minatsuki-on-main

[minatsuki-on-main]

For your consideration;

Blood is like a drug and they need to keep drinking or they get abstinence symptoms (you know the shtick)

You can get addicted specifically to the blood of whoever turned you

It all sort of combines with a genetic component because you need to have specific resistances, otherwise you die from a single bite

They were farming predisposed people at Jaula Blanca

Gilbert feeds them his patients. A strange amount of people are very anemic when they die at his hospital. It gets covered up though.

Laica picking up Minatsuki is when he bit him

Koku is also a vampire but he drinks exclusively other vampires’ blood

Laica bit Yuna as well and that’s how she got brainwashed. (Maybe it’s when she turned in the first place.)

Senior Vampire Hunter Keith walking around with silver bullets in his gun

Vampires turn to dust. Just like in canon lmao

*tries to think about something spooky and Halloween-themed*

So um how about an AU where instead of reggies they’re vampires.....

[minatsuki-on-main]

*tries to think about something spooky and Halloween-themed*

So um how about an AU where instead of reggies they’re vampires.....

[minatsuki-on-main]

Eric is still my dude! Waiting until Season 2!

I’m glad you’re persisting in your appreciation of him!

I’m at the point where I’m about to break into the Netflix headquarters to announce to them that I found a stone tablet that said it’s their

Fate

to make a season 2 of B: The Beginning.

I swear to god my dude.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Is this blog dead?

I’ve been really busy and generally not on tumblr as much as before (I have to admit... since the porn ban) but I’m still lurking around until season 2. Sorry everyone for the lack of content, I’m still here to talk despite it!

[minatsuki-on-main]

Will you still enjoy season 2 without Laica?

Definitely; despite my (exaggerated) focus on Laica, he’s not the sole reason I watched/enjoyed the first season. Ngl I do hope he’s mentioned or that we get some flashbacks where he’s present but I’ll be fine either way. I’ll cope with my loss.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Eric plays tennis. Mario likes American Football. Bran is not an athlete at all. Nor is Keith (but that would be funny to see him play a sport) Lily likes to ice skate, Kaela played lacrosse in school.

Imagining Eric in a tennis outfit is one of the most canonically plausible visuals ever conceived, I don’t know how you did this, it’s impressive. I also think he’d hit the ball in a weirdly violent way. All of this is accurate, except I think Keith would jog because that helps people think sometimes.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Guys... I forgot my inbox existed... I’ll answer everything, I apologize if you thought I’d ignored you.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Thanks everyone for the Izanami song recs, I listened to them and enjoyed them! I’ve been trying to find songs for different kinds of BTB playlists but I don’t know how long it will take to accumulate a decent amount for at least one. I’ll be putting more effort into it.

[minatsuki-on-main]

ೋ❀🌼❀ೋ═══ 🌼 ═══ೋ❀🌼❀ೋ

Anime: B:The Beginning

ೋ❀🌼❀ೋ═══ 🌼 ═══ೋ❀🌼❀ೋ

Kazama Keith

I accept suggestions

Acepto sugerencias

[minatsuki-on-main]

Why do you relate to Laica? Why do you ship LaicaxMinatsuki?

(So this reply got accidentally deleted once, which is frustrating because I wrote a whole essay. I’ll just start over now.)

[[MORE]]

I think having a complex over one’s own perceived insignificance is a particularly hard thing to portray in fiction. By virtue of talking about a character or giving them focus, they appear at least somewhat relevant. Laica was the first character with whom I felt like this theme came across properly, mainly because his flying under everyone’s radar was played on from the audience’s point of view as well. Until around ep 10 he just loiters in the background and only shows up to conveniently take care of the dirty work and I don’t think anyone would have given him a second thought if he just disappeared. By how little even I personally paid attention to him, it hit me really hard why he was so indignated. I feel that way very often. However, it’s so unaddressed as an issue that I wasn’t even fully aware of it before watching BTB.

It makes sense too, because imagine a life where you don’t even have official documents to prove you exist, a family, or anyone to interact with for most of your childhood, then everyone around you gets obsessed with this one specific person that you get informed you’re a spare for. I think of Izanami’s monologue about Koku a lot because to me it was — ironically — more applicable to Laica. I mean the part where they say something like “it’s as if you were screaming ‘I exist!’” because yes, Koku was trying to get his messages noticed, but it was to attract Yuna’s attention while he had a very clear image of his placement in the world and was even a bit too self-assured about it. Laica was actually just frantically trying to prove he existed because it didn’t go for granted in his case. His actions are a very obvious overcompensation, it happens with anything a person is insecure about. “I got denied recognition by everyone so I’m gonna aim for world domination.” Ironically, it’s so ingrained in him that he ends up perpetuating it by exploiting his own talent of not getting noticed; he stays in the background in order not to get suspected, works underhandedly, even gives his name — the only proof of his identity — to someone else. I suspect this started a vicious cycle with his problems. After all, you can’t rely so heavily on a trait of yours without being firmly convinced it’s unchangeable.

Another thing I appreciated and found relatable and — weirdly — respectfully portrayed was how Gilbert was pulling his strings all along. It’s mentioned briefly but they make it evident that it was very heavy psychological manipulation. It prevented Laica —someone who brainwashes people, gives no consideration to their deaths and went up against Koku (and Yuna) in a brutally sadistic way — from harming Gilbert at all when he technically had many chances to. And Laica does not like Gilbert very much at all (as per his dismissiveness when they talked over the phone or the fact that he and Minatsuki were plotting to eliminate him around the start of the show) so he was clearly forced into the partnership. BTB didn’t try to make this pathetic or revel in Laica being weak or anything like that. He was terrifying and dangerous which, though it made him fairly unredeemable, maintained his dignity. People who get manipulated aren’t always ‘soft’ deep down. It’s difficult to process emotional abuse that has gotten you massive authority issues when every fictional character who goes through it ends up being woobified, coddled by someone who’s ‘good’ or such, so this detail really was a gift.

