#^ before any of you call me a weeb (derogatory) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dzamie-oc · 4 years

Text

Smaugust 05 - Sea

A man meets up with an online friend of his to explore the uncharted parts of the sea. I mean, that's what "hic sunt dracones" means on old maps, so that must be what they're doing, right?

Cedric looked up from the picture he had printed out. He looked again, just to be certain he had the right guy. The sailor he had sought out was, in fact, right there. Rough-looking, stocky, and sporting a face with an impressive beard and the scars from a lifetime of battling the weather, the sea, and even his boat herself. Still, from his chats with the man, Cedric knew him to be kind at heart. Despite that, he was slightly nervous as he approached.

"Hey. Zilch, is it? I'm Cedric." He offered his hand out, and Zilch took it in his meaty paw and heartily shook with such spirit that it left Cedric a little sore.

"Aye, Cedric, I'm glad yer coming along!" Zilch said in exactly the loud, booming voice the younger man had guessed he'd have. It was warm and strong, and Cedric figured he could hear it half a mile off it the sailor so wanted. "Have ye looked over the itener- itinor- our planned route yet?"

Cedric smiled. "Of course, damn near first thing I did." He turned over the picture of Zilch he'd brought along to show a map. Hand-drawn, but the land was very accurate, and it noted the currents likely to show up in that time of year. And, one more, curious, feature. "Though, I've gotta ask. Mapmakers of old used to do that whole, 'hic sunt dracones,' thing because it was uncharted territory. It's... no longer uncharted. I looked up a satellite photo; aside from some rocks, it seems just like any other darker patch of sea."

Zilch beamed at him. "A scholar through and through, my lad. But, tell me, what does hic sunt dracones mean in English?"

This earned him an odd look from the younger man. "It means, 'here be dragons,' or 'here there be...' but that was generally also an excuse for the cartographer to doodle some-"

"Aye," the sailor cut him off, jabbing a thick finger right where the words were written, "and there, there be dragons."

Cedric's smile grew into a small chuckle as he shook his head as playful as he figured Zilch was being. "Okay, so we're going whalewatching. That's fair enough, but why not just say that?"

"I say we'll see dragons, and we'll see dragons." He walked towards his boat and beckoned Cedric on. "Now come on, lad, at worst you'll get to see the beautiful ocean and talk about Mage And Demon Queen with me in person rather than through a screen!"

"Fair, can't argue with that." Folding up the paper and stowing it in his pocket, Cedric nodded and stepped onto the boat. It was a rather small sailboat with a motor in case of no wind. Could probably take along four men, though outside of rough weather, Cedric had no doubt Zilch captained it just fine all by himself. The boat rocked with the light waves lapping at the pier, and Cedric found himself leaning on the railing a bit harder than he thought he'd need.

Zilch, who was busy unwinding the rope anchoring the boat to the dock, gave him a glance and a nod. "Yer sea legs'll come in, don't ye mind. Can just take a wee bit if yer not used to her like I am." He coiled up the rope on the deck, then secured it so it wouldn't slide all over, and started raising the main sail. "So," he said, as his powerful, seafaring muscles made easy work of the task, "ye got any questions about the dragons afore we get to see them? Or are we getting to the weeb stuff early?"

Cedric looked around, seeing if there was anything he could help with. "Eh, I still think you're pulling my leg on that, so I'll have to think of stuff to throw at you along the way. But in the meantime..." he said, pausing to mime pushing a pair of glasses up the bridge of his nose before resuming in a nasally voice, "um, ackshually, the word 'weeaboo' refers specifically as a derogatory of 'otaku,' and as such does not apply to a work of art as truthfully deserving of proper respec-" He had to stop as a grin split his face, and he and Zilch shared a laugh at the joke.

"Well, if the wind is good," the sailor said, letting some rope out to catch said wind, "ye've got a couple hours for that. So, did ye see snek waifu save Generic Isekai Dude in the recent episode?"

"Oh, did I ever. I was surprised she could deflect Vel's bolts, seeing as..."

---

"Okay, I thought of a question."

"Aye?"

"Really broad one, but no teasing on how long it took for me to mention it."

Zilch shrugged. "Ye had more important matters on yer mind. Like lamia in stockings."

Cedric assumed a mock-regal pose. "A true gentleman's interest, to be sure."

His friend smiled and wagged a finger at him, saying, "och, them's fighting words. Call me a gentleman one more time, see what happens."

Cedric opened his mouth and inhaled, as though about to do just that, then shook his head. "Ah, but really. So, the dragons. What do they look like?"

"Oh, there are so many of them, lad. Blue, red, brown, green, and in all shapes and sizes. A lot of them spiky, some of them... less so. My favorites be probably this family - least, I assume they're family - of real sleek, black and white beasties. The leaders are an elegant blue-white, almost ethereal girl. Well, I think she's a girl. They haven't corrected me on it. Anyway, this white lass, and then her mate, black as the night sky, with gorgeous green eyes. And then there's the rest, kids and grandkids, I reckon, all black and white in areas. I see them the most."

"Never corrected you?" Cedric asked, still skeptical."

"Well, only time they set me on fire was when one of them sneezed, so either I'm right, or... well, they probably can't speak English." Zilch shrugged. "I don't know a thing about what goes on between a dragon's legs-"

"Malori, hopefully," Cedric interjected.

"In more fanfics than ye could shake a stick at, aye," the man agreed, "but I mean in real life. Not that I particularly look, mind ye."

A thick mist washed over the boat. It was easy enough for the two men to see each other, but Zilch immediately trimmed the sails and watched carefully off the bow for incoming rocks. "We're getting close now. If we're lucky, we'll catch 'em flapping aboot to enjoy the air outside of their hole."

"They do that?"

"Well, mostly the family. I see the black one the most. Occasionally there's a spiky blue dragon, or a red two-legged one... what's the name, wyvern. But aye, it's generally just the black and white fellers."

