#zealthoughts

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Also concerning Rock is a Lady's Modesty, although I think Tina needs to sort of grow into her own in the band, I do just conceptually enjoy:

This princely girl that all the other girls fawn over was not actually being transgressive about gender; she was just forced into a socially accepted transgressive gender role. + What inspires her is girls who transgress gender through rock AND get to fully express themselves.

I might normally side eye the "Masculine woman just need to accept her femininity", but the other band mates, the ones who inspire her are pretty masculine themselves. They like bringing up their cocks a lot in their shouting matches. It avoids saying masculinity isn't right for women AND focuses on the issue of "enforced gender roles are bad"

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

I think your theory holds water for a decent amount of cis people who enjoy GB. It's at least a simple answer for why they would enjoy the self-insert perspective of reading the work. I do think they can still function as wish fulfillment for cis people who are low on Q2, mainly for people who are very confident in their gender but are dissatisfied with specific gender roles. Wish fulfillment can sort of operate large-scale and small-scale in those ways (and of course people aren't bound to only inserting themselves into MCs of their own gender).

Personally, I'm sort of high on Q1 and probably middle on Q2. I enjoy GB stories, but I sort of gravitate more towards the other option you mention, CD stories. They contain a lot of the same wish fulfillment, but I'm less likely to encounter any kind of personal dissonance with the protagonist's gender and my own (granted I've run into that problem less as I've grown older). That difference is sort of built into the tropes of the genres, CD stories mostly have the character maintain their original gender and GB stories mostly have the character grow into their new one.

Outside of the the self-insert perspective of reading the work, I do think there's generally two other categories of ways to enjoy these stories (I'm assuming these probably fall amongst some of your non-wish fulfillment explanations):

The GB specifically happening to someone else

The GB happening regardless of whom

The former is probably less common? No idea how many people are into it for this specifically, but I figure they have to be out there. So many of these stories deal with someone getting GB'd and shacking up with their best friend, it has to appeal to some people from the best friend angle, right? Also, just, people w/ trans friends who want to understand them/see characters like them. The latter often deals more with enjoying the themes of a work; exploring gender, sexuality, and breaking them, etc. That's probably something that most fans of the genre are at least somewhat into. I feel like that angle of the work is sort of present whether something is wish fulfillment or not.

IMO there's just a lot of ways to enjoy these kinds of stories and liking them is cool 😎

What do you think cis people get out of genderswap stories? Especially ones which are very wish fulfilment for us trans girls. Sure some mangaka are definitely eggs or repressed and it's sad but for the ones who aren't I still haven't really figured it out so I'm curious what thoughts you have

Honestly ever since the author of "Misfile" came out as trans I don't think I am able to confidently state who is likely to be cis or trans, because I considered them specifically to be in "likely to be cis" category because 1.) not wish fulfillment 2.) author had a trans parent they could write the story parts off.

I also have been trying to ask people around about this and I never got a coherent answer either. I do have a theory though:

Let's say if I asked people two questions

"how would you rate your experience living as your assigned gender"

"how would you feel like living as other gender"

I'd say that:

trans people would assign higher grade to the second than the first

cis people would assign higher grade to first than second

trans people with a high difference between the two are most likely to transition

the lower the difference between the grades and the higher the gatekeeping and other costs are, the lower the chance a trans person transitions

cis people with significant difference between the two would be unlikely to entertain the scenario of let's say, "woke up as a girl one morning" as some sort of hypothetical

so that leaves people who would rate a high grade to a first question, and a slightly lower grade to a second question (like, let's say, 9/10 and 8/10 respectively)

Are there people like that? Dunno. If these people exist, would they transition? No. Would they transition if transition was easy and not gatekept? No. If there was a hypothetical device that would let people switch back and forth easily, would they use it? Definitely.

Given an absence of such a device, what remains is crossdressing or exploring the feels through hypothetical scenarios. This leads to @ashe-delta's explanation of genderswap stories of "giving people a safe space to explore gender", or how I used to call them, "a mirror to my own heart"

With all that said, I'd say that the final answer for stories that are specifically wish fulfillment depend on the degree of it: if high, the author is likely trans/egg/repressing; if low, we're likely dealing with cis person who is not "strongly cis".

For non-wish fulfillment stories there's a bunch of explanations I could come up with, but this will go in another reblog, as I've been holding this one in inbox for a bit long already.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

This week's rock is a lady's modesty was more of an in-betweener kinda episode, focused on school life and whatnot, but damn did it nail it's point really well.

An episode of Lily feeling fake and not good enough for this school, looking for a glimmer of hope that someone like her used to go here and was successful, and she got completely slapped with frustration and alienation. That alum hit her with the class difference AND the opposing personality. Kind of the pinnacle of both because what secured her noble maiden was just raw money given to the school and she threw out any musical passions she may have had just because her father asked her.

Like, no, Lily, the real you will never have a place here.

