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So is anyone gonna talk about the fact that hoshigumi will be adapting freaking RRR into a stage musical in 2024 or am I living in my own fever dream?

RRR. Musical. Takarazuka.

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STARS CONCEPT PHOTO

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Absolutely not a new observation but i love that the toki pona word for animal, "soweli," is written like this

fuck man that sure is

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They made an aroace drama that literally everyone can watch and take away something life-affirming from it, while focusing the story on aroace struggles.

They made, a good show, an excellent one, that I can recommend to everyone, I am going to cry.

finished watching koisenu futari (with a waterfall of tears of course 😭) it felt so...... normal(?) watching it like, so that's what it feels like to not feel alienated by media all the time??????? i've been missing out on so much??? so they CAN make characters like this?? and write such scripts??? 🥲

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This.

The ao3 part of my brain wanted to see takahashi and sakuko hug at the end, but my heart and soul is crying out in joy that they didn’t, he didn’t need to, and their bond isn’t any less beautiful because of it.

Following is an analysis of how Koisenu Futari writes it aro characters, aro narrative and what it intends to convey, and is also my own personal thoughts and feelings in regards to that. I refer to the characters by some stero- and archetypal categories because they are fictional, and how they are is a choice made by writers. I wouldn't say these things about real people, and you don't have to agree with me. Also of course its plot and character important that Takahashi and Sakuko are AroAce. But I will just be saying aro, because that's what was so revolutionary in the show for me and what I'm focusing on in this. Cool? Great, awesome. Let's go.

Koisenu Futari is a show that doesn't seem real to me. Part of my brain assumes, no they didn't actually make an aro show that actually cares about aros. A show that knows and shows aros of all kinds, all-be-it, some just briefly in the meet up group. But as I'll posit, ideologically this show has the space for loveless aros and all of us that really defy the more easier to digest notions of aro-ness.

Because, the thing that stuck me most about this show is that our point of view character Sakuko, is the newly discovered aro. She's a kind person with a sweet disposition and friendly to most. She doesn't relate to all the romance around her (including when someone is being insulting to her about the nature of her lack of relationships), but she is eager to please people, and doesn't like to make any trouble. She's younger and career focused that leaves people do assume any time she doesn't mesh with romance society is simply a matter of late blooming.

And enter Takahashi, the person who's words help her understand herself, help save herself. A person she meets and can finally feel a comfortable, understanding, connection with. Takahashi, an old aro, a bitter aro, he's someone who is knowledgeable about the societal construction and history of romance. He feels deeply the effects of, and understands structurally, amatonormativity. He has couple speeches about such things ready to go and bubbling under the surface, and given with an orator's tilt, compared to the rest of his conversations. And, he is epitome of your repulsed aro, your touch adverse aro and non neurotypical passing aro.

But of course, that's not the totality of what anybody is, and that's not all these characters are. Takahashi is a thoughtful and sentimental man, he's closeted even a bit shy. And through that we see his bravery when working against his reserved nature. He feels lonely, but not devoid of meaning or purpose because of it.

Takahashi's live does certainly seem much happier, and fulfilled. He maintains a blog, his garden, he keeps traditions the contented mundane rituals of life. And to me it brings to mind statistics about masking, being closeted, transition, and their relation to wellness. There is often an inverse relationship to the joy or peace of being yourself, and access to certain parts of society, or safety within it. Which of course, Sakuko, due to being younger and her general disposition, does pass mostly unnoticed in these spaces, but at great cost, some she didn't even realise, or really admit to herself.

Sakuko is, of the two, someone who comes across as more palatable to normative society. The kind of people and structures that might prefer to see aros in QPs specifically so they more closes resemble allo (& hetero) monogamous relationships. Kazu's plot line brings home that the expectations of a man and a women living together supersede the need for actually romance. So they aren't in romantic love, but shouldn't they still have the aesthetic patina of it. If you're a family should the woman not be a caretaker and the man a protector? And, obviously, no. Amantonormativity as a word, as a lens to view society, didn't even originate in aro subculture, and shares a lot of overlap with hetero- and cis- normativity for a reason. And the show's deftly handles how far that norm is from the reality.

Takahashi isn't, we learn, living his perfect life, for a mixture of reasons. Many that I would qualify under a flinch response. If you live your life in defiance of something, against others insistence. It makes sense to be resistant to change, headstrong and immutable. So he'll wholeheartedly commit to his own life, and respect others' choices and feelings. He doesn't talk as much as he simply acts, he wouldn't question someone even if he should. And he won't change his life if it may imply his current way of life is wrong, even if the change could be for the better.