Cedric squinted through the mist, trying to see whatever Zilch thought was a dragon. "You seem pretty familiar and, uh, normalized isn't quite the right word, but... used to them? Yeah. Surprised you haven't named any."

Zilch spun the wheel to dodge a water-worn rock, then readjuste to keep his bearing. "Oh, I have, but I'd lose ye if I just started saying stuff like, 'I was watching a couple of The Dragon Torches sunbathe the other day when a Pinchicken started yelling at them' or 'a Loud Fucker kept harrassing me last week so I left early.' So, colors." He pondered for a moment, then added, "oh, but I do think I figured out the big black one's name. Said it after he showed a trick he does when being all friendly, and he responded real well to it."

"Pinchicken, huh? That sounds kinda funny." It's not that Cedric had stopped being skeptical, but at the least, he could enjoy his friend's thoroughness with the whole dragon thing. "Too bad of all this fog, gonna be hard to see a dolphin, let alone a mythological creature. So, what'd you name the bl-"

He was interrupted by a loud THUMP! on the deck behind them. Cedric and Zilch grabbed for the railing to avoid falling over, and the sailor, naturally, recovered faster, walking towards the sound. Cedric turned, and his eyes grew wide.

Standing on the deck was a sleek, black, scaly figure, easily fifteen, maybe twenty-five feet in length. It stood on stubby, lizard-like legs with leathery, bat-like wings on its back as it looked around. It spotted Cedric, then Zilch, and turned its broad head back and forth before deciding to approach the sailor. Cedric was so caught up in seeing an actual, living, flying dragon, that he barely registered that Zilch was about half a second from touching a wild animal. But before he could voice his concern, Zilch placed his hand on the creature's snout, and it pressed its head against him, burbling and crooning softly.

"Ah, hello again, Toothless."

#dragon #writing #smaugust #smaugust 2020 #how to train your dragon #toothless #night fury #text #writers on tumblr

8 notes · View notes

inexorablebloodmoon · 5 years

Text

For those who weren’t here 3+ years ago in the Diabolik Lovers fandom, here’s that Lipton tea ☕️

Katya Tomova, better known as LadyDarkCat is a woman who is manipulative, predatory, supports incest, and a rape apologist (see Predator Lite™ for details)

Now before I start listing off sources, this is to educate people who I’m sure have no idea we have people like this in our fandom and some people, who even gave this woman art should probably come out and apologize for supporting somebody like LadyDarkCat, who is a predator and a dangerous people, despite what she loves is fiction and in drawings. This mindset is completely not okay and I wish I could’ve known much longer ago that she was this horrible rather than finding out all the information back in 2016.

Let’s go into deal with many link sources, shall we?

As much as people know, Katya Tomova is a woman in her 30’s-40’s who lives in she in Bulgaria.

Katya has been known for being a “translator” and getting caught in her own lies. Many have their own statements which you can google for evidence.

Infamously, Katya is known for shipping Ayato with Cordelia, using any excuses she can find to claim she isn’t a predator

In a ask, LDC denied Laito was raped excusing he wanted sex from his mother (as if stagetory rape and manipulation isn’t a thing) as well as claiming men cannot be raped by women. I do warn people who are easily triggered by sexual assault and rape, do be warned.

In the past, Katya use to hell run the Diabolik Wiki Page. She was kicked out of the Wiki team due to bias information regarding Cordelia and the Triplets. Even made her own wiki.

You can see an example of her obsession for her ships here for yourself and really ask yourself “Why does she think this is remotely okay?”

Here and here, you can also see just what kind of people are really willing to get their money’s worth for selling art promoting incest and if these artists still want to give LDC an excuse, you’re part of the problem.

Back in 2016, Katya had a Facebook Group where she had posted many things, but nonetheless she posted artwork that she had no permission to repost on other websites, including Japanese artists who strictly have on their Twitters not to repost. A couple people defended her, while some didn’t excuse her actions. Others claiming it was unfair and still have no yet came out to apologize or speak out and say they had no idea she shipped the two and was this predatory. Her new Facebook group is here.

Around 2016, a trans person and woman who go by Stella Robin Summers and Brenda Aquino, both of them are in a relationship together, had posted in their Diabolik Lovers Facebook group a political post involving a White disabled man being beaten by a group of Black teenagers, calling them racial slurs and other derogatory names. I wish I could’ve had screenshots of this, but people who know Briella know they’re just as toxic and yes, they’re close to Katya. By default, she’s no better keeping bigots around know all and well the things they say to marginalized groups.

Many people have shared their complaints about LadyDarkCat and her platform of ignorant recourse that get pushed into believing it’s canon when those who have translated and played the games know it’s not with the sources she provides to the fandom

Yes, she even got a tattoo of her ship that is acceptably ink-shame material.

Let’s get to the main topic of why people despise this woman. Katya always has some kind of excuse for shipping Ayato with his own mother. In her post titled “Why does “ladydarkcat” ship Ayato x Cordelia? Why?” She quotes this...

Except she is a predator. If she truly believes Ayato loves his mother because he’s “obsessed” with her, even this line of thinking despite it being fiction is completely unhealthy. It’s like lolicons and shotacons defending themselves with the excuse of “It’s just fiction. It’s not like I’d actually have sex with a child!” I realize we want to believe that anime ships can be harmless and many of us are guilty of being way too weeb, but these things are not socially, mentally, even psychologically acceptable to romanticize about a mom having a sexual relationship with her own son. Just say you love incest and predatory behavior already, LadyDarkCat.

You really cannot convince me that what she does is remotely okay. You really have to question a person’s mental state if they take an incest ship this far let alone condone it, and not tell me they don’t have a serious problem. And sadly, there really are sick people out there who defend her this much instead of looking into why it’s so disgusting and wrong.

I don’t want to go on and on and brag about this, but many of you have been warned about this woman. We need to stop letting predators and pedophiles like this have outlets and not excuse their behavior. As much as we want to think this is harmless because it’s animated, it’s the soul fact it IS harmful and not just a simple fetish. Please stay safe everyone.