As for why I ship him with Minatsuki... I’m convinced, for a starter, that Laica was incapable of connecting to people in a healthy way. Growing up either alone or around Gilbert is a foolproof way of making sure a kid will never learn a way to relate to others without manipulation and egoism. As much as it’s the wrong way to go about it, what Laica did to Minatsuki was the only way he could have ever felt understood by (and empathized with, with a stretch) someone. The whole incentive behind making Minatsuki take up his identity was to make someone feel the same thing he felt being Koku’s replacement, as he says himself. And I don’t know how much people consider this, but not only was Minatsuki kept around for way longer than it would have made sense, but this whole stunt was largely unnecessary. Laica could have led the Market Maker branch from the shadows on his own — all he had to do was regularly delete everyone’s memories and his identity wouldn’t have gotten out. Minatsuki had a weird symbolic importance to Laica in my opinion. As much as these are two characters who would never show outward affection, there’s a sort of lenience on Laica’s part I can’t place anywhere else. For years he indulged Minatsuki by letting him do basically whatever he wanted, only sort of reprimanding him when he was gonna get himself killed or make massively stupid decisions.

A nagging thing in Laica’s life is people prioritizing Koku over him. It’s a problem that’s never going to go away. I think it’s fair to bring up Izanami because I can see people asking ‘but wasn’t Laica closer to them than to Minatsuki’? And while yes, that bond definitely had its importance, the obstacle is always the same one: Izanami very blatantly preferred Koku. I don’t think Laica would have ever gotten over that. Aside from the fact that he wasn’t really close to anyone, not beyond a certain extent. He didn’t care about either Izanami or Minatsuki dying for instance, it’s just that with Izanami it wasn’t that accentuated with what was shown on-screen. It’s fair to say he doesn’t care about people dying in general. Minatsuki was perhaps the only person who was focused on Laica specifically, something that seemed deliberately induced with the drug addiction and all that — but there still wasn’t anyone else like that. The way Minatsuki ended up was terrible and ep 11 still makes me sad for him, but, just to be controversial, consider the alternative. He would have died as a kid without even having a proper name if Laica didn’t pick him up. Minatsuki started suffering from the moment he regained his memories, but Laica didn’t allow that to happen for about a decade prior to it, a decade in which Minatsuki got to be a mafia boss, give people orders and sit around drinking his expensive whisky, which is possibly more fun than whatever Laica was doing, smuggling drugs, hauling back Kamui from dark alleys and being angry at Koku.

There was no way I wasn’t going to get verbose about this ask.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Bless your BTB masterposts, I didn't understand everything when watching the show so your posts were helpful ✌️

I’m glad to see they’ve been useful. BTB definitely needs 2-3 (alert) rewatches if one wants to understand the lore. It’s odd because I was initially trying to summarize it in order to write fics but it opened up a whole dimension of this series that I’ve grown to really appreciate. There’s so much detailed worldbuilding info that’s barely skimmed through but it’s actually all consistent. It sort of started feeling like a puzzle after a while. I think there’s as much implied background to BTB as there are directly explained facts; I’m talking things like the precise hormones reggies have issues with, Gilbert’s routine mental process while murdering, the historical precedents Laica’s theory was based on, all the free will philosophy, the differentiation between resurrected gods and reggies... It’s canonically unambiguous but it needs to be given some thought. Anyway, I just had to mention this because it’s one of the things I particularly appreciate about BTB.

[minatsuki-on-main]

I love that the BtB fandom is so tiny that basically everyone I've seen agrees on 2 things: 1. Izanami deserved better 2. Keith needs a vacation We may be small but at least there's no drama

Those two are quite irrefutable points, too. I wouldn’t mind the fandom getting a bit bigger but yeah, the current zen peace is enjoyable. I’m kind of curious what actual BTB discourse would look like because I wouldn’t be able to take it seriously. I’m also now doubting vacation would do Keith much good considering how he ends up if left alone for too long with nothing to do — he needs a break from ruminating on his past, that’s for sure.

[minatsuki-on-main]

who's your favorite B: the beginning character? what's your favorite ship?

My icon might clue you in...

There was a period shortly after I watched BTB where I could not shut up about Laica, it was a nightmare for everyone in the fandom (and outside) around me. And if I started talking about him again at this moment, I’d still have way too much to say. There were a lot of specific traits and feelings that I’d never seen portrayed so precisely in a character before so he hit really close to home, I think. Considering the shit Laica did I feel like that should raise concerns about me... Anyway.

If we’re talking my personal favourites among ships, I really love Laica/Minatsuki and Keith/Koku. I’ve had (and still have) a lot of fun multishipping everything in BTB but I keep Laica/Minatsuki fixed as a constant. You could say it’s an... OTP. (A word I haven’t used since ff.net probably.)

[minatsuki-on-main]

“My (20M) girlfriend (20F) went missing in a terrorist attack when we were 10 and now I’m trying to find her by leaving coded messages in public places but I don’t know how to make sure she sees them. Could murder be a good way? Should I think of something else?”

[minatsuki-on-main]

[minatsuki-on-main]

Kaela: *says a shitty pun*

Lily: *gasps* *heart eyes*

Keith, done: I want to die.

[minatsuki-on-main]

@btbconfessions send something in to my btb confessions blog thank u have a nice day