So it is in this these two characters differences that their affect can be seen on each other. Sakuko learns to live a committed and more defiant life. She learns to do things that make her happy, to reach out and grab things by the throat, instead of settle. And from Sakuko who had to change just to keep being herself. Takahashi learns that he doesn't have to live just one way. He can change, if he isn't as happy as he could be he can take a risk, and if that doesn't work, it doesn't have to be permanent. And at no point do they have to change the immutable parts of themselves.

Obviously, there is no trick romance snuck in. But more importantly and, perhaps insightfully, what might be considered secondary character traits are equally respected. Sakuko doesn't have to endure more peoples romantic feelings for her, she doesn't have to stop being career oriented, or fun loving. And she doesn't have to be closer to her family before they can respect her. Takahashi, and this truly blew me away to realise. Doesn't ever have to welcome people touching him, or even being too close. He doesn't have change his affect or his demeanor in emotional conversations. The biggest changes our characters go through come from their increased happiness and increased desire to work towards happiness.

And if it wasn't clear enough yet, the end state of the show knocks it out of the fucking park, and directly into my, and I hope others brains. To be forever lodged in our subconsciouses. The prescribed ideals aren't what give us meaning. Straight couples aren't all perfect, sometimes romantic feelings cause you pain, and structuring your life so it seems familiar is never more important that if it brings you satisfaction and joy. Their lives, their family, their connection to each other doesn't end or stop having meaning when it no longer approximates the very things they were trying to live away from.

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I love this and I love them 💜

them. yeah

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They were not kidding, this really was the most amazing thing I’ve watched in a very long time. It is warm and fuzzy and a real hearty laugh. Cannot recommend enough 🤍💜🖤

if you have time, please watch the japanese drama 恋せぬふたり (koisenu futari; the two people who can’t fall in love) which focuses on two aroace characters

Sakuko finds it difficult to live in a society which operates under the assumption that people will fall in love with each other. She meets supermarket employee Takahashi when she goes to support a "fall-in-love" campaign by her junior at work. She is startled when she hears him say that there are people who don't fall in love. As Sakuko's mother keeps hurrying her to get married, she decides to move out and rent an apartment with her friend but her friend backs out at the last minute after reconciling with her ex-boyfriend. Just when Sakuko is about to give up, she ends up living with Takahashi under one roof because of their similar values towards romance.

(how to watch)

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Americans love Disneyland because it’s a walkable city

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Coño don limpio

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Oh I do care so much every time I see come from away though.

As someone around for 9-11 and the "NEVER FORGET NUMBER #1 GREATEST TRAGEDY EVER IN HISTURY" response to it I am in thrilled and invigorated by the fact that younger people just make amogus memes and TikTok nonsense about it. A huge chunk of America cared more about it than any entire genocide and thought you would cry learning about it. They hoped it'd make every generation patriotically angry forever and ever and want to join the military. Instead you Photoshop the towers into squidwards house and shit. Never stop lol

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Oh look, new Scarlet & Violet merch!

I love himb

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obsessed with this guy

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Whatever. *smacks your pokemon with my massive fucking cock, killing it instantly*

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Rewatched Kiki recently and got thinking about how odd the setting is- so many little details that are all vaguely European and vaguely "old" but don't really fit together. The music and the old TVs and the zeppelin.

I've yet to find a source directly from Miyazaki on this, but the theory online seems to be that Kiki takes place in an alternate history where World War 1 (and 2) never happened. Where the industrialization and mechanization of Europe, and the world, was slowed, and war did not come to fire bomb the cities by the sea.

And while I'm not sure how much that really holds up from a geopolitical standpoint, remembering that Miyazaki was just old enough to remember seeing the bombed remains of Japanese cities and grew up during the rapid Industrialization of Japan post ww2, it does give a really interesting peak into his thoughts.

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non-muslims: please don't overcorrect for islamophobia by ignoring what is happening in iran right now (women being killed for not wearing or improperly wearing their hijab)

supporting the freedom to choose to wear a hijab means also supporting the freedom to choose not to

mahsa amini was arrested and killed for "improperly" wearing her hijab. there are massive protests happening and police are killing protestors. spread the word.

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People keep searching for ways to argue that JK Rowling has always been a horrible person deep down as a way of explaining her recent behaviour.

But here's the thing: that's probably not true at all.

Pretending it is discounts the harsher, scarier truth: that even decent, well-meaning people can be radicalised by dangerous, hateful, predatory groups, and given enough time they can become truly hideous versions of their former selves.

It can happen to me. It can happen to you. It can happen to any of us, given the right mix of circumstances. And over the past few years, we've seen it happen to one of the most famous children's authors of our age.

Nobody is immune.

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I love all of them

Animated the dev team’s attempts to draw Kirby by hand.