Oh and LadyDarkCat, I won’t take down my memes and yes, your tattoo looks god awful lmfaoo.

#i said what i said #i will dog walk a bitch when and if i see her #diabolik lovers #ladydarkcat

28 notes · View notes

nyanja14 · 5 years

Text

Nabari Appreciation Day 02 - What got you into NnO?

@nabaridays

“Yaoi bait.”

The year is 2009. I’m a baby queer only just beginning to trace the shape of my identity. I’ve also recently dived headfirst into animanga fandom, having put off the middle school weeb phase of my peers until high school. I’d always been a voracious reader and in 2009 I am devouring two kinds of material: any manga that catches my eye and anything with even a whiff of eau de gay.

Nowadays, there is so much gay media available to young folks. It may not seem that way if you’ve never known anything different, but it’s truly an embarrassment of riches compared to when I was in middle school and high school. When I first started getting interested in gay media, the only things readily available to me were the couple books I could find at the library (Geography Club, Luna) and slash fanfiction.

But discovering manga opens up a whole new realm of material thanks to the widespread proliferation of illegal scanlations and exciting things like yaoi (as it was primarily called at the time) and its cousin “yaoi bait.”

If you’ve never heard the term, yaoi bait refers to animanga content that supposedly isn’t meant to be actually gay but could encourage the imagination of certain fans. It gets slung around a lot in the forums and comment sections I frequent in 2009, being applied to everything from Naruto to Pandora Hearts. It’s meant to be a somewhat derogatory term, but seeing a series referred to as yaoi bait only serves to pique my interest. After all, I am absolutely starving for anything remotely gay that I can fix my eyes upon.

And so, my first encounter with Nabari no Ou is seeing someone list it as a yaoi bait series on some now-defunct manga forum. Whether the poster was making fun of it or recommending it, I can’t remember. All I remember is deciding to check it out and immediately getting sucked in. I watch the entire anime and read all the scanlations online at the time in under three days.

Even in the midst of this rapid devouring, I realize that there is something different about Nabari no Ou. I start talking to other fans on the forum. It seems like, just maybe, some of these characters are actually queer? Yoite is intersex, that can’t be denied by anyone, but -- doesn’t it seem like, in general, there’s no heterosexual explanation for this??? Absolutely none? Y’all are seeing this too, right?

The year is 2009. It’ll be another year before I start naming the ways that make me different -- make me queer. It’ll be another three plus years before I find out that the creator of Nabari no Ou is asexual and non-binary, just like me. But from that first encounter, a sense of kinship sings through me that I’d never felt for a piece of media before.

Reading Nabari no Ou felt like seeing myself in the mirror for the first time.

(and for those that don’t know, the art is an illustration Kamatani drew for the drama CD that came with the Official Guidebook Al Fine)

#nabari no ou #nabari15 #about me #note: this post is not meant to be insulting to BL or fujoshi as i am a BL fan myself and still consider myself fujoshi in a sense #just getting that out of the way now since lately its hard to talk about yaoi without discourse rising up

16 notes · View notes

tsuki-nii · 7 years

Text

‘Trap’ Discourse and anime

I've seen the fights over Trap being derogatory before and I'm here to give you some different viewpoints on it. It's a doozy, get popcorn TL;DR at the bottom.

Trap can be used offensively or non offensively in various situations IRL. People saying women with too much makeup are a trap, that sexy bystander at the bar is a trap, star wars jokes; hell a person with a bunch of puppies is a trap. Basically anything that's "not what it seems" can be a trap; so yes, any lgbt/queer person can fall into this, but it's not exclusive to them.

Here's how trap is being used in it's anime context. It's similar to the otokonoko(which literally means boy in japanese but it's used in a trap way idk) tag one might find. Males dressing as females. Reverse traps being Females dressing as males. If someone related the term to real life, it would be Transvestite or cross dresser; and even cross-play falls under the category along with Drag Queens/Kings. Virtually all the time this is used in anime, it's a male, who identifies as a male, but dresses like the stereotypical female. Vice Versa for Female traps. Transgender characters and people do not fall into this category. That is the genderbender category. Depending on the site, genderbender includes traps. It's all a mix of random tag names to find shit easier.

Remember, these characters in the stories, yaoi or not (the teacher from utapri is a trap), are not looking to become a different sex or gender. They're just changing clothing. The only exception to this that I've seen is Hourou Musuko (wandering son) that actually focuses on transgender aspects. Unfortunately there isn't a widely used tag for that genre yet. I wish there was, because then there'd be an easier way to find transgender focused fiction or anime

I've had friends from farther up California (i'm socal) tell me that in a certain area, assholes use trap as a slur to many lgbt, transgender or not. This isn't a big thing down here in san diego, in the town I live in in the mountains, or in Denver where I've been multiple times and my family resides. It's rarely used outside the context of anime then aimed specifically at queer people. But there will always be exceptions due to bigoted assholes using whatever they can think of to put someone down. A great way to stop that from happening IRL is to own it. Some one says you're a trap maliciously? Tell them you look damn fine, you're comfortable with yourself and they can go eat shit. My college did that and now queer is not a slur. It's an all inclusive term for people on campus that fall into lgbt categories.I've used it off campus with family and friends with no problems too. I'm not saying that it's a sure-fire or always feasible solution; but it's better than fighting friends in your community about something not intended, or used to offend you.

Trap being a slur for transgender people is pretty recent too. It's always been in the western anime comunity since way back. It was never meant to be derogitory, was never a prominent slur and there's never been a problem with it until now.

You can't dictate an entire community's sorting medium because you take offense to it. I don't take offense to the Japanese 'Yankee', just because I'm an american; and we're technically historical yankees. Same word, completely different contexts and communal origins. Same thing for stereotypes. They can be comedic or bigoted; depends on the situation and fucking CONTEXT.

"lol Italians love wine" vs. "They're italian so they should like wine right?" vs. "Italians are fucking Drunkards!"

See the difference in context???1st is a joke, 2nd might be slightly ignorant, 3rd is straight up hate.