Because this is anime, before this episode, there was still an air of "one day, they could radicalize some other girls and change the status quo". I mean, there's 4 rich girls' who are cool with it, Lily's sister is interested, etc. But this ep was a firm "No." to anything along those lines.

Which is nice! That felt pretty real. Even in it's ridiculousness, this show is very real where it needs to be emotionally. The vent guitar session afterwards also felt like the point Lily went "No, I can't live without this anymore". Like, in contrast to the start of the series where she was rejecting Oto because she was 100% in on living the fake life, now that playing guitar has become so core to her identity and she has the pleasure of expressing that regularly in secret, 100% fake life is impossible. Living without any guitar is basically being dead to her.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Lady Rock Band good this week

Alice is finally full into the mix, Lily has thrown away her qualms with putting up an act around her. Was surprised when Alice was there, but just rolled with it without even thinking. Also, lmao at Alice clearly starting to ship the band

and maybe something more.

Regardless, with that Staff badge, Alice is basically part of the hero's party now. It's only a matter of time before she's their manager. I enjoy that although she's so young (or maybe because she's so young), she can spot bullshit a mile away and can call it out, both with that singer from the festival and these streamer guys.

This episode also dodged my worst fears about making this just a boys vs girls thing. The gender's aren't critical to this conflict at all, but they'll certainly play a part, which is what I wanted. The boyband's fans are clearly biased against them because they're women and Lily bringing out a chair when the boy leader starts threatening her little sister.

And yet the actual conflict doesn't have anything to do with that, it has to do with how these boys aren't taking this seriously. They're just well off streamers who are doing this for fun, and that was exactly the wrong thing to come into contact with Lily after last episode.

Also, the conflict between Oto and Lily is just so good. That further showed me that the story is taking this v seriously.

So yeah, excited for the last episode. I sort of had this show at a 7/10 for most of it, but without noticing I think it's bumped up to an 8/10 for me. Hope to hell that they do more of it in the future, I'd watch every episode.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Other thing Rock is a Lady's Modesty does that I appreciate: even though Lily and Oto are the real stars of the show and the other 2 haven't gotten much time yet, each pairing has a solid relationship dynamic.

This is the bare minimum for any 4-man band kinda deal, but i still appreciate it; it's one of the core appeals of this cast structure whether it's in music or fantasy adventuring.

It's telling that weakest dynamic is between the two newest characters. Even the weakest link just needs time.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Izuko's omniscience is something that, for me, Is more fun conceptually if it isn't explained. However, yeah, as you work it out a lot of the information in the series can be gotten through surveillance. Then, whatever can't can be done through her significant social networking can be done through her just looking things up online.

However, ye, i think it would be particularly thematic for her type of information gathering to specifically rely on the direct words of others because of how the series later stresses that, although she "knows everything", she doesn't account for what knowledge is wrong. That's right, Izuko is susceptible to misinformatiooonnnnn!

hmmm. so, Gaen omniscience update

knows koyomi + loli trio's exact location before they get there (even though they explicitly do not know where they are since they're lost)

seems to know the entirety of shinobu's story about the Darkness that she just told for the first time (and no other being could possibly have known about due to the Darkness killing them!), down to minor details like 3/4 of her body being destroyed

knows about the text that yotsugi sent to kagenui and the fact that kagenui ignored it (even though this means nobody else could have seen it)

says she got worried about yotsugi since she hadn't completed her assigned job, and when she 'looked into it' she found koyomi was involved (i.e. she had to look something up, she didn't know this exact situation was going to develop very long before it happened)

this is kind of bullshit to the point i almost gave up and just said it has to be supernatural until i suddenly realised

she just has some kind of location tracker/listening device on yotsugi right. that basically explains all of it

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

We don't thank fujoshis enough for their service

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Hard to pick one image to capture how insane this man was in this story, but maybe these 2 do

Love how much this guy is the absolute murder man. DO NOT try to challenge him in murder fight; he will win. Also, he's hot

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

And on the note of "Rock = Queer" i would enjoy it if any of the main 4 were in a gay relationship by the end.

I would kinda be okay with Lily, Oto, and Shiro staying in the annoying yuri subtext zone because it'd be really funny for them to be that dense when it comes to rock. They just continually use it as a sexual outlet and never question it. So it should be Tina.

Future of the 4 girls living together with everyone assuming things because they have eyes, but Tina is the only one who actually has a girlfriend.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

This is the coolest a character has been to me in a long time, and it looks like he's about to piss his pants

Bell Cranel, I never thought I'd be feeling this strongly about you or your series when i dropped it during the spin off season in 2017, but here I am feeling like this is one of the rawest displays of heroism in anime. And it's specifically because you're in the middle of an identity crisis, you're defying your heroes, you're scared and shaking, you don't know how this is going to turn out AND YET you did it anyways because you couldn't accept anything else, even at your lowest.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

I like that despite how much allies and antagonists consider him stupid, Denji is still creative in how he solves difficult situations. He doesn't have a lot of education, but he knows things from his own life experience, his own power, his own connections with other people, etc. He finds ways that are uniquely Denji AND can be pretty mindful at some of his best and worst moments. Iunno. These ways come from an understanding that is his and no one else's.

