the bad end for a route. In fact, I noticed that a wrong choice early on will ensure a "bad" ending to the chapter and every chapter moving forward. Which is why starting with Yona I made the decision to save scum until around chapter 8 so even if I got a bad end I wouldn't have to redo damn near the entire route.

...Which accidentally led to me NOT getting Goemon or Sharaku's bad endings. I happened to get their final few choices right and haven't seen their bad endings. That said, based on the OTHER bad endings... I don't mind that you fall into those endings so easily. There ARE unique CGs and the endings are about 20 minutes of unique content. And it seems like the bad endings aren't even "bad" so much as bittersweet, stalling a happy ending that WILL still come in the future. Plus the music for the bad end movie is a BOP that I will GLADLY listen to.

One other thing I noticed that bothers me a tad is that the routes follow a very similar formula in terms of the romantic development. You can see this very clearly while looking at the CGs for different guys. All five guys have exactly 15 "unique" CGs, the difference being how many of those have variations, and how many of said variations there are. Exactly 2 of those unique CGs are for the bad ends, with another locked away in the bonus "Memory" content. ALL FIVE guys have their "happy" end with a CG that is just before the couple has sex. Kiku, Yona, and Sharaku all have Rin kiss their mark to take their pain twice, with the second time leading to another CG of the pair kissing. That kiss CG is even the 9th one for all of them, and it's the last CG before the happy/bad end split. Goemon only has one "kiss the pain away" scene, but his also immediately leads to a proper kiss as well.

While the specifics for the conflicts and the relationships are different in each route, I just couldn't help but notice this huge consistency in when and how the romantic beats happened. There are definitely minor ways in which routes are the same in other games (like tending to the needs of a Fury in Hakuouki), but I couldn't help but notice EVERY route ending in a sex scene. EVERY route having the first (mutual, in Sharaku's case) kiss after Rin took the guy's pain. It's a minor nitpick, but by the third route I was starting to really sense when things would happen and accurately predict incoming CGs. So it took me out of the story a bit.

In terms of my feelings on the routes as a whole, best to worst: Sharaku > Goemon > Kiku > JacK > Yona

In terms of my feelings on the romance/relationship with Rin: Goemon > Sharaku > Kiku > Yona > JacK