Gay started out as a term for happiness and merry making, and then people started using it as a slur toward "gay" people. They went from homosexuals to "gays". YEARS later, it's now in a sense, just a term for sorting people into queer categories. No malevolent nature to it, unless someone is blatantly using it to hate on you. But no one's going to say gay is offensive now. No one's going to say anything unless it's used in the context of a slur. I'm not going to go smack everyone that utters the word just because that dick Jim from down the street and my small town hates gays and it offends me. I'm not going to hit my grandparents either, because they're old and they still use it in the happy sense. I AM going to smack Jim if he says 'gay' to me. In that instance, in the context of Jim being a bigot directing hate towards me, 'gay' becomes a slur; and I will take offense.and smack him

Not taking offense to, and using Trap as an anime term doesn't discredit anyone IRL. It doesn't invalidate anyone/anygender/anysex/anyorientation digitally or in real life. What does invalidate, and hurt is shitting on someone for using something that has been there since the beginning and never had a bad rep until YOU decided it was the worst thing in the world. All because one asshole called you and you're friends a "Trap" somewhere. Even though nothing changed in the anime community with regards to loving or hating traps. You came in here and attacked everyone for some hate that doesn't apply here.

No one's victim blaming you all either. The one's experiencing this trap slur rise are victims yes. However, everyone being screamed at here, are now victims of that irrationality and anger from outside, when they've done nothing wrong. They didn't call you trap, they didn't sneer at you, they didn't hurt you. They've kept to themselves online, enjoying, appreciating, loving something you claim they're destroying. They never spread hate, ignorance, or resentment, you did by bringing your reality into a non existant plane.

There are safe spaces online and IRL. But you cannot censor the internet, you cannot censor art, and you CANNOT CENSOR CREATIVITY. Plus don't kinkshame, rood.

If you TL;DR'ed, then here's the key points:

Trap is meant for transvestites in anime. It is a western term for an anime genre. It is almost exclusively for transvestites. Anything else would likely fall into the genderbender category. Take your pick.

It's been used positively for said genre all this time with the exception of those that aren't into that specific genre.

You think trap is rude? Talking about 'trans' as an all encompassing group but glossing over or even excluding transvestites is worse.

If you're trans-male, trans-female, or agender/other non-binary trap barely even applies to you. A trans-male, dressing as a male isn't a trap, it's normal. They're male, they wear male clothing. Same goes for anyone. I think anyone should where anything they want, but that's just me

Unless you exist inside of that anime/manga, you cannot be a trap or any of those tags. Doesn't matter what you are at this point, you're not a fictional character. You're a living, breathing human being who isn't bound by words.

You're taking a slur from an entirely different community, throwing it at the other community and then blaming them for it when they're peaceful and accepting of it.You can't give a cartoon shit, they don't exist. That's like having a Japanese person come to America to give me shit for being mixed race. They're pressure on mixed natives doesn't apply to me. I'm in a different country, in a different community where it's fine; we embrace diversity here.

A similar example is the use of 'nigger.' In the African American community, it can be used as a friendly term. Like calling your best friend a bitch in greeting/or whatever. Harsh word, but not malicious in intent or context. Saying it outside the community is usually racist, because it's used harshly, with the intention of insulting. In that sense the african american community is taking back the slur and removing it's power.

It's not right to yell at them for using nigger in their own community; thus, the same goes for any community, like the anime community.

In the end, trap is just another term to help sort through japanese stories and art. The same as horror, cat, slice of life, shounen, or sparkly unicorn farts. Whatever tags one can pull out their ass can apply to anime, but it'll never be intended for real life people.

Fiction can never harm you unless you can't seperate it from reality and act on it, or you have a mental disorder. A story with triggers can't physically follow you around or force you to experience it. A word can't jump out and stab your eyball or anything. It's all there for entertainment, imagination, relaxation, or controlled exploration. TRAP CAN NOT DEPRICATE TRANSGENDER PEOPLE BECAUSE IT'S NOT TALKING ABOUT THEM AND IT'S ABOUT CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE.

MOSt IMPORTANTLY NONE OF THESE ANIME TERMS APPLY OR SHOULD APPLY TO ACTUAL PEOPLE. JUST TO FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. THEY CANNOT HURT YOU, OR STOP YOU FROM BEING YOU

You can tag me as ass, nasty hetero, pansexual alien or whatever the fuck, but it's not going to change my life. It's just words I'll see for 2 seconds and then forget when I'm eating my weeb kibble and enjoying my anime traps with their cute clothing. I LOVE MY CUTE FICTION BABIES and I love my real life trans friends. FUCKING SUE ME

Before any of you try to shit on me and say I don't know what I'm talking about:

I went through training to be a queer ally. TWICE. and guess what? bigger problems lie with queers segregating other queers, as opposed to the rainbow of hateful words we get.

My close family friend is a gay man who's a Professional Drag Queen and is fabulously gorgeous. He takes no offense to trap.

My sibling is currently sorting out zir gender identity, and as of right now is a blossoming trans-male or gender fluid, fucking ANGEL. Loves anime, no offense taken to trap.

I regularly cosplay, play games as, and assume a fictional male persona online. I've dressed as a "guy" on may occasions. I take no offence to the word trap.

Yeah sometimes trap is being used in a bad way, but once again, it exists in two different contexts. Whatever shit people say out in the real world has no value here in anime fun land. If you give someone shit for their tastes in fiction, you might as well throw them in a box and say "you can't be happy with you're cartoon/anime/book because it offends me IRL"

You hating me for liking anime Traps is the same as someone hating you IRL for being a different "trap". I'm not disrespecting you, but you're disrespecting me for some attack on you I never made; just because the same word was used differently.

9 notes · View notes

mycannibalromance · 3 years

Text

tagged by giffin @cuttingstones <3 <3 <3

1. what do you prefer to be called name-wise?

Lyle!! I've never really been the type for nicknames but if someone gave me one I'd probably cry.

2. when is your birthday?