I've enjoyed Chainsaw man a lot because it's protagonist doesn't feel like he's special solely because of his powers. His powers have been a really mixed bag of both helping him out and warping the world around him in the worst of ways. That's a lot of what this arc has been exploring. But I think it's Denji's own qualities that fully sell him. This story is working both ways to make it's protagonist shine. Denji is what makes Denji so special

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Oh yeah, I meant to say I started watch Rock is a Lady's Modesty. It good. The Main 2 are so strong that the arc that's adding the other 2 somewhat underwhelmed me last episode. I watched it again and no it's good, I think I just think they coulda given things a lil more oomph in places. Maybe I'll feel better about it when we actually get the sort of epilogue to it, there was just a lot of build up to it coming off of that kickass symphonic band episode. Overall good show, looking forward to the rest of it.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

How to Avoid Hating Danmachi

Or rather, how did 20-year-old me think this show was kinda-enjoyable mediocrity but 30-year-old me think its one of the best fantasy series ever?

Short answer: Get over your hang-ups surrounding tropes, genres, and the story doing what you expect.

Long Answer:

The title is a joke. It's not supposed to be taken seriously. It's supposed to be funny. This is a romcom. The first scene is the MC being saved by a girl and the second scene is him gushing to his guidance counselor about how he now has a crush on that girl. The show starts with him being "picked up" by a girl.

Yes, the show will also have him save girls in dungeons. Yes, he was given misogynistic ideas about this from his grandfather. He does not do this for misogynistic reasons. He saves the women that he does for morally and thematically compelling reasons.

This is a harem anime, many girls will fall in love with the MC. This is not a bad thing. Even if you know they will fall in love with him, do not ignore why they do. These girls will have personal and compelling reasons for falling in love with him.

The MC is cute. He gets very emotional at times and can be a bit simple-minded. These are quite normal for a boy. This is a romcom.

This is a power fantasy. The MC is a pure, teenage boy who wants to become stronger to support and save the people around him. He wants to be a hero like the stories he was told as a child. This is cool.

The MC gains a very powerful ability, weapon, and spell early on in the story. This is not pure chance. These things come from his own feelings and his relationships with other characters. This is a story.

The MC's ability to improve quickly is from the power of love. This is a romcom. This ability is thematically appropriate.

There will be fanservice. This will be enjoyable to some of the audience.

Have fun and be yourself.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Final Rock Lady episode did not exceed my expectations, but it met them satisfyingly and was a good way to cap off the show with this little arc.

Things I liked about it:

Little sister meaningfully contributes to the band in a way only she could as a fan

This thankfully arc avoided being boys vs girls, but was also able to make gender matter in a tangible way: -The male lead singer is p clearly misogynistic. He's v clearly views all the women, rock ladies, the club owner, his own fans, as just a means to stroking his ego and as soon as something challenges that, he resorts to violence (with Lily this ep and with her sister the last) -This arc was about the girls getting to show their love of rock to other girls and pull them into it. In a way that's over-the-top, but also kind of just believable -Good use of background male characters to both show support and to also trash on these guys -In the correct way to subvert gendered expecations, Rock Lady isn't special because they are women or in spite of being women, they're special because they're just that goddamn passionate about this shit. The guys were their antagonists because they're just doing this for fun.

The string of insults each of the girl's laid out back stage was able to feel both so pointed and so personal to themselves. Props to Tina for joining in and being able to feel a lot of pride for herself

Oto's struggle gets answered in a compelling way: what we were doing before was hot, but this is also hot, and they're not mutually exclusive.

Towards the end, this episode gets to zoom in on the core strength of this show: the relationship between Lily and Oto. It was both really gay, but, outside of that, it was a really good heart-to-heart. Oto felt genuinely vulnerable for the first time in the show, something that Lily is almost every episode, and it was really sweet to see Lily guide her through that.

All in all, not the most outstanding episode of the bunch, but I think it hit on everything that makes the show good, which makes for a really good finale. Yeah, I can definitely call this show an 8/10. I've heard there's not enough material for a season 2 (yet), but I want more of this and I'll wait patiently for it.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

Oh also, finished the last episode of nademonogatari. I think this arc was pretty special. Don't know where exactly, but it's top 5 arcs probably.

Although I like mostly everyone in monogatari, nadeko was always on the lower end, but I think I appreciate current nadeko more than I'd ever thought I could. Plan to rewatch soon and get more thoughts out about it.

[zealsoughtsequesterustanxiedemon]

I'm enjoying Dandadan although the hype has definitely died down for me since the first ep. It has set in that it's a shonen, albeit a quirky and pretty one so my expectations have rebalanced. Should still be v enjoyable