02/22/02; can you guess my lucky number?

3. where do you live?

Missouri, USA 😔🚬

4. three things you are doing right now?

Reading House of Leaves, procrastinating budgeting for tuition, and petting my cat.

5. four fandoms that have piqued your interest?

Uh??? I'm mostly focused on Hannibal and the Terror but the word fandom sends me into convulsions nowadays. That aside, I really loved the Magnus Archives pre-s5 and Phantom of the Opera will always be one of my favourite pieces of media.

6. how has the pandemic been treating you?

I've been very lucky that I live in a rural area and work from home so I have had the consistent ability to self-isolate but I had to defer acceptance to my first choice university and I am an extrovert so. My brain is turning into slime mold.

7. a song you can’t stop listening to right now?

'Never Love an Anchor' by the Crane Wives

8. recommend a movie:

Singing in the Rain (1952) cures my depression for the following three days every time I watch it maybe it's just my nostalgia but I recommend trying it anyways

9. how old are you?

See question two; I'm 19.

10. school, university, occupation, other?

I work remotely part-time and starting in August I will be a full-time student again.

11. do you prefer heat or cold?

HEAT if I could live somewhere it never got below 65°f I unironically would.

12. name one fact others may not know about you:

I was, regrettably, VERY into Homestuck in middle school; there are cosplay pictures that haunt me.

13. are you shy?

I am not great at initiating contact but I love talking to people! I will kind of hover nervously until someone talks to me but then I never shut the hell up.

14. preferred pronouns?

Historically he/they but I would kind of like it if people started using he and she interchangeably :^P

15. biggest pet peeves?

People who speak too softly... like if you sound like you're trying not to startle a deer in regular conversation I will go insane. I don't know why it bothers me so much.

16. what is your favourite “dere” type?

sorry i'm not a weeb

17. rate your life from 1-10:

6.27 would not relive the last 19 years for any amount of money but looking forward to seeing what happens next

18. what’s your main blog?

This one!! I have a sideblog for stuff I want to reference easily or think is too dumb for my main but that is just for me and I am not sharing the url love and light

19. list your sideblogs and what they’re used for:

see question 18, no <3

20. is there something people need to know about you before becoming friends?

I am a decent conversationalist but somehow always manage to circle back to whatever I am currently researching because my train of thought is an ouroborous so if you can't stand someone talking about the same thing for weeks on end. Sorry

I’m going to tag: @cannibalghost @girlroach @exitwound and any charles bukowski enjoyers (derogatory)

#tag games #thanks giffin <3 kissinb you

5 notes · View notes

michaelmessinamediaportfoli-blog · 6 years

Text

Anime: is it changing for better or Worse

This is a editorial piece i created for an extended project at College, it is a good example of the kind of writing i can create and the vain of editorial that i would like to create in future for potential & hopeful entertainment journalism jobs.

If you read this editorial and have any positive or negative criticism please feel free to message me that criticism. Be kind xD, this is like one of the first things i written on this sort of scale. Hope you enjoy this if you read it.

Is Anime changing for better or worse?

Anime is a Japanese pop-culture behemoth that has grown from its mid-20th century origins to a near worldwide phenomenon in the 2010s. Personally, I have been a dedicated fan of anime for around three to five years although I was aware of the medium since I was around 5 or so spending a lot of my childhood watching kid-oriented 4kids dubs of Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. Anime has become one of my favorite entertainment mediums with beautifully sad movies such A Silent Voice, Thrilling Psychological films like Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and interesting adventures shows like Made in Abyss, a great bustling fanbase and a huge amount of wonderful and genius crew members who work on anime; living and dead. However, it is also a medium that I have so many problems with from the ridiculous treatment of the people who work in it to the shaky western approach to the medium and the crazy over-saturation there is in the amount of pandering generic anime. So here at the start my opinion on anime is as follows; yes, anime is something I love and will continuously support due to the amazing content and creators in anime but as an industry it is so intensely toxic with all the behind the scenes problems it cast a bleak shadow over anime and as it continues to grow larger and goes further than ever before the shadow glooms darker.

Anime took Japan by storm in the early 1960s with Osamu Tezuka’s revolutionary animations such as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. Even though Tezuka’s work weren’t the first animes they were the first to gain a big level of traction. Tezuka’s animes led the way for other iconic animes such as 70s greats like Lupin III and Mobile Suit Gundam. The 80s booms of anime with staples such as the first Ghibli films, Akira and Dragon Ball. The 90s produced new age classics such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the shell, Pokémon, Cowboy Bebop and Sailor Moon. The 2000s came soon after adding more iconic animes with shows like Death Note, Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, One Piece and the Oscar award winning Ghibli film, Spirited Away growing the anime community to new heights.

Now in the 2010s anime is still growing in popularity with shows like Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online, One Punch Man, Tokyo Ghoul, Yuri on ice, Boku No Hero Academia and the highest grossing anime film of all time; Your Name leading the future of the medium. Over the life span of the anime industry it has grown from a small medium in the 60s which was mostly based in japan to something that became a cult phenomenon outside of its Japanese home of a genre in the late 90s to becoming a near worldwide mainstream hit in modern day. The fact that each decade there is at least a handful of shows produced that gain big fan acclaim shows and are remembered years later shows that anime has always been strong in its ability to produce great content and as time progresses more and more shows are getting noticed by anime fans. In the 60s there might have been around 5-10 shows that are still remembered today, but three decades later in the 90s easily 20-30 shows have stuck with the anime fanbase to today.

Western fans of anime have gained the name Otakus a Japanese word which celebrates their love for a medium such as anime. In the internet era a term has been coined "Weeaboo" which is a negative word to call someone who is an anime fan, a Weeaboo or Weeb is someone who watch anime but stupidly and ignorantly disrespects the culture, bastardise it and acts like Japanese culture is their own culture. Let me just state for the record, most anime fans are not Weebs but a select few fit their descriptions and their loud obnoxious personalities make the public sadly see them as these derogatory things. Sadly, it is common for society to see the worst in a community and see the bad as the norm for the entire group even though it might not be entirely true. Being a fan of anime for many years I have seen into the anime fanbase and have only come across individuals who fit the weeaboo archetype maybe once or twice out of 100s if not 1000s of individuals on numerous social media platforms.

Although the anime industry clearly has hit a big level in over-saturation in the amount of series it produces, it’s large quantity has opened-up the industry to many new and great creators. In the wake of the call for more series to be produced more talent has been brought to anime. In the world of directing, new visionary directors such as Makoto Shinkai are being brought to the industry creating some of the most beautifully crafted animations ever made with great music, art and story such as his films 5 centimetres per second, The Garden of Words and of course Your Name. Great musical talent that previously was neglected or ignored by Japan is now acknowledged with artists such as TK, Myth & Roid, Teddyloid and Daoko giving their vocal talent as more opening themes are needed. New Composer, Hiroyuki Sawano has become an iconic anime composer, composing music for many action animes that have come out in the big surge of animes in the last few years. Of course, voice actors or seiyuus as they are called in Japan are still very integral to anime with them being even more needed with more animes being produced with new voice talents such as Rie Takahashi, Jun Fukushima, Sora Amamiya and Inori Minase doing numerous voices a season, although this can be very taxing on a seiyuu with low pay and over working. Whole new studios have formed to combat the demand for new animes such as the crazily imaginative studio Trigger, WIT Studio, NUT, Kinema Citrus, MAPPA and Lerche that feature talent that will go on to shape the world of anime.

Even if the landscape of anime is changing the creators of old, those who shaped the world of anime before anyone else won’t be forgotten. Works from directors such as Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon and Mamoru Hosoda, Animes made by Studios Madhouse, Production I.G, Gainax and Bones and iconic openings from J-pop history legends such as Flow, Asian Kung Fu Generation, The Pillows, Kumiko Noma, Yoko Takahashi and The Seatbelts. The individuals who make the anime that anime fans consume and adore, have always been the shining beacon in the many problems of anime and right now more than ever with the abundance of cast and crew needed to staff all the anime is made, this beacon is shining brighter than it has ever before.

Anime is typically released in waves with a handful of shows being released every seasonal period, the seasons being; Winter season that lasts from January to March, Spring season from April to June, Summer season from July to September and finally Fall season that starts in October and ends in December and then the cycle resets.

A big problem in the anime industry in 2018 is the level of anime that’s produced; anime production has become much more quantity over quality in the past few years. With over forty-three new anime tv series being released in just the short time span of the winter 2018 season alone. Not including the eight series that are ongoing from the previous season, the four animes that came out exclusively to Netflix and the eleven-short form shows that also were released during the period. In total that’s sixty-six different anime series being released in the space between just two months, 66 in 2 months is a ridiculous amount. In winter 2016 sixty-two Tv animes were released, in winter 2014 sixty-seven Tv animes were released again similar big amounts of animes being produced, but in the winter of 2012 only twenty-six were released and in winter 2010 only twenty-one came out.

So, what changed, well simply the anime industry grew to new heights with the birth of streaming sites, Crunchyroll and Funimation. Crunchyroll started as a website that hosted anime illegally at its creation but eventually became officially licensed in 2009 and in late 2012 to 2013 it took off as the best place for western anime fans to legally consume anime soon after it aired in Japan. Funimation is a company that has played a big part in the anime industry since the mid-90s being the main distributor for anime in the west, allowing numerous shows to be brought to home video and Tv and had a big part in the creation of official localizations of animes for non-Japanese speakers in the forms of both accurate subtitles and professional dubbing. Funimation eventually made a mark on online streaming giving the type of quality they give but online, the companies streaming is now known as FunimationNow with it primarily focusing on streaming of dubbed anime giving a majority of its subbed anime to Crunchyroll though a partnership the two companies developed in 2016. Once Japan saw this they clearly and naturally saw it as a great business venture and produced more and more content to give Crunchyroll, Funimation and their competitors, which clearly paid off as in 2015, the export value of the anime industry reached a new high of 349 billion yen and in 2016 the anime industry reached an industry income milestone of 2.9 trillion yen with a large portion being from export value. Yes, it works well in a business standpoint but is it worth the cost of the anime content itself and the backlash the fans and people in the industry have towards the over-saturation.

Others saw the success of Crunchyroll & Funimation and clearly decided to jump on the bandwagon while it’s still piping hot. Netflix and Amazon are the two biggest culprits of doing this, both streaming sites had some animes on their streaming sites prior to the anime streaming boom even though they were mostly just shows that had reached an audience outside of the usual anime sphere. Netflix and Amazons approaches to anime are in no way to the standard of streaming that we as western anime fans have come to expect with Crunchyroll & Funimation. Crunchyroll is probably the best thing to happen to the western anime scene in the 2010s, even though it has had small missteps such as the badly run Crunchyroll anime awards and its shaky legal issues in its origins. The biggest draw of Crunchyroll is the fact that they release the anime within an hour of it airing on Japanese Tv networks such as the NHK with the shows being subbed also within that hour, much quicker than some not so legal streaming sites can get the shows uploaded and subbed; with the subbing being not terribly accurate. Amazon seems to understand the importance of trying to bring new animes as soon as possible vowing to do so; when they became heavily involved in anime streaming in 2017, the airing of shows was terribly unreliable with shows sometimes appearing hours or a day late something that won’t help a new service get off the ground. Netflix for the most part completely ignored this crucial part of anime streaming, with them only bringing the animes they had the licenses for months later after they finished airing, you could argue this was done to fit the Netflix model of series being released all at once. However, with US live-action shows such as Orphan Black and Better Call Saul being added to Netflix as they air on Tv, it raises the question of why they aren’t doing this for their anime shows. They might have finally realized that they need to do simulcasts of animes to keep up with the competition as this past season they released Kyoto Animations’ long-awaited anime series Violet Evergarden as it aired in Japan, although this is one show out of the handful of shows they have licenses for in the 2018 winter period. Another reason why the streaming scene has been so successful for the last few years is because you would be able to go to one of the big two streaming sites and be able to view most of the biggest and best shows on one site for one cost. Now that Amazon and Netflix have joined the fray the licenses for animes are spread all over the streaming space. In the past you could go to just Crunchyroll or Funimation and find all the shows you’d want to watch from a new season albeit maybe one or two being hosted by smaller sites. But now every new season five shows you want to watch might be on Crunchyroll, three might be on Netflix and two other great ones might be on Amazon. You see the problem, right? If the average avid otaku wants to check out all the shows that interest them in a release season they must pay out to get numerous streaming sites. Amazon took advantage of the anime fanbase when they got into anime streaming, gating their animes behind an extra paywall in places such as the states where you would have to buy amazon prime and then buy amazons anime strike service on top of prime; thankfully they realized the negative backlash and finally got rid of the extra paywall at the start of this year.

In the case of Netflix, you must wait months for Netflix to actually utilize the licenses they own and then you’re paying for months in between new releases with nothing new. It’s so anti-consumer the way licenses are strung around the different sites and the way that amazon and Netflix give their anime. It makes otakus feel more inclined to use illegal sites or download torrents which hurt the industry and those who work hours upon painful hours making these animes. But when they make it seem like their working against the consumer they don’t help themselves. They make the free illegal alternative sites appealing which is so wrong, with the expensive numerous expensive sites and the abnormal streaming methods of both Amazon and Netflix. Even though Netflix certainly aren’t the best when it comes to dealing with bringing Tv animes to Netflix they are trying to help the industry by funding anime studios to make animes purely for them which they can release in a binge format, with Netflix reportedly putting a large part of their 2018 budget into funding animes, Anime would represent about a quarter of their new content. Funding shows by studios such as Bones and WIT studio who are two of the biggest anime studios who created the two biggest action series of 2017; Boku No Hero Academia 2nd Season and the long awaited second season of Attack on Titan, respectively. This has proven good for the industry with shows like Devilman Crybaby which would never have been allowed to be created on Tv due to its crazy soundtrack, unique art and very mature content now having somewhere to belong. Netflix’s approach to funding the industry could really help excel it into the mainstream and if they can do simulcasts like Crunchyroll, Netflix could take over the western anime scene.

If you have been anywhere in the anime community sphere in the past six-ish years, you have probably seen someone bashing on a little-known series called Sword Art Online (SAO). I’m not trying to beat the already dead horse that is SAO hating just trying to add to the conversation and add a view on it that I personally haven’t seen before in the numerous articles and YouTube videos on SAO, SAO’s repercussions on anime.

But just in case for anyone who hasn’t heard of Sword Art Online…Sword Art Online, is an anime based off a light novel that took over the industry and shaped it for worse. Sword Art Online (SAO) came out in 2012 to commercial success, critically the show was not a success; the show had many problems from its contrived borderline creepy romance storylines, shallow character arcs, inconsistent animation quality & its non-existence understanding of the video games mechanics when its video game based. The show is of the Isekai (another world) genre, Isekai series typically feature the protagonist getting trapped or transported in another world; in the case of SAO the protagonist, Kirito and 100s of other gamers get stuck inside of a video game. The protagonist, Kirito is a typical young adult with black hair (the most common hair colour in the world) who before entering an isekai is a socially numb shut-in and once he enters the isekai is overly powered and unbelievably hopelessly attractive to everyone. Kirito is something known as a self-insert protagonist which is a protagonist that is designed in a specific way so that the average anime watcher can easily connect to the character and practically insert themselves into the character and then get invested in the show. Even though the show is terribly flawed from a critical standpoint it was still very popular due to its intriguing concept, its self-insert protagonist and was very successful commercially. The anime industry saw the cash cow SAO became and unfortunately ran with it. Then the flood gates opened, once SAO ended numerous other anime producers created shows in similar veins. Isekai changed from something that was used sparingly in anime to something that became its own genre, every seasonal period contains one or even a handful of Isekai shows. There was also a bigger influx in the amount of self-insert protagonists where before these types of protagonist were kept to just tongue and cheek romcom harem animes, now they appear in romance dramas and even some action shows. Light novel adaptions also have become much more common place as many Japanese light novels have self-insert protagonists and intriguing yet hollow premises. Even though SAO led the way for so many trashy by the numbers samey light novel isekai animes there are some good shining through such as Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru isekai Seikatsu which starts as a basic isekai show with a self-insert protagonist that later turns into a meta character building show with surprises around every corner with twisted time travel twists. Re: Zero and maybe 4 other shows are diamonds in the much larger rough which aren’t worth the Isekai insane oversaturation that SAO caused.

Just like the west have taken anime and adapted to our streaming platforms, they have also adapted it in other ways. Hollywood have leached onto anime as of late, after anime being around for numerous years they were bound to take a stab at trying to milk it for money and now that it has gained near mainstream popularity in the last 10 to 15 years they have taken stabs. Three notable stabs from Hollywood at anime were their live action adaptations of Dragon Ball, Ghost in the shell and Death Note. These three adaptations made Hollywood a quick buck due to the names that are tied to them but were all critical failures from fans and critics alike. These adaptations completely miss what makes anime, anime. They change plot, characters, cultural differences and ultimately brutalize what made them good to begin with. The Dragon Ball movie titled Dragon Ball: Evolution was just a complete train wreck that tried to condense the entire plot of a 200+ episodes anime into a less than 90 minutes long movie with terrible script, acting and CGI. The Ghost in the shell movie and Death Note movie were still pretty darn terrible but at least they were kind of competent at being movies with decent effects, passable scripting and acting. But both just felt like empty lifeless imitations of their predecessors. Ghost in the shell turned from an iconic cyberpunk with punchy dialogue and stellar visuals to pretty much a bog-standard action sci-fi flick.

Death Note’s Live action version completely misses the originals appeal, the original anime was a tense psychological drama as we saw the protagonist Light a genius anti-hero who is popular, trying to avoid getting caught by the master detective, L; Light manipulates those close to him and practically is the antagonist even though he’s the protagonist. In the Hollywood version Light is still an anti-hero and is still trying to avoid getting caught by L but he’s not a genius and instead is a moody outcast, he doesn’t manipulate those close to him, he gets manipulated. One of the biggest parts of the anime was how Light manipulates a character called Misa Amane, we see how far he’ll go to get his goals and how far he’s fallen; in the live action its almost like the roles of Light and Misa had reversed with Misa, changed to Mia in the live action manipulating Light and makes Light have another adversary for no reason except for just creating unnecessary drama. On top of this, in the live action version they take away the tense psychological theming and replaces it with over the top gory death scenes, the Death Note anime does have death scenes but their never overly extreme just to shock the deaths in the anime are much more about how Light manged to kill them. Overly Gory deaths isn’t and never should be Death Note.

Where the west completely fails with its live action adaptions, it excels for the most part in its cartoon shows it has produced in the past few years that are heavily inspired. It is not unusual for a western media product to take influence with people like the Wachowskis siblings who were inspired by Ghost in the Shell when they made The Matrix in the 90s. But in the last few years the anime inspired western content has been much more frequent. RWBY, Castlevania, Voltron and Legend of Korra are four western shows that are very anime inspired in storytelling and animation styles. These shows are all held in high regard by fans and critics alike, largely because of how much they are like anime in the way they are more mature like anime is than the usual run of the mill western cartoon were most adult cartoons are just comedies and not serious like these four examples. Of course, there’s exceptions to these great western anime inspired shows one notably being, Neo Yokio that was co-created by the US and Japan which was poorly animated with terrible voice work and just a mess in terms of tone. Other than Neo Yokio, anime inspired western content is pretty great and doesn’t seem to be slowing down in terms of quality. This is one of the better parts of the wests approach to anime.

Japan has an overworking problem, it is something that is prominent in most Japanese industries and Anime is no different. On average an animator or mangaka (an artist for manga) work 10hrs + a day in uncomfortable conditions this is because they are paid on the amount of work they get done not on a set pay roll like a normal job. This leads to either people giving up on their anime industry dreams due to the insane pressure to get work done with short deadlines or overworking themselves to poor health; mentally and physically, or in extreme cases to death. Overworking is such a problem in Japan that the Japanese made a word to describe death by overworking, Karoshi. In the past few years industry greats have passed away most likely because of Karoshi. In 2017, Hiromi Tsuru, a seiyuu who was famous for her work as Bulma in the Dragon Ball series died from Aortic dissection which is often caused by high blood pressure. High blood pressure is very common from stress which is common in overworking in stressful conditions, so her death is most likely Karoshi. In 2010 a staff member at the animation studio, A-1 Pictures committed suicide; Shinjuku Labour Standards Inspection Office cited depression due to overwork as the cause and medical facilities caring for the staff member recorded that he worked 600 hours a month. The problem of overworking and Karoshi is already a big problem in japan and the Japanese anime industry is not helping this change, in fact its making it a whole lot worse.

I love anime but hearing about these cases are so disheartening and upsetting, I believe that anime is a great artform and it should be something that should have a lot of time focused upon it but when people are dying for the making of anime. It makes anime not worth it. As I mentioned much earlier in this essay the anime industry is making more money than it ever has at 2.9 trillion yen which translates to one billion nine hundred fifty-nine million eight hundred twenty thousand pounds. If the industry is making as much as it says why are those in the industry being payed so little, those who work in anime are payed practically pennies. In November of 2016 an animator who works for the studio, P.A Works posted a picture of their budget on their twitter and according to that budget the highest pay the animator got was 67,569 yen (£456) in October 2016. For the number of hours that the staff put in and their health that they risk just to make a living and to achieve a dream of working in anime that kind of pay is disgusting. On a lighter note now that anime has opened more to the west and westerners are hearing about the conditions of working on anime in japan, some westerners are reaching out to try to support creators, so they don’t have to overwork themselves as hard such as the 2017 animator dormitory project which was a fundraiser for animators to have stable living conditions. The project was able to raise $26,442 USD to help animators.

This whole situation gets even more ridiculous when overworked creators become too ill to even do their work. Hunter X Hunter is a very famous manga and anime series; its mangaka, Yoshihiro Togashi is clearly very overworked. Hunter x Hunter has been in publication since 1998. It is meant to be a weekly series appearing in the Japanese magazine, Weekly Shounen Jump. Out of the 20 years that its been in publication its actually only appeared in Shounen Jump 382 (39.3%) of the 971 potential times it could of. That means that in the past 20 years, Togashi could have not been payed for 589 weeks out of the 971 weeks he has been making Hunter x Hunter; we don’t know that for sure but that’s a potential reality caused by the fact that creators like Togashi are pushed to illness because of overworking to the point that they simply can’t work and if they push themselves too far karoshi could occur.

To conclude anime has changed in many ways, in some way heavily for the better but in some ways extremely for the worst. To most parts of anime there is a better and a negative. In terms of the anime that is created there is more anime being created than ever this allows greater gems to be made but then it also allows for the market to be heavily over-saturated and certain genres such Isekai are getting way too much focus upon them. There is a good fanbase surrounding anime but it’s over casted heavily by the bad vocal minority of the fanbase, so this is a change for the worse that keeps getting worse as this minority sadly grows louder. In terms of the accessibility to anime in the west it is getting a lot better but sites like Netflix are throttling this accessibility. Hollywood isn’t helping anime change for the better at all with its tarnishing versions of animes, but the anime inspired cartoons in the west are a great homage to anime. One of the best changes in anime is the great new influx of anime creators that are bringing anime to new heights. But the treatment of the creators behind the scenes is a disgusting plague on anime that is dragging the anime industry into The. Fucking. Dirt.

#editorial #anime #thinkpiece #facts #opnions #better or worse #kinda long post #second post #blogging

1 note · View note